A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and birthday wishes. I think this was my best birthday ever, thanks to both my readers and Real World friends. A fair warning, some of the theories I pose in this fic as explanation for the choices some characters have made may surprise you. I just used this ficpresent potential answers to a few outstanding questions in my mind.

REMINDER! Today is the LAST DAY to vote in the 2005 OWL Awards, found at owl dot tauri dot org! The link to all my fics on that site is on my author page, so please register and vote! Mum is also up for several categories!

Chapter Eleven: Darkness

Severus managed only one good, infinitely-satisfying squeeze at Potter's throat before the wind, almost tornadic now, practically lifted them both off the ground, about to raise them up to where they would be flung over the wall.

That brought him back to himself, and he swung one arm down around Potter, and the other over the wall to anchor them, pressing them both against it as hard as he could. "I will not let you destroy me," he hissed at the boy, not certain whether Potter heard him, and not caring whether his destruction was actually Potter's aim or not.

"Oh, but he will, Severus," he heard Riddle say somewhere behind him. "He's been on that path all his life, hasn't he? How many times have you risked your skin and your soul for his sake? Sometimes only luck was what saved you. Now here you are, still trying to hang onto him because of old Albus. Save yourself, Severus. Let the little brat fend for himself for once!"

That was a tempting thought. Potter was still struggling, the STUPID boy. If he wanted to escape Severus that badly…just let him go. It's over. Let him go and save yourself. He hated Potter. Potter hated him. That would never change. Potter would not thank him even if he did manage to get them out of this, just as he had never thanked him in the past. Potter would deride him just as he always had, and the Order would follow his lead. No matter what Severus did, it was never enough…

"Severus."

At first he thought that voice was entirely in his head, but with a startled gasp, Potter stopped trying to tear Snape to pieces and looked around. Severus too faltered, seeing no one else on the Tower, but then...Potter cried out and tried to lunge across the edge of the wall. Albus Dumbledore was hovering there, watching them, seeming perfectly real even though he was standing in the air like a ghost. He drifted back as Potter reached for him, raising a warning hand.

"Harry, no!"

Instinctively, Severus grabbed Potter, hauling him back by the hair before the wind could push him over. Riddle was laughing at them again. "Just wait, you're going to have to do that whole dance all over again. Poor dear Harry gets to watch him die, helpless, and Severus gets to kill him. How many times before one of you cracks?"

"No!" the boy wailed, pounding on the wall as though trying to break through it with his bare hands. "Please…Professor, I need you! Please!"

Albus looked desperately sad, his gaze shifting from Potter to Severus, then back to Potter. Raising his hand to the boy, he said, "I'm beyond your reach now. You cannot come with me, Harry. Please, let me go."

"I can't! I can't go on alone!"

"You are not alone," Albus told him. "You never have been. Harry…please, let Severus help you."

"NO!" Potter bared his teeth and looked at Severus with such venom that the older man was startled. Then he had to grab Potter as the wind rose again and nearly sent them both flying off to join Albus. "You're a murdering—he KILLED you! He took you!"

Severus was growing exhausted from the effort of holding onto the struggling teenager and the wall in this gale. If Potter didn't come to his senses soon, they were both done for. "Severus?"

Turning slowly, Severus looked out at Albus Dumbledore's face, now finally turned toward him. "Severus, please."

Even though he could barely hear anything over the wind and Riddle's laughter and Potter's cries, he did not bother to shout. He knew Albus would hear. "What could you possibly want now?"

"Only one thing. You know what it is. I have wanted it from you for seven years."

Frustrated, he tightened his grip on the boy and said, "I'm doing everything I can to get that bloody thing out of him, what more can I do?"

"It's not enough, Severus. You won't survive if you don't let go!"

"Don't let go!" he exclaimed, peering over the edge at the black oblivion beyond. "What the hell are you—"

Albus laughed, but it was tinged with sorrow. "I didn't mean literally, my dear potions prodigy. Please. Look at him, Severus. Just look at him."

Against his will, he did. Potter was still fighting to get free, reaching out to Dumbledore in anguish. He pushed at Severus, either imagining he could still fight or revolted at being so close to someone he hated.

"Listen to him."

Over the howl of the wind, Severus heard it. He'd tuned the boy's railings out, but now Potter was pleading with Albus. "Not for me…please, I didn't deserve it, not you. Not you too…"

In confusion, he looked up at Albus. What did he mean… "I'm not the only one who has died before Harry's eyes, Severus. I'm not the only one who has given my life at least partly to protect his. You are not the only one who has known true pain in this war."

It was a whisper in his mind, and with it came a barrage of memories. Severus had no idea whether they were brought out by Albus or whether he himself had dredged them up: James and Lily Potter had saved their son's life, but left him an orphan; Cedric Diggory had been murdered after taking the Triwizard Cup at his urging; Sirius Black had refused to sit and wait when his godson was in danger at the Ministry…he too had paid with his life.

Always while Harry Potter had watched, helpless. Severus had seen humiliation and loneliness in his school days…Harry had seen death. Again and again. The boy's screams when Albus had fallen earlier echoed again in Snape's mind; he had not screamed like that even when under the Cruciatus Curse from the Dark Lord.

"Please, Severus," Albus said again. "Harry is not to blame for the choices I made. He was a child."

Right here, right now, he still is, Severus mused, his mind moving rather slowly. Why had they arrived here and not at the moment of the Dark Lord's death, when they had confronted each other? Why had the darkness "begun" here, as the shadows in their souls had put it? Had the shock of Albus's death triggered the Horcrux?

"Not all darkness is created by the Horcrux," Albus pointed out. "It was not an outside force that turned Tom Riddle into a monster."

"Nor me, you were going to say," Severus muttered, but he understood what his mentor was trying to say. Good God. "I never left this place," he realized aloud. "I never have." His heart, his mind, his soul had remained on the tower even as he had fled Hogwarts, paralyzed and trapped in a storm of grief and hate, towards Potter, Albus, and himself for what he had done.

Albus nodded with a sad smile. "Nor has Harry. The two of you have more in common than you ever realized. Harry denied it just as you did, but he knew in his heart, as you did, the reason for my choice to die. Each of you has hated yourself for that, just as strongly as you hated and blamed each other."

"Oh, Dumbledore, stop, you're bringing tears to my eyes!"

Severus flinched, having almost forgotten that Tom Riddle was still there. He turned from Albus and growled, "If you must put your oar in, just keep trying to blow us off the Tower instead of forcing us to listen to you."

Riddle laughed, and Harry looked at him as well, trembling in either fear or anger, Severus couldn't be sure. "Really, I'm not doing anything! I'm just enjoying the show! Albus was a fool to think the two of you could ever work together, just as he's a fool to think now that you will manage to 'forgive' each other. He always was a mad old idealist."

Harry stiffened and tried to pull away again, but Severus pulled him back. "The wind," he said, as the nature of their spell-induced surroundings fell into place. "You are not causing it. We are."

"Very good!" Riddle laughed. "A nice breeze, isn't it? What's the matter, Severus, has old Albus finally converted you completely to his warm and fuzzy viewpoint? Have you forgotten the things you've seen? The things you've done?" He turned his attention to the boy. "Well, Harry? Ready to forgive the man who sent your godfather to his death along with dear old Dumbledore?" Harry said nothing, and Riddle returned his attention to Snape. "You do realize what Albus is about, don't you? The same as always, Severus: he's only thinking of his precious little Harry."

Severus felt his stomach lurch, and heard Harry gasp as his grip on the boy's arms tightened convulsively. Riddle smiled and drove the point deeper. "Think about it. For all his pleading and cajoling, 'Harry this, Harry that,' has he once said how much he cared for YOU? How much he loved you? Has he ever thanked you for all that you sacrificed for him? For the fact that you never ONCE refused anything he asked, even though he knew that to kill him would break your heart—or maybe he didn't know that. Maybe he really did think that you have no heart, and that he could use you as he saw fit, and then discard you like a rusted weapon."

The wind rose sharply, and Severus had to grab for the wall again to brace himself. The boy was not fighting him anymore, but he was not helping to hold them on the Tower either. Albus had been listening solemnly to Riddle, then turned to Severus, who was now looking very hard at him.

"I have made many terrible mistakes in my life, it is true, Tom. My mistakes have cost lives, and probably some souls as well, people I might have saved from your influence had I been more attentive to their needs." He sighed. "He's right, of course, Severus. I have never given you half the thanks, the praise, the love that you deserved for all you did for us. And that, I confess to you, was a horrible wrong to you. You deserved better."

"Of course, he'll say what you want to hear, you know. He always does that."

The wind rose higher, and Severus realized that Harry was now staring at Dumbledore as if he'd never seen him before. Riddle had been talking about Snape, not Harry Potter, but something in his words appeared to have struck home with him. Severus looked at him in surprise as he said to Albus, "You knew I was depending on you for…everything, after Sirius died. You told Remus to stay away from me; you sent him away. You spent all that time with me, and all the while, you were planning to get killed." The boy shook in Snape's grasp, and the wind grew. "You knew what it would do to me, you must have known. You knew it would drive me, to find the Horcruxes and destroy them, and to do whatever I had to to kill Voldemort, no matter how dark the spell or how violent…you knew I didn't want to kill anyone, not even him…it was all to push me…"

"—Over the edge. Right you are, Harry. Manipulative old puppeteer, isn't he?"

The wind began to shriek across the top of the Tower again, buffeting Severus as he fought to keep himself and Harry anchored. "You know," Riddle said cheerfully, tossing bits of stone from the tower into the wind and watching them blow away. "Neither of you know about one of Albus's best schemes."

Without thinking, Severus asked him, "What are you talking about?"

"Why," Riddle smiled at him. "The Pensieve, of course! Your tragically-abortive Occlumency lessons, brought to a premature and ultimately fatal end when Harry's curiosity got the better of him. Oh, go on, Albus, really, it's only fair that you make a full confession of your sins. That's what's required for forgiveness, am I right? Let's see if their generous natures can understand your reasons and let them forgive you."

Slowly, Severus turned back toward Albus, feeling a cold lump of dread settle within. Harry was finally coming to his senses enough to hold onto the wall as well, but he too wanted to hear the Headmaster's explanation. "What about the Pensieve?" the boy whispered.

Albus lowered his eyes. "Simply put, when Severus objected to teaching you Occlumency on the grounds that he had certain memories he did not wish you to see, I suggested the Pensieve."

"Why?" Severus demanded, but then Harry recoiled.

"Curiosity is not a sin…" the boy breathed.

"What?"

Harry met his eyes, for once without any ire directed at Severus, and said, "He told me curiosity is not a sin, but I should…exercise caution, when I…I looked in it during my fourth year. He left me alone in his office during the Triwizard Tournament, and it was just sitting there, and I looked. I was just curious about what it was." The wind scream was so loud that Severus was almost deafened. Harry's eyes were distant, lost in memory as the truth came together in his mind. "My fifth year…he wouldn't tell me anything—he TOLD them all not to tell me anything! He said it was to protect me but I was going mad trying to understand what was going on and I knew what a Pensieve was used for and I thought—YOU KNEW!" he screamed over the gale at Albus, who closed his eyes. "YOU WANTED ME TO LOOK!"

With one last cry of denial, the boy broke down. Severus tightened his grip, and Harry still struggled, but he was losing the will to fight. "Lemme go," he sobbed, pounding on Snape's chest. "Please, just let me go! I can't…" It wasn't merely grief behind the boy's tears; his sobs had a furious tone to them as they wrenched from his body. Severus held onto him, bracing them both against the wall, and struggled to clear his mind. He had to focus somehow, to stop the wind…but he could not begin to concentrate enough over what he was hearing. How could he feel anything but betrayal sizzling like acid through his veins, burning away all his beliefs and all his faith in the one man on earth he had thought cared for him.

There were many things he ought to say, many things he ought to concentrate on, but only one word could find its way out of his heart and his mouth: "Why?"

Apparently, Albus knew better than to try to excuse himself. "Because I wanted Harry to understand you better." Harry looked astonished, and Severus was gritting his teeth to hold on to the wall as the wind grew still stronger, but Albus went on, "It is all true, and that is the reason—no more, no less. Perhaps an act of inexcusable meddling on my part—"

"Perhaps?" Severus and Harry chorused, and they were both nearly lifted off the stones again, each holding on by only their hands.

"THINK, Severus, Harry, look at what is happening!" Albus cried, holding out a hand. "Tom has distracted you to the point where you don't realize that your hate is moments from killing you both! You don't have much time!"

The wind lessened a little, but not much. "What am I supposed to think now?" Severus demanded, trying to concentrate on holding on to the wall and to understand what Albus had done at the same time.

"Think of Harry."

Severus blinked, then realized he was no longer holding onto the boy, and grabbed for him. Harry grunted, but no longer fought, and joined Snape's efforts to pull them back down. The wind died a little more.

"That's a tidy distraction on your end, Albus—"

"Shut up!" Harry yelled over his shoulder, and, incredibly, Severus felt a desire to laugh. The boy's cheek had alternatingly disgusted and enraged him for years, but at the moment, it was amusing. He'd been the same on that last day even as the Dark Lord tortured him—it had driven the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters absolutely mad, to be unable to break the will of one mouthy seventeen-year-old.

"Settle outstanding grievances some other time, my boys," Albus called to them, his voice reaching them despite the wind noise and Riddle's taunts. "You know the way to save yourselves."

His free arm shaking as he tried to keep his grip on the wall while also holding onto Severus, Harry muttered, "I never thought of that…I guess I didn't think it was an emotion…"

Merlin's beard. Nor had Severus.

What now? Do I say 'I'm sorry I made your life as miserable as possible' and hope he responds in kind? Somehow, he knew that would not be enough to erase the searing emotions that had built up for years, both in himself and in Harry Potter.

"Severus, I was to blame," Albus said. "You know that now. If learning of the things I've done can give you any ease, let it be that: it was not…Harry's…fault. I was the arrogant one, not him."

The wind was picking up. Severus growled in frustration, not knowing what he could be expected to do—then Harry looked up at him, his jaw set, and Severus recognized the look in his green eyes. The boy felt used. He felt betrayed.

Manipulated, controlled, deceived, deluded…abandoned…

Disillusioned.

I know EXACTLY how you feel.

Meeting Snape's gaze, Harry knew it too. Albus Dumbledore, the man whom either one of them would have willingly died for, had led them here, left them here, and neither of them had known what to do afterwards. They had been left to struggle through the rest of the war, without guidance but with plenty of pain. And Albus had known it would be that way. He had intended it that way.

And here we are. Fighting for their very souls against a remnant of Lord Voldemort—Bloody hell, I said it!—that they'd been unable to destroy alone. Right where you left us.

The wind had lessened a great deal. Severus pulled Harry more firmly to him, which gave the boy a moment to wipe at his eyes. But when they tried to get up, they were still pushed back toward the edge, so they dropped down again.

"Sorry, gentlemen, it's not enough," Riddle informed them. "Somehow you've got to manage to forgive Albus for all his pretty tricks. It's amazing how fast people can forgive each other when they wind up with a common enemy."

"If that were true, we'd have done it back when you came along," Harry retorted wearily, but Severus turned to Albus.

"Was it for 'the greater good,' then?"

Albus shook his head. "Well, that is not precisely how I thought of it."

"How did you?"

"It was to win the war. I knew my chances of reaching the end alive were slim—and I told you the truth when I said that each of you were more valuable to the Order than myself. The Order could and did survive without me."

"And you knew your dying would tear us both apart, didn't you?" Harry said bitterly.

"I knew how painful it would be, yes," Albus admitted. "And part of that was, I admit, an entirely selfish reason."

Severus blinked, and Harry frowned in confusion. "What?"

With another sad smile, Albus told them, "I have nothing left to give the two of you but the absolute truth. So I hope you will believe me: I did not have the strength to face the loss of either of you. Voldemort would soon be demanding that Severus destroy either you, Harry, or me, possibly both of us. If Severus failed in that, he would die."

"But Voldemort ordered Draco Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed.

Something died inside Severus, and he could not stop himself from speaking. "I made the Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco. To aid him in his assignment. Only after I made the Vow did I learn what that assignment was."

Harry jerked away from him in horror as the wind rose yet again, but Albus cried, "Harry, please, listen! Draco was never meant to succeed in that assignment! Voldemort intended it as a death sentence, not for me, but for him."

The boy stared from Albus back to Severus. "I don't understand."

"You saw him in the bathroom that day," Severus muttered. "He could not get close enough to the Headmaster to destroy him, not without forfeiting his own life. His death was meant to be a punishment for Lucius Malfoy, for failing to obtain the prophecy concerning you."

"And by making the Unbreakable Vow, Severus took that burden from Draco to himself, Harry," Albus went on. "As soon as he discovered what Draco's task was, he told me. I had a choice to make, as the man charged with protecting Draco, my student, and Severus, although to call him my 'employee' is a gross undervalue of what he was to us all. If Severus did not fulfill the Vow, his own life would be forfeit. And Draco would most likely fail in his assignment, which would mean his death as well. If Severus enabled Draco to carry it out, their lives would be spared, but Draco would be a murderer, and his chances of protection from our side gone. Or, if I were to die by a hand other than Draco's, he might yet have that chance, and Severus's position in Voldemort's circle would be preserved."

Severus knew all this, of course—Albus had laid it out before him multiple times that year—and he felt Harry's eyes on him as he looked over the wall at the nothingness beyond. Harry swallowed thickly, then said, "But you said there was a selfish reason."

Severus looked up, and Albus nodded. "Oh yes. I knew that I would leave each of you with a terrible burden on your hearts, as close as each of you had been to me, and I to you. But I was selfish in that I did not have the courage to face that burden myself: I had the chance, that very night, to save my life at the cost of each of yours, but I could not. On top of all the other reasons, the simplest answer of all is that I loved you both too much. I would rather have died than be left to mourn you."

"You've got an answer for everything, don't you, Albus?"

"Shut up!" Severus and Harry both snapped at Riddle—but neither of them had missed the sudden drop in his confidence. His tone was a little shaky.

"Oh, Tom's quite right, as I said," Albus admitted. "I have manipulated you, pushed and prodded you, thrown you both into situations for which you were entirely unprepared, and put your lives and your sanity at terrible risk on many occasions. I have hurt you both deeply. You have every right to be angry with me—anger is not a dark emotion. Nor is hurt. You need not push all those feelings away. And it is true," he said, gliding closer to the Tower, "that much of what I have done is unforgiveable, perhaps most of all the manner in which I abandoned you both to your pain. But when it comes right down to it, the only true defense I can offer is that I knew my death would give each of you a fighting chance, and that I was a selfish old man who had already lost too many of his children."

Severus closed his eyes. Harry sobbed once more, then Riddle screamed. Both of them spun around to see the wind that had been battering them until now converging into a violent, tornadic cyclone around the specter. It began to sparkle, brighter and brighter, until a cyclone of dazzling light was in front of them, forcing them both to shield their eyes.

Harry flinched against the wall and groaned. "Hold on," Severus said, shielding the boy with his own body. Not that it did much good—even though the spells of the exorcism had joined their minds and souls to fight the Horcrux, it was Harry who was inhabited by the thing. The power of the magic now driving the dark fragment out was undoubtedly hurting him. "Hold on," Severus repeated. Harry's jaw was clenched, his eyes shut tight as his physical body and magical core attacked the intruder within him in a blast of pure, white-hot magic. "This is it."

The funnel of light narrowed, spiraling upward into the Dark Mark that hovered above the Astronomy Tower, like a backwards bolt of lightning, and then with one more sizzling burst of light and heat, the Mark and Riddle were gone.

Harry was curled up against the Tower wall, trembling, and Severus looked down at him. "Are you all right?"

The boy opened his eyes and wiped his face with the back of his hand, taking a shaky breath. "Yeah, I…I think so."

They staggered to their feet, using each other for balance. The darkness surrounding the Tower was parting like a black fog, and the Hogwarts grounds were coming into view below them, and the stars overhead. Severus looked at Harry and blinked—the boy in front of him was older than the one who had been there a moment ago. Not that much taller, but…he was definitely the Harry Potter who had walked into the private ward with Snape for the exorcism. With a trembling hand, Severus pulled back the left sleeve of his robe…the Mark had faded to a pale outline, as it had been after the Dark Lord's death. Severus took a deep breath, noticed Harry staring, and covered it again.

"It's over."

"We still have to get out of here," Harry pointed out. He looked exhausted.

"The door is right there," Severus informed him, and kept a hand on the boy's shoulder, partly out of worry that he might disappear again, as he guided him to it. After all, neither one of us has been able to find this door until now.

Through the door, Harry gasped when he found himself not on the Tower stairs but in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. He spun toward Snape, fearful that he might have disappeared again, but the man's hand was still firmly on his shoulder—though Snape too looked surprised.

The Great Hall was full of people, chatting, eating, studying, just as if it were an ordinary day at Hogwarts—well, before the whole world had gone to hell, that is. "Where are we?" Harry blurted.

"Where does it look like?" demanded a voice behind them, and they turned to see Ron grinning at them.

"Welcome back, Harry," said Hermione. "We've missed you. You made it."

Snape was frowning as he looked toward the Slytherin table, and Harry saw Draco Malfoy there, eating and talking cheerfully to Blaise Zabini and other Slytherins. "Whose soul is this?"

"Either," said Fred.

"Neither," said George.

"Both?" offered Ron.

"It doesn't really matter," Ginny said, coming to join them. "It's neither here nor there."

Harry shook his head. "You lot never make any sense, you know." He felt very shaky, but not cold or stalked the way he had during the Seeing or the first exorcism. "Do you know the way out?" he asked Snape.

"I believe it is a simple matter of ending the spell."

"Good," he said, and Snape looked sharply at him as he shivered. "I'm not…feeling so well."

"Better hurry," Hermione agreed. "You've come too far to lose it now."

Snape nodded. "I quite agree. Give me your hands." They joined palms as they had at the start of the exorcism, and Harry looked over his shoulder at the head table. His heart lurched; Dumbledore was sitting there, watching them. The Headmaster smiled and raised his glass to them. Harry wanted to talk to him, but he was shivering so hard he couldn't keep still. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Snape glanced past him, stiffening at the sight of Dumbledore, but then returned his attention to Harry. "Hold on!"

There was another flash of very hot light, but this one seemed to consume them. And then the world went black.

The first thing Severus noticed upon waking was that the fumes of those damned herbs were burning his nostrils again. He hated spell residue.

The second thing he noticed was that he was not sitting up as he'd been at the start of the exorcism, but slumped on his side on a very hard stone floor…and his arms were wrapped around a warm, trembling body. He forced his eyes open.

Harry was in his arms, shivering, his face pressed into Snape's robes. Alarmed, Severus fumbled for his pulse, his movements slow and clumsy, and the boy looked up. His green eyes were glassy, and he was extremely pale. The smoke was making him cough.

It was hard for Severus to speak; his throat felt parched and seared. "Harry?" he rasped. "Are y—hurt?"

Harry blinked at him. "Whad' you call me?" he mumbled, sounding very drowsy.

"Wake up," Severus grunted, trying to rise, but he couldn't begin to control his body enough to do it. "Harry…hear me?"

"Uh-huh."

"Stay awake." Severus coughed violently, and his head pounded in protest. "You need…stay awake."

He wasn't sure if Harry had heard him or not. "Di't work?" he murmured, eyes drifting closed.

"Yes. Harry, wake up. 's over."

"Yeah…done."

Severus felt an inkling of alarm wriggling through the fog in his brain. "Harry? Stay with me!"

"'m here…"

"Have to…wake up." If only he could get his limbs under control, but he couldn't manage more than a rather weak shaking. "Harry?" The smoke was finally starting to clear, but he felt no more alert, and if he lost consciousness, what of his charge?

"Sir?" Harry mumbled, looking up at him with bleary eyes.

Severus tried to concentrate, to summon up enough magic to get the door open, to tell the Order that it was finished so they could help the boy. Harry could not die here, not now. "Mm?"

"Was thinking…"

"Stay awake, Harry," he gasped, trying to focus on the door.

But Harry wanted to tell him something. Severus felt him tug on his robes. "Should've said…I know you're…not a…coward."

Severus paused, startled, but the emotions evoked by those words were chased away by groggy panic as Harry's eyes fluttered. "Harry…Harry, wake up…"

He managed to get an arm under Harry's back, pulling him closer and trying desperately to shake him awake, but with a deep sigh, the boy went limp.

No…

"Harry?" he hissed weakly, trying to jostle him again, but the boy didn't respond. "Harry, don't…now…" He put a hand to Harry's face, then paused: there was a faint movement of air against his fingers. Harry was breathing, not the last breaths of the dying but the slow, even rhythm of sleep. He'd stopped shivering. Trembling himself now, Severus fumbled for a pulse. It was there. Merlin's beard, it was there, slow but strong.

Harry had survived. The Horcrux was gone. Harry would live.

Severus focused as best he could on the bleary view of the door, then finally gave up trying to open it wandlessly and just Vanished it. That worked, and the smoke finally dispersed completely.

Shadowy figures came into the room, but Severus could not see well enough to identify any of them. When they bent close to him and the still form in his arms, Severus mumbled at them.

"It's done. He made it."

And then he slept.

To be continued…

Coming Soon: The Order ponders how the spell played out while Harry and Snape are healing in the hospital wing. Snape faces down the demons of his past, and Harry struggles to come to terms with the nightmare he has been living in Chapter Twelve: Shadows!

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