Hey guys. So here's the last chapter. Just wanted to say a quick thanks to everyone who commented, gave kudos, bookmarked this story. I know I usually write happier fics, but when I made this, let's just say I wasnt in a good place. Anyway, my point is, writing it all out in one way or another helps immensely. So yeah, thanks for sticking with me and the boys through all this, and have a lovely day :)

X.

To see the light, to touch the fire

We must hold to what we say.

A silent kiss to keep us warm,

Just for an hour of every day.

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And word by word Harry dies a little inside. All hope he had, all joy he felt has vanished, and there is nothing more inside him just black emptiness and pain. He wants to hate Snape, he wants to be angry at Death to make such an offer, yet he cannot muster any emotion. He simply does not care, whatever happens from now on, it makes no difference. Snape will be truly dead the moment he gives over the Hallows and there is nothing and no one that can change it.

He turns to the creature that wears Lily's look now. He throws his Invisibility Cloak at its feet followed by the Resurrection Stone then the Elder Wand.

Lily's face turns and once again it is the haunting creature that stands there tall and intimidating. But Harry fears it not anymore. He turns his back to it and not looking at Snape tries to walk away.

The land of the dead slowly melts away as colour seep back into the world, yet he sees the trees, the ground the sky in monochrome.

"Potter," Snape say at last just as he is about to walk away from the clearing. Hope gathers in Harry once again. Maybe this all is a misunderstanding. Maybe Snape will roll his eyes and tell him it has been all a joke. Maybe Death will shed its horrible face and McGonagall will stand in its place crying April's fool.

He hopes and yet even as he turns around, he knows it will all be in vain. This is a joke, only not a funny one. To fall in love with a dead man, only real fools do that. He knows it deep down that it has been doomed from the beginning and maybe that is why it took him this long to accept what he feels.

He looks at Snape expectantly, but ignores the creature standing next to him.

"It has to be you," Snape says and for a moment Harry does not understand it. Then it gets to him. He looks down at the pile of powerful magical items lying still at the feet of Death. His stomach sinks and tightens as if someone has just kicked into him.

"You want me," his throat tightens up and he is barely able to finish the sentence, "to destroy these? To destroy you?"

"You are the only one, who is-"

"Shut up," Harry tells him at once. "You want to die? Go ahead, but don't ask me to be your excursioner."

"Destroying the Hallows is your task as the Master of Death. It has nothing to do… with my wish."

"Except, the moment I destroy these, it will do as you two agreed and reap you." Harry spats.

"That has nothing to do with you," Snape insists and the words hurt Harry even more.

"Nothing?" He hisses. "It has to do everything with me!" He shouts. "How do you think it felt to see you alive? To see you breathing when I was convinced for more than half a year that you were dead? How can you be so blind, Snape? If you think I don't care why do you think I kept coming back? Don't you see that this kills me?" He cries desperate. His voice is faint as he continues. "Don't you see, how much it means to me to see you alive? And you tell me, that it has nothing to do with me if I let this thing kill you?"

"Potter…"

"Don't." Harry interrupts him. He can hear the pity in Snape's voice or something equally demeaning that he is not willing to listen to.

He grabs the Elder Wand and points it at the other two items. The wand seems to vibrate in his hand as if sensing how much he hates doing this, how much he will regret this, how much he wants to drop it and run and never turn back. Yet when he whispers, "Incendio," the wand dutifully spits burning red fire that sets aflame the Cloak of Invisibility and the Resurrection Stone. He drops the Elder Wand in the heart of that fiery hell and looks at Snape dead in the eyes. "This is your choice." He tells the man. "It is cowardly and selfish and stupid but it's your choice what you decide to do with the rest of your life. Just know that for someone, you were the light." With that he walks away.

In the Gryffindor Tower, lying in his warm bed, he has no hope of falling asleep knowing what news will await him in the morning. He all but hears McGonagall's voice as she tells him that Snape died during the night, that his weak system gave up what little life he still held on to. He can see, staring up at the baldachin of his bed, how they would pull the sheets over the dead man's head to cover him, hear their sad, whispered voices as they tell him how sorry they were, and that there was nothing to do.

But Harry will know that there was something he could have done. If he kept the Hallows Snape would still be alive. If he were still the Master of Death, Snape would still be in a coma. And, maybe, with time, Harry would be able to convince him to change his mind that there is something to live for.

There are too many maybe-s and what if-s in his head to sleep or to rest. He just rolls from one side of the bed to the other waiting for the news to be delivered. It is a horrible and heart-breaking waiting, counting the seconds that go away with less and less time to be left.

How long will it take? The Hallows are long gone, for sure. After that how long could it take to touch Snape' head and send him to an eternal rest? Is he long dead, but has no one noticed it yet? Is the mediwitch not with him all the time? What if Snape has to die all alone? After all this, Harry wants to tell himself he does not care, yet he knows he cannot let that happen.

He jumps from the bed then rushes down, running from the Gryffindor Common Room towards the dungeons. He follows the road he has walked with McGonagall and even he is surprised that he remembers the way and in the end, he finds the black oak door. It stands slightly ajar and Harry pushes it in, stepping inside the room.

The candles are burning, bringing the room in a weird sepia colour, yet the linen seems still too bright. There is a cold chill in that room, which is not normal, and to Harry seems faintly familiar. He remembers where he felt it not long ago, when he witnessed Death reaping a soul. He knows, even though he cannot see the creature that it is there with him in the room.

Frostwork blooms on the windows as it slowly fogs up. It is as if someone is blowing hot air on the icy cold surface. If he listens carefully, Harry can even hear the sounds of rattling breath leaving rotting lungs. It comes from in front of him yet there is no one there. He almost says "Show yourself" though he knows it would be in vain now. The creature is not compelled anymore to do anything Harry tells it to do. It is free to roam and to reap whoever it needs.

Something appears on the window, which makes Harry's heart beat faster. It is a word, "HE", written onto the fogged-up glass. The invisible hand is not done. Letters appear, one after the other. "IS" is the next word, and Harry knows how it will be finished even before he sees the letter G scratched into the mist.

HE IS GONE, says the sentence on the window. HE IS GONE writes Death now that there is no other way for it to communicate. HE IS GONE screams Harry's heart into the nothingness from the moment he has stepped into the room and noticed the white linen but did not see a body.

Snape is gone and someone has already noticed and took him away to where Harry could not have figured. He is gone and he will never come back. Though the chill, and with it Death as well, is gone, Harry feels cold. It is not the air but his very bones that are freezing, it is his heart that an eternal winter has settled on.

Chill creeps up on him from behind, sneaking up his feet, under his clothes, making the hair prickle at his neck. A face appears on the window where the frostwork slowly dries up. It is a face he had seen in his dreams and in reality; a face most thinks ugly but he finds honest, a face that has and will forever haunt him now.

He is not surprised when he seems to hear Snape's voice, deeper than ever as if speaking straight from hell.

"Even the first time you saw me, you wanted to bring me back. Why?" Says the deep, rough voice in Harry's head.

"Because you didn't deserve to die."

"No one deserves death. No one deserves life, either." Tells him the voice. "You angered the most terrible creature in this world and the one beyond. Why?"

Harry watches the face on the window, his broken heart weeping. He reaches out, trying to caress the warm skin, but all he touches is cold, damp glass. "Because you matter to me more." He whispers and before the voice could continue its relentless questions, Harry asks the one that haunts him. "You kissed me. Why?"

A hand descends on his and Harry gasps. A body, warm and solid presses against him from behind. He can feel lips against his ear, hot breath ghosting on his skin, and most of all, warmth everywhere. "Because when dead, one is supposed to do what makes one happy." Says Snape's deep, rough voice.

Harry is still terrified that it will all be gone in a second, that the moment he turns it will shatter like a glass castle in a hail, yet he cannot contain himself anymore. He spins around finding himself in Snape's arms. "You should do that even when you're alive," is all he can say.

They are kissing once again and, all of a sudden, Harry's swollen heart threatens to explode from happiness. Could this be true or has he gone truly insane?

"Are you alive?" He breathes against Snape' warm skin, his tone urging between heated kisses. "Is this real?"

"Indeed, I am," Snape nods, pressing their foreheads together. "This is real."

"How? Why?" Harry asks, yet he does not really care. All that matters is, that Snape is here and alive.

"When darkness comes, and settles in your heart, there is not much that can break in there." Snape tells him driving five fingers through Harry's hair. "One hour every night I had with you. Sixty minutes and not a second longer. Sixty minutes of light that became addictive. I thought I can let it go, let you go, let the darkness take it all. There on the clearing, I still thought, it matters not whether I live or die. The fox showed me how wrong I was."

"How?" Asks Harry confused.

Snape steps away, but entwines their fingers. "You cannot lie to Death. You can deceive others, you can even lie to yourself, but nobody can fool Death. It felt the hesitation in me, felt how much I longed to feel your warmth again. It gave me one last option. And this time, I chose the light."

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Walk the halls and walk the forest,

There is only warmth, no decay;

See all that is, see all our bright light,

For every hour of every day.

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Fin