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Web of Lies: Revelations.

When Severus finally finished with the potions, it was about three in the morning, and he finally felt he would be able to come to grips with the fact that Alec was none other than Harry Potter, the student he had hated for years. It had taken him a while to admit to himself that he had been unfair to the boy; he had always seen the father instead of the teen, blaming him for everything that went wrong and twisting his actions so they would fit the image he had of James. A part of him also pointed out that Harry had never allowed himself to act like he was doing now. He knew that the child had been putting a front to everyone to the point in which everyone saw the golden boy and not Harry himself. That fact made him feel a bit better. He had been just as misled as everyone else, in a bad way, but in the end, it came back to the same.

Sighing, and still in a pensive mood, the dark haired Potions Master returned to his room, only to find the Ravenclaw prefect asleep over the book he had been reading. For an instant, he considered the idea of waking the boy up and chastising him for sleeping while he was supposed to look after Alec, but after a moment he dismissed that idea, after all, it had become much later than he had expected, and the teen must have been tired after the last few days.

Silently, he levitated the Ravenclaw to the living room and lowered him to the couch. After throwing a light blanket over the teen, Severus went back to his room, and after a slight hesitation, he lay down next to Alec. It was unlikely that the teen would wake up before him, and Snape didn't really want to sleep on a couch.

The next day passed slowly. After dismissing the Ravenclaw prefect, Severus had taken one of his books to the bedroom and continued to watch over the sleeping teen while reading.

At noon, Minerva came over; she looked much better than the night before, and it was obvious that the other teachers had indeed left her to rest. She sat down next to him and told him of her visit to the hospital that morning. It seemed that while Albus was doing much better, he had not awakened yet which was starting to worry his doctors once again.

The two professors chatted for a while before the Gryffindor head of house ushered Severus out of his own rooms so he could take a break from watching Alec. After getting over his surprise of being tossed out of his own rooms, the Potions Master decided to go check on his own students. Entering the Slytherin common room, he was surprised to see most of them sitting in the middle of the large room, clustering around something he couldn't see. As the older man approached the large group of students, he could clearly hear a voice rising over the shocked whispers of the teenagers.

"I never really hated muggle borns, and those of you who have been told repeatedly that you are better than them just because of your blood should know better by now. After all, in this school there are many muggle borns, and you can't tell me that some of them aren't better than you. If you want a perfect example of a powerful muggle born, you only need to look at Rowena Ravenclaw; she was born to two perfectly non-magical people and yet she could best nearly anyone in a duel."

A seventh year student, who had been listening intently, interrupted his rant. "But if you think so, then why does everyone say you hated muggle borns?"

The ghost, who was floating comfortably over a couch, locked eyes with the girl. "There are several reasons. Godric was the one who started the rumours about me disliking muggle borns, even though he knew I was in a relationship with Rowena."

A boy raised an eyebrow. "They were just rumours that originated because of jealousy?"

Salazar looked a bit embarrassed. "Well, not completely. You have to understand that at the time the muggles knew about us and like anything that they don't understand, they wanted to destroy us. Muggle borns are just as powerful as pure bloods, but their attendance to this school opened the doors for attacks by muggles. At one time, they managed to kill seventy students before a teacher could intervene. I'm sure that you can understand that that was a very large shock to all of us, most of those students had been first and second years, and they had been under our protection and with nearly no means to defend themselves. Under those conditions, I indeed said that I wished that there were no muggle borns in our school. Of course, Rowena very quickly took me to task, but the damage was done, and Godric started to spread the rumours."

A younger student frowned up at him. "But then, what about You-Know-Who? He wants to kill all muggles and muggle borns."

Salazar's gaze moved to the young boy. "And let me assure you that if I was alive right now, I would kill the bastard with my own hands. I can't believe people consider following him and his maniacal ideas."

A fourth year girl shrugged a bit helplessly. "We are Slytherins, that's what we're expected to do."

The ghost scowled at her. "Don't speak nonsense. What does Slytherin have to do with anything?" Without giving them a chance to answer, Salazar continued. "No, don't tell me. I guess you're talking about all those fairy tales about how every Slytherin student had turned dark while the Gryffindors are the symbols of light, right? Honestly, how the wizarding community continues to exist while ruling themselves by such crap is beyond me. Or have they forgotten how four hundred years ago, Dark Lord Gwendion nearly took over? Killing more than half the wizarding community? And he sure as hell was not a Slytherin." Seeing their uncomprehending faces, the ghost finally turned to Severus, acknowledging him for the first time. "Severus, just who on earth teaches History of Magic around here? This should be fourth year material or something like that."

All students turned around sharply, only now noticing their Head of House standing behind them. Most looked uncomfortable, knowing he was a Death Eater. Ignoring them for the moment, Severus nodded to the ghost of the dead founder.

"Bins does; he's a ghost, completely obsessed with goblins and their rebellions. But I'm afraid that even if he bothered to teach wizarding history, none of the students would learn anything anyway since they sleep during his lessons."

Salazar looked pensive for a moment before floating a bit higher. "I'm going to have a chat with him, this is ridiculous."

Before he disappeared through the door, Severus spoke again, smirk firmly planted on his lips. "Do us all a favour and go right to the part in which you drive him away. It would be good to have a competent teacher for once."

The ghost returned his smirk. "I like how you think; I'll see what I can do to convince him to take some extended holidays."

"Extended as in forever?"

Salazar laughed. "Of course."

And then he disappeared, leaving Severus behind to deal with his shocked students. The silence that followed the ghost's departure was finally broken by a sixth year girl. She stood up from where she had been sitting and looked up at him intently.

"Professor, you're a Death Eater, right?" There were several gasps, coming mostly from the younger students, but the professor merely raised an eyebrow, waiting to see what the question was about. "Tell us; tell us what it's like to be a Death Eater. Tell us the truth. My parents have always told me that being a Death Eaters was the greatest honour you could ever achieve, because that way the purebloods would rule the world and make sure that our power remained as strong as it is now. They said that if muggle borns were allowed to continue living with us we would lose all of our power in the end. But how can that be right when Voldemort, who they say is the most powerful wizard of our time, is really a half blood?"

Before he had the chance to answer, Severus was interrupted by another of his students. "My parents always said that they were honouring Slytherin's will by following his heir. But now Salazar's ghost says he's disgusted with the Dark Lord, that he loathes him and everything he's doing. Please, Professor, we need to know. We no longer have the truths our parents gave us, and I think it's time that we decided what to do based on facts, not on our parents' dreams."

Severus was faced with a large problem. If he gave in and told his little snakes the truth, he would surely be foregoing his position as a spy. There was no chance that Voldemort wouldn't hear about this. And yet, here was his chance at not only redeeming himself for the crimes he had committed all those years ago, but also to save his students and turn the House of Slytherin to what it was always supposed to be. He would be able to save most of these children from the same horrible mistake he had committed in his youth. In the end, it was not difficult to decide. Settling down in an empty chair, he summoned his pensive. If he was going to do this, he was going to tell them everything and trying to shock as many of them out of the little world of power and promises their parents had built for them.

"Very well. I'm going to show you what it's like to be a Death Eaters. Anyone who doesn't wish to see, leave." When no one moved, Severus nodded. "Very well, if halfway through you feel you can no longer watch, you're also free to retire to your rooms."

Once his little speech was done, he started to draw memories and put them in his pensive. Once he was finished, he started to speak, slowly detailing every horrible thing that being a Death Eater implied. He knew that it would be too much for some of them, specially the younger ones, but if he could take them out of Voldemort's influence, he would be able to deal with the repercussions, after all, seeing was not the same as doing, and he would save his snakes from doing those gruesome deeds.

Only a quarter of the students were left when he finally finished. Most were looking slightly ill and were looking at him with disgust and fear.

"You... how could you... I can't believe..."

While his job was done, the students had been most surely turned away from Voldemort after all that, Severus realised that he was about to lose their trust and he didn't want that. He needed them to know that they could come to him if they needed to. Reluctantly, he drew a few more memories. Those were some of the many times he had reported to Albus and had been able to save some lives doing so.

When that round of memories was finished, the disgust in the children's faces had changed to awe and respect.

"You are a spy."

Snape smirked lightly. "Well, not anymore. I have no doubt that this will reach the Dark Lords ears soon enough, and right now I can't take my chances, I'm needed here."

And that realisation warmed him more than helping his students had. Alec needed him, as did Albus and Minerva, and not because he had been a spy. Standing up, he nodded to the students that were still in the common room. He had the sudden urge to return to his room and watch over Alec.

"Please, go make sure your classmates are alright. I'll ask Madam Pomfrey to give you sleeping potions if you need them, you only need to go and ask. If you wish to speak about what you saw, feel free to come to either Professor McGonagall or me. The Professor knows nearly as much as I do about what goes on in the Death Eater meeting and maybe you'll feel more comfortable talking to her."

Nodding at them, he left the common room and went back to his quarters, hoping he had done the right thing.

To be continued...

A/N: Thanks for all reviews and thanks to my beta, Vinnie.