Albus Dumbledore walked quietly along the lower corridors of Hogwarts. Making his way towards the dungeons, he hummed contemplatively. He reached Severus's door, took out his wand, and muttered a number of incantations to disable the wards. The quiet entrance left the inhabitants undisturbed, so he stood for a moment watching.Severus, Harry and Draco were sitting around the coffee table silently. Eyes closed, they seemed almost asleep. Albus, of course, knew better. He reached out with his mind, carefully probing. Attempting to enter Severus's thoughts, he was immediately set upon. Two forces, twisting and twining around each other, flung him angrily out of Severus. The physical Dumbledore took a step backwards.

'Headmaster, how nice of you to join us,' Snape drawled, blinking as he came back.

Dumbledore smiled at the two boys watching him with horror. 'I feel my question about your lessons is a little pointless now.'

'Apologies, Albus, I didn't have time to let them know it was you before they "came to my defence,"' Snape responded, part contrite, part sarcastic.

'Not to worry, I'm sure I shall recover. After a nice cup of tea, perhaps?' Dumbledore asked Snape, cheerfully.

'Of course.' Calling a house elf, Severus requested tea and coffee. He turned back to the room. 'Do you need them?'

'They may go, of course. Good night boys.'

'Good night, Headmaster,' they chorused. Albus watched them leave, Harry giggling quietly at something Draco had leant over to whisper.

'Oh stop smirking,' Snape growled.

'I am smiling in contentment, Severus. That's very different.'

'Not when it's the contentment that means you were right. Then, Headmaster, it is a smirk.'

'I do enjoy a plan going as it was intended. Which, I assume from my welcome, it is?'

'They're working together with only the occasional death threat. Which was part of your grand scheme. As for the other ... they're better than they were.'

'Much better.'

'Fine. Much better. They threw you out of my head, after all.'

'Severus, we both know I am merely an amateur at Legilimency.'

'We both know that you aren't an amateur at anything you put your mind to.'

'You're too kind, Severus,' Dumbledore replied sedately.

'Don't be ridiculous.'

'To business then? What seems to be the problem?'

'Which problem?'

'Why are you unconvinced about their progress?'

'Because it is entirely relative to which progress you believe they should be making. They are dealing with each other better than I ever believed possible. The combination of their abilities has helped both in Occlumency. However ...'

'What?'

'They are reckless,' Severus exclaimed finally.

'Really?' Dumbledore smiled. 'You don't think Minerva and I ever thought that about you and your contemporaries?'

'We, Albus, were not still at Hogwarts,' Snape growled.

'Alas, we must fight wars when they come to us. I cannot ask Voldemort to wait until they have grown up.'

'We can, however, prevent children from getting involved in it.'

'These children?' Dumbledore was not angry, simply questioning, but Severus sighed nonetheless.

'Draco fell from his broom because Lucius "surprised him" by being in the stands. There is photographic evidence proving that Harry stopped his fall. Neither of them considers this a problem. They will get themselves or each other killed needlessly.'

'Or in your defence. Or in each others.'

'That has nothing to do with it.'

'That, Severus, has everything to do with it. We both felt their power when I came in. Your concern is not that they have it, but that they used it protecting you.'

'I didn't need protection,' he snapped.

'They didn't know that,' Dumbledore answered reasonably.

'Which is exactly what I mean.'

'They would have reacted in exactly the same way had it been you they didn't recognise.'

'I know that, Albus,' Snape retorted sharply. 'They believe someone is in trouble and they react. They react, they don't think. At least Draco used to have some semblance of common sense. Now they're as bad as each other.'

'That's not entirely fair, Severus.'

'It is, however, entirely true,' he replied steadily.

'You must teach them.'

'I seem to recall having this conversation before,' Severus answered dryly. 'Three times in fact. "Severus, dear boy. I'm in need of a Potions master" or an Occlumency teacher for young Mr Potter, or someone to accomplish that simple, insignificant little task of reuniting the houses.'

Dumbledore replied sedately, 'And everything I have asked of you has been accomplished admirably.'

'Flatterer.'

'I never flatter, Severus.'

'I suppose those who know they'll get their way anyway have no real need,' Snape observed, regarding Dumbledore shrewdly.

'As ever, my requests are exactly that.'

'Not when you are perfectly aware that I will agree.'

'That is merely a pleasant bonus. I am always of the belief that you will do the right thing.'

'That's one of the more insufferable things about you, Albus. You retain an entirely unfounded belief in humanity's goodness.'

'Whereas you retain an entirely unfounded belief in its evil. I simply choose to believe in people until they have proven me wrong.'

'And this is why you won't give me the Defence job?' Severus stopped. This was forbidden territory.

Albus sighed. 'Severus ...'

'I know ...'

'We both know why I can't give you that position. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with my trust in you. Which is absolute.'

'Yes.'

'Good.'

'We're all just pawns to you aren't we?' Severus half-smiled when he said this but Dumbledore didn't answer it.

'It would be so much easier that way, Severus.'

'I didn't mean that,' Snape interjected, but too late.

'I sometimes wonder...you have both sides of it... could we have won this war if I commanded the Order the way he commands the Death Eaters?'

'We haven't won yet because there are some things we refuse to do.'

'Exactly. Because I can't see my people as things to be commanded. Do you know what I see when I think of getting my students involved in this?'

'No.'

'Look.'

The word was uttered almost silently, but it was nonetheless a command. Severus broke into the Headmaster's mind.

--Arthur Weasley walked towards him, the corpse of his youngest child in his arms. 'That's the last. Are you happy now?'

Walking through Hogwarts' corridors, empty of the sounds of children.

James and Lily Potter gazing at him accusingly with dead eyes. 'He's just a child.'

Harry standing over the bodies of Ron and Hermione.

Ron and Hermione standing over Harry's body.

Snape pulled himself out hurriedly. 'Albus ...'--

'Is that better or worse than him standing over them? I am a professor, Severus, not a general. Harry thinks I manipulate them. I imagine that his friends believe the same. But these are not decisions I take lightly. If Harry asked for a safe house until it was over I would do my best to find him one. If you asked me for the Defence job and a way out of this war I would, of course, give it to you. But we both know that you won't, and so I can't, regardless of how much I wish it.'

The younger man looked as if he was about to say something. Then a look of pain crossed his face and he slowly put a hand to his other arm. He said nothing. Albus put a gentle hand on Severus's shoulder. It was brushed it off and Snape strode out of the room wrapping his cloak around him like a shield.

Regretful eyes watched him leave.

'So much easier.'