A/N: I think this is it, it's really very strange, I sensed that it was coming to a close, but now? Well I think it has and really it needed to. So this is the end? I don't know, most probably, but you won't be able to keep me away for long. I have plans for a new fic, with Snape, but probably not Hermione, I love the idea and hope I can pull it off. So well then, thank you so much for all the support, encouragement and criticism you've given me over the past six months, and I hope I've brought you something you've enjoyed. I'd love some final comments from everyone about what they thought. Here Forevermore, Charlotte xxx

- CHAPTER SIXTEEN -

Freedom

"Severus?" Hermione whispered as she rolled over in her bed, but he had gone. She sighed and closed her eyes again, pulling the covers over her head.

An hour later she was awake again and getting dressed. She fed Crookshanks and then went down to breakfast. Most of the staff were already there and a lot of the students were blearily munching on pieces of toast. Everyone was there it seemed, apart from Snape. Hermione frowned, but her hunger was greater than her curiosity at that particular time of day so she sat down and grabbed a bowl of porridge. Once she had eaten enough for her stomach to stop interrupting her she turned to Professor McGonagall and asked her if she had seen Snape.

"Not since dinner Hermione. But I'd look for him in his office if you want him."

"Oh of course, thank you Minerva." she took her leave and went into the Entrance Hall; she had twenty minutes before her first lesson, which should be enough. She went down to the dungeons and knocked on his door, it opened silently and she went in.

"Severus? Are you in here?" she called apprehensively,

"Hermione?" came a voice from behind a door at the back of the room.

"Yes…" the door opened and he came out. She ran up to him to hug him, but he pushed her back.

"Have you done it?" he asked sharply,

"No… Severus how could I? I've only just had time to get up and have breakfast!"

"But you'll do it today? Seeing as you haven't been able to do it for three weeks."

"Well why don't you do it then? I can't just write it in a letter!"

"Well go and see him then, or talk to his sister, you're friends with her."

"But how can I tell him? He's still my best friend; I don't want to hurt him."

"I'm sure he'd rather you tell him why you disappeared than let him wonder,"

"I know…" she sighed,

"Right then, just do it today." He turned away,

"Why today?" she asked, "why not at the weekend, when I have more time?"

"Because you have been avoiding it since Christmas, you couldn't do it at New Year, so we couldn't start the year free from him. Just do it today, as my birthday present." Hermione had a feeling from the look on his face that he hadn't intended to say that.

"Your birthday! Oh Severus, why didn't you tell me?" she hugged him tightly, "I have a free period in the second lesson, I'll go and see him then, he has a day off on Monday."

"And you will do it? You'll leave him forever?" he looked down at her, "this really is what you want Hermione isn't it?"

"Yes," she smiled, "it's definitely what I want, with all my heart."

He laughed, something she noticed he'd been doing a lot more of recently, "Well I must be the first Slytherin to have won a Golden Heart!"

"What d'you mean?"

"It was always this joke that Slytherins and Gryffindors never got together, of course some Slytherins boys might like the so-called Golden Hearts, the Gryffindor girls, but nothing ever happened between them."

She smiled, "that's pathetic, that they never mixed,"

"Well did you know any Slytherins and Gryffindors who went out together when you were at school?"

"No…" she laughed, "Well then, you really have won your Golden Heart. Have a very happy birthday Severus, and I'll you at lunch, hopefully a free woman,"

"I hope so," he kissed her gently,

She walked over to the door, just as she was about to open it a thought struck her, "How old are you today then?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes…"

"Forty-five, much too old for you of course,"

"I wouldn't have you any other way." She winked and left his office, sprinting back to her own in order to get her bag for her first lesson.

She let the first-years go early, and without setting them homework. They all looked slightly surprised by this, but of course none of them wanted to question it. As soon as she was free of them she took her cloak out of her bag and put her bag behind a suit of armour on the first floor, then she set off through the front door to the gates of the grounds. It only took her a few minutes as she walked briskly, as soon as she was through the gates she Disapparated.

She smiled to her self as she remembered the occasion only a few weeks before when she had stood on the Weasley's doorstop. She took a deep breath and knocked. A few moments later the door was opened by Ginny.

"Oh my God! Hermione, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Hi, Ginny, um, I was wondering if I could see Ron…"

"He's busy writing a report, what makes you think he has time for you?"

"Oh Ginny please! Just let me come in," Hermione switched her weight from one foot to the other.

"I will if you explain why you left my brother on Christmas Eve!"

"Let me come in and I will explain everything." Hermione sighed; she hadn't expected Ginny to be so angry with her already,

"Fine." Ginny stomped away down the hallway and into the sitting room, leaving the front door open for Hermione, who hurried inside.

She went into the sitting room to find Ginny sitting in a chair by the fire, and Ron sitting on the sofa surrounded by piles of paper. She coughed quietly and Ron looked up; Hermione was struck by how drained and despondent he looked; her confidence seemed to drift out of her.

"Well then," said Ginny loudly, "are you going to tell us what's been going on?"

Hermione took a deep breath and started uncertainly, "OK… Well, at Hogwarts last term a few things happened that I felt very ashamed of, though they weren't really my fault..."

Ron coughed loudly and scribbled another note on a piece of paper.

"And I wasn't really sure how I felt about it all so I put everything to the back of my mind and really focussed on teaching, and the problem went away. And then I decided to come back here for Christmas and I thought everything would be alright. But he came here too, and, and I'm so sorry Ron." She suddenly burst into tears, Ginny glared at her.

"So just tell us then, who is he? Who's the man you chose over Ron?"

"Snape," Hermione sobbed, Ron blinked at her and was about to speak when Ginny cut across him.

"We saw he'd gone too, but we just thought he'd been helping you, or kidnapping you…" she said bitterly,

"Hermione," Ron growled, "why Snape? He's a murderous two-faced double-crossing hook-nosed greasy-haired git. Even you must have noticed that."

"I know he's a murderer, he's not denying it, but he's changed. He only did those things because they made the world right in the end; killing Dumbledore and Harry were the hardest things he ever had to do –"

"HE KILLED HARRY!" Ron and Ginny both roared,

"Oh God," Hermione muttered, "Yes, Harry asked him to, right after he killed Voldemort. Harry was too pure to cope with the pain of murder, especially as Voldemort was so much a part of him, but he told Snape he hoped we'd understand, because really he would be going back to his family, and Sirius, where he really wanted to be, and we'd meet him there one day."

Ginny sat back down, tears streaming down her face that she did nothing to stop. Ron's expression was so shocked that Hermione thought that if they'd been talking about something else she would have laughed at him.

"I'm sorry," she continued, "I should have told you earlier, you deserved to know. But all things that Severus did like that; that we think are so evil, really he was just saving everyone else, you don't understand what he's put himself through to make things right for other people. And to be honest I don't care what he looks like…"

"Oh so it's the redeemed hero in him that you like is it?" Ron said bitterly, "You're too good for him Hermione, he doesn't deserve you."

"Doesn't he? After all the pain he's gone through, doesn't he deserve something to make him happy?"

"Harry always told me that you and I could never last, he said that I would stay stuck in the past for so long and you would want to move on until you were whisked away from me. I wished I'd listened to him…"

"Ron, I'll always always love you, but Harry was right, it can never work, we're too different,"

"Oh please," hissed Ginny between her sobs, "just go back to your professor!"

"Ginny!" Hermione and Ron said at the same time, they turned to look back at each other.

"I can't live without you Hermione," Ron sighed,

"I know, but I can't live with you, don't be insulted, but I feel so caged here, I want to move on. Do you understand?"

"Yes," he sighed, a few tears began to trickle down his face, "I've always known it really, deep down, I just didn't want to admit it."

"Oh Ron please, you've started me off again," she laughed gently, "I really hope it works out for you, really I do. There is someone out there for you, but it's not me… Just promise you'll always be my best friend."

He nodded and she grabbed him, hugging him so tightly that he couldn't breathe, their hot salty tears mingled and she gulped. "Thank you Ron, you've set me free!"

She went over to Ginny and hugged her, "I'm sorry you had to find out like this, but Harry was always thinking of you, I hope it makes his death clearer…"

Ginny lifted her face and Hermione saw that she was smiling, "he's waiting for me, and he'll always be waiting for me there, whenever I'm ready to see him again."

"Exactly," Hermione laughed again, she suddenly felt a joyful freedom she hadn't felt since she was a child, "Goodbye, now I promise I'll write," and she Disapparated.

She had little memory later of her sprint from the gates to the dungeons. She had made it back with five minutes to spare before the end of the second lesson. She skipped into Snape's office, only to find it empty; she cursed under her breath, but set off for the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. She looked through the grilled window in the door and saw him leaning against the blackboard whilst his class of fourth-years took feverish notes from their textbooks.

Suddenly an urge overcame her and she ran into the classroom, ignoring the students' startled stares and leapt into Snape's arms. "I did it!" she laughed, "Happy Birthday Severus!" and then she kissed him, her own thoughts drowned by the cheers of the students who were on their feet.

A few seconds later she looked up at him, beaming. For a minute he seemed angry, but then he grinned, she'd never seen him grin, perhaps he was afraid of his yellowing teeth, but she didn't care about that, all she cared about was that she was finally free to be with him.

"Sit down please," he muttered at the crowding students, they clambered back to their seats, but not before Emma Burrage had shouted at her, "finally! I was waiting for you to pull him!"

Hermione couldn't keep back her grin, and as Severus led her to the door with a swift, "excuse me for a moment," to his whooping class, she clasped his hand. He shut the door behind him and they walked a little way along the corridor before stopping and looking at each other properly.

"It was all alright then?" he asked,

"It was fine, they got a bit mad at the beginning but once I'd explained everything they were alright," she sighed, "Oh and Severus I'm really sorry but I sort of let slip about Harry."

He frowned, "I thought that was behind us,"

"They deserved to know, and they understand why you did it."

"Hmm,"

"Oh this sounds so stupid and clichéd and awful, but I don't think I've felt happier in all my life than right now."

"You're right Granger, it is very stupid and clichéd and awful, I'd expect more from a supposedly intelligent witch like you."

"Intelligent? I fell for you didn't I?"

He snorted, "Probably the biggest mistake of your life, but nothing's going to change that now."

"You're right. And are you going to get the happy ending you've always sacrificed?"

"We'll have to wait and see, but I hope so."

"Oh this is stupid Severus!" she laughed,

"What?" he sneered,

"I love you! And I never really realised it until now, this must be what love really is; freedom."

She grabbed his face again, giving him only enough time to whisper, "I love you too," before their lips clamped together and they could be one.

THE END