A dusty looking Weasley and Potter emerged soon after that; Granger and I both standing and moving back to make room. They dusted themselves off the best they could, and Weasley turned to Granger.

"You should've seen Harry jump when Lupin called down the first time. Then when Snape called he nearly left his skin behind."

Potter flushed a dark red and glanced at his feet, "At least I didn't try to climb a wall to get away from a spider."

Weasley flushed red and looked at Granger sheepishly. Granger rolled her eyes before turning to Potter, "Harry, Kreacher said the passageway leads to a room in the basement, so it's bound to have a drop off or turn into stairs. You're both too large for those. Maybe you can order Kreacher to go down there and then come back to tell us what's in there!"

I scoffed, "Kreacher was searching in this room madly for that door; let's order him to do exactly what he wants. No, there's got to be a better way than sending Kreacher there."

"How about we send you then?" Weasley mumbled under his breath.

My lip curled and I opened my mouth to cut Weasley down to size, but Potter cut me off, "If we had a snake I could tell it go down there and then ask it what it saw when it comes back."

My eyes widened in shock, "Did you just come up with a good idea, Potter? Perhaps spending more time around Granger has done your mind some good."

"I said if we had a snake, Snape. We don't exactly have a pit of them nearby so what do you suggest?" he looked at me as if I were the idiot.

"And my firm belief in your idiocy has returned. You showed intelligence for a promising time of all of a minute," I sneered at him and he glared in return. "No, Potter, we do not have a pit of snakes, nor do we need one." I flicked my wand at the floor, "Serpensortia!"

A look of understanding crossed Potter's face as he gazed at the hissing snake now on the floor. Granger backed behind Weasley with wide eyes focused on the snake. I smirked, "One thinks you'd remember your schooling, Potter."

He flashed his teeth in an ugly smile, "Yeah, one would think so." He sank to his knees and his next words were odd hissing sounds directed at the snake.

The snake hissed in response before slithering through the door. Potter sat next to the door to wait for its return. He turned to Granger and Weasley, "Hermione, Ron, mind leaving us alone? I have a few things I need to talk to Snape about."

Weasley looked from Potter to me, and I raised an eyebrow in response. He rolled his eyes before leaving. Granger stayed; a glint in her eyes that reminded me instantly of Minerva.

"Harry," she started in a pleading tone.

"Hermione, please," Potter interrupted.

She sighed and nodded, "Fine, you know where to find me and Ron then."

She glared at me solidly before opening her mouth to speak. She shut it just as quickly and stormed out the door slamming it shut behind her. My brows furrowed in confusion at her display. I turned to look at where Potter had been sitting to find the floor empty. A creak from the bed behind me caused me to turn. He smiled at me briefly before looking to his lap.

"Hermione thinks I'm obsessed with you."

"Obsessed with me? What a stupid-"

"Let me talk." He snapped; his gaze locked with mine.

I nodded and sat on the other side of the bed, and gestured, with a swoop of open hands, for him to continue.

He took a deep breath before continuing, his shoulders stiff and his tone rough, "She's probably right. She says I spent so much time trying to find you after we left Hogwarts the last time. The time, she says, that I should have been finding Horcruxes. She's right, of course, she always is. I was set on revenge, set on finding you, set on making you feel as much pain as I possibly could."

His gaze lowered to his hands as he picked at his nails, "But when I found you, you weren't exactly afraid of me." He laughed softly, "I don't know why I expected you to be, but I had built the scene in my head. I had planned on finding you, watching a look of horror and fright pass over your face, and then torturing you as much as you could stand. Instead you looked at me as you always had, except your revulsion had softened a bit. Once faced with you, I knew I couldn't kill you. I brought you here instead, allowed you to argue your peace, and, consequently, you cleared your name."

His gaze met mine again, "I expected you to act different. I'm no longer as big of an idiot as I was, thought I'll admit I'll never be as smart as either Hermione or yourself. So, I thought you'd acknowledge I'd matured and you'd talk to me instead of at me."

He laughed again, this time the same hollow laugh from my first night here, "I guess what I'm trying to say is, I had wanted you to be innocent. I had wanted to find you, not so I could torture you into madness, but so you could prove my hopeful assumptions to be truth.

He lowered his head slightly, "I've lost enough, Snape, and I wanted to gain something. I wanted more knowledge; I wanted this to be easier. I had banked so much in you knowing more about the horcruxes that I figured finding you would inevitably lead me to them. He had to have left something for you, he had to have told you something, or he had to have given you something, Snape. Why else would he throw you headfirst into the middle of this damn war?"

I swallowed hard but the lump in my throat remained, "Recall our conversation my first night here, Pot-Harry." His eyes flew to my face in shock at the use of his first name. I sighed, "I am a pawn in this; just as the rest of the Order." I smirked, "Albus was the queen in the way that he could do anything he pleased on the board. But the king can only move a spot at a time. Harry, there can only be so much you can do at once. Keep in mind your age, and your inexperience in comparison to the Dark Lord and you can understand why some things have to be kept from you."

I shook my head, "But you have many things the Dark Lord overlooks. You have friends, many of them. They love you and care for you, which are also things the Dark Lord overlooks. You have advantages over him; you just need to build on them. I can only help you so much, Harry, ultimately you face the Dark Lord on your own. I can prepare you to an extent, but the way you handle yourself is in your hands. Albus loved you as a son, and in his attempts to protect you he has left you stranded many a time and in need of his rescue or the rescue of another. Albus had faults too, Harry, he was an extremely powerful and wise wizard, but he was human."

My throat grew tight at talking about Albus, but I couldn't stop the words from coming. I had opened the dam and my feelings flooded out of me, "Some days I hate him for what he had made me sworn to do. There are days when I feel, if presented with the situation again, I would have played it differently and died in his place. But instead the queen was sacrificed and the pawn remained." I smirked, "Perhaps, Harry, the best way to find the Horcruxes is to examine every bit of information Albus has ever handed to you. The man spoke in codes no matter who he spoke to so it would probably be a good start."

He nodded and went back to staring at his hands, "Snape, I just want to thank you for being so open with me for a change. I needed it."

I smirked and turned my gaze to the doorway, "I suppose I should thank you as well, Potter. It felt good to talk for a while."

His warm hand slid over my own and he squeezed it, "I shouldn't have to tell you Remus is still rather suspicious of you, you've obviously figured that out. He'll come around, he's still hurting. We all are, really. I can see you are too, if you ever need to talk about-"

I pulled my hand away and shook my head, "No, Potter, I'll suffer through that alone."

The bed dipped slightly behind me and his head rested on my shoulder, his arms snaking around me.

"Just know you don't have to," he whispered in my ear.

A shiver rose through my spine and I leaned back into his warmth slightly. He planted a light kiss on my neck and we sat that way for a long time, each of us lost to our own thoughts. Silence stretched before us for what seemed like hours.

A sudden low hiss caused Potter to practically fling himself at the doorway. He picked up the snake and it wrapped around his arm slowly. As he spoke with it his expressions changed as though talking to a human. I bit back a laugh and watched him with an amused smile.

He turned to me suddenly, "What's that look for? My friend here finds it unnerving."

I laughed and Potter looked more shocked that I'd seen him recently, "Nothing, Potter, go back to chatting with your friend."

He gave me a look before continuing the hissing noises with the snake. I watched with mild amusement, but Potter turned to me, his face pale.

All amusement left me at the look in his eyes, "What is it Potter?"

"We should get the others," he croaked out.