My tribute to Michelle, who says I'm delusional because I still cling to the hope that my darling Severus is really on the right side of the war on Voldemort. My answer: "If Snape is evil, Harry is, too."

I don't know when this happens... Sometime right before sixth year, I guess. After Wormtail starts living with Severus. It's AU anyway...

Disclaimers: own nothing, getting nothing. All hail JKR!

R&R, if you'd be so kind. Thankies.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"They hurt him?"

"Yes."

"They starved him, and left him to be beaten and tormented by his own cousin?" The cold voice raised slightly. Was he mad...or excited?

"Y-yes."

"He hates them, doesn't he? Did he ever say that? That he hates them?"

"He made it very clear that he does not like them. He has been responsible for causing trouble to them. Sending snakes after his cousin. Blowing up his aunt until she nearly died from exploding."

"So he has shown violent tendencies towards them."

Wormtail cringed back slightly at the sudden fire that glowed in Voldemort's red eyes. He looked either immensely angry, or overly pleased, and Wormtail didn't trust himself to pick out which it was. "I heard many things about the Dursleys while I stayed with the Weasley boy."

Voldemort licked his lips slowly, his expression one of distant thought. He suddenly snapped back to the present. "When you return home, call Severus to me. I need to speak with him about a potion." As he spoke, a cruel smile curved the man's lips. "And do be quick about it."

"Yes, my Lord." Scurrying out of Voldemort's chambers as quickly as he could, grateful at escaping punishment, Wormtail nearly tripped on the hearth in his attempt to get into the floo and back to Snape. In a rush if green flames, he felt himself spinning almost out of control. Spotting Snape's kitchen, he stopped himself, stepping out of the Network into the dull, cobweb- strewn room.

"Snape?" Darting through the rooms that Snape frequented, his heavy footfalls thudding in the still, stale air, Wormtail couldn't help feeling like he'd just done something terrible. He felt exactly as he had right after giving up the whereabouts of James and Lily so many years ago. Also like back then, he felt slightly justified in that he had little choice. When the Dark Lord asked a question, he wanted an answer, and he wanted the truth...

"Snape?"

A dark voice suddenly filled the entire downstairs of the house. "Will you quit that infernal racket!"

Creeping towards Snape's lab, Wormtail stuck his head around the doorframe timidly. "It's the Dark Lord. He wants to see you."

Snape, who was slowly stirring a large cauldron full of a blue liquid emitting near-toxic fumes, looked up only briefly at the announcement. "Forty-eight. Forty-nine. Fifty." His stopped his smooth motions and rested the dripping stirring stick on the potion-stained table. He turned cold eyes on the other man. "If you ever come rampaging through my house while I am working again, I will cut you up and use you for potion ingredients. Am I clear?"

Wormtail flinched. "As crystal."

With one, last, withering glare, Snape moved around the table, pulling off his work robes as he went. "Did he say what he wanted to see me about?" he asked conversationally, taking down his clean, black robes from a hook by the door.

"Just a potion. He wasn't specific."

As he finished hooking the clasp as his throat, Snape snarled, "If that cauldron has been touched when I return, you will have the honor of being the first to taste its contents."

"Wh-what is it?"

Snape smirked. "A Blood-Boiling Concoction."

Wormtail shuttered, stepping out of Snape's way. "I'd never go in your lab without your permission, Severus. Let alone bother one of your potions. You know that."

Snape's eyes narrowed, but he didn't reply as he swept towards the door.

Left alone once again, Wormtail wandered to the kitchen to see if there was anything edible in the cupboards, though he doubted it. It seemed to him that Snape never ate. Or at least, he never bought food...

Severus raised a skeptical eyebrow. "A time travel potion, my Lord? Surely you realize the implications. You could damage the entire effect your rise has had--"

"I know exactly what effect my tampering will bring about, Severus," Voldemort interrupted, his voice low and raspy with barely-suppressed anticipation. "I have known for some time. Only now has it been made clear to me that this is the moment to execute my plan."

Bowing slightly, Severus said, "Of course, my Lord."

"I want it finished as soon as possible."

"Shall I leak any of this information to the Order?"

"Yes. Do. And while you're at it, tell them I suspect you of being slightly less than your impeccably loyal self." Voldemort was smiling.

"Of course you know my loyalties have never, and will never--"

"Stop groveling, Severus. I know you better than you know yourself." Standing up, Voldemort strode to the half-boarded window and looked out at the mist that was gathering in the valley below. "You are the only one I trust. The only one who has never wavered."

"I dare say Bellatrix would be hurt by your accusations."

ignoring the comment, Voldemort continued, "You will be the undoing of the Order, Severus. Now go. Tell Dumbledore I am sending several Death Eaters into the past to destroy the Boy Who Lived."

His skepticism returning, Severus asked, "Are you really, my Lord?"

"Do you dare question my orders?"

"No, my Lord. I'm merely registering my confusion. Why would Dumbledore trust information you'd pass to a Death Eater whom you believe to be a spy?"

At this, Voldemort turned back to Severus, a broad smile stretching his pale features. "He doesn't have to trust the information. Just give it to him."

Not understanding his orders any more than he did to begin with, Severus bowed, then left the room.

Surely the Dark Lord was not really planning to destroy Potter, he mused. If Harry was killed before Voldemort's down fall, the prophecy would still be in effect, only it would be Longbottom who was chasing him. If he did it after that fateful night, Voldemort wouldn't have had a second rise, as it was Potter's discovery of Wormtail that led to his return to power. Severus's eyes narrowed in thought as he stepped into the fireplace.

There was more to the plan. There was always more to the plan...

Dumbledore peered at the group that gathered before him with troubled eyes. "You are certain?"

"Yes. He asked for a time travel potion. He didn't say anything outright, but he did hint that it would be used to send several Death Eaters back in time to destroy Potter. He did not specify a time frame for their destination."

Nodding sadly, Dumbledore said, "Thank you for your report. Now, if there is no more business, it seems to be getting rather late."

The rest of the Order members stood up, a small murmur of hushed conversation breaking out among them as they moved towards the fireplace. Molly Weasley held the pot of Floo powder for each member to take a pinch. Last besides herself, was Severus, who had remained sitting in his chair across from Dumbledore.

"Good evening, Albus. Severus," she said with a tense smile, before taking her own pinch and stepping into the green flames. "The Burrow." And she was gone.

"Was there something else you wanted to discuss with me, Severus?"

"Yes. I felt it was rather too disquieting to share with everyone before consulting you."

Dumbledore nodded again, showing his understanding.

Severus shifted in his seat. "It seems the Dark Lord is becoming concerned with the lack of success of some of his plans. He feels certain there is a spy in his Death Eaters, and I think he is leaning towards believing it to be me."

Dumbledore's tired eyes were suddenly alert, wary. "What has led you to believe this?"

"Nothing more than hints. Whispers of suggestion during meetings. Odd looks. I fear that my position, if it is not already, may become compromised."

"Do you feel this information about time traveling Death Eaters is accurate?"

"He is having me make the potion. For whatever reason--whether it involve a young Potter, or not--time travel is a part in his next plan."

Dumbledore took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes wearily. "Asking you to do anything to sabotage this would point expressly to your disloyalty, as you are the only one who will have access to that potion until you hand it to Voldemort. Am I incorrect in my thinking?"

"No, sir."

"I will not put your life in more danger, then, by asking you to do anything other than what Voldemort has ordered you to. But please, listen for anything that might help. A time frame. A solid plan. Something we can form a counter attack against."

"Are you concerned about carrying this battle through time?"

"I am concerned about your welfare. And Harry's."

"Don't worry over me." Severus's lips corked slightly at the corners. "I have been doing just fine for myself for a good number of years now. And as for Potter. Well, let's just say he's too annoying to be killed by a plan so simple as to be murdered in the past. And he is alive and well now, at any rate. That should bode well for him."

There was an uncharacteristic darkness in Dumbledore's eyes as he looked at Severus. "Yes. You are, I'm sure, correct. But it is late, and we both have responsibilities to see to in the morning. Good night, Severus."

"Good night, Headmaster."

Severus left the office, walking the dark corridors of Hogwarts along a familiar path to his classroom. The Dark Lord had made it very clear that the sooner the potion was brewed, the better off they would be.

After lighting a fire under a small cauldron, Severus began to absent-mindedly pick through his ingredient stores, pulling bottles and jars off the shelves, seemingly at random.

"Your potion, my Lord," Severus presented, setting the small, sealed vial of green liquid on the table beside Voldemort's chair. "And a reversal draught." He set a second, red vial beside the first.

Voldemort picked up the two vials, peering at their contents with gleeful malice. "Excellent. You have outdone yourself. Now for your orders."

"Orders, my Lord?"

"Yes. You will travel into the past. By yourself. While you are there, you will fine Harry Potter."

"I feel I must advise, once again, that killing him, at any point of his life, will jeopardize--"

"You will not kill him, Severus. You will befriend him. You will take the poor, abused, little boy under your caring wing, and guide him."

Severus stood in silence, waiting for a further explanation.

"I trust you will not know this, but Wormtail, who has been in a very advantageous position to gain information on the boy, has informed me that he was severely mistreated by those muggles--" He spat the word like poison. "--who raised him. He had no one. No friends. No other relatives. Nothing but his own lonely mind and the hell the Dursleys turned it into for him."

Voldemort set the two vials back on the table. His red eyes bore into Severus, as if seeing through his flesh into his very soul. "Now what do you suppose would happen if a poor, hurt, little waif were to find a friend? Not only a friend, but a confidant. A--" Smirk. "-- loving mentor who could teach him to be strong. Who could promise, and deliver, a life safe from the pain and anguish of his evil guardians--even if that life only existed in a few, short moments of spare time?"

"I suppose," Severus said slowly, thinking back to his own friendship with Lucius Malfoy, "he would be grateful."

"To say the least." Voldemort took the time travel potion and held it out to Severus. "Go to him. He needs you. Teach him. Raise him as you would your very own. But do nothing to arouse suspicion. When he turns eleven, he must arrive at Hogwarts with nothing in him that he would not have had otherwise, except a hidden thirst for power. A need to prove himself. A need for revenge, and an understanding that it can be his if he follows the right paths. And the desire to go to any lengths to find those paths. Tell him nothing of magic. Nothing solid, anyway."

His hand shaking slightly at the implication of what he was about to do, Severus took the vial of potion. If he slipped up, even the tiniest bit...

"You'll need a glamour, of course. We can't have him recognizing you when he gets to Hogwarts."

"I can do that myself, when I get there."

Voldemort nodded slightly, then said, "Mold him, Severus. Make him your own. Make him mine. When you return, we will go and fetch our boy."

"What should I do? Move in down the street from him?"

"Do what you do best, Severus. Be his teacher." Voldemort gestured to two bags that were laying beside the hearth. "Everything you need is right over there. Clothes, documents. I trust you can secure living quarters and a job at the boy's school on your own?"

"Of course I can."

"Good. Go now. There is no time to spare." His smile widening, Voldemort said, "Turn him into a Slytherin."

Severus walked over to the bags. As he passed the table, he tucked the reversal draught in his pocket. Once he had his things, he uncorked the vial and held it to his lips.

Suddenly, there was a flash of white light and a billow of red smoke from the farthest corner of the room. Voldemort turned toward the spectacle with a smile.

Severus watched for a moment as he, himself stepped out of the smoke. At least I know I survive this episode, he mused, then threw his head back, swallowing the entire contents of the green vial. The future-Severus gave Severus a dark, meaningful look, then the room disappeared in a blinding flash...

TBC