A/N: Hi people. Here's the chapter. It's slightly longer than I expected but I don't think you will mind. One chapter to go – epilogue!
Carmina knew the very second when Harry arrived to Hogsmead. The dead would be able to hear that blasted screeching charm that they triggered. The day before word spread that he had broken into Gringott's and fled on a dragon, so she wasn't surprised when the next day the charm sounded.
She waited until Aberforth emerged form the room with his sister's portrait to stop him.
"Aberforth, listen. When everyone comes and leaves again, and when you will be going too, tell me. I have to go as well."
"What are you talking about, Carmina?" Aberforth frowned.
"You will see. Don't forget to let me know. I have to go, too." she turned and ran away again. She had things to pack and prepare for the Final Battle.
When the time came, she entered the Room of Requirement right after Aberforth. Immediately, she left, performing the Disillusionment Charm. Once she entered the Hogwarts grounds, she headed in the direction of the Whomping Willow. She found a nice spot right out of the tree's reach and placed a couple of spells that would repel others and make the spot look the same as before, until she built a little hut. It took a slightly altered Disillusionment Charm to manage that. The hut was more or less only for her comfort as no one would see her on the spot. They wouldn't hear a sound coming from there and wouldn't notice things or people disappearing upon entering. Actually, if she managed the charms right, no one would notice people being dragged in the direction of the spot. She was particularly proud of those charms as it was she who altered them to work that way. She would hide inside the hut and watch the battle from there until the time was right. She even put a charm on the hut so she could see through from the inside. It was better than being in the open although invisible space.
Only after all the spells were up and stable, she allowed herself to sit down. She checked on the little potion vials in her pocket and put them on the ground in front of her. She had brewed them in the cellar of Hog's Head. Aberforth knew she was brewing, but not what she was brewing. She drank one of the potions, one which would keep her awake and in full concentration. Then she waited.
Minutes after the fight began she recognized the Death-Eater she needed. She summoned his wand when no one was paying him any attention, put him under the Petrificus Totalus charm, and pulled him into the hut. She allowed herself to smirk a bit when she saw that no one noticed a Death-Eater being dragged away. Her charms were working.
She pushed the man into the back corner of the hut without a word and put a barrier around him, so that he couldn't leave, scream or attack if by any chance the Petrificus Totalus miraculously disappeared. She added a silencing charm and one other, making it impossible for the poor man to see or hear anything going on outside of the barrier he was in. She laid his wand next to the vials and waited again.
The Death-Eater she captured was named Travers. She chose him for her plan because of a conversation in Hog's Head that she overheard in the last year. His fellows were baiting him for his inability to fight the Imperius curse. He went all defensive immediately, so she knew it was the truth. That suited her plan just fine. There was no place for mistakes that day.
She straightened her spine when she saw Lucius Malfoy emerging from under the Whomping Willow and running into the fighting crowd.
Minutes to go now and she would see her loved friend once again. She swallowed.
After a few minutes she saw a tall dark shadow separating himself from the people on the ground and hurrying toward the violent tree. Carmina raised her wand, frowning in concentration.
The shadow followed Travers' fate. She summoned his wand and petrified him, pulling him to her. Her face was hidden under a hood, making sure he wouldn't recognize her immediately.
She replaced Petrificus with magic ropes and made sure his wand was out of his reach. He couldn't see her face, but she still felt his eyes, furiously boring into her. He never appreciated being ambushed.
She pulled her hood down and met his stare determinedly. His face stiffened.
For a while all Carmina could do was stare at his face intently and memorise all its changes. It didn't take her long to remember that Voldemort was waiting, though. She quickly reached out and ripped off a single piece of his hair. Then she opened the vial with the Polyjuice potion and threw the hair in. The potion turned into dark and shimmery black. She nodded slightly and looked into his eyes again.
"Severus," she acknowledged him with a nervous nod. "I know there is no time for this now, but listen to me. I know you blame me for Lily's death. I blame myself too, but it is a fact now that You-Know-Who will die at the upcoming dawn. If Lily didn't sacrifice herself for Harry, all would be different. I could not save her, there was too much at stake. I can and I must try to save one man though and I need your help for it. I'll explain everything to you in an hour if all goes well. Then you are free to do anything, kill me if you want, but please, do this for me. Help me. For just an hour trust what I am doing."
"I don't know why I should. You took Lily away from me." he snapped at her venomously.
"Imagine the first few days after you found out that Lily died. If you don't help me, I'll feel that way for the rest of my life. Please, Severus. I will tell you everything I didn't before, just give me this one chance."
"Swear to me that you won't flee," he snapped after a while of quick thinking.
There wasn't time, in that she was right. The fact that she obviously wanted to polyjuice someone into him—well he would need to wait that out.
She placed the tip of her wand on her chest, right on her heart and following the Wizard Oath, she said: "I swear I won't flee without explaining everything to you and waiting for your ordeal."
"Now move." He narrowed his eyes at her.
Carmina cancelled the Incarcerous and barriers around Travers. She hit him with a quick and strong Imperious right after that and followed it with cancelling the Petrificus Totalus. She handed him he Polyjuice potion.
"Drink," she ordered Travers. He drank and transformed into Severus. "Wait."
She turned to Severus again.
"I need to copy a few of your memories. I know which ones, I just need you to agree with it. It is necessary for Potter to be successful."
He reluctantly nodded. Carmina cautiously extracted his memories and placed them into Travers's head, her eyes narrowed in concentration. Than she handed the real Severus one of two identical potions that she had left.
"Drink it, it's just a Smell-blocking potion," she said and drank hers.
When he was done with his, she cast Disillusionment charms on them along with a silencing spell that would block all the sounds they would make when moving, breathing or talking. She handed Severus's wand to Travers-Severus who was waiting next to them without any expression on his face. Carmina turned to him.
"You are Severus Snape now. Your master is awaiting you at the end of the tunnel under the Whomping Willow. We will be following you. You will say and do only what I tell you."
Travers-Severus moved towards the Whomping Willow.
"Just watch while we are there, Severus," she said to Severus quickly and ran after Travers, pulling Severus with her.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
When they entered the room where Voldemort was waiting, they moved to the wall behind Travers, while he started his dialogue with the Dark Lord. Voldemort and Nagini didn't notice their presence.
She was holding Severus's hand tightly so that he wouldn't forget to keep his calm and she wouldn't forget she wasn't watching the death of the real Severus. Apart from squeezing the life out of Severus's hand, she concentrated completely on the two men before her, controlling Travers's reactions.
She grasped Severus's hand with both hands when Voldemort ordered his snake to attack and stiffened completely. She knew the real Severus was standing right beside her, she could feel him stiffen and return the grip of her hands, but the scene looked so real…
She only just managed to control Travers's reaction to the very end. She let Severus's memories leave Travers to let Potter take them. She felt the Imperius curse fail shortly after Travers's black eyes met Harry's. He was dead. There was a few minutes left until his body would change back into its true form.
When Harry and his friends left after hearing Voldemort's ultimatum, Carmina walked around the room, casting Silencio, Impenetrable charm, Disillusionment charm and an alarm that would warn them if anything living came closer than thirty meters of them. Just when the charms were up did she cancel the charms on her and Severus. Then she pushed Severus's real wand into his faint hand and allowed herself to crumple to the ground, exhausted. She was relieved and happy despite the tears that kept flowing down her cheeks.
The room was silent for a long time. Severus was deathly pale and unmoving as he stared at the dead body that would be his if weren't for Carmina. True, he thought it was possible he wouldn't survive the war, probable even. He expected something like that because of Carmina's Polyjuice Potion, too. But to actually watch the end he would meet with his very eyes, well, that was another thing.
While he was staring, Travers's body changed into its real form. He heard Carmina draw in a shuddering breath, as if relieved she wouldn't see it in his form anymore. The gaping wounds in the Death-Eater's throat made him shiver. He always hated that blasted snake.
Severus finally made his body move and went over to Carmina. He sat down next to her, still staring at the body numbly. Suddenly he remembered Carmina's words, why she needed his help that night and the numbness retreated to give way for confusion. He frowned and looked at Carmina.
"What does it mean?" he asked, trying to master his voice. It sounded a little too mechanical and detached for his liking. In that moment, he opted rather for a calm voice.
"It means you didn't die," Carmina sniffed one last time and wiped her face dry for what she hoped to be the last time. At least, the last time for that reason. "Maybe I won't spend the rest of my life in mourning. You never connected that I knew things with what I did when we first saw each other. I knew you would spy for the Light from the beginning. I knew so much about you that it hurt to be with you and allow all the pain to happen."
"You… but Perpeto Amor…" Severus frowned uncertainly. Then he calmed down and looked at her a bit coldly. "Maybe it would be best to start from the beginning."
Carmina lowered her head to avoid that cold gaze and took a deep breath.
"I am not from Slovakia. You know that. Neither am I a half-blood, Severus. When I appeared in the Great Hall that day, it wasn't because of a faulty Portkey. I couldn't believe my eyes. Just a little while before that I was sitting at the table in my little Muggle flat, writing a letter to my friend. I am from completely different world, not from the Muggle world, either. I am from completely different universe. There is no magic, but there are books of a wizard named Harry Potter." Carmina looked straight into Severus´ eyes now, so that he would know she wasn't lying to him. She went on.
"It isn't a future written in those books, too. The books aren't based on a reality. It is just a made up story for children, well, more like children and adults alike, about a boy who defeated the Dark Lord. They begin with a prologue of the day when Harry came to his Muggle relatives, and ends a few chapters after your death. The Dark Lord died, the Golden Trio married their loves and everything was all right. I somehow got into the world of those books. It is a real world here, there's much more happening here than what was written in the books, but the fact is that I knew what was going to happen if things went on as they were written. I knew the Dark Lord would die. I knew it wouldn't have happened without Lily. It was the worst thing that could happen to me to appear here. All of sudden I was a witch and had to be silent and lie if I didn't want to change the future. I had to stay here, be quiet and do nothing." she blinked a couple of times angrily. She was done with tears. For then at least. "Do you know, what was the worst though? I managed to fall in love with one of the books' character. It pained to even read of his death. Well, and imagine that you appear in the world of those books, in a time when the wizard you love is in his seventh year, you are a witch and have to stay here no matter what, you cannot say nor do anything to change the things. All you had to do was sit and wait until the one you love dies!"
Carmina realized she was almost shouting in the end. She quickly regained control and took another breath to finish the tale.
"Now I managed to save you from that death, but I don't know what's going to happen in your life from now on. I love you, Severus. I loved you when I thought of you only as a book character and I fell in love with you again when I got to know you in person. You-Know-Who is going to die in a few hours. Then you will be free. Harry has your memories, he knows why you did what you did, and you will not be imprisoned. You will be free to do what you want. If it doesn't include me, I deserve it. Now you know everything."
Severus was quiet for a long time after she finished her tale, pondering all that was said. Carmina didn't say anything else; she left him to think about it and stared at her hands. She was scared like never before, but at the same time relieved she finally got it all out.
"I never imagined I could be a defeating cause to Perpeto Amor." he said slowly in the end. "I could have thought of it though, you were always with me, you had no other friends. I thought you were so desperate because of somebody else, though. The most I could do was to calm you down, but after the school ended I could do nothing more. I thought it would be better not to contact you very much. Then, when Lily…died…I knew you had to have known it, you seemed to know everything important. Still, you didn't help her. You knew I loved her and didn't save her none-the-less, you cared only for your love I knew nothing about. I wanted to hate you, even more even more because I knew I couldn't stop caring for you. Are you sure you love me, Carmina?" he asked suddenly, interrupting his thoughtful monologue, and looked at her.
Carmina smiled nervously.
"I love no one else but you and Perpeto Amor didn't work on me. So yes, I think I really love you."
"So it will be alright with you if you never get rid of me again, won't it?"
She looked at him, confused. "What?"
He rolled his eyes with a faintest trace of smile on his face. "I love you too, Carmina. That's why I couldn't stay with you for long after Dumbledore cancelled that spell of his. I thought you were in love with someone else. I couldn't take it," he explained a bit impatiently.
Carmina gaped at him.
"That…I didn't expect that," she managed to say finally. She never even dreamed he would love her back, she thought that Lily…
"I thought you loved Lily," she said. "That was partly the reason why I was so nervous when the time was coming nearer and I could only watch."
"I loved and I do love Lily, but when you came I stopped missing her so much. Lily was the only person who ever really cared for me, including my own family. For many years, she was everything to me—mother, sister, friend. I thought I loved her as a girl, too. Some time after I became your friend I realized she was like a sister to me. Dearly loved and wonderful sister. When she died, even if she didn't speak to me for a long time then, it was as if I lost my entire family and friends, all at the same time. At the time I was hardly on speaking terms with you and I thought you didn't feel what I did, so…it seemed to me I lost everything. Lily meant so much to me that my Patronus changed forms to look like hers. But I love you. I love you as a woman."
When he looked at Carmina after he said those words, he saw her lips trembling and her eyes fighting to contain the tears that welled up in them, losing horribly. She was crying again.
Severus sighed. After all those years when he wanted to hate her one would think he would stop feeling his heart constrict with sorrow when he saw her crying. He usually disliked crying girls and women, but Carmina was always another story. It hurt him to see her cry.
"Carmina? Are you all right?" he asked her gently and uncertainly. Inwardly he shook his head when he heard the hesitant and immature tone that he used. He had become a cold and cruel monster in all those years, but with her he was turning into the young and uncertain Severus he had been as a Seventh-year.
Carmina threw herself around his neck, stopping all his thoughts about what he became effectively.
"I…nothing. I'm sorry for Lily, Severus, I'm so sorry! I'm so glad you love me!"
"Well, yes, just calm down. If the Dark Lord is really going to die, you shouldn't be crying. What will the people think about you when they see you outside?" Severus asked her mildly, hugging her.
"They won't see me. Not today. Just Aberforth tomorrow in the Hog's Head. I work there."
"In the Hog's Head? I never saw you there. That's irrelevant now, though. Why won't they see you? Won't we leave here?"
"We will, but we have to go unnoticed. Those books I told you about, the last of them had an epilogue. You will not like it."
"Epilogue? What did it say?"
"Nineteen years later," Carmina mumbled into his chest.
Severus touched her arms and moved her a little back so that he could look into her face.
"What exactly does it mean?"
"Because of the past tense used in one of the sentences you have to hide for nineteen years. Dumbledore warned me that any apparent changing of the way the things were to be according to those books could end very badly. You have to hide, go nowhere where you could be recognized and no one can know you are alive. Apart from me, of course."
"Bloody hell," Severus winced. That term was a favourite of the teenagers he taught. What was he becoming?
Carmina lowered her head. Severus got his mind under control after a while.
"Ok then. Where am I supposed to be? Should I dig a burrow for myself somewhere or should I just make myself comfortable here?" he said sarcastically. "I should have known Dumbledore'd let me know something like this, dead or not."
"You can live with me if you like. Dumbledore left me some money during some kind of charity attack. I have a little house in a side alley of Hogsmead. If you want…"
"I cannot ask something like this of you, Carmina." Severus looked at her.
"You can, I mean if you want to. I love you and we didn't see each other for a terribly long time. I would have to go visit you every free hour to make up for those years otherwise. If you want, I will gladly have you. I don't have many friends, you know. Beside you, there is only Aberforth Dumbledore who can count as one."
"You would have to refuse visits and charm your house."
"Or I could cast a Fidelius charm on you. No one would recognize you then and you could walk outside, too. I could cancel it then."
"Do you really want me to live with you?" he was looking at her uncertainly. She nodded.
"Ok, we should start moving then. Wait…what is that noise?"
They could hear yelling and screaming from distance.
"That's at Hogwarts. He will die in a while. I'll take care of Travers and then we can go to my house."
"What will you do with him?"
"Hmm. Do you think I should bury him or just make him disappear?"
"Make him disappear. He doesn't have a family and hates worms."
Carmina gave a short laugh and pointed her wand at him.
"Evanesco."
Travers's body disappeared, leaving behind pools of blood. Carmina evanescoed that, too.
"Protect my wand against discovering the source of magic, Carmina," said Severus suddenly. "I will leave them a message not to look for the body for long or at least not to doubt my death. Or were the walls clear?"
"There was nothing about that." Carmina touched his wand with the tip of her own and closed her eyes in concentration. It was quite a difficult nonverbal spell, one that needed true knowledge of it. If she didn't know how to do it, not even her wonderful thestral wand would find the way.
When she opened her eyes, his wand was covered in white mist. She smiled and broke the contact.
"Nice. I never really tried it before."
Severus pointed the wand at the wall, in front of which the body was laying. With one flick, the wall showed black words: "You will not have the body of your hero to bury."
"You will not have the body of your hero to bury," Severus read aloud. Then he glanced at Carmina and with smirk he added, "Because he never died."
Carmina laughed. "Slytherin."
"You're the one to talk, darling. Planning the change of history for years and never saying a thing to anyone." Severus lowered his head to her and kissed her—for the first time since they met.
When he let go, Carmina could only stare at him, wide-eyed, with a dreamy smile on her face. She forgot to breathe or to talk for the moment. Severus smirked smugly.
"Going home, darling?"
Carmina snapped out of her state and smiled at him brightly, just as the first rays of the morning sun found their way through the crannies in the barricaded windows. She squeezed his hand.
"Home," she happily confirmed.