Snape spoke, in words soft and precise, as he paced, "It would be a halfbreed," he said, nodding to himself, "Someone who doesn't know what havoc they've wrought."

Harry Potter was on the one hand glad to be finally ignored. If Snape looked up, he'd assume that Harry was just eagerly drinking in the gossip - which, of course, he was - but his mind was also whirling, trying to find any loose ends. The Twins knew - but he'd be a greater fool to try and remove their memories. And they'd just told him, after all, not squealed to the Headmaster, even when they'd been under the microscope.

No, the twins were trustworthy.

And Granger and Ron didn't know about this in the slightest.

His ears tuned back into Snape who was saying, "The closest to this I remember was myself, believe it or not,"

McGonagall had stiffened at that, and was looking at him with reproach.

"Oh, don't give me that look. I only did it to Sirius Black - and I'm frankly not sure anyone noticed!" Snape sneered, "Besides, doing it to a male heir is quite different than potioning up a second born female." Snape sneered, frankly, a little less. He must really not like Mr. Black, Harry thought. "The Heir has value to his house no matter his marriage status. Not that anyone would have sued for marriage with Black!"

Snape paced, "That makes at least half a hundred suspects, Minerva,"

"And not a one of them likelier than the next, Sev," Minerva McGonagall volleyed back.

"Still! More likely than your Gryffindor suspects." Snape said, still pacing, "No grudges - no fights, she was so good at being unremarkable. Nothing serious, at any rate. I can't think of a particular person who has a motive larger enough to do something this drastic." Snape whirled, looking at Dumbledore, "Not even if they didn't know what it meant."

Harry felt Snape's eyes resting on him, for a moment, as if the tall man was considering the matter of Harry's Bullying, but he then tossed it aside - Harry had picked the least remarkable person in the bunch.

Harry started to squirm as they moved on to Hufflepuffs, and finally Snape snapped, "Oh, get out of here, Potter, and Stay OUT of Trouble!"

Minerva McGonagall tsked at Snape as Harry went down the spiral staircase, "You know he doesn't try to get in trouble often, Severus Snape."

Harry had to grin at the thought that someone was in his corner. McGonagall had the delightful ability to make Snape look and act like a sulky, sly teenager called onto the carpet.

[a/n: Snape's dropping into more of his actual accent here. He's rather upset, in case you didn't notice.

With Sirius, it really was just a harmless prank.

Leave a review!]