Your Army, Milady

Several doors opened at once, and the first voice I heard was Ma moving swiftly out of the lounge.

"We are closed, gentlemen! Closed for inspection!"

As we hurried out to the foyer, I heard Goyle Sr.'s voice.

"It's alright, Agatha, let them in! In quickly now!"

I reached the foyer and saw all of the young Death Eaters piling in the door, yet still more people came. I gave a shout when I saw another ginger head that turned out to be Percy Weasley. He hurried over to me and pulled me into a fierce hug. He looked so different with a full beard and long straggly hair, but I would have recognized him in the dark. My head was swimming, and I was babbling as the foyer filled with people coming in the front door and piling on top of each other. Many of the newcomers looked quite shabby, and the sudden smell of body odor was cloying. I turned to look for Severus, but there were too many people around me, and I could no longer see him.

"The Ballroom, Agatha! Open the Ballroom!" cried Goyle Sr.

The seldom used doors to the ballroom flung open, and the crowd surged forward, taking me with it. I felt a moment of panic until I was pulled by strong arms out of the crowd. I turned around expecting to see Severus and found myself looking into the round face of an almost unrecognizable Neville Longbottom.

"Neville!" I cried. "I thought you were dead!"

"We all thought you were in Azkaban," he replied and hugged me tight. It was too much. I fell apart. I started to sob uncontrollably, and he pulled me back into the foyer and held me gently as we cried together. Eventually, having my face pressed against his shoulder became unpleasant, and I pushed back a little.

"Heavens, Neville, you stink! You smell like horses!"

He laughed.

"Centaurs, actually. We've been living in the forest these last five years."

"Oh, God, you did make it to the forest. Severus didn't know if any survived. Winky was too drunk to make any sense, and all these years he thought he was alone! How many made it?"

"Severus, is it? On a first name basis with him now? Alright, don't give me that Hermione look, Miss Bossy Boots.

"About forty of us made it out of the school alive. Hardly anyone showed up to help us, just a few people from Hogsmeade, but the teachers created a diversion, and the younger ones all took off. Percy showed up, and together we covered their retreat. Percy had fled the Ministry when he heard about his family and ran to the school to get Ginny. He didn't know she had gone home that weekend. He fought like a madman and helped to clear the path to the forest.

"We wouldn't have made it; we were cut off from the other students, but Grawp came out of nowhere and took out all the Death Eaters between us and the forest, so Perce and I just took off running. We made it, but it was rough on the youngest ones; we lost four that first winter. Some were cursed beyond our ability to heal them, and the Centaurs couldn't help them either. Percy was the one that snuck back into the school and brought back owls. We sent messages to everyone we could think of for help. Most of our messages came back undelivered, but some people got the word. Charlie showed up pretty fast; he brought all kinds of stuff back with him from Romania, and that helped a lot. People started to drift in from the outside world as they heard. More came every year as things got worse for the average folks. Hannah showed up that first summer."

"Hannah Abbot?"

"Hannah Longbottom, now," he said and puffed up with pride.

"Hannah's alive! And you're married! That's wonderful, Neville!"

"Yeah, her father pulled her out of school in her sixth year, you remember? Anyway, as things got bleaker under You-Know-Who's rule, she made her way back to the school as a sort of pilgrimage to commemorate those that died. Our scouts saw her, and eventually she came back with her father, and they've been with us ever since. That's how we've got most of our recruits."

"So how many of you are there now?"

"All told, we number about one hundred and sixty. There are children and elderly as well, so I would make us about ninety able-bodied fighters. Unfortunately, not all of us have wands."

"So, you've been living in the wild all this time? How have you been eating?"

"The house-elves from Hogwarts. We've been sneaking back into the school for years and gathering food. The Ministry never noticed that the school was still receiving supplies all these years. Percy snuck in and fixed the paperwork. Merlin be praised for bureaucracy. The only dodgy moments were when Snape would show up. He would spend days there picking through the place. Minerva," he stopped and looked at me, "she's a ghost now, did you know?" I nodded. "Minerva took it upon herself to drive him off. Stubborn bastard." He laughed at a memory, and I cringed. "He would always come back. None of us had the nerve to get rid of him permanent-like. Seems like it was a good thing we didn't, now."

"Oh, Neville. If you only knew what you've done." I couldn't help but pull away from him. "Severus..."

I stopped speaking before I said something stupid. I couldn't reveal everything Severus had done these last five years without jeopardizing his position with the Death Eaters that had only recently turned their backs on their own beliefs. They didn't know he had always been on the other side. They thought he turned to protect them and it could be disastrous if the truth were to be discovered.

"We're on the same side now," I said.

"Yeah, well, we didn't know that then, did we? But we know now." He stepped back and sketched a courtly bow. "Come inside and meet your army, Milady, and a motley army it is; we've got woodsmen, Death Eaters, runaway bureaucrats, shopkeepers with no shops and er, ladies of the night."

He turned away and walked inside expecting me to follow.

"You mean whores," I said quietly to myself.

"No, fellow survivors," said a deep, velvet voice. I turned my head and saw Severus step out of the shadows.

I opened my arms like a tired child seeking a parent's arms. He gently swept me into his embrace and stepped back into the shadows.

"Are you not happy, Hermione?" he asked. His voice was full of concern.

"Yes, of course I am. I'm just overwhelmed. It's almost too much." I pushed back and looked deep into his shadowed eyes. "You did so very well, Severus. It's almost more than I could have dreamed of. Thank you." His eyes glittered under my praise.

"I vowed I would see you free, Hermione," he said.

"I do not doubt, Severus. I know you will."

He pulled me into a tight embrace, and I felt bruises on my back from all the hugs I had received. I lifted up my head and kissed him, and he made a small noise in his throat as he kissed me back passionately. His kiss was intense and filled with longing, and I answered in kind. We broke our kiss when a surge of noise from the ballroom sounded too much like anger to be ignored.

"Let's go keep the peace," I said and we entered the ballroom.

The tables had been pushed back to the walls, and there were platters of food and pitchers of pumpkin juice as well as pots of tea and trays of biscuits covering them. It seemed like everyone had had a chance to eat, and now they were looking for all the world like they were squared off against each other. The Death Eaters were along the eastern wall, and Charlie and Neville, surrounded by their people, faced off against them along the western wall. Ma and the ladies were against the southern wall looking daggers at Neville's group. I noticed all of the ladies were wearing transfigured robes in varying stages of competence. Professor McGonagall would not have been impressed. I went over to my girls and asked Peaches what was going on.

"They act like they're too good for us, Princess." The use of my nickname wasn't lost on me. She needed me to be one of them. "They act like they don't need a bunch of tarts at their party. And they're none too welcoming of our boys either."

I turned and looked over at Neville, and he flushed and looked at Charlie.

"No one said we weren't grateful for their help, and we meant no insult to your friends. I only said I didn't know how helpful they would be in a fight. And as for your pet Death Eaters, well, some of us feel that your 'boys' can't all be trusted. Surely you can understand. Most of us have been running from them for years."

I looked over at Theo, and he nodded at me and stepped forward.

"We can understand that, but things are different now. The Dark Lord's ways are not our ways any longer," he said.

"That's all fine and good," said Percy, "but it's a lot to bet our families' lives on isn't it?"

I stepped forward. "Yes, yes it is. But you have no choice; you have already bet your lives on it. We all have. They know where your families are hiding, now. You've seen their faces and word of this gathering dropped anywhere near the Ministry will bring all of them a painfully slow death. You can each destroy the other with an angry or careless word. There's simply no time for this, don't you see? We have to work together now. We've no choice." I looked at all of them as my words sank in. Severus was standing in front of his Death Eaters, and he gave me a small nod of praise.

"I'll be damned if I'm going to trust him. You can't expect me to do that. He killed Dumbledore!" I turned to see that those words were spoken by Charlie. "Now that we've got you free, Hermione, we don't need Snape anymore, and I think we'd all be safer if he was out of the picture. We've no reason to believe his word. First a Death Eater, then a member of the Order, then Dumbledore's murderer, and now he's trying to start a revolution. How many times can a man change sides in his lifetime? I'm sorry. If you want him to join our little parade, then you will have to give me a better assurance than his word."

The tension in the room increased until it was thick with poorly restrained violence. One wrong word, and I lose one group in the room. Divided we fall indeed. I couldn't defend Severus with the whole truth. We could lose our Death Eaters if they found out Severus had only come back to bring them down.

I looked back at Peaches, who didn't even know all the secrets but understood the problem. She just twisted her head on her neck as if the weight of her thoughts was more than she could take. I walked across the room and stood in front of Severus. The sound of many feet echoed in the large room, and I turned to see all my girls threading themselves amongst the Death Eaters. Ma came and stood at my side, but I moved up a pace.

"If you want him dead, kill me." I heard Severus growl and move towards me, but I flung a hand back and up to stop him. He stopped.

"Have you gone mental, Hermione?" This from Neville.

"No. You refuse to put the lives of your families on the line because you cannot trust him. I understand that. In the end, is his life really worth ruining a chance to destroy this evil? If not, then mine isn't either. What are two lives compared to the thousands living under tyranny right this moment? Nothing, just a small price to pay. These Death Eaters behind me are past the point of no return. Kill Severus and me, and they will still fight for you. So will these women. But may the Good Lord have mercy on your souls when you have won. So kill me." I took another step forward. "Kill me, and Severus dies as well. Two for the price of one. Two as your price for revolution."

"I don't understand," said Neville.

"I am thinking it is a vow," I heard Viktor's voice before the crowd parted to reveal him. He moved out of the crowd and stepped onto the dance floor. "I haff guessed rightly, yes?" He moved across the floor until he was at my side. "I did not come for them, though I could haff had they called. I came for you. He called in your name. Your vord is good enough for me." He passed me and went and stood shoulder to shoulder with Snape.

Neville, bless him, broke ranks and joined me as well.

"Do what you must, but do it quickly, because this day is getting shorter and we are running out of time to plan," I said.

"Who the hell put you in charge? Who do you think you are to be talking like that?" I saw the speaker, but didn't recognize him. I saw an echo of his sentiment on many of the faces across the room.

"I'm Hermione Granger; I'm the Muggle-born friend of Harry Potter, and I'm the Princess of Gryffindor. I may not be in charge now, but I will be by the end of the night, because you can't run a revolution by committee, so I'm not even going to bother."

"You're damn skippy," said Peaches behind me.

"I do need advisors, though, so if anyone over there has an idea of how this can be done you are more than welcome." Percy elbowed Charlie out of the way to cross the floor, and I saw Charlie look down at his shoes, rather than see his last living brother walk away. Many people started across the floor and rather than shame him in defeat, I crossed the floor to him. I put my hand on his cheek, and his head came up.

"Did he really take a vow to you?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, Charlie," I whispered. "There is so much more you need to know, but I can't say it in front of all these people. Please believe you are not making the wrong decision." He opened his mouth to answer me but then his eyes widened. I looked behind me to see Severus looming over me, his face all mottled fury.

"Stupid little Gryffindor!" he spat, "you will not do anything like that again! Any of these cretins could have taken you up on your foolish challenge, and then all my work would have been worth fuck all, wouldn't it?"

"It would still have been worth it, Severus, but I couldn't just let them kill you. It was my only option."

"I am not important here!" he hissed, "You are! I arranged this little party for you, and you try and get yourself killed at the first opportunity!"

"Has it occurred to you that maybe I wouldn't want to be at a party if you weren't there?" I snapped back. I faced him down. "Deal with it, Severus." I was just as fed up with his stupid Slytherin tendencies toward silent suffering as he was of my Gryffindor penchant for dramatic action. He looked at my hands planted firmly on my hips and just for a split second his lips quirked. It would not have been considered a smile by anyone else, but I saw it for what it was and huffed. He snapped his head toward Charlie.

"Do not make her risk her life again," he hissed.

"We're talking about an attack on the Ministry, Snape. I can make no guarantees. But I do promise to try."

"Promises are meaningless," he said, in a low voice.

Charlie, to his credit, was not cowed, he just put his hand out in a gesture of peace.

"To an uneasy alliance until things are explained better."

Severus looked at Charlie's hand like he would rather use it for a potion ingredient, but shook it anyway.