Disclaimer: This is the final chapter to my first Harry Potter fanfic. I hope you have all enjoyed it. Please read and review, and enjoy the rest of the story. Animagious - White - Tiger.

Time slowed to a complete halt. Heartbeats lasted an eternity, and the air clung to the lungs making it impossible to breathe. Moving was out of the question can yet it was the only thing either wanted to do. They had to reach her, had to make sure that she didn't die alone in some ball on a battlefield. And while she was a mere yard from either, the distance spread for miles.

Their movements were slow, calculated, and remorseful. They crawled the distance to her body, hoping against all hope that it hadn't been her, that she was still safely tucked away somewhere and they had hit some other bystander.

When they reached her body, both men confirmed their worst fears as they looked down into the face of the woman they had pledged their undying love and devotion to protect for.

They looked deeply at the other and cringed in disgust.

"How could you do this to her?" both said at the same time.

"How could I? How could you?" spoke Severus first with such indignation at what Voldemort had rightly accused him of.

"I was aiming at you, just like you were aiming at me. But you're supposed to be a good guy. You're not allowed to use the killing curse."

"I would use anything if it meant keeping you away from her. I just never imagined that she would love you enough to save you from me like this. I never wanted anything to happen to her." As he finished, a single tear slipped passed his defenses and landed on her cheek closest to him, making it look as if she were crying herself.

"I know what you mean. I loved her just as much. If I had for one moment thought that she would have sacrificed herself for you, I would have rather left here without possibility of ever seeing her beautiful smile again." The same as Severus, when he finished, a single tear fell upon her delicate cheek nearest him, making it look as if she were weeping.

Neither looked down as they both picked her up.

Severus brought her up into his arms, in his lap, and sat firmly on the ground rocking her back and forth as he wept.

Moments later, Aurora began to stir and breath, and finally she spoke. "Severus lighten the death grip. It's getting hard to breathe."

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Voldemort was having a similar experience.

As he sat there smoothing out her features and hair, her eyes blinked open, and her breath hitched in her throat.

Voldemort looked down at the woman in his arms, and as she looked deeply into his eyes she smiled her beautiful smile. His heart began to melt, knowing that she was coming back to life just for him, knowing that she truly loved him.

"Tom," at that he became the Tom she had fallen in love with all those years ago, and smiled in reply to her, "take me home please? I miss our castle."

Tom lifted her up with him from the ground just as Severus exclaimed, "Aurora!"

Both looked over at him, and the Aurora in Toms arms couldn't understand how this man knew her name, but she knew nothing could happen to her if tom was by her side.

Tom looked over at his ex Death Eater and noticed that he wasn't looking at the young girl in his arms, but at the one in his arms. Tom very quickly realized what had happened, and apperated him and who would very soon be his bride, along with his remaining Death Eaters away before Severus noticed anything.

Voldemort was never heard from again from that day on. Tom Marvolo Riddle married Aurora MacNaimer and they lived very prosperous lives. He may not have joined the Ministry, but he still led a lavish life, and gave up on his quest to rule the world. He spent his time instead with his wife and many children.

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Back to Severus and Aurora on the battlefield.

"Aurora! You're alive!" he said both surprised and questionlly at the same time. "How?"

"I wouldn't suggest questioning a gift from the Lord, when he sees fit to grant one. He didn't see fit to keep me there when you would be left all alone again. And seeing as how you've repented for long enough, you are being given the chance to live and love again. Unless you don't want it."

Severus grabbed her tighter and pulled her closer to him, "Oh yes! I want it and you. I'm never letting you go again. In fact, I want you to marry me."

"Are you asking?"

"Are you accepting?"

Aurora grabbed his face and pulled him into a fiercely passionate kiss as her answer.

When neither could breathe any longer, they pulled apart, but rested their foreheads on eachother's.

"Did that answer your question?"

"No. Not at all," Severus said as sarcastically as possible. He pulled her back to his lips and returned her kiss with an equally passionate from him.

When they finally broke apart, Severus scooped her up with him and whisked her off to their dungeon rooms in the castle for some much needed private time.

Two months after the battle, one full month after Tom and Aurora's wedding, Severus and Aurora were wed. They would have waited for the end of the school year, but after having to wait for seven years, neither were willing to wait any longer.

Of course children happened for the Snapes as well, but they didn't have as many. They all lived at the school during the year in Severus' dungeon rooms, generously enlarged to accommodate his growing family, but spent all of the holidays at Snape Manor. All of the children had a full background in Potions, since their father was a Potion's Master, and that was easily their best subject, but each child had their own special subject that they excelled at.

Albus finally managed House unity after the last of the Snape children entered the school. Because all of the children had their own abilities, all four of their children ended up in different house. And since they were family, they helped eachother out and got their friends to associate with others from the other houses, no matter what the blood lineage was.

It's hard to care about that stuff when your mom is a pure blood elemental, your dad is a half breed who followed a half breed for all of the wrong reasons, which he admits to, and all of the rest of your world is shaking off the antiquated notion of purity means better.

Draco and Hermione got married, and their children, as well as Harry and Ginny's all attended school with Severus and Aurora's children. All were fast friends, and there were even a couple of marriages in the group. Needless to say, Severus wasn't too thrilled about being related to the Boy Who Lived through his daughter, but it wasn't any worse than being related to Hermione, the Brain With a Mouth, through his Godson. He softened in his later years, with Aurora by his side, but he still managed to scare his new students into submission with an evil glare.