“Are you going to one of those meetings, again? Aren't finals more important?”

“I'm going to meet your boyfriend, actually.” He was sorting through his books.

“What could Sirius be doing with you?”

“I've told you that there are nights when they go do something. You've noticed that he doesn't meet you those nights. Sirius told me where they meet. I'm going to go check it out.” He was gone with a swirl of his robe.

Emily finished up the essay she was writing and gathered her things together. As she was leaving the library, she bumped into Lily Evans and then James Potter, who was trying to catch Evans's attention.

“Are you done, then?” Emily asked.

“Done what?” James was craning his neck to see Lily.

Emily looked at him. “Severus told me that Sirius told him to meet you guys tonight, that he could see what it is that you do, sometimes.”

James suddenly looked worried. “He didn't, he's studying with you, isn't he?”

“Severus left twenty minutes ago.”

James put his hand in his hair, ruffling it down for once. “I've got to go.”

“James, what's wrong?”

“I can't tell you. That fool of a Black is going to get us all jailed.” He dropped his books on the nearest table and left.

---

The next night, Severus dropped his books on the table and crossed his arms, looking angrily at Emily. “Some boyfriend you have, there.”

“What did he do?”

“I cannot tell you here.”

Emily got up and grabbed her books. “OK, where do you want to go?”

He led her to a quiet hallway near the dungeons. “Lupin is a werewolf!”

“What?”

“There's a tunnel that starts at the Whomping Willow and goes to a place where he transforms. Sirius told me how to get there but not what I would find.”

“Oh, Severus!” Emily's face went white.

“It turns out that someone asked Potter about it and he came running down in order to rescue me. Those gits have been covering for Lupin for a long time.”

Emily leaned against the wall. “I feel like it's my fault somehow. I've been telling Sirius to stop pranking you, and this is what he does. You might have been killed, Severus.”

“I went straight to Dumbledore's office. It turns out he knew about this all along, and he told me that if I mentioned it to anyone, I would be expelled, not them.”

“You just told me...”

“It will be OK. He knows from the Occlumency lessons that I tell you stuff, but you cannot tell anyone.”

“I'm going to talk to Sirius about this, for sure.”

“NO! You need to leave it alone.” He squeezed his eyes shut and then looked at her in dejection. He slid down the wall and sat on the floor. “I nearly get killed and they get meaningless detentions. When is it going to be my turn to be the valuable one?”

Emily slid down the wall, too, and sat next to him.

“You're my best friend, Severus. I can't be with him if he's going to treat my best friend this way. You're valuable to me.”

He looked at the arched ceiling and laughed. “Because I help you make your Potions grade a little more perfect.”

“Well at first.” His head snapped around and he frowned at her. Emily gave him a half smile and shrugged. “Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I want to study with someone who's brilliant? But, Severus, I like your company, too. We make each other laugh—something you don't do much these days—and you give me good advice about things in general, and I just like sitting next to you, even if we're working on different subjects.”

His face became thoughtful and then he glowered again. “But the important people, the people like Dumbledore, do not consider me to be worth their effort. I'm not one of his precious Gryffindors.”

Emily saw how hurt he looked.

“He's giving you special lessons, isn't he? You have a hard edge, and he really can't treat you the same. Maybe, in his way, he's trying to help you in the ways that will matter. Oh, and, thanks for the compliment, by the way.”

He looked a bit chagrined until she giggled. Then he laughed, too, and sighed. “Dumbledore says I owe Potter a life debt, now. A life debt! He says there will probably be some important way that I will repay him.”

“That's not the worst thing in the world that can happen to you.”

“Do you think I have to just let him have Lily?”

“That's not a decision you get to make and cannot possibly apply, here. That has to be Lily's choice, you know. You just have to see where the life debt leads you, I think.”

They chatted quietly and even practiced a few charms while sitting in the hallway. When it got to be time for the library to close, Severus stood up. “I guess it's time to get back to our houses. I should walk you up out of the dungeons. The Slytherins know better than to hurt you, but since you are so close to our territory, here...”

They walked quietly up and parted at the great staircase. Emily went up a few steps and stopped. “Thank you, Severus.”

“You are welcome, Emily, and thank you.”

Sirius was waiting between the fourth and fifth floors. Emily flinched away when he moved to take her elbow and walked past him.

“Hey, Em! What's wrong?”

She turned and looked down the stairs at him. “What do you think is wrong, Sirius?”

“I didn't do it, honest!”

“Do I look stupid?”

“Well, OK, I did do it. But I didn't think anything bad would happen.”

“Actually, you are starting to look stupid. What could possibly have happened, Sirius? One of the two of them could be dead, now. If Remus was a—well, he was dangerous, and Severus knows how to use his wand, you know. Do you ever use your head when planning these stupid pranks?”

He just stared at her. “It's just Sni—“

“I warned you not to call him that, Sirius Black! And nobody is ever just anything. Severus is my friend and today you are not.” Emily sailed the rest of the way up the stairs and into her house.