(11th May, 2015, Author Notes expanded)

(20th May, 2015, minor reworking and added details to main text in places; minor adjustments to Author Notes)

Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following concerns the highlights of the events of the 1992-1993 school year, including the summer in 1992 'leading in' to it. This story takes place in an alternate universe where instead of having Harry James Potter, James and Lily had a girl, Hellebore Jasmine Potter, who resembled Lily a bit too much for Severus Snape to ignore her when he found her as the only survivor of the attack on the Potters of Hallowe'en, 1981. The wizarding world in general, during the events of this chapter, is absolutely certain that all the Potters died the night that Voldemort attacked, along with the Dark Lord.

Further Note: This story is rated 'T'.

There was a staff meeting, several days after the most recent school year had concluded, to chew over what had lately taken place involving Professor Quirrell and several first year pupils. Since his attendance at the meeting was practically non-optional, Severus had arranged for Harriet to spend the morning with the Malfoys, rather than leave her alone around the house. The Malfoys were hardly ideal childminders, but Narcissa insisted on occasional visits by Harriet anyway during summer holidays, and so long as Narcissa intended nothing obviously malevolent, she was a very awkward woman to say 'no' to. Severus suspected that Narcissa viewed Harriet as a potential long-term marriage prospect for Draco, should Narcissa become convinced that Harriet's lineage and blood-purity were acceptable.

At this moment the children were probably playing hide-and-seek around Malfoy Manor, with some of Draco's other friends, or something like that.

Meanwhile, Severus was here at Hogwarts, along with all the other teaching staff, listening to the headmaster reach the end of a rather lengthy recap of why this meeting had been convened in the headmaster's office. Merlin knew where Fawkes was. The phoenix had been starting to look rather peaky of late, and was probably due a 'burning day' within the next few months.

For whatever reason, Albus was completely failing to mention that Voldemort may have had any involvement (direct or otherwise) in recent proceedings. Mind you, to drop that particular titbit to even so limited an audience as the entire Hogwarts teaching staff, might as well be to announce it publicly, and Severus could see that the headmaster might have a number of (probably dubious, but nonetheless arguably valid) reasons for not doing that.

"…In short, Mr. Longbottom was afraid that Quirinus had taken his friends hostage, and that Quirinus was a much darker wizard than any adult here suspected, so he went after them to rescue his housemates." Albus summarised some of the chief points that he'd already made repeatedly at considerably greater length. "He took along several impromptu grenades that he had concocted – quite rightly believing that his talents with a wand would be ineffective against an adult wizard like Quirinus – and fully intending to attempt to negotiate for Mr. Finnigan and Mr. Weasley's release; but something about what Quirinus was doing scared Mr. Longbottom so much that he forewent negotiation and switched straight into attack, and succeeded in fatally stopping Quirinus. As I have indicated, I have questioned Mr. Longbottom in detail about the event and – although there are certain highly confidential matters about the business which I am not at liberty to disclose – I am unable to attribute any blame for wrong-doing in what took place to Neville. All of which though brings us to the point of just how the governors, at their next meeting, will view the part which you played in this, Severus?"

And with that last, which he hadn't even hinted might be coming during the previous twenty five minutes or so of rambling, the headmaster had completely taken Severus off guard.

"I beg your pardon?" Severus enquired, struggling to maintain a neutral face, as the eyes of every person in the room swivelled to lock onto him.

"From the point of view of the governors, the entire incident will look most unfortunate." the headmaster continued. "A teacher, Quirinus, apparently took leave of his senses and took first-year pupils hostage. No effort was made by members of staff at this school to resolve the situation, but it instead fell upon another first year, Mr. Longbottom, to save his fellow pupils – albeit in a rather haphazard fashion in which he was unbelievably fortunate to succeed in the execution. Things, the governors will almost certainly conclude, could have come out considerably worse than the end result of one dead defence teacher, and several shaken-up but otherwise fundamentally unharmed first-year pupils. The governors will note that all the first-years involved were members of Gryffindor house, but a good many of the governors are themselves former Gryffindor or Hufflepuff pupils, and will be sympathetic to the situation that two of the Gryffindors did not go to their head of house for support because they believed her culpable of wrong-doing and that the third was specifically sworn not to go to their head of house by the first two. They will not even consider that Minerva could have been at any kind of fault in not intervening." Minerva, to her credit, Severus thought, looked faintly embarrassed at the idea of the governors simply discounting her from any culpability in affairs in the fashion and for the reasons that the headmaster had just outlined. Meanwhile, the headmaster went on: "Nor will they want to believe that, decoyed out of the school as I was, I could have in any way intervened. They will note, however, that you encountered Mr. Longbottom making his preparations to go after Quirinus, Severus, and they will very much want to know why you did not attempt to stop Mr. Longbottom, to send for appropriate authorities such as Magical Law Enforcement, or indeed at least to accompany Mr. Longbottom in an effort to set his fears at rest if your thought at the time was that Mr. Longbottom might have a completely incorrect grasp of the situation? You were the sole adult to have encountered Mr. Longbottom in his hour of need, and who was made privy to his thoughts and intentions, and the governors may view that and your lack of subsequent action very seriously. And I am afraid that some of them might conclude that you were in some kind of collaboration – or at least a state of sympathy – with Quirinus."

Of course: if Voldemort's involvement with the business had been bruited, practically the entire board of governors would by now have concluded that Severus must have been in collaboration with Quirinus – given Severus' previous Death Eater associations…

Severus pushed that disturbing thought firmly aside, to respond.

"For the record," Severus said, speaking slowly and very clearly, "I came upon Mr. Longbottom in the midst of tossing ingredients into a cauldron. I requested that he explain what he was about. Mr. Longbottom was still in the process of explaining when the mixture that he was concocting became dangerously unstable. With a view to the importance of preserving the health of the children present in the room, and not having a wand out at the time, I had no option but to fling myself bodily upon the cauldron to protect the children in the room from the resultant explosion. After that, I lost consciousness for a time, and was hardly in a position to prevent Mr. Longbottom from doing anything, either by counsel or by any other action, much less to go chasing after Quirinus myself. I believe that it is possible that only the prompt action of another first year, my ward, Harriet Prince, may have averted the possibility of at the least long-term serious injury to myself. If the governors wish me to explain to them why I did not go rushing off that night, I will be quite pleased to do so, making it clear to them by the time that I was in anything like the possession of significant information about the case and had had time to properly process it, I was in no physical state to do anything about it. If you think that it would assist the governors in their understanding of the situation, headmaster, I will recommend to them that they ask Poppy to testify as to the treatment which I assume that she must have issued to me that night in the school's infirmary."

There were murmurs of sympathy for Severus and nods of support at this moment from around the room, from his fellow staff.

"Oh, I think a written statement would do to satisfy the governors, if it is to the effect of what you have just stated in this room." the headmaster said. "I would be happy to present it to the governors, and, if they required, corroboration from Poppy. It would not do, after all," unbelievably there was a twinkle in the headmaster's eyes for a moment, "to disrupt your convalescence."

It was only with some effort that Severus avoided doing a double-take. The headmaster sounded as if this had been just the course of action which he had intended to take all along… in which case why the lead up to it? Severus could only assume that it had been to satisfy the need for milking given situations for as much drama as possible on the headmaster's part.

The headmaster actually had the nerve to wink at Severus before carrying on, in a much lighter tone:

"Which, I believe, should wrap that up. My apologies for gathering you all together like this, when so many of you have other things which you would no doubt prefer to be doing, but I considered it necessary, as the governors will want some account of what has been going on. Now, to turn to more cheerful matters, since we are all gathered together in one place, I believe that this would be a good moment to announce that I have been in contact with a man whose credentials are unquestionable, and who should be able to fill the defence post with no problem at all next year: I refer to the auror Alastor Moody…"

After which the summer proceeded, free of any further aftershocks of the events of the end of the previous school-year threatening the Snape household; Severus wrote a statement, which Albus duly presented to the governors, accompanied by testimony from Poppy, and Albus proceeded to focus any ire that the governors may have felt about the unfortunate events of the year entirely upon the head of the deceased Quirinus.

But although that went well, the defence appointment which the headmaster had hoped for fell through, after the auror was sent to South America 'on urgent business' that might take up to nine months. Albus was in consequence forced to scrabble around desperately for a replacement. As in so many previous years, Severus steadfastly declined to put himself forward for the post, given the potentially sticky end which it might bring down upon him – with likely consequent compromising of his responsibilities to Harriet.

At the end of July, an insane house-elf called 'Dobby' attempted to assassinate Neville Longbottom and his grandmother. Quite what motivated the house-elf to try and burn down their house was never determined, although it turned out subsequently – Neville's grandmother having slain the creature – that Dobby had been one of the Malfoy elves, with whom Harriet had had a passing acquaintance from her occasional trips to Malfoy Manor.

"Nobody tries to burn the Longbottoms out of their home." Neville's grandmother said to the interviewer from The Daily Prophet.

There was a picture in the paper of Neville's grandmother, a formidable expression on her face, whilst in the background Neville picked over the ruins of the greenhouses, which he had been in when the deranged creature had attacked.

Lucius Malfoy offered his profound apologies and large quantities of compensation to the Longbottoms.

The rumours that this was a sign of some ongoing vendetta which had previously featured Draco's theft of Neville's remembrall the previous September rapidly went away.

After a few days of the Longbottom story, the papers returned their attention to Arthur Weasley's attempts to get 'muggle protection' legislation passed into law, which was what they'd been obsessing over before the deranged arsonist house-elf had struck the Longbottoms.

And then there was a day when what amounted to a full page advertisement filled the front of the Prophet, announcing dates when Gilderoy Lockhart would soon be signing books in Diagon Alley.

Harriet asked Severus his opinion on Mr. Lockhart, and Severus gave it to her – that 'heart-throb' or not, and irrespective of what else he might have done, anyone with Gilderoy Lockhart's interest in self-promotion was a morally highly suspect character. Severus was relieved that Harriet seemed to take him seriously on this. Since it turned out that the headmaster in his great wisdom (or lack thereof) had decided that Gilderoy Lockhart was to be the next Defence teacher, a trip to Flourish & Blotts for a purchase of Lockhart books (unsurprising that the man had set his own books as defence texts) was nevertheless inescapably called for. Harriet and Severus tried to avoid the heralded book-signing days, but it unfortunately turned out that the events were so popular that Gilderoy Lockhart was carrying out an extra one on the day that Severus and his ward ventured forth on their texts-acquisition errand. Harriet shuddered at the sight of Gilderoy preening himself.

Severus wasn't sure if he should be pleased that she saw Gilderoy for what he was or saddened that she was quite so cynical about the world and unlike other girls her own age.

The trip to Flourish & Blotts (the necessity of book-purchases aside) wasn't a complete loss, however, as Severus and Harriet were treated to the sight of Gilderoy Lockhart getting quite miffed as the spectacle of an in-store brawl between Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley briefly disturbed trade…

"Dad?"

September had at last arrived, the new school year had got underway, and within the first twenty-four hours surprises were already abounding, not least in that Mr. Ronald Weasley and his crony Mr. Seamus Finnigan had apparently for some silly Gryffindor dare decided to steal a flying car and travel to Hogwarts in that instead of on board the Express. Also, the Sorting Hat had decided to place Ginevra Weasley in Slytherin instead of Gryffindor, unlike her six elder siblings. (Perhaps she had been feeling mortified by the flying car incident, and had begged the hat to put her anywhere except the same house as her brother Ronald.) And now Harriet had knocked on the door of Severus' private office, this worried look on her face.

"What is it?" Severus enquired, having closed the door and secured the office and conversation against snoopers, as best he could.

"Neville Longbottom and Ronald Weasley and his crony Finnigan have all been sworn to secrecy for some reason about what exactly happened at the end of last term: by the headmaster. And Ronald says it's because they're 'Gryffindors, so can handle it, but the headmaster doesn't want to panic other people'." She paused, this look of horrible uncertainty on her face. "It's You-Know-Who, isn't it? He wasn't completely gone after the attack on the Potters, and the thing with Professor Quirrell and the Philosopher's Stone was something to do with You-Know-Who, which is why the headmaster doesn't want to panic people?"

Just how had she made the connection to You-Know-Who, Severus briefly wondered? Well she was intelligent, and observant, and it really didn't matter how she'd made the link. She had done, and Severus would not deny to her face what he himself suspected.

"Whilst I would be inclined not to take at face value anything which the headmaster told to two then first-year Gryffindor students several months ago in an effort to obtain their silence, it is possible that You-Know-Who was indeed involved in last year's business." Severus admitted.

Not that the headmaster seemed inclined to disclose to anyone exactly what Finnigan, Longbottom, and (Ronald) Weasley might have seen and heard, any time soon. He'd already passed over the most logical moments to reveal it, after all.

"And then there was the attack by that crazy elf on Neville, over the summer, and Draco's being all mysterious as if he thinks that his father has some plot going to 'get rid muggle-borns who don't know their place and that muggle-loving fool of a headmaster'." Harriet went on. She bit her lip. "Only Draco didn't use the word 'muggle-born', but another one. The one he doesn't use when Hermione's within earshot 'because she knows her place'." She frowned and tried not to look too scared. "Is this how the last war started, Dad? Whispers and mysterious attacks?"

Severus gave the question the consideration it merited, and let Harriet see how seriously he was thinking about it and taking her.

"No. The last war started when I was but a child, but it began with You-Know-Who, openly declaring himself and his agenda. There were whispers and rumours in the decades before it, I believe, but they were at a time some point removed from the commencement of the actual war. There was a period of complete quiet, I have heard, whilst he marshalled his forces, in the months immediately leading up to the war. It was that quiet period, if anything, which heralded that war was imminent. If You-Know-Who is still around, and the Potters did not completely defeat him at the cost of their own lives, I think that war will yet still be some way off."

"Will Draco and his parents fight for You-Know-Who, if a war does start again?"

"Draco's father said that last time he only acted for You-Know-Who because he was forced to with magic. If – and that is a big 'if' – there is another war, I would not like to say what the Malfoys will do."

If she noticed that he didn't exactly answer the question, one way or another, she chose not to push the matter.

"I hope there isn't another war coming, dad." Harriet shivered, a look of fear in her green eyes.

"If one seems imminent, I shall remove you from the country." Severus said. "I lost enough to the last one. I will not see you endangered by another. And that is why you are studying French, let me remind you."

Mercifully, she seemed to have forgotten her intuition of several months ago about whether Quirinus might have had any cause to be interested in specifically her.

After that opening, though, the first couple of months ticked by with nothing happening beyond the 'usual' business of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: lessons took place, pupils occasionally broke rules and were punished, and yet another defence teacher – whatever qualifications he in theory possessed – turned out to be almost useless in an actual classroom.

Neville Longbottom continued to make mistakes in potions, but since they remained entirely original ones, Severus maintained some hope that one day Mr. Longbottom would simply run out of new mistakes to make and actually prove quite competent in the subject.

Draco Malfoy did make it onto the Slytherin quidditch team accompanied by what Severus was certain that at least half the rest of the school would interpret as a piece of outrageous bribery (rather than as the act of a concerned father who wanted to make sure that a team that his son was on obtained no results other than wins). Although the gesture of buying new brooms for the entire Slytherin team was certainly touching, on the part of Draco's father, Severus wasn't clear if they actually helped or hindered the team more. They were perhaps a touch too powerful for most school age children to be able to handle properly, whilst of course inspiring a touch of something bordering on overconfidence in their riders, in that they assumed that simply because they had 'better brooms' than the opposition winning would now be much easier.

Meanwhile, Mr. Weasley (Ronald, that was) apparently emboldened (despite a howler from his mother and week's worth of detentions with his head of house) by the acclaim that his car-stealing stunt got him from his fellow Gryffindors, chose to make himself obnoxious to Miss Granger with increasing frequency. This trend lasted until Miss Granger drew her wand during breakfast one morning, and marched over to the Gryffindor table where Mr. Ronald Weasley was at that moment eating and making 'loud remarks' to his friend Mr. Finnigan about some minor matter – of importance only to pre-teen boys. Miss Granger poked Mr. Ronald Weasley in the ribs with her wand, and bent very close to whisper something in his ear. She was sufficiently close that nobody else could hear exactly what she conveyed – and Mr. Ronald Weasley refused firmly to say anything about it later – but Mr. Ronald Weasley first went very red in the face, and then very white, and then Miss Granger then patted him on the head, with her free hand, and then withdrew. After that event, Mr. Ronald Weasley confined himself to occasional nasty glares, or muttered-under-the-breath swearwords directed at Miss Granger for the rest of the school year.

However, generally, there was a complete lack of evidence of three-headed dogs on the school premises, of the headmaster running any extra-curricular plots, or of mysterious unicorn-slayings in the forest. And if there was a possessed maniac on the school premises this year, they seemed to be keeping their head down – although Severus suspected that Lord Voldemort at least would have retired to lick his wounds after the previous year, and would not be so tiresomely unoriginal as to personally infiltrate the school two years running.

But then, as if to make up for the relatively unextraordinary start to this Hogwarts year, the last few hours of Hallowe'en passed in a fashion which was rather bizarre. Argus Filch burst into the evening feast, ranting and raving something about Mrs. Norris, which resulted in the hasty departure of the headmaster and deputy headmistress to go and find out what had upset him.

Later, once the feast was over and the children safely in bed, the headmaster rounded up all the teaching staff and took them up to see the 'scene of the crime'. The incident had occurred outside the girls' bathroom usually occupied by one of Hogwarts' resident ghost population where – according to Hogwarts legend – something sinister had happened some five decades or so earlier. (The bathroom had been generally shunned by the living ever since.)

Tonight the caretaker's cat had been strung up from the ceiling immediately outside that very bathroom's entrance, suspended in a thick wrapping of something resembling spider-silk, and a monstrous cobweb was strung out nearby, with a message apparently spelt out in its threads by a particularly clever and dextrous arachnid: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. YOU'RE NEXT MUDBLOODS.

"The reference appears to be to the last time that the Chamber of Secrets was opened." the headmaster said. "Last time, there was a succession of mysterious paralysations, at the end of which a girl was killed and those responsible for the school fixed upon a pupil with a penchant for keeping dangerous pets to pin the blame upon. He was discovered to have kept some sort of large and unidentified – but assumed dangerous – spider in his dormitory, which did little to help his case; especially given that he helped the spider escape when the school discovered its presence. His wand was snapped and he was expelled."

"Does anyone know what happened to that pupil?" Gilderoy asked, sounding perhaps a shade more nervous than a man of his reputation ought to do. Since the start of the school-year Severus had been (out of a sense of duty) working his way through the entire canon of Gilderoy Lockhart's published works, and at times there were definite contrasts of character in evidence between how Gilderoy-on-the-page came across and how Gilderoy-in-the-school was acting. Perhaps the pressure of being around scores of school-children everyday was throwing Gilderoy off-balance. He certainly wouldn't be the first adult – even without the reputed curse on the position Gilderoy currently occupied – to have been driven to distraction by contact with so many little potential miscreants.

"There was some confusion and doubt over the absoluteness of his guilt, so he was taken back on by the school as an assistant to Mr. Jellicoe, who was at the time the keeper of our grounds, whom he ultimately succeeded." Albus said in answer to Gilderoy's question. The headmaster spoke very quietly, but with an underlying steely note of warning in his voice. "His name is Rubeus Hagrid, and I will thank all of you not to spread any speculation that he might be directly responsible for this."

Mr. Filch's cat turned out to have taken little lasting harm from having apparently been stunned and dangled in a silk cocoon, but the incident nonetheless was somewhat shocking and word of it rapidly spread around the school. Frustratingly, the ghost that would have ordinarily been practically on top of the scene of the assault on Mr. Filch's cat had been away at some social function of Hogwarts' ghost population that evening, so was in no position to provide any testimony to what had taken place or who may have been responsible. And so in despite – or perhaps because of – what the headmaster had said outside that ill-starred bathroom on Hallowe'en, Rubeus Hagrid soon left Hogwarts. The headmaster, with much weeping upon the other's part, had sent him away 'on holiday' to go and spend time with his family. The headmaster had told his gamekeeper that he had the utmost faith in him, and in his innocence, but that for the time being, so as not to cloud the issue – and to reassure the governors – it was necessary for him to leave Hogwarts.

Severus Snape doubted Hagrid's intentional involvement in any attacks in Hogwarts, either fifty years ago or now, and was in even greater doubt as to the wisdom of removing Hagrid from the school if there were one or more spiders on the loose with unbelievably potent paralysing abilities, but this was the sort of thing to make both the governors and the ministry jittery, and Hagrid was the 'obvious suspect'. The headmaster had the great idiot's best interests at heart, and had acted accordingly to protect him – as apparently he had taken steps to do almost fifty years ago when Albus Dumbledore had been but a transfiguration teacher working under headmaster Armando Dippet.

Severus had to wonder though, if the headmaster had believed the former Gryffindor pupil innocent half a century ago, just what surmises in the interim he might have made as to the identity of the Heir of Slytherin then – and who he might consequently expect to be responsible this time? It was utterly improbable that Albus Dumbledore could have brooded upon such a mystery for so long without drawing any kind of conclusions. However; if the headmaster believed that he knew or had inferred anything at all about the previous series of incidents which was not public knowledge, he was playing with his cards held annoyingly close to his chest right now.

Albus Dumbledore's failure to disclose any private suspicions on the matter aside, Severus was giving serious consideration to Harriet's safety. If this had happened at the start or end of a school year, he would have felt little restraint from taking her and getting out of the school, but he felt uneasy about abandoning his classes and house part way through a year – and just those with no magical parents had been threatened… thus far. In theory, the entirety of Slytherin house (with the possible exception of Miss Granger) was 'safe'.

Even so, Severus was seriously tempted to pull Harriet out of all classes and keep her at his side all the time, so he could personally ensure her safety from wandering monsters of an arachnid kind. Or – for that matter – from any monsters of a much more human variety that might be cooperating right now with any theorised arachnids. It was only the thought of potentially needlessly compromising her social existence that caused him to stay his hand, and he made it clear to all his students – particularly those in the younger years – that they ought for now to travel around only in groups when not under adult supervision.

And just why had all this come up now of all times, anyway?

Could it be something that Quirinus and Voldemort had set in motion last year, in case their attempt to steal Flamel's stone failed? And if so, was it revenge, or did it serve some… other… purpose?

An uneasy calm descended on the school in the wake of Hagrid's departure. Days and then weeks rolled by, as the school held its collective breath, waiting to see if there would be any further incidents; there were not. Gilderoy, apparently in an attempt to relax his classes, took to having defence classes which consisted solely of his acting out scenes from his books. Word eventually got back to Severus that Gilderoy had somehow learned that Neville Longbottom had 'done something heroic' in the previous school year, which meant that in second year Gryffindor classes Mr. Longbottom was frequently called upon to play roles in Gilderoy's little impromptu dramatic productions. Gilderoy was apparently particularly fond of 'casting' Mr. Longbottom as the plucky-but-useless sidekick that he so often seemed to have had on the various ventures chronicled in excruciatingly painful detail in his very many books.

Gradually, things got back to 'normal' – or at least as close to what passed for 'normal' around Hogwarts as things ever got. Some said that Hagrid must have been responsible for the attack on Filch's cat. Others said that he had not been the perpetrator, but that the headmaster's prompt and decisive action had scared the one genuinely behind it into not repeating the incident – perhaps a joke in horribly bad taste gone wrong.

And on the subject of jokes, there was a new force rising in Slytherin – styling herself 'The Prankster Princess' and apparently acting in response to her older twin brothers, Fred and George, of Gryffindor, Ginny Weasley was apparently bent on carving out a place and name for herself in Hogwarts' history. She was already gaining a fearsome reputation for something known as 'The Earwig Earwax Hex', which particularly terrified most girls subjected to it.

Severus wasn't sure whether to regard Miss Weasley's advanced (for a girl of her age) spellwork capabilities as either abnormally prodigious, or simply something which had resulted from growing up in an environment which included obsessive over-achievers such as Percy Weasley and menaces such as the twins Fred and George. Either way, though, he was going to pay close attention to any information which came to his ears about her. Miss Weasley had apparently identified Harriet and Miss Granger as the most formidable pupils in the year immediately above her, and seemed interested in attaching herself to them.

"Err, dad?"

It was several days into December, and she had a slightly guilty expression on her face, did Harriet, which boded possible trouble. That she was seeking him out when he was catching up on marking in his office, during a spare twenty minutes of the school lunch-break, said that whatever this was about, she considered it important to act now. At least a third of the time – at present – her sense of urgency to act in situations tended to be unfortunately misplaced. Severus hoped that that was an area of judgement in which she would improve, with age.

"What is it?" Severus put down his quill and tried not to sigh.

"There's been a slightly silly bet in the common-room. Ginny – that's Ginevra Weasley – bet some of the older pure-bloods that Hermione could get several of us into Gryffindor Tower, undetected before the end of the school year, and obviously the sooner we do it, the more impressive it will look."

Hermione Granger had been niggling away at Harriet's conscience for months now, given as how she felt personally responsible for the girl's sorting into Slytherin. And now Harriet apparently thought that she had spotted an opportunity to improve the girl's standing, and so of course had leapt at it.

"And?" Severus asked.

"We – err, that is to say, Ginny, Hermione, and I – need a teacher to sign a permission form for access to the restricted section of the library, so we can find out what the recipe is for a draught of disappearance."

"No." said Severus.

"But, dad…"

"I will not sign a permission slip for haphazard access to the restricted section of the library for a trio of first and second year girls. However, nor will I guarantee that the recipe for a draught of disappearance will mysteriously be written on the blackboard in the potions classroom tonight, when Miss Granger attends the remedial potions class which she has just acquired for herself by your being put up to this. And I certainly will not guarantee to allow Miss Granger plenty of time to take notes."

Harriet beamed.

"Understand though," Severus continued, "that a pupil of Miss Granger's age should not be even attempting to brew an 'invisibility potion' unsupervised, and in the hypothetical event that she should attempt to do so within the next twelve months, a sample should be submitted – however anonymously – to me so I can confirm that it has been brewed correctly before any human beings partake of it. Also, there will be no raiding of the school stores for rare ingredients for this private enterprise. Were Rubeus Hagrid still on the premises he might be able to assist with sourcing many of them, but as it is, you'll have to beg what you can from Professor Sprout or order from a reputable supplier at your own expense."

Did Miss Weasley, Severus wondered, once Harriet had departed, actually care about Miss Granger's standing in the house, or did she just want Miss Granger to think that she did? On the evidence that Miss Weasley was only eleven, and came from the family which she did, it seemed probable that she genuinely cared about how Hermione was perceived, but this was something to carefully file away mentally for possible future review.

At least with Harriet 'on the team', any potion would probably be correctly brewed and safe for consumption – provided she restrained herself from experimenting too much with the procedure. Severus fretted about Harriet's tendency to try things out with potions sometimes. She had inherited much of her mother's ability and enthusiasm for the subject, and had obviously grown up around him, learning a good deal, but surely none of his own experimentations in his youth could have given Professor Slughorn any cause for concern?

Whilst the pupils of Slytherin house regarded Gilderoy Lockhart with amusement (for one reason or another) and an unhealthy percentage of the female membership seemed to consider him charming, handsome and something called 'dishy' too, by the time that the autumn term was nearing its close there was a good degree of irritation simmering away beneath the surface about his presence in the Defence post – at least amongst the male pupils of the house, and to a certain extent amongst a handful of the female members who did not allow his looks to distract them from numerous flaws by now becoming apparent to those prepared not to be distracted by Witch Weekly's most famous smile.

The most obvious flaw was his books: Gilderoy claimed of course – once some of the more egregious errors in these started to be raised by pupils – that clearly his books had 'been sabotaged by someone jealous at the publisher's', and he had sworn to make strenuous efforts to get to the bottom of it once the school year was over, but these breezy excuses did nothing to soothe the suspicions smouldering in the minds of some of his doubters.

And then there were also doubts by now being voiced (albeit reluctantly when it came to most female Slytherin pupils) over whether his classes to date were any good on the count of providing actual training of students? So far the only significantly practical defence class which had taken place had been experienced by the second year Gryffindors, and it was one that Gilderoy had somehow let get out of control. Neville Longbottom aside (who had come out of it with only a few bruises and a slightly haunted look for a few days afterwards to show), the entire class had ended up in the infirmary and tended to exhibit nervous twitches (or in the case of the girls to outright break down, crying hysterically) at the mention of Cornish pixies.

There were limits to how far Severus considered it necessary for most underage Gryffindors to be reminded that they were neither invincible nor Godric's gift to witch- and wizard-kind, and a class which sent almost every pupil that constituted a house's particular year group to receive Poppy Pomfrey's ministrations had spectacularly failed in what a boarding-school educational experience was supposed to provide, in Severus' own opinion.

The evening before the official end of term, and the breakup of school for Christmas, Miss Granger floated the idea in the Slytherin common room that perhaps Slytherin students should 'collaborate to practise defence outside of the classroom environs'. This proposal was received by a deafening silence.

Miss Granger was a muggle-born, and a mere second-year one at that, but she had voiced an opinion that many of the students – even some of the ones ordinarily most bigoted against those of Miss Granger's background – had already been thinking.

There would be many interesting discussions and letters between Slytherin students, no doubt, over the Christmas break…

The Christmas holiday duly arrived, with no sign since Hallowe'en of further activity by either arachnids of any description nor which was proclaimed to have been carried out by 'The Heir of Slytherin'; it was with something of a sense of relief that the staff waved most of the pupils off for their trips back home. Of course some pupils were remaining in the school over Christmas. Harriet did because Severus himself was required, as head of Slytherin House, to remain in the school; Miss Weasley did because her parents were on a limited budget or something, and apparently they couldn't afford to have all their children home for Christmas; and Miss Granger did because apparently she considered it essential to her future on this occasion to make some sort of excuse to her parents and plead a need to remain in the school…

At some point over Christmas, a trio of Slytherins, with the assistance of some draught of disappearance, successfully infiltrated the Gryffindor common room, and claimed several 'trophies' (of school property) from there to demonstrate their achievement.

The exhibition of said trophies greatly impressed the majority of the house, returning after the break, and persuaded them to adopt the idea of a 'Defence Association' – conditional, of course, since she had proposed the idea, to Miss Granger doing absolutely all the administrative and organisational work. As the business of classes got underway once more, Miss Granger was consequently obliged to put a number of projects – including that of the ongoing cataloguing of the castle's ghost population – on indefinite hold.

The new term progressed. In the last week of January Fred and George Weasley embarrassed their head of house by being caught with a cauldron, which they had apparently recently set up there, in an out-of-use girls' bathroom. (In actual fact, the bathroom they were using was that outside of which the caretaker's cat had been strung on Hallowe'en, which in and of itself was a serious mark against them.) The twins hastily vanished whatever mischief it was that they had been brewing up, but one of the twins had to be sent to the infirmary: he had screwed up and swallowed the piece of parchment containing the list of ingredients and brewing procedure for whatever potion it was which they had intended to brew – and given himself a severe case of indigestion in the process. Whilst it was impossible to determine exactly what they had been planning, enquiries around the staff soon discovered that the twins had soft-soaped Gilderoy Lockhart into signing for them a permit for the restricted section of the library. It seemed probable that whatever they had been about, given the steps taken to dispose of the only evidence of their intentions, it had been something seriously against-the-school-rules.

Fred and George were given a week of detention by their disappointed head of house, on the basis that whatever it was that they had been doing, they certainly shouldn't have been doing it in a girl's bathroom.

Quite who had sent the anonymous tip-off to the heads of each of the houses that something 'which shouldn't be' was going on in that particular bathroom was something of a mystery. The notes had been carefully constructed from letters cut from out-of-date copies of The Daily Prophet, pasted to parchment with a commonly available glue, and slipped under office doors in nondescript, commonly available, envelopes.

February the fourteenth was a day that in this particular school year Severus spent most of in hiding from a host of dwarves dressed as 'cupids' who were grimly looking for him. For some reason a large portion of the female population of Hogwarts had apparently conspired to select him to send a 'special message' to, this year, by agency of said dwarves, and by the time that Severus had heard the first dozen-and-a-half (in the large, ineptly worded) messages of 'affection', his only alternatives were either to make a strategic withdrawal or to risk Azkaban by starting to wax the annoying pests of messengers on the spot.

Fortunately, it was a Sunday, so there were no classes to teach which would have made effective evasive action almost impossible.

Had it not been beneath his dignity, Severus would have started planning some sort of incredibly convoluted revenge on Gilderoy Lockhart as the man 'responsible' for the implementation of this ridiculous dwarf-messenger-service scheme. Well for that and for that, the next morning, once the dwarves were all safely gone, when he summoned the Slytherin prefects to divulge what they knew, if anything, about the previous day's farce, the prefects red-facedly admitted to the head of Slytherin that Professor Lockhart had been encouraging the school's female population to 'send a special message to Professor Snape' in at least the upper-year defence classes in the run up to Valentine's Day.

Meanwhile, the 'Defence Association' was up-and-running. Although somehow, in one of those quirks of fate, and in expression of a deeply Slytherin sense of irony, the 'Defence Association' (established in an otherwise unused classroom in the Astronomy Tower, well out of the way of most day-to-day school business) had by Easter more commonly come to be referred to as 'Dumbledore's Army'; this, in despite of the fact that the headmaster had very little to do with it, and that other houses – to the especial annoyance of the Gryffindors – were, at least at the outset, excluded from it.

"They could always organise their own versions." a deeply annoyed Miss Granger was on one occasion heard to huff. "Instead of suddenly wanting to be friends and trying to freeload off of ours."

Peripheral to this, Gilderoy Lockhart's stock in the school had taken a nosedive, assisted by the rather inept public duelling display that he'd tried to give to the school where he'd paired himself off against Filius Flitwick. There were still a not inconsiderable number of female pupils who considered that Professor Lockhart had a great many 'good points' but almost nobody believed by now that he was any use as a teacher, and most of the male pupils couldn't wait to see the back of him.

However, the public duelling display did finally inspire the Gryffindors to attempt to set up a 'Defence Association' of their own: their version imploded though spectacularly into a mass-brawl and detentions-all-around less than half an hour into its first (and last) meeting.

The Ravenclaws made noises, but couldn't agree who should be in charge of a Ravenclaw one or what 'improvements' over the Granger-run version should be made – consequently they never got anything off the ground.

The Hufflepuffs sent Cedric Diggory to negotiate with the Slytherin prefects and Miss Granger.

Eventually, after a succession of discussions, the Slytherins caved-in, and agreed to Hufflepuff participation in the Granger enterprise, under a set of strict terms and conditions and on the understanding that any Hufflepuffs involved would more than pull their weight as far as organization and participating in 'demonstration' of spells went.

The other two houses remained firmly uninvited to Defence Association events, however.

Unconnected with the Defence Association, but nonetheless of very great interest to Slytherin House, was that at the end of the spring term Draco Malfoy earned a large points deduction from Slytherin, after Professor Sprout overheard him loudly commenting during a herbology class that the 'Heir of Slytherin' seemed to have gone disappointingly quiet – and that Draco found it hard to credit that it 'could have been that great oaf Hagrid'.

Severus, upon subsequently hearing of the incident, refrained from adding any further punishments, on the basis that any doubts that Mr. Malfoy the younger expressed over Rubeus Hagrid's culpability for what happened on Hallowe'en might work in the half-giant's favour in the long-run.

By the time that the summer term got underway, the mysterious 'prank' of Hallowe'en had been all but forgotten by the pupils, although the Hogwarts staff continued to keep a watch for any further developments.

About a week into term Severus was approached by Harriet, who hung back after a second year potions class.

"I want a detention, dad." she said, once the room was clear of other pupils.

"Explain?" he invited, elevating an eyebrow.

She shuffled and looked awkward, but did so.

"I'm involved in something which involves some pretty serious school rules breaking. Nobody's going to end up hurt – look a bit stupid, maybe – but it's not for such a good cause as Christmas was. And" she closed her eyes and screwed up her face for a moment, before opening her eyes and looking him full in the face, "so I ought to be punished. Because you wouldn't approve."

"I see."

Actually he didn't; it was at moments like this when he couldn't begin to fathom out what went on in the depths of Harriet's mind, or how she was turning out as a person in this way. The best he could figure as to her motives at this particular moment was that she was in some way wanting to show herself to be worthy of trust.

"And the others involved in this enterprise?" he continued.

"I won't give up anyone else. This isn't the same for them. Their head of house isn't their dad."

Definitely, then, in some way about trust. Or guilt. Or something. She wanted to confide in him, but didn't want to get others into trouble. Her teenage years were looming, and Severus had to wonder if they were going to be increasingly full of moments like this?

"Very well then, detention, tonight, at eight o' clock, prompt. You will be revising your knowledge of French irregular verbs."

"What?" she looked surprised. Betrayed, almost. "But you need help making things for the infirmary. Or preparing ingredients for classes."

"Which I would have had to do, in any case, with or without your assistance. But you are aware that I have wanted you to learn French for some time, but that with one thing or another you do not appear to have been making much time for it this year." He sensed that he had not said enough, and searched for further words. "I will remind you: you are aware that something happened at the end of last school-year. You are aware that ever since October, there have been certain tensions within the school. If things… go bad… I cannot save every pupil in this school, but I can do my best to make sure that you are safe. Even if it means that you go to a different school, in another country."

There was an awkward pause whilst she digested this. He was obliged to cut short any response that she might make:

"You have another class that you should be at."

A couple of days after Harriet's self-requested detention, Severus overheard Miss Weasley and Miss Granger apparently discussing some sort of prank involving 'reactive' charm work one evening in the Slytherin common room, and then several nights after that there was the mysterious event when Rolanda Hooch found the school's quidditch supply storeroom unlocked, when she could have sworn she had locked it up earlier. She went back to her office to collect the keys to secure it, and couldn't find them, although she could have sworn that she had left them on her desk, and neither of the portraits in the room claimed to have seen anyone that day apart from her.

She went to get the headmaster to re-secure the storeroom.

The next morning, the keys were there, as clear as daylight, on Rolanda's desk, and with portraits again adamant that they had seen nobody come in.

It was perhaps not unconnected, though, that that day was also that of the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff quidditch match, and that during that match it soon became apparent that whenever one of the Weasley twins (the pair being the Gryffindor beaters) approached to within half a dozen feet of a bludger, said bludger went green and silver and emitted a loud 'raspberry blowing' noise.

The match was briefly halted, whilst the bludgers were inspected for dark magic, but any changes appeared to be cosmetic, and rather than suspending the match to 'fix' them it was decided to play on. Nonetheless, the effect was clearly enough to disturb the twins, putting them off their game, and causing the twins to cast occasional dark glares in the direction of the part of the stands where their sister was sitting in a knot of ostensibly 'neutral' Slytherin observers.

By the end of the game, chants of 'wheeeeze-leeee' were emerging from the Slytherins sitting about Miss Weasley every time a bludger blew a raspberry at one of the Gryffindor beaters, and Hufflepuff had a winning margin of somewhat over two hundred points.

Severus gathered from Harriet that night that Miss Weasley had received a promise from messieurs Fred and George, after the match, that they would 'get her' over the summer. They were all but certain that the bludger-sabotage was the handiwork of their little sister, to put them off their games – successfully, if the score-line was any measure to judge by.

A prank-war seemed highly probable chez Weasley over the holidays, that would drive the matriarch of the family, Molly, to distraction.

And Severus made a mental note that he was not to assist with anything which appeared to involve one of Miss Weasley's schemes in the future, unless any and all potions involved were destroyed at the end of said scheme, with leftovers not being held back against the possibility of future use…

Lucius Malfoy in his capacity as a governor, made an unexpected visit to Hogwarts a couple of days after the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff game. He gave some very Lucius Malfoy-ish excuse for his visit, mid-afternoon, but he lingered in the school afterwards, and proceeded to buttonhole Severus as soon as classes were over for the day. In the privacy of Severus' office, Lucius ostensibly wanted to discuss his son, and to express his pleasure that Slytherin were at least set to win the school's quidditch contest, but in fact he actually wanted to know all about the incident of Hallowe'en, and in particular what action, if any, the 'heir' had apparently taken since then? Severus soon realised that Lucius was searching for evidence of something going on which could be exploited to get the board of governors to dismiss the headmaster, only there simply wasn't evidence of anything that serious. There had been that one incident at Hallowe'en, Rubeus Hagrid had been removed from the school, and there had been a complete absence of any kind of 'follow-up' incidents. Lucius departed somewhat frustrated.

As the term wound on, Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to get increasingly jumpy. His air of bonhomie became noticeably strained at times, and once Severus found him in the staffroom a piece of parchment slightly crumpled to his chest and looking about him suspiciously.

When Severus moved to get closer, to get a look at the parchment, Gilderoy actually set fire to it, giving Severus no chance to see what purpose said parchment might serve, although a couple of rapidly consumed and withering scraps of what looked like newspaper drifted free of it to turn to ash on their way to the floor.

When Severus asked Gilderoy if the just-destroyed parchment were a matter with which he could in any way assist, Gilderoy seemed a combination of nervous and guilty, but brushed it off as 'probably just a nasty prank, by someone jealous of my fame'.

The summer exams were over, the school-year was drawing to a close, and the headmaster had left the school to confer on some arcane matter or other of administration which concerned the officials who marked the OWL and NEWT papers.

Severus had fortified himself in his office, taking care to quite thoroughly secure the door against any and all distractions from pupils or members of staff so that he himself could deal with some exam-marking. Several times someone tried his door, ignoring the notice to keep away that he had put up on it, but eventually gave up and went away.

He had gone through the first question of all the third year theory papers, and was making good progress on the second question, when Phineas Nigellus Black arrived in a portrait behind Severus' desk.

"Professor Snape! You are required in the old arithmancy classroom on the third floor at once!" the former Hogwarts headmaster insisted.

"Why?" Severus enquired, not pausing from trying decipher if some cretin with abysmal handwriting and an equally poor sense of spelling had written either 'pansy', 'fancy' or 'fairy'?

"Why?" Phineas huffed. "Because that fool Professor Lockhart has gone absolutely crazy, that's why! He's already stunned Professors Flitwick and Sprout, and knocked Professor McGonagall unconscious with a potted palm rigged above a door that she walked through; and now he's lured the headmaster, returning from whatever stuff and nonsense meeting that was about what these modern bureaucrats call 'exam marking', into an ambush up there, where he has him pinned down!"

"Really?" Severus said, deciding that whatever the idiot third year had written it was in any case not just incorrect, but outright dangerous in the context, and noting a neat '-1' in the margin to indicate the deduction of a mark. By the standards of Hogwarts-defence-teachers-going-bananas this breakdown of Gilderoy's sounded relatively mild, and Phineas would have almost certainly mentioned it if Filius, Pomona, or Minerva had sustained life-threatening injuries. "I'll send a message to the infirmary if you insist, but I'm sure that the headmaster will be able to deal with whatever this is about… eventually. The headmaster is famous for defeating Gellert Grindelwald, and I am confident that he will be able to ultimately handle Gilderoy Lockhart."

"If you help him, I won't tell anyone that Miss Weasley has been regularly disposing of copies of The Daily Prophet after cutting sections out, or not until you've looked into and investigated the matter." Phineas said in a somewhat sharper tone of voice.

Severus sighed in irritation and put the quill down. It was quite evident to him that Phineas was playing politics here, wanting to make out to the current headmaster that it had been his intervention which had potentially saved the headmaster's neck. It was also annoying that Phineas had stumbled upon some private enterprise of Miss Weasley – most likely a relatively harmless one – but instead of reporting it had saved it up as possible future blackmail material.

Oh well, the man had in life been both a Black and a Slytherin…

Gilderoy Lockhart had his wand out and was firing a fusillade of spells at the headmaster – or rather the desk that the headmaster was currently sheltering behind.

"I'll. Obliviate! Teach. Obliviate! You. Obliviate! To. Obliviate! Play. Obliviate! Games. Obliviate! With. Obliviate! Me."

Whatever else he might think of Gilderoy as a wizard, the man had a relentless speed and practically perfect casting technique with 'obliviate', Severus felt it necessary to concede, from his currently undetected side-on view of the confrontation. The barrage and the speed with which he was firing it – punctuated as it was with verbal curses, threats, and wild remarks – was actually proving capable of (at least temporarily) pinning down the Hogwarts headmaster. Severus could almost credit that blob of antique paint on canvas, Phineas Nigellus Black, of having had good sense in coming to fetch him.

Nonetheless, had Severus himself been in the headmaster's position he could think of half a dozen ways in which he could have taken Gilderoy down, without leaving shelter, but perhaps the headmaster's rather elastic scruples had 'twanged' in favour of the headmaster not doing anything quite so 'morally dubious' to Gilderoy right now, or perhaps he was too frazzled to think clearly and realise such possibilities. Or perhaps… Merlin forbid… Gilderoy had actually got a spell through, already, before Severus arrived and had in some way at least partially incapacitated Albus Dumbledore.

Severus cleared his throat meaningfully and commenced his approach.

"Ahem. Is there a problem, Gilderoy?"

Gilderoy turned and fired another Obliviate straight through Severus, before without missing a beat turning to resume his assault on the headmaster's position – allowing Severus (the real one) to brain Gilderoy forcefully with a silver candlestick. In an old bit of sleight-of-hand which he had once used to good effect against four certain Gryffindors, Severus had used an illusory image of himself and complex bit of voice-projection as a distraction to allow him to close unobserved under a camouflage effect with a couple of seconds' duration on Gilderoy's other flank.

Gilderoy desisted in his casting, dropped his wand, and lifted his hand slowly to his head, then inspected the hand, and the blood on it. He stared at (the now uncamouflaged) Severus.

"You know, that's just… the… way… Rosian did it… To the Namibian Nundu, I mean." Gilderoy slurred.

And then he collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Strange. According to his ridiculous books, Gilderoy himself had dealt with the nundu in question, Rosian being some gibbering cretin of a local chieftain, who had pleaded with Gilderoy to save his village from the terrible monster. Something definitely wasn't adding up here, to Severus' mind.

"Err, Severus?" Albus Dumbledore emerged from cover and winced slightly at the sight of Gilderoy, and the bloodied candlestick in Severus' hands. "Was it actually necessary to?…"

"I was in the middle of marking exam papers when one of your predecessors insisted quite forcibly that you required my assistance." Severus said. Mind you – he'd learnt from last year, and had paused long enough to send a written message to Magical Law Enforcement, to contact the auror department by floo, and to notify Mr. Filch, the school caretaker, before coming. And also to get Poppy to haul Filius, Pomona, and Minerva to the infirmary for medical attention.

"I was, ah, hoping to 'talk him down'." the headmaster said. "Also to get a usable confession out of him. I believe that for a number of years, now, he has in fact been stealing the credit of other people's exploits, erasing their memories of their deeds as he went along. Sadly I had not made much progress before you arrived. I don't suppose he said anything incriminating before he collapsed? That last bit was too quiet for me to catch from behind my shelter."

"He said something about how someone else did something to 'the Namibian Nundu'." Severus shrugged.

"Ahh. Excellent." Albus beamed. "I shall need to inspect your memory of that, later, in my pensieve, if you don't mind. Now, if you'll help me get Gilderoy to the school infirmary, and then we had probably best send for Magical Law Enforcement. Obviously it would have looked better for you, Severus, had you sent for them before coming to look for me, but nonetheless, I shall endeavour…"

"I did send for them before coming looking for you." Severus curtly interrupted. "Also the auror department. I also let Mr. Filch know, so as to let them in."

"I…" the headmaster stared at him. "I must confess, Severus, that you have me quite at a loss for words."

"Miss Weasley."

Severus had had a rather trying couple of days since the portrait of a former headmaster had insisted that Severus quit his exam marking to assist the current headmaster. There had been seemingly endless interviews with officials – not least because Gilderoy Lockhart was so famous – and Severus had lost track of the number of trips that he'd had to make into the depths of the headmaster's pensieve to satisfy one busybody or another.

Fortunately for Severus' three fellow heads-of-house, they had been relatively unharmed by Gilderoy. Filius and Pomona had fallen victim to some sort of 'practical joke' items, which produced a stupefy effect, and Minerva had only been struck a glancing blow and was possessed of a tough skull. They had all been out of the infirmary within hours.

Not so Gilderoy. He was still in the school infirmary, with his wand confiscated and in the company of a number of officials at all hours of the day who were watching him like hawks, waiting to remove him for 'official questioning' as soon as he was well enough to be moved. Gilderoy was feigning that he'd lost his memory due to the candlestick blow to the head – at least he was probably feigning it. Severus hadn't struck him that hard.

Severus had been at some pains, in the interests of covering his back, to ensure that he had written confirmation from the current director of Magical Law Enforcement that he would not face any legal actions for his physical assault on Gilderoy Lockhart. That confirmation had actually arrived much faster than he was expecting – apparently Ministry investigators starting to back-check some of Gilderoy's previous 'heroic deeds' were already turning up a trail of obliviated victims. The Daily Prophet was of course busy praising 'the Heroic Actions of Professor Albus Dumbledore, who deliberately invited the faux-heroic Lockhart to his school so that the headmaster could finally trap and expose this monster and danger to our society'.

Severus couldn't have cared less about the praise being piled on the headmaster whilst his own part in proceedings was being completely omitted. He preferred a low profile anyway, although given this latest debacle Severus was raising the priority of his investigations into employment opportunities anywhere a sufficient distance removed from Hogwarts. Even if Gilderoy hadn't been much of a serious threat, that the headmaster had had harebrained schemes in operation in the school for two years running now bothered Severus. He wasn't quite minded to abandon the school as of yet, unless extreme danger threatened – especially given that it would be a nuisance to Harriet to separate her from her friends, and the headmaster was besides absolutely refusing to write Severus any kind of employment reference at present – but Severus was growing increasingly uneasy, at least, about Harriet being anywhere near Hogwarts.

And as an absolutely last resort, he always had a plan to take to a career in the muggle world, as a freelance hunter of rare plants for Kew Gardens. He had done some calculations, and figured that the fees he should be able to earn in that capacity ought to cover sending Harriet to any magical or muggle school that he cared to name, although it would unfortunately mean abandoning teaching and having to deal with the muggles' 'Inland Revenue'.

At any rate, between one thing and another that had made calls upon his time over the past few days, it was only now that Severus was finally at liberty to deal with Miss Weasley, in private, in his office.

"It has come to my attention that you have been disposing of a fair number of mutilated newspapers this year." Severus continued, surveying the girl sitting across the desk from him. For some reason, she was clutching an old book of some sort, on her lap, as if it were a lifeline. "This has been brought to my attention by someone considerably past the age of majority, and is something that I have to take seriously and enquire into. Would you mind giving me your version of events, please?"

Miss Weasley, arrayed in all the splendour that a stretched family budget could afford when it came to school robes for their only daughter and the youngest child of seven, was looking highly guilty, right now, of misdemeanours of at least some kind, and uncertain just how much he might know or guess at.

"It was a joke." she said, with a slight air of defiance. "To make Professor Lockhart think someone knew a secret about him, and that it was going to be exposed. He's been an awful teacher, and he deserved it. I've been leaving him anonymous notes made up out of letters out of papers, so there wouldn't be any magic which could be traced, or handwriting which could be recognised. Although I made the last one in a way to look as if they'd all been from the headmaster. I hoped that would make him do something stupid that would get him sacked."

"I see." said Severus. "And that is all that you are deciding to tell me?"

The way he phrased it, he made it sound that he knew there was more than that, and that he knew exactly what it was – even though he didn't actually have anything right now beyond his long-honed instincts telling him that Miss Weasley had thus far by no means disclosed the extent of her possible trespasses against school rules.

"And I grassed up Fred and George to the heads of houses." she blushed slightly this time. Ah yes, that made sense to Severus. Those 'tip-offs' had of course been similar to the messages which had so bothered Gilderoy, as Severus should perhaps have remembered. Miss Weasley was going on in her explanations and disclosures: "But they were in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and they shouldn't have been there. It's a girls' bathroom." She sounded particularly offended by this misdemeanour of her brothers for some reason. "And…" her face twitched and the knuckles of her hands whitened as she clutched the book in her lap tighter, "I played a prank outside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on Hallowe'en." She was looking slightly worried now. "I played a prank with Mr. Filch's cat, because nobody likes Mr. Filch anyway, and it was Hallowe'en, and jokes to scare people are what everybody does at Hallowe'en, anyway." Make that looking very worried now. She was starting to speak more and more quickly, sounding increasingly desperate. "And I'm sorry if that was anything to do with Mr. Hagrid leaving the school. I really didn't know at the time that he'd been involved with the Chamber opening before that, or that he'd done it with a spider, or that… or that… the headmaster would make him go away like that. I'm really, really sorry. It was just a joke, and…" she trailed off, tears running down her face. "I've been trying to make up for it, ever since. By doing things to cheer people up, or which are funny, or to help the house or to make the school a better place…"

She had come to a halt now, and the tears were streaming down her face, and she looked absolutely awful. She had practically a death-grip on the book on her lap now.

"Unfortunately, Miss Weasley, the headmaster was not in a position to take what you did back in October as a joke." Nobody 'official' would care much about the Lockhart business, given what it was turning out that he had been guilty of, and grassing up two of her brothers for misdemeanours would hardly be viewed by most outside the Weasley family as an event of world-shaking importance, either. But what she was now admitting to having done on Hallowe'en, and the panic which that had caused... Severus was trying to mentally weigh all the advantages and disadvantages of exposing Miss Weasley as having been responsible for that to the staff or to the broader school as rapidly as possible, and was in danger of developing a headache. The political consequences, one way or another, could be – at least locally – enormous. And, given how much they had been associating with Miss Weasley, he would have to question Miss Granger and Harriet about this, to be sure that they had had no knowledge or involvement. Athough he was reasonably certain that Harriet at least would have spoken up, had she known anything of this particular 'prank', it would be best to have checked that with her 'for the record', and he certainly would not presume to vouch for Miss Granger without questioning her first.

One thing was quite clear: This was going to have to go to the headmaster.

"Might I enquire as to what is so urgent that you insist on seeing me like this?" the headmaster enquired.

"A pupil has confessed to me to having played a rather unfortunate 'prank' on the school, back on Hallowe'en." Severus said. "A prank involving Mr. Filch's cat."

"I see." Those two words, and the tone in which the headmaster spoke them, lacking as it did any trace of either humour or warmth, spoke volumes.

Severus had the headmaster's full attention right now. It was a potentially rather dangerous position to be in, he was uncomfortably aware, but unfortunately he hadn't been able to see any other way to resolve this.

"I have given the pupil in question reason to believe that you have in fact been carrying out your own investigations into the matter, and had in fact already been closing in on the perpetrator – whilst hoping, naturally, that the perpetrator would come forward and confess. I wished the perpetrator to feel that they had not forever 'gotten away' with anything, but that by coming forward to confess they have benefited themself. I chose to leave it unclear how much I myself knew or suspected. The perpetrator believes that I am now consulting with you over the question of what punishment you wish to dictate in this business."

"And the name of this perpetrator?" there was a hard glint in the headmaster's eyes.

"The perpetrator was in floods of tears by the end of the confession. They seemed generally remorseful for what they had done. I do not believe that there was any especial malice intended in the deed." Severus responded. "My professional opinion is that the pupil in question has been tormenting themself over this since Hallowe'en more effectively than any punishment that you will likely care to administer."

"The name, Severus." the headmaster said. "I insist."

"Ginevra Weasley." Severus said.

There was a short silence whilst the headmaster digested the news, and he sounded rather more thoughtful when he next spoke, than severe.

"I see. And she has not been associating with any older pupils, from less-than-savoury backgrounds this year?"

"The only older pupils that she has been frequently associating with, as far as I know, are the second years Miss Granger and my own ward, Miss Prince. After hearing Miss Weasley's confession I questioned both regarding their knowledge or possible involvement with what took place on Hallowe'en, before coming to you with this – but neither seemed to have had any involvement or knowledge of what took place then. I assume that Miss Weasley almost certainly must have had help from an older pupil in what took place on Hallowe'en, at least with regards to the spellwork it would have taken, but she has refused to 'grass anyone up' for helping her with it."

"Her brothers, Fred and George, are uncommonly clever and inventive." the headmaster said, slowly. "And Bill and Charles Weasley were both outstanding pupils, and Percy achieved remarkable OWL results last year, too. There has to be an outside chance, I think, that she might have managed it entirely on her own… or perhaps with family assistance, which she might not give up easily. Frankly, Severus, this turn of events leaves me baffled. Quite baffled, I must confess. But pleasantly surprised, and relieved, I must add. I have been living with much darker fears over what took place on Hallowe'en for more than half a year now." And he actually laughed at this moment. When he next spoke, the headmaster if anything seemed to be in a state of good humour. "Yes, well, if it was Miss Weasley's doing, then I think that it is unnecessary to be unduly harsh on her. She is a first year, and I am sure she has a good conscience, coming from the family that she does. It has certainly come to my attention that she has been trying to do her bit for that muggle-born-in-Slytherin, Miss Granger. I shall devise some punishment for her to carry out over the summer holidays – perhaps a series of essays on goat hair and its uses. Yes, that might even perhaps amuse Aberforth, if she has any kind of penmanship."

And that was that.

At the end-of-term feast, the headmaster announced that 'due to information from persons who wish to remain anonymous' he could safely proclaim that: 'the Heir of Slytherin crisis is over and the Chamber of Secrets, I am quite confident, has not been opened'.

Severus had noticed that Slytherin appeared to have been discreetly awarded a couple of points overnight by the headmaster, but that was nowhere near sufficient to prevent Ravenclaw from running away with the House Cup. (Although Slytherin had at least won the quidditch contest.)

The headmaster also mentioned that next September, the Hogwarts groundskeeper would be returning from his long holiday, and that over the summer Neville Longbottom would be receiving an award 'for special services to the school' from the governors for his actions at the end of the previous school year.

And that was it for another school year.

Well, almost. Obviously there was the Express ride, first. Severus could have simply taken Harriet back to Spinner's End, direct from Hogwarts, but she enjoyed the train-ride, in the company of friends.

At King's Cross station, as Severus collected Harriet, a fracas took place on the platform which cast Severus' thoughts back to the previous summer – for this was a skirmish between Lucius Malfoy and… the Weasleys.

He wasn't sufficiently close to the epicentre to be clear on how it started; there were raised voices, then shouting and bangs, and then people moving hastily backwards away from the combatants and burst trunks and luggage spread all over the platform. Severus instinctively steered Harriet wider of the action than they were already, although she was craning her neck and jumping to try and see what was going on, over the intervening adults. Severus himself spared what was going on a brief glance, to assess the possible hazards: In the middle of it was Arthur Weasley looking somewhat annoyed, Molly Weasley glowering, balefully, and helping her children to round up their scattered personal possessions, and Lucius frantically waving his wand and – of all things – trying to summon (by the sound of it) a diary, which he apparently seemed to think that he had somehow misplaced in the fight. And Draco Malfoy was standing there, looking horribly confused, by this incident of undignified public brawling by his father.

It didn't make much sense to Severus, either. It seemed quite out of character for Lucius to lose his rag in a fashion that all could see in a place quite so public as this…

"It appears to be a fracas between Lucius Malfoy and the Weasley family patriarch and his wife." Severus informed Harriet. She frowned, and he guessed at what she might be thinking. "Draco Malfoy looks to be uninvolved, unharmed, but nonetheless bewildered by the action." He searched for another face in the crowds. "As also appears to be unharmed your first year acquaintance, Miss Ginevra Weasley."

Harriet looked relieved at this news, but took a moment to correct him on what she considered a salient fact.

"Ginny, dad. We call her 'Ginny'."

He rolled his eyes.

"As you are well aware, as her head of house it is grossly inappropriate for me to use such a diminutive familiar in reference to her in public…"

Author Notes: (expanded, 11th May, 2015; minor corrections, 20th May, 2015)

For those familiar with canon, wondering as to the rationale behind what's going on in the background:

1) There is no generally known boy/girl-who-lived in this universe, nor is the prophecy known of to 'Tom', thus his sole perceived enemy is Albus Dumbledore, and Tom is prepared to be patient to take him down.

2) Ginny Weasley has no crush on Harry Potter to get in the way of Tom exerting influence on her; she's a lot more amenable/open to Tom's suggestions than her canon counterpart, and rather than going for outright possession, Tom is working on a step-by-step process of charming her, testing her limits, and attempting to slowly corrupt her and build her up to be a powerful servant.

Thus Tom doesn't go for unleashing the basilisk this school year, since that won't necessarily help against Albus Dumbledore, but might spoil his chances with Ginny. He does get Ginny to play a 'practical joke' on Hallowe'en which might cause trouble for Albus Dumbledore, though, and to test how she reacts to it and to the immediate aftermath. And given the way she does react, he decides it's going to take time to knock the shiny edges off her, and going to need lots of 'little steps' to shape her into what he wants. But he's got time – as much of it as he wants, as far as he knows - and she's not resistant (due to a crush on Harry Potter) on being drawn into his games...

On a more general note regarding this chapter:

Canon doesn't say much about the Hogwarts school governors, other than indicating that there are a dozen or so of them, and that Lucius Malfoy was at one time their chairman. As far as this universe is concerned as of the summer of 1992 I've assumed that 'a good many' of the governors were Hufflepuff and Gryffindor pupils in their own school days. (Lucius Malfoy is also still a member of the governors though, as of 1992, in this timeline.) It seems to me that the events of the end of the 1991-1992 school year would be sufficiently disturbing, at least in terms of the eventual climax (teacher up to no good took first years hostage and was fatally injured by another first year, trying to rescue his housemates), that the governors would want to hold at least some sort of inquiry into 'what just happened?'

The headmaster's bit of 'melodrama' during the school staff meeting at the start of the chapter might have an element of 'gentle revenge' about it, on the headmaster's part, for Severus' sending the Philosopher's Stone back to Nicolas Flamel without asking the headmaster what he thought about that, in the school year just gone.

In this universe, given what had just happened with Quirinus, Albus Dumbledore did at least try to hire someone he felt would be competent and relatively assuring (auror Alastor Moody) for the defence post for the 1992-1993 school year. Unfortunately, since Alastor Moody was still on the auror payroll at that point, Albus' plans fell through 'due to circumstances', and so Albus seized upon Gilderoy Lockheart instead...

In this universe, Lucius Malfoy has his squabbles – as in canon in this period – with Arthur Weasley over a piece of 'muggle protection' legislation; and as in canon this leads Lucius to decide to pass Tom Riddle's diary on to Ginny Weasley under cover of an encounter in a bookshop, in the belief that this will lead to events that will ultimately discredit the Weasley family (and hopefully rid Hogwarts of some muggle-borns and critically damage the reputation of Albus Dumbledore too along the way). In this universe, Dobby hears about the plot and fixates upon Neville Longbottom as a 'great wizard' who needs saving; except unfortunately for Dobby, his 'well-intentioned' methods of trying to keep Neville out of Hogwarts, by wreaking havoc on his home life, don't actually work too well...

It's a piece of artistic licence that in this universe Ron and Seamus decide to steal the Weasley family's flying car and fly to Hogwarts in it. In this universe they are both feeling pretty big-headed and important about what happened at the end of the previous year though – and they are also both Gryffindors, inclined to 'show off'.

What Hermione Granger said to Ron during breakfast in the great hall that one morning, which got him to leave off bothering her for the rest of the year, may have been something to the effect of: 'Being a slimy snake, I find your constant insults very attractive, Ron, and they make me want to kiss you in public.'

As in canon, Gilderoy Lockhart decides it would be a good idea to try a second year Gryffindor class out with Cornish Pixies. (It apparently seemed a good idea to him in canon, and I don't see why any of the changes resulting in this being an alternate universe would necessarily cause him to think otherwise in this universe.) In this universe Neville Longbottom (complete with an effective wand, remember, which his grandmother bought him as a reward for acting impressively during his first term, in the previous school year) is the only Gryffindor to come out of that particular class relatively unscathed...

At the time of writing of this chapter, I had no information on who the keeper of the Hogwarts grounds was, in the 1940's. I thus assigned the groundskeeper of that time the name 'Mr. Jellicoe'. One reviewer has since drawn it to my attention that at some point in the 1960's/1970's there was apparently in canon at Hogwarts a 'Groundskeeper Ogg'. So, in this universe, the succession of groundskeepers may well be Jellicoe/Ogg/Hagrid (and Albus Dumbledore's statement in this universe that Hagrid 'ultimately succeeded' Mr. Jellicoe for some reason skips over the Ogg tenure; possibly in this universe the Ogg tenure may have been a temporary one, occupying a period when an injury to Mr. Jellicoe put him out of commission for a while before Rubeus Hagrid was completely ready to take over).

It's a piece of artistic licence that three Slytherins in this universe decide to break into Gryffindor tower during Christmas of the 1992-1993 school year using a secretly brewed potion. There isn't any mention that I am aware of that 'invisibility potions' exist in canon, but it seems to me potentially in keeping with the universe that they might exist.

Behind the scenes, besides Ginny being the origin point in the Harriet/Hermione/Ginny trio for the idea of breaking into Gryffindor Tower, she also 'came up' with the idea of doing it by means of an invisibility potion. (Tom actually suggested the potion idea to Ginny, since he was rather hoping that Ginny would get granted access to the restricted section of the library, as there were some things other than potions books that he was hoping to get her to take a look at, but Severus simply isn't going to let young pupils roam the restricted shelves unsupervised, even if one of them is Harriet). The Potter invisibility cloak is not available to Harriet in this universe during the period covered by this chapter (the goblins have it at present, after Severus sent it to them to look after, following his discovery of the cloak in Gryffindor hands during the previous school year; Harriet doesn't even know at this point that the cloak exists or that one day it's going to be hers).

As a Slytherin (and possibly at Ginny's prompting) in this universe Hermione is unable to cope with a teacher as short on practical classes as Gilderoy Lockheart, for the whole of the 1992-1993 school year, and so starts a 'defence association' three years ahead of canon. Since it's not being established covertly, the association doesn't attempt to hide itself, nor do its leaders/organisers try and find anywhere 'secret' for meetings to take place.

Lucius Malfoy drops by the school during the summer term, since he's been getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of reports of anything resembling wholesale terror emerging from the school since Hallowe'en. He's desperately hoping to discover during his visit that somehow things have been going on at the school which have been covered up. Lucius knows that if anything had been going on, regarding the Chamber of Secrets, that Rubeus Hagrid should not have been the one responsible, and that events should have therefore continued, even after the half-giant left the school. Unfortunately for Lucius, he doesn't understand quite what he passed on to Ginny, nor that Tom is capable of forming his own agenda and working at his own pace...

The book that Ginny has with her, when summoned to see Severus at the end of the year, is Tom Riddle's diary. She has it with her for 'moral support'. At this point she wouldn't actually willingly give it up. From Severus' point of view, he's used to pupils hauled in for questioning and under stress clutching at or fiddling with odd objects (lucky rabbit tails, family heirloom jewellery, and so on) and although he doesn't understand why that particular object has any significance to Miss Weasley, he doesn't actually find it particularly unusual or noteworthy that she has about her person such an item.

The mention of Neville Longbottom being lined up to receive an award over the summer is a narrative convenience, since it provides a reason for Neville to be in the papers during the 1993 summer holidays. From an in-universe perspective, maybe Albus Dumbledore has fixed something up to provide a 'good news' story, to lighten the mood after much of the recent school year was spent with a state of some nervousness and tension lying over the school.

Finally, at the end of the year, Lucius' 'incident' on the platform at King's Cross is his attempt to retrieve the diary, made in the desperate hope that despite whatever has gone 'wrong' with his plot, that the diary is there to be found somewhere in one of the Weasley children's trunks. Since the school has not been purged of muggle-borns, Albus Dumbledore is still headmaster, and the Weasleys have not been in any way seriously discredited (the antics of Ron/Fred/George aren't things on the scale that Mr. Malfoy was hoping for) Lucius would really rather like the diary back – especially given who he was supposed to be keeping it safe for.

Meanwhile, back at the Burrow... (a 'bonus' scene, I haven't included in the main story, because it's from Ginny's perspective, whereas the main story is entirely from Severus'):

It was a relief for the youngest Weasley child to be home, even if they'd had to travel by floo, since Ron and his mate Seamus had nicked and crashed her father's car way back at the start of the school year.

It was even more of a relief to find the highly irritable looking owl in the kitchen, as she raced through the house, desperately searching.

"Ginny, dear, an owl came with something for you earlier this afternoon, which it simply wouldn't…" her mother's voice came from somewhere in the house behind her.

"Thanks mum, I've found it." Ginny shouted back. She eyed the owl, and its obvious irate state, and considered it prudent to retrieve a small lump of ham from the pantry first, which she tossed to the owl from a safe distance.

Appeased, it released its grip on the plain brown package which it had brought, and started to peck and tear at the ham. Ginny retrieved the package, and ran for her room, passing her father as she did so, retrieving miniaturised trunks from his pockets and restoring them to full size.

He opened his mouth to say something.

"Later dad." Ginny waved the package. "Someone's sent me something."

Once back in her room, with the door firmly shut and a chair wedged up against it, she sat at the dressing table and ripped off the string and brown paper.

And there it was – the book, safe and sound.

She hugged it to herself, tightly, and then the thought occurred to her to make sure that it was the book. Just because it looked like it…

She opened the book on the table, retrieved a quill and ink, and then wrote carefully:

Lance. This is Guinevere.

There was a moment, when she waited, breath bated and heart pounding, before the ink slowly sank into the page, and then was replaced by new words.

Ah. Ginny. This is Tom. Everything is well, I trust?

Everything's brilliant! As you thought he might, Mr. Malfoy attacked us on the platform at King's Cross, shouting something about father's muggle act as his excuse, and blasting our luggage everywhere. Nobody was badly hurt or anything – Mr. Malfoy wasn't trying to do that, just get a chance to get at our things – but it was still utter chaos. You should have seen it! And then, in the middle of it, Mr. Malfoy started shouting 'Accio diary' like crazy, and waving his wand in all directions. He made himself look absolutely ridiculous. Especially because no diary came. Well not apart from some third year Ravenclaw's whose trunk he'd also blown open in the general confusion. You should have seen the look on his face as he started riffling through that, only to realise that it wasn't what he wanted. And then Magical Law Enforcement turned up and whatever excuse he gives them, he'll probably have to pay them quite a bit of money to stay out of trouble, and in the end he won't have got you back, either. I don't know where he can imagine that you are now, Tom, but I won't let him take you back from me if I can stop it. I won't let anyone take you from me, I promise…

Regarding the above 'bonus' scene, Tom has established the 'Lance. This is Guinevere.' code phrase with Ginny by this point so that he knows if it's her writing in him – and that she's not under any kind of duress or observation. For now, he doesn't respond at all to anyone else writing in him for any reason. And when Ginny writes in him, she uses a different phrase to indicate if she is being forced to write or is being watched, and Tom accordingly pretends to be something else.

Ginny of course 'owled' the diary back to herself at the Burrow, from Hogwarts, so that if Mr. Malfoy tried to intercept the Weasleys on the way back, he wouldn't be able to find 'Tom'.

The next update, covering the 1993-1994 school year, may be some time in coming, due to other ongoing writing projects which I have.