"Albus, I am simply the last person you should be giving this assignment to."

Severus Snape stood in the office of Albus Dumbledore his arms folded across his chest and an agitated sneer on his face. Dumbledore sat behind his desk his fingers steepled under his chin the light glinting off his half moon glasses. He and Dumbledore had had this same conversation more than fifteen times over the last week and both of them were growing uncommonly short tempered with each other every time the subject was brought up.

"Severus," Dumbledore said as patiently as he could manage, "As a Teacher at Hogwarts you have a duty to each potential student of this school. We must be assured that Harry Potter is receiving his letters. I am greatly disturbed that we have not received any kind of response from Harry's Aunt or himself. If you don't find this disturbing you are a bigger fool than I ever took you for."

Severus unfolded his arms and began to pace in front of the Headmaster's desk. He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it tightly compressing his already thin lips into an even thinner line. Finally he came to a stop directly in front of Dumbledore. He placed his hands on his desk and leaning in and in a slightly menacing tone he softly stated, "Not so concerning as you might think. He is after all his father's child, and that Muggle you sent him to live with was never able to appreciate the wizarding world. Send someone else to do this job for you Dumbledore because I won't do it."

Severus pushed himself off of the desk and made to move from the office. Dumbledore sighed in a disappointed way and Snape stopped mid stride. Turning to look back at Dumbledore, Snape's brow creased in irritation.

"What." He snapped his anger getting the better of him.

"If this were any other student you would be the first to volunteer for this job. You know it Severus. You may act like an idiot when it comes to anyone who had any connection to James Potter but you are in fact quite a good teacher, and you do care for the students that come to this school. I am asking you to do this for yourself, to prove that old prejudice can in fact be broken."

Dumbledore placed his hands calmly on his desk and leaned forward earnestly his silver blue eyes meeting Severus's almost black ones and holding them in a gaze that was more than just two colleagues meeting eyes during the course of a conversation, it was a battle of wills that Albus was not willing to lose.

"I'm not just asking you to do this for Harry Severus, I'm asking you to do this for Lily. Her child deserves a chance at the kind of education he will only get here at this school. Please go Severus. Find Harry and bring him his letter. If you meet the child and still despise him, you have absolutely no obligations to do more than that. I will send Professor Sprout to help him with his purchases for school."

Severus kept his eyes locked with Dumbledore's for a moment longer before turning his back and saying

"Fine, but you are a bigger fool than I ever took YOU for if you think I am going out in this mess tonight."

With that retort Severus stalked out of the room his black cloak billowing behind him as he closed the door to the office with a clipped and subdued slam that showed the professor's displeasure at his hand being forced to undertake a task that was so obviously distasteful to him. Dumbledore sighed and shook his head at the pigheadedness of the young professor. The man was just 32 and Dumbledore thought that ten years was long enough to hold a grudge against a dead man for things that had been done when they had been children.

Author Note:

Hello My Beauties! Just a little note here to say I don't own Harry Potter but I do love and adore it.

This story has taken me a while to actually take the shape it has today. It went through several outline butcherings before I finally settles on what it is today.

I am posting the Prologue and the first chapter today, and I am hoping to update at least every Sunday until the story is completed.

If you like the story please please leave a review. it really helps me to shape the story more and encourages me to write faster. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!

-Badger And The Bee