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"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
Lao Tzu
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Everyone stopped dead in track just to stare at Aidan, wide eyed and open mouthed.

"What did you say, Dan?" Harry asked astonished.

"That Severus will be in a horrible mood when he wakes up," he sighed.

"But Nagini… she killed… we saw him die!"

Aidan looked at all of them surprised. "Oh, Minerva didn't tell you?"

"Tell us what?" Molly asked confused.

"Severus survived! His wounds were treated with what Poppy suspected to be phoenix tears and he left the Shrieking shack to join the battle," Aidan explained.

"Unbelievable! Minerva didn't say a word!" Moody grumbled.

Aidan shot Moody a slightly angry look. "Well, you cannot really blame her, Alastor. The woman hasn't slept for days and yet she's still running this whole place to make sure everyone is taken care of. She was also the one who found Severus passed out on the grounds and brought him back here."

Harry tried not to grin too much as he observed that both Aidan and Madame Pomfrey possessed the courage to speak with Mad-Eye like this. It probably had something to do with the fact that no one dared to correct Medi-witches or Surgeons, for they were right most of the time.

"But he will be alright?" asked Hermione hopefully.

"Yes, he will most certainly be. We gave him a sleeping potion, to make sure he gets enough rest. His injuries were quite severe after all – phoenix tears or not. And he has to be under constant supervision from the hospital staff – hence the handcuffing to the bed," Dan answered with a grin.

"I need to speak with him," Harry stated suddenly.

The healer nodded. "You can visit him as soon as he feels up to it. Though I cannot tell you how long it will take."

"Thanks, Dan," was the relieved answer.

Hermione and Ron gave him understanding looks. They knew how important it was for him to sort things out between them; especially after Harry had seen the memories about the potions master and his mother.

Harry then stood up and looked at Ginny.

"Do you mind to come with me for some time? There is someone else I need to speak to."

"Of course I'll come."

Before Harry could say anything, Aidan spoke. "Don't worry, Harry, I'll inform you the moment Severus wakes up."

Harry nodded again, grateful. "Thanks, again."

And with that he grabbed Ginny's hand and walked out of the Great Hall to the front gates – or rather the remains of the gates – and they vanished.

.

Once they had reached their destination, Ginny looked around to see where Harry had taken them.

"It's the graveyard of Godric's Hollow," Harry explained. "I – I have to see my parent's grave. Hermione and I discovered it last Christmas. But we couldn't stay for too long."

Ginny gave him a sad smile. "Now you have all the time you need, Harry," she said and they walked in silence, hand in hand on the small way, leading to their destination.

Just as they reached the last corner, they heard a soft voice and Ginny and Harry stopped immediately to see a cloaked figure already standing in front of the grave they were looking for.

"He did it, Lily! He really did it! You would have been so proud of him! ... I know I am!"

The words were spoken so soft and gentle, that Harry and Ginny decided to remain hidden behind some big bushes.

From their position they couldn't see the figure's face, but from the voice and the curves of the cloak - which was pretty torn and bloody at some places - the couple could tell it was a woman.

In order not to disturb her and maybe gain some more information, they tried to listen closely to every word the woman said.

"It's so terrible how many lives we lost today," she continued in a sad voice "Remus, our last Maurauder's gone, and so is Tonks. Luckily Andromeda is taking care of the poor little Teddy... It's so sad that he has lost his parents at this young age. And Fred Weasley, one of Mollys twins."

Harry and Ginny looked at each other; surprised at how much this woman knew. And even though she wasn't aware of Fred's new ghostly reappearance, she was quite well informed about what was going on at Hogwarts.

Now she bent down on her knees and conjured a nice little bunch of flowers in front of the graves.

Harrys heart warmed up as he recognized the flowers: lilies. Then he felt Ginny's hand on his shoulder, offering him comfort.

"Oh Lil, I miss you so much," she said and Harry was sure he saw a single little teardrop falling to the ground. And with each passing minute he got to like this woman more and more.

"Máthair does, too. I cannot even imagine how Harry must fell right now."

At these words Harry's eyes went wide. This woman apparently knew him! But then again - who didn't these days?

"I feel so terrible, L. He went through so much in his life, and he did it all by himself. I'm just so glad he had Ron and Hermione with him, and now dear Ginny."

At this point Ginny got even more curious as well, and she too developed a feeling of sympathy for the woman.

Harry also noticed that the woman was apparently used to call his mother 'Lil' and 'L'. They must have been close enough to call each other by a nickname.

"Merlin knows, he's got James' talent to get himself in trouble to last decades!"

Harry just smirked at Ginny, but he was still astonished how much she knew about his parents. Maybe he should get up and just ask her if -

But Ginny seemed to guess what he was thinking and she hit him with her elbow and sent him a look, clearly telling him not to move.

She's righ, Harry thought. He could, and would in any case, ask her about his parents. He waited long enough, so a couple of minutes more wouldn't hurt.

The woman slowly got up again and starred down on the grave.

Now Harry could see that her robes were really torn apart and on some points he spotted big amounts of blood on them. So she apparently fought in the final battle as well.

"I failed him, Lil, and I failed you," Harry could hear the desperation in her voice and he immediately fell sorry for the woman, even if he didn't know what exactly she was talking about.

"I promised you to take care of him. I promised you to do everything in my powers to keep him safe. He led a terrible life with his awful relatives and I couldn't do a thing. Damn this blood protection!"

Harry's eyes widened in shock. How could she possibly know about the blood protection? Maybe she was a member of the Order of the Phoenix…

Well, she apparently did have a pretty close relationship with his mother, but the more he wondered about the promise she gave her.

"He doesn't even know who I am... I never had the chance to tell him, it was just too dangerous to even talk to him. But all the times I watched him, I could see how much he needed someone he could trust! Before, and especially after Sirius' death..."

The mention of his godfather made Harrys heart ache with pain.

"She watched you?" Ginny whispered with big eyes.

Harry hadn't thought about that yet. She watched me all those years and I never noticed? She really must care about me… but why never telling me?

He was about to reply when the woman spoke again.

"Now the war is over I'm able to tell him…"

Tell me what? Harry thought desperately.

"But I'm not really sure if I should… it seems my Gryffindor courage is failing me… He deserves to now, but I think he's so grown up by now he won't need me anyways…"

Harry could hear her voice was full of grieve and regret.

"Honestly, I'm a little afraid to tell him, Lily. I couldn't bare seeing disappointment, anger or hurt in his green eyes… I love him too much to be able to see this sort of pain."

Harry was starring at her, frozen. She loves me? His heart was beating faster and he was getting more and more exited with each passing minute.

"And to make matters even worse, Harry's got every right to hate or abandon me!" she whispered and more tears were falling to the ground now. "Let's face it, Lil - I'm a terrible godmother!"

With that, she turned around and with one last glance at the grave, and apparated away.

.

To say Harry was shocked was a huge understatement.

His legs felt like jelly and he leant heavily on Ginny to prevent himself from falling.

He really had a godmother?

Ginny herself didn't know what to say, so she just squeezed Harrys hand with her own, trying to offering him comfort.

"This woman is my godmother?" Harry asked again, this time aloud.

All Ginny could do was nod in agreement.

Harry looked into her eyes.

"I… I'm so confused, Gin. I can't believe that no one ever told me I have a godmother. It feels like – I don't even know what I feel for Merlin's sake!" He said, anger clearly visible on his face, and stood up, pacing in front of his parents grave, trying to sort out all the things in his head.

"Honestly, Harry, I think not a lot of people knew about this," Ginny said, also kind of lost in her own thoughts.

"Why would you think that?" He asked, confusion taking over the angry expression on his face.

Ginny shrugged. "I don't know. All I can tell you is that it seems to me like she really cares for you, Harry. She clearly wanted to tell you, and she was blaming herself for your horrible time with the Dursleys."

Harry was silent. He hadn't thought about it that way…

"She said she watched you all the time," Ginny continued, "and just because you never saw or talked to her, doesn't mean she was never close to you."

"She was close to my mother," Harry added.

"I think so, too. Therefore I am convinced she must have had her reasons for not telling you."

Harry sighed and knelt down in front of his parent's grave, like the woman – no, his godmother, he corrected himself – did a couple of minutes before him.

"She said she loves me," he said, without taking his eyes of the grave, tears falling down his face.

Ginny put her arms around him, holding him close.

"Yes, I really think she does."

For several minutes, neither of them spoke a word. Both were lost in their own thoughts.

Then Ginny stood up slowly, giving Harry a kiss on his forehead and whispered, "I think you might want to be alone with them. I'll wait at the for you over there. Take all the time you need."

She squeezed his fingers once more, then walked over to a nearby bench.

Harry took a deep breath.

"You were very close, weren't you, Mum? I'm glad you had someone to rely on. I love you."

He also conjured a single lily and placed it next to the others. Then he walked back to Ginny.

"Harry, I know it is probably a lot to take in, but – I think she deserves a second chance… Could you at least think about forgiving her?" Ginny asked, looking at him with her big brown eyes.

Harry took her hand in his and took a deep breath.

"There's no need to think about it," he whispered, his voice full of emotion, "I have already forgiven her."

"You have?" Ginny sounded surprised.

Harry nodded, a smal smile on his face. "Surprisingly, yes. I have a lot of questions, but in the end I came to the conclusion that I have a godmother now. We already spent all those years apart – which apparently was quite difficult on her, too – and I don't want to waste anymore time."

Ginny smiled and kissed him. "I'm glad. She seemed to be so really nice."

"I know. And how do the muggle say? Better late than never, right? There is, however, one problem..."

She looked confused. "And what might that be?"

He took her hand and held her close, ready to go back to Hogwarts. "Well, for starters, I have absolutely no idea who she really is or where to find her," he said and a second later they vanished in the air.


A.N: Hi everyone!

A very big thank you to all of you out there who read and especially followed my story!

It made me really really really happy!

I am currently trying to make up for my lack of updates in the past, so I got the next chappie for you :)

As always, I hope you like it! And please tell me what you think!

All the best, Lexi