Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, blah blah blah, please don't sue me lawyers, I'm not going around to bookstores and selling this. Why do we even need a disclaimer, this is , isn't it self-explanatory? ;)

Author's Note: Second chapter! Slightly longer this time. As we get closer to the middle part of the story, the chapters will get longer, hopefully eventually reaching a peak of about 10k words a chapter. Right now I'm aiming to write about 250 words more every chapter than the last.

Harry Potter and the Leader of the Light

Chapter 2: A Traitor

Harry was the first to react amongst the mixture of angry and stunned looks on the various faces of those in the Order. "That slimy git!" he shouted. Dumbledore sighed and said, "He is presently hidden in the dungeons in Hogwarts.", then stood up. "I am going to go visit his holding cell now for questioning with Veritaserum. Harry, I would like you to accompany me."

"But why, Sir?" Harry asked. Dumbledore replied, saying "You will find out soon enough once we reach his holding cell. Please come with me to the Apparition point for The Burrow." Harry followed Dumbledore to the apparition point and held onto his arm, then, almost straight afterwards, he felt the sensation of being squeezed through a tube and opened his eyes to find himself in Dumbledore's office. "Wha…Sir, I thought that there were Anti-apparition jinxes placed over Hogwarts?" Harry asked, confused. Dumbledore chucked and said, "Harry, the magic of the Anti-apparition jinxes placed over Hogwarts is special. The magic does not affect me if I will it not to, because I am the current Headmaster of Hogwarts. Now, please follow me to the dungeons." However, Harry still had one more question to ask: "Sir, how did you find out that Snape," (Dumbledore didn't reprimand Harry for omitting the "Professor" anymore) "stole the object that tracks the blood wards?"

Dumbledore sighed again, and, with the twinkle completely gone from his eyes, he simply said, "He admitted it to me."

Harry stepped into Snape's holding cell to find that it looked exactly like a stereotypical dungeon cell would look like. The floor was dirty, the only wooden table in the room was rotting, the "bed" consisted of a thin wooden frame and a sheet, and the walls were damp and smelled of mould. Snape was laying against the wall, shackled to it by metal chains on his wrists and ankles. Harry smirked inwardly until he noticed the state that Snape was in – he looked weak, like he had been starved, and that he hadn't washed for weeks. Harry knew that no-one, even someone as bad as Snape, a Death Eater and a traitor, should be forced to live in these conditions (he wondered if Azkaban was like this, and shuddered). Well, maybe Voldemort, but he wasn't really a human being anymore.

Dumbledore pointed his wand at Snape and flicked it upwards, which forced Snape to a standing position. When Snape looked up from gazing at the floor and saw Harry, his eyes widened in horror. When Dumbledore spoke, it was in an unforgiving tone, that Harry didn't even know he was capable of. "Snape, do not waste any more of my time." Taking the Veritaserum vial out of his robe and giving it to Harry, then drawing his wand, he pointed it at Snape and flicked it downwards, forcing Snape's mouth to be held open. Harry understood, and walked up to Snape, then took the cap off of the vial and poured the Veritaserum down Snape's throat. His eyes immediately glazed over, and Dumbledore started to speak.

"Who are you?"

"Severus Snape."

"Who are you under the orders of?"

"The Dark Lord."

"Do you have any loyalty to the Order of the Phoenix, and do you give them legitimate information?"

"No, I do not have any loyalty to the Order of the Phoenix. I only give them the information that my master, the Dark Lord, tells me to give them."

"Has your master given you any information that would be of importance to the Order that you have not been ordered to tell the Order?"

"No, he knows that the leader of the Order is a skilled Legilimens and does not wish to risk the Order gaining important information."

"What is your ultimate goal?"

"To help my master kill the filth, Harry Potter." Harry clenched his fists at this sentence.

"Did you steal the tracker for the blood wards at Privet Drive from my office?"

"Yes."

"Under whose orders?"

"My own." Dumbledore seemed to become visibly angrier at this.

"AND WHY IS THAT?"

Snape did not become scared at Dumbledore's outburst, and seemed to keep his glassy eyed look. "I wanted to help kill the filthy Harry Potter quicker, as well as hinder the disgusting Headmaster of Hogwarts who has always been such a hindrance to me."

"DO YOU KEEP A VERITASERUM CURE IN YOUR OFFICE?"

"Yes."

"WHERE?"

"On the third shelf of potions, at the far right end."

Dumbledore quickly disapparated away, leaving Harry in the room with Snape. Harry leaned backwards onto the wall behind him and thought about everything he had just heard. While he had always knew that Snape had hated him, and that he didn't fully trust Snape, he took Dumbledore's word for it when he said that he trusted Severus Snape. But now, everything he had been told about Snape was falling to pieces. He wasn't loyal at all to the Light Side. He had always been a spy on the Order, feeding the Order only the information which Voldemort had told him to feed the Order. He was not an Order spy who had made his way into the Death Eater ranks. He was a Death Eater spy who had made his way into the Order's ranks. And not only that, but his hate ran even further for Harry than possible. Harry knew that Snape hated him, but that he wanted to kill him? The thought terrified Harry. However, just as his train of thought was about to continue, Dumbledore apparated back into the holding cell with a vial of Veritaserum cure. Once again, he swiftly pointed his wand at Snape, but this time he barely managed to control his anger and violently jerked the wand down, causing Snape's jaw to drop quickly, making him wince in pain. Harry took the cure from Dumbledore and walked over to Snape, then administered it to him like last time.

When the cure took effect, Snape's eyes quickly returned to those of horror, and he started to attempt to pathetically put sentences together to escape his fate. "No…it's…not what you think…he…" Snape stuttered. "ENOUGH!", Dumbledore shouted, fuming. Snape and even Harry took a step backwards from Dumbledore. He had never seen Dumbledore this angry, and frankly, it was a terrifying sight. "You have betrayed the entire light side, your so-called "friends", the Order, and disgraced us all. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Snape looked down at the floor and, regaining his composure, he unexpectedly said, "While I regret being found, I do not regret my actions. The Light side of this war will lose, at least as long as you lead it, Dumbledore…you do not know or understand true power like the Dark Lord does. You are weak and pathetic-" Dumbledore had lost his patience again, and shouted, "SILENCE! I expected that you, facing a lifetime in Azkaban where you rightfully belong, would have more remorse. Harry, please leave and wait outside of the cell." Harry had questions of his own to ask Snape, but he did as he was told to, as he didn't want to have to face Dumbledore in his current state. As he walked out of the door, it promptly shut behind him, and he heard the lock click. He heard Dumbledore start shouting again, although he couldn't make out the words. Then he heard an even louder shout, and a thump against a wall. There was no mistaking what was happening – Dumbledore was torturing Snape. Harry was shocked. While he thought that Snape was a disgusting person, he couldn't believe that Dumbledore was actually torturing him! The thumps and shouts (Harry assumed they were spells) continued for about 2 minutes longer, and then Harry heard the lock click again, and opened the door to a sight he would never forget. Dumbledore was sitting in a chair he had conjured, panting, but Snape…Snape was laying on the floor, bloodied. His right arm was mangled, and both of his legs were broken. He had obviously been attacked viciously.

Dumbledore looked directly at Snape, and despite having opened the door, seemed to not have acknowledged Harry's presence. He spoke in a quiet voice. "Snape…I had more faith in you than this. You have disgusted and betrayed me in your search of greedy power from Voldemort. You do not seem to acknowledge the punishment of being sent to Azkaban, because you are convinced that Voldemort will eventually break you out of it. And in a way, you may be right. And I can't allow Voldemort to let you be free again, knowing the incompetence of the Ministry and Fudge." Snape shuddered thrice at the triple mentioning of Voldemort's name, but suddenly, a pain shot through Harry's scar, a burning, searing pain that felt like it was splitting his head open. Harry didn't know how he managed to keep quiet. He saw thoughts that weren't his fill his mind…he saw Snape reporting to Voldemort, and like he said, he was giving important information to him about the Order…he saw Snape pledging his eternal loyalty to Voldemort…and then he saw Snape being tortured with the Cruciatus Curse when he had failed to find a good place to kill Harry. Then, the pain suddenly vanished, and he looked up to see that Snape had started to speak again. "Dumbledore, you cannot possibly give me a punishment that is worse than Azkaban is supposed to be. No matter what punishment you give me, I will win, as the Dark Lord will manage to break me out of whatever prison you place me in."

Dumbledore sighed, a sad sigh, almost of pity, and spoke. "Alas, that is why I cannot allow you to live."

And without giving Snape any chance to respond, he raised his wand at Snape, and quickly spoke. "Avada Kedavra!" Suddenly, another sharp pain, equal to that of the Cruciatus Curse shot through Harry's scar, but he felt the darkness and he gave into it to stop the pain. The last thing he saw before he blacked out and gave into the darkness was Snape's limp body falling to the ground, dead.