High summer brought the valley below Snape Hall to life. The ancient stone hall overlooked a narrow glen, uninhabited all the way to the wild North Sea. The ancient magic of the land called to its young mistress' blood through her bond with her husband, never mind that he had been well into his thirties before he ever knew his ancestral home still existed. The land didn't care. Hermione Snape and her husband's other apprentice, Diamond Halstrom, gathered mushrooms in the early morning mist. Rather, Diamond was doing the gathering while Hermione stood watch. Precaution was a way of life, though some people, less well informed, might have called it paranoia.

Diamond asked, "So is there a Snape tartan?"

"I don't know, why do you ask?"

"Because as a bound apprentice, I would be allowed to wear it if there were. Now that I am no longer in school, I'd like to wear something besides school robes or dueling leathers now and then."

"You know, I think a trip to Madame Malkin's is in order for all us ladies. All we have are winter robes, or jeans and so forth. We don't need to look like we're ready for World War III every second of the day," Hermione commented. "I'll ask Professor McGonagall about the tartan."

"Thanks. I think I have enough mushrooms."

Hermione looked in her basket and confirmed, "That should be plenty. I still need heather. There was some that looked useful further down the glen."

The two witches continued their hike. Hermione asked, "So, what do you think of Draco?"

Diamond smiled. "He is nothing like I remember from Hogwarts."

Hermione hesitated. On one hand, she empathized with Draco. She wanted him to put the past behind him and start fresh. But on the other, she remembered him a little too well from Hogwarts, and she didn't want Diamond to get hurt. "Are you sure?"

Diamond smiled. "I spent seven years in Slytherin House, Madame. And that's all I will say for now!"

Their laughter rang across the glen. It was Diamond's turn to keep watch while Hermione gathered her ingredients. The mist had begun to clear when they apparated home, ready to begin the morning's studies.

Hermione paid little attention as Severus set Diamond to work on her potion, as it was one she had easily brewed at the beginning of her own apprenticeship. She and Severus both chafed at the Guild's strict curriculum for apprentices, because the prescribed work was moving far too slowly for it to be anything but a chore. He remembered the feeling all too well from his own apprenticeship. They were working their way through it as quickly as he could be certain her answers to the Examiners would be letter perfect. She must be able to brew each from memory, because there would be no way to predict which ones would be chosen for her practical. More importantly, these potions were the bread and butter of every magical apothecary. The Guild guaranteed their quality.

Once she had finished the lesson for the week, she moved on to helping him with his experiments. He was trying a new avenue with the wolvesbane potion that he hoped would make its effects permanent. The potion was hard on the body over time, since it contained trace amounts of several deadly poisons. Remus Lupin had been aware of that, and considered any side effects to be better than the alternative of spending several hours locked in a cage somewhere caught up in homicidal mania until the sun came up. But no Potions Master worth his salt would consider that an acceptable long-term solution--especially when so many werewolves were innocent small children.

Also, a permanent wolvesbane potion would eliminate the deadly half-wolf, half-human phase that had the mind of neither. There would be no more attacks by crazed werewolves. Potentially it might prevent transmission of the disease as well.

The improved potion was a worthy goal in its own right, but Snape believed that it was also a stepping-stone to a complete cure. Hermione would gladly put up with all the drudgework in the world to be a part of that kind of research.

She had quickly learned that Diamond didn't share her passion for discovery, and she had to work hard to master lessons that Hermione just blew through. To Diamond, a journeyman's badge would be a key to a profitable and useful trade, doing something that she enjoyed. The younger witch loved to go out in the magical wilderness in search of rare ingredients, and that alone could make her very wealthy.

They were also attempting to find a cure for the boneshatter curse with which Draco had been afflicted. Severus was afraid that the treatment that he had developed could lose its potency over time. That was something that his godson simply refused to worry about, because there was nothing they could do about it. Instead, he was doing some independent study as an herbalist, in order to prepare to ask Madame Sprout to take him on as an apprentice. He was taking a long view there. Thanks to his name, he was unemployable, and likely to be in danger from both sides if he ever left Snape's protection. A journeyman herbalist could make himself very useful to a Potions Master, and earn a partnership if he obtained his own master's status.

They were just washing up for lunch when Marigold Markowitz brought a letter to the door and waited to be acknowledged. Hermione nodded to her and the girl brought her an envelope. It was from Katie Bell. Hermione broke the seal and unrolled the parchment. "Wonderful! Katie has finally persuaded that healer of hers to let her get her apparation license, and she did so this morning. She wishes to accept my invitation to visit, this afternoon or at our convenience. Snape, is there any reason that I should ask her to delay?"

"It makes no difference to me, Granger."

She smiled, and reached for parchment and quill to send a short reply. "I'll open the floo for her. Miss Markowitz, please have the elves open a ground-floor guest room for Miss Bell."

The girl--young woman, she would be a seventh-year when school started again--bobbed a curtsey and said, "Yes, Madame Snape."

Hermione hurried off to greet her friend.

The flying chair, a large trunk and a smaller satchel, a cat carrier and a house elf all came through ahead of Katie. The elf dusted her off and levitated her into her chair. Katie said, "Thank you, Sola, I can manage now. You may go introduce yourselves to the elves of the hall."

"Yes, Missy Katie." Sola disappeared.

Katie waved her wand, and her belongings followed her.

Hermione said, "Let me show you your room before we go to lunch."

"Will Captain be all right, or should I have Sola take him home?" Katie asked.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine. The children have their familiars, so the house is already cat-proof. He can go out into the courtyard, but no further unless you take him yourself, and he won't be able to get into anywhere that would be dangerous for him."

Katie said, "This place is wonderful. It reminds me of Hogwarts."

"The dozen children underfoot might have something to do with that."

"Yes, it was rather easy for Professor McGonagall to decree that the Heads of House would care for the orphans when our house had only the one," Katie smiled. "That must have been quite an adjustment for you."

"It certainly was, but they're mine now, and I'm not giving them back," Hermione grinned. "Don't tell them that."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"You're in here. The big old place gets really quiet at night, but Draco is right across the hall, and the little Slytherins are on the next floor. We're upstairs."

Katie put her trunk and satchel in the corner, and then let the cat out. She removed several shrunken objects from her robe pocket, which turned out to be the cat's things. When she had resized the box and a bag of litter, Hermione filled the box. Katie put down bowls, which she filled with cat food and water. Finally, she resized a large quilted cat bed.

Captain was a huge Norwegian Forest Cat. When he jumped into his mistress' arms, her chair dipped before hovering again. Katie said, "Oof! I'm putting you on a diet, Captain! He weighs almost two stone, but don't let him worry you; he's just a big baby."

Hermione's cat had been a half-Kneazle, and Captain was very nearly that large. "He's gorgeous."

"Terry Boot gave him to me when we were dating. Captain was just a tiny kitten then. The cat stayed around longer than the boyfriend," she giggled.

Both women scourgified their hands, and Katie ran a comb through the ends of her braids, before they joined everyone else in the Great Hall.

Katie saw the children already seated quietly, while Severus, Draco and Diamond were standing around, a study in the casual complexity of Old Magic manners. She whispered, "Oh my Goddess. Hermione, when and where do I sit?!"

"You're head of your family now, right?"

"Yes."

"OK, next to me, and wait until just after Miss Halstrom and Mr. Malfoy. The three of you are of equal rank, I think, but you're a guest so it's polite for them to defer to you. I think Diamond defers to Draco because his family is a little older than hers--if you go back to the Old Norse kingdoms and the Holy Roman Empire. First, though, Severus will welcome you to our home, and you'd curtsey and thank him but I don't know--"

"I know that one, they told me in rehab. It's just a head bow, as anyone else would do when seated. All right, I wasn't born in a barn, I can do this!"

Hermione encouraged her, "Of course you can. I learned it, after all."

Katie whispered, "You know, this is rather exciting."

With the all-important first impressions managed nicely, they settled down to the usual noisy meal in Snape Hall. As always, the children had questions about their homework, and with two teachers as guardians such questions were welcome at the table. The girls were excited enough when they found out Katie was a fashion designer to forget that she couldn't walk. Kender Parkinson had some intelligent questions to ask about drawing and graphic design in general.

That afternoon, Hermione helped Katie set up her drawing desk in the second floor sitting room, where there was plenty of room and a lot of light. The room was too formal for the children to enjoy it much. They preferred the Great Hall, when the adults didn't shoo them upstairs. Katie would have it to herself to work on her designs without being bothered.

Katie showed Hermione some of her new designs. At home, witches tended to wear long dresses in styles that Hermione considered evocative of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A robe was commonly worn over the dress or gown to leave the house. Most witches only owned a couple of robes, which they would transfigure to match whatever they were wearing beneath it. Wealthy women purchased matching gowns and robes as a set, and they were commonly decorated with intricate embroidery or precious stones. A poor witch, on the other hand, might only own two or three dresses and one robe. They insisted on sturdy workmanship that would stand up to repeated cleansing spells and transformations.

Then, of course, there was dueling wear, which was all the fashion this year with so many recent female graduates going into Auror's training. It was also considered a very patriotic costume. This consisted of pants and a sleeveless jacket called a jerkin, made of soft leather reinforced by a number of protective spells, and was quite expensive but essentially stayed new forever. Under that most witches tended to wear a very feminine top of some sort, to offset the masculine look of the costume. Worn without a robe, it was considered quite daring because the leather pants fit like a second skin. Katie had designed knee-length robes to match the blouses, and she was toying with the idea of side slits for ease of movement rather than full skirts. Designing for fighting women was an extra challenge, because the clothing needed to be practical yet still stylish.

Katie asked, "What differences have you noticed in Scots dress recently?"

"I couldn't say. I've only been to wizarding Aberdeen once. We really should owl Professor McGonagall sometime before you leave. If she's at home, she would love to show you around, I'm sure. The Scots wizarding families are just as loyal to their clans as the Muggle families are, so they do wear the tartan. I even noticed a lot of wizards who were wearing kilts under their robes. You know, that really is a very masculine style! I was pretending to be a tourist from America at the time, so I did get to look around quite a bit while I was there!"

Katie giggled as she laid out an assortment of ever-leaded mechanical pencils, erasers, quills and inkwells, a watercolor set, and a fancy box containing her parchment. "I would think so, and yes, I really do approve of kilts! I think having Professor McGonagall show us around Aberdeen would be a grand idea, if it wouldn't be too much trouble for her of course. There hasn't been a Highland fad in a few years. Maybe I could interest Madame Malkin in something like that."

"You're the second person who's mentioned it today. Miss Halstrom was just asking me today if there's a Snape tartan."

"Well, with black on black, who'd know?" Katie grinned.

Hermione laughed. "Don't fall off your chair if you see my husband in dark green here at home. Very occasionally, mind. Seriously, I really do need to write to Minerva. Shall I keep you company while you work?"

"Oh, you don't have to do that. You'd be bored stiff. What time is dinner?"

"At seven, and we dress a little more than for breakfast and lunch. We don't usually sit down to tea unless there are several of us in the Great Hall or on the patio, and that isn't formal at all. We just snack in the afternoon if we feel like it. Actually, all this formality is for the children's sake. It's what they were accustomed to at home. They feel safe within the rules. Miss Halstrom is has been a huge help."

"You've really fit right in with all these Slytherins, haven't you?"

"We were wrong about a lot of things in school, Katie. If we'd respected them the way I've learned to, we wouldn't have lost so many of them to Voldemort. Hogwarts let them down tremendously."

"By that, you mean Dumbledore."

"Not to speak ill of the dead, especially under this roof, but yes, I mean Dumbledore. He'll tell you as much himself, if you meet his ghost out by the lake, so I'm not speaking too far out of turn. I think in another generation or two, the knee-jerk association between Slytherin house and dark magic will be a thing of the past."

"Still, so many of them fell right into that whole 'Yay, pureblood!' attitude. I just don't understand that."

"Well, it's fear, at the root of it. Those families have long memories. They know who they lost in the Burning Times, and they haven't forgiven or forgotten. Now, Muggles are getting better and better with their technology. If they really wanted to start another Inquisition, find us, and exterminate us, they probably could. Another thing is, the old families have their own culture, and they don't begin to understand the Muggles. When Muggle-borns like me marry into their families we bring our ways with us, and they're afraid they'll lose their way of life. We need to really start teaching them Muggle Studies, but it's just as important for Muggle-borns to start learning about traditional wizarding life. I mean...if somebody knows you respect their culture, they aren't as defensive about teaching you how to act in it. The only way to get past the fear is to teach mutual respect. When those kids see me living by their ways rather than forcing mine on them, then they aren't afraid any more, and that's when they start asking me what it was like to grow up Muggle."

"And may Voldemort spin in his grave throughout all eternity," Katie said. "Hell, I'm as much a pureblood as anyone else, but I forgot to figure out precedence before I got here. If it's going to help people get along, I guess I could be arsed to do that."

Hermione said, "That's how we're going to get past the war, you know. Little things that help people get along."

Katie said, "You know what...I might have an idea about that." She chose a pencil and began sketching. "Let's start a Mugglewear fad!"

"Brilliant! May I see?"

Katie laughed, "When I'm finished!"

Hermione giggled, "Be that way, then! I'm going to check on the kids. Do you have a DA galleon?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do. Not that anyone's contacted me on the stupid thing since the last battle, but I just never stopped carrying it around."

"I don't think anyone else did either. Just call me if you want anything."

Hermione looked in on Carrie and the younger children before she went downstairs to the laboratory. It was located in the rear of the building, in a vault cut into the mountain. The room had once been the castle's armory, but it was large and secure enough for Severus' purposes. Hermione said, "Miss Bell is settled in and working."

"Then we might do the same, Madame."

Hermione bowed her head, acknowledging her role as his apprentice without giving up her status as Lady of Snape Hall. It was perfectly done, but Severus saw an unholy light of mischief in her sparkling brown eyes that made him anticipate the evening, after the children were in their rooms. In the meanwhile, they got to work.

Penthia LeStrange and Kender Parkinson picked their way along the narrow stream that flowed down the glen. After a rocky start to their friendship, they had become fast friends. Penthia would be a fourth-year and Kender would be in sixth. He had just finished his OWLS, with enough to get into the classes he would need to become an arithmancer. He was good at it. Professor Vector had told him he was already as good as many of the junior Arithmancers on staff at Gringotts or the Ministry. He had a promising career ahead of him, if he could distance himself from his no-good sister. Vector had assured him he had done that at Hogsmeade Bridge.

Penthia was bemused by his plans for his future. She couldn't imagine spending her life behind a desk drawing up arithmantic charts. She wanted to be an Auror, just like half the students at Hogwarts. Since the Aurory required a wide enough selection of NEWTS to enter most other fields of advanced study, their Professors did nothing to discourage them even though there was going to be a stiff competition for the available training slots. Penthia thought that her Slytherin cunning and ambition gave her an advantage over three-quarters of the other applicants in her year, although she also knew she would have to work twice as hard as any of them in order to overcome the prejudice against her house.

Kender skipped a rock across the stream. "What are you thinking about, Pen?"

"Wondering which class I should drop," she replied. It wasn't exactly true, but it did tie in with what she had been thinking. "I really need another study period if I'm going out for the dueling team next year, because I can't miss practices or skip homework assignments, either one. Logically it should be Muggle Studies, because I don't need a NEWT in that to get into Auror training. But it would look really bad for Bellatrix's little cousin to drop Muggle Studies."

"It'll have to be astronomy, then, you don't need that either. I think you're really making too much about being Bella's cousin, though. She's only your cousin by marriage anyway. It's who you are that matters."

She gave a thoughtful nod. "I know. I just don't think anyone is really going to look further than my last name. You can be a Parkinson without people looking at you cross-eyed, because you fought in the Battle."

"You were only a second year, Pen," he said reasonably. "By all rights I should have listened to Professor Trelawney and stayed with you guys. I mean, all I really accomplished by being there was fire off a couple of hexes that may or may not have hit anyone, then I got cursed and almost drowned."

"Even if that's true, you were there. You left no doubt about your loyalties and you'll benefit from that for the rest of your life. There are people who look at me like I'm scum as soon as they hear my name." She skipped a rock across a shallow pool and watched the ripples spread.

"Draco has to go through the same thing--they almost put him in prison, for Merlin's sake. And look what he went through because he wouldn't kill Professor Dumbledore--hasn't he proven where he stands? There are always idiots who are going to believe whatever they want to believe. They don't want you to confuse them with the facts. That's life, Pen, but you don't have to let it drag you under."

"When did you get so smart?"

"I'm a sixth-year now, of course I'm smart."

"You prat," she laughed.

Kender yanked her ponytail and took off down the stream bank, with Penthia in hot pursuit. She caught up to him with a flying tackle, and both of them fell into the icy water of the stream. Shrieking and laughing, they found a warm patch of sun to wring out their clothes and cast drying charms.

Kender picked a wet leaf out of her hair, and froze. He had never really noticed how blue her eyes were before.

Hesitantly, she brought her hand up to his face. He could feel her shaking, as much as he was, as both of them realized Kender was going to kiss her, and Penthia was going to let him. Their first kiss was a brief peck. Their second was a little bolder, but still sweet and gentle, and neither of them dared to open their eyes until they drew apart.

For a long moment, Kender held Penthia close. "Thank you, Pen," he said, and he was appalled at the way his voice shook.

"What for?"

"I never snogged anybody before. That was...oh, my gods, wow."

She smiled. "I--umm--I never snogged anybody either. Except, I kissed Davie Tillson on the cheek when we were firsties, but that doesn't count 'cause Alyssa dared me. This was awesome."

Hand in hand, they walked home. Twice along the way, they stopped to kiss again for a while. They never noticed when they stepped through some mysterious gateway and left childhood behind. They became a young man and a young woman, one step further along the path to growing up and finding their own way.

Later that afternoon, Katie went down to the courtyard, where she found Draco, Diamond, Erik and Marigold having tea. Marigold and Draco made room for her to land her chair between them, and another teacup appeared. She helped herself to a biscuit.

The conversation was quidditch, and that led to a moment of discomfort as people remembered she had been on the Gryffindor team. She had experienced many such embarrassing silences since her injury, though. She knew exactly how to fill it with an opinionated discourse about the Chudley Cannons' management style, and what she would do if it were in her hands. Just as she had expected, the conversation picked right up again.

Draco asked, as only another handicapped person could, if she could still sit a broom.

She replied, "For short, level flights, yes. But I can't play quidditch any more. Too much chance I'd fall, or get knocked off by a stray bludger."

Draco nodded. Except for the first couple of days after he took his potions, quidditch was too dangerous for him as well. A fall or a hit by a bludger could easily result in a fatal injury. Just because he couldn't play quidditch didn't keep him off a broom, but his condition did keep him careful.

Diamond said, "Miss Bell, if I may ask...instead of enchanting an ordinary chair, why don't you transfigure your broom into a chair?"

"Why--because I never thought of it. I just kept doing what I was taught in rehab. I wonder if it's possible...?" It would be so much more convenient not to need to use her wand to fly. Having both hands free while she moved around would be quite useful. So would the freedom to cast other spells. And to fly, really fly again--!

Draco said, "I think you'd really have to ask Hermione. She's the transfiguration prodigy. But I don't know why it wouldn't work."

When they repeated the conversation at dinner for Hermione's benefit, she thought about it. "I'd have to see the broom. You still have your broom from school, right?"

"Yes?"

"Well, you know, there are charms on quidditch brooms to keep people from making illegal modifications to them. I'd have to remove those charms first before the broom could be altered in any way. After that, though...it shouldn't be any different to transfiguring any other enchanted object. Do you know, are the levitation and propulsion charms on the entire broom, or just the handle or the broom straws?"

Nobody was sure, and for good reason. Anyone caught playing on a sporting broom that had been tampered with would be thrown out of the game and probably benched for the rest of the season. Kids didn't have the luxury of owning an extra broom just for quidditch.

After dinner, Katie sent her elf home for her broom. Hermione began by cracking the anti-modification charms, a rather simple task for her. Then she spent the next hour studying the broom to determine how it worked. She found that the levitation charm was on the entire item, while the propulsion charm was only on the broom straws. She glanced at Katie's enchanted chair, and then began to alter the broom handle.

This was why she had been Minerva's favorite student in school. She worked in complete silence, and only occasionally used her wand. She attracted an audience, as everyone in the house was fascinated by watching her work. Gradually the broom handle folded in on itself, then separated, then split and folded again. A chair took form, with a broom head sticking out from under the seat in back.

They went outdoors to give it a trial run. Diamond volunteered to be their test pilot, but Katie wouldn't hear of it. Hermione and Diamond transferred her to her new chair. She applied a couple of judicious sticking charms just in case.

"Fortune favors the bold!" She yelled--and took off like a shot, braids flying behind her. Hermione watched as the kids launched themselves right behind her.

Severus said, "And you call yourself a Gryffindor."

"I don't see you after them," she replied.

"There is an extra broom in the shed."

"Merciful Bridget. I'll hex you for this, Snape, I swear."

He just laughed and called the brooms to him. "Have I finally discovered something that you can't do, Granger?"

"No such luck, but you've sure found something I hate doing." Her tone was grim and icy, as if she were facing a battle on the wrong end of ten to one odds. He realized that was serious terror--and his indomitable wife was planning to go flying anyway.

"I would never force you to do anything against your will."

"Short of an Imperio, you could never force me to do anything," she shot back. Then she explained. "When I was a small child, I jumped out of an upstairs window at my grandparents' house trying to fly like a television superhero. I broke both legs, one of them both above and below the knee, and that's no small thing for a Muggle. Obviously there was no magical healing involved. Ever since then, I've been terrified of heights."

He turned around and stared at her as something finally clicked. "You are terrified of heights, yet you fought on the wall--!"

"It needed doing, Snape."

"That it did." In that moment, he finally came to understand Gryffindor courage. It was little different from what Slytherins would have called dedication or determination, once one stripped away the swashbuckling bravado so typical of the lion pride. "Hermione, a little while ag, you asked me to trust in you, and you were right. Will you offer me the same?"

"You know that I do," she said.

He promised her solemnly, "I will not let you fall."

Hermione found that she trusted that promise implicitly. She nodded once and tried the old broom. It didn't seem like the supremely responsive ones that Severus, Harry and Ron rode, which were likely to shoot off into the wild blue yonder at the slightest thought. This one seemed more reliable, somehow. She might not have flown more than a handful of times since first year, but she had learned the basic principles well enough. Instinctively, she locked down her fear when she started to panic, once they topped the wall and cleared the courtyard, with the glen stretching out in front of them. It was the same spectacular view as from their balcony, only without the railing.

"Granger, it takes some doing to fall off a broom. They're designed so that you won't."

"I know that, but it is a very long way down," she snapped.

"Then stop looking down," he smirked. "Now watch the children."

She decided he was lucky she wasn't about to take one hand off the broomstick to hex him and wipe that smirk off his face. Of course, he probably knew that from her white-knuckled grip!

The younger kids were flying wild circles around the older ones, passing a quaffle around. Draco and Diamond were flying on either side of Katie, with their wands out in case there was some unexpected mishap with her new chair. Erik and Marigold were hanging back. Hermione grudgingly decided Snape was right. It was time she did something about her phobia, if for no other reason than that those kids might very well end up in trouble out flying.

Once Katie determined that her broom still responded as it was supposed to even though it was transformed into a chair, she was in no hurry at all to call it an early evening. She had been a chaser, nearly as agile and quick as a seeker. As Draco had discovered, flying wasn't a skill one forgot. She dropped into the game, and soon she was passing the quaffle with as much ease as the children.

After an hour or so in the air, Hermione felt confident enough to take Marigold's place on watch so that the young witch could join the game. They stayed out until it started getting dark.

Hermione found the attack of the shakes she'd put off was waiting for her on the ground, just like every battle she'd ever fought. She gritted her teeth and willed her legs to hold until she could sit down on a stone bench. She handed her broom off to one of the kids to put away.

Severus sat beside her. "You did Old Godric proud this evening, Granger."

"It occurred to me that if something were to happen while the children were out flying, I would be useless," she explained. "If they are going to fly, so must I."

"You're through the worst," he assured her.

"You really enjoy flying, don't you?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, I do," he said. "It's...to me, it's always been freedom."

She looked down as understanding dawned. For so many years, Snape had known precious little freedom. She made herself a promise that she was never going to let her fears get in the way again. She thought that, given some more practice she might actually come to enjoy flying. Even if she didn't, though, she was determined to become good at it. At least good enough that he could enjoy a flight without worrying about her.

"Do feel up to moving inside yet?"

"Yes, I think so. Carrie's probably so hungry she's driving the house elves crazy." They went upstairs. While Hermione checked on the baby, Severus made sure the rest of the younger kids were settled in. By then, Lali said that Katie had turned in, and in fact the only ones still in the great room were Draco and Diamond.

Hermione smiled, "We seem to have the evening to ourselves."

"Apparently so," he replied. "Hermione, I did not realize before this evening that you had such a fear of heights."

"If you had, I might never have had a safe occasion to face it," she replied. "It's something I should have done years ago, long before I had to face Voldemort with that damned wall falling apart under us. I could have cost us everything."

"You did not," he said quietly. "There is no profit in might-have-beens. You know that."

"I know."

"I will wager that, once you realized you were not in fact going to fall, there might have been an enjoyable moment or two this evening."

She smiled and allowed, "There might have been one or two." Less for her own sake than sharing in the joy of her companions, certainly, but Katie's happiness had been contagious. It had been wonderful to be able to give that back to her. And her husband was a different person in the air, much as he was at the dueling club. She was more than willing to take her chances on a broom for that.

That Saturday, they hosted the dueling club's sixth- and seventh-years, and the adults. Hermione spent every spare minute Friday with the house-elves, because now as well as teacher and mother and apprentice, she was also hostess. She didn't want to embarrass Severus in front of his fellow staff members. Most of them had never seen Snape Hall before.

At the last minute, she found that the guest list had expanded because somehow most of the rest of the Order had been invited as well. Ron hesitantly owled her to ask if it was all right if he brought Lavender. She wrote back that she would be horribly disappointed if he didn't.

Since there were so many people there to protect them, and it was a private gathering in a safe place, Harry and Tonks came along at the very last minute. Hermione hated it that the rest of them had so much more freedom, but Harry was in constant danger. Alastor Moody and Sylvia Beauregard were with them constantly, especially outside the Hall's wards.

Poppy and Minerva arrived together with Minerva's ward, Timothy Quindle. The little blond boy would be starting his third year, so this was the first time he was old enough to join in the fun. Moire Nott was also starting third-year.

Moss Goyle, her twin Fern, and their second-year classmates Freddy Burke and Seth Brachman were bored. Yes, it had been exciting to meet the Minister for Magic and his scary Auror guards. For a while, watching the adult matches was exciting and interesting. But the sun got hot and the conjured bleachers got hard.

Moss asked Hermione, "Madame, may we go flying?"

"Not by yourselves, sweetie, what if someone had a wreck?"

"Then may we go walking by the stream? It's getting too warm out here."

"I guess that would be all right. Go ahead and take a picnic with you, but don't go too far, and be careful you don't fall in any deep water."

Moss nodded a bow. "Yes, Madame."

Tonks came over. "Wotcher, Mione! Our Minister for Magic and that red-headed prat think they're better than we are. Can't have that, can we?" She said with a wide grin.

Hermione feigned outrage. "Absolutely not! Be careful, kids, and have fun!"

Moss raced off to tell the other kids they had permission to go.

That was a hard-fought match for bragging rights. They all knew each other too well for anyone to have a real advantage. Ron finally managed to petrify Tonks. Hermione kept the duel going two-on-one for a good ten minutes longer before the "boys" managed to flank her and Harry put her in a full-body bind. Once she and Tonks were freed, they surrendered their wands with good grace. Harry said, "Well fought, my ladies."

Tonks gave her husband a sultry look. "Thank you, Minister."

Lavender and Severus met them with cold drinks. Hermione smiled to see Harry and Tonks so obviously happy together. After everything that they had been through and the losses they had suffered, they deserved it.

Meanwhile, the four children followed the stream down through the glen, laughing and carrying on with mock-duels of their own. Moss and Fern were a little upset that the boys made them split up, crying foul that being twins gave them too much of an advantage on the same team. It was true though.

Seth complained, "I'm never going to get History of Magic! I can never remember the dates of all those battles!"

"Or the names of all those goblins!" Fern complained.

"I thought staying awake in Professor Binns' classes was hard!" Freddy agreed.

The four of them crossed a fallen log across the burn. Seth pointed, "Oi, there's that funny rock we saw when we were out flying the other evening."

Fern said, "I wonder if we could climb up there. I'll bet you could see the Hall from the top."

The four of them climbed the steep side of the glen and then up the rocks to the stony outcrop. By now it was about one in the afternoon. They decided to eat their picnic lunch and take a rest before they went home.

Fern squinted up the glen. "You can see the Hall! Or, at least, I just saw some kind of a light spell."

Seth said excitedly, "We get to be in it next year!"

Moss said, "Well, yes, but I'm not going to be on the dueling team. I'd rather play quidditch."

"Me too," her twin said, not unexpectedly. What one Goyle twin did, the other did also.

Freddy yawned and said, "I'm gonna take a nap before we head back." He changed to his animagus form, a half-grown adder, and found a good place to soak up some sun.

Napping sounded like a good idea to the rest of them, too, except Moss, who got a book out of her knapsack and settled down to read. It probably wouldn't be a good idea for all of them to take a nap, after all.

At about the same time, the guests at the Hall were sitting down to lunch. Diamond asked, "Where are the Goyles and Seth and Freddy?"

Hermione replied, "They're playing down by the burn. I think they were feeling a little left-out."

Flitwick said, "If enough second-years are interested, perhaps we can allow them into the club this year. They could only be allowed to compete against others of their year."

Hermione nodded. In third-year, charms students began to learn some rather dangerous spells and their corresponding defenses, because as teenagers they were old enough to have more freedoms, such as Hogsmeade weekends. While every effort to ensure their safety was made, they might very well need to be able to defend themselves. At the same time, third- and fourth-year students were still children. In the heat of a duel, it would be all too easy for a child to cast the wrong spell.

"When you lot were in second year, you killed a basilisk."

She glanced at her husband with a little smile. "Ron and Harry killed the basilisk. I was petrified by the damned thing."

"They also serve," he replied.

Aloud, Hermione asked quietly, "More wine, Severus?"

Their eyes met as she poured for him.

Fern rubbed her eyes and got up, still about half asleep and not really paying attention. She headed for her knapsack and the bottle of water she had there. Suddenly sharp pain blossomed in her ankle and she leapt backwards, crying out.

At the same instant, Freddy was awakened from a sound sleep by a terrible crushing pain in his back. He lashed out instinctively, but when he realized he was biting someone's ankle he immediately withdrew his fangs and changed back to human form. A hiss turned to a scream of pain and terror as he realized he couldn't move his legs.

Moss and Seth leapt up and rushed to their friends' aid. Fern was crying and holding her ankle. Seth saw a horrible black bruise forming all the way across Freddy's lower back.

Fern wiped furiously at her eyes and grabbed her sister's hand. "Moss, you and Seth have to go get help! Hurry!"

"I can't leave you!" Moss screamed.

"You have to! We can't heal this, Moss, we could die. You have to get Master Snape and Madame Pomfrey!"

Freddy said, "I'm sorry, Fern, I'm sorry I bit you."

"I stepped on you, Freddy, it wasn't your fault. I swear I didn't mean to."

He gulped and swallowed his terror of being paralyzed forever like Miss Bell. "Bring our knapsacks over so we can get a drink of water, then hurry and get help. Fern's right, you have to. We--we'll be all right until you get back."

Fern said, "Freddy, I'm so sorry."

"I know, Fern, that was an accident too. It'll be OK, Madame Pomfrey will fix us up. Lie down and try to calm down, you don't want the poison to spread. I tried to stop biting you as quick as I could, but I'm sure you've got some poison in there."

Moss said, "It all happened so fast, but I know one thing, it wasn't anyone's fault."

Seth agreed, "That's right. It was a big accident. Just--just hang on and we'll run as fast as we can, OK?"

"Be careful climbing down!" Fern cautioned. "Don't start running till you get to the bottom."

Aching at leaving her sister, but knowing it was necessary, Moss nodded and started the climb down. A few seconds later, so did Seth. Once the two young Slytherins were at the bottom of the rock, they started running up the bank of the burn hell-bent for leather, not caring how brambles tore at them or how many times they fell. All that mattered was getting help.

Fern lay down on the warm stone and pulled her knapsack behind her head.

"Fernie, can you reach your foot over here? It's swelling around your trainer and I don't think you should leave your shoe and sock on."

"OK. Oh Goddess that hurts!"

"I'm sorry, Fern!"

"No, it's OK now, just get it off, please get it off."

He pulled at her shoestring, and then tugged at the trainer and her sock until they were off. Her whole lower leg was swelling and turning black and blue, and there were trails of blood running from the twin punctures on her ankle.

He took the shoestring out of her shoe and tied it around her leg above the bite, as tight as he could, then he sucked on the bite and spit out the fluid several times, as McGonagall had told him, until the pain in his back got too bad to keep fighting it.

"Freddy! Don't go to sleep, all right?"

"Tired, Fernie, and it hurts."

"I--I know, but I'm scared. Please don't leave me, OK?"

It soaked in that she was scared if he lost consciousness he would die. He hadn't really thought about dying of a broken back. But that was stupid, he could have other injuries too. As a snake, he was little, and she had stepped on him. He shuddered. It was lucky she wasn't very big. If a grown man had stepped on him, he probably would have been squashed flat. "OK, I won't," he promised. He hoped to Merlin that was a promise he could keep, because he was afraid to die.

They kept talking to each other, and sang every song they knew, just to stay awake.

After lunch, young couples paired off to stroll around the grounds. Percy Weasley struck up a conversation with Katie Bell, and the two of them found a shady tree to rest under. Hermione thought they were an odd couple. Percy was so quiet and proper, while Katie had always been a hellion and didn't seem to be growing out of it. Percy was the quintessential accountant, while Katie was creative. But they didn't seem to be having any trouble coming up with topics for conversation.

A political discussion got started around Harry, who was lounging with Tonks in the shadow of the garden wall. The discussion was over what level of power defined a Muggleborn witch or wizard who should be brought into magical society. Harry felt that the bar was set too high, that lower-powered magical children were being passed over.

Hermione watched him listen to the arguments going back and forth. He asked a question now and then, or made a comment that prompted further debate, but for the most part, he listened to everyone's differing opinions.

He had changed a lot over the last year. He understood that he was inexperienced at politics and so he surrounded himself with advisors who had the knowledge that he lacked, but he didn't hide behind them. He wasn't as quick to make up his mind as he might once have been, but Hermione had the sense that once Harry decided on a course of action, he would carry it out, even if the idea was unpopular.

McGonagall said, "The question for me has always been at what point the children are better off left in the Muggle world because they would lose more than they would gain by being taken from their families. If we're going to deprive them of a Muggle education, then we need to be able to assure them that they will be prepared for a career in the magical world when they leave Hogwarts."

Flitwick said, "That's true. We wouldn't be doing them any favors by bringing them into our world if they could never really feel they belong here."

Tonks said, "I don't know, look at Squibs and near-Squibs in our world. A lot of them decide to live as Muggles because it's more convenient day to day, but that doesn't change their magical heritage. They can still walk down Diagon Alley and buy a pack of chocolate frogs if they feel like it. When they have a baby who turns out to be a witch or a wizard they don't freak out. Essentially, what's the difference between a Squib and a Muggle-born with a low magical potential? Except the Muggle-born doesn't know what the hell the matter is when he gets angry and blows out every light bulb in the house with a burst of uncontrolled magic."

Aurora said, "Minister, with your indulgence, let me play devil's advocate here and present the pure-blood argument. There is going to be a very real fear of revealing our existence to Muggle-borns who are going to feel very little attachment to our world. They will return to their own people with little empathy for our need for secrecy. Right now in the Muggle world, religious fanaticism of all kinds is on the rise. Their sectarian violence is going to tear their world apart. It could utterly destroy ours if our protection of secrecy falls apart and there is another Inquisition. There is no New World to which to flee this time. If they ever turn on us, here we would have to make our stand, at a million to one odds."

Harry said, "No one is suggesting that we risk that, Professor Sinestra."

Hermione was distracted from the discussion when she saw Moss and Seth stumbling up the path to the Hall. Snape was alerted by her shifting emotions in their link. The two of them met the kids on the path.

Moss was so panicked, spinning out the whole story in one big chaotic rush, that it took him a moment to get a clear enough visual of Fern and Freddy's location to apparate. Once he had an apparation point, he immediately disapparated with Poppy Pomfrey. Hermione waited for him to get there and send her the location, and then she and Diamond went.

When they arrived, Poppy was examining Freddy while Severus was gathering Fern up in his arms to take her back to Snape Hall. Antivenin wasn't something Poppy normally had in the pockets of her robe.

Both children were unconscious. Fern's leg had swollen horribly, but Poppy said that Freddy had done her a world of good by preventing the poison from spreading so badly. Freddy himself was in worse shape, cold and shocky. Pomfrey said, "I can't treat him here, Sev. He needs to go to St. Mungo's and he needs to go now."

Severus said, "Go. I can care for Miss Goyle. Hermione, please accompany Madame Pomfrey. Miss Halstrom, return to our guests and explain the situation, with our apologies."

A moment later, the rock was empty.

Hermione paced the waiting room at St. Mungo's for what felt like forever. She was greatly relieved when Severus reported that he had administered the antivenin and Fern was recovering. She had nothing new to tell him about Freddy.

Finally, Poppy called her in. Freddy looked so young and small in the hospital bed, but he was resting much more peacefully and he had a lot more color back. She asked, "How is he?"

"We got to him just in time, Hermione. He had some serious crush injuries as well as a severed spinal cord. Everything has been repaired. We'll just have to wait to see if the reconnected nerves are communicating properly when he wakes up."

She closed her eyes and relayed that to Severus.

"Should I join you at the hospital?"

"I think you should probably stay there with the other kids, Fern especially. She's going to feel like this was all her fault. We really aren't going to know anything more until he wakes up."

"Very well."

Hermione brushed the boy's hair away from his forehead. "You aren't supposed to have it easy, are you, my little fellow?"

Poppy said, "I can remember you lying in my hospital wing when you were no bigger, after that business with the basilisk. It feels like yesterday."

Hermione said, "Almost ten years, you know."

"That won't seem like so long when you're my age," Poppy replied. "I'm optimistic that he's going to be all right, Hermione. We got to the crush injuries in time. There was some serious internal bleeding, but not anywhere nearly as bad as it could have been. He was lucky. They both were, considering how long they lay there. What were his parents thinking, teaching him to transform so young?"

Hermione didn't want to answer that one where Freddy might hear, if he happened to be more awake than he seemed, so she led the way out into the corridor. "Freddy's mum was a Muggleborn witch. His dad married her between the wars. Then Voldemort came back. They knew they were dead the minute he found out that one of his Death Eaters had married a mudblood. But Freddy was already a Parceltongue. When he sprouted scales in a burst of wandless magic, they pushed like hell for him to learn to transform. He was kind of a--a pet to Voldemort. The Dark Lord eventually killed Freddy's parents, of course, but by then he was fond enough of Freddy to let him live. Freddy is a half-blood, after all. Severus did what he could, of course, but the situation was still what it was."

Poppy looked like she was about to gag. "That little boy grew up with Voldemort?"

"Yes. His animagus form protected him from a lot of things that could have happened. None of the Death Eaters wanted to get too close to a kid who could turn into an adder and bite. But the gods only know what he's seen."

"None of this is in his records."

"It was a matter of needing to know. Can you imagine what would have happened if Scrimgeour had found out about him?"

Poppy said, "He would have been branded a mini-Death Eater and some Ministry Legilimens who was loyal to Scrimgeourwould have torn him apart."

Hermione nodded. "Severus knew if Freddy ever really did have information critical to the war effort, he could get to it without traumatizing the kid."

Poppy said, "I'm glad you told me. I'll be aware of possible post-traumatic stress issues when he wakes up. He's under a binding that prevents him from transforming. That will be pretty scary for him until he's awake enough to understand that's for his own protection, until he has time to heal completely. We'll get him back to Snape Hall as soon as it's safe to move him, so that he doesn't start hissing to the wrong person. Don't worry, Hermione, I'll look out for him the same way I would have when we still had Severus' cover to protect."

Hermione did not want to think about any circumstances under which Severus had to be protected from saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. That indicated a loss of control that she couldn't imagine of him unless he was really at death's door. She told herself that those days were over now. "I'll sit with him, Poppy."

"All right. I'll just go home, change my robe, and feed my kitten. They'll kick you out when visiting hours end this evening, but I can stay the night with him."

"Poppy, thank you."

"They're all my babies, Hermione. For that matter, you and Sev still are."

Hermione hugged her briefly, before the older woman made a few notations on Freddy's chart then went out to the hospital's secure apparation point.

TBC