DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

AUTHOR NOTE: Many thanks to the wonderfully talented, Niamh for betaing this story. All of her fics should be on your reading list if you are enjoying, At Any Moment.

Minerva VI

After dinner...

What a day!

Albus isn't talking to me and neither is Severus. I've managed to alienate both of them in one swift motion, and yet I had my reasons for it. I think they were good reasons, though it's going to take a lot of work before Severus trusts me again.

Poor Severus. I basically said I didn't trust him alone with a student, with no basis other than a hunch...a sense that Hermione Granger has decided that the man she has railed about for the last six and a half years is somehow her salvation, all wrapped in a messy, malicious parcel.

I can't believe I did it so baldly. Well, I can actually, but still, surely I would have learnt a softer approach by now?

The look of sheer horror on Severus' face at the mere suggestion of some presumed impropriety is one I am going to have to address sooner rather than later. We have no real time left to fight each other, not when the survival of our world is teetering on the edge of the abyss.

I can't believe I did such a thing to the one man in the castle who would never even think to seduce a grief ridden student, or anyone else in a similar predicament, for that matter.

What on earth was I thinking?

I know what I was thinking, so it's a stupid question to ask. I was angry at Albus' blank dismissal of his inane mutterings at breakfast. He literally told me to mind my own business and stop prying into his thoughts.

The stupid bastard doesn't realise that a partnership is just that – the good and the bad, not just the things he thinks are important. I could have hexed him six ways from Sunday for such a chauvinistic attitude, but then I wouldn't have had a chance to find out what he was mumbling about. I still don't know what he was tossing around, but he seemed a bit more 'hinged' when I tried to talk to him after lunch.

I'd gone up to his office on the pretext of discussing Miss Granger's inability to stay in a safely warded dormitory, but if I'm honest I just needed to connect with him and catch up on the usual chatter we'd missed the night before. I needed to let him know that I'd faced Lucius and though I'd been terrified of the sheen of evil hovering like a shield about him, I had managed to keep my cool and not send him for a short, jagged trip off the south turret. I might have contributed to his make-up, but I'm determined one way or another to see him pay for all the suffering he's caused – to me and every other person; Muggle or magical, who couldn't escape his perverse pleasures.

I will see him pay for the death of my students' families if for no others, even if it is by my own hand.

Perhaps I contributed even more to Lucius than I know if I can calmly write such a thing, but then I know some of the vile nonsense he learnt. I know all too well that Flavius turned his own son into a vile perversion of a sentient being, someone only Riddle could proudly claim. If I can only save one of them, then it might not be too late for Draco to become so much more a man than he otherwise appears to be.

I know that's not possible, really I do, but sometimes it's nice to hope.

About nine o'clock in the evening...

I don't know what to do, though I know what I'd like to do!

I am so tempted to go down to the Potions classroom, but if I am to ever gain Severus' forgiveness, then I need to make the first move. It's not that I don't trust him, I do, but I just don't trust either Severus or Hermione if a situation arose that saw them having to confront any of their less than platonic feelings.

I don't know what happened when Severus found Hermione in the dungeons, but that poleaxed look on his face meant something, and then to find the pair of them happily brewing Circe knows what with no sharp barbs or snarling, means...well, I think it means that something unusual happened. It would take Veritaserum to get either of them to admit it though, but it worries me.

It's that odd little niggle when you know something happened, but you just can't put your finger on exactly what it was!

I just don't think either of them would survive the hurt they would cause each other. They are so similar in so many ways that any rejection or caustic comment could damage them far more than I think either of them realises.

I might just go for a walk, though if I'm honest I don't know that I'd be able to stay away from the dungeons and Severus would never forgive me for such a blatant lack of trust.

I suppose I could go and try and talk to Albus, but he made it quite clear this morning that he didn't appreciate me 'fussing' around him in the slightest.

I hardly think it's 'fussing' when the man you love is busy having an imaginary conversation with someone called, Arcanus...and you've never ever heard that name mentioned before.

Bugger Albus and his stupid avoidance tactics!

He needs to answer some questions and I need to find out if what I think is starting was the main reason for his snappish behaviour.

I just hope I'm wrong.

Constructive criticism, comments and reviews are most welcome!