I forgot. I have no excuse. Please enjoy this next chapter!
When Harry next awoke, Draco was nowhere to be seen, even though the sun had just barely risen.
He stretched before getting up. He ran his hands through his unruly raven curls a couple of times before holstering his wand and quickly digging around in his trunk to find clothes to change into.
He exited the room and walked downstairs, pausing by the kitchen. He could hear a voice coming from the other side of the door… a voice he knew much too well.
Harry quietly opened the door and entered into what was obviously an Order of the Phoenix meeting.
There were about twenty people standing in the Weasley's kitchen, but every eye was trained on the man sitting at the table. He had been talking, but he fell silent as soon as he made eye contact with Harry.
"Here!" Snape cried, jumping to his feet and pulling out his wand. "You have him here? You let him stay?"
Seemingly out of habit, Snape inclined his head in a sort of unwilling bow towards Harry as the latter gazed at him with cold, unyielding eyes.
No one said anything as Harry smirked.
"I always knew there was something wrong with you, Severus," Harry said, calmly stalking further into the room. "The Dark Lord insisted that you were loyal, and I have to admit, you played your role well, but still, I did wonder…"
"Potter," Snape hissed. Though his face portrayed no fear, his black eyes told a different story.
"What exactly are you planning to do with that wand?" Harry asked. "You know how I operate, Severus… you know that you are no match for me."
The rest of the Order did not seem to know what to do as Harry took another step towards Snape.
"He is angry with you, Potter." Snape said, seemingly trying to pacify Harry, "He is looking for you— both of you. When he finds you, he will demand retribution."
"You think I do not know that?" Harry asked quietly. He was now only two feet away from the man. "I, of all people, know best what he has in mind for me."
"What are you going to do about it?" Snape asked, and Harry knew that he was just trying to get information from him, either for the Order or for Voldemort he did not know.
"I have no clue, and even if I did, I would not discuss anything with you. Forgive me, Severus, when I say I don't trust you."
"Is Draco with you?" Snape switched tactics immediately.
"What is it to you if he is?"
"Please, is he safe?" Snape asked quickly. Harry surveyed Snape for a moment.
"Yes, he is safe; you can go tell Lucius that his son is just fine."
"I'm not—"
"Don't, Severus, I know you too well for that. Draco is just fine, and before you ask, no, you can't see him."
"Why not?" Snape asked, his wand still directed towards Harry.
Harry's eyes flashed as he looked at the man in front of him. Though he no longer worked along side the Dark Lord, he could not help but feel anger towards the spy.
"Because Draco will have a much harder time restraining himself than I do."
"You have— switched sides—" Snape sneered, "What is it to you if I am a spy or not?"
Harry paused, considering Snape.
"Nothing, but, you see, when I walk into a room with a known Death Eater, I tend to have a hard time finding a reason not to kill them. In fact, you should be glad you are surrounded by Order members because if not, you would be dead. Spy or not, I have seen the things you do, Severus. I know the things you have done, most of them were by my command, I might add."
"Harry!" Lupin's voice made Harry turn to look around at the rest of the room.
He saw they all had their wands out now, though they were not yet pointed at him. If he continued like this, though, it would only be a matter of time.
"Put those away," Harry said impatiently, "I am not so stupid as to kill one of your own in front of you. I will say, though, that if you knew even half of what this man did, you would allow me to kill him in an instant."
"Like you are one to talk." Snape hissed.
"No," Harry said, "I am most certainly not one to talk; in fact, whatever you did, I have done much worse even than that. I am still surprised that I am allowed to stay here, but since I am, I am not about to screw everything up by killing you, and for that, you should be grateful. Be warned, though, I may not exercise the same restraint should we ever meet again."
Harry turned on his heels and walked back to the doorway. However, he paused as he reached it and turned again.
"And Severus," Harry said, a small smirk playing on his lips, "You can tell the Dark Lord that I said that if he can not kill me in a way that matters, then he should not attempt it at all…. I would say that it has been a pleasure to see you again, but that would be an abhorrent lie."
With that, Harry turned and exited the room, not bothering to close the door behind him. He walked down the hall and up the steps, stopping after a second.
He quickly took out his wand and made himself invisible. He then crept back over to the door so that he could listen to the rest of their meeting.
"—here out of all of the places!" Snape was saying, a look of anger evident on his face.
"Where else would we have—?" Lupin started.
"I don't know, wolf," Snape snarled, "Anywhere is better than here. He is dangerous."
"He's not—" Sirius said angrily.
"Don't kid yourself, mutt." Snape seemed agitated. "He alone could take on most of the Dark Lord's army and survive. He is cunning, and he is always planning something!"
"Snape," Moody barked, "The boy has been with us for little over a week, and he has yet to do anything…" Moody trailed off at the look on Snape's face.
"He is going to kill all of you."
"No, he won't." Sirius argued, taking a dangerous step toward the spy.
"Do you even know what he had done?" Snape cried, "Do you have any idea of the atrocities he has committed against humanity?"
"I know he has killed people, but he wants to be better now…" Sirius said, but Snape cut him off with a cold, humorless laugh.
"Killed people? Is that all he has admitted to? That boy has done much worse than merely killing people! He has ransacked villages, killing every last person within their ranks! He has raided Muggle schools and taken children away from their families, torturing them just because he was bored! He has perfected every single pain-causing spell possible, and he uses them without mercy! Now, what do you have to say about him?"
The kitchen turned deadly silent, everyone not seeming to know what to do. Outside of the doorway, Harry did not make a sound.
All of Snape's allegations were correct, but he needed to see how the Order was going to react before he did anything. Snape looked around the room furiously.
"How could you allow someone like that to stay with you!? How could you allow the Dark Lord's son safety in your home!?"
"He is not the Dark Lord's—" Sirius protested.
"HE'S AS GOOD AS!" Harry had never seen Snape lose his temper like this before.
"Calm down, Severus," Mrs. Weasley said quietly, "He'll hear you."
"I DON'T CARE!" Snape roared, "HE DOES THOSE THINGS AND THEN HAS THE AUDACITY TO ACCUSE ME OF DOING THE UNFORGIVABLE! I HOPE HE DOES—"
Snape suddenly gagged, and his hand flew up to his mouth. Sirius had a smirk on; his wand pointed at Snape.
"Calm down Snivelus." Sirius spat. "The last thing we want is him coming back down."
"What are we going to do?" Lupin asked as Snape glared at Sirius.
No one said anything, and Harry felt his pulse quicken. Should he enter the room? No, he couldn't; then they would know that he had been spying.
"We already knew some of it…" Mr. Weasley said feebly. "What difference does it make? He has already stayed with us for a week."
"Arthur, you know that we didn't even know half of what Snape just told us." Moody said. "If we were aware of how much of a threat we actually faced, we would not have allowed him to stay in the first place."
"What are you going to do, kick him out?" Tonks asked.
"We will have to talk about it some more." Mr. Weasley said.
"What about Draco?" Lupin asked, "What do we do about him?" The room paused for a moment.
"Snape," Moody barked, "is the other boy as bad as Potter?"
Snape glared around at them all pointedly. Sirius quickly undid his curse and pocketed his wand again.
"Draco," Snape began, "is nowhere near the threat that Potter poses. Though Draco is still dangerous, and he is still an excellent dueler, he is much less likely to kill all of you in your sleep; in fact, I am not sure he has killed before.
"The Dark Lord never cared about Draco like he cared for Harry. If it had not been for Harry, I am sure Draco would already be dead by now, if not tortured beyond conscious thought. Draco was always slightly defiant, something the Dark Lord did not like. I believe that he could be a valuable asset should you allow him to stay."
"So are you saying that Harry would not be?" Lupin asked. Snape paused for a moment.
"I believe…" He said, "that Potter may be too far into the dark arts to ever have a chance of escaping. He grew up around it for his entire life, and yes, Draco has, too, but Draco went to school. He was not under the Dark Lord's tutelage as much as Potter was when they were children. Potter has had constant darkness surrounding him since the age of two.
"Draco has not, and lately, I sensed a change in Draco. It looked like he no longer wished to fight with the Dark Lord, but he could not find a way out. Potter, on the other hand, did not want to leave until the Dark Lord admitted to the murder of his entire family and his own kidnapping."
The room lapsed into silence once more as everyone pondered Snape's words.
"I think you're wrong, Sir." Hermione spoke up at last. Everyone turned to her, shocked.
"Think of everything he has done since he came here." She continued. "Even that first day, he healed Ron. He didn't have to; he could have let him die, but he didn't. And then, when he came back, he did it again, taking all of Ron's pain so that he wouldn't have to live with it for the rest of his life. No matter how much he wanted to pretend otherwise, I read about that spell afterward, and the pain usually kills people. He wouldn't let anyone else do it with him either; he insisted on doing it on his own."
Hermione looked around the room, and seeing that she had everyone's attention, she continued.
"Have you seen his face whenever one of us gets injured? Harry always looks as if he would go to the ends of the world just to make them stop hurting, even if it is just a scratch. I'm not saying that we should forget about everything he has done. He has done terrible things throughout the course of his life. No, I am just saying that maybe Harry deserves a chance. After all, this is war, and I am convinced he will be our greatest ally as long as we don't turn him into our most powerful enemy."
Harry wanted to go and hug Hermione for her words, but he settled for waiting to see if they had any effect on the room.
"She is right." Moody said at last. "The boy should get a chance, even if he does not deserve one."
The rest of the room, though looking unsure, nodded in agreement, and Snape's face grew murderous.
"Do what you wish, but mark my words; you will regret that you ever trusted him. He will betray you, and you will be left to pick up the shards he will leave in his wake."
With that, Snape turned and slammed open the back door, exiting the house with a swish of his cloak.
"Back to the meeting then?" Ron asked, and the rest of the room nodded.
Harry turned and crept silently back up the steps and into his room. Draco was still nowhere to be found, but Harry didn't mind much right now.
He undid the invisibility spell and sat down on his bed. Though he had once again managed to be on the receiving end of all of the Order's compassion, he was not sure if he deserved it. Snape's words had awoken something in him.
In the past, he had been able to push away any feelings of guilt he may have had. Snape's words reminded him how terrible he actually was.
He was despicable.
He deserved to die for all of the atrocities he had committed. He did not deserve to have been welcomed into the Wealsey's house, to be taken care of and given a room to stay.
He almost wished that they had been as cruel to him as he would have been to them if the roles were reversed. That, at least, would have been easier to deal with than the guilt.
I had originally planned for Harry to drag Snape out of the kitchen and through the yard by his ankles. In that version Snape got his butt whipped by Harry in a very short duel. In the end this worked better, but let me know if you all would have preferred that!