I have returned! Yes, I am back. Much like the asshole who offers to do the most important part of the project and then procrastinates until everyone is uncomfortable. Who ever said that senior year of college was the easy one was such a liar and deserves as bad as a punishment imaginable. Thank you all for the lovely reviews. Hopefully you will enjoy this chapter though it does feel a little preachy to me. Though since that is kinda the entire point of this series, I think I can be forgiven. The next chapter will be a happier I promise.

Note: for those who are wondering about the Voldemort-Harry connection. At the moment Voldemort is unaware of the bond. Instead his strong emotions are filtering through to Harry. Harrys are not going to his because he can occlude his mind.

O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O

Harry walked into the kitchen the next morning with extreme trepidation. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to see when he entered the room. The possibilities were endless. They could be in a stolid silence, glaring at each other. Maybe one of them got hurt. Harry was pretty sure that Snape wouldn't raise a hand to his husband but he was not naive and knew that every person had the ability for violence. Or even worse, one of them could not be there.

His fears were quickly doused when he made it to the kitchen. Both men were up, Snape was sitting at the table with the newspaper spread in front of him. Alex was at the stove, frying bacon with a little hum. There wasn't the heavy silence of repressed anger hanging over them. Had Harry not heard the beginnings of their argument last night he would have assumed that it was just any other morning.

"Good morning." Harry stated, sliding into his chair. The table was already set so there wasn't anything that he had to do.

"Good morning Harry." Alex called back, Snape just grunted in acknowledgment.

"Do you need any help with breakfast?" He offered.

"Just about done. Sorry I won't be able to eat with you boys this morning. Called into an early meeting with a client." Alex explained, scooping the food onto the plate. He grabbed it and the bowls of oatmeal he had prepped over to the table. He also had a Tupperware containing his own oatmeal and two pieces of bacon sitting between his fingers like a cigarette. "I will be seeing you later."

"Have a good day. Do not get into any trouble." Snape warned, dropping his paper long enough to accept a kiss to the cheek.

"You know I can't do that." Alex said with a chuckle. He grabbed his breakfast and his briefcase before disappearing into the fireplace.

"Umm, Professor." Harry started, not quite sure how to ask his uncomfortable questions. He was stopped by Snape folding his paper with a small shake of his head.

"Please, let us wait till after breakfast for this conversation. I'm sure there is a lot you want to talk about and there will be time for that."

"Okay." Harry agreed in a soft tone. Truth was, he wasn't quite ready either. Instead he tucked eagerly into his food. With quick and efficient bites he decimated the bowl, all his nervous energy pouring into his spoon. When he was finished he picked up his bowl and brought it over to the dishwasher. Snape was eating at his normal sedate pace and wasn't even halfway through his bowl. So Harry entertained himself by washing the pan and other dishes that had accrued in the sink. He kept a careful watch on his professor, swooping in to pick up his bowl when it was empty. Snape raised an eyebrow but let it happen.

"Let's go to the sitting room." Snape led the way. Using his wand like a conductor he moved the furniture so that the couch and an arm chair faced each other, the coffee table in between the two. A silver teapot was summoned from the kitchen and joined by two teacups. Snape swept into his chair with an ease Harry figured he would never have. With a few sharp raps of his wand the pot was filled with water and began a rolling boil. A tea infuser was dropped in and set to steep. Harry sat on the couch, hands clasped in his lap as he watched the man go through is ritual. The potions professor cooked, made tea, and created potions the same way. With the same steady-hand surety of long practiced motions. After he had finished Snape settled back into his chair. For a long moment the two stared at each other.

"What do you know about legilimency?" Snape asked, breaking the silence.

"Legilimency? Isn't that mind reading." Harry queried, wondering why he was bringing it up.

"In simplistic terms, I supposed you are technically correct." Snape sighed in the same way he did in class when someone answered 'can anyone identify this?' with the horribly dumb answer 'a potion'. "Legilimency is a branch of mind magic. It is the act of permeating a person mind. It is not simply reading the thoughts of another person. Instead it allows a person to pierce through memories, usually in the search of information."

"That's . . . horrifying." Harry replied, shuddering at the thought of someone messing around in his mind.

"Yes, it is an unpleasant experience. For that reason it is illegal to legilimize someone without their express permission and the teaching of the skill is highly regulated." Snape explained, glanced at his watch before pouring the tea. He handed Harry his cup and gave him a moment to doctor it the way he wanted to. "I am telling you this because of what we are going to eventually talk about. I do trust that you can keep a secret. However, no amount of loyalty will prevent a legilimens from taking what he wishes. The Dark Lord and many of his followers have the skill and that is a very dangerous thing."

"But if I can't do anything about it, does that mean you aren't going to tell me anything?" Harry queried, unhappy at the thought of being told that he couldn't get answers to his questions.

"No. This relationship we have built is heavily relying on a certain amount of trust. As such, deliberately keeping information that may affect you would be counterproductive to your healing as these session would no doubt become less effective." Snape rubbed a thumb across his lip in contemplation. "As such I am going to have to extract a promise from you. You will need to learn to protect your mind. For now you are safe, as legilimens for the most part need eye contact. However, soon you will be back with the wizarding public and will into be nearly so safe. That means I will have to start teaching you occlumency. You must promise me that you will learn it quickly and study hard."

"Of course." Harry immediately agreed. Even without the threat he would've agreed. Anything that would prevent someone from breaking into his brain would be a welcome skill to learn.

"Good. Until you learn the skill I will ask you to wear this in public." Snape handed over a ring. It was silver and consisted of three bands that were braided together. Harry examined it for a moment before slipping it onto the middle finger of his right hand. The ring immediately shrunk to fit him perfectly. "That is a protection spell to prevent mind magic. However, it is not perfect. Mind magic is complicated and powerful. As such, brute force protection such as that will only block the most basic and weak attacks. I doubt that on a normal day you will meet a skilled legilimens so this shall protect you until you learn the skills that you need to protect yourself."

"Thank you." Harry said, looking down at the ring again.

"Now you have questions." Snape stated, letting the non-question hang in the air.

"You and Mr. Dawsen . . . You were arguing . . . Is everything-" Harry cut himself off, not sure how to phrase the question. How to put all his silly fears into words.

"Have we worked through our disagreement?" He offered, Harry nodded. "Yes we have. After a frank discussion we found a place where we could agree and have moved on.

"You were yelling a lot." Harry mumbled.

"Yes that can happen. How did that make you feel?" He asked, face conspicuously blank.

"I don't know. Uncomfortable . . . sad . . . a little afraid." Harry finally answered, blushing at his small and childish his voice sounded to his ears.

"And why do you feel like that."

"Like what?"

"Afraid. When Alex and I were arguing why were you afraid?"

"I don't know. It's just, he was yelling . . . and I heard the glass break. You guys just seemed so . . . perfect for each other. I guess I was afraid that it was ruined. That you guys would break."

"That we might hurt each other?" Snape supplied. Harry shrugged, not wanting to admit the thought had come into his head. People did bad things when they were angry, he had seen enough in his life to know that. But it was also like an insult to think that Snape or Alex would do anything like that.

"It is an understandable fear Harry." He picked up his own teacup for a sip. "In your life you have seen a lot of violence, especially associated with anger. It is no surprise that you would associate it whenever someone gets angry, even if they do not seem the type of person to use violence. I will put your mind at ease, no such thing happened and most likely never will happen. Alex enjoys being overdramatic when he is anger and does, on most occasions, revel in breaking something. Much in the way that I encouraged you, taking your anger out on an inanimate object, while not great, is much better than taking it out on a living being."

"We would never strike each other." Here Snape was lying a little bit. Both he and Alex were hot tempered and in their younger years were far more volatile. Both men had explosive tempers that could just as easily erupt at each other as someone else. As well as a little darkness that thirsted for blood. While Harry had thought they had the perfect relationship, it wasn't always that way. It was never to the level that would count as physical abuse there had been arms swung on a few occasions. Though he would never say anything like that to the boy or ever encourage it in another's relationship. It was just the reality of his life.

"I just didn't think that you guys would ever fight like that." Harry mumbled into the rim of his cup.

"We are only human. We do disagree. Though I would mention that even the best relationships have some amount of differing opinions. It is human nature and unavoidable. However, the sign of a healthy relationship rests more on how you deal with disagreements. It doesn't even mean that you have to agree at the end of the argument. Instead it is important to listen and respect the other person's feelings. To acknowledge their position and not to immediately rebuff it because it is different from yours. If you can do that you will find yourself in a strong relationship." Snape explained.

"So you guys did that?"

"Yes. Our opinions still differ on the subject. But I understand where Alex is coming from and acknowledge it. I promised to do my best to respect his wishes in my own actions. He agreed to allow me to continue to do what I believe I need to do. As such the argument is finished and we are better for it."

"Okay." Harry nodded in understanding, the knot in his chest slowly releasing. He didn't know what he would do if he had heard a different answer. In his mind all he could think is that if they could not remain together then no one could.

"What where you doing?" Harry asked, looking directly at his professor for the first time this whole conversation.

"I was at a Death Eaters meeting."

"Death Eater?!" The teacup in his hand shattered as he gripped it out of reflex. He scrambled as he tried to wipe off the tea that was in his lap. "You're still a Death Eater?!"

"Yes and no." Snape snapped. He brandished his wand, fixing the cup and making the spilt tea disappear. "I am a Death Eater, though I am there only in a capacity of a spy."

"A spy."

"Yes. And such privileged information is why you will wear that ring until you can protect your mind and protect my status."

"I don't understand . . . how can you just stand there and . . . just pretend to be that evil?" Harry asked. Here there was a long pause. Snape was staring at him with his uneasy, soul-piercing stare. Harry shuffled uncomfortably under his gaze.

"Perhaps you will better understand where I am now if you know how I got to where I am now." Snape sighed.

"Alex has already divulged a small amount of my childhood, correct?" He waited for Harry to nod his head. "I was born to a muggle father who was an aggressive drunk who hated magic. While my mother loved him, he did not love her. He was trapped into marriage after a night together with my mother which ended with me. His bitter resentment permeated through my childhood, often resulting in physical beatings. Since he was a drunk he was rarely employed and our family was poor. Before coming to Hogwarts I had only one friend in my entire life, and that was your mother. But for the first nine years of my life I was alone.

"Hogwarts was both a saving grace and a torture of its own sort. As a Slytherin there was a large bias against me and my kind. Not long before I had come to school Grindelwald had marched through the wizarding world and had sullied the names of Slytherins. Those in my own house all but ignored me. I was talented so they did not actively try and sabotage me but I was still a half-blood so I was not worthy of interacting with. In my fourth year there began to be whispers. Talk of a powerful man that would bring back the glory of the wizarding world. That gave hope to those who had been deemed unworthy of society.

"Hope is a powerful thing Harry," Snape sighed unhappily. "For every person it is the one thing that can truly never be taken from you. You could go to a man who has been surrounded by dementors in Azkaban for twenty years and the rest of his life on his sentence. Still he would have hope that there is a chance of escape, whether that be a miracle or death."

"Sirius said that." Harry interrupted. "He said that hope was something that they couldn't take away from him. That and the knowledge that he was innocent."

"Yes, exactly. However, the problem is that hope can be corrupted and manipulated. A person can blacken another's hope by promising them whatever they wish and proclaiming that they were the ones who could get it for them. That is what the Dark Lord did. This was during a time of great revolution. Muggleborns and magical creatures were gaining rights and power. It is an unfortunate fact of human nature that seeing someone raise to power feels like someone taking power from you. You can see it in blood purists, racists and sexists. You would hope that a person would look at someone who was systematically put down being raised to equality as a raise in power for everyone. But those who always stood at the top, well, some of them view it as an attack on them. That it was unfair and unbalanced because they liked the status quo as it was.

"Pureblood were feeling that anger deeply and quietly. The Dark Lord was speaking their anger, allowing what was festering into the light. And then he gave them the hope that they would have that power again. That someday they would have all the power and riches that their ancestors had for so long. Quickly, people were falling to his feet. Those who had been raised on the ideals that blood purity meant everything. It is not right, but understandable to some degree.

"I was not the same. Blood purity meant nothing to me. But I was alone. As you no doubt felt, those who have been isolated often yearn for the approval of those around them. The same way that you refused Dracos hand when those around you made it clear that he was not part of the 'accepted' group." Harry blushed at that. That had been a nasty revelation when they eventually spoke about why he had been so desperate to not be a Slytherin when the hat had wished to place him there. After speaking about it he had realized that his view of the house had been colored by both Hagrid and Ron before he even knew anything about Hogwarts.

"I had been promised the company and acknowledgement of my peers that I had always wished for. The Dark Lord had promised that those who had strong magic power and true knowledge of magic would have a high place in the new world order, regardless of their blood, as long as they were not purely muggle born. I had desired that so strongly. That I would get the acknowledgment for my skills and that those who looked down on me would be looked down upon themselves.

"But then I joined the group and was quick to find out that it was not as it seemed. The Dark Lord had spoken about taking control of the Ministry and changing the laws so that only those who were truly magic could rule. He spoke like a politician, like a war general, not like a genocidal maniac. Then suddenly, it seemed everything was about brute force and fear. There was no talk about changing laws but rather ridding the world of those who were unworthy. No matter my desire to be accepted I could not accept the brutal massacre of those who were innocent." Snape did not mention how long it actually took, because the answer still shamed him to this day. Especially since the reason for the scales falling from his eyes was not really his own morality but his selfishness.

"So I went to Dumbledore. I could not leave. I was forever marked and even if I tried to defect I knew I would be hunted down and killed as a traitor. So instead I went to the light and became a spy. In fact, I became a spy for both sides. The Dark Lord allowed me to join, thinking that he would be getting information on Dumbledores plans. So I was both able to give the light side information on his movements and plans, while also giving him incorrect information about what we were doing.

"I was trying to repay my mistakes, and to protect those who deserved to be protect." Snape finished, his voice rough from unspoken emotion. Harry tried not to stare at the man who had just unloaded so much onto him.

"So you are still spying?"

"Yes, I have returned so that we may have the advantage as early as possible."

"Do you think . . . do you think that may ever happen to me? That I would do horrible things because someone tricked me?" Harry asked, trying not to think about the parallels to his own life.

"Honestly?" Snape leaned back causally in his chair. "It is always possible. Humans have an equal capacity to do as much good as they do bad. However, if you stay diligent and close to your morals it will be near impossible for someone to get you to do great evil. Do not make the mistake I made. There is no one person who can save you more than yourself. There is no perfect world and violence against the defenseless will never be the way."

"Okay."

"Do you feel better now that you know more."

"Yes? And maybe no. I'm happy you told me. I wanted to be able to understand and now I do. But to think that you went through so much and are going to still. I don't like that. I also do like the idea that so many people could do so much bad just because they think they deserve more power." Harry sighed.

"An unfortunate part of growing older is realizing that the sentiment will never truly disappear." Snape agreed.

"Thank you, for telling me everything."

"Your welcome. Now unless you have any more question we can go to the lab. We will begin your occlumency training another day." Harry was happy for the change in subject and quickly help pack up the tea tray. For the rest of the day he helped his professor work on potions. When Alex finally returned home he watched the two of them with sharp eyes. Though they acted just as they always do, teasing and prodding each other as if they had never fought. At least that, Harry thought as he went to bed, was still okay.