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Chapter One : The Loathsome Choice and the Unbreakable Vow

Two men and two women stood in the Hogwarts infirmary. Three of them, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey, stood quite close to one of the beds, speaking in hushed voices. The fourth, a black-haired, black-clothed, pale-faced, sullen-looking young man of about twenty-some years, stood off to the side with his arms folded tightly over his chest. His face bore a scowl, which was his customary expression.

At last the three seemed to come to some understanding, for Madam Pomfrey wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her white robe and nodded, while Professor McGonagall nodded resignedly with a tight-lipped, disapproving expression.

The group broke apart, Pomfrey heading toward her office with a number of empty potions flasks, while McGonagall retreated to a table in a corner, where a thick stack of mail had only minutes ago been deposited by a school owl.

"Severus?"

Scowling even more, the young man stepped forward. He didn't meet the old man's eyes, which were searching his face. He felt quite a great deal younger than his years, more like a student sent to the Headmaster's office for an infraction.

For what felt to Severus Snape like a very long time, Dumbledore said nothing.

"I don't suppose you will explain how...?"

Scowling so hard his face hurt, Severus shook his head.

"Then you must understand my dilemma. There is no legal evidence, nothing at all to support your claims."

"The Paternity --"

"Yes, there is that," Dumbledore agreed without letting him finish. "I am not doubting facts that have already been ascertained, Severus. I am merely stating that without a legal basis, the Ministry would be both slow to act and unlikely to rule in your favor when it does act. You must understand how imperative it is that Harry be protected, now especially."

"You don't need to tell me," Severus said through gritted teeth. "I know they're looking for him."

"Then you understand that I must act in Harry's best interests. Even a few weeks delay would weaken the greatest and most long-lasting protection we can give him, and that is the blood protection conferred by his mother's sacrifice. Only her blood will give him this protection."

Severus scowled. It seemed to be the only thing he was capable of doing just then.

"It would not be in anyone's interest for you to make your claims public. I am sorry, Severus, but I cannot in good conscience support you should you do so. Harry's welfare must come first."

Severus swallowed. He looked up, finally, and met the Headmaster's blue eyes. "I understand."

Dumbledore peered into the fathomless black eyes for a few moments, but the young spy was too good at Occlumency to allow anything to slip through, and whatever Dumbledore was searching for, he did not find.

"But if I will not stay silent," Severus said, his voice dropping lower, as if what he was saying frightened him a little, "that will complicate things, won't it?"

"It will." Dumbledore's eyes narrowed slightly, though that was the only outward sign of his displeasure.

"I will let you have the boy. I won't interfere with your plans for him."

There was a long pause, during which they stared at one another in some silent contest of wills.

"But there's no reason why I should give you both," Severus continued. He raised his chin sharply in defiance. "And I will not."

The silence that followed was even longer than the last.

"I see," Dumbledore said finally. He sighed, leaving no doubts as to his disappointment in this turn of events. "You understand the obstacles in your path? You understand the dangers to both yourself and the child?"

"I do. Perhaps better than you." But his tone was not as sure now, for what Dumbledore warned him of was all too real. "I was hoping... that you would allow me to stay at Hogwarts until the danger is past."

"I see," Dumbledore repeated.

"Will you?" Severus had never been good at asking for favors. Especially not of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore sighed heavily. "I suppose I must, Severus, if you are determined to undo all the good of Lily's last sacrifice if I do not."

Anger twisted Severus's face. He saw nothing good in Lily's sacrifice. Nothing. With supreme effort, he held his tongue, biting back the words that almost burst out. Unspoken, they burned like molten lead inside his chest.

"Yes, I will help you," Dumbledore continued, "though it goes against my better judgement to do so. You may stay."

Severus said nothing. He had never been good at giving thanks.

"Will you accept a Vow, Severus? I will feel better about my involvement if I can be certain of your intentions."

Severus nodded. He had been expecting this, or something like it. Dumbledore would never take him at his word. Severus had made too many mistakes in the past, and Dumbledore knew too many details of too many of those mistakes.

Moments later he was on his knees, his hand clasped in Dumbledore's gnarled one, McGonagall's wand over them.

"You will protect the children from Voldemort and his followers?"

"I will."

"You will not interfere with Harry's destiny, but help and guide him where necessary, so that he may fulfill it?"

"I will."

"You will not interfere with his upbringing, or reveal the truth about his parentage?"

Severus hesitated. "What about after he fulfills his destiny?"

Dumbledore looked down at him, his displeasure at this latest defiance showing clearly on his face. "If that happens, and if there is any reason to believe that Harry would be better off by knowing the truth, then you may tell him."

"I will not interfere until then."

At Dumbledore's nod, McGonagall touched the tip of her wand to their hands, and the spell was completed. Severus stood.

For the first time since he had arrived, Severus approached the bed, Dumbledore following on his heels.

He stared silently for a very long time.

"I will need to get some things from my house." He glanced sideways at Dumbledore. He did not quite yet believe that Dumbledore would let him stay at the school, after all that had just taken place.

"The child cannot leave Hogwarts."

"I will be here," said Pomfrey from behind them. She had returned with two flasks of bubbling blue liquid and an armful of clean blankets.

"Thank you," Severus said, somehow forgetting that he had never been good at expressing gratitude.

He turned away as she began to rub a salve into the terrible wound on Harry's forehead. It was already in the process of healing, but it was still lividly red, with ugly, torn edges. He forced himself not to feel anything. He had given the child away. He didn't deserve to feel.

Dumbledore made a motion with his hand and the doors of the infirmary swung open. Almost at once the infirmary was filled with the noise of unabashed blubbering. An enormous man filled the wide doorway, stooping to pass through it. He was mopping his red face with a yellow handkerchief the size of a table cloth, which was already soaked through with his tears.

"Hagrid, are you ready?"

Apparently unable to speak, Hagrid nodded his head.

"Travel is still highly restricted," Dumbledore said, as though someone had asked for an explanation. "We must get Harry to Surrey tonight, and I feel that Hagrid may be able to do so without attracting unwanted attention. I have a team waiting to provide a diversion. Minerva and I will go ahead and ensure a safe arrival, and, of course, I will need time to set the wards."

If Severus shuddered inwardly at the thought of a baby riding for the second time in one twenty-four hour period in the sidecar of Black's demonic flying motorbike with Hagrid at the controls, he managed to keep it to himself.

A bundle swathed in a warm blanket was passed to Hagrid by the nurse, and before Severus could catch one last glimpse of the child, Dumbledore and McGonagall were ushering Hagrid out of the infirmary.

He swallowed hard. No, he refused to feel anything. He didn't have the right.

"She will be fine," said Madam Pomfrey, placing a hand very briefly on his shoulder. "I will care for her while you're gone."

He nodded, and when he finally felt up to it he turned around and looked down at the bed. The baby still slept, unaware of how close she had come to joining her brother.

He knew he needed to go. The sooner he left, the sooner he could return to the safety of the school, and perhaps while the Death Eaters were still reeling from their Master's defeat and searching for the child who had defeated him, no one might miss him. It was safest to go now.

Still, he hesitated. Part of him did not believe Dumbledore. He worried that if he did leave, he would return to find this child gone, too. And what would he do then? Would he do what he had threatened to do? Dumbledore was right; he would not succeed if he did.

Already, as was his nature, his mind was raking over the terms of the Vow he had made, looking for any loophole, any weakness. He could find none now, but that did not mean none existed.

Steeling himself, he turned away at last and left the infirmary without looking back once. Minutes later he reached the edge of the wards and Apparated to Spinner's End.