The students lingered on although it was getting late, and they switched to talking about the summer holidays and what they were going to do. Seamus Finnigan was going to the US with his family to visit relatives. Mrs Steadfast interrogated him with interest where he was heading.

“I’ll have to wait until August before I go,” she sighed. “But I do hope my children will come to visit me in London at the beginning of summer. I haven’t seen them since Christmas - can you imagine! Never do that to your parents, children. We don’t stop loving you just because you grow up, you know. I appreciate your cravings of freedom, but all the same, it’s hard on us...” She was bantering lightly as usual but Harry thought he could detect a hurt tone in her voice. He smiled sympathisingly at her and she returned it. Her eyelids flickered and she turned her head away.

“Now, where should we send your headmaster on a holiday? He’s earned one. Suggestions anyone? He refuses to tell me where he’s going,” Mrs Steadfast launched the question teasingly and answers showered back at her and at Snape who sat with an impassive face, only frowning at the most hair-raising suggestions.

“Where would you like to send him, Harry?” shouted Simmings across the table.

“Why, to Iceland!” Harry answered promptly. The table booed at him.

“That’s not very nice of you, Harry,” Hermione said reprovingly. “You’ve told us yourself tonight that Professor Snape has made proof of exceptional humanity today and you want to send him away to some sterile, cold place up North.” There was a general murmur of disapproval toward Harry.

“But you misunderstand me,” he said indignantly and glanced at Snape. “I believe he wants to go to Iceland. Really - ask him! And I think it’s a truly interesting country. Great magical history, the cradle of Ancient Magic... It’s not only made out of ice and snow, you know... ”

“I’ll be cursed if Potter’s not right on this one as well...” exclaimed Mrs Steadfast as she scrutinised Snape who, however, did not move a muscle in his face. “Of course, Iceland is spouting hot geysers and erupting volcanoes... I’m with you there, Potter, it agrees perfectly with Professor Snape’s personality.” The room laughed and Snape coloured the least little bit.

“Well, Harry and I are going to France,” said Ginny.

“We are?” said Harry with such earnest surprise that the others were convulsed with laughter.

“Did I not tell you? My parents are going to visit Fleur’s family and we’re coming with them. They have a big summer residence by the French Riviera, the wizard town called Le Grand Eclat. There’s sun and party down there.”

Harry pulled a face.

“You’ll love it, my darling,” said Ginny and kissed him.

“As long as I’m with you.” Harry shrugged and smiled at her.

It was getting very late. The NEWT students had agreed to move on to a night club in London and continue their celebration. It had been decided several days ago and Harry had cleared it with Mrs Steadfast who had secured the place, although neither Mrs Steadfast nor anyone else believed that the Shiftings would attempt anything else tonight after their defeat and heavy losses. Harry had made sure that the night club had a balcony where he could go out and hide if he had any flash-backs from Paris.

He steeled himself before the ordeal, but realised that he would not be able to escape from this occasion. Everyone was going. Graduating from school was a once in a lifetime experience and had to be celebrated thoroughly, regardless of the circumstances. Some had already left and Ginny was starting to get impatient for them to move on, whereas Harry still lingered, listening to the Aurors and chit-chatting with Luna and Josepha who would not join them, but go straight back to Josepha’s flat in London. Now that she had finished school, Luna was moving in with her girlfriend.

Harry rose reluctantly and prepared to leave when Mrs Steadfast tugged at his arm and started to whisper in his ear.

“You’ve got to help me, Harry. I think I’ve done something stupid.” The head of the Aurors looked flushed and a little repentant.

Harry inclined his head politely towards her and lifted his eyebrows.

“Er... It’s Severus...”

Harry looked over at Snape who had risen and stood quite still with a hand on the table and a deep furrow between his eyebrows.

“I... I only wanted to... er... to help him relax a bit after everything, you know... He went back into Occlumency for a while and I thought that... Well, I did a Refilling charm on his glass of Firewhiskey... only twice... He drinks really slowly and he seemed all right as long as he was seated. Not very talkative, quiet and sombre as usual... but all the same, he seems to have had more than he can stand... He’s a bit unsteady on his legs and he doesn’t seem to dare let go of that table... He must be furious with me. I can’t approach him and at the same time it would be dreadful to have him make a fool of himself because of me...”

Harry looked reprovingly at her.

“Professor Snape’s not accustomed to liquor, Mrs Steadfast. He only uses it for medical purposes and when it’s required socially. His father’s an alcoholic and he’s extremely careful with spirits. Now, that was an unkind thing to do to him,” said Harry.

“How do you know these things about him, Harry?” asked Mrs Steadfast in a faint voice. “When has he told you? You only pick fights with one another and yet you seem to... I don’t know…”

“Oh... He must have mentioned it sometime...” Harry said vaguely. “Okay, I’ll see if I can help you.”

Harry stood still, thinking for a while before he stepped up resolutely to Snape.

“May I have a word, Professor, on the way out?” he said and met Snape’s gaze that was slightly unfocused. Before Snape had time to react or answer, Harry grabbed him under the arm and steered him away from the table. “I wanted to talk to you about my shortcomings,” said Harry in a serious tone of voice.

Snape looked at him confused at the same time as he clutched Harry’s arm to steady himself. He said nothing. Harry rattled on as he summoned their coats and made way to the entrance door.

“You remember when I wrote to you last summer and used the term ‘nightmare’ incorrectly, don’t you...? And you remember how furious you were that I had never learnt about not to take pity on monsters or demons... And you do remember the Trapping Web, of course... or my ignorance of it, more precisely... and the murderous owl... although that came much later.... after I had gotten this idea... You see I got an idea this Christmas, a really brilliant idea that involves Mrs Weasley... I’m going to tell you all about it... I must only say a few words to my friends.”

They were out in the fresh summer night air. Harry turned to Ginny who stood waiting for him, fuming with impatience.

“You go ahead, Ginny, with Ron and Hermione and the others. I need to speak to Professor Snape about something. I’ll be right with you. No... not now, please. You ask Mrs Steadfast if it’s about security. She knows I must speak to Professor Snape before I go. I’ll be a minute, I say... See you later.” He waved at his friends who looked suspiciously after him and he waved at Mrs Steadfast who had stepped out right behind them.

“I’ll accompany you on your way back to the castle, Professor, if you’ll allow me to tell you about my project with Mrs Weasley.” Harry had not let go of Professor Snape who was just a little reeling on his legs, but who seemed quite terrified by this fact and therefore held on to Harry’s arm tightly. Harry pretended not to notice and chatted on.

“Mrs Weasley is such a wonderful person, you know. She has brought up five sons and a daughter, with scarce resources, except for her own sound judgement. I mean they’ve never been well off, the Weasley family, and they have done everything themselves. At the same time they’re truly genuine magic folk. They actually have no Muggle influence in their families as long back as you can follow and yet Mr Weasley is so interested in Muggles and Muggle life style and they’re really open and unprejudiced people - the most sympathetic wizard and witch that I’ve ever met, actually. So, I thought there’s no one as capable as Mrs Weasley to tell what’s important when you bring young wizards and witches up, right?”

Snape and Harry moved away from the pub and walked along the main street of Hogsmeade under a starry sky.

“The thing is that I’ve felt embarrassed on a number of occasions because of my ignorance of quite common, everyday things in the wizard world. At the same time, I’ve found it deeply unfair when people like yourself sneer at me and despise me because of these shortcomings. No one taught me those things! And I spoke to Hermione this Christmas and discovered that we have a lot in common, being brought up in Muggle families, although Hermione has been able to compensate better by reading books from an early age. My idea, however, consisted in summing up, in a book, all those everyday things that wizard families teach their children before they start School of Magic. This book should go through all the important points in a systematic way to allow Muggle parents to get an idea of the Magical world and to offer the young witch or wizard brought up in a Muggle family an easily accessible way of learning what their comrades brought up in magical families already know. It would be an attempt to counterbalance the state of inequality that necessarily is the point of departure for pupils at Hogwarts with different backgrounds. I thought that if you could offer the first years a book before they enter Hogwarts, easy to read, in a sympathetic tone and that plays down the oddities of the wizard world at the same time as it conveys life-saving knowledge to Muggle-borns, it would be a really good thing.”

Harry looked at Snape to see if he followed but Snape only stared fixedly at the ground. Harry didn’t let it bother him and continued.

“And now Mrs Weasley has written such a book. She’s been engrossed by the task since Christmas and she told me this Easter that it has helped her move on in her sorrow after Fred, too. It helped her to have something to plunge into heart and soul. I’m afraid the book is far too long, though. She has written thousands and thousands of inches of scrolls...She’s wasteful with her words, she doesn’t condense at all. Worse than me. But then this is not an article in a Journal...  I’ve read some chapters and she has an entertaining, although respectful and matter-of-fact style, if you understand what I mean - just the right tone of address, in short. She has shown the book to an editor and they approve of the idea. They’ll help her to shorten the text a bit. They want her to find someone to proofread the book and do cross-references, and I’m afraid I suggested they ask you, Sir. They were delighted, because it would mean a lot, of course, for the publishing of the book, if the Headmaster of Hogwarts was to recommend it on the Set books list.” Harry drew his breath. “What do you think about that, Sir?”

“I think that you’re babbling, Potter,” Snape said slightly indistinctly yet not thickly. The fresh air had made him sharper and he looked at Harry with a frown. “Mrs Weasley has written a book about raising children and you want me to review it, I’ve got it,” he said grumpily and disengaged himself from Harry. “I can walk on my own, thank you very much... That damned cheeky, wild woman... having me lie down on stretchers... giving me too much to drink on the quiet... But I’m all right now.” Snape took long resilient steps to prove his point.

“Yeah...” said Harry, “You’ll be okay. You might even make it through Mme Sprout’s Planta Sensitiva - if you’re lucky.”

Snape stopped dead with a bewildered expression on his face and started to swear to himself and search his pockets.

“By all Goblin swords, do you have any elderberries on you, Potter?”

Harry started to laugh and Snape looked at him affronted.

“What’s so funny?” he spat.

“You forget, Sir, that you’re the headmaster. Why, you can just stun the blasted plant and step through! I don’t think Filch would dare object to you, would he? Moreover, there are no pupils left at Hogwarts. The term has ended. There’s no one to set a good example to. Strictly speaking, I guess you’re on a holiday and free to do whatever pleases you. You don’t need those elderberries, Sir.”

Snape started to laugh softly and the laughter increased to hilarity. As he started to walk again he made a false step and Harry caught his arm amicably. Snape did not disengage himself. The laughter abated and they walked on arm in arm.

“When I come to think of it,” said Snape after a while, “I think that the Avada Kedavra today did me good.”

Harry chuckled and looked at him surprised.

“No, seriously.” Snape continued, ”I’ve never been less pained by my left shoulder than tonight. I’ve had problems with that shoulder ever since I was fifteen and that flesh-eating demon in the western tower bit me. After Nagini’s bites, it has been really sore all the time but now... gone!” Snape made a vivid gesture with his free right arm. “An Avada is what I needed to treat that poisoned piece of meat.”

“It’s your arm we’re talking about, Sir,” Harry said a little reprovingly.

“My shoulder, yes... You hung me upside down by my heel, Potter. Saved my life in the process, too...”

“Well, you returned the compliment, Sir, and took a killing curse in your chest into the bargain. Does that make us even, or what?”

“I don’t know, Harry. We saved each other’s lives so many times today, it’s too complicated. I’m a bit too tipsy to make it out, really.”

“Then, let’s just leave it,” Harry replied evenly. Snape started to chuckle again.

“Mrs Steadfast actually considers teaching the Levicorpus spell as a means of defence against the unblockable curse, at the Auror’s program. No, seriously, she does. She thought it was so good.” They laughed heartily.

“Well it is good, isn’t it?” said Harry. “Because it’s immediate. A Protego spell or some kind of Accio spell would have to travel from the person wanting to intervene to the person to be saved, thus competing with the Avada curse. In that case it’s all a matter of which one comes first and if you’re too late, or too far away, you have no chance to intervene favourably, whereas the Levicorpus spell only has to be thought, speechlessly, and there you have the person hanging upside down in front of you. Brilliant.”

Snape looked slyly at Harry.

“Do you want me to tell you what makes the Levicorpus spell so ingenious, or have you guessed? No you can’t have, it’s too difficult, too well hidden. That spell is so condensed. One of my best inventions. Only one word, but it contains a lot. Do you want me to reveal the secret to you?”

Harry nodded.

“Under condition you won’t try to Obliviate me tomorrow,” he hastened to add. “In that case you might just as well not tell me.”

Snape laughed.

“No, I don’t care, but maybe... It’s not to be spread, okay? Just between you and me... I trust you with it. You see, the Levicorpus spell is so brilliant because... because... but there’s a tiny bit of Dark Arts involved, you’ve made that out, haven’t you?”

Harry nodded. “Tell me now,” he said and looked intently at Snape.

“It’s because it’s a Mind Modifyer - or a Mind Compelling curse – it depends on how you choose to look at it. But the central part is that it isn’t you who flip the person upside down, you make the person want to flip himself upside down, without realising it, of course. And that’s why it’s immediate in its effect. As soon as you have thought the curse, you have influenced the mind and manipulated the magic of your object and the effect is carried out.” Harry stared at him.

“Brilliant!” he exclaimed.

“I told you it was... and simple really... although it has caused me so much pain to see that spell misused by the Death Eaters and it has caused me so much humiliation on a personal plane...”

Harry glanced at Snape, carefully choosing his words.

“I’m sorry for the way James treated you,” he said. “When I saw those memories of yours, showing him taunt you like that, I was appalled. I was really troubled for a long time afterwards, because I had always thought that he was a good and fair kind of man. I don’t have any real memories of him of my own, of course, and I suppose that... Well, the Dursleys didn’t speak to me about my parents at all, and if they did, only in condescending words, telling lies like that they died in a car crash and such things. I suppose that when I came to Hogwarts and learnt who my parents had really been and what had happened to them, having wondered and longed for some knowledge all my life, I sort of idealised them from the little facts I was given. Everyone told me James was a wonderful person, although that’s what you always say about dead people, isn’t it? But I was a child and I wanted him to be wonderful, naturally. I wanted him to be powerful, skilled and good. And I certainly didn’t want you to be right about him, but when I saw him do the Levicorpus on you like that, just for fun, in front of everyone, I was confused, really confused...”

Snape sighed.

“It was twenty-five years ago, as you pointed out to me earlier today... And the worst thing about that episode was not the acts of harassment, but what it made me say to Lily. I called her a Mudblood and it took her a long time to forgive me that transgression. And I have regretted it ever since...” They went silent for a while.

“Well, I’m glad if Mrs Steadfast wants to make some good use of that troublesome spell and teach it to save people,” said Snape.

“Mrs Steadfast does have her flashes of genius at times,” said Harry. Snape grunted reluctantly. “She made a very generous assessment of my abilities to express myself today, too.” Harry chuckled to himself.

Snape smiled but became serious quickly again. He seemed to ponder upon something.

“Was Mrs Steadfast right in assuming that you had planned to leave Hogwarts all along?” asked Harry.

Snape made a grimace.

“Why?” insisted Harry.

Snape sighed deeply. He was completely serious now.

“When I regained consciousness after the attack of Nagini, I found out that the battle, that I never really took part in, had ended and that Voldemort was indeed dead. And I realised that the mission I had worked on for eighteen years was completed... So when I woke up in the Hospital wing, I couldn’t for all my magic understand why on earth I had to live on… Why I hadn’t just perished along with the other evil…”

Harry shuddered and glanced at Snape who had his eyes riveted on the gravelled path.

“Life, for me, felt completely meaningless, and all I wanted was to go back into the blackness of the coma. But then Kingsley came and told me what had happened. First I got angry with you for being involved in my resurrection with the Acromentula antidote and forcing me to live, then I got even angrier when I understood that you had spoken to Voldemort in front of everyone about me and Lily... You already know all that... The anger, however, empowered me to want to show the world something else... to play some part other than the ridiculous one of the rejected and bereaved lover who sacrificed himself... That one doesn’t suit me at all... People eying me with pity and contempt...” Snape shook his head vehemently.

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Snape got ahead of him.

“I gave myself a year... to try to accomplish something... to help out with the clearing up after Voldemort.” Snape took a deep breath. “When... when Lily died... I didn’t want to live on, either, but Professor Dumbledore forced me to... He made me understand that I had not the right to quit, that it was cowardice. He was so severe with me on that point. You can always put yourself in the service of trying to do good for other people, or for the world as a whole, he said. The work of repenting and redeeming yourself is to be taken very seriously, that was his view of things – it had to do with Ancient Magic, but at the time I wasn’t interested in penetrating that part. I guess Albus had given it a lot of thought after his sister died, and found a way to deal with his own guilt.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully.

“It was never in my nature to endeavour to please people... To suck up to people, just to have them like me, is superfluous in my opinion... If it’s in order to gain something substantial on the other hand, I can do it... However, I guess I did the redeeming thing in my own way and I proceeded in secret under Professor Dumbledore’s guidance. I came to appreciate and respect that man a lot...”

A shadow of sadness passed over Snape’s face and Harry felt his own throat constrict.

“Moreover, as I recovered last summer I found myself in a position of power. I was still addressed as Headmaster. Surprisingly, Kingsley decided to keep me at the post... And being Slytherin Slytherin...” He cast a glance at Harry who twisted his mouth in a smile. “...I enjoy having power. I like... being in charge... making things happen... So once I had given myself the respite of a year, I actually began to enjoy the new state of the wizard world. With Voldemort gone, I didn’t have to live in Occlumency... I had more room for moving about... and there was a sense of... freedom... that I actually appreciated.”

Harry’s eyes were riveted at Snape.

“Well, you know all that transpired this year... I was put to the test on more than one occasion... Can’t even tell myself whether I’ve done well or failed...” Snape sighed. “Anyway, I was determined to hush your story about Lily and me down, and I knew all along that it would imply failing my trial... So, yes, back to your question, I was resolved on leaving Hogwarts at the latest at the end of term... Going abroad... going to Azkaban or... just going... I hadn’t decided...” Snape spoke matter-of-factly, almost distractedly, without any trace of sentimentality. Harry shuddered at the implications of the words. His sensitive features reflected a range of emotions. He cleared his throat.

“I... I’d like to...” He had to start anew. “As I said to Mrs Steadfast earlier... I was sincere... I’d like you to stay around... It would mean a lot to me just to... to...”

Snape let go of Harry’s arm and stopped in the middle of the road. They had reached a little more than half way up to the gate of Hogwarts. The sky was clear, but patches of fog had formed in the hollows of the broken ground. The night had become chilly, but now and again balmy breezes of the lingering warmth from the day would pass by. A complex blend of scents, remains from the hot summer day, floated in the air and mixed with the freshness of the night. The Forbidden Forest stood out as a gulf of dark shadows against a beautiful starry vault of blue night-sky.

“I... I have something that I must tell you, Harry.” Snape spoke in a somewhat small voice. “I might as well do it right now, when I have the heart to do it, because there might not come another occasion. You must not think... You must not be left under the impression that... Oh!...” Snape moaned as he had difficulties finding his words. He shook his head. “It’s so silly, really, because I thought you already knew and then, when you vouched at my trial, I realised that you could not know or you wouldn’t have scored as you did in front of the Mirror of Faith. And I felt lousy for leading you on, making out unintentionally that I was better than I really am. I never meant to deceive you, I’m sorry. It’s just that it’s so difficult for me to speak about it.”

Harry looked intrigued at him.

“I thought you knew, and that as a consequence you had reached the decision not to vouch for me and that was why you exerted yourself to help out with the inquiry instead.”

“Hermione...”

“I know it was you who invented the Veritaserum of Exceptions, Harry. You and Miss Granger were in it together, you being the driving force behind it all, I suspect.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” Harry objected and looked away. “I reached my decision of vouching for you on my own and nothing can change that.”

“I’m afraid you’ll feel very differently after what I’m about to tell you,” sighed Snape. “But I must reveal it to you in the end. I cannot live with hiding the fact any longer. You might learn it from someone else and that would only be worse… I’m afraid you’ll hate me… again.”

Harry took a step towards Snape and looked at him apprehensively. How many secrets did Snape have hidden in his past?

“It’s so ridiculous...” Snape passed a hand over his face and drew his breath. “I was convinced that I had shown you everything in my memories. Surely, I must have shown you when I returned to Dumbledore and asked him...? But then I thought that you had only watched the memories once and moreover they contained your death sentence, in a way, and you might have been too shocked in the end to remember the details and maybe it was not very clearly spoken... The most ridiculous thing is that I destroyed the memories before checking what precisely they contained. I was dying when I gave them to you. I only have a general idea of what I wanted to convey to you. And I was so ridiculously upset when I found the memories, so angry with you for having spoken about what they contained, that I destroyed them. So I don’t even know what you know, which is even more agonising... solely my own fault, I do realise that. Oh... this is difficult...”

Snape rubbed his face with both hands, lifted his head and looked straight into Harry’s eyes to make his confession.

“Harry, I’m not a good man. When I turned to Dumbledore all those years ago it was not only to protect Lily from Voldemort but it was the guilt at being the cause of turning her into a target. Harry, I am the person who listened in on that Prophesy and reported it to Voldemort. If it had not been for me, Voldemort would never have gone after you and your parents. Were it no for me, Lily and James would be alive by now.”

Harry stared at him, frowning slowly. Snape held his gaze but his shoulders sagged.

“But, I know about that. I’ve known for a long time now,” Harry said slowly.

“It’s impossible... impossible that you should know! You must hate me for what I did... You cannot...” Snape looked bewildered. Harry shook his head in disbelief.

”This is why you’ve been so unreasonably unapproachable the whole year?” he said with mild accusation in his voice. ”You’ve indeed kept me at a distance. But why did you not just tell me, with the war over and everything, when we met at the end of last summer, and have it done with?”

”Because you were Lily’s son… And I’m a coward… in certain aspects…” Snape mumbled barely audibly. ”You knew…?” he whispered.

“I learnt the fact two years ago, on the same evening that you killed Dumbledore,” Harry answered slowly, retreating in his memory. ”I ran into Professor Trelawney on my way to his office and she started to complain about this and that, and told me in passing. I was furious when I arrived at Dumbledore’s office and confronted him about you, but he didn’t say much, only told me that you had regretted the fact and turned to our side shortly thereafter. I was so upset, but we didn’t have time to sort it out. We were leaving for that cave to search for one of the horcruxes. Dumbledore asked me to trust his faith in you, as usual. That was never easy for me.”

Harry swallowed and looked down.

“Everything that happened that night was dreadful. I had to make Dumbledore drink an entire basin of poison to retrieve the locket. He suffered so much. It weakened him and when, at last, we came back to Hogsmeade the Dark Mark had been set over the castle. And then... then... I saw you kill him. He had petrified me, I couldn’t do anything until his death lifted the spell and I ran... I ran after you...”

Harry lifted a pained gaze on Snape.

“Oh, don’t you worry, I hated you – I hated you more than any person on earth at that particular moment...” Harry’s voice crackled up and he was speaking with great feeling. “When I ran after you that night, or early morning... it was as much out of rage for what you had done to my parents as disbelief and fury over what I had just seen you do to Dumbledore. I was beyond myself with hatred. It paralysed me. Not a single curse reached you. I wanted to hurt you, destroy you, punish you, but I was incapable of the merest... I asked you to kill me instead, I called you a coward and you whipped me in my fa...”

“Please, don’t,” Snape whispered and shut his eyes as if to avoid the horrible memory.

Harry drew his breath and wiped some tears that had run down his cheeks, without him realising it.

“I see now that you must have gone through just as big an ordeal as I did, and that being called a coward by me at that precise moment was not in the least fitting to what you had really done...”

Snape only shook his head, he could not speak. Harry went on.

“I hated you for more than a year, perhaps even more than I hated Voldemort himself. Voldemort was an almost abstract, terrible pain to live with. The hatred for you was personal in a different way. I was convinced you were such an evil man. I wanted to face you, to fight you, to crush you. It was lucky we did not meet, because it would probably have diverted my efforts of vanquishing Voldemort. But then... I saw you die... and I watched those memories... and it changed everything, you must see that. It was shocking to have been mistaken to such a degree and... It changed everything,” repeated Harry.

The tall, dark-clad, usually so composed man in front of Harry looked shattered.

“It doesn’t change the fact that she’d be alive if it wasn’t for me,” Snape whispered hoarsely.

“That’s not certain. Voldemort might have found out in other ways. And you didn’t know how he was to interpret the Prophesy. You didn’t know he would go after her and you tried to protect her by turning to Dumbledore. You deceived Voldemort. It was dangerous, you risked your life. The love for Lily made you do the right thing.”

Snape looked down, abashed.

“Even if I didn’t know he would turn against Lily and go after her, telling Voldmort about that Prophesy in the way that I did, put some child – whoever it was – in danger. I didn’t realise, I didn’t care about that, did I? I only wanted to prove myself to the Dark Lord. After she married James, I lost myself completely in darkness for a period, plunged deeper and deeper into evilness. I was prepared to sacrifice a child – any child - you - just to serve him.”

“Yes, that’s terrible,” Harry answered slowly and looked at Snape with pity. “I understand that it must plague you to have done that, but you have repented. You have made amends. You helped Dumbledore protect me, for her sake only I appreciate that – you still hated me because of James - but all the same. When you went back to serve and spy on Voldemort you risked your own life. I’m sure he punished you. I’m sure it was horrible to you to be near the man who murdered the woman you loved, and pretend to worship him.”

Snape let out something between a gasp and a stifled cry.

“How can you reconcile to the fact that I caused your mother’s death when I cannot even myself find any redeeming circumstances to what I have done? I just have to live with it... forever. I’ll never forget the look on her face when she realised what I had done... The terror... The righteous wrath...She was formidable...” Snape closed his eyes. Harry deduced with surprise that Snape must have sought his mother out to warn her face to face about the prophesy, before going to Dumbledore. A thought struck Harry.

“Did you speak to Lily after you changed sides? Did she know that you repented? Did she forgive you?” he asked. A new cry of anguish escaped Snape.

“That’s it, I don’t know... I don’t know if she forgave me before she died. Dumbledore kept us apart. He didn’t trust me - of course he didn’t trust me - and I knew I had to wait, but then they were betrayed and suddenly... suddenly she was no more...” Snape drew a rattling breath and tried to collect himself.

“Dumbledore said afterwards to me that he had told her what I had done and that she had been happy to know I had changed sides and that she had wanted to see me, that she had been eager – Dumbledore said so - to speak to me. But I don’t know if it was true. He might have said so to lessen my pain when she was gone. He might have pretended... only to comfort me... I don’t know, I simply don’t know if she forgave me.” Snape turned around and started to walk towards the gate. He made a gesture with his hand for Harry not to follow him.

“I’m sure she forgave you,” said Harry to his back. “I have forgiven you at any rate – if that counts for something,” he added in a lower voice, but Snape heard him and turned around.

“I’m sorry, Harry, of course it does. I don’t understand it, but it does. For the rest, I’m condemned to live under the yoke of my own evil actions. Nothing will ever take that away. Never let yourself go down that slope, Harry, there’s a life-time sentence attached to it. Good-bye now. Have a good night in London. Don’t let Miss Ginny take the life out of you entirely.”

“Good-bye, Professor Snape,” Harry called back and watched the dark silhouette of Snape disappear further along the path. “Professor!” Harry shouted after him and took a few steps forward. Snape turned again.

“I’m sorry, but... I need to ask...” It was Harry’s turn to sound small and vulnerable. “Will I see you around, then? I’m leaving Hogwarts tonight and I probably won’t come back. We might not have the occasion to meet again?” Harry could not see Snape’s face in the dark but he could hear the slightly ironic tone in his voice when he answered.

“You want to see me around, do you Potter? Decidedly... Well, don’t you worry. Maybe you don’t know that I teach at St Mungo’s, twice a week in the evenings? And tonight, Mrs Steadfast, with great art, talked me into doing some teaching at the Auror training program next term, as well. In short, whichever career you choose, I’ll be around. And I’ll be delighted to read whatever papers you send to me and give my opinion, especially on those works on incantations and Ancient Magic. You keep up with them. I believe your mother would have been delighted.”

“I will,” answered Harry. “Thank you, Sir. Good-night!”

Snape had moved on, but lifted his left hand without turning around as a sign of greeting. Harry stood still and watched him reach the gate and be let in by the Auror still stationed at the entrance.

Harry turned around to walk back to Hogsmeade. Mrs Steadfast probably waited for him there. He would say a few words to her and Apparate to London. He would launch himself into the dancing crowd at the club to find Ginny and he would be with his friends and celebrate their graduation. Tomorrow they would wake up at the Burrow on the first day of the summer holidays.

It was dark, still and perfectly quiet. A sudden urge to look at the castle caught Harry. It was partly hidden behind a small hill and he stepped outside the path tentatively to go round it and have a clearer view. He stumbled on the irregular ground and it was giddying to walk into the nothingness of the velvety darkness. The castle was lit by moonlight and looked impressive and inviting at the same time. A few windows only were lit. Harry looked at the windows of his dormitory which were dark and empty.

“Thank you,” whispered Harry and felt a bit foolish. He smiled to himself. Suddenly he mounted in the air in a Spiral Case Knight’s Move and span around high up in the air. The castle looked even more splendid and Harry let his wand draw whirls of golden sparkles in a salute to the home he was now leaving.