Disclaimer: Except for some OCs, the characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling. This chapter takes place during the time line of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Some of the italicized portions are direct quotations from the book.

Emily arrived at the hospital late in the afternoon on the first of May. She looked down the first hallway and her heart almost failed her. The line of injured and dead seemed to stretch forever. Lacking sufficient bed space, the attendants had simply placed the patients on the floor with a cushioning charm below them. Hospital workers often stepped over the bodies as they moved among them.

She was told that someone had broken into Gringotts that day and stolen something from the Lestrange vault. Harry Potter and his friends were suspected. As a result, the Death Eaters had swarmed over Diagon Alley, hexing and cursing everyone in their path. There were also patients from an altercation at Malfoy Manor, although the details of that were less clear.

As she watched, workers from the morgue came for two bodies. They told her that additional space had been made and they would come for more soon. As soon as they left, two more attendants came, levitating two more patients into the vacated spaces. Emily shook herself out of her daze and went to ask the lead Healer where to start.

Emily was well into a second shift when she straightened up and took a quick break to eat and stretch her legs again. She had been rubbing her back off and on for several hours, now. It could mean several things, but there had been too many patients for her to worry about that. The hallway was much clearer, now. The staff were starting to talk of going home to rest when a message came from Poppy Pomfrey at Hogwarts: Preparing for battle, here. Please send attendants to remove students from school infirmary to hospital.

Emily tried to breathe, but couldn't remember how. She closed her eyes tightly and willed her husband and daughter to be safe and well even as a hard cramp made her grab a nearby railing in order not to fall down. As the first group of attendants left for the school, Emily's assistant came to her. “Your daughter is making a Floo-call to your office.” Emily thanked her and moved as quickly as she could to see what Hope was calling about. The whole way she asked herself, “Why Hope and not Severus? Why Hope and not Severus?”

---

“Where's Professor Snape?” shouted a girl from the Slytherin table.

“He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk,” replied Professor McGonagall, and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws.

Margo's eyes stung at the callous answer to her question and the school's response as her house mates bristled. McGonagall was giving further directions when a new voice suddenly issued from somewhere or nowhere. It seemed to be all around them.

“I know you are preparing to fight. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood. Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter and you will be rewarded.

“You have until midnight.”

Pansy Parkinson stood up and pointed to Harry, telling everyone that he was there and they should just give him up. Suddenly the entire school seemed to be facing the Slytherin Table, wands out. Fortunately McGonagall intervened before a battle could break out between students and Pansy was sent with Filch to lead the Slytherins out of the school.

Margo took advantage of the moment to sneak in a different direction. She hurried to her father's office and knelt before the fireplace. Her first attempt, to call her mother at Grandma's house, failed. The house-elves told her that everyone was at the hospital because there were so many injured and sick people there. Even Brendon was at the day-care center, which was open round the clock, now, due to the emergency circumstances. She thanked the elves and started over.

She called her mother's office and waited for several moments before her mother finally came in. Hope could tell her mother was very close to her time, now. When Hope returned to school at the end of the Easter Holidays, Mum's walk had a sort of roll to it, like a sailor just returning to land after months at sea. Today it was definitely a waddle, and her face showed signs of exhaustion and strain.

Mum smiled when she saw Hope's face, though, and asked gently, “What is it, dear?”

“Harry Potter is here, Voldemort is somewhere outside, and I can't find Daddy. McGonagall said he's gone.”

Mum was instantly on edge. She knelt on hands and knees near her fireplace. “Where are you right now?”

“Daddy's office.”

“That's probably the safest place in the castle. Somehow the Headmasters all protect it. Daddy will be back soon, or Harry Potter will come there. If it's Daddy, he will tell you what to do and if it's Harry, he will know where your father is and you will be able to go to him.”

“How would Potter—“

Mum was puffing in between talking, now. “I don't have the energy to explain it now. Here,” Mum summoned a bag from her desk drawer and looked in it before holding it to the fireplace. “If Daddy is injured, open the bag, put your hand over it, and tell it what you're facing. Several vials will be summoned to your hand and you will have to select between them for the best option. When you have found him and applied whatever seems appropriate, bring him to me. However you find him, Hope, bring him here to me.” The mother's eyes burned into the daughter's. If it turned out that she could do nothing else for her husband, Emily Snape was determined that no hands but her own would prepare him for burial.

Hope took the bag. “Mum, I'm not sure if I can. There's so much going on, here.”

Mum was clutching the hearth rug in her hands and her face showed intense pain. The daughter didn't know if she had heard her, when she suddenly said, “Margo Eileen, I cannot help you right now. You are the best trained witch of your age to deal with this, perhaps better trained than some of the adults. Remember the lessons your father and I have taught you. You can protect yourself almost without thinking about it. You're very well trained in basic Healing, too. You're a strong and capable witch and you can do this.”

Hope watched her mother groan and realized she must be far into labor. “Mum, should I come through and help you?”

Mum shook her head. “No, I'll be fine, here. I need you there to help your father. I trust you and I love you. Tell Daddy I love him.”

“Yes, Mum, I love you, too.” Hope pulled her head out of the fireplace and looked around the office, wondering what was to come and how to prepare for it.

---

Emily wasn't sure where the strength came from, but somehow she managed to get back on her feet and to the door of her office. Her assistant was running up the hallway. “Your last patient wants to see you.”

“I'm sorry, but I can't do it. I need to get to a birthing room, almost immediately.”

The assistant helped her up the stairs and onto a bed in the proper place. “He just wanted to thank you. I'll explain.” She helped Emily change her clothes to a gown and then left.

The midwife scolded Emily for waiting so long to come. “You're just about ready to push,” she told her. “One or two more contractions will have you ready.”

“I didn't realize it was labor until the past half hour or so. I've been a bit preoccupied today,” Emily answered.

The midwife smiled. “I know, dear, and you're here, now. Try to relax and let your body do its work. That seems to have worked quite well so far.”

Emily breathed and panted through the next two contractions and the urge to push came suddenly and hard. “I can't wait.”

“That's fine, go right ahead,” said the midwife, soothingly. “You'll be done in no time, dearie. Where's your husband?”

“Trying not to get killed,” said Emily, just as her body told her to take a deep breath and then bear down.

An hour later, Emily was introducing her new son to Brendon and smiling up at her mother. As the three year old chattered to the infant, her mother filled her in on the news. A battle had indeed started at Hogwarts and Poppy had sent all of her students from the school's Hospital Wing to St. Mungo's in order to make space for those who might be injured. No one believed that the school's infirmary would be able to handle all of the injured, so the hospital was preparing for the battle as well. No one knew where the Headmaster had gone.

“Mum, I know you've been upset about Severus this past year...”

“Never mind, Emily. I trust that you know better than to get taken in, even when I don't want to believe in his goodness. Today I see this precious new baby and it's hard to believe his father could ever be evil.”

Emily smiled at the child in her arms and the child sitting by her side on the bed and then up at her mother. “I love you, Mum.”

Healer Smith stood up. “I love you, too, Emily. I need to get back to work, now that they're going to send injured from the school here and we're down a Healer.” Emily blushed and her mother leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Rest up, dear. We may need you back sooner than we would like.”

“Yes, Mum.” At the moment, it was nice to be someone's daughter again. Emily looked down at her youngest son and wondered where his father was and if he was safe. She hadn't officially named the baby. She knew what Severus wanted, but she would wait until he told her again now or until she had seen for herself the proof that he would never tell her. The baby fussed and rooted, so she brushed away a tear and settled him to nurse. She smiled with determination. As with the day Marcus was born, she would make the effort to be happy for her son's sake and mourn later, if need be.

---

“I regret it.”

Having committed murder himself, Severus knew that this was not regret. This was the pang of discomfort one might feel at the smashing of a wand, or the blunting of a favorite Potions knife. This was not the rent soul that he had experienced the night Albus Dumbledore died. There must be barely any soul left in the Dark Lord.

He still had one task to complete. Even with his blood dripping onto the floor, Severus knew he must somehow use the restoratives Emily insisted he carry and find the boy. As he lay there, Potter and the other two appeared, having come to the shrieking shack for some reason. He must deliver the memories. He grabbed at the boy's robe.

“Take... it... Take... it...”

He was too weak to reach for his wand, and instead concentrated so hard that the memories Emily had helped him choose came from his eyes and ears and mouth. Fortunately the Granger girl had sense enough to conjure a vial that Harry took. With a trembling wand, Potter took the memories and guided them into Hermione's vial.

“Look... at... me...”

The green eyes looked into his own. They were curious, but did not accuse him. Perhaps here he saw the remorse that the Dark Lord lacked. He closed his eyes and let his hand fall. I've done all I can, Lily. What little claim you had on me is fulfilled; the debt is now paid.

The Dark Lord gave yet another ultimatum to those he fought against and the trio finally left. Severus felt at his collar. The bleeding had slowed significantly, although he was starting to feel sensations that might be due to the snake's venom. He was able to reach the bottle of Blood-replenishing Potion in his pocket and drink it. All he could do, now, was wait.

Live or die, he was a free man, now. He had given Harry everything he could unto perhaps his last life's blood. Lily could want no more. Regardless of the outcome of this battle, he would no longer serve the Dark Lord or even any last requests Dumbledore's portrait might make. If necessary he would take Emily and the children and move to another country. His wife would never again endure the touch of that non-man and the children would be free of blood politics.

As he lay there, he saw a pair of blue eyes. They looked familiar, but he couldn't place them. He focused a little harder and saw a mop of black curls and a face that looked similar to his own, but similar to Emily's, too. The person was a boy, perhaps in his mid teens, wearing white robes.

“Father.”

“Marcus!” He should have known. Severus feasted on the sight of the son he had lost so long before.

“Rest, Father, and wait. Hope is coming, Mother has sent her.”

“How are you here?”

“I've always been with you. You see me now in your time of greatest need.”

“I've always regretted the circumstances of your death. If I had taken better care of your mother that autumn...”

“What is ordained cannot be avoided. It has brought us to this moment.” It sounded like something a centaur would say.

“I wish your mother could see you.”

“She has a special way of carrying me in her heart. She sees me through that.”

“Will you comfort her when I'm dead?”

“Hope is coming. You need not die if you do not wish it.”

“Will you stay with me?”

“You will see me until Hope arrives.”

---

A/N: One of the few scenes in Gone with the Wind that's better in the movie version is the one where Scarlett goes to the hospital hoping to find a doctor to tend Melanie through childbirth and the streets are filled with wounded and dead soldiers. The picture starts with a small group and then pans out to show how vast the cost of war is. Even those who only seen previews of the movie have probably seen a bit of that scene. Obviously, there are way too few members of the Wizarding world for it to be that vast, but I can well imagine a whole hallway of St. Mungo's filled because of Death Eaters gone wild. To some extent that movie inspired my vision of the first scene in this chapter.

There's just too much to tell about the night and morning of the battle not to have the chapters break in some fairly awkward moments. I will try to keep the updates coming so as not to make too much suspense. Thank you all for your kind attention and comments. I hear that some of you also send me your best wishes and thoughts on my other “work in progress”. Thank you for that, as well. As always, a special thank you goes to Trickie Woo, whose attention in beta reading, thoughts, and ideas, have been invaluable.