This isn't one of my favorite chapters. It was born from a conversation RM and I had during the last movie. *shrug* Anyway, see you again on Sunday.

Snape

May 1st, 1998
Post-Hogwarts
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Snape felt the dark mark on his arm burn. He'd thought of cutting the damn thing off over the years, but of course that would have given his position away, so, on it stayed. He was actually been grateful for its burn tonight, it meant Harry was in the castle. He was never gladder nor did he ever look forward to seeing Lily's son as much as he did in that moment, it meant that this was almost over.

Dumbledore may have been grooming the boy to be killed by the Dark Lord, but Snape was keeping him safe for Lily's sake. So when the mark burned on his arm, he stood up and walked out the door. He was not expecting to run into Minerva, so he asked where the Carrows were.

"Wherever you sent them, I imagine," she replied coolly, she'd not been a fan of his since Dumbledore had died. He didn't blame her; she had no way of knowing the truth, he did his job well.

"Have you seen Harry Potter, Minerva? If you have, I must insist—" He threw a shield charm up just in time as she slashed her wand through the air. Before the spell even had a chance to die, she brandished her wand at a torch lining the wall and it flew through the air, nearly hitting Luna and Harry under the invisibility cloak.

The torch flame became a fiery lasso circling around Snape until it was no longer fire but a black snake now heading for McGonagall. McGonagall blasted it into smoke, which then reformed into a fleet of daggers that embedded themselves into a suit of armor Snape pulled in front of himself at the last second.

"Minerva!" Flitwick said.

Sprout and Slughorn were close behind and close behind them were Miss Montgomery and Miss Akina in their Animagus forms, disillusioned of course.

"No! You'll do no more murder here!" Flitwick squeaked, bringing the suit of armor to life. Snape freed himself of the crushing embrace and sent it back towards Flitwick; it hit the wall and shattered. Snape ran through an open classroom and leapt out the window.

As he leapt into the sky he heard Minerva scream, "COWARD! COWARD!"

As he leapt into the night he shoved a thought at Jocelyn Montgomery. He knew she trusted him; he was the one she came to when Harry was in trouble. She trusted him and so he thought to use that trust to his advantage.

Using Legillimency, he shoved one last order at her, "Do not disappoint me." Somehow, he knew she would obey.

As the professors began casting protective enchantments around the school, the girls made their way to Hufflepuff house to wake the students. As they reached the barrels that barred the entrance they morphed back into people and Jo began to fume, "How dare she! Attacking him like that! He's not—He's on our side, damnit! How dare she! She should have trusted him!" Jo yelled. "He didn't even attack! He only ever defended himself!"

"Jo, it's not her fault. She doesn't know, she—Jocelyn! Stop that!" Leilani said, raising her voice to get Jo's attention, to stop her from the angry pacing she was doing.

Jo stopped cold, "I don't think you've ever yelled at me before, Leili…"

"Yeah, well, you weren't listening." Leili tapped out the pattern needed to get inside and the barrel opened to allow the former students entrance, "Obviously, you know something she doesn't, so don't waste time being angry at her." It was Leili's default to assume Jo knew something she didn't; it just saved time.

"He told me not to disappoint him. Leili, think about every time we've done something to help Harry, if Snape didn't already know about it, then he ran to help, every time. If he was a step ahead of us he made sure that we knew that he knew and that we were out of sight and out of trouble.

"He called Dumbledore when Harry thought Sirius was in trouble, he called the Order. He kept Harry on his broom in that first Quidditch match; when Umbridge caught Harry, he made sure that we followed him so we could stop Harry from doing something stupid," Jo stopped, she could go on all day but she suspected Leili got the point.

Leili shook her head, "We rather failed at that last one. He probably had a hand in the Slytherpuff Alliance, you know."

"I wouldn't put it past him. Calling all Hufflepuffs!" Jo called as she reached for a wind chime, "Sonorus," she said, tapping it with her wand and then shaking it.

Leili clamped her hands over her ears; the chimes were loud, loud enough to wake the dead, and sure enough after a moment the surprised faces of Hufflepuffs began to appear in the common room. Jo cancelled the charm and the chimes died down to their normal volume, right at that moment, Professor Sprout walked in.

"What on earth was that noise!?" Professor Sprout asked before she fully saw Jo and Leilani, "Girls, what are you doing here?"

"We're here to help," Jo said.