-- All chapters have been re-proof read. It seems every time I read through them I find some new error to correct. Good thing I use google docs now. And I'm glad to be writing again. I know I'm just going to exhaust myself during NaNoWriMo and have no time or energy afterward to want to write anything, so maybe I can get some fanfiction in before the big event on November 1st! Also, we're going to learn a lot more about this disease in the next chapter. Not too long now until this fic is finished, but we'll see. It may be much longer than I indended!

"You're getting rather well practiced in using this sympathetic magic Harry, if you can change the magical nature of a baby in the womb," said Brenda as she typed in Mary Kindle's report into the computer. "But we aren't going to put the dementor baby in the report."

"What?" said Severus, looking up from where Mary lay sleeping at his examination station. "Why not?"

"Imagine what the ministry would do," Harry said, beating Brenda to the punch. "If they locked us up just for being sick, imagine what they would do to a baby dementor!"

"It's still racially a dementor," Brenda admitted sadly. "but Harry altered him so that the human race of his mother takes precedence. Thus the baby doesn't require sucking his mother's life force from within the womb. He may never develop enough dementor abilities to Kiss anybody either. He'll be for all intents and purposes human, with a bit of gloominess about him wherever he goes."

"Still, that was a clever trick," said Severus said, looking softly at the sleeping girl. "It deserves some credit. It saved Mary Kindle needing an abortion."

"And now I have to ask the two of you a question," said Brenda, looking up from her computer with a faint flush to her cheeks. "Did either of you feel, well, rather amorous in the basement tonight?"

"What?" said Severus, looking alarmed. "Why, uh, what do you mean?"

"I mean," said Brenda. "That last night Mrs Figg and Mr Nibbs found themselves distracted by something other than the dementor and its mother. And it was all I could do to keep Bill off of me, both of us being married to other people. There's something funny about the basement...some sort of magic."

"Oh Salazar," said Severus, covering his face. "You mean we really weren't, I mean, attracted to, each other?"

Brenda looked up impishly.

"Well, maybe you two were and the magic simply encouraged you. But with teenage wizards around I've learned that magic can be used in a room to heighten the attraction of the male or female partner, and sometimes they forget to remove the charms."

"Oh Merlin," said Harry, red faced. "That sounds just like something they'd do. The basement is the perfect make out place, so closed off as it is."

"Well, we'd better double check," said Severus, "No Brenda, I'll go alone. So we don't do any anything we'll both regret."

He left, and Harry looked down at his hands, sorrow on his face.

"Oh Harry," said Brenda. "I'm sorry. I'm sure he won't use this as an excuse not to continue..."

"No, he will, if I know him well enough," said Harry. "I really thought, I mean, he said last night he hadn't been able to control himself. If he was lying...But he couldn't have been. So maybe it just encouraged us like you said. I don't know, I mean, the only other guy I've only kissed is Zabini. Kind of new with this gay thing really and I never thought I could be attracted to Snape...Severus."

"Imagine poor Severus," said Brenda sadly. "He probably feels like a sexual predator or a pedophile with his attraction to a 17 year old. But you are legally over the age of consent, he has nothing to worry about."

"No, its not that," Harry stood up. "I don't think Severus is well...any more experienced than I am. He probably has no idea what feelings are real or fake."

"Only one way to figure it out then," said Brenda, "Talk to him, alone, someplace that isn't magically enhanced in some way. See if there's still a spark like the one you had last night."

"Yeah," Harry sighed. "I'll try."

"And I shall finish this paperwork. Poor Mary," she turned to look over at the sleeping girl. "She's been so convinced of so much misery for so long, how will she ever find human happiness again?"

"Well, I think Blaise might be a friend to her," said Harry. "But considering that he was hiding her down in the basement doesn't bode well for their friendship."

"She has a friend in you Harry," said Brenda pointedly. "Maybe you could look after her too?"

Harry laughed.

"Julie, Jamie, Mary, Jonathan, and all the small kids, I'm gonna be a teacher soon and I haven't even graduated school!"

"Well," said Brenda, shrugging. "Nibbs says you're pretty adept in all the classes you've taken. Maybe you should take the high school equivalency test. The muggle one."

"Really?" said Harry, crossing his arms. "I thought being in a magical school for so long that I'd lost out on any kind of muggle education. You think I should take the test?"

"We can all help you study for it. If you take the test and pass you won't need to go to classes at all and I can make you an assistant full time to help with the little ones. What do you think?"

Harry paused, and put a finger to his chin.

"Deal! I'll tell Severus when I see him."

"Good. And Harry? Talk to him. I'm sure you'll see eye to eye on your feelings. Severus is a bold man and goes after what he wants, even if he does tend to close his emotions."

Harry chuckled at the thought of Severus at the brash hero on the cover of some steamy romance novel. Then he found himself wandering the hall in a happy daze, thoroughly distracted by this thought.

By mid-morning the next day, Harry hadn't had a chance to speak to Severus. He had spent a lot of time trying to answer the students' questions about Mary Kindle, especially the muggle girls who had been her friends, and telling them it was safe to visit her and to not be frightened, she was healed now of her curse, if rather weak still from it, and that she was pregnant. Friendship was needed for her now. He could tell the girls were still afraid even after his talk, especially after seeing Mary the way she had been last night.

And then there was the other frightening aspect, that which associated the terror of Mary Kindle with Blaise Zabini, a wizard, who was being ostracized by the muggles for keeping Mary locked up in the basement like a pet. Magic was now a scary thing to them, whereas before this curse had been rather amusing. At least to the older kids; it had been the youngest kids who had taken it more seriously.

Harry wasn't sure what to think of this, but he did find Blaise crying in the bathroom, and took him pointedly to Miss Madeleine for councelling. There was no point in blaming anybody for anything anymore, the important thing was to find the cure and cooperate. But he was sure the muggle kids didn't see that. They now associated magic with poor Mary's plight, and were avoiding the wizard kids like the plague.

I'll probably have to council the wizard kids on how to handle muggle prejudice. I have too much experience in that area.

It was about lunchtime, and Harry still had not found the suspiciously missing Severus, when the man's voice came on the school speakers and announced to all the students that Love Madness was effecting the school and that all students of opposite genders would henceforth be quarantined until a proper antidote to the illness could be found.

"In particular, dark rooms seem to trigger the Love Madness, so all the school lighting will henceforth be kept turned on at a level still comfortable for sleep."

Love Madness?

Harry ran towards the school office just in time to see Mary being escorted towards the new quarantine section of the school they were setting up for the girls. She looked so much more healthier now that Harry almost didn't recognize her. And she was with Prudence and a couple other muggle girls.

Good, thought Harry firmly as he entered the offices. They'll help her recover, and give that half-dementor baby a source of kind emotions other than his mother. It won't drain her so much, and it will barely effect the girls, they'll just thing that they're a little depressed for some reason or another. Though, I should ask Brenda about how having a baby-dementor around will effect people's emotions.

He found Severus still in the speaker room, the former principal's office, and he was sitting at the desk with the microphone with his face in his hands.

"What's Love Madness?" Harry asked, as soon as Severus realized he was there.

"Its a standard magical illness that occurs mostly to adolescents, magical or muggle, but can affect adults too," Severus answered, not looking at Harry. "It spreads by way of touching contaminated surfaces and people," Severus finally looked up at Harry pointedly. "Mary Kindle must have had the sickness and spread it around the basement, and that was how our group were affected. I've given all the staff instructions to clean all surfaces and to wear gloves and long sleeves so as not to touch anybody else skin to skin."

Severus was in his full Snape robes, with white gloves on, and looking not the least bit happy as he passed Harry a set of gloves.

"Oh," said Harry, putting the gloves on. "So uh..."

"Potter," said Severus, pointedly using Harry's last night. "Don't think about it. Its pointless for us to explore what happened last night."

"But, we have feelings, real feelings! Not just this Love Madness!"

"I'm a criminal," said Severus, hard and fierce. "The minute I leave this quarantine station, do you think the Ministry will let me go free? No, they'll keep me on a leash, or put me into Azkaban, which means I'll have to escape or run away somehow. It would never work out between us, you having a hidden lover, always having to pretend you're single..."

Could a relationship between them work out? In his mind Harry had been thinking of his sensual feelings, his new found infatuation was deep and needy, very sexual. But could it ever be anything long term?

"No," said Harry glumly. "You're right. It couldn't work out."

Severus nodded firmly, but Harry grabbed his sleeve as he tried to pass him to leave the room.

"But I'm still attracted to you. I know you are attracted to me. There's no hope for a romantic relationship, but..."

"But a physical one?" said Severus, raising an eyebrow archly. "Hm, I shall have to think about that...but it is an entertaining notion."

He bent down and kissed Harry, testingly. When they didn't start tearing off each others clothes they knew they were still somewhat in control, despite the Madness. Not that they didn't want to tear each others clothes off, they simply knew that they could control it.

"We're going to have to behave ourselves," said Severus with a dark hungry look. "If we can't make a good example for the students then I fear we'll have an epidemic on our hands."

"Add to the fact that its November, they'll all be holed up inside out of the snow keeping their hands off each other. While you and me, on the other hand..."

Severus cackled, and bent down to kiss Harry again.

"Mm, warm lips, a warm body to curl up with. I think I like that idea."

"You can help me study for my test, Professor," said Harry huskily, and he explained quickly Brenda's high school test plan to Severus as he unbuttoned his collar.

"Mmm hmm, that sounds like a good idea..."

Suddenly, without so much as a knock, Brenda flew into the room, causing both men to jerk apart in opposite directions. She flew passed them, grabbed the microphone off the speaker desk and pulled on it until the plug came flying out of its socket.

Harry turned beat red understanding immediately what had happened. Severus on the other hand turned pale as a sheet. Brenda, red with embarrassment for her intrusion, and huffing from having run all the way from her office, smiled.

"We all make mistakes," she said. "But I have a feeling that one of you will have to stay in the girl's section of the quarantine for the duration if Nibbs has anything to say about it."

Harry frowned at her and Severus protested and in the end she conceded the point. They could stay together only if they promised to study.

And to babysit the first through fourth graders, who were as of the time being unaffected by the madness.

"Damn!" said Severus as she left the room. "Thats as good as putting a matronly old chaperone in the room with us!"

Harry chuckled then moved over to kiss Severus on the cheek.

"She can't keep us in the room with them twenty-four seven," said Harry. "I have the personal understanding that there's many nooks and crannies in this school we can escape into to have fun."

And they kissed again, deeply and with much heat. It was a good five minutes of necking later before they managed to untangle themselves enough to go face the world again, buttoning up their shirts and remembering to brush back their hair. Sex would have to wait...for now.

Severus and Harry didn't get another chance to be alone together for many more hours as the quarantining of many angry, hormonally crazed teenagers, of which the muggles didn't want to be mixed in with the wizards, kept them distracted for the better part of two days.

And when they finally managed to end up in the same room alone together it was for a totally unexpected and unwelcome sorrow.

Severus woke from where he had collapsed on his cot the night before, cursing himself for not thinking to put a quarantine spell on the teacher bathrooms the day before after having to pointedly separate an amorous Nibbs from an exhausted Mrs Figg, who had been trying to get away from his attentions for days. He had then collapsed into the cot next to Harry in the children's room, Zabini on the other side of him, and hadn't even bothered to change into pajamas, nor try to convince Blaise to watch the children so that he and Harry could sneak away.

The teasing looks of the children who had all overheard their exchange on the speakers was more than enough to quell any amorous intentions between the pair. So this morning, as he stretched out, feeling the aches and pains of the previous day, he was not surprised to find that Harry had already dressed and left with the children for breakfast, Zabini too, leaving him to rest. That had managed to sleep through the chaos that had to be getting small children dressed for the day was a small miracle.

"Better get to it Severus," he said to himself, rose, and decided to take the long way to the ICU. "You're late and you have potions to brew."

He was feeling apprehension and dread as he approached the room where the intensive care kids were. He knew that Jamie wasn't there anymore, and was probably with his brother in the cafeteria helping feed and entertain the hungry youngsters. It wasn't a school day and Severus knew they would all be bored out of their skulls with not being allowed to go out into the snow and play.

He slipped on his work robes, slid into the infirmary office to grab his notebook and his medical supplies, and snuck down to the ICU, wondering if perhaps the pair sleeping in there were still asleep, or if they were ready for breakfast.

A soft crying sound could be heard, barely, from the door. He cursed the heavy muggle soundproofing on this building, designed to quell any sound from straying outside of these offices to the students, and opened the door.

Severus stopped in the threshold and stared in horror. Bethy Ann McCormick was in bed, crying her heart out whilst trying pointedly not to look at the puddle of melted flesh and bone on the floor that had once been Gregory Goyle.

"He tried to stand up," the girl cried upon spotting Severus. "He tried to get off the bed, he said he'd felt strong enough, that he'd lost enough weight, and then...he was so happy! Then he just melted!"

Horror and revulsion spread through Severus as the girl started to bawl her eyes out. Terror and pain of loss, all these emotions at once threatened to sweep his feet out from under him. But before he could submit to them he remembered the girl, and horrified that she had been in the room with this body moved her at once. He hadn't thought to put emergency spells or something of a muggle nature in the room so that she or Gregory could contact him. She might have been hours in the room with nobody checking on them. Hurt and guilt filled his chest as he carried the girl directly to Brenda's room, pounding on the door and screaming for her to wake up.

But she wasn't there, and she usually locked her door to keep the older children from taking her test notes or money, so he couldn't get inside. And having no strength left to keep himself from it he collapsed onto the ground weeping.

Brenda arrived at her room with Bill, to the dubious sight of Severus sitting outside it, with Bethy in his arms, like a little boy holding a baby doll. The two of them were shaking and crying, and it was Bethy who told them what happened. Bill shook his head miserably and Brenda put a hand on his shoulder. Severus was in shock, too horror stricken even to speak. Brenda would have to deal with this herself. She sent for Harry immediately, had Mrs Figg take Bethy somewhere else, then sent for Mister Nibbs to take Severus someplace private. She then went to the ICU with Bill to deal with the remains of poor Gregory. There were no life signs in the puddle of flesh, and when Harry Potter arrived he set to work trying his sympathetic magic, no revulsion of any kind in his eyes at touching the fleshy ruin that had been Gregory Goyle.

He has seen too many horrors in his life, Brenda decided. He's too accustomed to disaster.

But there was no body left for Gregory to come back to, as there had been with Jonathan. And no way to putting him back together again in this form. He was irreversibly dead.

"This is terrible," said Brenda, covering her face. "We all had a duty to Gregory and Bethy Ann, and we left them alone all day and all last night while we had to deal with some teenagers and their raging hormones."

"There wasn't anything we could have done, Brenda," said Bill gently. "We didn't know what walking would do to his unstable condition. We might have even encouraged him to get out of bed!"

"You're right, I'm just frustrated. And frustrated that Bethy was alone with him in this state for so long, and angry that Severus had to be the one to find them that way..."

Bill took her into his arms, allowing her to cry, and then stood to his feet.

"I'll deal with the body, you contact young Goyle's relatives, what relatives he has on the legal side of the law, and we'll let Harry deal with Severus.

"Me? Oh...OH! Okay," said Harry, flummoxed completely.

Brenda had almost forgotten that he was there. She smiled sadly at him, the first smile she had given anyone since discovering Severus at her door. Then she sent him off in the direction of Severus Snape and she picked up the office phone that was directly connected to the Ministry of Magic.

This was not going to be easy to explain. But she hoped that Gregory's Grandparents would be forgiving in nature. This wasn't a hospital, and that they didn't have the equipment to monitor all the children all at once the way a hospital would was not their fault.

But the fact that Bethy Ann had been awake with the body half the night and nobody had known about it was a sour and painful thing to think about, and she kept these thoughts bitterly in her chest as she dialed the number.

Severus seemed to have drawn into himself, from what Harry could tell. Nibbs had taken him to an isolated room away from the infirmary, while Mrs Figg had seen to it that Bethy was sharing a room with Mary and the other older girls, so that they could take care of her. Mary had wanted practice in caring for a baby for when hers arrives, and Bethy was half a baby and more than willing to volunteer to play 'doll' so Mrs Figg was willing to let Mary give it a try. Bethy's requirements were very similar to a baby's, the only difference was that she could talk, instead of cry, and she could choose which sort of baby food was fed to her or which bottle she wanted to drink from. She liked the one with the kittens.

Harry shook his head of these thoughts as he sat next to the weeping Severus, talking to him about everything good he knew about Goyle. His knowledge was limited to Quidditch. But then Severus interrupted to share memories of his own. The memories of a foster father that Severus had become to all the Slytherins who had needed a source of friendship they hadn't gotten from their own parents.

Memories of Goyle learning how to read, admitting to Snape in his second year that he cheated on tests with Malfoy's help; he was illiterate. Severus patiently worked with Goyle every night to try and improve his writing skills, and gave Malfoy the go ahead to do quill dictation of Goyle's homework for him, and help him study for tests, though he did not allow the cheating any longer.

He always failed the tests, but Severus had ignored the worst of his test scores when deciding his final grade in potions. Goyle, it turned out, hadn't enjoyed Potions much anyways, he just needed the passing marks so that he didn't have to repeat a grade.

It was in practical work in his classes that he had the most success. It turned out that he had really loved Care of Magical creatures, and since Hagrid rarely gave written tests he had passed that class with flying colors.

He had been a bit of a joker. He had that James/Sirius mischief about him, but without going overboard the way they would. More his jokes were like the Weasleys with sneezing powders in the shower heads and sticky charms on the sheets.

None of this was ever seen outside of his House. Goyle had very much had a great deal of House pride, and only played pranks on people he cared about.

"His last real words to me were, 'You're doing great sir,'" Severus sniffed. "Great. If I was doing so great, he'd still be here. He'd still be here!"

Harry shook his head, and wrapped his arms around Severus to hold him. To hell with their decision to keep neutral. Severus needed emotional comfort.

He was stopped short of taking advantage of their fragile emotions when Brenda came into the room looking sad and concerned.

"The Goyles are on their way here, Severus," she said quietly. "We told them that there was nothing identifiable left of the body, and that they should spare themselves the pain, but they wanted to see you, so they're using the excuse of having to identify the body for the Ministry. Oh Severus!"

"I'll be right down," said Severus pointedly. "I think I know why they want to see me."

"Severus," said Harry, as soon as Brenda left. "Are you really up to this?"

"Yes, I think so," said Severus, rubbing his face. "Losing that boy has hit me hard, no doubt. I want to find Crabbe and Malfoy and the other Slytherins and hug them. The urge to do so is horrible."

"Well, there are Slytherins here you can hug," said Harry gently. "I don't know how close Parkinson or Zabini were to Goyle, but they could use friends right now regardless...the wizard students are being so rejected right now. Its sad, but maybe now the muggles will start feeling less adverse to wizards, that they can see how badly we're affected by this too."

"Hm, you're right about that, as horrible as it is. People might stop fighting and realize that we're in this together. People will be comforting each other now, and hopefully we can prevent anymore kids from being forgotten in the rush of trying to take care of them all," his breath hitched, his eyes water a bit, probably thinking of poor Bethy Ann who had witnessed the horror of Goyle's death. "But first...Gregory's family."

Severus went to console Goyle's Grandparents at the gate as soon as they arrived, and they willingly embraced him despite the blue glowing quarantine charms they were wearing.

Harry had the dubious pleasure of overhearing Grandfather Goyle say, in a most humble voice,

"I suppose I no longer have any excuse to stay in retirement, Severus. Gregory is gone but I still have a granddaughter in Bulgaria and a niece I haven't heard from in awhile and her children, as well as my own belligerent son. I still have family that could be effected by this..."

"Preston," said his wife softly, her gray curls limp and haggard from her mourning. "Does this mean...?"

"Yes," said Grandfather Goyle. "I shall go put in for volunteer placement at St Mungo's or with whoever is working on a cure to fix this."

"You're looking at him," Severus said, red eyed. "Though my attempts have been less successful than Harry Potter's. Perhaps you can find a way to put magical sympathies into potion format, though if you work here you'll have to take off the quarantine charm I'm afraid. But my formula for trying to make a potions form of the magical humors has hit a bit of a snag. Maybe you'd have better luck with fixing it."

"Perhaps I will," said Grandfather Goyle, sounding suspiciously confident. "Perhaps I will."