Disclaimer: All JKR's except for my OC
"Luna, would you care to have tea with me this afternoon?" Barbara stopped the seventh year student at the end of class.
"Oh, sure, Professor Merrill."
Together they went into Barbara's office and she put a kettle to boil.
"So how are things going with you? Have you thoughts about your plans after Hogwarts? You are very good at preparing potions."
"I love potions, but I really want to go on expeditions to discover magical creatures. My father has taught me about so many of them and I want to see them and see what they're like."
"That sounds wonderful. Have you made arrangements, already?"
"Yes, I'll be traveling with an expedition team run by a friend of my dad's."
The kettle whistled and Barbara prepared the tea, which she brought to the table with some cake.
"Why don't I pour your cup and let you fix it the way you like?" Barbara handed the girl a cup. "Luna, I've heard some things between students in different houses. What do you know about a prank that's planned on Slytherin?" Barbara poured her own cup.
"People don't tell me things, but that doesn't mean I don't notice them," started the girl. "I think they want to decorate the Slytherin common room to look like Griffindor and then to put trick items around. Is this something they should do? It doesn't seem quite, sporting."
"No, dear, it's not sporting at all. You're very perceptive. I think our friends in Slytherin are not adjusting too well and this is just a way to make them feel worse. Will you help me to discourage people from doing this?"
"What should I do?"
"Well, to some extent, I think we need to keep it our secret that I know about this, but if anyone asks you to participate, tell them what you told me, ok?"
"I can do that."
"So tell me about some of the magical creatures you hope to find."
"Minerva, there may be a problem."
"What is it?" asked the Headmistress, conjuring two chairs in front of her fire.
"I'm coming to you as both the Headmistress and as a Griffindor. I overheard a couple of the Griffindors and Hufflepuffs planning some pretty ugly pranks upon the Slytherins for Halloween." She outlined what Luna had told her. "I hate to say it, but I suspect there are Ravenclaws in on it, too. Even if we hadn't just been through the war, it would have been a bad idea, but under the circumstances, this could be pretty demoralizing."
The Headmistress agreed. "That could be serious."
"I understand wanting to even things up a bit after what last year was like, but I cannot approve of something like this. Not when Slytherins in general are being treated the way they are in villages and in the Ministry. You know Kingsley is trying to stamp that sort of thing out, and we need to do our part, here, too."
Minerva thought for a while. "I'll talk to Pomona and Filius about it and see if the current leaders of Dumbledore's Army will be forthcoming. They should know what the plans are. Otherwise, I suspect I can count on your assistance that day? I would like you to represent Ravenclaw. Filius isn't as young as he used to be."
"Absolutely. Thank you Minerva."
Long before dawn on the morning of Halloween, a crowd of Hogwarts students quietly made their way through the castle, carrying buckets of paint and various products from Weasley's Wizard Weezes. They were stopped, however, by the appearance of the heads of house standing before the Slytherin doorway, from whence the Slytherin prefects peeked.
"Doing some redecorating, I see?" asked McGonagall. I think we need to deduct 100 points each from Griffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. I think we'll take charge of all your paraphernalia, too. Argus?" Filch came and gathered everything up.
The Headmistress stood taller, if it were possible and looked at all the students such that they each felt singled out. The professors standing behind her looked pretty grim too.
"I wouldn't have chosen this sort of situation to make a speech, but I'm going to do so. You have a great priviledge, today, to work on your educations and improve a world that was going horribly wrong. You have a chance to make new friends, perhaps among people whom you might have seen as enemies, before. Do not squander this chance. You have lost parents, family, friends in these battles and the sort of thing you were trying to do here would have made their sacrifices worthless. I expect better things of you."
McGonagall smiled, although acerbically. "I'm sure you are tired with your efforts and want to get back to your beds. Let's not ruin our Halloween with this. Off you go," and the students dispersed.
Turning, the Headmistress addressed the Slytherins who were present. "I hope you will forgive them for wanting to treat you as some of you treated them last year. It was wrong then and wrong now. Know that we stand behind you as you learn to embrace a new perspective."
The teachers followed the students, Professor Snape heading to the Slytherin Common Room and the others back to their respective apartments.
"Barbara," the Headmistress drew her close and walked beside her. "That was some good work you did the other day. I had a hard time finding out anything about it. I suspect you have some training that's not on your record?"
Barbara turned pink. "I just heard them talking, Minerva. There was nothing special about that."
"All right, my dear. We'll leave it alone for now."
The yearly Halloween Feast was a great success this year. The Great Hall had never looked more festive in Severus' memory, and the students were enjoying the opportunity for fun and games after a year in which such things were curtailed. Severus had never really taken part, before, and the students were making the most of a holiday they did not have the year before.
As the evening wore on, however, Barbara noticed that Severus' good mood dissipated.
"What is it?"
"Will you come someplace with me? We can go there and be back this evening."
She nodded and they slipped out of the feast and out of the castle grounds. "Where do we have to go?"
"We will have to apparate there. Do you mind?"
She shook her head and as he did in Ottery St. Catchpole, he pulled her hand through his elbow and turned.
They arrived in another small town, in front of a house that had been destroyed. He turned and pointed to a house across the street. "That's where I stood and watched. I've tried to come back many times since that night and haven't always been able to do so. Someone was usually watching. I thought if he had sent Dolohov or even Lestrange to do it, I could stop them, but he came himself. I was watching, powerless, when he killed Potter, and Lily, and tried to kill the boy. I should have done... something."
"I'm so sorry. This is Godric's Hollow, then?"
He nodded and with her hand still on his arm, he led her down the road.
"However did you know where to come? The Potter's home was one of the best kept secrets in the wizarding world."
"I was there when Pettigrew came and broke the secret. I don't know if he realized that although he had helped the Dark Lord, he had made himself look completely untrustworthy. No one quite trusted Peter Pettigrew again."
They walked on, coming eventually to the town burial ground. He seemed to know where to go next. At last he stopped at the graves of James and Lily Potter. They stood for a while before he sighed and said, "I'm sorry Lily, and even to you, James. I had no idea he would decide it was you. Your son has done very well and you should be proud of him. Things will be better, now."
She startled him by pulling her hand out of his arm. She took out her wand and made a basket of lilies, which she placed on the grave marker.
"Thank you," she said, as they moved away.
"For what?"
"For telling me about this."
"Somehow things are better after I tell you."
They turned to leave the cemetery.
They pulled up short at the sight of Harry Potter, coming in. Upon seeing them, the boy's face twisted with anger and pain.
"You don't belong here!" he said.
"No, I do not," Severus quietly agreed, "But I cannot stay away, either."
"She was my mother, and my father's wife!"
"Harry," Barbara spoke as quietly as Severus and although the two men's gazes were locked on each other, she knew they heard her. "Your mother and Severus shared a close bond, of children who grew up together. That bond has done much for us all in the war. I don't understand how it works, but you are connected by it and you will need to find a way to work with this man whom you once thought was your enemy."
Severus had a thought. "Would you like to see the place she grew up?"
Harry broke the stare and considered. "You can take me there?"
Severus put his hand on the younger man's shoulder and looked at Barbara.
"I'll be in the potions dungeon," she said. She would not intrude on this moment and apparated back to Hogsmeade.
She had graded every paper from the past week, checked every student potion, and had moved on to her personal research when he returned to the castle.
He blew into the room and then stopped, unsure of himself. She waited, while he moved bottles of herbs and beetles back and forth on the shelf.
"He is the son of his mother, just as Dumbledore said. Oh, he's still the son of his father, and I could only see that, before...what have I missed, what could we have avoided, if I had allowed myself to see so much of Lily in him?"
"We are not to know that, but supposing you had? If your love for Lily had come out in affection for him, would you have been able to keep it from Voldemort?"
"The Dark Lord...probably not. As it was, he was only too happy for me to hate Harry, almost as much as he, himself, did. Why, after all these months, why did Potter blow up like that?"
"He never knew his parents and tonight he just remembered that loss. When he saw into your memories and understood your actions and reasons, he knew in his mind that you were far less to blame than he thought, but his heart needs to catch up with the rest of him. Look at yourself. You've gone back over your worst memories of the war, trying to make amends or at least make peace. And you haven't done it all the same day."
He pondered it for a moment and then nodded. He looked at her cauldron. "What are you working on, here?"
"Exhaustion. This potion is useless." There were circles under her eyes when she smiled up at him. She waved her wand at the cauldron, emptying and cleaning it. "Give it time, and remember that others need to do the same. It's been a long day."
"Of course. Sweet dreams, Barbara."
"Good night, Severus." She smiled as he left and wondered of what or whom he would dream that night.
A/N: thank you to those who have reviewed! I've re-worked a lot of this chapter because of your comments and will need to do so for the rest of the story, too. I also just discovered how to enable anonymous reviews, so if you tried before, maybe it will work this time. Thanks for reading!