Disclaimer: Harry Potter, associated characters and setting belong to JK Rowling and whoever she chooses to share the rights with, which does not include me. This is for entertainment purposes only, with no copyright infringement intended, or profit made.

Chapter 9: Explanation

Snape didn't ignore them at breakfast, like he usually did before he'd his tea. He slowly walked behind the Gryffindor table, and watched as Ron and Harry winced. He stopped and raised an eyebrow, and pulled out a little notebook, and wrote something in it, raising an eyebrow in Hermione's direction.

Neville, turned and stood to be level with him, then calmly asked "Can we help you with something this morning, Professor?"

The entire table, and half of Hufflepuff sucked in a breath at the same time. Snape raised an eyebrow again.

"I was noting who of my students looked particularly off form today. I wish to be forewarned to keep an eye out for explosions caused by ill attention."

Neville paused a moment, then responded. "I'm sure those students who would benefit from more of your attention would be appreciative." He glanced over at the Slytherin table. "Since you are concerned, I feel I must inform you that Mr. Zambini seems to be on his fifth cup of coffee, which may backfire on him. After all, jitters can be worse then slow but concise movement. Also, Mr.s Malfoy and Nott have not yet made an appearance. Perhaps they are awake and elsewhere, but I'm not in possession of that knowledge."

Snape paused for a moment, and his eyes flickered from Neville, to Hermione, and back. Then he nodded slightly, and walked off..

The Gryffindors made a point of going through the motions of silent applause when Snape's back was turned.

One of the seventh year boys leaned over to Neville as he sat. "Very well done. I didn't think you had it in you."

Neville smiled, and served himself some juice, before answering. "I just took a while to grow into my inner Gryffindor, I think."

"Well done, though. You faced him, and didn't lose a point. I don't think many have done that."

.o.o.o.

At the end of potions, Snape told Hermione stay behind to discuss her 'inability to adhere to such a basic concept as a set essay length.'

Harry, Ron and Neville lurked at the door, waiting until the others left, and then setting out to guard and eavesdrop while preventing eavesdroppers.

Snape waited until the door was sealed, then he started pacing. " I want details. I want to know how and why and every last bit of what you're doing. If I find a flaw, I want you to fix it. I'm going to make sure you've thought of everything. You're going to follow my suggestions, because If I don't think it'll work, I'll report you to the Order for your own safety..

Hermione tilted her head. "Guys?"

Snape looked at her, confused. "The rest of your trio plus one can't hear you, I've put up privacy wards."

Hermione looked at him, and smirked. "There are three votes for telling you, one against, and two for showing and telling only if you promise to inform for us. One voter abstained."

Snape looked at her, then at the door. "How?"

"How we coordinate while invisible. How we know where there are unsuspecting Death Eaters..." Hermione took a deep breath. "Would you consider informing, or at least giving us information. Like what pubs are common with upstanding purebred scions, or who the newest Death Eaters are?"

"I... how? You're only going to tell me if I agree to help you?"

"You said it yourself last night. What we're doing, it's working. We're picking of the new Death Eaters when they're drunk, but only if we overhear them bragging. That means we're only getting the stupid ones. And we're working on the inner circle when they're sighted alone, but that's chance, and they're getting more paranoid."

"You, you got Lucius..."

"And he got Harry, it was that same day. I'll give Lucius that his shields were impressive, but the look on his face when four stunners and two green spells came at him, that was something I'll treasure."

"I'll help. Not a lot of information, but pubs to watch, and which idiots are likely to be alone."

"Then we'll tell you what we know, and let you help. It will require leaving the grounds, but we can apperate now."

"You're under seventeen, underage magic.."

"Underage magic detection thought a house elf was Harry. It's not exactly precise. It's wise to keep moving, though. And apparition doesn't require wand use."

"They'll find the location eventually."

"They've found the locations eventually. The paper talks about unregistered magics and signs of a scuffle. If a location isn't registered as containing only underage magic users, we think they can't tell."

"It shouldn't work that way."

"And yet, it has so far. We really think that they just litter monitoring spells around the houses of muggleborns and, apparently, Harry."

"But..."

"They wouldn't tell people that you only have to go over three blocks, if it was the case, now would they. They keep on about some powerful tracking thing, but they couldn't find Harry after he left home during the Aunt incident. It's one of those 'ignore the green man behind the curtain' things."

Snape turned to her, and asked "What? ...Oz?"

Hermione looked surprised that he got the reference. "They're trying to appear all powerful. They don't want to show the mechanism of how it works, otherwise we'd figure out how easy it is to get around it."

"There's got to be more to it then that..."

"I figure the only thing the Ministry is competent at is looking competent."

Snape had to smile. "So cynical. Perhaps there's hope for you yet."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "First stop of the tour is on the forth floor, charms corridor. Do you have time now?"

Snape nodded.

By the time they got the door open, only Harry was there. Snape looked about for the other two, and scowled when Harry gave him a knowing look.

.o.o.

"Welcome to our workroom." Hermione gestured around at piles of junk and paperclips. Professor Snape raised a very sarcastic eyebrow.

Harry took his seat, in front of a pile of old oil lantern wick holders and brackets. "We're doing extra credit for Professor Flitwick."

Hermione explained further. "We wrote to him over the summer, asking how much he could tell us about the enchanted magical objects common to the magical world. We're both not used to them, and saw them as something worthy of studying, you see."

Harry continued. "For example, Molly Weasley uses her WWN everyday. How does it work, and how was it made? She doesn't care, but we were curious."

"He sent us a list of books on how things are enchanted."

"We made a transfigured and enchanted a functional WWN, and turned it in for extra credit at the beginning of the year." Harry pointed over at their graded notes.

Hermione smiled. "What he doesn't know was that we were trying to create the magical equivalent of a muggle walkie-talkie. We wanted long distance communication that would work within magical wards."

Snape turned to look at Harry as he took up the story. "So, while Flitwick and Mr. Weasley though we were taking days to learn how to tune into the WWN..."

Hermione pulled out another set of notes from a hidden drawer. "We were really figuring out how hard it would be for someone to tap into our communication network, and-"

Snape interrupted. "If you two do not stop the Weasley-esque finishing of each others sentences, I will hex both of you silent."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other. Harry bowed, and motioned for her to continue. "So. Here's your radio. You have to have it on you, but you can shrink it. Harry keeps his in his shoe. We'll make it so it's only heard in your ear, and teach you how to make it pick up what you hear, or not."

Hermione looked serious. "There are various versions of these floating about, that only let people talk to us. That's how people are reporting. Most of them don't know who they're reporting to. Former Gryffindors, mostly, and others who are sympathetic, but not in the order. They've been told to get out of the situation, then report it."

"Anything else, silent Harry?"

Harry nodded, but waited until Snape gave him permission to speak, which only seemed to annoy him more. "Would you like an anti-portkey ward, Sir? After the third task, we didn't want to be surprised by port-keys. We all wear one."

"That's almost well thought out."

Harry chose to take that as a compliment, coming from Snape. "Given that Death Eaters like to use anti-apperation wards, we thought it would help us not become unwilling guests of theirs."

"Fine."

"You get your choice of lovely jewelry, then. Active when touching skin, not active with a simple cloth barrier..."

Hermione smiled. "Now, on to the next stop of the tour."

.o.o.

Harry let go of Snape's arm, and gestured about a grubby, low ceilinged room with no natural light and lingering smell of small pets. "Welcome to the mousery."

"Where the hell are we?"

"Shhhh. We're in the basement of Grimauld place."

Snape whipped his head around to look at Harry. "Your secret base is in the basement of the Order headquarters?"

"No. Our secret base is wherever there is toast and chocolate biscuits. This is just where we store the mice."

"But..."

"Please, before you object, remember that I own this building, and I am the master of Dobby and Winky. That allows us to play things out under your noses, and use your wards as extra protection..."

"So we're in the basement..."

Hermione spoke up. "Beyond the house elf quarters. Be thankful Harry brought you side along. Otherwise you'd have had to crawl though low ceilings, and past Dobby's Harry shrine."

"We think it's better protection then a fidelius, really. I mean, whose going to crawl through the house elf's quarters. Not the Death Eaters, for sure."

"No, it doesn't fit their delusions of grandeur" Hermione agreed.

"Normally, we don't come here. Winky just takes the mice and brings them here."

Snape turned to look at the stacks of cages. Each contained food, water, and a single mouse. Some had their press clippings, covering their mysterious disappearance. "Avery, Macnair, Malfoy... Goyle Sr. You've got a lot of the newest of the new, but you're not doing bad at getting the old guard."

"Well, we figured that getting them while they thought they were safe..."

"Are you going to keep them as mice forever? And why mice?"

Harry motioned at Hermione, who started the explanation. "Well, the keeping them as animals was inspired by Rita Skeeter. She's a beetle animagus. It's how she was getting on school grounds. I put her in a jar, and kept her until she agreed to stop writing lies about us... But, umm, our older conspirators said people would store better as mice than as beetles, since they're already used to being mammals, and apparently that helps with them staying sane and happy."

"Um, sir, how much do you remember from your experience being a mouse. Because I think fuzzy Malfoy is glaring at us."

"The first five minutes were disconcerting. It took a while to figure out how to see and hear and process it. I spent a good minute contemplating my tail, trying to mentally get from checking that alley to having a tail and being in a dark jar."

"But after those five minutes...?"

"When Miss Granger got me out, and told me to sit still, and that she's be firing a green spell at me... Yes, I understood that, as well as the jibe about Mrs. Norris."

"So the blond mouse glaring at us is aware of what's going on? And that we're feeding him mini-puffskein food instead of proper mouse food? Not that I think he'd feel any better about mouse food. But, well, since he's a mouse, he couldn't say it's inappropriate..."

Snape waited until Harry trailed off. "...Yes, he's been listening. And he's now aware that I'm helping you, and I've been helping the Order for fifteen years."

There was a very angry squeaking from multiple cages. Hermione laughed. Snape looked at her, and raised an eyebrow. "They do sound like the pink and purple mini-puffs that Fred and George sell. I never thought angry Death Eaters would sound cute."

"It helps that you have so thoroughly defeated their dignity. What happens when they try to change back?"

"The cages are charmed unbreakable. They'd chop themselves into bits if they transformed in there. Besides, they're inside a ward that only allows house elves magic. It's apparently used for precocious magical toddlers in the terrible two stage, usually."

"Ah, yes, that's the line on the ground?"

"Yes, and beyond that, Hermione found this lovely muggle poison that is fine in mice, but poisons humans. We've knocked them all out and injected that..."

"So if they change back, they die?"

"They'll go blind, deaf, and paralyzed. Death would take a bit of time."

"Well, then I think our secrets are safe."

..o.o.

As they landed back in the Shrieking Shack, Hermione turned to Harry. "We injected them with a muggle poison that only works in humans, not mice?"

"I though it would be good to give them a few more reasons not to attempt it..."

"I may have to look it up, anyway."

"Am I to understand that Mr. Potter just said that for the benefit of our fuzzy audience?"

"Yes, sir. I do think I've read something... I know there are diseases that don't effect the rodents, just live in their blood, but infect humans..."

"She's off to the library, Sir, or perhaps her own trunk for books. She'll be a while. You had a question?"

"I was wondering when you all learned to think like Slytherins."

"Sometime before I met the Sorting Hat, sir, but after dealing with Malfoy, I pleaded."

Snape's jaw dropped. "I... you... you were almost..."

"I'm pretty sure Hermione pleaded as well. She's a Ravenclaw who decided to admire Gryffindors so much she became one. But she's brave enough to stand, visible, in front of packs of Death Eaters and be a target, so it's a good match. Still, some Gryffindor trio we are."

"I... I'll think about anything I wish to advise you on before your next meeting."

"Ah, yes, our next meeting. It'll be once Hermione has managed to convince all of our number to be willing to be in the same room as you, although it's a very big room."

"Where are you meeting?"

"This week, our Monday meeting is scheduled for the Chamber of Secrets." Harry watched Snape try to keep his face blank unsuccessfully. "Bring a broom, the first step is a doozy. Also, as a hint, Monday meetings are never on Mondays."

"I... what."

"Hermione is sneaky. She also has a list of ways to confuse people. Don't argue with the list. Or the toast. Or the chocolate biscuits."

AN1: WARNING: Chapter 10 Contains Possible triggers. Violence, rape aftermath. Feel free to skip to 11 and read the two sentence summery.

AN2 My Beloved Beta's real life issues have struck again. Right now, he's getting hugs and sympathy rather then rough drafts. I know my dyslexia means I really should have a beta, but I'm not willing to disturb him. Sorry. If you point out typos, I'll gladly fix them.

Thanks for reading.