RIGHT AND WRONG

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who created and, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and settings elaborated herein.

A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers and especially to my previewers, Bellegeste and Lady Memory.

The story till now: After Professor Snape reveals his true feelings to a newly graduated Hermione, unexpected friendships develop. Last chapter, Hermione declared her feelings:

"You'll always do what's right, won't you? So tell me, is it right now?"

"I want it to be right," he said, and frowned. "With my record, that probably means it isn't."

"That's just silly. I've never met anyone I'd trust more than the man you are now. Forget it's you and me, and start from first principles. What would make it wrong? And what would make it not? Answer those and you'll answer everything."

He laughed unhappily. "How did I become your hero? Why me, of everyone?"

She didn't know at first. "Mostly because you chose us over yourself. Most of us only ever had one side we could fight for. For you it was the other one, but you didn't stay there. Turning your back on your allies – friends, hopes, dreams – must have been the hardest thing."

His eyes flicked to the big beech tree at the water's edge and back to her. Had his face darkened, or was it only a cloud hiding the moon?

"No." He swallowed. "Staying would have been harder. Everything I cared about was on your side. I also only ever had one side I could fight for. It just took me longer to realise which it was."

"You mean Lily." She'd have pulled away if his hands weren't locked so tightly round hers. "It's always Lily. When you hesitate over whether this – us – is right, I can't help wondering if it's because your heart's still too full of her to have room for me."

"You, always you," he said, and drew her closer. "You show me – you've always shown me, but I didn't understand until recently – what she wasn't. Loving. Forgiving. Kin. At least, she wasn't to me. She may have been to him. I suppose she was. I hope she was; they had little enough time together."

She wanted to believe him.

"She was the only other magical child in a world full of Muggles." He was looking at her with painful intensity. "I thought that made us kin, and spun and wove my dreams around her so thickly, I couldn't see that's where the likeness stopped. I don't think I'd ever have been able to let go, if not for you. "

She could feel the pulse of his heart through their fingers, as if it was his blood rushing through her veins."I didn't do anything."

"You didn't need to. You just were." His head bent towards hers and she could feel the tickle of his breath. "You're just you. " Closer. "All those years I hated myself because I couldn't hate her. For abandoning me. For loving him. But people love who they love. She fitted him, not me. I fit you, not her. It's not right or wrong; it just is."

"Then that's your answer, right there. If it just is, what are you beating yourself up for? Right, wrong, who cares? Stop holding back. You love me. I love you. What does anything else matter?"

His lips were close enough to kiss. She angled upwards.

"Right and wrong always matter," he said.