Disclaimer: I own nothing, JK Rowling owns everything from Harry Potter, and Joss Whedon owns everything from Buffy. This fic is definitely a Snape?Hermione romance, but there is crossover with BtVS in that Willow makes an appearance, and perhaps a few other surprise guests will too! And I started writing this fic after Goblet of Fire came out, but before OOTP, so there was no inkling of bad Snape/redeemed Snape. And Cornelius Fudge was still Minister. This fic assumes everyone has survived graduation, and the battle with Voldemort still lies sometime in the future...

Please, please, please review if you like it... Or even if you don't. It's lovely to get any kind of feedback.

Now, on to the City of Lights...

***

The trouble with floo...

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It was a strange sight to behold. Cornelius Fudge exited his office at the Ministry of Magic to find the Main Hall crowded with wizards and witches, gesticulating and arguing. Some were sticking their heads into the many fireplaces. Others kept throwing floo powder at them, shaking their heads in dismay when a fizzing sound emerged rather than the emerald flames which usually carried them to their destination.

Fudge's eyes went wide. Even he knew what must have happened. He turned on his heel and sped to his office. Time to contact Albus Dumbledore, he thought miserably as he scribbled a hasty note and called his owl down from its perch.

----

Severus Snape was in seventh heaven. It was Saturday, the day after the last class of the year.

"No more Potter, no more Weasley, no more of that insufferable know-it-all!" he thought gleefully to himself. Though a small part of him had to admit that he'd miss Hermione Granger. It wasn't everyday that a teacher had such a promising pupil in his classroom. In fact, Snape realised with a frown, he probably had never taught one as bright as her.

But still... peace at last. Or almost. Snape recalled that he'd still have to see them at Order headquarters this summer, and probably for as long after that as it took to rid the world of the Dark Lord once and for all.

Snape looked back down at the book he was reading and sighed. He was interrupted by a knock at the door. Sighing again, he went to see who was being so rude as to interrupt his thoughts.

"Headmaster!" he was surprised by Albus. "Won't you come in..."

"Severus, dear boy. I'm afraid I have some rather unpleasant news. Someone has managed to bring down the floo network."

"What? I've never heard of such a thing, Albus! The floo network is unbreakable, it has never been tampered with."

"And yet, that is precisely what someone has done. Worse yet, I have visited Hogsmeade, and the town is in disarray. No one can Apparate in or out of it. Minister Fudge owled me this morning and told me that the same problems are occurring all over the country. Here, take a look at this."

Dumbledore handed him a copy of the Daily Prophet. On its cover, a small picture of angry wizards waving their fists in protest accompanied the full-page headline: "Country in uproar: all travel thwarted."

Snape frowned deeply. "What about portkeys? Do they still work?"

"They do, after a fashion. However, some were tested this morning and found to be... unstable."

"Unstable? How?"

"Well, under controlled tests, they did not carry out their functions as predicted. Arthur Weasley was asked to test one by portkeying into the Ministry, and he ended up at Foyles instead! You can imagine the headache at Ministry headquarters. They had to Obliviate over forty Muggle witnesses." Dumbledore sighed.

"Severus, I'm afraid it gets worse. Thanks to my contacts, and with the help of the old Headmasters network of portraits, I've discovered that the wizard behind all this is none other than our old friend Karkaroff."

Snape sneered at this. Karkaroff was the worst kind of coward. No one had heard a peep of him since he'd abandoned his Durmstrang brood at the last Triwizard Tournament, but it was generally believed that he was still on the run from Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Unless...

"Headmaster, do you think that he's done this to curry favour with the Death Eaters, hoping to be let back in? I've heard nothing of this. I would have been contacted... I wonder," Snape pulled up his sleeve, checking for the Dark Mark. He raised his eyebrows in realisation.

"This will affect the Death Eaters too..."

"Yes, Severus. In fact, that may have been part of his plan. I'm afraid I have to ask you a favour. You'd better sit down while we discuss the particulars," Dumbledore smiled with more equanimity than he felt.

Snape had a bad feeling about this.