A Carol for the Fearless

by orphan_account

Summary:

During his second year at Hogwarts, Severus is told to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. Something about it, though, just doesn't sit right with him. Creating an unlikely trio, he's sets out to discover the truth.

Chapter 1

Early Christmas Eve morning, Severus was woken by his own teeth chattering. Sitting up, his arms immediately broke out in a rash of goose pimples. The room was not just its usual blustery temperature, but downright frigid. Darkly, the twelve-year-old wondered if the elf in charge of stocking the fire had forgotten he was staying for Christmas holidays. It wouldn't surprise him if the elf did, after all, Severus was the only boy in his year staying.

He was the only boy below fourteen staying in the Slytherin house.

It was terribly lonely, but it would be better than going home - or so his mother had told him the week before. That was when she wrote to him insisting he'd be better off at Hogwarts for the holiday as his granny had come down with Dragon Poxs and would need quiet and twenty-four hour care to recover.

This year at home there would be no festivities.

Severus had tried to ask about going to a friend's for Christmas, maybe Quirinus's, but he'd gotten a very pointed note from his granny saying if he dared she'd tan his hide the moment she heard about it because, no proper Prince would spend Christmas hols in a muggle home. It was unheard of, malarky, even. He'd pondered asking Katrina instead, but then he remembered her mother had a terrible habit of insulting his in thinly-veiled ways. That wasn't how Severus wanted to spend his holidays, either. Any attempt on Severus's part in the subsequent days to get his mother to allow him to stay at the Quirrell's had been rebuffed with the argument that Granny was delirious and it would only make her worse if they went behind her back.

His mother was very apologetic about it all, but she did not relent on her decree of Severus not coming home.

So, here he was, stuck at Hogwarts, friendless and in a freezing dorm.

Severus didn't think life could get any worse. Getting up, he hurried in dressing for the day and all but ran from his dorm to the Common Room. There, he found only a smattering of fifth and seventh years hanging around with stacks of books as high as their heads and sheets of parchment a mile long before them as they scribbled away.

Shoulders slumping at the sight, Severus wished his house was more festive - like he heard the Hufflepuffs were. Last week, he'd listened in as a few of them gabbed about decorating the Christmas tree their Head of House had set up for them. It'd sounded so...nice. Severus didn't often regret his sorting, but it was at times like these he did.

His house had just as much solidarity (if not more) than the next house, but they were not the spirited sort. Well, some of them were spirited - meanly, that was. But few Slytherins actually got excited for Christmas and when they did talk about holidays, it was to impress others with where their family would be spending it or about what they'd be getting.

Severus hated it. He wanted to be home with his mum and Granny. He wanted to be helping them decorate the tree and bake cookies. He wanted to go ice skating on the pond with his mother and Severus wanted to sing Christmas carols with his granny as she played the piano. Severus wanted what he had every Christmas, not this Hogwarts bastardization.

No matter how much his mother had assured him he'd like it, Severus knew it wouldn't make up for missing out on his mother's smile or the long evening chats with his granny.

"What are you doing here?"

Severus turned his head.

Standing by the girls' hall was Aurora Sinistra. Frowning at the girl, he replied, "Granny's sick and I was told to stay at Hogwarts. What about you?"

"Dad remarried over the summer, remember? It was in the papers. Anyway, she's a bitch and I'm not spending anymore time with her than I have to," Aurora replied.

Nodding, Severus sighed. She was one of the few who did not harm him with visions of death, but she was standoffish and had an annoying habit of being out after curfew and getting caught. None of her dormmates liked her and Severus was leery about trying to make friends with someone who was so ill favored among their house.

It did not bode well to make friends with outcasts and Severus felt he was far too close to being one himself for him to take a chance on making a friend out of her.

Shuffling his feet, he asked, "Are you going to get breakfast now?"

"Yes, I am," Aurora replied before staring for the way out.

Hurrying after her, Severus questioned, "Are you the only one staying out of the girls?"

"I am," she answered as she kept a step ahead of her fellow Slytherin.

Almost having to run just to keep up, Severus cried, "Slow down, won't you?"

Aurora stopped so quickly he nearly ran into her. Obsidian eyes regarding him cooly, her sepia lips pulled in a sneer. "What in Merlin's name for?" she demanded. "You are not a friend of mine - in fact, you are barely even an acquaintance. Everyone knows you prefer Ravenclaws to Slytherins."

Severus frowned at her. "Just because my best friends are Quirinus and Katrina, doesn't mean I don't like you lot in Slytherin. Things just happened that way."

"Really? How convenient," she sneered.

He scowled. "Is this why the other girls talk about you behind your back? You are awfully rude to someone who's just trying to be polite," Severus snapped.

"In two weeks time, when your mates are back, I'll be no more than a distant memory," Aurora declared, lifting her chin high.

Severus shook his head. "Fine, if you don't want to sit together at breakfast, okay, I don't care. I just thought I'd be ni-ah!" Jumping at the sudden stinging pain that started in his bum, Severus's hands went to his rear as he spun around to see the impish face of Sirius Black.

"Well, hello there, Psycho-Prince," Black laughed.

Glaring at the Gryffindor, Severus reached for his wand. He hadn't even thought of this. Was he going to have to face this arse alone for the next two weeks? Severus didn't have the control to turn the other cheek during the rest of the year without Quirinus's or Katrina's intervention. What was he going to do now?

"Flipendo."

Black gave a loud shout as he was forcefully knocked back a good four or five feet. Turning around, Severus was surprised to see Aurora standing behind him with her wand pointed at Black. Gaping, he started, "Thank-"

"He's a prick and if there's one thing I do know, your mates are going to be awfully upset coming back to Hogwarts in two weeks time to find out you have a month's worth of detentions for dueling with Black. Consider this an act of holiday goodwill," she told Severus before pocketing her wand.

He smiled tentatively, "Thanks, Aurora."

"There's nothing to thank me for," the girl replied before starting for the Great Hall again.

Leaving behind the groaning Black, Severus hurried to catch up with Aurora and this time, she let him.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Christmas morning found Severus frowning with a pile of brightly wrapped gifts in front of him, and letters from his friends gripped tightly in his hands. There was something suspicious going on, he thought. Katrina had written, along with her present, a message about how her mother had been unusually short with her since she'd come home and that she was annoyed her older brother had chosen to go to Italy for Christmas with friends over being home to listen to her stories from Hogwarts. For his part, Quirinus had asked if his father was at Hogwarts because his mother had been crying last night and his father wasn't home this morning and when he'd asked his mother where his father was, she'd gotten teary eyed and left the living room.

Severus knew he had a letter from his mother and granny somewhere mixed in with his presents, but Severus didn't trust them. For the first time in his life, the boy believed his mother had willfully lied to him about something. What that lie was, however, was beyond Severus.

He knew he'd figure it out in time, Merlin willing.

"Are you ever going to open any of those?"

Blinking, Severus lifted his head to meet the dark glare of Aurora, who had only one gift in front of her. Severus immediately felt embarrassed and started to rip away the paper of one of the presents. It was sweater, green with gray stripes. Staring at it for a while, Severus put it aside and sighed at the sight of the other, brightly wrapped gifts.

Scowling at Aurora snapped, "What, is that not good enough for you, Prince?"

"What?" Severus gaped. "No! It's not that..." he trailed off. Reaching for the letters from his friend, he handed them over to her. "Something's wrong," he explained.

Skimming them, the girl handed the letters back. "Nothing's that wrong, from the looks of it. It just sounds like Mister Quirrell left his wife and Selwyn's mother is upset her son chose friends over family for holidays."

Hunching in on himself, Severus shook his head. "You don't get it," he muttered. "None of this is normal. Katrina's brother hasn't seen his mates much at all since his father died a couple years back and Mister Quirrell wouldn't just leave his wife like that. He loves her."

Aurora raised an eyebrow. "Maybe he decided it was time he see friends and Mister Quirrell realized he didn't love his wife like he thought," she argued.

Severus looked to the table where the professors sat. "Then why's Mister Quirrell not up there?" he demanded, finger pointing to the table.

She scoffed. "You're reading too deeply. There's reasonable explanations for everything, but you keep insisting those are all wrong. It's like you want something weird to be going on."

Narrowing his own dark eyes, Severus could find no other answer to give besides, "I feel it, okay?" Crossing his arms and glowering, he snapped, "If you want to make fun of me for it and call me Psycho-Prince like everybody else, okay, but I know something's wrong!"

Aurora, seemingly startled out of her derisive attitude, eyed Severus with a wary eye before whispering, "I wouldn't do that."

Settling some, Severus pushed one of his grandmother's presents toward her. He knew it was likely a scarf or mittens, because despite the fact he had a perfectly good set already, Granny was always trying to give him more. Mum said it was because she had more money than she knew what to do with. Severus, though, despite having been young at the time when they left his father's home, still had a lingering sense that told him to not be wasteful. To use what he had and then he could get a new ones to replace what was irreparably damaged.

"Here, have that. It's probably a hat and gloves or something. Granny's always giving me things like that when I already have a working pair," he said feeling generous now that he knew she was one of the few who wasn't going to call him crazy after all that he'd said.

The girl's lips flickered in an amused lilt. "You have to be the only pureblood that I know who'd say something like that," she remarked as she picked up the gift.

"I'm half," Severus corrected. "Snape's not actually some obscure magical family," he explained. "It's what Granny wanted me to tell everyone, but, I'm kind of getting tired of it because a lot of people already know I'm lying."

Aurora furrowed her brow. "You do know that if I tell someone, you're going to become little better than the muck on people's shoes?" she questioned, seemingly hesitant to press.

"People already think I'm crazy, it's not like it can get much worse," Severus replied. "Besides, Quirinus and Katrina already know. So...so I suppose I don't care one way or another, I was doing it to make Granny happy, but I'm not feeling very charitable toward her or Mum right now. They're hiding things and I wish I could send them a howler for it."

Fingering the silver ribbon of the present Severus had given her, Aurora asked, "Why me? Why are you telling me all this? We're in the same year, but you've never tried to talk to me before. In fact, I've noticed how you stare at me sometimes. You get a queasy look, like you're scared of me."

Severus paused. He didn't know what to say. What could he say? It wasn't like he could tell her he was frightened of her because he didn't know what she'd become. It'd been novel with Katrina, not knowing, but now Severus was beginning to wonder if that wasn't a bad thing. If he couldn't know what side they were dying for, how could he tell if they were good people or not? And if he couldn't tell, how did he know who to trust and who to keep away from?

He didn't and that's what scared him. It was these people he had to take a chance on, they were the ones that would be Severus's downfall if he picked wrong.

The worst part was, though, Severus knew what his downfall was; it was joining the Death Eaters. They would lead him to his terrible, gruesome, painful death and he was not so ridiculous as to lie to himself and say that didn't frighten him. Severus didn't want to die. However, he also knew if he got mixed up with the Death Eaters, that would change. After that, it would only be a matter of time before he met the end he'd envisioned for himself all those years ago.

"It's because I don't know what happens to you," he finally answered.

Aurora frowned. "Are those rumors about you being a seer real?" she inquired.

Severus cast a furtive glance to the professor's table. He didn't like the idea of them listening in, especially Headmaster Dumbledore. Severus knew what happened to the old man and he was very terrified of him finding out. If he learned that Severus was the one to kill him, who knew what he'd do to stop that?

The boy may not want to die his Death Eater death, but he didn't want to die while he was a student, either.

"Sort of," Severus hedged.

Rolling her eyes, Aurora remarked, "Anyway, if you think something's wrong and that your mum and granny are hiding something, why don't you write them and say you know everything and that they better explain their side of things before you decide to run away? That's what I told my dad last fall when his letters started getting short." Her lips curled. "That's how I found about my stepmum," she muttered.

"Did you really know anything?" Severus asked, interest peaked at the tactic.

She shook her head. "No, I didn't," she replied. "I just felt something was...off, like you do now."

Severus fidgeted, uncertain if he liked her idea. It seemed so...risky. He wasn't sure if he was prepared for the consequences that would come with trying to use it. After a moment, he questioned, "Did your dad figure out you lied?"

"No," Aurora said, "He believed me. I mean, why wouldn't he? My stepmum's daughter was a seventh year laster year."

Shoulders slumping, Severus muttered, "Who am I going to blame for my knowing? I can't do that to Mister Quirrell or Katrina's brother..."

"You said yourself you're 'sort of' a seer, tell her that's how you knew," Aurora proclaimed.

Turning this all over in his head, Severus was surprised by how sound it now seemed. She was right about the seer part, he very well could have figured it out that way and with his suspicions confirmed by the letters from his friends...Well, surely his mum would feel too guilty about what she'd done to question him too deeply.

Nodding, Severus stood up. "I'll go write her now," he declared.

"What about your Christmas gifts!?" Aurora called to him. Halting halfway down the length of the table, Severus turned back around and cast a quick Shrinking Charm on his gifts and pocketed them.

Patting his pocket, he asked, "Are you coming, Aurora?"

Reaching for the plate of festive pancakes, the girl shook her head. "No, thanks," she replied. "It's probably something you should do on your own."

Severus was relieved. He'd thought the same, but hadn't wanted to be rude to her after all she'd done to help him reach this point. "Okay, see you later then?" he prodded.

"Yeah, see you."

Chapter 2: II

Leaning against the stone walls outside the West Tower, Severus frowned at the letter he'd written to send his mother. Would this be enough? Severus didn't know for sure if it was. She could just as easily figure out his bluff as she could fall for it. Unlike Granny, Mum's falsehood radar was a lot less accurate.

Ponderously, Severus wondered if that was because Granny had fallen for the greatest lie of all her life. She'd believed Severus's mum when she wrote home in her seventh year, agreeing to the things Granny had planned for her to do once she was out of Hogwarts. Ruefully, his granny had told Severus once, "I should have known she was acting suspiciously, your mother never agreed to anything so easily."

Maybe, after this letter, Mum would have honed sense for picking apart lies and truths just like Granny did. Severus kind of hoped that she would, because he didn't know if he'd be able to stand it if she could still be so easily tricked after this letter. It'd mean she wasn't the amazing witch and woman he'd always believed her to be. Severus might have to start looking up to Granny. It made him crinkle his nose, he loved his grandmother, but she certainly wasn't the kind of person one thought to idolize. She was too old, too backwards, too uppity and self righteous.

She was sweet on him, of course, but Severus knew why. He was her last try, her last chance at redemption. If he chose one day to disappear just like his mother had all those years ago, he knew she'd die of a broken heart. She'd blame herself for not being able to keep him in their homeland even if it wasn't her fault.

Severus didn't want that, of course, but if it had to happen...Well, he'd be more considerate than his mum ever had been. He'd leave her a letter, he do his best to let Granny know none of it was his fault and to please stay strong until he could come home again. It might not work, of course, Granny was just as stubborn as the rest of their family, but it would be a way to sooth some of his guilty conscience.

Rereading the part where he talks about a vision telling him that there was more to this sudden absence of his friends' father and brother, Severus itched for a quill and new parchment as he found something that ought to be put more delicately. Yet, there was no time for it and all this dithering wasn't helping either. Staring at it for a long, long moment, he folded it up and pushed away from the wall.

Heading for the stairs leading to the owlery, in his nervousness (and out of habit) he did not look up as he hurried up the stairs, and in the process, bumped into someone.

"Oi! Watch where you're - oh, Prince," a voice sneered.

Black eyes going very large, Severus's head snapped up, causing his gaze to meet the grey ones of Black. As carefully as he could, Severus slipped the letter into his pants pocket as he reached for his wand. "Black," he greeted coolly.

"I didn't like getting knocked down by your little girlfriend," he told Severus.

Frowning, Severus said, "Aurora's not my girlfriend and I didn't tell her too."

Black laughed mockingly. "Let's see how you like getting pushed!" he shouted.

"No!" Severus cried, throwing himself against the wall.

However, at the exact same moment, Sirius screamed, "Flipendo duo!"

Incapable of avoiding it, Severus was swept up in a whirlwind of blue sparks, and thrown back down the stairs. Landing hard on the rock floors of Hogwarts, all he knew was a sharp, all-consuming pain before everything went dark.

-v-v-v-v-v-

The bitter smell of healing potions was the first thing Severus noticed as he came to some time later.

"Oh, good, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey murmured as she came over to help him sit up. "Merlin, Mister Prince, the staff warn you children yearly about how slippery the Owlery steps can get, but do you lads ever listen? No! You are quite lucky Mister Black saw you fall. Who knows how long you would have had to lie on the ground bleeding otherwise," the older woman vented unhappily as she flicked her wand at Severus running diagnostic spells and the like to check his condition.

Blinking at the rapid speech, the boy managed to catch what was necessary. He'd hit his head. Black had lied. Now Severus was being blamed for things that weren't his fault.

Holding back a sigh, Severus reflected, Well, that's not anything new...

"Sorry," he apologized. "I guess I was a bit too excited about sending a letter out to my mother and grandmother. This is the first Christmas I haven't spent with them since we went to live with Granny."

Expectedly, the mediwitch's stern face softened and she reached out to pat his shoulder. "Yes, I guess you would have forgotten in such a case. How is your grandmother? I hear she's fallen ill?"

"Dragon pox," Severus replied. "Mum says the healer told her she'll be alright. It's quite fatal in older witches and wizards, you know?"

Pretty blue eyes turning very soft at his remark, Madam Pomfrey declared, "Your grandmother is a strong woman. I remember when I was young, there was quite the story that went around about her protecting a pair of younger Slytherins from a very unfair punishment by saying she'd made them commit their offense. If I recall correctly, I believe she was made into a minor martyr by her fellow Slytherins after she didn't make a sound, or shed a tear during her entire punishment of writing a hundred lines with a blood quill."

Severus had never heard the story before and he wondered if his mother even knew it. Somehow, Severus didn't think she did. Granny was quite tight-lipped about what she'd share on herself and of what little Severus could recall, about the tales he'd heard about his grandmother's childhood and time at Hogwarts, this story had never been told. How she met his grandfather, yes. How she received top marks in her last two years, of course. The story of his granny's mother and the way she taught proper etiquette had been brought up often in the last summer. They weren't pleasant stories, almost horrifyingly absurd, but Severus believed every word his grandmother said and knew why she told them. She was threatening him in a veiled way with the same treatment if he stepped far too out of line during his lessons.

"That sounds like Granny," Severus finally said after a long moment. "Madam Pomfrey?"

"Yes, dear?"

Gazing at the older woman's expectant face, the boy asked, "Did you know my grandmother well during school?"

"It was more like I knew of her, I'd say. She was five years older and in Slytherin, where I was in Hufflpuff," the woman explained.

Nodding at this, Severus asked, "Seeing as I'm here pretty often, would you mind tell me more of the stories you know about Granny?"

"Doesn't your grandmother tell you any?" Madam Pomfrey countered, a slight look of unease coming to her pretty blue eyes.

Smoothly, the boy replied, "No. She'd much rather talk about Mum."

"I suppose most mothers do." She chuckled before favoring him with a kind quirk of her lips. "Then, I suppose I can tell you the few others I know," Pomfrey agreed.

Smiling at her briefly, Severus felt around and looked about before asking, "Where is my letter to my mum and grandmother?"

"Mister Black said he'd send it off for you," the woman answered.

Alarm bells going off in his head, the boy went stiff for the briefest moment. Then, forcing himself to relax, he said, "Oh? That was nice of him. Madam Pomfrey, seeing as I'm awake and feel alright, may I go? I think I'd like to thank him for...putting aside our differences for the time being and helping me out."

"Yes, I was just waiting for you to wake up," Madam Pomfrey answered. Then, a speculative air coming to her features, she commented, "It was nice of Mister Black, wasn't it? The two of you usually fight like cats and dogs. Maybe a bit of Christmas cheer got to him?"

Distractedly going through every horror scenario possible, Severus replied distractedly, "Yeah, some must have. So, I'm good to go? Is it about lunch time or did I miss that? I promised I'd sit with Aurora Sinistra during it."

"I guess you are quite lucky, then, young man. It's only half past twelve."

Jumping up from the infirmary bed, Severus ignore the faint wave of dizziness that overtook him and thanked the mediwitch. "Thank you, Madam Pomfrey," and then scampered from the room before she could reply.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Black eyes darting about the Great Hall, Severus was very relieved to see Aurora sitting at the Slytherin table eating a plate of shepherd's pie. Bustling over, he fell into the spot across from her and said, "I need your help. Badly."

Mouth open and a forkful of food hovering in front of her face, Aurora narrowed her eyes. "With what?" she asked.

"You know that letter you told me to write?" Severus inquired.

"It only was just this morning," the girl replied.

Face briefly taking on an irritated look, the boy quickly dispelled it in favor of telling her what had occurred. "On my way up to send it out, I ran into Black. He knocked me out and I think he took my letter."

Letting her fork fall back to the table, Aurora murmured sympathetically, "Oh, that's not good."

"Tell me about it!"

Nodding, Aurora scoped out the Great Hall and frowned. "He's not here in the Great Hall..." she remarked.

Severus looked over his shoulder and at the Gryffindor table. The girl was right, he wasn't her. Bitterly, he grumbled, "He's probably busy writing a letter of his own to Potter about mine - I'd bet ten galleons he's letting him know about the blackmail material they have on me now."

Getting up, the girl declared, "We ought to find him."

Following her lead, Severus was nearly walking on her heals as they left the Great Hall for whatever destination Aurora had in mind. A short time later, they were hovering outside the Gryffindor Common Rooms.

"What are we-"

"Shh!" Aurora hissed, shoving them behind a statue as an older, mousy boy stopped in front of the Fat Lady's portrait.

Watching the teenager keenly, they grinned at each other as the boy said, "Bludger." Waiting then for him to disappear behind the portrait, the two loitered about a few more minutes before approaching the Gryffnidor's Common Room entrance.

"Bludger!" Severus shouted.

The Fat Lady gave them a once over and pursed her lips, but nonetheless opened up - giving the pair unfettered access to Gryffindor's Common Room.

Once in, Severus leaned in closely to Aurora and asked in little more than a whisper, "What are we going to do? I don't see Black anywhere around here."

"The dorms," she mumbled back. "We can look there and wait, too."

Nodding, the two then did their very best not to draw any attention as they quickly scampered toward the boy dorms. Stepping into the room, Severus immediately spied Black writing furiously away on what he assumed to be the Gryffindor's bed.

Reaching for his wand, Severus yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!"

Immediately, Black froze where he lay, falling face first into his parchment - knocking his well of ink over in the process.

"Oh, why'd you do that!?" Aurora exclaimed angrily as she hurried forward to flip over the boy before he could drown in the quickly pooling ink.

Putting his wand back in his sleeve, Severus declared, "Eye for an eye. Besides, what do you think he would have done if we'd spoken to him before spelling him?"

Still arranging Black so he would be sitting upright propped against his bed's pillows, Aurora sent him a nasty glare. "He can't talk like this, either, you know!"

"He can blink," Severus snapped back. Glowering at Black, he barked, "One is for yes and two for no! Did you steal my letter?"

The boy blinked twice.

Severus reached out, prepared to hit him as he snarled, "Don't you dare lie! Madam Pomfrey told me you did!"

Catching his fist before it could touch Black, Aurora, pushed him away. "Take a seat before I use a body-bind on you, hotshot!"

"You-" Severus began to argue, but when he saw the girl reaching for his wand, he immediately fell back and crossed his arms to mutter cuss words and threats beneath his breath instead.

Shaking her head, Aurora looked to Black and said, "Now, I'm ready to remove that spell on you. But if you try and attack either of us, I'm going to make sardines start coming out of your nose, understood?"

Black blinked once.

Aurora cancelled the spell.

The other boy shifted, rage flashing across his features before they settled down into contempt. "How'd you get in here, you greasy git?" he demanded.

"We used a bit of cunning, what else?" Aurora replied.

Sneeringly, Black said, "Excuse me, was I talking to you?"

"Well, I never!"

Standing up, Severus told the other, "Apologize."

"Why should I?" he questioned, his voice petulant.

Pointing at Aurora, Severus said, "She's the reason you don't have a broken nose, you pigheaded arse!"

Crossing his arms, the other boy turned his head.

"Severus, you can hit him now," Aurora growled.

Pushing back his sleeves, the boy grinned. "Wicked."

Black attempted to reach for his wand, but before his fingers could even graze the handle, Aurora disarmed him. Practically tackling the larger boy off the bed, Severus reveled in rolling around on Hogwart's cold floors. This had to be the most equal they'd ever been while fighting.

Usually, if Severus wasn't with Quirinus or Katrina, he'd be goaded into a fight by Black or Potter, but have to fight both at the same time. They were never fair tussles and more often than not, he came out losing. Severus always got them back, of course, but it didn't matter. He was always the one that came away limping or bleeding. Sometimes he'd get in a good punch or kick, but, usually, Potter would stop him from hurting Black or Black would keep him from injuring Potter.

Rolling around the dorm floor with Aurora cheering him on in the background, Severus raised his fist in victory when he managed to pin Sirius for a moment.

"What did you do with my bloody letter?" he demanded.

Bucking beneath him, Black bared his teeth in such a way that Severus was reminded of a feral dog. "Like I'm going to tell you, you Death Eater spawn!"

"What?" Severus frowned, some of his anger turning into confusion and fear. Death Eater spawn? His mum wasn't-

Using the other's moment of weakness against him, Black managed to get his arm free and sucker punched Severus off him. Falling back, the smaller boy wanted to vomit at the taste of copper in his mouth. "You heard me! You're a Death Eater spawn!" he spat.

"My mum's not a Death Eater," Severus mumbled.

Getting in his face and yanking him up by his hair, Black hissed, "Oh, really? That letter of yours seems awfully suspicious. It also reminds me quite a bit about an event I read about in a letter I got from my cousin a couple days ago."

"Let go of him!" Aurora snapped, coming in between them and shoving Black away.

Stumbling back, the frenetic look spread from the other boy's eyes to the rest of his countenance. "Bellatrix loves sending me letters gloating about what she'd doing. Do you know why? Because she know no one will believe me if I tell them and because she knows I won't share them either, because it's too shameful for me to admit to being related to such a villain. Bellatrix knows I'm too scared to let people know what I know, because then they might start grouping me with my family again. It's really not been that long since I was considered to be one of them, you know. It was just two years ago I was just another Black. Another toujours pur brat."

"You've never been that to me," Severus proclaimed. Meeting cool gray eyes, Severus did his damnedest to impress upon the other boy his earnestness before saying, "Not even when I met you for the first time. I was stupid, then. Mum hadn't told me much about families or politics at that age. And when I saw what I did, I knew you weren't ever going to be what all the others Blacks are. You died for a halfblood. You died for love."

Angrily, Black swept forward and snapped, "You're lying! You're just a bloody Psycho!"

"No, he's right," Aurora argued. "He sees the future-"

"A future," Severus corrected, channeling his mother. "It's a future. One my mum, granny, Mister Quirrell and the Selwyns are trying to help stop. They don't want us to die like we're supposed to."

Looking between them, in a small, hopeful voice, Black asked, "Your mum's really trying to change the future?"

"Yes," Severus replied. "You could help, you know," he offered. "You're very brave in the future, I bet Mum would be happy if you'd agree to help us." Looking into the glittering obsidian gaze of Aurora, he declared, "She'd like your help too, Aurora. You're really smart."

Reluctantly, Black put his hand in Severus's. "I'll help," he agreed. Severus attempted to pull his hand back at this, believing their issues setttled, but Sirius's squeeze turned painful. Features settling into an expression that was very grave and very threatening, he swore, "But if you're lying and this is all some kind of joke or way to get me in trouble, you're never going to have another peaceful day at Hogwarts again. Is that understood?"

"Yes!" Severus snapped. "And just so you know, if you tell Potter or any of your other Marauders about me and my mum, you're going to die very mysteriously."

Sirius cracked a grin and snickered. "Yeah, yeah okay. That sounds fair."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Severus smiled back. Then, he reached out for the girl to join in their huddle. Aurora approached slowly and took Sirius's and Severus's free hands after a careful examination of their faces and stances. "I suspect we have a lot of work ahead of us today," she said. "What if your mum isn't home to tell you what she's really doing, Severus?" she asked.

"I don't-"

"We - James, Remus, Peter and I - have been doing a lot of exploring of the castle," Sirius told them. "I know of a couple places in the castle ,that lead out of Hogwarts, from there, I bet we can find a way to your home. Pr-Severus, does your family have any old family member's wands tucked away in places?"

"I know my grandfather's is in his study, but why's that matter?" Severus asked.

Aurora, lips lilting with pleasure, smugly informed the boy, "It doesn't have the trace on it. If we use it, no one will know we're preforming underage magic."

"Ah," Severus replied with little else to say to that.

Eyes twinkling with a mischief that Severus had been certain was only for friends, Sirius asked, "All for one, one for all?""

"All for one, one for all!" Aurora echoed, a bit of a giggle escaping her as she'd caught the reference.

Nodding, Severus let a small smile overtake his own features as he agreed, "All for one, one for all."

They were in for an adventure, he knew. He didn't know what it would hold, but Severus had a feeling there'd be enough twists and turns and moments of danger to give them a tale that would sell like wildfire if they ever decided to turn it into a book.

Chapter 3: III

Following Sirius, Severus spared Aurora a glance. Unlike how he'd hoped, she looked quite at peace with the fact they were wandering Hogwarts halls long after curfew. Pulling his lips into a sharp frown, he muttered, "Honestly, how are you two okay with this? If we run into Filch's cat we're buggered."

"You know, for being someone who has no qualms about fighting, you really are a goody-goody," Aurora replied breezily.

Looking back for a moment, Sirius's eyes twinkled in the dim light coming from the tip of his wand. "She's right! This is the third time you've complained in the past fifteen minutes!"

Crossing his arms, Severus gave them an irritated look. "Oh, belt up," he grumbled. "Fights are different."

"Not from where I stand!" Sirius replied. "Anyway, when would you have preferred to do this?"

Severus sighed. "I don't see why we couldn't have gone during the day, it's Christmas holiday. The Professors would have thought nothing of it if we disappeared for most of the day," he said.

Aurora laughed. "Maybe, but what about your mother and grandmother? Don't you think they'd have noticed you sneaking around your home in the middle of the day?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"Exactly!" Sirius concurred. "Besides, we'll have more time this way. It's only half past eleven, when do your grandmother and mother wake in the morning? Eight? Nine? We'll have a lot of time to poke around."

Uncomfortable with the idea of being in his home without his mother or grandmother knowing, Severus commented, "We aren't even sure they are home. My mum never wrote back and neither did Granny."

"Then that's even better for us," Aurora proclaimed.

Suddenly, Sirius went rigid and shushed them. "Quiet!" he hissed.

Immediately, the trio fell silent and threw themselves down low against the wall.

The light of a lamp bobbed across the adjacent hallway just a few feet down from where they were frozen in fear. Holding still for a long moment, they only dared to relax once the light's glow had left the area completely. Putting a hand to his mouth, Severus held back a sigh of relief and straightened out with great care.

"We better be close to this way you know out soon, Black," he muttered darkly.

Letting the light from his wand shine again, the other boy bobbed his head. "It's not much further," he replied. "Just keep an eye out for Filch's cat. If you see her, Aurora, make sure you use a incarcerous spell on her. You were pretty good at that during the show dueling club put on earlier this year."

"Thanks," the girl chirped and Severus was surprised by how much of her teeth she let show in the smile she favored Sirius with. His first thought was Sirius was still a huge prick, because he'd used a great body bind spell on him just earlier today, but the other boy had nothing to say about his excellence at preforming the spell. And, then, in a more pouty, distant sort of way, Severus wondered if Aurora liked the arse better than she liked him.

Hurrying, the three came to stop in front of the hulking, curved figure of a statue modeled after a witch that Severus knew to be named Gunhilda. "This is it," Sirius declared. "This leads out of Hogwarts. It'll take us straight to Honeydukes and then I bet we can get into the back room where I'm sure they'll have a floo we can use."

"Great," Severus replied. "Will this lead us back as well?"

The boy eyed him carefully. "Well...no. Don't forget, though, by the time we come back we can probably just walk back onto Hogwarts grounds from Hogsmeade!"

"In our school robes?" Aurora questioned dubiously.

Huffing loudly, Sirius crossed his arms and said, "No. Severus, you have robes with hoods at your home, don't you?"

"Yes, I have twelve, thanks to Granny," Severus answered.

Nodding in satisfaction, the boy declared, "If we filch one each, no one will pay us much mind on our way back. After all, second years and third years don't look that much different."

"Tomorrow's not Saturday or Sunday, though," Aurora argued. "We'll still look out of place!"

"Oh, will you two stop poking holes in my plans? We can worry about it later! Right now, Filch's stupid cat could find us at any moment!"

Sneeringly, Severus countered, "I'm sorry, forgive us, won't you? It really is a shame that we aren't idiots like you Gryffindors."

"You lookin' for a fight, Princey?" Sirius demanded, raising his wand up threateningly.

Stepping between them, Aurora shoved them farther apart. "Oh, stop it! We don't have time for this!" she angrily told them.

"That's what-"

A yowling began at their feet. Looking down, the children stared into the luminous eyes of Flich's scrawny cat. Scrambling into action, Severus stunned the creature silent as Sirius swung around and tapped the statue with his wand.

"Dissendium!" Sirius shouted.

Gunhilda's hunched back parted, revealing a hole that they could climb into. "Go! Go! Go!" Aurora snapped as Filch's lamp light started coming their way.

Scaling the statue, Severus tumbled in head first with a shout; the rest of the trio hot on his heels. Hitting a well-worn stone surface, he gave a short cry as he slid down it on his belly. As he tried to save himself from landing face-first, Severus ended up twisting on to his side and it was then that he met the hard, earthy floor at the end of the slide.

Immediately after landing on the ground, Severus was made to give a low moan as two more bodies squashed him into the dirt.

"Off! Off!" he yelled when Sirius and Aurora failed to spring to their feet quick enough.

At his shouting, the boy and girl started to move and a moment later, Severus was able to sit up. Once he was up, Severus began to take in his surroundings. It was basically a tunnel. The walls flared out and were held in such a position by a mixture of bricks and wooden beams. Standing slowly, Severus was surprised by how close the ceiling was. Reaching his arms upward, his fingers almost grazed the top of the tunnel.

"Wow," Severus breathed.

He felt someone come to stand beside him. "It is pretty 'wow', isn't it?"

"How did you and those dunderheads find this?" Severus questioned Sirius.

In the dim light of Sirius's wand, he could see the other simultaneously frown in irritation and puff out his chest in pride. "Weelll...Unlike you, goody-goody, we like to be out after hours. We found it thanks to a little rumor we heard from a couple of upper years and some research."

"How come you aren't hated by your house, then? You'd think there'd be more talk about you're wandering the halls after curfew..." Severus murmured.

Sirius put a finger to his lips. "That's a secret!" he declared.

"Uh-huh," Severus replied nonplussed. "So, how do we get to Honeydukes from here?"

Sirius pointed his wand forward. "We just follow the path."

"Hmm..."

Looking back, Severus called, "Aurora, did you hear Sirius? We just have to follow the path."

She didn't answer, but listening closely, Severus did pick out what seemed to be strained breathing. Whipping out his own wand, Severus wasted no time on casting his own Lumos charm to see behind them. Crouched by the slide was Aurora clutching at her chest with her obsidian eyes very big and very terrified.

"Aurora?" Severus whispered as he approached.

Sirius, who'd turned around at about the same time murmured, "Blimey! Did she break something when I squashed her?"

Severus didn't know, but he was going to find out. "Is anything hurting you, Aurora? You only have to nod for yes or shake for no," he told her.

The girl shook her head and squeezed her eyes tightly closed. "It's too small down here!"

"Claustrophobia?" Sirius inquired as he bent down beside her and Severus.

Aurora dipped her head as she sucked in a deep breath. "Yes!" she answered. "When I was little I got locked in my dad's trunk for a couple hours and ever since..."

"Does keeping your eyes closed help you?" questioned Severus. He'd noticed she'd done less squeaking since she'd closed her eyes a moment before.

"Yes!"

Helping her up to her feet then, Severus declared, "Then we'll be okay for now, alright? We'll lead you through the tunnel to Honeydukes and we'll never come this way again if we decided to sneak out of the castle."

"Are you going to lead her?" Sirius asked.

Severus narrowed his eyes at the other. "Yes, why?"

"You don't seem like you'd be much good at it, after all, Quirrell was doing all the leading most of the time last year."

Nostrils flaring, Severus started, "That was because I kept having-" stopping himself, he shook his head. "Fine! You lead Aurora and I'll walk behind you two!"

If it weren't for the fact Aurora had started wheezing again, he would have argued. He would have said Quirinus's guiding him around Hogwarts had no baring on his ability to do the same; Sirius probably would have argued that Severus didn't know anything and now was not the time to try and be a leader when they had to move quickly.

It would have looped in circles for a long, long time - especially since the one who would have broken up their row was currently fighting a battle against her own demons.

Fleetingly, as they started moving down the winding tunnels, Severus wondered if this wasn't why she was always getting caught after curfew. Did she wander to open places and large windows to escape the suffocating bricks of the Slytherin dorm's walls? It would make sense, he thought.

Reaching out, he gave Aurora's shoulder a brief squeeze. "We'll be there soon, Aurora."

"Thanks, Severus," the girl whispered in response.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Stepping through the kitchen floo, Severus hurried Sirius and Aurora out of the room. "Mum has a habit of walking around at night," he explained as they ducked into the adjoining hall and behind the austere curtains hanging from the tall windows that lined the walls. Once safely behind the curtains, he had them wait a moment before he sighed in relief. "Good, if she's here, she didn't hear the floo activate."

Stepping out and looking around, Sirius asked, "Your family doesn't have a charm on your floo to indicate when someone's come through?"

"No," Severus answered as he herded them toward the staircase. "It's just keyed in to let in family and some close friends, like the Quirrells or Selwyns. You guys got in the floo with me, so, that's why you're here and not tumbling out into some random room."

"We had it like that before Dad remarried," she commented. "Now, though, it's like yours, Sirius, my Stepmum's always having people come over and so is my stepsister."

Sirius couldn't help himself and said quite gleefully, "So, then, all you Princes must be weird recluses!"

"Granny's always visiting others," Severus snapped. "It's just easier to keep it guarded, though, because of my...visions."

"Your what?" Sirius questioned.

Sighing, Severus's shoulders slumped. "Visions. I have visions sometimes when I see people and sometimes they get quite - brutal - would be the word."

The other boy made a face at this new information and then, with sudden, frightful understanding, cried, "Merlin! You had one of those when Regulus and me were here, didn't you!"

"Shh!" Aurora and Severus hushed at the same time. Just in time as well, Severus noted, because the sound of footfall on the marble floors began to bounce off the walls at an alarming volume.

Knowing his mum and granny were only seconds away from seeing them, Severus had the trio hurry through the open doorway of their dining room and hunch close to the wall beside it. It was all done just in time too, because as soon as they were huddled close to the striped green and gold wallpaper, they all had to hold back gasps when footfall of another set of feet joined the first.

Motioning to Aurora and Sirius to stay where they were, Severus crept back to the doorway and peaked out to see his grandmother hurrying down the hallway with Mister Quirrell quickly gaining on her.

"Missus Prince!" he called.

Granny did not stop her stride. "She was supposed to be back by now! She said it was just a small gathering to induct the new members and that it would be done before midnight!" she yelled back at Mister Quirrell.

"Eileen only had what Malfoy could tell her to go off of! Maybe there were more recruits than expected, maybe he's change how they are inducted. But, please, Alicia, see reason. She knows to warn us if things are going badly, she has a portkey and we have a portkey. If we truly must, the plan to get to your safe house in Austria has been tested several times over in the last month and I think we both know it will work just as we need it to."

Stopping, Severus's granny whirled around to glare at Quirinus's father. "What if he used legilimency on her? Eileen's occlumency is only so strong."

Getting close enough to lay a hand on her shoulder, Mister Quirrell gave his grandmother a very reassuring smile. "She's better than most, if anyone would have a chance against him, it'd be her."

"Severus is better than her, did you know that? She was told me so over the summer. They've been practicing to help ward away both his vision and keep curious eyes off them as well. Eileen had said after a session with him, 'I don't know how much more I can teach him, Mum. He's just so...prodigious at it. I can see his cogs working when I test his potions skills, but when it comes to legilimency or occlumency, it all seems to be instinct with him.'"

The boy could hardly stop himself from gasping when Quirinus's dad pulled his Granny into a short hug. "That's great, Alicia," he said. "Maybe, if things continue to go as well as they are, Severus will be able to stop himself from ever seeing the visions. I know he was quite proud to tell us that he could hold them off long enough to find someplace safe to see them at the start of the school year."

"Yes," Granny agreed with a quirk of her lips. "When he realized he could do that, his elation knew no bounds. Eileen cried, though, the poor dear. I know Severus hadn't meant to, but when he said to us, 'This must be what being normal is like, right?' He broke our hearts. We had been trying for years to give him just that, but until then, he'd never even thought he was anything close to it."

Standing together, Mister Quirrell replied softly, "You two did your best."

"Sometimes, even your best is not enough." Sighing, Severus's grandmother favored Quirinus's father with a soft smile. "How about we go to the kitchen and have some tea? I don't think either of us will be sleeping anytime soon."

The blond man nodded. "Let's," he agreed.

And together, the old woman and man walked past the curtain the children were hidden behind and into the kitchen.

"That was close," Sirius mumbled.

Gulping back the heavy emotions that often came when he heard his granny or mum talking about him in such a way that made him feel like he was failing at being a good son and grandson, he stood up. Turning hard, Severus hissed at the other, "And it still is! Come on, this way!"

"Where are we going?" Aurora asked as they made their way down the hall and to the staircase at the end of it.

Severus glanced back, surprised by how anxious their expressions were. "We're going to my Mum's study," he explained. "That's where she does all her writing; letters, papers, editing of potions texts. If there's anywhere that will tell us where my Mum's gone tonight, it's there."

"I know where she is," Sirius grumbled. "She's at the Lestrange manor."

"So says the cousin who you hate and sent you a howler for being sorted to Gryffindor. Forgive me, Sirius, if I don't believe her every word like you do!" he shot back.

A look of outrage overcame the other boy's face, but before he could act on it, Aurora stepped between the two of them and said. "Come on, Sirius, what's the harm in making sure? Severus does have a point about your cousin not being the most trustworthy source of information given your relationship..."

"Oh, like we need to do more fact checking! I bet you know just as much, if not more than me! Anyone who's even paying a little attention knows your stepsister Mollie's just as involved in the cause as Bellatrix!" Sirius snapped.

Stiffening, Severus turned and looked at Aurora who's face was very darkly colored due to her fury.

"I. Hate. That. Twat."

Sirius scoffed. "You don't think I hate Bellatrix?" he countered.

Severus jumped at the speed at which Aurora had her wand pointed at Sirius. "Stop talking like you know something! You don't know anything!" she yelled.

Nervously, Severus looked down the hall. Grabbing Aurora's wrist, he pushed her hand and the wand down and growled at the two, "You know what? Both of you belt up. We're lucky Granny and Mister Quirrell haven't already heard us! Both of you have awful relatives, in fact, we all have terrible families and we don't need to be arguing about who's is worse because they're all bad."

"What are you talking about?" Sirius snarled, "Your mum and grandmother love you!"

Not wasting a second, Severus got in the other's face and sneered. "I'm only saying this once, so you better listen. There's a reason my mum and me live with my granny. I haven't ever mentioned my father, have I? I'm sure, thanks to your mother, you know my mum ran away to the muggle world. Well, there, she met my dad and he was a bastard.

"He hurt my mum and me. When I got my visions, he got worse and then we had to run away from our home because she was scared one of us would end up dead thanks to him. So, like Aurora said, don't act like you know everything, because you don't."

And for what felt like the first time all night, Sirius had nothing to say.

Satisfied with this, Severus jerked his head toward the landing at the top of the stairs. "Let's hurry," he said. "I want to know where my mum is and I want to get out of there before she comes home, because I bet she's going to come through that floo so she doesn't have to deal with Granny right away."

Not waiting to see if they were following, Severus began to scale the stairs two at a time.

Chapter 4: IV

Sneaking through the tall halls of the Prince manor, Sirius paused suddenly. Stumbling into his still form, Aurora bounced back with a quite "oomph!" Touching her forehead as it gave a dull pang thanks to colliding with Sirius's shoulder blade, the girl narrowed her eyes and hissed, "What are you stopping for?"

Ignoring her - as he seemed prone to - the Gryffindor said to Severus, "Hey, do you think we should get your grandfather's old wand first? I mean, what if we need to make duplicates of your mother's stuff or make a diversion or something?"

Peaking around Sirius's shoulder, Aurora watched Severus turn around and frown. "That's quite out of our way, at this point," he told them. "My grandfather's study is by our potions lab, which is in the basement. And this, if you haven't noticed, is the second floor."

"But what if we need it?" the other boy pressed.

Severus shrugged his shoulders. "We can use ours, surely it wouldn't be noticed since we're supposed to be at Hogwarts?" he offered uncertainly.

While Aurora found the argument curious, she knew they couldn't take that chance. "But you don't know that, do you?" she asked. Severus's expression made it very clear he didn't, even as he refused to speak. Nodding, she declared, "And that's why we need your grandfather's wand. Look, your mother's study isn't that much further, is it? If you gave us directions, I think Sirius and I could get there and start looking while you ran to get the wand."

"But, Sirius was just worrying-"

"I wasn't worried, I was just saying!"

"-about what would happen if we didn't have a wand."

Scowling at them, Severus crossed his arms. "You heard my grandmother, my mother was supposed to be back already and I'm betting she won't be gone much longer, either. So, I say we take the chance of getting caught by her when she comes through her floo! She'll feel guilty, I wager, that I was driven to break out of Hogwarts because she was not honest with me."

"How do you know she'll come through alone?" Aurora questioned critically.

Severus's eyes fluttered wide. "Of course she will-"

"You don't know that though, for all you know, she could bring along a friend," Sirius broke in.

A nervous look came to Severus's eyes as he began to fidget in his spot. "We don't have time," he insisted.

"How about this? You give us directions, we'll hide down outside her study and wait for you to come back so we can go in together," she offered.

"That seems like a lot of wasting time," Severus grumbled.

Aurora rolled her eyes. "You know, despite the fact Sirius is the Gryffindor among us, you're the one trying to enact a terribly brash plan."

The boy's eyes flashed as Sirius from beside her muttered beneath his breath, "Gryffindors aren't idiots."

Aurora begged to differ with Sirius, but this was not the time to fight him about the intelligence of Gryffindors. "So, Severus, what are we doing? We can outvote you all we like, I know, but this isyour home, not ours and we are dependent on you to get anywhere."

Sighing, Severus's shoulders slumped. "I'll get the wand," he relented. "The study's just around the corner up there, the second door on the right. But, don't turn the corner until I come back, unless you have to. There's nothing in that hall since it's one of used by Mum and no guests ever go this far down the hall to see into that one. You see, Granny doesn't decorate places guests won't see. But, over there-"

He pointed to a table holding several candlesticks and a decorative bowl.

"-you can hide beneath the table. It'll be a squeeze for you two, but I doubt if Mum's in any hurry to see Granny she'll think to look below it."

"Thank you, Severus," Aurora replied. "We'll be careful."

A wry smile coming to his lips, the boy replied, "As will I."

Only a moment later Severus had turned on his heels and began to hurry away toward a place only he knew.

Looking back to Sirius, she inquired, "Shall we hide?"

"We don't have much of a choice, do we?" Sirius returned with an unpleasant curl of his lips.

Feeling slightly insulted by his response, Aurora said nothing as she walked over to the table and crouched down to hide beneath it. A moment later, Sirius came over and did the same. At first, both kept themselves tightly contained in their tight little balls. Though, as time ticked by, the two began to relax little by little until they were touching from shoulder to knee. And for a time, Aurora didn't even really mind, because she got to look at the boy from the corner of her eye.

It was an excellent time to study his aristocratic features and take in the way each of his black lashes curled individually to frame his handsome gray eyes. For a short while, she was happy with this arrangement. But as the minutes ticked into double digits, her person being squished into Sirius's side became irritating. He was too twitchy; he kept breath out in her direction - causing her to smell the onions that had been in the dish with the roast from dinner, and finally, his elbow was burrowing deeper and deeper into Aurora's side.

Doing her best to not be snippy - despite how sharp the pain was becoming, Aurora turned her head and asked, "Do you think you could stop squirming? Your elbow is quite bony, you know!"

Gray eyes were steely as he met her gaze, and hissed, "Well, the way your heel is digging into my toes isn't pleasant either!"

Aurora was going to complain some more, but, suddenly, the door Severus had specified to be the one belonging to his mother's study swung open so forcefully that it hit the wall beside it with a very loud and thunderous clatter.

From the room darted out a wild-eyed woman dressed in sleek black robes. Gaze half mad, she shouted, "Mother! Quincy! I have frightful news!"

Watching her pass them with bated breath, Aurora immediately began to crawl out from below the table once Miss Prince had passed. However, before she could stand, Sirius grabbed her ankle.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

Thinning her lips, she snapped, "Following her, of course!"

"What about Severus?"

Yanking her ankle back, Aurora stood up and said to him, "You will wait here for him while I go find out what this 'frightful news' is."

Mulish, Sirius grabbed ahold of her leg once again and questioned, "Why are you the one doing it?"

"Because, you daft boy, I know how to be quiet. You, on the other hand..."

Face flushing red, Sirius looked very ready to start shouting. Taking a chance on the theory Severus had suggested only a short time before, Aurora whipped out her wand and cast, "Incarerous! Silencio!"

Immediately, Sirius was both incapacitated and silent; not that it stopped him from screaming what she bet were a thousand and one insults on her person, family and women in general. Heart giving a sad little pang because she knew this handsome boy was going to hate her for this, Aurora tucked her wand away and hoped once again Severus was right once again.

"Sorry," she apologized, before hurrying in the direction Severus's mother had gone.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Swearing heavily beneath his breath as he clutched his grandfather's wand, Severus lifted his other hand to look at his swollen finger. "Bloody spider," he grumbled. Somehow, despite the fact it'd been closed, the case that had held his grandfather's wand had come to be infested with spiders.

He doubted any were poisonous, but he'd swung by the potion lab afterwards to grab a Bezoar just in case. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to swallow it. He wasn't too keen on it getting a sore throat from swallowing it today.

Traveling the familiar halls, Severus paused when he saw the door to one of his granny's favorite parlors was closed. Pressing his ear to the heavy wood, his eyes went wide when he picked out three distinct voices. Throwing an apologetic look to the staircase up the hall, Severus took his grandfather's wand and twirled it around himself as he cast a quiet Disillusionment charm.

Studying himself afterward, he wasn't satisfied with his execution, but it appeared to be working - even if it could be better. All he needed to do was go unnoticed for a moment as he slipped into the room, so hopefully this would be enough. Taking a breath, Severus turned the knob slowly and eased the door open.

Sidling in through the partially opened door, Severus ducked low as he closed it again and crawled on his hands and feet toward the couch where his granny was sitting. He would hide behind it, he decided it faced the opposite wall, as long as his charm held, the chances of him being noticed were very low.

Coming around to the back of the couch, the boy almost gave himself away at who he saw was already there.

"Au-"

Her hand shot out, covering his mouth. Feeling his face grow hot, he looked away as she scooted close to him and leaned in and whispered, "Your disillusionment charm is abominable."

Anger blossoming in his chest, Severus was about to tell Aurora her's wasn't much better, but, then, he heard his mother speak.

"I know," she whispered in response to whatever the others had been saying. "I had expected him to want me to take the mark once I accompanied Padriac to the dinner...but, I - I he asked aboutSeverus. He's just a boy and he's already asking after my son."

Her voice grim, Granny replied, "What did you expect, Eileen? A man like him is always plotting and looking to fill out his ranks. Severus is almost thirteen, in another four years he'll be a perfect candidate for the Death Eaters. I'm certain those recruited last year have already expounded on his skill in potions and cleverness."

"Padriac did say he told the man a little about us when he was asking for permission to bring me to the dinner..."

"There you go," Granny murmured in a far off voice. "He already knows about our boy and with you in his ranks, he'll only become more interested in him as time goes on."

Severus heard Quirinus's father clear his throat. "Eileen, I know this is just the first step, but do you imagine you'll be able to kill him before he starts asking for Severus's allegiance?"

Their was a sharp intake of air followed by a warbled, "Merlin, I don't know anymore..."

Listening to his mother dissolve into pitiful, heartbroken sobs, Severus began to shake. It seemed despite his mother's best attempts, Severus was going to end up a Death Eater. Thinking of all the things that would come once he was a Death Eater, he felt himself become numb.

He would kill people, Dumbledore in particular, and then, he would be killed despite his perceived loyalty.

If his mother couldn't change his future, was there any possibility Severus could? He knew he could denounce his family - as Sirius did regularly with his own. He could run away and live with the Quirrells...

Both would earn him the Dark Lord's ire, but would it be the safe course for those around him?

If he denounced his mother and grandmother and the Prince name, it would break his mother and grandmother's hearts. He already knew if he picked such a plan of action he couldn't let them know the truth, it would be too dangerous. There would be too many chances for his mother or grandmother to slip up in company and too many possibilities of getting caught in their rouse.

It would also endanger the Quirrells. Mister Quirrell was called a blood traitor, if he went to live with them and the Dark Lord got it in his mind to make Severus pay for his desertion of his family and the pureblood way of life, they would end up dead. Mister and Missues Quirrel and little Denise - maybe even Quirinus.

Though, Severus hoped his friend would join the cause before he let himself be killed. Quirinus was a loyal and loving to his family, but he was also aware of his role in the future Severus saw. If things went so badly that his family ended up slaughtered because of Severus, he hoped Quirinus would offer himself to the Voldemort to be used as needed. He knew, just like Severus, that the green-eyed boy that was there for both their deaths, could be the one to finally slay the Dark lord.

Or, that's what Severus wanted to happen if things went down the worst possible route.

There was also the possibility Quirinus could end up murdered right along side the rest of his family and Severus, if he didn't end up dead too, would find himself without an ally among the Death Eaters.

A hand touched his shoulder. Looking sideways, he saw that Aurora had cancelled her charm, (how had she done that, anyway? Hadn't she and Sirius said not to use their wands?) and was now looking at him with a contrite expression.

Scowling back, certain that what she was giving him as pity, he shook off her hand and scooted away. Poking his head around the sofa's curvy leg, he saw that his grandmother was holding his mother as Mister Quirrell handed her a cup of tea. Watching them intently, he waited with bated breath for them to begin speaking again.

When they did, Severus was pleased to find he was not disappointed.

"When are you to next see the Dark Lord?" Granny asked Mum.

Twirling her spoon in her cup of tea, his mother shrugged her shoulders. "When he calls," she answered. "The mark is charmed in such a way that it will notify us when he needs us."

"Fascinating," Mister Quirrell murmured. "How does that work?"

His mother sent the man a testy glare. "I didn't think to ask," she replied.

Sheepish, the man ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, of course," he mumbled. "Do you know if he will call often? Once Severus comes home in the summer, I'm sure he'll notice your odd absences."

Severus's mother looked away. "I was hoping to talk to you about that, actually," she said. "Mother, please don't get your knickers in a twist, but I think it might be good for all of us if Severus spent most of his summer at the Quirrells. The Lord was using the Lestrange manor as his base of operations tonight, but from what I gather, he likes to move often. At some point he could very well call upon us to use our home..."

Granny's lips puckered in the way they always did when she was very, very irritated. "What about the Selwyns? Katrina and Severus get along splendidly."

Mum gave Granny a terribly exasperated look. "Did you not just hear what I said about our home being used? With Padriac among the ranks, they could be called upon just the same!"

"He would give advanced warning, wouldn't he? It would be terribly improper and daft to just waltz into a home and declare that it's where he will be holding a meeting that day."

His mother looked positively miserable as she answered, "He expects all our homes in order and ready for his use at any time. You never know when one of us could be raided by the Ministry or attacked by the other side."

Granny gave a deep, tired sigh. "What about other friends? Ones not in the thick of this mess?"

"Mother, Severus, is not popular among his peers. He writes you often enough, besides Quirinus, Katrina and occasionally that Evans girl, who else does he talk about in length? Absolutely no one. We are lucky he's not outright ostracized by the rest of the students given his visions."

Mister Quirrell, who'd let things go on between the two for some time, broke in quietly, "Missus Prince, Alicia, why are you so against Severus coming to stay with us? He's best mates with my son, Dotty thinks he a very polite and sweet boy and I like him as well. We would take good care of him, surely you know that?"

"I know you care for my grandson, but that is beside the point. What I care about is ensuring Severus does not throw away what has been gifted to him - the Prince name. I allowed Eileen to give him the name on the condition that she would - the same as I - raise him as a proper pureblood boy. If he is allowed to spend summers in the muggleworld, Merlin forbid, he could end up like-"

"Like me?" Severus's mother cut in, her voice low and dark.

Severus watched avidly as his granny looked away from Mum and picked up a tea cup of her own. "Yes. You have been quite the disappointment, Eileen," she admitted quietly

"I can't believe you!" his mum spat. "After everything, you still think that?"

Granny's eyes flashed and for a moment, the pale blue looked electric in the yellow light of the lamps. "Yes, Eileen. I do and I will not lie to make you feel better! If you had done the proper thing and married a fellow wizard instead of running like a - a ungrateful coward, Severus would not be in the position he is now! He would not be looked down upon by his housemates, and, maybe, he wouldn't see the future and he would be normal!"

Curling in on herself, Granny covered her face as she whispered softly, "He could have been a normal, perfect pureblood boy..."

Standing up, Mum looked down upon Severus's grandmother in disgust. "That ship has long since sailed, Mother. Quincy, why don't we go to my study to discuss the coming summer further?"

Mister Quirrell cast Granny an uncertain look, but nodded in the end as he accepted his mum's offered arm. Together, the two left the room and now, seemingly alone, Granny began to cry.

Severus wanted to go to her. He wanted to offer her the handkerchief in his pocket and ask her to stop her tears, because unlike Mum, he understood. He'd thought about the same things over the years, if Mum had married a wizard, would he have a dad? Would he still have his visions? Would Granny and Mum get along better?

There were so many possibilities and most that he envisioned were much more pleasant than his current reality. However, before Severus could even lean in her direction, Aurora grabbed him.

"We need to go," she mouthed.

Severus didn't want to, but he knew she was right. Sirius wasn't with her, so it only stood to reason he was still hiding under the table or was in his mum's study right now. He was probably waiting for Aurora's return as well as Severus's. Sending his Granny one last sympathetic look, he followed Aurora's lead as they crawled out of the room.

 

Chapter 5: V

"You spelled me!" Sirius snarled. "And you left me there too! What if you'd gotten caught? Then what? I'd have been left there alone for who knows how long unable to move or talk and-"

Shoving her hand in his face, Aurora spoke over the boy, "Oh, belt up. I didn't have time to argue with you before and I don't have time to listen to you complain now. Come on, we have to see if we can't hear what's going on in Severus's mother's study."

Frowning at his fellow Slytherin, Severus narrowed his eyes. "You know who needs to belt up, Aurora? You. This is my family's business you're trying to stick your nose in, and I don't appreciate it. So, instead, why don't you take a seat there on the floor beside Sirius and wait for me?"

Gobsmacked, Aurora could only open and close her mouth in a successive manner. Severus watched as her eyes bulged with anger due to both Severus's words and at her own incapability in forming them. However, before she could find the ability once again, Sirius began to laugh.

"That was wicked! Way to show her who's in charge!" Sirius praised.

Severus didn't bother saying anything. Instead, he just pointed to the spot the two had occupied when he left some time ago and brought a hand to his forehead. It felt hot, he noted absently as he used his other hand to bring his cloak closer. It was funny, Severus thought, how you could feel two things at once. To his hand, he was hot, but to the rest of him, he was very cold.

Moving away from his partners in crime, Severus grumbled, "Bloody spiders." However, even as his suspicions placed his sudden fever and chills on the bite he received not too long ago, he did not think to swallow the bezoar that was weighing his pocket down. Instead, Severus did the most idiotic thing he'd ever done before and ignored his potentially fatal condition in favor of getting up on his tiptoes to listen through the solid door of his mother's study.

Most of what he heard was quite muffled, but a few times, their pitches raised to a volume that made their words discernible. Furrowing his brow, Severus pressed his ear even closer as he wished for a spell that could enhance his sense of hearing.

"...Lord...wants to meet him..."

"...when?"

"...don't know...soon...seventeen...fail..."

"...hush, don't worry..."

"...disown him...adopt...Dotty always..."

"...about Quirinus? Oh, Denice...

Pulling away to wipe the sweat away from his face, Severus reflected on the few snippets he'd heard. It seemed his mother had more than plans to just to send him away for the summer. Unfortunately, he didn't know if he liked them. While it was all fine when he was was the one doing the running, the thought of his mother actually disowning him so he wouldn't be turned into a Death Eater just didn't sit well with Severus. After all, his mother wasn't the one who knew what happened.

It was Severus. Him.

Severus hadn't known his mum was going to join Voldemort's circle, he'd never even considered it for that matter. He'd always just figured she'd use Padriac as her ears and eyes, since it had seemed quite inevitable that he would join after his own father died in the line of duty. But now that she had, Severus was feeling less and less inclined to leave her.

She needed someone to watch her back, after all. Granny had also said he was the best at occlumency, so, maybe, he would even stand a chance in such a vile man's presence. At the very least, Severus would get to know if the green-eyed boy had succeeded in his mission to slay Voldemort. It was the one thing more than anything that he wanted to know at this point. If he could know that Voldemort could be destroyed, he'd feel better about his mother's chances against him, too.

Swaying a little as he leaned in close again to listen for more, Severus was overcome by a sudden sense of vertigo. The hall spun so fast, he had no time to catch himself as he landed on the ground with a heavy thunk. Darkness surging over his vision and consciousness, the last things Severus heard before losing the battle was someone crying his name in a shrill pitch while a door knob clicked as it was being turned open.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Pressing a kiss to her son's forehead, Eileen finally settled down in a seat and reflected on how she, Quincy and Severus's friends had come to St. Mungo's. After hearing him fall outside her study door, followed by the scream of one the children, Eileen had gotten up and opened her study door only to see the flushed face of her son laying on the ground. She'd known just by looking at Severus it hadn't been a vision - he was sweating too much for it to even be a possibility. Ignoring the panicking children that Quincy had started demanding answers from, she'd gotten down on her knees and felt Severus over to see what it could be. That was when Eileen had found the bezoar he'd stuffed in his pocket along side her father's wand.

It hadn't taken much more thought on her part to figure it out. Obviously Severus had run into the little trap Eileen had set up years ago to keep any thief from getting away with her father's wand. As a stupid, grieving girl, she'd put a poisonous spider under a Stasis Charm in her father's wand box. She'd known even then it would do little to stop a truly determined thief from stealing from her family, but it'd felt good to leave something behind that would leave them marked as one once the poison settled in their veins.

After realizing what had happened to her son, she'd taken the bezoar and shoved it down his unresisting throat. Once finished, she'd waisted no time in charming her son's body to levitate as she headed for the Floo in her study. Even though Eileen knew the bezoar would rid her son's system of the poison, she still wanted him checked over by a professional Healer. Quincy hadn't been far behind with the other children, and once they'd gone through the whirlwind check-in at St. Mungo's, they'd all come to finally settle around her son in the room Severus had been placed in after their arrival.

Staring at the children sitting across from her, Eileen pondered what should be done with them. The three had snuck out of Hogwarts in the middle of the night, after all. It was early morning now and it would only be a matter of time before someone noticed her son and the other two missing.

Eileen was taken from her thoughts when she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Quincy gazing down on her with soft eyes. "I'll take them," he said to her. "I can bring them through my office floo and no one will be the wiser."

Cradling her still overly pale son's head, she asked, "What about Severus?"

"Give me a little bit, I'm sure I can think of something to explain his absence."

The girl - Aurora Sinistra - pulled her face into a deep scowl. "I'm not going back to Hogwarts until I know Severus has been okayed by the healers," she declared.

"Miss Sinistra-"

"Me neither!" Sirius shouted, standing up and jutting his chin out in youthful defiance. "I'm a Black. If I make a fuss on our way out of here, someone's going to notice and you'll get fired for kidnapping!"

Quincy's nostrils flared. "You will do no such thing, Mister Black!" he barked. "Nor will you Miss Sinistra!" he growled once he noticed the girl was about to speak.

"He's our mate! We should get to make sure he's okay!" Sirius countered. "I bet if it was one of us in the bed, you wouldn't make Severus leave!"

Eileen shared a look with Quincy. While that was likely true, there was no reason that they had to let this boy know. "No, we would not," she disagreed. "We would send him back to Hogwarts just the same. It's where he's supposed to be - and would be if he wasn't being observed due to the spider bite."

The girl, who'd started this fight, reached over to card a hand through Severus's hair. "It was lucky he had the bezoar in his pocket, wasn't it? Did you teach him to carry one Missus Prince?"

Frowning at Aurora, Eileen narrowed her eyes. She was certain this demure question was a ploy to stall for time. "I didn't," she answered. "Severus will be just fine, Miss Sinistra. If you really want to help my son, go with Mister Quirrell and let him get some rest in peace and quiet."

"But-"

"Miss Sinistra, come," Quincy ordered.

The girl stayed where she was, her arms crossing as a mutinous expression overcame her countenance.

Taking a deep breath, Eileen's friend warned, "If you don't move right now, Miss Sinistra, I will be docking Slytherin fifty points."

Aurora's mouth fell open. "You can't!"

"I will," the man replied.

Shoulders slumping with defeat, Aurora gave Severus one last long look. "I'll - I'll see you back at Hogwarts, Severus. Bye..." and she reached over, taking one of Severus's hands to give it a gentle squeeze.

However, as Aurora was to pull her hand away, her son's fingers trapped hers. Gasping, the girl looked to Severus's face at the same time as Eileen.

Dark eyes stared up at them.

"Severus?" she asked in a hopeful whisper.

Looking between her and the children he'd roped in to helping him on his little mission, he croaked, "What happened? Why are they leaving?"

Curling black locks behind his ears, Eileen didn't answer right away. "Shhh...You got quite a nasty spider bite a little while ago. Now you just need to rest for a bit, dear. You'll see them again soon."

"No we won't! They're making us go back to Hogwarts!" Sirius shouted.

Severus's gaze came to meet hers, his eyes were wide and upset. "Why? If Quirinus and Katerina had been the ones with me, you wouldn't make them leave."

Eileen closed her eyes, the beginning of a headache already knocking against her temple. "Maybe so, but Miss Sinistra and Mister Black aren't Quirinus and Katrina."

"They know, Mum."

Eileen couldn't stop the flabbergasted look that overtook her. "What?" she gasped. "Oh for Merlin's-"

"We do!" the girl cut in. "We know he has visions and we'll tell someone if you make us leave!"

Severus frowned at Aurora. "No you won't," he said.

The girl looked away. "Yes we will," she insisted.

"You're lying."

She scowled. "Would you stop, Severus? They're still trying to send us away and if you keep ruining our best threat, we'll have no chance of staying!" Aurora grumbled.

Severus chuckled. "They'll listen to me," he declared. "After all, they've been hiding things and lying to me. Mum's broken her pact and owes me quite a bit to make up for it."

Eileen's heart thudded with trepidation. "Severus, I'm-"

"-Save it, Mum," he broke in. "Aurora, Sirius, come sit by me. Mum and Mister Quirrell are going to explain everything to us that happened last night and not hide anything."

As the boy and girl filed over, Eileen frowned. "Is that such a good idea, Severus? How do you know they can be trusted?"

"Sirius dies for the green-eyed boy, just like me. And Aurora...I don't know what happens to you, but I think I already know where you fall. You don't like what you stepsister Mollie's doing, right?"

Aurora nodded thoughtfully. "Dad made a mistake marrying her mum. My stepmother is vapid and daft, she let Mollie be raised by her father's parents for most of her life after Mollie's father died. I don't know how much you know about my stepsister and stepmum, but her first husband, and Mollie's father, was a Carrow. The Carrows aren't good people, they're cruel and underhanded and Mollie's has their shrewd intelligence - as my uncle likes to say - unlike her cousins Alecto and Amycus who take after their mother's side of the family, the Crabbes.

"Now that Mollie has the Sinistra name and access to our home, my family, like yours, could host the Dark Lord at anytime. I could even be asked to take the mark at the rate things are going. I haven't told anyone this, but I've been writing my uncle about him taking guardianship over me. I don't want to go back home to my father and his wife. With the way things are now, though, I'm going to have to have to lie and say someone has hurt me. I don't want to, but it's the only way."

Sirius, who'd been leaning in closer and closer the entire time Aurora was talking, asked, "Why not just run away?"

"Don't be daft, running away only works if no one looks for you or if they take the next step and say they don't want you anymore either," Aurora snapped. "My father might have made an awful decision in marrying my stepmother, but he does love me."

"If he loves you, he wouldn't have married your stepmother," Sirius countered as he resettled in his seat.

Eileen sighed as Aurora reached over and slapped the back of the boy's head. Getting up, Quincy stepped between the two and instructed, "Miss Sinistra, go to the other side of the bed by Miss Prince."

Glaring at Sirius still, the girl did so.

Once she was beside her, Severus gave Eileen a satisfied look. "See? They're safe - probably even more so than Quirinus and Katrina, who are in the thick of things just like us."

"Severus, by letting them know what I'm about to tell you, they will be just as involved as you and I," Eileen explained gently.

Her son looked over the two. "If you don't want to be involved, you can leave now."

Sirius shook his head so hard his hair flew around to slap him in the face. "What? No way! I want to know everything! Bellatrix is always hinting at stuff just enough so I know something's happening, but never tells me the details I'd need if I were to tell someone. I want to stop the Dark Lord and people like her!"

Eileen looked hopefully to Aurora. The girl had, after all, explained she was doing her best to get away from her family so she would not be roped into the life Eileen was now leading. However, the girl was nodding along to Sirius's sentiment. "I want to know too," she declared.

Burying her face in her hands for a moment, Eileen resurfaced only to be met by three pairs of eager eyes. "Okay," she whispered.

"Eileen-"

Head whipping around, she snapped, "I already broke my pact! I can't lie anymore, Quincy!"

Putting up his hand, the man grumbled, "Yes, I understand that. But it was only between you and Severus. I also understand that you want to make it up to him, but I cannot just stand by and allow you to burden Miss Sinistra and Mister Black with the knowledge of the Dark Lord that you know. It's not right. Children should be left to be children."

Eileen burst out in laughter. "Left to be children?" she wheezed through her giggles, "For Merlin's sake, Quincy! Severus stopped being a little boy years ago and I suspect these two stopped being children as well in the last couple years!"

"No, Eileen. I can't let you do this. I, as a part of Hogwarts staff, am their guardian in lieu of their parents. If it were Quirinus here, I wouldn't let him hear either - no matter how Severus may want him to. Maybe these two aren't little ones anymore, but they are still young and innocent to so much of the world. I won't have that tainted while under my watch." Face hard, he yanked both resisting second years to their feet and continued, "I expect you to put him under a vow of silence once this is done, Eileen. I don't want Severus telling them later. I don't want him telling Quirinuslater. It's bad enough my son fears he'll become a Death Eater and die by fire when he's grown, I don't need him knowing the horrors someone so close to him is going through, too.

"Mister Black, Miss Sinistra, cease your struggling or I will take one hundred points from each house!"

"That's excessive!" Sirius burst, face a livid red.

Narrowing his eyes as he opened the hospital room door, Quincy bit back, "So is helping a peer run away from Hogwarts because he was worried his mother was lying to him."

The boy ducked his head in response and followed the man out of the room quietly with Aurora right behind.

"I'm sorry," Severus whispered to his friends' backs as Aurora closed the door behind her with only a sad glance back.

Doing her best to put on a smile, Eileen reached over and combed a hand through her son's hair. "Are you ready, dear?"

Her son said nothing, only raising one fine eyebrow in response.

If it were any other time, Eileen would have marveled at how much her son persisted in reminding her of her father even after all these years, but she knew he was waiting. If she made him do so much longer, Eileen knew it would only result in one of the rages he'd come to start having in the past year when he became overly frustrated.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Getting dressed in his school uniform, Severus talked through the bathroom door to his mother. "How am I going back to school? Are you taking me?"

"Yes," his mother replied, voice still sounding slightly tearful from making Severus take a vow of secrecy. "I'm sure Quincy will not mind if I tell Headmaster DumbledoreI had him get you in the middle of the night to come see your grandmother."

Pausing in buttoning his shirt, Severus cocked his head and stare at his confused expression in the bathroom mirror. "Where is Granny, Mum?"

"I haven't told her about the spider bite, Quincy and I didn't waste time by running to get her on our way here."

Finished with his shirt, Severus pulled on his sweater before opening the bathroom door. "She's going to be very cross with you when you get home," he commented.

His mum's lips flickered into a wan smile. "She deserves its," she said. "She's done more than enough to make me cross with her these past couple days."

Severus wanted to say his mum was wrong, and that Granny was only honest with her in a way he wished she would be with him. But he'd never admitted to hearing her discuss the meeting with the Dark Lord with his grandmother in the parlor, so he couldn't say anything now. Instead, Severus replied, "Maybe, but Granny always means well."

His mother's tired eyes crinkled as her smile widened. "You're such a sweet lad," she murmured. Taking Severus by the shoulders, she placed a dry kiss to his forehead. "How did I ever get a gem like you?"

Mute, Severus shrugged his shoulders. If his mum wanted to think of him as a gem for knowing a little more than he let on, he would, because it would hurt them both too much to correct her. After all, they both knew what Severus really was in his deepest depths of being.

A curse.

Chapter 6: VI

Stepping through the floo and into Mister Quirrell's tiny back office, Severus turned around to face his mother. "Goodbye, Mum. I'll write you in a couple days," he told her.

Biting her lip, Severus's mum unfurled her hand from her cloak and reached out like she was going to touch him. But she stopped when Severus narrowed his eyes at her.

"Goodbye, Severus," she whispered.

Making sure his tie was straight; Severus did not look back as he stepped out of Mister Quirrell's office and into the quiet, morning-lit library. He walked in silence through the halls of books. From there, it didn't take him long to find himself back in the tall corridors of Hogwarts. Looking in the direction he knew would lead him to the Great Hall for breakfast, Severus debated his interest in going.

While it might give him the chance to see Aurora and Sirius, he bet Mister Quirrell would be there. Watching.

Lips curling in distaste, he muttered, "I definitely don't want to see himagain so soon." Decision made then, Severus instead went in the direction of the Slytherin dorms.

Meandering down the halls, Severus chose not to think of what his mother had told him about her meeting with Voldemort. Nor did he think of her being branded with the Lord's mark. Instead he chose to think of how he could pass on what he learned to Aurora and Sirius. They deserved to know, he figured. They both had family within the Dark Lord's circle and they had gone out of their way in helping him go home to discover everything that he had.

The vow he'd been bound under would keep him from verbalizing what he'd learned. Severus was also willing to bet writing a letter would equate to the same results as speaking if he tried...

Thinking hard, Severus wondered if there wasn't another way. Could he have them write what they wished to know down and send it in a letter to his mother under his name? Then he could just hand it off to them and they'd get all the answers they wanted. He would just be a middleman and would be not directly involved in telling them anything, that way. Though, Severus feared she'd be suspicious if he did so. But the only other option he could see would be to have them write her directly with their own names upon their letters. Somehow, after the fuss Quirinus's father threw about letting them know things, he doubted she'd give them any answers.

Maybe...

He wondered if either of them knew anything about Legilimency. If he let them look at his memories of his mother informing him about her meeting with Voldemort, that wouldn't be telling,right? No, it would be showing.

That had not been something he'd sworn not to do when taking the vow.

He grinned at his cleverness. Reaching his dorm, he barked the password to gain entrance and stepped inside his common room. He wanted to rest for a bit still, but he might have to let that wish go. He'd need time to gather his Legilimency and Occlumency texts. This was because even if they did know something about the disciplines, Severus doubted they were anywhere on par with him.

He also doubted they'd get to learn all that he had from his mother today. But maybe if they worked diligently on Aurora and Sirius's skills for the rest of the week, they might know enough by Monday for them to learn what they wanted to know.

Dropping to his knees in front of his trunk, Severus pushed up the lid and began to sort through his sizable collection of books for the texts he had brought with him to Hogwarts on Occlumency and Legilimency. Grabbing a quill in afterthought, Severus realized he would have to figure out which parts of the texts would be most important for Aurora and Sirius to know so that they could see his memories.

Falling back, Severus crossed his legs as he hunkered down. Planning a lesson like this would take up the better part of the morning, he was sure.

-v-v-v-v-v-

"Are you sure this is all we need to know?" Sirius asked with a doubtful frown.

Irked by the Gryffindor's dubious expression, Severus scowled. "Yes!" he snapped. "I spent the better part of yesterday making sure that those papers would include what you needed to learn how to access another's mind!"

Crossing his arms, Sirius tipped back in the chair he was sitting in and looked up at the ceiling of the unused classroom the trio were sitting in. "I know you said you're good at this stuff, but...How good can you really be? You said yourself you've only been learning about Legilimency since last summer. Will this really be enough to let us look in your memories? No offense, here, but I'm not interested in ending up in the wrong memory or something."

"If you do, I'll guide you to the right one," Severus told him through clenched teeth.

Aurora gave a small smile. "Of course you will," Aurora agreed. "You don't want us poking around in your head more than we have to, do you?"

Severus eyed her strangely. "Well, yes," he consented. "The last thing I want is you two seeing what else lays within my mind. It's bad enough I have to see some of it on a regular basis."

"See, there you go Sirius, he won't let us off path in his mind," Aurora said to the boy sitting beside her.

Sirius chuffed loudly and turned his head completely away from the girl.

Sepia lips curling back into a sneer, Aurora demanded, "Do you think you're too good to speak to me, you prat? I'll have you know we are more alike than you care to admit!"

The stony look that came to Sirius's eyes made Severus wonder just what had happened between the two of them between leaving his room at St. Mungo's to coming back to Hogwarts. Had Aurora said or done something?

"What's gotten into you two?" he asked finally when he could not stand watching them continue to glare at one another. "Did I miss something? You were fine with each other when you left St. Mungo's..."

Their glares turned into calculated looks, as they seemed to have some kind of silent conversation between them. Finally, Aurora turned to look at Severus. "It was really just a row, I guess. He's still mad about getting left out of so much at your home and I...I told him I'd tell on him if he went through on his thoughtless plan to sneak off back to St. Mungo's and demand answers from your mother."

Severus nodded. "You were probably right to stop him," he said. "Though, I wish you both could have just been there to hear what my mother had to say. I'm sure you both have questions I'll never be able to give you answers to because my mother only told me things that pertained to myself and our family."

"Are you sureshe wouldn't give us any answers if we wrote her?" Sirius asked. "Learning all this mind reading stuff seems a little...extreme."

"You know, for being a Gryffindor you're being quite resistant to a challenge like this," Aurora commented.

Sirius scowled. "I...the last time I messed around with this stuff, it was with Bellatrix. She was using me as...practice."

"Practice?" Severus echoed in confusion.

Nodding, the boy shifted again so his eyes were focused on the tabletop of the desk. "Yes," he sighed. "It was a few years ago when she was learning how. She wanted to practice getting what she wanted from someone's mind and she just shredded through all kinds of stuff while she looking for what she wanted. It hurt. A lot. I had a headache for a couple days after."

Lifting his gaze up to meet Severus's, he admitted, "I don't want something to backfire while I'm doing it and have it happen again."

"It won't," Severus promised. "We'll be doing it right."

Sirius's tense shoulders relaxed and he let his mouth curve in a small smile. "Okay," he agreed. "So, where do we start with this stuff?"

-v-v-v-v-v-

Unlike how Severus had hoped, teaching Aurora and Sirius Legilimency did not go smoothly. Sirius could never stay focused on his goal long enough to get the information he wanted from Severus's mind and Aurora, surprise of all surprises, did not have the conviction to make the spell even work.

Each and every time, she would say the spell and just barely make her presence known within Severus's mind before she was gone once more.

Severus had questioned her on this; usually she had no good answer. It usually revolved around there being some outside distraction and it not being her fault. Of course, Severus wouldn't have even had to delve into her mind to know she was lying. He wondered if she was the one that had been scared from the start about what else she would find if she fell off path within his memories.

Sirius, while slowly getting better, was not making the process at the speed Severus had hoped he would. With the end of Holidays fast approaching, Severus didn't even know if they'd be able to carry on their lessons once the rest of the student populous came back to Hogwarts. Sirius had yet to say what he planned to do once James Potter was back by his side.

Severus hoped he'd still remain a friend, but he didn't hold his breath either.

Pinching the bridge of his nose after yet another long and unfruitful session with Aurora and Sirius, he told them, "School begins again in two days time. I, for one, have hardly worked on my actual homework at all this entire time. There's no way I'll be able to keep up with these lessons when that needs to be finished.

Aurora shifted in her seat and admitted, "I still have a lot to do too..."

"I haven't even cracked open a textbook yet," Sirius muttered dejectedly. "At this rate, we'll neverget to learn about what you did!"

He hated to agree with Sirius, but Severus knew he was right. "Yes, at the rate things are going, you won't. Especially you, Aurora," he told her pointedly.

The girl in question glowered at him. "How do you know it's my fault? You could be just a terrible teacher!"

Severus pointed his finger at Sirius. "It might be slow going with him, but at least he's making progress! I don't think I'mthe one at fault for yourfailures!" he argued.

Rocketing up from her seat, Aurora, slapped her hands down on the desk and shouted, "I don't have to take this! I might not be a mind reading genius, but I'm certainly smart enough to know when something isn't myfault!" And with that, she turned heel and stalked out of what they'd begun to think of as their classroom.

Sharing a look with Sirius, he asked, "You don't think I'm a terrible teacher, do you?"

Sirius shook his head. "You can get kind of cranky when we do stuff wrong, but you're clear about what you want us to do and so are your directions," he answered honestly.

Taking this in, Severus thanked him. "Thanks, Sirius."

Standing up, the boy clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Think nothing of it," he replied. "Hey, Severus? Do you think we'll ever get this down? I mean, at the rate we're going...I almost wonder if we shouldn't start looking into other options. I know you don't think your mother would answer, because of Mister Quirrell, but what if we went straight to him? What if we explained why we have to know this stuff? Do you think with his permission she'd tell us?"

Crossing his arms and legs, Severus tipped his head back and considered what Sirius was saying. If they convinced Mister Quirrell, would Mum? Severus believed so. After all, she held his opinion in high regard, even higher than that of Granny's and Severus's. But then the question became how easily convinced could Mister Quirrell be?

When he was younger, the man had seemed like a fairly easy-going, compassionate fellow. At his happiest in the company of those he loved and with a good book in hand. At that time, it wouldn't have been very hard at all to get the man's approval. These days, though, there was something...hunted about him. His hands were often moving, clenching and unclenching, twisting in his robes, thumbing through books or drumming along tabletops. And his eyes, they had more wrinkles surrounding them than should be expected for a man his age.

While he was as compassionate as always, he was much more critical. Some of that Severus knew he had to chalk up to simply being a librarian for a school of pre-adolescents and teenagers. Unlike his patrons at his old library, these ones needed a much firmer hand to ensure they followed his rules. It didn't help, Severus thought, that a fair number of students (his housemates in particular) seemed to go out of their way to push the man's limits.

Last year, a sixth year by the name of Nancy Bulstrode had even gone so far as to call him a traitor in the earshot of Quirinus and Severus.

The hue the usually pleasant man's face had turned in response would have put the devil to shame.

If he could have, Severus was sure he would have banned her from ever coming back to the library again.

Why his housemates were growing so bold in their insults of adults and showing where their opinions laid puzzled Severus to some degree. Yes, the Dark Lord was gathering together forces from those coming out of Hogwarts and yes, his infiltration of the Ministry became deeper everyday, but the war he knew was on the horizon had not yet reached the peak it would in a few years time. They were giving away their position and Severus was disgusted by their stupidity.

Anyone with half a brain should know to keep their cards close until they were sure they were winning.

That brought up another question Severus still wasn't sure he knew the answer to. Wasthe Dark Lord's faction already winning? Maybe they were. The amount of seventh year Slytherins already considering the mark and planning to meet with Voldemort was frightfully high. The man must be working miracles, to have them coming in the droves that they were.

While he prayed that the Dark Lord did not win in the end, Severus didn't know.

"...Severus? Earth to Severus!" Sirius shouted in his ear.

Jumping, he fell out of his chair. Glaring at the Gryffindor, Severus snapped, "What?"

"What? You haven't even given me an answer yet!" Sirius grumbled.

Severus chuckled. "I was just thinking things through, you might want to try it some time, Sirius," he teased.

"Yes, some time," Sirius agreed flippantly with a smirk of his own.

Accepting the hand offered to him, Severus allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. "As for an answer, I think so. But we have to have the right argument prepared in advance. He thinks you're too young to know, right? Well we have to find a way to prove to him that you and Aurora are more than old enough to know what's happening within the Dark Lord's circle. I think you and Aurora will have to be brutally honest about why you need to know. It will make him more compassionate to your plea, then," he explained.

Sirius nodded. Cocking his head, he remarked, "You know Mister Quirrell quite well, don't you?"

"My mum and him were friends in their school days and I've known him myself since I was quite young. There's a reason Quirinus and I are such good friends despite being in different houses, you know," he told Sirius proudly. After all, not every one could make friendships outside of houses work nearly as well as he and Quirinus did.

Sirius smiled. "You're right about that," he agreed. "Say, do you think we'll be able to get this finished before the rest of the students come back?"

"Afraid Potter will turn on you if he sees you with me, the Psycho-Prince?" Severus demanded, lips already curling into a snarl.

Sirius shifted from foot to foot. "It will be hard to explain how we've gotten to know each other so well, you must admit," he argued plaintively.

"Tell him what you want then, I don't care," Severus proclaimed as he turned his back on the other.

The other boy sighed. "I like you - Aurora too when she's not being bossy, anyway - I'm not going to forget you in favor of James and everybody. You're my mate now, just like James. I don't abandon friends," he swore.

Turning back around, Severus told Sirius, "But if he makes you choose, would you choose us over him?"

Sirius's countenance turns troubled. "I couldn't do that. I wouldn't be able to choose..."

"He'll choose for you then. He'll tell you if we're friends youcan't be. And as much as I might like you as a mate, I can't do that to you. If he makes you choose, pick him. You'll be much better off if you don't make enemies out of your dormmates."

"I don't-"

"Do it!"

Head drooping, Sirius nodded. "Alright, if he makes me choose, I'll pick him - only because you've told me to."

Severus smiled sadly. "You'll thank me when the time comes, trust me," he said.

"I don't think I will, but I'll trust you," the other boy replied.

Chapter 7: VII

Loitering by the Ravenclaw dorms, Severus watched avidly for his friends as other students came in spurts to the dorm. After a larger group consisting of mostly sixth and seventh years filed in, Severus spied Katrina coming up the hall with a dormmate on one side of her and Quirinus on the other.

A grin tugging at his lips, Severus pushed off the wall he'd been leaning against and hurried toward the trio.

"Katrina! Quirinus!" he called, throwing up a hand in greeting.

The two smiled upon seeing him and Katrina turned to her friend, saying something to her that made the other girl nod and hurry ahead of them. Dipping his head in thanks to her as she passed him by, Severus only sped up to close the gap between him and his friends.

"Hello!" he greeted as he accepted the embrace Katrina wrapped him in.

Clinging tightly, Katrina murmured, "I missed you!"

"So did I," Severus returned as he let her go to accept a fast hug from Quirinus.

Still smiling, he asked, "How were your holidays?"

"You'd know, if you'd actually written us more than twice the whole two weeks," Katrina half-jabbed, half-scolded.

Severus winced. "Yeah," he agreed. "Sorry. I got caught up with...stuff."

Quirinus's eyebrows went high, mouth making a small 'o' of surprise. "Stuff? Stuff, Severus? Really? Aren't we best mates? I'd think you could be a bit more specific!" he remarked with an annoyed edge coming to his words.

Severus raised one of his eyebrows in response. Had his lack of communication really bothered them (or just Quirinus, he supposed,) this much? Maybe it had. He'd known Quirinus so long and had been telling him everything about himself and what was happening to him for years. To suddenly become vague might actually be more irritating than he realized.

Oh, Quirinus was going to hate it when Severus couldn't tell him about everything he'd learned this Christmas Holiday.

Stupid Mum. Stupid Mister Quirrell.

Deciding it would be best to rectify his mistakes quickly, Severus bobbed his head in agreement. "I can be," he told his friends. "Just not here, okay? Put your stuff away and after dinner, find me, alright? I'll take us somewhere we can talk for real then."

This seemed to appease Quirinus and Katrina's lips were quirked in that half-smile she always got when she knew she was about to learn something big.

Katrina was excited by his promise. She liked knowing things that others didn't. It made her feel more important. Older than she actually was. Severus was just relieved that she valued keeping his trust more than she did lording her superior knowledge over others. Though, he figured Katrina must know just as well as he that she would be just as in the dark as her fellow first years if Severus didn't believe she could keep a secret.

He still liked her and thought of her as a friend, but sometimes, Severus felt her family's Slytherin teachings made her value their friendship differently than he did. That maybe, to her, they were friends because he had something to give her that she wanted rather than because she just liked him as a person.

Occasionally, when he started thinking too deeply about things, it made Severus feel cheap. It made him worry that she would throw him away once Severus had nothing interesting to give her.

Furthering his fears, Katrina channeled her mother with her raised chin as she proclaimed in a lofty tone for both her and Quirinus, "That will be agreeable."

Giving them a weak smile that felt more like a grimace, Severus figured he should show his gratitude. "Thank you, I appreciate this," he murmured. Then, staring them both down as he stepped out of their way to head back to his dorm, he reminded them, "Remember, find me after dinner and I'll tell you what I can."

Nodding agreeably, Quirinus, an appeased look upon his features, let the corners of his mouth quirk with his usual smile. "See you!" he called after Severus as he started down the corridor

Severus twisted around to wave back. "Yeah!" he agreed before picking up his pace.

He wanted to talk to Aurora and see if she would come with him this evening when he spoke to his friends. After all, he could keep her as a friend if he liked. She wasn't already tied to someone else like Sirius.

And Severus would really like to keep her by his side.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Tucked away together in a corner of the Slytherin common room, Aurora just frowned at him. Drumming his fingers along the surface of the tabletop separating them, Severus cast a look over the rest of the occupants of the room.

Most were too busy one upping each other with stories of their holidays or trying to finish homework in time to turn it in tomorrow to bother with the likes of Severus, the Psycho-Prince and Aurora, Sinistra the Irksome. Eventually, people would notice their new friendship, but until then, they would be what they always were - forgettable.

"I'll say it again, Aurora. I'm sor-"

She put up a hand. "Don't," she cut in. "You had a point before. I wasn't trying very hard," she admitted. "I'm sorry about calling you an awful teacher. You aren't great, but you could be worse."

Severus rolled his eyes. "Thanks, I guess," he replied.

Aurora gave him a pointed glare. "You should be! The only way anyone becomes better at something is if they get criticism," she proclaimed.

This made him laugh. "I think you're mixing up insulting and criticism, Aurora. What you did was call me an awful teacher and run off. Sirius told me what I could improve upon," he said.

She waved a hand. "Yes, yes, he told you, but Sirius didn't think of all that on his own," she hedged.

He just tilted his head in disbelief. Aurora was twisting things now, but Severus decided it should be let go now in favor of getting what he really wanted from her at this time.

Severus wanted her to come with him to see Quirinus and Katrina tonight. Sirius wouldn't be a friend much longer, but it wouldn't too difficult he believed to work her into his group. The girl was a bit caustic, but he felt Katrina would like to have someone to talk about girl things with and having another Slytherin with him would make it easier when they argued about things. Slytherins were quite loyal to their own, after all.

"Sure, fine," Severus relented. "Now, what I was really hoping to ask you was if you would come with me to meet Quirinus and Katrina after dinner. I was planning to fill them in on what happened over the holidays and it might help to have you there to fill in the gaps that I can't."

"You want me to come with you to see your friends?" Aurora asked, sounding both astounded and disgusted.

Severus nodded. "Yes," he replied. "Is that really so strange? You're my mate now too, you know. I'd like it if you could meet my other friends and get to know them."

Aurora curled her hands into loose fists as she lifted her gaze to look at something behind Severus. "Just because I'm your friend, why would they accept me into your little group?" she asked.

"Because they're my friends and it's important to me that they give you a chance," he told her. "Look, we've been through a lot together these past couple weeks, right? Do you really want to forget it all and go back to having nobody who wants to even sit next to you in the Great Hall again?" he questioned with a sharp edge to his words.

Gaze snapping back to him, Aurora, obsidian eyes furious, pulled her lips into a snarl. "Is that some sort of threat?" she demanded.

"No," Severus answered with a scoff. "It's the truth. That's what will happen if you don't consider my offer. I like you, Aurora. You're a smart witch and are a lot more bold then I'd have expected, but if you can't get along with the friends I already have..." Severus trailed off.

He shrugged his shoulders in a helpless motion, then. "Quirinus and Katrina came first. It's like I told Sirius, if James were to make him choose between us and him, he should pick James. Though, that's not just because he came first, but because it's better for him. Making enemies of his dormmates won't do him any favors. Breaking my friendship off with the children of the people my mother is actively working with in her endeavors won't help me or her, either. It's all very simple, really," Severus explained.

Sighing, Aurora asked, "You really still want to be friends? This isn't just some ploy at being friendly?"

"No," Severus answered. "I want to be your mate still. I'd also like if you could get along with Quirinus and Katrina, is all. I spend a lot of time with them and if we are to continue to be friends, I suspect you will have to become mates with them as well. I'm not keen on trying to split my time between you three. That's a lot of work that's going to lead to more hurt feelings than anything else."

Finally, after a long moment of silence, Aurora nodded. "Okay. I'll come with you this evening. Shall we head to dinner now?"

Getting up, Severus lilted his lips in a smirk. "Yes, let's," he agreed with triumph clear in his voice.

And together, the two left their dorm.

(This time, people looked at them. Realizing finally that they're sitting together in the corner and quiet conversation had been intentional and not by coincidence).

-v-v-v-v-v-

Seated around one of the desks in the unused classroom that Severus, Aurora and Sirius had done their Legilimency lessons, Quirinus and Katrina looked between Aurora and Severus.

Confusion clear on his features, Quirinus asked, "Severus, is there a reason why Sinistra is here?"

"Of course there is," he replied with a roll of his eyes. "Aurora wouldn't be here otherwise, would she?"

Katrina narrowed her eyes at Aurora and repeated, "Aurora?" Crossing her arms, she asked, "You call her Aurora now?"

Severus gave a firm nod. "Yes, I do. She's a friend - the same as you and Quirinus," he replied.

"Okay," Quirinus agreed. "But should she be here?"

Tired of being talked about, Aurora snapped, "Yes, I should! I know just as much, if not more than you!"

Katrina frowned. "Is that true, Severus? Does she really know more?" she inquired looking just a tad hurt at the idea.

Severus sighed.

"Yes-"

"What's going on here? Starting the party without me?" a voice called with a lilting note of amusement.

Twisting in their seats, Aurora was the one to cry, "Sirius! What are you doing here?"

"Yes, what are you doing here?" Severus demanded.

He hadn't invited him. Severus hadn't believed tugging the other boy away from his friends the first night they were a back would be a good idea. It would have lead to questions from them and Severus still didn't quite trust Sirius's capabilities when it came to lying to them. They had been friends for a year and a half at this point, it would be enough for them to pick up on any tells if Sirius had to fib about his absence.

Smile faltering just a bit, Sirius came and took the seat on the other side of Aurora as he told them, "I noticed something was happening when the four of you walked off together. I told the James, Remus and Peter I had a headache and that I was going to the infirmary. I kind of can't believe you're all meeting up without me. Aren't I your mate too?" he questioned with a pointed look at Severus.

Severus dropped his head into his hands and scrubbed at his eyes. "You are," he answered. "But I'm trying to keep as much attention off us as I can. It's notable enough that Aurora joined us and I'm sure Mister Quirrell made note of it. You leaving like you did probably caught more than Mister Quirrell's attention too, I bet. Don't you think James and the rest will be suspicious? I would be if I were them."

"But you're a Slytherin," Katrina remarked unhelpfully. "You're supposed to question things like that."

Sirius nodded, a smug set coming to his chin. "She's right," he agreed.

Lifting his head, Severus glared at them all. "All of you can just belt up now," he grumbled. "Look, instead of questioning every single thing I'm doing, why don't we just let me explain things, hm?"

Quirinus and Katrina shared a look. "Sure, Severus. Fill us in. Though, you have a good explanation for why Sinistra and Black were involved in all of this, don't you?"

Severus closed his eyes and sighed loudly. "Yes," he hissed. "They wouldn't be here otherwise!"

The blond threw up his hands. "Okay! It was just a question!" he exclaimed in surprise at the venom in his friend's tone.

"Just let me explain then!" Severus countered.

Quirinus opened his mouth, ready to say something, but thought better of it a moment later and crossed his arms instead. Nodding at this, Severus settle back in his seat.

Taking a moment to compose himself, Severus began, "Everything started on the first day of Christmas Holidays when I was on my way to send a letter to my mum..."

-v-v-v-v-v-

Pale and eyebrows furrowed, Quirinus asked, "My dad was the one who suggested that? A vow? That seems a little...extreme, wouldn't you say?"

Severus shrugged. "Mum obviously didn't think so, since she went through with it," he replied.

Tapping at her chin, Katrina remarked, "My mother would never have suggested such a thing. She would have told yours to keep it all to herself if she was so worried about it getting passed onto Black and Sinistra."

"Yes, she just might have," Severus agreed with a roll of his eyes. What did it matter what her mother would have done? She would have never been asked to stay with Granny while Mum was away being branded. Severus's mum didn't trust Missus Selwyn farther than she could kick her. She'd just been Mum's in to the Dark Lord's army.

"I - This - Really?" Quirinus asked in a whisper. "He was really that mean?"

Severus was surprised when Aurora reached over and patted the boy's shoulder. "He wasn't been mean, Quirinus. Mister Quirrell was being…protective. Just because Severus's mother is used to dealing with children who know more than they should and being brutally honest with them doesn't mean every parent is. Nor does it mean they're ready to become that kind of adult because one is willing to allow it," she soothed.

"Watch it," Severus muttered, "that's my mum you're talking about."

Aurora shot him a dirty look and went on to say, "And it's very noble that he wants to preserve our innocence. But...we're at this point in time where adults can't do that anymore. War is drawing closer and closer - Merlin, it's happening in some places already! We can't be left ignorant. Especially us. You, Severus, Katrina…Even Sirius and I.

"We're going to be playing vital roles in it. Even if we don't want to, you see. So, it's up to us to convince your father that now we need to know things so we can properly prepare ourselves. It wouldn't do for us to be caught off guard in the future, you must understand that, right, Quirinus?" she implored, a fretful little pout coming to her sepia lips.

And for a moment, Severus was awed by how she was twisting the situation in her favor - making her want seem more like a need. Briefly, Quirinus looked like he was even about to agree completely.

"I do," the boy answered with a small, uncertain dip of his head.

However, before Aurora could leap in and expand on her argument, Quirinus furrowed his brows and made his eyes turn steely.

"But are you sure that's the only reason Dad wants to keep you two out of the loop? I…your sister and Sirius's cousin…How can we trust you won't just turn over important information to them? On purpose or by accident? I don't think we can," he declared his certainty in his own reasoning clear from the tone of his voice to the squareness of his shoulders.

Severus had to admit Quirinus made a good point, even. How could he trust these two not to accidentally say something? Sirius was impulsive and there was no telling what he'd blurt in a fit of rage or bravo. Merlin, he'd even admitted to Bellatrix using him as Legilimency practice. Who's to say she wouldn't do it again over the summer?

Aurora was very insistent about hating her stepsister and stepmother, but until she was out of their reach, who was to say she wouldn't accidentally allude to something or make a brash comment to upset them? There wasn't any guarantee. Not like there was with Katrina and Quirinus. Severus knew for a fact that both their families were on his mother's side of things. They both had reasons to want the Dark Lord gone and there resolve was great enough that neither would even dare to mention something in uncertain company.

Not like these two. Despite the fact they deserved to know more about what was happening, Severus could not be sure youthful impulses wouldn't drive them to say something they shouldn't in the wrong company.

Regretting his pledge to his new friends, Severus wished there was a way to back out of it. But there wasn't, he knew. Severus had already gone through a broken promise of his own lately and the last thing he wanted to do was upset Sirius and Aurora in the same way.

Especially since they already knew so much more than they should about himself and his family and friends.

"We can trust them," Severus insisted. "I swear on my life we can."

Quirinus and Katrina frowned. Neither looked quite certain with what to do with how stubborn Severus was being about letting Aurora and Sirius into their tight little group. However, the relief on Sirius and Aurora's faces was more than enough to tell him he was doing something right.

If not by the seriousness the situation deserved, he was doing it by the trust his new friends deserved.

Thinking of the future he saw then, Severus pondered about all of those who died. However, he gave his own death the most scrutiny. He only knew snatches of his other self's life, but he could tell he'd done a great many things wrong in it. It was putting his trust and faith in those who least deserved it that had seemed to be one of his other's greatest failures.

Looking between his old friends and his new, Severus wondered if he was doing it once again. If he was, then who was he wrong to be trusting?

Chapter 8: VIII

Eyes darting, head swiveling and body spinning, Severus moved with great care across the courtyard. Keeping his shoulders hunched and his head ducked low so his hair hung limply into his face, Severus hoped he looked like one of the more sulky Slytherins. Maybe he could pass for Regulus Black, he thought. With his similarly dark hair obscuring his features and the windows of Hogwarts caked with snow and ice, it should surely distort his image enough for the possibility.

He wasn't tall and a few of the first years in Slytherin surpassed his height by a fair number of centimeters. Fleetingly, Severus recalled how he'd written to his mother about this in his first week back at Hogwarts for his second year. Her reply had lagged that week and when he had gotten it, she'd apologized for the poor food available to him in his most important years of growth as an infant and young boy.

It'd been bewildering to Severus to have his mother apologize for something so long past and it'd only been after a couple more letters between him and her (and one to Grandmother) that he understood. She blamed herself for his lack of height and for not giving him the best from the very start of his life. Severus had assured her afterwards that it was more than fine and that it was really just a small complaint, more an irritation than any true unhappy finding.

His mother had let the issue go after that, but since then, Severus was much more careful in what he told her. He was beginning to think his mother made herself carry much more blame than she deserved.

Having fully crossed the courtyard, he came to slump against one of the pillars on the far side of the boxed-in area. Sighing in relief at the quiet that surrounded him, Severus closed his eyes. It had been several days since he and his friends had their meet-up in the classroom he used to teach Aurora and Sirius Occlumency and Legilimency.

Sirius and Aurora were preparing their cases to argue with Mister Quirrell this coming weekend and in the meantime, Severus was busy ensuring Quirinus and Katrina didn't get left behind. To lose their trust and friendship at this pivotal moment would ruin everything he'd been trying to do for Sirius and Aurora. Even so, however, Severus needed a break now and again from company.

At heart, he knew he was solitary creature. It was why he'd never cried about the lack of playmates growing up. His mother and Grandmother had been enough most of the time and when he had begun to want for other company, miracle of miracles, Quirinus had come into the picture.

Severus knew, without an ounce of doubt, if that's how things had remained, he would have been just as happy he was now. There was no doubt the addition of Katrina, Aurora and Sirius had further enriched his life, but it had also brought so many complications...

Opening his eyes, Severus took in the snowy scene before him and gave a wan smirk. To get time alone, he had to go out in negative degree weather and hide himself behind a pillar. It was rather pathetic, he thought. It was more than likely if he'd told Quirinus he just wanted a bit of time alone to read, he'd have happily let him go on his way to his dorm with a promise to see him again after supper. But, instead, he'd let fear take him and taken a sneaky approach to getting his alone time.

Quirinus wouldn't have been suspicious of him if he'd asked to go read, it was Severus who thought he would be. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why he thought so. Quirinus wasn't the sort - Severus was.

Tiredly running a hand through his hair, he muttered to himself, "Vanishing is what will turn him suspicious. And what have I done? Just that. Severus, you are a complete dunderhead."

"Oh, I don't know about that, my boy."

Severus jolted, Occlumency shields going up at rapid pace.

"Headmaster Dumbledore," he greeted as he pushed off from the pillar to give the man a nod.

Blue eyes glinting with questions, a curious smile came to his lips as he replied, "Good afternoon, Mister Prince."

Nervously fisting his fingers into the sleeves of his robes, he asked, "What's brought you outside, sir?"

"I could ask the same, couldn't I, Mister Prince?" the man returned.

At Severus's silence, he widened his smile and said, "Though, for myself, it was because I was wondering what a young student had the will to come outside in this weather."

"Now that you know, what do you plan to do?" Severus inquired with a frown.

The man kept his features neutral as he gestured for the boy to come to his side. "Actually, this is quite the perfect meeting, I have to say. I've been meaning to talk to you for quite some time Mister Prince."

"Oh?" Severus managed to reply.

In truth, he was terrified. This was what he'd been trying to avoid since his first days at Hogwarts - being alone with Dumbledore under his sole scrutiny. The man was a powerful wizard and his mother and grandmother were quite sure he was well-practiced in mind-arts like Legililmency and Occlumency.

Severus's mind was likely a gold mine to a man like Dumbledore.

Nodding, Dumbledore laid a warm hand on Severus's shoulder and said, "Yes, there are a number of things that have come to my attention - especially in recent weeks. Will you accompany me back to my office where we may discuss these things privately?"

"Yes, sir," he answered in a whisper. Severus knew no wasn't an option.

Following alongside the man to his office, for the first all day, he wished he had not left Quirinus's company. Vaguely, he recalled how his mother had warned him to never stray too far from the company of others. While being alone was all he had wanted in his first year due to his visions, it was also the least advisable course.

To single himself out made him an oddity - something to stare at - and something worth looking into.

After all, only the most maladjusted children preferred to keep to their own company rather than that of their peers for any long, extended time.

In the Headmaster's office in no time, Severus took a seat across from his desk in a gold-trimmed chair and stared at anything and everything besides Dumbledore.

"Lemon drop?" the man asked, holding a small candy dish out to Severus.

Mutely, he shook his head.

Retracting the dish and his hand, Headmaster Dumbledore set it back in his place and brought his hands together to form a bony steeple.

"How are things, Mister Prince?"

Severus did his best to hide his nervousness by keeping his hands laid flat on his knees rather than bunched in his robe. "Just fine, sir," he answered.

Nodding, Dumbledore looked away briefly. "You stayed at Hogwarts for Holidays, didn't you? I believe it was told to me by Madam Pomfrey it was because your grandmother was sick," he said to him.

"Yes, that's right, sir," he concurred with a mild amount of confusion. Why did this matter to the headmaster?

Reaching for a piece of parchment and a quill, the man continued, "It was also told to me by Mister Quirrell that your mother wrote to him to have you pulled quite suddenly home as your grandmother had worsened."

"Yes, sir," Severus whispered.

Writing languidly upon the parchment with the quill, Dumbledore said, "But she is better now?"

"Oh yes, it's just like they say, things get worse before they get better. She's doing very well now. Mother says she's just as she always is now."

The man looked up. "How is she usually, Severus?"

"I-" stopping, Severus said, "I'm sorry, sir, but why do you care about Grandmother? I know she's said she went to school with you, but you were a Gryffindor and she was in Slytherin…"

"There's no easy way to say this, my boy, but it's been brought to my attention things may be less than ideal at your grandmother's home."

Severus felt his heart pick up speed. "No, sir! Things are just fine there! Mother and Grandmother always don't get along, but-"

Breaking in, the Headmaster murmured, "Oh, yes, your mother. There are quite a few rumors that have gone around about her over the years. Her disappearance from society was quite the stir all those years ago - and her return even more so."

"My father died, we didn't have anywhere else to go," Severus grumbled.

"Yes, that happens from time to time," Dumbledore agree sagely. "Now, you say your grandmother and mother do not always get along?"

Severus nodded slowly, frightened to say anything lest it be twisted.

"How so?" the man prodded.

He shook his head. "I - just - the way people usually don't get along, I guess. Yelling and stuff."

"What kind of other 'stuff' are you referring to?"

Heart thudding against his ribcage, he didn't know what to say. "Mother becomes sad sometimes and other times threatens things and Grandmother becomes angry and threatens things back one - one time she slapped her, I - sir, it's never been anything terrible. They usually fight when they think I'm not around or am sleeping," he finally told the man upon his insistent look.

"Recently, it was told to me that your mother had once said something very unpleasant about wanting to carry out a terrible act against you, do you know what I'm talking about?"

Severus, speechless, felt tears begin to sting at his eyes. What had his mother wished to do to him once? How long ago?

"No, sir," he whispered.

Nodding at this, the man explained to Severus, "That's fine, Mister Prince; I just needed to know if you were aware of the comment. Now, I have something important to explain to you now. Do not be alarmed, but a complaint was filed against your mother and grandmother's and their ability to care for you as come into question because of it.

As your Headmaster, I was asked to speak to you, and on the behalf of Family Services, also ask some preliminary questions for their investigation and let you know about this. After this, the case will be reviewed by Family Services and a wizard or witch from there may wish to come speak to you more in-depth about your relationship with your mother and grandmother and from there, it will likely be decided if you will be taken from their custody or will remain in it after that."

Severus just stared.

"Do you understand, Mister Prince?"

He gave a slow dip of his head. "Yes, sir," he answered. "I - may I go, sir?"

The man gave him a pitying look. "If you were to be removed from their care, it's already been expressed to me by Mister Quirrell that his family would take you in in a heartbeat."

Things clicked. But now was not the time to react to it.

"Thank you sir, that is a comfort," he replied calmly.

Seeing that Severus had nothing else to say, Headmaster Dumbledore dismissed him. "You may go now, Mister Prince. Please keep in mind if you ever wish to speak to someone, all of us at Hogwarts care."

"Yes, thank you, Headmaster," Severus said with a slight smile as he hurried from the room.

Once alone, he began to curse his mother under his breath. This was part of her plan! This was how she was going to get him away from Voldemort's hand! She was fabricating a lie about his safety in their home and having someone - perhaps Mister Quirrell himself - file a report on it to the ministry!

How could she! How dare she!

Furious tears beginning to leak from his eyes, Severus found the nearest bathroom and ducked inside.

Surprise upon surprise, he ran into Sirius.

"Oh, uh," he stammered at the sight of Severus.

Turning on a faucet, Severus ignored him for a moment as he washed his face of the tear tracks and calmed down. When finished, he turned to him and roared, "My mother is having someone file a false report about her being a bad mother to get me removed from home! It's ridiculous!"

Sirius blinked. "I'm sorry, that's awful," he said.

"You would think she'd at least tell me this! After everything! I can't believe her!"

Reaching forward, Sirius gave his shoulder an amicable pat. "Maybe you'll get a letter from her tonight? I mean, maybe she was afraid if you knew it was going to happen it wouldn't be convincing when you found out..."

Severus was far too angry for reason, however. Instead, he completely ignored Sirius as he declared, "If she gets what she wishes, I will insist I spend all my summer with Katrina's family just to spite her! I know she wants to get me away from the Dark Lord's eye, but if I'm with the Selwyns I'll be in even closer than ever before!"

"I don't think you're being reasonable, Severus..."

Getting to the other's face, he hissed, "I'm not, you say?"

"Yes!" Sirius replied, narrowing his eyes. "I should know, I often talk like you do when I'm angry."

This made him laugh. "Self-aware ins't something I expected you to be," he remarked.

The other boy scowled. "Why not?" he demanded.

"Because you're a foolish Gryffindor," Severus replied simply.

Face scrunching in vexation, Sirius gave him a hard shove. "Oh, shove off you twat! I'm leaving!" Before he left, he ranted, "You bloody Slytherins and Ravenclaws! All you think of me is regulated to Gryffindor stereotypes!"

Watching the door click shut behind Sirius, Severus realized he'd have to apologize to him later. Sirius probably had a point, because besides the partnership he kept with Lily in potions, Severus spent little company in that of Hogwarts Gryffindors. What he knew about them was built on nasty Slytherin rumors and stereotypes.

Severus knew logically they didn't conform to such narrow views, but it was so easy to just fall back on them and forget that Sirius was more than that - even now.

Slowly patting his hands dry on his pants, Severus murmured to himself, "Just great, Severus, make your loosest canon angry at you. That'll help your situation…"

-v-v-v-v-v-

Sorting through the mail brought to her by the family owl in her manor's dining room, Alicia frowned at the sight of one letter from the Ministry. Confused even more so when she saw that it was from Family Services. Getting up, she left the room and called into the parlor where she knew Eileen was reading, "Eileen, would you come here?"

A moment later, her daughter came into her view. "Yes, Mother?" she asked, book in hand.

"Why do we have a letter from Family Services?" she asked.

The younger looked away. "Have you opened it, Mother?" she returned.

Rolling her eyes in irritation, Alicia did so. Scanning the content, it only took her a moment longer to drop it and cover her mouth with both hands. "They want to visit us? What in Merlin's name has happened? Is this about the spider bite incident?"

Still not looking her way, Eileen said, "I don't know."

Alicia didn't believe her daughter in the slightest. Sweeping forward, she grabbed the woman's jaw with her weathered fingers and pressed her perfectly manicured nails into the soft flesh of her cheeks hard enough to leave a mark as she hissed, "Don't lie, Eileen!"

Dark eyes solemn, the young woman replied, "Fine. I won't, Mother. I have had Quincy file a report against us. If things go as I plan, he will be removed from our custody and Quincy will take him in. There, he will be safe from the Lord's clutches."

The old woman wanted to tear the flesh beneath her nails. She wanted to turn the expressionless face in her grip into anguish - the same as she felt in her heart. Her daughter was heading her less and less as time passed. She was making her own plans and leaving her out of the loop far more often than Alicia liked.

Eileen was ripe to leave her again - but this time she wouldn't be coming back.

This was not the foolish, scared girl who'd run away all those years ago or the wreck that had returned seven years ago. This was a woman on a war path and she was determined to do it all on her own and leave Alicia out of it.

If it was out of love or spite, Alicia didn't know. Either way, she did not care.

Her daughter was once again breaking her heart.

She'd done it once by running away and shaming her and her husband's name. She'd done it again by letting herself align with the likes of the Dark Lord and allowing herself to be branded as his. Now, she was planning to do it for a third time by having Alicia's last chance taken from her. Her grandson.

Severus was her's more than he was his mother's, she believed. It was because of that Alicia was not going to sit aside and watch him be taken from her because it was what Eileen thought was best. Because she foolishly believed it would save him from joining the Dark Lord's circle.

If the Lord really wanted her grandson, he would take him as he pleased.

And if and when that day happened, Alicia didn't want to be left regretting all the time she had not been able to spend with him.

"Leave, Eileen. Pack your things and leave. I don't want you in my manor anymore," she told her daughter as she let her go and turned away.

Her daughter stood there for a long moment. "You're serious, aren't you?" she whispered. "You want me gone because I'm trying to protect Severus!"

"Oh, Eileen…" Alicia murmured sadly. "You still don't know what you're up against."

Tensing, the younger woman shouted, "What do you mean, Mother! What could you possibly know that I don't know about him?"

"Just leave - just as you've always wished to! I don't care about you anymore. You are selfish and I will fight Family Services until my dying breath to keep Severus with me. I will not let you take him from me."

"I'm selfish! You're the one who's going to get him inducted into the Dark Lord's circle by keeping him here where he can learn the rules and valor of living the pureblood way!" Eileen argued.

Turning her head, Alicia just stared at her daughter in heartbroken silence. There was nothing else to be done with her now, she knew. It hurt to turn Eileen out, but maybe it would make her see sense. Likely, it wouldn't, but at least she might be able to keep her grandson because her daughter would be gone.

"If he wants your son, he will take him. It would have been best for all of us to just keep our heads down. But you could not do that and now he has his greedy eyes on Severus. This is your fault, Eileen and I will not lose what little time I have left with him to you and your desperate plots," Alicia proclaimed.

Speechless, Eileen could only watch as her mother stooped to pick up the letter. "I'll let Keebler know to pack your things for you, Eileen. I expect you to be gone by tonight, is that understood?"

Dumbly, the younger nodded.

Satisfied with the answer she had received, Alicia left her daughter in the hall and went for the stairs. She needed to be in her rooms where she would think best. The letter she needed to craft to send to Family Services would need a great deal of clever wording and convincing, heart-felt words to show them that her grandson's safety could be entrusted to her.

If she failed to, Alicia didn't know what she'd do.

Her daughter was as good as lost to her now and if she lost Severus too?

She just might not make it another day.

Chapter 9: IX

"She threw me out," Eileen warbled.

Lips curving into a frown, he reached forward and brought her close. "Everything will be fine," he whispered into her hair. "You can stay here with myself and my son."

She twisted her slender fingers into the loose fabric of his robe. "Thank you, Abraxas," she said.

"You're welcome," he replied as he pressed a kiss to the side of her head.

Eileen smirked.

-v-v-v-v-v-

"Severus!" Katrina greeted with a toothsome grin from one of the library's many tables.

He smiled back at her as he fell into one of the empty chairs across from her. "What are you working on?" he asked as he began to poke at the small pile of books beside her bag.

"Just some Herbology," she answered. "What are you up to? Waiting for Quirinus?"

Severus scowled and shook his head. "No, I'm not waiting for him. Last I checked he was busy studying for the upcoming History of Magic exam."

This brought a furrow to Katrina's brow. "Why aren't you studying with him? You two always study together," she said.

He shrugged, not really sure how to explain to her that he'd lied to Quirinus. It just wasn't something he did to the blond and she knew that too. "Hey, can I ask you something, Katrina?"

Putting her quill down, the girl nodded. "Of course you can!"

Eyeing her for a long breath, Severus asked, "Do you trust Sirius and Aurora?"

"Well, I don't really know them yet…"

"Tell me how you feel about them now, then," Severus huffed.

Katrina looked away. "Aurora is a lot like us, I can feel that," she began, "but Sirius…"

"But Sirius, what?" Severus demanded.

Expression worried, she said, "He was mean to you, Severus! To others! And then there's his best mate James Potter to think about. Who knows what he could let slip? Aurora didn't really have friends, so who's she going to tell? But him... I'm sorry, but I don't really trust him."

Severus buried his face in his hands. Upsetting Sirius definitely had been a terrible idea. But, really, how could he have known that he would run into him right then? Severus just couldn't have and now he - everything - was in trouble.

"Okay," he said, pushing himself up. "Then I have to go find him."

Katrina frowned. "Why? What's happening? Are you planning to obliviate him or something? I really recommend you don't try, Severus. I know you're great at all the mind arts, but that's just…"

"No, no," Severus said with a shake of his head. "I just was kind of an arse earlier. I want to go apologize before James or someone else catches him in one of those broody sulks of his where all he wants to do is insult those who were rude to him. He gets rather cutthroat when he does."

Katrina began to shove her things in her bag. "Let me come with. I'm pretty good at talking with difficult people."

Severus gave her a confused frown. "You think?" he replied, making sure his uncertainty didn't come off in a rude way.

"Yes! Just watch, okay?" Katrina insisted as she stood up.

The boy shrugged. What more did he really have to lose at this point? "Okay," he sighed. "Let's go."

-v-v-v-v-v-

Not more than twenty minutes later, Severus and Katrina found Sirius. He was not alone, however. Eying the mousy boy sitting beside Sirius, Severus almost had himself and Katrina turn around. Surely it would be better if they caught Sirius alone rather than with the likes of Lupin?

But, before he could say anything to Katrina, she urged him on with a tug to his arm. Looking to her, he saw the determination in the pull of her lips and knew he wasn't going to get out of at least attempting to talk to Sirius. Coming to stop in front of the pair, Severus cleared his throat.

"Black," he said in greeting.

Completely ignoring him, Sirius asked Lupin, "Did you hear something, Remus?"

Features becoming anxious as he looked between the two of them, Lupin stammered, "Erm, I - maybe?"

"Black, I don't have time for this. I need to talk to you - it will only take a moment," he explained with an irritated roll of his eyes.

Sirius shot him a nasty glare before saying, "Remus, how do you feel about going back to the common room? It's becoming rather noisy here, isn't it?"

Severus was just about ready to yank Sirius to his feet and make him come with him and Katrina. If a brawl came from it, so be it. It'd be better than this.

Before he could, though, Katrina put on a smile as she said, "Please, Black? It's very important and I just know if you come talk with us for just a few minutes you'll be very glad. I can even promise you'll be back to Lupin here before you know it."

Sirius's face took on a torn look. It was obvious he didn't want to be swayed so easily, but Katrina's own expression was so earnest it was hard for even Severus to remember it wasn't real. She didn't care about making up with Black or, she didn't the same way Severus did.

However, just as Sirius appeared as if he'd relent and come, Lupin put a hand on his arm. "What are you doing Sirius? Are you really going to go with them? What's happening here?" Cocking his head to the side then, Remus considered his final question. "What happened between you three?"

Flashing a reassuring smile as he brushed his friend's hand away, Sirius said, "It's nothing. I'm just finishing some business with Snape here from hols, is all."

Lupin's brows travel skyward. "You have business going on with Snape? That doesn't sound like you," he told Sirius in a doubtful, suspicious tone. "What happened?" he questioned.

Not capable of holding himself in check any longer, Severus made a big to-do with sighing as he wrapped his hand around Sirius's wrist. "It's not your business, Lupin!" he snapped. "Now, come on, Black!" he growled as he dragged the boy off with Katrina sticking back to apologize to Remus.

Severus half-hoped she'd stay behind, just so he wouldn't have to go sharing more things with his friends than he was ready for. But he was far from lucky and a moment later, he heard the heavy slap of leather soles on stone as Katrina jogged to catch up to them.

Once they were around the corner, Sirius jerked away from Severus and scowled. "You know, your manners and tact are awful," he grumbled.

"Look who's talking!" Severus shot back.

Scowl turning into something even meaner, Sirius came uncomfortably close to Severus as he hissed, "What you just did could ruin my friendship with Remus! Who knows what those questions you've left there for him are going to do! What if he says something to James, huh? Do you know what'll happen then? He'll get suspicious!

"Do you know what happens after that? Do you!"

Severus shoved him back. Hard. "Just belt up, would you, Black!"

Katrina came between them. "Severus!" she scolded. "That's not the way to apologize!"

"Apologize?" Sirius inquired, looking a little less mad and more confused at this point.

Severus sighed. "For earlier," he explained lamely. "I… Appreciate what you were trying to do then, I just wasn't ready for it. Still not, really," he admitted.

"Oh," the other boy replied.

Looking to his feet then, Severus told him, "It's all my fault that everything went wrong earlier, okay? You didn't do anything wrong. In fact you were being surprisingly… nice."

A bit of smirk came to Sirius's lips. "I guess your welcome, then? And I'm sorry I was being an arse a bit ago when you were just trying to apologize. Though, I don't know why you couldn't have done it with Remus there."

Severus rolled his eyes. "That would have brought up as many questions as dragging you off did. At least this way things are semi-private."

"About things being semi-private..." Katrina broke in. "What happened earlier?"

Both boys looked to her. "Nothing very important," Severus answered. "It was just something dumb Mum did and I was mad. Then I ran into Sirius and was rude to him because of it."

"But, Severus, it is kind of-"

Severus clenched his teeth as he growled, "Sirius!"

Sirius, mouth still puckered like he had something to say, studied Severus for a few moments before nodding. Severus was relieved. It seemed he'd figured out that Severus wasn't ready to tell Katrina yet. The other boy didn't even seem cross with him for it.

"What did she do?" Katrina questioned once she saw they weren't about to throw themselves into a duel.

He shook his head. "You know what, Katrina? I just can't stand to talk about it now. I'll tell you and Quirinus later, okay? I just can't do it now," he explained, hoping that she'd understand that it had nothing to do with her. Just thinking about his mum was bringing back the angry helplessness he'd felt after leaving the Headmaster's office and he didn't want to start crying again.

The girl gave a hesitant nod. He knew she wasn't happy being left out like this, but Katrina understood Severus well enough by now to know pressing would only get her where Sirius had ended up.

"I should really get back to Remus, so, if you don't mind?" Sirius piped up, gesturing the way the trio had come.

Severus gave a nod. "Go," he said.

Sirius didn't need to be told twice and he was off, leaving Katrina and Severus alone once more.

The girl frowned. "I'm starting to get the feeling that you like them more than you do Quirinus and I."

He felt his face heat up with shame. "It's not like that," Severus mumbled.

"You should try and prove that some time," Katrina sniped before turning her back and walking away.

Feeling bone-tired as he watched her go, Severus almost decided against calling out after her. But, in the end, he did what had to be done. "Katrina!"

She paused, but did not move to face him.

Running a hand through his hair as he bit back a sigh, Severus told her, "Find Quirinus for me and tell him I want to meet up with you guys after dinner. At the usual place - like old times."

Katrina did turn her head at this. A hopeful light to her eyes, she repeated, "Like old times?"

Severus nodded.

Smiling then, she turned away once more and hurried off with a skip in her step.

It was such a shame, Severus thought, that even though were going to try and recapture what was the past tonight, it would still lead to great changes that none of them could do anything about.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Following behind Abraxas closely as they walked through his dining hall, the man explained to Eileen, "We're going to have a large gathering tonight. I've planned what will mostly be a social meeting tonight to help gather benefactors, you see."

He was smiling at her, looking rather pleased with himself.

"Is the Malfoy fortune not enough for our Lord?" Eileen asked, imbuing in her tone with a teasing quality even as she listened with keen ears for the answer.

Abraxas chuckled. "While I'm pleased to help our Lord's cause, I do have the Malfoy line to think of. Lucius is set to marry Narcissa come next spring and I can't leave them and my descendants with nothing to support themselves on."

Eileen nodded. "I see," she replied.

He looked at her then, face showing just the barest hints of his curiosity. "Eileen… While I'm humbled that you've come to me in this time of distress, what was it that you did to have your mother cast you out?"

Taking a moment to prepare herself, Eileen opened her mouth to feed him her falsehood.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Seated in a tight little circle upon the cold floors of the mostly unused classroom, Severus didn't bother apologizing to Quirinus when he bumped his knee shifting his legs so they lay out straight rather than tucked close.

Katrina frowned. "I just don't understand," she murmured. "Why is she having you taken from her?"

"Because if she were to just disown me, it wouldn't be enough. I'm thirteen. What could I have possibly done to shame the Prince family beyond being a half-blood? Nothing. The Lord might even ask her to re-think her plan to do so or to repeal it if she did it without his knowledge.

"The time for full-out war is coming, Katrina. He's not going to let a possible soldier slip away just because his mother saw the error of her ways and tried to make it disappear. Besides, I can always marry pure and then my kids would be pure again, too, you know."

Quirinus sighed. "What about what Black does? He denounces his family left and right…"

Severus gave the blond a truly disgusted look. "Where's your head? I'm in Slytherin. If I were to try something like that I'd be smothered in my sleep!" he proclaimed.

Shooting him a deep frown, Quirinus grumbled, "It was just an idea."

"I know," Severus replied. Giving his friend's arm a squeeze, he told him, "I'm sorry. I've just run through all those very basic ideas already."

Quirinus cracked a smile. "It's fine, I understand."

"Thanks."

Katrina clapped her hands. "Oh! Have you talked to your grandmother about this yet? Maybe your mother's hidden this from her too? Surely she'd know a way to stop it?" she suggested.

"I've thought about that," Severus explained slowly, "it's just, do I want to do that? I don't want to serve the Lord anymore than my mother wants me to. I'm very, very, upset with her for going behind my back on this, but should I fight it?"

"No."

"Yes."

Katrina and Quirinus locked gazes then, both their brows furrowed in confusion.

"Why no?" Severus inquired with a little sigh.

"It's what your mother wants," Katrina answered with a small shrug. "She has good reason too, we know. Besides that it…" the girl trailed off, head tilting away as if looking to something far, far away. "It changes you. Being a part of the Lord's men, I mean. Padriac never smiles anymore," she whispered, eyes coming back to Severus.

He did not like the sad, lost gleam to them at all.

Maybe that would be enough to sway Severus.

Nodding at this, Severus turned to Quirinus. "Why yes?" he asked.

"It's…" he waved his hand in a circular motion. "You know all these things - can learn all of these things. I don't want you to be a Death Eater either, but what your mother is doing is just ridiculous! Your being shoved into the darkness where the rest of us are this way and how are we ever going to be ready to defend ourselves if she slips up - or Padriac does?

"What will we do without you as our lifeline, Severus?" he implored.

Severus felt Quirinus was making a good point. Mister Quirrell had not wanted Sirius or Aurora to know what his mother had to tell him at St. Mungo's. If he lived with them, who's to say he wouldn't keep Severus in the dark - even if it had to do with him or his mother or grandmother?

He just might - even after they convinced him to let Sirius and Aurora finally speak with his mother about what she had learned at her Death Eater meeting.

"I…"

Katrina put a hand on his knee. "Severus, do what you think is best, though, okay? Not what we want - right, Quirinus?"

The blond smiled as he gave Severus's arm a squeeze. "Yes, Katrina's right, mate. You know we're both worried about different things here, but in the end it's up to you to decide what's best for yourself."

Severus gave a nod. Then, looking down at his hands in his lap, he admitted, "I think I want to talk to Granny."

"Then that's what you'll have to do," Katrina declared as she stood up. "Now come on, I'll give you a hand."

Looking up, Severus was reminded again why it was he'd always prefer her company to that of Aurora's. Katrina might like knowing more than she deserved too, but she cared about him and always supported whatever he decided - even if she didn't agree.

"Thanks," he said as he took her hand.

Teetering as Severus used her as leverage, Quirinus stepped in to wrap an arm around Katrina - steadying her. "Maybe next time you should let me give him a hand, Kat. Severus is taller than you are now!" he exclaimed.

"I've always been taller," Severus grumbled.

Quirinus laughed. "I beg to differ, mate. You used to be the same height as her before we went to Hogwarts."

Preparing himself to argue with his best mate, Severus found a smile itching at his lips. He'd really missed it just being the three of them, he realized.

-v-v-v-v-v-

"Do you have anything to wear?" Abraxas asked her as she took a seat on his bed.

Eileen gave a shake of her head. "I didn't even think to pack any formal robes," she admitted.

"You could borrow one of my wife's old ones," he offered kindly. "Or we could just transfigure something you have, if you prefer?"

Shaking her head as she stood up, Eileen brushed a hand down his arm in thanks as she peaked into his wardrobe. "I always was terrible at Transfiguration," she admitted. "I don't mind wearing one of Mariam's old robes."

Abraxas relaxed. "I'm pleased it doesn't bother you," he whispered as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

Patting his hand, Eileen suggested, "After we pick out a robe, why don't I check up on how the House Elves are doing in the kitchen for you, hm? We'll want to make sure everything's absolutely perfect for tonight, wouldn't you agree?"

He chuckled into her hair as he helped her slip off her robe. "Think your potions skills will help you in judging the quality now, do you?" he asked cheekily.

"Maybe," she teased as guided his hand bellow her navel.

"Eileen, I really, truly am sorry your mother picked your son over you, but I think this might be the best thing that's happened to either of us in a very long time..."

Twisting in his hold, Eileen did not have to lie when she took his face in her hands and said, "I think so too."

Chapter 10: X

Taking one step at a time, Severus kept his ears pricked for the sound of students in the common room. When he heard no shuffling, talking, or creaking, he peaked out to scan the room for certainty's sake. He saw a fourth or fifth year student slumped over a paper at one of the tables. Staring at the boy for a moment, Severus decided he was very much asleep. His breathing was too even and slow for anything else.

'Good', Severus thought, the last thing they needed were witnesses. In the last couple days, his roommates had begun to ask why he was spending so much time with Aurora. He'd told them they'd gotten to know each other over Hols and there was nothing else to it, but his roommates weren't daft. They knew there was more to their sudden friendship and they were watching now. Whispering too. It was why they had to be so careful now about when and how they saw Sirius. His addition to the mix would not just cause more gossip in Slytherin and get the Gryffindors attention, but the rest of the houses as well.

It was rare for Slytherins and Gryffindors to be friends and the oddity of it would entice others to watch, to pay attention. It was because of this that they're group had sped up their plan to find out what his mother was hiding. Tonight was the night they were going to get answers from Severus's mother.

Exhaling in relief, he looked back up the stairwell. Severus gestured to Aurora. Her taunt features relaxing at his wave, she crept down the same steps as he had with more nimbleness than Severus ever could. He supposed it was born from practice. Unlike him, Aurora had admitted to often leaving the dorms in the middle of the night. If there was one regret she had for being sorted to Slytherin, it was the fact they were in the school's dungeons and not in a tower like the Gryffindors.

If it were any other night, Severus likely would have trusted her to guide them. But not tonight. They had to make it Mister Quirrell's office without a hitch and he thought the best way to do that was by being the leader. Together they would go collect Quirinus and Katrina from Ravenclaw, and then Sirius from Gryffindor. From there, they would go to the library and break into Mister Quirrell's office (but not literally, Severus mused, Quirinus knew the password to the room).

After that, they would enact the rest of their new plan, which meant cutting out Mister Quirrell's role entirely and going straight to Severus's mother. Once they were in Mister Quirrell's study, they would use the floo to get to Quirinus's family home and from there, if things went accordingly, Severus planned for them to use the Quirrell's floo to go to his family's manor.

Once at Severus's home, they would confront Mother and demand to know everything. Severus was thinking he might even test his legilimency skills on her to make sure he wasn't being kept in the dark about anything else. He knew, though, that legilimency would be a last resort. His mother had taught him the skill and told him what poor form it was to do that to someone. It was a violation of their mind and person. As angry and hurt as he was with his mother, the last thing Severus wanted to do was violate her mind if he could avoid it.

"Ready?" he whispered.

Aurora nodded.

Together, the two headed out.

-v-v-v-v-v-

"Severus!" Katrina called out upon seeing them.

Putting a hand over her mouth, Quirinus scolded, "Katrina, sh!"

Nose crinkled in disgust, Katrina pulled Quirinus's hand away. "I'm sorry," she said, "I was afraid they got caught."

"We didn't," Severus replied. "But we did almost run into Filch's bloody cat."

"How'd you avoid that one?" Katrina asked.

"What do you think?" Aurora sneered as she came to stop beside Severus. "We took the long route instead to get here."

Crossing her arms, the younger girl grumbled, "Hey! It was just a question…"

Rolling his eyes, Severus knew they didn't have time for the girls sniping at each other. Looking sharply at Aurora, he said to Katrina, "She knows that, Katrina. Aurora's very sorry she snapped at you, aren't you?"

"Yes, very sorry," Aurora snorted.

Katrina balled her hands into fists and puffed out her cheeks. "You don't sound sorry!" she decried.

"Let it go, Katrina," Quirinus said as he put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "We still need to go to Gryffindor Tower for Sirius."

Severus couldn't have agreed more. "Quirinus is right," he said to all of them. "Let's hurry. We've made him wait long enough. He's probably antsy enough now to do something stupid, like come looking for us."

"He wouldn't. That would probably only slow us all down," Quirinus argued as the group hurried down the corridor that would lead them to the Gryffindor dorms.

Severus paused long enough to raise an eyebrow at his friend. "Do you think he realizes that?" he questioned.

Quirinus furrowed his brows. "Um," he mumbled.

"That's right," Severus said in satisfaction. Then, jerking his head forward, he asked, "So?"

"Yes, okay. Let's go," Quirinus agreed with a sigh.

-v-v-v-

"What took you so long? I was going to come looking for you all in another minute or two!" burst Sirius as he jumped at them from the shadows.

The group startled in response, but recovering quickly, Severus turned to Quirinus. "What did I tell you, Quirinus?" he gloated with a smirk.

Quirinus looked away. "Oh, shut up," he grumbled.

"What are you two talking about?" Sirius asked as he fell into place on Severus's other side.

"Ignore them, Sirius," Aurora said. "We only took so long because they nearly ran into Filch's cat."

The boy made a sympathetic face. "Oh. That's always the worst," Sirius replied.

Aurora's lips quirked. "It is," she said before going on to regal Sirius about a time where she did run into Filch's beast.

Growing ever more impatient as Sirius began a tale of his own, Severus let out an annoyed sigh and demanded, "Are we ready now? Can we go to Mister Quirrell's office?"

"Yes, Severus," Aurora snapped. Crossing her arms, she pouted. "Though, I don't know why you can't let us take five seconds to explain to Sirius why we're behind schedule."

"Stopping puts us more behind schedule, that's why!" he said. Gesturing with an arm to indicated they should go forward, he told them, "Walk and talk. Walk and talk."

"Okay!" Sirius huffed." You don't have to be so pushy…"

Nudging the other boy with his elbow, Severus ordered, "Move, then! Go!"

"We're going!" Aurora snapped as she grabbed Sirius by the wrist to bring him up beside her.

Behind him, Severus heard Katrina whisper to Quirinus, "I'm glad you're not Slytherin like Severus. I think it's what's made him become so prickly!"

Whirling around, he glared at the girl. "I heard that, Katrina," Severus hissed.

Face flushing pink, she said, "Well, I wanted you to!"

"Would both of you shut up? You're being too loud and will get us caught!" Aurora called back to them, now a good two or three feet ahead.

"Fine!" Katrina snapped.

"That's fine by me," Severus agreed at the same time, satisfied that they were back on track.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Coming to a halt in front of the skinny, scarred oak wood door that separated Mister Quirrell's office from the library, Severus turned to Quirinus. Giving the tired-looking blond a supportive smile, he asked, "Ready?"

Nodding, Quirinus stepped forward and whispered to the metal bull head knocker, "Amnor Vincit Omnia."

The door swung open. Someone (Katrina, Severus suspected) could not hold back their gasp at the site before them. At his desk, Mister Quirrell was stooped forward. He was disheveled in appearance and in one hand, he clutched a tumbler of what appeared to be gin.

"Dad?" Quirinus called.

Severus was about to scold his friend and say that this was perfect for them, because if he'd been awake…

But the man didn't stir even a little. Severus worried that perhaps he'd done more than drink himself into a stupor. Squinting his eyes in the dim light, he studied him closely. Stepping past Severus into the room, Quirinus repeated himself, "Dad?" Again, when there was no answer, the boy moved closer and said for a third time in what was almost a shout, "Dad?"

Mister Quirrell turned his head. Relief flooding through him at the sight, Severus followed Quirinus into the room, already angling himself toward the Floo. Quirinus, however, didn't follow. Instead, he reached out to touch his father. Severus grabbed Quirinus and yanked him back. "Don't!" he hissed. "We need to go see my mother!"

The boy whirled around and shoved Severus. "No! I'm not going! Look at him! My dad needs help!" Quirinus snapped.

Severus scowled. While he didn't disagree with his friend's assessment, Mister Quirrell was just passed out, not dead. Chances were he still would be that way when they came back in an hour or so. Mister Quirrell would hopefully be okay until then.

What really tied Severus's stomach in knots was why Mister Quirrell was like this. If he were willing to admit it to himself, Severus would say Mister Quirrell's state did more than just worry him. He didn't know if this was a common thing with Quirinus's father, but even if it was, it still frightened him. What did it mean for them if his mother's Hogwart's infiltrator was passed out like this today? Or even regularly?

Surely it was a bad sign for them.

"Quirinus!" Katrina scolded, stepping forward and coming between them. "You can't shove Severus!"

The blond curled his hands into fists and said, "I'll do what I bloody well please!"

Katrina gaped at him, obviously shocked by their usually mild-mannered friend's behavior. "Well!" she huffed, stepping back and crossing her arms.

From behind them, Severus heard Aurora sigh. Stepping up, she told Katrina and Severus, "Severus, Katrina, Sirius go on ahead." At their perplexed stares, she said in a resigned fashion, "I'll stay here with Quirinus to help him with his father."fashion.

Quirinus looked quite surprised at the suggestion as Severus frowned. "You don't have to," the blond boy said to Aurora.

A strange sort of sadness overtook her features. "You aren't going to leave him all alone, Quirinus. He's your father. I do know, though, drunk or not, he shouldn't stay slumped over his desk like that. I can't transfigure a bed, but the Infirmary has tons. You won't be able to get him there on your own, though, so I'll help," she explained. "I know we don't have much time and squabbling about who will stay here to help you will only get in the way. So, I'm sacrificing myself.

Turning to Severus then, she stared him down as she said, "You lot better not make any stupid promises to anyone about keeping everything to yourself, understand?"

Severus, grateful for everything Aurora was about to do, nodded. "I promise we won't," he swore.

Nodding, Aurora jerked her head at Quirinus, gesturing for him to come help her. "Excellent," she concluded. "See you in a while."

"In a while," Severus agreed as he, Katrina and Sirius headed for the floo. Taking a fistful of powder, Severus glanced to Sirius and Katrina. "Ready?" he asked.

They nodded.

Satisfied, Severus stepped into the hearth with Sirius and Katrina squeezing in on either side of him. Taking a breath, Severus turned his gaze to Aurora and Quirinus. Quirinus had just finished putting the cup of gin away and was now talking to his father as Aurora put herself under one of Mister Quirrell's arms.

"Go," she mouthed at Severus upon seeing him staring at her.

Reluctantly, he nodded. It didn't seem right to leave his best friend behind to deal with his drunk father with someone who was all but a stranger to him, but who knew if they'd ever have another chance like this? If they didn't go now, it might be too late to learn his mother's plan the next time they tried this. Closing his eyes to block the scene, Severus took a breath. He threw down the powder and yelled, "The Quirrell family home!"

Moment's later, the trio were stumbling through the Quirrell's hearth. "Watch your elbow!" Sirius hissed.

Severus bared his teeth and snapped, "How about you look where you step!"

"Stop fighting! We're almost there!" Katrina scolded.

Severus was about to take a page out of Quirinus's book and tell his friend to shut up, but the door to the kitchen swung open and a woman - Missus Quirrell - called, "Quincy?"

They froze.

Catching sight of them, the woman thinned her lips into little more than a line. "Where's my husband? What are you three doing here?" she demanded.

Severus straightened himself out and put on a polite smile. "Hullo Missus Quirrell. We're just using Mister's Floo to get to my mum's."

"Eileen told you where she's staying?" the woman asked, surprise in her voice evident. Then, narrowing her eyes, she asked, "Or did Quincy tell you? It would be so typical of him! I'm always the last to know things! It's like he enjoys making a fool out of me!"

Frowning, Severus shared a look with his friends. "Staying?" he repeated. "She's at the Manor?"

"Is that a question?"

"Um-"

"Missus Quirrell, please, can't we just use the floo? We don't have a lot of time!" Katrina pleaded.

"No! Not until someone tells me what's happening! Where is Eileen? What has she done? Why has Quincy told me to pack suitcases for us and be ready to visit my aunt? What's happening?" Missus Quirrell asked, face a frightful red as she came closer and closer to them.

Terribly confused, Severus was ready to take a chance and just run at the floo when Sirius steps forward. "I don't think any of us know everything yet either, Missus Quirrell, but I could tell you everything we do if you let Katrina and Severus go on to see his mother?"

Some of her anger fading, the woman went silent for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Missus Quirrell nodded. "That would be acceptable," she agreed.

Severus cast Sirius a questioning look. It seemed strange that he was willing to give up the chance to know things to stay and calm down Missus Quirrell. It felt quite out of character for a boy who always seemed like he wanted to be there for the adventure.

"Are you sure, Sirius?" he asked. "Katrina might be-" but he stopped. The girl had inched herself away from Missus Quirrell as far as she could go without being too close to the floo. Evidently, Katrina was afraid of Missus Quirrell. Severus had always wondered just how his friend dealt with her mother when Missus Selwyn was in a foul mood (which appeared to be quite the common occurrence); it seemed her reaction was his answer.

Katrina wasn't bold or brave, no she was meek and as quick to run as a rabbit.

Sirius smiled ruefully at Severus, glancing between him and Katrina. "There's not much of a choice for us, is there?" he remarked.

"I-I suppose there isn't," Severus replied. Missus Quirrell was already moving to take a seat on the couch facing the fireplace. All the while, though, she watched them with predator-like intensity. He knew if they all tried to leave now she'd chase after them. She might even force them all to go back to Hogwarts so she could confront Mister Quirrell himself.

Sighing, he gestured for Katrina to come to him. The girl grinned in relief and hurried over. Taking his hand, she asked, "Are we ready?"

Severus glanced to Sirius, who'd gone to perch himself on the rocker kitty-corner to the sofa. The other boy gave a firm nod. Looking back to Katrina, Severus said, "Yes." Taking yet another fistful of powder, he stepped into the hearth and yelled, "The Prince Manor!"

Just like when they arrived at the Quirrell's home, they step out of the hearth together. This time, though, they don't fuss about trivial things as they're already discovered.

"Granny," Severus whispered.

She stares at them with wet eyes, a letter in her shaking hands. The woman looked so…broken, Severus thought. It's like she's already lost and Severus feels his knees begin to quiver with fear. "Granny, what's happened?"

Severus's grandmother turned her gaze to the letter. Pushing herself up, she walked over and placed the paper in Severus's hand.

With Katrina looking over his shoulder, they read it together. He began to shake halfway through while Katrina started a mantra of, "No, no, no, no…"

"Already? Mum's already done it?" he whispered, lifting his eyes to meet his grandmother's solemn stare.

Hands clasped in front of her, Granny said, "The trial will be tomorrow. They are talking life in Azkaban."

"They can't do that!" Katrina cried. "Severus's mother's saved us all!"

"She did," the woman agreed. "But these people don't know that. They just think she's killed an influential man."

Katrina shook her head. "It's not fair! We have to tell them, so they don't send her away!"

"Why would they believe us, dear? The friends and family of the accused often have all kinds of excuses ready to defend their loved one's actions."

"My mother doesn't love Severus's! She loves Padriac!"

"All the same…"

Their argument fading into white noise, Severus realized he knew a way to fix this. He knew how to prove his mother was a hero and not a villain.

"I'm going to fix this," Severus declared.

The pair paused in their row to stare. "How?" Granny asked.

Severus ignored her and turned to Katrina. Taking her hand, he told her, "You stay here with Granny, okay?"

Confused, but willing, she said, "Of course, Severus. But where are you going?"

"Just stay here!" he called as ran back to the floo and yelled for the Quirrell's.

-v-v-v-v-v-

"Nut brittle!" Severus shouted at the gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office. At the password, it moved aside and Severus burst in. Looking around with frantic, desperate eyes, it didn't take him long to catch sight of the Headmaster. Stepping forward, he told the old man, "I need your help."

Usual good humor missing, the Headmaster said, "You've heard about your mother then."

"She saved us all!" Severus shouted, fist balling at his side. "My mother isn't a criminal. I-I can prove it."

Gesturing for Severus to take a seat by the lit hearth, the Headmaster settled his hands in his lap. Eyes bright with curiosity and wonder, he asked, "How?"

Severus swallowed hard. "I can show you," he said. Tapping at his temple, he whispered, "It's all in here."

Notes:

Thanks for reading and please leave a comment and/or kudo :)

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 3 of Long Live the Prince