Chapter 1

Chapter One

Harry Potter burst through the door and stormed up to Hermione's desk.

"Guess what?" he cried.

Hermione looked up from the contract she was reading and gave Harry a quizzical look. "Harry, why are you so agitated?"

"They've found Snape!"

Hermione's eyebrows lifted almost off her head.

"How?"

Harry frowned. "They caught him at my mum's grave. Evidently, the Aurors have been staking the gravesite out for months."

Hermione sat back and folded her arms in front of her. "They knew he would attempt to visit Lily's grave. How mercenary can they be! Why can't they just leave the man alone?"

Harry bent over the desk and placed his hands on it. "Because they don't believe me. They think Snape is a murderer. You know that, Hermione. We have been fighting this battle for five years now." Harry straightened and began to pace in front of the desk. "He knew his life was in danger! They've been hunting him ever since his body disappeared from the Shrieking Shack! Why did he decide to come out of hiding just to put a flower on a grave?"

"Harry, he loved your mother."

Harry grimaced as he turned to Hermione. "Don't you think I know that? I still wish he would have stayed in hiding."

"Where is he now?"

"He's in a holding cell. The Minister is scrambling to schedule a trial. Shacklebolt wants to get this over with as soon as possible."

"This is ludicrous, Harry. He's innocent!"

"Hermione, he needs your help. Will you represent him?"

Hermione worried her lip. "I'm not his favorite person, you know."

"You're the only one who can do this, Hermione. Your job here in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement gives you the right to represent him. No one else could, or would."

Hermione studied her hands for a moment. "We need to do something. If we don't, he'll be sent to Azkaban for life."

She rose and grabbed a pad and quill. "I'll visit him immediately. Don't worry, we'll find a way for the Wizengamot to believe what you know. You are willing to testify in Snape's behalf, right?"

"Of course," Harry replied.

"I'll let you know how my meeting with Snape goes." She stopped and tapped her finger on her lip for a minute. "Gather whatever evidence you have about his spying, Harry. We'll need every bit of it."

Harry gave a curt nod. The two friends left Hermione's office and went their separate ways. Hermione made her way to the small jail next to the courtrooms. She entered the front office and spoke to the wizard sitting at the desk.

"I need to conference with Severus Snape," she explained.

"No one is to see the prisoner," the blond wizard explained.

"I am his legal counsel," Hermione told him.

"I wasn't alerted that he had chosen legal counsel."

Hermione flashed her wand, and her id materialized in front of the man. "I am Ministry-appointed legal counsel. Mr. Snape has the right to an attorney. I will be handling his case from now on and ask for unlimited access to him."

The man studied the credentials in front of him. He looked up at Hermione, comparing the photo on her I.D. with her. He nodded finally. Standing up, he motioned for her to follow him.

Hermione was led through a thick door and brought to a cell in the back of the hall. The wizard unlocked the cell and motioned for Hermione to enter. He locked her in.

"Can you cast a Patronus?" the guard asked through the bars.

Hermione nodded.

"Just send it when you're ready to go."

"I will," Hermione assured before turning to Snape.

She arched an eyebrow at him. He was lying on the provided cot with his hands behind his head. It seemed that he was just taking a rest. His face held no emotions whatsoever... except for the glare he was casting at Hermione.

Hermione looked around the small cell as she waited for the guard to leave the cell block. Three grey cement walls greeted her, the fourth wall of the cell being the cell bars behind her. It was a narrow room, only large enough to fit the cot with a small space left for movement. At the back of the cell sat a toilet and small sink.

Turning to Snape, Hermione made sure the guard was out of earshot before speaking.

"Professor Snape, we all thought you were dead."

"I am no longer your professor, Miss Granger. It is still Miss Granger, is it not?"

Hermione conjured up a chair, wedged it between the bed and the wall, and sat. "Yes, it is," she replied officially. Severus sat up and rested his back against the wall. His arms automatically folded in front of him.

"Why, sir? Why did you get yourself caught?"

Severus stared at Hermione for a long moment. Had he heard concern in her voice? No one felt concern for him. No one even gave him any heed. He'd been surviving for five years without anyone giving him a second glance. Simple Notice-Me-Not spells had seen to that. He hardly left the small shack he'd been living in, but when he did, no one ever even glanced at him.

Severus noticed Hermione waiting patiently for him to answer.

"I did not intend to get caught, Miss Granger. The Aurors had set a trap. They had anticipated my arrival and my use of the Notice-Me-Not spell. I was surrounded and disarmed before I even had a chance to stop spinning from the Apparition."

Hermione frowned. "I'm sorry. We have been fighting to get your name cleared all this time."

Severus narrowed his eyes at her. "Who exactly do you mean by we?"

"Harry and I. Harry explained about the memories you left him." Hermione looked to the floor. "I'm sorry. That's probably how they finally came to await you at Lily Potter's grave."

"The whole world knows my business?" Severus raged.

Hermione's head shot up. "No, sir. Harry swore Kingsley Shacklebolt to secrecy. They even made a wand oath, but it would be easy to send Aurors to the gravesite without their knowledge as to why you would appear there." Hermione sighed. "Kingsley said that the memories were inadmissible. He believed that they'd been tampered with by you to gain Harry's support."

Severus raged within. "Why would I give him such memories if they weren't true? Doesn't Shacklebolt have any inkling as to what those memories mean to me? We have spent evenings together as Order members, and he can't see how the knowledge of such information would make me feel?"

Hermione's eyes searched out his. "I know, sir. It's been incredibly frustrating for us. Kingsley says he needs more evidence. Since there is none that we know of, he's putting together a case against you. He plans to send you to Azkaban for life."

"And you are here because..."

"I am your legal counsel."

Severus put his head in his hands. "Wonderful, I am to be represented by a child."

Hermione straightened her body and narrowed her eyes at Severus. "Sir, I am twenty-three years old. How many twenty-three year old children do you know?"

Severus looked at Hermione for a long while. Finally, he cleared his throat. "You must forgive me, Miss Granger. I still see you as the precocious sixteen-year-old I taught Potions and Defense to. Obviously, you are an adult now."

Hermione relaxed. "That's understandable, sir. We haven't exactly kept in touch over the years."

"It's hard to keep in touch with a dead man."

Hermione couldn't help but smirk. "You have the option to decline my counsel if you choose, but I highly discourage it. Without counsel, there will be no one on your side in that courtroom."

"Why do you care what happens to me?" Severus snapped.

"You're innocent."

"Spoken like the naïve woman you are, Miss Granger," Severus remarked snidely. "You've always had a penchant for lost causes, haven't you?"

Hermione bristled. "Look, I am fully aware of the pitfalls of the Ministry. I am working to solve them, but I have just been in my position for a year. Change takes time. I am not naïve to the fact that the Minister, and probably the entire Wizengamot, want to see you locked away. I am willing to help you to not have to go through such a punishment. After everything you've done for us, the last thing you deserve is to be locked away in Azkaban for life!"

"Isn't it, though?"

Hermione looked at him in puzzlement. "What do you mean by that?"

Severus stood and glared at Hermione. "I was a Death Eater, Miss Granger. I killed people. Merlin, I killed Albus Dumbledore! I deserve whatever I get."

Hermione rose, too, and stood mere inches from Severus. "You were ordered to kill him! You never wavered in your spy work. If the Ministry can't recognize that Voldemort would still be walking around if it wasn't for you, then they're nothing but a bunch of idiots!"

Severus looked shocked. "Why do you defend me so?"

"Haven't you been listening to me? I know the truth! I know you were on our side. No one else sacrificed as much as you did. You don't deserve to be locked away!"

Severus looked her up and down. "Fine," he retorted. "What do you need to know to represent me?"

He sat down on the bed again and folded his arms in front of him.

"Everything," Hermione mused. She withdrew the pad book and quill. "Do you have anything you can use as evidence that supports the memories you gave to Harry?"

"No, but I must share something with you, Miss Granger. Dumbledore is not dead."

Hermione looked up at Severus in shock. "I beg your pardon?"

"Dumbledore isn't dead. A month before his faked demise, I came up with a potion that cured the curse that was ravaging his body. He decided to keep up the premise that his hand was withered and put a glamour over it. He knew Draco Malfoy was commissioned to kill him. He didn't want that to happen. He and I devised a way to make it only look like he was killed."

Hermione's mouth dropped open. "But Harry saw you cast the Killing Curse."

"He only thought that's what he saw. I cast a similar curse. A slight change to the pronunciation was all it really took. When he thought he heard me say Avada Kedavra, I was actually saying Avida Kedava, placing the Sleep of Death over Dumbledore. Technically, yes, he was killed, but the spell was created to cast a stasis over the body. Lasting five days, it breaks itself automatically, reviving the dead man. Albus awoke inside his tomb. He had transformed his spectacles into a Portkey, and as soon as he regained consciousness, he Portkeyed out of his tomb."

"If he's alive, then where is he?" Hermione asked curiously.

Severus' face fell. "I do not know. He was supposed to make contact with me after he emerged from the tomb, but I never heard from him."

Hermione frowned and scribbled something on her pad. "Is it possible he never escaped the tomb?"

"No. I have searched his tomb; there is nothing there but a fake body. The plan worked, but I have no idea where Dumbledore is."

"Well, it seems that if we can find Dumbledore, then we can end all of this."

Severus huffed. "I have been searching for him for five years, to no avail."

"You'll need to tell me everything you've done already, so I don't waste time repeating things you've already tried."

Severus nodded and began to tell her of his long search for Dumbledore. She wrote down everything he told her and asked several questions along the way. Then they began to brainstorm what to do if they couldn't find Dumbledore. Hermione continued to write furiously as the two of them discussed possible defense tactics.

After a long while, they were finally finished. "Thank you, sir. I'll get working on this information."

"You should call me Severus," Snape offered. "You are an adult now. I hold no influence over you."

"Okay... Severus," Hermione said tentatively. "Oh, you should call me Hermione, then."

With a quick snap of his head, Severus had agreed. Extending her hand, Hermione shook Severus'. "I'll get you out of this, Severus," she encouraged.

"I won't hold my breath," Severus countered.

Hermione was unsure whether that comment was a cut on her abilities or on the bleakness of the situation. She narrowed her eyes at him.

Severus' eyebrow arched at her. "I only meant that I could be represented by Merlin himself yet the Wizengamot would not be interested in what he has to say. My fate is set in stone. I am resigned to that fate."

"I'll fix this, Severus. I promise you."

Severus looked into her eyes, and Hermione felt as if she were tumbling to the ground. "Thank you, Hermione, for at least being willing to try."

Hermione walked slowly back to her office. It was time for her to go home, but her mind was a blur with everything that had gone on in Severus' cell. The man had been civil. That had been a big surprise. A few sarcastic comments had fallen from his lips, but he hadn't been overly mean. Hermione frowned. If anything, he'd been sad. He knew it would be next to impossible to be set free.

Their conversation had actually been polite. Would wonders never cease? Evidently not having to deal with 'dunderheaded' children on a daily basis, or having to answer to two masters, had done wonders for Severus Snape's disposition. Though caustic at times, he'd been respectful of her once he realized she wasn't a child anymore.

Hermione's heart beat a bit faster. She'd always sought out his approval as a student. As a youth, she'd needed to be accepted. Severus Snape had never given her that. Now, he seemed to accept that she knew what she was doing. Maybe this would be the opportunity she needed to prove to Severus that she was more than just a juvenile who waved her hand in the air incessantly.

Hermione blushed at her memories of her youth. She really had been overbearing. Mistaking being a nuisance for being eager, she'd been quite the know-it-all, as Severus had dubbed her. It had taken her a long time to realize that she didn't need to always seek the approval of others. Her time on the 'extended camping trip' with Harry and Ron had really made her see what was truly important. She still loved learning and reading, but she now understood that it wasn't vital to be the best at everything. She hoped that Snape would eventually recognize that in her also.

Harry Floo'd over to Hermione's apartment that evening. She filled him in on everything. Hermione gave him all of the information on the manhunt that Severus had done for Dumbledore. She knew that if there was anything to find, Harry would find it. She only hoped they'd have enough time.

"Kingsley set the trial for a week from today," Harry divulged.

"A week! That gives us hardly any time to prepare! How are you going to find Dumbledore with only a week to do it in?"

"I don't know, but I won't rest until I've found something, Hermione. We'll get him off. We have to."

Hermione nodded. "I hope we can, Harry. The Ministry is out for blood. They might not listen to anything I present."

Harry gave Hermione a determined look. "Just prepare the best case you can, Hermione. That's all you can do. We can only hope for the best. Not everyone on the Wizengamot is a follower. Some will see the truth in what you present."

"I certainly hope so," Hermione said softly.

Thank you, Lilith Kayden, for your hard work with this story. Your suggestions helped to make it all the better!

provide it, feel free not to), decides to spare Severus the humiliation he would undoubtedly endure in the "care" of any other of his former students and requests him for herself. At some point during the time Severus is living with her, Hermione finds out that the magic and personalities of the convicts are stored in the Ministry, not unlike the prophecies in Order of the Phoenix, and she decides to break in and retrieve Severus'. After restoring him to his former self, they will need to discover what happened to Dumbledore and, if possible, get him to testify.