A/N: Something I forgot to put in on the last chapter, but '' will also signify thoughts. Hopefully everyone is enjoying the story, and hasn't gotten lost or too confused.

"Sherbet lemon," said a rather irritated Severus Snape.

The phoenix statue that signaled the door to the headmaster's office slowly rotated, revealing the spiral staircase, allowing Severus entry to Dumbledore's office.

Dumbledore sat patiently up in his office awaiting Snape, but for false pretenses. Dumbledore sent a message to Snape telling him to come for a meeting about a Potions Conference that he had been invited to speak at, but all the while, he had something else entirely to speak to him about.

Knock! Knock! Knock! "Enter."

"Why couldn't this wait until tomorrow Albus? I have important things to be doing at the moment." It was all a lie, both knew it, but that was the story he would stick to.

"Trust me my boy," he said with that smile of his that always seems to reach his eyes when he's trying to convey a semi-secret to someone else, "this is very important."

"I'm sorry, I just don't see how a meeting about yet another potions conference is very important at all. It's especially not important enough to put a charm on the message so that I would hiccup bubbles, pink and bright blue, until I verbally agreed to come," Snape said, even more angrier than when he had arrived in his office.

"Because, my boy, this has nothing to do with a potions conference that has invited you to speak at it."

"Then why the bloody hell am I here Albus?"

"I may have found her."

The one thing that Dumbledore could have possibly said, if it were true, that could have possibly made this farce of a meeting worth while.

Severus sunk down deeper into his chair with disbelief written all over his face.

"No! There's no possible way you've found her! it's been seven fucking years and I have come to terms with it. She's dead, she's never coming back. Lucius killed her, or he handed her over to the Death Eaters and they tortured her until she died."

Severus was numb all over. He wanted to lunge at Albus for dredging up these old memories, he wanted to break down and cry from the images of her fragile body being ripped apart by those vultures, but most of all, he just wanted to forget that he had ever known her in hopes that the memory would fade, and he would one day be able to move on and out of this depressing place he was always in.

"She's not alive, not coming back, and you didn't find her!" With that he stormed out of Dumbledore's office with his cloak billowing behind him.

'It's impossible! He's the one who told me to move on and come to terms. All of a sudden, now he wants to try and tell me that he might have found her. MIGHT!'

The potions professor charged into his dungeon rooms, went straight for his case of Fire Whiskey, picked up the full bottle sitting next to the one that he hadn't finished last night, and sat in front of his fireplace to brood. His very important business that he told Dumbledore he had.

'It's absolutely impossible. :takes a swig: That overly happy man may be able to do a lot of things, but not even the great Dumbledore can bring people back from the dead. :takes a swig: But what if… No! I will never go back to that horrible place called hope. :takes a swig:

He took her, tortured her, and then he killed her so he could punish me for his justified doubts about me. :takes a swig:

It's all my fault. :takes a swig: I killed her. :takes a swig:'

"You shouldn't treat yourself like that, and you shouldn't think like that either." A woman's voice came to Severus from out of nowhere.

"Who said that? Where are you?"

There was no answer.

"Come out and face me whoever you are! I don't have time for games!"

'Who am I kidding? I have nothing but time. She's not here and I still can't bring myself to even look at another woman. I lost my only chance, and it was all my fault. :takes a swig:'

"You could have another chance if you would only allow yourself to move on," came the female voice again.

"Who are you and why do you come to me now?"

No answer. Knock! Knock! Knock!

Severus walked over to the door with the intent to send the person away. He just hadn't been expecting to see who was standing outside of his door.

There she was, Aurora, looking as young and as beautiful as the day she first came to private sessions with him. In fact, she was dressed in the exact same clothes, and she was just as shy looking as when he had first opened his door for her.

But he wasn't thinking with his brain, he was thinking with his heart, so he ran to her to take her up in his arms like he had dreamed to be able to do again so many times since she had been taken.

"Oh my God! Aurora! He actually found you!"

As he reached out to hold her in his arms, he went right through her and ran into the wall opposite. When he recovered from the shock, Severus grew even more bitter than he had been before.

'So this is what Albus was talking about. This is what he meant when he said that he had found you, he found your spirit and brought you back here.'

"I'm sorry I'm late for the lesson, but I got lost. However, I did figure out where I went wrong, so next lesson I should be on time."

With that the spirit walked into the room, after a short pause that looked as though she had been waiting for someone to either move out of the way so she could pass, or for someone to finish scolding her.

Severus wasn't particularly interested in entertaining a ghost, but he wasn't about to allow her spirit to chase him out of his room. And he did want to be able to see her again if she again if she was going to be hanging around.

Severus walked into the room without hesitation and slammed the door to the room. Bang! He hadn't looked up at her since he ran right through her, so he hadn't noticed when she flinched ever so slightly.

Professor Snape went back to his bottle of Fire Whiskey in front of the fire so he could finish brooding and just be in the room with her again, even if she was just the spirit reliving their first real encounter. He had replayed all of their scenes together in his head a million times since she had disappeared, so what was a million and one.

The room remained quiet except for the sounds the crackling fire made as it snapped and popped.

'She should be talking by now, unless I am supposed to interact with her. There is no way I am going to participate in this little game. Not even for her.'

A few minutes passed and still the room remained quiet.

Severus poked his head out from around the high back of one of his armchairs so he could get a good look at her. She was standing in awe, numbly looking around his dungeon room, nothing like she had the first time she had showed up there.

Severus stood up from his chair, walked over to Aurora's spirit, and waved his hand in front of her face to bring her back to his reality. He didn't really think that it would work since she wasn't even supposed to be able to be there, but it did.

Aurora came crashing back to reality with an unusually large jerk. She bounced back so far that she fell back on a stool and toppled it over as she came crashing to the ground.

Without thinking, Snape came to her side and helped her up to her feet. It wasn't until he was setting the stool back to it's original position that it dawned on him.

'Did I just help her up? Did she just knock over a stool? Did I finally get to feel her skin next to my own?'

"Aurora, is that really you?" He still very badly wanted to run to her and embrace her, but he didn't relish the idea of running through her and straight into another wall.

"Yes it's me, but who the bloody hell are you? And where am I?" She had backed away from him while saying this and Severus could see real terror in her eyes.

"My name is Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And this place is my dungeon bedroom at Hogwarts Castle. You have no need to fear me."

He wanted to go over to her and put his arms around her so she wouldn't be afraid of him, but he could tell that would only land him in the infirmary with broken bones and a concussion.

'How am I going to get close enough to her to calm her down if she is only going to blast my bloody ass into oblivion if I come too close to her?'

"How did I get here?" Her voice was barely over a whisper, and Snape could see from where he was sanding that she was shaking from fear.

"I honestly don't know. What's the last thing you remember?"

'What do I remember? Tom took me around the castle, and into the dungeons. Then…'

Severus could see her physically and mentally break down. He acted on impulse and ran back to her side to catch her before she hit the ground. He pulled her close to his chest and allowed her to just cry out whatever she was working through. Severus scooped her up in his arms and brought her to the couch by the fireplace so they could both be comfortable.

Hours passed by and the only thing that Aurora ever said was, "He swore he would make them stop. Tom swore to me, and he broke his promise."

'Who is Tom? What kind of promise did he break to her? Has she been with another man since me?

Of course she has! She's a beautiful young girl. He probably rescued her from Voldemort's dungeons and nursed her back to health.

But what promise could he have broken to her that would do this to her?'

Aurora's crying had ceased, and she was sleeping peacefully in his arms and on his chest.

Severus looked over at the clock sitting on his desk, realized that he had only about a couple of ours to get some sleep before his NEWTS level class came in, and carried Aurora over to his bed so he could stretch out on the couch.

Snape picked her back up and carried her over to his bed. He pulled out his wand and levitated back the covers so he could simply lay her down and then cover her up. However, when he had her all comfortable in the bed, alone, and went to go over to the couch, she awoke.

"Please don't leave me? I didn't want to be alone," she pleaded with him.

"I'm not going to leave. I was merely going to allow you the privacy of my bed and go lay on the couch by the fireplace. I didn't want you to have to wake up laying next to me and not know why."

"That's too far away. Please, I don't wish to run you out of your own bed. It's more than enough room for the both of us to share it comfortably. Plus, I would feel much safer here if you would hold me like you were doing over on the couch earlier."

"Just allow me to get ready for bed, and I will join you."

Aurora turned over so he could change his clothes semi-privately, and Severus walked over to his wardrobe.

He removed all of his clothes except his boxers, but decided that it would be more proper if her were to wear some pajama bottoms at least. He didn't he to think that he was expecting something from her just because she was here in his bed and stirring up all of those old feelings that had never truly faded away.

He crawled in the bed from the other side and came in only to the middle part of his side of the bed, not wanting to presume anything concerning her since she had already fallen asleep.

Severus lay there completely relaxed watching her sleep. He didn't dare disturb her, but he couldn't shake the feeling of want. A want to hold her for as long as she was going to be here in his bed, to always have her close to him, and a want that he had actually found her, or rather that she had finally found him again after so long.

Aurora woke ever so slightly and starred up into his deep chocolate eyes. "I thought that you were going to hold me. If you are way over there, than you won't be able to reach me."

"You were asleep when I got into bed and I didn't want to wake you, so I just laid down over here until you either woke up, or I fell asleep."

She gave him a lazy smile and crawled over to his side of the bed to lay in his arms.