Author's Note: Sorry it took so long guys. I've had a lot going on. I've been under a lot of stress and have a wretched stomach ulcer. I was given a day off work and school by a doctor. How awesome is that? I was basically prescribed to come home and write fanfiction! :-D I won't keep you waiting, here's the next chapter! And thanks for all the Reviews!

~LittleReporterGirl

Snape's POV

I wasn't entirely sure how I had managed to let myself get caught up in accompanying three girls to Diagon Alley, but I hated myself for it. Any of them alone was okay, but together they were giggly and annoying. Plus Olivia always seemed cockier when her friends were around. As if that weren't bad enough, I found it strangely attractive.

Albus had laughed at me when I told him I was going to take all three of them to Diagon Alley.

"That's very uncharacteristic of you, Severus," he said, smiling, "…Though perhaps not. You are doing it as a nice thing for Olivia, aren't you?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "…I s'pose," I muttered, "Then I couldn't very well let her go and not let their third friend go, the Daae girl."

Albus chuckled.

"What?" I asked moodily.

"Just picturing you skulking down Diagon Alley with three teenage girls following you."

"Hmph. I'm leaving them as soon as we get there. I'll go to the Leaky Cauldron or something and let them do their own shopping."

"Of course you will," he said lightly.

Saturday morning as I was walking up to breakfast, I noticed the door to the Potions classroom was ajar and the light was on. I tensed at first, thinking it was Moody or a student breaking in. Then I relaxed - I knew who it was more likely to be.

I entered the classroom and saw the door to the supply cupboard was open and Olivia was standing there - she had a notebook in one hand, a pencil tucked behind her ear, and was rifling through a box with her other hand, counting. I found myself thinking she looked rather cute and I caught myself almost smiling.

"What are you doing, Olivia?" I asked, leaning against the door frame. She glanced over her shoulder at me, startled.

"What? Oh, it's you. I'm counting these griffin claws."

"Why?"

"I figured if we were going to be taking a trip to Diagon Alley we'd end up going to the Apothecary and we may as well stock up, right?"

I caught myself starting to smile again but stopped myself.

"Well…I didn't ask you to," I said, walking over to the store cupboard.

"Whatever," she said coolly and handed me the notebook where she had been taking stock. She started for the door.

"Wait," I said to her, "…Why don't I take stock and you can write it down?"

She smiled slightly and nodded her head. She came and took the notebook back from me and sat down while I picked up where she left off.

My mind wandered during the task of taking stock and I kept having to recount. I kept stealing glances at her. She was gazing off into nothingness with a dreamy look on her face. Her long red hair was in a ponytail. She was wearing Muggle-jeans, a green cashmere sweater, and boots. I felt compelled to say something to her.

"…You really are a good apprentice," I said without really thinking. Se looked at me and smiled. I quickly turned back to the supply cabinet.

"Thanks," she said.

I didn't trust myself to say anything else.

When we finished taking stock of ingredients, Olivia and I went up to the Great Hall together. Most everyone was already there and eating breakfast, including Dumbledore who saw us come in together and smiled at us. Olivia waved back cheerfully.

"I'll meet you and your friends in my office in two hours," I said before we parted ways.

"Okay Severus," she said.

I ate breakfast without speaking to anyone, then returned to my office to await the girls. When they arrived I was already ready to go, standing by the fireplace with a pouch of Floo Powder. All three were dressed in Muggle clothes but had on Slytherin scarves and gloves. Olivia was wearing the cloak that I had given to her. She saw me looking at it and smiled secretively. I smirked slightly.

"I'm assuming you are all ready to go?" I asked the girls. They all nodded.

"Olivia," I said, holding the pouch out to her. She took a handful of glittering green powder, tossed it into the fire, then stepped into the emerald flames.

"Diagon Alley," she said clearly. I handed the bag to Daae next, then to the Butler girl. I went last, stepping into the warmth of the flames.

When I stepped out of the fireplace into the Leaky Cauldron, all three girls were crowded around the fireplace, waiting for me. I wiped my feet on the rug and looked down into their expectant faces.

"You three go do whatever shopping you have to do. Butler, you have your supply list? Very well. I will be here if you need me."

To my surprise, all three of them looked disappointed.

"You can't leave us S- Professor," Olivia said. "We're girls. We could get like, attacked or…something."

"We could get raped," added Butler.

I couldn't help but think of what had happened at the World Cup and felt my face pale. Olivia noticed and guessed what I was thinking about.

"Bad things happen when you leave me alone," she said with a face I knew I couldn't say no to.

"Fine," I muttered, "Let's get this over with."

They all three grinned and I led the way out of the pub, to Diagon Alley.

I followed the girls around to different shops. I tried to lag behind but Olivia kept doubling back to engage me in conversation and walk alongside me. She was doing it to be nice, but I rather wished she would just leave me alone.

I waited outside while the three of them went inside Madam Malkin's to get Butler a set of Hogwarts robes. After a minute, Olivia came back out and sat beside me on the bench.

"You're not having fun, are you?" she asked.

I merely shrugged indifferently.

"You don't have to stay with us if you don't want to. You can go back to the Leaky Cauldron, I guess."

"I'll stay…if you want me to."

She said nothing but looked at me and sort of smiled before looking away again.

Her friends came out of the shop a moment later, both carrying bags.

"There you two are. Come Olivia- all that's left is Potions ingredients," said Butler.

"The Apothecary!" she said excitedly, standing up, "Let's go!"

Smiling slightly I stood and followed the three of them - Olivia was practically skipping - to the Apothecary. Once we got there, she and I were like-minded, going around to every box, barrel, jar or vial, discussing such things as did we really need that many porcupine quills and whether or not Sprout had this or that herb growing in the greenhouses. Eventually, her friends got bored and said they were going to the shop next door. I glanced down at Olivia who was standing beside me. She nodded absently to the girls and waved them on, more concerned with picking the best Jobberknoll feathers from a box on a shelf.

I allowed myself to smile a little half-smile as the girls left, then I began to accumulate the ingredients we needed that I knew grossed Olivia out, like rat tails and other animal parts.

After we were satisfied- which took a good hour or more- we left the Apothecary. Daae and Butler were sitting on a bench outside of a candy shop, eating chocolates and talking.

"You guys ready?" Olivia asked them.

"Are we ready? You're the ones that spent hours looking at Potions ingredients," said Butler.

"It's a delicate selection process," Olivia defended, "You have to pick the best ingredients. And it was only an hour."

"You're obsessed- both of you," Butler declared.

Olivia and I exchanged glances and I looked away again quickly. I was reminded of a time, a long time ago, when one of Lily's girlfriends had said the same thing to us. We had been in our second year of school and had spent weeks of our free time experimenting with Amortentia - and we'd had a good laugh slipping it into various teacher's tea and watching the outcome.

I said nothing but started down the street towards the Leaky Cauldron. The girls eventually fell in line behind me, talking amongst themselves about chocolate and how the assistant at Flourish and Blott's had been flirting with Butler and whether or not some guy at the sweetshop had been giving Daae "the look" …whatever that meant.

It was enough to give anyone an eye twitch and I was glad when we were all back at Hogwarts. Olivia waved her friends off and she and I went to the Potions classroom to re-stock the supply cupboard.

Olivia's POV

The date of the first task of the Triwizard Tournament approached faster than I would have thought. The Saturday before the task students were allowed to visit Hogsmeade. I was actually planning on going, since Brandi hadn't been to the village yet, but as we sat at breakfast on Saturday morning, a tiny owl alighted on the table before me with a note in his beak.

"Aw, he's so adorable," I gushed, touching the soft feathers of the owl who was so impossibly tiny he had to be a baby. I took the note and unfolded it, still stroking the little owl.

Olivia,

If you are not going to Hogsmeade, meet me down by the lake at noon. I have something to show you. It will definitely be worth it. Wear your Disillusionment Charm.

He hadn't signed it but the handwriting was definitely Snape's. I folded the note and shoved it in my pocket before looking up at the staff table to see him looking at me. I nodded my head and smiled. He looked away quickly.

"Looks like I won't be going to Hogsmeade," I said to my friends, still smiling.

"What, why not?" Alexandria asked, looking up from her breakfast.

"Snape wants me."

"Ooh la la!" Brandi said, grinning mischievously.

"Not like that," I said, smiling, "He has something to show me."

"I wonder what it is," Alexandria said, glancing up towards the staff table.

"Probably something to do with Potions," Brandi said dismissively.

"Boring," Alex said.

"Oh whatever. It could be something important. Something secret," I said.

"Right," Brandi said, rolling her eyes.

When we finished eating breakfast, the three of us went down to the Common Room. We worked on our Herbology essays, then I followed them down to the Entrance Hall where everyone was lining up to go to Hogsmeade. I waved goodbye somewhat reluctantly to my friends as they left. Still, I knew whatever Snape had planned would be far more interesting than the village. I wished he would have waited until a different weekend though. The one time I actually wanted to go to Hogsmeade he had something to show me.

I mulled around until almost noon, then cast my Disillusionment charm and left the castle, invisible. It was rather cold outside and there were hardly any people out on the grounds. The sky was overcast and cloudy.

I made my way down to the lake, only to find Snape was not there yet. I ended up waiting almost 20 minutes and was sitting on the ground, my back against a tree, when he finally came walking down from the castle.

"What took you? You said noon. You are usually very precise."

"Filch detained me. He wanted to talk about something."

"Oh. Lame. So, what is it you're going to show me?"

He smiled ever so briefly, then turned towards the forest.

"Follow me," he said, "And remain invisible."

"Okay."

I followed him towards the Forbidden Forest curiously.

We walked in silence along the perimeter of the forest for quite a while, until the castle was out of sight.

"You cannot tell anyone," he said warningly.

"I won't," I promised.

"Not even your little girlfriends."

"I won't tell them anything you don't want me to."

Suddenly, a large wooden fence appeared in our path. It was an enclosure…and inside the enclosure were four, enormous, sleeping dragons.

There were about twenty wizards outside of the fence, most of them peering in an the dragons. A few more wizards were inside, checking on the sleeping dragons.

"Why are they all asleep?" I whispered to Snape.

"They gave them a Sleeping Draught for the trip. They'll keep them asleep until nighttime."

I studied the dragons in silent awe. One had beautiful silvery-blue scales and gleaming white horns. There was a smooth-scaled green one, the least vicious-looking of the four. Another was red with an odd fringe of gold spikes around its face. The fourth was the largest of them by far and had a tail that was covered with large bronze spikes. Thick gray clouds of smoke were coming from its nose as it slept.

"They're amazing," I said breathlessly to Snape, "Can't I get closer?"

"No. I don't want to risk you getting caught. I brought you because I thought you would like to see them."

"Thank you. I may never get to see a dragon again."

"Well you will get to see these ones again soon- they're part of the Triwizard Tournament."

"The first task?"

He nodded silently.

"I hope they don't expect them to kill them."

"No, of course not. They just have to get past them. They brought female dragons-nesting mothers. All the champions must retrieve a clue from one of their nests."

"…That's not very fair to the dragons," I pointed out, "No wonder wizards can't train dragons. No respect for them at all."

He looked at me queerly.

"It's taking advantage of nature- motherly instinct. It's a powerful, dangerous thing. One of those kids is probably going to end up dead."

"Well…you're probably right about that," he said softly, gazing at the sleeping beasts.

We stood there in silence a moment.

"Can't I come back and see them when they are awake?"

"No. They are dangerous. And they are probably going to be …particularly unhappy. They were transferred here from Romania."

"How did they get them here?"

"A team of about 0 trained wizards on brooms, levitating them."

I frowned but said nothing. I felt rather bad for the dragons. They were wild, spirited creatures and they were brought here, why? For entertainment purposes. Snape was looking at me and seemed to read my thoughts.

"You better not sneak back out here tonight and try and free them," he said dryly.

"I'm not an idiot, Severus. I know better," I said indignantly, "Someone would get killed if I did that."

"Yeah- you."

He turned and started walking back up towards the castle. I took one last look at the dragons, then followed him.

"So…I'm not guaranteeing I won't sneak back out here tonight - to look," I said slowly, "I'll stay a distance away. I won't get too close."

"Of course you will," he scoffed, "…Meet me in the Entrance Hall tonight at ten o'clock."

"Huh?"

"I'm going with you to make sure you don't do anything stupid."

"I don't need you to baby-sit me."

"Of course you don't."

"You just don't want me to get hurt. You're worried about me," I said with a grin.

He exhaled slowly through his nose.

"Do you want to see the dragons again or not?"

"I do want to."

"Then we aren't talking about this anymore."

"Touchy," I said, still grinning.

We walked back to the castle in silence and once we got close, I removed my Disillusionment charm.

"Do you think Potter will be able to get past his dragon?" I asked him.

"Shh. Not so loud."

"My bad."

"I don't want to think about it."

"He could die."

He was silent a moment and seemed to pale.

"…Dumbledore won't let that happen," he said finally.

"Oh that's right. He won't let anything bad happen to his little boy toy."

"This conversation is over," Snape said and quickened his pace.

"Fine. …I'm going to Hogsmeade," I retorted, reapplying my Disillusionment Charm.

"Fine. But you'd better not get caught because I am not going to bail you out."

"I don't get caught," I snorted.

"Right," he said doubtfully, "I'll see you tonight."

Snape's POV

I watched the prints Olivia's invisible feet made on the ground as she walked to the gate. I hesitated, glancing up at the castle. I should go inside. Grade papers. Talk to Albus. …Instead, I applied a Disillusionment Charm of my own and followed her down the path to Hogsmeade.

I kept my mind linked with hers so it was easy for me to follow her. Despite her Occlumency training, she did not detect my presence.

When we reached the village of Hogsmeade, Olivia slipped behind a building and removed her Disillusionment Charm, She then walked around to the various shops, peering inside. No doubt looking for her friends. She found them at last inside of Honeydukes, which was crowded. I stayed outside so I would not be trodden upon.

I should go now, I realized. I saw her safely to the village which I had told myself was the reason I followed her. Yet for some reason I felt compelled to stay and when Olivia and her friends left the sweetshop, I followed them.

"What did Snape have to show you?" asked Butler casually, blowing a large bubble with a piece of Drooble's gum. I hurried to catch up with them so I could hear them better, eager to know what her response would be.

"I can't tell you. I'm sworn to secrecy," Olivia replied with a mischievous grin.

"Oh come on, Liv. I bet it was just some stupid Potions thing, wasn't it?" Butler demanded.

A ripple of annoyance passed through me. Olivia glared at her.

"Potions is not stupid," she said heatedly.

"You know that's not what I meant, Liv."

"It was nothing to do with Potions…it had something to do with the Triwizard Tournament, but I can't tell you anything more than that."

"But you have to tell us now!" Butler said.

"Yeah…please" added Daae.

"I can't."

Her friends badgered her about it continuously but she remained steadfast and loyal to me in her promise not to tell anyone. I couldn't help but smile- not bothering to hide it, as I was invisible- and I turned and began to make my way back up to the castle.

I didn't see Olivia again until dinner that night. She was sitting with her friends at the Slytherin table. A quick glimpse into her mind let me know that she remained faithful to her promise and had not told her friends about the dragons. She turned her head suddenly and looked up at me.

Did you really think I would? she asked in her mind, sounding somewhat hurt.

No, of course not, I responded, …you sensed my presence?

Of course.

But usually you don't. I'm quite skilled at veiling my presence, I replied, frowning.

Just how often do you infiltrate my mind? she asked.

Only when I want to know something important. How did you know I was here?

The strong emotions you felt…the pride at discovering my loyalty.

I scowled at her and broke the link between our minds. I focused my attention on the food in front of me and did not look at her again until she was leaving the Great Hall. I couldn't help but note that she did not walk with her French friend, only with the Daae girl. I glanced back at the Slytherin Table where the Butler girl sat with Draco Malfoy and a few others. She was talking to Draco but her body language told me she was unhappy. I wondered vaguely if it had something to do with Olivia and made a mental note to ask her about it when I saw her later that night.

When I left my office at ten o'clock that night, I made my way up to the Great Hall, expecting Olivia to already be there. I cast around for any sign of her presence, physical or mental, but found none. I frowned and decided to wait for her. I paced the Entrance Hall for several minutes, then…

"You really don't know I'm here, do you?" said an amused voice, apparently out of thin air.

"Olivia?" I said, frowning, "…Where are you?"

"I'm standing by the door- I was veiling my mind."

"I am impressed. Your Occlumency is good."

"Only when I try really hard."

"It takes practice…are you ready to go?"

"Yes."

She followed me silently out of the castle. The moon was full and the grounds were illuminated as we walked across them. Olivia was no longer veiling her thoughts and though I could not see her, I knew she was looking up at the moon as we walked, thinking about Lupin, wondering where he was and hoping he was somewhere safe for his transformation.

I scoffed quietly and quickened my pace.

"What?" Olivia asked defensively.

"Nothing," I muttered and we continued on in silence for a moment.

"…I couldn't help but notice you weren't with Butler after dinner and she looked particularly unhappy," I said finally.

"She's being a bitch because I won't tell her what you showed me."

"Don't swear, Olivia."

As we approached the enclosure where the dragons were kept, I spotted two large figures talking towards us. I quickly stepped within the shadows of the trees. Olivia did the same, not that it would have mattered with her Disillusionment Charm on. As they passed, we saw it was Hagrid and Madame Maxime, holding hands.

"ew," Olivia whispered to me. I smiled a wry smile. Once they had passed by, we continued on our way.

"Is that Hagrid's idea of a date?" Olivia said.

"He should not have been showing her the dragons. She is sure to tell her champion," I said, frowning.

"I hear someone coming," Olivia whispered.

We ducked back into the shadows again. This time it was Karkaroff, walking alone and mumbling to himself.

"Apparently everyone will know about the dragons," said Olivia once he had passed by, "There's no doubt he'll tell Krum. He loves Krum. …I wonder if anyone has told Potter yet?"

As we got close we could see spouts of fire and hear people yelling. The dragons were certainly awake now…and they were far from happy.

Olivia's POV

The dragons were furious. I didn't blame them and part of me wanted to stop the wizards who were shooting Stunning Spells at them. My blood boiled as I stood there. they were the ones who had brought the dragons here, now they were hurting them.

Snape put a hand on my shoulder, as if he meant to comfort me, then quickly removed it. Neither of us spoke for a while, then I turned and started back towards the castle. He followed.

We weren't even out of earshot of the dragons when out of the trees stepped Albus Dumbledore. Snape and I both froze. There was no doubt in my mind that Dumbledore knew I was there, despite my Disillusionment Charm. In fact, his piercing blue eyes were focused directly on me. I couldn't tell if he was angry or not.

"You've seen the dragons, Miss Cain?" said the headmaster. Snape looked immensely guilty. He was staring at the ground, not looking at Dumbledore at all.

"Yes sir," I said quietly.

"What did you think of them?" Dumbledore asked.

"They are magnificent…but they're furious and rightfully so."

"Olivia," Snape said warningly.

"What makes you say that?" Dumbledore asked me.

"You took them away from their nests. Displaced hem. For entertainment purposes."

"It is a traditional task for the Triwizard Tournament. None of the dragons will be harmed."

"There are forty wizards shooting stunners at them," I said indignantly.

"They are not too harmful to the dragons. They have very thick armor. However, I think perhaps they should be given a Sleeping Draught until the first task. …Perhaps you two can handle that?" he said, looking now at Severus who finally looked up and nodded.

"We'll get to work on that immediately," Snape said quickly.

Dumbledore nodded and started down the path towards the dragons. Snape glanced at me, shrugged, and continued towards the castle.

"You're quite lucky he likes you," he said to me.

"I can't believe he didn't say anything… and we get to give Sleeping Draught to a dragon."

"We are not giving Sleeping Draught to the dragons. We are only brewing a potion to give to those people," he said, "The trained dragonologists."

"Oh," I said, somewhat disappointed.

"…But perhaps they will let us stay and watch," he said after a moment. I smiled and quickened my pace.

Back in the dungeons, Snape and I went to the Potions classroom. I went to the store cupboard to gather ingredients for a Sleeping Draught while he set up the cauldron.

"We need triple the ingredients," he said as lit the fire beneath a large cauldron, "We have to make three times as much as one normally would."

I nodded my head and resumed my task.

It was almost one o'clock in the morning when we finished the Sleeping Draught and headed back outside. I started to reapply my Disillusionment Charm as we left the dungeon, but Snape stopped me.

"We have the headmaster's permission to be out after hours," he said to me.

"Cool," I said with a grin.

We levitated the cauldron between us as we made our way back out to the dragon enclosure. The dragons were still pissed off but they seemed to have used up their fire…for the time being. They were still growling low in their throats and they lashed out at anyone who came too close.

Several of the wizards now standing outside the enclosure had deep gashes and/or burns. Some of the wizards now had broomsticks and were waiting outside of the enclosure. They saw us approaching and one of the wizards waved us over. The wizard who waved us over was a stocky boy with long red hair. He was extremely freckly and smiled broadly at us. He looked to be only a few years older than me.

"Hello Professor Snape. Dumbledore said you would be bringing a Sleeping Draught for us," he said, though he was looking at me in a curious, but friendly sort of way, "…It's kind of late for a student to be out, isn't it?"

"I have the headmaster's permission," I flared.

Snape shot me a look.

"She is my apprentice. Olivia, this is Charlie Weasley. Charlie, Olivia Cain."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Cain," Charlie said, still grinning, "You like dragons?"

"I like all animals. Including dragons," I said somewhat frostily.

I didn't like him, because of what he was. Not because he was a Weasley or a Gryffindor (which he so obviously was), but because he was a dragonologist. A dragon handler. I hated that term and everything it implied. I hated what they were doing to these magnificent creatures.

"Stick around," Charlie said, "I might let you go into the pen."

"Is that safe?" Snape asked, unable to help sounding anxious.

Charlie smiled, amused, and Snape scowled.

"It will be fine once they are asleep," Charlie assured him.

Three wizards took charge of the cauldron of Sleeping Potion. They divided it amongst themselves, then nine wizards, including Charlie, ascended into the air. I watched rather interestedly as six of them flew right in front of the dragon, catching their attention, while the other three flew dangerously close to the dragon's mouths and tossed the potion in. Charlie was one of the three giving the potion to the dragons. The dragon he had to give the potion to was the biggest one that had the huge bronze spikes on it's tail. This dragon watched the two wizards meant to be a distraction, but when Charlie started towards her, she whipped her tail around so fast I almost didn't see it. Charlie dodged it quickly and skillfully, flew around back of her, and finally dumped the potion into the dragon's mouth. He had to dodge once again as she whipped at him with her tail. He shot forward and landed artfully right in front of me.

"You're a good flyer," I had to admit.

"Thanks," he said, blushing slightly.

He glanced back over the fence as several wizards went around to each of the dragons, making sure they were full asleep. The wizards all gave a thumbs up and another group of wizards started to go around to the dragons and check their vitals, which I found very interesting.

"Would you like to see them now, Olivia?" Charlie asked me and I nodded eagerly, "…If that's alright with you, Professor Snape?"

"Fine," he said coolly.

Charlie led me into the enclosure. Snape hesitated at first and I wasn't sure he was going to come near the dragons, but in the end he followed us into the enclosure, no doubt wanting to look out for me.