Snape watched under a disillusionment spell with suspicion as a seventh year Ravenclaw pulled a sixth year Slytherin into an abandoned classroom. He carefully slipped in behind them to see that the room was set up for a ritual of some sort, the shimmering vial of unicorn blood and ritual blade made his gut clench in dread. One did not perform such magics with out a very good reason, especially with the dangerous risks to ones self and the addictive nature of the magic involved. While he had been distracted examining the ritual ingredients and trying to decide what exact ritual his students were planning to attempt they had already begun the ritual with a soft, barely audible chanting. As a result he only noticed their actions and the runes they had drawn on the floor when they burned a rope made out of hemp. The dour man turned with a scowl, dropping the spell as he stepped past an unseen rune design on the floor to loom over his recalcitrant students.

"And what, pray tell, are you doing?" Snape asked with a silky, not to mention dangerous purr bordering on a growl in his voice.

His sudden appearance caused the sixth year Hufflepuff near the incense burner to yelp and knock its newly lit contents rolling across the design on the floor. Along side the incense and half burnt rope were two pre-made potions that smashed on the stone floor, also spilling across the design only for the liquid to stop just shy of Snape's feet, earning a scowl from the man. None of them saw the two hairs fall from where they were caught on a button of his robes into the botched ritual mess. A hair each from the man currently looming over them threateningly and a green-eyed Gryffindor who had slammed into that same man earlier in the day, leaving behind a hair caught in the grip of his robe button.

None of the students were willing to meet their professor's gaze much less answer him, but the Ravenclaw did mutter something as he arched his eyebrow at them waiting impatiently for an answer to his question. He rather hoped that the young fools hadn't gotten far enough to attract too much magic or magically powerful attention to their little fiasco. If they had then the ritual, no matter how botched would have to be continued by someone, most probably him, and completed as safely as possible to dissipate the gathered power.

"Come now, I don't have all night. You've already earned a month's worth of detentions with Filch you might as well tell me what ritual you were attempting so that I can at least clean it up properly." Snape said impatiently, glaring at them with one of his best terrifying bat of the dungeons glares.

His obsidian eyes narrowed as the seventh year Slytherin shifted distracting him a split second too long, allowing the sixth year Gryffindor to throw something into the potion soaked mess at his feet. Whatever he had thrown sparked on the potion soaked stones and activated a flare of power, scaring the students into bolting, triggering a chain reaction. Between the botched ritual set up, the potion fumes and detritus sunk into his robes, the two hairs that landed in the ritual potions, his protective hair grease, and the single small paper cut on the edge of his palm the magic changed.

As the power flared it engulfed him, sinking into his blood, skin, and bone as a light shot out of the room, past the fleeing students and finding a green-eyed Gryffindor just coming from a late night jaunt to the bathroom to slam into. From both the Dark Mark on Snape's arm and the soul shard in Harry's scar the magic traveled down the powerful connecting links to slam into Voldemort waking him from his slumber, wrenching a pained screech from him and triggering a second chain reaction. The second chain reaction drew the soul shard in the diadem to the closest conduit to the main soul piece, Snape's Dark Mark, traveling along it to merge along side all of the other pieces into the main piece.

A small shard was left behind in Snape's mark altering it so that the serpent in the tattoo now wrapped around a lightning bolt after leaving the skull. Harry's reaction was different, stronger, with his scar splitting open and bleeding he lost consciousness, sinking to the cold stone floor. The soul shard in Harry's scar was buried to deeply in his flesh and interwoven to tightly to his own soul so that it refused to leave its host as all others did to return and merge with the main soul piece. As a result all of the Dark Lord's Horcruxes except for the soul pieces in Snape and Harry returned to the main soul piece, merging and mostly healing the tattered soul.

Then the third chain reaction kicked in, the magic interacting with the Basilisk venom and Phoenix tears in Harry's blood triggering their own unique change. The young wizard grew retractable fangs with links to two separate tubes, leading to venom sacks that developed in the top of his mouth. His eyes changed, gaining an extra set of eyelids, the ability to petrify or kill accompanied by a color change, and to top it off his tears became almost as powerful as those of a Pheonix. To help support these changes his acceptable diet changed as well, allowing him to actually survive on blood alone as an emergency measure if it ever became necessary and altering what plants he could safely consume. He also became able to consume nearly any kind of meat safely, with or without cooking.

Harry knew none of this as he lay unconscious on the cold stone floor of the corridor just outside the bathroom until a worried Hermione found him the next morning and brought him to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey clucked in exasperation and placed him into his usual bed, which just happened to be the one next to Professor Severus Snape. The potions master had reluctantly dragged himself to the hospital wing once the magic had abated enough for him to move relatively safely and was confined there for the foreseeable future, doing little for his disposition.

Harry woke that morning to the sound of a quiet hiss of pain nearby. Groggily, he looked towards where the sound had come from and managed to recognize the giant black blob as Snape via the simple expedient that the smell and all of the white meant he was in the Hogwarts infirmary. A quick sneaky check on the underside of one of the bars making up his head board showed that not only was he in the infirmary but also in his usual bed. He would know that carving into the metal and paint anywhere, he put it there over many many visits to the hospital wing while waiting in boredom to be released.

"Professor?" Harry asked, still groggy with sleep. He was slightly tense and ready enough to roll off the bed and under one of the other beds if he needed too.

"Go back to sleep, Potter. Whatever happened Poppy wont be releasing either of us until tomorrow at the earliest," Snape informed Harry with a scowl. Perversely the potion master's bad mood made Harry feel not only better but safe. He wasn't quite sure why or how but the fact that Snape had growled at him with only his normal bad mood told Harry that the situation wasn't too bad, even though they were stuck in the infirmary.

"Yes, Professor," Harry said, ending with a giant yawn as he slumped, allowing all of his remaining tension flow away as he slipped back into slumber. He woke again hours later to a quiet conversation in the direction of Snape's bed.

"I don't understand it Severus. The boy has grown small fangs and when I checked them I found that what I saw was the retracted state. He's developed some sort of pouch in the pallet of his mouth. The diagnostic didn't pick up on any of these changes when he was first brought in but I cast it again and now it doesn't work at all except to tell me he's relatively healthy if a bit underweight. I didn't dare try casting a different one with the way he flinched and moaned. I suspect that exhaustion is the only reason he didn't wake up when I cast," Madam Pomfrey said worriedly in quiet conversation.

"Then perhaps we should wait and see what happens. The diagnostic said he was relatively healthy, what does his medical history say? The one you cast when he arrived and the one you were given by his guardians?" Snape asked in true concern.

"I don't have either of those. For the spell I need parental permission and Albus refused to give it in loco parentis and he forbade me from asking Minerva after he was sorted. His previous records from before the school never arrived. Without those records and permissions I can only treat what I can find. I wouldn't have even been able to give him some of the potions he's needed over the years if Albus hadn't relented and given permission. I realize that as the Savior Albus couldn't risk anyone becoming his magical guardian so he didn't officially transfer guardianship as he did with everyone else at the small ceremony after the sorting but... Severus! He's being so unreasonable about Mr. Potter's care and he's calling it all for the greater good!" Pomfrey ranted in even more worry. "Then there's that horrible pink bitch! Severus, I am beside myself as to what to do. If that woman finds out that he's injured and possibly vulnerable she will be in here in a flash, harassing him and I wouldn't put it past her to force him into an unbreakable vow if she could."

"Then it appears that both Mr. Potter and I were caught in a potions accident and need to remain in seclusion until some of the more... problematic symptoms die down," Snape said carefully. "In fact you only just realized that we need to be quarantined until further notice. One of the more harmless symptoms is turning anything pink in the vicinity... a horrid puke green, I think. Possibly with a side of blood red skin and... hmm, a randomly occurring fever with random hallucinations? Yes, I think that would work."

"I don't know..." Pomfrey said doubtfully.

"Well, Mr. Potter? Anything to add to our symptoms?" Snape asked, raising his voice enough to easily carry to Harry. Harry sighed deeply and gave up faking sleep to sit up and join the conversation.

"If I really have fangs and a pouch in my mouth shouldn't we add random partial transformations to the list? That way if it doesn't go away or Madam Pomfrey can't fix it we don't have to figure out a way to explain it later," Harry offered hesitantly. "In fact it could even affect adults differently, explaining why you aren't partially changed."

"Then we will have to say that it was a stray miscast spell hitting one of my experimental potions, possibly with delayed results to explain why we were discovered away from my lab," Snape said consideringly, pleasing Harry in that he didn't dismiss the idea or go out of his way to insult the Gryffindor.

"I can deal with having blood red skin for a while and its a good symptom to be able to 'fix' or fade over time. Though I think we should just have the twins break into her office and destroy those horrid cat plates to keep her away from us. 'course we'd have to make sure she doesn't know who did it... maybe we can blame Peeves? Or get Peeves to do it?" Harry speculated, getting into the spirit of the prank part of the story. "Might have some trouble with her working with Filch and the Slytherins, or at least that stupid squad Malfoy is on... The DA might help.."

"DA? Isn't that what you called your little defense club?" Snape asked archly. Harry flushed but nodded, ducking his head and staring at his lap as he dragged up his courage to make a very difficult apology.

"Professor? I am really sorry about looking into your pensive. It wasn't entirely intentional and Vol- sorry, the Dark Lord keeps getting through everything set up to protect me. How am I supposed to survive or protect anyone else when no one will tell me anything?" Harry asked in frustration. "Dumbledore wouldn't even look at me anymore before Umbridge chased him away, McGonagall sent me away when I tried to get help from her just like everyone else. You're the only one who actually seems to care if I manage to walk away from whatever is trying to kill me this year. How am I supposed to defend myself or anyone else if I don't know what's going on? I don't even know where the edges of the safe areas are."

"I'll add mood swings to the list," Pomfrey said quietly as she slipped away to allow the men the private conversation they clearly needed to have.

"Anything else?" Snape asked archly, his mood souring at the reminder of why Harry had been banished from Occlumency lessons.

"Just nightmares and weird dreams, like the one with Mr. Weasley and the snake," Harry said tiredly, most of his energy now gone, drained away by his frustration. "If I know about a danger I try to stay away from it but I don't see many options and I can't get my hands on the information I need. I'm not reckless, or arrogant like you keep saying. I just can't tell where the danger is and everyone keeps expecting me to deal with whatever danger they see without complaint or help. Only Ron and Hermione and maybe the twins have ever tried helping and Ron keeps letting his jealously get in the way like last year. Well he can have my fame and money for all I care. I just want..."

"Go on," Snape ordered softly, Harry just shook his head no and curled up under his hospital blanket, quickly falling back asleep with an ache of despair and longing making his chest hurt.

The dour man sat back and thought about what he had learned simply listening to the green-eyed brat rant. The fact that he felt comfortable or desprate enough to unload on his most hated professor troubled the man greatly. He was stuck in a precarious position, he was loyal to the Dark yet bound to both Dark and Light and magically sworn to protect the boy lying in the next bed over that both sides wanted either dead or to control.

It didn't help that the emotions connected to the rant he had just listened to, if handled right, could so very obviously turn Harry to either side or to a new side altogether. So, he had a choice to make, risk increasing the danger to his charge by trying to turn him to the Dark or a third side? Or encourage him to trust and obey people who were not doing their job and very well might only be using him... This could be a problem. Snape brooded about the situation throughout the day and barely noticed their move into the quarantine area, too absorbed in how to deal with these new revelations.

Easter holidays began the next day so no one really noticed the disappearance of the two wizards who were now stuck in the infirmary. Hermione and Ron came by to see Harry and were told the prepared story, by the end of the train ride most of the school knew the story and thought it was true. Unfortunately, Umbridge got wind of it and was trying to force the medi-witch to let her see them before the train had gotten half way to London.

"You will grant me entrance and time with your patients or you will find yourself removed from your position and expelled from the grounds!" Umbridge declared imperiously. "I am Headmistress and High Inquisitor with the full backing of the Minister and Ministry!"

"I will not have you harassing them!" Pomfrey shot back, her voice rising and attracting the attention of both McGonagall and Flitwick. "As it is I may need to transfer them to St. Mungoes. We're lucky that they still have most of their magic under control and not dead or killing anyone who got near them since the spell hit one of Severus' experimental potions. An experimental potion that has been requested by both the guild and St. Mungoes urgently. I have no idea what its for or why they want it keep so secret, only that its supposed to help with infertility among purebloods."

The lie gave Umbridge pause since she to was not only a pureblood but had been diagnosed early with infertility. With a sharp nod the pink clad woman walked away, shocking the other three staff members.

"I knew he was working on the problem, he has been since they asked him about five years ago," McGonagall muttered as the two of them came to stand next to Poppy Pomfrey. "But to have her simply walk away at the mention of it..."

"Was that really the potion that they got doused with?" Flitwick asked as they watched Umbridge walk around the corner at the end of the hall and further into the castle to harass someone else. Poppy quickly cast a privacy charm around them before answering.

"No, Severus stopped some young fools trying a ritual the other night, getting caught in the backlash for his trouble. I've no idea what happened to Mr. Potter just that he has grown fangs and now has some type of pouch on the roof of his mouth but otherwise seems fine. We needed something to tell her and decided it would work best if I secluded both and said they were caught in a potions accident, which included a misfired spell, that took a while to show symptoms. I've got their skin charmed blood red at the moment for one of their 'symptoms'." Poppy admitted. "There's too much risk of her forcing them to sign something or decide that they need to be arrested for using Dark Arts or some other such nonsense without a plausible excuse. Like you, Minerva, I know that the infertility solution is something Severus has been working on for quite some time. I can always say that as a medi-witch I failed to recognize the potion they were doused in if some other potions master refutes my diagnosis. Especially, since its supposed to be an experimental one contaminated with a miscast spell in any case."

"Well, we can claim that Severus is probably punishing Mr. Potter enough for whatever happened if she decides to push or assign him mock detentions until the end of the year. That woman keeps targeting him and we can't keep her from focusing on him for too long without risking being able to protect as many of our students as possible," Flitwick pointed out despairingly. "The only other alternative I see is assigning select students to tutoring other select students and possibly setting a prize for the most inventive prank pulled on the woman. It might even bring some of the Slytherins back from her horrid grasp, especially if we make that squad a secondary target."

"I'll start with the Weasley twins. If you would be so kind as to find me a copy of the list of Mr. Potter's defense club and anyone else you think might be helpful I would appreciate it Filius. I can go over it when you speak with Pomona about her contribution. I also see no reason not to offer extra credit or points for spells from their lessons submitted to us that they have practiced out side of the classroom, provided they have not actually harmed anyone." Minerva McGonagall suggested. "I don't think we should include Slytherin house in the... extra circular activities unless they approach us, at which time we can explain why before offering them a chance to help if they can prove themselves. It will be a good lesson and doesn't necessarily violate any of the rules that disgrace of a teacher had put in place. Or at least none that the students aren't already violating to one degree or another."

"Just be certain that woman only gets those who volunteer to go to her detentions and the rest of you take everyone else. I don't know what she's doing to them but I've seen students crying or in pain and with the writ of authority she waves around I've been banned from helping anyone unless they come to me or one of you sends them to me. It worries me, especially since she threatened to send any student I helped to Azkaban if I didn't obey," Poppy admitted, tears of frustration and pain in her eyes. "At least it doesn't have to be the hurt person asking for help, someone else can ask on their behalf."

"When did this happen?" Flitwick asked in shock.

"Beginning of October. I think she was supposed to use the writ for something else but instead she used it to stop me from healing them unless asked and to keep my silence," Poppy told them. "It makes me wonder if we wouldn't be better submitting to the Dark Lord, provided we could get him to leave the students alone."

"Inform Severus of this development and Poppy? I am asking you now to help any and every student or staff member barring Umbridge and possibly Mr. Filch unless helping them would put them in danger. I would prefer that they don't prank the rest of the staff or put other students in danger but we can take a hit as cover if needed," McGonagall instructed bruskly. "Particularly the members of Mr. Potter's defense club and the Weasley twins."

"Gladly, I am quite sick of people trying to interfere with my job. First it was Albus forbidding treatment in certain cases to Mr. Potter, which I ignored, and then there were the times he tried to keep me from seeing to Severus after he came back from one of those dreadful meetings. I'll not stand for this any longer!" Poppy growled before turning on her heel and stalking back into the hospital wing, leaving behind two very startled professors.

"Albus? Albus interfered?" Minerva asked the air in shock.

"It appears that we have been duped," Flitwick said grimly. "I'll owl my relatives at Gringotts, heaven help that man if he's been stealing from Hogwarts and the students. Perhaps we can make a deal with the Dark Lord? Or at least offer neutrality of the staff in exchange for the safety of the students?"

"The next time I see that man he will wish he had never set foot in these halls," Minerva growled as she stalked away, breaking the privacy enchantment, to see a ghost about a prank.