Truthfully, the best part about his classes was the challenge of keeping Matty and Severus straight in his head. Which one was supposed to turn in the paper about the accio charm, and which was supposed to turn in the paper about the warming charm? Once, he'd been sitting at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall writing up an essay on the effects of batwings in the hair removal potion, when Katryna dropped down across from him and starting asking about the same potion. He had discreetely hidden his own paper, and changed the name at the top when she left.

He'd had a tight spot when McGonagall had confronted Matty Groves about having the same handwriting as Severus Snape, but a bout of fake tears, and handwriting sample, and a demonstration of his knowledge of the subject proved that it was just a coincidence. By that point, it was too late to change Matty's handwriting, so he just hoped nobody else would notice or that they pass it off as coincidence as easily as McGonagall had. He did start making small differences between the two, though. Being the nicer and more considerate one, he gave Matty the neater version. Relatively neater, anyway. Harry had informed him that even as a teacher, his writing had been the next thing to illegible.

Severus wondered if that should have been especially as a teacher, once he had gotten a look at one of the potions essays Harry had gotten back. In his opinion, even Severus's handwriting was infinitely better than that scrawl of red.

By the time Severus reached the lonely room that served as Severus's bedchamber and cell, he was almost out of breath from walking so quickly. He glanced around to be sure no one was nearby before abruptly telling the auror, "Come in." It was a change from the normal routine, but not new. "We need to talk to the Headmaster again."

Fletcher entered with only a raised eyebrow. When the door was securely closed, locked, and sealed against eavesdropping. Severus made a beeline to the floo powder. He changed his appearance to Matty's as his hand passed over his face as it lowered from the mantle over the fireplace. He tossed the powder in and called out "Headmaster's office!" and stepped into the flames.

The Headmaster's office was empty of guests. Only Dumbledore and Fawkes were present. Severus smiled at the bird as he stepped away from the fireplace, making room for Fletcher's entrance. "Hi, Fawkes, Uncle Albus," he greeted them easily.

"Hello, child," Dumbledore greeted him back. His 'uncle' had taken him to calling him 'child' most of the time. Severus guessed it was because he wasn't sure what he was supposed to called his adopted child - his adopted child's name, or his adopted child's real name. Only when the young wizard wore Severus's face did the Headmaster call him by name.

"Mr. Fletcher's coming," Severus gave warning only a moment before it became obvious.

"Hello, Mundungus," Dumbledore welcomed the auror warmly.

"Albus," Fletcher nodded back. "Snape wanted to say something."

Both adults turned toward him, and by their momentarily surprised looks, they hadn't expected him to switch faces again while their attention was turned.

"Is something wrong, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, already starting to sound worried.

"Not wrong exactly," Severus answered, taking one of the comfortable chairs facing the Headmaster's desk. "Unless you count Katryna Tragyl being a Dark Lord supporter as something wrong."

"It is wrong," the Headmaster disagreed immediately, "You must be mistaken. None on Waltr and Keri's children would do that."

Severus shook his head, certain of the girl's loyalties at last. He spoke his proof very clearly. "In three days time, she will have been responible for Severus Snape's escape from Hogwarts." He sat back in the chair and watched his 'uncle.'

Dumbledore's face was set in disbelief, but slowly sadness and disappointment mixed into it. Severus was secretly glad that, for once, those emotions were not caused by him. Then consternation crowded out all three. "Severus Snape's escape? You intend to return to Voldemort, then?"

Severus nodded, half afraid Dumbledore would veto it. As Matty's guardian, the old wizard almost had the right to do so. "I have to, sir! Katryna is getting a message to him so he knows to expect me!"

The Headmaster winced as if from a blow. "She is corresponding directly to Voldemort?"

"Kind of. Sort of. Not really. She's using her grandmother to get the message to him."

"I knew it!" Both Dumbledore and Severus looked over at the auror, almost having forgot he was present. "That woman's a Death Eater, too. I tried to tell my captain, when we took in her husband, but there wasn't anything on her."

"Actually," Severus said, "Tryna insists her grandfather was actually innocent."

The auror snorted. "Innocent. That bastard told the whole court that he wished Voldemort had killed his own son and grandchildren."

Severus made a face. "Ok, 'innocent' might be a bit strong. 'Not a Death Eater,' then."

The auror made an unconvinced sound, but Severus wasn't interested in clearing the man's name, so he let it drop. "Matty's going to have to get really sick. Either taken away to St. Mungo's, or put in Isolation here. What might keep him there for an unknown length of time, though?"

"Except for some serious Quiddich injuries, or Basilisk petrifications, most people are out of the hospital wing in only a day."

Severus barely heard him. His mind was whirling with the two things he knew better than everyone else his age. Curses and potions. Almost every curse had a fairly simple counter curse. The exceptions were the Unforgivables but he wasn't about to hit himself with a crucio just to get Matty sent to the Hospital for a few days. Especially since Matty would need to stay in the Hospital for a few days.

Potions then. Some non-fatal poison that lasts a long time, but there is no known antidote to. Something he could easily fake the symptoms of. All Severus would have to do was taunt Matty with the fact that he had already been poisoned, and that was what was happening to him, as the effects started to take hold. The wandless disguising charm that he had perfected over the last two and a half weeks could be invaluable here.

"Melting poison," he decided. "Painful, looks awful. Matty can understandably insist nobody come to see him. Incurable until it runs its course on its own. Madam Pomphrey can treat the symptoms so his face doesn't fall off, but that'll make him nausous and exhausted. He'll be out of classes for days or weeks. The affliction length is variable, depending on the dosage. With just a few drops, it'll only be a few hours, but if he gets more, it could be months. You, Harry, Ron, and Hermione can be allowed to visit but nobody else. Madam Pomphrey will have to be let into my secret, though. If Katryna needs a distraction, it'll serve for that, too. You can't do better than someone's skin stretching into grotesque patterns to draw people's attention."

Even Fletcher looked impressed by the plan.

"Obviously, Severus is going to take the blame, but he'll have disappeared in the confusion. He might even hit Auror Fletcher with a stupify while his guard is momentarily distracted by the commotion at the Gryffindor table, giving Severus and Tryna time to get out and away," Severus continued.

Fletcher looked about to protest, but Severus spoke over him, "We need to get away from you, and it seems more likely we can do that if you're unconscious."

"You may try, but that chase will be real."

Severus shrugged. Then he abruptly brought his knuckles against the heel of his other hand, as he had practiced with Remus, and the man dropped unconscious to the floor. "Not a problem, sir."

"Severus," the Headmaster said warningly.

Severus lowered his head momentarily. "Sorry, sir." He looked at the fallen auror. "Envenerate!"

Fletcher stirred, and climbed back to his feet. When he looked at Severus, the boy was surprised to see a trace of fear in those hard brown eyes. The same fear he had seen in both Black and Remus when they had seen him perform wandless magic. And Remus had even been warned beforehand. His lessons with his former schoolmate and current professor were going well except in one respect: When he got something right, Severus had come to expect nervous silence and a nod instead of praise. One would think the alleged werewolf would have gotten used to it by now. So much for him being a big scary magical creature, getting scared by a little wandless magic.

"He is still human, Mundungus," the headmaster said, apparently out of nowhere. Severus was confused by the statement. Who was still human? Remus? But the two of them weren't privy to his thoughts, so why would Remus get brought up?

"No human child - no human forty-year-old, for that matter - can do that!"

Oh. He was still the topic of conversation.

"Severus, didn't I tell you not to do that in front of people?" Dumbledore chided gently.

"Yes, Headmaster," he answered, looking like the guilty schoolboy he was. And he did feel regret. Even though he trusted Fletcher not to tell Voldemort about his ability, he didn't really trust him. The man hated him, after all. Revealing a secret like that was pretty stupid, for just a few moments of fun. He looked up suddenly. "Clarence doesn't know!"

Both adults looked lost by the non-sequitor. "Doesn't know what, child?"

"About," he waved his hand around to indicate the wandless magic, then flicked on the lumos spell to further demonstrate, "this. For the potion." At their continued blank expressions, he added, "He's making an antidote."

Understanding nods met this clarification. "Ah," Dumbledore said.

"He knows about the other side effects, but not this one."

"I would advise you not to tell him," the Headmaster said after a few moments' consideration.

"But that could jeopardize the effectiveness of the antidote!"

"Severus," Dumbledore began, and Severus had never seen him look more solemn. "I want you to think about this very carefully. Do you want an antidote? You know some of what your life was like before."

Severus opened his mouth to say that, yes, of course, he wanted to be grown-up again, but then he stopped.

"Take your time, Severus, and think about it. Think long and hard on it."

Severus nodded. "I will," he promised.

"Good, now why don't we get Poppy in her and explain the deception she must take part in."

Severus nodded again as Dumbledore went to the fire place to ask if she could come up to his office at her earliest convenience. She promised she'd be right there, and a moment later, she had stepped out of the flames.

She appeared mildly surprised to see Severus in the Headmaster's office without a scowl on his face, but she pleasantly said hello to all present. Severus politely returned the greeting, garnering himself another odd look. Severus sighed, and by so doing, apparently claimed control of opening the discussion. All three were looking at him, Dumbledore and Fletcher expectantly, Madam Pomphrey curiously.

"Well, I guess I'll start at the top. You know I wanted to be a spy, right?"

She blinked, then understanding filled her features, and she smiled at him as though he had just told her she was his long-lost mother. "I knew you couldn't be so bad as you were acting!" Severus was more than a little astonished when she swept him into a hug. Then just as suddenly, she pulled away, and crossed her arms. "But that still doesn't justify what you've done to poor Matty these past few weeks!"

Severus didn't even try to surpress the smirk this remark generated. Her scowled deepened, but he just raised a hand - "Severus!" the headmaster's surprisingly sharp voice froze him in mid-movement. He glanced in startlement toward the old wizard, who was tapping his wand against his desk. Wand! Right! It had been so long since he'd used the wand for this transformation, that he'd completely forgotten about the very recent lesson about revealing secrets. Though, he would trust Madam Pomphrey equally as far as he would the Headmaster.

He pulled out his own ebony wand and cast the spells, once he remembered what the appropriate words were. "Actually, Madam Pomphrey, I treated Matty no different than I would myself." It was somewhat disappointing that she looked to the Headmaster before believing him.

"It's true, Poppy, Matty and Severus are one and the same person." Severus gave her what he privately called 'Matty's manipulative 'cute' smile' when she turned back to look at him. Dumbledore continued, "He has a time turner so he can be in two places at once."

He looked at his watch and confirmed, "Right now I am also in the Gryffindor Common Room, doing my Arithmancy homework with Hermione's help, or, at least, that's what I plan to be doing now. She said she'd help me at eight-thirty." He held his wand to his temple again, and switched back to Severus. "Anyway, why we needed to tell you this. In three days, I'm going back to him." At her look of confusion, he tried to explain, "You know. Him." Severus didn't really know what to called him. 'Voldemort' seemed too informal. 'Lord Voldemort,' too respectful. 'Mr. Voldemort' was just plain weird.

"You-Know-Who?" Madam Pomphrey asked fearfully. Which was exactly why he wouldn't used that form of address either. It sounded too scared of him.

"Yes. I'm going to spy on him in three days, but I need to do something about Matty, because he can't just disappear without a trace at the same time Severus does. It would be suspicious." The mediwitch nodded agreement, though she frowned slightly when he spoke of himself in the third person. He'd gotten used to that reaction, though, so he plunged on. "So Severus is going to poison Matty. Melting poison. He'll be stuck in the Hospital wing for as long as he has to be. Only visitors will be the Headmaster, Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Matty won't want anybody else to see him like that."

"Melting poison! No, Severus!"

"I won't actually take any! I'll fake the symptoms, then when everyone leaves me alone, I'll switch to Severus, timeturn back, and get out of there."

Madam Pomphrey shook her head, "You can't fake -" she stopped, though, when Severus touched his face and the skin started to sag alarmingly. Her eyes widened, and she dug frantically into the carry bag that she never left the Hospital Wing without.

Severus ended the illusion, and said calmly, "I can fake it." She looked up again, and his face was normal once more. "Facial illusion is my best spell these days. I've cast it every four hours, forty-eight hours a day, seven days a week, two and a half weeks running now, excepting when I'm asleep."

"Albus, that amount of time-turner use is not healthy on a child."

Severus pressed his lips together. "Good thing I'm going away in three days, then, huh?"

He was soundly ignored, "Unhealthy how, Poppy?"

"It could seriously unbalance his physical and mental - oh." The mediwitch blushed. "He's already unbalanced in that respect. It might actually help him. If he continues using a time turner on that scale, he could, after a number of years, considerably narrow the gap between how old he is and how old he should be. An hour lived is an hour grown, regardless of whether two of those hours happen to be the same one." She looked at Severus severely, "I hope you are getting a corresponding increase in your sleeping habits, or you might not grow as tall as you did the first time."

Severus sighed. "Guess I should get used to being the short one, then."