"I still don't like this idea," Molly insisted, even as she looked Hermione over and nodded her tacit approval of the disguise.

Severus had supplied Hermione with more than just an identity to use. An even more potent version of the conditioner she had applied on the night of Percy's wedding made her hair fall in soft, shining waves to her waist. Another potion turned it the same deep shade as Parvati Patil's, until she applied the antidote. Contact lenses darkened her eyes to indigo, and a blend of herbs and spices had given her skin a faint jaundiced appearance.

---

Hermione Transfigured her mouth and nose to approximate those of a young Eileen Prince before Harry took photographs from every angle.

"Are you sure about this disguise?" Harry asked. "What if Snape decides to track down his long-lost cousin?"

Hermione snorted. "I thought you'd consider that a bonus."

"Just because I want Snape doesn't mean I want to use you as bait," Harry argued.

"We've been over this. No one will be surprised that a Prinz can devise new Potions, even without formal qualifications."

"I've got money—"

"So have I, Harry, but until we can walk openly into Gringotts..."

---

"Besides, if Kingley's right about them restricting Potion ingredients, then the more Apothocaries I know, the better," Hermione added. "We never know when we'll need Polyjuice, or some other Potion the Dork Lord doesn't want us to have."

"It's an unnecessary risk," Harry reasoned.

Hermione hid her relief. Her near-slip had gone unnoticed. She'd almost said the Dark Lord. "It's an unnecessary risk every time you take Ron chasing after Snape. Worse, that's a futile risk because you know he's faster than you. You know he fights dirtier than you, and you know that every sighting could be a trap."

---

"He killed Dumbledore, Hermione!" Harry railed. "He set Voldemort onto my parents. What do you want me to do? Hide like a good little boy?"

"Part of me, yes." She stilled Harry's tongue with a look worthy of Minerva McGonagall. "And, Harry, I don't think any of us knows the full story behind your parents' death. Why did Dumbledore always say you were protected by your mother's love? Why only hers and not your father's? But I've never tried to stop you from doing what you feel you have to do. All I'm asking of you is the same courtesy."

---

Hermione was acutely aware of Harry's silence as they made their way to the edge of Headquarters' wards.

"Why did you say that about my parents?" he finally asked, in an almost sulky tone.

"Because it's about time you began to think for yourself instead of treating Dumbledore like some sort of saint," Hermione snapped back. "Dumbledore may or may not have cared about you, but he shaped you like a swordsmith shapes a blade. You need to accept that. And if he would do that to a child, then just how far would he go to manipulate everyone else?"

---

"Dumbledore—"

"Shaped Snape just as much as he shaped you," Hermione cut in before Harry could go any farther. "Dumbledore allowed him be picked on and bullied by your father and his friends. I know you don't want to think of it this way, but what Sirius did was attempted murder, and when Dumbledore didn't punish him or the others, when he swore Snape to secrecy, he sent a clear message that his 'golden Gryffindors' were untouchable and Severus Snape's very life meant nothing. Are you honestly surprised he turned to the Dark Arts for validation under those circumstances?"

---

"Dumbledore wanted a spy, and he pushed Slytherins toward Voldemort in the hope that one of them would get cold feet... once they were far enough in to be useful to him. I bet Snape wasn't evil as a kid, any more than Regulus. If Dumbledore had wanted, he could've done something. They were just as lost as you, but he let them down. He let them get in over their heads because he hoped they would find they didn't really have the stomach for it. Them and God knows how many others. How many Reguluses? Because Dumbledore knew best."

---

"Shut up!" Harry actually lifted his hands to cover his ears. "Dumbledore wouldn't do that?"

"Like Dumbledore wouldn't arrange for you to find the Mirror of Erised, which should have been in that final room under Fluffy's trapdoor, not where you could find it. Like he wouldn't use the Philosopher's Stone as bait to draw Voldemort into the open and nearly kill you in the process. The Flamels already had all the Elixir they needed. He could have destroyed it as soon as Hagrid brought it to Hogwarts, but he wanted to use it to draw you and Voldemort together."

---

"You said that at the time, and I said I thought he wanted to give me a chance against him. It's got nothing to do with Snape being an evil git, or with my parents," Harry's eyes glistened brightly with frustration and anger, but Hermione didn't stop.

"Yes, it does. Who says your parents' deaths weren't part of Dumbledore's plan? Dumbledore, Legilimens extraordinaire, didn't know Pettigrew was the spy? He couldn't sit the Marauders down and make them take a wand oath? And who says that what happened on top of that tower wasn't exactly what he'd planned to happen?"

---

"Just think about it, Harry!" Hermione continued. "Your parents' deaths bought Dumbledore ten years of respite, ten years to plot and put things in motion. Rightly or wrongly, he thought they bought him the spy he always wanted. He told you himself their death was Snape's biggest regret. What if that's true? Do you really think someone who would leave you with the Dursleys, someone who knew they made you live in a cupboard, wouldn't think that those things were worth two lives?"

"How can you say things like that?"

"Because Snape could have killed you that night. He didn't."

---

"Ron's right!" Harry accused, but, to Hermione, he sounded desperate rather than convinced. "You've gone mental."

"No, no, I haven't. I've just had a lot of time to think."

"Too much time by the sounds of it!" Harry argued. "Have you told anybody else about your brilliant theory? Why not tell Mad-Eye Moody and see what he has to say? The only reason Snape didn't kill me that night is because he didn't have the guts. He was loving it, Hermione. You should have seen his face."

"Fine! Of course I'm wrong. I'm only a girl." She spun into nothingness.