Flitwick lowered the barrier he'd erected around himself and Severus. “Quit your crying woman. It's not helping anything,” he said harshly.

Harry looked at the man, confused and frightened. This man was nothing like the small, kind-hearted professor that he saw regularly in his Charms class. It was as if there was another cruel, nasty, creature living inside his teacher.

Bellatrix wiped her eyes. I can't help Severus like this. And I know he'd be strong for me. I've got to pull myself together. She pointed her wand at Flitwick and whispered a disarming charm. But she wasn't nearly as fast and he countered the charm quickly.

“Now, now. None of that.” Flitwick cast a complicated charm and made himself a floating platform out of air. He stepped onto it and it lifted him several feet in the air, until he was looking down at Bellatrix. “After all, that's what undid your husband.”

Bellatrix bared her teeth. “Don't patronize me old man!” she snapped, pushing Harry behind her for protection.

“Patronize you, patronize you?” Flitwick let out a bark of laughter. “My dear woman, you don't know the meaning of patronize. Who is it that always gets looked over when a new club starts or a new position opens?”

Harry looked up at his mother worriedly. She wasn't looking to good and it had only been a few days since she'd been to the fertility clinic. If she was pregnant all the stress could make her have a miscarriage. With no friends, he'd been spending an awful lot of time in the library reading up on pregnancy, childbirth and infants. “Mum, please, don't let him provoke you.” He said, tugging gently on her robes. But Bellatrix would have none of it.

“Right Filius, I had my teaching hours cut by almost three quarters and my own husband doesn't even trust me in the same room with mudbloods! The war ended years ago!” she yelled, becoming quite angry.

Flitwick spit on the floor. “Severus Snape. Now there's a subject I hate. Who's deputy when Dumbledore's gone and McGonagall's filling in for him? Why, Severus Snape of course. Because it wouldn't make any sense to give the position to the accomplished dueller who's actually has been teaching since before Snape was born!”

Understanding dawned in Bellatrix's eyes. “You're always looked over,” she said, her voice rising above the noise in the hall behind them. Slowly the others turned to the scene playing out between the two professors. “No one talks about you or remembers your class. Your Ravenclaws are more wrapped up in their studies than everyone else and when there was a problem, you had to ask Severus for help.”

The doors to the Great Hall burst open with Professor McGonagall in the lead. Behind her were Professors Sinistra, Burbage, Vector and Trelawney. The Transfiguration professor pointed her raised wand past the drama taking place and ran towards one of the two remaining Dumbledores.

“Watch him!” She called out as he began to shimmer and dust in front of their very eyes. Within seconds he'd disappeared and the bits of dust leftover disappeared quickly afterwards. She scowled at the floor. “Time turner. Why didn't I see it before?”

A wand poked her in the back. “Maybe because you weren't suppose to. Drop the wand and turn around slowly.”

McGonagall let her wand fall to the ground.

The voice gave her another warning. “And if don't even think about changing into a cat. You'll be killed before you can finish transforming.”

Bellatrix felt a wand prod her back to, she dropped her wand and slowly turned around as she was commanded. The sight in the Great Hall was not one she had been expecting.

The Aurors and remaining students were standing in the centre, an odd net encircling them that seemed to limit their movements and resistance. A pile of wands sat on the floor and Flitwick floated above it as he levitated a stunned Mad-Eye Moody and a bound Lucius Malfoy into the enclosure.

There was a wand pointed at her throat and another at McGonagall's. The most startling thing was that it was Professor Victor holding her at wand-point and Sinistra in front of Minerva. And both had nasty, triumphant expressions on their faces. Expressions that Bellatrix had never seen them wear. She hadn't even thought that her colleague could pick flowers for fear of hurting them, let alone hold another person at wand-point.

“Finally ladies.” Flitwick floated his platform down and stepped off of it onto the floor. “Exactly as we planned.” He walked up to the Deputy Headmistress and flicked her in the nose. “We've got them all, to do whatever we want with.”

Vector pushed her wand hard into Bellatrix's chest. “I've been waiting too long for this, scum.” Her eyes flashed as she looked daggers at Bellatrix.

“I don't understand.” Bellatrix looked around the room. “What did we ever do to you? Filius, I've always considered you to be one of my closest friends. You too, Charity.” She nodded toward the Muggle Studies Professor.

Flitwick approached her slowly. “You're one of the worst people I know. Even when confronted with your wrongs, you don't admit to anything.”

Bellatrix was on the verge of tears again. “I don't understand. What did I do wrong?” she begged, wanting more than anything to be relaxing with her family, out of this dangerous and horrible situation.

“The staff of this school is divided. Don't tell me you don't know that.” Vector told her, once again pushing her wand into Bellatrix's chest. “There are those of us that are 'special'. Dumbledore's favourites, if you will. And some of us aren't lucky enough to be part of that exclusive clique. I'm sure you know what I mean.”

Bellatrix felt her shoulders slump and out of the corner of her eye she saw Minerva McGonagall do the same thing. They both knew exactly what these deviant staff members were getting at. Bellatrix, Severus, Minerva, Poppy Pomfrey and Pomona Sprout were all members of the Order of the Phoenix and close friends of Dumbledore's. They included the other staff members and considered themselves friends, but there had always been a clear distinction between the two groups.

“It doesn't have to be like that you know.” McGonagall said desperately. “Filius, I'll be retiring soon and most likely, Severus will take my position and you'll take on his. Changes can be made. Was impersonating the Headmaster and killing Severus really necessary?”

Flitwick turned to her and opened his mouth to answer, but before he could speak a jet of red light hit him between the shoulder and he fell to the ground with Sinistra falling quickly beside him.

Bellatrix spin around quickly and she couldn't believe what she could see. Severus with his wand out and a second later a red bolt came out of the tip and hit Vector. At that moment, the netting broke apart and Severus fell to the ground.

Harry rushed to his father, closely followed by Bellatrix. Severus lay on the ground, crumbled in a heap. But now he breathed and there was a faint fluttering beneath his closed eyelids. Bellatrix collapsed to the ground beside him and took his head into her lap, running her fingers through his long hair and murmuring to herself. Harry sat next to her and leaned against her side, touching his father's hair.

The family remained there for quite some time while McGonagall took control of the situation. Moody was sent back to the Auror headquarters to fill out paperwork while the commander of the squad took control. Part of the reason the Aurors had been so. . .useless, was that Moody had suddenly decided to come along and mess everything up, he took command while the officers were used to working with their own commander's methods. All of his manoeuvres and codes were out of date and the Aurors didn't understand what he was asking them to do.

Tabitha White had the situation well under control. The students who'd been left, save Harry, were sent to the Hospital wing to be checked over. She bound Flitwick and his followers and sent them off with a prisoner retrieval unit while detaining Lucius Malfoy for questioning. All that was left was the last Dumbledore and the Snape family.

“Professor Dumbledore, sir?” She approached the old man carefully. “Who are you, what do you know about what is going on?”

The man who appeared to be Dumbledore clasped his hands together and sat back in his chair. “I certainly cannot say that I know what is going on. But Miss White, I am quite positive I am myself. After all, I failed you in second year Transfiguration for making my shoe turn purple instead of making it disappear and failing to even attend the end of year examination.”

Tabitha White blushed and looked at her own shoes for a moment. “I am sorry Professor. I never should have doubted you.” She released the ropes holding him to the chair and let him up. “I'm afraid I've got some other business to take care of. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.”

Albus Dumbledore inclined his head. “Thank you for making the wizarding world a safer place.” He returned her smile and strode across the floor to exchange words with Minerva. After a moment of whispered words they parted, Dumbledore leaving and Minerva following close on his heels. Both headed in separate directions once they'd left the Great hall.

The Snape family was finally stirred out of their personal moment when Madam Pomfrey finished up in the Hospital wing. She had been told that Severus Snape died and then returned to life and that Bellatrix might have been pregnant. All together it had been vague and rather alarming. She came as quickly as she could and feared it wasn't fast enough.

“Bella, Harry.” Poppy's voice was quiet as she laid gentle hands on their shoulders. “It's time to get up. Come, I'll take you to a bedroom.” She helped the two to their feet, long ago their legs had fallen asleep and both were rather unsteady. Severus was still unconscious and since it would be better to run her diagnostics in the Hospital wing, the Mediwitch simply conjured a stretcher and levitated the unconscious Potion Master onto it.

It was a simple matter for the mediwitch to open up one of the private healing rooms at the back and transfigure three beds from three tissues. She set out pyjamas for Harry and Bellatrix and took the stretcher with Severus floating on it into the main room to examine him. While the other two Snapes collapsed gratefully into beds, she was puzzling over the information now presented to her.

Severus Snape was in perfect heal, save for the fact that he was exhausted and magically drained. There was no sign of his old scars, or that his scars had even existed. Nothing on or in his body suggested that he'd ever been anything other than perfect. The bones he'd broken, the scar tissue built up inside his body over the years. It was as if everything had been replaced with new. He showed no signs of the heart defect she'd spotted in him five years ago, the one he refused to get treated because it would make no difference for many years. Everything in his body was brand new.

Pomfrey sighed and exchanged Severus' clothing for pyjamas with a flick of her wand. She levitated him back onto the stretcher and moved him onto the third bed in the room that was also housing Bellatrix and Harry. She wasn't sure what was going on with him. But the only problem seemed to be exhaustion and low magical levels, in Bellatrix's case, both of these conditions were easily treatable with potions.

***

Harry was the first one to awaken several hours later. He blinked slowly, the past few hours had been rather taxing, both emotionally and physically. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. His parents were lying in separate beds on either side of him, all dressed in Hospital wing pyjamas.

“Mum. Mum!” Harry shook Bellatrix awake. “How's Da? What happened?” he asked rapidly, not even giving her time to completely wake up.

Bellatrix sat up slowly, fending off her intruding son with one hand while she pushed her hair from her eyes with the other. “Harry, please. It can't be time to get up already.” She rolled onto her side to check the clock. The only problem was that she wasn't in her bed and if it hadn't been for her good reflexes then she would have fallen off the bed and onto the floor.

Poppy Pomfrey peered in from the doorway. “Ah, Bellatrix, Harry. You're awake.” She entered the room and handed them both a neatly folded pile of clean clothes. “The house elves brought these up for you. You can leave as soon as you're dressed.”

Harry looked at his father. He was too timid to ask for fear of the answer. He tugged on Bellatrix's pyjama sleeve and gestured with his head towards Severus.

Bellatrix voiced the question. “And Severus? What about him? What happened to him?” she asked, her voice quiet as if that would make everything better.

Poppy smiled, trying to reassure them. “There's nothing wrong as far as I can tell. It actually seems as if his entire body has been replaced. According to his body, he never broke any bones or walked in the sunlight. No marks either.” She traded a significant look with Bellatrix, both of them overjoyed and surprised at the fact.

“That's just. . .amazing!” Bellatrix hugged Harry very tightly. She wanted to hug Severus, but he was sleeping and harry was the next best thing.

Pomfrey nodded. “As soon as he wakes up, he can return to your quarters.” She smiled and handed Bellatrix one of Severus' black robes. “And Bellatrix, congratulations,” she smiled and indicated Bellatrix's stomach.

“It worked?!” Bellatrix asked incredulously. At Poppy's nod she hugged the other woman tightly. “What a day of miracles.”

Harry smiled. I get Da back and a new brother or sister! “Let's go home and celebrate!” he told his mother, rushing to get dressed.

Bellatrix laughed. “Yes Harry, let's. Everything is going to be okay now.”