Archive of Our Own

Title: Chemistry 306
Author nwhiker
Pairing: Severus Snape/Sirius Black
Rating: PG-13
Length: About 6 kwords.
Disclaimer: Jo's world. Not mine. Alas!

Chemistry 306

Seaside, Washington State, USA, July 2nd 2007

"Fucking summer school!" groaned the young blonde man, as he stomped down the pathway to his first class, a chem lab and class that would last four to six hours.

"Hey, at least we got into Prince's class," said the woman walking next to him, a pretty, chubby brunette.

"Good point," said an other guy. "Best teacher around here. I still want to know how he makes some of those organic compounds."

"Yeah," said the first one, "And it's real stuff too... as in, my dad wants to start a study up at University of Washington... some of Prince's compounds are real effective, with no side effects. He wants to test them against more conventional stuff. And some scientist in California wants him to join his lab. Still, he is a bastard."

"I'd hate to see him leave here," said the other boy.

"He won't," said the brunette.

"What makes you say that?" asked the blonde boy.

"He seems to like it here... You live on campus, you must see it... he spends quite a bit of time just walking around. He seems to like being outside. At least in the winter when it's cool and wet."

"Yeah, you're right... though he doesn't tan, does he? Looks like a cadaver or something."

"I think he's gorgeous," said the brunette, "and intelligent and well read and that voice! Mmmmm! Of course, the attitude could use some work."

They all laughed, and the blonde boy pushed open the door to the chemistry building. The air-conditioned air hit them.

"Thanks Dave!" said the brunette.

They walked into the chemistry lab. Most of the stations were already set up, there was a big basket of a leafy green plant that smelled fainty of... pepper on one of the benches. A few students were already seated.

"Hey Janie!" called a tall girl, and the brunette walked over to her.

"Rereading?"

"You bet. I'm just starting today. If I've timed it properly, I should finish Half Blood Prince the Wednesday before Deathly Hallows comes out. You?"

"Reading slash right now. Some last stories before they all go AU."

"Don't you read AU pretty much anyhow?"

"What? Are you implying that just because Jo killed off Sirius, he and Snape can't be fucking through the Veil or something?"

Both young women laughed.

"Actually, right now, I'm into Marauder era stuff."

"I dunno. Not for me, the gay stuff. I'm too vested into Ron and Hermione."

"Shh... Here's Bry."

Bryan Prince strode into the room. A tall thin man in his mid forties, with pale skin and a rather prominent nose, he was well respected by all his students, as well as somewhat feared. He was wearing a white lab coat over black clothing: high collared back shirt and black trousers.

His voice was silky, soft and nobody spoke. Uncharacteristic of an American classroom, the students were quiet. He held their attention, as if spellbound, as he picked up a black marker and started to write on the whiteboard.

Someone discretely took out a cell phone to text message and without turning around the professor snarled "Mister Smith, put your cell phone down, unless you'd rather leave the classroom?"

"How does he do that?" whispered Janie to Gisele, "It's like he has eyes on the back of his head?"

"So we'll be isolating an organic compound from these plants today. Start with botany books to identify the plants, then start working on an isolation procedure. Details in the handout."

He walked around the lab, handing out bunches of green leafies and a small booklet. Students mumbled their thanks.

He stood in front of Janie and her lab partner. His voice was deadly, his British accent clipped:

"Miss... Robertson?"

"Yes, Bry?" Gisele's voice was just slightly nervous.

He jabbed a finger in the direction of the novel sitting on the bench.

"Is that a chemistry text?"

"Ummm... no," she answered.

"Then see that it doesn't come out of your bookbag," he said.

Livejournal entry by janie-vee. Date: July 2 2007

Title: I think Severus Snape is my chemistry professor.

No, really. I'm not kidding. Here are the reasons why:

Anyhow. Must read up on the Pacific wax myrtle. And no fun for me Wednesday. I'd planned on going kayaking with some friends: Professor Prince expects us in the lab at 8AM. Yes, on the 4th of July. There is work to be done isolating something from the mush we created today, two days worth of work, grrrr...... We'll be purifying it on Thursday and final analysis on Friday. Fast paced class. Last week was no better.

London, England. July 3 2007

A search on the terms "prince snape "black family crest" ring", showed a new result that morning: livejournal entry from a janie-vee, whose userinfo showed she attended a school near the Puget Sound, in the Northwest of the United States.

The young woman at the computer yelped in triumph, "I may have him!"

"Oh come on, Hermione! How many times have you said that in the past nine years?" The speaker was an older man, a bit too thin, with black hair. He tried to hide the glimmer of hope in his grey eyes.

"No really! This time the search that came up is one on his ring."

The man walked over to the computer and squinted at the screen, reading the livejournal entry. He shrugged. "I suppose."

"No, really, Sirius. Nobody, in all the searching I've done, has ever mentioned the ring."

"Well" said red-headed young man, sitting down with a cup of tea, "Are you even sure he still has the ring? It's not like we've ever seen it."

"Oh Ron! Don't be silly! Of course he has it! He kept it on his finger, from the day Sirius put it on there when they were what? Fourteen? Through Sirius attempting to kill him, them betraying each other, fighting, despite the danger of keeping it, since Voldemort might have been able to see through Dumbledore's concealment charm. And I'm sure I saw the ring on when he escaped the Aurors after the Final Battle, since the concealment charm Dumbledore cast fell apart when he died."

Ron rolled his eyes. "We've been over all this time and time again, Hermione."

"I know. But I really want to find him."

Sirius Black played with some crumbs on the table. "I do too," he said, softly.

Ron and Hermione looked at each other. Nobody really ever talked about the relationship between Sirius and Severus. Sirius had shared some bits with them, but the important part, to Hermione, was that Sirius still cared. Harry would agree, she knew that.

"Sirius, was there anything about the ring that would make is special, that someone might notice?"

Sirius thought for a few moments, then nodded: "Yes. The pommel of the sword. I had a small, very small, ruby put there. My parents never noticed it. It made it look like Gryffindor's sword." He grinned.

"Great. I'll answer this... janie-vee, see if she can check for us... and we might want to plan a trip to the United States," she said.

"Great" said Ron, "Travelling right in the middle of Potter-mania!"

A tousled headed young man walked in just then: "I could kill Rita Skeeter!"

"I know, she could have at least changed our names!" said Ron, "Harry, you want some tea?"

"Yeah, thanks. For the tea, I mean. And yeah on the names."

"At least she had JK write that whole death thing for Sirius. It's bad enough that the rest of us have recognizable names and faces, but it would be really hard to explain to the Muggles that he's not really bad and all that."

"True." sighed Harry. "Still, one of these days the Ministry is going to realize that she's had poor JK Rowling under an Imperius for the past ten years and they're going to have a fit."

"Probably. Though in some ways, it does make things easier... when Muggles see strange things, they now assume it's someone pretending to be a wizard or a witch," said Hermione, taking her tea and sitting back down at the computer.

"Good point," said Harry, "Everyone'll just think we are Potter maniacs, all dressed up before the movie and the book."

Ginny came down then, tired. She'd had a late night shift at St Mungo's.

"Where are we going this time?" she asked. Hermione's quest to find Snape had taken them to Turkey, China, all over the United Kingdom and Ireland, to Brazil, Australia and to a tiny little town in Patagonia. All in vain.

"The USA," said Ron, "Where'd you say, Hermione?"

"The Pacific Northwest. Near Seattle."

Hermione was busy typing on the computer.

"Can one of you owl Neville? He asked to come," she said.

Comment on janie-vee's lj, left by "anonymous" of signed herself HJG: "Ha, Snape teaching chemistry outside of Seattle? Now that's a thought. I wonder where he got the ring? I really want one, I'm SUCH a Sirius fan! I heard someone sells them on eBay and you can tell the cool ones because they have real rubies!"

The comment was nestled between one begging janie-vee to post a new Snape/Sirius drawing or story soon and one stating that no way was Snape teaching chemistry in the Puget Sound area because Snape was DEADDEADDEAD!

Seaside, Washington State, July 3, 2007

Janie was up early on the morning of July 3rd. Her roommate had been out running and brought her back a latte, which was a nice change from regular coffee. She sat with the cup cradled in her hands, checking her email and the comments on her lifejournal. She stared for a long time at the second one, before responding to it:

"The ring looks really old, it's worn with age, and there is a small ruby on the pommel of the sword." she wrote, "I know, I know, I need to get a life"

Hermione sighed. It could just very well be. Ginny sat down next to her. "You think?"

"I hope so. Sirius... Sirius is really starting to despair."

"I'm surprised he hasn't. It's been so long."

Hermione shook her head: "I don't think he can. He's just... used to the pain of missing Snape. Just like I'm sure Snape is used to the pain of missing Sirius."

"Do you think he still cares?"

Hermione nodded. "He never took that ring off. And he did save Sirius' life at the Ministry and again during the Final Battle."

"Why wouldn't he put a concealment charm on the ring?" asked Ginny.

"If he's living as a Muggle, he wouldn't risk it. Or maybe bother."

"True. Anyhow, Neville owled back, he wants to come with us. And more importantly, he confirmed that Slughorn is retiring again and that Minerva really wants us to find Snape."

"Tomorrow," said Hermione, a smile on her face, "We drop in on one Bryan Prince's chemistry lab and see what's brewing."

The chemistry lab smelled like rotting vegetation. The students were not happy, and the grumbling was getting loud. Professor Prince sighed. "Very well... at this point, if you will all leave your preparation to ferment for a while, at exactly body temperature, you may leave the lab for a few hours. Be back by noon, we'll need to decant the fermented juices then."

"Ugh," said Janie to her lab mate, Gisele, "It really does smell bad in here... Let's get a coffee."

Outside the chemistry building, a game of Frisbee had started, Dave having pulled a green disk from his backpack, and tossed it at Martin, who sent it flying to Gisele, who in jumped for it and ran towards the others. Janie stood there watching them for a few moments, knowing she'd join them. Bryan Prince came out of the building and Janie turned towards him. He was watching at the green Frisbee, a strange smile in his face.

"Thinking of Quidditch?" she asked, surprising him... and herself.

He started and said "Ye... No, not at all." He stared at her for a moment.

Just then Gisele threw the Frisbee her way and she ran to catch it.

Seaside, Washington State, USA, July 4th 2007

Wednesday July 4th dawned clear and warm in the Pacific Northwest. Janie pulled a pan of brownies out of the oven. Since they were stuck in the lab that day, they'd decided to bring a picnic to school and there was a game of Frisbee planned. Professor Prince had agreed without too much trouble and had even offered to bring something he called a "Summer Pudding".

She sat down at her computer, and opened her email. There was a note from HJG, the gal who'd asked about the ring.

"Hey, you go to Seaside U, up near Seattle, right? I'm going to be there today... Any chance we could have a cup of coffee? I'd love to see your prof and his ring!"

Janie's eyes widened. This was getting very strange. It couldn't... could it? She checked HJG's email address. .uk. The message had been sent in the middle of the night, Pacific Daylight time, but early morning in London. How could anyone think they could get to Seaside so quickly? Unless....

She shook her head, but wrote back quickly. "Well, we'll be on campus in chem lab, and near the chem building, everything will be closed... but stop on by, we're having a class picnic, at about noon."

She called Gisele over to show her the exchange. Gisele wasn't convinced, and Janie could tell she was being "humored". They left to school, picnic offerings packed.

Janie was about to grab a plate when she noticed a tall young woman with brown hair approaching the group. There were a few others people with her, but they held back. She watched the young woman ask Dave, who was closest to her, a question and Dave pointed over to where Janie was.

The young woman walked over, followed by a very tall and very handsome older guy, and another young woman, this one with red hair. The three younger men were talking to Dave who was doing something with his Frisbee.

"Janie?" smiled the young brown haired woman.

Janie nodded.

"I'm.... umm... Jane as well." British accent, nice voice. Seemed nervous.

Janie smiled and nodded, the other young women introduced herself as "Gen".

Janie nodded again and the other man, who had grey eyes that would stop you dead in your tracks, looked at the three of them, rolled his eyes and said, "Poor me. I don't have a cool name like you three. I could say I'm Jem, or Jim, or something." He turned to Janie, his voice calm and collected and held out his hand: "Sirius Black." he said.

Her eyes widened. He grinned. "What's the phrase you said to use, Hermione? The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated?"

She nodded.

"That then." He turned to Ginny and Hermione: "Let's try this again, shall we?"

"Hermione."

"Ginny."

"Janie. That's for real." They all laughed.

They sat down under a tree, and soon Ron, Harry and Neville joined them and were introduced. Ron stopped by to leave a large box of cookies on the food table.

"Mum's ginger biscuits," he explained to Janie, "Hermione said it was a potluck."

Janie looked shell-shocked.

Hermione got straight to the point. "Where is he?"

Janie sighed: "Inside. He stepped outside, realized how hot it was and retreated back to his office. I'd not bother him there."

Harry laughed: "Yeah, neither would I. And let me guess. He was wearing full black, to his ears and fingertips."

She nodded. "He did take off his lab coat and..."

"Yes?"

"His belt buckle?"

Sirius sat up straight and looked at her. She continued, "Two snakes, interlaced. I... ummm.. didn't want to stare, but I think there was a green gem in at least one of the snake's eyes."

Sirius nodded. "I think you've found him, Hermione."

"Woohoo!" shouted Neville.

They all wandered over to the food table to get lunch. Janie made sure to take a ginger cookie. Molly Weasley's ginger cookies. She'd pinch herself, but she wasn't sure that would work.

Of course there was the possibility that they were all con artists, and planning on kidnapping her, or something. That was at least as probable as what she thought was actually happening, come to think of it.

"How..." her throat was dry, she took a sip of diet Coke. "How did you find him... me?"

Hermione nodded. "I've been doing searches for a while now. It's hard, as you can imagine. So I assumed that he'd have kept the ring and the belt buckle and I use those as search terms. Usually the same sites show up, but the other morning, I found your livejournal entry. And... here we are."

They talked for a while. Dave came over and suddenly he and Sirius Black were engaged in a conversation about motorcycles, which quickly led to them leaving to take a spin along the coast on Dave's bike.

Harry shook his head. "Eight years. We've been looking for eight years, and he wanders off minutes before we might actually have found him?"

Hermione nodded. "He's scared, Harry. The "what if he isn't happy to see me?" thing?" She turned to Janie: "Rita never alluded to it in the books, but Sirius and Severus were... ummmm... lovers for many years. They had some... ummm... rough patches..." Ginny and Harry rolled their eyes at the euphemism.

"Rita?"

"Yes... of course... Rita Skeeter told everything to JK Rowling, put her under an Imperius and had her write the books. Thank heavens Rowling is an excellent writer, but Rita was pretty biased in many ways... she's always had a soft spot for Sirius and hated that he and Snape were together, so she wasn't about to mention that... And since she was so pissed with me, she basically gave JKR our real names. We don't go out in the Muggle world much."

Janie shook her head.

"Oh. And yeah, Sirius never did die. Rita wrote that in, at Dumbledore's request... Scotland Yard, and every local station, had a photo of Sirius up, and there was talk of putting him on 'Britain's Most Wanted' television show... as soon as the book came out, we never had to worry about it again."

Something beeped. Janie grabbed something from her pocket. "That's my timer. I have to go back to lab... Hey Tim! You're ok with cleaning up?"

"Janie, if Gisele will go see Order of the Phoenix with me, I'll clean up all of campus. And she promised so..."

They walked into the lab, Janie first, followed by Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and Neville. It was cool and rather dark and they recognized the smell immediately.

"Wormwood," said Harry, softly.

Gisele's eyes widened as they all congregated near her and Janie's bench.

"Umm... hello?" she said.

"This is Gisele, my roommate," said Janie.

Martin walked over and asked: "Grad students?"

"No... visitors," said Janie. "Where's Bry?"

"Getting more reagent. Kyle poured some extra back."

"Ouch. Bry kill him?"

"Only verbally."

"Wait," said Ron, "You call him Bry? To his face?" He looked shocked.

Gisele asked "Are you all Brits?" and Martin responded "Yeah, Bry."

Hermione smiled at Gisele. "Yes, we're all British" and Harry commented: "Bry. I can't beleave it. Bry."

Martin and Gisele exchanged a rather worried look.

Ginny grinned: "He'd blast one of us from one end of the room to the other if we dared call him Sev."

Martin and Gisele both looked as if they were going to pass out. Gisele recovered first. "You some friends of Janie's helping her play a prank on us?"

Nobody answered because Neville, who'd been looking at the lab set up, pointed to a switch, exclaimed "Cool, does this really stir things for you?" and flipped said switch.

Over the years Hermione had found out that one of the reasons most wizards avoided electricity wasn't because they didn't need it, or because they didn't have access or anything like that. No, it was because electricity and anything electric seemed to behave in unpredictable and random ways around them.

When Neville flipped that one switch, it should have just started the stirrer, set to a low speed, on that one chemistry bench... But it didn't.

Every single electrical appliance in the lab turned on, every single one of them at top speed, temperature, volume.

The neon lights were flickering on and off, much brighter than normal, and the dessicators went straight to their hottest and driest and their alarms started beeping, louder and louder. All the magnetic stirrers were stirring, as fast as possible, the liquid spewing all over.

Worst were the centrifuges. They spun at maximum rotational speed, their sound resembling that of a jet engine.

The gas chromotatograph spat short bursts of the carrier gas into the room. A student nearby breathed in some of the gas and his "Oh my god, Bry is going to kill us!" was spoken with a helium induced Donald Duck sounding voice, which, despite everything, caused some laughter.

Alarms were going on and students were screaming, covered with various reagents and preparations. The sprinklers turned on and water sprayed everywhere.

Pandemonium.

Bryan Prince, with the hapless Kyle at his heels, ran in. A quick glance around allowed him to assess the situation.

He pulled his wand from his sleeve, and everyone in the lab heard him: "Petrificulus Totalis!" he said, pointing at Neville, who fell to the floor.

He cast a Protego, upwards and the shielding charm held the water at bay.

"Miss Granger, hold it, please!" he called and ran to the other end of the room and quickly pulled the breaker, shutting down the electricity.

The centrifuges whined down but the yelling and screaming did not abate much.

"Silence!" said Snape, his voice quiet and low and everyone complied and suddenly one could hear the dripping of liquid from the lab benches to the ground.

"Is anyone hurt?"

Most everyone mumbled noes, Gisele had a slight cut on her hand. Snape walked over, took her hand in his, and lightly tapped her palm with his wand, muttering under his breath. As Gisele, Janie, Martin, and any other student who could crowd in, watched, the skin knitted itself without a scar.

"Stand up, Longbottom," said Snape, "Sit over on that stool, with your hands on your lap, and don't move."

Harry and Ron both made to help with something and Snape snarled: "That goes for you and Weasley too, Potter. Sit. Don't touch anything." He turned to Hermione. "Thanks you Miss Granger, you may release that."

She released the charm and he flicked his wand, stopping the sprinklers.

Everyone was staring at him. He looked around at the total chaos of the lab. He sighed.

"Evanesco!".

The students all gasped. Every single trace of liquid was gone: reagents, water, testing solutions, their preparations. Everything. A few groans were heard.

Snape turned to Hermione, Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville. "There is a basket of wormwood on my desk, please execute the first ten steps in preparation of the Draught of Living Death, then decant it to a clean beaker. Miss Granger, please make sure that Longbottom touches no electrical equipment."

"Yes Sir," they all murmured and immediately went to get the plants, though Harry and Ron looked at each other, as if wondering why they still acted like scared First Years when Snape was around.

Snape turned towards the Muggle students. "In a few hours, they will have you at exactly the same point in preparation of your sample that you were at this morning, no work will have been lost. Feel free to observe the steps they take, at this point any of you could accomplish them."

Students looked at each other, obviously not sure if what they should be doing. One discretely moved his hand towards his cell phone.

"Mister Smith, you must realise that I will not allow you to touch that phone," said Snape. "Accio!" and it flew from Jeff's hand into Snape's as everyone else gasped.

He slid his wand back into his sleeve, and turned to Gisele and Janie: "I'm sorry, I fear we've spoiled the end of Book 7 for you," he said.

There was some laughter and everyone relaxed, though they still looked bemused at this turn of events.

"Professor Snape?" It was Harry, a smile on his face. "Your pupils here call you Bry... does that mean we can call you Sev?"

Snape turned to him. "Try it, Potter, and you will be picking toad spleens from your hair for the next two weeks," he said coldly.

There was some twitters, quickly silenced. "Yes Sir," said Harry, though he was hiding a smile.

Someone rattled the door to the lab. Snape had cast something to lock it, and now he turned towards it. They all heard Dave on the other side of the door: "What's going on here? It's not locked, I can see that... Door could be broken, I suppose."

"Let me try."

Janie was looking at Snape when Sirius Black spoke. She'd thought he was normally pale, but now every single bit of color drained from his face. She saw him swallow.

The door opened and Dave walked in, he looked around and something told him to get over to his bench, quietly.

"Mister Rivers?"

"Yes... Sir?" They all noticed that Dave had, instinctively, dropped the casual Bry, and there were a few giggles.

"I take it you had... more important things to do than tending to your lab work?" The voice dripped sarcasm.

"Ummm... well..."

"Give it a rest, Sev. He was giving me a ride on his bike." Sirius Black was standing there, his posture defiant.

Snape opened his mouth, but didn't speak. The two men stood there, feet apart, staring at each other. Hermione could see the anticipation on the students' faces, and confusion as well... They had all read Order of the Phoenix, knew that Sirius was dead, yet this guy looked like how JKR had described him... and they knew Sirius Black and Severus Snape hated each other. Maybe more fireworks...

Sirius moved first, he walked over to Snape and just stood there. Snape looked up at him, then dropped his eyes. Sirius seemed hesitant. Neither moved. Neither could. The last two times they'd seen each other had been in the middle of a battle, when Snape had risked his life -and his cover- to save Sirius. The previous time, they'd almost killed each other.

For both of them, there had never been anyone else. They'd loved and hated and fought and split up and got back together more times than they wanted to admit, in 35 years. Snape had been the only one to visit Sirius in Azkaban, Sirius the only one to steadfastly believe that Snape had not defected when he killed Dumbledore.

Sirius gulped and spoke, his voice hoarse but soft: "It's time to come home, Sev."

Snape blinked slowly. "To what?" he asked.

"To Britain. Your job. Your friends." He gulped again: "To me?"

Snape looked up at him, finally, and nodded. Sirius relaxed and they leaned towards each other. Forehead to forehead they stood for a while, breathing together. Their hands met and they held onto each other. It was a quiet, private moment and most everyone looked away.

No one made a sound. Hermione wiped tears from her face, as did Janie, Gisele and a few other girls.

Snape stood up straight, mouthed: "I love you," and Sirius grinned. Snape turned to the younger witches and wizards. "Miss Granger, Miss Weasley. There is going to be some Obliviating needed. You will assist?" They both nodded amid the Muggle students' protests.

He looked over and Harry, Ron and Neville's work: "Shredded, not crushed, Weasley, smaller pieces, Potter... nice work, Longbottom".

"Sir?" asked Hermione.

"Miss Granger?"

"Aren't you wondering how we found you?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm not. I'm guessing it was Miss Vaughn's livejournal posting? And I can guess the search terms you were using..."

He smiled at Janie.

"You use a computer, Sir?" asked Ron, looking up from shredding.

He shrugged. "Of course, Mister Weasley. How do you think I've been able to keep mentions of Bryan Prince, chemistry professor etc from showing for the past few years? I am an expert hacker and cracker. When I get find things fast enough."

"Oh," said Ginny, as many students laughed nervously.

They all talked while the new wormwood solutions were being prepared. They told of how it had all ended, Voldemort's final defeat and what happened next in the Wizarding world. Then Snape cast a Time Freeze spell and quickly told the others what to. Once back to normal, they answered questions and finished the preparations. Suddenly, without missing a beat, at Snape's signal, he, Sirius, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny cast Obliviates on all the students except Janie, then quickly Apparated away. As students were shaking their heads, and getting back into labwork, Snape looked at Janie: "My office, Miss Vaughn."

She followed him into the quiet hallway, to his the office. Before opening the door, he turned to her, and said, "I'll never be able to thank you enough."

Her eyes widened, and he went in, she followed.

"Longbottom, don't touch anything. Miss Granger, what are you doing at my computer?"

She looked up and smiled, "Writing your letter of resignation, Sir."

He rolled his eyes. "I do have to finish summer school," he said.

"Effective August 15th. We'll come and help you move."

He nodded then turned to Janie. "Miss Vaughn, I think, and Miss Granger agrees, that Obliviating you would be a bad idea. Instead, we are going to use a modified Fidelius on you, if you agree. You'll... remember everything, but not be able to speak about it to anyone."

Her eyes widened and she nodded.

He cast something under his breath, then quickly touched his hand to hers. Hermione and Sirius did the same. He smiled: "There, Miss Vaughn. Your memories will remain intact... but you will not be able to speak or write of any of all this to anyone but Miss Granger, Mister Black, or me. Email is the same. You will be able to speak of anything in the books, of course. And," he grimaced, "you will be able to draw."

"She draws?"

"Oh yes," said Snape. "Very... umm... explicit stuff..."

"Please, Sir!" she said, blushing now.

Snape laughed. "Very well, Miss Vaughn."

She said goodbye to Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione, who promised to email. Neville blushed and smiled at her and Sirius waved her off: "I'm staying, so I'll be seeing you."

Snape turned to him. "You are not," he said.

"Oh yes I am."

"No. I will not spend the next 6 weeks attempting to make sure you remember that Hey! These are all Muggles! And wow, these bikes go fast! No, no way, no how, it's out of the..."

Sirius stepped closer, tilted Snape's chin up then ran his thumb along Snape's lips. "I'm staying," he repeated.

Snape blinked slowly and nodded.

Hermione rolled her eyes and smiled at Janie. "Remus told us it was always like this," she said, "Come on, I'll walk you back to the lab, I'm sure... Bry... will be following soon. We'll chat via email...."

Christmas 2007.

"What is that? A Muggle package?" asked Sirius, picking up the package and shaking it.

"It's from Miss Vaughn." said Snape, pouring them both more tea. It was early morning and they were sitting in front of the fire in Snape's quarters at Hogwarts.

"What did you send her?" asked Sirius.

Snape grinned: "Well, Hermione sent her a magic mirror. They've been emailing pretty regularly, and I think they'd like to chat. And Longbottom asked me to modify the Fidelius, by the way, so we'll be going to Seattle for New Years. With the rest of the usual crowd. It'll be cold and wet."

"No really? Unlike the sunshine and warm blue skies here?" They both laughed.

"I sent her a Remembrall. It'll help her remember the assignments she should be turning in, as she heads to medical school."

"She's a good kid."

"She is. Very bright. And a natural Occlumens..."

"What?"

"Oh yes. I tried to get her password, once I realized she'd seen the ring, but I couldn't and I was unable to hack into her livejournal account to modify that posting before Hermione saw it."

Sirius dropped his head in his hands. They were both quiet for a few moments, then Snape gently touched his lover's shoulder: "I love you," he said, "I was beyond lucky."

"We were beyond lucky." said Sirius, kissing Snape's hand. "So, what did she send you?"

They opened the package together, Sirius peering at the stamps that adorned it. Snape smiled. He knew Janie could have used automated postage but he was pretty sure she'd made sure to use stamps, because of the delight they gave most witches and wizards.

The package inside, wrapped in Christmassy paper was addressed to both of them and Snape opened it quickly.

It was a framed charcoal drawing of the two of them, lab equipment in the background, as they stood, Sirius in his leather biker's jacket, Snape in his lab coat, forehead to forehead. It was signed 'janie-vee' and titled, simply, "Meeting Again in Chemistry 306.".

Finis