I love that last line! I'm not sure I can really imagine Harry standing up for Snape whatever happened, but I suppose it's possible. I like the Everard Prince touch, especially: "Thank you, sir," he said, internally amused at the fact that Sirius Black's great-great-grandfather had been Hogwarts' least popular Headmaster, while Sirius himself had been one of its most popular students, yet the opposite was near true for himself and his own great-great-grandfather. Will this be staying a one-shot?

Author's Response: About it being a one-shot...well...it might actually become an epilogue for a MUCH longer fic I'm writing (200+ pages so far, nowhere near done, but a lot of it, I think, will be edited out...)

It was, however, written with that fic heavily in mind (since it's been almost my every waking thought for about five months!), so what you don't know because I didn't say is, there's are some parts where Snape does some things that proves his loyalty, but very subtly. He creates a very specific series of potions, for example, and that spell I mentioned, I got the idea off a Discovery (or maybe History) Channel special on ancient Egyptian magic, and the spell itself was an absolute eradication spell. I haven't yet worked out all the details, but he sends some messages via a new Patronus that does some good in convincing Harry, as does Fawkes.

About Everard Prince...heh. I'm on a re-read of the books (marking every canon mention of Snape with Slytherin green marking flags...heh) and I noticed that we don't interact much with many of the past head-staff (for example, where are the portraits of whoever the FIRST one was, presumably one of the Founders?)...basically it's the Dilys Derwent, Phineas Nigellus Black, someone named "Fortescue" (whose first name is presumably NOT Florean), and Everard, whose last name isn't mentioned, but has features similar to Snape's...and it'd be just like JKR to leave that out deliberately. I'm delighted that you liked that part.

Thanks for reviewing!