{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to Warner brothers and Scholastic books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this, save for the characters of Andromeda McGee, Wyvern, and a few others that are simply figments of my imagination.}

Chapter 25

The Answer

** "The Answer to the Great Question…"  "Yes…!"  "Of Life, the Universe, and Everything…" said Deep Thought.  "Yes…!"  "Is…" said Deep Thought, and paused.

"Yes…!"  "Is…"  "Yes…!!!...?"  "Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams**

Andy awoke feeling better than she had been for the past few days.  The pain had faded to a dull ache and no more waves of blue light crackled around her.  That in itself was a major improvement.  She glanced over to where Snape sat, sleeping in the chair by her bed.  The intensity that he carried with him dissolved into an almost child-like vulnerability.  He looked innocent for the moment and that amazed her.  'Innocent' and 'vulnerable' were two words no one in their right mind would use to describe Severus Snape.  She pushed herself sitting, glancing briefly around the room.  It had occurred to her that she was in the infirmary, but the thought had never fully clicked in her mind.  Along with causing the deep agonizing pain, Voldemort's curse must have given way to hallucinations as well.  Kicking back the thick, fluffy comforters, Andy hauled herself out of bed, her mind registering that she was clad in leopard print polar fleece pajamas.  She supposed it could have something worse, like pink, or floral print, or even something that could only be described as 'kinky.'  Fortunately, they were not.  She tiptoed to the door.

"Tell me you are not planning to go out like that, McGee."

Andy's head whipped around; face a mask of surprise.  "Why not?  They're comfy."

Snape closed his eyes for a moment and sighed.  "Why do you always have to be so difficult?" Andy opened her mouth to reply.  "Don't bothering answering that.  Remember that you are a professor.  Professors do not wander through the halls in leopard print pajamas without shoes."

She shrugged, contemplating what he said.  "Fine, have it your way."  A pile of clothes was sitting on an empty end table.  Thanks to the house elves, they were clean.  Snape politely averted his eyes for the moment.  "I found a pair of shoes.  Does that make you happy now?"

"No.  Not many things give me joy and shoes are definitely not on that list."  He did notice that she had yet to give up the sandals he had given her, though it was November.

"I always thought you were a shoe person, Sev.  You know, the lime stiletto heels, platform boots, something cheery red, maybe…" she trailed off after noticing the look Snape was giving her.  "Okay, maybe not."

"Since you have obviously recovered, Dumbledore wishes to speak with you."

"And I suppose you want explanations as well?"

"That is among the knowledge I wish to acquire."

"Then lay on, MacDuff."

"Pardon?"

"Shakespeare.  Macbeth says it to MacDuff before they duel and Macbeth gets his head chopped off."

"What does that have to do with seeing Dumbledore?"

"It was how they started the battle."

"Sometimes, McGee, sometimes," Snape stood up.  "Let's go before you start something else."  He propelled her gently out the door and up to the Head Master's office.

"Feeling better, Andromeda?"

Andy took a seat in one of the comfy chairs in front of the desk, Snape doing likewise.  "Yes, sir, I am."

"I shall get straight to the point.  I believe some explanations are in order."

"They probably are," she paused to collect her thoughts.  "I'll start at the beginning, I guess.  The Merlin's Potion was a side project of mine when I was assigned to the Ministry's Experimental Department.  I did a large amount of research on it in my spare time.  Some of the things I found were completely useless, others were highly important.  It was in one of the more obscure tomes that I found a reference to using the Merlin's Potion as an all purpose healing substance."

"Which you used on Severus?"

"Right.  So in one of the books, I found an exact copy of the original manuscript.  Around the borders of it was a unique design.  I copied it down from a hunch and took it to a linguist friend of mine.  It turned out to be notes in the Bannic alphabet.  I translated them and they gave me the idea to add Voldemort's blood to the potion."

"What was the purpose of adding the blood?"

"That's where I'm headed toward, sir.  You see, it translated into a way to neutralize the potion.  It stated something about by adding the blood of the person that was going to consume the potion, the active ingredients would be rendered useless for the user, though in appearance the potion would be the same."

"So by adding his blood, the potion did not make him invincible," Snape's logic fused everything together. "Why did you hide it from me?"

"Eventually, he is going to realize that he is not invincible and you are likely going to get tortured by him because you assisted me, but if you did not know at the time what I was doing, then you can defend yourself by that."

Snape stared at her.  "You would have made a brilliant Slytherin with that kind of logic."

"Wonderfully done, Andromeda.  I do believe you have saved us all a great bit of worrying."

"Thank you sir.  Is there anything else that you wanted to know?"

"That should be all for now, though Misters Black and Lupin were extremely worried about you."

"I suppose I shall have to explain everything to them, too.  Thanks, sir, for hearing me out." Andy stood up, leaving the room.

"Severus, a moment of your time, please."

Andy wandered down to the Potions Dungeons, where she knew she would find Sirius, if not both of them.  She briefly noted that she was correct as she opened the door to the classroom.

"Hullo, Andy," Remus greeted her, glancing up from the pile of papers that he had been working on.

Sirius's head snapped up, eyes ablaze with fury and anger.  Andy doubted that this could be a good thing.  He approached her slowly, deliberately until he was only a few feet away.  "Always thought you were perfect, didn't you?  Never could do anything wrong, could you?  You know, I always thought you would at least show some God-damned loyalty!"

"Sirius, I…"

"I don't want to hear it!  I don't care what reasons you had or how good they were.  You are no longer welcome in here!  Get out!" Sirius snarled, hands clenched in fists of rage at his sides.

"Why?  I deserve a reason why I should leave."

"If you want a reason, that I'll give you a reason.  After all the Gryffindor support, after all that's happened to the lot of us, you turned your back on us.  You're a back-stabbing, traitorous, little bitch!  I never want to see your face again!"  He shoved her backwards out the door, slamming it violently in her face.

"This time, Sirius, I am not going to sort things out for you.  You could have at least heard her point of view," Remus spoke softly.

"I don't care what her point was!  She gave the same person who murdered James and Lily the power to be invincible!  That on its own deserves death!" Sirius still seethed.

"Then it is your problem.  You deal with it.  Honestly, there has to have been reasoning behind it."

"What reasoning can there be?  She's obviously changed sides and stabbed us all in the back.  She's a traitor and traitors deserve to die!"

Remus decided that it was pointless to argue.  He would find answers eventually, even if Sirius refused to listen.

Snape watched from a corner as the door was slammed in Andy's face and she tore off down the corridor.  What even happened in there could not have been pleasant.  He supposed he should follow her.  He knew enough of how dangerous Andy McGee could get when she got upset.  Thing would not be pretty.  He followed her to a tower that few people knew about.  Waiting a few moments to make sure that heavy objects were not being lobed across the room, he stepped inside.

Andy stood by a window, breathing heavily, fists clenched in tight knots gripping the window sill.  As he got closer, he could hear her muttering under her breath.

"Damn you, Sirius Black, why do you have to be an unfeeling, incompetent moron?"

"Because he is one."

"Go away!"

Snape stood waiting.  He knew she should not be alone during something like this.  Things might start exploding.  She paused and continued her monologue.

"You deserve to die, Black.  When I get my hands on you, you are going to pay.  No one calls me a lying traitorous bitch and gets away with it.  Oh, no, they don't."  She chuckled grimly.  "I'll break you.  I'll make you see exactly what you just did.  I'll dismember you and strangle you with your own innards.  I will blind you slowly with hot irons.  I will hang you over an open fire until you roast and I can hear your pitiful screams from far, far away."

As much as he was enjoying her furious litany of tortures, Snape decided enough was enough.  There was one way to handle this.  He grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around to face him.  "All right, McGee, as enjoyable as planning to torture and murder Sirius Black would be, I'm afraid you cannot go and do that right now.  There are other ways to solve your problem."

"Go right ahead.  I'm open to suggestions, especially if they include a French Chef knife," she said in a voice that stated she obviously wasn't.

Snape led her still seething with a new found rage, into a dark, dimly lit room.  Digging through a cabinet, he pulled out a bottle and two tumbler.  He passed a full one to Andy, who tilted her head back and downed the entire thing.  She held out her glass for a refill, downing the second one as well.  She flopped carelessly into a black leather chair nearby.

"I needed that," she sounded calmer if nothing else.

"It usually helps drown the pain," the dark voice behind her spoke in return.

"I should have known you would have your special stash of Fire Whisky.  Comes in handy, doesn't it?"

"It is saved for extremely miserable days, which it seems like you are having."

Another grim laughed echoed from her place in the chair.  "Extremely miserable, that about describes it.  Oh, how was your day?  Completely miserable, thank you very much.  And how miserable was it?  You know, the generally miserable sort when one of your best friends won't even listen to you and thinks that you are a traitorous little bitch.  Wonderful, isn't it?  I think he even included back-stabbing in the description."

Snape listened from the other leather recliner.  So that's what Black did to her to get her into a state like this.  The dense Gryffindor had believed that she was siding with Voldemort and told her so through the use of descriptive adjectives.  Andy slammed her glass on the end table, making Snape thankful for the unbreakable charms he had placed on everything.

Andy continued.  "I don't believe hi.  I just don't believe that he'd have the audacity to think I'd do something like that."  She began to pace.  "I'm going to kill the bastard."  Her voice had dropped to a low and deadly range.

"Calm down, before some one gets hurt."

"I will not calm down!  I have every right to remain hysterical!"

"He will listen to you eventually, given that the two of you are still teaching the same class."

"Listen?"  Sardonic laughter came once more.  "He won't listen to me.  He's more stubborn than a jackass.  We'll spend the next few months teaching classes singly, trading on and off and generally ignoring that the other exists until someone can convince his high and mighty-ness that for once I don't need his coddling.  I knew exactly what I was doing, for Merlin's sake!  I was not and am not an agent for Voldemort!"  There was a crescendo followed be silence.

"I believe you just summed up Black's entire existence."

"I just don't know him anymore, Sev.  Why does he always have to go and be such a fool?"  Pent-up tears welled up in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks.

"Because he is one."  Snape, for once dropping his 'cold-hearted bastard' attitude moved around to where she stood, sobbing.  He placed a tender arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.  Andy buried her head into the soft fabric of his robes, letting the tears flow.  That was how it always was: anger and hatred followed by sorrow and remorse.

"It'll be all right," he stroked her hair.  "He'll realize what he did."

"No, he won't.  he'll never listen to the facts.  He's already got everything twisted in his own mind to fit his version of the truth.  No one can talk him out of it once he get an idea."  The sobs were less hysterical.

"Face it, McGee, he's an ignorant prat.  Just let him go for a while.  Break the bond between the two of you.  Show him you can survive without him."

"And he'll realize that I can think for myself and am perfectly capable of survival.  That's brilliant Sev, perfectly brilliant."

"I am a Slytherin for a reason."

"I know you and all your bloody flawless plans."

Snape noticed she had stopped the hysteria and no more tears came to her eyes.  Yet she seemed content to stay in his arms.  "They work, don't they?"

"They always do," there was a slight pause.  "Thanks, Sev.  You always knew when I needed someone."

"I simply realized that you have no anger management and did not want the entire school in ruins before dinner."

"You remembered what happens when my temper get the best of me, didn't you?"

"It was only to prevent you from throwing and breaking things."

"You do remember, then."

"Considering you once put me in the hospital wing for a few weeks, I don't think I have a choice."

She laughed softly, head still lying on his chest.  It felt safe in his arms.

Dumbledore looked up from his scrying glass.  He had not expected Sirius to react in that manner.  He had at least expected him to have given her a chance of explaining everything.  His Potions Master's response had been the more impressive of the two.  Never before had he seen Severus Snape so taken with anyone.  Maybe things were taking a turn for the better, but only time could tell.

{Author's Note:  There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the answer and the explanations.  You can finally breathe a sigh of relief, and then you can flame me for what I did with Sirius.  Go right ahead.  I honestly don't care.  I have my own plans, whatever they may be.  Just an amusing side note in response to the quote above, which mentions 42 as the answer to life, the universe, and everything, I would like to state that my Marching Band drill number is 42.  Go figure. 

WeasleyTwinsLover1112:  Yes, that would be my family.  We do stuff like that.  Here's the next one!

Anna Black:  What makes sense?  I certainly don't.  That's quite alright.  You aren't the only one who lost a game.  We got third out of three bands at our home show for Marching Band.  We lost by about .4 of a point.  Chapter 31 is long.  It is 3,482 words, which for me is very long.

CatalinaRose:  I am glad you are intrigued.  It only gets better.

Iggie:  That's encouraging.  I only write these things to combat school depression, so I understand.

Hope you enjoyed it and please review!  Peace, Love, and Blunt Objects, Nataly Ravenlock}