Harry
Waking up in Snape's bed was strange. Stranger still was how his head was resting on the man's chest comfortably. He yawned and lifted himself off the professor before jumping off the bed as quietly as he could. Harry wasn't sure when he had drifted off but he was sure Snape had still been awake. He figured if he was careful, he could get out of the room without waking him.
He let out a relieved breath when he exited the room and hadn't heard the man stir.
With no real plans for his morning, Harry started toward the kitchen hoping someone would be up and willing to feed him.
He had second thoughts when he entered the kitchen and the only person there was Voldemort. The man was sitting at the kitchen table, a group of large leather books scattered before him. The Dark Lord held one in his right hand that he peeked over the top of when Harry walked in.
The man tilted his head to the side, before lowering the book and placing the book on the table. "I suppose you're hungry?"
Harry didn't react, he wasn't sure he wanted to. Voldemort pushed his chair away from the table and Harry thought about backing out of the room. He wasn't really that hungry anyways. But he hesitated too long, and the Dark Lord started opening cabinets. Unlike when Barty took forever trying to feed him, Voldemort quickly found something and pulled it out. The man quickly opened a package that Harry could smell from across the room, and dumped the contents onto a plate. Harry's stomach grumbled as the man walked across the room and sat back down.
"Mischief, come." Harry couldn't help the snicker like noise he made at the man using the name the twins gave him. Voldemort didn't seem to notice as he had already picked up his book and started reading again.
Harry walked over to the man's legs and meowed. He was not happy when instead of placing the plate on the floor Voldemort held down a piece of meat for Harry to eat. He frowned at the man before sniffing the fish, at least that's what his nose told him the meat was. Then gently as to not touch the man's fingers, he pulled the meat away and ate it.
The fish was pretty good and Harry found himself eating piece after piece from the dark wizard's hand.
A few minutes later Snape walked in.
Harry choked on the piece of fish he was currently eating at the man's shocked expression. A couple coughs and a soft pat from Voldemort's hand had him swallowing the stuck piece. Which gave Snape time to conceal his surprised expression behind a more neutral scowl and sit down at the table.
Embarrassed, Harry hesitated to take the next offered piece of fish, but a slight nudge to his side from the Potion Master's foot had him eating again.
"Albus has called another meeting," Snape said a few seconds later.
"Do you know what it will be about?" Voldemort asked, handing Harry another piece. Harry nudged it and let it hit the floor, the mention of the headmaster had killed his appetite. Before either man could try and encourage him to eat more Harry rushed over and meowed at Snape's feet.
"I do not. Possibly his plans now that Potter's missing," the man said as he reached down and pulled Harry onto his lap.
"You seem sure Potter is just missing." The Dark Lord commented and even Harry heard the suspicious tone.
Snape let out a slow breath, "He is too prepared. Too calm. The headmaster is up to something and if Potter had really died, there would be proof. Whether it was signs of a fight or a body. There would be some kind of evidence of what happened." Harry almost jumped when Snape's fingers started petting and scratching behind his ears. The touch calmed him enough to realise he'd been growling.
"Severus," the tone chilled Harry and he felt himself press against the professor, "do you believe Albus is behind Potter's disappearance?"
"I do." The man said and Harry looked up to see the men staring at each other, studying each other.
A second later Volemort nodded his head, pushed away from the table and stood up. A flick of his wand had the books on the table slaming themselves closed and disappearing. Then he looked at Snape, "then we need to find him." Harry watched a little unnerved as the man walked toward the entrance.
"My Lord." Snape called out, surprising both Harry and Voldemort, who stopped and looked over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised.
"Do you still wish him dead?" Snape's voice didn't weaver but the hands that held Harry did. Harry stopped breathing as he watched the two men look at each other. The Dark Lord's eyes briefly flashing red, before fading back into their natural blue. Even still it was off putting when he tilted his head to the side and asked in a low voice, "If I didn't?"
He heard Snape's nervous swallow, then the man spoke, "If Dumbledore has turned away from him. Perhaps even done something to Harry. Your wish to no longer kill him may draw Potter to you." Harry dug his claws into Snape's hands, he may not be on Dumbledore's side anymore but that didn't mean he was on the Dark Lord's.
"He would never believe me," the man muttered. Shocked at the tone Harry looked at Voldemort. The man sounded sure and while Harry didn't disagree there was something else that confused him, the Dark Lord sounded bothered about it.
"My Lord?" From Snape's tone the potion maker hadn't missed the tone and was just as confused by it as Harry.
"Leave it." The order was cold and there was a wave of power that accompanied it. It caused Harry to shiver.
"I apologize." Snape muttered, bowing his head. The Dark Lord made no comment as he turned and walked out of the room.
The hell? Harry thought.
"Potter," the man whispered, "I don't know what either of them have planned anymore. I do not know if I have lost their trust or if they are both just keeping things close to the chest. Be careful." Harry meowed, letting the man know he understood and would do his best.
"Head to Lucius's or Barty's room. I'll find you when I get back." Snape muttered as he placed Harry onto the floor.
Severus
Severus watched as the kitten that was Lily's son darted off. He shook his head, how the boy was coping he had no idea. So far the young man had surprised him, no acting out, no violence, nothing that drew any attention to himself. The young man gave the impression of frustrated acceptance.
An acceptance Severus was sure would end soon. Harry had to be close to hitting his limit. Not being able to talk, feed himself, or fly, it had to be driving the young Gryffindor Seeker mad. Severus just hoped he found a way to help the teen before then.
He sighed and started walking to his room. He needed to gather his coat before heading to the Order meeting. It was set to start in about an hour, but he wanted to get there a little early and check on Black and Lupin.
What he should have expected was the sudden appearance of hands on his arms, the second he walked into the cursed house. The Weasley twins were silent as they dragged him up the stairs and into a bedroom.
He glared as both Weasleys pulled out their wands and cast an impressive number of privacy spells before they looked at him with matching grins.
"How's Mischief?" they asked together and he had to close his eyes to keep from muttering a snide comment about the name.
"The brat is fine," he replied, opening his eyes. Neither twin stopped grinning, but they did move farther into the room so they could sit on the end of what he assumed was the bed they were using while staying at the Order's headquarters.
"Any luck finding what the headmaster used?" The one on the right asked.
"No." He sighed, "I have no information on the potion he used, nor do I know if there was any other magi-"
"A spell." The one on the left cut him off.
Instead of snapping at being interrupted he raised an eyebrow. How did they know that?
The one on the right summoned a couple pieces of parchment and handed it to him. For a second he was confused but then the implication of the random words hit him and he had to give the troublemakers a small smile. The second piece made him frown, it was scribbled words about Dumbledore and where Harry had ended up. The words, Snape and my mum were friends, sticking out.
"What did Potter tell you?" he asked, looking away from the parchments and at the twins.
"He pointed out that it was both a potion and a spell. He isn't sure if he can remember the spell and whatever it was, hurt," one growled out..
"He also said you were working on it and that we should see if we can help," his brother added.
Severus thought about the twins, the two were troublemakers, pranksters sure, but not bullies. They also were brilliant. He had seen first hand some of the concoctions they had come up with over the years.
He also had to kick them out of a number of empty classrooms where they had been experimenting on themselves. He knew for a fact they never ended up in the medical wing despite what they did to themselves, which meant they knew enough about their potions or healing to not kill each other. He had once debated taking them on as apprentices or assistants. It was only their lack of focus and inability to sit still that had stopped him.
Maybe it was time to rethink that decision.
"Do you have any ideas?" He asked them, summoning a chair to sit across from the bed. He tried not to smirk when he saw the surprised look that crossed both of their faces. It was gone in a flash but still he had seen it.
It seemed the two hadn't expected him to take them seriously. An issue he was sure happened often to them. Severus got the impression that not many people took these two seriously— the other students at Hogwarts, even Molly brushed aside the pranks as childish. Others clearly missed the intelligence it took to pull off said pranks.
However Severus hadn't missed that, and clearly Harry hadn't either or he wouldn't have sought the two out for help.
"To cure him, no." One of them said with a frown pulling him back to the conversation.
"However," his brother picked up, "we might have an idea to temporarily make him human again." He raised his eyebrows, surprised. He had had a similar idea, even tried a few potions in Harry's food over the last week. Nothing worked. Whatever the headmaster had done countered everything he tried.
"Explain." He said leaning back in his chair, genuinely curious about what they had planned.
The twins smiled, "You've seen our Canary Creams?" the one on the left asked.
He really needed to find a way to tell them apart.
He nodded. A brilliant bit of potions and transfiguration that caused an annoying bit of chaos everytime students accidentally ate them.
"Well we have tweaked it," the other twin said, "we think that it should counter the headmaster's potion, but only briefly and-
"We think it might be painful," they finished together, frowning.
It might work, Severus thought. The Canary Creams as the twins called them, weren't a standard potion nor were they technically a transfiguration spell. Truth was he wasn't sure what was all involved in the potion the twins used to create them. The candies were just far enough outside the normal, acceptable, predictable means of magic that it might work. After all he hadn't considered anything like it for Harry, so it was doubtful the headmaster would have.
"You have it ready?" he asked and both young men nodded. "I will warn him before offering it to him."
After the two Weasley's handed him a small bag with a handful of their altered candies, he left to try to find Black and Lupin.
As he approached the stairs he could hear other Order members arriving and cursed silently he might not be able to talk to them today. He entered the kitchen and noticed the two men he had wanted to speak to already seated, Tonks and Molly already talking to them.
He let out a partially relieved breath, which left him feeling a little guilty.
He knew the two men were important to Harry and that he had promised to try and find a way to tell them what was going on, he just didn't know how to. He wasn't sure what he would say to convince the two men that Harry was alive but suffering under a potion their leader had forced on him.
While Lupin might be intelligent and patient enough to hear him out, Black wasn't.
As he took up his normal spot, lurking in the back, he felt one of the twins pat him on the shoulder before going to pass by him. The idea hit him out of nowhere. He felt a little sorry about passing on the burden but he snatched the young man's arm and pulled him close, whispering his request into the young man's ear. Thankfully the redhead agreed, then walked away.
By the time the Order's meeting was over, he had a headache and was frustrated that he had no pain reliever potions.
He apparated outside of Malfoy Manor and swayed as the movement made the pounding in his head worse.
He was grateful as he made his way inside and no one was around. He planned on taking something for his head and then finding Harry and testing out the Weasley's potion. However Barty found him before he made it to his room.
"Our Lord wants to speak to you," the younger man said.
Severus studied him, trying to find any sign about what their Lord wanted. At least a hint of if he should be worried or not. But Barty just smiled and led him back towards the Lord's favorite library. Severus checked his mental barriers, just in case.
He almost tripped over his own feet when he entered and noticed his Lord and Lucius sitting on a large couch, Harry sound asleep on the Dark Lord's lap. The bart was going to give him a heart attack one of these days.
"My Lord," he said bowing his head.
"I was thinking, Severus, you have been spending a large amount of time here. Most of your nights, at least. Something very unlike you. What of your students? Albus? Isn't he wondering what you are up to?" his stomach dropped. He had been hoping that his Lord was too busy to notice how much time he was spending here, when not called or summoned.
"My students are fine, My Lord. I spend most of my day time at the school, and Filius has been handling any detentions the Slytherins get or I pass out." He took a breath, "as for the headmaster, I told him you had me and the others looking for Potter." His Lord's eyes searched his and he felt a slight pressure against his mind, when the man tried to read his thoughts.
"You are up to something." his Lord said, "Should I be worried Severus?"
He shook his head. "No, My Lord," he added for good measure. He didn't like the suspicious look in the other man's eyes. But since there was no flash of red he felt safe in his assumption that his Lord wasn't as angry as he could have been.
"You may go."
Normally with a dismissal like that he would have walked out of the room as fast as he could. However he needed Harry, which meant he had to approach his Lord carefully.
"May I take him?" he asked, "he hasn't had his potions today and I have prepared a new one I wish to try." The Dark Lord gestured with his hand for him to go ahead.
