~~~~SS~~~

Severus, this is Minerva. There's been an incident at the school. Please return as soon as possible.

Severus would never understand how he got back to Hogwarts without splinching so much as a hair off his body. He assumed his recent string of less-than-focused apparitions had increased his margin for error; a reality that could be quite depressing if he thought too hard about its meaning.

Since Minerva's message didn't contain any actual information - what had happened, any injuries sustained or where to meet her - and he chose not to waste any time messaging her for it, as soon as Severus reentered the castle, he needed to decide fast where to look for her; narrowing the options down to either the Slytherin common room, Albus's office, or the hospital wing. Following his instincts to head to the hospital wing first, Severus took the stairs two at a time, knowing he'd made the right decision when he saw Minerva frantically pacing outside the infirmary's large wooden doors, waiting for his arrival.

"Oh, Severus! You're finally here!"

Minerva's strained voice, a strange mixture of frustration, fear, and relief, echoed throughout the corridor as Severus rushed past a group of loitering students. It took little imagination to figure out what brought so many students out of bed right before curfew, and Severus used it as an excuse to let out some of his pent-up anxiety.

"Get back to your common room, right now!" he barked over his shoulder, never slowing in his pursuit of his colleague halfway down the corridor. "Or I'll deduct fifty house points from every single one of you!"

The students scattered immediately, colliding into one another to flee their enraged professor as quickly as possible, dropping their books and supplies in the process. Unfortunately, demonstrating his authority over the students did nothing to calm his nerves.

"What happened, Minerva?" He practically yelled, slowing down when he finally approached her. "Slytherins or Harry?"

"They're all going to be fine," she said, not directly answering either of his questions; a deliberate move he suspected. His low growl was more than enough to encourage her to continue. "It was Harry and his friends. Madam Pomfrey has assured me they're going to be fine, and Healer Smithe arrived right before you. As we speak, he's examining Harry."

Severus squinted, in vain, to follow her logic. "Why Healer Smithe? What the bloody hell happened tonight?!"

Minerva's eyes softened for a split second, before hardening again. "According to what I've gathered thus far, the students decided to practice in your classroom. Mr Weasley-"

"I knew he was up to something!" Severus scoffed, his contempt for Harry's best friend obvious. His rage, however, was short-lived and the blood from his face drained instantly when she held out a familiar book: his old Defense Against the Dark Arts book, complete with The Property of the Half-blood Prince scrawled in his messy handwriting on the inside.

Minerva scowled at him over the top of her small glasses perched on her nose. "Mr Weasley discovered an old textbook in your classroom library and had the bright idea of testing out some of the… alterations… made to the standard defense spells, as well as some newer ones created by the owner of the book.

"Of course, I recognized your handwriting as soon as I examined the text in question," she continued, her tone shifting to that of a lecturer, one he recalled all too well from his school days. "I must say, had the Headmaster known you had been dabbling in these types of spells back then, let alone using any of them, he would have suspended you on the spot. And now, to leave them haphazardly lying around in your classroom for any student could find them-"

"I'm sorry, Minerva," he sarcastically interrupted, allowing her critical and judgemental remarks to fuel the fire that was rapidly building within him. "I did not know I was the one on trial here. Shall I remind you I am not violating any school policies by using my old textbooks in my classroom? And, as a highly qualified professor, I would have thought you would value any additional knowledge my helpful additions can provide!

"I will admit, the new spells contained within it were an oversight on my part. At the same time, I believe it's reasonable to assume that no one will break into my classroom after hours to use said book unsupervised. That responsibility falls entirely on the student, or students, in question and I expect they will be punished appropriately.

"Now, if you're finished," he pushed on, "I'd like to know what the bloody hell happened tonight, if anyone was injured, and why Healer Smithe was called in for Harry!"

Despite being nearly out of breath by the end of his tirade, Severus remained calm as he waited for Minerva to finish her explanation of the incident.

"It started as practice for their Friday exams," Minerva began less than a minute later, "by testing out the additions to the spells. Then someone… no one will say who… suggested they test out the newer spells."

Severus closed his eyes to maintain any composure possible, opening them only when he was confident he wouldn't explode. He hadn't opened that particular book in years, so he couldn't recall with any certainty what new spells he'd written in it. However, the Death Eaters actively recruited him during his final year at Hogwarts, meaning the spells he had been experimenting on during that time were far from safe. "How serious were the injuries?"

"Mostly minor cuts and scrapes," Minerva sharply explained. "They had formed smaller groups, by the end, and were no longer all clustered together. Mr Finnegan is in the worst condition of them all. Mr Finch-Fletchley unintentionally struck Mr Finnegan with what appears to be an altered, extremely powerful Bone-Breaking Hex. Mr Finnegan was said to have fallen into the path of the spell that Finch-Fletchley had fired at a practice dummy. Somehow, despite the hex striking him on the shoulder, it caused all the bones in his right arm to shatter, from his clavicle to his fingertips."

Severus felt his stomach lurch. He vividly recalled adding the extra incantation to the basic bone breaking hex to extend the damage into the attached bones. Finnegan had been quite fortunate that the injury stopped at his collarbone, instead of continuing on to his ribs.

"And Harry?" Severus eventually inquired, praying to Merlin he had not got involved. His body couldn't afford another setback right now, and any of those curses could send him back to the hospital and cause his entire next cycle of chemotherapy to be postponed.

Minerva licked her lips. "According to Miss Granger, he mostly observed the activities. But then, towards the end, he threw a few himself. I… I had thought he couldn't access his full magic."

Saddened, Severus sighed. "Even though he has said nothing, I've recently noticed more accidental magic happening around him. Or at least I thought it was accidental magic, but now I'm not so sure. It's possibly breaking through much faster than any of us expected, giving him full use of it again soon." Many thoughts ran through Severus's mind, the most prominent of which was how they had already missed the full moon for December, therefore the earliest they could redo the ritual was on their currently planned date of the seventeenth of January. "Did he get hurt?"

"There have been reports that at the same moment as Mr Finnegan's mishap, a… surge of energy swept through the room, and he fainted. Poppy believes it has something to do with his raw magic," Minerva explained, her voice filled with anguish for the boy they both cared for. "The sudden burst knocked a few other students to the floor, too, but they were thankfully unharmed. Harry, however, did not regain consciousness until he arrived at the hospital wing.

"Physically, Poppy said he will be alright. Like the other students, he sustained a few scrapes and bruises, as well as a bump on his head from the fall. She summoned his muggle healer, who also gave him a clean bill of health but advised us to bring in Healer Smithe to evaluate him magically. Poppy agreed." She hesitated, as if unsure whether she should tell him the rest. Gratefully, Severus did not need to encourage her to go on. "Severus, at least one person has blamed Harry's magic for causing Mr Finnegan to cross paths with Finch-Fletchley's Bone Breaking Hex. Others have claimed that it is impossible to tell because the events occurred almost simultaneously, but Harry overheard and… as you can imagine, it upset him tremendously."

Of course he would, Severus reasoned, especially if another student's safety was jeopardized because of his idiotic use of his magic. Regardless of how bold and impulsive Harry was, he never wanted to cause any harm to others, even to his own detriment. Nevertheless, Severus's rage at Harry's involvement in the matter was not diminished by Harry's imminent guilt. Not only did the Gryffindor openly disregard his Healer's instructions, but he damn well knew who the Half-blood Prince - the name written in the Defense book they used - was, and let them use those spells. This wasn't like his Potions book, where a minor change here or there wasn't likely to hurt anyone. Severus's notes in his defense book typically strengthened the curse, explaining Mr Finnegan's current situation.

"Is there anything else I should know?" Severus demanded, to which his colleague shook her head. Pulling open the hospital wing doors, he added over his shoulder, "I hope you have a fitting punishment ready for your Lions, Minerva. Dare I say, if they were Slytherins, they would have already been expelled."

Without waiting for her response, he stormed inside the bustling infirmary, ready to deal with his son and the mess he and his friends had made.

~~~~HP~~~~

How could I be so stupid?

This was the question Harry kept asking himself as he lay flat on the uncomfortable hospital wing bed, his feet crossed at the ankles, waiting for Healer Smithe to finish his exam. He did not know what the exam entailed because he had stopped listening to all of his doctors after learning about his potential role in Seamus's broken arm and his friends' injuries from his blast of magic. Fortunately, except for Seamus, none of them were seriously injured tonight.

The second question Harry had been asking himself was how something that started as a fun, seemingly harmless activity - one reminiscent of their days in the DA - could have turned so violent? Clearly, he had known how dangerous the spells they were testing could be. He had seen firsthand, through Snape's childhood Potions book, how the changes the professor made to the formulas vastly improved the potion's result, so he should have expected a similar result from the defense spells. In retrospect, he vaguely remembered Snape having to remove some extra spells from the potions book before he gave it to Harry, but the teen had put little thought into how dangerous those spells might have been. And Harry was certain the professor would utter the phrase 'there's the problem, Harry, you never think!' as soon as he found out what happened.

"Well, Harry," the healer said with a genuine smile, "you'll be relieved to hear that, in my professional opinion, everything appears to be fine with your magic. The burst of magic you experienced was likely the same raw magic you experienced over the summer before you started retraining it. The next magical block ritual will resolve this issue, though I recommend you start a rigorous training regimen as soon as you complete your last chemotherapy.

"I'll also speak with Severus about changing your ritual from every three months to every other month. I believe the combination of your new chemotherapy and raw magic is far too potent for a quarterly block. That decision will be contingent on the availability of the more… unusual and hard-to-find ingredients."

Harry frowned. None of those explanations sounded remotely promising. "Can we do the ritual now? So this won't happen again?"

Healer Smithe sadly shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not. We must gather one ingredient during a full moon, which we have already missed for December."

"But I'm going back to the muggle hospital next week!" Frustrated and defeated, Harry swung his legs over the edge of the bed, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "What am I supposed to do if this happens while I'm there? Every treatment is getting harder and harder on my body, and I can feel my magic trying to come out! What if something happens there? How am I going to explain that?!"

When the sympathy in the pair of brown eyes staring at him became too much for Harry, he concentrated on trailing his finger across the wavy pattern on the bedspread.

"I'll talk to Dr Swanson about it and see what she thinks," the healer eventually offered. "I'm confident that between myself, her, and Severus, we'll be able to find a solution-"

"I hope you have a fitting punishment ready for your Lions, Minerva," Snape's booming, rather furious voice radiated into the room, interrupting the healer's instructions. "Dare I say, if they were Slytherins, they would have already been expelled."

Harry jumped at the sound of the hospital wing doors slamming shut, then mentally followed his mentor's heavy footsteps stalking through the room, bracing himself for what was to come. A moment later, a powerful hand violently pulled back the curtain surrounding Harry's bed. Snape's face was as red as Harry expected, but the lecture he expected to receive from the man never came.

"How's he doing?" Snape asked Healer Smithe, dropping unceremoniously into the chair at the foot of Harry's bed with a hard clunk.

Maybe I'm not in as much trouble as I thought, Harry silently hoped to himself. After all, Ron had suggested checking out the book in the first place, and it was Seamus who had cast the first spell out of it. Technically, apart from Harry's use of his magic - which he was sure his own self-inflicted guilt was a worse punishment than anything Snape could dish out - for once he hadn't been the one leading the committed crime. Perhaps that'd be enough to let him off the hook. Doubtful.

Harry sat patiently while the two wizards discussed his prognosis and ideas for keeping his accidental magic under control, proud of himself for not jumping into the conversation unnecessarily. Healer Smithe's first suggested completely moving Harry out of the hospital to have his treatments done at Spinner's End - and Hogwarts in January -, with Dr Swanson and a select nurse or two staying with him. The brief possibility of spending Christmas outside of the hospital brightened Harry's night. Unfortunately, Snape quickly dismissed the idea, reminding them both of the complications he faced during his first round of Cycle B, specifically the seizure and the very real possibility of other serious neurological damage caused by his chemotherapy, neither of which Harry wanted to chance experiencing outside of a medical facility.

By the end of their brainstorming session, the top two contenders they settled on were finding an alternate source for the specific red clay already collected under a full moon - though even Snape's confidence in securing this through the black market seemed low - or devising a set of enchantments to prevent any use of magic in his room, something Harry didn't think was possible without interfering with his muggle medical equipment making his treatment pointless, and neither wizard sounded too sure on it either. No one thought to ask Harry for his opinion on the subject, and while he didn't exactly have much to contribute, he hated being ignored.

It took another two hours for Madam Pomfrey to release Harry, making it well after midnight by the time he and Snape entered their dungeon quarters. To Harry's surprise, Snape never once raised his voice or displayed any outward sign of frustration towards Harry during the entire ordeal in the hospital wing. When Madam Pomfrey lectured them on the signs of concussions to watch out for over the next twenty-four hours, the man sat in his chair with his right ankle resting on his knee, nodding at each item on the list: vomiting, confusion or dizziness, light sensitivity, abnormal sleepiness, and irritability.

Given the late hour and Snape's demeanour, Harry assumed any lecture on the incident would take place in the morning, but he was sorely disappointed. The door had barely finished closing behind the professor when he dangerously growled, "What the bloody hell were you thinking tonight?"

Harry came to a halt not even halfway to his bedroom. "That it's late and we should both get some sleep before talking about this?"

Snape pressed his arms against his torso. "Try again."

Standing in front of the man, Harry wasn't sure which Snape he preferred: irately angry Snape or placid angry Snape. The former, he decided. Not only did his uncle fall into that category, making it familiar territory for him, but this almost quiet version of Snape made Harry feel as if he had let down the man. And while that was something he used to enjoy doing to his aunt and uncle, he never wanted to do it to Snape. Not even unintentionally. His silence must have gone on too long because rather than Snape waiting for him to answer, he spoke again.

"You broke into my classroom."

Harry flinched at the hard emphasis on the second word. "Technically, the door was unlocked," he argued. "By your own definition, technically, we didn't break in."

"Harry James!" Snape's loud warning caused the Gryffindor to take a few steps backwards until he hit the backside of the sofa. If Snape noticed the action, he didn't respond to it beyond continuing his lecture. "Let's try this again. Explain to me how you and your friends went from studying in your room to what I saw at the hospital wing!"

Harry reflected on their night's events. It all started innocently enough: Ron showing off a book - Snape's old book, with expansions and new spells scribbled in the margins - he found in the cupboard while researching their magical creature dueling assignment. Seamus was the one who suggested they try a few out. With everything going on in the news and the school attack, his justification of it being no different from what Harry used to do for the DA meetings made it sound perfectly reasonable. In hindsight, he should have agreed with Hermione about the danger of using unknown spells, and he absolutely should have tried none of them himself, even if he didn't believe his magic would actually work.

"You kind of needed to be there..." Harry trailed off, scratching the side of his face, more to keep his hands busy than to scratch an itch. He raised his head and stared at Snape, glaring at him, waiting for his more appropriate response. It took Harry two failed attempts, opening and closing his mouth like a fish, to realize there was no such answer. "Listen… I'm sorry, Severus. We figured after all the shite going on around us, some… stronger… spells couldn't hurt. And what harm could it really do as long as were practicing on dummies? It was stupid, and we shouldn't have done it-"

"That much is obvious," Snape snapped coldly, and Harry pretended the words didn't sting as much as they did. "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to experiment with spells… spells from an unknown source… not understanding what they are or what they might do?! And that's before adding in your unstable, apparently not-so-accidental magic on top of it!

"Mr Finnegan will be lucky to have a full set of unbroken bones before he leaves for the Christmas holiday! How do you expect Minerva to explain that to his parents?! I know you've never had to worry about the consequences of your actions when you returned home, but some of your classmates have parents who actually care about their children's safety at this school, and the professors absolutely have to deal with them!"

Harry felt as if Snape had slapped him. As if Snape's painfully harsh, yet true, words grew hands and smacked hit him hard on the other side of the narrowing space between them.

"Of course," Harry yelled, defensively. He tried to appear confident, to stand tall and not give Snape the impression that he had the upper hand. He failed miserably. "I knew there had to be something good about living with shitty relatives who fucking hated me. Guess I didn't realize how good I had it there. Maybe I'm…" Harry swallowed down the lump forming in his throat. "...maybe I'd rather be alone, doing whatever the bloody hell I want!"

Harry didn't truly believe the words he spat out to his mentor, but he was too embarrassed at how much Snape's accusation hurt him to take them back.

"Go to your room," Snape said, pointing towards Harry's bedroom. The professor's rage had subsided since they returned, but stuck in his own mind, Harry couldn't pick up on it. "We'll discuss this later."

"Yes, sir," Harry said continuously between his clenched teeth, turning on his heels to his bedroom, never once looking back to see the deep regret uncharacteristically visible on Snape's face.

~~~~SS~~~

Severus stared blankly at his dark bedroom ceiling, ready to go to any length to stop the events of the night from continuously replaying in his mind like an unwanted film. Of course, he'd tried Occlumency to tuck them away for another day, however, for the first time in his adult life, they resisted all five attempts he made, forcing him to resign himself to watching them play out in a torturous emotional loop and making any chance of semi-decent sleep impossible. It took two hours for him to conclude that dealing with his rollercoaster of emotions was the only chance he had of ending the living nightmare.

Fear. It made the most sense to begin with his deeply rooted fear of Harry's safety. The return of his unstable, usable raw magic came with the genuine risk of the magic focusing inward to damage Harry, jeopardizing his newfound remission. He was well aware of all the survivability statistics for Leukemia relapses, so no one needed to inform him how Harry was unlikely to survive another one, especially this close to this last one. While no one said the words out loud, they all knew the most probable outcome of such a scenario.

Helplessness. His helplessness regarding Harry, the Death Eater threat, and Draco was one emotion he constantly carried alongside of him like an unwelcome guest. Tonight, he added the helplessness of his future. What if his alterations to his former defense text had killed one of the students? That had thankfully not occurred, but if one wanted to, it wouldn't take much to persuade the Board of Governors that such an event could occur. When combined with the mysterious dark arts book discovered in his quarters during his interrogation, it could be the push someone needed to remove him from the castle. How could he possibly protect Draco and his Slytherins from Spinner's End? You can't.

Remorse. His remorse over how he handled the situation with Harry tonight weighed heavier on him than any of the others. He never imagined he'd be able to so effortlessly throw Harry's upbringing back into the child's face… into his child's face, or the face of the child he wanted to be his son more than almost anything else in his world. In his mind, the act made him no better than his own father, substituting Tobias's fists for his words to inflict pain on his son.

He rolled onto his side in his bed to check the clock on his bedside table, releasing a hard sigh at the time; quarter to three in the morning, too late to take a sleep potion, too early to get up for the day. Groaning in anticipation of his exhaustion for the remaining two days of term, he pushed himself up out of bed, deciding a cup of tea was his best option for the night.

He crept out of his room, tightening his black dressing gown over his flannel pyjamas, pleased his thick wool socks kept his feet warm and his footsteps quiet. His pace slowed significantly as he approached Harry's lavatory and bedroom, and he completely stopped directly outside of the teen's bedroom door. No light was coming from underneath the door - a good sign he was still asleep - so Severus gently placed his ear on the cold wooden slab to listen for any sign of movement on the other side. He stood there for a solid minute, satisfied that the only sound he could hear was his beating heart, before slowly opening the door.

The air inside the room felt more peaceful than Severus knew Harry had been when he stormed off to his room and off to bed. Set to a scene of Hogwarts' grounds, the enchanted window above Harry's bed cast a soft moonlight down onto the sleeping figure, providing just enough illumination for Severus to see the slight rise and fall of the blanket in sync with Harry's slightly elevated breathing. He resisted the urge to go wake Harry, apologize, beg for his forgiveness, and explain how his words had come from a place of fear. But Severus knew all too well how the stress of days leading up to Harry's inpatient treatment made it difficult for him to sleep, and Severus refused to ruin it for the sake of his own conscience.

The same eerie silence from Harry's room and the corridor followed him into the kitchen. Despite uncharacteristically forgetting his wand in his bedroom, Severus had no issues with making his tea the muggle way. The menial task would help to keep his demons at bay for a little longer. While waiting for the kettle to heat, he selected a chipped mug from the cupboard, sat in his usual spot at the kitchen table facing the doorway to the corridor, and took out the pad of muggle paper he always kept on the table to make a list of everything he needed to do in the days leading up to and during the upcoming holiday:

1. Meet with Dr Swanson, re: Harry's accidental magic solution

2. Wrap gifts purchased tonight - verify enchantments on Harry's again

3. Send out Lupin/Tonks, Minerva, Albus, and Malfoy family gifts

4. Transfigure muggle suit for Christmas Eve - navy to match Mae's dress

5. Pack bag for hospital - exams to mark

6. Pack bag for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

7. Shopping for S.E. for New Year for four - ask about Dudley and Mae

8. Inform Albus about Jugson and Gibbons

The sound of the kettle startled Severus, announcing that his now steaming water was ready for him to make his tea. The kettle and his container of chamomile tea leaves appeared on the table in front of him thanks to a quick wandless levitation charm. Leaving the tea to steep, Severus flipped to a new page in his notepad to create an unabridged list of everything he remembered about his impromptu Death Eater meeting hours earlier. He'd then use those notes as the basis for his report to Albus, redacting anything he didn't think the Headmaster needed to know.

• Inritum facio: created by Talpin and Ash to earn their mark. Removes previously spelt enchantments onto objects or locations. Confirmed T/A used in it Diagon Alley attack. Also used in Godric's Hollow after they were in custody - by whom? Check out who might have helped them create it
• "They're coming for us": targeted by unmarked DEs or incarcerated ones? Believes Talpin & Ash were killed in Azkaban, not suicide, aligns with Draco's (Greyback's) theory. Poison?
• Lived with T/A after MM battle under muggle identities (provided by Ash). Talpin didn't want to hide - attacks DA to prove his power. Someone followed them, moved, attacked via muggle knife before new identities were obtained. Ended up in A&E (Jessica). Been hiding since, but always followed.
• Knows about the Slytherin common room attack, not about the Obcasio sand or dissolving spell used.
• Asked for help: Assumed LM behind it all. Watched = attacks on wards, confirmed by Lucius in previous conversation. Looking for protection - from whom?
• Saw Mae and Harry at the hospital. Assumed elderly muggle couple identities.

As he stared at the last item on his list, a fire deep within him burned. He could only blame himself for this one. If he had been too sloppy and distracted lately to properly protect the two people he loved the most, how could he think he was in any condition to solve this puzzle - one which grew more complicated with each piece discovered? But if not him, who would?

"Hey." A tired, scratchy voice from the kitchen doorway interrupted his negative thoughts.

For the second time in as many minutes, Severus was startled, this time by the sight of Harry leaning against the doorframe. Between Harry's recent significant weight loss, barely hidden beneath his red and grey checkered pyjamas, and the way he rubbed his eyes in the brighter of the kitchen, Harry looked significantly younger than seventeen - closer to fourteen or fifteen -, and nothing like the Harry Potter the Wizarding World would recognize. And yet, at that moment, Severus wasn't thinking about the impact it would have on the teen's body. All he could think was how it would protect him if anyone came looking for him.

In Severus's prolonged silence, Harry asked, "What're you doing up this late? Or I guess this early?"

"Sit." Severus gestured to the chair next to him, as opposed to Harry's usual one on the other side of the table. Wandlessly, he opened the cupboard to summon another mug. Unexpectedly, Harry obeyed; a good sign the teen no longer harboured ill feelings towards him.

After placing the tea leaves and water into the mug, he slid it to the young wizard, who never lifted his unblinking gaze off his hands, now wrapped tightly around the warm ceramic.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Severus sincerely said, though so quietly it surprised him to see Harry's head rise from his cup. "What I said to you was… unacceptable. I can tell you every single thought and fear racing through my mind tonight to justify my words. However, there are no excuses. When I lost my temper, I should not have said what I did."

As the moment and his hanging apology dragged on without Harry so much as moving in acknowledgement, Severus wondered if he had said the words out loud or simply said them in his head. Still, he waited through his embarrassment by slowly rotating his mug while Harry processed his apology.

"I'm sorry too," Harry said just as quietly as Severus, eventually peering up to meet Severus's onyx eyes. "I knew what they were doing, and didn't stop them."

"Let me clarify." The professor extended his hand out and laid it gently on Harry's arm. "While I am concerned about the consequences of you and your friend's actions tonight, my primary concern for you was the intentional use of your magic. For one, until tonight, I was unaware that enough had returned to effectively use. And I know you know better than to risk doing what you did. So, what happened?"

"I'm not sure," Harry muttered, one eye closed as if trying to imagine the event happening right in their kitchen. "It made sense at first… and I was watching from the side of the classroom, but then something inside of me sparked and wanted to join more than anything else. My magic wanted meto join them. And I knew I should have held back… I could have held back if I tried harder… but then I just… I wanted to have some fun with my friends again."

"When did your magic become fully functional?" He asked, tabling the second half for later.

Harry shrugged. "I dunno, exactly. It's been getting more active… nothing like the beginning of the summer, though, and I only half expected it to work at all, but it was like… sitting there, I had to do it."

Severus tipped his head. None of them considered how his magic might react when released from the block. For all they knew, it'd become more violent than before, although Harry's assurance of its less active nature was a promising change. Nevertheless, the encouragement - for lack of a better word - from it that Harry felt as he watched his peers explore the new spells complicated the matter. If his magic continued to accumulate inside of him, the longer he avoided using it, the more dangerous it could become towards him; at least until the next suppression ritual.

"Whose wand did you use tonight?" Severus calmly inquired, half curious and half to test Harry's honesty. If Harry truly had no intention of participating, he had no reason to bring his holly wand. Therefore, if he said he used his own, Severus would know he lied.

"Erm…" Harry's face blanched beneath his sickly pale complexion. "I used Ginny's for a bit… when she took a break… and then Hermione lent me hers because she refused to get involved."

Foolish Gryffindors!

"As Head Girl and one of your best friends, Miss Granger should have known better," Severus warned.

"You have to admit, I can be quite convincing." Harry's lips curved into a small smile. "If it makes you feel any better, she gave me a wicked lecture before she agreed to it. I'm pretty sure she figured if she gave me hers, no one else could because they were off casting, and then she could take hers away and I'd be done."

"She should never give her wand to anyone," Severus stated sternly. "Specifically, to someone who has no organized control over his magic and whose magic has literally harmed him in the past."

"Fair enough," Harry replied. "So, how much trouble are we in?"

Severus flipped his notebook page back to his things-to-do list and added 'discuss consequences with Minerva' to the growing list. "Professor McGonagall will determine the punishment, except for Luna, because the majority involved were Gryffindors. However, seeing as my classroom and property were vandalized, I will get an opinion on the matter."

Harry's grimace almost made Severus spit out his tea. "What about me? Will McGonagall set mine too?"

"No. I'll be handling your punishment," Severus stated, placing his mug down more forcefully than intended. "You are grounded to these quarters for the rest of the term-"

"A whole two days?" Severus raised a single eyebrow in response to Harry's sarcastic challenge and Harry quickly changed his tune, "I meant… the end of term is perfect… I won't be able to see my friends before we leave and they go home for Christmas, but I'll see them after the new year."

The sorrow laced in the teen's words certainly did not go unnoticed. And after everything Harry had sacrificed to his illness, Severus recognized his friends could not be one of them. Harry's friends helped him stay positive, and he needed all the positivity he could get to help overcome his upcoming struggles.

"They may visit you here," Severus amended his punishment. "And it goes without saying, no one may perform magic around you. If your magic is trying to reach out, we don't want to entice it further. Now drink your tea and get back to bed."

It took Harry another ten minutes to finish his cup, then head back to his bedroom, and Severus another fifteen, mostly because he was preoccupied with finishing his notes about Jugson and Gibbons. By the time he was satisfied he'd copied down every detail he could remember from their meeting, he had filled two full pages of the muggle notebook. The next step was to summarize it for Albus and figure out what they could offer to the two missing Death Eaters. But, looking down at his to-do list sitting next to his notebook, Severus decided he'd wait to tell Albus about Jugson and Gibbons until after the new year.

"It's not like they're going anywhere," Severus said to the otherwise silent room, tapping his quill against the top of the notebook, trying to convince himself that prioritizing his family holiday was the right decision. "And they know where to find my letter if they move again in the next fortnight."