The Name in Red **COMPLETE**

Hello everyone! I must apologize for the longer-than-usual delay in updating. Classes started up for me again this past week, so I haven't had as much free time in which to write. Don't worry, though! I will still continue updating, and try to AT LEAST put out one new chapter a week, and more if I have the time. I really do enjoy writing this story, and I wouldn't want to stop just when it's getting really good, right?!

Thank you again for all the wonderful reviews I've been getting. They are greatly encouraging, and definitely spur me on to keep writing and putting out new chapters as fast as possible for all of you that enjoy my story :)

Anyways, here's chapter 11! Enjoy!


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The Name in Red.

Chapter 11: Hatching a Plan.
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Arriving back in his dungeon quarters, Snape quickly went into his private study. Once there, he flicked his wand at the fireplace, which instantly burst into a lively flame. Moving to one of his cabinets, he removed a large bottle and a small glass. After having poured himself a generous amount of firewhiskey, he slumped down into one of his comfortable armchairs facing the fireplace. Before his lips had even touched the alcohol, he already felt dazed. Such was this girl's strange effect on him.

Staring into the fire, he swallowed back a large shot, wincing a little as it burned his throat. He couldn't understand what kept possessing him to act that way toward her, even up to, and well past the point of making quite physical advances. The girl hardly seemed to object to them; on the contrary, she seemed to desire it. It was obvious she desired him for whatever reason, and for an equally mysterious reason, he could no longer deny that he felt some form of desire as well. Neither side of the picture made much sense to him.

Here was an attractive young witch, completely green to everything having to do with magic. He hadn't exactly given her an overly warm reception into the magical world. He hadn't even believed she was a witch at first. Despite the callous personality he had shown her, she hadn't shied away from him or looked upon him with dislike. Instead, she seemed to have a strange kind of patience with him. She didn't seem ready to hate him at the drop of a hat, like the majority of his students. Was this because she had no prior knowledge of his reputation?

She couldn't have known that the same man who carried her inside the castle and taken her to Diagon Alley was almost unanimously feared throughout the school. Had she known this from the start, she probably would have been less apt to be patient with him, let alone become attracted to him. Maybe the girl was just feeling insecure and isolated in her new world, and that was the reason for it. Although, perhaps he was not as monstrous as he thought himself to be.

He silently pondered his own strong reactions to the girl's attraction. Voldemort was now defeated. Even though it still pained him, he was now free to continue his life without the shadow of Lily's death constantly hanging over his head and governing all of his actions. He had always loved her, and in truth, he always would. The large scar on the side of his neck would always remind him of the sacrifices he had made for her.

He recalled how, in their younger days, she had blushed several times in his presence, but he never had the courage to take a step closer to her and see what might happen.

It felt as if, when he would look into the girl's eyes and see her blush, or feel her tremble... the same young man that he used to be, full of unrequited feelings, would come to the surface again. This time, however, he would not let another opportunity slip away from him. This time, he had taken that extra step forward, and he had not been disappointed.

Sipping his firewhiskey and staring into the flames, he continued to wonder about the strange girl who had been thrust into his life.


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Back up in her room, Sarah had just sat down upon her bed when there was a knock on the door. Leaping to her feet, she became very nervous. Is it Professor Snape? she thought to herself. Did he come back? What if he wants to come inside? Oh god!

She began pacing around the room frantically. What if it was him? Should she let him in? She found, that while immersed in his kiss, she had been completely unaware of herself. She hated to admit it, but it probably could have gone much farther than just passionate kissing if he had led it in that direction. There came another knock on the door, and she flinched. She would have to answer it. If it was Snape, he knew she was inside. Taking a deep breath and swallowing hard, she moved toward the door and swiftly opened it.

She was surprised to find the doorway empty. Furrowing her brows, she stepped out into the corridor and glanced around; there wasn't anyone there. Who could have knocked on her door? Maybe it had been one of the ghosts? Sighing, she was simultaneously relieved and disappointed. She stepped back into her room.

Closing the door behind her, she nearly had a heart attack when she turned around into the room that she believed to be empty; Harry had thrown off his invisibility cloak, and was now standing in the middle of her room, wearing an expression of extreme shock and confusion. Sarah gave a surprised yelp and jumped back into the door, flattening her back against it, her chest heaving.

"Harry!" she gasped loudly, still flat against the door. "What did you do that for? Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Harry threw his cloak down on Sarah's bed.

"Sorry," he said, "I just thought maybe you wouldn't let me in."

"Oh, no," she said quickly, "I would have let you in. I got the door, didn't I? I though it was-," she paused abruptly, blushing a little and looking away from Harry.

Harry sighed. He knew exactly who she thought might have been at the door.

"We need to talk," he told her.

"About what?" she she quickly replied, but bit down on the inside of her cheek as soon as she did. Oh no, she thought to herself, he knows! He could have been inside in the corridor this entire time with that cloak of his on! He could have seen everything! Her eyes widened in fear.

Harry, frightened that she might become upset with him, thought he owed her a proper explanation before jumping to the small detail that he had just seen her being snogged by Snape in the middle of the corridor.

"I was just coming up here to see you," he explained, "I thought maybe something was wrong. I noticed at supper that you seemed a little nervous about Snape. I thought maybe he had done something to you, to make you frightened of him. You haven't told me much of anything about your lessons with him. I wanted to make sure everything was alright." This was a perfectly legitimate explanation, happily glossing over Harry's suspicion of her being attracted to Snape.

Sarah sighed in relief. Maybe he hadn't seen anything. Unfortunately, she was not so lucky.

"Instead," he said, sounding very uneasy, "When I got up here... well...," His face colored and he trailed off.

"Oh no," Sarah groaned, walking over to her bed and flopping down onto it face-first. "You saw us, didn't you," she said, her words almost completely muffled by the pillow she was pressing her face into. She was quite convinced that she had just utterly destroyed the good relationship she had going with Harry, as well as her budding friendships with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

"I didn't mean to, honestly," Harry said, moving toward her bed and looking down at her. "I was just coming up to make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine," she groaned out into her pillow.

"Sarah," Harry began quietly, a little frightened about what he was going to ask, "He wasn't... well... forcing you... was he?"

Sarah immediately raised herself up onto her arms, turning her head to glare up at him.

"What?" she spat at him loudly. "You think he was forcing me to kiss him?"

"I just...,"

"I was right," she fumed, "You guys sure do hate him a lot. So what if he's been a mean teacher to you over the years. Hasn't he already proven that he's a hero? Or do you still not believe he's innocent yet?" Sarah looked extremely angry. Still glaring at Harry, she narrowed her eyes.

Harry shook his head back and forth quickly as she spoke. This was almost exactly what he had been afraid of; however, instead of becoming angry at the simple fact that Harry had accidentally seen her with Snape, she was incensed that Harry suggested that he had been forcing her.

"No, no! Not at all!" Harry stammered, outstretching his arms toward her in a gesture of surrender. "I know he's a hero, Sarah!" he shouted back. He then lowered his voice significantly. "But that doesn't stop him being a...,"

"A what?" Sarah shouted incredulously. "A greasy git?"

"Listen to me!" Harry pleaded with her, looking into her dark brown eyes as she glared at him. "I'll admit that I don't like him, and he hates me, but I don't mind if you want to snog with him, its your own choice! You can shag him in the middle of the Great Hall if you want to, I wouldn't mind! I just wanted to make sure that you were alright, and that nothing about what I saw was wrong! I'm just trying to look out for you, that's all!"

Sarah's glare softened and then faded. Sighing deeply, she plopped face down back into her pillow.

"I'm sorry, Harry," she murmured. Instead of realizing that he was just looking out for her, she attacked him for having suggested that Snape was forcing her physically.

"It's alright," he replied. "I expected you might get a bit upset at me." He watched as Sarah pushed herself up onto her arms again, and then sat up cross-legged on her bed, looking at him.

"He wasn't forcing me," she said shyly, her face quickly coloring. She looked away from him.

Harry took a seat on the plush floor carpet, also sitting cross legged, and looking up at her as she sat on her bed.

"How did it happen?" Harry softly inquired. The idea of anyone kissing Snape was entirely strange. He couldn't fathom how Sarah's lessons with him had translated into the beginnings of physical intimacy in such a short time.

"I'm not really sure," said Sarah, looking down at her hands and fiddling with her fingernails. "I know what a jerk everyone says he's supposed to be and... yeah, I guess he's a jerk sometimes," she admitted, taking a deep breath. "But he's not like that sometimes with me. It's almost like he becomes a different person for little periods of time."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. He had briefly witnessed a completely different Snape within the pensieve, but in the real world, he had only ever experienced the Snape that Sarah had admittedly described as a 'jerk'.

"Well," Sarah began, "When he took me to Diagon Alley, he was pretty patient with me. He was pretty short with me, but he wasn't mean. He was even a gentleman too. He let me borrow his cloak when I was cold, and he even let me look inside the joke shop because he'd seen that I wanted to."

Harry nodded along as he listened to her, Sarah already having mentioned these things to him when they had first met.

"I guess I didn't realize it at the time, but I think I started liking him a little then," she continued. "And during our lessons, he's patient with me... curt, like I said before, but never mean. After our first lesson, I couldn't find my way back up here, so I went back down to his office. He was already undressed and seemed pretty angry that I'd bothered him, but he brought me back up here anyway. And he opened the door for me, like he always does."

"Undressed?" Harry boggled, looking a little frightened.

Sarah rolled her eyes a tiny bit.

"He was wearing a bathrobe. Anyway," she continued, "During our next lesson, he had me brewing another potion... and I just sort of started staring at him and daydreaming like an infatuated schoolgirl." Sarah paused for a moment, thinking about what she had just said. "What am I saying like for, that's exactly what I am. But I didn't even realize I was doing it. He caught me at it. I was so embarrassed I thought I was going to die."

"During our first lesson," she continued, "I had managed to get some potion in my eyes. So after second the lesson, he brought me back up here again, and wanted to check my eyes before he'd let me go." This wasn't too far from the truth. She did get potion in her eyes, and he had wanted to check them, but she skipped over the details of her eye color for obvious reasons.

Sarah started blushing again as she spoke on.

"He must have noticed by then," she said, looking up and staring ahead a little dreamily. "He got really close to me. And he'd tilt my head up so he could see my eyes. And he leaned even closer to me... I didn't know what he was doing... I thought he was going to kiss me, that's what it looked like. He almost did, he was about an inch away. But he didn't. I was just about paralyzed."

Harry nodded. When he had started dating Ginny again, he finally got around to reading Twelve Fail-safe Ways To Charm Witches, which Ron had given him for his seventeenth birthday the previous year. It sounded to him as if Snape had been testing the waters. Sarah was correct in assuming he had already noticed her attraction by that point. The fact that she didn't back away from him had probably been a greatly encouraging sign.

"Then in our next lesson, I was a real idiot," Sarah continued. Looking at Harry again, she lifted her right arm and rolled up her sleeve, extending it toward him. Harry's eyes widened when he saw the three large gashes on her forearm, which looked several days old.

"He was pretty angry at first, I think," said Sarah. "And he grabbed my arm to drag me over to his desk, but it hurt. He'd grabbed me where I was cut. I tore myself away from him and when he tried to get close to me again, I backed away. I was afraid he was going to hurt me again. The cuts hurt bad enough without someone grabbing them. After that he... sort of... changed again," she said softly.

Sarah brought her arm back. With her left hand, she began gently running her fingers over her skin near where she was cut, just as Snape had. She had a peaceful expression on her face, and was almost smiling.

"He was so gentle, and almost kind," she said softly. "He told me he was sorry for hurting me, and he sat me down at his desk and looked over my cuts. He held my arms still and dripped something onto them... It healed them, I don't remember what it was. I couldn't even remember I was hurting anymore, with him touching me... I was completely confused at why he'd changed like that. It was so sudden."

Harry watched as Sarah trailed her hand over her healed cuts; it was difficult for him to imagine Snape gently and patiently tending to her wounds like she was describing.

"Then he left and came back with this bowl of yellow-looking stuff," she said, looking a little confused.

"Murtlap essence," Harry supplied. Subconsciously, he rubbed the back of his hand, where there were still faint white scars etched into his skin.

Not having the faintest clue what exactly a Murtlap was, Sarah raised an eyebrow and looked up at him. When she saw that he was looking straight at her, she looked away again. Swallowing, she continued.

"Well whatever it was," she said, "He sat back down and cleaned off my arms with it. He washed all the blood off. He even asked me if it hurt.. he was so gentle...," she sighed, idly feeling her arm again as she recalled it.

Harry's eyes widened even more, and his mouth opened a little. If it was hard for him to imagine Snape taking care of Sarah's cuts, it was nearly impossible for him to envision this in his mind. He could understand Snape healing Sarah's cuts. He probably didn't want her bleeding all over his office. It was just prudent. For him to fetch a bowl of Murtlap essence and then gently clean her arms of the blood; he definitely hadn't needed to do that. But he did anyway. Sarah was right; it did sound like Snape became a completely different person. This was probably the single kindest thing that Harry had heard of Snape ever doing for anyone.

"And then after," Sarah continued, her voice very quiet, "He brought me back up here, and he checked my arms again. And then he wanted to check my eyes. He got really close to me again... and this time, he kissed me. It wasn't too much though, only a little... and then he left. That's why I was trying to avoid you guys before... I didn't want to end up confessing that I'd kissed one of your teachers. Your most hated teacher, to boot. You guys would have gone crazy."

Harry gave a small laugh, smiling at her.

"That's probably about right," he said. "I bet Ron would have had a fit."

Sarah looked up at him, her eyes silently pleading.

"Harry, you can't tell them. You have to promise me you won't tell them," she begged. She was relieved that Harry hadn't scorned her for what had happened, but she was so pleased to actually have friends here that she didn't want to risk ruining it by having the others find out. "You don't hate me for this, do you?" She looked extremely concerned.

Harry shook his head in the negative. Sarah gave a small sigh of relief. Harry smiled.

"No, Sarah, I don't hate you," he assured her. "Like I said, shag him in the middle of the Great Hall if you want to, I won't give you a hard time. Just as long as you're making the decision, it's fine with me... though I must admit, it does creep me out a little. Old habits and all that."

Sarah laughed a little, smiling back at him.

"But you've got to tell me what happened tonight, too," Harry pressed on. "I think what I saw was a bit more than just a little kiss," he laughed.

Sarah blushed anew, looking away from him.

"Yeah, well," she started, "Tonight we actually had our lesson in here."

Harry choked. Sarah looked up at him again, shaking her head frantically.

"No, no, it's not what you think!" she assured him. "He made the room turn into something else, some big place with cushioned floors and fireplaces everywhere, and bookcases too."

Harry nodded. He knew the place she just described in minute detail to be the same room he had used years previously to practice with Dumbledore's Army. He realized it would probably be an excellent, safe place to teach somebody who was first learning magic. Especially more dangerous spells.

"Anyway," she continued, "He taught me a few new things. I learned how to disarm, stun, and cast a shield charm."

"Nice one," Harry said, sounding impressed. She was doing extremely well if she had managed to learn things like that so quickly. Snape, he realized, was probably a very good teacher to her. He had personal experience with what a formidable duelist he could be.

Sarah gave a small smile, happy with herself that her friend was pleased with the progress she was making.

"So we were practicing," she continued, "And I was going to cast a stun at him, and he'd cast a shield charm and send it back at me, and then I was supposed to shield myself to stop it. Only... it didn't work out according to plan." She winced a little.

"What happened?" Harry asked. He seriously hoped that Sarah hadn't managed to injure herself again somehow. Imagining someone who was extremely magically adept, but just as accident-prone as Neville Longbottom, was a bit frightening.

"I cast my stun at him, like I was supposed to," she said, "But when it hit his shield, something went wrong. It must have broken it somehow, because part of the spell hit him, and I knocked him down."

Harry's eyes widened again; breaking through someone's shield charm with a stun was very impressive.

"I was terrified, I thought I'd hurt him," she continued, "So I dropped my wand and I ran over to him and got down on my knees and started feeling for a pulse. I was freaking out that I'd killed him. As soon as I'd figured out he was alive, he opened his eyes and grabbed my shoulders and rolled me over and pretty much pinned me down. I barely had time to think, he did it so fast."

Eyes still quite wide, Harry raised one eyebrow extremely high. It wasn't difficult to see where this was going.

"He was really angry," said Sarah. "He thought that I'd meant to do it, that I wanted to try and hit him. He was really angry, and I was completely helpless, so I got scared. I couldn't help it. But just like that, he... he changed again. He told me he was sorry, and that he should learn to control his temper. He looked really worried or something, like he was afraid I wouldn't forgive him. It was like he was a completely different person again."

Harry nodded understandingly. If there was one thing Snape had, it was a temper. He knew how Snape's past actions, when in the throes of anger, had driven his mother away from him. If Snape was attracted to Sarah, as strange as that might seem to Harry, he realized that Snape was probably frightened of letting his anger drive her away too.

"I told him it was alright," she continued, "And he relaxed, and it was like he'd just realized the position he was in," Sarah blushed deeply. "And then he... leaned down and...," Sarah cleared her throat and trailed off into mumbles, but Harry was very sure he discerned the phrase 'made out' through it.

"Then after we left, and I brought my room back," Sarah continued, her voice almost a whisper, "Well, you saw what happened next."

"I sure did," Harry snorted, smiling.

"You can't tell anyone," Sarah pleaded again.

"Don't worry," Harry tried to assure her, "I've already told you I won't. But if I were you, I'd be more careful than to start snogging in the middle of the hallway. I'm the only one sneaking about with an invisibility cloak, but you can't be too careful."

"Yeah, I was actually thinking that myself," she admitted.

Now that Harry knew for certain that everything was alright with her, he found the entire situation utterly absurd to the point of good-natured amusement. It all sounded so crazy.

"Sure was a lucky day for Professor Snape when you showed up on our doorstep!" Harry laughed. He might have a hard time understanding Sarah's attraction to him, but it wasn't difficult to see why Snape might be attracted to her.

Sarah smiled back at him.

"It was a lucky day for me, too. Trust me. And not just because of him," she said. Getting lost in the woods, being run down by Centaurs and nearly killed, and being driven toward the castle in the process, had been the best thing that had ever happened to her.

"I believe it," Harry said, shifting to a different sitting position on the floor. "Well, now that's all cleared up. That wasn't the only reason I wanted to come in and talk to you, actually," he said, the tone of his voice becoming more serious.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing is wrong," he replied, "But I wanted to talk with you some more about what we talked about at dinner. I talked more about it with Hermione and she thinks it's a terrible idea and doesn't think we should go. But I think we should."

"Go where?" Sarah asked confusedly, tilting her head at him. Her eyes shifted upward and to the side as she recalled their dinner conversation. Then it clicked. She looked back to Harry, surprised. "To the Ministry?"

Harry nodded at her once, looking serious.

"Isn't that a little dangerous?" she asked, looking worried. "If Hermione thinks it's a bad idea, I'd probably listen to her. She seems like a genius."

"She is a genius," Harry said, "But that doesn't mean she always knows what's best. I think we should go to the Obliviator Headquarters. Don't you want to find out if they've got a file on what happened when you were a kid?"

"I do," Sarah said quickly, "But you said it yourself. It's not like they're going to let us walk right in and look around. I don't want us to get in trouble or something. If Hermione thinks it's a bad idea, it's probably a bad idea."

"I'm not saying I think it's a great idea either," Harry said, "But how else are we going to find out? I already told you all about what happened before. I've managed to pull off far more risky things, getting far more dangerous stuff out of the Ministry. And I've been in far worse trouble. Compared to all that, I think this will be a picnic, honestly."

Sarah considered him, taking a deep breath. She had heard his stories about getting into and out of the Ministry in order to retrieve the prophecy, and later, the locket. She couldn't argue with him. This did sound like a picnic compared to all of that. She, however, had never personally done anything quite so dangerous, and didn't care to find out what would happen if they were to get in trouble.

"And how are we supposed to do it?" she asked.

Harry tilted his head, nodding toward Sarah's right side. Looking over and down, she could see that she was sitting next to his invisibility cloak. He had thrown it down on her bed when he first entered the room and revealed himself to her. She picked it up and examined the light, supple material.

"You think we'd both be able to fit under this the entire time?" she asked, eyebrows raised. Someone would surely see their ankles, at least.

Harry shook his head.

"Not both of us. You," he said.

"Me? But what about you?" she asked confusedly. Harry gave a sly smile.

"They'll need to be able to see me if I'm going to be impersonating one of them," he said.

"Then why bother making me invisible? Can't you just say I'm with you?" Sarah asked.

Harry sighed, crossing his legs again. He then looked down and began idly pulling at the threads of the plush carpet he was sitting on. He looked to be deep in some unpleasant thoughts.

"Listen," he started. "I've got this funny feeling that it's probably best they don't see you or hear about you at all."

Sarah tilted her head at him.

"You just showed up here," Harry explained, still looking down. "We're not the only ones who are bound to think that's strange. We've got a good Minister running things now, but the Ministry can still do all sorts of funny things if they want to. If they find out about you, they might want to question you, and I don't know what else. I don't want that to happen, and I doubt you do either. So for now, the less they know about you, the better. That will work best if they don't see you at all."

Sarah understood, and agreed. She wasn't about to try and attract the attention of the wizarding authorities. From what Harry had told her about it, she didn't like the sound of it at all. Even though Harry told her things were different now, she still didn't want to risk tangling with a powerful institution like that, when she was such an oddity.

"Then why have me go at all?" Sarah asked. "If I'm going to be invisible the entire time, won't I be kind of useless?"

"Not at all," Harry replied, looking back up at her. "I'll need you to create a distraction or two. And in case things go bad, it sounds like you've gotten pretty good with stunners. You can throw them from underneath the cloak if I need, to back me up. I might even teach you a couple more spells that could be handy, too."

Sarah grimaced. She agreed with Hermione; she didn't like the sound of this at all. She had just arrived in this wonderful new world. She didn't want to ruin it all by getting arrested sneaking around in the Ministry, and being thrown into the Azkaban that Harry had told her about in his story.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked, looking and sounding uneasy.

"Trust me, everything will be fine," he assured her. "We'll go into the department, you'll create a distraction, I'll dive into their files and see what I can find, and then we'll be out of there. Simple as that."

Sarah still looked unconvinced.

"Don't worry about it right now," he said, getting to his feet. "It's getting kind of late. We'll talk about it more tomorrow. I've got to check on a few things first, or we might end up having to wait about a month before we can do it properly. You do want to do this, right? It's not like I'll force you to."

Sarah took a deep breath, regarding her friend. She was touched, and impressed, that Harry was willing to go to such lengths for her in order to try and find out more about her strange circumstances. One thing he said was very true; how else were they going to find out? If the Ministry had a record pertaining to her childhood incident somewhere, she definitely wanted to see it. Harry had certainly gotten away with far worse things in there. She was scared, but she wanted to go.

"Yes," she told him confidently. "I still don't like the sound of it, but I want to go."

"Great," Harry said with a smile. "We'll talk more tomorrow. Like I said, I've got to check on a couple things first." He extended his hand toward Sarah, who gave him back his cloak.

"Don't be using this to sneak up on me again," Sarah said with a smirk, "You really freaked me out."

Harry laughed, throwing the cloak around his shoulders so his body disappeared, leaving his head floating in midair.

"I'll try not to," he said. He moved toward the door and opened it, looking back at her. She looked to be on the verge of speech, but he stopped her before she could get any words out. "And I won't tell anyone. I promise. Do you want me to take a Wizard's Oath, even?"

Sarah laughed at him, waving him away.

"No, Harry, I trust you," she told him. "Besides, it sounds like you wouldn't enjoy describing me making out with Snape to anyone."

"You've got that right," he said in a mocking tone, sounding a little disgusted, but it was in jest. He stepped out the door. "Good night, Sarah," he said, shutting the door softly behind him.

Sarah bade him goodnight as he shut the door. She sighed. It certainly had been quite an eventful night, and now there looked to be even more events on the horizon. She sure had befriended someone who seemed to have an affinity with danger.

As she readied herself for bed, she couldn't stop herself from wondering what Snape was doing at that moment, or what he was thinking. She wondered what he could have been thinking while he kissed her. On the outside, he seemed like such a cold, brusque individual. And he was. She could understand Harry's confusion at the situation. It seemed so pointedly out of character for this man to go out of his way and be kind to someone, let alone getting passionate with young girls in darkened hallways. His student, no less, even though she was not really a student of the school.

For whatever reason, this other, different Snape would come to the surface. He was kind and gentle with her. He was wonderful, she thought. This other Snape would make a brief appearance to her, and share some kind of moment with her, either caring or passionate. He would bid her goodnight, and then simply walk away. The next day, when she would encounter him again, the normal Snape had returned.

Lying down to sleep, she was thinking how nice it would be to keep this other Snape around just a bit longer next time.


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The following afternoon, Sarah had been visiting in the Gryffindor common room with Ron and Hermione after their classes ended. She was quite thankful that they were acting very normally, and hadn't asked her any strange questions pertaining to Snape. Harry hadn't told them anything. She did trust Harry, but that didn't stop her from being at least a tiny bit nervous. She could only imagine the look on Ron's face if he heard.

After a while, when Harry didn't show up, Ron explained that Professor Slughorn was probably just having him run around to deliver things again. Since Ron and Hermione both had a bit of homework to do, (Hermione had to quite forcefully push Ron to get to work on his), Sarah told her friends that she would see them at dinner, and left the common room through the portrait hole.

As the portrait swung shut behind her, there came a loud whisper from her right hand side.

"Sarah!"

She flinched and jumped to the side, losing her balance and toppling over onto the floor. Looking up, she saw Harry pulling off his invisibility cloak. Her heart was thumping and she was shaking with fear. He had really given her quite a start. She stared up at him, wide-eyed. Her expression of surprise quickly melted into a slightly angry one.

"I thought I told you not to sneak up on me like that!" she gasped out. Harry smiled and extended his arm toward her. Taking his hand, Harry helped her up to her feet.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I've been waiting here for you to come out for a while. I got kind of excited when you did."

Sarah dusted herself off, looking confused.

"Why the hell didn't you just come inside?" she asked fiercely. "Sure would have been a lot nicer than scaring me half to death out here. You seem to like doing that." She began walking, bound for her room. Harry removed his cloak completely and walked beside her.

"I didn't want Hermione to see us leaving alone together," he explained. "She's too sharp, she would know we're planning something, and I bet she would know exactly what. By the way, don't mention any of this to any of them. Hermione will just worry herself."

"Alright," Sarah said. She hadn't told her other friends about their newly hatched scheme, and she hadn't been planning to.

Harry glanced around to make sure they were alone as they walked along. When he spoke again, he had lowered his voice significantly.

"Anyway, remember last night when I told you I was going to check on something?" he asked.

"Yeah?" Sarah responded, lowering her voice too.

"Well I did. Sort of," he replied.

"Sort of?"

"That's the problem," he explained. "The only thing I was able to check on is the fact that Professor Snape's storeroom is really well warded."

"You were trying to steal from him?" Sarah asked, turning to look at him. She had said that very loudly.

"Shh!" Harry urged her, glancing around again. "Keep it down, would you? Yes, I was trying to steal from him. It's not a big deal, we've done it before, and for practically the same reason."

"Why?" Sarah asked. "Isn't there anything you could do that doesn't involve breaking rules somehow?"

"Not if you don't want to wait a month before we can do this," he replied. "Actually, come to think of it, it wouldn't make a difference. I'll have to nick something from him either way."

"What do you mean?" she pressed, highly confused. "What's in there that you need?"

As they turned a corner, Harry carefully glanced ahead to make sure they were still alone. Satisfied, he continued speaking.

"Well," he began, "I'm hoping that there's some ready-made Polyjuice Potion left in there. If there is, we're all set to go. If there's not, I'll have to steal the ingredients for it and we'll have to make it ourselves, and that takes at least twenty-one days. A few of the ingredients are really rare. Only he would have them."

"Polyjuice Potion?" she asked to be sure. When he had told her his story, Harry had briefly described how he, Ron, and Hermione had all been able to impersonate other people with its use. She didn't much like the idea of it, and she was glad that she wasn't going to be the one turning into someone else.

"Yeah," Harry continued, "Slughorn brewed a whole bunch of it back in sixth year. I already know that Malfoy stole a bunch of it, but I'm hoping there's some left. Slughorn didn't keep it very safe, but if I know anything about Snape, he'd have put it somewhere really secure once he was in control of the school. He probably doesn't think there's any safer place for it than in his storeroom. That's where it'll be."

Reaching the seventh floor corridor, Sarah left Harry's side to pace back and forth several times in front of the blank stretch of wall. When her ornately-carved wooden door appeared, she opened it, letting Harry and herself inside, and closing it behind them. When she spoke again, her voice was at a more normal volume.

"How are you going to get it?" she asked. "You just said yourself that he's weirded it up or whatever."

"Warded," Harry clarified, smirking a little. "He's put magical protection on it, so only he can get in safely. Much better than a lock."

"Alright, then, how are you going to get in?" she asked again.

"That's where you come in," Harry told her, giving her a small smile. Harry moved to sit down on her bed, and Sarah remained standing. She folded her arms across her chest.

"Me?" she repeated. "I don't want to be stealing from him."

"That's just it," Harry explained, "You won't be stealing anything. You'll be distracting him so I can."

"And just how am I supposed to do that?" she asked, sounding impatient.

Harry waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her. She immediately colored.

"Oh come on," she said loudly, "You want me to... to..." she stammered, unable to find the words.

"To do whatever you have to do in order to give me enough time to get in there and find what we need," Harry supplied for her. "Whatever that might involve."

He winked.

"I don't like this," she said firmly, plopping down on the floor with her legs crossed, facing him. Her arms were still folded across her chest as well.

"Come on," he goaded her. "I saw you two snogging last night. That looked pretty intense. Are you really going to try and tell me you don't want to do it again?"

"I... I...," unable to find words again, she huffed. She was also unable to argue with him on that point. "Fine. But that's... that's... snogging," she repeated loudly, drawing the word out sarcastically, as she was unused to using the strange slang, "Under false pretenses!"

Harry laughed. He could definitely tell Sarah had been hanging around with Hermione; that had been a very Hermione-ish thing to say.

"Do you really think he'd mind either way?" he asked. "I saw you two. He probably wouldn't have noticed if I'd walked on by with my cloak off and said 'good evening'. You probably wouldn't have, either."

Sarah blushed, again unable to argue with him. She had been completely engrossed by Snape, and she could only imagine that he had been completely engrossed with her as well. She sighed.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked, surrendering.

"Well, there's a bit of chance involved," Harry started. "It'll only work if he has you brewing a potion tonight. Otherwise, we'll have to wait until he does."

"Why?"

"Well, if he has you brewing a potion," he explained, "Try to figure out whichever ingredient he has the least of. Then you'll have to destroy it, but make it look like you destroyed it trying to prepare it for the potion. Do that until he runs out of it."

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"He's going to think I'm a complete idiot if I do that," she said.

"I'm sure he won't. You've only ever tried making, what, two potions? It wouldn't be completely unbelievable for you to have a little difficulty with one of the ingredients," Harry argued.

"Alright, then what?" Sarah pressed on, wanting to hear the next step of Harry's little plan.

"Then," he continued, "With any luck, he'll have to go to his storeroom. He keeps a bit of stuff stored in his classroom, but I don't think he'd want to disturb his class materials. Make sure you go with him."

"And then?"

"I'll be staked out in front of where it is," he said. "It's sort of hidden, it looks like normal wall between portraits, but I know where it is. After he goes inside to get whatever it is you need, make sure you distract him when he comes back out, before he can get the door closed and start warding it up again."

"Can't I just distract him before he goes in? That seems a lot easier," Sarah argued.

"No. He's meticulous when it comes to his stuff. He'd notice instantly if something was missing, so I can't go in beforehand," Harry explained.

Sarah exhaled loudly.

"Then won't he just notice later?" she huffed.

"I'm sure he will," Harry said, "I'm just hoping he won't need to go in there again for a while. He'll probably suspect me of doing it, too."

"Great," Sarah said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Just make sure you distract him before he can get that door closed and put the wards up again," Harry repeated.

"And how am I supposed to know when you're done in there, Mr. Invisible?"

Harry laughed a little. Her contempt for this plan was amusing, especially since he knew she would probably end up enjoying it in the long run.

"How about this," he began, "When I'm done in there, I'll come out and take a hold of whatever shoulder of yours is most accessible to me. I'll give you a squeeze. One squeeze will mean that I've got the ingredients, and two squeezes will mean that I've got the actual potion. That way you'll know that I'm done, and know what I've got. Sound good?"

Sarah bit down on her lower lip, still blushing. She knew that Harry had seen her 'snogging' with Snape last night, as he'd put it, but the idea of him seeing it again was highly embarrassing. Especially, she knew, if things were to get a little bit more heated...

"I guess so," she replied. "That is, if you think you can handle seeing that again." She looked up at him, smirking.

"I think I can cope," Harry laughed. "Sound like a plan?"

"Alright," she reluctantly agreed. She would have to spend the rest of the afternoon before dinner contemplating how exactly she was going to initiate this 'distraction'. She already felt terribly nervous.

"Great," Harry said, rising to his feet. "I'll see you at supper then. I'll act like I'm taking you down there again so you don't get lost, and as soon as I'm out of the Great Hall I'll go to the stakeout spot and wait. With any luck, he'll have you brewing a potion, and you'll be able to run him out of an ingredient so he'll have to go there."

"And what if he doesn't have me brewing a potion?" Sarah asked.

"Then we'll just have to wait for another night. I'll keep waiting there every night if I have to," said Harry.

"Alright," she sighed. "It's your plan. Suit yourself."

After Harry had left, Sarah sat down on her bed. What did I just agree to? she grimly thought to herself. Each time she had ended up kissing Snape, he had been the one to initiate it. She didn't know if she had the courage to simply pull him aside on a spur of the moment and start something with him. He was much taller and much stronger than her, and very physically intimidating, not to mention his intimidating personality. She wondered how he would react to something like that.

To top it all off, Harry would be inside his stores, stealing from him at the very same moment. She wondered if she would be able to function while knowing that, and knowing that Harry could also be watching. He would have to watch at some point, in order to convey to her silently that he was finished and all was clear.

Groaning, Sarah rested her head in her hands and began racking her brain for possible methods. She would probably be nervous to the point of sickness before supper time rolled around.


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A/N: There you have chapter 11! I hope you enjoyed it. I was debating about whether or not to start writing the next scenes and include them in this chapter as well, but then the chapter would have probably ended up being INSANELY long! Don't worry though, I am aiming to have chapter 12 finished before Tuesday. (I have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays). I should have a bunch of time to write tonight. As you can tell, the next chapter will probably be quite long, and even steamy, so it might take me a while to write! We're getting closer to lemons, people! Woo! The next chapter will give you a nice little squeeze of citrusy goodness, I think ;D Ideally I should have chapter 12 done very soon.

Thank you so much for reading! I again apologize for the slight delay in updating. I definitely don't want to leave you all hanging! I promise, I won't! Please leave a review if you would be so kind. Chapter 12 on the way very soon! :)