I'm using a line in this chapter suggested by longtime fanfiction friend and fellow author mandancie – "You have never forgiven me, have you?" Thank you for your always thoughtful critique. J When I envisioned Snape interviewing Harry it was a little bit like how Black Widow interviews people for those familiar with the Avengers – she says what she thinks is necessary to get the information, as a spy and not a counselor. I see Snape as a bit ruthless in a lot of ways, and in some ways I really hated how he handled Harry in the last chapter. But I also think that is who Snape is – he would say what he thought necessary to get the information he thought necessary. In this chapter things get more complicated – and he is going to have to start softening a bit at some point. I want the softening to be very gradual, though, let me know what you think.

I hope this is a nice little escape from our real lives right now, where I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty cooped up and a little bit sad and worried about the world around me. I hope everyone is safe and well.

"Headmaster," Snape greeted him. "There has been a new development of which you need to be made aware."

"The plans we've been making are well underway . . ."

"This is about something completely different."

"Yes?" Dumbledore asked him, his face becoming concerned upon hearing Snape's tone.

"It appears that Potter's relatives have been abusing him," Snape told him directly. "The abuse was quite extensive and I suspect worse than what he told me. It appears they kept him locked in a cupboard for days at a time, routinely denied him food, beat him with a strap, hit him with a frying pan, and also on at least one occasion broke his arm. They forced him to do excessive chores beyond what was safe for his developmental maturity, and mocked him with giving him broken and worthless holiday gifts while they lavished luxuries and endless affection on their own offspring. He has also suffered from mental abuse and was punished for accidental magic."

"Is this true, Harry?" Dumbledore asked Harry, concerned.

"He makes it sound worse than it really is," Harry answered, flustered. "I mean, technically what he's saying is true . . ."

"Why did he reveal this to you, Severus?" Albus was confused.

"I do have some skill in interviewing children," Snape answered him. "Even reluctant ones."

"But how did you know to ask?"

"A comment that he made," Snape told him. "I take it seriously when a child says that someone hates them. It is usually a sign of distress."

Dumbledore and Snape locked eyes then, and Snape was the first to look away.

"You have never forgiven me, have you?" Dumbledore asked sadly.

"It has been many years," Snape dodged, looking away.

"And I should have protected you then," Dumbledore told him, his voice hitching a bit. "I regret very strongly that I did not. I thought, well, in my arrogance I thought I could save everyone. I was so very wrong."

"I was a difficult child," Snape admitted.

"And one I should have been able to recognize better," Dumbledore told him. "No, there is no excuse, my boy. I failed you."

"Then don't fail this abused boy," Snape told him, meeting his gaze once again. "He can't go back there, Headmaster."

"There are other forces at play here, Severus," the headmaster hedged. "The blood magic . . ."

"He needs to be protected from more than just dark wizards," Snape stubbornly replied. "You need to make this right. You cannot have another student grow up with these kinds of scars if you can prevent it. Even one as famous as Potter."

"But the protection of the wards . . ."

"Do you know what punishing accidental magic can do to a young wizard?" Snape asked incredulously.

"I do," Dumbledore answered, a deep sadness in his eyes.

Harry watched the two argue with his mouth agape. This was the professor that hated him? That told him he would get no sympathy from him? That had seemed so callous and cruel? Why was he now insisting on his protection? On his removal from the Dursleys? Against Dumbledore's insistence? He didn't know what to think.

"The wards are useless if the worst happens," Snape told him. "He's past the age of the worst of the danger of an obscurus, but there is still a chance as well as the fact that there are still serious dangers to his mental health. Abuse of any kind destabilizes a person, which is not healthy in a young wizard's formation. And when that abuse is specifically aimed at the fact that they're magical, well . . ."

"What would you have me do?" Dumbledore asked with desperation. "Anywhere else he's in danger from the death eaters. And without the renewal of the blood bond every summer, he's more in danger everywhere else. Yes, there's a risk of him being at his relatives' house, but there's an even greater risk if he doesn't go there."

"Something must be done," Snape answered forcefully. "No student on my watch will live like that. He does not return there alone."

That statement, spoken like a benediction, caught Harry completely by surprise. Dumbledore, who he had always looked to for help and support, was actually seeming to want him to stay with the Dursleys and Snape, who had always hated him, was advocating for keeping him safe. Then a suspicion started to grow in his mind.

"Did you know?" Harry asked softly, barely able to tolerate the thought. "Did you know, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore's eyes turned on Harry then, a sea of blue sadness. "I did suspect you were unhappy at home," Dumbledore admitted. "I had assumed it was sadness over losing your parents, and perhaps your being a stranger to our world. I knew that your family wasn't the most loving family, but I did not know the level of abuse you suffered, Harry, or I would have intervened."

Harry, mollified, felt tears form but not fall. It felt so vulnerable to have these things discussed about him, and it also felt so wrong. A large piece of him wanted to yell at these two men that things were fine and that the Dursleys weren't that bad at all and he had lied, and another part of him wanted to weep in relief that someone else knew, even if that someone else was his hated Potions Master.

"Perhaps a closer eye should have been kept on the boy who lived," Snape commented archly. "You would think the savior of the wizarding world would warrant some surveillance."

"He was such a sweet baby, and her own sister's son," Dumbledore argued. "How could anyone refuse to fall in love with such a child? And I thought he would have a good playmate in his cousin."

"Punching bag more like," Harry snorted.

"I believe by the time this quarantine is over you might see fit to tell me all sorts of things," Snape told him, fixing his black, unreadable eyes on the boy.

Harry, feeling suddenly a little too vulnerable, shrank back.

"Come now, Potter, this is no time for theatrics," Snape firmly continued. "Is there anything else that we don't know?"

"My cousin used to beat me up a lot," Harry admitted, not sure why he was admitting things. "His friends and him would do something they called 'Harry hunting' and when they caught me, well, it wasn't very fun for me. That's when some of my accidental magic happened – I was hiding from then knowing I was due for a pounding and suddenly I was on the roof of the school."

"Who were you closest to growing up?" Dumbledore asked.

"Nobody," Harry answered sincerely. "I would try to make friends, but Dudley always ruined it for me. I sometimes had a sympathetic teacher, but usually Aunt Petunia convinced them I was a troublemaker. There was a cat lady person down the street that I stayed with sometimes when the Dursleys were doing things they didn't want me there for, and she was okay. She talked a lot about her cats."

"Arabella Figg," Dumbledore nodded. "I had her keeping an eye on you."

"The squib?" Snape asked in surprise. "Why didn't she report more?"

"She didn't see anything like what you're describing," Dumbledore told him. "She said that the cousin was favored, but that Harry seemed to be developing normally."

"They knew enough to keep it secret," Harry told them. "They never hit me anywhere it would show, and I knew better than to tell anyone."

As he said that, suddenly the full weight of the years of not telling fell like a weight on him, and Harry began to worry. Had he said too much? Would he have to go back and now Uncle Vernon would really make him pay?

"Thank Merlin you finally gained some sense then," Snape snarkily said. "Believing those muggles might be more foolish than your last Potions essay, Potter."

For some reason the snark in his Professor's voice roused his courage a little, and Harry glared back at him. "As interesting as my horrible relatives are," Harry rolled his eyes in his best attempt to appear nonchalant. "Can I please know more about the plan to catch Peter Pettigrew? Headmaster? Professor?"

"Well, since you asked so nicely . . ." Snape answered with sarcasm.

"Obviously we have had to improvise a lot because normally a plan like this would involve Professor Snape," Dumbledore smiled at Harry. "He is quite good at this sort of thing. But we reasoned that it would be best to focus on Pettigrew, because if we could prove Sirius innocent than he should hopefully surface."

"So what are we going to do?" Harry asked.

"What makes you think you need to know?" Snape asked him. "You are quarantined here with very little usefulness . . ."

"I can be useful!" Harry insisted. "How about I keep an eye on the map, and if I see him I let people know."

"He is the only one besides Lupin that can see the rat," Snape conceded. "It would be useful to have someone to spell Lupin."

"So we are watching for him," Harry deduced. "What do we do when we see him?"

"We go a-hunting," Dumbledore told him, his eyes deadly serious. "Me, Remus, Minerva, Professor Flitwick - all together."

"And then what?"

"We give him to the Aurors, of course," Dumbledore told him smoothly, perhaps a little too smoothly. "The observe that he has the dark mark, and an inquest is opened. Hopefully, the result of that is that Sirius Black is exonerated."

"But will he cooperate?" Harry asked, confused. "I would think he would be hard to catch."

"Of course he won't cooperate," Snape told him. "But do you think anybody really has the chance up against those four wizards working together? Especially since he is not, by all reports, a particularly talented wizard."

"He seems to be good at getting away, though," Harry observed.

"Of course it would be best if we could have Severus with us," Dumbledore observed with a gentle smile. "But with quarantine, we dare not risk it. My meager services will have to suffice."

"The senior staff is more than up for the challenge of one untalented animagus," Snape told Harry, snorting at Dumbledore's false modesty. "I shall remain on Potter minding duties."

"I'm not a baby!" Harry glared at the Potions Master.

"I am glad you are aware of that," Snape replied with dark humor. "It should help your potions essays."

"Boys," Dumbledore interrupted with a smirk. "Boys, I think we can work with this. Since Lupin and Harry are the only ones that can monitor the map, they will take turns. Then, when he is seen, our plan goes into action."

"But why would he even return?" Harry asked. "If I were him I would stay away from here."

"It will soon seem safer to him than anywhere else," the Headmaster explained. "We are making it . . . uncomfortable for him. That, and with Sirius looking for him, he might start viewing Hogwarts as a Haven."

"You should have Professor Lupin looking for him outside of Hogwarts," Harry suggested. "Isn't he the one that could recognize him?"

"He's a rat," Snape told him. "That is a very small thing to track."

"Can't he, I don't know, smell him or something?"

"There's cloaking spells for that," Snape explained. "Or I'm sure Lupin would have already smelled him on Mr. Weasley."

"So how do we make it uncomfortable for a rat?" Harry asked.

"Rats have enemies," Dumbledore explained. "We're just importing some. Not so many that it's suspicious, but the stray cat population in Hogsmeade and the surrounding area is about to get a significant boost."

"Snakes like rats too," Harry told them.

"Alas you cannot talk to any as you are trapped here," Snape reminded him.

"Hagrid is also working on providing a plentiful food source just inside the quarantine bubble," Dumbledore continued. "Things that he would like to eat, and much tastier things than he can scrounge in Hogsmeade. We are also making food more difficult to come by for a rat in Hogsmeade; we are freely announcing plans to start poisoning rats in Hogsmeade who are eating garbage. We have posted placards for people to keep watch of their cats during this time to keep them safe. It is considered a precaution for the Pox."

"But it must be subtle," Snape insisted. "If we roll out a rat all you can eat buffet he might become suspicious."

"It is under the guise of feeding some of the castle resident magical animals that are not able to hunt and gather due to their lack of access to the Forbidden Forest because of the Quarantine," Dumbledore explained. "I think it should be believable. I shall have the right people discussing it in Hogsmeade; hopefully it's overheard."

"Then it's settled," Snape nodded. "Or amended at least. We shall be watching the map in here as much as Lupin needs us to, and we shall contact you if we see anything."

"We need something more subtle than a Patronus," Dumbledore told Severus with a wink. "Besides, they can be quite revealing. Shall we charm a word?"

Snape nodded, his expression tight at the subtle teasing from Dumbledore. No, he didn't want to do his Patronus in front of Potter – and the Headmaster realized that. It was unlikely that the boy had any knowledge of his mother's Patronus and would unlikely be able to speculate on his connection – but it still felt vulnerable. It would be easier if his Patronus had been a squid like the boy had jabbed him with earlier. He also couldn't help but feel very . . . known by the Headmaster anticipating that. It was disconcerting.

"It's also easier for Potter, he can't do a full Patronus yet anyway," Snape said, his voice not betraying the depth of emotions he felt.

"It needs to be something that we don't normally say," the Headmaster continued. "But something easy to remember. That way when one of us says it, the others all hear it and know why it was said."

"How about 'Bludger'?" Harry asked. "We're not going to be talking about Quidditch much."

"It needs to be more rare than that," Dumbledore explained. "You don't want to accidentally say it."

"Do you think you can remember Bezoar, Potter?" Snape asked. "That's unlikely to come up in conversation, and if it does it might not be bad to alert people."

"I can remember that," Harry agreed, his eyes narrowing remembering the first time he had met the Professor.

"Good, then we shall move forward with that," Dumbledore nodded.

"Between the two of us we can have the map quite a bit of the time," Snape reasoned. "I could see marauders on the map as long as he was holding it."

"That's true," Harry agreed. "I suppose I can hold it even if I'm asleep."

"Then it begins," Dumbledore nodded in a solemn way, but Harry didn't miss his eyes sparkling a bit. Why did he seem pleased with this plan? It would probably take weeks to work.

Harry was wrong on that count. It didn't take weeks, and it didn't work as it was expected to work.