Harry and Severus entered the Great Hall just as all the students had been seated and were waiting for dinner. Both of them received rather odd glances, and not a few of the students were trying to figure out who the newcomer was that resembled their former potions professor so much. It had to be a relative, but who would have thought Snape had any relatives young enough to attend Hogwarts? Speculation ran rampant in swift whispers. Could the kid be a distant cousin, maybe a nephew, or perhaps a much younger brother? No one even dared to voice the probability that the boy walking by the Potion Master's side might be his son. And all of them wondered what on earth had become of Harry Potter? They had been informed by the Headmaster at the beginning of the year that Mr. Potter would no longer be attending Hogwarts, and there was no reason given as to why that was so. All the Gryffindors save for Ron and Hermione had hoped that Harry might return one day, if not this year than perhaps the next. Slytherin Draco Malfoy and his buddies were praying he remained gone.

Out of all the people who might have entered the hall right then, Snape and this quasi reflection beside him were not at all what anyone had either expected or hoped for. The Headmaster had told the students that Professor Snape was on temporary sabbatical and therefore the substitute potions teacher was Professor Horace Slughorn. Many students prayed that their strict Potions Master never returned, though others missed his exacting and thorough methods, for despite his sternness, Severus was a good teacher.

"Great, just what we need, Snape back and now he's brought along a mini Snape to spy on us," groaned Dean Thomas.

"Better start running, Neville, ‘cause something tells me that little creep's gonna be on your arse every minute, just like the professor," predicted Charlie Ambrose, a fourth year.

Neville moaned and looked positively green.

"Ah, shut your mouth, Charlie!" snapped Ron. "You don't even know the bloke. Maybe he's not as bad as you think."

"Yeah, never judge a book by its cover," Hermione chimed in.

Charlie gaped at them as if they'd suddenly started speaking in tongues. "Are you two blooming cracked? He's Snape's bloody relative! Of course he's gonna be a nasty bugger. Leopards don't change their spots."

Ron rolled his eyes and Hermione cast her gaze heavenward, as if praying for the patience to endure dense idiotic Housemates who thought they knew everything.

Harry felt all the eyes on him and wished he dared to just turn around and scream at the others to quit staring at him like he was an exhibition in a freak show. He didn't think he looked all that different-he still wore his glasses, had his mum's emerald eyes, granted he was a bit taller, his face was shaped a little differently and his hair was slightly longer and a silky black, but really you could still recognize him as Harry Potter if you looked closely.

He was grateful for his father's firm hand on his arm as they made their way up to the dais where the staff was seated. Dumbledore had already informed them of the return of Severus and Harry, so they alone (besides Ron and Hermione) would not be surprised at the Headmaster's little introduction. Harry caught his godfather Remus Lupin's wink and smiled tentatively at him. McGonagall gave him a slight smile and Flitwick grinned openly, as did Hagrid. Dumbledore was already standing at the dais, though the ever-present twinkle was absent from the old wizard's eyes.

Both Harry and Severus knew why.

They reached the staff table and the Headmaster motioned for them to stand to his right. As they complied, Harry felt his stomach tighten with anticipation and nervousness. You're being ridiculous, Harry. Why should you be nervous at all? You know practically everyone here, they just don't recognize you without the glamours that made you look like James's son.

For the truth known only to the staff, Ron, Hermione, himself, and Severus was that he was not truly Harry Potter, but Harry Snape, son of Severus Snape. Harry Potter had been a ruse to fool Voldemort during the first war, a ruse that had been perpetuated by the old wizard standing next to them. A ruse that had cost both Snapes a family and happiness. It was in part because of that very thing that Harry and Severus were here.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and raised his hands for silence.

All muttering in the hall ceased abruptly.

"I apologize to you all for delaying your dinner," began the Headmaster solemnly. "However, I have several very important announcements to make. The first being the arrival of a transfer student from America."

Harry gazed at Severus, puzzled. "Transfer student, Dad? Was this how you planned to announce my return?"

But his dad looked as confused as Harry. "No, of course not. What is that old coot up to now?" he hissed to his son in an undertone.

Dumbledore continued in a slightly louder tone. "She is the niece of Professor Lupin, who also happens to be her guardian as well as her uncle. I would like you all to welcome Miss Aria Lupin of Louisiana."

There was a long pause and the students waited expectantly.

The doors remained shut.

Dumbledore coughed.  "Er . . .Miss Lupin?"

Still there was no response.  Several heads turned and whispered in puzzlement.  Was this some kind of farce?

Beyond, in the entrance hall, a thirteen-year-old girl was nervously tearing her nails to shreds when she heard the old wizard announce her.  Oh Merlin, Uncle Remmy, you promised this would be a quiet introduction, not this--this announcement in front of the whole school.  He makes me sound like I'm the star attraction at a parade! She buried her face in her hands, flushing in acute embarrassment. She heard her name called again. God, oh God.  Okay, Aria, just go in there and get it over with, you're the new kid, you're supposed to be stared at.  Been that way you're whole life.  Remember what Mom always used to say, Head up, look 'em in the eye, and never let 'em see you sweat. 

Feeling marginally better from her little pep talk, though inwardly her stomach was churning, the girl took a deep breath, lifted her head proudly, and marched into the Great Hall.

At last, the doors to the Great Hall opened again, and a slight girl wearing gray pants and a soft blue cashmere sweater walked in. She was not wearing robes, and her golden-brown hair swirled over her shoulder in a sleek curtain, it was bound by a beaded headband. She was tanned and her eyes were large and a brilliant amber color, almost like an animal's eyes. Very odd, indeed.

Like a hawk's, Harry thought as he watched her walk quickly down the aisle towards the Headmaster, who was smiling at her.

Dumbledore held the Sorting Hat in one hand, he must have summoned it from his office, thought Severus. He dimly recalled Remus telling him about his older brother Rene, who traveled all over North America photographing and documenting unusual and dangerous species of magical animals, but he'd never recalled Lupin mentioning he had a niece. Then again, neither of them really were one to discuss their families much.

Severus's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the young girl, she walked with her head up alertly. But there was no arrogance in her walk, she was simply very self-possessed. She appeared to be the same age as his son, thirteen.

Lupin was on his feet, smiling broadly at Aria, who looked up and saw. An answering smile curved her lips, and Harry felt his mouth go dry. For Aria Lupin, who was otherwise ordinary in appearance had a smile that transformed her face, and drew the eye, though she was not a classic beauty.

Harry knew he was gaping like an idiot, and tried to close his mouth. The others were eying the new student curiously, sizing her up.

Aria seemed unaware of the effect she was having on Harry and came to stand before Dumbledore.

"Welcome, Miss Lupin, to Hogwarts School. I hope you find your time here most enjoyable." He bowed low to her.

"Thank you, sir," she replied, and her voice held the soft drawl of the South, making her sound odd to those who had never heard such an accent.

"As your uncle may have mentioned, here at Hogwarts students are Sorted into one of four Houses. While you are here, Miss Lupin, your House shall be like your second home and family. Please place the Sorting Hat upon your head if you would, and let it tell you where you belong."

He held out the old battered hat to Aria, who examined it with interest before setting it on her head.

The Hat woke up then and began to sing the same song as it had in Harry's first year. Then it deliberated for a few minutes, muttering, until at last it cried out, "I know which House to put you in-better be SLYTHERIN!"

There were gasps of astonishment from the Slytherin table, and Malfoy was smirking openly. A few of the boys in Gryffindor House looked disappointed, perhaps they had been expecting her to get Sorted into Gryffindor, like her uncle.

"A very good choice, Miss Lupin," smiled Dumbledore, and he accepted the Hat from her, tucking it under his arm. "The House of the Serpent is known for its ambition and cunning as well as fortitude. You shall do well there, it seems. Might I introduce you to your new Head of House, Professor Severus Snape?"

Severus blinked, he hadn't expected Dumbledore to present him with a new student so quickly, but he came forward and shook the girl's hand, giving her a brief nod and a slight smile. "Welcome, Miss Lupin, I am sure you will be a credit to us."

"How do you do, sir?" she shook his hand firmly, scrutinizing him in turn, and Severus arched an eyebrow. Nothing shy about this one.

"I will be better once I've had supper," Severus found himself saying dryly, something about this girl sparked his more humorous side, which he did not often show to students. Then again, he was predisposed to like her because she was his best friend's niece, unprofessional as that was.

"So will I, sir," she replied honestly.

"Go and take your seat with your new Housemates," Severus ordered, indicating the Slytherin tables, beneath the green and silver serpent banner.

She nodded and turned to go, when Severus called, "One moment, Miss Lupin," and he pointed his wand and a black robe with the Slytherin crest appeared on her. He nodded in approval.

"Thank you, sir," she said, and flashed her Head of House a grateful smile.

Severus blinked, her smile reminded him of Lily's, sweet and charming. Several of the Slytherin boys were eyeing her, it had been too long since they'd seen a new girl's face, despite her odd eyes and accent. From the looks of it, Malfoy was already trying to stake a claim, convinced that his popularity, looks, and money could win him any girl on the earth, since half the girls in Slytherin fawned over him. 

But to the blond boy's astonishment, Aria merely nodded politely at him before sitting down next to Millicent Bulstrode and Amber Buckley, totally blowing the Malfoy heir off.

Harry fought to keep from laughing. Ha! Guess Malfoy's not the ladies man he always thought he was, the big prat! Seeing her put Malfoy so neatly in his place made Harry smirk, at least one girl in Slytherin had some sense.

Then Dumbledore turned back to the assembled students and began to speak. "As all of you know, Professor Snape has returned and will resume his post as Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House."

There were some groans and muttering at this, but on the whole the students were silent, waiting to see what the Headmaster was going to say next.

Dumbledore gestured now to the young man standing quietly beside the Potions Master. "I know that many of you are wondering who this new student is standing here beside his . . ." here Dumbledore paused, and the students waited tensely with bated breath. ". . .father."

Gasps were heard and jaws could be seen hanging all over the hall. Snape had a son?? Who ever would have thought he came out of the dungeon long enough to go on a date, much less get married and produce a child? There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Snape had been married, he wasn't the kind to have affairs.

"However, you all know this student standing here, you simply don't realize it," Dumbledore continued smoothly.

Playing his audience like a fish on a hook, Severus thought sourly. You should have been in the theater, old man.

"He was under glamours before, to look like his stepfather, for his own protection. But now his father has removed them, and has told me that there is no longer a need for secrecy. That secrecy was due in part, to my own failing, I thought it best if he remain hidden away, but alas, I was wrong, and thus I will say to you, Severus, and you, Harry, that I am truly sorry." He had now turned to face the two next to him, and Harry was astonished to see true regret and glimmering tears in the clear blue eyes.

Severus eyed the older wizard sternly, his mouth set in a grim line. Crocodile tears, Old Meddler? Or true ones? Even so, the shedding of a few tears was not enough to totally soften the younger man's heart. His son had cried an ocean of tears on his shoulder over what this one's meddling had cost him.

"I would ask that you see that my actions were only meant to help you, Harry, I truly did want what was best for you, and I had thought hiding you with your Muggle relatives was smarter than allowing you to remain here in the wizarding world. I can say now, with deepest regret, that I was wrong, my boy. You should have remained with your father, for he could have protected you best of all. I would ask you to forgive me if you can, Harry, for I wished nothing but the best for you."

He gazed at Harry pleadingly from under the half-moon spectacles, and Harry could feel himself starting to crack. But he stiffened his resolve and said, quietly, "You regret what you did to me, sir, but what about what you did to him?" He lifted a finger and pointed it at Severus.

Dumbledore swallowed and said repentantly, "Yes, I am aware what my actions cost your father, and I can only say that I misjudged him terribly." He shifted his gaze to Severus, who quirked an eyebrow.

More drama, Headmaster? Let's hear it then, thought Snape sneeringly.

"Severus, you were always one I could trust and yet I betrayed your trust in me by taking away your son. For that I ask you to forgive me. If you can. You have always been a loyal and dependable friend to me, a bit sharp and short-tempered, to be sure, but you were never tempted into darkness, like so many of your classmates were. You were the shadow and the spy at my command and the services you rendered us were invaluable, we saved many because of you, and I am sorry the Ministry refused to recognize your great sacrifice and honor you as you deserve. It is my greatest shame that I did not either, and for that I also ask you to forgive me."

Snape cocked his head. The old wizard seemed sincere, certainly this was more than what he'd hoped for. His eyes lost some of their fire as Dumbledore continued to look at him, an odd pleading expression on his face, one that only Severus could see. In his own quiet yet flamboyant way, Albus Dumbledore was humbling himself to his former student and spy, something Severus would never have believed possible.

Until now, when he was seeing it with his own eyes.

He inclined his head a fraction, indicating that he was listening. No doubt Albus was expecting him to suddenly rush forward and embrace the old wizard, like a sentimental Gryffindor fond of Charles Dickens and all that nonsense. Words are all well and good, old man, but first I must see if you mean them before I can begin to trust you once more, and perhaps forgive you. You made this apology under duress, because Harry asked it of you, and therefore I'm not sure if you really mean it.

"Therefore I have submitted your name as a candidate for the Order of Merlin First Class, since you deserve it for your dangerous work, Professor. I have also come to the realization that nothing is more important than family over the past six months, and so it is with no further ado that I present to you the former Harry James Potter, who will now be officially known by his true identity, Harrison Remus Snape, son of Professor Severus Snape."

Dumbledore bowed and gestured to the pair, who were now the focus of over four hundred pairs of eyes, many of whom were about to fall out of their owners' heads! When they had returned from their winter recess, the students of Hogwarts had not been expecting anything like this!

To say they were shocked, amazed, and stunned, would be putting it mildly.

Thus was the tone set for the coming spring term.

Suddenly there came a loud THUD and a crash from the staff table.

Everyone stared up at the dais.

Sybill Trelawney had fainted.

Pomona and Minerva, who rolled her eyes at her colleague's typical theatrics, moved to assist Trelawney up from the floor. Luckily, her many scarves had cushioned her head when she fell and she was able to sit up after a moment, blinking woozily behind her overlarge spectacles.

"Sybill, honestly!" Minerva sighed. "Must you make a spectacle of yourself in front of the children?"

"B-but Minerva!" gasped the Divination teacher, her bosom heaving dramatically. "Did you not hear? Albus said-he said Harry Potter is no more!"

"He said nothing of the sort, Sybill," huffed Minerva. She had no patience for the other woman's dramatic flare and fondness for fainting on a whim. "He simply said that the boy we knew as Harry Potter did not exist."

"Ah!" Trelawney put a hand to her head as she resumed her seat, looking like death warmed over. "There, you see! Now the prophecy I had has been proven false, for the child no longer exists as I foretold."

Severus couldn't take any more of the woman's babbling. "Sybill, for God's sake!" he snapped, looming over her like a bird of prey over a terrified rabbit. Sybill squeaked. "Quit acting like the world is coming to an end simply because your vaunted Sight-" here Severus's lip curled. "-didn't see fit to inform you that Harry Potter is my son. Whose real name happens to be Harrison Remus Snape, but he is still the boy you dubbed the Chosen One."

"Yes, but before he was Harry Potter. . . " began Sybill.

Snape rolled his eyes. "Ah, Merlin grant me patience," he growled. Then he leaned closer to Trelawney and hissed, "Professor, a rose by any other name . . . have you never heard the saying?" his tone implied that if she hadn't, Trelawney was a pathetic excuse for a teacher. "Whether you call him Harry Potter or Harry Snape, he is still the bloody boy of your confounded prophecy, is that clear?" Sybill gulped and nodded. "Good. Now for the love of Merlin, do try and compose yourself, Sybill. I don't know why you seem so shocked, you knew about all of this beforehand."

"I assure you, Severus, I had no idea!" Trelawney protested weakly. "No one bothered to inform me of this-this recent development."

Snape eyed the rest of the staff disapprovingly. "Which one of you was supposed to tell her?"

The others coughed and muttered and looked down at their plates, for all the world like several guilty schoolchildren caught in misbehavior by their stern father.

"I-I believe I asked Filius to-" began Pomona.

"Yes, but I was too busy, and I thought perhaps Minerva . . ."

Minerva sniffed. "Don't blame me for this, Filius. You know perfectly well I am far too busy to act like an owl."

Severus wanted to hit something, but he settled for one of his patented death glares instead. "Never mind! All of you have the worst excuses I've ever heard. Not that it matters much anyhow. What's done is done and the truth is known at last. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have supper with my son in my quarters for tonight."

He straightened to his full height and then swept out of the hall, black robes billowing behind him, practically dragging Harry along.

Harry winced at his father's grip. "Ow! Dad, not so hard! I need my hand, you know."

Severus loosened his grip a fraction and muttered a sorry. But he didn't release his son's arm until they reached the doorway to his personal quarters, where he whispered a password and the door unlocked and they stepped inside.

Rosie sprang off the couch where she'd been curled up in a ball and ran to them, greeting them in typical beagle fashion, by jumping up and licking them.

"I apologize for hauling you out of there without so much as a by your leave, Harry, but after Trelawney's little scene, I figured you were as anxious to get away as I was," Severus began, ruffling Rosie's floppy ears before taking a seat on the couch.

Harry nodded and flopped down next to his father. "Yeah, I felt like the main attraction at the circus." He sighed, wondering if his life would ever be normal again. He suddenly wished he had never decided to leave New Jersey and return to Hogwarts.

Severus nodded in understanding and summoned Dobby to bring them dinner. "Why don't we eat and then we can discuss your class schedule, Harry."

Harry agreed, though the last thing on his mind right then was his upcoming classes. He was more worried about his friends' and Housemates' reactions to the fact that he was Snape's son. Ron and Hermione he really wasn't too worried about, they'd had plenty of time to adjust to the idea during the six months he'd been over in America. The rest of them, however . . .He shook his head. They would simply have to learn to deal with it.

While they waited for the food to arrive, Harry turned to Severus and asked if he'd known that Moony had a niece before now.

"No, he never mentioned her to me, just that he had an older brother named Renee, who was a Magical Creatures biologist and photographer. I assumed they didn't see much of each other because his brother traveled a lot and perhaps he was ashamed to have a werewolf in the family, as is the case sometimes."

Harry snorted, to him Remus's furry problem wasn't that big of a deal. "But didn't the Headmaster say that Uncle Moony was her guardian now too?"

"Yes, I believe so. Obviously something must have happened to her father and mother," Severus said quietly. "I'm sure that Remus will inform me if he wishes. It is something I need to know seeing as I'm her Head of House."

"Bet that was a shock, huh, Dad?"

"No. While some families are Sorted into the same House, it isn't always the case, and if the Hat put her in Slytherin, it must have had a good reason."

By then the food had arrived, tender beef fillets in a béarnaise sauce along with carrots and peas and roasted potatoes. Harry quickly filled his plate with some of everything, he was starving. Must be getting a growth spurt or whatever, he thought as he devoured his beef. He certainly hoped he would grow taller, he hated being the shortest kid in his year.

Snape was pleased to see his son eating with a normal appetite, during the summer, he had noticed Harry used to pick at his food, eating very little at mealtimes. That was because Harry had been starved and malnourished for over half his childhood, and in order to repair the damage Severus had resorted to giving the boy Nutrient Potions and a vial of a mild Stomach Expander, thus enabling Harry to get the vitamins and minerals he needed and also to eat normal meals. Now that was no longer necessary, and Harry ate like a typical teenager.

"Harry, eat your vegetables," put in Severus swiftly, when the boy began to reach for a second helping of the beef.

"Dad!" his son groaned. "You know I don't really like carrots. Or peas."

"Yes, you used to give me a hard time eating them when you were two also," Snape acknowledged. "However, you're eating them now. Or else I can give you another Nutrient Potion," he added slyly, knowing Harry hated that particular potion.

"Ugh! No thanks!" Harry shuddered. "I'll eat the damn carrots." He speared some with his fork and chewed, grimacing slightly.

Severus watched until he had finished the entire portion, then allowed Harry to take seconds of the fillet. "You need to eat more vegetables, Harry. They provide you with essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber. All things which you need to stay healthy."

Harry rolled his eyes somewhat, that was a familiar speech. "Okay, Dr. Snape," he drawled.

"Cheeky brat," his father grumbled, then fed the begging beagle a small piece of beef, happy that Aurelia wasn't there to see, she'd have scolded him for feeding the dog table scraps. But really, Rosie was too cute to resist sometimes.

For dessert there was Harry's favorite vanilla treacle tart with whipped cream and tea. After that, Severus asked Harry about his class schedule. "You have the option of picking two electives this term, Harry."

"I know. I'm going to take Care of Magical Creatures," Harry told him. Then he added hesitantly, "And I was thinking . . .maybe Divination?"

Severus snorted disgustedly. "Are you sure you want to waste your time with that-that ambiguous nonsense? I think you'd find Ancient Runes or Arithmancy much more useful."

"Umm . . ." The truth was, Harry only opted for Divination because he hoped to learn more about the prophecy Trelawney had made, not because he believed in her ability to foretell the future, and also Ron had told him Divination was a joke, you could sleep the whole class and not miss anything. "Well, I'd like to try it and see whether or not it's all it's cracked up to be. After all, no knowledge is ever wasted," Harry replied, tossing one of Snape's pet phrases back at him.

"Humph! Very well, far be from me to discourage you, you'll learn soon enough the old fraud doesn't know enough to fill one of her teacups. Divination is a most imprecise art, which is why I don't put any stock in prophecies and such."

"But surely there are some Seers who are the real thing."

"Yes, but a true Seer is as rare as finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Sybill has only predicted true once that I know of, hardly a sterling recommendation. Be that as it may, you're old enough to make up your own mind when it comes to your schedule." He perused the piece of parchment which listed Harry's classes this term. "Let's see. You have Potions with me Monday and Wednesday mornings, Transfiguration after lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Herbology on Wednesday and Friday, Care of Magical Creatures on Wednesday, History of Magic on Monday and Tuesday, Charms on Thursday and Friday, Divination on Monday as well. Defense with Remus also on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"Uh, Dad, what happens now in your class?" Harry asked cautiously. "Are you still gonna be on my back every lesson?"

"Only if you're not paying attention, Mr. Snape. Otherwise I will not be as antagonistic as I have been in the past. Most of that was an act for my role as a pretend Death Eater, Harry, but now that is a pretense I no longer need maintain and so I will use slightly different teaching methods than I have been before. But make no mistake, Harry, you act up with your little friends in my class and I'll slap you with a detention so fast it'll make your head spin," warned Severus. "Just because you're my son does not entitle you to special treatment, and if you break rules, you will suffer the consequences."

"I understand, Dad," Harry said softly. In a way he was relieved that Severus wouldn't treat him any differently than the others, he was quite tired of being singled out for one thing or another. Then too, he was sure to get better marks in Potions this time, since he'd had the advantage of studying with his father for six months. He had learned a great deal from the professor during that time, and he was eager to put what he'd learned into practice and show Hermione that she wasn't the only one who could brew a decent potion.

"I don't think I need to remind you to behave in your other classes, do I? Because I'm sure you remember my rule from when Aunt Relia tutored you-if you earn detention from another teacher, Harry, you also earn a punishment from me as well," Severus reminded.

"I know." He made a face at his parent. "Why didn't anybody ever tell me it was such a pain in the butt being the son of a professor? No other kid has to worry about getting in trouble twice."

Severus smirked. "You won't need to worry, Harry, if you do as you're told and respect your teachers. Though I'd suggest you watch your back, son. Now that the Death Eater children know I'm opposed to them, they might try and take out that frustration on you, who will be seen as the son of a traitor as well as the Boy Who Lived."

"Oh great! Just what I needed to hear, Dad."

"I'm telling you this so you can be prepared, Harry, for forewarned is forearmed. Carry your wand with you at all times, and when you go to sleep, keep it under your pillow," instructed the Potions Master.

Harry gave him a look. "Under my pillow, Dad? You're being paranoid."

Severus frowned. "I'm serious, Harry. This is nothing to take lightly. Do what I say and you'll be safe. Don't go anywhere by yourself, make sure you have at least one friend with you, or you let someone know where you are. Black is at large still, and there's no telling what he will do." The Potions Master pulled out a small silver amulet shaped like a lily from a pocket and handed it to Harry.

"What's this?"

"It belonged to your mother, it's a charm of protection and defense. She gave it to me when I began my spying for the Order, it's saved me numerous times. Now I give it to you. Wear it always, don't take it off. It will protect you from most harmful hexes, jinxes and curses, save for the Unforgivables, and provided a measure of immunity from some common poisons as well."

"Thanks," Harry said sincerely, and slid the silver amulet about his neck. He hoped he wouldn't need to resort to it, but it was good to know that if he needed it, it was there. "But what about you, Dad?"

"Don't worry about me, Harry. I have my own protections in place, I can afford to give you Lily's amulet. She would have wanted you to have it." A brief wistful look of longing flitted across his face at the mention of his beloved wife.

Harry smiled, profoundly touched by his father's gesture, which showed him more than words how much Severus loved him. He vowed that he would be worthy of that love, which he'd never known until Severus had taken him away last summer. His hand stroked the lily amulet and he fancied he could feel the magic wrapping about him, surrounding him with his mother's presence.

"You aren't the first student to have a parent on staff, Harry. There have been a few others since Hogwarts was founded. That being so, you will continue to sleep in Gryffindor Tower with your Housemates, however, if you ever need me, any time of the night or the day, you may come to me. For you, my door is always open. And my couch is always available. I have informed Minerva of this, so she will not worry if she finds you missing one night after curfew." He pushed a flat silver disk engraved with a green snake and a striped cat over to his son. It was about the size of a quarter. "Simply leave this on your pillow before coming to me and McGonagall will know you are here. The token is our secret sign."

Harry slipped the token into his pocket. On second thought, perhaps having a professor as a parent wasn't half bad. Rosie whined and jumped on him, and he cuddled her. "Hey, what about Rosie? What do I do with her during class?"

Snape eyed the little hound, then snapped his fingers. "She can stay with Hagrid while you're in class and I'm teaching. He'll play with her and take her for a long walk, and hopefully tire her out enough so she won't be so inclined to mischief."

"Great idea, Dad," Harry said. "She can play with Fang and hunt with him." Then he recalled the Forbidden Forest was very near Hagrid's hut. "But I don't want her going into the Forest. Something might try and eat her."

"I'll put a charm on her collar that will keep her on the grounds," Severus soothed. "Too bad I don't know one that will keep her from eating shoes."

Harry laughed. "She's not as bad as she used to be."

"Sure she's not," grumbled the professor. "She only chews up one or two pairs a week instead of six. A vast improvement."

"Only when she's bored and left alone." Harry defended.

"Then I suggest you never leave her in such a situation, Harry. Because we all know that a bored beagle is a recipe for disaster." Severus shuddered just thinking what mayhem a bored beagle could cause in the castle, running about unsupervised.

"Then I'm allowed to have her in my room with me?"

"Of course. She's your dog and your responsibility. Just warn your friends to put away their shoes and socks otherwise they'll waste half the morning repairing them or searching for them. And keep her away from Filch as much as possible, he has no love for dogs."

Harry bit back a laugh imagining Rosie chasing Filch's nasty cat, Mrs. Norris, all through the castle. "All right. Rosie will behave, won't you, girl?"

The beagle gazed at her master adoringly and bayed softly.

"Sure she will. When she's asleep," remarked Snape sarcastically. He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Best you get back up to your common room, Harry. You'll need a full night's sleep if you're going to be ready for classes tomorrow." He handed Harry back the parchment with his schedule printed on it.

Harry rose, setting Rosie down, and went over to hug his father. "Night, Dad. Pleasant dreams."

Severus held his son close for a moment. "Good night, son. Sleep well, child." Then he turned the thirteen-year-old about and sent him off with a gentle swat. "Get, before you're in violation of curfew, young man."

Harry scooped up Rosie and left, his heart a bit easier after that little chat and dinner with his father. Now the only thing he had to deal with tonight were the reactions of his Housemates.

When Harry entered Gryffindor Tower, Rosie snuggled half-asleep in his arms, he was prepared for anything, or so he thought. Most of the Gryffindors were still awake, despite it being after ten at night, Harry had a strange feeling that they's remained up to catch a glimpse of their old housemate, who now went by a new name and identity.

Hermione rushed up to him as soon as his foot had cleared the portrait hole. "Welcome back, Harry!" she cried and went to hug him. Her swift movement woke the beagle nestled in Harry's arms, and Hermione found her face the recipient of several licks. "Oh, you've got a dog! Oh, she's such a little darling!"

"Yeah, until she chews your shoes," chuckled Harry. Rosie was fully awake now and wagging her tail. "She's a beagle and her name's Rosie." He set the dog down and Rosie immediately went to sniff Hermione's loafers.

"Aww, you're even more beautiful in real life than in your photo," Hermione gushed, hugging the beagle puppy. "Such a sweet girl." Several of the other girls crowded around, all of them wanted to pet the puppy. "Your dad got you her for a birthday present, right?" Hermione queried, loudly and deliberately.

"Yes, and she was the best birthday present ever," answered Harry, wanting his Housemates to hear that his newfound father treated him decently.

Ron came over along with Fred and George to see the beagle. Rosie ate up all the attention. Ron knelt to pet her and said quietly, "She's one cute dog, mate. I always wanted a dog."

"But Mum said we-" began Fred.

"-couldn't have one because-" continued George.

"-there were already too many of us in the house," finished the two together, as they scratched Rosie's belly.

"It was right nice of Snape to buy you her," Ron added, chuckling at the groan of pleasure the dog was giving the twins.

"Doesn't sound like the Snape I know, right Dean?" remarked Seamus snidely to his best friend.

"No. The Snape I know would be more likely to kick a puppy than buy one," agreed Dean.

Harry's eyes flashed. "Then maybe you two don't know the real Severus Snape." He rose and confronted the other Gryffindors, giving them a glare worthy of a Snape.

"What, you telling me that all of a sudden Snape's your dad and he's become Parent of the Year, Harry?" sneered Seamus. "Leopards don't change their spots."

Harry flushed, struggling to control his temper. They don't know, they don't understand what happened six months ago. "Listen to me, Seamus and listen good. Everything you think you know about Snape is a lie. He was a spy for the Order of the Phoenix, the resistance movement fighting against You-Know-Who. The way he acted in class was a cover, it wasn't how he normally was."

"Told you that did he?"

Harry eyed him coldly. "As a matter of fact, he did. But more than that, he showed me the way he really was, Finnegan."

"How? By tucking you in at night and buying you a puppy, Snape?"

"No, you stupid git, by risking his damn life and saving me from Voldemort's followers that had captured me," Harry snapped. "They were torturing me to death and my father saved me. Before he ever knew we were related, mind you! His memory of me as his son was Obliviated by sodding Dumbledore after my mum was killed, and I didn't remember either because I was just a baby. We found out the truth when Dumbledore released two items left for us by my mum-a note and a photo album for me and a Pensieve for him, with the rest of his memories in it of me and my mum as his family. And once he found out, d'you know what he did, Seamus?"

"Fainted dead away?" snickered the other.

Harry was not amused. "No. He marched himself up to the bloody Headmaster's office and told Dumbledore where to get off and then he quit! He wasn't on a bloody sabbatical like you were told, Finnegan, he quit because he couldn't stand the fact that Dumbledore knew all along that I was his son and hid me away with my bloody Muggle relatives instead of doing the right thing and giving me back to him. He told off the greatest wizard of the age for me, and then we left and went to America. That's where I've been all this time." Harry crossed his arms over his chest. "So, if you've got a problem with my father, Dean and Seamus, keep it to yourself. He might not be the easiest teacher to deal with, but he knows what he's doing. And if I hear any of you badmouthing him, you'll answer to me, so think before you open your mouth, got me?"

The look he was giving them, cold and deadly, like a tiger about to spring, froze the two in their tracks. This was not the Harry Potter they had known, no this boy was someone else now, someone with a blazing temper and the air of a warrior about him.

Ron laid a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, take it easy, Harry. We're all mates here, right?"

Harry exhaled sharply. "We used to be, Ron. Just because I've got a new last name shouldn't make a difference, but it will if you keep on passing remarks about my dad. I mean it. He's been good to me, and I won't have you spitting on him. So put up or shut up, and we won't have a problem. Don't and you'll see what I was learning all those months I was in America."

"What's that supposed to mean, Harry?" asked Neville tentatively.

"It means that I know a little more about Defense than I did at the beginning of the year, Neville. And that's all I'm going to say," answered the professor's son. Then he whistled for Rosie and made his way up the stairs to the circular room he shared with his five other yearmates.

His trunk was already there, and he quickly undressed, put on pajamas and got into bed. The sheets were cold, but he warmed them with a silent wandless warming charm, courtesy of Neil. Between them and his beagle snuggled inbetween his feet, Harry was quite toasty.

Removing his glasses, he soon drifted off into the realm of slumber, gratefully for sleep's swift arrival for once, since it meant he wouldn't have to answer any more questions until the morning.

* * * * * *

Back in the common room, Seamus, Dean, and Neville were all staring at one another and occasionally glancing up the stairs where Harry had gone. "Can you believe it, Dean?" grumbled Seamus. "He actually threatened us, his Housemates, just ‘cause we spoke the truth about Snape. What's gotten into him?"

Hermione drew in a deep breath, and Ron winced, knowing what was coming. "Why don't you ask yourself what's gotten into you, Seamus Finnegan? Ever since you learned that Harry was Professor Snape's son, you've been acting like a first class idiot! Making comments like that about the professor to Harry's face, honestly! How do you expect him to react? What if somebody had said nasty stuff like that about your father, huh? Would you be laughing, or would you be mad as blazes?"

"But Hermione, it's Snape," protested Dean. "The greasy dungeon bat that hates all us Gryffinodrs!"

"He doesn't hate us, Dean," Hermione defended. "You heard Harry, that was only a cover since he was a spy."

"And I say Snape lied to get in good with his son and is still a mean nasty bastard," insisted Seamus.

Ron frowned. "I don't think Harry's that dumb, to fall for a lie when he's been living with the bloke for six months. I say we trust Harry and. . . " he swallowed for he could hardly believe he was saying this. ". . . and give Snape the benefit of the doubt."

Seamus and Dean's mouths fell open. "Merlin's bloody pants! Not you too, Ron!" cried Dean.

"I agree," said Fred.

"Me too," added George. "Snape's not so bad-"

"--so long as you don't act up too much-" Fred pointed out.

"-in his class," finished George. "He taught us a lot about potion ingredient reactions."

Neville was flabbergasted. "You mean Snape actually taught you how to-to prank people?"

The twins smirked. "Well, not right off, but he-"

"-explained some theories we were having trouble with and let us experiment a little after class."

"As an extra credit project."

"To make sure we didn't kill someone," chuckled George. "So you see, Seamus-"

"-old Snape's not such a git after all. Now shut your trap, okay?" and Fred glared at him.

Seamus scowled right back. "I think all of you are barmy, is what. Harry used to hate Snape same as the rest of us. Maybe Snape put a spell on him or something, so that now Harry likes him."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Hermione snapped. "Harry never hated Snape, he disliked the way Snape treated him, because it wasn't fair. And weren't you listening when Harry said Snape saved his life? Doesn't that tell you anything?"

"He was saving his own arse, Hermione," sneered Dean. "Dumbledore would've flayed him alive if something happened to Harry. Seamus is right. Leopards don't change their spots."

"You're wrong," Hermione insisted. "Dead wrong. Both of you."

"You always think you know everything, Granger!" scoffed a fourth-year girl. "Snape was right to call you a know-it-all."

Hermione whirled and glared daggers at the other girl, but before she could respond to her comment, Ron jumped to her defense.

"Ah, shut it, Abercrombie! Hermione's got better instincts than any of the rest of us put together and you all know it. And if you don't want to believe her, then believe Harry. He wouldn't support Snape unless he had a damn good reason to, and I was in touch with him all the time he was in America, and he told me everything that went on there. He got in trouble with Snape a few times and Snape didn't tear him a new arse like he could've. In fact Harry said he rarely yelled at him at all and he never hit him, a far cry from what he used to live through at the Dursleys. Plus, you all heard what Dumbledore said at dinner tonight. He apologized to Snape for hiding his son from him and said he deserved the Order of Merlin First Class. Now would he say that if Snape was really a nasty bastard only out for himself?"

That time neither of the boys had an answer to refute Ron's words. They practically worshipped the ground Dumbledore walked on.

Satisfied he'd put the doubters in their place, at least for tonight, Ron yawned and announced he was going to bed.

So did everyone else, though Hermione whispered to Ron before heading up to the girls' side of the tower, "Seamus and Dean aren't going to be the only ones who are shocked by Harry being Snape's son. Just wait until the Daily prophet gets wind of it. I wouldn't be surprised to see an article on it in tomorrow morning's edition."

Ron nodded glumly. "Poor Harry. Just what he needs. First he's in the papers for surviving the Killing Curse and now he's in them again for being born Snape's son. I wish they'd cut him a break once in a while."

"I know. But that's what it's like, being a celebrity, Ron. Every little thing you do is talked about by everyone. Makes me glad I'm just a plain ordinary girl sometimes."

"Me too." Ron yawned again. "Well, g'night, Mione."

"Night, Ron," Hermione called, then she departed up the stairs

Severus supposed he had better go down to the Slytherin common room and see how his newest House member was settling in. He knew Mandy Jones, a fifth year prefect, would make sure Aria had everything she needed as far as a schedule and a map of the castle and tell her some general things about classes, homework and professors, and he hoped Remus had spoken to his niece as well, so she wouldn't feel so much like a fish out of water.

Severus always made it a point to speak with his new members one on one, to try and get to know them better before having them in class, lay down the Slytherin House Rules to them, and make certain they knew he was available to speak with if they were having problems with a subject or their peers. Since Slytherins, by and large, had an unearned reputation for being a House of Darkness, some of their younger members were often picked on by the other Houses, and while Severus knew better than to try and fight their battles for them, he could and did offer advice on how to handle bullies or once in a great while a shoulder to cry on.

Most of the students in his House respected him a great deal and were grateful that he paid attention to them, giving them both discipline and praise when they needed it. Many of them came from homes where their parents were neglectful or overbearing or downright abusive, and Severus sought to give them a consistent and confident Head of House, one whom they could trust and look up to. Several of them came to regard him as a surrogate parent or older sibling, which had at first made him uncomfortable, but now he took it in stride. However, he also encouraged his House members to stick together and help one another, "Often you will have no one else to rely on save another Slytherin, so out in public, present a united front as much as possible."

Of course, there were always exceptions, but on the whole, most of his House tended to follow that rule. The Slytherins possessed a fiercely competitive drive to succeed, which other teachers often viewed as being arrogant or willing to win at any cost, when in actuality he had taught them to see the weaknesses in a competitor and exploit them, as he did when he spied upon the Death Eaters. No knowledge is ever wasted was a maxim of his, and it was one the Slytherins took to heart. They soon learned to take what they learned and then use it to their advantage, as he had so long ago, for he favored practical application of magic over theory.

He supposed young Miss Lupin must have possessed a great deal of those qualities, else the Hat would not have placed her in the House of Serpents. What did surprise him was that Remus had never before mentioned his niece to his best friend, he wondered why, and intended to ask the other man next time he saw him.

Just then, his fireplace flared green and Lupin stuck his head through. "Severus? May I drop in?"

Severus concealed his shock at the other's unexpected appearance well, only tilting his head and smiling slightly. "Speak of the devil, Moony! I was just thinking about you and your niece. Come on in." He waved a hand, removing the charm that prevented unauthorized visitors from Flooing into his quarters. It was a precaution he'd begun long before, when he'd first took up the mantle of secret agent, and he saw no reason not to continue it. Better safe than sorry was another maxim of his.

Remus came through a moment later, brushing a light coating of ash off his gray trousers and casual long-sleeved maroon top. Like his fellow professor, he dressed comfortably in the privacy of his own rooms, happy to shed the heavy teaching robes after a long day of instruction. "Sorry, I would've come sooner, but Albus wanted to ask me something about Aria."

Severus was seated in his recliner, minus his formal robes as well, he was wearing a pair of soft black flannels and a long-sleeved gray shirt with the slogan How Do You Brew the Perfect Potion? Practice Makes Perfect. It had been a gift from one of his Advanced Potions students a year ago and he wore it often. Few outside his House ever knew Severus preferred casual Muggle attire to wizard wear when he was relaxing, Muggles knew how to relax and their loungewear reflected that.

"So do I, Moony," Severus began, waving the other over to a seat on the sofa. "Tea? Biscuits?" He indicated the silver teapot and the tray of shortbread.

"No thanks, Sev, I'm still stuffed from dinner," Remus declined, taking a seat.

"How is it that you never mentioned the fact that you had a niece to me, Remus?"

The other sighed. "It's a long story, Sev. Her father, Rene, was much older than I when I was born, he was fourteen, and by the time I was five he was already traveling the globe looking for fantastic beasts to photograph and research. Once I was bitten, I became a . . .curiosity to him, and he tried to document me, much like you would a zoo specimen. It made my parents furious, and me as well, and they asked him not to visit anymore unless he could treat me like a little kid and a brother. So I hardly ever saw him, except occasionally for Christmas, and when I did it was. . .awkward."

Severus nodded in understanding, and poured himself a cup of Earl Grey.

"He saw my maternal grandmother, Lara LaBeaux, who lived in Louisiana, far more than he did the rest of us, and once he married Alessandra West, who was a Muggleborn witch with money to burn, her father was head of a major New Orleans shipping company, they traveled mostly in South and Central America, studying all the dangerous and odd magical species in the rain forest. By the time Aria was born, I'd finished school, and they were still traipsing about. They used to leave her with Gran when she was little and that was how I came to meet her, since I used to spend a few weeks each summer in New Orleans."

"I remember that. You always used to go there right at the beginning of June."

"Yes, and the last time I saw Aria she was seven and still believed in Santa Claus and my grandmother was still alive. Once she died, though, Rene took her with him and then I only got the occasional card or whatnot around my birthday and Christmas from them. After my parents passed, I saw them only infrequently, like once a year. Then Alessa suffered a bad attack by a manticore and was nearly killed, the poison from the stinger damaged her brain, and Rene had to put her in an institution. Aria was nine then, I believe. Once I'd heard, I told him point blank to retire and quit risking his neck and that of his child. He laughed and told me to worry about my own hide, he'd been taking care of himself for years."

"How did he die, Moony?"

Remus winced. "He and Aria were camped beside the lair of a chimera, Rene was studying it for a big project for some Magical Creatures journal. He got too close or something to the lair, the female had kits and went insane, attacked my brother and killed him." Remus shuddered. "Then she dragged him off to her lair and well, you know what chimeras do after that, Sev."

Severus stared at Remus in revulsion and horror. "Oh dear sweet Merlin, Remus! You don't mean she-ate him?"

"Well, yes. And Aria, poor kid, witnessed it all. She apparently tried to fight it off in her cougar form, but a chimera is more than a match for a shape-slipper, and it knocked her out long enough to kill Renee. But the first I knew of any of this was two weeks ago, when Rene's attorney contacted me and told me that my brother had named me Aria's guardian if anything should happen to him."

"Hold it." Severus held up a hand. "The girl's a shape-slipper, you said? As in a natural Animagus, able to change into more than one animal form at will?"

"Yes. It's a rare gift, I know, and God only knows where she inherited it, but there it is. She can become a cougar and a golden hawk, her ability manifested itself shortly before her eleventh birthday."

"Who trained her in her gift?" Severus queried, for he knew as well as her uncle that natural shapeshifter or not, such a talent required a teacher experienced in that sort of magical discipline, to help his student survive the first few changes with her mind intact. "Your brother?"

"No, Rene didn't have the ability. He sent her to a shaman named Joachim Velasquez, apparently shape-slippers aren't as rare in Peru and it was he who taught her how to control her gift. He was also her main teacher in magic as well, my brother barely had the patience to teach a kid how to tie her shoelaces." There was a disparaging note in Remus's voice as he said that last, but it was belied by the sudden flash of sadness in his eyes. "I never approved much of his lifestyle, Sev, but when all was said and done, he was still my brother and he didn't deserve to die . . .like that. He was still young, damn it!"

The other lowered his head for a moment, stubbornly battling his grief, refusing to fall apart, even if it was only his best friend there.

Severus remained silent, understanding the other's struggle and respecting Remus's desire to maintain his composure. It always hurt to lose a family member, as the Potions Master knew well, but the worst ones were the unexpected losses, when death sprang and caught you unaware, giving you no time to soften the blow.

At length, the werewolf raised his head and heaved a sigh. "Sorry. Every time I think I've gotten resigned to the fact that he's gone, something reminds me of him and it's like it was yesterday I learned the news. We weren't even all that close, and yet . . .I still see him in my mind's eye, wearing that infernal devil-may-care grin and carrying his camera and notebook."

"You shouldn't expect yourself to get over his death in a few weeks or even a month, Moony," Severus said gently. "He was your brother, give yourself time to mourn him. What about Aria? How is she taking it?"

"Better than I expected, Sev. Oh, she has nightmares still, but she's not as traumatized as I'd have expected. She refused counseling when I suggested it, said the last thing she wanted was somebody poking inside her head. She's an independent little thing, guess that comes from growing up with Rene, he never had much patience for small children."

"Not having a mother there might also have something to do with it," surmised Severus, knowing all too well what it was like to grow up too fast. "It's difficult for a girl her age to grow up without a mother's influence. She might think that she needs to act older than her age and now with her father gone as well . . .I'll watch her carefully Remus, and make sure she knows I'm available if she wants to discuss anything with me. She's probably in shock still, so I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she falls apart one night." Severus paused, finished off his tea, then continued. "If that happens, do you want me to call you, or should I handle it myself?"

Remus considered for several moments. "I want her to trust me, Sev. I want to be there for her, like I ought to have been all those years ago. But I don't want her to think I'm crowding her either. If she does confide in you, or you manage to get her to talk about what happened, that's all to the good, and at least she'll have one adult to trust. But if that happens and she asks for me, I'll come. I told her that when she first came to live with me, but maybe she still feels too awkward around her werewolf uncle to discuss her father's death."

Severus frowned, the prejudice of werewolves was always a touchy subject and he tended to grow defensive when he heard people maligning them as vicious beasts who ought to be destroyed without mercy. "Has she displayed any prejudice towards you, Remus?"

"No. She knows what I am, and she seems to accept it. I don't think she's afraid of me, thank God. But we're still getting to know each other, Sev, and I'm nervous as all get out at having to be a father to a thirteen-year-old girl. What if I make a total ass out of myself?" Remus ran a hand through his hair agitatedly.

"Moony, I asked myself the same thing before Harry was born and again after I regained my memories six months ago. And I'll tell you right now that there's no instruction manual for being a parent, it's all guesswork and instinct, and you'll end up making mistakes every day probably. God knows, I do. Just when I think I've got Harry figured out, he throws something new at me and I have to stop and think, what should I do, how do I react? But one thing I will tell you, take it one day at a time and then sit back and reflect on what worked. Or what didn't work. Aunt Relia told me that parenting was a lot like making a jigsaw puzzle, sometimes you have to play around with the pieces before they fit together." He smiled reminiscently. "She's a wise woman, my aunt, and she's not even a witch. She told me that there will be times when Harry and I will fight like cats and dogs, no matter what, and other times when we'll get along beautifully, but all of that's part and parcel of being a family, and I should just take it a day at a time."

"That sounds like good advice to me, Sev. Thanks. And thank Relia too, she reminds me a lot of my gran Lara." Remus seemed a bit easier now, and he quickly changed the subject to the scene in the hall following Aria's Sorting. "What do you think about the old man's apology tonight? I was rather surprised myself."

"I wasn't. He apologized to me because Harry badgered him into it," Severus said softly. "He sounded sincere, and I think he probably was, but I don't trust him fully, Remus, and I doubt if I ever will. He manipulates us for his own agenda, and I refuse to let him get his hooks into Harry the way he did me. Bad enough he managed to make my son think he had to fulfill the bloody prophecy, I won't let him control Harry's life any more than absolutely necessary. I'm going to try my damndest to give my son a normal childhood, Chosen One or not, and I'm also going to make sure Harry has the skills he needs to face Riddle and come out of it alive. Because I won't lose my son the way I lost Lily, nor will I allow him to lose me either."

"You intend to face Voldemort together, don't you?" Remus whispered, awe crossing his features.

"Yes. Two together are always stronger than one alone, no matter what all the tales say. If Harry ever does go up against that bastard again, he won't be doing it alone. I'll be right beside him, giving the bloody monster hell for killing my wife and all the other innocents he's murdered. I swear it on my immortal soul."

"Then you think there's a chance he might return, Sev?"

"There's always a chance, Moony. Riddle was obsessed with death, he feared it more than any man alive I know. He would have made pacts with whatever Powers that are out there to cheat death as long as possible. He thought he deserved to live forever, and I think he'd do whatever it took to make himself immortal."

"But that's impossible! Even with magic, Sev, no wizard can be truly immortal."

"You and I know that, but Riddle refuses to accept that fact. So he searched for a way out, and I don't know if he ever found one. I believe he might have and that he didn't die a true death after his magic rebounded on him. If that's the case, then we have to be prepared for his eventual return."

Remus went pale. "Merlin save us, Sev! But if he does return, he'll be even stronger than before, right? So how do we fight him?"

"The same way we did before. By giving it our best shot. The Old Meddler thinks he holds the answer in my son, but I refuse to believe one boy is the only key to defeating him. This will take all of us, together, and in the end he may die by Harry's hand, but we all will play a part. I won't let Dumbledore place the entire burden on a child, no matter how strong in magic he is. I won't let him make Harry into some bloody sacrifice like some storybook hero." Severus said angrily. "We're to blame in part for Voldemort's rise to power, we turned a blind eye to him, and we allowed him to go unchecked too long. This time will be different, Remus. Forewarned is forearmed."

The werewolf sighed. "I wish he had the Goddamn decency to just stay dead. Hell can keep him for all I care."

"I agree, but maybe hell doesn't want him," said the Potions Master wryly.

"Can't blame them. Well, guess I'd better be heading off to bed. I've got class in the morning and so do you." He rose and made his way back to the fireplace, Floo powder in hand.

"Good night,Moony," said his friend. He would be going to bed also, as soon as he checked on his newest student. He would have a short chat with her tomorrow morning, he resolved, before she went to breakfast perhaps.

• * * * * * *

Aria awoke at her usual time, a quarter to six in the morning. She was accustomed to rising early, for her previous teacher in magic insisted on waking her early so she could run before her lessons. Yawning, she quickly dressed in her usual workout clothes, sweats and a rather large green T-shirt with the words Save the Rain Forest on it, and her sneakers. She quickly bound her light-brown hair on top of her head and slipped out of the Slytherin dorm. Her Housemates were still getting their beauty sleep and didn't even notice her leave.

She had become so used to running for five miles every morning that it didn't even occur to her to skip it this once, her first morning in a new place and school. Master Velasquez had insisted on his shapeshifter student being in good physical condition, it aided her when she changed forms. Though Aria was a natural shifter, there was still a strain on her body when she changed forms, and being in good shape reduced the stress and enabled her to change quicker and suffer less fatigue when she shifted from animal to human.

Unknown to her, Severus had a silent alarm set up to catch any of his students leaving the dormitory before curfew had been lifted (which was at six AM). The alarm roused him from a pleasant dream, and he was not in the best of moods when he woke, threw on some clothes and his robes quickly and went to check out the dormitory to determine who of his snakes had decided to sneak out early.

But the only bed he found empty was Aria's. Frowning, he tried to determine where she might have gone, but after checking the bathroom and the Great Hall, he decided to use a Four Points spell and so shorten his search. "Point me Aria Lupin," he whispered, and the spell indicated the girl was not in the castle, but outside it.

Severus quickly exited the castle and followed the spell down the path past the greenhouse. There he halted, peering about for any sign of his missing student. But he didn't see her. Perhaps she shifted shapes, Sev, he thought. A shape-slipper probably feels comfortable in her animal forms as well as her true one. He scanned the sky for any sign of a hawk flying, but the sky was empty. And he didn't see any pawprints of a cougar either.

Where in Merlin's name was the girl? Most teenagers hated getting up early, he practically had to drag his son out of bed by his ear some mornings. Voluntary early risers were few and far between, even in his House. Figured Aria Lupin would not be typical in this regard either, he thought with a sigh of exasperation. Well, he knew she wasn't in danger so long as she remained on school grounds.

He settled against the smooth trunk of a beech to wait.

• * * * * *

Twenty minutes later he spotted a slender figure running with the easy elastic stride of a panther along the path that wound around Hagrid's hut and past the greenhouse and the lake. Severus raised an eyebrow, for the only running most Hogwarts students did was running to the table for meals or to class when they were late. Oh, the Quidditch players ran sometimes during practice, but that was all. Aria Lupin was a different case altogether.

A faint smile played about the elder wizard's face. He liked the discipline the girl showed at making herself get up early and run without an adult urging her. It was more than most students demonstrated at that age. Perhaps the young girl would be a credit to the House of Serpents even beyond his expectations.

Aria tossed her head, flicking the sweat out of her eyes and wishing she'd thought to put on a headband this morning. She usually never ran without one, since the humidity in the South American climate where she'd mostly grown up made you sweat in moments, never mind during intense exercise. But she hadn't felt like digging through her trunk at that hour and so she'd left without one, a fact she regretted now. At the beginning, she'd been pleasantly cool running about the large lawn and the lake, but now at the end of her circuit she was beginning to feel a little tired and sweat was dripping into her eyes.

She wondered if anyone else in the castle was awake. Her shaman master would have called her new Housemates a bunch of lazy things, to sleep away the morning that way. He was usually up before the sun and Aria sometimes doubted if the man slept like a normal person. He too was a shape-slipper, his alternate forms that of a jaguar and an Amazon green parrot. No surprise there, since he was a native of Peru, and shape-slippers tended to adopt the animal personas of their earliest influences.

Aria, whose earliest memories were of the bayous and colorful streets of Louisiana, had assimilated the shapes of hawk and mountain cat, or cougar. She could have as easily become an alligator or a water moccasin or even a turtle. She had once become a snake, but found the form too difficult to hold and so stuck to those forms she was most familiar with, the soaring majestic hawk and the sleek silent cougar.

Her bright amber eyes sought the top of the hill, where the castle rested, and to her surprise, she saw a lone black figure standing beside the path. Huh. Guess I'm not the only one who likes to get up early after all.

As she drew closer, she saw that the tall figure was that of her Head of House, Professor Snape. She gulped softly, wondering if she was in trouble for leaving her dorm without permission. Still, her prefect hadn't said she couldn't get up early and run, only that curfew had to be observed at ten at night.

She narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing his face. He didn't seem angry, merely a bit surprised. He was watching her calmly as jogged up the path toward him, his arms folded casually in the sleeves of his black robes. She prided herself on being able to read people's body posture as well as facial expressions, it was a skill she'd picked up from being a shape-slipper, where her animal form relied on scent and body language more than vocalizations. He was a little irritated, but not much, she could tell by his posture, it was more relaxed than stiff, if he were angry he would be holding himself more erect, so as to intimidate better.

She drew up to him, halting just before her teacher, breathing a bit harshly, but the run had not tired her much, the terrain here was much gentler than the rocky slopes of Peru. "Good morning, Professor." She greeted, smiling quietly at him. For some reason she felt her heart quicken when she looked at him, despite the fact that he was old enough to be her father. Then again, maybe it was simply because he looked like his son, whom she found extremely attractive. Now there's one guy I wouldn't mind getting better acquainted with. Better than that stuck-up Draco Malfoy, any rate! Wonder what House he's in?

"Good morning, Miss Lupin," Severus replied, eyeing her a bit critically. "I was not aware you engaged in such activity this early in the morning. Most of your Housemates are still dreaming."

"I'm used to getting up early, sir," Aria explained. "My old teacher, Master Velasquez, insisted upon it. He used to make me run six miles before breakfast every morning, I only ran five today. Why? Is that against the rules or something?"

Severus shook his head. "No, but as I said before, it's rare to find a student who favors exercise more than sleep these days. In fact, I can think of several students who might benefit from your example, Miss Lupin." Namely Longbottom, Crabbe, and Goyle, the Potions Master thought.

"Then you don't have some kind of Phys Ed program here, Professor Snape?"

"No, though perhaps we should. A little exercise never hurt anyone. Hogwarts is mainly an academic institution, though we do play Quidditch. Do you like sports, Miss Lupin?"

She shrugged. "Well . . .I've never really played on a team or anything. My dad and I moved around too much for me to go to normal school, so he used to tutor me, or get Master Velasquez to. I know about Quidditch, of course, but I've never played it. Flying on a broom's so awkward compared to . . ." she halted suddenly, a flicker of uneasiness crossing her face. "Uh . . .did my Uncle Remmy tell you about me, sir? That I'm a shifter?"

Severus fought to keep from smiling at the way she referred to Remus. Uncle Remmy indeed! Ha! Now at last I have an excuse to use his nickname and he can't say a thing! Remus always said he hated that name, but he allowed his niece to use it. "Yes, he said you were a shape-slipper, Aria. You were saying that flying a broom was awkward because . . .?"

"Because I can fly ten times better in my hawk form," she answered softly. "On a broom I'm all thumbs, but when I'm a hawk, it's like I'm the wind, sir. If that makes any sense."

"It does, Miss Lupin. And your other form is a cougar, am I right?"

"Yes, sir. And please, call me Aria."

A smile tugged at the corners of Severus's mouth in spite of himself. "I shall, but only when we are alone. In company, it would not be proper for me to address a student by her first name. Even a relative of an old friend."

Aria tilted her head and said, "Uncle Remmy said you two used to be in school together. That you were his best friend, and you helped him by making the Wolfsbane Potion."

"That's true. We were schoolmates and he still is my best friend. I created the Wolfsbane Potion to help him control his werewolf nature along with my late wife, Lily," Severus told her, suppressing a wince as he spoke Lily's name. "He deserved better than to become a monster every full moon."

Aria nodded. "I know. He told me the Wolfsbane makes him safe for awhile. Just as if he were a shifter and not a were."

"It does. With the potion he can change into a full wolf and sleep the full moon through," Severus explained. "But still, he's not a tame animal, Aria, and you should never underestimate him."

"I never would, sir. No one knows more about being wild than I do, Professor Snape. I'm not exactly tame either when I shift, though I keep my own mind."

Severus arched an eyebrow. "How are you fitting in otherwise? Have you told anyone else about your ability?"

Aria glanced away. "No. Not yet. Sometimes . . .when girls learn what I am. . .they act funny around me, like they're afraid or something. Afraid I'll lose it and-and bite them or something stupid like that. Uncle Remmy said I don't have to tell kids about my shifting unless I want to."

"Yes, and I won't force you, child. You have the right to your own privacy. But while your ability is unusual, Aria, I don't think students here will fear it as much as you think."

She looked skeptical. "Last time I told a girl what I was, she looked at me as if I was a beast and ran away, said she didn't hang out with furries," the girl scowled. "That's slang for a shifter, in case you didn't know. If you can name me one student who won't react like that, I'd be surprised."

Severus considered for about half a second, reflecting that Aria's problem was similar to Remus's-people were afraid of her and what she might do in her other shapes. "I know of one person. My son Harry. He would never treat you so disrespectfully. He's also your Uncle Remus's godson. Only Harry calls him Moony."

"Moony!" she exclaimed, then laughed. "What a great name. Did he make it up himself?"

"No, Remus had the name from his school days, it seemed to fit, all things considered." Severus cleared his throat. Then he said, very softly, "I was the one who gave him that name, as a matter of fact. I called him Moony and he called me Sev. My son thinks of him as a sort of uncle as well as his Defense teacher. If you wish, you may do the same. Call me Uncle Severus, or Sev when we are alone, the way we are now. Otherwise continue to address me the way you would any other teacher."

"I understand, sir," she reassured him. "And thank you very much."

"You're welcome, Aria." He beckoned her after him. "Walk with me back to the castle." She did so, walking swiftly to keep up with his long strides. He slowed a bit, allowing her to proceed at a more normal pace. "I trust your prefect gave you a map of the castle and your schedule last night. Keep it on you until you learn the castle, it can be tricky, which is why I've asked Mandy to chaperone you if you need it. Did Remus happen to mention the reason we're all on alert?"

"Yes, Uncle Sev. He said a criminal named Sirius Black was at large, the only one to ever escape the dementors that way."

"That's correct, and he's been spotted nearby, which is why I'm going to insist you not go anywhere alone. Black is an Animagus too, a large black dog."

Aria looked faintly contemptuous. "I could take a dog, sir. No sweat."

"No doubt, but that is not why you're here, child. Most of us know how to fight our own battles. And public dueling and brawling is forbidden here, and if you engage in such things, you'll end up in detention."

"And if that happens, Uncle Remmy will not be happy," said the younger Lupin. "He told me if I get detention with another professor I'll have detention with him too."

"Ah, that is just what I told my son yesterday." Severus said, concealing a smirk. Looks like Moony took a leaf from my book after all.

"What House is Harry in, Uncle Sev?"

"Gryffindor, like your uncle was and his mother."

"Oh." Aria's face fell. "They're our rivals, aren't they?"

"Yes, for the House Cup and in Quidditch, but otherwise it's not forbidden for you to associate with them, child. You may make friends where and how you please, they do not necessarily have to be Slytherins." Severus reassured her.

She brightened at that. Perhaps it wouldn't be so strange then, if she made friends with Harry Snape, despite being in the House of Serpents. In nature, snakes and lions were enemies, but that didn't mean it had to hold true here, Aria reminded herself. "That's good to know."

They had almost reached the castle proper and Severus paused to ask her a few more questions, trying to determine how advanced she was magically, and then he said, "I tell all of my new House members this, child, so pay attention. Slytherins stick together, for the most part, but some of them have nasty tempers and if one of your own is harassing you, come to me and I shall deal with it. If you're having trouble with an assignment, come to me and I shall help you. If you need anything at all, don't hesitate to ask me, Aria. I'm available , any time of the day or night if you need to talk."

"Thank you, sir."

"No need to thank me, Aria. That's part of my job," Severus said briskly. "Now, best you get back and grab a shower before your Housemates use all the hot water and change into more appropriate clothing. I'll see you in class."

"Yes sir." She waved and began to jog, and the last Severus saw of her before she entered his classroom was the flick of her golden brown hair, tumbling free of her hastily constructed knot to fall about her shoulders in a wild riot of curls.

Last year, Harry would have told anyone who asked what his worse subject was that it was definitely potions. Between Malfoy sabotaging his potions and Snape's continuous sarcasm, Harry found it very difficult to concentrate on the subject, much less do well in it. Such was not going to be the case this year, however. Harry had a full six months working one on one with his father, relearning all the Potion Master's exacting procedures and memorizing the formulas for dozens of potions. He was now confident he knew the material and he no longer feared his professor's snarky tongue, especially after Severus's reassurance the night before.

Much to Ron and Hermione's shock, Harry was actually looking forward to his first potions lesson of the term. After bringing an excited Rosie over to Hagrid's to play with Fang, Harry hurried back to the castle and headed straight to the dungeons, where he entered Snape's classroom with his two friends and sat down at his usual lab table.

Soon after the Gryffindors had come in, the Slytherins entered, joking loudly and arguing good naturedly among themselves. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were arguing with Blaise Zabini over a Quidditch move and Millicent Bulstrode was discussing some kind of new beauty potion with her friend Pansy Parkinson. Harry looked up when the last Slytherin entered the classroom.

It was Aria, who had managed to get showered and changed just in time to eat breakfast and then race off to class. She took a seat at an unoccupied table on the Slytherin side of the room and darted a furtive look across the room.

Harry had looked up just as she peered at him and their eyes met.

Green eyes locked with amber ones and something unexpected passed between them.

It was and yet was not quite . . .recognition.

Aria felt something deep within her respond to Harry's innocent green-eyed gaze, heard it whisper in the back of her head, I know you, have always known you, long ago.

Yes, and I know you, replied Harry's subconscious.

An instant later the odd connection vanished, leaving the two teens blinking and wondering what the hell had just happened. Awkwardly, Aria glanced away, and saw Draco Malfoy glaring malevolently at Harry.

"What are you looking at, Potter?" demanded the blond boy.

"None of your business, Malfoy," growled Harry. "And it's not Potter, it's Snape."

"You can call yourself that all you want, but to us you'll always be Potter," Malfoy growled. "Now keep your eyes where they belong, on the ugly Gryffindor chicks."

Harry flushed and half-rose, ready to give Malfoy a piece of his mind.

But Aria beat him to it.

"Mind your own business, Malfoy," she snapped. "You don't tell me what to do, you're not my brother. I can look at whoever I damn well please."

"Not Gryffindor trash. Don't you have any pride, Lupin?" scolded Malfoy.

"Harry's not trash, you arrogant prat!" shouted Ron. "Why I oughta-"

Before Ron could say anything further, Professor Snape swept into the room and the petty quarreling ceased immediately. The strict teacher did not tolerate disputes in his classroom, not even from members of his own House.

The professor pointed his wand at the blackboard and the instructions for a new potion wrote themselves on the board. Before the students could do so much as take out a quill, Severus spoke.

"Before all of you attempt this potion, I want you to pair up with a partner. And not your usual one either. Today you will be partnering a student from an opposite House."

Groans of dismay and shock filled the room.

Severus sent all of them a scowl. "Well, what are you all standing around like statues for? Pair up! Quickly! Anyone not finished with their potion before the end of the period will receive a zero for the day and have to write a makeup essay as well."

Thus warned, the students reluctantly paired up.

Malfoy glared daggers when Harry rose from his chair and made his way cautiously over to Aria. The nerve of the bloody Gryffindor!

"Hi. I'm Harry," said Harry, rather awkwardly.

"Aria. You're the professor's son, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but most of the students didn't know that until a day ago."

"Oh?" Aria tilted her head questioningly.

"I was hidden away as a baby for protection," Harry explained. "It's a long story and I can't tell it now, else my dad will be on my arse."

Aria smirked in amusement. "Later then." She began to copy down the ingredients on the board while Harry set up the instruments.

That lesson they were making a Memory Enhancing Draft, and Aria gathered the major ingredients after she'd finished copying the notes on the board. She handed Harry some sprigs of rosemary to grind while she measured out some grape seed oil. Most of the ingredients in this particular draft were plants and herbs, the only magical enhancer was a small scattering of dragon talon to serve as a binder.

While he mashed herbs in the mortar, Harry asked Aria about where she had lived before coming to Hogwarts. "Did you live in the US? Because you have a slight Southern accent."

Aria's eyes twinkled. "Yeah, I did until I was eight. I lived with my grandmother in New Orleans, Louisiana. After she died, my dad and I moved all over, he was a researcher and a photographer for Magical Beastiary, that's a magical creatures journal. For the last four years though, I've lived in South America, mostly Peru and Brazil, while my dad studied species native to the Amazon rain forest."

"Are there a lot of them? I lived in the States too, for six months, in New Jersey," Harry began, forgetting to concentrate on his potion-making, he was so excited he was actually having a conversation with the pretty girl.

Severus was watching the pairs like a hawk, and he swooped down upon them like a streak of lightning. "Less chatter and more work, Mr. Snape!" he snapped. "Now get to work before I take ten points!"

Harry flushed, wanting to die at being the recipient of a scolding in front of Aria. "Yes sir. Sorry, sir." He quickly returned to grinding the rosemary sprigs.

Severus scowled at their potion in disapproval. "I expect this to be done by the end of the period, if you can manage to remember this is potions class not social hour."

"Yes sir," Aria responded swiftly, knowing he was right to yell at them. She knew better than to discuss personal history in magical lessons. What a way to make an impression, Lupin! She berated herself mentally. Then she returned to stirring the cauldron, ten times clockwise and one counterclockwise.

Severus hid a smile at the way the two jumped to after his reprimand. Guess he hadn't lost his touch after all, even after a six month hiatus. Then he swept off to examine Malfoy and Granger's potion, his cloak billowing like the wings of a night haunt.

"See what I mean?" Harry hissed to his partner after making sure the Potions Master was not looking over at them.

Aria had a slight flush on her cheeks as well. "He's right though. We could've screwed this up by not paying attention." She turned back to her potions manual and they finished making the draft in companionable silence.

At the end of the period, they bottled their samples and brought them up to Snape's desk for him to grade. Then Aria cleaned up their work station with a wave of her hand, eliciting whispers and gasps from the other students, all except for Harry, who already knew that wizards trained in America used wandless magic exclusively.

"She can do wandless magic!" whispered Ron to Hermione. "That's really something. Even you can't do that yet, Hermione."

"Well, I've never tried," said Hermione stiffly, not at all pleased the newcomer could master magic she couldn't. She picked up her bookbag and sailed out of the classroom.

Ron eyed her speculatively. "Looks like someone's got her skirt in a twist," he muttered to Harry as they walked down the hallway.

"Huh?" Harry wasn't paying attention to Ron, he'd been too busy trying to figure out where he could meet Aria again. He wished he'd asked her what her schedule was.

"Hermione, mate!" Ron repeated.

"What about her?"

"I think she's a tad jealous of that new girl, Lupin's niece, ‘cause she can do wandless magic and Hermione can't."

"Her name's Aria, Ron. And she knows wandless magic because that's all they practice in the States. I've even learned some, from Neil."

"Really? Is it hard?"

"Umm . . .yeah, until you learn the right way to focus. It takes getting used to, but it's ten times quicker than using a wand."

"What can you do with it?"

"Quite a bit," admitted his friend, not wanting to tell Ron that he'd learned several combat spells and hexes.

"Would you-I mean-do you think I could learn a bit of it?"

Harry nodded. "I don't see why not. If I've got time after supper, I'll show you some."

Ron smiled. "Great! Now it's off to Divination and just wait till you hear what batty Trelawney predicts in her tea leaves today."

Harry followed Ron up the stairs to Trelawney's tower retreat, only then noticing Hermione wasn't with them. "Where's Hermione?"

"She doesn't have Divination, thinks it's a waste of time. She took Ancient Runes instead," Ron informed him. "She might be right, but I'm going to keep this class, it's the only one you can get away with making up assignments and sleeping almost every class. You'll see." Then he pushed open the door to the Divination teacher's classroom and went inside.

Harry was pleasantly surprised to discover that he had this class as well with Aria, though he could've done without the rest of the Slytherins, especially Malfoy, who seemed to be trying to convince his newest Housemate to go out with him. But as she'd demonstrated last night, Aria was patently uninterested in the suave pureblood, turning him down politely, much to his annoyance.

Draco promptly vowed revenge on Potter, no matter that he called himself a Snape now, and resembled his Head of House. He'd be damned if he lost the girl to one not even of his own House, a Gryffindor no less! When he had the chance he'd tell Pansy to tell Miss Equality For All Lupin to stop fraternizing with the enemy. Pansy had a crush on him as wide as the Thames and she'd do whatever he wanted. The Malfoy heir shot a glacial glare at Harry's back as he sat down on one of the red poofy cushions next to that stupid Weasley. He wished Harry had never come back from America. Things had been perfect until he'd returned, like a bad Knut. He slouched over to a seat, waiting for the Divination teacher to make her usual fluttery entrance from behind her multi-colored beaded curtain.

"Greetings, class!" Trelawney said breathily as she entered from the beaded curtain. She was dressed in her customary layers of multi-hued scarves and a printed skirt and white blouse and had a shockingly electric blue scarf about her head, pulling back her rather frizzy brown hair. But the oddest thing about her, in Harry's opinion, was the huge pair of spectacles perched on the teacher's nose, which magnified her eyes until she looked vaguely like a drunken owl.

"Welcome back, all of you! I trust you had a nice holiday." She came to stand before Harry. "The Headmaster has informed me that you were once known as Harry Potter, is that correct?"

"Yes, James was my stepdad, Professor." Harry explained, wondering how many times he was going to have to go over this. Why was it so hard for everyone to remember his name was Snape now? "But my last name's Snape now, like my dad's."

"Indeed. But a change of name will not save you from destiny, Mr.-ah-Snape," Trelawney intoned mystically.

Harry gave her a slightly puzzled glance, hoping to worm some information out of her. "Professor? I don't understand."

"You will, boy. You will." Then she swirled away and went over to the Slytherin side of the room to greet Aria, who thought the witch resembled some of the gypsy fortune casters she'd seen in the bazaars in Brazil.

Ron elbowed Harry in the ribs. "See? Totally bonkers."

Harry was inclined to agree with him, except the teacher had predicted correctly at least once. And he was determined to see what else the Seer knew about the future she had predicted. Anything to give him an edge over Voldemort.

Trelawney began handing out teacups and instructed them to add a small amount of a special blend of tea leaves to the bottom then swirl it about three times and look into the cup and try and identify the patterns therein.

Ron bit his lip and pulled out his copy of Unfogging the Future and flipped it to the section on deciphering tea leaf patterns.

Harry pulled his out also and tried to make sense of the black blobs of illustrations, they all looked like a toddler had gotten a bottle of ink and splashed it across the page. How can anybody make sense out of this? He wondered, squinting hard to see if maybe that changed anything. It didn't.

Then he peered at his teacup and at first saw nothing but tea leaves, slightly damp. "Ron?" he called to his friend, who was busily scribbling on his parchment. "What does your teacup show? I can't make bloody heads or tails out of mine."

Ron looked up from his paper. "Neither can I, Harry. I'm just making stuff up as I go. Put in lots of bad luck and stuff like that, she eats it up."

Harry chewed his lower lip thoughtfully. He swirled his teacup slightly, and glared down at it. Wait . . .the leaves appeared to make a recognizable shape now.

It looked like . . . a dog. A black dog.

"Ron! What's a black dog mean?"

But before Ron could consult his text, Professor Trelawney came over to look at their results and gave a sudden scream, her hand going to her mouth.

Harry nearly fell off his cushion. "Professor? What's the matter?"

Trelawney pointed one slender ringed finger at him and said in a dreadfully shrill tone, "Oh you poor dear! You have . . .have drawn the Grim! Such a tragedy . . .I warned your father, I did . . .!"

"The Grim? What's that?" Harry demanded, growing nervous at the other's reaction. "And what do you mean you warned my father? Warned him of what?"

"That tragedy was stalking you," answered the Divination teacher. "And this proves it!" She stabbed her hand down at Harry's tea cup. "The Grim in your cup means only one thing! It is fated that you shall die within the year!"

Harry gaped at her. Ron groaned. Lavender Brown and the Patil twins started sniffling. Malfoy looked like Christmas had come early. But only Aria did not react with horror or shock.

Instead she half rose and came to look at Harry's teacup. "Professor, the Grim doesn't always portend death," she began.

Trelawney whirled on her. "Of course it does! I am a Seer, do you think I don't know my symbols?" she cried, affronted.

Aria stood her ground. "Begging your pardon, professor, but my gran could See a bit and she taught me that the Grim portends great change and misfortune, but not always death."

"Humph!" Trelawney sniffed. "Well, might I remind you, Miss Lupin, that your grandmother is not here now to share her predictions with us, and as the only qualified Seer among us, I say my initial reading of this stands. You, Harry Snape, shall die within the year!"

She pronounced this in a deep sepulchral tone that made Harry shiver, even though he wasn't sure if he believed the Divination teacher.

Trelawney eyed him sadly. "I would suggest, Mr. Snape, that you get your affairs in order, if you take my meaning."

"Uh, sure, whatever," Harry muttered, feeling a bit sick. This was not at all what he'd imagined when he'd signed up for this class.

Trelawney turned about and went to examine Lavender's teacup and Aria rolled her eyes and said quietly, "Don't listen to her, Harry. Tea leaves are an unstable medium, they don't divine half as well as tarot cards. Least that's what my gran and her Gullah friend Lacey used to say. Lacey used to read cards for half the people in the French Quarter, Muggle as well as wizard. And half of her predictions were right on the money."

"Can you do it?" Ron wanted to know.

"Nope. I don't have the talent, but I do remember Lacey telling me that the Grim was a sign of misfortune, not always death. So I wouldn't lose all hope." She frowned at the Divination teacher's back. "It's cruel of her to tell you absolutely you will die, Harry. Like you were a dead man walking. Divination isn't an absolute, not always."

Harry smiled. "Well, thanks for telling me, Aria. Better go and sit down, before you lose points."

"Right," she returned to her seat just as Trelawney turned back around and headed over to her table.

Harry scowled down at the black dog-shaped blob in his teacup and thought that perhaps his father had been right when he called Divination a colossal waste of time.

After that depressing prediction, the whole class was mildly unsettled, and Trelawney recommended that they meditate for the last forty-five minutes. Ron smirked knowingly and whispered, "This is the part where you can take a nap." He leaned back on his cushion and closed his eyes.

Shrugging, Harry did the same, wondering if he should tell his dad about Trelawney's prediction. He decided to follow Ron's example and sleep on it. Maybe when he woke up he'd have the answer.

But the only thing Harry got out of his nap was a crick in his neck from leaning back against the wall and several pitying looks from Neville, Lavender, and the Patil twins as he rose and shoved his Divination text (useless thing!) into his bag. Great, just great! He thought angrily. Bad enough I was the Boy Who Lived, now I'm the Boy Who's Gonna Die! Just what I needed. The Prophet's going to have a field day with this one, just like they did when they found out I was really a Snape.

There had been a front page article about his shocking parentage this morning, Hermione had shown him over breakfast. Potter a Fake! Harry Snape-the Shocking Story! screamed the headlines, and below that a slightly fuzzy baby picture of an infant Harry with the caption Who's really my daddy? Harry had been tempted to chuck it in the fireplace. But he'd restrained himself.

Now this. He reached over and shook Ron awake. "C'mon, Ron, it's lunch. Get up!"

Ron blinked sleepily, then hastily rose to his feet.

As they made their way out of the tower, they heard Malfoy call, "Tough luck, Potter! When you kick the bucket, I'll make sure my father sends your father his condolences. Or maybe a bouquet of forget-me-nots!"

Half of Draco's Slytherin buddies roared at the blond's wit.

Harry spun around, fixing the sniggering wizard with a deadly glare, reminiscent of his father at his worst. "Shove it up your arse, Malfoy! And the name's Snape!"

"If you say so-Potter!" Still grinning nastily, Draco turned to Aria, who was passing in front him and caught the sleeve of her robe. "Half a minute, Lupin. Now do you see why you shouldn't waste your time with Potter, sweetheart? Who wants to kiss a walking corpse, eh?"

Aria eyed him the way one would an annoying species of mosquito. She jerked her sleeve free and said coldly, "I'd sooner kiss a corpse than your smarmy lips, Malfoy!"

Draco went red. "You don't mean that, Lupin! I'm ten times the man that Potter is, you've no need to go slumming with a Gryffindor who doesn't even know the name of the man who fathered him. Guess it was too dark for your mum to tell, huh?"

"I know who my father is, you sneaking git!" shouted Harry, clenching a fist. Ron grabbed him before he could go for Malfoy.

"Harry! Don't, he wants you to take a swing at him, mate. Now calm down."

Harry forced himself to relax, his temper seething. It wouldn't do for him to get detention on his first day back.

But Aria didn't need any help defending herself. "You want to be a girl's boy toy so bad, Malfoy, why don't you find Pansy? I heard she's got a real thing for you! Because I am not interested, got me?" She spoke those last words right in Malfoy's face. "Now go peddle yourself somewhere else!"

Then she spun on her heel and walked off, leaving Draco gaping after her, utterly humiliated.

Ron whooped. "Guess she told you, eh, Boy Toy Malfoy!"

Seamus, Neville, and Dean cracked up, and Harry wanted to cheer. Thank Merlin for Aria Lupin! They made their way down to the Great Hall, still chuckling at the girl's pointed remarks and Draco's stunned expression. It was a rare day when the scion of the Malfoy House got told off so publically by a girl, no less!

• * * * * *

"The old fraud predicted WHAT!" shouted Severus that same night, when Harry had made his way down to his father's quarters to get an hour's peace and quiet before going to bed. The common room was too noisy all of a sudden for him to study, so he'd opted to retreat to the haven of his father's rooms, accompanied by Rosie. "Told you were going to die, did she?" Severus shook his head, looking utterly disgusted, as he paced up and down in front of the fireplace.

"She said she saw a Grim in my teacup, Dad."

"Pay no attention to her nonsensical ramblings, son. Trelawney's always been fond of predicting doom and gloom, it's typical of her Welsh heritage. They love melodrama. She's predicted the death of one of her students every year since Dumbledore hired her and all of them are still breathing."

"Every year?" Harry repeated, feeling marginally better at his father's matter-of-fact words.

"Yes, she loves to get her students all shook up by predicting the worst, and then when it fails to occur, she'll say it was a fortunate coincidence. Humph! Don't believe anything she tells you, Harry. She sees dead people in the shower, probably."

His son burst out laughing at that comment, imagining Trelawney being spied on by Moaning Myrtle. "Good one, Dad."

The professor smirked. "Now, if you're done telling me Divination disaster stories, might I suggest you get started on your homework, young man?" He tapped Harry's books pointedly. "Because you don't want to earn a detention with me your first week of class, now do you?" he purred warningly.

Harry groaned. "No sir." Then he opened his book and got to work. He'd forgotten that the down side to studying in his father's quarters was having to deal with his professor's perfectionist insistence on completing his homework in a timely fashion, instead of hastily scribbling it down inbetween periods.

Satisfied that his son was working and not loafing about, Severus seated himself on the couch and began reading a new potions periodical, Rosie lying across his feet, sleeping soundly.

For several long moments the only sound in the room were the scratch of quill on parchment and the beagle's soft snores.

Before he knew it, Severus felt his eyes shutting and between one paragraph and the next, he drifted off. When he awoke some hours later, he found the fire died down to embers and a soft fuzzy green blanket covering him. Sitting up, he discovered a small piece of parchment lying next to him.

See you tomorrow. I finished my homework.

Good night, Dad.

Love,

Harry

A smile ghosted across the Potion Master's lean features as he tucked the parchment into his robes and then made his way into his bedroom. He was surprised that Harry hadn't decided to spend the night here as well, but then supposed it was good that he sleep in his dorm, like the other students. After all, he was a teenager not a toddler that needed to be held and rocked to sleep. Severus smiled wistfully, remembering those long ago days when he and Lily were young with an overactive bundle of mischief that refused to nap unless Severus sat in a rocking chair and patted his back while Lily sang a lullaby.

How times have changed, he mused. Now instead of me putting him to sleep, I fall asleep and he tucks a blanket around me instead. You'd be proud of him, my darling. He bent and kissed the picture of Lily that rested upon his nightstand, the way he did every night, before sliding into bed and turning out the lamp.

Three days after Trelawney's prediction, Harry found himself awakened at practically the crack of dawn by Rosie whimpering urgently.  The young wizard was sorely tempted to just roll over and go back to sleep, but the thought of having to clean up after his dog because he was too lazy to take her outside convinced him to abandon his warm nest of blankets.

He hastily pulled on his trainers, a pullover, and some faded sweatpants before clipping the leash to Rosie's collar and taking her outside. Rosie gratefully rushed over to the nearest tree. 

Harry rubbed his eyes and peered at the sunlit streaked sky.  It was far too early to be up, he thought grumpily.  Only his father and his crazy beagle enjoyed waking up at this hour of the morning.  He pulled off his glasses and rubbed them with his shirt tail, then jammed them back on. 

To his astonishment, he saw a figure moving across the lawn towards the castle, running with an easy lope.  "Who in blazes is that?" he muttered, wondering if he were seeing things.

But no, Rosie jerked her head up from sniffing the grass and whimpered, her tail wagging frantically.  She clearly recognized the figure jogging along the path from Hagrid's cottage.  Harry glanced at his watch.  It was ten to six in the morning, for Merlin's sake! Whoever was running at this hour was seriously touched in the head.

Then the figure blurred in mid-stride and Harry gasped as the runner became a sleek golden cougar.    

"Merlin!" he exclaimed, whistling in awe as the cougar bounded around the lawn and the greenhouse, moving with the unbelievable grace and quickness that only a cat could manage. 

Rosie whined, backing against Harry's legs.  Her nose told her that the human she had smelled previously was gone and in its place was an unfamiliar rank odor of a large predator. 

Harry knelt to scratch the puppy between the ears.  "It's okay, Rosie," he soothed.  "I won't let the cougar hurt you, girl."

Rosie whimpered and licked Harry's fingers, snuggling close to her master for reassurance.  Harry continued to stroke the agitated beagle all the while watching the cougar running in and out of the trees in admiration. 

But the cougar drew her head up as the breeze brought Harry and Rosie's scent to her nostrils and between one breath and the next a golden glow covered the feline.  When it vanished, Aria stood in the center of the path, her amber eyes sparkling, waving at her friend and his dog.

Harry waved back, wishing, not for the first time, that he knew how to shift shapes.  It looked like so much fun.  "Hi, Aria!"

"Morning, Harry," she greeted, jogging up to him.  Her golden-brown hair was unraveling itself, as always, from the knot she had it in, and straggling haphazardly about her face, in spite of her rainbow sweatband.  "Didn't think anybody else around here was crazy enough to wake up at this hour except me.  Or maybe Professor Snape."

Harry chuckled.  "Yeah, he's another one who gets up with the birds.  But I didn't have a choice.  Her Highness needed to go out," he indicated Rosie with his foot, who had quit leaning against his leg and now bounded forward to say hello to Aria in her typical happy-go-lucky beagle fashion.

"Hello, baby," crooned the girl, laughing as the dog licked her whole face, wagging her tail so hard it blurred.  "It's not your fault your master's a slug-a-bed, now is it?"

"Hey! I am not," objected Harry.  "I'm up, aren't I?"

"With an attitude, Mr. Snape," teased Remus's niece.

"Ha! You think I'm bad, just wait till you see my dad when he's grouchy first period," Harry warned, smiling.  "He could make Oscar the Grouch look like a ray of sunshine."

Aria raised an eyebrow.  "You're putting me on."

"No, I'm not.  Honest.  Just don't tell him I said that," he added hastily.

"Why not?"

"Because I'll get in trouble."

"What will he do, send you to your room?" laughed the girl.

"Worse.  He'll . . .uh . . .do what he did last time I called him that."

"What?"

"Tickle me until I almost wet myself," Harry admitted, flushing.  "Only he promised me that if I ever called him that again, next time he'd tickle me with a feather for fifteen minutes.  He told me he did it to your uncle once and nearly made him wet himself."

"No way!" Aria gasped, her eyes glowing.  Then she started to laugh.  "Oh, but that's too funny! Oh my God!"

Her laughter was infectious, and Harry found himself joining in.  Rosie barked excitedly and ran in circles around them, wrapping the leash about their legs and making them nearly fall.

"Hey!" Harry yelled, reaching out his hands just in time to catch Aria before she fell on top of him.  "Quit it, you crazy dog! Uh, sorry about this, Aria." He felt himself blush even redder.

But Aria just shook her head, for truth be told, she didn't really mind being in Harry's arms.  But then she felt a bit awkward and tried to detangle herself from the leash, which was wound tightly around their ankles. She snapped her fingers at the beagle, trying to get Rosie to run the opposite way around them and so free them from the leash, which was slowly cutting off their circulation.

Rosie however, refused to move, being contrary, or perhaps she was playing matchmaker, in her own insane beagle way.  She gazed up at the two, tongue lolling, smiling her happy beagle grin, utterly oblivious to the fact that two of her favorite people were slowly experiencing the excruciating sensation of having their feet amputated.

          "Ahhh!" Harry groaned.  "Er . . .Rosie, I'd like to be able to walk to class on my own two feet, you crazy hound!"

          Aria grimaced as well.  "Hold on a second, Harry." She muttered a summoning charm, and a strip of beef jerky appeared in her hand.  "Look, Rosie! Want a treat, girl?"

          The beagle perked up at the word "treat" and drooled all over their shoes as Aria held the treat just out of reach of the dog's very sensitive nose.  Rosie bayed and tried to snatch the treat from Aria's hand, but the girl was too quick, and made a circling motion with it, causing the beagle to run around them in a circle, unwinding the leash.

          After three or four revolutions, the leash was unwound and Harry and Aria stepped free of the constricting leather cord, and Aria told Rosie to sit, then gave her the treat.  It vanished down the beagle's throat in a twinkling.

Harry shook his head and knelt to massage some feeling back into his feet.  "Dog, you are more trouble than you're worth sometimes," he scolded gently.  "First you wake me up at the crack of dawn and then you nearly cut my feet and Aria's feet off with your stupid leash.  What am I going to do with you?"

Rosie just gave him one of her patented wide-eyed looks, the kind that never failed to make his irritation melt into a puddle of goo. 

"Take her off the leash next time, Mr. Brilliant," suggested his friend with a grin.  "Animals deserve to run free once in awhile."

"Right." He reached out and unsnapped the leash, setting the little dog free.  With the charm Severus had placed on her collar, Rosie couldn't wander off the grounds, and the charm would protect her from most natural and magical predators by Apparating the dog away from them if one should happen to corner the little beagle and attempt to harm her.  It was a nifty bit of spellwork, and Severus had admitted the charm was one Lily had invented and taught him.  Lily had been an ace at charms as well as potions.

It was more proof that Severus really loved the little dog, for all his grumbling about how the dog was a menace and if she chewed one more pair of his boots he was going to invent a potion that used beagle parts.  Harry had been reasonably sure Severus was kidding when he'd said that . . .then again, he'd been furious after Rosie had chewed his best pair of suede boots, though how she'd gotten them out of a locked closet was a mystery to both of them.  Perhaps beagles learned a bit of magic by association with their wizard masters?   

Rosie sniffed eagerly, then her tail stiffened and she gave a soft bay and began running through the grass, trailing some luckless rabbit or squirrel or some other animal.  Harry watched the hunting dog until all he could see was the tip of her tail. 

"Wonder what she's got this time?"

"A rabbit, most likely," answered Aria knowingly. 

"How can you tell? Can you, uh, understand animals?"

"No, what do you think I am, Dr.  DoLittle?"

"You know about Muggle fiction?"

"Sure, my mom's grandparents were Muggles, and I used to spend a good part of my summer with them.  They were ultra rich and they had every kid's book known to man in their library.  I read that one when I was seven. How do you know about Muggle fiction, Harry? Weren't both of your parents wizards?"

"Umm . . .yeah, but my grandparents on my mum's side were Muggles and so was my dad's father.  But I was raised by my aunt and uncle mostly, after my mum died." Harry explained, telling her of how he'd been hidden away when he was two as James's adopted son and how Severus had lost all memory of his child, so he thought Harry was James's real son, until he'd received Lily's last gift to him-the Pensieve with his true memories. 

Aria listened avidly until he was finished then said, "Wow, you've had some crazy life, Snape.  Kind of like mine, now that I think about it.  Both of us are orphans, sort of, with one parent dead and the other alive.  ‘Cept in my case , my mom's not right in the head, so she can't take care of me like your dad can you."

"Merlin, what happened to her?" Harry blurted before he thought better of it.

Aria's eyes darkened.  "She was stung by a manticore.  The poison . . .she had a bad allergic reaction to it, worse than normal . . .it damaged her brain . . . so my dad had to put her in a special hospital.  She doesn't really remember anything, the poison regressed her to about five, so she thinks her parents are still alive and . . .well, there's not much the Healers can do for her.  I was nine when it happened and the year before that, my Gran Lara died.  She was my great-grandma, really, but I never called her that.  I never really knew my dad's side of the family, he didn't get along that well with them, not even Uncle Remmy."

"Why not? Remus is real easy to like."

"I know, but Dad had issues with his werewolf side, he wanted Uncle Remmy to agree to be a test subject for an article and he wouldn't and Dad's asking made my grandparents mad and they told my dad not to come around until he could treat his brother like a person.  So Dad left and never went back.  Least I never thought he did." Aria sighed.  "I loved my dad, don't get me wrong, but sometimes . . .he could be an honest to God jerk.  Imagine letting your whole family go just because you couldn't swallow your pride and admit you were wrong to treat your kid brother like a lab specimen.  I could never do that.  If I ever had a brother or a sister, I'd never act like that."

"Me either." Harry said quietly.  "I'm real sorry about your parents.  D'you ever see your mum?"

"Sometimes, like once a year maybe, on Christmas or sometimes her birthday, when Dad took me to the hospital.  We used to bring her flowers and candy, she loves Godiva Chocolate and roses.  But we never stayed very long, I think it really bothered my dad that she couldn't remember him, and he made me leave after a few hours."

Harry remained silent, thinking to himself that it was rather selfish of her father to deprive his daughter of her mother, even if her mother didn't remember her, Aria still needed to see her.  And the woman was his wife, and he should have been able to handle a day in her company, even if it did make him sad that she couldn't remember him.  He was an adult, he should have known how to handle it better.  My dad would've, Harry thought with a small glow of pride.  Severus had never shrank from unpleasantness, no matter how much it bothered him personally, else he would have never been Dumbledore's chief spy for so long.

"Well, I guess whether or not I see her will be up to Uncle Remmy now, seeing as he's my guardian," Aria said matter-of-factly.  "God, but that sounds so weird.  He used to play hide-and-seek and stuff with me when I was little and I haven't seen him since I was seven and now he's like my father, kind of, and I really don't mind all that much . . .but God, it's strange . . ."

"You don't like being at Hogwarts then?"

"No, I really like it here.  I'm glad I can stay here for the rest of the term, we moved around so much after mom's accident that I always felt like a gypsy, know what I mean? I like being able to wake up in the same place for longer than a week and see the same people.  Except Draco Malfoy.  Him I could do without, the arrogant snotrag."

Harry couldn't help himself.  He started laughing at the way she described Draco, because it was so true and yet hearing it come out of her mouth was so funny. 

"You and me both.  He's been a first class pain in my arse since I was a first year.  I might've ended up in Slytherin if it weren't for meeting him."

"Oh? Too bad.  Figures, he'd screw everything up," Aria remarked.  "I swear, if he starts with me one more time about how Slytherins shouldn't associate with Gryffindors I'm gonna clock him one.  Who the hell does he think he is, my father?"

"No, he just wants to be able to control you, the way he does every other girl in his year. They all worship the ground he walks on."

"Ugh! Not me! He can go whistle Dixie for all I care, the spoiled brat! I hate his sort and I wouldn't go out with him for all the gold in Gringotts."

Harry smiled upon hearing that.  It was music to his ears.  For once, it looked like the Malfoy name and money wasn't able to get Draco everything he wanted.  "By the way, I love the name you called him.  Malfoy the Boy Toy.  Brilliant!"

Aria threw back her head and laughed.  "Yeah, that was pretty good.  Don't ask me where I came up with it though.  Must have been divine inspiration or something.  Still, it does fit."

"Like a pair of custom dress robes," chuckled Harry wickedly. 

From far away, he heard Rosie baying.  He cocked his head.  "Sounds like she's treed something.  Want to fly with me and find out?" He summoned his Meteor with a quick wave of his wand. 

"Why not?"

"Call your broom then."

"Don't need to, Snape.  Why would I use a broom when I've got wings?"

Harry was puzzled.  "Wings? What d'you mean, Lupin?"

"You mean your dad didn't tell you I'm a shape-slipper?"

Harry shook his head. 

"That means I can change into more than one animal shape at will."

"I saw you become a whopping big cat-a cougar is what you Americans call it, right? I saw one on Animal Planet." Harry clarified.

"Yup.  And my other shape is this one."

The same blazing golden glow enveloped her for a second time and before Harry could say Quidditch, Aria had become a beautiful golden hawk. 

"Oh! Awesome!"

The hawk looked at him and made a soft chirruping noise, almost like laughter.  Then it launched itself in the air, circling above him impatiently. 

Harry mounted his broom, understanding the challenge the hawk silently was implying.  "Let's see who's faster, Lupin, my broom or your wings!" he called, then kicked the Meteor into its fastest speed.

The broom blasted off like the asteroid it was named for, carrying Harry through the air at an unbelievable speed.  For one instant, he thought he'd lost the hawk with his sudden streak of speed.

But no, here she came, flying at an astonishing speed, a blur of golden feathers, to shoot past him with a sharp screech.

The Gryffindor Seeker gaped.  Bloody hell, no hawk can fly that fast!

Except this was no ordinary hawk, he reminded himself, and set out to catch her.

He soon discovered that Aria could fly like a whirlwind ace, better even than a Seeker.  She knew instinctively how to use the wind and the air currents to her best advantage and she could turn and corner like a pro.  Harry was both amazed and chagrined, for no student at Hogwarts had ever managed to outfly him before. 

Merlin, it's a good thing she can't fly like this on a broom, she'd win the Quidditch Cup for sure if she was made Seeker.  That'd really get Malfoy's goat! He leaned forward over the broomstick, trying his hardest to pass the gleaming golden avian.

But Aria was not willing to give him an inch, and she tapped into a jetstream, allowing her to fly without expending too much effort, and kept her three foot lead. 

She soared in graceful spirals over the grounds, her hawk-sharp sight picking out the small tricolor beagle easily from among the stand of poplars. 

Rosie was baying triumphantly and standing up on her hindlegs, pointing her nose at the squirrel she had chased up the tree. 

Aria trilled a congratulations, circling above the tree and startling the squirrel into doomed immobility. 

The squirrel must have assumed it was time to meet the Great Squirrel God that morning, trapped between a beagle below and a hawk above.  Then, if that were not enough, here came another human doing what no human should be doing, flying!

Harry pulled up just before the poplar and noted the frightened squirrel clinging to the branch.  "This really isn't your day, huh, squirrel?" he said sympathetically.  "Don't worry, you're not going to be supper.  At least not today." He swooped down and called Rosie. 

The beagle came after Harry whistled a few times, reluctant to give up the chase.  Harry conjured up her sling and once she was fastened securely in the harness, took off.  "Let's see what you think of this, Miss Lupin! The amazing Seeker Snape and his awesome flying beagle!"

Aria gave a startled squawk after seeing Rosie accompanying her master, but she was not fazed for long and quickly hastened after them, until she was flying level with them, her yellow eyes glittering with merriment.

Harry flew with Rosie for about ten minutes until he looked at his watch and realized he'd be late for class unless he hurried back to the castle.  He bit back a groan and quickly landed, unwrapping Rosie from her sling. 

"Go play with Hagrid and Fang, girl!" he instructed.  "Hey, Aria!" he called up to the circling shape.  "We'd better get back, before we're late for class."  Sure hope she can hear me and understand me way up there.

Apparently, she could, for a moment later she glided down and with another flash of golden light became a girl once more.

"Oh, that was fun! I haven't flown like that since I left the rain forest and my old teacher, Master Velasquez!" She was grinning from ear to ear. 

"Me either," Harry admitted.  "You can fly wicked fast, Aria.  No wonder you don't use a broom."

"Umm . . .yeah, well, you're not bad either, Snape," she said, and blushed.

"Thanks." He began to walk back up to the castle quickly.  Maybe getting up at the crack of dawn wasn't so terrible after all.

• * * * * * *

Normally, Rosie would have done as her Beta-Master-Harry had ordered and gone to play with Fang, the way she usually did when he went to sit inside and do nothing but play with that strange bird feather all day, which she wasn't allowed to chew.  But Harry had been in such a rush to get to class that he'd forgotten one very important thing.

He'd forgotten to feed Rosie.

Now any beagle owner will tell you that a beagle's greatest motivator is their stomach.  Beagles love to eat, anything and often.  Rosie was no exception, and right then her stomach was crying out for food.  So she followed her nose down to Hagrid's cottage, where an enticing smell of eggs and bacon lingered. 

But when she scratched upon the door of the hut and barked, the big gamekeeper didn't open the door.  Rosie sniffed deeply, then sat down and whined.  Her superior nose told her that Hagrid and Fang were not at home, and the lovely smell of breakfast was only a lingering scent in the air. 

The disappointed beagle sniffed and snuffled all about the cottage for scraps, but found nothing save one of Hagrid's smelly old boots.  And while the boot was good for chewing and big enough for her to lie in while she gnawed a lace, it did nothing to quiet her complaining belly.  She was hungry and getting hungrier by the second.

Harry didn't realize that Hagrid had gone to London that morning to apply for an appeal for his pet hippogriff, Buckbeak, who was sentenced to death for injuring Draco, thanks to Lucius's influence with the Board of Governors.

Bored with Hagrid's boot, Rosie trotted back to the castle, on a hunt for food. 

Her nose led her down to Severus's quarters where she was usually assured of a meal, but to her dismay her Alpha-Dad's door was locked tight and no amount of barking and scratching brought him to open it.  The forlorn beagle was getting desperate.

She raced down the corridor and up the stairs to the main floor of the castle.  Her nose quickly led her to Mrs. Norris's bowl of milk, which Filch had left for the finicky cat in the Trophy Room.  The milk filled her stomach slightly, but it was no substitute for actual food, like a steak, or chicken, or a chocolate cupcake.

Rosie knew enough to avoid the staircases, they moved without warning, and she had gotten trapped on one her second day at Hogwarts and never forgotten it.  She growled warningly at the tricky stairs before bypassing them totally and heading into the Great Hall, where the kids were usually eating and could always be persuaded by a paw or a glance to feed her something from their lunches or dinner. 

But it was between periods and the house elves had not yet set out lunch in the hall, so Rosie's investigation turned up naught but dust bunnies.  She quartered the hall methodically, searching for the tiniest crumb, but there was nothing anywhere.  The little beagle whuffed exasperatedly and left the hall, bounding up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower, where she recalled she had left a half-gnawed rawhide on Harry's bed, under the covers.

But the portrait hole refused to open (the Fat Lady didn't understand beagle) and once again Rosie was at loose ends. 

By now the very bored and hungry beagle would have cheerfully eaten socks, and she wandered the castle hoping to come upon anyone willing to feed her.  She discovered McGonagall's tartan scarf in the teacher's lounge and contented herself with nibbling an end half-heartedly before deciding wool wasn't quite what she wanted and going off to see if the kids had returned to the hall yet.

Finding the place still deserted, Rosie heaved a sigh and resigned herself to waiting.  So she curled up under Snape's chair beneath the staff table and did the third favorite activity of a beagle-she took a nap. 

An hour or so later, Rosie was awakened by the sound of many feet entering the hall, and many voices talking at once.  She panted and shook her floppy ears, getting to her feet and poking her nose out from under the staff table. 

Students were drifting into the hall in twos and threes, discussing their classes, groaning over their homework or the detentions they'd earned, and then sitting down at the long tables for lunch.  

The Slytherin tables were closest to the staff table and so it was there Rosie crept first, slipping beneath the nearest table to await the coming of a student with food who might be persuaded to drop some to a begging beagle who was starving. 

A bookbag was dropped down next to her, but the only thing inside of it were books and ink and quills, all things which she'd been trained not to chew by both Harry and Severus.  Two more bookbags were dumped opposite her and three pairs of shoes shoved themselves beneath the table, narrowly missing stepping on her tail and paws. 

Rosie glared indignantly at the three pairs of black shoes, which were good quality leather, as the dog knew perfectly well, being a connoisseur of shoes.  Honestly, why was it that humans never learned to watch where they put their great big feet?

"Can you believe it, Crabbe?" Draco asked his best mate.  "That big oaf Hagrid thinks he can win an appeal from the court for that vicious beast of his.  After the mess it made of my arm, he's lucky my father didn't come here immediately and blow it away.  He's gone to London to give a statement, if you can imagine that!" Malfoy laughed nastily.  "Can you just see it-the big dumbass in front of the magistrate, trying to act like he knows how to string two sentences together." Draco sniggered, then made his voice deeper, imitating Hagrid's speech.  "Yer Honor-I-I jes want ter tell you ‘bout my hippogriff here, he's really not dangerous, all he did was give the boy a scratch like-nothin' life threaten'.  Please spare him, Yer Honor, please, he's like me own brother . . .!"

Crabbe and Goyle joined in as Malfoy laughed and mocked the poor half-giant.  All of them regarded the newly made professor as an inferior due to his lowly status as a gamekeeper and the fact he had once been expelled wrongly from Hogwarts and was no longer permitted to practice magic.

Draco continued in this vein for a few more minutes, gloating about how his father was going to put the great oaf in his place, and scowling over the fact that the house elves had not yet served lunch and it was almost quarter past twelve.  "What are they waiting for, bloody Christmas?"

Rosie was also wondering when the food was going to arrive, she was tempted to start gnawing on Malfoy's shoe, which was right in front of her nose and smelled delicious. 

Just then, Draco's eagle owl flew into the hall with a large parcel in its claws.

The Slytherin's face lit up.

"Oh good, my mother's sent me a care package.  Probably her usual assortment of cakes and pastries from Phyllida's Bakery," he told his friends, who were practically drooling at the mention of the very exclusive and expensive bakery that catered only to the most influential families in the wizarding world. 

The eagle owl landed with a soft hoot directly in front of his master, and Draco fed him an owl treat and stroked him briefly.  "Thanks, Hurricane.  Now off with you."

The owl took wing, leaving Draco to his package of sweets.

Draco eagerly unwrapped the parcel.  It contained, as he'd known it would, a large white box with Phyllida's logo on it-a three-tiered cake and a stylized P.

Crabbe and Goyle were practically salivating all over the table, giving Draco pleading glances.  "Uh, Draco . . .can we have a taste too?" asked Goyle.

"Maybe," allowed their leader.

Unknown to him, the beagle beneath the table had also smelled the box of sweets.

By now Rosie was ravenous and a ravenous beagle is a dangerous thing.

Before Draco could so much as break the red string and undo the lid of the box, Rosie had sprang upon the bench and onto the table.  When food was in the offing, the dog could move as quickly as a Seeker who had spotted a Snitch.  Not pausing to acknowledge Draco, Rosie closed her mouth over the string and dragged the box off the table, jumping onto the floor and trotting away with it.

Draco remained with his mouth open.

Then he shouted, loud enough to be heard all over the hall, "HEY! You bloody thief! Come back with my sweets, you rotten mutt!"

Heads turned and students watched in gleeful delight as Draco pursued the beagle, who was running as quick as her little legs could carry her away from the irate boy, the box of sweets gripped tightly between her teeth, bumping against the floor occasionally.

"Go Rosie!" cheered several Gryffindors, for whom the little hound had become almost a mascot since Harry had introduced her to them. 

"Looks like your food's grown legs, Malfoy!" hooted a seventh-year Ravenclaw girl.

"Run home, little doggie!" howled another, a fourth-year Hufflepuff boy.

Rosie simply wanted to find a place to hide with her forbidden treat and thus she ducked under the tables, hauling the box after her.  The box was getting battered by this time from being dragged along the floor and the string was fraying.

Draco continued to scream at the dog and try to grab her tail, but the beagle was too quick and slipped under one side of the Ravenclaw table and out the other like greased lightning. 

By now the entire hall was roaring with laughter at seeing the high-and-mighty Draco outwitted by a lowly dog, who was smart enough to evade the other with a box nearly the same size as she was. 

"Stupid bloody BEAGLE!" howled Draco, now very red-faced.  He drew his wand. 

Rosie snuck out from beneath the Hufflepuff table and began to make her way towards the entrance, the box bumping along the floor with every step.

"Oi, Draco!" shouted Goyle, pointing.  "There she goes! By the door!"

Draco spun around and bolted for the dog, who ran gamely for the exit, amid the urging of the students watching. 

But the string about the box had enough of being abused and it snapped.  The box tumbled along the floor and the lid popped open, scattering cream puffs and napoleons and all manner of custard tarts and chocolates all over the floor.

Rosie, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, began to gobble up the sweets scattered in her path.

"You stupid mutt!" howled an enraged Draco.  "I'll teach you to eat my food, you bloody stray bitch!"

He pointed his wand at the little beagle, who was too preoccupied with eating to realize the danger she was in, and started to say a nasty jinx.

That was the sight that met Harry's eyes as he entered the Great Hall along with Ron, Hermione, and Aria.

Reacting with the battle-ready reflexes Severus had been training into him for the past three weeks, Harry shouted a Disarming Charm.  "Expelliarmus!"

Draco's wand flew out of his hand, and the blond turned about to see who had dared to hex him, only to find himself face to face with a very angry Harry Snape.

"What's the bloody idea, Malfoy?" snarled Harry, his green eyes smoldering with the infamous Snape temper.  "How dare you try and hex my dog?"

"Sod off, Potter!" spat Malfoy, stomping over to the beagle and aiming a kick at the dog.  "I'll teach you, you miserable-!"

Then he yelped as Harry caught him by the collar of his robes and spun him around.

"Hurt my dog, will you?" spat his rival, his temper burning out of control by Malfoy's attempt to harm Rosie.  "You like kicking helpless animals, do you?"

"Your bloody dog ate all my sweets from Phyllida, Potter!" screeched Malfoy, trying to back away.  "I'm going to kick her into next week."

"Oh yeah? Not if I kick you into next week first, Boy Toy!" cried Harry and then he did something he'd been wanting to do for years.

He kicked the arrogant spoiled brat hard.  Right in the family jewels.

Normally that was not a place Harry would have ever kicked another boy in,but Malfoy had pushed him too far when he tried to hex his beloved dog.  He'd actually been aiming for Draco's knee, but the other had moved at the last possible second and sealed his own fate. Granted, Rosie had done wrong by stealing the brat's box, but Malfoy could have simply levitated the box away from the dog and avoided all the trouble that followed, if he'd been thinking instead of reacting. 

Malfoy went down like a poleaxed steer, his mouth opened in a silent scream of agony. 

There was a sudden sound of silence, then one by one students started clapping.  "Way to go, Snape!" shrilled a girl.

"That's giving him what for, Harry," cheered Ron.

"Good for you, Harry.  Teach him a good lesson," added Aria.

Even Hermione looked pleased, and normally she despised physical violence.

"And just what in Merlin's name is going on in here?" demanded McGonagall sternly.

Everyone froze as the strict Transfiguration teacher entered the hall, followed by Flitwick, Sprout, and the Headmaster. 

McGonagall assessed the situation rapidly, noting the dog licking the remains of something off the floor, the crumpled white container, and most notably Draco Malfoy rolling on the floor whimpering and clutching himself, while Harry stood over him giving him a look that should have slain him on the spot.

It didn't take a genius to put together what had happened, and Minerva had been a teacher for over three decades.

"Someone please escort Mr. Malfoy to the Hospital Wing," she ordered crisply, and Crabbe and Goyle leaped to obey. 

Then she turned to her wayward House member.  "As for you, Mr. Snape, you will see me in my office directly after lunch, where you shall explain the meaning behind your assault on Mr. Malfoy.  I'm most disappointed in you, young man.  You have now cost your House thirty points and earned yourself a detention with me tonight."

Harry groaned, only then realizing what his temper had cost him. "Yes ma'am," he murmured, flushing and then went to sit down at his usual table, next to Neville, Fred, and George.  Hermione and Ron followed and so did Rosie, who was not yet full and wanted more food.

McGonagall waved her wand and the remains of Malfoy's bakery box were cleaned up and she swept to the staff table in a towering temper.  She couldn't believe that Harry, of all people, had made her take points from her own House.  The nerve of the boy! Clearly the youngster needed to learn how to control his temper better, and she'd be having words with his father regarding that particular subject this afternoon.

Harry wanted to sink into the floor, though Ron was ecstatic and kept going on about how wonderful it had been to see Malfoy knocked on his privileged arse that way until Harry wanted to slug Ron one just to shut him up.  Plates of fried chicken and mashed potatoes and bread with butter and carrots appeared on the table along with pitchers of pumpkin juice. 

Harry picked at his food, no longer hungry after all.  He knew he was in big trouble, and not just with McGonagall either.  He well recalled Severus telling him that if he earned himself a detention with another teacher, he would also face his father's wrath.  He fed Rosie nearly all of his lunch, and the beagle gobbled all of it happily, forgiving him for forgetting to feed her earlier.

"I'm dead meat, Ron!" he moaned to his friend.  "My father's gonna have my hide for sure, beating up Malfoy like that."

"Aw, c'mon, Harry! He had it coming, trying to hex your dog that way."

"Won't matter a bit to my dad, Ron.  Not with McGonagall giving me detention.  Wait and see."

Sure enough, after dinner, Streak glided into the dining hall with a message for one Harrison Remus Snape.

Mr. Snape,

Meet me in my quarters right after your detention tonight.

No excuses, young man!

Dad

Harry buried his face in his hands.  Dear Merlin, I am so screwed.  Blast and damn you, Malfoy.  He's going to kill me, I just know it. 

Harry served his detention with McGonagall at seven o'clock, right after he'd eaten dinner. Not that he ate much, he was too upset to do more than pick at his food. He made sure Rosie was fed again and asked Ron and Hermione to play with the beagle while he was gone. "Hopefully I'll survive," he threw over his shoulder just before he left the common room.

He went to McGonagall's office first, where he received a thorough and pointed dressing down that made him cringe. Then the Transfiguration teacher led him into her classroom and made him write I must remember to control my temper two hundred times on her blackboard. Harry soon discovered the old-fashioned punishment was much worse than writing lines with a quill, since by the time he was done, his back and his wrist were one furious aching mess. But he had learned his lesson, and McGonagall dismissed him with a partial smile.

"I trust we shall not have a repeat of such an incident, Mr. Snape?"

"No, ma'am," Harry was quick to reply, rubbing his wrist.

"Good, now I believe you have an appointment with your father, right?"

Harry nodded glumly. "Yes, Professor." He felt his stomach start churning just imaging his father's anger at his latest escapade.

"Good luck, Harry," Minerva said with a touch of sympathy in her tone. She did not envy the boy being on the receiving end of Severus's temper. Although, the child did deserve it, for he had been wrong to attack Malfoy that way, provoked or not. Discipline over emotions was paramount for a spellcasting wizard, thought the Transfiguration professor, a fact which she knew Severus would be sure to impress upon his son.

Harry went down the stairs to the dungeons and past the Slytherin portrait hole at a snail's pace, knowing with each step he took that there was no delaying the inevitable. He dreaded his father's anger, for he had come to value Severus's opinion highly, and he hated disappointing the man like this. I should've remembered to control my temper, damn it all! Why didn't I?

He approached the door to his father's quarters and lifted a hand to knock, knowing it was warded against any chance entry. Snape was cautious even now, when he had forsaken his spying duties forever, and Harry knew better than to try and enter Snape's quarters unannounced.

Harry knocked sharply on the door, feeling his stomach do a flip when he heard a soft voice speaking in Latin, cancelling the ward over the door. "Enter."

Harry pushed open the door and walked into Severus's apartments, shutting the door quickly behind him. His father was waiting for him before the fireplace in the den, a scowl dominating his features. Harry fought to look the man in the eye. Sometimes Severus in a temper made him want to cringe and hide under a table.

"You've served your detention with Professor McGonagall?"

"Yes sir." Harry surreptitiously rubbed his wrist beneath his robes.

"Sit," Severus ordered, indicating the couch.

Harry obeyed, grateful for the command, since sitting would hide his shaking knees. He didn't know why he was so blasted nervous, it wasn't as if he was afraid Severus would beat him, and he'd weathered the other's sharp tongue before, but the fact was that an angry male figure of authority always roused in him feelings of utter anxiety and fear. It was a legacy of his time with the Dursleys and even six months with Severus had not completely erased the instinctive reactions.

"Suppose you tell me why you felt it necessary to inflict such painful bodily harm upon Mr. Malfoy, Harry?" Severus began, keeping his tone low, but it was sharp with disapproval.

"He tried to hex Rosie," Harry answered defensively. "I was coming into the hall for lunch with Ron, Hermione, and Aria and he had a wand pointed at her. He was going to curse her, I could tell, and not anything harmless either! He meant to hurt her good, Dad. What did you want me to do, let him?" queried his son, his green eyes now stormy, his nervousness vanished with the rekindling of his temper. "Nobody hurts my dog, I don't care who the hell he is, or what she's done."

"Of course not, but I did expect you to act like a mature individual, which meant getting a teacher, not attacking Draco like a maniac. How many times have I told you to control your temper, son? I wasn't talking for the sake of hearing my own voice, young man."

Harry hung his head. "I know that, sir. But it was Malfoy, Dad! You know I can't stand him, the arrogant twit!"

"The feeling is mutual, I think," Severus remarked dryly. "However that doesn't excuse your actions after you disarmed him, Harry. He was helpless without a wand, so why did you continue attacking him?"

"I told you, Dad, he was trying to hurt Rosie. After I knocked his wand away, he went up to her and tried to kick her in the head. Only reason he didn't hurt her was because I grabbed the back of his robes and pulled him away. Then I just got mad and I kicked him just the way he tried to kick Rosie."

"God grant me patience," Severus muttered, rubbing his temple with one hand. "And was it necessary to kick him in the privates, of all places?"

Harry flushed, feeling the tips of his ears turn pink in embarrassment. "Er . . . I wasn't aiming there, but somehow my foot ended up there." Then he scowled. "Come on, Dad, so what if I kicked the slimy ferret in the balls? It's not like he needs to have kids any time soon-if he could ever find a girl willing to put up with his crap anyway."

"Harry!" shouted Severus, feeling a massive headache coming on. "Whether or not Malfoy can reproduce is not the issue here, your behavior is! You know the rules, Harrison Remus Snape. Any kind of dueling or brawling is strictly forbidden here, and you ought to know the reason why. Discipline over your mind and body is essential for a wizard, because only then can you control your magic. I had thought you'd learned your lesson about controlling your temper months ago, but now it appears I was wrong."

"I have, Dad. It's just-"

"No, no more excuses, mister," Severus cut him off. "I've warned you before about your temper. This time it only injured one person, next time it could kill someone, especially if you've got a wand in your hand when you lose it. You cannot afford that, Harry! These childish outbursts have got to stop, otherwise when you finally face Riddle, he'll dominate you and destroy you. You must be in control of yourself, every aspect, mind, body, and especially emotions. Riddle is an expert at possession and mind magics, son, and he'll crush you unless you can keep your head and block him out. And in order to do that, you must control your damn temper. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Dad. I'm sorry. But I couldn't help it, he was gonna hurt my dog," Harry said, ashamed and defiant all at once. Surely his father could understand why he'd lost it with Malfoy like that?

"Harry, you must learn to help it, for the Dark Lord will threaten more than just your beagle before he is done." Severus pointed out mercilessly. "And you can't afford to let mere threats deter you from your purpose." He crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at his child. "Your actions today have shown me that you have a long way to go before you are ready to face even one of his Death Eaters, much less Riddle himself. Not only that, but you're a danger to everyone around you with your loss of control. What do I have to do to make you see that? Must someone die before you see the seriousness of my orders, young man?"

"No sir. It won't happen again."

"It better not, otherwise you'll have detention with me for a month. As it is, you're going to see me tomorrow evening and be prepared to write an essay for me about how else you could have handled the situation with Malfoy and also I have several cauldrons and bottles that need scrubbing. Seven o'clock sharp, Mr. Snape. If you're late I'll take twenty points as well."

Harry groaned and nodded, he really hated writing essays and to be scrubbing blasted cauldrons on top of it . . .he wished he'd kicked Malfoy to the moon. "What about Malfoy, Dad? You're not gonna let him get away with trying to hurt Rosie, are you?"

"How I punish Draco is none of your concern, Harry," said his father sternly. "I'm perfectly aware that he was at fault too, and I shall address that issue at a later time. Although this all might have been avoided, young man, if you had done as I told you when we first arrived at school and left Rosie in Hagrid's care while you were in class."

"I was doing that, Dad," Harry protested. "But today Hagrid was in London and I didn't remember that until Hermione reminded me of it . . .and I, uh, forgot to feed Rosie this morning. So that's why she went after Malfoy's box of sweets like that."

Severus frowned severely at his son and Harry stared at his shoes, feeling about five inches tall. He knew he deserved every scolding word his dad had spoken, but it didn't lessen the fact that the words hurt, they stung his pride and his self-esteem like a sound spanking. Severus's disapproval hurt as bad now as it had when he was two, he thought glumly. "I'm sorry, I know I was stupid, and this whole mess is really my fault," he began, trying desperately to alleviate the sudden pangs of guilt he was feeling.

"It is partly your fault," Severus corrected, unwilling to let his son flagellate himself for the entire incident. "And you aren't stupid, son, merely forgetful, like most teenagers. Perhaps I need to make up a chart for you to remind you to walk and feed your dog, hmm? Then perhaps you won't repeat this mistake."

Harry blanched. "No! I'm not a little kid, Dad, I can remember to take care of Rosie myself." That would be all the others needed to see, his dad posting a chart on the wall to remind him when to feed the dog like he was some five-year-old. He'd never live it down.

"See that you do, Harry, or else I'll draw up a large chart with colored stickers just for you," his father warned silkily.

"No, please!" his son begged, looking utterly horrified.

Severus relented, coming over and patting Harry on the shoulder. "All right, quit acting like I just told you to walk naked into my potions class. Teenagers! You're all so dramatic," he clucked his tongue, shaking his head.

"M' not dramatic," murmured Harry sulkily. "You're just mean, Dad."

Severus arched an eyebrow. "Do tell. I wouldn't need to be mean if you'd quit being so bloody impulsive, boy."

"You were just like me at this age, I'll bet."

"Maybe so, but that's exactly why I'm so hard on you now, Harry," his father said softly. "So you don't make the mistakes I made." Then he reached over and ruffled his son's dark hair. "Quit pouting and learn from your mistakes, won't you? Then I won't need to lecture you like this."

"Okay. I'll try."

Severus was wise enough to leave it at that for now. Lecture over with, he then offered his son a cup of tea and some shortbread biscuits, Harry loved them as much as he did.

Afterwards, Harry bid him good night and returned to Gryffindor Tower, where Ron was anxiously awaiting him in the common room.

The red-haired wizard breathed a sharp sigh of relief when he saw his friend come through the portrait hole unharmed.

Harry cocked an eyebrow at his friend. "What's up with you, Ron?"

"Just glad, is all, that your dad didn't skin you and hang you out to dry."

Harry's mouth twitched into a lopsided grin. "Well, he nearly did. I've got detention with him tomorrow night."

"Rotten luck, two detentions in a row. Makes me glad my mum's not a professor here," said Ron feelingly. "Otherwise my brothers and I would be in detention the whole year. Either that or be getting a smacking with a wooden spoon."

Harry felt his jaw drop. "Ron! Your mum hits you with a wooden spoon?"

"Uh, only if we've really made her mad. Why? You telling me your dad never turned you over his knee?"

"Not recently! When I was two, then yeah," admitted Harry.

"Lucky you. Last time Mum walloped me it was second year, after that stunt with Dad's flying car."

"I thought she only sent you a Howler."

Ron shook his head ruefully. "That was just while I was in school. When I got home though . . .she made damn sure I never committed uh, what do Muggles call stealing a car, Harry?"

"Grand theft auto."

"Right. She made damn sure I never committed grand theft auto ever again." Ron declared, wincing. "Good thing Snape didn't know he was your dad then, huh, mate? Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to sit down for a day either, I'll bet."

Harry nodded. He suspected Ron was probably right, given how angry Severus had been that night. "Well, I'm for bed. Got to get up early tomorrow and walk Rosie." And see Aria again, he added silently to himself and smiled.

• * * * * *

Aria reported that Malfoy had been an absolute bear upon his return to the Slytherin common room the previous night. "Honestly, he milked his . . .uh . . . injury for all it was worth," she said, her lips quivering. "He had those two lumps Crabbe and Goyle fetching him everything and waiting on him hand and foot like slaves. You'd have thought he'd gotten a foot amputated the way he carried on, the big baby."

Harry snickered. Malfoy's attitude didn't surprise him. He didn't think the other boy knew how to deal with physical discomfort, he'd been coddled and spoiled his whole life, never suffering true physical hardship the way Harry had. Growing up with Uncle Vernon had taught Harry how to endure pain at an early age, silently and with a minimum of tears. "Did you offer him an ice pack?"

Aria's eyes widened. "No, but Pansy did!" Then she shook a finger at him, smirking. "For shame, Harry Snape! Making light of another's . . .um . . . misfortune."

"He had it coming."

"Sure did, which is why I don't feel the least bit sorry for him," said the shape-slipper. "Anybody who could almost hex a defenseless puppy that way deserves not to be able to sire children. Because any kid of Malfoy's would be the worst brat in the universe." She shuddered. "I pity the poor girl who marries him. Merlin and all the angels help her."

"Thank God it won't be you." Harry said quietly.

"Not on your life, Snape! I'd hang myself first!" Aria looked revolted. Then she shook her head and asked if Harry wanted to go flying.

"Sure." He summoned his broom.

"Uh, and don't forget to feed your dog," Aria reminded, laughing.

"Shut up, Lupin!" Harry growled. "You sound like my mother."

"Well, someone has to, because Merlin knows you need one," the girl teased, her amber eyes sparkling with mischief.

Harry made a face at her. Then he summoned a bowl of water and some dry kibble for Rosie before mounting his broom and soaring after the golden hawk.

• * * * * * *

Harry spent the remainder of that evening scrubbing cauldrons in his father's potions lab after he'd written his essay. That took longer than he expected, because there had been more than the usual number of accidents by the first years, which meant burnt and stuck on goop clung to the inside of most of the cauldrons, requiring Harry to use an extra amount of elbow grease along with a stiff brush to get them sparkling clean again.

By the time he was done, his back felt like hot coals had been applied to it and his hands were wrinkled from being plunged repeatedly into hot soapy water. But his detention was complete and he could honestly say that he'd never kick Malfoy in the nuts again (or if he did, he'd make damn sure his father never found out about it!)

He straightened up from the sink with a groan, one hand going to his back.

Severus picked up on it immediately and came over. "What's wrong, Harry?"

"Nothing, Dad. I'm just a little stiff."

Severus eyed him knowingly. "More than a little, I'd say. Come with me."

Harry followed him from the lab back into his quarters, where Severus told him to remove his shirt and robes and lie on his stomach on the couch. "What for?" his son asked warily, for that command during his childhood had always preceded a whipping.

"Relax, I'm not going to beat you, child," Severus said calmly, interpreting his son's reluctance correctly. "I'm going to give you a quick massage, so you'll be able to move tomorrow morning when you have Quidditch practice."

"Oh," Harry mumbled, feeling like an idiot. He did as Severus had requested, lying face down on the couch.

Severus gathered an oil of wintergreen, rue, and eucalyptus from a chest and heated it with a warming charm. Then he poured a small amount on his hands and began to work it into Harry's back, using gentle circular motions.

Harry whimpered at first, but gradually the soreness in his muscles was eased by the combination of the warm oil and Severus's deft fingers, which found all the knots and kinks and removed them with a few firm touches.

"Better now?"

"Much. Who taught you that, Dad?"

"Poppy Pomfrey," he replied, applying pressure along Harry's spine. "Claimed I had just the right hands to be an excellent masseuse."

Harry had to agree with her, his father's hands were like magic, strong yet gentle. Within moments, his back felt as good as new. He yawned, drifting into a half-doze, until Severus gave him a rather hard swat on his behind.

"Up, mister! You're done and now it's time for you to go to bed."

"Okay, okay," his son grumbled, stretching and pulling his shirt and robes back on. "Thanks, Dad."

"You're welcome, brat," said his father, then shooed him gently from his apartments.

The Potions Master followed his sleepy son at a distance until Harry entered the Gryffindor Tower, not trusting Harry to be alert to his surroundings. Then he departed, going to check on his snakes before getting some sleep himself.

• * * * * * *

Harry stumbled into his room, careful to light only the tip of his wand with a Lumos spell, since his five roommates were snoring and he didn't wish to wake them. He quickly changed into pajamas, though he was almost too tired to bother, and crawled into bed, dousing his wand and shoving it beneath his pillow. He nudged Rosie off of his pillow, she growled softly and snuggled beside his elbow, and he was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow, worn out from the long day of classes and detention.

He would have sworn nothing short of a bomb hitting Hogwarts would have wakened him, but Ron's screech of terror and Rosie's sudden snarl brought him bolt upright, one hand snatching up his wand, while speaking a quick "Lumos!"

The first thing he saw was Rosie, standing half on top of him, her fur bristling, and her lips drawn back in a snarl. He'd never seen the gentle dog react like that before and was uncertain what to do. Shoving aside the red hangings on his bed, he stuck his head and wand out cautiously, the words to a Shield Charm on his lips.

But the only thing he saw was Ron's face, white and terrified, shivering in the middle of his bed.

"Ron? What's the matter?"

"It was Sirius Black, mate!"

"Where?"

"Right here, standing beside my bed!" gasped the youngest Weasley son. "With a KNIFE, Harry!" His voice rose on the word knife until he was almost shrieking. "Look at what he did to my bed hangings!"

Ron waved his hand at his hangings, which looked shredded and torn.

Harry slipped from his bed, and Rosie followed, still growling. He bent to examine the hangings and his beagle sniffed about the floor, her fur bristling.

In the other beds, the other boys stirred and woke, muttering sleepily, and very annoyed.

"What's the bloody idea?"

"It's not morning yet, is it?"

"Who screamed?"

"Ron did," answered Harry softly.

"Why? Had a nightmare?" asked Neville.

"No. He thought he saw Sirius Black here."

"I DID see him, Harry!" Ron insisted. "He was right there!" He pointed to the spot Harry was standing on. "With a bloody knife the size of my arm! It wasn't a dream, it was real!"

Rosie snuffled around Ron's bed, growling and yipping.

"See? She knows I'm telling the truth, right, girl? You smell him, don't you?" Ron said to the beagle. "He's nasty and a filthy murderer, right Rosie?"

Harry eyed the dog wonderingly. "She smells something she doesn't like, all right," he conceded. "I've never heard her growl like that. She doesn't even growl at Crookshanks like that." Crookshanks was Hermione's ginger cat.

Rosie had her nose on the ground and was following a trail to the door of the dorm.

"Look! She's tracking him," Ron declared, jumping out of the bed and running to the door, throwing it open.

The beagle raced down the stairs.

Ron, Harry, Neville, and the other boys followed.

Rosie led them to the portrait hole, where she stopped and bayed abruptly.

That brought the other occupants of the Tower down to investigate, including a very cross Minerva.

"What on earth is going on here?" she demanded.

"Rosie's tracking Sirius Black, Professor," explained Neville timidly.

"Sirius Black? Don't be ridiculous, he can't get into the tower," snorted the Head of Gryffindor.

"He did, Professor!" cried Ron. "I saw him. He was standing beside my bed holding a knife!" He waved his hands about wildly. "I woke up and there he was, his knife had slashed my hangings to shreds."

"Mr. Weasley, are you sure it wasn't a nightmare?"

"Yes, I'm sure! I really saw him, it wasn't a dream!" He pointed at Rosie. "Look at Harry's beagle, Professor! She knows Black was here, she's tracking his scent."

Rosie whined and scratched at the portrait hole.

McGonagall frowned at the eager beagle. Then she turned to Harry. "Mr. Snape, does she do this sort of thing often?"

"No, ma'am. Only when she's hunting."

"Restrain her, if you will," the professor ordered crisply. "I need to question Sir Cadogan." That was the new portrait placed on the tower door, since the Fat Lady was being repaired. Apparently this was not the first visit Sirius Black had paid Gryffindor Tower, Harry recalled Ron telling him the convict had invaded the castle two months ago, tried to get into the tower and slashed the Fat Lady's portrait with a knife when she refused to let him in. Afterwards, Black had escaped, and had not been sighted since. Until tonight.

Harry shivered, kneeling down and grasping Rosie by the collar. Had Black meant to kill him and mistaken Ron's bed for his own? Beneath his shirt, he felt the soft glow of his mother's amulet on his chest. The silver lily only warmed when danger threatened, and it was faintly warm now.

McGonagall opened the door to the common room and stepped outside.

Rosie whined and tried to follow.

"No, girl," Harry ordered. "It's not time for you to hunt. Stay!"

Rosie sat, but she was clearly unhappy and gave him a reproachful look. Why won't you let me hunt, silly boy? That's what I'm born to do, her eyes said plainer than words.

"Sorry, but I don't want you to get hurt," Harry told the dog, stroking her ears.

Rosie shook her head, whuffing in annoyance.

Behind him, Harry could hear Ron arguing with his brother Percy.

"You just had a dream, Ron. Like you did that time when you were six and thought a spider came and sat on you," Percy was saying condescendingly.

"I'm telling you, it WASN'T A DREAM! Bloody damn hell, how many times do I have to say it?"

"You watch your mouth, little brother." Percy snapped. "You're not too old to spank, Ronald."

"You wouldn't dare!" snarled Ron. "Who do you think you are, Percy, our mother?"

"Leave the kid alone," said George.

"You two stay out of this!" ordered Percy. "I'm the oldest here."

"And the biggest prat!" Fred retorted. "Touch Ron and we'll tell Mum what you were really doing with Annie Bliss on holiday."

"And it sure wasn't studying!" chimed in George. "Least not the academic kind!"

"That's-blackmail! Why you rotten snarky-" sputtered their older brother.

Harry turned an ear back towards the open portrait hole, where the professor was still questioning Sir Cadogan.

"Sir Cadogan did you let a man into Gryffindor Tower tonight?" demanded Minerva.

"I certainly did, lady!" responded the knight in the portrait.

Minerva gasped. "You did what? How could you let an intruder into the tower? You have failed in your duty, sir!"

"I most certainly have not!" cried the knight, insulted. "He had all the passwords, knew ‘em all."

"All the passwords?" repeated McGonagall weakly. "For the whole week?"

Sir Cadogan nodded. "Indeed, lady. And he who knows the password may enter the tower."

McGonagall went pale. Then she stormed back into the common room, her eyes blazing like the fires of hell. She slammed the door shut and said in a lethally soft tone that reminded Harry of his father at his worst, "Who wrote down the passwords and left them where anyone could find them? Well? What infernally stupid person is guilty of such negligence?"

There was dead silence in the room.

None of the students met her eyes.

McGonagall tapped her foot impatiently against the floor. "Well? I'm waiting," she snapped, and her tone implied that she would wait for ages until she got an answer to her question.

At last there came a soft cough and Neville whispered, "It was me, Professor."

McGonagall pinned the shaking boy with a glare worthy of a hunting cat or her fellow professor Snape. Neville went white and quivered like a mouse. "Merlin save us all, foolish boy, but you nearly killed us with your scatterbrain ways!"

"Sorry," Neville muttered to his fuzzy slippers.

"Oh you'll be sorry all right, boy," growled the Deputy Headmistress. "All of you stay here, I must alert the Headmaster. Perhaps we can still locate him." She darted a swift glance at Harry, who was still holding Rosie. "Snape, may I borrow your beagle? I promise no harm will come to her."

Harry nodded. Then he released Rosie and snapped a leash to her collar. "Here you go, Professor. Be good, Rosie, and find Black, okay?"

Rosie wagged her tail, bayed loudly, then pulled Minerva out the portrait hole, eager to hunt down the stranger that had invaded her home.

Minerva McGonagall was not the only professor to have her sleep abruptly disturbed that night.

Severus was awakened around midnight as well by a sharp knock on his door and a girl's voice calling, "Professor Snape? Please wake up, sir. We need you."

Severus had just drifted off to sleep, but he was a light sleeper and so woke again immediately. "What's wrong, Jones?" He recognized the voice as belonging to his fifth-year-prefect for the girl's dormitory.

"It's Aria Lupin, sir. She's having some kind of nightmare, sir, screaming and shivering something awful, but we can't wake her."

Severus suppressed a groan and slipped out of his warm bed. "I'll be there in a few minutes, Jones. Don't try and wake her until I get there."

"I won't, sir."

Severus quickly pulled on his shoes and threw on a green sleeping robe, for it was chilly in the dungeons. Child, why did you have to pick tonight of all nights to have a bloody flashback? He thought irritably, even though he knew it wasn't the girl's fault this had happened. Truth be told, he'd been expecting this to occur for over two weeks now.

As he'd told Remus, Aria had suppressed her grief and guilt over her father's death, and now it had caught up with her, in the form of horrendous nightmares.

Severus sighed heavily and pulled open the door. He just wished he'd gotten a bit more rest, because he'd rather not have to deal with an emotionally distraught child on only four hours of sleep.

Except now he had no choice.

When he finally arrived at the girl's dorm, he discovered that half of the girl's dorm mates were awake and gathered about her bed. He waved them swiftly away and approached the moaning thrashing figure silently, moving like a wraith. The first thing he noticed, besides the fact that she was tangled in the bedcovers, was that one hand was fisted atop them and even as he watched, a strange golden glow emerged and the girl's hand shifted, becoming a cougar's paw and then the tip of a hawk's wing and then back to a hand.

Dearest Merlin, she's shifting in her sleep! He thought in consternation. Whatever nightmare she's having must be terrible for her to shift forms even slightly without being aware of it.

"What's wrong with her?" hissed one girl. "Is she becoming a monster?"

He turned and gave the quivering second year a quelling glance. "Of course not, Miss Danridge! Now quit asking foolish questions and return to your beds, all of you. The last thing I need is a bunch of silly girls hovering like geese. A monster indeed! Miss Lupin is nothing of the sort."

"B-but, sir! She-her hand, it became a paw!" babbled the other girl.

Severus cursed her poor timing. He soon saw he'd have to come up with something to allay their fears. "Yes, because Lupin is a shape-slipper, a rare Animagus who can assume two animal forms at will."

"Two?" repeated Jones in awe.

"Yes, two. Now be off with you. Waking Miss Lupin from her enchanted sleep requires intense concentration, so I need absolute silence."

The girls obeyed, returning to their beds or watching in utter silence as he gently clasped her shoulder and placed the tip of his wand against Aria's temple, murmuring a quick Legilimency spell as he did so. He dared not wake her conventionally, there was no telling if she'd become startled and transform all the way, or become scared and remain stuck in a partial form. He wasn't about to risk his student's, not to mention his best friend's only living relative's, life.

The silver and green hangings and the four poster bed melted away as Severus entered the dreamscape of Aria's mind.

• * * * * * *

A chimera snarled, low and throaty, in warning, all three heads hissing and weaving in the air. The lion head roared, the goat's breathed a short jet of fire, and the serpent head hissed, venom dripping from its fangs. All of its attention was focused on the skinny man with the camera standing not four feet away, casually snapping off shot after shot, oblivious to the irritation the flash was causing the beast's sensitive eyes, or the fact that the lair was home to three mewling kits as well.

"Dad! That's enough, you'd better come away from there," called a girl's voice from behind him. "She's growing really aggressive and you don't want to startle her."

"Relax, kiddo," came Rene's response, tossed casually over a shoulder. "I know what I'm doing." He adjusted the angle of his lens slightly and took another photo.

The chimera's tail lashed and the snarl climbed into a wail.

"Dad, please!" Aria cried. "She's very nervous, her kits are hungry. You've got enough pictures now come away!"

Listen to your daughter, you idiot, Snape silently berated the foolish wizard. She knows more than you do right now, look at the way the chimera is tensing, about to spring. Move, you jackass!

But of course Rene paid no heed to either his daughter or to Severus's silent urging. He continued to stand there, getting close-ups of the rare chimera.

"Dad, hurry!" Aria called, one final time.

The chimera's wings rustled against its back as it moved.

Rene started to back off, shifting a foot, inch by inch.

Too late.

The monster, enraged at being the center of attention, and hungry as well, lunged at the wizard biologist, one huge paw ripping into the camera before it and Rene's arm.

Blood splattered the dark rock and Rene yelled, but it was lost in the chimera's roar and Aria's scream.

Then the beast was on the hapless wizard, biting and tearing.

Aria hesitated for maybe a fraction of a second before blurring into cougar form and springing upon the creature's back, trying to dislodge it, raking all four sets of claws down the monster's back.

The chimera's goat head belched fire as it whirled about to confront this new threat, though the cougar was many times smaller than the beast, which was the size of a rhino. Aria swatted at the goat's head, growling and wailing a cougar war song.

But it was not enough.

The chimera refused to be drawn from her prey, and continued to maim the wizard pinned beneath her paws, ignoring the cougar clawing at her.

The snake's head whipped about, striking at the annoyance perched upon its back, and the cougar was forced to jump away, lest the snake's fangs impale her.

Severus watched unseen, as the cougar Aria made one last valiant attempt to get to her father, who lay dying on the ground between the monster's paws.

But the chimera refused to be driven away by a mere cat, and slammed the cougar hard with one lightning quick blow of her paw.

Aria was knocked sprawling some five feet into the air, and the last sight she saw before passing out was the chimera picking up her father's limp form in its jaws and carrying him away.

Then the cougar became a girl, who reached out a hand pleadingly and screamed in denial, "No! Dad!"

Severus showed himself then, coming over to her and gripping her shoulder.

"Aria, it's time to wake up. Wake up, Aria, you're dreaming."

"Dad! Please! Don't go!" she sobbed.

"Aria Lupin!" Severus shook her hard. "Wake up! Now!"

The girl jerked her head up, her amber eyes filled with a sorrow so dreadful it nearly made him weep. "What? Who?"

"Aria, wake up," he repeated. "This is a dream, now open your eyes, child."

"Uncle Sev?" her voice quivered.

"I'm here, now open your eyes," he urged.

"Okay."

He felt the dreamscape shudder and blur and he quickly exited her mind.

• * * * * * *

All of that had taken barely the space of five heartbeats, for within the mind there is no time. Severus blinked, coming out of the Legilimency spell and lowering his wand just as Aria stirred, groaned and awakened.

Her hand stopped shifting then, remaining human as she slowly rubbed her eyes and sat up. Her amber eyes were confused at first, but then they grew misty with tears. "Oh God . . .Dad . . .damn you, why?" was all she managed before bursting into tears.

"Miss Lupin," Severus began softly, then murmured, "Aria . . ."

Instinctively, she reached for him and before he could blink her arms were about his neck and she was clinging to him, sobbing into his shoulder.

He lifted her up and held her, she was light, surprisingly so. Cradling her securely against his chest, he turned to Jones and the few others who were still awake and said quietly, "I'm taking Miss Lupin to my quarters for a half-an-hour to calm her down. The rest of you, go back to bed, the show's over."

They obeyed, scrambling back into their beds.

Severus walked back into his quarters, leaving the door open, the way he always did when he was alone with a female student, so no one would be able to accuse him of any impropriety. This was by no means the first student he'd comforted after a nightmare, but her cries tore at him, for they were not born of fear, but of terrible pain and grief.

He settled upon the couch and patted her gently on the back, one hand rubbing slow even circles and murmuring soothingly. "Hush now . . .yes, I know . . . I'm here . . ."

"Uncle Sev?" came the muffled voice from his shoulder.

"Yes, Aria, it's me."

"My dad . . .I tried . . .but it wasn't enough!" she wailed softly.

Severus winced and stroked her hair. "Aria, you did all you could, child. Don't blame yourself. You're only thirteen . . .no child is a match for a fully grown chimera, even if you can shift forms. . ."

He knew she knew that, but her grief was too strong for rational explanations then, and so he stopped talking about it, instead encouraging her to release some of her pent up emotions. "Yes . . .cry if you want . . .you need this . . .good . . ." He held her and let her weep all over him, for she needed the solace of tears, needed time to mourn, for only then could she begin to accept and heal from the tragedy she had endured.

Aria couldn't ever remember crying this much before, she had learned when she was eight that tears solved nothing. Tears could not bring back her mother, and tears hadn't helped when her great-grandmother had died either. Her father had never dealt well with weepy females, and Aria could recall several times when he'd shouted at her for crying as a five-year-old, saying she was acting like a baby. After that, she'd been careful never to cry where he could see and eventually she managed to suppress her tears so well that she hardly ever cried.

At Rene's funeral, she'd been the sole mourner, save for a few reporters from the journal who had shown up out of professional courtesy and her father's attorney, Mr. Sanders. Not even her old teacher Joachim Velasquez had been contacted in time, the funeral had been a rather hurried affair, since they hadn't had a body left to bury.

She had stood there in her black mourning clothes, which was an old dress dyed black, sweating in the heat of the South American sun, listening to the priest droning on and on about how Rene Lupin was now in the arms of God, clasped to the bosom of the Almighty in Paradise, and she'd wanted to laugh. The last sight she'd had of him had been the chimera hauling him away to her lair to feed her kits, so God must be pretty good at putting people back together again. She had remained dry-eyed throughout the brief service, too numb to accept the fact that she was legally an orphan now, refusing to break down in front of strangers, but most of all afraid to acknowledge that her father's own carelessness had caused his death.

Now, however, that resentment surged up along with the hot tears and she cried into Severus's robe, "I told him to leave . . .I could feel her anger . . .but he didn't listen to me! He never did! Why?"

Her outburst didn't surprise the Potions Master, not after what he'd seen in her mind. "Perhaps he thought he knew what he was best," he replied, wanting her get the resentment off her chest before it poisoned her.

"He didn't! He was a-a stupid ass!" sobbed Aria angrily. "Damn you, Dad! You didn't even have a Shield Charm up, you just went right over and started snapping pictures like a dumb novice! I can't miss this opportunity to shoot a female chimera, honey! Was it worth it then? Hope they've got photo ops in heaven, you selfish bastard!" she shouted. "You always cared more for your work than you did for your family!"

Severus said nothing, simply allowed her to rant, until the knot of resentment in her chest had eased and she began to cry again, snuggled into his chest. He held her for long moments, until the force of her sobs began to ebb, then he asked, "Aria? Would you like me to firecall your Uncle Remmy?" His mouth twisted into an amused half-smile as he said Remus's nickname.

For several long moments, the girl was silent, then she nodded, very slowly.

"All right. Sit here and I'll be back in a second," he instructed, gently lifting her from his lap and placing her beside him on the sofa. She curled up like a lost kitten while he rose, tossed a handful of Floo powder into his fireplace and called, "Remus Lupin's quarters!"

The flames turned green and Severus stuck his head through. "Remus, it's Severus. I need you to come here immediately."

Remus woke instantly upon hearing Severus's voice in his sitting room. Like his friend, the werewolf slept very lightly and had excellent hearing besides. "Sev? What's the matter? Is it Aria?"

"Yes, Moony, Aria had a nightmare tonight and she's very shaken up," Severus told the werewolf, who was now kneeling before the fireplace, looking directly into his friend's dark eyes. "I think it's best if you come here and speak with her. I did my best to comfort her, but she really needs you, Uncle Remmy," he added with a mischievous grin.

Remus grimaced, then heaved a sigh. "Tell her I'll be right there, soon as I get on some clothes. And don't call me that, Sev!"

"Why not?"

"Because only two people were ever allowed to call me that dreadful name, and one of them's been dead for five years and the other is now my ward," replied Remus testily.

"Very well, Lupin. Don't get in a snit, wolf," chuckled the Potions Master. Then he withdrew from the fire to await Lupin's arrival.

Five minutes later, Remus stepped through the fireplace and went immediately to the girl curled on the couch, sniffling into a green handkerchief Severus had handed her. "Aria, sweetheart, it's okay." He sat next to her and rested his arm lightly across her shoulders, waiting to see if she would accept his touch. "Sev says you had a nightmare. Want to tell me about it?"

She lifted her face to look at him, and said softly, "It was about Dad. When he died . . .I told him to leave her alone, but he didn't listen, and I tried to save him, I really did, but I wasn't quick enough . . .!" More tears followed this statement, slowly trickling down the girl's blotchy face. "I'm really sorry, Uncle Remmy!"

Remus pulled her into his arms then, his reluctance vanished in the face of his child's obvious pain. "Oh Merlin, Aria! You don't have a damn thing to be sorry for, honey. Your dad was an adult, he knew what he was doing, or he thought he did. Rene was always a reckless devil, kid, he never listened to anybody, the stubborn fool-not me, or my father, not Gran Lara, not even your mum. His death is not your fault, kid! He always said someday his work would be the death of him, Aria Lenore," Remus said thickly, tears in his own eyes. "And it was, may God forgive me, it was."

"But maybe if I could've . . ."

"No!" Remus cried, then said sharply, "Look at me, Aria." He waited until she had turned to face him. "Don't play what if, little one, that'll get you nothing but guilt and tears, and there's nothing you ought to feel guilty over. Rene would be the first to tell you that being a magical creature biologist was a dangerous profession, especially given the creatures he studied. He was the adult, you were the child, it wasn't your job to protect him. It was his job to protect you . . .and himself." Lupin shook his head. "My brother was very good at only completing a task halfway, as I'm sure you know." He gently took her face in his hands. "Stop blaming yourself, kid. Rene would never want that. He always loved a dramatic ending, the stubborn ass. Can you promise me that? Because if not, I'm going to find a way to go to heaven and kick my brother's arse for being such a thoughtless fool."

In spite of herself, Aria smiled at her uncle. "Okay. I'll try, Uncle Remmy."

"Good. That's what I wanted to hear." He hugged her then.

She buried her head in his shoulder and whispered, "Sometimes he made me so mad . . .but I loved him anyway. And I really miss him . . ." She began to cry again, softly.

Remus stroked her hair, running his fingers through the thick silky strands rhythmically. "Shhh . . .I know, Aria love. I miss the big show-off too." He buried his face in his niece's hair and cried also.

Severus quickly withdrew into his small kitchen, after shutting the door to his quarters, wanting to give the two some privacy to mourn. He then set about making tea with a dash of a Calming Draught in it, figuring the two would welcome it once they had allowed their grief to run its course. He was relieved that the girl seemed to be turning to Remus for comfort now instead of himself, for the werewolf needed someone to love and trust him as much as Aria did.

The Potions Master made himself a cup of tea as well, only he laced his with a Headache Remedy, since his unplanned use of Legilimency on Aria had given him a nasty headache. He sat in the kitchen and sipped his tea slowly, allowing the two in the den time to bond. After fifteen minutes, he decided it was safe to venture back into the den, and he placed the two cups of tea on a tray, reheated them with a warming charm, and entered the room.

Aria and Remus were sitting next to each other on the couch, red-eyed, but calmer. Remus glanced up as his friend set the tray with the tea on the table and said apologetically, "Sorry, Sev, didn't mean to turn into a waterfall right here in your living room."

"As a certain werewolf once said to me after I'd lost my wife, you needed it and that's what I'm here for, so quit apologizing and just drink your tea," Severus ordered. "I told you someday I'd return the favor, Moony."

"Thanks, Sev." Remus said gratefully, and picked up a cup and sipped it.

Aria took the other one, sniffed it and frowned. "What's in it? There's something besides just tea in here."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "You can smell the potion I put in there?"

"Yeah. My nose is better than most people's, Uncle Sev. Comes from being a shape-slipper, I guess. I hear, see, and smell better than regular people." Aria told him. She was still a bit embarrassed at the way she'd totally lost it before, but the Slytherin's matter-of-fact attitude alleviated some of her humiliation. "What's in this?"

"I put in a dash of a Calming Draught, child. It'll soothe your nerves and help you sleep. I figured you could both use it."

"Oh. That's okay, I guess," she said, then drank some. "It tastes pretty good. Kind of fruity and nutty."

"Please finish it then," Remus urged. "You need a good night's sleep."

She made a face at him. "So do you. You look like death warmed over."

Remus pretended to glower at her frank assessment. "Now is that any way to talk about your uncle, miss?"

"Yeah, it is when it's the truth."

Remus pretended to wince. "Cruel, girl. Whoever said honesty was the best policy never had a sharp-tongued witch for a niece."

Aria gave him a half-smile. "You'd look better if you'd dye your hair," she suggested slyly.

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"Some of it's gray."

"That's the werewolf in me," Remus retorted.

"If you dyed your hair, Uncle Remmy, maybe you could get a date or whatever."

Remus gaped at her in astonishment and Severus choked. "Oh, now wait just a blasted minute, young one! Don't even think about playing matchmaker for me. You know perfectly well I wouldn't make a suitable husband for anyone with my . . .curse."

"I disagree, Moony," Severus put in.

"Me too. The Wolfsbane makes you safe, right? So the woman doesn't need to worry about you going off and attacking her. Which means you can go out and have a normal life."

"The both of you are crazy. Werewolves are scrutinized by the Ministry, I'm restricted in the kinds of jobs I can apply for, and any woman I ever marry has to sign a form stating she understands the danger inherent in having a werewolf for a partner. How in hell can I ever find a woman willing to put up with that?"

"You're not serious?" Severus scowled. "Those bloody bigoted bunch of-" he cut off the rest of what he was about to say, remembering that Aria was in the room.

"Stupid is as stupid does," Aria said disgustedly. Then she added, "But Uncle Remmy, Gran Lara used to say that every person has a soulmate out there, somewhere, and when it's time you'll find her."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Aria, darling, I loved Gran dearly, but the woman wouldn't rest until she had everyone on earth happily married with five kids. She also believed that if an owl hooted three times it meant someone was going to die and a bit of dirt from a loved one's grave kept away ghosts. She and Lacey were always doing tarot readings, trying to predict everyone's future, and over half the time they were wrong."

"That seems to be typical of Seers," remarked Snape with a faintly sarcastic air.

"But the other half of the time they were right," Aria pointed out. "I believe in what she said about soulmates, Uncle Remmy."

Remus smiled down at her tolerantly. "You can believe whatever you like, but I'm perfectly content as a bachelor, Aria. You're the only woman I need, kid."

"Ugh! Please, Uncle Remmy!"

"What? What's wrong with what I just said?"

Aria rolled her eyes. "Never mind. You're a guy, you wouldn't get it."

Remus exchanged mystified looks with Severus, who merely shrugged. Teenage girls were just as much of a puzzle to him as they were to the werewolf despite all his years as a teacher. One reason why he thanked God he'd had a son instead of a daughter, because he didn't think he'd be capable of raising a girl alone, without Lily there.

Remus rubbed a hand across his eyes. "I'm never at my best in the middle of the night. Not to mention, the full moon is in a week."

"It's already started to affect you?" his niece asked curiously.

"Uh, yes. The closer the full moon is, the more I feel tired and irritable and achy. I start to lose my appetite too, for everything except rare meat," Remus admitted quietly. Normally he would never have discussed the effects of his curse with anyone, but Severus already knew the symptoms and Aria was family and needed to know what to expect since she lived with him.

"Oh." Aria said, thinking some of her uncle's symptoms reminded her of PMS. Wonder if he gets bloated and has cramps too? She wondered, stifling a giggle. She thanked God neither Remus or Severus could read her mind, they'd probably drop dead of shock at her musings. Stop it, Aria! It's not funny, he has a very serious condition! She scolded herself sternly. She really didn't find her uncle's problem very funny, but sometimes her odd sense of humor ran away with her. It was one of the few things she'd had in common with her father, that quirky sarcastic bent. She had gotten her looks from her mom, but her personality was her own.

"Does it hurt a lot when you, uh, change?" she asked diffidently. The first few times she'd shifted forms it had been uncomfortable, but after a month of practice, and Master Velasquez's exercise regimen, she was able to control her changes so it didn't hurt and with more practice learned how to shift nearly instantaneously.

"It used to. Before the Wolfsbane, the transformation was bloody excruciating. But with the potion, I transform into a full wolf and not a monster, so it doesn't hurt all that much."

"Oh. Too bad it couldn't be like that all the time," his niece said sadly.

"Mmm, we don't always get what we want, kid."

"True." She glanced speculatively at her Head of House. "Okay, Uncle Remmy, if I can't convince you to find a girlfriend, maybe I can convince Sev here."

"Oh no! Get that notion out of your head right now, you interfering little imp!" Severus cried, horrified.

"Why? You could be quite a catch, Uncle Sev," said Aria with a wicked smile. "You're not bad looking, you know. Maybe a new haircut and something besides black robes . . ."

"Stop! My hair is fine and I like black," Severus sputtered. "I don't need any help in that department, Miss Lupin, thank you very much. I was married once and she was everything I ever wanted and no other woman could even come close, so curb your enthusiasm, little miss matchmaker!"

Aria was grinning, delighted to discover she could make the conservative Potions Master nervous with her little suggestions. "Oh. Was she your soulmate then?"

Severus nodded, ignoring Remus's chuckle. "She was, and that is why I've never remarried."

"Well, that's different," the girl sighed. She shot another considering glance at Remus.

"Aria . . ." he warned.

"You're no fun," she pouted.

"Good," Remus snorted. "I'm not supposed to be fun. I'm supposed to be strict and hard and keep you on the straight and narrow, miss. Like a proper guardian."

"Good luck," Severus muttered and Lupin glared at him.

"You sound like a prison warden," his niece grumbled.

"I'll become one if you don't quit trying to, uh, what's the word you teenagers use now--?" Remus frowned. "-fix me up with someone, Aria Lenore, is that understood?"

"Yes sir, Professor," she gave him a mock-salute. "Understood loud and clear, sir!"

"Are you making fun of me?"

She gave him a wide-eyed stare. "Would I do that?"

"Definitely, brat," put in Severus.

Before Aria could answer him, the fireplace flared and Dumbledore's voice called, "Severus! Unscramble the Floo network, there's an emergency!"

Severus muttered the countercharm and the fireplace flared green. "What's the problem, Headmaster?"

Albus stuck his head through. "Sirius Black has entered the castle again, Severus. Young Ron woke up to find him standing over his bed with a knife, and then Black ran. We need you to help search, and you as well, Remus," he added, upon catching sight of the werewolf seated on the sofa.

"Have you sealed all the exits?" demanded Severus, getting to his feet.

"Yes, but Sirius is very elusive, he may have slipped by me before I noticed."

"We're on our way," Severus said as the Headmaster's face withdrew.

"How could Sirius Black get into the castle?" Aria wondered. "Aren't the wards designed to keep out intruders?"

"Black's a clever bastard," Severus said shortly. "He grew up here, he knows plenty of secret passages. Come on, Moony. Time's wasting."

"Aria, I want you to go back to your dorm room and stay there." Remus ordered. "Sirius can't get into the Slytherin portrait hole unless he has the password."

"But Uncle Remmy, maybe I could help find him."

"Out of the question," Remus cried, going pale. "Finding Sirius is our job, not yours. Now do as I say, young lady. I want you to be safe and right now the safest place is in your bed."

Aria opened her mouth to argue, but Severus interceded. "Disobeying a direct order from a professor, Miss Lupin, will result in a detention and loss of House points. Doing so in front of me will result in a week's worth of detention, so don't test me."

Aria looked from one to the other, but both men wore their sternest expressions and she gave in after a moment. "Okay. I'll go to bed. Killjoys!"

"Mind the attitude, miss!" snapped Severus.

"Yes sir," she muttered, subdued by his glower. Severus in a temper was not something she wished to experience, from all the stories she'd heard. "Good night." She went over to hug Remus. "Good luck. If you do catch Black, kick his butt, Uncle Remmy."

"Believe me, I will," the werewolf vowed grimly, and hugged his niece. "Off with you now."

Aria went, and the two elder wizards accompanied her down to the portrait hole, making sure she was safely inside before joining the rest of the staff in searching the school.

The teachers returned to their respective apartments around four in the morning, the search had been fruitless and turned up nothing, even Rosie had lost the trail once they'd gone beyond the castle. McGonagall would have brought the beagle back to Harry, but Severus told her he would instead, and she gave the dog into his keeping.

What Severus did not tell her was that he no longer felt comfortable having Harry sleep in Gryffindor Tower after this latest incident, no matter Dumbledore's assurances that such couldn't happen again. That it had happened once was enough for Severus and he left a note on Harry's pillow for his son to see him before breakfast. Then he glided back down to the dungeons, grateful that tomorrow was Saturday and he didn't have to teach, because between dealing with Aria's nightmare and searching for bloody Black, he was exhausted.

So was everyone else, and students and staff alike all woke grumpy and out of sorts the next morning. Dumbledore had ordered the house elves to delay breakfast for an extra hour, allowing everyone time to sleep in. Even so, tempers were frayed and rumors ran rampant.

Neville was in black disgrace with most of his Housemates and Professor McGonagall. Mortified that one of her students could be so scatterbrained as to write down passwords on paper and then lose them, she punished Neville most severely by giving him a weekend of detention, banning him from Hogsmeade, and insisting he wait outside the portrait hole each night for someone to let him inside.

Harry felt sorry for Neville, who always seemed to bring trouble down on his own head all unwitting. But he couldn't spare much time over Neville's plight, since he had problems of his own. Upon waking up that morning, he'd found a note from his father asking to see him. He'd quickly taken Rosie out, surprised not to see Aria running the way she usually was, but he couldn't linger waiting for her and hurried inside.

Making his way down to Snape's apartments, Rosie trotting along beside him, Harry couldn't help yawning. He stumbled into his father's quarters bleary-eyed, wondering irritably what could be so important that he had to come talk with his dad before breakfast.

"Good morning, Harry," Severus greeted. He was sitting in his recliner, sipping a cup of tea and reading the paper.

"What's good about it?" growled his son.

Severus arched an eyebrow. "The fact that you're alive to complain about it. Sit down and have a cup of stress tea."

Harry sank onto the couch, still muzzy and out of sorts. Rosie jumped up next to him and put her head on his knee, asking to be petted, but he ignored her. "Don' want any tea. What did you want to talk to me about anyhow, Dad?"

"I would think that would be obvious, Harry."

"Sirius Black coming into Gryffindor Tower," answered his son. "I'm tired, Dad. Can't we talk about this another time? I barely got any sleep last night."

"Neither did I, and you don't see me whining like a two-year-old," his father pointed out crisply.

"So sue me," Harry grumbled.

"Here," an exasperated Potions Master thrust a cup of tea at his grumpy son. "Drink that and lose the attitude, I'm in no mood to deal with it this morning."

Recognizing the warning tone in his parent's voice, Harry took the tea and drank it sulkily. To his surprise he felt a little better after he had done so, more alert and less inclined to snap at every little thing. "I guess you didn't find any traces of Black last night, did you?"

"No, we didn't," sighed Severus. "And that's why I called you here this morning. After last night, I don't think you're particularly safe sleeping in Gryffindor Tower, Harry. I want you to sleep down here until the issue with Black is resolved. My apartment has some of the most sophisticated and powerful wards in the whole school, Black would never be able to slip past them."

"But Dad, I'm still safe in my room, Professor McGonagall brought back the Fat Lady, and changed the password and we've got security trolls and everything."

"That may be and while I trust Minerva to not intentionally endanger her students, I would still feel more comfortable if you were to sleep down here. Black would never think of looking for you in the dungeons."

"Dad, I'm not a baby. I can take care of myself!"

"Oh really? You've barely had three years of schooling and suddenly you're an expert on fighting an escaped convict who has already killed one wizard and thirteen innocent bystanders with a single spell?" Severus snapped.

"I can do wandless magic," Harry argued. "And you taught me four new spells in Defense, remember? And I've got Mum's pendant too, so I'm not helpless."

"Harry, that's all well and good, but Black's a predator and I don't want to trust your safety to anyone but me." Severus declared firmly. "Now quit giving me a hard time, son, and just do what I ask."

"You're being paranoid, Dad. The others will think I'm afraid or something if I sleep here."

"Do you truly care what they think?" demanded Severus.

Harry flushed. "Well, yeah. A little."

"Then you may tell your Housemates that I insisted upon it and let them make of it what they will."

"Fine!" Harry huffed. "But I still think you're overreacting, Dad."

Severus snorted. "Better safe than sorry. One day you'll thank me for it."

"Uh-huh. Like when I'm thirty, maybe."

Severus gave him a very annoyed look. "Sounds like someone's asking to be grounded and miss Quidditch practice today. Mind the attitude, young man. I won't tell you again."

Harry wisely shut his mouth and apologized. It was embarrassing the way Severus was so overprotective of him, but not so much that he wanted to miss his first Quidditch practice of the spring term. Although he would never admit it, he was secretly glad Severus had insisted upon the new sleeping arrangements, for Dean, Seamus, and a few of the other Gryffindor boys were still giving him the cold shoulder since he stuck up for his father and told them he was proud to be Snape's son. Their attitude was wearing on him and he was sick and tired of trying to deal with them, his classes, and Malfoy, who now hated him more than ever.

Thinking of Malfoy reminded him of Aria and he asked Severus if she were all right, since she hadn't been up at her usual time for her morning run. "She usually stops and talks to me when I'm walking Rosie," he explained, trying to hide a sudden blush.

Severus arched an eyebrow, seeing the blush but deciding to spare his son a comment. The boy was already extremely touchy today, probably from lack of sleep. "I would assume Miss Lupin is sleeping in today like the other students, none of us had a restful night's sleep last night."

"Oh. I thought she might be, uh, sick or something."

"Not as far as I'm aware." Severus checked his watch. "Come, let's go down to breakfast. I'm sure the house elves have set it out by now."

Harry followed his father to the Great Hall, breakfast being his top priority then.

• * * * * * *

At the Gryffindor table, Ron was still the center of attention, answering questions from the students about his midnight encounter with Black. Harry was relieved for once not to be the topic of the day, and slid into the seat next to him and started helping himself to some bacon, eggs, toast, and cereal. Hermione was reading the paper across from him, she nodded and smiled at him.

"Hi, Harry. Did your dad want to ask you about what happened last night?"

"Uh, yeah, he did." Harry answered briefly, then began to eat.

A large Great Horned owl glided over to their table with an ominous crimson envelope and dropped it at Neville's place.

Neville gulped and stared at it in dread. "Oh no! Gran, why?"

"Better open it mate," warned Ron.

Neville groaned and unfolded the Howler, and for the next three minutes everyone in the hall was treated to the sound of Augusta Longbottom's voice giving her grandson the scolding of the decade.

Poor Neville, Harry thought sympathetically. His grandmother's almost as bad as Dad when she lectures. And at least he yells at me in private, and not in front of the whole school. That was one thing he was extremely grateful for, that Snape did not feel the need to scold his son in public.

Harry quickly finished his breakfast and headed out to the Quidditch pitch, his new Meteor tucked under his arm.

His practice went well, thanks to his early morning flights with Aria, Harry found his precision and aerodynamics on the Meteor had improved tenfold and Wood was very pleased with his Seeker's prowess. Harry caught the Snitch within thirty minutes of play and Wood allowed the team a break before continuing.

The Captain was awed at Harry's new broom, no one at Hogwarts had a Meteor 2000, they weren't available yet in Britain and he was even more impressed that Harry's broom had an official signature on it, signed by Andrew Ascot, professional Quidditch captain of the US Alphas. Harry was impressed too, how had he missed that little detail? Then again, Ascot's signature wasn't very large and it was placed right where Harry normally gripped the broom handle when he flew.

"Did you ever meet him, Harry?" Wood wanted to know.

"No, but I think Dad did. That's how he got me a Meteor. Brewed Ascot a special potion or something," Harry told him.

Behind him, Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson sighed in envy, they adored Ascot.

"Too bad he's married," groaned Angie.

"Yeah and his wife's having a baby," said Katie mournfully.

"All right, you two, quit mooning over Ascot and get back in the air," Wood ordered. "Girls! You think they never saw a man's bicep before the way they go on over him."

"Not like his we haven't!" shot back Katie, then she mounted her broom and took off.

Wood just rolled his eyes and Harry hid a smirk. Looks like Dad's fertility potion worked after all. Not that I ever doubted it would. After all, he is a Potions Master.

After practice, Harry decided to sit out by the lake, letting Rosie hunt in the grass and dozing in the warm sunshine. He was startled awake by a small hand gripping his shoulder and a voice half-shouting in his ear, "Rise and shine, Snape!"

"Ahh!" he yelped, jerking up so fast he lost his balance and nearly tumbled head first into the lake.

Recovering from his near ducking, he spun around and glared at his surprise visitor. "Aria! For the love of Merlin, don't do that! I damn near fell in the lake."

She gave him a most unrepentant grin. "Cranky today, aren't we?"

"Only when my friend scares me out of a sound sleep," grumbled Harry.

"Sorry. Couldn't resist." She sat down next to him, skipping stones into the water.

"Yeah, well I wasn't the only lazy one this morning, Lupin," he teased. "What happened to staying in shape like Master Velasquez insisted?"

"Took second place to sleep this morning," she admitted with a frown. She couldn't bear to tell him about her nightmare, or how she'd bawled all over both his dad and Remus. He'd think she was a coward crybaby, the way some of the other girls did in her House.

She'd already endured some snide comments about her dream and how Severus had comforted her like a three-year-old. "Maybe next time the professor'll tuck you in with a glass of warm milk and read you a bedtime story too, little Lupin! I'll tell him to leave the light on so you won't be scared of the dark!"

That had been followed by some more comments about how she could probably see in the dark since she was a shifter. Those barbs had struck home, and she'd gone cold upon hearing them. How had they known? She had told no one in her House of her ability and she doubted if Severus would ever break her confidence that way. But she'd tried to maintain a façade of coolness and asked, off-handedly, how the girls knew she was a shape-slipper.

Lilah Danridge had replied sneeringly, "Because we saw you shifting in your sleep, duh! You were screaming and your bloody hand was becoming a paw and then a feather or something. Absolutely revolting!"

Aria had gone pale beneath her tan. The scornful, half-fearful looks she was getting from most of the girls told her more than words what they thought about having to share a room with one of her kind.

"Yeah, isn't a shape-slipper supposed to be the offspring of a human and whatever animals it can shift into?" demanded another, a pretty brunette who was trying to get Draco's attention, and was furious that he wouldn't give her the time of day. "So which one of your parents went and mated with a lion or whatever it is?"

Aria went red, and her eyes sparked with fury. "You're sick, Parkinson! Now shut your face, before I do it for you, got me?" She flexed her hand in warning.

Pansy had gone white and backed off, muttering to Danridge, "How could Dumbledore permit that beast to come here? She could run mad someday and kill us all as we slept!"

"Really?" the other cried in horror.

"Yes, they're unpredictable, those shape-slippers, just like the animals they transform into. They can't be trusted. Professor Snape ought to chain her up like the wild beast she is."

That was said in an undertone, but pitched to carry back to where Aria was standing, tugging on her sneakers. The vicious words made her want to find a hole and crawl into it. But another part of her wanted to haul off and slap the stupid girl into next week, or jinx her tongue off. She recalled the conversation she'd had with Severus the morning of her first day, and how he'd reassured her that the students here wouldn't think any less of her because of what she was.

You were wrong, Uncle Sev. I knew it would be this way, it always is, it never changes. People look at me first and think, oh what a lovely girl, I'm my mother's daughter all right. Until they find out that I can become a cougar and a hawk and suddenly I'm nothing more than a beast wearing human shape, a furry wanna-be human.

Remus had told her that people feared her because they didn't understand what a shape-slipper truly was. "It's a sad fact of life, kid, but people fear the different and the unusual. Wizards are just as guilty as Muggles in that regard."

Which to Aria seemed like the worst hypocrisy imaginable, since by definition, a wizard was different as well, because they had magic, and the rare and impossible was mundane to them. Every wizard studies Transfiguration and they think nothing of transforming a teapot into a bird or a pocketwatch into a chair, but a girl shifting into a cougar gives them the screaming horrors, she thought bitterly. And I'm not like a true cougar at all, I'm still me in the shape, I can react like a cat but I can think like a person, that's the shape-slipper's gift-to slip from one shape to another and never fear losing yourself, no matter what you become or how long you stay in a shape.

Ordinary Animagi, who learned to transform from a spell, always had to gauge how long they remained in a shape, for they were in constant danger of allowing themselves to be seduced by the animal mind and form, and if they stayed in their Animagus form for too long, they risked becoming losing their true self to the animal spirit. It was why there were so few wizards Animagi, and those that could become one were carefully monitored and registered.

But a shape-slipper was to an Animagus what a human was to a monkey, one step further on the evolutionary ladder. Shape-slippers were born, the ability coded into their genetic makeup, though no Healer had ever researched why a person was born a slipper or not. And the talent did not always breed true, so the child of a shape-slipper might not have the gift at all, while a child born to perfectly ordinary wizards might be a shape-slipper. Aria could eventually learn to shift into more than two animal forms, if she practiced enough, and that was a closely guarded secret, one that was never revealed to any but another shape-slipper. Master Velasquez had told her that the most accomplished slipper of the decade could change into six kinds of animals.

That was pretty amazing, but Aria had enough problems with just being able to change into a cougar and a hawk, she didn't need to add to them by transforming into anything else.

Her one consolation was that Mandy Jones alone didn't treat her like a pariah. Instead the older girl stuck up for her to the others, informing them that if they kept up this shameful treatment to another Slytherin, she'd dock House points. Now they regarded Mandy as a traitor too.

But at least Aria had Mandy and Harry for friends, which was two more than she'd had when she'd started here, and that must be enough. 

"I had Quidditch practice today, so I'm kind of beat," Harry admitted. "Last night was, um, kind of crazy, what with Black invading Gryffindor Tower and all."

"I'll bet. But you're lucky he didn't do more than just tear a few bed hangings." Harry nodded. "Kind of odd behavior for a murderer, don't you think? I mean, he could've killed Ron before he sounded an alarm, but he didn't."

Harry looked thoughtful, only now realizing Aria's observation was correct. Black could have easily silenced Ron permanently, if he'd chosen to. And a man sent to Azkaban for over eleven years and a convicted murderer of fourteen people shouldn't have balked at killing a thirteen-year-old boy. Of course, Harry was profoundly grateful Black had not killed his friend, but still it was an odd behavior.

"You're right, I never thought about it like that before. Smart of you to pick up on that, Aria."

She shrugged, embarrassed. "Uh, well, I read too many mystery novels. There wasn't much to do in the rain forest with my dad once I was done with my magic lessons, so I read a lot. Guess I picked up something from all of them."

"You know, besides Hermione and my dad, you're one of the few people who actually remember what you read and then use it in real life that I know."

"Oh? Then you don't do the same, Harry?"

"Only sometimes," he admitted, amused. "But Dad's working with me to correct that. He says that theory's all well and good, but practical application is the thing that's gonna save my butt when I, uh, face Voldemort. If I ever have to."

"Voldemort? But isn't he dead?"

"Supposed to be, but Dad doesn't think he still is. And if he comes back, there's a prophecy about him and me that says one of us has to kill the other."

She stared at him in horror. "That's-Harry that's awful! Are you sure you have to fulfill it?"

"No, but I need to be prepared, just in case. Dad says prophecy is all the way you interpret it, and I interpret to mean that I can defeat Voldemort with help, from him especially."

"If anyone can help you, it's Sev," Aria agreed. "He reminds me of Master Velasquez a little, and he could kick your ass just by looking at you."

"Yeah, Dad can do that all right," Harry laughed. Then he said, "You called him Sev."

"Uh-huh. Why are you surprised?"

"Because only family or very close friends are ever allowed to call him that."

"He said I could," Aria replied, a little defensively. "Said you call Uncle Remmy, Uncle Moony, and I could call him Uncle Sev if I wanted. So I do. I always wanted another uncle, after my gran died we traveled so much on business for the journal, I never got the chance to see any of my relatives, not that matters now since the only ones I've got left are Mom and Uncle Remmy."

Harry said nothing for a moment, he could empathize with her desire for a family, since he wanted that for as long as he could remember. But secretly he wondered that if she thought of Severus as an uncle, did that mean she considered him a cousin of sorts? He wasn't sure if he wanted her to think of him that way. She's your friend, Harry. Let it go at that for now, whispered the sensible part of his brain. It was too early to wish for something else, even if Aria was willing to be his girlfriend.

"You said you spent some time in America," Aria began, trying to start up a conversation. Normally she enjoyed talking to whoever would listen to her, but for some reason she found that talking with Harry was awkward today. "What did you like best about it?"

"A lot of things," he answered honestly. "But especially because over there I wasn't a celebrity. Nobody knew I'd once been Harry Potter, and I could just be Harry Snape, a regular kid, like everyone else."

"Well, I'd never have guessed you were a celebrity, Harry. You sure don't act like it. If anything, I'd of pegged that snob Malfoy for one before you."

"Yeah, he does fit the part, the prat." He looked at her searchingly. "D'you mind then?"

"No. Why should I? You're still the same person, no matter what you call yourself."

"Right," Harry said softly and his heart soared at her answer, which was one he'd never dared to hope for from anyone except perhaps his father, Remus, and his two other best friends.

• * * * * * *
  

Soon after that incident, there was a staff meeting and Dumbledore told all the of the staff that they were increasing the security around the castle. The Minister had insisted on the dementors being close to the school, but Dumbledore was adamant that they not come onto the school grounds. Severus agreed with that, he too did not trust the dementors, they were too much of a wild card, creatures which fed off of pain and despair and fear, and sucked the souls of the living. He thought the Minister was a fool to trust such creatures, who had no love for the wizards who commanded them, and who would turn on them if given the chance.

After the meeting, Severus informed Dumbledore that he was concerned for Harry's safety and had him move into his quarters for the time being. "I know you assured me that Black won't be able to enter the castle again, but frankly Headmaster, I think there is an informant in the school who is betraying us. I know the signs, having worked the shadows myself."

"Severus, I think you're mistaken. No one on the staff would betray the students to a known criminal."

"Don't be naive, Headmaster," Severus bit out, his dark eyes flashing. "Only the purest soul cannot be bought, and even then they could be manipulated. I'm telling you Black has help on the inside, and I cannot risk Harry's safety. So I have him with me, where I know he will be safe, at least at night, from any more midnight intrusions. Merlin Above, Headmaster, do you realize how close we came to losing a student last night? I don't know whether Weasley is the luckiest boy in the world or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, but either way he could have ended up dead and we would now be attending a funeral. Black must be caught, but until he is, I shall take every precaution to ensure my son's well being."

"As you should, my boy. I never expected otherwise."

Severus nodded stiffly and turned on his heel and left, returning to his quarters for a quick bite to eat and a short nap before he began brewing antidotes for the next class he would be teaching. He had expected Dumbledore to protest more than he had, unless the old wizard had realized it was futile for Severus would never bend when it came to protecting his son, not that he needed the Headmaster's permission when it came to Harry anyhow.

Little did the Potions Master realize that Harry wasn't the only student he had to be concerned about.

• * * * * *

Later that night, as Harry prepared to go down to his father's quarters, and was packing up his trunk, Ron eyed him curiously and said, "Where are you going at this hour, Harry? Isn't it a little late for rearranging your stuff?"

Harry sighed. "After what happened last night, my dad wants me to stay with him until Black is caught. He says his apartment is warded against any intruder. So I'm packing up my trunk, since I can't be bothered running up and down or summoning stuff all the time." He ran his hand through his ebony hair, which now fell in crisp waves against his head, a vast improvement over the way his hair had been before, under the glamour. "I can't believe he's freaking out this way, Ron. What does he think could happen in my own room?"

"Uh, you sure you want me to answer that, Harry?" Ron began. "Look what almost happened to me."

"I know, but that was before we knew Black had all the passwords and changed them," Harry argued. "And now we have guards and everything and Dad still insists I stay there with him."

"I think that makes perfect sense, Harry," put in Hermione, standing in the doorway of Harry's room. "Professor Snape's reacting exactly the way a parent would. He's worried for your safety."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I know, that's why he gave me my mum's charm of protection. That's enough protection to my way if thinking."

Ron looked thoughtful. "Y'know, she is right, Harry. If my mum or dad were here right now, they'd probably take me home with them, after what almost happened to me. The only reason my mum isn't down here right now hauling my arse away is because my dad or Dumbledore persuaded her otherwise. Mum's like a mother dragon with only one egg, fierce and crazy. Guess it's only natural, though it's bloody annoying at times, ain't it?"

"You can say that again." Harry shut his trunk and pointed his wand at it, preparing to levitate it down the stairs. "Sometimes I think Dad forgets I'm not two years old anymore."

"Can you blame him?" put in Hermione, kneeling to pet Rosie. "After all, he missed all those other years with you, so his most vivid memories are when you were little."

"Oh." When she put it like that, Harry understood better where Snape was coming from. "But Ron's right, it's still bloody annoying."

He turned to go down the stairs, Ron, Hermione, and Rosie trailing after.

They had just walked into the common room when the portrait hole opened to admit Seamus, Dean, and Neville.

Harry halted, waiting for the other three boys to go past him. Ever since the start of the spring term, Seamus and Dean had been antagonistic towards Harry, unwilling to accept the fact that Harry liked having Snape for a father and that the professor was not the greasy git they'd always thought. Potions class wasn't the dreadful lesson it used to be, as Severus had ceased baiting the Gryffindors and favoring the Death Eater Slytherin children. Now all the students were treated fairly, receiving praise and scoldings alike. It was a vast improvement over the way Severus used to teach, and he even went easier on Neville, allowing him more time to complete his potions and pairing him with Hermione, Harry, Aria, or Blaise, so he could learn from them, since they were Snape's best students.

But all of this evidence simply flowed through Seamus and Dean's heads like water through a sieve, they absorbed none of it. Their obtuseness irritated Harry to no end, because he knew his father was making an effort to abandon his old persona completely and students like Dean and Seamus just made harder for him to do so. Harry tried to be patient, but his patience was fast wearing thin, which was why he tended to avoid them as much as possible.

"Hey, Ron, Harry, and Hermione," greeted Neville, who alone of the three boys that had entered was not prejudiced against Harry for being Severus's son. Oddly enough, Neville who was still scared of Snape sometimes, was the first to congratulate Harry on having a family again, even if that family happened to consist of his sarcastic potions professor.

"Hey, Neville," answered Ron. "Got a lot of homework to do?"

"Loads. Especially in Herbology," Neville said. He walked over to one of the study tables and set down his bookbag.

Seamus and Dean nodded at Ron and Hermione, pretending not to see Harry, until Dean caught sight of Harry's trunk floating behind him.

"Where are you going, Snape? Running to hide behind your daddy's robes? Afraid the Grim or Black will get you one night?"

Harry bit his lip. "Where I'm going is none of your business, Thomas. Now move, so I can get through."

Dean stepped away, but then his pal Seamus stepped in front of Harry and sneered, "Figures, you'd be too much of a coward to stick it out here with your fellow Gryffindors. Can't take the strain, eh? Aww! Poor baby!"

Harry felt his temper ignite, but he forced himself to remain outwardly calm. Inside, he was picturing himself beating Seamus into a wall for insulting him and his family like that. "Button your lip, Finnegan, before I make you regret it. I'm no coward and neither is my father!"

"Leopards don't change their spots, Snape!"

Harry's hand balled into a fist, but before he could move, Ron did, grabbing the other boy and shoving him hard away from Harry. Seamus staggered and nearly fell on the couch. "Shut it, Finnegan! Or Harry's not the only one you're going to have to worry about."

"What the bloody hell's gotten into you, Weasley?" shouted Dean. "Since when are you a Slytherin lover?"

"Since I met some other Slytherins besides Malfoy and his gang," Ron replied. "Aria Lupin's a Slytherin, and she's not at all like Malfoy and his bunch of snots. Neither is Mandy Jones, the prefect, and neither is Professor Snape."

Seamus gaped at him, astonished that Ron had such a formidable temper. "But Slytherins and Gryffindors are enemies, how can you like them?"

Hermione scowled. "Not enemies Seamus, rivals. There's a difference. And not all Slytherins are the same, just like not all of us are the same. Why don't you give Harry a break and his dad a chance?"

"Why should I?" Seamus demanded belligerently. "What's Snape ever done for me that I should be nice to him?"

"How about save your arse by protecting the school, dung for brains!" Ron shouted. "Honestly, you are so thick sometimes!"

"Forget it, Ron," Harry interjected. "Let them think what they want about me, they wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and bit them on the arse."

"Oh really? And what truth's that, huh?" cried Seamus.

Harry stepped close to him then, his green eyes alight with the fires of battle. He breathed in and out sharply, trying to control his flashfire temper so he didn't lose it totally.

"The truth that you never bother to look beyond your nose and see what's right in front of you. But if you want to go around blind, be my guest."

"I know the truth, Snape Junior!" sneered Dean. "The truth is your dad's a weathervane, he switches sides like the wind, and so do you, Harry! Like father like son."

Harry spun around, his temper sparking after that last comment, ready to punch Dean into next week and to hell with the consequences.

Luckily, Hermione stepped between them before blood flew. "Stop it, Harry! The last thing you need is to get in another fight. Your father would be furious."

"Get out of my way, Hermione!"

"No. You hit him, Harry, and Severus will have your hide."

Harry glared at her helplessly, knowing she was right, but his pride wouldn't let him back down gracefully.

"Ooo, little Snape's afraid Daddy's gonna punish him for being a bad boy," mocked Dean. "What's he gonna to do-make you pickle rat organs, make you stand in the corner, write lines?"

Seamus guffawed, then gasped when Ron slugged him.

"Wait, I know! He's going to take you over his knee and spank you, naughty boy!" howled Dean.

Harry started to move around Hermione, eager to put his fist through the other's sneering face. But Hermione beat him to it.

"Maybe someone ought to spank you, you bloody imbecile!" shouted Hermione, then she hit Dean hard in the jaw, sending him backwards into a table. "There! Now keep your mouth shut."

Ron and Seamus were gaping at the girl and Harry whistled admiringly.

"Thanks, Mione."

"Anytime, Harry," she declared, then she dusted off her hands.

Dean was nursing a bloody lip and Seamus was in shock over Hermione's sudden show of temper.

Harry left them that way and went down to the dungeons, accompanied by Ron and Rosie, who growled at Seamus as she walked by. Suddenly, leaving Gryffindor Tower had just become ten times easier. He turned to Ron once they'd reached Snape's door and said, "You're welcome here anytime, Ron. And so's Hermione. So whenever you get sick of certain people, come here and relax with me."

"Your dad too?"

"Yeah. Then you'll see a different side of him all right, Ron," laughed his son. "That's when he takes off all his masks and is just himself. Right, girl?" He ruffled Rosie's ears and she barked happily, scratching on the door.

"All right, you little pest, I'm coming!" came Severus's voice from somewhere beyond the door.

Rosie whined upon hearing it and wagged her tail delightedly.

Severus threw open the door and was promptly jumped upon by an ecstatic beagle and licked nearly to death. Ron burst out laughing at the sight of his formidable professor being assaulted by the lovable dog.

But Snape did not make one of his snarky comments, instead he picked up the beagle in one arm and gestured for Harry to enter his domicile. His son obeyed and then Severus turned to Ron and asked, "You also, Mr. Weasley?"

And Ron followed Harry inside his new quarters.

• * * * * * *

In the three weeks that followed, rumors hounded Aria like a pack of vicious dogs, most of them circulated by members of her own House, girls like Danridge and her ilk, who took great delight in casting aspersions on Aria's character, calling her a "furry" and slighting her whenever they could get away with it.

But it was Draco who was her worst detractor. Having been publically spurned by the object of his affection twice, only to see her being friendly towards his greatest rival, made the blond boy turn on her with a vengeance. Where before he'd been annoying in trying to make her notice him, now he was twice that as he sought to make her school days a misery.

It was he who gave her the name "The Beast Girl" and told people she was unstable mentally and they'd better watch their step because one day she might turn on them like the beast she was and tear them apart. "They're all mad, those shape-slippers. My father says any family with a shape-slipper in their tree is tainted, worse even than a blood traitor."

It was nothing she hadn't heard before, back in South America, where shape-slippers were more common, but also ran into more than the usual amount of prejudice as well. Although in the beginning she'd had hopes that things would be different here and she could simply be Aria, the professor's niece, the new girl from Louisiana, not Aria the reject beast girl from America. So much for Slytherins sticking together, she thought bitterly. Though in all fairness, the majority of her House was not participating in the persecution, but neither did they defend her to those who were, except for Mandy. And now members of the other three Houses were joining in as well-it never took much for Gryffindors to have an excuse to badmouth a Slytherin, and some kids in the other two Houses were just as bad.

She supposed she could have gone to her uncle or Severus and told them what was going on, Severus had as good as promised that if anyone in her house was harassing her, he'd have their hide. So too would Remus. But she was not ready to take it that far, she was accustomed to fighting her own battles and she didn't want to go running to them like a tattletale brat.

Sticks and stones, Aria she reminded herself when the whispers and rumors started getting under her skin. That had been an old saying of her gran's-sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. To that saying should have been added the phrase, Unless you let them, for words had the power to wound only if the target believed them. Never apologize for who you are, that had been her dad's favorite saying, and he never had, even when what he was had been dead wrong.

So she wouldn't apologize for being what she'd been born to be, but that didn't mean that on occasion she wished she hadn't been blessed with this particular ability. When she'd first discovered it, just before she turned eleven, she'd thought it the coolest thing ever, until the first time a wizard child had sneered at her and called her a "furry" and a "beast child". Her dad had called them ignorant and told her to ignore them, but that was easier said than done.

The ironic thing was that Aria was aware she could take her tormentors apart if she chose to, and not only with magic. Her master had taught her self-defense as well as spells, and her cougar shape was more than a match for a person. But she feared if she allowed herself to react to the students' taunts with physical violence it would escalate beyond her control and then she'd really be in trouble.

So she practiced the art of invisibility and vanished every chance she got when she wasn't in class, using her hawk shape to fly high and far away, spending most of her free time studying in the library, or roaming the forest in her cougar shape.

Uncle Remmy would pitch a fit if he ever knew I was going into the Forest voluntarily, but I'd rather face a monster than one of my stupid classmates. At least a monster I could thrash until they begged for mercy. Besides, I know quite a bit about avoiding them from growing up with my dad.

Even so, this was not how she had planned on spending her time at school, by becoming an outcast, hated and feared by nearly everyone. What would it take to make people see that she was more than just a shape-slipper? What would it take for them to stop seeing her as a beast and only as Aria?

A Goddamn miracle, that's what, the cynical part of her mind thought, just before she changed into her hawk form and took wing. It was just before lunch, during her free period, when normally she would have spent it chatting with Harry or studying, but that day she felt the need to just fly, to feel the wind in her wings. Had she glanced down, she would have seen a tall man in black watching her, wondering why she preferred a solitary flight over the grounds to being with her Housemates. Something was not right there, Severus mused. He had observed that Aria had changed after her nightmare, becoming more quiet and withdrawn, more inclined to hide herself away, all of her earlier self-confidence vanished.

The Potions professor pursed his lips and promised himself he'd speak with the child tonight, perhaps invite her for tea along with Harry in his quarters. Perhaps she would be more willing to discuss what was bothering her then. Or, if she would not confide in him, perhaps she would in his son, or even Remus. Either way, he would keep an eye on her, the way another adult should have kept an eye on him at that age, and perhaps he wouldn't have ended up the target of the Marauders so bloody often, bullied and humiliated and miserable. Dumbledore had failed to protect Severus, but Severus refused to fail Aria. He refused to stand by and let another student go through what he had, especially this one, who was the niece of his dearest friend.

Severus tucked his hands in the pockets of his cloak and stalked back to the castle, resolved to get to the bottom of this once and for all.

Draco was in a remarkably good mood that evening as he made his way back to the Slytherin common room after dinner. He'd just received a letter from his father Lucius telling him that Lucius had managed to sway the appeal court round to his way of thinking, which meant that the oaf Hagrid had lost his case and the vicious hippogriff was slated to be executed, as was only proper for such a dangerous beast. The execution would occur sometime within the next month, as soon as a space could be cleared in the docket. Currently the executioner, MacNair, was out of the country on private business.

"Too bad," Draco was saying to Crabbe, one of his ever present hulking friends, who was rather dim-witted, and allowed Draco to boss him around something awful. "I'd of loved the execution to take place right now, no sense in letting a vicious beast like that live. What an idiot that stupid Hagrid was, thinking he could claim an appeal for that creature! No jury in their right mind would take the side of a hippogriff against a Malfoy."

His two cronies smiled and sniggered in agreement.

"Maybe that's because the jury wasn't in their right mind, Malfoy," said a soft voice from behind them.

Malfoy spun about, they were almost to the entrance of the Slytherin common room, to come face to face with the girl he least wanted to see, the one who had spurned him in front of half the student body at Hogwarts.

"What's that supposed to mean, Beast Girl?"

Aria stiffened, but she did not react to the cruel nickname he'd coined for her. "It means that the jury was probably paid off by your father, Malfoy. He was afraid that Hagrid might have a shot at winning, so he made sure the deck was stacked in his favor. How much did he pay them to buy their silence and their verdict, hmmm?"

"What makes you think my father needed to do anything of the sort?"

"Because he's like you, Draco, a self-centered, wicked, manipulative bastard who delights in seeing others suffer. He knew how much Buckbeak meant to Hagrid."

Draco sneered at the amber-eyed girl. "Boo hoo, poor Hagrid! I should've known you'd be a bleeding heart and take the side of the vicious beast, seeing as you're half beast yourself, Lupin!"

"That's the pot calling the cauldron black, Malfoy," Aria said angrily. "Because the way I heard it, you deserved everything you got that lesson, since you ignored Hagrid's instructions and tried to treat a hippogriff the way you would a house elf. Then, when it clawed you for being an arrogant brat, you went running to your daddy like a big baby and got him to sentence an innocent animal to death. Who's the beast now, huh?"

Draco had turned a rather interesting shade of pink by this time and his gray eyes were burning with fury. "Who are you to lecture me, Lupin? You're nothing but two-bit trash from the swamps of Louisiana, where they sleep with their cousins and their dogs. No wonder you're a shape-slipper, Lupin, must run in your bloodline, the affinity with animals. You're a disgrace to purebloods everywhere, you know that?"

Aria snorted. "That's rich, Malfoy, considering you were ready to go out with me just a month ago! You weren't too worried about the Malfoy name and honor then were you, Boy Toy?"

Draco flushed an even deeper red. "That was before I knew what you were, Lupin!"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean, buster?"

Draco looked her up and down scornfully. "It means that a Malfoy has more pride than to associate with a furry, no telling what kind of diseases or fleas I could pick up from you, right Goyle?"

"Yeah, only Potter would lower himself to associate with a furry!" brayed Goyle. Then he froze in mid-laugh, his eyes growing very wide in his round flabby face.

"Too true!" chortled Draco. "Potter grew up with Muggles, he's used to lying down with dogs and waking up with fleas!"

Goyle went white as a dead fish, his eyes focusing on a tall figure standing behind Aria, glowering at them fit to kill.

Severus had followed Aria hoping to catch her alone and invite her to his quarters along with Harry and attempt to figure out what was troubling the girl. He had just caught the last few remarks Draco had thrown at Lupin's niece and he was ready to strangle the little brat. The sheer cruelty and nastiness of the remarks made Severus's blood boil and he had to clench his fists together and remind himself that he was a teacher, and not permitted to beat a student within an inch of his misbegotten life, no matter what. But oh, how he longed to take the spoiled snot by the scruff of his neck and wallop the living daylights out of him!

Since that was not an option (at least not one if he wished to keep his job and not be arrested for assault on a minor), Severus did the next best thing.

"Mr. Malfoy," he hissed in a deadly soft tone, one that any member of his House knew spelled doom for the one it was directed at. "Is this proper behavior, to malign and degrade one of your own House?"

Draco went pale as an ice sculpture upon hearing that dreadful tone from his Head of House. "Professor, I-I . . .uh . . .was merely pointing out that, uh, Miss Lupin shouldn't hang around Mudbloods and stupid Gryffindors," the boy floundered, trying desperately to climb out of the hole he'd dug for himself.

"Indeed?" Snape's eyebrow lifted and he fixed Draco with a glare that could have cut glass. The boy quivered. "Then you think my son is a stupid Gryffindor, Malfoy?"

"No! Of course not!" Draco said swiftly. "I meant everyone in Gryffindor except Potter, sir."

"Did you now? I find it hard to believe you have the slightest bit of respect for my son when you can't even remember to use his proper name, Mr. Malfoy. He is a Snape, not a Potter. Do try and remember that, Malfoy, it really isn't that hard, unless your brain has become stagnant from the company you keep." Here Severus cast a meaningful glance at Draco's two companions, who were shaking like leaves in a windstorm.

"Yes sir." Malfoy was eyeing his teacher the way a mouse might eye a hungry cat, with fear and trepidation. "May I go now, sir?" He made as if to scurry inside the portrait hole.

"Stay where you are, Mr. Malfoy!" snarled Severus. "I haven't dismissed you yet."

Draco froze, all the blood draining from his face, until he resembled a vampire's offspring.

"Sir?"

The professor remained planted firmly in front of the now nervous child, his hands on his hips in the classic lecturing pose of a parent ready to dole out some serious punishment. "Don't try and play innocent lamb with me, boy! It never worked before Malfoy, and it won't now. I heard every word that came out of your mouth before-every one! And what did they tell me about you, young man? That you are thoughtless and cruel and filled with the worst prejudices of our kind-in short, you're a disgrace to my House, Malfoy! What is the fourth Slytherin House Rule, boy? Answer me!"

Draco gulped, then stammered, "Uh, it's . . ummm . . .Show malice and prejudice towards none of your fellows, for your reputation precedes you. Practice tolerance towards one another."

Snape's lip curled. "And would you call what you said to Miss Lupin practicing tolerance towards one another, Malfoy?"

"But sir, she started it, defending that stupid hippogriff of Hagrid's that nearly bit my arm off!" Draco cried, trying to sidestep answering the question.

"Did I ask you what started your little squabble?" Severus demanded harshly.

"No sir."

"Then answer my first question, mister! Yes or no?"

"No sir." Draco admitted, lowering his eyes to study the floor. "But Professor, everything I said about her was true! You can't trust furries, my father says they're unpredictable-a beast in human shape."

"Mr. Malfoy, you will never use that term in my presence again, is that clear?" spat the irate older wizard. "Nor any derivative of it, otherwise I shall do something your father should have years ago, and wash out your mouth with a bar of soap. Miss Lupin is a shape-slipper or shifter if you're being informal. As for the rest of what your father told you, he was misinformed and mistaken. Miss Lupin is certainly not an animal in a human body, she is a very talented witch who deserves your respect. She is also a Slytherin and you should feel some loyalty towards her, at least enough not to fight in public. Instead I find you picking a quarrel with her in the middle of the corridor, Malfoy!"

"I wasn't! I was just-"

"Just taking advantage of the new student, the way your father once did to me," stated Severus frostily. "Don't bother to lie to me, Malfoy, I know you too well! I won't tolerate that kind of behavior, not at all. You will cease harassing Miss Lupin immediately, all of you, and act like a true Slytherin. Or else I shall dock points and make you wish you were Sorted into Gryffindor." Then he gave Draco a scathing glance and added, "As for your punishment, Mr. Malfoy, you now have detention with me every night for a week, including this weekend."

Draco gaped at him in disbelief. "But-but Professor Snape-this weekend is a Quidditch game!"

"Too bad. You will have to miss it, since you will be spending all day tomorrow scrubbing down the Owlery. Until all of the perches and the woodwork and the feeding dishes are so clean I can see my reflection in them. After that you shall be cleaning the bathrooms down here."

"What? But that's-that's a job for-for house elves!" Malfoy sputtered, outraged and horrified. "You can't make me . . ."

"Can't I?" Severus's eyes narrowed dangerously. "As your Head of House I most certainly can, boy, and I shall." He gave Draco a sharp smile. "I have had it with your little rebellious escapades and your disregard for my rules. It ends now. In fact I think you need a lesson in respect starting tonight, Malfoy." Severus reached out and grabbed the blond boy expertly by the ear. "Come along, Mr. Malfoy. You can start on the bathroom down here tonight. Without magic, mind."

Draco yelped. "Oww! Let go, sir!"

Severus ignored him. "March, mister!"

The professor began dragging the protesting Draco down the corridor towards the Slytherin bathrooms.

"Oww! Not so hard, you're going to rip off my ear!" whined the brat.

"Perhaps that would teach you to listen better. Now come along."

Their footsteps receded further down the corridor, and they could hear Draco, still whining, " . . .my father will . . .won't be happy . . ."

"By all means, boy, go running to your father like a cringing tattletale," sneered Snape, his voice just audible. "After you serve my detention, that is."

Crabbe and Goyle took one look at each other then at Aria and both of them scrambled into the portrait hole together.

Aria suppressed a giggle. Probably going to hide under their beds or something. Guess I would too if Uncle Sev was that furious with me. She allowed herself a small smile, pleased that at least Severus was willing to stand up for her. It had been a long time since she'd had an adult who would support her that way.

She was just about to enter the portrait hole herself when she heard Harry calling from behind her, "Aria! Wait!"

She turned about. "Hey. What ‘s up, Harry?"

"Nothing much. Thought you might be up for a quick study hour. I could use some help in Transfiguration," he said quickly, knowing full well that Transfiguration was her best subject.

"And I could use some help in Defense," she allowed. "I still haven't mastered using a wand for certain spells."

"Uh, we could go to my dad's apartment," suggested Harry. "He won't mind us studying there as long as we're kind of quiet."

"Okay," she agreed and followed him to Professor Snape's quarters, which were practically right next to the Slytherin dormitory.

Harry was delighted, for he hadn't seen much of Aria in the past three weeks, except briefly in the morning when she went for her daily run and in class. But lately it seemed as if she was avoiding him, for he could not find hide nor hair of her after class was done, and no one else knew where she was either. It had been sheer luck he'd run into her when he did.

Once they'd gained the relative privacy and safety of Snape's quarters, Harry asked, "Aria, are you mad at me or something? Because you barely spoke to me at all for weeks. What did I do?"

She gaped at him in astonishment. "Nothing, Harry! I didn't mean . . .I wasn't avoiding you, just some other creeps in my House and some in yours. It's not important."

"What do you mean?" Harry demanded. "People have been saying stuff again, right? About me being your friend."

"No. This time it was me. Somehow they found out I was a shape-slipper, and now they hate me for it." Aria admitted. "I scare them, I guess. Anyhow, that's not important." She quickly changed the subject. "Your dad just chewed up Malfoy and spit him out tonight."

Harry blinked then cried, "About time! What did the big idiot do, wear a Death Eater mask to bed?"

"Nope. He called me a furry and some other stuff as well and your dad heard and gave him a sound scolding and detention for a week, I think. Pretty cool, huh?"

Haryr nodded. "You bet!" he knelt to remove his Transfiguration text from his book bag. He was glad his dad had punished Malfoy so severely, he deserved it for talking trash about Aria. "All right, here's what McGonagall assigned us for tonight . . ."

Aria pulled out her own text and nodded.

By the time Severus returned to his apartment, he found his son and Aria studying, a sight which pleased him to no end. It was a sight which Hermione would have smiled at and Ron fainted dead away-Harry actually volunteering to study and do homework. But Harry didn't mind studying with Aria, oddly enough.

Severus smiled to himself and settled down at his desk to mark some papers, pleased with the positive influence Aria was having on his homework-avoiding son. Hopefully, Malfoy's punishment would get around to certain House members and they would be discouraged from harassing Aria any longer. Though he couldn't control the way other students in the other three Houses behaved outside of his class, he hoped his discipline of his own snakes would send a message to the others as well. The persecution had to stop, for Severus would not permit another child to endure what he had-the endless humiliation and taunts day in and day out, for years. A professor's work is never done, Snape, he thought wryly as he continued to grade his tests.

• * * * * * *

Word of Draco's God-awful detention soon spread about the school and as Severus had hoped, it did indeed curb the more nasty Slytherins, who recognized Malfoy's punishment was a warning from their strict Head-shape up or else that will be you next! It also put a bit of a damper on some of the other girls and boys campaign of ostracizing the shape-slipper.

However, that just meant that now they had to find a new target, which they did in the form of one Harry Snape. "Daddy's pet" soon became his nickname among Malfoy and his cronies, who attempted to sabotage him every chance they got, in class or out of it. Harry was used to Malfoy's campaigns, they had always been rivals and loathed one another, so that was nothing new. But what did bother him was the sudden increase in hostility from some Gryffindors. Dean and Seamus were the most vocal about it, calling him Slytherin lover and a traitor to the lion, but Harry could sense a current of disapproval running through them whenever he chanced to be back in the Gryffindor common room.

It was unsettling to say the least and Harry was grateful both for his mum's charm and his father's insistence on being prepared and alert at all times. Harry now carried his wand with him everywhere, even to the loo or the shower, and slept with it beneath his pillow.

Ron and Hermione looked at him askance, they probably thought he was a wee bit paranoid, but Harry took his father's advice to heart for once and did as Snape had suggested his first night back at school. He hated the fact that he had to behave that way, for he had always thought of Hogwarts as his second home, actually it had been his only real home until Severus claimed him.

Why is my life always so bloody complicated? He wondered irritably upon returning from Herbology one day. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. There were times he felt as if he lived in the center of a whirlwind, events swirled and floated around him and every so often one would hit him in the face. Nothing was ever normal for him, ever since Voldemort had etched that lightning scar into his forehead. The closest he'd ever come to normal was six months ago, living with his dad and aunt in New Jersey.

Thinking about New Jersey made him realize that he hadn't written Neil a letter in ages, and he headed back to his room after dinner to compose one before he started on his homework. Only to discover that his favorite ostrich feather quill, blue with a violet streak through the center, was missing. He searched through his desk frantically, wondering where he could have mislaid it. He never took the quill to class, always preferring to use the regular gray goose feathered ones for writing down assignments and notes. The ostrich quill was self-sharpening and re-filling, it had been a going away present from Neil. "So you won't forget to write, Harry," his friend had joked just before Harry had left.

How could he have been so careless? He got up to check on his father's desk, perhaps Severus had borrowed it?

But no, the quill wasn't there. At a loss, Harry forced himself to sit down and think about when he'd last seen the quill. Organize your thoughts in a chronological fashion and most times a solution to a problem will occur, or so his father was always saying. Harry took several deep breaths, shut his eyes, and concentrated.

Suddenly, a memory surfaced, and then Harry knew where the quill was. Hermione had borrowed it. She'd been writing invitations for Roberta Merrick's birthday party and had needed the ever sharp point.

Whistling happily, Harry headed up to Gryffindor Tower.

* * * * *

He found Hermione studying in the common room, as usual. Harry sometimes wondered if she was the most conscientious student in the school, for she started her homework right after her classes were done, not even pausing for a half-hour break. Ron called her mental and said she wasn't normal. Hermione answered that was why she got better grades than Ron, because she actually did the assignments. Right then, the brown-haired girl was busy reading her Arithmancy text and making notes with Harry's quill.

"Hey, Hermione, what are you working on now?"

She glanced up from her notes, which appeared to be one big mess of numbers and odd calculations that Harry was happy he never had to deal with, it looked like murder. "Hi, Harry. Is it dinner yet?"

Harry checked his watch, he still wore a Muggle one. "Uh, no. But it will be in another half-an-hour."

"Oh good. Then I've time to finish up my Arithmancy. Then I can get started on my Care of Magical Creatures, that should be easy compared to my Muggle Studies paper."

Harry just looked at the pile of books and the three foot essay spread in front of the girl and shook his head. "Mione, you're going to drive yourself crazy taking so many courses. How can you do it? There aren't enough hours in a day."

Hermione chuckled, glancing away. "Uh . . .well you know me, Harry. I've always been good at managing my time well. But it's a lot of work."

"Mmm, I can see that. Why don't you drop a course or two? Then you'll have some free time to, uh, read or whatever," Harry suggested, only then realizing he didn't know what Hermione did for fun.

"Oh no! I couldn't do that!" she gasped, scandalized.

"Says who? Hermione, there's more to life than just books and class."

"Yes, but I like my classes, Harry, so this isn't like real work for me."

Harry slanted her a disbelieving look. "All right. If you say so." Then he changed the subject to the news of poor Hagrid and Buckbeak, who had lost their appeal.

"That's awful!" cried Hermione. "Poor Hagrid! What can we do?"

"Uh, just visit him, I guess. There's no way we could stop an execution," Harry said sadly.

"I feel so bad for him, Harry! I know what it's like to lose a pet, I lost my cat Mittens when I was ten, he was old and sick and we had to put him down, but it was dreadful and I cried for days. That's one of the reasons I got Crookshanks, because I missed having a cat."

"Where is Crookshanks, anyhow?"

"Around, I guess. I don't bother to keep him confined to the common room, he goes where he will, like every other cat I've ever known." Hermione answered. "Speaking of pets, where's Rosie?"

Harry looked by his feet, but there was no beagle sitting there. "Uh, dunno right now, but I'm sure she'll turn up."

There weren't many places for the beagle to hide in the Gryffindor common room after all.

As if on cue they heard a beagle's soft bay ring out. Harry cocked his head. "Sounds like it's coming from upstairs. Hope she didn't get locked in one of the dorm rooms. She'll go crazy."

"Ron's up there, looking for some Quidditch book, I think. So if she's on his side of the tower, he can let her out." Hermione said, finishing up her notes. "Otherwise, I'll go up and let her out of the girls' dorm myself."

Harry watched the girl cap her ink bottle before asking, "Uh, Hermione, you done with my quill now? ‘Cause I sort of wanted to use it to write a letter to my friend Neil back in New Jersey, see what's going on with him and stuff."

"No problem, Harry. I've finished, you can have it back now." Hermione handed it back to him and he tucked it in the pocket of his robes. "It writes like a dream, I love it. Where did you get it, anyhow?"

Before Harry could answer that question, they heard a shriek and the sound of paws and footsteps running down the stairs. "Uh oh. Wonder what Rosie chewed this time?" groaned Harry.

But the little beagle raced into the common room with nothing in her mouth, though her muzzle was oddly flecked with something red. She ran and crawled underneath Hermione's table, huddling next to Harry, her huge eyes pleading.

"All right, troublemaker, what did you do?" Harry demanded sternly.

"I'll tell you what she did!" yelled a furious Ron, coming into the common room looking like he wanted to throttle someone, his eyes bright with anger and his face flushed with the Weasley temper. "She KILLED Scabbers!" He held a white sheet in one hand, stained liberally with red stains that Harry dimly identified as blood stains.

"Ron, don't be ridiculous-" Hermione began.

"Ridiculous!" yelled the boy. "Look at that!" he shoved the bloody sheet on top of Hermione's homework.

"Ron, she's only been up there ten minutes," Harry said, knowing full well it took no time at all for the adventurous beagle to get in trouble. But still, he couldn't picture the dog killing another animal, despite her natural hunting instinct.

"Plenty of time to KILL my rat, Harry! I was up there, looking under my bed for my book and I didn't know she had followed me until I heard her bark. Then I stuck my head out from under the bed and saw her standing on her hindlegs on the bed, sniffing and licking at something. And when I went to see what it was, I found blood all over the sheet and some of Scabber's hairs on it and SHE-" he stabbed a finger at the dog, who was sitting under the table. "-had blood on her mouth! Scabbers was gone and she killed him."

"Ron, she's never killed anything before," Harry objected. "Not even a squirrel."

"Well, maybe she got hungry and decided Scabbers looked like a good snack!"

Harry knelt and called the beagle to him. Rosie came, her head lowered, but not really acting ashamed or guilty, the way she usually did if she had done something she knew was wrong. He gently took the dog's muzzle in his hands, examining it closely. It was indeed speckled with drops of blood.

Harry gently pried open the beagle's jaws, peering at her teeth and tongue. There was no blood on them. "Ron, she only has blood on her muzzle, not her tongue. If she-if she bit Scabbers, there'd be blood in her mouth."

"Maybe she swallowed it," Ron insisted stubbornly, glaring fit to kill at the dog. "I know what I saw, Harry!"

"Ron, you saw her licking a bloody sheet. If she killed Scabbers, where's the body?" Harry demanded, releasing the dog, who snuggled next to his knee.

"I told you-she ATE him! Swallowed him whole or-or whatever."

"Ron, she couldn't have, she's not big enough. Scabbers was a pretty good sized rat. That'd be more like what a cat would do, like Crookshanks," Harry pointed out.

"Hey!" Hermione cried indignantly. "Nice one, Harry, blaming my cat!"

"Sorry, but it does make sense," Harry said apologetically. "Crookshanks never liked Scabbers."

"Neither did Rosie," Hermione reminded him, glaring at him. "She used to growl at him sometimes."

"There, you see! It was a conspiracy!" Ron shouted. "They probably divided up poor Scabbers between them. One got the front and the other got the rear end!" He waved the sheet around some more angrily.

"Ron, you have no proof either of them killed your rat," said Hermione quietly. "You're overreacting."

"Overreacting! Bloody HELL, Hermione! I'd bet you'd not be so calm if some dumb beagle ate Crookshanks!"

"Rosie's not dumb!" snapped Harry. "And she didn't eat your blasted rat!"

"Where is he then, Harry? He was in a locked room, how did he get out?" Ron accused. "You telling me he vanished into thin air?"

"No, but don't go pointing fingers at my dog. Especially when you've no proof."

"I saw what I saw, Snape!" Ron indicated his eyes with a thumb. "Your bloody beagle's a murdering beast!"

"Don't you call her that, Weasley!" Harry growled, confronting Ron eye to eye.

"I'll call her whatever I damn well please!"

"Why all the shouting, little brother?" asked Fred, coming into the common room from the portrait hole.

"We could hear you shrieking from the hallway," remarked George.

"Ron thinks Rosie ate Scabbers," Hermione informed them. "Actually he thinks Crookshanks did too. He's utterly irrational."

The twins exchanged glances. "Ron, are you sure Scabbers-"

"-is gone? Maybe he's just hiding."

"He's not! He's gone and it's all her fault!"

Fred looked at Rosie, who was puzzled as to why Ron was shouting and pointing at her. Usually people only did that when she had chewed an article of clothing, but she hadn't chewed anything today.

"She doesn't look like she's been eating rat," Fred said thoughtfully.

"She was licking blood off of her face, Fred!"

"Oh . . .er . . .well you know Scabbers was an old rat . . ." began his brother softly.

" . . .and you used to say you wished you had an owl . . ." commented George.

Ron flushed an even deeper red. "I know, but I never wanted Scabbers to die! Especially not like that, George. Eaten by some vicious dog for an appetizer."

"Come off it, Ron!" Harry snapped. "Rosie didn't eat Scabbers. She was sniffing the blood on the sheet, that's how she got blood on her nose."

"Oh right! Defend your murdering mutt! I'm sure the cat and her were in on it! I found ginger hairs on the floor when I crawled out from under the bed."

"You're always ready to think the worst of my cat," cried Hermione, shoving her books back in her bag. "You never liked him."

"Why would I like a murdering rat catcher?"

"Just be quiet, Ronald!" Hermione rose and slung her bookbag over her shoulder. "I can't study here with all this craziness. I'm going upstairs." She strode angrily up the staircase to the girl's side of the dorm.

"Fine! But your cat's guilty by association, I'll bet!"

"Don't be a prat, Ron!" said Harry angrily.

Ron whirled on him. "I wouldn't talk, Snape! Ever since you've moved in with your dad, you act like you're better than the rest of us!"

"I do not. Where do you get off saying that?"

"For starters, you didn't even apologize to me for your stupid dog eating my rat!"

"That's because she didn't eat him, blast it!"

"Oh yeah? Then where is he?"

"How the bloody hell should I know? Do I look like a rat mind reader?" demanded his friend exasperatedly.

"Oh real funny! It's all a big joke to you, right, Snape?" Ron yelled. "Who cares if Weasley's rat has vanished, it was old and useless anyhow. I want that dog out of here and an apology from you, Snape!"

"Rosie goes where I do, Weasley!"

"Then you better stay far away from me, got me?"

"Fine! If you're so stupid as to accuse an innocent animal without proof, then I'll leave you be." Harry snarled, his temper igniting. "And you'll get your apology when hell freezes over, since my beagle's done nothing to apologize for."

Then Harry scooped up Rosie in his arms and stormed out of Gryffindor Tower, before he really lost his temper and drew his wand on his former best friend.

He arrived back at Snape's apartments still steamed and swept into the den like a tornado, slamming the door behind him. Severus looked up from correcting essays and raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong, son?"

Harry breathed in and out sharply. "Later, Dad. I'll tell you later." He set Rosie down and the beagle licked her muzzle and then ran up to Severus, sitting down and giving him a paw. "I need to write in my journal."

"All right. When you're ready to talk, you know where I am," said his father, then he tossed Rosie a dog biscuit from his pocket.

Harry just nodded, then headed into his room to write out his frustration and temper in his red leather journal. He'd started keeping the journal when he had moved to New Jersey and was undergoing informal therapy with his dad and aunt. In it he wrote about his feelings and other things, like dreams and nightmares that he didn't feel comfortable discussing out loud, as a way of reflecting and releasing tension. He hadn't used the journal for a while, but now he needed it.

He removed Neil's quill from his pocket, took the journal from its place in his nightstand drawer, and sprawled across his bed and began to write about how angry he was with Ron, who had the nerve to accuse Rosie of eating his rat. How dare he? She was a beagle, not a terrier, for Merlin's sake! He began to write furiously, channeling all his feelings of anger and hurt onto the paper.

Perhaps when he was done with that, he'd pen a letter to Neil. God knew he had plenty to tell him.

Harry had fallen asleep with the quill in his hand in mid-sentence while writing in the red journal. Severus came into his son's room to check on him just before bed and discovered that fact. The Potions Master carefully removed the blue quill from his son's hand and gently closed the journal and set them upon Harry's nightstand. He wondered what had happened to cause the boy to come back from Gryffindor Tower in such a foul mood that it required him to write about it in his journal, something he used to do only when he had flashbacks from his childhood that he couldn't speak about any other way.

Guess I'll ask him about it tomorrow. It's Saturday, he can lie in a bit and then maybe he'll be willing to discuss whatever it is with me, mused Snape as he removed his son's trainers and waved his hand over the sleeping teenager, transfiguring his clothes to a set of pajamas. Then he picked up Harry and slid him under the covers, since it was chill in the dungeons, even with the heat wards Severus conjured.

The boy muttered restlessly in his sleep and Severus patted his back and murmured, "Hush, son. Go to sleep." The words and gesture were automatic, he'd performed them thousands of times when Harry was a baby, and he often fell back into those patterns when he put his son to bed.

Harry smiled a little and snuggled down into his pillow and Severus left a single sliver of light atop the nightstand, in case Harry woke during the night and needed to find his glasses to use the bathroom.

Rosie padded into the room and jumped onto the bed, curling into a ball inbetween Harry's feet.

"Good girl," Severus praised, stroking the dog before departing the room. "Sleep well."

The little beagle watched the Potions Master exit the room before she closed her eyes and fell asleep as well.

• * * * * *

Harry was feeling particularly uncommunicative the next morning, telling Severus only that he'd quarreled with Ron and then shutting up tightly as a clam. Severus knew better than to pry, Harry could be as stubborn and close-mouthed as himself when he wished to be, and he didn't want to antagonize his son further. He felt certain that when Harry was ready, he would share his problems with Severus.

The two ate breakfast, then Harry went back into his room to write Neil, sending the letter off with Hedwig about fifteen minutes later. That done, he told his father he was going for a walk with Rosie and left the apartment. He took the eager beagle around the lake, letting Rosie run as much as she wanted, throwing sticks for her to catch.

Harry laughed whenever she jumped in the air to catch one, her ears flopped about like a pair of demented wings and it was funny. But she was an ace at fetching, always returning with the stick in her mouth.

He played with the dog for over twenty minutes, wondering indignantly how Ron could be so dumb as to accuse the happy-go-lucky beagle of eating Scabbers. Rosie wouldn't hurt a fly, even if she didn't really like the rat all that much. No, something else had happened to cause Scabbers to vanish. If only Harry knew what it was. Then maybe Ron would quit freaking out and listen to reason. But until then, Harry wasn't going to speak to him.

He sighed, sitting down with his head resting on his knees. Typical of Ron, to be so bloody impulsive and blow everything out of proportion. I mean, how could he declare the rat irrevocably dead when there was no body? Harry thought irritably. Didn't he ever read any mysteries as a kid? You never assume someone's really dead until you see their corpse.

Perhaps Scabbers had gotten into a bit of a brawl with Crookshanks or whatever and gotten bitten, bled all over the sheet and then ran away before Ron came upstairs. Maybe when Ron had opened the door of the dorm, the rat had slipped by unnoticed and run away. That made a hell of a lot more sense then Rosie eating rat ‘a la king!

Harry was so engrossed in figuring out what other means Scabbers might have met his demise that he didn't hear the Headmaster come up to him until the man coughed lightly.

"Ahem! Enjoying your weekend, Harry?"

"Uh . . .oh, er, hi Professor Dumbledore," sputtered Harry. "I didn't see you coming."

"Deep in thought, were you?" the Headmaster asked, his blue eyes twinkling. In his hands was a package.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Good. I was cleaning out my office yesterday and I came across something that belongs to you, Harry. I had put it away for safekeeping and had quite forgotten I had it until now."

Harry looked up at the white-bearded old wizard in puzzlement. "Something of mine, sir?"

"Yes, though you didn't give it to me," continued Dumbledore. He held out the package.

Harry took it, frowning at it cautiously. Last time he'd gotten a package at Hogwarts it had changed his life forever. But he couldn't refuse to accept Dumbledore's mysterious gift and so he carefully unwrapped the paper and discovered a familiar item in side, one he'd thought lost forever.

"My invisibility cloak! But how did you get it, sir? It was taken from me when the Death Eaters . . .when they, uh, kidnapped me."

"Yes, but an old acquaintance of mine came across it and offered to sell it to me. He didn't know it was yours, and he's always desperate for money. So I bought it off him and put it away for safekeeping. I would have returned it to you after you came out of the Hospital Wing, but you left before I could."

"Thanks, Professor," Harry said sincerely. "Uh, who was the guy you bought this from?"

"Ah, his identity must remain a secret, I'm afraid," Dumbledore told him regretfully. "But the cloak is now back in its rightful owner's hands. Use it wisely and well, my child."

"I will, Professor." Harry hugged the cloak to him. The invisibility cloak was like an old friend, it had helped him out of many tight spots and it was one of the few things Harry had from his stepdad James. He had been very depressed when he realized that it had gone missing and wishing he wasn't the bloody Boy Who Lived, who lived half of his life under the glare of news photographers. "Thank you, sir."

"No need to thank me, Harry. I'm always here to help." The old wizard eyed Harry knowingly. "I realize this has been a difficult term for you, my boy, what with Black on the loose and your magic maturing. But you must not lose hope. All will be well. I have checked it for all of the curses and jinxes I know and it is clean." Then the old wizard sighed and excused himself, returning to the castle by way of the greenhouse path.

Harry watched him go, one hand stroking the soft ultralight cloth gently. He was profoundly relieved to have the cloak back yet a part of him-the insatiably curious part that usually got him into trouble, much like his beagle-wondered just who the mysterious person was who had sold Dumbledore the cloak. Then he shrugged and supposed it really didn't matter much. The cloak, one of the few things he had from James Potter, was back in his possession. He rewrapped it and set it down next to him. He wouldn't mention this new development to his father just yet, for he feared Severus might demand to keep the cloak so Harry wouldn't be tempted to use it, he knew Snape had never approved of Dumbledore giving him the cloak in the first place. Nor did Harry want to be made to give a promise not to use the cloak which he might be forced to break one day. He regretted keeping secrets from his father, but right now it was best if Severus not realize his son had possession of this valuable magical item again.

He rose and put the cloak back in his room, still wrapped up, in the bottom of his trunk. Severus had never invaded his privacy, but he was taking no chances. Then he quickly dressed in his Quidditch uniform for practice, there was a Gryffindor vs. Slytherin game coming up next Saturday, and Wood was determined to beat the Slytherins good. Harry wondered if that would put Severus in a quandary, who should he root for-his House or his son?

• * * * * * *

After practice, which went well, since Harry on his Meteor was blazingly quick, and caught the Snitch within thirty minutes of play the first time, Harry went over to Fred and George, who seemed to be smirking over a rolled up piece of parchment. Their latest gag, no doubt, Harry thought as he made his way over to them.

"Er . . .hi, guys."

"Hello, Harry," they replied, nearly in the same breath. Harry often wondered if they could read each other's thoughts.

Harry coughed and said softly, "So . . .is Ron still mad at me for, uh, you know . . .?"

"Yup." They sighed. "He's still pretty bent out of shape over Scabbers. We tried to tell him that Scabbers was old for a rat-" began Fred, at least Harry thought it was Fred.

"-very old, he was Percy's before he was Ron's, y'know, and twelve's old for one of them, most rats don't even make it to ten. I think he went off to die alone somewhere. Sometimes animals do that," said George.

"But Ron, he still thinks it was your beagle that did Scabbers," Fred rolled his eyes. "Stubborn little twit! Says he's not going to talk to you until you apologize and admit you were wrong, Harry."

Harry bristled. "I'm not apologizing for anything, George. Ron's got no evidence it was Rosie who killed Scabbers, if he's even dead. It could, and probably was, Crookshanks that attacked him, cats eat mice."

"Don't let Hermione hear you," chuckled George.

"She already has," sighed the Gryffindor Seeker. "She's mad at me too, I guess. But really, it makes more sense that a cat killed a rat than Rosie, the cat would've had time enough to drag Scabber's body away or . . .er. . .eat it before Ron came in and noticed. But Rosie was in the room shortly after Ron and she would've had to catch Scabbers first in order to bite him and Ron would've definitely noticed that."

"You're right, Harry," agreed the twins. "But Ron's not being logical, he's too upset. We'll talk to him again. Hopefully he'll listen this time, or else we're gonna give him elephant ears. Either that or a smack upside the head."

Harry concealed a grin at that last threat, sometimes Ron was too stubborn for his own good.

"Anyhow," continued Fred. "We thought you might be interested in this, Harry." He beckoned the younger wizard off to a secluded area of the pitch, near a small overhang.

Harry followed, uneasy. Usually when the twins offered you something, it was best not to take it, or to be very cautious about accepting it, for it was bound to have some kind of unexpected effect upon you. "What is it? Your latest test product?"

The twins had a dream of opening up their own joke shop someday-if they could ever get the financial backing from a sponsor to do so.

"Oh no, it's even better than anything we've come up with," laughed George. He carefully unrolled a rather worn piece of parchment. "This, Harry, is the secret to our success."

Harry peered at it. It looked like an ordinary piece of parchment. "I don't get it. What's so special about a spare piece of parchment?"

Fred smirked devilishly. "Ah, but that's not at all it is. Watch." He drew his wand and tapped the parchment, saying, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

To Harry's amazement, the parchment rippled and words now appeared on it, in fancy script. "The Marauders Map, as written by Mssrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs." He gaped in astonishment. "But that's-I mean, do you know who they were?"

"Students who used attend Hogwarts long before our time," shrugged Fred. "But we're very grateful to them-"

"-for inventing this little piece of mischief," George gently unfolded the map and showed Harry how it was a detailed plan of the whole castle and Hogwarts grounds.

It showed every floor and room of the castle, Hagid's hut, the Black Lake, the Willow and some of Hogsmeade as well. But the most astonishing thing about the map was the small dots that moved all over the parchment. They were labled, each with a name and Harry gaped like a half-wit. There was McGonagall, pacing in the teacher's lounge, Filch roaming the corridors along with Mrs. Norris, Poppy in her infirmary, he even saw his dad, the dot labeled Severus Snape was still in the Potion Master's quarters.

"This is-why it's simply amazing !"

"Isn't it? We discovered this little gem in first year, when Filch caught us lighting off some crackers and a Dungbomb and hauled our bums down to his office for a talking to. We got bored after awhile listening to him say how he'd like to torture us, so Fred caused a distraction and I reached into his drawer of confiscated items and nicked this. It's saved our hide many a time."

"I'll bet." Harry examined the map more closely. Any map bearing the Marauders signature was sure to contain something dodgy and secretive. "Hey, some of these are secret passages."

"Uh huh," Fred's eyes sparkled wickedly. "Filch knows about four of ‘em, but not these others. One of them we can't use, it's right under the Whomping Willow. This one up here's caved in. But this one leads straight into Hogsmeade, right into the cellar of Honeydukes. That's one we use a lot. And this other one, which pops out pretty near the Apothecary, is also good." He clapped Harry on the shoulder. "We figured you could use this, Harry, if you were ever in a tight spot or something."

"Like ducking detention with your dad or whatnot."

"Or bored and wanting to prowl unseen."

"Thanks, but why give it to me? Why not Ron? Or keep it yourselves?"

George waved a hand. "We don't need it anymore, kid. We know it by heart. It's time to pass on the legacy. We were going to give it to our little brother, but Ron's being such a little idiot, we decided he doesn't deserve it and so we're giving it to you, Harry. Use it well!"

He gave Harry the parchment.

"One other thing," warned Fred. "Once you've done with it, make sure you tap it again and say Mischief managed! Otherwise anyone can read it." He demonstrated and the map returned to a blank parchment. "Got all that, Mr. Snape?"

"Got it. Thanks!" Harry tucked the map into a pocket. He had a feeling the map might come in very handy someday, like the cloak, and he would be careful not to lose it. Or let his father see it activated, otherwise he knew Severus would ask tons of questions and then end up confiscating it as well as being too much of a temptation for Harry to break the rules. He'd be right, of course.

"See you around, Harry!" waved the twins. "Don't worry about Ronnie, we'll straighten his arse out. Just like our mum."

Harry waved a hand in farewell, then headed back inside the school to shower and change and eat lunch. Wonder what they'll do to him? Take a spoon to his behind? Make him be a test subject for their new joke products? I'd feel sorry for him, but after the way he told me to leave and all, he deserves whatever the twins dish out and then some!

A week went by and Ron still wasn't speaking to Harry or Hermione. Hermione was avoiding both of them and Harry was annoyed at them as well for acting like a pair of five-year-olds. Whatever George and Fred had done or said to Ron clearly hadn't worked and Harry was fed up and seething with suppressed resentment and anger. His bad mood spilled over into his classes, he was frustrated in Charms, bored to death in History of Magic, distracted in Transfiguration, resulting in extra homework from Professor McGonagall, and even in Herbology and Care of Magical creatures he was irritable. Divination was a joke, as always, and Potions was a horror, he mucked up a simple Boil Reducer and his father was so disgusted he told him to stay after and do it over, which caused Harry's temper to snap, and he got cheeky with the Potions Master, earning himself a swift detention.

All in all, it was turning out to be a terrible week. The only bright spots in it were the Quidditch match coming up, Rosie, and his morning talks with Aria, who always seemed to be able to put things in perspective for him.

He did a lot of writing in his red journal at night, and apologizing to his father when he arrived for detention that Friday evening. Severus was furious over his son's disrespect and threatened to make him miss the Quidditch match on Saturday if he didn't alter his attitude between now and then.

"And if you think I won't do it, Harry, think again. You've been acting like a cranky rude brat all week and I've had it. Furthermore if you ever address me with such disrespect in my class again, you'll have detention for a month and be grounded as well. Now start cutting up those rat spleens, young man, and when you've done with that you can scrape the lab tables and scrub the floor."

Harry hung his head. "Yes sir. Sorry, Dad."

"You ought to be. Now get to work," his father ordered, sending Harry off to the supply cabinet at the back of the lab with a none-too-gentle swat.

His son obeyed, feeling miserable and ashamed, it was rare that Severus gave out a smack in addition to a lecture, so he knew the man was quite angry with his abominable behavior. He opened the cabinet and got out a sharp knife and a large container with the rat spleens and a bowl. He swore he'd control himself from now until Saturday, no matter how angry he still was with his two best friends, because the last thing he wanted was to be banned from the Quidditch match.

After cutting up all the spleens, a disgusting task even with gloves and a face mask on, he was grateful to get the bucket and the scrub brush and start scrubbing and scraping, at least his hands were cleaned that way. It took him two and a half hours to finish and by that time his hands were red and stinging.

"I'm finished, sir." He announced as he made his way back up to Severus's desk.

Severus was just about finished too, grading this week's pile of essays, and he rose to inspect Harry's handiwork. "Acceptable, Mr. Snape. I trust you've learned your lesson?"

"Yes sir. I'm sorry, Dad. I wasn't really mad a t you, I'm mad at Ron and Hermione."

"Ah. But you unleashed your smart mouth on me," said his father disapprovingly. "All right, I forgive you, child. But don't let this happen again."

"I won't."

"Now, let me see those hands, son."

"I'm fine, Dad," Harry protested, he hated to be fussed over.

Severus eyed him then reached out one long-fingered hand and flipped Harry's palm up, revealing the reddened skin from gripping a brush and repeated immersion in hot soapy water. "Humph. They don't look fine by my lights. Come here." He drew Harry over to the back of the lab, where the sink was and poured some strange blue gunk in a bowl. "Put your hands in that and let them soak for five minutes."

Harry obeyed, finding the blue stuff pleasantly cool and not greasy on his poor hands. "What is this stuff, Dad?"

"Murtlap essence salve. It heals most cuts and bruises, even lacerations, very quickly. It's the main ingredient in many healing salves. I use it on my own hands if I've been handling something that causes skin irritation."

Harry allowed his hands to remain in the soothing blue salve for the required time, then withdrew them. His hands were smooth and healed, all the redness vanished. "Wow! That stuff works great."

"Yes. It's one of the best healing herbs we have. Only problem is it has to be harvested correctly, otherwise it's useless." He banished the remainder of the salve with a wave of a hand and muttered "Evanesco!" Then he beckoned Harry out of the classroom and locked the door behind them.

They returned to the Snape apartments, where Harry quickly fed Rosie and then Severus asked him point blank what was bothering him. "Normally I wouldn't interfere in a personal quarrel, but you're letting your feelings over whatever happened affect your classwork and studies and that concerns me. Would you like to talk about it?"

They were seated in the den, Severus had changed out of his professor's robes and into more casual and comfortable attire, a pair of Muggle trousers and a soft midnight blue collared shirt with a bald eagle on it that he'd purchased in America. He'd even discarded his boots for a very comfortable pair of leather slippers (which bore tiny tooth marks from Rosie on one side, she'd chewed them when she was a tiny puppy). Harry was also dressed in his usual jeans and a long sleeved dark emerald green T-shirt, he'd kicked off his trainers and was curled on one side of the couch in his socks.

Severus had summoned a glass of pumpkin juice for Harry and a small glass of honey wine for himself. Harry eyed the glass askance, his father rarely indulged and he was worried he'd truly irritated the man with his smart mouth if Sev was drinking. But the professor made no move to drink the glass of wine resting on the table at his elbow. Instead he leaned forward and looked at Harry with concern in his dark eyes.

Harry took a gulp of pumpkin juice before beginning with Scabber's disappearance and Ron's accusation that Rosie had eaten the rat since she'd been in the vicinity with blood on her mouth when the rat had vanished. "But so was Crookshanks, Dad. And if you ask me, a cat's ten times more likely to eat or kill a rat than my beagle. Rosie hunts rabbits and squirrels, not rats. Even though she never cared much for Scabbers, I don't think she'd ever kill him."

Severus was silent for a long moment. "I take it Ron does not share your views?"

Harry scowled. "Share them? Ha! He's totally irrational, Dad. He refuses to consider that Scabbers could have just run off, he insists Rosie murdered it. And Hermione is the same, says her cat is innocent and blames Rosie. I've had it with both of them. Bloody damn idiots!"

"Language, Harry," reproved Severus softly.

"Sorry. Anyhow, that's why I've been so, uh, grouchy and nasty this past week. I apologize, I shouldn't have taken out my mood on you."

"I forgive you, son," said his father and he reached out to tousle his son's hair. "We all have weeks like this. It's hard when you're at odds with the people you care about."

"Were you ever fighting like this with Moony, Dad?"

"No, but your mother and I didn't speak to each other for two weeks after that Mudblood incident," Severus recalled. "I wasn't fit company for anyone during that time, I snapped and snarled at everyone. Madam Pomfrey threatened to hit me over the head with a crutch, if I remember correctly."

Harry snickered, imagining the stout matron chasing the young Sev around the infirmary with a crutch. "I wish they'd just trust me."

"Perhaps when they have had time to think about the situation, they'll come round to your way of thinking. I don't think this one incident should spell the end of your friendship, though. If you think their friendship is worth something, then don't let it go, Harry. Fight for it."

Harry hoped not either, for except for Aria, Ron and Hermione were his two closest friends here at Hogwarts. "Okay, Dad. I will." Recalling his other good friend Neil, made him wonder if he had any mail, and he glanced quickly at the silver platter Snape kept by the door for Hedwig and Streak to deliver letters on if Harry or he were not at home.

"You've got mail, Harry," said his father, indicating the rather large manila envelope on the tray.

Harry bounded off the couch and grabbed the letter off the tray, saying excitedly, "It's from Neil. I wrote him a week or so ago." He tore open the envelope. Inside was a long parchment in Neil's characteristic loopy handwriting and a picture of a slightly younger Neil holding a small gray and white Alaskan Klee-klai, which was a mini husky.

"That must be Neil and Skip, before Skip died," said Harry, showing the photo to his father before flopping down on the couch to read the letter.

Dear Harry,

Sounds like that school of yours is jumping, dude. Merlin! Escaped convicts invading your dorm and vanishing rats and that dumbass Draco, nothing like that ever happens over here. It's always the same old boring thing. The most excitement we had was when Mike threw the wild party back in November. That girl of yours, Aria, sounds like one hot babe. I'd hang on to her, pal.

Things over here are pretty much the same, except I got Master Thurgood to let me study Advanced Potions with him and he says if I continue to do well in it, he'll recommend me for the AMA Potions Master course, which would be awesome. Tell your dad I said hi and thanks a million for tutoring me, I wish I could take some more courses with him over the summer. Hey, how about you guys coming back here for the summer? The shore in the summer is awesome, we could go to the boardwalk and the beach and just hang out.

The Nimbus flies like a dream, buddy, and Mike and his friends are sooo jealous, I've got a better broom than any of them and it once belonged to Harry Potter (Snape really) besides! You should have seen Rick's face when I told him that. He looked like he'd swallowed a frog! Mom and Dad have said if I get good enough grades in magic and regular school they'll get me a puppy over the summer. So I'm turning into a geek, ‘cause I really want another dog. Maybe I'll get a beagle too or a golden retriever.

Tell those friends of yours they better quit being such A-holes or else I'm gonna fly over there and knock their heads together, me and Mike too. Oh yeah, Captain Ascot sent me a signed photo, courtesy of the Professor. Said your dad told him I was a fan too. You've got an awesome dad, Harry. Strict as a damn drill sergeant sometimes, but awesome.

Oh, and something odd's going on with your cousin Melody and her family. I know you know her husband's an absolute jerk off, even Mom doesn't like him, and she usually likes everybody. I've been hearing a lot of fighting going on there lately and once or twice I saw Mia in the backyard, crying. But when I asked her what the matter was, she just said her daddy was starting things again and that's all. I took her flying with me to cheer her up, but I think something's not right there and I've been trying to keep an eye on them.

I spoke with your aunt Aurelia and she says Devon's threatening to divorce Melody and marry some tart and he wants Mia too, only Melody would never give her up, so that's why they're arguing all the time. Sure wish I could hex the ass and not get in big trouble. He'd make a nice lawn gnome. Anyway, just thought you should know.

Good luck in your Quidditch match, Snape! Try and stay out of trouble! Not!

Neil

P.S. I sent you a picture of me and Skip, so you could see what he looked like. I was ten when we took that. See you this summer (I hope!)

Harry read the last part of the letter twice before turning to his dad and telling him what Neil had said.

Severus looked alarmed and said, "I'm going to write Aurelia right now. If that bastard tries anything with Mel or Mia I'm going to knock his arse all over the Eastern seaboard, I swear by Merlin's staff. I warned Mel he wasn't to be trusted."

He walked over to his desk and began writing a letter to Aurelia, who was his mother Eileen's sister, and one of the few Prince relations he kept in contact with. They had stayed in her house for six months after discovering the truth about Harry's real parentage. If anyone could give him details about what was going on with Melody and her husband, it was Aunt Relia.

He was finished in about three minutes and then he whistled for Streak, his tawny owl and sent the letter off with him. Hopefully he'd have a reply back in a few days, he'd instructed Streak to remain at Aurelia's residence until she sent him back with a reply. Based on his aunt's letter, he would then decide whether or not to get involved with his cousin's personal life. Melody was a few years his junior and he considered her his younger sister, and if that bounder of a husband was doing anything to hurt her or her daughter, Severus would soon make him wish he'd never seen the light of day.

Harry tensed a bit upon seeing the rather grim expression on the Potion master's face, but then calmed when he realized his father wasn't angry at him, but probably Devon. "So, when are you going to go over there and kick his arse, Dad?"

"As soon as I have the full story form Aunt Relia," answered the other. "Then I can decide what to do about Mel's rotten husband."

"I can help you," Harry offered eagerly. "Maybe you could send him a potion that'd shrink his, uh, privates. Or how about one that'd make him fall in love with a cow? Or maybe you could just beat him with an ugly stick, that way no woman would ever want him."

Severus eyed his son askance. "Sometimes you really worry me, Harry."

"Why?"

"Your mind seems to have a natural bent for revenge."

"So? It's Devon, he's scum, Dad. Why not make him suffer?"

Severus pursed his lips. "You're growing more like a Slytherin every day, son. As for Devon . . .rest assured he'll pay for all the misery he put my family through, if I have anything to say about it."

"Can I watch?"

"Harry!" Severus scolded. "I think it's time you went to bed, you bloodthirsty little brat. You'll need all of your strength for tomorrow's match."

"Uh-huh. I'll make sure I get some sleep. Uh, Dad? What team will you be cheering on tomorrow?"

Severus paused an instant before responding with a smirk, "I have to support my House, Harry. It'd be bad form if I didn't, since I'm the Head. However, I won't mind if you knock Malfoy off his broom and catch the Snitch, Harry Remus. Have a good game tomorrow, son. I'll be watching."

Harry grinned. Then he went over and gave his dad a quick hug. "Night, Dad. Neil says to tell you thanks and you're an awesome teacher. I agree."

"Flatterer," chuckled his father, giving him a return squeeze then letting him go. "Bed, mister. Before you're too tired to see straight and Malfoy catches the Snitch out of sheer luck."

"In his dreams, the sodding prat!"

"Harry! Must I fetch a bar of soap, young man?"

Harry blanched. "No! I'm sorry, Dad. Really." He backed quickly away from his parent, knowing all the while that running wouldn't save him if Snape decided he deserved a good mouth soaping. Severus had already administered that punishment before, when he caught Harry swearing at Malfoy one day for insulting Aria. It was not something Harry wanted to repeat, especially not now!

Snape frowned at his offspring sternly, then said, "I'll let it go. But only this once, mind. Next time, you'll eat soap for two minutes, am I clear?"

"Crystal, Dad. I'll watch my mouth," Harry promised fervently. Then he slipped into his bedroom, accompanied by Rosie. His father was right, he really needed to get some sleep, so he was alert and ready for the game tomorrow, but also because when he was sleeping his mouth was quiet and less inclined to say things he didn't mean.

• * * * * * *

Harry was up at dawn, flying practice loops with Aria above the Quidditch pitch. The hawk was swift and kept Harry on his toes, weaving in and out of the goal posts and sometimes blurring into a dive, making Harry chase her right down to the ground, then turning on a wingtip and soaring right back into the brilliant blue sky again. It was a magnificent day, not a cloud in the sky, and warm for the beginning of April. Easter was in two weeks and Harry was primed and ready for this game.

He flew for a good two hours, pursuing the elusive Lupin all over the sky, until he'd exhausted her. When she landed on the ground and slipped from hawk to human, he hovered slightly above her, a delighted smirk on his face.

"What are you smirking for, Snape?" she demanded, panting softly.

"I finally caught you, Lupin!" he crowed. "The magnificent Seeker outlasts the Louisiana Lightning Bolt!"

"You got lucky, is all."

"Oh no, I didn't! C'mon, admit it, Aria, I won that round."

Aria frowned, she didn't like being shown up by a wizard on a broom, it went against her pride as a slipper.

"If you want to think so, Snape, be my guest. But you'd better save some of those moves, hotshot, for when you face off against Malfoy. Word around the Serpent House is that he's planning some kind of cheat."

Harry shrugged dismissively. "Typical. I'd expect that of him, he's always cheated. That's how he got to be Seeker for Slytherin, he bought his way in, had his dad buy the whole team Nimbus 2001's."

"Yeah, bribery sounds like his style," Aria said disparagingly. "He's a rattler, if ever there was one. Pity I can't do to him what we do to rattlers down South."

"What's that?"

"Chop off their heads and toss ‘em in the garbage."

"Maybe I'll do that today, Lupin. You gonna watch the game this time?" He knew Aria, like Hermione, had no love for Quidditch.

"Since you asked, Snape, yeah, okay," she agreed reluctantly. "Somebody's got to keep an eye on your back."

"I can take care of myself, Lupin," bristled the younger Snape.

"No doubt, but a second pair of eyes never hurts. ‘Specially mine."

Harry gazed into her bright amber orbs and sighed. "Whatever. See you at the game. I need to go eat."

He dismounted and tucked his Meteor under an arm before returning to the hall for a rather early breakfast. He was not all that hungry, he never was before a major game, but he forced himself to eat some oatmeal, fruit, and a bite or two of sausage. He ate quickly, anxious to avoid Ron and Hermione, for he didn't want to get into another quarrel before practice, he needed to stay focused on the game.

He looked up to see his father eyeing him from the staff table and gave him a sort of half-smile, then he told Rosie to go and beg scraps from Severus, who despite his complaining over the beagle and her chewing, could never resist those soulful brown eyes. Neither could Harry, but Harry had nothing else to give the begging scamp.

Rosie trotted up to the staff table and slid under Sev's chair, whimpering a bit so he would know she was there, then waiting with the patience of a saint for him to slip her some food under the table.

"Honestly, Severus!" scolded Minerva gently. "You spoil that dog, feeding her off of your plate."

The Potions Master coughed guiltily, and pulled his hand out from beneath the tablecloth. "I'm not feeding her, Minerva. I just dropped something on the floor."

Minerva's lips quivered. "Severus, you're losing your touch. You used to be able to lie circles around me and now you can't even make up a good excuse to save your life. Must be Harry's influence."

Severus merely snorted, concealing his slight flush beneath his napkin. Damn it all, but the woman was right! He wasn't up to his usual swift repartee these days, for he was trying to set a good example for his son, who already had problems controlling his temper and his smart mouth. Harry certainly didn't need instruction on the finer points of lying, not to mention the fact that Severus didn't tolerate being lied to.

It was an odd peeve for a former spy to have, Snape supposed, but there it was. He nudged another piece of sausage off his plate and slipped it to Rosie, who gobbled it delightedly, wagging her tail.

Minerva just shook her head in amusement. It was a rare day that Severus unbent in public enough to be teased by his fellow staff members, but the little beagle had provided the leverage and she was not going to miss opportunity, not for all the gold in Gringotts.

"I don't need to excuse anything to you, Minerva," Severus said rather stiffly, and continued to feed his dog. Merlin, but he felt as if he were living with Aurelia all over again, the way these women scolded him over giving the poor dog some table scraps. As if they hadn't been doing that very thing the day before!

Rosie settled down on Snape's feet with a blissful sigh, content so long as she was being fed and loved.

• * * * * * *

Slytherin faced off against Gryffindor that afternoon, the Captains Wood and Flint giving each other death glares from behind their goggles despite Madam Hooch's direct order to shake hands and play fair. Their rivalry was long standing and the only thing they cared about was playing the game well enough to knock the other off their broom.

Harry was crouched low over his Meteor, one hand gripping the handle over Ascot's signature, waiting for the whistle to blow. Then it sounded and he kicked off, the Meteor's supercharged start propelling him over sixty feet straight up in an eyeblink.

He could see the Quaffle being thrown and caught by one of the Slytherin Chasers, Fred or George, he couldn't make out which twin, batting away a Bludger homing in on Katie Bell, and then he shifted his focus for one split second to the stands, where he saw his father in the Slytherin box, scanning the pitch for his son and Harry smiled. Next to him was Aria. Watch this, Dad!

Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of gold and spun the broom and dived, bringing the sheer speed of the professional broom to bear. The Meteor shot down like a bolt from on high, speeding past a flabbergasted Draco on his Nimbus 2001, leaving the Slytherin choking on Harry's dust.

Ha! Eat that, Draco! Harry thought triumphantly as he reached out to snatch the blurring golden globe.

Only to find the Snitch had veered a quarter turn out of reach and he was forced to loop back around to find it. Blast! Next time don't be so bloody overconfident, Snape! He berated himself sternly, ignoring the shouts from the stands.

Thirteen minutes later the score was tied, twenty to twenty, and Draco was coming up on his left, out for blood.

"Out of my way, Potter!"

"Stick it up yours, Malfoy!"

Harry swerved neatly, avoiding the Bludger streaking from below.

He smirked as Malfoy just narrowly avoided it, watching the Slytherin yelling for an assist from one of his Beaters, who managed to knock the persistent black ball away from the swerving Seeker eventually.

Meanwhile, Harry looped about the pitch, eyes peeled for any sign of the elusive Snitch.

The Beaters for his own team, the Weasley twins, made certain no Bludger interfered with his flying, but that did not help him locate the slippery golden ball any quicker. Harry narrowed his eyes. Focus, Snape! It's here somewhere, you know it is. Eyes of a hawk, Harry.

That was something Aria had taught him, how to focus his eyes on seemingly nothing, so they could be alerted when something moved across his line of sight. It was how a hawk hunted, by using motion to locate prey. He hovered, his eyes tracking along the stands, where the students and staff were screaming and waving banners.

Suddenly his eye was caught by a movement far up in the stands, where no one was sitting. But it was not a flash of bright gold, but a shadow of black fur. Harry's eyes turned to focus on the clot of black and saw a large black dog standing in the upper tier, watching him.

Harry didn't know how he knew that, but he did. The dog was looking right up at him and he felt an icy shiver meander down his spine. Trelawney's voice echoed in his ears. You have drawn the Grim . . .you will die within the year, Harry Snape!

He shook his head. No, that was wrong, the Grim was a sign of misfortune. His fate was not to die, no matter if there was a strange black dog watching him. Get a grip, Harry! Just play Quidditch and forget about the ruddy dog!

Malfoy laughed and sped past him again, taunting, "What's the matter, Potter? See something that scared you?"

Harry's lips thinned. The dog was probably some scheme by Malfoy to scare him. Hadn't Aria warned him that Malfoy was going to try and cheat?

He spun and followed the Slytherin's green robes, snarling, "I see something that scares me every time I look at you, Malfoy! Your face, ferret boy!"

"Eat this, Potter!" shouted the blond, and he tossed a handful of glittering blue powder at Harry.

Harry's instinctive dive caused him to miss inhaling most of it, but a good deal of the stuff went up his nose.

An instant later he felt his eyes and nasal passages start to burn and water and he began to sneeze uncontrollably. Ah, Merlin help me! That was sneezing powder.

Sneezing powder was harmless, a joke product that caused a person to sneeze and cough uncontrollably for a period of fifteen minutes, as if you had awful allergies. But it was enough to cause Harry to halt and try and wipe his streaming eyes, coughing and sneezing, unable to locate the Snitch or anything else through his watering eyes.

Down in the stands, Severus frowned, squinting sharply and shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun. Something wasn't right with Harry. He wasn't flying any more, instead he appeared to be having some kind of coughing fit, his body shaking over his broom.

"Professor, there's something the matter with Harry," Aria observed, her keen eyes picking out the shivering form despite the distance. "Looks like he's having an allergy attack or something."

"Impossible. He doesn't have allergies, Miss Lupin. Madam Pomfrey's tested him already," disagreed the tall wizard.

"Sure doesn't look that way, sir," Aria remarked in concern.

There was a cheer from the Slytherins as Flint scored a goal and Slytherin was now ahead seventy to fifty.

"C'mon, Harry, suck it up and get back in the game!" Aria found herself yelling, much to her astonishment. She didn't even like Quidditch, yet here she was cheering on a member of the opposite team. She ignored the shocked and furious glances of her Housemates, though none of them said anything since their professor was there, instead focusing on Harry. Damn it, this is Malfoy's doing. I warned you, Snape.

Flint was congratulating Malfoy on his underhanded little trick, exhorting him to hurry and find the Snitch, when Rosie startled Aria and Severus by baying loudly.

"Hey, what's with you, girl?" asked Aria, looking at the small dog, who was standing up and looking towards the top tier of seats, baying angrily.

Aria followed the dog's gaze and saw, for the briefest instant, a large black dog silhouetted against the sky.

She blinked and rubbed her eyes and it was gone.

Rosie bayed frantically, her paws scrabbling on the bench, until Snape yelled at her to quit it and settle down.

Chastised, the beagle crept under the bench and lay down inbetween his feet, her feelings injured by the professor's sharp scolding.

Up above, Harry had at last managed to get his sneezing and watery eyes under control and was now trying to locate the Snitch once more. He zoomed about the Gryffindor goal post, where the Keeper, Wood, cried, "Look sharp, Snape, and catch the wicked globe, aye?"

"I'm trying!" Harry shouted back, concealing a smile at Wood's Scottish accent, which became more pronounced when he was agitated.

Malfoy was hovering, trying to find where the Snitch had gone as well, when Harry saw it just above and to the left of him. He kicked the Meteor and swooped down on Malfoy like a crimson bird of prey, causing the other boy to scream and duck away.

Harry was forced to swerve hard to avoid a collision, and the Snitch remained tauntingly out of reach. "Bloody hell!" he shrieked, totally frustrated. He should have caught that!

Furious at himself, Harry brought the Meteor about in a sharp hairpin curve, a feat that only this particular broom could perform, and streaked after the fluttering golden globe.

Just as his fingers brushed the smooth surface of the Snitch he felt a jolt of bone piercing cold shoot through him.

It was as if someone had stabbed him with thousands of icy needles. He felt his entire body seize up and freeze, his muscles trembling and weak, and an awful wave of soul-chilling, mind-numbing fear crashed over him.

What? What's happening? I don't understand! His mind babbled in panic as the stands went deathly still, the voices hushed and muted by the terrible wave of fear projected by the clot of dementors that had suddenly appeared upon the field below, shadow tattered forms with skeletal limbs drifting upward silently.

Harry tried frantically to breathe, to focus, but spots danced before his eyes. Oh God, what's wrong with me? So scared . . .Dad, where are you? His hands shook so badly he could barely hold onto the Meteor. There was an odd sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and he could hear, somewhere in the distance, a woman screaming.

He closed his eyes, sickening waves of fear ripping through him and the screaming became words and suddenly he was no longer flying, but being held in his mother's arms.

"Lily! He's here, take Harry and get out! Hurry! I'll hold him off."

"James, no! You can't . . .!"

"Get out, Lily! Damn it, do as I say, woman. For Harry's sake, if not yours! Run! Please! Severus will never forgive me if anything happened to either of you!"

There came the sound of wood splintering and a green flash lit up the room.

He buried his head in his mum's shoulder, bawling hysterically.

Then a cold icy voice hissed, "Give me the boy, woman. Stand aside and let me have him and you shall be spared."

"Never! Go bugger yourself, Riddle!" cried Lily. "You'll have my baby over my dead body."

"That can be arranged, woman!" laughed the cruel voice. He pointed his wand at Harry.

"No! Not my Harry! Leave him alone!"

He heard his mother's voice, screaming in one desperate wail as she jumped in front of the brilliant flare of green light . . .

Then he was falling . . .

• * * * * * *

To those watching, it seemed as if Harry was paralyzed for five awful minutes, then all at once he lost his grip on the Meteor and flipped upside down, falling from at least sixty feet straight down.

"HARRY!"

Severus's scream was wrenched from his throat, as he watched his son falling, his heart frozen in his chest in terrified disbelief and denial.

Then his wand was in his hand and he was shouting a countercharm for all he was worth. The safety charms on the broom, Sev! They should've activated by now, one part of his mind babbled frantically while the other remained numb, stricken to his soul by the sight of his only child tumbling through the air like a ragdoll tossed by a spoiled child.

His countercharm slowed Harry's fall, but it was not enough. He started to shout out a Cushioning Charm, followed by an Excelsior Shield, anything to reduce the impact, when a blur of gold feathers shot past him with a sharp screech.

Before Severus had time to register anything else, Aria was in the air, closing her talons on Harry, who was now unconscious, plummeting through the air on his broom, heading straight for the knot of dementors, who were hissing and rustling eagerly, their hooded faces lifted towards their latest victim.

No! I won't let you have him, you damn specters! The hawk shrieked defiance and tightened her talons on the limp boy's collar.

She began to beat her wings hard, trying to give him some lift, fighting to slow his downward plunge so he didn't break every bone in his body when he hit the ground.

The hawk fought with every muscle in her sleek body, the shape-slipper gift giving her strength beyond that of a true hawk form.

Even so, Harry continued to fall.

Aria strained upward, cupping her wings to gather as much air as possible.

Then the aura of the dementors slammed into her as well, and she could hear her father screaming as the chimera tore into him.

Blood spattered the ground and the chimera roared and shredded Rene with her paws, drowning out her father's cry of agony.

"Dad! No!" she wailed, shifting into cougar form, but it was too late and the chimera knocked her sprawling . . .dragging Rene away to her lair . . .

The golden hawk faltered, her talons slipping from the back of Harry's robes.

Then she too was plummeting through the air, a crumpled ball of feathers, as together she and the Boy Who Lived crashed from the sky.

The last thing Aria caught was the sound of a beagle howling.

Remus Lupin had never moved so fast in his life as he did that Saturday afternoon when his godson and niece plummeted sixty feet from the air into a coven of dementors. He heard Severus's anguished howl in the back of his head, even as he vaulted over the side of the stands and floated swiftly down some thirty feet to the ground, landing lightly on his feet. 

"Aria!" he yelled, pointing his wand at the mass of dementors.  Adrenaline flowed through him, and his normally gentle features took on a savage cast, his dark eyes lightening almost to the yellow of the wolf's as he drew on the were nature.  He usually kept that side caged and sleeping when he wore his human shape, but now the children's peril pulled the beast from him, and he allowed it to surface.

"Expecto Patronum!" he howled and a silver wolf erupted from his wand, springing towards the dementors with a howl. 

The silver wolf struck the knot of dementors and tore into them with a fury, sending several of them shrieking and hissing into the dark void that had spawned them.  Remus had  a powerful Patronus, but even the wolf was not enough to vanquish the entire horde.

But then the wolf was joined by a soaring white phoenix as Dumbledore called his own Patronus forth from the stands and the phoenix set a third of the shadowy creatures fleeing. 

At the same moment, Severus's hastily constructed Excelsior Shield bubble managed to enfold the unconscious Harry and Aria, absorbing the greater force of their impact with the ground, so they landed without killing themselves or breaking bones. 

The dementors closed on the pair, eager to feed on the helpless children, but Severus's silver doe Patronus sprang down and straddled them, glowing and brilliant, like moonlight ice. The doe stamped her hooves at a dementor who got too close, sending the thing shooting backwards, emitting a strange high-pitched cry. 

Between the three master wizards, the dementors were soon dispersed and the dreadful cloud of fear and hopelessness was lifted from the stadium. 

As the fog of despair drifted away, Aria regained consciousness rapidly, her shape-slipper resilience enabling her to shake off the aftereffects of the dementor aura.  She blurred from hawk to human and sat up, blinking and rubbing her eyes, feeling as if she'd just woken up from a nightmare.

She glanced around, finding herself in the middle of the Quidditch pitch and for an instant she did not know how she had come to be there.  Then her memory returned, slamming into her with the force of a ton of bricks and she gasped and looked about for Harry.

Harry, whom she'd been holding onto in hawk shape before she'd blacked out.

She located him almost immediately, lying curled in the grass next to her, one hand still clutching his broom. 

Before she could see if he was still breathing, a familiar black cloaked figure threw himself down next to Harry's prone form and began to run a diagnostic charm.  Severus's face was as white as she'd ever seen on a man who was not one of the walking dead, but his hands were steady as he quickly felt his son over from head to toe, not quite trusting his spell casting. 

"Professor, is he-?" she did not finish that sentence because the next instant she was being lifted into her uncle's arms and crushed against his chest.

"Aria, Aria!" he was chanting brokenly, nearly smothering her with his hug. "Are you all right? Can you speak to me, honey?"

"Aghk! Uncle Remmy . . .I . . .can't . . .breathe!" she gasped.

"Oh," Remus immediately loosened his grip, setting her down on the ground, but he kept his hands on her shoulders.  "Are you okay, do you hurt anywhere?"

Slowly, Aria shook her head.  The Excelsior had cushioned her fall and the only thing she had were bruises, but those were minor.  "N-No.  I'm okay, I think.  Nothing feels broken."

"Thank God! When I saw you fall, I almost . . ." Remus began, then he swallowed sharply, unable to continue. 

"How's Harry?" Aria asked then.

"He's still unconscious, but he has no major injuries that I can determine," answered Severus.  "Still, I want Poppy to examine him, just to be sure." He conjured a stretcher with a snap of his fingers and levitated his son onto it. Rosie appeared out of the mist that was still drifting about and jumped up on the stretcher, lying on top of her comatose master.

Relief was rapidly being replaced by anger as Remus realized that his niece was unharmed.  Suddenly his grip on her shoulders tightened painfully and he started shaking her sharply and yelling, "Bloody hell, girl, what did you think you were playing at, going after Harry like that, right into the teeth of those dementors? D'you have any idea how it felt to watch you falling like that, you stupid, reckless, insane child? I nearly had bloody heart failure, Aria Lenore Lupin! How DARE you risk your life that way? You're just like your Goddamn father, I swear to God, you almost DIED out there-!"

He was practically spitting, he was so furious, and he was shaking poor Aria so hard the girl was white, and tears were spilling unnoticed from her amber eyes.

"Lupin!" shouted Severus, grabbing his friend by the shoulder and yanking hard.  "Moony, for Merlin's sake, get hold of yourself! You're out of control, Remus, look at what you're doing to the girl!"

Severus's sharp words penetrated the fuge of anger about Remus's brain and he slowly released his niece, only then realizing he was shaking the girl like a dog shaking a rat.  "Merlin, I didn't mean . . .what's wrong with me, Sev?"

"You're experiencing a delayed emotional reaction, Moony.  Parental hysteria," said the Potions Master dryly. "Now get hold of yourself, Lupin and if you're going to scream and scold the poor girl, be kind enough to do it inside, where the whole school's not watching."

Severus's words, though spoken quietly, had a sharp edge to them that pricked the werewolf's conscience sharply.  He winced and said, "Aria, forgive me . . .I didn't mean to flip out on you . . .but dear sweet Merlin I thought I was going to watch you die for a few horrible minutes, like you watched Rene . . ."

Aria sniffled, whispering brokenly, "Sorry, Uncle Remmy . . .I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to save Harry!"

"I know, hush, don't cry . . ." Remus wrapped an arm about her and began to walk back towards the castle, ignoring the whispers and gasps behind him as the students stared after them.  It was the first time they'd ever seen their mild mannered Defense teacher lose his cool and actually raise his voice, much less send a whole horde of dementors packing.

"Wicked!"

"Absolutely awesome, that Lupin!" sighed a girl dreamily.

"And what about Professor Snape? He thrashed a whole bloody coven of them too."

"Who was the phoenix?"

"The Headmaster, I think . . ."

"You reckon Snape is okay?"

"Thought he was a goner for sure . . ."

Those words, spoken by a girl standing next to Lavender Brown, caused Hermione to burst into tears and flee the pitch, followed a moment later by Ron.

"Hermione, wait up!" he called, running to catch up with her.

She was weeping softly, not caring who saw her.  "Oh, Ron! He nearly died today and-and just think if he had, he'd have gone thinking we hated him!"

Ron went white as chalk as Hermione's words hit him with the force of a Bludger to the head.  "Merlin!  I . . .I never . . .you're right, Mione.  I was so angry . . .that stupid quarrel . . .now it all seems so pointless . . .if he'd . . .you know . . .I wouldn't ever have the chance to talk to him and tell him what a dumb ass I've been . . .it'd have been bloody dreadful!"

"Tell me about it! I was a stuck-up git too, letting a misunderstanding come between me and one of my best friends," Hermione sniffled, wiping away tears with the sleeve of her robe.  "I was mad about Crookshanks, but also jealous that he liked Aria Lupin."

Ron's jaw dropped.  "You were? Hermione, I never knew you had feelings for Harry that way!"

Hermione hit herself in the forehead.  "Merlin's socks, Ron! I never said that!"

"You did! You said you were jealous ‘cause Harry liked Aria instead of you."

"No, listen to me. I was jealous of Aria because she could do wandless magic and I couldn't.  I'm not used to, uh, being second-best . . ." Hermione admitted, blushing furiously.  "I didn't like it at all, and so I started avoiding Harry and Aria both, though Harry offered to teach me wandless magic too. Then there was the problem with Scabbers getting eaten or vanishing or whatever and . . . and it was easier to blame Harry than to admit that I was . . .jealous."

Ron gave her a searching glance.  "You sure that's all it is?"

"Of course it is! I was jealous of Aria for a-a purely academic reason."

"Then you don't, uh, want to go out with Harry?"

"Ronald Weasley! When did I ever give the impression that I-I liked Harry that, uh, way? Because I don't.  He's like a-a brother to me and I don't feel the least bit . . .um . . .attracted to him that way." Hermione stated firmly, her cheeks bright pink.

"Oh" Ron heaved a sigh, vastly relieved.  "Okay.  It's just, well, you were crying and all over him, so I just thought maybe, you . . .er . . .liked him a lot."

"Boys!" Hermione sighed exasperatedly.  "Ron, I was upset at possibly losing my best friend or my brother, so of course I was crying.  Wouldn't you cry if one of your brothers was hurt and maybe dying?"

"Depends which one," Ron answered cheekily.  "If it were the twins or Charlie, then sure, but I'd never cry over Percy, the arrogant prat . . ."

"Whatever, Ron.  Come on, let's go to the Hospital Wing, maybe Madam Pomfrey will take pity on us and tell us how Harry is."

Ron followed the bushy-haired witch, trying to puzzle out why her declaration that she wasn't in love with Harry pleased him so much.

• * * * * *

Severus paced back and forth in front of Harry's bed in the infirmary, his black robes swishing against his ankles as he fought to keep his temper and not scream at Dumbledore like a maniac.  He had been reassured by Poppy that Harry was not in a coma, just unconscious from the trauma he'd endured from the dementors' aura.  "I'll give him plenty of chocolate to drink and eat when he wakes, Sev.  Now quit pacing like a caged panther, you're wearing a path in my floor."

Severus had sat down in the chair next to his son's bed, trying to make sense of how on earth the dementors had gotten access to the grounds in such numbers and why they had affected Harry so profoundly.  The second question was easier to answer than the first, because Severus knew all too well what sorrow his son harbored in the depths of his soul.  Harry had endured more tragedy than any boy should've, and it had scarred him.  Thus, he was especially vulnerable to the dementor's aura of hopelessness and despair.

But he still had no answers to his first question  until the Headmaster had come down to the Hospital Wing to check on Poppy's most recent patient.  It was then that Severus had jumped out of his chair and proceeded to demand an answer to his question. 

Dumbledore's reply, that the dementors were here in such numbers because the Minister of Magic had ordered it, was very dissatisfying.  "We don't need them around in such numbers, Albus.  It's a disaster waiting to happen.  No, not waiting-has happened, since they were a direct cause of Harry falling off of his broom.   Not to mention Aria Lupin collapsing as well.  Now what are you going to bloody do about it, Albus? This never should have happened! Those damn creatures need to be controlled and forbidden to come onto the school grounds.  Otherwise the next time they could kill someone."

"I realize that, Severus, believe me, and I loathe them as much as you do, but the Minister insists they be posted here until Sirius Black is caught.  My hands are tied, my boy.  I can do what I can to limit their presence, but I cannot banish them utterly."

"Damn it, Albus!" Severus swore furiously.  "Those specters nearly killed my son! If I had been one second too slow with my countercharm or Aria a shade less slow to grab Harry, he would be lying in a casket right now.  And there would go all your hopes for a champion to defeat Voldemort," Severus pointed out coldly.  "I want you to notify the Minister, tell Fudge that his so called "guards" are more trouble than they're worth, and do more harm than good."

Albus sighed, his eyes dark and grave.  "I shall tell Cornelius of your concerns and hope he allows me to limit the dementors to half their number, which should be more than adequate to capture Black if they find him."

"You hope, Albus?" snapped the Potions Master.  "Just tell Fudge and that's the end of it.  He was your student once too and I'm sure he still respects you as an authority figure, so act like one, blast it, and tell him that if he endangers any more of your students, you'll have his head on a platter.  I guarantee he'll jump and then ask you how high."

Albus considered.  Severus knew Cornelius, the man was a cautious politician, a fence-sitter, and if faced with concentrated opposition from one of the most powerful wizards in Britain, the man would fold.  "Very well, my boy.  I will speak to Cornelius this evening.  And have no fear the dementors will harm any other student, Severus, for I have sent them outside the grounds into the Forbidden Forest.  Harry is safe here, you need not worry about that, Severus."

The Potions Master snorted, but remained silent, though he was not particularly reassured by the Headmaster's words.  Once before Harry had gone to the brink of death while his father had watched helplessly, and he had vowed it would never occur again.  Except it nearly had, and Severus began to fear he was unable to provide adequate protection for his son. 

The Meteor had several safety charms built into it, yet none of them had activated when Harry was falling off his broom.  Nor could it be defective, since Severus had inspected the broom himself just prior to the match.  No something had happened to it, and Severus vowed he'd get to the bottom of this mess, if it killed him.

"I want Harry's broom tested by Filius and Minerva, Albus.  I think someone tampered with it, since when I purchased it I had several safety charms cast upon it, and today all of them failed.  That's impossible unless someone cancelled them and put jinxes in their place.  Like Black or one of his supporters."

"Severus, I highly doubt Sirius would be interesting in hexing his godson's broom."

Severus fixed the Headmaster with an icy glare, longing to take the stubborn old man and shake him until his teeth rattled.  Even now, he still defended Black, when the man was a convict and a murderer.  "First off, Headmaster, Black was never Harry's real godfather, only a stand-in for Remus under James.  And who the hell knows what the man's capable of now? You didn't think him capable of betraying his best friend and my wife all those years ago, and he did.  He's had eleven years of Azkaban, do you really think he's still sane?  I don't.  I'm going to find whoever hexed Harry's broom if it's the last thing I do, and when I do the bastard better start praying, because he's going to meet his Maker sooner than he'd like!"

"Severus, you're letting your temper color your judgment," began Dumbledore placatingly.  "Having a father arrested on murder charges is not what Harry needs right now."

Severus's hands clenched hard beneath the sleeves of his robe and he forced himself to take one deep breath after another, until his anger was under control.  "True, but I want whoever is responsible for this to pay for it, no matter who they are."

"Fear not, Severus.  Justice will be done."

The Potions Master nodded curtly, uncertain whether or not to believe his mentor.  Once he would never have questioned Dumbledore when he spoke, but after what he had done to Harry and himself, Severus found it very hard to place his trust in the older wizard again.  "It had better be," was all he said, then he turned and sat back down in the chair next to Harry's bedside to keep vigil until his son awoke.

• * * * * * *

Meanwhile, in Remus's apartments, Aria was sitting on her uncle's comfortable beige sectional, wrapped in a fluffy pink terrycloth robe (it had once belonged to her mother Alessa), and a large fuzzy maroon blanket as well.  In one hand she had a large bar of Honeydukes's best chocolate and the other had a large mug of hot cocoa. 

Chocolate was a standard remedy for those affected by a dementor's aura, it helped alleviate the fear and despair the hooded creatures projected. Aria had never been so terrified in her life, and she had seen plenty of dangerous creatures as the daughter of a leading Magical Creatures biologist and journalist.  But nothing had ever prepared her for the awful soul-wrenching fear the dementor caused in her.  She was still shivering from its' icy touch, in spite of the blankets, the cocoa and the blazing fireplace.

          Remus came and sat down beside her then, looking extremely wan and exhausted.  "Aria, how are you feeling?"

          "Better, Uncle Remmy.  Just before I passed out totally, I saw some weird silver animals, like ghosts.  But the animals fought the dementors, I think.  Where did they come from?"

          "Those weren't animals, love, they were Patronus's," Lupin explained, leaning back on the couch and putting his feet up on the coffee table.  "Mine, Sev's, and Dumbledore's, I believe.  Did your old master or Renee ever go over them with you?"

          Aria shook her head, utterly mystified.  "Is that some kind of summoning? Did you all call up spirits or something?"

          "Uh, no.  Not the way you mean.  A Patronus is a charm cast by a wizard to combat the fear aura a dementor emits, it's the exact opposite of a dementor, filled with hope and light and happiness.  Dementors feed off those emotions, but they can't feed off a Patronus because it can't feel despair, and that's why it can defeat a dementor.  It's a kind of guardian, and each one is unique to the wizard casting it."

          "Oh.  Which one was yours?"

          "The wolf, of course.  Sev was the silver doe and Albus's was the phoenix. A strong Patronus can not only drive off dementors, but it can act as a messenger from one wizard to another or a sort of guardian for a time." Remus eyed her worriedly.  "Are you sure you're all right, Aria? Maybe I ought to have Madam Pomfrey take a look at you, just to be sure."

          "I'm fine, Uncle Remmy.  I swear.  All I've got are a few bruises on my legs, back, and arms."

          "May I see? I have some bruise balm Sev gave me, I can put some on you."

          "Okay," she agreed, sensing he wouldn't leave her be until he had satisfied himself that she was okay.  He tended to fuss over her like a mother hen.  She shrugged out of the robe and rolled up her sleeves, displaying her lightly tanned and wiry muscled arms.  Halfway up her upper arm was a darkening ring of bruises.

          Remus summoned the bruise balm from his cabinet in the adjoining bathroom and removed the lid.  "This won't hurt, but it might tingle a bit and feel cold," he said, then bent to apply it to the bruises, only then realizing that they resembled . . .fingerprints. 

          The Defense teacher went pale in horror.  "Oh dear Merlin! Those look like . . . my fingerprints.  Did I do that? I'm so sorry, Aria! I never meant . . ." His eyes were wide with shock and remorse, he hadn't wanted to hurt her, but he'd been so angry and afraid . . .the werewolf nature still awakened in his blood, that he hadn't realized his own strength.  No wonder Severus had yelled at him for acting like a raving lunatic.

          "It's okay.  I know you didn't mean it.  Weres don't know their own strength sometimes, my dad used to say."

          "Maybe so, but I should've known better." He looked at the black and blue ring about the girl's upper arms, where his hands had gripped and shaken her and felt sick to his stomach.  What kind of beast left marks like that upon a little girl? "I'm sorry," he repeated, lowering his eyes in shame.  "I can't believe Rene made me your guardian," he muttered, half to himself.  "I'm not a fit parent for a cat, let alone a child."

          "That's not true!"

          "No? What kind of parent leaves bruises like that on their kid?"

          "It was an accident.  You didn't mean it, Uncle Remmy.  You were freaked out and you just lost it for a minute.  They don't hurt, not really."

          Remus shook his head.  "That's not the point.  It shouldn't have happened, Aria mine.  I promise, it'll never happen again." He gently lifted her arm and began to apply the salve.

          "Why does chocolate counteract the dementors' aura?" she queried while he smeared the balm on her arms.

          "The dementors project an aura of despair and hopelessness, since they can't feel any other emotions.  Chocolate's an anti-depressant."

          "Why were they there in the first place?"

          "I don't know, Aria.  They weren't supposed to be on the grounds unless Sirius Black was sighted, but they came anyway.  And they were drawn to Harry for some God-unknown reason."

          Aria suppressed another shiver at the wraith-like creatures, they reminded her of the bogeyman her mother used to threaten her with if she misbehaved when she was little.  "Uncle Remmy? Do the dementors make you, uh, see visions?"

          "What do you mean?" He had finished with her arms and she turned about and let him put some salve on her back as well, which was sore from crashing into the ground, despite the charm Severus had cast. 

          "Well, before I, uh, blacked out, I saw my dad again . . .and the chimera too, the way he was just before she killed him . . .I could hear him screaming and I was screaming too . . ."

          "Lord, child.  You relived that?" Remus couldn't stand it anymore.  He set the salve on the table and wrapped his arms about the girl, hugging her to his chest.  "No wonder you passed out.  Honey, you've experienced some awful things in your past, and stuff like that is a dementor's meat and drink.  They draw it out of you, so that's all you can feel or remember.  That's how they drive the prisoners of Azkaban insane, by sucking all the hope and happy thoughts out of them."

          "Do they affect everyone that way?"

          "No.  Usually they make you scared and shaking, but it's rare they cause flashbacks, unless you've suffered a great tragedy, which you have.  That's why you blacked out, and probably why Harry did also.  He lost his mum when he was a baby and witnessed her being killed by Voldemort." He held his niece close and rocked her gently.  "When I saw you falling from the sky . . .I damn near died myself.  All I could think of was how Rene would kill me if I let you die and I refused to let that happen.  I was so scared I performed a levitation charm on myself, which isn't supposed to be possible." Here the werewolf grinned proudly. "Guess it's true what they say about fear being a great motivator."

           "I'm sorry I scared you to death."

          "You should be, young lady," he scolded.  "Next time you decide to play heroine and rescue someone, warn me first.  So I can have a heart attack right then and there.  Because if you ever scare me like that again, Aria Lenore, I'll take you over my knee."

          Her eyes widened.  "You've gotta be kidding! Thirteen's too old to spank, Uncle Remmy."

          He slanted her a warning look.  "Mark me, girl, you scare the daylights out of me again with any foolish heroics and I'll warm your bum good and proper, thirteen or not.  You don't ever risk your life that way, understand? You're all I've got and I can't lose you like I lost my brother.  Then I'd really go mad, like a true werewolf."

          "Honest? You care about me that much?"

          He tilted her chin up until he was staring directly into her amber eyes. "Aria, I love you, kid, like you were my own daughter. And I always will, no matter what."

          His words, spoken so calmly and honestly, touched her profoundly.  She had feared that she was a burden to him, the relative thrust upon him by a brother he barely knew.  She had been afraid that secretly he hated her, the odd shape-slipper child, one more black mark to add to his already tarnished reputation.  But his heartfelt declaration filled her with joy and she threw her arms about him and hugged him tight, the way she used to do to her father when she was small, before he said she was too big for such displays of affection. 

          "I love you too, Uncle Remmy.  I'm glad Dad made you my guardian, and not some cousin in Australia."

          Remus hugged her back for a long moment, reveling in the closeness, which was rare for one such as he, few people had the courage to touch a werewolf, as if afraid his curse would rub off on them. 

          "What cousin in Australia?"

          "I don't know, but sometimes when I was bad, Dad used to threaten to ship me off to Australia to live with my nasty cousin.  So I'm glad he didn't make whoever it was my guardian," she explained.

          Remus laughed.  "Aria, sweetie, there was no cousin for him to send you to.  Our mum used to threaten us with that when we misbehaved. Whenever I acted up, she used to say "If you don't shape up, Remus John Lupin, I'm shipping you off to Australia with all the other naughty children."  It used to scare me silly, and I listened after that, because I didn't want to leave my family. Looks like it worked on Rene too, if he used it on you."

          She stared at him in shock.  "Madre de Dios!" she exclaimed, using one of Master Velasquez's favorite expressions.  "And here I thought there really was some cousin over there and all the time it was a lie.  Real nice, Dad!"

          Remus chuckled at her indignant expression.  "Yeah, well, Rene always did enjoy a good joke." He ruffled her hair.

          "Some joke," his niece muttered, annoyed.  Then she sighed and asked, "That Patronus thing, can you show me how it's done? I don't want to run into anymore dementors and pass out again."

          "It's very advanced magic, Aria.  Most third years can't master it at all." He warned. 

          "But you'll let me try, right?" she gave him one her best puppy-dog faces.  "Please? I'd rather not die of embarrassment before I graduate."

          It was the eyes that did it.  He could never resist a woman who looked that way.  "All right.  I'll try and teach you the Patronus Charm.  Harry too, if he wants to learn."

          She grinned happily.  "Great! When can we start?"

          "Not till we both get a good night's sleep and I'm sure you're healed all the way.  Then we'll see." He kissed the top of her forehead.  "You ought to get some sleep, cub."

          Aria nodded.  "Okay.  Night, Uncle Remmy."

          "Good night, Aria.  Pleasant dreams.  If you need me, I'll be right here."

          She slipped off his lap then and went towards the door only to halt when he asked where she was going.

          "Back to my dorm, why?"

          "Because after what you've been through, you're entitled to sleep here if you like."

          Her eyes lit up.  "Really? Thanks, Uncle Remmy.  Some of the girls in my room snore and it keeps me awake sometimes.  You don't, do you?"

          "No, at least I don't think so."

          "Good.  Then I'll get a decent night's rest," she declared happily and turned about and headed back to the couch.

• * * * * * *

Back in the Hospital Wing, Ron and Hermione pestered Poppy until she agreed to let them see Harry for a few minutes.  "But he's asleep and you're not to wake him, is that understood? Else I'll strip the hide off you and hang you out to dry."

"We'll be quiet, Madam Pomfrey," Hermione promised. 

"Like shadows," added Ron.

The medi-witch snorted, then allowed them to pass into her inner sanctum.

Harry was the only occupant at this time, so the two Gryffindors quickly made their way over to his bed.  They almost jumped out of their skin when Professor Snape arose from his chair to frown at them. 

"Professor!" gasped Hermione.  "We, uh, didn't see you there!"

"Obviously," he drawled flatly.  "What brings you two here?"

Ron swallowed then said, "We, uh, came to see Harry.  To-to make sure he wasn't hurt really bad or anything, sir."

"People were saying that he might be . . .you know . . .dead," whispered Hermione, blinking sharply.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear, Miss Granger.  Rumors aren't always true.  Trust the evidence of your own eyes."

Ron reddened, guessing what the Potions Master was getting at. "Right.  Uh, will he be waking up soon?"

"By tomorrow, he should be recovered," Severus told them.  "You may speak to him then, if you wish.  Right now, however, he must rest, his body is exhausted from the game as well as the dementors' aura."

"But he will be all right, won't he, sir?" Hermione persisted.

"Yes, Miss Granger.  He suffered no lasting damage from his fall, thank God."

Hermione heaved a vast sigh of relief.  "I'm so glad, because that would've been awful.  When can we come back and see him, Professor?"

"After breakfast," said Severus swiftly.  "He ought to be awake then and probably itching to get out of here."

Ron laughed.  "Yeah, Harry hates being in here.  Says it's too boring and all that."

The Potions professor's mouth twitched into a half-smile at the boy's words.  "Indeed, Mr. Weasley.  Harry has no patience when it comes to getting well.  He wants it to happen all at once."

"Like another wizard I could name," put in Poppy.

Severus rolled his eyes.  "In any case, you may return tomorrow.  Now, I suggest you get back to your common room, now that your curiosity has been satisfied."

"Yes sir." Ron said respectfully and then he turned and went out, followed by Hermione. 

Severus went over to the bed and laid a hand gently on his son's forehead.  It was cool with no signs of fever.  Severus hoped there would be no more visitors that night and settled himself back in the chair.

"Severus, you can take the bed next to him, if you want," Poppy said.  "You'll get stiff as a board sleeping that way."

Snape thought about it, then nodded.  He didn't relish sleeping in a chair all night.  He took off his robes and boots and stretched out on the bed next to his slumbering son.  Within moments, he too, was asleep.

• * * * * *

"When can I get out of here, Dad?" Harry asked almost as soon as he opened his eyes the next morning. 

"As soon as Madam Pomfrey says," was all his father replied.

The thirteen-year-old scowled.  "But I feel fine.  I'm just sore, well anybody would be after they smashed into the ground that way."

"Yes, that's to be expected," agreed Snape.  "You're lucky that's all you are, son." He ran a hand thorough his dark hair agitatedly.  "You almost . . ." he didn't finish that sentence but they both knew how it ended. 

I almost died.  Again, Harry thought.  By now, his near-death experiences had become almost . . .routine.  "What happened after I, uh, passed out?"

Snape filled him in on the aftermath and Harry nodded then said, "Guess Slytherin won the game, huh?"

"Who gives a bloody damn about Quidditch?" growled his father.  "Actually, the game ended once the dementors came on the field."

"So there will probably be a rematch then?" Harry asked.

"I would assume so."

"Good, because I would've caught the Snitch if those stupid wraiths hadn't shown up. Stupid bloody-"

"Harrison Remus Snape! If I hear one more swear word come out of your mouth, you'll have soap for breakfast."

Harry quickly shut his mouth, he could tell his father wasn't kidding from the look on his face.  "Sorry," he mumbled.  Damn it, why couldn't he learn to think before he spoke? It was if his mouth worked independently of his brain sometimes. 

Severus drew his wand and waved it over his son while murmuring a diagnostic charm.  "Hmmm.  You've got quite a bit of bruising on your back, ribs, and right thigh, but otherwise there are no bones broken or internal injuries."

"See? I told you, I'm fine.  Now can I get up? I really need to go," Harry said, squirming uncomfortably.

"Go, but then you're to get right back in bed, no arguments."

"Aww, Dad!"

"Harry, I mean it," said his father severely.  "You might feel well physically, but you've had a terrible shock and you need to rest for awhile.  Now, will you promise me you'll listen, or do I have to spell your bladder empty and tie you to the bed?"

"Dad!" Harry was horrified.  "Okay, I promise! You don't need to go all snarky on me." Then he scrambled out of the bed and ran to the bathroom.

Three minutes later he was back in bed, rather grumpy, but he sure as blazes wasn't going to test Snape to see if he meant what he'd said earlier.

"Thank you," Severus said, then motioned for his son to turn over so he could put some bruise balm on him.

Face flaming, the boy obeyed, though it really wasn't too bad, Severus was very gentle and afterwards Harry admitted silently he felt much better.  And he'd rather his father tend him than Poppy, it was ten times less embarrassing.

In fact, Madam Pomfrey came in shortly afterwards, ran her own series of charms, gave Harry a pain reliever, some chocolate, and then said he could have breakfast.  "After you've eaten and taken a nap, you may go, Harry," she said, anticipating his question even before he spoke.

Her patient silently thanked Merlin and all the angels for that bit of mercy.  He was all too intimate with the walls and beds of the Hospital Wing. 

Harry had just finished eating his scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, and a mug of hot cocoa when Hermione and Ron walked in.  He quickly let Rosie finish off what was left and Severus excused himself, leaving the three alone to talk.

"Er . . .hi, Harry," began Ron awkwardly, looking down at his shoelaces.

"How are you feeling?" asked Hermione, also not really looking at him.

"Fine.  I wasn't really hurt," Harry reassured them.  "Madam Pomfrey says I can leave after I take a nap." He stroked Rosie, who licked his hand.

Ron lifted his head and looked at Harry and the dog.  "Uh . . .look, I just wanted say that, uh, I'm sorry I acted like such an idiot over Scabbers.  Maybe you were right and he's not dead after all.  Pretty dumb, huh?"

"Very," agreed Harry.  "But it's okay.  I forgive you.  And so does Rosie."

Ron smiled, relieved that Harry didn't seem inclined to hold grudges.

"I'm sorry too," Hermione said then.  "I overreacted that night and well, I'm just glad you're okay, Harry.  Friends?"

"Friends," Harry smiled, relieved that his two best friends had finally come to their senses. 

"You know, you really scared us, Harry.  We thought you were dead, after you fell off that way," Hermione told him feelingly.  "It wasn't until your father conjured a stretcher that we realized you weren't."

"Yeah, the dementors were all over you, mate."

Harry shuddered.  "Who made them leave?" he asked, though he really wanted to know why he'd heard his mum's voice screaming.

"Uh, Professor Lupin, your dad, and Dumbledore all attacked them." Ron told him. "They were using some kind of charm I never heard of. But whatever it was worked and the dementors were driven away. It was bloody amazing!"

Hermione even agreed with that, and the three friends spent a good hour and a half talking until Madam Pomfrey ordered them away so Harry could get some much needed rest. 

Harry was inclined to grumble a bit at the matron, but stopped when his father gave him a warning look and waved his wand.  "Close your eyes and go to sleep, Harry."

"Okay, Dad," the boy huffed and then shut his eyes.  A moment later he felt a hand run through his hair and gently rub his back.  It felt good, though he knew he was far too old for such gestures.  Still . . .

Harry snuggled under the covers and allowed his father's soothing touch to send him to sleep, just the way he had when he was two.  Some things never changed.

• * * * * *

"Professor, that's not a real dementor in there, is it?" Harry queried nervously of Lupin as he stood before a locked trunk in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. 

"No, it's just a boggart, Harry," answered the older wizard, amused.  "But it'll become a dementor for you and Aria, which will serve just as well.  Now, remember the incantation is Expecto Patronum! And as you say it, think of the happiest memory you can.  Hold that thought uppermost in your mind as you say the spell and your Patronus should appear from your wand. Are you ready? Good! On three. One. Two. Three!"

Lupin threw open the trunk and a shadowy hooded figure emerged, hissing malevolently.

Harry and Aria both pointed their wands at it and shouted, "Expecto patronum!"

But to their dismay, the only thing that came out of their wands was a bit of silver vapor that curled about the dementor before evaporating as the wraith surged forward.

Before it could overwhelm the two, Lupin drove it back with a hasty, "Riddikulus!" and it crept back into the trunk.

He turned back to his students.  "Not bad for a first try.  Most third-years couldn't even do a mist."

"But it wasn't enough, Uncle Remmy!" Aria said, glaring at her wand disgustedly. "I might as well have been spitting on it."

"Aria, this spell is very advanced, you can't expect to get it right the first time. No one I know of, except maybe Severus, ever has.  Shall we try again?"

"Yes, please," said Harry, backing up and pointing his wand at the trunk again.  It seemed as if he would have to think of a better thought than coming to Hogwarts the first time.  He concentrated again.

Lupin counted, the trunk flew open, and the boggart emerged, morphing into a dementor as soon as it faced them, for after what had almost happened Saturday, both of them were terrified of the creatures.  It had been three days since the Quidditch match, and Harry had agreed to take private lessons with his godfather in how to conjure a Patronus as well.

So far, the lessons were not going very well.

This time the silvery mist was more pronounced, but that was all.

Three more times they tried and failed to conjure a decent Patronus, and after that, Lupin handed them each a large hunk of chocolate to combat the sudden trembling and fear they felt from the false dementor's aura.

"Uncle Remmy, it's a boggart, not a true dementor, so why do I still feel like I was facing a dementor?" asked Aria as she ate her chocolate.

"Because illusion is a powerful thing, Aria," answered her uncle.  "Your mind believes a dementor is there, and therefore you experience all the sensations of facing one, including the dreadful fear and despair.  That is a boggart's special magic, and it's not one to sneer at.  Your mind is a powerful thing, even when it is mistaken. Illusions can be deadly if you believe they are real."

Harry was getting exhausted, but he stubbornly refused to quit until he'd managed at least a halfway decent Patronus.  He wracked his brain for a suitably happy memory.  There weren't many of them from his childhood.  Then he recalled a hazy memory of his mum and dad together, with his dad holding him and rocking him to sleep.  He closed his eyes, remembering the way it had felt to be held-warm and safe and surrounded by his father's solid strength and his mother's voice, singing softly.  He had fallen asleep listening to her and snuggled against Severus's shoulder, happy and loved unconditionally.

Yes.  That would do.

Holding the memory tightly, he pointed his wand again.

"One.  Two. Three!"

The boggart exploded out of the trunk.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry yelled, focusing hard on the memory, echoed an instant later by his friend.

This time, a silvery vapor coalesced from his wand and took a dim hazy shape in the air that resembled nothing so much as a beagle sniffing. 

The Patronus walked up to the false dementor and bayed softly.

The dementor halted, puzzled, then kept on coming, for it was not affected by the Patronus since it was a boggart.

Lupin snapped out the countercharm and locked it away.

"Very good, Harry!" praised the Defense teacher.  "You managed a nearly full manifestation that time. Hold that thought."

Aria scowled in frustration.  She had only managed a few wispy blobs that time.  "Maybe I'd do better without a wand."

Lupin looked thoughtful.  "Perhaps.  Try again without it, and this time focus, child." He motioned for Harry to back away, letting Aria confront the boggart alone this time.

Aria tucked her wand away and pointed her finger at the dementor rising from the trunk and this time her Patronus was more pronounced, though Harry couldn't quite identify it, except that it looked like it had wings.

"Better! We'll try some more tomorrow," said Lupin.  "Here.  Eat this, before you keel over, Harry.  Otherwise Sev will have my head."

Harry took the large chocolate bar Lupin held out and ate it blissfully.  It was the best chocolate he'd ever tasted.

Lupin seemed pleased with the results of their first lesson, though he could tell Aria was not satisfied.  Still, they had plenty of time to practice the rest of the week. 

"Aria, this weekend is a Hogsmead visit, right?" Harry asked once he'd swallowed his chocolate.

The girl nodded. "Yeah.  It'll be the first one I go to, since I missed last month's.  I can't wait.  Mandy says it's a lot of fun there, shopping and eating at the little restaraunts and stuff."

"Ron says there's joke shop there and a sweet shop too."

"Yes, Zonkos and Honeydukes," clarified Remus.  "But you can only go, Harry, if Severus signs a form permitting it.  Has he?"

"Uh, I don't know.  Guess I'll ask him tonight." Harry said, then he and Aria headed off to dinner together.

"But Dad, why?" Harry cried, unable to believe his father would refuse him this one small simple request. "There's nothing dangerous in Hogsmeade, everybody from Hogwarts goes there, they've been going there for over half the year and nothing bad has happened. So why can't I go too? It's not fair!"

Severus set down the last batch of exams from his fourth-years and favored his son with a mild Snape glare. "Harry, you know why I don't want you leaving the castle. It's you Sirius Black is after, not anyone else, and he's been sighted in Hogsmeade a number of times. He can't get in past the wards now that the Headmaster and I have strengthened them, but the village is a different story."

"Yeah, but that's why the dementors are there, to protect us," Harry argued.

"And are you willing to trust your life to one of them after last time, Harry?" demanded his father. "Because I sure as hell won't."

"Fine, then if you're so worried he's lurking in the shadows waiting to grab me, you come with me!" Harry urged.

The Potions Master sighed. He was developing a migraine from all the exams he'd been grading non-stop for hours and Harry's insistence on this visit wasn't helping any. "I can't, and I've told you before I have too much left to do before the end of this term. I need to make sure all of my potions are restocked and Poppy asked me for some more Deflation Drafts and Decongestion Drafts as well. Speaking of which, you're due for a dose, that cold you picked up a few days ago isn't completely gone."

The professor snapped his fingers and a small green vial appeared on his desk. "Drink that all."

Harry scowled mutinously at the vial and made no move to take it. The last thing he wanted was more of that dreadful potion. "I don't need it," he said sulkily, sounding very much like a whiny toddler. "I feel fine, I'm not sick. Except sick of being stuck here in this boring old castle where nothing ever happens."

Severus gritted his teeth and prayed for patience. His son's attitude was wearing on his nerves. "Take your medicine, Harry. And stop acting like a spoiled brat."

"I'm not. You're being paranoid again, Dad."

"One of has to be, since you can't seem to control your impulsive streak at all, Harry." He shoved the potion at his recalcitrant offspring. "Take that now, young man, or shall I put you on my lap and feed it to you like a baby?"

"You wouldn't!"

"If it's not gone by the time I count to three, I most certainly will. And then you can stand in the corner as well for acting like a three-year-old," threatened his father. "One."

Harry gazed at his parent in angry disbelief, then as Severus continued counting, snatched up the vial and drank the disgusting potion down. "There! Ugh! Happy now?"

"Watch your tone, boy. There's another reason why I won't give you permission to go."

"Please, sir? I'm sorry, I promise I'll behave from now until Saturday," Harry pleaded, giving Severus his most potent beagle begging look.

"I'm sorry, son, but the answer is still no. It's not the end of the world if you miss this trip. There'll be other weekends."

"When? Next year?"

"Don't get cheeky with me, mister. I'm not taking any chances with your safety, not after last weekend. Quit sulking and act your age."

Harry's lip stuck out in a slight pout. "What am I supposed to do all day with everyone gone?"

"Oh, I can come up with a few things if you really want me to," Severus purred, his eyes glinting in warning.

"Never mind." Harry said hastily. Knowing his father, he'd end up spending the day cleaning his room or mixing potion ingredients. "I can't believe this. Nobody else's parent acts like this. You treat me like I'm glass. I'm not a baby, I can take care of myself."

"That's enough, Mr. Snape!" warned Severus. "I said no and that's final. Keep this up and you'll miss the next one too, is that clear?"

"Yes sir," his son muttered, then stomped off to his room, sulky and furious. Bloody damn overprotective idiot! What does he think I am, a little baby that needs an adult to hold my hand? I defeated a basilisk and Quirrel without any help. What could Sirius Black do to me? He hasn't even got a wand. What's the use of teaching me defense if I'm never going to be allowed to defend myself?

Rosie glanced up from where she was snuggled on the bed, half under the covers. Harry went and sat by her. "You're so lucky, beagle, you know that? You get to go pretty much wherever you want and don't need to worry about criminals hunting you down or your father treating you like you were a helpless baby. It's too bad Black didn't die in Azkaban. Then none of this would be necessary."

Rosie thrust her nose into his palm, and he stroked her ears. At least if he were stuck here, he still had his dog to keep him company.

• * * * * * *

"What do you mean, he wouldn't sign the form?" Ron asked the next day. "You get in trouble again, Harry?"

"No. He's just being an overprotective idiot, is all," groused his friend. "Says it's too dangerous with Black still loose to leave Hogwarts."

"Well, he is right, Harry," Hermione pointed out annoyingly. "Black is a criminal and a murderer, he was responsible for your mother's death, so no wonder your dad wants to keep you close."

"I know all that, Hermione! But I hate being cooped up, I feel like I'm in prison." Harry grumbled. "And I don't even have my Meteor to fly with, since Dad's still checking it for hexes and whatever. This bloody sucks!"

"It could be worse," the girl pointed out. "You could be waiting to have some stupid committee send a man to chop off your pet's head."

Harry swallowed hard, wincing. In the aftermath of the Quiddithc match and learning how to cast a Patronus he'd forgotten all about poor Buckbeak, who was sentenced to die, and Hagrid. "Maybe I'll go see Hagrid today. When's the uh, date for the execution set up, d'you know?"

"A month from today," Hermione answered, wiping a tear from her eye. "It's just so awful! Buckbeak doesn't deserve to die, he was only defending himself from that git Malfoy."

"I agree, but what can we do about it? The Ministry's decided," sighed Ron.

"The Ministry's a bunch of assholes," put in Aria, coming over to where the three Gryffindors were seated down by the lake. "They only voted to kill Buckbeak because Lucius Malfoy paid them off. Money talks, here as well as anywhere." Her amber eyes were bright with indignation. "Too bad we can't pull off an eleventh hour rescue."

"Yeah, but how?" asked Harry glumly.

"Don't know yet, but if I think about it enough, maybe I'll come up with something." Aria said determinedly.

"Yeah, put that cunning Slytherin brain to good use, Lupin," teased Ron.

Aria smirked at him slyly. "I will, Weasley. It's time somebody took that rattler Draco down a peg."

Hermione looked alarmed. "But Aria, you can't interfere with the Ministry. You'll get in big trouble!"

"Only if I get caught," answered the other. An imp of forbidden delight gleamed in her eyes as she plotted a way to recue an innocent animal from death. Then she abruptly switched subjects. "Are you ready for Hogsmeade tomorrow, Harry?"

"No. I'm not going."

"Why not?"

"Dad won't let me. He says I need to stay here, because it's too dangerous," Harry gritted out, rolling his eyes. "He's worried Sirius Black's gonna come and kidnap me or something. If Black ever came within ten yards of me, I'd hex him into oblivion, the filthy traitor!"

"Oh. That's too bad," Aria shook her head, for she had really been looking forward to exploring the quaint little village with Harry. "But you can't really blame the professor, Harry. I mean, you did almost die last Saturday because someone tampered with the Meteor."

"So? I'm still here, aren't I? He's jumping at shadows, Aria."

"Maybe so, but that's what fathers do," she said wisely.

"Yours didn't forbid you to come along when he did his research."

Aria bit her lip. "He had no choice, there was nobody else I could stay with once Gran died and Mom was in St. Mary's. And there were plenty of times he made me stay back at camp while he was taking photos. The only reason I went with him that last time was because I begged him to, and promised that if anything went wrong, I'd run and get help. Only I never got the chance and sometimes I wish I'd never gone that day."

She glanced away, her eyes misty, and they all remained quiet until she had composed herself. "My dad was a reckless fool sometimes, Harry, careless about his own safety, but one thing I do know is that if there were a murderer stalking me, he'd stick me in a tower like Rapunzel and never let me out till the guy was dead. It's no different with Severus. All fathers are overprotective of their children."

Harry flung a rock into the water. That might be so, but it didn't mean he had to like it.

• * * * * * *

Harry went to bed early that night, still sulky and uncommunicative. Severus longed to shake the boy until he saw sense. Couldn't he see that nothing mattered more to his father than his son's life? He had already lost Lily, he would be damned if he'd lose Harry too. He'd come far too close to that last week and he swore it wouldn't happen again. Flitwick still hadn't identified all the hexes on the Meteor, which made Severus suspect that whoever had jinxed it was an expert, probably Black.

And if Black could do something like that here, under the noses of Albus and himself, there was no telling what he could do in Hogsmeade. Severus refused to risk his only son's life just so Harry could visit some joke shop and sweet store and whatever. It wasn't worth it. Better safe than sorry. One day he'll understand, when he has children, that you do whatever you can to keep them safe, no matter what it costs, because your child is your life.

Snape leaned back in his recliner and sipped his evening cup of Earl Grey, idly watching the flames flicker and dance in the fireplace. Thinking about family brought him around to wondering what was happening with Melody and her scoundrel of a husband. He still hadn't heard back from Aurelia in nearly a week and that concerned him greatly. He was half tempted to go over there and see what was going on himself, but then he figured it was best to wait and see if Aurelia thought it necessary for him to interfere. Normally, he never would have considered involving himself in another's private life, but if Devon were hurting Melody or Mia then he would feel no compunction whatsoever about going over and rearranging the bastard's face.

No sooner had that thought crossed his mind, his fire turned an odd shade of emerald green and he heard a familiar voice calling him. "Severus! It's Mia! Oh, please be home, I really need to talk to you!"

He jerked bolt upright, startled out of his wits by the little girl's desperate plea. "Mia? Is that you, child?"

"Sev? Where are you?"

"Just a moment, let me cancel the scramble charm," he called, then did so, allowing Mia's face to appear in the middle of the emerald flames. Only then did he remember showing her how to use the Floo powder before he left, telling her to only use it in case of an emergency.

He knelt down so he could see her. "Mia, what's happened?"

The little girl's eyes filled with tears. "Sev, I found you! I thought maybe the Floo powder didn't work. You gotta come here right away!"

"What's the matter, child?"

"My mom needs you. Daddy brought Kendra here and told her that she's gonna be his wife now and Mom could just leave and Mom said over her dead body would that happen and then they started yelling and Daddy told me to get my stuff, I was going to live with him and I said no, I wanted to stay with Mom and he said she wasn't my mommy anymore!"

"He said what?" Severus repeated incredulously. The man was clearly out of control, saying such things to his child. "Mia, stay put, I'm coming over there in a minute. I just need to leave a note for Harry, he's sleeping."

Severus scribbled a hasty note for his son in case he woke up and wondered where his father had gone, telling him what had happened and that he wasn't sure when he'd be back. Then he wrote a note to Remus also, informing him of his whereabouts as well and asking him to keep an eye on Harry while he was settling some family matters in New Jersey.

He whistled Hedwig from her perch and asked the snowy owl to deliver the letter to Moony as quickly as she could. Hedwig hooted in understanding and flew off.

Then, his face set in a grim line, his wand tucked in one fist, Severus Snape strode over to his fireplace and grabbed handful of Floo powder. "Mia, I need you to get out of the fireplace now, little one, so I can come through."

"Okay." Her little face vanished and Severus tossed the handful of powder at his fire and spoke the words, "Melody Prince-Barry's residence, New Jersey, United States."

The flames surged up and turned a deep emerald and Severus stepped within them and was whirled away across the ocean.

Because of the distance, the Floo Network sent him to two other destinations before he arrived at Melody's living room in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. But it only took about five minutes for him to arrive, and he stepped from the fireplace and dusted himself off. The living room was one of those rooms that looked like it had come straight off the pages of some home decorating magazine, it had a printed sofa done in pink and cream flowers, a matching area rug and cherry furnishings, complete with white Victorian style table lamps, throw pillows, and a bouquet of fresh flowers upon the polished cherrywood coffetable.

Mia was huddled on the sofa, sniffling softly, but she stopped crying when she saw him and ran to him instead, throwing her little arms about him and burying her face in his shirt.

"There now, Mia, it's all right. I'm here," he murmured, picking her up and holding her close. From nearby he could hear the sounds of voices raised in a dreadful quarrel.

A part of him flinched, recalling those long ago days of his childhood, listening to his parents screaming at each other while he was huddled under a thin blanket, shivering with cold and fear. He patted Mia's back soothingly, whispering reassurances, vowing that the horrors of his childhood would not be repeated. "Mia, sweetie, are you all right?"

She lifted her dark head from his shoulder, her beautiful hazel eyes wet with tears and said quietly, "I am now that you're here, Sev. You can make my daddy dump Kendra and fall in love with Mom again, right?"

"Uh . . .I'll do my best," he agreed, not wanting to give the girl false hope. It was then he caught sight of the red mark on her cheek. "Merlin, child! Did your father do that to you, Mia?"

She nodded. "I told him I didn't want Kendra for a new mommy when I already had one and he told me to knock off the attitude and he smacked me."

Severus's blood boiled. How dare Devon strike Mia that way? The child was only five, far too young to comprehend adult relationships. He had no tolerance for men who knocked about women and children, especially not his relatives. Devon had exposed his daughter to his infidelity at a very young age, which was inexcusable in Severus's eyes, and now he dared to threaten the child with the loss of her mother because he wanted to shack up with his current mistress, then grew angry when the child objected to it! The sheer gall of the man made Severus want to throttle the bounder.

"Did your mother see him do that?" Severus queried gently.

Mia nodded. "She slapped him then and said if he touched me again he was a dead man. Then daddy said she better watch it, or else he'd have her arrested."

"He's the one who ought to be arrested!" growled her cousin. "Mia, love, I'm going to take you over to your grandma's house, all right? She'll watch you while I take care of this problem with your dad and mum."

"How will we get there? You don't have a car, Sev."

"We'll do it the wizard way, with magic."

Mia smiled, she loved doing things with magic, since she too was a witch, the only one on her side of the family to have inherited the Prince magic. "Neat! How are we going to do it?"

"It's called Apparition, Mia and it's something only adult wizards and witches can do. It's sort of like wishing yourself somewhere and appearing there," he explained, trying to put it in terms the child could comprehend.

Mia's eyes grew round with wonder. "Wow!"

"Indeed," he smiled quietly at the child's enthusiasm. "Now, I want you to close your eyes and count to three. You'll feel a bit strange, like something's squeezing you tightly, but don't be afraid, it only lasts a minute and then you'll be at your grandmother's. Are you ready?"

She nodded, nestling trustingly into his arms.

Severus concentrated picturing Aurelia's front porch in his mind's eye. Then he Apparated away in a searing blue flash.

They appeared a moment later upon Aurelia's front porch, and Mia blinked and whispered in awe, "Holy cow, Sev! That's so cool."

"Do you feel sick or dizzy?" he asked, for those were common side effects of first time Apparitioners.

Mia shook her head. "No, why? I feel great. Can we do that again?"

"Yes, but not now, child." He knocked on the door and Aurelia answered it.

"Severus, great Merlin! What brings you here this evening?"

"Mia." Snape replied brusquely. He told Aurelia what had happened as soon as they were inside, setting Mia down and letting her go play or watch TV.

"I don't want her to see anything she shouldn't when I go confront Devon, Aunt Relia," he explained in hushed tones.

"I understand, Severus," Aurelia reassured him. "I nearly called the police last time, when he threatened to knock Melody into next week."

"He threatened to hit Mel?" Severus's face was like a thundercloud.

Aurelia nodded gravely. "I told her then she should leave him and she filed for a divorce. That could be why he's turned up here today, since he's not usually here on Fridays."

Severus looked like he was about to explode. But he managed to reign his temper in, at least for now. "Wish me luck, Aunt Relia."

"Luck, hell Sev, I hope you kick the bastard's ass good."

At that the Potions Master gave a thin smile, then he Apparated to the Barry residence.

• * * * * *

He arrived there just in time to catch Devon's hand before it connected with Melody's face.

The dark-haired businessman in the chic three piece suit was not expecting another man to appear out of thin air, much less a furious one who grabbed his wrist in one unrelentingly firm grip. Devon cried out, both in pain and surprise.

"Where the hell did you come from, buddy?" Devon shouted. "What are you doing in my house?"

"That should be obvious," drawled Severus. "I'm going to teach you a lesson about how to treat a lady, since your father never bothered. And it's one you won't like at all."

"Oh yeah? Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Sev! My God, where did you come from?" cried Melody, glaring daggers at her husband.

"Across the ocean," answered the Potions Master dryly. Then he spun on Devon and picked him up by his shirt collar. "Do you know what your problem is, Barry? You think women are there to serve you, so you treat them like dirt. Well, not my cousin, you miserable excuse for a piece of shit." Severus slammed the other man up against the wall. His one hand twisted in Devon's collar, nearly strangling the younger man.

Devon choked and tried to speak, but all that came out of his mouth was a bunch of nonsense syllables. Severus's dark eyes burned into the other man with the force of a thousand suns, making the stock broker tremble with fear. He had no idea who this tall stranger was, but the way he was looking at Devon made the Muggle fear for his life.

"Listen to me, you slimy bastard, and listen good. This is the last time you will ever lay a hand on your child or your wife. You will leave this house with your whore or whatever you call her and never come back, nor attempt to contact Mia again. As of this moment, you have no daughter any longer, for you gave up that right when you struck her and threatened to take her away from her mother. Nod if you understand me."

He loosened his grip a fraction, and a very red-faced Devon nodded, his blue eyes blazing.

"And before you even think about calling the police on me, remember two things." Severus lifted a finger. "One, you left a very nice bruise on Mia's face that will get you brought up on charges in any court in the country, and two," he brought up a second finger and jabbed it into the other man's chest. "I can break every bone in your damn body and rip out your tongue before you can blink twice. As quickly as this."

And with that, Severus drew back his fist and punched the astonished Devon right in the jaw.

The other man's head snapped back against the wall and blood flew everywhere. He cringed, obviously having no stomach for an adult male opponent, which did not surprise the Potions Master. His kind rarely did, they preferred smaller helpless prey.

"That's for hitting Mia," spat the angry wizard.

"Y-you can't do this," sputtered Devon, one hand covering his swollen jaw. Blood was dripping down his expensive Saville Row suit. "My attorney and I will sue your ass for assault, you Mafia thug."

Severus smirked coldly. "Do that, Barry, and I promise you won't be around to see another sunrise. At least not as a human being."

"What? You're-you're insane! Mel, who is this creep? Where'd you find him, cruising the boardwalk down at Atlantic City?"

"He's my cousin, Devon. And he doesn't like men who cheat on their wives."

"Like I give a good damn what he likes. I'll do as I damn well please and you can shove it up your ass, buddy!" blustered Devon.

"Oh? Shall I show you what I'm capable of, you son of a bitch?" Severus drew his wand and chanted a quick shape alteration spell.

One minute Devon was standing there, nursing a bloody lip and the next he was a tiny mouse, trembling and shivering upon the floor.

"I think that form suits you better than your other one, Barry. A rodent for a coward and a bastard. Or you could be a spider, or a gnat, and discover what it means to be helpless. How do you like it?"

Severus stamped a foot on the floor, making the quivering mouse jump and squeak in horror. "I could step on you, like the stinking cowardly rodent you are, Barry, and who would know?"

Devon the Mouse began to shake in terror and run in circles, panicking utterly.

"Ah, it's not so fun now when you're at somebody else's mercy, is it?"

Severus pointed his wand again and the mouse became a man once more.

Devon stared up at the tall wizard, his eyes bulging in terror. "Please, please, I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt me, mister!"

Severus sneered at him. "Begging already, you gutless bootlicking whoremaster? Stand up, coward, and act like a man."

"What are you?" quivered the other man.

"Melody's payback," answered Severus, then he hauled the trembling man up by his collar and slugged him twice, once in the eye and once in the nose. "And that's for making my cousin's life a misery." Devon yelped like a whipped cur.

"Please! Please!" whimpered Melody's husband. "I'll leave, I'll do whatever you want, just don't kill me."

"I wouldn't waste my time," snorted the Potions Master. Then he leaned in and hissed, very softly, in the other's face. "But I can and will make your life very unpleasant if you ever dare return here to take Mia or hurt Melody. And make no mistake, Barry, if you do-I will know. And I will come for you, and then you can kiss your human shape goodbye! Got me?"

"Yes! Yes! Just let me go."

Severus spat at him before dragging him by the collar to the door and tossing him out of it with a well placed kick to the rear. "Run, coward! And remember what I said. If you come back-I'll be waiting! And one more thing, since you took so much pleasure out of cheating on your wife, I think it only fair she get some payback." Then he pointed his wand again and cast a spell that withered the other man's penis and scrotum to one that was about the size of the mouse he had been. After that, he cast a mind-altering spell on the cringing man, making it so Devon could not speak about what had happened to anyone.

Then he dusted off his hands and went back inside. "Mel, I think I took care of your rodent problem. You all right?"

His cousin was looking at him with the same hero-worshipping expression she'd given him when she was eight and he had beaten up a local bully. "Fine, Sev. Just a little shaken. Thanks. And where is Mia?"

"I brought her over to Relia's. She's seen enough violence for one day."

Melody heaved a sigh. "Thank God. I was afraid she was going to go missing, after what Devon threatened earlier. How did you know to come here, Sev?"

Severus smiled. "A little bird told me, Mel. Come on, let's go and sit down and have a cup of tea." He gently touched the fist sized bruise on Mel's heart-shaped face. "Bastard!"

"I never thought he'd go this far, Sev. He's never been one to get physical before, at least not that way. This was the first time he ever actually hit me."

"First and last by my reckoning." He led her into the kitchen and removed a small emergency potion kit from inside the pocket of his shirt. "Let's get you cleaned up. You don't want Mia seeing you like this."

He ran a washcloth under some warm water in the kitchen sink and gently washed her face with it. Melody closed her eyes, tears seeping from under her closed lids. "I was so stupid, Sev! I should've left him years ago, when I first found out he was cheating on me with the girl from his office. But I thought it was just a fling, he swore it wouldn't ever happen again, and I believed him. Until six months later, when I found a woman's earring inside his jacket pocket. Mia was just a year then, and I was afraid to leave then, afraid I'd look like a quitter and I wasn't ready to give up my job and become a stay-at-home mom then. So I turned a blind eye and hoped he'd change, like he promised."

"His kind always say that, Mel," said Severus knowingly. "My bastard father used to swear he'd never touch a drop of alcohol after my mother threatened to leave him a few times in the early years of their marriage and he went right back to the bottle the first chance he got. He never meant what he said, his promises were nothing but piss and sand. Worthless. Much like Devon's."

"Exactly like Devon's," Melody sniffled, taking the napkin her cousin handed her and blowing her nose. "Won't you get in trouble for uh, magicking him like that?"

Severus smirked. "No. Who's he going to tell? I made sure he couldn't speak of it to anyone. You won't have to worry about him again, Mel. I think I scared him so bad he'll have nightmares for the rest of his miserable life." He uncapped the small jar of murtlap essence salve. "Look up," he ordered, and gently applied the blue salve under her eye and to her cheekbone. "In ten minutes that bruise and swelling will be a memory."

"You should've been a doctor instead of a wizard, Sev," remarked Melody.

The Potions Master gave her a rare smile. "I thought about it once or twice. But getting a Healer Mastery was an extra three years of studying and I was too impatient. So I became a Potions Master instead, though I know more about healing remedies than most in my field." He recapped the salve. "Which is a good thing too, considering how many near-death experiences my son has had. That boy draws trouble to him like a magnet."

"How is Harry, Sev?"

"Just getting over a nasty cold and mad as blazes at me right now," confessed the professor.

"Why? Are you being a drill sergeant again, Severus?"

"He thinks so. But it's for his own good, Mel." He spent the next forty minutes telling Melody everything that had happened in the past two weeks, happy to confide in someone who was also a parent and who would understand where he was coming from.

When he was finished, Melody said, "You make a better parent than I do, Sev. Least you don't allow your child to associate with an immoral asshole just cause he happens to be her father."

"Mel, everyone makes mistakes. I'm no exception, believe me. But what's done is done and all you can do is live with it. He's gone now and you and Mia can start over, she's young enough to not be too damaged by what he did, and now you've got a second chance. Don't waste it. Because they're too rare for that."

"You'd know, wouldn't you?"

Severus nodded. "Experience is a damn good teacher, Mel. Provided you survive it."

"How'd you get so wise, Sev?"

"I was born that way," he answered, and she laughed. "I'd better go and get Mia and let your mother know you're all right."

"I'm surprised she hasn't called yet."

"I told her not to. I said I'd come over as soon as I'd thrashed Devon into a pulp."

"You admitted you were going to beat up my husband to my mother, Sev?"

"Actually, she told me to do it," chuckled the wizard. "Go kick his ass good, were her exact words. That was one order I didn't mind obeying at all."

Melody rose to her feet and hugged him. "Thanks, big brother."

"Anytime, little sister." He examined her face critically. "Good as new. Wait here and I'll be back with your baby in five minutes."

He was as good as his word, returning with a sleeping Mia in five minutes. He handed the little girl to her mother, who took her into her room to put her to bed.

Once the child was tucked in, Melody came back into the kitchen to finish her cup of tea and Severus took one look at her and asked her if she wanted him to spend the night.

Melody smiled gratefully at him. "If it's not too much trouble, Sev, I'd really appreciate it."

"It isn't," he answered, yawning. Then he cast a few protection wards about the house before going to sleep in the guest room.

The next morning he awoke intending to return to Hogwarts, only to find Neil at the door, apparently Mia had woken up and saw him getting the paper and told him Severus was visiting. The young wizard somehow managed to talk the Potions Master into giving him an impromptu lesson on Advanced Emotion-Enhancing Elixirs, which lasted over half the morning and by that time he was starving and Aurelia invited him to go out to eat with them at a local restaurant called Applebees. Neil also managed to extract a promise that the Snapes would return over the summer to the Jersey shore and Severus retrieved his owl from Aurelia's house.

By the time he Flooed back to Hogwarts it was dusk and he found a parchment from Remus on his desk.

Sev,

Come and see me immediately. I had an incident today with Harry and we need to discuss it.

Moony

Severus groaned and wondered what the hell trouble his son had gotten into now.

When Harry awoke that morning and found Severus absent, he was rather relieved, because he was still in a grouchy mood and if he saw the man he feared he would only end up in an argument, and that was not what he wanted to start the morning off doing. Then he saw the note the Potions professor had left for him and he was both alarmed and hoping his dad would pound that sod Devon into mincemeat.

Wish like blazes I could've seen it. Figures, I always miss the really interesting things. He threw himself down on the sofa and cupped his chin in his hands, wondering what else he could do to entertain himself for the day besides play with his beagle.

He decided to have breakfast in the apartment rather than the hall this morning, for he didn't want to listen to the rest of the students, save for the young first and second years, chattering about what a bloody wonderful time they were going to have at Hogsmeade. If only he had been able to convince his father to change his mind, brooded Harry.

He picked at his ham and scrambled eggs and toast, not really having much of an appetite. He nibbled on a pear, drank a glass of pumpkin juice and then pushed his half-full plate away.

He considered working on his half-finished vampire essay for Lupin's class, but he never felt less like doing schoolwork right then. All he could think of was that he was stuck in the castle or on the grounds while his friends were having a great time drinking butterbeer and testing out Zonko's products and eating ice cream.

Resentment and anger welled up within him once more at his father, and Harry suddenly couldn't bear being inside the four walls of the castle any longer. He rose to his feet and rummaged through his trunk, drawing out the Marauder's Map and James's Invisibility Cloak. What are you doing? screamed the sensible part of his conscience. You promised your dad you'd stay here, so why are you dragging out the map and the cloak? This is a very bad idea, Snape. Very bad.

He ignored the little voice shouting in warning. He was going stir crazy here with nothing to do except homework and playing with Rosie, who was out hunting rabbits with Fang. Who knew when he would get another opportunity like this, with Severus away for a time, to see the village? It would only be for an hour or so, and no one would ever know except maybe Ron and Aria and Hermione. Invisible, he could see and do everything his friends did without risking Sirius Black seeing him and he'd keep the map close too, so he could avoid teachers and get in and out of the school without being seen.

Harry grinned secretively and tapped the map with his wand. "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."

Immediately, the map revealed itself. I can't believe my godfather and his friends made this. Who would have ever thought Uncle Moony had it in him to break rules like this, Harry thought giddily. But then he recalled his father telling him once that Remus had gone along with James's and Sirius's crazy schemes to make sure they didn't go too far. So perhaps he hadn't agreed with half the pranks his two best friends pulled, but they'd put his name on the map anyhow, since he was a Marauder too. Harry wondered if Remus still remembered the map and if he had a clue as to where it had gone. Not that Harry intended to tell him where it was, for he knew that Remus would be duty bound to confiscate it as well.

Harry returned to his room and got a small pouch of Galleons out of his trunk for spending money. Much of the money was gotten from Harry doing chores and being given an allowance by Severus. He also got out his bookbag, just in case a teacher asked what he was doing, he could say studying .

Then he swirled the soft folds of the silvery Invisibility Cloak about himself and vanished.

He quickly consulted the map and found the secret entrance to the tunnel that lead to Honeydukes on the third floor, inside the humpback witch statue. Making his way out of Snape's quarters, he began to ascend the stairs leading out of the dungeons, reading the map periodically.

The dots labeled Argus Filch and Mrs. Norris were on the other side of the castle and the one labeled Remus Lupin was in his office, as were the rest of the teachers. Apparently they were taking advantage of this rare opportunity without students to grade backlogged papers or tests or whatever.

He saw a dot labeled Neville Longbottom slowly approaching and he quickly slipped further down the corridor. Soon Neville himself came into view, huffing and panting. He halted before the door in the Potion Master's quarters and knocked loudly.

"Harry? Are you awake yet? It's me, Neville."

Harry sighed, he'd forgotten Neville was also stuck in the school and for a moment, he considered altering his plans and staying here with Neville. That way he wouldn't risk getting into trouble at all.

But then the risk-taking part of his brain took over, as sometimes happened, and Harry continued up the stairs to the third floor. Nothing ventured, nothing gained was an old saying, and Harry decided to follow it. Hogsmeade would be full of students and there was no way Black could find him under the cloak. Yes, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and Harry was not going to miss it. He just had to make damn sure his father never found out about it.

Glancing about quickly, he tapped the statue of the humpbacked witch with his wand and whispered the word, "Dissendium!" which was what the twins had said would open the secret tunnel. The witch split open and Harry tossed his bag down first, then scrambled inside and slid down a smooth stone chute.

"Mischief managed!" he tapped the map and it went blank. He stuffed it deep in his pocket and climbed out of the stone chute through a trapdoor and into the cellar of the sweetshop.

Harry sniffed experimentally and groaned at the mouthwatering smells coming from the shop above. Suddenly he was starving and wished he'd eaten more breakfast. Clutching the hood of his cloak firmly about him, Harry climbed up from the cellar and into the back of the shop.

Kids of all ages were inside, examining all the sweets and confections and buying them. Harry's mouth was watering uncontrollably, he felt the way Rosie must feel while she waited under his chair for him to drop her a morsel.

There were rows of delicious fudge in all kinds of flavors, spun-sugar candy on little paper cones, what his American friend Neil called cotton candy, bricks of toffee and shelves of chocolate bars. Harry recalled how good the last chocolate bar had tasted when Lupin had given him it after his Patronus lesson and he drooled longingly.

There were barrels of Every Flavor Beans and Dumbledore's lemon drops, Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Jelly Slugs, Chocolate Frogs, Ice Mice, sugar quills, exploding bonbons and Acid Pops.

There was even a stand advertising blood pops for vampires and another of Cockroach Clusters, which Harry thought sounded really disgusting. His stomach was rumbling loudly now and Harry prayed nobody would notice. He was getting desperate, his sweet tooth was screaming and crying for some of the luscious things and he considered grabbing a bar of chocolate, then writing a note and leaving the money for it on the counter.

Suddenly he saw Aria standing next to a small tray of a new kind of sweet called Coconut Kitties (they purred and meowed realistically when you held them and melted away on your tongue). The Slytherin girl was standing next to a slightly older girl with dark brown hair and a narrow face wearing a prefect badge on her robe. She was a Slytherin too, Harry saw.

That must be Mandy Jones, the only one in her House who's not scared by Aria's shape-slipper talent.

Both girls were examining the Coconut Kitties and frowning. "How could anybody eat one of these after listening to it purr and meow?" Mandy was asking Aria. "I'd feel like I was eating my cat Muffin. Yuck!"

"You're right. I'd never be able to eat one either, Mandy," agreed Aria. "I'd feel like I was eating a distant relative."

They giggled softly over the shape-slipper's wry wit and Harry watched them move off through the store, heading for the counter where they had the toffee and fudge.

"Uncle Remmy likes peanut butter fudge," Aria was saying to Mandy. "Maybe I'll pick him up some."

Mandy nodded, then said she was going to get on the line for the soda fountain fizzes, which were another new kind of sweet drink, it came in four flavors, Spectacular Strawberry, Pomegranate Potion, Blueberry Blast, and Outrageous Orange.

Aria eyed the drinks thoughtfully, but wasn't sure if she wanted to spend fifteen minutes on line. "I'll buy you one," offered the older girl. "What kind d'you want?"

"Uh, the Pomegrante Potion sounds good," said Aria. "Reminds me a bit of Professor Snape."

Mandy snickered. "Funny, but I was thinking the same thing. All of these drinks are-"

"Snape-a-licious!" they chorused, giggling.

Harry goggled. Whoever would have thought the girls in Slytherin spoke about their strict professor that way? Like they admired, or God forbid, liked him. Dad would drop dead if he ever knew, his son thought, wickedly, fighting back the urge to giggle like a silly girl at the word the two had invented for the drinks. Snape-a-licious. Too funny! Merlin, I wish they'd use it to describe me. Or at least Aria would. He felt himself go red at the direction his wayward thoughts were taking.

Aria turned back to the fudge counter and ordered a quarter pound slab for Remus then hesitated, thinking out loud, "Wonder what kind of flavor Uncle Sev and Harry would like?"

Harry spoke up from behind her. "Dark chocolate with nuts."

Aria almost passed out.

Her amber eyes narrowed and she whirled about. "Okay, who said that?"

Harry kept silent, fighting the urge to laugh loudly at her bewildered expression.

But then the shape-slipper sniffed quietly, tilting her head slightly.

"Ah ha! All right, Harry, come out from whatever concealment spell you've cast, you rotten sneak! I know you're there, so just show yourself."

"How?" he hissed, not taking off the cloak.

"I'm a shifter, duh! I can smell and hear you even if I can't see you. Invisibility's no use against me, Snape. I rely on more than just my eyes to detect people." She lowered her voice and asked, "What are you doing here anyhow? Didn't your dad tell you to stay in the castle?"

"What Dad doesn't know won't hurt him."

Aria's eyebrows rose into her hair. "Snape, you're asking for it, you know that? If he ever learns you've broken curfew or whatever . . ."

"He won't. He's gone to visit my cousins in New Jersey for the day, so he'll never know I was here. Unless somebody tells him."

"It won't be me," Aria reassured him. "I'm no snitch, Harry. Although I'd go back before someone else finds out you're over here."

"Relax, Lupin," Harry ordered, feigning a confidence he didn't really feel. "No one's got your senses, so they'll never notice me. I'll return in about an hour, when I've seen everything."

Aria just shook her head. "Okay, Snape. It's your funeral."

"Only if I'm caught." He sighed wistfully. "Uh, Aria? Could you buy me some chocolate or something? I'm starving. I'll pay you for it."

She waved off his offer of money. "Keep it. You'll need it for the funeral expenses when your dad kills you for disobeying him."

"Real nice, Lupin."

"Hey, I call ‘em like I see ‘em," she shrugged. Then she ordered a half pound of dark chocolate fudge with walnuts, cut into large pieces.

She walked casually over behind a barrel of Jelly Slugs, which were towards the back of the shop, untied the box with the fudge and held it out to the invisible Harry.

Harry reached out a hand from beneath the cloak and took it.

"Man, but that is freaky," the girl whispered. "It's like you're a wraith child."

Harry did not answer her for a few minutes, he was too busy cramming the fudge down his throat. "Mmm . . .this is so good!"

The shape-slipper chuckled, then said with a wicked little grin, "Glad you like it, Harry. ‘Cause it's like the last feast of the condemned on Death Row."

"Oh, knock it off, Lupin! Dad won't kill me, the most he'll do is ground my arse and scold me into next week."

"Sure about that, are you?" she teased.

"Yeah," Harry answered, but there was a note of uncertainty that hadn't been there before. He had never really tested Severus this way before, deliberately disobeying a direct order, and the truth was he wasn't at all sure what the man would do to him if he ever did find out Harry had gone into Hogsmeade.

And I don't want to find out either, Harry reminded himself firmly. So I've got to lay low.

Aria passed him another piece of fudge, then said in a very quiet voice, "Follow us when we leave, Harry. I'll tell Mandy I need to go to Zonko's and look at something, so you can see what's in there and I'll buy stuff for you."

"I'm paying you this time," Harry insisted. "I'm not a charity case, you know."

"Touchy, aren't you? Must be that Snape pride," Aria commented. "Okay, rich boy, I'll hit you up for the bill when we get back to school. Deal?"

"Deal. And thanks," Harry added belatedly.

Aria snorted. "Don't thank me yet, Snape. Save it for later on, when you're still in one piece."

Before Harry could respond to that, she had moved back towards the crowded interior of the shop to wait for Mandy, and Harry had to watch himself, lest someone tread on his invisible feet or elbow him in his unseen ribs. He didn't want to cause a panic.

Mandy returned with the sodas and the two girls made their way out of the shop, sipping them.

Harry trailed after them, unseen, still eating the last piece of fudge. It was so good Harry could have eaten the entire pound. He wondered if the gift of fudge would sweeten Severus's temper any if he did happen to find out what his son had been up to. If it did, then it was truly magical, and Harry would spend half the gold in his vault to buy a ton of it.

At Zonko's, Harry bought a bunch of gags, mostly to play on Ron, Hermione, and Aria. He considered playing a prank or two on Severus as well, his dad had a quirky sense of humor and wouldn't get mad so long as the prank was not harmful or destructive or embarrassing.

He inched up behind Aria in line and hissed, "Psst . . .Aria! Let's go visit the Shrieking Shack next. I hear it's the most haunted place in Britain."

She gave him a thumbs-up sign and nudged Mandy. "Hey, let's go see the Shrieking Shack everybody raves about. I want to see if it compares to some of the haunted places in the US, like Gettysburg or the Ford Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated."

Mandy's eyes grew wide. "You've seen the ghost of Abraham Lincoln?"

"Not me, but my gran used to say she did when she went there. It's a historical monument and my gran was a Seer, she was always sensitive to, uh, psychic emanations or whatever you call them. When she visited there, she saw Lincoln's ghost sitting in the box and it waved to her and then it faded away."

"Wicked!"

"And creepy! C'mon, let's see what the shack is like."

Mandy led the way up the long winding hill to the ramshackle building, followed by Aria and Harry, who knew that the shack wasn't really haunted, that had been a rumor started by Dumbledore or maybe the Marauders to keep people from figuring out Remus was a werewolf, shut inside the shack on the nights of the full moon to transform.

It looked the same as the way his dad had described it that night back in New Jersey, Harry observed.

It was made of gray weathered boards, and had two windows that were boarded up and some of the boards were falling down and they creaked ominously in the sudden wind that had sprung up from nowhere. The roof was made of some kind of dark shingles and they too were falling to bits, rattling with every bit of wind. The door had the majority of boards nailed to it, to prevent whatever dwelled in the shack from escaping.

Aria felt a shiver of atavistic fear run through her. "I wonder what haunts this place?"

"Dunno," Mandy replied, eyeing the dilapidated building in alarm. "Nobody's ever figured out exactly what went on here. Even the castle ghosts don't go near here. The Baron says something tragic and painful took place here, but he won't mention names and it's no use trying to get him to talk when he doesn't want to, he can wait forever. But rumor around the school is that a wizard had a duel with someone here, a rival for a woman's affections, naturally, and they killed each other, or they killed the woman by mistake and then committed suicide. They say that on the night of the full moon the screams from here can make you pass out or turn your hair permanently white. Some of the students from our House used to dare each other to sneak over here on the full moon and listen to the ghosts screaming, but Snape caught some of them one night and that was the end of that brilliant little plan."

"He wanders the school at night sometimes, right?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, he sure does. The Midnight Prowler, we call him. That's why we Slytherins are all careful to never get caught out of bed after curfew. Otherwise, dear old Sev will have our arses in a sling quicker than you can blink. The Gryffindors all whine about how hard he is on them, ha! They don't have a clue! When one of us steps out of line . . .we're drawn and quartered, by Merlin's pointed shoe! We've got a reputation to maintain and he hates taking points from his own with a passion, but he'll do it and then we pay the consequences later."

Harry winced at hearing this speech from the prefect. He began to get more than a little nervous, for if he was that strict with his House members for rule-breaking, how much worse would he be with his own son? Harry resolved to get one quick peek inside the shack and then head back to school. He was taking no chances this time with Severus's unpredictable temper.

Just then there came the sound of voices approaching the shack from the direction of the village. Harry spun around and moved around the path. It sounded like Ron and Hermione.

Sure enough, there they were, climbing up the hill. They greeted Aria and Mandy politely , Hermione had gotten over her jealous snit, and now regarded the Slytherin shape-slipper as a friend, albeit one she had a friendly rivalry with. Aria could still run rings around Hermione with wandless magic and Transfiguration, but in other areas, Hermione was able to hold her own and she outperformed the younger Lupin by a considerable margin academically.

"Hey, y'all," Aria said, then laughed when Ron cocked his head at her quizzically. "Whoops! My Southern heritage is showing. That's Southern slang for hey you all, in case you've never heard that expression before."

"Oh. I never have," Ron admitted.

"No reason why you should've, seeing as you've never been to America before, right? Or watched Muggle TV?" Aria clarified.

"No. The closest I've ever been to Muggle stuff is when my dad brings something home from the Ministry to ID," Ron explained. "He's mad about Muggle stuff, wants to know everything about it, that's why he works in the Department of Muggle Artifacts."

"Must be an interesting job," Mandy said. "My dad's a Healer, works the craziest hours at St. Mungo's in their burn unit, so I hardly get to see him sometimes."

"My parents are dentists, so I know what you mean," Hermione put in. "Their patients run their lives sometimes."

"You can say that again. He almost missed his own wedding ‘cause there was an emergency in the ward that same day," the prefect informed them. "He's lucky Mum didn't just say to hell with the whole thing and not get married."

There came a nasty laugh from the opposite side of the hill and Draco said, "Maybe she ought've, Jones, then we wouldn't have to put up with you."

Mandy turned to see Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle leaning against a tree, smirking and laughing behind their hands. "Sod off, Malfoy. Don't think just ‘cause your dad's on the Board of Governors and you're a Slytherin that I won't dock points."

"You do and Snape will have your head, Jonsie."

Mandy stood her ground. "Not if it's deserved, so best shut your mouth."

Draco made a rude gesture, then he caught sight of Ron and Hermione. "Well, well. Look who it is. The charity case and the Mudblood. Come to get the shorts scared off you, Weasley? Must be nice, looking at a house you can afford for once. Looks right nice and cozy. Better go call your relatives, Weasley, tell ‘em it's vacant and you can move right in!"

Ron glared at him and clenched a fist. "Shut it, Malfoy! Before I toss you in there and let the ghosts pick out your bones."

"Ha! You and what army, Ronnie-kins?" Draco hooted.

Harry scowled and walked over to a rather good-sized mud puddle and scooped up a handful of it and chucked it at Malfoy's head. It smacked the boy square in the back of the head.

Draco spun about. "Hey! Which one of you threw that?"

Mandy, Hermione, and Aria all exchanged mystified glances.

"None of us," stated Aria, perfectly straight-faced. "Odd things happen up here, you know. Maybe the spirits did it."

"Right. You're bonkers, Lupin. Been inhaling too much swamp gas down there in the bayou, huh, girlie?"

Angry at Malfoy's insults, Harry picked up a handful of pebbles and tossed them at the three snickering snakes. They hit the three right in their backsides and they yelped and jumped, grabbing their sore rears, for the pebbles stung like buckshot.

"Oww!" Draco screeched. "Something hit me again!" he glanced fearfully behind him, still rubbing his bottom. "Where is it?"

"Right behind you! Boo!" Aria shouted, and nearly died laughing as all three boys screamed and fell all over themselves.

Ron, Mandy, and Hermione roared with laughter, happy to see Draco get his just desserts for once.

Draco climbed to his feet, in a red-faced fury. "You're gonna pay for that, Lupin, you furry reject from the London zoo!" he clenched a fist and made as if to strike the smaller girl.

Aria's eyes flashed and she took one step back. "I wouldn't if I were you, Boy Toy. I hit back."

"Not if I knock you out, Beast Girl!"

"In your dreams, you pansy!"

"You wanna make a bet? If I hit you it'll be considered self-defense, but if you hit me I can claim it was an attack by a wild beast and get you put away by the Committee for the Control of Dangerous Magical Creatures." Draco sneered, smirking nastily. "So take your best shot, furry! Either way, I win!"

"Think so?" Aria purred, her eyes glowing with rage. Then she blurred into her cougar form and bared her teeth at Malfoy, emitting a low sing-song snarl of rage.

Malfoy went white and backed away, tripping over his own feet. Aria paced forward, still growling that eerie high snarl, her tail lashing and her huge paws flexing.

Malfoy turned to run and Aria swiped a paw playfully at him as he did so.

"Ahhh!" screeched Draco, bolting away down the trail. "Help! It's after me!"

Harry was standing right in the middle of the path, laughing his head off at Malfoy's cowardice. The boy was so white he could've been a corpse, and Harry swore he saw a wet spot on the front of the Slytherin's robes.

Draco glanced back over his shoulder to see if Aria was following, and slammed right into the invisible Harry.

The impact knocked Harry down and Draco fell on top of him. Draco tried to get to his feet, but his hand caught in Harry's cloak and yanked his hood off.

"Ahhh! It's Potter!"

Aw, bloody hell! Harry thought angrily. He saw me, damn it!

Before he could grab Draco and try and Obliviate him, the other boy was running as fast as he could down the path back to Hogsmeade.

"Harry?" exclaimed Hermione.

"What are you doing here, mate?" asked Ron. "Your dad finally agreed to let you come?"

Harry shook his head. "No, and I'd better run, got to get back before Malfoy tattles on me, the big baby."

He began to sprint back the way he'd come, the Invisibility Cloak flung over his shoulder. His cover was blown, so he saw no need to keep the hood on. Speed was now of the essence. As he ran, he pulled out the Marauder's map, and saw to his horror that the dot labeled Draco Malfoy was already halfway to the castle and finding a teacher.

Harry ran as if the hordes of hell were pursuing him.

Right smack into Remus, who was coming out of The Three Broomsticks with a few bottles of butterbeer and a bottle of dandelion wine.

Remus was nearly knocked over by Harry's mad dash, but the werewolf had better reflexes than a human and so he managed to keep his feet.  "Young man, watch where you're going!" he began, annoyed.

Harry ducked his head and cried, "Sorry, sir! Forgot my homework!" Then he started to run down the path again.

Remus froze.  Then he strode after the fleeing figure and yelled, "Stop right there, Harrison Remus Snape!"

Harry skidded to a stop so fast he nearly crashed into a display of cauldrons being hawked by an old witch.  "Watch where you're going, you young hooligan!" she shrieked, and swung at him with her broomstick.

Harry ducked, only to find himself trapped between the broomstick-wielding harridan and a very angry Remus Lupin. 

The look Lupin was giving the boy made Harry shiver all the way down to his toes and recall all the stories he'd ever heard about the wrath of werewolves.  Merlin, I'm so dead! Trelawney was right, I am going to die before the year is out, because my Defense professor and my dad are going to kill me!

Harry swallowed hard as Remus advanced upon him.  He had never known a person's eyes could turn that shade of golden-brown before.  "Uh, hi, Uncle Moony!" Harry began, using the informal form of address in hopes that it would remind the furious werewolf that Harry was his godson and he shouldn't strangle him right away.  "I, uh, can explain . . .er . . ."

"Not another word, Mr. Snape!" Remus growled, and Harry shrank away at the dark tone. The werewolf reached out and took a firm grip on the back of his godson's robes, as well as the shimmery fabric of the Invisibility Cloak. "We're going back to the castle, young man."

"Good for you!" cackled the old witch.  "Teach the brat some respect for his elders."

"I shall, madam, and I'm sorry he nearly knocked you down," the professor apologized to her before hauling Harry away.

Lupin glanced briefly at the fabric bunched in his hand as he marched his rebellious godson back to Hogwarts.  "James's cloak, isn't it? I figured as much."

Harry kept silent, fearing that anything he said would only make everything worse.  Not that there really was anything to say.  He'd been caught coming out of Hogsmeade, a place he'd been expressly forbidden to go, and he knew Remus knew that.

Harry was pretty sure that a detention with Lupin was the least of his worries, especially judging from the look on his godfather's face.  He'd rarely seen Remus angry, and he wished he could've skipped this sight as well. The werewolf's jaw was clenched tightly and a vein stood out in the man's forehead, pulsing with every angry heartbeat. 

He did not speak to Harry at all, simply frog marched him along like a warden with an escaped prisoner. 

Harry felt as though there should be drums beating out the tempo as he was led to the scaffold. 

Damn! Damn! Oh, bloody hell!

No sooner had they crossed the threshold of the castle, then Malfoy raced up to them, grinning his snarky grin.  "Professor Lupin! I just wanted to inform you that I saw Potter-er I mean, Snape-at the Shrieking Shack and . . .oh." Malfoy's grin became even wider as he realized how much trouble Harry was in. Then he added nastily.  "One more thing, sir.  I have a complaint to make against your niece."

Lupin frowned at the ferret-like boy.  "A complaint? For what?"

"She, uh, nearly attacked me, sir," Draco began.  "In her-her cat form.  She changed and growled at me and practically bit me, professor! If my father ever knew we had a shape-slipper at school . . ."

"Mr. Malfoy, there is nothing in Hogwarts rules that excludes a student who can shift shapes from attending school here," Lupin interrupted him coldly, eying the blond with extreme dislike.  "Now, if you will excuse me, I have some business to attend to with Mr. Snape here, and if Aria has done something to make you uncomfortable, I will speak to her about it later and have her offer an apology, if necessary."

Then he swept past Malfoy, who had a look on his face of sour disappointment. Clearly he'd been expecting much more out of his professor than the mere promise of an apology. 

But Lupin had much bigger problems to deal with, namely his godson's disobedience.  He paused beside the stairs, trying to determine where he ought to take Harry, his office or Severus's quarters.  He decided on his office, since it was only one floor up and he wasn't sure if Severus was back yet from his impromptu visit to New Jersey.

Plus, he would feel more comfortable giving Harry a sound scolding in his territory rather than Snape's.  A wolf always feels more comfortable on his own ground. 

Harry followed Remus up the stairs to his professor's office, wishing he'd listened to Aria and gone back to school right after Zonko's.  Why oh why did he always take good advice to heart too late for it to be of any use to him?

He quickly unlocked the door and escorted Harry inside, then he shut the door behind him and gestured for the boy to have a seat on the chair in front of his desk. 

Harry flopped bonelessly into the chair, only to have Remus beckon him out of it again. 

"I'll take the cloak now, Harry. And the map as well, yes, I know exactly what that map is, since I helped create it."

Harry opened his mouth to protest, then thought better of it and wordlessly handed over the cloak and the map.  Their loss hit him rather hard, but he knew they were the least of his worries.

"Sit," Lupin ordered, his face set and filled with disapproval and anger.

Harry winced, his godfather's disapproval was almost as bad as Severus's.

"Well?"  Remus began, and the utter sharpness with which he spoke made Harry tremble involuntarily and nearly start looking about for a belt, which was the way Vernon had preferred to punish him.  "What possible reason could you have for being in Hogsmeade, Harry Remus, when I know you weren't supposed to set foot there? Your father asked me to look out for you and I thought he was merely being overly cautious, because you understood the reasons behind his orders and would obey them.  Instead I find you've played fast and loose with the rules, breaking them just to-to what? To visit a sweet shop and a joke emporium?"

When Remus put it that way, it did sound incredibly juvenile and extremely stupid.  He knew he'd been reckless and impulsive, but he hated being cooped up, he always had, it harkened back to his days of being shut into the cupboard under the stairs for days on end.

"It-it wasn't like that, Uncle Moony," he managed, licking his lip nervously.  "I just  . . .needed to get out . . .I felt like I was in prison, so I just . . ."

"You just totally disregarded your father's orders to stay safe and went your own way," Remus said sternly.  "Using an Invisibility Cloak and a confiscated map you have no business being in possession of."

"The cloak was given to me by James!" Harry cried.  "And the map was a gift."

"Really? A gift from troublemakers just like the Marauders, no doubt.  Harry, if I didn't know better, I'd say you really were James's son, the way you act sometimes.  You act first and think about it later, if at all.  That was James to a T.  And it was that quality above all that got him in the most trouble and eventually led to his death.  For it was he who insisted upon Sirius as his Secret Keeper.  It was a rash decision and he paid for it with his life.  Not the example you should be following, young man. You need to start using your head, Harry.  I know you've got the brains-God Above you're Sev and Lily's child, you're probably more intelligent than half the students here.  But why can't you seem to act like it?"

"I don't know, sir," he mumbled to the floor.  If he knew the answer to that, perhaps he could stop himself from doing things that were guaranteed to get him in trouble.  Such as kicking Malfoy and sneaking into Hogsmeade. 

"I'd suggest you think long and hard about that question, Mr. Snape.  Because you now have detention with me tomorrow night for your reckless behavior. Be prepared to work."

"Yes sir." He looked up at Remus, wondering if the lecture was over. "Are you . . .I mean will you, uh, tell my dad about this?"

"Yes.  I'm sorry Harry, but he needs to be told, as I am responsible for you while he's gone and your disobedience could have had serious consequences for us both."

"Like what?" Harry demanded.  "Everyone's always going on about Black and how afraid they are of him.  But the guy's been in Azkaban for years and doesn't even have a wand anymore, how dangerous could he be?"

"Harry, you do know that Sirius was responsible for the deaths of thirteen Muggles and Peter Pettigrew? That he was a servant of You-Know-Who and probably is still loyal to him to this day? Black is a very dangerous man, with or without a wand.  He could and would kill you quick as blinking and this is why your father insisted you stay in the castle." Lupin steepled his fingers on his desk.  "Have you any idea what Sev would feel if something happened to you, Harry? You're the only family each one has, the last living legacy of Lily that he has, it would destroy him if you died, young man.  That's why he insists you be careful and stay on the grounds, not so he can play prison warden, but so he can protect you."

Harry hung his head, feeling terribly ashamed and guilty.  Of course he knew Severus cared for him, even loved him, but to die if he was no longer alive? Surely that was exaggerated? How could Severus love him so much? Yet Remus seemed to think he did, and Harry had learned over the summer to trust the other's instincts.

"I don't know what Severus will say or do when he gets back, but I will tell you that if you were under my care, you'd be grounded for two weeks and getting your arse warmed for risking your life that way."

Harry blinked.  "You'd really spank me, Uncle Moony?"

"I would, because sometimes kids need a more physical reminder of the consequences of misbehavior than a scolding.  I can tell you that after my dad spanked me, I always thought long and hard about misbehaving afterwards, and I didn't get into trouble for a long time."

"Did he, uh, use a belt?"

Remus shook his head.  "No, he didn't.  My dad gave out punishments, not whippings.  There is a difference, child, though you wouldn't know that since you were raised by people who didn't know the meaning of the word discipline. When my father walloped me, Harry, he never used anything except his hand and it was controlled, meaning he would tell me how many smacks I'd get and that would be it. And it was never for nothing, I always knew exactly what I'd done and why I'd earned myself a spanking.  And once it was over, he'd hold me and tell me he was sorry, but it was necessary. I always forgave him after awhile." Remus admitted with a smile. 

"Uncle Vernon never did," Harry recalled with a grimace.  "Because I don't think he was."

"Your uncle was a beast who should've been locked away," Remus said angrily.  "He didn't know how to treat a child.  Like Sev's father Tobias."

"I know.  Dad told me a little about him, how nasty he was."

"Yes, and that's why Sev doesn't use much corporal punishment, because he's afraid he'll turn into Tobias.  I disagree, they're complete opposites, night and day.  Tobias had no control whatsoever, Sev has a shade too much to my way of thinking.  But that's not really the issue here, your misbehavior is, Harry Snape.  I can't even begin to tell you how disappointed I am in you, boy, and what I feel is nothing compared to what Sev will feel once he learns what you've done."

Harry shot his godfather a pleading glance.  "Uncle Moony, couldn't you, uh, just keep this between us? You could punish me however you liked, just don't tell my dad. Please?"

But Remus shook his head.  "Oh no, Harry.  You can't bargain your way out this time.  I have to tell Severus and I will.  You'll face the consequences of your actions just like any other child. I refuse to keep secrets from my best friend."

Harry nodded listlessly.  He had expected that response, but still he felt that Remus might have agreed to talk to Severus first, calm him down somewhat before he dismantled his son.  

As it was, Lupin refused to let him out of his sight, insisting he stay in the office and work on his schoolwork until his father returned. 

Ten minutes after issuing that declaration, there came a knock on the office door and Harry felt his heart plummet to his shoes.  But then he heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Aria's voice calling, "Uncle Remmy? Can I come in?"

"Yes," answered her uncle, and Aria entered the office, accompanied by Mandy. 

Both girls seemed slightly out of breath, Harry suspected they had run the entire distance from Hogsmeade. 

Remus favored his niece with a stern glance, and Harry noticed her stiffen, as if anticipating a scolding.  "I need to discuss something with you, young lady."

"It's about Malfoy, isn't it?" she said, making the question more of statement.

"Yes.  He came to me this afternoon with a disturbing tale.  He accused you of attacking him in your cougar shape.  Tell me, Aria, that is not true."

 "It isn't, Uncle Remmy," answered the shape-slipper.  "I did change into a cougar, but I never attacked him.  I didn't even touch him in cat form."

"She's right, sir," spoke up Mandy.  "Malfoy might be a Slytherin, but he's an annoying little rat too.  I told him off myself before he started with Aria, warned him about his attitude towards another House member or else I'd take points.  Didn't work, ‘cause the little snot kept on passing remarks about Snape here and Lupin."

"He threatened to hit her too," Harry added.

Remus went scarlet.  "Malfoy threatened you physically?"

"Yeah, but it was no big deal, sir.  That's why I changed into a cougar, to scare the pants off him.  It worked.  He was shaking like a leaf.  Before that he said he could hit me all he wanted and it would be self-defense ‘cause I was a furry."

"Oh, he did, did he?" her uncle was outraged. "Seems like I need to have a discussion with Mr. Malfoy next." He leveled a penetrating stare at Aria.  "What exactly did you do when you were a cougar?"

"I growled at him a few times, walked towards him and flicked a paw at him."

"Did you, at any time, strike him with your paws or bite him?"

"No." She met his gaze squarely.

Remus hid a sigh of relief.  "That's good. Because Malfoy can't claim injury from a dangerous magical creature."

Aria scowled blackly.  "What do you mean? I'm a shape-slipper, not a magical creature."

"Yes, I know that and you know that, but the Ministry sees things a bit differently, I'm afraid.  They class shapeshifters as dangerous magical creatures, the same as werewolves."

"But that's-that's insane! We're not animals, we're humans who can change form. We're human even in the changed form, our minds are our own, that's a slipper's magic.  Don't they understand that?"

"No.  Or rather they don't want to understand it," sighed the werewolf, who'd been dealing with the result of that prejudice for years.  "The government here is very old fashioned and archaic with some of their rulings."

"You can say that again! Back in the States, they had amendments to the laws for us, classifying us as shifters and we weren't allowed to be discriminated against."

"That's not the case here, which is why I asked if you'd bitten Malfoy."

"I should've though!"

"No, you should not have!" her uncle said sharply.  "Then you'd of been brought up on charges by the Malfoys, Aria.  They're an influential family in these parts and they have much sway with Ministry officials.  So it's to your advantage to keep a low profile, my girl."

"So you're saying that I've got to put up with that rattler and let him walk all over me because his father's some Mafia don with pull in the Ministry?"

"I wouldn't put it quite like that, but in a manner of speaking, yes."

Aria set her jaw.  "Well, I won't."

"Excuse me?" rasped the werewolf, locking eyes with her.

"I won't.  I won't give that creep any kind of hold over me.  If I do, he'll think he controls me, and nobody does, especially not him.  I won't hurt him in my other forms, but I'm not going to give in to him either.  I refuse to roll over and show my throat to a slinking little ferret."

"And if I order you to?"

She looked pained, but she answered firmly.  "Please don't.  Because I won't be able to obey.  I'm not ashamed of what I am and I refuse to let Malfoy treat me like a second-class citizen, which is what he wants."

"Aria, all I'm asking is that you show a little prudence and don't provoke him.  For your sake."

"And yours too, right? What about him provoking me? Why should he be allowed to get away with such rotten behavior? Because his dad's some hotshot rich official? That's a load of bull!"

"Moderate your tone, young lady!"

"I can't believe the way all you professors tiptoe around that smarmy brat, afraid to give him what he deserves because you could get fired or whatever," Aria went on, her temper still smoldering.  "No wonder he's such a conceited little prick."

"Aria Lenore, you will not speak to me with such disrespect.  I don't let him get away with anything.  And secondly, you need to work on controlling your temper." Remus told her, his tone like ice.  "You can't afford to let Malfoy get to you, and you most certainly can't afford to threaten him in animal form, no matter what he's done to deserve it.  Walk away, because he's looking for an excuse to hurt you, by whatever means necessary."

"I know that! This is partly because I refused to go out with him, the slimeball." Aria spat, her amber eyes shimmering with fury. 

Remus looked startled.  "He asked you out?"

"Yeah, first day I got here.  I turned him down flat.  I know a rattler when I see one.  Ever since, he's been trying to ruin my reputation here by spreading lies and rumors about me, and I'm sick of it, Uncle Remmy."

"I know you are, Aria, but right now is not a good time to stand up to a Malfoy."

"Then when is a good time, Uncle Remmy? After they run half the government?"

Remus's eyes flashed.  "Don't get smart with me, young lady.  You'd do well to follow my example rather than your father's, for being cautious has kept me alive.  Now is not the time to act, we must wait.  Our time will come."

"When, in the next millennium?"

"That's quite enough, Aria Lenore!  You can join Mr. Snape here in detention tomorrow night and we'll see if I can't impress upon both of you the importance of respect and obedience," growled her uncle. 

"You're giving me detention for expressing an opinion?" she cried in disbelief.

"No, I'm giving you detention for being a disrespectful brat.  I would suggest you spend the rest of the night thinking about ways to modify your behavior. You may go." Remus dismissed her.  As the two girls turned to go, he called after them, "Oh, and if you happen to run into Mr. Malfoy lurking in the corridor, tell him I'd like to speak with him as well."

Once the Slytherins had departed, Professor Lupin turned to Harry and said, "You may finish your homework in my classroom, I want some privacy when I deal with Draco."

Harry simply agreed, though he would have liked to listen to Remus's dressing down Malfoy.  Something told him that Malfoy's comments to Aria had made the werewolf very angry, and he was not going to get off lightly.  Harry had just entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom when he heard the office door open again. 

Well, that was quick.  Malfoy must have been spying right around here for him to get here so fast, the dimwit. 

He was sorely tempted to put his ear to the door, but he restrained himself.  No sense in adding eavesdropping to his list of misdemeanors. He sat down at an empty desk and started to remove his books from his bag when the door to the classroom opened.

Harry looked up and felt himself freeze with dread.

His father had come home.

"Put that away and come with me," Severus ordered, in that deadly soft tone that Harry knew portended his doom. 

Severus wasn't sure he could control his temper adequately once he arrived at his quarters with his rebellious child, and so he ordered Harry to go to his room until he managed to quit feeling like he wanted to beat his son senseless.

Harry entered his room, feeling as if he'd received a stay of execution. But for how long? He wished Rosie were here, it always comforted him to snuggle with the lovable beagle, but she was still out and about with Hagrid and Fang, having herself a wonderful time, no doubt. Harry wished like hell he'd been smart and gone with them for the afternoon, instead of being a juvenile delinquent and sneaking into Hogsmeade. He had the sinking feeling he was going to regret that bit of stupid recklessness for a long time.

He threw himself down on his bed, chewing his nails and upper lip in a frenzy of nervous anticipation. A part of him wished that he could just get his punishment over and done with right away, the waiting was nerve wracking. Another part of him wanted to delay facing his father's wrath for as long as possible.

The clock seemed to tick by at a monotonous pace as he lay there, wondering what his father would do. What was he waiting for?

It reminded him a little of when he lived with the Dursleys, when Petunia used to throw him in his cupboard to await Vernon when he came home, but then he'd always known what awaited him when his uncle opened the door-a sound thrashing with the business end of Vernon's belt.

Severus had promised he'd never whip him, but perhaps this had been the last straw and his dad had gone to fetch a belt, Harry thought in despair. He had thought himself safe from such things forever, but perhaps that was no longer so. Harry had inherited Severus's flashfire temper and no one knew better what that temper could drive you to do in anger.

More time crept by, agonizingly slow.

Then the bedroom door opened and Severus entered.

Harry darted a swift glance at the man's hands.

They were empty of any kind of stick or strap.

Harry breathed again. Until he recalled that Severus could spank him if he wished. But in that case, he'll only use his hand and that I can handle. It'll be embarrassing and all, but I've had much worse and well, I earned it.

Severus moved to stand before his son, noting the boy's sharp intake of breath when he entered the room, the darting glance at his hands, and then the attempt to reconcile himself with what might be forthcoming. If Harry had been a dog, his tail would've been between his legs and he'd be looking right at the ground. Yes, the child definitely knew he was in trouble, there was no trace of defiance as Severus had expected when Remus had told him what Harry had done this afternoon.

This eased some of the anger the Potions Master felt towards his offspring, a repentant child was always easier to deal with than a defiant one. But that did not mean he was going to go easy on the boy, not by a long shot! He had reined in his temper enough so he needn't fear being overly harsh with his son, and now he would teach Harry the error of his ways.

"So. I leave to help out your cousin with a family problem and you think it means you are free to disregard my rules and go wherever you want, is that right? Using items of forbidden magic, no less, that bloody Invisibility Cloak of Potter's and the Marauder's map! Where did you get them, Harry?"

Harry licked his lips before replying. "Uh, Dumbledore gave me back the Invisibility Cloak. He said an old friend had sold it back to him. It-it was lost when the Death Eaters captured me back in August."

"And you didn't see fit to inform me of its return?" demanded his father. "No, of course not, how stupid of me, because you knew what I'd tell you to do with it! Put it away or let me hold it, for such an object is an invitation for mischief. And I was right, for it allowed you to slip into Hogsmeade unnoticed just as you wished." Severus put his hands on his hips and fixed Harry with one of his dreaded Snape glares. Inwardly he cursed Dumbledore for giving the blasted thing back to his son, sometimes the Headmaster was more of a child than his students, allowing them to run about with magical artifacts they didn't have the maturity to use properly. "What about the map, young man? Who did you find to give you that little bit of Marauder history?"

Harry bit his lip, not wanting to rat out the twins, but not wanting to lie to Snape either. That would definitely earn him a spanking, according to his father's disciplinary policy. So he tried being honest. "Uh, I'd really rather not say, sir. But the map was a gift."

Severus snorted. "A gift? Say rather an invitation for mischief. I had thought you more responsible than this, Harrison Remus. I thought that you understood the reasoning behind my orders, but I was mistaken, it seems. Because the minute my back was turned, you went and ran into Hogsmeade without stopping to think once of what could have happened. What the bloody hell were you thinking, boy?" Severus roared, and Harry jumped. "Did it ever occur to you that might have been just the opportunity Black was waiting for? To catch you unaware and grab you, kill you, or drag you off somewhere and hold you prisoner until the return of his dark master? Or was the only thing in your mind how you'd pulled a fast one on your stupid trusting father?" Severus's voice became cutting with scorn. "Oh, look at this, dad's gone and now I can skive off to Hogsmeade and have myself a good old time stuffing my face with sweets and my pockets with joke products and he'll never know. I'm so clever, you were saying to yourself while you used the cloak and the map, weren't you?"

His eyes bored into Harry's emerald ones, penetrating and knowing.

Harry dropped his eyes after a long moment and nodded miserably. Severus knew him far too well.

Severus shook his head in disgust. "I had thought you were smarter than that, Harry, that you had learned to think first and act later, but again I was mistaken. You are just like every other teenager your age, an impulsive hell raiser. You can't be trusted, you will do whatever you can get away with."

"No, Dad!" Harry cried, Severus's harsh words cut him deeply. "I can be trusted, I just was going stir crazy and I thought with the cloak on it'd be impossible for Black to find me, and I didn't think it would hurt for me to visit for an hour or so. I wasn't alone either, Aria was with me, and Ron and Hermione," he blurted, and instantly regretted it. He hadn't meant to mention that. Merlin, when will I ever learn to control my blasted tongue? He thought in dismay.

"Oh, so you dragged them into your little escapade as well? How very sporting of you! And if Black had somehow managed to penetrate your disguise, would you have sacrificed yourself for them, Harry? You put them in danger as well, you foolish child! For they would have tried to help you if you were in trouble and well you know it! And then you would have had their deaths on your conscience as well, young man. Was that what you wanted? Was it worth it?"

The only thing Harry could think of to say to that was, "I'm sorry, Dad."

"Sure, you're sorry now." Snape growled. "Because you're in trouble. Do you have any idea how worried I would have been if something had happened to you? Goddamn it, Harry, when will you start using your head? What do I need to do to make you consider the consequences before you act?"

Harry didn't answer, he knew Severus was not really asking, it was a rhetorical question. Whatever punishment he would get had already been decided on before Severus had ever set foot in the bedroom.

Severus paused, then walked away and back before he answered his own question. "You broke my trust with your actions today, Harrison Remus Snape. And you're going to have to work damn hard to win it back, boy. Starting tomorrow night with Remus's detention. After that, you'll be grounded for the rest of the term and the conditions of that are as follows: I confiscate your broom, that means no Quidditch-"

"But Dad, I'm Seeker, and the final is next week, I have to play, Wood's counting on me . . ." he trailed off hopelessly when he saw Snape's face, it was set in stone and no amount of words would change his mind.

"Well, you should have thought of that before you went on your little jaunt, shouldn't you?" demanded his father silkily. "I will inform Minerva of my decision and she will have to find a replacement. The second condition is that you are to do nothing without my permission, except go to class, homework, take care of Rosie, and use the bathroom. Socializing with your friends will be strictly limited and supervised by me, no longer than two hours after all your assignments are completed. Third, you will be cleaning my classroom each evening without magic. Four, you now have a new bedtime, nine-thirty sharp."

"Nine-thirty! Dad, that's like bedtime for an eight-year-old."

"Which is about how old you've been acting, mister. Shall I make it eight? Keep protesting."

Harry shook his head rapidly. "No sir. Nine-thirty is fine."

"Finally, since your behavior was more like a two-year-old than a thirteen-year-old, I'm going to punish you the way I did then, and hope it makes an impression."

Harry stared in alarm. Surely his father wasn't going to . . .?

He had known his father could move like a snake striking when he wished, but he'd never witnessed it until then. One minute Severus was across the room and then next he was beside Harry, who had been sitting on his bed during the entire lecture.

In one smooth movement the Potions Master sat down and took the startled boy over his knee. Before Harry could panic or protest, Severus said evenly, "Five swats only," which was the same punishment he'd delivered when Harry had played with James's wand.

Harry shut his eyes, more embarrassed than afraid.

Severus dealt the promised five smacks with swift finality, hard enough to sting sharply for a while, but no more.

It was over in ten seconds. Harry blinked back a single tear, but really the punishment hurt his pride more than his rear end.

Severus stood him up and said, "I regret that was necessary, child. I hope you've learned your lesson for tonight, young man. Because if you step out of line again before the end of this term, I promise you I won't be half so lenient. Next time, I'll take a leaf from your godfather's book and give you a true spanking and see if that won't cure you of your need to test boundaries with me. Understood?"

"Yes sir. I'm really sorry. I'll behave from now on."

Severus looked skeptical. "I find that difficult to believe, son."

Harry winced, for that comment hurt worse than the spanking. Severus did not trust him and his disappointment was worse than anything he'd done to Harry yet.

His father stood up and drew the boy into a brief hug. "Finish your homework and then you can eat dinner with me, no sense in letting you skip meals too." Then he was gone, like a dementor melting back into the shadows.

Harry made sure the door was locked before he rubbed his stinging behind, wondering as he did so if his father would ever trust him again.

* * * * * *

Professor McGonagall was understandably upset when Severus spoke to her the next morning about Harry being banned from Quidditch because of his forbidden excursion into Hogsmeade. But she did not argue with Snape's decision, he was Harry's father and had the right to discipline his son as he saw fit, though it was going to be hell trying to find a substitute Seeker this late in the season. She silently cursed Harry's impulsive streak and muttered in Severus's hearing that the boy had picked up some of James's worst habits when he had lived with the man for three months. Severus grimaced and replied that she was right, sometimes Harry did behave just like his late stepfather.

Harry and Aria served their detentions with Remus later on that evening, and discovered that the Defense professor was no slouch at assigning boring and arduous tasks. He made them sort through an enormous pile of slender sticks, they were intended for making wands eventually, but Remus was making them identify the kind of wood and the magical properties of each kind and what relation the type and properties had when casting defensive spells. For example, ebony-hardwood, extremely magic absorptive, offers unlimited protective capabilities, but very rare. Harry knew that Severus bore an ebony wand, with a serpent scale core, it had been made by Ollivander's grandfather and had never found a master until young Severus had come for his wand.

Since Harry and Aria were novices at wand making and had no clue what the types of wood looked like, Remus generously allowed them to look at a page from a book on beginning wand making, which had illustrations of the types of woods used in creating a wand.

Even with the book, the detention took the full two hours and the box was still partially full. Remus then told them they could finish the task tomorrow night. Both of them groaned.

The werewolf said only, "Next time, don't get in trouble. Dismissed."

As they left the classroom, Aria asked Harry if his dad had totally lost it when he found out his son had been in Hogsmeade. "Since you're here, I know he didn't kill you, but what did he do?"

Harry told her, even the last part, for some reason, which he hadn't even told Ron or Hermione.

Aria winced. "Merlin, he really wasn't happy with you, was he, Snape? Then again, you did deserve it, but grounded for the rest of the term! That's harsh."

"Tell me about it. Not to mention all the other stuff that goes along with it." Harry made a face. "And then he goes and gives me five swats too, as if the rest weren't enough."

"Ow! Hard enough to make you cry?" she queried sympathetically.

"No, they just stung for a bit," he answered, flushing. "But still . . .I'm too old to be spanked."

"Guess your dad doesn't think so. Neither does my uncle."

"Oh, my dad agrees with me, but he was making a point. If I act like a two year old, he'll punish me like one," Harry sighed.

"Then you'd better act your age, huh, Snape?"

Harry glared at her. "Funny, Lupin. You ought've been a comedian."

"I try," she grinned at him.

"Hey, did you ever find out what Moony did to Malfoy?"

Aria smirked. "Lectured him into next week according to the Slytherin grapevine, made him write some three foot essay on respecting other students and extract starmist pods too." Starmist pods were a stimulant from a magical tree that when eaten gave the wizard heightened senses and reflexes for a short time, like the duration of a duel. Many wizards in the East used starmist. The pod was inside a very hard shell that required a hammer to crack open, making harvesting them very difficult indeed.

"Good for Uncle Moony!" cheered Harry. "Gotta run, Aria. If I'm late Dad will probably lecture me into next year." He paused beside the entrance to the Slytherin dorm.

"See you around, Harry." She waved once before disappearing inside the Slytherin portrait hole.

Harry returned to Snape's quarters and tried to get some studying done, but he was so tired Severus told him to put his books aside and go to bed. It was before nine-thirty, but Harry was too tired to protest. He fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

* * * * * *

The following week was just before the full moon and Remus began to grow very tired and achy, as was his wont, just before his curse expressed itself. That was when Severus brewed the Wolfsbane for him, and it was also when he substituted for Remus in Defense. Even with the Wolfsbane, Remus was sometimes too tired to lift his head from his pillow, and he could barely get out of bed to relieve himself, much less teach. During those times he shut himself in his quarters, allowing in no one save the Headmaster (very infrequently), Poppy (he couldn't keep her out), Severus, and Aria (those two were the only ones he really allowed of his own free will).

Aria often came and read to him from newspapers and magazines and got him lunch, he found her voice very soothing to his sensitive ears. Being a shifter, she knew how to pitch her voice so it didn't grate on his ultra sensitive ear drums.

Poppy and Severus came to make sure he was eating and drinking, often spelling Nutrient Potions and muscle relaxants directly into the werewolf's stomach, so he was made comfortable and had something in his stomach. The imminent change often resulted in a loss of appetite, save for rare meats. Severus also assisted Remus to the bathroom, or performed a quick elimination charm if the werewolf was too exhausted to manage even that.

Remus was beyond feeling awkward or embarrassed around those two, they behaved with complete professional decorum, treating him with a minimum of fuss, and often joking lightly with him. Severus also massaged him when he developed cramps in his back and legs, which was another sign that the curse was active once more.

But other than those few, and now Harry as well, no one else at Hogwarts knew why Professor Lupin vanished around the full moon each month. The story Dumbledore gave out to the rest of the staff and the students was that Remus suffered from bouts of chronic fatigue and needed complete quiet and bed rest to recover from them.

No one ever thought to question that explanation.

Until Draco Malfoy, that is. Draco had it in for that wild beast of a girl, Aria, and by extension Remus as well, whom he had never forgiven for giving him a detention over what he considered as speaking the God-honest truth about Aria and her beastly talent. He was determined to make her pay for her arrogance in rejecting him and then humiliating himself in front of his friends and especially Harry, who was still his major rival.

He had written to his father asking if there were any way he could get Aria expelled for being a shape-slipper, but Lucius had regrettably said no, that being a shifter wasn't cause for expulsion by Ministry standards. Angry at being thwarted, Draco began to search about for some other bit of information he could use against her, and it was then he took notice of the fact that Lupin tended to disappear every month during the full moon.

It was odd behavior, and Draco was suspicious. "There's something not right with Lupin, something very odd, but I can't accuse him of anything without proof," he told friends one day just before the onset of the full moon. Lupin had been absent as usual, and Snape had been covering for him.

Lucius had been adamant about that, and had told his son that he must have evidence before he accused a teacher and an adult wizard like Lupin of anything improper.

"The whole family's blazing freaky, is all," commented Goyle.

"Maybe you just ought to forget about whatever you've got planned, Draco," suggested Crabbe. "Lupin'll be gone by the end of the term and not be back again, just like every other Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had."

"Not good enough, Crabbe, you stupid lump! I want revenge on that bloody girl and if I can't get it with her," he suppressed a shudder, for despite his insistence that Aria was trash and he wasn't scared of girls, she frightened him awfully, making his insides turn to absolute mush, Of course, he'd die before admitting that to anyone. "Then I'll get it on her uncle. Who knows, if I can find out what Lupin's been hiding, maybe it'll be bad enough for him to get declared an unfit guardian for the Beastly One and they'll put her in an orphanage or ship her back to America."

"I dunno, Draco," whined Goyle. "What makes you think Lupin's hiding anything? He could just be really sick with that chronic whatever it is like Dumbledore said."

"Don't be so thick, Gregory! You really believe Dumbledore will tell the truth if there really was something wrong with Lupin? Look at how he hid Snape's secret all these years." That was a sore point with Draco, for he had thought Snape was just like his father, a pureblood supremacist supporter of You-Know-Who. Finding out that Severus had actually been a secret agent and spy for Dumbledore had been a rude awakening. But the worst thing had been discovering bloody Harry Potter was actually Snape's son! It was almost enough to make him puke. To add insult to injury, Severus now defended Harry and punished Draco and he did the same with bloody Miss Lupin.

"Well, what secret do you think old Lupin's hiding?" asked Crabbe.

Draco looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure just yet, but I have an idea. I just need more proof. Guess it's time to do some snooping." He rubbed his hands together and smiled his toothy sly ferret-like grin.

"Can we help?" begged Goyle, looking like an overeager Labrador.

Draco cast him a disgusted look. "Goyle, you couldn't sneak about if you were spelled invisible, you great oaf. You trip over your own feet."

"Oh."

"Leave the snooping to me," his friend ordered haughtily. "You just back me up when it comes time to expose Lupin, all right?"

The other two nodded, willing and eager to do whatever the brains of their trio said.

Draco whistled happily as he made his way to potions class. It used to be his favorite, until the Snapes had returned from America and Severus wasn't playing favorites anymore with the Slytherins. Still, perhaps he could manage to scare the snot out of Longbottom again and make him blow up another cauldron. Snape would have to take points and give out detention to Gryffindor then.

* * * * * *

By the end of three days, Lupin was back in the classroom, and Draco resolved to observe the man closely and so figure out just what was wrong with him. There was only a month and a half remaining until the end of term and Draco wanted Lupin to be drummed out of Hogwarts by then. At first, his attempts were unsuccessful, for Lupin was wary and cautious and knew better than to allow information relating to his condition to slip and so endanger the first decent job he'd had in over a year.

The frustrated Draco was just about to give up when a set of unfortunate circumstances occurred just before the onset of the next full moon.

During that entire time, Harry had been practically under house arrest in the Snape apartments, as per the conditions of his grounding, and though he accepted his punishment, it was beginning to wear upon him as the weeks went by. McGonagall had managed to find a replacement Seeker to play in the Quidditch final, and to everyone's relief, the dementors did not appear and upset that game, but Gryffindor lost to Slytherin.

Afterwards, whenever Draco chanced to see Harry inbetween periods, he would gloat about his victory until Harry longed to drown him in his next potions class. Only the fact that his father would be furious with him kept Harry's temper in check. No way was he going to let Malfoy make him get into trouble so near the end of term and endure a spanking from Severus.

The Potions Master was not unaware of the tension between the two and knew Draco was probably shoving the Slytherin victory in his son's face, but since he never caught the blond boy, he couldn't reprimand him. He did, however, praise Harry for controlling his temper and rising above certain people and their petty insults. Harry basked in that compliment, for it showed him that Severus was paying attention to him and noticing that his behavior had changed for the better. Perhaps he was slowly regaining the trust he had lost.

Harry was also busy trying to study for all of the end of the term exams, normally he'd not have studied much until the week before the exams were given, but that option was a thing of the past with Severus keeping a strict eye on him. Now he had to study for at least an hour a night after homework, or else!

He and Aria still had lessons with Remus one night a week on casting the Patronus Charm, but so far neither of them had managed to make a visible one, only swirls and clouds of white mist. Remus told them not to be discouraged, it was a difficult spell to master, and some wizards never could cast it. But both Aria and Harry were stubborn and very talented magically, they refused to give up until they had mastered the charm. Remus was pleased with their determination.

In the midst of all of this, Severus, who was usually healthy as a horse, managed to contract some kind of flu. The first Harry knew of it was when he awoke early one morning for class and discovered his father was not sitting in the little kitchen area, sipping his morning cup of tea and reading the paper. It was a rare day indeed when Harry managed to rise before his early bird father, and he was at first delighted to have beaten Severus to the table this morning.

Until he glanced at the clock some ten minutes later and discovered it was almost time for class and his father still was not up. Concerned, Harry padded across the den and tapped on Severus's bedroom door.

"Dad? Uh, are you awake? ‘Cause it's time for class."

It felt very strange, he thought, him calling his dad to get up.

He heard a muffled groan from within the bedroom, then a thump, followed by a long hacking coughing spell.

"Dad? You okay?" Harry cried, alarmed. That cough sounded bloody awful.

There was silence, then the sound of footsteps and the door was opened. A pale yet flushed Snape leaned on the doorjamb, his dark eyes bright with fever, wearing a pair of soft flannels and a large shirt, his hair limp with sweat.

"Don't come too close, Harry," he warned, coughing sharply. "I've caught some kind of flu, I think, and I'm probably contagious, so stay away." He sneezed sharply into a handkerchief.

Harry stared at his parent in alarm. Severus was sick? Impossible! His dad was never sick, he was Severus Snape, the indomitable Potions Master and former spy. He was the one who always took care of me when I was sick, his son thought in consternation. How can I take care of him now? I don't know anything about healing.

"Uh, Dad, d'you want me to call the Headmaster or Madam Pomfrey? Let them know what's going on and all?"

Snape shook his head. "No, I've already contacted the Headmaster, he's getting a substitute for me as we speak. As for Poppy . . ." Another long wracking cough shook the Potion Master's tall frame. It was a moment before he could speak again. " . . .I can dose myself as well as she can, and I already have."

"You have?" Harry repeated in alarm. "Then why d'you still sound so terrible?"

Severus grimaced. "Because this flu is not responding as well as I'd hoped to my potions yet. But it will," he stated firmly. "Now, you've got class in about ten minutes, Harry. Have you eaten breakfast?"

Harry nodded. "I ate some toast and bacon. Have you, Dad?"

"I'm not very hungry."

"How about some toast and tea? You can eat a little, right?" Harry urged, recalling the way Snape used to force him to eat when he was sick or recovering from an injury. "If you don't eat, you'll never get well," he reminded, using one of his dad's favorite sayings.

Severus scowled. "Trying to play Healer now are you?"

Harry gazed at him innocently. "I'm just doing what you would if it were me sick."

"Bloody impudent brat!" he heard the wizard mutter, before Snape said, "Fine. Bring me a cup of tea and some toast. But put honey and lemon in the tea, not cream and sugar, please. That will soothe my throat."

"Do you need anything else? Like maybe some water and a fever reducer?"

"Water is fine, but I just took a fever reducer a half-hour ago, so I won't need another dose for four hours." Severus sneezed multiple times before turning on his heel and making his way back to bed. Of all the times for him to get sick, why did it have to be now, when he still had so much work to do?

Harry asked Dobby to bring him some buttered toast and tea with honey and lemon in it for his dad and also a glass of ice water. He carried the items inside Severus's room, and placed the tray on the nightstand, after first enlarging it with a charm, so Severus could eat while in bed without getting anything on the sheets and quilt. His father hated crumbs all over, and was always yelling at Harry for eating on the sofa or in his room.

Also on the nightstand were several vials of a blue potion and a deep yellow one, Harry assumed they were a fever reducer and a cough suppressant, or the wizard equivalent of such.

"Here you go, Dad. Is there anything else I can get you? Another blanket? You're shivering."

Severus waved off Harry's offer. "That's the fever, son. I'll be fine. Go to class and don't worry about me. Thank you." He picked up a piece of toast and nibbled it half-heartedly. Then he drank some of the tea.

"Okay, I'll see you later. Feel better," Harry said cheerily, then cast a warming charm on Severus's sheets as he was leaving.

It felt even odder to go to Potions and not see his dad's familiar black cloaked form pacing up at the front of the room, giving out stern looks and making sarcastic comments to those who deserved them. Harry couldn't seem to concentrate on his potion, he was too worried about his father. He just barely managed to finish it in time and brought it up to their substitute, a sweet faced woman name Dania Breckenridge.

In Divination, Trelawney pronounced that a disaster loomed in his future, and while normally Harry would've shrugged away her prediction, today it only made him more uneasy. At lunch he picked at his food and told Hermione, Ron, and Aria he was going to check on his dad.

When he returned to the Snape quarters, he found his father sleeping, but he was restless, tossing and turning. Harry felt his forehead, it felt too warm, so he wrung out a washrag and placed it on Snape's forehead. He seemed to recall his dad doing that to him when he was very ill last February. The cool cloth seemed to help a bit, for the professor stopped moving and relaxed.

Harry stayed there for his entire lunch period, and it was only towards the end of it that Severus woke, accepted a glass of water from his son and swallowed another two potions before lying back down.

"Harry, I told you, don't come too close," he scolded quietly, his voice was very hoarse from coughing.

"Dad, you're sick, I have to help," argued his son.

"No. I can take care of myself, now please leave. The last thing I need is for you to come down with whatever this is too."

Harry thought it best to humor him, and left quickly. But once class was over for the day, he returned and found Severus looking much worse. His cough was deep and racking, thick with mucus, and his fever was higher.

"Dad, I think we should call Madam Pomfrey. You're getting worse, not better."

Severus gave him a muted Snape glare. "No, she'll only fuss over me like a blasted mother hen and I'm not that sick. I just need some stronger drafts, that's all."

Harry shook his head. Snape looked awful, flushed with fever, his eyes burned holes in his head, shivering with chills despite the two blankets and the warmed sheets. He barely drank the second cup of tea before setting it aside and falling back to sleep.

Harry went into his room to start his homework after eating a sandwich and soup, which he prepared himself from the small amount of groceries Severus had on hand. He had just finished his potions homework and his Transfiguration chapter when he heard a bang coming from somewhere nearby.

He leaped to his feet and ran out the door. "Dad?" He went into his father's room, fearing Severus had fallen out of bed or something.

Only to find he was not there. Nor was he in the adjoining bathroom.

There came another muffled bang from the door leading to Severus' personal potions lab.

"Dad? What are you doing?" Harry cried, throwing open the door and peering into the lab.

"What's it look like-cough cough!" sputtered his father, standing before a cauldron. "I'm brewing a potion, of course."

"Dad, you should be in bed. You're too sick to make potions."

"I need a stronger fever reducer," the Potions Master said stubbornly, leaning on the table next to the cauldron. "Don't have it in my stores, so I've got to make it."

Harry was aghast. "Dad, you can't brew a fever reducer like this. You can barely stand up."

"Go away and let me be, Harry," ordered the professor crankily.

Harry crossed his arms over his chest. "No. You look bloody awful, Dad, and I'm not going anywhere until you get back in bed."

Severus eyed him mutinously and turned back to chopping up some roots. "I've slept enough. I need two tablespoonfuls of powdered ginger," he muttered foggily to himself. He began to cough again, the spasm nearly bringing him to his knees.

Seeing his father so ill terrified Harry and he yelled, "That does it! If you don't get back in bed this instant, Dad, I'm calling Poppy!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Watch me," answered his son.

"You impudent little brat!" snarled Severus, only it came out a whisper. "Think you're a Healer now, do you? I know how to treat myself."

"No, you don't. You're so sick you can't even see straight."

"I am not. What would you know anyhow?" Severus quarreled.

"I know that you look like you're about to pass out, and you should be in bed."

"I will go to bed, impudent wretch, as soon as I've done with this potion."

"Dad, you're delirious, how can you brew a potion right?"

"Are you saying I can't remember how to brew potions?" repeated Snape angrily. "How dare you insult me like that, boy?" He attempted to stare Harry down, but his famous death glare was lukewarm and lacked true power. "If I wasn't so sick, I'd take you over my knee for that comment."

Harry sighed exasperatedly. "Dad, please! Just go lie down. I'll finish the potion. You can spank me when you're well if you want, I won't say a thing," his son persuaded, hoping to God Snape did not recall this little conversation when he was better.

"No." Severus said, reminding Harry of a stubborn three-year-old. "You don't know how. Now leave me alone!"

"Fine!" Harry stormed out of the lab, but then he firecalled Poppy, fearing Severus was going to collapse if he didn't get some rest.

Three minutes later Poppy arrived and said, "Don't worry about a thing, Harry dear. I can handle him."

Harry hid a grin. This he had to see.

Poppy strode into the lab wearing her sternest expression. "Severus Snape, what in Merlin's name do you think you're doing? You're running a 103 degree fever now get back in bed."

Severus glanced up, startled. "Poppy? What are you doing here?"

"Preventing you from making an utter fool of yourself, Sev," she scolded, walking over to him and casting a diagnostic on him. "You were my apprentice for three years and yet you act like a first year. You need to be in bed, you're out on your feet, dear."

"I need to finish this first."

"Don't play Spartan with me, Severus," Poppy said severely. "You can barely stand up, much less brew a reliable Extra-Strength Fever Reducer. Now get yourself back in bed this instant, young man."

"I'm fine, I don't need you fussing over me, Poppy. It's only a cough."

"A cough that could develop into pneumonia if you're not careful. You ought to know better than that. Bed, Mr. Snape, or shall I drag you there by the ear and cast a Sticking Charm on you?"

Harry had to fight back a laugh, for the diminutive medi-witch was glaring right at his father, her hands on her hips, for all the world like a mother with a disobedient child.

"Poppy . . .I swear . . ." Severus began, then coughed sharply.

The medi-witch took him by the arm and tugged on it firmly. "Come, Sev. It's back to bed for you, my boy. I'll finish here, now let's go. No arguments."

"Okay . . ." Severus acquiesced, for he truly did feel terrible, all achy and hot and for some reason he couldn't breathe right. He meekly followed the Healer back into his bedroom and allowed her to put him to bed. Poppy gave him a pain reliever, which she knew he would never admit to needing, and another stronger fever reducer.

"There! Now let's see about that cough." She opened her satchel and produced a vial of Class Five Decongestion Syrup and poured it out on a spoon. "Here."

Severus shot her a vile look, but he took the medicine without protest.

"Good. You should breathe easier soon, son." She took the cloth Harry brought her and wet it in a basin of cool water, then gently sponged the professor's face with it.

Severus closed his eyes, too weary to protest being fussed over like a child.

"Will he be all right, Madam Pomfrey?"

"Oh eventually yes, Harry. Don't fret. This flu will have run its course in four days or so, I should think. Then he'll be right as rain." She went on to detail instructions to Harry on how much potions Severus was to be given, how often, and to make sure he drank plenty of liquids, ate some food, and rested. "And if he gives you any problems, Harry, call me and I'll straighten him out."

Severus opened one eye and snorted derisively.

Harry smothered a giggle at the way Poppy bullied his father like he was a first year.

"You behave yourself, Sev, you hear?" Poppy warned. "I'll be back in two hours to check up on him," she told Harry.

Then she Flooed back to her infirmary.

Harry turned back to his dad and caught Severus giving him a severe frown. "Traitor. You're in big trouble, mister, when I get out of this blasted bed."

"You wouldn't listen to me," Harry protested. "What was I supposed to do, let you pass out cold in the lab?"

"Yes!" snapped Severus peevishly. Then he closed his eyes and was asleep in seconds.

* * * * * *

Under Poppy's care and Harry's assistance, Severus recovered slowly but surely. Much to Harry's relief, Severus recalled very little of the conversation he'd had with his son in the lab before Poppy arrived, so Harry didn't have to worry about getting a spanking for his impudence the way Sev had threatened. After three days he was well enough to be allowed out of bed for short periods of time and could sit in the recliner wrapped in his warmest velvet robe and sheepskin slippers in front of the fire, drinking ginger tea and reading.

It was then he recalled he hadn't yet given Remus his monthly dose of Wolfsbane. "Harry, I need you to do me a favor," he said to his son, who was sprawled on the couch, reading a Quidditch magazine. "Since you and Madam Dragon won't let me out of my apartment yet, I need you to deliver the Wolfsbane to Moony. Can I count on you to do that?"

"Yes, Dad. Where is it?"

"In the third cauldron to the right, on a slow simmer. Put some in this goblet here," Severus indicated a pewter goblet on the mantle. "And then give it to Moony. Don't spill any, it's too costly to waste a drop."

Harry did as he was told, pouring the precious potion into the goblet and then Flooing directly to his godfather's office, after Severus had removed the scramble charms over the fireplace.

Inside, he met Aria, who was just leaving after getting a missed assignment for Mandy Jones, who had been sick too this past week. "Something must be going around," she said to Harry when he asked. "Everyone's getting sick now."

"Yeah, looks that way," he agreed. "Uh, where shall I put this?" He indicated the goblet with the smoking potion.

"That's the Wolfsbane, right?"

"Yeah, Dad had brewed a batch before he got sick. He told me to bring it to Uncle Moony."

"Set it down there and I'll tell him it's here."

"Okay." Harry set down the goblet and settled down to wait.

Unbeknown to him or Aria, Draco had been loitering in the hallway beside the office door, waiting for someone to say something pertinent to his smear campaign. The Slytherin recognized Harry's voice and Aria's too. He caught the words, " . . .sick . . .Wolfsbane . . ." and gasped.

He knew from the lessons on werewolves that the only way a werewolf could be safe was to drink that potion, which rendered the curse harmless. But it was expensive and required a master to brew, which was why most werewolves could not obtain it.

But why in Merlin's name would Remus need that potion? Unless it was because he truly was a werewolf.

Draco began to think hard then. The odd absences during the full moon, the way that Remus kept to himself during that time, all of that pointed to a curse. And the fact that the Defense teacher was taking the Wolfsbane Potion, which was specifically imbibed only by werewolves as a means of controlling their deadly rages, was the final sign that Lupin was indeed a werewolf.

Draco put an ear to the door and heard Lupin's voice calling, "Aria, can you come in here and help me a moment? One of the grindylows escaped and I need you to help me search for it."

"Sure, Uncle Remmy. C'mon, Harry."

"Harry's here too?"

"Yes, I brought your potion, Uncle Moony."

"Thank you, I shall drink it in a few minutes. How is Sev doing?"

"Much better. He's actually able to sit up now and his cough is finally going away," answered Harry.

Draco heard them go into the connecting inner room of the office, where Lupin kept cages of various creatures for examples in his classroom.

Only then did the sly boy slip open the office door and go into the room.

There on the desk was a smoking pewter goblet. Draco wrinkled his nose. It smelled terrible and he could just imagine what it tasted like. He recalled one of Snape's lectures last month about some potions being very delicate, one wrong ingredient and they were rendered useless. The Wolfsbane Potion had been on that list.

Draco pursed his lips in a diabolical smirk. I wonder what would happen if I added a little pumpkin juice to this? Just a few drops, enough to throw off the composition of the potion, but not enough to be noticed. Father said not to accuse without proof, but if Lupin really is a werewolf, I'll have all the proof I need on the night of the full moon, when he transforms.

Malfoy quickly summoned a cup of pumpkin juice and carefully added two drops to the smoking Wolfsbane. The potion hissed and bubbled, but otherwise remained unchanged. To all appearances it was normal. But appearances could be deceiving, as Draco knew only too well. Beneath his pretty boy exterior lurked one of the most cunning and cruel minds in Hogwarts.

Now we'll see once and for all if this is the secret you've been hiding, professor, thought Draco in satisfaction. Then he ducked out of the office and was gone just as the door to the inner office opened and Lupin stepped out, picked up the goblet and drank it down.

Ugh, nasty stuff. But it did taste a bit different this time. Must be me, I'm not feeling good right now. He set the goblet back down and went back into the inner office, unaware that he had been unmasked.

Buckbeak's execution was scheduled for tomorrow night, Harry realized with a shudder, the first night of the full moon. He'd been so caught up with Severus's illness and trying to make sure his father followed Pomfrey's instructions and rested like she had told him that he'd almost forgotten the date. Hermione, Ron, and Aria all felt extremely sorry for Hagrid and Buckbeak and had resolved to try and offer the distraught gamekeeper moral support during this awful time.

Harry knew that Aria was still trying to come up with a way to save the innocent hippogriff, even though it appeared hopeless. "Uncle Remmy always says where there's a will, there's a way. I just wish I knew what way."

Harry wished so too, for he hated to see Hagrid so depressed and upset, he could only imagine how he would feel if someone had ordered him to put Rosie down for being a menace. I'd never do it, I'd run the hell away first, far away where nobody'd find me. Hey, maybe that's an idea . . . But when he'd suggested it to Hagrid, the big man just shook his head and said there was nowhere he could run to where he wouldn't stand out, and if he tried, the Ministry would hunt him down and put him in Azkaban for defying them. Hagrid had been in Azkaban once, for three months last year, and said he'd rather die than endure that again.

"Don' yeh worry about me, kids," Hagrid said sadly. "I'll be fine . . .well not really . . .but . . .there's nothin' anyone can do. Dumbledore said he'd be with me . . .great man, Dumbledore . . ." he sniffled.

Privately, Harry thought the Headmaster might've used some of his considerable influence to change the outcome of the trial, much the way Lucius Malfoy had done. Why was it that the old wizard was always so reluctant to act sometimes? Did he enjoy watching his friends suffer? Harry found he was not yet ready to totally forgive the old wizard for letting him stay with the abusive Dursleys all those years, greater good or not. Did he think Buckbeak's dying was for the greater good too? Harry wondered with a sneer.

Harry returned from Hagrid's cottage in the early afternoon, it was a Saturday, he had no Quidditich practice, since the season was over, not that he could've gone anyhow, with his broom confiscated and being grounded and all. Buckbeak's execution was scheduled for sunset, and Harry was determined to be there, so he decided to do the smart thing for once and ask permission from Severus.

"Dad, please let me go. I know I'm grounded and I shouldn't be allowed to do anything fun or whatever, but this isn't fun and I want to be there for Hagrid, he needs me and he was there for me when I needed him," Harry told his father, giving him a pleading glance from his emerald eyes.

Severus considered. It was true Harry was still under punishment, but Severus had the right to amend punishments if he saw fit, if he thought Harry was deserving of such clemency. He considered his son's request carefully, recalling that Harry had behaved himself for the entire month so far, adhering to all of Snape's rules without pouting or whining , and helping his father without complaint in his lab and when he was sick.

Really, Harry had taken his punishment very well, all things considered. Severus decided to allow the boy to go and support his friend in his time of need. "Very well. You may go and stand by Hagrid while the execution proceeds. It will not be an easy thing to watch, Harry."

"I know, Dad." He licked his lips before asking, very softly, "Have you ever . . . I mean when you were a spy . . .did you ever, uh, watch someone die?"

Severus nodded heavily, his dark eyes haunted. "Yes. And to this day, I see it still in my dreams. It isn't something I would have wanted you to experience, no matter if it's a person or animal. A deliberate killing, whether the one to be killed is guilty or not, is never an easy thing to watch. I'm proud of you, son, for volunteering to be with Hagrid. And I will ask you to remember two things, first there is no shame if you get sick afterwards and second, if you wish to discuss how it made you feel or need a shoulder to cry on afterwards, I'll be here."

"Thanks, Dad," his son said sincerely.

"One other thing. I understand that Hagrid will be upset once this is done, but I'm going to ask you not to linger too long, Harry. With Black at large, I don't trust you'll be safe outside the castle, plus tonight's a full moon, and I want your word that you'll come straight back here an hour after the execution's done with. Or else I'll come fetch you myself, and you won't like the consequences," he warned.

"Okay, Dad. I'll be back within an hour. Promise."

"Good." Severus relaxed a fraction after hearing Harry's promise.

"And I want you to promise me you'll rest like you're supposed to, Dad," Harry said, trying to give his father one of his own glares, but it didn't work all that well. "You'll never get better else."

"What's this? Being a dictatorial brat, are you?" he mock-scolded.

Harry shrugged, smiling. "Well, I learned from the best."

"Impudent scamp!" Severus cried, and Harry ducked his swat, laughing.

• * * * * * *

The afternoon of the execution dawned gray and chill, almost as if the earth itself was already in mourning. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Aria were meeting in the meadow just beyond the greenhouse for a private conference regarding Buckbeak right after lunch.

Aria had told them she'd meet them there, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione all left together from Gryffindor Tower. As they were crossing the lawn in front of the greenhouse, they came across Malfoy and company.

Malfoy was sniggering and imitating Hagrid, making fun of the fact that the half-giant was going to lose his pet soon. "Can't you just see it, he'll be blubbering buckets over the stupid beast like a big baby. God, it's a wonder he ever got hired as a teacher here. My father claims Dumbledore's gone senile, appointing a gamekeeper as a teacher, especially and incompetent fool like Hagrid. Between him and Snape, the ruddy traitor, this school's going to the dogs. Literally, since Potter's allowed to keep his dumb mutt here and let it run all over. Might as well live in a kennel, I say, with the beagle and the Beast Girl, right, Crabbe?"

Harry had just caught the last few sentences and they made his blood boil. But before he could confront the vicious little bully, longing to slug him or hex him into next week, Hermione did.

"You make me sick, Malfoy! How can you be so cruel?"

Malfoy looked down his nose at the young witch. "Cruel? I think it's cruel to stick us with a stupid oaf that lets dangerous creatures near his students. My arm still isn't right."

"Oh?" inquired Hermione sweetly. "What's wrong with it now?"

Malfoy shrugged. "Nothing. Why are you here, Granger? Plan on watching the show?"

"Are you?" she demanded, not answering him.

"'Course. It'll be the last chance we've got to see the blubbering imbecile in action, ‘cause my father is petitioning the Ministry to bring Hagrid up on charges for injuring a minor and stuff. Can't wait till that goes through, it'll be awesome!He'll get sacked for sure. Then we'll work on old Snape."

Hermione scowled warningly. "You're disgusting."

Draco laughed. "That's rich, coming from a Mudblood, Granger!"

But Hermione had had it with the blond's nasty mouth and arrogant attitude. She drew back her arm and popped the smirking Draco right in the teeth.

Draco flew backwards and landed hard on the ground, one hand going to his mouth, which was dripping blood.

"You-you hit me!" he whined, his gray eyes wide with shock and tears.

"Why don't you run and tell daddy on me, Malfoy?" Hermione asked sweetly. "Poor baby!"

But Malfoy was too humiliated to retaliate, since Ron and Harry were laughing their heads off at seeing him get knocked in the dirt by Hermione, of all people. He scrambled up and went running back to the castle, his two friends following as fast as they could.

"Hermione, that was bloody brilliant!" Ron said admiringly.

"Didn't know you had it in you," added Harry.

Hermione smiled triumphantly. "Neither did I. But he made me so mad I just couldn't stand him anymore." She shook her fist ruefully. "I hurt my hand a bit, but oh, that felt good."

Then they continued on to the meeting spot.

Aria was waiting, as promised, and she laughed aloud when Hermione admitted what she'd done. "You go, girl! That ought to teach him, the arrogant twit. Next time he starts talking trash about somebody, I'll call you Hermione and we can take turns beating the snot out of him."

Hermione's eyes sparkled. "Why Aria, that sounds . . .delightful!"

Ron exchanged alarmed glances with Harry, for the two girls were looking positively fierce. "I think we'd better run while we can, mate. Those two are damn scary like this."

"What's the matter, Ron? Don't like a girl who can defend herself?" queried Hermione.

"Uh . . .sure I do!" Ron squeaked, with a sickly smile. Then he turned to Harry and whispered, "Boy, are we in serious trouble, Harry."

"Only if you make us mad, Ron," chuckled Aria wickedly.

"Remind me never to do that, Harry," muttered Ron.

Harry just grinned.

"Okay, so what in Merlin's name are we going to do about saving Buckbeak?" asked Aria, sitting down on the grass.

"Umm . . .I don't think there's much we can do. I mean, the Ministry committee has already ruled against an appeal, so all we can do is . . .accept it," said Hermione.

But Aria scowled, unwilling to leave it alone. "It's a miscarriage of justice!" she argued. "Don't you have animal rights activists in thie country? At home in Louisiana, the press would've had a field day with the way this case was handled. No real jury, just Ministry officials and Hagrid didn't have a lawyer either. Plus, there was evidence and witnesses that the hippogriff was provoked by Draco, so his attack would be considered self-defense, not viciousness. And the committee's decision to condemn based only on Lucius's testimony would never have flown back home. All the Save the Endangered Species and Hippogriff Rescue groups would've been up in arms and they'd have never permitted the execution to go forward. It would be declared a mistrial."

"But this isn't the States, Aria," Harry reminded her quietly. "This is Britain, where the Minister is so afraid of making a politically incorrect move that he has to kiss Lucius Malfoy's arse."

"In God's name, why?"

"Because the Malfoys are an old pureblood family with loads of money and they were once rabid supporters of, uh, You-Know-Who," Ron explained.

"Hold it. You're telling me that your Minister lets a guy with former ties to a crazy like that tell him what to do? That's-that's absolutely insane!"

"Well, that's the government for you." Hermione sighed.

"Idiots!" Aria growled. "So if we can't appeal to their better natures and they're all in the pay of Malfoy senior, we'll just have to save Bukcbeak ourselves."

"But how?" asked Harry.

"We snatch him right from under their noses," she answered, with an evil glint in her eye.

"But we can't!" cried Hermione, horrified at breaking a law set by the Ministry. "We could get arrested! Or expelled!"

"Only if we get caught," answered the Slytherin. "Do you want to see Buckbeak die?"

"No, but I don't want to be the first member of my family incarcerated either," Hermione retorted, her brown eyes snapping.

"Leave the actual jailbreak to me," Aria told her. "You three can be the distraction."

"Cool!" Ron said.

"Oh, great, so now we're accessories," grumbled Hermione.

"If you don't want to help us, Mione, just say so," muttered Harry angrily.

"Harry, you know this is a bad idea. We're going to get in so much trouble if anyone ever finds out," moaned the cleverest witch in Hogwarts. "And there's no telling what your dad will do if he has to come bail you out of jail."

Harry winced just thinking about how Severus would react.

Ron and Aria gulped. "That would not be good, mate. If Snape's anything like my mum, he'd summon a wooden spoon out of the air and wallop you good."

Hermione looked skeptical. "Come on, Ronald, who punishes a thirteen-year-old that way anymore? My parents stopped spanking me when I was nine."

Ron gaped at her. "They did? I didn't think you ever misbehaved. What did you do?"

Hermione blushed. "Uh . . .I set my house on fire with my chemistry set."

"You did what?" Harry started to crack up.

"It wasn't on purpose!" she said indignantly. "I was trying out a new experiment, one that I shouldn't of been doing without an adult, but my mother was busy with dinner and my dad was on the phone with a patient, and I didn't want to wait, so I went ahead and mixed something, I don't remember what, and . . .next thing I knew there was an explosion and the curtains in my room caught fire. The fire department came and put it out, and when they asked me what caused it I told them my chemistry set blew up."

"You told on yourself?" Ron hit himself in the forehead. "How dumb are you?"

"I was nine, Ron, and I was taught not to lie to policemen or firemen when they asked me a question. For some reason they were amused, though my dad wasn't. I'll never forget the look on his face. Then he said, "Hermione Jane, didn't I tell you not to play with your chemistry set unless I was with you? You could've killed us all." So then I started to cry and I told him I was sorry and I'd never do it again and he said he'd make darn sure of it and then he spanked me."

"With a spoon?" inquired Ron avidly.

"Of course not! That's child abuse," cried the girl.

"Ha! Tell that to my mum. She calls it discipline."

"Well, I can't really blame her, I mean with six boys, she probably wore out her hand, so no wonder she uses a spoon," Hermione remarked. "I would too."

"Not if you were the one getting your bum smacked," grumbled her friend. "Right, Harry?"

"Sev hits you with a spoon too?" exclaimed Aria.

"No," cried Harry. Although he might if he ever found out I was aiding and abetting a kidnapping. He had no desire to experience that particular punishment ever. "He, uh, doesn't believe in hitting kids with, uh, spoons. How did we get on this subject anyhow?"

"Ron brought it up," said Aria. "Anyway, as I was saying before, I'll do the actual freeing of Buckbeak in my cougar form, the rest of y'all can provide some kind of distraction. Actually, I'm going to need somebody to give Buckbeak a treat once he's free, so he leaves quickly."

"A treat?" repeated Hermione. "What does he like to eat?"

"Dead ferrets," answered Aria.

"Ugh! Nasty!" grimaced the other witch.

"Too bad we can't feed him Draco," laughed Harry. "Uh, what kind of distraction should we provide?"

"I don't know. Something that'll get their attention pronto," said Aria.

Ron looked thoughtful, then said, "The twins will probably have something we can use to cause a disturbance."

"Yeah, they're good at that," Harry agreed.

"Okay, so here's how we'll play this," Aria said calmly. "I'll slip into my cougar form and break the chain or whatever they've got on Buckbeak. Then Ron can use the twins fireworks or something to create a disturbance and make the executioner and Dumbledore look elsewhere. Harry, you can distract them too, since you're the only one of us who has permission to be there."

"Right."

"And I'll give Buckbeak the treat," sighed Hermione, looking less than pleased at the thought of handling a dead ferret.

"He should go right for them, especially with me encouraging him," Aria said. "Once he's close to the Forbidden Forest, I'll shift into my hawk form and grab another ferret and get him to follow me in there, where I can hide him until they stop looking for him. I'll try and make it look like something attacked him and he's hurt, maybe dying, so they don't search too hard."

"Think it'll work?" asked Ron.

"It better," huffed Hermione. "I'm not getting expelled or arrested over a dead hippogriff."

"Relax, Granger. If something goes wrong, then we go to Plan B," Aria said.

"We've got a Plan B?" asked Harry.

"Uh, no. But I'm working on it," admitted the Slytherin.

"What if we get caught?" asked Hermione nervously.

"Then we lie," Aria said immediately. "Like there's no tomorrow. Now is not the time to tell the truth, Hermione."

"I'm not very good at that, Aria."

"Learn. Either that or faint, nobody will question you then."

Ron chuckled. Hermione glared at him and he froze.

"All right, does everyone know what they're doing?" asked Harry. His friends nodded. "Good. Then let's go down to Hagrid's and put phase one of Operation Save the Hippogriff into action."

They all put their hands over one another.

"And may fortune favor the foolish," murmured Hermione.

"Amen," said Aria. We're all insane. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained as my dad used to say. If Uncle Remmy ever finds out, I'm so dead.

• * * * * *

Harry, Aria, and Hermione went to talk to Hagrid while Ron found the twins and asked for some kind of product that would cause a suitable distraction. He wasn't worried the twins wouldn't have one, they always had something up their sleeve, and they liked Hagrid and wouldn't mind helping him besides.

I just hope this all goes according to plan, the youngest Weasley son thought fervently. Otherwise, Mum's gonna wallop my butt till I can't sit down for forever. I wish I had Hermione's parents. Then he headed up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower.

Hagrid was sniffling into a large printed towel when Harry knocked on the door. "Hagrid. It's me, Harry. Can I come in?"

"Sure, Harry. Hang on."

The door opened and Harry, Hermione, and Aria came inside.

Hagrid's eyes were red and swollen and his beard was wet with tears. "What are you three doin' here? It's almost sunset and the full moon besides. You need to be back up at th' castle, ‘specially you, Aria. I know yer uncle don't like you roamin' about on this night."

Aria nodded. "Don't worry, Hagrid. I'll be back before nightfall. We just came to, uh, offer our condolences."

"We're really sorry, Hagrid," chimed in Hermione, wiping a tear from her eye. "Poor Buckbeak."

"Yeh, well, he . . .he won't feel nothin', or so they say." Two huge tears rolled down Hagrid's face.

"How do they know?" demanded Harry. "Did they ever die and come back?"

"Nah, but the axe's enchanted, see? It's extra sharp so . . ." Hagrid coughed, looking out the window where Buckbeak was chained in the pumpkin patch. "You want some tea? I didn't feel much like bakin' today."

They all agreed to have tea and were relieved to hear about the baking. Hagrid's cakes tended to be hard as rocks and nearly indigestible. Last time Harry had eaten one, it had given him a stomachache for days, until Snape had given him a potion for it. But the tea was good.

Ron arrived soon after the tea was done and joined them, giving Harry a grin behind his hand and thumbs-up sign.

They remained with Hagrid until it was sunset, then the gamekeeper told them they had better leave. Aria, Hermione, and Ron all rose to their feet and walked out of the cottage.

"You too, Harry. Your dad won't be too pleased if yer out after curfew."

"It's okay, Hagrid. Dad gave me permission to stay here with you. Until it's over."

"He did? That was right nice of the professor. But are y'sure you want to see this?"

Harry shrugged and looked at the floor. "No, but it's better if you've got friends around."

Hagrid clapped him on the back. "Thanks, Harry. I wish you could'v e gotten to know Beaky there. You'da liked him."

Harry simply nodded, not knowing what else to say that wouldn't give the rescue mission away.

Luckily, the Minister, McNair the executioner, and Dumbledore made their way down the path to the cottage just then, saving Harry the need to reply.

Fudge looked surprised to find Harry there and Dumbledore merely smiled at him, but neither of them told him to leave once they learned Harry had Severus's permission to be there. MacNair was wearing a black hood over his face and he was huge, carrying a gigantic axe.

"I'll make it quick," he said gruffly, and there was a note in his voice that Harry didn't like at all. He sounded almost . . .disappointed, as though he wanted to see Buckbeak suffer.

Harry scowled at him, something about the man made him very uneasy and for some reason his voice sounded awfully familiar. He shook his head. He'd never met the man, so how could he think that? You're losing it, Snape. The pressure's getting to you.

"Yeh've done this b'fore, righ'?" sniffed Hagrid anxiously.

MacNair made a dismissive gesture. "I've killed thousands of condemned . . .animals," the other laughed.

No one else did.

Harry froze. That laugh. He knew it. He had heard it last summer . . .when he was a captive of the Death Eaters. That laugh had echoed in the stone cell while they had beaten and cast the Cruciatus on him. He would never forget it.

He's a bloody Death Eater. Oh God. He went cold to the marrow of his bones and quickly hid his hands under the table to make them stop shaking. Does Dumbledore know? Or the Minister? Should I tell them? What if they don't believe me? MacNair works for the Ministry and he's a Death Eater!

Memories of being trapped in the cell, writhing in agony, flooded Harry's brain and for one awful minute he feared he would be sick all over the table. He forced himself to take deep breaths, calming himself down, his hands knotted into rigid fists. Dad, I've got to tell Dad. He'll know what to do. Thinking of Severus made him feel marginally better and he was able to relax.

"You okay, Harry?" asked Hagrid, noting how pale the boy was. "Maybe you ought not to see this. Yeh look a bit peaky."

"I'm fine," Harry said quickly.

Fudge pushed a sheaf of forms over to Hagrid to sign.

The half-giant had just dipped his quill when there came a loud explosion from somewhere in the vicinity nearby.

Everyone jumped, even Harry.

"What the devil was that?" yelled Fudge.

"Sounded like something blew up, sir," Harry said helpfully. "Maybe we ought to go see." He rose to his feet and went over to the front of the cottage, opening the door and peering out.

"Look! Smoke!"

He pointed to the large column of smoke rising from the trees.

Dumbledore, Hagrid, Fudge, and MacNair all followed.

"It's a fire!" Harry exclaimed.

Then there came another explosion and colored flames shot up from the woods.

Harry turned to the speechless gaping adults. "What do we do, sirs? The woods are on fire! We need to put it out." Come on, you dunderheads. Quit standing around and investigate! What's wrong with you people?

"Yes, of course," coughed Dumbledore. "Come, Cornelius, MacNair. I believe something exploded near the green house." He led the way across the lawn, followed by the other two.

Harry hid a grin of delight. Way to go, Ron! Now if only Aria can free Buckbeak in time and get him away before they come back. "C'mon, Hagrid. Let's go back inside."

"Maybe I oughta check on Beaky. The noise mighta scared him."

"I'm sure he's fine," Harry said quickly. "C'mon, let's go sit down and finish our tea. What were those forms you were signing?"

"Uh, it was a waiver sayin' I wouldn't hold the Ministry responsible for the lawful death of my hippogriff."

They entered the hut again.

Buckbeak was startled by the loud nose and screeched angrily, rearing up on his hind legs and pawing the air with his eagle claws. His chain rattled hard against the post as he beat his wings, trying to fly away.

It was then that Aria shifted into her cougar form and bounded towards the angry animal, a low purr rumbling from her throat.

Though only part lion, the hippogriff could still understand the cougar's reassuring purr and Buckbeak relaxed as the golden cougar drew near.

He bent his head and snorted at the large cat, who sniffed and purred softly, pacing around the half-horse and half-griffin in a slow circle until she had reached the chain tethering the hippogriff to the post.

Buckbeak squawked a little then settled when Aria huffed at him.

Aria drew back a paw, claws extended, then brought it down hard on the chain. The chain shuddered, and bent, but did not break. Aria struck again, snarling, and Buckbeak, understanding what was happening at last, jerked hard on the chain, so it went taut.

Aria slammed it hard and the links caved, then snapped at the hippogriff's sharp tug.

Buckbeak was free.

He shook his head, trying to free himself of the chain.

Aria pounced, nipping him sharply about the withers, drawing blood and scattering feathers everywhere.

Buckbeak cawed and made as if to bite the cougar, when Hermione called from the edge of the pumpkin patch, "Hey, Beaky! Want some food? Look what I've got."

Buckbeak swiveled his head around, and saw the girl holding a dead ferret.

Slowly, the hippogriff began to walk towards the girl.

Hurry up you stupid animal! Hermione thought desperately. Before they come back! Ron can't keep setting off fireworks or whatever forever.

Buckbeak approached cautiously, then snapped his head down and with one lightning swift move, swallowed the ferret Hermione tossed him.

She quickly backed up a few steps, holding another one, crooning, "Come on, Beaky. That's a good fellow. Come and get it."

Buckbeak followed.

Aria quickly left a few scratch marks and pawprints in the dirt near the feathers and blood, noting with some satisfaction that the hippogriff's shoulder bled onto the ground where she'd nipped him, leaving a good trail. Then she roared, the wailing cry of a cougar hunting.

Buckbeak bolted after Hermione, nearly trampling her.

Good, he's moving. Now for part two. Aria shifted into hawk form and glided above the pair as they raced into the trees.

Merlin, but that yell, I've never heard anything like it in my life! thought Hermione as she ran, still holding out the dead ferret.

Just then a great golden shape swooped down, plucking the ferret from her hands and hovering just in front of Buckbeak with it.

The hippogriff eyed the hawk angrily, then sprang into the air after the thieving avian.

Aria quickly turned and flew towards the forest, Buckbeak in hot pursuit.

Hermione waved, smiling broadly. We did it! Buckbeak lives! Then she quickly ran past the cottage and behind some flat topped boulders, which was where they were supposed to meet if the rescue attempt was successful.

Harry knew when he heard the cougar scream that their plan had worked, that was Aria's and his little signal. Soon after, the three wizards returned from putting out the fire, "Odd how that started," muttered Fudge, and discovered that Buckbeak was gone.

"How could this have happened?" cried the Minister angrily.

"Sometimes things come outta the Forest, sir," Hagrid said, looking woebegone. "See, there's tracks o' some large animal, like mebbe a lion, and see here's some feathers and bloody from where it got Beaky." He pointed to the smears of blood and feathers lying near the cougar tracks.

"And we heard something roaring and screaming just before you got back too," Harry added excitedly. "It must have been the lion or whatever attacking the hippogriff and then dragging it away." Damn, I'm good. Lucky Dad isn't here though, he'd be able to tell I was lying in two minutes and then I'd really be in for it.

"Well, the beast's dead, anyhow. Who cares how it was done, so long as it was," said MacNair philosophically, rubbing his axe fondly.

"Hmm . . .yes, I suppose so. Well, good evening then, Hagrid," said Fudge, putting on his bowler.

"Harry, yeh'd better get back on up to the castle, it's dusk and yer dad'll be waiting for you," said Hagrid. "Thanks fer coming though."

"You're welcome, Hagrid. I'm sorry about Buckbeak," said Harry sincerely. "See you." He went quickly towards the door and as he passed Dumbledore, he could have sworn the Headmaster winked at him.

"Cornelius, would you care for a bite of supper in my quarters?" he heard the old wizard asking as he went by.

He didn't catch the Minister's answer however, since he had shut the door and was gone, running quickly up the path to the meeting place. It was growing on to full dark now and the moon was just rising, full and round in the sky.

Harry hoped Aria had found a safe place to hide Buckbeak until the Minister and his pet executioner had left. When he arrived, he found Hermione and Ron anxiously awaiting his arrival.

"Good, you made it," Ron panted. "They suspect anything?"

"No. They all thought a wild animal ate Buckbeak," said Harry happily. "Where's Aria?"

"She hasn't come back yet," said Hermione worriedly. "I hope she's all right."

"Aria's pretty savvy, she can look out for herself," Harry said, knowing the shape-slipper roamed the forest at will sometimes.

All of a sudden, Harry gasped, for in the fading, flickering twilight he saw a familiar shape crouched behind an empty pot near the greenhouse.

"Ron! Look-it's SCABBERS!"

"Where?" Ron's head darted about frantically.

"There, over by the empty pot," Harry pointed. "I TOLD you he wasn't dead."

Ron's face lit up. "Come here, old fellow!" he cried, and raced over and grabbed the rat before he could scamper away. Scabbers struggled, he looked mangy and thin, but he was remarkably alive.

"Guess Rosie didn't eat him after all, huh?" Harry couldn't resist saying.

Ron flushed a dull red, cradling his rat close. "I . . .uh . . .was stupid and I'm sorry. I owe Rosie and apology too and a big steak bone."

"She'll forgive you," Harry chuckled.

"Do you?"

"Yeah. But next time you accuse my beagle without proof, Weasley, I'm going to sock you one right in the mouth," Harry threatened, waving his fist warningly.

"Okay, okay, Snape," laughed his friend.

"How about me? Don't I get an apology?" asked Hermione, a bit miffed.

"Yeah, sorry Hermione, that I blamed your cat. But he is always lurking about and growling at Scabbers."

"He's a cat, Ron. That's what they do."

Suddenly, they heard a low snarl behind them and Scabbers began squirming frantically in Ron's hold. "Oww! He BIT me! Scabbers, bloody hell, what's wrong with you?"

The rat nipped Ron;s finger again and the boy opened his hand and Scabbers jumped down and scurried away across the lawn, just as a dark shape growled and raced after it.

"No! Scabbers! Come back!" Ron yelled, racing after the rat and the big black shape that Harry could swear was a dog.

"Ron! Come back, we've got to get back to the school, it'll be curfew soon," Hermione reminded.

But Ron ignored her, running full speed after the vanishing rat and the dog.

"What an idiot!" cried the girl, and then she lit up her wand and followed.

Harry was just about to do the same when Aria glided from the sly and shifted back into human form. "Harry! Where're Ron and Hermione going in such a hurry?"

"After Scabbers. A big black dog is chasing him," Harry said.

"A dog? Fang?"

"No, a big black mutt . . ." Harry started to say, then halted in midsentence. "A mutt . . .my dad said Black's an Animagus. And his animal form's a big black dog. That's Black and he's after Scabbers!"

"Why would Black be chasing a rat?" Aria wondered.

"Who knows? C'mon, let's get him."

"Harry, that's a murderer! We should go back and tell a teacher."

"No time! C'mon, Aria! You can take a dog as a cougar, right?" Harry called, beginning to run after the receding figures of Ron and Hermione.

"Yes, but I don't kill even in cougar form, Harry!" Aria gasped. "Not unless it was to save my life or someone else's."

"If we don't hurry, you may have to in order to save Ron or Hermione's lives," said the younger Snape. "Hurry up, Lupin!"

Shaking her head and muttering about impulsive damn Gryffindors, Aria blurred into cougar form and raced after the three, disappearing like wraiths into the darkness.

"Scabbers! Get away from him, you filthy mutt!" Ron screamed, running as quickly as he could after the big black dog, who was chasing the rat and growling horribly, as if he was going to tear the rat to pieces when he finally caught up with the scurrying rodent.

Scabbers ran with the speed of the damned, moving quicker than he ever had in all of his eleven years, darting for the supposed safety of the Whomping Willow, for there was a secret passage beneath its roots known only to a select few who had once attended Hogwarts.

The tree stirred, its branches swaying in warning, but the rat ignored them, slipping between the thick roots to press a hidden knothole with his paw. A creak and a dark opening gaped wide, and Scabbers fled down the secret way that was revealed.

The black dog howled and bolted after the disappearing rat, only to be brought up short when Ron dived on him and grabbed his tail.

"Get off! Leave him be, you mangy mutt!" yelled Ron, struggling to hold onto the big dog. "Just leave him alone, you bloody beast!"

But the dog was not as thin or weak as he had first appeared and he turned upon the boy with surprising speed, his jaws closing over Ron's arm and biting down hard.

"Ahhh!" Ron screamed, releasing the dog's tail.

"Ron! What happened?" called Hermione.

"The stupid damn dog-it bit me!" cried the red-haired wizard. Then he latched onto the dog's leg as it tried to run away.

This time the dog did not bother trying to shake off his persistent pursuer, but just ran at the gaping mouth of the tunnel beneath the Willow, dragging Ron after him.

"HELP! HERMIONE! HARRY!" Ron shrieked, as the dog dragged him into the mouth of the tunnel.

"Ron!" screamed Hermione, and threw herself on the ground and grabbed Ron's foot just before he disappeared into the black maw. She was then dragged right after her friend and just as her foot cleared the entrance, the tunnel closed with a snap.

Harry and Aria arrived soon after, but found no trace of them. "Huh? I heard them screaming, so where are they?" panted the professor's son, looking about wildly.

Cougar Aria paced wildly, lashing her tail and growling. The Willow's branches trembled, disturbed by the big cat's presence.

Then there came a soft mew and Crookshanks appeared out of the darkness. The ginger cat ran between Harry's feet straight to the roots of the Willow and tapped a knot with his paw.

The Willow shuddered and froze, and the secret tunnel slid open again.

"Clever cat!" Harry praised. "So that's where they went. Thanks, Crookshanks." He glanced back at Aria, who had transformed back into a girl. "You coming, Lupin?"

"Damn straight, Snape. Somebody has to be there to save your idiotic Gryffindor hide."

Harry grinned at her. "Spoken like a true Slytherin." Then he slid into the tunnel and Aria followed.

They landed with a thump in a dusty room with bits of broken furniture and cushions scattered about. Harry lit up his wand and discovered that the door and windows had been boarded over, and the only exit seemed to be a set of rickety stairs where they could see trails of small footprints and a dog's paws in the thick dust that coated everything.

"Where are we, Harry?"

"Uh. . . .this was a tunnel marked on the Marauder's map," Harry said quickly, recalling then the existence of the tunnel, and also the story his dad had told him about going to the Shrieking Shack and finding Moony in werewolf form. He glanced at the wall opposite the door and saw a rusted chain buried in the wall attached to an iron manacle. "Aria, we're inside the Shrieking Shack."

"In Hogsmeade? But how?"

"The tunnel led us there. This was where your uncle used to be locked in when he transformed. My dad told me the story."

"About how Uncle Remmy almost bit him?" Aria clarified. "He told me that one too. He said he was sorry and he felt awful, but the were nature was too strong and he couldn't help himself."

"I know. It wasn't his fault, it was Sirius Black's." Harry said, his eyes flashing. "Just like it was Black who killed my mum and James." He started to follow the trail of footprints up the stairs.

At the top was a short hallway with three rooms, but only one room was open. Harry crept down the hallway and peered into the room, seeing a large fourposter bed where Ron was sitting, holding on to a trembling Scabbers, nursing a bleeding arm and a sprained ankle. Hermione was on the floor, bleeding from a cut to the head and looking like she'd been knocked out.

"Ron! Are you all right?" Harry cried, coming into the room. "What happened to Hermione? And where's Black?"

"Harry! Behind you!" shouted Aria, just as a large dog jumped on him, knocking him flat on the floor.

The dog growled sharply as Harry struggled, but the animal was too strong and he was only a skinny small thirteen-year-old.

Then came a low snarl and suddenly the dog flew against the wall as Aria leaped into the room, filling the small space with her cougar shape.

Harry got to his feet, wincing at his scraped knees but he had his wand out and pointed at the dog, who was shaking its head and getting to its feet. It bared its teeth, but did not attack, instead watching Harry and the cougar warily.

Aria's amber eyes were blazing and she curled her lip and wailed the cougar war cry, her muscles tensed to spring, ears flat against her head.

The dog whuffed at her, curious. For a moment amber eyes met brown ones.

Then all at once the dog was gone and a tall man with tangled wild black hair and eyes tinged with fury and disbelief was standing there. He looked like a refugee from a concentration camp, all skin and bones and his dirty shirt and graying pants hung on his skinny frame like a tent.

"You won't hurt me, girl," he rasped softly. "It's forbidden for an Animagus to harm a human. It's the Third Rule in the Shifter Code."

"How do you know that's not a real cougar?" Harry demanded, glaring at the criminal known as Sirius Black.

"I'm an Animagus, and I know my own kind," answered Sirius evenly.

The cougar curled her lip in a feral smile. Then she transformed back into a girl, saying softly, "Then you don't know as much as you think you do, do you, murderer? Because I'm no Animagus. I'm a shape-slipper."

Black's eyes widened. "A shape-slipper. That's a rare talent, you're the first one I ever met."

"First and last," Aria said softly, her amber eyes glowing angrily. "You gonna come quietly, Black? Or do we have to get rough?"

Black laughed softly. "Brave words, little girl. But we both know you'll never harm me in your cougar shape. The laws forbid it, and you're a shifter, and therefore bound by them."

"I'm not," growled Harry, advancing on the other man. "I can kill you right now, Black. And I will!"

Sirius turned to look at him for the first time and gasped. "Merlin! You look just like Snape! Except your eyes. Those are-"

"-my mother's," Harry finished grimly. "And you killed her, you traitorous bastard! You betrayed Lily and James to Voldemort and now you're going to pay!"

"I never did!" protested Sirius. "There was another who betrayed us all and he escaped that day from me, but never again. Now I've found him and he'll pay for killing my cousin and my friend. You've got to believe me, Harry!"

"You're a damn LIAR!" Harry shrieked, boiling over with rage. "You doublecrossed them and made a pact with Voldemort, you dirty stinking coward son of a bitch!" He was trembling with rage, so furious he could barely see, his wand blazing with pent up magical energy. "Miserable bastard, I'm going to blow your sodding head off!"

Sirius whistled. "Hell, kid, guess you still remember all the swear words I ever taught you, huh? Good thing Lily or Severus isn't here to listen to your mouth, boy, you'd be eating soap in two seconds." He held up a hand. "Lower your wand, Harry. There's only one person who deserves to die here tonight, and it's not me."

"Why not?" demanded Aria sharply.

"Because I'm innocent," Sirius said calmly.

"There were witnesses."

"Who saw something they were made to forget."

"Yes, they saw you kill thirteen innocent people and Peter Pettigrew!" cried Aria.

"No. They saw Peter kill thirteen innocent people, and try to kill me," corrected Sirius softly.

"Why should we believe you?" growled Harry.

"Because for once in his life, he's telling the truth," answered Moony from behind them. "Hello, Padfoot. Long time no see."

They all whirled around and saw Remus standing there, looking rumpled from sliding down the chute-like tunnel, holding the Marauder's map in one hand and a wand in the other. He was frowning ferociously and Aria cringed.

But his gaze was not on his disobedient niece, but the rat clutched in Ron's arms.

"You can't hide anymore, Peter. What was hidden away has now been found, and the truth will out," said Remus grimly.

Ron looked from one wizard to the other in utter puzzlement. "Huh? You've all gone barmy! Lost it completely. This is Scabbers, my rat, not-not a dead wizard or whatever! What's the matter with you people?"

"No, Ron. That's not Scabbers," Lupin said softly. "Or rather Scabbers is also Peter Pettigrew, my old school chum, whom we all presumed dead these eleven years. Only that was a lie, wans't it? Because the map showed me the truth." He tapped the map with his wand. "You couldn't fool it, Peter, not even in Animagus form. I couldn't believe my eyes when I checked the map and saw your name upon it, right next to Ron's and Sirius's. I thought I was dreaming. So I had to come and check it out for myself. And the map was right."

"Impossible! He was my pet for eleven years!" Ron cried. "He's not Pettigrew!"

* * * * * *

Severus was dreaming he heard Lily calling him. "Sev, wake up. Go and get Harry, it's your turn tonight. C'mon, love, wake up, the baby's crying." Severus groaned, trying to shut out the insistent howling, but it wouldn't go away. "Severus! Get up now!"

"All right, Lil, I'm up, damn it!" he cried, sitting up on the couch and rubbing his eyes. "There's no need to shout . . .in my ear," he trailed off when he glanced around and discovered he was not in bed with his wife, but on his own couch in the Potion Master's quarters, and a beagle was baying loudly in his face.

"Rosie! Bloody hell, dog!" he swore, pushing the beagle's face away from him, for she was licking his entire cheek. "Must you give me a bath every time you see me, you pest? I wash my own face very well, you silly beagle." He wiped his cheek with his sleeve, grimacing. "God only knows where that tongue of yours has been, dog."

Rosie barked and whimpered, looking pointedly towards the door.

"All right, give me a minute to get my shoes on, won't you?" he grumbled, shoving his shoes on and summoning the dog's leash. "I'd have thought you could have waited until Harry came home to go out," he told the dog, snapping on her leash and going to the door. "Heel, Rosie!" he ordered, before the dog dragged him out the door.

The quickest route to outside was a small set of stairs hidden near his quarters and he used these now, figuring the dog couldn't wait to go the usual route.

The stairs brought him out to a small grassy verge near the lake. Snape glanced at his watch as the beagle watered the grass, only then realizing that it had been an hour since Harry had left for Hagrid's and he still wasn't back yet.

Severus's mouth thinned in disapproval. "Damn that child! Doesn't he know how to tell time yet? I said one hour and it's now an hour and ten minutes. I warned him not to be late or else!"

Rosie had finished her business by then and Severus led her down the path to Hagrid's cottage. "Come along, Rosie. Let's go and fetch your forgetful master home, where I can ground his sorry arse for another week for breaking his promise to me."

Rosie bayed and raced happily down the path, tugging Severus along.

"What do you mean, he's not here?" an exasperated and annoyed Severus demanded of Hagrid, who was drinking bucket after bucket of mead, but didn't even sound remotely drunk. "He was supposed to be back fifteen minutes ago."

"Uh, I dunno, Professor Snape. But I sent Harry back t'the castle some thirty minutes ago, I think, right b'fore Dumbledore left with the Minister. Is he missing again?"

Snape nodded curtly, fuming. "Don't worry about it, Hagrid. I'll find him. And when I do . . ." he trailed off, but the look on his face said it all.

"Ah, sir, don' be too hard on ‘im. He's a good kid, y'know," Hagrid began.

"Humph! That good kid, as you put it, is going to drive me to drink someday, Hagrid!" Severus said sharply. Then he added, more gently, "My condolences on the loss of Buckbeak. The Minister is an utter idiot for ordering the hippogriff's execution."

Hagrid nodded. "Thanks, sir." He opened his mouth to tell Professor Snape about the odd circumstances surrounding the hippogriff's demise, but Severus interrupted him.

"I need to be going, so I can find my son and go home before it gets any later. Good night, Hagrid."

"Night, Professor."

Severus sighed and then scowled down at Rosie, who was sitting at his feet, her tail switching the dirt. Then he got an idea and snapped his fingers, causing the little beagle to look up at him. "Rosie, can you find Harry for me? You're a beagle, you track rabbits, surely you can track my son. How about it, girl?"

Rosie was on her feet, tail wagging frantically.

"Good girl. Find Harry! Where is he?"

The beagle whimpered low in her throat and then sniffed the ground.

"Rosie, go find Harry!" Severus ordered, praying the dog comprehended his order. He'd never formally trained the dog to track people, but they had played a kind of hide and seek with the dog that she loved.

The beagle snuffled for a few more minutes, then bayed and took off, running to the full extent of the leash.

Severus followed, praying the beagle really was tracking down his missing son, who was going to be very sorry when his father finally found him, Snape vowed.

Rosie ran with the tireless lope of a hound dog on a scent, her floppy ears flying, sweeping the scent of her beloved master to her nose until her sensitive nostrils were filled with his particular scent. The trail was fresh, not even an hour old, though it was mingled with the disturbing odor of a big cat, and a strange dog, a cat, and a rat. But Rosie did not care about that. All she wanted was to do as Severus had commanded and find Harry.

This was like a new game of hide and seek, one of her favorite things to do, and she would not disappoint her Alpha-Dad by losing the trail. That was pretty impossible, the trail was so obvious a puppy could have tracked Harry. So Rosie ran on, wondering if at the end of the trail she would get a treat, the way she usually did.

Severus couldn't believe where Rosie was taking him. All the way across the lawn to the Whomping Willow. What in Merlin's name had possessed Harry to come out here? Rosie halted just before the tree, she knew how dangerous it was, it had nearly swatted her the first time she had gone near it.

She danced impatiently on her hind legs, baying hysterically. She could smell Harry down there, beneath the Willow's roots. But she did not know how to reach him. She gazed back at Severus, who smelled of concern, worry, and anger. That's your job, getting past the moving tree, the beagle whuffed.

"Down there? In the tunnel?" Severus demanded and Rosie bayed an affirmative. "Hell, beagle, what's he doing down there? Unless . . ." a cold chill skittered down his spine. What if Black had captured Harry? Black knew how to open the secret door, he knew to press the knothole that would freeze the Willow for a period of time, long enough to get down the tunnel and into the Shrieking Shack.

"Stay!" he ordered the dog, dropping the leash on the ground. Rosie obeyed, watching Severus intently.

Severus waited until the Willow was quiet, then darted in and slapped the knothole and the secret tunnel opened. "Come, girl!" he called, and Rosie barked and ran to him.

He scooped her up then slid down the tunnel.

They hit the bottom and Rosie sprang out of his arms and sniffed, then raced up the stairs, the leash dragging in the dust.

Severus dusted himself off and went after her, silent footed as a cat, wand out.

* * * * *

Hermione stirred, groaning softly. Remus moved to her side, summoning bandages to wrap her head. But she did not speak and after a few moments lapsed back into that odd sleep.

"Is the girl all right, Moony?" asked Sirius.

Lupin nodded. "Yes, just a nasty bump on the head. But you certainly know how to make an entrance."

Before Sirius could respond, there came the patter of little paws and then Rosie thrust her dusty but keen beagle nose into the room and bayed happily.

"What the-?" began Sirius, staring at the little beagle, who frisked up to Harry and jumped up at him.

"Rosie?" Harry gaped at his dog. "How'd you get here?" he fondled the dog's ears, knowing perfectly well the last time he'd seen Rosie, she was asleep on the couch next to his father.

"This your dog, Harry?" asked Sirius. "Never figured Severus'd unbend enough to let you have a pet, much less a dog."

In Ron's arms, Scabbers was shaking, and Ron stroked the rat comfortingly, glaring at Lupin and Sirius.

"Amazing, now I've finally heard it all," drawled Severus, stepping into the room, his wand out. "The arrogant Black admitting he doesn't know it all. Maybe Azkaban was good for you after all, if it knocked all the bloody arrogance out of you."

"Look who's talking, Snivellus," sneered Black, glaring at his old schoolmate with dislike.

"Don't call him that!" Harry shouted, poking Sirius with his wand.

"No, let him, because I've got much worse to call him, Harry," said Severus silkily. "Like murderer and betrayer! Tell me, Black, did you laugh when she was gone, did you watch when your dark master went to Godric's Hollow and killed them?" The Potions Master edged into the room, wand pointed directly at Sirius, a look of utter hatred on his face that made Harry grow cold. "Did you know this one still remembers the moment his mother died, that he can still hear her dying scream in his memory? Does that amuse you, you bloody bastard?"

"I never killed Lily, Severus. Or James. Yes, you were betrayed, but not by me."

"Oh, and I'm supposed to believe you, Black? Your whole family was staunch supporters of Riddle, and you followed right in their footsteps."

"My family doesn't define me, Snape. Anymore than yours does you. Are you an abusive drunken bastard, Snape, like your father?"

Severus trembled with rage, looking like he was about to explode. "Don't you dare lie to me, Black! You were their Secret Keeper and you broke your oath and she paid for it! All of them did, even Harry almost died that night, and then you had the nerve to go hunting for him even now to finish the job your Dark Lord couldn't!" The tip of Severus's ebony wand pressed against Sirius's temple. "Give me one good reason, Black, why I shouldn't kill you here and now."

"Sev, don't. He's innocent," began Remus. "Listen to me."

Severus still kept his wand trained on Sirius. "What's this, Moony? What line did he feed you to make you think that? He murdered my WIFE! He deserves to rot in hell for all of eternity and by all the devils in hell, I'm going to send him there!"

Severus's eyes were blazing with eleven years of pent up hatred and anger, his mouth was flecked with spittle, and his wand hand was like a rock, glued to Sirius's temple.

Harry had never seen his father like this before, so close to the edge of his control, and it terrified him to the marrow of his bones. This was a side of Severus he'd never seen, the side of the warrior, iron hard and deadly, able to kill without blinking. But, scared as he was of this strange Snape, he also did not want his father to go to Azkaban for murdering a person, even Sirius Black. He had already lost a parent, the last thing he needed or wanted was to lose the only one he had left.

"Dad, please."

It was all he could manage to say past the huge lump in his throat.

"Stay out of this, Harry. This is between me and the bastard who killed your mother." Severus's mouth twisted and his wand began to glow.

Harry panicked then. He could see it in his mind, Severus killing Sirius, and then dementors hauling his father away to a cell in Azkaban, leaving Harry without his protection, his love, and his family. He would be sent back to the Dursleys for sure and then both of them would be in hell forever.

"Dad, no!" he shouted, then turned his wand on his father, shouting, "Expelliarmus!"

At the same time he did, so too did Lupin and Aria.

Severus was unprepared for his son or his best friend to attack him and so couldn't block in time.

The three Disarming Charms blew his wand out of his hand and sent him flying back against the wall.

He hit the wall hard, cracking his head against it and then he slid down to lie in a heap on the floor, knocked out cold by the sheer force of the spells.

Harry felt his heart skip a beat. What had he done? He had attacked his father! How could he have done that? Guilt swirled with fear surged over him in a tidal wave and he shook with the force of his emotions. He threw himself down beside his father, one hand feeling for a pulse, his wand limp next to him.

"Dad? Please, please be okay . . .I didn't mean it . . .please don't be dead!" he babbled, biting down hard on his lip to keep from sobbing like a little kid. Severus was so still . . .there was a trickle of blood running down his face . . .

Rosie whimpered and began to lick the Potion Master's face, cleaning the cut on his head with her tongue.

And Harry felt the vein in Snape's neck pulse with life.

He breathed again. ThankyouthankyouGod! He's alive! Harry nearly wept with relief, but he controlled himself.

"Harry? Is he all right?" asked Remus, concern etching his features, which were paler than usual.

"Yeah. Just . . .just knocked out cold, Uncle Moony."

"Oh my God, I just knocked out my professor!" Aria whispered, going pale beneath her tan. "I'm going to have detention until I graduate, probably."

Harry nearly smiled at that, until Sirius moved and snatched up his wand.

"Hey! Give that back!" Harry yelled, lunging at Sirius.

But the wiry man shrugged him off. "Calm down, Harry! I'm going to borrow this to prove once and for all that I'm not a traitor or a murderer. I spent eleven years in Azkaban for a crime I didn't commit." He pointed Harry's wand at Ron.

Ron yelped and tried to scramble off the bed, forgetting about his injured ankle. He crashed in a heap on the floor, half on Hermione, who blinked and awoke. She glared at Ron crossly and snapped, "What's the big idea, Ronald?"

Scabbers jumped out of Ron's hands then and started to run across the floor.

"Get him, Moony! Shut the door!" cried Sirius.

Remus slammed the door shut just as Sirius shouted the spell to reverse Scabbers to Pettigrew.

The spell shot forward and hit the rat.

Nothing happened.

Sirius was flabbergasted. "No . . .I can't believe this . . .he's an Animagus, I know he is . . .so why isn't the spell working?"

"Liar! My dad was right about you!" shouted Harry, trying to grab his wand back.

Sirius pushed him away hard. "I don't understand. The spell should have worked."

Aria sniffed, her eyes narrowed. She had never been close to Scabbers before this, never smelled his unique scent, which was that of a rat laced with an odd metallic odor that always accompanied those who were-

"Shape-slipper! He's not an Animagus! He's a shape-slipper, like me!"

Then Aria blurred into hawk form and dove on Scabbers, picking him up in her talons and hovering, her sword-sharp beak curving down towards the rat's vulnerable eyes. Scabbers squealed and struggled to no avail. The hawk held him fast and he could not break free.

"Aria, don't! He's just a rat!" screeched Ron, trying to get up off the floor, but his feet were tangled with Hermione's and his ankle wouldn't permit him to put any weight on it.

Rosie left Severus's side abruptly and came to stand underneath the hawk and the rat, baying sharply.

That was too much for Pettigrew.

All at once a golden glow enveloped the gray rat, making those watching shield their eyes for an instant.

Then the rat became a rather small man with squinty shifty eyes, his hair was bald in places and his nose pointed, rather like the rat he became. He winced as the hawk tightened her talons on him. "Let me go!" he squealed, his voice high and shrill, similar to a rat's squeak. "Release me, slipper!"

Rosie growled and backed off, barking angrily until Harry grabbed her.

Ron gaped. "It's-it's true! You're not a rat! You're a-a wizard! You disgusting filthy . . .ahhh . . .to think I let you sleep in my BED!"

Pettigrew held out his hands to the red-haired boy, one hand was missing its little finger. "Please, please, master, help me! I was a good rat, wasn't I? Your pet . . .your friend for years! I know all your secrets, but I'll never tell!"

The hawk shrieked in warning, digging her talons in deeper, until Pettigrew screamed.

Ron looked revolted. "All this time . . .you were a shape-slipper . . .I had a traitor listening in to everything in my house. Everything . . .!"

Pettigrew's pointed nose twitched eagerly. "Yes, Weasley. I heard all that you said . . .and reported it faithfully back to my superior, Lucius Malfoy. I made a good spy, no? Better even than dear old Severus Snape!"

"Shut your mouth, you murdering bastard!" Harry screamed, feeling the old rage building inside of him. "You aren't fit to lick his boots, much less compare yourself to him."

Pettigrew snickered, baring his yellowed teeth. "Compare myself to Snivellus? The prefect and outcast whose only friend was sweet pretty Lily? You remember, Sirius, how we used to tease the greaseball? Hanging him up by his thumbs . . .making him eat dirt . . .those were the days, eh, Padfoot? When we roamed the grounds at will, you, me, Moony, and Prongs. The Marauders, a name that struck fear into all who crossed us."

"Yes, those were the days, Peter," Sirius coughed, pointing his wand at the shape-slipper. "You were always eager to humiliate those weaker than you, but you always ran and hid behind me or James when another kid came after you. You enjoyed having powerful friends, didn't you? We were enough, weren't we, until you found Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Then you turned your coat, all right, old friend! You sold us out, like the rat you are!"

"No . . .no Sirius, you misunderstand . . .I had to give the Dark Lord James and Lily, because of the prophecy! He insisted upon it . . .and no one defies the Dark Lord and lives. No one! It should have worked!" He turned and snarled at Harry, his yellowish eyes, similar to Aria's, glittering with hate. "All of this could've been avoided if you-Snivellus's whelp-had died like you were supposed to!"

Rosie snarled loudly, half-lunging out of Harry's arms. Harry held her tightly, but the beagle continued to bark and growl.

Aria blurred from her hawk form into a girl, her wand pointed directly at Pettigrew's neck. "The dog knew! She knew you weren't a real rat. That's why she never liked you. Slippers smell differently to other animals, you know, and we always know one of our own." She grimaced as she said this. "Though I hate to claim kinship with you, you scumbag. No wonder you were never around when I was in Gryffindor Tower. Because you knew I'd smell you and know you for what you were-a rogue shifter!"

Peter backed swiftly away from her, scuttling like a crab into a corner of the room. "Yes, I'm a shape-slipper, born with the gift, and no one was the wiser. Not you, Sirius, or even you, Remus. James never knew the truth either. All of you were so proud of yourselves, you could become Animagi! I let you think I was one too, when actually I was more powerful than you ever knew. Poor little Peter Pettigrew . . .was a more powerful wizard than both of you put together. My abilities proved invaluable to my true master, you know . . .I overheard many things in my forms, prophecies and whispers . . .and none of you ever suspected the truth!"

"I did!" Sirius cried, Harry's wand still clutched in his fist. "After James and Lily died, I knew you were a traitor, for you were their Secret Keeper and only you could have revealed their location to Voldemort."

Pettigrew stiffened, then he hissed, "Perhaps, but what of you, Black. You were the one who convinced James to change to me as their Secret Keeper. Because I was someone they'd never suspect. Not little helpless cowardly old Peter, who would ever suspect him of being the Potters' Secret Keeper? Little did you know you invited the rat into the heart of your home."

"I know that! And I'll regret it to my dying day, you evil little piece of shit!" Sirius yelled, his eyes burning with hatred and grief. "I was just as guilty as you were of causing James and Lily's deaths . . .but I never betrayed them willingly. What did Voldemort promise you, Wormtail? What twisted promises did he fulfill, Peter, that made you turn on your best friends?"

Wormtail merely smiled. "Ah, that is between me and my master, Padfoot. Suffice to say it was a greater reward than you or yours would ever dream of. And all I had to do was kill Snivellus's brat. Only you kept getting in my way, Padfoot. You, that infernal cat, and the damn beagle there!" he pointed to Rosie, who showed all her teeth at him and growled deeply. "I would have succeeded that night, if the cat and the dog hadn't attacked me, forcing me to assume my other shape just as you entered the room and tried to find me. You thought I'd be in my rat form, didn't you, and when you saw I wasn't there, in the Weasley boy's bed, you grew frustrated and you tore apart the hangings and that was when he woke up and saw you . . .the convict with a knife standing over him! Ah the irony!"

"Yes, I was forced to leave in a hurry, but I caught you off guard the next time, didn't I, Peter? When I sent Crookshanks after you in the bedroom and he nearly ended your misbegotten life then and there, didn't he, Wormtail? How's the back of your neck, rat? Got any interesting scars, hmmm?"

"So that was where the blood came from!" exclaimed Hermione, who had been listening quietly the entire time since she'd woken up. "Crookshanks bit him."

"Evil cat! Should've been drowned at birth, like all the other cats in the world. I had to hide after that, but eventually I saw my chance again, when little Snapey played Quidditch and left his broom alone for a moment when he went to talk to his Captain." Pettigrew chuckled wildly. "Foolish little boy, mummy would be so disappointed! Pity you didn't join her that day, when you had that unfortunate . . . accident on your broom!"

Harry felt himself go hot and cold with rage. "It was you, wasn't it? You're the one who removed the safety charms on my Meteor and cast a hex on it."

"Clever lad! Yes, I removed those charms dear daddy placed on your broom. But I didn't summon the dementors, oh no, that was your black mutt's doing. He came to watch the game, and his presence, that of the escaped prisoner, led the dementors to come into the pitch." Wormtail laughed hysterically. "But once again, your bloody friend and your father interfered and you escaped my trap!"

"You broke Shifter Code, trying to harm a person!" Aria cried, her amber eyes flashing. "That places you outside our Laws and therefore fair game."

Pettigrew spun on her. "I was always outside the Laws, young one. I never followed the rules. Shall you declare me Outcast, little Lupin? Shall you call a Hunt for me?"

"What if I did?" Aria demanded bluntly, staring right into the other's yellow eyes. "That is my Right, to call a Hunt upon one who is Outcast, and invite who I choose to join in. Like Padfoot, or Crookshanks, or Rosie. Those who break Shifter Law, and Hunt as they will, shall be Hunted in turn, unto Death," she quoted softly.

"Shifter Law!" Wormtail spat. "And do you really think I will go quietly? I'll make you work for your quarry, beast mistress! I, who once stood at the right hand of the greatest dark wizard ever born, will not go quietly into the night like a toothless old stray!"

"Glad to hear it, Wormtail, old boy! ‘Cause I've been dying for a good scrap ever since I broke out of prison," growled Padfoot.

"How did you get out, anyhow?" asked Remus, a sheen of sweat upon his brow. "No one else has ever escaped from Azkaban."

"Ah, well, I'm an Animagus, and shifting into my dog form kept me sane, so to speak. As a dog, the dementors' fear aura didn't affect me so badly, an animal doesn't fear as much as a human. I stayed a dog for as long as I could without losing my identity, then I became human again. Even so, I never would have gotten up the guts to leave except I saw a paper one day that someone had thrown on the floor. There was a picture in it of the boy there-" he pointed at Ron. "-with Wormtail on his shoulder, and of course I recognized him immediately. He'd been alive all this time . . .alive and sneaking about, creeping in the shadows like the scuttling varmint he is . . .and I knew he would try and go for Harry again, so I planned to get out. I starved myself, then I changed to dog form and slipped through the bars, the dementors never noticed . . .I swam to shore as a dog and headed straight for Hogwarts. I got here a week before you all did and I've been here and in the forest ever since, watching and waiting."

"How very noble of you!" sneered Pettigrew, and Harry longed to kick him, or let Rosie at him, for the dog seemed as if she would love to take a piece out of his hide.

"I would never have harmed you, Harry," Sirius said earnestly. "My cousin James made me your temporary godfather, and it was my duty to protect you. I vowed I wouldn't fail you . . .the way I failed your mother and James. I'd die first." His voice broke on that last, and he blinked hard.

His impassioned plea caught at Harry's heart and he nodded. "I believe you. I wish my dad was awake to hear this, though. Then maybe he wouldn't want to kill you."

Sirius coughed softly and grinned. "Ah, Severus and I were always odds, though the fault was mostly mine. Still, we learned to tolerate each other eventually. I even grew to like the smartass after a few years."

"Why, thank you, Black," Severus said dryly, lifting his head cautiously from the wall. His dark eyes were half-closed, but he was lucid. And plainly he had heard much of Sirius's testimony and Wormtail's as well. One hand groped for his wand, which lay next to him, Harry had placed it there once he had assured himself his dad was still alive. "Help me up, Harry," he called softly, for he was dizzy and could not rise without assistance, much to his annoyance.

Harry moved immediately to his father's side, holding out an arm. So too did Remus, who was stronger than Harry and could better manage the Potion Master's lean frame.

Sirius darted a quick glance at Severus, as if making sure his old acquaintance was still in one piece.

It was then that Pettigrew chose that moment to try and escape.

"Hate to break up this touching moment, old boy, but it's time for me to fly!" snickered Wormtail, then his form blurred.

Rosie barked wildly and sprang at the glowing light, only to draw back as a sharp beak stabbed her tender nose. Yelping, she drew away, and the large carrion crow spread its wings and flew towards the door, which was broken and cracked on the upper half, as if someone had put a fist through it.

But the hole was plenty large enough for the crow to slip through.

"Damn! He's getting away!" Aria yelled. "I call the Hunt upon the traitor Wormtail, known as Peter Pettigrew! He is a rogue. Let it end in his death. Hunt as you will, any who wish."

Then she blurred into cougar form and slammed into the door, breaking it to pieces.

"Aria! Goddamn it!" Remus shouted, but his niece was already gone, in hot pursuit of the rogue shifter. "Who does that girl think she is, Joan of Arc?"

Sirius laughed. "Guess that's one way to make an exit, eh, Moony? I'll see you in a bit. I've got a traitor to catch." Then he became the big black dog once more.

As he raced past, he barked at Rosie and the little beagle bayed and followed, never one to resist a good hunt.

Severus leaned on the wall for a moment, breathing a bit harshly, before pushing away and standing on his feet. He blinked, for he was still seeing double. He glared balefully at his son and his best friend. "Was it necessary to knock me the hell out?"

Harry looked away, then picked up his wand from the floor where Sirius had dropped it. "Sorry, Dad."

"Sev, you looked like you were going to kill Padfoot right there, so we acted to prevent a tragedy," Remus said.

"You looked like you were going to commit murder, Professor," added Hermione helpfully.

"Humph! I suppose you did the right thing." He rubbed the back of his neck. Then he leveled a stern glare at his son. "However, you're still in trouble, young man. Very big trouble, do you understand?"

Harry gulped hard. "Yes sir."

"But I'll deal with you later. Right now we have a sneaking rat to catch. Come on, Moony. Let's go, Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger. No sense in letting Padfoot have all the damn fun." Severus straightened, and then walked steadily if not too quickly towards the door, leaning slightly on Harry.

Hermione and Ron had also gotten to their feet, pale and shaking, Ron leaned on Hermione and limped quickly after his professor and his friend. "Harry's dead meat, once this is all over," he predicted softly to Hermione.

Hermione winced. "Poor Harry. I sure hope the professor doesn't use a spoon like your mum."

They had just gotten down the stairs, Moony following, when all of a sudden they heard Remus cry out.

Severus turned and saw his friend on his knees on the floor, shuddering and writhing as if in the grip of a seizure. Remus's teeth were clenched and his hands splayed against the floor. Even as they watched, his back rippled, sprouting gray hair and his hands became elongated and clawed.

"Dad! What's happening?"

Remus threw his head back and screamed, a terrible shriek of agony.

Severus went pale. "Go, Harry! Don't look back. He's transforming."

"Into a werewolf? But Dad, why? He took the Wolfsbane! I gave it to him myself." Harry stared, unable to look away from the awful sight of his godfather convulsing, his body growing hair, his face morphing into something with a muzzle and rows of dagger-sharp teeth, huge ears sprouting from his head.

"Move, damn it!" Severus shouted, turning his son around and smacking him hard on the backside, the way you would a reluctant horse. "We've got to get out of here now!"

Harry ran, Severus's smack galvanizing him into action, he ran back up the tunnel and out of the entrance to the Willow.

"Weasley! Granger! Quit staring and move!" roared Snape. He shoved Hermione ahead of him, then picked up Ron and ran after the girl, up the tunnel and out through the Willow.

They had just gotten clear of the tree when it shuddered and the entrance snapped shut. Behind them, they heard the werewolf howling, one furious drawn out howl of rage.

"Can he, uh, get out of there, Professor?" asked Ron, shivering.

Snape shook his head. "No, it used to hold him in the days when we went to school. That's how the Shrieking Shack got its name."

"Then it's not really haunted, sir?" asked Hermione, coming over to them.

"No. The Shack got its name from the terrible sounds Professor Lupin made as he transformed into a werewolf. But no one ever knew that except me, Black, James, Lily, and the Headmaster." Severus informed her. "Come, we had better get you two back to school and let Madam Pomfrey look you over. Where's Harry?"

"Uh, I don't know, sir," answered Hermione uneasily. "I saw him running, somewhere over there," she pointed to the left of the Willow, past the lake and into the trees.

Severus muttered a few choice swear words under his breath and hissed angrily, "When I get a hold of that boy . . ."

Ron winced. "He won't be able to sit down for a day, I'll bet," he muttered, half to himself.

Severus quirked an eyebrow. "That is a distinct possibility the longer he is missing, Ron. Of all the times to go running off! I swear, sometimes that child doesn't have the sense God gave a mosquito!"

He continued walking towards the castle however, his long strides eating up the distance, carrying Ron easily. He longed to Apparate into the infirmary, drop off the two students and then go out and find his disobedient son, drag him home by the ear, shake him until he was blue, warm his bottom, and then lock him in his room until he was twenty-one. Then perhaps he could relax and not risk getting a coronary before he was thirty-seven.

He sighed and decided he could worry about Harry and Aria, as well, for she was another risk-taker extraordinaire, as soon as he'd seen to Ron and Hermione. One thing at a time. First he would see to these sheep, then he would go after the two that had strayed. Yet, a part of him wondered how Moony's curse had activated after he'd taken the Wolfsbane? It was impossible, but it had happened, he'd seen it with his own eyes. Perhaps something had been done to the potion? The Wolfsbane was a very delicate draft, and it would become useless if it were tampered with. Perhaps that too had been Wormtail's doing, he thought darkly.

* * * * * *

After emerging from the tunnel under the Willow, Harry had intended to return to the castle, he was well aware that Severus was furious enough with him and he didn't want to make him angrier. But then he caught sight of Rosie and Sirius running about the lake, the beagle baying for all she was worth, and all he could think of was that Wormtail, who'd killed his mother and stepdad, was out there trying to escape once more.

Without conscious thought, his feet began moving in the direction of the lake and then he was running, half-stumbling in the dark until he lit up the tip of his wand, eager to join in the hunt for the elusive Wormtail. He skidded to a halt beside the murky waters of the lake, trying without success to locate the other hunters, for he was at a distinct disadvantage, in the dark he was blind, and as a human he couldn't run as quickly.

Suddenly, he caught a flash of something metallic and moving near the lake on the side closest to the castle. It was huddling in the shadows, and Harry pointed the tip of his wand at it and shouted, "Lumos!" hoping it was Pettigrew lurking there.

Instead the wand illuminated the ferret features and white-blond hair of Draco. Draco squinted, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the bright light.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing sneaking around here, Malfoy?"

"I might ask you the same thing, Potter!" Malfoy said quickly, his gray eyes darting about. "Going for a little midnight stroll? Better watch out, Potty, tonight's the full moon, and something that goes bump in the night could . . .get you!" He laughed softly, trying to conceal the camera hanging about his neck in a fold of his robes.

"Ha ha. Very funny. You know, Malfoy, if my dad catches you out of bed, your arse is going to be in detention for a long time."

Malfoy looked unconcerned. "I'd worry about my own, considering he's your father, not mine, and he can punish you a hell of a lot worse than a detention."

"I've got his permission to be out here," Harry lied glibly, well, it was partially true. "Unlike you. What are you doing here, Malfoy? Got full moon fever? Seems to me like you're up to something."

"Wouldn't you like to know," the blond boy taunted. How long did it take for a werewolf to transform, anyway? Malfoy wondered. He hoped he could get a good shot of it before it began to hunt. He wished Harry would go away, he was ruining the entire set-up. "Why don't you run along home, Potter, before Daddy finds out you're missing and tans your hide?"

Harry started to reply to that, but all of a sudden Malfoy went deathly pale and began to shake.

"What the- ?"

Then he felt it too, the creeping icy cold, the freezing ice-sheathed breath, the bone-numbing heart-stopping miasma of fear that always accompanied the dementors. He too began to tremble and once more he heard his mother screaming inside his head. He shut his eyes.

"No! Not my baby! Leave Harry alone!"

His eyes snapped open, not wanting to see the flash of green light that killed his mum over again. Only to find that Draco, proud scion of the pureblooded Malfoys, had bolted for the castle, running away to hide under the bed for the night, his plan to capture a werewolf professor on film abandoned in the face of the dementors' approach.

Harry was trembling now, the dementors' aura making him sick to his stomach. He couldn't think straight, his wand bobbed up and down like a will-o-wisp, all he wanted was to curl up into a ball and cry like a baby. He wished he'd gone back to the castle like his father had ordered, he wished his father were here, he always made Harry feel safe, like nothing could ever hurt him.

From the far side of the lake he could hear a beagle baying and the snarl of a hunting cougar. Then came the swift pad of paws over the ground as Rosie, Aria, and Padfoot came around the lake, racing after a tiny gray shape that suddenly shifted into a black crow and took wing, soaring like a vampire across the face of the brilliant moon.

Harry cried out, but he wasn't sure whether he was yelling because he saw Pettigrew shift or because the icy mist that accompanied the dementors was flowing over the lake and encasing him in its frigid grip.

You have nothing to fear save fear itself, Harry, he reminded himself. Remember what Lupin said?

He repeated that little mantra over and over and managed to point his wand at the encroaching mist and cry, "Expecto Patronum!"

A faint glowing mist shot out of his wand, it was like holding a candle into a hurricane.

Now he could see the spectral shapes gliding over the ground and he couldn't fathom why they kept coming after him. What did they want from him?

It was only when he saw Sirius, still in dog form, charge barking at the dementors, that he realized they were not here for him, but for the man who had spent eleven years in Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit.

The dementors swirled about the black dog, hissing and clawing, their hooded faces radiating a kind of puzzled eagerness and rage.

Rosie pressed up against the backs of Harry's knees, baying loudly at the advancing robed shadows. The dementors' fear aura didn't affect dogs like it did humans.

Aria came to stand beside him then and suddenly she was a girl once more, her wand out, amber eyes glowing in determination. "Harry! We've got to help Padfoot! It's him they want."

"I know, they were sent to kill him." He was still shaking. "But I can't seem to make the spell work, Aria."

They heard Sirius howl, and in that cry was not the fierceness of a dog defending itself, but the pleading of an animal faced with impossible odds.

"Sirius!" Harry screamed, seeing the dementors gathering about the limp form of the dog, who was now a tall skinny human once more.

The hooded specters were hissing and chittering, their cries like the rattling of bones in a casket. Some of them bent down to feed off the helpless man, sucking all of the warmth from his bones and the happy feelings from his head.

In a moment or two it would all be over and Sirius Black would be no more.

"Harry! Cast the Patronus!" Aria was screaming. "You can do it! I know you can!"

A dementor was placing skeletal fingers on its hood, preparing to draw it back. Remus had said that they only did that when they were preparing to administer the Kiss to someone. No one knew what was under a dementor's cowl, for the only ones who had ever seen were all dead, their souls sucked into oblivion by the Kiss.

Harry could feel his insides knotting, he was still afraid, but now the fear was being replaced by something else, something that made the fear lessen by degrees. Determination. Aria was right. If he didn't cast the Patronus Charm, Sirius would die.

Hell, they would all die.

He pointed his wand again and closed his eyes, bringing to mind the one time he had been truly unconditionally happy, when he had been two years old and together with both his parents on his birthday. He had been sitting on Lily's lap, hands reaching for a present held out to him by Severus, who was laughing at the eager look on his son's little face. And in that moment he had never felt so safe or loved or happy, with the people he adored most in all the world.

Holding that single memory firm in his mind, he chanted the words to the charm.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

And a brilliant silver beagle burst out of his wand to attack the dementors, racing up at them and biting them, driving them away from the prostrate Black the way a sheepdog drove sheep.

Aria gasped, then she leveled her own wand and concentrated as well. Her happiest memory was of being with her Gran Lara, learning to read from Lara's big book of myths and legends.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The tip of her wand lit up and a large snowy owl exploded from it, soaring into the knot of dementors and knocking them away from the still form of Sirius on the ground.

Together the two teens forced the ring of dementors back across the lake, which was frozen over by the chilling soul-stealing aura. The beagle Patronus and the owl shone against the midnight sky in a dazzling corona of unspeakable brightness, able to be seen for miles.

Severus had just emerged from the castle once more, intent upon finding both of his disobedient children.

He could not fail to see the glittering Patronuses, and he began to race across the lawn, wand out, ignoring the throbbing in his head. Dementors! Ah Merlin save me, not again! I told Albus, damn it! I told him!

When he reached the lakeshore, he could feel the deadly aura permeating everything. It tried to cling to him, drawing out all of his happy memories, which were mostly those of Lily and Harry, but he quickly recalled holding Lily on his wedding day and cast his own Patronus into the teeth of the coven.

The silver doe, his personal symbol for his late wife, burst from his wand and joined the owl and the beagle in smashing through the knot of dementors.

A silver phoenix and a quick footed squirrel also came to help, and the dementors were driven away, wailing and hissing, forced to leave their prey behind.

Severus shot a quick glance behind him and saw Dumbledore and Fudge coming over the hill. Then he focused on the two young wizards standing shoulder to shoulder, pouring every last ounce of magical power into their glowing Patronuses, casting a spell that should have been well beyond their current capabilities.

Even I never cast a fully formed Patronus at that age! The Potions Master thought in admiration. Hard on the heels of that thought was another. Then again, I was never in a situation that required me to learn a Patronus Charm at age thirteen.

The Patronus Charm was not one that was easily cast, however, and it took a toll on the wizard who summoned it, so Severus was not surprised when first Aria and then Harry began to sway on their feet and their Patronuses flicker and dim. The owl blinked out just before Aria fainted and Harry's Patronus winked out of existence a moment later, followed by the professor's son slowly crumpling to his knees, passing out cold as soon as his head touched the frosted ground.

Rosie whimpered and jumped on her master, licking him frantically and howling.

Severus called back his doe, then made his way over to the two unconscious students, conjuring up stretchers and placing the children on them with a quick hand motion.

"Severus! Are the children all right?" asked Dumbledore, coming up to the professor hastily, his white beard luminescent in the light cast by his Patronus, which was gliding in lazy circles overhead.

"I believe so. They are merely exhausted from overspending their powers. A good night's sleep should cure them." Severus told him.

"Why were the dementors after the children again, Severus? Do you know?"

Severus hesitated, for he knew perfectly well why the dementors had come back onto the school grounds. They had been pursuing their original quarry. But Severus, despite his reservations about Black due to his attitude, could not condemn an innocent man to death. Wormtail had escaped, the crafty fiend! But that did not mean that Black had to be thrown to the wolves.

Before he could direct the Headmaster away from that line of questioning, Cornelius had gone to investigate what looked like a heap of black and white cloth at the lakeside. The Minister gasped, then cast a quick Incarcerus Charm. Ropes shot out of his wand and wound tightly about the unconscious Sirius.

"Albus! Look who I found! It's Sirius Black!"

Albus looked startled, and quickly went over to see.

Behind him Severus cursed roundly. Why was it that everything seemed to go wrong tonight?

Harry opened his eyes one at a time. He felt as though he had been stampeded by a herd of unicorns or those buffalo that used to roam the Western United States. He'd seen a movie with them when he lived with Aurelia and his whole body ached as if one of them had stomped all over him. He lifted his head, which felt like an overripe melon about to burst, and glanced over to the right.

He saw a blurred black figure and immediately reached for his glasses and slid them on his nose. The blurred black figure resolved itself into his father, who had taken up his accustomed post beside Harry's sickbed. Severus was not looking at his son, however, he was staring at the portly form of Cornelius Fudge, who was speaking in rather loud tones to Dumbledore.

"And there he was, right on the ground, like a present waiting to be unwrapped, I tell you! It was a fortunate coincidence, Albus! Very fortunate indeed, that I should capture Black just like-that!" And he snapped his fingers and chortled like a kid given a basketful of sweets before suppertime.

"Yes, Cornelius, but doesn't it seem odd to you that Black would chose now to show himself?" Dumbledore began.

"Oh, who can fathom the criminal mind, Albus? He was mad as a hatter anyhow, you know! Good thing you've got him locked up good and tight now, where he can't escape even in Animagus form. That's how he did it before, you know, fooled the dementors and the guards with his shifting. But no more. His shifting days are done for good and all. I'll be summoning the dementors shortly to perform the Kiss."

Harry was horrified. The Kiss! But Sirius was innocent! They couldn't allow that to happen. It was Pettigrew who was the traitor, Pettigrew who deserved to lose his soul for betraying his mum, not Sirius. Pettigrew, the rogue shape-slipper, who had somehow managed to escape once more, and leave Sirius to take the blame just like eleven years ago.

He gulped and looked about, seeing Aria lying in the bed beside him, also awake and frozen in disbelief and terror, and next to her Ron was snoring. On the far side, closest to the wall was Hermione, also awake and looking as if she were about to start crying any minute.

Harry opened his mouth to protest, but then his father spoke, using that calm even tone that sounded oh so logical. "Minister, aren't you forgetting that Black may have had an accomplice? I myself have reason to believe there was another shifter involved, one that could transform himself into a rat."

"Now, Snape, you admitted that Black knocked you out, so how could you learn about an accomplice?"

"Minister, I was not out that long, and Black did not attack me, I was hit by accident by a Disarming Charm cast by my son and his friends. When I came to, I saw another wizard in the room, boasting about how he had helped kill Lily Snape, my wife, and James Potter. He said he was a spy for You-Know-Who and was still his faithful servant. It was he who attempted to kill my son, Black was innocent."

The Minister snorted in disbelief. "Innocent, perhaps of assaulting you, Snape, but not of the original crimes he was sentenced for-the murdering of Peter Pettigrew and thirteen other people in the middle of the street in broad daylight. He is a criminal who deserves no mercy, and I intend to show him none."

Harry could keep silent no longer.

"Sirius is innocent! You can't kill him, sir!"

Severus whirled around so fast he nearly fell out of his chair. "Harry! You're awake. How do you feel?"

"Never mind me, Dad! You can't let them kill Sirius! He's innocent, you know he is! Pettigrew killed mum and James and all those other people." He started to sit up, only to have Severus push him back down again.

"Harry, lie still."

"No! Minister, you've got to believe me." Harry shoved Severus's hand away and sat up. "It was Pettigrew all along. Everyone thought he was dead, that Sirius killed him, but he didn't, it was all a set up. Pettigrew is a shape-slipper, he can change into a rat and a crow. He was the one who was James and my mother's Secret Keeper and he betrayed them to-to You-Know-Who! He admitted everything to me, Aria, Hermione, and Ron in the Shrieking Shack."

"Harry, my boy, you're distressed, you don't know what you're saying," began the Minister patronizingly. "Black tried to kill you this year, it's a known fact. And Pettigrew is dead, he died in front of fifty witnesses."

"No, you're wrong! It was Peter who killed those people, and Peter who tried to kill me. He removed the safety charms on my broom during the Quidditch match, and hexed my broom, so when I fell off, I'd die. Sirius was trying to PROTECT me!"

"Now, now, child, you're overwrought, it's understandable after what you've been through-"

"I am NOT overwrought, dammit!" Harry shouted, losing it completely. "I'm telling the truth!"

"Harry, that's enough!" rebuked Severus. "Minister, I apologize for my son, he knows better than to raise his voice to an adult."

"Dad, you know I'm telling the truth, you were there when Aria revealed the truth about Peter, that he was a shape-slipper, not an Animagus-"

Severus turned to glare at his son again, putting a finger to his lips and shaking his head slowly. "Hush, son. You're fevered, now lie back down and let Poppy give you another fever reducer."

Harry blinked, wondering what the hell game his father was playing. "No, I'm not sick, I just want you to listen to me. Sirius never killed anyone-he's innocent and you can't bloody kill him! Otherwise, you're a murderer, Minister!"

Fudge looked shocked by the boy's words.

Severus drew in a breath, caught his son's eye once more and winked, then roared angrily, "Harrison Remus Snape, you will not address the Minister of Magic so disrespectfully, am I understood? You ought to be ashamed of yourself, young man. I taught you better than that, boy!"

Harry cringed a little at the harsh tone, though he was almost positive it was an act, otherwise why the wink beforehand? "Yes sir. Sorry, sir. But Dad, I really am telling the truth! Right Aria, Hermione?"

"Professor, while you were knocked out, Scabbers transformed into Peter Pettigrew and said he was the one who served You-Know-Who, Sirius was hunting him down, that was why they fought in the street that day," Hermione said earnestly.

"And he was able to be a rat for years because he wasn't an Animagus, but a shape-slipper, like I am." Aria put in. "I know because a slipper can always sense another of their kind."

"Ridiculous!" blustered the Minister. "Pettigrew couldn't be a shape-slipper, they're rare, even rarer than an Animagus, and besides he is DEAD! You must have seen a doppelganger or been under a Confundus Charm. Yes, you're confused, poor children, you don't know what you're saying . . ."

"What do you mean, sir?" gasped Hermione.

"At least give Sirius the benefit of the doubt!" cried Aria.

"We're not confounded!" Harry growled, ready to hop out of the bed and drag the Minister out of the castle.

"Harry, be quiet!" ordered Severus. "Before I silence you and tie you to the bed. That goes for the rest of you too." He shot them all a scintillating glower that made them quiver in dread. "Please excuse them, Minister, they are tired and cranky . . ."

I'm what? Thanks a whole bloody lot, Dad! You make me sound like a damn two-year-old who needs a nap or something! Harry thought indignantly. He settled back on the pillows with a sulky scowl written all over his face. How could his father embarrass him like this and why didn't Severus just tell the bloody Minister what he'd seen and heard and there would be an end to it?

"Gentlemen, this is my Hospital Wing, and I'll thank you to remember that!" snapped Poppy. "Now lower your voices and quit aggravating these children or else you may continue this discussion elsewhere. Now am I understood?"

The medi-witch glowered at the two men like a fire-breathing dragon.

"Forgive me, Poppy," Severus said contritely.

"Oh, er, you're right, Madam, sorry about that," harrumphed Fudge, coloring slightly at Pomfrey's reprimand. "Severus, shall we continue this discussion elsewhere, so we don't disturb the children?"

"I would prefer not to leave my son while he is ill, sir," Severus declined politely. "I believe I have said all there is to say on this subject."

"Quite right, Snape. Good thing you were there looking out for these young ones. Should earn you the Order of Merlin First Class for sure, all things considered. What do you say to that, eh?"

"I am very grateful for the honor, Minister," said the Potions Master respectfully, though Harry could've sworn underneath Snape's words lurked a sneer.

"Come, Cornelius. Let us retire to my quarters for a spot of tea and some chocolate and scones." Dumbledore invited. He took the Minister by the arm and led him out of the infirmary, leaving Harry, Aria, and Hermione alone with Severus.

"Dad! We've got to stop them!" cried Harry.

"Yes, I know, and we will, but for Merlin's sake, keep your voice down, Harry," hissed the former spy. "Now, I have it from the Headmaster himself that Black is being held prisoner on the seventh floor in Flitwick's office. The office has a window facing the grounds, so it's possible we can free him from the outside."

"Then you're going to help us free Sirius, sir?" asked Aria. "But before . . .it seemed like you hated him."

"While Black and I did not get along very well and he always annoyed me to no end, Aria, that does not mean that I would sentence an innocent man to death. Whatever else he might be, Black is no murderer and he does not deserve to die. Therefore, we must make sure he escapes before the dementors come."

"What's the plan, Dad?" Harry asked eagerly. He should have known Severus wouldn't let Sirius die.

"The plan, Harry, is not one that includes you. I will be the one to rescue Black, along with the aid of Aria and Hermione. You, Mr. Snape, are to stay put in this bed and not get out until I say so."

"What? But-but Dad, I want to help Sirius, why the heck should I stay here while all the rest of you get to rescue him from the dementors?"

"Because I said so, and you're on very thin ice with me as it is, young man," warned Severus. "This once, child, do as you're told without question, because if I find you disobeyed me again, Harry, you'll regret it and that's a promise."

Harry longed to pout and cry that it wasn't fair, but something in Severus's manner told him that would not be a good idea. There were faint lines of stress beneath his father's eyes and his mouth was tight with worry and anxiety. He knew his dad had been through a lot of stress tonight worrying about him especially and he sensed the other wizard was very close to snapping. So for once, he bridled his quick tongue and temper and agreed to follow Snape's dictates without argument.

"All right, Dad. I'll stay here, if it'll make you feel better," he agreed.

"Do I have your word, mister?" asked Snape sternly.

"Yes sir. But why do you want Hermione and Aria along?" he queried, trying to keep the jealousy out of his tone.

"Two reasons. One, Hermione has an item which will prove invaluable to our rescue attempt," Severus eyed the Gryffindor girl knowingly. "Two, Aria also has knowledge which I do not and her ability as a shape-slipper will help me get Black away as quickly as possible."

"It will?" Now Aria looked as puzzled as Harry.

Her Head of House raised an eyebrow. "While you were sleeping off the effects of the Patronus Charm you cast, Hagrid came by to visit you and see how you were doing. He told me that he was very grateful to you, Harry for being with him during Buckbeak's execution. Except the hippogriff was never executed, since a large lion or other wild creature came out of the forest and ate the hippogriff before MacNair could kill it. A strange coincidence, wouldn't you say?"

Aria exchanged glances with Harry and Hermione. He knows, so there's no sense in lying to him. "Very strange, sir. Almost as strange as a prisoner escaping from a locked room."

"Indeed, and if that is to happen, the prisoner must develop wings. Do you understand what I'm saying, Miss Lupin?"

Slowly, Aria nodded, her amber eyes bright.

"As for Miss Granger, she knows how important it is to be on time for class, correct?"

"Yes sir, but how-OH!"

"Indeed." Severus rose from the chair and beckoned to the two young witches. "Come along, ladies. We musn't be late."

The three departed the room, leaving Harry alone to stew and wonder and grumble under his breath about overprotective fathers. Inbetween Harry's feet, Rosie groaned and turned over, snuggling deeper into the blankets. Harry smiled down at the dog and patted her before laying back down and trying to get some sleep. There was nothing else to be done.

• * * * * * *

Severus led the two girls past the infirmary and into the corridor. "There is one thing you must remember, both of you. We must not be seen. By anyone." He looked at Hermione. "Miss Granger, if you would be so kind, we need a little more time on our side."

"Yes, Professor," Hermione removed a long golden chain from beneath her shirt. Suspended from it was an odd pendant with two interwoven circles of gold and an hourglass in the middle. "Please, come over here, sir, Aria. Otherwise this won't work." She tossed the chain, which had somehow enlarged itself, over both her companions and turned the pendant over three times.

Aria felt herself swept away through a dark tunnel only to emerge in the entrance hall. "What on earth?"

"We've gone back in time," explained Severus quickly. "Three hours back, just around the time when I found you two fighting a whole horde of dementors and the Minister discovered Black and arrested him. Come, we must get to Flitwick's office, Miss Granger. And you, Miss Lupin must go to wherever the hippogriff is and bring him back here. He will be Black's transportation out of here. Remember, Flitwick's office is on the seventh floor, thirteen windows down from the West Turret."

"On my way, professor!" Aria said, then she blurred into hawk form and flew out the open door Severus held for her.

As soon as the hawk was away, Severus and Hermione walked into the hall and Severus took a pinch of Floo and tossed it in the fireplace. "Flitwick's office," he said, before stepping into the green flames.

Two minutes later they were coming out of the fireplace into Flitwick's office, which was empty. Hermione glanced around, then said, "Now what, sir? We can't be seen, so now what? We need a place to hide."

"We can hide in plain sight." He pulled her along to a small alcove where Flitwick had a small skeleton of a dragon hanging. Then he waved his wand over both of them and chanted a quick Concealment Charm. "And now we wait for the right moment," declared the professor and leaned back against the wall with his arms folded. He checked his watch. "They should be coming up here in a few minutes."

Hermione tensed when they heard the sound of voices and footsteps in the corridor, then Flitwick muttered the charm and password to unlock his office and entered, Sirius Black tethered and trussed like a dog behind him and the Minister and Dumbledore bringing up the rear. It almost resembled a bizarre parade, Hermione thought, except for the fact that the man they caught was innocent of any wrongdoing. Why wouldn't they listen to us? Is it just because we're kids? Don't they think we know truth from lies?

Apparently not, since here she was with her Potions Master staging a jailbreak. A part of her cringed at the mere thought. Merlin's starry robe, she was breaking Ministry law, aiding and abetting a known criminal! Me, Hermione Jane Granger, who never even got detention after first year and always hands in all my homework early, is now an accessory to a prison break. My parents would just DIE! To keep her mind off the illegal forbidden thing she was doing, she focused on what was going on in the center of the office.

Flitwick had levitated Black into a chair, where Fudge performed a hasty Sticking Charm, but didn't bother removing the ropes about Sirius's shrunken frame, he was probably convinced that even bound, Black could still go for him. Sirius did not speak at all during the entire time, except with his eyes, which snapped anger and frustration and a quiet determination. He seemed resigned to his fate.

Dumbledore leaned over and patted him gently on the shoulder. "I am sorry it had to come to this, Sirius, my boy. I wish it were otherwise, but time is not on our side right now."

"All right, Albus, that's enough!" Fudge ordered brusquely. "How can you pity one who has cold-bloodedly killed so many and attempted murder yet again on these very grounds? You are far too forgiving. The filth deserves whatever he gets." The Minister spat on the ground at Black's feet.

Dumbledore looked faintly reproving. "Even the condemned deserve compassion, Cornelius. Perhaps especially them, or do you no longer believe in the mercy and forgiveness of God?"

Fudge coughed and said angrily, "God may forgive him all he wants in heaven, but here on earth I call the shots and I say he is deserving of the Kiss."

"Ah, Cornelius." Albus shook his head sadly. "Is there no doubt in your mind?"

"None. Now stop trying to persuade me to believe this one's ridiculous cockamamie story and let me give him the reward he has so richly earned!" He fixed Sirius with an uncompromising stare. "I will give you two hours to make your peace with God and whoever else you need to, after that your soul shall be food for the dementors and good riddance!" he whirled on Flitwick, who was standing sadly next to the Headmaster, his normally jolly countenance grave. "You're certain, Filius, there is no way anyone can get in here or he get out of this room?"

"Yes, Minister. The ward on my door is one only I can counter and Albus has scrambled my fireplace so no one can Floo into it now. Black cannot even move and he has no wand, so there is no possibility of escape."

"Good. Just making sure."

Then the three left the room, locking the door and resetting the ward as they did so.

Hermione would have stepped from the shadows immediately, but Snape grabbed her shoulder and shook his head firmly. Wait.

A few minutes passed and Hermione felt them go by, crawling into eternity.

But at last Severus determined the room was not under surveillance and removed the Concealment Charm and allowed Hermione to show herself.

She rushed over to Sirius. "Sirius! Professor Snape and I have come to get you out!"

Sirius's eyes widened in utter disbelief until Snape stepped out of the shadows and walked rapidly towards the window, tapping on the glass with his wand until it vanished, leaving a broad gap where a skinny man could climb out.

Hermione quickly removed the ropes and the Sticking Charm with two passes of her wand. Only then did Sirius look up, a sardonic smile upon his face, and say softly, "If I didn't see it with my own two eyes, I'd think I'd really gone round the bend. I'm being rescued by Severus Snape! Unbelievable!"

"Keep telling yourself that, Black," replied Snape dryly. "Maybe one day you'll believe it really happened."

"Why would you risk your neck for me, Snape?"

"I wouldn't, except for one small reason. I have no wish to see an innocent man die, I have seen too many travel that road to allow it to happen again, even to you, when I can prevent it."

"Lily would be proud of you, Severus," said the Animagus softly.

The Potions Master flinched. "Would she? Somehow I doubt it. I let our son be raised by Muggles and let her true betrayer go free."

"No one's perfect, Snape. Well, except yours truly, but then we can't all be like me, now can we, old boy?" Sirius declared and some of the old sparkle returned to his eyes.

Severus rolled his eyes. "I'd shoot myself first." He checked his watch again. "Fifteen minutes and counting."

Sirius rose and stretched. "So, when are we going to get the hell out of here, Snape? I mean, nice accommodations and all, but the visitors really suck. What are we waiting for?"

"Your friend James to come down from on high with trumpets and angel wings, Black," returned Severus, his eyes glinting with a shade of humor.

"Now that'd be a sight to die for," chuckled Sirius.

Hermione looked from one to the other, astonished at their banter. She had assumed they loathed one another, but perhaps that dislike was not as pronounced as she had first thought, judging from the repartee.

"Seriously, Snape, what are we waiting for?" asked Black after pacing back and forth. "I hate waiting, it drives me nuts."

"Keep your fur on, mutt," scowled the professor. "We're waiting for your ride out of here, Black. Or, as the Muggles put it, the getaway car."

"Oh? Why isn't it here already?" Sirius asked, beginning to sweat nervously. "Didn't you plan this out beforehand?"

Severus shot him a withering look. "No, actually I just did it on spur of the moment, the way you and Potter used to operate. Of course I planned it out, you bloody imbecile! It's just taking her a bit longer to get here than we originally calculated. Now sit down and stop pacing, for Merlin's sake, you're driving me insane!"

"I'm driving you insane?" Sirius repeated. "Last time I looked, you weren't the one facing death row and getting your soul sucked out by a dementor, Snapey old pal! So excuse me all to blazes for being a bit impatient!"

"Sit down, Black!" Severus snapped. "Before you exhaust what brain power you have left imagining what could go wrong. Were you always this fidgety? No wonder your mother was a harridan."

Sirius flung himself into the chair with a huff. "I don't like sitting still. It bores me."

The Potions Master frowned. "Are you sure you don't have attention deficit disorder, Black?"

"Huh? What the hell did you just say, Snape?"

Severus heaved a long suffering sigh. "I take you've never read a Muggle psychology text."

"Nope. I don't crack a book unless I'm half-dead of boredom."

"It's a wonder you ever managed to graduate Hogwarts."

"Funny, that's what my mum said. She didn't know James helped me."

"Figures. Sit!" Severus ordered, as Sirius squirmed and made as if to get up. Sirius scowled and lapsed back into the chair. "You'd think after eleven years, you'd have developed patience in Azkaban. But you're as bad as Rosie, Harry's beagle."

"So I'm a bit antsy. So sue me."

"Definitely ADD," muttered the professor, checking his watch again.

Hermione smothered a giggle.

"Would you mind telling me just what the blazes he's talking about, miss? You look like you're a smart one."

"She's a know-it-all," put in Severus, but there was no real bite to his tone.

"I do, but that's because I'm a Muggleborn. ADD is when you have problems concentrating and sitting still for more than five minutes at a time, you're easily distracted and have trouble focusing on more than one thing at once. At least I think that's what it means," Hermione said.

"You mean there's a subject you don't know all the answers to, young lady? Will wonders never cease?" Severus commented wryly.

Sirius leaned over and said in a stage whisper, "You know, the more he insults you, the more he likes you."

"Black, don't be disgusting!" Severus snapped. "The day I call you a friend is the day hell freezes over."

"Umm . . .don't look now, Snape, but ice has started to form."

Severus just glowered at him.

Suddenly there came a soft skree, as of a hawk calling to hunt.

Severus went to the window and showed himself briefly, making a beckoning motion with a hand.

Two seconds later a golden hawk entered the room and landed on Snape's shoulder.

"Ah, you're the shape-slipper. But how is that going to help me?"

"She's not. That is," Severus replied, indicating the hovering Buckbeak with a finger.

"A hippogriff!" Sirius whistled, bounding off the chair and coming over to the window. He bowed and cast his eyes down, showing respect to the great creature.

After a minute, Buckbeak bowed back.

Sirius straightened. "Well, I think he likes me."

"Oh joy. Get on the hippogriff, Black, we don't have much time left."

"Yes sir, General. Sergeant Black hears and obeys, sir!" Sirius mimed a salute as he flung a leg over Buckbeak's back, sitting just in front of the wings.

Severus rolled his eyes. "Merlin help you, Black. Because this is the last time I'm going to."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Sev. Thanks."

"Now don't say I never gave you anything, Black," Snape shot back, then he leaned over and smacked the hippogriff sharply on the rump. "Get, Buckbeak! Take him away!"

Buckbeak squawked indignantly, but did as the professor had ordered, soaring high into the sky, carrying Sirius far away amid the twinkling stars.

"We did it!" cheered Hermione and Aria, who had resumed her normal form.

"Mission accomplished," agreed Severus, with a faint sneer, but the two girls could swear he had a glint of satisfaction in his eye. "Now take us back, Miss Granger. Time's flying."

Hermione cast the chain of the time turner over their heads once more and flipped it forward three times.

They arrived back in the corridor precisely one minute after they had gone.  Severus quickly peeked into the infirmary to see if Poppy were about, then seeing the coast was clear, indicated the girls should get inside.  "Quickly! Back into bed, the pair of you!"

The girls scurried to obey, slipping back into their respective beds like a couple of chastened five-year-olds. 

Severus eyed them sternly for a minute, then said, "You did well, both of you.  However, don't think this lets you off the hook for breaking the rules earlier tonight, either of you."

Hermione looked stricken.  "Professor, you're giving me detention?"

"Yes, you, Miss Lupin, and my son as well.  Mr. Weasley too as soon as he's better.  Don't look at me like that, girl, you know perfectly well you deserve it.  Out of bed and running about the grounds in the middle of the night-a full moon no less! What do you think this is-Hogwarts School for Dunderheads? Though it ought to be, given how the lot of you behave.  Disgraceful!"

"Oh no!" wailed Hermione.  "There goes my record for the least amount of detentions!"

"Welcome to the real world, Miss Granger," drawled Severus lightly.  "Nobody's perfect.  Nor should you expect yourself to be."

"You expect it of yourself," she replied petulantly.

"Which ought to tell you something.  Seven o'clock sharp Monday morning.  Don't be late or else I'll take fifty points from Gryffindor.  The same goes for you too, Miss Lupin."

"Yes sir," Aria said, then muttered, "Oh great, detention with Uncle Sev and Uncle Remmy too, once he finds out.  Um, sir, where is my uncle? Normally he'd be right here, hovering over me like a mother wolf."

"Did no one tell you, child?" Severus began, then shook his head in disgust.  "No, of course not, how could they, we didn't exactly have time to talk.  Aria, your uncle is in the Shrieking Shack, in werewolf form. Where he will remain until the curse and the full moon have run its course."

Aria gaped.  "But how? He took the Wolfsbane, I was there when Harry brought him the goblet.  So why didn't it work?"

"Because it was tampered with, Miss Lupin.  By Pettigrew, most likely," answered Severus grimly.  "Now enough chatter, go to sleep.  You're exhausted, though you don't know it yet, and what you need most now is rest."

He resumed his seat on the chair next to Harry's bed.  His son was sleeping soundly and Severus brushed a lock of hair off his forehead and gazed tenderly down at his offspring.  Then he sighed as he recalled he still had to deal with the boy's disobedience.  Oh, the joys of parenthood, the professor frowned.  Time enough to deal with the consequences of disobedience tomorrow, tonight he would allow himself to rest and let the embers of his temper cool.  It was better that way.

Poppy returned to check upon her patients and found them all sleeping soundly, even the Potions Master.  No one had seen them go and no one had seen them return.

• * * * * *

Madam Pomfrey released all of her patients from the Hospital Wing the next morning.  The Minister was furious that Black had managed to escape yet again, thus reinforcing Severus's claim that he had an accomplice, but for now there was nothing to be done but give up and withdraw the dementors from the school grounds, since Hogwarts was now safe again, it was unlikely Black would ever return.  Professor Snape was credited with having played a large role in capturing the criminal and Fudge had said he would convene a committee to discuss possibly awarding him the Order of Merlin First Class, at Albus's recommendation.  Once that honor would have been something Snape craved, to be recognized for his dangerous duty, but now it didn't really matter anymore.  All that mattered to him now was that his son was safe.

Safe, though about to face his wrath for last night's disobedience.

Harry ate breakfast in the hall with the other students, all of whom were discussing Sirius Black's miraculous escape and for once even Seamus and Dean had nothing derogatory to say about Professor Snape or Harry.  In fact, they actually apologized to him for thinking badly about his father, which pleased Harry to no end.  He wondered if telling his father that would mitigate the punishment he was about to get.  Probably not, he always does what he says, no matter what.  He pushed the eggs and sausage about on his plate, no longer hungry.  His stomach was in knots over facing Severus's anger and disappointment yet again.  His father had told him to meet him in their quarters after breakfast was over for a discussion of his continued disobedience. 

Harry knew quite well there would be more than just a discussion.

He also knew that he deserved whatever Severus chose to do to him, for he had broken his word to the man twice, once over Buckbeak and again by not going straight back to the castle after getting out of the Shrieking Shack, and he also had the audacity to hex his own father and knock him out.  Not the kind of behavior Severus would be inclined to forgive with a mere apology.  Last but not least, Harry had also put himself in danger, another thing Severus had no tolerance for.

No doubt about it, I'm royally screwed.  I can't believe I was so stupid.  Well, I guess I just better get down there and get it over with.  Resigned to his fate, though still hoping faintly his father would be merciful, Harry rose from the table and prepared to return to the dungeons.

"Good luck, mate," offered Ron with a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, good luck, Harry," echoed Hermione.

"Thanks.  I'm going to need it," he sighed and then turned and walked slowly out of the hall and down the stairs.

He did not hurry, but neither did he drag his feet.  He simply walked purposefully, determined that whatever followed he would endure it soundlessly, like a Snape should. 

He paused before the door to Snape's apartments, whispering the password to get past the wards and had just put his hand on the doorknob when he caught the sound of his father's voice, lecturing someone sternly.

" . . .realize that shape-slipper or not, you could have died as a result of your foolish and reckless behavior, Aria Lenore Lupin? How did you know Pettigrew didn't have a Death Eater or two waiting in the shadows to attack you? I wouldn't put it past him, this is a cold-blooded murderer we're talking about, one who framed his best friend and got him sent to prison for eleven years while he continued serving his dark master by being a sneak and an informant.  And there you go, merrily on your way, like some kind of comic book superheroine! Bloody damn hell, child! You are not invulnerable because you can become a blasted cougar or a hawk! You can still be killed and Remus would go mad if that happened.  Stark raving mad!"

"I know that, sir," came Aria's voice, low and filled with remorse and shame. "I wasn't intending for any of this to happen, sir.  But Pettigrew had to be stopped, he'd broken Shifter Law and only another slipper can call a Hunt upon a rogue."

"Yes, I'm well aware of Shifter Law, young lady," Severus said testily.  "You needn't quote me chapter and verse, I was best friends with a werewolf for over twenty years.  But it wasn't your place to stop Pettigrew, girl, that was a job for adults.  You may be gifted with unusual powers, Aria, but those are no substitute for experience and you are still a child and have no right to risk your life that way.  No child does.  You are our future, we are meant to keep you safe, not the reverse."

"Dumbledore doesn't think so.  He thinks Harry is the Chosen One."

"Dumbledore and I don't see eye to eye on many issues, especially that one. I vowed long ago that Harry would never be a pawn of prophecy, so I could give a damn what the Old Meddler believes.  But we aren't here to discuss my son, but you, young lady.  I am appalled that one of my House could disregard my rules and ignore curfew the way you did, not to mention you cast a disarming charm upon me, your Head of House, and knocked me out!"

"I'm sorry, Uncle Sev.  I-I didn't mean to hit you that hard, but my control with a wand isn't all that good and I was scared-scared that you would kill Sirius and I guess I just . . .reacted without thinking."

"Yes, you and Harry seem to share that deplorable trait, like most teenagers. You act first and think later, if at all.  Which can get you killed if you're not careful.  The way it nearly did Sirius Black.  Black rushed after Pettigrew on his own and nearly paid for it with his life.  I don't wish for you to make the same mistake, Aria."

"I know, Uncle Sev."

"No, you don't.  But by the time you finish my detention you will," the professor said silkily.  "However, that is neither here nor there.  I have no doubt that Remus will punish you as he sees fit when he returns and is himself again, but since you are a Slytherin, I reserve the right to assign additional punishments, not counting the upcoming detention with the rest of your little band of heroes.  That being so, you will complete a three foot essay for me on what could have happened as a result of your impulsive behavior and said consequences for it, to be turned in to me this afternoon.  I will then examine it and choose a consequence from those listed.  And if there are no fitting consequences by my reckoning, I shall invent one of my own, and it will not be pleasant, am I clear, Miss Lupin?"

"Yes sir.  I'm sorry I disappointed you, sir.  Will you take points too?"

"I must, much as I dislike it.  Fifty points for your reckless disobedience from Slytherin," he gritted out.  "And if I didn't know Remus as well as I do, I would turn you over my knee as well for scaring the bloody blazes out of me, child. Don't ever do anything so foolish again, or else I shall give you the same punishment I give Harry, I promise you!"

"Yes sir.  I'll try and behave."

"Do that, child.  And finish that essay," Severus said in a gentler tone.  "Dismissed, Miss Lupin."

Harry heard the distinct sound of a swat and he knew his dad had most likely turned the Slytherin about and given her a smack on the bottom the way he did to Harry when he was fed up with him, before sending her away. 

He quickly backed away and retreated a few paces down the corridor, allowing Aria to leave the apartment without looking as if he'd been deliberately spying on her.  She paused a bit, wiping a hand across her face briefly, then walking slowly towards the Slytherin portrait hole. 

Harry pretended he had just arrived in the hallway and said hello.  "You look like you've been chewed up and spit out.  What happened?"

"Your dad, what else?  He's waiting for you, Harry."

"I know," he muttered past the lump in his throat. He hesitated a moment before looking down the corridor.

"Just go and get it over with," she advised softly.  "Why stand here torturing yourself?"

"Right." He squared his shoulders.  "See you around, Aria.  If I survive."

"You will.  You're a Snape," was all she said, then she went inside the portrait hole. 

I'm a Snape, all right. One who's about to get his bum walloped, most likely. Harry bit his lip, then thought that it couldn't be any worse than what Vernon used to do, or the Death Eaters. 

He found Severus seated on the sofa, his hands folded in his lap, staring morosely into the fireplace.  His eyes flashed with temper when he caught sight of Harry, who was standing with his hands in his pockets, avoiding his gaze, miserable and ashamed.

"So, Mr. Snape.  I assume you know the reason why you're here?"

Harry nodded.

"A verbal answer, young man."

"Yes sir."

"Explain."

"I'm here so you can punish me for disobeying you twice and-and for hexing you last night."

"Correct.  Would you care to tell me why you felt it necessary to disobey my orders, Harrison Remus, when you knew why I had issued them?"

"I . . .well . . .it seemed like I had no choice at the time.  We had to save Buckbeak and then Ron was being dragged away by Sirius . . .I just reacted. I know I was stupid and I should've come and gotten you or another teacher and I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry." He hung his head.

"Make me worry?" Severus repeated softly, but with an edge.  "Harry, you made me frantic.  Not once, but twice! How many times do I have to tell you boy? You do not risk your life ever! Not for any reason! What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't, sir."

"Exactly.  That's your whole problem, son.  You're impulsive and reckless and one day you're going to drive me into an early grave, Harry! If I ever lost you . . . I would go insane, do you not realize that?" Severus demanded hoarsely.

"Yes," his son whispered, feeling the lump in his throat grow huge.  Oh God. "I'm sorry, Dad.  I know I screwed up again."

"Good.  I'm glad that you acknowledge it," said his father quietly.  "Do you recall what I said would happen if you got in trouble again, young man?"

"Yes sir."

Severus crooked a finger at him.  "Come here then, and let's get this over with."

Harry obeyed, coming to stand before his parent.  "Dad? You're not going to-to use a belt, are you? Or a stick?" His voice trembled at that last.

"No.  Nor a kitchen spoon either. I'm not my father or Molly Weasley.  My hand will be enough." Severus reassured him, then he placed Harry face down over his knee.

Harry gritted his teeth and fisted his hands in Severus's robes.  He had a feeling his father would not let him off with a mere five swats this time. He shut his eyes and waited.

Severus set his jaw, then tugged his son's trousers down.  Harry gasped.  He hadn't been expecting that at all.  But Severus left his shorts on, saying quickly, "Sixteen swats, double the punishment you received for lying to me when you were small, plus two extra for your reckless disobedience." Then he lifted his hand and smacked his son's bottom sharply.

By the eighth smack, Harry was squirming over his lap, but he remained silent.  This was not because the spanking didn't hurt, it hurt quite a bit, even though Severus was careful not to use his full strength.  But Harry had been trained long ago by Vernon to take a beating soundlessly, or else he'd get worse.

So he endured the spanking stoically, blinking away tears, though in truth the shame and Severus's disappointment hurt worse than the blows themselves. Not only did the shame prick him, he also felt guilty making Severus punish him like this, for he knew how much his father disliked it.  He could feel the man pause between each swat, as if steeling himself. I'm sorry, Dad! I'm sorry! Oww!

Severus had to force himself to continue, thoroughly warming his son's bottom, until the sixteenth and final smack, which he dealt a bit more sharply than the others.  Harry jumped, but it was over. Severus replaced his jeans and said, in a strangely hoarse voice, "Do not ever make me do that to you again, do you hear me?"

Harry nodded, his eyes filled with tears, and he vowed not to cry, he wasn't a little baby.  But then he found himself being held, and Severus's hand was rubbing his back and suddenly he burst into tears, crying more from the awful shame and disappointment than from the stinging in his behind.  "I'm sorry, I know I'm a disappointment to you and I'll never be good enough, I'm sorry, Dad, I'm always in trouble, I'm sorry!"

"Hush, son.  You'll always be good enough for me, Harry," Severus murmured.  "Always.  You're a child, and all children get into trouble. I expect it." His son buried his face in his shoulder and cried harder at that.  He caught the words " . . .don't deserve . . ." and began stroking Harry's hair, saying quickly, "Hush, child. You deserved to be spanked and now it's over you most certainly deserve to be forgiven. I forgive you, Harry. You will always have my love and my forgiveness, son, no matter what you do or how angry I may be at the time."

"But I'm-I'm not perfect!" he wailed, wincing slightly.

Severus was startled.  "Merlin, Harry, whoever told you that you had to be perfect? No child is that, and any parent who says they have one is lying through their teeth."

"D-Dudley was perfect," he snuffled.  "Aunt Petunia was always saying so."

"Your aunt is hardly a model parent and your cousin was a perfect pain in the arse, by my reckoning.  Do not even begin to compare yourself with them, son. Because there is no comparison, for you are better by far.  Trust me on that."

"But I'm always making you mad and all we do is fight sometimes so how can you say that? I'm a screw up, Dad!"

"Harry, listen to me.  So is every child on earth.  We all make mistakes and we all face the consequences of those mistakes. Some sooner, some later, but the important thing is not how many mistakes you make, son, but what you learn from them.  I can tell you're learning, since you almost never make the same mistake twice.  Which means I must be doing something right."

Harry made a face at him, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.  "Uh, sure, like what you just did is right, Dad. You gonna spank me when I'm seventeen too?" He shifted on his father's lap, trying to get comfortable.  It was impossible.

Severus chuckled.  "By then I would hope you would have learned your lesson, Harry, and be in control of your impulsive side. Or is that too much to ask?"

"No," his son said, wriggling. 

Severus raised an eyebrow.  "I didn't hit you that hard, did I?" he asked in some concern. 

"Hard enough."

"Well, it wouldn't be much of a spanking if it didn't sting," he pointed out. "I'm sorry you made me do that, son, but it was deserved.  Next time behave, Mr. Snape."

"I will," promised Harry. 

Severus fought to keep from smiling.  He wondered how long his son would keep that promise.  Knowing Harry it could last for a day, or a month, perhaps several, but since trouble followed his son like a shadow, Snape knew Harry would be in hot water fairly soon once again. 

"I certainly hope so, for I truly disliked punishing you that way," Severus admitted.

"Does that mean you'll never do it again?"

"Perhaps," was all Severus conceded, though he knew that once Harry turned fourteen, he would cease using that particular punishment.  Fourteen was too old to spank effectively and he could think up much worse punishments besides. Not to mention, I think I hurt my hand, Severus thought ruefully, rubbing the sting from it on the couch cushion when Harry wasn't looking.

"You're mean, Dad."

"I know," laughed the professor.  "Deal with it." Then he hugged his son hard before letting him go.  "Wash your face and then come back and have some tea with me. All right?"

Harry nodded, knowing that was Severus's way of burying the hatchet.  Then he went into the bathroom to wash his face and rub his bottom.  It didn't hurt anything like when Vernon beat him, but it was quite uncomfortable.  Damn it all, Dad! I'm too old to spank! He thought rebelliously, then he went out to join his father at the table, his stinging bottom reminding him pointedly of the consequences of disobeying Severus Snape, the wicked old bat!

Harry snuck a quick glance at his father, thanking God Severus couldn't really read minds.  Otherwise Harry would be in trouble forever.

Then he reached for a warm cinnamon scone and slathered it with butter. His father did likewise and all was forgiven between them.

Three days later Remus had returned from the Shrieking Shack, fully human once more and able to resume his teaching duties. But he was also puzzled as to why the Wolfsbane had not worked, and counted it lucky he had transformed in a place where he was unable to harm anyone in his uncontrolled rage. However, someone had leaked the fact that he was a werewolf to the Ministry and now he was facing an inquiry as to his ability to teach due to his "unpredictable and volatile nature" as one Ministry official put it.

Severus was furious and convinced it was Pettigrew who had done it, but the Minister was at fault too, he probably still blamed Dumbledore for letting Black escape and thus ruining his chances for glory-to be the wizard who brought in Sirius Black singlehandedly. For Fudge was making no attempt to calm the hysteria that suddenly swept through Hogwarts once parents found out that a werewolf had been teaching their children.

Overnight, Dumbledore received a hundred owls from distressed and angry parents, threatening to remove their children from Hogwarts unless the werewolf was sacked. Among them were Seamus and Dean's parents, which didn't surprise Ron or Hermione or Harry in the slightest. Oddly, Neville's grandmother was not among the detractors, nor were the Weasleys or the Grangers.

"People are so damn stupid!" Aria snarled to her friend after her morning run the day after Dumbledore had received all the owls. "They condemn without ever knowing the whole truth! Uncle Remmy's no more dangerous than the average wizard with the Wolfsbane."

"Unless you make him mad, right, Aria?" Harry reminded. Then he winced, for Remus had scolded him up and down after his return for risking his life and making Severus and Remus crazy with worry. His godfather's disapproval had hurt as bad as Severus's and Remus had followed the scolding with one quick whack as well. "For remembrance, as my Gran used to say," the werewolf had said, then he had hugged his godson hard and told him not to get into anymore trouble, Merlin help him.

"Don't remind me, Snape," she said ruefully, for after he had assured himself that his niece was all right, he'd spanked her just the way Severus had Harry. It was not something she was anxious to repeat-ever. "I could barely sit down at dinner, and that prick Malfoy was smirking like he just won a million Galleons, don't ask me why."

"Knowing Malfoy, it was probably ‘cause he got another kid in trouble," Harry said darkly, though something else about Malfoy was nagging the back of his brain. "Too bad Dad didn't catch him out of bed that night, then he could've shared our detention."

All four of them had detention with Professor Snape the Monday following the incident in the Shrieking Shack and Severus had made them all dice and chop nasty horned toad kidneys and brains and then scrub every inch of the great hall and the dungeons until they could barely move. But he had also applied murtlap essence salve to their hands and sore backs and given Harry a massage afterwards.

"What do you mean, he was out of bed too?"

"I caught him lurking down by the lake the night we were chasing Pettigrew all over, and he wouldn't tell me why, then he ran away like a whipped puppy when the dementors came," Harry told her.

Aria frowned. "That's weird. What possible reason could Malfoy have for being around there at that time of night?"

"Who knows? He had a camera though, I think."

"A camera? What was he photographing, the merpeople?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't have a clue. Is your uncle still mad at you for, uh, what happened with Sirius and all?"

"No. After he punished me, he forgave me. Why, is your dad still mad at you?"

"No, he forgave me too. I swear, they must compare notes or something, don't you think?"

"Probably. They must discuss it after the staff meetings or whatever. It's like a parental conspiracy," the girl huffed.

"Ugh! We get in enough trouble without them comparing who's worse and what they ought to do to us," Harry groused.

"Tell me about it. Although I think Uncle Remmy's got bigger things to worry about now that the Ministry's on his ass. I can't believe they might force Dumbledore to fire him! It's so unfair. It makes me want to go to London and-and bite them until they see sense!" she declared passionately.

Harry couldn't help it. He laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"You. Biting all the stupid Ministry officials arses. I'd love to see it!"

"Harry Snape! You're . . ."

"Terrible? Yeah, I know. But seriously though, it really would be funny, if you could do it and not get locked in Azkaban, or whatever prison they have for juvenile delinquents." Harry grinned.

"Hmmm . . .you're right." Then she shoved him playfully. "Better watch it, Snape. Annoy me too much and I'll bite your ass."

"Now that's just cruel, Lupin!" he smirked.

"Only kidding, Snape. I like your butt the way it is," she said, then blushed when she realized what she had said.

"Glad to hear it," he replied, then blushed too. "Uh . . .did you finish your Care of Magical Creatures homework yet?" he quickly changed the subject.

"No, but it shouldn't be that hard, considering it's an essay about the care and training of hippogriffs. Piece of cake."

"Maybe to you, Lupin. But I'm not all in tune with animals the way you are."

She raised an eyebrow. "In tune with them, Harry? What, do you think I have some, uh, mystical connection with them because I'm a shape-slipper?"

"Yeah. Don't you? I mean, you can sort of understand them, right?"

"In a way. I can communicate with some animals, like dogs and cats, because their body language and such is similar to my cougar form's, and the same goes for owls since my hawk form uses the same kinds of sounds and postures. Otherwise, it's like I'm trying to speak a foreign language when I've only had two or three years worth of lessons. I can get the gist of something, but that's all. I'm not an Animal Speaker, able to comprehend and speak all animal tongues."

"Oh." Now he felt kind of stupid.

"Believe me, it would have made things a hell of a lot easier when I went to get Beaky and lead him to the school. First I had to make him follow me and he was more interested in taking a nap. Then he kept getting distracted by things moving on the ground and diving at them to investigate, I had to keep flying about him screeching to get his attention until he focused on me enough to keep following me all the way to the school. By the time I got there, my wings felt like two lumps of lead."

"Really? I never knew it was so hard to get a hippogriff's attention."

"It is when the hippogriff's more interested in hunting or playing. They're predators and as such are attracted by anything that runs really fast, but they're smarter than your average eagle or pig, so once Beaky understood that it was important to listen to me, he did. I hope he's okay and so is Sirius."

"Me too. Thank God he escaped," whispered Harry. "And my dad too. Has Dumbledore heard anything more from Fudge about Moony's hearing?"

"Uh, I think he's supposed to be meeting with Fudge this afternoon to discuss it," Aria answered, scowling blackly. "I wish I knew who it was that told the Ministry about my uncle. I'd rearrange his stinking face sure enough." One slender hand clenched.

"Dad thinks Pettigrew left an anonymous tip or something. How else would they have known?"

"What if someone else figured it out?" Aria said suspiciously.

Harry nibbled on his lower lip thoughtfully. "Like who? Who would hate your uncle so much he'd leak this secret to the press and cost him his job?"

"Plenty of students could have grudges against him for giving them bad grades or whatever," Aria speculated. She twirled a length of her golden-brown hair. "But if that's the case, it has to be someone who knows about the Wolfsbane Potion, knows what it is and what it's used for."

"Which means somebody good in potions," Harry surmised. "Who are the best potion makers in the school besides us and Hermione?"

"Umm . . .Blaise Zabini gets good marks. So does Mandy and Rupert Allen, they're the prefects for this year. Cho Chang is good also, she's a Ravenclaw."

"Percy Weasley and Fred and George are really good too, much as I dislike Percy, the arrogant snot," admitted Harry.

"Much as I hate admit it, Malfoy is good too."

"Good at sabotaging other people's potions too," remarked the Boy Who Lived angrily. "He used to screw up mine almost every period. And he never got caught, since Dad could never really punish him for anything without blowing his cover. Until now, that is. Last time he caught Malfoy trying to chuck something in my cauldron when my back was turned, he gave him detention and took twenty House points. I thought the little ferret was going to keel over from shock."

"I remember that, Malfoy was so furious that evening he owled his father and complained to him, said the professor was being unfair and his father would straighten him out."

"Straighten him out?" Harry repeated incredulously. "Who the hell does Draco think his father is, the Minister of Magic? What does he think, Lucius claps and everyone else jumps and asks how high?"

"Pretty much. Apparently, Mandy told me that the Malfoys are not only an old pureblood family, but they have vast connections in the government, and at one time Lucius was trying to get himself elected Minister."

Harry made a gagging noise. "Lucius Malfoy as Minister . . .I think I'm going to be sick. Draco would be like the most insufferable snot on the earth if that ever happened. Was that before or after Voldemort fell?"

"Before, I think. After he was probably too busy trying to convince the Ministry not to put him away to be bothered campaigning," said Aria. She looked at her watch. "Tell you what, Snape. I'll keep my ear to the ground and you do the same and we'll see if we can't hear anything useful. Sooner or later whoever ratted out Uncle Remmy's gonna slip up and then we'll have him."

"Then what do we do? Beat the snot out of him?"

"Yeah . . .after we report the creep to a teacher. C'mon, Harry, let's move or we're going to be late and I don't need Uncle Sev yelling at me first period."

Together the two headed back to the castle, possible suspects swirling in their heads, though at the top of both their lists was one name: Draco Malfoy.

• * * * * * *

Remus Lupin had always known he couldn't hide his werewolf curse forever, not in a school the size of Hogwarts. Sooner or later, someone was bound to find out about it and leak it to the press and the general public. He just wished it had happened later rather than sooner. He enjoyed teaching Defense and being at Hogwarts again, many of the staff were old friends of his, members of the Order, and he felt at home here.

But it was a sad fact that werewolves were persona non grata in the wizarding world, regulated because of their curse to second-class citizens, mistrusted and feared. It was an old story, it had been going on since the first werewolf was created, by an accidental mixing of a shapechange potion and the essence of an evil spirit, forming a curse that turned a man into a ravenous beast during the nights of the full moon. In a way, he couldn't blame them, for without the Wolfsbane Potion he was too dangerous to be around.

He was seriously considering resigning, he didn't want Dumbledore to have any bad press because he had knowingly hired a werewolf. Even if the werewolf were an old friend and under the influence of the Wolfsbane Potion. There was a meeting scheduled with the Minister this afternoon to discuss the pros and cons of Remsu remaining at the school. Remus was not looking forward to it, he knew Fudge bore no love for his kind.

He was sitting at his desk in his office, staring morosely at the grindylow in the tank opposite him, knowing he should be marking tests or at the very least homework assignments, but somehow he just couldn't muster up the energy. He was weary and depressed, the events in the Shack haunted him, Pettigrew had escaped once more, Aria had nearly been killed by dementors and then he'd had to punish her for her impulsive behavior-something which he had hated doing, but this was the final straw, the beginning of the end. It was only a matter of time before the anti-werewolf supporters came pounding at the gates, demanding the Headmaster send him packing.

He snapped his fingers and a tumbler filled with two fingers full of firewhisky appeared on his desk. Normally he didn't indulge, the only time he'd ever gotten totally wasted had been during sixth year, with Sirius and James and that traitor-Lupin couldn't even bear to think his name-and the way he'd felt the morning after had cured him of drinking to excess forever. But this once, he thought it might be a good thing if he got roaring drunk, that way he wouldn't have to hear all the rumors and accusations floating around.

He had just sipped the amber liquid, relishing in the slight burn as it slid down his throat, when there came a knock at the door. "Who is it?" he asked warily.

Last time someone had knocked at the door and he'd gotten up to answer it, he'd found nothing there except a dungbomb, which had nearly exploded in his face before he'd disarmed it.

"It's only me, Moony."

"Come in, Sev," he breathed a sigh of relief. If there was one person at Hogwarts he could trust totally and who would defend him to the death, it was Severus Snape.

Severus entered, shutting the door softly behind him, lines of concern etched in his face. He raised an eyebrow when he caught sight of the firewhisky in the tumbler. "It's that bad, Moony, you're drinking during the day?"

Lupin nodded wearily, taking another gulp of the firewhisky. He knew Severus didn't approve of drowning one's sorrows, but right then he could give a damn about offending anyone's sensibilities, and besides he knew his friend would never judge him.

"I feel like I've got my head in a noose, Sev, and I'm just waiting for the hangman to cut the rope. I'm sure you've seen the headlines in this morning's paper, right?"

"I did and that Skeeter woman ought to be hung, drawn, and quartered, writing such trash," Severus said angrily. "I threw my copy into the fire, it's only good for kindling. Moony, you can't let them get to you. Whoever informed the Minister of your condition knew exactly what they were doing. They want to ruin your career and I, for one, don't think you should let them."

"What do you suggest I do, Sev? Go out in the street wearing a sign saying I'm People Friendly-Support Werewolves?"

"There's an idea," the Potions Master teased gently. "Actually, that's similar to what Miss Granger suggested to me this morning. She said we ought to start a movement supporting werewolves with slogans and signs the way Muggle activists do."

Remus started to laugh. "She means well, Sev, but who in their right mind would be a member of a Save the Werewolf club? Besides you, me, Harry, Aria, and Hermione, of course. We'd all be labeled barking mad, literally. It's not worth it. There's no sense in dragging you down in the mud with me. You've got a child to support."

"So have you, Moony," reminded Severus gently. "And you can't do that if you're unemployed."

"I know that, Sev, but I can't risk transforming again and biting a student. Some of the parents have already started to panic and write letters threatening to pull their kids from here unless I resign. That's what this meeting with the Minister is about this afternoon."

Severus scowled. "Where Fudge will then try and pressure you into resigning, no doubt, for the good of the school. What does Albus have to say about all of this, Remus?"

"He is upset, of course, and he regrets that I am coming under fire from the press and all."

"Ah. But will he defend you to Fudge, Moony? Or will he be content to sit back and throw you to the werewolf haters?"

"I don't know, Sev. Guess I'll just have to wait and see."

"Perhaps I ought to speak with him myself. I can vouch for you if you need it, I've known you longer than anyone, and I know what you're capable of."

"Severus, I can't ask you to do that," protested Remus. "You're being nominated for the Order of Merlin First Class."

"Like that's worth more than my friendship with you? Merlin's Beard, Remus! Who knows, perhaps my support as a nominee for the Order of Merlin First Class will carry some weight with certain people. Either way, I'm not going to stand by and watch them hound you to death, Lupin!"

Remus smiled gratefully at his friend. "Thank you, Sev. I really appreciate it. I don't think it will do all that much good, but at least you tried." He finished off the tumbler. "Don't look at me like that, Sev. My nerves are shot, I need the fortification."

"You don't need to explain anything to me, Moony, you're an adult and you can make your own decisions. I just hope Fudge isn't his usual obtuse asinine self. Sometimes that man reminds me of an ostrich, if something is too unpleasant to deal with, or doesn't fit into his narrow vision of reality, he buries his bloody head in the sand and hopes it will go away. Those kind of people really annoy me."

Remus looked slightly alarmed at that statement. "Sev, promise me you'll control your temper and not threaten to hex the Minister. Because that won't help either of us."

"Don't worry, Moony. I'll control myself, trust me. There's only one person I will be truly angry at if he fails to defend you and that is Dumbledore."

"Severus, I can't expect Dumbledore to support me openly."

"Why the hell not? After all you've done, Remus, as a teacher here and for the Order, the old man bloody well should support you! He owes you!"

"No, he doesn't. I volunteered mostly, and I accepted the position here knowing I might have to resign if my true nature were known. It was a risk I chose to take."

"Nevertheless, the Old Meddler should stand behind you, he hired you after all." Severus sighed. "Come along, Moony. Perhaps together we can convince the Minister to take his head out of the sand for once and see that a werewolf is worth defending."

• * * * * * *

The meeting did not go well. Fudge refused to listen to either Severus or Dumbledore, he was concerned with the number of angry letters and bad press he was getting and he wanted to maintain the status quo. Despite Severus's insistence that with the Wolfsbane, Remus was no more dangerous than the average wizard, Fudge was reluctant to allow the werewolf to remain at Hogwarts.

"People are afraid, Albus, with good reason. The last werewolf attack was a year or so ago and a boy died from it. People wonder if it could happen again. Lucius Malfoy has contacted me and says he's reluctant to send his son back here next year unless you are no longer a staff member, Lupin. The Malfoys are very influential . . ."

"What are you saying, Minister?" demanded Severus sharply. "That we should give up because Lucius Malfoy opposes us? Since when did Lucius become God, that we must follow him in all things? The Malfoys might be an old family, but they are not the only old family. Will you let one man dictate Ministry policy, sir?"

"Certianly not, Snape, but you have to admit Mr. Malfoy has a valid reason, he is concerned for the safety of his son." Fudge began indignantly. "You are a parent, Severus, did you not pull Harry from Gryffindor Tower when you feared for his safety there?"

"Yes, but that was because he was being targeted by a murderer. Remus threatens no one. He has been teaching here for almost a year and no student in his class has ever been harmed by him. I brew the Wolfsbane myself and with the potion Remus is perfectly safe to be around. There is no need for any parent to assume otherwise. As a matter of fact, Remus is my son's godfather. And also the guardian of his niece Aria, who would not have been placed in his care were he an unfit person. And if you don't believe me, perhaps you will believe the Headmaster."

That was Dumbledore's cue to come to Remus's defense, yet the old wizard seemed strangely reluctant to do so. "It is true, Cornelius, that I do not share the prejudice most wizards have against werewolves, otherwise I would never have hired Remus. But it is a sad fact that people fear that which is different, which is why many parents have protested my endorsement of Remus."

"People fear the different because they have been given no reason not to," Severus argued. "By keeping Lupin here, Headmaster, you are showing those people that there is nothing to fear from him. That you trust him. If he resigns, what does that tell people? That they were right to fear the wolf at the door and to drive him away. Is that the message you want to send them?"

"Severus, be reasonable. The Headmaster has to think of the safety and wellbeing of all of his students, and Hogwarts is run by the Board of Governors. Lucius Malfoy is on the Board and his word carries a lot of weight. If he withdraws his son from this institution . . ."

"He won't, Minister. I know the man, and he is bluffing. He will not withdraw Draco from Hogwarts, Malfoys have been attending this school for centuries and Lucius will not break with tradition." Severus said firmly.

"So you say, but what if you are wrong, Snape?" dithered Cornelius. "I do not know if I'm willing to take that chance."

Remus sighed heavily and said, "I understand, Minister. Perhaps it is best if I go. All I ask is that Aria be allowed to return here and graduate when the time comes. She should not be ostracized because I am a werewolf."

"Remus, no! You can't just leave," cried Snape.

"I fear I must, Severus. I do not want to be the cause of students leaving here."

"They're fools if they do."

"Maybe so, but I'd rather not have the school tear itself apart over me. So I think it's best if I leave."

"Well, I don't!"

Remus smiled sadly. "That's why you're my friend. I always knew this wouldn't last."

Severus scowled. "Minister, do you know who sent you the tip concerning Remus?"

"No, I'm afraid not. It was anonymous."

"What does it matter now, Sev? What's done is done."

"It matters," the Potions Master said coldly, vowing to find out who had revealed Remus's secret and show them the folly of repeating every little thing to authority figures.

• * * * * * *

Harry tried to concentrate on studying for his Charms final, which was coming up in two days, but he found his mind kept straying back to the awful news he had heard from Aria that evening at dinner. Remus was resigning! It seemed that the Minister-barmy old coot-had insisted upon it and his godfather had no choice but to comply. Harry scowled down at his Charms text and notes, recalling the way the man had refused to believe him when he'd said Sirius was innocent. Even now, they were still looking for the "criminal" Sirius Black! While somewhere out there the real culprit, Pettigrew, roamed free.

He threw down his quill in disgust, tired of trying to make fact cards the way Hermione had suggested as a way to review all the information he needed to know. How could he write bloody facts about Charms when his godfather was being booted out the door like an unwanted stray? He rose to stretch cramped muscles and walk about the small dining area of Snape's apartment, he'd chosen to study here tonight because it was quiet.

"What's the matter?" asked his father upon seeing his son pacing about. "This the fifth time in an hour you've gotten up to walk around, get a drink, use the bathroom, or sharpen quills. Why aren't you studying, Harry?"

"I can't, Dad. How can I worry about a test when Uncle Moony's leaving?" His son spun about to face him, his green eyes hot with anger. "They're making the best Defense teacher we've got leave just ‘cause he's a werewolf! It's not fair!"

Severus sighed, he agreed with Harry one hundred percent. "No, it isn't. But there is nothing anyone can do about it now. Remus has made his decision."

"He was forced into resigning, Dad!" Harry interrupted. "It was all Fudge's doing, he didn't want the bad press from allowing a werewolf on staff at Hogwarts. Isn't there anything you can do?"

"Harry, I have done all I can. It's out of my hands. I did my best to persuade the Minister to keep Remus here, but the Minister, like so many others, doesn't trust werewolves."

"Then he's a-a bloody-" Harry swallowed the rest of what he was about to say at Snape's warning look. Severus had told him to watch his mouth two times already that night and if it came to three, he'd fetch a bar of soap. "You know what he is," he finished. "What about Dumbledore? Surely he can talk to Fudge?"

Severus shook his head. "Dumbledore has done all he can as well, Harry. The Minister refuses to budge, he is convinced that there will be riots and such if Moony stays and therefore Remus agreed to resign quietly. Now, I know you're upset about this, as am I, but that doesn't mean you should spend the whole night brooding over something you can't change."

"How can I study when I feel like putting my fist through Fudge's fat face?"

"Take a deep breath," Severus ordered. "It's time you practiced your meditation again, Harry." He beckoned the boy over to the sofa and together they went through the basic breathing and calming exercises, until Harry was able to put away his anger and focus on studying for his exam.

But as he went through his notes, Harry decided he would pay a visit to the Headmaster tomorrow afternoon. Severus always said Dumbledore favored Harry, just the way he used to favor James. Well, perhaps he could use that favoritism to get Dumbledore to reverse Fudge's decision. It was worth a shot, anyway.

But Dumbledore, though regretful, told Harry he had no power to change the ruling of the Minister of Magic. "I know it is unfair, Harry, but there is nothing I can do about it. Being a werewolf carries a stigma, it always has, and probably always will."

"That doesn't make it right! Just because some werewolves are evil doesn't mean they all are. That's like saying all wizards are evil because Voldemort is!"

"True, Harry. But people fear the werewolf curse and so they wish to persecute those with it and that means Remus can no longer teach here, for I cannot guarantee his safety if he stays. There have been threats made already."

"Threats? Like what?"

"Warning letters and messages scrawled on the blackboard of the classroom. Get out Werewolf or there's a silver bullet waiting! The usual sort of slander."

Harry's eyes blazed. "That bloody sucks! Do you know who left the message?" He didn't bother to watch his language with Dumbledore, he knew the old wizard would never wash his mouth out.

"No. But it shows how frightened people have become, if they are going to far as to leave threats on a blackboard."

"Then there's nothing you can do?" The old wizard shook his head. "Then it was all for nothing! Everything!" Harry stormed.

"Everything, Harry? I would not call rescuing Buckbeak nothing. Or saving Sirius Black. You saved the lives of two innocents that night, my boy, and that is something you should be proud of."

He doesn't know it wasn't me that saved Sirius, it was Dad, Aria, and Hermione, Harry thought, amazed that the old wizard had guessed wrong. And I can't tell him the truth, otherwise Dad might lose his job. "But it wasn't enough!"

"You can't save everyone, Harry," said Dumbledore sadly. "I learned that lesson long ago. All you can do is your best. Which you have. Don't fret about Remus. He will find other employment, he is clever and resourceful."

"What about Aria? Is she going to still go to school here? Or will they tell her she can't ‘cause she's a slipper and related to the werewolf?"

"No, Aria may still attend Hogwarts," Dumbledore said firmly. "I make the decisions on who shall be accepted here and I invited Miss Lupin back. She is a girl of unusual talent and potential and we could use more like her."

"Good." Harry heaved a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry I shouted at you, sir," he added then. "Dad would kick my arse if he knew."

"I won't tell him, Harry," the Headmaster chuckled, his blue eyes twinkling. "Lemon drop?"

Harry took one from the dish and ate it, wishing there were something else they could do, but knowing all the while that it was a lost cause. Whoever had set out to ruin Lupin had succeeded. The only thing left for him to do now was find out who it was, for then at least he could vent some of his anger on the slimeball.

• * * * * * *

He tried to enlist Ron and Hermione in his campaign, because he felt he would need more than just Aria to ferret out whoever it was that had informed on Lupin. But Hermione, was as usual, too busy studying for exams to be bothered. "Sorry Harry, but I've got tons of work to do and I'll never manage to get it all done if I'm running around the school trying to find whoever it was that figured out Lupin was a werewolf."

"Hermione, there's more to life than books and studying," Harry said. "Don't you care that Lupin's lost his job because of this creep?"

"Of course I do! I was the one who suggested to your dad that was start a Save the Werewolf movement. Only he said we would never hav enough members to be effective. But I also want to pass my third year and that means I have to study. Besides, you, Ron, and Aria are way better at skulking about and discovering secrets than I am. I only figured out Lupin was a werewolf because Professor Snape made us do an essay on them when he was substituting one day. Remember? We had to compare and contrast the differences between a werewolf and an actual wolf?"

Ron goggled at her. "You actually remember an assignment we had to do two months ago or whatever? How do you do it? I forget half of the lecture by the next period."

"That's because you aren't paying attention half the time, Ron." Hermione said exasperatedly. "Maybe if you did, you'd actually learn something." She pulled her Ancient Runes book out of her bag and began to look over the notes she had made. "Excuse me, but I have one hundred and twenty symbols to combine and memorize before tomorrow."

"C'mon, Ron. Let's find Aria and see if she's heard anything from the Slytherins. They're usually up on the latest gossip." Harry urged and they departed, leaving Hermione to her mountain of books and parchment.

"Totally nuts," Ron was muttering.

"Huh?"

"Hermione. All that studying's gonna turn her brain into an encyclopedia. I wouldn't be surprised if she became a professor one day, since she loves taking tests and doing homework."

"But it's a different thing having to grade them. Just ask my dad," Harry said knowingly. "He says that's one of the worst things about being a teacher, all the papers you have to slog through with the terrible handwriting and the dumb answers kids make up because they couldn't be bothered reading the assignments. He says those are the ones that make him wonder why he bothered trying to teach them anything in the first place. It was a waste of breath."

Ron said nothing, though he wondered if he were one of those students Snape thought was a waste of time teaching. It wasn't that he didn't like school, but there were simply so many other things he liked more, like Quidditch, or sleeping, or eating chocolate frogs.

They found Aria loitering outside the Defense classroom, which looked pretty bare and empty since Remus had packed up most of the interesting specimens and charts and the armoire with the boggart had been placed in storage and the boggart given a new home in Filch's filing cabinet.

"Well? What's the buzz around the Serpent House?" queried Harry.

"Some of us are very upset that Uncle Remmy's leaving. And some others . . . aren't."

"Such as?"

"Malfoy, for one. Big surprise there. He's never gotten along with my uncle, ever since he got detention with him after that Hogsmeade weekend."

"The one where Harry got grounded for life, right? Ron clarified, and Harry huffed in exasperation.

"You're never gonna let me forget that, are you?"

"C'mon, mate, even you have to admit it was pure bad luck, running into Lupin when you did. I mean, who else has an invisibility cloak and a map and still manages to get nabbed by a teacher walking out of a pub?"

"Rub it in, why don't you?"

"Stop it." Aria ordered. "This isn't helping us any. Okay, here's a list of possible suspects." She handed out two pieces of parchment with five name son them. At the top of the list was Pettigrew, but under him were Draco, Lucius, Crabbe and Goyle. "I know, these are pretty obvious, but they were the best I could come up with on short notice."

Ron studied the list for a moment. "Well, if it's Pettigrew, the beast, we can't do a damn thing about him. But if it's Malfoy . . .and I'd bet my only Galleon it is, him we can settle with. Fred and George just gave me some new products and we could slip some into his pumpkin juice or his soup at dinner."

"Or I could just threaten to disembowel him," offered Aria wickedly.

"Your uncle wouldn't like that," Ron predicted.

"He wouldn't know. I do it just before we were leaving, so the little skunk couldn't go running and tell." Aria said, her eyes glinting.

"What happened to telling a teacher first?" Harry reminded.

"I'd do that first. Then I'd wait and ambush him later."

"Merlin, but I'm glad she isn't my enemy," breathed Ron. "She's dangerous."

"Only when somebody messes with my family, Ron," laughed the shape-slipper. "Otherwise I'm harmless as a little kitten."

"Sure you are."

"Here's Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's class schedule," Aria showed them yet another parchment. "Most of those classes they have with us, so we can keep an eye on them then. Hopefully, Malfoy won't be able to resist bragging to his little friends about how clever he was."

"Yeah, he's already boasting about how great it was that Hagrid's hippogriff died," Ron snickered. "I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from going up to him and telling him that Buckbeak was alive and well."

"He does tend to pat himself on the back an awful lot, doesn't he, the little toad?" Harry observed.

They split up then, since Aria had History of Magic and Harry and Ron had Herbology, each of them intending to watch Malfoy like a hawk, in Aria's case literally.

But their spying turned up nothing fruitful that day, since Malfoy seemed too preoccupied with his upcoming finals to talk about much else. It wasn't until the end of the week, when nearly all the final exams had been taken, and it was officially announced that Lupin would not be returning next year, that Malfoy blundered in a big way.

The dungeons were commonly known as Slytherin territory, thus Draco and his two hulking sidekicks felt safe there plotting new ways to harass younger students or discuss successful campaigns of terror. The end of the year was upon them and nearly all of their Housemates were celebrating the fact that finals were over, some were sweating over the marks they might get, and still others were sleeping, exhausted from cramming for exams.

Draco had decided the Slytheirn common room was too crowded to tell Crabbe and Goyle about the latest letter he'd received from his father, about the new Anti-Werewolf Bill they were trying to pass, and had dragged them into the deserted potions lab to talk.

Draco was clutching a piece of parchment, smirking triumphantly. " . . . Father says the Ministry is under fire from the public for allowing that sorry excuse for a teacher Lupin to teach Defense, ‘specially once they found out he was a werewolf. So he proposed they pass another Anti-Werewolf Decree, requiring werewolves only be allowed to apply for low-paying jobs where they would come into minimal contact with other people, since they're a menace. Imagine that, we could have all been bitten in class with that monster instructing us." Draco laughed nastily, joined by his two companions. "Father says all werewolves ought to be killed, they're too dangerous to live. They're a blight on society. Father says it was a good thing I mentioned my suspiscions to him about Lupin's disease and the Wolfsbane Potion, though it was too bad I couldn't get pictures of Lupin transforming that night-stupid Po-Snape was hanging around by the lake and started asking all kinds of stupid questions and by the time I got rid of him it was too late to find Lupin." Draco lied glibly, not wanting to admit the real reason he'd returned to the dorm that night, because he'd been terrified out of his mind by the dementors. "But I knew Lupin had to transform, since the Wolfsbane was altered when I slipped some pumpkin juice into it that afternoon in his office when he was busy looking for his grindylow. Serves him right, getting sacked, after what he and the Beast Girl did to me. I warned her once, nobody messes with a Malfoy."

"Uh, how'd you know to do that, Draco?" asked Crabbe.

"Simple. Wolfsbane is a very delicate potion, it needs to be made perfectly or else it won't work. Every good potions student knows that." Draco boasted.

"Indeed, Mr. Malfoy. And they also know not to tamper with another's solution," came a silky furious voice from the doorway of the office.

All three boys froze.

It was Professor Snape, who had been in his office all this time, collecting some last minute paperwork from his desk before locking up. He had not heard the boys enter the lab, until Draco had begun talking, and then he couldn't help but overhear the topic of conversation. He'd listened with mounting fury to Draco's glib recitation of sabotage and how Lucius had praised his sly offspring for destroying Remus's reputation and his career as a promising professor out of sheer malice.

Malfoy went white as a ghost. "Run!"

Crabbe and Goyle didn't need to be told twice. They bolted for the door of the potions lab and were out of it like the wind. Severus did not care so much about them, they had nothing to do with Malfoy's scheme. It was Lucius's son he wanted.

Malfoy made it out the door, ignoring Snape's shouts to stop, running quickly down the corridor. Only to bash right into Harry who was coming back to Severus's rooms to pick up a notebook he'd forgotten.

Harry was knocked sprawling, landing hard on his bottom, his bag crushed beneath him. Draco was knocked down too, the impact of the collision causing him to fall.

Before he could scramble to his feet and flee, Snape pounced upon him, grabbing him by the collar of his robes and shaking him soundly. "Malfoy, when a professor tells you to stop, you listen! Especially when that professor is me, your Head of House!"

Malfoy was white and shaking, clearly Snape was the last person he wanted to see at the moment. Harry fought to keep from grinning. From the look on his father's face, Malfoy was in for it. Harry stood up, wincing a bit, for the stone floor had not been kind to his bum. Before he could ask what was going on, Severus had turned back to his office, dragging Malfoy along with him.

"So, mister, it was you who tampered with my Wolfsbane Potion? Do you know how expensive that potion is to make, boy? How much time it takes to brew a single draft? Not to mention the fact that your sneaky scheme put a man's life in danger, as well as your classmates."

"Professor, I . . .my father told me . . ." babbled Draco, searching for a way out of the situation he found himself in.

"Don't lie to me, Malfoy!" roared Snape. "I heard every word you spoke in my lab to your little friends. You intended to expose Remus as a werewolf in the hopes he'd get sacked. You deliberately set out to ruin another wizard's career and reputation to satisfy your own petty need for revenge. How dare you?"

Harry followed a few paces back, wanting to see where Severus was taking the blond boy. Snape had yanked open the door to his office and dragged Draco inside. Severus was in a rare temper, to find the informer in his own House was a potent disgrace, and worse to discover that the boy was actually boasting about ruining his best friend was enough to snap his control.

Harry peered through the frosted glass window, unable to stifle his curiosity. So, his suspicions had proved correct after all. And what a stroke of luck it had been that Malfoy would betray himself to Snape, of all people, who would be the hardest on the one who'd turned informer.

"He's a werewolf, sir!" cried Draco. "What do you care about whether a werewolf lives or dies?"

Severus leaned in until nose was inches from Malfoy's eyes. "That werewolf happens to be my best friend, Mr. Malfoy. So if you think I'm going to forgive and forget-think again! Unlike your father-" Severus sneered the word. "-I do not condone treachery! Your stupidity and maliciousness nearly cost lives, Mr. Malfoy! By all rights, you ought to be expelled."

Malfoy gasped, still trying to free his arm from Snape's grip. "My father will never let you!"

"Lucius does not dictate to me any longer, boy! He has no authority over me here or anywhere. But I know the Headmaster will never allow me to expel you for what he would term "a bit of boyish mischief"! Therefore, I shall deal with you as I see fit, and give you the punishment your father ought've years ago, you insufferable brat!" He snapped his fingers and a wooden spoon appeared out of the air.

With that, Severus hauled the astonished Draco over his knee and proceeded to give the brat the spanking of his life.

Harry remained with his mouth open. Merlin, Dad! That's giving him what-for, all right. Deserved as it was, Harry couldn't help flinching, for he knew how much it hurt. Then again, Remus could've killed them all, so he couldn't summon up too much sympathy, all things considered.

Malfoy shrieked and struggled, but Severus was too strong, and he could not escape the spoon, which spanked his bottom with a thorough firmness. Draco had never been punished in such a humiliating fashion, he'd been cosseted and spoiled all of his life, this was the first time ever he'd been made to face the consequences of his behavior and he did not like it at all!

Severus was not quite as out of control as he seemed, he had no intention of truly hurting his student, though his initial decision to spank him had been born out of sheer fury at Draco's attitude. A small voice in the back of his mind was yelling, Now you've done it, Snape. Striking a student, even this student, is going to get you fired. Yet somehow it did not matter then. All that mattered was giving the arrogant deceitful brat what he deserved.

Malfoy was sobbing loudly by the time Severus administered the last swat, and the Potions Master stood him up and said coldly, "You will remember this as a deserved punishment, Mr. Malfoy, I hope this teaches you not to slander teachers in the future. Furthermore, you have detention with me tomorrow for being out of bed after curfew and I'm deducting seventy points from Slytherin as well." Draco gasped. "Yes, and I shall make certain your Housemates know who it is that have cost them the House Cup. Now get out of my sight."

Malfoy turned and ran, Harry had just enough time to get out of the way before the office door slammed open and the blond Slytherin raced past, still sniffling. Harry wondered if he would write home and tell his father the way Severus had punished him, then thought if it had been him, he wouldn't. It was too embarrassing.

Harry continued on to Severus's rooms to get his notebook, thinking of Ron, Hermione, and Aria and what they would say to the news that Malfoy had been the culprit after all and how he'd been punished for it.

Just then another thought occurred to him. He wasn't entirely sure about this, but he didn't think it was school policy for a teacher to strike a student. Perhaps once it had been, like maybe fifty years ago, but not now. He hoped that his father would not get in trouble for spanking Draco. He'll only get in trouble if Draco goes and tells Dumbledore or his father, and if he's as embarrassed as I was when Dad spanked me, he won't mention it to a soul. To Harry's way of thinking, the embarrassment at being punished like a little kid far outweighed the stinging pain, which he knew would vanish before bedtime that night, leaving Draco with nothing but memories. Memories he'd probably be eager to forget, except perhaps the reason he'd gotten in trouble in the first place.

Maybe next time he won't be so smug and act like he's the be-all and end-all of everyone. And he'll think twice about trying to cross Dad again. At least he will if he's smart, and much as I hate the little snob, he's not dumb.

He found his notebook exactly where he'd left it, on the kitchen table next to a half-drunk glass of pumpkin juice. The glass had been spelled to keep the contents chilled, so Harry quickly gulped it down, took his notebook and shoved it in his bag, then left the professor's quarters to find Ron and tell him Lupin's informer had been caught.

• * * * * *

Ron was in stitches when Harry whispered to him what he'd seen through the office door. "You're kidding me, right? He really walloped that prat's bum? With a spoon? Merlin's pants! What I wouldn't give to have seen that! Draco, prince of Malfoy Manor, getting spanked like a spoiled brat. Bet he howled like two-year-old too."

Harry nodded then added quietly, "I just hope my dad doesn't get sacked if Malfoy reports this."

Ron chortled. "Shoot, Harry, Malfoy's not gonna tell anybody what happened to him. Because if he told Dumbledore, he'd want to know why Snape walloped him, and then Draco would have to admit he was the one who told about Remus's secret, and he won't want that known either. And I can't believe he'd tell his father what happened either, Merlin knows I never wanted to tell my dad if my mum had spanked me, I was too ashamed and upset. He always knew though, I think Mum used to tell him, but he never learned it from me."

Harry hoped that was true, because otherwise his dad might be out of a job just like Remus Lupin.

The girls' reactions were varied, Aria said that was just what the arrogant boy deserved, though she still wanted to pound him into the dirt. "And so will everyone else since he cost us the Cup now. Still, serves him right the smug little varmint!" Hermione was a bit shocked that Snape had actually gone that far, but then said that if she had to deal with Malfoy's attitude, she'd have pulled a Mrs. Weasley too.

"At least now you two can stop snooping around like amateur detectives and start packing to go home. I'm almost done."

"What else is new? You probably have a schedule written up on how to pack." Ron rolled his eyes. "I swear, Mione, you'll be early to your own funeral."

"Humph! At least too early is better than being too late." She rose from the table in the hall and said primly, "I have to go speak to the Headmaster about something he let me borrow. And maybe he has some of my grades in too, I can't wait to see what marks I got."

"She's touched in the head, that one," Ron snorted. "Wanting her marks early! Wonder what she borrowed from Dumbeldore? An advance copy of next year's text books?"

Aria smiled quietly to herself and said nothing. She, of course, knew what Hermione had borrowed and needed to return.

"Where are you spending the summer, Harry?" Ron asked.

"I think we're going back to New Jersey, and staying with my Aunt Relia again. Or maybe my cousins Melody and Mia, now that Mia's ex-husband Devon's gone for good. I'll get to see Neil again and his brother Mike, they're neighbors of Mel's and wizard kids too. It should be fun, even if Dad makes me his assistant potions apprentice like he did last time we were there."

Ron looked horrified at that and Aria intrigued. "Aghk! Your dad's evil, Harry! He makes you do potions over the summer?"

"It's not all that bad, Ron. He's got a mail order business over there and sometimes he needs my help making batches of elixirs and whatever. So I spend the morning with him and Neil, who's potion crazy like my dad, making them and then I can go and do whatever I want for the rest of the day."

"It sounds like fun," Aria said. "Maybe Uncle Remmy and I will visit you over there, if we go to Louisiana to visit my mom."

"Sure. Moony's been at my aunt's house before, and Aunt Relia never minds when we have company. The more the merrier, she always says." He didn't tell Aria, but Neil would be happy to finally meet the girl Harry had written to him about.

Hermione returned from her mysterious errand and reported that Dumbledore had let her see her grades for three subjects, History of Magic, Arithmancy, and Potions. She had gotten top marks in all of them.

"Big surprise there," Ron pretended to applaud. "Bet if you'd gotten less than an O in anything you'd keel right over, Mione."

The bushy-haired witch cast him a very annoyed look. "Actually Ron, if you got an O in anything except Quidditch, I'd keel right over. And so would your mum!"

"Real funny, Mione," Ron glowered, then he turned to glare at Harry and Aria. "What are you laughing at, huh?"

"What she said," replied Aria, chuckling.

Ron went red to the tips of his ears. "Okay, so maybe I'm not the bloody walking encyclopedia Mione is, or brilliant like you, Lupin, but at least I know how to have fun and go to school at the same time. All you bookworms know is studying."

"Whoa, Weasley, we were only teasing," began Aria, holding up her hands. "Can't you take a joke?"

Ron smirked evilly. "Sure I can. Had you going there, didn't I, Lupin?"

Aria shook her finger at him. "Evil, Weasley."

"Well, I learned from the best-the twins."

"Speaking of the twins, that reminds me, Harry," Aria exclaimed. "Uncle Remmy wants to see you in his office before he leaves. Says he's got a going away present for you."

"Right away?" Harry asked.

"Finish your lunch first." Aria waved him back down when he started to get to his feet.

Harry relaxed then, enjoying the last lunch of the term with his friends.

Afterwards, he made his way upstairs to the Defense professor's office, feeling an unaccustomed lump grow in his throat when he remembered that Remus would not be returning at the start of next term to teach any longer. Suddenly he wished his father had hexed Draco into obilvion for revealing Lupin's secret to the press. He was really going to miss his godfather, even if having Remus here had been kind of like having a second father, one who did not hesitate to scold and lecture him if he deserved it, but who was also there if he needed to talk.

"Come in," Lupin called at Harry's knock.

Harry obeyed, recalling the last time he'd been in this office, he'd been helping the werewolf search for his grindylow. The tank was empty now, Lupin had set the creature free in the Black Lake.

"Hello, Harry. I was hoping to see you before I went," greeted his godfather. "I have something here of yours." He began rummaging through a box. "I know it's here somewhere. . ."

"Hi, Uncle Moony," Harry said, digging a foot into the carpet.

"Ah-ha! Here we go!" Remus exclaimed, holding up a familiar piece of blank parchment.

"You're giving me the map back?" Harry said incredulously.

"Yes. But I want your solemn promise, young man, that you will only use the map in an emergency-not to break school rules or your father's. Have I your promise, Harrison Remus Snape?"

"I promise, Uncle Moony. I'll only use the map in case of an emergency."

"Good, because if I ever find out you used the map to sneak out of school for any other reason, like a forbidden trip to Hogsmeade, I'll come back and tan your hide, mister." Remus told him sternly. And Sev will strip the hide off of me if he ever knew I gave the map back to Harry.

"You wouldn't need to, Uncle Moony. ‘Cause Dad would kill me first," admitted his godson. "Uh, what happened to the cloak?"

Remus gave him a knowing evil grin. "That little item is now in Sev's hands, so if you want to use it, you'll have to ask his permission."

"Aww, Uncle Moony! No fair!"

"Very fair, Mr. Snape. If I'd given you the cloak and the map back, Sev would kill me, and I have enough people out for my blood without adding my best friend to the list."

Harry was quiet for a moment, then he said, "Do you really have to leave? Maybe the Minister will change his mind and let you come back."

Remus sighed. "No, Harry, even if Fudge did change his mind, the parents would never allow Dumbledore to hire me back, and the Old Meddler has enough on his plate without taking up arms in defense of a werewolf professor. I enjoyed my time here, Harry, I won't deny that, but I don't think I want to make teaching my career."

"What are you going to do now that you're, uh, unemployed?"

"Oh, I'll find something. I always do. And Aria will be returning in the fall, so you'll have one Lupin around to make your life hairy."

Harry groaned at the pun then he laughed. "Hey, maybe you can come and spend a few weeks in New Jersey. You and Aria could, uh, rent a house near us, Neil says there's lots of houses for rent near the boardwalk."

Lupin considered for a few moments. "That's a fine idea, Harry. I just might do that, once I take Aria to visit her mum in Louisiana. I haven't been back in New Orleans for a long time, it'll do me good to see the Big Easy again. I miss eating Cajun food and watching the sun set over the bayou. It'd even be neat seeing a gator again."

"You've seen an alligator?"

"Many times, when I was a boy and staying with my grandmother. It's something you never forget," the werewolf smiled reminiscently. "I've even eaten them, or at least the tail, battered and fried and dipped in butter." Remus licked his lips.

"Do they, uh, taste good?"

"Delicious. Tell you what. When Aria and I come over to New Orleans, I'll call you and Sev and maybe the two of you could come down for a few days and experience the Cajun South. Would you like that, Harry?"

"Yeah, I would. A lot."

"Then I'll be seeing you over the summer. We should have a great time." He glanced about the office. "Well, looks like I'm all packed, my grade log turned in, and everything. I guess I can leave as soon as Aria's packed up." He turned and held out his arms. Harry walked into them and hugged the werewolf hard. "I'm going to miss you, kid. Be good and behave yourself, okay? I'll see you soon, Harry."

Harry buried his face in his godfather's chest and mumbled, "Okay, Uncle Moony. I'll write you and Aria. I hope you can come and stay in New Jersey."

"I'll try, Harry. Oh, and here's one more thing for you." He withdrew a snapshot from his pocket. "This was taken at your second birthday."

Harry took the picture.

In it was a much younger Lupin, holding little Harry on his knee. Harry was clutching a soft stuffed gray wolf and beaming, while Lily placed a small cake in front of them. As Harry watched, his child self went to blow out the candles and ended up with cake all over him, much to the amusement of his mother and godfather.

"That was taken by your dad, and he laughed himself sick afterwards, because you were such a mess. You got cake all over you, Wolfie, and me. Lily made Sev give you a bath while I cleaned my shirt, then we all ate cake and opened presents."

"Was James there too?"

"Oh yes, he bought you your first broomstick, which Lily thought you were too young for, and she told James that if you fell off and got hurt she'd beat him with the damn broomstick."

"Looks like she threatened to beat him a lot," Harry laughed.

"Sometimes, Harry, that was the only way to get through his thick skull," Remus said with a wistful smile. "Add that to your photo album if you want."

"I will. Thanks, Uncle Moony. For everything." He hugged his godfather one last time.

"No, thank you, Harry." Remus said thickly. "For making this a year like none other." He patted Harry on the back, then let him go.

"Bye, Uncle Moony. See you at the shore. Or in New Orleans," Harry waved and quickly left the office, before he embarrassed himself totally by crying like a two-year-old.

He had to pack as well, but that wouldn't take too long, thanks to the spells he'd learned to shrink objects. Then it was back to the good old US of A. For the first time in three years, Harry was actually looking forward to summer vacation. New Jersey, here I come!

"Dad! Are you almost finished brewing yet?" Harry shouted down the basement stairs. "Uncle Moony and Aria will be here in, uh, five minutes!"

"In another seven minutes," Severus called back. "You can entertain them for that long, can't you, Harry?"

"A whole two minutes? No problem, Dad!"

"Cheeky brat!" he heard Severus mutter before he shut the door.

Then he returned to the den and waited for the arrival of Remus and Aria, whom he hadn't seen since the end of the term, three weeks ago.

Right on the dot, the fire flared emerald green and his werewolf godfather and Remus's niece, Aria, came through the flames and into the den. Rosie bayed a welcome and rushed up to them, springing up and licking their hands enthusiastically in her typical beagle fashion.

"Hi, sweetie! I missed you!" Aria crooned, picking up the little hound and hugging her.

"Hello, Harry. How's your summer so far?" asked Remus.

"It's been good. And it just got better," he said, and went over to hug his godfather. "Welcome to Point Pleasant, New Jersey."

"Where's Sev?"

"In the basement brewing up potions for customers," answered Harry. "He should be up in a few minutes. And my Aunt Relia's at the store, going shopping for dinner."

"Hi, Harry! Long time no see, huh?" Aria said, giggling a bit as Rosie licked her face. "Aww, beagle kisses!"

"Hey, Aria." Harry smiled shyly at his friend, whom he still found quite attractive, though as yet he hadn't gotten up the nerve to admit how he felt, even to himself.

"You say that like you enjoy it," remarked Severus from behind them.

"I don't mind her licking me, Uncle Sev. It's sweet."

"Sweet? Ugh! Do you know where that dog's tongue has been, Aria Lenore?" Severus grimaced.

"Uh, no."

"And you don't want to know either," the Potions Master said, coming over to hug her. Rosie immediately transferred her affectionate greeting to her alpha human, making Severus groan and shove the little hound's nose away. "Please, Rosie! I don't need a bath, thank you very much!"

"Hello, Moony. Come into the kitchen. Would you like something to drink? I know Flooing long distance always leaves my throat dry."

He led the way into the kitchen, where they all sat around the table drinking tall cool glasses of iced tea and lemonade. "My aunt should be here any minute. She needed to run to the store for something. I think she's making a special dinner for you two," Severus informed them.

"What is it, Dad? Is it spaghetti carbonara?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Yes, I think that's what she said she was making. She ran out of heavy cream for the sauce."

"Yes!" Harry cheered. "Aunt Relia makes the best spaghetti carbonara on the planet. Just wait till you taste it. It's to die for."

"Sounds delicious," said Aria. "And I'm starving too. I never eat before I travel by Floo powder. Sometimes it makes me sick."

"Really? Me too." Harry exclaimed. "See, Dad. I'm not the only one that gets sick with Floo powder."

"All right, Harry. Now you and Aria have something else in common besides being magnets for trouble. Congratulations." Severus said, gently teasing.

The two kids made a face at him, then Harry asked Aria if she wanted to see the backyard. "We could take Rosie for a walk and I could owl Neil, he lives about two minutes from here by broom and maybe he could fly here with a Concealment Charm and meet you."

"Sounds cool." She finished off her lemonade and they went outside with Rosie.

Harry whistled for Hedwig and sent the owl off with a note for Neil, who arrived at the Prince residence in a few moments, riding the Nimbus 2000 Harry had given him six months before.

"Hi. I'm Neil MacIntyre," he held out a hand for Aria to shake, smiling.

"Hi. Aria Lupin. Nice broom you've got there."

Neil grinned proudly. "Yeah, it was a gift from Snape there. You like Quidditch, Aria?"

"Uh, no I don't play it, but I don't mind watching Harry play. Unless he's falling to his death, that is."

Neil looked puzzled. "Falling to his death? When did that happen?"

Aria's jaw dropped. "Harry! You never told him about the Quidditch match where we both almost died? With the hundred dementors and your broom that was hexed?"

"Uh . . ."

"No way! Harry, what've you been holding out on me?" Neil demanded.

"I forgot."

"You forgot?" Neil repeated. "What, you nearly die every day or something?"

"Pretty much," Harry admitted.

"So, what happened?"

Aria told Neil the story of the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match that had nearly resulted in her and Harry getting killed.

Neil whistled and shook his head. "Hell, Snape, you ought to be in a movie. Those kinds of things only happen to movie stars. What is it with you?"

"Uh, I'm a trouble magnet, my dad says. Want to go flying?"

"Does a beagle hunt? Of course I want to go flying," laughed his friend. "But what about Aria? Where's her broom?"

Aria smiled. "I don't need one, Neil."

"Why not?"

"Because I was born with wings." With that she shifted into her hawk form, and soared into the sky with a soft screech.

Neil gasped. "Holy Merlin! Harry, why didn't you tell me she was an Animagus?"

"Because she's not," Harry replied cautiously. "Ever heard of a shape-slipper?"

"Yeah, my cousin Andrew's one. What of it?"

"So's Aria. She can change into a cougar and a hawk."

"That's cool. Drew can become an Arabian stallion and an osprey." He mouted the Nimbus. "Let's fly, Snape."

Harry took off on the Meteor, shooting up so fast he nearly gave himself whiplash. But he didn't mind. He was a born speed demon, as Severus lamented on one occasion after watching his son fly.

He circled about and came to fly in tandem with Neil, Aria soaring up above on an updraft.

Neil watched the golden hawk circling lazily in admiration and said, "How fast can she fly? Fast as one of us?"

"Why don't you race her and find out?" challenged Harry.

"Okay. Yo, Aria, want to race?" Neil called up to the hawk.

She squeaked a reply, then came down so she was level with Neil's head.

"Ready?" Harry cried. "One, two, three. Go!"

Neil kicked the Nimbus up full throttle and went streaking across the sky.

He expected the hawk to have been blown over by his blazing start, but instead he found the hawk at his elbow, riding his jetstream.

"Good God, but you can fly!" he laughed, then tried to throw her off by performing a few loops and spirals.

But Aria matched him easily, she could outfly any wizard on a broom except Harry.

Neil chased the golden hawk all across the sky before finally admitting defeat, but he was laughing. He loved a good flier.

Harry trailed them, not interested in racing for the moment. When the two circled about and came back towards him, he said, "Hey, Neil! Want to come to the boardwalk with us tonight? I promised Aria we'd go there and she's never been."

"Uh, yeah, I think my parents are going to a movie or something, so they won't care. And I'd rather go to the boardwalk then stay home with Mike."

"It must be really boring without any more wild parties, huh?" Harry teased.

"For Mike it is," Neil snorted. "Where shall I meet you?"

"Here. Around seven. We can all fit in my aunt's car, as long as Dad space warp spells it."

"Cool, Snape. And this time I'm going to whip your butt in skee ball."

"Right. But I can dust you in the dart game."

"Dart game's for girls. How many times can you ride the Himalaya without puking?"

"Dunno. But I'll bet it's more times than you."

"We'll see, Snape," Neil smirked.

Harry just smiled, gliding in slow careless loops around the yard. This was the life, flying with his two best friends, and then going out with them later for more fun and games and ice cream. Here he was plain Harry Snape again, with no prophecy hanging over his head, no homework, no prisoners to rescue, and no followers of Voldemort trying to kill him. Not to mention no Malfoy to annoy him. It felt good to be home, just an ordinary kid once more.

Severus came out into the yard an hour later to call Harry and Aria in for supper, and saw two young wizards flying in tandem accompanied by a golden hawk and a beagle puppy baying up at them.

The Potions Master smiled and thought, Just a typical afternoon at the Jersey shore, I wish all our days could be like this. Perhaps they will be, for awhile, now that we're back where we belong. For this is how it should be.

Then he raised his voice and called, "Harry! Aria! Neil! Time for dinner!"

The three teens and Rosie all swerved about at his announcement and came in. No one wanted to miss Aurelia's spaghetti carbonara and garlic cheese bread. Neil was an unexpected guest, but that didn't matter. In the Snape household, there was always room for one more at the table.

Severus had no inkling of what the future would hold for him or his son, but right then the future was of no consequence. All that mattered now was spending some quality time with his friends and family, as an ordinary wizard, back where he belonged, in Point Pleasant, home at last.