To do what is right (A Harry/Severus friendship fic- alternate DH ending)

Chapter 11

A/N: Hey guys, here is chapter 11 which includes Severus’ funeral and portrait. This chapter is dedicated to gamecow who has read all of my Harry Potter fics (i think more than once each!) and was very, very prompt in voting for all my chapters once i split 'To do what is right' into chapters. Thank you so much!!!Happy reading everyone, and please remember to vote and comment!

To do what is right

Chapter 11

The world was buzzing around Harry as he walked through the school towards the place he dreaded most- the Shrieking Shack. With Hermione on his left and Ron on his right, Harry could hear a lot of talk around him, however little of it made sense; Harry only had one thing on his mind: Professor Snape…

“Congratulations Potter!”

“You-Know-Who is dead!”

“Did you hear? Harry Potter is giving Snape a funeral!?”

“But he hated Snape… didn’t he?”

Harry did his best to block out the voices that followed him everywhere and Ron and Hermione did their best to support their friend, however silently as the three of them made their way to the Shrieking Shack. Harry had suggested to Ron that he should stay with his family while they decided when to have Fred’s funeral. However, Ron insisted that he could not bear anymore sadness and even though where they were going could be no more uplifting, Ron wanted to get away for a while.

Using magic to levitate a stick to prod the knot on the tree, Hermione then led her friends into the Whomping Willow. Harry usually would have done all of this, but his fear of what they would find in the shack was tormenting him. Although Voldemort’s downfall was something definitely worth celebrating, Harry felt he could not truly be happy until he had laid Severus’ body to rest. The image of seeing Severus when he used the Resurrection Stone, which now lay abandoned in the forest, was fresh in his mind and he wanted to make sure he did Severus’ memory justice by giving him a proper burial.

Now that they were only feet from the main bedroom of the Shrieking Shack, Hermione halted to let Harry enter first.  It was dark by this time, so Harry lit his wand, having repaired it with the Elder wand in the headmaster’s office and shone the light in the direction where he knew Severus’ body should be.  Sure enough, Harry immediately found Severus with the light and upon seeing the body, a sense of horror and shock filled him as he moved his wand away and turned from the scene; he couldn’t do this.

“Harry?” Hermione said gently, lighting her own wand and approaching her friend. “Are you okay?”

“I- I can’t look at him,” Harry admitted, saddened that he couldn’t at least bring himself to do THAT for Professor Snape.

“You- you won’t have to mate,” Ron said, trying to sound reassuring. “I’m sure Hermione could levitate him out of here, couldn’t you?” Ron asked, turning to his girlfriend who nodded.

At this, Hermione moved closer to Severus’ body, her own wand light passing over the corpse from head to toe to make sure nothing abnormal had happened to the body since they were last there- heaven forbid someone like Greyback had found Severus… the thought was too horrifying to comprehend. Concluding that all was as she expected, Hermione wondered whether she should conceal Professor Snape’s injuries but then decided against it- they were not too bloody and she felt that people should know what Severus suffered in his last moments- how much he had sacrificed for all of them…

“Harry, I am ready when you are,” Hermione said, standing up again and walking back to her friends.

“Does he look really bad?” Harry asked, not quite able to keep the fear and childish tone out of his voice.