Underneath It All

Chapter 17 ~ Forgiveness

Me and Harry led Dumbledore out to where Snape was waiting for us. When I saw Snape sat on the grass, looking lost, I felt so bad for him. He had been led into this life by bad friendships, and has never been able to get away from it. This isn't the life that he deserves, and I realise that now. I regret thinking that Snape was a bad person, because that isn't who he really is. I have always believed that it is never right to judge somebody before really getting to know the person underneath it all.

Snape stood when he saw us, and Dumbledore indicated for us to wait where we were. He stepped forward to where Snape was. I watched them both closely as they had a meaningful conversation. I had always admired Dumbledore's way of acceptance and forgiveness. He had accepted Snape into the school several years ago, and continued to support him when he was struggling. And now he is here, forgiving Snape, for everything.

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It had been two weeks since we had got back to Hogwarts, and everyone had been home for the Easter holidays. I was so pleased to see my parents, giving them good news for once! Snape had been given the post of the Potions teacher once more.

We had left without anyone seeing us after helping Snape settle in, so when we entered the Great Hall today, it was the first time that other students could find out what had been going on with us.

Me and Harry sat beside each other, returning excited greetings from fellow Gryffindors. Dumbledore stood, and the hall silenced around us. I felt so grateful to be back here, at home, with my family.

"Good evening, I am glad to see you all back at school ready to start a new term of learning tomorrow. I would like to start by welcoming back two students who have been gone for a little while. These students have been on an important, life threatening mission to save the wizarding world. I realise that this sounds extreme, but it is true. Voldemort left an extremely dangerous object here in the wizarding world before he died. This item was a book containing powerful and deadly spells, which in the hand of a Death Eater, would have had catastrophic effects on our community. I must tell you that our very own Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were brave enough to revisit hard times of their lives, and confront a deadly death eater, who had access to this powerfull book. They managed to convince this person of what is right, and I can now welcome back our previous Potions teacher, Severus Snape."

Harry started clapping, the rest of the hall silent, I joined him, followed by the Gryffindor table, followed by everyone else.

"I realise that this may come as a shock to everyone here, but I ask you all to respect my decision. Everybody deserves forgiveness, and I ask everyone here to forgive him, just as myself, Harry, and Hermione have." He continued. I could sense many people looking at us, but I didn't mind. "I would like once more to thank Harry and Hermione for their efforts, and ask you all to do the same. But please, leave them alone for a while, they have had a long few weeks."