"Okay, but he's just going to tell us anything we want to know anyway." Ron Weasley's voice sounded, petulant as always, as he was going for the door.

Snape shook his head, warily bemused by the whole thing. The old castle had brought back a lot of feelings and memories, and it didn't help him deal well with being surrounded by idiots who acted as if they were still students.

Petulant or not, at least Weasley was leaving. Everyone but Potter, Minerva and Lupin, and Albus of course, was being sent away. Snape would not speak openly in front of unknown elements. The only reason Potter was staying was that Albus insisted, and Snape knew he wouldn't bend on that.

His eyes followed Seamus as the boy followed the others out, and Seamus glanced back with a smile.

Snape nodded, knowing Seamus would wait for him.

The door shut behind the departing group, and Snape turned back to face Albus. "Enough wasting time with pointless self-congratulations. He is still alive."

"He is being housed at the Ministry, in a room specially built for this circumstance."

Snape blew out an irritated breath, shaking his head. This circumstance should never have been considered, much less provided for. "He will be killed?"

"The Ministry is voting on that." Lupin hadn't changed a bit - his quiet interjections still reeked of inoffensiveness, as if mildness was a trait that ever won anyone anything.

Snape's eyes didn't leave Albus. "He will be killed."

"The Ministry thinks they can learn things from him."

He glared over at Potter when the brat spoke. "If I wanted to know what the Ministry thought I would be there now."

"He will be killed," came the answer, finally, from behind the desk.

Snape looked back, satisfied. "If those dunderheads vote against it we will have to do it ourselves. " He amended that a moment later. "We will have to do it ourselves nonetheless. i Why /i was he brought in alive?"

Albus nodded towards Potter.

Snape grimaced. He took in the boy, noting that very little had changed about him. His glasses were dirty, his hair a tangled mess. That scar seemed darker, but that was no surprise. He sat as if in detention, slumped and sullen. He returned Snape's look with eyes that read of hatred.

"We fought. I won. He wasn't dead. What should I have done?"

Snape stared at him.

Potter's cheeks went pink and he looked away, whether in anger or embarrasment Snape wasn't sure.

"You people are throwing yourselves parties to celebrate nothing. The most you can say now is that you know where the Dark Lord is, and that's only a small part of the battle."

"He's helpless where he is," Potter said, voice rising. "The Unspeakables and the Aurors are all watching over him. He is warded and unconscious, and what the bloody hell gives you the right to suddenly show up again when all the work is done and just -"

"Harry." Lupin's voice, obnoxiously placating.

"All the work is done?" Snape scoffed, looking away from the boy. "Albus, you know better than this."

"They must be allowed to enjoy successes as they come, Severus. Times have not been easy lately."

"Coddle them when the Dark Lord is destroyed! All of you have lost your minds." Snape stood up, wondering if there was a chaance Seamus was alone out there so they could simply leave. He doubted it. The boy drew people to him. "I've not got the patience left to deal with this. Thank you for bringing me back here to show me again why I left, Albus. I'll be going."

"Coward."

Snape's head jerked. Potter slumped there, anger on his face as if he had some right to it.

"You never learned a thing, Potter. You're a conceitedidiot like your father."

"And you're a coward and a traitor who ran away just when things got hard." Potter jumped out of his chair, brushing off Lupin's reaching arm.

"What do you know of hard?" Snape wheeled and strode towards Potter, rage like he hadn't felt in a long time building inside him so rapidly he could taste the acid of it in his throat. "What do you know of anything?"

"I've been here fighting. I lost Hagrid, and Arthur and Molly Weasley, and Charlie, and Sirius. We lost Dean Thomas and -"

"Nothing. You know nothing." Snape turned on his heel, marching towards the door. The news of the Weasleys was surprising, and he couldn't say he didn't feel a twist of regret. That family was annoying and incredibly invasive, but they were dedicated.

"Severus."

He bristled, turning with his hand on the gilded doorknob. "Why bring me back, Albus? They don't want me here and there is nothing I can contribute."

There was no twinkle in Albus's face. He stood, and when he walked around the desk Snape tried not to notice how much slower he moved. "Voldemort will be killed. We will have to do it."

Snape grimaced. He knew that well enough. He was a few steps ahead of the idiots in the room with them. Did they think someone could walk into the Dark Lord's presence, warded or not, brandish a wand and that would be that? Did Potter think the Dark Lord would fester quietly until someone could hit him with a killing curse?

There was so much they weren't taking into account, so much Snape knew they should realize. It was their foolishness that infuriated him more than anything. Why, he never understood, did they never learn?

"I'm no help, Albus. They don't want my help and I don't want to offer it. There is nothing I can bring to this that you don't already know."

"I would appreciate if you would stay."

"Of course you would. But you're asking too much."

"I've not begun to ask too much, Severus."

Whenever Snape thought back on Albus, on their meetings and the old man's deranged sort of wisdom, Snape thought he should despise him. No matter how many steps ahead Snape was, Albus was beyond him. He was always beyond, and he would never give a word more than he thought he should. He had kept secrets that would have avoided Snape pain if he had known. He had manipulated Snape in a thousand ways since Snape had shown up in this very office twenty years ago asking for help.

He manipulated everyone. He used them, he treated them like children who couldn't handle knowing full truths. He spoonfed them bits of information, gave them hope only when he had no other choice, and babied them in a hundred different ways.

Snape should have despised the man. He should have spit in his face and left that office behind, knowing there would be no peace in his life.

But it wasn't that easy. The truth never was cut and dry like that.

Dumbledore used them and babied them and manipulated them. But he did it to end a war. He commited the ultimate sin for a leader - he cared about them. He hurt for them, even as he was the one bringing them pain.

Snape shook his head, unable to hate the man but unable to be a puppet any longer. Not after having known his small but important taste of freedom the last few years. "Let me know when it's done. If it's done. Good day, Albus."

He turned and left the room, going down the small and winding staircase. Amazement at his refusal made his second-guess every footstep. Potter was despicable, but he was nothing more than an idiot child. Did he truly have so much influence over Snape's decisions? This was the end of an era, the end of the worst of mistakes in Snape's life. A chance to see things through to a real conclusion. A chance to free himself, instead of being freed. To make sure that if by some miracle Potter did manage to kill Voldemort, he wouldn't have to be beholdent to the boy.

He was tense as he reached the bottom of the stairs, and he opened the door out into the corridor hoping against common sense that no one would be there to set him off.

Laughter greeted his arrival, and the air outside that door was so much lighter than in the office it made his breaths feel less substantial somehow.

"Severus!" Brilliant green eyes unclouded with darkness landed on him, and Seamus's face curved in a smile. There was joy in him, a lightness in his steps as he approached, and there was color in cheeks that has been too pale for too long.

Behind him, noted but not for more than an instant, were Weasley and Granger.

Snape's eyes fastened on Seamus, studying the sight of that smile and those pink, almost healthy-looking cheeks.

"Ron and Hermione are staying here as well! It'll be almost like having the old dorm back."

Snape looked away with a frown, at the two watching children. Weasley and Granger. They hadn't changed either. Weasley still sweated awkwardness, Granger still lofted her nose in that smug intelligent way she was probably unaware of. These were the ones left to fight his war. Them and Potter.

Potter, who called him coward as if he knew. As if life were ever that simple.

"- to know where we'll go. Right? Severus?" Seamus's hand appeared as warm weight on his arm. "Did you hear me?"

He looked back into bright green eyes. "No."

Seamus laughed, but his eyes were concerned. "It wasn't important anyway. Just...I'm glad we decided to come. "

That caught Snape's attention. Seamus had almost as many unresolved emotions towards this school and its residents as he himself did. Not just with the school, but with the wizarding world itself. Snape had worried bringing him back there.

But there was sincerity in his eyes, and Seamus was a horrid liar.

Snape let out a breath. "We need to talk. Alone." His eyes went to the others in that corridor.

Granger looked curious. Weasley, defiant.

Seamus took his arm and immediately walked them away from Dumbledore's office and the two standing there mutely. He led them around a corner and out of earshot. "What's going on? What happened?"

Snape frowned at a nearby suit of armor and kept moving. "There is no point in us staying. They won't listen to me, and what little advantage they have they're going to lose. Nothing has changed here."

"Severus."

He stopped far enough from any meddling armor or paintings and glowered at his companion. "This is just what I left behind."

"No." Seamus lay a hand on his arm, light and unhesitating. "You've changed. You don't need them anymore, Severus. They're the ones who need you. But you do need an ending." His hand slid until it rested over the numb ache of Marked skin. "You can be done with this. The potions and the nightmares. The worrying. You can be free, and you know as well as I do that you'll never be happy until you are."

Snape snorted, looking away from those eyes. "I'll never be happy because that's not who I am."

"A few days, Severus. Isn't that all it will take? You'll make them understand whatever they don't understand, and then it will be over and we can go home."

"We can go home now. I don't need to deal with this, and you don't need to be kept in this bloody castle."

"Don't use me as your reason," Seamus replied. "I need this as much as you do. It's nice to see everyone and to realize that whatever foolish thoughts I had about them were wrong, but after so many years no resolution comes that quickly. I want to talk to them, too look around...maybe to speak to Professor McGonagall about what I missed. If I could get some of it back, Severus, maybe I could take care of myself a little more. "

"You don't need to take care of yourself." Severus meant to snap the words, but they came out softer than he intended. He reached out without knowing why and neatened some disheveled hair from over Seamus's forehead.

"We could both get better. Even if just a little, isn't that worth it?" Seamus met his eyes and suddenly smiled. "Don't you want to be here when you're proven right? Don't you want the thanks you've deserved for so long?"

Snape snorted, voice softening further despite himself. "If I thought I would get it..."

"You will. I'll see to it myself." Seamus pulled back a step, straightening in determination. "I'll infiltrate their ranks and be the inside man when it all comes to a head. "

Snape sighed, almost wanting to smile despite himself. "You are a foolish child."

Seamus grinned. "I know. You'll thank me for it later."