Professor Dumbledore didn't quite sigh as professor Snape entered the office in a fouler mood than normal. "How did your meeting with Voldemort go?" He frowned slightly as he noticed Snape's anxiously clenched fists. "And would you like a seat?"

Snape forced himself to calm down. He glanced at the seat in front of the Headmaster's desk with disdain. "Forgive me headmaster, but as you know I've just gotten back from one of the dark lord's parties. It did not go well or how I expected. I do not have long before I am expected back."

"Are you injured?"

He shook himself some of his customary arrogance returning briefly, "Of course not, though I can not speak for several muggles that were the evenings entertainment. Nor some of the death eaters that told him things he didn't want to hear. I wish he hadn't picked tonight for the meeting. The sorting ceremony was enough torture for one day."

Dumbledore pushed the tray of lemon drops toward Snape with his good hand. "Lemon drop?"

Snape shook his head, "I fear that Hermione Granger's parents will not live out the night if we don't do something."

Dumbledore sighed it seemed that the last several months were filled with surprises. "How long do we have?"

"An hour at most."

"Then we will have to work quickly, Dobby." Dumbledore waited patiently as Dobby appeared with a pop, "Pleased to be working for you again this school year, sir. How can I help?"

"I need you to bring Miss Hermione Granger here as soon as you can, it's an emergency. Tell her I like peppered lemons."

"I will not fail sir." Dobby vanished with a snap of his fingers.

Snape waited for Dobby to vanish, "Sir we shouldn't be wasting time telling her we should be doing something."

Dumbledore shook his head, "Normally I would agree but I believe she will have something useful to add. Anyways you should start at the beginning. I find that having more information is always helpful."

Snape scowled, he was sure that the wheels were spinning in the old man's head, he wondered for the hundredth time how the old coot had avoided being placed in Slytherin. "I can only guess as to the dark lord's reasoning but he has pushed up the timetable for his takeover of the ministry. The dark lord has many plans going the least of which is allowing Fenrir Greyback more opportunity to spread his plague to muggleborns."

"Greyback is going to be involved on the attack?"

"Oh yes, the dark lord was rather pleased with his performance with young Trista Baker, as well as his maiming of several other muggle families. He was not pleased enough to give the beast his dark mark but pleased enough to say he could eat Miss Granger's parents. The dark lord seemed to think that it would cause Harry emotional anguish."

Albus shook his head, "I'm sure that it would cause Harry immeasurable anguish if such a thing were to happen."

Snape snarled, "I am at a loss to understand why the time table was moved up. Do you have any idea why he moved his time table up?"

Dumbledore smiled grimly, "Several, each more unlikely than the last. It might very well involve Harry."

Snape glared, "What has the boy done this time?"

"His moving this summer, may have broken the blood protection."

"Of all the irresponsible things that boy could have done. That would explain why Voldemort was interested in pushing the time table up. As for why Hermione Granger's parents I believe that it is Draco Malfoy's fault. Due to Narcissa running off with Rudolf Lestrange a few weeks ago, Draco has found himself almost worthless to the dark lord. With his family money gone he has found that there is very little an underage wizard can do to help the dark lord. He is I believe, getting a dose of the reality of the situation. A few days ago in a misguided effort to curry favor he spun a tale of Harry Potter's friends and how much he depends on them."

Dumbledore sighed, "Ah yes, I am beginning to understand, of Harry's friends Ronald Weasley and Neville Longbottom are both quite untouchable as they come from old pure blood lines. Hermione Granger on the other hand is a muggleborn that not only proves the lie about purebloods being better at magic but is one of Harry's best friends."

Snape nodded, "One of the dark lord's agents managed to use the imperius curse one on the younger members of the ministry. While this would normally be of only minor annoyance, this particular employee works in the department that was looking over the mess made by Umbridge's death. She somehow acquired the names and addresses of all of the muggleborn in the school. So now the dark lord has access to the names and addresses of the families of the muggleborn of Hogwarts including one Hermione Granger. I'm supposed to meet a group of death eaters near their house and help kill them messily and bloodily. After that we are supposed to split up and hit several other names on the list."

Dumbledore's face paled, "I'm afraid that doesn't give us much time to sort out the situation.

"I believe it is not simply a way to strike terror into the hearts of the muggleborn specifically and the wizarding world in general. I believe he intends to use it as the start of his campaign to weaken the wizarding world. I believe his next move will be to broaden his powerbase within the ministry."

Dumbledore closed his mouth as he heard a knock on the door. "Come in."

Hermione Granger ran a hand through her disheveled hair as she stepped into the headmaster's room. "You called sir?"

Dumbledore nodded, "We don't have a lot of time. Professor Snape as come with a warning about your parents."

Hermione paled slightly, "What about my parents sir?"

Snape actually managed a look of pity as he explained, "The dark lord is planning on having them killed tonight. As well as a number of other students."

Hermione's blinked, "Why? I mean what changed?"

Snape frowned as he realized that he was missing something as he looked between Hermione and Dumbledore, "Changed?"

Dumbledore sighed, "I believe that is a discussion for another time."

She nodded, "We made plans for something like this but… damn I never thought it would happen so soon."

Snape raised an eyebrow, "Plans for the dark lord attacking?"

Hermione looked intently at Snape, "I have two important questions, are there going to be dementors? And is Voldemort himself going to be there."

Snape blinked as he was sure the world was going to hell, he had just told a student that their parents were going to die and her only two questions were, were there going to be dementors and was the dark lord was going himself. If he hadn't known better he was sure that shock was affecting her mind.

"I'm sorry to tell you but killing your parents is not so important as to warrant his personal attention. Nor is he going to bother with dementors for this. However there will still be over twenty dark wizards there. There isn't much you can do other than run."

Hermione shook her head, "I have a suggestion that you will follow if you want to live."

Snape frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"I have a charm that will possibly keep the wards around the place from killing you. Do you mind if I take a lemon drop?"

Dumbledore shook his head, "I always find that sweets can help, though I'm not sure now is the right time for them."

Hermione plucked one of the lemon drops from the bowl of sweets and placed it on the table. She pulled her wand and waved it over the lemon drop silently.

Snape's rude response was stopped before he could utter it as he watched the girl perform a silence transfiguration spell to change the candy into a hard yellowish bracelet. He glanced at Dumbledore as she waved her wand over the thing in a complex twist, "Must I wear that?"

Hermione shrugged, "If you don't the wards will probably kill you, even with it I'm not sure you'll live out the night if you go with the death eaters."

Snape snarled, "I don't have a choice unless I want to hide in this castle forever."

Hermione shrugged and pulled out her phone.

Snape was just about ready to laugh despite his horrible day at her trying to use a muggle device when he realized that it was working as he could hear a girl's voice on the other side of the phone. "Hello?"

Hermione's voice finally broke down as she whispered into the phone, "Willow, They're going to kill my parent's."

"When and how long do I have?"

Snape frowned, "I have to go soon, I have maybe fifteen minutes to get to where I'm supposed to go."

"I'll send the crew and make sure your parents are safe. I love you honey bear and stay strong." The phone went dead in Hermione's hand.

Now that she had delivered her message Hermione found her eyes wet with tears. "Just take the bracelet enough blood is going to be spilled tonight."

"Sir with your permission I should probably get back to my dorm."

Albus nodded, "I don't know what to say."

Hermione was shaking as she walked out, "Nothing to say Professor, other than may the gods forgive me."

Snape watched Hermione leave, "I need to go, I'll try to make sure no one is harmed."

Dumbledore glanced at the bracelet, "You might as well take it. I'll also make you a port-key to Hogsmeade so you can get to where you are going faster. And good luck."

Lenora blinked sleepily as she woke. It took her a second to remember that she was at Hogwarts and that the cute rump that was attached to the girl looking out the window wasn't Lillian's.

Gabrielle smiled as she heard Lenora's breathing alter and the change in the rustling of the sheets that indicated that Lenora was awake. She continued gazing out the window. "It's beautiful this time of morning."

Lenora yawned, "It's a lovely view, what time is it anyways and how long before we have to go eat?"

"It's just after sunrise. We have a couple of hours before we really need to get to breakfast. Though I'm sure by the time we get done chattering and showering we could grab an early breakfast."

Lenora sighed, "For the people that only barely ever see the sun let alone the sunrise, the time is?"

"Just a touch after six in the morning."

Lenora glanced away from Gabrielle's tush to look over the rest of area enclosed in curtains. She noticed Gabrielle's crystal wand resting on the carved wooden nightstand. Lenora frowned as she briefly wondered where Gabrielle had acquired the nightstand. Next to the wand Gabrielle's plain silver pentacle necklace was coiled beside a black crystal framed picture. Lenora blinked as she recognized the naked girl in the picture as Gabrielle's pen pal Sylvie. The girl in the picture was standing in a pleasant looking forest. The girl waved then changed into a large white tiger before running out of the picture.

"When was the picture taken? And aren't you worried about what the other people are going to say if they see it?"

"She sent it to me last week as a don't forget to write gift. As if I haven't been writing to her a least every couple of weeks for years. As for other people seeing it, not really, it's charmed to look like a normal picture to anyone that hasn't met her."

"Besides, I had several hours to kill last night so I got to work making sure that no one was going to snoop. That and talking myself out of exploring."

Lenora frowned as Gabrielle turned and sat down with her legs crossed facing Lenora. "Talking yourself out of exploring? What's up? I've known you my whole life and I can't remember the last time you talked yourself out of exploring. I mean I remember that demon's cave that you just had to explore."

"Hey, that's not fair, I didn't know it was a demon's cave at the time. It just felt interesting. Besides, I told Lexie where I was going."

"You're just lucky that Faith takes bribes and liked the knife hilt you made out of the demon's leg bone, otherwise you would have been in serious trouble."

Gabrielle muttered, "It wasn't like it was that hard to kill."

Lenora shook her head, "So explain why you didn't feel the need to explore."

"I just had a bad feeling last night." Gabrielle reached over and pulled the drawer open and searched around for a second before pulling a lovely amethyst comb out of the drawer.

Lenora sighed as she glanced at the comb, "It's not fair that you can make those."

"I still say it's easy, just buy some junk rock that has whatever gemstone you want in it, then reach out with your magic and pull the material from the rest of the junk in the rock and let it flow into a mold. I'm sure that once you get better at transfiguration you could do it as well."

Lenora shook her head and muttered sarcastically, "I'm sure."

Gabrielle grimaced, "Be happy, at least you don't get stuck outside protection circles like mom and I. And just once I wouldn't mind being able to walk outside on a sunny day without my glasses on."

Lenora sighed, "Do you want some help with your hair before we head down to breakfast?"

"That would be nice." Gabrielle handed Lenora the comb.

Harry Potter quietly tried to disentangle himself from the robes of a curled up Hermione. She had slipped into his bed late in the night with her eyes wet with tears. He had spent an hour trying to calm her down before she finally collapsed into sleep. It had only been after news had come via a call from Dawn that said that every one of their family was safe that she had relaxed enough to sleep. He figured that he would get an earful at some point about his choice in friends and about the likely dead death eaters but he wasn't sure he cared. After all every death eater that went on the mission with the possible exception of Snape was looking to kill two innocent people.

Hermione yawned as she came awake and noticed Harry deep in thought. "Knut for your thoughts?"

Harry reached up and tucked a stray strand of Hermione's hair behind her ear. "Not sure my thoughts are worth a knut, but I was just thinking about my plans for restarting the DA. How are you doing this morning?"

She smiled as she thought about all of the little things that had changed with Harry over the years. He was more comfortable offering a touch or a hug than he had been before having a family. He was perhaps more willing to try for patience than he used to be. All good changes in her opinion. "Better than last night. You had decided already that you were going to restart it, are you thinking about changing your mind again?"

"Not so much that but maybe we should have a more public dueling club as well."

"Oh?"

"I was just thinking that we have untapped talent in the staff that is going to waste. Some of the professors are very good at dueling. We've improved a lot in the last few years of constant practice but let's face it, there is something to be said by real dueling experience."

"What you don't think you are going to have enough homework already?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "You and I both know we could ace our NEWTs if we took them this minute. I'm just saying that I want all of Hogwarts to know how to defend themselves when it comes to it."

Hermione smiled at Harry. "Even Malfoy?"

Harry twitched briefly before forcing himself to say, "Even Malfoy."

Hermione chuckled, "Though if Malfoy is going to be hogging the room of requirement maybe we should look into finding another place to train."

He smiled as he joked, "We could always use the chamber of secrets."

She blinked, "That's not a half bad idea, if we cleaned it up a bit. It's a large space and has rather selective entrance requirements. No one would ever suspect you of using it."

He nodded, "Besides cleaning it out would give the girls something to do in their free time."

"I still can't believe you let them keep the copies of the map that Sirius made."

"Oh please, they would have gotten into loads of trouble without them anyways. Might as well give them an advantage."

"You know you could have lent them the invisibility cloak if you wanted to give them every advantage."

"I don't hate the staff that much, besides Gabrielle doesn't need one."

Hermione nodded, "I should probably get out of here before someone catches me. I don't really need a lecture about proper witch etiquette."

Harry chuckled as Hermione pulled her wand and cast a disillusionment charm on herself. "I'll see you at breakfast."

Dumbledore was absently working on his morning paperwork when Dobby the house elf appeared in the room with a small popping noise. "Sorry for the interruption sir but you said you wanted to know as soon as Snape woke up."

Dumbledore smiled, "Yes of course thank you. Please if you would tell Poppy that I will be down to see Severus shortly."

Dobby smiled, "Of course, sir. Is that all you are needing me for?"

"For now."

"Thank you sir." Dobby vanished with a pop.

Albus sighed as he remembered how a pentagram formed of green flame had appeared out of thin air in his office at around midnight. He had despite his shock pulled his wand and cast a shield charm on himself with a speed that even a much younger wizard might envy. He had scarcely finished when Severus's bloody body fell out of the center of the pentagram onto the cold stone floor. His robes looked to have been burned off of him for the most part. The only intact piece of clothing he had was the charmed bracelet that was around his right wrist. The pentagram had vanished by burning up instantly after disgorging the body.

Albus shook his head to clear it of his wool gathering as he made his way down to the hospital wing. He hadn't been sure his friend was going to last through the night when he dropped him off with Madam Pomfrey but she had assured him that the most serious damage he had suffered was loss of blood. She hadn't been able to find any wounds that would explain where the vast amounts of blood staining his flesh had come from but she had poured some blood producing potions down his throat and stuck him in a bed to rest.

Severus looked up as Dumbledore entered the hospital room, he looked at the headmaster with haunted eyes, "We… we have twenty less death eaters to worry about. Well twenty one if you count me."

Dumbledore glanced at Severus's pale face and the couple of bandages that marred his otherwise intact looking skin. Dumbledore suppressed a chuckle at the fact that Poppy had even washed Severus's hair enough to remove the greasy look that he had been sure was permanent. He shook his head, "I haven't counted you a death eater in years Severus."

Severus shook his head briefly before wincing in pain. He held his left arm out painfully rigid. "It's gone."

Dumbledore's sudden intake of breath caused Snape a slight smile before the pain in his arm forced him set it back on the bed.

"How? And what happened after you left?"

"Never with the easy questions." Snape sighed, "I can tell part of the tale but I'm afraid I've been forbidden to tell the rest."

"Tell what you can."

Snape carefully reached with his good hand for a glass of water. After taking a sip of the water Snape slowly started his tale. "I arrived with plenty of time to meet the others. We flew to near the area and approached on foot not wanting to set off any wards the ministry might have placed in the area. The ministry was the last thing we should have been worrying about. Everything was going according to plan until we crossed the edge of the property. The fact that the torches lining the border flickered to life as we walked past the edge should have been our first warning." Snape took another drink.

Dumbledore frowned before he nodded.

"Exactly, it never occurred to the others that the torches posed a problem. It didn't occur to them that without an adult wizard around there shouldn't be any type of magic around. We had advanced on the lawn when Greyback complained about smelling something funny. We had closed to within a few yards of the house when the torch flames twisted and a connecting line of fire danced along the torches creating a barrier."

"That is some rather skilled charm work."

Snape shook his head, "I have never seen such charms. A few seconds after the blue fire finished the circle some of the younger death eaters panicked and started shouting that they couldn't apparate out. Someone had used the torches as the focal point of an anti apparation ward."

Dumbledore nodded, "Impressive."

"Greyback was the first causality."

"What happened?"

"A large werewolf jumped the twenty yards from the roof of the house to slam a ham sized fist into his shoulder. You could probably hear the shattering bones from a block away. It was rather creepy in that the werewolf looked down at Greyback and smiled. Well it did for the half a second it took for him to reach down and rip his arms and legs off."

"So Greyback is dead?"

Snape shook his head, "He would have been so lucky. It was about this time that three figures stepped out of the front door of the house. Two females and one man or male at least for I'm not sure any of them were human. One of the girls was wearing a strange blood red leather outfit. Her hair was iced blue. The other was a girl with long black hair, black eyes and a long gown so black as to feel like it sprang from the abyss. The edges of the gown blew as if hell's wind was at her back. The man had hair that was bleached blond and wore a muggle trench coat. Yet there was something disquieting about him, it might have been that he looked so normal compared to his companions."

Dumbledore tried not to grimace as Snape interrupted his tale for another drink.

"The girl in black saved Greyback's life by calling the werewolf off. She simply whistled and he looked up and vanished like fog. It was this that caused the death eaters to decide to attack."

"What happened?"

"Nothing, the wards prevented the death eaters from casting any magic. No matter how hard they shook their wands or shouted their spells nothing happened. He shuddered, "I've never seen anything that can block a wizard's magic so completely. She then proceed to point at Greyback's stumps, I watched in horrified fascination as the flesh closed up in a gruesome scarred manor."

"Did she say anything?"

"Oh yes, she said death was too good for Fenrir Greyback eater of children and devourer of flesh. Fenrir called the lady a whore and some other words that don't bare repeating. That wasn't the smartest thing he ever did. Maybe he was hoping that she would just kill him. Regardless of the idiot's desires the blue haired one simply walked over and slammed her boot into his face repeatedly until all of most of his teeth had been smashed out."

Dumbledore wasn't sure if the look on Snape's face was in disgust over Fenrir or what happened to him. He decided that he really didn't want to know. "What happened then?"

He shuddered, "She reached in and ripped his tongue out with her gloved hand. She then said that muck should learn to keep their mouths shut. The lady in black turned to face us and I who have stared into the dark lord's eyes felt fear. There was a rage there that I've never seen. She gestured to the girl in red leathers and the next thing we knew was that no one had their wand anymore."

"How?"

"I don't know, one second we were standing there tossing spells the next the girl with blue hair had a bundle of wands she was looking at. I and the death eaters were frozen from the neck down by some sort of magical shield. It was a horrible feeling as the girl started handing the wands one by one to the girl in black. You could feel the sense of dread coming from everyone. I think we all expected to die a painful death."

"What did the girl in black do?"

"She looked at them one at a time and broke most of them. As simple as snapping them in half. I could hear her muttering to herself about how the wand would never find peace after what they had done to them. I almost died when I recognized the fifth wand that was passed to the girl. I couldn't shout I couldn't even scream as she bought my wand closer to her nose before she slipped it into a pocket. I would have collapsed with relief if I could have moved at all. She broke the rest one by one some times walking closer to the wizard that had owned the wand listing their crimes. Some of the crimes even shocked me."

"So they are dead?"

Snape shook his head, "Some, some are worse." After a long pause he sighed, "She waved her hand in a complicated series of gestures. At first we saw nothing but then we saw shadows dance along the ground, they twisted and changed forms as they raced along until they flowed and merged into each person's shadow."

Dumbledore noticed that Snape was getting even paler as he relieved some rather painful memories. "If you want to stop."

Snape shook his head, "What do you think a child version of you would see? If they looked deep into your heart. If the one you loved most opened your head and poured through your heart? Everything you had ever done, judged in a minute. Every mistake played out over and over, every single sorrow you caused stripped of the healing effects of time. I would guess that a person that had lived a truly good life would have felt little from the shadows."

"But these were not innocent people."

"No they, we are not. I have never felt such emotional pain. The day I learned of Lily's death was the closest I've ever come. The cruciatus curse might cause more pain physically but it's nothing compared to whatever spell was used on us. Two thirds of the death eaters never even made it off the ground where they were trying to claw their own eyes out."

"That's a horrible curse though…"

"Poetic? I believe that is the word your Gryffindor outlook was keeping you from saying?"

Dumbledore ignored the jab at his honor, "What happened to the rest?"

"Some of them had apparently not done things so horrible as to be unforgivable." Snape's already pale face lost a touch more of it's color. "The only thing I can say about what else happened to them is that we will never have to worry about them again."

"What about you?"

"The lady finished dealing with the rest before she smiled as she said that everyone makes mistakes sometimes. She said that she would fix one of mine. The last thing I remember before waking up here was her grabbing my wrist where the dark mark was and then pain."

Poppy poked her head out of her office, "He really should rest headmaster, he lost a lot of blood and causing him more stress isn't good for him right now."

Dumbledore nodded, "I'm sorry Severus I should have let you rest first."

Snape shook his head, "What about my classes?"

"I was at one time a professor, a rather gifted one if I do say so myself. I am sure that I can manage a day or two of lessons while you get on your feet."