In a Temple by the Sea

Her body rocked slowly back and forth, like waves under a ship. A warm, Mediterranean breeze danced over her skin and her hair blew across her face, tapping it gently. 'Wake up,' it said. She ignored it. Blankets were piled on her body, successfully trapping her in bed, and there she would stay. She became aware of her body slowly. First she rediscovered her shoulder blades, and the creaking ropes beneath them. Then she noticed her toes and the silk pooled around them. She wiggled them slowly, noting idly that they were still there. From there the feeling traveled up her legs, to her torso, fingers and head. She was safe, warm, and comfortable. The last time she had felt this way was at Hogwarts, and she settled into the feeling. 'This must be heaven,' she rejoiced, laughter ringing inside her head. 'I must be dead, I wonder if Harry is here. I wonder how it ended...' As the smell of citrus drifted past her nose she wondered why there were oranges in heaven. She loved oranges. 'There are oranges in heaven because I love them.'

The breeze was sweet and fresh. A reminder of how life had once been. Before the stench of death covered her earth, before corpses surrounded her and invaded all the corners of her life. She sighed and tried to move; her body swung wildly and she settled back into her hammock. Moving was going to be too much work now; she was just going to enjoy the air, the sweet birdsong and the breeze.

"Miss Granger," a cool voice said, the words crashing over her like an ocean. 'When was the last time I was Miss Granger?' she wondered idyllically. It felt like several lifetimes ago.

"Miss Granger, it is time to open your eyes." She'd never disobeyed that voice. She opened her eyes and found herself looking at a marble ceiling. Her gaze went to the edge of the ceiling and followed a Greek column down to the floor. Hammocks hung in neat rows from one end of the open-air temple to the next.

"Very good, Miss Granger." 'When was the last time that voice complimented me? Oh yes, never...' "Will you focus on me now?" the voice rumbled, and her eyes flickered to his face. 'He's been in the sun. He got a tan in heaven,' she thought, giggling inwardly. Her cinnamon brown eyes focused on his dark obsidian ones. He held a glass with a straw up to her lips and she latched onto it. 'The water is so much sweeter in heaven,' she thought blissfully. For years her water had been poisoned with the bitterness of death.

"Is this heaven?" she asked drowsily. He laughed. 'How long has it been since he laughed?' she wondered. 'This must be heaven,' she thought joyously.

"No, my dear, this is not heaven." 'What?'

"But you... died," she whispered. He leant in, dug her hand out from its cocoon of blankets, and kissed the back of it gently.

"No, my dear..." 'How long has it been since he called me "my dear"?' Tears gathered in her eyes. "I have always been alive." 'I love you!' her mind screamed. 'Do you still love me? Though I let them touch me? Though I killed and slaughtered? Do you still love me? I thought you were dead, I would never have-'

"I know, my dear, I know! Which is why you had to think I was dead. My cover was blown anyway, and the world needed me to be dead, so that we could end it. It had to end. I'm sorry I lied to you," he whispered, tears gathering in his dark eyes, like the water at the bottom of the ocean, like the space in between the stars. He was her net, there to catch her; his eyes caught her like space caught the stars.

"I still love you," she said. "Do you still love me?" Tears spilled over, racing down her face; he pulled a cream handkerchief from his trouser pocket and wiped them from her face in the manner that one would gather precious crystals. She laughed when she saw it.

"My first one," she said, referring to her brief stint of embroidery.

"Yes, to your first love," he said, beaming.

"My only love," she clarified.

"And you are mine, my dear." He leant in and kissed her on the lips briefly. "I love you, my dear, my angel, Mrs. Hermione Snape if you will still have me." He pulled the diamond ring he had meant to give her for years from his pocket.

"I will." She was all but glowing. The angel God had sent from heaven to save him, to save their world, to be his wife.