As always, I do not own the recognizable characters and I make no money.

Upon arrival home, Snape quickly put a tired and slightly sticky Harry to bed. He grimaced at the signs of the sticky toffee pudding that graced the boy's face, but figured that it would be better dealt with by his morning bath than a half-asleep child trying to stay awake enough to bathe himself. Snape had had to reassure the child several times that he wasn't mad about the brooms and that his behavior had been mostly acceptable at the Weasley's house, and then his eyes closed almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. Taking one extra second to tousle the child's unruly hair, Snape shook himself and set himself to leave. He needed to focus on the issue at hand, he told himself. He needed to protect Harry, that was more important than anything else.

The gathering happened as he had planned, and they all met in Dumbledore's office at 9 pm. As the floo roared to admit Molly and Arthur, Snape looked around the room. Hmm, he thought. We might need more people.

"Thank you for coming," he formally greeted the couple.

"Now what on earth is going on?" Minerva asked. "All this dramatic meeting and secrecy, is it really necessary? The war has been over for seven years."

"The war is not over," Snape replied with clipped words. "At least not for everyone involved. I believe Harry to be a target for kidnapping, possibly murder. I need your help as members of the Order of the Phoenix."

"Explain what has been happening," Dumbledore encouraged. "Everyone, take a seat. We must know everything, Severus, even things that you do not think important. Do not gloss over any detail, and tell us what you have observed in the past week with your ward."

Snape nodded, feeling somewhat like Dumbledore was interviewing him after some mishap at the school when he was a child. But he felt somewhat comforted by Dumbledore clearly demonstrating his control of the situation, even though he would never have admitted that. Taking a deep breath and decided to just tell the non-adjusted truth, he related all of the events that had transpired since Harry had come home with him up until the time he left him sleeping at his house. By the time his tale ended Dumbledore had called for tea and poured everyone a cup, though the cups lay largely untouched by the recipients so entranced were they in the story. He purposely did not look at Minerva, telling himself that he did not want to be distracted by feeling like he had to defend himself.

"And that brings us to this meeting," Snape ended, taking his cup of tea. "And why I need your help."

"The evidence of a stray puppy and a child falling off their broom seems very scant," Dumbledore began. "But in all your time as a spy I've never known your instincts to be wrong. We need to take this extremely seriously."

"Such a sweet boy," Molly mused, saddened.

"There are many disturbing things in your tale," Dumbledore continued, lost in thought himself.

"Several," McGonagall agreed, glaring at Snape.

"But the most disturbing of which is why did Treadle attack Harry?"

"Who knows the ways of house elves?" Snape asked wearily. "I think he thought Harry had wronged me in some way. I don't know, it wasn't clear to me. All that was clear is that that elf had to go."

"Did you ever get any other sense from him?"

"You know that Legilimency does not work on non-humans," Snape told him.

"We will discuss other details later," McGonagall agreed. "But Albus is right, there is something very odd about that. And could Treadle have told someone about Harry's whereabouts?"

"Elves have sworn loyalty to whom they swear a vow to," Severus explained. "He would not be able to tell anyone anything about me or Harry. Not just unable upon a breach of contract like us, but he would actually be unable to. It's similar to an unbreakable vow for wizards."

"It sounds like Treadle is a dead end then," Molly said.

"I think the incident with the puppy is clearly the salient point to discuss," Minerva commented. "Was it a someone transfigured? An animagus? And, of course, who wanted to lure him away?"

"There are any number of people who would prefer the child dead," Albus sighed. "I think there are too many to be helpful. I think the more helpful thing would be to talk about how we keep him safe."

"My property is well warded," Severus agreed. "But we will need to reinforce the wards at the Weasleys if we are to spend more time there."

"Molly and I will work on that," Arthur agreed. "This may not be the time to discuss it, but we think Harry would benefit from our families spending time together. We need to make our house as safe as possible.'

"Perhaps it is time for us to be friends," Molly smiled at him.

Snape nodded almost imperceptibly, not knowing what to do with their easy offer of friendship. Didn't they know who he was? He didn't have friends, he had allies and enemies. What in the world would being friends entail? He felt comforted that Arthur had not said that they thought Harry would live with them, but voiced him and harry as a family together. His heart warmed just a bit, until he clenched his fists in order to ignore distractions. "I put a trace on him when he breached the wards for the first time," Snape told them, refocusing on the task at hand. "He is underage, so that would make him having a portable port key difficult."

"Perhaps a panic button?" Molly suggested. "When my mum got older and more frail the doctors gave her a button to wear on a chain around her neck that she could touch if she needed help."

"Good idea," Snape nodded. "I'll have to make it so he can do it without a wand, but not accidently. Shouldn't be too hard."

"We also need to have the wards include house elves," Dumbledore intoned. "The issue of Treadle just rankles me in a way that I can't understand yet. Perhaps Maisie can help with that?"

"She seems quite enamored and protective of my ward," Snape told them, the slightest hint of a smirk playing on his lips. "I'm sure she would help."

The discussion continued, with ideas suggested and thrown out, until at the end the tea had been drunk and Snape felt much more comfortable about having allies in his duties with the Potter child. Each adult in the room had their assignments in keeping Harry safe and questions to research, and Snape began to relax. When he heard McGonagall's voice, however, he regretted letting his guard down even a little.

"I want to have a conversation with you, Severus," she rapped out. "I believe the others are headed out now."

"Of course, Professor," he replied, forcing himself to appear as if he didn't feel like an errant Hogwarts student before the woman that had been his Professor all those years ago.

The others smirked as they left, as if they knew that Snape was getting a detention. Snape schooled his face and body, not betraying the mounting anxiety he was beginning to feel. He, a formidable wizard who had had the nerve to spy on the Dark Lord himself, still had to force himself not to leap to defense and justifications when faced with the aging Transfigurations Professor. Although, he thought reasonably, Anybody not a little afraid of her could easily spend some time as a tea cozy. She was certainly not one to underestimate. He could always count on her being, well, so much more of a gryffindor than Dumbledore was. Dumbledore was, well, practical where McGonagall had too much noble honor.

"I am disappointed," she told him, her face very serious. "By your own words you terrorized the poor boy and, worse yet, you were so uninvolved as to allow your servant to do so as well."

"I am, well, I have regret for how I was when Harry first came," Snape admitted softly, not looking the woman in the eye. "I should have done it differently."

"Yes, you should have," she agreed simply, her eyes flashing. "You let your past prejudice you. You are normally so perceptive and vigilant, Severus, the only way you could have missed Harry's true nature and the nature of his previous upbringing was to be deliberately obtuse."

"I was . . . distracted," Snape finished lamely.

"I should say you were! And then to punish the poor boy based on your false assumptions, well, that is nearly unforgivable; especially for someone as damaged as that boy must be."

"I quite agree," Snape agreed softly. Then, suddenly shaking himself, he quipped, "So what's it to be, Professor? Detention? Lines?"

"You cheeky boy," she answered him, but a faint smile touched her lips. "You would not be so dismissive were I to assign you detention with me. But you are getting a bit big for it, so I suppose I will have to content myself with other methods."

"I do agree that I acted wrongly, and I am sorry," Snape told her levelly. "But I only wish that some of your energy for protecting the boy now had translated into checking up on him in the last seven years."

Snape smirked a little as he heard a yelp of outrage from the senior professor.

"You know quite well I wasn't allowed!" she snapped back. And then, sadly, she answered, "I should have gone against Dumbledore on that account at least."

Snape nodded, but did not condemn the witch further.

"I also wanted to say that it takes a good man to address your faults against the boy so thoroughly," McGonagall briskly continued. "It shows strength of character that you so quickly recognized how you were wrong and worked to rectify it. Apologizing to a child Harry's age can be difficult for a lot of people, but you instinctively knew how essential it was. And the relationship that you are starting to build with him now will be his salvation, I am sure of it. I heartily approve your parenting him."

"What?" Snape asked, flabbergasted.

"In fact, I will suggest to Dumbledore that we begin to think about adoption," her eyes twinkled. "I believe that might strengthen the blood wards further."

Snape's eyes prickled in a completely unexpected way, and he could hardly believe what he heard. Censure he was expecting, praise was sweet to hear, but her endorsement for him becoming the father of the boy who was supposed to save them all positively floored him.

"You cannot be serious!" he cried out.

"You, Severus Snape, know me better than that," she told him levelly. "And you also know me well enough when I tell you that I will order you a book about parenting traumatized children that will be sent to you by owl tomorrow. And I will be checking in with you to make sure you're reading it."

"Why do I feel like I've been handed a punishment essay?" he asked suspiciously.

"It must be those instincts that Dumbledore was talking about," she smirked. "I expect the book to be read by this time next week."

And with that, Snape knew he had been dismissed.