A/N. I know they are not really welcome, yet I do need to lose some words over DH. I guess that, after a month, people who read the English translation of this fic, have read the book. Still I will not really use spoilers in my fic, since it's clearly AU now. (Hard to believe I started writing this before book five. Geez am I slow or what?) I will use Information given in the later books as far as possible without changing my fic. There won't be a professor Slughorn, for example, but Toby and Snape being a half-blood or the thing with Liliy will show up in later chapters.

I'd like to thank you all for your continuing support and the nice Reviews. Those flamers… If you don't even have the guts to leave a signed Reviev or at least leave an E-Mail Addy, then I'm sorry, but I can't take you serous.

Those nice ones that I didn't have a Replyadress; THAK YOU!!! You're all great and encouraging and help ignoring those with nothing better to do than to use teir time for flames, instead of serious critic.

I hope I have answered all the reviews I had an addy to, but after almost one year with no Update, I can't be sure anymore. So once more: THANK YOU ALL!!!

Again I think some other Thank you's are in order. First of all to Cecelle, who is so wunderfully translating the story. Go to her profile, she has two wonderful Post-DH fics for all us Snape Fans who need a bit more closure.

And second to SofiaScencia, who is immensely helping this Fic to go on.

Fudge and Changes:

Slowly but surely, the initial euphoria over Voldemort's downfall had faded. The Aurors especially had begun to expertly erect barrier charms around Malfoy and Pettigrew's corpses, and around the small pile of dust that was all that remained of the Dark Lord. A few of the Aurors and Order members had set out to search the house and secure it. The wiry female Auror had sent a few of her people back to the Ministry through the re-established Floo system and was now waiting for Fudge or one of his deputies. The captured Death Eaters lay bound in the library, watched by yet another two of the Aurors.

Even so, an almost absurd grin could still be seen on the faces of most of those present, and again and again someone would give Harry a congratulatory clap on the shoulder. Also, Ron and Hermione were constantly asking him for this or that detail of the battle. Harry, with his thoughts elsewhere and not really paying attention, had answered the questions as shortly and truthfully as he could. Only when the question had come up what Snape had done the whole time, Harry knew that he would have to lie. He would never tell anyone what he had seen today, would never use Snape's weakest moment against him.

"He was knocked unconscious by a curse right at the beginning," he said, still looking around searchingly. The Potions master was the reason he was so distracted. He, and Harry's god-father. The two seemed to have disappeared into thin air, and Harry was slowly beginning to get worried.

"So Snape was put out of commission right at the beginning of the battle," Ron said, in a tone of voice that Harry didn't like at all and that finally redirected his attention to his friend. As he had expected, Ron wasn't quite managing to keep a spiteful grin off his face. Not that he was trying overly hard.

Harry felt a strange mix of shame and anger. Ron didn't have the right to talk about Snape like that, not after what they had done to him with the letter. Even so, he could neither tell the truth, nor could he bring himself to lie to the others and tell them that Snape had thrown himself in the path of a curse on his behalf. The lie wouldn't have hurt him, and in a sense Snape had put himself in harms way for all of them, but even as the words were trying to get past his lips, he heard a voice in his head that sounded remarkably like Snape – "I don't need your blasted Gryffindor sense of honor, Potter. I'm not dependent on your charity."

No matter what Harry told his friends about Snape's role in the final battle, it would go through Hogwarts' rumor mill at the speed of lightning, and Snape would hear about it sooner or later. To show him false 'generosity' would be just another strike against him, and it would just seems to him as if Harry was intentionally rubbing his nose in his failure.

"I'd like to see how you would react if someone waited for youwith a curse behind the barrier at King's Cross," Harry said heatedly. "I'd like to see you try and get away."

His defensive tone of voice finally seemed to get through to Ron that after all that had happened during the last months, Harry wasn't in the least interested in putting down Snape any more. Apparently Ron hadn't intended to do so either, maybe it had just been thoughtlessness or sheer force of habit, since he turned red immediately and lowered his eyes when he got nasty looks from Harry and Hermione both. "Sorry, mates. I didn't mean it."

"Where exactly is Professor Snape?" Hermione asked after a glance around the room, and with that redirected Harry to his previous thoughts.

"No idea. And Sirius seems to have disappeared, too…"

"Remus is over there," said Ron, and pointed to a corner of the room. "Maybe he'll know something?"

Remus sat on a wooden stool, away from all the small groups of people. He looked even more worn out than usual, but still appeared quite happy.

"Hey, Remus," Harry greeted him as he got closer.

The werewolf gave them a friendly smile. "Well, you three?"

Harry pointed to the white bandage and the sling around Lupin's arm. "Is everything all right? I was watching when the curse…"

"Don't worry," Remus cut him short. "It's just a flesh wound. I lost a bit of blood, but I'll be like new again in no time at all. Professor McGonagall got the worst part of the bargain out of all of us, but even she'll be out of St. Mungo's in just a few days, I'm certain."

Harry nodded. Dumbledore had already told him that they had had no fatalities on their side. Harry never would have dreamed of that outcome. And it had only happened because they had combined Muggle technology with Magic. It was borderline ironic that they had been able to so resoundingly defeat the Muggle-hater Voldemort that way.

"We're looking for Sirius and Professor Snape."

"Sirius went off looking for Snape. I suspect all this commotion just got to be a bit much for him," said the werewolf. "I expect they'll be back soon." When he saw the doubtful expression in the teenagers' eyes, his smile widened. "Don't worry. The two spent weeks in the same cottage without ripping each other to bits. They aren't going to start now."

But Harry was worried about Snape. The others couldn't know what had happened here, of course, but he had seen everything, and he knew that Snape's mental condition had to be everything but all right at the moment. He just hoped that Sirius had found him quickly, and that his god-father for once would manage to show a hint of sensitivity towards the Slytherin.

"I'm going after them," he said with determination.

"Why?" asked Ron, and even Hermione looked at him with a wrinkled forehead. "Like Remus said. They won't kill each other."

Harry was trying desperately to come up with a plausible reason. Snape hadn't been injured physically during the battle, and up to now he had never bothered much with thinking about Snape's psychological well-being. Neither had anyone else, he thought bitterly. Why should a nasty, mean, and cold man like Snape have any feelings that went beyond hate and pride, after all?

He was going off on a tangent again, he noticed with displeasure. And he still owed them an answer. To his great relief, his friends' attention was at that moment distracted by a bunch of people pushing into the room.

Fudge, who was heading a small group of Ministry employees, seemed more than upset.

"Reuth! What is all this supposed to mean? Why am I being disrupted in the middle of a meeting by people babbling on and on about You-Know-Who being defeated?"

The Auror took a step out of the corner where she had been talking to Dumbledore.

"How very nice to see you, Cornelius," the headmaster said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Headmaster? What in the name of Merlin are you doing here?"

"What Waters reported is quite correct," Reuth interrupted him, taking a few more steps toward him. "A few of the top people from the Auror Corps along with some others under Dumbledore's leadership planned and executed a strike against You-Know-Who."

"Wh-what? H-how?" stuttered Fudge.

"Voldemort is dead," Dumbledore said gently. "This time for good."

Reuth nodded in confirmation. "Exactly. Like Pettigrew and Malfoy."

Fudge looked truly shaken. "Woman, what are you talking about? Peter Pettigrew's been dead for years, and Malfoy? Don't tell me you involved him in this affair. He hasn't got injured in the attack on his house, has he?"

The Auror just snorted and pointed her arm in the approximate direction where Pettigrew's body lay hidden from view by some of the people standing around. "Until recently, Pettigrew was very much alive and a true Death Eater. And as far as Malfoy is concerned – he got what was coming to him."

She directed the Minister's eyes to Malfoy's corpse by walking towards it. Roughly, she grabbed the dead man's arm and forced up the sleeve. "The Dark Mark, you see?"

Harry had already watched earlier when the Aurors had examined Pettigrew's arm, and had been shaken by the matter-of-fact way in which they were handling the dead bodies, even if they were only Death Eaters. Yet he had noticed that, against everyone's expectations, the Dark Mark had not disappeared from the arms of Voldemort's servants upon his death.

He lowered his eyes, even though the rough treatment of Malfoy's corpse didn't bother him as much as that of Pettigrew's. Yet it had been Pettigrew who had betrayed his parents. Even so, the rat Animagus had been nothing more than a miserable coward, but Malfoy was evil through and through, as Harry had experienced on more than one occasion, but especially today.

He heard Fudge's choking intake of breath, followed by his nearly hysterical voice. "Malfoy has proven that he received his Mark under an Imperius."

"He didn't prove anything," Dumbledore's voice answered, and Harry look back up to watch the confrontation between the two. "There was no other evidence than his own word. Now that Voldemort and Lucius are dead, I am certain that some other Death Eaters – some of whom you will find tied up and under guard in the library – will come forward and confirm that he was a faithful follower of Voldemort."

"And if that's not enough," they heard Shacklebolt's deep voice say, "then a good look around this room will do it. There are several books that border on Dark magic and are illegal. And they are not even hidden. Arrogant Malfoy. If we check the manor for curses and hidden rooms, I am certain we will find plenty of material to condemn him."

"Apart from that, you have the testimony of Severus Snape. He will be an important witness, since he has spied for us for a long time," said Dumbledore, peering intently over the rim of his glasses at the Minister of Magic.

Fudge's face slowly changed from a shocked white to an angry red. "Severus Snape? Did you say Severus Snape? The man is a criminal, and as soon as we get a hold of him, he'll need some people to testify – for himself, whatever may come of that."

"Not exactly true, my dear Cornelius. I said it once, and I'll say it again: Severus Snape is no more a Death Eater than I am. When Severus cast the Unforgivable, he did it on my orders."

Fudge's mouth dropped open, and he stared at Dumbledore aghast. "You ordered him to kill a human being? With an Unforgivable? Do you know what that means?"

Dumbledore didn't appear at all perturbed. "Our plan was to make him gain Voldemort's full confidence, and that was only possible if we outwardly destroyed his ties to the side of light. We needed him close to Voldemort. So we staged a pretend murder. Severus never really did use the Unforgivable back in the Great Hall."

"But then…you also knew that Sirius was at Hogwarts?"

Dumbledore nodded calmly. "Yes, and just like Severus, Sirius is also innocent, as Peter Pettigrew's corpse should adequately prove."

"Pettigrew? Why is everybody talking about Pettigrew?"

At a wave of Dumbledore's hand, the Order members stepped back, creating a gap that afforded the Minister an unobstructed view of Pettigrew's body.

Before the Minister could recover from his obvious, renewed shock, the back door opened, and Snape, followed by Sirius, entered the room. Both came closer, then stopped next to Dumbledore, about two yards away from Fudge.

For a fraction of a second, it was deathly quiet in the room. It seemed to Harry as if it took a long moment until Fudge's brain was able to process what his eyes were seeing. But a second later, Fudge turned a chalky white, shouting, "Aurors! Arrest the two! IMMEDIATELY!"

Then something happened that Harry would have though impossible: Black moved defensively shoulder to shoulder with Snape, and stared at Fudge challengingly. "I always knew that politicians weren't the brightest candles in the chandelier, but for what, exactly, did you want to arrest us?"

Fudge looked around nervously. When he saw that of all those present none were enthusiastic or even willing to protect him from insane, escaped criminals, he attempted to pull himself up to his full height (which significantly fell short of Snape's or Sirius' ) with considerable bluster. It was only when he saw the Aurors looked doubtfully at Pettigrew instead of following his orders that he apparently realized that he had no good reason to arrest the two. Which didn't mean that he intended to give up without a fight. Demonstratively, he turned to Dumbledore, pointing an accusing thumb in Sirius' direction. "Even if he isn't guilty of Pettigrew's murder, we have to at least question him about the murdered Muggles. And Snape, in front of the entire school…"

He shut his mouth abruptly as he realized what he had been about to say.

"I'm feeling pretty good for someone who has been murdered in front of the entire school," Sirius said facetiously.

Fudge's face was slowly assuming the color of an over-ripe plum, as he got angrier and angrier. "But…that doesn't change that he spoke an Unforgivable! Or that you both escaped from prison!"

Now Dumbledore took charge and with two long steps moved in front of Snape and Sirius. "Ever single one of us has spoken an Unforgivable, Cornelius. That isn't at all the same thing as actually casting one. Since Sirius Black was quite obviously not killed by Severus Snape, you have no reason arrest him. And I believe that the presence of Pettigrew's corpse proves Sirius' story, as well."

But Fudge, who saw his hopes rapidly sailing away, still wasn't giving up. "But Snape deceived the Ministry, deceived the law. He'll have to stand trial for that."

Now Dumbledore, who was slowly beginning to lose is calm, took a step towards Fudge, who unconsciously took a step back. "First of all, my dear Cornelius, the only purpose for his deception was to bring down the Darkest, most dangerous wizard of our time. And secondly, you would then have to arrest me as well, as it was I along with Mr. Lupin and Professor McGonagall who had the idea in the first place, both of which have been injured in the selfless fight for the freedom of Wizarding society. As has Professor Snape, who by taking on this mission risked everything. I wonder how much sympathy the voting public would have if you were to proceed with this action against us? And now, with your permission, I would like to take the children back to the school. Should you have other questions for Mr. Black, you will for the near future be able to find him at Hogwarts, where he, and of course Professor Snape, will be in residence until the uproar dies down and the news of their innocence has spread."

Fudge looked like he was about to explode, but he didn't dare contradict Dumbledore. "Very well then. Snape, Black, you are herewith free to go where you please. But you are ordered to hold yourself at the Ministry's disposal for further questioning, and you are required to keep us informed of your whereabouts. The case especially against Mr. Black will not be dropped until an official interrogation, under Veritaserum if need be, has been completed."

In a last attempt to preserve his dignity, he whirled around and strutted from the room, followed by his entourage.

Only when Fudge had disappeared and the silent in the room had continued for a minute did Harry realize what had just happened. He looked at his broadly grinning god-father.

Sirius was free. He wasn't a wanted criminal any more and no longer on the run.

Before Harry could even react, Dumbledore beat him to it and pulled Sirius into a firm embrace.

Sirius laughed. "I AM FREE!"

Dumbledore was grinning like crazy as well and let go of the younger wizard. That was Harry's cue and he jumped forward as well and following suit, for the second time that day wrapping his arms around his god-father, who reciprocated immediately. "Finally no more hiding, Harry."

Harry was so happy he could have cried, and he barely paid attention to the other Order members who now drew closer and proudly clapped Sirius on the shoulders.

But then he felt his god-father stiffen almost unnoticeably. He extricated himself from the embrace and looked up into his face. Apparently no one else seemed to be aware, but Sirius' smile had disappeared, and his eyes hung on Albus Dumbledore, who now stood about a yard away from Snape. The headmaster seemed to fight an inner urge as he gazed at the Potions master, whose face had barely shown any expression at all since he had entered the room. But then he took a step towards Snape and embraced him as well, even more tightly than he had hugged Sirius, and at the same time seemed to whisper something into his ear. Snape flinched visibly and didn't return the embrace, but a moment later he closed his eyes and relaxed again.

When Harry looked back up at Sirius, he found a relieved smile on his face.