"I wish I had my Invisibility Cloak," Harry groused. He was still sore that Dumbledore had confiscated it for an indefinite amount of time. "You do have the vial?" he asked the tall Slytherin girl for the third time that evening.

Irritably, Jaspine held up the vial with the Veritaserum they had made. Harry nodded, but he was getting a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. If anything went wrong in this venture, they could all be expelled, or maybe even killed. If Snape began to suspect what they were about to do or if for any reason they failed to take him down fast enough, he might just be angry enough and ruthless enough to respond to this ambush with lethal force. Harry, Hermione and Jaspine kept fingering their wands, jumping at every shadow, every small noise. Ron was busy trying to keep the Muggle cord concealed under his robes. Hermione held the list of questions, now impossibly long and two-sided. Harry held the blank Sonoroball, the key to irrefutably proving Snape's guilt to Dumbledore.

"Halt," Jaspine suddenly whispered fiercely. The others peered around her, and saw Filch and Mrs. Norris skulking down the hall and around the corner. For one frightening moment, Mrs. Norris turned her head and seemed to look right at the students as they cowered on the stairwell in the shadows. But after a few seconds, Filch and his cat disappeared from site. While it may not be past curfew, and it might not be all that uncommon for a few older students to be looking for Professor Snape in order to ask him questions about their studies, the fact that three Gryffindors and a Slytherin who weren't even in the same year were traveling together and looking as pale and as guilty as Peeves after a rampage might raise some suspicions. And if Filch should happen to lay eyes on the ropes or the vial....

"Now!" Jaspine whispered. They fled down the rest of the stairway and turned right, toward's Snape's office.

Harry reached the door first and jiggled the handle. "It's locked!" he whispered, trying not to panic.

"Of course it is," Jaspine hissed as she drew her wand and approached the door. "Pull yourself together, Wiz! Pretend this is just another task in the Tri-wizard tournament, or one of Deveroux's workshops! We knew it would be locked. He always keeps it locked and warded with certain spells ... but I know how to deal with them. Observe."

Harry nodded, remembering. Last year he had overheard Snape saying that his office was sealed with charms only wizards could break through.

Or a very clever witch ...

Jaspine pointed her wand at the doorknob and concentrated. “Magna Encanta Terminosa!” she chanted.

Harry gaped, Hermione gasped, and Ron’s jaw hit the floor. “How on earth did you learn how to cast that spell, Jaspine?” Hermione demanded to know.

“Duh!” Jaspine responded brusquely with an irritable snort, as she pocketed her wand and pulled a hairpin from beneath the band around her ponytail. “You lot told me about it after the duel. Don’t you remember?”

“That still doesn’t explain how…” Hermione persisted.

“Okay, after you guys told me about it, I looked it up myself and practiced it,” Jaspine confessed as she straightened the hairpin.

“But why?” Harry wanted to know.

“Because I thought it might come in handy tonight,” the Slytherin replied matter-of-factly, sticking the hairpin into the lock and fishing around inside the mechanism with it.

“Oh!” Harry exclaimed, mentally kicking himself. “I never thought of using the Magic Drain on a door!”

“Nor did Snape,” Jaspine stated with a sly, malicious grin. “Ha! I knew he would expect Finit Incantatum or something similar, and I’m sure he’s taken precautions to prevent and/or detect such counter-curses. But Terminosa doesn’t affect the enchantments on the door…”

“So you’ve essentially disabled whatever spells Snape has on the door,” Hermione reasoned, “by temporarily removing the magic that empowers them. So if there’s an Imperturbable Charm or an Increpare spell…”

“Then the spells are still there, but they won’t work until the magic returns!” Ron finished. “Snape will never know something’s up until it’s too late!”

“That was my intention,” said Jaspine, “but even if he does suspect intruders, he will probably only think that it was me coming by to see if he’s back from dinner yet.”

“You’re brilliant, Jaspine!” Harry whispered in awe. Hermione gave a derisive sniff while Jaspine smiled wickedly and worked on the lock.

“Thanks, Wiz. The drawback, unfortunately, is that I don’t have much time,” Jaspine hissed, swearing as the pin slipped inside the lock and she had to remove it and start over.

“Oh, do hurry up, Jaspine!” Hermione urged. “Snape or Filch could show up any minute!”

“Almost got it!” Jaspine exclaimed.

Click! And the Slytherin girl pushed the door open in triumph.

"Can you teach me that trick sometime?" Ron wanted to know.

"Ron!" hissed Hermione and Harry.

"Sure, Carrot Top, but another day. Get inside, you three, and stay behind the door. Be ready. And remember. If you guys screw this up and we get caught, then if he doesn't kill you, I will!"

"We won't screw up, Jaspine! We could do this in our sleep, we've practiced it so much!" Ron grumped as he, Harry and Hermione gulped and dashed into Snape's cold, dark office, and tried to ignore the specimen jars and potions bottles occupying his numerous shelves. Harry could swear that he saw a pair of floating eyeballs staring accusingly at him out of one of the jars, and he shuddered and looked away quickly.

"The Magic Drain will be wearing off any second now. I'm going to relock this and start heading back up, and I'll get him down here on the pretense that I need help with a potions assignment," Jaspine whispered to them from the door. "I'll try to make sure he goes inside first. Then, as soon as you get a clear shot, you lot hit him with the 'Stupefy' spell, just like we practiced. Hermione, I know you are good with unlocking doors, despite your earlier objections to my methods. Go and find the door to Snape's private lab and make sure it's unlocked - remember, to the left of his desk. I don't think he has any special charms on that one. Alohomora should do the trick. Remember, the faster we can get him down there, the better."

Hermione nodded, too nervous to speak. Jaspine exited through the open door, pulling it closed and locking it behind her.

"OK, you had better go now," Harry called back as Hermione searched the room, looking for the door leading to the Potions master's lab. She found it at the other end of his office, partially hidden by black, filmy curtains and spider webs. She grimaced and tried the doorknob. It was locked, but a simple “Alohomora” opened it. Hermione could detect no other charms. She turned to the other two, gave a thumbs-up sign and ran back to join them.

They waited in tense silence for what seemed like an eternity. Then, at long last, they heard voices coming down the hall: Jaspine's voice, which was higher than usual and girlish-sounding -- and Snape's oily, lower tones.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, professor, on such short notice," Jaspine could be heard. She was almost gushing. "But I'm having an awful time with that accelerant potion ... I don't know what it is!"

Harry, Ron and Hermione stared at each other. Boy, was Jaspine manipulative!

"It's not often that you have to ask for my assistance, Miss Greggs, but that is a tough potion," Snape said silkily. "I'm more than happy to help my star pupil out."

The three students in Snape's office tensed as they heard Snape just outside the door, then a hand turning the knob ... then the door opening, and then a familiar, tall black silhouette stepping inside.

Snape whirled in anger, as if suddenly sensing the ambush. But it was too late.

"STUPEFY!!!!" the four students chorused together. Snape toppled forward and his head hit the cold hard granite with a dull "crack."

"Gotcha! Oooh, that's going to leave a right nasty mark," Ron snickered.

Harry and Jaspine were the first to approach the downed Potions master, and they did so with extreme caution, remembering how he had tricked Professor Deveroux in the early days of the grudge match.

"Is he ... out?" Hermione asked.

Harry rolled Snape over, face up.

"Oh yeah, he's out," said Jaspine.

"Wouldn't know it if the entire school suddenly caved in on him," Harry added.

"Nasty bump on his head too," Ron commented with an evil chuckle.

Hermione quickly shut the door behind them.

"Grab his wand before we do anything else," Jaspine ordered. "And make sure he isn't carrying any spares. We don't want him cutting himself free before we're through grilling him."

Ron complied and confiscated two wands, then proceeded to tie Snape's arms behind his back. Jaspine nodded in approval.

"Good work, Carrot Top. Now, remember the spells we discussed for the door?" Jaspine called to Hermione, trying to keep her voice low.

"Y ... Yes," Hermione replied.

"Good. Seal it tight, while the rest of us get him downstairs. Is the lab door already unlocked?" Hermione nodded mutely. "Great. Thanks for checking."

Without another word, Jaspine hoisted the unconscious Potions master over her shoulder as if he were nothing more than a schoolbag, and she, Ron and Harry went through the door and down the stairs into Snape’s laboratory.

Snape's small private lab was even creepier than his office upstairs, Harry noted with a shiver. There were jars of foul-looking ... and some foul-smelling ... stuff such as bobultuber pus, spiderplant acid extract, bat dung and minced skunkweed root. They heard muted squeaking sounds from a closed, wooden cabinet underneath the stairs, and Harry shuddered, remembering the bird they had heard the night that they had gone out after Snape. Ron, meanwhile, was trying desperately not to brush against any of the spiderweb-coated walls.

The Potions master's desk and chair were set well behind the staircase, a walk-in closet-sized alcove off the rest of the lab. Jaspine plopped Snape down on the black, armless leather chair and looked at Ron, beckoning for the rope. Ron handed one end of the cord to Jaspine and they both started tying the unconscious professor to the chair.

"There," Jaspine said grinning, giving the final knot an extra tug. "Now, for a little extra security."

Harry then stepped over, pointed his wand at Snape and magic cords came out from the end of his wand, making Snape look like he was wrapped in a greenish-brown cocoon from the shoulders down. Hermione came down the stairs, breathlessly, as Harry was finishing up.

"It's sealed pretty tight," Hermione said. "I even put a small ward in the doorway... in case anyone else comes by ... if it works right, anyone coming near the door will suddenly remember having business elsewhere."

"If it works right?" Jaspine said, eyebrow quirked.

Hermione shrugged. "Well, I've only read about this spell, and it's generally only used for Muggles ... but I made a few adjustments, so I hope it'll work on wizards too. At least for a while."

Jaspine shrugged, grinning. "Well, I suppose it can't hurt." Then she took a deep breath and nodded at Harry, vial in hand, ready.

Harry nodded back and pointed a wand near Snape's large, hooked nose.

"Ennervate," Harry said, in a firm voice. And his lips curled with wicked glee. How many years had he dreamed of doing something like this to Snape? And now he was finally taking action!

Slowly, Snape started to move his head up, and he blinked his eyes in confusion.

"Now!" Jaspine ordered.

Harry grabbed Snape by his greasy hair and forced the Potions master's head back, grimacing at the oily feel of the stringy, black locks. Snape gasped in surprise and outrage. Jaspine, taking full opportunity, jammed the vial into Snape's mouth and gave him a small chop with the side of her hand across his throat, making him gag and swallow.

"Bottoms up, Professor!" Ron chuckled nastily, and Harry joined in.

"Wha...???" Snape choked, trying unsuccessfully to spit the potion out. Jaspine, with an almost savage look, grabbed his jaw, forced it shut, and tipped his head back.

"Revenge, Snape! Something you ought to be more than familiar with yourself!" Harry snapped coldly.

All Snape could do was swallow and glare menacingly at his captors.

"I think it would have been okay if he would have spit some of it out," Jaspine muttered, almost to herself. "Three drops would usually do it, but since this is my first ..."

"Second," Hermione corrected.

"Whatever. Second batch of Veritaserum ..."

"What!?!?!" Snape managed to croak as Jaspine loosened her grip.

The professor looked more terrified now than he did when facing the unicorn, Harry thought. Who would have believed it? Snape, scared of his own students! Harry snickered nastily. Like the appearance of Fedhamohsi during Hagrid's class that day, this had to be another Hogwarts first.

"... I'm not taking any chances," Jaspine finished.

"Veritaserum???" Snape whispered fearfully. "How did you get it? My cabinet is ...."

"I made it," Jaspine interrupted nastily, and Harry shivered at the cold gleam in her eyes. She was almost as frightening as Snape in one of his tirades. "And we have a lot of questions for you, too. So let's not waste any more time. The Potion should be working by now."

Snape closed his eyes and shuddered.

"You will all pay dearly for this," he whispered. "Expulsion at the very least. And mark my words, Potter, when McGonagall hears of this you will all wish that you had never come to Hogwarts! And you, Jaspine, my most brilliant student ... a traitor. In league with these ..." and here he stopped, with some effort, "three unmanageable brats, who are too smart for their own good. Why, Miss Greggs? How did they talk you into it?"

"Them? Talk me into it?" sniffed Jaspine, and she laughed cattily. "This was my idea. But I knew I'd need assistance."

"Your idea?" Snape said, opening his eyes and staring in disbelief at the tall Slytherin. “Et tu, Jaspine?”

"Hermione! Catch and activate this," Harry said as he tossed the Sonoroball to her. Hermione caught it easily, tapped it with her wand and released it in the air, where it hovered in the middle of the lab.

Snape looked up as the Sonoroball winked in the dim light from their wands, almost tauntingly. "You four have planned this very carefully, haven't you? What a shame you don't put this kind of effort into your school work."

"Oh we've been plotting for months," Jaspine hissed. "Actually, in my case, years."

Snape closed his eyes again. "I don't believe this! Imprisoned in my own lab! Force-fed my own potions! Betrayed by my own house! What next? The Hogwarts song?"

"Oh, no, we have something more humiliating in mind than that," Ron said, snickering. "Our first question, in fact." He grinned nastily, and Harry and Jaspine laughed. Hermione hung back and tried to remind herself that this was all for the greater good.

"What did Professor Deveroux show you that day in the practice alcove? When you decided to sneak in there to spy on her?" Ron asked.

Snape shuddered, his eyes still closed. "This is stupid and cruel," he said with obvious effort.

"He's fighting it!" Jaspine whispered. "Dragon droppings! It didn't work!"

"Wait!" Harry whispered back. "Maybe it just takes a little longer with an unwilling subject."

Then Snape sighed and capitulated. "I saw ... a white cottage, flowers ... poppies, her trademark, it seems ... bright sunlight .... And four young imps with black hair and pale skin running out of the house, their arms outstretched, calling to me, saying 'daddy!'" He snorted at the memory. "To add insult to injury, she even gave one of the brats my profile!"

Everyone except Jaspine was howling at this story - it wasn't quite what they had expected, but it was hysterical. Even Jaspine chuckled, but she recovered more quickly than her snickering companions.

"OK, back to business," Jaspine said, her eyes narrowing to thin slits. "Now that I know this stuff is working."

"Did you try this out on some other teacher, Jaspine?" Snape hissed. "Perhaps McGonagall, or Hagrid?"

"No one else is a Death Eater, Snape. Or a vampire," Jaspine said, her voice icy.

Snape's eyes widened and he stared at the girl. "The fact that I'm a former Death Eater is ... not a big secret," he whispered. "Not since last year. But I am curious, how did you find out the partial truth about my ... lineage?"

"We know your mother is hospitalized at St. Mungo's, and that she's a vampire," Harry said. "Lucie Snape. Your father was Karcharias Snape, also a vampire."

"True, true," Snape said coldly. "But my mother wasn't always a vampire. She became one, after I was born. The transition was more or less complete by the time I was three or four ... I'm sorry I can't be more specific than that!" he spat out this last line acidly.

"She was a witch ... Lucie Veshtliche, from an old, German Wizarding family. She fell in love with my father, who was a charming, manipulative and controlling devil. I hated him, and I was quite relieved in many ways when he left, although I felt...abandoned. That was when I was 15. I am not sure if he simply ran off because he did not like having family responsibilities, if he was killed by Voldemort ... or if he was hunted down and slain by the vampire hunters who may have tracked him from our Balkan estate to Glasgow. My mother has been at the hospital since I was 6. I don't remember her very well, except that she could not handle changing from an ordinary human ... into a monster."

Ron waved his hand impatiently, tired of listening to Snape's family history. Hermione, meanwhile, looked at the Potions master with pity. Harry, who detested Snape with a passion second only to Jaspine's, couldn't help feeling just the tiniest bit sorry for the creep.

"You said former Death Eater, but we saw you speaking with Lucius Malfoy a week ago," Ron pointed out, angrily. "We heard almost all of what you said about how you were spying on Dumbledore's meetings, watching what goes on in the classrooms..."

"So, you were out there eavesdropping on us, as I had feared! What were you doing, following me out at that hour?" Snape snapped, his voice filled with dread and anger. "Don't you know that it is extremely dangerous to be outside at night since the Dark Lord has come back? You all could have been killed!"

"Shut up, Snape!" Jaspine hissed. "We don't want to hear another one of your lectures, especially since we know it's all dragon dung anyways!"

"We saw you sneaking off into the woods," Harry said, gesturing for Jaspine to back off and let him do the talking, since he had actually been there. "We had our suspicions about how loyal you really were to Dumbledore, so we decided to follow. It seems our suspicions were confirmed." Harry, Jaspine and Ron gazed at the Potions master coldly. Hermione continued to hang back, looking more and more uncertain about the sanity of this whole venture.

"Oh, are they now?" Snape hissed. "Yes, I talked to Malfoy that evening, after I had a little midnight snack ..." Snape looked at the faces of the students in a calculating way, and noticed Harry, Ron and Hermione looking a little nauseous. "I see that some of you witnessed my hunting capabilities. Sometimes snooping doesn't pay, does it now?" he sneered.

"Enough about your monstrous habits, vampire ..." Jaspine said, her snarl nearly matching Snape's.

"Dhampire," corrected Snape, his lip still curled. "If you want the plain facts. I'm only half ...."

"WHATEVER!" Jaspine snapped impatiently. "The point is, we're not going to waste all night arguing with you about your bloodlines! We have a lot more important things to talk about!"

"Such as why were you there, talking to Lucius Malfoy?" Ron asked, his eyes gleaming triumphantly at having caught the Potions master in his traitorous activities. "I know you were close friends in school."

"The run-in with Malfoy was actually my last chance to redeem myself in Voldemort's eyes. He was getting tired of waiting for me to answer the Summons. And as for us being friends, well, that was a long time ago, and even then it was a friendship of convenience," Snape hissed. "We terrorized the other students during the four years he and I were both students here. No one but the teachers told us what to do ... and even they had a time of it. Until Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle graduated and I was alone...

"We backed each other up in fights, covered for each other when the teachers questioned us. And we teamed up to harass the Marauders, the only little clique brave enough to openly stand up to us. Understand, you obnoxious brats, that I am no wimp! I could take care of myself in just about any one-on-one even in the daytime when I'm not as strong, but as you all have so ... capably ... demonstrated this very night, and the night you let Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black escape, I have this annoying tendency get into battles I cannot handle alone. I very much missed the others when they left. I came out on the worse end of several feuds after that.

"At any rate, Malfoy and I not only helped each other when one or the other of us got into a fight, we also helped each other in our studies. He was always better at jinxes, Apparating, and broomsticking. I was better at elementals, especially fire spells, and bookish things like Potions and history. And I knew a little more than the average seventh-year student today knows about curses because my father was very devoted to the Dark Arts. So we decided to work together to help each other improve in the areas where we were weak. That is how I learned about all the jinxes, hexes and curses my father had not already taught me. Unfortunately, part of the deal included helping those dolts Crabbe and Goyle, and that held us back considerably. How those two idiots rated Slytherin is beyond me. It certainly wasn't cleverness or resourcefulness that landed them in my house."

"But I heard that you and Draco's dad were close mates," Jaspine protested. "Are you saying that that isn't the case and never has been?"

"Lucius and I were not exactly friends. He was bossy, controlling, self-centered. Still is. He treated us like his personal servants sometimes, and we nearly got into a few rows over it, he and I. Crabbe and Goyle were too stupid to care. I very much resented his attitude towards Crabbe, Goyle and I sometimes, but most of the time I put up with it because I had no choice. You don't always find the kind of friends you wish you had. Sometimes you have to take whatever is available. And when you are half vampire ... and raised in the Dark Arts ... your choices are limited indeed."

"Not to mention having a worse personality than a basilisk," Jaspine muttered.

Snape shot her a scathing glare, and she looked away.

"So what happened between you and Malfoy that night?" Harry asked quickly.

"I'm surprised Voldemort chose to send him to question me that night, actually, since he would be the least likely to ... then again, maybe Voldemort thought that given our history, he would be the most likely to know whether or not I was lying about Deveroux and my loyalties," Snape replied, the Veritaserum dragging his attention away from the glaring duel with Jaspine.

"I'm still trying to figure out how Lucius was able to sneak past the school's defenses. That worries me a great deal, for it concerns your safety, as well as mine. Did you know that he was prepared to try to kill me that night if I didn't give him a satisfactory answer to Voldemort's questions? That's right you foolish little brats, if it had not been for the unicorn, I suppose one of us would be dead right now, and I rather think that it would have been him."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Fedhamohsi came after both of you."

"He went after Lucius, you dunderhead! He ... was not sure about me, but we ... reached an understanding, a non-aggression pact of sorts. I put the wand away, and he didn't try to spear me with his horn. When he perceived that I was not a threat, he left." Snape continued. "I was done hunting, and a little tired, so I returned to the castle. End of story. Now go and tell Dumbledore all about it. I'm sure he will reward you all with little medals of honor as he packs me up and Apparates me off to Azkaban for my treachery."

"So you didn't try to kill him? Fedhamohsi?" Hermione whispered.

"Have you all gone mad??? How can you think me of doing such a thing???" Snape roared in indignation. "I would never dream of killing a unicorn! I've done things I'm not proud of, but even I would never stoop that low! Furthermore, even if I were insane enough to think of attacking Fedhamohsi, he would certainly give me a few marks to remember the experience by.” Snape squirmed under the ropes. "Was it necessary to tie these ropes so tight, you little demons? I can hardly feel my hands anymore..."

Ron shouted, "You tried to kill Professor Deveroux! And we heard you talking to Draco's dad -- you didn't care!!! You hate her! You've always hated her! Because she's better than you!!!"

Snape fixed Ron with that patented glacial glare that had made a great many Hogwarts students melt into globs of penitent putty over the years, and Ron involuntarily took a step back. Even bound and drugged, Snape still somehow managed to be as intimidating as a giant basilisk.

"Did it ever occur to you nosy little nitwits that I only said the things I said because I am a double-agent?" Snape hissed. "That's right you brats! I have been working for Dumbledore and only pretending to be one of them for a great many years! And if you don't believe the Veritaserum, then ask Dumbledore and see what he says!"

Hermione gasped as she remembered something about that night when she, Harry and Ron followed Snape into the woods.

"Dumbledore!" she exclaimed in realization. "You ... you lied. Lied to Malfoy," she said in a whisper, gazing wide-eyed at Snape. "I remember ... you told him that Dumbledore had stopped you from killing Professor Deveroux ... but he didn't come down until later! McGonagall was the first one there, and Madam Pomfrey ... and they came after you left!"

"Fled," muttered Ron, attempting to sound cold, but failing. He, too remembered that exchange, and he was beginning to squirm uncomfortably.

"Yes, well, Malfoy didn't tie me up and pour Veritaserum down my throat either, so I was able to lie and come back in one piece," Snape said waspishly. "And you, Miss Granger, have picked a fine time to remember that detail!"

Snape continued. "That night things got a little heated because my recent behavior towards Miss Deveroux has been noticed by Voldemort's other spies in this place. I have been making a great many mistakes lately and it was only a matter of time until my cover was finally blown. Malfoy was ready to kill me that night, or drag me to Voldemort which would have been far worse. Because, you see, he didn't trust me anymore. No one trusts me anymore. And maybe...it is best that way.

"My dear children, there are fates far worse than death. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of Lord Voldemort. I have seen things that would give you nightmares for the rest of your lives: mind control, slow and painful poisonings, cultivated addictions, physical, mental and emotional torture ... things that would make anyone beg for death first. I have seen veteran Aurors snap like matchsticks. I have seen children killed before the eyes of their parents. I have seen spouses cursed and forced to duel each other to the death. I have seen and participated in so many inhumane crimes that the Ministry never knew about. We could chat about them until the Veritaserum wears off, until the sun comes up tomorrow, and we would have barely scratched the surface."

Hermione had a hand over her mouth and Ron looked sick.

"Such as trying to kill Deveroux?" Harry asked, deciding that Snape was a cold-blooded reptile who more than had this interrogation coming to him ... and worse. He ought to have to endure some of what he and the Death Eaters put their victims though, Harry decided.

Snape turned his head to look at the boy-wonder, the boy who survived. His expression was furious, but his eyes were ... strangely enough ... sad.

"Oh, shut up about the duel, Potter! That whole thing was an accident, a hot-headed mistake on my part," he said quietly, regretfully. "I never should have let her taunting get to me like that." He looked away from Harry, his voice and expression cold again. "I know the headmaster talked to all of you, and told you the same thing. I was angry with her at the time, and I lost my temper, but I never meant to kill her."

"But you hate her," Ron protested uncertainly.

Snape laughed bitterly. "Hate her? Hate her? Oh, I wish some days that I could, for it would make my life a whole lot easier! But no, even if I wanted to, no matter how hard I try, I cannot hate her. I have plunged like a moth into the flame, and now I am burning because of my folly. She will be my undoing, I know it. But I don't care."

He fixed the students with an angry look. "We talked later that night after that unfortunate duel, and she forgave me, and conceded the grudge match. And that was when I knew that I was doomed. Oh, I lost control during the duel, but I tend to do that when ... ahhh, what do you immature young whelps know of emotion? What do you know of the feelings that pour out of a bottle when the stopper is pulled out? The draining spell was merely an attempt to replace the stopper, to try to halt the duel, not kill her. I had only meant to disarm her so that we could call a truce ... I did not know what she was then. If I had known. If only I had known ...." his voice was once again bitter, sad.

"What do you mean? Who is she, then?" Hermione asked, her face full of dread. They had been wrong about Malfoy, wrong about the unicorn ... what else had they been wrong about? Harry was beginning to think along those same lines, and even Ron and Jaspine were looking less certain about this whole escapade.

"Aurellia Deveroux is an elf," Snape replied quietly. "A High elf."

"But ... but that's impossible!!!" Hermione said. "Grindelwald killed them all by 1943!"

Snape again gave that bitter laugh. "That is where you would be wrong, foolish girl, although I can't fault you too much," he scowled at the thought of letting Hermione off the hook. "Because that is, indeed, what the history texts say. However, the history books are wrong. Grindelwald nearly wiped them out ... but some pockets of Elvin civilization managed to escape...."

"How could a simple disarming spell harm Professor Deveroux?" Hermione continued, her voice strained with fear at this point. "It only takes away the magic abilities of wizards ... we thought Grindelwald used it on the elves because they were so strong magically, and then cast something else. We thought that's what happened at the duel, too. That ... you cast something ...."

"After the Terminosa spell? No, I'm not a Mindspeaker like her, you silly twit," Snape said, then he sighed. "The spell doesn't have the same effect on elves and fairyfolk and their kin. Their biology is different from ours. Our bodies are nerves and cells, and blood and muscle, controlled by electric impulses from the brain and down the spine through an intricate, patterned network of delicate, chemical communication. An elf's biology is controlled by magic itself. They are magic. This is why they ... or she ... is capable of far more powerful spells than we could ever imagine, even you, Potter. Plus, they happen to be immune to the death curse, Avada Kedavra. But what makes them so powerful is also their greatest weakness. You drain them of their magic, and they can die. Their bodies stop, completely. To this day, I am grateful I that I did not cast the stronger Terminosa spell ... I do not believe that even Fawkes' tears could have saved her then."

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Meanwhile, Aurellia Deveroux was pacing her office, three bugs and the round, gold summoning ball on her desk, and a fourth bug -- which because of the shrinking potion she had applied, was only slightly larger than a fat bluebottle fly -- in her hand.

What is keeping him? she thought, fuming. He was supposed to be here 20 minutes ago! Right after dinner, he told me!

Deveroux and Snape were going to practice working with the bugs that evening: flying them around Hogwarts, setting up automatic paths -- such as to the common rooms, the Great Hall, some of the teacher's offices, a few of the classrooms and a few other areas. They had the little green-gold bugs magically set up to fly to Dumbledore's office, Hagrid's cabin, the Defense classroom and the Potions classroom. If things had gone well, they were even going to try to send the flies beyond the dark forest, for long-range surveillance and possible reconnaissance work.

But Snape still wasn’t there. Indeed, he was–she glanced at the hourglass again–nearly a half hour late! But now the elf’s annoyance was beginning to be replaced by concern. It wasn't like him to be this late without at least getting a message to her. Then she noticed her locket.

It wasn't as hot as it was the night she had summoned Fedhamohsi, but it was warm to the touch. Troubled now, she held the locket in her left hand and rubbed the central blue stone with her thumb. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and she mentally saw blurry images of the Hogwarts Halls, then dark corridors, swirling around until she opened her eyes and let the locket drop from her hand. She sighed, a bit frustrated. It was easier to find him in the shadowy woods where there were fewer distractions.

But at least he was still within the castle walls, she thought. How much trouble could he get into in the school building itself? She thought idly of walking around to see if she could find him, but then, when her eye drifted to her other hand, she thought of a better plan ....

She held up her hand, touched the fly on its back and whispered "Snape's Class." The fly buzzed its wings and Deveroux let the bug out the door. She watched it for a couple of seconds as it sped quickly down the halls.

Maybe I can spring a small surprise attack on him, she thought with a malicious chuckle. If I catch him with his nose buried in one of his books, I'll have the fly land right on him, right between his eyes ... won't that give him a scare? And remind him of what he is supposed to be doing!

She grabbed another fly off of her desk and muttered "Picture, bug one." The second fly's wings went straight up, and Aurellia saw the first fly's view of the Potions classroom quite clearly from between the fly's wings ... but no Snape.

Eyes narrowing, she muttered at the fly in her palm again: "One. Take off ..." and then she concentrated, steering the first fly mentally and with occasional murmurings into the teacher's lounge, a room that hadn't been programmed into the bugs yet, and drat! but she wished Snape were here to help -- searching Hogwarts by fly was easily a two-person job! She saw McGonagall, Hooch and Flitwick talking ... but again, no Snape. Worried now, she sent the bug back into the potions classroom and into Snape's office ... and still no sign. But just as she was about to summon the bug home, she remembered ... his private lab. The door was closed. Hmmm... maybe he got caught up with a project and forgot. She directed the fly to the door and had it crawl through the narrow opening between the top of the door and the frame. Concentrating hard now, she had the bug fly down the stairs and around the room ... and what she finally saw nearly made her heart stop.

"What the ...." she said, her voice barely audible.

Snape was seated in a black, leather chair, bound neck to foot by vast amounts of rope. Around him, stood four young wizards whom she didn't recognize at first ... but right then, she didn't care. Voldemort apparently had some of the students in his power, and was using them to get to Snape!

"Oh no," she breathed. She snatched a third fly from her desk, and put the second one down as it still dutifully recorded what was happening.

"Message," she said, her voice raised. The fly raised its antenna slightly, as if nodding. "Butterbeer Lollipop! Stop. Dumbledore, meet me at Snape's office. Immediately - it's urgent!" she spoke rapidly. She touched the fly on the back and intoned "Dumbledore's office!"

Butterbeer Lollipop, a new flavor of sweet made by Honeydukes, was Dumbledore's favorite treat of the month -- and his password past the Gargoyle statue. It took nearly a week to figure out how to get the fly past the great stone statue that led to the headmaster's office, only to have the solution turn out to be surprisingly easy ... simply giving the bug the password, then saying stop before recording the rest of the message so the recording could be heard by the statue.

She let the third fly out the door, and then snatched up the other fly, and muttered "Sound."

"... even Fawkes' tears could have saved her then ..." she heard Snape say as she fled out of the office, fly in one hand, Summoning ball in her robe pocket, at a dead run to Snape's office, listening to the rest of the conversation on the way....

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