Severus ignored the pain from the hex—he’d taken far worse injuries in the past, and the way his luck ran would probably take far worse in the future as well—and shot a stunning spell in the direction that the hex had come from even as he dove to the floor. Something flashed behind him, presumably in retaliation, and he rolled to put Albus’ desk between himself and his attacker. Who in Merlin’s name would attack me in the headmaster’s st—?

“Constant vigilance!”

Severus gritted his teeth and pushed himself to his feet. “Alastor, I will murder you in your sleep.”

“I warned you before to watch that mouth. Lucky I didn’t hex you in the middle of the Order meeting.”

His obvious amusement did nothing for Severus’ temper, and if Severus wasn’t damnably certain that Alastor would have a block up well before he could actually cast a spell—and that even Albus wouldn’t be particularly tolerant of a duel in his study—he’d have done his best to return the hex. With interest. My heart does not need this sort of stress at the moment. Besides which, it’s not like maiming him would be particularly noticeable. He did his best to keep the roll of his shoulders to dissipate the stinging discrete.“Why don’t you go find some small mammals to torture? I’m sure the Forbidden Forest has an excellent selection, and the full moon is just lovely tonight.”

Alastor snorted, shaking his head. “Let me guess—you were the lad who would get his fingers burned on a hot cauldron and then poke it again to see if it was still hot.”

Or maybe just give him a reason to use that memory plaque that Sybil got him for Christmas. He opened his mouth to snap back at Alastor and then paused suddenly. Hm. Sybil…. He felt the corners of his mouth twitching upwards, and apparently Alastor saw it as well, because he brought his wand up slightly.

“What are you up to, boy?”

“I’m quite sure that I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now, if you and your paranoia will excuse me, I have an errand to run. Don’t worry, the night is young and there are plenty of other staff members available to harass.”

He could feel Alastor’s glare boring into his back as he stepped around him and left the headmaster’s study—in fact, he more than half expected to get hit with a second hex—but nothing untoward occurred, and before long he was trotting up the steps towards the Divination classroom. Trotting because Alastor wouldn’t easily be able to keep up with him on these steps at that pace, and towards the Divination classroom because Sybil’s quarters were access from the room just below it and he’d finally found an excellent use for that twit.

He took a moment to collect himself when he reached her door and then raised his hand and knocked lightly. “Sybil? Do you have a moment?”

“I’m reading the stars!” she called back.

“Of course you are.” He stood in silence for a moment, and then her door flew open and hit the wall with a bang, a ridiculous amount of incense smoke carrying out into the hall.

“It is fortunate that you have come tonight, for I have foreseen a terrible tragedy in your future. It is the darkness that consumes—”

She hadn’t stopped speaking—or waving her arms about in a ridiculously dramatic manner—Severus had simply stopped listening as he tried to figure out the best way to phrase his…request. There was no point in going overboard; Sybil had mercifully quieted down during Umbridge’s reign, but she’d since regained most of her old flamboyance. He saw no need to encourage her any more. However, as he did want her to take him seriously, this would require some finesse.

“—so tragic,” she finally finished, and he nodded gravely.

“Yes, I can see that. However, it occurred to me this evening that there is a wizard in the castle who is far more in need of your attentions than myself.”

He could practically see her twitch in eagerness as she leaned forward. “Yes? Of whom do you speak? Mr. Potter—”

She was the last thing the brat needed, and he shook his head immediately. “I’m afraid it’s nothing nearly so…obvious. You understand that he couldn’t possibly come to you himself, of course.”

“But of course.”

She looked rather like one of those bobble-head dolls you saw on the three-Knut shelves in toystores, he decided. Especially in that hideous gown. “He would probably be furious to find that I came to you actually. He hardly wants anyone to worry about him.”

She nodded again, still watching him intently. “That’s very noble.”

“Yes, well,” he shrugged. “He’s been dealing with this all on his own for so long…I thought that I should at least bring the potential danger to your attention. I’m not sure if he’ll willingly accept your help—”

“Yes, yes,” she interrupted. “People are often reluctant to accept the words of seers. I’m afraid that I see that sort of behavior quite frequently. It’s simply wizarding nature to deny the dangers of one’s future.”

And also the words of idiots. Although Fudge is still in office despite the Umbridge debacle so I suppose I could be mistaken.

She heaved a sigh that in anyone else he would have termed ridiculously theatrical and then shook her head. “But of whom do you speak? The headmaster is well aware of the dangers that he faces in day to day life, and although I’ve been trying to warn Filius for years about the dangers of ordering a magazine that gets delivered on the third Thursday of the month, he insists on keeping his subscription current.”

Severus didn’t particularly care when Filius got his word puzzles delivered, but in the interests of keeping her cooperative he forced himself to nod sympathetically. “Actually, as it happens I was talking about Professor Moody.”

“Professor M—?” She paused, looking suddenly thoughtful, and he carefully kept any indication of pleasure from his expression as he continued.

“After all, he was an Auror for more than half a century. I’m certain that you can imagine the kinds of enemies he’s made. Dark witches and wizards of all sorts, and there are so many ways that they could come at him. Hogwarts has protections, of course….” He trailed off.

“Oh, yes, but there are ways that they could be circumvented. And when he leaves the grounds…” she shook her head. “You know, I foresaw tragedy for him several months ago, but I fear that…other matters…did not allow me to pursue it as intently as I perhaps should have.” She brightened. “But I can easily rectify that oversight now. Crystal gazing, of course, and maybe the cards.”

“And just imagine the sorts of dreams he must have,” Severus murmured smoothly, and nearly let a triumphant smile slip through as she became positively gleeful.

“Of course! Of course! I’ll have to consider the best way to approach him—well, surely an Auror will be more open to dangers than the average wizard. Especially one with Moody’s reputation.”

“Actually he may be less so.” Severus shook his head. “As I said, he’s been dealing with this on his own for a very long time, and he does have his pride, after all. I’m afraid you’ll have to be quite persistent.”

“Yes.” She tapped her lip lightly. “Yes, you may be right. It would be so much easier if people would just listen to the spirits.”

Severus decided that making any sort of reference to cooking sherry at this point wouldn’t help his case. However much he wanted to. “I suppose. You realize, of course, that he can’t know that I came to you. Having two people trying to help him….” He shook his head again.

“I would never reveal such a thing. And I’m certain that a directed crystal gaze will give me all the reason that I need to approach him on my own.” She shook her head. “More than half a century as an Auror—he could have hundreds of people wishing him all manner of harm.”

“If not thousands. And that’s not even considering the dangers of being a professor. Or of everyday life. All the stairs in the castle that he has to navigate with a crutch….”

She was nearly bouncing now, and he bowed slightly. “Well, I’m certain that you have other things to do this evening besides humoring me, so I’ll take my leave now. Thank you for your assistance.”

“Oh, no thanks are necessary.” She waved a hand in his direction but managed to refrain from actually patting his arm, which he appreciated. “I’m always happy to hear of those in need of my help.”

Severus smirked as her door swung shut with a bang, turning back for the dungeons. Hex me, will you?

* * * * *

“But what do you dream about?!”

Severus made a hasty exit from the mostly-deserted Great Hall before he could start snickering at Alastor’s increasingly desperate attempts to extricate himself from the corner into which Sybil had backed him. His little plan was working far better than expected—three days, and Alastor was already starting to gain a hunted look.

He lips were still turned up as he approached his quarters and found Harry and his two shadows waiting in the corridor.

“—don’t care if you have the password,” Granger was saying. “It is absolutely beyond rude to enter someone’s rooms without invitation!”

“Uh, guys?” the Weasley boy—the only one facing in Severus’ direction—said. “He’s here. He’s…smiling.” There was a note of incipient panic in the boy’s voice.

Severus let his face slip back into its customary scowl. “Smiling? Five points from Gryffindor for such an absolutely absurd notion.”

“Professor,” Harry said with a groan.

Severus opened the panel and stepped inside, waving at the trio to join him. “Inside, all of you.” Tolerating Harry was bad enough for his reputation; he didn’t need rumors of all three of them loitering in the halls outside his rooms spread about. Not to mention that I really need to mention to Albus that Harry knows about being a Horcrux.

Harry and Granger did as they were told with appropriate haste; Weasley followed after much more slowly, with a look on his face that clearly indicated that he didn’t expect to emerge again.

Severus couldn’t tell from the look on Harry’s face whether the boy expected him to remain in the room during the explanation or whether he would prefer to make it in private, but when he turned towards his workroom the boy’s eyes widened slightly, and he supposed that he should at least make the offer of support. “You may call the house elves for tea, if you like.” Granted that dinner had just ended, but they were teenagers, after all. “As I very much doubt that leaving the three of you alone is conducive to keeping my quarters intact, I suppose that I’ll have to forgo experimenting to keep an eye on you.

Granger looked decidedly affronted at that statement—Weasley still looked as though he expected to be reduced to his component parts at any moment, and Severus wasn’t even entirely certain that he’d heard it—but a flash of relief crossed Harry’s face. He would remain, then.

“Uh, Dobby?” Harry called cautiously.

“Master Harry Potter is calling for Dobby?” the house elf asked immediately after he popped in. “Can Dobby do something for Master Harry Potter Sir?”

Granger frowned at Harry, but Harry just winced and shook his head slightly. “Dobby, could you bring us some tea, please. For the four of us?”

“Dobby is always happy to help Master Harry Potter Sir!”

“Harry,” Granger began as soon as he was gone, but before she could finish, the manic elf popped back in with a tea set and a tray piled ridiculously high with sweets.

“Thank you, Dobby,” Harry said as the house elf moved the tray from its precarious position on his shoulder over to the table.

“Master Harry Potter Sir is such a nice wizard—always says please and thank you to Dobby!”

“That elf is barking mad,” Weasley muttered, shaking his head as the creature left again.

“Clearly.” Severus shook his head, surveying the pile of sweets. “And if any of you make yourselves ill on that mess in my quarters, I’ll see to it that you don’t leave Madam Pomfrey’s tender care for a month, do you understand?” Not that he thought that any of them were likely to be thinking of sweets once Harry started talking, but he thought it was best to make his point, just in case.

He got two affirmative responses—one from each of the boys, Weasly having managed to shake off his apparent shock—and another affronted look from Granger as the three children situated themselves around the table. He took the last seat and poured tea quickly before sitting back and waiting for Harry to begin. Fortunately the boy seemed to have put some thought into this, because he didn’t have to wait long.

“Do you remember the other day, when Professor Moody started talking about Horcruxes in DADA?”

“Yeah, sure,” Weasley said. “He forgot our quiz.”

“Well, it turns out that Volde—” Harry glanced over at Severus quickly—“You-know-who, created some. Horcruxes, I mean.”

“Some? More than one?” Granger asked. “Well, Professor Moody did say that it was a dark spell, and I suppose if anyone is going to be working those it’s him. But why did we have to come down here for you to tell us that? And how did you know?”

Trust that one to go directly to the important point.

Harry focused his attention on the tabletop. “Because most of the ones he created, he created on purpose. But there’s one more—at least they’re pretty sure there’s one more—that he made by accident. I, um…me. When he killed my mum. They think that might be why I’m a parselmouth, and why V—You-know-who can reach my mind.”

Well, perhaps he hadn’t put that much thought into explaining the situation. Then again, given the mess that Severus had made of telling him, he should probably refrain from making any sort of judgment.

Both Granger and Weasley were staring openly at Harry, and Harry’s eyes were fixed firmly on the cup of tea in front of him. He clearly wasn’t going to say anything until they did, and they were equally clearly at a loss for words. Dunderheads, the both of them. “Weasley, shut your mouth,” Severus snapped as the silence drew out. “I do not need half-masticated biscuit on my tabletop. And Granger, were you planning to drink that tea or just signal for a passing taxi?”

Granger shook her head and lowered her cup immediately to the table. “How—how long have you known?”

“A couple days. Professor Snape told me.”

“Him?” Weasley asked around a now-closed mouth. Still full of food.

Severus raised his eyebrow. “You’ve met another Professor Snape during your time here?”

“Professor,” Harry muttered under his breath.

He pursed his lips and gestured for Harry to take over the conversation again.

“Professor Snape got some books on Horcruxes out of the library so I can read through them and understand them a little better,” Harry said after a moment. “I was kind of hoping you guys would help me. I mean, maybe there’s something in there that can help me figure out how to…I don’t know, destroy this thing. Well, get it out of me, and then destroy it.”

“We’re your friends,” Granger said immediately.

“Of course we’ll help,” Weasley finished.

Severus relaxed slightly. At least they’re loyal dunderheads.

“Where are the books?”

That was Granger again, ever practical, and Harry, relief obvious on his face, stood up and hurried to Severus’ bookshelf. He’d taken his first look at the books two nights ago and was well aware of where they were being kept.

Severus watched the three of them bend their heads together for a few moments and then pushed himself to his feet. “I do have other work to do tonight…I suppose I can trust the three of you to confine you activities to reading as opposed to destroying my sitting room. I’ll be in my workroom should you need me. When I come out I had best find all my things in precisely the state that I left them, is that understood?”

“Yes, Professor,” Harry agreed. Severus’ imminent departure didn’t seem to worry him nearly as much now that his friends knew about the Horcrux in him and obviously hadn’t decided that he was evil incarnate so Severus didn’t feel overly guilty about leaving them alone for a bit. Not that he wouldn’t leave his workroom door cracked, of course.

Basilisk blood was congealing at the bottom of his cauldron when a light knock on the door interrupted him. “Yes, what?”

“It’s almost curfew,” Harry said. “We’re going to go back to Gryffindor tower.”

He glanced at the clock and then nodded. “A wise idea. Will I be seeing the three of you again down here in the near future?”

“Hermione made this.”

Severus checked that the blood wouldn’t need any tending for several more minutes and then went to join Harry. He could see Granger putting the books away on his bookshelf while Weasley made an attempt at cleaning the table—far more of the pile of sweets was gone than Severus would have believed possible—but his attention returned to Harry as the boy held out a piece of paper. “A schedule? How efficient.”

“She’s been working on revising schedules for us for OWLs…she just added working on Horcruxes too.” He shrugged. “You can tell us which days are okay with you for us to be down here, and we’ll come then.” He gave Severus a pleading look. “It would be easier if we could work down here instead of having detentions some nights, though….”

“Don’t press your luck. It would have been easier on me if you and your little friends had stayed out of the Department of Mysteries in the first place.”

Harry shook his head and sighed. “Well, it was worth a try.”

Severus snorted. “You three had best hurry, unless you want to earn more detentions for being out after curfew. I’ll look over your schedule and let you know tomorrow which days are acceptable. And mind that you discuss nothing that you read tonight—nothing about Horcruxes at all—outside of these quarters, is that clear?”

All three nodded in immediate agreement.

He waited until the door shut behind them before sighing. “Ten points to Gryffindor for...being less dense than usual.” And Merlin help him if any of the rest of the staff found out he’d done that. He’d never hear the end of it.

* * * * *

“Severus, could I speak to you for a few minutes?” Poppy asked.

It’s not as though I’ve ever been able to stop you. “I suppose.” He turned, matching her pace down the corridor. Most of the students—the older ones, at least—were off at Hogsmeade, and the rest were presumably in their common rooms, so there was no one around to overhear their conversation.

“Have you thought any more about a replacement eye?”

“Actually I sent an owl off yesterday to Mr. Allerton, with tentative plans for the Easter hols. He’s assured me that he can create a replacement that will be—outwardly, at least—all-but identical to the one I lost.” Of course, he would believe that when he saw it, but provided that the thing wasn’t bright purple or bulging obviously out of his head, he would probably accept whatever the man created. And it would be worth a few outward differences to have useful abilities like being able to see out of the back of his head, although apparently it took a fairly large and complex structure to be able to see through magical devices like invisibility cloaks.

“That’s good, I’m glad you’re starting to move past this.”

Severus wasn’t certain what replacing his eye meant that he was moving past, but he wasn’t about to ask.

“It occurred to me that perhaps you were right about the sort of people I was bringing in to speak to you.”

Will wonders never cease?

She frowned at him. “Mind you, if you had actually bothered to try and speak to one of them, I’m certain that you would have found the experience beneficial. Still, you were correct in saying that none of them had been subject to the sorts of things that you have…if I had been able to find a therapy group I think that might have helped, but so far I haven’t heard of anything appropriate outside of Romania.”

“I am not going to Romania.”

“I’d rather assumed not. Still, it occurred to me that there is at least one gentleman here who is in a position to understand what you’ve lost, and perhaps he could help you. Alastor.”

No. Oh, no. Absolutely not. Except that Minerva had made the same suggestion…if this was what the two of them had been talking about that day, he was going to enjoy feeding that tabby to the squid. One furry piece at a time.

Poppy clearly misinterpreted the expression on his face, because she patted his arm lightly. “Now, I can understand that you might not want to bring the subject up with him yourself, but—with your permission, of course—I’d be more than happy to speak to him for you.”

“I would prefer that you didn’t.” Severus did his best to keep his tone even. “I would also prefer that you got over this ridiculous notion that I need help. I have been dealing with the repercussions of spying for half of my life. On my own. I am dealing with this—” he gestured at the remains of his left arm—“just as well.”

She stopped walking and turned to face him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Flashbacks would indicate otherwise.”

He had stopped walking as well, and now he glared down at her. “A flashback. One. The incident hasn’t been repeated.”

“And you’ve never had night terrors from what happened?”

Severus gritted his teeth. “I hardly find nightmares unusual.”

“Severus, I told you before, this sort of thing doesn’t usually ‘go away’ on its own. You’re more than intelligent enough to realize that a flashback at the wrong time could get you killed. You or someone else. As a medical professional, and a medical professional at a school, no less, I absolutely cannot just forget about this. No matter how much you might want me to.”

Severus threw up his hands—or his hand and his clamp, anyway—and turned and stalked away. They obviously were never going to agree on the point, and if he had to keep listening to her, he was going to end up hexing her. He was still considering hexing Minerva…bad enough that she’d suggested to him that he talk to Alastor, there had been no need to bring it up with Poppy.

“Severus!” Poppy called after him sharply. “Severus, would it kill you to meet me at least halfway on this?!”

“Yes!” He didn’t slow his pace until he was back in his quarters, at which point he flung himself down in his chair and sighed. His last comment had almost certainly guaranteed that she would be going to Albus with the issue, which he’d much have preferred to avoid, but he had hoped that she’d finally given up on this ridiculous notion of ‘fixing’ him and it had been rather irritating to find out that she hadn’t. Unfortunately, Albus was almost certain back her decision, but…well, at least bringing up the fact that he’d told Harry about being a Horcrux—which he still hadn’t done—might serve as a distraction. Of course, it might also irritate Albus enough that he picked to most irritating mindhealer of the lot to force Severus talk to, but he was almost willing to risk it at this point.

He sighed again and then pushed himself to his feet. Harry and the other two were polishing desks or doing something equally useful in their detention at the moment, which meant that they wouldn’t be paying him a visit anytime soon, and maybe doing some brewing would relax him. He hadn’t tried using any portion of the basilisk eye for amplification purposes, yet, but maybe if he combined that with the Pepper-up potion he'd started yesterday….

A knock at the door to his workroom disturbed him several hours later, and he called for his visitor to enter. Albus, probably, since whoever it was obviously had the password to enter his quarters. Joy.

As expected, Albus entered a moment later. Unexpectedly, Poppy and Alastor followed him in. Poppy looked entirely too pleased with herself; Alastor was glaring hard enough to bore holes in the walls, his arms crossed over his chest. The glare was obviously directed mostly at Severus, and without thinking, Severus took up the same posture in return.

Albus looked back and forth between the two for a moment and then smiled. “Ah. I see we’re all on the same page.”