Severus had always known one thing: when the Headmaster called him, it meant nothing good. It had become a pattern now. Absurdly as it was, he almost preferred a Death Daters' meeting. The Dark Lord could be nicer than Dumbledore at times. Alright, rarely, when he wasn't in one of his best moods, but still...

Completely taken by his thoughts, professor Severus Snape kept walking down the halls without really looking at anybody. His long and fast strides were accompanied by his billowing cloak. He knew how he was called by his students: the Bat of the Dungeons. He didn't mind it. If he had to be completely sincere about it, he didn't dislike it. It gave him a halo of darkness and after all he was a Death Eater. Besides, it had the benefit to keep everybody away.

He reached Dumbledore's office. It was time. He breathed deeply. Once, twice, thrice, till he couldn't delay the moment any longer. He called out another one of those silly passwords that the Headmaster had chosen for that week. Sure as hell, nobody would guess that the most powerful wizard of the all Wizarding world would use food names as passwords on his most private office. He had to admit that it was embarrassing but effective.

He entered cautiously out of habit. The headmaster didn't even acknowledge his presence as soon as he was inside. He kept looking at his darkening hand with a look of absolute concentration as his other hand scratched his long beard pensively. Severus knew that, for whatever reason the Headmaster might have called him, he was not going to like it. He neared the desk with silent footsteps, the only sound coming from Fawkes who looked at him boringly.

Several minutes later, Dumbledore raised his head and smiled at him, one of those kind and gentle smiles that Severus hated almost as much as the distorted and disgusting face of the Dark Lord. He knew that when Dumbledore smiled at him like that it was because he wanted something from him, something that sure as hell he wouldn't like.

"Severus." His tone was fatherly and almost hushed. Severus understood in that exact moment that whatever the Headmaster was going to ask him, he wouldn't only like it, but he would hate it.

"No." He said firmly. He didn't even want to know. Dumbledore started laughing with pure amusement.

"I know you so well, Severus." He said with a touch of melancholy in his voice.

"Don't try to corrupt me with a bit of loving attention. I'm no child." He tapped his foot impatiently on the floor.

"I never thought you were, Severus, not even when you were a child." He smirked amused. Severus barely raised an eyebrow in answer: that conversation was useless.

"I need your help, Severus." Snape could have guessed it by simply counting how many times the old man had been repeating his name in less than a minute.

"What a surprise, Headmaster." He drawled almost bored.

"Do you ever get tired of being so sarcastic?" Dumbledore's eyes shined mischievously.

"Not when you provide me with so many cues." Snape replied annoyed as his eyebrows shot up in an expression of calm but effective spite. The Headmaster laughed darlingly, his eyes glittering with sincere amusement.

"Fair enough. However, for how much this conversation is most entertaining - as you can well imagine - I would like to discuss with you more pressing matters." He looked at him over his glasses in his most authoritative expression.

"And what would those be?" As Severus realized it was going to be a long night he grabbed the chair in front of him and sat on it tiredly, waiting for the non-sense he was sure was about to come from the Headmaster's mouth.

"You told me I have only one year left, more or less, before the curse kills me." Severus nodded and Dumbledore was quite surprised to see a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"I have thought about it for quite a while now. School is going to start next week and Voldermort will be more active again. You told me yourself that he gave a certain important task to Draco and we both know what that task is. Severus, we can't let him. In a most desperate situation like this, we have to try to get the best out of it." Severus breathed deeply. He could feel the penetrating gaze of the Headmaster on him but he couldn't bring his eyes to look at Dumbledore.

"What do you have in mind?" He hated himself as soon as the question came out of his mouth.

"If I really have to die, then we have to use it in our favor. If Draco kills me, not only my death would be useless, but the boy will have his soul stained forever. He is still innocent, Severus." If the situation hadn't been tragic, Severus would have laughed.

"Do you want to humor me tonight, Headmaster? Don't tell me that whatever you are planning is for the sake of Draco's soul." He spat with bitterness.

"Indeed not only for that. If you killed me, Severus, then Tom would be absolutely certain of your loyalty." Dumbledore replied with hushed solemnity.

"He never doubted it till now. You know I can be quite convincing." His lips curled slightly with no real enthusiasm.

"Still, it would be more helpful than if Draco killed me. Once the task is completed, you will be Tom's most trusted Death Eater." He explained with renewed strength. "We both know what is going to happen once I'm dead, Severus: Hogwarts will be deprived of the headmaster and the Death Eaters will take over. You know that as well as I do, Severus. If you killed me, there is much chance that Tom will promote you as the new headmaster of Hogwarts; you would be able to check over the school in the best way possible." Severus realised that all that speech had no sense at all. He started genuinely doubting that the curse might have effected the Headmaster's judgment.

"I would be alienated from the Order, how could that be useful?" He gritted his teeth to keep himself calm as all that non-sense tried his patience.

"I'm sure you will still be able to inform Harry when the right time comes." He replied confidently. Too much, for Severus' taste.

"Inform him about what, exactly?" He asked confused.

"When the right time comes, I will tell you but it is not now, Severus" He replied enigmatically.

"That's all, Headmaster?" He asked with barely kept venom.

"No, actually, no, it is not all." Severus took Dumbledore's amusement as a confirmation to his theory about the uncertain sanity of Dumbledore.

"I also thought about something else. Another solution, you may say." He contracted his darkened hand with a genuine smile in his eyes.

"What would that be? Something impossible, I reckon." He arched an upset eyebrow.

"Don't be so pessimistic, Severus." At that, Severus wondered how Dumbledore could have the courage to be so amused about a delicate issue as that. For Merlin's sake, did he know what he was demanding of him? Did he know how much all that would cost him?

"I will try to refrain myself, then." He drawled tiredly.

"I have to admit that it is a bit of an unusual request but I'm sure you may have some success in it. You could find a potion, Severus, a potion to heal me." Severus looked at him completely surprised.

"I told you already, there is no such potion. I'm a good Potions Master but I can't do the impossible." His request was none less dissimilar from the one the Dark lord had asked from Draco: it was simply impossible.

"I think you understimate your capacities, Severus. If there is anyone in the Wizarding world who could find a way to cure the curse, is you. Anyway I will leave the final choice to you." The Headmaster let his shoulders fall on the back of his chair. He looked exhausted and less crazy for one moment but soon after that little twinkle came back in his eyes.

"So my choice is between killing you or finding an impossible cure to your curse?" For once, Severus regretted switching to the good side. Being evil had been easier.

"Yes, that sums it up." Dumbledore replied kindly as his eyes kept shining with a light amusement that was completely out of place.

"Then why – if I may ask – did you let me have the post of Defence when I have to brew an impossible potion to cure your impossible curse?" His underlined kindness stronger than an angry shout.

"You know that as well as I do. I needed you there and I needed Slughorn back. Your office will still be in the dungeons, you are still the Head of Slytherin House, and you will still have your private potion lab. None of that will change. I must ask one last thing of you, Severus." Professor Snape was definitely looking forward to the end of that conversation at that point: in one hour, he had been able to gain three impossible requests. He didn't want to imagine what would happen if he stayed a bit longer.

"If I pleaded, I would be pleading you right now, Headmaster." he breathed deeply, his hands tightly folded in his lap as those words came out as a hushed and angered murmur through his gritted teeth

"It is a mere suggestion," He replied with his typical soothing voice, ignoring the fact that Severus had long known that a suggestion from Dumbledore was an order. "I would like to suggest you to have Miss Granger help you if you decide to pursue this task." Hadn't he been too tired, Severus would have laughed.

"I don't need help, Sir, and if I needed it, I wouldn't be asking it to a barely seventeen years old girl." Dumbledore smiled at him broadly and got up. His movements were a tiny bit slower than they used to be.

"She got a O in her Potions OWLs, I thought she was one of your best students." He sure couldn't deny that: the girl pursued knowledge relentlessy, she was the last one to leave the library every afternoon and her answers in class were always so disgustingly perfect.

"She is good but not in any way capable of brewing an impossible potion that even I don't know where to start." The old man had gone utterly insane if he thought an annoying young student – Gryffindor nonetheless - could help him in such task.

"She has certain... issues at heart, if I'm not mistaken." Was he really comparing her silly and immature project about House-Elves to his actual condition? "And she is curious. Besides, you need an assistant, Severus, you can't be a spy, a professor and the most capable Potions Master that I'm asking you to be without help. You need help. Miss Granger is discreet, capable, intelligent and curious. All qualities that would be helpful in finding a solution." His voice had that commanding but soft tone that Severus had been expecting all night.

"What I am supposed to tell her?" Even though he realised that in that right moment he was more inclined to kill the Headmaster himself than to cure him.

"Nothing. I will handle it. That's your final choice then?" The Headmaster's eyes were shining with victory but no way in hell he would give him that satisfaction that night.

"Not yet, Sir, right now I find myself quite undecided." his lips curled slightly in a sardonic smile as he got up and made his way out of the office. He could hear the faint and amused laugh behind his back.

He walked back to his dungeons in a rush. He didn't even acknowledge the tentative greetings of some of his students. In three days school would start and he was already exhausted. It was incredible how the Headmaster could be more tiring than a bunch of impossible and utterly incapable teenagers near a cauldron. He opened the door of his rooms and let out a deep breathe. Not only he had to deal with a crazy and cursed Headmaster and an insane Dark Lord, but now also with an annoying Gryffindor know-it- all. His life couldn't get worse. Nevertheless, he had no choice: if Dumbledore died, he would die too sooner or later, it would be only a matter of time. Or the Order would kill him or leave him to the Dementors, or he would become the favorite puppet of the Dark Lord – as if he wasn't that already – for the rest of his life, which he was sure wouldn't be long.

Trying to save Dumbledore life was an impossible task, he knew it as he was sure that the Headmaster himself knew it. He wanted to fool him in believing he had a chance to save both of them but it was a mere illusion. But damn it if he wouldn't try his best! He would not die till he saw the peril of the Dark Lord with his own eyes.