-Disclaimer: No matter how many shooting stars I wish on, Harry Potter is not mine. Title taken from the wonderful book by Michael Cox.

- This fic is rated M, so be aware of it. Also, readers should be aware that I am putting aside large portions of HBP and DH. Severus is a pureblood, Dumbledore is alive, and anything else that might have happened in those books has been cast aside knowingly. I'm not going to go into long explanations of how anyone came back from the dead or that it was just a cover-up, you may just assume that they didn't happen for the purpose of this fic. This is my first attempt in years at a long, complicated plot and would love the feedback! I hope you enjoy!

The members of the staff all looked anywhere but at Albus Dumbledore. His last act as Headmaster had just been revealed and they knew he risked death if he didn't expand upon the subject. A teacher exchange program had been set up with the Durmstrang Institute and two of the Hogwarts professors would be going to Scandinavia to promote peaceful relations.

"Albus," McGongall finally said. "It's a school practically devoted to Dark Magic. We could be putting ourselves in unnecessary danger! We just ended a war. Don't make us go somewhere that we still have to be on guard!"

"Calm yourself, Minerva," he said. "You, as Deputy Headmistress will not be going. The same obviously goes for Filius as the new Headmaster. The two of us have talked over who we should send and I do want you to understand that this idea was not one of our making. Or of only our making, I should say. The Ministry is working to promote relations with Durmstrang now that the war is over. We don't want more and more students graduating from both of our Institutions with the stereotypes that bred hatred during the war. We all remember the Triwizard Tournament."

"It's too dangerous! Those stereotypes are there for a reason. I know that we are all very capable of protecting ourselves, there should be no need!"

"The matter has already been decided and I have full confidence that it will all turn out well. Hopefully, in the future, Hogwarts will also be able to set up a student exchange program so that our children will be able to have international experience and understanding."

"Who's going, Albus?" Sprout asked, a terrified glint in her eyes. She hadn't even been involved in the war and most in the room didn't see her standing up well to the students at Durmstrang.

"Severus and Hermione."

Hermione Granger, having returned to take over the Charms position at Flitwick's promotion to Headmaster, jumped to her feet. "I'm Muggle-born!"

"I'm aware of that, my dear," Albus said.

"You are also a very public figure from the war, Hermione," Flitwick said. "Politically, you going makes the most sense. Durmstrang wants to change its image because they know they can't continue on as they have. By sending one of the most famous Muggle-borns in the world, the message couldn't be more clear."

"I'd probably be the first one to ever step inside the castle!"

"You would be."

"I won't do it, Albus," she said. "I'm sorry, but I have fought too long to be taken seriously in this country because of my blood status and I will not start over."

Severus, having sat quiet long enough, stood up as well. "I will not be going either, Albus. Half of the students there will only see me as a traitor. The other half will think they can count on me to turn a blind eye while they plot different ways to kill Granger."

"I hate to tell both of you this, but you will be going. You have binding contracts to be representatives of this school and you will not find anything in there that would prevent me from sending you. You are aware that you just signed the news ones and we had a team from the ministry making sure that you could not get out of it."

"You can't do this!" Hermione exclaimed. "What about our friends and families. Our students! They count on us being there for them."

"Professor Granger, while I understand your concerns, they are irrelevant to the ultimate goal of international peace. You will be going. The Hogwart's Express will leave on the first of August, giving you a month before you leave and then a month to be there before classes begin. The International Express will be leaving Platform 9 ¾ soon after you arrival. You will arrive in Tromsø where the Highmaster will pick you up and escort you to the school."

"Tromsø?" Severus asked. "I've been to Tromsø, Albus."

"The school isn't located there. It's a little further north."

"Albus, do you know what's north of Tromsø? Nothing! The bloody North Pole! They are in complete darkness from November until January and contrary to popular belief I do enjoy the sunlight!"

"There are plenty of things further north, Severus. Although, as far as I can tell, the school is still on the Scandanavian Peninsula, so you shouldn't have to deal with the actual Arctic."

"So we don't have to deal with temperatures quite as low but we'll have to deal with students who have been practicing Dark Magic since they could hold a wand," Hermione said. "Great trade off."

"That is exactly why we are having this exchange! To stop the discrimination!"

"Albus! It isn't discrimination! I dated Viktor Krum, in case you'd forgotten, and I know what the students went through!"

"Hermione, this war is over and the people at Durmstrang were very involved. Now is the time to change how they are involved in society."

"People don't just wake up one morning and decide that they'll start looking at magic in a whole other way! The war had nothing to do with the way that magic is practiced at Durmstrang. It is centuries of families and bloodlines and practicing magic which no other school in the world would allow!" Hermione screamed.

"And what of the Professors?" Severus asked. "I know that a number of those still working there were active Death Eaters! The only reason they aren't in Azkaban is because their governments managed to bribe our Ministry out of convicting them!"

"The decision has been made," Filius said. "It is one year and you will make the most of it. You will have control of the situation and you will represent Hogwarts in a respectable manner. If you do anything otherwise, I will not hesitate to leave you there another year!"

Hermione suddenly found it hard to breathe and looked over at Minerva. Her mentor stood and the two exited the staffroom without saying another word to anyone. Severus couldn't blame them and decided he had places that he would rather be, as well. A glare at Albus, Filius, and then the room in general and he stormed out. He had been enslaved to Albus and the Dark Lord for far too long and it appeared that Filius was not going to be any better. For years he had wanted to resign and it had never been the right time and then they had managed to convince him to sign back on. That was it. There would be no more signing of contracts. He was done with Hogwarts when it expired.

Not bothering with the dungeons, Severus headed straight to the front door and the Apparition Point. He was resigned to the fact that the next year would be spent in a school he had sworn never to set foot in and in a place where he would not see daylight for months, but he would not go in blind. There was one person who would be able to tell him everything he needed to know about Durmstrang's current residents and maybe even more about the bloody reason he was being sent.

"Ron is never going to forgive me," Hermione said. "We've been putting off the wedding for ages and this is just going to end everything! Albus knows we were planning on Christmas! There's no way I can organize everything from Norway! I'll never see him either. Filius had just finished explaining to me how I would be able to leave every other weekend to be with him. I won't be able to manage and what am I going to tell him!"

"If Ron can't understand that this is not your fault, then there's nothing more that can be said on the matter," Minerva said. "This is a ridiculous plan and we only know part of it, I'm sure. Another six months before you're married is not going to hurt anything."

"All it'll turn into is another conversation about how I never should have taken this job and that Molly told me that we should have gotten married over the summer and started having children."

Minerva looked at the woman she had seen grow up and sighed. Molly Weasley was a wonderful woman and mother but she had never understood that her views on womanhood didn't match that of every female. Of course the matter wasn't helped by the fact that Harry and Ginny Potter were already pregnant with baby number two. The war had still been going on when they had been married and their son Gideon James had been born. Molly had insisted on the wedding when it was discovered Ginny was pregnant, which only lead to the new Mrs. Potter being locked away for safety. Hermione just wasn't suited to that life.

"You wouldn't have been happy, Hermione," was all she said. "You know that, I know that, and Molly knows that. She may not want to admit it but you know you need to be doing something. I have all the respect in the world for women who can stay home and Merlin knows Molly is one of the most intelligent women I know. She had to be in order to keep ahead of Fred and George. But can you honestly tell me that you would have been happy with that life?"

"I know that!" Hermione cried. "It's just so frustrating that now she has more ammunition to throw at me. What am I supposed to do, Minerva? How can I possibly make this work and have everyone be happy?"

"Arthur," Minerva said quietly. "Do you think you could speak to him?"

"I," Hermione started. "Wait. Arthur, he would have had to have known about this."

Arthur Weasley had managed to find himself in a top position with International Affairs after diffusing a situation with cursed buses all over the world. It was one of the most widespread attacks against muggles during the war and he had prevented anything from happening. Due to his ability to deal with an international crisis, it had basically become his job.

"I'm sure he wouldn't have chosen you to go," Minerva said, doubting her words as she spoke them. "He might have known about the situation, but it is unlikely he knew you would be chosen."

"I don't like this! I feel like I'm being used in numerous plots and to be completely honest, I've had enough of that to last a lifetime."

"Think how Severus must be feeling," Minerva said with a small smile.

Hermione sighed and finally sat down. If anyone knew what it was like to be a pawn, it would be Severus Snape and he would be the only one she knew she could trust. That was one thing, she supposed. She knew that he was trustworthy and would help her if she needed it. They were hardly close but had a mutual respect that only two people who had fought side by side in a war could have for each other. They had kept each other alive before. They could manage again.

Harry and Ron still didn't trust him. They hadn't stood back to back with him as the castle was attacked. They hardly had any contact with him at all. Hermione understood that but it would be hard to tell them that not only was she going away for a year but it would be with a man neither of them trusted to a place where she could trust no one.

"I have a month, Minerva. A month in which I have to figure out what to do about my apparently doomed wedding, convince Harry and Ron that it will be okay when I don't even believe it, and try to get on better terms with Severus Snape. I don't even think I can accomplish all that. Especially when I still have to worry about myself. I'm going to have to dig out my second wand and my holster, brush up on my defenses, and find out all I can about the Highmaster and Professors there."

"Well," Minerva said. "If it makes you feel any better, I believe Severus will be taking care of the last one for you. He'll know the history of every person in that castle before you leave and he doesn't have to worry about fiancés and brushing up. The man never lets down his guard."

"How's he going to find out about everyone?"

"He wants to know about the people and what the actual purpose of this adventure is. So, if I had to guess, I'd say he's already on his way to talk to Lucius Malfoy."

As Severus stood outside of Malfoy Manor, he wondered how he had come to such a place in his life. Plotting and planning had been second nature to him for two decades, but he had thought he had finally overcome it. He thought he had been free. Granger wasn't going to be able to handle it. A Muggle-born at Durmstrang stood no chance and he was the one who was going to have to watch out for her. She could handle herself in battle, he knew that. However, the idea that she could survive in a school full of the most ruthless children of the most ruthless families was not something that he could imagine her being capable of.

Lucius would certainly be able to tell him everything he needed to know and hopefully that would include Granger's place in the scheme, but he knew he wasn't going to like the answers. There were three Professors at Durmstrang that he knew had been Death Eaters with a possibility of two or three more. The Highmaster was new. The seventh years had not gone back when the war had ended, so they had been down on students. These things he knew. He just needed to know why.

The door opened before Severus even reached it and Lucius peered out at him. "My wards told me you were here and then I just saw you staring at the house. I can only imagine that you've come to see me about Durmstrang."

"Lucius," Severus said, his voice laced in warning.

"Come in and have a Cognac. You're going to need it."

Severus was always amazed that throughout everything, Lucius Malfoy had managed to keep one of the world's best collections of muggle Cognac. He knew that more than one of the man's bottles was worth thousands of pounds. He also knew that the man's Cognac of choice was L'Or de Jean Martell, a bottle which Severus had thought to buy him the year before for Christmas only to discover its price tag of £2400 and after a bit of research had discovered that the House of Martell had only released 120 bottles. After questioning Lucius, he had found that the patriarch of the Malfoy line had managed to acquire a hundred of these bottles and claimed that it was one of his more common vintages. A fact which Severus knew to be true and the reason he had chosen that one to track down.

The library was their destination and not much was said until Severus was smelling the bergamot and orange of his cognac. Lucius sat across from him, not saying anything but certainly waiting for Severus to start asking questions. This didn't bode well for the Potion's Master because he knew more than anyone Lucius liked to hold information over anyone's head. If he was being quiet, it meant that the situation was serious.

"Listen," Lucius said, actually managing to frighten Severus because he started the conversation. "Do you know where Durmstrang is?"

Starting small. Severus could handle that. "Albus said Scandinavia. We're arriving in Tromsø."

"It's in Norway," Lucius said. "But it's not on the Peninsula."

"How is it part of Norway but not pa-no," Severus said. "Svalbard? Are you telling me that I'm spending the next year in Svalbard?"

Severus could feel his voice rising and under normal circumstances he would have cared, but as Lucius was not rushing to disprove his theory he began to panic. Quite a feat for him after so many years. He knew very little about the islands, except that at least part of it lied within the Arctic Circle because it was a popular place for magical rituals. He also knew that there would be no light in the winter.

"Yes, Svalbard. The school's on Edgeøya, it's practically uninhabited. Well, it has no permanent settlements, although people do go there."

"Lucius, this is ridiculous! I can't survive in the Arctic!"

"Technically, you'll be just below the Arctic Circle. It actually stays above about -16°."

"I can't believe you just said that as though it were a positive note. Lucius, why? Why are we even going?"

With that Severus sat back in his wingback chair and waited for his oldest friend to explain the entire situation to him. When Lucius did not jump in with details, he downed his Cognac, knowing that it was socially unacceptable to do so with such a fine example. Predictably, Lucius cringed and refilled his decanter with a less expensive brandy.

"The Highmaster Didrik Agnor, came out of nowhere, Severus," he started. "I mean nowhere. His name is in no records. School, employment, government, it's just not there. That is the only reason you two are going. The Ministry believes that if anyone could provoke him into revealing his identity, it would be you or Granger. With the number of "missing in action" supporters of the Dark Lord it is would not be unreasonable to think he is one of them."

"So we're being put in the line of fire for one Death Eater?"

"You know better than that, Severus. Just think. A Death Eater or supporter in charge of Durmstrang. I do think that they would genuinely like to help promote some form of understanding with the school, but it is not going to happen by putting Hermione Granger there. The girl's in danger, Severus. You're in danger but I think we both know you can diffuse the situation. Agnor is more likely to reveal himself to her, though. Unfortunatley it will be when he's trying to kill her."

"Lucius," Severus said. "This is the most ridiculous idea that the Ministry has come out with and we both know that is saying something. What the bloody hell were they thinking?"

"Not they," Lucius said. "From what I know, most were very against sending her."

"Then why do it?"

"Apparently Arthur Weasley is not as thrilled about Granger becoming a member of the Weasley clan as one might think."

Severus had been surprised many times that day. This bit of information was what caused him the most shock. His eyebrows shot up and he wondered how the soft head of the Weasley family had come to the conclusion that he did not want Granger as his daughter-in-law. While he did not know much about the situation, he had been under the impression that she was the one dragging her heels when it came to the marriage. Minerva had all but said so when she had taken Filius' position.

"And he believes that it is worth risking her life?"

"When has a Weasley fully thought something through?" Lucius asked. "There are four Death Eaters there and one other supporter. From what I can tell, the other Professors are not safe, but they never made any statements during the war. You'll have to feel them out when you get there."

"Do you have a list?"

Lucius stood and walked over to his desk, pulling a file out of the top drawer. The sheer volume of information made him both cringe and praise Lucius' thoroughness. He would start with the Faculty and Staff and work his way down. It would take him all month and then he would have to explain to Granger. He had no idea what he was going to tell her. Not about Arthur Weasley, he knew that much. All he did not need was an emotional wreck. That would only serve to put her in more danger because she would not be on her guard.

"What would you suggest?" Severus asked.

"Your contracts are binding," Lucius told him. "I read over them and there is no way out. My only advice would be to unmask Agnor as soon as humanly possible and start fucking Granger."

"I beg your pardon?"

"It will be easier to control her and keep track of her. If she's in your bed you won't be constantly stalking her, trying to be the hero, which we both know you will."

"Your suggestion to me is to fuck Granger?"

"If nothing else, your time will be more enjoyable. She has become quite attractive for a Mudblood."

"While your suggestion would have merit in the brain of a Malfoy, I really cannot see myself screwing around with Minerva's princess."

"Call it what you will," Lucius said. "That's just what I would do."

"She's engaged, Lucius, and far too moral."

Severus did not like the way that Lucius smirked at him and chose instead of flip through the first couple of pages of the file and sipped at his brandy. There would be an unfortunately long conversation with Granger when he returned to the castle, something which he had managed to put off. Now, thanks to his friend, he would also be wondering if he could tempt her into his bed. He blamed Albus, Filius, and the fact that she had to be engaged to a bloody Weasley.

Like I said, please tell me what you think! I have the first couple of chapters written, but would love to know what type of potential readers see. According to Harry Potter Wiki, Durmstrang is located in Sweden or Norway. Love it? Hate it? Let me know!