Okeeee, second chapter: in which the author discovers the wonderful new world of readable font sizes and double spacing. Also, the plot begins making a lot more sense, and Snape is more Snapey. The two characters introduced in this chapter kind of pop up abruptly, but you'll learn more about them in chapters to come. I hopes you loikes it.

Myriad's POV

It was five after three when she finally stepped off the Knight Bus and onto the staircase leading up to her flat in muggle London. Her eyelids were heavy and drooping, her face pale and drawn, when she fit her key to the lock and performed the series of de-warding charms. Tired as she was, she was immediately conscious of another presence in her house.

She drew her wand and crept forward. She could make out the outline of a man lying on her couch. Something about the stillness of the figure, the way he was sprawled across the sofa, struck fear in her. She had been an auror long enough to know what an attacker waiting for his victim looked like, and this was not it. Quivering with terror, she waved her wand to light the candles around her apartment.

A strangled sob escaped her throat. He lay there in tattered robes, a wry grin frozen on his lifeless face. The cushions beneath him were stained crimson with his blood. A dagger was buried to the hilt in his throat.

Myriadria could feel the desperate hysteria building in her chest. Leon Follet had been her closest friend since their first year at Hogwarts. He was a highly respected, powerful auror. Leon Follet was dependable as the sunrise; he did not miscalculate in his work. The feeling of hopelessness that swept over Myriad upon finding him here made her frantic.

A cool draft blew through, rustling papers. The balcony door was open. Myriad shook violently. Candles flickered and went out. A cold voice whispered from behind her, "How the mighty have fallen."

"Felix." She could barely get herself to say. "You were in Azkaban."

"Guess again, kitten." He was just over her shoulder now.

"I saw them take you." After all, it had been she who turned him in when her attempt to convert him had failed. "The Ministry couldn't have let you go."

He chuckled, pleased with himself. "Surly you didn't think I actually trusted you?"

"You bribed the guards before the trial." It was a statement, not a question.

"Ah, so perceptive, little mouse." She shuddered at the feel of his hands in her hair. "But you're not really a little mouse, are you? You do your job well."

His hands moved like lightening to rip the wand from her trembling fingers, and still her body refused to let her move. Her breaths were coming in shallow, panicked gasps. She could have killed him in an instant if only she hadn't frozen up. Felix, smelled like blood, she realized- Leon's blood. She turned to look at him, and found that his robes were sticky with the stuff. Her anger should have spurred her to action, but instead she shook harder.

"Let's play chess, shall we?" Felix drawled, throwing her against the wall with his wand. He drew four daggers from his cloak and, one by one, pinned her hands and feet to the wall. Strolling calmly across the living room, he stopped beside her wizard's chess set on the coffee table and nudged a pawn. "It's your move."

Somehow, it was strangely calming to hear this familiar phrase. The man was really entirely too fond of chess. He even played the stupid game when he made love. The wild hysteria was still clutching at her, but instinct kicked in. With a smirk, she wrenched her arms free of wall, strode across the room, and brought out her knight from behind the wall of pawns.

"The four step win?" she sneered. "Expecting a short game?"

His grin was vile when he replied. "Quite the contrary." He shifted a second pawn and muttered a careless, "Crucio." He went to stand in the window while she writhed upon the floor.

Sometimes, she thought as the curse wore off and she summoned her wand to herself, it pays to come from a powerful bloodline. She clambered to her feet and flicked her wand, sending a lamp hurtling toward Felix's head. He had reflexes like a fox, and managed to shelter his head from the blow with his arms. Myriad shrugged and moved another chess piece. She was, at last, completely calm. When Felix made his next move, first throwing a curse that sent raging flames searing through her veins, she had already started backing toward the wall.

She was vaguely conscious of the warm blood running from the puncture wounds in her palms. The fiery curse was nearly over. She grabbed a mirror from the wall and shattered it over her knee. She gingerly extracted a long, jagged piece of glass and plunged into the shadows. Her makeshift weapon caught her opponent between his neck and shoulder blades; had the glass not slipped in her bloody grip, it would have ended it.

Myriad knew when Felix took her knight with a bishop that she was in for a harsh retaliation. She braced herself for the terrible curses that reduced her to a whimpering heap.

That's enough of this. She told herself, as her king and rook swapped places. I'm getting out of here.

Felix had checked out her records thoroughly when they'd been seeing each other. If she had been a registered animagus, he would have planned a way to prevent her escaping. Luckily, she'd never bothered to get herself registered. Transfiguring herself into a black panther, she streaked out onto the balcony and leapt to the London streets below. In a blink, she had apparated to Hogwarts Grounds.

Severus' POV

Having had such a difficult night, Severus Snape could not explain exactly why it was that he was lying awake in his dungeon chamber at four o'clock in the morning. His head was throbbing, still, and none of his potions had done anything to relieve the pain. At last, with a growl, he threw off his blanket and stormed out into the halls.

Hoping to catch a student out of bed to deduct house points, he started off toward Gryffindor tower. His iron clad grip on his emotions was solidly in place again, and he was slipping back into his usual snaky self. Perhaps Potter would be out creeping around with his invisibility cape tonight. A good week of detentions for the-boy-who-lived would be just the thing tonight.

He was just rounding a corner when heard a clattering racket. A first year tripping on a coat of arms, he chuckled to himself. Delightful. Putting on his trademark scowl, he stepped out of the shadows, arms crossed over his chest.

But it wasn't a first year. It wasn't even a student. Instead, a tattered and bloodied Myriadria Dumbledore stood in the hallway.

"What are you doing sneaking around like this?" he demanded skeptically.

She snorted. "Dropping in for tea, what does it look like?"

"You look like hell." He snapped.

"And you look like you live there."

This was going nowhere, and she did seem to need attention rather badly.

He softened a little. "You should go to the infirmary."

"I have to see my uncle first, but…I'm not sure if my feet will hold out." He could tell it took an effort for her to admit it.

"I think it can wait," he suggested.

"And I think it can't." Her lip began trembling. Was she that angry with him for trying to help? "There's a murdered auror laying on my sofa." The admission seemed to have a violent effect on the girl, for she was suddenly shuddering and trembling.

Being a man who was accustomed to causing fits of hysteria in young women, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he suddenly found her arms around him and her face buried in his shoulder. Oh hell, he cursed to himself, what do I do now? I can't just leave the headmaster's niece to bleed in the hallway. Second only to Lord Voldemort himself, a hysterical woman was the most frightening thing Severus Snape had encountered in years. Damn it all, I suppose there's nothing else for it. He embraced the sobbing child stiffly, and with the utter awkwardness that only a very inexperienced man can have, he picked her up. It was the worst walk to Dumbledore's office of his lifetime.

The old wizard flung open his door on the first knock. The girl nearly leapt into his open arms on sight. Severus found a morbid satisfaction in the fact that she was as glad to be out of his arms as he was to be rid of her.

Albus tucked the girl's head under his chin and rocked her back and forth. Severus was making for the door, but the headmaster held up a hand for him to stay. He stood in the doorway until the girl had stopped sobbing. Her Great-uncle settled her in a chair and drew a second up beside her. He handed her a lemon drop which she popped into her mouth obediently.

"Call Poppy up here immediately," Albus told him, so he went to the fireplace and summoned the medi-witch by floo.

"Might as well floo the Ministry while you're at it," the young woman sniffled at last, and pulled her chair over to the fire. "Alastor Moody, if you don't mind."

The wild eyed auror's head appeared in the fireplace. "What?"

"Leon Follet is dead. Felix Austwitz never went to Azkaban. I don't know where he has been for three months, but it wasn't there. He suspected me before the trial and set up an escape route. You'll need to send a crew to my apartment to retrieve Leon's body; he's still on my sofa if the bastard hasn't done anything to him. Felix may still be in the vicinity, and he may have set traps, so be careful. As far as I know, he's still working independently of "You-Know-Who", but there's no guarantee he's working alone. I'll need someone to set new wards as well, and get any incriminating belongings out of there as quickly as possible. If you find any papers that may have been read, burn them. Oh, and whatever you do, leave the chess set exactly as it is…even if the white queen gets lewd with you. I'll give you a detailed report as soon as I get myself patched up."

The girl sank back into her chair looking pale and faint. She had lost a lot of blood, even since she'd arrived there. Poppy Pomfrey came trotting into the room with a bag of supplies not a moment too late. She set to work patching the younger woman up, grumbling all the while that the two men should have sent her to the infirmary immediately.

"You may go now, Severus," Dumbledore told him.

"Professor?" Myriadria called him back from the door. He looked at her, his brows raised. "Thank you."

He grunted and took his leave.