"Cross my heart, hope to die," Severus solemnly swore, providing the appropriate hand gestures to the vow.

Harry gave him a sidelong glance, as though suspecting he was being made fun of, but at Severus's serious expression and listening pose, the older boy turned back toward the fire. It was a convient place to put your eyes when you didn't want them meeting somebody else's, Severus had found the night before. "So why aren't you sleeping?" Severus prompted again, feeling like an annoying three year old who won't shut up. By the look Harry shot him, his opinion of Severus wasn't much higher at the moment.

"I said I'd tell, didn't I? Gimme a minute."

Severus decided replying would be counter-productive, and so just waited quietly instead. Finally, Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair, which did absolutely nothing to tame it. More likely, such a habit had contributed to its messy state. "How much do you know about what happened at the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Sev?"

"Voldemort came back to life. You were involved somehow. The rumours I heard weren't very clear on details."

"That covers two of the three biggies, anyway," Harry said, and fell silent for a long time again. Severus was considering how to prompt him without annoying him again, when he added, "Cedric died. That's the other biggie."

"Oh." Severus fell silent. He had no idea who Cedric was, but he did know that this was way bigger than what he could fix. "Talking sometimes helps," he said, not really believing the words himself.

Harry gave him a twisted smirk. "Sometimes it just makes you scareder," he returned, his green eyes dancing in brief humour, that faded quickly.

"You're scared?" Severus asked, genuinely surprised. "But you're a Gryffindor."

The scowl Harry gave him for that would have impressed even Severus's father. "The only stupider thing you could have said is 'but you're Harry Potter.'"

Severus wisely remained silent.

"Bravery isn't the same thing as idiocy, you know."

Severus considered pointing out that among Slytherins, the two were synonomous, but decided that would be, well, idiotic.

Though, evidently, Harry felt Severus wasn't grasping the concept, because he continued, "You were scared when went to answer Voldemort's call, right?"

Severus nodded. "Absolutely. Terrified."

"But you still went."

He nodded again, more slowly this time. "Yes."

"Does that make you brave or stupid?"

"I'd've been stupid if I wasn't scared. But I had to go."

Harry nodded. "That's bravery. Doing something you have to do, even though you're scared to death."

"Oh." That gave the concepts of honor, bravery, and courage a whole lot more sense than he had ever given them credit for before. He'd always associated them with recklessness. "That, I get. Now."

The older boy have him a hesitant smile. "See? You are a Gryffindor."

Severus made a face, but the distaste of being called that long-hated word was completely gone.

They fell into another silence, which Severus eventually broke, "So what are you afraid of?"

"That Voldemort will kill somebody else, and I won't be able to stop him again."

Severus frowned. "That shouldn't be your job. You're just fifteen. You've already done lots more than most grown-up wizards."

Harry didn't seem to hear him. "Cedric was right there, you know. Next to me. Then Voldemort killed him, and I just stood there."

"Wasn't anything you could do to stop a killing curse," Severus pointed out, certain of his facts in this matter. "Short of throwing yourself in the way."

"I should have done that, then," Harry said, staring glumly into the flames.

This is bad. Severus touched his arm, just below the shoulder. "But then you'd be dead, Harry. And how would Cedric feel about that? He'd think it was his fault you were dead, if he lived that long, and then where would we be?" Harry just continued to stare into the fire. Severus could only hope he had heard and would think about it. "And if you were dead, who would I talk to in the middle of the night? Harry, I'm being completely and totally honest here, so don't tell anyone about it, ok?" Harry's lips twitched. Good. He was listening, then. "I don't want you to die."

"Thanks, Sev," he said quietly.

Severus shrugged. That was way too much sentimentality for one night. Time and past time to lighten the mood. "After all, who would stop people from turning me into a canary if you weren't around?"

At that, Harry did look at him with raised brows. "Stop people? All I promised was that I wouldn't."

"Meanie."

"Scamp."

"Gryffindor."

"Slytherin."

"Jerk."

"Professor Snape."

Pause. "Guess you win that round, huh?"

Severus-Matty had the misfortune of arriving at the doors to the Great Hall at the same time as Severus-Severus the next morning. Being Take One, he didn't realize it at first, but was roughly forced to acknowledge his mistake when Severus-Severus grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him against the wall, hard enough to leave him gasping. Ron jumped immediately to his defense, and Severus-Matty winced as Severus-Severus took a right hook right to the face, and blood began to dribble from his nose. Still, appearances had to be kept up. "Thanks, Ron!" he exclaimed breathlessly and Auror Fletcher took custody of Severus-Severus and marched him toward the teachers table, without giving Ron so much as a reprimand for brawling in the hall.

Harry and Hermione stared after Severus-Severus, then turned to Severus-Matty. "What was that all about?" Harry asked, looking as dumbfounded as he sounded.

"No idea," Severus-Matty answered honestly, still feeling, and -no doubt- looking, shaken. "He just slammed me up against the wall." Then, because he was supposed to be new, and the audience was getting larger by the moment, "Who was that creep?"

"Severus Snape," Harry growled, glaring toward the perpetrator and sounding impressively like he hated Severus-Severus.

"What's his problem?" Severus pulled an obviously-fake-anger-to-hide-embarrassment-and-fear type of tone and expression for the question. He was finding it surprisingly fun to play the victim. James had been pretty good at it, too, though Remus had definitely taken the cake in that skill. Peter wasn't half bad either.

Sure enough, he was getting the whole treatment such an act normally garnered. Concerned looks, offers to carry his bag to the table, more than a few hands to help him up, and an instant set of friends and defenders. The story would no doubt spread and grow in the retelling, until the whole of Gryffindor tower would be ready to look out for him. Several people tried to answer his question all at once, and he couldn't get anything sensible out of the garble of voices. He gave a helpless look to Hermione, who said succinctly, "He is a Death Eater," giving the last two words all the disgust and derision she could ladle into them.

Severus hoped he was a good enough actor that his attempt to make his skin pale worked. He'd never gotten it right in front of the mirror, though, so he rather doubted it. Of course, he'd only tried it as Severus-Severus, and his skin was awfully pale to begin with. He was pretty sure he got the shocked look down, though. It was very easy to over-do shock, but he thought he did it quite well; just a small widening of his eyes, and a little 'o' for his mouth.

McGonagall pushed her way through the still-grwoing crowd. "What happened?" she demanded sternly, though with a definite look of concern for him that Severus had never been on the receiving end of before.

"I didn't do anything, Professor! Snape threw me into the wall and Ron punched him before he could do anything worse. Or explain why." The transfiguration teacher gave Ron a small frown, but she didn't try to punish him either, only asking "Are you all right, Mr. Groves?" Granted Severus-Severus had made the first move, but he was also the only one who ended up bleeding. Severus-Matty pushed this thought away. Severus-Matty was a Gryffindor who'd just been attacked. It was highly unlikely that he should be showing concern about the fact that his friend and defender wasn't getting a detention.

It was just, that punch was going to hurt in a few hours when he lived this again. And he really didn't see any reason why he should throw himself around except that he already had. Time travel was even messier with a timeturner and enemy-doubles of yourself than it was by growing up then taking a time reversal potion. Just when, in what fold of time, had the notion of beating himself up ever seemed like good idea?

"My head hurts," Severus-Matty complained, answering his new Head-of-House with complete honesty. If she thought it was because he bashed it against the wall, that was her mistake, then, wasn't it?

McGonagall's eyes sought out the people around him, and landed on Ron. "Mr. Weasley, why don't you escort Mr. Groves up to the Hospital wing?"

"Yes, Ma'am," he agreed readily, and took Severus by the arm, as if not expecting him to be able to keep his feet without support. Still playing for the sympathy vote of the school, he did not disabuse Ron of the assumption, and let himself be led meekly away. It was something Severus-Severus, or even just-plain-Severus, would never allow to happen, thus setting Matty apart from them in yet another way.

When they were alone, Severus did pull away, and gave him a hard stare. "What did you do that for?"

Ron looked totally lost. "Do what?"

"You punched me!" Severus exclaimed indignantly.

"I didn-" Ron started to defend himself, then stopped, midword. "Oh." He looked sheepish. "Guess I did, huh? Sorry 'bout that."

Severus just looked at him for a few minutes, then couldn't help but start laughing at his friend's expression of befuddled embarrassment. "'Salright," he forgave him, still laughing.

Ron gave him an uncertain half-grin, as if he wasn't really sure what to make of Severus's reaction.

Severus sobered quickly as a thought occured to him, "After all, I did make you guys promise not to treat me any different, and I guess you didn't, huh? Thanks for sticking up for me, even if it was against me. Especially because it was against me. That promise goes for Severus as well as Matty." Was that why he had done it? So he could make this realization? It was a good enough reason to continue the time loop, anyway.

Now he just needed a motive for Severus-Severus.

"Oh, Ron," he said, changing the subject abruptly as a memory (one that he had gained legitimately, not one that floated from nowhere) fell into place. "You're a Weasley, right?"

"Yeah," Ron answered, sounding suddenly wary.

"Aren't you some kind of cousin to Katryna Tragyl?"

The wariness disappeared. "Yeah. Her mum and my dad are cousins. Why?"

"She's in M-my year," he said, remembering at the last moment to use first person possessive rather than Matty's name. Best not to fall into that pattern when wearing Matty's face. "A Slytherin. Rumour has it she's been friendly to Snape lately. Wondered how well you knew her."

"Ginny knows her best. I usually played with Kib when we got together with the Tragyls. They're an odd lot, the Tragyls. Tryna's the only girl of the eight of them, and the youngest. Ginny's the only girl of the seven of us, and the youngest, so they really hit it off. Gin was real disappointed when Tryna got Sorted into Slytherin, and she lost a bag of beans to Clarence over it, too."

"Clarence is her brother, the potions genius," Severus asked, making sure he was remembering right.

Ron smirked, though whether it was because of some memory associated with that Tragyl or because he was amused that the former potions master was calling someone a 'potions genius', Severus couldn't tell. "Yeah. That one's scary."

Severus didn't bother to fight back a grin. "Would that be because he actually enjoyed the company of Professor Snape, or because he just is scary?"

Ron laughed. "Yes."

"What about Katryna? Is she scary?"

Ron shot him an odd look. "Tryna? Nah, she's sweet. Everybody likes her. Even if she is Slytherin."

Severus was surprised. "Everyone? She's friends with Gryffindors and the Slytherins don't ostrasize her?"

Ron shrugged. "She's Tryna," he said as if that explained everything.

They fell into a companionable silence, and Severus turned his thoughts to fabricating Severus's motive for throwing around Matty, finally settling the poor excuse of 'I felt like it'. When interrogated by the professors, he would just give a stony silence or insist that Ron get at least equal punishment, if not more.

Just as they reached they reached the Hospital Wing doors, Severus spoke again, "You know you've made yourself a target for Severus, now, right?"

Ron gave him an odd look.

"He'll want revenge for that punch. He is a Death Eater, after all. Harry said you're pretty good a chess. Between us, we can probably choreograph one of the bittest enemities Hogwarts has ever seen." He grinned up at the much taller boy. "It'll be fun!"

Ron just kind of looked at him, as they stood in front of the Hospital Wing doors. "Anyone ever tell you you're bloody weird, Matty?"

Severus frowned, as though trying to remember. He distinctly recalled both Evan Rosier and Harry Potter telling him so, and Katryna had certainly implied it, but that was Severus, not Matty, so he wasn't sure if they counted. "I think so."

"Well, you are," Ron told him, then pushed the doors opened. After that, the next few minutes were a blur as Madam Pomphrey descended upon them, and Severus tried to explain that he just a little dizzy after hitting his head. He wasn't entirely sure when Ron was shooed away, but ten minutes after arrival, he was alone and sitting in one of the ward beds with a bandage wrapped around his head and the after-taste of some medical potion in his mouth.