Harry still saw Snape from time to time. The memorial service at the end of the war, Harry could have sworn he felt a hand on his shoulder when they had talked about Sirius Black.

Harry had wanted to kill Snape the day that Sirius died. After all, he'd spent Christmas break with Snape instead of Sirius since he could see Sirius all summer. At that time, it all seemed like part of some great plan out to get him. Some plan that Snape had engineered.

But he'd come to terms with the death and realised that Snape had nothing to do with it. It had been his choice to study Potions over the break instead of spending time with his family. That made him hate himself instead of Snape, but he got over it.

After the war, he'd gone back to school. There had been a ceremony and NEWT results were given out at the end.

When Harry received his Potions NEWT certificate he looked out into the hall. At the back was a shadow. A shadow that looked very much like a man dressed in flowing, black teaching robes. A man who'd been dead for almost two years now.

In spite of seeing ghosts, he'd enjoyed the ceremony and joked with Hermione. Ron hadn't come back to school. He worked in the joke shop now, taking Fred's place. But no one actually said that out-loud.

That was the night that Harry proposed. He presented Hermione with the ring and asked her to be genius and answer the question. That night she received ten NEWTs and one gold wedding ring. And Harry knew which she liked the most.

Snape was at the wedding too. Harry had almost walked away from the altar and into the crowd. He wanted to know why the weird spirit, it wasn't a ghost, was always there. He hadn't had a deep emotional connection with the man. And he'd never really wanted one. His greaving was over with. Every reminder hurt and it was a hurt that he deserved to have disappear.

Hermione never saw Snape. But Harry swore that he was there so many times. When his daughter was born. They named her Lily. When his son was born, they named him Severus. When his children went to Hogwarts and became Slytherins.

The Retirement feast the Aurors held for him. The Welcoming banquet the year he started to work as the Hogwarts Potions Professor and Head of Gryffindor house. The days his children finished school and received their NEWT in Potions.

Harry began to accept the ghost like thing. It was a link to the past, a link to a time when there had been hard times, but there had also been friends and teachers and people that should have lived and people that should have died.

It wasn't until his last moment that Harry realised that the ghost wasn't Snape. It was him.