Ginny dug her nose into the blankets that had been Scourgified of all traces of sweat, blood and bodily fluids. It had been a day and a half since Severus had been admitted to the Cagailshire infirmary and five hours since Ginny had been allowed to see him. With the Crone temporarily closed, Talia spared her best bartender to do some other tending.

At first, the medi-witches could not admit Ginny due to 'family-only' regulations, but seeing as 'Mr Tobias Prince' had no living family or next of kin to see him, Ginny was allowed to stay by his side. Ginny was sure the medi-witches regretted it when she asked them to clean his sheets again and bring him an extra pillow to prop up his head. No one else was going to advocate for him, so Ginny really didn't care if she was viewed as a demanding witch.

She watched his chest rise and fall slowly, her urge to hate him slowly subsiding with every passing minute. If he never woke up again, she'd be left sitting in front of the corse of a wizard who sacrificed himself to save the lives of thousands of wizards—who avenged the Malfoys, who avenged Harry's dead parents and even…even her.

Tobias Prince. Severus Snape.

The ruthless bastard had no reason to look so docile in his cot, his lashes casting shadows over the creases of weary under eyes and his lips softly parted—his breath barely moving the vanes of a loose down feather from his pillow. He was a bastard, but he was her bastard and that made all the difference. So meek and tender, Ginny could lean over and kiss him and run her hand down the stubble on his cheek. She considered doing it, but the moment he awoke, found herself doing the opposite.

"Severus, how do you feel?"

"Better now that it's over," Severus whispered from his place in the cot.

"Of course it is, you arse."

"Come now. Have some respect for the ill," Severus said, placing his fingers over her hand, the sudden act sending a shiver down her arm.

"You could have died."

"I could have."

"If the Aurors and Lucius wouldn't have come in time, you could have been sacked on the spot."

"There's always a risk."

"More like sheer, valiant stupidity. You and Malfoy were looking for difficult solutions," Ginny rasped, lacing her fingers between his—the coldness between the two of their palms disappearing.

"Since our days as boys at Hogwarts." Severus' lips curled into a faraway smile. "I believe now, the term 'calculated risk' holds more meaning-"

"Not sure how you can speak so casually of your death."

"We'll all die eventually."

"But not like this. Not like you two could have," Ginny said, a touch louder.

"What bothers you more, my possible death or your lack of involvement in Riddle's?"

"Obviously yours. How could you ask such a question?" Ginny said.

"Then it should not matter to you how the task was completed. Riddle is gone-"

"It's bloody selfish and irresponsible to put your life on the line like you did-"

"-I don't believe I need to ask for permission regarding my life-"

"You don't get it, do you?" Ginny said. "Your life isn't yours. It belongs to the people who care about you: Talia, me, Marcia, Lucius, and others. You'd leave all of us to grieve your absence. Beyond the Veil, none of this would matter to you, but it would mark us for the rest of our days. It's selfish to gain a moment of glory in exchange for a lifetime of sorrow from us. That's the cost of your sacrifice."

Severus' lips parted and closed again, his eyes avoiding hers. "When did you become so bloody wise?"

"When you took me on as your confidente, whatever that loosely-used term meant to you," Ginny snarled.

"Don't chide me, witch!"

"I'd do much more if you weren't bed-bound-"

"That glower makes you look the splitting image of your moth-" Severus drew in a sharp breath, curating his next words. "You have the right to be angry, but you must admit that in the end, everything worked out in our favor."

"You promised I'd help you fight Riddle!"

"I promised you I'd prepare you to meet with him," Severus said slowly. "Nowhere did I mention that you would be the one to lead him to his downfall."

"Same thing."

"Devil's in the details." Severus said. "You assumed what you wanted to assume."

Ginny crossed her arms. "Fine. But you played dirty. You earned my trust, and then you did what you intended to do all along—go against Riddle under your own conditions."

"I did not think you would have laid your sword down swiftly if I had told you I was going with Lucius."

"Some last minute decision." Ginny said. "Did you even need me at all?"

"Yes. You were an asset. You are an asset."

"So that's all I am to you? An asset."

"An invaluable one."

"Harry never called me an asset," Ginny said snidely.

"Very well, if Potter's assessment of you is more sufficient, perhaps his company will be better than mine."

"Harry wants nothing to do with me-"

"-that's not true-"

"-because he thinks I am in love with you-"

Severus stilled. "Are you?"

"Hm?"

"Are you?"

"Honestly?" Ginny gave him an equally firm look. He'd have to be dense to not know. She was here at his bedside after everything, was she not? She was making sure he had pillows and clean sheets and Merlin knew what else. He'd had to have noticed. Seeing his expression become equally curious and intense, it dawned on her that after all this time, maybe he had no damn clue that her care for him was not at all a given. Squeezing his hand, she said, "I am.

But at the moment, I feel that you are a two-faced, rotten, lying, son of a witch and the last sort of wizard I could ever-"

Instead of a period, Ginny's sentence finished in Severus' lips as he pulled her into his embrace, propping himself up from the bed. Drawing in a sharp breath, he kissed her. Ginny moaned softly. It took another kiss for her to regain her wits and slide to the other end of the bed.

"You kissed me," Ginny stuttered, licking her lips. Severus' face froze, a fleeting blink of the lashes being the only thing that gave away his surprise.

"I was under the impression that you were not impartial to my advances."

"I wasn't impartial, but that was before you lied to me," Ginny cried. "Harry told me you had Apparated out of town and when I came back to the flat, Lucius bloody tied me up and left me on the floor."

"He has a streak for bondage-"

"-to fight Riddle without me-"

"-I certainly can credit that Harry Potter and his band of Merry Aurors certainly took the bulk of the work-"

"-It's not about the ties or Harry, it's about the mistrust."

"Mistrust." Severus' expression darkened. "Don't speak to mistrust when you revealed the very basis of our plan to that boy."

"That boy has a name, and he's the reason you and Lucius are alive and not dead in some Merlin forsaken warehouse in Carlisle. Did you really think I could let you two take him on alone? It was a suicide mission from the very start."

"We were certainly not in our prime, but gave him a run for his galleons."

"I doubt it," Ginny cried. "What is all of this for? Did you want to take down Voldemort or did you want to relieve your glory moments with your old friend? Because instead of being the mature wizard and collaborating with Harry, despite my suggestion, you chose to ignore and do what you wanted to do. You can't move past your disdain for Harry-"

"-I do not care for him."

"You very well do."

"Can I ever live a day when Saint Potter's presence doesn't loom over me? Even here he rears his head into our conversation." Severus picked up the latest Daily Prophets lying on his bedside. "Auror Potter busts illegal potions trafficking in Cagailshire….The Golden Boy fights crime in the darkest hour….Harry Potter voted Witch Weekly's hottest bachelor. Need I continue?"

Even in times of the return of the Dark Lord, the Ministry continued to downplay the seriousness of the situation.

"You want your name featured in Witch Weekly?" Ginny said.

"I do not need help in attracting the affections of witches."

"That's for certain. How is that operation going, by the way?" Ginny teased, cruelly. "Have you had your fill of redheads? Or are you only interested in the ones who can boost your fragile ego?"

"Your provocations will go nowhere," Severus said in a low voice.

"Oh they're not provocations. Here, let me help you," Ginny cried, then grabbing Severus by the collar forced a giant kiss on his right and left cheeks. Severus showed some struggle, moving his head around his pillow, but eventually allowed one messy kiss on his mouth before yelling:

"Unhand me, witch!"

"Gladly!" Ginny yanked herself of the bed. "Now you can go ahead and add me to your count. Ginevra Weasley. Harry Potter's ex-girlfriend. Should be a notch on your belt. And on that note, when you're finished snogging all the witches here in Cagailshire-"

"I do not need your advice-"

"-well I'll be gone by then so I couldn't give a shite what you do or where you go." Ginny's lips dried out and her neck burned hot. She grabbed the newspaper from Severus' bedside table. "But despite what Harry said, I believed I could trust you. I didn't think you'd keep me cooped up like a China doll. At least Harry was honest about his intentions about keeping me safe and out of harm's way. I was angry at him, but it was for a straight forward reason. You made me believe I could be useful to you then tossed me aside. Some asset I was."

"You had wanted to be useful. You had practically begged me to take you on," Severus said.

"Ha, begged?"

"When had a Weasley taken 'no, stay out' for a command? Do you think me a complete fool?"

"I thought we were partners."

"That was your first mistake," Severus said bitterly. "I work alone."

"It's my last one." Ginny said biting her lip, the tears coming on. "Goodbye Snape."

She didn't cry when he snidely said "I doubt it" in reply to her leaving the room. But she did let the tears flow when she was halfway down the hallway and an sudden succession of flashes lit up her face.

-xxx-

"Miss Weasley! A moment of your time!"

"Fuck-" Ginny shielded her eyes from the light, and with a quick swipe of her hand, knocked the object onto the floor. The camera hit the ground with a thud, glass shattering, but that didn't stop the reporter from pressing her nose straight into Ginny's face.

Ginny picked up the broken instrument from the floor and handed it back to the witch. "Sorry about that." She dug her hands into her pockets, fishing out a wad of tips and stuck them in the reporter's hand, but she refused to accept them.

"Lindy Darling from the Daily Prophet. Don't worry about the camera, it's replaceable. They break often in our line of work." The witch's feather quill scribbled in a pad floating beside her.

"I'll bet."

This was just like the days of being interviewed by Rita Skeeter. Ginny had no interest in reading madly misinterpreted and out of context excerpts about whatever gossip the Prophet was interested in collecting. That's why she moved to Cagailshire. Ginny bucked, meeting this Lindy Darling with her darkest look.

"Bad timing," she said, marching to the door of the infirmary. "I'm not interested."

"I can walk you."

"Don't bother." Ginny walked faster, but this reporter was clearly a professional, or part hound dog. But work was work, and Ginny was not about to judge a woman trying to earn a Galleon getting information as a reporter. Gathering her patience and tact, she said, "This is me telling you nicely to back off. I don't do interviews."

"He's that bad, huh?"

"Who?"

"You know who." Ms Darling lifted a brow, suggestively.

"Interviewing in infirmaries is forbidden. Not to mention, disrespectful. If you need information, go ask the Aurors. I'm sure they're celebrating their victory around town."

"Against the potions raid?"

"Against Voldemort. Gods, how daft can you be?" Ginny cried. "The Dark Lord didn't die. Well he's dead now, but of course that doesn't matter to the Daily Prophet? You want a neat story that glorifies the Auror Department and represents the Ministry in a positive light. I don't have it. When you want some real news, come talk to the actual people who live in Cagail."

Ms Darling stirred. "I want to hear the real story."

"Then go interview someone who was there last night," Ginny said solemnly. Pushing the door open, she made her way onto the steps of the building. Drawing in deep breaths, she rubbed her eyes and looked into the distance.

If Severus was so set on being the self-sacrificial lamb, then so be it. Maybe Harry was right after all. She needed to look truth in the face. He was a spy for both the light and dark sides of a magical war. He was not about to let some fleeting fascination derail him from a way of life that suited him. Ginny needed to be with someone who loved and trusted her unconditionally.

As she Apparated back to her flat, showered off and got under the covers, she found herself missing her mum and dad and her childhood bedroom. She longed for nothing more than to wake up to smells of cinnamon and fresh pancakes, and to get a big kiss from mum. She wanted to find her favorite jumper hanging on the 'cat' hanger and to chase the Quaffle in the field behind the Burrow.