[Summary] AU/EWE: Severus Snape had no expectations of peace between himself and the golden boys of Gryffindor. Theirs was a cycle of hatred that went on and on with no end in sight. But one day changes all that, and Severus Snape finds someone he can actually care for, and she turns his life upside down, sideways, and diagonal. [HG/SS]

Beta Love: The Dragon and the Rose, Dutchgirl01, Flyby Commander Shepard, and Crazy Mishka

Feather, Beak and Claw

Another AU Crackfic by Corvus Draconis

A gift for The Dragon and the Rose

Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend.

Bill Watterson

When Sirius Black had first thrown a rock at his head, Severus Snape had known then that his school life was going to be a long, rough road. It didn't help that he, Severus, had a chip on his own shoulder that dated back to the first day on the Hogwarts express, when he'd been defiantly protective of his desire to be in Slytherin like his mum.

They hexed him; he had hexed back.

He tried to get the upper hand; yet somehow they always knew where he was… and when he was all alone.

He'd learned how to Disillusion himself.

They still found him.

He hated them.

He hated them so much that any and every opportunity he found to get them in trouble, he used it— only it never worked.

Now matter what, they never seemed to get in trouble. They avoided any and all punishment or got away with a mere slap on the wrist. Now, even Lily thought them better than he was.

Mudblood.

Of all the words to say, he had chosen that particular insult

Hurtful.

Stupid.

So terribly angry.

She could forgive the "toerags" that tortured him every day for the last five years, but not him.

One word.

Just one poorly-chosen had taken away the single thing that he had thought kind in his world.

Just one.

CRRRRRKKKKTHOOMP!

Severus was suddenly up high in the air and flung like a ragdoll into a pile of hay and straw by Hagrid's hut.

And manure.

He could hear them cackling madly, but he saw nothing. It was like the sodding bastards were bloody invisible.

His ribs ached painfully, were possibly cracked, even broken. Breathing hurt, and he spit out a fair bit of blood mixed with his saliva.

He leaned up against the wall, wheezing like a severe asthmatic.

His back was hurting badly, and he tried to remove whatever bits of rock he'd fallen into. He wanted to catch his breath to use the spells to clean himself off. He was sadly used to having to clean literal shite off himself thanks to his most persistent tormentors.

As he winced and shuffled to the side on his bum, he heard distinct cracking noises.

Crack.

Crackle.

CRACK!

Bits of shell exploded outward as a damp, newborn creature burst free of its shelled prison.

Soft honey-brown fur, spotted coat, tufted leonine tail, eagle talons, lion rump— a pale down-covered eagle head and wings hinted on a life meant for the skies—

A gryphon kit.

Sqqqqiiirrrp?

The gryphon's golden eyes looked up at him—

Gods, it was huge. How did something that big fit in an egg he couldn't even see until—

He was falling, falling deep into those innocent golden eyes.

Pools of gold. No, an endless ocean.

Skirrr.

The kit opened her mouth, projecting a feeling of profound hunger, she was positively starving!

Snape rummaged in his robes for some half-crumbled biscuits.

The kit chewed on them, but she wrinkled her expression, twisting her beak into a look of dissatisfaction with his offering.

Severus looked around and saw—smelled—a stash of dead ferrets on a line— perhaps intended to be fed to some of Hagrid's other creatures. As soon as Snape saw them, so did the kit, and she eagerly snapped at one, pulling it by the tail to the ground. The line snapped, and all the ferrets came tumbling down as well, much to her obvious delight. She tore into them hungrily, her razor-sharp beak making quick work of everything.

Urp!

The kit purred and rolled onto her back in his lap, filling it up with ease. Her pale, fuzzy belly was distended with her digesting ferret meal.

"Uh—" Smooth Severus, he admonished himself. So articulate. "Hi."

The kit chirred, her beak opening as her tongue slid out to playfully peg him on the chin.

"Eurff, ferret breath."

Chirrrr.

"That is not your name."

ChirrrCHIRRRRR.

"I am not naming you Halitosis!"

Chirrrrr.

"How about Vega. Arabic for swooping eagle."

ChirRRRrrRRRrrRRR.

Severus sighed. "You better not be one of those females that likes flower names like Rose or Lavender."

The kit glowered at him.

"Ariel?"

More glowering.

"Bloody Artemis, you're such a picky thing."

She perked at that name. "CHIIIIIIR!"

"That's the name you want?"

Artemis practically radiated approval.

"Fine, Artemis it is."

A tufted (now dry) tail promptly whapped him upside the head.

The sound of a foot stepping on dry twigs caught the kit's attention and—

FWOOOP!

She disappeared.

Only her weight was still on his lap.

"Are you alright, Mr Snape?" Madam Pomfrey was staring worriedly at him, a basket of plants from Sprout's greenhouse dangling on one arm.

"I think I may have cracked a rib or two, ma'am."

The mediwitch scowled. "Let's get you cleaned up then," she said. "Gods only know what might get infected if I treat you out here."

"Hey, Prongsie," Sirius said. "The greasy git is in the infirmary. Let's go make sure his wounds aren't all that serious, yeah?"

James smiled. "We wouldn't want him to think we don't care, after all."

Severus stared up at the ceiling of the infirmary, wincing as he felt his bones knitting together. He never thought he'd feel them healing, but the Skele-grow was apparently just as bad in the drinking as it was in the aftereffects.

There was a soft thump of paws as his invisible companion hit the floor, having jumped down from her place at his side. She didn't bother Madam Pomfrey, which was a blessing, even if she did accidentally tug on a privacy curtain and cause some shrill girly screaming from a few beds down.

The poor kit had promptly come barrelling back to him, stuck under half the curtain, trilling softly with alarm.

He couldn't help but laugh and soothe her fur, wincing as his ribs complained that neither had been a very good idea.

Gryphon kits could, apparently, cloak themselves in powerful camouflage. That wasn't in the books.

His eyes were getting heavy. It made sense, when he thought about it. Mum gryphon flies off to get food. Baby has to remain hidden. How do you remain hidden in a giant nest in the high mountains? Disappear. Ob-viously.

"Bloody hell!" he heard someone curse— Potter.

But where was he? He saw nothing.

He could sense Artemis in full stalking mode.

Scratch.

"AHHH! What the hell, mate?! Trying to trip me?"

Potter, however, didn't answer as he crashed into a pile of bedpans, and he was suddenly all too visible.

"Mr Potter! Leave my infirmary at once! I'll have none of your pranks, tricks and lies in here today, young man!"

"But—"

"Leave! Unless you've broken something, then I'll put you in a bed and write your parents that you'll be staying here."

Potter turned very red in the face, stood up, and then rushed out the infirmary with all due haste.

"YEEEOOOWCH!"

Sirius was suddenly very exposed as well and was clutching at his groin with both hands.

Poppy narrowed her eyes at him. "Mr Black, have a seat and I'll take a look—"

"NO!" Sirius cried, his voice cracking like a twelve-year-old's. He dashed out of the infirmary, hobbling painfully as he cradled his wounded bits.

Poppy snorted and waved her wand to clean up the mess as Severus felt the invisible lump thump into him and snuggle up warmly at his side. As his hand stroked her soft fur, it ran into a lump of what felt like… satin?

He tugged at it, revealing a cloak.

His hand passed under and disappeared.

Severus' eyes darkened. So that was how they've been avoiding detection all this time.

Chirrrrup!

Severus pressed a gentle kiss to her beak. "You lovely little creature."

Chirrr.

Severus closed his eyes after tucking the cloak safely into a undetectable extension-charmed pocket in his robes on the nearby chair. A small, wicked smile tugged at his mouth as his hand stroked the gryphon's down and fur.

AAEEEIIIIGGGKK!

Sirius jumped up cursing and screaming in the middle of Transfiguration class as a half-executed spell was botched badly, zinged out of his wand and transformed poor Marlene McKinnon into a giant wasp. The frantic wasp was flying around madly stinging everything in sight— students, familiars, even the desks.

Minerva McGonagall had the wasp stunned after a few minutes spent hurriedly performing damage control. "Those that were not hurt, help those that were get to the infirmary! Mr Black, you will be spending tonight in detention with me for your lack of control and inappropriate language."

"But something BIT me!"

"As I understand it, Mr Black, you were bragging about that this morning in the Great Hall."

Sirius turned beet red and turned his head away sulkily. "Yes, ma'am."

"Severus."

"Hrm?"

"Why are you surrounded in wands?"

"I don't know, they were here when I got here," he shrugged.

"You realise that Gryffindor is all up in arms because half of them are missing their wands, right?"

Severus looked at Mulciber with a lifted brow. "No, was it amusing?"

"Very."

"Then, I'm just going to do my homework."

"Surrounded in wands."

"Mmhmm."

Regulus sat down next to Severus. "I have an idea."

Severus slid his eyes sideways. "I know that tone, Regulus."

Regulus smiled. "It's going to be winter hols soon, Severus. We should help Gryffindor to be properly… festive." Regulus gathered up all the wands. "Come on, Mulciber."

Mulciber looked somewhat dubious as Regulus promptly grabbed him by the ear and dragged him along with them.

"Ow! Okay! Leggo my ear!"

Severus sighed and pet the warm, purring lump next to him. "You're totally insufferable."

Chirrr.

Dumbledore stroked his beard as he looked over at the enormous Christmas tree decorated in student wands. Each time a student tried to grab one, a sprig of mistletoe would appear, demanding that they kiss to retrieve their wand— only not everyone had a suitable partner, so the tree was effectively beating off any who did not "pass" the kiss test.

"Pranks, Minerva. I'll have to admit this one was particularly creative."

Minerva's brows furrowed. "But these are all Gryffindor wands!"

The tree then proceeded to beat off a Ravenclaw student.

"Not just Gryffindor, Minerva," Dumbledore chuckled.

"Surely you could do—"

"I tried."

"What?"

"The tree wouldn't stop beating on me until I kissed Fawkes."

Minerva puckered her face. "Albus, I have hard time seeing you as not being able to dispel a tree."

"Oh, I could dispel it, Minerva," Dumbledore said, "But it is simple harmless fun. The wands are all there. Give them a bit of a challenge."

"But they don't even have their wands, Albus!"

"Are you saying our students are so inept that they cannot solve a problem without their wands?"

Minerva frowned. "Well, no—"

"Let it be, Minerva. I'm sure they will figure something out."

Minerva sighed. "As you wish, Albus."

Cheeeurp!

Artemis was laying on his chest, taking up his lower legs all the way up to his chest.

"Ufff. Have you grown?"

Chirrr.

Huge razor beak answered him straight to the face.

SLURRRK!

Her tongue pegged him on the face, right between the eyes.

"Mrrfff!" Snape pushed her head away. "Away, demoness. I have to pee, and you are lounging upon my bladder."

Artemis chirred and leapt off him, her paws thumping right into his stomach.

Hrrrk!

Snape groaned, getting out of bed. He pulled the curtains on his bed back, and his roommates were all out like lights.

Artemis had already cloaked herself, sneaking about the dorm and sticking her beak into everything. She'd already gnawed on Goyle's hat, shredded Crabbe's satchel, and...relieved herself on Mulciber's robes. His robes had reeked of ferret all week, despite whatever the house-elves did to wash them.

Chirrrk!

Uh-oh.

Artemis had found Regulus' favourite book strap. She had it in her mouth and was trotting with her head held high— which in invisibility means the strap was walking itself around the room.

He lunged for her, but she dodged with unnerving accuracy and zoomed out the door, chirping with gryphon laughter.

He wondered if the sounds were all in his head. No one else ever seemed to notice her.

Hell, he wondered if she was just in his head…

As he rushed out of the dorm to find the restroom, he hurriedly went about his morning ablutions and then ran out to find his errant little mischief maker. When he arrived in the common room, Regulus was sprawled out on the rug, laughing hysterically as Artemis pegged him with her beak in all his ticklish places, having pinned him with her front talons.

Was she… somehow bigger?

Suddenly, she was small and adorable again— well, smaller and more adorable as she curled up on Regulus' chest and dropped a drooly book strap on his head.

Regulus was laughing hysterically, ruffling her fuzzy head, which was starting to poke out pin-feathers in her downy fluff. "She's yours then, you lucky bastard?" Regulus grinned up at him. "You know how many witches and wizards would happily murder and commit utter genocide for a chance at one like her?"

He sat up, stretching lazily. "Your Ari is truly something else. I should have known all the strange things going on were the result of gryphon kit mischief."

"Wait—" Regulus' grey eyes bugged out. "She's the one nicking all the wands! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Regulus belted out uproarious laughter, giving the kit a hug and a big smoked turkey leg he'd seemingly pulled out from nowhere.

Artemis purr-chomped, and tore it to pieces.

"You called her Ari?"

"Shorter than Artemis."

"But how—"

"Art-amiss," the kit rrrrked. Scratchy but quite understandable.

Snape's jaw hit the floor.

"Didn't know that, huh? Hah," Regulus chortled. "You know, Severus. My dear older brother has never been loved by animals. Even our family owl hates him. I find that really odd considering the odd nicknames they call each other in Gryffindor. Seems like his dislike really attracts Ari's attention. Just like the person who hates cats walking into a room full of cats that promptly proceed to cover them in cat hair, you know?"

"I'm still not sure why no one else seems to notice her, especially after she pissed all over Mulciber's robes."

"Considering what a sodding smelly prick Mulciber is— usually anyway— it doesn't surprise me that no one wanted to look too close. Though, the little gal probably picks up on your true opinion of people— which makes me flattered and my dear brother doomed."

Snape lifted one brow.

"Hey, let's go get some breakfast. This early we can feed the hungry beak until she's stuffed and no one will be there to notice."

Severus shrugged. "As you wish."

"As Our Royal Majesty of the Beak and Claw demands," Regulus replied, grinning as he pulled Severus along with him.

An entire plate of knackwurst disappeared off the table in a matter of seconds, the hungry kit having enthusiastically taken to the task of playing the Muggle vacuum cleaner.

"I swear she gets bigger with every meal."

"She probably does, mate. They have to grow fast so they aren't taken out by other predators, or so I understand. Smart animals, however, know better than to try and take on a baby gryphon. Those beaks and talons are already sharp from the egg. They also do that bite and twist manoeuvre like a goose, so even if they don't manage to tear a chunk off you, they still make you think they did."

"How do you know so much about them, Regulus?"

"I really wanted one as a kid. Father said no."

Severus snorted. He scowled as a sneaky beak nicked a slice of grilled tomato off his plate and a few pieces of fried bread as well.

"She's bloody ravenous."

"All babies are, Severus. She's no exception."

Thump.

Click. Click. Click.

Silence.

"Uh-oh, she's stalking something." Severus furtively peered down the aisle to see a certain distinctively spotted rump and down-covered head doing the "wiggle-twitch" dance that invariably signalled hunting behaviour amongst all felines, even part-felines.

The Great Hall was, thankfully, empty, save for them— but somehow Artemis had found something to stalk.

THUMP!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

She had found something, flinging it up into the air with one well-timed stunning swat of a paw as her sharp beak clacked only inches away from its body. The long worm-like naked tail screamed rat, and neither Severus or Regulus were inclined to discourage her from vermin destruction. No one wanted rats in their food. Everyone encouraged their feline and owl familiars to hunt them.

"You get em, Ari!" Regulus cheered her on. "Show that dirty rat who's the top predator."

Snap!

Bat.

THWACK!

Thump.

Bat.

Thump.

CLACK!

Screeeee-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Both boys turned and stared in shock at the very un-ratly scream.

Thump.

Artemis returned to their side, cloaked, a small spatter of blood on her beak.

Foop!

She promptly cloaked herself and curled under the table at their feet as the frantic screaming continued.

"WORMTAIL!" James and Sirius cried, dragging their fellow Gryffindor friend and co-conspirator off with them to the infirmary.

Severus and Regulus watched as James pawned Wormtail off on Remus and Sirius and stormed back into the dining room.

"YOU!" he spat. "You wonder why there can never be peace between us after you do THAT to Peter!?" He had his wand aimed at Severus' chest and was clearly more than livid.

"I did nothing."

"You call THAT bloody nothing?! He has a missing left LEG!"

"Did he try looking where he last left it?"

"Why you sodding PRICK!" James roared, throwing a nasty spell at him that was quicker than the eye could see.

Severus was sent flying up to the rafters, upside-down, and one of his boots was caught on the ceiling chandelier. Regulus hastily stood up, trying to pull out his wand, but James had Severus' wand in his hand.

SNAP!

There was a flood of released magic from the wand as an echo of the magic was answered with a SCREEEE of pure rage. Regulus went flying backwards, not even able to pull his wand.

James went flying out the double doors, smashing them open and landing in a crumpled heap in front of Professor Minerva McGonagall, who scanned the room to find Regulus with no wand, Severus dangling precariously from the ceiling, also with no wand, and James himself with one wand too many, one of them broken.

Worse, a small rat's leg slid down James' face and landed square in his lap even as it twisted, contorted, and transformed into that of Peter Pettigrew's rubbish-smelling left leg— part human, part rat— stuck in mid-shift.

"What the hell did you just do, James?!" Lily's shrill voice shrieked from the hall. She stared into the Great Hall to see Snape dangling from the ceiling and Regulus bowled over into a large serving platter of jelly cubes. The colourful cubes dripped down Regulus' hair and face along with bits of fruit and softly whipped cream— and one randomly thrown soft-boiled egg that dripped a stream of golden yolk down his patrician nose.

"I'll fuckin' murder him!" James yelled. "He hurt Wor— Peter!"

"No, Mr Potter, you will not," Minerva's voice snapped, every bit as cold as the grave.

James froze in place, having only then realised just what he'd said in front of a teacher.

"You will, however, explain everything to the Headmaster as I take care of Mr Black and Mr Snape here."

James suddenly clutched at his abdomen. "I think I need to see Madam Pomfrey too."

Much to his chagrin, Minerva just sniffed, pulled out her wand and scanned him over. "You are perfectly fine, Mr Potter. Now, pull yourself together and march to the headmaster's office. Now."

"Yes, ma'am," James said, staring down at the floor as he pushed himself up.

"Hand me your wand."

James handed the Deputy Headmistress his wand.

"And the one you broke too."

James paled and slowly placed the broken wand into McGonagall's outstretched hand.

"Anything else you wish to tell me, Mr Potter?"

"No, ma'am."

"Get to the Headmaster's office," Minerva said, her Patronus smoothly whooshing from the end of her wand toward the Headmaster. "He will be expecting you."

James squared his jaw. "Yes, Professor."

"It has come to my attention that there are those in this school practicing the Transfiguration art of Animagi— the magic to turn human into an animal form at will," Dumbledore said. "As some of you may know, this morning Mr Pettigrew was found missing a limb, and that limb was found caught partway between changes."

"It is very important that those wishing to study such arts must do so under mentorship at Hogwarts. It is a complicated art where many things can go wrong as it seems to have in this case for the unfortunate Mr Pettigrew."

Albus stroked his beard. "Now those of you who are studying by yourself or studying without a mentor are encouraged to register with Deputy Headmistress McGonagall within the week. As she is sanctioned under Hogwarts, the registration fee will be waived."

"I must warn you, however," Dumbledore said sternly. "Should we learn that you are practicing Animagistry without being duly registered or mentored, dire consequences will be administered, which will include but not be limited to reports being filed with the Animagus Registry as well as marks on your permanent record both here and at the Ministry. Please consider this if you feel it is not necessary to register as an Animagus. That being said, all such talented individuals are welcome to discuss this art in a group forum with Professor McGonagall, which will take place directly after the dinner hour."

"Lastly, I leave you with the following phrase: Bah-weep Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong. Have a marvelous dinner."

Dumbledore sat down as the Main Hall immediately burst into frantic whisperings.

Ka-BOOOOOOOOM!

The Potions classroom exploded in massive clouds of bubblegum pink glitter, and the epicenter was Sirius Black and James Potter.

Slughorn had shields over almost ever cauldron, but the chain reaction had already touched a few cauldrons, changing the room from dreary dungeon to a disco ball of rainbows and sparkling glitter.

"I am so tired of you James Potter and Sirius Black!" Lily screeched, wiping glitter off her face. Her ginger hair stood on end, and it had rained glitter down on her, her things, her table— everything.

"You think we did it? It was ruddy Snape!"

"Oh, don't you even start with the 'It was Snape' this and "It was Snape that'," she seethed. "He was sitting way over there on the other side of the room the whole time!"

"Ahem," Slughorn said. "Thank you, Miss Evans for clearing up the situation quite admirably, if not the room itself. Messrs Black and Potter, you will be serving detention with me until this room is completely spotless and glitter-less. However long that might take."

"YEEEOWWWWCH!" Black leapt up out of his seat, glitter flying everywhere as he danced about the room, holding his groin.

"What is your problem, Mr Black?" Slughorn asked, frowning.

"Something bloody bit me!"

"On your privates, Mr Black? During class? In front of everyone here?"

Sirius turned very red indeed as a small trail of phosphorescent glitter crabs ran down his trouser legs and scurried off into the room.

"It seems you have a serious case of crabs, Mr Black. You will go see Madam Pomfrey to take care of that at once and still see me in detention tonight."

As Sirius Black left the classroom, Slughorn said. "Everyone, we will be resuming class outside on the green. Be sure to take your things, but please leave the glitter behind, if at all possible."

The students whispered wickedly amongst themselves as the painful truth spread like wildfire.

Sirius Black had crabs.

No one noticed the piece of turkey leg floating by itself as the invisible gryphon kit gleefully carried her tasty reward down the hall between Severus and Regulus.

Chirrr!

Madam Pince found one row of her library overturned with books laid out all over the floor— yet strangely none of them were damaged at all. It almost looked like someone had gone on a reading binge and simply never put the books back.

As she cleaned up the aisle, one small piece of speckled down floated up and away, leaving Pince to ponder if someone had let one of the owls into the library.

But what self-respecting owl read human books?

Dumbledore looked out the window to see Fawkes tearing a path across the green as if he was being chased by— something. His grey brows furrowed as he watched. Fawkes rarely ever played, but he seemed to having a gay old time being chased by something—

What was that daft old bird up to?

Crazy phoenix. At least he wasn't sulking around in the office anymore. For that, at least, Albus found he was happy for his longtime feathered friend.

Mulciber was having a bad day.

Scratch that; he was having a ruddy bad month.

Every time he planned to try and lure Snape and Regulus to the special party about joining a certain very exclusive club, he woke up half-buried in the woods covered in a heaping pile of random debris and reeking of pish.

What. The. F—?

His owl came back to him shaking like a leaf and looking like something had tried to eat it.

Stupid bird.

Avery wasn't doing much better. He had a rampaging case of crabs.

Literally crabs.

They seemed to spawn on Crabbe and then make a beeline straight to Avery, pinching and poking him until he started screaming and beating on himself until he was black and blue.

Everyone thought it was because of the recent potions explosion and Sirius bloody Black, but by the time Avery went to the infirmary, there was never anything to be found.

Rumour had it that Avery had been eating fairy 'shrooms from the green, but Mulciber didn't believe it.

As Mulciber saw Severus and Regulus studying under a spreading oak tree, he stomped towards the pair, determined to get them into Lord Voldemort's good graces.

Tha-thump.

Tha-thump.

Tha-thump-tha-thump.

Something hit him right in the back as a blur of vivid crimson and gold feathers zoomed by. Mulciber went flying arse-over-teakettle, tumbling into the lake as the giant squid wrapped him up in its tentacles and tossed him around a few times before flinging him into the middle of Black Lake.

Ker-SPLOOSH!

Severus raised his head. "Mulciber is in the lake again."

"Again? I thought he hated water."

"Who knows with him," Severus snorted as Artemis lay her head on his lap and Fawkes landed nearby.

Warble.

Screeechiirrrrrirrrirrr.

Severus petted the kit on the head as he continued to study. "Dunderhead."

"Agreed," Regulus said, flipping the page of his book and handing a large cluster of grapes to Fawkes, who was happy to help dispose of the excess fruit from their luncheon by the lake.

"Let me get this straight, Hagrid," Albus said as he sucked on a lemon sherbet. "You want me to help you find a gryphon egg that you lost after you specifically went against my wishes about adding more animals here at Hogwarts."

"Well, it sounds kinda silly when you say it like tha', 'sir, but yeah. Someone stole me gryphon egg."

Dumbledore's lip twitched. "And where exactly did you manage to get your hands on a gryphon egg?"

"Uh, well, I, er—" Hagrid said sheepishly. "Great bloke owed me one for getting 'im some quality hen eggs, extra large, you see— he was planning on hatching them. Big project. He was a bit of an odd duck, though. He wanted me to pick out a few toads too. Extra large ones. Not sure what he needs that many toads fer, but— anyway, I got 'im the stuff and he gave me the gryphon egg."

"Hagrid, gryphons are exceedingly rare magical creatures. It takes years to find a nest, let alone one with eggs in it. Then you have to survive the angry parents, who do not take at all kindly to being hoodwinked. You realise that there are people on really long waiting lists for the creatures, and even more that have tried to find their own only to die horribly? Did that not strike you strange that he just happened to have one?"

Hagrid frowned. "Well, I did do 'im a favour, I did. It was a right proper exchange."

"I think, Hagrid, that you've been had," Dumbledore said. "The chances of him giving you a real, viable egg is not very good, and even if he did give you one close to hatching and it's not there— The kit may have already found someone to bond to—"

"No! It's mine!

"Hag—"

"I made a right proper exchange for it! It's mine!"

"You exchanged chicken eggs and toads for it, Hagrid," Dumbledore reminded him. "What creature that you know of comes from chicken eggs hatched by toads?"

Hagrid's eyes went comically wide. "But— he never said anything about—" Then his face twisted with guilt. "I shouldna' done tha'."

"No, and the people who sold you those items would never expect you, someone who is supposedly wandless, of being a Dark Wizard," Dumbledore said sternly. "Toads are useful outside of Dark magic, after all. Hens are quite mundane, useful in many ways. Together— they are unmistakable harbingers of far worse things."

Albus frowned. "Hagrid, you have always had a good heart, but you are also driven by it so strongly that others can easily see what you want and take advantage, manipulating you through your desires."

"Your desire to help Aragog drove you to shelter him, but instead of leaving it at that, you imported him a mate and infested our formerly safe forest with man-eating Acromantulas, making it impossible for our students to enjoy the forest and the centaur to lower their guard for even an instant."

"If I help you find this gryphon, Hagrid, and it has bound itself to another's life, you must accept that it was never yours to have. Gryphons are noble, intelligent creatures, but they are also cunning and require constant stimulation or they become bored and destructive. Can you even say you could focus on a single powerful beast enough to keep it sane when you already have so many other duties here at Hogwarts?"

"I don' haff that many beasts, Headmaster," Hagrid said stoutly. "Nuthin' that a gryphon couldn't add to. I'd train him up big and strong. He'd protect Hogwarts, he would."

"A gryphon kit has a limited window in which proper socialisation with humans must occur, Hagrid. Any and all things it is to consider friend— part of its territory... It must trust what you trust, which means you must instil trust even if there is no trust."

"That makes no sense, Headmaster. Why would I teach anything to trust something I don't trust?"

"Do you always trust a student?"

"Well no, not always."

"Do you want to see a student mauled to death by an angry gryphon because you don't trust them?"

Hagrid's eyes widened in alarm.

"I want you to think hard on the potential consequences of your failing to properly train this kit, should we find it— and should it choose to bond to you."

Hagrid stared at the Headmaster's desk. "Yes, Headmaster Dumbledore, sir."

"ChirrSSK!"

"Whoa, what's the hurry, Ari?" Regulus asked.

The gryphon kit made a beeline towards the woods, dove into the dense brush, and began rustling around.

"We can't go in there without permission from the centaur or escort by a teacher," Severus said worriedly.

"We can't just let her roam around in there, though."

"We can't be caught in the Forbidden Forest without escort. We'd both be in detention and she'd run amok." Severus wrinkled his nose.

A large rustling caused both teens to stumble back in surprise as a black centaur with long black hair stepped out into the sun.

ChirrrrrITTT!

Artemis was running around his legs, sniffing, rubbing, and "introducing" herself.

"Foals of Hogwarts. Do I understand correctly that She-Who-Pounces is under your care?"

Severus swallowed hard, bowing slightly. "Yes, she is with us. We apologise that she entered without permission. We could not fetch her without also entering the forest."

A red roan centaur stepped up next to the other. "If she is one of theirs, it would behoove us to introduce them and her to the herd, lest we be considered food when she is older.

"Aye, Bane. You are right," the other centaur agreed.

"I am Magorian. Leader of the Tenebra Herd of this forest. The name dates back to our Grecian origins, to which we are all related. This one is Bane, my second. Our diviner is Firenze, but he is off teaching our foals deep within."

"I am Severus," Snape said with a small bow.

"Regulus," Regulus said, also bowing.

Artemis pounced playfully on Regulus' boots and thumped her tufted tail into his side, making a drumming sound. She then took Snape's hand in her beak and gently worried on it.

"Severus, foal of Hogwarts. Regulus, foal of Hogwarts. Be welcome in our forest in gratitude for your manners and respect. Please follow us," Magorian said.

With Bane guarding their backs and Artemis bouncing around their feet, the two teens followed Magorian deeper into the woods.

Severus and Regulus sat by the fire, nestled under a shelter that the centaur had erected in record minutes— the sign of a people that knew how to move camp quickly.

Artemis was busy sniffing every centaur, young and old, checking with each one to see how Severus was reacting and filing it in her gryphon brain that each one was accepted as friendly—and part of her territory.

Much to her delight, the foals soon took to grooming her, and the little gryphlet (as she willed it so) was purr-chirping in obvious delight.

Both Slytherin boys had spent hours learning centaur etiquette, how they hunted, how to signal when they came into the forest, and where to wait for their escort safely. Bane was careful to warn them never to go to certain areas where the Acromantulas were, showing them where the boundary was only to have Artemis tear off after a few of the larger ones, enlarge herself, and tear them to pieces.

She dragged a large spider corpse with her, dutifully trying to drag it under herself, but she wasn't very practiced, so she tripped and staggered a few times. Not to be dissuaded, however, she kept at it, dragging it all the way back to camp and eating it.

Regulus tried not to cringe. "I know felines love to chase and kill bugs and spiders, but— ugh, does she have to eat them in front of us?"

Severus, amused by Artemis' busily packing a lot of spider into one fuzzy stomach, could only snicker.

Then, after said spider was well and truly devoured, she was pint-sized again as well as insufferably adorable—the perfect cuddling size for many a happy foal.

Magorian was quick to request Artemis' services to hunt the spiders from time to time, convinced she was the answer to their ongoing safety issues, both for the foals of the Tenebras Herd and Hogwarts.

Both Severus and Regulus agreed to train as hunters and become members of the herd by all rights—proven providers for their herdmates and to Artemis—though whether they meant the goddess or the gryphon, neither were quite sure.

Artemis had already proven her ability to hunt, and they wove an amulet using a tail hair from each herd member to mark her as a proven ally. The kit seemed excited to have so many new friends, and she even allowed Magorian to put the amulet around her neck without protest.

She-Who-Pounces paved the way to peace with the Tenebras Herd, and Severus and Regulus were far too Slytherin not to know a great thing when it almost literally speared them in the face.

By the time Bane escorted them back to Hogwarts, it was almost sunset. Ari pranced ahead, head high and tail erect. Her little wings were already filling out with real feathers.

When Ari vanished into thin air. Severus stiffened, and Regulus followed suit.

"Well, well, well, Snivellus. Baby bro. Where the hell have you been all this time, hrm?"

"None of your business, big brother," Regulus said. "Where we walk is our business."

Sirius smiled cruelly. "Oh, I think it is my business since I know neither of you were here at Hogwarts for the past few hours."

"So certain of that, are you?"

"Quite certain."

"You're welcome to explain how you're so certain," Regulus said, his eyes narrowing.

"Trade secret," Sirius smirked as James walked up beside him.

"We still owe you for attacking Peter and getting him in trouble."

"Us? Getting HIM in trouble?" Severus scoffed. "You must be off your bloody gourd."

Both Sirius and James reached for their wands and pointed them at the two Slytherins. "You're going to pay for that."

Severus' lip twitched. "You and with whose wand, Potter?"

James and Sirius stared down at their hands. Their wands were… missing?

"Oi, what's going on out 'ere?" Hagrid's voice bellowed as he swung a lantern between them. "They'll be no fighting here or anywhere else on the grounds. Go on back to your dorms, the lot 'o ya. It's almost curfew."

Severus gave him a tight smile and he and Regulus turned on their heels and walked back up towards the school.

"What the hell, mate?" James hissed.

"Me? I lost my wand too!" Sirius argued.

"Bad enough they made us pay to replace Snivellus' wand. Now we've lost our own bloody wands."

"That's not all we lost—"

"What are you talking about?"

"The map is gone."

"WHAT?!"

Hagrid cleared his throat. "You do realise I'm still standing right here, yeah?"

The two Gryffindor paled as they realised what they'd said in front of Hagrid.

"I think you two need to go have a nice chat with the headmaster. Go on now. I'll be right behind you."

James and Sirius stomped back towards Hogwarts, even crankier than when they had left.

Chirrrrttt!

Purrrpurrpurrr.

Screechirrr!

THUMP!

Minerva lifted her head up from her pillow as she yawned and squinted in the darkness of her bed chamber. She waved her hand to ignite a candle lantern and make her way into the next room.

There was nothing disturbed. Nothing was out of place or broken.

Wait.

A piece of folded parchment lay on her writing desk.

Suspicious, she pointed her wand at it. "Revelio."

Dark black ink magically formed words on the top:

Mr Padfoot thinks you should have a bit of nip and relax.

Mr Prongs suggests you keep your feline whiskers to yourself.

Mr Wormtail says your tartan knickers are in a bunch.

Mr Moony believes you are frightfully uptight.

Minerva scowled as she recognised the odd monikers within all too well. After Pettigrew's half-rat leg had revealed his dabbling in Animagus magic, and Madam Pomfrey's overhearing the boys calling Remus "Moony", it wasn't too hard to figure out who was who. She picked up the parchment, put on her robes and shifted, exiting her chambers in a blur of silver fur.

"Thank Merlin," James sighed with relief, picking up the familiar piece of parchment from the flagstones. "I thought for sure we'd lost it for good."

"You sure that's ours, mate?"

James waved his wand over the map. "I do solemnly swear that I'm up to no good. Good thing ol' Dumbles gave us back our wands, eh mate?"

He unfolded the parchment to see all the names of their schoolmates and teachers throughout the school, just like always.

"See there, Padfoot? Everything is just fine, no worries." James smiled. "Mischief managed." Then he folded the map up and handed it over to Sirius.

"And here Moony was positive we'd never get it back." Sirius opened the map up. "Come on, let's go get Snivellus in trouble. We really owe him. I do solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."

The map obediently swirled back into form.

"Wait, what are those names near us?" James said with some concern. He put his wand closer, casting a quick Lumos. "Is it Moony?"

"Naw, see he's there with Wormtail in the infirmary—"

James looked closer. "Oh fu— Mischief Managed!" he said in a hurry, folding the parchment and stuffing it down Sirius' trousers.

"The hell, mate?"

"Come on!" James said, quickly pulling him away.

They only got a few feet before Headmaster Albus Dumbledore was standing in their way. "Good evening, gentlemen. Might I ask why are you traipsing about the grounds well past curfew?"

James and Sirius tried their best disarming smiles but only rolled a one on a twenty-sided die.

Albus waved his wand and the incriminating parchment promptly flew out of Sirius' trousers. "I would hate to think you actually were up to no good, hrm? Making a highly invasive, privacy invading and staff evading map, for instance, could get you no small amount of punishment depending on just how detailed such a map was."

"Professor Dum—"

Dumbledore held up his hand, silencing them. "I do solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

James and Sirius immediately paled as the map upfolded with its typical highly detailed information— noting all names, positions and activities of the students and staff throughout the school.

"I'm quite sorry to say, gentlemen, that while an excellent testimonial to your level of skill in creating it, this map is unfortunately for you, quite damning. I find I am suddenly reminded of how Mr Snape frequently stated that no matter where he was, you'd always be able to find him whenever he was alone—as if by magic."

"Seeing the very late hour, you are hereby confined to your dorms until tomorrow morning, when you will meet me in my office at seven o'clock sharp. I will be sending owls to your respective parents as well as those of Mr Lupin and Mr Pettigrew. As tracing magic conducted by a minor not under direct supervision is strictly forbidden by Ministry regulations, the Aurors will also be informed, and your record will be reviewed by the Wizengamot. If I were you, I would try to sleep well, as your day tomorrow will likely be very busy, indeed."

Dumbledore nodded to Minerva, who had stepped out of the shadows. "I will be escorting you back to your dormitory to ensure there are no further unscheduled detours this evening, gentlemen." He gestured to the horrified boys in a shooing motion. "Let's go."

The two Gryffindors practically walked with their bellies dragging along the ground as the Headmaster escorted them both back to their beds.

Meanwhile, back in the Slytherin boy's dorm, one heat-radiating gryphon kit snuggled up with Severus, purr-chirring as his arm went around her and he snuggled into her.

Artemis yawned, her beak opening comically wide as she thumped off the bed and prowled her way into the common room. Her bacon friend was there. She could smell it. She hopped up on the couch and lay down on his body, compressing his kidneys.

"Oof!" Regulus said, handing her the bacon.

She gobbled it down, slurping his face and slicking down his hair.

Regulus shook his head, pushing his hair back from his face. "You're insufferable."

Ari chirred and rubbed her head against his chest, itching it.

"All those feathers poking you, love?"

She sighed.

Regulus scratched her down and feathered head, breaking some of the feathers free with his fingers.

She stuck her beak into his book, seemingly absorbing what it said.

"That's Arithmancy, Ari. I don't think you'd be too apt at it."

The gryphlet narrowed her eyes at him, snatched the book, and trotted off. She climbed up the bookshelf and hopped onto the rafter, placing the book down and lay down to peer at it.

Regulus stared. "Oh come on, Ari! I didn't mean— I mean— you're a gryphon for Merlin's sake! What do gryphons need with Arithmancy?"

The gryphlet ignored him, tail swishing.

Poof.

She was gone.

"So this is how I can finally get to talk to you," Mulciber's irritated, almost drippy voice broke the silence. "Waking up at the arse crack of dawn."

"Have you actually slept at all, Mulciber? Or are you just returning from one of your clandestine late-night meetings?"

Mulciber seemed to snivel. "You should come to one. I think it will open your eyes to a great many grave injustices."

Regulus wrinkled his nose in distaste, unimpressed. "The only injustice I care about is that I didn't get seconds for lunch before Quidditch practice. I hate flying on an empty stomach."

Mulciber inched a little closer. "Aw, come on, Reg. Give it a shot. Just once and I swear you'll understand why it's so important. You can even bring Severus. In fact, that would be ideal."

CRRRRRKSSSKKK!

Mulciber gave out a huge yell and a shrill girly scream as he clutched at his bleeding bum with both hands. His robes and trousers were torn open exposing a pair of red and gold satin boxers with the Gryffindor crest on them.

He hurriedly clutched at his tattered clothes and tried to run to the door, but ended up right in front of the glass viewing window. He slammed into the heavy glass pane head first, knocking himself completely out. He landed flat on his back with a thud.

Slughorn shambled in blearily. "What in Merlin's name is all this racke— oh dear!" He ran up and performed a few spells. "This is well beyond my healing skills. Off to the infirmary you go!" He zapped Mulciber with a levitation spell and pulled him along to Madam Pomfrey.

Slughorn left, leaving Regulus to stare blankly at the greasy smudge on the viewing window with bafflement.

"What just happened?" Severus asked confusedly as other students came in to see what was going on in their common room.

Regulus shook his head. "I have… no idea. He was buttering me up for some secret meeting and then— well, he tried to get in closer to me and—"

"And—" Severus asked, scowling.

"He just screamed, clutched his bum and ran straight into that glass wall, mate. I swear that's all I saw."

"Did you see that?" a boy whispered loudly. Too loudly to be not heard.

"He was wearing Gryffindor boxers!" another exclaimed in tones of disgust and horror.

"I've heard the silk ones are really comfortable."

"Shut up, Martin."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGHGHGFFFFFFFF!

Avery came running out of the dormitory, clutching his bum. He ran so fast that he slammed into one of the couches on a turn, tumbled over the top, rolled arse over tit, and slammed flat on his back on the carpet— a bottle of ominous-looking potion was clutched tightly in his hand.

A boy reached for it.

"NO!" Severus yelled, pushing him aside. "NEVER touch a potion you do not know!"

The younger boy's eyes went very wide and he hurriedly shoved his hands in his pockets.

A purple liquid dripped from the open lip of the bottle and ate through the carpet with a eerie smoking hiss as a cloud shaped like a coiled snake rose up from a menacing cloud skull.

"What the hell is that?!" the children whispered together, making a loud ruckus.

The prefects quickly herded the younger students away. "To the Great Hall, at once. Don't go back to your dorms until they have been checked out. There is no telling where that potion was or what it will do."

"But, I'm in my pyjamas!"

"This is an exception. Wouldn't you rather be in your pyjamas and alive than in your uniform and dead?"

The children quickly exited the common room in a rush, chattering nervously amongst themselves.

As the older students rushed to help evacuate the younger, Severus and Regulus attempted to place a stasis spell over Avery to preserve both him and the potion exactly as it was.

"I should have paid more attention to this charm in class," Regulus bemoaned.

Severus, a look of severe concentration on his face, finished the spell, sealing Avery and his potion as it was. "I have no idea how long it will last."

"Hopefully long enough," Regulus said, rubbing his head. He stared at the snake cloud. "What do you think that is?"

Severus frowned harder. "Whatever it is, it isn't anything good. Nothing good comes from a manky-looking skull and snake cloud in any case I can think of."

Chirrrrprrrrt!

An invisible head nudged itself under Severus' hand.

"Hello to you too, Artemis."

Purrpurrrchirp.

"You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with all this, hrm?"

The invisible gryphlet said nothing— a perfectly Slytherin response.

As Albus signed the relevant papers for the Aurors, the Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew parents had to sign as well, releasing their children to attend their own Wizengamot— probably the first they had ever been to.

Memories had been extracted and sealed, flown to the ministry in all haste. The parents were all mortified, as was to be expected, as evidence of their children's misdeeds was materialised in full detail in Dumbledore's Pensieve.

They wouldn't have signed the papers otherwise.

Who wants to believe their children capable of devising such malicious pranks, if you could even call them pranks. While many vials of student memories had been collected and included, none were as strong as Severus Snape's.

Save one.

Buried in Sirius Black's mind was a plan for a truly horrible prank that would set his fellow "friend" on another student— as a werewolf.

Remus had been obviously horrified, having already been thoroughly shamed for having taken part, even if only in not standing up to it or reporting his friends activities in the hanging of Severus Snape from a tree, stripping him of his trousers and torturing him to the point where he lashed out at any and everyone—

While it was clear that Sirius' dark plan was still in the planning stages, his intent was crystal clear: get Severus Snape out of his business, preferably forever. It was very clear that Sirius Black, with malice aforethought, intended to use Remus Lupin as a weapon to kill Severus Snape.

There was nothing he could do to shelter Remus from the truth of his affliction— not from the Wizengamot who already knew but from the other students.

There was a chance, albeit a thin one, that Remus could continue going to school at Hogwarts and finish his education. The memories were clear that his participation had tapered off when the pranks started taking a trend towards the truly malicious. At the time they first had created the tracking map, the pranks had been equal opportunity amongst all the houses, but as the years passed, the pranks focused more and more exclusively on Slytherin. Then, they focused more and more on Severus Snape as their victim of choice above all others.

And, if one were to follow the memories, everything seemed to focus on Snape from the moment he had been strung up on a tree, upside-down, and tortured.

How had he missed it?

How had something so vicious and vengeful slipped past his notice?

How had he so easily dismissed it as mere boyish pranks?

Had his protection of Remus actually fostered such an insulated culture of hatred and bigotry?

It wasn't that Snape hadn't tried to give back as much as he took, but he was one person, and James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus were a bonafide gang— practically a pack of rabid animals out for blood.

Clank-tink.

Albus looked around his office. He got up, checking the door.

Nothing.

He came back to his desk and found that his breakfast plate had been cleaned of every sausage and half his eggs were missing as well.

Albus stared at Fawkes, peering into the dish attached to his perch. "Feeling a bit peckish today, old friend?"

Fawkes looked at him sideways, warbling curiously.

After trading stares with Dumbledore for a long moment, Fawkes whistled Scarborough Fair and then demolished an entire cluster of grapes with gusto.

Thump. Thump. Tumble. Thump.

ScrrrrrrrrrTHUD.

Padum. Padum. Padum. Padum.

Skkkkskkkkk!

Severus put down his paper to see Artemis avidly chasing a beetle across the floor, up the wall—

SWAT!

Bzz… Bzzz… .

The beetle went spinning off into the shadows with the excited gryphlet bounding after it.

She came back a few minutes later, crunching up her catch with disturbingly loud cracking noises and licking her chops.

Severus sighed. "Must you be so enthusiastic in sharing your evening hunt experience?"

Artemis chirred.

"Bugs are nasty."

Ari licked her beak again.

"She does love her beetles," Regulus said fairly.

"And spiders and squirrels and pudgy pigeons."

Regulus laughed. "She leaves the chickens alone and the owls too."

"Strange how she seems to know what to leave alone so easily."

"Not so easily, I think, Severus," Regulus said. "She always looks to you to know what is okay— and me when you aren't around."

"What are we, co-parents?"

Regulus laughed. "Maybe, but it's clear you're her main focus."

Severus grunted as he got a gryphlet beaking his shoulder, tugging on his sleeve, and taking his wrist in her mouth and twisting and turning it like she was trying to rip it off— gently, of course.

"Oi!" Severus muttered, giving her a firm shove. He flexed his fingers slightly, making a sign. She sat down. He made another and she laid down with her head on her paws. He made another and she eagerly pounced Regulus, pinning him to the ground.

"AHHGGG!" Regulus moaned.

Severus gave her a strip of dried beef and cracked a smile. She snapped it up with a happy chirrr.

"What are we going to do with a gryphon in Hogsmeade?"

"Probably not visit Honeydukes."

Regulus gave severus a long-suffering look.

RRRRrrrrk?

Artemis tried to engulf Regulus' head with her beak.

"Well we can't leave her alone. Magorian warned us what would happen—"

Regulus shrugged. "Then we take her— it's not like she doesn't hide herself."

Regulus cracked his neck and shrugged. "What could happen?"

Severus narrowed his eyes. "Everything."

"Oh! Aren't you a bonnie lass!" cooed Madam Carlisle as she patted Artemis on the head. "Are you visiting? From Hogwarts?"

The owner of the shop put a few choice items in the basket.

"There you go, little one. You be sure to put in a good word for our store with your person, yeah?"

Chirrr!

Artemis rubbed up against her hand and purr-chirped.

"You're a fine, well-behaved little gryphon," she praised her. "Carry on."

Ari pranced out the door of the shop, carrying her basket of goodies with her.

"Oh, are you a literate gryphon, love?" Mr Bookbinder praised the young gryphon. "Arithmancy, eh? Too complex for me. I can't sell you that one one—but tell you what: you can pick out anything you like from the bin of second-hand books we have in the back."

Prrrt!

The gryphlet followed him into the back room and poked through the pile of books. She pawed each one carefully and then seemed to find one to her liking.

Chirrrk!

"Arithmancy Complex Series and Matrix Spellwork? Alright, my lass. You're the very first gryphon I've ever had the pleasure of serving. Please remember us with kindness is all I ask."

Kkkrkkpurrr.

She rubbed up against the shop owner and recorded his scent in her memory, making sure to rub all over everything in the back and front.

He placed the book, wrapped in paper, into her basket.

"Have a good day, lassie," he bid her warmly.

The young gryphlet pranced out the door with even more loot in her treasure basket.

"She has more stuff than we do, Severus!"

Severus eyed the basket full of offerings— oh, so proudly hoarded. Swift pecks kept curious hands away from what was clearly hers.

"Somehow I don't think she stole this," Severus noted.

Regulus shrugged. "Well, it's not like she bought it—"

"Just because she didn't buy it doesn't mean she stole it."

Artemis shot Regulus an acidic glare and scissored his hand with her beak— just enough to make her point .

"Ow! Okay, okay. You didn't steal it!"

The gryphlet sniffed and turned her sharp beak away from Regulus… for now.

Ari then plucked a large bar of dark chocolate out of her basket, surgically excised it from the wrapper, nipped it in half and dropped the other half into Snape's lap before devouring the rest.

Regulus pouted as Snape ate his half with silent and smug relish.

"You're a right bastard, Severus."

"Mmhmm. But you insulted Artemis. You don't get a share of the chocolate after that."

Regulus sighed. "I hurt a gryphon's feelings?"

"Don't think because she isn't human that she doesn't feel. You of all people should know that."

"Well, yeah, but—it's one thing to have feelings, but quite another to quickly garner allies in a small Wizarding town."

Ari yawned, shaking her growing ruffle of feathers.

Foop!

She vanished.

"Uh… hey."

Snape and Regulus instantly stiffened.

"Your bonnie gang isn't here, Lupin," Severus said.

Remus stared down at his feet as he came to a halt. "Look. I know I haven't been the best example of personal worthiness, but I wanted to say— I'm sorry for what they wanted to do to you— using me to hurt you, that is."

Severus' jaw tightened.

"I'd never have gone along with it, I swear! I would never inflict someone else with—" He dug his nails deep into his own skin, drawing blood. His young body was littered in scars— claw marks or nail marks, it was hard to tell either way.

"I trusted them. I thought they were my friends— the only friends I would ever have. Could ever have."

Remus' head swivelled. "They started so innocent. Little pranks. Small, funny charms and hexes. They made an effort to keep me from hurting myself by freeing Moo—the beast. They could, you see. I thought it was all to help me, but—"

"Maybe it started out that way, but as time went on, it was no longer about me. I can see that now. It was about being safe around me. Maybe Prongs… maybe he meant it." Lupin sighed. "I really don't know anymore. All I know is that Pad—Sirius—Sirius actually wanted you dead and meant to kill you by using me as the weapon. I never wanted that. I want that perfectly clear between us. I was weak. I never spoke up. I never tried to stop it. I knew it was wrong but I did nothing. For that, Severus, for whatever it's worth, I am truly sorry."

Severus' jaw tightened and then relaxed.

"I suppose, finding that your best mate tried to get you framed for murder can put a new light onto things," he said. "The question is—what do you intend to do with this newfound knowledge?"

"Finish school. Keep my head down—and lock myself away three nights of the month. Dumbledore arranged for it since the Wizengamot determined that while I had been a part of the pranking, I had not been aware of what happened to myself during three key nights of when most of the pranking occured."

"Getting away scot-free, then?" Regulus asked bitterly.

Remus winced. "Not exactly. Dumbledore has me in detention for—well, more or less until the day I graduate. He says it will give me time to give back to Hogwarts."

"It surprises me that Dumbledore would actually punish a Gryffindor." Regulus' face was serious.

Remus frowned. "I supposed we did get a blind eye from him."

Severus narrowed his eyes, turning his head away to look somewhere else.

Remus sighed heavily. "Look, I know our history has been bad. Horrible even…" He scratched at his own skin, not even realising it. "But I wanted you to know that I realise it went way too far and I know I should have stood up for it. I was a coward, Severus. I was afraid of losing my friends. I was desperate to keep them— the few people who seemed to care about a sodding werewolf."

Remus sat down on a nearby garden wall. "I had to talk to someone. Talked to Lily. I told her what it was like wanting to cling to some stupid, biased ideal. Friends—wanting to fit in. Be normal. Be ideal. But there is no perfection, is there? We can only be true to ourselves and hope it is enough.

"I'll be spending the rest of my time in Hogwarts, maybe even beyond that, trying to make up for my mistakes. The rest of the time I'll be trying to make up for what I can't help being."

Remus was silent, brooding.

"Look, you haven't had a perfect life. I get it. We get it," Regulus said. "But, if you're going to travel the path for absolution, then you're going to have to work harder than you did to break the trust in the first place."

"And maybe— as our own path for absolution, we will at least do our best to take your actions for what they are and not what we remember you for," Severus said. His teeth were grit together with the effort of his words. It was obvious that his inborn hate for all that Marauders had stood for still made for a large chip on his shoulder.

"That is way more than I deserve," Remus said quietly. "Thank you."

ChiirrrrSSKK!

Thump.

Roll, tumble, THUDSCREEEEEEeeeeeeeech.

Badump.

"There isn't going to be a bug or vermin left in Hogwarts," Regulus muttered, flipping through his Arithmancy book.

"At least we get a few beetle wings, fly wings, and fairy wings from time to time," Severus said.

"Only because she de-wings her prey before eating!" Regulus said.

"Lily would be horrified that she eats fairies."

"Only the slow ones," Regulus pointed out.

"There is that."

Ari crunched on her latest prize with gusto, making loud cracking noises as hard carapace met much harder beak.

"Did you—"

"Accept Lily's apology?"

"Yeah."

"Odd, before Artemis I would have grovelled and begged for her to forgive me. I would have gladly accepted her apology and forgiveness—"

Ari bounced up and dropped a dead rodent into his lap. She looked at him proudly.

Severus tried not to twitch as he took the rodent by the tail. "Thank you, oh mighty huntress."

She looked up at him expectantly, clearly waiting for him to eat it.

"You do not eat perfectly good potion ingredients," he told the gryphlet. He carefully placed the body in stasis and stuffed it into a box after hitting it with a shrinking spell.

Ari seemed to frown, not quite understanding why you'd stuff something tasty and eminently edible into a box.

Severus ruffled her ear tufts and shook his head at her.

ChiirrrSK!

She licked the side of his face and zoomed off after another unfortunate vermin.

"What happens when she runs out of things to hunt?"

"She finds other things to amuse her."

"That sounds ominous," Regulus said.

Severus shrugged. "She's a predator. They predate."

"But on what, though?"

"Anything they can take down."

"You do realise Ari has taken down a full-grown Acromantula, yeah?" Regulus eyed Severus with dubious eyebrows.

"Aye. She can also get you out of bed in seconds when setting your bed on fire can't."

Regulus puckered his lips.

Suddenly, a scream came from the front portal that lead out of the Common Room. A rodent dashed out between a terrified witch's legs as a blur of honey chased after it before disappearing with a FOOP!

Severus and Regulus jumped up immediately, cursing as they blew past the screaming witch and after the snitch-gryphlet.

"Oi, you two! Curfew is in a few minutes. Stay in."

Severus and Regulus twitched, staying in place but not liking it.

The wall leading out of the dungeons slid closed with a grinding click.

Artemis was stuffed.

She'd found about fifteen plump and overfed rodents, more than a few beetles, and ample flies to chase, bat, and devour. She left the owls well alone. They were off limits, at least they seemed off limits. She wiggled her way up into a high room, dug into a large tin of tasty sweet pellets that fizzed on the inside, chased a bunch of black, snapping gummy things that tried really hard not to be eaten. She ate a few, decided she wasn't especially fond of the taste, and went back to finish off the tin of sweet, fizzy, pellet-things.

She batted the spinning sphere, stuck her head into a pool of supposed water that wasn't water. It filled her head with images, and she shook her head and decided that wasn't what she wanted either.

She found a bowl of fruit on the desk, tasted a bit, decided the peach was the best and mashed it to bits with her beak as she tilted her head back and let the juice roll down her throat. Tail twitching, she pounced a over-stuffed pillow, batted it around, snapped at it, and sent it flying off to the top shelf where it stuck between some books.

Frowning at her lost toy, she made a grab for a dark purple hat from the chair and carried it with her, out the door and down the steps, making percolating sounds as she went.

She stalked a girl with a jingle bell on her book bag as she ran somewhere in a hurry. She smelled of anxiety. It was exciting—the combination of bell and emotion attracting her. But, before she could pounce, the sound of sniffling caught her attention.

Hrm.

She bounded toward the sound, and the salty bite of tears assaulted her senses. There was a small one curled up behind a curtain—smaller than the ones she had chosen as 'her' people.

The creature, boy...smelled like a boy, she thought. Boys had a different scent to them—less of the floral, more of the spice, sometimes more stinky. That wasn't quite right. Sometimes Fluffhead, her nickname for Regulus, would smell of a strong scent that made her nostrils twitch. Softhands, on the other hand, always smelled of whatever potion he had been working on. She really liked his scent—well, unless something went wrong and he smelled of icky burnt stuff.

Icky burnt stuff meant a shower, though, and she loved showering. Softhands would always lather her up and groom her thoroughly before tending to himself. She liked to sneak into the area with the big lake inside. The walls moved, and the water spewed out from strange fixtures in the center. Bubbles rose up from heaps of foam and were highly chaseable.

This boy, however, was in desperate need of a good bath. He stank strongly of tears and fear, and sorrow.

Chirrr?

She laid her head in the boy's lap.

The boy startled.

Chirrrp.

Thump.

She headbutted his chest, itching her head on him.

Small hands touched her head, soothing her itchy feathers.

Chirrrr rrrk rrr sssk!

She rumbled happily as the boy pet her head and more importantly itched her pokey feathers.

"Wut's your name?" the boy sniffled wetly, no longer crying.

Chirrp?

"You want a biscuit? I saved one from dinner." He pulled out a cracked and crumbly ginger biscuit from his pocket. "Sorry. They took all the big ones." He sniffled but held them out.

She clamped her beak around his entire hand and used her tongue to lave off the crumbs in one brush.

He giggled as she let go.

"Like that, eh?"

Chirr!

She tugged insistently on his sleeve and guided him along.

"Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming. Walk with you, yeah?"

The gryphlet tolerated his grasp on her tail as she led him along and down the hall.

The moment the crumpled velvet robes of Minerva McGonagall came into sight, the gryphlet vanished.

"Mr Belford! There you are! The prefects were so worried about you!" Minerva cried, coming to his side. "Why do you have bruises? Oh dear. Let's get you to the infirmary and have you looked at."

No one noticed the fluffy, cocked head of the curious gryphlet watching them go or the purple wizard hat dangling from the boy's bookbag.

Ari playfully pounced the fluffy little feline that was tagging along behind a grumpy-looking young man. The kitten was super fluffy, and she squeak-mewed and tried to counter pounce, but she just slid off the gyphlet's beak. The man turned around to look, and Ari vanished.

"Wut are you doing, little lass?" the man asked, clearly baffled. "You chasing your own tail?"

The kitten mewed cutely.

He picked her up and cuddled her. "I wish I could get you a friend, but I'm afraid I cannot afford another cat. They're so expensive, ya see. You'll just haff to put up with me, my lass."

Mew.

"That's my girl," he said, ruffling her fur.

Argus Filch woke up early the next morning to find two tiny bundles of fluff snuggling up to his neck. One was quite familiar, but the other was a fiery red and orange kitten with large, bat-like tufted ears and a leonine tail.

"Wut?" Argus mumbled sleepily.

The Kneazle kitten purred and licked his nose, one tiny paw thumping his cheek.

His eyes drooped closed again as the lure of kitty gravity lulled him back to sleep.

"Oh, there you are my young lass," Ollivander said as he offered her a plate of fry up. "Hungry, are you?"

Artemis purr-squeaked and rubbed up against the wizard before applying herself enthusiastically to the offered food.

"Keep your strength up, love," the wandmaker said.

The gryphlet licked her plate clean and rubbed and bumped against the wizard.

"You ready to do a little delivery for me today?"

Chirrrssk!

He rubbed her head and soothed her feathers. "I appreciate it, lass."

He gave her a large hamper full of boxes. "I need this delivered to Amelia Bones." He tied a scarf to the basket. "That's hers. Should help you find her."

CHIRP!

"You remember your tracing lessons I taught you, hrm?"

Chirpppp!

"That's a good lass," he praised. "Thank you very much."

RrrRrrRrrrrk!

The gryphlet put her beak around the hamper's handle, took in the scent of the scarf, took flight, wings flapping like crazy in their half-fledged glory, and—

CRACK!

She was gone.

"Where did that huge hamper of sausages and jams come from?" Regulus asked.

Severus shrugged. "It was here this morning when I woke up."

"She gets out of the common room and comes back with a hamper chock full of goodies and no one saw her?"

"No one that said anything," Severus said.

Thumpity thump screeeeeeeeeslide….

THUMP-CLACK.

Ari crushed the beetle between her beak and trotted over for more cuddles and rubs.

Snape rubbed her wings and itched her head, obliging her. She lay on her back, rubbing and itching herself as she enjoyed a belly rub too.

"You spoil her rotten," Regulus complained.

"She always comes home," Severus said, seemingly nonplussed.

"Don't you even wonder where that basket came from?"

"Yes."

"And?!"

"I know it isn't stolen, so I don't worry about it."

Regulus just gaped at him. "You used to worry about everything."

Snape shrugged, still rubbing the gryphlet's belly, all his cares so far away.

"So did you forgive Lily?"

Snape rubbed Ari's wings, unanswering.

"Severus!"

"Hrm?"

"Did you forgive Lily?"

The black-eyed wizard frowned. "I accepted her apology."

"So you forgave her then."

"No."

"What?"

Severus curled his lip. "I can accept that she's sorry, but I cannot forgive her yet. She left me to rot on the Gryffindor steps, humiliated and ridiculed. She dressed me down in front of others, finally fitting in with her club of self-righteous idiots—so, no. I can't forgive her right now, but I did accept her apology."

"Aren't you afraid you're doing exactly what she did— in not forgiving her?"

Snape sighed heavily, his hand stopping the rub on Ari's belly. She squeak-chirped at him in agitation.

"I need time," he said finally. "She was perfectly willing to blame me forever."

Regulus sighed, thinking of his own brother. "I'm still trying to decide if I want to forgive or accept apologies from my prize idiot of a brother, that is if he would actually ever make an apology. Which doesn't seem all that likely since Sirius still doesn't believe he did anything wrong. Father isn't at all inclined to forgive him this time—and Mum is right furious whenever he so much as breathes around her. Sirius blames it all on us supposedly being a bunch of pureblood fascists, but is just wanting people to respect magic really about pureblood supremacy? I'm not talking blood here. Just the power of magic itself."

Snape shrugged. "We all have something blame. I default to my father, and he is a sodding bastard, but it doesn't really excuse some of the things I did trying to get back at the Marauders. We've all done some pretty bloody stupid things."

Regulus rubbed Ari's head feathers and nodded. "You're right."

FOOP!

Artemis disappeared.

"Come on, guys, time for Double Potions."

"Meet you there, Severus. I promised I'd go help Professor Kettleburn with a lame hippogriff."

"Right, don't be late," Severus said, and they all walked out of the dungeons together.

A certain gryphlet grasped her own potions book in her beak and carried it off with her, making it look like the book was floating behind them all on its own.

KABOOOOM!

Splat.

Splatsplorch.

Splattttt.

Shhhhpluck.

A rain of red potion goo landed all around the room, covered every desk, every student, and everything in between.

Slughorn, who had been standing just outside the door of class to speak privately with a student, rushed in and slid across the thick coat of red slime that had covered everything in the room. He slid quickly onto his bum and continued his slide into a table, knocking himself out cold on the table lip.

Poof.

POOFpoofFOOP… POOOOOFFFFF.

Every student that had been coated with goo spontaneous transformed into an animal while Slughorn turned into the plumpest giant pineapple the world had ever seen.

Skiiirrrr!

Skree!

Whinneeeeeyyyysquawk!

One honey-coloured and one coal black gryphlet chased a young hippogryph across the green, taking turns nipping the black and white hippogryph on the rump.

The hippogryph kicked, bucked, and zig-zagged to dodge the nips but was outnumbered. He tossed his black mane as he ran, his white socks flashing as he kicked and bucked.

Chase. Chase. Hungry. Hungry! The honey-coloured gryphlet chirred.

Come back! Come back! Your rump looks tasty! The black gryphlet cried.

The hippogriff took on a burst of speed. No! Not food! Not food!

Kick! Kick! Buck!

The young hippogryph took to the air, tumbling arse over teakettle as he frantically tried to escape.

The two gryphlets also took to the air, their determination pressing them from half-fledged to fully-fledged, eager to chase and sink their beak into a tasty hippogryph rump.

Screeeeeee!

The gryphlets screamed as they took up the chase, instinct and eagerness taking them over.

Noooo! Not prey. Not prey!

Kick! Kick! Kick!

Tasty, tasty, hippogryph rump! The gryphlets cried, kicking it up a notch.

Ahhhhh! The hippogryph whinnied, fleeing across the skies. Eat morchikin!

Minerva wearily padded into her chambers after having spent the day helping cure all the unlucky transform-ees from the unfortunate Professor Slughorn's exploded classroom. Most of them turned into clones of their familiars— cats, owls, and toads— but all of them had been overwhelmed by their animal instincts and had to be chased around Hogwarts, captured, and transformed back. She had only just managed to save Horace from a grisly death due to a hungry Fawkes—and that only because the pineapple sporting a familiar mustache had tipped her off.

Fawkes seemed oddly chummy with others despite Dumbledore supposedly being his chosen person. Lately, Albus had some suspicion that his fruit-loving phoenix was turning slightly omnivorous, but so far he hadn't tried nicking sausage off her plate.

Albus had already done an unexpected thing by informing the students of their newly instated anti-bullying policy. While it wasn't all encompassing, it was close and would be revised as people invariably tested the boundaries. He was making a good effort to drive the message home, and the students that had literally beaten young Mr Belford for his box of homemade biscuits had been harshly reprimanded, put in detention for the next month, and on top of that, arrangements had also been made for them to perform public service in at-risk communities, a non-negotiable task which was to be completed during their summer holidays.

That punishment alone had spread terror amongst the student body, and Minerva hoped it was enough to keep their students in line.

A sudden series of thumps came from the direction of her balcony, and she opened the french doors that led outside. Her eyes widened as she found three extremely fuzzy, fluffy creatures nestled together in her over-packed flower box. Talons, wings, fur, hooves, and more were all tangled together cutely in a softly snoring pile.

Minerva's heart melted on the spot.

She gently placed a hand on the honey-coloured gryphlet, and she looked up at the older witch, blinking sleepily.

Minerva saw the intelligence in the little gryphlet's eyes and rubbed under her chin, watching her closely.

The honey-coloured gryphlet yawned and rubbed her beak against Minerva's fingers.

"And who are you, little lass? The hippogriff is probably Regulus Black. The other gryphlet is Severus Snape— but you, my dear—" Minerva said. "You are very much a mystery."

The gryphlet tilted her head and chirped.

"Is there a human buried underneath all the fur and feathers?"

Chirr.

"Or am I just talking to a very intelligent little gryphon and making a right fool of myself?"

Chirr!

Minerva hrmed and shifted into cat form. Follow me, will you, lass?

The gryphlet startled, wiggled out from under the other two, and jumped down beside the silver tabby. She took one talon and bonked the cat Animagus on the head as if to test if touch made her speak.

Oof. Watch the talons, if you please.

The gryphlet blinked at that. Sorry.

As I suspected, Minerva purred. "There is much more to you than just the gryphon. I am Minerva. Who are you, my lass?"

The gryphlet cocked her head. "Artemis. They call me Ari."

"Do you remember ever not being as you are now?" Minerva asked.

Ari swished her tail. "I've always been me."

Minerva flicked one ear. "Have you ever seen yourself as something else? In dreams, maybe?"

The gryphlet's eyeridges creased. "No."

"Where did you come from?"

"An egg. It was so crowded inside."

Minerva chuckled. "Hagrid has been going quite mad looking for you."

Ari bristled at that. "Big two legs. Very loud. Bit his finger and fled. He dropped heavy wood on me."

Minerva blinked slowly. "A table?"

"Does that mean heavy?"

"Well, they can be quite heavy," Minerva said.

"Then, I guess he dropped a table wood on me."

"Wooden table, but yes," Minerva purred with a chuckle.

Artemis chirred. "No one ever talked to me before today. Bird did, I guess. So one someone, then."

"The owls?"

"Can't eat those."

Minerva snort-sneezed. "Which bird?"

"Big one. Firehead."

"Fawkes."

"Does that mean Firehead?"

Minerva meowed. "Yes."

"Okay," the gryphlet answered, seemingly okay with it.

Minerva groomed her paw and drew it over her ear. "Are you well?"

The gryphlet rapidly itched her feathered head with her rear paw. "Itchy."

"I mean— is someone taking care of you?"

"Yes."

"Is it Regulus or Severus?"

Artemis snapped at a bug and ate it. "I like Softhands and Fluffhead. They make me happy. Softhands understands me better."

Minerva shook her ears, chuckling. "I'm betting Fluffhead is Mr Black. Softhands would be Mr Snape. Perhaps you hear the names Regulus or Severus more often?"

Ari tracked a fly with her eyes and head. "I hear that often," she said. "Always Fluffhead and Softhands to me."

"Well, my dear, please come to me if you experience any frustration. I might be able to help." Minerva stopped at the door of her balcony again. "You can rest here with them tonight, but tomorrow, I will have to change your friends back."

The gryphlet seemed to sulk. "Aww."

Minerva placed a soft paw on the gryphlet's talons. "They'll be with you regardless of their form."

"I like them better in this form."

Minerva seemed thoughtful. "They'll just have to come train with me to become Animagi."

Ari looked at Minerva quizzically.

"Just lead them to me, lass. I'll help take care of them."

Artemis hopped back up into the flower planter and curled up between the hippogriff and the black gryphlet, yawning. "Mmph."

Minerva yawned, showing all her teeth and then padded off to bed.

"Are you really screaming at each other because both of you think you've lost more than the other? Everyone has lost someone. Sometimes MORE than someone and more like several someones. How can you say that Harry's losing his parents doesn't count because it was when he was one? How can you say that Ron losing his brother is somehow less painful? It's ALL painful!" Hermione seethed, throwing down her napkin as she jumped up from her chair and stormed over to the counter to pay Rosmerta for their food. She handed the witch a few extra coins to cover her friends' destructive tantrum, the throwing of drinks and breaking tableware that had been charmed back together so many times that the magic finally just fizzled out and disappeared.

She cracked her neck and clenched her small fists.

"I can't believe you would push aside more than seven years of friendship just to argue about something so bloody stupid as whose pain is more painful. Can you even hear yourselves?"

"Hermione, you didn't lose anyone. You just don't understand!"

Hermione's face darkened. "You're both such… dunderheads!"

She stormed out of the tavern and fled, her dark robes fluttering behind her, almost billowing like a certain wizard neither of the boys wanted to think about right then.

"Gawd, she even reminds of that greasy git too. She even dresses like that damned dungeon bat."

The two so-called "friends" then proceeded to tear into each other again as the weary patrons of the Three Broomsticks attempted to dodge the flying chairs, plates, and tankards.

"Brooding Miss Granger?"

"Hermione."

"Technically Professor."

"Just— Hermione. Please, Professor."

"You moron friends giving you grief?"

Hermione snorted. "As you say."

"Perhaps brooding in this most stuffy Headmistress' office is not the most ideal place for inner contemplation. Despite my most delightful and uplifting company."

Hermione chortled. "You're terrible, Severus."

"I am a git, or so they say. Whether alive or in paint, makes no difference."

"You're not as awful as you portray."

Snape's lips pulled tight into an almost smile. "You may be the only one in this school that believes that to be so. Even Minerva has threatened to flip my portrait over."

Hermione shook her head. "It would help if you didn't yank her chain as often as you do."

"What? And give up on one of the few pleasures I have to entertain myself? There are limited avenues, Miss Granger. A pixelated life makes for an unfortunate number of boundaries."

Hermione touched the portraits' frame, sighing. "All they do is compare their pain. Compare woes. Compare how they don't have as much hops in their beer. There's no love of life anymore. All they see is what they don't have."

"That is depression, Miss Granger— expressed in anger and lashing out at those who do not deserve it. I would imagine that they do the same to others at work or in their life. Perhaps— if they are married— in their home life. That recipe often leads to dependence on alcohol, as it did with my father. Disaster invariably waits in the wings, awaiting the best opportunity."

"I just wish I could have helped when it really mattered— before all this, before the wars. It could stopped so much sooner if people hadn't just fallen so easily in line."

"The price of doing the right thing, Miss Granger, is often the loss of life. Your life— what you think is your life. It may not end as mine did, but it will end, none the same. There is always a price for doing the right thing."

"You finally get that old cat off your back about twisting yourself into a new shape?"

Hermione chuckled. "Trying to get my mind of things, Professor?"

"Indulge me."

"Yes, but I failed at being inconspicuous."

"Miss Granger, if you continue to stall, I will presume you failed."

Hermione huffed. "Fine." She shuddered as her body seemed to pull in on itself and then expand outward in the fan of wings, talons, and beak.

Snape's painted eyes widened. "So, even in this you defy the boundaries imposed upon you by the Wizarding World."

The gryphon sighed, sitting down.

"Gryphons are very special creatures, Miss Granger. Rare because their minds are so much more than most think. They can hide in plain sight, which is why so few are seen let alone caught. They are true survivors— fighters— defenders. Champions, if one were to be so lucky to garner their favour."

Hermione seemed thoughtful. "To go back in time and peck Lily Evans on the arse."

Snape snorted laughter. "I could see that. Why is that?"

"She deserves a knock to the head."

"You never forgave her— even when she was but a memory in a pensieve."

"She's Harry's mum, but when he needed her most, she was dead. She did the right thing at the last minute— and that shouldn't have been the way it was. You shouldn't have been saddled with guilt. Harry should have had his parents. Wormtail— how much of it could have been stopped simply if they had known he truly was a dirty rat. I like rats, but not him. He gives rats a bad name— gave. Was."

Snape's expression softened. "You know, the animal for Gryffindor is the lion, but many forget that Gryffindor was named after a man, not the animal it so resembles. But you— you resemble the true gryphon. You are not a lioness who bows to the lion, relying on sisters or cubs to define your existence. You are the gryphon who protects her territory from all comers. Fierce. You are not a Gryffindor, Miss Granger. You are a gryphon, and a gryphon does not tolerate dunderheads in her territory."

Hermione smiled. "You want me to punt Harry and Ron to the curb?"

"Did I call them dunderheads, hrm?"

"Why you—" Hermione huffed.

A quirk of a smile graced Snape's painted lips.

"Go for a walk, Miss Granger. Try to remember what you are living for— and not what certain others have already forgotten."

Hermione placed her hand on his painted cheek. "Why couldn't you have been my best friend when I needed it the most?" Her expression was softer, a slight wetness to her eyes.

"If I had had a friend like you, Miss Granger, when I was young and on the cusp of eternally stupid… that could have changed a great many things. Regulus would have simply adored you— would probably have even tried to adopt you."

"Regulus Black?"

Snape's portrait nodded.

"It would be nice to get to know the people myself rather than rely on word of mouth. Sirius seemed genuinely shocked that his brother had not been a "bloody Death Eater" and all that," Hermione said.

"Black knew little of his younger brothers true self. I do not think he ever really knew him."

"How do you not know someone you live with?"

"Sometimes we choose not to see things, lest they shatter our carefully constructed belief system. Are we all not guilty of this at one time or another?"

Hermione sighed and then startled. "Wait, how can I talk to you while I'm a gryphon?"

"You're a gryphon, not an idiot. Though, perhaps, I should revise that opinion as you do not seem to realise this on your own.

Hermione thumped the frame. "Professor!"

Snape tutted. "Temper. And do watch the claws, if you please. I'm only made of canvas."

"I wish you were still here with us," Hermione whispered. "I could really use a hug right now."

Snape's portrait seemed a bit taken aback. "You are a bit mad, Miss Granger."

"Hopelessly. Madly," Hermione whispered, turning to leave the Headmistress' office. "Goodnight, Professor."

She quietly left the room.

"Miss Granger."

Hermione turned slowly. " Yes, Professor?"

"I…" Snape's face contorted into a grimace before he looked at her. "I would have given it."

Hermione's face twisted between tears and a smile. She turned to leave, but she quickly ran toward to the portrait and assumed her human form. She placed a kiss on his canvas cheek. " Thank you, Professor."

She fled the room in a rush, flush, and a hurry.

"Hermione," the canvas Snape called to her.

Hermione hesitated at the door, inches away from having escaped. "Yes, Professor?"

"It's Severus."

Hermione turned to look at him and smiled, a single tear splashing down her chin to the floor. "Thank you," she said softly. "Severus."

And she was gone in a flurry of wings and honey-coloured fur.

"Why couldn't you have met her instead of that detestable redhead," Phineas complained. "This one at least has some sense and nobility about her."

"Do be quiet, Phineas," Snape's portrait snapped.

"If you had met her back then, boy," Phineas continued inexorably, "I'm betting you wouldn't be stuck in that sodding canvas over there with the rest of us right now."

Snape retreated into his canvas in a swirl of dark painted robes, brooding silently.

Phineas grumbled to himself as he stormed out of his frame, rudely shoving his way past the other portraits as he left.

Phineas wasn't all that fond of Mudbloods in general, but a few decades worth of firmly being told to shut it every time he used the world had started to whittle away at his resolve.

But this Granger witch— she was something special, something that somehow defied all of his pureblood presumptions. She had basically kidnapped him in her infamous beaded bag— forced him to be a sodding relay owl between groups— but there was so much more to her than he'd realised even then.

She was a gryphon.

He should have known.

All Blacks knew what that meant: once a gryphon, forever a gryphon. She and her magical line would forever rule the skies, the highest peaks, and the territory she called home. It would be in her blood, her magic, her very soul.

His grandfather had once told him that gryphons were forever. Once mated, they would carve out their territory somewhere in the world and be eternal, raising their mortal progeny in the hopes that they, too, would find a mate of their own and join their parents in spreading proud gryphons across the globe.

He had outgrown the old stories, Phineas admitted. He'd sneered and dismissed them as mere fantasy tales. Gryphons were simple mindless beasts, just like all the others.

Oh, what a sodding idiot he'd been.

And Severus?

That boy could brood more than even the portrait of Salazar Slytherin. He was absolutely convinced that Severus was given bloody awful luck when it came to any sort of relationship. Even he, Phineas Nigellus Black, had found a love in his life that didn't try to stab him in the back.

The two were clearly meant for each other— she who refused to cow to his snark and prickly defences and he who stimulated her mind and challenged her to be more than she expected.

Phineas sneered to himself. He was Phineas Nigellus Black. He was not going allow his status as a portrait to keep him from performing great feats of— well, anything he chose to put his mind to.

Clever of old Albus to put a witty clause on his seal on Phineas' abilities. "Until the she-gryphon roosts at Hogwarts again."

Lucky for Phineas, a real she-gryphon did come to roost at Hogwarts again. Unfortunately for Albus Dumbledore, his portrait didn't have any sway over him, and so the seal was broken.

Opening the passage was easy.

Curiosity did the rest.

The girl was always so insufferably curious and annoyingly selfless.

But this time, he knew, those qualities would be a help and not a hindrance.

Phineas watched as the girl gasped, having pulled the Philosopher's stone out of her pocket while staring fixedly at the mirror. He saw her dawning comprehension as she realised Harry Potter had been lied to— manipulated.

She clutched the stone as her tears hit it.

Such an emotional witch.

Once, he thought that was a weakness, but he realised gryphons were fueled by their emotion, whether good or bad.

There it was— the glow.

The Philosopher's stone was picking up on her desires— desires that for any typical mortal would have been selfish, especially when faced with such intense emotional turmoil. The Mirror of Erised glowed— showing her the vision of so many families reunited— yet hers was strangely (or not so unexpectedly) absent.

Hermione Granger cared more for others than for herself.

Harry Potter had his mum and dad.

Ronald had all of his siblings, his family intact.

Harry wasn't trapped in a pitiful excuse for a marriage because he wasn't pressured into it after a war.

Ronald found someone that filled all his needs and shared in his desires and dreams of building a family just like the one he'd come from, with a whole Quidditch team of children.

Even that fleabitten ginger blighter of hers was there— with a full-Kneazle mate and a willingness to fill the magical world with hundreds of sodding half-Kneazle kits.

Molly Weasley never lost her brothers—

Family after family stood proudly in the mirror, united at last, saved from misery and death at the hands of Voldemort and his depraved band of followers.

Regulus never died to the war trying to destroy a Horcrux.

So many more blinked in and out.

The Philosopher's Stone shone brightly into her hand, but she did not notice.

Her tears were falling upon it, and with each drop, particles of the stone went airborne and then seemed to merge with her.

Brighter—

Brighter!

"I just wish there was a way to make this our reality, to stop Riddle and his minions from snuffing out so many innocent lives way before their time." Hermione's wish, powered by her unselfish desire, heightened by her emotion-laced tears, and catalysed by the Philosopher's Stone, impowered the true nature of the Mirror of Erised.

The Mirror reflected the possible future of Hermione's selfless desire to make things right for all who had lost their loved ones during the war to Voldemort's reign.

Hermione's body lurched forward, falling, but tendrils of light extended from the Mirror and cradled her gently. The Mirror burst into particles and then reformed into a figure of light cloaked in shadow— the perfect balance of the in-between. The figure's face was a gleaming white skull, and its bony fingers drifted across her face in a light caress.

"Your wish is granted, my child. You are freed from your past life to be reborn anew. You will remember what you were, in time, that you might accomplish the great task you have set for yourself. Blessings upon you be, my child, for you are Mine."

He pulled a small black stone from a handful of earth and drew a symbol upon it, then pressed it into her sternum where it sank down and disappeared. He tore a piece of his cloak and wrapped her body within it. He reached down to her arm and drew one bony finger down her skin. He delicately pulled out her ulna and replaced it with his, replacing the emptiness in his lower arm with her bone instead.

"The Master of Death wishes to hold power over me, but you, my little one, wish only to restore the natural balance, to save those sadly taken before their time, taken by the hand of mere mortals who would see themselves above the hand of Death. So you, my child, shall be my rebellion, my mischief, and my justice. I give you my stone, once lost, found, and remade that you may always know the balance of life and death. I give you my cloak that you may remain safe in light or in darkness. I give you my bone, that you will always be Mine— the Price you have paid for an unselfish wish granted."

Death's eyes glowed like twin flames in his pitch black sockets, an eerie, unnatural light where none should be. "And as you sleep within your egg, my child, I shall sing to you the ballad of the Three Brothers— two cursed to live short lives for the selfishness in their hearts and one cursed to live a long one, fearful of all things that might hide Death. I shall weave for you a new song— the Ballad of the Golden Gryphoness— whose extraordinary selflessness drew her to Death's Embrace and made her life worth living again."

"Sleep."

He drew his bony hand across her face as he gently kissed her forehead.

"Sleep."

Her body shrank down and curled as a eggshell formed and then hardened around her— a great egg of a great beast. He kissed the egg, drew it to his chest, and took the remains of the Philosopher's Stone in his hands. He crushed it to a fine powder, sprinkling it lightly over the shell of the egg.

"Sleep."

The egg shimmered and vanished into thin air as magic carried it away.

Ari suddenly jolted awake, startled as her dreams were a little too vivid. The black gryphlet next to her cuddled closer into her, using one wing to pull her snugly under his.

Mrrr.

Artemis snuggled in and settled, finding her comfy spot in between gryphlet and hippogriff. She yawned with a wide, wide, wide stretch of her beak and then settled again, closing her eyes and flying back to her dreams and the soothing song sung by a voice that made all worry fade away.

A/N: Detour because it's my beta's birthday and she deserved a story. Admit it, you all love her! I love her! She deserves a little something!

Spiders: Yup!

Fonn: Whuff!

Spider with a bucket over his head slams into the side of a large cake.

Other spiders: *sighs and helps pry bucket off his head*

Blodwyn (gasps): My beautiful cake!

Baeg: I have a comb and I know how to use it!

Other spiders: Not on the cake, you twit!

Baeg trips over the bucket and falls off the edge of the cake pedestal, right into the vanilla ice cream.

Zorion: Mrowl?

Kai: Rut-roh, Raggy! (sets all the candles on fire)

*spider cheer*