I was reading through some of my old reviews (yeah I do that sometimes) and I found one from one reviewer: Lillith11: you said that you had a website for writers about common mistakes and the like. I was wondering if you still had that website name and if you did, could you send it to me? I would really appreciate it and I am sure some grammar/spelling sticklers out their reading this story would appreciate it too. Thanks in advance. Ani

Still looking for a beta if anyone out there is interested, just drop me a note or something.

Don't be afraid to leave comments, anything down to the smallest period. Also I like suggestions and guesses, it makes me feel that people really like the story so don't be shy and let out all your feelings about this story.

Now ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

Chapter Ten: The Most-Hated Hero

Harry sighed, "I don't know 'Mione," Harry said softly, lest the teachers overheard, "it just seems so weird," the three students were aloud to sit at a different table from the teachers so they could talk more freely.

"Harry….Ron" she looked at each of them in turn, "think about it, Severus Snape is one of the strongest members of the Order, in a duel (not just with magic) I am sure he would give even Dumbledore a run for his money, just think about it, with that kind of training, Harry, you could surprise Voldemort….Fawkes?" she looked up at the windows where the owls usually swoop in. Fawkes soared through and lands on the table next to Dumbledore, with a piece of parchment in one talon, he handed it to Dumbledore and after a polite 'thank you' flew off again.

Dumbledore read the short note and then it burst into flame and disappeared ashes and all. The Headmaster looked solemn, as if bad news had reached his ears; he gave the teachers a knowing look and in a gentle voice informed them about what the letter said. After a brief nod from Professor McGonagall, she stood and walked over to the trio as the rest of the Professors (who were all order members, conveniently) filed out of the room.

"You three," McGonagall looked at them with almost fear in her eyes as if whatever the letter said caused her to worry, "you will not be attending lessons with Professor Snape, please go down to your rooms and gather your necessities that you will need for the next few days, Professor Dumbledore has called an Order Meeting at 12 Grimmwauld Place."

The trio exchanged looks, "Is Professor Snape attending the meeting?" Hermoine asked, surprising them all.

McGonagall covered up whatever shock she felt and said simple and curtly, "I do not know, so please move along and gather your things,"

Harry stared at Hermione as they walked out of the hall until she met him with a questioning look, "Hermione…why do you care?"


"I am very disappointed in you, Severus…..Crucio," the black robed figure didn't flinch and didn't scream, and just stood there enduring the pain without a flicker of emotion in coal black orbs.

"I am very disappointed in you, Severus…..the black robed figure didn't flinch and didn't scream, and just stood there enduring the pain without a flicker of emotion in coal black orbs.

"I expected that potion today, ready…..Crucio," this time he dropped unsteadily to his knees, to many Crucatius curses for too long caught up to him and he stayed on his knees trembling slightly, but still not screaming.

"Damn it, Severus," Lucius said from the corner, watching the torture, "why don't you scream? Crucio," Lucius never succeeded in befriending the quiet dark-haired Slytherin in school, despite the assumption of others. Severus was too busy with his nose stuck in a book, running around with his non-Slytherin friends.

Lord Voldemort smiled fondly, or as fondly as could be read on the red-eyed dark lord's face. He then turned a venomous stare to the unmoving, silent Death Eater, bowing at his feet. With one last Crucatius curse he allowed the follower to stand, "you have disobeyed me Severus, I expect the potion next week in my hand at this exact time and no later and no more excuses, you are dismissed."

Severus bowed awkwardly -due to broken ribs from Lucius and Crucio aftershocks- out of the room, hiding the glare from his eyes.

After leaving the room he managed to disapparate back to the gates of Hogwarts and stagger through them before collapsing to his knees on the road. Rain poured down and washed the blood away from a gash on his left temple.

"'Ey, 'o's out there?" Severus didn't make any attempt to stand and who ever the stranger was could see that, "'ey, are ya 'urt?" the gruff voice sounded concerned as it got closer to the robed figure, "ya need 'elp?"


Hagrid stared from his cabin out into the rain and sighed. The letter from Dumbledore stated that Professor Snape was coming in from somewhere, he wasn't sure where, Dumbledore didn't say. He knew that if the Headmaster wanted him to lookout for Professor Snape than where ever he was coming from wasn't a good place. He knew that Professor Snape was a spy, but the idea of him sneaking to and from meetings to cover something up was ridiculous, sure he had to make the sure the students didn't know, but it was summer vacation everyone that was in the school knew he was a spy so why hide the fact he was going to the meeting?

Maybe he's ashamed, a good explanation but unlikely, Professor Snape knew what he was doing and he wasn't the type to be ashamed of what he did, even if it was wrong and if he was ashamed he wasn't going to show it.

Hagrid couldn't think of another logical explanation so he pushed the subject from his mind.

The rain was turning from a light drizzle to a down pour to a point where he could barely see out the window, three feet in front of him. Sighing again he gathered up his crossbow and arrows and pulled on his cloak and trudged out into the rain. He had a job to watch out for Professor Snape and he was going to do his job even if it meant walking through a downright drenching.

He got to the gate and found it opened and a feeling of dread washed over him, had he missed Professor Snape?

He knew if he jogged, he could catch up to him if he followed the road, but on the other hand it could be a trick someone trying to get him to jog right into danger, but Professor Snape wouldn't leave the gate open so carelessly…right? Unless he was hurt, so than he would be helping the poor chap, but on the other hand, even if Professor Snape was hurt he would have to be hurt pretty bad to forget something as important as closing and relocking the gate. His concern for the Professor got the better of him and he began jogging down the road.

True, he didn't really like the Potions Master, he knew that the Potions Master didn't really like him, but he was still a Professor at Hogwarts and Professor Dumbledore told him to watch for him so that is what he had to do.

He didn't jog very far before he saw a figure in the distance; he was standing, what looked very unsteadily, dressed in all black robes. Hagrid first thought was of Professor Snape, but he than thought all death eaters where black robes.

The figure collapsed to his knees, a train of what looked like some sort of red liquid trailing down the side of his face, "'Ey, 'o's out there?" he called, but the figure made no attempt to turn or stand to face him, "are ya 'urt?" he the liquid was getting to look more and more like blood as he slowly stepped forward. Cautiously he lowered his crossbow, "ya need 'elp?" by that time he had reached the figure and lowered his voice to a concerned whisper, very gently he touched the man's shoulder and his response made Hagrid start. The man tensed up and flinched away, but the sudden movement proved too much and he collapsed unsteadily to his side. At that time he got a good look at his face, "Professor Snape?" he gasped, immediately he scooped up the unnaturally light professor and began jogging towards the castle. He was hurt; a gash on his face, one wrist looked unnaturally bent and a thin strip of red across his chest.

Hagrid wasn't oblivious to what the dark lord was capable of, so he knew that the scratches and possible broken bones was only the beginning. Who knew what kind of torture the most-hated hero endured.


Professor Dumbledore sighed as the students looked at him eagerly; Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Gina, all stared at him, like begging puppies.

"Please, Professor, we only want to listen, we won't be a nuisance," Hermione begged hands clasped in front of her.

Professor Dumbledore gave them all a thoughtful stare, they couldn't be too much trouble and they couldn't really tell anyone, "I say yes….but," he froze all incoming thank yous, "Mr. and Ms. Weasley must ask Mrs. Weasley for permission for all of you," their faces fell considerably but they marched over to Mrs. Weasley and begged, and after receiving a final yes made their way joyously towards the very end of the table.

Dumbledore smiled lightly, knowing the four really only wanted to know what was going on, he should of course had said yes right away. They all deserved to here this, especially Harry, he was strong and he was the one who had to destroy Voldemort.

Just at that moment Fawkes appeared in a burst of flames next to him and dropped a letter in his hand. Dumbledore recognized Hagrid's messy scrawl instantly:

Professor Dumbledore-

Ya told me to look out fer professor snape, sir and I did honestly. I found him and he was hurt real bad so I took him to the infirmary and Madam Promfrey is fixin' 'im up. I don't think he'll be able to 'tend that meetin of yours.

Hagrid

Dumbledore closed his eyes, he knew sending that boy into danger without that potion was the worst thing he could do, but the Order didn't want to give him that deadly of a potion, they didn't think twice about the danger they were putting Severus in and if they did know, and then they didn't care.

But then again, he did send him into danger, he knew, did that mean he didn't care? Dumbledore shook his head slowly, he cared, but not about Severus, only about his mission. If they lost Severus than they had a serious problem, and a major blow to their mission to save innocents from Lord Voldemort, but wasn't Severus an innocent. If they were saving innocents, than why send an innocent into the heart of the fire. Dumbledore shook his head again.

"Albus?" Molly said gently. He started with a soft 'hm' and looked at the expecting faces of the order, except one was missing. If anyone noticed Severus's absence they didn't say anything.

"Yes, yes, the meeting," Mrs. Weasley took her seat as he pulled up his chair at the head of the table.

"Well, I received a letter during Dinner saying that Severus had to rush of too a meeting, a few minutes ago Fawkes delivered a letter from Hagrid, stating that Severus made it back to the castle but he was in bad shape and was taken to the infirmary."

Quiet murmurs began and as he waited for the room to silent he noticed the almost concerned look into the Golden Trio's eyes.

After the talking quieted Albus began speaking again: "he should be fine but I think it would be unwise on Severus's part to go back to Lord Voldemort without what was asked of him,"

"But we can't give him the potion," Moody spoke up, "so the Death Eater took a few blows, its not going to kill him if we send him back without the potion."

"It just might," Remus spoke up, "if Voldemort hurt him now and gave him another deadline and he goes back again without the potion, he will likely be tortured to death."

"We can not allow Voldemort to have that potion, if we have to stop that by having one life lost than so be it," silence followed that statement as realization sunk in with Moody's words.

"I won't allow you to send Severus back," Mrs. Weasley said confident in her own voice, "we can't condemn him to death,"

"Then we condemn 100's of others to death," Moody snapped standing, "by giving him that potion."

Instantly the rest of the table stood in an argument, "don't trust the Death Eater," Moody's voice was clearly heard.

"Excuse me?" Hermoine had stood also, much the Harry, Ron, and Ginny's surprise, "EXCUSE ME?" she tried again but to no avail. After an annoyed looked she pulled out her wand and whispered, "Sonorus…EXCUSE ME?"

The crowd was silenced as they turned to stare at her, "Quietus…if I understand the argument, we can't send Professor Snape back to the Dark Lord without this potion, and we can't send Professor Snape back to the Dark Lord with the potion, so can't we think of a substitute and send him with a different potion."

Moody growled: "Silences, girl, we don't need your silly ideas in this conversation,"

"Now wait a moment, Mad-Eye," Dumbledore said softly staring at Hermione with a smile on his face, "I actually think that is a very good idea, we could easily talk to Professor Snape and se what he can do to lesson the effects of the potion," he turned to look at the Order, "everyone please take your seats," the bemused crowd found their seats silently, embarrassed at their behavior.

"I still think it's a silly idea," Moody said.

"If I didn't know better," Mrs. Weasley said glaring at the man, "than I would say you want to see, Severus tortured to death,"

Moody crossed his arms and glared back, "and why not, once this war is over that would be his fate anyway."

"This is not the time for this argument, Mad-Eye," Dumbledore said, "let us focus on the task at hand not the task that has to befall us,"


At around midnight, the meeting was still going strong, Mrs. Weasley, ushered the barely awake children stairs, convincing them that they weren't going to miss much.

It seemed over the summer more of the house was cleared because Harry and Ron each got one room and Hermione and Ginny got one room. After they were sure Mrs. Weasley was downstairs and Ginny was asleep Hermoine snuck into the boys' room.

"That was odd wasn't it?" Ron said, "Fancy, Moody, wanting to see Snape dead,"

"Fancy Hermione standing up to Moody and standing UP for Snape," Harry giggled.

Hermoine fumed at the two, "I don't know if you realize, but thanks to Professor Snape, there are children out there that still have places to sleep and still have families and are still alive for that matter! And in case you two also didn't realize its thanks to Professor Snape that the order still exists, that Hogwarts still exists, he is the one who has been given us all the heads up about attacks and plans, he is the one who is risking his life every time he puts on his mask on both sides. If he is caught by the ministry, who will stand up for him? The Order? Some one has too, and if I must when it comes down to it than I will, now as for your two, you should be thankful that Professor Snape has saved your sorry hides every year since we came here," she was standing by that point, "he was the one who told Dumbledore that the three of us were in trouble, he was the one who has been protecting us and saving us form the shadows in all those dangerous situations, so be thankful for once and quit acting like a pair of unforgiving 2nd graders, carrying a childish grudge," with that she stalked out of the room and slammed the door noisily behind her.

End Chapter Ten

Well sorry for the rant at the end from Hermione couldn't help myself, oh and I was having trouble writing Hagrid, I couldn't remember exactly how he talked so I kind of winged. I wanted to make Moody seem like a real bastard pardon my language in this chapter. I actually just wanted to see someone really hate Severus down to the core and have someone rush to his defense. And I really do think Hermoine likes Professor Snape, she respects him and sees more than the others do when it comes to him saving people.