A/N: Another chapter, and this is a nice long one... I've always wondered if people prefer more chapters, but shorter... or longer chapters but more time between updates. Oh well, I wanted to do a nice long chapter with stuff actually happening. Imagine that... shocking isn't it? I think I managed to guilt myself into a long chapter since it's been almost a week since the last update.

So everyone who went to Witching Hour, I hope you all had fun. My friend went, and she said she had fun and got a lot of Snupin artwork done and met a girl who looked just like Snape (Apparently she REALLY looked like him, like almost jumping her)... I wish I could have gone and met the Harry/Draco fans... Apparently it was good though since she plans to go next year, in Las Vegas... Must be good to travel across the country :)

So I have also discovered that I am a review whore. I want more reviews, more more more, even if they're just one word... good...bad... (though if it's bad I would like to know why) And to get more I thought I'd bribe my readers. Isn't that horrible? Yes I am a horrible person... oh well :) If I can get ten reviews for this chapter I shall go back to doing one chapter a day for at least a week, if not it'll stay the normal 1 to 2 updates a week. I don't expect 10 reviews, but I thought I'd try the bribe.

Chapter 25

The lesson plans proved to be more interesting then I gave them credit. So much so that night turned into day before I realized it. When I finally went to bed it was early morning, and I slept through breakfast. Briefly my brain wondered if it was bad form to miss breakfast with the other teachers, but I was too tired to really worry about it. Perhaps it was something I wouldn't do when school started, but before the students arrived I wasn't too worried about appearances.

When I finally opened my eyes it was with the idea that I still hadn't slept enough. It was a problem of mine, my predisposition to sleep most of my life away. Willpower was really all that kept me from going back to sleep. Glancing at my wristwatch on the side table, told me that it was eleven in the morning. Not nearly enough sleep.

Despite my own personal wish to sleep again, I got up, showered and retreated to my desk where I had finished writing the lesson plan I had to give to the Headmistress today. The students were arriving in just three days, so it would be best to give the Headmistress my lesson plan as soon as possible. It was going to be an experience for those students as well...

While my stay at this school was hopefully going to be short (if Sirius got his act together), that didn't mean that I wasn't going to take the job seriously. I had a responsibility to my students, even if I hadn't intended to teach here before. But I was here now... and they were certainly going to get a rude awakening having a muggle as their Muggles Studies teacher. This year was going to be taught in a manner that in no way resembled the previous.

A knock broke me away from my concentration. Opening the door revealed a house elf, not Dobby, but one I had never met before.

"Hello?"

"Miss Mackinnion. The headmistress wants you down in the hall now. Thank you."

With no warning, and quite a loud popping noise, the house elf disappeared.

"Uh... Thank you." I shook my head, saying it to the empty air.

A grumble ran through my stomach, making me realize I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before and it was now noon. I grabbed the finished lesson plan, and headed down to the Great Hall, deciding to drop off the plan at McGonagall's office before, even knowing that she would be in the hall. It was likely she wouldn't want work while she was trying to eat.

The halls were rather quiet, except for the chattering portraits and the random ghosts that wandered past. That was something that was still taking time to get used to. Magic, fine. Evil Dark Lords, okay. Talking portraits, whatever. Walking and talking incorporeal beings... well that was still a bit odd. Though it was oddly liberating, now I knew I had been correct all those years saying that ghosts existed to my friends in school. Though I doubted that I could prove it to them.

When I walked into the Great Hall I was greeted to the sight of all the teachers once again sitting at the table. The sight was slightly surprising, since lunch was rather informal, and people just came in whenever. So it was rather a coincidence that everyone was there at the same time. Apparently this was a mandatory lunch.

"Well I guess I wasn't asked down here for my sparkling personality."

"If you can sit down Miss Mackinnion I can finish what I was saying." McGonagall said, ignoring my statement completely. I took the free seat which happened to be next to Madam Pince at the end of the table. I leaned over to the librarian to ask what had happened, but the look from the Headmistress quelled that idea so I sat straight in my chair and tried to look attentive. Though really all I was looking for was the food...

"There was another attack."

That explained Sirius's worried look when I walked in.

"Who was attacked?" Professor Fulhark asked from the other end of the table.

"Once again it was just muggles. But that doesn't mean the parents of our students aren't worried. Even though no wizard or witch has been attacked, the Ministry is taking this very seriously. With the start of the school year we will have an auror on duty at all times at the school. Despite that though I expect you all to be absolutely heedful of any danger. I know that with the dark mark appearing, and muggles having been killed, some... rumours have been circulating. Whatever the cause is though, I expect complete attention from you all. Frankly the ministry believes that the rumours are unfounded. The likely answer is that some muggles are copying what they read in that book."

The minute the Headmistress had finished talking and sat down, immediately a cacophony of sound erupted with everyone discussing what they had just heard.

"Just muggles? Some muggles copying the book...?" I said softly into all the noise. With all the noise I didn't expect to be heard, but maybe it was the look on my face that caused everyone to quiet down. After all there was no way that I couldn't look exactly as I felt.

And that was absolute, supreme anger.

"Let's be on our guard for the bad people, but don't worry too much since he's just killing muggles. That is if it is one guy doing it. After all it's far more likely that it's some gung ho teenagers killing people like they read in that Harry Potter book. "

"Now Miss Mackinnion that's..." McGonagall tried to speak, but I wasn't in the mood to listen.

"Don't make apologies Headmistress. I know full well that none of you care if a few muggles die. But I do care. And yes I'm biased, being one of the unimportant subspecies of muggle." So perhaps I was being a little irrational. If I thought about this I would fully realize that McGonagall didn't mean anything malicious, that none of the teachers here meant anything. It's human nature to not worry unless it involves you. When Voldemort was killing wizards and witches, that caused panic, but killing muggles was almost a world away.

I never was one to be rational in moments of distress.

"Aine..." Sirius started to try and calm me down from where he sat half way down the table.

"Your outburst is uncalled for." Professor Sinistra sneered out, her dark face angry. Next to her sat Severus who was quietly staring me down from the other end of the table.

"Uncalled for or not, I'm disgusted by all of your attitudes. A wizard is out there killing people not a bunch of teenagers playing a horrible joke. Granted the dead are not your people but still..."No more words came out of my mouth, my throat having closed at all the horrified stares I was receiving. I stood up and stormed out of the Great Hall. Staying any longer would likely result in my immediate dismissal from the staff, which would ruin Harry's plans. I was trying to think at least slightly. But at that moment I couldn't help but think that I was the only person standing up for the entire muggle population.

"Aine!"

Sirius came running up behind me as I stalked toward the dungeons, grabbing my arm to stop me from going any further. He was out of breath, showing that he had ran quite hard to catch up with me.

"McGonagall didn't mean anything. She just means that the ministry is taking this seriously, even though no wizards died."

"How kind of them..."

"You're being a little illogical about this."

"Of course. I'm just a muggle."

"And that was stupid. I didn't mean that."

"How can they not think that Voldemort might be alive? How can they just think this is a bad joke that might happen to have resulted in a few deaths?" It was a preposterous idea to me. Of course it was Voldemort. Did they actually think that we had fireworks that shaped out the dark mark? Their knowledge of muggles was really bad if they believed that, or that fireworks lasted more then a few seconds.

"Of course they don't think he's alive. Only Harry and Draco knew about that horcrux, and us now. "

I snorted.

"Can you blame them? They've been blissfully unaware for the last ten years, thinking that their hero, Harry Potter, saved the day and destroyed the bastard. So is it that hard to understand that they might prefer to believe in a prank rather then the return of the worst evil they've ever encountered?"

"A prank? It's killed people, and you call it a PRANK?" My voice rose as I spoke.

"Other people call it a prank. Don't try taking this out on me." His eyes narrowed at me, the silver eyed turning to steel. "You're blowing this out of proportion and acting like a child."

"And you're an insensitive lout." Eyes narrowed at him, and his face grew stormy in response. There was no surprise that Sirius was now returning my anger in kind.

"I was trying to talk to you. If I had known you were going to act this irrational, and bite my head of for even attempting to discuss this with you, I wouldn't have bothered."

"Why don't you go do something useful Professor Black. Go write your lesson plan, or better yet go find where your damn brother hid that horcrux." I turned and ran down the stairs, or more correctly I stomped down the stairs. Once I was in the dungeons, my steps slowed and things started to appear more clear. Yelling at Sirius hadn't been the right thing to do. He had just been trying to help. But I couldn't get around the idea that while people were dying, the wizards were more worried about themselves then anything.

I should go apologize to Sirius, but the two of us couldn't do that. It didn't really suit our temperament. Though maybe tomorrow when my temper had cooled, I would offer the olive branch to him. Or maybe not. After all he had referred to the deaths of muggles as a prank. If it had been wizards it would be a horrible crime, a problem that HAD to be solved. But my kind... Damn I had joked before that I was like a subspecies. Now though it was seeming like a reality. And I was still quite fuming about it.

A knock at my door broke me out of my thought process. It was probably Sirius come back to rub it in some more. Maybe this time it would be that the deaths were all faked by the shifty muggles, and now the 'dead' people were laughing it up in a bar somewhere...

"Sirius would you PLEASE take your wand and stuff..." I threw the door open as I said this, but my threat drifted off into thin air as I stared helplessly at Professor Snape. His perfect black eyebrow was raised at me in question.

"Mistake me for that dog again, and I will not be responsible for what happens." He walked past me into my rooms without asking for entrance, but I let him walk in. Not that I really could have stopped him, but I could have tried to. Frankly though I was too surprised to see him here to really do anything at all. "Though I would love to know what you wanted him to do with his wand. I have some ideas of my own, but I would appreciate a different perspective."

My lip twitched at the joke

"I'm quite sure that your ideas are far more creative then my own. But please do come in." I rolled my eyes and closed the door. "Really Severus are you sure you can trust yourself alone with me in my room?"

"That doesn't need a response." He turned and looked at me, his dark eyes piercing into me. "Do you normally have psychotic episodes like that at meals?"

My eyes went hard looking at him, standing by the fireplace like the lord of the manor. He was going to be just as annoying as Sirius.

"My episode..." I paused, annoyed at the word usage though psychotic episode did seem to adequately what had happened, if not my mindset. "It's best not to talk about that. After all we want to try and stay on good terms don't we?"

An eyebrow rose, arms crossed. "I'm not too worried about keeping on any terms with you."

"You certainly know how to make a girl feel loved." I snorted. The other eyebrow rose at that statement. He coughed quietly into his hand, looking a little put out by that comment.

"McGonagall didn't mention that the muggles that were killed, were killed in the process of a break in." He paused letting me think about that. It was a random subject change from my outburst. "Who ever it was that killed them..."

I cut him off at that point, a sharp bark of laughter being heard. Who ever? Of all the people in this school, Snape was the one who knew with an absolute certainty who it was that was doing the killing. My derisive laughter rolled off his back though and he continued on.

"Who ever killed them, did so while breaking into a school, in New York City."

That certainly stopped all reasonable thought processes from forming in my brain. Why would Voldemort kill people in New York City? And even more important was why he would want to break into a school.

"Does that mean anything to you?" Severus was watching my reactions carefully, expecting something from me at this information. There was something that he knew, something he was waiting for. It should have been impossible. He shouldn't have known where I came from, that information wasn't common knowledge here. There was the possibility I suppose that he knew about me from my books, but as Matt liked to point out so often, they weren't exactly widely read. And Severus likely didn't read muggle material too often.

"Other then muggles are being killed by a wizard and none of you care?" I started to tap my foot, wanting to end this conversation as soon as possible. The potions master was digging for something. I didn't want him to come up with any treasure.

"So it won't concern you to know it was New York University that was broken into. More particularly the history offices of the school..."

Damn, he definitely knew something. When he was digging for something, he was about as subtle as a bulldozer.

NYU had been broken into, by Voldemort? That was too close for comfort. The only thing he could possibly be looking for at the school was now at Hogwarts. Me.

"Severus. You're a smug bastard. If you know something, you could just tell me instead of digging for it. It's a little beneath you. Yes, that is the school that I normally teach at. Isn't that an amazing coincidence." I sighed, walking over to chair by the fireplace and dropping into it, strangely exhausted for the middle of the day. I never thought news could tire someone out before, but now it was a fact. I was tired from just hearing about events. "Do you know the names of the people who were killed?" I asked wanting to know if I knew any of the dead. First Cairn had been killed in my flat, now possibly my coworkers had been killed. Harry's reluctance to involve a muggle was starting to become crystal clear.

"No. After all they were just muggles." A smirk played on Severus's lips as he threw back McGonagall's original words to me, the words that had started my fit earlier. I wasn't angry hearing them anymore though. Strange as it perhaps was, the Slytherin was actually making a joke.

I regarded the dark haired man from where I sat. Certain things were playing across my mind, things that were trying to be solved and answered. He knew more then I had thought, and certainly more then Sirius would have thought. Draco would probably be the one to say, 'Professor Snape would have figured it out ten minutes before you stepped off the train. There is no way you can fool him.' But would any of them be happy about what I was thinking about doing. The thing was that he knew something, I didn't know to what extent though.

He was reaching, which meant that he didn't know everything. I could easily play the silly girl, and get him off my back. I would just have to watch my steps perhaps a bit more carefully. Even more so, watch Sirius's. It wasn't exactly a pleasing idea.

Though aside from the notion of telling him what was going on, there was also the case of my connection to Sirius. It would certainly be more helpful to have someone helping me out, someone with knowledge about the magical side of things. Sirius was good at magic off the cuff, but studying and research... that wasn't his strong suit.

"Sirius is going to kill me..." I pinched the bridge of my nose, already expecting the headache that was going to occur.

"There's a higher likelihood of being killed be a trained kneazle house pet."

"I brought Sirius back to life with a clag a bhais."

There was no use beating around the bush with this sort of knowledge. There was no real reason to tell Severus. But I happened to trust the man. This was part of the reason I knew Sirius was going to be pissed off. It was the truth though. Call it woman's intuition, a sixth sense, or whatever you would like. But I knew that Professor Snape was certainly not working for Voldemort, nor was he out to kill or rule over anyone (excepting perhaps the more talentless of his students). Sirius was never going to believe that Snape was trustworthy.

There was no great look of surprise that appeared on his face, proving that he had at least suspected what I had just told him. The man didn't lack intelligence, so the idea of him falling for Harry's simple story of Sirius just 'falling out' of the veil was a bit silly. But when I had said clag a bhais he had looked a little surprised. Well if he knew even a tenth of what I did about that object, then that look was to be expected.

"I realized someone had to have been stupid enough to bring that canine back from the dead. I had though thought it was more likely to have been the saintly Potter. And where in the heavens did you get a hold of a death bell?"

I frowned, crossing my arms over my chest. For some reason I had been out of the running as far as bringing the dead back to life. "Why couldn't it have been me to resurrect Sirius? I'm not without any talents you know."

He sighed, like he was dealing with a child.

"I just had thought you were smarter then to do a dangerous ritual like that." I opened my mouth to respond that of course I was smarter, but he cut me off. "Take the compliment when it's given Mackinnion."

"Fine..." I uncrossed my arms. "I didn't get the clag a bhais. Harry had it. Not sure how he acquired it, and it's likely I wouldn't want to know."

I was being regarded with an ambiguous look now. There was no way that I could tell what he thought about me, even though he had made it clear he wasn't very fond of what I had done. Though there was a chance that was to do with who I had brought back to life. The same reaction would have been likely if it had been James Potter who had walked into Hogwarts.

"Harry had me bring back Sirius because he might know where the last horcrux is. His brother stole it."

At this Severus finally looked surprised.

"There was another one? And Regulus took that one... That was stupid."

"I think it was rather brave actually."

"As I said, it was stupid. He died. And what good did it do except prolonging his master's life? If he hadn't stolen it then Harry would have likely found it before and destroyed it. Regulus probably stole it for that purpose, to help his lord. Too bad for him the gesture was misconstrued."

I desperately wanted to deny that possibility. But there was nothing I could back up my refusal with. It was just for Sirius's sake that I wanted to think some good of Regulus. Saving Lord Voldemort, having his brother back in the role of evil Death Eater, would be horrendous for Sirius to deal with. The theory was actually rather sound, excepting Sirius's memory of the last time he saw his brother. But even that could be read into, that he was afraid of being killed, for stealing not because he was trying to bring down the dark lord.

"You're a very negative person, you know that?" I huffed out, slouching in my chair and glaring at the dark haired man who was now leaning against the fireplace mantel.

"Realistic my dear."

"So I told you pretty much everything. Are you going to betray my confidence?" Woman's intuition or not, there was the possibility I was wrong. After all it could just be cramps and not sixth sense at play.

The quiet lasted too long, and I shifted nervously under the heavy gaze. Shiver ran up my spine as I felt the eyes travel over me from head to toe.

"And who would I betray you to?" A small smile had actually appeared on his thin lips, and I found myself staring at the strange thing. I broke my gaze away from his lips and promptly brought it back up to look into his eyes.

"Well you might tell other old Order members. Harry doesn't want everyone knowing since..."

"He's the hero and he can't have more people in the spotlight."

I rolled my eyes at that little statement, since it was ridiculous, and the Potions master knew that well enough by now.

"He'll probably want to curse me when he finds out I told you. But I had my reasons..."

"And those were?" There was blatant curiosity in his voice.

"Well there was a side effect from my ritual bringing Sirius back to life."

"You mean that ridiculous spiritual connection you two have, from one of his spells backfiring..." There was definite sarcasm in his voice as he said the end of that, making me see that he had never believed that Sirius and I were connected by any accident. That was likely one of the biggest clues to what we had actually done.

"Ah... So you don't think he's that incompetent!"

"Of course he is. But when added to his coming back to life rather suddenly, certain connections could be inferred."

"Well... whatever." My brows knit together. "Well I need some help severing the connection, my knowledge is rather limited on the subject of actual magical connections. I know that the blood was the cause of it. And the wound I have won't actually heal properly." I pushed up the sleeve on my left arm, showing Severus the reddish flesh that had knit together again, but still looked weak, like at the slightest provocation would open up once again. "I trust you, and I know you would be the person best suited to helping me find a way to get rid of Sirius."

I smiled at him as I said this last, putting it in a way that would cause the Slytherin to empathize with me. Getting rid of Sirius wasn't what I really meant, more my mandatory connection with him that limited my movements and kept me going home. Though the idea of being connected to Sirius was likely to give Severus nightmares for weaks, so he would be more inclined to help if made it sound like I didn't want to be around the animagus.

"You need my help?"

I sighed, nodding my head. Why the man was repeating what I had already said was beyond me.

"And what do I get in return?" His voice practically purred as he asked this, and my stomach twisted upon hearing it, the shivers back in force. The question was too intimate in it's nature for me not to read into it. Random fantasies flew through my head. I shook my head though, needing to get back on track and in focus. I leaned forward and smiled brightly up at him.

"I won't tell Sirius that you burst into my room while I was changing and saw me naked."

Severus's eyes went wide, a pale blush creeping over his white skin.

"I never did that!"

"Of course you didn't. But Sirius wouldn't know that. He'd believe me." I tapped my forefinger on my chin, looking thoughtful. "For that matter, everyone else would believe me as well. Your reputation would certainly be ruined. Imagine all the teachers thinking that you would try and force yourself upon a poor defenseless muggle." My eyelashes fluttered innocently. "Of course if you promise to help me I swear I won't tell about your dirty habits."

For more moments then I could count, Severus stared at me hard. Only then did I think that he was a wizard, and could and likely would, curse me with something suitably horrible for even thinking about threatening him. Though he certainly couldn't kill me, but there was likely a memory charm he could do to make me forget about threatening him. It would have been interesting to see the debate raging in his head at this exact moment. Hex her, or agree with her. Probably a rather one sided argument.

But I was shocked. More then just shocked, I felt like I had been run over by a ten ton lorry and survived, been selected to be the next Miss America, had Matt tell me he was sorry for being an ass for all these years. Since what I was seeing was just as unlikely as any of those things.

Severus Snape was smiling. Not a sneer, not a grimace, not even a smirk. It was a full, complete and amazing smile. It wasn't full teeth, or bright and beaming, but it was shocking because it was genuine. I was so dazzled by the expression that I almost missed the compliment that followed the look.

"You would have made a surprising Slytherin."