So sorry for the wait, I have a show going on, and it's almost over but it takes a lot of time. Sorry it's another short one, but now I have all the plot openings up and stuff, so from here things will pick up!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Neither of us bring up the dance again, to my disappointment. However, things are different now. There are some things we can't tell the other. I hide my friendship with the death eaters from her, and she hides her feelings from me. We end up spending less time together, but the time we do still share is worth more to me than anything.

Today, though, she brings up one of the unmentionable topics.

"I dunno, Sev, I just don't like you hanging around with them. I've heard the things they do! Like what they did to poor Mary!" Mary deserved it, she started it! And it wore off eventually...

"I know they seem a little...rough, but they're really not that bad." If she knew the truth, she'd think them a whole lot worse, "They're not nearly as bad as Potter and his friends!"

"Well..." I bite my lip. What if she's started to like him? "They're not really the same kind of bad...James and Sirius are more arrogant than cruel." She doesn't know about what they do to me. I don't want her to, though.

"What about the other two?"

"What about them?" I go on carefully.

"Don't you think there's something a little...weird...about that Lupin?

"Come on Sev, he's ill!"

"Every month at the full moon?"

"I know what you think, Severus, but you're not going to convince me, he's my friend!" Her voice has gone cold, and I back out.

"I know, I'm sorry, I just don't like them. They are so rude to you!" Her expression softens.

"Sev, I wish you'd just give them a chance...but I'd better be off, I have a study date-"

"With Lupin." I finish for her, smirking as she blushes, but inside it hurts.

"Well, yes, but not like, well...I know you have somewhere to go too!" She shoot back, reflecting my smirk that's now vanished. I have a meeting with the death eaters tonight. Does she know? I shake my head of that thought. There's no way.

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