A/N: Holly Hannah, look at the reviews! I love you all so much it is practically indecent. I have never seen so much support for an idea and I am glad that my humble work will let you keep waving your Severus Snape flags with the pride they so richly deserve. Enjoy my newest offering!

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Harry Potter. The whole Potterverse belongs to the genius of J.K. Rowling, who is a goddess amongst writers. I seek to make no profit from this venture and I promise to return everything back the way I found it.

Animula Privo
Story by Jessica Arbuckle (Jessi, Princess of Impatience)
July 18 - undetermined, 2005

Chapter Three, The Portrait Knows

"Well done, Miss Granger, I had hoped you might ask for assistance from Minerva," a male voice said and Hermione jumped out of her chair, looking up to encounter the occupant of previously empty portrait. It was Albus Dumbledore, eyes twinkling as brightly as they had once done in life.

"Though, it did take longer than I expected for you to come here for the Pensieve," Albus added, looking vaguely surprised. Minerva, who had just picked the letter Hermione had dropped on her desk, slowly turned to the portrait, the open look of absolute shock at Hermione's words replaced by irritation and what looked to be slowly burning anger.

"Headmaster?" Hermione said weakly, sinking back down in the chair. In her mind, she knew all Headmaster and Headmistress portraits resided in this office, but the sight of him before her was almost too shocking for Hermione, whose feeling over his loss were still fresh in her mind

"No longer, dear girl. You may call me Albus now, if you like," he said kindly, those eyes as gentle and understanding as the real man once was.

The older woman had just finished a quick scan of the contents of the letter. "She shall call you dismantled in a moment!" Minerva cried, twin spots of red appearing on her cheekbones as she rose from her chair. "All this time, I thought you were just a personality and partial memory copy of Albus Dumbledore, but you knew everything all along, didn't you? Didn't you?"

The man in the portrait nodded once and then flinched at the loud howl of outrage from the current Headmistress, which awoke several other portraits.

"Ah, she has finally figured it out," came a dry voice and Hermione turned to find a portrait of the man she recognized as Phineas Nigellus Black, a former Headmaster and relative of Harry's dead godfather Sirius. At that moment, he was looking down at them with ill-concealed amusement.

"Oh Albus, I would hate to be you right now," he said sleepily, closing his eyes again as he muttered, "Actually, I would hate to be you any time."

Hermione, who had looked back to Minerva, never before having witnessed the woman this openly angry, looked again to the portrait at his last remark. She could see, from her angle, that although he looked to be sleeping again, he was watching the scene before him with partially cracked eyes. She almost laughed, as Harry had once told her most of the portraits did that exact thing and she was sure most of them were doing it right now.

"You knew about Severus and you did not tell me?" Minerva said again, going to stand directly under the portrait, her body positively shaking in anger. "You let me think he betrayed us all, you let me rant and rage and… other things at you for months and all along you knew every last detail?"

The former headmaster had the grace to look penitent and almost a bit afraid of the highly enraged woman glaring up at him. "Minerva, my dear, you know I am but a carbon copy of Albus Dumbledore at the moment of his death. He had no wish to involve you in this and so I had to keep quiet. It was entirely up to Miss Granger to involve you."

"When, in your entire life, have you ever done anything because some one would want you to?" the older witch raged, eyes flashing angrily as hands flexed convulsively, as if wishing to strangle something… or someone.

Hermione, having recovered from her shock at once again being confronted with Albus Dumbledore, even if it was a portrait, and then a highly charged Minerva McGonagall, quickly stood and moved closer to Minerva. Chocolate brown eyes were serious as they flicked back and forth between the current headmistress and the former headmaster, the latter who was looking more uncomfortable by the minute. Drawing on years of distracting her two best friends from potentially life-threatening arguments, she smoothly interrupted, shifting their focus to her.

"Please, Professors, I know this is really upsetting, but I need to go soon. I think Professor Snape has waited far long enough to be vindicated, don't you?" she asked, looking from Minerva to Albus with a calm beyond her eighteen years. Minerva just glared at the portrait, but did not continue. Hermione looked up at the image of Albus, which looked a bit relieved and thankful that she had interrupted.

"I need the Pensieve. You've probably disguised it, haven't you," she asked the portrait.

Albus simply smiled.

"I don't suppose you care to tell me how or with what?" she said and he looked off into the corner of his portrait, as if inspecting the frame for flaws.

"I figured as much," Hermione grumbled, looking around the room. "I'll bet it is an enchantment, like the books."

"Books?" Minerva said, looking for all the word as if she was desperately out of her realm of comfort, for one of the first times the one in the room who knew the least about what was going on.

"In Professor Snape's chambers," Hermione said absently, regarding the room with a critical eye.

"You were able to enter?" the older woman said, her face once again shocked, but her eyes assessing the young witch before her with an open interest. No one had been able to get past the wards to those rooms and would not be able to unless Severus Snape was dead.

"He's not…" Minerva began, a slowly growing horror on her face.

"Dead? No, Professor, he is not. I still had to remove some of the lesser wards to enter, just as you did before you came to one you could not pass," Hermione said, looking apologetic for doing something her respected professor and headmistress had not been able to do.

"Though, I don't know why I made it through the rest. I suspect it was because he knew I'd need his books to help Harry in some way," she said as she moved off to search the room in greater detail. The portrait of Albus gave her an odd look, one that if Hermione had seen, she would not have believed. It was the look a professor might have in the instance he was about to tell his most brilliant student that she was wrong about the answer to a question in class, yet this former professor never uttered a word.

Minerva, however, caught the look but mistook it for something else entirely. "So you know about this too?" she asked the portrait sternly.

"Yes, Minerva, I do and before you ask, I cannot tell you anything about it," Albus said placidly.

"Please, Professors," Hermione said, whirling around, brown waves bouncing, "I need to find the Pensieve, I need to see what is inside, I need to tell the world and I need to do it quickly," she ended in agitation and then looked horrorstruck. That was how she spoke to friends, not professors and adults whom she respected. Fro a moment, Hermione Granger was as scared of punishment as she had been when she had disarmed Severus Snape in the Shrieking shack.

Albus simply looked serene at her words, eyes twinkling bright as stars. Minerva faced the girl before her, some of her anger relenting at the look on Hermione's face. She walked forward to stand before Hermione.

"Do you need me to go with you into the Pensieve, Miss Granger?" she asked, searching Hermione's face.

"No, but I do I need you to stay here and pull me out if it seems I've been in there too long," Hermione replied, her eyes serious as she looked up at Minerva

"I've been working very hard in my months of studies in Occlumency, which is apparently an enormous help when using Pensieve memories, but what I see might distract me enough that I won't be able to stay collected enough to come out." No one prior to this confession knew about this, except Harry, as Hermione has hoped the secrecy would serve a greater purpose in the end.

"You know Occlumency?" Minerva asked, looking faintly shocked. Albus simply smiled wider and gave her an exaggerated wink. Hermione grinned at the portrait and looked back at Minerva.

"Yes. I'm… quite good at both it and Legilimency, actually," she admitted, seeming almost shy about talking about her talents this way. "I knew it would be useful in some way, but I never imagined it would be to save Professor Snape's reputation. Besides, someone needed to help Harry, he still wasn't strong enough at Occlumency to face Voldemort."

"Well done, Hermione," Minerva said softly, placing her hand on Hermione's shoulder. Hermione could see the pride in her eyes and she let it wash over her for a moment before turning to regard the large assortment of odd and ends that Minerva had apparently never gotten rid of when she became Headmistress.

She spent several minutes wandering around, touching them, until a shiny chain caught her eye. There, amongst several objects she had never seen before and could not identify, was a Time Turner. She grabbed it and walked to the desk, moving aside the parchments Minerva had been reading. When she had cleared a space, she placed it on the desk and touched it with her wand.

"Hermione Granger," she said hesitantly. She was not sure if that was required, still wasn't sure that it had been required for the books, but she would be thorough.

The golden object and chain began to transform, stretching in shape until a shallow stone basin appeared, full of shiny silver threads. Hesitantly, Hermione swirled the contents.

"Please let there be some kind of message," she muttered and a figure began to appear above the bowl as she heard the portrait behind her chuckle.

"Miss Granger. I do hope you enjoyed the form I used as a disguise for the Pensieve, as I hoped it would be obvious what it really was. I have charmed the Pensieve to recognize you, but I bid hello to any who might also be listening. This Pensieve contains copies of all pertinent memories you will need. They are copies due to an ancient and difficult spell that few know. I will not detail it, as it is far too dangerous, but I used it so I would not be left without my memories in an important situation. I have ordered the memories by time, as I feel that would be most productive. Again, I wish you luck."

The ghostly image disappeared and Hermione turned to Minerva. "I'm ready." The portrait rustled and she looked up to find Albus beaming down at her.

"You will save the world yet, Hermione," he said softly and she smiled back at him, though she shook her head at the words. No, Hermione did not save the world, that was Harry's job and she knew it. But, she did save people, and she was going to do so again. She felt she owed her former professor that much and so much more, but did not stop to think about the odd feeling that thought produced.

"Do be careful, Miss Granger, and do not allow yourself to become too wrapped in the memories, or it will be extremely difficult for me to pull you free should I need to," Minerva cautioned as Hermione turned back to the bowl.

"I won't," she said, and moved to bend over the bowl. "Now, wish me luck!" she said cheerfully as she plunged her face into the swirling mists.

a/n: Alright, my lovely friends, I must ask a favor of you. I currently have two rough and unfinished versions of the next chapter, one that includes a walk down memory lane and one that does not. In the version where we get to see the contents of the Pensieve, most of the memories are glossed over, as they are things we have read in the books and do not need to rehash, but Hermione will see specific moments of Dumbledore's conversations with Severus in detail, namely how Severus came to him and why, possibly a few post-Voldemort meetings, arguments about the Cause, the big argument about Dumbledore's death and so forth. These facts will come out again in the story, so it is not necessary to the plot to see it, but it may add to it in some way I do not yet see.

I am simply asking for opinions as to what you would be interested in as my readers. Either way, the story continues, just one way is longer. I feel odd asking, as I have never done so before, but I think your opinions would help solidify my own intentions. So please, tell me!

And again, I am working on my page for reflecting over all the review love and I PROMISE I will work on it and recognize all of you, because your reviews mean the world to me.

Just a few things raised:
Again, the letter was indeed wordy and expository, but I felt it was necessary. Remember, it is a part of the proof, though just a small part.
I hope you enjoyed our new Albus ala portrait. Not the original, but still a nice substitute.
Minerva was not given a chance to react in the last chapter because of Albus's interruption, but I hope her feelings are very clear now :)
Also, do not lose hope in JKR, I truly believe she had a big bag of tricks still to come that will featured our favorite Professor in a much better light than many currently view him in.
You think I should write novels? Oh, I just adore you. But I think I shall stay in fanfiction for now, I like the challenge of dealing with characters that already have minds of their own.
Snape Haters – I am glad my story is intriguing you enough to stay. I hope by the end you will come to the NotsoEvil!Snape side with us -evil laugh-
Severus's wards and spells – things are not as they seem here people. Be patient. However, Hermione is smart, of course she would know her hair would be useful and that he would have easy access to it. She's the smartest witch of her age, after all.

And Humanity74, because you are my "bestest" fanfic buddy, I shall mention you now due to an entirely unrelated review. One, if you feel compelled to tell me all about my fics in reviews that are not for THAT STORY, email me, it is in my profile! I've got stuff to say to you over "If I Could". :) Two, stop with the FREAKING SPORK OF DOOM! I swear, I'm going to get it from amish and use it on YOU if you don't stop going to all my fics and threatening me with it! Love you much, though. -grin-

As always, please do R/R, I really do adore it, if you couldn't tell!