If anyone were to ask Severus Snape what the worst part of life as an Order of the Phoenix spay was, they would never guess his answer since it wasn't what most people expected: risking his life every single time he stood in front of one of the most powerful wizards by purposefully lying to him. It also wouldn't be the substantial loss of personal time and privacy caused by having to serve two "masters" simultaneously; bouncing from one side to the other without first taking care of his own needs. And it wouldn't be his inability to concentrate on any of the other half-dozen professional projects he'd prefer to work on than teaching uninspired, mediocre students year after year.
No. For Severus, the worst part of being a spy, more than any of the tedious life-threatening tasks, was Order meetings. Sitting through updates that rarely pertained to him, and then being interrogated by his supposed colleagues on the accuracy or insufficiency of his own update always threatened to send him into a cursing rage by the end. During the first war, he was fortunate that his identity had been classified as "need to know" information — meaning he met with as few people as possible — and therefore he wasn't required to attend the majority of the meetings. But the few meetings he had attended? He despised every single second of them.
So, while being revealed as a spy during the first trials might have saved him from a life in Azkaban, it also meant he was no longer excused from the meetings. In the end, he had traded one source of hell for another.
In Severus's extremely biased opinion, Albus's choice of the Black Estate as their Headquarters added insult to injury. Such thick layers of dust coated every surface, he doubted a simple scourgify would be close enough to clean it, and the levels of ancient dark magic made even Severus shudder as he walked through the corridors. If Albus wanted to constantly remind the members of the forces they were battling against, he surely succeeded. On the other hand, anyone who stayed for more than a day or two risked losing their minds, and aside from Black's requirement to stay in the house, Severus had heard the Weasleys were planning to spend the rest of the summer here, inevitably bringing Granger and Potter with them.
As if they need to muddle their feeble brains any more than they already are.
Those reasons, combined with crossing paths with Sirius Black during the meetings, were enough to make him purposefully avoid Headquarters. Yet today's meeting was unavoidable because, by some sick twist of fate, Severus was the one who called it. The information the Dark Lord had given him at the unusual summons he'd just left simply could not wait until their next scheduled meeting. Plus, loathe as he was to admit it, Severus needed at least Molly Weasley, if not Sirius, in attendance to support his proposed reaction. While he trusted Albus with his life, quite literally in many events, his handling in the aftermath of the Triwizard Tournament put Severus on edge, and he refused to take any needless risk, especially when Potter's life was at stake.
For Lily.
The Order always met in the dining room of Grimmauld Place. What started as daily meetings as soon as let out had dwindled down to weekly check-ins. The last meeting was three days ago, highlighting the urgency of this one. If this had been a regular meeting, Severus would have been met by dishes floating heading to a stock pot where Molly Weasley would fill the bowls of stew and place buttered slices of freshly baked bread on them before sending them off to the table, on the way to feed a group one might call rebels. More often than not, as of late, the meal served at the Order meetings was the only freshly made meal Severus got. He would never acknowledge that fact to anyone who attended despite his own suspicions that this was also the case for most of the other members.
No food soared through the air tonight, though, and the kitchen was calm; something Severus had never seen before, as he was usually the last to arrive for a meeting, not the first. Three tea kettles sat alone on the stove. Molly Weasley was standing with her back to Severus, placing teacups and saucers at each table setting. Her modest dressing gown drew attention to the past midnight hour of the sudden meeting; leave it to Molly Weasley to prioritize tea over readying herself.
"Tea is hardly necessary," Severus remarked. A little harsh, yes, but he wasn't known for his compassion.
Obviously not expecting anyone else to be there yet — least of all Severus Snape — she dropped a cup as she turned around and clutched her hand to her chest. The cup appeared to fall in slow motion, but it was still too fast for Severus to save it from shattering on the floor.
"Severus!" She exclaimed, flicking her wand at the floor to repair the broken cup. One piece must have been beyond repair because the cup had a little chip on the lip. "Sorry, I didn't expect anyone yet. Is Albus h—"
"No," Severus interrupted, levitating the remaining cups before summoning the tea leaves, milk, and lemon to the center of the table.
She didn't blink at his curtness or appear uncomfortable as the stillness between them deepened. Molly Weasley never backed down in the face of adversity, a trait Severus fully intended to use tonight if the necessity arose.
"Thank you, Severus." She also had the tendency to address him by his given name, rather than 'Professor' or 'Snape' like the other members, as if they were casual friends who regularly met up for afternoon tea. "I'll just go upstairs to freshen up."
Severus didn't respond. He didn't need to, nor did she expect him to. No sooner than taking his seat at the far end of the table, the sound of animated voices poured into the room, announcing the arrival of the other members. Tired greetings were exchanged, with most ignoring Severus entirely. Molly reappeared just as the kettles whistled; so perfectly timed Severus wondered whether she planned it that way. Sirius and Remus slowly sauntered in right behind Molly. They both showed signs of recently waking, irritating Severus who had spent the past several hours by the Dark Lord's side while they slept blissfully upstairs.
Notably, Albus arrived last, entering the kitchen dressed in a set of dark blue robes and hurrying to the front of the room to ceremoniously start the meeting.
" 'ey Albus, what's so urgent that you called us in here at two in the morning?" Mundungus Fletcher complained from the spot beside Severus. His voice made Severus cringe inside. "Some of us 'ave to be in Little Whinging at dawn."
True to form, Albus handled the complaint like a seasoned politician: with a feigned apology and deferring the matter to someone else. In this case, to Severus.
"I apologize for the inconvenience you may have endured," Albus remarked, declining the tea Molly offered to him. "Severus has alerted me of a situation that must be addressed promptly and by the entirety of the Order. I appreciate everyone's urgency in the matter, and with that, I'll hand it over to you, Severus."
Albus opened his arms, silently encouraging Severus to join him in front of his loyal followers. Severus did not walk to the head of the table, instead opting to stand and remain in his position in the back. Since subtly was never his strong suit, he took a direct approach, beginning with the actions he needed done and hoping no one would question his reasoning for such an enormous demand.
"We need to devise a plan to move Potter out of Little Whinging as quickly, efficiently, and discreetly, as possible." He paused, waiting for everyone to either spew out questions for him or accuse him of arranging this strictly to allow the Death Eaters to easily capture the boy. He didn't expect to see a sea of empty faces staring back at him as if he'd given them instructions in Mandarin. To make his point, he looked directly into Molly's tired eyes and clarified, "We should consider Potter no longer safe at this relative's home, and the Dark Lord will get to him if we do not move him first."
"A-are you certain?" Molly's voice broke halfway through the question. When Severus didn't appease her with a reply, she added, "Albus said he'll be here in a few weeks—"
"It will be too late by then," Severus interrupted her for the second time, but unlike before she flinched; whether it was because of his forceful tone or the implications of his words, he did not know and did not care.
"How can you be so sure?"
To Severus's surprise, the inquiry came from Nymphadora Tonks, who sat next to Kingsley Shacklebolt near the center of the table. As the newest and youngest member of the group, Severus had no personal interactions with her, but in Severus's limited assessment of her, she appeared to be riding Kingsley's coattails. Therefore, her straightforward challenge caused him to second-guess her value to the Order.
"I'm sorry, did I miss any of you at the Dark Lord's summons tonight?" Severus's lips twisted up in a sinister smile. "I didn't think so."
"Drop the dramatics, Snape," Sirius demanded. He stood, flinging his chair behind him with such force that the floor beneath Severus's feet vibrated. Slamming his palms on the table, he leaned towards Severus. "If you think we're going to move Harry on your word alone, you might as well scamper back to your first master with your tail between your legs for failing. Because how else are we supposed to know you aren't just trying to get us to move him so you can take him yourself? On your oh-so-honest word?"
"There it is," Severus muttered at the same time Remus pulled Sirius down into his freshly upright chair.
Kingsley, the typical voice of reason at these meetings and someone who had earned Severus's mutual regard stood next. "I believe we can discuss this as adults, without throwing around unsubstantiated accusations. Now, Albus has assured us that Harry is the safest at his relative's house, and we have a member of the Order outside the premises at all times as an extra security measure. Are you saying this is no longer the case? And–" his eyes moved down to Nymphadora, silencing her right as she opened her mouth to speak again, "—why do you believe he is no longer safe there?"
Severus resisted the temptation to sigh; he would not give them the satisfaction. "The Dark Lord summoned me and four others tonight… Lucius Malfoy, Yaxley, Mulciber, and Dolohov… for a rather unique meeting."
"What made it so different?" Remus asked. To his credit, he appeared alert and engaged in what Severus was saying, however, regularly providing the werewolf an expensive and rare potion might have had some influence on his attitude towards Severus.
"For one, we were in a safe house I did not recognize. The Dark Lord typically uses a new safe house when more… unique… company is in attendance. Therefore, to call only five followers of our caliber, with no prisoner in sight, made it unusual from the start. He then proceeded not into any action, but to assign us all individual tasks." He waved his wand to conjure a chalkboard behind him and noted the tasks as he spoke them, "As the only one able to enter the wards, I've been tasked with monitoring the Dursley house, paying particularly close attention to Petunia Dursley's schedule to and from the residence. No, the Dark Lord does not share his rationale behind these plans, therefore I do not know the exact purpose. It is not unreasonable, though, to extrapolate it into a plan to eliminate Petunia Dursley and force any protective wards on the residence to fall."
That certainly got their attention and a roar of people talking, one over another, filled the room.
"What about the others' tasks?" Kingsley asked or yelled to speak above the others. "I assume you have some kind of idea what the others are doing and how it might play out."
"Of course." Severus gave a smug smile. "Lucius is to locate and prepare a holding cell with a set of precise enchantments the Dark Lord provided on a parchment. Dolohov and Yaxley were given a list of magical artifacts to secure, and Mulciber was tasked with creating a distraction that could be deployed at a moment's notice. The Dark Lord also handed him a parchment, which I believe contained the parameters for this 'distraction'. All of this together leads me to believe that he intends to kill Petunia Dursley, capture Potter, and detain him for a significant amount of time rather than kill him outright."
"And the list of items?" Kingsley nodded towards Yaxley and Dolohov's names on the board.
"That is my next job to figure out," Severus stated. "I glanced at Yaxley's, but not close enough to analyze and it wouldn't surprise me if he included items as a red herring… a way to divert attention away from their true purpose. In the meantime, you need to keep Potter safe. We should not assume the Dark Lord will wait for Yaxley and Dolohov to finish their shopping before capturing Potter. Whatever he is preparing, he feels it will force the Order's hand and win him the war, more so than getting to the prophecy, hence my recommendation to adjust our tactics."
Nymohadora lifted her hand, then sheepishly lowered it. "Won't moving him now look suspicious… and draw attention to your… uh… role there?"
"Why do you think I said to do it discreetly?" Severus grumbled. "Send them all on vacation, or place Potter with a different relative, anyone or anywhere far away from Surrey will suffice. We must presume they can break the blood wards at any moment, and regrettably, he will move fast to get to Potter the instant they fall."
Out of the corner of his eye, Severus noticed Sirius perked up during his last instruction; over which part, he didn't know.
The discussion lasted until early dawn, but little progress was made in formulating any meaningful action plan for the Boy-Savior. Albus persuaded the majority of them to apply extra layers of protective enchantments to the premises — ones that did not require Petunia breathing to remain intact — until the boy arrived next month. Severus figured it was the best he would get from the Order, and after being awake for nearly thirty hours and knowing he was expected to start monitoring Petunia Dursley immediately, he was too mentally and physically tired to argue it any further.
After Albus closed the meeting, he was halfway out the door when the leader called him back.
"We need to know Tom's intent for Harry," Albus told him once the room cleared. "That he believes this will win him the war is concerning."
Severus tensed, ready to stand his ground on moving Potter. "Obviously. It's precisely why I want to move the boy somewhere safe."
"I stand by my assessment that Harry is safest at Privet Drive, at least for now," Albus replied, quietly. "There are portions of this you do not understand–"
"Then tell me!" Severus demanded. He slammed his fist on the table, releasing the fury and rage he'd kept tightly wound inside of him. "I have spied for you and lied for you, putting myself in mortal danger for you. Everything is supposed to be to keep Lily Potter's son safe. I am the one who vowed to protect him and I am telling you he is in mortal danger. I should be the one to make this decision, not you… or, worse, a vote from people who wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice Potter if required to defeat the Dark Lord!"
Albus peered intensely at Severus, bright blue eyes against his gloomy black, eventually prompting Severus to raise his Occlumency shields as a precaution. Albus rarely used Legilimency without Severus's consent, however, Severus didn't exactly trust him in their current situation.
Albus broke the heavy silence first, a minor victory in Severus's eyes. "Any place we move Harry to will require the same enchantments I am proposing for Privet Drive, therefore making moving him no more safe. On top of the extra enchantments, I shall inform Harry and the guards not to leave the grounds of Privet Drive until further notice."
Severus scoffed. "Like you forbade him from entering the third-floor corridor in his first year? He'd be better off locked up here! At least then he'd have his mutt, Weasley, and Granger to keep him occupied. He's a ticking time bomb in Surrey!"
Albus raised his hand to put an end to Severus's tirade. "He will be here soon, Severus. Until then, though, this is the best I can do."
"And if Petunia Dursley has a preventable… accident… before then?"
Albus's eyes softened as if his next words physically pained him to say. "As our spy, I expect you to tell Tom whatever it takes to prevent such a tragedy."
Severus said nothing back. What could he, really? It was his responsibility to play both sides and, therefore, to prevent this exact scenario from occurring. So admitting he might fail… well, it simply wasn't an option, even if he feared the real possibility in this case. Truth be told, the more Severus attempted to balance the line between the Dark Lord and Albus, the more he saw his inevitable demise. He only hoped Potter — Lily's son — wouldn't become collateral damage, or worse, used as a weapon for the Order. To avoid such a catastrophe he'd have to be more diligent and stay one step ahead of both his masters going forward.
Albus moved to leave but hesitated at the edge of the kitchen. "Your top priority is to find the list of supplies for our analysis," he instructed over his shoulder. "We need to uncover whatever ritual Tom is expecting to use on Harry. Leave me to handle the Privet Drive situation from here. I promise you, we will keep Harry safe."
Albus didn't wait for Severus to agree to take his leave, and Severus didn't move until he heard the front door softly close.
"Snape?"
Giving in to his exhaustion, the professor dropped his head, taking three long cleansing breaths, at the sound of Sirius Black calling his name.
"What do you want, Black?" He snarled. With his back to the Gryffindor, Severus's hand instinctively reached down for his wand, itching for Sirius to give him any reason at all to use it. "Some of us have to be useful and don't have the luxury to laze about the house all day."
The low growl he earned from Sirius was well worth his delay in getting home to bed. Unfortunately, the insult did not deter the other wizard from whatever he stopped Severus for, and Sirius came around to face him; close enough for Severus to reach him without even stretching.
"I heard your conversation with Albus," Sirius said, his voice just above a whisper, explaining his proximity. Whatever the Gryffindor had to say, he wanted to keep it quiet.
Severus waved his wand — causing a satisfying flinch from Sirius — with a whispered Muffliato.
"If you think for a moment I didn't notice you lurking in the corridor, you are much more of an imbecile than I ever gave you credit for," Severus replied, taking two steps backward. "I will ask you once again, what… do… you… want?"
Sirius's lips curved into a half-sneer as he shifted his weight between his feet, clearly debating to himself whether this endeavor was worthwhile. It was Severus's luck that he chose not to drop the mysterious subject.
"Are you loyal to the order?" He eventually asked, and Severus detected a touch of regret in his voice.
Severus clenched his teeth at the accusation, trying to prevent himself from outright hexing Sirius for it. Why else did he think Severus spent the last two hours arguing with the Order members, after spending several hours at the Dark Lord's side, and the day brewing potions for both sides before that?
Fortunately for Sirius, he didn't wait for Severus's response and instead slowly asked, "Or are you loyal to Harry? Because it sounded like you were actually worried about Harry back there. Or perhaps it's Lily?"
Severus froze. In an unexpected turn of events he never saw coming, Sirius caught him off-guard. "Go on."
"I've got to be losing my mind to come to you on this," Sirius whispered, running his hand unsuccessfully through his hair. "I swear, Snape, I will hunt you down and dismember you limb by limb if you use this against Harry. Understood?"
"I would like to see you try," Severus countered. "In an effort to get to the point of this conversation, yes, I understand."
"If you're sure about everything you said…" Sirius trailed off, waiting for Severus to refute the statement, which naturally he wouldn't. "... then I know where Harry can go to hide."
Sirius had delivered the second part so rapidly, that Severus had to focus on each individual word to determine its meaning. "And do you care to share with me where this secret place is?"
Sirius released a deep exhale. "He has… um… a relative… in the United States."
Against his will, Severus's eyebrow rose up his forehead as he worked to keep the rest of his face neutral and not show the absolute astonishment he felt inside. A relative? In the United States? How?
"I did not know Lily or James had family over there," Severus replied, proud of his indifferent tone.
"That's sort of the point, right? For him to hide," Sirius mocked at the same time an envelope he summoned raced into his waiting hand. With a small shake in his hands, Sirius offered it to Severus. "Here, read this."
A deep sense of dread crept into Severus when he recognized Lily's handwriting on the outside. And if he thought Sirius Black approaching him for assistance was the strangest part of his day, it didn't even come close to what he read in Lily's letter. He almost couldn't believe it: a muggle, or no-maj given he lived in America, was Potter's biological father? And not just any no-maj; one who appeared to be as famous in the no-maj world as Potter was in the British wizarding world. It seemed impossible, yet he doubted Sirius would come to him, of all people, with this information unless it was at least somewhat true.
"Why me?" Severus needed to understand his presumed role in this. "Assuming this is true—" he held up his hand to stop Sirius's approaching argument, "—and I'm not saying it isn't, why not have Lupin or anyone else in the Order handle it? Surely, Potter is more likely to follow literally anyone other than me."
And wasn't that the truth? If they were to pull this off, Potter would need to have complete trust in Severus to transport him — by muggle methods — across the ocean and throughout the largest city in the country. Severus purposefully pushed Potter away. Granted, it was for the sins of a man who he now knew wasn't his real father, but it didn't change the fact that Potter would never trust him.
"You'd have to be at least a decent Occlumens to lie to You-Know-Who," Sirius explained, the pseudo-complement seeming to literally hurt him to say. "You can hide Harry and lie about it. Lie to You-Know-Who… and… and then to Albus."
With a wave of his ebony wand, Severus conjured a chair a split second before falling down into it.
"Let me make certain I understand this," Severus slowly said, enunciating every syllable, "you want me, Severus Snape, to kidnap Harry Potter —"
"Harry Evans."
"—take him to America, and leave him with a man no one knows anything about? And you want all of this done with no one in the Order to know about it?"
"Yes."
"You are more insane than we all thought." Severus rubbed the small muscles in his brow which were threatening a headache. "You realize that Potter's absence will not go unnoticed? By the Dark Lord and by the Order."
"Yes."
"And that I, as the person the Dark Lord assigned to monitor Potter, and the person who spent the last few hours lobbying for Potter's removal, will likely be assumed the culprit by both sides?"
"Yes." Sometime during their banter, the Gryffindor conjured his own chair and now sat directly across from Severus, their knees almost touching. "You're the only Occlumens—"
"Flattery will get you nowhere when you're asking me to potentially face suicide," Severus snapped. "Why would you think—"
"Because you're right!" Sirius exclaimed. "You're a fucking git but the longer you went on during the meeting, the more I realized that if you're concerned about whatever dark ritual You-Know-Who is planning for Harry… and we all know it's a dark ritual… then we should too. The Ministry sure isn't going to help him. They're calling him a liar and are practically blaming Harry for Cedric's death. And the more Albus stood there claiming Harry was safe, the less I believed him. We both know he's not safe inside that house and he sure as fuck isn't safe at Hogwarts. And then… and then what you said to Albus just now… about vowing to protect Harry. You did?"
Severus huffed in annoyance. Nobody was meant to know his direct involvement in Potter's life. Still, he nodded. "Not an official vow. Merely an… agreement… to keep him safe. For Lily."
Sirius's eyes never left Severus's. "And you think he's in danger where he is?"
"Yes," Severus agreed. He wouldn't be there if he didn't. "Given the Dark Lord's obsession with killing the boy, his decision to alter directions is significant. And the specifications for the holding cell… let's just say we won't get to him once he's in the Dark Lord's clutches. At least not without losing your spy."
Sirius nodded, absentmindedly. "And his aunt? Petunia?"
"Depending on the specific wards," Severus explained, carefully selecting his words, "if they killed her, theoretically the Death Eaters, or the Dark Lord himself — although I doubt he'd do such a task himself — could then enter the premises."
"How soon–"
"Immediately." Severus held his nemeses' gaze to highlight the gravity of the situation. "If I were in Mulciber's position, I would coordinate the Order's distraction, Petunia's murder, and Potter's abduction down to the second. This way, the Order could not react."
"Fuck." Sirius stood, kicking his chair to the side and allowing himself room to pace. "Can you do it? Give me a yes or no."
Severus, as he did in all aspects of his life, took a moment to consider the question. Could he get Harry Potter out of the country and hidden in America? A better question was: what would it take to get Harry Potter out of the country and hidden in America without Albus or the Dark Lord's knowledge? A possible death sentence. A probable Azkaban sentence given the number of spells he'd have to cast on muggles and no-majs to get the paperwork through; at the very least, Confundus and Obliviate, perhaps Imperious depending on the situation they ended up in. He'd have to make it appear as if Potter fled on his own accord, so getting Potter's buy-in on the entire fiasco would be the most important, and arguably hardest, part especially without Sirius leaving Headquarters.
"Snape!" Sirius yelled, jolting Severus out of his thoughts. "Can you–"
"Yes," Severus replied without a hint of doubt in his voice, ignoring the pride that welled up inside of him at Sirius's relieved breath. "But you are overlooking a crucial point, Black. This Star—man… he's a well-known public figure, correct?" Sirius gave a clipped nod. "And Lily literally hid her son from his no-maj father, going through with a farce of a marriage, to keep the boy safe. Why do you believe dropping him on this man's doorstep is a smart idea?"
"We have to do something!" He spun around with an almost feral look in his eyes. "Is it ideal? No. But these things rarely are. Besides, I highly doubt any of your associates follow the American muggle press."
Unfortunately, Severus could not dispute any of that. He lived with a foot in both worlds and only became aware of Tony Stark when the attack on New York last year made it all the way to the London muggle papers. But it didn't mean the Dark Lord knew of him, and Severus had a few ideas for keeping Potter out of any media coverage that might find its way on this side of the pond. Easy? Definitely not. Dangerous? Absolutely. But doable, and he owed it to Lily — more than ever — to do whatever it took to keep her son safe.
Severus stood and vanished his chair to begin his own pacing, his hands tightly gripped behind his back.
"I assume you did not know Potter had a different father?" He questioned Sirius, his movements never slowing.
"No." Sirius sounded defeated, as if Potter senior's hiding this secret deeply wounded him. "I'm not sure how much you know about them, but James and Lily never officially dated. They were… uh… friends… close friends after we left Hogwarts. When he told us she was pregnant, I found the timing odd, but James just said they had gotten together to… erm… burn off some steam after an Order mission."
Severus gave a sad, cynical chuckle at the irony of him spending the past four years berating Potter for the sins of his father when Severus, himself, had unintentionally triggered the events leading to the child's conception. He remembered vividly his first duel with Lily. He had no recollection of the muggle festival they were going to attack or the hundreds of lives they would have claimed there, but he would remember their duel until his last breath. Despite Lily's belief expressed in her letter, they had never dueled one-on-one before that night. Although his mask concealed his identity at the start, he found himself unable to attack his first true friend and only used defensive spells with little regard for the outcome. He never expected her to dislodge his mask, nor did he expect her to take his identity to heart; inadvertently pushing her into a no-maj's unsuspecting path. Had it not been for that slip-up… had he fought harder to end their duel quickly… she would have gone out to celebrate their victory, never met this Tony Stark, and—
The Dark Lord would have killed Neville Longbottom on Halloween of 1999 and who knows where we would all be today.
"Have you shown this to anyone?" Severus asked, shaking the letter up in front of Sirius's face.
"No."
Not trusting his life in this man's hands, he insisted, "You are absolutely certain? Not to Lupin or Molly? Kretcher or a portrait didn't overhear you at all about it?"
Sirius swatted Severus's hand down, a bold move if Severus said so. "Not a soul. I found it the other week and wasn't even going to tell Harry. The poor kid has been through hell, and I didn't want to upend his life again. But now… can you help him or not?"
"Yes, I will handle getting Potter to the no-maj," Severus firmly answered, nodding his head as an extra confirmation of his commitment. "Can you get me his birth certificate? I could obtain a counterfeit, however the original will make it more difficult for anyone to track him down. The fewer holes we make in this story, the longer Potter… or, I guess, Evans… will be safe."
Because what he didn't tell Sirius was that they would inevitably find Potter. Severus just hoped this would buy enough time for him to get a better idea of how to put a stop to the Dark Lord's plans.
"Yeah, I'll get it for you." Sirius's head shook frantically. "Uh… how… How are you going to do it? Get him out of here."
Uncomfortable with the emotion emanating from the Gryffindor across from him, Severus craned his neck to look out towards the front entrance, pretending to verify that they were still alone.
"If you wish to stay plausibly deniable," he warned, "I suggest you leave the details to me."
Sirius's hands balled up at his sides. He clearly didn't like, or trust, Severus's answer. He'd have to get over it. He initiated this entire ordeal and, as such, would have to play by the spy's rules. Raised by the Black family, Severus could presume Sirius had been taught Occlumency to sufficiently deter any of Albus's high-level searches, so by asking Severus to take on the task, he'd all but admitted he might not handle a deep dive into his subconscious — the years spent in Azkaban surely didn't help — and the last thing they needed after all of this work, and high risk on Severus's part, was to be discovered because Black's messy subconscious.
"Fine." Sirius gritted out. "Anything else you need?"
A vat of liquid luck.
Severus was about to decline any more aid from the man — having already spent more time with him than he ever wanted to — but stopped himself as he thought of one final, and potentially mission-ending, hurdle. "Any ideas on how I can convince Potter this is true? I'll admit, I am not high on his list of trustworthy adults."
"That's a short, practically non-existent list." Sirius sneered, sighed, and rubbed his hand exhaustedly down his face. "It'll help if he hears it from me."
Another impossible task to overcome. "And how do you propose doing so without leaving this hellhole?"
Sirius smiled, the same mischievous one Severus remembered from their Hogwarts years. The one he wanted to hex right off the Gryffindor every time he saw it. "I think I have just the tool you need."
Let the games begin.