"Professor? Professor Snape!" I say frantically, shaking his shoulder. It's several moments before he stirs. He groans and pushes himself into a sitting position. He doesn't seem to quite understand I'm there yet; he must have been hit pretty hard with a stunning spell. Snape brushes back his hair with his hand, looks up, and his black eyes meet my brown ones.

"Avery! What are you doing here?" he gasps. "How did you find this place?"

"I followed you," I say, trembling. "Who cursed you?"

"Did you not see them? How did you miss them?"

"Some people left this house through the passage and I hid from them and watched them. It was Harry Potter and his two friends and Professor Lupin? And two people I didn't recognize. Did they do this to you?"

"Those little Gryffindor rats all stunned me at once," Snape growls. "And those people with them were none other than Sirius Black and a friend of his. I was trying to arrest them when I was stunned."

"Oh god," I whisper. "Sirius Black? I knew he had been friends with Lupin and Harry's father but from what Lupin told me, he hated Sirius now! Are they working together?"

"Evidentially so," Snape hisses. "I must go after them." He climbed to his feet, mostly recovered from the stunning spell. I'm slightly dumbfounded. I was friends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I had trusted Professor Lupin. And to find out they had all betrayed me was disturbing.

"Let me help, what can I do?" I ask, following Snape out of the room.

"It is too dangerous, you are going back to the castle. Black has gotten your mother, I can't risk you," Snape says harshly as we head down the stairs and into the main floor of the house.

"But that is the reason I have to help get him! He killed my mother, Professor! Let me avenge her!"

"No! I will not allow it." Snape opens the trapdoor and climbs down. I follow close behind and have to run slightly to keep up as he strides down the tunnel.

I try arguing more, but his answer remains firmly no.

"How will you make sure I get back to the castle? Let me come with you and you can watch me more carefully," I protest.

"I have ways," Snape replies without even a glance towards me. "Expecto patronum." Something silvery burst from the tip of Snape's wand and was off and gone in an instant.

"What was that?" I ask.

"A message," he replies.

When we reach the end of the tunnel, we are met by someone.

"Alb- Professor Dumbledore, sir." Snape says after glancing at me. I'm glad my message met you in time."

"Oh yes, Severus. Now, would you all care to explain to me why you just left the passage in the Whomping Willow?"

"Just a misunderstanding gone wrong," Snape says smoothly. "Sir, if you would please accompany Avery to the castle, I do believe she is not the only student out tonight and I have taken it upon myself to track down the others."

"And is Avery not capable of walking up herself?" Dumbledore asks. I flick my eyes between Dumbledore and Snape, not daring interfere.

"Sir, I will explain all when I return to the castle, but I have reason to believe the grounds are not safe tonight. Just- take Avery to the castle, I trust only you to- to keep my daughter safe."

Dumbledore raises his eyebrows, but doesn't say a word. He only beckons me to follow him. I take another look at Snape, glaring at him in the dark, before reluctantly following the headmaster.

*****************

I didn't expect Dumbledore and I to have any trouble going up to the castle and I'm right. Nothing comes after us, no murderers are spotted, etc. I don't speak to the headmaster, and hope this doesn't come across as rude. Instead, I'm fuming with internalized rage at the betrayal of some of my closest friends at Hogwarts. How could they? Why would they side with Black, or dare stun Snape? They know what Sirius has done to my family! And Lupin . . . I don't even know where to begin.

Once safe inside the castle, Dumbledore says, "You've had a very stressful night, I'm sure. Why don't you come with me to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey can give you a potion and you can sleep soundly tonight."

I don't know what good this will do, but I have a feeling Dumbledore knows more about tonight than he's letting on, and I follow him. However, all I want right now is to be in my own bed.

I'm the only person in the hospital wing and that just means that Madam Pomfrey has no one to fuss over except for me. I do as I'm told and climb into a bed, however, I refuse the potion and promise to take it only when I'm ready to sleep.

I am finally left alone, but it doesn't last long. After only being by myself for a few minutes, a mass of people come in. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all unconscious and are being carried by magic by Snape and Dumbledore.

Madame Pomfrey jumps into action, bustling around and tending to the three of them. Harry and Hermione appear to be physically okay, but Ron's leg is badly mangled up.

Snape comes to my side.

"Everything will be fine," he says reassuringly, while looking considerably happier than earlier. "We have Black captured and he will be . . . taken care of, you might say."

"Good," I reply quietly. "He deserves it. What about the others?"

Snape glances towards the others, making sure we are not overheard.

"I believe Black had the children under a Confundus charm, explaining their actions, but they will possibly still face punishment for leaving the castle at night. As for Professor Lupin, he will most likely be let go from his teaching position, in the very least," Snape tells me quietly.

"He was such a good teacher, I don't know what happened," I say miserably.

"Obviously something went wrong. Don't blame yourself for not catching it," he replies, standing up. "I have things to attend too, try to rest."

As Snape leaves I grab the cup of potion next to my bed, drink it all in one swig, roll over onto my side, and fall asleep.

I sleep soundly all night and awake to find sunlight streaming in the hospital wing and Harry, Ron, and Hermione all sitting up in their beds, talking.

"Morning!" Harry says cheerfully. "How'd you end up here?"

"Same as you," I reply. Harry looks surprised, and the other two turn to look at me.

"Dementors?" Harry asks.

"No? I went to that old abandoned house and saw all of you last night, I follow Professor Snape there. I was brought up here so I could take a potion and sleep better, I was told. So here I am."

"Wait, you were in the Shrieking Shack?" Hermione asked. "Where? When?"

"While you were all upstairs. And I was hiding when you left but I saw you leave. What do you all have to say for yourselves?" I demand.

"What?" Harry asks. "What do you mean?"

"Why were you with Black? Don't you know what he's done?" My voice starts to rise. "You know he's killed people! You even know he killed my mother! Why were you with him, or were you really confunded like they were saying?"

"We have some things we really should tell her," Ron says, grimacing.

"We weren't confunded," Hermione says. "And Sirius is not a murderer. We thought he was too, until we heard the whole story."

"Then he lied to you all! What'd he tell you?"

"He didn't lie," Harry says calmly. "Sirius Black is not responsible for any of the deaths but they were wrongly blamed on him. Even my parents deaths. He would never have betrayed my father to Voldemort, somebody else did."

"Tell me everything, and why I should believe it," I say stubbornly.

"There are rumors that You-Know-Who is coming back," Hermione says. "His old followers are becoming more active, killing people once again. Sirius did escape from Azkaban, but he has not been killing anybody. The people actually doing the killing have just been blaming it on him because he escaped Azkaban and supposedly has a history with murder. He was an easy scapegoat."

"The person he supposedly killed after betraying my parents is actually still alive, and Sirius never tried to kill him, the man faked his own death to blame Sirius," Harry continues. "We know because that man was here last night, he was probably one of the strangers you saw in the shack."

The second stranger. Harry's right, I did see him.

"So, You-Know-Who's followers have been killing people and blaming Black?" I ask, to clarify.

"Yes," says Ron, finally speaking up. "They call themselves Death Eaters. They've been killing wizards and muggles."

"Death Eaters killed my mum," I say quietly. "Snape used to be a Death Eater, right?" I ask quietly.

"Yes, that's true," says Hermione, confused. "What does he have to do with this?"

"Everything." I launch out of my bed and madly dash out of the room, the three others staring after me in bewilderment.