Chapter 26: Everybody has his place

Moody gave Snape a sharp blow against the shoulder, earning himself an equally sharp but infinitely better aimed whack against the head by Molly Weasley.

"Don't do that!" she hissed at him, one arm still wrapped protectively around Bill's shoulder. The young man had recovered slightly and seemed eager to escape her motherly efforts; however, the right moment for an escape hadn't presented itself yet.

Moody was slightly less than pleased by Molly's sudden and physical outburst.

"But don't you see? I was right all along! He is playing both sides, always has been. You heard what he told Malfoy, you just saw it! I've warned Dumbledore not to trust him over and over again. There is no such thing as a converted Death Eater."

"Then why is he showing us all this?" Harry asked quietly. The fact that he was speaking up on Snape's behalf astonished him to no end, yet he was determined. If nobody else did it, he had to. Typical Gryffindor thinking. He smiled inwardly.

"Dumbledore makes him show it. He doesn't have a choice", Moody spat.

Harry shook his head slowly.

"I don't believe that", he declared in a steady voice. "Just look at their faces."

The others followed his advice to find a tense, yet controlled Snape and a sweating, pale Albus Dumbledore who was swaying slightly on the spot.

"To me it seems like Snape is showing us what he wants us to see, even though he cannot end the spell altogether. And why would he give proof that he did betray the Order?"

Putting his feelings into words and uttering them out loud suddenly made them all the more convincing. Indeed, why would Snape show them episodes like the last one? Surely not to give them evidence of his duplicity.

*********

Judging from the lines in Snape's face, his clothing and his surroundings, they had nearly caught up with the present – or so it seemed. He was definitely standing on Hogwarts grounds beside the lake near the castle, and watched how a whistling Albus Dumbledore picked up daisies and arranged them into a neat little bunch. There was an impatient twitch around the younger man's thin mouth and he tapped one foot pointedly on the ground.

"Is it absolutely vital that I watch you doing that? It's not like I have got nothing to do, you know?"

No answer from the whistling headmaster.

"… with the students arriving in less than a week …"

Two more daisies found their way into the bunch.

"… and Poppy wanting her potions' cabinet refilled …"

Finally the headmaster straightened up, his back emitting a most disturbing sound, and gave Snape a brilliant smile.

"Yes, it's wonderful isn't it, Severus? A new school year about to start, with many dear and well-known and some new faces. This school is just not the same without students."

Snape frowned slightly and muttered under his breath:

"Quiet and peaceful, that's what this school is without students."

Dumbeldore chose to ignore the comment and started walking back towards the castle.

"You know who is starting his magical education this year, don't you?"

Snape snorted.

"Like I could even try to forget it! You and Minerva have been talking about nothing else for the last two months. Famous Harry Potter will finally join the wizarding ranks."

He sighed.

"You are not the only ones who are excited about that."

They entered the castle through the main entrance door and walked up towards the headmaster's office. Their voices echoed slightly in the deserted hallways.

"I know this will not be easy for you, Severus. The hopes of both sides rest on this boy – and on you as well. Do you have any plan on how to deal with this?"

They passed the guarding gargoyle, walked up the spiral staircase and found their usual places inside Dumbledore's office; the headmaster behind his desk, arranging the flowers in a vase that had been a bug moments earlier, Snape in a chair by the now deserted fireplace.

"I can only hope that the boy will be as arrogant and careless as his father and will get expelled before he can become a real problem."

Dumbledore frowned.

"This is no time for sarcasm, my boy."

Snape met the disapproving look with a raised eyebrow.

"Who says I am being sarcastic?"

Fawkes swooped into the room, gave a jingling sound of approval at the sight of the two men and landed with an elegant swing of his fiery wings on the backrest of Dumbledore's chair. Snape looked at the bird and relaxed slightly. Without taking his eyes off the red-golden feathers he continued:

"Seriously, Albus, I still think it would have been better to keep the boy hidden. He was obviously save with those Muggles; none of the remaining Death Eaters had so much as a clue as to where he might be. Now, unfortunately, they do, thanks to Hagrid who paraded him up and down Diagon Alley. Why bring him here, into the centre of everyone's attention?"

"Because", Dumbledore started, leaning forward slightly in his chair and fixing his blue eyes on the younger man, "he needs to be prepared for what lies ahead of him. He has a right to know and to learn and to become what he was meant to be."

Snape stared back.

"Well, that pretty much rules out his choices, don't you think?"

****************

Harry found himself falling into Hermione's bad habit of biting his fingernails. He hadn't really expected to see himself as part of this story – yet it was obvious that he would have to get involved at some point. It was exciting and at the same time embarrassing and for a fleeting second he considered leaving the room. The second passed.

*****************

Draco Malfoy was strutting along the parlour in his parents' house, showing off his new robes and swishing his wand through the air. Tiny sparks of crimson emitted from the tip and fluttered to the ground.

"Could you stop that and sit still for five minutes?"

His mother sounded exasperated. She was sitting at a small desk near the window, a piece of parchment in front of her, a quill in her hand. Pouting her son plopped down onto the couch, twirling his wand around in one hand until it dropped to the floor, hissing angrily.

"DRACO!"

Lucius Malfoy banged a fist onto the table at which he was playing chess with Snape and glared at his son. On the chess board the white queen gathered up her skirts and started running off the chequered board, seemingly frightened by the noise and the vibrations. Snape allowed himself a grin.

"You are dead anyway, Lucius. Even if you hadn't scared the hell out of your queen right now, it's checkmate in three moves."

He cocked his head to one side and gave the remaining figures a thoughtful look.

"Two moves."

Like an arrow from a bow Draco shot over to where the two men where sitting and stood before them, eyes gleaming.

"Will you tell me about the houses again, father? And the story of Salazar Slytherin! I love that one. And …"

Lucius raised a long-fingered hand to stop the boy's stream of words. The hint of a smile played around his lips. More than a hint was gleaming in his eyes.

"Yes, Draco, but later, alright?  Why don't you go up to your room and check again, if the elves have packed everything? I'll be with you in half an hour."

"If they forgot something, can I try some hexes on them?" Draco asked excitedly, fingering his already slightly battered wand again.

"No", the two men said in unison, while Snape reached out quickly to point the wand into a different direction, away from him and his friend. Blushing slightly, the boy turned on his heels and ran up the stairs towards his room. When he was already halfway up he apparently remembered at least a bit of his manners and shouted down again:

"Oh, sorry. See you in three days, Professor!"

The next thing they heard was the slamming of a door. Lucius sighed and relaxed back in his chair.

"Three days. Three more days and this house will be quiet again. Well, at least until Christmas. Won't that be wonderful, dear?"

Narcissa gave him a smile.

"Come on, love, he is not like that all the time. He is just excited to go to Hogwarts, that's all."

She finally gave up on her letter and walked over to the two men. Standing behind her husband she started massaging his shoulders.

"How can you stand hundreds of them every day, Severus?" Lucius asked while closing his eyes and leaning into his wife's touch.

"Excessive use of alcohol and an occasional ritual killing" Snape answered dryly. He located the frightened white queen behind his glass and placed her back in the box, together with the other figures.

"You get used to it after a while", he added with a slight curl of his lips.

Narcissa released her husband's shoulders, which earned her a disappointed frown, and picked up the men's glasses. As she walked over to a small cabinet containing various bottles of liquors she said:

"It was a good decision to keep a little distance between you and Draco. This way it will be much easier for both of you in school. You have always been "Professor Snape" for him, so he won't have to learn not to call you "Uncle" in public."

Snape didn't look at her and busied himself with the chess game's box.

"Even though we would have liked you to accept that position."

Still avoiding her gaze he said softly:

"Let's not talk about this anymore, Narcissa."

She nodded and held out his refilled glass to him. He accepted and she went back to her unfinished correspondence.

"So, are you prepared for this very special class, my friend? My son and Harry Potter entering Hogwarts in the same year and my best friend there to keep an eye on both of them."

Lucius chuckled contently.

"Even though I hope that, as far as Potter is concerned, you will have the chance to lay more than just an eye on him very soon."

His smile had taken a nasty shade and he flashed Snape a slightly mad glance. The Potions Master looked at his counterpart seriously.

"Don't count on that, Lucius. Dumbledore will devote a lot of his personal attention to the boy. It will be practically impossible to get to him directly. I doubt that I will have the chance to get the boy alone any time soon, and even if do, what do you expect me to do?"

Lucius' smile wavered a little, like that was a possibility that he hadn't thought of yet. It was only a moment, then the manic glint was back, accompanied by a passionate self-confidence.

"When the time comes we will now, Severus. He will tell me. And I will tell you."

*******************

So, Draco was not Snape's Godchild, Harry wondered. Even though the Malfoys would have liked him to be. From his behaviour in class it was easy to believe that Draco was his favourite, even among the Slytherins, yet he had obviously refused to accept that specific honour. Interesting.

Inside the bubble Harry was amazed to see his own face, arriving together with the other frightened first years. He had never realized how much taller than him Ron really was. For a moment he felt like a dwarf.

Images of the past years flashed by, some blurry and fast, others a little bit more slowly.

The hexed broom during the Quidditch match; the troll in the girls' bathroom; the dead Unicorn in the forbidden forest; Ron and him arriving at Hogwarts in Mr. Weasley's flying car; the duelling club; their return from Salazar Slytherin's Chamber.

All of these events looked slightly different from Snape's point of view. They seemed a lot less adventurous and a lot more dangerous, for himself as well as for everyone around him. Snape was torn between Dumbledore and Lucius Malfoy, both of them constantly reminding him of Harry's importance to the course, both of them demanding his undivided attention, yet none of them doing a thing to help him.

And slowly, painfully, Harry started to understand why Snape had been so keen on getting him expelled. How much easier would it have been for the spy, if Harry had been out of his reach? How many times had the hated teacher risked his own skin to get the careless and rash boy out of serious trouble?

There was not only the Quidditch match in the first year, but also the incident with the flying car. During that flight he, and Ron as well, had been a sitting duck, a fair game for any Death Eater out looking for him. And it would have been so easy for Snape to just get rid of him then and there, not telling anyone that he found the two, pretending that they had obviously crashed and died or never found their way to Hogwarts.

Harry saw Sirius' face in the maze of passing memories, and even though it looked slightly different, probably warped by Snape's loathing for his Godfather, Harry felt a sharp pain in his breast.

After Sirius' escape from Azkaban there had been an increase in the activities of Voldemort's remaining followers, but the people involved seemed to be confused. They all had felt that something was happening, had felt their mark burning slightly from time to time, like the echo of an old wound.

And then, suddenly, there he was in the hospital wing, right after the horrific and unexpected end of the Triwizard Cup, watching Snape and Sirius staring at each other full of loathing. He saw the two of them shaking hands as briefly as possible, heard Dumbledore send Sirius away, heard himself trying to protest. He saw Sirius storm out of the room and heard Dumbledore talk to Snape:

"Severus, you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready … if you are prepared …"

He saw Snape go pale and saw, now much clearer than back then, the fear in the man's eyes. Yet he had left the room, the safety of the Hogwarts grounds, had taken his place among Voldemort's followers again.

With a so far unknown sense of apprehension Harry watched as Snape apparated at Malfoy Manor, went inside, found his friend in the parlour. There was a tingle of fear in his stomach as he heard Lucius Malfoy's voice saying:

"I did my best to explain things to him, Severus, but he his not pleased, not pleased at all."

Snape was trembling slightly. So was Harry.