Team: Pride of Portree

Round: 90s Nostalgia!

Position: Keeper

Keeper's Prompt: Jurassic Park

Word count: 1248

This story is an AU with no magic but a few Dinos. I used Jurassic Park as the theme - a world in which dinosaurs and humans coexist (as SPOILER they have to, as of the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). This is the re-imagining of how and why Snape became a spy in such a world where Albus Dumbledore is a professor teaching about dinosaurs and Severus Snape is one of his students.

Last but not least, lot's of love to my betas: Story Please, Crochetaway and Sekdaniels!

To Save a Species and Honour a Friend

Albus Dumbledore was just finishing with his midterm grading when he heard a floorboard behind the door creak. He looked up and waited for a second, then slowly pulled open the top drawer and retrieved his old revolver. The golden glow of his table lamp was sure to have let the intruder know of his presence but he could not hear the man retreating.

After almost five minutes, all he could hear was silence so he stood slowly and, taking care not to make any sounds, walked over to the door, then pulled it sharply open. The man on the other side stumbled back a few steps. Noticing the revolver, he quickly raised his hands.

"I'm unarmed!" he exclaimed.

Albus frowned, then relaxed a bit, seeing that the young man's hands were indeed empty. Well, to be honest, he was a boy, really. He was eighteen at most. One of the students that had quit his class halfway through to join his rival. "Well then, what message does Voldemort Inc. have for me?"

The young man shook his head, long black hair falling out of his face and revealing his skinny features and long nose. "No messages. I came here on my own."

Albus arched an eyebrow but then stepped out of the way. "Come in then." He lowered his weapon and followed the boy into the office. He could not help but notice how the boy walked, hunched over, his eyes constantly vigilant. He was afraid of something — or someone.

He didn't take a seat either. While Albus slipped into his favorite armchair by the bookcase, the boy remained a few feet away, in a spot with clear vision of both the window and the door as though calculating a path for a quick exit.

For a few seconds, a strained silence stayed in the air between them. Albus could see the boy was hesitant but he didn't want to risk pushing him and making him run away. It had been a while since any of Riddle's men changed sides. Albus' mind was already working through possible scenarios where having a turncoat could help.

The boy opened his mouth a few times only to close it again after gaping like a fish out of water. Then he stepped forward suddenly and placed something on the table. Albus leaned forward to examine it and gasped as the light reflected on the object.

"Where did you get that?"

"Riddle found a nest."

"A whole nest? Do you know what that means?"

The boy nodded stiffly. "And so does he."

Albus pulled his gaze from the table and looked up, narrowing his eyes. "Why would you bring that to me?"

The boy turned his head and shifted uncomfortably. "He isn't interested in trying to restore the breed. He wants them all gone so his will be the only living specimen. It'll…it'll make him billions!"

Albus examined the boy, trying to recall him from his lectures. Snape. That was his name. A strange, quiet boy he had not paid much attention to. Just one of those who'd inevitably be lured away by corporations offering more money than they'd ever held before in their lives.

"Why would you come to me with this, Master Snape?" Albus's face might have been a bit harsh but hearing his name was what made Severus Snape visibly flinch as if he'd been called something awful.

He looked down at his unpolished shoes and tried to rub a stain off the left one with the right one. He only succeeded in making it worse. "Lily would have wanted me to…"

Albus nodded slowly. Lily Evans he remembered. A bright girl with a bright future. Until the accident. They'd been on a trip to the natural habitat of Troodons. It had been perfectly safe until Master Black had started fooling around. He'd tried to push Master Snape off the bridge. Maybe he was serious, maybe he just wanted to scare the other boy. Either way, when they struggled, the bridge gave out. Black grabbed Snape but no one saw Miss Evans before it was too late. Troodons were not known for their especially powerful bite but she was overwhelmed by the pack very quickly.

"One egg is not enough to recreate a whole population of Deinonychus," Albus said, this time with a little more sympathy in his voice. Snape had never been able to forgive Master Black. Perhaps he had not been able to forgive himself either.

Snape looked up with something like hope in his eyes. "There's more. He thinks he's found maps to other nests as well. There's not much, but please! You're the man that introduced the Diplodocus back into the wild. Newt Scamander still says the Stegosaurus herd could not have been saved were it not for your interference. You're the leading expert in Cretaceous dinosaurs!"

Albus hesitated. The offer was tempting. Ever since the dinosaur population had started dying out, he'd dedicated his life to trying to restore it. Not all species took to the changing climate and herds had started disappearing at an alarming rate somewhere at the turn of the century. Furthermore, their sudden scarcity had meant they became a collector's item. Rich people with no sense of how valuable these animals were had begun paying to hunt them, paying exorbitant amounts of money for purses made of their leather and necklaces of their bones and fangs. Deinonychus, a breed known for their beautiful colorful leather, was thought to have gone extinct before the government could outlaw hunting them so if there was even a chance to reverse that…

But then there were people like Tom Riddle. People who actively promoted the hunting and keeping of dinosaurs for the highest bidder, because somewhere out there was a client that desired to have a dinosaur of their very own. Even more so, if the dinosaur in question was an endling. How long would it be until he destroyed the Deinonychus population again? Tyrannosaurus Rex had already been hunted to extinction with the exception of a single male, roaming around the private gardens of a banker.

He looked up at the boy in front of him and hesitated. Twice now Riddle had issued threats against his person. Two other people who had tried to work against him on their race to save the Tyrannosaurus had gone missing. This was a fight Albus was quickly losing, staying afloat only because of his own vigilance and the enthusiasm he managed to invoke in some of the students that came to take his class. Lately even his own faithful colleague, the professor of Jurassic studies, Minerva McGonagall had voiced hopelessness she felt towards this struggle to keep the most ancient inhabitants of the planet alive.

But here was this boy. An ally of Tom Riddle who sought to betray him. Perhaps he was being callous but this was not a chance he could miss. Snape had already expressed his guilt over Evans's death. There had been something more between them. Something that he felt a twinge of guilt about exploiting, but the ends surely justified the means if the ends led to the salvation of perhaps hundreds of species. "And tell me, Master Snape, what will you give to see Miss Evans's wish fulfilled?"

The boy looked up, this time without hesitation. "Anything! Anything at all!"

Albus smiled contentedly. "Help me take down Tom Riddle and I will make certain that you honor your friend."

Author's note: Yeah, I know how big and dangerous Tyrannosaurus Rex would be, but I bet you there's at least one person in the world with too much money and too little sense not to want one to roam their garden.