Author's Note: Alright, trying to keep things short again. Of course, another huge THANK YOU to all my subscribers. You guys are awesome! ^_^

And Rawenclaw, you pass you NEWTS in Divination by any chance? xP

Also, in general, sorry that this chapter's a bit shorter. Just, the tone of what comes next is rather.. different, so I thought this was the most logical breaking point of things...

September 5th, 1976

It was a really, really bizarre thought; but Hermione Granger – a Gryffindor girl with dubious affiliations at best – might have just become the closest thing Severus had to an ally in the one thing that mattered most to him: winning back Lily's friendship. Was it all a ruse? Maybe, probably. Logic would point that way at least. Particularly with how involved Dumbledore seemed to be. But… she said she was going to try, to talk to Lily, try to get her to see reason again.

It was hard to trust her really, considering the circumstances, but… He wanted to. If there was hope, even the faintest glimmer of hope that he could earn Lily's forgiveness, that things could be right again, he'd take it from whoever offered. Even if she was working for Dumbledore, even if this was just a concession in Dumbledore's schemes to set up for some greater victory for the odious old man, he didn't care.

If Dumbledore was calculating Lily as Snape's weakness, unfortunately he was calculating correctly. Severus would gladly give away all his worldly possessions – what little money of his mothers still remained in Gringotts after his father's ravishings, the spells and brews he'd created and all other such potentially valuable knowledge, all that he'd worked so hard for in life – without a second thought he'd trade that all away just to have Lily's affection again. So when Hermione had offered to talk to Lily, it seemed far too good to be true. Something he'd be an absolute idiot to let pass him by.

"Thank you…" was all Severus could really say, smiling weakly. He was at least a little more stable now. There was no way really to gauge her honesty at this point – whether or not she was actually going to intervene on his behalf still remained to be seen – but he didn't dare risk jeopardizing the chance that she might be telling the truth.

"Do you think maybe you could talk to her before tomorrow evening and we'll meet here again then to talk about what happened?" There was a distant hope in his eyes, but a hope nonetheless.

"I… well…" Hermione frowned for a second thoughtfully thinking it over. Tomorrow would be Monday, classes again. It might be difficult to find a time to talk to Lily alone then. But that evening would work. "I can do that yeah. Obviously I can't promise to change her mind just talking to her once… But… I'll try." She nodded slowly, sincerely. "What time do you want us to meet here?"

At that Severus looked down again, awkwardly. He'd just remembered, he had detention every evening for the coming week. Ironically for trying to attack her of all things. "Actually…" he looked rather uncomfortable; not really keen on wanting to bring up the fact that he'd tried to harm her less than twenty-four hours ago when she was potentially doing him the greatest favor of his life. She was a Gryffindor, sure, but if this was all true, alienating her would be really counterproductive. And… fine, he felt rather guilty over it now. If it was all true at least; which technically remained to be seen.

"Actually…" he said, catching his voice finally. "I have detention every night for a week. So I don't know how it'd work. And, about that..." Hermione was about to say something, but he cut her off, wanting to get the next bit out for certain. "I'm … sorry about what happened last night. I'd… been under a lot of stress obviously this year; and… I thought, mistakenly, that you were ridiculing what happened between Lily and I, so I just snapped. But, if you honestly didn't know, like you said; and especially if you're wanting to help me make up things with her. Well, I'm sorry. That was … out of line. It won't happen again."

"It's…" Hermione sighed slightly. "Well, we all make mistakes I suppose. No… real harm done, since the spell didn't actually go off. And… you rather made up for it earlier when you stopped those other Slytherins from doing the same. So… apology accepted I guess."

"Well, at least you can forgive…" Severus muttered, looking somewhat more distraught at the rather recent memories of the Fat Lady, the train…

Hermione frowned. 'Forgive'…? That was the second time he'd mentioned it, come to think of it. In reference, presumably to Lily. Had he done something to her after all? Well, it seemed to partially corroborate Lupin's telling of things, but… obviously Snape was really, truly sorry about what had happened. She wanted to ask what he'd done, but that might be pressing too far. Especially right now. Whatever he might think about Gryffindors in general, she didn't like to see others suffering like this, even Slytherins. She knew at least that whatever it was, he obviously regretted it and wanted to make things right. And between friends, that should be enough.

Instead, she opted to take things a slightly different direction, hopefully one Snape would find a bit more amenable. "I think actually… if you don't mind… I'll talk to Slughorn about this for you. Let him know it was just a misunderstanding, and that we talked it over, and I don't have any quarrel with you any longer, and that I don't think it's quite fair for you to have to serve detention when the two of us already made up over this. Surely he'd listen well enough to his 'best two students', wouldn't he?" She added a bit of a smile at the end, trying a bit to mock Slughorn's tone, bring some slight degree of levity to the otherwise morbid atmosphere. "That way, we're free to meet tomorrow I think. Would that be alright?"

"Yeah, umm, that'd… be nice…" Severus nodded slowly, still trying to process the fact that a Gryffindor – other than Lily – was going out of her way to try to get him out of a detention. "Do you think you could meet me at Slughorn's after dinner? That's … when it's set for at least."

Hermione nodded. "Of course. I'll be there. I think actually…" she paused for a moment. "That's about it for now. We should probably get going for now. Homework and all, and I'm already behind on my discretionary reading." Hermione gave a sort of sheepish grin.

Severus just nodded, still trying to process all that had just happened. Was this really the same girl he'd sworn just hours before was out to destroy him? And now was not only going out of her way to get him out of a detention he'd gotten for trying to curse her and working to try to get Lily back for him – they even seemed to have the same sentiments towards schoolwork and reading? Of course he wasn't absolutely stupid; there were still parts of him suspecting it all to be a ruse, but, if it was all true, he'd seriously misjudged her.

Sensing that Snape was probably going over rather awkward thoughts in his head, and not wanting to intrude too much further – she'd certainly gotten enough information for one day out of him; more in some ways than she had otherwise in six years, Hermione decided it was probably timeto bid a quick exist.

"You know, I think it's probably best if we leave separately." She suggested. "Probably wouldn't be good if people saw us together. So I'll leave first; Gryffindor Tower isn't too far, so it should be clear for you to head out in a minute or two after."

As she turned to leave, once more Severus just nodded silently. They say the Room of Requirement can do strange things to a person. Though the two of them had entered as close to enemies, as they left and went their separate ways, there were semblances of a new, strange camaraderie between them.

They'd both hurried to complete their homework that afternoon: Hermione in her strangely empty dormitory, Severus in the Library, not having even the slightest desire to return to the Slytherin dormitories before it was absolutely necessary with all that had transpired in the past twenty-four hours. Dinner too had gone by strangely quietly. Avery, Mulciber and the others were nowhere to be seen.

The Marauders were present, but looking strangely out of characteristically glum – from what Hermione would tell Snape in passing later, McGonagall had found an unburned bit of the letter, bearing Gyllenkrok's signature in Peter Pettigrew's handwriting. Sirius evidently hadn't been thorough enough in burning it the other night. And, rather like the coward he always seemed to be, Pettigrew cracked easily under the slightest of interrogation, and sold out the other three.

Gryffindor too lost fifty points that day – twenty for Pettigrew's impersonation of a professor, ten to all the others for their complicency in the matter. And worst of all for the Marauders, McGonnagal was adamant that all of them spend the next three weekends in detention, not giving the slightest ground to Potter's protestations surrounding Quidditch practice. That, perhaps for them, was the hardest blow of all.

After enjoying the relative calm and eating their respective fills, Hermione and Severus met up outside the Great Hall, making their way down to Slughorn's office together once again. Standing more or less side by side with Snape, Hermione knocked on the door.

"Yes?" Slughorn called from within, "Mr. Snape? I've… been expecting you.

"Yes, Professor…" Snape nodded with a bit of sigh, opening the door and starting to make his way in.

"Miss Granger?" Slughorn exclaimed at the sight of the other, obviously rather surprised. "What are you doing here? You certainly don't have detention to serve tonight."

"I know that, sir…" Hermione started, biting her lip for a second. "It's just… Well, Snape and I talked about what happened yesterday, and… Well, actually, I should say, he came up to me and apologized for it without me even thinking to bring it up. And… strange as it sounds, it all really is just a misunderstanding. See…" she frowned, "I really am new here, I'm afraid, and unfortunately, I managed to say something to him last night that he took great offense at without me realizing all the connotations of. And, well, he thought better of it now, and sought me out to apologize. We had a bit of a conversation from there, and I think we've made up our differences, sir. So, I'm just asking… if you didn't mind sir…" she looked away for a second before deliberately meeting Slughorn in the eye. "I don't think the detentions are necessary. He didn't really harm me in any serious way, and it was just a misunderstanding that the two of us have dealt with on our own. He assured me that it won't happen again, and I apologized for my own part in provoking it, so I think things are settled between the two of us."

Slughorn actually smiled at the end of it all. "How very mature of you. My two most brilliant potioneers working out their differences professionally. Well, who am I to argue with that? The fifty points taken still stand, but… well, if the two of you are getting along again now, I don't much see the point in holding against him that which you yourself don't. Very well, Severus, seems you've made a good friend. No need for detention I think."

"Thank you." Severus said, in technically not much more than a stoic tone. But, for him, that was one of the closer things to gratitude. He wasn't even sure which of the two he was directing the sentiment more towards.

Only one final loose end remained for the day. Really the one he'd been dreading the most. But, it had to be taken care of, and relatively quickly; before matters had a chance to possibly spiral even more out of control. Severus inhaled sharply as he found himself at the door to the Slytherin Common Room – after a surprisingly civil farewell to Hermione outside of Slughorn's office following her telling of the Marauders' involvement in their earlier detention and what had happened to them today; something she felt was probably in their mutual interests – it had to be done.

The door creaked open. There were half a dozen or so students seated around, most of them younger. A bit surprisingly, though certainly to his relief, there didn't seem to be any 'pranks' set up for him. At least none triggered by him entering the room. His entrance was sharply met by all others averting his eye, but beyond that, not a word was said. Avery and the others, however, were not in the Common Room. As it was, for the moment, imperative that he speak with them, that made him slightly anxious. He hoped he wouldn't have to go seriously searching for them now. He'd far more than enough to deal with today thanks to their idiocy.

Though… in a certain sense, if… Hermione was telling the truth; maybe in the end, strangely, it would all work out for the best. For now though, he just needed to deal with them. Keep them from going off and doing something even more outlandishly stupid and causing an even larger mess for him to have to deal with. Well, there was one other logical place they might be…

Making his way up the stairs towards the sixth year boys' dormitory, he pushed his way inside. Almost the second he had a foot in the door, he was confronted by the four of them, in his face, practically with their wands out.

"We're writing a letter to Malfoy." Mulciber threatened, a rather hostile tone of voice. "We've had enough of taking this from you. Ever since this year started you've been nothing but trouble for us, and we're sick of it."

"Really?" Snape asked in an incredibly dry and indifferent tone, taking a seat, practically as if the other four didn't exist. "What odd timing. Because I was about to write to Lucius myself. Tell him what a brilliant job you and Avery played in helping our plans along. Without even being specifically instructed. I think he'd be rather pleased to hear of such. But, if you insist on writing to him as well, I'm sure he and the Dark Lord will certainly shed many tears on your behalf for the oh-so-terrible-tragedy of 'fifty points from Slytherin'. I'm certain you'll win their deepest sympathies, and be sure to get to the height of heights within the order with such. Your choice really which letter gets sent out."

"What… are you talking about?" Avery butted in, suddenly sounding more confused than angry.

"Oh, you mean you don't understand?" Severus added a mock thoughtful frown. "Really? And I thought you'd all acted so brilliantly, understanding the plan I had undertaken and improvising like that on the spot with such perfect execution. Fine, fine, I'll humor you. It's really quite simple. So much so I'm surprised I even have to explain this to you…"

"You see…" he started, a bit of a grin, the sort of look Snape normally got when some plan of his or other finally started to come together. "Well, it's obvious that Hermione's a spy for Dumbledore. We all know that much. And, well, I've already talked to Lucius about the matter. He wants me to observe her, find evidence of hers and Dumbledore's dealings and expose it. From there, it should be a relatively simple matter to get that old fool sacked, possibly off to Azkaban where he belongs. And, with Lucius Malfoy himself now on the school's Board of Governors – well, the next Headmaster selected might just be … an interesting choice." Severus let out a bit of a smirk.

" The problem was…" he paused a bit, almost as if for dramatic effect. "Until very recently, I wasn't able to get much information off of her. There's only so much even I can divine from her on a surface level alone. As a spy, naturally she has her guard up, keeps her secrets hidden pretty well."

"Lucius recommended, accordingly, that I do whatever it takes to get some critical bit of information from her. Even the slightest slipup on her part used properly could set our plan in motion. So, under such motivations, when I saw the two of you attacking her earlier, I saw it as the perfect opportunity, an excellent ruse for winning her trust. I defended her, certainly, but only to get her to trust me, make her think I'm not really her enemy; that, I'm not really like the other Slytherins. That I don't necessarily like the Dark Lord, might be open to conversion if she talks to me enough about it. Whatever rubbish justification she has in her silly little Gryffindor head. I don't really care." He shook his head a bit derisively.

"What matters though, she's starting to trust me. Which means our plan is well underway. Accelerated really by your quick thinking. And, as I said, I'll certainly mention your … assistance in all of this to Lucius when I write him." Severus added here a rather genuine smile. From the rhythmic nods the other four seemed to be giving him, it seemed his ruse was working well enough on them.

"Now that that's all done though – like I said, maintaining her trust is critical for this all to work. The more she trusts me, the more likely she is to reveal certain details to me, the more likely all of what we're striving for here wins. In some ways, a good part of the war itself rides on this. Get rid of Dumbledore and the Death Eaters will in all but name rule Hogwarts. That alone could turn the tide for war. I don't think I need to tell you how well we could all be rewarded for our parts in this…" He smiled a bit again, greedily, but matched by them.

"So, now that you've all played your role, and brilliantly at that, I'll say once more; I need you to leave Hermione Granger to me. I told her, among other things, in attempts to win her trust, that I'd ensure that none of you harass her any further. You all had your good fun with her to be sure, and helped accelerate Malfoy's plan, but any further harassment of her, I'm afraid, would be quite detrimental to our goals. There's plenty of other Gryffindors out there you can do what you want with, but I want her left alone. Am I understood?" He ended with a rather stern, yet not particularly angry tone.

Once more the four nodded. "Good. Then I'll write my letter to Malfoy tonight. And I take it you won't bother him with sob stories over House points or a cut on the cheek when all this is at stake."

Well, he had to admit, that had gone about as ideally as possible. Not that it was the most difficult taks in the world to outwit the lot of them, but still, they could be quite unpredictable at times; he wasn't fully certain how they'd react after he'd lost so many points and attacked two of them within twenty-four hours. It seemed though that, despite their failing him in his dealings with Hermione, his faculties of deception had returned at full strength. So much so he'd nearly convinced himself by the end that he wasn't lying.

To be entirely honest, he still didn't know what to think of her. Most of the evidence still pointed to her truly being a spy for Dumbledore. And in that case, to the extent that was true, maybe he wasn't even lying to the other Slytherins. But… to the extent she truly was trying to help him get Lily back he felt it was the absolute least he could do for someone doing so much for him, to do what he could to keep her protected. Only time alone could tell which was truly the case; but until then, this seemed the only rational decision to make.