PG-13 Methos takes a young Severus Snape under his wing.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, much to my dismay and their relief.

Death & Betrayal
by MarbleGlove

"Albus! You need to do something about that infuriating man!"

Albus Dumbledore grinned into his beard as he watched his Assistant Headmistress storm towards him. It looked like it was time for her semiannual rant against the Head of Slytherin. "What man is that, my dear?"

Minerva glared at him. "You know perfectly well. I have put up with enough already. I dealt quietly with him having the entire Gryffindor quidditch team test that poetry potion right before a big game. I deal constantly with him giving out detentions to my house, despite all the evidence pointing towards his own. But he simply cannot be allowed to give his students an unidentified poison and assign them to make the antidote themselves. It's dangerous!"

Albus' eyes opened wide at her version of events. In his opinion she had been far from quiet about the first incident and was constantly harping on the various detentions. "There, there. I'm sure he kept the antidote on hand for anyone who failed the assignment."

"Five students reported poison symptoms to me!"

"I'm sure it's just their imagination. They'll be fine, but I suppose you could send them along to Poppy for a check up."

"Albus, why do you let that man get away with murder?"

"What? No one has died."

"Yet. Albus, seriously, why do you let Snape get away with so much? If any other teacher acted as he did, you'd kick them out."

Albus sighed. "I want him to stay." He wondered why felt the need to explain further, but times were tumultuous, and perhaps it would be best to share more. He trusted his instincts on this. "Severus, he makes me happy. I've taken tea with him once a week for fifteen years and he still surprises me. I give him free reign because I don't want him to leave. Of all the things I have ever asked him to do, he's only ever agreed to do one of them for me and that was to be a teacher here."

"Then I'm surprised that you haven't given him the Defense class." Minerva snorted. Then took a closer look at the Headmaster who was looking decidedly shifty. "Why haven't you given him the Defense class?"

"Er. Well, you see. Um. I've tried to. He's refused it. He likes potions better."

Minerva raised her eyebrows. "And the rumors that say he's applied for the job every single year for the last decade?"

"Ah. Well, I may have started those rumors to see what he'd do." Albus sighed with resigned humor. "Ever since then, he's picked fights with all the Defense professors. It makes it terribly hard to fill that position, especially since he continues to refuse it himself."

Minerva reached one hand up to massage her temple. She groaned. "Albus, do you like making life difficult? If you can tell him to spy on You-Know-Who, which as far as I knew was a completely impossible task, you can tell him to go easy on everyone around him, which might be improbable, but is at least possible. I know he's your protégée, but really, you need to control him."

She missed his response which was barely vocalized it was so quiet. "I've never told him what to do."

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Of all the members of the Order of the Phoenix, Severus was the one that he least understood. He had thought that Severus was completely lost to the Dark Lord when he had graduated from Hogwarts still following Lucius Malfoy's lead.

Three years later, when Severus had contacted him and asked for a confidential meeting, he had felt a glimmer of hope. Several times before, Death Eaters had come to him for sanctuary having become disillusioned with Lord Voldemort. But the severely controlled young man who entered his office looked nothing like those broken figures that had come to him in despair. Severus had sat stiffly in the overstuffed armchair facing his desk and had started telling him everything Severus knew about the Death Eaters: names, past events, present actions, and future plans.

Dumbledore tried to ask about the motivations for this emotionless confession, if it could be called that, but those questions had been ignored. He had eventually given up and questioned him about the facts he was being told. While Severus had maintained shields around his thoughts and memories, he had merely sneered at Dumbledore when he had used legilamens to verify his veracity. He had not raised further shields, and had not needed to. Everything Severus said was the truth.

When Severus had finally finished speaking, and Dumbledore had asked his last question, Severus had stood and moved to the door. Before leaving he had turned back and said, "Is there anything in particular, you wish to know further?"

Dumbledore gave him several questions that he had about Voldemort and the dark lord's plans. Severus had nodded and left without further sound, leaving Dumbledore to a rare feeling of not understanding his fellow man.

It couldn't be a trick by Lord Voldemort, because for one, it was just too bizarre a situation, and for two, Dumbledore knew that Severus had spoken the truth about plans that Voldemort would want to remain secret. It couldn't be remorse and suicide by going back to the Dark Lord, because Severus had indicated that he intended to collect more information and deliver that at some later point.

It seemed like Severus was trying to be an active spy. But that was ludicrous. There were no such spies in wizarding wars.

There were one-time betrayals: traitors. There were spy-spells that allowed secret observation. But there weren't spies of the type that muggles had: people in trust who worked for a foreign power. There were too many ways for the truth to be magically discovered. How could Severus Snape, master legilamens and occulmens have not known this? Had he become too sure of his own abilities to deceive that he thought he could do the impossible?

Dumbledore berated himself for not forcing the young man, a boy really, to stay and divulge his motivations and plans. But he tried to avoid forcing anyone, he tried to woo them gently. This time he wished he had done differently. For Severus' sake.

Two months later though, Severus requested another interview, and it was much the same. He had the answers to most of Dumbledore's questions and had educated guesses about the rest. He left again with more of Dumbledore's questions and still without answering any of the more personal queries.

This pattern continued.

Dumbledore watched as Severus rose in the ranks of Death Eaters. He wasn't even taking part in any of the killings. He was nasty and bitter even as a young man but he began to walk with assurance and look at others with visible contempt. The older Death Eaters began to defer to him. He had somehow learned the trick of demanding respect from others with no more than his presence or a few sharp insults. He grew ever more controlled in motion and word.

He started publishing potions papers that earned him the respect of the scholarly community. Rumors surfaced that he was personally apprenticed to Voldemort.

In one of Severus' few human moments he had dropped his mental shields while talking to Dumbledore, just long enough to push a single memory forward.

Severus was kneeling before Lord Voldemort and had been asked about his recent scholarly advances. "I am one of your Death Eaters. How could that not inspire me to be as great as the title and you deserve of a follower?" The flattering words had been spoken in Severus' most cutting tones. He wasn't mocking the Dark Lord. He was apparently disgusted that the question of why had to be asked. The tone said that it should be obvious that he was working towards the greater glory of his lord, and could they get on with the conversation, please.

The expression on Lord Voldemort's face had Dumbledore chuckling.

The Dark Lord had gotten his shock under control and said, "Very well. Accio Potions Journal." A large journal came flying to him. "This contains all my thoughts on potions. Read it. I'll summon you later to discuss it."

The rumors that said that he was Voldemort's personal potions apprentice were made truth after they first surfaced.

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"Albus!" Minerva's sharp voice brought him back to the present.

"Yes, my dear? I'm so sorry I drifted off there for a second. I must be getting old."

"Don't you try that dottering old man act on me, you old goat, answer the question."

"I'm so sorry, I don't recall what it was, could you repeat it?"

Minerva looked ready to explode. It was an effect that rather appealed to Albus and he watched it with interest. But she reigned in her ire and said very carefully, "is Snape's desire for the Defense position the only false rumor that you have spread about him?"

"Ah. More or less."

"Albus."

"Well. I may not actually have taught him potions as I am said to have done."

Minerva just looked at him and then settled down in a chair and started rubbing her temples with both hands. Maybe he should get Severus to make her a headache potion?

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With the Potters recently dead, and little Harry with his aunt and uncle, Death Eater trials were taking place.

Dumbledore had known that Severus would no more accept his protection from this danger than he had from the danger he was in before. But this was just as serious and so Dumbledore created and spread rumors that it was not the Dark Lord who had mentored the young potions prodigy, but Dumbledore himself. Dumbledore had tea parties with as many important ministry officials as possible and implied that the rumors were true. There was no way he would ever live down the dotty-old-man reputation now, given the complete lack of any real reason for such secret tutoring and such circumspect not-quite admissions to doing the tutoring. However the deed was done and the ministry convinced and he could honestly tell Severus that he had never directly said that he was the mysterious mentor. He rather thought that Severus knew exactly what he was doing though.

In part, Dumbledore asked the twenty-five year old Severus to become the Hogwarts Potions Master to further protect him from ministry harassment. Twenty-five was the minimum age of any Hogwarts professor ensuring that teachers never taught anyone they had gone to school with.

Severus had pointed out that he despised most people and all children. Dumbledore had merely said, "please." Severus had glared but finally acquiesced.

The real reason for the job offer, Dumbledore knew, was that he desperately wanted to understand Severus. This also explained something about his hints that he had mentored the young man. Being his teacher according to public opinion gave him a claim on Severus, even though it was false. Perhaps, as Severus himself pointed out, he merely wanted to add Severus to his collection of magical curiosities.

Dumbledore gave Snape an entire wing of the dungeons as well as a professional potions research lab for his personal and private use. Dumbledore also used his own funds to double the money available for the Hogwarts Potions Master to purchase ingredients with. Severus had told him in one of the reserved mans rare open moments that he "supposed he should have expected Dumbledore's little obsession with him given that he had spent the last five years of his life learning how to draw the attention and the confidences of the most powerful and dangerous wizards around." The tone was sarcastic, but the words were honest.

"Yes. You should be congratulated on such a success then. I am completely enthralled." Dumbledore had answered pleasantly and with more than a touch of humor, but he had also known the potions master to be at least partially correct. Although he didn't think it was entirely a matter of skill on Severus' part. Instead, Severus had molded himself, or perhaps been molded, into the type of enigma that would appeal to anyone who had spent their life studying enigmas as both he and Tom Riddle had.

It was only after all the most significant events that Dumbledore finally got to induct Severus into the Order of the Phoenix. Severus was just as nasty to everyone as he always was. But it pleased Dumbledore none the less to be able to show off such a brilliant and impossible spy.

Three years before, Dumbledore had asked a twenty-two year old Severus to join the Order of the Phoenix. Severus refused, saying he needed "as few people as possible to know about my ... ambiguities."

Dumbledore had choked on his tea at that particular choice of term.

Severus was the only one who was capable of completely disconcerting him.

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When Voldemort returned the Order of the Phoenix was fully reconvened and for the first time Severus was present at such a meeting during war time. As much as it pleased him to have Severus there, Dumbledore also wasn't sure what to do about it. As he gave all the other members their orders, he contemplated how to treat his potions master. At the end, after telling everyone else where they were to go and what they were to do, he merely looked at his Potions Master. "You know what you have to do."

Dumbledore was little closer to understanding the man now than he had nearly twenty years before. When it came to Severus, the only thing he could say was, "do as you will." For all that Severus had spied for him before, he had never been in command of Severus, and doubted he ever would be.

But Severus blanched and for the first time Dumbledore saw evidence that Severus was scared of spying. It also told him that Severus was determined and would return to achieving the impossible by spying in a wizards war.

And perhaps it was the fact of this impossibility that made him trust Severus more than any of the others. They were under his command and he had to know their strengths, but also their weaknesses. Severus was a mystery to him, and in this way, more dependable. He had never known Severus to fail in any important work.

So many people looked up to the Great Albus Dumbledore as the person capable of anything that it was reassuring to have somebody that he could depend on, just a little bit, in turn. Severus could achieve the impossible and he would do it all with a sneer firmly in place on his face.

Thus it was, that when Severus didn't return from a weekend summons in the fall of Harry Potters seventh year, he was devastated. There were no rescue plans.

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A/N: I realize that Methos isn't in this chapter at all, but then, at this point only Severus knows him and this chapter is told completely from Dumbledore's view point. Don't worry, next chapter will have a couple of impressive Methos scenes.

Thanks go out to all those who have reviewed. It gives me a warm feeling whenever I open my e-mail and see a review awaiting me. Thank you.