"Why…?" Severus began exasperatedly, staring his six former students down with such a ferocious snarl I tried to recall the last time he'd looked at Harry that way. "Why must I always be the one dealing with stupidity?"

Jessamyn stared back with an apologetic gaze, her hands clasped behind her back as she shared glances with Ash — who preferred to look at the wall than at Severus — and the man named Ben. Cassandra chose to pick at her fingernails with a concentrated frown while the frizzy-haired woman, Merula, looked at Severus with a gaze that seemed to scream 'defiance.' Seraphina, as herself now that we were meeting privately in Severus' office, merely smirked.

"Come now, Snape, what's the issue?" the sapphire blue-eyed witch asked airily.

"Why are they here? For what reason would you risk bringing them into the school when it's at its most vulnerable?"

"Key word, Snape. 'Vulnerable,'" Seraphina replied matter-of-factly. "I have my personal reasons, of course, but really it's beneficial for everyone. Who knows how many professors that Umbitch is going to sack for one reason or another? Don't you think it's safe to have backup plans? She could try to do it to you, or even to McGonagall for defying her as easily as she's been doing. Behind the scenes dealing with me, of course, she won't have the jurisdiction to fire these five if she wants to stay on Voldy's good side — so she'll believe, of course."

Severus covered his look of annoyance with his hand. Dragging the palm of his hand down his face, he grumbled, "You can try to make it sound safer for all involved, but you know better than to believe that Dumbledore can't find out their involvement with you. Just because I can't tell him doesn't mean he won't be able to find out using other means."

"I know that," Seraphina replied, rolling her eyes. "I'm no idiot. Sure, it may destroy how he sees Jessamyn here, but she's doing this because she's ready to take that risk."

He actually took a serious turn toward the blonde witch still standing awkwardly with her hands behind her. "Is that so?"

Jessamyn nodded, clearing her throat. "Yes."

"You are that eager to break his unwavering trust in you?"

Her gaze hardened, her hands sliding forward to her sides and clenching into fists. "Snape, I know that even you never like how easily he allows students — such as myself — to break rules and get into dangerous situations." Severus' own gaze froze at her words, and she continued after using her middle finger to push her glasses up the bridge of her nose at the center. "It may have allowed me to experience as much as I have in life, as well as saving countless lives… but he knew how to take care of all those things without a student doing the dirty work. Even now, I'm as sure as Seraphina that he knows how to handle all these problems without fruitless suffering but he lets it continue so Harry Potter eventually cracks and rushes into the situation blindly. I know better than anyone that if this continues, someone is going to die that shouldn't have to."

I watched in quiet dismay as everyone froze after her last sentence left her lips, and the words seemingly pressed down on all their shoulders. As if the memory of someone that had died as Jessamyn suggested just suddenly swooped into the room to add weight to their bodies the same way guilt does to me. Is this part of that tragedy Seraphina mentioned before..?

Jessamyn sighed, turning her head away, "You remember them. Anyway, I've made my point… I'm going to go to bed. I told Hagrid I'd be up early in the morning to help him get ready for Monday's classes."

"Already?" Seraphina asked in surprise. "But your assistance was only just announced! How can he put you to work on a Sunday already?"

"Well, as you've already mentioned," Jessamyn replied, sheepishly scratching the back of her head, "some professors are liable to be sacked. Hagrid told me during dinner that Umbridge has been breathing down his neck in particular. I want to see what he's already covered so I can help plan from there."

"Eugh…must you always go above and beyond to help people?" she crossed her arms with a small pout. "I almost forgot how annoying that can be."

Jessamyn and Ash, with a pointed look at each other, broke into a round of chuckles that caused the other two women to roll their eyes and for Ben to shake his head. The two of them looped their arms through both of Seraphina's and led the entire group's way out the office, wishing us a good night as they went.

I stared after them curiously, even as the door magically closed behind them.

"You seem confused," Severus pointed out.

"Oh, really? What gave that away?" I asked sarcastically, still keeping my eyes trained on the doorway. "How the hell did the topic change so suddenly from serious to silly?"

"You ask that as though you don't do the same exact thing."

I turned to see him eyeing me humorously. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"If you say so."

"I do," I said, refraining from sticking my tongue out at him. "Who was Jessamyn talking about, anyway?"

"You ask as though you'd know the name if I said it."

"Oh my God," I groaned, "that's not the point of the question!"

He raised an eyebrow challengingly at me.

Should've known he'd decide to be difficult about it. "If not the name, then what about who the guy was to her? A mentor? A parent? … Her brother?"

"If only we'd be so lucky.." Severus muttered, the tone of his reminding me of his interactions with Sirius. "No, her brother is still very much alive. McPhee was… talking about her best friend."

I felt my heart freeze over almost immediately. "Her… her best friend?"

The pain from that incident was just unimaginable to me, for her to have gone through such a thing… it truly was a tragedy. I couldn't even think about how I'd feel if Becky got killed. It was why I wanted to be sure she and Draco could protect themselves. Even if Becky wasn't going to follow me for missions anymore, there was still danger everywhere with my dad coming back to the level of power he once held.

Severus' voice broke me out of my whirlpool of thoughts. "Don't overthink it. The situation was complicated, and McPhee was nowhere near as capable in a duel as you are. Though, she'd certainly thought very highly of her abilities at the time."

"But I've never had to worry about protecting someone besides myself," I said, gritting my teeth to keep the tears from escaping my eyes.

Jessamyn lost her best friend and changed dramatically from someone everyone followed to… one of Seraphina's lackeys. She was her friend too, of course, but it was such a fall from grace and it came from mourning.

"Severus… what am I going to do if dad finds out I let Becky free? What can I hope to do if he decides to kill her?" Just saying 'kill her' damaged my attempt to be stoic, and my eyes became floodgates in a matter of seconds. Why… why do things have to be so complicated?

I blinked once, a few streams of tears racing each other down my cheeks as Severus seemed to suddenly appear by me, his arms wrapped comfortingly around me. My own arms held on around his midsection, face buried in his chest for the sense of security I now automatically felt from being in his embrace.

"And — and what am I going to do about Lissy and Trixy, too? They want to force their way into my group, but — but I can't just let them throw their childhoods away like that!"

Severus hushed me gently, rubbing my back in soothing circles as I sobbed into his chest. "I understand you're worried, but there is only so much you can focus on before you overwork yourself. Miss Figsund made the choice to leave, so all you can do is refrain from mentioning it. I doubt he places much notice in the details of your followers. As for the young Miss Figsund and Miss Parker, they have no way of forcing their way in without your permission."

"I know, but —"

"— if anything happens otherwise, I will help you protect them… You should know that. You're not alone, Melody."

I couldn't help the smile on my lips as I hugged him tighter. "Thank you."

"Of course."

"Erm — by the way…" I ventured softly, slowly bringing my gaze up to his. "I noticed earlier you had said that you 'can't' tell Dumbledore about their affiliation to Seraphina… what did you mean by that? At the feast, all she told me was that you were 'warned against' revealing that."

His look of annoyance was brief. "Should've known she'd twist the explanation. The truth is that I tried telling Dumbledore soon after picking the both of you up from Seraphina's mansion. The moment I was about to explain, I choked on my own words. It lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to tell me I couldn't reveal it."

I swallowed a knot in my throat, silently glad he didn't keep trying to tell Dumbledore their loyalties. Not only would they be in deep trouble with the Headmaster, but Severus might have died trying to give him that information. "Wow. She certainly did take precautions, didn't she?"

Severus nodded solemnly. "I found out from her that it's a particularly complicated curse. Anyone that finds out her followers' loyalties to her within their immediate vicinity are exposed to the curse. It's long-lasting and keeps their identities safe. I suppose I can understand her reasons for setting such a dangerous trap… But Dumbledore will find out one way or another."

He says that… I thought interestedly, wiping cold tears from my cheeks using the backs of my hands… but it sounds to me like a safe bet for the students in Slytherin House that I roped in. She has to teach me it now… maybe I can put it on all their rings….

Sunday brought a Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff that — without Harry and the Weasley twins on the team — ended in a loss for them that severely damaged their pride. It was short apparently, too, consisting of a twenty two minute struggle to catch up to the amount of points Hufflepuff had tallied.

I had never been more glad to not attend a match in my entire time attending Hogwarts than on that day, instead talking Seraphina into working with me for a few more hours.

From what Hermione told me in the library hours afterward, Ron still struggled with his confidence as the Keeper, and Slytherin House still made it no easier by continuing to sing the stupid 'Weasley is Our King' song Draco wrote. Their loss was less major thanks to Ginny catching the Snitch before Hufflepuff's Seeker could, tallying the ending points as two hundred and forty against two hundred and thirty.

"I told the boys yesterday that it's troubling how much tension these Quidditch games cause between the Houses," Hermione proclaimed in mild annoyance. "All those negative feelings and arguments. Ron is depressed out of his mind. Let alone how Harry, Fred and George are taking all this."

Remembering both Draco and Marcus' tantrums every time Slytherin lost a match, I rolled my eyes thoughtfully. "I know what you mean. It seems completely unnecessary, but this is what they put all their energy toward."

"Exactly," she said, burying her face in a book to hide the smile she couldn't help sporting.

Hermione was relieved, to say the least, that I'd forgiven her enough to return to our original library visits. It made me giggle to realize how much she'd missed it — which was enough to hear her thoughts practically chatter for joy. However, if she noticed that Becky was nowhere to be found, she didn't mention it.

On Monday morning, Pansy strut proudly through the hallways sporting a shiny silver and green Slytherin Prefect badge. It was the first thing she showed off at breakfast, pushing small first years over as she frittered ecstatically around the Great Hall.

At the Gryffindor table, Becky sat in between the two red-heads, laughing to her heart's content without that same badge holding her down.

Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Umbridge and Miss Merula Snyde was certainly… interesting. Umbridge seemed to already be extremely on edge about something, but Miss Snyde truly took the cake when she began yelling about how ridiculous it was to expect us not to actually learn how to cast any spells in a class about defense. Umbridge did her absolute best to kick her out of her classroom without screaming at her, though the young woman gave her a cocky grin as she walked out.

Around an hour before noon, Umbridge put up a new decree dictating that anyone caught reading a magazine by the name of 'The Quibbler' would be expelled. After about a minute's thought, I recalled that Luna Lovegood's father was the creator of that magazine.

It was as I stared at the board with all her stupid decrees that something was slipped into my arm. I nearly jinxed whoever it was — since the student attacks in the hallways hadn't decreased as much as I'd hoped — but when I saw Hermione give me a wink, I pulled from my arm a copy of the Quibbler.

On the cover was a picture of an awkwardly grinning Harry headlined:

HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST:

THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED

AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN

So, he did an interview to reveal the truth… I thought with a wry smile. And Umbridge did the dumbest thing possible by officially banning the students from reading this. If she hadn't, there wasn't much of a guarantee that many of them would touch something other than the Daily Prophet…. Jeez, I sighed forlornly, must I work with an idiot?… Now I sound like Severus.

Reading it, I repressed the need to sigh. Included in the description of the return of Voldemort was a list of all the men he'd seen return to his side… my friends' dads… Draco's dad. They are not going to be happy about this… just adds on to the frustration they all feel with me not doing anything against Harry.

Anyways, Potions class was also different. Cassandra stood stiffly by Severus' side for most of the double class period as we made our Wit-Sharpening potions. It was only when Neville's potion somehow started giving off an acid-burning smell that she actually kick-started into action and rushed over, pushing him aside to stare into it for a few seconds before stirring in new ingredients.

What was most astonishing to me was the way Severus stopped what he was doing at his desk to smugly watch her work. I listened as some students gushed over the fact that she was mixing things in without weighing or measuring the ingredients she grabbed. Her actions were seamless to the end, finishing her performance off by ladling a spoonful of the potion down Neville's throat and asking him if he knew what he did wrong.

When he rattled off that he knew he'd put in far too many scarab beetles, it was proof of the fact that she fixed his mistake into the potion it was intended to be…. And then class ended with Severus telling everyone that they would never match Miss Santacruz's level of brilliance.

Isn't he sweet…? I thought sarcastically.

The afternoon passed through with more and more students flocking to Harry to apologize about the previous months. Draco actually retreated to the library with Vincent, Greg, and some other Slytherin called Theodore Nott for no given reason other than so-called 'studying.'

It was suspicious of course but, to avoid any more arguments between us, I left it alone. Sometimes it was okay to just let him do his own things. I mean… at the end of the day, he still has my back. Right?

Transfiguration the following morning was another matter entirely. Ash, in his new position as Professor McGonagall's assistant, showed off his skills every chance he got. He enunciated the pronunciations clearly and repeated the wand movements for students that were at a loss with how to proceed.

It was actually rather enjoyable for me to see how happy it made him when students excelled based on his help and suggestions. Especially when they thanked him — even a small 'thank you' had him beaming with pride.

Honestly, even McGonagall — who snapped at him every time he attempted to sneak a whisper to a student about transfiguring their desk into a pony — had to compliment his growing skills by the end of it.

Charms class seemed much the same. Mr. Copper was just as skilled with Charms as everyone else was with their prospective subjects, quietly correcting students' holds on their wands before continuing his calm surveillance of the room. Professor Flitwick was more than happy to have an assistant, though from his thoughts I overheard a small part of him wishing his assistant had been Jessamyn — memories of her as a student tutoring her peers during class passing through as he wandered the room.

Care of Magical Creatures class was a struggle for our bruised professor as usual, but Jessamyn did her best to help Professor Hagrid present us with class-appropriate creatures like knarls and puffskeins. Umbridge was mildly cordial to her, though she still treated Hagrid with some level of contempt for the way he talked.

The month of March rolled through, coming to an end with the biggest news of all…

I wasn't there when it happened, but according to Hermione, Umbridge nearly got away with kicking Professor Trelawney out of the school completely. If it wasn't for Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall stepping in, the poor woman would have to find somewhere else to stay.

As far as that went, she might have no longer been the Divination teacher, but Dumbledore was prepared. Of course. At the incident in question, he'd already found a new Divination teacher so Umbridge couldn't appoint her own… and the new teacher was a centaur named Firenze. Something Umbridge was clearly displeased with, as it was something she often muttered about during Defense Against the Dark Arts class afterwards.

I had to ignore my inward protests on dealing with her, because I couldn't afford to get upset over her possessing such a hate for anyone that's a half-breed or even Muggleborn. It sickened me to continue to deal with her, but what other choice did I have? So long as she was no longer trying to turn me into a weapon for the Ministry, she was less of an issue and more of just a thorn in my side.

I vented my disgust to Seraphina, Jessamyn, Ash, and Cassandra one night when they decided they wanted to see one of our private lessons. It became less of a lesson and more of a mixed discussion as I found my opening to fully complain.

Ash was the one to reply first, asking me with furrowed eyebrows, "Why do you have to deal with her? Why not just — you know — kill her?"

Should've known that'd be the first suggestion, I thought, eyeing Seraphina's emphatic nods. "You make it sound like such a simple solution."

"Isn't it?"

"No," I fervently shook my head. "It's not. The Ministry would arrive within minutes of her being proclaimed dead and an investigation underway. Prime suspects? Harry Potter, Professor Dumbledore, and me."

"Bah," he waved a careless hand, "I can help you get rid of the evidence. Their main suspect would be Dumbledore, anyway. He's the adult, and they decidedly hate him ten times more. It doesn't matter if you're You-Know-Who's daughter or not. Since you're a minor, you're not a suspect."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You give an answer for just about anything, I see. Okay, whatever, my dad wanted me to work with her…. That good enough for you?"

"Say she pissed you off. Come on, Melony, you're his daughter and ally, you can do whatever the hell you want."

I sighed, having decided to ignore the fact that he still called me 'Melony.' It was as bad as Barty still calling me 'Princess,' even after the multiple times I attempted to threaten him otherwise. "Fine, I guess that's enough excuses for you to toss aside. The truth is that I've never killed anyone before."

He blinked owlishly at me, "Never?"

"Never."

"But you called for a Dementor to take the souls of two men."

I leaned back in my seat, rubbing my fingers deeply into my forehead. "They're not dead, they're just soulless vegetables. And the first one was an accident. I purposely changed his memories, yes, but a Dementor wasn't part of the plan."

"As far as Seraphina has been concerned, I'm sure she believes you should've just let Crouch suffer that fate instead of his father," Jessamyn chortled, lightly pushing Seraphina's shoulder.

Seraphina shot the woman a glare before replying, "Well, he is useless."

I couldn't help but laugh. "I don't know about that.. he may have his uses one day. He does owe me for saving his life."

"Lot of good it'll do you," she muttered to herself before making complete eye contact with me. "Speaking of uses, your father has a plan… and you're the one to carry it out."

"Really?" my tone turned dull. How desensitized I had become to his summons was both astounding and, yet, predictable. Almost as if I didn't think I could be asked to do anything worse than what I'd already done for him. "What is it this time?"

"His intrusions in young Potter's mind have been beyond successful. So much so, in fact, that he realized the boy accidentally invaded his mind while he was talking to one of his Death Eaters. His mind has become more open since he started working on Occlumency with Snape, and it's allowed Voldy to fully lead him through the door in the Department of Mysteries in his mind's eye. All that's left is to set the trap to lead him to the Ministry."

Hmm… Harry did say that his mind was more vulnerable now, didn't he?… Should I try to help him fortify his mind..? Or would dad know I did it? "What's the trap?" I asked, noticing how quickly Jessamyn's face had turned sour at the mention of a trap.

Seraphina's lips even twisted into what I could only closely describe as distaste or disapproval. "He believes, perhaps, that you have an idea who the boy would do anything to go save…. No one here at the school, obviously, but someone that your father can send him a fake vision about.. being tortured."

Suddenly, my worries skyrocketed. Sure, I knew quite a few people he'd sacrifice anything to save — anyone he cares about, of course, especially from the Order of the Phoenix. But to give such information away… Harry would practically be hand-delivered into that trap by me, gift-wrapped with a shiny ribbon on top for dad to tear away….

Cassandra cleared her throat, bringing our attention to her with a grin. "Erm — while we're on important topics… Mistress, when are we going down to the Chamber of Secrets?"

Surprise! :-D Never thought you'd get an after-Thanksgiving gift, did you? (Hope everyone had a Happy Thanskgiving by the way!)

This chapter was the first of the last six chapters I've been writing for you (honestly, the second one is long af so I'm still working on it.. buuut I'll probably have to split it. C'est la Vie.) Today is Friday, and Friday also happens to mark the very last day of the 2021 year in five week. SO I am posting one chapter every Friday until December 31st! Chapter 50 (I hope) marks the end of the Order of the Phoenix AND the year! WOOOO

It would be cool to post it like a minute before midnight each time but… realistically… I do too much at night to remember (hoot hoot night owl) and, on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, my focus will be mainly on my family. 3

So the updates will be purely dependent on the time I get home from work OR (like now) during my oh-so-short lunch break ^_^ — at the very least you can all assume that I'll be posting anywhere between this time and a few hours later.

See you all next week! :P I love you all!