1993

He couldn't believe Dumbledore had lied to him. He had trusted the man, had sworn loyalty to him during the war, and the whole time, he was lying to him.

He hadn't gotten the news that James and Lily had died until a week after it had happened. He had been visiting the werewolf packs, a favour for Dumbledore to gain more allies during the war. He hadn't been home for twenty minutes when the older man had arrived and told him what had happened. The war was over. James and Lily were dead. Peter was dead. Sirius was behind bars in Azkaban. Harry was living with muggle relatives after having been proclaimed the savior of the Wizarding World. The funerals had already been carried out. He had visited their graves. Each time trying to figure out how any of it was possible. How it was possible that three of his friends, his friends, who he had seen only a few weeks prior, perfectly fine, were now somehow buried six feet under where he stood. None of it made sense. Sirius would never betray them. Sirius loved James. They were brothers. And Harry… Sirius loved Harry like he was his own. Spoiled the kid rotten. He would die rather than hurt him. But Sirius was their secret keeper. He was there when the decision was made, if not for the casting of the charm itself. It even said so in the Potter's will: Sirius Black was the secret keeper.

Or, that's what Dumbledore said.

It never made any sense to him. It was too out of character that Sirius - the man who had dedicated his life to fighting against Voldemort, to bringing down his followers, to protecting the Light, turning against everything that his family had forced down his throat from the moment of birth, - had become a Death Eater. It just didn't add up.

But he couldn't think of what else could have possibly happened. He had asked questions, hundreds of them, but no answer could explain the events that had occured that Halloween night. Dumbledore would only repeat the same story, over and over again. And if he couldn't trust Dumbledore, who could he trust?

Maybe one of the few people still alive who knew as well as he did how close that James and Sirius had been. But that trust wasn't guaranteed. But, he decided, it was worth the risk. Even if he ended up with a hex to the face in the process.

That's how Remus found himself standing on the doorstep of the last house on Spinner's End, in the rain, clutching a soden copy of the Daily Prophet. Asking for help from a man that would most likely want him dead.

~M~

"What do you want, Wolf?"

Severus Snape's voice was deeply laced with pure loathing as he took in the sight of one of his childhood tormentors standing in front of him.

"I need to talk to you, Severus."

"Then write a letter! That way you'll be easier to ignore! Now get out of here!" Snape grabbed the door and went to slam it into the wolf's face, but said man reached out and slammed his hand against the wood, stopping its movement.

"Did Dumbledore lie to me about how Lily died!"

"What?!"

"Dumbledore. He lied to me about Peter. I need to know if he lied about Lily, James and Sirius too."

Snape narrowed his eyes, judging him slightly. Then, with a frustrated snarl, yanked the door fully open and jerked his head inwards, a silent but reluctant invitation. Although he couldn't help the flash of amusement when the wolf stumbled and fell slightly, having still been holding onto the door when he had pulled it.

The years hadn't been kind to Lupin, Snape noticed with grim satisfaction. Although the same age as him, the other man appeared about ten years older, his sandy hair lined with grey, deep bags under his eyes and his muggle clothes worn and patched from years of use. The only thing about him that didn't appear old in any way were the fresh, angry red scars carved into his skin, overlapping slightly older, but no less deep, white and pink scars underneath. Lupin stood in the middle of his living room, pushing wet hair out of his eyes and looking around, but his eyes held a slightly vacant look, like he didn't really see his own surroundings. It was a look that Snape recognised from their school days, Lupin was in very deep thought and it had often resulted in him being labelled an easy target back them and often resulting in him being hexed by either Snape or one of his friends.

"How did you find out where I live?" he demanded.

Lupin snapped out of his trance like state and focused on him, "This is a muggle neighborhood. You're in their phone book."

Snape snarled slightly. Of course Lupin would think to check the muggle records. Most wizards didn't. He would need to get that sorted, no need to be at risk of any more surprise guests. "Well, go on then. Explain yourself. And be quick about it, I would very much like to go back to hating your very existence in peace."

"Fine," Lupin snapped, "Peter Pettigrew is still alive."

"And you know this how?"

"Because he was in yesterday's newspaper," Lupin held out the newspaper, but Snape didn't take it.

"Tell me, Lupin. Are you aware of how idiotic you sound?"

Lupin rolled his eyes and brandished the soggy paper at him again.

Snape sighed, but snatched the paper out of his hand, knowing he wouldn't get any answers unless he played along. He looked down at the photograph on the open page. "Lupin, have you been at the firewhiskey? That's just the Weasley's and their broad. Trust me, I've taught all the young ones. None of them are secretly a thirty year old man."

"I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the rat on the youngest boys shoulder. That's Peter."

"You're drunk, aren't you?"

"No, no. Peter's an animagus. All three of them were. They did it so that they could join me during the full moon."

"That imbecile had enough talent to become an animagus?"

"Well, James and Sirius helped."

"Well, that explains that."

"I'm being serious. Really I am. That's how they were able to get around the castle so much. Peter was small enough to get anywhere he wanted. And the castle is full of rats, no one ever noticed him. Sirius is a dog and James was a stag."

"I guess that's why you never tried to kill them like you did me."

"Oh, shut up," Lupin snapped, "That was years ago, and you know that I had nothing to do with that fucking prank. Grow up."

"Don't make me kick you out, Lupin. You still haven't explained how Dumbledore supposedly lied to you. Or what Lily has to do with any of this."

Lupin growled slightly, sounding much more like the beast that lurked within than a man, but dropped himself onto the couch, "Because Dumbledore told me that he had seen Peter's body himself."

"I didn't say sit down."

"How could he have seen the body if he's still alive?"

"You're rambling. Start from the beginning." Snape sat himself down in his armchair in a much more dignified manner than Lupin had.

Lupin sighed, "Ok. I arrived home about a week after Halloween, Dumbledore had sent me to talk to the werewolf packs to try and get them on our side. Dumbledore arrived shortly after I got in to tell me the news. I didn't believe him initially. Nothing about the story made sense. So I asked to see them. I assumed that there would be an investigation, this was a murder case, so their bodies would still be stored somewhere. But the funerals had already been carried out, they were buried. Open and shut case, he said. Dumbledore assured me multiple times that he had seen the bodies himself. All three of them. He said himself that Peter's body had been recovered from the wreckage in the street after Sirius supposedly blew it up. That it was proof of Sirius' crimes."

"And now you're saying this is impossible as Pettigrew is in the paper?"

"Yes," Lupin urged, "I saw him transform hundreds of times. Its him. How could Dumbledore have seen the dead body of a man who is still alive."

Snape frowned at him for a second, then peered at the photograph of the rat, silent for several minutes.

"What is it?"

"Dumbledore told me a different story."

"What?"

"It was pretty much the same, only…"

"Only what?"

"Only Pettigrews body was never found. All that was found was a finger." He peered at the picture again. "The rat is missing a toe on its front paw. You can see it here. And I've seen the rat in person a few times. It belonged to one of the other boys before the youngest one. It's old, too. At least seven years. That's longer than even magical rats live."

"So Dumbledore's been lying to one of us. And going by the picture, It's me. Why would he lie?"

"I don't know." Snape looked up and narrowed his eyes. "Why are you coming to me with this? There are many others I could think you'd go to."

"Because you are one of the few people still alive that knows just how close James and Sirius were. Plus, there is the added bonus that you are the closest person to Dumbledore who may have any doubts. You may have hated them, but can you really think for a second that Sirius would join the Death Eaters? You're association with them was the reason he was so mean to you in the first place."

"That and the fact that he was a cruel little…"

"Hey, you didn't exactly come out of Hogwarts smelling like daffodils and roses. You were just as bad. Point is, Sirius always hated Voldemort. Why would he join him?"

"He wouldn't," Snape responded without hesitation.

"You really believe that?"

"I've always believed that. I just didn't have another story to go on, so I just accepted it."

"Same. So why the fuck would Dumbledore lie?"

Snape furrowed his brow, "Maybe… No."

"Maybe no what?"

"It's just… Ok, what do you know about prophecies?"

"That the majority of them are bullshit."

""Yes, I believe that to. I thought that Dumbledore and the Dark Lord were as well. But one day, twelve years ago, a seer made a prophecy about the Dark Lord and a child. About how the child would grow to become the only person who could defeat him. I don't remember the exact wording, but the description of the child matched up to two children, Potter and the Longbottoms boy. The Dark Lord dismissed the prophecy at first, but then decided to target one of them. He went for Potter, I don't know why him instead of Longbottom. But the thing is, Dumbledore believed it too. And he invested all his energy into it. He was the one to suggest the Fidelius Charm to the Potters. He wanted to be Secret Keeper. He wasn't happy when they rejected him, I think he wanted complete control of the situation."

"You think he wanted to ensure it was carried out?"

"Either way, it was. The Dark Lord was defeated that night, whether he's dead or not was another question. Dumbledore knows he isn't. But the thing is, Dumbledore has complete control over the boy right now. All decisions regarding Potter are made by him."

"As opposed to Sirius, who would have complete control if he was free," said Lupin, catching on.

"Yes," Snape seemed to hesitate for a moment, before speaking again, "There have been… incidents at Hogwarts since Potter began."

"What do you mean?"

"Students being attacked. Monsters roaming the halls. One or two attempts on his life."

"WHAT!"

"And I believe at least some of it was set up by Dumbledore."

Lupin did a rather impressive imitation of a fish for a few seconds, before choking out a slightly strangled, "Explain."

"Have you ever heard of the Philosopher's Stone?"

"Yeah, what…?"

"Dumbledore hid it at Hogwarts during Potter's first year. He hid it under a trap door on the third floor, along with several traps, each set by each teacher, myself included. But, you see, he went through all the traps that we went through and insisted we changed them. The traps he agreed on were all of the minimum security. We said they weren't strong enough, and we were right. Potter and his friends, one of which is the Weasley boy, I might add, went down there and managed to get through them all. Potter and Weasley were both injured, but they got through. These were traps that were supposed to keep out dark wizards, and three first years managed to get through. And Dumbledore knew that someone was after it. That someone just so happened to be the Defense teacher, who was possessed by the Dark Lord himself."

"Voldemort…" Lupin looked quite faint at that.

"Yes. And I remember the look on Dumbledore's face when he found out that Potter had gone after the Stone. He was ecstatic. He tried to hide it, but I saw, he was. He wanted him to get through, and he wanted him to encounter the Dark Lord."

"He was testing him."

"I believe so."

"Fuck."

"It doesn't stop there. Last year, we had four students attacked. They were petrified by a basilisk."

"And how does a basilisk get into the castle?"

"It was already there. It had been there since the Dark Lord was a student. It was used then to attack students too. Actually killed one, the same one that currently haunts the girls toilets on the second floor."

"And Harry is involved with this how?"

"Because everyone thought he did it. The boy's a Parselmouth, an ability that he shared with the whole school. Most of the school accused him of doing it, up until a friend of his became one of the victims. They weren't all stupid enough to think he would attack her. But the thing is, Dumbledore didn't do anything about it. He allowed him to be bullied. And later on, the Ministry arrested Hagrid for it, as he was blamed last time, and had Dumbledore removed from the school. Dumbledore barely fought them. He just went along with it. He left the school while all the attacks were happening."

"Hagrid was blamed last time?"

"Yes. Apparently he had a dangerous animal in the school while he was a student. An acromantula. He was only a third year, and a student from a higher year tattled on him."

"An acromantula can't petrify people. I get that he would be in trouble for having it in the castle, but not for the attacks."

"They just wanted to be seen doing something, obviously. Again, Dumbledore allowed it. He managed to get Hagrid a job at the castle, but he didn't do anything to stop the expulsion, the same as how he didn't stop the arrest. He has the power to do it."

"The Ministry found out the truth though, didn't they. Hagrid's not still in Azkaban, is he?"

"No. It wasn't the Ministry. They didn't even investigate. Fudge himself arriving to take Hagrid away was the first I heard of any involvement. They also took Dumbledore's word alone that the attacks had stopped and let Hagrid out at the end of the year. And I didn't hear anything of a trial for him. It was Potter that stopped the attacks. But like his first year, I don't know any of the details about what happened. All I know is that the Dark Lord had reportedly kidnapped the Weasley girl and taken her down to the Chamber of Secrets and Potter and Weasley followed to find her, along with the idiot of a Defense teacher we had that year. The three of them returned a few hours later with the girl, covered in blood and dirt and the idiots memories missing. They went and spoke to Dumbledore for a bit, the Weasley's were dismissed, I remember seeing them in the corridor after, and Potter stayed to talk to the Headmaster some more. I don't know why or what happened. Although I think Lucius Malfoy may have been involved somehow. I saw him leaving the castle cursing Potter's name."

"So you're saying that Harry has been at Hogwarts for only two years, and he has managed to encounter Voldemort twice in that time?" Lupin looked like he was going to tear his own hair out. Or maybe track down Dumbledore and tear out his.

"That I know of."

"And these might have all been a set up for Dumbledore to test him."

"Most likely."

"All this time, Dumbledore has been.. been…" Lupin trailed off slightly, caught up in his own anger, "Been fucking grooming him for a bloody prophecy."

"We don't know that for certain," Snape snapped, years of having to defend the Headmaster kicking in.

"Can you think of any other reason why he would behave that way. It would explain why he would allow Sirius to go to Azkaban for a murder he didn't commit. So that he could get to Harry." Lupin stood and began to pace back and forth.

"Why would Black try to keep Dumbledore away from Potter? Black was part of the Order. He was one of Dumbledore's followers."

"Not always. He was always questioning him. He was never a blind follower. And as immature as he could be at times, he would always put Harry first. He adored him like he was his own. He would never put Harry in danger."

"So Dumbledore would need to get rid of him," Snaped nodded in realisation. "So what really happened to Lily, Potter and Pettigrew that night?"

"I don't know. But we know that one of them definitely didn't die. Do we know that Lily and James are gone for certain?"

"Yes." Snape faltered slightly, before admitting, "I saw them both myself."

He wanted to curse that look of pity that suddenly appeared on Lupin's face. "Don't look at me like that. With them both gone, we know that something must have happened. Are we certain that Black was the Secret Keeper?"

"I was there when the decision to cast the charm was made. That was the plan at the time, but I wasn't there when it was carried out."

"So something else could have happened after you left."

"Possibly."

"Could Pettigrew have been the Secret Keeper instead?"

"What?" Lupin looked confused, before his eyes widened in realisation, "That would make more sense than Sirius betraying anybody. I don't like to speak ill of an old friend, but Peter was always a bit cowardly. We always had to protect him, if Voldemort threatened him or something…"

"I think he was more drawn to power than cowardly."

"How so?"

"Well," Snape thought back to their school days, "When you three weren't around, he used to spend a lot of time with a few members of my house. Lucius, Bellatrix, the Lestrange brothers. Crouch. They would often offer him money in exchange for information about the three of you so that they could ambush you. I think they recognised that you might be a threat to them during the upcoming war. There's always a chance that this arrangement continued after school."

"And Voldemort was winning during that last year. He would have been the most powerful person to side with." Lupin slumped back down in his seat.

"And by handing over Potter, therefore aiding the Dark Lord in winning the war, Pettigrew would have been sitting comfortably once he was victorious," Snape looked back down at the newspaper, "A rat is fitting. So, what is going to be done about it?"

Lupin looked at him in surprise, "You'll help me?"

"It looks like this rat is the reason why the woman I… my best friend is dead. We may not have been on good terms since we were fifteen, but I never stopped caring about her. The knowledge that the Dark Lord was hunting her was the reason I turned spy in the first place," he admitted. "I may hate Black and James Potter with every fiber of my being, but this rat is walking free and a threat to Lily's son. He's spent the past two years sleeping in the same dorm as him. And if the Dark Lord does return to full power, what's to stop him from handing Potter over."

Lupin studied him for a moment, but then nodded, "So we need to find out exactly what happened that night. Somehow. I don't think the Weasley's would accept us just arriving at the Burrow and poking around their son's rat."

"Is there anyone else who knew that Pettigrew was as animagus. Someone who could identify him?"

"Why couldn't I?"

Snape rolled his eyes, "You're a werewolf, Lupin. The Ministry will sooner believe that you're trying to get an old Death Eater friend out of prison. The same with myself. We are both as bad as an active Death Eater as far as they are concerned, I'm afraid."

Lupin huffed, "Then what?"

Snape thought for a moment, before a lightbulb went off, "What did their will say? Those under a Fidelis are required to identify their Secret Keeper in their will, just in case."

"Dumbledore told me that Sirius was listed as Secret Keeper."

"Do you know if it was filed at the Ministry or Gringotts?"

"Gringotts."

"Then there is no way that he had access to the will, unless they left him something. The goblins only read the will out to those to whom it leaves items to. And if there is a next of kin, they have to be there to witness and oversee. Potter wouldn't have been old enough for that until he turned eleven. Dumbledore couldn't have told you the contents of that will until two years ago."

"And he told me the night I got back," Lupin jumped up again and paced once more, "We need to go to Gringotts. Do you think the goblins can tell us anything. Would they even want to."

"If you've been left anything, they'll tell you what you got. They can also tell you if the will has been opened prior, as that doesn't reveal anything confidential. To hear its full contents, however, you'll need Potter present. If the will hasn't been opened prior, you can always tell them that someone has been acting out a false will. The goblins wouldn't take kindly to that. They are cruel, greedy little buggers, but they have their rules and don't take kindly to people breaking them. Leave out Dumbledore's name for now. Best not do anything to draw attention to ourselves just yet." Snape stood and handed back the newspaper, "I'm going back to the castle. There's something I need to check. I'll meet you back here tomorrow afternoon. I'll fill you in then."

Lupin raised an eyebrow, but didn't push his luck. He was lucky that Snape was even helping him. Shoving the crumpled, sodden paper into his pocket, he turned and let himself out. Out on the front porch, he barely registered the rain that still fell from the sky as he moved to find a less public place to apparate. He had certainly found himself an unusual ally. He just hoped his decision to come to Snape for help wouldn't come back to haunt him.

~M~

A/N. I know Snape may seem a little bit OCC, but I'm taking a bit of creative license with the character for plot purposes. But I feel that he would listen if Lily was somehow involved, hence why Remus would bring her up immediately. The same goes with how Wizarding and Goblin laws work, although I will try to follow what we see in the books to some extent.

Both Remus and Snape have gaps in the knowledge that either of them have been privy to, as there is no indication that Remus was given all of the information about what happened in Godric's Hollow that night in '81. Or that Snape had intimate information about everything that happened to Harry during year one and two. However Snape did attend Hogwarts with James and Sirius for seven years, and really should know first hand how close they were and how much Sirius hated the Death Eaters, (Snape being a Death Eater is one of the reason's Sirius distrusts him so much), so I feel that he would have doubts about what happened.

To any readers of my other story, 'Another World', don't worry, I haven't abandoned it.