Battle of Hogwarts.
Harry and Hermione are hidden, watching in horror as Voldemort ordered Nagini to kill Snape to gain possession of the Elder Wand. After Voldemort has left, Harry and Hermione approach the dying man.
A terrible rasping, gurgling noise issued from Snape's throat.
"Take. . . it. . . . Take. . . it. . . . "
Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed form his mouth and his ears and his eyes, and Harry knew what it was, but did not know what to do—
A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrust into his shaking hand by Hermione.
Harry lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grip on Harry's robes slackened. His gaze lifted up to Hermione, who stood behind Harry. With a trembling hand, he reached out to her.
Hermione couldn't control the sob that escaped her, seeing Snape this way. She got on her knees. His grip was so weak, death cold.
"Hey..." he tried to smile. He wiped her tears away from her cheek with the back of his hand. It only made Hermione sob harder. Here he was dying, and he was consoling her.
They were out of time. She had to tell him now.
She took his hand, placed it on the slight swell of her stomach.
His eyes widened in amazement and surprise.
"Yours, Severus..you can't die, please..."
He managed a small thin lipped smile. Caressed her belly, stroking the seed of their love with his thumb.
He held her gaze as long as he could, struggling so hard to remain with her and their child. To not be the cause of her misery, her sadness. But he was only mortal. And his time here was done. He could sense it, his thoughts, his memories, his personality, the core of what made him Severus Snape, starting to fade.
Severus looked at Hermione's face one final time, memorising her beautiful features that had given him peace ever since the night he made her his. He wanted her face to be the last image he saw before his eyes closed forever. He wanted the warm touch of their child beneath his fingers to be the last sense he felt before he was no more.
Severus' grip on Hermione tightened convulsively one last time.
"Love...you.."
The hand holding Hermione's thudded to the floor after those spoken words and Snape moved no more.
She stayed like that for a long time, one hand holding Snape close to her, the other on his hand to her belly. She had long since stopped sobbing but the tears flowed freely, falling in drops that spread onto Severus' jacket. She realized dimly at the back of her mind, that she would never see him adjust his sleeve before popping a student over the head with a book again, nor would he chide or insult her intelligence. He would never be perched above her anymore, his black hair hanging like a partial veil covering his face because it hid his emotions from the world.
She would never hear him declare that Hermione Granger belonged to Severus Snape anymore.
Hermione stayed like that for a long time, amidst the war going on outside. Until Harry snapped her out of her grief and pulled her to her feet. She laid Severus gently on the ground, promising herself she would live to give him a proper burial. She folded his hands together, kissing the scars on his palms for the last time. There was a bundle of cloth in his hands. The cloth was dirty, stained. She unwrapped it.
A bottle of memories. She knew in her heart, this one was not for Harry, but for her.
Writer's note: Thank you for everyone's reviews (good or bad). This is my first fanfic, written during tribulations going on in my own life (not as tragic as Severus' though).
The next chapter will be the last I'm afraid. I've had a hard time finding concordance so that I don't break Rowling's story line.