Title: Harry Potter and the Search for the Meaning of Life at Hogwarts, or The Hogwarts School Band
Chapter: Nine: Into the Lion's Den
Rating: M for mature content, and adult conversations
Original Character: Alastor Daker
Reason for Edit: Noticed that the formatting had been screwed up, so decided to re-submit with correct editing. Plus I wanted to change a few of the things, as it was bit odd in places.
Notes: Please note that this was written waaay before 'Order of the Phoenix' so, the OWL grades and subjects for NEWTs don't tally with the canon. Best read this as an alternative 'book 7'. Also, check out my prequel 'The Gospel, according to Gilderoy Lockhart or The Hogwarts Gazette'.

Nine: Into the Lion's Den

Hermione gazed fondly at the ring her beloved Viktor had given her. She was quite looking forward to being Mrs Viktor Krum, and with his change in career she could expect a much more solid relationship - although, it would have been nice to journey with him on his international tour of duty.

The ring was a simple gold band, with three small but very beautiful diamonds on it. On the inside of the ring the engraving 'Viktor Krum loves Hermione Granger forever' proclaimed everything. She didn't think anyone could make her this happy.

So far, it had been hers and Viktor's secret, but now she felt that it was time to tell people. The first people she had shown, Ron, Ginny and Neville had gazed at the ring in wonderment and congratulated her. Ron had given her a big hug and told her that he couldn't have wished it for anyone else. She felt special now.

Now that she had shown her closet friends, it was time to show those people, whom she had started to become quite friendly with - mainly, the Hogwarts faculty. She knew that Viktor had spoken to Professors Dumbledore and Snape about undertaking his Potions apprenticeship at Hogwarts, everything so far had been positive. All parties involved had agreed that it would be best if Viktor started his apprenticeship next year, after the current seventh year had left - to avoid any complications.

"Professor Snape?" She asked, pushing the slightly open office door fully open.

"Yes?" A voice replied from the corner nearest the bookshelf.

"Mind if I come in?"

"Not at all." Snape replied. Hermione stepped over the threshold and watched Snape move from one side of his office to the other in almost a graceful step. "Oh, I wanted to thank you for the gift."

"You're very welcome, I figured that since your copy was battered and falling apart it would be nice if you got a new copy, even it was just for displaying."

"I thank you all the same. Now, what can I do for you?"

"Nothing much, I wanted to give you the good news." She held out her hand so that he could see the ring.

He smiled, "I believe congratulations are in order, congratulations. Welcome to the family."

"Pardon?" Hermione now felt slightly confused.

He sat down; "it's a little complicated. Firstly, when my mother died, my father re-married. He married the aunt of Igor Krum's brother in law."

"That is complicated!"

"Very, but at least you don't have to suffer the indignation of being a blood relation of mine, I suppose."

Hermione shrugged, "Viktor never mentioned that you and he were distantly related."

"That's because I'm not too sure if he knows. My father was… something of a disgrace. However, that is neither here nor there. Congratulations." He shook her hand. "Now, I don't mean to sound rude, but I have a lot of work to finish, go on, scat, go and share the news with the rest of the world."

"Right, thanks sir." Hermione grinned at him and shot out of the room. Snape shook his head and wondered why she had suddenly developed a liking for him… Hopefully Professor Sprout's assumption had been completely wrong. Another thing that was starting to concern him was that he was being far too open with a pupil, what was wrong with him! Why wasn't he being his usual self?

----

"Have you heard the good news?" Professor McGonagall asked Snape as he set about making a cup of tea.

"About Viktor Krum and Hermione Granger? Yes, she came and told me." He replied reaching over for the sugar.

"Bit sudden, don't you think?"

"I think it's wonderful, who could ask for a better birthday present?" Madame Pomfrey said, marking an article on alternative types of cold remedies in her 'Matron Today' magazine.

"I agree with Minerva, it is a bit sudden." Daker said.

"Maybe he planned it that way." Snape suggested as he handed Daker a cup of tea, "careful, it's hot."

"Thanks."

"Do you think maybe she's…" Professor Sprout began.

"We are talking about Hermione Granger here." Flitwick reminded her.

"Ah, but love can make the strangest things happen." Daker reminded everyone, "she may well be pregnant."

"It's seems very unlikely, no matter what her feelings for Krum are, I think she would put her education first." Snape moved a few things on the coffee table, "has anyone seen my lesson plan?"

"Are you sure it's not in your office?" McGonagall asked.

"I'm sure, I was making up the lesson plan in here during my free period this morning."

"Not to worry, it'll turn up."

"Perhaps the Homework Daemon took it." Daker suggested.

"What on earth is a homework daemon?" Professor Vector asked.

"It's what takes the kids homework before they can hand it in. Very nasty little bugger. Bit like the Sock God."

---

"Hey, Hermione." Neville said as he ran up the corridor to join her.

"Hello, Neville." She smiled at him. "Aren't you supposed to be on your way to Divination?"

"Er, yes, but I don't really care if I'm late. I wish I'd dropped it."

"You still can you know, it's only just over a week into the school year. Go see McGonagall."

"I think I might, I really need to concentrate on my Herbology." Hermione gave Neville a supportive grin. "Er, anyway, what I wanted to say was that I think we should talk to Professors Snape and Daker. They seem to be a good mood and it would be a good idea to talk to them about the band."

"Would be, yeah. When do you want to speak to them?"

"Um, how about at lunch?"

"Lunch it is, meet you outside the Great Hall at one then." Hermione turned to continue her journey to Arthimacy.

"Herm!" She turned back to face Neville. "Do you know if McGonagall is teaching now?"

"No, I think she's got a free period."

"Great, thanks!"

----

Albus Dumbledore looked over the top of his half-moon spectacles. "I appreciate you coming so quickly." He said gravely.

"Where Harry's involved, we're here in a flash." Sirius Black replied.

Remus Lupin gave Sirius something of a dark look before leaning forward his elbows on his knees. "You said in your owl that you were quite concerned about Harry's behaviour. How exactly has he been behaving?"

"Most strangely. He has been doing very little schoolwork, upset quite a lot of people and nearly caused the death of a poor animal though his neglect. I'm afraid I've had to remove him from the Care of Magical Creatures course."

"I wouldn't worry about it, Albus. The lad is probably going though the rebellious stage of puberty, he'll settle down in a few weeks." Black said quite casually.

"Sirius, look, this is serious." Lupin said turning to his friend.

"And I'm telling you that it's not. Harry is just going through puberty, his hormones are in a whirl and his emotions are getting a little hyped. He just needs to settle down a bit."

"Sirius, I am rather afraid Remus is right. This matter is very serious. A young Puffskein almost died from his neglect, and when confronted with his Harry not only showed no remorse, he also tried to pin the blame on a school friend." Dumbledore clasped his old, wrinkled hands together and gave Remus and Sirius a look that made them feel like naughty schoolboys.

"Yes the neglecting of his Puffskein was bad, but he just needs to sort out his responsibilities. He isn't ready for responsibility, he's going through puberty later than the rest of the boys!" Black said.

"Sirius, I am not going to put all this down to Harry not yet going through puberty. The fact is that should have no effect on his schoolwork, or the way he treats his friends." Dumbledore was speaking sense, and they both knew it.

"We'll talk to him, Albus, don't worry." Remus assured.

"Thank you, Remus."

----

Ron and Hermione sat together in the library going over their Potions ideas. Ron had asked her to read though some of his notes and ideas to see what she thought. He would have gone to Snape, but he was a little too scared of the guy and didn't want to sound stupid in front of the professor.

"So, do you think it's going to work?" He asked nervously.

"Sure. It seems a good project to do, but you really need to talk to Snape about it, he knows more about Potions." Hermione replied.

"I'm scared of the guy."

"Ron, I assure you there is nothing to be afraid of! Yes, he might be a complete bastard in most of the lessons, but he's a teacher and willing to help people who need help on their Potions work."

"Maybe." Ron looked down at his books. "Herm, why did Krum as you to marry him yesterday?"

"Because he loved me?"

"Besides that, don't you think it was a little sudden?"

"Yeah, you're right there was another reasons behind it."

"Anything you can tell me?"

"Well, not really." Ron looked at her, "alright, but promise you won't say anything?"

"I promise."

"A couple of months ago he wrote to me saying that there were strange things happening in Bulgaria. Segregation of muggle born, magical folk, squibs and half-bloods, he started to get scared that he wouldn't be allowed to leave the country soon."

"Isn't he a pure blood though?"

"Yes, but the government there were restricting the entry and exit of people. He came to Britain, and is trying to claim asylum. It looks like his application could be rejected so he did the only other thing he could think of. Leave the Quidditch scene, seek out an apprenticeship and ask me to marry him."

"That's pretty deep. Do you think that is the only reason why he asked you to marry him?"

"No! He explained that he loved me and he had always intended to ask me to marry him, but when I was a bit older, he just had to do it earlier than he had originally planned. He was scared."

"Do you think You-Know-Who has got the Bulgarian government?"

"I did some research, it seems that a lot of the people in the Bulgarian government during You-Know-Who's rise of power were in favour of You-Know-Who's ideas. They declared a dictatorship and oppressed the people badly. When You-Know-Who was defeated, the government soon found they were loosing control of the community. The held a general election and the government were defeated and another party took control. It seems that recently, the previous government has managed to over-throw the current one, and is starting to re-take control."

Ron whistled, "I never realised that the rise of You-Know-Who was that complicated."

"Me neither. I think we look into it this year during either History of Magic or Defence against the Dark Arts."

----

At one o'clock, Neville was waiting outside of the Great Hall, bang on time. He felt quite proud with himself that one of his merits was that he was punctual. It was one of the things his grandmother had always taught him to be.

"Hey, Neville." Hermione said coming up to him.

"Hey." He replied. "Ready to go poke a dragon in the eye?"

"You what?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure Snape won't be too happy about us asking him about the band."

"He might not be, but it's for the good of the school!"

"Professor Daker!" Hermione called as she saw the teacher leaving his office.

"Hello Hermione." He said with a smile. "You wanted me?"

"Yeah, me and Neville wanted to talk to you and Professor Snape about something."

"You did? Oh, well you'd best come with me then, I'm just on my way to meet him." Neville and Hermione exchanged sly grins before following Daker down to the dungeons. Hermione knew that Neville did not know that Daker was blind, and that was something that perhaps neither Snape nor Daker wanted other people to know about.

"Spike, we have guests." Daker said as they wandered into Snape's office.

"We do? Who?" Snape replied looking up from his book. Then he saw Neville and Hermione, "I might have guessed. Take a seat."

"Thanks." Hermione said sitting. Neville however hovered a few paces to her left; too nervous to sit down in the presence of Professor Snape - even if he was being nice.

"They wanted to ask us something." Daker said as he perched on the edge of Snape's desk.

"We're all ears."

"Well, me and Neville found out about the old school band that you two used to belong to." Hermione began, "and since this year is Hogwarts one thousandth birthday, we thought it would be a fitting tribute if you and the other members of the band got back together and performed at the end of year dance."

"That might be a little bit hard." Daker muttered. "We're somewhat missing a few people."

"You still could perform. You could either get some people to help, or just take it in turns to play the instruments that are missing. That's if you have the time to learn them."

"Hermione, the thing is, the only other surviving member is someone who I don't think would be too willing to perform on the same stage as myself, and I don't blame him." She knew that Snape meant Lupin.

"It's for a good cause." Neville said.

"It may be, but we… the fact is, we don't want to do it."

"I'm going to have agree with Professor Snape."

"Come on, it will be fun!"

"Hermione, we're sorry. You'll have to book some other form of entertainment." Snape said, genuinely sorry.

----

Alastor Daker headed into the Slytherin common room. He had agreed to teach some the younger first years how to play the piano. He was a little curious about why they wanted to learn, but then again it was never too late to learn a new skill. The rest of the school never really knew much about the Slytherin's all being able to play an instrument or sing.

The instruments varied, but it was mainly the ones associated with the upper-classes (piano, violin, viola etc…) Alastor had always fancied maybe playing one of those instruments, but he was unable to learn. There was nothing stopping him learning how to play, but since he was unable to see the finger movements needed to change notes, he was unsure how he would cope. Piano, was a different matter, it was an instrument he had always had a great respect for. He didn't need his eyes to see the music, and he could usually replicate some music by sound. It did take him a few weeks to learn a new piece of music in this way, but at least he found it relatively simple.

It would have been nice, he supposed, if instead of being an auror he had followed the other path he had laid out for himself - classical pianist. Then, the accident would have never happened, but if the accident had never happened he would have never been able to appreciate how precious life was. He also doubted how much he would care for Severus if the accident hadn't happened - sure he would have cared for him, but the accident had made him realise how much he loved Severus.

He no longer took things for granted, and if anything his longing desire to spend the rest of his life with the one man had been increased. Severus accepted him for who he was and had even made changes in his own life so that he could understand what Alastor was going though. If it hadn't been for Severus, Alastor would still have been stuck behind a desk at the Ministry of Magic, advising the idiot Magical Law Enforcement Department how to handle dangerous situations. That was no life for him.

"All right guys! Who is up for a piano lesson?" Alastor said, clapping his hands slightly. He was aware of a few strange looks from the older students. "Can't help it, I get a bit over excited when it comes to music." He said with a grin.

----

Snape was awoken at about a quarter to midnight that night. At first he couldn't figure out what had woken him and then it dawned on him. The sharp pain running from the Dark Mark, burnt deep into his skin and which had scared him for life, and down his arm had been the cause. He groaned and tried to sit up.

Why couldn't the Dark Lord call meetings at a more sociable hour? It was all good and well calling meetings in the middle of the night; Voldemort didn't have to be up early and ready for work the next morning!

Snape shook his head. He was going mad! He was sitting up in bed blaming Voldemort for being inconsiderate of those who worked! He tired to make himself remember how important and dangerous these meetings were, but for some reason his head and judgement were clouded. Another sharp pain in his arm brought him back to reality.

Snape scrambled out of bed and hunted for his clothes. It would have been a lot easier if he had lit the candle, but in his hurry he didn't care whether or not his sweater was on inside out or that his fly was open. He just wanted to get to the meeting before Voldemort lost his temper for him being late!

Finally, he seized a thick cloak with a hood that was reserved for these occasions. He was quite aware that Voldemort might ask him to explain why he was wearing jeans and an old navy blue sweater - muggle clothes. He was quite sure that his explanation of that they were the first things that he grabbed, and that during the summer he lived in quite a muggle filled area.

Making sure that he had everything, he scribbled a quick note to Professor Dumbledore, tapped the parchment and sent it up to the professor. He also scribbled a quick note to Alastor, explaining where he had gone and asked him if he could make sure Madame Pomfrey was on standby. It was only a precaution.

With that done, Snape headed of the school quietly. You couldn't apparate anywhere near Hogwarts and needed to be a good distance away. He could tell this was going to be a long and painful night.

----

Dumbledore looked up from his book and saw the note appear on his note-board. Instantly his features grew grave, he liked to be there for Severus whenever he was called away to Voldemort. This time, however he was not. He knew though that Severus would not feel let down, he was a big enough lad to look after himself and he knew his instructions.

Dumbledore trusted Severus Snape with his life. He knew that Snape would never betray him, Snape would lie, cheat, steal and murder before he betrayed Dumbledore. Dumbledore knew this, he had seen Snape do those very tasks to avoid betray him.

It cut him up deeply to know that Snape had to divide his loyalties between an evil Lord and Dumbledore. He wondered before how long would Snape's act slip and Voldemort could see the truth. Dumbledore felt that he was very lucky indeed to have a spy with acting talents.

----

Alastor read the note and swallowed the rising emotion. Snape was risking his life again, and again Alastor felt like he was endangering Snape. If Voldemort discovered that Snape's lover was an ex-auror that was responsible for several of Voldemort's top men being either dead or behind bars at Azkaban. It was all well people saying Mad-Eye Moody had put more people behind bars, but what it essentially bottled down to was who those people behind bars were. In Moody's case, it was one or two members of Voldemort's elite inner circle.

Tonight he needed to protect Severus.

----

Hermione sat alone in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common room. The embers had long died down, but still she sat staring into the fire. In her hand she clutched the letter Viktor Krum had sent her a few months ago. She was scared and worried.

It was obvious that Voldemort had more followers in government than she had first realised, she wondered who were unfaithful in the United Kingdom's Ministry of Magic. She knew that Fudge, the doddering idiot, would never accept that Voldemort was coming back, no matter how much evidence had been provided. She also doubted Fudge's loyalty.

----

Quarter past three. Severus Snape staggered through the main doors of Hogwarts Castle. His clothing soaked in his own blood, cuts and bruises covering his body. Every movement was painful and his breathing was laboured and ragged. He had been made an example of. He could still hear Voldemort's high, cruel, merciless laughter. He felt sickened at the thought that he, Severus Snape, had begged and cried on his knees for forgiveness.

He didn't quite know how he had managed to drag his battered body back to the castle. But here he was, dragging and forcing himself down to his rooms. His mind screamed in agony every time he made the slightest movement

Upon reaching his rooms, he flopped down into the nearest armchair and immediately wished he hadn't. He groaned in agony and tried to pull himself back into a standing position.

"We need to talk."

Slightly startled Snape looked up to see Alastor sitting in the armchair opposite.

"Alastor, please, this isn't the time." He gasped through gritted teeth.

"This is the best time to talk." Alastor spoke calmly.

"No it's not! I'm in fucking agony!"

"We can't go on like this."

"Alastor, look, right now I don't give a fuck. Please, just pass me the healing potion, it's in the cabinet to your right."

Alastor handed over the right bottle. Healing Potions were traditionally bottled in a square bottle with a stopper that resembled a dragon's head. You didn't need sight to find the right one.

"Severus."

Snape looked up again. He knew it must be serious if Alastor was calling him 'Severus' instead of by his nickname.

"I know you want to talk, but please, I'm in a hell of a lot of pain right now. Can we talk later?"

"We have to talk now."

Snape put down the bottle of healing potion, "alright, go ahead."

"At some point, maybe not now, but I'm going to get you hurt or killed. Voldemort is a goddamned bastard, and he won't give a fuck about how much you or I love each other. He'll just kill you."

"Alastor, I know, and I've said it before and I'll say it again. Voldemort does not frighten me. He won't find out about our relationship."

Daker laughed suddenly, "are you so bloody naive? He has spies all over the place. He is bound to find out! You've said yourself he's getting stronger, and he could use any one of his powers to extract information from you."

"I know you're upset about this, but please this isn't the time nor the place to have a discussion like this." Snape tried to plead with Alastor. He hurt all over and the last thing he wanted was a fight with his lover.

"When is the time and the place? When you're lying in the hospital wing, surrounded by doctors telling you that you've only got a few hours left? I'm sorry Severus; I can't risk you any more. It's over." With that, Alastor left the room.