Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

"Standing Stones" (10/?)
by Christine Anderson
aka Lilly Malfoy

I woke in Severus's bed, the green comforter familiar against my hands. I lay on my back in the dimness of candlelight. My cloak and outer robes were gone, and the room seemed to be empty, though I could see shadows moving in the sitting room beyond where I lay.

There was a little pain from the serpent tattoo, but mostly what I felt was an all-over sort of ache, flowing through my veins.

For a moment I thought that I was alone; then I turned my head to see a hazy but familiar outline perched on the edge of the bed. Even without my glasses, I could see lines of worry or anger about his face, catching the room's deep shadows.

He moved slowly, so as not to disturb me, and tugged the blankets back up from where they had fallen down- I always was a restless sleeper, always tossing and turning about, and I must have thrown them aside without waking.

"Hello," I said.

"Hello." Severus lifted a glass from the beside table. It contained a transparent, bright blue solution. "Drink this. It will help the pain."

I struggled to sit up, and he shook his head, dark hair flying from side to side. "Here." He set the glass aside, reached for me, and slid an arm between my back and the bed's headboard, holding me up. "Is that alright?" he asked.

"Yes. Thank you."

Severus picked up the glass again and held it to my lips. I drank as much as I could, and was shocked to discover that it didn't taste half as bad as the usual medicinal concoctions. An instant before I would have remarked upon this, however, the taste washed over me, and I nearly gagged.

His hand shot out, quick as a viper, covering my mouth, pinching my nostrils closed. "Swallow," he commanded, and I had little choice. Before I could catch my breath to tell him off, Severus spoke again. "If you thought it was unpleasant going down, you truly don't want it coming back up. Trust me."

I shot him a glare from which most of the malice had drained away. "Taking care of me now, are we?"

"Someone's got to do it," Severus said. "And I didn't want you to wake with one of the others here."

"Who's out there?" I asked, gesturing towards the shadows still milling about the sitting room.

"Moody, Dumbledore, and the Longbottoms. Do you feel up to seeing them?"

I wasn't really sure if I did or not. "That depends."

"Upon?"

"What you've told them."

"Only that you did very well, that the Death Eaters believe you will become one of them."

"And did I do so well?" I asked.

"Yes. When you kissed me there, I knew- I knew you would be alright. That those who might before have doubted, now will not. You showed that you were one of them, kissed the one who had just caused you such pain..."

"About that..."

He didn't quite flinch, but I got the sense that it was a very near thing. "Yes?"

"I understand that you had to do it, but why didn't you warn me?"

"If you had gone to them knowing you would be so marked, that knowledge would have betrayed you. I could not have saved you, you could not have saved yourself..."

I sighed, but gave a small nod. "And is anything like that going to happen again?" I asked this wanting him to say no, but knowing that he very likely could not.

"I cannot promise that it won't. I will prepare you for what I can. For the rest you will simply have to trust me." Severus paused, and reached for my hands. I let him take them. "I am sorry my promise was broken. If I could have-"

"I know. It's alright. You-" I smiled –"you hit Lucius Malfoy for me. I really couldn't have stood it if he had-"

"At least I was able to spare you that, though I could do little else."

We heard voices from the sitting room, drifting closer.

"Is she awake? Is she alright?" I heard Melyssa calling out. "Severus? For the love of-"

"Yes," he called over his shoulder. "She's awake, Melyssa. And she's-" But he looked at me instead of answering, as if unwilling to say if I was alright or not.

"I'm still breathing, Melyssa," I called. "Come in."

"What about the rest of us?" Moody asked.

Melyssa appeared in the doorway. "You can wait," she said. I could see her looking around the room then, taking it all in. The books that were everywhere, and the green... "Huh," she said. "I know people who'd swear you lived in a cave, Severus. Like a giant bat."

I couldn't help laughing at this; Severus limited himself to his usual thin smile.

"Too kind, Melyssa... Too kind."

She came closer, and sat on the other side of the bed. "How're you feeling?"

"Not bad," I said. In truth I hadn't hurt, physically, since drinking Severus's potion. "How do I look?"

Melyssa sighed. "Well, you're a bit pale..." She glanced over at Severus. "So she got the mark, did she?"

"Slytherin," he replied.

Melyssa nodded. "I thought so. Dark Mark, she'd still be unconscious, and wake up screaming."

Severus flinched. "If I have anything to say about it, she will never receive a Dark Mark!"

"Did it ever occur to you that perhaps that wasn't up to you?" I asked, but both of them seemed to be ignoring me.

"That's your plan, is it?" Melyssa asked. "Right. So she proves herself to Voldemort, and, what, refuses the Mark when he wants to give it to her? Are you mad? Don't you know what he'll do to her then?"

"Better than you, I should think," Severus shot back. "I don't want it to come to that, Melyssa."

"And if it does?"

"I-"

"Severus," I interrupted him. "If Barty Crouch can take it-"

"It's not that," Severus said. "Merlin knows you're stronger than the boy is- you'd have to be. But I never wanted you this close, never... Not to this."

Melyssa reached over and patted his arm. "Tell me about it," she said. "You know how ticked I was when Frank joined the Aurors? The idea of him doing what I do every day... Scared the hell out of me."

"How do you mange it, then?" Severus asked, looking over at her.

"Tried telling him off- which didn't change his mind at all. And that won't work for you, of course- you knew that the minute she let Crouch think she was one of them- that you'd have to go and make it true. So," she went on, "finally I paired up with him for a few jobs, and I learned something about my husband. He's a damn good Auror. He can do his job, do it well- and he can take care of himself. So can Minerva. Get used to it, my friend."

"It's not quite the same-"

"No, you're right. It isn't. What you two are doing is a lot more dangerous that what we're doing. They know we're the enemy. Having us work against them won't surprise them much. But if they find out about you, you'll be a lot worse off. Which is why Frank and I feel a lot better about watching you go out there, knowing you're not alone anymore. We worry about you, Severus. Really. I'll sleep better tonight knowing next time you to, you'll have a partner to watch your back."

I smiled. We were lucky, so lucky, to have such good friends.

Severus looked at me then. "Partners..." He said it as if he were giving the word a try, testing out the concept.

"Among other things," I said quietly.

He smiled. "Alright then. I'll still feel better when this is over and done..."

"Won't we all," I said. "Melyssa- thank you for waiting."

"Needed to get your report anyway," she said, sounding rather like Moody when he was trying to maintain his gruff exterior and not let on that he cared. "Speaking of...? The Slytherin mark. May I see it?"

I drew aside my robe just enough to let Melyssa see the silver snake, scabbed over now.

"Did you-?" she asked Severus.

"Yes. It- the ritual is designed to be painful, and there was nothing I could do about that."

Melyssa nodded. "Yes, but you didn't hurt her to see her suffer. I can name others who would have. Lucius, for one."

I trembled with fury the moment she said his name. "Damn him."

"We'll get him, Min. Somehow we'll get him, get them all." Melyssa folded my robe back up over the mark, gently as she could. "Do you want-? That is, we can keep the others away if you would like."

I shook my head slowly. "No, that's alright. I will have to see them eventually. I have classes to teach tomorrow, and-"

"You've got to be kidding me," Frank called from the other room. "You're not seriously thinking about going back to work tomorrow, are you?"

"Use your head, Frank," growled Moody. "How's it going to look if she doesn't?"

I heard Frank sigh. "Yeah. I can see that. But-"

"I believe," said Dumbledore, "that we are losing track of what is important here. Minerva, may we come in? This shouting across the room is rather straining."

"Yes, alright," I said, and watched as they filed in. Though I knew it was only their concern that had them looking at me so raptly, I had never felt more like a zoo exhibit.

"Alright there, Minerva?" Moody asked in a kindly sort of growl.

I was really getting tired of this. "Yes, just lovely, Alastor, thank you ever so much for asking. Bloody..."

To my surprise, he laughed. "Seems like she's going to be alright to me. What say you we stop trying to smother her, hmm? Longbottom?"

"We're sorry, Minerva," Frank said, looking sheepish. "It's just that I don't think some of us saw this coming until it happened."

Melyssa was nodding. "Frank's right, but so is Alastor- we're being stupid, and we haven't got time for it. Tell me everything you can remember about tonight- who was there, what they did, what they said."

And so I found myself reliving the night again for Melyssa and Dumbledore and Alastor Moody. (Frank had spirited Severus off for his own debriefing.) I told them everything, and other than a little flash of savage joy in Melyssa's eyes when I described Severus punching Lucius Malfoy, they listened impassively; they simply let me speak, and it was easier somehow to get the story out than I had thought it would be.

"Good memory," Moody said when I'd finished. "That'll come in handy."

Melyssa nodded. "Yes, it will. Now tell me how you're going to handle Barty Crouch tomorrow."

Somehow the matter-of-factness of their statements was a comfort; I think if they had told me how sorry they were for what I'd just been through, if they had been walking on eggshells and trying not to upset me, I might have screamed. As it was, I thought I could deal with logic much better.

"It really depends," I said, "upon how stupid he plans on being. If he is very stupid, I may take a page from Severus's book and hit him."

Looks were exchanged.

"Well," said Melyssa. "That'll shake him up, for certain sure. Keep the little brat on his toes."

"Exactly," I said. "And I would like to, at some point, speak to Goyle about what made him bring the boy over, and how long ago it was that he did it."

"You think perhaps there is something there, related to the matter of the spy?" Dumbledore asked me.

"I don't know, honestly. It's possible. But am I right in thinking we can use any information I can uncover?"

"Yep," said Moody. "Just don't go sticking your neck out too far just yet. They think they can trust you, probably really want to believe that they can, but if you push it too far they'll-"

"She knows, Alastor," Melyssa said, laying a hand on his arm. "She knows. I don't think anyone knows better how little Lucius Malfoy and his band of traitors can be trusted." She sounded suddenly quite furious, angry as I had never seen her.

"Melly? What is it?" I asked softly. Who would have thought that it would be me comforting her tonight?

She sighed. "Oh, you were going to find out eventually, Min... The Prewitts were found this morning. It wasn't pretty. It's never pretty these days, of course, but this time was a bit worse."

"Melyssa, you're babbling," I said, though she wasn't really. What I meant, but could find no way to speak to, was that she seemed to be losing control of her voice. Dumbledore gave her shoulder a squeeze, and I recalled it then- Rhonda Glassen Prewitt, who had been simply Rhonda Glassen when she had shared Melyssa's schooling as a member of the same year at Hogwarts. I had known her too, poor girl- though girl was hardly the word, she was a year my junior, as I recalled.

"Bloody Death Eaters..." Moody scowled deeper than was usual. "Get more brazen every time, don't they? But not all of that blood was the Prewitts'- got a bit of their own back anyway, before-"

"Merlin help me," I whispered. I felt as if I might be sick at any moment. Rhonda's smiling face kept springing to mind, only to be replaced by the memory of embracing the Death Eaters.

"Wasn't a damn thing you could've done," Moody said, as if he had read my mind. "They were already dead, there was nothing you could have done. They were dead the day they went missing, and you know it."

"I do, and it doesn't help. I feel as if I have betrayed everyone somehow, because I can't save them." I looked at them as if I expected them to not have the faintest idea what I was talking about.

But- "We do understand, Minerva," Dumbledore said. "You had the answer long ago, but you went with it in the entirely wrong direction. Shutting yourself away from all feeling will not be of any help, but you simply cannot feel for every victim of this war, no matter how horrific their suffering. I tell you truly that you shall go mad if you insist upon trying. What you do will mean more to them in the end than a hundred times the compassion you feel for them. Not because you work to save them, personally, but because what you are about will help us to destroy the power that harmed them so in the first place."

"Voldemort," I said. In other company someone might have flinched, but these were Moody and Melyssa and Dumbledore, and they were made of sterner stuff. We could not begin to fear to speak the name of Voldemort, because Dumbledore was right about that, had always been right about it. If we feared him so much that we could not say his name aloud, we would never have the strength to fight him.

To much of the wizarding world, Voldemort was a devil or a demon, and to speak his name was to empower him, to summon him into being. They had become superstitious and frightened, and on one hand I could not blame them much; On the other I had little patience for their foolishness. I did not deny Voldemort's power as a wizard, for it was considerable. And I would not say that after standing before him, I was not afraid of him. Only a fool would not have feared Voldemort's power. But I refused to be ruled by that fear, refused to let it stand in the way of what had to be done. I feared him, but I feared him because he was someone with the power to destroy my world, if the majority of witches and wizards in it continued to fear him so much that they stood aside and let it happen.

I had seen the face of the enemy, and suddenly it was simple, clear. We were doing the best we knew how, and if we were only human, so was he.

"You see it, don't you?" Dumbledore asked.

I nodded. "I see it, but I can't say that I like it much."

Dumbledore nodded in reply. "No, of course you don't."

Melyssa seemed more amused than grief-stricken as she said, "You always did want to save the world, Min. And everybody in it."

"Pity I never got 'round to doing it before someone informed me that I probably couldn't," I replied.

"You know," Melyssa said musingly, "I think we can start treating her like Severus any time we're of a mind to. I accepted a long time ago that he's smarter than me."

"Oh, quite," I said with a smile. "And I really don't need to be smothered by you, Melyssa, though I know it's only because you care."

"I do, you know," she said. "You know when this mess started we were supposed to be objective? To not give a damn about our agents except as sources of information? Right. Idiots. Hello, I'm not supposed to care about you- what was your name again?- but I'm going to ask you to risk your life for me."

"Hell," said Moody. "Minister Garrett and his bloody objectivity... Like to see him try it out in the real world." He sighed. "There are days I could really get to hating my job."

"That's funny, we all sort of feel the same way 'round about the office," Melyssa quipped.

I laughed, and it felt good. But... "Listen, I'm glad you all came, truly, and it is very nice to know that you care, but if there's nothing else urgent, I thin that I should like to catch a bit of sleep."

"Of course," Dumbledore said. "I am sorry. We should not have troubled you so long."

"No, it's alright. Melyssa needed to know, and I suppose that I needed to talk about it, though I did not think so when she asked. If I need to speak with you, Melly-"

"I'll be in touch, don't worry about that." She leaned over and kissed my cheek. "I actually imagine we'll be around for a bit, not that you'll be seeing much of us. With both you and Severus involved in this now, I suspect the Aurors will want to make certain we can reach you when we must."

I nodded. "I must be simply exhausted, because you're making a great deal of sense."

"By the way," Moody said, "nice Stunning spell on Filch."

"Oh, damn! I nearly forgot about that." I shook my head. "Someone will have to- and, Merlin, if he remembers-"

"Taken care of," Dumbledore said. He looked as if he found it funny that his caretaker had been stunned. "I work a fairly decent memory charm when it is necessary, you know. He remembers that nothing out of the ordinary happened in that corridor; he heard a sound, but could see no one. Naturally, he assumed it was Peeves."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "I have to admit I'm not too sorry about it, but I will try not to do it again."

All three of them laughed. They said their farewells and filed out of the room, but just when I had begun to grow accustomed to the quiet- dimly I could hear Severus and Frank speaking in the far end of the sitting room, but I tuned it out- Melyssa turned back.

"Hey," she said. "I almost forgot..." She reached into her pocket and withdrew the Gryffindor ring.

Before Melyssa could hand it to me, Severus and Frank appeared in the doorway.

"Are you going to be alright?" I heard Frank ask.

Severus didn't answer him, but crossed the room to me. "Finished?" I nodded. "Then you should rest."

"In a moment. Melyssa. My ring?"

"Here," she said, and as if afraid to approach me she gave the ring to Severus, who placed it upon my hand. I realized then how much I had missed the accustomed weight of the ring, how glad I was to have it back again.

"Thank you."

As if the return of the ring had been what I was waiting for, I settled back against the pillows and was asleep within moments of its return. I did not hear Melyssa depart again, nor Severus settle into the chair where I found him upon waking, several hours later.