Scoop

Phoenix Tears, Chapter Twenty-Four : Scoop

DISCLAIMER : The characters and many of the situations described in this story are the property of the incomparable J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this story, which exists as a work of tribute. Dialogue marked with an asterisk is quoted from the original HP stories.

My heartfelt thanks go out to LAxo and WriterMerrin for the extraordinary work they do for me and others.

---

It had been nine or ten in the morning by the time Hermione fell asleep. When she woke, some hours later, she felt safer and more rested than she had in a very long time. Even before she opened her eyes she recalled the events of the previous night and the early morning, and she woke with a very clear sense of what had to happen next.

The first task involved food. Following Snape's instructions, she found a loaf of bread in the bread crock held under a Stasis Charm. Toasted and spread with Marmite, it was perfectly edible.

Snape was still too weak and exhausted to move. She quizzed him on his pain levels, but received only non-committal or rude answers for her trouble. She wasn't too concerned: having Snape checked out by a qualified healer was third or fourth on her list of important tasks for the day.

Once she had eaten, changed, brushed her teeth, re-transfigured her chaise longue back into a chair, and fussed over Snape, it was almost five in the evening. Hermione was ready to tackle her second task...and for that she required the assistance of Harry and Ron.

Hogwarts seemed the most logical place to track them down. Hermione Apparated there directly from the living room at Spinner's End. Walking up to the front doors in the late afternoon light gave her ample time to take in the full extent of the damage done to the school. Huge chunks of stonework were missing from the walls, and all of the visible windows were smashed. The ground was scarred with deep grooves and burn marks, and a number of trees had been torn from the soil, roots and all.

The Great Doors still swung on their hinges, as they had during the night, but Hermione was relieved to see that some effort had been made to clean the entrance hall: someone had swept all of the debris to one side, and though it wasn't much, the gesture cheered Hermione immensely.

She heard noises coming from the Great Hall and poked her head around the door. The room was crowded with people eating: it seemed that most of the participants in the battle had stayed around. Like earlier that morning, people were dispersed haphazardly among all four tables rather than respecting the house divisions. Even the teachers, she noticed happily, were seated down at the student tables.

Scanning the rows, though, she saw no sign of Harry or Ron. Almost by accident, she caught Neville's eye, and he got up with a smile and came over to say hello. He walked with a confidence she'd never noticed in him before, and his grin when he saw her was broad and uncomplicated.

"Hey, Hermione!" he said, enfolding her in a hug.

"Hey, Neville. You haven't seen Harry and Ron, have you?"

"Far as I know, they're hanging out in the common room. I think they needed a bit of space."

"Thanks, Neville."

"See you 'round, Hermione," he replied, waving her off with another smile.

It took Hermione some time to make her way up to Gryffindor tower. At times she had to climb over piles of broken stonework or fallen suits of armour. Once she had to turn back and take a new route entirely because a hallway had completely fallen in.

Many of the portraits were damaged, and she saw their occupants huddling together in less-damaged frames. The Fat Lady, though, was in her usual place, accompanied, as she often was, by her friend Violet.

"Um," said Hermione, "I'm not actually sure what the password is. . ."

"You're alright, love," said the Fat Lady, far more friendly than she'd ever been in the past. "It'd be a sad state of affairs if I refused entry to a war hero, wouldn't it?"

Hermione blushed, but clambered through without complaint. To her relief, the common room looked much as it always had, and there, in the far corner, were Ron and Harry. They were seated in their favourite squishy chairs, leaning forward over a low table which was spread with the remains of a full English breakfast, and it seemed they were arguing over something: Ron was waving a salt shaker for emphasis.

Both boys turned towards her at her arrival, and Hermione felt suddenly awkward. Did Ron expect her to kiss him hello? She felt suddenly guilty about the thoughts she'd had about Snape in the few hours since she'd last seen Ron. It didn't mean anything, she reassured herself. He's in love with Harry's mum and always has been. I was just saving his life.

"Hey, 'Mione," Ron remarked a little absently, "I'm just explaining something important to Harry here."

Harry, to Hermione's surprise, stood up as she got closer and pulled her into a fierce hug.

"Hey," she said, pleased by his action, "you okay?" She patted him on the back.

"Yeah, just happy to see you. Ron told me what you did when I was . . . er, dead."

"Yeah, well, don't die on us again, all right? Once was enough." Reaching up, Hermione ruffled his hair and grinned at him.

"Pull up a chair," instructed Ron. "I'll start over."

Hermione moved a third chair closer and realised that Ron was using the salt shaker as an explanatory aide. She hoped she wasn't about to hear the details of a complicated Quidditch manoeuvre.

"So," said Ron, holding up the salt shaker, "this is Dumbledore, and this," he pointed to a toothpick that he'd stuck into one of the small holes in the top, "is the Elder Wand."

Ron cleared a space in the middle of the table and put "Dumbledore" down. Hermione sat up a little straighter, her interest well and truly piqued.

"So Dumbledore is the master of an all-powerful wand, which just happens to be one of the Deathly Hallows. The second of the three Hallows is also accounted for: an incredible Invisibility Cloak!" Ron picked up his serviette and plonked it down next to the salt-shaker representation of Albus Dumbledore. "Then, one day, Dumbledore's like, you know, walking along"...to Hermione's amusement, Ron picked up the salt shaker and mimed it walking over the table top to the sugar bowl..."and he just happens to find the Resurrection Stone."

Ron picked up a sugar cube and laid it and the salt-shaker Dumbledore back in the middle of the table.

"For the first time in living memory, somebody knows where all three Hallows are! Foolishly, however, Dumbledore puts on the ring...not knowing that it has been cursed by Lord Voldymold."

Ron grabbed the pepper shaker and added it to his tableau.

"But he didn't die, because Snape saved his life," interrupted Harry.

"Right!" confirmed Ron. "And lucky, too, because if Dumbledore had died then and there, mastery of the wand would have passed directly to His Peppery Lordship, long before Dumbledore had even had a chance to give you any of the information about how to defeat the bastard. You following?"

Ron shot a look at Harry, who was watching the proceedings intently. Harry nodded.

"Good. Dumbledore is a smart man, though, and he comes up with a cunning plan. What he really wants to do is pass the wand to our young hero..."

Harry made a strangled noise, but Ron quelled him with a glare. Realising that Ron's hand was hovering over the table indecisively as he tried to choose an implement to represent Harry, Hermione picked up his fork. Turning it over, she tapped it with Bellatrix's wand, engraving a small lightening bolt on the back and, for good measure, twisting the tines together in a remarkably accurate representation of Harry's messy hair.

"Brilliant, Hermione!" Ron beamed at her, and Hermione couldn't help flushing a little with pleasure. "Right, so Harry here already has one of the Deathly Hallows"...Ron balanced the Harry-Potter fork on top of his piled-up napkin..."but Dumbledore wants him to have all three of them. That way, when he goes up against his dark-and-scary lordship for the last time, Harry'll be master of death. The fact is that Harry's going to have to die temporarily in the process, so being master of death is going to come in rather handy."

Harry tried to interrupt but Ron cut him off.

"Shut up, mate, I'm not done yet. Point being that Dumbledore can't count on Harry to kill him...which would be the fastest way to simultaneously prevent ownership of the wand passing to Lord V and make sure that Harry instead is its master.

"Sure, there are plenty of Death Eaters who'd be delighted to kill Dumbledore, but that would mean handing over the world's most dangerous wand to the wrong side of the war. What he really needs is someone who is loyal to Dumbledore, but doesn't necessarily seem it: someone who Harry hates."

Unerringly, Ron plucked his sharp-edged steak knife from the table and held it up.

"Severus Snape," he announced. "Dumbledore makes Snape promise to kill him before the curse does. Snape does as he's told."

Almost gleefully, Ron swooped down with the knife and pretended to stab the salt shaker. Then he laid the salt shaker on its side, pulled out the toothpick, and laid the toothpick and the knife down on the table, side by side.

"But..." protested Harry.

"I know, mate, it didn't work like that, but I'm not talking about what happened, I'm talking about Dumbledore's plan."

"You're saying that when Snape killed Dumbledore, he saved my life, I get it." Harry sounded strained.

"I'm not finished, yet. Hold your horses." Ron held up the palm of his hand pleadingly, and Harry subsided grudgingly. "Right, so that's half the problem dealt with, but Dumbledore also wants to be sure that Harry has all three Hallows. The ring is easy: he leaves to him in his will, carefully hidden inside the snitch."

Ron slid the Resurrection-Stone sugar cube from it's place by "Dumbledore"'s side, to lie next to "Harry Potter." The real Harry Potter, Hermione saw, was gripping the edge of the table so hard that his knuckles stood out pale against his skin. She marvelled at Ron's brilliance. Somehow, by reducing the discussion to the level of every man and the off-side rule, he was making something very complicated, very clear.

"But," Ron continued, "Dumbledore still has to make sure that Harry and Snape will cross paths exactly at the correct moment, so before he dies, he makes Snape promise something else: he makes Snape promise that when the snake is protected, he will go and find Harry."

"Think about it, Harry," added Hermione, jumping into the conversation. "It made no sense to have given Snape that task...Dumbledore could have asked anyone to deliver that information. Me, or Ron, or Professor McGonagall."

"Yup," corroborated Ron. "Anyone who was more likely to see you and in less danger of being killed would have been a far safer and more logical choice."

Harry turned his gaze from one friend to the other then back, a horrified, apprehensive look on his face.

"Dumbledore even had to lie to Snape about what exactly was happening to you," said Hermione as gently as she could. "That's why Dumbledore has his hands over his eyes in the memory: because Snape is a talented Legilimens. If he'd made eye contact with Dumbledore at the time, he would have realised that Dumbledore wasn't telling the truth."

"Yeah, if Dumbledore's plan had worked, Snape would have come to find you, and you . . . well, you probably would have killed him, or something."

Ron put his finger on the toothpick and slid it across the surface of the table to lie next to the Harry-Potter fork.

"Harry Potter, master of the Deathly Hallows, is master of death. Even though the pepper shaker here AKs him, Harry's soul is fine, and the bit of Voldy's that he's been carrying around dies instead. Harry beats Voldy...who no longer even has any Horcruxes."

Ron paused again, grabbed the Voldemort pepper shaker, and tipped it, too, over on its side.

"Game over," he pronounced.

Harry was terribly pale. Convulsively, he pushed his chair back slightly from the table and dropped his head to rest on the knuckles of his hands; his hands still gripped tight to the tabletop. Without raising his head, he took several gasping breaths.

"I...I would have done it, too," he whispered. "I really wanted to kill Snape." Harry sounded absolutely horrified.

"But you didn't, mate. It didn't work out that way."

"Dumbledore was very good at convincing people to do things they otherwise wouldn't do," replied Hermione comfortingly. She reached out and laid a hand between Harry's shoulder blades. They were shaking, and she realised he was crying.

"But he's still dead!" Harry burst out. "He died, and we didn't do anything to stop it!"

Ron coughed, and Hermione glanced up at him to find he was looking back at her, half sceptical, half curious.

"Hermione?" he asked pointedly. "Do you have anything to add?"

Hermione took a deep breath.

"Harry, Ron," she began, "Severus Snape is still alive."

Harry shot upright immediately. There were tear streaks down his face, and he was so white that his scar stood out on his face, even though it was no longer the angry, Horcrux red it had once been.

"He...what? Where? I have to see him!"

"I will take you to see him...but first, there's something we need to do."

Both boys were looking at her, Ron with attentive interest, and Harry with a desperate urgency.

"At the end of the last war, Dumbledore managed to make sure Snape wasn't convicted as a Death Eater. This time, that's going to be up to us. Firstly someone...and I think you'd be the best choice, Harry...has to go and talk to Kingsley. I don't know what charges were laid against Snape before the Death Eaters took over the Ministry, but you have to make sure they're all dropped and that none of them are reinstated. You also have to make sure that he isn't prosecuted for anything he might have had to do to keep his cover during the time since You-Know-Who returned."

Harry was nodding as she spoke, a fixed, almost savage look on his face.

"You should probably take Snape's memories and show them to Kingsley...that should ensure he comes down on the right side."

"Yeah, I wouldn't show them to anyone else, but," added Ron. "I can't imagine Snape'd be particularly impressed." Ron punctuated that piece of advice by picking up a rasher of bacon and biting into it.

"Right." Harry nodded once again.

"There's another thing, too," added Hermione. "You, Harry, took an important first step announcing Snape's loyalty to Dumbledore in front of all those people last night, but we have to make sure that no-one can pass that off as a story concocted to needle You-Know-Who. We have to make certain that it's our version of the story that everyone knows, our version that gets talked about over the breakfast table.

"Dumbledore's plan worked as it did," she continued, "because everyone was ready to believe the worst of Snape. There are plenty of people that will think Snape was working both sides of the fence the whole time and has somehow managed to fool you in order to save his skin."

"But what...?"

Harry looked blank, but Ron had caught on. He finished Harry's sentence for him: "...Rita Skeeter."

"Precisely." Hermione nodded.

Harry's face cleared. "Of course! You, Hermione, can make her write whatever you want!"

"I can, of course, but she would resent it. I think she'd do a better job if we offer her something for her trouble: I suggest we offer her your story for Snape's."

"The stick and the carrot," agreed Ron around a mouth full of bacon.

"I offer her an exclusive of my story on the condition she write Snape's, too?"

"Precisely. It's a win-win situation for her really. We can insist that they get equal billing in the Prophet and that we check over both stories before they go to print. I also thought that the more people we can get to come out publicly in Snape's defence, the better. We could provide her with a list of people who'd be willing to be interviewed: us three, of course, Professor McGonagall, Professor Vector, Madam Pomfrey and Hooch, maybe?"

"Dumbledore's portrait."

"Phineas', too."

"Viktor, Jocelyn Smith..."

"Who?"

"Hmm . . . ? Oh, Jocelyn's a Slytherin student, a Muggle-born. She was in first year last year. Right. I'll start making a list now, as we find other people to add to it, let me know. Once the truth starts getting out, people might start seeing things he did in a different light and be willing to talk in his favour."

"Yeah, like Ginny, Luna and Neville and their detention with Hagrid."

Hermione had conjured a piece of paper and was scribbling furiously.

"Then there's the issue of Draco Malfoy," said Harry.

Hermione glanced up at him. The colour had returned to his face, and he looked much better.

"Do you reckon he'd talk about Snape for the Prophet?" she asked.

"Probably, yeah. But that's not what I meant. I mean, he was a Death Eater, too, but he tried to save our lives."

"Twice," agreed Hermione. "I'd wondered if you'd noticed."

"What?" demanded Ron. "When?"

"First at the Manor and then in the Room of Requirement."

"Are you kidding? He nearly got us killed!"

"Not exactly," replied Harry. "Crabbe and Goyle were trying to kill us, but Draco was different. He was trying to get them to stop."

"He didn't do a very good job of it," responded Ron disgustedly.

"No, but still. His mother lied to Vol . . ."...no-one was really sure if the taboo had been lifted yet, and Harry awkwardly swallowed the last half of the word..."on my behalf. We wouldn't have won without her intervention." Harry looked determined. "I'll speak to Kingsley about the Malfoys, too."

Ron was still making unimpressed faces about the idea of Draco as an ally, but as Hermione looked from one to the other, she felt inordinately proud of her two best friends.

"Right," she said briskly. "Harry, I think you should go and find Kingsley straight away. The new Ministry's pretty likely to do anything you ask right now; you'd best make the most of it. Ron, I think you should go and spend the evening with your family. Though I wonder if you could find Rita on the way and make a time for us to meet with her tomorrow?"

"Consider it done."

"Ron..." she said, reaching out to take his hand. "I'm so so sorry about Fred."

He nodded and squeezed her hand reassuringly. Tears prickled dangerously at the back of her eyes.

"Right," he said, changing the subject, "let's meet back here tomorrow morning...say, nine?"

"Nine it is."

With one last glance at Ron's tableware tableau, Hermione followed the boys to the portrait hole and climbed out. Then they set off on their separate ways.

---

When Hermione slipped into the Hospital Wing, she was surprised to find Luna there.

"Everything alright?" she asked with concern.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine," replied Luna. "Just helping where I can. If you're looking for Madam Pomfrey, she's in her office."

"Thanks, Luna." Hermione touched the other girl's arm lightly as she passed. Luna was dressed in the same bright yellow colour that she'd worn to Bill and Fleur's wedding, with a matching flower tucked behind one ear. As Hermione walked away, Luna began humming quietly under her breath and went back to stacking piles of clean bandages.

Madam Pomfrey's office door was slightly ajar, but Hermione knocked anyway before going inside.

"Come in!" was the called instruction.

Hermione did so, to find not only Madam Pomfrey, but Hooch as well. Pomfrey sat behind her desk, head resting on her hands; Hooch had been pacing back and forth, though she froze for a second at the sight of Hermione.

"Where the hell is it?" Hooch snarled unexpectedly, striding across the room and seizing Hermione by the shoulders.

Hermione had her wand out, and the tip pressed against Hooch's throat, without even thinking about it.

"Let go of me," she ordered.

Hooch ignored both the instruction and the weapon pressed to her neck. Instead, she gave Hermione a little shake.

"Where's Snape's body?" she demanded.

"Oh." The tension drained from Hermione, and she tucked the wand away. "Let go of me and I'll tell you," she offered.

Reluctantly, Hooch took a step back. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Miss Granger?" asked Madam Pomfrey gently. "Do you know where we can find Severus' body?"

Hermione closed the door and then cast a Silencing Charm for good measure.

"I do," she replied finally. "In fact, I came in order to take you there."

"Let's go then," said Hooch immediately. Pomfrey was already getting to her feet.

"But before I do, I need to be sure of your intentions. I know that you were friends of his once, but the last year was difficult for everyone."

"We went to the Shack, young lady," snarled Hooch. "And his body was gone. There was blood everywhere. Severus Snape was a goddamn hero, and his body deserves the respect that people denied it in life."

"Madam Pomfrey?" asked Hermione, turning her attention to the other woman.

"I wish Severus only the very best...wherever the poor man's soul has ended up."

"Very well, then," replied Hermione firmly. "Madam Pomfrey, you might want to bring some medicinal supplies."

Both women jerked their faces back towards Hermione in surprise.

"He's alive," breathed Hooch, hope and disbelief warred for supremacy on her face.

"I hope so," answered Hermione. "At least he was an hour or so ago."

Armed with that knowledge, the two women got ready incredibly quickly and followed Hermione out through the school and across the grounds to the Apparation point without further questions.

Taking a firm grip on the upper arm of each woman, Hermione spun herself and both of her passengers away into nothingness.

---

As before, Hermione Apparated directly into the living room at Spinner's End. If Snape was surprised by the sudden appearance of the three women, he gave no indication of the fact.

"Severus!" exclaimed Pomfrey with palpable relief.

With an elaborate sigh, Snape placed the journal he'd been reading on the coffee table.

"I should have known the peace and quiet was too good to last," he commented.

"Listen here, you bastard," retorted Hooch, "next time you fake your own death, don't expect me to go looking for the body!"

"I didn't 'fake my own death'...as you so inelegantly put it...I merely removed my injured body from a dangerous situation in order to recuperate."

"Oh, shush now, the two of you," ordered Pomfrey as she smoothed a hand over Snape's brow. Already, she had her wand out and was taking complicated diagnostic readings.

Hooch crossed her arms and turned her attention to the potion bottles arranged on the table.

"How many of these Blood-Replenishing Potions did you take? What the hell happened, Severus?"

"The snake bit me," replied Snape in a flat, even voice.

"Where?" demanded Pomfrey, frowning at the shimmering display of lights her spells had conjured over the length of his body.

Without speaking, Snape turned his head and pointed to the exposed skin of his neck. Hermione hovered anxiously, her bottom lip between her teeth.

Pomfrey pointed her wand directly at Snape's neck and, from what Hermione could tell, repeated the same set of charms...some multiple times. The silence grew longer as Hooch and Hermione waited for her to clarify the results.

"Explain, Severus," said Pomfrey finally, sounding confused. "The diagnostic says that you've been completely healed.

Hermione let out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding. A warm rush of satisfaction and relief suffused her from head to toe.

"Miss Granger healed it," replied Severus in that same neutral voice, his eyes fixed directly in front of him. "She sung the flesh back together." He sighed. "You'd better check her scars, too."

Pomfrey's attention swivelled to Hermione.

"Come here, young lady," she instructed, brandishing her wand.

Hermione stepped closer and watched, with interest, as Pomfrey conjured a similar set of shimmering lights over the length of her own body.

"Hmm, where's this scar?"

When Hermione pointed at her chest, Pomfrey conjured a screen and set it between them and the room's other two occupants.

"Shirt off," she ordered.

Hermione stripped down to her bra and jeans and watched Pomfrey's face as she examined the scar. On the other side of the screen, she could hear murmured snatches as Snape and Hooch conversed.

"This is the same scar Severus sung together in the Hospital Wing two years ago?" asked Pomfrey.

Hermione nodded.

"And I assume it only started looking like this after you returned the favour by singing to Severus' flesh?"

Hermione nodded again. "I don't know whether it makes a difference," she offered, "but I used Snape's own wand to perform the spell. Maybe because it was already accustomed to his body, it had more effect?"

"Hmm, perhaps. Put your clothes back on."

Hermione dressed quickly before Pomfrey banished the screen.

Hooch, she saw, had seated herself in one of the two armchairs and had her feet up on the coffee table.

"Sit," said Pomfrey, pushing Hermione gently towards the other armchair. The matron conjured a stool for herself and positioned it near Snape's head. Everyone was looking at her expectantly. "Sympathetic magic," she began, "which includes sung magic, is difficult and unpredictable. Few people are capable of empathising reliably enough with others that they can take the results of such magic for granted.

"It may be that Miss Granger here happens to be one such person. More likely, the highly unusual circumstances of knowing what it felt like for Severus to sing her own flesh made it easier for Miss Granger to sing him. No doubt using his wand helped, and almost certainly, the highly stressful situation of the battle played into it. You were both working towards the same end, after all, and that probably helped you tune to each other.

"The results, though, are quite remarkable. Indeed," she paused for a moment, an odd, quizzical look on her face, "I've never seen anything like it."

---

When Hermione met Harry and Ron the next morning, Harry was bursting with news.

"Guess what?" he exclaimed. "Fawkes is back! Pretty much as soon as I began to explain things to Kingsley, there was a huge bang, and Fawkes appeared out of nowhere. He dropped a roll of parchment and a feather on to Kingsley's desk and instantly disappeared again!"

"Blimey! Dumbledore!"

"Exactly. Dumbledore wrote the letter before he died...it explained all about Snape's promise to kill him."

"So I guess Kingsley believed you then?"

"Absolutely. He swore that under no circumstances would he let Snape be charged with anything."

"Excellent!" Hermione beamed at him.

"Plus, guess what else? He offered all three of us jobs as Aurors! Starting right now! We don't even have to finish our NEWTs or anything!"

"Seriously? But that's beyond brilliant!" exclaimed Ron. "No more school! And we'll be in it together..."

"Speak for yourself, Ron," interrupted Hermione. "Firstly, I have no intention of becoming an Auror, and secondly, I think you'd be foolish...both of you...not to finish your NEWTs."

"But Hermione," insisted Harry, "there's an intensive two-month training camp over summer. By the time we'd completed that, we'd be on the same level as any other newbies...NEWTs or no NEWTs. And it's not like our last year doesn't count for something!"

Hermione raised her eyebrows and thinned her lips disapprovingly.

"It's your decision, Harry, but this is the same organisation, remember, that did nothing to stop the Muggle-Born Registration Committee: we all have first-hand experience of how fickle the Ministry can be. Do you really want to take a job that you only got because you're Harry Potter? You'll always have people who resent your fame sniping that you got the job as a favour."

"Hey! That's not fair! I didn't ask to be famous!"

"I know! But if you take a job you're not qualified for, you don't really make that point very clearly to anyone else, do you?"

Harry looked like she'd slapped him.

"Ron?" he said suddenly, appealing to a third party. "What do you think?"

Ron ran an hand through his hair, his eyes flickering from one friend to the other.

"I, er, think you've both got a point. I'm all for joining the Aurors, and I'm all for taking a job when it's offered. But . . . maybe we should think about it for a few days before we commit to anything. We don't have to decide right now, right?"

"Right," said Harry slowly. He looked bothered.

"Fine," snapped Hermione.

"Listen, here." Ron reached out and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "Whatever happens, we three have to stick together. The important thing is that we're all still here, not what we do next."

He didn't need to actually mention Fred's death; the very fact of it hung heavy in the air.

"One of the stupidest things I ever did," he added, "was walk out on you in that tent. I let my dumb insecurities get the better of our friendship. And I reckon we shouldn't any of us make that same mistake again."

Ron had managed to make Hermione feel desperately ashamed of her behaviour. She looked across at Harry and saw that he was wearing a sheepish expression that pretty accurately matched how she herself felt.

"Come on, then," encouraged Ron, "let's have an awkward three-way hug, and we'll head off to the Three Broomsticks, ready to show a united front to the world's most evil reporter."

Hermione laughed and let Ron propel her and Harry together. She looped an arm around the waist of each boy and squeezed.

"I just want what's best for you both," she whispered.

Harry and Ron just hugged her more tightly in reply.

"What do you think we should tell Rita?" asked Harry, before they broke apart.

"The truth," replied Ron.

"Me, too," added Hermione.

"Yeah," sighed Harry. Hermione felt his head nodding beside hers. "I think we've had quite enough 'secrets and lies' to last us for the rest of our lives."

---

A / N : I know that none of this stuff happens in canon, but I can't help thinking that this chapter and the next are the most canon thing I've ever written! I don't think people make enough of a fuss about the fact that Dumbledore meant for Harry to murder Snape, but I certainly intend to!!

A couple of other announcements: Firstly, this is the penultimate chapter of this story. That's right! The next chapter will be the last. You will let me know what you think about that, won't you?

And SECONDLY, to my utter and great delight, this story and Phoenix Song were both nominated in the SS/HG awards!! PS under Epic and Action/Adventure, PT under WIP, and I was nominated as Best New Author. I can't tell you how thrilled I was, and how delighted I am to appear in such august company--the other nominations are of terrific quality and you should go and use the list as a set of recommendations for what to read, even if you don't vote. The voting is open, though, so do check out all of the stories.