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SIYE Time:15:22 on 28th March 2024
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Digging
By RoarTriumphant534

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Category: Post-DH/AB
Characters:None
Genres: Drama, General
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG
Reviews: 10
Summary: One-Shot. Ginny tracks down Harry out on the Hogwarts grounds after the battle. What is he digging for?
Hitcount: Story Total: 5309



Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.



Author's Notes:
This idea has been developing for a few days, and I finally decided to let it out of my mind for a test drive. Let me know what you think.




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The shovel sunk into the earth. Looking across the lawn, he knew this was the right place to dig. He had been at it for several hours, but had yet to finish the hole. Sometimes, it surprised him how everything had changed in the course of one night. As the moon disappeared behind a cloud, he recognized a new sensation. No longer was he haunted by the evil around him. Even now, the wind hummed of hope. Those who survived would now have a future. Unfortunately, that future would have to wait. As the cloud moved away, the man looked down at his progress and started to weep silently. With everything that had gone right that night, there was a nightmare to go with it. Too many had fallen in order to secure a victory that they would never know. Yes, there was hope, but right now all he could see was the death.

“Harry?”

Harry looked up from the hole with a start. He hadn’t expected anybody to come looking for him in the middle of the night. When he had finally woken up, he hadn’t known how long he had slept. All he knew was that it was nighttime again, and he had work to do. Silently, he had crept out of the dormitory and down to the grounds. He had done quick work to retrieve the body, and now stood on the grounds trying to finish the task before morning. It was important that nobody ask him too many questions. He just knew this was the right thing to do.

The voice called out again, this time with a little more panic. “Harry?”

As the visitor came closer, the moonlight hit her long mane of hair. The air glowed red as the light seemed to radiate from her figure. After dreaming about her for so long, Harry actually forgot just how angelic she could look. He quickly shook himself out of his daydream as she began walking away. Since she couldn’t see him through the disillusionment charm, she was just blindly calling out to him. Jumping out of the hole and racing past the limits of the charm, Harry came up behind her. He stopped a few feet away and whispered, so as not to frighten her. “Ginny.”

Turning toward him cast the light across her face, and Harry couldn’t help but gasp at the woman in front of him. There was a small scar along her left cheek that seemed to frame the pain in her face. Her eyes were red with tears, both past and present. It looked like she had been crying for days, possibly longer. The pupils, once so full of life, now were nothing more than a muddy brown seemingly devoid of hope. Her hair, always so groomed, was matted down with blood and sweat. Instinct took over as he pulled her into a strong embrace, willing the fear and despair to go away.

They stood like that holding each other for what could have been minutes or hours. Finally, Ginny collected herself enough to pull away. She had come looking for him for a reason, and she wasn’t going to be deterred. “Harry… when we woke up and found you gone… we thought… I thought you had left again.” Her voice got smaller as she continued to cry, but just loud enough for Harry to hear, just above a whisper, she continued. “Please don’t leave Harry. I don’t know what happened the other night, but I thought you had died. I couldn’t see a reason to keep going, not without you. So don’t run away. I need you.”

As Ginny finished speaking, she looked down at her shoes. Not knowing whether Harry wanted her back was excruciating, and she was about to run back toward the castle when Harry put up a hand to stop her. “I would never leave you again, Gin. I know I’ve made mistakes, but everything that I was able to do was because of you. You gave me the strength to go on and to come back. I’m not whole without you.” Harry ran a hand through her disheveled hair. Ginny started crying stronger now that Harry’s words were out. Pulling her toward him again, Harry mumbled into her hair. “I love you Ginny Weasley. If you’ll let me, I’ll never leave you again.”

Ginny cried into Harry’s chest for what felt like another eternity. She lad dreamt about those arms for over a year, and she never wanted to leave his embrace. Slowing down her tears, she spoke into his body, into his very soul. “I was so scared when you weren’t in your bed tonight…”

“Ginny, how did you know I was gone?”

Harry couldn’t see it, but he could feel the heat rising to her face. “Well, I sort of decided to sleep in your arms tonight.” Harry chuckled slightly at her embarrassment, but she mustered her courage and continued talking. “I hadn’t seen you since the battle, and when I couldn’t fall asleep, well, I decided that we could both use the comfort. When I pulled back the curtains and you weren’t there, I panicked. I found the map, and searched for your name. With all the damage, the map wasn’t functioning properly, but I did see that you were outside on the grounds. The map didn’t seem able to give me your exact location, so I came out here and started calling your name.” Ginny looked up at him, now with a renewed fire in her eyes. “What were you doing out here anyway?”

“Come with me, I’ll show you.” Harry led her back toward the lake, toward Dumbledore’s tomb. When they got closer to the spot, Ginny noticed that the area next to the tomb was fuzzy, almost as if it was hiding something. Walking through the disillusionment charm, Ginny saw what Harry had been working on for most of the night. In front of her was a mostly finished grave with a body laying off to the side. Glancing up at Harry, she crept over to the body to see who it was. When she lit her wand beside the face, she gasped and stumbled backwards. She couldn’t believe it. Staring back at her had been the lifeless eyes of Severus Snape.

~~~

“I don’t understand. Why would you be burying him?” Ginny turned on Harry with a quick pivot. “He doesn’t deserve a grave.”

“Ginny, we were wrong. I was wrong.”

“But Harry, he hired the Carrows. Those creatures performed the Cruciatus on us, on students!!”

Harry sighed. He knew it was going to be hard to convince everybody that Snape was doing the best he could. That was why he came out here in the middle of the night to dig the grave; he wanted the action to be finished before he had to answer the questions. “Ginny, let me try to explain. For most of my time here at Hogwarts, I had a personal dislike toward Severus Snape. When I watched him murder Dumbledore in the Astronomy Tower, that dislike turned to blind hatred. Think back to the other night, when I was fighting Tom. Remember, I said ‘Snape was Dumbledore’s.’”
Ginny nodded slowly. “We all heard you, Harry, but we didn’t know what you meant. How could you know that Snape was on our side?”

“I watched Tom kill Snape, Ginny, in the Shrieking Shack. My hatred stopped me from helping, not that I could have anyway. However, in Snape’s final breath, he gave me his memories. These memories showed me everything Snape has done at the orders of Dumbledore to help me win.”

This time Ginny shook her head vehemently. “Then you’re wrong. Snape never tried to help you this year. Every time we tried to help you, we failed. Snape stopped us at every turn, and ordered the Carrows to interrogate us. He couldn’t have been on your side.”

“It had to look that way, Ginny. Snape had to put up the appearances that he was with Voldemort. It was the only way he could stay here as headmaster and keep some form of protection over the students.” Ginny seemed unconvinced by this statement, so Harry tried a different approach. “What about the sword? I got the sword months ago. I realized tonight that Snape delivered it to me. He gave me the weapon I needed to finish my task.

Ginny just stared at him. How could Snape have actually helped get the sword to Harry? “That doesn’t make sense. We tried to steal the sword for you. We knew you needed it, but Snape wouldn’t let us have it.”

“Think about it, Ginny. How were you going to get the sword to me from Hogwarts? None of you knew where we were…”

“We didn’t know where you were because you wouldn’t tell us!”

“We couldn’t tell you Ginny. There was too much danger and importance in what we were doing. If anybody else knew, Voldemort might have been able to stop it. He wouldn’t be dead if it weren’t for what Ron, Hermione, and I went through over the last year.”

“So, because he sent you a sword, that forgives him for everything he did in the past?”

“Ginny, I know it’s hard to believe, but Snape was always looking out for me in his own unique way. There were personal problems between him and my parents. Because of this, my presence tore him apart. However, look back at everything he did for me. He stopped Quirrell from cursing me during Quidditch matches my first year. In a misguided attempt, he tried to stop Sirius during my third year. After the Triwizard Tournament, he helped Dumbledore rescue me from the Moody imposter. When Umbridge took over the school, he refused to supply her with Veritaserum to be used on me. Also, he informed Dumbledore when we went to the Department of Mysteries. In his twisted way, I have always received a minimal amount of support and protection from him at the more dire moments.”

Harry paused as he thought over what he just realized. Through all the animosity and mistreatment, Professor Snape had always protected Harry when it counted most. From the pensieve, he could feel how strongly Snape had loved his mother. Maybe Professor Dumbledore had a point when he said Voldemort couldn’t understand love. Snape’s love had been strong enough to cause him to protect Lily Evans child when it mattered most. That, combined with his stout allegiance to Professor Dumbledore, made Snape a worthy ally… and friend.

“And regarding Dumbledore’s death, you heard me telling Tom about that. Dumbledore had started dying before school even began. Professor Snape had delayed the curse that Dumbledore faced, but he could only slow it down. Dumbledore knew what was coming. He knew he was going to die. He also knew that Draco was trying to kill him. Rather than make Draco a murderer, Dumbledore ordered his own death. Months before that fateful night, Professor Dumbledore and Snape had argued over that very moment. So, Snape killed, on orders. Snape killed the only man who believed him to be rehabilitated, and because of that he sealed his own fate.”

Rather than answering, Ginny sank to the ground on the other side of the grave from the body. She stared off into space for several minutes thinking over the past year and everything that had happened to her. Sure, she had undergone her own set of detentions, but the Carrows had put her through that, not Snape. The only time she remembered Snape directly turning her over to the Carrows was when she had attempted to steal the sword. If Harry was right, it kind of made sense. With Voldemort behind the school’s power, it was inevitable that people like the Carrows were sent to hand out punishments and not let the students get out of line. If Snape hadn’t been trying to protect them in some way, it would have been much worse, no? Sure he had always appeared to be the mastermind, but he had to stay in Voldemort’s good graces. By being instated Headmaster, Snape was able to consult with Dumbledore’s portrait and not let the punishments go too far … nobody was murdered at least.

But it was Snape! How could he be good? After everything they had gone through over the years, it was difficult to just change her mind about him. The biggest reason that everybody turned on Snape was his murder of Professor Dumbledore. If Snape had only been following a request, then maybe he should be forgiven? Professor Dumbledore always said he had reasons to trust Snape, didn’t he? And now, Harry seemed to trust him as well. This alone was amazing. Harry had been the single greatest opponent to Severus Snape. If Harry said he knew that Snape had helped him defeat Tom, then who was Ginny to disagree. Turning her attention back to Harry, she finally broke the silence. “Ok, I believe you. After everything he’s done, I might not be able to like him, but I believe you. What can I do to help?”

“Just stay with me.”
~~~

After Harry finished digging the grave by hand, he finally succumbed to magic. Transfiguring a few twigs into a coffin, Harry levitated the body into the wooden box. As he went to move the box into the ground, he felt Ginny’s small hand grasp his shoulder. Turning around, he saw her wand out ready to help lower the coffin. Obviously, with magic, it wouldn’t take two of them to move the coffin, but he understood the meaning of the gesture. Harry knew Ginny probably couldn’t understand all the gratitude he now felt for Professor Snape, but her belief in him was enough for now. Once the coffin was in the grave and they had magically filled in the hole with the dug earth, they sat there side by side in silence.

“What should we say about him?”

Harry didn’t respond for a moment. When he did respond, it was through action not words. Summoning a beautiful dark headstone, Harry quickly carved an epitaph. The white letters seemed to glow out of the black marble. Satisfied with his work, neither he nor Ginny said anything. Rather, he grasped Ginny’s hand and stared at the rising sun. It was time to take the next step forward. Hand in hand they walked back into the castle for breakfast.

The house tables were set up as usual, but friends and family sat wherever they pleased. The castle was one in celebration, one in mourning. Finding the familiar group of red in the far corner, Harry and Ginny walked to sit with their family. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley smiled through the pain as they looked down the table at their future. Bill held onto Fleur, Charlie and Percy held onto George, Ron held onto Hermione, and Harry held onto Ginny. Conversation was mostly subdued, but every once in a while a lighthearted air crept into somebody’s story. It was those moments that spoke again about the future, about the hope. Soon the group grew from the family of Weasleys, and friends overtook the edges of the gathering. Members of the Order, of the D.A., and people who were connected through friendship and loss came together as one.

After breakfast, Harry stood before this group and asked them to follow him to the grounds. As they reached Dumbledore’s tomb and the newly added grave, many gasped as Ginny had while others were heard to be mumbling obscenities. Knowing that it was his responsibility to clear the name of Severus Snape, Harry sat down between these two great men and told them a story. The story resembled what he told Ginny, but here he went into more detail. He protected Snape’s secret love, even in death, but he made sure these people knew of his courage and bravery. Snape was, in fact, the Slytherin with the heart of a lion.

When Harry finished addressing his family and friends, he turned his attention to graves placed before him and made a vow. Never again would the ministry or the Daily Prophet sully the names of these great men. The Wizarding World would know of their sacrifices to the cause of peace. Harry felt the others retreating behind him. He wasn’t sure how they had reacted to his news, but he knew they would come to accept it. It surprised him when Ginny’s small hands encircled his waist again, but not as much as when Ron and Hermione came to flank him. Together the four friends stared down at what remained of their teacher, and said goodbye in their own way.


Professor
Severus Snape
January 9, 1960 — May 2, 1998

Loyal and Brave to the End

Reviews 10
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