"This is a complete waste of my time," the headmaster of Hogwarts complained while sitting behind his office desk. His companion sat to his left and there was another, currently empty chair directly in front of him on the other side of the table, awaiting the arrival of their guest.

"Indeed," his deputy reacted. "You might want to consider a different vocation."

'Here we go again,' Severus thought as his head turned and his eyes shifted towards her. "Meaning, Minerva?" he asked silkily.

"It's just that being a school headmaster might be beneath you. There must be great many opportunities in the private sector, especially for a man of your considerable talents... and loyalty," she said with barely hidden sarcasm.

"Yes... I'm sure there are," he answered while thinking that Minerva's snark was getting worse with each passing day. If only she knew all he was doing to maintain some semblance of normalcy in the school, she might not be so quick to exercise her sharp wit every chance she got. Alas, she didn't know. Like the rest of the world, she saw him as nothing but a murderer and a traitor. Not that Severus particularly cared about that. He was not here to make friends. But it did make the conversations awkward and tedious for him to say the least.

And speaking of tedious...

Severus glanced at his table clock and saw it was less than one minute till noon, meaning the girl should be here soon. He was still unclear why she was coming in the first place though. He assumed Daphne Greengrass wished to ask for extended leave of absence, either for herself or her sister, or perhaps to discuss the arrangements for her NEWTs. All of which could have been arranged by mail. Perhaps Minerva was correct and the newly minted Lady Greengrass was merely posturing among her peers by insisting on a private audience with him. It was a particularly annoying thought for him as he had no desire to indulge anyone's foolishness, even if it came from a fellow Slytherin. Severus supposed he would know soon enough as the clock just hit twelve.

'One – two...' he counted in his head before there was a knock on the door and he watched the Greengrass heiress enter.

"Headmaster... deputy headmistress," she acknowledged both of them in a greeting before adding, "Please excuse my tardiness."

Severus was about to chastise her for being late the two seconds and her quick apology took the wind out of his sails. Looking into her eyes, he sensed the girl knew what he was about to say too and purposefully ruined his moment. Unlike the dunderheads from the house of lions, who would be stuttering their apologies right now under his scrutinizing gaze, Daphne Greengrass wouldn't even give him the opportunity. He reluctantly acknowledged her apology and asked her to have a seat. The girl thanked him and walked towards them before gracefully sitting down.

Now that she was close, he saw Miss Greengrass looked prim and proper, the way she always did, even while wearing the generic school uniform. Right now though, she donned some kind of expensive dress with black cloak on the top. Her blonde hair was done into a simple ponytail.

Despite being crossed with her for bothering him, Severus had to grudgingly acknowledge Daphne Greengrass was among the best students he ever taught. She was intelligent, independent and highly competent, a rare combination Severus greatly appreciated in others. At the same time, the girl did not possess the obnoxious need to constantly show off her talents, either by raising her hand every minute or loudly yelling out her opinions on everything. She seemingly made it her policy not to attract too much attention in general public, going so far as to sometimes wear glamour around the school to downplay her admittedly impressive looks. In a school full of teenagers, this made the teachers' jobs noticeably easier. Severus could not even count how many potion accidents were caused by some idiotic boy staring at some girl's arse instead of watching his cauldron!

In conclusion, one could easily gain an impression Daphne Greengrass was the perfect witch – smart, capable, and beautiful. And yet possessing good sense to tell when to be noticed and when not.

Unfortunately, she also had a fatal flaw which severely limited her future potential. And that was the fact she was so deep in her family's business and legacy she was practically drowning in it. It wasn't easy to assess but after watching the girl for six years, Severus was certain that out of all her classmates, Miss Greengrass was probably the most fanatical about pureblood supremacy. Even worse, she was also an idealist. Many purebloods were only interest in the trappings their blood status guaranteed them rather than truly believing in their philosophy. In contrast, the Greengrass heiress strongly and honestly believed it was the duty of purebloods to subjugate the muggleborns. The girl had been smart enough not to show it too openly while Dumbledore still ruled the school but Severus knew this to be true.

All in all, Daphne Greengrass strongly reminded him of another witch he once knew in his youth. After all, wasn't Bellatrix Lestrange née Black also smart, competent and beautiful once? The only major difference between them so far was the lack of sadism and insanity in the young girl. But otherwise, their inner motivations had remarkably similar consequences. Where Bellatrix would torment and break muggleborns for the sheer joy of it, Daphne Greengrass would happily do the same because she honestly believed it was the right thing to do, that everyone was better off that way. Severus pitied any free-minded muggleborn who would be so unlucky as to fall into her hands in the future. Their only choices would then be submission or life full of misery.

Apart from her near fanatical adherence to the pureblood ideology, Miss Greengrass also seemed to embrace the various grudges inherited from her ancestors. It was something Severus always found to be profoundly stupid among the purebloods. The most recent example of this was when the girl refused attending potion classes with Horace Slughorn on the basis of some personal conflicts between him and her father. Instead, she opted to study the subject on her own. While all NEWT students had that option and self-study was theoretically doable with advanced potions, wasting the opportunity to learn from an experienced potioneer like Horace was a real shame.

"I've requested this meeting in order to discuss my sister's study plan," Daphne Greengrass said next, bringing Severus out of his introspection about the person in front of them.

He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes as she said that. Instead, he merely asked with a raised eyebrow and a sour expression. "And this couldn't have been arranged by an owl?" he said while glancing between the girl and Minerva who seemed to have similar thought on her mind.

"There are certain aspects I felt would be better addressed in person," she gave him a short reply.

This time, he did not resist his urges and ground his teeth in frustration. Oh, how he hated young people. "Very well, Miss Greengrass. Please summarize those reasons for us… succinctly," he stressed. There was a limit to which he was willing to indulge her antics and she was approaching it rapidly.

"Very well," the blonde acceded before starting what sounded like a well-prepared speech. "The fulcrum of my proposal is that..."

'Fulcrum?! Is she for real?' Severus thought, both amused and annoyed by the pomposity.

Then everything went black.


As soon as she heard the codeword 'fulcrum', Minerva froze the portraits with the wand secretly gripped in her left hand. She had it ready ever since Miss Greengrass walked into the room. She was still unsure why they'd asked her to perform this action and was concerned about Snape's reaction. But it was done now. All she could do was sit back and watch what happened next.

And it was quite the show.

She watched as Severus Snape fell down face first on his table, seemingly stunned, rendering his potential response for her action moot. That alone puzzled Minerva greatly as Miss Greengrass did not fire off any spells. Even had she tried, Severus had his eyes trained on her the whole time and would have stopped her easily. So how did this happen?

Her question was answered a moment later when she noticed a wand and a severed hand floating above Snape's chair where the back of his head used to be. 'Wait what?' she thought. A moment later, the severed hand was joined by a body as its owner took of his invisibility cloak. "Mr. Potter!" she gasped in absolute shock while standing up from her seat.

"Hello Professor," Harry Potter greeted her with kind smile, oblivious to her rapidly growing panic.

"You need to leave now! There are wards that detect all comings and goings!" she warned him as she gripped her wand tightly, ready to fight anyone bursting through the doors.

"They won't, Professor," Daphne Greengrass spoke calmly, reminding Minerva of her presence after she momentarily forgot about her. "Harry apparated in at the same I've entered the grounds. The wards can't tell us apart."

She foolishly gaped at the girl's words like a fish. Frankly, they didn't make much sense to her but the young woman spoke them with absolute confidence. It made Minerva wonder if Miss Greengrass really knew what she was talking about. Her eyes shifted to Harry Potter again and he nodded at her in confirmation. Finally, she's decided to ask about the other odd thing they said, "You apparated? How did you apparate inside Hogwarts?"

Mr. Potter smiled again and shifted to his side. Minerva finally got a better look at him and noticed he was wearing some sort of harness on his body. It reminded her of the classical baby sling people sometimes used to carry their children around. Her initial thought that Harry Potter had a baby with him quickly perished as she instead saw a house elf strapped to his back... the same house elf who had conveyed their messages earlier. "Dobby is helping!" the elf squeaked to which Mr. Potter agreed and thanked him, prompting Dobby to shed few tears of happiness into his back.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Greengrass, I- I don't understand any of this," she told them in resignation.

"I know you don't, Professor. And I'd really like to stay and explain everything," the boy told her sympathetically. "Unfortunately, time is of the essence. All I can say right now is that Daphne and I are working together to bring the dark lord down. But in order to do that, there is some important information we need to ask Snape about."

"Mr. Potter... are you sure that- ?" she asked, worriedly glancing over at the blonde Slytherin girl who's been watching her intently this whole time.

"I'll say this only once, Professor," Harry Potter told her firmly, noticing the suspicion with which she looked at his companion. "Daphne Greengrass has my full confidence," he proclaimed even as his hand went possessively around the girl's waist. "There is nobody... nobody I trust more than her," he stressed. Meanwhile, not only did the girl show no resistance to his intimate gesture, she actually smirked proudly as he said the words and then leaned into his touch.

Minerva was left utterly speechless.

Afterwards, the two of them turned away from her only to start waving their wands about Severus' unconscious body. The couple – yes, that's what they were – worked in unison as they cast a myriad of detection spells. "A cyanide capsule in his molar... vanished," Mr. Potter listed off while his companion followed with, "One portkey on a chain around his neck and another lodged in... actually, never mind where. I'm disabling them both."

The two of them continued to work like a well-coordinated team, completely ignoring Minerva as she reeled back from the shock at the boy's words and actions and what they implied. In that moment, Harry Potter strongly reminded her of Albus. Not by showing an interest in a girl, of course. No, in that they couldn't be more different. Rather, the similarity was in the forcefulness with which he declared his full trust of the pureblood girl working beside him. Sadly, Minerva could remember her dear old friend uttering almost the exact same words about the man they were practically strip searching at the moment. She dearly hoped Harry Potter was not as wrong to trust Daphne Greengrass as Albus Dumbledore had been with Severus Snape.

As for Mr. Potter's and Miss Greengrass' apparent romantic involvement, that was... not impossible, actually.

Many people assumed teachers did not pay any attention to the gossip among the students, thinking them somehow wiser and beyond such a thing. Well, the truth was she and her colleagues would quite often discuss the latest news circulating the Hogwarts' gossip mill. Because of that, she knew the consensus among the school's male student population was that Daphne Greengrass was one of the most attractive girls in Slytherin. Meanwhile, in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, this title often belonged to Misses Weasley and Chang, respectively. Now seeing as Harry Potter had already dated the other two, his involvement with Miss Greengrass was not totally out of the question. Clearly, the boy preferred physically highly attractive girls as partners and the statuesque blonde no doubt qualified as such.

And yet...

Minerva was well aware Daphne Greengrass wasn't just a beautiful young woman but also an heiress to a dynasty of notorious pureblood supremacists. Therefore, to see her together with the boy-who-lived was like seeing a rainbow in a thunderstorm, beautiful but scary. She continued to watch them work together while her misgivings about the strange relationship grew more and more. With their house elf's assistance, they've just found and were busy removing some apparently carefully concealed potion bags from Severus' stomach. Finally, she could not take it anymore. As long as they weren't paying any attention to her, Minerva has decided to discreetly send out few detections spell of her own. She had to be certain.

Now, the spells she used should have been completely painless and undetectable to anyone without excellent magical senses, which she knew Mr. Potter did not possess. It was therefore quite shocking and embarrassing for her when the boy paused in his work and turned towards her, frowning. "Just what are you doing, professor?" he asked her.

His companion threw an annoyed look in her direction but then she smirked. Before Minerva could say anything to justify her actions, Miss Greengrass declared, "Pay up, Harry," while giving him a cocky smile.

The boy rolled his eyes. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a single golden galleon and then handed it over to the victoriously grinning blonde. "We've made a bet," Mr. Potter then answered her unspoken question. "Daphne insisted you'd start scanning me for love potions right away. I told her you'd ask more questions first... it seems that I've lost."

Minerva did not even try to deny that's what she was doing. "Mr. Potter, you have to understand..."

"No," the boy interrupted her rather harshly. He stepped forward and spread out his arms. "Finish your scan, professor. Don't forget to check for Imperius and other mental compulsions too, including magical devices and implants."

"That is not necessary, I-"

"No, it obviously is," he hissed. "Daphne Greengrass is my girlfriend," he said and glanced in the girl's direction. "I will freely admit that I'm completely and irreversible under her spell... but it is not the magical kind," he stressed and his now publically declared girlfriend chuckled at his words even as she blew him a kiss with her pouting lips. Seemingly entranced by the display, Harry only reluctantly turned to look back at Minerva. "In any case, I will not have this issue coming up again. So... do it. Please," he asked her firmly and with a deep sigh, she finally obliged.

Seemingly unperturbed by her gesture of distrust, Daphne Greengrass continued to check Snape's unconscious body while Minerva performed every detection spell she knew on Harry. Even those Albus had personally taught her and which should have been able to detect even very obscure and subtle mind control magic.

"Well?" Harry Potter asked impatiently after she's finally lowered her wand.

"All negative," she admitted. "There is no magical compulsion I can detect."

Harry Potter smiled at that and glanced behind at his companion. "Did you hear that, love?" he asked her. "It's all good. You didn't curse me after all!"

The blonde paused in her own scans and her lips twitched into a smirk. "That can still be arranged, Potter... now, come help me with him!" she ordered with amusement and Minerva watched as Harry Potter obeyed, grabbing Severus' arm and throwing it around his neck. Daphne Greengrass did the same and together they've lifted him out of his chair.

"Mr. Potter... Miss Greengrass. I regret my earlier actions. It was impolite of me and I apologize. But I must ask just what do you think you are doing right now?" she demanded to know, eyeing them warily as they literally manhandled Severus.

"We're leaving and he's coming with us," Harry Potter explained. "There are some questions Snape has to answer and we can't ask them here."

This shocked her to the core. "But... but... you can't! His absence will be noted!"

"He'll be back before that happens," Daphne assured her before adding mysteriously, "But now we must really be going… time is a curious thing."

And then the three of them, including the house elf, disappeared in front of her eyes with a loud pop.


Even as his consciousness slowly returned, Severus Snape already knew he was in deep trouble. Not only had he been assaulted and rendered unconscious in his own bloody office, there was also something suppressing his magic. His limbs were fixed in unnatural angles and he assumed he was restrained, although he did not risk moving too much so as not to alert his captors.

With his mind he tried to reach out to the potion bags hidden in his stomach and bowels – an invention of his inspired by muggle drug traffickers, and therefore unknown to most wizards and witches. It was meant to give him an edge in situations like this. Upon his mental command (which was routed through his vagus nerve, thus ignoring any magic suppressants or even petrification), the charmed bags were supposed to break and administer a mixture of potions that would reinforce his body and mind, including making him immune to pain and veritaserum.

Only this time, he received no reaction or feedback from the bags at all. Whoever had captured him must have found and removed them. The list of people smart enough to do that was not very long. Severus finally opened his eyes and immediately understood why the bags were gone when he saw Daphne Greengrass sitting behind a table, relaxed and confident as she looked in his direction. Unfortunately for him, the girl has always been competent.

At the moment, his captor was studying him with completely neutral expression and lightly drumming her fingers against the table. Meanwhile, Severus was securely tied down to his own chair. And even though he could not see them, he assumed there were magic suppression cuffs attached to his wrists. A quick glance at their surroundings told him they were no longer in Hogwarts. Still, the room looked familiar and he soon realized he'd been here before. Namely, after the dark lord's return, he was once forced to visit the place to discuss something with the girl's father. The room he was in was the lord's office... or rather the lady's office now. He has been kidnapped to Greengrass manor! While the girl continued to study him calmly, Severus Snape was furiously trying to come up with a reason why Daphne Greengrass would do that.

He knew he had many enemies on both sides of the conflict, of course. To Dumbledore's supporters, he was a traitor and a murderer while many of the death eaters envied his favorable position with the dark lord. The former Azkaban inmates also blamed him for renouncing the dark lord after the last war. But as far as he knew, Daphne Greengrass and her family didn't belong to any of those categories. True, her late father was a really nasty piece of work and in Severus' opinion, the Weasley brat did the world a big favour by killing him. Erik Greengrass' reputation for ruthlessness and cruelty was possibly exceeded only by his father-in-law and the girl's maternal grandfather. But Severus never had any significant conflicts with the two men either. In fact, he could not think of anything to explain his current situation no matter how much he tried.

It was clear to him he was missing something.

The last thing he remembered was being in his office in Hogwarts as the brat explained her reasons for bothering him... and then nothing. Minerva was there with him at the time and he briefly wondered what happened to her. But of course, he wasn't about to ask Greengrass as that would merely paint a target on his deputy's back. Neither was he going to scream like a lunatic and demand to be released, which was what most people would do in a situation like this. Fortunately, he wasn't some stupid Gryffindor and had witnessed enough interrogations to know it was completely pointless for the prisoner to debate or plead with their captor. All their demands and pleads would be ignored and anything the interrogator says in response could be a lie. Furthermore, by answering even the innocently sounding questions, the prisoners often reveal valuable information without even meaning to. At the every least, it allows the interrogator to gauge their mental state.

No, it was a far better option to remain as silent as possible.

Unfortunately, the girl was still staring at him without saying anything, obviously waiting for him to speak first. Finally, he decided to do just that if only to move things along. He proceeded to tell her the only thing Headmaster of Hogwarts can say to a student who would kidnap him. "Miss Greengrass... you are expelled."

As expected, his obligatory declaration did not faze the girl at all. But at least it finally elicited a reaction from her as she chuckled and said, "You really think after today, you're still the headmaster? After what've you done?" Greengrass asked reproachfully before frowning and throwing the accusation at him with a snarl. "After you've betrayed the dark lord!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he immediately replied, not even having to lie as he really didn't know.

Meanwhile, he intensely analyzed the new information in his mind. The fact his current situation was somehow related to the dark lord wasn't surprising. There's always been a chance Voldemort would one day realize his true allegiance or somehow discover his actions. But if that was the case, then where was he? Why wasn't the dark lord here, torturing him and pulling his mind apart? Was he to believe Voldemort had ordered a mere school girl to capture him?! Surely even the dark lord wasn't that insane!

"No idea, huh?" the girl tittered with irony before shifting her hand to remove a piece of cloth which was covering something on her table. "Perhaps this will refresh your memory," she said and sneered as she raised the previously hidden object.

It was a sword. A very familiar sword.

'Shit,' Severus thought while keeping his expression totally blank. He gave that sword to Potter. If it was the real thing, then that meant... he couldn't even finish the thought. Greengrass seemed to be waiting for some reaction from him again. Finally, against his better judgment he asked, hoping she would divulge more information. "Is that supposed to somehow explain why you've kidnapped me?"

"Is there an explanation as to why you gave Missis Lestrange a fake sword of Gryffindor for safe keeping?" Greengrass mockingly turned his question against him.

This time, he didn't say anything in response. The fake sword he had given to Bellatrix was a perfect replica. Only a goblin would have been able to tell a difference. Was that what happened? Did someone from Gringotts alert the crazy woman the sword in her vault was a fake? Severus seriously doubted goblins would ever do anything which could be construed as helping their customers. Not unless required by the treaty to do so or being handsomely paid for their trouble. And it still did not explain Greengrass' involvement!

"Let me tell you a story," Greengrass finally said after a moment of silence. She put the sword back down and walked over to his side of the table. The prim and proper persona she'd displayed in Hogwarts was now replaced with one of haughty confidence. She'd also shed her cloak, revealing a rather inviting knee-length black dress. To distract your opponents was a time-proven interrogation tactic. But if Greengrass thought her feminine wiles would make him talk, she was sadly mistaken. He wasn't some hormonal teenager who would fall for such a trick!

"About a week ago, a group of snatchers brought me three wonderful presents. They had no idea who it was they'd actually captured," the blonde practically purred words. "There was a blood traitor and a mudblood. But most importantly, there was one... you would say a celebrity."

Severus listened with mounting dread as the implications hit him like a bludger. He watched with horror as Greengrass picked up another object from the table and proudly presented it to his seemingly calm and unblinking eyes. Even with his magical senses partially deadened, Severus was quite certain it was Harry Potter's wand the girl had in her hand. He had spent six years watching Potter wave it around like the arrogant brat he was. And now it was being held by Daphne Greengrass. He couldn't think of a single scenario where Potter would still be alright after losing his wand to Daphne Greengrass.

"I'd immediately ordered Potter interrogated," the girl mentioned next, confirming his worst predictions. "He turned out to be more stubborn than I'd have thought possible," Greengrass admitted unhappily. "No matter how much pain we put him through, he wouldn't say anything. A true Gryffindor to the end," she said mockingly.

A small hope Severus felt was immediately squashed with her next words. "So that's when I'd ordered his friends to be tortured instead," the blonde declared with a proud smirk, obviously pleased by her ingenuity. "After that, Harry Potter squealed like a pig! He practically begged to tell me everything!" she declared proudly, her lips twisting into a triumphant grin.

"I still fail to see how any of this explains your actions against me," he sneered at her in return while inside, he feared the worst. He had to assess Potter's condition and see if anything could be done to salvage the situation. Finally, he said "If you had indeed captured Harry Potter, the dark lord must be summoned at once!" while hoping the only immediate means of summoning the dark lord available to her would be him using his dark mark, requiring her to untie him and remove the magical suppressors.

"Oh, what a loyal thing to suggest," Daphne Greengrass reacted sarcastically. "You need not bother. Unlike you, Snape, I know where my loyalties are. And so does the dark lord," she declared proudly.

"Do you mean –"

"Yes!" she cried with ecstatic pleasure. "I'd already handed him over. Harry Potter is dead!" she told him and laughed hysterically.

"I- I see," he simply stated while slowly crumbling inside. Harry Potter… dead. Lily's son was dead.

His last glimmer of hope was that Greengrass was lying about the whole thing. But with the sword of Gryffindor on her table and Potter's wand in her hand, the evidence was quite overwhelming.

"The dark lord tore through his mind and memories before finishing him off," she mentioned at one point before shaking her head and tsking at him in disappointment. "It was very unwise of you to use your patronus when you gave him the sword, professor. The dark lord recognized it immediately. It made him consider your actions in a different light."

So that's what gave him away! He knew his actions that night carried a great deal of risk but at the time he thought them acceptable. But Severus supposed it no longer mattered. Harry Potter was dead. He had failed... in everything. Afterwards, the girl continued to boast about her actions, acting like she'd achieved a great victory when in reality she had doomed the entire magical world. But Severus no longer cared. There was only one question left on his mind.

"Why am I here?" he demanded.

"The dark lord ordered me to capture and question you first before he would deal with you himself," Daphne Greengrass explained with thoughtful expression. "I am supposed to obtain your confession and clarify the reasons for your betrayal. After that, the dark lord will grant me the privilege of joining his death eaters!" she said, her blue eyes shining with hopelessly misplaced pride.

While little strange, Severus had to admit that sounded like the dark lord as the man dearly loved his mind games. That didn't mean he was willing to play a part, though. "Then you've failed the test before it even started," he informed her disdainfully, not missing the last opportunity to take a shot at the stupid bitch who'd ruined everything. "Take me to the dark lord now," he told her and went silent. In that moment he probed the fake molar with his tongue only to find the cyanide capsule gone.

"I suspected that would be your answer," Greengrass mentioned before snapping her fingers. A moment later, Severus heard doors opening somewhere behind him and then footsteps of someone approaching. He assumed Greengrass was summoning her people to start torturing him. But instead of being surrounded by wands and repeatedly hit with Cruciatus, he saw only one guard. And he wasn't even pointing his wand at him.

Instead, he was pushing a person in front of him with a bag on their head. Closer examination told him it was a woman and that she had her hands tied in front of her. Obviously, she was a prisoner. That or the courtesy the Greengrass family showed to their guests drastically lessened as of late.

"As you have already seen, the dark lord has been kind so as to leave most of Potter's possessions with me," Greengrass declared happily even as she grabbed the prisoner's arm and pulled her in, positioning her right in front of Snape. Only then did she pull the bag off. "Including his dirty disgusting mudblood!" she cried out dramatically.

It took Severus a moment to even recognize Hermione Granger. Not because he'd already forgotten how she looked but rather because at this point she was barely recognizable. Her face was covered with countless bruises and scratches, no doubt from severe and frequent beatings. And that was only the part of her body he could see. She was also experiencing ticks in her facial muscles associated with prolonged or repetitive Cruciatus exposure.

But the worst were her eyes. The fire, the thirst for knowledge, even the arrogance he hated so much. All of it was gone, replaced with despair and resignation. Finally their eyes have met and Severus saw the unspoken plea for him to do something… anything to help her. It was Charity Burbage all over again. Back then, he couldn't do anything to help in order not to break his cover. Now his cover was broken and he still couldn't do anything! Very soon Granger realized it too. She lowered her eyes in defeat.

Severus Snape had never particularly cared about Granger. While she was a competent student, she was also an annoying know-it-all whose need to prove herself bordered on obsessive-compulsive disorder. Indeed, the worst part of seeing her current state was that it effectively erased any doubts he had as to whether Greengrass was telling him the truth. Now, he was absolutely certain – Harry Potter was dead. Despite his numerous flaws, the boy had always been loyal to his two friends and never would have abandoned them to this fate unless he really was gone.

A coughing sound brought his attention back to the pureblood witch right in time to hear her say, "I've been personally tutoring Miss Granger on how a proper mudblood should behave," the blonde explained, her blue eyes drilling into his even as she placed her wand against Granger's throat. "What do you say to that, filth?" she asked with a sneer while pulling Granger's hair for emphasis and making the muggleborn witch wince in pain.

Severus watched as the former Gryffindor student swallowed nervously before answering. "This m-mudblood is grateful for your instructions, m-my lady," Granger stammered to which Greengrass laughed hysterically.

"I bet you are!" Greengrass cried happily before asking another question. "And what about Harry Potter? What do you think about him?"

"Harry Potter was a traitor... I- I am glad he's dead," she quickly replied, sounding like an emotionless automaton. No doubt the correct answers were drilled into her with many hours of torture.

Afterwards, Greengrass pushed her away, making her fall down to her knees next to Snape's chair and in front of the pureblood girl's feet. "That's great to hear, you stupid bitch," she told her with disdain before ordering. "Get out!"

Severus watched as Granger looked up at her tormentor from down on her knees and for the first time, he saw anger and resentment in her eyes. But only for a second before she schooled her features back into a look of downtrodden submission. It was clear Hermione Granger wasn't completely broken just yet. But how long could she possibly hold out under the gentle care of Daphne Greengrass?

The blonde finally noticed her prisoner hesitating and she looked down on her with annoyance. "What the fuck did I just tell you? Leave… now!" she repeated before adding menacingly. "We'll work on your responsiveness when I visit you later, mudblood. There is so much more I am going to teach you!" she promised.

Granger glanced at her fearfully at that before scrambling to obey, the guard leaving with her.

"What a good little mudblood," Daphne Greengrass said and sneered at her back while Granger pathetically shuffled out of the room, fearful and helpless. Once she was gone, her icy blue eyes shifted to him and she looked more serious than ever.

"I'm going to cut off her arms and legs," the girl informed him callously and without mercy. Despite his best effort, Severus' eyes widened little at that. And apparently, Greengrass wasn't done yet. "Oh, but I'm not going to kill her! The opposite. I'll make sure she lives a very... very long life. And do you know why?" she said and he didn't dare to ask.

"I've a perfect job lined up for the smartest muggleborn witch of our time," the pureblood girl answered with heavy sarcasm. "You see, Miss Granger's torso is going to decorate the meeting hall of the Muggleborn registration commission. She'll spend the rest of her miserable and pathetic existence watching as her kind is put into their places, unable to do anything about it... to do anything at all," the blonde gave him a chilling promise.

Finally, he could not take it anymore. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I won't even give her the comfort of insanity," she told him next, ignoring his question. 'I'll arrange for her to be regularly fed with brain tonics... she'll spent over a century as a limbless freak, example to mudbloods everywhere. So they know what happens when they fight against their superiors. And she'll be fully aware of every... single... minute!" she leaned over him and cried the last part into his face with a manic expression.

As he continued to listen to her words, Severus was rapidly revising his opinion of Daphne Greengrass being like Bellatrix without the insanity and sadism. Rather, it seemed she might actually be worse. Certainly Bellatrix was never that imaginative in her punishments and rarely kept her victims suffering for more than a month.

After a moment, the deranged expression disappeared from the girl's face just as suddenly as it had appeared as she straightened up and told him very calmly. "Or I suppose I might spare Miss Granger from everything I've just said. All you need to do is answer my questions."

'So that's her angle...' Severus thought. "And you'll just let her go?" he asked doubtfully. "Besides, why would I possibly care about what happens to some annoying know-it-all?"

"Of course, I won't let her go!" Greengrass snapped. "She'll never go free. But if you tell me what I want to know, I'll give her a clean and painless death. No more torture, no more humiliation. You have my word on that as lady of House Greengrass," she explained before smirking and continuing with, "As for why you should do this... I don't really care."

At his questioning gaze, the girl explained further. "I don't care if you did all you did out of some lingering love for Potter's mudblood mother or if you wish to protect mudbloods in general," Greengrass said, completely ignoring his outraged and shocked expression as she revealed her knowledge of his feelings for Lily.

Some of his former classmates knew so it wasn't out of the question Daphne Greengrass had learned about it somehow. Her father had likely known and like most purebloods, he liked to scribble his fucked up thoughts and experiences in journals. The girl had likely read them after his death. Still, Severus had dearly hoped his personal history wouldn't have spread to the younger generation.

"No matter what your motives are or how you rationalize this, it doesn't matter anymore. All I'm giving you is this choice," she continued to tell him. "So choose very carefully, professor. I know I probably can't penetrate your mental barriers. You are too experienced in mind magic for me to do that. But after I'm done with you, the dark lord will have his turn... and that will be your end. Which means this is your very last chance to help anybody."

Severus looked into her eyes and knew she was perfectly capable and willing to do everything she just said. Granger was a mudblood in her eyes, unworthy of life or dignity. Her honor as Lady Greengrass was far more precious to the pureblood girl than lives of a thousand muggleborns. So as strange as it sounded, he fully believed her when she swore she would mercy kill Granger and spare her the torture in exchange for him answering her questions.

The only issue was, should he really do it? Or better yet, why should he do anything at all? There was no meaning to his life at all. It was a total failure. The only woman he ever loved chose his mortal enemy over him. It sent him on a path of anger and hatred that eventually led him to join the dark lord – the biggest mistake of his life. The incompetence and foolishness he so hated in others… all of it paling in comparison to the foolishness of his own which had caused Lily's death.

His desperate desire to make up for his mistakes later led him to trust yet another great wizard. Again a mistake, again a foolishness. Twenty years of his life dedicated to protecting Harry Potter so that Lily's son would be safe. Meanwhile, all Albus Dumbledore ever planned for the boy was to have him die at a proper moment. He didn't do it maliciously and would have preferred to save the boy if possible but using him as a weapon against the dark lord took precedence.

It was at that point when Severus nearly gave up. He only persevered because he didn't see any other option other than to follow the plan. Because intellectually, he knew Dumbledore was correct. The dark lord couldn't be allowed to win or he would destroy the whole world. If the only way to prevent that was to use the words of that thrice-damned prophecy and sacrifice Potter, then that was what had to happen. And even if Severus could not save Potter as he hoped, at least he would help Lily's son to fulfill his destiny.

Or so he thought. Sadly, it only turned out to be yet another failure. All of his efforts and scheming, all of Dumbledore's clever plans... all of it rendered meaningless by Daphne Greengrass.

What a total waste of life!

And now, all he had left was a chance to protect Hermione Granger from a fate worse than death. It was like the higher powers were having one last cruel laugh at him before sending him to hell – to be unable to protect Lily or her son, only to be given a chance to save an annoying Gryffindor know-it-all. Oh, to think some people would dare to compare her to Lily! Idiots, all of them! Not even in her wildest dreams could someone like Hermione Granger ever hold a candle to Lily Evans.

And yet...

Severus knew what Lily would have wished him to do if she was here. That idea had been his moral compass for years when faced with difficult decisions. He would allow it to lead him one last time. He didn't have anything else left as he looked up into her eyes, "What do you wish to know?" he asked while Greengrass' expression became triumphant.

"Dumbledore," she told him eagerly. "Tell me where he is."

He looked at her strangely, wondering what kind of question was that and why she would ask it. It wasn't like her to joke or come up with useless questions so... oh.

And here he thought Daphne Greengrass was intelligent. Insane and cruel, but intelligent. But it turned out she was a fool like the rest of her generation. Severus Snape started to laugh. Not just a small chuckle but loudly and heartily, much to her annoyance. It might have been decades since he'd laughed like that. "You stupid girl!" he cried out. "You think any of this would have happened if he was still alive?!" he asked with an arrogant sneer. "Incorrect assessment and sloppy reasoning, Miss Greengrass!"

"Are you saying you really did murder him?" she asked skeptically.

"I didn't murder him!" he blurted out. There, he said it out loud. And it felt good too. "I didn't do anything Dumbledore hadn't asked me to."

There was a long silence after he made that statement while the wheels inside the girl's head turned furiously. "Why... why would he want you to kill him?" she finally asked.

"I don't know," he replied sarcastically. "Perhaps it had something to do with the fact he had less than two months to live and an exceedingly gruesome death to look forward to as a withering curse ate through his flesh?"

Again, Greengrass was silent for a while, seemingly immune to his sarcasm as she considered his words and whether to trust him. "His hand," she finally gasped. "You contained the curse into his hand, didn't you?" she asked as she rapidly connected the dots, "Factor three decay?"

"Factor four," he corrected, somewhat impressed she was familiar with the magic he used. Come to thing about it, it might have been one of her ancestors who had invented the container spell.

"That would have left him with a year... tops," Greengrass summarized before she was silent again. "So it was a mercy killing," she finally said.

"Yes… and now it's your turn for that, Miss Greengrass," he reminded her and the girl blinked at him, the meaning of his words not immediately obvious. Finally, she realized what he meant.

"Not quite yet, I still want to know why you've betrayed the dark lord," she told him. "I find it difficult to believe you did it all for some dead mudblood."

As soon as she uttered the insult, Severus' emotionless mask finally broke for the first time in years. It was only for a second or two but enough for Greengrass to notice the anger and loathing on his face.

"Merlin, it's true! You still love her!" she gasped as she took a step back to lean against her table. "You have betrayed the dark lord for her! For a filthy mudblood who wasn't even a real witch! Hell, even she had better sense than you, choosing a pureblood over halfblood," she said and laughed at him mockingly.

As he listened to Daphne Greengrass hurling insults, demeaning him and spitting on Lily's memory, his mask cracked for another second. Eventually, the girl went silent for a while before saying, "Come to think about it, I've never heard you use the word. Not even while it was just us Slytherins," she said and paused for a dramatic effect before uttering. "Mudblood… you can't even say it, can you?"

Severus finally looked up at her. "Lily Evans was the best person I knew and a great witch. Far greater than you'll ever be," he said and closed his eyes before sighing in resignation. "And now I am done talking. Do what you will, girl."

Before Daphne Greengrass could say anything else in response, a loud voice suddenly echoed through the room.

"ENOUGH OF THIS!"

Both of them startled and looked in the direction where the voice came from, just in time to see Harry Potter taking of his cloak of Invisibility. Severus Snape would have jumped out of his seat in shock if he wasn't bound to it. "Harry... no!" the girl cried in half-hearted frustration while the boy-who-lived stared at Snape with anger. "He's lying! I know he is!" he hissed.

"POTTER?! What is going on here?!"