Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just borrowing. Some later dialogue (marked with italics) is taken directly from Deathly Hallows.

Author's note: Sorry this update is a little late, I've been gone all day. Unfortunately, I'm a bit behind in writing, but I'll try to keep updating regularly. Thanks for all the reviews and favorites so far! A couple questions were brought to my attention earlier, and I feel like I should probably explain some things:

Firstly, Peter was put in Slytherin because Sev's Confundus charm caused the hat to put him in a random house. The probability of him landing in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw was just as equal, but I decided on Slytherin because of how he turned out as an adult. I don't like Peter, sorry. :/ Secondly, Remus' clothes are shabby because his parents are poor. They probably find it difficult to find decent jobs because of his lycanthropy and the fact that Greyback doesn't like his father. I also think that they probably spend much of their money on funding research to help werewolves, which will likely be seen in later chapters. :) If you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask.

With those answered, I would like to direct your attention to this lovely new chapter. As you read, please keep in mind that even though the Sorting Hat put Severus in Gryffindor this time around, he was a Slytherin for many years before that. I think he shows several traits that define each of the four Houses, and this chapter contains a little of his green and silver showing through. ;) Enjoy!

Chapter Six

After a few minutes of brisk walking, Severus reached the gargoyle guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's office. He stood and stared at it for a moment, suddenly realizing he didn't know the password.

"Lemon drop?" he guessed. The Headmaster had almost always used sweets as passwords. "Er, fizzing whizzbee? No? Hmm… Chocolate frog?"

The gargoyle leapt aside and Severus smirked. Dumbledore had once said that he didn't care how the Ministry discredited him, as long as they left him on the chocolate frog cards.

The boy started walking up the moving spiral staircase, trying to decide how to phrase what he needed to tell Dumbledore. When the stairs had deposited him in front of the door to the office, he hesitated slightly before knocking. The sound seemed oddly loud in the emptiness.

The door opened a brief moment later, and a politely confused-looking Dumbledore peered down at Severus.

"May I help you?" the old man asked gently. The former Potions master refrained from rolling his eyes. Always polite, Albus is, he thought to himself irritably. Even when there were Death Eaters surrounding him to watch him die, he kept his manners.

"No, but I can help you," he replied shortly. "My name is Severus Snape, and I have information regarding the Dark Lord that you may be interested in. Can I come in?"

The older wizard frowned slightly, then nodded, opening the door wider to let Severus inside. The office looked just as Severus had remembered it, though it was full of Dumbledore's possessions. It had been mostly empty while Severus had been Headmaster.

"Please take a seat," Dumbledore instructed the boy politely, gesturing to a chair on the side of the desk opposite his own. "Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"No, thank you," Severus replied curtly. He wasn't here to eat candy, and they were wasting time.

The Headmaster sat down across from the boy, surveying him over the top of his spectacles. There were those piercing blue eyes again, the ones that had made Severus feel guilty about receiving the kindness that filled them.

"Perhaps you should start by explaining just how you came across this… ah, information," Dumbledore told Severus. There wasn't much kindness in his eyes now, just concern and something like suspicion.

"Albus, I'm dead," the boy replied bluntly. He wanted to make an impact on the old man. "I'm a 37-year old wizard reborn into his past as a first year Hogwarts student."

The older wizard only raised an eyebrow skeptically, not saying anything. Severus felt a surge of fury at how calm the man was being. Was he going to take this seriously?

"I was a Death Eater for three years," he continued angrily. "I know more about the Dark Arts than you've ever dreamed of. I've witnessed more people die than most Aurors ever have. I've even killed some myself. And I spent fifteen years spying and gathering information for you and your Order of the Phoenix."

It wasn't until he mentioned the name of the Order that Dumbledore showed any reaction to his ranting. The blue eyes flashed, but Severus couldn't read the expression within them.

"This is all… very interesting," the old man said heavily, rubbing his forehead. "You are telling the truth, I am sure, but it all seems so impossible." He paused for a minute, then added sharply, "You probably already know, but I can tell when someone is lying to me. I am an accomplished-"

"Legilimens, yes," Severus finished his sentence dryly. "As is the Dark Lord. And I am an accomplished Occlumens. I had to be, in order to avoid detection for so long. You even taught me yourself. However, this means you will not be able to get into my head unless I specifically let you."

Dumbledore sat back to digest this information, though his suspicious look had returned. Severus sighed.

"Look, you can either choose to believe me or not," he continued. "I know it sounds ridiculous coming from the mouth of an 11-year old boy, but I know things about the Dark Lord that will help you fight and eventually defeat him. You can choose to hear me out, or you can choose to have me leave now and we can forget this ever happened."

The Headmaster sighed, grudgingly accepting defeat.

"Very well," the old man replied. "But tell me first how this happened to you. It's not every day that a fully-trained and potentially dangerous wizard comes wandering into my office, apparently disguised as his former self."

Those blue eyes pierced the black ones again, and Severus felt another surge of frustration.

"This isn't a spell or a potion gone wrong!" he replied irritably. "I died, I already told you that! The Dark Lord killed me in order to gain possession of the Elder Wand. I'm well aware you know a little something about that, Albus."

Severus' gave the older man a sharp look, and the Headmaster's eyes flashed dangerously. It looks like the greatest wizard in 100 years has a weak spot, the boy thought to himself with satisfaction.

"Yes, I know all about your little adventures with Grindlewald," Severus continued with a nasty smirk. "Rita Skeeter wrote a wonderful book about you after you died. Of course, you don't know her yet. She'll be a student in the next few years. She was a writer for the Daily Prophet and she had a particular gift for finding all the dirty details of a story. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the Dark Lord killed me, and I met you in some sort of afterlife. You told me that sometimes people are granted a second chance at life to fix their mistakes. And then I woke up here, in my 11-year old body. Interesting, isn't it?"

Dumbledore's horrified look gradually faded to something like curiosity as Severus kept talking.

"I was dead, you say?" he repeated, intrigued. "If you don't mind me asking, how did that happen?"

"I killed you," Severus replied bluntly. Dumbledore simply raised an eyebrow. "On your orders, no less. You were already dying from a curse that the Dark Lord had put on a ring. It was another one of the Hallows, I believe, the Resurrection Stone?" The boy smirked again. Provoking the old man like this was his small revenge for being taken advantage of.

The Headmaster twitched slightly and took in a deep breath, as if to calm himself.

"Ah, of course," he replied simply, as if the answer had been obvious. "Well, if that's all there is about you being here, I'd like to hear the information you have."

"Very well, then," Severus responded, a sort of smugness in his voice. "You know about Horcruxes, I assume? The Dark Lord knows, too. He's made five of them already, and he plans on making a sixth. Seven pieces of soul total. Seven is a magical number, after all."

He paused slightly to ensure that Dumbledore was paying attention, but it really wasn't necessary. The old man was watching him guardedly, Severus' words no doubt confirming his prior suspicions.

"His first Horcrux is a diary, though I haven't the faintest idea where that is," the boy continued, counting off on his fingers. "His grandfather's ring, the one containing the Resurrection Stone, is the second. You had just returned from the Gaunt family home with it when you were cursed. Destroying it won't lift the enchantment, apparently. The other three, based on the information you gave me, belonged to three of the founders of Hogwarts. He didn't bother with anything of Gryffindor's though. The snake was the sixth, but he didn't make it into a Horcrux until 1994. You destroyed the ring with the Sword of Gryffindor, I know that for sure."

Severus stopped after imparting this last bit of information. Did Dumbledore need to know about the prophecy? If all the Horcruxes were destroyed and Voldemort killed, the prophecy might never be made.

"There was a prophecy, though, and that complicated things," he continued, deciding it was best for someone to know. "Sybill Trelawny, who will be a student in the next few years, was applying for the position of Divination teacher here at Hogwarts. In 1980, she made a prophecy concerning the Dark Lord and a boy born at the end of July to parents who had defied the Dark Lord three times. This boy would have the power to defeat him after the Dark Lord marked him as his equal. Naturally, after hearing about this, the Dark Lord set out to kill the child. There were two boys in question, but he chose to murder Harry Potter, son of James Potter and Lily Evans."

Severus' voice was bitter as he explained about the child.

"When Lily gave her life to save her son," the former Potions master continued, "a sort of charm was cast over the boy. It was a form of ancient magic, and that caused the Dark Lord's killing curse to rebound. The boy was left with a scar and part of the Dark Lord's soul within him, left behind unintentionally and unknown. The Dark Lord was thought to be dead. However, the Horcruxes he had created earlier prevented that, and he was trapped in spirit form for many years."

Dumbledore watched him calmly over the tops of his spectacles, then sighed as Severus stopped speaking.

"I am very grateful that you have brought me this information, Severus," the Headmaster said to the boy. "I believe it will be most useful in the future. As it is, I am more interested in you. You have retained all your memories and abilities, correct?"

The boy nodded, a little suspicious as to where Dumbledore was headed with this.

"If you don't mind my asking, where did you work before you died?" the older man asked. "And how did you manage to spy on Lord Voldemort without him suspecting anything?"

"I was the Potions teacher here and Head of Slytherin House after I defected," Severus replied coolly. Dumbledore looked mildly surprised, but he didn't comment. "I continued teaching during the time that the Dark Lord was presumed defeated, and I returned to him with half-truths and partial information on the Order. He accepted me as a loyal Death Eater, and I found an answer to everyone who questioned my motives. Your death, as well, helped secure my position, but you hadn't told anyone else about the plan. The entire Order hated me for it."

Dumbledore nodded slowly, taking in the information. It seemed that a thought had suddenly occurred to him, as his eyes snapped to Severus'.

"Why did you change your mind?" he asked the boy, more curious than suspicious. "You had power and fame, and a master who could possibly have ruled the world. No doubt that was appealing to a young man."

Severus sneered slightly, seeing a jibe toward Slytherins in the old man's words.

"It was Lily, I already told you that," he replied irritably. "The Dark Lord meant to kill her, so I came and begged for your help." That old remorse suddenly settled on him again, and he added softly, "It was all my fault. I told him about the prophecy, but I had only heard part of it. Maybe he would have been more cautious if he'd known the rest."

Dumbledore smiled at him kindly, no doubt seeing a small, helpless boy rather than a jaded ex-Death Eater.

"Maybe this would be easier if I just showed you my memories," Severus said with a slight frown. "Can I use your Pensieve?"

"Of course," the Headmaster replied, standing up to remove the stone basin from its stand. He placed it on the desk in front of the two of them, and the boy took out his wand.

Severus thought for a moment about which memories to show Dumbledore, then decided that their previous conversations would probably be enough. He touched the tip of his wand to his temple, pulling it away slowly. Shimmering silver strands of memory dropped gently into the Pensieve, and Dumbledore looked to Severus.

"We'll go together," he told the boy firmly, though Severus didn't know why. Why wouldn't I go with him? he wondered to himself briefly, then leaned over the basin. The two of them were pitched forward into Severus' memories.

The first thing the former Potions master noticed was that the memories were chaotically blended, with bits of one merging into another. That sometimes happened when the user of the Pensieve was trying to unload several memories at once. He cursed mentally, but there really wasn't anything he could do now. They would settle eventually and Dumbledore could look at them later.

"Don't kill me!" A memory-Severus, around 20 years old was standing in a stormy forest, a memory-Dumbledore pointing his wand at him.

"That was not my intention," the older man replied, the wind whipping his long robes around him. "Well, Severus? What message does Lord Voldemort have for me this time?"

The scene blurred slightly, and the two of them were standing in the Headmaster's office.

"I thought . . . you were going . . . to keep her . . . safe . . . "

There was some indistinct mumbling on memory-Dumbledore's part, then:

"Her son lives. He has her eyes precisely her eyes. You remember the sharp and color of Lily Evans's eyes, I am sure?"

"DON'T! Gone . . . dead . . . "

"Is this remorse, Severus?"

"I wish . . . I wish I were dead. . . . "

They were suddenly standing outside the main entrance to the castle.

"You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon," Dumbledore was telling a horrified Severus.

They were in Dumbledore's office again, memory-Severus ranting at the Headmaster:

"You have used me."

"Meaning?"

"I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be keeping Lily Potter's son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter-"

There was more swirling of color and images; among them were the sword of Gryffindor, Marvolo's ring, the Dark Mark on his left forearm, the silver doe, the damaged diary and a basilisk fang, and the flash of green light, followed by Dumbledore falling backward off the Astronomy Tower.

The real Dumbledore cast a curious glance at Severus, then the two of them were back inside the Headmaster's office.

"That didn't go as well as I'd hoped," Severus informed the older man glumly. "You can look at them later, though, they'll separate after a while."

"Do you trust me, Severus?" Dumbledore suddenly asked the boy, blue eyes piercing.

Severus let out a derisive snort. Of course not, Albus.

"No," he replied bluntly. "I gave you everything after she died, and you didn't bother to tell me your plans from the start. You manipulated me into doing what you wanted me to do. As I said before, I spent fifteen years as a Death Eater on your orders. I obediently gave you the information you asked for, planted false trails that you told me to, outright lied in order to save my life and the Dark Lord's faith in me. And I was killed because of your plan. You wanted me to kill you so Lucius Malfoy's son wouldn't have to do it, but you also wanted to die undefeated so that the Elder Wand wouldn't change ownership. The Dark Lord believed the wand was mine, so he killed me. If it weren't for that, I would still be alive. So, no, I don't trust you."

Dumbledore seemed intrigued at Severus' apparent dislike of him, but he only nodded.

"Alright, I think you may leave now," he told the boy. "I'll look through the memories later, and I'll send you a message if I need to know anything else."

Finally! the former Potions master thought to himself, relieved at the dismissal. He had almost made it to the door when a final question stopped him.

"Severus?" Dumbledore's voice rang out. "In your memory, there was a book. It was the diary, I assume, but what was the tooth with it?"

The boy paused for a minute, then turned back to the Headmaster with a huge smirk on his face.

"There's a basilisk in your school, Albus," he replied snidely. "The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets can be found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, but you need to speak Parseltongue to get in."

When the older man looked rather alarmed, he added with a grin, "The Dark Lord opened it during his fifth year at Hogwarts, remember? Only a Parselmouth can control the dirty great snake, but little Harry killed it with the Sword of Gryffindor in his second year. You should really look into taking care of your pest problem."

With that parting message, Severus swept out of the Headmaster's office, pausing only to glance back at the expression of horror and concern etched across the old man's face. The boy let out a short, harsh laugh once the door had closed.

You can take a man out of Slytherin, but you can't take Slytherin out of a man, he thought to himself with amusement as he descended the staircase. Severus had an odd sense of humor and he knew it. However, humiliating Dumbledore seemed like the least he could do to the man who had controlled his life for so long.

Note: Yes, Severus has a sense of humor, and yes, it's a bit twisted. ;) I think that, at this point, he wouldn't trust Dumbledore very much. After all, he feels like the man manipulated him into protecting Lily Evans' son for seventeen years only to have the boy killed by Voldemort. ALSO, I have no idea whether Severus knew anything about the Horcruxes or Hallows. However, I think he might have been able to guess what the ring was, based on the symbol on it and the fact he knew about the Elder Wand when he was killed. He probably would have guessed that the sword destroyed the ring, as well, since it was laying on the desk when he treated Dumbledore's injured hand.

The Horcrux part is harder to reconcile, but Regulus Black was able to guess what the locket was after Kreacher told him about it. Voldemort had apparently dropped enough hints by then, obviously believing that he was the only one who knew about Horcruxes. It's possible that Severus could have come to Dumbledore with his suspicions of there being at least one and Dumbledore may have told him what he knew so far. Personally, I don't think it would have happened because Voldemort could have seen the conversation in Sev's mind, but I'm making it that way for the sake of the fic. Please don't flame me! It's all just speculation.