Rose was feeling herself slowly sinking into darkness. Whether towards hell or heaven, she couldn't distinguish. Floating in middle of nowhere, her only companions were silence and numbness.

She slowly opens her eyes. It was darker than pitch black. There was no one around her. All her energy was sapped out of her. The only thing see could do was to think.

Where am I? She thought to herself, her heart pounding. Was she stuck somewhere in life and afterlife or was it her own imagination that came to her before she left her body forever? More than anything else, she wonder what she might say Dumbledore after she met him.

She just wanted to see all the students and teachers who had lost their life in battle at Hogwarts, apologize for not saving them, especially the Hufflepuff girl who died in front of her. She wanted to see her parents who she never saw in her life.

All the thinking made her weak. She closed her eyes and slipped back into the oblivion.

"She is alive….isn't she?" came a low whisper from back of her head.

Rose felt something hard pressed against her cheek. She tried to lift herself but the thought itself was exhausting. She couldn't even open her eyes. Her head pounded in her skull.

"Yes…she is. But what was she doing here?" This time, it was a feminine voice. Is it Hermione? She felt a hand on her shoulder.

Rose's heart was jumping with joy. Only if she could, she could have got up and hugged her student.

"But we should take both of them back."

Both? She got confused. If she was alive, Snape should be dead. What was the meaning of 'both'? Wondering what it meant, she still managed to keep clenching to her life.

Rose was brought back to castle. Lying in the hospital wing, her condition never improved much for initial days. Every day, Harry, Hermione and Ron visited her though Madam Pomfrey couldn't give a better news to them. "We can only wait."

Harry was the last person to ever see the teacher in better condition. He simply said that he told her about the shortcut through the Whomping Willow. When asked why, he replied that something in his sub consciousness told him to do so. But there was something stranger.

On the third day, when the trio were accompanied by Professor McGonagall, it was revealed that Rose had become visible. "I was able to see her!" She exclaimed, after all four left the room.

"But that's not possible, is it?" Hermione said.

"There must be a reason behind it. We can find out about it."

"We can't." Ron interrupted. "Our train back home is in two days and Madam Pomfrey said that she's not gonna respond for four-five more days."

When other patients in the hospital wing left, Rose's bed remained occupied along with another one.

About a week after the battle at Hogwarts ended, all the students left home, the castle was as silent as it could get.

Fading sunrays filtered through the stained glass of hospital wing as Rose slowly opened her eyes. Every part of her body ached. She felt too weak to sit up. Her head sink deeper in her pillow as she took a painful breath. I am as alive as I can be.

She turned her head sideways, inch by inch. Onto her right was Severus Snape. She could see his chest rise and fall. How come he is alive?

She raised her heavy head and took a quick look around. There was no one else. Far above her, came a sound of footsteps.

Suddenly, the door of the room opened. "Oh my, you have awaken."

Rose turned and saw Madam Pomfrey rushing towards her. Standing by her bed, she sniffed. "I thought you might never come conscious."

"You thought wrong." whispered the younger witch.

Pomfrey helped her sit up. "How long I have been here?"

"About a week." she said, turning at the other patient. "Even he is."

Isn't that obvious when I was with him?

"I am thirsty. Can get some water?"

"Sure."

The nurse disappeared from Rose's view. Closing her eyes, she turned and stretched her neck to ease her stiffened muscles. She opened them and looked at arms. They appeared like skin wrapped around bones like a dementor's.

She turned toward Snape once again. He hardly moved since last time she saw him. "Damn if he does come conscious before I get out of here." she murmured irritably.

"Here." Pomfrey handed her a goblet of water. After taking a sip, she look up. "Would you like to have something?"

Rose was feeling more sleepy than usual. She was struggling to concentrate on what was being said. "I would like some time to catch sleep."

The nurse chuckled and left as she slumped back onto her pillow. She took a look at Severus. Either of us should have died.

Turning her back to him, she fell back to sleep.