Severus felt he was justified in hating Percy Weasley, and not for one reason alone. Yes, the boy had stolen his memories. He'd essentially banished him from the country. He'd attacked both Severus and Hermione on multiple occasions, rendering each more receptive to that bastardized version of an obliviate spell. He'd kept them apart for nearly seven years.

At this moment, however, Severus hated Percy for the onslaught of memories that he'd experienced in the past fourteen hours. An onslaught that made him want to liquify his grey matter and let it dribble out his ears. It had taken two industrial-strength headache potions just to get him out of bed and he was more than a bit worried that his temper might implode when faced with Percy himself.

Which he would be. In less than an hour.

"Severus, did you hear a word I just said?" Hermione asked from over his shoulder.

He looked up and caught her eye in the mirror, cold water still dripping from his face from his ill-advised attempt to freeze the headache away. Now he was wet and his head hurt.

"No. I wasn't," he said, shaking his wet hair out of his eyes. "Sorry," he muttered.

"Head still hurt?" she asked softly.

He closed his eyes and gave a slight nod.

"Mine too," she breathed. "And he was only releasing a weakened compulsion spell in my case. I can't imagine what your head feels like."

"Like someone is attempting to dig a post hole through my skull with a tea spoon."

"Ouch," Hermione responded with a slight smile. "I'm sorry, love." She pecked a little kiss on his cheek, brushing some of his wet hair back and off his face.

He smiled a little, tilting her head into her hand and enjoying the feeling of her fingers scraping through the wet locks of hair as she combed them back. "What were you saying earlier?"

"I was just asking if you think we should contact Kingsley before talk to Harry. You know, just in case."

Severus snorted, shaking his head. "With you and the Boy Wonder -"

"Harry," Hermione reprimanded him.

"Fine, Harry, I doubt Kingsley will refuse you anything. And this gives him some deniability with the Wizengamot...though why we're working so hard to keep that little fuck out of Azkaban I do not know," he finished.

"Because, in this case, it's the right thing to do."

With a long sigh, Severus stood up from his bent position at the bathroom counter. "You realize that the right thing is not a terribly persuasive argument anymore. I've spent the vast majority doing the right thing, and rarely have I not suffered for such choices."

Hermione merely clucked and finished fussing with his hair. "Albus Dumbledore gave you a second chance after you'd made a series of errors in judgment. Pay it forward, Severus. Now, come along. Harry will be here soon and we need to fill him in before Percy gets here."

Severus barely refrained from rolling his eyes, and only because he was positive such an action would result in pain. "Of course, dear. Whatever you say, dear," he groused as he followed her down to the sitting room.

"Damn, Hermione. I thought your S.P.E.W. days were over."

"Hah hah, very funny Harry. I'm serious. He's just had a child...I don't think - wait, Penelope did have the baby, right?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. A girl. They've named her Thalia."

"Hm. Pretty. Anyway, I don't think either Severus or I want to be responsible for taking Percy away from Penelope or Thalia, especially so soon after her birth."

"I wouldn't feel responsible," Severus muttered.

Hermione shot him a dark look. "What?"

Severus sighed. "I wouldn't feel responsible. Percy earned his fate and, thus far, has done little to redeem himself. I know you'll remind me, once again, that Albus gave me a second chance, but I came to him ready to change my ways. I at least have that claim to my name. Percy was caught because he was trying to cover his tracks by attacking us both. Again." Severus said.

Hermione's eyes widened. "We talked about - "

"Yes, I know. And I agreed to give him a second chance. I'll stand by that. But I'd like it made clear that if Potter and Kingsley don't back us up on this, I will feel no remorse for Percy's situation. He's earned whatever punishment he receives." Severus sat back and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Hermione," Harry began hastily, seeing that his friend was very close to shouting at her lover, "Severus has a point. Percy's remorse is almost entirely self-pity. I think he recognizes that he did something wrong , but he's more worried about saving his own skin than actually correcting his mistakes." The younger man swallowed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "That said, I know what it's like to grow up without parents and, worse, to learn about a parent's misdeeds in their absence. I think the deal you're willing to offer Percy is generous, yes, but that it will do more good in the end than sending him to Azkaban would. I will say this, though: I won't agree unless Kingsley is brought into the fold. No leaving him to make assumptions about Percy's involvement in your...situation. All or nothing."

Hermione shot a look at Severus, then back at Harry. She narrowed her eyes and nodded her head. "Severus, if you agree?"

"That's fine. I would actually prefer that Kingsley know the truth."

Harry exhaled and stood. "If that's settled, then, I'll place the call to the Minister."

"Percy," Harry greeted his brother-in-law as he came through the floo of Hermione and Severus' quarters. "Thank you for coming this morning." Severus cast a careful eye over the man in front of him and noted that he looked equal parts sick and elated...and that he definitely hadn't slept in the past 48 hours. The hollow-eyed, too-tired-to-be-terrified look on the middle Weasley's face was all too familiar to Severus' mind.

"You didn't give me much choice," the red-headed man muttered.

"Sit, please." Hermione said. "There's tea and coffee if you want it. We can at least discuss this like civilized people."

"Thank you," he replied stiffly, casting a wary eye toward Severus. He sipped his tea in the awkward silence.

"How's Penelope?" Hermione finally said without catching Percy's eye.

"She's doing very well. Thalia too. It was a mercifully short labor."

"I'm glad," Hermione responded. "I'm sure you're looking forward to getting home to her."

Percy simply nodded.

"I'll get to the point, then. Severus and I have have concocted a plan - "

"You, dear. It's your plan. I merely agreed to it," Severus interjected, though his statement was without malice.

"Right. I have a plan and Severus and Harry have agreed to help me see it through. This is your option rather than either of us pressing charges."

Percy said nothing. He sat, waiting for the hammer to fall.

"We expect you to resign your post as the Minister's secretary," Hermione began. "We both feel that you've abused what is, essentially, a position of great power in order to cover your own tail. It was cowardly and not particularly worth of the House of Gryffindor."

"Nor of the Weasley name," Severus stated firmly, sipping his own tea.

Percy's eyes widened. "But...I have my family to support. Penelope is only going back for half days at the end of her leave, and that's months off!" He looked both stricken and panicked.

"Cease your caterwauling, Mr. Weasley. You will remain gainfully employed at the same salary level as before."

"I...see." He sat back, returning to his wary regard of his friend-turned-victim and her lover.

"Despite the fact that you utterly fucked us over - and you really did, Perce. You kept Severus and me apart for years . Years that we had plans for." She shot a glance at Severus, a sad affection in her eyes. "You attacked us both. You did something to me that I'm fairly sure was a compulsion charm," Percy nodded resignedly at that, "and effectively banished a war hero from the very country he fought to save. What you did was reprehensible on so many levels."

"I know," the man responded softly.

"I'm so bloody angry with you, Percy. Why would you ever think it was your place to decide my love life? To judge Severus ? Just who the hell do you think you are?" she shrieked, thoroughly losing her temper.

Severus took the opportunity to clear his throat. "What Hermione was attempting to say, Mr. Weasley, is though we would be well within our rights to press charges, ensure there was an embarrassing trial, and see your sorry arse tossed in Azkaban, we both feel it would be a tragedy to do so." He glanced at Hermione, who was still rather red in the face. "First, we love and respect your family. Well, most of them," he said, rolling his eyes at the thought of respecting the philandering Ronald Weasley. "You have a daughter to protect and support as well as a wife who, beyond all reason, loves you and desires your presence. But most importantly, it would be a waste of a first rate brain. And frankly, we have more use for your brain than we do your incarceration."

"I'm sorry...what?" Percy sputtered.

"We offering - well, not offering really. We're telling you that you are the newest researcher at the Ameliorative and Reconstructive Mediation And Debilitating Aftereffects Research Group."

Harry guffawed. "The A.R.M.A.D.A. Group?"

"The name needs work, but I only had an hour this morning to come up with it." Hermione snapped. "Regardless, neither of us recognized the reversal charm you used yesterday night. I assume you created it?"

He rubbed the back of his neck and thought. "Uh, yeah, I suppose I did. Honestly, I'd never tried it, but I've been doing a some reading - a lot of reading, really - about magic and intent. Call the spell a magical mea culpa, if you will."

"Interesting," Severus said, gazing into his teacup. "Yes, that could work."

"I"m sorry, I'm not usually this slow on the uptake. What could work?"

"Mr. Weasley, you will be joining our newly formed team of researchers, which currently consists of Hermione and me as part-time consultants, to help find a cure for the incurably or partially obliviated. Because, whether I like it or not, your spell is the only one that we know of that has managed to reverse an obliviate granum with no detrimental effects on the subject."

Percy leaned forward eagerly. "It worked then? Your memories have begun to come back?"

Severus nodded carefully, his head still pounding. "It began to work the first time you attacked me, actually. Now the memories are simply there, as though they never left." He looked toward Hermione and slipped a hand in hers. "The good and the bad," he said with a smirk.

"Oh, thank Merlin," Percy breathed, slouching in his chair. "And the compulsion. That's gone too?"

"Well, I rather wondered why I put up with brother before our public breakup, Percy, but now I don't even know what I saw in him to begin with. He's a far cry from the boy I had a crush on in school, these days."

"I know," Percy said with a humorless laugh. "He's turned into a right sod. All that fame after the final battle went straight to his head."

"I'd say the war messed with a number of people's heads, Mr. Weasley," Severus stated firmly.

"Right," Harry interjected. "So you've heard some of the initial terms of the agreement that Hermione and Severus are offering. There's more, though."

Percy turned to look at his brother-in-law. "You've told Kingsley, haven't you," he said with resignation.

"Yes. Kingsley is aware of your involvement in this mess. I'm afraid you don't have much choice but to take the job that you've been offered. Your position as the right hand of the Minister for Magic is no longer a path that is open to you. Really, he was hesitant to not force the issue and put you on trial this morning. You have Hermione to thank for talking Kings down.

So you'll resign your position. You'll take on the research position. The trace will remain on your wand and you're not to leave the country without prior approval from the Minister himself, and even then only as a part of your new job's duties. And you are on an unofficial parole for the next five years. As Kingsley stated, 'One step out of line and he's on trial for the entire mess.' Oh, and if any patents come out of your research for - um, ARMADA - your proceeds will be donated to the Orphan's Defense Fund in your daughter's name." He turned to Hermione at this point. "Did I miss anything, Hermione?"

"Leadership roles," she said.

"Right. You're not allowed to take on any leadership roles within the Ministry for a decade. No under secretary, secretary, or department head positions in that time."

Percy seemed to shrink in on himself. "In other words, my career is dead in the water," he said bitterly.

Severus tilted his head and regarded the man who'd very nearly ruined his life. "Would you rather Azkaban, Mr. Weasley? A public trial? Ruination for both you and your family?" He paused for dramatic effect, not even noticing that his voice had slipped into the familiar menacing tones of his past teaching career. "Or would you rather put aside your selfishness and cowardice and turn your attentions toward something that might just be worthwhile. That might bring solace to those other than yourself? You're being given a second chance, Mr. Weasley. Try a little gratitude on for size."

"Well, that went better than expected," Hermione said as Percy and Harry flood away to clear out the former's desk. Kinglsey had asked to see Percy after his interview with Severus and Hermione. Severus rather wished he could be a fly on the wall in that meeting. Kingsley might present as affable, but he was a holy terror when crossed.

"Hmm." Severus pinched at the bridge of his nose in an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure there then glanced up when he felt Hermione's hands began to stroke through his hair and massage his scalp. He let out a long sigh of relief. "Oh, that feels wonderful. Please don't stop."

"If you like," Hermione responded. "So we didn't really talk much this morning...all your memories have returned?"

"So it would seem. There are fuzzy areas, but they feel like normal memories. When parts of your recollections just go out of focus, if you follow."

"I do. No one remembers everything with perfect clarity."

"Exactly," he said. "It's a bit strange. Before, I didn't even notice that there was anything missing. Now it's as if I have extra packing in my head, all looking for room. The pressure is immense."

She snorted. "I assumed - hence the headache." She paused, moving her hands to the base of his skull to knead at the muscles there. She massaged for awhile before speaking again. "Are we doing the right thing, Severus?"

"What happened to the harridan who was scolding me about Albus Dumbledore and second chances this morning?"

"Even a harridan has second thoughts," she sighed. "I'm just - He was so - He just didn't get it. How much of a favor we were doing him by not pressing charges. By seeking Kingsley out and convincing him that now was a good time to form a foundation around the arithmantic work I've been doing for the past three years. And all Percy could think was that he wouldn't be able to follow the career path that he plotted for himself when he was six. That he'd never be Minister for Magic." She sounded sad as she finished.

"It's true that Mr. Weasley did seem unable to grasp the enormity of his luck in this situation. I suspect that Mr. Pot - Harry will attempt to set him to rights. However, arrogance isn't necessarily a re-trainable attribute." He opened his eyes and turned his head to look up at his love. "Are you sure you'll be alright working with him on this project?"

"I'll have to be, I suppose," she shrugged.

Decided, Severus stood. "Come on, love. We've been trapped in the castle entirely too long today. What do you say to a stroll around Pomona's gardens?"

She laughed. "Severus, it's freezing outside!"

"That's what warming charms are for. Go on and bundle up. The exercise will do us both good."

A few minutes later, a thoroughly cloaked Hermione and Severus emerged through the door of their tower to find Minerva bearing down on them.

"So!" the Scottish witch said. "Are the two of you going to explain where you disappeared to last night, why it's three in the afternoon and you just now showing your faces, and why the hell Harry Potter and Percy Weasley flooed into your rooms two hours ago?"

Severus shot a look at Hermione. "Perhaps our walk should be somewhat delayed, pet?"