Review Responses:

jadely31 - Thanks for still being with me after all this time! :)

A Subtle Change

Chapter 33

Severus was beginning to wonder if he was ever likely to sleep again. He supposed he must at some point, after he had eventually retired to bed, have closed his eyes, but as dawn shone through a high window he could remember nothing but uninterrupted hours of staring at his ceiling.

Sighing, he rose and put out a hand, his dressing gown flying into it. He summoned a house elf, demanded black coffee, and set about tidying his rooms while he waited. His robes from two nights ago were still draped over a chest, too badly soiled and scuffed to be worthwhile mending. Perhaps, he conceded, he simply felt some superstitious desire to be rid of them after what they'd witnessed. Before he could dispose of them though the elf was back with his coffee and he could no longer put off readying himself to start the working day.

Minerva was already at breakfast when he arrived, she was the only one who was. She frowned at him. "I don't suppose you've had anything like a good night's sleep."

He graced her with a sardonic smile. "No more than you have, I'm sure."

She snorted and poured him his second cup of coffee. "Drink that before the hoards descend."

"Yes, Professor."

She looked mildly exasperated before smiling grimly. "Well, if you're feeling obliging, you can watch my NEWTS class this afternoon (when I know you have a free period so don't even try to get out of it!) so that I can make some kind of dent in the never-ending correspondence this school gets from parents, Ministry Officials, and heaven only knows who else!"

Severus, beaten, acquiesced without much grace. He had no desire to spend his precious free time watching someone else's class, but he had made Albus a promise to support Minerva should the worst happen and he had no intention of breaking his word.

XXXXXXX

Arthur didn't think The Burrow had ever been so quiet. Charlie was shut away in his and Bill's old room, doubtless an unhealthy situation but not one Arthur yet felt able to question. Fred and George were entertaining Ginny, and Percy was getting ready for work, leaving just Arthur and Ron at the breakfast table. Ron looking like he'd been dragged through a hedge backwards without having noticed. Nothing, not even having been one himself, could ever have prepared Arthur for a houseful of teenage boys and the mess that sprang up around them.

"What time's visiting hours this morning?" Ron asked around a mouthful of toast.

Arthur let his son's lapse in table manners go, simply pleased that someone in the house had regained something of an appetite. "Not until eleven."

Ron had spent the morning (all half hour that he'd been awake so far anyway) formulating a plan for the day whereby he could somehow please everyone, including himself, and announced. "I wanted to go and see Harry first, is that alright?"

"Of course..." Ron saw his father look troubled. "I feel like I should go with you, but..."

"No, Dad," Ron insisted, "Harry'll understand, and knowing him he won't want loads of people round him right now anyway."

Ron watched as his father's expression changed to something quite different and, on his way to the sink with dirty dishes, he squeezed his son's shoulder affectionately. "You grew up so well." Ron could no longer see his father's face but his voice didn't sound quite steady. "You're a very smart young man, Ron, and I couldn't be more proud." He sighed, "Though don't think you've heard the last of you and Hermione going off like that right into the Death Eaters' path!"

"Dad! They were hurting him!"

Ron watched as his father shook his head and sighed again. "Well, we won't argue about this now, go and get ready. If your mother ever found out I'd let you leave the house with your hair in that state she might well divorce me."

Ron wandered over to the mirror and frowned at his hair that was actually doing a fair impression of Harry's usual rumpled look - Ron had to admit it didn't really work well on him. He couldn't see what on earth his hair had to do with anything, today of all days, but a glance at his father reminded him that sometimes it was wiser not to argue with adults even when they weren't making much sense.

"Hurry up and Percy'll drop you off on his way to work. He can apparate you to the Hogwarts gates, I think Madame Pomfrey's shut down the floo link to the hospital wing again now."

"Percy's going to work again?"

"Don't start, Ron." Arthur warned mildly. "You deal in your way and let your brother deal in his."

Chastened, Ron went back to flattening his hair.

XXXXXXX

Percy hadn't seemed too happy about escorting his brother but he hadn't made a fuss about it and Ron soon found himself being dumped somewhat unceremoniously at the Hogwarts gates. "Right, there you are, I need to go I'm afraid, I'm sure one of the teachers can see you home."

"You're in a hurry," Ron observed.

"It's getting late, that's all."

"Don't spend too long in work, Perce. You do know we'd like to see you, right?" Ron thought there was a genuine risk that Percy didn't know that.

Percy looked far more guilty than Ron had expected, and also oddly shifty. "Well, of course not, we'll see. Go and give Harry the family's best."

His brother was gone before Ron could respond. The boy sighed and set off up the path to the school. In the distance Hagrid's hut was quiet, shutters closed across the windows, but smoke was pouring from the chimney. It looked like Hagrid was at home, just not to visitors. Ron couldn't even imagine how devastated Hagrid must have been by the loss of Dumbledore. He considered stopping in to see him, but the need to see Harry drew him onward to the school.

The castle was surprisingly quiet. McGonagall obviously had the students in lessons, fall of a Dark Lord or not. Ron was just grateful to be able to slip up the stairs unnoticed. As he approached the hospital wing he spied a head of bushy hair and something in Ron lightened a fraction. "Hermione!"

"Oh, Ron!" The girl came running down the corridor and enfolded him in an utterly unself-conscious bear hug. "How's your mum?" her voice sounded quiet even with her lips right next to his ear.

He hugged her back, tightening his arms on her with none of the awkwardness he'd felt hugging her in the past. He was too grateful that they were both still here to waste time wondering about what was 'friend' appropriate. "Mum's going to be ok," he let her go and looked around. "Where's Harry?"

"Oh Ron, you need to come and see him!" Hermione's face became troubled in that way he recognised as her having found a problem she couldn't solve. "He's been...well, rather upset, I think he really upset Lupin too when he visited. He won't stay in bed and he's not been very calm and Snape didn't exactly break the news about Dumbledore well..." she was dragging him in the direction of the hospital wing as she talked. "He's been asking for you, I don't know why but he seems really worried about you. I had to keep telling him you were ok."

Ron hurried along beside her, eager to see Harry again and failing to answer her question of, "Are you staying at Hogwarts now or going home again first?"

Madame Pomfrey met them at the hospital wing door. "Mr Weasley, Miss Granger, he's up and about but please don't over-excite him, he's been through a lot."

Ron felt that that rather went without saying, after all they'd been the ones at his side through most of it, certainly more than any of the adults.

If Ron's insides had lightened at the sight of Hermione, they twisted right back up again upon being reunited with his best friend. Harry was not a natural hugger. He did not readily embrace people often and, even with Ron's mum who had become such a mother figure to him, he was never the instigator. This simply made it all the more confusing for Ron when his best friend clung to him desperately upon first seeing him. Harry drew back almost as quickly as he'd grabbed him, muttering apologies that Ron couldn't fully make sense of.

Ron shook his head. "Shut up, mate." He pulled Harry firmly back into a hug and squeezed just as fiercely in return, all the while exchanging a frantically worried look with Hermione who, unhelpfully in his opinion, appeared to decide that what the situation really needed was more hugging and launched herself at both of them.

XXXXXXX

Neville had been officially discharged (more like ejected really, he'd tried to stay with Harry and Hermione but Madame Pomfrey was having none of it) from the hospital wing late last night. Dean and Seamus had been kind enough to hold off on questions and he'd carefully avoided the rest of Gryffindor tower, who had been less kind and more curious. He had at least been excused classes for a few days but had been dismissed with little more than a nebulous, 'come back if you need anything'. Perhaps they felt that he'd already seen worse this year, if so he supposed they were right. Anyway, his plants were more likely to soothe him than anything Madame Pomfrey or even Professor McGonagall could do.

He stopped initially by a variegated shrub he'd been trying to convince to fruit with some limited success (quite the feather in his cap when none of the other students had managed to coax even a single berry from theirs). Now though its red mottled leaves called to mind vividly the sheets on Tonks' bed two nights ago. He shook his head, trying to shift the memory, trying to forget the sight of Madame Pomfrey literally stitching the young woman back together. Instead he moved towards a bright splash of colour at the back of the greenhouse. The stunning blue blooms of the Impavid Iris, icy and yet vibrant all at once, were a favourite of his. Always one of the brightest things in the greenhouses during the winter months, they flowered when the world was darkest and coldest and almost always put a smile back on his face. This morning though, he wasn't sure anything was going to do that.

Neville had not been tending to the flowers long before a small sound, like someone clearing their throat to announce their presence in order to avoid startling anyone, caught his attention. He looked up in surprise. "Shouldn't you be in a class?"

Luna Lovegood gave a mischievous smile. "Probably. Are you going to turn me in?"

The urge to return her smile, even today, was irresistible. "No, I wouldn't do that."

Trevor croaked as if in agreement and Luna beamed at the toad. "Hello, Trevor." The toad croaked again and the girl tilted her head and nodded as though she perfectly understood what he meant. "He's staying close to you today," she commented, looking back to Neville.

It was true, traditionally a trip to the greenhouses was an excuse for Trevor to make one of his infamous escape attempts – he never got very far and Neville had long since stopped trying to prevent him. Today though Trevor had remained right next to the plants Neville was working on, hopping about after him a bit like a puppy. It was ridiculous to suggest a toad could understand that he needed the companionship, but he'd thought it even so.

Luna, Neville was starting to think, could read minds even more effectively than Professor Snape. "I think he knows it's been a hard few days," she said, smiling sadly.

Neville thought she might ask how he was and he had no idea how he was supposed to answer. Instead she said quite forthrightly:

"It's not a very nice attitude in the school today, that's why I came out here. I think everyone resents being back in lessons so soon. Some of the Slytherins look fit to kill someone, possibly themselves. The Gryffindor table looks wrong without you and Ron and Hermione and Harry. It was already strange with Ginny and Lavender gone. My fellow Ravenclaws have draped the entire common room in black in mourning for Dumbledore – as though he'd ever have wanted that..." she looked a little lost. "I think the Hufflepuffs have it right, apparently a bunch of them broke into the kitchens for a midnight feast last night." She winked, "But that's top secret, they think the teachers don't know. I think they do know. They just don't have a better way to raise people's spirits right now. Poor Professor Snape looks so sad."

It might have been the longest speech he'd ever heard her make, and it made his stomach hurt with its lost tone and fierce compassion. Of course Luna was worried about Snape, about the Slytherins, about everyone, including those the rest of the world would rather not deal with at present. Having been shoved out the path of an angry looking Theodore Nott only half an hour earlier, Neville could sympathise with that attitude even as Luna's words reminded him that war made everyone suffer. Nott's mother had been arrested, it had been all over the Prophet, of course he felt like shoving people. The rights and wrongs of his mother's actions seemed unlikely to enter into his feelings.

Lost momentarily in guilt for things he couldn't help and couldn't control, Neville was surprised when Luna continued by adding: "I'd hoped you might be out here."

"Why?" he asked before he'd thought how rude that might sound.

Luna however was hard girl to offend. "Because you brighten my mood." She looked like this should be obvious.

They were both quiet for a few moments. Neville turning back to his plants with a smile, feeling unusually comfortable being observed by her.

"They're beautiful." She reached out a hand and gently stroked the petals of one of the flowers.

"I thought they might 'brighten my mood' a little."

"Have they managed to?"

He smiled sheepishly, "I think something has."

"Good." Then with a certain 'my work here is done' attitude she gave him a sunny smile, a satisfied little nod, and went to leave.

"Luna, wait!" Neville called her back. "Here," he cut one of the blooms from the plant and held it out to her, blushing.

"Thank you. I knew you'd brighten my day." She fixed it behind her ear where its colour brought out the pale blue in her eyes. "Now I better get to Potions. Professor Binns won't have missed me but I think Professor Snape will. He always takes special interest in my potions, it's very kind of him, he's always worrying the class' safety as well."

As she left Neville suddenly had a thought he couldn't believe he'd never had before and burst out laughing. Snape had to teach Luna. Neville could only imagine the chaos that Luna could inadvertently wreak in a potions lesson. Her love of experimentation and curiosity about everything must keep Snape on his toes, no wonder he seemed worried about her classmates' wellbeing. Neville wondered if she'd ever tried to tell Snape about the Nargles, he really hoped she had.

XXXXXXX

The knock at the door was a welcome interruption to Oliver's thoughts. Even though he assumed it most likely to be another well-meaning neighbour (his mother seemed to have informed the entire small local magical community that her son had been involved in You-Know-Who's downfall – and he had a feeling his involvement had got more significant with every telling), but at least it was someone to talk to. He had convinced his parents he would be fine while they went to work, he was now forced to concede he had been wrong.

When Oliver opened the door though it revealed someone far more welcome. "Percy!" Oliver pulled him inside out of the rain and embraced him fiercely. "It's so good to see you."

Percy hugged him back just as tightly. "You too!"

"Come in, sit down." Oliver led him through to the sitting room. "How are your family holding up?"

Percy sat on the sofa looking awkward (and more than a little defensive) and responded briefly. "They think I'm at work."

"You're lying about where you are now." Oliver fought to remain diplomatic. "That's...unlikely to end well."

"What else could I say?" The desperation was painful to see in Percy's eyes. "I wanted to see you. And besides I'll call in to the office after and so it's not really a lie."

Oliver couldn't think of a response that wouldn't make the situation worse.

"I can go if you like." Percy's posture stiffened.

"No, of course I don't want you to go. I just..." It didn't feel like a good idea to say what he did want. Oliver swallowed his resentment and irritation and remembered what Percy had been through in the last few days. He settled for taking Percy's hand between both of his own and squeezed it gently. "I'm just glad you're here."

XXXXXXX

His knock at the office door went unanswered. Remus frowned and knocked again, more firmly this time, the secretary down the corridor had assured him Druscilla was in there.

"Come in!" An annoyed voice finally answered.

Hesitating slightly, Remus pushed the door open.

Druscilla looked up from her desk. "Oh, Remus, hello." She looked surprised to see him, which he'd intended but he was less sure than he'd have liked to have been that it was a pleasant surprise. "Is that lunch?" she nodded towards the bag in his hands.

"Yes," he closed the door and approached the desk, trying to smile. "I thought you might not have time to get much otherwise." He was quiet for a moment, then added. "You left impressively early for someone who drank quite that much last night."

"Hmm." She definitely looked less happy to see him than the previous day, though that might well have been the hangover. She threw a late edition of the Prophet down on the desk. "The funeral notifications have already started."

Remus was more than a little surprised, it seemed almost indecently fast for anything like that, though it might explain her subdued mood. "Wow, some people are disturbingly organised." He followed her to the corner of the office by the pseudo-window and set the food down.

"Some people organise in order to cope." Druscilla eyed the lunch bag significantly. "They find it takes their mind off their troubles."

He quailed under her, non-too-impressed, gaze. "Busted." He offered her a sheepish smile.

"Not much gets past me," she said briskly. "I assume you have not been back to see Harry."

"I thought I'd give him some space."

"Uh huh." She sounded unconvinced and began unpacking sandwiches. "I don't have too long for lunch today I'm afraid. I'm glad for his sake he's not here, but this office does run much more smoothly when Percy's around."

Lunch was indeed quick and quiet. Druscilla seemed edgy and eager to be back at work, and Remus himself couldn't stop thinking that maybe he should go back to Hogwarts and make another attempt to see Harry. All in all the interruption from another knock at the door was not as unwelcome as it might have been.

A head of perfectly tamed deep red curls poked round the door, almost nervously. Remus supposed that Percy was not supposed to be here today and Druscilla's response confirmed this.

"Percy! What are you doing here?" She didn't wait for his answer however. "Oh, never mind, it's great to see you, I can't find my annotated copy of the Bailey report anywhere..."

Percy held up a hand, mirroring the brisk attitude Druscilla had shown since Remus had arrived. "I'll get it for you. Coffee?"

"Please!"

"Well, I should be going." Remus smiled awkwardly as the office seemed at risk of running onwards around him like he wasn't even there.

"Thank you for lunch," Druscilla kissed him softly. "I'm sorry everything's a bit mad. I've got a meeting that doesn't start until 6pm so I'll be here until goodness knows when tonight, but maybe we can have dinner in the next couple of days?"

"I'd like that." Remus smiled, pleased to see her thawing a little in comparison to her behaviour over lunch.

She kissed him again and hustled him out the door. "Go on then, quicker you're gone the quicker I can get on with things."

XXXXXXX

Harry could not stop pacing. He had been pacing for at least half an hour and the nervous energy he'd awoken with hadn't diminished in the slightest. He knew he was worrying Hermione (stood all but ringing her hands in a nearby corner) and driving Madame Pomfrey (shooting him frazzled looks from the other end of the hospital wing) round the bend, but he couldn't stop. He desperately wanted to go out flying but he didn't even have to ask to know that the answer would be a definite no.

Seeing Ron had helped, but now he was gone again. Rationally Harry understood, Ron's mother was in hospital, his brother had died, Ron needed to be with his family. Irrationally, he didn't want his best friend out of his sight.

Towards the end of his incarceration Harry had started to unravel slightly, he remembered calling out Ron's name (much to the entertainment of a gleeful Bellatrix Lestrange). He'd given Voldemort the prophecy, told him he couldn't even remember what about the Order, and all for nothing. Of course they'd never had Ron. Everything his parents had died for he'd thrown away in desperation to save the best friend he'd ever have, and he couldn't even properly regret it. All he could do was feel miserable and guilty.

To compound this he knew Remus had visited yesterday when he wasn't quite lucid, knew he'd treated him in such a manner that he'd probably upset the man, and he felt awful about that on top of everything else. Remus Lupin had done nothing but try to help, advise and comfort Harry from the moment they'd met. Harry stopped his pacing and smiled momentarily at the memory of a shabbily dressed, tired-looking man proffering chocolate with a reassuring smile on the Hogwarts Express.

Harry couldn't think of anyone better to face a Boggart or a Dementor with. He was sure that no other teacher could have coaxed a Patronus out of him. Remus was patient and gentle, but that gentleness belied a determined persistence and resilience that could make you feel like you were capable of anything he told you you were. It was easy for Harry to see why his dad had liked Remus so much. He was the best teacher Harry had ever had...and Snape had ruined that with his hatred and bigotry.

Harry had punched the pillow before he'd even noticed, indeed it was Hermione's startled "Oh!" that pulled him back out of his own head.

"Harry..." Hermione hesitated, "Are you alright?"

"I was just thinking," he responded, "It's nothing."

It wasn't nothing though. Snape had ruined Remus' life and no one, not even Dumbledore, had stopped him. Remus kept going, kept smiling that tired smile of his - even at Snape. The man had lost his friends, been frequently abused by people he seemed endlessly able to forgive, and all he'd wanted was to see how Harry was and Harry had made him feel unwelcome and unwanted!

Hermione was still talking, but Harry had no idea what she'd said. Overwhelmed by everything, he stormed wordlessly into the hospital wing's bathroom and locked himself away with a vague hope of finding some peace.

XXXXXXX

Remus returned to Grimmauld Place to find someone waiting for him. Another redhead looking like he thought he was somewhere he shouldn't be.

"Hi." Ron had helped himself to the biscuits, much to Remus' amusement, and looked more than a little guilty.

"Hello!" Remus smiled kindly, "How nice to see you. How's your mother doing?"

"Much better, thanks. She won't be home for a while but she's responded really well to treatment, and she's sat up in bed telling me I need a haircut." Ron was quiet for a moment. "Though I suspect the increase in general fussing is to stop herself getting upset about Bill again. She's not supposed to cry, her skin's still healing."

Poor Molly, Remus' heart ached for her, to have lost your child and be denied even the comfort of tears. He gestured Ron to a chair. "Sit down, Ron. And do have another of those biscuits."

Ron took another biscuit from the tin on the table but toyed with it rather than eating it. He took a deep breath. "I need you to talk to Harry. He's...not right. And I know that's probably to be expected right now, but..." Ron searched for words and looked, Remus thought not for the first time, far beyond his years. "I feel like there's something he won't say, and I dunno what it is but if anyone can make him talk..." Ron looked awkward and had begun crumbling the biscuit in his fingers. "Hermione told me he might have upset you, he won't have meant it! Harry thinks the world of you, you're the last link he feels like he has to his family..."

Remus halted the flow of words gently with a chocolate frog, produced from a stash in his pocket, and a conjured cup of tea. "It's alright, Ron. I know he didn't mean to upset me and it's all fine. I just wanted to give him a bit of space, but if you think he'd like to see me then of course I'll go and see him. We never did get that chat you asked me to have with him in the end."

It felt like a lifetime since their meeting in the snow in Hogsmeade, when Ron had uncharacteristically sought adult help in his concern for his best friend. Remus had promised he would talk to Harry over the Christmas break, but then Harry had never got a Christmas break.

Ron looked pale and drawn, covered in biscuit crumbs and, yes Molly was right, in need of a haircut. Far too young to be facing all of this. Remus swallowed his anger and vanished the crumbs from the young man. "I'll go and see him tomorrow. I'll owl him this evening and let him know I'm coming." Harry had perhaps had rather enough surprises. "Now what about you? How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine..." Ron started before trailing off with a snort, "Ok, maybe not fine. But...I dunno, Dad needs me and Hermione's asking when I'm coming back to Hogwarts and I don't know what to do! Do I just go back to school and leave Dad and the rest?"

"Your father would want you to do what's right for you, and I am sure Professor McGonagall would facilitate you visiting your family if you wanted to return to Hogwarts. Your father has a lot of friends Ron, there are a lot of people who will be keeping an eye on him."

Ron warmed his hands on his mug of tea. "It's not just Dad. Charlie's barely leaving his room, and Percy's insisting on going to work! He's been there all day, he didn't even go to see mum this morning! He said he'd go with us this evening and Dad reckons this is the way he copes, but surely if he doesn't stop he's going to send himself further round the bend than he already is!"

Remus frowned in mild confusion but chose not to voice the fact that Percy had clearly not been at the Ministry all day. Where Percy had been in the morning was, Remus decided, his business. However, he couldn't help but feel Ron was right. "I'll have a word with Druscilla, see if she can't get him to take a few days at least. It is very busy at the Ministry just now, he may just need a little push to realise it's ok to take some time off."

Ron looked unconvinced. "If she gets him to take a holiday then she'll have no trouble becoming Minister, I know which one I think's more likely!"

"She's very persuasive." Remus however couldn't help but wonder if her reaction to seeing Percy today was perhaps an indicator that she didn't intend to be 'persuasive' with Percy while she felt she needed him. It was an uncharitable thought that he tried to disown as soon as it arose, but there was likely some element of truth to it.

XXXXXXX

Ron had left Hogwarts that morning feeling worse than when he'd arrived. The state his best friend was in was worse than he had expected. He knew Harry must have been through hell, but he'd been through hell before and yet never seemed quite like this. After visiting his mother, and despite finding her awake and looking a little better, Ron had quickly dismissed any idea of asking his father for help. He did however feel it was time to risk adult intervention again.

He'd found Grimmauld Place empty but been reluctant to leave. It was quiet and surprisingly cosy (he wasn't about to say it but Remus seemed to have a bit of a natural domestic touch that had left even this darkest of residences feeling more like a home). Upon wandering into the sitting room and finding a biscuit tin on the coffee table filled with his mother's homemade cinnamon snaps he decided that the universe was telling him to stay. That was easier than the truth that the sight of his mother's lovingly made biscuits (that Bill in particular had always liked), moved him almost to tears.

He'd sat in the warm silence, working his way through a fair portion of the biscuits over the course of half an hour until Remus had returned and found him. There was no trace of displeasure that Ron had let himself uninvited into what was basically Remus' home and helped himself to his food. His ex-teacher had smiled and welcomed him without missing a beat.

Remus had let him pour his troubles out, never interrupting and plying him with chocolate until Ron felt better. He was confident that if anyone was going to get through to Harry right now it was the man in front of him.

Glancing at his watch Ron realised how long he'd been there. "I should get home, see if dad's ok. Thanks for listening to me."

"Anytime Ron, you're always welcome here." The two of them stood and Remus looked, as Ron was sure he'd seen before, as though he were going to reach out to touch Ron's arm but, as always, he drew back.

This odd little physical tick of Remus' had confused Ron at first. The man shied away from touching people though seemingly not through his own inclination. After a chat with his father though, he had realised why. Remus was a werewolf and doing everything in his power not to unsettle those around him, constantly fearful of rejection. He'd noticed afterwards that his father almost always managed to pat Remus's arm, or shake his hand, or touch him in some inconsequential human way whenever he was with him.

Ron remembered suddenly how he had physically shrunk away from Remus in the Shrieking Shack when Hermione had first revealed what he was. In that moment Ron had ceased to see the kind, fun teacher he'd liked so much all year and accepted in a heartbeat that his condition made him a prime candidate for aiding and abetting a mass murderer.

Instinctively, Ron stuck out his hand. A handshake seemed odd but he had to do something to show the man that not all the world saw him that way, and he couldn't exactly just hug an ex-teacher. Remus looked at his hand for a second before grasping it firmly with a pleased smile. He looked genuinely touched by such a small gesture and suddenly Ron wished he had hugged him.

"You know, Ron," Remus beamed on him, "You're really very like your father."

XXXXXXX

The day had felt never-ending, from the mistake of agreeing to watch Minerva's class to a disaster in one of his own. Luna Lovegood had insisted that she'd thought an extra spoonful of newt eyes would help her Scintillation Solution to double as a repellent for 'unseen spirits of mischief that depress the soul' (Severus had chosen not to delve further into what they were exactly). It had certainly repelled the rest of her classmates by the time she'd done, the clouds of smoke had had them edging quickly out the door. Not an unusual outcome for one of Ms Lovegood's experiments. She was probably in many respects the best potions student in her year, though her grades wouldn't reflect that. Severus only tolerated her continued messing about because sometimes, against all expectation, her experiments worked. Today's though most definitely had not. It had certainly done nothing to lift his own depression and by the sorrowful look on her face it hadn't aided hers either. Though as she'd left the classroom she'd taken a flower from her hair and started smiling at it in a nauseatingly sentimental fashion. Teenagers, he snorted, the world could be falling apart and they'd still find time for their love lives.

Dinner had been unbearable, he had spent it watching as Draco ate almost nothing and scowled at the world while refusing to catch his Head of House's eye. Severus couldn't even blame him. The number of his own students not talking to him, though expected, hurt more than it had any right to given how insufferable he often found them when they were talking to him.

Back in his rooms late in the evening he continued what he'd started that morning, picking up his battle-stained robes to dispose of them. Efficient as ever, he checked the pockets for anything forgotten and his fingers closed around something small and slightly sticky. Frowning, he drew his hand out to reveal a sherbet lemon covered in fluff. He stared blankly at it as it lay in the palm of his hand for several long moments before his hand closed tightly around it.

XXXXXXX

The knock wasn't surprising despite the hour, Minerva had a feeling who would be there even before she opened the door.

"Severus," she gave a small smile, "Come in."

The man didn't move, "Forgive me, it's late."

"I think we've firmly established that I'm not sleeping any better than you are." She gestured him in insistently, "What was it you said? Never apologise for coming here."

Still he hesitated on the threshold. He looked lost, not that anyone who wasn't extremely well acquainted with him would ever see it. There was a tightness in his expression though, a lack of grace in his movements and a tenseness to his overall posture that gave him away to her.

Losing patience Minerva took a firm hold of his arm and corralled him inside. Noticing his clenched fist she frowned. "What are you holding?"

Severus looked terrifyingly vulnerable and more than a little awkward. His fingers peeled open to reveal a very sticky, and rather fluffy, yellow sweet of a kind she recognised from Albus' perpetual proffering of bags full of the things. It was hard to imagine Severus having ever actually accepted one.

"I see." She didn't exactly but she could extrapolate that he'd found the offending item somewhere and been hit afresh by the same painful memories that had been haunting them both since Albus' death. "Why don't you pop that on here," she grabbed the saucer from a cold cup of tea and nudged his unmoving hand with it.

He nodded curtly and dropped the sweet onto the china.

"Come on," she said, briskly taking charge, "Sit down, I'm going to make some tea."

Miraculously he followed her instructions, it might have been a first and that included when he'd been her student. Severus Snape didn't take instruction well.

She pressed tea into his hands and sat beside him by the dying fire. This was fast becoming a habit, and comforting as it was she was painfully aware that sooner or later they both needed to get a good night's sleep.

"Have you thought of taking something?" she asked.

"Have you?"

She wasn't put off by his rude tone. "I'm not fond of potions."

He gave her a look of fake injury that actually made her laugh. "I mean I don't like using them to sleep, they can have nasty side-effects."

"Mine don't."

Of course not, she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He was probably right, he really was that good. Instead she gave him a smug smile, "Well then you can brew some for both of us can't you and then we can at least stand some chance of not looking like zombies."

"I don't enjoy using them myself," he protested.

"Why not, you've just assured me how good yours are?" She had him on the back foot now.

"They're still potentially addictive if you use them enough."

"So are caffeine and alcohol," she retorted, "But so far you've shown no problem with us resorting to those to keep going."

Severus, out of arguments, looked grumpy. She had won and they both knew it.

"I'll brew a fresh batch tomorrow," he sulked. "I'll leave you in peace now.

"Oh god, please don't. I'm no more fit to sit alone with my thoughts than you are."

He sat back down, casting a look of concern over his friend. "You do know that if there is anything I can do to support you..."

"I know," she nodded. "Believe me, as soon as I work out what needs doing around here I will most certainly be asking you to do some of it. In the meantime Albus didn't leave much in the way of instructions."

Severus' smile was soft, shockingly so for him. "He knew you wouldn't need them."

XXXXXXX

A/N: Not as quick a posting as I'd hoped, especially as it's quite a short one but I am already at work on the next. Thanks to everyone reading. :)