The Gift

On a cold cloudy day, the gate of the private cemetery on the Hogwarts grounds opens. A woman in her late twenties walks up and places two white roses on a tomb made from the blackest marble. She sits down on the bench that was placed there when the tomb in white marble was built.

"I love you, I will always love you, I just wanted you to know that, we were together for a very long time, I was in my seventh year when we got together, and time certainly has passed hasn’t it; only Albus knew that our relationship was more than just teacher and student. Albus never did anything to keep us apart, was it that he knew that we needed each other so badly. No matter the dangers in your life, you protected us even when that monster came back. I would have done anything you asked of me, but you forbid me to join either side in the war. Was I one of your greatest secrets Severus, for I haven’t received any condolences on your passing?”

“Even in the last months of your life you protected us, did you know that death was coming for you? Is that why you left this most generous gift behind? My heart knows that you loved me, not in the way you loved her, I promised myself years ago, that I would never be jealous of a dead woman. I came to thank you for the gift you left behind before you died. Your memory will live on my love, I thank you for the wonderful gift Severus, please wait for me,” she says as the tears start the fall.

Drying her face, the woman stands up rubbing her swollen stomach as she walks away.

**The woman in this story was ten years older than Harry & Co. she was 17 when she met Severus and 27 when he died.