Chapter 1
As the trio entered the shrieking shack they all heard an ominous noise coming from the other side of the dim room. They saw Voldemort standing before them as Nagini slithered back to his side. Against the wall was Snape, slumped and now bleeding profusely from his neck.
In unison they realized where the noise was coming from as Voldemort and Nagini left him to bleed out. Once Harry knew for sure that they were gone, he threw off the invisibility cloak and hurriedly rushed over to the bloody mess.
The once lively yet sallow skin was now as pale as Voldemort’s. Harry bent over to get a closer look, Snape weakly seized his robes and Harry let himself fall into his knees to be face to face with him. Feeling a vial shift in his pockets as he fell, he instantly reached into the pocket of his robe to pull it out. Arthur had given him anti-venom for Nagini after he had been attacked himself. He never thought for a second that he'd have to be using it, let alone to save the life of someone who had loathed his existence for so long.
Snape's tired eyes followed the vial as Harry frantically grabbed the man’s jaw and pulled it open. Pouring the anti-venom, he took a good look at the man in front of him. To Harry it felt so surreal. The face of a man who once instilled fear and anger in him now only could be described as anguished. Despite how Harry used to feel, he couldn't do anything but feel bad for his situation.
Tossing the empty vial to the side, he brushed Snape's tangled hair off the ghastly wound and pulled out his wand. He pointed his wand at the gaping wound, though he quickly realized during his years at Hogwarts, he had learned how to repair objects but not actually heal people.
His mouth hung open for a second, unsure what exactly to do, then a stressed whisper came from Hermoine. “Hurry Harry!”
"Repario!" The words rushed out of Harry's mouth as he put his faith into the spell working. As the spell hit Snape, a rush of electricity pulsed through his body and he felt as if part of his own energy had been ripped away.
To everyone's astonishment, the bloodied skin and flesh began to chaotically weave itself back together until a rather large and unsightly scar was the only thing that remained on his neck.
"You both go ahead, I'm going to take him to a safer place before I meet up with you." Said Harry. They both nodded and quickly left the shack.
"Potter," Snape started, raspy and barely audible.
Harry cut him off. "Anything you have to say can wait till later."
After throwing the invisibility over himself, gently placed one arm under Snape's knees and the other under the man's armpit, making sure the cloak also covered Snape so they remained unseen.
He struggled standing, despite how frail Snape currently looked, his deadweight was heavier than Harry expected.
He backtracked out of the shack and out to the base of the whomping willow. It was a bit of a risk, but Harry knew the violent branches would deter most who dared come near it. Rounding to the back of the tree, Harry laid the man down and took the cloak off himself and made sure Snape was covered.
"I'm sorry that I don't have time to take you to a healer. I'll be back." Promised Harry, hoping the man was still lucid enough to hear him.
To make sure he would remember exactly where Snape was, he used his wand to carve lines right above him before sprinting to avoid the violent branches and to meet back with Ron and Hermoine to finally finish this war once and for all.
***
"Madame Pomfrey!" Harry called out. "He's right over here!" He heard the branches above them begin to snap out of their resting position. Before the branches had time to swoop down, he ran to the tree and used his wand to hit the knot. Slowly, the branches crackled back into place.
Even though every fiber in him was silently screaming in exhaustion, he still rounded the trunk of the tree where he had etched into the bark. He reached down and briefly felt around until he made contact with the cloak and hurriedly pulled it off and dropped it to the side.
Harry could see Snape's chest rise and fall ever so gently and instantly relief washed over him. Part of him truly thought with his botched repario, he would’ve come back to a corpse.
Madame Pomfrey came up beside Harry and let out an audible gasp of what seemed to be horror, but it was hard to tell if it was actually disgust. She knelt down and began to examine Snape, wiping dried blood off of him as she went.
“As much as I want to leave him to wallow in pain and experience the same fate as so many others, we’ve had too much death already. Give me a minute to examine him.” Madame Pomfrey muttered with an unpleasant expression.
After about a minute she stood back up. “If you don’t mind, please carry him back to the hospital wing.”
Harry nodded, then shakily lifted Snape off the ground and headed back to the castle. As they passed the wounded, their eyes followed intensely. Some had looks of malice, others gave sympathetic looks to only Harry and the rest turned their heads away as they passed.
Harry couldn’t help to think what exactly had happened while he was gone. Harry knew he wasn’t liked much before, but the fear in some of the students' eyes made him wonder if Snape was the cause for what was probably one of the worst years for any of the students.
As his slow steps echoed through the dusty halls of the castle, bleak gray light from outside shined down through the many holes that littered the walls. The wreckage that surrounded him felt so impossible, as if he was walking through a decrepit parody of Hogwarts instead of the school that had once radiated life and warmth.That had once felt like home.
Walking through the open doors of the hospital wing, nurses hastily directed Harry to a more secluded part off in a far corner. They pulled back the curtains that were around the bed and Harry gently laid Snape down.
A groan came from the headmaster as he adjusted himself in the bed, his eyes still closed. His hands started patting around him as if he was searching for something blindly.
His hand suddenly reached out and latched onto Harry's wrist. Before Harry could really comprehend what was going on, he was pulled towards the bed and he could now feel the man's shallow breaths brush against his face. A cooling feeling coming from where Snape’s hand was.
Snape's eyes were wide open now with a madly wild glint to them. "You fool." Snape whispered, his voice scratchy with sorrow and malice. As the dark eyes continued to bore into him, Harry got lost in them as everything around him went black.
Instead of the hospital wing, he was now standing in Dumbledore's office with a younger Snape sobbing and Dumbledore merely looking at him. The sobs were raw, so much emotion he had never seen from the man before.
The memory wasn't as stable as others he had viewed, he only heard bits of Dumbledore asking Snape to protect Harry and Snape agreeing, though he looked distraught.
In a blink he was now viewing another memory. Still in the office but years have passed since the last. Dumbledore's mouth was moving, though he couldn't hear. Snape's face was one of displeasure and then he heard Albus' voice ring out. "You must kill me."
It then moved to a memory of Snape in the headmaster's office again, but now he was alone and the office was draped in dark green and black. In the dimly lit room, his hands were cupped over his face as he slouched over. Papers with students' faces with MUDBLOOD in bold on the top were sprawled across his desk. His hands lifted from his face and silent tears were rolling down his face.
Harry walked closer to the desk to get a better look at the papers. One caught his eye, it was of a younger girl with raven claw robes.
“She refused to comply with registering with the Muggle-Born Registration commission. We removed her swiftly from school grounds with help of the snatchers and she is now on her way to Azkaban.”
Suddenly the memory faded quickly into darkness and he was jerked back into the hospital wing.
"You mustn't push yourself to move." Said the nurse as she gently guided his head back to the pillow. Her gentle demeanor in contrast to her face scrunched up with distain.
Harry looked to Snape for some kind of explanation of how everything happened, but his eyes were closed again and he seemed to be asleep.
The nurse turned to Harry. "You should leave. No doubt the ministry will be coming for him and after all you’ve done for us and this school, you must need some rest.”
It hit Harry that Snape wanted him to see those memories. To see that his loyalty hadn't been to Voldemort after all. He felt somewhat bad for disliking him so much without knowing the depths he went to, to help the cause.
"I'll stay till they come." He said tiredly.
She gave a confused look, though seemed far too tired and didn't bother to argue and walked away to tend to the other wounded.
He sat against the wall and felt sickened by what he saw. The feelings of turmoil and anguish from the memories still lingered within him. The thought that students were sent to Azkaban of all places made Harry’s stomach churn even more than it already had been.
***
Hours passed and the darkness of night was creeping into the room as Harry laid on the floor of the hospital wing. It had been mostly quiet, so he had been able to fall asleep easily. Though now the commotion of voices slowly growing louder stirred him awake.
A group of ministry officials and professors gathered around him and Snape, who was still laying in the hospital bed. Kingsley and Professor McGonagall were at the front of the group, their their faces stern, yet almost impossible to read, making him feel as if he was the one who was being accused of crimes.
"Care to explain why you're next to this..monster?” McGonagall asked, her emotions now wild on both her face and in her voice.
He heaved himself up off the cold ground to face her properly. "I know how it seems, but he didn't betray us. He was and still is on our side." Harry stressed looking between the both of them.
The chattering abruptly stopped. Wide eyes were staring at him in disbelief. "Mr.Potter, you truly don't expect any of us to believe that after what he has done." McGonagall stated, visibly offended.
“You know yourself that he was a part of the order. His goal was to help us, even if it didn’t seem so.” Harry said. “That’s what double agents do.”
Minerva seemed conflicted. Kingsley looked over at her with irritation. “Minerva, he betrayed all of us when he killed Dumbledore!” His voice echoing through the room.
Without saying anything she just looked down, face covered with defeat.
“Fine, question him when he wakes but I know that everything he did was for the better, even though it truly seems otherwise.” Said Harry.
“You’ll be proven wrong, his occlumency is nearly unmatched. He could’ve put anything he wanted in your head. Some truth serum will seal his fate in Azkaban.” Kingsley sneered. And with that, he stormed out of the hospital wing, other ministry officials quickly scurried behind him. Minerva unsurprisingly looked exhausted, they all did.
"Mr. Potter, when Severus wakes up, Kingsley will question him. Since you are saying he is innocent, I can only hope you're right." Her face desperately pleading with Harry for him to be telling the truth.
Harry nodded and walked past her and the others, heading to the great hall in an attempt to find Ron and Hermione. Despite being in disarray, the great hall gave Harry a feeling of relief. Seeing what students remained chatting and trying to get back to a normal life created a warm feeling in his chest.
Eventually he spotted Ron and Hermione on the floor in a less populated part of the hall. She was laying on Ron's chest, visibly exhausted.
"Hey guys." Said Harry as he sat next to them.
"Hey Harry, where have you been? We were getting a bit worried." Said Ron through a yawn.
"That vial your father gave me saved Snape. I took him to the hospital wing and for some reason Snape let me see some memories of his."
By this point Hermione was waking up and asked groggily "Snape's memories?"
"Yeah. He showed me a memory of Dumbledore telling him that he needs to be the one to kill him, not Draco. Then another memory of him crying and promising Dumbledore that he would protect me." He said purposefully leaving out him seeing Snape cry.
They both looked at Harry completely shocked.
"Do you think the memories he showed you were real and not something he practiced fabricating?" Hermione asked.
"He was in horrible shape when he showed them to me. I doubt even anyone could have the strength to fabricate memories in a state like that." Said Harry, leaving out the fact the memories were seemingly unstable to avoid further questioning.
"What's going to happen to him?" Ron asked wide eyed.
"Truth serum. Kingsley is going to give it to him and whatever questions he answers will determine if he gets locked up or not."
"Personally I believe him." Harry added.
"I'm not sure what to believe. I want to believe you Harry, but I feel like everyone has doubts after his year as headmaster." Muttered Hermione as Ron nodded in agreement.
"No need to dwell on what we don't know. Today was a massive victory for everyone." Said Harry in an attempt to bring the mood back up.
A soft smile grew on Hermione's face. "You're right, though I'm ready to sleep."
"I think we all are." Said Ron.
"A lot of students have probably already left, want to try getting into the common room so we can sleep?" Harry asked.
In unison the pair got up off the floor. "Don't have to ask us twice." Said Ron as he started walking away.
"What a prick, not even waiting for us." Grumbled Hermione. Harry let out a chuckle as they left to catch up with Ron.