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.
In the midst of their confusion Snape apparated the young injured Harry away, to where they didn't know, but somehow Remus had a feeling that it wasn't Severus' fault he had been injured. It had been theirs and they had attacked the only one who had had Harry's best interests at heart. As soon as he realized that, he began to feel ashamed, but at the same time he was less worried about Harry.
"Albus", Remus directed his attention to their leader, "What exactly was our purpose here? I do not believe, after seeing this, that it was Severus who had bad intentions. Please explain, why your spell caused him so much harm." The rest of the Order stayed quiet, but too shared Remus' curiosity about the situation.
At least Albus Dumbledore had the decency to look ashamed, he hadn't wanted to harm the young man at all. He knew that Severus would do anything to protect Harry and that was what had scared him. He believed that Severus would even take him to Voldemort if it meant that Harry would live. That would have major consequences for the war, the Dark Lord could not know that a piece of his soul was inside of Harry or that Albus knew of his horcruxes.
"I truly do believe I owe you an explanation, but the is neither the time nor the place to do that", Dumbledore stated, "If you would all join me at headquarters in a few hours, please do alert the others to our meeting." This was how the rest of the Order was dismissed and Dumbledore was the only one who remained behind at Prince manor.
He did feel quite ashamed about destroying the wards around Severus' ancestral home and violating his privacy, maybe it was only a side effect from the recent battle, but nonetheless he felt the need to restore some of the wards and so he did.
Once he arrived at Grimmauldplace, the house was already full with interested and worried Order members, it was mainly Minerva who looked quite worried, while she tried to read anything of his face, but was incapable. He guided everyone to the meeting room and began his explanation.
"Thank you all for coming on such a short notice, earlier today some of you were present as we tried to prevent Severus from hiding Harry away, after he had taken him away from his relatives earlier this summer, after conveniently using my letter as a means of gaining Harry's trust." He had to admit, it had been quite smart of Severus to use the cover the letter provided, since the whole Order knew that he had sent that letter, while information as to whom would pick Harry up wasn't contained within the letter itself.
"It has come to my attention that Harry may very well be the only one to kill the Dark Lord, but that in doing so he had to suffer greatly. As it all started 16 years ago, when Voldemort attacked the Potters and tried to kill Harry. That night it wasn't only Harry who defeated him, no, Voldemort left a part of his soul behind inside of Harry, meaning that Voldemort cannot die, until the piece inside of Harry dies as well."
Shocked faces all around, showed how little they had known about that fateful night and Harry's role in this looming war. "I thought I had found a solution to this, I recently discovered an ancient magic tome, one of the spells was a spell to exorcise horcruxes while inside their vessels. I made a grievous mistake in assuming that it had been used on a human vessel before, which is why it had such a painful impact on young Harry."
Silence ruled the room and several people sighed in relief, their leader, did look out for Harry, but had made a mistake, a very human mistake, he believed that he had found the solution that could have saved the boy, but in his haste had incidentally hurt him. "I hope that you will forgive this old man his mistake and continue to look for Harry and Severus, especially since Harry is in need of immediate medical care.
They had all made mistakes, each and every one of them had. The Headmaster had forgiven them too and while they hadn't expected the great Albus Dumbledore to make mistakes, he was still human and they knew they had to forgive him too.
"I must ask you to keep any and all information shared here a strict secret, if any of it made its way to Voldemort, it would have dire consequences, I cannot all forsee", Albus said before concluding the meeting. Several Order members went home or back to work immediately, while Remus stayed behind for a bit, helping Molly Weasley clean up.
It had been a lot of information to take in for most members, but for people like Remus, who cared so much for Harry it was almost shattering his heart.
It had been a few hours after Severus had arrived at Malfoy manor, he had yet to see anyone besides Harry or the Dark Lord, which was quite logical if you considered that the Dark Lord had him brewing potions almost as soon as he had arrived. By now the first potions, which included a pain potion were ready and Severus was about to bring them to his Master, glancing at the remaining potions one last time before he exited the brewing room.
His luck was about to ran out, he crossed into the main hall, ready to go upstairs to the Dark Lord's quarters as he saw Antonin Dolochov make his way towards him and he didn't look happy. As soon as Dolochov spotted him too, his began to look even more angry, as he suddenly whipped out his wand aiming it straight at Snape's heart.
Severus too had taken his wand, but kept it in a defensive position not wanting this to end in a bloody battle. While he knew that he was a fairly good dueller, Dolochov was a force to be reckoned with. "You dare to show your traitorous face here, Snape?!", Dolochov sneered as he moved closer towards Severus. Slowly Snape backed away a little and raised his wand towards Dolochov.
"I only have our Master's best interest at heart, Dolochov", Snape said confidently, "Better the boy be alive but harmless, than dead and the Dark Lord agrees, I have served him well once more, unlike you who disobeyed his orders.". Severus prepared to walk past Dolochov, but as soon as he tried Dolochov grabbed him by his throat and shoved him into one of the walls, now Dolochov's wand was aimed at his throat.
On the outside Severus managed to appear calm and collected, but on the inside he was resisting every urge to curse Dolochov into the middle of next week. Dolochov too looked like he was having a hard time controlling himself and for Severus that was not a good thing.
"Do not tempt me, Snape! You are one of Dumbledore's lapdogs and I will make sure the Dark Lord sees that! You are nothing but a coward!", Dolochov sneered, ready to throw a curse at Snape, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turning around in a split-second, blond hair came into view and stopped him from cursing the person who had dared stop him.
"Nice to see you again, Severus, Dolochov", Lucius said, he switched his attention to Snape, "I have come to tell you, that the Dark Lord has asked for you." That statement alone was enough for Dolochov to release his prey and reluctantly taking a step back. Before he strode off he addressed Severus one more time, "When you lose your value, I will be the first to curse you straight to hell!"
Severus then tidied himself and was ready to stride off to, without even addressing Lucius. "I wonder what great deed you have done for our Lord", Lucius said, sounding like he was musing to himself, but it was clearly meant for Snape, "He has been in a particularly good mood." Without addressing his friend further both went their own ways.
I know some of you expected the whole Order to be mad at Dumbledore, but while I am not a fan of him, I do think that everyone should be allowed to make mistakes. I don't think that Dumbledore would ever purposely hurt Harry, while half the Order was present.
I would like to thank all of you, for reviewing, for following and favoriting this story! It gives me great incentive to write and it tells me that I am not only satisfying myself, but many other Harry Potter lovers too.