A/N: I don't own Harry Potter

This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Writing Club March

Fabulous World of Comics: 10 - (plot point) losing the one you love

Showtime: 19 - Bye Bye Baby – (word) Free

Amber's Attic: 18 - (genre) tragedy

Elizabeth's Empire: 15 - Incarceron by Catherine Fisher: Write about being trapped. Alt: (dialogue) "Because I have dreams, and in those dreams I see the stars."

Lizzy's Loft: 7 - (item) Mirror

Scamander's Case: 19 - (action) crying

Character Appreciation: 24 - Write about someone pleading for mercy/their life

Warning: character death, obsession, dark themes,

Word Count: 1011

The thinness only lasted a few hours. It was fleeting. Some days, those hours seemed short than others. Those hours were all Severus could wait for any more. The quiet time between midnight and the very first prick of dawn. Those few hours, where he would sit in front of the mirror, waiting for her to show.

She would show. She always showed up. Most of the time, her face was streaked with tears. He knew those tears were for him. A symbol of her love for him, how she was hurting without him. He would reach through, try to wipe them away. His hand would pass through her. She was nothing more than a ghost, a shadow of the woman he had once loved.

Tonight was no exception. He sat before the mirror, waiting. He could hear the clock striking the hour. The surface of the mirror fogged, filling with a silvery mist. The mist thinned. He peered into the mirror. His own reflection was gone, replaced with her. She stood in the mist. A white cloak billowed around her. Her hair lay a carpet of curls. Her face was clear this time. No tears stained her cheeks. She looked at him, sadness filling her eyes. For the first time since she'd started appearing, she spoke to him.

"Severus, we can not keep doing this. You need to let me go," she pleaded, as he reached for her. His hands passed through her as usual. That never stopped him from trying to touch her.

"I can't. I need you," he stated. She shook her head.

"No, you don't need me, Severus. You need to live your own life. You need to let me go. I know you love me, I loved you. I loved you so much, and it's breaking my heart to say these words. But please, all this is doing is keeping me here. I can't move on, not with your," she paused, as if looking for the right word, "devotion," she whispered. Tears started falling from her eyes. Once they had been brown, but now they were opaque, a washed out beige at the best. There was no real color to any of her, save the robes she wore. She looked like a ghost, a spirit. Severus reached out for her. His hand passing through her. She sighed.

"I can't let you go, Hermione. I will not let you go. I will find a way to bring you back. I can't lose you, not again."

"There is no way back, Severus. Death is final. No one can raise the dead. Even if you could, I wouldn't be the same person. We both know it. The sooner you admit it, the sooner you move on, the sooner I can move on. Keeping me stuck between this world and the next is not love, it's selfishness," she stated.

Severus shook his head. He'd tried to move on. He'd tried to continue his life, but without her, it was meaningless. They were two halves of the same whole. She was the light to his darkness, his darkness to her light. He had spent so many years alone before they'd found each other. Even longer fighting a war, being forced to pretend they were on opposite sides. After that, after everything was finally exposed. She was gone.

"I can not," he whispered. "Not while you can still appear before me. Not while the veil is thin enough to be pierced. There is still a chance," he stated. She just shook her head sadly. Her eyes looked down towards the ground. Tears spilled down her cheeks falling into the aether.

"What if I stopped appearing before you? What then?"she asked, her voice sounding almost desperate.

"Your death broke my heart, made me a shattered man. To do that, for you to be gone, it would be losing you all over again. If you feel anything, you would not do that to me."

"How is keeping me chained to you any different? There's a whole world up there, a world I deserve to be a part of. A world I can't get to because you won't release me. Please, please, haven't I done enough? Haven't I suffered enough? Don't I finally deserve to rest, to have the paradise we were all promised in death?" she asked, her voice breaking as she sobbed.

Severus hung his head, his black hair hiding his face. He knew she was right. She did deserve to move on, to go the paradise or whatever it was that awaited her in the afterlife. He was being selfish. He hated to admit it, even just to himself. Slowly, he raised his head. For once, Hermione's face wasn't the only covered in tears. She reached through the mirror, her fingers going through him. He reached up, let her hand slide through his. She touched the air around his face, as if the wipe away his tears.

"Hermione, I love you. I will always love you. It is because of this love, because I can not stand to see you suffer anymore. I release you, my love. I will not seek out the mirror anymore. I will not look for you in these hours of darkness. I will," he paused, "find a way to move on with my life. Although how one could call a life without you a life is beyond me. Go! Go, before I lose the courage to say these words, to set you free," he whispered.

She looked into his eyes. She gave him a smile, a soft smile that didn't reach past her lips. She took a step back further into the mirror. Another step, and then another until she finally disappeared into the mist. Severus stared at the mirror. It only showed his reflection now. His pale face stained with tears, his dark eyes, his limp hair. Every part of her was gone. Severus howled, slammed his fists against the mirror. Glass shards flew around him. He fell to the floor, sobbing loudly, a broken man.