Chapter Fourteen

Snape slammed his door shut and cursed. He sank heavily into a chair. He wasn't surprised. For a long time, he'd expected Dumbledore to give him a warning like this. But that didn't make it any easier. He had to get back into gear, and start doing his part for the Order.

Hermione woke up in Snape's bed again that morning, for the first time, not surprised to see the ceiling of a room not her dormitory. She dressed quickly in yesterday's robes and hurried out into the classroom, intending to make her way up to the Great Hall before anyone realized they hadn't seen her.

Snape was leaning over his desk when she got to his classroom. He seemed distracted. She cleared her throat and he jerked up heavily, the shadow of a smile crossing his disheveled features when he saw her.

"Morning." He muttered, turning back to his desk.

"Morning," she replied, "I had better get going." He nodded distractedly in response and she headed out of the dungeons and towards the Great Hall.

Harry, Ron, Ginny and Luna greeted Hermione when she sat down at the Gryffindor table. She smiled around the circle and motioned for them all to gather in.

"Something's happened." She said.

Ron furrowed his red eyebrows. "Something like what?"

"Something to do with Voldemort. I think it's something big. Dumbledore came down to the dungeons last night and was talking to Snape. He sounded really angry."

"Like Snape's gone back to Voldemort?" Luna said. "You know, my father has a picture of him meeting with Voldemort. He hasn't gotten a chance to print it yet."

"Were they surrounded by howler owls?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"No," Luna responded unfazed, "They were humpbacked snorkniftles."

Hermione motioned for them all to get back to the matter at hand, but before she could continue, Ginny shushed her.

"Look!" She said, pointing up at the staff table. Snape had just walked in and was speaking to Dumbledore, whose expression was warming by the second. After a few moments of conversation, Dumbledore nodded with a smile and Snape sat down at his place, looking about as pleased as he ever did in public.

Harry got the group back together. "I wonder what that was about."

"Dunno," said Ron, "But everyone looks pretty happy about it."

That afternoon after class, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny ran down to Hagrid's cabin. They were all sitting around the table, drinking the strongest tea in the whole of Britain, if not history, when Hermione asked Hagrid what was going on with Voldemort.

"Dunno," he replied, "But somethins up. He hasn' bin very active lately. Like there's somethin' on 'is mind."

"Something like what?" Ginny asked. Hagrid shrugged.

"What has Snape been up to?" Ron asked.

"Even if I knew, I couldn' tell yeh that."

Sirius and Rayna were roused by pounding at the door of the Shrieking Shack. Sirius ran down the stairs to open the door, pulling on a shirt as he went. His visitor was probably the person he least wanted to see at the moment.

"You do realize, Snivellus, that you're not welcome here." He said coldly.

"I didn't come here to talk to you." Snape replied, matching the coldness in Sirius' voice.

Sirius ran to block the stairs. "Rayna's not seeing anyone at the moment."

Snape pushed him out of the way. "If she can see you, she can see anyone. Besides, I have information about Lucius Malfoy."

Sirius considered, then bolted up the stairs at Snape's heels. Snape cleared his throat when he reached the threshold to a room where Rayna was sitting, curled up in a chair. She looked up.

"Lucius Malfoy is small time. I want Voldemort." She said, neither blinking nor flinching at the implication of her words. "Without Voldemort in the picture, Malfoy is powerless."

"You'll have to make do with what I can give you," Snape said icily, "and appreciate the effort it took. I can't hand you Voldemort."

"I can hand me Voldemort, for Merlin's sake! It's just that my get-out-of-jail-free card seems to have expired!"

"After ten years?"

"I refused him point blank."

"Take it back."

"That could never work."

"Try it. And here's the information on Malfoy. It can't hurt to have his right-hand man out of the way." He tossed a sheaf of papers at her, and stormed out of the building. Rayna read through the papers, gathering more resolve by the second. This could work.

TBC

A/N: Thank you so very much to the ridiculously loyal, very few of you who are still with me. I will now try to update once a week, and if I don't, you have my full, freely given permission to send me many very nasty e-mails until I do. I hope you enjoyed this little morsel (juicier content to come, I promise!).