On the day of the Hogwarts Express, Dumbledore and FitzSimmons strolled over to Hogsmeade to meet Sirius Black.

They waited until after everyone else had taken the thestral-pulled carriages to the train and the train had started rolling towards London before beginning their own journey, so that no one would question what the pair was doing with the headmaster. But at lunch time, they met Harry Potter's godfather at the Three Broomsticks for lunch. Sirius was waiting for them outside the pub, still looking very much like he had looked on the run for three years, but also like he'd had a few good meals in the week since he had been captured and especially since he had been freed, along with having new robes instead of the various rags that he had worn during the times when he had taken on human form. Shaking hands all around and saying hi, they moved inside the pub and sat down.

Once they had ordered and Madam Rosmerta had left to get their drinks, Sirius turned to Fitz and said, "Harry, I'm sure Dumbledore told you, but I am your godfather. Your parents appointed me to be your guardian if anything happened to them. And I know that I haven't been able to do that, being locked away in Azkaban, and small gifts of a Firebolt and penknife to undo locks and knots can't make up for that, but —"

"Those were you!?" Simmons exclaimed in surprise. "We had no clue whom those were from. Well, thank you, especially the broomstick, we've had a ton of fun flying it on the weekends. Haven't had any opportunity to use the penknife, but it's nice to have for when we do."

Sirius looked slightly taken aback to receive such a heartfelt thank you, and simply replied, "Yes, well, I'm glad you're enjoying them. And sorry about nothing this year, I was still trying to track down Pettigrew, and wasn't sure what to try to get you since I didn't know what kind of hobbies you were into. Must say, though, I was surprised not to see you playing quidditch when I snuck in to watch the Gryffindor match two years ago when I was hiding out in the Forbidden Forest trying to get into the castle to get Pettigrew."

"Yeah, quidditch just never grabbed our attention the way it has most of the wizarding world," Fitz answered in an attempt at an apologetic tone. "Maybe it comes from both of us coming from the muggle world and growing up on soccer, the equivalently popular muggle sport, but we just never saw the appeal — barely even go to matches, to be perfectly honest. But flying on a broomstick — that we can get behind."

Sirius nodded. "Not going to say I understand it when quidditch was a huge deal to me even though I never played, and your father was amazing at it, but to each his own, and I really am glad that you can still enjoy the broom even though you don't play. And now, Dumbledore did inform me that you already had your plans for the summer when he said that you had agreed to meet me — thank you for that, by the way — but I wouldn't be doing my job as your godfather who can actually be your godfather finally, if I didn't let you know that if you want a different home from wherever you are planning on staying, that I would be happy to have you — both of you — stay with me. But if not, I understand — I'm a complete stranger to you. And to be perfectly honest, the only house I have to offer at the moment, my family home, I'm not thrilled to move back into, either. Did not have a pleasant childhood growing up in that den of snakes when I was to become a Gryffindor, and I moved in with your father, Harry, for the summers pretty quickly once I met him at school. And it's been abandoned for the last decade or something, as well, with the only occupant a toe rag of a house elf taking orders from my mum's portrait — I'm really not selling you living with me, am I?" he broke off with a chuckle.

"Oh, we've lived in some unusual places over the years ourselves," Simmons smiled back understandingly. "And I know that magical houses likely have magical problems, but can't at least the being abandoned ten years part be cleaned up pretty quickly with magic — the dust, and mildew, and staleness of the air, and the like? There really is nothing that sunlight and a fresh breeze through open windows can't solve — though I guess none of you have probably read 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe', and the sacking of the White Witch's castle."

"It can, and I have the rooms that I've actually used so far, like my old bedroom and the kitchen, but the whole house just feels dead, if you know what I mean," Sirius answered. "And no amount of magic can get rid of bad memories, anyway."

"Understandable — Harry can't wear a suit because of certain bad memories of our own," Simmons replied. "But as for not staying with you over the summer — which we're not going to — it's not because of you, or your house, or your abilities as a real estate agent to sell your house to us. It really is us, for reasons that we can't tell anyone, in no small part because they wouldn't believe us. And now, admittedly, we do know very little about you, so moving in with you just because you're Harry's godfather without getting to know you better first is not how we were trained, but more importantly than that, we already have a life that is our own, which forces much stronger than magic have tried and failed to tear us apart from. And given the current risks because of Voldemort trying to regain power and kill Harry, along with certain quote unquote 'good' parties who would like to get their hands on Harry seemingly even more than Voldemort for as of yet still unknown reasons, we can't risk trying to meet you over the summer to get to know you better. However, if you want to meet us here on Hogsmeade days next year, we are willing to try that."

"That would be more than great," Sirius said. "Now — tell me about how school has been going for you two — I imagine Hogwarts hasn't changed a lot since I went there?"

They spent the rest of the meal talking about FitzSimmons' education and time in general at Hogwarts, as well as Sirius's three years on the run, both hiding in the Forbidden Forest and trying to track down Peter Pettigrew after he learned from the centaurs that the traitor had run away, eventually tracking him to Malfoy Manor, where despite hiding as a dog, someone inside had still eventually recognized him, most likely through Pettigrew knowing his secret form, and Lucious Malfoy had called the aurors on him. Though in the end that had turned out for the best, as it had finally made him a free man again and told the world that Voldemort really was back and kicking.

Once lunch was over and FitzSimmons and Dumbledore bade Sirius goodbye, Dumbledore led FitzSimmons to the end of the street where the small town ended and the road continued on into the mountains, and stated to them, "You two have not, of course, passed your apparation tests yet. So you will need to hold on to each of my arms very tightly, as we will be traveling via side-by apparation."

FitzSimmons did as he said, and suddenly felt his arms try to twist out of their grips, and it felt like they had to grip as hard as they could to stay holding on. Everything went black around them, and it felt like Daisy was trying to quake-compress them into Fitz's gravitonium device to seal up the rift in the Lighthouse instead of the gravitonium that she had actually done it to after Fitz had cut open her neck and removed the Kree inhibitor. Then as suddenly as it had started it was over, and taking in deep breathes of air they saw that they were in Hogsmeade no more. If Simmons wasn't mistaken in her geography, they were now somewhere outside of Sheffield.

"Are you all right?" Dumbledore asked them. "The sensation does take some getting used to."

"We're fine," Simmons answered. "And is that how all apparation feels, or is there a difference between solo and side-by?"

"It all feels the same, unfortunately. But you do get used to it for the most part over time, and it is by far the quickest way to travel when you can," Dumbledore replied. "Now follow me."

And he set off down the sunny, sleepy country lane, to the very last house on the flat, straight street, which was set a little ways off the end from the rest. As they approached the gate in the wooden picket fence bordering the front yard of the house, FitzSimmons immediately spotted that the front door of the house was hanging off of its hinges, and they swiftly and subtly slipped their wands out from their waistband holsters as they instinctively looked in opposite directions covering each other's six o'clocks, looking up and down the street for anyone or any signs of danger before looking back to the door and where the threat could still be inside.

Dumbledore was slower to pull out his wand but finally did so as well when he saw the broken door, before leading them up to said door, which he carefully pushed open. Inside it looked like a tornado had come through, or Daisy had had to fight someone with her quaking abilities, and she was already in a bad mood and didn't like whoever it was who lived in the house. Everything was strewn everywhere, breakable objects broken and tearable objects torn, the only item that seemed to have escaped the carnage being a suspiciously untorn and still upright overstuffed armchair in the back corner of the room. In the light of all three of their wands that they had lit as they crept inside, they could see some kind of blood splattered high on the walls of the sitting room that they entered, and after the initial look around to make sure that there was no one there waiting for them, injured or enemy, Simmons went straight over to the nearest blood-splattered wall to investigate.

Almost immediately she said, "Not human — too glutinous, and the red's wrong for how wet it still is. Can't say exactly what it is though, just from this."

Having finished his own scanning of the room, Dumbledore walked over to one of the other walls that had the blood on it, and after touching it lightly with his finger said, "If I'm not mistaken, it's dragon."

"Well, the only blood is on the walls, and there is absolutely none on the floor, ceiling, or wreckage, so I'm guessing it was planted there intentionally," Fitz said. "Which means I'm also guessing that no dragons were actually harmed, in this room at least. Maybe somewhere else, but nothing, and I'm pretty sure no one, was harmed in here. Somebody definitely may have been searching for something, though."

"I believe our friend is still in here somewhere," Dumbledore said as he strolled over to the suspicious armchair and jabbed his wand into the cushion.

Uncharacteristically for an armchair, even one that had survived a major skirmish unscathed, it yelped, "Ouch!"

And the next moment there was no longer an overstuffed armchair, but an overstuffed man as wide as an armchair and wearing clothes the same color and pattern that the armchair had been.

"Good evening, Horace," Dumbledore greeted the enormously fat, bald, old man.

Slughorn clambered to his feet, and he and Dumbledore quickly magically undid the giant mess, leaving the room as tidy as could be imagined. Only then did he turn and really look at Dumbledore's two guests, or specifically the male one.

Eyes lighting on a scar that only the wizarding world could see, he exclaimed, "Oho! Oho!"

"This is Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, the two smartest students that I have ever seen come through the school as a student myself, teacher, or headmaster," Dumbledore introduced. "Harry, Hermione, this is an old friend and colleague of mine, Horace Slughorn."

"So that's how you thought you'd persuade me, is it? Well, the answer's no, Albus," Slughorn replied, having quickly cottoned on to Dumbledore's plan, a plan that FitzSimmons were now picking up on themselves because of Slughorn's reaction.

"I suppose we can have a drink, at least?" Dumbledore asked pleasantly. "For old time's sake?"

Slughorn grudgingly agreed and soon they were all seated, Dumbledore having noticeably directed FitzSimmons, and specifically 'Harry Potter', to an armchair directly in Slughorn's line of sight. Slughorn apparently saw no problem with giving a fifteen and sixteen year old hard liquor, which FitzSimmons were thankful for and in this situation certainly agreed with, as Dumbledore was for all intents and purposes their guardian at Slughorn's house, and he said nothing to Slughorn about not giving the 'kids' alcohol as Slughorn poured out the amber liquid. Drinks now in all of their hands, Dumbledore and Slughorn chatted for a while about being old, and whether any Death Eaters had been coming a calling, and how Slughorn had been on the run and never staying in the same muggle house for longer than a week over the past year to avoid them. But finally the subject got around to Slughorn's return to Hogwarts for safety (and of course to teach).

"If you're going to tell me my life would be more peaceful at that pestilential school, you can save your breath, Albus! I might have been in hiding, but I heard about Dolores Umbridge burning to death in her office! If that's how you treat teachers these days —"

"I will admit that one still stumps me, but I think you, Horace, would be better than to use a quill that carves into the back of the student's hand in order to use their blood as ink while they write lines, as your form of detention," Dumbledore replied. "Not to mention asking Fudge to give her more and more power over my school, to the point that she was all but running it when it came to the students. You will notice, of course, that no such fate befell Percy Weasley, her replacement — he held the exact same positions as her for the rest of the year with nary a scratch. And of course none of the other professors were hurt in the least last year, or any previous years for that matter."

"She what?!" Slughorn exploded in shock. "That's barbaric!"

"Then you would have no problem at Hogwarts, as that quill was the only thing left untouched in her entire room, clearly left there by whoever did it so that everyone would know what atrocities she was committing, and why they killed her," Dumbledore said.

Slughorn merely grumbled in reply, before Dumbledore suddenly stood up and excused himself only to the restroom, not to leave entirely as Slughorn had briefly hoped, leaving the former professor alone with FitzSimmons.

As soon as they were alone, Simmons said, "Dumbledore told us that you used to teach at Hogwarts, and he was trying to get you to come back — Defense Against the Dark Arts, I presume, since that's the position he's always having to hire someone new for, every year since we started attending?"

"Defense Against —? No, no, I was the Potions teacher," Slughorn chuckled lightly despite himself, before adding sternly, "Key word there being 'was'. I'm retired, and I'm staying that way."

"Potions?! Please, please, please come back!" Fitz exclaimed. "Anything to get rid of Snape and have an actual professor instead of that child abuser who only ridicules and berates everyone not in his House and treats his House like they're perfect angels who can do no wrong and can make no bad potion, no matter how much worse they are than everyone else in the class!"

"Yes, please!" Simmons quickly added. "Fitz and I are hands down the best two students in Potions certainly in our year but honestly in the entire school, and in five years he has never once complimented us on a single potion, simply because we're not his House. Not that we personally care about compliments, I'm just pointing out his bigotry so you understand just how bad the school has it because of him. And don't even get me started on all the different ways he has abused non-Slytherin students in class, especially Neville Longbottom for some strange reason, but if it will convince you to come back and kick him out, I gladly will.

"And it's not just the school and all the students therein who need you — it's the entire future of potion-making in wizarding Britain. There is an entire generation of students that know nothing but how to read instructions off of a board and then be ridiculed if their potions aren't one hundred percent perfect despite being given no help, suggestions, tips, or any kind of instructions at all on how to get better and do it correctly. Not to mention the fact that potions — especially the sixth year level potions and above that Harry and I started looking through in the second half of this past year since we're so far ahead in everything, though I've seen it in fourth and fifth year potions as well — vary between potion books, and Snape has never once talked to us about why potions are or aren't what they are, in order to determine which instructions are best when there are multiple options, or how to determine the actual best instructions from an assortment of not quite perfect options. Please, anything to get you to return, Professor Slughorn! It would be impossible for you not to be an improvement over Snape!"

Slughorn stared at them in shock for several long seconds, before finally saying slowly, "Are you really sure it's quite that bad? I mean, I was teaching there when your father and Snape were both attending, and it's no secret that those two were enemies — maybe Snape is just projecting that onto you, Harry, and maybe you as well Hermione since you're friends with Harry, and it's not that bad for everyone else?"

He said it unsurely, as if he was hoping that that was the case, giving FitzSimmons hope themselves that they could make him see the truth when all of the adults already at Hogwarts had willfully blinded themselves to the truth that had been staring them straight in the face every day of every year for the past fifteen years.

"No, Professor," Fitz answered firmly. "He doesn't mess with us at all. We had a few conflicts early on, but between us having flawless potions every single time, and letting him know in no uncertain terms that we don't put up with abuse from anyone, even or perhaps especially adults in charge of students, he pretty much stays as far away from us as he possibly can out of fear for his life. No, it's the other Gryffindor students whom we see him sneering at, and ridiculing, and berating, and otherwise abusing, especially as Hermione mentioned Neville Longbottom for some reason, who we aren't particularly friends with, all while lauding the works of the Slytherins who we always have double potions with, five years straight — I want to know what adult thought that was a good idea — regardless of how good or bad their potions actually are, and especially Draco Malfoy who is clearly his favorite. But it's definitely not Snape projecting any hatred of my father, unless he's projecting it onto the entire non-Slytherin castle — which admittedly is always a possibility with him."

"And it's not just our year, either," Simmons added. "That's what we have to see every week, but we've heard stories from every other year, and about the only thing it seemed that Ronald Weasley knew about the teachers and classes at Hogwarts before arriving was that Snape was trouble — so it made it home with his brothers at the very least before he ever came here. Now, I will admit that because of our confrontations with him over the years, he has not been overtly abusive in the past few years like he was the first couple of years that we were in the castle, but he has not stopped being verbally abusive — he's just found the line that he can tip-toe on where we don't call him out for it because there's no single thing that we can punish him for or point to when the other adults of the castle try to make us out to be the bad guys, instead of seeing the truth that is right in front of their faces. But the abuse is still there even if we haven't been able to confront it in a couple of years, and will continue as long as he is still teaching."

"Point being, the school needs you," Fitz finished up. "Hermione and I can learn on our own, we're great at that — but the rest of the school doesn't know how to do that or have the drive to do that, and more importantly, they shouldn't have to. They're paying to be taught, not verbally abused and harassed while not being instructed or corrected or helped to improve in the slightest bit. So please — forget about the danger that I seriously doubt is higher inside what is supposedly the safest place in all of wizarding Britain, and think about the students who could learn so much from you, and be so much healthier and better off because it's not Snape."

Slughorn just stared at them for several long seconds, before finally saying weakly, "I was Head of Slytherin House myself back in the day."

"We don't care if you were the bloody Head of Azkaban — all it takes is five minutes sitting here listening to you and Dumbledore talk to know that you are better than Snape. Only Umbridge was worse than Snape out of everyone whom we have ever met in this entire world," Simmons answered with conviction. "And honestly they were neck and neck, though for different reasons. But the very fact that you think we might change our minds because of your House proves that you are better than him. Snape doesn't care about the reputations he himself, and his House have, that it's mostly his actions that have created in recent years at least. But you clearly do care, or you wouldn't have brought it up. Now, I doubt that Dumbledore is planning on handing you the Headship again, but you can still make a difference in improving Slytherin's reputation by being an actual Potions professor, who helps students, and isn't unfair to — well, honestly everyone, as spoiling his own House is just as unfair to them as berating the other Houses is. It's an abuse of low expectations. But you can make Potions a subject that all of the school enjoys and doesn't dread, instead of just Slytherin, and a subject that students can actually become good at again. Please — we are literally begging you here."

"But taking up a post at Hogwarts now would be tantamount to declaring my public allegiance to the Order of the Phoenix!" Slughorn practically whined. "And while I'm sure they're very admirable and brave and all the rest of it, I don't personally fancy the mortality rate. I know of Arthur Weasley's death last year, a well-known Order member and Order family."

"Says the man on the run anyway," Simmons scolded, quickly switching tactics to go on the offensive. "You know you're a target regardless of what 'allegiances' you have declared. You said yourself that you've never stayed in the same house for more than a week in the past year so that the Death Eaters can't find you. So maybe they now know exactly where you are, and maybe you're labeled as part of Dumbledore's little group — what difference does that really make? No Order member has been killed inside Hogwarts, only outside like you are right now. And you no longer have to run, because you'll be in the safest place that there is, protected by Dumbledore himself. So when it comes down to it, which odds would you put your money on — staying safe on the run on your own for another year now that the Death Eaters aren't going to be so careful about staying hidden now that the Ministry has finally acknowledged that Voldemort may really be back? Or inside Hogwarts with all of its wards and protection charms, surrounded by other professors who will stand up and fight against any attempted breach by Death Eaters who want to kidnap or kill you?"

"Well, yes, it is true that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has never sought a fight with Dumbledore," Slughorn muttered grudgingly. "And I suppose one could argue that as I have not joined the Death Eaters, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named can hardly count me a friend...in which case, I might well be safer a little closer to Albus…."

At that moment — much to FitzSimmons' disappointment as they had really thought that they were almost at the point of convincing Slughorn to return — Dumbledore returned from the bathroom, ready to leave.

But as it turned out, Dumbledore knew how to play chess as well, for as FitzSimmons and the headmaster walked to the front door a minute later, Slughorn shouted at their backs, "All right, all right, I'll do it! These two have convinced me that maybe I could be of use at Hogwarts, and safer there as well."

"You'll come out of retirement?" Dumbledore asked to be sure.

"Yes, yes — I must be mad, but yes," Slughorn answered. "I'll want a pay raise, though, Dumbledore!"

"Wonderful," Dumbledore said, beaming. "Then, Horace, we shall see you on the first of September."

Dumbledore started to lead FitzSimmons out of the house again, when Simmons suddenly thought of something and turned and asked, "Excuse me, Professor Slughorn, but what grades do you accept for NEWT classes? Not for us, as we got O's I'm sure, but Snape only accepts O's and I am sure that there will be a lot of students who got E's, and if you take them A's, who will assume that they won't be able to continue on with Potions, not knowing that we have a new professor, as that is never mentioned in the booklists. As well as those students who got an O but don't want to be in the same room as Snape now that they are no longer required to be. Point being, you, and Dumbledore and whoever is in charge of sending out the letters, need to have a note about this change of professors and the new grades accepted so that people know before the new year starts."

Slughorn and Dumbledore both stared at her like they had never thought of any of this, though given the fact that Dumbledore protected Snape second only to Harry Potter, they weren't surprised that Dumbledore never would have considered the possibility that students who got a good enough grade might pass on NEWT Potions because of the fact that Snape ruled over the class.

But after a second, Dumbledore looked at Professor Slughorn and asked, "I assume you'll still take the grades you used to?" At Professor Slughorn's nod, he continued on, "Then I will take care of it," not wanting to anger the two students who had just convinced his most important asset to return to Hogwarts, and had shown more than once that they didn't accept what they believed in not being implemented, even if they had to do it themselves.

After that he led FitzSimmons out of the yard and to the road again, where coming to a stop he said to them, "Sincerely, thank you for your help — you will understand next year just how important of an accomplishment this was today. And as promised, you are free to go wherever it is you go during the summers. However, before we part, I would like to ask — how did you like Horace?"

"He's better than Snape, so that's a positive," Simmons answered as Fitz strongly nodded his head in agreement with his wife. "Anything to have an actual teacher for Potions, instead of the child abuser that we've had for the past five years who has taught absolutely no one anything except for the fact that this school doesn't actually care about the well-being of its students, and that Slytherin students can get by with anything so long as they only do it in front of their Head of House, and not in front of us because we don't put up with bullshite from anyone. So yeah, we like Professor Slughorn returning!"

"And he seems like a pretty decent guy, too," Fitz added. "We didn't talk to him for long, and honestly we did most of the talking, but he actually listened unlike most of the professors at Hogwarts have over the years when we've brought serious problems to them. And I believe we opened his eyes to what is really going on at your school, and he will try to fix some of those problems instead of just turning a blind eye to them and declaring that Hermione and I are overreacting or seeing things that aren't really there. So like Hermione said — yeah, we do like him."

Dumbledore was clearly shocked to hear them speak so negatively of his perfect, heroic, wonderful, could do no wrong Snape, and clearly disagreed with their assessment of Snape's criminal behavior against the students at Hogwarts, but he wisely held his tongue and simply carried on with his original point, explaining to them how Slughorn liked to 'collect' famous people and work behind the scenes to get people into different positions of power or prestige, and receive favors of his own from them in return.

"I tell you all this not to turn you against Horace — or, as we must now call him, Professor Slughorn — but to put you on your guard. He will undoubtedly try to collect you, Harry, and you as well, Hermione. Harry Potter would be the jewel of his collection — 'the Boy Who Lived'," Dumbledore finished.

"And do you want us to be collected by him?" Simmons asked pointedly, figuring that there was more reason to bringing this up than just giving them a friendly heads-up to avoid the new professor outside of classes.

"Let us just say that it could be advantageous later on if he liked you," Dumbledore answered cryptically. "But that is all I will speak on the matter at the moment, so I believe we have come to the point where we say farewell to one another for the summer. So as long as you need nothing from me, I shall apparate away so that you can leave without me seeing."

"See you in the fall, Headmaster," Simmons replied politely. "Have a good summer of your own, and stay safe."

A few seconds later Dumbledore disappeared into thin air and Simmons stuck up her wand into the air, bringing the Knight Bus screeching to a halt in front of them.

~FS~

Two weeks later Narcissa Malfoy (with her sister Bellatrix Lestrange tailing along less than invited) visited Snape in the dead of the night.

After rebutting Bellatrix's lack of trust in his loyalties and then scolding Narcissa for speaking of Voldemort's plans that she had been forbidden to speak of, Snape informed both of the sisters that he was in fact aware of Voldemort's assignment to Draco to kill Dumbledore during the upcoming school year, that Voldemort had confided in him the mission.

"But what help do you want, Narcissa? If you are imagining I can persuade the Dark Lord to change his mind, I am afraid there is no hope, none at all."

"But he's my only son…my only son…" Narcissa cried.

"Draco should be proud," Bellatrix cut in coldly. "The Dark Lord is granting him a great honor. And I will say this for Draco — he isn't shrinking away from his duty. He seems glad of a chance to prove himself, excited at the prospect."

"That's because he is sixteen and has no idea what lies in store!" Narcissa exclaimed. "Why, Severus? Why my son? It is too dangerous!"

Snape said nothing for several seconds, avoiding her question, before finally replying slowly, "If Draco succeeds, he will be honored above all others."

"But he won't succeed!" Narcissa cried. "Severus, please…you are, you have always been, Draco's favorite teacher….you are Lucius's old friend...I beg you…you are the Dark Lord's favorite, his most trusted advisor…will you speak to him, persuade him —"

"The Dark Lord will not be persuaded, and I am not stupid enough to attempt it," Snape interrupted flatly.

"But he is going to either be killed trying, or killed by the Dark Lord for failing!" Narcissa choked out.

"Narcissa!" Snape said sharply, snapping her out of her tears at least momentarily. "I will not deny that the Dark Lord does not take failure lightly. However, he will not kill Draco for failing. He has asked Draco to do this because Draco wants to prove himself, and is well positioned to attempt it where none of his other Death Eaters are — and that includes myself, as my use as a spy inside Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix is more valuable than attempting to kill Dumbledore and potentially revealing my true loyalties before I succeed. The Dark Lord does not expect your son to succeed, and he will be punished for failing as we all are no matter how impossible the task, but this is still an opportunity for your son to prove what he can do and learn from his mistakes to become a better servant of the Dark Lord. And as for Dumbledore — we all know he is too kind to a fault, that he couldn't even hurt Draco, let alone kill him. Any risk that Draco encounters while at Hogwarts this upcoming year is of his own doing."

This only seemed to reassure Narcissa minusculely, and she soon begged, "You could do it. You could do it instead of Draco, Severus. You would succeed, of course you would, and he would reward you beyond all of us"

"I do think that he intends me to do it in the end," Snape replied. "But he has given Draco a chance to try first. You see, in the unlikely event that Draco succeeds, I shall be able to remain at Hogwarts a little longer, fulfilling my useful role as spy. However, it might be possible for me to protect Draco so that nothing befalls him while he is trying."

"Severus — oh, Severus — you would help him? Would you look after him, see he comes to no harm?" Narcissa said. "If you are there to protect him...Severus, will you swear it? Will you make the Unbreakable Vow?"

"Certainly, Narcissa, I shall make the Unbreakable Vow," Snape answered. "I will protect your son from getting killed as he attempts this task."

Once Bellatrix was casting the spell, Narcissa said, "Will you, Severus, watch over my son, Draco, as he attempts to fulfill the Dark Lord's wishes?"

"I will."

"And will you, to the best of your ability, protect him from harm as he tries?"

"I will."

"And will you keep him from being killed if he fails?"

"I will."

~FS~

The following afternoon, Lucius Malfoy took his son for a stroll around the Malfoy Manor grounds.

As they entered the most secluded section of woods on the property, the part least likely for their master or any of the other Death Eaters to be spying on them or overhear them, Lucius looked over at his son and said quietly, "I know your aunt has been practicing occlumency with you for blocking the legilimency of any of your professors at Hogwarts, and especially Professor Snape, so I trust that you are skilled enough for us to safely talk. I know that the Dark Lord has tasked you with killing the headmaster. And I know that you want to do it on your own, to prove your worth to the Dark Lord, but do not be so foolish as to turn down perfectly good help. Every Death Eater claims to do everything on their own to better impress the Dark Lord and try to make themselves seem better and more important than all of their fellow Death Eaters, but almost every real accomplishment that we have made has been the combined effort of more than one Death Eater."

Subtly holding out a two-way mirror to his son, he continued on, "At the very least, take this mirror so that you can contact me if you need to. Hogwarts will doubtlessly have increased their security since the Ministry has finally relented that the Dark Lord might be back, and so Dumbledore can put up public measures against us without the Minister believing it to be an attempt to overthrow him, amongst which will almost certainly be an increased monitoring of all communication between the castle and the outside world. But this two-way mirror will enable you to circumvent that and talk to me directly. And with this, if you are willing to accept my help in the background — don't worry, you will still get full credit with our Master if you succeed, he will never know that I helped you — we can arrange a time for us to talk weekly while you are at school. As I will be the one surrounded by Death Eaters and the Dark Lord himself, I will need to be the one to call you in case I can't make it on a particular day, and so that you don't contact me while I'm in a meeting with the Dark Lord or anything, but if we set up a weekly time before you go, you can make sure you're alone every week at that time so that no one at Hogwarts knows that you're talking to me."

Malfoy grudgingly took the mirror from his father, before reluctantly admitting, "I suppose I might be able to use your presence outside the castle in my plans."

"Wise decision, my son," Lucius replied. "Now, do you have any ideas of how you're going to go about killing the man that we've never managed to kill in all the time that the Dark Lord and the headmaster have been fighting against each other?"

"I have one really good idea and am debating between several other possibilities as a backup," Malfoy answered superiorly but also stubbornly, wanting to sound like he knew exactly what he was doing and didn't need anyone's pathetic help.

In reality he only had one idea, buy the cursed necklace from Borgin and Burkes that he had seen in there on a trip with his father four years before, and use one of the other students of the castle to smuggle it into the castle and deliver it to Dumbledore on a Hogsmeade day, but he wasn't about to admit to anyone, and especially not his father, that he was stumped on any other ways to try to kill the headmaster.

"Well, if none of those ways that you're considering are poison, you should really consider putting some in a drink that you know will be headed directly to the headmaster — perhaps a Christmas present from someone you know he trusts. And along those lines, and for any other strategies you consider, we can imperious someone in Hogsmeade to help you as well, someone whom Dumbledore and the staff trusts. And I'm sure Burke has some more two-way mirrors for you to be able to communicate with them as well."

A couple of days later FitzSimmons' OWL scores arrived at their safehouse in the States.

As expected they both got O's in all ten of their subjects, since there was no such thing as an O+ for perfect results. And then a few weeks after that in early August, their booklists from Hogwarts arrived as well. In addition to the normal booklist that now included the books for every subject offered, labeling which books were for which subjects, and the reminder of the train, there were now two additional sheets. One was a form to be owled back requesting classes for the fall. The other was a short letter explaining how there was going to be a new professor for Potions that year, and he accepted both O's and E's for NEWT students.

"Well, at least Dumbledore kept up his agreement to let everyone know that they will no longer hate themselves and their lives if they continue on in Potions," Simmons said once she had finished looking through all of her letter.

"I wonder how many more people will take Potions purely because it isn't Snape," Fitz said, before asking, "And I wonder what will happen to Snape? There's no way Dumbledore's making him leave the castle, unless he's got a mission for him for the Order of the Phoenix or something."

"No clue," Simmons replied, shaking her head. "But I would be very surprised not to see him at the Opening Feast when we get back. It's just too much to hope for for him to be completely gone — it'd be like Hydra really being gone for good the next time we defeat them."

"Ha — yeah," Fitz chuckled dryly. "Never going to happen. Well, I guess we'll just have to take the earlier win of getting him out of Potions, and the current win of Dumbledore or whoever letting everyone know so that more people can continue on in the subject."

"That's the attitude, husband!" Simmons teased cheerfully as she pulled her class request form in front of her on the table and quickly filled it out, writing both of their names at the top since they were obviously taking the exact same classes.

Then she rolled it up and tied it onto the leg of one of the two owls that had brought them their letters, both of whom were waiting for their respective deliverees to fill out said form so that they could take it back to the professors at the school, to make sure that students without owls were still able to submit their request for NEWT classes for the new year.

"Go on, both of you, I filled out one form for both of us," Simmons prodded the birds, who quickly took flight back into the bright blue sky from whence they came.

Once that was done, Simmons looked back over at her husband and said, "Well, I guess we know what we're doing today."

So a couple of hours later they stepped off of the Knight Bus into the little Montana magical town that they went to every summer. After visiting the bank to replenish their monetary stores they walked into the bookstore, where they quickly picked up all of the books that they were required to have for their ten classes, along with every single potions book that looked fourth year level and above. Then they carried them all up to the counter and plopped them down in front of the store owner, who still stared at them in surprise despite seeing this pair buy way more books than anyone else every single year, as this was a new record even for them.

"Sir, where would we find the secret family potion books that have instructions that they've perfected over the years that aren't in any of the published books? Because for fourth year and beyond level potions, different published books have different instructions, and while I'm pretty confident in my abilities to use all of these books to find commonalities and combine that with experimenting with different ways of brewing all of these potions, it would still make the process quicker and more accurate if I could see what families have already perfected over the centuries and are trying to keep hidden from the rest of the wizarding population, and especially from the muggleborns whom they want to suppress. And I know that those kinds of secret books have to be sold somewhere, we're just not sure where the black market is around here."

If the proprietor had been staring at them in shock before, it was nothing compared to now, with Simmons' question to him. But finally he said slowly, "Even if I knew that, I'm really not sure I should be telling two sixth year students such as yourselves."

"You've known us for five summers, Sir," Simmons replied politely but sternly. "You've seen how many books we go through — if there are any two students mature enough to be told that kind of information, it's us. And there is absolutely no reason for you to believe us, but we've been through a hell of a lot more than any local black market could possibly throw at us. And like I said, we want it to learn all of the secrets that are maliciously being kept from muggleborns like us to keep us down in the wizarding world, or at least the British wizarding world — maybe these books I'm buying here are all better than the ones I've looked through in the Hogwarts library over the last several years. But we haven't been taught anything at school for five years — instructions are just thrown up on the board to be replicated during the class, which has taught us, and everyone else in the class, absolutely nothing about Potions as a subject, just how to follow instructions that I now have my suspicions weren't even the best instructions to begin with.

"And like I said, I can and will figure this all out on our own, brewing thousands of potions in our house over the next month before we return to school, because I understand the actual chemistry behind potion-making better than anyone in this world and we are literally the two smartest people in the wizarding world, intellect-wise. But the more potions I have to tinker with on my own the greater the chance that I'll try the wrong thing and blow the house we're living in to smithereens, or possibly even the entire town, who knows. So you're actually protecting us and all the muggles around us by telling us where to get the good books."

Simmons' impassioned speech seemed to have finally persuaded the store owner, as after a couple of seconds he said, "I didn't tell you this, none of the adults anywhere would want you to know, but behind the more sketchy of the bars on the far end of the street is a road leading towards the hidden mountain caves that have stores of the kind you're looking for. Bandersnatch's will probably be your best bet, and there's a potions supply store right next to it where you might need to get some ingredients that you won't find in either of the potion supply stores here in the main town. And finally, they'll know you're not purebloods instantly by your muggle clothes, so you'll probably have a hard time convincing them to sell to you."

FitzSimmons thanked him and quickly payed for the dozens of books that they had picked out in his store, before heading to where he had told them. Stepping inside the dark, dusty shop ten minutes later, the found it packed from floor to ceiling with all kinds of interesting objects that one would never find for sale in shoppes on the main street. Including a wall full of books, which Simmons quickly headed over to and set to finding all of the potions ones.

As warned, the owner did not want to part with his books to two wizards not in the correct circle, and then tried to overcharge them to the tune of four times what the books were labelled at, but as Simmons and Fitz had both added all of the prices up in their heads as Simmons had taken them off of the shelves and handed them to Fitz to hold for her, they weren't falling for it. And as Simmons started stacking up every single book in front of him with the individual price and the total running cost, he finally gave up and stopped trying to overcharge them, and even accepted the ten percent discount for buying so many books at once that Simmons demanded in return for his attempted dishonesty. While she knew that the books were overpriced, and even still overpriced at ten percent off, she had fully intended to pay the full sticker price just to make things go easier. But when the man tried being a dick to them all because they weren't his kind of people and thought that they wouldn't know, she was going to get at least something off just to prove to the man that he couldn't so blatantly take advantage of them.

Books finally successfully bought FitzSimmons headed back to the sketchy bar that hid the back alley street, and had lunch while Simmons skimmed through all of the books to figure out what potions ingredients they needed to buy a good supply of, both at the normal potions store and the one with more hard to procure ingredients. After finishing their lunch the bought all of the supplies that they would need, before finally heading back to Nat's safehouse, a full day of shopping behind them.

~FS~

On September 1, as FitzSimmons were still snuggly in bed thanks to the time difference, Professor Slughorn was aboard the Hogwarts Express giving invitations to a female third year to pass out for him to a select handful of students.

They were invitations to come have lunch with him in his private compartment, but two of the invitations the girl was not able to deliver, no matter how hard she looked. Those of course were the invitations for FitzSimmons, who couldn't be found on the train because they weren't on the train. And so eventually, and having heard from multiple people that they were pretty sure that the odd couple never rode the train fall or spring, the girl returned to Professor Slughorn's compartment to return the invitations and tell him what she had heard. Professor Slughorn was greatly surprised, especially when it was confirmed by the other students already in the compartment that they hadn't seen the couple aboard the train in as many years as they could remember, as Slughorn had never heard of anyone going to school not on the train. He was also very disappointed as Harry Potter had been his star invitee, but there was nothing to be done about it at the moment and he would just have to find the pair when he got to school and ask them what had happened.

But before he could meet them at the school, FitzSimmons had to Knight Bus to Hogsmeade train station. Which as usual they did fifteen minutes before the train arrived in order to avoid the crowd rushing from the train to the carriages that took them all up to the school, and so that they could get the first carriage and be the first ones into the Great Hall. This time, however, as they stepped off of the magical purple bus into the normally deserted lane, they were met by a young woman who was younger than they were but older than their characters were, who did not looked surprised to see them arriving by means other than the train.

"Watcher, Harry, Miss Granger," she greeted them slightly morosely. "Dumbledore said that you two came on your own. My name is Tonks, I'm a part of Dumbledore's Order, and also one of four aurors stationed in Hogsmeade this year to give the school extra protection."

"Pleased to meet you," Fitz replied as he and Simmons both shook her hand.

Once she had shook the younger woman's hand, Simmons asked in concern, "I know we just met, but — what's wrong?"

They had in fact literally just met the woman, but FitzSimmons had a good gut instinct about who was good and who should be avoided, and this girl felt like one of the good ones to them. And seeing her so dejected-looking hurt them, even if she was a complete stranger at the moment.

"Oh, it's nothing — I'm sure you wouldn't care," Tonks said quietly.

"Dear, we always care," Simmons answered softly, gently laying her hand on Tonks' upper arm. "And we've been through a lot more than you can possibly imagine — we might be able to help somehow, or at least give you some advice."

"I doubt it," Tonks mumbled under her breath, before saying out loud, "It's a guy. I really like him, but he thinks he's too old, damaged, and poor for me, and too much of a risk, that I could have someone young like myself."

"Oh, that's a hard one," Simmons sighed. "But not impossible. We work with a girl who's dating our boss, twice her age, for a while had a fake hand, now his entire body is a very life-like robot, if you're familiar with what robots are from the muggle world, and it took her a long time to finally convince him to give them a shot. In fact, they still don't really say that they're dating, though it's obvious to everyone who's known them for years, and I'm pretty sure that they're going to get engaged in the next couple of years assuming neither of them gets killed — though if they come back, or Harry here just has to build Coulson a new body, it will probably only minorly delay the engagement. But my point is, it's not hopeless."

"But if it's Remus? — I mean, Professor Lupin as you would know him."

"Oh — Professor Lupin!" Simmons said in surprise. "Werewolf — so that's what you meant by him thinking he's broken. Well, I imagine that is going to be a hard one, we haven't see him since third year, and while one of our only two good professors so far, maybe even tied with Professor Moody for the best, I can definitely see him pushing back against dating someone young and beautiful like yourself whom he thinks can do much better than himself. I can't really give you any specific help, I'm afraid, but my general suggestion would just be to talk to him. Be friends with him, get him to be friends with you if he's not that much right now, and work from there. If you really love him be patient and keep trying, but don't be pushy and end up accidentally pushing him away. And you may have to refrain from being blunt at the beginning as if he thinks that you're being friends with him just to convince him to date you, and not because you want to be friends with him separate from any dating that might or might not ever occur, he may push you away. That's more of a female thing to do than a male one, but it is always a possibility. Sorry I can't give you any more help than that, though."

"No, that's — you're amazing!" Tonks said with a weak but present smile, before throwing her arms around Simmons in a tight hug. "You're amazing, really."

"Just want to help," Simmons answered, hugging her back.

Once she had finally let Simmons go, wiping a stray tear away with the back of her hand, Tonks said, "You guys had better head up to the carriages, I think I hear the train coming."

"Glad to meet you, and hope to see you around," Fitz said. "Are you going to be available on any of our Hogsmeade days? Maybe we can meet for lunch or something. We have to meet Sirius Black some too, but we have an entire day — we can meet both of you."

"Oh, right — Sirius is your godfather, isn't he, Harry?" Tonks replied. "Which actually makes us god-cousins — Sirius is my cousin."

"Oh — wow," Simmons said. "Well, nice to meet you god-cousin-in-law. I imagine Mr Black might not have a problem with all four of us having lunch together, then. We'll definitely have to get together then, assuming you want to."

"Of course," Tonks answered eagerly. "Maybe between you guys and Sirius, who's good friends with Remus from their school days, I can get my shot with the werewolf one day."

Tonks gave them both goodbye hugs, and FitzSimmons walked up to the lead carriage and climbed in. A few minutes later as the rest of the students started getting into the carriages behind them their own started rumbling down the road towards the castle, starting off the procession to transport everyone from the train and train station up to the school.

Arriving at the magnificent and enormous stone building, FitzSimmons headed into the entrance hall to go get their seats at the Gryffindor table. But standing there scowling menacingly towards the front of the entrance hall where everyone came in, was none other than the caretaker Filch, waving threateningly what looked a lot like a metal detector wand or clandestine surveillance device (a bug, in the vernacular) detector. He waved the stick all over and around them before he would let them through, moving on to the next students in line once he was finally convinced that they weren't bringing any secrets into the castle, for that is why it was — a secrecy sensor, looking for any kind of dark magic attempting to be smuggled into the castle. One of the increased public security measures that the castle could now put into place since the Ministry had admitted the vague possibility that just maybe Voldemort might possibly be back, give or take.

Fortunately, however, Peeves was nowhere around trying to abuse the bottlenecked students who each had to be searched before they could finally head on into the Great Hall and be seated, making the normal entrance into the castle take five or ten times longer than ever before. But finally once everyone else had made it through the search with nothing being found and sat down, the Opening Feast began. With the addition of a warning that new security measures were in place, it was pretty much the same feast as usual, including Dumbledore introducing Professor Slughorn as the Potions professor, and then announcing that Snape was moving to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"So that's how he's staying at the castle," Fitz muttered into his wife's ear. "We wondered."

Simmons simply nodded — it was a disappointing but not exactly surprising turn of events.

Once Dumbledore had cleared his throat to get back everyone's attention from where everyone had started talking about Snape finally getting the position that he had always wanted but never been allowed to have before, Dumbledore warned them all anew about Voldemort being back, and how they all needed to obey the school rules even more than ever before in order to stay safe. Then he dismissed them all to bed, so that they would be well rested for their first day of classes the following morning.

But a shrill whistle cut through the deafening scraping noise of the benches being moved back as everyone stood up to head out, and everyone turned to see Simmons standing on the bench at the Gryffindor table.

"Listen up, first years, and some of you second years as well!" she shouted out once the hall had gone deathly silent and everyone had turned to look at the disruption, the third and above year students already knowing what was coming next. "This is a very big, and even more confusing castle, that changes every single day. Now, the professors want to use that to prevent you from getting to your classes on time so that they can punish you for it. But we don't stand for such cruelty and child abuse! So we drew out the maps that they should have been handing out to you all for centuries, so that you can beat their cruel harassment and hazing and get to all of your classes on time so that they can't punish you for their own failings as responsible adults. So if all of the first years will come over here, and any second years we never found last year, we will give you a map. And like always, anyone else who wants one is free to come get one as well, we can make as many as necessary."

And with that she stepped back down from the bench, and she and Fitz prepared to start making and handing out copies of the map for everyone.

The previous year they had only been able to try to give out maps to the first years individually, knowing better than to make a scene in front of the Ministry agent before they had a better idea what she was really like. And then once they did know what she was like, they obviously weren't going to do anything that could cause her to look at them. But this year they could resume publicly helping all of the first years and calling out all of the professors, intentionally making a scene in the hopes that one day the adults would pull their heads out of their arses and start caring about the children whom they were in charge of.

As FitzSimmons handed out the maps to all of the first years and everyone else who wanted one, the older students who didn't need a map all resumed their slow shuffling mass out of the Great Hall and into the entrance hall so that they could continue on to their dorms and beds, the younger students joining them as soon as they had received their map, and all of the first years of a particular House had received theirs and their prefects began leading them to their House common room for the first time. Soon all the maps had been handed out, and FitzSimmons turned to sit down to wait for the last of the crowds to thin out so that they could have a leisurely stroll up to Gryffindor Tower instead of the pushing and shoving mass that everyone else was. But before they could have that pleasant stroll, they found a professor standing there waiting to talk to them, having waddled down from the staff table while they were handing out the maps.

"Harry, Harry, just the man I was hoping to see!" Professor Slughorn boomed out genially as he stepped up to them from where he had been waiting. "And Hermione, you as well. I was hoping to catch you before you left. I was going to invite you to lunch with me and a few other people on the train this afternoon, but I couldn't find you!"

"Yes, we come on our own," Simmons replied. Remembering that Dumbledore said that they should get on Professor Slughorn's good side, she added, "Sorry."

"Oh, no, not at all!" Professor Slughorn said. "I shall be having plenty more small get-togethers throughout the year, I do hope that you can make it to those."

"Of course, Professor," Fitz answered. "We would be happy to."