Disclaimer: The characters and settings, including any sentences taken directly or partly from the books or movies, of Harry Potter are the property of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, AOL Time Link and Warner Brothers. I do not make money from publishing my story.
Still dumbstruck by Snape's willingness to help him, he tended to his eye. Meanwhile Snape had made them both a cup of tea and went to sit in his armchair. Nervously Harry took a seat on the sofa and took small sips from the tea
"It is unlikely that your tiny brains will be able to comprehend everything I say, but I must ask you to save those questions for after I have explained everything", Snape said, looking at Harry strongly, which made the boy nod quickly, but otherwise keep him from talking.
"According to a true prophecy, you are the only one who can defeat the Dark Lord. Even though you believe me to be dark, I do want him dead. He killed the one I loved." This shocked Harry a bit. Oh he did believe that Snape had loved someone, how else could someone turn this bitter. It surprised him however that Snape admitted to him, that he had loved someone once.
"The Headmaster knows that you are the only one who can defeat the Dark Lord and had planned for you to start preparing you, however he does not plan for you to survive. He believes that for the Dark Lord to be defeated, you too must die."
"But Dumbledore –", Harry yelled, before he was cut off by a pointy look from his teacher. "I assure you that what I am telling you is the truth. As I have said before the Headmaster only sees the greater good."
"Before and during the Dark Lord's first reign, the Dark Lord made plans to make himself immortal. As you know he does not like being dependant on something or someone. He found an ancient type of magic that allowed him to split his soul and store it in an object, so that when his body and that part of the soul were destroyed, he would still be able to come back. By murdering someone he ripped of a part of his soul which he could then place in an object of his choice."
"Horcruxes they are called. He carefully stored pieces of his soul in objects and sometimes living beings. He has stored one piece of his soul in his snake Nagini. There was one piece of soul however that he did not store on purpose. By murdering your parents he tore his soul and that is when something happened that none had foreseen. You defeated the Dark Lord, the fragment of his soul that had been ripped, latched itself onto the only living being it could find. That piece of the Dark Lord's soul latched onto you."
By now, Harry looked positively shell shocked. He felt sick when he thought of the fact that he carried around a piece of Voldemort's soul and had to keep his gag reflex under control. Snape was not done explaining however and he continued.
"For you to truly rid this world of the Dark Lord, you must destroy all the pieces of his soul, that means the piece that resides in you must also be destroyed. The Headmaster has searched for a way to do exactly that, but came up empty. The Headmaster has decided that you must sacrifice yourself, to destroy this piece of soul and hope that someone can ultimately kill the Dark Lord and vanquish him forever."
"I believe that this is not the solution, that is why I have taken you from your family. The Headmaster has betrayed both our trust. I do not believe that a world reigned by the Dark Lord as he is now is an ideal world, but neither is a world ruled by a man who only believes in the greater good who does not see the individual anymore."
A lot of things went through Harry's head. He was glad that someone took his side for once even if it was his most hated professor. He doubted he would ever be able to kill Voldemort, but hiding away wasn't what he wanted either. He was worried about his friends and all the others who relied on him to defeat Voldemort. Harry was confused and somewhat angry at people once again deciding things for him, but he managed to keep his anger in check.
"What can I do?!", Harry asked, "I can't defeat Voldemort and I don't want to die!" Panic began to find its way into Harry's voice. "Why am I responsible for what Voldemort did, why must I stop him?!" Even though Harry wanted to protect his friends from Voldemort, he felt like it was someone else's turn to protect him for once.
"You are not responsible for what the Dark Lord did, but you are involved in his plans. I took you from your relatives to protect you from him and I intend to keep you protected, but for my it to be effective. I will have to teach you first how to defend yourself. We shall begin right away."
He understood and even appreciated that Snape wanted to help him, but he was still somewhat reserved. Nonetheless he rose from his chair to follow Snape, who handed him some books and demanded he read them right away.
The books had a wide range of subjects. One was about warding while another was about magical transportation and another was on antidotes against uncommon potions. Not all of the subjects looked evenly interesting, so he started with the ones about warding.
This was how the following days were spend. Harry would read up on whatever subject Snape deemed necessary to learn and later the professor would question him thoroughly about it. Leaving none of the details out and while Harry was studying Snape would often disappear into his own room or even leave to attend one of Voldemort's meetings, without Harry being any the wiser of course.
Snape still seemed as sour as ever, correcting Harry furiously whenever he was wrong, but he also inspired trust in Harry. Giving him advice and further information when Harry showed how hard he worked.
Thanks to both of their combined work, Harry now had basic understanding of most of the things that could save his life in a dangerous situation. He had most of the theory down and thanks to some advanced wards around Snape's house to avoid detection of some magic, he had gained some practical knowledge too. From how to find and cast wards, to getting a fire going without his wand.
Snape had surprised him with some of the muggle techniques he had taught Harry, but Harry soaked up all the information like a sponge, which in turn surprised Snape. The two had become used to living together and were less inclined to fight. The atmosphere was flourishing in light of their newfound 'friendship'.
One ordinary day, late in the afternoon, Snape stepped out of his room. While his face gave nothing away, Harry had become quite adapt at reading Snape's body language. He seemed hasty and somewhat worried. Harry's feeling was confirmed when Snape told him to collect his important belongings.
Harry ran upstairs and quickly shrunk his trunk and put it in his pocket, lucky for him, Hedwig was still at Hermione's, meaning he didn't have to worry about his pet. Hastily he ran down the stairs, where Snape roughly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him outside.
Barely keeping up with his professor, they ran down the street, when suddenly the house they occupied only minutes ago went up in flames. Small, but still loud explosions went off inside of the building and the door was blasted outwards.
In the moment Harry was caught off guard, two people had appeared in front of them from behind one of the other houses. They wore black robes and their wands were aimed at Harry, they were clearly Voldemort's men. Snape, ever the spy, was quick to react and fired of two of his own spells before the two deatheaters could assess the situation.
Soon it became a battle of spells in which Harry had quickly joined in. Neither party had the upper hand, even though Snape and Harry had been getting closer to the apparition point. However the two deatheaters were soon joined by another two, one of whom was clearly Lucius Malfoy.
"Give the boy up Snape, you are clearly surrounded", the silky smooth voice of Lucius Malfoy sounded through the moist air while stepping forward. The blonde took another step forward, while he took his mask off. "Act like a true Slytherin, Snape, and save your own hide."
Snape, knowing they couldn't take on all four at once, edged closer to Harry. Even though making an illegal portkey meant they, meaning the Ministry and every spy who reported back to either Dumbledore or the Dark Lord, could trace Severus' magical signature ,but it seemed like the only way for them to escape, while the apparition point was still miles away. He silently cast the portkey spell at a coin he happened to have in his pocket.
"Stupefy", Harry cried wand outstretched, he had been aiming at one of the other deatheaters and hit him squarely in the chest, making him succumb to the effects of the spell. Again the fight broke loose and the deatheaters drove Harry and Snape away from each other. Severus had missed his opportunity to get close to Harry and disappear by portkey.
Harry had his hands full with a deatheater called Rabastan, while Snape was taking on both Lucius and Rudolphus. When suddenly an incantation was yelled, that stopped the professor in his tracks. "Avada Kedavra".