The Hidden War

By JalendaviLady

Timeline: A few years after "The Mistake". If you haven't read it, you will be lost.

Summary: In October 1981, Severus Snape's cover was blown, the Potters escaped, and history took a very different turn. A chance discovery is about to change the flow of events again. And just what does the Prophecy mean with no Boy Who Lived?

Characters: Severus Snape, Lily Potter, James Potter, Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, and assorted others

Pairings: James/Lily (story is not pairing-focused)


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.


Chapter 1: The House Of Gaunt

It was nothing but a little rundown shack on a hill.

An abandoned little rundown shack, in fact, which was what made it look so appealing to one Auror Sirius Black that fine hot summer afternoon after spending several hours running around the town of Little Hangleton on stakeout for the Order.

He had found himself on stakeout during his days off often since Pettigrew's defection to Voldemort had made keeping his and James' animagus forms secret from Dumbledore a bit too much of a bother.

Better that he, at least, knew.

Better that there be a village mutt running around Britain who wasn't all he appeared to be.

Especially as the Order had no spy. What had happened to Severus the night he fled, and the fact he was now trapped inside Hogwarts Castle for the foreseeable future, was warning enough to the remaining Death Eaters that changes of heart would most likely be fatal.

And Severus hadn't seen my brother in three months, Sirius thought. Damnit, Reg, what did you do? Where the bloody hell are you?

Even when Sirius had been able to spy on Death Eater movements, there had been no sign or word of Regulus Black.

There had been no movement around the abandoned manor house on the other side of the town. If Voldemort was using his father's ancestral manor as a base of operations at the moment, there was no sign.

Damn, that was the last of the places Snape thought might be his base right now, Sirius thought as he weaved his way up the hill, keeping to a proper loping jog and panting as he went.

At least I can rest a bit before I apparate out, he thought as he squeezed under the gate and into the overgrown garden surrounding the shack.

Wizards were here, once. There were a few relatively common Muggle decorative plants native to Britain that were useful in potions. All of them were present in the thick underbrush.

There was a startled hiss as a large grass snake protested his approach and retreated into the safety of a bush.

He neared the door.

Crunch.

He sniffed around his front paws. There on the front doorstep were scattered snake ribs and vertebrae, long bleached white.

From a snake large enough to put common village mutt on the menu.

He looked up and looked at the underbrush all around him. That snake's mate or sibling could be anywhere by now... He sniffed at the air, but detected none of the odor a snake that big would have left behind.

It's a long time dead, then.

He tilted his head as he noticed the nail in the door.

What kind of people nail an animal to their front door?


He slipped through the gap left by a broken board, drawn inside by curiosity.

The shack was filthy. There was a thick layer of dust everywhere, but under that...

Even given the amount of time it had to have been since any human walked there, he could smell the fear. It was strongest in what had been the kitchen, but it was present everywhere he stuck his nose.

Someone was abused here.

There were only a few belongings left. A few badly dented pots, an empty bottle in a corner, and not much more.

And loose floorboards in what must have passed for a closet.

Padfoot's paws were more than enough to break through to the hidden compartment below.

A cigar box lay there, and he could smell the lingering odor of dark magic on it. A human nose would never have noticed.

At least something came of today, he thought as he pulled the box out of the hole and set out with it gently held in his mouth.

It was time to report back to Hogwarts.