Owls and Musings

Chapter 17

Esme was quite worried now. It had been a week since Voldemort's vanquishing at Potter's hands, and she still had not heard from Severus. She knew he had been alive at the start of the battle. The charmed school ring had worked quite well, and all the months of drills the students and staff had been through made the evacuation operate smoothly.

Right in the middle of a fifth-year class, the ring had warmed up. She flooed a note to tell Minerva to set off the warning claxon and hustled the students to their assigned evacuation point. The castle cleared out in record time, and Esme had gone with the students to help keep the panic level down. She never got to see the final battles.

She heard about them afterwards; how Harry had faced the Dark Lord and how Severus showed his true colours by killing Nagini, how with a murmured "Do it now, boy", he placed his back to Harry's and kept the Death Eaters at bay during the final duel along with other Order members and Aurors accompanied by loyal werewolves. After that, no one seemed to know what had happened to Snape. The fighting had continued for a week and actually still continued as pockets of resistance were being uncovered. 'I wonder if Severus is feeding the Ministry that information,' she thought to herself.

Tonight was to be a well-earned celebration. Harry was returning to the school with the rest of the surviving members of the Order of the Phoenix.

Filius and Esme had turned the Great Hall into a large party room. The long house tables were against the wall acting as sideboards for the evening. The tables practically groaned under all the finger foods and punch bowls of drinks that the house-elves had produced. In the centre of the room and around the huge fireplaces were small tables and comfortable chairs creating several conversation areas.

Esme had changed into a set of light blue dress robes and matching dress and was sitting quietly on a divan by one of the fireplaces enjoying a cup of tea. A tall young man made his way quietly over to her.

"Professor Scott?" he inquired politely.

"Harry, have a seat! I feel like I know you so much better now after my many conversations with Ron and Hermione." She patted the cushion next to her in invitation. "What can I do for you?"

He gratefully sat down next to her. "Well, I hope it's what I can do for you. Professor McGonagall said you had some questions about the last battle concerning Snape?"

Her eyes snapped up at that. "Aye, Harry, I do. I was hoping to find out if he had survived."

"May I ask?" he questioned her with a dark look on his face.

"He is an old, and dear friend of mine, Harry. I worry about him," she said simply, as she fingered the ring on her left hand. She had nullified the charm earlier that day.

"Ah, I see. Well, there's not much to tell. After I killed Voldemort, we were swept apart by the fighting. I know he was fighting Bellatrix Lestrange at one point, and he must have come through that intact because I ran across her body a few hours later." He paused, gathering his courage, and asked her, "Professor, how well do you know him?"

Esme glanced at the emeralds and ruby glinting on her hand and let a small smile touch her face. "Very well, Harry, why?"

"Well, when he switched sides in the battle and backed me up, it was unbelievable; especially after last summer. I had called him some horrible things. I'm still not sure what was going on! He killed Dumbledore. If he was on our side, why'd he do that?"

"Harry, you were meant to see what you saw that night and to make the interpretation of the events that you did. It allowed Professor Snape to leave the castle and make a clean break so that he could go deep undercover among the Death Eaters. He was able to do certain things that way, and no one in the castle or the Order could know any different. I knew and the Headmistress knew - but we could not capitalise on that information. It would have placed him in mortal danger. I'm sure you are unaware that the locations and identities of the Horcruxes came from him?" He looked startled at that revelation.

"No, I didn't know that. I was only told that someone deep inside had gotten the information. We were never told the identity."

She paused, considering her next words. She noticed someone lurking in the shadows of the fireplace, but she could not see who it was. She ignored them as she concentrated on getting Harry to understand. "Harry, he told me what you called him last summer." She paused as he fidgeted a bit, his cheeks going red. "While he was livid, he also understood what motivated you to call him that. Dumbledore sacrificed himself for you, for Draco, and for Severus. Professor Snape had to kill one of the two people in this world who trusted him and knew him for who he truly was. Dumbledore had made him promise to do this as soon as he knew of Draco's mission. Dumbledore was dying anyway; were you aware of that? He was mere minutes from dying from the curse he had suffered the previous summer - the one that had blackened his arm. He and Severus made sure that his death would count for something. Do you still think that this was the act of a coward?"

He flinched as his word came back to haunt him. He was silent a moment. "I think I owe him an apology," Harry said at last, looking down at his clenched hands in his lap.

"Yes, Potter, I believe you do," said a dark, silky voice as the figure emerged from the shadows and came to stand next to the divan.

The result was immediate; Esme's cup crashed to its saucer, and Harry jumped up and spun around to face the Potions Master.

"Sir, I... erm." Harry swallowed convulsively and started again. "Sir, I wish to apologise for my behaviour last year and last summer and to erm... thank you for your assistance last week." Harry slowly reached out his right hand to his old Potions Master and nemesis.

Snape had his arms crossed across his chest and his customary sneer on his face as he listened to Potter's apology. He apparently waited a moment too long to respond because Esme sighed and chided him from where she sat.

"Severus..."

"Oh, alright." He took the proffered hand and shook it once before dropping it. "Apology accepted, Potter. Now, if you don't mind, you are blocking access to my seat!" His face softened somewhat though as he added, "Besides, I see Miss Weasley has just arrived and is over by the punch bowl."

Blushing happily, Harry nodded to the two teachers and quickly took his leave.

Severus eased himself down on the seat next to Esme and, taking her left hand in his, ran his thumb over her fingertips and brushed across the ring. He stared hungrily into her eyes, letting their cool green gaze bathe his soul. Slowly he brought her fingertips to his lips to kiss them, sending the old thrill down her spine. She raised her other hand up to run it across his cheek, revelling in the feel of him.

"I see you got my present," he eventually said, quietly.

"Aye, and I've worn it ever since," she whispered back, giving his hand a squeeze. "God's, Severus, I've been so worried about you. The information I just got from Harry is the first I've heard in days." Her eyes were filling up, despite her attempts to keep her emotions in check. Severus noticed and reached up with his other hand to brush the tears away.

"Shhh, Esme, I know. I had to track down some people specifically and give information to the Ministry about others. I had no time to pen you a note. I'm so sorry. Here." He pulled out a handkerchief from his robes and handed it to her. He looked around at the crowded room; he couldn't talk to her here. "Let's go take a walk, I have some things to discuss with you, and I don't fancy saying them with the entire school witnessing. I do still have a reputation to uphold!"

She laughed at that, he was glad to see, and took his proffered hand to help her up. He kept hold of it tucked in his arm as they slowly made their way across the room. He halted next to Minerva long enough to whisper, "I'm going to go snog your niece senseless. Any objections?" She snorted the tea she had been drinking. "I thought not," he said coolly as he continued out the doors of the Great Hall, down the wide, marble stairs and out the main doors of the castle. He didn't bother to pay attention to the excited murmurings the sight of the couple together caused among the students and teachers alike. They walked quietly around the grounds, silently revelling in each other's presence, ending up in the rose garden.

Snape led her to a small, secluded bench, overhung with fragrant climbing roses - of the Muggle variety. He gently cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly, lingering at the feel of having her to himself again. Her arms came up to entwine themselves around his neck as the kiss deepened in intensity and she seemed to melt into his arms. He held her tightly, never wanting to release her. Eventually, though, they had to come up for air. Severus leaned his forehead against hers as her fingers played absently with his hair at the nape of his neck.

"Esme, I want to ask you a question..." he started, after taking a deep breath.

She smiled up at him. "Is this the question you danced around at Christmas time in your letter when you sent me this fantastic ring."

"That is no ordinary ring, Esme."

"I know it's not. I spoke with Albus' portrait about it, as you suggested."

He slipped to his knee on the garden path, taking her hands in his. "Do you have an answer for me?"

"Well, I believe you need to properly ask me first," she said, the hint of laughter in her voice and her eyes twinkling.

"I did!" He thought back as he watched her shake her head. "I didn't? Well, in that case: Esmerelda McGonagall Scott, will you consent to marry me?"

She left him hanging just a moment too long, and a worried look came over his face. She relented finally. "Aye, I will marry you!" she said, laughing at the astonishment and relief in his face as he re-took his seat next to her.

"I don't deserve this," he murmured, love in his eyes as he looked at her. He lifted the hands he held in his and kissed them, then leaned in again to kiss her some more.

"Perhaps, but I've waited fourteen years for you to ask that question, and when you finally get up the courage to do so, I'm not going to throw all that patience away." She pulled his face towards hers and kissed him passionately beneath the roses.

Later, in her rooms, as they lay entwined amongst the bedclothes in front of her fire, Esme reached a finger up to trace the new lines on her lover's face. He let her continue a moment before capturing her hand with his own, opening her palm and placing feather kisses into it. She groaned in pleasure as his lips traced trails of fire from her palm, to her wrist, up her forearm, to her shoulder; gasping as he paid especially attention to the hollow between her collarbone and neck. Closing her eyes, she let him take charge of the lovemaking as he laid her back down and teased her mouth open with his tongue. She let herself get lost in the sensations.

Drenched in sweat, but completely sated for now, she curled up in his arms and was on her way to a sound sleep when Severus whispered something into her ear.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I asked," he said in a louder whisper, the smooth, low bass tones of his voice sliding over her skin like silk, arousing her once more, "If you had a specific date in mind for our binding?" He had told her Dumbledore's joke on the matter earlier in the evening, and she agreed that a wizard wedding was more to their taste.

"Depends on if we want a private ceremony or let the whole school join in," she murmured.

He brushed some hair from her face. She had let him unplait her hair earlier to let it fall about her. It reached to her knees now, and he gloried in its textures and colours as it caressed them during their lovemaking. He turned the question back to her. "What do you want?"

She was quiet for a moment; so long he thought she had fallen asleep. "I think a small private ceremony, don't you?"

He nuzzled her neck laying some butterfly kisses next to her collarbone. "Most definitely, a private ceremony." He strengthened the hold he had around her and felt her sigh contentedly as she finally dropped off. He followed soon after.