A/N: Hello everybody! I need to apologize for two things: first of all, taking so long in updating and secondly, the not-so-good quality of this last part. I've done my best and with all my love and all my gratitude towards your wonderful comments and requests of updates I am glad to finally give you some closure. It's time to end this story, which I took to a longer path I initially imagined but I enjoyed writing it a lot.

I hope you all enjoy the end ^_^

Hogwarts 1997

Chapter 32

The end

Minerva couldn't help but stop in the middle of the recently restored bridge and take in the views. The Castle still stood majestically at the top of its hill as the sun was setting, only a great part of it was now a pile of dust and rubble. They were rebuilding it stone by stone, spell by spell, with the help of a lot of volunteers, most of them survivors of the battle, who would come and go as their own affairs allowed them. They worked slowly but Minerva was hopeful to see the school back up and running before September.

At this hour, everybody was gone. As much as she liked the atmosphere of communion during the hard-working day, she enjoyed the after peace and quiet even better. Filch and the house elves were the only people who had refused to leave the castle – and the ghosts, of course, but they really had no other choice. Minerva would only see Filch around as a shadow every now and then, but they had yet to speak a word to each other since the battle. The elves helped as much as they could but, since there were no students and practically no school to tend to, Minerva had freed them of their usual duties. That's why she was on her way back from Hogsmeade. She'd gone to get some food for dinner after the other others had returned home.

She continued her way towards the East entrance. It was closer to the dungeons – not the ones that hosted the Slytherin House, nor the ones that were used as classrooms, but the old ones, deep down into the Castle's foundations. She limped all the way down – the humidity worsened the pain in her leg muscles, and she refused to use a cane. She was not old. Not yet.

She moved across the labyrinth of corridors and stopped in front the only locked door there was. She took out her wand and undid the protective spells sealing the entrance. When she was done, the door moved slowly open, a strong smell of human waste invaded her nostrils. She thought of casting a cleaning spell but, it was all part of the game, wasn't it? They were meant to suffer.

"Good evening," Minerva said as she walked past two very weak Carrows, each of them chained to the wall by their wrists, their clothes torn up, bloody and soiled, their eyes so used to the darkness by now that even the little light coming from the candles in the corridor seemed to hurt them. "I imagine you must be starving," she reached inside her cloak and produced a baguette, "I apologize for the abandonment but I've been quite busy these past two days," she split it in half and threw a piece to each prisoner corner. Then she raised her wand and made a twist in the air to remove the spell forbidding them to speak.

"Could you at least untie our hands?" asked Amycus Carrow, "we're not dogs," he said.

"No, you're worse than them," Minerva ignored his plea. Lowered her wand towards a bowl between the pair of brother and sister and cast an aquamenti.

"If you're going to kill us, just do it," said Alecto almost without a voice from the other side, eyeing the bread with hunger but too proud to reach for it like an animal in front of her captor.

"I won't kill you," Minerva said.

"Where's Severus? Why is he not here with you? I bet the Dark Lord sliced both his hands after learning what a traitor he was," Amycus said, and before he could draw even half a smile on his lips, Minerva slapped his face soundly.

"Eat or starve to death, I don't care. Either way I know you'll suffer," she said before leaving them alone again in the darkness of their magically guarded dungeon.

…

One week before…

Minerva was helping Poppy tend the injured when she saw Potter and his friends standing by the Great Hall's doorway. As Granger and Weasley walked in, Harry backed away and made his own way up the stairs. She approached her students silently, knowing the Weasley family was in mourning, and gently pulled Hermione out to speak to her.

"Do you know what Potter's plan is, Ms. Granger?" she asked, uncertain of what was to happen after the one-hour countdown Lord Voldemort had given them.

Hermione looked around. She hadn't event notice that Harry was gone.

"He's probably gone to the Headmaster's office to watch Snape's memories," she said very calmly and Minerva went pale. She felt her heart stop beating and even though she had dozens of questions, she could barely produce a sound when she tried to speak.

"Memories. What? Where?" she muttered as she breathed heavily.

"He was with Voldemort in the Shrieking Shack when we went in search of Nagini," the girl explained, "are you alright, professor?"

"What happened?"

"He killed him."

"No!" Minerva cried out loudly enough to make the entire room turn towards her. She didn't care, she couldn't see them, she felt her own life vanish her body as she fell on her knees.

"Professor!" Granger tried to help her and Madame Pomfrey and Professor Hooch quickly appeared as well.

"Minerva, are you alright? Are you injured?"

"Poppy!" Minerva raised her head and opened her eyes wide as if she'd just woken from a nightmare, "you must come with me, we might still be able to help him."

"Help who?"

"Severus."

…

Minerva rushed herself up the fields with an energy and strength she hadn't felt in years. Poppy and Hooch followed a few steps behind. The passage under the Whomping Willow was narrow, dark and dirty but, Minerva kept her pace. As they reached the Shrieking Shack they were welcomed by the deepest silence.

"Severus!" Minerva yelled as she crawled out of the tunnel and without standing, dragged herself closer to Snape, still trapped between the cage and the wall. She took out her wand and vanished his prison away and pressed her ear to his heart in search of a heartbeat.

Hooch stood a few steps behind, never comfortable around death. Poppy sat across Minerva and reached for Severus' wrist.

"Minerva…"

"You have to help him," she said.

"I'm sorry, Min," the nurse muttered, "he has no pulse."

"He's not dead," she refused to believe, and she moved her wand towards his heart and cast a spell that sent a very low electric shock towards it.

"Minerva, you shouldn't do that," the nurse begged as Minerva had another go.

Rolanda watched her friends stare at each other for a couple of seconds as if battling with each other. The nurse seemed to hesitate for a moment but then, she rolled up her sleeves and began to inspect the body. It didn't take long for her to find the big round marks of the snake's fangs. She made a gesture for Minerva to stop her attempts.

"Minerva, I need you to understand this might not work," Pomfrey warned in her most stern voice, "we might have been too late," Minerva nodded and then the nurse raised her wand and pointed at the wound. A transparent greenish liquid began to pour out of his body, the nurse produced a vial from her carrier bag to store it in. When the venom stopped coming out, she closed the wounds, redirected her wand towards Severus' chest and gave him one more electric shock. She checked for his pulse again. "He's lost a lot of blood."

"He's alive, isn't he?" Minerva asked with a smile on the corner of her lips.

"He has a very weak heartbeat. The venom had paralyzed his heart and his body. If we could give him a transfusion in time, he might be able to wake up but…"

"You can take my blood," Minerva interrupted, "that's no problem."

"I'm afraid you don't have the same blood type, Minerva. We don't have time to…"

"Use mine," Hooch said suddenly stepping forwards and already rolling her sleeves up.

"Rolanda, the chances of this working…" Poppy whispered looking up at her friend in disbelieve.

"We'll do it ourselves if you don't want to, Pops, but I don't think Minerva is going anywhere until she's sure there's nothing else to do," Hooch said, Minerva looking at her with tearful eyes.

"Alright," the nurse gave up. She took all the material up, set the needles, the tube and cast the spell. Very soon, fresh blood was flooding out of Rolanda and running into Severus. She set up another needle into his other arm, but this one connected to a bottle of serum, to which Pomfrey added some drops of a few potions from her bag. Then, she stood up.

"Now what?" Minerva asked.

"Now, I go treat my other patients," Poppy said, "Rolanda, you should pause the spell when you start feeling dizzy. Drink water and keep an eye on him," Hooch nodded, "Minerva, I think you'll be more useful in the school," she added, but Minerva ignored her.

"We'll be fine," Hooch said, "everybody is counting on you to tell them what to do."

"I don't know what to do," Minerva confessed, brushing Severus' face with the palm of her hand, "I don't know if we can win this."

"We can't give up now," Hooch said, "go."

…

Minerva went up the stairs practically dragging her leg up. The cold didn't help. She thought it'd be wise to start fixing those second-floor windows so they could maybe start heating up the corridors. Summer was still a few weeks away and the nights were chilly. Luckily, the Headmaster's office and private rooms were untouched. Maybe they should start referring to them as the Headmistress rooms, she thought as she walked in. The fireplace was lit and the candles were burning. She went up the spiral staircase and into the small apartment on top. She crossed the small living room and went straight into the bedroom, were Severus was waiting for her.

"Why did you take so long?" Severus asked.

"Rolanda insisted on me having a shot with them at the Hog's Head," she sat down by the edge, careful not to hurt him and bent over to give him a soft kiss, "I'm sorry if you worried."

"I only worried because you told me you'd pay a visit to our guests," he said.

"Oh, yes, I did that too. They're dying for you to get strong enough to come down with me," she said with a smirk.

"I managed to walk all the way to the bathroom by myself," Severus said.

"Why didn't you wait for me? A third of your body muscles are still paralyzed if you were to fell…"

"But I didn't fall," Severus said, "besides, I started moving my left feet toes, so it's less than a third now," he replied.

"Oh, that's fantastic!" Minerva said with a smile, happy not only to see he was slowly recovering but to see he was regaining a sense of humor too.

...

"Rolanda?" Minerva asked as she crawled out the tunnel again.

"She's sleeping," whispered a very weak male voice. Minerva's heart bounced. She looked up and was met by Severus' eyes staring at her.

"You're alive!" she cried, he tried to reply but he could barely produce another sound, "I knew you weren't dead!" Minerva ran towards him in tears but stopped before embracing him, afraid to hurt him. "He's dead, Severus, Voldemort's dead and Potter is alive. We won!"

He very slowly drew a smile on his face. Minerva caressed him gently and kissed his lips. He tried to say something.

"T-the Carrows?" he gasped.

"I left them tied up in the Ravenclaw Common Room," she said, "they're probably still there. We don't need to worry about them anymore."

"I want to kill them," he said, using all his strength to push his voice out, "myself."

"Severus, the battle's won, the war is over, there's no need to..." and suddenly she felt his hand trying to reach for her belly. She held his hand and helped him, "Ok. I'll take care of it."

.

THE END…