Disclaimer: All characters, locations, etc. belong to Joanne Kathleen Rowling

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Chapter 1: When something was wrong

It was already very late when Lord Voldemort let him and his fellow Death Eaters go. After apparating in front of the front doors, Severus Snape walked quickly towards the castle through that particularly cold and rainy October night. Though he would have never admitted it, he felt rather worn out, tired, and when he slipped for the split of a second, he would have almost fallen over on the muddy ground. Cursing, he quickened his strides, hoping against hope that he could just go down to his office and lock the door behind him, once he had reached the castle. However, when the large building came closer, he already saw his personal welcome committee, consisting of the Headmaster himself, and, and that was just as bad, the Potions Master thought, of Minerva McGonagall. He could not wait for the tons of questions they were going to shoot at him in a second. Ha-ha.

Minerva felt rather worried (though she would of course not have admitted it, either) and glanced vaguely at Dumbledore, who was standing by her side."Do you think everything is alright, Albus? Severus has been away for hours now.", she asked nervously. Unlike the Headmaster, Minerva had never been a very patient person and liked waiting probably as much as the average blast-ended skrewt (she had unwillingly got to know one in her fourth year at Hogwarts).

"Well, I am sure that Voldemort-", he waited for Minerva to shudder at the mentioning of the name, "-has almost returned to his full strength and, of course, he will not rest until he has killed Harry and probably some more of us just for matters of entertainment. But apart from that: Yes, everything is perfectly in order."

Though she did not share the Headmaster's sense of humour, Dumbledore had always had the ability to cheer her up in the darkest times and Prof. McGonagall could not help but smile slightly at him. Then, all of sudden, she could spot a tall black figure through the thick rain. When his face came into view, she could already tell that Severus Snape was, even for his standards, not in a very good mood. Oh, this could still become an enjoyable evening, she said to herself, and dropped the thought immediately, remembering that the Potions Master was a quite capable Legilimens. Professor McGonagall could not understand why Albus Dumbledore looked rather worried now. Did Snape suffer from a serious injury she could not see? Or did the Headmaster's worry refer to some kind unfortunate event which Snape might have witnessed? However, Snape finally arrived in front of them, raising an eyebrow.

"Headmaster, Prof. McGonagall, whom do I owe this late pleasure?", her colleague said in his silky voice, though he seemed to try hard not to sound as annoyed as he really was in front of Dumbledore.

"In fact, you owe it Lord Voldemort- sorry, but it is not his name that is dangerous", Dumbledore responded calmly, "So, how are you? Did Voldemort announce any new plans of his?"

Snape just skipped the first question and came directly to the second one.

"No, apparently not. He rather talked about the usual things and presented some new ideas on matters like 'how to kill Potter and return to power as quickly as possible'."

Now he looked at Minerva.

"His ideas are sure unrealistic, but sometimes also quite inspiring", he added in one of his sneers. Minerva just scowled at his offensive behaviour.

"Severus Snape!", she argued, "Can't you just forget that you are a rude and childish git? This matter is serious!"

Snape lifted his left arm, so that the soaked sleeve of his travelling cloak slipped down a few inches and revealed the Dark Mark, which was burned into his flesh.

"Really?", he sneered, "Thank you for remembering me of that, I would not have noticed."

"You very well know that I was not referring to that, you are just trying to be misunderstood!"

Prof. McGonagall did not know how he achieved it that she was just losing her temper with him whenever she had to spent five minutes in his company.

"In case you haven't noticed: I am not eleven years old anymore. I do not need your care or pity or your understatement."

"Really? Thank you for remembering me of that, Severus, because I would not have noticed!", she imitated him. Yes, she thought, that had been quite mean, but quite good after all. 1:0 for her. A satisfied smirk crossed her face. Just as Snape wanted to fight back, Prof. Dumbledore, about whose presence the two of them had almost forgotten in the heat of the fight, cleared his throat loudly. A rather embarrassing silence fell.

"Well, whatever you have heard or seen tonight, Severus, it does not seem to be so urgent that it cannot wait until tomorrow. I think we all deserve a little rest now.", Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling knowingly, "Good night."

"Good night.", the Professors McGonagall and Snape repeated together, glad to be finally dismissed. Both of them crossed the Entrance Hall as quickly as possible and headed off to their offices, carefully making sure to look into opposite directions so they would not meet the other's eyes.

The next morning, Severus Snape woke up so abruptly as if someone had hit him with something extremely hard over the head, or at least, that was what it felt like. After getting up, he was not so sure anymore that this had been one of his best ideas. In the mirror which hung over his desk (he was more vain about his dangerous looks than most people thought he was), a sallow face surrounded by the usual two curtains of greasy hair looked back at Severus. However, today his nose seemed to be slightly red and therefore even more prominent than it normally was. Overall, he looked quite pale and felt as though someone had stuffed a lot of cotton wool into his head.

The first, terrible thought, which occurred to the Potions Master, was that the Dark Lord might have poisoned him without him noticing. On the other hand, poisoning people was his area of expertise and he did not remember any occasion during which Voldemort might have had the possibility to slip him a poison last night. Though he still felt unwell, he decided to drive the images of all kinds of deadly poisons or terrible curses away from his mind. At least, he remembered himself (not that he would ever forget), he was one of the most advanced performers of Occlumeny this country had ever seen, though this attitude seemed to be so damn arrogant that it might have been Potter's.

Today, however, Severus Snape noticed that none of his Occlumency-qualities would have any effect on him and his worries at all...

Minerva sat down for breakfast at quarter to eight the next morning. She had some tea and toast and, apart from that, a very refreshing conversation with her colleague Filius Flitwick. However, the term "conversation" was far too formal for what they were discussing. Because in fact, though it was hard for her to admit it, their little chat could rather be classified as "gossip". Their present and (by far) favourite topic was Sybill Trewlawney.

"…and you should have seen her face when I told her that I did not think that my nephew in Transylvania was in any kind of danger to be bitten by a vampire right now. When she asked me how I could draw to this false conclusion, I just told her that I, apparently, did not have a nephew in Transylvania at all.", Flitwick finished his latest anecdote.

Professor McGonagall stopped herself from snorting into her tea with great difficulty, because that would have been, of course, a very inappropriate behaviour for a Transfiguration teacher and Gryffindor Head of House. The Professors Flitwick and McGonagall were both very glad she had done so, because at that particular moment, Professor Trewlaney in person arrived at the staff table. McGonagall's and Flitwick's eyes met.

"Cooking sherry.", Minerva whispered, bowing towards the little Charms professor, who just squeaked in agreement.

The next moment, Minerva noticed with a sudden, uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, that the seat next to her, which usually belonged to Prof. Snape, was empty. Now, Prof. Trewlawney drew nearer and Minerva had barely time to curse Severus under her breath (Where was this man when you needed him once in your entire lifetime?), because only seconds later, the Divination teacher let out a terribly high-pitched shriek. Little Professor Flitwick fell off his chair next to her.

"What in the name of Merlin is the matter with you, Sybill?", Minerva shouted at her.

"Thirteen!", her apparently confused colleague gasped, "If I sit down at the table, we will be thirteen! And that means that the first one to get up-"

But Minerva interrupted her.

"Is the first one to die. Thank you, we know that already.", she finished briskly. So do me a favour and leave me alone, she added in her thoughts, but of course, those words never left her lips.

With a very agitated glance towards Prof. McGonagall (which the latter repeated coldly), Prof. Trewlawney turned on her heel and stalked out of the hall, muttering something that sounded like "terrible insult" and "unbelievable". Professor McGonagall heaved a sigh and helped Professor Flitwick back onto his chair. All her appetite had gone. She begged goodbye to Filius and left the Great Hall, too. But if all this had not been enough for one morning, Minerva McGonagall had the great pleasure to run into Severus Snape, who was currently bullying an intimidated student, in the Entrance Hall.

He was just about to take "five points from Gryffindor for standing in my way" when Minerva entered.

"But I am in Hufflepuff!", the apparently confused boy argued back at Snape. When Minerva remarked the look on Severus' face, she knew at once that this had been a particularly bad idea of him. Snape glared at the student.

"Do you honestly think I care about which house you are in?", he hissed, "Another five points from Gryffindor, I think, and I would propose that you leave right now or I shall put you in detention for the rest of the year."

The student did not seem to be too sorry to obey and hurried off towards the Great Hall.

"Severus Snape!", Minerva shouted at him, "How dare you take points from my house for actions, which are, by the way, not against the school rules, if the pupil who is responsible for them is not even in Gryffindor?!!"

Her voice became louder with every word and she was well aware that now, almost half the school must have heard every single word. She did not care.

"Just because you are in one of your bad moods, you can't just-", but she broke off , as Snape did not listen to her anyway. He looked distractedly into another direction. When Minerva turned around and followed his gaze, she finally saw what he was staring at: The Gryffindor hourglass, which contained exactly 382 shining red rubes, just as it had when Minerva had crossed the Entrance Hall at quarter to eight to have breakfast. She turned around to her fellow teacher, who just looked as if he had bitten into a very juicy lemon. Terrible worries and at least one million questions came to her mind at once; however, she just posed one.

"Severus, what is wrong?"

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