Harry slumped in his seat in Professor Dumbledore's waiting room. How could a day that had started so promisingly fall apart so quickly? This morning he was opening the first real Christmas present he'd ever gotten from his family. He'd spent the morning reading letters from his mother to his father, filling in the gaps in his knowledge about both of the, and then his Godfather had shown up. The fact that he and Snape cordially hated each other had never bothered him before. In fact, it hadn't crossed his mind that Sirius' reaction to the news that Snape was Harry's father would be a problem. Up until the time he'd seen Sirius standing inside the door growling at Snape that is. Harry leaned his head against the back of the chair, letting his mind wander back to the horrendous scene in the hallway earlier.

Harry had been frozen in shock at Sirius' attack; it took him a moment to realize that he'd better get some help before his father was dog food. He ran back toward the Great Hall, intending to get one of the teachers, when Professor Lupin, attention drawn by the ruckus in the hallway, poked his head out of the doorway.

"Professor Lupin! Help me! Sirius..." was all the time Harry had to gasp before Lupin had shot past him toward where Sirius the dog was standing on Snape's prone body. Snape had managed to get one hand in his pocket and withdraw his wand, but was having trouble aiming it. The singe mark on the large black dog's tail showed that Severus had managed to get at least one spell in.

"Sirius! NO!" Lupin tugged determinedly at the dog's collar, dragging him, still snarling and snapping, off of Snape. Severus stood up, face black with fury as he glared at Sirius and Remus.

"Keep him away from me!" Snape aimed a kick at Sirius.

"Father! No, don't hurt him!" Harry grabbed Snape's arm, pulling him slightly off balance and making his kick miss its mark.

"Take him to my office, Remus." By now Dumbledore, attracted by the sounds of discord, had appeared on the scene.

"Come along Severus." Dumbledore led the way to his office by a different hallway, minimizing the chance that they'd run into Sirius and Remus. "Harry, you can go now."

"No sir, I want to stay." Harry wasn't sure that even Dumbledore could keep the two of them from killing each other.

Dumbledore looked at Harry intently, seemingly measuring his resolve.

"Very well, Harry, you may remain here in the waiting room until I call for you."

Which is where Harry had been for the last two hours. During that time he'd been served uncounted cups of tea and cookies by the enchanted tea service in the room, but had neither heard nor seen any sign of either his godfather or his father. Tired of sitting in one place, Harry pushed himself out of the chair and wandered through the elegantly furnished room, looking at the paintings on the walls. Most of the past headmaster's depicted were fast asleep. One, however, watched Harry intently as he made his way around the room. As Harry drew to a stop in front of him, the painting smiled sympathetically at him.

"Wondered when you'd get to me. I've only ever seen one other young person look as world weary as you do, what's the problem?"

Harry peered at the name plate under the painting. ~Gandalf! Surely not!~

"Errr..are you really Gandalf?"

"That is what the name plate says, so I expect I am." Gandalf pulled a pipe from his staff and a pouch from his pocket, poked some tobacco into the bowl of the pipe, lit it, and blew a lazy smoke ring.

"Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings?" Harry had thought that he'd grown used to the surprises that the magical world threw at him, but this was even more odd than usual!

"Yes, that is indeed I." Gandalf's eyes twinkled at him. "Did you have something you wanted to say?" Harry's mouth was half open in astonishment.

"Well yes, that is, if it's not too impertinent." Harry stuttered to a stop, unsure of how he should phrase his question.

"Oh, I doubt that you could ask anything more impertinent than that young fool Peregrin Took used to."

"Are you saying that the stories are true? That there really were hobbits and elves and dwarves and all? And a ring? And the whole story!" Harry was interrupted by a rich chuckle from the picture.

"Steady on there young man.what was your name by the way?"

"Oh, er, Harry, Sir, Harry Potter." Harry flushed a little, ashamed that he had forgotten his manners and not introduced himself.

"Ah yes.another young ringbearer so to speak." Gandalf became quiet, staring intently at Harry for a moment. "Well Harry, some of the stories are indeed true, some of them are fabricated. For example, there were indeed hobbits, dwarves and elves. Still are as a matter of fact." Gandalf's explanation was interrupted as the door to Professor Dumbledore's office finally opened. Professor Lupin's grizzled head peeked out.

"You may come in now Harry."

"Excuse me please. May I come back some time and hear the rest of your story, Mr. Gandalf?" Harry asked as he walked toward the stairs.

"Yes, of course Harry. I will be right here, as I always am." Gandalf watched as Harry leaped up the stairs and brushed past Professor Lupin with a muttered apology. The old wizard blew a lazy smoke ring, thinking as he did so that he'd have to talk with Albus about that young man.

Snape was seated on one side of the room, while Sirius seated across the room from him. Neither one of them appeared to be injured, although neither appeared to be very happy either.

"Ahhh, Harry, why don't you sit down while we discuss what's been decided." Dumbledore watched as Harry entered the room, curious to see which seat he would choose.

Harry looked at his father, and then looked at his godfather. He sat in a chair in the very center of the room, not realizing that he'd placed himself halfway between Severus and Sirius.

Dumbledore carefully hid his grin behind his hand. It was as he'd anticipated. Harry was apparently torn between the two men, they'd have to approach this very carefully for his sake.

"Harry, as you can see, they've chosen to be reasonable about things." Dumbledore was interrupted by an ironic snort from Snape's corner. He frowned briefly at Severus, who subsided. "Sirius will be able to spend the rest of the day here, but then I'm afraid he'll have to move on. There are too many opportunities for him to be sighted if he stays here too long, and you must admit that a cave is not really a suitable place to live in during this weather."

This time the snort came from Sirius' corner. Dumbledore frowned at Sirius, who subsided much as Severus had done. Harry watched this interplay, a sudden thought forming in his mind. There were a lot of similarities between the two men. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, and he looked quickly at Dumbledore, who was watching Harry, a small smile on his face. Dumbledore nodded slightly at Harry, seemingly indicating that his thought was correct. That was a surprise!

"Now, Sirius, obviously you and Harry can't leave the castle and talk, so I suggest the two of you stay in here this afternoon. I'll make sure the house elves know to send your dinners up here. And yes, Harry," Dumbledore raised a hand to quiet Harry as he started to speak, "I'll send Ron, Hermione and Ginny up in a while." Harry closed his mouth and looked down at his hands.

"Severus, the Weasley twins have asked us to stop by the courtyard this afternoon, they have something to show us. Now would be a good time, don't you think?" Albus rose and moved toward the door.

Harry looked toward his father, surprised to see Severus' eyes fixed on him, a faint frown fixed on his face. Was Snape worried about something? Harry turned that thought over in his mind as he watched his father silently leave the room. He didn't turn back toward Sirius until the door closed behind Dumbledore and Snape.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Snape's brow knotted in concern as he and Albus left Dumbledore's office and headed toward the front courtyard.

"Albus, are you sure it's a good idea to leave Harry alone with Black? You know how impulsive Black is."

"I don't think there is anything to worry about Severus. Sirius may be impulsive when it comes to his own welfare, but he would never put Harry at risk."

Severus appeared unconvinced by Dumbledore's statement of trust as he opened the door to the outside for the Headmaster, but he chose not to express his opinion.

The front steps still bore a dusting of white snow from the snow storm several days before, but the courtyard had been practically cleared of snow. In its place were a series of snow forms, some shining white, some shining bright purple, still others a lighter purple with faint sparkles. Fred and George were waiting for them noses bright red from the amount of time they'd spent in the cold air constructing their snow figures.

"What's this? A snow sculpture contest? I've seen better sculptures at a day care center!" Snape knew he was taking his discomfort with Black out on the twins, but was unable to stop himself. Truthfully, he didn't try very hard.

"Now Professor Snape, I'm sure there is a better explanation for this artistry!" Dumbledore nodded reassuringly at the twins.

Fred took a deep breath, glanced at George, and then began with his explanation.

"We stumbled on something that may be useful, but we're not sure why it's happening, and we thought Professor Snape might be able to tell us what's going on. We think there's a reaction of some sort going on, but can't quite tell what it is." Fred sighed in relief as he finished speaking.

"Professor Dumbledore, we think, if we can figure out what's happening that we have found something useful for the war against 'You-Know-Who'." George fiddled with his pocket as he spoke.

"I see. Well then, why don't you show us what you've discovered?" Professor Dumbledore was clearly intrigued at the thought of a new weapon against Voldemort.

"Please come back here, this is rather spectacular, and we don't want either of you to get hurt." George led the way to a slightly lower spot in the lawn.

Fred drew a stone out of his pocket, saying "We want you to draw your own conclusions, so all I can tell you is that the color of the figures is important." Drawing his arm back, he let the rock fly toward a white figure. There was a quiet 'plump' as the stone sank into the snow.

"Weasley, had I wanted to watch you practice your throwing skills I could have observed your last Quidditch practice." Snape was becoming impatient with the seeming uselessness of the exhibition.

"Just wait, Sir, this isn't about my throwing arm." George stepped up next to Fred, a rock in his hand, and let it fly toward a bright purple figure. This stone sank into the snow just as the first one had.

Fred had another rock ready to go, and threw it after George's stone had sunk out of sight in the bright purple figure. Fred's target this time was a lighter purple shape, and as the rock hit it, a loud "WHUMP" sounded. Snow flew in all directions as the figure exploded.

Severus Snape froze in shock. Never in a million years had he expected to see something like this! What in the world had those two been up to?

Dumbledore's reaction was somewhat different. He rubbed his hands lightly together, turned to George, and asked "Do you have another rock handy?"

George nodded silently, handed the rock in his hand to the Headmaster, and stepped back as Dumbledore flung the rock at another light purple figure. It exploded with the same vigor as the first one.

"That is quite impressive indeed. Don't you think so, Severus?" Dumbledore turned to survey the potions professor, who was staring in disbelief at the carnage left behind after the second figure exploded.

"What have you done?" Severus fixed his eyes on the twins, wincing mentally as he considered the mayhem these two could perpetrate with such a potent explosive.

"That's the problem Sir," George said, meeting Snape's gaze directly, "we don't know what the base potion is, so we're not sure why it's exploding like this."

"How could you not know what the"

"Severus," Dumbledore interrupted, "let's continue this conversation inside. Perhaps in your office?"

"Of course, Headmaster." Snape led the way to his chambers, not noticing the puddles his boots made on the stones as they journeyed through the deserted halls. He waved absentmindedly at the door to his classroom with his wand, and ushered his guests through it to the office behind it. Professor Dumbledore settled himself at the desk, waving the Weasley twins into chairs across from him, while Severus levitated a chair in from the classroom and sat down next to Dumbledore.

"Now then, why don't you tell us how you came upon the explosive." Dumbledore leaned across the desk toward the twins, hands clasped lightly before him.

"It started when one of the house elves brought us an apothecary jar of violet goo. The elf said it was from something in your lab. So we really don't know what it is. We played around with it for a long while, but didn't find anything useful." George looked toward Fred at this point, clearly waiting for him to take over the narrative.

"You obtained this from my lab?" Severus had half risen in shock and anger.

"Now, Professor Snape, let them tell their story without interruption." Dumbledore put a calming hand on Snape's arm, encouraging him to sit down.

"It wasn't until I spilled a little of the goo on one of my quills that we realized that it was a mimic. When I looked back down at my work, I suddenly had two quills. One was brown and one was bright purple. We only built one snow figure, the rest were copies." Fred looked toward George, it was his turn now.

"That explains the white and bright purple figures, but I believe there was a third color, wasn't' there?" Dumbledore watched as the boys shared another nervous glance.

"We had some fun making copies of things, and then thought that it would be fun to add some sparkle to the goo. So the night of the ball, we took a little of the stuff and added stardust powder to it, formed it into a rose and put it on the buffet table."

Fred gulped a little, and then spoke. "We were as shocked as everyone else when the table exploded. It had never shown any sign of being explosive before. So Christmas Eve we built some figures in the snow, copied them with some sparkly goo, and waited. But nothing exploded. There was just a little purple smoke every once in a while."

George leaned forward, anxious to finish the tale. "We finally decided to see if it took a blow to set off the explosion. We weren't standing next to the table when the rose exploded, so we didn't know if someone had dropped something on it. You saw the result. The problem is, we have no idea what the potion contains other than the stardust powder."

Snape stared at them in disbelief. The thought that these two had been playing around unknowingly with a powerful explosive for the last several months was mind boggling.

"You knew that it came from my lab, had no idea what it was, and you still played around with it?" Severus knew his voice was rising in anger, but couldn't help himself. "You could have killed yourselves and everyone around you!"

"Severus, we can deal with that later. At this point, the most important thing is to figure out what this compound is, and see what its full capabilities are." Dumbledore looked seriously at the twins, who looked nervously back at him.

"I want you two to go get the rest of the potion and bring all of it down here to Professor Snape." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, watching them hurry away.

"Severus. Do you have any idea what that stuff is?"

Snape was settled deeply into his chair, staring at the ceiling. "You know, the day that I told Harry he was my son, I brewed some pepper up potion for Poppy. For some reason my mind wasn't on what I was doing and it was ruined. That's the only potion I can think of recently that I left for the house elves to clean up. But I can't see what would combine in that to make a powerful explosive."

Fred and George returned, walking carefully, trying not to unsettle the apparently volatile goo in the apothecary jar.

"Here it is, Professor. Will you be able to tell what it is?" George handed it over to Snape.

"I think so. Out, I need to get to work." Snape's mind was already on the problem at hand as he walked into the classroom. "Albus, would you mind."

"Not at all Severus, not at all. Be sure and let me know when you find something out." Albus rose and let himself out of the potions dungeon, chuckling softly to himself. This should keep Severus occupied for the rest of the time Sirius was in the castle!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry watched as Sirius paced another track through the Headmaster's study. Periodically he would stop his wandering, look at Harry, seemingly on the verge of saying something, shake his head, and resume pacing.

"Sirius, please talk to me!" Harry couldn't take any more of this unending movement.

Sirius turned around, stared a moment at him, and then threw himself into the chair across from Harry.

"Sirius, I know you aren't that fond of Professor Snape.." Harry started to say, only to be interrupted by Sirius.

"Not fond! Not Fond? I think that's too mild a word to use Harry. I detest the slimy git! Always have. And the feeling's mutual. I can't believe you didn't tell me about this whole situation! Why didn't you tell me the Dursley's were mistreating you like that! You know I would have come immediately!" Sirius glared at Harry.

"That's exactly why I couldn't tell you! What if you'd tried to help me, and been caught by the ministry of magic? I would never have forgiven myself!" Harry glared back at Sirius, feeling that Black's accusations were unfair.

"That's not important! What's important is that you not only didn't call on me to help you, you didn't even let me know about this whole mess with Snape."

"You would have done the same thing Sirius! You would have charged back here to protect me just like you did last year during the tournament. I didn't want to chance them catching you! I'm not that important!" Harry's face was flushed in anger as he argued with his Godfather.

"What do you mean you're not that important! You're that important to me! And you were jolly well that important to your mother and James too!" Some of the anger left Black's body, and he slumped wearily back in his chair. "Harry, don't keep things like that from me again, ok?"

"I can't promise that Sirius. I won't make a promise I don't know that I can keep. I may not be able to keep that one. I will promise to try not to though." Harry leaned wearily back in his chair also. "Where do we go from here, Sirius?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Snape is my Father, there's no doubt about that now, and you can't stand him. Does that mean that you won't be my godfather any more?" Harry held his body tense, afraid of the answer.

"Of course I'm still your godfather! James and Lily were both good friends of mine. They chose me to be your godfather, and that's what I'll remain. Snape has nothing to do with it! I will say this though, you look so much like Snape did at your age that it's almost uncanny. I can't believe people haven't noticed the resemblance."

"That's one of the things we're working on. Hermione managed to find a spell that can be modified to change a person's appearance for a set period of time. They've tried it on some owls, but Professor McGonagall wants them to try a few more permutations before they try it on me."

"I have every confidence in Minerva; she's the best transfiguration professor they've had in generations. Back to Snape. He gave me a brief account of what's been going on, but it was rather confusing. I'd like to hear what you have to say about the situation too. Maybe I'll have a better chance of understanding it if I have both sides."

For the next several hours Harry talked and talked, telling his godfather about the difficulties of living with the Dursley's, the meeting at the Weasley's house the day he'd arrived there, on and on all the way through to Christmas morning, the owl he'd gotten for Severus, and the box of letters Snape had given him. Sirius interrupted occasionally to ask a question, but for the most part sat silently, watching Harry's face as he told his story.

"You certainly have had an eventful term," Sirius said, rising to open the door in answer to the knock on it. "Ah, Ron, Hermione! Good to see you again! You must be Ron's sister, Ginny!" Sirius motioned them inside and closed the door behind them.

"It's good to see you again, Mr. Black," Ron said as he sat down in a chair near Harry's.

"You look much better than you did last summer!" Hermione meant well, but wasn't known for her tact.

"Thank you Hermione," Sirius' devil-may-care grin came out, causing both Hermione and Ginny to blink a bit in surprise. He certainly was handsome when he smiled! "Harry told me all about the things you've been helping him with. Sounds like you have the charm spell well in hand."

"Not quite ready to use it on Harry yet, but we're getting close," Hermione said with confidence.

"I have no doubt.ahhh..dinner!" Several house elves entered, carrying covered dishes and pitchers of juice. Two elves came behind them, carrying a table. They placed the table in the middle of the room and then stood back while the other elves deposited their plates on it. "How did you happen to think of switching the order of the spells around, Hermione?"

"Well you see, we came back from one of our trips to the library and found Neville stuck walking upside down and backward, and that gave me the idea.."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dinner hour was long over, Harry and his friends had returned to Gryffindor tower and a dark figure slunk silently through the dark hallways of Hogwarts. Reaching the stairs to the dungeon, it paused, listened carefully for a moment, and then darted down them, stopping again to listen at the bottom. Having heard nothing, the figure padded softly to the door of the potions classroom. A faintly discernable clinking came from inside, making it evident that someone was working in there. Sirius resumed his man form and opened the door quietly. Severus was working intently at a pot over a flame, busily stirring first one way and then another. Sirius watched him for a moment, watched the dour, stern expression on his face, and wondered what in the world Lily could have seen in him.

Apparently Snape felt Sirius' eyes on him; he looked up suddenly, still stirring his concoction.

"What do you want Black?" The tone was anything but friendly. Sirius was tempted to leave, but an afternoon of watching his godson's face as he talked about Snape had convinced him that they needed to reach an agreement, for Harry's sake.

"We need to talk." Sirius closed the door behind him and approached the bench where Snape stood.

"I have nothing more to say to you. Mind the dragon bile!"

"I spent the afternoon with Harry." Sirius pulled a chair over from the front row, sat down, and put his feet up on the bench.

"I did know that already!" Snape was torn between irritation that Black was interrupting his experiment, and curiosity about what Harry had said to Black.

"Stop interrupting and let me talk!" Sirius put his feet down with a bang. "Harry told me all about what's been going on. We have a problem. I'm his godfather, legally, if I weren't a hunted man, I would have the final say in all matters pertaining to him. We can't change that, and even if we could, it wouldn't be wise, as you well know. You're his father, but you can't acknowledge him until Voldemort's gone, unless you want to put both yourself and Harry at a greater risk than the two of you already are. "

"What a fascinating description of the obvious, Black," Snape drawled.

"Just shut up, and let me finish!" Sirius paused to gather his thoughts, looking down at his hands. "I love Harry. He is my godson and I will do everything in my power to protect him. Including making sure that you never go near him again if I thought that was necessary. Just wait!" Snape had opened his mouth to make an angry retort, but closed it again and waited for Black to finish. "Unfortunately, I can see that he's already grown very fond of you, so that won't answer. Which means that you and I are going to have to find a way to work together if we aren't going to pull that poor boy apart."

"What do you mean by work together?" Severus' brows were knit as he considered what Black had said, still stirring methodically.

"Just what I said. I can't be here every day to be sure he's safe, that he's not getting himself into danger. You can be. Until my name is cleared, I can't take him for summer vacations, of course, neither can you, but you can make sure that he's placed in a proper place. I expect that he will keep writing to me for advice, and to tell me what he's done, and I won't do anything to destroy the rapport the two of you have started building. But so help me, if you do anything to hurt that boy, I will make you regret it to your dying day!" Sirius had risen from his chair and was leaning across the bench to look directly into Snape's eyes.

"I would never do anything to put my son in danger!" Snape hissed at Black.

"Fine, then we at least agree on that." Sirius looked down into Snape's cauldron as a wisp of purple smoke tickled his nose. "What on earth is that?"

"It's a new formula that may yield an impressive explosive."

"I've never seen anything quite that color.how did you come upon it?" Sirius sniffed enquiringly over the cauldron, trying to discern the different ingredients present. "It smells sort of like Poppy's Pepper Up Potion."

"That would be because that's the base recipe. Now if you don't mind, Black, I'm quite busy."

"Just remember what I said Snape. If you hurt Harry in any way, you'll answer to me!" Sirius slid back into the shape of a dog, padded to the door, nosed it open, and slid through it into the dark corridor beyond.