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Web of Lies: Revelations.

Minerva rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I'm not completely sure, most of the ones involved are in the Hospital Wing, and no matter how annoyed Poppy was with them, she didn't allow me to talk to them. I think that she just needed something to do to keep her mind busy."

Severus smirked knowingly but chose not to comment. His colleague sipped her tea and returned to her train of thought. "As far as I've been able to figure it out, some of the students made some nasty remarks about Albus being already dead and us not wanting to admit it, a few of the other students overheard and answered. One thing led to the other and by the time we arrived, they had come to blows. It's a good thing they didn't have their wands with them."

Severus nodded, staring pensively at his own cup. While Minerva had omitted names and houses, the Potions Master was very sure it had been students of his house that started with the remarks and students of Minerva's house who started with the blows. While he would love to blame it all to the Gryffindors, he was too tired of the stupid rivalry to try and ignore the guilt his own house bore.

Passing a tired hand through his hand, the younger wizard nodded. "I'll try to talk to my students, not that I think it will help much since I'm quite limited on what I can say, but I'll try to do something about them."

Minerva shrugged lightly. "Personally, I'm not sure if it's worth the effort."

Severus frowned and looked at the old woman closely at those defeated words. She seemed very tired and worn. "Have you rested, Minerva? You look like you are about to keel over."

Those words forced a small laugh out of her throat. "I'm afraid I haven't been able to sleep yet, Severus. Too much has been going on. First the students, then Filius came back from the Ministry..."

Before she could continue, he sat straight up. "Filius is back? What did he find out about the attack?"

The witch sipped her tea. "It seems that some of the governors were replaced by polyjuiced Death Eaters. No one seemed to notice until they started to curse Albus. Unfortunately, they were all taken by surprise, and by the time they managed to react, Albus was already unconscious. The aurors were called but they were detained for some reason, no one knows exactly why but Filius and a few aurors think it was Fudge's doing."

Severus clenched his fists. "That stupid, good for nothing excuse for a human being! How much more do we have to take of his incompetent rule until someone finally realises he will be our downfall?"

Minerva smiled tiredly. "Not much longer it seems. Some of the governors overheard one of the aurors say that they had been detained because Fudge had been holding some kind of nonsensical meeting and that when the call came, he told them to wait until he was finished speaking. That particular governor has friends in high places in the Wizengamot and has already started to pull some strings. Fudge will be facing an inquiry very soon. The fact that Albus was so gravely injured is also making people react, especially since about half of the Death Eaters managed to escape before the Aurors made it to the meeting place."

Severus was frowning deeply by the time she went silent. "What about the other Death Eaters?"

The witch shrugged lightly. "As far as we've been able to determine, the aurors are holding them in their cells, Fudge would be the one to order their interrogations but just as Albus did a few months ago, they have sworn off the Ministry until such a time in which there's a new Minister in charge. So until that happens or the chef of the Aurors decides to tell us what's going on, no one knows what's going to happen with the prisoners."

The two teachers remained silent for a long while. When Severus looked up from his cup, he found that Minerva had fallen asleep on his couch. With a small, sad smile, he threw a thin blanked over her sleeping form and went to check on Alec. The boy was still deeply asleep and showed no signs of waking up anytime soon. Looking at him closely for the first time since he had found out about the truth, Severus tried to compare the sleeping child to the boy he had known before.

Now that he knew, he could tell that the shape of the young wizard's face was the same but the different hair made it much less noticeable. Walking closer, he went to sit down on the bed, next to the boy. Passing a hand over the teen's hair, he tried to feel the scar that marred the boy's forehead. He knew there was no way that Alec would have a glamour over it, since he would have sensed it, and it probably wouldn't work over the curse scar, so something else must be covering it. While he didn't see anything, his sensitive fingers finally found a small patch of rougher skin that probably was the scar. He rubbed lightly over the boy's forehead but nothing changed.

Alec whimpered lightly in his sleep, and Severus took his hand away from the child. He would have to find out later how the headmaster had done it to hide the scar. For a long while, he sat there, looking at the young teen sleep. He was so deep lost in thoughts that he didn't hear the movement coming from the next room.

"I thought you had potions to brew?"

In a second the man was up, wand pointed out towards the open door. Minerva regarded him sleepily, her brain still trying to wake up enough for her to realise the danger she could have been in for startling the man. Severus shook his head and put his wand away.

"Don't do that, Minerva. And yes, I need to brew a few potions, but I didn't want to leave Alec alone."

The woman nodded and moved to the large bed. "Go brew your potions, I'll stay with him."

The Potions Master shook his head. "Not that I don't appreciate it, Minerva, but you're half asleep yourself. Why don't you go to your room to have a proper rest, and I'll try to find someone to look after Alec? I'm sure one of the older students would be more than willing."

The woman frowned; she didn't like the idea, but if she had to be truthful, she wouldn't be able to do much more else today until she had rested and the staff may need her later on. Sighing, she finally nodded. "I'll walk to the Ravenclaw common room and get one of the seventh years down here. Any preferences?"

Severus shrugged. "Not really, just someone that has a good head on his shoulders and knows to keep quiet."

The woman chuckled and after bidding her companion goodbye, she left the dungeons. As soon as she was out of his door, Severus moved to the fireplace and tossed a bit of floo powder into the fireplace. When the fire turned green, he muttered a word and put his head into the flames. His vision changed, and he found himself looking into the staff room. Luckily Professor Sinistra was there, sipping quietly on a cup of tea while reading a book.

"Serena?"

The woman jumped out of her chair and rounded to look at him. "Don't do that, Severus! Is there something wrong?"

The man rolled his eyes and would have made a remark about her obliviousness had the situation not been so serious. "No, there's nothing wrong except for the obvious. Could you just make sure that Minerva isn't bothered by anyone for a few hours? She's really about to drop, and we need her here should anything else happen."

The woman looked worried at his words and quickly nodded. "Don't worry, I will make sure the other staff members don't wake her."

Severus nodded but he still wasn't finished. "And could you make sure that someone checks on the Gryffindors and the Slytherins? I need to brew a few potions for the infirmary before Poppy runs out of them, and I suspect that Minerva has too many things on her plate to take the duties of Head of Gryffindor too seriously right now."

Serena nodded once again. "Don't worry, I'll take care of the Slytherins and ask Remus to look into the Gryffindors."

The Potions Master shook his head. "Lupin is in the hospital."

The witch sighed but shoed him away with a hand. "Don't worry about it, I'll find someone. Go tend to your potions." He was about to pull back when her voice stopped him. "Alec is with you, right?"

Severus nodded reassuringly. "Yes, don't worry, he's sleeping right now, and I'll keep him with me until everything has returned to normal."

After Sinistra nodded once again, Severus returned to his rooms just in time to hear a soft knock on his door. He quickly brushed the ashes out of his hair and went to open the door.

"Ah, Mr. McHill, come in please."

The Ravenclaw prefect entered the rooms cautiously. He had been very surprised to be asked by Professor McGonagall to come down here, and he had been half expecting it to be some kind of prank. The student followed his professor to another room which he immediately realised must be the man's bedroom. Sleeping peacefully on the bed lay Alec, looking very frail and pale.

"Did Professor McGonagall tell you why I needed your help?"

The student shook his head, a bit puzzled about why he was here. "Not really, Professor, she just asked if I minded coming down here and to bring something for with me to study."

Severus nodded sharply and motioned to Alec. "Today Alec did something that tired him out a great deal; Madam Pomfrey thinks he won't wake up until tomorrow at the earliest, but I need to do some things and need someone to watch over the child. The rest of the staff is extremely busy trying to keep everything together so I would appreciate it if you could stay with him for a few hours just to make sure he is ok."

The teen was already nodding when his professor was halfway through his explanation. "Of course I will, sir. Is there anything else I need to know?"

Severus shook his head, really relieved that Harry had been sorted in Ravenclaw this time around; he would have had many more problems had Minerva sent one of her Gryffindors. "Not really. I'll be in my lab." He pointed towards a closed door. "Warn me if there's anything wrong, like if he wakes up or if one of the other Professors need to speak with me. Feel free to call a house elf to bring you dinner later."

With a small swish of his wand, the Potions Master conjured a small table and a chair so that his student would be comfortable while working, and after reminding the young man to call him if there was something wrong he moved to his lab.

A/N: Thanks for all reviews and thanks to Vinnie for beta-reading this.