“So, conditions…” Harry said, after the pause in conversation had become uncomfortably long.

Snape smiled thinly “Firstly, where it concerns the Resurrection Stone You. Will. Do. Exactly. As. I. Say.

"I appreciate that you have learned to rely upon yourself and your own judgement, you were raised to do so during your formative years and trained to do so at Hogwarts- despite my reservations- and, for the last year or so, I do not doubt you have only had Ms Grainger to rely upon, although I suspect that you did not listen to her as well as you should.”

Harry nodded. Yup, couldn’t disagree there, he thought.

“However, Necromancy is technically illegal. I do not doubt that, if you remain on your best behaviour and do not cause any trouble, the Ministry will turn a blind eye- as it does with illegal brewing.”

Harry returned Snape’s rather darkly mischievous smile. Illegal brewing? Resolving to ask about it if the opportunity ever arose, Harry decided to stick to the subject at hand; dead Snape seemed a lot more chilled out and, well, human than living Snape had been (though, with Voldemort out of the picture, the Death Eaters either dead or locked up and Snape, himself, being beyond harm, it wasn’t that surprising) but Harry wasn’t going to presume too much- that would be stupid!

“So, how illegal is necromancy?”

Snape smirked “Technically, Potter. It is not something which a ‘good’ wizard spends too much time dabbling in and, indeed, specialising in necromancy is seen as a sure sign of a very bad wizard indeed. However, just as it is accepted that we all, for example, enchant muggle objects from time to time, necromancy is very much a part of life- especially if a family has a resident ghost. And, to a very limited extent, we teach it here; the Divination NEWT has an optional module for students who have mediumship abilities, NEWT Potions touches on two potions, at least, which are designed to heighten mental abilities and can be tweaked to allow people to see through the veil and Arithmancy has applications as well that are very nearly necromantic. Of course, Necromancy is studied openly in the Ministry and at several European universities, particularly at Loch Lomond”

“Loch Lomond?” The name was not quite familiar.

“A post-graduate school for Druids or ‘Adders’ as they like to be called- the most skilled have the ability to pass between worlds, or so I hear.”

Harry felt fate rest its heavy hands upon his shoulders.

“So, if everyone is doing it..?”

“As a surgeon, you are allowed to take a knife and cut someone open and pull out their entrails.” Snape said dryly “Try doing that outside St Mungos and see how long it takes for the Aurors to descend upon you.”

“Oh, Ok.”

“Now, the type of technically illegal Necromancy which is ignored is either carried out by the Adders as part of their parochial duties or by mediums, provided they do not charge people overmuch. You, however, are not merely able to speak to the dead and relay their messages, Potter.”

“No”

“So I think the most prudent course of action is for you to complete your studies and apply to Loch Lomond.”

“But, Sir” Harry said, his voice small “I wanted to be an Auror” (‘damn, I sound like a little kid!’)

“Do you, Potter?” Snape asked in a hard voice “Do you really wish to deal with violence, on a daily basis, do you really want to devote your life to fighting and killing and see others killed? To dealing with the aftermath of brawls, murder, torture, offences against children? The Dark Lord was a disgusting individual but there are wizards who do worse than kill or torture.”

Harry’s mouth worked “But I’d be protecting people.”

“There is more than one way to save people, boy. You have the skills to become an Auror, it is true; you are fast, agile, a reasonable dueller and you have the talent for making friends. However, you are as subtle as a brick and you are not ruthless, your instincts are to disarm, not destroy. Your father, Potter, survived as an Auror because he was subtle, he was ruthless and he was merciless. Do not throw away your mother’s sacrifice, Potter.”

Harry blanched and Snape’s voice softened “You are more than your father ever was. Become an Adder, Potter; you want to heal people, not kill them. If you did not, you would not be here, now, asking a man whom you have every reason to hate to help you.”

Harry bit his lip. “So, I’ve gotta do what you say with regards to the Stone and become an Adder…”

Snape’s eyebrows bunched “My condition is that you finish your education- if you wish to become an Adder or an Auror afterwards, the decision is up to you.”

“Okay, but what about now. People can’t wait for years, I’ve got to…”

“You do not have to do anything, Potter. You are not a saviour, you are just a boy who has had too much thrust upon you at much too young an age. However, I agree that using the Stone will, indeed, benefit most of the survivors and that, for many of them, time is of the essence. We will speak to McGonagall.”

“I thought you said it had to be done anonymously?”

Snape’s shade gave Harry a very old fashioned look “Potter, if you can think of a way that we will be able to use the Chapel- the most heavily warded area in Hogwarts, which was actually designed by a necromancer- without the Headmistress’ permission, I would like to hear it. I can guarantee you that she will not grant such a request by a hooded and polyjuiced figure. In fact, she will probably…”

“Curse me on sight?” Harry finished “Yeah, okay. But, Sir, Hermione and Ron, they know about the Stone… the Tales of Beedle the Bard, we found out about the Hallows, that they really exist and I have the Elder Wand and the Cloak…”

“But not the Stone. They have not actually seen it and you have not told them that you used it?”

“Well, no” Harry admitted. Sure, he’d told them about meeting Voldemort but his instincts had silenced him as to the bit before, when he had seen his parents, Remus and Sirius. It was too raw, too fresh and, now Harry came to think of it, too dangerous. How could he have told Ron, of all people, that he’d had in his hands an object that would allow him to see his brother again? They’d have been out searching for it before the words had fully left his lips.

“They may suspect but they will not know.”

“They’ll ask, though. Hermione is sure to figure it out!”

“Yes, and though she may be the brightest student to grace Hogwarts since your mother, Potter, it does not take Ms Grainger’s intellect to work out that the most likely candidate for the Necromancer is you. I do not expect it will take half an hour for the news that the Stone has been found to circle the world and, once it is, private collectors and charlatans, the bereaved and, indeed, anti-Necromantics alike will seek the Stone and its owner. Some will offer riches, others threats and some will send out thieves. .  Legilimancy is a rare skill, it is true, but then, there are a large number of very talented legilimens in the world and they are not all in honest employment. Your friends will be targeted, perhaps even tortured.”

 “But, that’d happen to McGonagall too!”

“Professor McGonagall is not only a talented occlumens but very capable of withstanding torture, if she were to be captured, which would take substantial skill, Potter.”

“You mean…”

“Don’t be a child, Potter. Of course. We all were. It is in the past. Now, are you prepared to lie to your friends?”

“I don’t know, I’ve always told them everything, really, it’s, well, honesty is important”

“Not as important as preserving lives, Potter. People say that it takes bravery to tell the truth, perhaps this is correct. But the courage of walking a difficult path alone should not be discounted or underestimated. To lie, even to your friends, even to your family, to protect them is not easy, especially when you are in pain, afraid or uncertain. But if you tell anyone, you will be exposing them not only to the agony of longing, but to those who will wish to take the Stone from you. This is my final condition, Potter. If you want to use the Stone, if you want to sacrifice your life in this way, I will help you but the burden is yours and yours alone.”

 Swallowing, Harry nodded.

“Do you give me your word?”

“Yes Sir.”

Snape smiled grimly. “It was perhaps fitting that the Stone was set in a ring, ever read ‘Lord of the Rings’, Potter.”

Harry looked up “No, Professor.”

“I have a copy in my library, which you may have. It is signed. Now, shall we find Professor McGonagall. I warn you, Potter, this will be a long night.”

“I wasn’t feeling much like sleeping, Sir”

“Nor was I, Potter.”

0o0o0

“So, how should we do this” Harry asked, as they made their way across the silent, empty grounds, where not even the brightening tendrils of sunlight encouraged the songbirds into their normal dawn chorus.

“It may be preferable for you to speak with Professor McGonagall first.” Snape said, with a wry smile “The ground may need to be prepared somewhat. Minerva was always quite adamant that, whereas an everlasting invisibility cloak and an exceptionally powerful wand were both potentially achievable based on our current abilities, the Resurrection Stone was a magical impossibility.”

“You disagreed?”

“I was not entirely… certain but I thought it possible for a Resurrection Stone to be created. It is true, of course, that the Elder Wand of legend could merely have been wielded by a particularly powerful wizard; a wand with a strong core and wood from a particularly powerful tree would, usually, be attracted to someone who could use it to its full potential and, if that wizard were to boast about his fighting prowess and attribute it to his wand, it is entirely possible that the wand’s next owner would assume that his spells would be more powerful due to the wand and, thereby, cast more powerful spells. The placebo effect.”

“Yeah, I guess” Harry replied, resolving to ask Herminie about this placebo effect as soon as possible.

“And the cloak, well, I always did wonder about your cloak, Potter. Your father had inherited it from his father, who, I do not doubt, had also inherited it, yet you were walking around, perfectly invisible, despite even the most expensive of commercially available cloaks wearing out within five years. You do not have the talent to refresh such sophisticated charms nor, I suspect, does Ms Grainger, although I expect that she would be able to master them within a few years of intensive training if she were so lucky as to be accepted as an apprentice to one of the handful or so of artisans who make them. Of course, Dumbledore may have refreshed the spells but, whilst he is, or was, an exceptional wizard, he has never shown any tailoring skills beyond the odd ‘repairo’ and I do not doubt even his charms would be wearing thin after a couple of years. So, yes, I did wonder. It is the invisibility cloak, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Sir” Harry replied “Through the Peveralls”.

Snape looked smug “I am so glad I will be able to see Minerva.” Seeing Harry’s expression Snape added “Sheer pettiness, Potter. To merely know I was right would not have given me one tenth of the satisfaction to know that she knows that I know that she knows I was right. I will not mention it, of course, I will just know and so will she and that will be more than enough.”

Deciding that the inner workings of his former professors’ minds were, really, none of his business, Harry changed the subject. “Didn’t you know that Dumbledore had the Elder Wand, then?”

“No, I knew he had two wands, of course, a mahogany one- very old and quite dark, which he used for everyday magic and another one which he kept on his person, usually secured inside his breast pocket. Although it might have been a memento from one of his parents, I rather imagined it was the one he had taken from Gellert Grindlewald; new Dark Lords simply love getting their grubby hands on the wands of old Dark Lords and Gellert’s wand would have been an object of desire for any new blood supremacist. However, I never suspected that it was the Elder Wand.”

“I wonder why he didn’t mention it”

“I suspect that Dumbledore wished to prevent temptation; if no one knew, no one would try to steal it- or betray, innocently or otherwise, the information to his enemies. Even the newspapers would have tried to wring something damaging out of it; ‘wand of elder, never prosper’ would have been spun out into a prediction of doom!”

“Grindlewald did have it.” Harry confirmed. “He stunned Gregorovich and stole it…. Oh…”

“Why so tragic, Potter?”

“Um, well, Voldemort… er… killed you for it and…”

“Potter, you may have fluff between your ears but I was more than capable of deducing that one doies not need to kill to obtain the allegiance of the elder wand. Of course I knew that Gregorovich had it- everyone knew, he boasted loudly enough to win the custom of practically every Hallows Hound in Europe.” Snape said with a smirk “The fact that Gregorovich had lived after its’ theft was evidence enough that the Elder Wand did not require blood but, as the Dark Lord did not know who the thief was, he showed us all the memory. It was quite clear from that alone- and that was without the fact that Dumbledore also managed to win the wand without having to kill… in truth, I may have sealed my own fate” Snape said dryly “I could have told the Dark Lord the truth about Albus’ ‘fight’ against Grindelwald. It wasn’t even a battle- they shammed one, just to cover their relationship, but the actual defeat was more… metaphysical. As soon as Grinfdelwald knew that Albus was not there to join him, as soon as he realised that the person who he most loved in the world thought he was a monster, he ceased his fearless roar and slipped into his cave, so to speak.”

“I… Dumbledore made it sound…”

“Dumbledore said that, when he arrived, Gellert dismissed his followers and asked him to join them. When he refused, Grindelwald looked away, looked back at him sadly and said ‘There is no point to anything then’. They then staged a light show, blasting off harmless hexes and illusions and Grindelwald took a dive and handed over his wand. It was utterly unbelievable but it was a useful lie that the Ministry of Magic could peddle- people needed good news and witness evidence is notoriously unreliable, people remember what they thought they saw, not what they actually saw.”

“And what they thought they saw was a spectacular battle?”

“Precisely.”

“Did you know then, that they… well… that they were in love?”

“Is this 100 questions, Potter? In the wizarding community, we do not blush and titter about homosexual relationships, they are considered as being, well, no more worthy of note than heterosexual relationships. If a pureblood prefers their own gender, they will simply come to an arrangement with another pureblood of a similar disposition so that they can continue their line.”

Wisely choosing to bite his tongue and not mention Snape’s slight embarrassment (He was still Snape, despite the uncharacteristic chattiness) Harry decided to change tack. “What do you think will happen next year. I mean, no one will have learnt much I imagine, I mean with Voldemort mucking with Hogwarts and telling the Carrows to teach curses and students going into hiding and everything.”

“I shall advise that everyone repeats a year, it will mean an especially large first year and, I suspect, the term will need to begin in the middle of August, to allow for two weeks of remedial work, however, the alternative is to allow an entire generation of children to fail to meet their potential.”

“Yeah…” Harry said thoughtfully

“You will be returning to Hogwarts next year, Potter?”

“I suppose. Though Ron will probably be disappointed. I expect he’ll want to go straight into auror training.”

Snape smirked “Oh, auror training. I do not know whether Mr Weasley is aware of this, Potter, but the first year includes several months of sleeping in hard beds, up at five for fifty laps around the field, several hours of studies, another bout of physical training and bed before seven. And that is the easy part; the training excursions, where recruits have to pretend to be tracking a guerrilla cell of Dark wizard, are well known for the lack of food, lack of sleep and general exposure to the elements. 3 out of 5 recruits drop out in the first two weeks.”

“No… nobody told me that?”

“I also expect that, given the situation on the ground, recruits will be pushed through said training at breakneck speed, meaning 100% exercises and no cold hard beds and lumpy porridge- which will look like the lap of luxury from a damp tent.”

“Because there are so many death eaters still out there?”

“No, Potter, because there are about five aurors alive who did not switch their loyalty to the Dark Lord and thereby commit war crimes for which they are now awaiting trial. The Ministry is going to be running on a skeleton staff for years to come- the Dark Lord killed the quarter who were loyal to Scrimgeour, another quarter fled during Voldemort’s Ministry and the remaining half will be lucky to find themselves outside Azkaban. We are looking at a rather dire situation for the next Minister and a splendid opportunity for any student who graduates with a full set of NEWTS and political aspirations.”

Harry has a horrible thought “Hermione…”

“Will be able to take her pick after she has finished her final year. Her reputation precedes her.”

Silence fell between them, a companionable s silence but silence nonetheless. To stop his brain from detouring down less pleasant paths, Harry allowed himself to wonder at the change in Snape’s personality- Ok, it’d be a bit of a stretch to call it a 180 degree change- he hadn’t turned into Lockheart, thank God! But he was, well, decent company- a slightly snarky but basically good natured human being. But then, Harry thought, perhaps it wasn’t completely surprising; the other teachers had gotten along fine with Snape- even Hagrid liked him and Dumbledore had pretty much trusted him above all others. Before the… before Dumbledore’s death, he and Professor McGonagall had even had a sort of ‘best enemies ’ type of friendship, from what Hermione said and then there had been the friendship between Snape and his mother. Perhaps this was sort of what he’d been like with her?

“I really did waste all those hours when I was teaching you occulmancy, didn’t I Potter’ Snape said wryly “Even someone who was not a legilimens would be able to see what you are thinking”

“Sorry sir” Harry said automatically feeling foolish. Snape was sort of smiling, however, so perhaps he hadn’t taken too much offense.

“Open as the day” Snape added “You are what you are, Potter. There’s no shame in it.”

“Yeah, guess so.” Harry replied “It’s just, you’re not what I was expecting you to be like, I mean, I get that you were a spy and you had to appear to be a g… not very nice but…”

“I would not have lasted long as a teacher if I had been complete and utter bastard to everyone, Potter. Common Room politics are almost as tense as Death Eater meetings. I also was, shall we say, rather less fierce in my lessons with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws.”

“Because the hufflepuffs would… I mean because they’re more sensitive.”

Snape rolled his eyes “Compared to Griffindors and Slytherins, diamond is more sensitive. No, dolt, because they generally work harder, take less risks and listen more attentively. I am afraid that, just as Slytherin and Griffindor were two lovely berries molded onto one stem, their houses are inevitably filled with over-confident, too-clever –by-half-but-too-stupid-by-three-quarters little gamblers. Slytherins are merely more discrete.”

“Oh come on!” Harry started.

“No, Pottrer, you and Malfoy have a lot more I common than you would wish to believe; you are both brave, you are both loyal and you both have terrible tempers. You are also both dishonest, sneaky little rule-breakers. You just had the good fortune not to be a Death Eater’s son, although I will grant that you are a trifle more open minded and a good deal more compassionate, which being raised by Petunia is no small feat.”

“Oh”

“Yes, ‘oh’ and Slytherin and Gryffindor were much the same; both basically decent, kindly and generous men whose similarities drew them together before their differences pulled them apart. Gryffindor was raised in the bosom of a loving half-blood family, Slytherin was an orphan who was abused by his muggle relatives who actually attempted to drown him- luckily, his ability to speak to snakes and the presence of a water-wyrm saved him.”

“Is that why Slytherin hatted muggles?”

“No, that is why Slytherin knew that not everyone was basically good at heart and that children were at risk of abuse in muggle households. It is also why he did his damnedest to protect the school. The argument which broke their friendship was about a muggle child, you know; Gryffindor insisted on sending the child back home for the holidays, Slytherin resisted it and Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw sided with Gryffindor. The child was subsequently murdered by their parents, aided and abetted by a priest. Drowned during a ducking.”

“Shit!”

“Slytherin was not particularly forgiving, nor was he a man to mince words. He told Gryffindor that he was a fool and that his foolishness had caused the death of a child, a legendarily violent row erupted and Slytherin left before he lost his temper.”

“It sounds as if…”

“Let off a killing curse, Potter. That was Slytherin losing his temper. He was a man of great poise and discipline- possibly due to his abusive upbringing- and did not even raise his voice according to the legend”

“Wow… so why, if he cared about muggles, did he leave the basilisk there to get rid of them?”

Snape stopped walking and looked to the heavens “Potter, I am aware that Binns is the worst Professor, with the exception perhaps of Lockheart, who has ever taught at this school as far as sheer inability to impart knowledge is concerned, however, for the sake of my sanity, I would appreciate it if you do not continue to rely on  blood supremacists for your historical information.

 Sighing, Snape continued “Just as every medieval muggle town or city had cannons, walls and a militia, every magical settlement of any size owned a Basilisk and employed a parseltongue or two. Muggles have always outnumbered and, when they have attacked, it has often been a bloodbath; children, squibs, the very elderly and the less powerful amongst us have historically not been able to defend themselves and twenty duellers, firing off one spell at a time, cannot hope to defeat 500 muggle soldiers. A basilisk, on the other hand, can kill an army of 20,000 with a single glance, which is why, for around 800 years, London, Paris, Edinburgh, all kept basilisks- well trained basilisks, with their parseltongue trainers- to protect the citizens from attack.”

“What happened to them?” Harry asked, enthralled

“Some cities still have theirs, though the creatures are retired, so to speak. However, most places lost their basilisk at one point or other during the centuries due to a particularly terrible siege, an accident or illness or even an encounter with a crowing cockerel. Being rare even in antiquity, basilisks were exceptionally difficult to replace and, as they years went by, there were less and less attacks by muggle armies and then, of course, we had the Statute of Secrecy.”

“So the basilisk was there to protect Hogwarts?”

“Yes, I expect Slytherin would have turned in his grave to know the purpose to which the Dark Lord put his pet- I expect he used the imperius; many basilisks are very good natured and I expect Slytherin’s was particularly tame- he was a very careful man.”

“Perhaps I should get around to reading a bit more magical history.” Harry said, a shade embarrassed “Why didn’t Binns teach us any of this? It’s about Hogwarts!”

“As I said, he was never the most inspiring of teachers, even when alive. Too stuck on his beloved Goblin Rebellions and, even then, he was rather too apt to see it from the Wizard perspective.”

They should definitely have a word with him.”

“I expect Binns will be put into retirement; Magical History is one of the areas in need of a complete overhaul. Unless children know the truth, they are merely going to repeat the mistakes of their grandfathers.”

“Perhaps you should teach it Sir, after all, we’ve already had one ghost!”

“Don’t be cheeky, Potter. No, I think that teaching is best left to the living.”

Harry smiled sadly, thinking of all the teachers they’d lost; Dumbledore, Remus, Vector, Snape, even Quirrell, who wasn’t always evil, “Yeah, and I suppose.”

“Every age has its war and every war takes its victims, Potter. It is about saving what you can, not rescuing everyone.”

“It’s still awful, though” Harry said, stepping onto the spiral staircase leading up to the Headmaster’s office.

“Yes, it is. And the fact that you appreciate that is why I am willing to help you.”

Falling silent as they ascended the final steps, Harry could hear Professor McGonagall’s dulcet tones still railing at Snape’s unfortunate painting.

“Here I go” Harry mouthed. Taking a big breath, he knocked hard on the door.

The sound of Minerva McGonagall’s voice on the other side stilled. Harry knocked again- trying to convey, as much as a knock can- that he knew she was there and would keep knocking but in a respectful way.

After a couple of busy seconds, the door opened.

McGonagall was standing beside the Headmaster’s desk, her perfect composure belied only by a slight pinkness around her eyes and the paleness of her skin- otherwise not a hair out of place.

“How may I help you, Mr Potter” she said, her voice slightly husky from the shouting, “It is, of course, after curfew but I suppose that is neither here nor there, in the circumstances.’

Behind the door, Harry heard a slight snort. No one could put you in your place quite like Professor McGonagall.

Deciding not to mince words too much, Harry nevertheless tried to soften his revelation with a bit of background “Professor, I need to talk with you about something very important. In his will, Dumbledore left me… well, something that he thought would help me defeat Voldemort. I didn’t get it until right before I left to… well, face Voldemort, so Ron and Hermione do not know about it; it was hidden in a snitch, you see, and the snitch only opened when I realised that I was the final horcrux and that I… I had to let him kill me.”

“Dear boy!” McGonagall’s face creased in distress.

“It’s the Resurrection Stone.” Harry blurted “Dumbledore gave it to me so that I wouldn’t have to go to Voldemort alone, I saw my parents and Sirius and Remus. I… I have it with me now. I want to use it to help the others, they can say goodbye.”

Minerva looked at him blankly, “You have the Stone? The actual Resurrection Stone? Harry, it’s not a toy, to be played with, if it really does bring back the dead.”

“I know, I know it’s dangerous and that people will want to steal it. That’s why I need your help.”

“But” McGonagall shook her head, some of the blankness leaving her eyes “But, Harry, are you sure? It was such a lot, such a terrible burden, to face Voldemort, to fight him. You would not be the first to, well, not imagine but to feel the presence of loved ones near you. I know you have had some experiences before- the Priori Incantatum- but the Stone is a magical impossibility. Nothing can bring back the truly dead- even ghosts fade eventually, when their magical residue runs out. The truly dead have passed on, their magic returned to… wherever it goes when we die.”

Harry’s mouth worked as he tried to think of an answer which would not completely spill the beans. However, Snape decided that the time was ripe for an intervention.

“Minerva” he said, coming around the door “We really need to have a talk about this whole ‘impossible’ concept that you have!”

“Severus!”

“Yes, tis I” Snape said dryly “Potter has, yet again, got his grubby little paws upon a legendary stone. The Boy Who Lived, The Chosen One, The Master of Death- quite the little attention whore, aren’t you Potter?”

“How dare you!” Minerva snapped, her tears disappearing.

“Er, It’s okay” Harry said quickly “I mean, he’s just being, well, he’s not really being nasty, he’s just being himself.”

“I do not need defending, Potter.”

Minerva swallowed, two dots of pink burning over her raw cheekbones “I want to know exactly what is going on, from the beginning, mind.”

Snape smirked “Well, once upon a time, three brothers were travelling…”

“That’s enough of your smart mouth, Severus!”

‘He’s making her angry on purpose’ Harry thought ‘Winding her up to keep her focus away from his death. Was it so obvious when he did it to me, for all those years? No wonder Dumbledore found it funny!’

Deciding that he should step in before it turned into an argument, Harry said “Dumbledore left me a snitch in his will, enchanted to only open when I held it to my lips and said the correct words ‘I am going to die’; inside was the Resurrection stone. It had belonged to Voldemort’s mother’s family and he’d made it into a Horcrux, not realising what it actually was. Dumbledore got rid of the horcrux but he knew that… well… he knew I was also a Horcrux. When Voldemort tried to kill me as a baby, he was going to make a horcrux but, when the spell backfired, a bit of his soul went into my scar. That’s why it never healed. And why I could speak to snakes and see into his mind and everything.”

McGonagall’s eyebrows had melded with her hairline.

“I think we need to instil a policy of full disclosure between the Headmaster or Headmistress and Heads of House” Snape said wryly.

“Dumbledore told me some of this but… a horcrux, Harry?”

“Yeah, so I had to die, you see, and Dumbledore thought, if my parents were there, it’d be… easier, I suppose. That I wouldn’t be dying alone.”

“I had words with him, Minerva” Snape said darkly.

“I’d have had a few words of my own” McGonagall swallowed “I may still have” she said, looking at Dumbledore’s (conveniently empty) portrait frame.

“However, Potter survived and now has the Resurrection Stone. He came to me for advice”

Minerva blinked “But, why you, Severus?”

“Because I was the only teacher who treated him like a child, not some nascent hero.”

“Aye” Minerva said, her eyes flashing “if that’s what you call being nastier than you needed to be, spy or no!”

“Potter did not wish to burden anyone else with his questions, fearing to hurt their feelings” Snape said in a steely voice “As I have none, I suspect he thought I was the obvious choice for impartial advice.”

Minerva swallowed “I never said that!”

“Forget it, Minnie. All that matters is that Potter- who, you are right I have always treated appallingly- came to me for impartial advice and I have told him that, provided that he followed certain rules, his use of the stone to allow people to say goodbye to those who they lost in the war would be beneficial.”

“Severus, I am sorry…”

“I said forget it!”

“No, I want to talk about it! I should never have believed…”

“Close the door on your way out, would you, Potter?” Snape said, shooting a covertly apologetic look Harry’s way.

“Right!” Harry replied, hurrying towards the exit; a numb bottom and a cold stone step was waaaaaay more comfortable than standing listening to this conversation was going to be.”