Harry couldn't help but glance Snape's way as they sat in silence, going through book after book in a grimly lessening stack. Snape looked as surly about being there as Harry would have imagined, dismissing most of his books with disgust.

But he was there, thanks to Albus putting on pressure to solve this puzzle before another attack could be made and more people would die.

Remus and the man who seemed to be his new best friend were there as well. Remus was going through books with focus. Dom wasn't even pretending to try. He flipped through a few issues of the i Prophet /i Percy had brought on a stop-off, snorting with amusement every few minutes.

With a soft pop a house elf appeared, bowing to the room with an extra nervous twitter that meant he was probably one of Albus's new recruits. He had on the remains of what could have been one of Dudley's leftover shirts. It draped over him like a tent and meant that he was free and probably crying himself to sleep at night over it.

"Anyone is needing anything?"

"No, thank you," came several mumbled answers.

"Where's Poddy?" Since Dobby had gone on holiday Poddy seemed to be the dominant elf when it came to serving them directly.

Another low bow. "Mister Harry Potter sir. Poddy is seeing to Mister Seamus Finnigan."

"Mm." Harry sighed and turned back to his book.

"Where are they?" came from Snape's table nearby.

"Pardon, sir. They is walking by the lake, Renny thinks."

Snape cursed and stood up, slamming his book on the table. "Bloody nonsense. Good evening," he said curtly to the rest of the room as he headed for the door.

Harry watched him go, then stood and pushed away from the table. "Be back in a minute," he mumbled to Ron and Hermione as he followed Snape out the door.

He caught up to him with some difficulty. Snape must have been in a hurry suddenly. "Wait."

Snape glanced back then kept moving. "Tell Dumbledore I didn't come back here to play study partner with you lot of infants."

Harry jogged to catch up, feeling his face heat up. How Snape did it, how he drove Harry to pure fury with nothing but childish insults Harry had heard a hundred times before, he would never know. "I'm not your bloody messenger boy, and I told you to wait."

Snape's cold laugh was quiet. "The day I start taking orders from you, Potter-"

"I'm not bloody joking."

Nothing. Snape kept swinging those long, reedy legs further away.

"I know what you're doing." Harry planted the challenge in his voice. It was time to bring things out into the open. "I know about Seamus."

Snape stopped and turned on his heel so fast his robe fluttered. His face was pale, his eyes dangerous. "Excuse me?"

Harry puffed his chest out unconsciously. "Why are you going after him? Why won't you let him out of the castle?"

Snape moved to him. Harry fisted his hands to keep from shrinking back. Snape was taller and crueler, and Harry had no doubt he was more dangerous - if only because he would be quicker to kill or hurt without hesitating.

Snape leaned down, putting his face in Harry's as if they were still student and teacher. "If you know so much, why don't you tell me." The sneer was on his face and in his voice.

Under their combined effect Harry bristled. "Because you're afraid somehow he's going to become immune to that i potion /i ," he spoke with emphasis, "and then he'll leave you for good."

Snape drew back, losing even more color. "How do you know..." He stopped, and the strangest look Harry had ever seen came over his face. He looked somehow furious and wilted all at the same time. "You conceited bastard. You heartless, arrogant..."

Harry snorted, but the sound was weak. Something about Snape's face and the waver of his voice made Harry's stomach drop.

Snape studied him, and his shoulders sagged. "You don't know anything."

Harry opened his mouth, then shut it.

Snape turned, cursing vehemently under his breath in that shaken, odd tone.

Harry stayed where he was.

Snape slammed the door into his quarters, fists clenched so tightly he could feel his pulse against his palms.

How dare he? That cocky bloody brainless reincarnation of James bloody Potter, throwing around words, pretending to have an understanding of something he couldn't possibly comprehend.

Fucking Harry Potter and his black-and-white world. It was no sodding wonder the Dark Lord had yet to be destroyed. Potter had never grown up. He had never learned a single thing that wasn't in a ruddy text book.

Pottershould have known. He should have been able to understand. Lupin, as much as he annoyed Snape, at least understood. He knew that the world wasn't made up of simply good or bad. He understood that sometimes things weren't one dimensional.

It was such a i basic /i lesson. So bloody obvious. Ugly people weren't always evil. Unpleasant people weren't bad people, not all the time. Snape, though he wasn't a good man, was no one to be looked at as evil. He paid his dues. He had done enough for the side of good to make up for his unpleasantness. His years of slavery at the hands of two masters gave him more than enough leeway to be as ugly as he wanted to, and Harry Potter would not destroy him with accusations just because he didn't like him.

He looked around his empty quarters and felt his red wash of anger rumble deeper. There was a parchment by his floo, and he stormed over and grabbed it.

Was Potter going after Seamus with that same nonsense? He wondered as he tore open the scroll, which was marked by the talons of an owl.

The words in the parchment, and the familiar jagged scrawl they were in, instantly wiped Potter from his mind. He read them twice just to make sure.

He reached up shakily, pressing his fingers into a charm worn under his shirt on a long chain. He clasped it tightly through the fabric of his shirt and shut his eyes. "Get back here."

He felt a sudden rush of alarm that wasn't his. He released the chain and moved to the couch to sit.

Seamus appeared an instant later, apparated with help from house elf magic, and the small elf that accompanied him vanished an instant later.

"What?" The boy's face was pale with alarm. They never used the charms. It was a backup in case of an emergency.

Snape held out the parchment.

Seamus took it, white-faced, and read. His brow furrowed and he looked up. "It's gone, then?"

Snape nodded.

Seamus frowned at the letter. "Who wrote this?"

"Malfoy. The Younger. I'd know it anywhere." Proud and jutting writing, like the brat himself. The heart and soul of his father. "If we're lucky it was just our home. If I'm not lucky, and I'm usually not, he tracked down my connections in nearby villages and destroyed each of them."

Seamus sat beside him. "Oh." His voice was small. "We can't go back?"

"There's nothing to go back to. They've discovered I'm alive and that I'm here, and they bloody well tracked me right back to my home." His face clouded over - someone at Hogwarts must have said something.

Someone at Hogwarts was communicating with Death Eaters.

That was that. His home, his sanctuary for more than a year, gone. Everything.

"I'm sorry," Seamus said, and Snape felt his gaze though he didn't turn to look. Arms appeared around him, pulling him in and holding him close.

Snape stared out at the room, eyes blank. Start from scratch. No suppliers for his ingredients, no wards or safety spells, no defenses.

He couldn't even get warm from Seamus's touch. Because he had no idea if by the time they were ready to leave he would even have his lover with him.

"There's something we're missing. Something so obvious one of us is going to trip over it any moment."

Seconds passed. Pages flipped.

"I mean it. Any minute now, really."

Harry looked up at Ron but couldn't manage a smile.

"Do you suppose I could ask you all something? It may be trite, but...I find myself wondering."

"Hmm? What's that, Seamus?"

"What exactly is it you're all looking for?"

Ron chuckled.

Harry answered, his voice low. He didn't look at Seamus and Snape, sitting together. He wasn't going to look at them. "Oh, some new kind of magic. Well, some old kind of magic. One no one knows about, one that's strong enough to beat Voldemort for good. But it's no big deal - I have a couple of days yet to find it and learn it."

"Are you serious?"

Seamus sounded so bewildered that Harry had to look. He smiled at the look on his old schoolmate's face, then dropped his eyes before he could take in the dark shadow sitting beside him. "Sadly, yes."

"Oh."

Silence fell.

"Why don't you ask Poddy?"

Harry blinked at Seamus. "Poddy? The house elf?"

Seamus smiled. "Sure. I mean, house elves go back before wizards, and their magic is obviously stronger than ours."

"House elves? Those little runty wrinkled potatoes with quaffles for eyes who bow and scrape and do whatever we tell them?" Ron's voice was dubious.

"Ron!" came Hermione's response, almost flat in as much as it was reflex by then.

Seamus bit his lip, glancing to his side at the man Harry wasn't looking at. "Is that a stupid idea? I just thought, Dumbledore's got his best wards around this school, right? Old magic and all that. And the house elves can apparate still, even though we can't."

Harry's brow furrowed. He studied Seamus, then looked around at his friends.

Hermione looked interested. Ron just shrugged.

Harry looked to Snape next. Like it or not, with Remus off playing with his wolf friend Snape was the strongest wizard there to turn to.

Snape stared at Seamus, eyes narrowed. "It wouldn't do any harm to ask. You've got a repor with those irritating little creatures, you do it."

Seamus jumped to his feet, grinning proudly. "I will! I'll ask Poddy what he thinks and get back to you." He bolted out of the library.

Snape shook his head and went back to his book, muttering under his breath.

"That wasn't very nice, Professor Snape," Hermione said quietly. "It wouldn't have hurt to take him seriously."

Snape's eyes snapped to her. "What makes you think I don't take him seriously, Granger? I wasn't humoring him, and I'll thank you never to presume to interpret my feelings again. I trust him with a hundred times more than I'd ever trust to you."

She blanched, lowering her eyes. "Oh."

Snape went back to reading, turning to close himself off from the rest of them.

Harry looked at Hermione across the table and rolled his eyes in a way he'd done often behind Snape's back in potions classes.

She offered a wan smile.

Seamus's energy and cheer when he burst in maybe an hour later shifted the thick and heavy mood. "Poddy thinks he might be able to help!"

"Really?" Harry couldn't hide his shock. He shut the book on elemental magic he was reading.

Hermione sat bolt upright in her chair. "He'll tell you about house elf magic?"

Seamus beamed. "Well, why wouldn't he?"

"I've been looking for studies or books or anything on them for years now to help with S.P.E.W. and I've never found anything! Why would they tell you when they haven't told anyone else?"

Seamus shrugged. "I don't know if they haven't told anyone, or if they have and no one's bothered writing it."

Harry stood up and stretched slowly. "Right.I've been sitting here for almost six hours, and I'm exhausted. Can we save the lecture for tomorrow?"

"Of course. I want to talk to him a bit more, anyway. But this might really help, right?"

"Maybe." Harry shoved his books back and rolled his shoulders with a grimace. "Thanks, Seamus. I'm sure it'll be enlightening, either way."

"Like to give Hermione more fuel for Spew, too, eh?"

"I heard that, Ron."

Harry managed a faint smile to match Ron's.

"Professor..." Hermione lagged behind, and Harry glanced back to see her approaching Snape. "Do you think I might talk to you for a moment? About something that's been bothering me?"

Snape sighed but nodded Seamus to the door.

Seamus grinned and nodded back, moving out with more energy than the rest of the room put together.

Harry watched him go and glanced at Ron. "Going to wait on Hermione?"

Ron shrugged. "Best, yeah. In case the Git leaves her in tears or something."

"See you later, then." Harry moved through the door. "Seamus?"

Seamus turned and beamed, moving back to him. "Hullo, Harry! Are you going to walk me back to my room? I feel like we haven't had much time at all to talk about real things."

"Sure." He walked beside Seamus, gathering his thoughts. He couldn't let things slide. Now that the mystery of Voldemort had been tucked away until the morning the other mysteries crowded his mind, and he had to admit that Seamus and Snape were top of the list. Petty of him, but there it was.

Harry drew in a breath. "What is the potion Snape gives you?"

Seamus's steps faltered, then he laughed oddly. "Should have known you'd spot it. You were never one to miss anything, Harry." He faced Harry for a moment, serious. "I don't like keeping secrets, you know, but this one..."

"You're not going to tell me?"

Seamus bit his lip. "I don't know. I guess it doesn't matter much either way." He sounded hesitant.

They moved towards the dungeons, the air getting draftier and cooler as they walked.

"Listen...tell me something, then, to make me understand." Harry stopped, facing Seamus.

"Alright, Harry." Seamus's exuberance had faded, which made Harry feel a little guilty. He didn't want to wreck the happiness of the one person in the castle who seemed to actually be happy.

He drew in a breath. "Why him? What is it you could possibly like?"

Seamus smiled at that. "Severus? You honestly can't see?"

Harry shook his head.

Seamus looked around. "The potions classroom is nearby; let's talk there. I can't ask you to our quarters, Harry. They're not mine to share."

Harry flushed, but Seamus didn't notice as he led the way to the classroom.

They sat at a table near the door. For a moment Seamus bit his lip, thinking. "I'm not really sure what it first was." He blushed suddenly. "Well. I mean, that's all a long story. I was in the Muggle world, you know, and it had been a long time since I had seen anyone from my old life. He appeared...and that's part of the long story. But we came together, and..."

Harry studied him, fascinated by the way his every feeling seemed obvious, right there up front for Harry to do with whatever he wanted. He was so guarded himself, so careful what he allowed people to know, that this seemed alien.

"Have you ever heard that old expression about taking candy from strangers?"

Harry nodded. He had heard of it, though Merlin only knew that Petunia and Vernon would have been more likely to encourage it if she'd thought it would do Harry harm.

Seamus went on. "It's dangerous, you see. It could hurt in a thousand ways. The candy might be poisoned, or, when you reach for it they may just grab your wrist and haul you off to do whatever they want.My mam used to remind me constantly, don't do it. Don't trust strangers. Don't take candy."

Harry cocked his head, studying Seamus. "Alright. I follow you well enough."

Seamus smiled. "That's Severus."

"You just lost me."

"Well, everyone I know would have warned me against him. It's something that should have been so obvious my own mam would have said something if she'd guessed. Miserable Professor Snape. Greasy git, right? Hateful, and we all knew he had been a Death Eater." Seamus let out a sigh. "Do you know the feeling you get when you do something everyone has warned you against? Your stomach is in your throat, and you know it may be a complete mistake. You're risking yourself when all signs say not to."

"So...you're with him because you shouldn't be?"

Seamus laughed. "No. Though that was part of the excitement. I don't have the right to tell you all of it. Severus is a very private man, and a lot of it is his story to share. But he was different when I saw him again. He was still him, I mean, but there was something there. A loneliness and need. It's how he found me in the first place. I was so lost myself. There was that rush there, that grasping at something that might be poisonous. But there was more. A lot more."

"He's not a good person," Harry said, as if reminding them both of the fact.

Seamus shook his head. "You're wrong, Harry. He's not a i nice /i person, not in a lot of ways. But he's the best person I've ever known."

Harry frowned. "How can you feel that way about Snape?"

"He's so strong. He's been through so much, and even now he goes through so much. He never tried to be likeable. It's...a test, in a way. At least, I think so. He confronts people with the bluntest part of his nature, and if they demand he be nice, or chalk him up as evil, he doesn't bother with them. I hate to say it, Harry, but you're very much one of those."

Harry shook his head, confused.

"Have you noticed how he speaks to Professor Lupin?" Seamus rubbed at his arms in the cool classroom. "He isn't nice, beecause he's rarely nice. But he isn't cruel. Professor Lupin was one of the rare people who accepted Snape for how he was and was generous enough to allow him some humanity despite it."

Harrry was silent, thinking back. Snape had done some very cruel things to Remus in Remus's first year as DADA professor, but there were extenuating circumstances. Since then...

Seamus was right. He wasn't actively cruel. Not like he was to Harry.

He blinked at that, wondering if Seamus was right. Had he thought of Snape as evil because Snape was cruel? Despite all he knew of Snape's past and his decades of work as a spy? Was Remus right, and Harry was the one who couldn't accept the truth about Snape?

What did that say about Harry?

Seamus studied him, and something about Harry's expression must have satisfied him. "I told you before that I rely on Severus for everything. I didn't mean it the way you took it." He smiled, but it was so thin on his face it was almost transparent. "I'm sick."

Harry frowned, drawn out of his introspection. "What?"

"The potion Severus makes me? It keeps me healthy." Seamus studied him. "Whatever you've seen of Severus, you don't know the full story. He gets sharp with me when I endanger myself. He doesn't like me going out in the cold, for instance, or being late to take a potion. He snaps and gets mad and I think he gives you the wrong idea. If you think he isn't capable of love, you're wrong. He loves me, as much as I love him. You just have to understand that how he shows things like that is different than anyone else."

Harry stared at him.

In a neat way he cringed to realize, it made everything fall into place. Every little hint. Everything that didn't fit with his theory about some brainwashing potion fit.

Snape wasn't holding anyone captive. Remus was right. Harry was a sodding idiot. He was letting his feelings override common sense. He hated Snape, and the only way he could live with that, perhaps, was if he convinced himself Snape brought it on himself.

Harry was supposed to be the hero, after all. Heroes didn't hate anyone but villains.

Heroes weren't supposed to be petty. They weren't supposed to turn into spiteful eleven-year-olds because of a past grudge.

Bloody i hell. /i

He thought back to the night he had spied on them, and without having to warp Seamus's honest and sincere reactions to fit some brainwash theory, he realized something else. Seamus had blanched when Snape said he wanted to...well, wanted him.

He looked at Seamus bleakly. "Is is contagious? Whatever you've got?"

"It can be, but only through blood or..." he blushed,. "other fluids. I'd never risk anyone here, I promise."

"I know, Seamus." Harry's spirits sunk further with every remembered hint, and how easily he had chalked it up to something horrible. Because it was Snape, wasn't it? And he wasn't capable of good. "Bloody hell."

"What's wrong?"

"You're dying, aren't you? You're not just sick." Snape's voice in his head, when Harry asked if Snape was afraid of losing Seamus for good. Snape's voice, rough and cracked and saying that was exactly what he was afraid of.

Seamus nodded faintly.

Harry frowned. "I'm sorry, for what it's worth."

"It's not your doing, is it?" Seamus smiled again.

"How can you be so bloody happy?"

Seamus stood up, holding a hand out. Harry reached for it uncertainly and let Seamus tug him out of his seat. His hand was squeezed for a moment, then released.

"I've got whatever time I've got, and that's it. Severus is a genius, but the disease isn't going away. It's not progressing nearly as fast as it should, but he can't cure it. I may have years, but I may not." He shrugged, and in his face Harry watched his usual brightness returning. "If I spend my time thinking about it, then all I'm doing is dying. And that's just silly. There's too much to love about life."

Harry stared. Seamus was handsome and young and energetic. And he was dying. He had won the love of a man Harry had deemed wasn't capable of it, survived Death Eater attacks and the loss of his family. And there he was, smiling despite it all. Sincerely, too, that was the wonder of it. No forced smiles for show, no martyr bravery in the face of suffering. He was genuinely happy.

Harry shook his head. "I owe Snape an apology."

Seamus laughed, nudging Harry's arm and starting them towards the door. "For what in particular?"

"A lot of things."