Minerva suggested they walk to the headmaster’s office rather than Flooing. Severus was not at all sure it was a wise idea for her to walk all that way, but he was in no real hurry to see the headmaster.

“Professor Snape!”

“Yes?” Severus paused at hearing his name called.

The Slytherin House ghost appeared in the center of the corridor, barring their way. Disconcertingly, the Bloody Baron no longer looked like a silvery projection. His green frock coat was stained with rusty blood stains and the chains that he carried were an all-too-solid black.

His voice was still hollow as he said, “I came to pay my respects to you.” He gave a courtly bow. “And to pledge you my support, should the headmaster’s latest scheme not be to your liking.”

“Thank you, Baron,” Severus said, taking a startled step back. “Although why..?”

The Baron merely smiled. “There has not been a necromancer in these halls since Helga herself walked them...”

Minerva nodded. “I had quite a good talk with Madam Hufflepuff a few days ago.” She turned to Severus. “Did you know that Hufflepuff invented this spell to save the life of Salazar Slytherin? The three founders took back Slytherin’s soul. The necromancy was a great secret.”

“And, of course, Salazar could not bear to live his life so beholden," said a woman's voice sadly.

Minerva and Severus turned. A plump woman was standing behind them. She wore black robes with gold trim, her blonde hair caught up in a black lace snood that was decorated with pearls.

"M-Madam Hufflepuff," stuttered the Bloody Baron. If Severus didn't know better he'd swear the specter sounded frightened.

THe woman smiled gently. "Hello, Waldo," she said softly. "How are you?"

The Baron looked frightened. His already pale face gleamed with a thin sheen of sweat. "I...I'm fine." His voice sounded strained. "How nice to see you."

The witch extended her hand towards the other ghost. "You know, whenever you're ready, you could come with me, Waldo. You needn't stay here."

"I could not," the Baron hissed. "I have..." he glanced quickly at Severus and Minerva, "I have responsibilities."

Severus felt sure he would have said something else, had he and the Transfiguration professor not been standing there.

Madam Hufflepuff sighed, "You have long since discharged those 'responsibilities', Waldo.  It is only your own choice that binds you now."

The Baron took a step back, shaking his head. "I...no...not...not now." He faded away quickly.

The woman sighed. "I wish he wouldn't do that." Her voice was wistful as she stared at the place where the Baron had disappeared. "I wish I could make him understand."

Minerva nodded her head sympathetically. "I am sorry Madam. It's so hard when students have difficult transitions to their next stage."

"Well, nothing to be done about that now." The woman shook herself, turned to Severus and Minerva. "I'm sorry Professor, that I have been unable to have speak with you before now. You left Hogwarts so precipitously and I am bound to my earthly haunts." She smiled in a way that told him her pun was unintentional. "As it were."

Severus could think of nothing to say. "I don't understand," was all he could gulp out.

"Rules." Madam Hufflepuff looked away. "Others may find you because they have a personal connection to you, but I have only the castle left to lead me to you."

"Oh," Severus said blankly, as if he understood.

The woman smiled. "You have rejected binding the child to you. A wise choice."

The Potions master gave her the look he normally reserved for cauldron-melting students. "It was the only choice," he said icily.

Her face turned grave. "It was not your only choice, but it was the best choice. Not many wizards would reject such a thing out of hand. You have a most unselfish heart, sir."

"As you say, Madam," Severus said in his coldest, most civil tone. "Although I doubt any share that opinion."

Minerva spoke up. "Severus, Molly has been writing me daily since she took Ginny home."

"What has she told you?" demanded Severus angrily, cursing his own weakness.

"She has told me that you have refused any and all direct repayments." The old woman looked at him over her spectacles. "The only things you seem willing to trade your soul for are your son's safety and, failing that, your mother's good name. Although a hot cup of tea seems to draw a close second."

Severus opened his mouth, shut it again. Cleared his throat. "I...I just..." He felt weirdly embarrassed by her praise, since nothing he had done was particularly praiseworthy.

Minerva patted his arm. "Don't worry, Severus. We needn't talk about it now." She turned to Madam Hufflepuff. "Can I count on your help, Madam?"

"Of course, Professor," the ghostly founder said graciously, and then faded out.

Minerva and Severus walked on in silence until they reached the stairs to the headmaster's study. Severus was too mortified to ask Minerva what she'd meant.

Minerva muttered the password when they reached the gargoyle. It sprang aside and they made their way onto the moving staircase.

When they reached the top, she gestured to Severus to precede her. He knocked.

"Enter," Dumbledore's voice called.

Lupin sat in one of Dumbledore's squashy armchairs and, next to him in a matching one, drinking tea, sat a thin bedraggled figure.

"Black," said Severus coldly. He was was glad he had been warned. "So, the headmaster has caught you, has he?"

The man gave Severus an unreadable look. "Snape," he said, his voice perfectly neutral. His dirty hair was hanging into his grey eyes.

Apart from those glittering eyes, Black could have been a statue or a waxwork. His cup was held halfway to his mouth, but he seemed transfixed by Severus' presence.

Lupin made a movement as if to leap to his feet, perhaps to get between the two of them, but the headmaster made a small motion with his hand.

Slowly, without changing his expression, Black set his teacup down on the desk and leaned back in his chair. "Actually," his voice was gravelly with disuse, "you missed the Aurors. I've been cleared."

Perhaps, in this one instance, the weakness from the damned spell was an advantage. Severus waited for the tide of rage he felt against this man and his cohort to rise up in his chest, but really all he felt was a faint disappointment that the Ministry had bungled again.

Dumbledore stood up from his chair behind his desk. "Please, Severus, sit down." He waved his wand and added two more of the squashy chintz armchairs. "You as well, Minerva, since you so kindly accompanied Severus."

"Fack off, y' stupid ol' bugger," Minerva said in an accent like an Edinburgh dock worker. She put her hand to her mouth as she sat, with an expression of patently artificial remorse. "I beg your pardon...I mean, of course, Headmaster." She looked towards Severus. "You'll have to forgive me...I sometimes..."

Dumbledore jumped in. "It's fine of course, Minerva," he said gently. "You see, gentlemen, she seems to have developed a sort of aphasia. She can't always control what comes out of her mouth. Madam Pomfrey assures me that it is not permanent."

Severus didn't miss the little wink Minerva sent his way.

The old wizard retook his seat, apparently satisfied that Severus was not about to lunge across the room and kill Black.

"Well, I must tell you the news...we have discovered that Sirius is innocent of the charges brought against him twelve years ago."

Dumbledore paused, as if he were expecting questions or opposition. When none came he went on, seemingly discomfited.

"So, yes. It seems that the real culprit was Peter Pettigrew, who has spent all this time as a rat. You see, he is an unregistered Animagus."

Another bombshell that didn't go off. Severus was surprised, but too tired to say much beyond, "Hmf."

It seemed that Minerva might have heard this from her ghostly informers. "So, the wee little bugger paid more attention to my class than I imagined," she said thoughtfully. "And here I only thought he passed my class because you let him copy, Remus."

Lupin half shrugged. "We...ah...he did have help," he said, looking shamefaced.

"So, we need to talk about Harry," said Black bluntly.

Now the anger did come, but it was a cold, calculating thing, edged with fear.

"What do we need to talk about?" asked Severus tightly.

"Well, a few things actually," Lupin put in smoothly, cutting Black off. "You see, Sirius is aware that you have been looking after Harry. And of course he's very grateful, but he..."

"He is capable of speech himself, is he not?" Minerva interrupted gently. She smiled fondly at Black.

Severus ground his teeth.

"Now, why don't you tell us what it is you wanted to talk about, my dear?" She suddenly seemed to have morphed into Molly at her most maternal.

Lupin, Black and Dumbledore looked at her as if she'd grown a second head.

Black cleared his throat. "Well, I'm the boy's godfather. And the closest known blood relative."

Minerva nodded sagely. "And..?" Her voice was almost cloying.

It seemed that Gryffindors did not care for their Head of House when she was in this mood. Lupin looked as if he would prefer to be anywhere else in the world.

Black, to Severus' surprise, grew more agitated. The scraggly man appeared to be sweating now. He stood, paced up and down the office once, as if collecting his thoughts. "I escaped from Azkaban when I found out that Peter was alive and stalking Harry. I wanted to protect Harry. And after that other boy..."

He wiped the palms of his hands on his trousers as he began pacing the room again. "Well, after I saw in the Prophet that the Longbottom boy had been killed, I started watching Harry, you know. Just keeping an eye on him. I didn't mean for it to happen. For him to actually start talking to me. And then, after he started, I didn't want him to stop, now that he was opening up to someone. I certainly didn't expect him to start looking for me every single day of the week. He's so affection-starved. It seemed harmless enough at the time. I never meant to deceive him but I suppose I needed some human contact, too. I guess I let it go too far."

"Do you mean to tell me you've been meeting with the boy secretly? He's been...talking? To you?" demanded Severus, rising from his chair at the rambling, decidedly creepy, confession. If Black had laid a hand on Harry, he was not going to be responsible for his actions.

Lupin apparently realized what Severus was about. He jumped up between the two of them. "No, Severus, he didn't mean it like that!" Putting both hands on Severus' shoulders and holding them with unnatural strength, he said, "Just show him, for god's sake, Sirius.

With that, Black nodded, and in a twinkling morphed into Harry's huge black familiar.

For a bare second, words failed Severus. Then, "You BASTARD!" Severus tried to push the shorter wizard out of the way, but Lupin fought to keep him away from Black. "Do you have ANY idea what you've done?"

Incensed at how neatly he had been tricked, Severus struggled to get his wrists out of Lupin's firm grip. He realized that Lupin had asked him three times if he might bring "Snuffles" to Spinner's End. When Severus had finally gotten tired of Lupin's harrassment, he had cordially and sarcastically used the ritual words of invitation. As long as Black remained a dog, Severus' wards had recognized him as an invited guest.

If he could have reached his wand in that moment, he would have used an Unforgivable on the both of them.

"Severus...calm down...," Dumbledore said loudly. "I'm sure that once we explain..."

Snape turned sharply, rounding on the headmaster. Lupin let him go, apparently not nearly as interested in protecting Dumbledore. "Not two weeks ago, I found the boy after a very serious attempt at killing himself. No doubt it was at least partly because this-this-this..." Words failed Severus for the moment. He couldn't think of a bad enough word to call Black.  "…Creature was missing and presumed dead. Now he will have to discover that the only living being he's chosen to put that much trust in has been deceiving him the entire time."

Dumbledore stepped back. "What do you mean, Severus?"

"I mean that the 'accident' I told you about was no such thing," The Potions master growled. He stepped forward to stand nose to nose with the man. "You have no idea what the child has been through."

"I do, though," Black said softly from behind him.

Severus wheeled. "And, pray tell, what do you think you know?" he sneered. "Do you know how you're going to explain this latest to him? Do you know how he's likely to take yet another revelation of adults keeping secrets?"

Black crossed his arms over his chest. "I know that you're his father." He looked grim. "I know that Lily..."

"She told you?" gasped Lupin.

Black broke off staring at Severus. "No. But it's obvious, isn't it? I'm shocked you didn't put it together." He gave a little bark of a laugh. "James was my cousin, remember?"

At their blank expressions, the man sighed, ran his fingers through his hair. "James' parents came from pure-blood lines. Both only children. I was going to speak to James about it, but just after his father was killed, Lily announced she was pregnant. One night, before we found out about Voldemort targeting them, Lily was working, so we went to my place. James had a little too much to drink and told me that he was pretty certain the child wasn't actually his. He said he'd found a Muggle pamphlet about infertility in Lily's things. So he asked me to do the testing spell."

"How would you know that sort of spell?" asked Lupin in surprise.

Black smiled bitterly. "I never told you why my parents chucked me out, did I?"

"You just said that you argued with your parents," replied Lupin, clearly not seeing how that was relevant. "I don't understand."

"My mother wanted me to marry Niobe Selwyn, remember?" said Black. "But the Selwyns wouldn't have it unless they were sure I didn't carry the Blight. My mother did the spell and, as it happened, I do." He shrugged. "A lot of the pure-blood families have it that the Blight comes from..." he cleared his throat, glancing at Minerva uneasily, "youthful indiscretions."

Severus snorted. "You mean she thought you caught it from..." He also paused to glance at the Transfiguration professor, opting for a more euphemistic way of putting it, "...sleeping with Muggle girls."

"Chance would've been a fine thing," Black grumbled bitterly. "But yes, she decided I must have 'spent my seed,' as she put it. Of course, my dear brother had no such defect. But he disappeared before his wedding." He turned away, then, to pour himself more tea from the pot on Dumbledore's desk. "Anyway, it's not a difficult spell. So, I tested James."

"So, you knew then?" breathed Lupin. "How did James take it?"

"How do you think he took it?" asked Black impatiently. "We spent the rest of the evening getting blind, stinking drunk." He sighed, his shoulders sagging. "I had to spend the next day talking sense into him. Lucky for him, Lily had a patient with some problems and she didn't get back until the next evening."

"Lucky for him?" asked Severus, confused that Black hadn't shared Potter's outrage.

Black nodded. "It was the only chance of continuing the Potter line, after all. Lily knew that. First we couldn't work out who she'd asked. Then we were worried she had gone and slept with a Muggle. Neither of us could figure it out until Lily told us about Harry had showing his first magic to you."

"The magic always knows," said Minerva quietly.

"That's just an old wives' tale," muttered Severus uncomfortably.

"Well, it made sense actually." Black was being far too reasonable about this, in Severus' opinion. "We all knew how close you two were in school. And then she happened to drop that you're not particularly interested in women." Black looked almost remorseful for a second. "She said she used to let people think you and she were an item because it made it easier for you at home. I'll be honest, that put James a lot more at ease with the whole thing."

Severus had no interest in a dead man's mental health.

"When James and Lily were killed..." Black's voice got very thick. He cleared his throat. "I thought for sure you'd come forward. And Peter...Well, I didn't want him getting away with it. But he faked his death and I got sent to Azkaban."

Lily had told him that it was Pettigrew not Black that had betrayed them. "But you confessed!" Severus cried.

"It was my fault," Sirius said quietly. "I told them to use Peter as their Secret Keeper. He went straight to Voldemort with the information. As for going to prison--I didn't get a trial, remember? And really...for a while I felt like Azkaban was all I deserved, anyway."

Dumbledore nodded gravely. "So you see, Sirius was convicted on the strength of one illegal confession. The Ministry owes Sirius an apology."

"Oh, cummoan y'fackin' ol' wanka," Minerva shouted suddenly, standing and pointing her finger at Dumbldore. "Y' fackin cannae say i's'onny them. Y'only went th'once an y's laat 'nae t'b doon'." She waved her hands dismissively, then her voice dropped and she asserted,  "Ya fackin ol' bastert." She sat back down in her chair. "Pure givin' me the boak," she finished, disgusted.

And then she looked at Sirius. "I'm sorry, Sirius," she went on much more intelligibly. "I knew there was something odd going on, but at the time..." She trailed off. "Well...regardless..." Her voice trailed off and she sniffed.

Severus was getting another headache; this whole meeting was going rather differently than what he'd envisioned.

"Getting back to the point," he said after a long minute in which everyone seemed very intent on not meeting anyone else's eyes. "What did you want to say about Harry?"

Sirius cleared his throat. Dumbledore leaned forward in his chair while Lupin and Minerva both seemed to hold their breaths.

The scruffy man leaned against Dumbldore's desk and stared into his teacup as he spoke. "I just wanted to say that I don't want to get between you and Harry. And I certainly don't want to get this dragged through the press. The boy has been through too much already. I just wondered..." The man grimaced as if he was tasting something very bitter indeed. "I wondered if you might...allow...me to be some part of Harry's life." Finally he lifted his eyes to meet Severus'. "Please?"

For one mad second, all the humiliation he'd ever taken at this man's hands welled up in his mind. All the petty pranks and the one that nearly killed him. The night Potter had rescued him from the werewolf's clutches while Black had jeered and laughed. All of it burned like a newly opened wound in his chest.

This one moment could pay it all back.

Severus straightened up in his chair and looked straight into the other man's tortured eyes. He could hurt Black in a way that allowed for no retaliation.

It took only a moment to come to a decision.

"Yes, Black," he said softly. "If you truly want to help the child, and you're amenable to certain conditions, I'm sure we can make some arrangement."