A plan was put together and people were tasked with ripping it to shreds from both sides. An hour in, Harry said that they needed more information on how the DeathEaters worked and that as far as he could see, Snape was the only DeathEater that might help them.
Sirius suggested Snape make an Unbreakable Vow or be obliviated after his input. Harry agreed to the Vow but was reluctant to obliviate Snape, who knew if they might need his input again and explaining the whole thing was a pain.
Eventually, Dumbledore suggested asking Snape, which he would prefer.
Snape entered the ballroom to find it filled with animals. His brows rose as he realised that all of those animals were, in fact, animagi. Nearly two-dozen animagi in one place. It was unheard of.
His brows fell and a glare settled on his face as he spotted Harry Potter sitting between a lion and a lynx.
"Might I inquire as to why I am here?" His voice was low and silky.
McGonagall did not answer, just handed him a sheet of parchment.
"We need you to choose one of those options, Professor." Potter said, his fingers stroking the lynx's ears.
"Why?"
"We have the means to end the war before school resumes, but we need a little input from you and we refuse to risk Riddle killing you because he doesn't like what's inside your mind." Potter answered. "Those will protect your mind, at least according to the Headmaster." He frowned. "But if you have a better option, we're prepared to listen."
"You know why I'm in the position I'm-"
"No, sir, I don't." Potter cut in. "Only four people, beside you and Dumbledore, know that and I'm not one of them."
"I was under the impression that the Headmaster told you." Snape glared at the teen.
"I know, but I put forward an option that gives you a little more privacy. I don't need to know the details, if someone I trust knows them. Lord Black, Healer Tonks, Auror Moody and Director Carter were told. The rest of us didn't need to know the details, all we needed to know was if the Headmaster's reasoning for trusting you, was valid. Those that weretold were not impressed with the Headmaster's actions and Lord Black, as my new guardian, declared that I'm never to be alone with him, nor go anywhere with him, without speaking to Lord Black and personally, and gaining his permission."
Snape thought that through and nodded. "That sounds… fair…" He sat on the single chair that sat apart from everyone else, assuming it was for him. "I prefer the vow, with a clause that states that once the Dark Lord is no more, I am released from that vow."
"Twenty-four hours after, not immediately." Potter countered.
Snape narrowed his eyes and studied the teen. He had changed, it was hard to ascertain exactly how. Some of it, most certainly was confidence, but there was a physical alteration, too.
"Twenty-four hours later, however, if questioned by the Ministry, I may tell them that I've taken a vow and will be released twenty-four hours after the Dark Lord dies, permanently." Snape countered.
"Agreed." Potter nodded. "We'll get Hermione to write up the agreement and it will be password locked with only you having the password. It will state that you have been employed by The Unit, prior to Riddle's death and that your Vow was… will be… witnessed by Kingsley as The Unit's Director."
"I'd suggest that someone other than just I, also hold that password, Potter." Snape countered. "If I am the only one and am injured or unable to speak…?" He raised an expectant brow.
"Then you'd be screwed." Potter nodded. "Will you choose someone or will accept someone who won't be onsite at the… let's call it the end of Riddle… We'll be keeping a number of our younger people offsite."
"I would like to meet the person you're proposing to use." Snape said blandly.
"Peggy?" Potter seemed to speak to the room, in general.
A gangly legged, rust coloured kitten with large ears, emerged from between a pair of Labrador pups. It stalked over to Potter and flicked its tail before slowly morphing into a child not quite old enough to attend Hogwarts. The girl stood up and walked over to stand in front of Snape, her eyes studying him closely.
He felt distinctly exposed before those chocolate eyes.
She nodded sharply and returned to stand behind Potter. "I'll do it." She said.
"I have yet to agree to your proposal, Potter." Snape didn't speak to Peggy.
"You will."
"What makes you so certain?" Snape's curiosity rose.
"What are the DeathEaters without their Unforgivables?" Potter smirked.
Snape thought about that question for a few moments. "Very well." He nodded. "I shall accept Miss… Peggy? Was it?... as password holder. What do you have planned?"
"Not until you make the Vow, Professor" Potter objected. "We won't risk Riddle getting into your head."
Snape stared at Potter. "That sounds suspiciously like concern, Potter."
"Of course, it is, Professor." Potter huffed. "If we weren't concerned about you, we'd have had Dumbledore bring you here, drug you up with veritaserum, question you and then obliviate you. Bloody hell. There are easier ways to get what we want, than negotiating with you."
Snape blinked. "I see. My apologies. My observations of you during our… animosity… gave me little indication that you would be able to put that animosity aside to work with me."
"I know…" Potter sighed. "It isn't easy but I'd rather do the right thing, than the easy thing."
"How very… Gryffindor." Snape sneered.
Harry snorted. "The only reason you didn't have me in Slytherin is because I'd already met Malfoy."
Snape blinked. "That boy is more Gryffindor than you are. How he was sorting into Slytherin, I shall never know."
"No-one else would have him, probably." Potter suggested.
"Quite possibly." Snape nodded. "What do you have planned? Where is it to happen? And what do you require from me?"
"Vow, first." Albus Dumbledore reminded them.
"Very well." Snape held out his hand and watched as Potter clasped his wrist. They both nodded to Dumbledore. His wand twisted above their joined hands and fine strands of gold light wound around their hands.
"Do you, Severus Snape, agree to answer all questions put to you, here in this place, to the best of your knowledge?" Dumbledore asked.
"I do." Snape said clearly.
"Do you, Severus Snape, agree to withhold any information you learn, while here in this place, stating only that information will be provided twenty-four hours after the death of Tom Marvolo Riddle, if asked by an authorised DMLE Auror?"
"I do."
"Do you, Severus Snape, agree to provide any assistance that you are capable of, to Harry Potter and his allies, while here in this place?"
"I do." One strand of light began to pulse and Dumbledore turned to Potter.
"Do you, Harry Potter, agree to place the information mentioned, with someone that will do all they can to ensure that the information is provided twenty-four hours after the death of Tom Marvolo Riddle?"
"I do." Potter nodded.
"Do you, Harry Potter, agree to do all that you can to see that the person mentioned will be kept safe during the event that will cause the death of Tom Marvolo Riddle?"
"I do."
"Do you, Harry Potter, agree to release Severus Snape from all vows and oaths taken in regard to your life and wellbeing, twenty-four hours after the death of Tom Marvolo Riddle?"
Snape's eye widened and his heart begin to beat faster, did Dumbledore know what he was asking? Did Potter know?
"I do." The net of light brightened and tightened, seeping into the skin of their arms. "That was sneaky, Professor." Potter grinned at Dumbledore. "You know damn well that I've never considered that Professor Snape owes me anything."
"I did." Dumbledore twinkled. "But this will allow you to dismiss any and all oaths or vows without having to know the particulars of each one."
"Cool." Potter turned to Snape. "Your last three questions. One? What do we have planned? Two? Where will it happen? And three? What do we need from you? Right?"
"Correct."
"One. We're going to put up wards that will stop anyone from casting an Unforgivable. Two. It will happen at the Burrow. Three. We need to know a little more about how the DeathEaters are trained."
Snape tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, he looked at nothing, as his thoughts turned inward. "Few of them are barely more than capable." He finally answered. "Most have custom wands to get the maximum strength behind their spells. I would separate them into three levels. Only a few are dangerous without the Unfogivables. Bellatrix, Dolohov, Rookwood and Greyback. The second level would be those capable of basic OWL level duelling but not proficient enough to face a NEWT in the subject. Pettigrew, the Carrow twins, Yaxley, Lucius, Rosier, Mulciber, Narcissa and Draco. The rest are pathetic, all on a similar level to Crabbe and Goyle. Even Longbottom could take them." The lion growled low in its chest.
"Steady on, Nev." Potter laid a calming hand on the lion's neck.
Snape blinked. "That is… Longbottom?"
The lion shook itself and, in its place, sat Neville Longbottom, but like Potter, he'd changed.
"Very well done, Potter, Longbottom." Snape nodded. "Were I able to assign points, I would give each of you, at least fifty. The animagi transformation is complex and requires a significant amount of skill. And your negotiations, Potter, were well above what I expected. I never anticipated such duplicity from you."
"Oh, no, Professor." Potter laughed. "No duplicity here. First year was sink or swim. After that? Think back, look at your memories of what happened to me. Was I really hiding anything?"
Snape frowned, thinking carefully. Minutes passed before he sighed. "No. No, you weren't."
"No, I wasn't." Potter agreed. "But nobody was looking, they only saw what they expected to see, the Boy-Who-Lived. Even you only saw what you expected, James Potter's son. A few saw more, a very few." Potter grinned. "Hermione, of course." The lynx blurred and Hermione Granger sat in its place. "The twins." A pair of foxes became a pair of redheaded teens. "Luna, Lee, Angie, Katie, Alicia and Oliver." As he spoke more animals became young adults. "There's more, of course." The collection of animals became a collection children of various ages, some weren't familiar to Snape, being clearly under Hogwarts age and some were clearly older.
"Interesting collection, Potter." Snape nodded.
"Aren't they, just?" Potter smirked.
"Very." Snape nodded again. "You said the Burrow. Why there?"
"You know what happened to the Weasleys?" Potter asked and Snape nodded in reply. "Well, they're leaving the country. The property has reverted back to the control of Lord Weasley and he's planning on selling it, mostly to recoup the cost of setting Mr and Mrs Weasley up in… wherever it is, somewhere in Africa was mentioned, I don't remember the exact details. Anyway, the property is going to be stripped of magic and sold to muggles. So us, getting it destroyed by DeathEaters…?"
"Not a concern." Snape nodded again. "I did hear that Lord Gareth Weasley and Lady Muriel Prewett offered resettlement options to some of the boys?" It was phrased as a leading question and Potter shook his head but still answered.
"House release from House Weasley and House-wide adoption from House Prewett, for Bill, Charlie and the twins. Plus, Bill will take the Prewett Lordship."
"And the other Weasleys?"
"Leaving England." Potter replied. "They won't be involved in the takedown."
"Really?"
"Really." Potter said. "Bill's been working on a ward to block the Unfogivables, it's a variant of a curse-breaker's ward used to block dark curses."
"But because I'm altering it to be remote activated, when Riddle and his slaves arrive, it won't be active, so they won't detect it." The soon-to-be Lord Prewett added. "I'll be braiding the three wards, one for each curse, together and tying them to a ward-stone. Once they arrive, Harry, or whomever we designate, can activate it. They have to be in the precise centre of the ward-stones or the wards won't take."
"And you'll only be having those here?" Snape asked.
"Only those in this room." Potter agreed. "Although, not all of them will be onsite."
"Oh…?"
"You're muggle-raised, Professor. Do you know much muggle history?"
"Some…" Snape frowned at the seeming change of subject.
"We found some muggle allies." Potter smirked. "Found and with their and the DMLE's consent, we de-aged them. Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director, Peggy Carter." The young girl that had agreed to Snape's information holder, nodded to him.
"Howling Commandos, James Falsworth, James Morita and Timothy Dugan." The three men that had been sitting behind most of the animals, rose and stood at parade rest. Snape blinked, he knew those names.
"The missing Howling Commando, James Barnes." Buchannan Black nodded but didn't remove his arm from Cyril Black's shoulders.
"Lord Cyril Black. Formerly, Lord Sirius Black." Black gave Snape a sharp nod.
"How? I understood that the Veil killed those that entered it." Snape was too surprised to have any other reaction.
"Not so much the Veil as where it spits you out." Black answered. "From my research, I've determined that to be the same distance above ground, as the Veil is below ground. And as those tossed through it, had no wand and tended to be wearing magic suppression cuffs or had been Kissed? It's not the Veil that kills but the drop on the other side."
"And you?"
"I'd been working on repairing a broom when you called." Black shrugged. "I just shrunk it and shoved it in pocket."
"Why did you not return immediately?" Snape frowned.
"I was spat out, in early 1945." Black replied. "It took me a year-and-a-half to work out how to get the Veil to send me back. Return to Sender type of back, to this year. But even then, there were varied options for our arrival."
"Our?"
"I came with him." Buchannan Black said. "I had nothing to stay for, Steve was dead and-"
"Steve?"
"My best friend, Steve Rogers."
Snape frowned, he knew that name, why did he know that name?
"Steve Rogers, you know…? Captain America?" Black said.
"Ah." Snape nodded. "Please continue."
"Peggy was going to come with us, but Phillips talked her into staying with the SSR and creating a new organisation, S.H.I.E.L.D." Barnes went on.
"I have no idea what that's all supposed to stand for and I don't really care all that much." Black muttered.
Barnes gently kissed the side of Black's head. "Hush, you." He turned back to Snape. "We emerged…" He gave Snape a brief outline of everything that had happened since that point.
"I see." Snape sighed. "Very well. I shall need to confer with my colleagues and those in charge of training to determine a training regime, time is the overriding factor, or rather the lack of it."
"We have plenty of time, Professor." Potter said. "This island has a Ten-in-One time dilation field available."
"Ten-in-One…? Yes, that should work nicely." Snape said. "If I were to go to him on the 24th or 25th and state that you were planning on staying with the Weasleys until they leave on the 26th or 27th and that the property wards have been removed in preparation for a muggle sale…?"
"He's likely to jump at the chance to finish me off." Potter agreed.
Snape settled into the room that was assigned to him and returned to the ballroom to meet with the trainers. He quickly realised that this group were not going to tolerate his usual approach to teaching and after watching a couple of different classes, he began to take small groups of two or three aside and run them through some of the simulations that were frequently used as training scenarios for the Dark Lord's army.
Having a Ten-in-One time dilation field cover the island was extremely beneficial. It gave them thirty to forty 'days' or training rotation before Snape would have to report to the Dark Lord. Thirty to forty days to work with the Unit's staff and turn them into a passable fighting force. Thirty to forty days to realise that he had severely underestimated Potter's ability to teach.
The brat had taken twelve-year-olds with less than two years of magical training and had them easily performing NEWT level spells. Spell that he'd learnt at thirteen. What would the boy be capable of, if he'd had decent teachers for his entire educational career?
It made Snape rethink many interactions with the boy and decide that if the boy would learn from him, he'd teach him, properly.
Within a rotation of doing so, he discovered that he had a small following of those that actually wanted to learn potions. Potter, Granger, Longbottom, the now Prewett twins, Finnigan, Johnson and the younger Creevey boy. He ran them through the basics, as he would have his snakes and found that all of them absorbed the lessons like sponges.
When the outside time reached Saturday the 24th of August, the dilation field was dropped in preparation for the impending collision of forces and people went in different directions.
Bill Weasley went to the now-empty Burrow to spend hours weaving the wards against the Unforgivables. Snape sent a crate-load of healing potions with Andi to the Lovegood's home, it was only a few hundred yards away, but close enough that, if necessary, their injured could be carried there, by hand. Dumbledore, Kingsley and Tonks were heading off to the Ministry, to meet with Amelia Bones. McGonagall and Flitwick were headed back to the school, someone needed to put the coming year's school curriculum into place.
Some of the students, however, were heading for the Ministry, Snape had declared that most of them had reached the point of being able to complete their NEWTs and comfortably pass them and had convinced them to sit the exams for DADA, potions, charms, transfig and duelling.
The older students had already sent in requests to re-sit the exams, citing Madam Umbridge as the disruption to their studies. Madam Marchbanks had sent back a reply, allowing them to retake whichever exams they wanted. Only the children who had yet to start at Hogwarts, would not be a part of that group.
"Stay safe, Professor." Potter told Snape. "If there's any doubt of you being able to walk away, or he tries to break into your mind, use the portkey. Please."
"I have every intention of seeing him die, Potter." Snape replied. "Either directly at your hand or at your order to the snipers." He nodded to the two Blacks and Granger. "I shan't head to his manor until you've left the Ministry, this afternoon. I'll activate the eavesdropping charm before I enter his audience chamber, so you'll know his response, even if I'm not able to get away before he orders the army out."
The two shared a solemn moment, before each nodded and Snape apparated away from the island.
"Alright, everyone, time to move out." Potter held out a large hoop and waited for those going to the Ministry to take hold of it. "Ready?" He asked.
"Ready!" They replied.
He said the activation phrase, "WEA exams" and the portkey whisked them away.