A/N: Here it is…the final part.

When word spread that Severus Snape had killed Albus Dumbledore, Eleanor trusted him. When Severus Snape was slandered for taking the post of Headmaster of Hogwarts, Eleanor sent him a single note of congratulations and then turned all of her attentions towards teaching her four-year-old to read. When rumors managed to circulate out to Italy that Severus Snape was Lord Voldemort's most trusted advisor, Eleanor dismissed the rumors but promptly went into labor. She named the boy Erik Romulus and devoted all of her time to the child and to Lele in hopes of not thinking about Snape.

On a particularly humid morning, Eleanor was sitting in the garden with baby Erik in her lap while Lele chased their cat around. Just as Eleanor was chastising her daughter for turning the cat's tail blue, Theo burst through the French doors and into the garden.

"Theodosius, could you tell your" –

"Elle! Voldemort is done!" Theo interrupted. A smile of pure joy exploded onto his face and spread all the way to his rich brown eyes.

"Wh-what?" Eleanor gasped, slowly standing and hoisting Erik onto her slender hip. "Did you say what I think you just said?"

"He's dead. We can go home."

Eleanor let out a little squeal and threw her spare arm around Theo's neck.

"Mamma!" Lele exclaimed. "What's going on?"

Eleanor released Theo, handed him Erik, and pulled Lele up into her arms. "Do you remember how we used to see Grandma all the time last year?" Lele nodded. "Well sweetie, we're going to move back to London because it is safe there now. There was a big scary man that made it difficult to live near Grandma, but now we can!"

"And Severus? We can see Severus again?" Her whole face glowed.

"I think so baby…"

"Elle," Theo started, "that's what I was going to tell you next."

Immediately Eleanor knew what was coming. Part of her knew all along that she would never see her friend again. Her whole body trembled as Theo delivered the words that brought part of the world crashing down around her. All she could do was sob, and Lele – either frightened by her mother's sobs or actually understanding that she would never see her mother's friend again – started to cry as well.

"He died a hero, Eleanor," Theo practically whispered, stroking her back. It was a couple of hours after Theodosius had broken the news to his wife. They had started packing their things, but Eleanor had dissolved into tears once more.

"I know, I know. It just doesn't make it hurt any less! I always knew he would end up doing the right thing…"

"As you know, I wasn't his biggest fan" –

"That's an understatement."

"But I am glad to see that he turned out to be the brave and decent man you made him out to be."

"Thank you for saying that, Theo." She smiled through her tears. Motioning the boxes around the small master bedroom, Eleanor asked, "Would you keep working on this? There's something I need to do."

"Does it involve Snape?"

"It does. He told me before that he would leave something for me if anything happened to him; I have to go get it. I need the closure that it should bring."

"Go. I'll make sure that our room isn't devoured by boxes and that Lele and Erik don't starve."

"Thank you."

"Just go."

Several moments later Eleanor stepped out of the fireplace and into the living room of Spinner's End. Her eyes darted around the room, taking in everything that had once belonged to her friend. It appeared as if the room had not been heavily used in quite some time, and Eleanor realized that it probably hadn't been. Snape had been at Hogwarts and with the Death Eaters for the majority of the last year.

The whole house was relatively small and sparse, so it did not take Eleanor long to find a tiny study that housed a worn looking desk. The desk was simply made and crafted from dark cherry wood. Slowly she lowered herself into the desk chair and took a moment to just stare at the desk she was about to open. What words would she find waiting for her? The key that Severus had given her rested heavily underneath her shirt on the chain that she had taken to wearing it on. Taking a deep breath, she removed it and slipped the key into the top drawer's lock. The key and lock shimmered for a moment, and then a light click signaled to Eleanor that the desk had been unlocked. Breathlessly she yanked it open and stared down in it. Only four items rested inside.

The very first thing she pulled out was a picture that she hadn't ever realized had been taken. Clearly Theo had taken the picture and sent it to Severus as some form of peace offering. It was a wonderful picture of Severus with Eleanor who was holding a newborn Lele at the hospital, long before she was dubbed Lele. Eleanor glowed with pride in the picture, and her movements included gently patting her baby and switching glances between the camera, Lele, and Severus. Severus in the picture only had eyes for Eleanor; he didn't even look at the camera.

Next a will came out of the drawer; it was just as Severus said: Eleanor had inherited everything. She tucked the will and the picture down into her purse. The next item that Eleanor pulled out of the drawer brought tears to her eyes. It was the note she had left for Severus before she had left to meet Rupert. It was a lot shorter than Eleanor recalled.

Dear Severus,

I am so sorry for how I have treated you. When I said you weren't a good friend, I was lashing out in anger and didn't mean it at all. You are the most wonderful friend I have ever had and tried to do what was best for me when I wanted to hear nothing of it.

I have decided to go meet Rupert down in Hogsmeade because he has Rosy. I did nothing to stop him from hurting my mother in the past; I have no intention of letting him hurt a hair on Rosy's head. You are the only person I am telling. When you choose to open this letter, hopefully I will be okay and back in Hogwarts. If not, please come find me. I need you.

A million apologies,

Ella

P.S. I really, really want to be your friend. I love you.

"I can't believe he saved this for 15 years," Eleanor whispered to herself.

Finally she removed the letter that he had promised to leave her. The paper easily unfolded as if it had unfolded many times before or if it had been unfolded very recently. She touched the first words (Dearest Ella) tenderly before reading the last words he had written to her.

May 1st, 1998

Dearest Ella,

Surprisingly I did not start writing this letter until today. It was reckless…I could have died any day and left you without the words of explanation I promised you. For some reason, I could not bring myself to sit down and write everything out on paper, but today, I knew I had to. Undoubtedly, at some point you will hear all about how the Dark Lord created horcruxes, six intentionally and one unintentionally. Just moments ago, he discovered that Harry Potter was out destroying his key to survival. He has left to check all of his hiding places, but I feel that all but the horcrux he made of his snake and the unintentional horcrux he created are ruined. The unintentional horcrux is Harry Potter himself.

That is a lot of information to take in, and I do not really expect you to understand it. The fact that the Dark Lord had horcruxes is not the point of my letter; I just wished to explain that I felt that the end is drawing near. If I am lucky, you will not have to read this letter, and I can simply explain it all to you in person. However, I doubt I will be lucky in the coming days. With the Dark Lord in such a fury about his secret being known by his largest enemy, I believe things will be difficult for me.

I hope I live to see you and Lele again and the child you told me of back in The Hog's Head. I heard through some eavesdropping that you named him Erik, but the fact of that has never been confirmed as the only person at Hogwarts who would know (Professor Vector) will not speak to me. I do not blame her; it truly seems that I am evil. In fact, I myself find it hard to see any good in myself. My life is one of confusion and pain. I do not wish to die so unhappy, but I also welcome death because it will release me from it all.

Potter will know the truth about me protecting him because of his mother soon. You already know that story. However, you probably won't have heard about the truth about Dumbledore yet as you were in Italy.

The next few pages of the letter explained in length what had really occurred with Dumbledore and then moved on to cover Snape's days as Hogwarts headmaster. Eleanor ached inside just to read about all of the things that Snape had gone through, how he had to endure scorn and hate from everyone although he was always Dumbledore's man. It was not an easy letter to read because Snape was true to his word and was honest with her, telling her everything that had occurred. Although she never wanted Snape's words to end, it was almost a relief when she reached the final sheet of parchment.

I wish I could keep writing to you; I wish I had the time. I have told you almost everything about the past year concerning what was really going on with me. Instead of telling you more horrible details about my tribulations, I'm going to take these last few sentences to just give you my goodbye.

I love you dearly and believe you are the best thing that ever happened to me. Lily was the love of my life, but you made my life bearable and happy at times without her. You understand me more deeply than I think she ever did, and I thank you for that. I have missed your company the past year more than anyone could imagine except perhaps you. At least, I hope you missed me as well. I also hope that you trusted me like you said you would; I do not doubt that you did. Thank you for that.

I really have no idea how to close this letter. What can I possibly say to bring this to some sort of closure? I guess the best I can do is to say once again that I love you and that you are the most wonderful friend.

Good luck with your beautiful family and take care.

Lots of love for the last time,

Severus Snape

Eleven years later, Eleanor and Theo stood on Platform Nine and Three Quarters with 16-year-old Lele (who preferred to be called Lena at that point), eager 11-year-old Erik, and disappointed 8-year-old Serenity.

Life had moved on for their family after the end of the war just as it had for everyone. Eleanor had sold Spinner's End but had taken Snape's personal library and multiple other items as her own. She thought about him often, but as the years had passed, the thoughts became less depressing and less frequent. Most of the time she simply did not have time to dwell on the sadness of the past; she had her three children to take care of and had become the top archaeologist and researcher at I.O.W.A. within five years of Voldemort's downfall. Despite being a bit shaky at Rune translations, she was unbelievably good at what she did. Theo had also moved up high in his profession as an auror, second only to the famous Harry Potter.

"I see Anita Wood, mum!" Lena exclaimed. "I'll see you at Christmas!" She gave quick hugs to bother her parents and zipped off towards a group of giggly Slytherin and Ravenclaw girls. It made Eleanor smile to see that her Slytherin daughter was making friends outside of her house.

"Hello Theo. Eleanor." Eleanor and Theo turned to their left to see Harry Potter approaching them with an older woman and a boy who appeared to be close to Erik's age. "This is my godson Teddy and his grandmother Andromeda. I thought Ginny and I would see him off. However, I managed to lose Ginny to a crowd of mothers somewhere back there." He grinned and subconsciously rubbed his old scar. Eleanor and Theo spoke with Harry and Andromeda for a few minutes and soon enough Ginny joined them.

Not long after Ginny appeared, Erik loudly stated, "Teddy and I are going to find a compartment. Goodbye mother, father."

Eleanor giggled at her son's attempts to be mature and managed a quick kiss before he darted away. "I'm going to miss my baby boy. It's so difficult to watch all of my children go off to school. At least I still have you, Serenity."

"When can I go with Erik to school?" Serenity promptly questioned.

"Three years baby," Eleanor responded, bending down to Serenity's height to brush some hair out of her eyes.

"That's a really long time!"

"You will be here to go to Hogwarts before you know it. Besides, don't you like going on trips with mummy to Italy? When you're at Hogwarts we can only go during the summer and that is if I don't have other places to go on business."

"I do like Italy…"

That evening, after Eleanor put Serenity to bed, she was sitting in front of her bedroom window staring up at the moon. She was thinking about her two babies at a Hogwarts that she hardly knew and wondering what house Erik had ended up in. Septima Vector had promised to send her an owl as soon as Erik was sorted but that owl most likely wouldn't show up until the next night or the morning after. Until then, she just had to wait. She was also thinking about Severus; the nights when her children headed to Hogwarts were always the worst.

"Elle?" Theo entered the bedroom in his bathrobe. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just thinking about Erik." She sighed.

"Is that all?" He took a seat on the bed, and she joined him on it, snuggling up against him.

"No," she admitted. "I was thinking some about Severus too. It's still hard, especially when I think about how he isn't at Hogwarts to teach my babies."

"Elle, I know you prefer talking to Leigh, normally, and would really want to talk to Severus again…but I can listen too, you know. Would you like to talk about it?"

She nodded slowly as a few tears dripped out of her eyes. "Thank you, Theo."

So Theo listened to his wife long into the night despite them both having to go to work the next morning. She quickly learned that he would listen to her just as well as Severus had, and she was content.

FINITE

A/N: This is the first story of any sort of length that I have ever completed, and I want to thank all of the wonderful people who helped me including my Beta Chloe and my friends Jennifer and Laura who were the first two people to read almost every part. Thanks is also due to Ravenclawblonde1428 and Hufflepuffbrunette247, two wonderful ladies who had something nice to say about each chapter. I am also thankful for all of the readers who were kind enough to send me private messages and leave reviews. In fact, I'm thankful for anyone who read the story, even if they were completely silent in their doing so. If you enjoyed the story and haven't left a comment before, it would mean a lot to me if you would comment on this part! Thank you all for sticking around and reading all the way to the end!