Part 1

The fat lady sighed as she watched the now-empty hall in front of her portrait hole. All of her Gryffindors were now safely inside Gryffindor Tower. Well, as safe as they could be given the circumstances. The past year was beginning to tell on everyone. But in no one was it more obvious than the older students.

These students not only had the task of keeping all those under them well-behaved and obeying the rules, but now had the added task of trying to keep their spirits up. The halls these days were filled with fear and silence, broken only by the screams of those who were being tortured for detention. There was no smiling, joking, or pranking going on.

A few days prior, the actions of the group known as the DA had come to a grinding halt as one of their own was taken and tortured severely for trying to release a first year. This not only demoralized the DA but built the terror of the younger students to a fever pitch. The fat lady was sure that the DA wasn't finished trying to bring down the administration that they were now under, but it was expected that they would need to regroup.

Headmaster Snape puzzled the fat lady. She remembered him somewhat from his days at Hogwarts, mostly because of his friendship with Lily Evans. Sure he wasn't a friendly personable young man then, but he wasn't the silent evil man he was now either. And she could have sworn that he felt something for Ms. Evans. Why would he support a man who hated everything about his one-time friend? She remembered back to the last time she saw him before he became a teacher…

The young man had been standing outside the portrait hole for hours. Just now he was arguing with one of her Gryffindors.

"Please, I need to see her."

"Why? She doesn't want to see you. I can't blame her after what you did. Personally, I don't know why she was ever friends with you in the first place."

"Tell her if she doesn't come out and talk to me, I will spend the entire night out here and I don't care what happens."

Mary sighed, "All right, I'll tell her, but I don't see that it will make any difference."

Mary went inside the common room and several minutes passed as the young man paced up and down in front of her. Finally, she opened up to allow Ms. Evans to exit wearing her bathrobe. The young man started immediately with what he was trying to say, as if worried she would disappear on him.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not interested."

"I'm sorry!"

"Save your breath."

It was obvious that Lily was not interested in explanations for whatever had happened between them.

"I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here."

"I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just – "

"Slipped out?"

The young man winced and tried to explain once more.

"It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends – you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"

He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking.

"I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."

Did the young man really want to join that horrible wizard that was trying to kill all the Muggles and Muggleborns? Why would he want to do that?

"No – listen, I didn't mean – "

" – to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"

He struggled on the verge of speech, but with a contemptuous look she turned and climbed back through the portrait hole…

She didn't see what the fat lady saw as the young man turned away. There were tears coursing down his face and a look so devastated in his eyes that the fat lady felt tears gather in her own.

She could have sworn that after that he would never have gone through with joining. There was something about the look on his face that said he cared very deeply for her Gryffindor. She sighed.

What was the use in wondering what could have been? It was obvious now that he had joined You-Know-Who. What was the need to know the reasons why?

Back to her own Gryffindors. Something had to be done, but what? The older students were doing what they could: Comforting the younger, bringing medicines and potions from the Room of Requirement to help with the pain of torture…

They had even begun, in the evenings and late at night when the other students had woken from nightmares, to tell stories from what they knew of the exploits of Harry, Hermione and Ron. They didn't know all that many, unfortunately, as many of the details of their adventures were only known to them and probably Professor Dumbledore. No matter what time someone woke, there was always someone (usually Ms Weasley or Mr. Longbottom) up waiting to comfort them. But this practice was wearing them down and a conversation she had overheard as Ms Weasley and Mr Longbottom had approached the portrait hole this evening, turned her insides ice cold.

"I don't know how much longer I'm going to be here, Neville," said Ms Weasley.

"What? Why?" asked Neville, sounding alarmed.

"You know what they did to Luna. It's only a matter of time before they figure out that," she dropped her voice to a near whisper as they came up to her, "Ron isn't home with Spattergroit. Or that Fred and George piss them off, or dad, or Bill and they come for me too. They know, at least Snape does, that we are the leaders of the DA now that the three are gone. It's also only a matter of time before they come after us for that very fact."

"I know, you're right," Neville sighed, "and once we are out of the way, whether in hiding or captured, who will be there for the younger students? They're already very depressed and ready to back down. Something needs to happen to keep their hopes alive."

'Something needs to happen to keep their hopes alive.' That phrase rang through her mind again and again. She agreed but what could be done? Who knows how long it would be before the threeas they were called (because their names were forbidden) returned? It could take years. What if it took so long that no one was left at Hogwarts that had gone to school with them and could tell stories about them to those who didn't know them?

The fat lady had never been a religious person (so to speak) and she doubted that any deity would lower themselves to listen to the prayer of a portrait, but what could it hurt?

"I don't know if you can hear me

We need a miracle

Our hopes are shot

We need something to bring it back

Please, please if you can hear me

Bring us something to show that what we are doing means something

That it isn't all for nothing

Thank you."

Almost before she finished speaking, she sensed movement and turned her head. She gasped as three figures stepped from the shadows.