(A/N: Thank you to all who reviewed the last chapter. I left quite a few questions unanswered in the last chapter. They will be answered within the next 3-4 chapters. One thing I will note is that Sirius and Severus aren't going to suddenly be friends. Severus is being restrained because he believes that Sirius is the only one who can help him, and Sirius has no reason to be snarky because Severus came to him to warn him about the traitor. There will be more on this later.)
Two men appeared on the pavement in front of a house with small pops. One was carrying a sleeping toddler, the other had a heavy bag slung over one shoulder and still clutched a worn teddy bear. At least it wasn't storming here, since at this point it was well past ten and the darkness facilitated all of the cover they could want. The town had long been referred to as "Mill Town", meaning most of the townspeople would be asleep in preparation of the long day ahead.
Severus's own father had worked at the mills for much of his life. Lily's father had been lucky and had received an education, so she had never been subjected to her father returning home after a long shift, covered in grime and reeking of the booze that was the only "medicine" for that lifestyle. He started walking, leaving Sirius to follow behind him.
"Are we not going to Lily's house?" Sirius asked, hurrying to catch up.
"No. Some muggles bought it after her parents passed away," he responded tersely. Her mother had succumbed to muggle cancer during Lily's seventh year, and her father had died of a heart attack not long after Lily had finished her education. He had fond memories of Mr. and Mrs. Evans; they had taken him to Diagon Alley every year for his supplies, even after he and Lily had their final fight. They had claimed it was because he knew so much about the world Lily was a part of, but Severus knew that his father had made his dislike of the Wizarding World clear one too many times while they were present.
"Where are we going then?"
"The house I grew up in."
"You grew up around here?" Sirius asked, shocked
"Unfortunately. You're full of questions tonight."
"Sorry," Sirius said sheepishly. "I just didn't imagine that. I would have imagined that you grew up in a manor somewhere."
They walked in silence for several minutes through the streets that held dilapidated houses that were nowhere close to manors in size or appearance. Severus strode up to one that was just a bit darker than the rest. He produced a key that he'd been careful to keep with him from day one. It took a moment of fumbling with the key before the rusty lock moved. He swung the door open and stepped inside, allowing Sirius to step in past him.
The house reeked of rot, of mildew and disuse. He flicked on the lights, glad that he'd kept paying the electric bill.
"You live here now? It's…," Sirius trailed off, flushing when he realized that his words might be offensive.
"It's a hovel," Severus snapped. "The hovel that my father beat my mother to death in. She was a witch, but magic wasn't enough to save her. My father was good enough to get pissed and kill himself off, leaving me the hovel. Not like I ever wanted to hang around this place longer than I had to."
"I guess neither of us had the best of childhoods," Sirius said, sitting down on the dusty couch and cradling her son to his chest.
"What are you talking about? You grew up as the heir apparent to a huge family."
Sirius leveled a look at Severus.
"Yes, but they attempted to beat the heir into me. Fat lot of good that did them. They would have disowned me if it wouldn't have left them without a heir." He laughed sharply. "So what's the plan?"
"This is just my safe house. We need to find a safe place to take Lily's son, but we can't have the government chasing us down because I'm a Death Eater and you're the alleged secret keeper. Do you know anyone we could contact besides Dumbledore?"
Sirius thought hard for a minute. There weren't too many who could help them and wouldn't as soon sell them out to the highest bidder.
"You said Moody interrogated you, right?" he asked suddenly.
Severus groaned. He already knew this was not going to be a pleasant experience.
"Yes, he did."
"He believed you, right?"
"I believe so."
"We're going to contact him then," Sirius said. "Oh come on. He's already interrogated you and he trained me. He wouldn't have let you walk free if he thought you were lying, veritaserum be damned. It isn't like he's going to kill us straight off."
"You might want to get an oath to that effect," Severus muttered. Not kill us straight off? That was quite reassuring.
"Fair enough. We'll need to go somewhere to floo him."
"We're connected to the floo here. It's been registered under my mother's name for twenty years."
"Nice. Where's the floo powder?" He reached up to the container that Severus had indicated. "Here, hold Harry."
Severus numbly reached out and grabbed him. He had only held an infant once, but tried to remember exactly how he'd held the baby previously.
"Just make sure you've got his head. He's old enough that he can keep it up, but it never hurts," Sirius added softly.
Severus stared down at the small creature in his arms. Harry had barely stirred when he was passed off. Severus had expected the child to look exactly like his father, but from up close, he could tell that he didn't. Same shock of hair, but the face was completely different. Although he had high cheekbones like his father, when combined with the shape of his chin, his face was shaped the same as his mother, only slightly sharper. He had his grandmother's nose and his grandfather's ears. He stared down at the innocent face relaxed in sleep and swore that he would protect Lily's son, no matter what. He looked up as Sirius lit the fire, kneeled down, and threw in the floo powder.
"Moody's Shack of Fortunes!"
Severus snorted at the name. Moody's face suddenly appeared in the fireplace. Sirius and Moody exchanged pass codes of a sort before Moody spoke.
"Sirius Black, how can I help you?" He asked, before catching sight of Severus in the background. "What's he doing here?"
"We need your help relating to a matter of utmost importance," Sirius said carefully. However, Moody didn't stop glaring at Severus. Severus sighed and shifted Harry in his arms so that he could free one hand. He made the familiar V, symbolic of veritas, the latin word for truth.
"I, Severus Snape, solemnly swear on my life and magic that I have no intention of harming, killing, or betraying Sirius Black, Harry Potter, or Alastor Moody at any point in the near future, unless either of the adults attempt to intentionally harm me first. So mote it be." The familiar golden dust swirled around him. He looked down at the toddler that had woken up sometime during the oath. Harry was giggling and batting at the gold glimmers as they flickered around him. Severus noted that some of the sparkles settled on the scar that ran down his forehead.
"Good enough, laddie. Hand me your wands first, then feel free to step though."
After the wands were passed through, Sirius and Severus stepped through the flames. Severus carefully covered Lily's son with his robes, to keep him from breathing in soot. They arrived to find Moody with his wand trained on them. He handed Sirius a cup of tea and quickly dripped four drops of veritaserum into it.
"Drink up, laddie," Moody said gruffly.
"Isn't it dangerous to use four drops?" Severus asked quietly.
"Only if you don't have the antidote. Otherwise, you'll get pretty sick," Moody grinned, before turning to Sirius.
"State your full legal name."
"Sirius Orion Black."
"How are you related to Harry?"
"I'm his godfather."
"Were you the Potter's secret keeper?"
"No."
"Who was?"
"Peter Pettigrew."
"Are you a Death Eater or have you been one at any time?"
"No."
"Did you betray the Potters in any way other than through unintentional communication with Pettigrew?"
"No."
"Do you believe that you are a fit guardian for Harry?"
"Yes."
"Fair enough, Black. Drink this," he said, handing Sirius a different cup of tea.
"Your turn," Moody added, handing Severus another cup of tea with the same four drops. "Better hand off the kid to Black."
He waited until Black had recovered enough before indicating that Severus should drink.
"I think Black might want to hear this. You know the drill."
Severus drained the cup and felt the veritaserum acting rather quickly.
"What is your full legal name?"
"Severus Tobias Snape," he answered dully.
"Have you ever been a Death Eater?"
"Yes."
"If I ask you questions relating to other Death Eaters and Voldemort without veritaserum, do you intend to be truthful?"
"Completely."
"That's good to know. Have you ever killed anyone?"
"No."
"How 'bout tortured someone?"
"No."
"Hmm." He turned to look at Sirius. "Albus wouldn't let me ask him that last time.. Why haven't you?"
"Officially, because murder and torture could risk harming my hands, making brewing useless, and because certain methods of cold-blooded murder leave taints that make brewing certain potions impossible." Severus licked his lips. "Unofficially, because I've never had the stomach for hurting people like that."
"How did you get past the ritual for the mark?"
"I told him I killed my father."
"He'd have loved that. How did your father die then?"
"He drank too much and crashed into a parked lorry while driving. The car exploded."
"Ah, the typical cover-up by the ministry for any odd death. I can see how you got away with it. Why do you dislike muggles?"
"Because of my father. He killed my mother. The muggles ruled it an accident."
"Why did you leave Voldemort's ranks?"
"Because of Lily."
Sirius raised his eyebrows at that, but said nothing.
"Here's a real question for you, lad. Why didn't you just take the whole lot down with you, kill everyone? It would have been the more manly thing to do."
"I wanted to. It would have been easy to stage an accident, but Dumbledore ordered me not to."
"Let's see," Moody trailed off gruffly. "Do you want to kill any one?"
"Yes."
"Who?" Moody hissed impatiently.
"Pettigrew," Severus said sharply
"Why?"
"He killed the only woman I've ever loved. She was supposed to be safe."
"What are you feeling right now?" Moody asked, but Severus could barely hear him. The lights were spinning like a worn out sneakoscope. Snape lurched slightly.
"Slightly sick. Mostly betrayed."
"Hang in there, laddie. Just one more question. Why are you feeling betrayed?"
"Dumbledore swore they would be safe. They could have been hid behind the Potter wards and would have never been found. It wasn't even supposed to be Lily. Her son was born two weeks early. He was supposed to go after the Longbottoms. They're living at the manor, and it had wards that the Dark Lord could never dream of getting through. He would have died on contact, but he didn't realize that. Then he switched, wanted to go after the Potters. Dumbledore swore he would keep them safe, he promised! But they were moved to that defenseless house and now she's dead."
Severus wasn't sure if it was the veritaserum or not, but he burst into tears. He was a bit ashamed at crying twice in one night; he'd hoped his Occlumency shields would have prevented such an occurrence. Moody hurriedly handed him the antidote and a calming potion. The first left him feeling slightly ill but certainly more clear-headed, while the second alleviated his sudden despair. He looked up and noticed Black looking at him with something akin to pity. He almost growled at the man, but in a moment Severus recognized the expression- commiseration. He knew that Black was likely in the same sinking boat as he was; they'd both lost the ones they'd considered family in one night. Severus supposed that gave them a reason to be civil to each other.
In his potion-induced calmness, Severus failed to notice Moody's sudden change in disposition. He thunked over to the fire and threw the floo powder in haphazardly, before kneeling and calling out, "Frank Longbottom!"
Frank's face quickly appeared in the fireplace.
"Hey Moody! What's going on?" he asked cheerfully. Moody quickly made a complicated gesture that Frank returned.
"Frank, I taught you and Alice almost everything you know. Realize that I know how competent you two are."
It only took a minute for Frank Longbottom to lose the cheerful attitude and quickly put on his auror mask. Both Severus and Sirius understood how Frank and Alice put fear in the hearts of any who faced them. That face promised death.
"What do you need us to do," Frank asked, his voice full of steel.
Moody looked at him strongly.
"Frank, this is an order for you and Alice. Go home."
"We are home."
"No. Go to the Longbottom Manor. Get behind the wards and stay there until I give you the all clear."
"Moody, Dumbledore assured us that our house is safe. He put up the Fidelius charm himself."
"He put the Potters away in a safe house too, but now they're dead, and they would have been safer under the ancestral wards. Now get under the Longbottom wards in the next fifteen minutes. Contact me when you're concealed. I'm going to get to the bottom of this."
"Hey Moody?"
"Yeah?"
"Constant vigilance."
Moody chuckled, before standing up. He leveled a look at both Sirius and Severus.
"I believe it's long past time to get to the bottom of things."
(A/N: I use oaths as a method of truth detection in this story. It can't force the one swearing the oath to answer truthfully when asked questions- hence the need for veritaserum. I would imagine that a pureblood ministry wouldn't require people to swear these oaths in relation to jobs and trials, since the oath might clash with oaths pertinent to being the head or scion of a noble house. Also, next update should be in a week, give or take. Up next- Dumbledore.)