Severus walked back along the path, feeling as if he had been hit by ten Refocilio spells. He took in every orange leaf on the ground, every stubbornly green bush and every patch of blue sky visible through the canopy of trees, as if he were truly seeing colours for the first time in his life. He savoured every gust of wind, every crunch of a broken branch underfoot and every chirping bird ahead.
Of course, he showed no sign of his feelings. If anyone had happened to see them walking side by side, they would have thought they were little more than strangers.
Omegas remained silent for the entire walk, a comfortable silence, for there were no words left to say, and Severus was fine with that. They could have spent the rest of their lives in silence if she had wanted to. He wouldn't have complained.
When they reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the scene before him was so at odds with his feelings that it felt unreal.
The war had finally arrived. An uncountable number of Death Eaters clashed fiercely with an equal number of Resistance fighters. Some of the latter were barely out of their teens, others far too advanced in age. Every rebel they could recruit had joined the fight against Voldemort, and now the air was filled with hundreds, thousands of coloured sparks. Improvised weapons of all kinds, including Professor Sprout's entire stock of Venomous Tentacula, struck the hooded figures at the other end of the park. The creatures inhabiting the areas around the castle—the Centaurs, the Merpeople and even the Acromantulas—rushed to the aid of the Order of the Phoenix members, while a small army of House Elves quickly emerged from the now-smashed main doors, led by the Elf Severus recognised as belonging to the Black family.
He stood still for a few moments, watching the scene, unable to take another step towards the battlefield. When he turned to look at Omegas, a new, terrible realisation struck him. He did not want her to die.
She didn't seem to share his concern—or, at least, she was determined not to show it. She watched the scene unfold with a mischievous grin on her face.
"Now I'm having fun," she declared.
She rummaged through her bag and took out a small glass bottle containing a golden liquid. She uncorked it, took a sip, and swallowed it down with a satisfied sound.
"Is that… Felix Felicis?" he asked.
"Yes," she confirmed. "Do you want some?"
Severus glanced from her face to the now half-full bottle. "Why?"
Omegas raised an eyebrow. She drew her wand, pointed it behind her without turning, and cast a spell that hit a Death Eater, bounced off, hit another, bounced off again and took down a third.
He watched the scene with wide eyes, then turned to her with a dry look. "You're cheating."
"Indeed," she said, shaking the bottle in front of his face. "You want to cheat with me?"
Severus mimicked her smirk, grabbed the bottle and emptied it.
He had barely had time to swallow when Omegas stormed onto the battlefield. She fought four Death Eaters at once, their curses narrowly missing her. Two different spells almost hit her, one from the right and one from the left. She ducked just in time to dodge them both, causing the two Death Eaters to hit each other. She stood up triumphantly and continued to fight the remaining two.
Severus didn't waste another moment. He was beside her in an instant, hurling curses at one of them. The hooded figure managed to raise a shield, but Severus, euphoric for reasons far beyond the Liquid Luck, continued to cast spells in rapid succession until his opponent was too exhausted to defend himself and was hit squarely. He fell to the ground with a thud. He took a moment to gloat over his motionless body.
"Sectumsempra!" Omegas shouted behind him.
He turned just in time to see a green spark shoot from her wand, striking the last remaining Death Eater and throwing him to the ground in a pool of blood. She quickly approached the body and glanced curiously at him. She turned to Severus and gave him an amused—and rather unsettling—grin.
"It gives a kind of macabre satisfaction," she remarked.
"I know," he confirmed.
"Snape!" a voice called.
Severus turned around and, despite the hood, recognised Nott's disturbingly gentle tone. The Death Eater raised his wand and quickly cast a spell at him. It narrowly missed him and instead hit the woman behind him.
He turned his head in horror, but all he witnessed was Omegas' wand flying from her hand and landing in the middle of the battlefield, where it was promptly trampled underfoot by what could only be the enormous foot of a Giant. He looked back at Omegas, who was now glaring at Nott with the most dangerous stare he had ever seen on her face.
She crouched down, drew a small dagger from a sheath at her ankle and threw it at the Death Eater with pinpoint accuracy, hitting his right hand. Nott let out a sharp cry of pain and dropped his wand. Omegas chuckled, reached into her bag and emerged with what appeared to be a large sabre. She looked Nott in the eye with chilling intensity, twirled the sabre and ran towards him with a scream that sounded halfway between a battle cry and a loud laugh. The Death Eater turned and ran in the opposite direction like a frightened animal fleeing from a predator.
That vision was enough to convince Severus that he could focus on the battle ahead without having to keep an eye on her.
He looked around for his next target, eventually choosing a pair of Death Eaters charging wildly at an unarmed boy who looked young enough to be a third year. He stepped in front of them, fighting on the boy's behalf—the Felix made sure that every spell he cast hit its target. He disarmed both Death Eaters, caught their wands in mid-air, and struck them both down with a single Sectumsempra.
He turned to the boy and offered him one of the wands, but the boy stared, pale and paralysed with fear, at a spot behind him. Severus turned again and found that the same dense mist that had settled over the Forbidden Forest was now spreading across the park.
The Dementors reached the battlefield in the blink of an eye. Severus approached the three that were hovering nearby, pointed his wand at them, and summoned his Patronus with a satisfaction the spell had never before brought him. He stood still, watching the silver snake pirouette towards the Dementors with its jaws wide open, until a voice behind him snapped him out of his trance.
"Hey, gorgeous!"
Severus turned, his brow furrowed and a death glare ready to be unleashed. He would happily have died for her, but being called 'gorgeous' was a step too far. As he looked at her, however, he realised that Omegas wasn't talking to him at all; she was shouting at a Dementor looming ominously over the boy's head.
"Leave him alone and come to me! I'm unarmed and I'm bursting with joy!"
She spread her arms wide and smiled broadly. The creature immediately stopped attacking the boy, who fell unconscious, and swiftly floated towards her. Severus looked down at the three wands in his hands. Before he had time to think about it, Felix had done it all on his own.
"Om!" he shouted.
He threw one of the wands at her, which she caught in mid-air at the last moment. She summoned her Patronus and watched as the bat drifted towards the Dementor to drive it away. Once it was safely out of range, she flipped the wand over in her hand and examined it sceptically.
"I don't like it," she muttered. "Too rigid."
She turned to him, approaching with cautious steps and regaining her usual inappropriate calm.
"Where is our Chosen One?" she asked.
Severus raised his head, unsure why he felt the sudden urge to look up, and saw a tiny figure pacing on the Astronomy Tower terrace. He pointed his finger at it, and Omegas followed its trajectory.
"Ah!" she exclaimed. She turned towards the centre of the park. "Hey, Rubeus!"
Hagrid turned to her. "Oi, Omegas!" he greeted her, as if she had just popped into his hut for a cup of tea. "How's it goin'?"
"Is that a Giant?" she asked, pointing to the huge figure standing beside him, throwing stones the size of draft horses.
"He's me brother!" the other replied with a hint of pride. "Name's Grawp."
He happily watched as Grawp crushed two Death Eaters in one fist, squeezing them between his thick, stubby fingers.
"Not bad," she remarked. "Hey, can I borrow Nyx?"
Hagrid looked at her. Without further ado, he stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled towards his hut. A herd of Thestrals took flight, one of which landed in front of Omegas and rubbed its dragon-like snout against her shoulder.
She stroked it and mounted it with a great leap and a cheerful "Oop!" before turning back to Severus.
"See you at the tower."
"Why?" he asked, his eyes narrowing to slits.
"Trust me," she replied.
She patted the Thestral, which immediately took off towards the Astronomy Tower. Severus watched her fly for a moment before rising from the ground and following her.
They landed on the terrace at the same time, Omegas stepping off the Thestral with a satisfied sigh.
"Sir!" Harry shouted immediately.
He rushed towards them, out of breath, visibly nervous and seemingly too restless to stand still.
"Professor McGonagall told me to wait for Voldemort," he explained. "But I can't, I mustn't, I've got to go down and fight. I've got to—"
Severus opened his mouth to spit out a sharp 'Silence!', but he didn't have time.
"Silence!" Omegas commanded.
The boy fell silent.
She slid the bag from her shoulder, reached over and stood in front of him.
"So," she said softly, "during the last Order meeting, I heard that you disarmed Draco. Is that true?"
Harry looked at her, then at him, confused.
"Answer, Potter," Severus ordered.
"Y-yes," he replied.
"So, you are the owner of the Elder Wand," she remarked. "Are you not?"
Harry hesitated for a moment, then nodded firmly.
"Excellent!" she exclaimed. She turned to Severus and gestured towards the boy. "Give him the Stone."
Severus approached her with a furrowed brow. "Why?"
Omegas looked him straight in the eye and smirked. She reached into her bag and slowly pulled out what appeared to be a large, worn cloak.
Both the boy and the Professor followed her movement and stared at it with wide eyes.
"That…" Harry whispered. "That's my—"
"The Invisibility Cloak, yes," she said briskly. "I stole it from Riddle just before I returned to the castle."
"You… you stole it from Voldemort?" Harry asked in astonishment.
"Yes," she confirmed calmly.
There was a moment of stunned silence. The boy cautiously reached for his cloak and clutched it as if it were the only thing he had left in the world. Omegas let him take it, then turned back to Severus.
"The Stone," she urged.
Still shocked, he took the Resurrection Stone out from under his cloak and handed it to the boy, his eyes fixed on her. Harry took it a little hesitantly and turned it in his hand contemplatively.
"Why?" he asked.
Omegas turned to him with a furrowed brow. She stared at him for a moment, then turned back to Severus with a raised eyebrow.
"Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, is he?"
Under other circumstances, Severus would certainly have laughed at that. Now, all he could do was stare at her open-mouthed.
Omegas turned back to the boy and looked him straight in the eye. "You have the Invisibility Cloak, you have the Resurrection Stone and you are the owner of the Elder Wand," she explained firmly. "Among the Death Eaters, you are known as 'Expelliarmus Boy'. They say it's your signature ."
She gave a cunning smile and raised a finger in front of his face.
"One Expelliarmus. One Expelliarmus and you become the Master of Death. One Expelliarmus and the war is won."
Silence fell once more—time seemed to stretch out for a few moments. Harry stared at Omegas in disbelief, while for Severus, every single event of the past hours began to take on new meaning.
"You," he breathed.
Omegas met his gaze. She turned to face him and stood tall, her eyes gleaming with mischief and her smirk still in place.
"You didn't tell Voldemort about the spell on the Stone," Severus said firmly.
It wasn't a question, and she didn't answer. Instead, she held his accusatory gaze defiantly.
"You didn't want to get it to buy Draco time," he continued, taking a step towards her. "You didn't ask me to get it because you were tempted to use it. You did it because you couldn't."
Omegas still said nothing, but quickly averted her gaze.
"You lied," he accused.
"Yes," she confirmed, closing the space between them. "I had to. If I'd told you what I meant to do, you wouldn't have been able to take it either. To want to find it to collect the Hallows is to want to use it, remember?"
She gave a tentative smile and met his eyes again.
"To be honest, I stole the Cloak because I wanted to study it, as soon as I realised the Hollows were real. Then… when I heard at the meeting that the boy had disarmed Draco, I thought—"
"You lied… to me?" Severus cut her off.
He towered over her, standing tall in all his solemnity, and spoke in the sternest tone he could muster.
Omegas pulled a face and shrugged. "Yes."
Severus continued to stare into her eyes as rigidly as if he had been hit by a Petrificus Totalus, his fists clenched tightly. The only reason he didn't kiss her in that very moment on that very terrace was because the sound of Harry Potter's voice reminded him that they weren't alone.
"He's here."
He struggled to tear his eyes away from her. They both turned and quickly joined the boy, leaning over the railing to look at the park below.
Tall and skeletal, with his long black robes billowing and his fixed blood-red eyes visible even from up there, Voldemort exuded an aura of cold, ruthless grandiosity as he stood at the centre of a compact group of Death Eaters—the Faithful. Bellatrix, at the forefront and with both arms very much intact, was scorching everything around her with maniacal ferocity.
Harry watched the scene for a few moments, swallowing audibly as panic and determination spread across his face. Omegas pulled the broom out of her bag and handed it to him.
"One Expelliarmus," she repeated. "We go down with you."
Harry nodded. He turned to Severus and, when he spoke, his tone showed no trace of hesitation or fear.
"Sir."
Severus turned and looked into those green eyes, surprised to find that he did not feel the usual surge of hatred and disgust.
"Potter," he replied.
"If this is the last chance, sir, there's something I need to tell you."
He waited in silence. Harry mounted his broom and rose into the air, facing him from beyond the railing.
"You are the bravest man I have ever known."
Severus did not reply, but his gaze was enough for the boy to consider the matter settled.
Harry turned and flew towards the Hogwarts grounds, followed by Omegas, riding the Thestral again, and Severus flying behind him.
They landed in front of the circle of Death Eaters surrounding Lord Voldemort. All the other members of the Order were there: Professor McGonagall, Kingsley, Lupin, Sirius, Hermione, the entire Weasley family, Hagrid with his Giant brother—and many more—engaged in frenzied battles with the barrier of hooded figures that separated Harry Potter from the one Expelliarmus that would end the Second Wizarding War.
Severus and Omegas fought side by side, wands drawn.
"I still don't like this wand!" she yelled, her voice lost in the chaos of spells.
"Try this one!" he replied, throwing her the second wand he had won earlier.
She caught it in mid-air, then quickly cast a spell at one of the Death Eaters, hitting him perfectly and sending him crashing to the ground.
"Nah, don't like it either. Too heavy!" she remarked.
Severus snorted a laugh in her direction.
"Hey, Severus!" she exclaimed after a while.
"What?"
"Is Professor McGonagall busy?"
He turned to look for the Headmistress, who was fighting a few yards away. Then he resumed raising shields and casting curses.
"Yes. Why?"
She chuckled. "Because she wouldn't approve."
She pulled the sabre out of her bag, twirled it in her hands, then threw it at the group of Death Eaters who were attacking them. It shot off like a bullet, cleanly decapitating one of the hooded figures as if it had a mind of its own, before returning to her hand.
Severus stared at it, eyes wide. "Where on earth did you get that?"
"Stole it from a Mexican wizard."
With the desire to stay as far away from it as possible and an urge to ask her to try it battling inside him, Severus gave her a genuinely amused laugh. She responded with one of the most genuine smiles he had ever seen.
"Down!" she shouted, pointing to a spot behind him.
Severus ducked just in time to dodge a Killing Curse, which Omegas blocked a moment later. She threw her sabre at the Death Eater behind Severus; it did its job and flew back at high speed. Just as it was about to reach her, Sirius stepped in front of her and stopped it in mid-air with a spell. The sabre remained suspended for a moment before falling to the ground with a thud.
"Now we're even," he declared, before resuming his fight with a Death Eater nearby.
Severus opened his mouth to call him an absolute imbecile, but she raised an arm to stop him.
"For Merlin's sake, let him believe it!"
He closed his mouth, albeit with great reluctance.
Omegas bent down to retrieve the sabre. When she raised her head again, she fixed her gaze stubbornly on a point to her right and lost her smile. Severus, who had just finished fighting the last two Death Eaters in front of them, followed her gaze to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Lucius Malfoy held his wand in his remaining hand. He was losing the battle against a group of Death Eaters that included Goyle, once his closest friend. He fell to the ground, Draco's scream echoing behind him as he collapsed onto his father's body. In the blink of an eye, Goyle's wand was pointing at the trembling boy kneeling over what remained of his family. Pale, frightened and desperate, Draco had barely enough time to get up and run into the heart of the forest, pursued by Goyle and at least a dozen other Death Eaters.
Severus was about to take the first step in Draco's direction when he felt the palm of Omegas' hand on his chest.
"No," she said firmly. "I'll go."
He glared at her and ignored her completely. When he tried to take another step towards the forest, she stopped him again.
"No, Severus," she insisted. "You must stay. Protect the boy." She nodded towards Harry.
Severus felt a new wave of anger sweep over him. He had almost forgotten that he was capable of feeling it.
"No. I'm coming with you," he retorted.
"You must protect the boy," she repeated.
"Why?" he barked.
Omegas looked him in the eye and uttered the two words powerful enough to win that argument.
"For Lily."
She didn't say it with any hint of blame, reproach or accusation; she said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She walked towards him, took his hand and smiled. Stroking his hand with her thumb, she held his gaze until she was sure he couldn't argue any further. Then she released his hand, whistled, and climbed back onto the Thestral. A moment later, she was galloping towards the Forbidden Forest, disappearing into the treetops.
Severus stood still as the world around him seemed to slow down. He looked to his right, then to his left. Exhausted and overwhelmed by more emotions than he had felt in seventeen years, his mind made one last desperate effort to focus on his situation: alone again, standing between the man who had robbed him of his first love and a silent forest that had just swallowed his last.
He could feel his heart beating again, even more loudly than it had in the forest, but this time he wasn't gripped by panic. It was a ferocious, implacable wave of fury. He looked again at the centre of the group of the Death Eaters protecting the man who had ruined his life and who, if Omegas never managed to come out of the forest, would ruin it again. Harry Potter was standing in front of him, wand raised, while around them, dozens of fighters hurled spells at each other.
He heard a sharp whistle in his ears. His brain, now at its breaking point, simply ceased to function. Clutching his wand, he took all the steps that separated him from the battle without feeling the ground beneath his feet.
He had no idea what he was doing and didn't stop to find out. Raising the wand in the air, his face contorted with rage, he cast spells at every hooded figure he encountered on his way. Even years later, he never knew what kind of spells he was casting. They weren't words; just muffled screams, green sparks, and the sheer, visceral desire to kill, to hurt, to cause as much pain as possible. He did not care to observe the consequences of his actions, nor did he care to protect himself from the spells cast upon him. It was not a fight. It was a massacre.
He did not stop when the other Order fighters began to look at him as they would their enemies, nor when he realised that several Death Eaters were disarmed, trapped, unconscious or petrified before him. He paid no attention to McGonagall's admonitions, nor those of Black or Lupin.
When Molly Weasley fought with Bellatrix Lestrange nearby and won, Severus was not relieved; he was only made angrier. He should have been the one to kill her. He should have been the one to kill them all.
He barely registered the boy and Voldemort talking in the centre of that compact circle of black robes. He heard fragments of a speech about love, loyalty, courage, but he did not care. He did not stop attacking when the fighters around him, on both sides, stopped to watch the battle between the Chosen One and the greatest Dark Wizard of all time. He did not stop when he heard the boy shout, "Expelliarmus!" and the other yell, "Avada Kedavra!"
He could faintly sense the two spells clashing, and then the Elder Wand flying from Voldemort's hand to Harry's. He did not turn to witness the Boy Who Lived becoming the Master of Death, nor to see Tom Riddle's body fall to the ground, more human than he had ever been in life. He simply continued his massacre.
It took twenty minutes, at least three spells cast against him by ten different members of the Order of the Phoenix, and the threat of being crushed by a Giant for Severus to regain even a vague semblance of composure.
Severus could only grasp fragments of the hours that followed that moment. He felt himself being dragged towards the castle doors by hands that must have belonged to Hagrid, judging by their size and strength. He saw himself reach the new hospital wing, where some of the white beds were once again occupied by unconscious students. The next thing he knew, he was sitting in the darkest corner of the room with a glass in his hand.
He sipped it automatically, without knowing exactly why, and found that he had just swallowed a Calming Draught. The potion gave him just enough clarity to lift his head and see who had handed it to him.
"Are you okay, sir?" Harry asked.
Severus did not respond. He raised his glass and gestured for the boy to refill it. Harry took the glass, walked to a nearby table, filled it up and handed it back. As Severus raised the glass to his lips, he heard a loud noise above his head. He looked up; his face showed great confusion that he did not bother to hide.
"They're celebrating, sir," Harry explained. "We won."
Severus looked at him again. He considered asking, 'Why aren't you there?', but remembered that he had lost the ability to speak and had no intention of regaining it. He looked at the glass in his hands, took a drink, and felt the little clarity he had regained leave him once more.
"Professor…" Harry said as he sat down in the chair next to him. "Where… where's Omegas?"
Severus wished he hadn't asked. He watched her vanish into the forest, pursued by at least a dozen Death Eaters. He raised his head, intending to give the boy one of his most intimidating glares, but realised that he couldn't control his face. The words 'She's dead' echoed so clearly in his mind that he couldn't say for sure whether he had said them without realising.
Harry looked him in the eyes, stood up, took the empty glass from his hands and filled it again.
Time passed. The boy never moved from the chair beside him, except to refill the glass. Severus wanted to ask him why he was there, to tell him to leave him alone and join the celebrations above their heads, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
After over two hours of drinking the potion, he was so dazed that he could barely make out the room around him. There was only haziness, the sharp whistle that still lingered in his ears and the knowledge that Harry Potter was sitting next to him. Then someone else came. 'Take him away,' he wanted to say. 'Leave me alone.' But he did not utter a word.
Glancing up, he saw a blurry figure enter the room, drop something heavy on the floor and quickly approach him. He heard the boy get up and walk across the room. He caught a vague glimpse of the ensuing conversation.
"How much of that bloody Calming Draught did you give him?"
"I don't know. As much as he asked for."
"You know it's supposed to be taken in drops, right?"
"Er… well, I—"
"Sweet Salazar, boy! Have you ever even attended a Venoms class in your life?"
"A… what?"
Those words persuaded him to lift his head, but his vision was still clouded. He could sense one of them approaching, drawing a wand and pressing its tip against his forehead.
"Refocilio."
Severus closed his eyes, then opened them again.
He jumped up from the chair so quickly and violently that it crashed to the floor. He stood still as his mind gradually regained control of his body, and his eyes began to focus on what was in front of him.
Omegas, covered in blood from head to toe, was looking at him with one of her cunning smiles. Speechless, all he could do was enjoy the sight. Words didn't exist, nor would they ever, to describe what he was feeling at that moment. He watched her tuck the wand under her cloak, raise her purple eyes to meet his and give him one of her most unsettling looks.
"You should see the other one," she whispered.
Severus was now perfectly capable of controlling his actions again, but he chose not to. He felt a lump grow in his throat and two large tears fall from his eyes, slowly tracing his tired face. He let them fall. He closed the distance between them and embraced her. He could feel her heart beating against his chest, and it was the most beautiful thing he had ever experienced. The last time he had held someone like that, no heart had beaten in unison with his own.
A few seconds later, she broke the silence with a barely audible murmur.
"I'm covered in blood, Severus. You'll get your clothes stained."
Severus uttered his first three words in hours.
"I don't care."
He sensed her smile. She held him back in silence for a few more moments, before speaking again.
"The boy's still here, by the way."
He quickly released her and turned to face Harry, who was now staring stubbornly at the wall on his left. He approached him cautiously and shot him a cold look.
"You won the war, Potter," he said, trying hard to sound as contemptuous as usual. "Don't you have friends to celebrate with?"
Harry looked at him, gave him a half-smile and bowed his head slightly. "Yes, sir."
Severus watched as he walked through the hospital wing and stopped in front of a boy lying on a bed near the entrance. It took him a moment to recognise his long, silver-blonde hair and sharp features.
"He's just unconscious," Omegas reassured. "He'll be fine."
Harry smiled at her, nodded and disappeared through the door.
Omegas turned around, wearing a newfound, unreadable smile. She stared into his eyes for a few seconds, then looked around vaguely again.
"Well, I suppose I'll be going too," she announced. "I'm starving. Fighting makes me peckish, you know—"
"Where do you think you're going?" he cut her off.
She looked up at him and found him pointing firmly at one of the empty beds. She sighed loudly.
"Oh, come on!" she protested. "This is mostly someone else's blood, really. I'm fine!"
Severus didn't stop pointing sternly at the bed until Omegas sighed again and surrendered with a weak, "Alright then…"
She reached the bed, lay down on the white sheets, and waited while he drew the curtains around them. He cast a spell to fill a basin with water, dampened a towel, and began to wipe the blood from her face. She lay still, staring at him with a smile so unlike her usual one that it made him uncomfortable.
Beneath the thick layer of dried blood on her forehead, there wasn't a single scratch—just smooth, unblemished skin. Severus looked at her with narrowed eyes.
"It really is someone else's blood," he noted softly.
"Indeed," she replied cheerfully.
Once all trace of blood had gone from her face, Severus examined her hands carefully and found that her knuckles were almost completely skinned. He gave her a sharp look of disapproval.
"What have you done?" he demanded.
She shrugged. "I got carried away."
He glared at her, fervently hoping that nobody would tell her what had happened in her absence, lest his criticism appear hypocritical.
Omegas, however, didn't seem to notice the glare at all and continued to stare at him with that same new smile. It unnerved him.
"Why are you smiling like that?" he snapped.
The smile on her face widened. "I smile a lot."
"Not like that," he retorted.
"That's true," she admitted.
Severus took some bandages from a nearby bedside table and began to wrap her right hand.
"We won the war, you know?" she remarked. "That's a good reason to smile. You should give it a try."
He shot her a murderous look, which only served to make her laugh and irritate him further.
After he'd finished binding her right hand, Severus gestured for her to give him the other, but Omegas didn't move. She remained still, her hand resting on the mattress, wearing that same expression—too genuine, too pure for him to bear. He lowered his hand and met her gaze, his irritation verging on outright anger.
"Are you planning to cooperate or—"
He never finished that sentence. She moved her left hand from the mattress to his face and pressed her lips against his.
In those moments, too intense for his exhausted mind to register anything but that contact, Severus forgot where he was, what he was doing, and for a few moments even who he was. It took him a while to return the kiss.
When it ended, he thought it had lasted an eternity and that it hadn't been anywhere near long enough. He opened his eyes to find that same genuine smile in front of him. It was much less irritating now, much more understandable. He scanned his surroundings—nothing but drawn white curtains isolating them from the rest of the room—and returned the smile with one of his own.
A moment later, as if nothing had happened, Severus returned to his usual scowl and Omegas curled her lips into her familiar, unreadable smirk. He held out his hand again.
"May I bandage it now?"
She nodded.
The celebrating members of the Resistance did not hear from them again for quite some time.