DISCLAIMER- So, here is the promised re-write of "the potion master's assistant." Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, Halo Spencer, however, is mine. Hope everyone enjoys the new version, and I swear I'll finish this one. Also, Pendergast belongs to Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Also: The Sidhe is something I read a while back in Laurell K Hamilton's "A Caress of Twilight", the Sidhe are apart of folklore and I think they're fascinating. Look them up some time if you feel I don't cover it well enough. -Gadget

CHAPTER 10 Snape's POV

Two and a half hours with the Dark Lord and the Cruciatus curse had left me in a painful state of exhaustion. It had been a run of the mill Death Eater meeting until the Dark Lord had mentioned an interest in voodoo and a Muggle I could care less for had stepped from the shadows. It had taken all my willpower not to kill O'Malley when he stepped up beside me and the elder Malfoy. It was the only moment I had been thankful for the white mask covering my face; had O'Malley recognized me and mentioned Halo, I would not have hesitated to kill him.

That action would effectively earn me the Dark Lord's disfavor and he'd likely have some other Death Eater bring him my lover. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened. I had done a lot of things in my time as a Death Eater, all of them were things I wasn't proud of, things I wished I hadn't done. But I knew loosing Halo would destroy me, and that was how much the younger man meant to me. I didn't want to think what Pendergast would do, though I wondered how he would fair against Fenrir Greyback. I wondered which strain of the lycanthropy virus was stronger; my galleons were on Pendergast but Greyback was ruthless and he fought dirty. Pendergast didn't strike me as a killer or a cruel man, he was as Halo had described him; a Gryffindor.

I made my way to the Hospital Wing, anxious to see Halo and tell him that the man he hated with every fiber of his being had been recruited by the most dangerous dark wizard of all time. I feared his reaction, I was fearful of what he might do. Anger was a strong motivator but it also made a person careless at the same time it made them feel invincible. Anger was as dangerous as it was helpful in certain situations.

I opened the Hospital Wing door and saw from my vantage point that Halo's bed was empty and neither he nor Pendergast were in the room. Madame Pomfrey saw me standing there and I could only imagine what she saw in my eyes as she gasped with fright.

"He's gone back to his room, Professor Snape. He's perfectly fine, I assure you or I would not have let him leave. I'm sure Mr. Pendergast will bring him back here if there are any complications..."

I left without saying a word, walking silently to my lover's room.

Halo lay on the bed in a shirt I knew he slept in at least twice a week. It was a shirt that had belonged to his dead lover and it was huge on him, black with grey stripes. It suited his skin tone nicely. I looked around the room, hoping against hope that Pendergast had been taken back to America by the Headmaster or McGonagall; whichever came first.

Today was not my lucky day as he was sitting in a chair next to the bed reading one of Halo's spell books. He looked up as I entered and then we both looked to Halo.

"How is he?" I asked, dropping my cloak on the floor.

"He is well." Pendergast said, closing the book. "Very tired, obviously, but he didn't complain even one bit."

I nodded, never taking my eyes from his sleeping form, still above the bedspread, curled on his side with his face resting on his arms. He looked like a little sprite that had fallen asleep under a flower's petals, long lashes touching his cheeks and his fingers curled inward and half closed to his palm. I wanted nothing more than to cross the room and wrap myself around him, hold him to my chest until he woke up and I could look into his eyes. But I had shown enough weakness for one day and I wasn't about to show any more with Pendergast so close. I had never fully trusted werewolves since my own experience with Lupin in his other form years ago, it didn't matter to me that Pendergast was a different strain, he was still a werewolf. He was still one of the things that raised a feeling of cold fear in my chest.

"Do you think he's hungry?" I asked the agent. I was hungry myself and I had no clue when Halo had eaten as he'd already been awake and begging me to play in the snow before I was even remotely coherent.

"It is very likely." Was all Pendergast said.

I summoned a House Elf; it was just testament to my luck that it was Dobby that answered the summons. I groaned to myself, Merlin I hated House Elves, Dobby especially.

"How can Dobby help Professor?" It squeaked.

"Bring some of Spencer's favorite food. Dismissed."

The House Elf disappeared with a loud pop. It was back a few moments later with a tray full of fruit, mostly pineapple and strawberries. Halo loved fruit and sweetbreads; he wasn't much of a meat-eater, preferring a mostly vegetarian diet. Being a meat-eater myself, it got on my nerves often times when in the Great Hall he would place whatever meat on his plate onto mine.

"What a fascinating little creature." Pendergast said, I tossed him an apple and he began to cut it into slivers with a knife that seemed to appear from nowhere.

"It's a pestilence, that House Elf." I muttered.

I sat down on the bed next to Halo, put my hand on his side and gave him a little shake. He didn't move; I shook him again, whispering his name. He turned onto his opposite side and I heard Pendergast chuckle behind me as I shook Halo again. Usually he was awake a long time before I was, often times already showered and dressed by the time I opened my eyes. He wasn't a morning person exactly, but once he was awake, he couldn't get back to sleep.

"...Stop shaking me Ryan..." He muttered and I stiffened, giving him a firmer shake than I had been. "I mean it...stop..."

"Halo, it's Sev." I told him and he finally opened his gold and orange eyes, looking up at me blearily.

"Sev?" He asked and stretched his back like a cat, looking around the room.

"Dobby brought you some food," I told him. "Wake up and eat."

"I am awake...sorry I called you Ryan again."

Pendergast cleared his throat behind us and Halo sat up to look at him. "Did you sleep well?" He asked.

"Yeah, it was fine, dreamless." He muttered, throwing his legs over the side of the bed he headed toward the bathroom. "I'll be back..."

I sat down where he had been sleeping; the bedspread was almost uncomfortably hot. I heard a snap-click sound and looked up to see Pendergast putting away his knife and setting the core of his apple next to the plate on the little coffee table.

"How often does he call you 'Ryan'?" He asked in a voice so low I almost didn't hear him.

"A few times a week."

"Always when he's waking up?"

"No," I said. "He says it other times too." Like when we're making love or eating in the Great Hall, once in front of students, once in front of Professor Sprout. I thought bitterly. Halo couldn't help it, I knew, but the name still got under my skin.

"I don't need to tell you that he still misses Ryan," Pendergast commented dryly and I wondered how many times he had been called by the other name. "However, at least take comfort in knowing you remind Halo of... his lover."

"Talking about me?" Halo asked; sitting down next to me and leaning against my shoulder, I didn't care that Pendergast was watching, I leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. Lingering as long as he was comfortable; neither of us had kissed each other in public, and though kissing in front of Pendergast wasn't exactly kissing in public, it was still something new. I knew that Halo craved the blonde man's approval of what he did and he didn't know the agent had already given his approval of our relationship. That reminded me.

"Lupin knows we're together now." I said against his ear.

"Took him long enough to figure it out." Halo chuckled. "I think McGonagall knows- or suspects- I'm gay. You should have seen the look she gave us when Pend hugged me earlier. If looks could kill, man, I swear..."

I gave Pendergast a look asking why he'd touched my lover. I had never forgiven him for 'marking up' Halo that night months ago, no matter how many times Halo told me it had been completely consensual. He had come back to me bruised and bleeding, sore all over but in a disturbingly good mood.

Pendergast lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "I upset him, Madame Pomfrey was threatening to throw me out-"

"She would too!" Halo said.

"I was only trying to calm him down, Snape."

Halo slid his arm around my waist; I felt his hand gently brush my left forearm, just over the Dark Mark. Asking if I was okay without speaking, a talent of his; I nodded.

"Eat something before I tell you what I learned tonight..."

"Lord Voldemort has O'Malley?" Halo asked in a fearful high-pitched tone.

I nodded; we had taken a few moments to explain the Dark Lord, who wasn't very well-known in America, to Pendergast in an attempt to cut down on the questions. Then I had briefly explained my situation as a Death Eater turned spy/double agent for Dumbledore. I hadn't bothered to mention my connection to the Order of the Phoenix.

"What are Death Eaters?" Pendergast had asked.

"They're the wizard version of the Ku Klux Klan." Halo had muttered disdainfully out the side of his mouth as I began the story of what I'd learned.

"Why does Voldemort want a Muggle in his ranks? Doesn't that sort of defeat his purpose?" Halo asked now, he had moved away from me to sit on the floor between me and the blonde man as if seeking the shield of comfort and safety that we both represented for him.

"The Dark Lord has taken an interest in voodoo...he wants to use it for torture." I said. "He's grown bored of the Cruciatus Curse."

Halo winced. "What else?"

I hesitated to tell him the rest; I didn't want to put anything more on his shoulders. If what I had learned came to pass, then Halo wasn't the only magical person in danger of being murdered by O'Malley. However, I didn't hesitate for long.

"It seems you're not the only person of interest for O'Malley." I said finally, bitterly. "He told the Dark Lord that he was searching for a Sidhe that had wronged him."

Halo's paled visibly, his tanned skin turning a sickly shade of green as the blood drained from his face and neck. "A- a Sidhe?" He stammered.

"Yes, a Sidhe, O'Malley didn't say if this Sidhe was Seelie or Unseelie. That would have greatly narrowed down Dumbledore's search to protect this person..."

I looked up when he didn't offer a comment; Pendergast had his hand on his shoulder and was squeezing slightly.

"Halo?" I asked. "Are you alright?"

He shook his head and looked urgently to the blonde man at his side. The agent nodded and patted his shoulder. "Go on, I'll give you some privacy." He stood and went to Halo's study, closing the door gently behind him.

"What's going on?"

Halo turned his odd eyes on me. "I'm the Sidhe O'Malley is looking for."

I felt my mouth drop open and my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Halo stood up fluidly, coming over to me and sliding his arms around my neck carefully, as if afraid I'd push him away if he got too close.

"What?" I finally got out after what seemed an eternity.

"I wasn't going to tell you, it's my little secret." He muttered. "Only Pendergast and my grandmother know and ...Ryan did, of course."

"You don't look like a Sidhe." I said and then realized he sort of did with his eyes (that should have been my tip-off, nothing human had eyes like that) and the smoothness of his skin that made him seem ageless. I had thought him a much younger man when I first met him, I never would have know he was already in his mid twenties, his height had made me guess early teens.

"I'm half-Sidhe, from my father, he was Seelie." He told me and now he wasn't looking at me, instead he was casting his gaze somewhere over my head. "I lied about not knowing where I came from and about grandmother not being related to me. All of it. Grandmother is my grandmother; my mom was half Muggle which is why I look even less like a Sidhe, there's too much human blood in my veins. Grandmother adopted me when my mom died in childbirth. She never found my father again, I have his eyes and I can do magic that only faeries can but not a lot. If my mom hadn't been a witch, I wouldn't be able to use my magic. I guess I got lucky... Until O'Malley found out, I don't even know how, he must have... he must have forced Ryan to tell him... that I'm the Prince of Flame."

I didn't know what to say, on one hand I was mad that he'd lied to me, on the other I knew that faeries from the Unseelie court had given most fey a really bad name. The Unseelie were the stuff of darkness, goblins, and the fey that flew (demi-fey) and the Sluagh. They were the real stuff of nightmares. The Seelie though were faeries of light and beauty, heroes of the Old Worlds. That was why he hadn't wanted to tell me, to protect himself.

I couldn't believe it, Halo, my friend and lately my lover, was half Seelie. What had I done to deserve something so very precious? I had no idea, but I wasn't going to loose it now that I knew what I had. I slid my arms around Halo and pulled him into my lap.

"I don't care what you are Halo, that you're Seelie only makes me want you more." I said into his dark hair. "I need to tell Dumbledore; are you going to be alright with just Pendergast for another few hours?"

He nodded. "I thought maybe I'd show him the grounds..." He said and then he kissed me, tasting me thoroughly.

"Do me a favor? Stay away from the lake."

Halo laughed.