One too strong to fight

Chapter twenty

Severus eventually put Bethany in her borrowed plastic crib from the infirmary and entered their room only to find it empty, on Harry's pillow was a piece of paper folded into quarters, he knew what this meant. Severus scanned the contents, dread settling itself inside him.

Dearest Severus

I want you to know that I will always love you, no matter what the outcome of the battle I now go forth to fight, nothing ever stood in the way of what I wanted, at least when I came to Hogwarts. The day that you accepted me into your heart was the day I will remember forever and the day we marry, and I know that we will, will be the happiest day of my life. Bethany is our miracle child, she symbolises our love for each other and if I don't make it through this I want you to take good care of her. Tell her of me as often as you can and tell her that I died thinking of her that I died loving her. I beg of you not to follow me and I ask that you send no one else after me, I know what I'm doing and if I survive this fight then I will return to you by sunrise. If I do not then remember that I died loving you too. I have full confidence that you will be the greatest father that you could be to Bethany, give her the world for me, spoil her whenever you can, give her the childhood that I never had.

You have probably realised that by talking for so long that I have delayed your coming because I know that despite me asking you not to you will anyway and you'll do it because you love me.

Thank you for giving me the best year of my life Severus, you gave me everything that I could have ever dreamed of, I don't think that even you realise how much you gave to me.

Yours forever, even in death Harry James Potter.

As soon as Severus had finished reading the contents he fire called the headmaster who came at once, he was not happy to hear of Harry's escape.

"Will you watch over Bethany?" Severus asked, "I must go after him."

"No, you must not risk being suspected of being a spy, if Harry dyes the war goes on, I will go myself."

"Dumbledore no, this is my fight, I have to do it."

"I forbid it, you will stay here with your daughter, she needs at least one parent." Dumbledore had hit a sore spot, he didn't want his daughter growing up the way Harry had, Harry would not want that, Severus had to stay. Reluctantly he nodded. "Do you know where he went?" Severus shook his head, the letter still in his clenched hand.

After more warnings that Severus should stay put Dumbledore left, snap approached his daughter who was sound asleep, he couldn't understand how on earth Harry could have left her.

Harry at that moment was feeling rotten, not because he had been caught by Voldemort and was being tortured, although he would have preferred that to what he was feeling now. The guilt of leaving Severus and Bethany was weighing down on him heavily as he approached Riddle Manor.

He had hoped that Voldemort would have chosen to make this his base camp and by the look of the deatheaters on guard duty he had been right. He fired two stunning spells which caught each of the two guards squarely in the chest.

"TOM RIDDLE!" Harry shouted, standing where he knew that Voldemort could see him. He wanted this over with now, no more waiting, no one was going to come and save him, this was it, the moment of truth.

Spells were fired from inside the house; they came sailing towards him, making Harry drop to the ground to avoid them. "COWARD!" He shouted picking himself up before quickly diving out of the way as more jets of green light were fired his way. "COME OUT AND FACE ME LIKE THE MONSTER THAT YOU ARE TOM." Then quietly to himself he added, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Harry Potter, come to your death at last."

"Don't get cocky Tom; I'm here to end this."

"End your life more like, even if by some miracle you manage to kill me there is an army of deatheaters inside ready to finish the job that I started."

"Hate cannot touch me as love surrounds me."

"What is this rubbish?"

"My life, you are pure evil, hate flows from you and I am your opposite, I am forever surrounded by love, people willing to give their lives to protect me from you. That scares you because not one of your followers would give their lives for yours, they don't respect you, they fear you and when you died because of me when I was just a baby, not one of your precious deatheaters tried to find you, they swore bewitchment and those that didn't went to Azkaban and died. You are alone in this world because you cannot love and that is the most powerful emotion that any one can ever feel."

"I tire of you Potter, tell me why I shouldn't just kill you now?"

"There is no reason, you've wanted me here since I was a baby, you've taken everything that you possibly could from me and yet I'm still here, I'm about to get married and I have a beautiful daughter, my life couldn't get much better."

"What is you point in telling me these things, if you think for one moment that I will suddenly take pity on you and never try and kill you again you are sadly mistaken."

"I mean you to do no such thing, I've just realised that the one thing holding me back from the life I've always wanted is you, I love my friends and my family dearly and you aren't going to stop me going back to them, you don't hold enough power to take me from them."

"We'll see about that Potter."

Severus was pacing, Bethany over one shoulder as he bounced her, holding his daughter gave him an excuse to pace, he was so worried about Harry that nothing else was getting through to him, Dumbledore had been gone for about an hour now.

All he wanted was to see his fiancé back safely, he didn't want Bethany to only have her father, h wasn't sure that he would be enough, he had been terrified that he would turn out to be like his own father, who couldn't really be called that at all. He needed Harry to survive, to raise Bethany as best he could, to mock him as he read her potion text books.

In short, he needed him.

Just looking at his daughter made him close to tears and he had never been one to cry for no reason, he was always the pillar of strength but now he just couldn't help but cry. Bethany knew something wasn't right as well; she just refused to settle and go to sleep, continuously crying, Severus supposed she cried for Harry just as he did.

Little did they know that Harry was on the brink of death, fighting the one man whom had destroyed every chance at happiness that he had ever had, spells were fired, the metal of swords making the satisfying clinking sound as they collided with one another.

Blood had been spilt, only a little, cuts and scrapes, nothing more, Harry had a long deep scratch on his cheek but Harry had cast a blow to Voldermorts chest, although his robes had taken the worst of I he was bleeding pretty bad. Voldemort was a skilled swords man, all Harry had done was fight the basilisk, there was no competition who was better but Harry was determined whereas Voldemort was overly confident.

Dumbledore was lost, simply lost. He had no idea where he was and thought a confuddlement charm had been placed upon him, he was sure he recognized this street. What he didn't know was that his old age had finally caught up with him, poor bloke.

However he was in the right village just at the wrong house, he had knocked on about three others and muggle police were now trying to get him into their car, they thought him crazy as he mumbled about evil wizards, sword fights and spells.

Well, they were muggles after all.

Finally Harry dealt the final blow, right into Voldemorts heart, the opportunity had come round by chance, Voldermort wasn't being careful enough and he was dying for that mistake. Deatheaters came charging out, wands blazing, one by one Harry managed to stun them, even in his exhausted state.

In a final attempt to call aid to him he sent his patronus to Hogwarts to find Dumbledore, Severus, or Minerva, any one, just to help him. As the stag cantered off he past out on the ground, wand clutched in one hand, Voldemorts body next to his, sword sticking out of his chest in a grotesque fashion.

When Severus heard that Harry was being brought into the Hogwarts infirmary he cried, he couldn't help but do so, he was just so happy. He pranced around hugging and kissing everyone in sight. He was literally jumping for joy. This certainly wasn't the characteristically mean potions master of Hogwarts that everyone was used to, this was someone completely different. This was someone tainted by their love for two others, a fiancé and a daughter.

When Harry awoke it was to his lovers smiling face, the first words from his mouth were: "I did it Sev, and I did it for us." Before a dreamless sleep potion was forced down his throat by Madame Pomfrey and he was sent back to sleep again.

It was four months later that Harry and Severus finally got married, in the grounds of Hogwarts with everyone present, everyone that is except Seamus who was serving a life sentence in Azkaban in one of the only cells with dementor guards.

Every single Weasly, the Grangers, Draco, Blaise (who was two and a half months pregnant), the very confused Dumbledore, every other staff member and pretty much all of Harry's year. Severus had very few friends; in fact Ron laughed when he found out that Snape had none and then received an elbow in the ribs.

Of course Bethany was there, in a specially made white gown, her ebony hair already quite long and glinting in the sunlight, he green eyes sparkling as she took in her surroundings. She was currently leaning out of her buggy trying to reach one of the white lilies that lined the isle that Harry had walked down to meet Severus.

Everything was perfect, there was no dark threat, there was nothing in the way of Harry's dream of a perfect life and a large family and speaking of families he had something to tell Severus.


Hope you enjoyed this chapter, it is the last chapter but if you want a sequel please say so. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story, I love you guys. xxxxxxxxxx