Disclaimer: The wonderful universe of Harry Potter belongs to it's creator J.K Rowling. No money is being made from this, and no copyright infringement is intended. The only thing that belongs to me are the characters Alex Black and Leo Snape
Author's Notes: Ok, so this is definently the final chapter of Enemies Until Death (oh, and I know that I've said that before). For what happens next - use your imagination. I want to thank everyone that reviewed this story, and those who encouraged me and read my work, giving me priceless feedback. You know who you are! Enjoy the end of Enemies!

It was winter in the wizarding town of Hogsmeade. To be more exact it was mid-December and Christmas was approaching fast, to some too fast, to others not quite fast enough. The streets of the village was filled with wizards of all kinds, most of them finishing their preparations for the holiday at hand.
By the window of the Hogsmeade pub The Three Broomsticks sat a young woman with hair as black as a starless night and eyes the colour of water that runs from a glacier. In front of her stood a large cup half-filled with butterbeer. Her eyes followed the activity on the street outside. She saw housewives, husbands and children, young and old alike all seemed to have gathered in the centre of the village to make the final preparations for Christmas. The young woman sitting in the bar envied them.
She envied both the exhausted housewives, the fed-up husbands and the children nagging their parents for sweets, she envied them all.
She was alone.

So immersed was the young woman in the world outside the bar window that she did not notice a young man now standing in front of her on the other side of the table.
-Excuse me, may I sit here?
Taken aback at the question the young woman looked up and saw a man who looked to be about her own age standing there opposite her.
- Yes, of course…have a seat.
- Everywhere else is full…
The sentence remained hanging in the air between them. She studied him curiously as he sat, she had a feeling that she knew him from somewhere, there was something familiar about him, something that she couldn't quite place. There was silence for a while, with both of them studying the other.
- It's absolute chaos out there… he continued. She cast another look out on the street, and nodded in agreement.
- Yes. It seems Christmas takes everyone by surprise every year.
He smiled, and nodded.
- You don't seem to stressed out about it though…
She shrugged, and looked at him across the table. It was so strange, she thought, how familiar he seemed to her somehow. It annoyed her that she could not place him, she knew she had to have seen him somewhere before. Little did she know that on the other side of the table he was pondering the exact same mystery.
- Christmas was never that special time of the year for me. Well, not since I quit school anyway… it's not tempting to spend any time at all with what little family I do have at any time of the year, Christmas or otherwise.
- I guess you could say the same apply to me… he agreed, but then he froze. It had suddenly dawned on him who this mysterious woman was. Quickly he asked;
- You didn't by any chance quit school the summer of five years ago did you?
She was stunned, and for a minute or so she was speechless, but she got enough of a grip on herself to ask;
- How on earth did you know that…?
But then she too froze. Realisation had come upon her as well.
Her next words were only whispered.
- By the grace of Merlin…Snape. Leo Snape!
- Alex Black…
Before he could think another thought she had jumped up from her seat and given him a hug across the table, almost knocking over the two mugs of butterbeer that was already wobbling on it.
- I thought you were dead! I thought about you, wondered where you were and if you were even alive… When I didn't hear anything, I thought…

He was slightly overwhelmed at first. She had thought of him. He had tried his best to forget about her, thinking that it would do no good if Voldemort prevailed, because then she would most certainly die, if she hadn't already. But he had never managed to forget. She had been there all along, as a last, good memory in the back of his mind. And now he heard from her own mouth that she had thought of him too… Words could not describe the happiness he felt inside.
On the other side of the table, Alex Black was still amazed of who was sitting opposite her.
- So how have you been? What happened to you after we parted that night?
- I could ask you the same…
- Sure you could, but I asked first.
He smiled slightly, half to himself, half to her. She hadn't changed that much, he thought. She still had that edge that he had always admired.
- Alright, fine, but if you want the whole story you'll have to have a lot of time, and I'm going to need something stronger than this…
He indicated the mugs of butterbeer. She smiled.
- Time is one thing I have plenty of today, and if you want my story in return, I'm going to need one of whatever you are having as well.
He got up and walked over to the bar, and when he returned to the table with two double firewhiskeys. As he settled at the table again he began his tale.
- Well, I suppose you remember well enough what took place at Hogwarts in our final year. After I left you that night at the ball, I went to join him again…the Dark Lord…Voldemort.
He took a sip of the oak coloured liquid and took a breath before continuing.
-…It's difficult to describe to a non-follower, even one who has seen what you have seen, just how tight a leash the Dark Lord has on his followers. When I returned to him that night, he questioned me personally about my actions. I don't want to go in detail, but let's just say that he was very thorough in his questioning. He questioned me to within an inch of my life…
- I'm guessing that's where the scar comes from… the one on your neck?
He nodded silently.
- That's one of the few you can see…If you were to describe them all you would definitely have to use the plural form.
He smiled in an effort to remove the shocked expression from her face. He knew the tale to well for it to scare him anymore. After all it was his tale… but those few he had told it to mostly sported the same expression now on her face.
In a flash it was as if she realised it herself, and it disappeared and was replaced by a more stoic but still empathic expression.
- Sorry…it just never ceases to astound me, what depths of cruelty that existed in those people.
- Well, at least the two of us survived. But both of us know of people who didn't… I continued to serve him, of course, but I was never trusted by anyone in the service again. They all watched their back when it came to me, and I rather liked that actually…
- What about after the Downfall, what happened to you then?

He laughed. The question was bordering on absurdity, but still it was justified coming from her. What could a Death Eater do after his master's downfall? 'Not much' was the answer. No one would hire one of his kind, and he had not the connections necessary to keep himself afloat. After the Downfall he had been on equal footing with the werewolves, which was not a good place to be.
- Not much I'm afraid. No one wants to be seen with one who still bears the mark… But enough of my sob story, now I want to hear yours. And I'm hoping it's a better one…
She laughed, and took a sip from her glass.
- I could make it a better one…but I'll be as truthful as I can with you. You're close enough to deserve it…
-…I kept fighting too, obviously. Family weakness I'm afraid… And after that, well, I ended up in the Department.
At this he let out a shriek of laughter causing him to almost spill what was left of his drink for the second time that afternoon.
- You? The Department…?
- Yes! What's so funny about that?
- Oh come on! Alex Black working for the Department?
- Actually, if you want to know…
- Oh, and I do…
-… I hate the damn Department! Just the fact that I could get fired right now if an official heard that statement makes me sick…
- So why do you keep working for them then?
- I've got to live somewhere! And some food on the table wouldn't be a bad idea either, would it? And so far the Department has given me that, but…
- But what?
- But I have another job offer…
- So go for it! Anything is better than the Department… What kind of job offer, by the way?
- Now, don't you laugh!
- I promise I won't.
- If you laugh Snape, my fist is going to have an encounter with your face at a very nearby point in time…
- Alex…come on. I promise that I won't laugh…
- Alright…McGonagall asked me to join the teaching staff…
He was speechless, and he knew that the foolish grin that came across his face must look absolutely ridiculous, but he didn't care.
- Wow…at Hogwarts?
- Yeah, unless she's mysteriously changed to be headmistress of another school in the meantime…
- Well…what did you say?
- I said I'd think about it, but I'm going to say 'no'…
- What! Why would you do that…? You said it yourself, you hate your current job. Teaching can't be that bad…
- No, probably not, but come on Leo! You can't seriously see me teaching anyone, can you?
- Yes I damn well can! Better you than Umbridge… you'd be one of the Departments better contributions to the school, believe me. Especially if it was Defence, or Transfiguration, or possibly even Charms… You been out there fighting, you've seen things, you know how the game works… You'd be the next generation's Mad-Eye Moody.
She laughed, and smiled at him across the table.
- Just because you said that, I'll give it a second thought. But I still don't think I'll accept… I don't have the patience to teach people.
- You taught yourself, though. Fighting, I mean…
- Yeah, but that was different… She took another sip of the mahogany coloured liquid.
… I didn't have any patience with myself, I got absolutely furious when I got something wrong, which was quite often.
The was a pause.
- True, he said, mimicking her move and putting the glass to his lips.
… but the war taught us all patience. We all felt the deep breath before the plunge. It comes to a point when you realise that there is nothing you can do, but wait. And then put up the best fight you can and hope you make it until the end.
She leant back in her chair, seemingly taking in every word he said. There was a look in her eyes, a mix between wonder and remembrance. It was as if she contemplated the world, and life.
- It is so strange how it all turns out, she said after a moment.
… I never thought I would survive at all, and when it was all over I could not bring myself to believe it really was. There are times when I still wake up in the middle of the night, expecting the dark creatures wearing cloaks and masks to burst in through my bedroom door that very moment. It is as if my life got stuck in some strange time-trap. The war is over, but it's all still so close that I am afraid I'll discover that it is just a lie, and it's at just enough of a distance for me to fear it. Now I fear death. I was afraid while I fought, but never afraid to die… and now I am. I don't understand it, and that, when I think about it, is the most frightening of it all.
- I know. He said simply, and strangely enough that was all he needed to say. There was an understanding between them, like there is between everyone that has seen a war up close and personal. She knew that he knew the feeling of fear and helplessness just as well as her.

- Well, talk about a cheerful catching-up conversation… he said with an edge of laughter lining his voice, after the silence of his last words had lasted that second too long.
She seemed a bit awkward, but not really embarrassed at the realisation that there had been a silence at all.
- Yeah…sorry about that. Really… It was my fault for bringing it up…
He shook his head gently.
- Never mind it. It's my own fault for choosing to mingle with the most skilled practitioner of the Dark Arts in centuries, and getting myself entangled in the midst of a war in the process… It's no wonder that my life doesn't encourage more pleasant topics of conversation.
Somewhere in the buzz of sound around them a clock struck six. Hearing this Leo Snape suddenly remembered why he had entered Three Broomsticks in the first place…passing the time.
- Listen Black, I've got to run, I'm meeting someone…
An impressed whistle came from the woman on the other side of the table, and her voice was deliciously full of a sort of curious, light cruelty.
- Oh really…meeting someone, are you? I don't believe you… I think you are just trying to disguise that you still have a curfew…
He laughed out loud, and if the bar hadn't been so crowded everyone would have heard him. It took a few minutes before he managed to say anything, and when he did tears of laughter were running from his eyes.
- Oh God, I've missed that sense of humour…
He had stood to leave, and rummaged around in all his pockets to find something to write with and on. He scribbled something on a scrap of paper and handed it to Alex.
- Here. Keep in touch, Black… But now I've really got to run.
She took the piece of paper from him, smiled and let him go without anything more. But halfway to the door he turned back towards her.
- Black! Think twice about that job offer…
- I will… she said.

He turned to leave, but she called him back.
- Leo! I do have a first name you know… call me Alex.

As she watched him leave she looked at the piece of paper in her hand. An address was written on it.

And I might just actually manage to keep in touch this time she thought to herself as she watched his black cloak disappear in the snowdrift outside the window.