Harry Potter and the Unlikely Gryffindor

The door to the broom cupboard opened slowly, its occupant watching warily. Then the door closed again, leaving the room as pitch black as before. The darkness seemed to shimmer, and then, “Lumos!”

The cupboard was suddenly filled with soft golden light. Severus was staring at Hermione's heavily shadowed face. And behind her, were Harry and Ron. It seemed as though the leader of this little expedition was Hermione, judging from the mistrusting glares he was getting from the boys. Hermione knelt down in front of the bound up Professor.

Severus arched one eyebrow, drawing back slightly. She looked as though she was trying to keep the two boys from escaping. Hermione took a deep breath. “Professor...when you were talking to Moody, you said that you had put a Stasis Charm on Professor Lupin's body,” Snape inclined his head. This was what had gotten Hermione so bent out of shape. “Did you?” she asked, leaning forward a little more.

“Yes,” he answered simply. He was slightly annoyed at the stares from Harry and Ron.

Hermione was now holding her wand tightly to her chest. “Was it the 'Tempus Resto' charm,” she asked again, her eyes wide. He could tell that she was ready to explode by the way her hair was quivering with excitement.

“Ahh...” Severus smiled haughtily, “so you have visited the library, Miss Granger,” chuckling as her cheeks took on a pink hue. “If only the two of you could be as astute as your friend,” he seemed to look pointedly at Harry. “But alas, we can't all be perfect, can we? In answer to your question, Miss Granger; yes, I used the 'Tempus Resto' charm on Lupin's body. I will leave you to figure out the rest,”

Hermione's brows knitted together. Her lips moved as though she were talking herself through an especially difficult equation. “Wait! Tonight is the full moon, is it not,” she gasped when Severus nodded to her question, obviously impressed. But his look of approval was wiped off of his face when Hermione lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Severus in a hug of gratitude. Ron's face twisted as he tried to keep himself from laughing.

Hermione had nearly knocked the Potions Master to the floor, who looked panicked before he rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Miss Granger...this is highly unbecoming,”

Hermione laughed as Harry eyed her confused. “Sorry...I just...I mean, I didn't. Oh, the hell with it. Come on, you said you wanted to help Hera,” Hermione started, severing the binds on Snape's wrists. “Come on...it will take only a few minutes for the others to figure out where we are,” she said as she took Severus' hand and led him out rather forcefully of the broom cupboard.

“Don't bother with that,” Severus snapped as Harry made to put the cloak over them. “Moody would see through it. Just run.” The three students grabbed four brooms from the far wall; apparently they had raided the Quidditch supplies before coming.

“I hope you know how to fly,” commented Ron with a hint of a smirk on his face.

Severus snorted, taking the offered broom. “I may not have wasted my time with that blasted game, but I do fly,” but this only served to make the Weasley snicker even louder.

The four burst out of a side door, throwing their legs over their broomsticks and kicking off the ground. As they rose into the air, the door burst open again, hoarse curses filling night. Severus performed what Harry swore was the Sloth-Grip Roll to avoid a Stupification hex that would have hit him straight in the back of his head otherwise. He came up, his shock straight hair almost as messy as Harry's, that sneering smile on his face. Though if he listened closely, Harry thought he could her Snape chuckling.

The four increased their speed, flying away from Durmstrang, squinting their eyes against the force of the wind. Harry grinned as they rose into the air with only the full moon as their companion. He checked to his left and his right. Ron and Hermione were flying to his left, no more than a foot apart. Hermione's hair looked almost straight at the speed they were flying, and it reflected the full moon's light from her highlights like she were trailing stars. Ron had his body down close to his broom, a classic Quidditch posture. The chill had made his face even whiter so that Harry could have played the muggle game 'connect the dots' with the freckles in his face. Harry knew if he did it would look something like Quidditch hoops.

Then there was Snape on his right. The former Hogwarts professor, former Death Eater was also laid flat across his broom. His black hair was flying behind him, then across his face as the wind changed direction suddenly, and blew in from the north. Harry sat up slightly on his broom, his eyes toward the north. There were huge towering clouds on the horizon, and that could only mean that they were flying across the nose of a blizzard.

Harry got Ron, Hermione, and Snape's attention and pointed toward the clouds. All three nodded and bent even lower on their broomsticks and sped up. With the wind whipping like it was, the storm would be on them long before they reached the ancient mansion. “By the way, Snape,” Harry started, feeling no guilt leaving off 'professor', “who owns that mansion,”

Severus turned his face on his broom, the moonlight making him look like one of the Weird Sisters from Macbeth. “It was the house owned by Draconious and Lucinda Malfoy, and the house that Hera was born in.

Harry blinked twice, before having to redouble his grip on his broom lest he be blown off by the high winds. “How do you know that? Did they tell you?” he asked.

Severus shook his head, keeping himself low on his broom. “I attended her birth, Mr. Potter. I was also the one that sealed the betrothal spell on them when Draco was born.” All three turned their heads toward Severus, their eyebrows nearing the tops of their faces.

“Were Hera's parents already Death Eaters when she was born?” Hermione asked, keeping herself low on the broom.

Snape smirked. “Yes, they were. And before you ask, Miss Granger; no He was not in attendance.” She blushed, for that had indeed been her next question. Severus silently wished for these children to finish with their questioning. Every second they wasted was one more second the Dark Lord would have to get closer to the culmination of nearly fifty years of work. The look on his face seemed to convey this, and the three stowed their following questions to the back of their minds.

But instead, Snape had a question of his own. “Were there any more brooms in the pitch that the others could use to pursue us?” It was his turn to be met with cryptic smiles.

“Not a chance, Snape,” Ron laughed. “Not unless they can find all the pieces and transfigure them back into brooms.” The three laughed at this.

“And that's assuming they can even repair them,” Hermione added, a grin splitting her face.

Severus shook his head, though he did have a smirk of his own on his face. Somehow he should have known that these three would make life very difficult for anyone who wanted to stop them from doing what they wanted to do. The continued excitable state of Dolores Umbridge was a testament to that.

XXX

There was no room for chairs in the dining room downstairs, so all the girls who were staying at 12 Grimmauld Place ate their potato soup standing up. The dinner was quiet as each girl either sipped from their bowl, or soaked it up with the crusty bread fresh from the oven. Since the twins couldn't cook to save their lives, Ginny and a few of the others had bustled around in the kitchens.

The mood was still somber. Ginny stood with her own earthenware bowl in her hands as she listened as a few of the younger girls spoke softly. Her ginger hair had been tied up into a bun, though a few wisps were falling into her face from time to time. Fred was busy entertaining a group of girls with a few of his safer items. Ginny smiled, he was having a blast performing in front of an audience. Though there would be fleeting seconds when she knew that a joke or stunt had conjured memories of his mother and how she used to react to them. She even caught him wiping a tear from his eye when he thought no one was looking.

George was also entertaining, though he had around him a group of Hufflepuff first years who were in stitches. She certainly knew that if either her parents or Sirius were still around, that they would approve. But it was not long until her thoughts drifted to the locket she had found just before the twins came back from their shopping spree.

The locket was around her neck, hidden by the casual robes that Fred and George had bought. The other girls were wearing varying intensities of peach, plum and avocado. Ginny put her hand to her chest, feeling the reassuring weight of the locket there. She had not told her brothers yet, and she was not sure she wanted to. She finished her soup, and set the bowl down in the sink. Even though it was nearing three in the morning, she knew that the girls would want to be going back to bed soon. Most of the younger girls were nearly spilling their soup in their exhaustion. A few of the others set their bowls in the sink and started climbing up the spotless stairs to their beds.

Fred and George had even bought a bottle 'Mrs. Scower's Magical Mess Remover', and while dinner was prepared, charmed rags and mops to clean the entire house. The elf heads had even been removed and the furniture mended and cleaned. The result was that everything looked completely different. And with the light from all the candles and chandeliers, 12 Grimmauld Place looked livable again.

Ginny waited until the room was cleared, watching as Fred and George stuffed everything back into their pockets. “Fred, George,” she said quietly, drawing their attention to her. “I need to show you something,” she pulled out the locket, and quietly explained about everything she had heard from Harry the previous year, and showed them the note.

“Blimey, Ginny,” the twins said in unison, mirror images of each other's shocked expression. But when George reached out to touch it, Ginny tucked it back into her robes. She couldn't explain why, but she felt that if she let anyone else have this, she would be betraying something. Ginny ignored her brothers' questions as she left the kitchens and ran up to the room that she had by herself. Oddly enough, it was the one that Harry had used with Ron only two years previous.

The picture here had not been removed, and the empty frame still held its position at the foot of the canopy bed. Ginny sat on the edge of the bed, clutching the locket through her robes. Why did she just run from her brothers like that? They weren't going to steal the locket. No, that wasn't why she ran. Why then?

Ginny sighed, laying back on the bed, her eyes watching the shadows move across the ceiling. It seemed that ever since she had come into possession of the locket, she had acted like she were hording some great treasure, or terrible secret. It was no where near what she had felt when she had the diary. She hadn't lost any time that she was aware of. At least now she knew what possession felt like, so she would know if something was wrong. Right?

XXX

The hall way fell silent. The floor littered with the bodies of fallen Death Eaters, the bloody foot prints of their killer pointing the way it had gone. The werewolf had fled after failing to break through the large double doors at the end of the hall. It burst through a servant door, and bolted into the forest. Paying no attention to the chill of the air, it continued until it felt fatigue poisoning the muscles of its legs.

The night was nearly spent, and the stars were beginning to fade in the east. Though dawn was still several hours away. The moon, however, had finished her dance across the sky, and slowly began sinking to the west, taking with it the last reminders of it's earthly companion. Remus' cry of pain filled the night as he fell to the ground, spent, and panting.

He did not remember exactly the events of the previous hours, but he knew one thing for sure. He was alive! He turned his head up to the wind swept trees, and laughed. He did not care that he was naked, nor that it was near freezing. He was alive, and that was all that mattered to him at the moment. He collapsed again, panting. He remembered the knife at his throat, remembered watching his blood flow. But he also remembered the last two words spoken by the Potions Master as his reality faded into nothingness.

The old greasy bat had his subtle ways. Sometimes so aggravatingly subtle as to stupefy his mates in the Order. But Remus vowed never to question the anal retentiveness of Severus Snape again. Well, mostly. He would have been grateful for a pair of pants at the moment. Werewolf or not, his arse was freezing.