A/N: Hello there! Again, apologies for taking so long to upload a new chapter. I'm hoping to have the next one up very soon, within the next couple of days, but I have a lot going on right now. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed! I'm so, so, so sorry about not responding to all the reviews. I always mean to, and then I forget. Or FF doesn't send me notifications or lets me respond. Love this place.

Anyway, enjoy! I value all comments!


Remus surveyed the living room, a grim look on his face. "So you're the reason Lily and James are dead?" Sirius exploded.

"In a way, yes. But as I said, I regret my actions." Severus looked down at the teacup held tightly in his hands. "Had I known the Dark Lord would kill Lily – "

"And you only thought about Lily?! You didn't care about James or their unborn child?!" He stood up, fists clenched at his sides. "You still call him the Dark Lord too! How do we know you're not still working for You-Know-Who?"

"Dumbledore trusts him, so – " Remus started.

Sirius cut in. "From what you've said about Dumbledore, that isn't a very good estimation of Snivellus here."

"Perhaps, but why do you hate him so much?" The werewolf fixed him with a stern look. "Remember what I said about Dumbledore and when I thought this all started."

"I..." His brow furrowed. "I don't know. He was always odd when we were kids, so I always thought that that was why I didn't like him."

"Did it never strike you as odd that you have always hated me? At your age, you should have outgrown the urge to dislike me this much," Severus added. "This senseless hatred should have ended years ago, while we were still in school."

"I realize that now. But why do you want to get involved? Even if Dumbledore was the cause, James and I were horrible to you." Sirius sighed. "There's so much I don't know. How much of who I am and who my friends and enemies are is my doing, and how much of it is Dumbledore's doing?"

Remus shook his head. "I can't say. But shall we start over? Pretend nothing happened? If that would be alright with you, Severus."

"I...believe it would be satisfactory," Severus replied slowly. "I am not innocent myself. I played enough pranks on the three of you as well."

"Fine. That's settled. But now what? The three of us are going to live together and raise Harry?" The dog animagus leaned against the back of the couch and gave the other two men a searching look. "That's all I can think of. Especially since you want to be a large part of his life, Severus."

"My flat isn't large enough for the three of us. Not without...stepping on each other's toes." Remus took a sip of tea to give himself a minute to think. "And that's putting it lightly. This isn't a large flat, there isn't enough room for three adults and a toddler."

"I may have a solution to that." Leaning forward, the Potions Master set his teacup delicately on the table. "I recently discovered that my grandfather left Prince Manor to me in his will. It - "

"Your grandfather died nearly twenty years ago. What took so long?"

Severus shook his head. "I do not know. But based on Remus's assumptions - "

"You would assume that it had to do with Dumbledore," Remus finished.

"Of course. Had I had somewhere to go, somewhere without my father, somewhere that was my own..." Severus's voice trailed off. "I do not think I would have become a Death Eater."

Sirius's gaze pinned itself on the man. "So you're a Death Eater."

"I was a Death Eater. I am not now. And," he took a deep breath, "I was not interested in turning to the Dark Lord until after Lily rejected me in fifth year. When I had to meet Dumbledore to discuss my mother's death."

Realization dawned on Remus's face. "He wanted you to become a Death Eater."

"I suppose so. It worked well for him. He had a spy in Voldemort's ranks who was beholden to him," Severus replied bitterly. "I cannot believe I did not see it earlier."

"Nor can I. Which is why I assume that Dumbledore had us under some sort of compulsion spell or potion." Remus thought for a moment before continuing, "Then again...it could have been Legilimency."

Sirius shook his head. "Couldn't have. All Blacks are taught Occlumency from an early age, we can't be controlled. And the one thing my parents did compliment me on was that I was good at shielding my mind."

"As am I, to remain a spy in Voldemort's inner circle for so long." Running a hand over his chin, Severus mentally ran through the different potions and spells he knew of. "It may have been a potion. A spell would be too obvious. Dumbledore is not as adept at wandless magic as he would like us to think. A potion would explain why you, Remus, were not affected after being sent to the werewolves."

"I would not have been given the potion for awhile. That sounds about right."

"But what are we going to do?" Sirius butt in. "We can't let Albus control everyone! Not with Harry here."

"We're not going to. But since Voldemort has been defeated, thanks to the toddler sleeping in the next room." Remus gave his friend a stern look to remind him to stay quiet. "I think we can safely assume that he won't bother bringing too many people under his control. Sure, he'll keep everyone under it enough to keep them from realizing what he was doing, but I don't think he will do it as heavily as he did before."

"I agree." Severus stood up. "If possible, I would like a sample of your blood, Black."

"Why, are you actually a vampire?" Sirius held up his hands at Remus's angry look. "Kidding. What do you need it for, Snape?"

"I am going to analyze it to see if there are any potions or compounds that should not be there. In which case I will need a list of all potions you have been taking over the past few months, to check what should and should not be there." Seeing Sirius open his mouth to protest, he held up a hand. "I do know what I am doing. I studied under a Healer for several months before getting my mastery. A Potions Master may be called upon to be a Healer in a pinch and therefore needs to know enough about healing to fulfill that requirement, should it come to that."

"Fine, I'll let you suck my blood."

Severus rolled his eyes. "My Animagus form is one of an eagle, not a bat. I'll do it now, in order to ensure that the potion is not completely out of your system."

"Then I'll go check on Harry. He hasn't been sleeping very well lately." Remus got to his feet and went to the next room, where an awake Harry was sitting up in the toddler bed they'd purchased, green eyes wide. "Hello there. I see that you aren't sleeping."

"Scawy." The toddler crawled into Remus's open arms, snuggling against his chest. "Mooey stay."

"I'll stay with you. Just until you fall asleep." He ran his hand through the soft black hair, trying to calm the child. "Everything's going to be great. Sirius and I are here, and one of your mom's friends came to visit you."

"Mommy?"

Remus sighed. "No, Severus Snape, your mom's friend. You'll meet him tomorrow, okay?"

"'Kay."

Watching Harry fall asleep, Remus reflected that he probably had no idea what was going on. He was a toddler, barely old enough to understand what was going on.

Finally, after nearly half an hour, Harry was asleep. Remus gently set him on the bed and left the room.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Sirius looked up from the newspaper he was reading as Remus entered the room. "Harry asleep?"

"Finally. I think he had a nightmare again." Remus sat down beside Sirius and picked up his book. "Severus left?"

"Yep. As soon as he had his blood sample he ran out, something about the test's potency." He lowered the newspaper to look to the werewolf. "Are you sure you trust him? I suppose I can believe what he said about being controlled by Dumbledore. It fits with everything we've seen. But can we trust him with Harry?"

"Remember. We were terrible to him in Hogwarts. I'm surprised he's willing to talk to us." The other man shook his head. "I don't know if we can trust him outright. But I think we should give him a chance. If he can give us a chance, we can at least give the same to him."

"I agree." Stretching, Sirius rose to his feet and dropped the newspaper on the end table. "I'm going to get to bed. Starting tomorrow I'm going to look into my family's businesses. It's time I started living up to my history."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "I recall you saying the Blacks have always been evil?"

"There have been enough good Blacks over the years. Not recently, but there were a number. I want to bring the Black family into polite society again."

"Then go ahead. I want to do a little more research on the spell end of Albus's control before I turn in." Remus picked up a self-inking quill and made a note in one of his books. "Have a good night."

"Good night."