This is a rather long chapter that has been dubbed the 'we love Snape' orgy by my friend Lara. One of the motives for her madness will become apparant as you read on; as for the other motives for her complete insanity... well... the doctors are hopeful that she can be removed from her padded cell pretty soon. Read on and REVIEW!

Chapter 9: Revelations

"LORD ILLINGWORTH: The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden.

MRS ALLONBY: It ends with revelations"

Oscar Wilde

The other members of the order had thought of no suitable alternative. The Order of the Phoenix now had to decide on a way to carry out Ella's plan. Everyone was in agreement that there was no way that Ella and her father could face Voldemort and his Death Eaters alone. They had drawn a blank on how the members of the order could possibly locate them when Severus answers his call. Possible magical tracking systems had been discussed but to no avail. Voldemort would have wards surrounding him to make sure that he couldn't be tracked down.

Hermione and Ella looked at each other "there is one way" they said simultaneously. "There is no way that Ella and Professor Snape could be tracked magically, but there is always the Muggle way" Hermione continued.

"The Muggle way?!" Arthur Weasley exclaimed looking positively thrilled at the prospect of using a Muggle device.

"Muggle's have ways of tracking things with a thing called a microchip..."

When Ella had finished explaining what a Muggle tracking device was everyone agreed that using one was the best arrangement they had. Hermione sent word to her parents and Ella to her step-parents to see if it would be possible to obtain one.

"We must now wait for replies to the letters sent by these two young ladies and we must also await Severus' recovery. Without him this plan is void. I am pleased to say that he is making good progress. Now go home and rest, all of you, we have a lot of work ahead of us".

The six young friends made their way to the Hospital Wing after the meeting. Dumbledore had been right, Snape had made good progress. He was regaining consciousness more frequently and for longer periods and his speech was becoming more and more comprehensible. He also began to recognise people more readily and, although he still suffered from bouts of panic spasms as a result of his mal-treatment, these were happening less and less often.

They arrived at his bed to see him awake and staring at the ceiling. He was still not strong enough to sit up on his own but he turned to see his visitors when they entered the room. His daughter rushed to give him a kiss on the cheek and he smiled at her. "How are you?" he asked, his voice weak but clear.

"We're fine" Ella lied.

He remained facing his daughter and her friends but his eyes adopted a rather glassy appearance and he winced and whimpered in obvious pain. The six of them would have been distressed if they hadn't seen this happen before. As it stood, they knew exactly what to do.

Neville went to fetch Madam Pomfrey who was dealing with another patient. He had witnessed the results of the Crutiatus on his professor the first few times they had been present and had been clearly distressed. It was understandable really, with his parents being victims of the curse themselves. His friends had noticed his discomfort and had suggested that he should fetch Madam Pomfrey so that he did not have to see. With Neville gone, Draco, Hermione and Ron formed a barrier on each side of their teacher to prevent him from falling and Ella rolled her father back onto his back with his head to the side and stroked his face as he started to shudder.

They knew that they could not hold him still whilst he was having a fit. They had tried that the first time they had seen it because they had not known any better. As they held him down he had begun to froth and the mouth and cough up blood as he tried to free himself. They had learnt from their mistake.

His convulsions had not lasted for long and by the time the medi-witch arrived the young wizard was shivering as an after effect and a sign that the worst was over.

Poppy Pomfrey gave the pale man some potion as his daughter propped his upper body up. He was sound asleep before she could lie his head back down on the pillow.

"That is the first one in quite a while now, he's doing so well. I'm sorry you had to see it" the witch said to the students.

They said their goodbyes and then left, they would visit again later.

Three weeks later and Severus Snape was pretty much back to his old self again. When Ella and her friends went to visit him this time they found him sitting up and reading a new edition of the 'Potions Publication' a scowl set firmly on his face.

He was muttering to himself and, when he heard them enter, he said "have you heard this? According to this article, Wolfsbane is ineffective and should be banned because it can become addictive! Have you ever heard such nonsense?"

The six teenagers, who had been trying their hardest to maintain straight faces, all burst out with their first real laughter in ages.

"I don't know what you lot are laughing about!" Snape exclaimed, his scowl deepening. His students rushed over to him and engulfed him in a huge group hug and when it was finally finished they were all left panting from the force of each others embrace and their persistent laughter. Severus was laughing too now even though he had just been squashed.

"Do you know how long I've got to stay in here being mollycoddled?" The man was becoming more than a little restless and wanted to get out as soon as possible.

"Until as you've regained enough strength and I'm completely sure that you won't just collapse and have a fit as soon as you leave your bed!" replied Madam Pomfrey who had just bustled into the ward.

"Well I shall just have to prove to you that I won't then!" The Potions Master said, trying to stand up.

His daughter and her companions had other ideas "oh no you don't" they said together as they pushed him back down onto the bed.

A week later, after complaining constantly and acting like a caged lion, Severus Snape was released from the Hospital Wing by a none too happy Poppy Pomfrey. He was given strict instructions to rest and to drink plenty of fluids (not alcohol). The professor was escorted to his room by his usual concierge and her following. His daughter and Draco took an arm each and he had given up in his protests at this arrangement after his legs had buckled when they listened to his earlier pleas.

He had lost a lot of weight and his usually slight frame was now gaunt. With his weight had gone his strength but he was slowly beginning to regain both.

He was still plagued in his sleep by images of his torture and these images often haunted him in the day time as well so the usually solitary man was starting to crave company more and more to take his mind off what had happened. Albus Dumbledore was conscious of this fact so he had not brought up what had been discussed in the meeting but he knew that they were running out of time. It wouldn't be long now before Severus was called.

"Severus, sit down".

Snape knew then that whatever the headmaster had to say, it wasn't good. It wasn't the fact that Albus had told him that he needed to sit down that had made him aware that he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear; it was the simple fact that he had been sitting down when he had been given his instruction.

"I have something of momentous importance to discuss with you and I fear that I can delay no longer."

The wizard braced himself. He knew that whatever the older man had to say to him he couldn't blame him; don't shoot the messenger. He had often deliberated over that fact that it was always the people who loved you the most who hurt you the most; he had once wondered if it wouldn't just be better to have everyone hate him. That was before he met Charlotte; after that everything changed for him.

The only person he had ever loved before he met his wife was his mother. Her death at his father's hand had been the most painful thing that had happened to the young Snape and it had driven him to kill his own father. He wanted to make everyone hate him after that, he wanted to hate everyone so that no one could hurt him again. Charlotte had showed him that he didn't need to think that way and later so had Dumbledore. He remembered the day that Ella was born. It was the happiest day of his life.

It seemed ironic that the man who he had turned to for guidance, to teach him how to hate, was the man he know found himself hating above all others bar one; the only person who he had ever hated more than Voldemort was himself.

His life had totally fallen apart on the day of Charlotte's death and the biggest trials he had had to face since then were serving Voldemort as a spy when he had returned and living with himself and with what he blamed himself for.

"Severus, when you are called, Ella will use Polyjuice potion to make herself look like Harry Potter and then she will accompany you."

The dark haired man stood up and started pacing. "No, she can't come it's too dangerous. She doesn't know enough magic..."

"Severus, you know perfectly well that she is one of the most capable witches in the school despite her lack of training. She has been to every DA meeting since she arrived and is a fine dueller..."

"She can't she's too young! How can she face him? Nothing she has learnt here could prepare her for him..."

"Severus, I have taught her the killing curse."

Snape stopped dead in his tracks. He remembered the first time he had cast 'Avada Kedavra', he had lost his childhood, his innocence just by saying those two words. He closed his eyes and turned his back to the man he had come to see as his father.

"No, I will not agree to this. When I am called I will go alone and let him kill me."

He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned around to find himself staring into Dumbledore's clear blue eyes. The man's gaze penetrated his very soul and he broke down pitching forward into his friend's arms as his body racked with sobs.

Ella made her way to the Headmaster's office. She was accompanied by Professor McGonagall, who had taken her away from her Charms lesson, and her best friends who refused to leave her side.

"Toffee Crisp" McGonagall uttered the office's latestconfectionary password and a staircase appeared.

Ella's father was in the office along with Albus Dumbledore, the younger man was clutching his arm. As she ascended the stairs she could tell that her father had been sick, his skin had adopted the grey, green tinge she knew too well. She knew why she was there; the Polyjuice potion sat steaming on Dumbledore's desk.

Severus Snape slumped into a chair and cradled his head in his arms as his daughter picked up the potion and retreated behind a screen with a change of robes for the transformation. The younger man's mentor and friend stood behind him and addressed Ella's entourage.

"You know what must happen now," the students nodded with their faces downcast. They all felt so helpless.

A few minutes later a boy with untidy raven hair, glasses and a scar on his forehead emerged from behind the screen.

The real Harry Potter stood face to face with his mirror image and they threw themselves into a desperate embrace.

The group of young comrades then proceeded to hug and kiss the Polyjuiced Potter in turn before they all turned to face their Potions professor. He was standing now and had assumed a blank expression that could have fooled his own mother into thinking that he was nothing but an apathetic observer. His mother, however, was dead and had not known her son as the people standing in that room did.

Hermione was the first to react. "Professor Snape..." she moved towards him and took his hand in hers, still his impassive mask remained, "Severus..." The man closed his eyes and took in a trembling breath. "Severus, I know that you consider your life to be of no value, that you think you deserve death." The girl's voice wavered slightly but she continued. "But, sir, you are not worthless. Not one person in this school believes that to be so, certainly no one in this room. In fact, we love you... I love you..." The broken man looked down at her with disbelieving eyes. She gave him a look of tearful defiance. "We do love you... I do love you... If you don't return when this is all over for your own sake do it for ours... for mine..." She looked down at her feet as the tears poured over and she felt another hand join hers on Snape's.

"I'm sorry for acting like a prat in the past," Ron said. "You have earned every bit of my respect and even that is not enough. If Voldemort..." he swallowed hard to regain his composure after speaking that hated name. "...If he does anything to hurt you tonight, I'll make him wish he'd..." Ron stopped and cleared his throat nervously realising the absurdity of what he had just said. "Sorry... Just come back in one piece, 'mione's right, you're not worthless, you mean a lot to us, we love you." He blushed at just having given a declaration of love to a man but his eyes did not break contact with the older man's.

Neville approached tentatively and placed his hand on his Professor's as well. "Before you found Ella, I had nothing. Now I have friends and, I'm sorry if this sounds strange, when you came back and had been, well, tortured, I thought it would be like it was with my parents..." The boy looked straight into the eyes of the man he had feared for so long. "But you got better; this made me think that they could too. You gave me hope, sir, I know that this makes it seem like I think that you getting tortured was a good thing; I don't at all. I hope that you didn't take what I said the wrong way. You see, I owe you a lot, we all do, I just hope that we... that I... get the opportunity to repay you. Sir, I no longer fear you; you have my admiration and my love. I know this isn't much but it's all I have to give."

"Severus, I'm sorry..."Draco Malfoy's hand was joined to the others. "I'm sorry for wanting to be like my father, I never want to behave as he has; I don't want to be a Malfoy anymore! You, your daughter and our friends are all the family I want." The blonde boy's words were gushing out along with his tears. "Please be ok, please come back, I have always loved you as a father and not him, I hate him! Please Severus! Please Father!" The sheer desperation in the boy's voice threatened to overcome everyone who heard it.

Harry Potter spoke. "Professor Snape. I do not blame you for my godfather's death; it was not your fault. I was wrong not to have trusted you, I was wrong to have thought you were still with them. You have saved my life more times than I think you realise; I was never a hero, you were, you are, you are our hero!" Snape let his tears fall, he could no longer act like he did not care. "I'm sorry for my father's behaviour towards you, I really am my father's son and I could not be sorrier for this." Snape's eyes told the young boy that Harry had nothing to be sorry for and that he deserved what he got. Harry had to avert his gaze to stop himself from crying at how little care Snape had for his own well being. "I am so sorry!" His voice broke. "Please come back!"

McGonagall had tears in her eyes to match those of everyone in the office. Everyone that is, except Albus Dumbledore and Gabriella Snape.

The young girl went up to her father and the others stepped back to give the two of them more space. Ella then did the last thing that could have been expected. She cupped her father's tear stained face in one of her or rather, one of Harry's, hands and with the other she slapped him hard across his cheek. Several of her friends gasped as did her Head of House. Severus Snape looked at his daughter in something akin to fear and Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"That is the right facial expression Father." She said, making her new voice resonate coldly. Her male body seemed to glow with its own aura of power. "Did that hurt?" Snape nodded wordlessly. "Do you think that would have hurt anyone else any less? Do you think that anyone would be any less fearful than you are now?" He nodded his head in reply to the first question and then looked around the room in search of the answer to the second question; he found it in the eyes of the people standing behind him. They were all just as fearful as he was. He shook his head.

Next chapter: The Final Battle I wonder what will happen in this chapter? Answers on a postcard or even better... on a REVIEW!