IT'S CHANGED! (SNILY)

Never give him that again!

Their faces were turned to Severus, who had just given the name they all had dreaded. They had known the Raquel was a person who couldn't be trusted but doing something so evil, as to kill the students of the school was out of question, until now. They wanted Dumbledore to understand that but after the last encounter of him with Severus, had simply told that he had full faith in Raquel.

"He had also not been in the school for long" Lily broke the silence. "Dumbledore said he'd be gone for a week, but it is way more than a week"

All of the eyes turned to her as they nodded. "He is definitely in the ally with You-Know-Who" Austin said the statement that none of them wished to hear out loud.

"He most certainly is, otherwise, not so many students would have felt the weird air around him" Selene pointed out.

"Keeping that aside, why do you think there was an attack?" Charm questioned.

Severus looked up. "Isn't that clear yet? For me"

Selene folded her arms on her chest. "And how could you be so certain?"

"This is the first Hogsmeade weekend, the champions were getting the chance to the village. He wanted me. If I were there, nothing of that sort would have happened!" he completed, half-panting.

Their eyes grew wider. Not at what he had mentioned but about his statement of him being there would have prevented all of that. He was putting the blame on himself and that wasn't right.

"You don't think that it was your fault, do you?" Shane asked carefully.

Severus looked up in his eyes as if the answer was obvious. "Me putting a blame on myself or not, doesn't matter, Shane. What matters is that he requires me!"

"It could be an attack to simply ask the others to beware..." Lily said anxiously, noy wanting to even believe that Severus' life could be in danger.

"He'll try again soon" he looked down in his lap. "The second task most probably..."

"You can just be making it all up" Selene said, denying his claims.

"I could be" he said helplessly. "But can I take a promise that you all will stay vigilant. I wouldn't like to put any of you in danger because of me"

"We'll stay fine and so will you" Charm stated, much more confidently than she felt. "And don't come up with any stupid ideas... we all are in danger even without being with you. Lily is a 'Mudblood' for them, even without you being her best friend or boyfriend, Austin and Shane are Half-bloods, who hold no value to them whatsoever, and Selene and I are blood-traitors for them"

Severus looked at her with his mouth agape, before chuckling. "Thank you for the summary, Charm, but I was aware of all of that... someone else has given me the same lecture in the summer vacations, so, I know" he side-glanced Lily, who couldn't keep her sly grin in.

Charm flushed. "Uh, okay, I was just making sure, you remembered" she looked around to take everyone's mind off her embarrassment, when a question struck her. "Wait!"

All the heads turned to her once more. "What?"

She narrowed her eyes at Severus. "Why are you in the Hospital Wing? And don't make the excuse that you came to find us, because you are also in your night robes"

Severus flustered and looked around for help against Charm statement, but just found them all waiting for to speak. He forced a grin. "I spilled grape juice on my robes, perhaps. Who would buy that?" he looked around and once more found their unamused faces.

"The truth, Severus" Selene glowered at him, making him sigh.

"Fine" he huffed exasperatedly. "I jumped into the Black Lake" he said hastily and looked down in his lap, clenching his eyes shut for the anticipated outburst.