A/N: I know, I know, I know! Its been nearly a month and a half since I last updated this story. (Shame on me.) I've started college and because I'm in the nursing program, my classes are pretty intense and I barely have enough time to study, let alone do anything else. But I'm still writing - and currently working on three stories at the same time. Sorry for the shameless plugs, but here it goes: I'm almost done with chapter 2 of A Window To The Past, and with chapter 10 of Dealing With Destiny. So they should be up late this week or next. Oh, and FYI, I don't like the title of this chapter, but I finished the actual chapter and I didn't feel like sitting around and thinking of a better one. Okay, so now that I'm done rambling, here's chapter 34! (Hoot! Woot! Hoot! Yeah! - there you go Kim and Tim!)

Dumbledore Trusts Him

July 21, 1981

It seemed hard to believe that Harry was nearly a year old. He had already taken his first steps and began to say a few words. James and Lily were in awe of their young son. They'd tell anyone who would listen about how Harry had simply stood up and walked to get his fluffy toy Snitch or how one day when James had come home from work, Harry had pointed to his father and said, "Dada!" as if he'd been saying it for years.

But as Harry had grown, so had the Order's losses. They were down to nearly half of there original number. But the death that had hit home the closest was the death of Marlene McKinnon. She, along with her husband and their young daughter, were killed by Death Eaters. Lily had been a complete wreck for the week after she had found out. Not only had Lily lost a dear friend of hers, as well as the woman who had taught her everything she knew about healing, the death of Marlene's daughter had brought up painful memories of Lindsay Ellis, memories that Lily had buried in the deep recesses of her mind.

Ever since Marlene's death it had been hard to even go to the Order meetings. But tonight, Lily's mind was on something else; why were they having this meeting? Usually, the members knew at the end of one meeting what the next was about. But Dumbledore had said nothing, only giving that mysterious smile of his whenever anyone asked.

Because the meeting took place in an actual house – Albus Dumbledore's childhood house – Lily and Alice had set up a makeshift nursery of the boys. Lily, James, and Harry had just arrived at headquarters, Lily taking Harry upstairs, meeting Alice and young Neville.

"Hey Alice," she said as she put Harry on the floor, along with a few toys. Harry almost immediately grabbed for his large stuffed snitch and began chewing on its wing.

"Can you believe they're nearly a year old?"

Lily shook her head. "It feels like they should still be infants. Harry's already started walking. It's so cute; he'll get a few steps and plop right back down."

Alice smiled. "Yeah, Neville's been doing the same thing."

"I hate to interrupt," they heard someone say from the door. They turned to see Dumbledore in the doorway, smiling at the scene. "But we will be starting soon, and I need to speak with you, Lily."

Alice and Lily kissed their sons – who where, by now, busy with their toys – and followed Dumbledore downstairs. While Alice went into the living room, where the meetings took place, Lily followed Dumbledore down the hall.

"I'm not sure if you are aware of this, Lily, but we have a new member, which is why we are having this meeting."

"Really? That's great. Who is it?"

"He was a faithful Death Eater, but has decided to join our side. Some months ago, while on an assignment from Voldemort, he – witnessed – something that altered his life, which, in turn, has altered everyone's lives. He has agreed to remain in Voldemort's inner circle – as a spy for us."

"Wow, it sounds like he'll be a great asset to the Order. But I don't understand why you're tell me and not the rest of the Order."

Dumbledore smiled slightly. "This particular person may cause a commotion among the members, in particular James and Sirius." They stopped walking next to a side room. "I was hoping that you could, for lack of a better term, soften them up. I know they will not be thrilled with the prospect of working along side this man."

"Who is it?"

Dumbledore opened the door to reveal none other than Severus Snape. He looked almost the same as Lily remembered him. Severus had the same pallid, thin face, the same hooked nose, and the same greasy hair. The only thing that was different was that he was a good six inches taller than Lily – around James's height.

Lily opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out: she was still in shock.

"Severus has been giving the Order information for quite some time. But now we feel it is best for him to officially join."

"Well, um...welcome to the Order..." Even as she said it, it sounded dumb. But what else could she say? She had gone to school with this man for seven years, and aside from the occasional taunt of calling her a Mudblood, he had never harmed her. But he had been a Death Eater. Could he have been someone under a mask that had tortured her or killed her friends?

"Well, then," Lily said, turning to Dumbledore, "I'm going to do some damage control. I'll see you later,"

As she headed down the hall and to the meeting, only one though entered her mind: James was going to freak out.

She stood at in the doorway to the living room. Everyone was still mulling around, catching up with one another. There were chairs set up in rows, but few were sitting. That was when she came up with her plan.

Lily managed to catch Remus and Alice's attention and signaled for them to come into the hall. Once they were next to Lily, Remus asked, "What's up?" as he took a drink from the glass in his hand.

"Severus Snape is joining the Order," she answered bluntly. Remus nearly choked on his drink and Alice's mouth hung open. "Apparently," Lily continued, "he's a reformed Death Eater or something. But what I'm really concerned about is James and Sirius's reactions. So if you and Frank," she pointed at Alice, "sit between James and Sirius, and you and Elizabeth," she said to Remus, "sit on Sirius's other side, and I sit on James's other side, I think we'll be able to hold them down in we need to – which we probably will."

"Wait a minute –" said Remus, "Snape is joining the Order?" Lily resisted rolling her eyes; she doubted whether he heard anything after she made that shocking statement.

"Dumbledore said that he's been a spy for us for a while, and now he's officially joining the Order."

"Maybe it would be safer," Alice said, "to just sent James and Sirius home." Remus nodded in agreement.

"I couldn't agree more," said Lily, "but let's just try my idea first, then we'll do that."

They went into the main room shortly before Dumbledore entered. The Order took their seats, according to Lily's plan. She also figured it would be better – well, safer, at any rate – if they sat toward to back of the room.

As usual, Dumbledore stood at the front of the room, and silence fell. "Tonight's meeting is going to be a short one," he began. "The main purpose is to introduce to all of you a new member." Lily could feel her pulse beat faster. "For the past eleven months, he has been a great asset to our cause, though none of you have known it. While he has been spying of Voldemort's inner circle, we had decided that it was best for him to remain anonymous. The information he has given has helped prevent many attacks." As Dumbledore motioned for him to come in, Lily gently squeezed her husband's hand.

Severus Snape walked in and some whispering occurred between the Order members. Lily gave James a nervous glance. He let out a small laugh, as though this whole thing was a joke. He looked at Sirius. Lily could practically see James's mind working. Did Padfoot set this up, he was surely thinking. But when he realized that this was not a joke, his eyes widened and his mouth hung open.

For the next few minutes, the rest of the Order continued to talk about various Death Eater plans, but Lily paid very little attention – she was too busy shooting nervous glances at James and Sirius and exchanging cautious looks with Remus and Alice.

Finally, when the meeting was adjourned, their group pushed James and Sirius out of the room as quickly as possible.

"James, why don't you go get Harry and we'll head home."

"Lily –"

"Please, James," she said, almost begging. He nodded and went to get their son. "Good," she sighed quietly to Remus. "Now we only have Sirius to worry about...for now."

"Well," said Sirius, trying to sound casual. "I think I'm going to talk to Dumbledore."

He took a step toward the living room where Dumbledore – and Snape – had still not emerged before Remus and Lily grabbed the back of his robes and Remus said, "Oh, no you don't," as they pulled him back.

"If your going to bitch about Snape, don't do it here," Lily said. "Dumbledore trusts him, so just because you don't like him doesn't mean that he's not invaluable to the Order."

Sirius looked like he was going to reply, but thought better of it and stayed silent.

James came down the stairs with Harry, who was resting his head on his father's shoulder and sucking his thumb. That was when Dumbledore and Snape came into the hall. Lily noticed that Severus had been glaring at James, but paled considerably when his dark eyes fell upon Harry. Was it because Harry looked so much like James, his mortal enemy? Or was it something else?...

But she didn't have time to think on it; Harry's small hand reached out to her and she took him into her arms. "It's way past your bedtime, sweetie," she said softly. As they left, with Sirius in toe, Lily smiled at Dumbledore and Snape as she past. While Dumbledore smiled back, Snape's eyes never left the young boy in her arms.

She left the house and walked into the night – with James, Sirius, Remus and Elizabeth close behind. But she stopped when she saw what was in front of her.

"Who's motorcycle is that?" she asked.

"That's mine," Sirius said proudly. "I just got it today." He walked over to the motorcycle and threw one leg over it. "And it flies, too."

"No way!" James said excitedly as he went to examine his friend's new toy.

"Isn't that illegal?" Remus asked as Lily and Elizabeth nodded in agreement.

"Only if you get caught," he smiled with a wink.

Lily rolled her eyes as she carefully adjusted Harry. "Just don't expect me to bail you out of Azkaban."

"Oh I wouldn't dream of it Lils; but I am expecting James to."

"Well, I'd better get him to bed." Lily said, nodding towards her sleeping son. Then she turned to James. "Are you coming?"

James tore his eyes away form the motorcycle and towards his wife and son. "Yeah,"

They bid their friends goodnight and Apparated home. Harry immediately began to cry – he apparently did not like Apparating. James took Harry from her, and after a bit of calming him, Harry settled down. Lily resisted the urge to glare at her husband.

"Do you want me to put him down?" James asked.

"No, I'll do it – Sirius will probably be over at any time to discuss the newest Order member."

James kissed his son goodnight and gave him back to Lily. Luckily, by the time she and Harry were half way up the stairs, his head was sleepily dropped onto her shoulder. Lily changed harry into a sleeper and laid hi in his crib. Nearly as soon as Harry's head hit his tiny pillow, he was fast asleep. For a few moments, Lily watched her son sleep, noting how, as each day past, he looked more and more like James.

As she stood to leave, she heard a low rumbling from outside. She went to the window and saw Sirius land on her front lawn with that ridiculous flying motorcycle. Shaking her head, she drew that curtains in the nursery closed and headed down stairs.

"This is total bullshit," was the first thing she heard from Sirius as she entered the living room.

"Tell me about it," James replied. "Of all people – it had to be him."

"I don't buy that 'reformed Death Eater' story for one minute." Sirius said, pacing in front of the fireplace. "Old Snivellus must had told Dumbledore a pretty good story for him to get into the Order."

James turned to Lily and asked, "Dumbledore said that Snape's a spy for the Order, right?"

Lily nodded. "He said that Snape's been giving the him information for months."

"How do we know that Voldemort sent him to spy on the Order?" James said.

"Yeah!" said Sirius. "They could have made up the whole, 'I'm sorry, I want to join the good guys' story and Snape's really giving the Death Eaters information on us!"

"But Dumbledore trusts him." Lily said, sounding exasperated. "And if he trust's him, we have to at least give him the benefit of the doubt." She sighed. "What else can we do?"