Severus Snape's day was actually looking up. By some quirk of fortune, he had been scheduled to chaperone the 3rd-5th year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. True, they talked much more than the Gryffindor-Slytherin group, but there were fewer fights to break up, and they were easier to keep an eye on: the Ravenclaws only ever wanted to go to Tomes and Scrolls, and the Hufflepuffs only ever wanted to go to Honeyduke's and The Three Broomsticks, so they were easier to keep track of than his Slytherins, who often tried to sneak into the shadier shops, or the Gryffindors, who were fond of exploring and occasionally vandalizing.

Not only that, but Severus had also thought of a way to partially control the link with his immense occlumency skill; if he focused on separating Potter's thoughts from his, rather than occluding him out completely, he believed that he could keep his secrets. He was trying to think through the practical application for his theory when he felt Harry contact him through the bond.

"Professor?"

Snape started. "Potter? What do you need? If you're just contacting me because your infantile mind needs more stimulus than your friends can give..."

Potter's amusement warmed Severus like hot, frothy butterbeer, not that he'd ever actually admit that. "I actually wondered if you knew a good anti-eavesdropping spell."

Snape thought for a minute. "Muffliatus," he said at last, remembering the creation of that particular spell. "The wand movement is a pass with a very slight curve. You should feel it ripple outward when you cast it; it causes any eavesdroppers to hear only an unidentified buzzing."

"Got it, thanks Professor Sevvie."

Severus was momentarily angry; then he remembered Lily's sparkling eyes as he was tutoring her, calling him the same thing, and felt the boy's bubbling amusement. And suddenly he was not angry any more. Well, he still took ten points from Gryffindor...

Potter giggled and cast the spell, then reassured Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger that they were in no danger of being overheard. Severus stood among barrels of Pepper Imps and Creeping Comfits, keeping an eye on his Hufflepuffs while still managing to listen through the link. Potter's friends were actually tolerable when they were not in his classroom blowing up cauldrons.

Granger was evidently readying herself for a volley of questions, but Weasley, always the blunt one, cut right to the chase.

"Did you actually sleep with Snape?" He managed.

"Ron!" Granger interrupted, despite looking as if she wanted to hear an answer to that as well.

"Yes and no," Potter replied after a long and totally unnecessary thought process. "We didn't have sex or do anything improper, if that's what you're worried about, but I might have fallen asleep on top of him."

"Explain." Granger sounded quite as stern as Molly Weasley, and Severus caught himself wondering if she would and up as her daughter-in-law.

"He figured that his office might be bugged, and he had some really important things to say, so he let me into his quarters. I might have gone into shock. After screaming at him."

"Harry..." Mt. Granger looked as though it were about to erupt.

"What on earth did he tell you?" asked Weasley curiously.

"Um, so you know the prophecy in the DOM?"

"Yeah- Merlin! You mean it's actually real?"

"Yeah, Dumbledore told me the text last year. Basically Voldemort and I have to fight, and one of us will have to die."

Granger's hands flew to her mouth. "Oh, Harry!"

It was Ronald, however, who caught Potter's Slytherin distraction, which honestly surprised Severus. Maybe there was, actually, something rattling around in that thick skull of his. "Hold on. You said Dumbledore told you last year, right? So why were you in shock?"

Hermione's eyes widened. "You were avoiding the question!" she accused. "And you shouldn't scream at a teacher, either, I get that you were upset, but-"

"I wasn't finished," said Harry dully, thoughts whirling. "Look, I can understand if you want to break it off after I tell you," he started. "Just...please let me finish."

"Break what off?" That was Ron.

"Our friendship." Harry closed his eyes briefly, he might have stayed that way forever, but at length Severus broke in to give him a nudge: it would be easier to get it over with, not wait in the middle. The pause would only make the shock of their reaction more painful.

"Why the _ would we do that?!" Ronald exploded, looking horrified at the very thought. Granger reached over and smacked him in the back of the head, and even with the tension in the air, Severus couldn't help a momentary smirk. If he had ever been any doubt about who wore the pants in their relationship, well, he didn't now. Weasley was lucky to have her.

Severus sobered quickly at the next words. "Because until recently, I had a piece of Voldemort's soul in my head."

"Way to break it to them, Harry," Severus commented on a flat attempt to lighten the mood. Potter ignored him.

"You WHAT?" Weasley burst out.

Potter winced, the link tingling with residual horror and humiliation. Severus absently sent him a wave of comforting feelings. "I had a piece of Voldemort's soul in my head," he repeated. "It was in my scar, that's why I had visions all last year, and why he couldn't possess me. And Dumbledore knew!" he ranted. "He knew and he wasn't going to tell me, he was just going to let me die for the greater good, that's why he never actually have me any real training." Harry's shoulders were shaking, his anger and horror and physical nausea pounding over Severus in a wave. The Potions Master was dimly aware of leaning back against the wall of Honeyduke's, struggling to occlude the raw emotion before he was sick.

Hermione looked just as sick as he felt, and Ron was wide-eyed and trembling. "I...its not your fault." Hermione said at last. "I'm not going to break it off, you're nothing like that...thing. Just...it's a little disturbing to think about, you know?"

"Dumbledore was going to let you die?" Ron shouted, tactless as always. Although to be fair, he was justified in being angry.

Potter sighed heavily, gloomy thoughts beginning to subsume the anger. "That was my reaction too."

Granger, if anything, was practical: "Surely there is some way it could be removed? What if he could hear us right now!"

"It's gone already," Potter told them. "It was destroyed by the whole ritual thing. I think the goblins could also have removed it."

"Then why didn't Dumbledore take you to the goblins?"

Potter took a deep swig of his butterbeer; Severus could actually taste it. "I have no idea. Absolutely no idea."

The trio of Gryffindors fell silent. Severus, after somewhat recovering himself, began to walk up and down the isles of Honeyduke's, making sure the Puffs were somewhere in the general vicinity and trying not to think about how they would act after they had actually consumed all the sticky confections they were purchasing. It has been a long time since he had purchased anything more than a sugar quill, and that had been for Mcgonagall, for Yule.

As no one was getting up to mischief, Severus tuned back into the conversation currently being held between the three Gryffindor 6th years. Who needs stimulus now? he thought sardonicly. "So how would a mindlink work?" Granger was saying, fingers twitching as though she wished she had a quill and parchment at hand. Severus was rather concerned when he realized he wasn't sure if it was Potter or himself who thought that her actions were 'cute'. "Can you have mental conversations, or do you just hear his general thoughts? Is there any way to block it or stop it? How long will it last? Is that why you called me 'Miss Granger'? Does the link work all the time or just when you want it to? How did it activate? How-"

"Whoa, Hermione, slow down!" Potter told her at last, Severus sympathizing. "Can you repeat all that?"

Granger reddened and clutched her mug of butterbeer like a lifeline. "How did it activate? I assume that the ritual helped, but it only said 'potential mindlink' and so I didn't think-"

"Wait," Ronald broke in, butterbeer froth still clinging to his upper lip, "I'm still back on 'Snape fancied your mum'?"

Severus groaned. Potter had to tell his friends everything?

Harry sighed. "Yeah. Apparently they were best friends. Then they had a giant fight, and Mum started going out with my dad." Severus was beginning to grow frustrated. It was painful enough to tell Potter that, and he was at least sympathetic. Severus did not want his private love life to become a gossip byte, or, worse still, some tragic, romantic, mushy pity fest to be passed around and forever corrupt his reputation in the process. That is private! Now it's going to be all over the school! Can't you just keep some things to yourself Potter?! Kindly tell Weasley and Granger that they will be rendered into potions ingredients if they gossip. At least Potter was immediately contrite. "Sorry Professor," he muttered aloud.

Severus had to admit he enjoyed the looks on the faces of the two Gryffindors. "He's listening in? Like, right now?"

Severus was compelled to disabuse them of this notion. "I assure you that that is not my intent," he commented through Potter. "The mind link, to answer your question Miss Granger, is permanent and connects us at all times except when one of us is drugged or asleep, although it allows for functional distance."

Granger, as if losing patience with the inability to take proper notes, pulled a muggle pencil from the pocket of her jacket and began to scrawl something on a butterbeer-stained napkin. Weasley pushed his chair back, staring at Potter wide-eyed, as though he had suddenly turned into a thestral, or Black, whichever was worse.

"Um. Excuse me if I'm a little unnerved by this."

"Ron, we all are!" Granger said, finishing whatever she was writing and cramming the napkin into her pocket, then sticking the mugglewriting implement over her ear. An instant later she grabbed another napkin and took out the pencil again to add something to the mess of writing. "But there's nothing we can do to change it, so it's useless to fuss."

"But think about it! We'll never be able to have a quiet moment, or sneak down to the kitchens after curfew, or, anything! Plus Harry can cheat of Snape's brain anytime he feels like it! It's an unfair advantage!"

Granger opened her mouth, but before she could continue the argument, faint apparition pops sounded outside, together with screams. "The attack," she said instead. "We gotta get back to Hogwarts."

Severus instantly refocused on his surroundings. The Death Eaters were much closer to Honeyduke's than The Three Broomsticks, and the students, as well as the general inhabitants of the town, were milling about in panic as Death Eaters shot curses into the crowd. Severus instantly gathered his group of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws around him. "Hogsmeade is being attacked, as I'm sure you can perceive. Everyone under 17, which I assume is all of you, must head back to Hogwarts at once; there is an emergency tunnel in the basement of Honeyduke's that will take you straight to Hogwarts. Prefects, you're in charge of leading everyone back and rounding up stragglers. I have to stay to fight. Go on, hurry up!"

At that moment, the front window of Honeyduke's exploded in a shower of glass, which fell among the baskets of confections like so much macabre sugar candy, and several of the girls screamed. Without looking to see if the students were obeying, Severus turned and bolted for the front door, drawing his wand as he did so.

Outside, the streets of Hogsmeade were a riot of students and citizens running, masked and plainclothes Death Eaters flinging unforgivables at close quarters, and a pitiful detail of aurors trying to defend against at least two score their number.

Severus was instantly in the thick of it, flinging curses himself as he fought to give his students the time to return to Hogwarts. Storefronts were blasted with spells and Death Eaters and citizens fell, until the mäilstrom had abated, by virtue of the fact that there were no more Death Eaters left.

Severus lowered his wand, wand-hand shaking. It was over, at least in this part of town.

"Professor? Are you hurt?"

Severus whirled. It was a Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbott if he recalled correctly; her face was badly gashed, but she was grinning uncontrollably. She'd evidently been fighting alongside him, and Severus was both unimaginatly frustrated at her disobedience and strangely touched by her concern.

"Go back to Hogwarts," he stated, without a trace of his usual vitriol. He was simply too tired! And that was when the memories hit him.

A chill. A feeling as though all the happiness in the world was being sucked away, drop by drop.

Sirius Black was falling backwards through whispering drapery, his back arching with the blasting curse Bellatrix had cast, laughter on his wasted, Azkaban-weary face, as Potter screamed his name. / James Potter, Sirius laughing and nudging a guilty-looking Lupin as a juvenile Snape hung upside down in the air, slowly rotating, Lily whirling and running as he called her something hateful in his humiliation. / the Dark Lord's high, wavering voice as he screamed "Kill the spare!" and Cedric Diggory fell dead. / Sirius Black once again. / Ronald Weasley being struck in the skull with what looked to be an animated, lifesized chess piece. / Quirinus Quirrell"s face twisting into a horrible smile. "Oh, Severus seems just the type, doesn't he, swooping about like an overgrown bat. With him around, who would suspect p-poor, st-stuttering p-professor Q-Quirrell?' / A frankly terrifyingly large snake rearing over him, swaying as it fought to sense without its blinded eyes, as he rammed a sword down its gullet, as one of its fangs broke off in his arm. / Umbridge, her voice dripping like frosting which hadn't set up: "Oh, until it sinks in," as he wrote lines with an illegal contract quill-

Severus gasped, the world swimming into focus as Potter lost consciousness.

"Are you ok, sir?" Hannah repeated louder, and he became aware that she had been shaking him.

"Dementors," he gasped, struggling to suppress his own worst memories. "Dementors in Hogsmeade. AND WHY ARE YOU NOT BACK AT HOGWARTS, MISS ABBOTT!"

Miss Abbott flinched. "I couldn't leave you!"

A peculiar feeling swept over the potion master then, his black eyes widening ever so slightly as he tried to think of what it was, and realized with a shock he hadn't words to describe it. "I-thank you, Miss Abbott." A pause, then Severus got unsteadily to his feet. "Come. You should be back at the castle now; it's not safe."

"What about you, sir?"

"I-I'll live, I was simply taken by surprise. Go on-"

The girl turned in the direction of Hogwarts, turning in shock at Severus's next, ever so quiet words: "And Miss Abbott? Fifty points to Hufflepuff for saving a teacher."

The dementors grew closer, the chill and heaviness in the air so thick it was like wading through syrup. Severus raced down the street, in the direction of the dementors, blasting Death Eaters on the way. And then his heart nearly stopped. The golden trio was in the middle of the road. Potter lay senseless on the cobblestones, while Weasley, still half conscious, levered himself up on his elbow in an attempt to use his wand. Granger stood over them, trying to fight off two Death Eaters and a coven of dementors. And Severus lost it.

Severus Snape had never considered himself, by any stretch of the imagination protective. Loyal, yes. Dangerous, yes. Righteous? Well, it depended. But when he saw the danger his students were in, something snapped. And he forgot the torrent of memories, forgot his mismatched wand, forgot the fact he was outnumbered two to one.

"FENRIR, WALDEN, GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY STUDENTS!" he roared, and then, as a dementor bent over the struggling Weasley, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Nothing happened for a solid minute, except that his wand grew blisteringly hot in his hand. And then a burst of golden light exploded from the tip, coalescing into a blazing golden doe, which bounded towards the dementors surrounding the outnumbered Gryffindors and tore them to shreds of black, slimy cloth and fragments of bone.

The Death Eaters stared at him mute and slack-jawed, and before they knew what was happening, both of them were flat on their backs, bleeding from the throat. Severus was too tired for the "stun only" game the headmaster liked to play.

Then he turned towards the three Gryffindors, oblivious to the other students and citizens staring at him.

"How bad are the injuries?"

"Harry got hit by a nasty cutting curse and Ron's been hit by a few good hexes," she replied automatically, sounding somewhat dazed. "How- patronuses aren't supposed to do that. They can't kill dementors! How did you kill them?"

"I honestly do not know," Severus replied. "Come, let's get you back to the castle."

Granger nodded. Suddenly, her gaze fixed on something behind Severus and her eyes widened. "Professor, behind you!"

Severus whirled- too late. And looked into Alecto Carrow's grinning face as she shouted "Incarcerus!", grabbed his immobilized body, and disapperated.

As Severus was summarily thrown into a call in Riddle Manor, all he could think was that he was so moronic for not watching his back. After all this, he was a prisoner. Not because he'd been outed as a spy, rather, because he had simply let down his guard. It was humiliating!

Severus stewed in sullen silence, cheek pressed against the stone floor and bonds chaffing at his wrists, waiting in the darkness.

He later would not be able to tell how long he lay there, wondering in tense silence when his death would be pronounced.

Some time later, perhaps a few minutes, or a few hours, he was roughly dragged to his feet by a masked Death Eater, not one that he recognized, and was led up through the tortuous passages that connected the dungeons from the remainder of the manor, and dragged into the meeting room, in the center of a gathering, bound and under guard. Around him, hostility or concern glinting through the eye-holes in bone white masks stood other Death Eaters he had known in better days: a lock of distinctive silver-blond hair denoted Lucius Malfoy, and he could see Bellatrix fingering her new wand. He knew that there was a vicious smile concealed behind that mask... It was with satisfaction, however, that he noticed Walden Mcnair had his throat bandaged, dark red fluid leaking from under it slowly. Severus had never taught the Death Eaters the counter to his favourite spell.

"Ssso."

Severus could not help tensing as the Dark Lord began to speak.

"I have called you here today to congratulate you on a job well done: Scrimgeour is well on his way to being out of office. I also, as you might notice, have a secondary reason for calling you. Alecto Carrow has caught a traitor."

Murmers. Severus shifted his weight, absently tugging at his bonds, mind working furiously behind his occlumency shields. He was not going to die here if he could help it.

"...one who I once thought my most loyal," the Dark Lord was saying. That was a lie. He had suspected him ever since he was a scrawny seventeen year old boy, tugging up his sleeve so that he could be Marked. "I give you permission to be as vicious as you want, provided you do not kill him."

The Death Eater standing guard over Severus yanked him roughly, bringing him to his knees. And then they were upon him.

The sport of Death Eaters is too unpleasant to be described. Curses, potions, poison, physical assault, Severus withstood it all, a strange unnatural calmness sweeping over him as it all transpired. There was something almost liberating about not being forced to pretend to partake in the baiting. Agony tore through every fiber of his being, but long bouts of the crucitus under the Dark Lord had hardened him to pain, and the Mauraders had taught him to suffer humiliation in silence. And somehow, perhaps because of the shock, it didn't hurt as much as was usual. And then, at last, when golden stars were exploding in his vision and his knees were too weak to hold him, the Dark Lord called his followers off.

"This, then, is what happens to traitors," he hissed, red eyes glowing unpleasantly. "You will be back with your dear mudblood soon now."

"Poor baby," chipped in Bellatrix, laughing insanely. "You think Dumbledore's gonna save you, don't you. Or perhaps you think you could convince us to let you go?"

"Maybe Dumbledore will send his phœnix to spirit you away." That was Avery.

"Oh, wait, he only does that for Gryffindors!" Bellatrix was pacing, almost licking her lips. "Do you think he even noticed you were gone?"

Severus flinched, trying not to think about that particular possibility. Bellatrix seemed to know she had struck a chord. "Do you think he even cares?" she went on viciously.

It was the Dark Lord who at last quieted her. "Come now, enough. I know you're having fun, but it mustn't take the entire night. After all, there's more on the agenda. Draco, come forward."

Draco took a hesitant step closer, shivering visibly as the Dark Lord hissed not to be afraid.

"I wish to honor you with my Mark," he began, and Severus shuddered as a chill passed over him. A Marking ceremony always meant a death. "But you must first prove yourself."

Severus could predict the next words as though he had said them himself. "Kill Severus Snape."

Draco's nervous grey eyes went wide. Slowly, as if in a dream, he drew his wand, fingering it uncertainly, rolling it in his fingers.

So this is it then, Severus thought, letting his eyes slide shut. Not because he was afraid to meet his death, but because he didn't want to see his godson kill for the first time, to lose that last fragment of innocence that Severus had fought to preserve. The silence stretched out.

"Any last words?" Voldemort hissed mockingly, red eyes, like embers, glittering with anticipation. "Going to cry, Severus? Or beg? I'll make it quicker if you beg..."

Severus knew he couldn't escape; and he was determined not to break. At this point he was fairly in shock. "Go to Hell, Tom."

Voldemort was shocked into silence for approximately a minute, nostrils flaring and slit-like red eyes blazing. Then he screamed in wordless fury. Then, sobering a little, he raised his wand. Severus refused to flinch. "Crucio!"

Severus started, his whole body spasming. Not, however, because of the pain. Because there was no pain.

Severus hadn't thought anything could surprise him more than the ritual. That was, however, before he discovered that he was somehow amune to one of the darkest spells created. To be sure, he still felt the fierceness of the magic bubbling under his skin, but there was no pain. Not at all. Severus's eyes widened. All of a sudden, the utter surreallity of the situation struck him, and an almost unhinged smile twisted lips unaccustomed to humor. Several of the Death Eaters looked distinctly unnerved.

"Was that supposed to hurt?" Severus drawled, cocky as a Gryffindor with his impending death. After all, he would never get the chance to blatantly taunt Lord Voldemort again. At least not in this life.

Voldemort nearly dropped his wand; Severus would almost have been amused if he were not preoccupied with the blood rushing in his ears. "KILL HIM!" he roared at last.

Severus smirked into his livid face. The smirk quickly died away as he saw Draco Malfoy approach him, as if in a dream. He raised his wand, fingers shaking ever so slightly as his father looked on in concern and the other Death Eaters in vague regret or anticipation. Severus closed his eyes, wishing the boy would just get on with it, just end him. He opened one eye as Draco began to say the fatal words. "Avada K-" he broke off, lowering the wand. "I can't!"

There was sudden silence, and Severus knew that the foolish boy had signed his death warrant in that instant. "Crucio!" Voldemort hissed, and Draco collapsed screaming. Severus managed to muster the energy to draw himself to his knees, but not nearly enough to help him. He could only watch as Draco writhed, as Voldemort rolled his wand between his fingers, as Lucius Malfoy stood by, a look of agony on his face. The coward! As if it hurt him to watch as much as it hurt Draco to be under the spell.

"I trust you have learned your lesson?" said Voldemort coldly.

"Yes! Yes I have!"

Severus would have face-palmed if he had had the energy. The boy was digging his grave every word he spoke. "Tom," he began, hoping to distract Voldemort, but though the monster's nostrils flared, he did not look away from his newest toy.

"I've learned I don't ever want to be a murderer, no matter what you do!" Draco went on defiantly. "I've learned that I don't want to grovel- least of all to you! I-"

He was cut short as Voldemort snarled the crucitus again. This time Lucius Malfoy seemed to fight an internal battle with himself, and lose. And the elder Malfoy flung himself protectively over the body of his son.

It was at that moment that he heard it. It was faint, ever so faint at first, just the hint of something just beyond his grasp. Ever so slowly it grew clearer...

It was music. Spine-tingling, glorious, unearthly music. Music that brought with it a hint of honey and palm wine and papyrus in bloom, that made his heart (contrary to popular belief, he did possess such an organ) seem to swell uncomfortably in his breast and a lump to find itself in his throat. It sounded like Fawkes, but lower and more melancholy, which could only mean-

A rustle of feathers interrupted his thoughts. Potter's mind was not so clear when he was in his animagus form, but he distinctly felt worry, disgust for the situation, and concern for Draco, together with the permanent sense of "I'm flying" that always swept over him when he was in the air. Severus had never felt so grateful- or so angry- with the boy.

And then the phœnix landed heavily and somewhat ungainly on his shoulder, gripping it with sharp black talons and flapping his wings as he tried to get a grip on the silk. One wind idly hit him in the head as Harry settled. Severus, being in shock, couldn't find it within him to care.

Harry screeched triumphantly, nearly deafening him, and as Severus grabbed a full handful of both Draco and Lucius's robes. His last thought before he lost consciousness in a storm of electric blue was that the look on Voldemort's snake-like face was definitely going to be a patronus memory for him.