Severus glanced up from the parchment he was reading, did a double take, and glared.

"I believe I stated, in no uncertain terms, that I was not going to do this."

From across the room one eyebrow was raised meaningfully.

Drawling the words, as if bored out of his mind, Severus began to speak."It would seem that there has been some kind of misunderstanding, for which the Authoress humbly begs forgiveness. While I so adore these little...adventures proposed with ever increaing frequency, I am a very busy man-"

"Severus!" the Authoress snapped, "keep to the script," she tapped the top of the teleprompter box imperiously, "that's why I wrote it for you."

If looks could kill...well, let's just all be glad the Authoress is imortall.

"Whilst I..." he inserted a pause of profound disgust, "Severus Snape will appear in this sub-plot saga it will not occur in either this or the next chapter. However, I can assure youthat I will make a-" here he froze and graced the Authoress with a look declaring her misinformed and quite insane.

"Severus," she said, a mix of annoyance nad deadly threat in her voice, "kindly remember who controls your choice of footwear."

If anything even greater disbelief filled the already incredulous eyes. "Excuse me?"

And if the Authoress had been a timid person...well, I believe you can picture it. Instead she tapped the box again. "Hopw imposing would you look in fluffy pink bunny slippers?"

Clearing his throat, Severus manfully continued, "However, I can assure you that I will make an appearance fit to be drooled over no later than chapter 29. Also, to redeem herself, the Authoress offers up this never before spoken tid bit. She is currently workign madly to get a good portion of a new fanfic finished. It is, at this moment titled "Bellmonte Slush" and is, basically an Alternate Reality of this fic in which Draco is less than he appears and I am the only refuge for a much besought Alex. Eventually, it will all culminate with a...are you out of your mind!"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"Me and Miss Bellmonte!"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

A/N: As you may or may not have figured out, "Slush" is a Snape/Alex fic. I have the first 5 or so chapters finished, mainly because they don't differ greatly from the first chapters of this fic. I probably won't be posting it on here, at least not for the time being but if you really want to read it(and are willing to wait for a long time between updates) then you can Review or email me with your email address and I'll send you some of it as I write it.

Blaise stretched slowly as his gaze swept the flow of people heading outside, heading for Hogsmeade. Now was the time. This had to go right! Finally a small dark head came into view and Blaise was glad he'd decided to look for her rather than just wait for her to show up.

Tania was heading towards Common Room.

Sighing indulgently he set out across the room on an intercept course. As he stepped into her path she froze. Her gaze settled somewhere in the center of his chest and she didn't speak.

"Ready to go?" Blaise asked cheerfully, as if he hadn't just caught her trying to ditch him.

She shifted from foot to foot for a second, almost as if she was trying to figure out if running away was a viable escape plan. "Sure," Tania said quietly.

"Good. Cloak!" Naturally he was already wearing one, but Tania wasn't, so a warm black cloak popped into existence. It was just like a thousand other purely functional cloaks but Blaise knew this one to belong to Alex. Tania would never tell the difference but it would help the ruse…if only a tiny bit.

She reached out a hand to take it and with a smoothly practiced motion Blaise helped her into it. Again Tania froze. Blaise frowned inwardly, had no one ever helped her put on her cloak before? Or was it something else? He gave a mental shrug and moved on. Bowing slightly he offered her his arm. After a long minute she laid hesitant fingers on his wrist and he led the way out to the chill wintry day.

From over her head he saw Greg and Vince. Blaise tossed them a sober nod. They returned it before moving into their assigned places.

Here we go.

"Here we go."

Alex tucked her scarf closer to her throat and pulled up her hood. Draco glanced dryly at her, scoffing at her melodrama. She shrugged and stepped down the stairs. They were leaving out the supply door for, what had originally been, a second set of kitchens back at the beginning of the school's illustrious career and these simple, slightly neglected, brick steps were of a different breed than those that grandly welcomed guests and residents alike.

"Mmph," Alex heard Draco grunt behind her and turned to see him copying her motions. He met her gaze then looked past her, squinting in the wind.

"I cannot believe I'm up this early," Draco grumbled.

Alex rolled her eyes, glad for something to take her mind off what they were doing. "Hey, I let you talk me into waiting 'til two hours after dawn."

"I should've held out for three."

"We have to get out of sight of the castle, not to mention out from under the magical field the thing produces. That's maybe an hour of walking…unless you want to fly in that." she gestured to the frozen mass of cloud cover.

"Point taken."

It was cold, even for the first weekend of November, and the wind had a bite to it. Though no snow covered the ground, the slate grey clouds held a promise of it and the frost was so thick that the grass crunched underfoot.

"So…" Alex spoke into the lengthening silence after she felt the weight of it pulling at her self-enforced good mood. "what if we come across a Mig-"

"Bellmonte!" Draco shouted, grey eyes flashing with silver. "we have gone over every conceivable spell, potion and trap a dozen times! Now shut up!"

She increased her pace and glared at him. That…that…cretin! We have NOT covered everything! What about…………um……Damn! He's right! Note to self: Don't tell him that!

"Re-lax." Draco growled.

Alex scowled over at him.

"If you'll just calm down and try to work with me so we can maybe get out of this in one piece then you can yell, curse and hex me into oblivion when we get back."

For a minute she appeared to be considering a violent response but something, something Draco doubted he'd understand even if she explained it to him, pulled her up short. She just sighed and continued the chilly trudging.

"Good."

The silence that fell ate up minutes, stretching into something that was both comfortable and tense as the castle began to fall out of sight.

"Stop."

Draco pulled to a halt, both mentally and physically. Alex stopped in front of him and briefly met his eyes before scanning the tree line.

"I don't want to trust you," she stated flatly.

Draco felt a surge of annoyance. They were in the middle of a dangerous mission and she wanted to discuss their relationship! "Well, then we have common ground."

She dropped her gaze back to his face, frowning. "Draco…" her exasperation faded away after the one word, "I don't want to, but I will…I do."

He blinked, knowing his surprise was all over his face. "Wha-why?"

Alex snorted. "Do I have a choice?"

When he didn't respond she shifted uneasily and pulled out a heavy gold coin. "Let's…get going. We passed out from under the magical field a few minutes ago."

Draco nodded and stepped closer to her. Her hand shot out and took his. There was a sharp yank, then the rushing stopped and his heels slammed into the earth. He stumbled a bit and the warm pull on his left hand kept him upright.

"So…" she said almost inaudibly. Draco looked down at the slim fingers threaded through his and it suddenly occurred to him that hew wasn't the only one who was afraid.

Trying to find a way to get them both back on track, or at least the next step so they could get the mission over with as soon as possible, Draco scanned their target.

It was a small, almost tiny, house seated in the middle of a truly tiny yard so neglected it appeared to have never held grass or any other plant on it's surface. The only break in the flat stretch of brownish grey were the blasted scraps of metal and trash that appeared to have been, at one time, dustbins and their contents.

Walking over to the corner of the house where it had all been piled by the wind, and necessarily pulling along Alex who still refused to let go of his hand…not that he altogether minded…Draco knelt lightly next to the heap.

"A simple blasting spell?" he suggested, holding up one of the twisted metal fragments for her observation.

Alex leaned closer. "It certainly looks like it…not that I've tried one on a Muggle style dustbin." A thought seemed to come over her and she chuckled.

"Something amusing?" he queried with his own dry amusement.

Alex flashed him a grin. "Ask Tania Dethart about Moody's dustbins. I'm sure she'd be happy to explain."

"Sure. I'll do that." Draco shrugged and dropped the piece of metal. Standing he dusted his hand off on his robes. "Now…back door?"

Turning Alex looked over the barren yard. "Yeah. There's nothing to find out here and I bet there's as many protections on the front as the back."

"My thoughts exactly."

Neither teen made a move. Finally, gritting his teeth and squeezing Alex's hand tight enough to hear bones creak Draco stepped up to the unassuming back door. The chipped black paint suddenly loomed high above them, but only in a mental, not magical, way. Swallowing and, after a reassuring hand squeeze from Alex, Draco pulled out his wand and tapped lightly on the door.

Instantly his detection spell informed him of the terrible wrongness. Not that there were wards on the door, the detection spell liked whole spells. No there had been spells on this door. Wards which had been horribly mangled, blasted apart.

"What?" Alex asked, worried. "What's wrong, Draco?"

"I…" he frowned. "The wards, we don't have to worry about them. Someone has been here first. They're in shambles."

"Really?" Releasing his hand so she could draw her wand Alex cast her own detection on the door. "Whoever did this," she said at last, "did it a long time ago. Two months at the very least, probably longer. That was before he came to Hogwarts."

"Agreed." Draco said quietly. "Well, that's one problem down."

Before she could stop him Draco reached out and grabbed the door handle, pushing it open. The icy daylight spilled into the dark kitchen. He bowed with a flourish.

"Lady's first."

A/N: La la la. All finished. Terrible aren't I?

Well, if I get ten(count em 10) reviews before Friday I'll post the next chapter early. If not you'll get it next Monday like always.

TTFN