A Man of Integrity

'Harry? Ron?' Hermione's voice, drifting towards Harry through the trees, sounded thin and strained. 'I think you ought to see this.'

The two boys ran towards the clearing and then stopped abruptly at the sight of Snape and Malfoy lying on the ground a few feet apart.

'Did they fight each other?' Harry asked, shocked.

'I don't think so,' Hermione said, kneeling down beside Malfoy. 'It looks like Malfoy fell and hit his head. And I think,' she moved to kneel next to Snape and eased Draco's wand out of the professor's hand, 'I think Snape killed himself before he could be taken by the Ministry.'

'Good riddance,' snorted Ron. 'At least he saved us a job.'

'I always thought Snape wouldn't let the Ministry take him,' Harry said, kneeling down beside Hermione. His eyes moved to a piece of parchment that had been trampled into the mud. 'What's that?'

'What's what?'

'That,' Harry said urgently, crawling over to the scrap of paper and brushing the moss and earth off it. He smoothed it out and held it up so Ron and Hermione could see it too.

All three of them read Alina's suicide note with mounting horror and disbelief.

'Oh, my,' Hermione breathed. 'The poor girl. They were only married five months.'

A school barn owl fluttered down onto Harry's shoulder and he thought, suddenly, of Hedwig, realising how much he still missed her. Only when the owl nipped him impatiently on the ear did Harry look down at the scraps of paper it had dropped in his lap. They appeared to be torn from a notebook, and Harry realised they were the pages of the diary Alina had mentioned in her letter.

"Please use them to exonerate Severus," Alina had written. That was the last thing Harry felt like doing, but he felt he owed it to Alina, an innocent victim in all this, to read what she had to say.

The first entry was dated 25th June, and, written in different colour ink, as if it had been added afterwards, was the year, 1995. Cannot believe what has happened. Oh, God, that poor boy! They said the Triwizard Tournament would be safe. But if it's true – if You Know Who really is back – then no one is safe any more.

And I know Severus is a brilliant Occlumens, but spying on YKW, pretending he's still a Death Eater, convincing YKW he's spying on Dumbledore – does that make him a double agent? Oh, it's all so complicated I can hardly write it down. All I know is it seems a sure-fire way of getting yourself killed.

Ron broke the shocked silence. 'Snape was on our side?'

Hermione took the page from Harry and studied it. 'But what made him switch?'

'I don't know,' Harry said, taking the paper back. 'I did wonder though. I accused him in my Occlumency lessons of making it his job to find out what Voldemort was saying to his Death Eaters, and he just said yes, it was. He never denied it, but he seemed almost pleased I'd worked it out.'

'That's in the diary too,' Hermione told Harry quietly.

5th April (1996). Awful row with Severus today. He's refused to teach Harry Potter Occlumency anymore. I feel so guilty – I said some terrible things. Accused him of putting all our lives in danger because of a schoolboy grudge. Said I wasn't surprised Harry hated him if he called Harry's mother Mudblood.

And he still blames himself, yet he did everything he could to protect her. It was Severus who got Albus to hide her with the Fidelius charm. He's been protecting Harry ever since, repaying the debt, but he'll never forgive himself.

'That's why he turned spy for us.' Ron was looking down at Snape as if he had never seen him before.

Harry's hands were shaking. 'I didn't know,' he whispered. 'About Snape and my mum. I didn't know.'

Hermione was looking at the next page. 'And the worst thing is, I'll never be able to compete with Lily's memory,' she read. 'And I so want to.' Her voice was choked with tears. The memory of Ron's all-too-public relationship with Lavender made Hermione feel for Alina. She could well imagine the pain of trying to compete with a long-idolised figure for the affection of the man she loved.

24th Sept. (1997). Heard Severus yelling in his sleep last night. Something about "Not her; don't take her." Surprised he didn't wake the dormitories. Tried to get into his rooms to make sure he was OK, but he'd warded the door and I didn't know the passwords. Plucked up courage to ask him about it today. It's ever since this Muggle-born Registration Committee was invented – he's been dreaming about Lily being convicted and him being unable to save her.

Maybe I'm wronging him, actually. I do have a feeling he's hiding me from them somehow. Fidelius Charm? Hope to Merlin I'm right.

Harry too was staring down at Snape as if seeing him in a whole new light. 'He did all this for my mum,' said Harry, stunned. 'Everything he's done in the last seventeen years, it's all been for her.'

'And Alina,' Ron added. 'I didn't know she was Muggle-born. Did you?'

'I never asked,' murmured Hermione. Her eyes were skimming the pages feverishly, reading ahead; then she gave a soft 'Oh!' of comprehension. 'No wonder Snape panicked. He believed his own wife was in danger. Look at this.'

31st Oct. (1998). Got so fed up with Severus' behaviour yesterday made him tell me what was going on. Wish I hadn't now. I'm either going to have to keep his worst secret yet, or betray him utterly.

But the more he explained the more I can see he's right.

All three Gryffindors were silent as they read the six pages Alina had taken to explain her husband's actions.

'They were true then, all those rumours about Dumbledore and Grindelwald?' Hermione asked in a small voice.

'Yeah,' Harry replied, 'Dumbledore told me right after I'd killed Voldemort.'

'Snape really thought he was doing the right thing,' Hermione said, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. 'He believed he was saving us.'

Ron was looking thunderstruck. 'All that stuff at the funeral about the good of the community. He really meant it.' He ran a hand distractedly through his hair as he struggled to take it all in. 'The others – Malfoy, Goyle, Zabini – they all did this for themselves, for revenge. Only Snape was thinking of other people.'

'We'll carry him up to the school,' Harry decided, closing Snape's eyelids and folding his hands over his chest. 'Give him a proper funeral.' Harry picked up Snape's fallen wand and tucked it under his folded hands. 'He deserves that. Severus Snape truly was the bravest man I ever knew.'

THE END

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A/N: The title again comes from Solomon; 29/10

The idea is from Kyone on Sycophant Hex – Julius Caesar: Harry Potter style.

The casting specified was: Dumbledore as Caesar (a good man with a shady past or double agenda), Snape as Brutus (brave, stoic, willing to do anything for the good of others), Malfoy as Cassius (mean-minded, resentful, always trying to become Brutus' equal), and Harry as Mark Antony (rabidly pro-Caesar and refusing to hear any ill of him).

The rest of the cast (for anyone who knows "Julius Caesar") is:

Calpurnia: Minerva McGonagall

Artemidorus/Soothsayer: Sybil Trelawney

Casca: Gregory Goyle

Decius Brutus: Blaise Zabini

Popilius Lena: Horace Slughorn

Octavuis Caesar: Kingsley Shacklebolt

Lepidius: Seamus Finnegan

Portia: Alina Snape (OC)

Publius Cimber: Ruthven Mulciber (OC)

Metellus Cimber: Despard Mulciber (OC)

Lucius (Brutus' servant) Winky the house elf