Ferretbouncer: Moody doesn't show up until ch.7, but believe me, it's worth waiting for.

Disclaimer: same as last chapter.

Chapter One

Departure

The dark man stood hidden under the eves of the Forbidden Forest, gazing somberly out at the funeral of the man who had saved him. The man he had murdered. He watched the faces of the mourners, seeing the grief of the staff, the students. Disgust rose in him at the sight of the vaunted Minister of Magic, along with Fudge, Umbridge, and that witch Skeeter. Hypocrites. They had done everything possible to destroy the man they were supposedly mourning, and now because it made for good publicity they were his biggest fans.

Although, to be fair, he was a fine one to be talking. After all, he'd killed the man. A slave can only have so many masters before he is forced to act against one of them, or perish. Not that he wouldn't have died for Dumbledore, but he'd made the only choice that circumstances allowed. He wished the old man hadn't been so understanding of that. He wished he hadn't said please. Severus had seen many things that haunted him, but the old man's eyes as he said those words chilled him deeply. No-one should be so understanding towards their murderer.

The Dark Lord was going to kill him. Probably slowly, definitely painfully. In killing Dumbledore he had defied his Lord and second master. Draco was the one meant to try. Hnh! Meant to die. The Dark Lord had wanted Dumbledore captured, to die at his leisure. Severus shuddered. He knew first hand what that would have meant. After all, it was soon to be his fate. The entire mission, the vow too perhaps, had been a trap, and he had failed to see it until it had been too late for all of them. He had not only said the curse that had killed Albus, he had allowed the circumstances that led to it to close around them. Ah, well. Lucius was imprisoned, Dumbledore was dead. Two masters down, and about to be killed by the third.

At least Draco might now survive, if he kept his head down the way Lucius had in the first war. Potter, too, would probably live, though Severus doubted the boy would weep for him the way his father once had. The way ... Poppy once had. She wouldn't now. She couldn't, or they'd know that she had ... had cared for him. He'd betrayed her. Of all the people who had been hurt by his actions, she had been the one he'd most wanted to protect. Well, he could. He'd carry her secrets to his grave.

He turned to leave, then stopped. The blank mask that habitually clouded his features faltered, and for a moment the person who had wept in Poppy's arms, who had smiled at her and wiped away her tears, shone through. 'But I can't leave, can I? I can't leave you unknowing. Ah well.'

He moved carefully along the forest edges, concious of the people gathered on the other side of the lake, of the centaur guard in his immediate vicinity. Finally, he reached a quiet spot near Hagrid's hut. He winced, looking at it. He hoped the man and his dog were alright, for they had offered a silent acceptance to a hurt, stand-offish boy, fresh from a session with his master. Not that Hagrid had known that. At least not who or why. Although neither he nor Poppy had ever told the half-giant for truth, Severus had always suspected that, on some instinctive level, Rubeus had known.

In the quiet, he knelt. He didn't, strictly speaking, have to. Only to Lucius, the Dark Lord, and whatever partner they'd chosen for a session, had he had to kneel. But it was right. Wasn't it right for a slave to kneel before his betters? 'Dobby?' he called gently.

In moments, the ragged elf appeared, dabbing at his huge eyes with a sock. Severus winced again. Then the small elf looked up to see who had summoned him, blinking his eyes to clear them. The man braced, ready for the fury and accusations that would follow. But Dobby surprised him. 'Severus! You is here! You is OK? Is you needing Mistress Poppy? I is getting her, right away! We is all so worried about you, we is! I is going. I is going now!'

Severus shook himself out of his stunned stupor. He reached out to halt the elf's passage. 'Dobby, wait!' The elf paused. 'Don't go for her, Dobby. I can't ... that's not why I called you. Please, just wait.' His hand shook. It was his left, and it had shaken constantly since that night, as he stubbornly rejected his master's call until he had seen the funeral. The Dar... Voldemort ... would kill him anyway. He might as well endure a little more pain to say goodbye to the one master who had treated him with some respect.

He blinked. Dobby was beside him, holding his hand, calling him. 'Severus, it's OK. It's me. Dobby is here. You is OK.' The little elf sounded frantic. 'Yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry for scaring you, Dobby.' And he was. He and this elf had suffered the terror of Lucius together, had done what they could to help each other, had kept each others secrets. Dobby was his frienf, one of the only two he'd ever had. Whatever else he felt for Potter, the boy had his eternal gratitude for freeing Dobby.

He straightened, but kept Dobby's hand clasped in his own. 'Dobby, I have to go. My master calls, and I cannot defy him any longer. But I had ... had to see you. To say goodbye.' He looked down at the fearful face gazing up at him, tears once again filling the huge eyes. 'I will not be coming back. I have defied him too openly this time. He summons me to my death.' Dobby was crying openly now, but did not protest. The house elf understood too clearly what it was to be owned.

'Dobby, I cannot tell Poppy this. I have hurt her too much already. Would you ... would you give her a message for me?' A nod, tearful. 'Tell her ... tell her I'm sorry for what has been, for what I've become. There is no hope for a slave with three masters. But I ... I cannot regret what she has given me, allowing me to hope for even that little time. I'm glad to have lived for that. Tell her to look twice at Draco if he has the chance to come to her, to take care of the children. Tell her ... tell her that she has been more of a friend to me than she will ever know, that she was so much of the reason that Lucius and the Dark Lord could never take all they wanted from me.' He wept freely himself, now. 'Tell her I love her,' he whispered.

He wept silently with his friend for a long moment. Then he wiped his face and stood, ready at last to face his end. He smiled down at Dobby. 'Take care of yourself, and Potter, my friend. Live long and free.' They clasped hands. Severus Snape departed Hogwarts to face the final wrath of his remaining master, and his weeping frined watches him go.

Later, an exhausted Madame Pomfrey entered her chambers to find the house elf waiting for her. One look, and she knew. 'What did he say?' she whispered. Dobby told her. Shaking, she sat, hugging Dobby to her. 'Oh Severus, why do you have to be so brave?'