Chapter 48

Disclaimer: Not mine. I just borrowed them for a while. I promise to put them back when I'm done. Also, no money made either...just for fun. Oh, and all of Professor Snape's and Myrtle's dialogue in the girl's loo, the snippets that I have, are borrowed without permission from Mrs. Rowling's book. I truly hope she doesn't mind.

I have made a few deviations from canon, but the events that are not mentioned in this story that happen in the books remain as they happened in the books.

I want to give a great big thank you hug to my alpha reader, Arabellabloodgood, Proulxes for the bit of Brit-picking, and to DuchessOfArcadia and FrankQ for combing through this and helping me clean up my many mistakes. I really appreciate it more than you can possibly know.

Thank you, Jay, for the beautiful banner. I absolutely love it!

---

Severus had been conferring with both Albertus Newton and ex-Headmistress Dilys Derwent about Dumbledore's potion. By now the curse had progressed to a critical level. The shriveled and blackened tissue invading the Headmaster's arm extended a few inches above the elbow and the streaking tendrils of the curse stretched up to just below the deltoid muscle, making it dangerously close to where the old man's brachial veins joined the basilic vein to form the axillary vein. From there the curse would have only twenty centimeters to reach the old man's heart.

Professor Newton had kindly hung a portrait in his Alchemy classroom and his study so that Dilys would be able to join them in his quarters for their discussion. Severus had been considering switching the goldenseal for Blue Bloodenweed and lemon balm, and adding oleander milk, linderia bark, and Splindipperer spleens, although they were a tricky combination when using frankincense, blue Scullcap, dittany, juniper and St John's-wort as well. Headmistress Dilys was against the idea since the potion was still using phoenix tears, which didn't react well with poisonous ingredients. Instead, she suggested adding some of his powdered unicorn heart in an infusion of grand wormwood together with aniseed, hyssop, sweet fennel and angelica in the second phase.

Professor Newton's suggestion of switching potassium for sodium in the first phase and using Gwydion burl and Blodeuwedd oil with magnesium in the third phase would allow for Dily's suggestion in the second. It was a bold suggestion, possible, and seemed to have a very high probability of increasing the potion's efficacy. He just needed to work out the calculations before attempting it. He would also calculate the probable impact of Blue Bloodenweed, and adding oleander milk, linderia bark and Splindipperer spleens as the second phase and use the Gwydion burl and Blodeuwedd oil with magnesium as a fourth phase. He decided to confer with Septima Vector regarding his calculations since there was so much at stake if they were wrong.

Severus left Professor Newton's rooms on the sixth floor in time to drop his parchments off at his classroom before dinner. "Don't think I haven't noticed, Dilys, that we were considering adding the ingredients of Absinthe to the potion: Artemisia absinthium extract with aniseed, fennel, angelica, lemon balm, dittany and juniper?" he said to Dilys as she slipped from the portrait of the mystic Amelia Reinhardt's to Áed to Máel Oirdnides' frame, who were both famous for training river trolls. "The only ones missing are hyssop, star anise, nutmeg, and veronica.... your recipe, if I recall." A good one too, although, I prefer to add melissa, peppermint, coriander and veronica to my liqueur.

"I always did believe in the healing power of the Green Fairy. Ta-ta," she said from the portrait of Eunice and Prudence Warren, the notorious Warren Sisters of Warwick, and waved bye as she sped on to her frame in the Head's office.

Suddenly a binding tightness in his chest made him falter, and his hand reflectively grasped the wall to keep himself upright. Bloody hell, not again? He stood up, his hand rubbing his chest as if that could dispel the discomfort. The bloody Vow...damn it! Potter? Draco? It could be either, or both...blast it all.

He tore at his sleeve to see which boy was in such grave trouble. If this had been any other year, he'd know for certain it was Potter, but now thanks to his idiocy in goading Bellatrix, he had two boys to consider. Both bonds glowed, the red glowing chain representing the bond created by Bellatrix and the searing yellow chain representing Lily's both showed vividly on the back of his hand and wrist. Fuck. Where? Which way?

Only because of the countless punishments he'd had to endure at the Dark Lord's displeasure was he able to push aside the pain and pull himself erect. Where the bloody hell would they be...? He forced himself to move quickly down the corridor. He heard someone say, "STOP!" followed by a loud bang and a girl's scream up ahead in the vicinity of the girls' loo.

That would be where. He heard another voice shout something, but it was drowned out as the searing pain increased and the bond grew tighter, almost suffocating the life from him. He didn't have much time.

"MURDER! MURDER IN THE BATHROOM! MURDER!"

The girl's scream brought him back to his senses as the red chain grew hotter. Draco.

It was only blind fury that propelled him forward the last few yards. He burst into the bathroom and saw Potter kneeling over Draco's body on the waterlogged floor in a growing pool of blood. Thankfully, Draco was shaking; even though the boy's face and chest were bright red with blood, the boy was still alive...but barely. "Move over," he snarled, shoving Potter out of the way as he knelt beside Draco.

Taking quick stock of the situation, Severus saw that he'd been slashed across his cheek and down across his chest. My Sectumsempra...how...? He had time, seconds only, but time.

He began the incantation and the blood stopped oozing from the cuts. Severus gently wiped the blood off Draco's pale face to examine the wound. The gash was a clean, straight laceration, thank the gods...all of them. He started the incantation once again, this time with more focus on knitting the flesh back together.

It took three repetitions before the wounds were sufficiently healed. But the boy still needed Blood-Replenishing Potion and he'd be in a lot of pain tonight.

Potter stood to the side of the bathroom the whole time, watching horrorstricken. Good. Serves you right. See what you've done, you arrogant little shit? He'd have the boy expelled for this. There was no way the Headmaster could cover this incident up and pretend that the boy was still good and decent.

"You need the hospital wing," Severus said, helping Draco to sit up. Already the tension in his chest was abating, but the chains of the Vows were still making his hand and wrist prickle. He looked more carefully at the boy's face. "There may be a certain amount of scarring, but if you take dittany immediately we might avoid even that..." he was saying as he helped Draco to his feet. "Come..."

He pulled Draco's arm over his shoulder and wrapped his arm around the boy's waist to support him, careful not to put any pressure on his chest. Severus looked at Potter as they approached the doorway. "And you, Potter, you are to wait here for me."

He didn't wait for the boy's reply. Not even the Headmaster could save Potter if he ran from that room.

They walked in silence. Various students, those rushing to get to dinner on time, were looking at them curiously as they scurried by, some gaping in horror at Draco's bloodstained clothes. By the time they reached the third floor, the castle was silent except for their shuffled footsteps. "Draco, why won't you confide in me, I could help you..."

"I don't need your help," Draco replied curtly, his voice laced with pain.

"Don't be silly, Draco, I'm only offering my assistance, nothing more. Why won't you let me help you?" Severus asked, trying to make the boy see reason. He'd just saved the boy's life...surely that wasn't lost on the idiot.

"You told my Aunt Bella that you already knew what my task is," he sneered.

If any other student in any other circumstances had spoken to him like this, he'd have taken hundreds of House points and suspended the culprit. Instead, he had to suffer the insolence quietly. "Of course I did, but I will not intervene unless you ask me...this is your task. You're in charge of it, I am only offering my help...resources..."

"I don't need your help! And my mother sends me everything I need," Draco snarled venomously. "This is my task...he entrusted it to me...ME!"

Severus controlled his temper. "I am not interested in taking any of that away from you, but I have books, ones not held in the library," he reasoned.

"I have books," Draco said.

"Implements, tools, magical devices," Severus continued as if uninterrupted.

"No."

"Draco," he said softly. Not pleading but with a faint edge of warning.

"I said, NO," the boy said firmly, raising his voice at him.

Severus understood; it was no use. Narcissa had warned him in one of her letters; Bellatrix had poisoned the boy's mind in regards to him, and she felt that there was nothing either she or he could do to gain back the boy's trust in him. Damn that bitch.

"He's going to kill me..."

The words were so softly spoken, if the corridor hadn't been so quiet he'd have missed them. Severus stopped and turned to look the boy in the eyes. "Yes, he will," Severus said coolly, knowing the boy didn't mean Potter. Draco looked away, but he pressed on, "Those that fail him are...and cruelly. After they watch those they are trying to protect suffer or die before them."

Draco's head snapped up, and he looked him in the eye. Severus saw real fear in the pale grey eyes. "I have seen it before and it will happen again. He is a harsh master, and his word is law."

"We are almost there," Severus said, indicating the door. "Heed this, Draco, I have offered my advice and any means at my disposal to assist you with this task. Your mother came to me, and I give her not only my word...made an Unbreakable Vow to help you...and to do the deed if you shall fail. I intend to fulfill that Vow. I have no intent to step in and take over, and you're a fool not to take help where offered, especially since I'm not trying to undermine you in any way or steal your glory should you succeed." He let go of the boy and let him lean against the wall. "Even your father, the great wizard that he is, knew when to accept assistance and when to employ those who would help him succeed...in every aspect of his life."

"Yeah? And he's in Azkaban for it," Draco spat. "I don't need you. Aunt Bella told me not to trust you. My mother is weak and afraid without my father to back her up...so, like a coward, she turned to you, because you're the only other Death Eater here."

Severus inhaled sharply. He doesn't know about the other two!

"And I know you...I've watched you for years...you're Dumbledore's man, through and through," he snarled. "You may have been able to sway my mother with your words, but I saw the memory as if I was there, and you're good...you're smooth...but you don't fool me."

"And when you fail, Draco...and you will fail...I will be there to finish the deed," Severus said coolly. "I have watched you for years as well. I've known you since you were an infant; I was there in the beginning, brewing the potions to help your mother to conceive. I have seen you come in second and third to a Mudblood and Potter time and time again. You are not your father's son...you are not even half as skilled as your mother. You are like your Aunt. You are spoiled and arrogant but you don't have your parents' intelligence, their power or wisdom or their abilities. Oh yes, pampered prince, I know you, and I'll wait you out. In the end, I will have to step in and I will not fail." He pulled open the hospital door. "Unless you wise up and accept my offer to assist you...to assist you...not take over for you. It's your choice."

Madam Pomfrey appeared and gasped. "Take care of him; I have to deal with Potter," Severus said and walked away.

---

Naturally Minerva had argued in favor of her favorite cub, but this time Potter would pay by losing the one thing that would hurt him the most...Quidditch. Potter would not only miss the game but it would likely make Gryffindor lose any chance for the House Cup. But Severus would be damned if Draco Malfoy would be punished for defending himself.

"No, Mr. Malfoy will not be expelled...he is the victim in his fight. He is the one in the hospital wing recovering from the near fatal attack," Severus snarled.

"Draco was, according to Miss Myrtle Waynflete who witnessed the confrontation, defending himself from Mr. Potter' unprovoked attack," Dumbledore said with a weary expression. "Minerva, I agree with Professor Snape in this incidence. Harry should have shown better judgment, not just in provoking a duel with Mr. Malfoy, but for his choice of spells. It's unfortunate he didn't know what the spell did, but that doesn't excuse the fact. As for Mr. Malfoy, he should spend two nights in detention for the fight as well, but I'll leave the specifics of the detention to Severus."

Although he'd won a small victory, Severus was in a rage.

Of course the old fart put Draco in detention for defending himself, Severus snarled to himself as stormed through the castle to the dungeons. The old man had done the same to me countless times when I was a student. He drew his wand and aimed it at the door of his training room, which burst open with a bang. Potter would have been given a slap on his hand and would no doubt be congratulated by his friends if I had not taken the boy's Quidditch privilege away. I know exactly where Potter had learned the spell. "I invented it!" he snarled to himself as the door slammed closed behind.

The boy has my book! He fired at the training dummy. His velocity on the forehead of the sparring dummy registered two hundred and eighty and the strength indicator a dark nightshade aubergine. The boy lied to me, blatantly defied me. The book Potter had shown him had not been Potter's...his book...it had been Weasley's, he was sure of it. Severus fired again, his curse making the dummy sway with the impact, his velocity registering two hundred and ninety and his strength grew even darker.

Roonil Wazlib is not a nickname...it is a misspelling! Severus grumbled to himself, and fired again, his velocity reaching up to three hundred, the highest score possible and strength showing a dark midnight-purple. Roonil...Ronald, it was so obvious any dunderhead could see it! It was something one of those Weasley Wizard Wheezes Spell-Checking Quills would create. He'd confiscated a few of them to know that the trick quills malfunctioned.

He fired at the dummy, getting an accuracy rating of a perfect three hundred and the strength indicator color becoming such a dark purple it almost looked black. Had I not been in the corridor, Draco would have died, Severus thought with heavy contempt and fired again. "I'd have died," he snarled to himself and fired again, the indicator growing darker as his fierceness increased until the indicator was so dark it was black. By the hand of the boy Lily made me swear to protect...her sodding son! He fired again, snarling the name, "Potter," and the blast of his hex cracked the dummy.

He fired at the target dummy, getting an accuracy rating of a perfect three hundred and the contact indicator was the darkest burgundy-black. There will be questions and protests that I will need to handle...excuses for not expelling Dumbledore's favorite Gryffindor golden boy.

He fired again, and the target dummy hit the wall and wobbled, his accuracy number flashing three hundred and the indicator now the color too dark to distinguish the hue. He dropped his arm, watching the dummy settle, and hung his head.

---

Hermione was glad that things had worked out between Harry and Ginny, and she was glad that the Gryffindor team had won the match and thus secured the victory of the House Cup, but she was still angry with Harry for using the Half-Blood Prince's curse on Malfoy, especially since he'd had no idea what it'd do. The following day, however, Harry handed Ron back his copy of Advanced Potion Making as they settled down on the chairs by the fire.

"And what book do you intend to use?" Hermione asked.

"My book," Harry said defiantly as he pulled out his copy.

"You mean the Half-Blood Prince's book!" she shrieked as Harry set the book down and riffled in his bag for his Potions essay. "Harry, you can't be serious?"

Harry glared at her as Ron said, "Of course he's serious, Hermione, we retrieved the book from the Room of Requirement on our way back from dinner."

"After what that spell did to Malfoy," she said and snatched the book from him. "You can't! Those spells in the book are horrible...you can't keep using his book!"

"Like hell I can't," Harry replied, absolutely livid and trying snatch the book back. "I just know that I have to test out any of the ones I don't know before I use them on anyone."

"Harry, you have detention every Saturday because of that book," she tried to reason with him, but he grabbed the book from her hand. Harry had already told them about his last detention with Professor Snape having him re-copy all the old detention files pertaining to his father's and Sirius' misdeeds while at school.

He opened the book up to their assignment, and Hermione leaned forward and slammed her hand down on the page. "But the spells he wrote in this are dodgy, and..." She looked down and her mouth fell open. "Oh my gods!" she screeched and snatched the book back. She looked at the writing on the page. "No! It can't be!"

"Can't be what?" Harry asked, reaching for his book, but Hermione turned her body so the book was out of his reach as she turned the page. "Give me my book back!"

Hermione wasn't listening to him. The writing was unmistakable. It was Severus'...teen Severus'! She'd recognized it immediately, but she couldn't let herself believe what she was looking at. "The spells...those horrible spells...the one that almost killed Malfoy came from this book?!" she mumbled, swatting Ron's hand as he attempted taking the book from her. She turned the page and felt her chest restrict.

"Give him back his book, Hermione," Ron was saying, making another attempt at obtaining the book.

She swatted his hand again and turned so that neither could reach it. She remembered that Severus wrote in his books, he couldn't afford journals to write his thoughts and annotations in as a teen, and he didn't have a lot of spare parchment as a boy either. It is his. It is... "Oh my Gods! I don't believe it!"

"What?" Harry demanded getting up and walking over to her as she turned the page again and scanned down the minuscule writing.

Hermione couldn't believe what she was seeing. 'Yeah, I write in my books,' she remembered him telling her. He used to make annotations while revising...'It's not scribble...they're my notes' he'd told her. 'I experiment with the potions, try to improve them.' She turned the page again and there on the bottom of the Imagination-Enhancing Elixir, under all the added instructions and crossed-out bits for making the potion better, was the word Muffliato.

Ron stared at her, asking, "Hermione, what is it?"

"Harry, the spell you used on Malfoy, it came from this book?" she asked although she already knew the answer.

"Yeah, you know it did," he answered and her heart sank in her chest. "Give it here, Hermione."

"What page?" she asked, flipping through the book. She saw that the page with the Rematerialization Draught hand been folded down. She unfolded the corner and gasped. There on the top right corner: Sectumsempra. For enemies.

She handed him back his book with a feeling of acute disappointment.

Hermione went through the week in a daze. She focused solely on her schoolwork and perfecting her spellwork. The more she concentrated on her scholastic pursuits, the less time she had for thinking about her disappointment with Severus Snape, the Half-Blood Prince. She knew that Harry would never believe her that his most hated professor was also the original owner of the book he prized so much and was the Half-Blood Prince that he held in such high regard. And she knew she'd have a hard time explaining how she knew it was Severus' handwriting considering the handwriting in the book wasn't exactly the same as the handwriting they were all familiar with. As a teen, Severus' handwriting had to be legible so that his teachers could read it easily, so while it had been slanted and spiky, the writing was more precise and legible, even when he wrote very small letters, whereas as an adult, it had become tighter, more sharply slanted, as if hurried. And naturally she didn't have any examples of his earlier handwriting to prove it.

So for now, she kept it to herself, unless she found some proof that Severus was the Half-Blood Prince. Not only that, but her errant bounces back to Professor Snape's sixth year had been kept a carefully kept secret, one she'd not told her friends about, so Harry was not likely to take the news well or possibly believe her. Only five other people knew: Professor Snape, the Headmaster, Professor McGonagall, Mr. Latimer of the Department of Mysteries and Hestia Jones.

Hermione picked up one of the books she'd borrowed from the library The Life and Legacy of Rowena Ravenclaw.

Hermione did spend her free time searching through the library for mention of any artifacts that might have belonged to either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor and any information on how to destroy a Horcrux. But so far she was coming up with nothing on Horcruxes, not even another mention of the curse, and most of the articles in the Daily Prophet that mentioned a historical artifact as having belonged to one of the founders said that the claims of the owners were unfounded; that, and none of the items were reported as lost or stolen.

There was a lost diadem of Ravenclaw, which was last seen in 1012, and was considered missing by the middle of the eleventh century. Rowena Ravenclaw was often pictured with a ring or earrings, occasionally a bracelet, but no one claimed to have those items, as far as Hermione could tell. Helga Hufflepuff was always depicted with a cup or a wooden spoon in her hand, but no jewelry. Godric Gryffindor was always depicted with his sword in one hand and either his wand, a ball of fire or an owl in the other, with or without armor. And Salazar Slytherin was always shown with his locket, his wand and a ring, a black onyx ring, but nothing else.

Because Ginny was now hanging around with them, she found it harder to find time alone with Ginny to work on her wandless magic, and the DA was still meeting to practice dueling or using the target dummies in the Room of Requirement whenever someone was able to get the room to open up in the evenings.

---

Hermione finally had time on Saturday to look through Severus' book again when Harry served his second detention with Professor Snape. Harry had switched books with Ron again, and Ron let her read through it as long as she didn't walk off with it. She had worked from this book, followed the deviations Severus had made to the potions... his alterations... Why hadn't she seen the spells in the book back then? But many of them, such as Levicorpus and the Langlock spell, seemed to be little more than nonsense, tiny scribbles with crossings-out and revisions, alterations in the margins and blank spaces until she really looked at them closely. Because the writing is smaller. I was looking at the writing between the lines of the directions, the ones with arrows and caret insertion marks, not the ones written sideways in the margins or at the bottom of the pages below the potion instructions.

She turned to the page where another grotesque spell was written, several variations crossed out: lapidcrānium and capitulapisum, but cranilapis was not, although there were no additional comments about it. However, it wasn't too difficult to hazard a guess as to the intent of the spell...turning the cranium or skull to lapis or stone. She wondered briefly if the spell worked and then sucked in her breath. What if Harry had used this on Ron? Or anyone? Would Madam Pomfrey be able to reverse it?...could Severus?

On the facing page between the drawing of a Phoenician sea snail and a sprig of sweet fennel she read: Lingualapis (n-vbl - lt handed) for enemies. Turns the tongue into blue lapis. Faceresax was written beneath it. Lingualapis apparently transfigured items to stone, but did not work on animated objects. Good gracious...lapis! Turns the tongue to lapis? And how...who did he try the Lingualapis on that it didn't work...Harry's dad or Sirius? At least he had the counter curse, Faceersax...if that was the counter-curse? She couldn't tell.

The spells were clever but the ideas behind them were horrible. He'd obviously tried to create spells to defend himself, but he'd created ones that would cause harm...Dark Arts. She remembered what Sirius had said about Severus in her fourth year, although she knew there was a lot of animosity between them so she had always been somewhat skeptical of Sirius' motives, especially where Harry was concerned.

Severus...Sirius had called him Snape or Snivellus...had 'always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school.' He knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year...which was really saying something...but Severus had told her that Lucius had spread that rumor, a kind of protection because Severus had been a small, skinny child when he started school. Although, when she'd met him at sixteen he was nearly six foot. But Sirius also said that Severus had been part of a gang of Slytherins who had all turned out to be Death Eaters, which ended up to be true. But when had be invented these spells?

There was no way of knowing, except to assume it was some time during his sixth or seventh year, because he wouldn't have had the book before that, would he? Unless the book had been his mum's? But Lily started seeing James in their seventh year, after James stopped being a prat, or so Harry had explained. Which means these could have... would have been in sixth year at some point. Keeping her finger to mark her place, she checked the title page. It was published in 1946! It's a first edition! His mum's book. So he could have had this book in his trunk at any age...and he brewed potions that were quite advanced with such ease when I stayed with him...

She opened the book to the page she'd been examining and turned the book sideways. On the bottom near the page number there were the words, ossum or ossis, which mean bone in Latin, followed by calxossum and saxumossum, which were crossed out, but then he'd written Petraossum. Rotate medial with forceful jab...turns the bones into stone. Rennervate or Finite won't work. Ossis reviviscere works, but the subject has to hold still. Murexossis turns the skin to a rough shell, but Finite reverses it.

She flipped through the book to find Burns, Sprains, and Fever Potions, Pepper-Up Potion and his pain potions all had annotations for improving the potions in every available space as well as his variation of the potions. She looked up the Piles Potion and Coagulant Draught and it was the same. The potions they'd brewed together didn't have any of the spells he'd invented.

Hermione closed the book and set it on the arm of Ron's chair.

"Hermione?" he asked, taking the book. "You all right?"

"Yes, Ron," she replied with a sigh. "I'm just tired." But she wasn't, she was confused. As far as she could tell, Severus...the Severus who'd been so wonderful to her...had created Dark Arts spells as a student to use against Harry's dad and Sirius. "I'm going to go swim," she said and rose to leave.

"All right," Ron said, looking up from his essay. "Should I wait for you?"

"No," she said wearily, "I'll probably go to bed afterward."

"Okay, have a nice swim," he said and turned back to his homework.

But Hermione couldn't shake the images in her mind of seeing Severus fighting against Harry's dad, Sirius and Lupin, and using those spells he'd created.

---

The next Monday, when Hermione and her classmates entered Defense, she was surprised to see two sparring dummies standing at the front of the room, Professor Snape standing between them with his arms crossed. "Deposit your belongings and line up behind the protective barrier at the back of the room," he instructed. Used to his orders, everyone scrambled to do as he asked. "The sparring Dummy has been activated to throw pulse blasts that will act very much like a Blasting Hex," Professor Snape said. "They will fire in succession but in random order, so even though the right fired first for your classmate doesn't mean it will be the same for you. You are to deflect or shield yourself, with each blast, nonverbally. Any mouthing your spell will lose you five points, any vocalization will lose you ten, and failure to block the pulse will lose you fifteen."

There was a general grumbling at his remarks. "Including any comments from the class," Professor Snape admonished them. "Successful nonverbal deflections will gain you twenty points."

Hermione nodded. At least he was being fair about this.

"Mr. Potter, you may start. Step up to the mark on the floor."

Harry stepped up to the blue line and drew his wand. The sparring dummies raised their arm then in quick succession, first right, then left fired, right firing again a few seconds later. Harry deflected the bursts, staggering back a step at the impact of the assault, but he still lost Gryffindor twenty five points.

"Miss Patil, step up," Professor Snape said from his place between the dummies. Parvati managed to block two, but she lost Gryffindor twenty points for mumbling all three times and failing one block. Neville did well as did Seamus, but Neville only earned five points because his lips had moved and Seamus didn't win any.

When it was Hermione's turn, she stepped up at the line ready to defend herself. Professor Snape flicked his wand at each dummy and then crossed his arms again. The left dummy fired first, followed immediately after with a second pulse as the right dummy fired. It didn't matter, with all the practice she'd had against Professor Snape in their sessions, she deflected each one perfectly. She straightened up, feeling triumphant when the right dummy fired at her again. Shocked, but now having fine-tuned her fighting reflexes, she deflected the pulse, making the desk next to her slam into another. She inhaled, ready just in case there was another pulse, but the dummies remained motionless.

"Very good, Miss Granger, sixty points," Professor Snape stated.

"Eighty," she said defiantly. "I deflected four of them."

"Your score is sixty," he said, his eyes narrowing. "And you will address me as sir or professor in my classroom."

"As you wish, professor," Hermione said a little too annoyed to care how she sounded. "But I deflected four...not three...so I earned eighty."

Ron, Harry and Neville's mouths all dropped open, apparently shocked that she was actually being so rude to him.

"All right, Miss Granger, eighty, but minus thirty for your insolence," Professor Snape said coolly. "And you'll stay behind after the lesson."

Hermione stormed to the back of the classroom, ignoring the comments from her housemates. How dare he, the hypocrite. Everyone else only had three to deflect! He fixed the dummies to make it harder on me and then gets angry when I expect what's due? She watched as Lavender tried to block her three pulses and ended up costing Gryffindor thirty points, then slumped into a chair to wait.

After their practical, Professor Snape continued his lecture from the previous week on spells for detecting Dark Arts and avoiding Dark Art entrapments. Hermione tried to get down everything he said, knowing that if she'd be helping Harry hunt Horcruxes, anything Professor Snape could impart on the subject on the Dark Arts would all come in handy. When the bell tolled, Hermione set down her quill, crossed her arms and sank back in her seat as all her classmates hurried from the room. Even Harry gave her a sympathetic touch and smile before rushing out after Ron.

When the last student left, the classroom door slammed closed. "What is wrong with you?" Professor Snape asked, coming around to lean on his desk.

"Nothing is wrong with me," she replied firmly, staring at her quill.

He moved forward. "Miss Granger, there is certainly something bothering you if you are rude to me in my own classroom." His voice was patient, smoothly spoken in that way she'd always liked, but she couldn't look at him.

She inhaled deeply, staring at her hands in her lap, not sure if she really wanted to talk about the spells he'd created.

"Miss Granger, please, what is bothering you?"

She looked up, surprised to see him in front of her desk. He was looking at her with the same concern he'd had when he'd followed her into the loo when she'd been crying, his dark eyes searching her face as if trying to read her. She looked away and saw him stiffen slightly. She thought she knew him, knew the young man she'd stayed with, but it was so hard to reconcile that Severus with the spells he'd invented. But as much as she hated what he'd done, they'd become friends, both back in his youth and now in their present. She looked up at him, really looked at him, and decided that she needed to know why. "The spell Harry used on Malfoy, the one that cut him open...it wasn't a version of the Entrails-Expelling Curse or Entrails-Slashing Curse, it was different..."

"No, it is not," he replied, placing his fingertips on her desk. "You know."

"Yes, of course I know," she replied, getting to her feet so fast she knocked her chair back into the desk behind her. "But why would you invent something like that? How could you?"

"I was young and foolish once, Hermione," he said softly.

She looked up at him and felt her eyes fill with tears. "I knew you back then, and you were not foolish...you were brilliant, smart and... I trusted you...I know you...thought I knew you!" She palmed her forehead. "How could you invent something so horrible?" Her arm dropped, then rose, extended at her side. "For enemies...you wrote for enemies. Harry's dad, right, and Sirius Black...they were your enemies." She dropped her arm and exhaled heavily.

There was a deep haunted look in his eyes.

"Of all the...that spell is meant to kill! To kill, Severus, not to harm or wound... I don't understand?"

"I intended to use it against werewolves," he said, and she whirled on him, not realizing she'd been pacing.

"On werewolves...you mean Professor Lupin?" she screeched. "You invented that to kill him?"

"Not him specifically, but yes, werewolves," he said, sitting with one hip on the desk beside hers. "You once told me you were afraid of heights, that you couldn't ride a broom because you were afraid to. Why is it so hard to believe that I have fears as well...one that I had a very strong reason to be afraid of? I'd...the Werewolf Hit Squad had had to dispense with a werewolf in my neighborhood once. I was almost twelve. I saw it, but I was able to get away."

"Twelve?" Hermione gasped. "When? Where?" She hoped it hadn't been Professor Lupin.

"During the Christmas holidays, at the end of my first year of school," he admitted, looking at his clasped hands. "It was in the alley behind my house." He looked up at her but his eyes looked haunted by the memory. "I was coming home from a friend's house when I'd heard the beast growl. I managed to get into our back garden and into the house before it got me."

Hermione covered her open mouth with her hand. She couldn't believe that he'd faced a werewolf at eleven. But then she'd nearly been killed by a mountain troll her first year and that had been at school, not to mention a basilisk in her second year and had faced Lupin as a werewolf herself in her third. She lowered her hand. "What did you do?"

"Nothing," he said with a shrug. "I told you; my mother contacted the Ministry, and the Werewolf Hit Squad came and killed the beast. My mother told my father it was a vagrant, but he..." He looked away for a moment. "We occasionally had tramps in my neighborhood and sometimes had squatters in the abandoned homes. My mother used to scold me when I was out late on nights with a full moon. You see, her uncle had been killed by a werewolf, and she'd told me all about them."

She nodded; she knew there was more to the story, but she could tell it was difficult for him to tell her this much. Still, the experience must have been terrifying. No wonder he was afraid of werewolves.

"I knew that Lupin was a werewolf...I'd always been afraid of them...and I was very suspicious of Lupin." He rose to his feet. "I couldn't believe that he'd been allowed to attend school considering...and if I was ever to be attacked by him again, I was going to be prepared," he said vehemently, his hand clenching into a fist.

"Again, when were you ever attacked by Professor Lupin in his altered state?"

"Besides the night three years ago when you and your friends snuck off to the Shrieking Shack?" he asked.

"Yes, besides that time...which by the way, he didn't attack you...he came after Harry and me," she stated without thinking that he might not know that she'd also been in the forest with Harry at that time, thanks to the Time-Turner.

"In my sixth year," he snarled softly with suppressed anger. "When Black tricked me into going down that tunnel so I'd end up face to face with Lupin in his werewolf form."

She gasped. "He did what?" she shrieked, hardly believing Sirius would do it, but had Severus never lied to her.

He related his version of the night Black tricked him into going down the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack so he'd run into a fully transformed werewolf. "Potter did not go into the tunnel to save me...he went to protect his friends, Lupin and Black. Normally...or according to wizard law...had Black succeeded, Lupin would have been sentenced to death, and Black expelled and sent to Azkaban for attempted murder. Instead, I was told not to talk about the incident and had to serve detention with Professor McGonagall for a week."

She was shocked by the last part. "You had to serve detention? But...you were the victim, not the... No!"

She gaped at him in astonishment when he nodded.

She shook her head. How could his professors...our professors have been so cruel? she asked herself, realizing they were speaking of the same professors. "Professors Slughorn, McGonagall and Dumbledore?" she asked, and he nodded again. "How could they?"

His eyebrow rose. "I was in Slytherin. Potter, Black and Lupin were in Gryffindor and, not unlike you and your two friends, the students the Headmaster had hopes for."

"And the other spells?" she asked, trying to keep the accusation out of her voice as she listed the spells, "The Lingualapis, Langlock, Levicorpus, Muffliato, the Toenail-Growing Hex and the Cutaneous Horns Hex. And you created Murexossis and Petraossum to turn people to stone!"

He signed and sat down on the edge of the desk again. "The Toenail-Growing Hex and the Cutaneous Horns Hex were not of my devising, but I had been the victim of it several times. I did however, figure out the counter spell so I could avoid... get away or defend myself."

"Potter and Black?"

"Potter and Black...they used them on me," he said with a curt nod. "I admit to having created the Levicorpus spell, but I also created Liberacorpus to counter it. I likewise take responsibility of the Langlock and Lingualapis. Black wasn't not very good at nonverbal spells."

It all made sense. She remembered when he used it on James Potter, but he'd told her that they had used it on him. She was lucky, she didn't have as much trouble in school as he'd had. "And Murexossis and Petraossum, I know you created them. Whom did you intend to use them on?" she asked, her anger rising a little.

"Murexossis and Petraossum?" he asked, then sighed. "Yes, I invented them, but I only used them once I thought out how to reverse them just in case...I wasn't stupid, Hermione, I never used a curse I couldn't reverse. I wasn't about to be expelled over... Look, you of all people should understand...they would attack me; two, sometimes three or four to one, for no reason other than I existed. You helped heal me once, remember, that ointment you used on my back? I recreated it after you left, because it worked so well, and you had told me I had been the one to create it."

"And I left you a jar of it since I knew I could easily get more," she said as she leaned against her desk, realizing she'd inadvertently created a time paradox.

"Yes you did," he said with a slight smile. "I found the jar in the desk after you'd gone. You created a paradox, but one that worked in my favor."

"There were probably a few paradoxes done," she said looking down. "Like the use of the slotted spoon...we all have those in our kits now, and using the borer on the Phoenician sea snails."

"Yes, and other things as well," he replied not elaborating as she had. "Does Potter have my book?" he asked, and she looked away as she nodded.

"Yes," she replied, "But he won't give it up." She looked up at him. "He doesn't know it's yours; Slughorn apparently lent it to him first day of Potions, but when Harry's copy arrived by post, he put the new book in the cupboard."

"I want my book back," Severus stated firmly.

Hermione gave him a small sad smile. "He won't part with it, and unless you want to let him know you're the Half-Blood Prince..." She cocked her head. "Why did you call yourself that?"

"My mother was Eileen Prince," he said. Then as if suddenly noting the time, he stood up. "Toopsy, bring me some sandwiches." He shook his head. "You're missing lunch," he said as the elf delivered two plates with sandwiches and chips and two goblets. "Eat."

She sat down at her desk again and grabbed a roast beef sandwich off her plate. "Severus?" she asked between bites.

"Hummm," he murmured behind his hand, his mouth full.

"How can you detect Dark magic on an object? Is it a thrum? Is there a tingle of some sort?" she asked. "I know that you are teaching us how to detect Dark Arts and avoiding Dark Art entrapments this month, but you're talking about known items in our lectures, things we know are cursed."

"Gringotts' curse breakers spend five years learning all there is to know about detecting and discerning what types of Dark Arts have been used to protect items and places. I'm merely giving you the basics," he said, relaxing in his seat next to hers. "If I'm still teaching next year and nothing ill has befallen me..."

Hermione covered her mouth as she exclaimed, "The curse on the teaching post!" then quickly added, "I'm sorry. I interrupted you."

"Yes, you did," he said, his eyes narrowing but he didn't look angry at all. "The curse. So, if I'm still teaching, next year you would have more information on detection of Dark Arts, discerning which spells are used, and dissembling and reversing the spells, although, not to the level of competency needed to actually do it in a real sense, but enough to avoid getting hurt. I also plan on teaching how to stave off the effects of a curse until help can be obtained."

"I'm really looking forward to that," she said, sipping on the ice cold butterbeer in her goblet.

He huffed softly, a soft laugh, as he set down his own goblet. "I bet you are. Why all the curiosity of dealing with Dark magic?"

She shrugged slightly with one shoulder. "You don't know? I'm Harry's friend. We always seem to run into the unexpected Dark something. I never know what we'll face until its imperative that I know something to get us out of the fix," she said, and he sighed heavily as he shook his head. "Besides, I happen to find it fascinating. Not that I'd start creating Dark Arts, but reversing it, avoiding it or escaping it is very high on my list of priorities."

"Getting new friends might be a start," he said dryly, but there was a teasing look in his eyes.

"I have, but we call ourselves Dumbledore's Army for some reason," she quipped back.

He shook his head as he swallowed. "That's not what I meant."

She set down her sandwich. "I'm Muggle-born, and like it or not, I'll be defending my very right to exist, my right to be who and what I am. So, like it or not, want it or not, I'm going to be involved."

He didn't comment. She took another bite of her sandwich and washed it down with a sip of her drink. "You never answered my questions," she finally said.

"Which one did you want answered?" he offered.

She thought about it for a moment. "How can you detect Dark magic on an object if you're not sure it is one, or how can you detect if a place has been cursed if you're not sure?" she asked, carefully wording her question to engage him in a discussion.

He laughed. "Is that all?"

"For starters," she said, smiling at him.

They spent the rest of the lunch hour talking about dark arts detection and dissembling Dark magic until the bell tolled the resuming of lessons.

---

But because of Professor Snape's interest in retrieving his book back, Harry kept the Half-Blood Prince's book in his trunk. He'd found another edition of the book from somewhere that he'd swapped with Ron for his copy, so that if Professor Snape asked Harry to produce his Potions book, Harry's still had the one with the name Roonil Waslib in it. So because he wasn't using Severus' book, Harry was once again brewing potions based upon his own skills and not using the changes Severus had invented. Slughorn, still favoring Harry regardless, contributed his poor performance to lovesickness.

Hermione was looking through the 1947 Daily Prophets for anything on stolen or missing artifacts when a moving photograph of a skinny girl on the bottom of the page caught her attention. The girl was plain with straight, dark hair, heavy eyebrows on a long, pallid face and dark eyes. Her expression seemed both sullen and cross as she tried not to look at the person taking the picture even though the caption read:

Eileen Prince, Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Team

Second Place in the International Gobstones Championship

Eileen Prince...Severus' mother! She looked like Severus in a way, the same facial shape, dark eyes, and hair was similar to Severus'. The nose was different, and he had a nicer mouth, but it was thin like his mum's. The article mentioned all of the interschool competitions that Eileen had competed in and won.

Back in the common room, Hermione tried to show the picture to Harry, but he shrugged his shoulders and went back to his prep. Her second attempt at trying to make Harry guess at the connection between Eileen Prince and Severus failed. Miserably.

"Harry, about the Potions book," she said, trying to get his attention again.

"Drop it, Hermione," he snapped as he checked something in Left-Handed Wand Movements for the Right-Handed Wizard.

"I'm not dropping it," she said exasperatedly. "Okay, I think that book belonged to his mum." She handed him the page from the Daily Prophet, again. "Look at it! Doesn't she remind you of anyone? Isn't there any resemblance to anyone you know?"

"No," he said stubbornly, handing back the article.

"So it doesn't mean anything that her name is Eileen Prince?" she asked.

Harry looked up at her. "Hermione, the Half-Blood Prince is a bloke. Not a girl. I know that girls can be smart and all, but the stuff in the book is written by a guy."

"Harry, the date is 1947! She is his mum," she tried to argue, but he shook his head. He remained stubbornly unconvinced. Exasperated, she left the common room in search of any proof of the connection between Eileen Prince and Severus Snape, anything that Harry couldn't ignore or dismiss off. She'd try the birth announcements and obituaries.

Author's Notes:

Color meanings for the Unbreakable Vow chains: I chose red for Bellatrix's bonding of Narcissa and Severus: it is the color of fire and blood as well as representing both Cupid and the Devil, so it is associated with conflicting emotions from passionate love, desire, and true love to violence, energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination. Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.

I chose yellow for Dumbledore's Bonding of Lily and Severus: it is a warm color that, like red, has conflicting symbolism. On the one hand it denotes sunshine, happiness and joy but on the other hand yellow is the color of cowardice and deceit. For years yellow ribbons were worn as a sign of hope as women waited for their men to come marching home from war. Today, they are still used to welcome home loved ones. Yellow also symbolizes mourning in Egypt, and actors of the Middle Ages wore yellow to signify the dead.

Lapis is a very pretty blue stone.

Lapideus and lapideum are Latin for: of stone

Petra is Latin for: rock

Ossum means: bone

Saxum is Latin for: large stone, boulder

Reviviscere means: to come to life again, revive

Murex is a type of shell and the prefix for a sea creature

Calx is a substance made up of calcium or calcified new bone growth.