Dear Lily *COMPLETE*

Lisa: Safe? Are you sure about that? I'm glad you're so understanding. Don't worry on Narcissa. I just need the inspiration to come up... I WILL finish that one, I promise you. Oh, and did you get my email with the links to my sketches and wallpaper?

Dee Dee: Well, you'll find out. The trust may make them accept the situation a bit more.

Pittwitch: Sorry if that scene let you down a bit, but I wanted to show a more tender side to Snape as regards Harry, I believe that Snape both loves and hates Harry at the same time... I hope it doesn't turn you off the story too much. I trust that he will have a bit more Snape-ish moments. This story is actually all written, so I can guarantee that.

Dear Lily

I am so sorry Lily that I haven't been writing to you for over a week but Hermione has taken my time and constant energy, she had been dosed up with so many potions that I'm surprised she is still sane as some of the ones she has had are not known for their soothing relaxing properties, in fact one of them when drunk can have the same effect as the Cruciatus curse, and she was trying to work, I told her no! I wouldn't let her get out of bed for a couple of days as she needed true relaxation to get over it. I soon discovered she was not the best of patients but when she was finally allowed out of bed she worked too much, I had to tell her to go back to bed a suggestion she did not like!

"So, I can look after Malfoy when he's sick; get kidnapped by Bellatrix Lestrange, and have torture upon torture placed upon me, but I can't get up and do some simple sweeping up. Is that you're saying?"

"You need to rest," I sighed. Definitely a teenager now. "If you work too hard you might get a relapse and that will only aggravate the situation!"

"I bet you're one of those men who order their coffin when you've got a cold!" She exclaimed sarcastically.

The rest of the room snorted with the effort of trying to keep their laughter in.

"No, I actually had a cold when you lot first arrived in Hogwarts," I replied.

“Figures,” I heard Potter mutter.

"I'm not an invalid; Mrs Weasley; Tonks, tell him, please."

I looked at the two women and they looked back at me.

"If she feels she can do it let her do it," Tonks said.

"Thank you, now if you don't mind I'm going to have another go at seeing what that portrait is hiding."

"Oh no, you're not we've only just managed to shut the old cow up," Arthur said.

"Mr Weasley, I can actually just look at something you know, not everything has to have a crash and bang! Even Voldemort is a crasher and banger!"

I furiously shook her at that.

"Don't Say His Name Ever Again Do You Hear Me!" I stopped short when she started to cry. The expression in her wet brown eyes softened me so I hugged her. "Please, Hermione, you've seen what he's capable of, please, just don't!" I said trying to comfort her.

"Yes, he can kill me, so can a Muggle car does that mean I should only stay on one side of the road all my life? No, I cross the road but I stop, look and listen. I respect Voldemort like I'd respect anything that could kill but that doesn't stop me from saying his name, sir!"

I was about to reply when Mr Weasley Jr retorted.

"Respect that monster!"

"Yes, Ron, you can hate someone but respect them at the same time you know, and we should all respect Voldemort," she said back. "Anyway I have to look at that portrait whatever she's hiding it must be something important."

I let her go and she went.

"You don't respect him do you Harry?" Ron asked.

"Sort of," Harry said. "We do have a link you know Ron, and I was inside his head once remember."

"You didn't have to be," I reminded him. A comment that earned me that glare of hatred I had become so used to, it wasn’t so intense; it was as if he did it out of habit. I glared back.

Hermione ran in the room with a look of absolute delight on her face, her eyes shining with that emotion that she had cracked it and so we should all pet her for it. I did feel like petting her but I wanted to know what it was she had figured out first. And I found her childish delight in getting it right rather er? Death Eater urges had to be controlled somehow.

"I've done it," she squealed. "I've done it!"

"Done what?" Tonks asked.

"Found out what was behind Mrs Blacks portrait!"

"Wait how?" I asked. "I believe Black and various others were trying for a whole year to get behind that portrait how did you do it?"

"It was simple," she said rolling her eyes and sighed. "Everyone was doing complicated spells and all sorts of mumbo-jumbo but what it all boiled down to was the Black Family motto. Toujours Pur."

"What?" I blinked, how did she do it? Oh my what would the reaction have been if I took her in my arms and kissed her properly now?

"A password much like the portrait that guards the Gryffindor Common Room," she said. "You say the password the portrait swings and lets you in the room."

"How did you work it out?" Molly asked.

"Well, I just stood there and I remembered that Sirius was talking to Harry and then there it was on the top of the family tree, I mean, come on isn't it typically Slytherin?" she gave me an arch look. I looked down on my boots shamefully, I should have worked it out, that's what her look said. I should have worked it out and shown Sirius up! "Anyway, I spoke the words as they were meant to be said, and not what they mean in English. The portrait swung open and there was a safe."

"A safe?" they asked.

"Yes, but the portrait swung shut again when I didn't mess around with the combination but I think I know that already as well."

I shook my head and then I smiled at her.

"Please whatever you do, Hermione, do not find yourself in the clutches of Evil again!" I exclaimed. "If You-Know-Who finds this out then he will definitely want you."

"But I'm a Mudblood," she said. I flashed her another angry look, the smile immediately left her face.

"What?" she asked. "Look I've come to think of it as a positive thing, come on without Mud we wouldn't have pretty flowers or vegetables to eat, we wouldn't have beef to eat or even houses to live in or Hogwarts to learn in. We wouldn't have the base ingredients of paints to make beautiful paintings, or paper to write lovely ideas on. Plus mud holds vital minerals and irons that give all of us life. Without mud life wouldn't exist. So, okay, perhaps I have taken it out of context but come on, it's people like me that have kept the Wizard race existing this long. Every single pure family has this problem of having muggles and muggleborns in their family. But why can't I think of it as a positive rather than a negative, if I and all of you do think of it as a negative then won't that be another victory for the Malfoy’s and other idiots like them?"

My eyes were shining, I heard that speech before, you said the same to me. We were sitting under the tree by the lake whilst the Marauders were either practising Quidditch or watching Quidditch. It was a lovely sunny day, warm and bright, the lake was sparkling blues and silvers in the sun. And we were discussing this problem. It was our fourth year. This girl was so much like you Lily that I was beginning to wonder, but I shook my head, I knew Potter was your one and only child - it's just the semblance was scary.

"Er?" Mr Weasley Jr asked looking at Harry. "Is that right?"

"I dunno, Hermione, you really do say some of the silliest things!"

"I beg to differ," I replied to this. Potter looked sharply at me. "Your mother almost said that exact same speech to me in our fourth year. And nothing your mother did or said was stupid or pointless, not even marrying your father!"

"Well, it's derogatory," Harry said. "Forgive me, Hermione, if I do see it as a negative, the way Tom Riddle looked when he said in my second year that I would be with my dear Mudblood Mother soon, it was stabbing at my heart and I wanted to kill him!"

"You've killed a part of him already, Potter," I said. "And Professor Dumbledore and I have killed another part of him."

Potter looked away from me, as if the knowledge that I had already helped him in some way was too much for him to bear.

"Well," Hermione said. She put her hands on her hips in a very Molly Weasley fashion. "Don't you want to come and see what's in the vault or safe or whatever you like to call it?"

We all looked at each other, I spotted Ginny going to Harry and holding his hand, he squeezed it, and then he looked at her his eyes shining with love. And her's an exact copy. The boy was a fool if he thought he could ignore her!

"Sure," I said. She spun around in a half pirouette, like a ballet dancer, and practically ran out of the door. I ran to get to her side and smelt her scent. She turned to me.

"Are you alright, sir?" she asked.

"Possibly," I said truthfully. I wanted so much to take hold of her hand, and bring her closer to me, she was wonderful and kind and beautiful. Lily you will love her!

She stood in front of the portrait and counted to five under her breath, then she spoke the family motto in a perfect French accent. The portrait swung open, and then she went to the safe, she twisted it around three times, and the safe opened. Inside the safe were a few of the family treasures and she went to them and bought them all out. Then something fell out onto the floor, a small shiny silvery item, a small, shiny, slinking silvery item with a pendant hanging from it. I gasped!

"The locket!"

Hermione picked it up and looked at it.

"Yes, it's the locket all right," she said. Confirming my suspicion.

"But how?" Ginny asked. "Dung stole things!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Harry said. "When it became obvious to Kreacher that this wasn't going to be the HQ anymore he took the treasures he horded during his so called cleaning sessions, came to his mistress portrait, said the password and put them in the Safe! He hid the locket and other things he liked before Dung got his filthy, thieving rotten stinking hands on them."

"20 points to the boy in the specks!" I exclaimed. It was my first attempt to crack a Gryffindorian type of joke. I was rewarded with another nasty look! I could throttle that kid. If Black had said that he'd smile and laugh! Hermione however did laugh something for which I was grateful. I leant over and whispered. "Fifty points for the cute girl with the brown eyes."

Uh-oh! That was flirting wasn't it? I was immediately ashamed for the lack of judgement. So much so I ran upstairs away from the group. I didn't need to hear the spiteful comments that would come from it. I could imagine them very well for myself up here. I began kicking at the furniture. ‘So stupid Snape! As if she could ever like you! As if even if you had been nice to her from the word go she'd give one look at your exceptionally large nose, or hard eyes, or sallow skin, and that would be it.’ I felt like Sydney Carton in Tale of Two Cities. I screamed in loud agonizing frustration. Why did I have to spoil it by saying that? Argh! I could just imagine the look of disgust on her face as she realised I had feelings for her.

There was someone at the door. "Who is it?"

"Sir, it's me," it was Hermione.

"Come in," I mumbled. She opened the door and stepped in. I couldn't look at her; the look of hatred would be too much to bear. She laid a hand on my arm.

"Sir, that was very sweet," she said to me, her voice was soothing and nice; she didn't hate me after all. "Look at me, sir?" she asked.

I did.

"How can you stand to be with me? How can you trust me after all the things I've said and done to you? How can you look me in the eyes when I've killed Dumbledore? Just go please, Hermione, go back to your nice, uncomplicated friends!"

"No, I won't, sir," she said stubbornly. "And who said that my friends are nice and uncomplicated? I've had Harry say some pretty nasty things to me, and Ron, and yes I'm still with them. Because of that rat Wormtail I almost lost Ron as a friend for life. And Harry isn't an angel; I know that, he's not the easiest person to talk to as he can fly of the handle easily with one wrong comment. In some ways you and Harry are very similar perhaps that's why you don't get on."

"Humph!" I snorted. "I highly doubt it!"

"And as for the rest of it, sir, well you are trying your hardest to be liked and accepted now, you are trying so hard to say sorry, that rescue mission, Harry told me the details. You didn't have to do that you know. Not personally, after all you could have delegated to someone else. And as for taking Fenrirs bite for me, that was very brave the way you stood up. In my eyes and heart you are now one of us!"

She had her eyes brimming with tears and she kissed me again on the cheek.

"You're going to have to stop doing that you know." I said.

"Why?" she asked innocently.

"Because you are, people might get the wrong idea."

"Then it's their problem isn't it sir!"

She smiled and I observed her again, Lily are you in some way possessing her? No you wouldn't do that. How come she was so much like you? She stepped up closer to me and ran her fingers on my lips. She tiptoed up as she snaked her arms around my neck.

“Kiss me, sir?” she asked.

I would not say no. I put an arm around her waist and brought her closer to me, I could feel her body heat and I knew I was getting warm.

“Call me, Severus,” I said. I tipped her chin up and positioned her head so that our noses wouldn’t bump, and then I placed my lips on hers. She moaned slightly, and opened her mouth; I eased my tongue in gently, and kissed her longily, and passionately. Her tongue and mine started to play with each other and enjoyed the game. I stroked her tongue with mine, dominating it. Merlin, if we don’t stop now I would not be held responsible for my actions. She pressed in to further the kiss. I nipped her lips with my teeth before breaking the kiss. I gazed into her eyes.

“Wow,” she breathed. Her eyes shining. My heart was racing.

I was about to say something else when there was a commotion happening downstairs, I heard screams and a panic. It was like the time when Umbridge was having her first bout of trouble with the lake in the school and firecrackers zinging off into all areas of the classroom.

"You stay here," I hissed. Hermione slunk into a corner, a motion that I highly approved of.

I went downstairs to see what the fuss was all about.

"Where is she?" it was Fenrir. Lupin had stepped in front the crowd.

"Where is who?" he asked.

"My future mate," Fenrir sneered, his jaws dripping with the saliva. "Lupin, look at me and tell me; I heard she was here. As your pack leader I command you to tell me where my future Queen of the pack is! "

Lupin stood his ground. I was worried. Lupin was the only one I could like from my school days, and the only one I couldn't kill!

"She's not here!" he exclaimed.

"Don't lie to me you errant pack member, I can almost smell her! Now tell me where she is or I shall have to discipline you!"

"I am not lying, Fenrir," Lupin said. "She's not here, she is nowhere to be found."

"Don't lie you might as well tell me where she is!"

I almost flew down the stairs and was about to leap on him but my cloak snagged on something and I couldn't get it off.

"Over my dead body!" Lupin exclaimed fiercely.

No! Fenrir, please no, not Lupin! Fenrir turned into a wolf; Molly had Harry, Ron and Ginny behind her. Tonks was slipping behind the wolf but he turned and tossed her on the floor. She hit her head on a skirting board and was knocked unconscious. I was tugging ferociously at my cloak. I yanked hard at my cloak and it ripped. Now I was free I stepped in front of Lupin.

"Leave him alone," I said calmly looking in his eyes. But Fenrir was feral and no amount of staring could tame him. He made a move to me and he was growling, drooling and then he leapt. A hot steaming mass of wolf hair and saliva dribbled all over him!

"Hey!" Lupin said and stopped Greyback from fighting me.

Ginny stepped out from behind her mother and began to help me up but it was useless, my leg was broken and my wrist had been sprained. I was in absolute agony but my only thought was that Hermione was safe.

Fenrir stopped fighting full stop he sniffed, he leered with his eyes holding animal delight, he immediately leapt upstairs. Going to the direction of my room. I was about to run up the stairs but my leg wouldn't let me. Lupin had to do it instead. He took the steps three at a time to get to the room. The wolf opened the door by putting his bodyweight full on. He thrust it and eventually the door was swinging on the top hinge and the door was broken. Hermione screamed.

Damn this leg! I should be the one taken not her, not again. I forgotten how determined Fenrir could be if he really wanted something. He really wanted Hermione, and his plan to create Werewolves as true blue species had been in his head for as long as I could remember.

"Get away!" I heard her yell. I heard a yelp. She had obviously kicked him around the jaw. Harry ran up next I tried to stop him but his stalwart sidekick quickly followed him. Molly was weeping with worry. I tried to get up and go to but I was restrained by Ginny.

Then it stopped. The screaming, the yelping stopped. A few minutes later Fenrir had come down the stairs in his human form. Hermione draped over his shoulders. She had blood trickling down her neck, and she was unconscious. The locket was dangling out of her jeans pocket; I made a quick grab for it. We could use this as ransom if Molly; who had stepped in the way of the front door, failed.

"Put her down!" she ordered. Her eyes flashing motherly anger at one of her brood being kidnapped.

"I think," he jeered. "I already did!"

He swung her around and showed everyone the huge bite!

Arthur looked at Hermione.

"Why you vile, evil creature!" he exclaimed.

"Is that the best you can do?" he sneered at Arthur. "I've got what I've come for. Now let me go will you! I need to present her to my Master!" he gave me a meaningful look. "You coming to Severus. Thanks to you for yet again gaining the trust of these imbeciles you have helped the Master and I achieve part of our goal. We are indebted to you for your marvellous acting abilities!"

"You can rot in hell!" I replied back. "And if my arm and leg were not hurting so much then I would personally bash your brains out!"

Fenrir studied me.

"Then so be it," he growled. "I will tell the Master what you said. I suppose if you were prepared to kill Dumbledore you would stoop to stabbing our Master in the back, too!" He looked at Hermione with a delight, which made me angry! I got out my wand, not caring if I didn't have enough strength to do it.

"Avarda Ked -" but before the spell was completed he swiped at Molly and then walked out of the door, Hermione in his clutches and my betrayal of the Dark Side complete.

Lupin, Harry and Mr Weasley ran down the stairs. I began crying again. Somehow at some point the floodgates had opened and I began crying more.

"Where'd he go?" Lupin asked.

"I tried Lupin," I said. "Merlin! I even tried killing him but he was too quick for me. But I will. He has defiled a sweet wonderful loving woman, and I will make Fenrir pay for what he did!" I vowed darkly.

"The locket Snape?" Lupin asked. "Where is the locket?"

I flashed it around.

"Are you all right?" Lupin asked. "Can you fight?"

"Of course I can," I snapped. "As soon as my wrist and leg is better I will hunt down that animal AND I WILL KILL HIM!"

Lupin then went to Tonks and picked her up tenderly. He took off his shirt and wrapped her head around it. Arthur was tending lovingly to Molly who was scratched on the arm. Harry came up to me and he smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, I misjudged you, I guess if I went with my first instinct and killed you I'd be in a right mess now!"

"What shall we do now, Harry?" I asked.

"What?" he asked now.

"You're the leader now aren't you? It makes sense doesn't it? You are Dumbledore's man through and through and you now hold that key responsibility."

"You'll follow me?" Harry asked.

"If you let me," I replied. For once I looked at him and he looked at me. Both of us had tears in our eyes.

He held out his hand.

"This isn't friendship yet," he said.

"No, not yet!" I smiled and shook it.

"I still don't entirely trust you!"

"My shadow probably doesn't trust me boy!" I said.

I could see your smile, Lily, on Harry's face. I could see you there now.

Hermione was holding us together.

Severus

A/N So, there you have it. Snape is definitely on their side, and the scene with Remus wrapping his shirt around Tonks head has me drooling! And I wrote the bloomin' thing. I hope that you weren't too put off with the tenderness in this chapter...