Chapter 30- Epilogue

A/N This is the end everyone! It's bittersweet for Bailey and I but as Starkid put it, "Everything ends".

Thank you to everyone who has stayed with this story until the very end and we will be grateful for each and every one of you. Always.

Christine Dalenn: Your reviews always make us sound like such amazing writers, I never know what to say. I don't know if Bailey and I are going to write again together, we both actually acquired lives so it's hard for us to find time...maybe during the summer? I don't know. After Slytherpuff we knew we wanted to write again but neither of us have some brilliant idea now that this is done. (Also...You think killing people would make them like you...but it doesn't! It just makes them dead.)

Amar 2: I love Severus as a character and that's the main reason I decided to write this story in the first place. It was actually really hard to kill him off but we decided to do it anyways.

TheMidnightwolf15: I'm surprised no one saw it coming. Once we decided to kill him off we kind of dropped hints every once in awhile.

Bienvenue a Bikini Bottom: Ironically, we weren't actually going to kill him at first. You guys kept posting reviews about how much you wanted us to save Lily so one day Bailey was like, "...why don't we kill Snape?" So we did.

Guest: Noble seems to be the word you guys are using to describe his death which I guess is correct.

JaneDoh0: We loved Snape too much much to give him an unnoble death. It just seemed right.

Moi (Guest): Yeah I guess we didn't explain that very well. There isn't a cure for the spell, just like the Avada Kedavra. It just makes it more painful and such.

nargles lurk in the mistletoe: Thanks for the follow!

alexhappydance: Thanks for the favorite!

4 Years Later

The sun warmed Lily's face as she looked towards the hill. The warmth had started to melt some of the snow and she could see the tips of the fresh, new grass poking through. That seemed to suggest a new beginning, but she wasn't sure. The battle may have ended four years ago, but the war wasn't over.

Lily started to make her way up the hill by herself, her shoes making soft prints in the leftover snow. It was the anniversary of the Second Battle of the Hilltop that day, and she was visiting the spot where so many had lost so much. She had been doing this for four years, but it never got any easier.

"Give up, Tom. Your followers are tired and finished and you cannot win," Dumbledore said gravely. Lily ran towards him, her tears drying on her face.

"Albus!" She yelled, not even caring that Voldemort himself was right there. She could kill him right now, she would do it in a heart beat. Dumbledore turned towards her and his face remained unreadable. "Severus, he's-"

"Lily!" she heard and she watched James run up towards her out of the corner of her eye. "Lily get out of here!" Albus stared at her, his eyes sad.

"He's dead," she whispered but she knew he heard him. Now James was by her side, his wand raised high as he tried to protect her.

"Go back to Hogwarts, Lily," he said, his voice shaking which only made Lily think of her last conversation with Severus.

"Sev is dead," she whispered again but this time no tears fell from her eyes. She would mourn him later, but now was time for action. James' face looked exhausted and only now did Lily notice the dried tears on his face.

"Sirius is dead," he whispered back. Lily heard the words but didn't register them. She couldn't bring herself to because accepting that would mean that she would have to accept that both she and James had lost their best friends, moments after one another.

"It seems as though you were wrong, Dumbledore," Lily heard and the voice of Voldemort brought her back into reality. "It's your side that is finished." Voldemort raised both his hands in what could have been a calming gesture if it had not come from him. "The battle is over," he began, his voice carrying through the wind. Lily gripped James' arm and he held her tight around the waist as their cloaks moved with the wind sending chills down their spines. "Severus Snape is dead. Now all you must do is bring me Harry Potter and no more magical blood will be shed."

"That's a lie!" Remus yelled. "You will never stop!" Voldemort's face twisted into a grin.

"That's true, I'm going to have to get rid of you first," he replied and Remus twisted his face in anger.

"Our side isn't the only one that has suffered," Albus said calmly but Lily could tell he was anything but. There was a gleam in his eyes that made her understand why he was the one person Voldemort truly feared.

"That's right," Lily spoke up and she felt James' arms tighten around her. "I killed Bellatrix Lestrange ." The smirk fell off Voldemort's face and he pointed his wand towards the group. Dumbledore stepped in front of them.

"It all ends here, Tom." The two of them stared at each other for a moment and then, wordlessly, a spell shot out of Dumbledore's wand and hit Voldemort straight in the chest. He crumpled to the ground and the entire hill went silent. Within seconds, the Order began to cheer and the Death Eaters tried to disapparate but most were unsuccessful. Four people weren't joining in though. Dumbledore walked towards a solemn Remus, Lily and James.

"Who all is dead?" he asked softly.

"Sirius, Severus-"

"Peter," Remus added in. "He jumped in the way of a curse for me."

"So did Sev," Lily said quietly. The four of them stood there, an unsettling amount of emotion rushing between them.

"He's not dead, not really," Albus said and the other three looked at him, confused. "Do you know what a horcrux is?"

Lily continued to make her way up the hill and as she got closer to the top, the graves started to appear. She knew all the names, but she didn't know them as well as she thought. They all had one thing in common, though. They all had died that day, for the same cause. To kill a man who could not even be killed. Since that day, they had destroyed four of the six horcruxes, and they wouldn't stop until they were all gone.

On the top of the hill, a man stood with his back to her, a child in his arms. Another one stood by his side, staring at something Lily couldn't see yet. The boy turned towards her and his eyes met hers.
"Daddy, Mommy is here!" he said and he ran his way towards Lily. Six year old Harry Potter ran down the hill and Lily bent down so she could catch him in a hug. She was so grateful that James and the boys and come this year. It just seemed right for them to be here to respect the people who died to make sure they were safe and alive.

"Are you ready?" she asked Harry and he nodded. She stood up to her full high and grabbed his hand his hers and together they finished the walk to the top of the hill.

Two graves sat in the ground, each for the two best friends both Lily and James lost. On the left was the grave of Sirius Black which James Potter stood in front of. Lily walked up beside him and he turned to her, his eyes swimming with light tears.

"It doesn't get any easier, does it?" he asked softly and Lily shook her head.

"No, it doesn't. But that doesn't mean we have to ignore it," she replied. James nodded at her and she let go of Harry's hand and he ran towards his father.
James knelt down, letting down the boy in his arms to give all his attention to Harry.

"Do you know who this is?" he asked his son.

"My godfather," Harry replied, proud that he had remembered the term his mom had taught him. James smiled at his son and nodded.

"That's right, he was your godfather. He was also my best friend," James said and his eyes began to water again. "He loved you very much."

Sirius Black

1959-1983

A best friend, godfather

and a hero.

"He loved you very much too, James," Lily said with a sad smile. She understood how painful the loss of a best friend was. It was very hard on the two of them having both lost someone that important in their lives at the same time. The losses were both still very present when Evan was born.

Lily left James and Harry at the grave and turned her body towards the grave on the right, the one she had visited on this day for the past four years. She crouched down to the height of her younger son and held him by the waist. She gazed unto the grave in front of her, remembering the man that it represented, and felt her eyes fill with tears.

"Evan Severus Potter," she said softly, looking him in the eyes. He looked at her with wide eyes, full of curiosity and wonder. "Do you know who this is?" The boy nodded shyly and Lily smiled sadly at him.

"He was your godfather and my very best friend. He loved you, so very very much."

"Did he love you too?" Evan asked innocently, his four year old eyes boring into hers. Lily sobbed slightly but smiled just the same.
"Yes, yes he did. And I'll never forget him because of it." Lily embraced her younger son into a hug and the four of them sat like that on the top of the hill for a very long time. Only when the sun started to duck behind the horizon did James begin to get up. He walked over to where his wife sat crouched in the grass and snow. He gently put a hand on her shoulder and she turned to look at him.

"It's time to go," he whispered and she nodded. "Come on Harry, Evan." The four of them stood and took one last look at the graves of the two men who had given their lives so that they could live theirs.

"I love you," Lily whispered to the graves of the two men and then the four of them started to make their way back down the hill.

Severus Snape

1960-1983

A professor, a godfather

a best friend.

You will be remembered.

Always.