Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any character thereof.

Chapter 15

September finally rolled around and just like Albus had predicted, the students quickly became terrified of Severus, even with Professor Slughorn in the same room. He did have to admit that Severus commanded the attention of a room just like Minerva did, which was not an easy feat.

Albus also made Severus the head of Slytherin House. This was for many reasons, but he and the potion master both let the rumor go around that it was because he was the only current staff member that had been in that house while he had attended school. It turned out that Voldemort had been pleased with that information, as they both knew he would be.

"He seems to be under the impression that I am going to be persuading the Slytherin's to join his cause." Severus smirked. "I am going to have to be careful how I handle them because there are quite a few of his follower's children here."

Albus agreed with him.

After school began, Severus attended a few Death Eater meetings as well as a few minor raids, but not as many as he used to because Voldemort knew that Dumbledore would dismiss him if he was gone from the castle too much, and so far, Severus had proven to be very useful to the Dark Lord as a spy, as it were. He did not want that to stop.

At random moments, Severus would approach the Dark Lord on his own to let him know what he had 'overheard' or 'discovered' when the information was pertinent.

During those visits he would hang around for a few hours to spy for Dumbledore. When he told the Dark Lord this, he had just laughed his hiss of a laugh and allowed Severus to stay, never sending him away even when the other's requested their master's presence alone. After all, he knew that Severus would never betray him.

During those times, Voldemort would note that Severus merely looked bored or that he would occasionally speak about trivial things with his fellow Death Eaters. Most of the time he simply let Severus lurk in the shadows of the room.

This had many benefits to the Dark Lord. One of which was that it gave him a reason to punish those that failed to be observant. For some, the punishment was worse than other's because he expected better from certain people in his ranks.

Each time he had stayed, if no plans were made to deceive Dumbledore that day, he would ask Severus what he was going to report back to the meddlesome old fool. The answer varied from, "Nothing. You had everyone out on their own tasks and no one reported in," to "I watched as you punished my friends because they had failed to do your bidding to your standards."

Overall, he was quite pleased with Severus for managing to deceive Dumbledore so convincingly. He found that Severus had proved himself to be a better spy than he had first thought possible when he had originally given the task to him.

If Voldemort would have thought about it from his paranoid point of view, he should have realized that it was he that needed to worry about Severus being such a good deceiver.

But debauchery from one of his most faithful servants never even entered his mind.

On Christmas morning during breakfast, Severus felt his Mark burn in a way that told him that he was being summoned directly, along with the other members. He assumed that it would just be a meeting, so he glanced at Dumbledore to let him know that he was leaving the castle, who in return nodded.

Severus learned his lesson for assuming that day. It turned out that the Dark Lord wanted to attack several Order member's as well as a few Ministry worker houses at the same time.

He was hoping that he would get sent to the Potter raid, but the Dark Lord had other ideas. Voldemort sent Severus, Bellatrix, Black, and Nott to pay a visit to the Bones' residence. During the battle, he tried his best to save the older couple without drawing suspicion on himself, but four against two is hardly fair. After an hour long fight, Bellatrix had finally managed to hit both people with the Killing Curse.

On the way out of the house, Severus raised his wand in the air and sneered a silent "Morsmordre". He watched as a version of the dark mark appeared in the air over the house to indicate that someone had been killed inside. Only members of the Dark Lord's inner circle (as well as a few other 'special' people) knew that incantation and as Bella had already dis-apparated toward her master's hideout, he was the only one left that knew it to send it up in the air.

As soon as he sent the mark up, he also dis-apparated to Voldemort's hideout before the Aurors appeared. Severus then began his role of healer and started tending to everyone's wounds. Since the Dark Lord did not have any true healers in his service, that job normally fell to Severus because he was familiar with potions. Slowly, people began to pop back into the room. He tried not to think of Lily so he concentrated on the task at hand.

Almost two hours later Voldemort, Malfoy, Goyle, and Avery appeared.

As soon as the Dark Lord apparated in, it was quite obvious that he had a minor injury. Bellatrix and Severus rushed to the Dark Lord, crying at the exact same time, "My Lord!" He quickly healed his master (even though he could have healed himself) and then turned to treat the ones that he had come back with. Out of habit, he headed to Lucius first, but Voldemort stopped him.

"No, Severus. Lucius will be healed last. It is his fault that I failed and was injured. He should have known that there would be others there." His eyes fell on Regulus Black. "It seems that your brother is Harry Potter's Godfather."

Regulus knelt before the Dark Lord. "He is no brother of mine, my Lord. You are my family, not him."

Voldemort gave a semblance of a smile but cursed him never the less. He then asked for updates from everyone while Severus continued to make his rounds. A few more straggler's came in and were treated before he was allowed to heal Lucius.

The Dark Lord was pleased that the Bones, a couple of the Prewett's, and the Anton's were killed.

Suddenly, a fallen form apparated to the feet of Voldemort. It was quickly established as Karkaroff, so Severus inquired as to whether he should treat him. The Dark Lord nodded for him to do so.

Karkaroff had been sent with two others to pay a visit to Alastor Moody. He was glad that he did not get sent there. It seemed that the other two were captured by the formidable Auror.

After most everyone else had left, the Dark Lord asked Severus what he was going to tell Dumbledore, seeing as how he had been gone for most of the day and that he, no doubt, knew of the attacks already.

Severus placed a well practiced sneer on his face. "The same thing that I did after the other raids, my Lord. You required me to heal any injured as they returned, but you would not let me participate in any of the raids themselves. Any injuries that I might have, I tell him that you did it because I did not perform my duties fast enough. It tends to make the old man pity me."

After speaking Severus bowed, as he was supposed to, hoping that this response would please the Dark Lord. It turned out that it did, so he was dismissed after he was allowed to kiss the hem of His robes.

After apparating to the gate of Hogwarts, Severus all but ran to the Headmaster's office.

Dumbledore looked grave but was relieved to see him. He had feared that Severus had been killed. Of course, he knew of the multiple attacks and Severus could tell that he felt grief mixed with fury. However, he did nod at Severus' unasked question about Lily's safety.

Severus threw himself into the nearest chair. "I was in the party that was sent to the Bones house. The Dark Mark that went up was mine." He sounded completely defeated. "Bellatrix delivered the final blows. They fought us for over an hour, Albus. You should know they went down like heroes. I did try to foil the attacks, but it obviously did not work. I was half tempted to say screw my cover and just help the couple, but then I realized that was the easy choice."

He looked down at his hands as he tried to reign in his emotions. "There were 6 Death Eater's that were killed and many were injured, including the Dark Lord himself, and unfortunately I had to heal all of them." Severus was truly disgusted with himself and his voice showed it. "From my count, 4 Death Eater's were apprehended?"

Albus nodded.

"The Dark Lord was furious over the fact that Lucius did not count on the presence of Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew."

Albus looked at Severus strangely. "Did he say that Pettigrew was there?"

He raised his eyebrow but shook his head. "No, he just said that there were others there. I assumed that it was all three of them since they are normally inseparable. Why?"

"Because he wasn't there. When I talked to James in the aftermath, I did ask where he was, because as you said, he is usually there. He had told me that Peter was spending Christmas with his mother. It was only Black and Lupin with them this morning."

Severus snorted. "By any chance, do you know which of them cursed the Dark Lord?"

Albus shook his head.

"Well, when you find out, thank them for me, it was an ingenious curse. Sadly, I had to fix it because He was to busy having Bellatrix fawn over him." Severus willed away the urge to vomit.

"Did he say why he attacked so many places at the same time?"

Severus nodded and inwardly winced as he shifted himself in the chair. "He wanted to draw attention away from the fact that the Potter's were his main target. He was hoping that they would get lost in the rush of so many other attacks. The reason he went himself was to test their defenses around the house. He also wanted to see if he could finish the boy off if they were truly unprepared ..." He let his voice trail off.

After a minute, he spoke again. "I'm sorry Albus. I really had no way to alert you before hand. I had been hoping that it was just a meeting. I would never have imagined it would be a massive raid, although, given the Dark Lord's manic thoughts lately, I don't guess I should be completely surprised by this." He let out a sigh. He was still having issues controlling himself.

Albus walked around his desk and sat on the edge of it, facing Severus. "This is not your fault. I'm sure that you did all that you could do. We did lose many good witches and wizards today but they will not be forgotten."

Severus felt his grief overwhelm him. When he had to go on the smaller raids, they always went through this, but it had never affected him so much before.

This was the first time that Albus had ever seen tears well up in Severus' eyes, though they did not fall. This was the first time Severus was ever hugged by his mentor, as if by a father.

He offered Albus his memories, but Albus refused as always, saying that he believed him. However, Severus did insist that he see the part in the Dark Lord's hideout. Albus was amused at Severus's quick thinking to Voldemort's questions.

They talked for a while before Albus sent Severus to Madam Pomfrey. It seemed that he had healed everyone else but himself.

Severus later found out that Lupin was the only injury at the Potter's house that day and his was only a minor one. He still had a hard time believing that someone had actually gotten a curse in on the Dark Lord.

But what frustrated Severus the most was that James 'Bloody' Potter would still not go under the Fidelius Charm. It seemed that the Gryffindor lion in him came out roaring. Lily was also frustrated with James but he would not budge on the issue. According to him, he had just proven that he could defend himself and his family.

There were a few more mass raids before school let out for the summer in which Severus had to attend. (He was not called for most of the minor ones anymore unless someone needed healing in the aftermath.) None, however, were on the Potter's. It seemed that the Dark Lord was luring them into a false sense of security.

A couple of months before term ended, Alastor Moody was fitted with his magical eye. Not very many people knew, at first, that it could see through things, such as doors, but Dumbledore was one of them that did. Therefore he had to be brought up to speed about Severus.

Severus did not mind that Moody was brought in because he figured that he would be a powerful ally if the need should arise, especially since he could sense that his turn was coming to where he would be sent to the Auror's place of residence. The other member's of the inner circle had already had their chances.

Finally the school year ended. The role of spy was beginning to take it's toll on him. Albus had noticed this but Severus never once complained.

A/N: 7/29/11 - Edited words and such ...