I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters and I certainly don't make any money off my stories. Enjoy.

Missing

Chapter One

Harry reaches out and takes my hands in his, a smile on his face and tears sparkling in his eyes. He begins to talk.

"I, Harry Potter, take you, Severus Snape, to be my lawfully wedded husband. I take you wholeheartedly with all your faults and strengths, as I offer myself to you with all my faults and strengths. Before our family and friends today, I vow to share my life completely with you, to share my love with you as I know you will share all your love with me. I promise to show up everyday and try. I promise to honor and care for you, to cherish and encourage you for all of our lives. I chose you as the person with whom I want to spend my life with."

By the time he is done, tears of joy are streaming down his face and I feel a few tears slip down my own. And then I realize it's my turn to speak.

"I, Severus Snape, take you, Harry Potter, to be my lawfully wedded husband. I take you to be my best friend, my faithful partner, and my one true love. I promise to encourage you and inspire you through the good times and the bad times. I promise to love you and laugh with you, to be there always and to lift you up when you are down. I promise to love you unconditionally throughout our life together."

I pause here, turn to the audience and drop to one knee. I beckon to Penelope to come up here. She seems surprised but begins to trot towards Harry and I. She stops in front of me and I reach to lift up her up. I stand up with her in my arms and reach to take one of Harry's hands in my own as I begin to talk to his four year old daughter.

"Penelope, as I promise my love, support, and loyalty to your father, I offer the same to you. From the moment your father introduced you to me, I was a goner. Your presence in my life has been life changing and today I stand up here, vowing to you, to take care of, not just your father, but you also for the rest of our lives. Sweetheart, I promise to be there for you when you need me, to support you in all you do in life, and to give you a warm and comfortable home. I look forward to beginning this new life with you and your father."

I finish speaking and kiss Penelope on her cheek and look towards Harry. He is noticeably crying now and has a smile on his face that lights up the world. Harry steps forward and embraces his daughter and myself. He is blubbering about how much he loves us both and I find myself doing the same. We are all crying now and I do not think there is a dry eye in the crowd.

We break apart and I move to put Penelope back in her spot next to Mrs. Weasley. When I know she is settled in I turn around and begin to walk back to Harry. I don't make it two steps before I realize that something is wrong. I see Harry up at the altar but instead of his eyes showing the love I witnessed a few seconds ago, they're now cold and he has a sneer on his face.

Harry begins to hiss at me with enough venom in his voice that I take a step back and brace myself.

"How could you!" Harry yells at me.

"How could I what?" I hesitantly say back.

"How could you let me go on that mission? How could you when you knew the potential danger? How could you let me leave our daughter and endanger my life like that? How could you!" Harry says to me with hatred seeping through his voice and tears streaming down his face. He falls to his knees, clutching his hair in agony.

"I...I didn't want you to go! I warned you and you still wanted to go! You said you had to do this to avenge Ginny's murder. You said you were the only one who could do this! I told you to think about Penelope and our life but you wouldn't listen. You just wouldn't listen." I choked out.

Falling to my knees, crying in despair, I look up to see Harry starting to fade away. I scramble to my feet and begin running towards him as fast as I can but I can't seem to catch up to him. He is quickly fading and I am yelling out his name over and over again to stay here and to not leave me. Just before Harry disappears completely, I hear a faint, "Severus, take care of our daughter."

"Harry!" I keep yelling. Over and over, I keep saying his name.

Papa?

I'm crying uncontrollably now.

Papa?

I feel something on my shoulder, almost like a feathery touch.

Papa, wake up!

I hear something, but I don't know the source of it. I continue to yell for my Harry. Where is he!

Papa! Please wake up!

I feel something shaking me and I keep hearing this voice, it's calling to me….

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

I startle awake when I feel someone shaking me and repeatedly calling my name. I sit up in my bed a little disjointed and not too sure what was happening. I'm clutching Harry's pillow to my chest and I slowly let go of it. I look to the side of the bed and see Penelope standing there. She looks frightened and I immediately pick her up and cradle her to my chest. I begin to rock her back and forth. Penelope pushes on my chest and looks up at me.

"Papa, did you have another bad dream?" Penelope asks me.

"Yes, sweetheart." I reply with a heaviness in my throat.

"Was it about daddy again? Is that why you are crying?" Penelope reaches up to my face to wipe away some of mystray tears.

I gather Penelope up in my arms again tightly and kiss the top of her head as I reply, "Yes, I had another dream about your daddy and I am sorry if I woke you up, pumpkin."

"What did you dream about?"

"At first, I was dreaming about our wedding and about how happy we all were as a family." I smile atop of her head and tears begin to gather behind my eyelids for what seems like the thousandths time in the last 10 minutes.

I feel Penelope smile against my chest and say, "I loved that day. You and daddy were so happy. We were so happy." I know she is crying now, remembering a time when we were a happy little family.

I look at the clock and notice the time. 3am. Too early to be up. I carefully maneuver Penelope to my left side so I can lay back down. I pull the comforter over the both of us and let Penelope snuggle up to my side as we fall back asleep, both of us thinking of and missing Harry.

XxxxxxxxxxxX

Penelope and I are in the kitchen that morning. I am at the stove, making breakfast and Penelope is sitting quietly at the table reading a book. We are both oddly quiet this morning as we both remember the nights event. Penelope is six now and it has been a year since Harry left us. The anniversary of his disappearance is coming up in a week and we are both tense and a little shaken.

I turn the stove off and turn to give Penelope her breakfast. She looks tired and gloomy. I miss seeing her smile and hearing her laugh. I miss the happy little girl she used to be. I place her breakfast in front of her and fill her drinking cup up with some pumpkin juice. I sit down on the other side of the table with my own breakfast and a cup of black coffee. I watch Penelope pick at her food and barely eat any of it. I am saddened deeper knowing why she is barely eating.

Penelope is Harry's daughter. I met her when she was three years old, when Harry took the DADA position at Hogwarts. He had just learned of the news of Ginevra Weasley's murder and needed a change of lifestyle. Ginny is Penelope's biological mother. Harry wanted to start a family and Ginny offered to be his surrogate. After they had broken up after the war, they remained good close friends and Ginny was all too happy to help Harry achieve his desire to have a family of his own. They had remained close friends after Penelope was born and Ginny was Penelope's aunt. Penelope knew Ginny was her biological mother and was fine with the fact that she was not going to be like most mothers.

Penelope looks just like Ginny and Harry. She has Harry's emerald eyes and Ginny's red hair. She is a spitfire. She is energetic and always laughing. She loves her family and is adored by all the Weasleys. She was Harry's world and Harry hers. She has been lost without her daddy here with her this last year. None of us have been the same this last year since Harry disappeared.

I am brought out of my thoughts when the floo activates. Only a few people have access to our floo, but few have used it these last few days, knowing Penelope and I would want to be alone to grieve. I look over to Penelope, and see her looking at the floo with more sadness in her eyes. I get up, walk over to her, bend down and kiss the top of her head and tell her to stay here while I see to our visitor. Penelope just nods and looks away. I squeeze her shoulder once and move to the living room where the floo is located.

Hermione is standing by the floo when I get there. She looks distraught and is still in her sleepwear. Hermione is usually more put together than what I am seeing now and I look to her face to see what is going on.

"Hermione, why are you here and in your sleepwear nonetheless? Is everything okay?" I ask hesitantly when I notice she is breathing heavily and her hands are shaking.

"Severus, where is Penelope?"

"In the kitchen, picking at her breakfast."

"Good. I have some news. You might want to sit down for this."

"News? What kind of news and why do I need to sit down for it?"

"Severus, please sit down and I will tell you. It's urgent and important." Hermione says with trepidation.

I sit down hesitantly and brace myself for the worse. I'm already overly emotional because of the circumstances and I am not sure I can take anymore. Hermione sits down on my right side and takes my hands in hers.

She begins to speak, "Severus, this morning I had an owl drop off a letter to me. This letter was from a muggle detective. I hired him to look into any suspicious activity that was going on during the disappearance of Harry. I told him to be thorough and to look into shelters, aide places, police stations, hospitals, and any other place that Harry could have gone to or ended up in. This morning, the detective wrote to me an address and place of the whereabouts of a 'John Doe' in a hospital in the States. A 'John Doe' is an unidentified person who has no identification. I gave the detective a picture of Harry, a vague description of his reason for being missing and a time frame. I gave this information to him six months ago."

"Why are you telling me this now, Hermione? Harry has been gone for a year now. The search parties have been called off for months now." I say with tears threatening to escape.

Hermione squeezes my hands and with a hopeful smile tells me, " The detective believes that the John Doe in this hospital in the States is Harry."

Should I keep this a one-shot or keep writing? Please read, enjoy, and review!

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