The young blond crossing the Great Hall of Hogwarts had changed since the last time the girls had seen him. That frantic evening in the infirmary, he had been wearing the robes, if not the mask, of a Death Eater. He'd looked exhausted and miserable - had even been pressed to tears. It was the same as the stories Harry had told of the encounter in the bathroom, or the horrible night on the tower - a Draco sad and frightened and out of his depth.

This Draco was a different matter. He appeared once more a young gentleman, dressed in a fine grey coat with attached half-cape that would not have been entirely out of place in either the wizarding or muggle worlds. His hair hung loosely, not quite long enough yet for a ponytail. And his expression was now less that of a frightened little boy and more of a determined young man.

"I have to talk to you," he'd said as he hurried into Hermione's range of vision. "It's about Snape."

"Draco?" Hermione blinked.

Another set of footsteps clattered rapidly into the Hall. "What do you know about Snape?" Ginny demanded as she ran up to them. "Do you know where he is?"

Draco scoffed. "The old kilt didn't tell you? I'm living with him. And no, I'm not going to tell you where. You've always hated him - I can't trust you not to do anything stupid."

"Not 'always'-" Hermione began to protest. Then suddenly, realization slapped her across the face.

Draco didn't know about Snape.

He had no way to know that Snape had been an ally of the Order; that he had been respected, if not absolutely trusted, by most of those on Dumbledore's side. Trusted by just about everyone except Harry, really. But Harry was the loudest and most visible of them, and he hated Snape - the whole student body knew that. And Snape had never made any effort to repair that antagonistic relationship, even seemed to enjoy tormenting Harry. Draco must have thought what any outsider would think - that Severus Snape and Harry Potter were mortal enemies, prevented from killing each other only by the headmaster and the rules of civil behavior.

That was Snape's cover. It was what people were meant to see.

Draco didn't know. He couldn't have known in the past, and now... If Snape was on their side and Draco was truly on Voldemort's, then of course he couldn't tell Draco the truth. And if Snape was Voldemort's follower and Draco was on theirs... or what if they were both... or what if Snape just didn't trust ANYONE anymore... Hermione's head spun with the possible permutations.

What did the world think of Severus Snape now? Everyone thought he was a monster, a horrible murderer. Absolutely and incontrovertibly Voldemort's follower. Everyone except Hermione. Even the people she kept trying to tell didn't believe her... so she kept stirring things up, and continuing to try and convince others that she was right.

No wonder Snape had tried to throttle her!

Hermione realised that both Ginny and Draco were staring at her, as she'd trailed off in mid-sentence. "I couldn't always have hated him, because... because he was a professor," she explained feebly. "I couldn't hate a professor, it's not proper!" A beat. "Except Umbridge. But she wasn't a good professor anyway." They were still staring. "Um..."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Okay, enough babbling. What was it you needed to tell us?" she asked Draco.

"There's some sort of plan involving werewolves," Draco explained. "Not Fenrir's gang, the ones the Ministry knows about. They're going to be rounded up or something."

"Protective custody," Hermione nodded. "We already know."

"I don't!" Ginny argued, but her friend waved a shushing hand at her.

"Anyway, Snape's working on a large brewing project at the moment. Really large, like he has to serve potions to a lot of people and they all have to be ready at the same time. I don't know what the potion is, but there's wolfsbane and moon pearls in it, and he practically said it had something to do with werewolves." Draco spread his hands. "It's not the standard Wolfsbane potion, I know that much. And I can guess it all has to be ready in time for the full moon."

"Is it the same potion you were talking about before?" Ginny asked.

Draco shook his head. "No, I think this is the real brewing project they talked about at the gatherings. His secret project earlier was entirely different. He worked on it for a long time, but I think it turned out to be a failure. He only made one batch that I saw, and he was very angry about it. It was probably some kind of experiment. This new potion doesn't look anything like it."

"What was this experimental potion like?" Hermione wondered. "What happened when he used it?" If it had been related, the failure might tell them something about what the new potion was meant to do.

"A thick green oil," Draco related. "I worked out most of the ingredients, but I couldn't find a recipe. Sage, mandrake, henbane, nightshade... very strong. I don't know what it was supposed to do, but I heard him yelling that someone wouldn't answer, and then smashing things."

Hermione began to laugh, first quietly, then bending over, clutching her stomach.

Ginny and Draco stared at her, then at each other. "Has she always been mad?" he asked. "Forgive her, she didn't sleep well last night," Ginny answered, and the two of them shared a smile. Just as quickly, they both seemed to realise who they were smiling back, and turned their eyes away.

Hermione couldn't stop laughing. It was all so obvious! Witching Oil! One of the few magics that had trickled through into Muggle culture... and perhaps it was only Muggle culture, with no real wizarding equivalent, and that was why Snape's attempt hadn't worked. An ointment designed to help the user see and speak to spirits - Snape must have been trying to contact Dumbledore! But it was all a secret. No one could know. She'd have to think of a lie. Clearly, she needed more practise in that.

Hermione straightened, brushing tears from her eyes. "Sorry. Just - Snape! On drugs! It's a very funny thought..."

"Drugs?"

"Those herbs. Those are really powerful hallucinogens, right?" She forced another giggle. "Snape, chasing little colored mushrooms like Gargamel... Sorry, it's a Muggle joke, you wouldn't understand." She watched as, yet again, Ginny and Draco traded glances and shrugged.

"Anyway," Draco continued. "I just wanted to let you know that there was something going on with the werewolves, and that I probably won't be able to come by with any more information for a while."

"Why, what's going on?" Ginny asked. "Are you being sent off on a secret mission?"

He shook his head. "I have family commitments."

She smiled. "What a coincidence. So do I."

---

After Draco had repeated his warnings to Professor McGonagall and gone on his way, Ginny turned on Hermione. "What's this about the werewolves? Who's rounding them up? Why didn't you tell me?"

"The ministry wants to register them and lock them up over the full moon for everyone's safety, supposedly," Hermione explained. "Remus told me about it. I wasn't keeping it a secret from you - I didn't know that you didn't know. I mean, your father works for the Ministry and all."

"What about Tonks? She didn't mention anything like that!"

"She doesn't know. Remus didn't want her to find out. That's probably why he didn't tell you, either - you'd tell her. And if she finds out, she'll try to fight it and get herself into trouble, and he doesn't want that." Hermione sank into a chair. "It's complicated keeping secrets and trying to figure out who's supposed to know what."

"Then why not just tell the truth?" Ginny stamped her foot on the floor. "Men are all the same! They all try to keep secrets from you to 'protect' you, like you've got no brain of your own. I thought Remus was better than that. If anything's going to happen to him, she deserves to know about it! Otherwise, what good is their relationship?" She shook her head, red hair flying everywhere. "He's protecting himself, not her. He's just too scared to face the truth."

Hermione sighed deeply. "Sometimes the truth isn't simple and doesn't help anybody."

Ginny looked at her. "Are you feeling okay? You've been acting a little strange. Did you find that potion you were after? Maybe you ought to lie down."

"Maybe so." She didn't want to lie down. She wanted to work, to research, to solve puzzles - but everything had gone so topsy-turvy in the past few days. If she was right, if Snape was furious with her because she was endangering his cover... how could she ever regain his trust? He clearly didn't WANT her to trust him, he wanted her to stay away from him and help the boys find the Horcruxes. He'd practically said so. But he knew so much more than they did. How could she just ignore that?

Ginny patted her on the shoulder. "Get some rest. It's going to be a big day tomorrow. We'll all need to look our best for the wedding."

---

Author's note:

Actually, Draco does know that Snape was a double-agent in the past. But he doesn't know that Ginny and Hermione knew! He doesn't know any details about it at all. As Hermione is starting to realise, guessing who knows what is very complicated business!

Sorry that not much is happening, and it's happening very slowly, but I'm busy working on other things. So I pick this up every few weeks or so, frantically dash off a scene and publish it immediately, then forget about it again.