A/N: Omg guys I'm serious! I can't get over the fact so many of you love this story! Thank you so much! It means a lot! Now..I know many have questions but I can't answer them cause I'd be giving things away...but I assure most of your questions will be answered (some wont because...well it's just not important to the story you know?).

Um for this story we have...stuff? A little more bonding a a bit of a time skip..also I don't own Harry Potter nor FOur Rusted Horses by Marilyn Manson. Enjoy!

Chapter 6- Four Rusted Horses

You can't take this from me

Forbidden in heaven and useless in hell

Everyone will come to the funeral

to make sure that I stay dead

BOY-WHO-LIVED, A DEATH EATER IN TRAINING?

By Rita Skeeter

My darling readers,

I have it on good authority that our very own

boy-who-lived has not only been emancipated

but adopted by one Severus Snape!

Well my avid fans, I asked around and one

source stated that it could be that the former

death eater is recruiting him for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Polishing him up for world domination. Proof you all ask?

I have it an good authority that Harry Potter chose to sit

at the Slytherin table instead of his Gryffindor house.

More my salivating fiends?

He was seen glaring at both of his former friends.

In fact both have stated that he already has a close

friendship with you-know-who through a link they seem to

share via a mind link. So you tell me, lumplings.

Is he going dark?

If so, who will take his place as the new defeater of you-know- who?

Will Dumbledore take up the mantle?

Or is there someone else to defeat both Potter

and the Dark Lord?

Send me your replies and I'll post them

in the next issue, along with any updates.

Ta!

Rita.

The Dark Lord snorted and threw the Daily Prophet down on the table, nearly overturning his plate of eggs. If the Potter brat was being recruited to his side, it was certainly news to him. Therefore, it begged the question, what exactly were Severus' motives regarding the adoption of the Chosen Child?

Voldemort rubbed the bridge of his nose in irritation. It was admittedly intriguing to hear of Harry Potter's complete emotional turn around. He wondered what was really going through the child's mind.

They hadn't had any contact since the boy's first year and he wondered if something had seriously changed for his rival.

He tilted his head to the side in thought. He knew for a fact that Severus was on his side. The stoic man had come to him two years prior to help him get his body back and confessing his disloyalty. He had proceeded to beg forgiveness in the midst of numerous Crucios, saying he had changed his mind due to unforeseen circumstances.

The man hadn't elaborated, but the Dark Lord pondered maybe this boy had changed the potions master's mind on the issues. If that was the case, he'd have to thank the child. After all, good potions masters were so hard to come by. Especially ones as powerful and intelligent as one Severus Snape.

Smirking, the Dark Wizard began to eat his eggs again, pausing every now and then to look at the cover photo of the article. Even though they were only head shots of each wizard, both the photo of Harry Potter and Severus Snape seemed less tense. The scowl of perpetual distaste that was always at the forefront of the potion master's emotional rolodex, was absent. Instead it simply gave the reader a dry stare.

Where as Potter's picture, all of which would normally showcase the teen trying to escape the frame, instead portrayed a sense of calm detachment. It was rather odd to see. Particularly if you knew either wizard's normal attitude.

It was curious to see, and the Dark Lord found that he was practically salivating with want of the answer. Sadly, there was only one way he could get this answer, and he was unsure as to how honest his potions master would be with him over the issue. He knew that Snape wouldn't have adopted his enemy's son unless the child had become near and dear to his shriveled black heart. Which meant that the Head of Slytherin house would die to protect what he perceived as his.

He'd need to assure his friend that he had nothing against the young Potter turned Snape. Maybe he'd send both a message of peace?

Voldemort snorted and stood, gathering the paper into his hands and gliding across the black and green tile towards his study. Once there he sat at his desk and began to pen out questions to his latest puzzle.

Rage tinged magics, black as night, lashed throughout the room, hitting random objects sitting on the desks and bookshelves inside. He was livid. How dare that no good Slytherin half wit take what was rightfully his? Granted the little shite was useless as anything other than a test subject, but still.

The child was his to build up, his to destroy. Severus, the greasy whiny git, had no right!

Again Dumbledore's magics whipped about the room, useless trinkets of no intrinsic value clattered to the floor, or were smashed against the walls. Fawkes was surprisingly absent from his perch... from the room really...and if anyone had bothered to look, would have realized that the mystical firebird had been missing for months. But no one had, and Dumbledore had long since stopped caring for the Light Bird.

Said powerful wizard, growled as he once more glared at the front page of the Daily Prophet. Both of the young men in the picture appeared genuinely unperturbed by the article that surrounded their frames and it was Severus' dry stare that brought forth another fierce growl of hatred.

Viciously he pressed his wand to the small Phoenix tattoo on his wrist and called for his followers. He curled his lip in smug satisfaction when he thought about how powerful he had become by siphoning off his follower's energies through their tattoos.

It was a trick he'd learned of when examining the Dark Mark on the snarky potions professor.

Speaking of.

He needed to get control of this situation. That boy was even more of a pain now than before when he was strapped to a table in his dungeons.

Albus glared at his ruined office and with an irritated wave of his wand, set the room to rights again. Taking a deep breath, he pulled in all of his anger, hiding behind the veneer of calm that was his grandfather façade. It wouldn't do to have anyone seeing how truly angry he was. In fact the only ones who knew how wrathful he was beneath this mask were the test subject's old friends, Miss Granger and Mister Weasley.

But everyone in this group despised Harry Potter. All of them were pawns, even if they didn't realize it.

Finally calm, the chief warlock sat behind his desk, eyes of Ice blue, once more twinkling genuinely behind half moon spectacles. The members of his order slowly filed into the room, taking seats that appeared on the floor around the headmaster's desk. Remus, Hermione, Ron, Kingsley, Moody, Tonks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and many others sat down, intently staring at their leader with a mix of eager anticipation and stoic indifference. Instantly they were quiet as the older wizard stood and gestured towards the Daily Prophet laying haphazardly on his desk.

"How many have read this abomination that had occurred under our very noses?"

Everyone burst into a noisy debate, Ron and Ginny being the loudest. Of course they'd read.

"Just goes to show that the git was evil all along."

"He's tainted, I'm so glad I never had to sleep with him."

"I wish I could have killed him in the hall when I had the chance."

On and on it went until finally Dumbledore had had enough and he slammed his fists onto the surface of his desk, his magic crackling around him.

They settled down at the display of power; some, like Moody and Kingsley, gave a small shudder of arousal at its intensity.

"There is nothing we can do, unfortunately, to separate them now, so if you guys attack Harry you must be more discrete. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, I expect you to think like Slytherins on this one. Moody and Kingsley, use lust potions for your experiments so that he can't claim rape. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, you two can send Howlers. The rest of you give anonymous interviews to the Daily Prophet to smear their names. Tonks, I leave you to the random curses that are undetectable by the Ministry. Remus I give you full reign to test out your werewolf powers on the kid. Including what exactly of the werewolf will infect him. Yes even that." as he finished he preened under their gazes of thankful adoration.

"When do you wish for us to start, My Lord?" came Hermione's worshipful whisper.

The headmaster shivered a little at the title. It was about time people started seeing him thusly. He peered into everyone's eyes and found nothing but blind devotion in each, making him inwardly sneer in delight.

'Pawns to the last.' he mused, his twinkling blue gaze intensifying.

"At the start of the next semester, after Christmas break." he replied.

This way each of them could gather everything they needed to torture the both of them. Each member nodded their heads in agreement and the meeting was dismissed. All of them had one thought in mind. Make the traitors pay.

Christmas was an odd affair to say the least. Harry and Severus ,neither of whom had ever had a decent Christmas holiday, found it particularly awkward. They had spent the days before the holiday secretly fretting what they would get each other.

Harry had snuck out a few times to the shops in Hogsmede, visiting each apothecary in an attempt to get something for his father... and boy wasn't that odd to say...that the stoic man didn't already have. He had felt strangely discouraged when he hadn't been able to discover anything that called to him. And then, as he was traveling the halls underneath the invisibility cloak, he passed the girls bathroom and inspiration struck.

His grin had been feral as he'd hissed at the sink, and shimmied down the pipe to the Chamber of Secrets below. He had gathered the materials he needed and then returned to the surface, the bag of body parts and liquids hidden under his cloak.

The raven haired teen had then spent hours in the end in the secrecy of the Room of Requirement perfecting his gift for his father. He doubted the man had ever been gifted with something so rare. He was even able to imbue some of the items with his newfound magics, making sure that it held all of the protective qualities that it could.

It was completed by the time Christmas rolled around and be heft a foreign sense of giddiness gather into the pit of his stomach. He stood in front of his father's personal rooms and knocked, his gloved and bandaged hands muffling the sound. He hoped that the suit was done soon. He hated the smells, both magical and otherwise, that continued to assault his body. He was pulled out of his thoughts when the portrait opened and his new guardian spotted him on the other side.

"Do you have everything?"

Harry scowled at the implication that he wasn't ready to leave immediately when he'd previously been instructed to do just that. He was gifted with an amused smirk before the Head of Slytherin stepped aside and allowed his child to enter his private rooms.

The portrait swung closed as they moved further into the room and Harry found himself fidgeting with the present hidden beneath his robes. This would be his first Christmas with someone who even mildly cared about his well being, and he could admit to being a tad nervous. The stone faced professor, aware of Harry's growing anxiety but thankfully not calling attention to it, gathered his things and moved towards the floo.

"We'll be headed to Spinner's End, so make sure you say it clearly. I really don't feel like grate hopping in an attempt to find you should you get lost." drawled Severus, who lifted an eyebrow when Harry gave him an indignant look.

"Does everyone know of the fiasco in second year?"

The potions master's lips twitched, before he gathered floo powder in his hands and stepped into the fire.

"Spinner's End."

He landed in his foyer, and placing his bags to the side, he began to dust off his robes. He'd barely counted to ten and Harry had stumbled through, his bag held tightly to his chest and appearing decidedly green about the gills.

"Rough ride?"

"Shove it." croaked Harry, pulling away from the fireplace as the floo network shut down.

The teen took a few good breaths and let them out, then straightened and allowed his gaze to travel around him. The room was cozy and filled with different forest shades, everything from earthy browns to pine tree greens. There was a sofa and a few recliners in the center of the room, surrounding a moderately sized wooden table.

"Nice place."

Severus huffed, not showing how pleased he was that Harry was agreeable to his living space. Instead he directed his son to the room the teen would be staying and set down the boy's luggage.

"Dinner will be at nine sharp." he instructed, his voice a tone of strictness.

Harry inclined his head in acknowledgement of the veiled order and turned to inspect his room. Before the older wizard left, he extended his hand out towards the man who had become his close confidant. In his hand was the present he'd made for his new guardian. Surprise lit in the Slytherin head's eyes. Tentatively he reached out and took the present into his hand.

"Happy Christmas, Sev." he whispered, their eyes meeting briefly before Harry turned and surveyed the room, giving Severus and himself a chance to regroup.

"Happy Christmas, brat."

Neither saw the other's smile as they continued about their business.