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Epilogue

11 years later

"Hiya Persephone!" A cheerful voice called out.

"Hello, Mr. Hagrid." A timid voice replied sweetly.

"All set to go?" The half giant asked.

Mint green eyes sparkled and jet black curls bobbed when she nodded. Her small hand grasped the man's rather large one and suddenly they were sucked into a vortex of swirling shapes and colours.

Once on solid ground, the young girl wondered at all there was to see. Everything was so exciting.

"Welcome back to Diagon Alley, little one." A warm voice said.

Persephone clicked open the silver locket around her neck to see a picture of her grandparents smiling. It was her grandmother who had spoken.

She glanced at the other picture, it was one of her parents, holding her when she was a baby.

"Don't spend all your money in one place now, Perse!" Her father warned.

The girl smiled. Even though her family wasn't physically there, she still had her locket and that was perfectly fine by her. Hagrid told her that she'd had that locket since she was a baby. Her grandmother had left it with her before the Battle of Hogwarts.

She closed the locket, tucked it beneath her shirt against her heart.

"Hagrid, do you ever think I'll have the chance to see my grandparents again?" The girl wondered aloud.

The half giant smiled sadly. "I don't know, Miss Persephone. No one is quite sure what happened to yer grandparents. Some say they died in the war, others say they were miraculously healed but can't remember who the other is, and then there are some who say they came back from the dead. All I know is that yer grandparents were right heroes. They fought for Hogwarts until the end. Ev'ryone knows who they are, they were the talk of the town, I guess yeh could say. They loved yeh so very much, Perse. If there was one thing that every witch and wizard knows for certain is that they valued their family o'er ev'rything else in the entire world. Riches and power meant nothing if they didn't have love and each other."

The porcelain faced girl smiled. She loved to hear about her family. She would have loved to meet them in person.

She thanked Hagrid and headed to the nearest apothecary while he went shopping for slug repellent.

Inside, she had witnessed the strangest type of magic the world had to offer.

A tall, rather thin man cloaked in black was discussing the magical properties of asphodel with the shop owner. He had ebony, shoulder length hair and equally dark eyes. To say he looked intimidating was an understatement.

Persephone gasped as she recognized the man.

As fate would have it, a woman with pale green eyes and a gentle face came around the corner and tripped over the man's cloak, her things flying everywhere as she knocked the man down and fell over him.

"My apologies, sir! I really didn't mean to knock you over, I didn't see you!" She babbled, pushing long dark curls from her face and trying to stand up to help him stand as well. "Clumsy me, I am truthfully very sorry."

"Nonsense, perfectly understandable." He drawled coolly, as though the whole affair hadn't take place.

A pink flush painted the woman's cheeks. "I am so embarrassed, I'm really sorry."

The man waved off her apology.

The girl hid behind a rack of shelves, watching what would happen next. She didn't dare make a peep.

"Say, I don't think we've met before." The green eyed witch stated a little unsurely.

She took a step back to leave the man some space and nearly toppled over again. In a flash, the man had wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her from falling.

"Funny you mention it, I could have sworn we had once before." He replied, still holding her firmly in place. The woman hadn't tried to move.

A pensive look crossed her features. "I think I'd remember meeting someone such as yourself. You do not seem to be the type to be forgotten." She whispered breathlessly. "What's your name?"

"Severus. Yours?"

She swallowed thickly. "Eliza."

"We've met once before. Many, many years ago." They said in unison.

Shivers crawled up both of their spines at the words of the other.

Persephone let out the breath she'd been holding.

"Once there was a night, beneath a moonless sky..." The man named Severus whispered.

"Too dark to see a thing, too dark to even try..." Continued the witch named Eliza.

"I stole to your side to tell you I must go, I couldn't see your face but felt you even so."

"How do you know that?" Eliza asked curiously.

Severus frowned. "I'm not sure. The sight of you reminded me of it for some reason... I think it may be linked to you somehow."

"How queer, when I saw you I thought of spearmint toothpaste, the constellation Scorpius, and the Muggle story Beauty and the Beast..." Eliza replied.

"The story isn't over." They said in unison.

"Would you care to join me for a cup of tea to discuss this further?" The man in black inquired, his left eyebrow arching.

A quiet smile appeared on the lady's face. "I'd love to."

They never stopped gazing into the other's eyes. Some unknown force attracting them to the other.

No one noticed when little Persephone left the apothecary and skipped over to Hagrid, smiling from ear to ear.

"What's got yeh all smiley-like?" He asked.

The girl shrugged, deciding to keep what she'd seen to herself.

Her grandparents were alive. They were alive and okay.

Sure, they didn't know who she was. However, the fact that they were roaming the same streets as her and that they had found each other was enough to keep the youngest Snape's heart light and full of joy.

For her, it was enough.

The End