The Wrong Way

Author: Leta McGotor

I'm sorry it took me that long but I had no Internet for nearly two weeks and I hadn't finished this chapter until yesterday. I hope you'll forgive and review although this is the last chapter.

Underground: Oh, what can I say? They solve the problem, but not the way you are hoping. I'm sorry but their solution is far away from the one you imagine. Thank you for your thoughts.

Child of the Seine: I hope you like the name 'Mia' after the chapter, nevertheless. Severus is really a bit of an big idiot. Thank you for your review.

Ange Cavalière: It's not that bad with not being English. I'm not, either, I'm from Germany and so I know how it is with making mistakes. I'm afraid this is the last chapter of this fic and here you can see the link, although you won't like it, I believe. I don't like it, either. Thank you for your review.

Quill of Minerva: 'Right of this situation' – well, he does something to make it 'right' but like the title says, it's the wrong way he goes. Thank you for your review.

Chapter 3 The End?

Several days came and went and although Severus gave nearly up hope, he knocked again and again at Minerva's door, waited until the last minute at breakfast, lunch and dinner or dismissed his classes early only to wait for her in front of her classroom. But every time she didn't open the door, come to the Great Hall or she rushed past him without even looking at him and slammed the next door into his face. Everyone knew something was wrong with the two of them but no one knew what it was.

Beside Severus' strange behaviour, Minerva reacted nearly the same way. She neither came down for meals anymore nor did she leave her office at all. Nobody knew that she spend her afternoons sitting at her window and crying over her broken heart.. So it happened that she one day felt so alone and let down that she made her way to her best friend and employer, Albus Dumbledore. With shaking hands she knocked at his door, not sure what to tell him. Soon the familiar 'Come in.' sounded, muffled through the door. Sighing and collecting all her courage she opened the door and stepped into the room. Behind his desk, which was covered all over with parchment and quills, Albus Dumbledore sat and looked slightly stressed to the door. When he recognised Minerva, he smiled and put his quill down.

"Minerva, how can I serve you? Please, take a seat." Slowly she sat down on the sofa near the fire, staring into nothingness.

Albus remained silent. He knew, when she was ready to tell him whatever it was, she would do so. After several minutes Minerva sighed and began to tell Albus all about what she had seen, feared, discovered and finally how she had avoided to speak with Severus because she would completely break while doing so. Albus again remained silent while Minerva spoke, only when she broke out in tears he rushed to her and took her in his arms. Minerva sobbed into his robes, still telling him what had happened.

In the meantime Severus strode through the corridors, his expression more frightening than ever. No students dared to cross his way and even his colleages and the ghosts preferred to look at him only from a distance, Severus was in a very bad mood.

He had tried the last two or three hours to reach Minerva but she hadn't opened the door. More and more he bacame aggravated by her behaviour. Surely he could understand that she was hurt but this situation now was not good for her, either. He didn't know what to do, but he remembered what seemingly all people did when they didn't know how to cope with the situation. So he made his way up to the office of Albus Dumbledore to ask for his advice.

Severus was so much in a hurry to get an answer that he neglected knocking and simply entered the room. His jaw dropped when he saw the two in front of him. Albus sat on the couch and looked rather confused and in his arms lay no other than…

"Minerva", Severus exclaimed and stopped in his tracks. "What are you… are you…" He didn't know how he should continue.

"Severus, I… why…" Minerva swallowed. She had not seen him in days and when she now looked at him she noticed that he had become paler and thinner.

"I never thought that you… you two…" He crossed his arms. He didn't even want to think about it and every thought that told him, that she had betrayed him all the time with their best friend, made him more and more angry and hurt as twice as deeply. There didn't count the things that he had cheated on her or that she was maybe honest all the time and this only looked peculiar. How could she use him like that, how could he have been ignoring that all the time, how could he have been sorry? She had betrayed him. His Minerva had betrayed him. The two people who meant more than anything to him had betrayed him - and the rest of his heart shattered in millionth of pieces. Without another word he left the office, he had seen enough.

It was the next day when Minerva sat lonely in her rooms, her thoughts only with Severus, and looked out of her window. It was dark outside and nobody and nothing were to be seen. A long time ago she had watched Albus walk down to the village, something he had done very often in the passing year. Oh, how she wished she knew what he was doing. She turned around when there was suddenly a knock at her door. She couldn't answer it for in the next second Ginny Weasley stormed in her rooms, telling her something from Death Eaters that had come into the school and that there was a fight already. She followed her student back through the corridors, hearing the sounds of screams and of the fight. Then she stood in the middle of it and got only a short glimpse of Filius Flitwick while she ducked because of several stunners which came her way, her thoughts still remained with her husband.

"Filius, go and wake Severus. We need him here." She cried. Severus was her one and only thought during the whole battle and when Flitwick had vanished around the next corner she felt safer because she knew Severus would soon be on his way to help them. Oh, how she was mistaken.

It was dark in the hospital wing when Minerva opened her eyes. What had happened? She looked around. They had removed Bill Weasley to St. Mungo's and most of the injured had gone to their homes again. It was over, all was over and she knew it. Slowly her memory came back. There was the funeral this day and afterwards the leaving of the students. How strange, that she could not remember the meeting with the minister, that was planned for the evening. Little did she know that she had collapsed on the front steps just after all students had left and that she had slept for nearly ten hours in the hospital wing.

She lay back again, to weak to sit up that long. Where was her strenght? She knew where it was. It had gone that night with Severus Snape, gone with her still beloved husband, gone with the murderer of Albus Dumbledore. Oh, it all seemed rather a nightmare than reality. Had it all really happened? She closed her eyes, ready to go back to sleep, ready to relax a bit, to collect the rest of that, what once had been her hopes, her dreams, her love, her strenght.

Suddenly there was a noise in the hospital wing. Was it really Poppy Pomfrey? Somehow she couldn't believe it but she didn'r open her eyes. Her eyelids were far too heavy. There, there it was again. Then she herd voices.

"What's that, Poppy? It can't be Minerva, can it?" The voice of Xiomara Hooch.

"No, she is far too weak. It would be a wonder if she was able to lift an emty cup at this moment. It can't be her." Madam Pomfrey answered and held up her candle. The next thing was a scream and all went dark again. The light of the candle had vanished. Then Minerva heard the shocked voice of Madam Hooch.

"Severus, Bellatrix Lestrange… what…"

"Oh, don't you know, you stupid thing? We are here on orders of the master. Would he mind if we finished them off, too? Severus?"

"Yes." Was the only answer she got. Bellatrix shrugged with her shoulders. "And if we tortured them a bit?"

"Too much noise. There are too many idiots in this castle at the moment." He answered.

"That's not fair. I want my fun." She cried, pointed with her wand directly at the unconcious Poppy Pomfrey and let her fly through the air.

"Let her down."

"No" She answered but did what he had said only to point at Xiomara and say 'Crucio' Her screams were to be heard in the whole castle and several people woke up and gave alarm.

"Stop it, you stupid woman. I hear the first idiots coming." Then he went quickly to the bed Minerva was lying in. Her eyes were wide open now and she stared Severus right in the face.

"Hello Minerva. It was a long time since we have spoken last time. Do you remember me? How were your last days, now your lover is dead?", he said looking at her as if she was nothing more than a rat. "Have you been lonely, maybe you felt even let down, neglected. What do you think I felt when I saw you in the arms of that old fool." He stretched every word and the pain was clearly visible in his eyes.

"Severus…" Minerva tried, but she was too weak to continue.

"Surely, you had the right to be angry with me the way you was, but you had no right to… to betray." One single tear rolled down his cheek and fell onto her's. "But Minerva, you will not longer feel the pain – yes, I can see it in your eyes." He said before he layed his hands around her neck and pressed. Minerva's eyes became even more wide than before and she gasped for air, whimpering slightly.

"I want it to do it with my own hands, Mia. I want to feel you for the last time." Her body went limp into his arms, but he didn't lift his hands and strangled her, although there was not much life left in her. Then it was over. He knew it in that second when her heart made its last beat. He let go of her and looked for the last time in those green eyes, which would never be full of life again.

"Severus, we have no time left." He heard Bellatrix say behind him, but it didn't matter to him. For the last time he touched her still warm cheek, touched his own tear on it. He kissed her on the mouth – no reaction – before he stood up to leave. "I have loved more than anything in this world, Mia, but you betrayed me. My love – the bit I had – has gone with you and will never come back, as well as you will never come back." He closed her eyes, turned around and left the hospital wing without even glancing back.

-The End-