A/N: Hope you liked the first chapter. This fic will explore multiple perspectives, mostly focusing on Hermione, Ron, Sev, Ginny and Draco. Not much Harry...nope. No offence. I own none of the characters or their world. If I did I would be rich...and I'm not...yet. We'll see how my original does.
Enjoy Sev.
Severus Snape leaned heavily on the table for support, catching the stares of his fellow Order members as he wiped blood from a split lip.
"I believe my appearance may be a clear indication of Mr Potter's current state." He surveyed their guardedly blank expressions. "He has been pacified so to speak for the time being," A nervous cough of protest was countered with a crushing glare, "If that was meant to be a subtleexpression of doubt towards the necessity of such measures, may I suggest you, Miss Tonks, are the one to attempt to get a response other than the type demonstrated while questioning him about any attempts of legilimancy by Voldemort. I leave it to you to decide whether I was justified in my actions-keeping in mind that Potter was attempting to cast unforgivables..."
The corner of Snape's mouth twitched as eyes widened and dropped to the floor. How naïvehe thought, to expect any other response from Potter, a young man finding himself a victim and at the same time responsible, because he was who he was, for the destruction and deaths of today, his sixteenth birthday. The boy had been wild, raging against everything and everyone. Much as Severus despised Harry he understood the internal turmoil he must be experiencing. To kill or be killed-or worse have everyone who mattered to him murdered plus countless innocents. He himself had been in a comparable position as a newly fledged deatheater. On the other side of the divide, the casting of his first Avada Kedavra in order to survive. It had been a dark road to follow, knowing there was no return. He couldn't even remember treading another path. 'What we did was destiny...the spirit's brutal hoof has struck our heart.' Wise words from a woman driven mad by love and vengeance. Tragedy always holds true; no one can change the past.
"Professor." The voice jolted him back from the edge of the void within him. "Are there any possibilities that you are not the only rogue within Voldemort's circle?"
Severus' lip curled contemptuously at the word, 'rogue', "If there were," he spoke slowly and scathingly at the simplistic attitude suggested by the question, "they would certainly not be advertising the fact." He paused to pin the room with his blackest gaze usually reserved for students in the throes of unforgivable stupidity, "How do you believe that I myself have remained alive for so long since I revised my allegiances? By remaining above suspicion; loyalty to Voldemort is hardly an optional requirement when bearing his mark. You obey or you die-as I have so often emphasised when questioned as to 'why can't you just disobey orders?'. If there were a rogue as you so romantically put it neither I nor any other deatheater would be aware of them if they have proved so successful in sabotaging the planned genocide behind Voldemort's back."
Silence. He surveyed the chamber again, it felt like having a room full of students as the Order stared up at him uncertainly. "So." He breathed with mock softness, "If you think I can tell you who did it and recruit them you are sorely mistaken. We have no guarantee that they are acting out of pure altruism either."
"What makes you think they're not on our side?" Severus restrained the urge to roll his eyes, 'our side' indeed.
"Because whoever it is may just have been trying to shoehorn Voldemort into taking a different course of action by sabotaging his plans." It was all so black and white to them, he thought. They were the younger generation, the ones who'd grown up saying, 'You-know-who' as if using Voldemort's name would summon him out of the air. They had never experienced the first war, and the second was merely warming up. Moody would soon shake them out of such infantile ways of thinking. Paranoia was very useful in moderation; trust was too easily abused.
Just because a deatheater had to appear loyal, and for the most part was, didn't mean that he wasn't trying to get one over on Voldemort. Lucius Malfoy was a prime example. The man was almost as in love with Voldemort as he was with himself-however, his ambition was his first and only priority. Not that he'd ever let his master find out.
Deatheater infighting was also ruthless as they strove for Voldemort's favour. The saboteur may equally well have been trying to undermine a rival deatheaters bid for power as the one who suggested the attacks. Again, Lucius had always excelled in subterfuge. A grim smile flickered across his face.
"Something funny, professor Snape?"
Severus lifted his head to meet two dramatically mismatched eyes. "Moody, right on cue to reinforce the duplicitous nature of deatheaters in our minds, including rogue elements I hope?"
Moody did not rise to the bait, "I've come from an interrogation. We caught two thanks to their ineptitude. Bottom dwellers-Baine and Malbourn. Didn't know any more than you did, summoned same time, informed same time."
Severus nodded. He had been summoned half an hour before the attacks had been scheduled, fifteen minutes after he had been informed of the warning received by the Ministry. Early enough warning for the evacuation, not so early that Voldemort could strike effectively even if he had got wind of the tip-off. It was intriguing; the timing suggested the person who had warned the Ministry was close to the top, knowing enough so early on to make such a well timed and convincing warning that could spur such immediate emergency action. He couldn't even begin to think who could have done it.
Recalling the voices behind the masks he calculated that the inner circle that had been present before the rest of the ranks were summoned were Pettigrew, Malfoy and Lestrange. There had been two others, probably Crabbe and Goyle, but they
had probably just been there before because it took that much longer for them to grasp the ideas required in more complex planning. It ran in the family obviously. Their respective sons demonstrated this characteristic every potions lesson.
The inner circle-Malfoy was the only one with enough ego to have any thought of rising against Voldemort. However for the moment Severus knew he was lying low following a row over the promotion of his son. Pettigrew would never dare to leak information because Voldemort made it plain he was just waiting for an excuse to feed the rat to Nagini. Lestrange hated Potter as much as Voldemort did-that ruled her out. Severus had no doubt she had even suggested the scheme of employing purely psychological warfare against Potter and Dumbledore. It was certainly something her twisted little mind would have no trouble conceiving. The potions master frowned. He would have to be increasingly cautious if the Order expected him to investigate the matter, it was almost certain in his mind that the informant had more than one reason for acting as he had.
"Moving back to the issue we were supposed to be discussing beforehand," This came from Bill Weasley, "Harry will return to Hogwarts for the term to come. He will be under constant surveillance by his teachers and his friends. Dumbledore has seen fit to recruit my brother and Hermione Granger to monitor him for evidence of psychological damage. They will ensure he does not try to conceal his emotions or try in any way to confront these attacks to the detriment of his own or anyone else's safety. Prefect meetings will be reserved to train them in the methods they will require for this undertaking."
The formal tone of his reading was undercut by suppressed rage. They all knew war made ugly things necessary, most just found it more than a little difficult to accept. Especially when Voldemort saw the persistent life of a sixteen-year-old orphan as the only thing standing between him and the World. Severus Snape was more pragmatic. He did not believe Harry had any real power to vanquish Voldemort. He believed the mere suggestion alone would kill what was once a young, brilliant man named Tom Riddle, and was now a twisted facsimile of life consumed with hatred and ambition. Voldemort's attempts alone to kill Harry were doomed because they were so ridiculously overcomplicated with dramatics. It was this over-reaching that would be his downfall even if Harry could take that dark step into the void to cast the killing curse. Time would tell, he mused. Time only could tell.
Hope that was ok and you're starting to see where I'm going with all this! I'm doing Harry through indirect characterisation. That's all. If you think anyone's OOC it's probably just me being anti JK. I love the characters-just not her characterisations of them. Please, this is begging to be flamed. BURN THE AUTHOR!