"I take it your rescue mission was successful?" Dumbledore enquired good naturedly, "Tea, Severus?" The younger man sighed,

"We managed to get Draco out of there, if that's what you mean,"

" 'We'?"

"I took Granger with me." Dumbledore made no attempt to hide his surprise at this peculiar statement and unexpected piece of information,

"You took Miss Granger? The Gryffindor you have outwardly detested for so long? Might I enquire as to why, Severus?" Again, Snape shrugged his shoulders noncommittally, excepting the tea that as offered to him,

"To be honest, I barely have any idea myself." He admitted, wincing as the hot cup burnt his hands, "Draco appeared to have taken a liking to her, after he took the deaging potion of course,"

"You know for sure that that was what it was?" Dumbledore cut in curiously, "How do you know?"

"Narcissa." Severus replied simply. Albus nodded knowingly,

"Ahh, Narcissa Malfoy, a most accomplished potions mistress. Almost as good as your self. But why would Draco do such a silly thing? I thought he had inherited his mother's talent…"

"He did it deliberately." Snape replied, his tone flat and morose, realising that he would, yet again, explain the entire fiasco, "That evening had been very…difficult." Dumbledore peered at him intently,

"Why? What happened?" Severus hesitated,

"After the first 'Defence' lesson, Draco was told to stay behind. Lucius then…violated him. I tried to talk to Draco about it when he came to me afterwards, but he become scared and ran off. That's when-"

"That's when we found him." Dumbledore finished, somewhat thoughtfully, "Well, Miss Granger did, anyway." He paused, and then said seriously, "Severus, why didn't you come to me before? If you had, I could have helped before and maybe this whole thing may have been prevented," Snape glared at him, and took a too-large gulp of tea,

"My promises to Draco come before everything else. And I promised him I would never tell."

"You mean, this has happened before?" Dumbledore exclaimed, leaning back in his chair, starting to feel slightly sick,

"Well, not That. At least…not that I ever heard of. But there are other secrets concealed in the Malfoy Manor. But I think That has happened again, within the last couple of days. There is something that Draco refuses to talk about and when Poppy tried to examining him he started screaming. All the signs are pointing to the same thing and I really don't know what to do. I feel so…responsible. I feel that maybe I could have prevented this, stopped all this from happening…"

"What you could've done no longer matters now in the world of the present day," Dumbledore reminded him, surveying Snape over the rim of his half-moon spectacles, "But it's what you can do that is of relevance. And what you can do, is encourage Draco to talk about what has happened to him, but don't push him to tell you anything he doesn't feel comfortable with. Just let him know that you're there for him, Severus, and I'm sure he will be fine." Snape sighed, a wave of fatigue sweeping unpleasantly through him,

"Yes. I'm sure you're right." He drained the last of his tea and set the cup back down on the desk and stood up slowly, "Do you want to talk to him at all, Professor?"

"Ah…that depends-"

"On what?"

"Whether or not I am still 'The Bad Man'." Dumbledore stated with a twinkle in his eye. Severus allowed himself a small smile,

"I think that particular myth has been successfully dispelled." Albus nodded,

"I'm glad. Severus?" Snape stopped, halfway to the door and turned,

"Yes, Sir?"

"Remember what I said; Don't push him. And don't do anything rash, at least until he returns to his normal age." Severus inclined his head,

"Of course, Professor."

A/N: Heyall! I said i'm on a role! Not really much to say 'cept HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

And chocolate hearts to...

DarkPrincesses, Nikki's Evil Doppelganger, Tamika DanarDraco, Eranim, brittagirl, lollenk, Queen of Darkness evilness and chaos and lilmissgullable!

All my love, Lilyxxxxxx