She left Spinners End without a backward glance, and he sagged in his arm chair just as Wormtail was excitedly asking about the Dark Lady. Severus ignored him, and decided to distract himself with work that needed to be done by the end of the day to hand in at the next staff meeting. He was not looking forward to the latter half of the school year, and having to contend with guarding the Dark Lady, but he decided that he had to pick a side, and he had to do it soon, because Hermione was giving him a chance to live, and he was going to take it...