Previously in the Darklyverse: Snape told Dumbledore about the prophecy and Voldemort's interpretation of it. Remus moved in with Benjy Fenwick. Sirius and Remus split up.
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March 2nd, 1980: Remus Lupin
Whispers follow Snape's appearance as he Apparates into Moody's living room and takes a seat up by the fireplace near Professor McGonagall. "I can't believe he's here," Benjy whispers in Remus's ear. "Is anybody actually buying this? That he's supposed to be on our side now?"
"Looks like Dumbledore is, or else he wouldn't be here, would he?" Remus whispers back. "I'll believe that he wants to protect Lily, but I don't believe for a second that that's enough for him to want to switch sides altogether. He loves Dark Magic and hates Muggles too much."
"And they brought him here! Here, to an Order meeting, to hear everyone's reports on everything we've been up to! How are we supposed to believe that he's not going to take all that information right back to his master and his little friends?"
"I know," says Remus wearily. "It doesn't make any sense."
"Dumbledore has entirely too much faith in him," harrumphs Benjy. "There's no reason that Snape needs to be here. None. If he wants to help, he can liaise with somebody privately, like we did when we were still at Hogwarts."
Nobody has formally announced Snape as a double agent yet, but after Dumbledore told Lily and James what was happening about a week ago, word seems to have leaked out to the entire Order within days. Benjy actually found out faster than Remus did—Dorcas and Fabian, who had been at Helene's Manor on orb duty and overheard it when Dumbledore broke the news to James and Lily, told Benjy directly what was going on. When James told Sirius and Sirius told Remus and Remus tried to tell Benjy, Benjy's response was basically that this was old news to him—which isn't to say that Benjy was ready to sit down and accept that news, because he's clearly not.
Living with Benjy now that James and Alice have moved in with their partners has been a refreshing breath of air for Remus. He didn't realize until Benjy moved into Alice's old room just how claustrophobic his social life had gotten, centered exclusively on his Gryffindor year-mates who all were mutual friends with Sirius. He's not saying that he doesn't want to be close to his friends from Hogwarts, but it's a nice change to spend time with someone with whom he isn't steeped in drama.
As if on cue, Sirius Apparates into the house at that moment. Remus braces himself and says, "Sirius!"
Sirius turns around, and his whole body seems to light up just from looking at Remus. "Hey!" he says, and he hurriedly takes a seat next to Remus. "How's it going?"
"I'm all right, and you?"
"Oh, you know, just wondering what the hell Snape is doing at a full Order meeting when all he's proven is that he's been working for Lord Voldemort this entire time," says Sirius. Remus barks out a laugh.
They're sort of back on speaking terms, and Remus is glad for it—he's even been trying to make an effort to sign up for orb duty with Sirius every once in a while and to wave him over when they see each other, like now. He feels like he can breathe again when Sirius isn't around, so their months-long separation can't have been for nothing.
Is it too soon to make Sirius his friend again? Would trying to reestablish their bond suck Remus back into the pit of pining over someone who will never feel back what Remus feels for him? Does Remus still have those feelings for him?
He doesn't have the answers to any of those questions, so he just sits back and lets Sirius gossip with Benjy about Snape. They've been at it for about ten minutes by the time Dumbledore Apparates into the house and claps his hands together. "Let's get started!" he says.
"What's Dumbledore doing here?" mutters Benjy. "Usually he has McGonagall run the meetings."
"He's probably here because it's Snivellus's first meeting," Sirius sneers. "He's here to tell us all how important and valuable Snape is, like it doesn't matter that he's been a Death Eater for years, probably, before switching sides."
Dumbledore raises his hands, and silence falls quickly. "Thank you all for joining us," Dumbledore continues. "Don't think we don't recognize or appreciate the danger you all place yourselves in every single day for the benefit of the wizarding world, because we do. I do."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just get to it," Sirius mutters.
"We'll begin our agenda with the item everyone is surely already talking about by now," says Dumbledore with a smile. (Sirius looks disgruntled.) "As you all know, we have a new member. Severus Snape has been a Death Eater for the past two years and, at great personal risk, has given himself up to the Order of the Phoenix to turn spy on our behalf. Mister Snape's first piece of information concerns James and Lily Potter, specifically their unborn son, whom Lord Voldemort believes to be capable of bringing about Voldemort's downfall and so has decided to target. As such, the Potters have moved into hiding and will no longer be joining us at Order meetings or on orb duty or missions. Meanwhile, Mister Snape will continue to update us on the goals held by Voldemort and the Death Eaters—giving us an insight into the inner workings of the Death Eaters that we have sorely needed for quite a long time."
"And how do we know he isn't going to turn around and report everything he learns here back to his masters?" says Gideon, sitting a few rows ahead. Remus can't see his face, but he can imagine it perfectly in his mind: it's probably the same expression he wears anytime he's around Dorcas.
Dumbledore just smiles. "I ask you to trust me when I say that Severus Snape will do anything to support our cause and ensure the lives of Lily and James Potter. However, until such time as he earns that trust in the Order's eyes, Mister Snape will be reporting at the beginning of meetings and Disapparating before the full agenda."
"But he still has all our faces here," Gideon argues. "Just by being in this room, he could turn around and report all our names back to the Death Eaters. We could all be dead in a day because of him."
"Then I guess you'll just have to take it on faith until you wake up safe and sound in your bed tomorrow and can see for yourself," Snape drawls, "seeing as I'm already here. Can I get on with my report, Dumbledore? I'm sure these people would be pleased to see the back of me as soon as they can."
Dumbledore nods at him, though his eyes are steely, and Snape gets up from his seat and faces the small crowd. "There are a number of things I could tell you about what's happening on the Death Eater side," he says, "but the most pressing one is this: you should count yourselves lucky to have a spy working for you, because the Dark Lord has a spy working for him, too."
Muttering breaks out again, and Remus and Sirius exchange a look. "I don't know the identity of the spy—" Snape starts to say.
"Of course you don't," Benjy says under his breath.
"—but I can tell you that their identity is only known by the Dark Lord himself and by their Death Eater liaison. They are not a full Death Eater, not even an initiate, and do not attend meetings or participate in missions—their role is informational only. I do not know the deep details of how they were enticed to begin supplying information to the Death Eaters, but I believe blackmail played a part."
Sirius is still looking at Remus, but Remus can't take his eyes off of Snape. "How do we know he's telling the truth? How do we know there's a spy at all?" Remus asks the room.
"I could drop my memories of the Dark Lord mentioning this spy into a Pensieve for you to peruse, if you'd like, but I somehow doubt that even this would appease you," says Snape dryly.
"So if we trust that you're telling us the truth," says Jaime, "then we can't trust each other's intentions anymore."
"That about sums it up, yes. I can do my best to get a name out of the Dark Lord, but I cannot press too hard without appearing duplicitous."
"How convenient," says Gideon.
Remus looks across the room to Peter and Em; Peter makes eye contact with him but quickly looks away. He looks like he's sweating, and Remus can't blame him: Remus can feel himself starting to second-guess every other person in this room. This whole time, all these years, Remus has had full faith that everyone in the Order was working to the same ends—so much so that it's never even occurred to him to question anybody's loyalties. How is he supposed to keep working with these people when any one of them could be—?
The rest of the meeting passes in a blur for Remus, who barely notices Snape Disapparating before Dumbledore continues to preside over the agenda. It's not until Benjy nudges Remus's side that he looks around and realizes that people are getting up to go. "You okay, Rem?" Benjy asks.
"Fine, yeah. Fine. This spy thing has me a little rattled, that's all," he says.
Sirius is looking at him weirdly, but Remus isn't especially in the mood to be around other people at all right now, let alone try to figure out what Sirius's deal is. They had been fine twenty minutes ago, before Snape said anything about a spy, and Remus wonders if the news is hitting Sirius hard, too. "Benjy, I'll see you at home," Remus says abruptly. "Sirius…"
"Well, I'll see you around," says Sirius, and as much as Remus needs some time to process the news that somebody in their circle is unfaithful, he desperately wishes that he could stay here and talk to Sirius longer, even bring him home with him—something. Anything other than this weird once-over Sirius is giving him.
"See you around," Remus echoes, and he Disapparates.
But he doesn't go home. Instead, he goes to see James and Lily.
Effectively being on house arrest does not seem to be treating the Potters well. Lily greets Remus with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, but he catches on within about two minutes of being here that she's channeling her energy into obsessively cleaning the place. James, meanwhile, makes a huge fuss about preparing tea the Muggle way for Remus, like he hasn't had anything better to do all week.
"A spy? Working for the Death Eaters?" James says when Remus has broken the news. "But who could possibly—?"
"I know," says Remus. "I highly doubt that Dumbledore would have told anyone who couldn't be trusted about the Order, but who from our side of the Order could possibly do something like this? After everything we sacrificed in sixth year trying to make a difference?"
"Well, you know it's not me or James," says Lily as James is pouring them each tea. "If it were, we wouldn't exactly be in hiding right now, would we?"
"It's not me, either," says Remus awkwardly. "I don't have concrete evidence to back it up, but—it's not."
James says, "Of course it's not you, just like I know it's not Padfoot or Wormtail. But—how can this be real? How? How could any one of us do such a thing to each other?"
"How could Severus do any of this?" Lily says quietly. "I know you all saw it in him before I did, but…"
"Your influence was probably why he held on for so long," says James. "I know people are going to have a hell of a time trusting him, but I know he'll do anything Dumbledore tells him he needs to in order to protect you."
It looks like it's costing James to admit this to himself. Lily squeezes his hand and then takes another sip of tea. "We'll find the spy," she says in a voice of controlled calm. "It says something that they haven't had us all killed yet, doesn't it?"
"Or maybe it's just like Dumbledore said," James says, "and they just like to play with their food before they eat it."
But Remus isn't so sure. Whoever the spy really is, he hopes they have some sort of filter to protect the entire Order from going up in flames. He doesn't know their motives—whether they caved under torture or what—but he has to believe that, whoever they are, they're not a cold-blooded killer.
Are they?