Only one thing to say: Thanks to those who put me on Alerts/favorites. It's reassuring.

When Harry woke up, he realized with surprise it was not yet morning. It was only about half an hour since he had been awaken by his strange dream. The sun was not to be seen behind the windows, but nevertheless a crowd of students was gathering by the fireplace. Harry got up. He lacked sleep, he knew it, but he wanted to see what intrigued so many of his comrades. He saw Ron was still sleeping deeply, but Hermione was not on her mattress. He felt the ground around him for his glasses, and placed them delicately on his nose. Suddenly, a smell so delicious hit his nostrils, he was surprised it hadn't awaken Ron. The boy walked to the small crowd and peeked between the heads. A huge box of food was standing on the small coffee table. He quickly grabbed Hermione's arm as she approached him. "Careful, Harry!" she cried as he almost threw her glass of pumpkin juice to the ground. "Sorry," he muttered. "Where did they get the food?"

"Apparently Thalia went out this night to get breakfast in the kitchen. Snape said she went back to try and get some more, but they're not sure she'll manage to."

Harry understood his friend was only reciting a message Snape had told her. He gave out a small laugh. "Well, I can see she went to he kitchen once, but I'm positive that's not where she is now."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Well obviously the food was a pretext to going outside the common room. Why else would she have left to get breakfast at around…" He stared at the clock. "… three in the morning?"

Hermione stopped eating half-way through her toast.

"Where is she?"

"She wanted to go see someone, apparently," Harry explained, happy to have put some sense into Hermione's mind.

"Voldemort?"

"That's what I thought."

They both paused, and the boy realized he was famished. Abandoning his friend, he walked up to the table, and picked up one of the twenty or so identical plates that garnished it. They all contained three toast, a bit of bacon or sausage, two eggs and a glass of pumpkin juice. Harry's stomach let out a small growl. Whatever were Thalia's real intentions, the boy was happy she had thought of using food as a cover. As he picked up a plate, he heard Snape loudly speak his name. He turned to face him. The teacher couldn't possibly prevent him from eating! Only, Harry saw that as his name was spoken aloud, it was magically crossed out from a small list that was beside the box. He smiled to himself. Only a list to track down who had eaten and who hadn't. He was starting to become paranoid. He walked back down to his mattress, were Hermione sat, patiently waiting for him. Taking a sip of pumpkin juice, he pursued his conversation as if it had simply been paused. " Yeah, I thought she was talking about Voldemort, when she said that, be he's not supposed to be here. And it can't be Malfoy, or else Snape wouldn't have agreed, and…"

"He agreed?" Hermione asked, cutting short to his list of suppositions.

"Yeah, an hour ago more or less. She said she saw he was here – probably through these Thin ices things, you know. And Snape said it was fine if she wanted to see him. Well, he only said that in the end. He said it was wrong, that she would become weird after seeing him, but she said it was nature's way of doing things. Yeah, weird, eh?" he told Hermione.

"Harry you really have to stop eavesdropping!"

"Well, I couldn't sleep. And I don't do it that much, you know," he replied.

Hermione didn't seemed convinced but finally agreed to hear him. "Alright, and?"

"Well then I thought it might be Malfoy like I said, but Snape would have freaked out if that was the case, and then it couldn't be…"

"Why would Snape freak out?"

To Harry it seemed obvious. "Apparently Malfoy has had his eye on Thalia for a while, and Snape doesn't want her around him because of that."

"Why are you so aware of what is happening in their private life?" Hermione asked, her eyes guessing ahead she would not like the answer.

"Well… I heard it a while ago, when I was walking in a corridor…"

Hermione glared at him. "Of course, no, you don't eavesdrop at all!" she stated sarcastically.

"Do you want to know the story, or no?" he asked angrily.

"Alright, alright," Hermione replied, crossing her legs, and bending forward, intrigued. Apparently she did not like the idea of eavesdropping, but did not mind the results. "So who, then? One of her friends?" the girl asked.

"Well, that would make sense. Snape said he thought that Sirius' letter warned Thalia not to go outside the castle walls. In that case, protect your mind would be a way of saying… don't go back to them. That's it!" Harry exclaimed.

"What's it?" Hermione asked, who apparently hadn't followed Harry's train of thought.

"Snape said that when they met him – we assume it's a Death Eater – they became weird. It's like … they missed their old life, they didn't see as many reasons for switching sides as before. That is, if they actually are on our side."

"But… how could friends make the slaughter of innocents seem… acceptable."

"I… I don't know. But I'm positive that's it."

There was a silent, as Harry dove back into his reflections.

"Well then… how would Sirius know that?" Hermione pointed out.

"Uh. I don't know. Let's just ask her when she gets back."

Hermione let out a nervous laugh. "No Harry, you will ask her, alone. I don't like including myself in their lives that way. Especially since all we know was not intended to be known."

"It's not only their lives" Harry objected. "It concerns everyone in this battle. We need to know what side their on."

"We do know what side their one. Dumbledore is certain Snape is with us."

"Yeah… Well I'd like to be that certain."

On that grim thought, Ron woke up. "Do I smell eggs?"

***

Snape finally addressed the group of students that sat before him. "Now everyone is awaken and fed, it seems as though it might be interesting to update your knowledge of the actual situation. First, we are alive and will remain so. Secondly, the battle will be extremely long. Well, battle isn't quite appropriate. Hide and seek might describe the situation in a better way. There are only about five Death Eaters left in Hogwarts, and our only job is to catch them and throw them out. Still, the Headmaster insists we stay in the dormitories with you."

"Until when?" a student Harry was too tired to identify asked.

"Until they get what they want. Seeing we don't know what that is, I find myself in the impossibility of informing you."

The teenagers remained silent, and Snape pursued. " I know it's only about four in the morning, so you can go back to sleep if you wish so. The other ones can stay up, but make sure to stay quiet," he warned severely, observing a few Gryffondors with more ardor than others. About three quarters of the students got up and threw themselves back in their beds. Most of them didn't seem tired, but Harry guessed pretending to sleep was for them a way of avoiding Snape. He himself considered for a second the idea of throwing himself under his sheets, but decided in the end he would rather be shouted at than forced to return back into his head. He quickly saw that Ron was already snoring, but failed to find Hermione. She was not in her bed, and he could not catch sight of her anywhere in the circular room. Only, as he was looking for her, Fred and George entered his field of sight. They were waving frantically at him, asking Harry to join them. Unable to spot Hermione, he accepted, and soon was by their side.

"I am going to go mad," Fred whispered as he arrived.

"Why in the Lord's name are we stuck with him!" George added, throwing an assassin look in Snape's direction.

"He's not so bad when he's with Thally, but alone… Ugh!" Fred added.

"W… Why do you call her Thally?" was the only thing Harry could reply to such comments.

"Well, partly because "Thally" is a nice name, while I have a problem with "Thalia". It's kind of pretentious, while she isn't. Also, Thalia rhymes with Bella, and Narcissa, and all that crap," Fred explained as George nodded.

Suddenly, Hermione was by their side.

"Thalia was the Greek muse of acting and comedy, if I recall correctly," she pointed out.

Harry cut short to the twin's comments by letting out his frustration. "Where were you?"

Hermione waited a second or two before answering, probably weighing the pros and the cons of being honest. Finally, she told Harry what he believed was the truth. "Checking out the Thin Ices."

"Ooh. So?" Fred and George asked in unison, eyes wide with curiosity.

"The battle will be over within twelve hours at maximum. Past that point I have to worry about ink."

"Yeah. Of course. Ink," Fred repeated after Hermione, apparently disappointing by the news. He then turned to face his brother. "Why can't the Slytherins get him as supervisor? They love him!" he told his twin, finding his old subject of conversation much more fascinating than Hermione's comments.

"Dumbledore is probably scared he will create an army of pure-bloods and join the intruders," George snarled.

"Yeah. Still, it should be each teacher with their house. That way we would still get Thalia."

"Make sure you don't say that in front of her."

The comment came from behind the group of students, but the voice that had uttered it was recognizable between thousands. Harry saw Hermione shrink: she would rather die than have a teacher discover she had been insulting him in his back, and even Harry felt slightly uneasy. On the other hand, the twins did not seem at all indisposed by the subject of their conversation's presence. "And why is that?" George asked.

"Because the Thalia I know isn't a Gryffondor," Snape said.

"Yeah. And that's the Thalia we don't like."

"The Thalia I know is the one you also happen to know," Snape replied.

"Huh, no!"

Snape appeared to be impatient. "Did you meet Thalia when she was younger than seventeen or older than seventeen?"

"Guess," sarcastically replied Fred.

"Than we know the same Thalia. The one that chose to become a Slytherin."

George seemed to be amused by Snape's remark. Snape also seemed amused by the students' vain attempts to bring his girlfriend in their camp. It seemed that both believed the other couldn't win. "It's not where you choose to go, that determines what House you are in. It's what you truly are. Thalia might have changed House because she hated one Gryffondor in particular, but in her soul she was a Gryffondor." Harry ignored the shy looks Hermione shot at him since Fred had mentioned that one Gryffondor in question. It was easy to do. He couldn't be affected by the mention of his father, as he was busy going back in the past, until he finally saw inside his head the movie of his first night at Hogwarts. The Sorting Hat had said he was just like a Slytherin. And Harry had asked to become a Gryffondor. He had chosen his way into the noble House. Exactly what Thalia had did, in a way, though their paths were the opposite. He had chosen to be good. That was the important part. What you chose. The evil Thalia seemed to take a little more place in his mind now, overshadowing the nice one. She had chosen evil.

Suddenly, Harry was convinced that Fred was wrong. He could only support Snape as he tried to put sense into the read-head's mind. "You idiot, it's what you choose that makes you good or not."

"No, it isn't," George replied.

"You consider yourself a pure, good, nice and perfect Gryffondor, right?" the teacher asked the young man with a slight abuse of sarcasm. Fred stared back, and this simple action constituted his sole answer.

"If tomorrow you were to join the ranks of the Dark Lord…"

"Which I would never do!"

"…would you still be good? The same way you used to be?"

The twins remained silent, realizing Snape had won. Harry had to admit his enemy was right, but he wouldn't let him savor this victory. He immediately addressed him, leaving him no time to prepare any degrading comment to throw to his friend.

"Okay, she followed the Slytherin ideology and took her first few steps on the path to becoming a Death Eater. But didn't she still, you know, wear the Gryffondor insignia, and sleep in this tower?" he asked.

"Of course not," Snape sneered. "She switched."

Harry had asked this question simply in order to occupy everyone's attention, and had not awaited such an intriguing answer. Suddenly, he longed to understand Thalia's peculiar "switch" of Houses.

"Switched? As in the school board transferred her to the Slytherin groups?"

Snape late out a laugh. "Like Thalia Beauregard needed any official approval…"

His eyes, that had drifted away for a few seconds, focused back on Harry. "She switched, as in she packed her stuff, placed her suitcases in my dormitory and spent every night from that point with me."

"And no one tried bringing her back to the Gryffondor tower?" Hermione inquired.

"She had spent most of her fifth and sixth grade in the Slytherin common room anyways…" Snape pointed out.

"Yeah, but that's… a huge revolution. I thought she ment she had switched, mentally. Not... actually changed Houses!"

Harry wondered how Hermione knew about this switch, but suddenly he remembered his DADA teachers mentioning it, the day before. Something about Slytherin making her turn sour.

Hermione continued. "Has a student ever challenged the Sorting Hat's decision that way, except her?"

"No," the teacher simply stated, seeming immensely proud of his girlfriend's gesture.

"But then how did she get away with it?!" Hermione exclaimed.

Snape chuckled, but Harry saw darkness still filled his eyes. "Thalia was raped by a school student, and the school board didn't even bother expelling the student in question. Do you really think any teacher could then be bold enough to stop her from doing anything she wanted?"

"But… her classes?"

"She followed us the entire time."

"And her robes?"

"She wore mine."

Harry fell silent as the others kept arguing. Thalia's idea was, indeed, a form of revolution. Crossing the line. Creating a new system to fit her way of life and her opinions. None of his friends had ever tried doing so, and none would, he knew it. As opposite to Thalia's, their world was either white or black. The line was clear between what was good and what was evil. The only spot of gray breaking the perfect symmetry of that painting had been Snape. On the other hand, Thalia's world was covered in different shades of gray, and she kept forcing her way through the line… that couldn't be straight seeing the number of times she had bent it for a reason or another. Harry focused his attention on Snape, who had just finished arguing with the twins, and was now entering a civilized conversation with Hermione. He could see only be sight they were still talked about Thalia. Apparently, Hermione hadn't gotten over the fact that Thalia's disrespect of rules. "And the tables?" she hammered, convinced of the weight of her argument. "She sat with us Slytherins!" Snape simply answered. The girl remained silent, and only spoke a moment later, when she had found another proof Thalia's switch couldn't be final. "And in the school records? On her NEWTS, in the school yearbook?"

Snape laughed slightly. "Smart kid. In these strange cases, she is considered as being in both houses."

That was too much to bare for Hermione. "Two?! She can't possibly in two houses! That's nonesense! What idiotic teacher would write such a thing?"

"I thought you would know this task does not require the assistance of a teacher…"

Hermione sighed. "I know, I'm aware that it's a magical system that determines that part… But don't teachers check the papers that are produced?"

"Of course they do. But they can't modify it, since they never need to. The system simply writes what is… true. And it is true that Thalia was in two houses."

Hermione's jaw dropped. It was the first time she had lost such an argument to, well, anyone. She mumble a low "But that's impossible…", only Harry could guess she had resigned. At that moment, they all heard the portrait of the Fat Lady slide sideways, and the low but definite sound of footsteps echoing inside the small passage leading to the common room. Snape faced Hermione. "I guess she'll explain better," he started. Only, as he turned to great Thalia, she simply stormed by, until she finally reached the girl's bathroom. Under the potion's master's wide eyes, she entered the small room, and shut the door behind her. Very few students had noticed her, and the few weren't aware of where she had come from. They didn't know who she had met, nor did they understand that this meeting could cause her to enter a certain state of shock. Harry knew, on the other hand, and could not help but wonder. He longed to know, it was that simple. He turned to face Snape, but all he could read on his features was painful sympathy. The sound of water hitting ceramic filled the boy's ear. The shower was on. Snape got to his feet, and Fred suddenly interposed himself. "You can't go…"

"Why not?" the teacher replied, impatient.

"Can't you hear the shower?"

Snape sighed deeply. "It would be Thalia's genre of turning the shower on to have an excuse to stay in the bathroom for a few minutes."

"And if she actually is taking a shower?"

This time, Snape's sigh was covered by a small, silent laughter. "She's been in my bed for fifteen years. Really think she'll mind?"

On that he left the small group and walked to the girl's bathroom. "That was a little rough," Fred pointed out in a whisper.

"Probably some form of revenge for your comments," Harry replied.

"Yeah, I guess it's the only thing he can rub in…" Fred replied as he stared at the teacher's back. Within seconds he was gone.