This is a repost. It seems I violated (unintentionally- but unfortunately- yes-I did) Fanfiction rules. I took the opportunity to "improve" the story and now it is being reposted, hopefully in the correct category this time. My apologies to all the shocked and appalled people who were desecrated by my unfortunate error.

Inspired by Tati1's work Betrayers of My Trust. Hers was an answer to a challenge: Sweetest Revenge by Rochelle And yes, JKR, Merlin and God are my main inspirations. Nuclear Winter works too. ~*~*~

The Aftermath

Magic is by definition something that cannot be explained. It does not abide by the laws of physics and can take most any form. The best way to cast any spell is simply to let magic do what it wills. Or, at least that is what the unicorns tell us.

It was the unicorns that found Harry Potter's body at the bottom of the Astronomy tower. How they knew to come to him will always remain a mystery. Technically since he was no longer a virgin, and since he definitely was not a girl, they should not have visited him at all if legends are to be believed. But they did come to him, within seconds of him realizing he had accomplished his goal.

Harry's spirit hovered just above his broken body and watched the unicorns as they cried over him. It was incredible to see silvery tears pool around him- he understood at once that although he had not been loved by humans, his passing was being mourned. Harry could not resist going to the unicorns.

They looked up hesitantly as they felt his spirit caress their muzzles. Beautiful animals, full of sorrow, were willed by the boy to stop crying and return to their safe places. He explained to them, a joyful smile on his face, that he could pass on to the next life now that he knew he had been loved in this life. His parents were there waiting on him and he wanted to be with them much more than he wanted to endure human existence.

Before they would leave the garden the oldest unicorn begged Harry to let her perform an act of heart magic in his memory. Harry, his ghostly green eyes misted with tears, agreed to let her do so. His last sight of his mortal body was to see it shift from a broken body into a rose bush, the stems as green as his eyes, flowers of palest white with tips of ebony black. The perfume of the bush was light and delicate as his own bone structure.

~*~*~

It was several days before anyone noticed that Harry Potter was not attending classes. The Potions Master Snape was the first teacher to comment on it. It was not even so much that he was worried about Harry as he simply wished to make the Gryffindors lives miserable.

He could not resist sneering at Granger and Weasley as he glided into the room and noticed that the golden boy was not with them again. "Granger, Weasley?"

The two of them looked up. "Yes, Sir?" Hermione asked pleasantly.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor for Potter not being with you. And another fifty if you cannot tell me where he is." He blinked at them lazily as they stared at each other. "Oh, and another fifty if you do not go get him right this minute."

Hermione gazed at him in total shock. Finally she blinked and regained her composure. "Sir, I do not know where Harry is. I have not seen him for a few days."

Ron's face turned rather red as he looked from Hermoine to Snape. "It really is unfair that you would hold Hermoine and I responsible for Potter not being here, Sir?"

"And what do you know about fairness, Weasley?" Snape asked in a suspiciously pleasant voice. "Could it be that you don't care because you are jealous of him and if he isn't here then you can pretend that you are Gryffindor's golden boy?"

Ron glared at him but did not say anything else. It was common knowledge that he had lost his temper the day before when Harry did not go to Quiddich practice and had said that the Gryffindors did not need the little pathetic excuse for a has-been-hero anyway.

"Isn't it true, Weasley, that you told everyone that Potter was not needed anymore since he is a has-been hero and your sister can fill the seeker just as good as he could?"

At this bit of information the classroom broke into a dull roar as everyone speculated on the whereabouts of the missing Potter. People began to realize they had not seen him for several days.

The noise level died just as quickly when Draco's voice cut chillingly through the growing hysteria. "Potter is probably still trying to get over my rejection of him."

"What do you mean your rejection?" Hermione asked, her brow furrowed with confusion.

Malfoy's face lit with a feral glee as he recounted his encounter with Potter. He described in detail the conversation with the Potty and how he had sent him packing after he had taken him to bed. "He really was a lousy fuck. Whining and clinging to me as if I would ever love him." Draco's voice tapered off as he recalled the utterly devastated look in Harry's eyes as he was told to leave.

He looked around at everyone expecting to see the Slytherins at least applauding his deeds. Instead he saw people sitting with their heads bowed, some of them shaking with grief. He could not resist snarling at the two most obvious, "Bulstrode, Parker, what the hell are you two crying for? You hated him too."

Snape could not keep the surprise from his face when Pansy looked up at Draco and snarled, "We all hated him and treated him so badly. He saved us and this is how we repay him! I don't want to be a Slytherin anymore. I am tired pretending I hate everyone who isn't Slytherin."

Draco raised his hands and brought them together. "Bravo Pansy. It was a lovely performance."

Pansy stood up and glowered at Draco. "Why are you such a bastard? Harry showed us a great love, changed our lives for the better and even though we all knew he wanted someone to love him, no one ever did. At least they never let him know they loved him for being himself. He did not ask us to love either, it was there for everyone to see, but he did not beg." She ran sobbing from the room.

Millicent gave Draco a death glare before she grabbed up her bag and Pansy's. "I don't want to know you people anymore." And she too left.

Ronald Weasley hung his head in shame after the two girls left. He could be heard sniffling occasionally as he kept his head down. Strangely enough, Snape left Ron to dwell on whatever it was that seemed to be bothering him.

Hermione kept glancing at Ron but did not ask what was wrong. She knew Ron well enough to know there was a reason he was so upset that he was not challenging Malfoy.

The class finished without incident from that point. There were two less Slytherins in Potions and the eerie silence of people working diligently was uncomfortable, but everyone managed to produce a perfect potion.

After class Snape made his way upstairs to the Headmaster's office. He was not surprised to see Dumbledore sitting in his chair looking pensive. The first words out of the Potions Master's mouth were, "You do realize of course, that Potter is not attending classes? Albus, you cannot continue to let him do whatever he likes. I demand you do something about this!"

Albus looked up at him. "What do you suggest I do, Severus?" There was no twinkle in his eyes and for the first time in a long time he sounded like a confused old man.

"Find him. Make him return to classes. Punish him for his insolence." Snape whirled around and stared out the window for a few minutes before turning back to the Headmaster. "I don't know what to do. Just make things OK again, please Albus. Make the skinny little brat come back and let things go back to Normal." His shoulders shook with the grief he could no longer suppress. "Tell me he is not gone." His last statement was a wail of anguish as he relived every indignity he had imposed on the pathetic little figure known as Harry James Potter while Pansy's anguished voice took up counterpoint in his head..

Dumbledore got up from his chair and moved around to Severus. "I very much fear that Mr. Potter is well beyond reach of any punishment, Severus."

"He is gone isn't he?"

Dumbledore could only nod at the question.

"What did he do?" Snape tried his best to regain control. "Where is he? Do you want me to go bring him back to Hogwarts?"

Dumbledore stumbled back to his chain and sank down into it. Snape saw the old shoulders shake as the elder gave way to his grief. "I let him kill himself, Severus. I deliberately removed the wards that would protect anyone jumping from the Astronomy tower."

"What induced you to do that?" Snape was totally incredulous.

"I overheard Ron Weasley confronting him earlier about losing more points for Gryffindor. He headed straight up to the tower after Ron left. The things Mr. Weasley said to him made perfect sense to me so I let him kill himself. Then as I watched from that very window I saw the unicorns come from the forest and cry at his passing."

Snape looked at him in horror. "You let him jump because some jealous child heckled him?" His voice was barely more than a whisper.

"I knew how he was hurting, Severus. It was not just Mr. Weasley, there was another young man whom he had sexual relations with earlier that day and it went badly also."

"And that gave you the right to let him kill himself?" Severus was pleading for understanding.

"He felt that he was completely alone. When I looked at him I did not see a boy who could recover. I saw a boy- totally unloved, totally unwanted, completely adrift." Albus focused on the picture of a previous headmaster as he thought about what to say next. "At the time I did what I thought was right."

"You once told me, when I was considering suicide, that there really was no right way to justify taking ones own life. What is the reason for your change of heart? Surely there was something you could have said or done?"

"I could not force myself to go to him, either. Had I done so, I would have had to tell him that he was my great-great-grandson."

"Most wizarding families would have been proud to have Harry Potter in their lineage books."

Albus faced Severus finally, "I did not want him to know that in my youth I had broken the vows I made to my wife and took a muggle woman as my mistress."

"There were other things you could have done."

"How could I explain that after I left him with the Dursleys? I knew they hated him. They beat him, starved him, and used him as a house-elf but he never complained to me or begged me not to send him back to them."

Severus Snape bowed his head in acknowledgement of what Albus was saying. "We all treated him the same. I was blinded by jealously and hatred for his father. I never gave him a chance and now he is truly gone." He gave himself a few minutes to grieve for the wasted life then straightened, his death eater mask back in place and left the headmaster to grieve over the results of his actions. Snape had his own demons to deal with and could not offer any solace.

'The Astronomy Tower' kept echoing in his head as he walked down corridors teaming with strangely silent children who stared at him as he walked past. He could tell by their faces that the rumors of Potter gone missing were already spreading like wildfire. It unnerved him to walk through this sea of anxiety far more than any death eater meeting ever had.

He could not force himself to climb up and look down on the scene. Instead, he made his way to the base of the tower. Standing there, he gazed in awe and wonder at the incredible sight of the magical rose bush. Down here, this close, he could smell the subtle perfume. It eased his heart to realize Potter truly had found peace in death.

It took him quite some time to work through what he was feeling as he stood there. Mostly he felt an overwhelming sense of shame that he could treat someone so badly that they would seek death as the answer to their problems. Snape eventually found himself slumped on the ground crying because he had been saved at the last minute by someone who cared and had been incapable of showing the same kindness to another.

~*~*~

Eventually he rose from his position and composed himself. He reentered the melee that was Hogwarts determined to try to make a difference from that point forward. If he hurried he could still teach his first years Potions class before lunch.

After Snape swept past, the speculation reached outrageous proportions. Almost everyone skipped class and began looking for Harry. And then rumors of Hermione's anguished screams of "You and Draco drove him to commit suicide." Began to circulate, as Gryffindors could not resist telling their friends in other houses what they had overheard of a conversation between her and Ron. By dinnertime everyone had heard the rumor that Potter had committed suicide.

That evening in the Great Hall an atmosphere of reserve weighed heavily. The students kept looking to the head table for someone to tell them what had happened. They wanted someone to tell them that Harry was fine. There was no body, that had to mean that Harry was OK didn't it?

The students found it unnerving to see Snape sitting at the table, a peaceful look on his face as he ate his meal. The rest of the teachers seemed to be taking their cue from Dumbledore. Sad, subdued and confused. And no one could quite work up the courage to ask about him.

It was quite a few days later that Sirius Black made his way towards Hogwarts in answer to the summons from Headmaster Dumbledore. The note had said 'at your convenience' so he felt no undue pressure to rush to his side.

Albus stood as Sirius entered his office and walked around the desk to greet him. Sirius was impatient and after giving him a hug and a handshake he asked, "What was so important that I should be disturbed. I have been incredibly busy since the Order managed to get my name cleared. I have been redoing the Black House, planning my wedding. Please, Albus, don't tell me that I need to spend time with Harry. I have already explained to him that I just do not have time for him right now."

Albus Dumbledore blinked a few times as he realized that here was another person who had failed to see that Harry Potter was shattered. "No, no, dear boy. I just wanted to see you and make sure that everything was all right with you."

"I am fine, Albus, things could not be better."

"Good! Have you thought about the job offer I made you earlier?"

"I might take you up on the DADA job next year once Harry has left. I don't think it would be good idea for me to take the job right now with him here. It is just too painful for me to look at him. I miss James and when I talked to Harry a few weeks ago I finally had to admit to him that he was only a substitute while I worked through the grief of losing my best friend."

"Did Harry have any problems with your explanation for not wanting to spend time with him?" Dumbledore was actually perplexed.

"He looked a little bit sad but I did not let him pull a guilt trip on me. It has been over a dozen long lonely years but I am busy now and things are finally looking up. I just can't deal with Harry right now."

"Ah, yes. I can understand your reasoning. Well, then, you had best be off then. Wouldn't want you to run across anyone whom you did not want to see." Albus nodded his head as he showed Sirius back out the door and down the steps.

"You will officiate at my wedding, won't you Albus? I will send Harry an owl later on to let him know what is going on." And then Black was safely away from Hogwarts, none the wiser.

After that, Albus Dumbledore never again attempted to explain to anyone what happened. He realized that, it would serve no purpose to talk about it because no one really cared about enough about Harry James Potter to worry about him. There would always be those who exhibited a morbid fascination with Potter's disappearance, but they had no real need to know anything.

~*~*~

Time marches on. Even at Hogwarts. Eventually end of year and Graduation came round Hogwarts, no longer fearing the Dark Lord, threw open its doors to the wizarding world and let everyone who wanted to visit attend.

It had been weeks since Harry disappeared and most of the residents were resigned to the fact that they would never know what happened. Rumors were neither confirmed nor denied about Harry- he was simply gone.

It was, therefore, a surprise to everyone then when Sirius Black showed up at the graduation ceremony and demanded to know where his godson was. Albus looked at Severus with pain filled eyes as he murmured, 'Harry has been gone since shortly after the battle, Sirius. He did not tell anyone where he was going. ."

Black appeared quite shocked at that then questioned Albus further, "That was why you invited me to visit?' The old man nodded once then proceeded to distance himself from Black.

Black tried to corner Severus at the end of the ceremonies to demand answers but he too proved illusive. Black finally ended up snarling at Snape, "You know exactly where Harry is don't you, you greasy git?" He was shocked speechless when Severus nodded yes then explained that he had no intentions of ever discussing with Black, Albus or anyone else anything to do with Potter simply because it was no ones business what he knew.

And as for Albus Dumbledore, well as the years went by, he and two young men he had hired to teach at Hogwarts could often be seen in the company of each other as they sat at the base of the Astronomy Tower and quietly breathed in the perfume of an ever blooming rose bush that tended to bleed huge drops of scarlet wizard's blood if one so much as touched it.

~*~*~ FragonKnight01 aka Arwen Rayne

Sod the knight: I want rescued by a Dragon.