The Meeting

Snape didn't relax after leaving Lily. First, he needed to talk to his Slytherins, luckily they had more sense than most other students at the school. Some of McGonagall's students had managed to set their dormitory on fire. How they managed that in a solid stone castle equipped with fire-proofing spells was a mystery to everyone.

Then he lurked in the school library for hours, looking for some kind of evidence verifying (or disproving) Dumbledore's theory about Voldemort's defeat. After the events of last night, he refused to blindly trust the Headmaster anymore.

Dinnertime came and passed. A sharp crack echoed from just behind him, and Snape spun about with one hand already on his wand, only to see a pair of enormous brown eyes and bat-like ears a few feet from the ground.

The house elf wordlessly handed him a small missive and vanished with another crack.

Confused, Snape carefully broke the letter's anonymous seal and read the contents.

Meeting tonight. 11:00. The usual place.

Instead of a signature, a crude dark mark was drawn below the text. As Snape watched, the ink faded before vanishing into the page.

The inner circle of the Death Eaters met at Headquarters to compare notes and discuss what was to be done. No one had seen or heard from the Dark Lord for over twenty-four hours. This was not unusual for their master, but the disappearing Dark Marks were disquieting. And rumor had it that Voldemort had fallen.

Barty Crouch Jr. curled his lip as he looked about the room. There were an inordinate number of Death Eaters missing. Cowards.

Without the Dark Marks, it proved rather difficult to contact everyone. Many of the Death Eaters knew each other, but no one knew everybody else. Barty, the Lestranges, and Evan Rosier had spent the day sending messages via Winky to everyone they could think of.

And now, some of those loyal followers had disappeared now that the Dark Lord's power seemed broken. It had started with Lucius Malfoy. The man had taken one look at the morning news and rushed to the Ministry, claiming to have been Imperiused.

Clearly, some of the others had followed his lead.

Barty tried to figure out who was missing. Macnair, Yaxley, Rookwood, Karkaroff, Crabbe, Goyle, Travers, Gibbon, Snape, and of course, Malfoy himself.

Traitors, the lot of them. They were all-to-willing to fawn and offer their eternal loyalty, but at the first sign of trouble they disappeared.

A good ten minutes into their meeting, Snape stalked into the room.

Bellatrix gave him a nasty look. "You're late."

"Unlike you, I cannot merely apparate from my living quarters," the young man reminded her irritably. "Foreign though the concept may be to you, I actually try to exercise some degree of subtlety whenever I leave the castle. You see, I was under the impression that not being discovered was a small price to pay for not being punctual. But, in the future, I'll be sure to be on time. Who cares if all of Hogwarts notices?"

Bellatrix "hmphed" and glowered once more for effect before turning back to everyone else. "As I was saying, our first priority should be to find the Dark Lord. He's sure to be around somewhere, the Prophet's claim is simply ridiculous."

Nods were going around the room, although Nott spoke up, "That's all well and good, but how are we going to do that exactly? We haven't a clue where to find him."

In the past, if the Dark Lord had needed their presence, he had summoned them to him. On the rare occasion that they needed to communicate with him, they used the Dark Marks. No one knew how to contact him without the Marks.

Barty spoke up. "We'll search every nook and cranny, that's how we'll find him! And find him we will! We can start by interrogating the Potters."

"Yes!" cried Bellatrix with excitement. "Lily Potter is sure to know what happened to him! And besides, she and her son need to be killed anyway. People are saying that her little boy defeated the Dark Lord! We'll show them that a mere child is nothing compared to him! After we've finished with the so-called," her voice became very scornful, "Boy-Who-Lived, no one will dare to cross us again!"

Everyone agreed with her, although Rowle quietly pointed that that they needed to be cautious as they hunted the remaining Potters. "I'm sure it's occurred to somebody," they all knew he meant Dumbledore, although no one dared say it out loud, "that the Potters are still in danger and we don't want to be caught red-handed by the Aurors with the Dark Lord temporarily out of action."

Barty thought that was a cowardly statement. Unfortunately, most of the others seemed to agree.

"First of all," Lestrange plotted, "we need to know where the woman and the boy are located. Has anyone heard anything?"

"Hogwarts." Snape's voice sounded slightly hoarser than usual. "They are safe at Hogwarts."

Everyone groaned. No one wanted to mess with the Headmaster of Hogwarts, after all.

"That's alright, we can still capture them." Lestrange was confidant. "We're Slytherins, we can certainly come up with something cunning."

"And then…" Bellatrix was thrilled by the thought. "We find out where the Dark Lord is, and then," she smiled very creepily, "bye bye mummy and baby Potter."

In closing, they decided to meet in smaller groups to plan the Potters' capture. They'd also meet with the myriad lesser supporters of their master, and assure them that the Dark Lord was not gone no matter what the rumors might say.

Barty studied Severus Snape carefully as the meeting adjourned. Snape and Malfoy had always been close, and Barty was somewhat surprised to see the man here tonight after his cowardly mentor had run to for the Ministry. Barty smiled slightly. Some of the others might have followed Malfoy's lead and abandoned their Lord, but at least Snape was loyal! Empty black eyes suddenly locked onto him and Barty shivered slightly. Snape's gaze was downright creepy, the soulless eyes completely unreadable. Nervously looking away he pointedly studied the far wall instead. Yes, the man made an excellent Death Eater, Barty thought.

Contacting Dumbledore was proving to be ridiculously difficult. Snape sent his Patronus with the simple message, We need to talk, but the man didn't respond. Just in case, Snape sent an owl with a similar message then resigned himself to waiting for the Headmaster's response.

In the meantime he had plenty to do. He caught four students coming back from Hogsmeade loaded with firewhiskey on his way back from the meeting.

The next day, over half of his sixth and seventh years were involved in a brawl outside the History of Magic classroom. Apparently the fight started when one of his sixth years, frustrated by a particularly annoying classmate, goaded the Gryffindor (surprise, surprise) into attack mode. The other Slytherins quickly joined. Secretly, Snape was proud of them for presenting a united front, but he still needed to discipline them somehow.

The Slytherin Quidditch team was recovering in the Hospital Wing, having developed purple polka dots. Snape suspected the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but couldn't find any proof.

All of the students desperately needed something to keep them occupied, but classes were officially canceled until January. The students hadn't yet been sent home, and chaos was the inevitable result.

In the meantime, he desperately researched ways to keep Lily safe. To be honest, the Fidelius charm was still the best option available – he could be the Secret Keeper this time – but he still needed Lily's agreement, a secure location to hide her and Harry, and someone to perform the charm. Mostly, he needed to talk to Dumbledore, who had access to far more resources.

He was hunched over The Art of Magical Deception in his office when a clear knock sounded from the door. One of his Slytherins no doubt, no other students ever dared approach him outside of class. "Come in," he called out calmly.

The door swung open and Lily Evans stepped inside, nervously fiddling with her hair. "Hey S…er, Professor Snape. Can we talk?"

Disclaimer In the interest of inter-species cooperation, today's disclaimer will be delivered in Gobbledegook. aioTeiow menJeiwKem ypckbmnxJ qpcmbntckrRtcmel xztzcTcnCtncm.

Dedication This chapter is dedicated to Andy Black Riddle.