A/N: Snape POV

Severus watched the exchange between Nymphadora and Remus as he kept his eyes and wand trained on the werewolf. He knew that the rest of the eyes of the Order were on them, and had to calculate his next move carefully.

Perhaps Lupin had a point; almost everything I do is calculated. The one thing that I had never planned on was Nymphadora approaching me.

Lowering his wand, Severus realized that this latest outburst hadn't called others to demand that the turncoat Death Eater lower his wand. Perhaps they are beginning to understand me. Shame I'll have to destroy all of this goodwill in a few months.

"I'll have you know that Nymphadora approached me, Lupin." Severus backed away from Lupin, careful to keep facing him as he made his way through the crowd.

Lupin's face was almost snarling with rage, and Severus could have sworn that he had gotten hairier. "Don't you DARE go to her now! I'll find out what you did to her, what potion you dosed her with, to make her even stand the sight of you, Snivellus!"

In Severus' periphery, he could make out the Weasley Matron alongside Mad-Eye. "Molly, may I trouble you with a favor? Kindly see to it that Nymphadora gets back to her room in Hogsmeade... unmolested?"

Gulping in shock, she nodded. "We'll get her home when she wants to go." Alastor said gruffly, his magical eye fixated upon Lupin. His face was calculating, but he had also pulled out his wand surreptitiously. It was nowhere near a full moon, yet it appeared that Lupin might transform into his werewolf form in the middle of the Weasley home.

As the tension seemed to settle for everyone but Lupin, a young voice cracked the silence.

"Professor Snape," Hermione began, "why do you use Tonks' given name when she prefers her last name instead?"

"She gave me leave to, Miss Granger." Severus contemplated the moment. Do I stay for the New Year countdown or leave them in peace?

"She would never do such a thing, Snape." Lupin's voice was gravelly and bestial.

"Her Patronus isn't the only one that has changed, Moony." Severus' face went painfully still and guarded, edging his way to the doorway. Flicking his eyes momentarily around the room, he saw the various members of the Order looking at Lupin disbelievingly.

They probably think that he may have been bang out of order, but do want to check my Nymphadora over for being dosed with some sort of love potion.

As he nodded his goodbye to Molly, Harry and Ronald were clearly on Lupin's side. Hermione and Hagrid, however, seemed to be more willing to consider his own words. Flicking his wand outside, his Patronus exploded just outside of the view of everyone else, carrying a simple message to Tonks:

I will be at my home on Spinners End in Cokeworth.

Turning on his heel, he apparated to the run-down home that he spent his childhood summers in.