Not mine. All characters, settings, and basically anything recognizable belong to the honourable J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 1- What's this?
"Well, welcome to my quarters Miss Granger. It is clear by your prone position and your loud snoring that you have made yourself at home. I dare not hope that your silence will last, being the insufferable know-it-all that you have always proven yourself to be."
The potions master regarded the young woman curled uncomfortably in his best reading chair with exasperation and weariness. Granger hadn't even been in his rooms for 24 hours and yet she was already driving him to insane ramblings. He sincerely hoped it would not last. Approaching the chair swiftly, he scooped her into his arms with a surprised grunt at how light she was and quickly headed across the room for his guest chambers, daring himself to question why he hadn't just woken her up and instructed her to move herself. He dumped her on the mattress that had gone unused for as long as he had worked here, considered removing her shoes and tucking her in, but immediately rejected the idea with disgust. He wasn't the girl's nanny and she could remove her own damn shoes. It wasn't his fault she'd fallen asleep in his armchair. He closed the door a little more audibly then was strictly necessary and left her to her sleep, picking one of her ridiculous hairs from the sleeve of his robes as he went.
Pouring himself a full glass of Firewhisky, Snape settled into his second best armchair in front of the roaring fireplace and replayed the events of the evening through his head. After months of planning, neither he not Dumbledore could have ever guessed that things would have turned out so badly. Who indeed would have ever speculated that when the Death Eaters ambushed the Headmaster at the top of the Astronomy Tower that Potter- the spoiled brat- would have had enough strength to fight off Dumbledore's immobilization charm? Or that his sudden appearance on the tower would be enough to cause Draco to panic and fire off a hasty Avada Kedavra? Who indeed could have known what possessed Harry to think that the spell was aimed for the already dying Albus, leap forward to intercept the spell, trip over his own damned invisibility cloak and instead of saving the Headmaster knock him over the edge of the tower and kill him?
In the confusion that ensued, the errant spell actually careened into Amycus Carrow and killed him on impact, which sent his sister into a murderous rampage that caused Snape to spend a lot of time and energy detaining her so she didn't strangle the Malfoy heir on the spot. Then came the mandatory grovelling at the hands of his deranged master, however the punishment was hardly as bad as expected. The dark lord was so amused that Potter had caused his own mentor's demise that there hadn't even been the customary bout of Cruciatis curse. No, he feared for the safety of the Malfoy family, but other then that, things had gone actually fairly smoothly.
The problems had then come, as they tended to do more and more often, from the Order. Though Snape knew that Dumbledore revised his final instructions in the event he should die daily according to how things had gone, it was still absolutely ridiculous. He entertained the idea that the Headmaster had woken up this morning and decided to go mad as he had read the document McGonagall had solemnly handed him on his returning to the Castle. All the paper had said in the clearly unsteady but still discernable handwriting of his former professor waas that Hermione Granger was to become his responsibility, Potter was still not to be told anything and he was still required to be a double spy if at all possible. It would be easier to assassinate Mad-Eye Moody. It just didn't make any sense on any level to split up the golden trio, even if it was under the pretence of security, especially now when he was most likely feeling guilty and depressed. The group had all grown up together and Harry relied on them more than any other living person. Snape had no doubt that Dumbledore had meant to protect them, but in all honesty he felt that this group of teenagers would handle better on their own.
However, McGonagall still refused to close down the Church of Saint Albus, so he was to be saddled with Granger, Potter was to move in with Bill Weasely and the Weasley boy himself was to be taken in with Moody in the hopes he might learn something useful. Any chance of deviating even an iota from the plan Dumbledore had left was impossible with the old woman in charge. Even in death the Headmaster had him by the balls, Snape thought the girl would manage to stay out of the way during the duration of her stay with him this summer. It was too much to hope that she would find a way to be actually useful.
Now sipping the last of his whisky meditatively, Snape slowly acknowledged that there still might be a chance to actually win this war. Granted, the Potter boy was going to need to pull himself together first, but maybe there was still an alternative way to end everything. He had to admit a potential future where he could see himself actually living through the Final Battle was much more appealing than the vague set of instructions Dumbledore had revealed to him. Not to mention the matter of his debt to Lily. If he could keep her son from being slaughtered and still manage to save the wizarding world, he was determined to do it.
He sighed and set down his glass, now mostly empty save for the few trickles of amber still stubbornly trying to burn on the edges of the remaining ice cubes and rose to head for bed. There was still the matter of McGonagall and the Order to deal with, whom he was certain would all cling to the last fragments of Dumbledore's plan even as they were about to die. Gryffindors could never be reasoned with. He would fight that battle when he got to it, he decided wearily. Snape still needed a plan before he could worry about selling it to the others. But more pressing still was the girl currently residing in his guest rooms who would be demanding answers in the morning, answers he didn't have. He groaned, his muscles still aching from all of the tension of the evening. Leaving the glass where it sat, he waved his wand lazily at the fire to quiet it down and staggered over to his own rooms.
Pausing only to remove his boots and slam the door, Snape crawled under the sheets tiredly. It was a sign of just how exausted he was that he didn't bother to remove his robes or go through any of his other traditional bedtime rituals. He closed his eyes forcefully as if demanding the real world to disapear. There was still a war to win, the Order was in chaos and the odds seemed more and more likely that Potter would lose in the final showdown.
"I'm doing the best I can, Lily." He murmured wearily as he drifted off to sleep, the frown lines in his face even more pronounced than usual.
AN: Chapter title is a reference to a Nightmare Before Christmas Song. Welcome to the story! I hope you enjoy! I know this chapter is short, but they should get better- and longer- as the story grows.