"Wait!" said Remus, pulling her hand back before she could knock.

"What?" she whispered back urgently, as she tried in vain to force her attention away from the soft touch of his hand against her own.

"Maybe I should go with you, but under the cloak. Just in case," he suggested.

"Remus!" she replied, throwing up her free hand in exasperation. "It's just Severus. He's in the Order! Besides, I thought you said you trust him?"

"I know, and I do," he said, sighing deeply. "But I've got a bad feeling about this. You know how cruel he can be, and he's in a horrible mood because of Harry. Do you really want to be on the bad side of an angry Severus?"

"Remus, as touched as I am by this show of concern, you really should trust me."

Reluctantly, Remus nodded. He let go of her hand, and with nerves building up in side her, she raised it again to knock on the door. And then –

Click.

The handle turned, and before she could register what had happened, Remus pulled her away from the door, pressing them against the wall.

" – but I always knew I could count on you to fulfill my needs, Severus," came a falsely sweet, though oddly flirtatious, voice, followed a rather unflattering giggle.

Rose felt her jaw drop. She glanced at Remus, who looked as horrified as she felt, his bright brown eyes wide with disbelief.

She heard a low voice reply, she recognised it immediately as Severus', though she could not make a word he was saying.

"Well, I'm looking forward to tonight. Good night, for now, Severus," said the woman, and with a final giggle, she stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

In the extreme dimness of the windowless corridor, Rose could make out the outline of a short, squat woman, though in the darkness it was impossible to guess who it was. Neither Rose nor Remus spoke a word until they were certain the woman was long gone.

"She really doesn't seem like his type," commented Rose in to the dumbfounded silence.

"I think I am mentally scarred…" muttered Remus, who still looked shocked. "Still, at least he is likely to be in a, er, good mood."

"Remus! That's disgusting!" she grimaced. "Okay, right, so, er, I think I should go talk to him now. Come on."

Ever so reluctantly, they moved away from the wall and towards the door. This time, she lifted her hand and, finally, managed to knock.

They only had to wait a second or two before the door flew open, revealing an obviously very exasperated Severus, whose expression quickly turned to annoyance when he realised no one was there.

"What in the name of Merlin's beard," he muttered as he stuck his greasy-haired head out into the corridor to see who had knocked.

Rose took that as her chance to reveal herself and pulled the cloak away from her face, causing Severus to raise his wand.

"Rose?" he questioned in disbelief, still not lowering his wand.

"Yes," she replied.

"What on earth are you doing here?" he asked, regarding her suspiciously.

"I need to talk to you, I'm coming in okay? Just let me disillusion myself –"

She raised her wand and cast the spell, and knew a moment later from the wet sensation that had spread over her that it had worked.

"You've got the cloak, why did you need to dis –" he started.

"Remus needs the cloak while he waits out here –"

"Him! What's he doing here?" Severus hissed angrily.

"Good evening to you too, Severus," replied Remus warily from beneath the cloak.

"Well, come on in then, I don't have all night," he said, stepping back to allow her inside.

"Thanks! I won't be long, Remus," she added, after jumping out from behind the cloak and dashing in to the classroom.

"Take care," she heard him whisper faintly.

She disillusioned herself while Severus closed the door, taking extra care to lock it.

"Not here!" he exclaimed, "You could be seen. Come, to my living quarters. No can disturbed us there, not even her. You must have seen her leave, I suppose?"

"Yes," she replied awkwardly, not at all at ease with the idea of Severus freely discussing his love interest.

Rose followed him through a door at the back of his office into a spacious living room, furnished scarcely with only the bare essentials in the darkest of colours. She was unable to hide the surprise she felt by the scorn with which he had spoken about the woman who had just left his office.

"Won't she get suspicious if she catches us alone in your private quarters?" she asked hesitantly, as she sat down on a sofa opposite where Severus had sat.

"Better for the both of us for her to assume certain, er, things than for her to suspect you of being an Order member," he replied unconcernedly.

"Won't that ruin you're relationship, though?" she asked, taken-aback.

"She may see the need to forbid me from any expeditions out of the castle, I suppose."

Rose was surprised by that answer, and it must have shown on her face, for Severus' raised both his eyebrows in question.

"What?" he asked.

"Who are you talking about?" she asked.

"Umbridge, of course. Who else would I be talking about?"

"W-What?" Rose stuttered in disbelief. "That was Umbridge? You're having an affair with her?"

"What? An affair?" he exclaimed, looking mortified. "Who said anything about an affair?"

Rose sat back in her chair, clasping her head in her hands.

"Oh, for the love of - I thought – we thought – I mean, the way she was talking, talking about fulfilling needs and, and –"

"She was talking about getting rid of that accursed swamp the Weasley twins set up in corridor! What did you think she was talking about? Oh, wait, please, I don't want to know!"

"Remus thought the same thing too!" she exclaimed defensively, this time through broken giggles as she finally saw the humour in the situation.

"Nothing more than I expected from the rotten werewolf. Typical, mind in the gutter," he said, sneering cruelly.

Rose stopped laughing immediately.

"Don't call him rotten! And his mind is certainly not in the gutter!" she exclaimed indignantly.

"Still in love with the werewolf, are we?" he retorted.

"No," she denied angrily.

"I should certainly hope not. Let's leave those public displays of affection where they belong - in the past."

"Look, Severus, shut up," she said bluntly. "I didn't break into Hogwarts to talk about my past. I'm here to talk about the Occlumancy classes that you've stopped giving Harry."

That wiped the sneer of Severus' face.

"There is nothing to talk about," he said sharply.

"I'd say there is," she replied. "Does Albus know about this?"

He remained silent, though his scowl deepened.

"Well?" she pressed.

"No, he doesn't know."

"And did you plan on telling him?"

"I don't see how that is any of your business."

"This is work for the Order, and I am an Order member, so I think it is only reasonable for me to express interest, isn't it? Besides, I have Harry's best interest at heart."

"How do you know about this anyway?" he asked harshly.

"We heard it from Harry – Sirius, Remus and I, I mean," she replied calmly, "He – he asked about the incident. And look, Severus, I know, more than anyone, that this is a difficult topic for you –"

"You know that he saw, then?" he asked, interrupting her. "He saw fit to share that, did he?"

"Well, with Remus and Sirius, really, he didn't realise I was listening –"

But her answer was cut off by Severus using his wand to blast a large hole in the wall oppose them.

"Eek!" cried Rose, jumping up from her seat as rubble and dust spread across the room. "Severus!"

Having not moved from his seat, he waved his wand and restored the room to its original state.

Rose sat down again on the now dust-free sofa while muttering "anger management" under her breath.

"You were saying?" he said in a deadly quiet voice that almost convinced her not to say another word. Almost.

She cleared her throat, allowing her inner Gryffindor to surface, before continuing.

"Right, as I was saying, er, I suppose, I realise more than most other people why that particular memory would have angered you so much –"

"Do you?" he challenged. "Do you really?"

"You know I do, Severus."

He did not reply, but his silence was answer enough. In all honesty, she was surprised he had not kicked her out yet.

"Severus. Harry needs to classes. Everything - every single thing - that we are doing for the Order is futile if Voldemort can access Harry's thoughts. Please."

"No," he said through gritted teeth.

"Why not? He doesn't know what Lily meant to you, Severus."

"It makes no difference!" he snapped. "He is an insolent brat, as arrogant as his father! Incapable of showing an respect for the privacy of others. An incompetent fool."

"He can't have been completely incompetent if you saw the need to remove your memories, Severus," she challenged.

"Enough of this!" he shouted, standing up suddenly, agitated, and pacing the room. "You don't know – you think you understand, but dont!"

"Understand what?"

"You don't know what it's like, to have gone through what I did –"

"Don't I?" she said coolly, standing abruptly. "You think I don't know, or understand?"

"How can you know?" he challenging, turning to face her.

"Are you forgetting, what I went through? We both lost the person we loved most, Severus."

"That's different – she is gone forever. Your pet wolf is waiting for you outside that door. Just one word from you and he'll come crawling back. I have no hope. There's nothing I can do but live with that regret for the rest of my life," he said, and, to her amazement, he fell back onto the sofa, the fight completely lost from him.

She sat down as well, and they sat in silence for a moment, each in their own worlds. Was he right? She has the chance, the chance to change things, for the better, before it was too late. He was a living testament to what could become of her if she did not take the chance now.

With these new thoughts whirling through her mind, and after that confession, she knew that there was little left that she could say to change his mind. Perhaps, at this stage, it would be best to leave the matter for Dumbledore to resolve.

And so, with that, she said her goodbyes and departed.

"Any luck?" whispered Remus urgently after throwing the invisibility cloak over her.

She shook her head.

"No, and I don't think you should go in there either."

"Why?" he asked quickly. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No, Remus, it's nothing like that. I think we should tell Albus, and let him deal with it."

"You're sure? I mean I could just pop in for a moment –"

Rose laughed softly.

"Trust me, Remus, that is not a good idea. Come on, we'd better get going."

He obliged, and they made their way back to the secret passage, this time, Rose not bother to ensure that a reasonable distance between herself and Remus was maintain. Somehow, after her discussion with Severus, it did not seem necessary. Moments later, they reached the passage, where they removed the cloak and mounted their brooms.

"Oh, and, er, Remus, it might interest you to know," said Rose, a grin spread across her lips.

"Yes?" he replied.

"Well, that woman we saw leaving Severus' office…"

"Don't remind me," he said, shivering slightly.

"It was Umbridge!"

"What?"

And before he could interrogate her further, she kicked off and speed away on her broom. She just hoped Severus does not hear about this later.