AN: Back from vacation! Now let's see if we can get this thing solved. :)

Snape found that Tolga Safer was instrumental in helping him navigate the culture of Durmstrang. But it was also clear that he understood the relationship between Mir and Viktor to be the same as the families had wanted everyone to think – that they were rivals, and that Mir was his minder. Snape noted that theme has he interviewed many of the Durmstrang students. He hesitated to interview Krum, knowing that he would want to have as much information as possible before then.

"It is late," Tolga told him. "Would you like to try and talk to Krum tonight?"

"Not tonight," Snape told him. "But perhaps first thing in the morning. Thank you, Mr. Safer. You have been most helpful today."

"It is my pleasure," Tolga answered, and then hesitated. "I know that you are reaching your own conclusions, professor, but I don't think that the Headmaster would harm Viktor."

"I'm inclined to agree with you," Snape nodded. "Thank you for your assistance this evening. I have a few potions to check on and then I want to review the content of the interviews with our headmaster at our weekly tea."

"Pleasant evening," Tolga nodded. "I shall arrange a meeting with Krum for the morning."

Snape walked to his meeting with Dumbledore with his usual efficiency, but he had to admit that he was feeling stumped. The obvious culprit, Durmstrang's headmaster and former death eater, wasn't looking very guilty at the moment. Perhaps Krum, but after meeting with the parents he found that less and less likely. Could it be someone else? Who would want to hurt a young man like Mir? Was this an inner-school rivalry that he would have very little hope of uncovering?

"Welcome, Severus," Dumbledore smiled sadly when he entered. "I was hoping you would still be able to make our tea despite your other obligations."

"I am in need of a fresh mind on the matter," Snape admitted. "I have a list of suspects, but very little motive or opportunity."

"You seem quite determined," Dumbledore smiled wickedly. "Is it really that important for you to be able to punish the golden trio for previous actions?"

"They deserve it," Snape smirked.

"Even you would have to admit it's a bit of a grudge."

"Miss Granger offered it," Snape admitted. "I just took the opportunity. And you know how I feel about those children getting away with murder since they got here."

"And now you're clearing Harry of murder."

"Perhaps," Snape nodded. "Although it is clear that he didn't do it."

"I am surprised the level to which you are working on this without my request," Dumbledore smiled.

"You would have asked me had I not," Snape told him clearly, bristling a bit at the humor Dumbledore wad finding in the situation. "Let's not pretend that you wouldn't have. And this way I get to bend the three over my desk and make them regret their thievery."

"You can certainly hold a grudge," Dumbledore laughed. "But as it was Miss Granger that made you the offer, I will not interfere. Would you like tea, Severus?"

"Of course," Snape nodded. "Perhaps it will keep my mind sharp."

"So who are your suspects?" Dumbledore asked him.

"Obviously Karkaroff," Snape nodded. "He wouldn't hesitate if he felt he had reason to kill. But I just can't seem to believe it of him."

"Krum?" Dumbledore asked.

"After talking to his family and realizing that Mir was more of a body guard and blood brother than a minder, I don't think it's him either," Snape admitted. "I have yet to interview the teenager, but I'm already skeptical."

"Then the motive is yet unknown," Dumbledore mused.

"I am wondering if it is an inner-school rivalry that we are not privy to," Snape observed tiredly. "I just don't see how it would advantage anybody else."

Just then a house elf popped in with a tray of hot water. Snape watched as he ceremoniously added tea out of a silver tin, and it puzzled Snape. Usually they just drank tea from the kitchens.

"Throwing Krum off his game seems to be an obvious one," Snape observed. "However it seems a bit extreme to kill his friend when something else less deadly would work as well. A well aimed curse seems more efficient and effective."

"Durmstrang will want to blame Hogwarts," Dumbledore nodded, pouring out the tea and then doctoring his with five cubes of sugar and some milk.

Snape took his cup, adding simply a small sliver of lemon to his tea, set it down in front of him. It was almost unconscious the rules he followed whenever he ate with people – he didn't even think about the fact that he was waiting for Dumbledore to drink first.

"I say, this tea you sent me earlier today tastes odd," Dumbledore told him. "Where did you say you bought it?"

"I didn't send you any tea," Snape told him, eyes narrowing. Without conscious thought, he took his cup and sloshed it a bit, grimacing at the slight luminescent color around the edges of his cup.

Snape looked at the headmaster, his defenses slamming up. Was the headmaster trying to poison him? Had he outlasted his usefulness to the man? He hesitated for a moment just with the intensity of that question, surprised at the pain that accompanied it. He knew that every time he reported to the Dark Lord it could be his last, but the thought only conjured feelings of desire to protect himself, not pain and betrayal. But that was his first thought with the headmaster, and it struck him deeply.

Then, catching the headmaster's eyes, he realized that he had not been betrayed. The look on Dumbledore's face wasn't knowing and shrewd, but rather confused. This had been an attack by an outside party.

"The note said it was from you," Dumbledore told him. "Have I been poisoned?"

"Drink this," Snape told him, producing a potion he always carried with him. "And hold this bezoar in your mouth. I will call Poppy."

Minutes later, Dumbledore found himself in the infirmary being worked upon by both Poppy and Severus.

"Are you sure it's the same poison?" Poppy asked.

"Yes," Snape answered her. "But the potion loses potency this far in after it has been opened, so if it's the same bottle it shouldn't be fatal."

"Could it still harm him?" she asked.

"Of course," Snape snapped at her. "Do you have any antidote number seven? The one I brought you yesterday?"

"Right here," she told him, giving him the vial.

"Drink this, headmaster," Snape told him, holding it to his lips. "Poppy will spell a bezoar into your stomach as well."

Dumbledore obeyed, gasping for his breath around the nasty taste of the potion. "My eyes!" he cried out. "I can't see!"

"You will be able to soon," Snape told him with more certainty than he felt. "It's temporary. Stay calm, headmaster, between Poppy and I we will cure you."

Dumbledore closed his eyes and laid back, concentrating on focusing his considerable magic on conquering the poison singing through his system. He found the bezoar in his stomach as well as the one in his mouth, and he amplified the healing properties. But to do this he had to not focus on his eyesight. He gripped his wand, using it to focus his magic.

"He's improving," Poppy told Snape. "He's going to survive."

Snape nodded, not wanting to believe it yet, and monitored his heartbeat. "Can you see now, headmaster?" he asked quietly, his voice neutral.

Dumbledore opened his eyes, blinking. "Still blurry, but much better," Dumbledore told him. "Was it the moonseed poison?"

"Yes," Snape answered. "And the person who used it didn't know that it loses potency so quickly."

"Perhaps we shouldn't let them know or they might find alternate poisons," Dumbledore told him.

"Perhaps you should be in a coma for a spell?" Snape asked him.

"I have been getting on you about having a rest cure," Poppy told him.

"Fine, send me away," Dumbledore told him. "I trust Minerva in this, she can be the headmaster for a time. But Severus, why would I be the next target?"

"I'm not sure that you were," Snape told him. "Perhaps the person was aiming at me."

"Everyone knows that you have tea with me at that time," Dumbledore acknowledged. "It would have been easy indeed to send me the tea just before in hopes that I would use it during our time to thank you for the gift."

"Forgive me, Headmaster," Snape tilted his head down. "I saw you making tea differently, but didn't say anything. If I had, you may not have been poisoned."

"You take too much on yourself," Dumbledore told him. "This wasn't your fault."

"It was my fault in my first thought," Snape continued. "My first thought after I realized that it was poisoned was that you had intended to poison me."

"Severus, my boy," Dumbledore sighed, patting the gaunt man on his black-clad shoulder. "I am not surprised. You have been expecting me to betray you all along."

"Forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive," Dumbledore told him. "But trust is a choice, my boy; not a reaction. Your first reaction may have been to suspect I would hurt you, but you quickly chose to save me, showing your trust. That's what means more."

"It is hard sometimes to believe that you won't harm me," Snape admitted to himself. "You are the only one I have known that wouldn't."

"I am the first, not the only," Dumbledore corrected gently. "And I trust you too. Thank you for saving me."

"Poppy could have saved you by herself," Snape told him, uncomfortable with praise.

"Using the potions you brewed," Dumbledore chuckled. "I guess I am lucky that our poisoner is no potions master and didn't know it wouldn't kill me."

"It still could have, it just isn't as sure," Snape answered. "Where will you convalesce?"

"I have use of a cottage by the sea that I usually frequent in the summers," Dumbledore told him. "I shall borrow a house elf and have Poppy check on me, but I should be comfortable there."

"I will tell people you are in a dangerous coma," Snape agreed. "Poppy, you understand why this is important, right?"

"Of course, Professor," she answered primly. "I am not in the position I am in to not understand discretion."

"I will make the announcement at breakfast," Snape nodded. "Should I warn anybody that it is not as grievous as it seems?"

"Everyone should be observed for their reactions," Dumbledore shrewdly told Snape. "But you may tell Harry if he should press you."

"As you wish," Snape nodded, seeing the logic. It was important for Harry to have a normal reaction, but Dumbledore didn't want to worry him unduly.