5.

Headmaster's Private Dining Room - September 1997

Sworn to secrecy, a house-elf set out a feast on the dining room table. Hermione scrubbed clean and in fresh clothes, blushed as Snape drew out a chair for her to sit.

"Eat as you need to, Miss Granger. You look…malnourished."

"If you'll join me, please, sir?"

Stress and having to eat at the High Table, where she had very little doubt everyone loathed him, had to have done little to give the wizard an appetite. He gave a slow nod and over the courses, she brought him up to speed on where they were, and he, the situation in the school. No anger, no stress, except at the events that bound them both. And the food was…wonderful. She did have a hint of guilt, but not much, as she would be taking back a small bag of plenty Snape had offered. One that could even satisfy Ron's rapacious appetite.

She set her empty coffee cup down. "So the Diary, the Gaunt Ring and now the horcrux within the locket are dealt with. We know of two others. The Hufflepuff Cup and Riddle's snake, Nagini. Something possibly Ravenclaw…but…"

"My Lady." Snape's voice was solemn and he sat forward, his fingers locked, his expression impassive…but something flickered in his black gaze. "I believe. Albus…" He pressed his lips together and the hint of colour in his cheeks deepened. "Mr Potter is also a horcrux."

Hermione sank back into her chair, her thoughts whirling, her body boneless. Salazar's voice was a distant, fading rumble…

"Miss Granger."

Was that…? Someone was kneeling beside her, had taken her hand into his. Warm and strong. Blue veins threaded around pale and prominent knuckles. She knew this hand…

"Hermione…"

Her gaze snapped to the pitch black gaze of her former professor, shocked by the use of her name. "Sir…?"

"I'm sorry."

Hermione scrubbed at her face, the grey fog in her brain clearing. The warmth of Salazar wrapped around her and she exhaled an easier breath. Her brain surged forward. "Venom won't work with him. He was bitten, the venom was deep in his flesh. Without Fawkes' tears, he'd have died in the Chamber. And for the time he did have the venom in his system didn't purge him. Harry still has his…connection to Riddle."

And of course the connection was because Harry carried a part of that bastard around in him. He'd seen through the eyes of the snake when it attacked Mr Weasley. A creature they knew to be a horcrux. "How long? How long have you known? How long did Dumbledore?"

Snape ran his thumb over her knuckles, before he stilled and tried to draw his hand away. "Me? May. Before…"

Hermione placed her hand over his and squeezed. "Salazar sees all." She twitched a smile. "He knows the true story, Headmaster. You were given no choice in how to act."

Snape closed his eyes, his long black lashes a fan against his sallow cheeks. A tremor ran through him. Someone else now knew his most desperate secret. Hermione wanted to believe it was relief that held him and another burden shed. And by Merlin, he was thin. The wizard needed feeding up. She held back a wince. She was turning into Molly Weasley, she truly was…

"Albus." Snape drew in a heavy breath and met her gaze. His fathomless eyes appeared comfortingly…less dark. "I believe he knew for a long time. Perhaps from the very beginning." His rich voice grew soft, but the words chilled her. "Offering him up like a pig to the slaughter." Snape huffed a sour laugh. "It would explain why he kept the boy from the wizarding world and allowed his guardianship to fall to his awful aunt."

"Wowed by his new world, and by the wizard at its head…who favoured him. Trusting. Malleable." Hermione bit out the last word. "And he'd set the path for you too, Headmaster?"

Snape gave a silent nod.

"Then I believe the plans of Albus Dumbledore are, as of this moment, null and void." Hermione gave him a sharp smile. "Time for something new, and quite, quite…Slytherin."