The sun rose steadily over Hogwarts, and the Great Hall blazed with life and light. And yet there were no cheers, no cries of jubilation. There were only tears of grief and mourning. The survivors slowly moved about the castle, picking up the pieces of their now shattered lives. Their eyes were dull and lifeless. Exhaustion was in every face as well.

"It's just me, Headmaster," a kind voice spoke next to Severus a few moments later, causing him to start violently.

"Poppy," he murmured, glancing up at her before he closed his eyes and sighed heavily. So much kindness had been spent on him over the past few hours. He couldn't help but be overwhelmed by it all. He didn't deserve any of their kindness.

"I need to change your dressings again, sir."

"I'm not leaving him," Severus replied firmly, leaning closer to the bedside of the unconscious Harry Potter.

"Good, because I'm not asking you to." The matron gave him a warm smile and waited until he relaxed somewhat and leaned back. She gently unwrapped the gauze that had been around Severus's neck, tossing the soaked dressings into the bin beside her silently.

"How is he, madam?"

"I'm afraid there's been no change, Severus," she replied quietly. "He's still unresponsive."

Severus drew in a shaky breath and covered his face. "It's my fault."

"No. You didn't do this." Pomfrey slowly wrapped the fresh gauze then around his neck. "You protected him, Severus. You saved him."

Peeking through the space between his fingers, he glanced at her. "I told him the truth, though, madam. I told him that—"

"Hush, my sweet boy," Poppy whispered. "You were dying when you told him. He knows that. He will understand."

"No . . . no, he won't." The boy couldn't understand that. Not when Lily herself couldn't.

"Please, Severus. Rest now. I'll wake you if there's any change."

"You don't understand."

"I understand more than you think, Headmaster," she replied. "Now, understand me." She pointed at him, giving him her most intimidating matron look she had. "Harry is a smart and kind boy. When he wakes up, he will not lose his mind because of the truth. He will likely embrace your reasons and understand your past actions. So, rest. Before I make you rest."

"How can he, madam?" Severus argued, though. "How can he understand any of it?"

"Because he knows the truth now."

Turning away, he glanced at the small boy who lay there motionless on the cot.

"Severus, listen to me." Pomfrey gently grabbed his chin and slowly turned his head toward her so that he'd be looking at her. "It may not have been the way you wanted it to be revealed, but the fact remains that he knows now. He knows the truth, and he knows why you protected him from it for so long. You've done more for that boy, for any of us really, than we can ever repay you for."

"He knows, Poppy," he said softly with a haunted look in his dark eyes.

"Yes, he does," she simply replied before she released a quiet sigh as his mood remained unchanged. "He'll need you, Severus. Now more than ever. His entire world has been shattered."

"I can't." He couldn't do what she was suggesting. He could barely keep himself together as it was anymore.

"You've had the entire year to come to terms with this, whereas he's only had a few hours. You have the experience he needs right now. Severus, you two need one another still. You both nearly died. Do I need to remind you of that?"

"Poppy."

"You saved him, and he'll save you, Severus."

"I can't, Poppy. I can't . . ."

"He won't abandon you, Severus. He won't." She then sighed when it was clear he was fighting against her words. "When you learned the truth about what Albus had Harry do this past year, things made sense suddenly, didn't they?" She didn't wait for him to answer before she continued. "Of course it did. Now, he knows the truth and things are making more sense for him as well."

"Like what?" He honestly couldn't see a single thing that would help Harry make sense out of anything that had happened between them.

"Why you wouldn't get close to anyone. Why you protected him for so long. I could go on, but those are the major ones."

"So he knows now I was a stupid boy who fell for his mother, too much of a coward to tell her, and was the reason she died. So what? That changes nothing." It couldn't change anything. He wouldn't know what to do if things did change.

"No, Severus. That's not what it shows at all. It shows the similarities between you and Harry." She then sighed, shaking her head. "I remember the first time I ever laid eyes on you. A scrawny boy, withdrawn, socially awkward, the saddest eyes I've ever seen. When I saw Harry, I immediately recalled the little boy from Cokeworth, the little Prince he called himself privately."

"Stop. Please," Severus murmured, feeling the internal storm rage inside him again.

"You and Harry are free. Finally. Voldemort is no more, Severus. The Death Eaters are either on their way to Azkaban or dead from the storm earlier. You are free. Think about it. You and Harry can finally live for yourselves for once. Explore your connections properly and heal one another. As amazing as Molly and Arthur are with him, they can't heal those wounds, Severus. They don't know what it's like. You do."

"But the boy . . ."

"I heard Minerva's report, Severus. For that split second in that classroom when Harry was being sucked out of the window by the tornado, you cared very deeply for him. For him, Severus. Not for his mother. Not to repay a debt to his father. For him. You stretched your arm out and you willed all your magic inside to pull him back to your arms. You know what that means. You're a brilliant wizard. We both know this. For that split second, you thought of him as family. And he can be. Eventually."

Severus looked back to the small boy. She was right. He had realized that was what the blue light had meant earlier. But he had brushed it aside, because he had been so convinced that once the boy was truly safe from the Dark Lord and no more harm could happen to him, that Severus's job . . . his purpose in life . . . was over. And yet as he had lay there bleeding after Nagini's attack, it was clear that his job was not necessarily over. He could, if he chose to, alter his purpose and evolve.

"You don't have to decide today. Though, it is rather telling if I may say, that you refuse to leave his side, Severus." The matron gave him a somber smile. "Just think about it, will you?" Her eyes then swept over the room to her other injured patients. "I'll come check on him again in a half-hour. In the meantime, though, I strongly urge you to rest, Headmaster. Otherwise, I will be forced to use my wand and make you rest. Understood?"

He inclined his head slowly and watched her leave.

She was right, and deep down he knew it. In that moment in that classroom, Severus had thought of Harry as his family. And having not felt like he belonged to a family in so long, he wasn't about to lose that last remaining piece of one.

But it wouldn't work. He and Harry couldn't ever really be a true family. Comrades, possibly, but not a true family. There had been too much hatred between them over the years. One night couldn't possibly erase all that. Eventually, Harry would be like the others, and Severus would be alone once more. Forever alone. Forever abandoned.

Nothing good ever happened to him. Not anymore.

Closing his eyes, Severus decided on his next course and slowly rose from Harry's bedside. The boy was safe now. He had completed his mission. Now, it was time to move on. Turning away, Severus headed for the door, only to be stopped by a hand grabbing his wrist.

Black met green.

"Stay. Please, sir?" the soft voice whispered from the young man who now had a haunted look in his green eyes.

"Potter . . ." Severus started to say before Harry interrupted him.

"I don't want to be alone anymore."

"But you're not," Severus argued, staring at the boy in disbelief. "You have so many who care for you, who love you. You're not alone. Not with the Weasleys around. Or even Granger."

"They don't understand, sir. Not like you do."

He closed his eyes and turned away from the boy. "Potter, I can't. I can't be the man you think I am. That man is a fantasy, a lie made up for you to make sense of things."

"Then you didn't love my mother?"

Severus couldn't prevent the gasp from escaping his lips.

"You gave her a choice, sir, which made it so she could protect me. It doesn't matter that it came out of a mistake. All that matters is that you paved the way to give her a choice to save me. Without that choice, none of this would have worked. We'd likely all be slaves to Voldemort with no hope then."

"Speculation."

"Based on evidence, sir." Harry then coughed quietly and tried to sit before he groaned and leaned back. "You didn't kill my parents. Voldemort did. If he had just ignored what you told him and focused elsewhere, the prophecy would have been just another sherry-induced guess from Professor Trelawney, sir. And, Merlin knows, there are plenty of those out there. But instead he chose to believe that it was a real prophecy and it became self-fulfilling. It was all him, sir, not you."

"I'm not a hero," Severus argued.

"Maybe, but you are very brave, sir."

"Potter—"

"Do you remember that time during our Occlumency lesson, just before I finally pushed you back the first time?"

Severus blinked and narrowed his eyes on the young man. "What about it?"

"I was so angry then that I had snapped that it was your job to know what Voldemort was saying to his Death Eaters. For a second there, I was convinced you would either smack or hex me. You did neither, though. Instead, you looked at me with this odd expression, as if you were—I don't know—satisfied that I had figured that out."

"I don't follow."

"I never understood it then, but I do now, sir. You returned to Voldemort's side on Dumbledore's orders, but I think even if Dumbledore wouldn't have asked you'd have done so. Just so you could keep me safe. As you've done for so many years." Harry gave a soft snort of disbelief. "It's so foolish now. If I had just opened my eyes, I'd have seen the truth. I'd have seen the hurt behind your eyes, the sadness and the longing. Instead, I only focused on the anger, the contempt. But—I don't know—I guess what I'm trying to say is that we're not so different, Professor. Not really."

"You chose the Light path, Potter. I did not."

"You did eventually. Just as I eventually chose the Dark path at several points as well, sir. But let's be honest, shall we? We aren't just light or dark, sir. We are shades of gray."

"And that makes me a hero in your eyes?"

"No, but you continuously sacrificed your own happiness, your own self, for me. And isn't that what family does for each other? Look out for each other and protect them from harm by sacrificing parts of themselves for their family?" When Severus opened his mouth to argue, Harry cut him off and continued. "You nearly died for me. You would have if it hadn't been for Madam Pomfrey actually. But you nearly died. For me."

"Potter, please . . ."

"Just as my parents did when I was a baby. And you protected me just like they did. Not once but multiple times. Hell, you did it again in the past several hours with keeping me from being sucked out of the window and later when Voldemort tried to kill me in the Great Hall. You may deny it all you want, sir, but I will consider you as my family until I draw my very last breath. And that is a solemn promise."

"I'm not good at family, Potter."

"Neither am I, sir. But I think it's time we both had a family we could call all our own. One we don't have to share with others." Harry then gave him a faint smile. "So, what do you say, sir? Ready to give it a shot with me? I can be the bratty nephew you never had."

Severus chuckled quietly before he relaxed slightly. "I'll consider it, Potter."

"Good." The young man nodded silently before he turned away and glanced towards the other cots full of injured students and staff.

So many had been injured from the fierce tornado that had blown across the grounds and slammed into the castle. The last report Severus had heard from Minerva was that all of the missing were thankfully now accounted for. Unfortunately, the death toll had increased as a result, along with the number of injuries. And for some of the poor souls who had been lucky and survived the tornado, they had not been able to do the same when the Final Battle had occurred. The survivors, few and far between that they were, were now left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives in whatever way they could. Which seemed to mean coming together and setting aside their differences.

Glancing to his left, Severus watched a young Ravenclaw fifth-year wrap his arm around a first-year Gryffindor girl and comfort her. His eyes then moved onto the next cot, where a Hufflepuff girl, unashamed of her relationship now, was curled up in her Slytherin boyfriend's arms. His lip curled upwards slightly before he turned back to Harry.

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore," said the cheeky brat quietly once their eyes met.