The Man of the Moment

Chapter Nineteen: Blinded by Love- Part Two

"So," Malfoy announced, as he lazily paced the Potions classroom. "Here we are. I must say, Severus- of all the things I expected of you, this certainly wasn't one of them."

"Lucius, what are you on about?" Snape asked, looking at Malfoy as though he were mad.

"Don't play games with me, Severus," Malfoy hissed. For the first time, Harry noticed how Malfoy's face was covered in nasty looking scars- most notably a couple of deep gashes near his eyes.

"Your sister confirmed my suspicions; not that she realised it, of course," Malfoy explained, not taking his eyes off Snape. "The past year, I thought you seemed a little... unenthusiastic. Not the sort of thing anybody else would have noticed; I think even the Dark Lord himself hadn't spotted it. But I've known you for so long, Severus. We've been so close- I could tell. Bellatrix noticed, too. She has been dreadfully worried about you; we both have."

He stopped pacing, and stared at Snape.

"Never... never did I expect this!" Malfoy spat, furiously, and balled his hands up into fists. Harry was surprised to say the least; he would have thought Malfoy could have managed to keep his cool for longer than a couple of minutes. Snape said nothing in reply, and simply maintained eye contact with him. Malfoy turned away.

"You should have heard your sister, Severus- always standing up for you, even with her last breaths. Our years did overlap at school- she was in the seventh year as I was in my first, and she acted like an overprotective parent, even then. She insisted that I would never get you, which intrigued me- why would I want to harm a fellow Death Eater, a comrade in arms? Then I found the letter, where you explained to her, in somewhat ambiguous terms, about your marriage."

He looked across at Alex with some disgust, whilst inspecting a knobbly green object on Snape's desk with vague interest.

"At least now I understand why you didn't invite me to the wedding," he sneered. "A Death Eater, and a Brethrenite- yes, Ridley, you're not the only ones with access to such fascinating information. You couldn't get a more conflicting relationship if you tried- how terribly romantic, if somewhat overwrought. You never were one to go for the easy option, were you, Severus?"

Snape said nothing; he merely maintained eye contact with Malfoy.

"And don't even try to deny it, Severus," he said, nastily. "It's written all over your face- I don't need to be a good Legilmens to work that one out- I just need a pair of eyes. Of course, Draco wouldn't tell me a thing; you know he really is fond of you... I had to find out for myself. Besides, I think all the Slytherins have had some idea that something has been going on..."

"What can I say? I'm young and foolish," Snape spat back. "Now what do you want?"

Malfoy raised an eyebrow at him.

"Of course, I couldn't help but do a little investigating- one of the two of you must be hiding something- and what should I find? A certain little pattern occurring in all of our failed missions... Now, I wonder if you can guess what the constant might be in these assignments?" He stroked his chin thoughtfully, before clicking his fingers. "Oh yes; it would be you."

Snape refused to comment, although Harry didn't think it mattered a great deal, for Malfoy was in full flow at this point.

"Every single mission we failed, every attack that went wrong, every death that didn't happen- you were there. Draco informed me of Miss Granger's return to Hogwarts, healthy and happy- save for the tragic death of her parents...."

"If you'd bothered to read the Daily Prophet, you'd have found out the same thing," Alex spat. Malfoy ignored her.

"Now, I wouldn't have thought much of it, except that I hit her with enough strong curses to ensure she wouldn't live to disgrace the wizarding world any longer. Her survival was a miracle, and who do I know that works miracles with a few herbs and a cauldron?"

He stared at Snape again, and smiled coldly.

"Ioan claimed he saw you- he was terribly excited; rushed off to find you. Said he'd explain when he got back. Except he didn't return. I wonder why?"

It was fairly clear from Malfoy's sardonic tone of voice that he wasn't wondering what had happened at all. He knew.

Snape rolled his eyes.

"Did it not occur to you that had I left the Granger girl to die, I would have aroused a certain amount of suspicion from Dumbledore?" he asked, contemptuously. Malfoy glared at him.

"Don't try to turn this around, Severus!" he retorted, hotly. "I've spent the best part of a year trying to convince myself that I was wrong; that you would never betray me like this! We were friends, Severus, and you go and do this?"

Snape looked at him; for a brief moment Harry thought he saw something akin to remorse taint his features.

"Why, Severus?" Malfoy asked, quietly. "Why did you do it? You wanted for nothing. You were so talented; we were a perfect team. The Dark Lord held you in such high esteem- he still does! He is not yet aware of what I have found out. Why did you turn your back on it all?"

Harry couldn't help it, and glanced across at Snape. He knew what Dumbledore had said about the matter- he had believed Snape would never return to Voldemort, because of what happened to his daughter, Persephone. She had been the counter piece to Harry's miraculous survival at the hands of Voldemort- the Girl Who Died to the Boy Who Lived. For a moment, as he looked upon Lucius' wounded expression, Harry felt himself wondering just what Snape had turned his back on in the process.

"I have my reasons," Snape replied, curtly. Malfoy watched him intently, with a mixture of loathing and despair clouding his eyes.

"So, I can't even beseech you to return amongst your friends and assume your rightful position as a true servant of the Dark Lord?"

"There are things in play you would never understand," Snape said, quietly. Malfoy's expression switched to one of fury.

"I wouldn't understand?" he spat, angrily. "I understand you, Severus; I always have done! It simply appears that you have never understood me..."

With those words, Malfoy swiftly grabbed Alex and pulled her back against him, holding his wand to her throat. She tried to reach for the knife Harry knew she carried on her belt, but a quick, "Absumo chalybs!" from Malfoy caused it to melt away into nothing.

"One move, Severus, and you'll find out just what I'm capable of," he threatened. Snape stayed where he was, and Malfoy laughed.

"Clearly I was wrong- you understand me perfectly. This is so typical of you, Severus- you've always had these ridiculous delusions of nobility," he sneered. "Face it, face up to what you really are; one of us. We have no need to be noble and honourable- the cause we fight for is too great." He looked at Alex with abhorrence, then back at Snape.

"But of course; I forgot some of your character flaws. You're a weak man, Severus. Like some cosseting mother, your heart, and your emotions constantly drive every endeavour... Stop snorting, Potter; you've no idea as to the extent of this wretch's treachery. Be patient; you'll get your chance to die soon enough."

Harry was startled; he hadn't even been aware of the fact that he'd made such a noise, although the idea of Snape being driven by his heart was one that amused him. Malfoy was paying little attention to him, for he was focused solely on Snape's stony expression.

"So, I'm offering you a choice, Severus. It makes no odds, really- you'll die one way or the other, but I'm a generous man. I'll let you choose which of them will die first; the Potter boy, or the Mudblood..."

"You disgust me," Snape whispered, venomously. Malfoy glared at him with equal loathing, before firing off a curse that clearly took Snape completely by surprise, for he was soon pinned against his own desk, and apparently couldn't wriggle free. His wand fell out of his hand and clattered to the floor.

"The feeling is very much mutual, old friend," he retorted, in an almost shaking voice. "I have a score to settle, and a Dark Lord to appease- Potter's death would kill two birds with one stone. The Mudblood? Well, it would just be one step closer to making the world a better place, and you miserable, which pleases me somewhat, after your deceit. So, the clock is ticking. It's a simple choice; for there will only be one outcome..."

Suddenly, Harry heard the classroom door swing open with an almighty crash.

"Or, you can always ask for a third option!" Persephone chimed in, smacking Malfoy over the head with the shield from a nearby suit of armour as she did so. He staggered, and Alex quickly pulled away from him and drew her wand from Malfoy's own pocket.

"Move so much as an inch, and I'll cut you into ribbons, Malfoy!" she snarled. Persephone merely smiled humourlessly at Malfoy instead.

"Well, isn't this charming," she commented. "We meet again, Mr. Malfoy."

The little colour that had been present in Malfoy's face to begin with swiftly drained away upon him seeing Persephone's steely expression.

"You... You... You're..."

"Stunningly attractive? Well, yes, I was aware of that," Persephone goaded.

"Dead!" Malfoy spat, suddenly, though his wand had clattered to the floor with the initial shock. He swiftly retrieved it, just as Persephone pulled out her wand and hit him with a spell that sent him flying into the wall at such a speed, that his body was flung against the stone floor by the resulting impact.

"Well, it appears- like many of your efforts- you didn't do a very good job!" Persephone's voice got louder with every word. She pointed her wand at his neck, and a bolt of blue lighting flashed from it into his entire body, which caused his entire body to convulse and shock him to his feet. Persephone's face was contorted with cold fury.

"I was in the middle of a lesson, and it pains me to be interrupted by scum like you," she hissed. Malfoy laughed cruelly.

"Do you want me to give you a reason to be pained?" he asked, pushing his wand against her chest. She simply glared at him.

"You needn't bother- I've plenty of reasons to ensure you return to your master in a matchbox," she replied, swiftly grabbing his wand and bending his arm back. Malfoy deftly wriggled out of her grip and threw her into a nearby wall, which caused Persephone to drop his wand. Harry saw it clatter to the floor.

Persephone leapt to her feet.

"Wow- the skill. I can see why you're such a valuable lapdog to Voldemort, especially with your abscondence from Azkaban prison," she retorted, sarcastically. Malfoy looked infuriated by her offhand remark.

"How dare you say the Dark Lord's name, insolent girl!" he fumed, before inexplicably chuckling. "Besides, if I were you, I'd show a little more respect to the man who shuffled your esteemed Headmaster loose of this mortal coil. I really do have my uses; the Dark Lord is rather pleased with me, if I do say so myself..." He trailed off, and let the statement hang in the air. Harry felt a sudden surge of anger at his words. He killed Dumbledore; poisoned him so that he would die in front of the very children he had sought to protect. Harry felt almost certain that Draco must have had something to do with it- that time he, Ron and Hermione overheard Draco arguing with Crabbe and Goyle in the corridor about helping someone out, there was no doubt in his mind that the person had been Draco's own father.

"Well, I must admit I'm surprised I didn't see that one coming," Snape admitted, in cool tones, which didn't exactly match the rather undignified position he was currently in; stuck to his own desk. "The cowardly weapon, the sneaking around... The whole thing stank of you, really."

Malfoy shrugged, a smug expression upon his face that made Harry want to rip him limb from limb.

"It was too easy, Severus. My darling Narcissa cleverly found a way into the Hogwarts grounds- Draco. There's some sort of loophole in the wards guarding this establishment, and it concerns the parents of a student. In case of an emergency, the wards allow the parents of any child registered as a pupil of Hogwarts to enter without prior appointment. I couldn't enter alone, of course, for my presence as a Death Eater would, naturally, have set off all manner of alarms. However, with Narcissa by my side, the wards only detected two concerned parents. It was beautiful," he enthused. Persephone glanced at him with contempt.

"Indeed," she replied. "Yet, somehow I'm having difficulty in imagining you having the ability to brew up a vial of Hemlock Liquor..."

"Narcissa, yet again, was my valuable assistant- I really couldn't have done it without her. She paid a quick visit to Borgin and Burkes on the lookout for something to put that old man to sleep for good, and imagine our delight when an unexpected shipment of Hemlock Liquor came into the shop. That stuff is very potent, yet it has uses besides as a poison; when mixed with a yeast-based emulsion, it works wonders for joint pains- which Narcissa has been suffering from ever since the damnable Brethren paid our home a visit..." He glanced across at Alex with disgust.

Persephone stared at him with loathing.

"So, the poison was bought without suspicion, access to Hogwarts was made possible by you having a child here, and that was it. You really bring a whole new meaning to the word 'sneak', don't you?" she said, coldly. Malfoy glared at her.

"We got what we wanted; that Muggle loving fool out of the picture. It's just a pity we got another one elected as Minister for Magic. Still, the Muggles, Mudbloods and blood-traitors are still without their most revered protector, which puts the Dark Lord at a distinct advantage. It's just a matter of time before every last one of you renegades are dead and buried," he spat, running his finger across his neck as he spoke. Persephone pointed her wand at him with a single, vicious movement.

"Oh, if I die, Malfoy- I'm taking you with me," she vowed, pointing her wand at Malfoy and firing off a hex. He ducked it, and fired a hex himself, though not at Persephone.

Harry felt himself gasp as he saw Alex suddenly fall to the floor, clutching her face as though she were in utter agony. Persephone clearly noticed this too, for she began firing hexes at Malfoy at a rate of knots, singing his hair and gashing his face further. He ran across the room, and aimed hexes at her too, but Persephone was much too quick to hit. She swiftly conjured up a deflective barrier, which caused Malfoy's hexes to rebound and hit him, his arm breaking with a sickening snap upon the impact. The hex he was aiming ricocheted off the dungeon wall and hit Persephone square in the back. She was jerked up into the air, and Harry could see that her hands were fastened to her side by ugly black coils.

"At least this way, you can't free your hands to perform any wandless magic- having chatted to my son on numerous occasions, I'm quite aware of your capabilities... Do you think I'm stupid?" he hissed, pointing his wand at her with his left hand, his right arm bent back at an unnatural angle. Curiously, Persephone's face broke into a grin.

Suddenly, around twenty stone slabs crashed down from the ceiling, and Malfoy was flung to the floor by a short blonde man with coiffured hair that had made his entrance via the new hole in the ceiling of the dungeon classroom.

"You were saying?" Persephone retorted, as the wands Malfoy had been holding rolled across the floor. Snape, somehow, managed to contort his arm almost to the point of dislocating it from his shoulder, and nudged his wand with the tips of his fingers, rolling it close enough to his body that he could make a grab for it. He then swiftly released himself from Malfoy's curse, before pulling himself up into a standing position and freeing Persephone from her bonds, then Harry from his. On jumping up from the chair he had been bound to, Harry saw that the blonde man was, in fact, technically not a man. It was Augustine Dougherty, his fangs bared and currently ripping a hole in Malfoy's neck. Harry thought the screaming might well alert the rest of the Hogwarts staff, if Persephone hadn't done so already.

Eventually, Augustine pulled Malfoy to his feet and spat out his blood with distaste.

"No offence," he said, "but you really don't taste very nice. Evidently your diet has been a little unbalanced since your escape from Azkaban. What do you want doing with him, Percy?"

Persephone shrugged.

"I suppose we should find out what he knows. Then kill him. Horribly." She paused a moment longer. "Actually, I don't much care what you do, as long as a nasty, drawn out death is somewhere on the cards..."

At that moment, Malfoy wrenched his left arm free from Augustine's grip, rolled up his sleeve and thrust his arm in Augustine's face. The man winced and drew back, at which Malfoy escaped his grip and ran out of the classroom. Persephone cursed under her breath, and chased after him.

"What happened?" Harry asked, as Augustine finally drew himself up to his full height; which, frankly, wasn't all that impressive.

"The Dark Mark," he groaned, as though he were simultaneously embarrassed and infuriated by something. "It's a symbol of faith- albeit not the kind of faith one should parade around..."

Harry heard Persephone shout, "Oblivate!" from somewhere along the corridor, and then heard footsteps running towards the classroom.

"What in Merlin's name happened?" McGonagall cried, looking around. "Severus? Alex?"

"Malfoy," Snape replied. "He knows."

McGonagall pressed her lips together, as though she understood the implications of his words.

"I see..." She glanced across at Alex and gasped. "Good heavens! What happened?"

Alex groped around the classroom floor as McGonagall ran across to her and crouched down. Snape was already kneeling beside her, trying to gently prise her hands away from her face.

"I didn't hear what you were hit with," he said, calmly. "Do you know?"

Alex shook her head. McGonagall tucked her little finger under her thumb, and displayed the remaining three fingers in front of Alex's face.

"How many fingers am I holding up, Alex?" she asked. Alex shook her head angrily.

"I... I don't know," she stuttered, clearly feeling disorientated. McGonagall frowned, and then she and Snape tried to lift Alex to her feet.

"Look, you need to go to the Hospital Wing- you're clearly concussed..."

Alex waved her hands in front of her.

"I'm not concussed!" she shouted, and McGonagall jumped from the sudden rise in volume of her voice.

"Then, what is it?" she asked. Alex sighed irritably.

"I can't see," she replied, finally. "I can't see anything."

The next few minutes were a bit of a blur to Harry. He remembered Snape escorting Alex up to the Hospital Wing, which is exactly where McGonagall insisted Harry went as well, upon glancing at the red-raw marks on his wrists.

"From what I had heard whilst crossing the school corridors, all the students are under the impression that the Death Eaters got no chance to harm anybody; I'd much rather they continued to believe that," she had explained, and Harry had nodded in agreement. McGonagall had also explained how a combination of the Hogwarts staff, the Brethren and Emergency Aurors despatched by the Ministry had captured Crabbe and Goyle senior with very little effort. Augustine, after dabbing his mouth clean with a silk handkerchief in his top pocket, had rushed off after Persephone, presumably to help her catch Malfoy. Then Harry was taken along to the Hospital Wing, too.

"Mr. Potter, if you could just sit here, and hold out your arms..." Madam Pomfrey examined Harry's wounds with a look of concern. For the first time that day, Harry peered closely at them too, and could see why Madam Pomfrey appeared disconcerted by them- they were red, ugly welts that snaked across his arms as though he had been repeatedly crushed in a doorjamb.

"Excuse me, but wouldn't it be more prudent to examine the woman who has been rendered blind by a hex first? I'm sure Potter will survive his hideous wounds," Snape spat, sarcastically. Madam Pomfrey bristled visibly.

"I'm on my way, Severus!" she insisted, shooting a dark look at the vexed Professor. Alex grabbed his arm.

"It's okay, Severus- a few of my Healers are coming to take a look, anyway," Alex soothed, sounding remarkably calm for somebody who couldn't see. This seemed to correlate with Madam Pomfrey flushing momentarily, before rushing over to the bed where Alex was currently lying.

"I am perfectly capable of treating you, Alex," she insisted.

"I didn't think for a moment you were not," Alex replied. "However, I'm very particular; I always like to have a second opinion."

Madam Pomfrey seemed to accept this explanation, though not without some vexation, as she hurried over to Alex. She pulled out her wand, and began to shine a bright light from its tip into Alex's eyes.

"Can you see anything?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Not a thing," Alex replied.

"Not even a change in colour?" Madam Pomfrey suggested.

"Nope. All I can see is, well, nothing. Just blackness. Oh, and the pain is rather excruciating," Alex serenely replied, causing Madam Pomfrey to frown.

"Your pupils don't appear to be dilating, either..." She whispered another spell, and this time, a strange green liquid began to pour from the tip and over Alex's eyes, although it didn't spill anywhere else.

"I'm just going to see if there's been any..." Madam Pomfrey trailed off.

"What? What is it?" Alex asked, in a tone of panic.

At that moment, Persephone rushed into the Hospital Wing, followed by Ron and Hermione.

"Harry! Thank goodness you're all right!" Hermione exclaimed, throwing her arms around him exuberantly.

"Well, thanks for putting on such a great show in the dungeons," Harry replied, hugging her back. Ron looked a little uncomfortable.

"Yeah, it was very convincing, Hermione," he commented. Hermione looked at him and shrugged.

"You were the one that managed to slip past Crabbe and Goyle and actually deliver that Talisman to Persephone," she replied, admiringly. "You should have seen it, Harry- Ron cast about seven hexes and knocked half the statues over that stood near the Great Hall. Crabbe and Goyle thought it was Peeves the poltergeist. Then, of course, Peeves did show up..."

"At least we all got a bit of a laugh from that- the two of them were so scared!" Ron chimed in.

"Well, Ron snuck off up the stairs to Persephone's classroom amidst all the action..."

"But then Goyle spotted me- or was it Crabbe?"

"I think it was Goyle. He threatened you with his wand, but you used the disarming spell to perfection!"

"I did? Cheers, Hermione," Ron replied casually, though Harry could see the tips of his ears were beginning to glow a fierce red.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Persephone's horrified expression as she looked across the Hospital Wing.

"Al, what happened?" she exclaimed, upon seeing Alex lying on a hospital bed with Madam Pomfrey attending to her.

"Malfoy hit me with something," she said, as though it were no worse than a paper cut. "How about you? Did you catch the bastard?"

Persephone shook her head.

"He wriggled away," she spat. "I got the guys onto him, though. Hopefully they'll catch him. If not- well, I fixed him good. A few swift memory charms- he won't be able to remember anything that Voldemort might find useful. Thing is, he might not be able to remember much of anything at all; I suppose we'll find out soon enough."

Snape sighed, and Harry saw his grip on the edge of Alex's bed tighten.

"The Dark Lord will get anything of use from Lucius, if he so chooses," he replied, in a weary voice Harry had seldom heard. Persephone shrugged.

"At least we've bought ourselves a little time," she retorted. "Besides, I've got faith in our lot. It might never come to that."

Snape nodded, though he looked unconvinced.

"Alex, I've finished my examination," Madam Pomfrey said, quietly.

"Okay- what's the verdict?" Alex asked. Madam Pomfrey looked somewhat saddened. Snape looked at her carefully.

"What is it?" he asked, slowly. Madam Pomfrey sighed.

"Alex, there's no easy way of saying this...the curse you were hit with..." She stumbled over the words, before composing herself. "Your corneas have been eroded away to nothing. Your lenses have been destroyed, your pupils are unable to react correctly to light stimuli. That hex has left you blind, and I'm afraid there's no way of retrieving your sight- magically or medically."

Alex nodded slowly.

"Thank you, Poppy," she replied, calmly. "If you would be so kind as to inform my Healers when they arrive..."

They didn't have long to wait, for within minutes, McGonagall swept into the Hospital Wing with two witches dressed in dark green robes. They were carrying some sort of kit bag between them.

"Alex? What happened?" the blonde haired witch asked. Harry thought she looked a little older than Snape, although he found the way her hair had been pinned back and arranged around the crown of her head as though it were a prize privet hedge so distracting, that he spent little time examining her face.

"You should speak to Madam Pomfrey, she's..." Alex trailed off, and nudged Snape, who got up and gestured in the direction of the Hogwarts school nurse. The blonde woman smiled at Madam Pomfrey in a genial, but professional, manner.

"Good morning, my name is Stephanie Fletcher, and this is Head Healer Diane Warrington." She gestured towards a shorter, older woman with cropped brown hair, who held out her hand. Madam Pomfrey shook it.

"I'm Poppy Pomfrey- would you like to see my findings?" she asked. Diane Warrington nodded.

"Please," she agreed. The two Healers and the school nurse peered over Alex's face as though she were an exhibit in a local museum.

"Yep- there's definitely serious retinal damage," Diane Warrington concurred. "The cornea's gone, too. The macula is completely detached from the retina; it's been abraded, as well. The anterior chamber is completely destroyed..."

"I'm permanently blind, aren't I, Diane?" Alex interrupted, somewhat forcefully. Diane nodded.

"I'm afraid so, Alex," she replied, and Harry saw Alex grip Snape's hand.

"We can't repair your eyes," Stephanie explained, "but there may be other ways around the problem. Your optic nerve is still pretty much intact. There's a possibility that we could fit you with a pair of prosthetic eyes..."

"Oh, like the one Mad-Eye's got?" Persephone asked. Stephanie looked curiously at her.

"Mad-Eye? Oh, you mean Alastor, I presume?" she enquired. Diane simply nodded.

"Yes, something similar to that, except we would perform a permanent replacement. You would not be able to remove the eyes, Alex."

Alex shrugged.

"I don't suppose they will look anything like my old eyes, will they?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not. The blue iris is required to provide optimum focusing of light rays; however, you will be able to use them in much the same way as the traditional magical eye. You know, seeing through objects, three hundred and sixty degree rotation both horizontally and vertically..."

"Excellent!" Alex exclaimed, the prospect of such advantages having seemingly taken the edge off her injury.

"It will take us a week or so to procure the necessary components, and to fashion the eyes," Diane explained.

"A week? We don't have that long- especially after what just happened. Besides, I can't not teach for the next week; it'll raise questions," Alex spluttered. Stephanie raised an eyebrow at her.

"And the new blue eyes won't?" she asked, rhetorically.

Persephone stared out of the window, before suddenly clicking her fingers in triumph.

"What if we can get a pair of standard magical eyes?" she asked. "Can you modify them and perform the procedure any more quickly?"

Stephanie frowned for a moment, but Diane nodded.

"We could do it today if you can get a pair," she stated, unequivocally. Persephone nodded.

"Minerva- I don't suppose you could contact Mad-Eye, could you? I know he's got contacts. I also know he likes you a lot more than he likes me," she pointed out. McGonagall's lips pursed into a disapproving smile.

"I'll speak to the Order; see what I can do," she replied.

"If you've got the necessary equipment, you're welcome to use the Hogwarts Hospital Wing to perform the operation- I can block part of it off for you," Madam Pomfrey offered. McGonagall looked astounded.

"Well, Poppy- I never thought I'd see the day where you would willingly hand over part of this domain to a couple of relative strangers," she replied, with a brief smile.

"In times like these, we all have to pull together," Madam Pomfrey replied, simply, before walking over to Harry and removing the wells on his arms in a jiffy.

Defence Against the Dark Arts that afternoon was a bit disrupted, to say the least. Harry worked out from his watch that it took Persephone almost half of the lesson to stop the class from asking questions about her duel with a Death Eater that morning. She answered everything as briefly as she could, before eventually managing to clam the class down and get them all concentrating on Binding spells and how to break them. One swift glance at Draco told Harry exactly why Persephone was reluctant to talk about her endeavours that morning. He had been most quiet, and Pansy Parkinson seemed to be spending an awful lot of time patting him tenderly on the shoulder.

"Why can't I get this Rigid Rope Spell to work?" Ron complained to himself. "No matter what I try, my cords just go all limp!" To prove his point, he fired a thick cord of rope across the room, only for it to wilt hopelessly by his feet. A few of the nearby students sniggered; including Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, who at least looked at Ron and grinned sympathetically between their hysterical giggles. Pansy Parkinson whispered something to Draco, and for the first time in the entire lesson, he perked up.

"You could always ask Granger to give you a helping hand, Weasley," he chimed in, an irritatingly smug expression on his face.

"Shut your face, Malfoy!" Ron retorted hotly, his face growing red, whilst Hermione merely rolled her eyes in distaste.

"Boys, if you don't behave, I'll have to come over there and hex your heads together," Persephone languidly called from her seat behind her desk, where she was idly flicking through a bunch of parchments. Harry had a nasty feeling they were reports concerning the whereabouts of Lucius Malfoy. The fact that Harry had seen them arrive by an inconspicuous looking owl just before the rest of the class began to filter in helped to fuel such suspicions.

"Oh, Ron? Try being more forceful with the spell- you've really got to want those cords to bind someone," Persephone added.

Ron nodded, and raised his wand again. Harry presumed that Ron was imagining that Draco was the target for his binding spell, because on this next attempt, he had sent the ropes flying so far out, they nearly struck Lavender Brown's pony-tail.

"See, you did it that time, Ron," Hermione said, encouragingly, before using the counter-curse to dissolve the snaking ropes.

"True," Ron replied, apathetically. Hermione looked at Harry.

"How is Persephone doing?" she whispered. Harry shrugged.

"Okay, I guess- why do you ask?" he enquired.

"Well, This week alone, she's lost her aunt, and her long time friend and boss has been seriously injured. Do you think she's taking it okay?" Hermione persisted. Ron smirked.

"Of course she is, Persephone's tough as dragon hide!" he retorted. Hermione frowned, apparently not convinced by Harry and Ron's argument.

"This still can't be easy for her," she commented.

"She wants Malfoy's blood- but then again, I can't think of many people who don't," Harry pointed out, as he fired a Binding Hex at Ron, which he swiftly blocked.

"That attack really frightened the students here," Hermione said, absently. Ron looked askance at her.

"You don't say? A bunch of Death Eaters break in and hold a classroom hostage? Well, I can't think why that'd bother them," he retorted. Hermione glared at him.

"That really isn't the point, Ron," she replied, with that disconcerting stare that suggested to Harry that the two of them had, somehow, managed to find time alone between the attack and now to have an entire conversation relating to him that they were about to carefully divulge.

"What is it?" Harry sighed. Hermione and Ron exchanged glances.

"The D.A.," Ron replied. "We were thinking, perhaps, we should start it up again..."

"With you, naturally, as a teacher..."

Harry tried to interrupt, but Hermione was in full flow.

"You can perform Occlumency, Legilmency and wandless magic now; you're even more perfect for the job than you were two years ago!" she insisted.

"Well, you've just listed three excellent reasons why I couldn't do it," Harry replied. "I'm still practicing all of that stuff, and I'm captaining the Quidditch team- or at least, attempting to; how on earth am I going to find the time to teach D.A. on top of all that? Besides, nobody is supposed to know about the wandless magic. Persephone says that the best form of attack is surprise."

"We're not suggesting you teach wandless magic, are we Ron?" Hermione insisted. "We're not suggesting you just teach it to interested people, either."

Harry noticed Hermione's tone of voice had suddenly got a lot darker.

"What?" Harry asked, warily. Ron sighed.

"Hermione was thinking... well, I guess we both thought about it. I mean, we are Head Boy and Girl- we're supposed to have a sense of responsibility for the welfare of our fellow students..." He trailed off, evidently finding the words he wanted to say somewhat difficult. Hermione, however, simply swallowed hard and came right out with it.

"We're suggesting, perhaps we ought to have an army of our own, to protect the pupils here," she said, matter-of-factly. "That's part of what Dumbledore's letter- the one from the reading- asked us to do. He said we should 'aim to protect the students and build up their trust'. I think this would be a very good way of doing that."

Ron continued to explain their plan.

"Basically, we thought we could teach a few people from each year and each house- especially the prefects. Then, if something happens, like the Death Eaters attacking our class; we've got a body of students who can help raise the alarm and defend the remaining students. We were lucky last time that Alex was there, and that you got that distress talisman to Persephone. Who's to say we'll be lucky the next time?" he ended.

Harry sighed heavily. Annoyingly, he could see that they were both right; after the incident in the Potions class, it would be really useful to have a handful of students in each class that could rise up and offer some semblance of defence if such a thing happened again; and empowerment does build confidence, apparently. The difficulty was, the only way Harry could possibly see himself being able to teach the class was if he borrowed Faith's Time-and-Place Machine.

"I see your point," Harry conceded. "I just don't know how I'll be able to teach it."

Ron patted him on the back.

"Don't worry, mate- I'm sure we'll work something out," he said, cheerily. "We just need a little more time."

Harry wasn't too sure that time was a commodity they had plenty of. If Alex was jittery at having to wait a week for a pair of prosthetic eyes, he doubted that there was much room for delays and pondering of any fashion when it came to Voldemort and his forces. Feeling suddenly nervous, he glanced up at Persephone in the hope that he might catch her eye and share a sympathetic smile or two. She was busy scribbling upon a piece of paper that Harry noticed had something akin to the prophecy Alex had shared with him during their Transfiguration lesson just a few weeks earlier. Next to the words 'By the darkness of the ravished sun, the climax of the Dark Lord's evil will flourish,' she had scribbled, '15^th June, 1998'.

Well, at least now Harry knew exactly when he was going to die.

After dinner in the Great Hall that day, Harry found himself heading up towards the Hospital Wing for the second time that day. It had been an accident, really. Colin Creevey had absolutely no desire to cover Harry's arms with bubotuber sap, causing nasty red boils to pop up all over his skin; he just happened to trip over whilst carrying a small cauldron full of the stuff. What did Colin need all that bubotuber pus for, anyway? Harry had tried to find out, but Colin had been most reticent about the whole thing- very unlike him. He presumed it was to do with some kind of practical joke, or perhaps a bet- Gryffindor Common Room was slowly becoming like a bookie's office; apparently a direct result of the third years and above no longer being allowed out into Hogsmeade once every term.

He knocked on the door of the Hospital Wing, and Madam Pomfrey rushed to his aid.

"Dear, oh dear, we have been in the wars today, haven't we, Mr. Potter?" she clucked. Harry shrugged.

"Haven't we been in the wars for about two years now?" he quipped. Madam Pomfrey looked at him sternly, but she managed a smile.

"You shouldn't joke about such things," she remonstrated, before guiding him to a nearby bed, and disappearing into her store cupboards to find a suitable treatment. Not seeing any point to lying down, Harry sat on the edge of the bed, and noticed, to his utter surprise, that Lupin was looking back at him.

"What happened to you, Harry?" he asked, frowning.

"Accident in the Common Room," Harry replied. "Anyway, what are you doing here?"

Lupin jerked his head towards a nearby hospital bed, where the two Healers Harry had seen earlier in the day were busy silently working on Alex's eyes.

"No anaesthetic," Lupin pointed out, shuddering. "I don't know how she can lie there without so much as twitching."

Harry peered over Lupin's shoulder, and saw to his utter disgust, that Diane and Stephanie were busy magically removing Alex's damaged eyes. It was truly revolting; Stephanie was busy cutting out the bulk of the damaged left eye with an automatically cutting scalpel, whilst Diane held a tiny capillary sized tube in her hand, and was delicately probing Alex's right eye socket. Now and then, Harry heard a sucking noise, and a dull clunck, at which point Diane would remove the tube and tap it a few times over a kidney-shaped bowl. Bits of gore and tissue sputtered into the bowl, and Harry had to look away.

"You alright, Alex?" Harry heard Diane ask.

"Yeah; though I might need another piece of wood to grip- I think I've broken the last one," Alex answered.

"You did- it's currently embedded in my left thigh," Snape replied, dryly.

"Hey, I'm the one having their eyes gouged out without anaesthetic- quit your whinging!" Alex said, nonchalantly.

"Would I ever complain about you, my dear?" Snape replied, in a rather mocking tone.

"Alex, stop laughing; I'm trying to work here!" Stephanie snapped.

"They need to test the magical eyes out; plus, there are a few new updates on the entire situation with Voldemort that need to be discussed- most notably that one of his Death Eaters may well have reached him with the knowledge that there is a spy amongst his ranks," Lupin explained, calmly.

"It'll be fine," Harry replied, confidently. "Persephone memory charmed Malfoy. He won't remember anything."

Lupin didn't look half as convinced.

"Well, we'll see, won't we," he replied, in a stiff sounding voice, just as Harry noticed Kingsley Shacklebolt walk over to where he and Lupin were sitting.

"What happened to you, Harry? Bubotuber pus?" Kingsley asked, with a sly grin. Harry nodded.

"Colin Creevey accidentally knocked a small cauldron of it over me. I think it's the lack of Hogsmeade weekends; people are getting stir-crazy," Harry replied, which caused Kingsley to laugh richly, before he turned to face Lupin.

"When are Tonks and Persephone arriving with the eyes?" he asked. Lupin sighed.

"Whenever they feel like it, with those two," he replied. "They should be here within the next half an hour, though."

"Where's this sudden irritation with Tonks come from?" Kingsley asked. "She's one of my best Juniors."

"When she and Persephone get together, some vile symbiotic relationship takes over," Lupin said, looking at the floor. Kingsley laughed again, and clapped Lupin on the back.

"You two still not kissed and made up?" he asked, innocently. Lupin glared at him.

"No, we have not," he replied, somewhat primly. Kingsley continued to laugh.

"Oh, this is comedy, guy!" he exclaimed. Lupin languidly raised one eyebrow.

"May I ask why?"

"It's just- well, you wind Severus up something chronic just by being in the same room as him; his daughter does exactly the same thing to you. The whole thing is wonderfully paradoxical," Kingsley replied. Lupin, however, did not seem to share his enthusiasm. Harry didn't like it one bit; part of him desperately wanted them to make up and be friends, but the other part of him had an inkling that such a desire wasn't entirely dissimilar to that of a child who wants his divorced parents to fall in love again. The thought reminded him that some things simply couldn't be pushed, and that unless Sirius had mentioned something in his reading that Lupin had never shared with Harry, he didn't have any real obligation to serve Harry's needs.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Lupin asked, his hoarse voice full of concern. Harry snapped out of his meandering thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "Honestly," he insisted, upon seeing Lupin's sceptical expression as he gingerly placed a tender hand upon Harry's shoulder, carefully avoiding the parts of his arms that were covered in painful boils.

"Good. Despite what happened today, you have little to worry about, Harry; we'll make sure of that," he said, and Harry couldn't help but smile. Lupin really didn't have any real obligation to serve Harry's needs; he just chose to.

At that point, Persephone and Tonks entered the Hospital wing, carrying a wooden box between them.

"What's in here, anyway?" Tonks groaned. "It weighs a tonne- no pair of eyes can weigh this much!"

"I think there's a bunch of calibration equipment in here, too," Persephone explained, before glancing across at Harry.

"Harry? What happened...?" She trailed off upon seeing the boils. "Oh- Colin, was it?"

Harry nodded.

"Ah- I saw him with a cauldron of something suspicious-smelling earlier. Told him he'd better put it somewhere where I can't see it; I didn't mean on you, though," she replied, and Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"It was an accident," he replied. Persephone nodded gravely.

"I swear, I pray for sunny weather every weekend; it'll get you lot out of the building and into the grounds. If this murky Scottish weather doesn't abate soon, I'm going to have to try and organise a trip or something, before you all start forming factions and try to kill each other with cutlery nabbed from the Great Hall," she complained.

Kingsley raised an eyebrow at Persephone.

"Murky Scottish weather? From a girl that went to Durmstrang?" he enquired, somewhat sardonically. Persephone shrugged.

"Hey- I grew up in the south of France!" she protested, with a cheeky grin. "Anyway," she announced, "we've got the goods, Diane."

Diane looked up from Alex's eyes and nodded.

"Excellent- bring them over here, would you, Percy?" she asked, and Persephone did as she was told. Diane finished the last bit of preparation upon Alex's eye sockets, before handing over the final analysis to Stephanie.

"Wow- these are perfect!" Diane remarked appreciatively, upon opening the wooden box. Persephone peered into the box.

"Aren't they a little big?" she asked. Diane shook her head.

"Eyes are this big, Percy," she explained. "It's just you don't see most of them. We'll have to shrink and re-expand them to fit, but they look great!"

Diane soon got to work. Harry watched as she pulled out some bizarre implements and, eventually, a thick book of some description.

"Right- calibrating your 3700 series Prosthetic Sight Replacement, 'Ensure the protective wrapping around the 3700 series PSR is removed with the standard Vanishing spell.'... Right." Diane tapped her wand against the magical eyes and muttered some kind of incantation.

"Okay, what's next? 'Configure the retina and macula using a sample of fluid from the anterior chamber and the Repairing spell.' I presume if I use the retinal samples we've got here, we should be able to make it..." Diane stopped muttering to herself, and followed the instructions given. Harry couldn't help but peer over a little, and saw that the two magical eyes Diane was holding in her gloved hands each had an odd string of sinewy muscle attached to them.

"Alright, Alex- now brace yourself; this won't be a painless procedure..."

Harry though he heard Alex grunt loudly, as though trying to suppress a scream. Lupin tried to distract him as Madam Pomfrey came along and began expertly covering Harry's arms with some sort of concentrated Murtlap solution, but Harry knew he had heard something make a popping noise.

"It's okay, Harry," Lupin insisted. "She's in pain, but she's not in danger."

Madam Pomfrey swiftly bandaged Harry's arms up whilst the solution was still wet.

"Now, just stay here for a couple of hours, then I'll take the bandages off, and you should be right as rain," she instructed. Harry nodded in reply, and remained seated on the edge of the bed.

Soon enough, he heard Diane's voice again.

"Okay, Alex; if you could just sit up for me, we can begin the sight configuration," she announced. Harry looked up and saw Alex swing her legs over the bed and pull herself up into a sitting position. Her face was covered in blood, which Stephanie had suddenly noticed, and was busy wiping away with a face cloth and some ointment. Snape was still sitting by her side.

Lupin got up to see what was happening, and Harry joined him.

"What's he doing here?" Snape snapped. Lupin smiled genially.

"Harry had a little run-in with some enthusiastic potion-brewers, Severus. I don't see what harm there is in him watching whilst he waits to be discharged," he reasoned, calmly.

"It might be an idea to ask Alexandra," Snape pointed out, coldly. "She is the one going through this..."

"Severus, it's fine. Let's not have an argument about this," Alex replied, swiftly. Snape looked at her, but obeyed her wishes. Diane looked at Snape, then at Lupin, and finally at Harry, before shrugging her shoulders.

"Right, Alex. You will most likely be feeling a dull aching in the back of your eyes. This is perfectly normal- the procedure we used involved conjuring a form of optic nerve from the retina and macula of the magical eyes, and fusing it with your own."

"Okay," Alex replied. "When do I get to see again?"

"Just a moment," Diane soothed, before flicking through the instruction book again. She pointed her wand at Alex and commanded, "Initio PSR 3700!"

Alex jumped.

"Oh, that's different from the blackness... Ew! I'm seeing my own brains!" she cried, before her magical eyes rolled in her sockets, and the unnaturally blue irises were visible to Harry.

"Ah, there we go- now I'm seeing other people's brains," she commented, dryly. Diane muttered some incantations, and held up a large rod-shaped object, that glowed red.

"Okay, that's getting better..."

She continued to mutter until the object stopped glowing red, and began to glow a bright green.

"How's that?" Stephanie asked. Alex glanced around the room, and broke into a grin.

"Well, I never knew so many of you wizards went commando," she said, with a sly wink. Lupin and Kingsley hastily put their hands over their groins, at which Persephone and Tonks tried, and failed, to suppress sniggers.

Diane pursed her lips, and muttered some more incantations. The object she was holding began to flash on and off.

"Oh, yes- that's it!" Alex exclaimed, looking around. "Wow- do you know, I think my eyesight had been deteriorating anyway; I was never able to see this clearly before!"

She turned suddenly to face Snape.

"Tell me, honestly," she asked, looking him straight in the eye. "How much different do I look to you?"

Snape surveyed her critically for a moment.

"You look like... like you have blue eyes," he replied, simply.

"And?" Alex prompted. Snape frowned.

"I suppose they don't show any expression, but the movement of your eyebrows compensates for that..."

Diane handed Alex a mirror.

"Take a look in there," she suggested. Alex looked at her reflection with vague interest.

"It doesn't really look like me anymore," she commented, quietly.

"You look no different," Snape said, brusquely. "You have new eyes, that is all."

Alex smiled, and hummed singing a brief portion of a song Harry recognised.

"Don't it make my brown eyes blue," she sang, before giggling loudly. Snape frowned at her, and it was clear the pop culture reference had gone straight over his head.

"Muggle song, I presume?" he asked. Alex nodded.

"Yeah, my mum used to play it in the dental surgery," she explained. "I can't remember who did it, though. I only remember that I used to take the mickey out of my mum by suggesting the singer should rename herself 'Bristol Ale'."

McGonagall entered the Hospital wing at that point.

"We lost Malfoy," she announced, and Persephone looked positively infuriated by this statement.

"You're joking!" she hissed. McGonagall shook her head.

"If only I could be so glib," she replied.

"Kingsley and Hestia were in the group that almost caught him," Tonks pointed out. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Kingsley, but Hestia told me that he seemed a little disorientated; but then a crowd of Death Eaters turned up- during the fight, Malfoy escaped."

Kingsley nodded in concurrence of her story.

Persephone frowned.

"So, it sounds like those memory charms worked," she commented.

"Except we don't know exactly what they worked on," Kingsley countered. Persephone glared at him.

"Well, I admit I'm not the best memory charmer around. However, with your skill at such spells, I'd imagine you'd know exactly what aspects of his memory I managed to affect," she retorted.

"Touché," Kingsley replied. "The point is, we don't know what he knows..."

"Well, we need to find out, don't we?" Persephone fumed. Lupin looked at her warily.

"Persephone, he escaped. There's no point in getting angry and pointing the finger at anyone..."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Lupin," she spat. "I'm so terribly sorry that the man who killed my aunt and is about to shop my dad escaped my grasp, and I'm especially sorry that I'm a little ticked off about it!"

She turned her back on Lupin and stared out of the window, kicking at the skirting board as she did so. Lupin dragged his hands through his hair.

"I don't want another row- I'm just saying what's done is done and..."

"Lupin, I'm ignoring you. Just so you know," Persephone interrupted, harshly. Lupin sighed angrily, but otherwise remained silent.

"Persephone, don't be an idiot," Alex snapped. "So he got away- it won't happen again. We'll find him."

"I'll bury him," Persephone snarled.

"Perce, you know we can't do that," Alex said, calmly. "We bring them in alive whenever possible; we don't ever kill unless it's in self-defence. It's no good for morale, and it's no good for prosecuting if your witnesses and defendants are dead."

"I didn't say kill him- I just said bury him," Persephone pointed out. "Dig a six foot plot and bury him in it; if he dies in the process, well, that's his problem."

Alex got up off the bed and walked over to Persephone.

"Please, Perce. We will catch him. We will find him and he will pay for his crimes. At the end of the day, when the battles come; they will all pay, and they will pay dearly. Don't even think about compromising yourself for that pathetic excuse of a wizard," she implored. Persephone sighed.

"I just feel so useless!" she said, in a shaky voice, as she turned away from Alex and pinched the bridge of her nose. Alex rested her hand on Persephone's shoulder.

"I understand exactly how you feel- I lost my parents this way, too," she replied, quietly.

"He's afraid," Snape said, suddenly, and the entire congregation whirled around to look at him, though he didn't appear to notice.

"Afraid of what?" Persephone asked, wiping a hand across her face. Snape looked her in the eye.

"He's afraid of you, afraid of the Brethren, afraid of the Order- and he's beginning to fear the Ministry; or rather, what the Ministry will do to him if they find him. He knows it won't be like the last time- Arthur Weasley despises him and will do everything in his power to ensure he suffers."

"How do you know?" Persephone asked, sounding to Harry, for the first time ever, like an anxious young girl in her early-twenties. Snape looked at her with mild derision.

"How do you think?" he replied, indignantly. "He has no powers of Occlumency whatsoever!"

Persephone managed a smile, and the discussion over what they should do about Malfoy and his possibly intact knowledge resumed. Harry, however, was thrown into disarray. He had seen a side of Persephone, if only for a few minutes, that he had been previously unaware of. To him, she had always been this harsh, controlled, almost detached figure that comforted him by her knowledge of fact, defence and logic. For the first time, he realised that she, like him, could be wounded by grief and loss and sometimes, possibly, required comfort and reassurance. He wished he had ignored his reasoning that she would not appreciate his concern when she found out about her Aunt Porphyria's death, and gone with his gut instinct to hug her. He remembered that despite her bravado and skill, she was still only young, and she was still only human.

Harry looked up at Lupin, and saw in his eyes that he had come to the exact same realisation.