47

Chapter 47 Classes Resume and Plots Continue

Severus grumbled something about it taking time for them to find a balance as he left her in the morning to get dressed and whatever else he did. Lily rolled her eyes … yes, school came first. However, she did not want to waste the opportunity to spend her other time with Severus, besides doing her head girl duties and time with Mary.

He waited for Lily in their common room, or at least she thought he was. Severus was writing a letter that he said he could finish later. They left together through the fourth floor door and went down to the Great Hall.

Lily made a face at her schedule. There were no unexpected classes, but Herbology first thing? It was going to be cold soon, and too icy before the sun warmed things. Divination also seemed odd as a first class another morning. That only met once a week, but longer. They had been warned seventh year was intense development of their inner eyes.

Mary was with her in Charms, Defense and Divination. Mary's other classes were Muggle Studies and History. She wished History only met once a week, or first thing in the morning so she could get some extra sleep with Prof. Binns droning on about goblins.

In a way, Lily wished she had Muggle Studies for a good laugh. Mary's summer project was another doozy, and she doubted Mary was alone in her misconceptions.

Today the thee of them were going to Defense together, and Lily looked over Sev's schedule to see he had one Arithmancy class a week, while she had Divination. He also had Ancient Runes twice a week.

Their initial impression of their new Defense teacher was poor. The idea to have a Defense study group appeared to be the only way to learn anything. The elderly witch had a handful of wispy white hair that she was trying to pile atop her head to add about a foot of height. She was a painful sight to behold. Severus's name during attendance was a hint of things to come because she lisped so heavily that Lily barely made out what she was saying. Mary did not help by reminding them that Binns hardly ever called anyone by their real name. However, he had a good memory for their new names. Lily was Everest for five years, while Mary was still Miss MacDougall. In spite of all that, two rolls of parchment were due next class. The new professor knew how to assign homework.

Although Severus thought Lily should direct her attention to the defense study group after this morning, she started talking about the fancy dress party after lunch while they waited for Prof. McGonagall to arrive and start class. He did not want to be a go-between her and MacDonald, and told her, "Perhaps MacDonald wants to feel glamorous. That's why she chose Aphrodite."

"Why can't I be the glamorous one?"

"You aren't a beast a couple nights a month. Can't you let her be the beautiful one for one evening?"

"You think I'm beautiful?"

"I've always liked the way you look. Even when we first met."

"The way you'd just stare at me ..."

"Yes, and I think if we can work out the idea I had … MacDonald would still be the fair-looking one out of the three of us."

"With ..."

"Shh. I thought you said there would be prizes and you planned to win them all or something like that."

"I can't win them all."

"If the goal is to keep our identities hidden, then we need to discuss it privately. With MacDonald. Even if she chooses to strike out on her own or work with others, I don't think she'd reveal us."

"I think she'd prefer her goddess."

"The outfit would be the same. She has a constellation named after her."

"I'll have to ask her."

"If you don't like that idea, we can come up with another one."

"No, I did like it, but Mary's got good ideas too."

He sighed, rather than responding. Her idea to dress him up as an errand boy of the gods because that's the only one that suited did not sound like a good idea to him.

After Transfiguration, Severus went to Ancient Runes. Lily stopped at the library to pick up books for them to use for Defense, and sorted everything in her room. The closet fit her whole trunk unpacked and the trunk itself with plenty of room to spare.

With time left before she expected Severus back, Lily laid out her Transfiguration and Defense books along with parchment, quills and ink in their common room, ready to show him that she could think about school work too. Getting off to a good start was important.

Severus entered from the fourth floor, greeted Lily and took Phi over to the window to let her out.

"How was Runes?"

"Fine. Lots of work to do before next class, but I don't have it again till next week."

"I stopped at the library. We might have everything here to complete our Defense assignment. Transfiguration was only to practice that new spell."

"Yes," Severus agreed, leaning down to look at the books Lily had procured after he let his bag fall onto one of the sofas.

"Do you want to work on that assignment after dinner?"

"All right."

They began before going to the Great Hall, and when they returned finished in no time.

"Oh, did you see the view of the lake earlier, Sev?" Lily asked as he closed the drapes.

"I did let Phi out this window. Do you think I should leave the curtains open? It's a new entry for her."

"She's smart, Sev." How could she get completely lost? Hogwarts was pretty big and lit up at night, and she knew the clock tower from last year, if she got confused.

"May I go to the library before it closes?"

Lily's brow furrowed. It sounded like Sev was asking permission. "If you need to. I wouldn't stop you."

"I wasn't sure if you had made plans for us."

"Uh no, I hadn't. Could you take these books back with you? Are you going to work on something?"

"At least get the books. I can work on it later."

"Well, I can go over to Gryffindor and visit Mary, or maybe help some younger students. Are you still going to meet up with those boys from last year?"

"Probably. It's only the first day, and we do see each other at meals. It's all right if Black and Crouch are part of your defense study group?"

"Crouch got us the subjects so that wouldn't be very nice of me to say we wouldn't study with him."

"I could alone, if you don't want to be around other Slytherins."

"Why would I say that? They seem nice."

"Let me get going with these," he said as he picked up the books they used for Defense, "and we can talk more about what you had in mind for the study group later."

In the Gryffindor common room, Lily sat with Mary. They were the only two seventh years so they fielded a range of questions. Not all of them were in good taste, and there were some subjects that the two of them did not take. Arithmancy and Ancient Runes were not popular subjects for Gryffindors, but some did take those classes. When they sounded hesitant to go back to their teachers for extra help, Lily could hardly comprehend the questions to try to remember them for Severus, so asked the ones that were truly stuck on something to write it down. Not sure how Sev would take this, she warned them that the Head Boy had a lot of his own schoolwork and may not have time to get to these.

Mary annoyed her by sort of contradicting her and saying what a great help Severus was at explaining things in a different way that made it more understandable.

It was all right for Sev to help her friend, but Lily thought a couple of these toerags called him Snivellus when it was popular to do so. She wanted to help her fellow Gryffindors, however not all of them were deserving.

Glancing at the clock, Lily said, "It's eight. I'll see what Sev says about these. It might have to wait till the weekend for him even to read them."

"Can I come?" Mary asked.

"Uh, I guess," Lily responded. She was thinking of waiting to ask Severus to take a look at these, if he looked busy. Maybe she could get them talking about the fancy dress party and forget she had these for a day.

After they passed through Lily's head girl door, Mary complained, "How many steps are there?"

"I think our rooms are actually on the fourth floor. We have another door that goes out near the library without any steps. Sev's stairs come up from the dungeon."

"You can go into Slytherin?"

"Why would I want to do that?" Lily innocently inquired. She had not mentioned that she had seen the enemies' common room over the last Christmas holiday.

"To see what it looks like."

"Sev said it was underground with no windows. That's got to be dull."

"Have you ever heard Severus rave about anything? It could be great down there."

"It's probably all snooty with their stuck-up ways. Maybe it's nice when it's empty."

"Their house is traditional. Severus and you are not so it's difficult to … you know …."

Lily's mouth quirked to the side in annoyance as she filled in different 'you know's in her mind about the narrow-minded hypocrites down in the dungeons. Not traditional. She'd give them nontraditional.

Mary sped up when she saw better light at the bottom of the stairs, and exclaimed, "Severus, here you are working on all that while Lily's wasting time with us Gryffindors."

Lily saw Severus visibly cringe at Mary's approach. It appeared that Severus was working diligently. She thought it was his Runes work since his dictionaries were out, and piled in a semicircle around his scattered parchments.

"It wasn't like that, Sev," Lily corrected. "Gryffindor's trying to overcome its image of being a bunch of wastrels and want to get serious about their schoolwork, but now they don't understand the basics. The two of us were swamped, but we know nothing about Runes or Arithmancy, the hardest two subjects."

"Why would they expect you to? They should have paid attention before."

Mary sat down on the arm of the chair and leaned towards him, "But Severus, couldn't you help us just a little?"

"They should try working on it themselves, rather than bothering us," he replied, shifting his body to the other side of the chair. His eyes met Lily's. She could not tell if he was looking for help, or he was accusing her of putting him in this awkward position.

"Let's let Sev get to a point where he can take a break, Mary. Did you want to see my room? The closet's huge, and the bath's even bigger than the one that the prefects use."

"All right. Don't let us bother you, Severus," Mary said and patted him on the shoulder.

It was too late. Severus was already bothered and annoyed. While they traipsed into Lily's room, he packed up his things and went to his room. He gave his door a dark glare a short while later because they were knocking on it and calling him.

"What?" he snapped.

"Sev, are you coming back out?"

"Why?"

"I have the questions they wrote down for me. Uh, if you don't want to look at them now, maybe tomorrow?"

Vexed by them, Severus spun in a small circle before deciding he might as well get this over with, or Lily would be pestering him till he did it. Why didn't she just act like she knew what she was talking about? Dunderheaded Gryffindors wouldn't know any better.

When he opened the door, Lily beamed a smile and him saying, "Thanks, Sev."

He took the parchments she thrust at him.

MacDonald exclaimed, "Ooh," and brushed by him going into his room.

He looked at Lily. Why would she lure him out to take MacDonald on a tour of his bedroom? With a huff, he took himself back into the common room to see what the idiotic Gryffindors scribbled. He should be surprised it wasn't written in crayon, though one had some sort of drawing on it. It didn't make any sense, even though there were numbers on the sheet, there was no real Arithmancy or even a question written on it.

"What do you think, Sev?"

Lily was looking at him from his doorway.

"Either these are advanced third years, or they might want to consider giving up these classes. A couple are missing the basics."

"Can you help them?"

"I'm not going to do their homework."

"I don't want you to do that, but couldn't you please try for me?" Lily thrust her hip out, put her hand on it and hinted, "I could make it worth your time."

Severus raised an eyebrow. If Lily was offering to recompense him with sex, he already got that from her. Usually one negotiated with something that was currently not given away for free.

He offered her the parchment with the drawing, "Whoever wrote this, I'm not sure if they even know what Arithmancy is."

Lily glanced at it, then snatched it away from Severus. Someone had drawn a round thing with a circle on top, put two smaller round things towards the top center inside the circle and an upside down triangle at the bottom with a wide vertical line outside the circle lined up in the direction of the triangle. Her body was not a circle.

"What?" Severus asked.

She looked back at him. Sev was serious. He did not know that the drawing was supposed to be of her. "Nothing, some toerag. Let me think who gave this to me."

Severus shrugged as Lily crumpled it up and threw it in the fireplace. He didn't know who gave it to her, and if she was just going to take whatever parchments Gryffindor threw at her and deliver them to him, he was lucky that there was not a stack of insults here.

He rose with a sigh, and said, "I can try to get them sorted, or point them in the right direction. I don't know if a couple hours is going to help. If they can't pay the least bit of attention in class, why would they listen to me?"

"Give it a try. I'll come with you, and if they are terrible gits, then we'll take points for wasting your time, and I'll never bother you again for this."

He shuffled through the parchments, then said, "Let me bring a couple of my reference books."

"Now?" Lily asked.

"These are pathetic, and you offered to let me go if this is some prank of theirs."

"It better not be."

Severus stopped in the doorway of his room. MacDonald was sprawled across his bed.

"How do I look, Severus?"

He looked at her more closely than he normally did. She did not appear flushed or pale so he asked, "Are you feeling ill?"

Between Severus's response and Lily appearing beside him with her fists clenched, Mary decided to get up. Lily probably gave him the worst pity shag ever if he had no clue what she meant. Over the summer, it looked like Lily maintained her extra weight from June, but had gained no more. Mary hoped she went back to shoveling it in here at Hogwarts. Severus may be loyal, but if Lily only wanted to be his friend, then he was available. Once Mary showed him some good sex, there'd be no way he'd want a cow like that. Besides, Lily was off to apprentice to a healer. That took up a lot of time so she'd hardly miss him.

After glaring at Mary for a moment, Lily asked, "Did you want me to ask them to come here?"

"I don't want them in here. You've told me enough times how they mess up their own common room. Besides, I don't want to give them an excuse to be out after curfew." He went to the window and called Phi in. She was good at watching out for him.

When he had the books he wanted, he perplexedly asked Lily who was heading to their main door, "Isn't it the same number of steps either way?" as he pointed towards her stairs.

"You can't go that way. The stairs inside Gryffindor don't allow boys on the girl side."

"Why not?"

"Isn't it that way in Slytherin?"

"I only went over there once to get those potions for you."

"What potions?" Mary asked.

"Nothing," Lily answered.

Severus went to their main fourth floor door and went out. The witches followed. "Where we going to do this, Sev?"

"I don't know. Maybe if it looks quick, I can do it on the landing outside your portrait. Longbottom came into our common room, but I don't want food to rain down on my head."

"That was only a couple times," Lily corrected him. There better not be food on the ceiling again.

The Gryffindors were in luck when Lily showed up and looked up to a clean common room ceiling. She found a few of the students from earlier and told them they could get some help now outside on the landing from the head boy.

Meanwhile, Severus had transfigured a large slate board and some chalk. He suggested the arithmancy students work together to get as far as they can while he showed the runes students where to look for assistance with their assigned work.

Runes was simple enough once he explained to the couple students they needed to either use the library or purchase supplemental books such as dictionaries. Since these were ancient languages, either older family members might have copies or second hand books should be available.

The others with their arithmancy were a pain in the rear. They did not read the problem carefully so they ignored essential information leading to an inability to solve anything. These practice problems to teach them skills were crafted to give the necessary data to set up their equations. This would help them identify what was relevant later in their studies, when either given too much or applying arithmancy to real applications.

Severus was in the middle of the fourth year problem, explaining that the two speeds given were essential to finding the solution when Prof. McGonagall came up the stairs to find Severus, Lily, Mary and a handful of Gryffindors around a slate board covering the wall next to the Fat Lady.

Knowing that neither Evans or MacDonald had arithmancy, she wondered if they had bullied Mr. Snape into a study session with Gryffindors. His approach telling the younger students that if given information in an early year problem than it's highly likely that data is used to solve it was sound.

The students greeted her, and she responded while looking at the work on the board. They were being shown the correct method to work the problem. It had been a while since Minerva did any arithmancy, but like transfiguration, there could be a lot of delicate calculations involved.

She awarded Mr. Snape five points, then another five for his assistance with Ancient Runes. Her Gryffindors were not happy with that, but the faint protest quieted as her eyes narrowed. Mr. Snape may help Slytherins with subjects, but that was between them.

Lily expressed her displeasure at her housemates trying to deny Severus points on their way back to their rooms. He could have just as easily received nothing for his trouble, if Prof. McGonagall had not come by. However, she did, and she could award points as she saw fit.

When he could not stand to hear her repeat it again, Severus warned her, "Be careful. They might see you as helping Slytherin get the House Cup."

"House Cup? Since when did Gryffindor care about the House Cup? Besides, neither Mary or myself could help them with those subjects. I know Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs might take them, but I know you are good at them."

"Good at them, but maybe not at explaining them."

"You did fine. I understood what you were telling them … not good enough to start doing it, but I understood if it's a simple problem and you're told all these facts about it, that you should try to use all those numbers. Also to read the problem to see what you are asked to solve. And the Runes … I don't know why any of them thought they wouldn't need extra books."

"They are in the library so if they do that homework there, they should have little problem."

"What about the arithmancy students?"

"Once they start looking at the problem, they should do better."

"They looked all right to me, but did any hiss any insults or do anything to you?"

"No."

Entering their rooms, Lily asked, "So you'd be inclined to help them again?"

"Maybe, but it has to be on real arithmancy. I'm not teaching them to read."

"So uh … what's next? Were you going to work on something, or should I start our bath?"

"I'm not in the mood for working on things … or anything else. I guess a bath, but then I want to go to sleep."

Lily stopped herself from frowning. She knew Mary and her had upset him earlier. After seeing Mary just jump on his bed, Lily was mad herself. "How about we bathe and sleep in your rooms? If Phi's done for the night." Maybe if Lily slept in the Slytherin room, Severus would not think of Mary in there at all.

"I'll let her back out now and call her in when we go to bed."

Later, after Lily muttered this bed was firmer than hers, Severus heard her sigh and felt her turn over till she was comfortable enough to stay. He felt like telling her that he could sleep here alone, but knew that he did not sleep as well as he did with Lily by his side. She was so annoying. What was wrong with her? Or maybe she had stayed the same, and it was him that changed. Lily said he was moody. Could this be a mood of his? Lily could make him happy. He knew that. Severus knew it the first time he realized what she was as a child. Like him. The little red-haired girl who was like him. He wouldn't have to wait to go to Hogwarts to have his first friend. Except for her bossy, older muggle sister, Lily was everything he could want in a friend. Then they got to Hogwarts, and Lily made a lot more friends.

He stared up into the darkness. That was the answer. Lily made friends. Severus did not make friends. He was the problem. He did not have the luxury Lily did to favor one person over another. He had no others, unless he pretended to be friendly. He couldn't stand the look of MacDonald or the sound of her voice. She had snubbed him for years. She was like Petunia, looking down her nose at him whenever he approached Lily their first five years. MacDonald didn't even need to know his address. It wasn't that he was in Slytherin either because she certainly didn't mind shagging Malcolm Wilkes. It was him. It had always been him. He wasn't sure if his parents had hated him, but he was yelled at by people on the street when he was little. Sometimes they'd throw stuff at him. Here at Hogwarts, students yelled at him, insulted him, physically injured him, jinxed and hexed him.

What was wrong with him? And why was he like this? Severus did not believe he could fix it either. He reviewed insults in his head to analyze what could be changed. Even after he washed with a large bathtub, he was still greasy, grimy and slimy. He was not the only thin person at the school. He did not have a freakishly large nose so there were others who might be comparable, even Dumbledore had a long, crooked one. He was not the boy with the longest hair. Others had dark eyes. Others had black hair. Perhaps all together he was wrong, or he'd be wrong no matter how he tried to disguise it. They'd still see the half-blood weed from Spinner's End that should be stamped out because he never should have been allowed to exist this long.

Why couldn't they all mind their own fucking business? He did not go out of his way to bring attention to himself. That seemed to be their problem. He simply existed and the very sight of them made them react. Like a cockroach strolled across their dinner plates to swim across the lake of rainbow-sheened, greasy gravy. Severus Snape was repulsive.

He grew angry and thought of ways to shove it down their throats. They thought he was repulsive before? No, he could take it to new heights … or depths. Repulsive depths. Revel in the repulsive depths and sneer at them as they were forced to acknowledge they saw him, and couldn't avoid him. They would be forced to toady, bow and scrape, like they did with Slughorn, Potter, and Black.

Severus rolled out of bed to write his solicitor. He was inspired to have them come crawling to kiss his putrid feet.

When he returned to bed, after adding his new letter to the others he planned to mail tomorrow, he thought about who would falsely act like they loved him all along. Like he was saint bloody James fucking Potter himself. Slughorn might be the first in line, but there would be a long line behind him. Like they were grateful dogs, wagging their tails, tongues hanging out and just so eager to please him.

Severus considered that he should start thinking about something else, or he'd never fall asleep. Lily's stairs went to Gryffindor tower, but she believed he could not use them because he was male. That was interesting. Of course, Severus had not considered on the first night that he could use them unnoticed. They all knew there that he did not belong in Gryffindor. Other than looking around, what would he even do in Gryffindor? The Marauders weren't there. They were the only ones he'd want to bother with. Picking on younger students did not appeal to him. Having seen quite a lot of Lily and Mulciber's collection, hiding in the girls' lavatory had no appeal. To infiltrate it as forbidden territory was the only appeal, and he doubted it would be worth the effort. If they had something truly special in there, Lily would have told him by now.

At some point he must have fallen asleep because Severus woke to the sensation of a mouth on his cock. His hand briefly waved in the air to get the time. It was past dawn so Lily had restrained herself for hours. This felt wonderful. He was happy Lily could no longer resist. She didn't even stop doing what she was doing once she realized he was awake.

Lily still could not decide what she liked about the taste. She thought Sev liked this because he was usually faster when she used her mouth. She slid up his body, emerged from under the blanket and asked, "No longer mad at me?"

"Mad?" he asked blearily. Maybe he should act angry every night.

"Mary and I were not very nice to you."

"Hmm."

"So everything's good now?"

"Maybe. You also owe me for tutoring."

"Now?"

"Uh, maybe not now. We have class."

"Business has been slow ..." Lily hinted. "You like that?"

"But I just ..."

"Don't worry," Lily said as she slid back under the covers.

When Severus was finally dressed and ready to go, he looked at his outgoing mail, hesitant to send the letter he wrote in the middle of the night while in a bad mood. He carried it with him to breakfast. Listening to Slughorn soliciting two sixth years, he decided to send it. Severus would not spend this year listening to constant hints that he could do better from anyone. They'd still treat him like rubbish. He already had a couple ideas suggested as to what he could do for others as head boy.

Lily's mouth pursed as she read her mother's letter. Severus had been writing her almost every day, and Tunie was not happy about all the owls. She didn't know if she thought it funny, or should be annoyed with Severus. Her mum seemed to enjoy getting his letters.

Severus took his letter and request to Prof. McGonagall. She was deputy headmistress, outranking Slughorn. He did not feel like being insulted or questioned. If Slughorn was really as connected as he claimed, he should already know. If he didn't know, he may find out. If he found out, it might get rather interesting.

When he told Lily he had permission from Prof. McGonagall to miss school Tuesday to handle some legal matter at the Ministry, she was annoyed. Severus did explain that with all the killings by He Who Must Not Be Named and his Death Eaters, even half-bloods were benefiting from the drastic decline in whole families. Lily told him not to get his hopes up. She knew that if his mother had any relatives or money, Mrs. Snape would not have been Mrs. Snape. Lily certainly wouldn't be. She did agree to take good notes though because Severus was not sure if he'd return by lunch or later.

When the time came, it was simpler at the Ministry to claim inherited property. All they needed was blood, rather than the goblins' method of extensive records. His solicitor had been prepared for anything, but not for a landslide of properties ending up in his client's name, including the Lestrange holdings. For an unimpressive looking young man, he had something more precious than liquid galleons flowing through his veins.

After that, they went only to one house. The main Lestrange dwelling. Severus was curious about his father's killers. He knew the Dark Lord fan club did everything verbally at school so doubted there would be anything, but the same hope regarding some hidden message from his mother also bloomed to find the reason his father was killed by Death Eaters.

The house had an infestation of annoying house elves, but they were his house elves. It took no time at all to find the cause … which led to a number of curious ideas in Severus's mind. First off, why would anyone leave an incriminating letter like this lying about? Bellatrix Black must have been as stupid as her cousin, Sirius. His solicitor was more than willing to be of service and to take it to Gumboil. If there was someone at the Ministry that actually might not destroy it once they saw the Black name, it might be him. Severus would need to think up some revenge, but that was not something to involve his solicitor in. He could deliver the letter, and also take care of the Wigtown tickets that Severus asked him to purchase using Severus's money.

His last errand was simple. Severus had considered it, and based on the cliques he observed among the professors, seemed to be entirely appropriate in case one of his plans in the next year turned into an absolute fiasco. At Gringotts, Severus wrapped the badger cup in cloth and returned to Hogwarts with it.

He went to Prof. Sprout's office before dinner with his tale. Considering the high mortality rate of wizards, he came into some property. He went to look at the house to get an idea of what it was, and found this cup proudly on display. Since it was an old Slytherin family, he suspected it was stolen and Prof. Sprout may know who the rightful owner or their family could be. If it was legitimately his, he would be willing to sell it to someone who would better appreciate it. He also warned her to handle it carefully since he suspected it was cursed.

Returning to his room, Lily gladly shared what went on in Herbology and Potions with him and asked, "So what happened?"

Gloomily he replied, "I think a lot of witches and wizards are dead. I already got a will in place to protect it from passing back to whoever meant to benefit from all those deaths."

"You inherited something?"

"Quite a lot. I'm going to have to find something to do with it."

"What do you mean, Sev?"

"There's poverty, comfort, living well, and then this. These properties may be in worse repair than Spinner's End. It's going to have to wait till the holidays. Then I can look at them and either sell them, have them demolished or give them to some charity."

"But you could have a decent house among them?"

"I already have a house. Don't you understand that these were other people's houses? If Death Eaters killed families in them, I don't think I'd ever want to live there."

Lily was naturally curious, but if Severus was so negative regarding the situation, she'd have to wait to find out more. He did live in the house his mother died in so what was the big deal?

Meanwhile, Prof. Sprout had brought the cup to Prof. Dumbledore regarding the curse. She knew what was rumored about Mr. Snape and the Dark Arts so it was entirely possible he'd recognize a cursed item. This cup seemed similar to a described artifact of Helga Hufflepuff's, but that certainly had not been cursed.

Albus listened to Pomona's explanation regarding the cup. Why would Severus Snape give the cup over to Pomona? He was in Slytherin, and could easily do his own research regarding it. If this was Hufflepuff's cup … oh, who had it? Albus knew someone claimed to have had it, and he meant to get around to popping round to taking a look at it … it was going to be another trip into the pensieve. This could be it. It was years ago, and he vaguely remembered it was at one of those crushes after he defeated Grindelwald that he was introduced to someone … a woman. She may have been flirting with him, but oh … who had it been? At the time, he knew she was a Hufflepuff. He knew lots of Hufflepuffs.

He cast a number of charms to determine things about the cup, then finally touched it. He felt it immediately and snatched his hand back. There was something bad about this cup. Had Severus touched it? Well, he must have to warn Pomona about touching it. This cup … Severus had touched it, then gave it away. Well, not given it away, but turned it over to someone who may know who it really belonged to. Very puzzling. Both Severus and what had happened to this cup. Was it a facsimile of Hufflepuff's cup to lure an innocent person into touching it? Why would someone from Hufflepuff listen to it, or even care to do as it asked … power. It promised power. Severus really was a strange boy. A strange Slytherin boy who did not care if an object offered him power. He may have enough sense to realize that if he strolled around carrying a cup with badgers upon it, that people would think it odd. But he came to this decision rather quickly to give it to Pomona. Pomona said he had missed class with Minerva's permission today to handle a matter, and then he returns with this cup.

Albus scratched his nose, thinking. He admitted to Pomona that there was something wrong with it, and asked to keep it for a while to assess what it was. It had some intelligence. Couldn't very well make promises or suggest things without it, but was it a couple phrases to lure in someone unsuspecting, or real intelligence?

Later, on a hunch, he flooed Horace. He had an excellent memory for names and faces. If someone bragged about Hufflepuff's cup thirty years ago, Horace might recall who.

"Horace, do you recall anyone saying they had possession of a cup of Helga Hufflepuff's?"

"Oh … that was a while ago, Albus. Old Hepzipah Smith said she had it, but I never got round to seeing for myself. She died back in uh … oh, I think is was '47 or '48. She was pretty sweet on you, old boy."

"Uh … well, I don't know about that, but I believe you are absolutely right. Hepzipah Smith. Do you know what happened, or where the cup could have ended up?"

"Old girl was poisoned by her house elf. I haven't heard anybody bragging 'bout having it since then."

"It might have been stolen. Pomona brought me up a cup that might be it. Seems Severus Snape found it in a house, but he suspected it was stolen since it used to belong to an old Slytherin family."

"Snape just took it?"

"Well, it's his house now from what I understand. Um, which family was that? Might help to trace what happened."

After a moment of silence, Horace replied, "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Remember his mother had no siblings either? The Princes passed back in the 50s, I think, maybe even the 40s. He's not due to inherit anything. Probably nicked it over the summer while visiting someone else's house and got scared someone would realize it was him."

Albus' mouth twisted. Stolen? But why would a Slytherin family have this? That might be why things were quiet. Someone steals it from Smith years ago, then Snape took it … and then gives it to Pomona? Trying to think like a Slytherin made Albus's head hurt. Though it could be someone that Severus did not like, and this was his way of getting even? But he missed school today so that didn't fit into Horace's theory.

"All right, I'll have to look into that, Horace."

"I'd wager that's what it was."

Albus was not as confident as Horace. He had felt something familiar about that cup. He did not know what, but now that Horace mentioned it, he did recall Hepzibah Smith was accidentally poisoned by her house elf. Oh, he had a memory here somewhere … Tom Riddle. It was part of tracking down what Tom Riddle had done after he graduated.

After hours of using his pensieve and discussing the possibilities with his fellow headmasters, Albus stared at the cup on his desk. He had suspected … but the horror of such an act was unspeakable. Who would want to live in such a manner? Who was holding this cup for Tom? Would Tom go after Severus to get this back? Who would suspect Severus would take one look at it and decide to get rid of it? That boy's instincts must be incredible. He had to know.

Lily answered the door since Severus was back to working on his arithmancy project.

"Headmaster," she greeted. "What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if I may come in to speak to Severus, Miss Evans?"

"He's in the middle of something."

"It's quite important. He gave an object to Prof. Sprout, and I have some questions."

"He gave a gift to Prof. Sprout?"

"Well, it's a bit of a story. He thought it was a stolen object and that Prof. Sprout might be able to reunite it with the proper owner. His instincts were spot on, but I'm trying to fill in the steps in between."

Lily thought it a bit odd. She was not entirely sure of Sev's views on stealing. She had never seen him steal anything, but with him being in Slytherin, it was a possibility. If he found something stolen, she guessed that was the right thing to do. Give it to someone who could get it back to the right owner. He hadn't mentioned it to her, but it was probably simpler just to give it to a staff member and be done with it. They did have a lot of schoolwork with the NEWTs, along with their other projects.

"Uh, yeah, he's in his room … let me let him know you're here, even though the door's open, it's arithmancy ..."

Albus followed Lily into the middle room.

Lily's eyes darted around nervously. There was nothing incriminating in here, and her clothes were in her room, and Severus's were in his.

"Sev," she called. "Prof. Dumbledore's here and he has some questions for you."

Lily could tell from the way Severus threw down his quill that he did not want to be bothered with the headmaster, but he got up and came out.

"Headmaster?" he inquired.

"Prof. Sprout brought that cup to me to check for curses. I agree that it was most likely stolen since I knew who claimed to have it years ago. Whose house was it in?"

"Lestrange."

"You were at the Lestrange house?"

"Yes … sir."

Lily's eyes widened. Those were the people that killed Sev's father. No wonder why he had no interest in their things or talking about it.

"That's certainly a strange turn of events," Albus commented.

Severus stonily stared at him. What would the old man concoct next? Call him out as a liar now, or wait to consult with Slughorn to have it taken away or author some work of fiction making Severus the mastermind behind every death that led to his supposed good fortune? It must be hard keeping up that facade when at his core Dumbledore was a heartless, glory-seeking bastard. He must realize by now that Severus knew what he really was, and now he had resources. He was no longer a nobody. Well, maybe he still was a nobody, but a filthy rich nobody.

Rather than agreeing, Severus stared at him. Albus was momentarily confused by the blatant hostility in the student's eyes, but then recalled his mother. Even unwell, this windfall would have certainly changed her life. It wasn't that Albus thought Slytherins had no feelings, but it was rare to see such dedication to one person this way. Usually Hufflepuffs … well, no, Albus had loved his mother strongly … and his sister. Even Aberforth had his good points. With trepidation, since he did not want to anger Severus further, Albus asked, "Were there any other unusual items?"

"Surely there are, but I was there only briefly," Severus replied. If Dumbledore knew of Sirius Black's letter, perhaps even wrote it himself in the guise of Black, he wanted him to believe it was still undiscovered. The more likely reason for it not to be found was that it was destroyed. That's what anyone normal would have done. Maybe the Lestranges were such a group of illiterate, unsocial clods that they treasured any correspondence they received.

"Is there anything else you wish to tell me?"

"Wasn't my answer to your question satisfactory?"

"Yes, it was," Albus replied. Why would Tom give this to his follower? He doubted he told the Lestranges it's true purpose. It hardly seemed a safe way to store it. Did he place so little value on it? He bade the head boy and head girl a good night and walked slowly towards the library. He'd take that foul book back to his office and search it for more answers. Tom was normally very careful.

Early the next morning, Albus was starting to wonder if there were multiple horcrux. Even one was horrifying, but two or more? Even Herpo the Foul stopped at only one. How could Tom put so little value on his very soul?

James had gotten a small place with two bedrooms close to where the team practiced. He didn't want Remus to get overwhelmed when he needed to go out and leave him alone with the three house elves he borrowed from his parents.

Admittedly, it was the bare minimum. However, it would be a radical improvement over Azkaban.

When Severus received a letter from Gumboil, he already had a wild idea in his mind. It was risky. Nothing like Gumboil advised him against. He certainly knew better to go haring off all over Europe chasing Sirius Black. No, he wanted to bring Black here. Where he was not welcome. Where no matter who he married in France, it would not matter.

Lily thought Severus had been brooding, but he surprised her by suggesting he could spare an hour early Saturday evenings for the idiot Gryffindors, his words, that could not understand arithmancy, before he went to the Slytherin dungeons for his weekly general study group.

He also surprised her Saturday morning by casting something on himself then shaking his head, annoying all the heads of the animals so they all stood up and hissed in annoyance. Sev had given himself snake hair! "If you want to bring MacDonald back from breakfast, I'll stay here. I don't want to waste any more time working on this, if you two aren't going to be bothered."

"Wow, Sev, that's good. I'll bring you back something to eat too."

When they returned, Severus was annoyed that MacDonald acted like she never heard the medusa idea before. He knew he mentioned it once in her presence.

"If you really want to dress up as a girl monster, Severus … and you want to be a boy, Lily? I guess I could be your love interest."

"Don't you see, Mary? No one will be able to guess who we are. Even if they get the three names, they'll think I'm Andromeda, Sev's Perseus and … you're the third one."

"The monster, you mean?"

"Not that, Mary … just that they're pretty sure that Sev and I are seeing each other so it's likely we're the couple."

"I don't mind playing the monster," Severus commented. "Lily had suggested we could get some statuary into the Great Hall to add to the effect of our costume since this character's mythical power is to turn people to stone."

"You always planned on being the monster?" Mary asked.

"That was not the original concept. Lily wanted to be a hero … which I'm sure is not so incredible. She wanted to be a sword and shield type, and she did not want to settle for any of the females I suggested since they weren't as famous as the men. So to add to her costume's valor or bravery, I suggested we start looking at who male heroes fought. This gender reversal appealed to her since Lily wants only the very best for herself. We're just her accessories."

Mary laughed, then asked, "So you two are going to become a boy and a girl?"

"There's potions and charms, and since we're going to be using heavy glamours and transfigurations, along with most everyone in the room, we can safely not worry about finite unless someone is looking for trouble from the staff." He then added, "You can still dress in a manner similar to Aphrodite. She was your first choice?"

"Yes, she was. That's awfully nice of you to remember."

"You may want to carry some chains with you. That's part of her constellation."

"They don't have to be heavy and ugly, do they?"

"Not at all."

Severus knew he had some work ahead of him, but at least the three of them had moved past the point of discussing what to be. He could also openly brew things in front of Lily, rather than having her constantly question what he was up to. He needed to stew more lacewings since he was about to use up his last remaining supply of polyjuice. Perhaps that would be an easier way for them to switch gender? The potion he had in mind originally mentioned severe cramping in the lower abdomen as the organs formed or disappeared that lasted for close to ten minutes. Polyjuice was painful, but did not last for ten minutes of transformation.

Mary and Lily were inspired and got to looking up different glamours. With their upcoming Divination project, that kept them out of Severus's way for hours so he could lay the foundation for his scheme for Sirius Black.

Knowing she was a half-veela from Regulus, he wanted Apolline Delacour nowhere close to them so needed to do some research. The simplest thing was transfiguring an ornate bouquet, charmed to let him know when it was received, and sent it with a school owl. How far away were the Blacks? If he needed to time things with any accuracy, that was important to know. Regulus said they traveled extensively and lived for a couple weeks at a time wherever they had a whim to stay.

It was the Marauders themselves that gave him the idea to somehow use Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. They were known for their cleverness and ability to get rare items, and certainly not above repeating their clever tricks. If darkness powder was applauded once, it would be applauded a dozen or a hundred times. Gryffindors were so easily entertained.

Now all he had to do was work on layering charms to protect his object from unintentional use. It was also the difficult version of a portkey. Not timed, but when it was touched. Severus only wanted it touched by one person.

Severus remained the model of civilized decorum on his first visit to the Gryffindor common room for arithmancy tutoring. He touched nothing that was not his, except to sit down on the furniture and lean on the table to write.

Between Lily, MacDonald and Phi no one assaulted him, but there were insults. The arithmancy students shouted enough back to quiet them down, and Lily threatened detention.

He spotted a number of innocuous items, but waited till he used the polyjuice to become Lily as she slept and used her staircase to enter Gryffindor tower in the middle of the night. It had to be something truly memorable as belonging here. Something Black would instantly recognize. He settled on one of the ornate fireplace stokers with its lion's head. With Black holding it, it would appear threatening.

Prof. McGonagall was pleasantly surprised to receive that large packet of tickets to a Wigtown Wanderers game in October. Her mouth quirked as she read the letter. With Mr. Snape's change of fortune, it seemed his solicitor was laying it on pretty thick. Another Slytherin, no doubt.

At least it was nice that he had listened to Mr. Snape and that her student had even bothered to tell others about Miss Parkin's tragedy with plans for the school to remember her by supporting her favorite quidditch team.

Though it did not escape her notice that this was a home game for the Chudley Cannons. This fellow had bought tickets, but to the cheapest game he could find.

When she announced their good fortune to the club, Miss Evans looked a bit flustered, but Mr. Snape asked, "Can we have a banner contest to go along with our outing, Professor? Perhaps I can owl order something from Quality Quidditch Supplies as a prize. Team robes, perhaps? Is that appropriate?"

"Those better be some extraordinary banners," she replied. "There's more than enough tickets here for you lot."

"Maybe a quidditch outing would garner us more members, or we can send some to other fans we know?"

"Like who?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure Kennilworthy Whisp would know of other Wigtown fans. Can we invite him as our guest, professor? We can send him enough tickets that he could bring whoever he normally attends games with."

Minerva was growing suspicious. Severus was a Slytherin, but what could he gain from this? And Kennilworthy Whisp was the expert on the Wigtown Wanderers, besides the Parkin family itself. Snape's suggestion made complete sense.

After the meeting, Lily hissed at Severus, "Why didn't you warn me that the tickets were bought?"

"I told you. And if they didn't go through Prof. McGonagall, we may not have been allowed to go."

"I don't know, Sev."

"I also mentioned the banner contest. What is it that's bothering you?"

"Involving all these people."

"We're not forcing anyone to do anything they don't want to. If they want to go to the game, they can. If they want to make banners, they can. If they don't want to do either, they can stay here at Hogwarts. The same with that Wasp game of Slughorn's last year. If students wanted to go, they did. Whoever didn't want to go, got left behind."

Severus was annoyed. Lily asked for this to be done. They had discussed it at length, and now she had misgivings. This was not even something serious. They were inviting people with a liking for a quidditch team to go to a game and make banners, if they wanted to win a prize. Maybe she should stick to talking about fancy dress parties, and she didn't do a very good job of that either. She'd be talking about ideas till the week of the party, then expect him to miraculously know every spell she needed to be transformed into her vision.

Lily also gave him trouble over the defense study group. His plan met with the approval of their fellow like-minded students, so there was really nothing to discuss.

They initially met at the library to see who was interested than moved their group to the head student's common room for Friday evenings. They had fifth, sixth and seventh years from all four houses, and Severus already asked the kitchen house elves to send up some snacks and drinks for their meeting time. It was nice and not too crowded.

Lily's objection was the division of work. She was worried that if one of their fellow students did a poor job on his topics of research, that the rest of them would be given bad information. There were over a hundred topics that they could be tested on, and Severus felt between all of them, someone knew a little about each one, and probably more. If they split up the topics and then took turns briefing the others than they'd get through it all without the burden being on a couple of people. He certainly did not want to become an expert on all of these to hold the hands of twenty students.

They had months so none of this would be rushed, and as a group they could decide to learn more, or as individuals they could do further reading, if they felt they were weak in an area.

Madam Pomfrey certainly trusted the opinions of Minerva McGonagall and Pomona Sprout over that of Horace Slughorn. He had his favorites, and then there was everyone else. Obviously when a boy fell into that everyone else category, it was not beneath a supposedly mature adult to malign a student to make him appear to fit his esteemed opinion.

Severus Snape saved other students from werewolves last year and prevented another student from bleeding to death.

Now as head boy, he supported a movement in memory of poor Helen Parkin who was slain last year, attempted to return stolen property as soon as he recognized it, and assisted students with their academics at no charge.

He also forgave poor Remus Lupin so he could be released from Azkaban.

Perhaps it was because Severus Snape was not a very good Slytherin that Horace was so clearly prejudiced against him.