Phoenix Rising Part 3 Conclusion

Voldemort hung back from the battle as much as possible, for two reasons: one, he wanted to conserve his strength, and two, he was hoping that if he waited long enough, Potter--who would not hold back, noble Gryffindor that he was--would be wounded and weakened by the battle and be easy prey.

But the battle was not going as he had expected; he had thought he would have the element of surprise, but Dumbledore had been ready for him. Voldemort still wasn't sure how the old man had known; Severus had turned out to be a traitor, but he had not been privy to the battle plans. Voldemort wondered exactly when Severus had turned traitor, and why. Had he been working for Dumbledore all along, or had he perhaps turned coat after Voldemort had taken Dylan into the Death Eaters against Snape's advice? Dylan and the other children--Voldemort suspected that was Snape's motive, after seeing how fiercely he had guarded them on the battlefield today. Clearly all those years of teaching had made Severus soft, but Voldemort would make him pay once this was all over: he would torture the Potions Master's precious little brats to death slowly in front of his eyes. But he wondered how Severus had managed to deceive him; Voldemort had never picked up any hint of treachery with his Legilimency, yet somehow he had never quite fully trusted Severus. Well, he would torture the information out of Snape later, rip it out of his mind if he must, and next time Voldemort would trust his instincts no matter what his Legilimency told him.

But his Death Eaters were falling, one by one, and Dumbledore's unlikely allies seemed to have the Dementors and the giants more or less under control. Voldemort slowly retreated into the forest, wondering how things had gone so wrong. Then he spotted Harry Potter and his two little friends, and just when it seemed like the giants would kill them, some runty rogue giant killed Golgomath by sheer dumb luck. Voldemort cursed, but he should have expected this; the prophecy had made it clear that he was the only one who could kill Harry Potter. Apparently fate wasn't going to let some giant do it for him.

"VOLDEMORT!" Potter shouted, and Voldemort found himself fleeing in fear without thinking. As he ran, logic took over and reminded him that the boy was a green, half-trained wizard while he was the dreaded Dark Lord, who had decades more experience and knew spells the boy had never even heard of before. But he kept running, telling himself that he wanted to draw the boy away from his friends and allies so they could not interfere.

"Voldemort, you coward!" Potter shouted. "Stop running and face me like a man!"

Voldemort abruptly wheeled about and fired a curse at the boy, who yelped and ducked as a tree behind him exploded into splinters. "Did you learn to spout cliches from Dumbledore?" Voldemort asked. "I expected better from him, even if he is a doddering old fool!"

"Don't talk about the Headmaster that way!" Potter shouted, casting a hex at Voldemort.

The Dark Lord laughed, easily evading it. "Come now, Potter, you'll have to do better than that if you want to defeat me!" He fired another curse at the boy; this one hit, slashing the front of his robe open. A long, bloody gash was slowly sealing itself on the boy's blue-stained chest.

Voldemort laughed. "Celtic War Paint? A bit melodramatic, but quite ingenious! Did Severus teach you how to make that?" Some conflicting emotion flickered in the boy's eyes. "Ah, so he did! Another thing he will pay for, when I get my hands on him!"

"You're not getting your hands on Professor Snape or anyone else!" Harry retorted.

"I'll torture your friend Snape to death after I finish you off," Voldemort taunted. "He'll be begging me to kill him before I'm done with him!"
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Harry flushed, feeling angry that Voldemort had forced him to speak in Snape's defense, and guilty that he felt angry about it. He wanted to protest, "Snape's not my friend," knowing it was a rather silly and trivial thought at a time like this. Then he had to fight the urge to giggle hysterically when he thought about how affronted Snape would be if he could hear himself being referred to as Harry's "friend".

"I'll kill your other friends, too," Voldemort added. "That Weasley boy, and the little Muggle girl..."

Harry's eyes blazed with anger. "You leave them alone!" he said fiercely, pointing his wand at Voldemort. "Crucio!"

He caught the Dark Lord by surprise; Voldemort cried out, convulsing in pain. He shook off the spell, then grinned and said, "Good boy!"

"Wh-what?" stammered a startled Harry.

"You used an Unforgivable Curse on me," Voldemort replied, smiling at him approvingly, confusing Harry further. "I didn't think you had the guts. That's worth a life sentence in Azkaban, you know."

"Professor Moody taught me how to use it!" Harry protested. "He--" Then Harry broke off in consternation.

"But it wasn't Moody, was it?" Voldemort finished. "It was one of my Death Eaters, Barty Crouch, who taught you how to cast the Unforgivable Curses."

"Well," Harry said, flustered and defiant, "nobody would care if I used one on you! They--they'd probably give me a medal!"

Voldemort chuckled, looking even more pleased. "Yes, they probably would. The ends justify the means regardless of the rules--that is the Slytherin way."

"I'm not a Slytherin!" shouted Harry.

"But you could have been," Voldemort said calmly.

"I chose not to be!" Harry retorted. "Professor Dumbledore said that's the difference between you and me!"

"My dear child," Voldemort purred, "you and I are more alike than you realize. We both were scorned by our Muggle relatives. We both chafed at the pointless restrictions and rules the school imposed on us--"

"I'm nothing like you!" Harry shouted.

Voldemort lowered his wand. "Forget the prophecy, Harry; who cares what some half-witted fortune teller mumbled one night under the influence of too much wine?" He held out his hand to Harry. "Join with me, child, and you will soar to heights of power you never dreamed of before. Together we can rule the wizarding world!"

"You're insane!" Harry cried. "I'll never join you!"

"Harry," Voldemort asked in a soft voice, "why do you think you can speak Parseltongue? Why were you able to enter the Chamber of Secrets?"

"I can speak Parseltongue because you can," Harry snapped. "Dumbledore said you transferred some of your power to me when you gave me this!" He pointed at his scar. "I'm certainly not the Heir of Slytherin, if that's what you're getting at! You're the one who opened the Chamber, not me!"

"Yes, I opened it by influencing the Weasley girl with my diary," Voldemort said, "but do you really think that just anyone could have found the Chamber, Harry? Do you think that just anyone could have entered it? The Weasley boy and that idiot Lockhart went with you that day to rescue Ginny, but you were the only one who actually made it into the Chamber of Secrets."

"So what are you saying?" Harry demanded. "That I'm the Heir of Slytherin? That's ridiculous!"

"No, I am the Heir of Slytherin," Voldemort replied calmly. "But you are MY heir."

"Wh-what are you talking about?!" Harry exclaimed, looking angry and frightened. "You're trying to trick me, aren't you?"

"The blood of Salazar Slytherin flows in your veins, Harry," Voldemort said in a low, intense voice, "as it does in mine. You are my grandson."
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After hearing Ron's news, Dumbledore left Branwen, Math, and Arthur Weasley--who was the ranking Ministry official on the scene, now that Fudge was dead--in charge while he went in search of Harry, along with Sirius, Snape, Lupin, and Moody. Ron of course refused to be left behind, pointing out that they needed him to show them which way Harry had gone; if Hermione's leg had not been broken, no doubt she would have insisted on coming along too. As brave as they had been tonight, the courage of Snape's Slytherins ran out at the thought of confronting the Dark Lord; they were all more than willing to stay behind, except for Dylan, who didn't want to leave Snape's side. But there was no way that Snape was going to let Dylan get anywhere near Voldemort, so he ordered him to stay back, and instructed Branwen and Math to Stupefy him if necessary.

Ron led them to the place where Golgomath had been killed--his body served as a convenient marker--and they made their way into the forest. They arrived just in time to hear Voldemort say that Harry was his heir and grandson.

"WHAT?!" shrieked Sirius. He turned desperately to Dumbledore saying, "He's lying, right? It's got to be some sort of trick, to get Harry to drop his guard!"

Dumbledore looked just as stunned. "It can't be...I thought Harry acquired the gift of Parseltongue when Voldemort attacked him as a baby...but...but..."

"But he could have inherited it," Snape finished, looking pale and troubled. Of course, Voldemort was a consummate liar, but somehow this had the ring of truth about it. Lupin laid back his ears and whined; he could not really follow the conversation in his wolf form at present, but he could sense the fear and distress in his companions. Snape reached down almost absent-mindedly to scratch behind Lupin's ears.

Black raised his wand and ran forward; Snape grabbed at him but missed, Black's robes slipping through his fingers. "Black, you idiot!" Snape hissed. Stupid Gryffindor, always acting without thinking!

Sirius seemed to hit some kind of invisible force field before he got within ten feet of Harry and the Dark Lord, and was thrown back violently. Oddly enough, neither Harry nor Voldemort seemed to notice, as if they were in their own little world.

Sirius groaned and sat up slowly while Lupin sniffed at him anxiously and Snape said sourly, "You're lucky you didn't get yourself killed, Black, not to mention the boy. You don't just go charging in on the Dark Lord like that--at least, not if you want to survive."

"I don't think it's Voldemort's doing," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "I think it's the prophecy. It said that one of them must kill the other, and apparently it's intent on letting them do that without interference."

"So we're just supposed to sit here and watch?!" Sirius asked indignantly.

"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore said wearily, the full weight of his one-hundred fifty and some odd years showing on his face. "We knew that in the end, he would have to face Voldemort alone."

"So there's nothing we can do?" Ron asked helplessly.

Dumbledore laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. "We can believe in him, Ron."

"Fat lot of good that will do," Snape muttered, and for once, Black looked as if he agreed. He clearly wanted to be there fighting beside his godson, and for once, Snape felt a little sympathy for him. If it had been Dylan there instead of Potter, Snape would be going out of his mind with fear and frustration. Lupin whined again, and Snape knelt down beside him. Lupin pressed against him, licking his face, and Snape held the wolf and stroked its fur, ignoring Moody's dumbfounded look. If they were about to be killed shortly, he would share what little comfort he could with Lupin in the brief time they had left; a little embarrassment would mean nothing to him once he was dead. "I won't let him take you, Remus," Snape whispered into the wolf's ear. If Potter fell, then he would kill both Lupin and himself immediately after, because a quick death would be far better than whatever fate the Dark Lord had in store for them. Then he frowned; no, he couldn't kill himself, at least not right away, because Dylan was still back at the battlefield, and so were his other students. He couldn't leave them to Voldemort's tender mercies...but what was he supposed to do? Kill them to save them from Voldemort? Take them and spend the rest of their lives running and hiding and waiting for the Death Eaters to catch up with them? His arms tightened around the wolf as despair filled him, and Lupin licked his face in what was clearly meant to be a comforting gesture. He had no choice now but to believe in Potter, believe that Potter would win the battle, because any other outcome was too terrible to contemplate.
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Meanwhile, Harry yelled, "That's a lie! My father was a Potter--"

"Yes, and he had a pedigree a mile long, like any good pureblood," Voldemort interrupted. "But your mother, on the other hand..."

"My mother was a Muggle!" Harry shouted desperately.

"Ah, but where do you think she got her magical talent from, my dear boy?" Voldemort purred.

"There are lots of Muggle-born wizards!" Harry protested. "Like Hermione--"

"Yes, yes," Voldemort said dismissively, "but I assure you, your mother got her power from me." He grinned maliciously. "Your grandmother was a pretty little thing; Lily looked much like her--"

Harry let out a wordless cry of rage and fired a curse at Voldemort, who easily deflected it with a languid wave of his wand.

"I was walking through the village where she lived one night," Voldemort continued, "looking for Muggles to serve as subjects for my magical research. I was trying to find a way to become immortal, as I'm sure Dumbledore has told you, and while human blood does not confer immortality on one, it can extend one's lifespan, providing that the proper Blood Magic rituals are performed. And then your grandmother strolled by; she actually smiled and nodded at me as she passed. She was too pretty to kill, so I decided to avail myself of her charms..."

"You monster!" Harry screamed. "You raped her!"

"Ah, so you believe me now?" Voldemort laughed. "Oh, I used nothing so crude as brute force; a simple Imperio spell sufficed to make her do my will. And she didn't really suffer; I would have liked to have left her with the memory of shame and defilement, but I couldn't let a Muggle remember seeing me use magic, so I used a Memory Charm to erase that night from her mind. She felt nothing but a vague sense of uneasiness and guilt afterwards."

"You ARE a monster!" Harry shouted, firing another spell, which Voldemort dodged. "I'll kill you!"
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"You're losing control, Potter," Snape muttered disapprovingly as he watched from a distance, though of course the boy could not hear him. The idiot boy was going to get himself--and incidentally, the rest of them--killed at this rate.

"That sick son of a bitch!" Sirius exclaimed, looking disgusted. "To do...that...to Mrs. Evans, who was always so nice..."

"It makes sense, though," Snape muttered, more to himself than anyone else, but Sirius overheard him.

"It makes sense that he raped Mrs. Evans?!"

"No, Black," Snape replied patiently, scratching behind Lupin's ears as the wolf whined, picking up on Sirius's anger. "That he tried to spare Lily's life. Lupin told me that Potter was somehow able to recall the moment of the attack during their Patronus lessons, when the boggart-Dementor attacked him. The Dark Lord told Lily to stand aside; he only killed her when she refused to let him take the baby. The Dark Lord is not inclined to mercy, and I couldn't understand why he bothered to warn her, why he didn't simply strike her down on the spot. But if she was his daughter..."

"Yeah, old Voldie is the picture of a devoted dad," Sirius said sarcastically.

"Use your brain, you dolt," Snape said, but without any heat to his voice; he felt strangely detached when he should be terrified. Maybe it was some sort of self-defense mechanism, numbing him so he wouldn't become hysterical with fear... "It wasn't sentimentality that moved him; he was trying to preserve Salazar Slytherin's bloodline."

Sirius's jaw dropped, and Dumbledore said, "Of course! Tom Riddle was the last descendant of Salazar Slytherin, but if Lily was his daughter..."

"Then that means Lily was a descendant of Slytherin, too," a stunned Sirius said. "And Harry..."

Snape's detachment was replaced with indignation as it finally dawned on him that the boy he had so detested was the last descendant and heir of the founder of his House. "Then...then...Potter..." he spluttered.

"Oh, what does it matter whose descendant he is, Snape?" Sirius sighed wearily. "If the damn wizarding world wasn't so obsessed about bloodlines, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. Mudblood, half-blood, pureblood--what's the difference? Who cares?"

"Not me," Snape replied. "Though my mother cared very much." He smiled dryly at the shocked expression on Black's face. "Oh, I parroted the usual insults about Mudbloods, of course, because that was what was expected of me, but I didn't really care one way or the other. What did my pure blood do for me, after all?" His voice took on a bitter tone. "It didn't make me popular. It didn't win me friendship or love." He smiled without any humor and added pointedly, "It didn't make my nose smaller or my hair less greasy."

Sirius flushed, for the first time feeling ashamed of those childish insults. "Snape, I...I..."

"Oh, don't bother apologizing, Black," Snape said as Lupin whined again, rubbing his face against Snape's. He petted the wolf to comfort it and added in a flippant tone, "Since it looks like we're all going to die, you can at least allow me the small pleasure of going to my grave despising you."

One corner of Sirius's mouth twitched up in a wry smile. "As you like, Snape. But I thought your pure blood made you plenty of friends in Slytherin: Malfoy, Rosier, Wilkes--"

"Oh, please," Snape snorted. "They weren't friends; they were allies--people who wanted something from me, or people whose parents didn't want to offend my parents. That's what passes for friendship in Slytherin." He paused, thinking of Evan and Lyall, and of the way his students had protected each other on the battlefield today. "Well, among most Slytherins, anyway."

"Pure blood was no assurance of love for me, either," Sirius said quietly. "My family disowned me for 'betraying my blood'."

"Cry me a river, Black," Snape snapped in his usual snarky tone. "You had the Potters and Lupin, people who loved you for yourself, not your blood. Don't expect me to feel sorry for you." Black suddenly burst out laughing and Snape raised an eyebrow and said in an icy voice, "It's likely that we'll all be dead very soon; I fail to see the humor in the situation, Black."

"I'm sorry, Severus," Sirius gasped, trying to get himself under control. "It's just...I can't believe I'm standing here having a heart-to-heart chat with you while the fate of the world is about to be decided." Then he could no longer restrain himself, and continued laughing, although there was a slightly hysterical edge to his laughter.

Snape scowled at him, but now that it had been pointed out to him, he also noticed the ironic humor of the situation. He threw back his head and laughed, in his low, husky voice, and Dumbledore smiled although he still looked worried, Weasley and Moody stared at him and Black as if they had both lost their minds, and Lupin looked puzzled but wagged his tail and licked Snape's face.
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Meanwhile, Voldemort was explaining to Harry how he had watched over his daughter, waiting to see if she would show "the potential of her blood".

"She turned out to be quite a disappointment," Voldemort sighed. "She had talent, no doubt about it, but she wasted it by becoming a foolish, noble Gryffindor."

"I can't be a Slytherin!" Harry said triumphantly, as he realized that he must have caught Voldemort in a lie. "Otherwise Fawkes and the Sorting Hat wouldn't have brought me Godric Gryffindor's sword in the Chamber of Secrets! Dumbledore said only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the Hat!"

Voldemort laughed, loud and mockingly. "You have no idea how right you are, young Potter! Only you are not really a Potter at all! None of them have been, not for a thousand years!"

"What are you talking about?" Harry snapped, sounding angry and frightened.

Voldemort grinned and his crimson eyes seemed to glow with malevolence. "Your great hero, the founder of your House, Godric Gryffindor, was not such a hero after all. He once had an affair with a married woman, the wife of the then-Lord Potter."
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"WHAT?!" Sirius and Snape shrieked in chorus, breaking off their laughter.

"B-but th-that would mean..." Sirius stuttered.

"Th-that Potter..." Snape stammered.

"Is the heir to both Gryffindor and Slytherin," Dumbledore finished quietly.
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"You should be proud, Harry," Voldemort taunted him. "You are heir to two Houses! A bastard heir, of course, but being born on the wrong side of the blanket is not much of a hindrance to a man with sufficient ambition and drive."

"You're a liar!" Harry screamed. "How could you possibly know that? Gryffindor and the other founders lived over a thousand years ago!"

"Poor Godric was tormented by his conscience," Voldemort said in a smooth, insinuating voice. "He confided in his best friend, Salazar Slytherin; they were still close then, and had not yet quarreled over letting students with tainted blood enter the school. Salazar wrote of their conversation in his diary, which he left behind in the Chamber for his Heir to find. That was where I got the idea for my own diary, although I made mine a bit more...interactive, shall we say?"

"You're lying," Harry whispered, but it was more of a plea than an accusation.

"Your precious founder was a hypocrite, Harry," Voldemort said. "At least Salazar never tried to hide his faults. Godric and the Potter woman were both married--arranged marriages, as was common back then, but harmonious enough, at least until they met each other and got swept away in the throes of passion. They would have brought shame upon both their families if their illicit affair was discovered, and he tried many times to break it off, but in the end he could not resist and would always return to her. He fathered her son, who became heir to the Potter title and estate, but the child had no Potter blood in his veins. The blood of Gryffindor has flowed strong and true in the 'Potter' line, all the way down to you, Harry. It is no surprise that Godric Gryffindor's sword came to your hand."

"No," Harry whispered despairingly. "No!" Was he really Salazar Slytherin's heir? Had the great Godric Gryffindor really been a philandering husband? Was everything he thought he had known a lie? His father not really a Potter at all, and his mother the daughter of Voldemort? Which would make Voldemort Harry's grandfather; the very thought of it made him want to throw up.
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"Don't listen to him, Harry!" Sirius shouted. "Who cares if some long-dead ancestor of yours had an extramarital fling? Whether he had Potter blood or not, your father was a good person, Harry! He was a brave man, a loyal friend, a loving husband and father! That's what really counts, not his bloodline!"

But Harry did not seem to hear him, whether because of the strange force field enclosing him and Voldemort, or simply because he was too overcome by the shock of Voldemort's revelations to notice.
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Voldemort had tried to kill the boy with spells twice before, and both times the attempt had backfired dramatically. But this time, he thought he had finally discovered a way to kill Potter; he attacked not with his wand, but with the enchanted dagger. He lunged forward, and Potter caught his arm just in time. As Potter wrestled with Voldemort, trying to wrench the dagger away, Voldemort put his free arm around Potter's waist and drew him closer, in a grim parody of an embrace, pulling his body closer to the deadly blade...

They struggled and suddenly the blade slipped in Voldemort's grip and entered his own body. Voldemort screamed as he felt the life being sucked out of him, and Harry screamed as he felt Voldemort's power entering his body.

"NOOOO!!!" Voldemort screamed. "I will not be defeated by a mere child! If this body is useless to me, then I will take yours!"

Harry screamed as his scar seemed to explode in a burst of white-hot pain, and he felt Voldemort battering mercilessly at his mental shields. He tried to remember what Snape had taught him during their Occlumency lessons, but his control was shattered by the pain and by Voldemort's disturbing revelations, and his walls crumbled before the Dark Lord's assault...

"Control, Potter," Snape was saying coldly as they stood in his office. "You will never be able to fend off the Dark Lord if you cannot control your emotions."

{Of course!} Harry heard Voldemort hiss, but in his mind, not aloud. {Occlumency--that is how Severus was able to hide his true loyalties and betray me!}

The mention of Snape involuntarily summoned up other memories: Snape berating Harry in class, Snape bringing a smoking goblet to Lupin's office, Lupin kissing Snape in the Headmaster's office shortly after Snape had healed Sirius...

{The werewolf!} Voldemort exclaimed in surprise. {I never would have guessed!} Then Harry felt a surge of malicious glee not his own. {I'll make Severus pay...I'll torture his werewolf lover before his eyes...}

{NO!} Harry protested. {I won't let you hurt Lupin!} He pushed back with a mental "shove," startling Voldemort, who had not been expecting resistance, and suddenly Harry was bombarded with unfamiliar memories:

A small dark-haired boy living in a gloomy, dingy brick building. It was Tom Riddle at the Muggle orphanage, Harry realized. Young Tom shared a room with a dozen other boys; many of the older ones picked on him and bullied him...

Harry tried to pull out of the memory; he did not want to feel sorry for Voldemort, who had killed Harry's parents...

{I don't need your pity, boy!} Voldemort snarled. {Pity is for the weak!} He showed Harry the memory of how he had slain the Riddle family. Harry recoiled in horror, and Voldemort said, {Oh, come now, boy, don't tell me you haven't wanted to do the same thing to those filthy Muggles you live with! How many times have you wanted revenge on the Dursleys for the way they've treated you, for the way they've badmouthed your parents...?}

{No!} Harry protested. {I'm not like you!} But Voldemort's words had woken the old anger and resentment in Harry. He remembered being locked in the cupboard, being bullied by Dudley, and worse than the way they abused him, the horrible things they said about his mother and father...

{Yes,} Voldemort whispered in a silky smooth voice. {Yes, you want to hurt them, don't you? You want to make them pay...?}

{Yes,} Harry said dreamily, entranced by the almost hypnotic tone of Voldemort's mental voice. Then he came to his senses, frantically saying, {No! No, I didn't mean it--}

{Yes, you did, Harry,} Voldemort replied. {If only for a second, you did. You wanted to hurt them, kill them...}

{No,} Harry sobbed, but they were in his mind and he could not hide from the truth here. He HAD wanted to hurt the Dursleys, even kill them, if only for one insane moment. Despairingly he thought that Voldemort was right; Salazar Slytherin's blood must run in his veins, that was why he was having such evil thoughts...

{That's right,} Voldemort whispered. {We are alike, you and I, do not resist me...it is your heritage, Harry. Surrender to me...embrace the serpent within you...}

Voldemort was working his way further and further into Harry's mind; Harry knew that if he didn't stop Voldemort soon, he would cast Harry out of his own body, condemning him to death or perhaps some ghost-like existence while Voldemort lived on in Harry's body. But despair overwhelmed him, and he could not seem to summon up the will to fight.

{He's right,} Harry thought. {I'm no better than Slytherin, I've messed everything up, I hurt the people around me.} His own parents had died for his sake, he had gotten Cedric killed during the Triwizard Tournament, he had almost gotten Sirius and his other friends killed last year when he'd believed Voldemort's false vision and rushed to the Ministry to "rescue" Sirius. If Snape hadn't been there to save him...that thought suddenly conjured up a series of images in Harry's mind:

Snape healing Sirius. Snape teaching Harry Occlumency. Snape concocting a convoluted plot in order to get Dobby to take the healing salve to Harry after Umbridge's detention punishment last year. Professor Blackmore telling Harry, "Severus was a very complicated boy, and is now an even more complicated man, but he was not, and is not, evil...if you are thinking in terms of black and white, you might call Professor Snape a shade of gray." Lupin saying, "When we were in school, I was impressed by his passion for knowledge and his sharp Slytherin wit," and "He is bitter and cantankerous, but also brave, honorable, and loyal." Lupin defending the Slytherins in class from the Gryffindors' insults. The Sorting Hat singing, "Hogwarts is in danger from external deadly foes, and we must unite inside her or we'll crumble from within..." Dumbledore saying, "You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own rare gift, Parseltongue--resourcefulness--determination--a certain disregard for the rules." And finally, the strange young Japanese girl telling him, "The Lion must embrace the Serpent in the end."

And suddenly Harry laughed out loud; it all made sense now! "The Lion must embrace the Serpent"--it meant he had to embrace both his Gryffindor and Slytherin qualities: bravery and loyalty; resourcefulness and "a disregard for the rules". He finally understood that Slytherin traits were not always a bad thing; Slytherins were often sly and devious, yes, but Snape had used those qualities on behalf of the Order to carry out his work as a spy. A Gryffindor could probably never have kept up the act of a loyal Death Eater for over fifteen years; a Gryffindor probably could not have successfully pretended to be a Death Eater in the first place. Snape was bitter and unpleasant and extremely unfair as a teacher, but he had protected Harry despite the hatred he felt for Harry's father, and he had saved the life of someone he hated--Sirius--for Lupin's sake. Snape knew a great deal about the Dark Arts, yes, but that knowledge had enabled him to cast the forbidden Blood Healing spell that had saved Sirius's life. Harry didn't know if he could ever actually bring himself to like Snape, but right now he was extremely grateful to the man because he had helped Harry to understand what a Slytherin was, both good and bad.

Voldemort recoiled in revulsion at the sudden outpouring of joy in Harry's mind. Harry embraced the Serpent within him, and in the forest, Dumbledore and the others watched in amazement as Harry laughed and physically embraced the Dark Lord. Harry forced Voldemort out of his mind and back into his own dying body.

"NOOO!!!" Voldemort wailed. He tried to escape the shell of his dying body; existing as a disembodied spirit was better than dying completely, and he could wait for another chance to rise and strike again...but Harry sensed this, and threw up walls, not around his own mind, but around Voldemort's. He pictured them as solid brick walls, high and unbreakable; Voldemort frantically beat upon the walls, flinging himself against them again and again, but Harry poured all his strength into those walls and they held. Voldemort screamed, both out loud and in Harry's mind, one last wail of despair and outrage and fear. And then there was nothing but silence; the Dark Lord was finally, truly dead.
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"HARRY!" Sirius screamed, charging forward as Harry released Voldemort's body and let it fall to the ground. The force field seemed to have disappeared, and he was able to reach Harry's side without difficulty this time. He grabbed Harry by the shoulders and shouted, "Are you all right?!"

"Yes, Sirius," Harry said, but he felt very weak, as if his legs could barely hold him up. Forcing Voldemort back into his body--and more importantly, keeping him there--had taken every last ounce of his strength to accomplish.

A cold and familiar voice said, "The question you should be asking is: is the Dark Lord truly dead?" Harry looked past Sirius to see Professor Snape staring at him intently. He looked as sour as always, but this time Harry could see the concern lurking in his dark eyes. Perhaps it had been there all along, and he had never noticed...Harry grinned widely, shocking everyone, Snape included.

"Yes, sir," Harry said. "He's dead; not just his body, but his--spirit, soul, whatever you want to call it."

"Oh, thank God," Snape whispered, and his knees buckled beneath him. He sank to the ground next to Lupin, who was suddenly changing from a wolf back into a man--further proof that the danger was really over.

"By the way, Professor Snape," Harry added, "thank you."

"For what?" a startled Snape asked.

"I couldn't have defeated him without you."

"I--I don't understand," Snape stammered.

"Your Occlumency lessons helped me," Harry explained. "I used what you taught me to push Voldemort out of my mind and back into in his own body. He tried to escape his body like he did the last time, but I built those mental walls you taught me to make around his own mind and trapped him in there. That was how I was able to kill him."

Snape sat there on the ground, looking dumbfounded. "Those walls were only supposed to be used to defend your own mind. I had no idea they could be used in such a way."

Harry shrugged. "Well, maybe it wouldn't have worked on anyone else. There was that connection between Voldemort and me because of this..." Harry rubbed his scar. "But most of all I want to thank you, not just for the Occlumency lessons, but because you taught me what it means to be a Slytherin."

"WHAT?!" Snape, Sirius, and Ron shrieked in unison. Lupin, although his face was creased with weariness and pain from his transformation, grinned happily. Dumbledore was beaming as well. Moody just crossed his arms and waited patiently for Harry to explain; after seeing Snape embrace the werewolf, everything else had pretty much lost its ability to shock him.

"He almost defeated me when he told me that he was my grandfather and I was Salazar Slytherin's descendant," Harry admitted. "I thought it meant I was destined to turn out evil like he did, and I almost gave up..."

"I told you before, Harry," Dumbledore said softly, "it is our choices that show what we really are, not our abilities, and not our bloodlines."

"I know, sir," Harry replied. "I remembered what you told me. And I remembered what that girl Miyako told me--that the Lion must embrace the Serpent. I realized it meant I had to embrace the Slytherin part of me. I think I knew it was there, ever since the Chamber of Secrets, but I was afraid of it. But I remembered how Professor Snape helped me and the Order and Professor Lupin, and then I realized that it wasn't such a bad thing after all."

"How touching," Snape said in his most venomous, sarcastic voice, but his face had turned bright red with embarrassment, and Lupin laughed and hugged him.

"I knew that all along," Lupin said affectionately.

"So, anyway, thank you, Professor," Harry said, and fainted.

Sirius managed to catch him before he hit the ground, and began frantically shouting for help. "Oh, calm down, Black," Snape said, examining Harry briefly. "He just fainted, that's all. No doubt the duel with the Dark...with Voldemort...was very draining." He pulled a vial of smelling salts out of his pocket, broke the seal, and held it under Harry's nose.

Harry woke up, coughing and gagging. "That smells awful!" he exclaimed.

"That's the general idea, Potter," Snape said acerbically. "The scent of lavender or roses, however pleasant, isn't strong enough to wake someone up from a fainting spell." Ron and Sirius gave him an indignant look, but Harry just grinned. "Hmmph!" Snape snorted, turning away, and only Lupin saw the small, nearly imperceptible smile on his face.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

When Harry and the others returned to the battlefield, several people cheered, and several more wept. There was more a feeling of weary relief than celebration, because of all the blood that had been spilled on the battlefield today. The Death Eaters and the giants had taken the heaviest losses, but the Order and their allies had suffered losses as well. Deirdre and Ariane Donner were dead; two Aurors, two tengu, and three centaurs had also been slain, and many more were injured.

The werewolves had transformed back into their human forms, and Lukas was searching the battlefield to see how many members of his pack had been lost. The werewolves had fared well for the most part, thanks to the healing power of their lycanthropy. Lukas found the bodies of two pack members who had each been killed by a single, crushing blow from a giant; death had been instantaneous--the only way one could kill a werewolf. At least in death, they had transformed back into their human forms; they could be buried as men, not beasts.

"Lukas!" Kyra shouted, and the werewolf leader rushed to her side.

"Oh no," Lukas whispered, staring down at Brian's body; his robes had been gray, but they were so drenched with blood that they were now almost entirely crimson. "Damn it!" he said, kneeling down beside the young werewolf. "It's my fault; he was just a cub. I shouldn't have forced him to come." While Lukas mourned the deaths of the other two werewolves, they had been hardened, streetwise warriors, longtime members of his pack--they had known what they were getting into. Brian was a stockboy, for Merlin's sake, and a pampered pureblood before that. "I had no business letting an inexperienced kid like that fight a war..."

"Don't you dare do that!" Kyra shouted fiercely, balling up her hands into fists as she bared her teeth at her shocked pack leader. "Don't you dare belittle his sacrifice! He knew the risks, the same as the rest of us, and he chose to go anyway. He was scared, but that makes him all the braver, for going in spite of his fear! We should honor his courage and his loss, the same as we do the others!"

"You're right," Lukas said, bowing his head remorsefully. "We will honor his memory."

"Gee," said a weak voice, "I didn't know you cared, Lukas."

Kyra shrieked, jumping back as what she had thought was a corpse stirred and slowly sat up. "You're alive!" Lukas shouted joyfully, throwing his arms around Brian in a bone-crushing bear hug.

"Ouch!" Brian yelped. "Lukas, you're cracking my ribs!"

The pack leader released him and gave him a hearty slap on the back that almost knocked him over. "It doesn't matter; we have wondrous healing powers, as you seem to have discovered!"

Brian carefully examined his torn, blood-soaked robes and the unscarred flesh beneath them. "You're right," he said in a tone of wonder. "So there are some advantages to being a werewolf after all!"

"You idiot!" screamed Kyra. "I thought you were dead!"

"Sorry to disappoint you," Brian replied, looking a little taken aback. "Ouch!" he yelped again as she slapped him hard across the face. "Hey, what was that for?" he asked indignantly.

"For making me worry!" she snapped, then grabbed his face firmly between her hands and kissed him hard. His eyes went wide with shock, but he didn't seem to mind; in fact, after a moment, he was returning her kiss quite enthusiastically. Lukas sauntered off, chuckling to himself.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, Snape found Dylan and Math beside Ariane's body. Math looked very old and weary; he had just seen nearly his entire family--his sister, niece, and nephews--slain today. Dylan, of course, had never known the kinder side of Deirdre and her sons, and mourned only his mother. "She told me not to cry, that she was going to be with my father," Dylan said to Snape. "She called his name, and it almost seemed like she could see him. Do you really think that it's possible? That he...that they...?"

Snape looked down at Dylan's wistful, tear-streaked face, not knowing what to say. He doubted that Evan's actions as a Death Eater had earned him a place in a peaceful, heavenly afterlife if such a thing even existed. But on the other hand, what was the harm in letting the boy think so, if it gave him some comfort? And who knew, if there was an afterlife, maybe there was some Dumbledore-like person in charge of it, who would offer even a Death Eater a chance at redemption. "I don't know, Dylan," Snape said. "Perhaps."

"The roses went wild after Ariane died," Branwen said thoughtfully. "They dropped Dolohov and went straight for Bellatrix and then Voldemort, the two people most directly responsible for Ariane's death."

"Well, that's not surprising, is it?" Snape asked. "The roses are linked to Dylan, aren't they?"

"I don't know precisely how they work," Branwen replied, "but from what I saw, it seemed like they simply attacked the nearest available victim unless Dylan ordered them to do otherwise. Did you order them to avenge your mother, Dylan?"

Dylan shook his head. "No. I mean, I would have if I'd thought about it, but all I could think about right then was my mother..."

Lupin's blue eyes widened. "The roses only obey the commands of a Rosier," he said slowly.

"The head of the Rosier family," Snape corrected. "You're not saying...you don't think that EVAN...?"

"You think my dad made the roses do that?!" Dylan exclaimed. "His ghost or spirit or...something?"

Branwen shrugged. "I have no idea. But stranger things have happened. Sometimes the veil between this world and the world of the dead is thin enough to pass through, if only for a brief moment. That is what makes All Hallow's Eve such an auspicious night for casting Dark Magic."

Snape was not sure how comforting the idea of Evan's vengeful spirit was. He laid a hand on Dylan's shoulder and said, hedging a little, "If there were any way for your parents to be together, I'm sure they would find it." Dylan suddenly burst into tears, and Snape put his arms around the boy, a little awkwardly, and Dylan clung to him as he wept.

"Mr. Donner!" Satoshi shouted as he ran up to them. "Your wife is in labor!"

"What?" Math exclaimed. "But she's not due till next month!"

"Well, stress can induce premature labor, or at least, that's what Chizuru says," the tanuki replied. "She's still in the field hospital; there wasn't time to move her to the castle."

"Go," Snape said. "I'll look after Dylan."

Math was worried about his wife, but he smiled a little as he saw how Dylan clung to Snape, and how Snape held the boy--awkwardly, as if he had little experience with such things, but also tenderly and protectively. "Thank you, Severus," Math said, and left with Satoshi.

Meanwhile, Theodore was staring down at the bodies of his parents. Blaise and Serafina were with him; they seemed to be trying to comfort him, but he just stood there with a numb, almost shell-shocked expression on his face. Snape and Lupin exchanged a look; since Snape obviously had his hands full with Dylan, Lupin went over to talk to Theodore.

"I'm sorry, Theo," he said gently.

"It's okay," Theodore said in an emotionless voice. "I mean, it's not like I care. I hated them. They never loved me. They were going to hand me over to the Dark Lord; they were going to let him kill me. I should probably be glad that they're dead." And suddenly he burst into tears, wracking sobs that made his body tremble violently. "I'm sorry," he sobbed, "I don't know why I'm crying." But he couldn't seem to stop. "I shouldn't be sad that they're dead. They never cared about me."

"That is exactly why you're sad," Lupin said, still in that gentle voice. "Because they didn't protect you and care for you the way they should have." And oddly, it was Lupin and not Blaise that Theodore turned to for comfort. He stumbled forward until he bumped into Lupin's chest, and felt his teacher's arms close around him and hold him tightly. He wept, clinging to Lupin, and Blaise smiled at Lupin, a little sadly; he seemed to understand that Theodore needed comfort from a parental figure right now, not a lover.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Theodore kept saying.

"Shh, Theo," Lupin murmured. "It's all right. It's all right to cry."

"A Death Eater's not supposed to cry. A Death Eater's not supposed to be soft."

"You're not a Death Eater," Lupin said firmly, holding him tighter. "It's all right for you to cry. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"I hate them," Theodore sobbed.

"I know," Lupin said.

"I loved them," Theodore whispered, in a voice so soft, only Lupin could hear.

"I know," Lupin repeated sadly, and continued to hold the boy as he wept.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Aurors from the Ministry wanted to question Harry, but Dumbledore said firmly that the boy was exhausted and that they could wait until he had a chance to rest. Sirius was going to accompany Harry and Ron back to the castle, but paused when he saw Branwen walk over to Peter Pettigrew's body.

"Go on, Sirius," Harry said quietly. "He was your friend once, wasn't he? You ought to say goodbye."

"He's a traitor," Sirius said curtly. "He's responsible for your parents' deaths."

"I know," Harry said, "and I can't forgive him for that. But still, you cared about him once. And Professor Blackmore says that things aren't always black and white."

Sirius gave Harry a startled look and smiled. "Well, you've certainly grown up--a lot faster than I have!"

"Go on," Moody said, gruffly but kindly. "I'll see that the boys get to the castle safely. Branwen always takes the death of a student hard; you'd better go make sure she's all right."

"Thanks, Alastor," Sirius said. "I'll go up to the castle right afterwards, Harry."

"I'll be fine, Sirius," Harry assured him. "And besides, I want to check on Hermione first."

"Dumbledore said you're to go straight to bed, young man," Moody said sternly.

"I need to make sure Hermione's okay!" Harry insisted.

"Right," Ron said firmly. "And I want to make sure Fred's all right, and Percy, too. He's a stuck-up git, but he is my brother."

"You might as well give in, Alastor," Sirius laughed. "You'll get no peace until you do; it's that combination of Gryffindor stubbornness and loyalty."

"Well, loyalty to your friends and comrades is a good thing," Moody acknowledged, looking more approving than displeased at the boys' defiance. "All right, just a quick visit to the hospital wing, and then straight to bed with both of you."

Sirius went over to Branwen, who was staring down at her former student. "I wish I could say that I'm sorry he's dead, but I'm not," she said.

"He deserved it, the little rat," Sirius said, then sighed. "We were friends once; I wonder where he went wrong? Was he always cowardly and selfish, and we just never noticed, or was there some point at which he started to change, some point at which we could have prevented it?" Sirius looked a bit shamefaced. "Peter was a tagalong; he was always happy to go along with whatever James and I did. We loved him, but maybe we didn't pay as much attention to him as we should have. We didn't really treat him as an equal, more like a follower. We did that to Remy, too, to a lesser extent; we just took it for granted that they would follow our lead." Sirius grimaced. "Our Gryffindor arrogance, I suppose."

"I don't know," Branwen said, shaking her head. "I wasn't as close to the Gryffindors as I was to the Slytherins. For most of the Death Eaters, I can almost pinpoint the moment where things went wrong: for Severus, it was the Shrieking Shack; for Evan, it was when Ariane's mother tried to break off their romance. I can even see how Lucius Malfoy was almost destined to become a Death Eater from the moment he was born; his parents were just as cold and calculating, just as arrogant and prejudiced as he was. It's no surprise that he turned out the way he did, but Peter's family seemed to be kind and loving. They had a bit of the typical pureblood snobbishness, but by no stretch of the imagination were they Death Eater sympathizers. I really don't know, Sirius. Maybe it was the desire to be more than a follower. Maybe it was simply fear, and he did not have the strength to defy Voldemort as you and James did. He would not be alone; many people stood by and did nothing both during the first war and when Voldemort rose again because they were afraid. Even Marta Nott, with her own son about to be killed before her eyes, could not summon up the courage to save him."

"Poor kid," said Sirius, although he had never expected to feel pity for a Death Eater's child. But he knew how it felt to be abandoned and betrayed by his family, although his parents had not lacked courage, just compassion.

"At least Delia and Narcissa finally found the strength to save their children," Branwen said, and they looked over at Draco, who had finally allowed his mother to hold him as he wept for his father--not just Lucius's death, but the loss of the idealized, loving father who had never really existed.

Sirius watched, feeling uncomfortable. He had hated Narcissa for a long time, for the way she had insulted and snubbed their cousin Andromeda for marrying Tonks's Muggle-born father, for joining the Death Eaters along with Lucius. But whatever else she was, she was a mother who loved her son, and she had fought alongside them today for Draco's sake.

Suddenly a couple of Aurors came up to the Malfoys; they seemed to be trying to arrest Narcissa as Draco protested. Draco took out his wand and the Aurors whipped out theirs. Snape looked up, a worried expression on his face, but Dylan was still clinging to him, sobbing. Sirius decided he'd better hurry over before someone fired off a spell and started another battle.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"We're trying to take this Death Eater into custody," one of the Aurors snapped.

"She may have been a Death Eater once, but no longer," Sirius said. "In the end, she chose to fight alongside us."

"And who are you?" The second Auror asked in a haughty tone.

"Her cousin. Sirius Black." The two Aurors stared at him in shock--as did Narcissa and Draco--and Sirius continued, "I understand that you have to question her, but at least have the decency to let her to say goodbye to her son first."

The Aurors began to mutter and grumble, but Arthur Weasley came up and said, "It's all right, do as he says."

The Aurors subsided reluctantly. "What about the kid? Isn't he one of them, too?"

"He fought with us against Rookwood, Macnair, and Mulciber," Sirius said fiercely, "the same as Narcissa."

"He is my student," the Headmaster said, appearing almost out of nowhere, and the two Aurors jumped a little. "He will remain in my custody here at school while you complete your investigation."

The Aurors were too intimidated to argue with the likes of Albus Dumbledore. "Fine," the first Auror said reluctantly, "but you'll be held personally responsible for him."

"Of course," Dumbledore said with a pleasant smile.

"Mum--" Draco said, looking pale and anxious.

"It's all right, Draco," Narcissa said, embracing him. "Go to Severus if you need anything while I'm gone."

"I'll send a lawyer down to the Ministry to meet you," Sirius told his cousin. He gave the Aurors a pointed look. "And I expect no harm to come to her while she's in your custody. I haven't forgotten how some us were condemned without a trial the first time around."

The Aurors muttered again, but Arthur said, "I'll see that she--that all the prisoners--are treated fairly, Sirius."

"Thank you, Sirius," Narcissa said, giving him a bewildered but grateful look.

"Why're you helping us?" Draco asked suspiciously.

"Because you're family," Sirius replied, and was surprised to find that he meant it. "I don't really have much family left, except for Tonks." Draco looked a little puzzled, and Sirius grinned and said, "Another black sheep of the family; I'll introduce you to her sometime. And besides, Remus seems to think that you're worth saving, and he's a better judge of character than I am."

As Snape watched Black stand up for Narcissa and Draco, he felt the last lingering shreds of hatred and resentment for his childhood enemy suddenly dissipate. With that simple act of compassion towards one of the Slytherin students Snape had tried so hard to save, he found that he was finally able to forgive Black. He doubted that he would ever really like the man, but he no longer hated him. It was just as well, Snape supposed, since Black and Branwen seemed to have been struck by Cupid's arrow on the battlefield. He thought his old Professor would have had better taste than that, but ah well...love wasn't really a logical thing. After all, who would ever have dreamed that a former Death Eater from a long line of pureblood snobs could have fallen in love with a Gryffindor werewolf? Suddenly, Snape felt surprisingly lighthearted, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders: the Dark Lord was dead; his feud with Black was over, which should make Lupin happy; and all of his students were safe, from Draco and Dylan down to Crabbe and Goyle. He had not lost even one, in body or in spirit, to the Death Eaters. He would have laughed out loud with joy, except that he didn't want Dylan, who was still weeping in Snape's arms for his dead mother, to take it the wrong way. But he smiled across the battlefield at Lupin, who smiled back at him.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Finally, all the bodies had been removed from the grounds, to be taken to the morgue or returned to their families, and all the prisoners had been taken into custody. Branwen and Sirius stopped by the field hospital on their way back, where the patients were being moved to either the hospital wing in the castle or to St. Mungo's. To their surprise, they found two more Death Eaters--Jugson and Travers--trussed up like Christmas turkeys; a pair of Aurors were preparing to transport them back to the Ministry for questioning. Chizuru smiled and pointed to her student helpers. "The children subdued the Death Eaters when they tried to attack the hospital tent. They also kept the Dementors at bay."

The members of Dumbledore's Army, along with Pansy and Millicent, grinned proudly. Mamoru and Tsuneko Kamiyama smiled. "Yes, they did very well," Mamoru said. "My sister and I were hardly needed here." He patted Neville on the shoulder. "Longbottom here shows great promise; he knocked out that one--Jugson?--single-handedly with a Stupefy spell." Neville beamed happily.

"The protective charms we wove in Professor Chizuru's class helped too," Ginny said. "It deflected a hex the Death Eaters cast at me." She extended her wrist, showing Branwen the charm she was wearing like a bracelet; the cloth was slightly scorched from having absorbed the effects of the spell.

As Branwen listened to her students' accounts of the battle and praised their efforts, Sirius went to check on Tonks. She was lying on a makeshift pallet in the tent, and to his surprise, he found Kingsley Shacklebolt sitting by her side holding her hand.

"So this is your secret crush?" Sirius exclaimed.

"Sirius!" Tonks shouted indignantly, her face turning bright pink, which made an interesting contrast to her violet hair. She glared at him for a moment, then she and Shacklebolt looked at each other and grinned, a little sheepishly. "Well, it wasn't a crush, precisely," Tonks said, still flushing. "I just didn't think Kingsley was interested; he seemed to think of me like a kid sister..."

"My, my," Sirius said, "love seems to be blossoming all over the battlefield. Nothing like the threat of imminent death to bring out your true feelings, I suppose." He had also noticed two of Lupin's werewolf friends kissing passionately, oblivious to everything around them.

"What are you talking about?" Tonks asked curiously.

"I'll tell you later," Sirius said with a grin. "I've got to get up to the castle and check on Harry."

"We'll be moving her to St. Mungo's," Shacklebolt said, still looking a little sheepish. "Her arm needs more healing than Chizuru can provide here."

"I'll come by and visit you later, Tonks," Sirius said, bending down to kiss her cheek. Then he gave Shacklebolt a mock-stern look. "And I'll expect you to do right by my favorite cousin."

"SIRIUS!" Tonks shouted, as Shacklebolt seemed to flush deeply enough for his dark brown cheeks to show a hint of red.

"Well, he is old enough to be your father," Sirius teased. "I've got to make sure he's not taking advantage of you."

As Shacklebolt spluttered and flushed, Tonks retorted, "First of all, he's only old enough to be my father if he had been running around impregnating girls at Hogwarts..."

"Very rare and scandalous, but it has been known to happen," Sirius pointed out cheerfully.

"And second, age doesn't matter to a wizard," Tonks continued, ignoring him. "Look at Math and Goewin!"

"I'm just teasing, little cousin," Sirius said, kissing her again. "I'm very happy for you." Then he whispered to Shacklebolt, "But if you break her heart, you'll answer to me!"

"SIRIUS!" Tonks shrieked, and Chizuru came in to scold Sirius for upsetting her patient.

As the crane maiden sternly escorted him out of the tent, Satoshi walked up with Karasu leaning on him for support; there was a makeshift bloodstained bandage wrapped around his right leg. The tanuki had provided the bandage, judging by the ragged hem of his robe.

"Karasu!" Chizuru exclaimed, running up to her two countrymen. "What happened?"

"It's nothing, just a scratch," the tengu said, looking embarrassed. "I got careless; one of the Death Eaters got me from behind."

"You should have come and had it taken care of right away!" Chizuru scolded him.

"Oh, you know how stubborn these warrior types are," Satoshi piped up as Karasu glared at him. "Fight on through the pain; stiff upper lip and all that, to borrow a phrase from our British friends..."

"Sit down right now!" the usually gentle crane maiden ordered in a tone that sounded more like Professor Snape. The hardened warrior instantly obeyed, and sat there with a rather silly grin on his face as the healer fussed over him--rather excessively, in Sirius's opinion, since Karasu's wound didn't really look all that serious.

Satoshi snickered as he left with Sirius and Branwen. "They're going to scandalize both their peoples--you British aren't the only ones who suffer from snobbery, you know. Their kind don't mix much, although occasionally a crane maiden will marry an exceptionally worthy and heroic human man. But a crane and a tengu? It's never been done before!"

"What?" Sirius asked, gaping at the tanuki openmouthed. "You mean the two of them--"

Branwen rolled her eyes and giggled; it was a bit disconcerting to hear the demonic Professor Blackmore giggle, but Sirius rather liked it, along with the almost girlish smile on her face. "Wasn't it obvious, Sirius?"

"I'm a bit dense, as you might have noticed," Sirius laughed.

"And they're royalty of a sort, too," Satoshi added, and this time even Branwen looked surprised. "Chizuru is the daughter of the leader of the crane people, and Karasu is the grandson and heir of the head of the tengu clan." He grinned gleefully; the mischievous tanuki were tricksters who loved nothing better than to stir up trouble. "Their respective royal families are going to be in an uproar! Chizuru's family were already not too happy about the fact that she left home first to teach at Mahou Gakkou, and then at Hogwarts. They'll simply--ah, what's the expression I heard one of the students use?--have a cow over this!"

Branwen just smiled and said serenely, "Change is good; if things stay the same for too long, they become stagnant. Both our peoples need to realize this, it seems."

"Oh, I quite agree with you, Branwen," Satoshi said. "It's just that I think there will be a great deal of commotion before the crane people and the tengu come to realize it as well."

"Karasu and Chizuru are up to the challenge, I think," Branwen replied, looking unconcerned. "She's quite strong-willed behind that delicate appearance she projects. People tend to underestimate healers, but I've never met one who wasn't as fiercely protective of their patients as a mother bear is of her cubs."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lupin and Snape led their students, who were both physically and emotionally exhausted, back to the castle. No one was quite sure what to do about the roses; Snape said that they should probably be returned to the Rosier estate, but he and Dylan were too tired to deal with them right now. In the end, Dylan carried the pot of roses to one of the dungeon chambers, and Dumbledore locked and warded the room with the strongest spells he possessed. That, they decided, should keep the roses safely contained for the time being. The students were all sent to bed, except for Blaise and Dylan, who were taken to the hospital wing; Blaise to have his wound tended to, and Dylan to visit his great-aunt and his new cousin.

In the midst of tragedy, one bright spot emerged. They found a tired but very happy Goewin lying in bed, cradling a dark-haired baby in her arms as Math sat by her bedside, smiling at them fondly.

"She's so tiny," Dylan marveled, gently running a finger down the baby's cheek. The baby opened her eyes--which were silvery-gray like his own--and gazed up at him solemnly.

"Well, she is a bit premature," Goewin said, "but Madam Pomfrey says she's perfectly healthy."

"Is she supposed to be all red like that?" Dylan asked dubiously.

Math laughed gently. "All newborns look like that, Dylan. Your mother did, and your uncles, and so did you."

Dylan blinked back tears at the mention of his mother; he had thought he could not possibly have any tears left in his body to shed, but apparently he did. "What are you going to name the baby?" he asked.

Goewin smiled at him tenderly. She and Math had picked a name out soon after they had learned she was pregnant, but Goewin had changed her mind and chosen another, with Math's blessing. "I thought we'd call her Ariana," she said softly.

Dylan stared at her for a moment, both touched and stunned, then whispered, "Thank you," and burst into tears. Snape held the boy while he wept, ignoring Pomfrey as she stared at him in shock. Dylan cried only for a little while, perhaps because these were tears of joy as well as sorrow, or perhaps just because he had no energy left to cry for very long. In any case, once his tears were dried, Snape took him back to his dorm and told him to go straight to bed.

It had been night when the battle started, but now the sun was rising, and with it would come a horde of Ministry officials, reporters, and frantic parents, all demanding answers. Dumbledore, however, insisted that their questions could wait while his teachers got a few hours of rest, and ordered them to their beds as sternly as Snape had ordered his students to theirs.

So Lupin and Snape headed to the Potions Master's quarters. Lupin was tempted to fall into bed fully dressed, but his robes were stained with Thaddeus Nott's blood, and still damp with Theodore's tears, so he wearily began undressing, and Snape followed suit. As Snape took off his shirt and let it fall to the floor, he suddenly froze in place, staring at his arm.

"Severus?" Lupin asked in concern. "Are you all right?"

"The Mark," Snape said in a hoarse whisper; he seemed to be having trouble making his voice work.

Lupin came over, grasped Snape's wrist, and gently turned his arm over to examine it. The skin on the inside of his left forearm was smooth, white, and unmarked. There was not even the faintest hint left of the skull-and-snake tattoo. "The Dark Mark," Lupin gasped. "It's gone! It must have vanished when Voldemort died!"

Snape fell to his knees, his arm sliding out of Lupin's grasp, and for only the fourth time in his entire adult life, he wept. He sobbed uncontrollably, staring at the blank spot on his arm, at the missing Mark he had thought he would never be free of. He had been a slave to Voldemort for almost twenty years, and now he was finally free...

Lupin sat down on the floor beside his lover and put his arms around Snape, holding him as he wept. Lupin found himself weeping too, and they clung to each other until they were all cried out, then crawled into bed and immediately fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the morning, they had to deal with all the things they had postponed, and were kept busy answering the Ministry's questions and dealing with parents demanding to see their children and wanting to know how Death Eaters had managed to get onto the campus. Somewhat to Snape's surprise, Mrs. Crabbe and Mrs. Goyle were among them, and actually looked relieved to see that their children were safe. He watched in amazement as they hugged their sons, although they had never shown much affection for their children in the past. Would wonders never cease? Delia Avery had finally grown a spine and stood up to her husband, Lupin had won over Draco's loyal cronies, and now Mrs. Crabbe and Mrs. Goyle had turned into loving mothers. Well, while they were annoying and overbearing at times, they had never joined the Death Eaters like their husbands, so perhaps they weren't all that bad, and now that they had nearly lost their their sons, maybe they would appreciate them more. Lupin walked in on the middle of their conversation and cheerfully told them how Crabbe and Goyle had saved him from the Dementor on the battlefield and that they should be very proud of their sons. Snape had to bite his lip to keep from laughing as the two women stared in shock, looking absolutely dumbfounded as their sons beamed happily at their werewolf teacher.

Snape and Lupin were too busy to eat breakfast or lunch in the Great Hall--in fact, they barely had time to eat at all, grabbing a quick bite here and there in between talking to the Ministry officials and fending off worried parents--but they did make it down to the Hall for dinner. Lupin still looked tired and drained, the result of having transformed unexpectedly without the benefit of the Wolfsbane Potion, and he looked up at Snape as they approached the entrance to the Great Hall, an unspoken question in his eyes. Snape knew what Lupin wanted, and he also knew that Lupin would not hold it against him, would not utter one word of rebuke if Snape chose to ignore his silent request. But Lupin looked so weary and so wistful that he could not bear to deny his lover what he wanted. After all, he owed Lupin a great deal for the way he had hurt him in the past, and had he not once promised Lupin, "When the war is over, I will gladly tell the world that you are my lover"? So he silently held his arm out to Lupin as they entered the Hall. Lupin's eyes widened, then he smiled and took Snape's arm, leaning on him for support as they walked in together and took their seats at the head table. All the teachers except for Dumbledore and Branwen stared at them in astonishment, their jaws hanging open. An excited buzz of conversation broke out all over the room from the students' tables.

Lupin grinned at Snape, the weariness in his eyes retreating for a moment to be replaced by a mischievous gleam. "Shall we really give them something to gossip about, Severus?"

"Are you referring to your threat to 'snog you at the head table in front of the entire school,' I believe were your exact words?" Snape asked in his usual sarcastic voice.

"Suh...suh...suh...snog?" gasped a shocked and horrified Hagrid as he overheard Snape's remark. Both Lupin and Snape ignored him.

"Yes, Sev," Lupin replied with a grin.

Snape heaved an exaggerated, long-suffering sigh, and replied, "If you must. Although I think you should learn to curb these exhibitionist tendencies of--"

And the Hall echoed with a great, combined shriek of surprise from the assembled teachers and students as Lupin cut off Snape's words with a firm kiss.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

When the commotion finally died down, Dumbledore explained to the students the events of the previous night, and praised the bravery of everyone involved, and made a point of noting that they had prevailed because everyone--human and non-human; Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff--had united and worked together for the common good. He raised his glass and said a toast to those who had fought, then asked for a moment of silence for those who had died. He ended his speech on that solemn note, and the meal commenced, in a much more subdued manner.

The Potions Master's pale face remained a little red for the rest of the evening, and he spent most of the meal trying to scowl viciously at the teachers and students who kept casting him sidelong glances of disbelief. But the scowl tended to slip and the corners of his mouth would twitch, threatening to turn into a smile every time he looked at Lupin, who looked radiantly happy and just a little smug. Dumbledore and Branwen, of course, looked EXTREMELY smug and pleased with themselves whenever they looked at the happy couple. Even Sirius, who was sitting at the head table as a guest that night, smiled a little at them. He was not quite sure when he had stopped hating Snape, although he supposed the process had started that day near the end of summer, when he had realized how much Snape cared for Dylan, and when he had finally acknowledged to himself the real reasons he had sent Snape to the Shrieking Shack back in fifth year. He wasn't sure if he and Snape would ever actually be friends, but he supposed that they would learn to get along with each other for Moony's and Branwen's sakes. Branwen adored the slimy git--and Sirius supposed he should be grateful for her capacity for affection, since it also enabled her to love a thick-witted, stubborn, hotheaded Gryffindor git as well. Besides, he had to admit that his main objection to Lupin's and Snape's relationship--his fear that Snape would hurt Remus--no longer applied, because it was clear from that little display of affection that Remy had the Potions Master wrapped around his little finger; he could never in a million years have imagined that Snape would ever let Lupin kiss him and embarrass him in front of the entire school, but he had.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Later that night, Snape and Lupin lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. "Sev?" Lupin asked.

"Hmm?"

"Can't sleep?"

"No."

"Me neither. And I imagine there a lot of children lying awake in Slytherin right now, too."

"You're probably right," Snape said.

"Well?" Lupin said expectantly. "Don't you think we should do something about that? You are their Head of House."

"And what would you like me to do, Lupin?" Snape asked sarcastically. "Take them some hot milk, tell them a story, and tuck them into bed?"

"Something like that," Lupin replied with a straight face, "although I was thinking hot chocolate instead of plain milk."

Snape laughed and gave in. "Aren't you worried about the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs as well?"

"Yes, but they have their own Heads of House to look after them," Lupin said, looking serious now. "And besides, it was Slytherin that suffered the most losses in this war. We now have two children who are orphans, two who have lost their fathers, and two whose fathers are back in prison. And many of the others probably have families who sympathized with the Death Eaters. However much they feared the Death Eaters, a part of them must have been drawn to the promise of power, the promise to make Slytherin the greatest of all the Houses, instead of one despised and mistrusted. They will need comfort, Severus, and reassurance."

"Very well," Snape sighed. "But you have to come with me; I'm not very good at comforting children."

"You did well enough with Dylan," Lupin said with a smile. "But of course I'll come with you, since you're not ashamed to be seen with me anymore," Lupin teased.

"I'll have you know, Lupin," Snape complained, "that you're utterly destroying my reputation."

"Poor baby," Lupin said, kissing his cheek.

"Cut that out!"

"You don't want me to kiss you?" Lupin asked innocently.

"I don't want you to call me 'poor baby'!" Snape huffed. "And don't play dumb with me!"

Lupin laughed and hugged him. "I love you when you're grumpy, Sev," he said fondly.

"Well, good," Snape grumbled, "since that's my normal mood."

"I love you all the time, Severus," Lupin said tenderly. "Grumpy or cheerful, compassionate or bitter. I love you always, every part of you."

"Hmmph," Snape snorted as he blushed. Then he kissed Lupin and said, "I love you, too, you irritating little werewolf. Come on, let's go comfort the brats." They climbed out of bed and got dressed, and before they left, Snape paused to put on both his serpent bracelet and the serpent ring Lupin had given him for Christmas.

Lupin smiled when he saw Severus put on the ring, and when he saw that Severus had put the bracelet on over the sleeve of his robe instead of under it. Although he put up with Lupin's "exhibitionist tendencies," Snape was not inclined to be demonstrative with his affection in public, so Lupin was touched by what he knew was Severus's way of openly declaring his love for Lupin.

Snape saw Lupin's smile and said gruffly, "Well, there's no point in hiding it anymore after tonight, is there? Besides, there's not really any need to hide it now that the Dark Lord--now that Voldemort's dead."

Lupin kissed him again, and pulled out the quartz good-luck charm--the first gift he had ever received from Severus, back in fifth year--that he usually wore hidden beneath his robes, and let it rest on his chest. "You're right, Sev; no point in hiding it." He sighed happily. "I've been waiting over twenty years for the chance to wear this openly."

Snape blinked back tears at the sight of the childish gift Lupin had kept and cherished during all the years they'd been apart. He reached out with one finger and traced the rune carved into the smooth surface of the stone; Lupin caught Snape's hand, lifted it to his lips, and kissed his fingertips. Speechless for a moment, Snape let his fingers gently trace the curve of Lupin's lips, then cleared his throat and said, "We should get going." Lupin smiled and nodded.

They made a brief detour to the kitchen, then entered the Slytherin dorm followed by house-elves carrying trays laden with mugs of hot cocoa. Although it was after lights-out, there were a number of children sitting in the common room, looking anxious, haunted, shell-shocked, or all of the above. All of the children who had been on the battlefield were among them.

"Professor!" Dylan exclaimed.

Snape looked as though he didn't know what to say, so Lupin smiled and said, "We couldn't sleep tonight, and clearly you can't, either, so I thought we might as well all stay awake together." The elves began distributing the mugs of cocoa, and soon the rest of the children were coming out into the common room to see what was going on. When all the mugs had been passed out, the house-elves left, and Lupin and Snape took seats on the couch, holding their own mugs. Dylan came over and sat beside Snape, and after a moment, Damien followed. The other children cautiously began to approach; Snape was not surprised to see that most of them congregated around Lupin rather than himself: Theodore and Blaise hesitantly sat on Lupin's side of the couch, and Crabbe, Goyle, and Doherty curled up on the floor at his feet like a pack of puppies. The other children found seats on the floor or on the other chairs. Draco hung back a little, standing in front of the fireplace.

They sipped their chocolate in silence together for a few minutes, then finally Damien worked up enough courage to ask, "Um, sir? When did you and Professor Lupin, ah, um..."

Snape looked over at Lupin. "I'll let you handle that, Lupin, since the public display of affection was your idea," he said in a slightly sarcastic tone.

Lupin just grinned. "Actually, we first got together back in fifth year, during Professor Blackmore's class. She's always been big on inter-House cooperation."

Damien choked on his chocolate. "What?!"

Lupin laughed. "Yes, Dylan's parents weren't the only ones to discover romance in her class!"

"Th-then all these y-years, the two of you...?" Brad Doherty stammered.

Lupin's expression turned sober. "Not exactly. I've always cared for Severus, but..." He and Snape exchanged a significant glance. "But our relationship could not withstand the pressures of the House rivalries. My Gryffindor friends objected to my friendship with Severus and...ah...set into motion a misunderstanding that caused us to quarrel and separate for eighteen years."

"To be fair," Snape admitted reluctantly, "the quarrel was one-sided. You tried to apologize to me, but I would not listen."

"I didn't try hard enough to get you back," Lupin replied, looking a little guilty. "I was too afraid of losing my other friends." He smiled sadly at the Slytherins. "You see, if I lost both Severus and my Gryffindor friends, then I would be completely alone. It's not easy for a werewolf to make friends." He smile grew a little warmer as he added, "At least back then. I'm very happy that so many of you have welcomed me as your teacher in spite of my lycanthropy." He smiled in particular at Crabbe, Goyle, and Brad. "In fact, I owe my life to you three. In all the excitement, I never got a chance to thank you, so I would like to thank you now. Thank you very much, Vincent, Gregory, Brad." The three boys beamed up at him with sheer devotion in their eyes, enhancing Snape's mental image of them as puppies, and he had to duck his head to hide his smile.

Meanwhile, Theodore was busy doing math in his head. "Eighteen years...that means, when you came to Hogwarts during our third year..."

"Very good, Theo," Lupin laughed. "Five points to Slytherin! Yes, Severus and I renewed our...er...friendship...that year."

"But Professor Snape got you fired!" Draco exclaimed.

"Well, there was another, um, misunderstanding," Lupin said.

"Sirius Black," Dylan said quietly. "You believed he really was a murderer, like everyone else did at the time, and you thought Professor Lupin had helped him get into Hogwarts."

"Perceptive as always, Mr. Rosier," Snape sighed. Of course, Dylan was the only one of the children who knew just how much he had hated Black. "But I was wrong. About Black being a murderer, and about Lupin helping him."

"We made up," Lupin explained, "but I still had to leave the school, until Albus convinced the school governors to let me come back this year."

"But you acted like you hated each other!" Goyle said, sounding bewildered.

"Use your brain, you dolt!" Theodore snapped. "A Death Eater couldn't have a relationship with a Gryffindor! They had to pretend..." His voice trailed off as the implication of his own words sank in. "But then...that means..." He looked at his Head of House with wide eyes. "You weren't really a Death Eater!" He asked timidly, "Were...were you ever really one of them, or were you working for Dumbledore the whole time?"

Draco cautiously crept forward; he very much wanted to know the answer to that question, too.

"At first I was," Snape admitted. He really didn't want to confess his shame to his students, but he felt that they deserved to know the truth, particularly the Death Eater offspring; he was quite aware of Draco listening intently behind him. "I wanted to learn all the things about the Dark Arts that Hogwarts refuses to teach, and I wanted revenge on Lupin's Gryffindor friends for humiliating me." He hesitated; well, he had just resolved to tell the truth... "And for coming between us. But on the night I took the Dark Mark, they executed a man before my eyes, killed him in a Blood Magic ritual, and I knew I had gotten in over my head. I told the Headmaster what I had done, and instead of calling in the Aurors to arrest me, he asked me to spy for him, and I agreed."

"To keep from being sent to Azkaban?" Draco demanded.

"No, Draco," Snape replied, without any anger, although most his students were watching him nervously, obviously expecting him to chew out Draco, if not strike him down on the spot. "I feared my Master's wrath far more than I feared prison or even death. I did it to atone for my own stupidity, and my part in that man's death."

"You spied on us all these years," Draco said, still sounding angry and hurt, but there was a pleading look in his eyes. "You pretended to be my father's friend. You pretended to be my friend."

"He was trying to save you, Draco," Lupin said gently.

"Save me from what?!"

"From being served up to the Dark Lord on a platter!" Theodore snarled. "Isn't it obvious? Our precious Master was ready to sacrifice us all last night!"

"I was trying to save you from making the same mistakes I did, Draco," Snape said wearily, "and living with a lifetime of guilt." Draco fell silent. "And I was trying to save you from suffering the fate of Dylan's father, who died for a Master who cared nothing for him. And yes, I was trying to save you from being killed, as Theodore nearly was last night. The Dark Lord claimed we were his family, but he used us like pawns on a chessboard, and sacrificed us just as easily as one would a chess piece. You saw the reward the Lestranges reaped, and they were the most loyal of all his followers."

"I'm sorry," Draco whispered, and he began to tremble a little. "My father told me not to trust you, but he turned out to be the one I couldn't trust."

Lupin reached out to lay a hand on Draco's shoulder. "It's all right, Draco. It's only natural to want to believe in your parents. It's not your fault that your father betrayed your trust."

"Why did you keep trying to help me even when I kept insulting you?" Draco asked him. "Sirius Black said you thought I was worth saving. What made you think that I wouldn't turn out to be like..." He had meant to say, "my dad," but he choked on the words, and changed them to, "...like the other Death Eaters?"

"Because you loved your parents," Lupin answered in a gentle voice. "And someone who is capable of such love cannot be completely evil. Voldemort always thought that love was a weakness, but he was wrong: love is the greatest strength we possess."

Draco sniffled a little and blinked back tears. He abruptly came around to the front of the couch, and joined Crabbe and Goyle on the floor in front of Lupin and Snape. Serafina came over and sat beside him, and he gave her a small, tremulous smile.

Suddenly, the students seemed to have overcome their shock and their fear of Snape, because they were all asking questions at once:

"How did you keep the Death Eaters from finding out you were a spy?"

"Did they ever suspect you, sir?"

"Professor Lupin, what did you do all the time you were gone from Hogwarts?"

"How did you turn into a wolf when it wasn't the full moon?"

"Will you tell us more about your werewolf ancestors?"

"One at a time," Lupin laughed.

So they kept talking late into the night, until all the mugs were empty, and the children were yawning and starting to doze off. Dylan was nodding off on Snape's shoulder, and Crabbe and Goyle were already curled up on the floor, snoring.

"Bedtime," Lupin said softly, and they sent the children off to their rooms. Dylan woke up enough to get back to his room on his own feet, but Crabbe and Goyle were soundly asleep and could not be roused.

"Maybe we should just leave them here," Snape suggested.

"You can't let them sleep on the floor!" Lupin said indignantly.

"Oh, very well," Snape sighed. He took out his wand and levitated them to their room. "But you can tuck them into bed, since it was your idea!"

"Very well," Lupin said with a smile, and he did.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Things were very hectic in the following week; the Minister of Magic was dead, and a new Minister needed to be selected. The position was offered to Dumbledore, who turned it down, of course, but suggested an alternate candidate: Arthur Weasley. The Ministry officials were shocked by this, but the Aurors who had fought on the battlefield had been impressed by Arthur's courage as he had fought alongside them, and by the way he had kept his head afterwards, calmly and efficiently overseeing the roundup of the prisoners and the evacuation of the wounded. So a stunned Arthur Weasley found himself the new Minister of Magic; he was a bit overwhelmed and tempted to turn down the position, but the look of pride on his wife's and children's faces made him change his mind. He didn't care about the rank or the increase in pay, but things had been difficult for Molly over the years, and he wanted to make it up to her. Besides, as Dumbledore pointed out to him, he would be in a position to do some good in the wizarding world.

Even before Arthur was appointed the new Minister of Magic, Percy made peace with his family. He finally understood that his father had been right all along about Harry Potter and Voldemort, and he was touched by the way the twins had rushed to his rescue, nearly getting themselves killed in the process. And his brothers and sister forgave him for the way he had snubbed them the other year, impressed by the way he had fought off an Imperius Curse to set off the firecracker warning. Fred and George were quite pleased that their new fireworks had been used as a warning signal--and by the fact that it provided some positive publicity for their shop. Molly, of course, was simply relieved and overjoyed to have her family together again.

The Longbottom family also had a happy reunion: Neville's parents were suddenly thinking and speaking coherently again--perhaps the result of the deaths of Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange. Often the effects of a curse were broken by the death of the caster, the way the Dark Mark had vanished from the arms of the Death Eaters after Voldemort died. The Longbottoms remembered almost nothing that happened after the attack; the past fifteen years they had spent in St. Mungo's were a blur to them, so they were more than a little surprised to find that their baby boy was now a teenager, but they embraced him with tears of sorrow and joy.

The surviving Death Eaters were sentenced to prison terms in Azkaban, except for Narcissa Malfoy and Delia Avery, who were granted probation because they had fought against their fellow Death Eaters in the end. That was a relief to Snape, who already had two orphaned Slytherins to worry about; Dylan had Math and Goewin, of course, but he wasn't sure if Theodore Nott had any relatives who were willing to look after him, or if those relatives were people who could be entrusted with a child's care. Rabastan Lestrange was still at large, and the Aurors were hunting for him, but no one considered him that much of a threat now that Voldemort was dead and all the other Death Eaters were imprisoned.

Meanwhile, the giants signed a peace treaty with the wizards. There was some grumbling about that, but Dumbledore pointed out that the new Gurg, Grawp, had saved the lives of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and the grumbling ceased, or at least was toned down to a mutter. The centaurs still wanted nothing to do with the humans; they had fought simply to avenge their slain kinsfolk, they said haughtily, and retreated back to the Forest. They accepted Firenze back into their ranks, though, and the centaur resigned his position at Hogwarts, leaving Professor Trelawney the sole Divination teacher once again. Snape muttered that they ought to look into hiring Miyako Kamiyama when she graduated from school; she certainly had a higher success rate than Trelawney.

The new Minister of Magic also pushed through a new law giving non-humans equal rights. This was accomplished with some help from Rita Skeeter, who wrote up a glowing account of how the werewolves had "fought heroically, risking their lives to aid the very people who had treated them as outcasts and second-class citizens".

"Well, actually, we just wanted to avenge the death of our friend," Lukas said with an amused smile as he read the Daily Prophet one morning; Lupin had invited him to Hogwarts to give him the good news, and they were having breakfast together in Snape's quarters--well, Lupin's and Snape's quarters now. After having gone public with their relationship, there didn't seem to be any point in Lupin keeping his own rooms, since he spent nearly all of his time in Snape's. So he happily and openly moved into Snape's dungeon quarters. The Slytherin children were delighted to have him in the dungeon; in their eyes, it served to make him one of their own, a sort of unofficial Slytherin even though he was a Gryffindor. Lupin looked around the room which was now truly his, and at his lover, who was sipping a cup of coffee with a rather sour expression on his face, and was filled with a sense of contentment. It took him a moment to realize that Lukas was speaking, and he had not heard a word that his friend had said.

"Earth to Remus," Lukas said, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Oh, sorry!" Lupin said. "I was just...er...ruminating, I suppose."

Lukas grinned, giving Lupin a sly look. "You looked as smug as a cat licking cream from its whiskers! Anyway, what I said was, how on earth did you get the Skeeter woman to give us a positive write-up? Her style is more tearing people down than building them up."

Lupin grinned. "It wasn't me; it was Hermione. She arranged for Rita to get an exclusive interview with Harry in exchange for a few articles like this one. She also seems to have some kind of hold over the woman that I don't quite understand, almost as if she's blackmailing Rita."

"Hmm," Snape said thoughtfully, "she's not as much of a goody-two-shoes as I thought. Maybe she would have made a good Slytherin after all..."

"There's a sidebar here about the Wolfsbane Potion," Lukas said. "All about how werewolves are perfectly safe when they take it, and apparently the Ministry is expanding the distribution program--thanks to Arthur, no doubt." Then his eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You helped invent the potion, Snape?! I didn't know that!"

"What?!" Snape exclaimed. "Did that little brat tell the Skeeter woman that?!"

"No," Lukas said, reading further. "It was your partner, Kamiyama. He says that he felt guilty about taking the credit for it all these years, and he wanted to see you get the acknowledgment you deserve." Lukas grinned, exposing his sharp canines. "He makes you out to be quite the hero, Severus. He says you kept your role in the development of the Wolfsbane Potion secret so as not to jeopardize your ability to spy on the Death Eaters."

"Meddling old wizards," Snape mumbled as he flushed slightly.

"You ARE a hero, Sev," Lupin said, kissing him on the cheek. "I think the whole world should know that!"

Snape's face turned even more red as he glared at Lupin for kissing him in front of the other werewolf. "Most people probably think I only turned on Voldemort to save my own skin."

"Well, this article hints that you developed the potion out of affection for a certain werewolf," Lukas said, still grinning.

"WHAT?!" Snape howled. "Who told her that?! It must be one of the students! When I find out which brat it was, I'll--"

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, Severus," Lupin interrupted, "I'm sure half the wizarding world must know by now. After we kissed at the head table--"

"You kissed me," Snape corrected him.

"--I'm sure many of the students owled their parents with the shocking news," Lupin continued calmly. "And they in turn spread the news to their friends, and so on." Snape groaned loudly. "You're not ashamed of me, are you, Severus?"

"No, Remus," Snape said hastily, looking guilty, then saw that Lupin was only teasing him. He sighed. "It's just a bit embarrassing to have my love life being discussed not only among the entire student body, but in the Daily Prophet as well!" Lukas and Lupin laughed. "I'm so happy that I was able to entertain you," he said sarcastically, and the werewolves laughed even harder. He sighed and shook his head. "Taking children hot chocolate in the middle of the night, and now this damned newspaper article, making me out to be either a hero or a lovesick idiot! You have completely ruined my reputation, Lupin!"

"I'm so sorry, Sev," Lupin said, not looking sorry at all. "But I knew all along that you were a softie underneath that big bad Potions Master act."

"LUPIN!"

"Are you two always like this?" Lukas asked, looking amused.

"No," Snape said.

"Yes," Lupin said at the same time.

Lukas chuckled and quietly got up and left the room, leaving Lupin and Snape to happily argue with each other. It was quite some time before they noticed he was gone.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Harry reluctantly agreed to give Rita Skeeter an interview, in order to help Lupin and the other werewolves. And Hermione's threat of turning Rita in to the Ministry as an unregistered animagus ensured that she printed his exact words rather than twisting them around. After some inner debate, Harry left out the part about being descended from both Slytherin and Gryffindor; it was bad enough being the Boy Who Lived and the savior of the wizarding world--he could imagine how much more unwanted attention he'd receive if the identity of his ancestors became known. But he did make a point of telling Rita how he had overcome Voldemort by embracing both the Slytherin and Gryffindor qualities within him, and pointed out how the school had united as the Sorting Hat said they should, with students from all four Houses coming together to defend Hogwarts against the Death Eaters. He didn't think he should tell Rita that Snape had taught him Occlumency, since he wasn't sure if Snape wanted that to become common knowledge, but it was Snape who had provided him with the means to defeat Voldemort, so he wanted to give him some credit. So he made sure to mention Snape's role as a spy, and how Snape and the other Order members had protected him over the years, including the time Snape had saved Harry from Quirrell/Voldemort during the Quidditch match in first year.

"So is it true that Severus Snape and Remus Lupin are an item?" Rita asked, peering at him through her jeweled spectacles.

"No comment," Harry said. "You'll have to ask Professor Snape that himself." {I'd like to see you try!} Harry thought to himself, picturing Snape turning Rita into a toad.

From the sour expression on Rita's face, the same thought had probably occurred to her. "You're becoming quite a savvy interviewee, Potter," she said with a hint of grudging respect.

When Snape saw the interview, he scowled ferociously, crumpled up the paper and threw it into the fireplace. Lupin laughed, hugged him, and said, "You'll just have to get used to being a hero, my love!"
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Most of the teachers didn't try to teach their students much in the last week of school, since everyone was still stunned and distracted by all the uproar and upheaval that followed the battle. Flitwick let them play games and practice spells, Satoshi taught them magic tricks, McGonagall simply reviewed material that would be on their final exams, and most of the other teachers similarly took it easy on their students. The two exceptions were Karasu and Snape, who were both of the opinion that keeping the students too busy to think would distract them from their grief and fear. Snape worked them mercilessly in his Potions classes, allowing them no time to brood or gossip; the Slytherins, although they grumbled under their breath the same as the other students, were troubled by many disturbing thoughts and memories, and were secretly grateful to get a couple of hours' respite from those thoughts. Meanwhile, Karasu worked them equally hard in his martial arts classes; their practice sessions allowed them to work off some of their nervous energy and left them too exhausted to brood or mope. And although they sometimes went to bed bruised and sore, the physical exertion also enabled the students to sleep soundly at night without having their rest interrupted by bad dreams.

Lupin gave his students their exams, as was required by the school, but as he solemnly told his sixth-year Gryffindor-Slytherin class, "As far as I'm concerned, you have already passed the test that truly counts: you took what I taught you and used it on the battlefield to defend the school and your classmates. I'm very proud of all of you." The entire class smiled at him, fairly bursting with pride, even Draco, although his pride was tempered with sorrow.

So aside from the exams, Lupin didn't bother with regular lessons, and spent most of his remaining class sessions simply talking with his students, much as he and Severus had done with the Slytherins the night following the battle. He knew that his students were still confused and a little frightened, and the non-Slytherin students were filled with curiosity about his newly-revealed relationship with the Potions Master.

"You and Professor Snape?" Dean Thomas asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "I still can't believe it! He's so...so..."

The Slytherin students all turned and glared at him, but Lupin intervened before an argument could start. "Stubborn?" Lupin asked gently, an amused smile playing around the corners of his mouth. "Intimidating? Unyielding?"

"Bad-tempered?" muttered Seamus Finnigan.

"Yes, that too," Lupin laughed. Then he said in a quieter and more serious voice, "But all those qualities reflect his inner strength, which enabled him to survive as a spy for almost two decades. It was not an easy job, you know, even aside from the very real and constant danger of being killed--to have to immerse oneself in the role of a Death Eater, to have to pretend to enjoy the killing and torture, to have to live with the suspicion in one's public life, to be feared and despised by one's peers...and one's students." The Gryffindors flushed and looked a bit shamefaced. "I know from experience that he can be...ah...difficult at times, but he has worked very hard to protect all of you. While he does take a sincere pleasure in docking points from Gryffindor, one of the reasons why he would grow so angry with you, Harry, whenever you snuck out of your dorm or the castle on some illicit adventure, was because it made it harder to protect you."

Harry's blush grew deeper as he remembered all the times he had suspected Snape of being in league with Voldemort. "Yes, Professor," he mumbled. "I know that now."

"Okay, so Snape's not a bad guy after all," Seamus said, frowning slightly, with the air of someone trying to figure out a complicated puzzle. "But I still don't understand what made you...ah...um..."

"Fall in love with him?" Lupin finished helpfully with a cheerful smile.

Seamus turned scarlet. Although Pansy had been just as shocked as the Gryffindor boy to learn that Lupin and Snape were lovers, she gave him a condescending smile and said, "You Gryffindors are such prigs."

"I'm not a prig!" Seamus protested, although the sight of his two teachers kissing had thrown him for a loop and made him feel slightly queasy. He didn't think that it was so much the sight of Lupin kissing another man that made him queasy--although he didn't particularly want to see two guys kissing--so much as it was the fact that Lupin had been kissing SNAPE! He could not picture anyone, male or female, wanting to kiss the beaky-nosed, greasy-haired, sallow-faced--not to mention bad-tempered--Potions Master. He shuddered a little as his overactive imagination conjured up an image of Professor McGonagall kissing Snape--no, that definitely was not an improvement! "It's just that he's so...well..." Seamus's voice trailed off; he didn't think that Lupin would appreciate someone calling his lover "ugly".

"Severus has many good points," Lupin said pleasantly. "I would say that he is brave, honorable, and--though he tries to hide it--compassionate, but Professor Snape would accuse me of trying to ruin his reputation if I did."

"Uh, but you did just say it, didn't you, Professor?" Crabbe asked, scratching his head in confusion.

Lupin just grinned and winked at his class, then continued, "Besides, love isn't really logical, as you will no doubt discover for yourself one day, Seamus. You cannot choose who you will fall in love with, but I am very happy that fate brought Severus and I together."

"But he got you fired back in third year!" Dean exclaimed.

"Contrary to what the poets say, love is not always a bed of roses," Lupin said, smiling but looking serious at the same time. "Nor does it mean never having to say you're sorry. In life, friendship, and love, there are always obstacles and misunderstandings." He began walking down the rows between the desks, and paused by Seamus. "One might, for example, believe what they read in the newspaper, and accuse a friend of lying." Seamus flushed and gave Harry an apologetic look, recalling how he had accused Harry of going crazy and lying about Voldemort's return. "But though there were harsh words exchanged, the two friends managed to overcome this misunderstanding and preserve their friendship." He continued walking through the classroom and stopped between Parvati's and Pansy's desks. "Two people might, for example, have been brought up to despise one other, simply because of the Houses they were sorted into. Yet they learned to look beyond appearances and prejudices, and see each other as people, not just as Gryffindors or Slytherins." Parvati, Pansy, Lavender, and Millicent all smiled at each other. "And two teachers," Lupin continued softly, "might someday manage to overcome years of House rivalries and childhood grudges, and learn how to forgive each other." The bell signaling the end of class rang, and Lupin said, "Class dismissed; I'll see you all tomorrow." The students filed out, looking very thoughtful and subdued.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

The students expected Professor Blackmore to drive them just as hard as Snape did in class, but much to their surprise, she dispensed with her normal lessons, and talked to them much as Lupin had. They were quite curious about her past, although she was evasive about the years in which she had been missing and presumed dead, but she did talk a little about her work as Auror.

"Why did you become a teacher again?" Dean wanted to know. "Isn't being an Auror more exciting?"

"I can live without the excitement, mate," Seamus said fervently.

"There is no glamor, no glory in killing people, Mr. Thomas," Blackmore said quietly, "even in a just cause." Dean fell silent, looking flustered and a little guilty. "No one truly wins a war, no matter which side is proclaimed the victor." Neville nodded, thinking of his parents who had been driven insane by the Death Eaters' torture, and Harry and Draco looked solemn, thinking of their dead parents. "You should have realized this already, Mr. Thomas--you were working in the field hospital, so you saw the dead and wounded firsthand."

"Yes, Professor," Dean mumbled contritely.

"I much prefer nurturing young minds to fighting and killing," Blackmore continued. "I became an Auror because I was needed, but I took no pleasure in it. It broke my heart to face so many of my former students in battle."

"But they were Death Eaters," Dean protested, though in a subdued voice.

"They were also people," Blackmore said, her gaze drifting over to the Slytherins. "Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, all with people who loved them." Crabbe and Goyle squirmed uncomfortably, and Draco stared down at his desk, unable to meet her eyes. Pansy, Millicent, and Blaise looked at her thoughtfully, while Theodore gave her a wary sidelong glance. "They made bad choices, but they were not all evil."

"You said that they tried to kill you; why don't you hate them?" Ron asked timidly; he was still having trouble adjusting to the fact that things weren't quite as clear-cut as he had always assumed. The Slytherins had fought on their side--including Draco and his cronies, much to Ron's shock, and even two full-fledged Death Eaters, Narcissa Malfoy and Delia Avery, had switched sides in the end. He was no longer sure how he should regard the Slytherins and the repentant Death Eaters.

"I cannot hate them, because I understand the circumstances that made them what they are," Blackmore said softly. "Some of them believed what their families had taught them, that the Muggle-born were a threat to the wizard race, and in their eyes, were simply doing their duty. One young man turned to Voldemort to gain enough power to win his true love's hand in marriage after her family tried to separate them." The students exchanged glances; although Blackmore hadn't mentioned his name, they all knew she was talking about Dylan Rosier's father. "And saddest of all, perhaps, was my old student Lorcan Foley--one of the Death Eaters who tried to kill me. He had been abused by his father, and turned to Voldemort to both escape his father's cruelty and gain revenge on him."

"That doesn't excuse what they did, though," Neville said, thinking again of his parents.

"You're right, Mr. Longbottom," Blackmore said. "It does not. But still...I knew them as children; I watched them grow up. I cannot help but sorrow for them...and to wonder if, as their teacher, I could have offered them better guidance and steered them away from the Death Eaters."

There was an awkward silence, then Hermione said, "I'm sure you did your best, Professor."

Blackmore smiled sadly at her, then said, "And...I cannot judge them. For I have faced temptation myself."

The class stared at her in shock. "Wh-what do you mean?" stammered Neville.

"Voldemort killed my parents," Blackmore said calmly.

"WHAT?!" the class exclaimed. Harry was the only one who was not surprised; Blackmore had told him a little about her father the night he had come to Grimmauld Place to talk to Sirius about the memories he had seen of his father and Snape in the Pensieve. The Slytherins, of course, knew more about pureblood politics and history than the Gryffindors, and Draco said slowly, "I had heard they were killed in an accident..."

"An accident of Voldemort's making," Blackmore said with a bitter smile. "My family had a reputation--not entirely undeserved--for being Dark Wizards, and Voldemort tried to recruit my father, who turned him down. So Voldemort arranged a little 'accident' at my father's research lab: my parents worked as researchers; they studied old books and documents in order to discover spells and potions that had been lost and forgotten through the passage of time, and worked to recreate them and restore that knowledge to the wizarding world. The Ministry investigators ruled that the explosion was an accidental mixing of volatile chemicals by an inexperienced apprentice, but in truth Voldemort was behind it, though no one could prove it." Her students stared at her in stunned silence. "I considered using Dark Magic to exact revenge upon the Death Eaters, but I realized that would make me no better than they were. But still, I was sorely tempted...so you see, I can feel compassion for those who succumbed to temptation, though I cannot condone what they did. Someday you might face similar temptation, and I hope you have the strength to make the right decision. I do not expect you to forgive the Death Eaters; I know that many of you have lost loved ones to them." She glanced at Harry and Neville. "But remember that hatred begets only hatred." She gave both the Gryffindors and Slytherins a hard look. "And remember that the Dark Lord used intolerance and prejudice to rally people to his cause, and do not make the same mistakes that the Death Eaters did."

The girls nodded, their faces a little pale and frightened, but they looked over and smiled at each other, while the boys' faces held varying degrees of confusion, guilt, resentment, and thoughtfulness. Branwen decided that she had given them enough food for thought for one day and dismissed them early. Her students left the classroom with relief; Branwen knew that she had not really eased their troubled thoughts and questions, only replaced them with new ones, but it was her job to teach her students--not to provide them with pat, easy answers. And hopefully some of what she said would sink in, if not now, then someday...
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

The final Quidditch match of the season was canceled; Dumbledore seemed to think it would be inappropriate, and no one, not even the Slytherins, who had hoped to win back the Cup from Gryffindor, really felt like playing, anyway. Draco especially did not feel like playing, knowing that his father would never come to one of his matches again.

One morning in the Great Hall, one of the Gryffindors sneered at Draco as he passed by their table, "Too bad about your father, Malfoy!"

Before Draco could react, Harry snapped, "Shut your stupid mouth! Draco fought on our side! We never would have won if we hadn't all come together like the Sorting Hat said!"

"Yeah," Ron added belligerently, as Hermione smiled at her two friends. "We're the only ones who get to insult Malfoy!"

As the Gryffindors--and the Slytherins, for that matter--stared at Harry and Ron in shock, Draco scowled and said, "I don't need you to defend me, Potter!"

"Ungrateful git," Ron said, but there seemed to be a hint of laughter in his eyes.

"Stupid lout," Draco retorted, but he seemed to be trying very hard not to smile.

"I'm disappointed in you, Malfoy!" Ron said. "Surely you can be more creative than that--I mean, you did make up the 'Weasley Is Our King' song, after all!"

"All of you settle down and take your seats before I give you all detention!" Snape snapped as he paused on his way to the head table with Lupin. The boys obeyed with alacrity, and he felt mollified; the students still feared him, so perhaps his reputation wasn't as damaged as he had thought it was. "Stirring up trouble as usual, I see," he said to Potter.

"Yes, sir," Harry said with a grin.

Snape's lips twitched and he almost smiled, but he managed to get himself under control and growl, "Don't get cheeky with me, Potter! I'm still your teacher, and I still expect you to treat me with respect, savior of the wizarding world or not!"

"Yes, sir," Harry said meekly.

"Jeez, you could cut him some slack, seeing as how he just saved us all from Voldemort," Ron muttered.

The other children at the Gryffindor table braced themselves, expecting to lose all their points and perhaps see Ron turned into a toad, but Snape just sighed and said in a magnanimous tone, "Oh, very well. Five points to Gryffindor for saving the world."

The jaws of the Gryffindor children dropped open, and Ron said indignantly, "Five measly points for saving the world--mmph!"

Hermione quickly clamped a hand over Ron's mouth and said, "Thank you, Professor."

Snape just snorted and stalked off, his black robes swirling around him. Lupin grinned and winked at them before following his lover to the head table.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

On a more somber note, Snape, Lupin, Branwen, and Dumbledore accompanied Dylan to his family's estate in Wales to see Ariane and her brothers and mother laid to rest. Dylan would have liked to have seen his mother buried beside his father, but there had been no body left to bury after Evan had killed himself with the Death Strike spell. He thought perhaps he should bury his father's ring along with his mother, but he could not bear to part with the only memento he had of his father.

"No, you should keep it," Snape said. "Ariane would want you to have it, and besides, it serves as the key to the Rosier estate, which you might someday want to claim."

"But I'd like her to have something of my father's," Dylan said.

"Perhaps we could gather some flowers from your father's estate to lay on her grave," Lupin suggested. "Ah, normal ones," he hastened to add as Snape raised his eyebrows. "There are some normal roses on the estate, aren't there?"

"I believe so," Snape replied. "We need to go there anyway to return the vampiric roses to their resting place."

So they returned the roses to the attic room in the Rosier mansion, and the flowers seemed to sense that they were being locked away for good, because they rustled in what seemed like a regretful sigh and the full blossoms closed back into tight buds, and settled into a dormant slumber. They carefully locked the door and restored the protective wards on the room before they left.

The portrait of Armand Rosier looked grateful to see that his great-grandson was still alive, and to hear that Voldemort was dead. "Do you think you'll move into the mansion someday?" he asked a little wistfully.

"I don't know," Dylan replied. He wasn't sure if he wanted to live in this gloomy mansion, even if it had been his father's home. "Besides, technically the estate belongs to the Ministry, doesn't it?"

"Technically," Snape said, "but it should have gone to you, since you were Evan's heir and you had not committed any crimes. The Ministry pulled a fast one, knowing that you were too young to assert your rights, and your mother was in no position to do so for you at the time, as she was on trial herself. I'll talk to Math about hiring a lawyer to get the title restored to you. It is your birthright, after all."

"Thank you, Professor," Dylan said. After they left the house, he said, "I'm not really sure I want to live there, though, with a bunch of dead people in paintings yammering at me all the time."

"Just thank Merlin you don't live in Black's house," Snape muttered.

"Are...are those people ghosts?" Dylan asked curiously. "Did they somehow put their spirits into the portraits after they died?"

Snape shook his head. "No, Dylan. That portrait of Armand is not really your great-grandfather, just a sort of echo, if you will; a reflection of his personality and his memories put into the painting by magic. It became tradition among the pureblood nobility to have these types of portraits made so that a part of them would live on after they died, but they are not truly ghosts."

"Uncle Math doesn't have any portraits like that in his house," Dylan said, "and I don't think I'd want one made of me. It seems kind of sad and pathetic, somehow. I'd rather just die and be done with it than live on as an echo in a piece of canvas."

"I agree," Lupin said. "But some people have it done out of vanity, out of fear of death, and occasionally for less selfish reasons. Portraits of the previous Headmasters at Hogwarts are made so that they can pass on their wisdom and advice to the current Headmaster."

"Just what I'd want," Snape said sarcastically, "a bunch of old men and women telling me how things were done in their day and complaining about the way I'm doing things now. I'm just glad they didn't institute that tradition for the Potions Masters!"

Lupin laughed, and Dylan smiled a little, and they gathered some roses from the grounds for Ariane's grave--white roses, because those had been Ariane's favorite, and the black roses that bloomed only on the Rosier estate.

Dylan laid the roses on his mother's grave and wept a little. Math wept not just for Ariane, but for his sister and Gwydion and Gilbert.

"They were not always as you knew them, Dylan," Math told him. "The twins were once young boys who adored their little sister and watched over her protectively after their father died."

"Gilbert saved me in the end," Goewin said sadly. "I think he was trying to atone for the crimes he committed, both in the past and present. He was my friend once, a long time ago; I cannot bring myself to hate him. Let our hatred and our grudges be buried along with the dead."

"I cannot really be sorry that they're dead," Dylan admitted. "But I'm sorry for your sakes, Uncle Math, Aunt Goewin."

But it seemed that the roses from the Rosier estate were not quite normal after all, because the next day Math found that they had rooted themselves in the earth and grown into an arch of intertwined white and black roses over Ariane's headstone.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Snape and Lupin were summoned to Dumbledore's office the day before school was about to let out for the summer. They found Dylan, Math, and a very irate-looking Goewin waiting for them. Goewin glared at Snape, who had no idea what was going on. He had just seen them at the funeral a few days ago, and they had been civil enough, even grateful for the way he had looked after Dylan.

"Have a seat, Severus, Remus," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "Something unexpected came up when the Donners read Ariane's will."

Snape sat down, wondering if Ariane had left them some sort of bequest. But that made no sense--she had no property of her own, save for a few personal possessions, since her mother had disowned her and she was entitled to none of the wealth of the Donner estates.

Dumbledore unrolled a piece of parchment and read, "'All my worldly possessions I leave to my son, Dylan'--that's mainly just a few pieces of jewelry, and her books and photos and other personal items--"

"Get on with it, Albus," Goewin snapped, and Snape gave her another puzzled look. Math looked both worried and amused, and Dylan looked anxious and a little excited.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, "'Should I die before my son comes of age, I hereby appoint Severus Snape and Remus Lupin as his legal guardians--'"

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Snape. "I thought--I assumed that Mathias and Goewin would become his guardians--"

"So did we," Goewin snapped, and he finally understood why she was glowering at them so fiercely.

"We didn't know about this, Goewin," Lupin told her in a gentle voice. "It's a complete surprise to us as well. She must have had it drawn up recently; she didn't know we were a couple until...well, it was the day we found out you were pregnant, come to think of it..."

Snape was not surprised that Ariane had made a will after joining the Order, although he was surprised by its contents; all the members had known that their lives would be at risk. He had done the same thing, leaving all his money to Lupin and his books to Dylan. He hadn't told Lupin about it, though, not wanting to upset him, and fortunately it had not been necessary.

"We're his relatives!" Goewin shouted, looking angry and hurt. "We've looked after him ever since he was born, loved him like he was our own son--how could she do this to us? Is this some sort of punishment for the bargain Math made with Deirdre, to keep Ariane imprisoned on the estate--?"

"I'm sure that's not it, Aunt Goewin," Dylan assured her. "She was grateful for the way you helped us, really. And you have the baby to look after now, you don't need me--"

"Oh, Dylan," Goewin sobbed, throwing her arms around him. "We don't love you any less now that we have Ariana--"

"I know that," he said, patting her on the back awkwardly.

"And you are still our heir," Math pointed out. "Now that Deirdre and the boys are dead, Ariana will inherit the Donner title, so my estate will still go to you."

"What do YOU want, Dylan?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

Dylan looked torn. "I love you and Uncle Math," he told Goewin. "I always will, and I don't want to hurt you, but...but..."

"But you'd like to live with Severus and Remus," Math finished with a sad smile.

"If that's okay with you," Dylan said to Snape shyly. "I mean, I know Mother didn't consult you, so maybe you don't--"

"I would love for you to live with me," Snape said hoarsely, as he felt tears sting his eyes; he blinked hard to keep them from falling. "With us, I mean."

"You don't even have a house, Severus!" Goewin shouted. "Aren't your quarters already a bit cramped with Remus living in them?"

"Well, Dylan will be living in the dorm during the school year, anyway," Lupin said mildly, "and I have a cottage that my parents left to me where we can spend the summers." He smiled at Dylan. "It's no mansion, and it's a bit run-down, but it's cozy and it's home."

"I'm sure it will be fine, Professor," Dylan said, smiling at Lupin. His smile faded as he turned to his weeping aunt. "Aunt Goewin, I'm sorry," he said helplessly.

"I think I know why Ariane appointed us as his guardians," Lupin said gently. "And I think I know why Dylan wants to live with us, and neither reason is a slight against you or Math." Goewin stopped weeping and looked up at him. "You and Math have never been tempted by the Dark Arts, never been tempted by the desire for power and revenge. But Ariane was, and Dylan was." Dylan flushed, looking shamefaced. "And Ariane knew that Severus would understand these things; she knew that he was the only one among us who knew what it was like to wear the Dark Mark on his arm. She knew that he would understand what Dylan is going through right now, and be able to help him work through it."

"Is that true, Dylan?" Goewin asked. "Is this what you really want?"

"Yes, Aunt Goewin," Dylan replied. "The Professor tried to keep me from joining the Death Eaters, and he helped me after I was Marked." His voice dropped to a whisper. "You...you don't know what it was like, having to face Voldemort, having to pretend to be one of them. I watched him use my roses to kill Professor Karkaroff..." He shuddered and rubbed his left arm, although his Mark, like Snape's, had vanished with Voldemort's death.

"I see," Goewin murmured, stroking his hair. She looked over and saw the same guilt in Snape's eyes that she saw in Dylan's. "Very well," she sighed, and smiled through her tears and kissed her great-nephew's cheek. "But don't be a stranger; come and visit us when you can."

"Of course he can visit you whenever he wants," Lupin said, "during the summer and the holidays. I'm sure he'll want to visit with his new cousin often." He exchanged a glance with Snape and said, "But there is one thing we should tell you before you decide you want to come live with us..."

When Lupin finished speaking, Math and Goewin blinked in surprise, and Dylan grinned from ear to ear. Snape was gratified to see him smile, since he had done so only rarely after his mother's death. "Of course I still want to live with you! This is great!"

"Very well, Dylan," Lupin said with a smile. "You may go back to your dorm, but don't say anything." He lifted his finger to his lips. "We'd like to tell him ourselves."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Theodore Nott hesitantly walked into the Headmaster's office, looking suspicious and a little worried. "Am I in trouble?" he asked. "I'm not being arrested as a Death Eater or anything like that, am I?"

"No, Theodore," Dumbledore replied with a smile. "Please have a seat." The boy sank into a chair, still looking worried as his eyes slid over to Lupin and Snape. "You're not in any trouble, Theodore. The Professors and I are just concerned about you. Both your parents died during the battle, and we were trying to determine who your new guardians would be. Your parents left behind no will, and we spoke to some of your relatives, but..."

"But they don't want me," Theodore finished, a bitter smile twisting his lips. "That's not surprising. My dad's relatives are probably trying to distance themselves as much as possible so that no one will think they were Death Eaters, too, and my mother's family has always hated us ever since..." His voice trailed off.

"Ever since what, Theo?" Lupin asked gently.

"Well, he's dead now," Theodore muttered to himself. "So I suppose it's safe to tell you. My father killed my Uncle Rafe, my mother's younger brother, when I was eight years old."

"What?!" exclaimed Lupin; Dumbledore merely raised his eyebrows.

Snape looked startled, but then his eyes narrowed in thought. "I remember now; Rafe Dietrich disappeared mysteriously about eight or nine years ago. He supposedly sent his family a letter saying that he'd run off to Europe with some girl, but they doubted the authenticity of the letter..."

"They knew my dad had killed him," Theodore whispered, "but they couldn't prove it. It was all my fault."

"Theodore," Lupin said, sounding alarmed.

"Uncle Rafe was always nice to me," Theodore continued, still whispering; Lupin and Snape had to lean forward to make out his words. "I used to wish that I could live with him instead of my mother and father. He suspected my dad was a Death Eater, and he didn't like the way he treated my mother and me. He used to argue with my mother, told her that she should leave my dad, but she was too scared. Plus, she was ashamed of what people might think. One day my uncle found me crying after my dad had hexed me, and asked me what was wrong. I wouldn't tell him at first, but he told me I could trust him, and that he'd help me. So I told him, and I showed him the welts on my arm that the spell had left behind." Tears began to run down his face. "I just thought he'd take me away; I didn't think he'd go off and confront my father all by himself! He went and told my father that he was going to take me and my mother away from him, and that he was going to expose him as a Death Eater. My mother was screaming at him to stop, and my father killed him, right there in front of us, with a Killing Curse."

"That's why you can see the Thestrals," Snape murmured.

Theodore nodded, still weeping. "My dad told me and my mother that he'd kill us too if we told anyone. Avery came over later and helped him get rid of the body; I don't know what they did with it. They never told us and I was too scared to ask. It was all my fault, I shouldn't have said anything!" He buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking as he wept with years of pent-up grief and guilt.

Snape stared at the boy helplessly, and Lupin nudged him in the side and gave him a pointed look. Snape gave him a plaintive, "Who me?" look, and Lupin nodded, glaring at him sternly. Snape sighed, got up, and awkwardly put an arm around Theodore. "It's not your fault, child," he said gruffly. "Rafe should have known better than to confront a Death Eater alone, but he was always an impulsive, hotheaded, idealistic young man--come to think of it, he was a Gryffindor. I remember it scandalized his family because they had always been Slytherins--much like Sirius Black and his family. They didn't disown Rafe the way the Blacks did Sirius, though; he was the baby of the family and his parents doted on him."

"I should have just kept my mouth shut," Theodore sobbed.

"It was the job of the adults in your family to protect you," Snape said firmly, "not the other way around. Your father should not have hurt you, your mother should have stopped him when he did, and your uncle shouldn't have been so foolish." Snape sighed guiltily. "And I should have realized what was going on. But I didn't stop him, and I didn't stop Serafina's father from hurting her, either, because I was too busy protecting my Death Eater cover. If you wish to blame someone, blame me, not yourself."

Theodore just shook his head and clung to Snape, and Snape let the boy weep against his chest, while Lupin and Dumbledore smiled at him with irritatingly smug and satisfied looks on their faces. The boy's crying tapered off, and he pulled away from Snape, wiping at his face with his sleeve, looking a little mortified--not to mention shocked that the Potions Master had actually held him while he wept. Snape handed Theodore a handkerchief, and gratefully retreated back to his own chair, looking just as embarrassed; Lupin smiled at him tenderly, and he flushed.

Once the boy had composed himself, Dumbledore said, "We'll inform Rafe's family of his fate; they deserve to know. You must not blame yourself, Theodore; it wasn't your fault." Theodore still didn't look convinced of that, but said nothing. "But that still leaves you in need of a guardian."

"I'm almost seventeen," Theodore said with his customary sullenness. "I don't need anyone to look after me!"

"The law says that you do, Theodore," Dumbledore said gently, "and I think you do as well, whether the law says so or not. Fortunately, Professors Lupin and Snape have volunteered to become your foster parents."

"WHAT?!" Theodore shrieked in surprise.

"If that's all right with you, Theo," Lupin added.

"B-b-but," Theodore stammered, "you live at school. Will I stay here during the summer?"

"No," Lupin said patiently. "I have a cottage where we will live during the summer, and perhaps the holidays."

"But I don't really need a guardian," Theodore argued, still looking rather stunned. He turned to the Headmaster. "If you let me stay here this summer, I've only got one more year of school left, and then I'll be graduating anyway. Or maybe I could spend the summer with Dylan or Blaise--"

"Actually, Dylan will be living with us, too," Lupin said cheerfully. "His mother appointed Severus and I as his guardians in her will."

"WHAT?!"

"Theodore," Lupin said, looking concerned and a little hurt, "if you really don't want to live with us, perhaps--"

"You seem to think that you have a choice in the matter, Mr. Nott," Snape said in his coldest and most intimidating voice. Lupin gave him a startled look, then glared at him; Snape ignored him. "I assure you that you do not," Snape continued. "Lupin and I are your guardians now, and you will live with us when school is not in session. Is that clear, Mr. Nott?"

"Yes, sir," Theodore said, looking relieved and grateful rather than frightened or offended.

"Very well, Mr. Nott," Snape said sternly. "You may go now, and I suggest that you start packing since tomorrow is the last day of school."

"Yes, sir," Theodore said meekly, and left the room.

"Weren't you kind of hard on him, Severus?" Lupin asked accusingly.

"You have to know how to handle these children," Snape retorted. "They're not like Gryffindors; you'll only confuse them by pampering and coddling them. Their whole world has been turned upside-down: they don't want people offering them choices; they want someone to step in and tell them what to do. They want an adult to look after them. When everything is changing around them, familiarity is comforting, even if that means their Head of House acting as threatening as always. And what the hell is so funny, Lupin?" He stared indignantly at his lover, who had just burst out laughing.

"You are," Lupin said, choking with laughter. "You're always, 'I'm no good with children, Lupin' and 'you know how to comfort children, Lupin, I don't'. Well, apparently you do, you old softie!" Then Lupin collapsed in his chair, laughing his head off.

Snape glared at him, and muttered in a disgusted tone, "Werewolves!"

Dumbledore just smiled indulgently and set two huge stacks of paper on the desk before Lupin and Snape. "Before you go, boys, I'll need you to fill these out. The official forms needed to be filed with the court in order to appoint you as Dylan's and Theodore's legal guardians."

Snape groaned as he picked up a quill. "Can't the new Minister of Magic cut through the red tape for us?" he grumbled.

"He already has," Dumbledore informed him. "How else do you think your request was approved so quickly? Do you think it would be easy under normal circumstances for a werewolf and a former Death Eater to win custody of a child, even one as unwanted as Theodore? Not to mention that it's extremely rare for a same-sex couple to be granted joint custody of a child; in fact, I'm not sure it's ever been done before. One of you might have been able to get custody of the children alone, but the two of you together--it would never have happened without Arthur's help. But you still need to fill out the paperwork."

"All right, all right," Snape grumbled as he filled out the forms, and Lupin managed to stop laughing and deal with his own stack of paperwork.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

They were about halfway through the stacks of paper when Harry, Sirius, and McGonagall walked in. Lupin and Snape retreated to a far corner of the room and continued filling out the forms while the Headmaster spoke to Harry.

"I informed your aunt and uncle that the threat to you is over," Dumbledore said solemnly. "They sent this in reply."

He handed Harry a letter which had only a few sentences scrawled on it in Aunt Petunia's handwriting: "Then my duty is over! The boy is your responsibility now, and good riddance! Tell him never to come near my home again!"

Harry knew he should be relieved that he didn't have to live with the Dursleys anymore, but he felt very hurt, although his aunt's reply was nothing more than what he would have expected. "I don't understand why they hate me so much," he said sadly. "I mean, I know they don't like magic and all, but my mother was Aunt Petunia's sister. How could she hate her own sister like that?"

"Hate is borne of fear, Harry," Lupin said gently. "And people fear what they do not understand."

Snape snorted derisively. Without looking up from his papers, he said, "Fear's got nothing to do with it. She was jealous." A brief silence fell over the room, and it took Snape a minute to notice that everyone was staring at him. "What, hadn't that ever occurred to any of you? Honestly, you Gryffindors are so naive!"

"Who's jealous?" Harry asked. "Aunt Petunia? Why?"

"Because Lily had magic and she didn't," Snape said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"But Aunt Petunia hates magic!" Harry protested.

Snape snorted again. "You're a bit dense, boy, considering that you're the savior of the wizarding world." He added in a more serious tone, thinking of himself and Black and James Potter, "It's easy to hate someone who has everything--or at least seems to have everything." Then he noticed that everyone was staring at him again--Potter and Black in particular were looking very thoughtful--and he flushed as he belatedly realized that he had exposed more of himself than he had intended. He cleared his throat and added gruffly, "What I meant, boy, was that no doubt your aunt was jealous that your mother could do magic and she could not. After all, don't Muggles always wish they had magic? It certainly seems so from their literature." Everyone was staring at him again. "What?!" he snapped.

"You read Muggle novels, Snape?" Sirius asked, looking amused.

Snape flushed again and snapped, "I took Muggle Studies in school, the same as you and everyone else, Black!" Snape continued in a huffy voice, "Anyway, as I was saying, since your aunt knew she would never possess magic, she probably decided to hate it, and hate your mother by extension."

"Like the fox and the grapes in Aesop's Fables," Lupin mused. "The fox wanted to eat the grapes, but he couldn't reach them so he said, 'They were probably sour; I didn't want them anyway!'" And Snape flushed yet again as he remembered how he had come to hate Lupin after he had lost him, because it was easier to hate him than to admit to himself how much he missed Lupin. Lupin, as always, seemed to sense what he was thinking, and reached out and laid his hand over Snape's.

"You're very perceptive, Severus," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling.

"I can't concentrate with all this chatter," Snape snarled. "I'll finish the paperwork in my office and return it to you later, Headmaster. Come along, Lupin."

"What's all the paperwork for?" Sirius asked curiously.

"We're adopting Dylan and Theodore," Lupin said happily.

"Well, technically fostering them," Snape corrected. "They're still keeping their own names and family inheritances--or at least I hope so." He frowned. "I'd better talk to that lawyer; I don't want the Ministry trying to confiscate the Nott estate like they did with the Rosiers'."

"You're adopting Rosier and Nott?" Harry asked incredulously, and McGonagall looked like she was going to faint.

"Fostering is the legal term," Snape snapped. "Not that it's any of your business."

"But essentially, yes," Lupin said, still grinning happily.

"But why?" Harry asked.

"Their parents are dead, and they need someone to look after them," Lupin explained patiently. "And Severus and I have grown very fond of them."

Everyone was staring at Snape again; this was getting to be a habit. He just grunted, looking embarrassed and annoyed, and muttered, "Yes, well, let's just be glad that Delia and Narcissa were released on probation, and that Crabbe and Goyle still have their mothers as well. I don't mind taking on Dylan and Theodore, but I don't really want to foster half of Slytherin."

"They certainly wouldn't all fit in my little cottage," Lupin laughed. "We'd have to tear it down and build a bigger house...or maybe just build an addition onto it. Hmm..." His face took on a thoughtful expression.

"Don't even think about it, Lupin," Snape warned. "Two children are more than enough for us to handle."

"I suppose you're right," Lupin laughed, and smiled tenderly at Snape. "After all, I never dreamed that I would ever have any children at all. Nor that I would be living happily-ever-after with you."

"Cut that out, Lupin," Snape hissed, his face turning red. Lupin just laughed.

Sirius laughed good-naturedly, and laid his hand on Harry's shoulder. "You see, Harry, family isn't always determined by blood. Lupin and your dad were my family, and so are you."

Harry smiled at him gratefully. "I can come live with you, then?" he asked. "Do you still want me to?"

"Of course!" Sirius said heartily. "I only let you go to the Dursleys because I was a fugitive, and Albus said it was necessary to keep you safe. Hob will be so happy to have a child around the house! Oh, and, uh..." He blushed. "I hope you don't mind, but Branwen will be living there permanently from now on. We, um, haven't announced it officially yet, but we're getting married in August. You're all invited, of course," he told everyone in the room.

The idea of Professor Blackmore as a step-godmother was a bit intimidating, but he smiled and said, "Congratulations, Sirius! I'm really happy for you." And he felt more than adequately rewarded by his godfather's warm smile. Well, Blackmore had lived in the house with them for the last two summers, so it wouldn't be that much different, Harry supposed. But he resolved to keep a large supply of chocolate on hand to pacify Bane.

Lupin was hugging Sirius, Dumbledore was beaming, and McGonagall offered Sirius her congratulations, still looking a little bemused by all these startling revelations. Snape looked outraged for a moment, then he smiled sardonically and said, "I would tell you that if you break her heart, I'll kill you, but I don't really think that's necessary, since she's more than capable of taking care of herself. She is quite strong enough to break every bone in your body without any need for magic; it must be her demon blood. So I wouldn't let her catch you making eyes at other women if I were you, Black."

"Severus!" Lupin scolded.

"I'm not interested in looking at any other women," Sirius said firmly. "Though your concern for me is quite touching, Snape."

"And," Snape added with a wicked grin, "don't forget that she has a vengeful Demon Prince for a grandfather who will take it most amiss if you make his favorite little granddaughter cry."

This time Sirius turned a little pale, and Lupin shouted, "SEVERUS!" Suddenly both Sirius and Severus burst out laughing, and Lupin shook his head, looking quite cross. "Honestly, I swear you two drive me crazy sometimes!"

"But Lupin," Snape said innocently, "I thought you wanted me and Black to get along!"

"Don't play innocent with me, Severus!" Lupin snapped.

"But Remy," Sirius piped up, "aren't you glad that Snape and I are getting along so well?" Then the two old enemies exchanged conspiratorial grins.

Lupin glared at them both, but he couldn't keep it up for very long; he quickly gave in and laughed. "Next time I'll be careful what I ask for, as the saying goes!"

He and Snape left, and McGonagall shook her head and said she needed to go lie down. "I'm too old to deal with all these changes," she sighed.

"Why Minerva, my dear," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling merrily behind his glasses, "you're a spring chicken compared to me!"

McGonagall burst out laughing. Then she smiled at Harry and said to Sirius, "Take good care of Mr. Potter, now."

"I will, Professor," Sirius promised, and he hugged Harry, who hugged him back, and suddenly the Dursleys' rejection no longer stung so much.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the last day of school, Dumbledore gave thanks that all the students had survived the battle, and asked them to remember those who had given their lives in the war.

"Now, as for the House Cup," he said, "something quite unusual has happened this year. Gryffindor and Slytherin are tied for the top score with 456 points each."

"What?!" Snape and McGonagall cried.

"By the way, Severus," Lupin couldn't resist pointing out, "if you hadn't given Harry those five points for 'saving the world' just to be sarcastic, Slytherin would have won."

Snape let out a howl of outrage that echoed through the Great Hall as Lupin burst out laughing. Dumbledore cleared his throat and gave them both a stern look, but there was a hint of laughter sparkling in his eyes as well. Lupin managed to tone down his laughter to a soft chuckle, and Snape subsided with a very sullen and sulky look on his face as he crossed his arms and glared at his lover.

"I think this is actually a very fortuitous event," Dumbledore continued. "A symbol, if you will, of the spirit of unity and cooperation between the Houses that you all showed during these difficult times. The House Cup was intended only to provide a little friendly competition; it was never meant to cause the division and enmity that seems to have developed over the years." Branwen nodded in agreement, the look in her eyes saying, "I told you that years ago!" Dumbledore smiled at her, then turned back to face the students and said, "So I hereby decree that Gryffindor and Slytherin are the joint winners of the House Cup this year, and will share the award!" He raised his wand and the red-and-gold banners of Gryffindor and the green-and-silver banners of Slytherin dropped down from the ceiling. "Congratulations to you both!"

The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs clapped and cheered, looking rather amused by this turn of events. The Gryffindors and Slytherins clapped with something less than great enthusiasm--or at least most of them did. Hermione and Neville at Gryffindor, and Crabbe and Goyle at Slytherin were grinning at each other and clapping vigorously.

At the Slytherin table, Damien said, "Hey, does this mean that I can date Gryffindor girls now?" Draco gave him a sour look, but no one was overly intimidated by Malfoy anymore now that his father was dead and the Death Eaters disbanded.

"Do you ever think about anything but girls, Pierce?" Theodore asked in an aggrieved tone.

"Not really," Damien replied cheerfully, and winked at Parvati and Lavender over at the Gryffindor table. The girls giggled and blushed.

Theodore rolled his eyes, and Dylan and Blaise started laughing, and that seemed to start a chain reaction--pretty soon the whole table was laughing, and even Draco gave in and cracked a smile.

After the students were dismissed, Theodore and Dylan got their bags and met Lupin and Snape in the dungeon.

"Ready to go home, boys?" Lupin asked.

The four of them stared at each other for a moment; Theodore and Snape had never really had a home before--a place to call "home," with people who cared about you, and not just a building that you lived in--and were both filled with a sudden sense of awe. Dylan thought it was strange that he had never even seen Lupin's house, yet that word "home" felt very reassuring and welcoming. He supposed that "home" was really more the people you loved than a particular place, and he was already feeling very much at home with his two favorite teachers-turned-foster-parents and his friend-turned-foster-brother. Lupin smiled at his strange little family, thinking that he could not feel more wealthy than if he owned all the gold in Gringotts.

He blinked away the tears that had suddenly formed in his eyes, and repeated, "Shall we go home?"

"Yes, Remus," Snape said.

"Yes, Professor," Dylan and Theodore said.

Lupin smiled at them, and they headed to the school entrance to catch a carriage home.

THE END.

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