InsaneJournal

Somewhere underneath the sky,
Where barn owls flock and Thestrals fly,
Two stone busts stand side by side,
In a place where wizards laugh and cry,
Beneath the sky above.
Beyond the place the statue stands,
The grassy space grows and expands
To form a part of Hogwarts grounds,
Where heroes fall in love.

Long before the two men stood
Upon the ground, beside the wood,
Our hero had done all he could
To bring a former student back for good,
To the place he loved.
The grass was green beneath the leaves,
The whispers moved on every breeze
And even men of stone still breathed,
Beneath the sky above.

The Hogwarts train arrived one day
When September skies were dull, and grey,
To bring a new professor home to stay
And teach the children how to play
A game he’d always loved.
“What better place to learn than here,
Where I spent so many brilliant years
Where the flying is so bright and clear,
In the sky above?”

He began to teach that very term,
And his rules were always fair, but firm.
When asked, he always would affirm
There was no better place to learn,
Than the school he loved.
In the day he spoke with happy smiles,
To every person; staff or child,
And flew with awesome grace and style,
In the skies above.

But they saw – as children often do –
How the professor stayed inside his room,
And how he could seem full of gloom
When he walked at night beneath the moon
In the sky above.
They wondered what he didn’t have
That made him sometimes seem so sad
When they thought it made him very glad,
To be in a place he loved.

Meanwhile in the dungeons dark,
The unlikely hero with the Mark,
Stirred his potions, dodging sparks,
And thought about his newest charge,
In a room above.
He worked until his vision faded,
Until his hands grew tired and jaded,
Wondering if his charge could be persuaded
To leave his room, just once.

He walked through the shifting corridors
Past portraits and their caterwauls.
He snarled back replies to every call,
Until he reached a wooden door,
With a gargoyle up above.
He knocked and waited for some time
Then heard the movements from inside,
And as the door was opened wide;
He removed his gloves.

He strode past the door into the space,
With one small bed and not much else,
And took in every quirk of taste
In the sparse and lonely place;
So devoid of love.
He let his hands clench by his side,
Then pointed to the world outside;
The moon, the stars, the space to fly,
Beneath the sky above.

He gestured to the sprawling grounds,
And suggested they might walk around,
Away from all the castle’s sounds,
And just to see what could be found
Beneath the skies above.
His new professor stared and smiled,
And said he’d love to walk awhile,
“I sometimes think that I could walk miles
Beneath the skies above.”

And so began their new routine,
Beneath the leaves, on grasses green,
The two men wandered quite unseen
Sharing all their hopes and dreams,
Beneath the skies above.
One night the man leaned out to grasp
Our hero’s hand and held on fast,
And smiled because he’d found at last,
Someone he could love.

The hero took the offered hand
“I wondered when you’d come around,”
He said, and looked as if he’d planned
This night of standing – holding hands –
Beneath the sky above.
And so it followed every night
With the castle bathed in silver light,
They began to take an evening flight,
The hero, and his love.

Children watched them in the sky
And saw them turning way up high
As they flew by one another’s sides
And dropped down from dizzy heights,
Beneath the stars above.
They would fall upon the ground,
Their hands entwined, their laughter loud,
Their faces bright and light and proud:
The hero, and his love.

They laughed until the moment passed,
Then came together then at last,
Holding one another firm, and fast,
As they kissed upon the dewy grass
Beneath the sky above.
They both still bore the scars of war
And talked about things gone before
“I want to be forever yours,”
Said the man the hero loved.

Into the night you’d hear the sighs
And whispered, breathless, aching cries,
All gathered close and deep inside
The castle and its dreaming spires –
Which touched the stars above.
But they were blinded by the sun;
Time had passed; the wars were won,
So they never thought of what might come,
The hero, and his love.

Too soon, another Spring-time fell
With blossomed trees and scented smells,
And with the chimes from castle bells
They remembered those, with every knell,
Who died for what they loved.
With wands aloft the singing crowd
Held their hands up, tall and proud,
And all that gathered spoke aloud
Of the heroes of the battle ground,
Beneath the sky above.

When winter bought its cool veneer,
The signs of things to come were clear
And they moved with an uneasy cheer:
Another war was drawing near,
As snow fell from above.
They lived each day in silent pain
And stood beneath the heavy rain
To talk of fighting once again,
The hero, and his love.

When battle came it tore the night
The sky caved in with flashing lights
The professors’ knew they had to fight
And battle with a bloody might.
They said goodbye; voices rough,
For they knew too well what must be done
And each man thought his time had come
To bow beneath the setting sun;
The hero, and his love.

The children picked up their arms
And used their wands and all their Charms
And fought not to kill but to disarm,
To battle Death, and strive for calm,
Beneath the sky above.
Each faced the tricks of enemies
And held their line beneath the trees
Until the fires turned to green;
That hero and his love.

The hero fought to hold the flames
And cast his spells to keep them tamed
Until the fires slowly waned
So stillness could return again
Beneath the sky above.
He fought and cursed with bitter cries
And kept children safe beside his side
He swore he wouldn’t let them die,
All for the man he loved.

He wondered at the bloody cause
And at the purpose of these wars
Where wizards killed with no remorse
And took young lives with wicked force,
Beneath the sky above.
The hero held the children close
And kept them warm inside dark robes
And took them back into their home
Without the man he loved.

He went to search the battle fields
Full of the deaths a bloody war can yield.
The dead lay littered by his heels
And he passed those killed by dark ideals,
Calling for his love.
He saw the body, then at last,
Still, upon the blackened grass
As all his nightmares came to pass,
And he cursed the sky above.

He dropped down to his lover’s side
And bent his head with wretched cries
As he looked upon the glassy eyes
And prayed for one more breathless sigh
From the man he loved.
But young men die in times of war,
This tale it has been told before
And the living mourn once more
Beneath the skies above.

With aching arms the hero flew
To the place that they both knew
And settled down upon the dew
The love he held so dear and true,
Beneath the sky above.
He pulled his wand from out his robes
And watched as from the body rose
A strange, translucent silver glow –
The man, the hero loved.

He pleaded with the trembling ghost
Of the man he loved the most
And held the freezing body close
Against his aching, broken bones,
Beneath the moon above.
“Can you tell me where you are?”
The hero asked, rain falling hard,
“I’m there – beside the brightest star,
Said the man the hero loved.

“You had to go and bloody die,”
The hero snarled and with a cry
He clutched the spirit by his side
As if to pull him back to life,
Beneath the sky above.
“You know I didn’t want to go,
I don’t want to be there on my own
It’s cold up there without you close,”
Said the man, the hero loved.

“I’ll join you, then,” the hero said,
I will not live to mourn your death,
I’d rather end my life instead
Please let me come to you,” he pled,
“Into the skies above.”
The spirit sighed and shut his eyes
And pressed against the hero’s side,
“I can’t let you come; it’s not your time,”
Said the hero’s love.

They talked until the early light
Then as the morning sun shone bright
The spirit faded out of sight
And left the hero to his plight,
Beneath the sky above.
The hero looked upon the day
And promised that he wouldn’t stay
He swore he’d leave in any way
To join the man he loved.

The hero’s rooms were dank and cold
He wrapped himself up in his robes
His face grew slimmer, tired and old
At night he wandered on his own,
Beneath the skies above.
He grew older still and felt his age
And lived each day with violent rage
Because nothing now could be the same,
Without the man he loved.

One day he gazed upon the stars
While the clock ticked past the hours,
And looked from Jupiter to Mars,
His hand pressed on his aching heart,
To search the skies above.
Then with a flash of blinding light
A silver stag came into sight
And pawed his hoof against the night
To welcome back his love.

With a sigh, the hero closed his eyes,
The moon hung low against the sky,
The hero held his hand up high
And let out a loud and urgent cry
Into the sky above.
He felt the warmth of steady arms –
The night was still, the breeze was calm –
And knew he wouldn’t come to harm,
With the man he loved.

The hero’s eyes then opened wide,
He saw his loved one by his side,
Whose face was filled with love and pride,
And our hero sighed a happy sigh
Up in the sky above.
The hero stretched out his hand
And stumbled as he tried to stand
“I was quite sure that I would be damned.”
“Never,” said his love.

“I watched you live your life below
I saw you in that place we’d go
I felt every ache of life alone
And couldn’t wait to bring you home,
To the skies above.”
The hero fell into a warm embrace
And felt his heart begin to race
Now happy, in this resting place,
Beside the man he loved.

One summer’s day, beneath the sky,
A group of children passing by
Saw a sight which made them sigh:
A statue, where the Thestrals fly,
Beneath the clouds above.
Stood two professors hand in hand
Both cloaked in stone upon the land
In that very part of Hogwarts grounds
Where they fell in love.

The children flocked towards the sight
Bathed in the sunshine, clear and bright,
And spoke of heroes, love and might –
Dark wizards who had found the light –
And men who fell in love.
They began to take their books and spells
To the professors they had known so well,
And studied hard until night fell,
Beneath the sky above.

For never had there ever been
A statue like it ever seen
Upon the grounds, upon the green
Two men entwined in silent dreams
Beneath the sky above.
They clasped together hands of stone
In the place they once called home,
And they would no longer be alone,
The hero, and his love.

Note – by Hermione Granger:

I found this poem one day, when I visited the statue of Harry and Severus. It is something of a mystery – much like the statue itself. Nobody can remember whose idea it was to put the statue there in the first place or when precisely it was erected. Hogwarts: A History has a footnote about it, stating that it is the first of all Hogwarts statues to represent a couple as opposed to an individual or a group. I’m sharing the poem with you because I want other people to read more about the story behind it. I think Harry would have liked this – he always said Severus was his unsung hero. Besides – I think their statue deserves more than a footnote.

They were both much more than a footnote to me.