A/N: SORRY!

I'm really, really sorry that it has been so long since my last update. I had my birthday, normal work, had a strange addiction to Korean Dramas (Damn you Rain!), and then to top it all off I was really rather sick. But that's still not a good enough excuse. But the story isn't dead, never was. I will finish it, I promise. Life though occasionally interrupts. It shouldn't be too long though from now actually... The end is coming... duh duh duuuuh.

Anyway, Once again I'm sorry that it's been so long, and thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and to those that showed concern over the future of the story.

This chapter though is rather long, and plenty of stuff happens in it so hopefully that makes up for the time it took to get it up...

CHAPTER 41

A younger, far more awkward Severus was in front of me. He hadn't learnt the cool composure yet that got him through his everyday life, that let him deal with all the problems that his personality seemed to caused. My guess would have been that he was in his first year during this memory, of course that could have been wrong since I wasn't necessarily the best at judging age. But it seemed likely when taking in his size, and the size of the other students that streamed past him as he walked down a hallway. Of course it was possible that he was just tiny for his age, after all Severus Snape was not exactly athletic.

The hallway he was heading down, if things were the same then as they were now, then he was heading to the Potions classroom.

I glanced quickly from the pensieve to look at the modern day Severus Snape, just to make sure he hadn't noticed yet that I was still on one memory. He was studiously ignoring me still which at this point worked in my favor, even if in the back of my brain plans were forming to deal with the irksome individual. At least for the moment his stubborn behaviour was rather useful.

Back to the memory which was still progressing showed the rather awkward student sitting at a desk in the potions classroom no one else as yet sitting next to the boy. As much as I might rather like the man now (excepting when he was mocking me or ignoring me), as a boy he was rather... well even I would have been hard pressed not to make fun of the boy. A good haircut would have solved a lot of problems.

Now I could continue watching this memory from where I was, on the outside looking in. But the problem with that was that there was no sound and for a memory like this one I wanted all the information I could get.

So taking my life in my hands, since after all Severus wouldn't be happy... I jumped right into that memory.

Being sucked into a memory is a bit like falling without that frightening fear for your life. It's more like a soft drop, more like when Alice fell into Wonderland, floating down gently, than being pushed off a tall building. It's a surreal situation though to go from your own surroundings to the world of someone else's mind. Especially a person you knew and cared about.

I landed next to Severus and half expected him to look up at me and rather snarkily ask me what the hell I was doing there. But as was to be expected it was like I wasn't even there. Of course I wasn't there, but that was aside from the point.

The classroom itself was amazingly different now that Severus himself was in charge of it, now it was a place that Severus had really changed quite a bit. During his control of the place it was considerably darker, quite a feat since it was in a dungeon after all, not a window in sight. In this memory though there were enough lights around the room to really lighten it up. There were even some flowers in a vase on the teacher's desk. Rather remarkable what lighting and greenery does to a place. The only plants to find their way into Professor Snape's classroom were generally dead already and more often the not letting off a noxious fume...

Not that little Severus would have noticed the classroom that was around him since his nose was in a book, his eyes never once straying up from the page. Curiousity brought me to get closer to the young boy, peering over his shoulder to see what exactly was so interesting.

Should have known... Potions textbook. And lovingly marked as well. The entire page was practically written on alread.y. Reading a bit of it showed that it was still pretty much the same text. Wonderful to know that if anything the wizarding world was rather stuck in it's ways when it came to textbooks. So very like the muggle world. I remembered my own tenth grade history book which was missing anything after the eighties... My teacher could have given us supplemental reading, but as she told us frequently... nothing of merit happened after the eighties. She was never fond of me, though I think that was of my frequent picking apart of her theory. Can anyone say Berlin Wall?

A small commotion at the back of the room drew my attention away from this littler Snape. Entering the classroom were a bunch of Gryffindor students, showing that it seemed to be a trend to put first year Slytherin and Gryffindor Potion's students together. Trend or torture. After being a teacher at this school, I would say it was likely that the teachers did it on purpose.

At the sight of Slytherins already in the room the Gryffindors stopped, loud groans emanating from them. Apparently even though it was probably their first year, they had already been instilled with the 'good old rivalry' as Sirius would call it... It was almost too bad to see these young children dislike each other even though there was no good reason for it. After all aside from which houses they were in there was no communication between them as of yet, they had no reasons to hate each other yet.

It all just backed up my whole mind-set when it came to feuds. Useless, bloody useless and the people involved were sodding fools.

Well I had basically just insulted everyone who was in or had ever been in Gryffindor and Slytherin...

The hawk nosed Slytherin next to me fidgeted at the racket the Gryffindors made as they came in but his eyes never made it above the top of his book. Their entrance was unimportant to him. If anyone wondered why Severus didn't really have too many friends, well I think this might have given them a clue... You need to speak to people to start up a relationship. But then what better relationship was there then a boy and his books...

"I wonder if he realizes how similar he was to Hermione at the same age..." I mused aloud, not worried since no one could hear me in this world. In this place I didn't even really exist. Rather surreal...

Since the boy didn't appear to be doing anything even remotely interesting, I focused my attention on the rest of the classroom. Mainly on the Gryffindors really since one bore a rather striking resemblance to Harry.

"Oh... The marauders were the same year as Sevvie..."

Immediately my eyes searched out the wee Sirius, wanting to know what the playboy looked like when he was only eleven years old. Once looking it wasn't hard to find him either. Not at all since he was so similar... It was the confident smile that gave him away. Not to mention the way people seemed to be circled around him. Him and James Potter. The two seemed to have rather a singular energy that pooled people around them. Even I, not part of this memory, wanted to just wander over and be a part of their group. But I stayed perched on Sevvie's desk, since after all I was here to see his precious memory. Though it was singularly a tempting experience. Severus was not the most intoxicating individual to be around.

"Sevvie, this memory is rather boring..." I sighed, since after what seemed like ten minutes, nothing had happened. His pointed nose hadn't moved from the book. In fact his lack of movement seemed to have just gained him the unwanted attention from the rather rambunctious Gryffindors.

"Hey that must be the best book in the world."

Sirius had sauntered over, plucking the potions textbook out from the small hands of Severus. Pale hands clutched at air, but he wasn't fast enough and he lost his book. Black eyes glared up at the taller boy, which only resulted in a sharp laugh.

Reflexes caused me to smack at Sirius's arm, annoyed with the boy for picking on other's that were smaller then him.

This reflex of mine just ended with me tumbling to the floor, my hand passing right through Sirius's arm. Relief flooded through me that no one could see that particularly embarrassing fall.

Standing up and brushing myself off I could see that the teasing was continuing unabashed. Sirius was keeping the book over Severus's head, while the smaller boy tried to get it back. It was rather fruitless, really he should have just given up instead of just ending up looking like an idiot. Harry's father, James, was standing behind Sirius, laughing and encouraging the behaviour.

James Potter was uncannily similar to his son. It was something everyone knew but seeing it was something else. Glasses, unkempt hair, even the laugh. But the eyes were the differing point, while Harry's had that almond shape, his father's were larger, and a dark blue. They also held more confidence for a boy his age.

Sitting at a desk a bit back, looking wholly uncomfortable with the whole mess was a sandy haired boy who if I was going to make any guesses as to his identity would be Remus Lupin. At this point there didn't seem to be as close a bond between the three boys as would occur later. If there had been perhaps this one who seemed a bit more sensible would have stopped this foolish teasing. Though judging by the overpowering aura that these two Gryffindors exuded it was doubtful that anyone, even a close friend could have stopped this from happening.

And the Slytherins weren't helping matters. Apparently comradery amongst house mates didn't cross over to all houses. They just sat back, talking amongst themselves as if nothing was happening to one of their own. A shock of white blonde hair in the back brought to mind Draco.

"Likely his father..." I frowned, wholly displeased with this whole display and more then a little confused.

This memory was supposed to be the memory that Snape treasured the most of his time here at Hogwarts. After viewing my fair share of other Slytherin's memories, this one was odd. There had been plenty of instances of memories of first love, winning awards, beating an old enemy... things that made sense. Why would the first time he was teased by the people he would grow to hate the most be important? Maybe it was just something that set him on his path... Or this could just have been a off shoot of his love of his feud. After all this had started his own personal feud.

"Sirius Black! Stop it this instant!"

Rather out of the blue, a girl flew to the front of the room and grabbed the book from a surprised looking Sirius. No one had apparently expected something like this to have happened, most certainly not from a fellow Gryffindor.

"Honestly Evans. We were just having some fun. You know what that is don't you?" A dramatic sigh hissed past his lips. "Little Snivellus here understood, didn't you?" A dark look was shot at the pale boy.

I looked back and forth between these two. It really was uncanny to stand here looking at their eleven year old selves and see the same look on their faces as would be there for years to come. Uncanny... and rather depressing really. Even with the adoration I had for Sirius, it was without a doubt his fault this problem had started.

"Leave him alone. There's no problem with reading the textbook. Maybe you should try it. Then you wouldn't be having such a problem with the class?"

Well then not the first class, but near enough.

My attention focused now instead on the girl who was so commendably standing up to the self proclaimed King of Gryffindor. Bright red hair, almond shaped green eyes, confidence flowing from her very posture, the surname Evans...

Harry's mother was really a formidable woman, even at such a young age. Taking on Sirius certainly showed that, not to mention it proved her unshakeable morals. Standing up for someone you barely knew was important... The teacher in me applauded.

"Here." She held out the textbook to Severus, who was studiously avoiding looking at her, his eyes stuck to a particular part of the floor. Behind her Sirius, and the other Gryffindors had settled down, blowing off what had happened to whatever problems women had and that they had actually intended for that to happen. Not that anyone was particularly convinced.

"I didn't need your help."

My eyes shot back to the fidgety young Slytherin. Once again the teacher in me reared it's head, highly displeased at the behaviour I was seeing. One thanks someone after they help, not acts like an ass. His eyes though had lifted from the floor and was looking at Miss Evans with a thoroughly disgusted look.

"Gryffindors should keep their noses out of my business."

Also speaking well of her personality, at this basic insult, she didn't even bat an eyelash. Instead shrugging and moving back to take her seat with another Gryffindor girl.

I watched, an amused expression on my face. After all even this early on I couldn't miss the glances James Potter was giving his future wife. Love starts early sometimes.

A smile on my face, I looked back at Severus and the expression faltered for a moment. There was an interesting emotion behind those black eyes. Unfathomable to most, even to me if I hadn't just seen the same look on Potter's face.

"Well... Sevvie... That is interesting..."

At the back of the classroom the doors opened and in trudged the Potions master of this time. Short with a large belly, trudged seemed really the only correct word for how he walked... maybe waddled would have worked as well. His head was significantly bald, shining so much that I didn't doubt that he could have alerted planes to descend to the runway with it. And that moustache... well my opinion on those were entirely negative, but his was just silly and ridiculous. This had to be Professor Slughorn.

"Welcome back to the greatest class you shall ever take!"

Snickers erupted from most of the class, not even just from one side of the room. This was something that actually transcended the lines of rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Both houses thought the man was ridiculous. And he was even the Slytherin head of house.

"Now, as for your first assignment. Two people did it perfectly! Miss Evans and Mister Snape. You two will have bright futures in Potions I believe." His smile was bright for both the students. I glanced at Lily Evans and saw her face tinged pink, a pleased look there. On the other hand Severus just looked put out about being included in the same sentence as the girl. At least I say he looked that way... but really there was that twitching of his nose, and the quick glances he was sending the girl's way.

It was actually starting to annoy me.

My annoyance was cut to an end though when a reversal of what happened before occurred. Instead of falling in, it was like falling out, things almost seemed to go into reverse. As long as it took me to close my eyes and open them again and I was back sitting at the desk, the penseive swirling with Severus's memory in front of me.

I didn't need to look to my side to see the murderous look I was getting from the man. I could feel the heat of it on the side of my face. It was rather my hope that voiceless magic was not something that came too easily to the man. After all it has already been established the being turned into a newt was not something I looked forward to.

Turning to look at him proved I was rather correct in my assumption. The look was a death glare, the black orbs glittering likely with plenty of horrendous ideas on how to make me suffer. Plenty of ideas that I wasn't overly excited to find out about.

Well there was either the option of running, or heading him off at the pass.

"You were in love with her."

I have never seen anyone do a double take as perfectly as Severus did at that moment. His face went from dangerous death glares to wide eyed surprise. If the subject matter had been better then I would have said getting one up on Sevvie was tremendous fun. But truthfully the idea of him having been in love with someone was a tad bit irking. Not to mention the problems that would be associated with the fact that it had been Harry's mother he had loved... Not to mention this explained quite a bit why he hated them all.

"What?"

"You heard me. You were in love with her." My arms had crossed over my chest in an effort to accentuate the point I was trying to make.

"Her?" Despite the proof swirling in front of me, his voice seemed to hold some genuine confusion.

I rolled my eyes, annoyed that I was even having to play this game with the man. He should just have been a man and admitted this when confronted with it. After all it wasn't that bad. Everyone falls in love, and more often then not it's with people who are wholly unsuited to you. Not to mention probably people who would never look twice at you. I'd had more then my share of unrequited crushes throughout my school years. And as for unsuited matches, well at the moment I happened to be involved with two such individuals... One of whom was giving me a glare that I swear was actually starting to make my hair smoke.

"Lily Evans. You were in love with her. You had the hots for her. Any of this ringing any little bells? Red headed Gryffindor? Married one of your arch nemeses and bore another one?"

A real man would have resigned his fate at this point. Not laughed in my face.

"Tell me the truth Miss Mackinnion." The use of my surname caused my eye to twitch. "Did you hit your head when you entered my memory?"

My thoughts flew to the moment when I had put my hand through younger Sirius's arm causing me to stumble to the ground. But that moment couldn't have been witnessed by anyone so he must have been making a joke. In itself that was a singular event, but when being used to throw me off the scent it wasn't appreciated.

"I saw the look you gave her after she came to your rescue." A rather predatory smile enveloped my face. Having dirt on Severus Snape was like having the cure for cancer. Well perhaps not something so shining and good. More like finding out that the person who bullied you throughout school still wets their bed. "Being rescued by a girl. And even worse... a Gryffindor."

His left eye was twitching.

"So did you fall in love with her at that exact instant? Red hair shining as she flew to your rescue?"

Could an eyeball fall out of it's socket from enough movement? Since that eye twitching was getting rather worse.

"I was not, nor have I ever been in love with anyone from Gryffindor." Steel laced through every word that he said, disgust at even the thought.

Not that it dissuaded me from what I thought to be the truth. That look had been a telling sign.

"The look you gave her was practically smoking." I laughed, admittedly it was rather bitter sounding.

"As you so kindly reminded me, I had been saved by a girl. A Gryffindor. Do you really think that the heat coming from me had to do with love, and perhaps not... I don't know... hatred?"

Damn, and there was the inkling of doubt raising it's ugly head. But damned it I was going to let him win this at all.

"You were in love with her."

"I was not."

"Were too."

"Were not."

"Yes."

"NO."

"Then what was so memorable in that memory? Cause I got nothing else." I threw up my arms.

"That's personal." Severus crossed his own arms this time.

"Fine. Then my theory is the only one. So we'll just go with that."

A staring contest commenced with me being proud to state that I came out of it as the winner, a disgruntled Severus looking to the side.

"Fine."

"I wonder how Harry would take to the idea of his hated teacher having been in love with his mother. Of course Draco will know then... Then I'm sure Harry would tell Sirius..."

The chain of events unfolded in front of Severus's mind's eye. Clear as day he could see Harry confiding in his Godfather about his Potions teacher being in love with his mother, and the subsequent ammunition that this was going to give the canine animagus. Even I could see the carnivorous smile that would never leave Sirius's face whenever the Slytherin was in view.

"I was not in love with her."

"Then what?"

"Well..."

"Well what?"

"I was praised..." He mumbled it out, so softly that I had to lean in closer to him to hear.

"Sevvie. Please. You know better, please speak up."

"I was praised. Okay? Slughorn said I had a future in this okay?" There was a blush on the dear Potion master's face at what he saw as an indignantly embarrassing moment.

Now I perhaps should have been a little more understanding but aside from the fact that it was really a silly thing to be embarrassed about, I was also somewhat thrilled to hear that the man hadn't been in love with Lily Evans. Only because of the problems that would have caused of course.

Laughing at Severus Snape should be right up there with telling Lord Voldemort that he looks like an ugly transexual drag queen or telling one's parents that you're getting married to a biker named 'Thrasher', at least on the ways to get maimed really quick list.

"Sorry, Sorry." I stopped laughing soon enough, my spider sense warning me quickly enough that this was dangerous territory. "But honestly. We all like to be praised..."

"By a teacher like Slughorn, or in the same breath as a Gryffindor?"

There was going to be no convincing the man of the merits of praise at this point in time.

"So you weren't in love with Lily Evans?" Anyone could hear the small fragment of jealousy penetrating that question.

Severus gave me a look that certainly showed that he had noticed, but apparently didn't think it worth mentioning. He just nodded to answer my question.

"Now didn't I tell you before that you weren't supposed to watch my memory if you found it?"

Oh right...

"Now Sevvie dear. You knew I wasn't going to be able to stop myself." I fluttered my eyelashes. "Look at the time!" I glanced at my watch to actually back up my change of subject. I then actually looked back at it before raising my arm so the watch was in his face. "No really. We just worked through dinner. How is that going to look? I mean really... I need to go do Sirius damage control."

"What's the worst he can think happened? That we slept together?" This last was sneered out.

"You can be a singularly immature individual you know. I had no problem with what happened. You need to deal with your own issues." This was not going to be an argument I was going to get into again. "We'll stop then. We're almost done." I glanced at the considerably smaller piles on the desk. "Should be able to finish this tomorrow."

No more words were exchanged, instead I just got up and left the classroom and Severus Snape behind.

Another day of memory viewing had ended without finding what I had been looking for, but I had come away with something else. A closer insight into the man. Not to mention rather delicious blackmail.

Anxiety, panic, and fear woke me up that night. Not my own. No instead it was Sirius's feelings calling to me as easily as if he was right next to me shouting. It was hard to sleep when you felt like death was creeping up on you.

Granted it was also hard to sleep through what sounded like blasts and screaming. And these weren't coming from Sirius.

Something was wrong, something in the castle was deadly wrong.

When hurrying about in the dark it's amazing how your foot finds the corner of every possible piece of furniture before you finish what you need to do. Finally dressed my foot was on fire from hitting everything it could in the dark. I sort of felt sorry for Sirius, he was going to have no idea why his foot was twice the size then before.

Caution was called for since well, there was loud screaming and what sounded like dynamite being let off somewhere above us in the castle. So I was decidedly careful when looking out of my room. Seeing no real danger to myself I ran out and made my way to the students to be sure that they were okay. Granted if they weren't, well there was nothing that I could do.

Upon entering the Slytherin common rooms the sight that greeted me was of the few students that were in the school looking like deers caught in the headlights. Well perhaps I should have said who I was before bursting through the door.

The second I walked into the room I was practically knocked over by the sudden appearance of arms around my midsection as both the girls collided with me.

"Professor! What's going on?" Chauncey looked up at me, teary eyed and scared. The normally so together girl looked like she was going to fall apart. Even the Slytherin girl who was generally so disparaging toward me looked the same.

"I have no idea."

At that moment Headmistress's voice came out of nowhere.

"All students will stay in the dormitories. Under no exceptions is anyone allowed out."

"Okay I need to go..." Realizing that was going to be slightly hard with two sets of arms tightening around me as I said it, I had to pry them off. "I need to see what's going on. You're all safe in here right now. I want you all to stay in here. If anyone, I mean anyone comes in hit them with a curse before they have a chance to speak."

"What about you Professors?" Kerstan asked, his face was practically as good as new now, only a faint purplish ring around his left eye, and a scab on his lip suggesting any foul play had befallen him this Christmastime.

"We'll announce ourselves."

"As if a death eater couldn't say he was you." Cain sighed, annoying me since he sounded like he was dealing with a child.

At the mere mention of death eaters the other students gasped softly, apparently none of them associating screaming and explosions with guys in masks...

"Right. Thank you Cain. I'll yell...exploding snaps. Okay? Now I really need to see if everyone was okay." My stomach was tightening with worry for Sirius and Severus. Mainly for Severus since I would have known instantly if something had happened to the other man. "Remember, curse anyone. And try for something... damaging. No unforgiveables though."

With that last warning I ran out of there.

"Where do you think you're going?"

The entire castle was in an uproar. All that could be heard were the sounds of screaming, blasts. Since it was right before the entire student population was to come back their weren't students running in the halls scared, screaming. Instead the sounds were coming from the portraits who it seemed, despite their lack of physical bodies, were still rather rightly afraid of the death eaters. I had left the six remaining students safe in the Slytherin dorm.

I glared at Sirius as he asked the question, controlling the instantaneous urge to hug both him and Severus who happened to appear next to him. Both him and Severus were on their way up to the great hall where it appeared the bulk of the fighting was going on. No one knew how the Death Eaters had managed to get into the building, but they were here now. At least I was assuming it was Death Eaters. Who else would want to attack Hogwarts?

"Death Eaters?" I asked, choosing to ignore Sirius's question.

"It would appear so." Sirius sighed. "I slipped past them to see how you... and the students were doing."

My annoyance at his original question evaporated at his concern for me. And the students of course.

"Shouldn't you be with the students?" Severus asked, his normal sneer gone. Instead he looked slightly worried. I didn't fool myself thinking that any of that worry was for me. I'd say it was most likely for himself, after all he was the former death eater who betrayed their master. It was certainly a precarious position to be in.

"And what good would I do there? Not like I could protect the students if anything happened." I snorted softly, running quite quickly to keep up with the two men.

"So what exactly do you expect to do down in the hall with a group of death eaters trying to kill you then? Yell at them? Granted that normally works for you." Sirius had stopped in his tracks, his silver eyes piercing. Beside him Severus had stopped as well, though his black eyes weren't as angry as they looked at me, but he still looked skeptical of my ability to do anything.

"I'll have you both know that I took karate. It's like a fighting art." My eye was starting to twitch from the overpowering condescension coming from the men. I wasn't surprised to see the skepticism increase.

"And next you shall tell us that you're a master in this kahratea?" Severus didn't sound too sure when he said the word, but he obviously doubted me.

I avoided looking either of them in the eye.

"Well no... actually I sort of flunked out of the class."

I heard the sound of a foot tapping, and realized that for once it wasn't mine but instead was Sirius. The tall dark haired Dark arts teacher looked ready to strangle me, but it was Severus who spoke to me.

"So how exactly do you expect to do anything?"

"Wizards are susceptible to physical attacks as well." I muttered but I smiled slightly at Severus. "And I know enough to be able to kick someone in the groin. That works on wizards too doesn't it?"

He paled slightly, not doubting that I would test the theory on him.

"We don't have time for this." Sirius growled. "Just keep out of the way and try not to get killed."

"Yes, try not to get in our way at all either." Severus sighed, unpleased with having to still be standing here.

"Well if you two can stop your budding friendship we could get down to the hall. Not that I'm not thrilled you're getting along."

"That's disgusting." Sirius and Severus both said at once.

"We have nothing in common." Sirius continued.

I started to run ahead of them, but paused at a staircase. "Well you both have seen me naked." I winked and quickly ran ahead..

The two men were stuck in place, looking at each other in surprise for a moment.

"She..."

"That's not..."

They both frowned before shaking their heads and starting to run as well, catching up with me, deciding for now to forget that last comment.

"Just remember, don't do anything stupid." Sirius admonished me.

"Like it matters anyway. You get injured and I will as well." I sighed softly, trying to keep my voice quiet, but the sudden tension in Sirius's shoulders as he ran indicated he had heard me. He kept quiet though.

The sight that greeted us as we arrived into the Great Hall wasn't as bad really as we had all been expecting. With all the noise I had expected to see twenty or more black hooded creatures, sending curses everywhere, things exploding. Instead all that greeted us was the sight of the Headmistress and Professor Sinistra keeping back only a few so called Death Eaters.

With his usual eagerness Sirius jumped into the fray, and perhaps a little more cautious Severus joined him. The two would want to kill me if I told them this later, but they actually worked rather well with each other. Unbeknownst to the two of them at the time, but they were actually pretty much watching each other's backs at the time.

Now that I was here I could see what they had meant by asking me what I expected to do. Sure if one of the Death Eaters got close enough to me, without killing me of course, then sure I could kick him. But I didn't exactly want to test that theory out. So instead I stayed at the edge of everything, watching what was transpiring. Watching as people that I cared about (and Sinistra) so narrowly avoided being hit by curses. Green lights were being thrown across the room, worrying me that all my work bringing Sirius back to life would be destroyed in just a momentary flash of green light. It seemed a little cheap for a death scene really. No great fight or chase, just a phrase, a flash and you were dead. It really wouldn't work too well in a movie.

This realization kept me behind a suit of armor near the door, feeling rather worried. The worry grew when my left leg started to throb painfully. Looking for Sirius though just showed that he had tripped over a chair that had fallen in front of him. Luckily for him though Severus happened to be nearby to deflect the curse that had been heading his way.

My position didn't really lend itself to helping out at all, but if I hadn't been where I was I would have missed the flash of black out of the corner of my eye. I would have missed the black cloak disappearing through the doorway.

Sparing a quick glance at the battle that was occurring that I couldn't do anything about, I ducked between stray curses and flew out the door.

My first concern was that the person who had disappeared out of the Great Hall was going to do something to the students. Everything that was happening tonight lent itself to my theory that whatever had happened to Kerstan had been the fault of an extraneous party. And this thought caused my heart to tighten in panic, that perhaps the person responsible had come back to finish the job.

I ducked just in time to miss being hit by a stream of curses.

"EXPLODING SNAPS!" I yelled in panic, covering my head, hoping that they remembered the password, even if I had almost forgotten.

"Professor!" Chauncey flew to my side. "Sorry, but you said..."

"No no, that was good. I forgot. Sorry." I got up, brushing myself off and trying to not appear like I had almost been killed by my own students. "Is everyone all right? Anyone else try to get in here?"

They all shook their heads.

"No guys in black hoods?"

"I think we would have told you." Kerstan had a small smile.

"Right, yes. You would have, wouldn't you..." My lips were pursed as I tried to think about this. There was no other reason for a Death Eater to head down here. The only thing of any value were the students, one of whom had just recently been beaten up.

A warning blast went off in the back of my head.

"I need to go check something. You all stay here. And do what I said before."

A quick jog to the Potions classroom proved that my worries had been correct.

On the desk, where the vials of memories had been up until that day, there was now nothing. Every single one had been stolen by the person who had so carefully slipped down here.

"Aine!"

Frayed nerves and instinct caused me to practically fall behind the desk at the sudden screaming of my name. Peering over the edge of the wood though showed that Sirius and Severus were in the doorway. The Potions master though seemed to be dragging a rather large left arm.

"Thank you for telling us the password." Severus's black eyes were narrowed dangerously on me as he showed his gratitude with that sarcastic comment. I had to try rather hard not to laugh at the image that presented itself to my imagination of six very frightened students sending curses at their teachers, and managing to hit one. Likely the one they all would have liked to have cursed before as well... Not that any of them would have aimed...

"Well there wasn't exactly time." I sighed, getting up from behind the desk. "But all that aside. Severus we have a problem." I pointed at the desk, and more importantly the lack of anything on the desk.

"The vials." Severus lumbered to the desk, his extra long arm causing him some trouble. At any other time I would have been surprised, and would have said something at what happened next. Sirius actually used the counter curse to help out the Potions master. Even better was the mumbled thanks that came from behind the thinned lips. But now wasn't the time to tease the two of them. Whatever had happened tonight had apparently had a purpose, and it wasn't to scare any of us, or kill anyone. Somehow the forces of evil had played the oldest trick in the book. Distract everyone over here, while on the other side of the table you steal what you really want.

"Vials?" Sirius looked back and forth between Severus and I, his expression going from confused to annoyed to just plain mad.

"Severus and I found some old memories of Slytherin students. We were going through them all to see if any were important. Something that might have to do with what happened to Kerstan, or that might help find the horcrux."

"And they're gone." Sirius seemed to connect the dots in his head because he suddenly looked rather triumphant. "That would explain why they left suddenly. They had gotten what they came for."

"The real question though is what would a bunch of dangerous criminals want with the sappy memories of a bunch of young Slytherins?"

My question was met with silence since neither of the two men had an answer for me.

And I hadn't even found Cain's memory yet either...

"Professors?"

The students were okay, even if a little worn for wear after the events of the night. If nothing else they had proved that they were perfectly capable of sending curses flying at their least favourite teacher.

"What are you doing out?" Severus turned on the appearing students in the doorway, probably angrier then normal after having his arm grown four times its normal size by the lot of them.

"We were worried..." They had apparently forgotten that they had just sent curses flying at the man, though his dark glare reminded them quickly enough.

"Worried or not... You should be in your dorms. No one said it was safe to be out." Sirius sighed, his leg still a little sore. At least I assumed as much since my own leg was still throbbing a bit.

"Are you all okay?" I blinked at their young anxious faces. The teacher in me immediately started counting the heads, and I just came up short.

"Chauncey where are the other boys?" My count had only come up with three... which was half of what I needed. Missing were Kerstan, Cain and that second year from Ravenclaw.

"They were curious..." She fidgeted, obviously sensing that perhaps she should have done a little more to stop the boys from running off. "There wasn't any danger, after all the Professors said that the threat was done."

All three of us teachers in the room were less then thrilled with the students, but we all controlled the urge to barrage them with important life lessons. After all they had been through a rather stressful night, but then so had the rest of us.

"Back to the dorms. Now." Severus pushed them out of the classroom, and together we all headed back to the relative safety of the Slytherin common rooms.

Greeting us upon our arrival were Professor Sinistra and the Headmistress, together with the missing three boys who seemed to be rather embarrassed at being caught.

"Is everything okay Headmistress?"

She was tired, rightfully so, and she sat down on the couch with a heavy sigh.

"Everyone to their rooms, right now."

None of the students were going to argue, not after tonight, and certainly not with an exhausted Headmistress. So they all rather eagerly headed up to their bedrooms to try at least to get some sleep.

"We need to tell you something Headmistress..." I was a little worried telling her, worried that she was going to be angry that we had kept this from her. Not that I was going to fill her in on everything. Even with the attack on the school, there was no reason to make it worse by telling anyone else about the horcrux. Though it was becoming far more apparent that something was amiss as of late. The appearance of Death Eaters was certainly lending itself to the theory that Voldemort wasn't necessarily dead.

Harry though had made it clear that no one else was to know...

"You're not the only one." Sinistra was for once rather subdued.

"Well Severus and I found a stash of old Slytherin memories."

"Yes, the hiding place behind the snake, correct?" McGonagall nodded with clear understanding. Severus's eyes widened slightly, but the Headmistress just shrugged slightly. "You didn't think I wouldn't know about one of the oldest Slytherin traditions? What about it?"

"Well one of the Death Eaters sneaked out of the Great Hall and I followed him, worried he was going for the students. But he didn't. He stole all the memories."

This seemed to give McGonagall reason to pause. Along with the rest of us, there seemed to be no reason to steal old memories. All of the ones that Severus and I had viewed certainly had not contained anything of merit, so the reason must have lain within one of the vials that we hadn't made it to yet. Perhaps a memory of an old Death Eater. Perhaps one with a memory of where the horcrux could have been hidden. The idea that we had been so close to an answer set my teeth on edge.

"You said we weren't the only ones who had something to tell? Did something else happen?" Severus recalled what Sinistra had said, a deep furrow between his brows, his arms crossed as he waited.

"Young Mr. Faust found it. And the other two got us."

I could feel the doom in the air. It was suffocating really. Whatever the boys had found, I knew it wasn't going to be good at all.

"Would you just spit it out." Sirius snarled, getting rather fed up with how things were going tonight.

"Someone slashed Professor Dumbledore..."