This was hardly the way to pay him back for his friendship.

Katryna told herself that Severus would have probably done something unpleasant to him anyway. Or so she tried, until she saw her classmate's face start to melt. Other students started screaming, and Katryna pulled on all of her reserves to tear her eyes away from the repulsive sight. As distractions go, it was brilliant, the Slytherin part of her brain cheered, as it instructed her wand hand to rise and cast stupify at the Auror.

The Gryffindor part of her brain called her twenty kinds of slime for being an accomplice to this.

She didn't watch for the Auror to fall, only slipped her wand back into her robes and slid silently away from the crowd. Severus would meet her in the charms classroom where she had secreted her Nimbus 2002 just outside the window. Hovering there, since the classroom was on the second floor. She had no sooner opened the window and pulled the broomstick inside when Severus arrived.

"Here," she said, turning over the broom. "Fletcher's an Auror, and he might not stay stunned long. You'd better go quickly."

He nodded silently and mounted the broom.

"Remember, Dumbledore will forgive you when you realize this is a mistake," she added, before he could take off. She'd said when rather than if to bolster her own conscience. But after today's display with Matty, it was an increasingly small hope that she wasn't just sending out another Death Eater into the world.

He gave her an odd look, but nodded.

"Bye. Good luck!" she called after him as he kicked off, and flew threw the window, making a beeline toward the Forest. When he disappeared from view, she turned her steps to the gargoyle behind which her older brothers told her was the Headmaster's office. Not knowing the password, she sat down beside it to wait.

The first one to arrive after her was a furious looking, enverated Auror Fletcher. Her stomach twisted in guilt. She, Katryna Tragyl, had stunned an Auror in the escape of a known Death Eater from custody. With difficulty, she swallowed back the lump of fear in her throat. Oh, she was soo dead. His gaze fell on her, and somehow she knew he knew what she'd done. "I'm sorry," she whispered, starting to shake.

He grabbed a handful of her robes, just over her shoulder, and pulled her to her feet. Without a word, he roughly grabbed her left wrist and shoved her sleeve back.

The Dark Mark. He was looking for the Dark Mark. On her. Her shaking intensified. "I'm not a Dark Witch," she told him in a scared voice, knowing he had every reason to doubt her. She was a Slytherin. Her Grandfather was in Azkaban for the self-same crime. She was friends with Severus and had helped him go to Voldemort. What wasn't against her? (Oh, no, I can't be a Dark Witch, my mother was a Weasley. That'll go over well.) Even if she did live through this without getting sent to Azkaban or expelled, she wasn't ever going to be trusted again.

The auror grunted, confirming her fears.

He spoke the password "Gumdrops" and pushed her onto the spiraling stairwell. It was just as well, she was shaking bad enough that she doubted her legs would hold her weight without his hold on her.

Terror seized her when the stepped into the office proper and she saw Headmaster Dumbledore looking at her. He wasn't at all happy or grandfatherly looking right now. She backed away, but only managed to bump into the Auror. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she repeated, not quite crying, but not far from it. She wasn't sure what, exactly, she was apologizing for. Aside from what happened to Matty, which wasn't her fault, there wasn't anything that she'd change if she could go back to fix things.

Still, that was what was bothering her the most. "Is Matty going to be all right?"

The Headmaster's blue eyes seemed to flay her and read every transgression on her heart. If she wasn't backed up against Fletcher, with his hand grasped around her upper arm, she might have tried to flee. "Matty could be in the hospital wing for months, Miss Tragyl. There is no cure for the poison he was given."

Katryna flinched visibly, and made a conscious effort not to start crying. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Please, believe me, I had no part in that." She wasn't sure who she was trying to convince more. Dumbledore, Fletcher, or herself.

"Then why are you apologizing for it?" Dumbledore asked, the weight of those blue eyes making her feel like she was getting buried under tons and tons of snow.

She felt the auror's grip tighten in anticipation of her answer. "Because I instigated the events leading to it. Severus wouldn't have done something so obvious if it weren't for the distraction needed for my plan."

"And which plan was this?"

Katryna bit her lower lip. Here it was. The point where she gets sent to Azkaban to meet her Grandfather for the first time. But she wasn't half Gryffindor for nothing. "The one to get Severus back to Voldemort," she answered honestly, flinching a little at the dark lord's name.

"That was your plan."

She nodded, too frightened to speak again. The auror's hand was almost tight enough to cut off circulation in her arm.

"Why, Miss Tragyl?"

This was her one chance to avoid prison. "Because he needed to. Because he wasn't going to turn back to the right side by being trapped here where every foul look he gets just convinces him that he's already lost. Because he can't find the thing that turned him back to the light without going to the dark. Because I trust you and you say he'll turn back again. Because Severus isn't bad. Because Clarence looks up to him. Because Clarence won't have the cure for a while. Because it's not our right to make Severus's decisions for him, even if he's already made them once. Because Severus isn't Professor Snape. He's nicer, and he's grief-stricken, and he's confused. But he can't work it out here. You can't make someone be good by punishing them like you have been. Epiphanies don't happen without new data."

"You consider yourself to be on the side of light in this, do you, Miss Tragyl?"

She closed her eyes. "I hope so." Opening them again, she met Dumbledore's chill blue gaze and stood straighter. "I am not a Dark Witch, sir. I am not a follower of Voldemort."

"And yet you do not report Dark Wizards or Witches when you find them, and you actively help in their escape." The cold words rumbled from close behind her, rather than from Dumbledore.

She frowned. "You already knew Severus was a Death Eater. You were the one who started that rumour, Auror. And I already gave you my reasons for helping him."

"You know of no others?" Fletcher asked disbelievingly.

She knew fidgeting would only make her look guilty. This wasn't just a prank she had been caught at, this was real life and the stakes were death or Azkaban. This wasn't her mother and father judging her. It was Headmaster Dumbledore and an honest-to-Merlin Auror. She fidgeted. "No. No others," she lied. When Severus turned good, both herself and her Grandmother would be lost, but she couldn't directly betray the old witch. Gran trusted her. And so did the handful of students who had either accidently or on purpose led her to believe or know that their loyalties laid in the darker regions of the world.

"Miss Tragyl," the Headmaster said, warning clear in his voice. He must have seen through her admittedly poor job of lying.

Feeling cornered, desperate, and put upon, she snapped in a sudden pique of anger, "Yes, I do, alright? But I'm not telling. Unlike Professor Snape, I don't betray my friends!" Her eyes widened in terror, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Oh, Merlin. Oh, Merlin. Not only had she admitted to helping Death Eaters, but now she was calling Snape a traitor in front of Dumbledore. Her shaking, which had begun to subside, returned full force. "I didn't mean it that way," she whispered, voice and eyes pleading that Dumbledore understand.

The Headmaster sighed, almost in defeat. "Miss Tragyl, I am going to call in your parents and Head of House."

"I haven't a Head of House," she said, still whispering. Her heart pounded in horror and fear. She was about to be expelled and Professor Snape wasn't even here to defend her.

Dumbledore frowned. "Professor Zmiya -"

"- Isn't my Head of House. Professor Snape is. Failing him, Clarence."

The Headmaster blinked. "Clarence?"

She nodded. "Since Professor Snape ceased being a Professor, a lot of Slytherins have brought complaints that they'd normally bring to Snape to Clarence. He's a Prefect and can usually help. When he can't, he goes to Flitwick in our behalf. His nickname in the Snake's Den - and now the rest of the school - isn't Snape Junior for nothing, sir."

"A sixth year Ravenclaw prefect," Dumbledore began in wonder, the faint stirrings of his normal demeanor returning. "Whose other half is a Gryffindor. Is the unofficial Acting Head of Slytherin House."

Tryna shrugged. "He doesn't favour us like Snape did, but he is impartial. Even in those rare occassions when the dispute is with Ravenclaw."

"So you would like Clarence here in addition to your parents and Professor Zmiya."

The welcome distraction was short lived. She squeezed her eyes closed and curled as much into a fetal position as Fletcher's restraining hold allowed. She nodded jerkily, her straight, white blond hair falling forward to hide her face. Dumbledore invited her into one of the chairs while she waited, but she didn't think Fletcher would willingly release her, not after loosing Severus, so she wordlessly declined with a shake of her head.

Clarence arrived first. He smiled at Dumbledore, "I came as soon as Clarence Take 3 popped into existance beside me. Zmiya should be up in a little while once Take 3 convinces him he can handle the class alone." Then he turned to Katryna, and his expression turned impassive. "Tell me what happened, Tree."

She straightened and met his green eyes with her pale blue ones. "I had my session with him, like you knew about." Clarence nodded, not finding it at all hard to realize that the 'him' in this case was Severus. "And he talked about his parents, a little, not much. We got distracted, and started talking about Voldemort." Clarence frowned, but did not otherwise condemn her. Yet. "I asked him what he wanted, and he said he just needed to get out of Hogwarts. I asked him where he would go, and he said to Voldemort. Then . . . I said I'd help."

Clarence closed his eyes and released an audible breath of air through his nose. He looked mildly sick. "Tryna." He sounded hurt and helpless.

"I'm not dark, Clarence." Please, believe me. Please?

"What happened next?" When his eyes opened, his face was as blank as Snape's ever was. She felt as if someone had sliced into her gut with something cold. He didn't believe her. Her own brother didn't believe her. Clarence. The one who idolized Professor Snape when everyone else believed Snape was a Death Eater.

"So we planned his escape. He came up with the distraction, I hit the Auror with a stupify. I gave Severus my broom, and he was gone, out through the Charm's room window and into the Forbidden Forest. Then I came to Dumbledore to confess."

The hand still holding her arm jerked her around to look into the angry eyes of the auror. "You? You were the one who stunned me?"

She flinched back, but didn't make it very far. "Yes," she said in a small voice.

"And where, Tryna, is the part that tells me why you shouldn't join Grandfather? This isn't a game, Katryna. Do you know what poison Matty got hit with? Do you know what crimes that kid who used to be Professor Snape can do now?"

She retreated from the harsh voice she barely recognized as her brother's. But there was nowhere to retreat to, except back up against the auror.

"He'll turn again," she said, more to herself than anybody else. It was the only thing that could fight off the guilt. Because Severus Snape belonged on Dumbledore's side and what she did was the best way to get him there. "He has to turn. He did it before." She hadn't done anything wrong. Well, not unless Severus became a real bad guy and never turned. Then she was indirectly responsible for every crime he committed. Like poisoning Matty. "I'm sorry."

Clarence closed his eyes, looking sick again, and shook his head. "No, Tryna. You're not. That's your 'I'm-scared-don't-punish-me' sorry, not your 'I-am-really-sorry' sorry."

She blinked in surprise, not having been aware she had two types of sorry. Nor that Clarence could tell them apart. Though she did mentally concede he was right. That would probably explain why she couldn't figure out what she was apologizing for.

Her parents and Zmiya arrived at almost the same time from different directions. The Tragyls came through the floo, from the special ministry fire that was the only floo connection that allowed approved wizards or witches to floo into Hogwarts, while Zmiya entered through the more traditional entrance, the office door.

"Daddy!" Tryna exclaimed as soon as her father appeared, breaking from the auror's grip in her singleminded mission to bury herself into her father's embrace. Waltr Tragyl was most accomodating in this pursuit. As soon as his arms enclosed around her, she began to sob, releasing all the tears of terror and guilt that she had until now held back.

He rubbed soothing circle on her back, as she buried her face into his robes and cried helplessly. He spoke softly to her, but whatever words he used, she couldn't distiguish. Not that they mattered.

Her outburst only lasted less than a minute, before she pulled away from the wet spot she left on his front. She did not, however, leave his side or let go of him. Looking up into his face, searching it for she knew not what, she said only, "I'm not a dark witch."

"Of course not, baby," he assured her, and the world was right again. Her father believed her.

She dropped her head against him in relief. "Don't let them send me to Azkaban."

"Of course not, baby."

"Father, you haven't even heard what she did."

She felt him stiffen under her. "She is your sister, Firetop. I should think that would be proof enough."

"So by that logic, Uncle Sividious is a completely innocent man?"

"Clarence!" their mother exclaimed sharply, but her lecture couldn't continue over their father's retort. "My brother is an entirely different case. And do watch who you say such things in front of, boy." Tryna lifted her head in time to see her father shot a pointed look at Fletcher. The auror frowned suspiciously at her father, who scowled right back at him. "Sividious has been under suspicion for over twenty years, Auror. That shouldn't be news to you."

Tryna pulled on her father's robe, and he bent down so she could whisper in his ear. "When Severus turns good again, Gran is going to be arrested."

He retreated far enough to give her a curious look. "Why?" he asked aloud, then bent forward for her to whisper to him again.

"She's a Death Eater. She told me, and I told Severus."

Again he backed up, looking at her with a strange expression that she couldn't really pick out emotions from. "She's a what? She told you that?"

Tryna nodded. "She likes me for some reason."

"Well you can't see her anymore."

"Daddy!" Tryna exclaimed in surprised betrayal. "I was getting information about Severus's problem!"

"That's where you got that from?" Clarence joined the argument. She wasn't very surprised that he had worked out what they were talking about. "I thought Snape told you!"

"How would Severus know? He just drank the bloody thing! And he doesn't even remember that!"

A shrill whistle fractured the air of the headmaster's office, making most of the inhabitants, including Fawkes and Headmasters and Headmistresses Past, flinch and cover their ears. Having gained everyone's undivided attention, Keri Tragyl said, quite calmly, "Would one of you three mind sharing with the rest of the class?"

"No," Tryna and her father said together sullenly.

"Grandmother Tragyl is a Death Eater," Clarence answered. "Tryna just told Father." For his trouble he gained two glares, one open mouthed gape, a moderately lost frown, a slightly disturbed twinkle, and a smug smile.

"She's ours this time," Fletcher somehow managed a growl that sounded gleeful.

"No proof unless Tryna helps," Clarence pointed out regretfully, then returned a glare to his sister. "Which she is evidently against doing."

She glared right back, staying stubbornly silent.

"Proof is overrated," Fletcher disagreed with the Ravenclaw. "We just need a look at her arm."

"Then why didn't you do that for Grandfather?" Tryna demanded. "He was innocent!" Father and even Mum nodded their agreement to this assessment. Keri added under her breath, "A Slytherin drunk and bastard, but innocent."

Fletcher scowled at Tryna, and she had the distinct impression she was little better than a Death Eater herself in his eyes. "After Harry Potter defeated Voldemort the first time, all the Dark Marks faded to invisibility."

"As fascinating as all this is, why was I called from my class?" Zmiya interrupted irritably.

"Oh, yes," Dumbledore said absentmindedly. "We were going to discuss Miss Tragyl's offense. As she is a Slytherin, you were called as her official Acting Head of House, while Clarence was her chosen unofficial Acting Head of House."

"What did the little troublemaker do this time?"

Tryna frowned, offended. She hadn't be caught once making trouble in Zmiya's class. He had no right to call her a troublemaker.

"Miss Tragyl, would you care to explain again?"

"Why not? Well, first of all, I helped Severus Snape get back to Voldemort." She didn't even flinch this time when she said the name. "Additionally, I know the names of some other Death Eaters, and I won't tattle. Oh, and I stunned an Auror during the escape. I think that covers it?" she glanced at Dumbledore, asserting that she did mention all of the major crimes arrayed against her. With the arrival of her father, most of her fear had dissipated, and now she was just impatient to learn her punishment.

Keri Tragyl was looking at her daughter in something akin to horror. Clarence and Fletcher were frowning at her again. Zmiya was blinking rapidly. Dumbledore looked sadly resigned. Father . . . Father had cocked his head while he listened, then turned to Dumbledore. "None of these things make her a Dark Witch."

"Waltr! She stunned an auror and helped a Death Eater escape!"

Her father lightly wrapped her arms around her protectively and supportively. "And I am certain she had a very good reason to do so. Didn't you, sweetie?"

"He's supposed to turn back to our side," Tryna explained. "He won't do that from here. He's got to work it out for himself that Voldemort is wrong, and he can't when our side is being so awful to him. Me and Clarence were the only ones who spoke civilly to him."

"Clarence and I," Keri corrected automatically.

Tryna, through long practice, ignored her easily. "And then there's the fact that he's mentally only twelve. Twelve, people. A little second year. I'm a year older and about four inches taller than him. How quickly everyone forgot how polite and nice he was those first days before he disappeared. Do we even know he went of his own volition? He's confused and lost in time and his parents are dead because the ministry killed them. Then he comes back to Hogwarts with an auror guard who hates him and a thirteen year old and two or three fifteen year old - not to speak poorly of Matty after what happened today, but - they were awful to the poor kid. Sev wanted to get out of here, and I, for one, don't blame him at all." She favoured everyone in the room except Fawkes and her father with a glare.

Her father smirked down at her. "Haven't you enough brothers without adopting more?"

"But I haven't a little brother, Father," Katryna pointed out primly. "Nor one with black hair."

"Hmm. Perhaps your mother and I should do something about that."

By the dark look Keri Tragyl leveled at her husband, this did not seem to have very good odds. "Mum says no. Can I keep Severus?"

"Sweetie, in your effort to help him, I fear you've overlooked something." Her father looked at her solemnly, all hint of his earlier teasing gone. "Now that Severus has gone to Voldemort he has three options. Well, no, I take that back. He has two options. To stay there and become what everyone expects of him. Or to try to leave. If he attempts the latter, there are two possible outcomes. One is far more likely than the other. The unlikely one is that he makes it back to Hogwarts safely and isn't killed by either the aurors hunting him or the Death Eaters he has betrayed yet again. The likely one is that he dies trying. As you said, he is twelve. Two years younger than Kib. Can you see Kib escaping the dark lord intact?"

It had never occurred to her that he could die. She denied the possibility. He was Severus Snape, after all. "You don't know him, Dad. He's almost as smart as Clarence -"

"Smarter," Clarence corrected, and flushed as everyone turned to look at him. "Well, as an adult, anyway."

Katryna nodded, taking the interruption as assistance, and continued, "Which makes him much brighter than Kib. Plus, he's Slytherin, so he won't do anything stupidly Gryffindor like telling Voldemort off when he realizes he's made a mistake. He'll just have his quiet little epiphany, then get away."

Her father shook his head sadly, but did not deny the possiblity of what she described. Then he looked at Dumbledore. "I believe we have established that her motives were pure. Give her a term's worth of detention and a hundred points from Slytherin for the inconvience. Oh, and I suppose I'll revoke her Hogsmeade priviledges for the year."

"Daddy!"

He waved a finger at her. "You're the one who fell in with Death Eaters. I understand from the Midget that Harry Potter gets a great deal of detentions and lost house points for interferring."

"But Harry Potter always gets them back at the end of the year! For interferring!"

Her father laughed. "Well, you'll just need to interfere again, and do it right next time. It might even clear your name, little Missy."

Dumbledore's twinkle had almost completely returned when he clapped his hands and said cheerfully, "Well, it's decided then! One hundred points from Slytherin, detention until end of term, and withdrawl of Hogsmeade priviledges."

Katryna sighed. It was better than Azkaban, so she wasn't going to complain.

She wasn't about to bring up her silence on the names of her Death Eater friends, family, and acquaintances, either.