Beaten and Blown By the Wind

Chapter Eleven: Impossible Smiles and Shades of Grey

As eventful as the rest of the day was, it was hardly as momentous as it had seemed to prove that morning. Dumbledore had arrived and spoken to Remus, Harry, and Ron while Madame Pomfrey flitted around Lynn, afraid to wake her, but eager to see what was so wrong with her shoulder, as Professor McGonagall looked on with a look of distaste as intense as Ginny's obvious worry. Molly Weasley had arrived shortly after noon, Remus having forgotten to go and try to distract her a while. She had yelled and screamed and nearly climbed the stairs to go scream at Snape for the gall he had to order Remus to distract her while they tried to fix things when Dumbledore suggested it may be a good time for lunch. Even Snape and Hermione had come down from the mess upstairs after extensive washing for a much needed and deserved brake to eat. Everyone traveled to the kitchen save for Remus, who decided to take a spare room on the second floor and try and sleep a bit, and Harry, who refused to leave his godmother's side while she had some sort of strange poison seeping through her veins, even if she was sleeping soundly enough that Molly Weasley's outburst had not woken her. Knowing this, Ginny hurried to finish her lunch and excused herself, claiming she needed to use the toilet in order to sneak up to see if Harry was alright without bringing an entourage. She found him sitting in his same chair, unmoved, with his eyes closed, and she assumed he had just fallen asleep remembering his tired stare at breakfast so many hours ago, his eyes half closed as he just nodded and grunted in place of speaking.

"I'm alright, really," Harry said, opening his eyes and startling Ginny, who had just been looking at him, wondering what he was dreaming of. "You don't have to come and check up on me."

"I wasn't checking up on you, I know you can deal with this on your own. I just wanted to see how she was doing."

"You lie horribly," Harry told her, but smiled at her none the less. "But you're right, I'm not sure I can deal with too much of this on my own, maybe I do need checking up on. I'm doing exactly what she warned me not to do."

"What's that?"

"I'm getting too attached to someone I'm inevitably going to lose," he looked at Lynn mournfully, as if she were already dead.

"She's still here. And how do you know you're going to lose her? She doesn't seem to want to go anywhere without you," Ginny reasoned to him, scared a little by his certainty.

"No, it was in the legend. You heard it, but probably dismissed it," Harry sighed. "My guardians were born to die for me. They were born to learn all they could and heighten their skill to the highest of their potential only to sacrifice their own lives in order to pass it on to me so that I could stand a good chance against the heir of Slytherin. It doesn't exactly thrill me to know that whether it was the immediate cause or not, that Sirius died for me, but I suppose it's better to know that he wouldn't have been able to escape it and that it would have happened one day or another. Just like Lynn. She's here now, but she won't be for much longer. She's going to die within the next couple years, there's no avoiding it."

"Does that mean that you'll have to face You...," Ginny stopped, seeing Harry's distaste at her fear of the dark lord's name. She revised her question immediately, hoping to pull more information from him by doing such. "Does that mean that you'll have to face Vol...Voldemort within the next couple years as well?" she stuttered over his name, but earned the full, uncompromised attention and a newfound respect from Harry immediately by just attempting to get over the name she feared most.

"Yes, unfortunately it does," he paused, looking at her. "I've seen her dying, you know. She's taught me, given me a bit of her gift, at least as much as she could without losing it herself, and I've become a bit of a seer myself."

"And you saw her dying?"

"Yes. I didn't tell her though," Harry got a strange half smile. "At first I didn't want to, but then one day she mentioned that I was keeping things from her. I was going to tell her, but she stopped me and said that if I saw it and she didn't, maybe that's how it should be. I didn't tell her everything, but before I left the room I turned to her and said, 'Just so you know, you win. She can't get away with everything,' and she just smiled and told me that even visions could be wrong, but she was happy about it none the less."

"Who can't win everything?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange. She and Lynn have some unfinished business. Their entire history after Hogwarts is the one of them barely escaping the other almost in turns when it seemed one would finally finish off the other. You know about Neville's parents, but Bella did just as bad and worse time and again. She was the one who killed Lynn's sister, you know, but I wouldn't go mentioning it or advertising it if you know what's good for you," Ginny looked scandalized at the idea of bringing something like that up in everyday, or any conversation at all. "You know how she killed Sirius as well. Lynn told me the first night I met her that it would eventually come down to the two of them and only one of them would walk out alive. I saw her alive. Dying, but alive, and she told me that she won, and that it was good, and that I was the last hope, that she knew I could win with or without her power, but there was no helping the fact that she was past saving, that I may as well not let her death be in vain. She smiled at me and told me she wanted to tell me that she was going to miss all of us, to tell you all that she never imagined seeing the good times again, but that Sirius was waiting for her like he promised and I had work to do," Harry's voice got quiet and Ginny could see the tears forming in his eyes. "She was past gone, I think, and said she wanted to make sure that I knew that they were all extremely proud of me and would wait for me, but that she hoped that wait would be a very long time."

"You don't have to tell me this if it upsets you," Ginny said, settling in the chair next to Harry's and placing her hand over his, not knowing how to comfort him. What do you say to someone who has just seen the last person to come out of the woodwork to save him from his miserable life die in front of him?

"I'm certainly not going to tell you what she said next," Harry said, laughing a little bit. "But I will someday, maybe. Besides, it's probably best I relive it a few times before it actually happens. I know it'll be a million times worse when it actually happens, but I may be able to take the edge off of it enough to face Voldemort with a mostly clear mind afterwards," he explained, showing off the maturity fate's heavy hand had forced upon him. Well, fate and Lynn's off handed philosophical comment or idea every now and again. Ginny just smiled.

"You miss him, don't you? Even with her here, you miss him."

"Yes, even with her. She could never replace him, but then again, she'd never want to," Harry looked over at Lynn again. "She misses him too, you know. More than I do, I think, sometimes. She only got to spend two days with him in peace after he escaped from Azkaban before he died," Ginny suddenly felt Harry's tears were contagious as they started welling up in her eyes. "She was supposed to see him again the night he died, she told me as much. She doesn't blame me and won't let me blame myself either."

"There was nothing any of us, not even you, could have done."

"I know. But that's the worse part, that it was sealed and I didn't even know it," Harry paused as Lynn mumbled something in her sleep and her arm fell from the couch, her hand landing on the floor. Harry closed his eyes again and smiled a little. "She dreams about him, you know. She sees things in her dreams an awful lot, tries too hard to block it out while she's awake, I think, so it comes back at night. She remembers things in her sleep too, awful things more often than not, but good things too. She told me she sees him every time she drifts off, smiling. Sometimes only for a moment, but he's still there, even if it's just in her head," Harry looked over to Ginny. "Do you want to see?"

"I don't think it's really our place to be looking into her dreams," Ginny said uneasily, having the feeling Lynn would know one way or another, despite instantly taking to the idea.

"It's alright. I've done it before. She doesn't like telling me the sad or horrible things she's seen. Those are some of her 'I don't really remember or feel like talking about it' stories. I hear her screaming in her sleep sometimes, mostly from memories. Since she's taught me to tap into someone's immediate thoughts, I can see her dreams if I want to," Harry glanced towards Lynn with pity in his eyes. "If I saw some of the things she did night after night, I may have just given up on sleep by now or have stocked up on dreamless sleep potions."

"Do you really think I have a right to see it?" Ginny asked, half giving into her curiosity. Harry looked thoughtful.

"I don't see why not," he closed his eyes again, concentrating. "She's seeing something awful, though, I think...I've never seen this place before," his eyes opened and he turned his hand under Ginny's and clasped her smaller palm against his own. "I don't know what we're seeing," he warned.

"I can handle bad dreams surprisingly well," she said, indicating the time she was possessed by Tom Riddle's spirit. Harry just nodded and closed his eyes again, concentrating.

"Just let your mind empty out of any thought. It might help if you close your eyes to block out any extra visual distraction as well," Harry told her. "Trust me."

"I do," she said and cleared her mind as a dark empty passageway stretched before her and she shivered, feeling as if she were ready to faint, knowing that she would never be happy again.

The corridor was cold and shroud in shadow. Ginny looked around and saw Harry standing next to her. He looked as uneasy as she was frightened. She could almost hear that voice she had worked so hard to forget and shut her eyes tightly begging him to go away. Suddenly, the voice almost stopped and Harry had placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Remember, this is just a memory, just a dream. It's not even yours. Nothing here can see nor harm you, you're like a ghost. The dementors won't have any power over your mind if you don't let them," he whispered to her.

"The dementors?"

"What did you think that horrible sinking feeling was? Surely you're familiar with your own reaction to dementors by now," Harry answered. "I think we're in Azkaban, I've never seen it before, but my doubt is waning. Don't think they can't affect you, just know it. You'll feel better, I promise," he paused and listened, then turned around, holding his finger to his lips signaling Ginny to remain quiet.

Turning around to look with him, Ginny saw a troop of people guided by those horrible dementors coming down the corridor towards them. Forcing herself to know that they wouldn't affect her, Ginny followed Harry's tentative steps forward to the group that seemed to be slowing down and finally stopped. Harry and Ginny were now facing them a few steps away. Ginny gasped as she recognized Lynn accompanied by Dumbledore and Barty Crouch Sr among three others she didn't recognize. She could tell that none of them had spoken while journeying to this cell. Ginny couldn't bring herself to believe that Lynn had ever been an inmate at Azkaban and looked to Harry for reassurance, but his wariness was apparent on his face - he obviously never knew she had been in Azkaban either. Lynn was just staring at the closed cell door, Crouch and his cronies exchanging glances, and Dumbledore looking upon the back of her head mournfully. Just as would be expected from Ginny's experience with her, Lynn was the first to speak.

"This one?" she asked in a terrified whisper.

"It appears so, Aislynn. You don't have to do this," Dumbledore told her. "In fact, every last one of us advises against it. Remus was in my office this morning screaming about my letting you come here."

"This doesn't concern him, so his opinion on it doesn't concern me."

"Severus was as well, Aislynn," Dumbledore continued, looking for her reaction. If possible, her face became even graver.

"His opinion concerns me less. This has to be done, you promised it to me. This was the trade off - I know what I want to do and what I can do. You have your choice. You can either give me him or Harry. One day, I'll have them both, I promise you that much, but as for now, I'll settle for one or the other."

"You're in no position to be threatening us or forcing ultimatums upon us, Miss McGarret. The ministry has put up with enough of your shenanigans for longer than even you will live, if your identity is as true as I am told. We will tell you what you can or cannot do, what will or will not happen, and we couldn't care less what your feelings toward it are," Crouch spoke up. Ginny noticed Harry's hands ball into fists.

"On the contrary, Mr. Crouch, I am in the perfect position to force any threat or ultimatum I find necessary upon you and the ministry. You will continue to put up with my shenanigans or you will find yourself in quite the tight spot when the Dark Lord chooses to return. You don't know the first thing about my identity or how frightening the future will now be for all of us because you put this man in this cell. You will care about my feelings are to everything that concerns me in the least bit, Mr. Crouch, or you will find yourself at the mercy of the Dark Lord as he wreaks havoc upon the whole world. I would hold no more grief over your untimely death or demise if it were from my own hands rather than your own, and you should remember that exactly as I just said it so I don't feel guilty for not warning you. With all due respect that I don't really owe you, I am a very dangerous person for you to try and tell what to do, Mr. Crouch. In case you've forgotten, it's your incompetence that has forced the last of the humanity out of me as well as the threats and ultimatums you're now faced with," Lynn responded, not even looking at the man, but still staring at the cold metal door in front of her. Ginny inwardly cheered her for standing up for herself so well, Mr. Crouch was now sputtering at a loss for words, but was a bit disturbed at the complete icy lack of emotion in the woman's voice. This couldn't possibly be the same woman who she had spent the summer giggling with and begging homework help from, no matter how much she looked like her! But then Ginny noticed that Dumbledore looked significantly younger than what she remembered from minutes earlier in the kitchen and she realized that this was the Lynn who had just had her life stolen from her.

"We can give you fifteen minutes," Dumbledore told her.

"I don't want anyone outside this door listening and I want the dementors as far away from here as you can manage," she demanded. Dumbledore, Crouch, and the cronies all looked at each other. Dumbledore seemed to be consulting with the closest dementor.

"They say that under those circumstances, they will only allow ten minutes," he told her, much to the joy of Mr. Crouch.

"Then that will have to suffice, won't it?" she answered logically. "But if my demands are violated in even the smallest way, I will warn you that I will not leave this place without him. You have my word there will be no planned escape as long as my demands are met. If I only get ten minutes, I want it to be my ten minutes. And I will know the moment they are not. Don't think I can't get him out of here if I really wanted."

"Understood," Dumbledore assured her, taking on an uneasy look Ginny had never seen on his face.

"He thinks she could actually do it if she wanted to," Harry whispered, transfixed by the wizard's unease.

The remaining men vanished down the hallway with all but one dementor, who stayed behind with Lynn, who was still staring at the door. She spoke briefly with the dementor, looking overly ill as she did so, assuring that her time would begin once it was gone and Harry and Ginny could only assume it agreed because she didn't try anything rash. She looked at the door a moment longer and then turned and nodded to the dementor, stepping back to allow it to open the magically sealed door. It stepped aside and Harry and Ginny took their chance to sweep into the cell as Lynn looked into it for a moment, unable to move. Harry still had his eyes on her when tears started running down her cheeks and she padded softly, almost soundlessly, into the room. Stopping as the dementor closed the door behind her. She didn't move forward until she seemed sure it was gone entirely and the figure hunched in the farthest corner from the door spoke.

"Lynn?" the strangely familiar voice asked, almost whispering, and the two dream walkers saw her immediately brake down as she hurried over to the figure, unable to answer. The two moved a couple steps closer only to see her crouched in the shadows in the arms of Sirius Black.

"I never should have let them take you! I told them it was Peter, but they wouldn't listen! They said I was mad! They said he was dead!" she cried into his dirty shirt.

"I saw."

"You saw me? I didn't think you had..."

"I did, as they pulled me away from the scene. I can't decide if that was good or bad," Sirius told her, regaining a bit of normal composure due to the lack of dementors for once. "Sometimes I see you there and think of what you must be going through and it drives me mad, but then I realize that you were still there and you know the truth, but I can never dwell on that. Those things never let me have a moment's peace. But they let me torture myself with that and now that they can't get to me for a bit, I'll just be glad you were the last one I really noticed before getting dragged here," Sirius explained as Lynn's tears slowed. He seemed to consider whether he should ask his question, looking at her intently as if searching her. "What about Harry?"

"I gave him up," she said, her voice breaking again. "I gave him up for ten minutes with you."

"I'm not worth that, you know it. We promised each other, you promised me..."

"That he'd always come first, I know. And he still does," she interrupted the imminent explosion of Sirius' anger at her irresponsible behavior. "They were going to take him from me anyway. They say I'm in no condition to take care of myself, much less an infant, and that he'd be safer with Lily's blasted sister. Dumbledore said he'd be better off away from his fame."

"Dumbledore said? What should I care what he said? He testified against me! He told them I turned James over to that thing! He told them I marked Harry for death!" Sirius spat out, his voice breaking.

"But you didn't, and I told him that," Lynn assured him. "There's no proof. We can't find that damned rat anywhere. Rather, I can't. No one's helping. I just hope Remus catches him and rips him to shreds one of these moons," she continued, but then her tone changed a little and became more calculating and detached like it had in the corridor. "But it's not pertinent for me to alienate Dumbledore just yet."

"What are you getting at?"

"He's the only one that knows the legend better than we do, knows who you are and how important you are more than us. He knows that Voldemort can return and that Harry will not only need our training, but our skill, knowledge, and love in order to be willing to and strong enough to fight Voldemort and win. You can't stay here forever; the whole world cannot afford it. Dumbledore knows it and Crouch has an awful feeling that I'm right about it," she told him, assuring him of something he had forgotten in his grief and guilt. "They can't keep you here forever if they want to live. That will be apparent one of these days."

"I thought you were supposed to be the good girl."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You have a plan, don't you?" he asked, and her guilty look told him that he was right. "I thought you were supposed to be the nice one, the good girl. Not the devious type that makes plans to break their boyfriend free from jail. I thought I had you figured."

"I did too. But then again, you probably have me figured better than you think. I never was the good girl. Sure I was smart and friendly like any other nice girl and brave and noble like any good Gryffindor, but you have to remember that despite his negativity, I worked to gain my father's pride until he passed. You don't work to impress someone like him without being cunning and devious. Besides, you should be seeing this as the brave action for the noble and righteous cause of freeing an innocent man from hell, which is very good girl Gryffindor-ish, not the calculating devious stuff," she smiled a little at him and Harry and Ginny were surprised by Sirius' slight chuckle.

"So what's the plan?"

"I'm not entirely sure of it yet, but don't worry," Lynn told him, taking a moment to find something in her robes that the two observers couldn't quite make out. They watched Lynn pin it to the inside of Sirius' shirt and take out a knife.

"Lynn, this is dark magic, you shouldn't be messing with it," Sirius said, uneasy.

"Don't worry too much about me, I can handle myself. I have to be able to get you the plan once I know how it's going to work. This will provide a link between us no person or any kind of magic can break. I know what I'm doing," she told him and cut a lock of his hair off and began tying it together with some kind of string she pulled from her robes.

"That's what I'm afraid of, you shouldn't know this," Sirius argued, but took the bound hair and knife and put the hair next to the blade in his palm. Closing his hand over the items, he pulled the blade out, leaving a gash in his hand as it bled over the hair.

"Honestly, you don't have to be such a drama queen about it," Lynn said, taking the hair and pinning it inside her own robes, hiding the knife and taking his injured hand in her own, examining it. "A scratch would have done. For someone who disapproves, you're certainly into making sure it works," with that she covered his palm with her other hand and both the cut and blood were gone when she lifted it.

"I'm betting my freedom on this illegal magic of yours," he replied gruffly. "You better prove as perfect with this as everything else you've done - there's a lot that rides on it," he warned.

"I promise you it will work," she said, meeting his eyes full on for the first time, having been afraid of the suffering she'd see. "Can you trust me?"

"I'll always trust you," he said, softening a little causing his face to show that he was still young underneath the dirt and misery, that he hadn't been in Azkaban long. "I'd trust no one else in the universe with this. You hold the fate of the world in your hands with my life and freedom," he smiled a little. "I don't think anyone else could even comprehend how important that is."

"We'll have the good times again, Sirius, I pro..."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," he interrupted. "You never have and I won't have you starting on the account of my peace of mind. Knowing that you'll get me out of here is enough."

"Alright."

"You can't be with Harry, but you're going to keep an eye on him, right?"

"Two eyes, yes," she assured him and he seemed to relax for a moment before tensing up again.

"They're coming back."

"I know, I wasn't able to barter for more than ten minutes."

"It's enough," he said, smiling a little again, seeming to forget the impending dementors. "I don't think of you normally, thankfully. The things I see..." he shuddered a little as some unknown memory flashed through his mind. "They've already taken the joy out of the memory of James. What I do think of is horrible and I'd never want this kind of grief associated with anyone else, least of all you," he looked sad. "I wish there were a way I'd be able to see things as they were with us and James and Lily, all of us smiling and laughing like in the good times, but there's not. I can barely remain sane here; the last thing I want is for those creatures to ruin your beautiful face for me."

"Then I'll have to think of you all the more," she said quietly. "They're not going to want to drag me out of here, are you going to say goodbye or what?" she joked with a smile after a pause that could have passed for cheerful if her voice hadn't cracked with a choked sob in the middle of it.

"Yeah, I'll say goodbye," he told her, wiping away a tear or two from her face, smiling at her a little before sobering. "If I don't..."

"You'll wait for me. And I'll wait for you," she finished for him. "And you'd better have that smile for me, I miss your smile."

"Yeah, I guess I can smile for you if that's what you really want," he joked sadly, brushing away a few more tears and pulling her face up to his to kiss her goodbye. His lips had barely touched hers when the door was opened and they were both forced to pull apart shuddering from the abundance of dementors drawn to the less than mild cheer of the cell.

"Aislynn, I'm afraid it is time for us to go," Dumbledore announced from the doorway, looking mournful at the grief shared by two of his favorite former students.

"I know," she said, not looking over to him. She leaned into Sirius so that her lips were brushing his ear and spoke her goodbye.

"I'm always with you now, there's no need to be lonely. With this," she touched the spot in his shirt the bloodied bundle of hair was pinned, "you're no longer trapped here, or alone. They can't affect you as badly now, know that and you'll be safe. I can't have you going mad on me; we have a world to save. Besides, I need my knight in shining armor to chase my bad dreams away. I hate waking up crying without your arms around me keeping me safe. I'll be patient as long as you'll come back to me the same Sirius."

"Take care of Harry. I'll be back for you both, that's a promise. Just promise me that when I do get back, there won't be someone else's arms chasing away the bad dreams."

"Not while you still live and breathe...and probably not after," she glanced towards the impatient people at the door. "I love you, Sirius, remember that for me."

He couldn't say anything in response as Crouch got impatient and strode into the cell and pulled Lynn out with him, slamming the door in his wake. But as Harry and Ginny found the memory fading, they heard his words that Lynn had no doubt caught one way or another.

"I love you, Beautiful."

Ginny woke up with tears streaming down her cheeks, more thankful then ever for her friends and family being so loving and more than alive, unable to imagine having to go through something like that. She looked to Harry, who still had a hold on her hand and was looking sad and strangely calculating at the moment, as if contemplating something she couldn't begin to guess at. She stole a glance at Lynn, who had turned her back towards them in her sleep and seemed unaware of the two sneaking into her dream. Ginny looked back to Harry, trying to find something appropriate to say before giving up. She sighed a little and Harry looked over to her as if remembering she was there for the first time since they left the dream. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but felt it was better left unsaid. They both jumped a mile when they heard Lynn's voice from the couch.

"It's not very polite to go poking around in people's dreams without asking, you know," she complained into the back of the couch. "It's not very nice to go stealing my private memories like that."

"I'm sorry," Harry said, sounding preoccupied.

"No you're not, don't patronize me," Lynn grumbled. "You weren't supposed to know that."

"I figured as much," Harry said, looking to her and letting Ginny get a glimpse of his mind. "How does one such as you come across dark magic?"

"One such as myself? Harry, you disappoint me. The answer's in the question."

"The family thing?" Harry asked, taking a stab into thin air to discourage her disappointment.

"And the Slytherin thing. We have more in common than you think. You're not the only student who begged the sorting hat not to put them in Slytherin. You're also not the only student in Gryffindor's history finding that any means are justified by the ends, as long as the means didn't really hurt anyone badly and the ends were righteous. I don't believe it's exactly prudent for second year students to go making Polyjuice Potion, nor fifth year students sacrificing the future of their friends to talk to their godfather for a moment or two. However, if faced with situations such as yours, I very well may have done very similar things. You've got almost as much Slytherin in you as Gryffindor, Harry, just like me. I needed to be able to keep Sirius sane for the sake of the entire world and my answer was in dark magic. Like I said before, any means are justified by the ends."

"Is that what you're teaching Harry?" Ginny asked, a little frightened by the idea of any means justified by the ends.

"Pretty much. Of course, I'm also teaching Harry that even if that be true, if the means look horrid, dangerous, and immoral, there are probably other ways to achieve the ends. You resort to the worst only when stuck for lack of the better. Harry should know some simple dark magics and be unafraid to use them if absolutely necessary."

"It's one thing to know dark magic, but quite another to use it," Ginny argued.

"No, because no magic is really dark unless used for the wrong purposes. The same energy put into a spell to heal is put into a spell to kill. It's not a matter of the magic, it's a matter of the intended purposes. I used what most consider dark magic to ensure the chance for the happy ending the world keeps looking for. Had I used it to bring down the ministry or to promote my own personal goals, that would have been dark. What I used it for was necessary and precautionary. You should probably learn some yourself, Ginny. Occasionally the dark can be distorted into light and it saves lives from anything, wouldn't you agree, Harry?"

"Are you insinuating that my mother used dark magic to guard me from the killing curse?" Harry asked, shocked beyond his previous contemplation.

"Am I?" she asked, turning to look at the two, her eyebrow raised, amused. "You may want to think about what came of your mother's sacrifice and then look into how she may have achieved it. I only know of one or two ways, but couldn't tell you what she did for sure."

"What are you trying to prove to us, Lynn?" Ginny asked, sensing a moral under the conversation from Lynn's amused expression.

"I was hoping you'd figure out on your own, but since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you. Dark and light, good and evil, not everything is always at such extremes. There are a lot of shades of grey between the blacks and whites of the world in which most things lie. People, events, ideas, spells, magic, everything takes on a shade of grey. But it's very important that you realize that it takes on a shade and does not automatically come as one. The shade is determined in how things or people come to pass. Even something you'd consider undoubtedly good could be used for incredibly evil purposes. You could do something normally classified as dark magic, but that won't automatically classify you as a dark witch or wizard as long as the ends were noble or righteous."

"Isn't a bit inappropriate for someone two impressionable young people trust to be justifying the use of dark magic to and for them?" a silky voice interrupted Lynn's moral.

"You'd think, but I suppose the judgment lies with those judging, Sev. I'd also think it inappropriate to discourage promising students out of personal bitterness and spite as well, especially in trying times such as these. But like I said, to each their own," she said in the same calmly reasonable manner.

"How does your back feel?" he asked, walking over and looking at it. "It looks worse. I wish you'd tell me exactly what you were messing with."

"I feel horrible, thanks for being more concerned with my 'inappropriate experimenting', as you insist upon calling it, instead of my own personal health. And I can't tell you exactly what hit me because more than one thing kind of mixed and exploded and I'm not sure what happened. There are instructions for the wolfsbane potion and two others of my own devise in that room. The three of them combined. Try to see what you can work out from that."

"This would have been a lot easier if you had told me as much this morning when I arrived."

"Aye, but then you wouldn't have gotten to go sift through the mess and have to try and solve the mystery on your own. Plus I was hoping you'd find it unsafe and clean it all up for me."

"Not even Potter works so hard to try my patience. I don't know why I continue to put up with you," Snape said, completely lacking emotion, as usual.

"Because you don't hate me as much as you try to act like you do and you're impressed by my incredible righteousness, foolish though it is, and your life is so much more exciting with me here causing trouble," she said back sweetly as everyone else seemed to have appeared from the kitchen. Snape chose not to rise to her bait and turned to stalk out of the room angrily.

"Come, Miss Granger, we have a few more leads to follow now and will have this mess sorted out in no time," he said over his shoulder, not bothering to turn and see her sigh, roll her eyes, and hurry to catch up.