A/N: Thanks for the reviews, keep them coming I love to read them. This chapter will answer a few questions.
Chapter Seven: Asius Smith.
Hermione a few hours later to feel someone shifting beside her. When she opened her eyes she saw Snape climbing out of the bed reaching for his clothes.
"Going somewhere?" She said startling him. He looked at her and she smiled. She looked beautiful lying there her hair spread out on the pillow, wrapped only in the green and silver sheets.
"I have to be going," he said. "So do you, your friends will be wondering where you are."
"Let them wonder." He gave her an impatient look and she giggled. "All right I'll get going."
As he reached over to grab his clothes Hermione noticed something on the small of his back.
"What's that?" She asked leaning over for a closer look.
"A tattoo," he said knowing what she was referring to.
It was a black tattoo saying 'Severus.'
"I have two more, and this thing," he said pointing to the dark mark on his arm. "I'm surprised you missed one of them." He stood up and faced her giving her a view of the snake wrapped around a sword that was tattooed on his hipbone.
"Where's the other one?" She asked, and he showed her the third tattoo that was on his ankle. It was a lizard.
"Wow, I guess you like tattoo's."
They got dressed silently, and Hermione had a horrible feeling that he was going to back out of all this once more. He turned to her.
"Hermione," he started but she decided she'd speak first.
"Look if you're going to run away again don't think I'm going to make it easy for you!" She shouted pulling her tee shirt roughly over her head.
"I understand, but you must see the impropriety of all this," he said in a softer tone than she was used to hearing, it made her stop and listen. "As a teacher at a boarding school I'm acting under loco parentis, do you understand what that means?" He asked but it was a rhetorical question, of course she knew what it meant. "It means that I'm supposed to look after you, not jump into bed with you the first chance I get."
Hermione now understood, she was thinking clearly for the first time in days. It wasn't that they couldn't be together it was that they couldn't be together now.
He walked over to her and cupped her face in his hand.
"Go back to the common room. Talk and laugh with your friends and stop Potter and Weasley getting into trouble."
"Can I come and talk to you later?" She asked. "Not for long I just need to get some things sorted out." He nodded
"All right," he said, "come to my office at eight. Tell your friends I gave you detention."
With that agreed they walked off and went their separate ways. Hermione knew, whether it was magic or just female intuition that there would be no repeat of their previous actions, not now, not ever, unless she could persuade him otherwise.
With the tears threatening to fall for the third time that day Hermione walked up the stairs and into the warmer more comforting part of the castle.
On the way to the common room she saw Dumbledore talking to Professor Binns, who was jabbering on about the misbehaviour of a student.
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore said as she passed. "May I have a word?" He asked and Hermione nodded. She was getting sick of rhetorical questions. She couldn't very well say, 'no Headmaster you may not have a word.' He turned back to the ghostly form of Professor Binns and told him he'd deal with the student.
He turned back to Hermione when Binns had disappeared around a corner.
"I believe you've been trying to get hold of me, Miss Granger," he said smiling broadly and she said yes. "I apologise for being away but with things as they are these days." He didn't finish that sentence but Hermione understood.
"There were some questions I needed to ask you," Hermione said and Dumbledore led them to his office. He offered Hermione a seat and then sat down opposite her.
"Now Miss Granger, what questions did you want to ask?" He said offering her a dish of Sherbet lemons, which she declined politely.
"Well the first is," she started, "if I am bound to protect the heirs of the four founders, then am I bound to protect Voldemort?" She held her breath while she awaited Dumbledore's answer. He smiled at her.
"This is entirely my fault Miss Granger, I should have told you. You are only bound to protect the heirs of three of the founders. Salazar Slytherin gave up his right to a protector when he left." Hermione let out the breath that she'd been holding and she felt like a great weight had been lifted from her. "Any more questions?" The old man asked kindly.
"Yes, erm, I don't know how to put this. When one of the heirs touches me I feel this spark of electricity, yet I've found that this happens with a lot of people, surely they can't all be heirs?" Dumbledore thought about this for a moment.
"My dear, the magic you posses is a very raw magic, it's uncontrollable. You are duty bound to protect the heirs of the founders, but you feel honour bound to protect those you care about. You may find there is a subtle difference between the reaction you get with an heir and the reaction you get with others."
"Yes," Hermione said, "the spark I feel is weaker. The strong spark must be an heir, I understand now." Hermione suddenly felt a lot better now, the sense of relief was amazing. "Thank you Headmaster."
Dumbledore placed his hand over Hermione's and they felt a tingle of electricity. Hermione blushed at this and giggled.
"I'm flattered Miss Granger." She stood to leave but Dumbledore had something else to say. "So who else do you feel the spark with?" He asked stopping Hermione in her tracks.
"Oh, erm, Harry, erm and a few others," she said looking at the floor not meeting the Headmasters gaze.
"Professor Snape?" He asked plainly. Hermione lifted her head to look the old man in the eyes.
"Yes," she said simply and was surprised when she saw Dumbledore smile.
"I thought so." He studied Hermione for a few seconds. "Tread carefully Miss Granger, but don't give up hope." It was a cryptic message but she interpreted it to mean that she should continue with Snape but be discreet. Of course she may be wrong.
She decided that she needed some serious cheering up so she was grateful when she heard that Sirius was back again. She found it very unusual that someone who was on the run from the law would keep coming back to such an obvious place, but she was happy none the less.
"He'll be at Hagrid's at ten o'clock," Harry whispered to his friends. "We'll sneak out under the cloak."
Away from the safety of Hogwarts a group of scientists were meeting in a room in a secret Ministry research centre. The room was quite dark, as not many lights were lit.
"No minutes are being taken of this meeting, remember you were never here," a tall thin man with thick rimmed glasses said. "You all know why we're here, but Fudge doesn't want any outsiders to know about this meeting, we have had trouble with spies for You Know Who."
They were engaged in a conversation and where too caught up in it to notice people surrounding building.
The next thing they knew men, wearing silver masks and dark robes were surrounding the table they were sitting at. The scientists where too shocked to do anything, they just sat there frozen.
"Which one of you is Dr Kauffman?" A tall man with a deep, gruff voice asked.
None of the scientists answered, they were too scared. They just sat there with looks of panic on their now deathly pale faces. Some of them were sweating as their nerves got the better of them.
"We can always make you tell us so why not save yourself the agony?" The same man said and started pacing around the table looking at all the men carefully.
"I'm Kauffman," the thin pale man with thick rimmed glasses said standing up. Two men from either side grabbed his arms while the other walked towards him. He gave an evil laugh.
"The Dark Lord wants to talk to you," he said and the man paled even more.
Outside, while all this was going on in the research centre, a man in his fifties, with dark brown hair and deep blue eyes was smoking a cigarette. He inhaled deeply on the cigarette, his hand shaking slightly as he did so.
He was not wearing a mask, nor was he wearing the dark robes that the other men wore. He was short and his blue Muggle jeans were far too long in legs. He wore white trainers and a dark blue tee shirt that looked extremely baggy.
He seemed very nervous and jumpy. Every little noise made him look around, startled.
"No!" Dr Kauffman shouted feeling his knees give way with fear "No please!" He pleaded, knowing rationally that his pleas would get him nowhere but he was beyond rational thought. "Please!"
The men surrounding the table laughed at him.
"Pathetic!" The group's leader said spitting in the doctor's face. "Come now, you wouldn't want to keep our Lord waiting." He gestured for the other men to take him away then turned to the rest of them. "Deal with them," he said pointing to the other scientists.
The small man from outside ran into the building, he had stubbed out the cigarette and he looked very panicked.
"Aurors!" He shouted to the other men and they quickly disposed of the remaining scientists. The small man watched, sickened by this act of senseless violence, but the Dark Lord liked the to make a clean job of it.
To apparate the Death Eaters had to leave the grounds of the centre because of the anti apparition wards that were around all Ministry building. They ran out and disappeared one by one.
As the smaller man ran he dropped his wand because his hands were shaking so badly. He went to retrieve it but the Aurors were right behind and were catching up on him.
He decided to chance it and apparate anyway, better to be splinched than rotting in Azkaban.
He tried to concentrate on getting home where he would go into hiding with the other men he accompanied that night.
Unfortunately, he was never good at wandless magic and ended up in a small village that was very familiar to him. Hogsmead. He looked around, knowing that the Aurors would track him down and would be popping up any minute. An idea struck him.
"Severus," he whispered to himself, remembering the young man he helped escape.
He changed into his animagus form of a small brown dog and ran towards the gates of the school.
"Of course I understand how much trouble we'd be in," Hermione said to Snape as they sat in his office. "But I really don't want to give up on this."
Snape sighed, there was no way the young woman was going to give up, she was determined.
"And after what Dumbledore said,"
"That was very ambiguous," Snape said, "he may have meant something completely different."
"So you're saying that's it?" Hermione said folding her arms over her chest.
"No that's not what I'm saying, I'm saying that," he paused trying to find the right words. "If this is found out you won't be known as the clever girl who was the best student. You'll be known as the student who slept with her teacher to get good grades." Hermione went to protest but Snape raised his hand to silence her. "It's untrue and unfair, but that is what people will say."
Hermione had to admit that what he was saying made sense. She'd worked so hard to get recognition, she wouldn't want to mar people's view of her intelligence.
"Can we still be together?" She asked and Snape went to argue but she cut him off. "Not like that, but just together, there's nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"No there's nothing wrong with that, but you will soon get bored," he said his voice sounding sad and rueful.
"I'd like to try though," she said still as determined as ever.
He smiled but only slightly and it was gone as quick as it had come, but Hermione had learned to recognise it.
They then heard a noise outside and then there was a knock on the door. Snape stood to answer it and when he did he saw a familiar man standing there.
"Asius?" He said looking at the smaller man in shock.
"I came to talk to you," he said nervously looking around for somebody. "Can I come in for a second?" Snape nodded and let him pass. He didn't notice Hermione.
"What are you doing here?" Snape asked and the man laughed.
"Came here by mistake, never was any good at wandless magic." He pulled out a cigarette. "Do you mind if I smoke?" Snape shook his head then lit his friends cigarette with a flame conjured from the end of his wand.
"Why didn't you just go home after you came here?"
"Because the Aurors are after me, they have my wand," Asius said drawing on his cigarette and inhaling the smoke deeply.
"Aurors? What have you done now?" Snape asked.
"Another kidnapping. Dr Kauffman, he's working on a way to bring people back to life when they've been hit with the killing curse, you know like the Muggles do with their dead people."
"What does the Dark Lord want with him?"
"Well, he needs people like that too. Lot of ours were lost when the Aurors stormed the Riddle House." By this time Asius had finished his first cigarette and was lighting another one with the previous.
"Listen," he continued, "I've come to tell you that the Death Eaters are very disillusioned."
"Disillusioned, why?" Snape asked sitting down on the desk bringing him down to Asius' height.
"I've told you, we lost a lot of our boys in the last raid, and the Dark Lord doesn't really seem that bothered. He's too obsessed with the boy."
"Do you mean Harry?" Hermione spoke up for the first time. Asius jumped, he really had only just noticed her.
"Who are you?" He asked eyeing her suspiciously.
"This is Hermione Granger, she a student here, but she can be trusted," Snape said.
"Asius Smith," the man said holding out his hand for Hermione to shake. His fingers were square and neat but had tobacco stains at the tips. "I'm afraid you're not meeting me under the best of circumstances." He smiled and Hermione smiled back. He was rather handsome despite his age and the lifestyle he led..
"Asius you can't go back to the Dark Lord now, not when the Aurors have your wand," Snape said.
"You're right, I'll have to go on the run, and it'll be a toss up to see who gets to me first, the Aurors or Voldemort."
"Help us. Turn against Voldemort, the Ministry will make sure you're safe," Snape said appealing to his friend. Asius shook his head.
"I can't, I'm going to Azkaban anyway, I'll never be pardoned."
"Then at least tell the ministry everything you know. It might work out in your favour."
"No Severus, I'm sorry but I can't. I will be killed." Asius said stubbing out his second cigarette.
"If Voldemort catches up on you you're dead anyway. At least this way you'll be doing something good."
Noises were coming from outside of the castle. The three people in the office looked around and the atmosphere tense and heavy.
"I know this sounds a bit of a cliché but does this place have a back door?" Asius asked.
"Yes, go through that door there," Snape said pointing to a door that had just appeared in the wall, "and kick the wall by the window, you can get out that way."
Asius set off into a run and Snape pulled Hermione out of the office.
"Who is that?" Hermione asked as they walked out of the door.
"That is the man that saved my life. He convinced me to leave the Death Eaters." Snape shut the door and pulled out his wand. "You might not believe this but some of the nicest people I've met were Death Eaters. There not bad people some of them." Snape locked the door. "People like Asius are used as lackeys by Voldemort, they're considered expendable."
"That's horrible, he seems so nice." Hermione said as they walked down the corridor towards the classroom.
"He is nice, but Voldemort doesn't care, even his own followers are turning against him."
They walked into the classroom hearing the Aurors storm down the stairs to search the dungeons. Suddenly a horrible thought struck Hermione. The shock must have shown.
"What's wrong?" Snape asked her seeing her shock.
"Sirius is here," she whispered so the Aurors wouldn't here.
"Shit," Snape said under his breath. "Silly bastard, I told him not to, told him it was too obvious."
An Auror walked into the classroom.
"We are Aurors from the Ministry," the man said in an authoritative tone like the ones the police used. "We have reason to believe that a active Death Eater is on the premises. Is there a back door?"
Knowing that he had to co-operate Snape showed him to the door that Asius had left by.
Asius was running as fast as he could across the grounds of the school. It was dark so he couldn't see properly and didn't see when a man appeared in front of him. They collided and both fell to the floor with a crack.
"Sorry," Asius said breathlessly, getting back on his feet ready to run away again.
It was too late though. This had given the Aurors time to catch up and they were now surrounding both him and the man he'd collided with.
"Stop! You can't escape now!" Said an Auror.
"Hey, Boss, look," said a younger Auror. "That's Sirius Black."
"Get him!" The Aurors grabbed him, not really caring about Asius not now they had a bigger prize. "Sirius Black you are under arrest. You will be taken back to Azkaban prison where you will await sentencing."
"No!" Somebody shouted but it wasn't Sirius. He'd passed out with the shock of being caught. Two figures came out from under a cloak. Harry and Ron.
Hermione and Snape had joined the rest of the group wondering what had happened.
"Let him go he hasn't done anything!" Harry shouted.
"He was in league with He Who Must Not Be Named," an Auror said.
"No!" Harry argued. "No he wasn't! He wouldn't do that!"
"What would you know?" Sneered another Auror.
"Don't you even know who you're talking to?" Snape asked and they all turned to look at him.
"I don't care," said the leading Auror.
"That's Harry Potter!" Snape shouted. "This man is accused of causing the death of his parents. Do you really think he'd be defending him if he wasn't sure of his innocence?"
"That's not for us to decide." Said the Auror reluctantly and then turned to Asius. "You will come with us as well."
Taking the men outside the grounds they apparated leaving Harry, Ron, Snape and Hermione just standing there not knowing what to do.
"But surely they'll listen to you," Harry asked Dumbledore when the four of them went up to his office to ask for his advice.
"I am not the Minister of Magic, there is very little I can do," Dumbledore said sadly.
"But he asks you your advice on everything," Ron said, "my dad's always saying that."
"I fear that he won't listen to me about this."
"Are you saying that Fudge wants a scapegoat and he's decided to use Black?" Snape said.
"Yes, Severus. I fear that is exactly what Fudge is doing." Dumbledore sat back in his chair. "What about this other man, the one who knows you. Who is he?"
"His name is Asius Smith. He was one of me best friends while." He trailed off not really wanting to discuss this in front of Harry and Ron. "He came to tell me that Voldemort's own followers are turning against him. His support is weakening."
"Why are is followers deserting him?" Dumbledore asked.
"Asius told me that they feel Voldemort is too obsessed with Potter."
"You mean he wants to kill me?" Harry asked.
"Yes, but his supporters don't think of you as a threat. To them you are just a seventeen year old boy."
"Do you think this decline in support will hinder Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, but the Death Eaters won't help us, whether they're loyal or not, they are afraid of Azkaban, who wouldn't be," Snape said shuddering at the thought. "That is why Asius is staying quiet."
"I will see what I can do about Mr Smith. He may be of some use to us. You are to tell no one this information, do you understand?" They all nodded. "The students will be told that a the Aurors were looking for someone but did not find anything, and that there is no need to worry. They will not be told Mr Smith's identity."
"What about Sirius?" Harry asked.
"I fear that the Ministry will want to gloat about their capture of Mr Black. It will be all over the Daily Prophet. I can not stop the students finding out about that."
Feeling tired and physically drained the Harry, Ron, Snape and Hermione left Dumbledore's office. Snape and Harry had made some sort of unsaid truce, putting their hatred aside until all of the problems had been resolved. There was still a lot of hostility between them but they agreed that if they couldn't say anything nice they wouldn't say anything at all.
Saying goodnight they all went to their separate beds and despite the worry that was hanging over them they feel straight to sleep.