(2nd May, 2015: Minor revisions to text of this chapter)

Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note (February, 2014): The following concerns the highlights of the events of the 1991-1992 school year, and thus the timeline has jumped forward somewhat since the previous chapter. This story takes place in an alternate universe where instead of having Harry James Potter, James and Lily had a girl, Hellebore Jasmine Potter, who resembled Lily a bit too much for Severus Snape to ignore her when he found her as the only survivor of the attack on the Potters of Hallowe'en, 1981. By the opening of this chapter, the wizarding world in general believes that all the Potters died the night that Voldemort attacked, along with the Dark Lord.

Further Note: This story is rated 'T'.

If there had been one thing looming in the future of the preceding decade which had concerned Severus in particular, it was the sorting of 'Harriet' in September of 1991. If his deception was likely to be uncovered at any point, he felt, it was in the events leading up to and surrounding that. Fortunately, the name 'Potter, Hellebore' was not called during the sorting, but 'Prince, Harriet' was instead and after a lengthy pause (which started to get Severus' nerves on edge), the hat sent her to Slytherin. If the hat had somehow detected the deception (which even to Harriet herself neither Severus nor the goblin bankers had ever disclosed) it had chosen not to expose Harriet's origins for now.

Severus breathed easier, as Harriet made for the Slytherin table and sat down next to Draco Malfoy. Not that there hadn't been tense moments at times over the years (such as the occasion that he'd found her hissing at a snake and had had to explain such talents were best not disclosed), but the only major scare he'd had since 1981 had been a few months earlier at Ollivander's, when the wandmaker had been unduly curious about Harriet's parentage, no doubt so he could do his usual party-trick of reminiscing about said antecedents' wands. Severus had very pointedly informed the wandmaker that Harriet's parents were never mentioned, for reasons of her safety. And then, of course, Ollivander had sold her a wand which was apparently brother to Voldemort's own. That had not been a good day for Severus…

There were occasions when Severus' charge could be a bundle of mischief – for example, they'd run into the girl Hermione Granger during Harriet's school supplies trip to Diagon Alley, and Harriet had spent three-quarters of an hour chatting to Hermione, knowing perfectly well that Hermione was a muggle-born, extolling to her the virtues of ambition, and how the wizarding world definitely needed a shake-up.

And tonight, the hat had put same said Granger girl in Slytherin, the first overt muggle-born to be placed there in several centuries. Oh, that was going to cause Severus a headache or two in the years to come, he was sure, unless Miss Granger could be persuaded to voluntarily relocate to a different house.

Nonetheless, Miss Granger placing in Slytherin was unlikely to register as scarcely more than a blip on the scale of potential catastrophes which Severus could envision for the coming year. At least Hermione Granger had a first-class memory, from what he could recall of that shopping trip, which could probably be parlayed into some sort of state of being treated as something other than a muggle-born by her new housemates. There were much greater things afoot in Hogwarts this year including the headmaster for some reason (blast him) having hidden Flamel's stone in the school according to the staffroom gossip. Severus hadn't had so much as a glimpse of it, although several of the other teachers had and apparently been involved in some sort of scheme cooked up by the headmaster to protect it – not that Severus had been invited to join in the latter. It was only those whom Albus most trusted who had been asked to help providing protections, and Severus didn't rate in such exalted company as the teachers of herbology, defence, charms, transfiguration, and ancient runes – or even as Rubeus Hagrid.

Severus was more than half-tempted, given the motley crew Albus had assembled, to have a go for the stone himself just to prove that it would have been better to have involved people on the basis of magical expertise, as much as of 'natural' trustworthiness. Trustworthiness could be enforced by contract or vow, after all, whereas lack of competence was considerably more difficult to make up for.

A minor highlight of the first week of the new school year was Draco Malfoy getting himself a week's worth of detentions by flying without permission during a flying lesson, when he went off on some silly schoolboy thing to hide Neville Longbottom's remembrall in a tree after Longbottom dropped it whilst falling from a broom. Draco was the only one to take to the air in the teacher's absence (whilst she was removing Mr. Longbottom to the infirmary), and the Gryffindors present were fast enough to rat him out once Rolanda Hooch returned. Apparently Draco was short on basic common sense.

Severus had been considering Draco as a possible quidditch team member, before that event, in despite of his youth Draco being an uncommonly good flier. Severus privately explained to Draco in its aftermath that his unsubtle stunt with Neville Longbottom's remembrall had cost him a chance of possibly becoming one of the youngest players for a house team in Hogwarts' history, since such a placement this year would look now, if it was granted, as if Draco was being rewarded for showing off in a hopelessly Gryffindor fashion.

Severus hoped that Draco had taken the hint. Even if he hadn't, part of Draco's detentions involved his writing a letter of formal apology to his fellow pure-blood, Neville Longbottom, for the remembrall theft.

However, several weeks into the term, Draco wound up back in detention again, having been caught by the school caretaker along with Draco's fellow first year, Ron Weasley, whilst the two young wizards were duelling one another in the trophy room. Apparently both had had 'seconds' present too, but their seconds had taken off at the signs of Filch's approach and eluded capture (although Filch was sure at least one of them had been a girl).

Instead of issuing a conventional detention, this time Severus paired Draco with Neville Longbottom in a potions class, and tasked him with ensuring that Longbottom didn't cause yet another class-threatening disaster. (By that point Neville Longbottom had concluded his stint in each potions class by melting his cauldron and/or departing the classroom for the infirmary thanks to yet another brewing disaster, although to give Longbottom credit, Severus hadn't yet seen him repeat the same mistake twice…)

Anyway, by the end of that particular lesson, Draco was swearing blind that if he got another detention before the end of the school year that it would be much too soon.

Hallowe'en proved eventful.

Severus always had mixed feelings about the date, since although it was the date that Lily had died, it was also the date he had taken over care for her daughter (not that it was in any way prudent to advertise the latter event). And there always seemed to be something going on during it.

This one outdid other recent years.

In the aftermath of events, he was subsequently able to determine that events really kicked off just after lunch, during a mixed-house charms lesson. Miss Granger had been amongst the first (as usual) of those not already familiar with it to master a new spell, and the on-off poisonous relationship which had been festering between her and Mr. Ronald Weasley of Gryffindor ever since some sort of meeting between them had occurred on board the Express on the first of September had reached new heights (or perhaps 'depths' might be a more appropriate term, given that things which were sinking tended to bear downwards). Mr. Weasley had insulted Miss Granger in his usual obnoxious fashion; in a few crisp words in response, Miss Granger had delivered a devastating analysis of Mr. Weasley's character, which amounted to the fact that he was clearly jealous because he was worried that all his many older brothers had got what magic and talent there was in the Weasley family, leaving him with little more magic and considerably less talent than most squibs.

Mr. Weasley had been unable to cope with this pithy analysis (which Severus, once he later heard of it, would concede most likely correctly attributed Weasley's behaviour to at least a sense of insecurity and inadequacy) and had fled the classroom in tears.

The events in the charms classroom were (however) completely unknown to Severus at the time of their occurrence, and did not come to his attention until somewhat later during the 'celebrate the fall of Voldemort' evening feast.

It was a short time after the feast had got underway that Severus' colleague, Quirinus Quirrell, in that ridiculous turban he'd been wearing ever since the start of the school year, rushed into the great hall in hysterics (Merlin alone knew why he'd been absent from the start of the feast) and announced that there was a 'troll on the loose in the dungeons!' before collapsing in a state of apparent nervous exhaustion.

Honestly, Severus had no idea why the headmaster had appointed the man to the defence post, if it had reduced Quirinus to such a wreck that he felt incapable of handling a single troll. Then again, maybe the jinx known to be on his current position made Quirinus feel insecure in taking on just a solitary troll on his own?

In the meantime, the headmaster, in his wisdom, had decided the crisis clearly merited all pupils returning immediately to their sleeping quarters, and that he and some of the staff would go troll-hunting.

At this point, Severus demurred, given that said troll was ostensibly in the dungeons and that Slytherin laired in the selfsame aforementioned dungeons. He promptly ordered his house to stay put, since although he felt confident in his own ability to defeat said troll if encountered one-on-one, he was uncertain of how his first years might cope if said troll emerged from a side passage to attack a group of pupils in transit at the moment when said first years just happened to be passing by. He invited the headmaster to sack him, if he wanted to order the pupils of Slytherin into said potential peril when it was far better tactics and strategy for Slytherins to wait in the great hall where the troll would have to come to them and there would be a clear field of fire between any entrance it cared to make use of and any pupils present.

By this point half the Hufflepuffs were already out of the hall, loyally obeying the headmaster's orders, the Ravenclaws were debating the merits of all possible courses of action, and the Gryffindors refused to abandon the feast if the Slytherins weren't going anywhere – although Merlin alone knew where their head of house, Minerva, had suddenly disappeared to.

Confusion continued to reign, when Harriet brought it to Severus' attention that Ronald Weasley and Seamus Finnigan were both missing from the feast – Harriet's intelligence being that Seamus had gone to look for Ronald, and at this point the woeful tale of the earlier charms lesson had emerged.

Severus knew Harriet had cultivated information sources across wizarding society amongst her peers and considered her likely correctly informed as to the reason for Seamus' absence and the Hufflepuffs were recalled, and an urgent headcount and name-check of all pupils was ordered, whilst the headmaster dispatched teachers individually or in pairs on troll-hunting missions.

Neville Longbottom turned out to be missing too. Interrogation of other first year Gryffindors determined that Neville Longbottom had gone looking for Mr. Weasley and Mr. Finnigan immediately after Professor Quirrell's entrance, Longbottom feeling the need to inform them of the troll reported to be roaming the school. Several older Ravenclaws were absent – believed to be doing some late night research for an essay in the library, which resulted in Professor Flitwick hurrying off after issuing clear instructions to the rest of the house to 'stay put and adopt a defensive position' – and two pairs of older Gryffindor students were also apparently missing, having made various excuses – these latter students were believed to be indulging in some high-quality 'snogging time' safely back in Gryffindor Tower.

The crisis headed towards a farcical conclusion as various missing pupils wound their way in, shepherded by teachers, and a report of Mr. Longbottom finally surfaced – Mr. Longbottom had not apparently discovered Ronald and Seamus (who had been found exchanging male-bonding remarks about 'slimy snakes' in an upper floor bathroom) but had become hopelessly lost and discovered the troll, down in the dungeons, close to a potions classroom.

The troll had detected Mr. Longbottom who had ducked into the classroom and closed the door, which the troll had then commenced to batter away at, whilst Mr. Longbottom busied himself with a cauldron and random handfuls of ingredients and doing the precise opposite of what safety instructions he could recall Severus ever giving him in class.

It was a particularly tough door, and when the troll had finally broken through it had just been in time to receive the benefits of the latest Longbottom explosive face-melting cauldron-bursting 'special' smack in the centre of its ugly visage.

The troll had not survived, suffice it to say, and the crash of the door and the roars of agony of the expiring troll had (belatedly) attracted teacher attention.

When Severus arrived, in response to the news, to survey the scene of the unequal struggle between a raging force of nature and one boy's ability to destroy things in a potions laboratory, Longbottom, then being removed on a stretcher, had said something defiant to the effect of: 'See, I do pay attention in class, sir. Couldn't have done this unless I did…' before passing out from the fumes of whatever-it-was that he had concocted.

It was a good thing he'd added that 'sir'. Severus would have put him in detention until Christmas if he hadn't, crisis or not.

As it was, he contented himself with awarding Gryffindor a couple of points for 'Longbottom actually demonstrably having learnt something', and bottled a sample of the latest Longbottom disaster for further analysis. He just about resisted the temptation to deduct any points for the valuable ingredients Longbottom had tossed into the cauldron, willy-nilly, or for destroying yet another cauldron.

A final strange footnote to proceedings was Minerva's belated return to the feast during the pudding course, at which Neville (by now in the infirmary in Madam Pomfrey's care) was considered absent 'guest of honour'. Minerva was now limping badly, something having apparently happened to one of her legs…

The first quidditch match of the school year – Ravenclaw against Hufflepuff – finished rather bizarrely in a huge aerial 'pileup' with practically every broom on the pitch simultaneously heading for the same patch of (previously empty) air, taking their riders with them.

Mass sabotage by dark magic was suspected. Severus considered himself in no position to give an opinion, since at the time of the match (Slytherin having no active stake) he'd been absent from the stadium, instead being down in his office marking some atrociously spelled third year essays – although he'd been summoned hastily enough in the aftermath.

It took the teachers at least an hour, with much of the staff occupied with assisting the injured and helping temporarily splint broken bones, to clear the pitch of players, and the match was abandoned, as a draw, with seventy five points awarded to each team.

Gossip spread quickly throughout the school that the deputy headmistress had been in some way involved, as she had been seen muttering something and twitching her wand moments before the match ended. There was speculation that she had wanted to minimise the threat that both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff presented as potential rivals in her bid for Gryffindor to take the quidditch cup this year from Slytherin.

The headmaster announced that he would personally be refereeing all remaining quidditch matches in the school-year.

It was a relief to Severus when most of the pupils and staff went home with the arrival of the Christmas holidays, giving him a chance to properly spend some time and to catch up with Harriet, to re-order and fortify the potions classrooms and stock-cupboards against the depredations of a further two terms of Neville Longbottom before the summer break afforded the chance to put some proper measures in place, and to put away temporarily his bottle of red ink used to mark essays. Oh yes, and to plot the theft of the Philosopher's Stone to check just how effective the headmaster's security measures actually were?

Harriet was able to inadvertently assist him with the latter, since it came out, during the process of Severus catching up with her doings, that the information network she had in place had already determined that the three-headed guard-dog in the third-floor corridor was susceptible to music, was positioned on top of a trapdoor above a room full of 'devil's snare', and that (according to the third year Gryffindor Weasley twins) there were a room full of flying keys and another one occupied by a giant chess-set beyond. (Harriet wasn't completely certain what was so obviously being guarded, but was informed that it was 'something to do with Nicolas Flamel' and had therefore deduced it most likely to be a huge quantity of gold, vials of elixir of life, and/or the Philosopher's Stone.)

Harriet's opinion of security around whatever was being guarded was that Hagrid posed a potential threat to it of approximately the same size and scope as the iceberg which had ended the maiden voyage in 1912 of the Titanic. Thanks to Hagrid she even knew which members of staff Dumbledore had ostensibly enlisted to provide security.

On Christmas Day, shortly after lunch, Severus sauntered off to the third-floor corridor, started a stop-watch, and went to investigate just how well-protected the Philosopher's Stone actually was.

Half an hour later he presented himself in the headmaster's office.

"Twenty-two minutes and thirty-three seconds." Severus said flourishing the stop-watch in one hand and with the other tossing something red and suspiciously reminiscent in tone and shape of the Philosopher's Stone across the headmaster's desk to Albus. Albus goggled, but still managed to catch the object. "More than half of that time was taken playing my way across the chessboard, with caution which turned out to be completely undue. A group of first-years could have probably got past most of that stuff. Argus Filch could have, for Merlin's sake, and he's a squib.

"Err…" began Albus.

"Please tell me I missed some cleverly hidden alarm, and that you were simply so full of turkey and plum-pudding that you were letting your digestion settle before coming to investigate?" Severus said.

"Err…" said Albus again, looking distinctly nonplussed.

"WHAT THE DEVIL ARE YOU PLAYING AT, HEADMASTER?" Severus bellowed. "This is Nicolas Flamel's stone, here, that we're talking about – one of the wonders of magical Europe. I, being a humble student in the craft of potion-brewing, would never seek to deprive the stone's creator of his treasure, but there are witches and wizards around who are nowhere near as scrupulous. Some of them may be in the upper years, or on the staff, for all that I know!"

"I had thought that I had been particularly clever with the final protection of the stone." the headmaster finally said.

"Putting it in the draw full of old socks was far too obvious to anyone who knows you, despite the large pile of fake stones dominating the room, and there were several equally obvious ways which involved no magic whatsoever to get around the actual spells you'd put on the draw." Severus broke the news to him.

The headmaster looked faintly guilty.

"Whilst I will admit that the earlier 'challenges' were designed to be easy in case any children wandered into the gauntlet, somehow, and to inspire over-confidence in anyone who penetrated through to the end, perhaps I had not been devious enough in my final challenge." Albus said contemplatively, weighing the stone in his hand. "Clearly I need to think of something more secure."

"In the meantime, just why is the stone in the school in the first place?" Severus asked.

"That, Severus, is no concern of yours." the headmaster said, adopting an 'I-know-best-and-I'm-certainly-not-telling-you' expression. "It is information, to be frank, which is highly private, and which I do not feel that it would be prudent to entrust you with. There is more at stake here than the safety of the Philosopher's Stone, suffice it to say."

"If you ever change your mind you know where to find me." Severus snapped, suddenly feeling a distinct lack of good cheer. He put the stop-watch away. "In any case, come the end of this school year, if this has not been resolved, I shall write to Master Flamel."

"You do that, Severus." the headmaster said softly, but with an underlying tone of distinct warning. "And in the meantime, leave this matter well alone."

The abominations of varying degrees of size and ability to create disasters that were Hogwarts' student population returned to Hogwarts with the coming of January, and the usual state of educational siege warfare carried out in the name of common-sense and safety resumed.

Neville Longbottom, at least, had apparently enjoyed his Christmas break, been purchased a new wand by his grandmother as a reward for his performance during his first term, and been otherwise bolstered in confidence to an extent where he was no longer such a menace in the potions classroom. The troll incident seemed to have done him a world of as-yet-still-ongoing good.

Then, one evening, Harriet brought tidings that did not bode well.

"Hagrid's acquired a dragon egg from somewhere, which he's hatched." Harriet said. "A dragon egg which, if, umm, the gossip grapevine can be believed," she coloured ever so slightly here, implying some degree of personal gallivanting to obtain this particular snippet, "a man in a pub lost to him in a game of cards, whilst the talk was about various magical creatures, including 'Fluffy'. Fluffy's the three-headed dog he's got up on the third floor corridor." She looked worried. "It has all the hallmarks that someone desperate for information was pumping Hagrid for it, in the hope that Hagrid would be too drunk to remember anything the next morning. To some extent they were right, in that Hagrid can't remember any personal details about the person who 'lost' the egg to him. Well not except that 'it was a feller in a dark cloak and hood with a womanish voice'."

"Did this pub encounter take place before or after Christmas?" Severus asked.

"After." Harriet reported. "The dragon egg would have come up over Christmas, if it had been before, I'm sure. Hagrid couldn't wait to hatch it."

Severus breathed slightly easier. The stone was considerably safer since Christmas Day, of that he was sure.

"Under other circumstances, this is information, Harriet, upon which we could sit, and play to best advantage." Severus said. "Unfortunately, a hatched dragon is not going to stay hidden for very long, and…"

"That's why Ronald Weasley and Seamus Finnigan have persuaded Hagrid that it has to be moved out of the school tonight. And why Draco Malfoy, having belatedly discovered the presence of the dragon, has gone to grass them up to Professor McGonagall."

Severus swore.

"Just what does Draco think he's playing at?"

"And exactly where did you get this, Mr. Weasley?" Severus had the invisibility cloak in his hands. A cloak which was all too familiar from his own school days.

The youngest Weasley boy and Finnigan had been caught by Severus sneaking down from the Astronomy Tower, having presumably rendezvoused with Mr. Weasley's brother and disposed of the dragon. They had been cocksure and certain under the cover of the cloak that they couldn't be caught. Unfortunately for them Severus was an old hand when it came to detecting students around Hogwarts with the cover of such a cloak, and Finnigan and Weasley had been sufficiently unsubtle in their whispers that even without Harriet's warning to him that 'they think they've got some sure-fire way of being hidden' he would have needed to be severely incapacitated not to have noticed them.

"It was a Christmas present. From my parents." Ronald Weasley said, defiantly.

Severus muttered the old charm and tapped his wand to just the right spot in the lining, and there appeared the old label, just as it had been when the cloak's previous owner had added it after one of Severus' own unsuccessful school-days attempts to make off with it and claim it for himself.

"Then why, Mr. Weasley, does it appear to have the name of a dead war-hero affixed to the lining?" he asked, and Mr. Weasley went very pale.

"It was a present." he insisted, stammering. "But it was anonymous. With just a note 'use this well' with it."

"Did you know, Mr. Weasley, that the war-hero in question is said to have jinxed this cloak, so that if wrongly worn it would always find its way back to its rightful owner?" Severus enquired. James Potter had certainly boasted that at school, and it was just possible that he might have pulled it off. "This will go to the goblins, who handled the Potter estate and who will know what to do with it. Perhaps it will find a way back to you. Perhaps not. But you will no longer hold it for now. And I would suggest that the pair of you return to your beds, before I decide to take points for your being out after curfew." Severus was more interested in getting the cloak to the goblins and seeing it no longer in Mr. Weasley's hands than in issuing any punishments right now.

"Actually, Severus, I am going to take points from them." the deputy headmistress announced, striding onto the scene and trailing a crestfallen Draco Malfoy. "And give them a detention, along with Mr. Malfoy here. Finnigan and Weasley seem to have concocted some cock-and-bull story between them about a dragon to lure Mr. Malfoy," Draco cringed, "out after curfew to get him in trouble. I assume they've been sneaking around to see the success of their scheme."

Draco's wild account to Slytherin house of the subsequent detention in the Forbidden Forest with centaurs who spoke cryptically of 'the secret flower' and of an encounter with a unicorn-blood sucking horror did little to give Severus peace of mind. He was far from stupid and deduced that whatever was interested in drinking unicorn blood to survive might well be interested in obtaining the Philosopher's Stone to manufacture elixir as a more permanent solution.

Wild rumours began to circulate amongst certain of the first years that it was in fact You-Know-Who who was the monster who had encountered Hagrid, Finnigan, Weasley and Draco Malfoy in the forest. Even wilder rumours were whispered that You-Know-Who had a faithful servant on the staff at Hogwarts who was looking for something for him.

Severus hoped that the late dark lord was quite thoroughly dead, but commenced to discreetly research the possibilities of relocating with Harriet to Beauxbatons in France – or perhaps to somewhere slightly further afield, such as Australia.

It paid to be prepared.

There followed several tense months during which nothing much beyond the usual goings-on of a school occurred. The Weasley twins were in detention, occasionally. Quidditch matches were played and won by Slytherin, or won or lost by other houses. Miss Granger commenced an improbable project of interviewing and cataloguing the castle's entire known ghost population as an entirely private enterprise following some arcane dispute over blood-purity with Professor Binns. Exams came and went.

And then, unexpectedly, one early summer evening, everything 'blew up'.

"Ronald Weasley and Seamus Finnigan have disappeared!" Harriet reported to Severus. "The headmaster's out of the school tonight, and they thought that You-Know-Who's servant is after the stone." She bit her lip, and looked worried. "They think it's Professor McGonagall after it. They think she had a run-in with the three-headed dog on Hallowe'en whilst scouting, and might even have released the troll into the school as a distraction. They're certain she wrecked the quidditch match as a distraction, to get her a chance to snoop – after which, in their minds, she became suspicious that Ronald and Seamus were on to her, so she gave them detention and tried to send them to her master to silence them. Following which they've been too afraid to mention they 'knew' it was her until now."

"And what are Misters Weasley and Finnigan doing about this?" Severus enquired.

"They've gone to Professor Quirrell figuring that he'll help them because he's the defence teacher." Harriet said.

Severus relaxed fractionally. Quirinus was hardly the most competent teacher on the staff, but at least Mr. Weasley and Mr. Finnigan would be safe with him, until the headmaster returned and sorted out this nonsense.

"Err, but as soon as Neville Longbottom heard about it, he said he was heading for the potions lab." Harriet said. "With this determined look on his face."

"Why in Merlin's name would he do that?" Severus asked.

"I don't know, but he's been not very happy during defence lessons all year." Harriet said.

"What exactly are you doing, Mr. Longbottom?" Severus demanded.

"I've got to stop him. Ron and Seamus have got it wrong," Neville said. He was standing over a cauldron, throwing in ingredients seemingly at random. "It's Professor Quirrell who's the threat. He's been giving me the evil eye for some reason in defence lessons at every opportunity, and I keep getting headaches when I look him in the face. And there's something just unnatural about that turban."

Quirinus had certainly been behaving oddly at times, throughout the year, Severus had to admit, but he'd ignored it as little more than jumpiness over the known curse on the post he occupied. Although the turban did smell odd – as if maybe that zombie he'd supposedly gotten rid of had been dispatched wearing it.

Severus racked his memory for any reason why, if Quirinus was up to no good, Quirinus should be particularly worried about Neville Longbottom? True, Neville Longbottom had disposed of that troll on Hallowe'en, but that alone would hardly cause undue interest in Mr. Longbottom on the part of any casual adult wizard ne'er-do-well… Mr. Longbottom was only a first year, after all.

"If you're making something to bottle up and take along to menace someone with, as an impromptu grenade, Mr. Longbottom, you need more henbane." Severus absent-mindedly directed. "And a touch of essence of hellebore…" he trailed off.

Mr. Longbottom had been born the day before Hellebore Jasmine Potter. For some time, Severus recalled, due to that accursed prophecy, the Dark Lord had considered that Mr. Longbottom might be his bane. And it was equally possible, if the Dark Lord was around still in some form, that with Hellebore Jasmine Potter apparently permanently off the scene, he would as a default assume that perhaps it had been Mr. Longbottom he should have been worried about after all. Especially with that troll-killing incident – which to the overly paranoid mind of the Dark Lord might be assumed to be the result of some kind of superhuman competence, rather than of mostly good fortune.

What if the Dark Lord were still around in some spectral form, lurking in the forest, and Quirinus was his eyes and ears and hands within Hogwarts?

Or what if, for that matter, any connection between the Dark Lord and Quirinus were rather closer than that?

Some forms of possession resulted in physical manifestations that could be a tremendous strain upon the 'host' body Severus realised. What exactly was Quirinus hiding under that turban?

"Too much hellebore, Mr. Longbottom, for a cauldron on heat…" Severus heard himself say, and instinctively raised his wand to extinguish the flame.

He was a fraction too slow. The cauldron was already bubbling violently.

With Harriet in the room there was no time for half-measures.

"Harriet! Whatever else happens, stay!" he snarled, as he flung himself forward.

Some time later, Severus regained consciousness, feeling battered and bloody.

Harriet was next to him, tears in her beautiful green eyes, as she trickled something between his lips.

"Are you okay, dad?"

"Should have let it stew longer, if you'd had more time. Five more stirs anticlockwise, and three more clockwise." he said, referring to what she was currently feeding him and which she'd presumably whipped up in this room, and grimaced.

"I know." she winced. "But the way you looked I didn't know how much more time I had, and I didn't know how to send for Madam Pomfrey." She bit her lip. "Not without leaving you."

"Where is Mr. Longbottom?" Severus winced.

"Gone after Professor Quirrell and Finnigan and Weasley. He said something recklessly Gryffindor about having to save his housemates, the stone and the world. He bottled several vials from what was left at the bottom of the cauldron before he went."

"The stone has been perfectly safe since Christmas." Severus fought the urge to close his eyes. "I took it at Christmas and mailed it back to Nicolas Flamel by muggle registered-post. I let the headmaster know I'd stolen it and think I was returning it to him, meaning the headmaster, but I handed over to the headmaster one of the cleverer of a large number of decoys that the headmaster himself had manufactured. Decoys apparently good enough to fool even their maker… Don't know if that will save the world or not… At least Mr. Longbottom might manage to save his friends."

"I don't think he considers them his friends, dad. Just housemates, whom it's his duty to protect – even if they do continue to give Hermione a hard time."

"Wish there'd been Gryffindors like that when I was at school. But not even Lily Evans… her eyes… you…"

Severus concluded he was rambling and venturing into potentially dangerous territory and that the relatively less dangerous option at this point was to lose consciousness instead of trying to stay awake further.

Severus woke up in the infirmary to find Albus Dumbledore sitting at his bedside, a faint twinkle in his eyes, but a frown on his face.

"The stone?" Severus feigned interest in the thing which was probably least important, all things considered, first.

"Destroyed. Or so I thought. Only I have received a most peculiar message by owl from Nicolas thanking me for having returned it, shortly after Christmas."

"And Quirinus?" Severus enquired, ignoring the hard look that Albus gave him for a moment.

"He appears to have gone mad with greed for gold and riches. The goblins have identified his wand as that of an intruder who broke into Gringotts last summer to attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone from their then protection. They have requested his body so that they may carry out traditional goblin punishments." A look of distaste flickered across Albus' face. "Quirinus appears to have persuaded Mr. Ronald Weasley and Mr. Seamus Finnigan to aid him in an attempt to steal the stone last night to prevent it from falling into Minerva's hands – for some reason I have yet to get to the bottom of, the boys seemed to think that she was trying to steal it. He had appeared quite stymied by my revised final challenge – a rather clever use of an enchanted mirror – until one of the boys inadvertently bypassed it and retrieved the stone. They were having a rather interesting discussion about their future prospects when Mr. Longbottom intruded upon the scene, and Mr. Longbottom cut proceedings short in typically Gryffindor fashion with several vials of something horrible and highly flammable – which Quirinus did not ultimately survive. After which, it seemed best to destroy the stone, only it turns out it wasn't actually there, anyway…"

"Some things in magic have a habit of finding their way back to their proper owners, headmaster." Severus said, thinking as much of the Potter invisibility cloak sitting with the goblins as of Flamel's stone. The only reason he could think of for the cloak having been absent for so many years and then suddenly turning up with an anonymous note in Weasley hands was that it was something to do with the Hogwarts headmaster.

"Hmm. Most curious, Severus." The headmaster said, cocking his head on one side and clearly suspecting that Severus was ragging him in some fashion, but unable to currently work out what.

"And the Gryffindors?" Severus asked.

"Misters Finnigan and Weasley were a little singed, but are now perfectly fine. Mr. Longbottom appears to have been miraculously untouched. Almost as if he had the luck of the perfect fool…"

Severus noted the speculative tone of the headmaster's voice, and hoped, dearly, that whatever the headmaster was thinking, that for Mr. Longbottom's sake, the train of thought derailed itself.

"So you couldn't tell me back at Christmas that Quirinus was trying to steal the stone? You couldn't trust me with that, headmaster?" Severus snorted.

"Oh, but I could not be certain at that point exactly which member of my staff was after it, and did not want to wrongly name any of them, even to your discreet self, Severus." the headmaster chuckled.

"And that 'more at stake' line that you gave me at Christmas?" Severus asked.

"Oh, I was being merely over-dramatic, in keeping with the best traditions of the season." the headmaster waved that away. "The muggle pantomime, you know."

In other words, the headmaster had suspected at Christmas that Voldemort was after the stone, but there was no way that he had been going to say that back then to Severus, a former Death Eater of dubious loyalties, and he certainly wasn't going to change course or admit to it now, to Severus.

"Here's to hoping that the next school year is much quieter." Severus said, wearily.

"Oh yes, I think I can agree with you on that." the headmaster chuckled, with perhaps the most genuine sincerity that he'd expressed throughout this little chat. He picked up a box of 'every flavour jelly beans' from Severus' bedside table, which bore a tag with Harriet's spidery handwriting conveying her best wishes to her dad on it. "I think I shall risk one of these, if I may." and he helped himself to one, before Severus could express any opinion on the matter. The headmaster sucked for a moment thoughtfully, and then beamed. "Rose petals, I do believe!"

The headmaster, of course, took the opportunity of events underneath a particular section of third floor corridor to blatantly hand the house cup to Gryffindor. Although Severus feigned disdained outrage at the 'last minute points awards' as the headmaster doled them out, privately he was rather relieved that Mr. Longbottom had dealt with a Voldemort-possessed Quirrell in the process of incidentally saving Misters Finnigan and Weasley. It had saved Severus from getting involved, and kept Harriet well and truly out of things and away from attracting any kind of attention.

Harriet noticed that he was actually less displeased than he looked to be at this result though, and reasoned that there was likely more to it than that although the house cup may have gone to this last minute piece of points manipulation, at least Slytherin had retained the quidditch trophy.

(This was unsurprising, given she was a smart, observant, girl.)

She had the sense to wait until the year was finally over and they were safely ensconced back in Spinner's End before asking about it.

"The headmaster," said Severus, "assured me that there was no more to Professor Quirrell's actions than the drives and desires of a greedy, corrupted, man."

From the look on her face Harriet clearly understood what Severus was truly driving at. She understood considerably more than he would have liked for her age, but she was intelligent, and rapidly growing up.

"So 'Professor Quirrell' had no particular interest in me?"

"The only pupil in whom he was particularly interested was Mr. Longbottom, for which we can be thankful. And you will commence French lessons, this summer, young lady, in case this proves not a freak year, but the first in a pattern."

Author Notes: (Updated 10th February 2014)

And that much is as far as I've been able to assemble anything coherent as far as 'story' goes, as of February, 2014.

Yes, as one earlier reviewer has commented, some events are similar to canon. To some extent this is down to Quirinus/Voldemort/Albus (the big players in the 1991-1992 school year) having still broadly the same agendas and favoured methods for attaining them as in canon; and to some extent this is an artistic liberty, since I was curious to see how some characters might go about some of the situations similar to canon in light of some of the differences of character and circumstance existing.

Despite the similarities there are a couple of very fundamental underlying differences – there isn't any (iconic) 'Boy/Girl-Who-Lived' for the wizarding world to look up to (and to perhaps expect to save them) and Albus Dumbledore refuses to trust/rely on Severus Snape to do anything more than to teach. To some extent, the latter is partly due to Albus believing that someone he had much better reason to trust/rely on than Severus betrayed the Potters (Albus belives it was Sirius Black) with Albus consequently second-guessing himself in believing that he certainly can't trust/rely on someone he has much less reasons to be certain of, and to some extent he's concerned that Severus may hold him responsible for Lily's death and turn very nasty if Albus tries to push him to do anything. It's a bit of a relief, actually, for Albus, that Severus did acquire a 'war orphan' to distract him, and that that might result in Severus brooding about Lily that little bit less.

Regarding a couple of events in this chapter occurring round about Christmas, up until then in this universe, Albus had hidden the Philosopher's Stone by filling the 'last room' with all sorts of furniture and junk and by scattering scores of fake stones that he had manufactured all over the scene. After Christmas and Severus' excursion he put the 'stone' that Severus had 'returned' to him in the Mirror of Erised instead; I note that in canon unless for some reason Albus had moved the mirror actually with the stone in it out of his third-floor setup during the Christmas holidays, that he must have had some other arrangement in place to 'secure' the stone at least up until then. And in this universe Albus had been hanging on to the Potter invisibility cloak, up until the start of the 1991-1992 school year, because he enjoyed having it and he had been waiting to see if by some chance Hellebore Jasmine Potter should show up in September. Since she apparently didn't, he persuaded himself to reluctantly part with it by sending it in the direction of the youngest son of one of his favourite families of Gryffindors. (And maybe he still half held onto a hope/dread of Hellebore being around, and if James did put a 'return to rightful owner' charm on the cloak, he was hoping to see what happened to the cloak once it was out of the possession of Albus to whom James had legitimately loaned it.)

There's not much Hermione in events in this chapter, since I assume that having sorted into Slytherin, other than her on-off poisonous relationship with Ronald Weasley (which is hardly friendly in canon up until Hallowe'en, despite their both being in the same house), she would be doing her best to work hard, keep her head down, and hope that the house points she earns get her fellow Slytherins of more dubious views to overlook her. (Which indeed has been working; there are enough pragmatic Slytherins around to figure out best to ignore Hermione's purported muggle-born status, if she's not getting any ideas above her station and she's proving a net asset to Slytherin in the house competition.)

As noted above, this is as far as I've been able to assemble anything remotely coherent so far as far as how events play out with the changed situation. I had a few ideas for the following school year (see below), but that may well be it. I don't anticipate that in any event that this story wouldn't go past the end of the 1993-1994 school year, if that year went anything like canon. An escaped convict roaming the school, and dementor invasions would result in Severus removing himself and Harriet in the direction of another school, even if he was forced to remain in his post until the end of that particular crisis.

I'd like to give Harry Potter Without Harry Potter by 'Nim-the-Lesser' an honourable mention at this point, for those looking for a more in-depth, serious, Philosopher's Stone year where no Harry Potter is to be seen upon the scene. (There was a Harry but he died on Hallowe'en 1981.)

Right, on with a couple of snippets: (Snippets revised 2nd May, 2015, in accordance to changes in the 1992-1993 year text)

...At the end of July, an insane house-elf called 'Dobby' attempted to assassinate Neville Longbottom and his grandmother. Quite what motivated the house-elf to try and burn down their house was never determined, although it turned out subsequently – Neville's grandmother having slain the creature – that Dobby had been one of the Malfoy elves, with whom Harriet had had a passing acquaintance from occasional trips to Malfoy Manor.

"Nobody tries to burn the Longbottoms out of their home." Neville's grandmother said to the interviewer from The Daily Prophet.

There was a picture in the paper of Neville's grandmother, a formidable expression on her face, whilst in the background Neville picked over the ruins of the greenhouses, which he had been in when the deranged creature had attacked.

Lucius Malfoy offered his profound apologies and large quantities of compensation to the Longbottoms.

The rumours that this was a sign of some ongoing vendetta which had previously featured Draco's theft of Neville's remembrall the previous September rapidly went away.

After a few days of the Longbottom story, the papers returned their attention to Arthur Weasley's attempts to get 'muggle protection' legislation passed into law, which was what they'd been obsessing over before the deranged arsonist house-elf had struck the Longbottoms...

...Tonight the caretaker's cat had been strung up from the ceiling immediately outside that very bathroom's entrance, suspended in a thick wrapping of something resembling spider-silk, and a monstrous cobweb was strung out nearby, with a message apparently spelt out in its threads by a particularly clever and dextrous arachnid: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. YOU'RE NEXT MUDBLOODS...