Seeing Harry Potter alive again after just accepting his death was a great shock to say the least. Severus watched with silent trepidation as the boy casually picked up his wand from the table without Greengrass moving in to stop him or calling for her guards. After a lengthy argument between them, a part of which he wasn't privy to as they'd activated the privacy wards, they even removed his restraints after extracting a promise of good behavior from him.
He just indicated his acceptance with a solemn nod as he could not find proper words to express his thoughts without sounding like a blubbering fool. And he categorically refused to sound like that. He would not sound like Harry Potter in front of Harry Potter.
There was no uncomfortable silence though as the two young people promptly started regaling him with the story that led them all into this embarrassing situation. It was wild and incredible tale and it left Severus with one inescapable conclusion – he really hated Harry Potter.
He did not think it possible to hate the boy even more than he already had. He was wrong. In addition to his well-established arrogance and mediocrity, he now hated Harry Potter for being so careless as to get captured, especially over something as senseless as yelling out the dark lord's name in frustration. Seriously, did the boy ever use his brain? Did he even have one? Was he under the impression the magical rules of the taboo curse don't apply to celebrities like him?!
Once again, it was only dumb luck his foolishness did not cost him his life. Were they brought somewhere else or had Daphne Greengrass been less sympathetic, Potter and his friends would already be dead. And Lily's sacrifice would have been for nothing.
He also hated Harry Potter for finally knowing about him and Lily. He had managed to keep it a secret from most people for decades and it infuriated him that Potter's son of all people now knew everything... that he knew of Severus' greatest failure. Although the boy didn't comment on it, no doubt the little shit felt profoundly smug about Lily choosing his father over him. What son wouldn't?
It was made even worse by the fact Harry Potter himself had apparently a great success with ladies as he had somehow managed to trick Daphne Greengrass into falling in love with him, a girl so far out of his league it wasn't even funny. Did the females of the world have some sort of blind spot when it came to idiots whose surname was Potter?
Though at least this time, it wasn't a redhead he went after. When Potter first started dating the Weasley girl, some of his fellow teachers would constantly gush about how the couple was just like Lily and James. As if it was somehow cute to date a woman who vaguely resembled your mother. It always made Severus sick to his stomach, forcing him to rapidly vacate the staffroom before he would vomit.
But the most important reason why he hated Harry Potter was for making him experience an overwhelming sense of relief (even happiness) upon seeing that arrogant, good-for-nothing waste-of-skin alive and healthy. It showed Severus Snape up as a sentimental fool like the rest of them, making him a hypocrite for criticizing it in others for years.
As for the boy's companion...
He had to give Daphne Greengrass the credit for being the first person to make him truly feel something since Lily's death. Even if what she'd made him feel was complete and utter despair as he swallowed her made up story. Oh, to think how easily she'd duped him! In hindsight he should have known there were many details wrong with her interrogation scenario. For one thing, the dark lord would have likely killed the girl for knowing too much about him and Potter rather than rewarding her and instructing her to perform this charade.
But hindsight was always 20/20. In his defense, he couldn't have predicted the reason why Daphne Greengrass had Potter's wand and sword was because he willingly gave them to her. That she knew about the doe in the woods because he told her. No. With everything Severus knew about the girl, all he had imagined was the pureblood witch prying the weapons and secrets from Potter's cold dead hands. And once Greengrass let him see the seemingly heavily tortured Hermione Granger while casually threatening to delimb the poor girl, there was no doubt left in his mind – Harry Potter was dead.
Only he wasn't dead and Greengrass wasn't his enemy. Instead, they were in love. And Severus was quite certain their relationship was real too and not something faked by either of them. There was something universal and characteristically obnoxious about lovesick teenagers that just couldn't be faked. In fact, after years of watching idiots after idiots paying more attention to their hormones than their education, Severus became something of an unwilling expert on the subject. And in his expert opinion, now that he knew to look for them, both the young people were showing all the symptoms in spades.
Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass.
No, he didn't feel too bad about getting fooled. No sane person could ever have imagined those two falling in love. While Potter seemingly liked pretty girls, he also hated all Slytherins with passion and his current partner was as Slytherin as one could get without Salazar coming back to life. And as for Greengrass, the pureblood girl was by definition against everything the boy-who-lived stood for. Being a halfblood and friendly with muggleborns, people she wanted to subjugate, was bound not to win any points with her either.
So how did this happen?
That story turned out to be more cringe worthy than interesting. The golden trio had been captured by snatchers and brought to Greengrass manor where Greengrass chose to interrogate Potter. But instead of eventually handing him over to Voldemort like she claimed earlier, it had culminated with Potter revealing dark lord's muggle ancestry, prompting Daphne Greengrass and her entire extended family to switch sides.
Severus found the reason for the girl's defection deeply amusing but entirely plausible. Unlike the likes of Lucius Malfoy, who mostly saw pureblood supremacy as means to an end, Daphne Greengrass was an honest believer. Pureblood supremacy was the end to her and it justified any means. A lucky consequence of this was that son of a muggleborn was always going to be infinitely more acceptable to her than son of a muggle. In fact, Daphne Greengrass had reportedly switched sides within minutes of confirming Potter's claims. Eventually, they also fell in love somewhere along the way… Severus tried his best not to think too much about that. He hated angsty teenage romance almost as much as he hated Potter.
Now, utilizing the dark lord's blood status to turn his pureblood supporters against him was a brilliant move in its own twisted way. It made Severus wonder why Dumbledore had never tried to do that. It seemed like a huge strategic error but knowing the headmaster there might have been a reason for it. Possibly, Dumbledore had feared the purebloods would use it as justification for oppressing halfbloods with muggle parents as well.
Then again, it could have really been an oversight as his old mentor never understood the purebloods all that well. By the time he was born his father's family had left their world a long time ago. And while Albus himself had been an incredibly famous and powerful man with blood pure enough to possibly join their circle, he never made the effort and as a result, they never truly considered him as one of them. It would have been different had he accepted one of the numerous offers over the years and married a pureblood woman. But that was a whole different can of worms.
In any case, outing the dark lord's blood status worked like a charm in turning Greengrass. Had it been anyone else but Harry Potter, Severus would have felt obliged to congratulate them for such a well thought argument. But with the chosen one, he suspected there had been no thinking involved, as usual. His suspicion was confirmed a moment later after they have finally reached that part of the story. Turns out Harry Potter had just randomly blurted out the information during his interrogation and it was once again only a dumb luck it worked the way it did.
Daphne Greengrass could have simply refused to listen to him or worse, ordered her guards to break his fingers and pull out his tongue for daring to slender the dark lord's reputation. Fortunately, none of that happened as the girl had been sensible enough to listen and actually verify his claims. But it had been close. Far too close. Once again the stupid brat spoke and acted without thinking and almost made Lily's sacrifice meaningless! Even should he somehow defeat the dark lord and survive the war, Severus was certain that Potter's Gryffindor stupidity was going to be his undoing eventually.
Because of that, despite how strange it sounded in the beginning, he suspected Daphne Greengrass was probably Potter's best bet for living past thirty. After all, who better to keep in line a profoundly oafish Gryffindor like Potter than the quintessential Slytherin?
Hell, she was already doing it.
Even while explaining their plans and actions undertaken so far, Severus observed the boy deferring to his girlfriend multiple times. At one point, Harry Potter actually said what could only be paraphrased as 'Yes, dear', without any sarcasm in voice. Given how stubborn and willful Potter used to be, Severus was surprised to see such shift in his personality. Then again, the boy was still a teenager and they tended to be heavily influenced by their friends and girlfriends.
More importantly, Severus quickly concluded he didn't really care.
It's not like it was his job making sure Harry Potter was happy with his life choices. All he ever wanted was to protect Lily's son from the dark lord and his servants and he was reasonably sure Daphne Greengrass no longer qualified as such. Neither was she likely to murder him in his sleep as she had far too much to gain by keeping him around, even if they weren't genuinely in love which they seemingly were.
There was also another reason why Severus was fine with this development – he had to accept the only way to defeat the dark lord was to lead Potter to his death. That had always been Dumbledore's plan and as much as Severus wished otherwise, he couldn't think of a better solution than to use the prophecy and set Voldemort up for his downfall.
But now, thanks to Daphne Greengrass and her intervention, Dumbledore's plan was no longer relevant and the words of the prophecy defunct. Potter didn't even need to physically meet the dark lord in order to win, which meant he didn't need to die and Severus could fulfill the promise he made.
And afterwards, the brat would be officially Greengrass' problem!
Severus reckoned if Harry Potter was whipped by her already, he would only become more so with time, which was fine with him as the pureblood girl should then have no issues protecting him from his innate foolishness. All the time they have been talking, Severus was carefully searching the boy for any signs of love potions and other mind control techniques (a topic on which he had extensive knowledge). And other than Harry Potter obviously being enamored with girlfriend, he found no indications of any foul play.
So why should Severus care if in the future Daphne Greengrass decides to turn Potter into her willing puppet? The answer was he shouldn't and he didn't. As far as he was concerned, the boy could do far, far worse than that. Besides, the fewer decisions he makes with his own foolish brain, the better for the world.
"So in essence, you intend to co-opt dark lord's entire power base," he extrapolated from their words and watched as the girl solemnly nodded.
"It was never his power base to begin with. Voldemort had tricked us… used us! He'll pay for that," Greengrass spat angrily before composing herself and declaring with all her aristocratic pride, "It's time for us purebloods to take this country back."
"I see," Severus replied simply while taking note of Harry Potter not protesting his girlfriend's choice of words. Instead, he watched as he squeezed Greengrass' hand on the table gently in support. Now Severus knew for certain a lot if not all of Albus' plans were out of the window – the domination of purebloods was going to continue after the war, unchallenged by the boy-who-lived. Given Harry Potter was in love with Daphne Greengrass, quite possibly the leading pureblood supremacist of their generation, perhaps it was to be expected. It was still going to disappoint great many people though.
Severus briefly wondered how much of the despair he had seen in Granger's eyes earlier had actually been faked. He didn't think Potter was so far gone as to have allowed her torture but he also suspected Greengrass might have already started breaking her spirit in some other ways. The blonde would see it as her duty which made Severus chuckle bitterly in his mind at the unfairness of life. If there were higher powers, they sure must have hated Hermione Granger to punish her this much, to deliver one of the most prominent muggleborns into the hands of a pureblood supremacist like Greengrass.
Fortunately, none of it was his problem to deal with. Severus was not here to save Hermione Granger from whatever ignoble destiny awaited her. Earlier he only considered doing so because of the sheer brutality of the punishment Daphne Greengrass proposed for the captured muggleborn and because he thought he didn't have anything else left in his life. But now it was time to focus on protecting Potter's life again by helping him defeat the dark lord once and for all… a goal which might be closer than he would have thought.
The plan proposed by Potter and Greengrass was certainly ambitious but not impossible. The dark lord had built his organization on the pureblood supremacist movement. And while people of all blood statuses and even creatures served him nowadays, the purebloods still comprised the higher echelons, including all the Ministry posts necessary to control the country. Should the majority of them turn against Voldemort at the same time without warning, the dark lord's rule would receive a fatal wound.
And that did not even account for the plan they had for dealing with the man himself. It filled Severus with gleeful joy to know Lily's murderer would finally have his comeuppance.
"And just what is it you would have me do?" he finally asked. Severus knew he had been brought here to assess his true loyalty but now that they knew, they no doubt intended for him to play some additional role in their uprising.
"Dumbledore tasked you with protecting the students of Hogwarts, didn't he?" the boy asked and Severus nodded stiffly in response. He wasn't used to answering the boy's questions like he was an equal. Something to work on, perhaps, but for now this was the best he could do.
"Then you should continue with that," he then said before Greengrass took over and added, "In the meantime, it would be helpful to evaluate the dark lord's people currently stationed at Hogwarts. Is it safe to assume many of them could be turned with offers of money and other perks?"
He thought about that carefully before answering, "I think so. Most of his people assigned to Hogwarts are there for their paychecks. They don't care who's paying them as long as they're getting paid."
"That's what we thought," Greengrass said after sharing a look with her boyfriend.
She then opened a drawer and took out a big money bag from it before placing it on the table and sliding it over to Severus. "This should be more than enough funds to secure their loyalties. We should also discuss the manner in which you'll broach the subject with them and the security precautions… but later," she decided. Their eyes met and she reached into the drawer again only to take out another pouch. It was smaller than the first one but not by much. "For your trouble," Greengrass explained with a smirk as she slid the second bag over.
Severus hesitated just for a second before picking up both bags and pocketing them. He did not fail to see Potter's disapproving expression as he did so with the second bag. Did the golden boy truly expect him to refuse a reward like some noble knight in a fairy tale? Truly, Potter's arrogance never ceased to amaze him. It's like he didn't even consider that not everyone was born as heir of two different rich pureblood dynasties, not to mention about to marry a girl from a third who also happened to be filthy rich. Alas, the very concept that man had to eat and therefore needed the money was completely lost on the snobbish brat.
But he also noticed Harry Potter did not protest or stop Greengrass from dispensing the money despite his obvious disapproval. Did the boy finally learn some self-control or did Greengrass have him in her thrall so much he no longer dared to contradict her? Honestly, Severus couldn't care less as long as he didn't need to listen to the brat whining about it.
"There is one problem for any plans involving Hogwarts," he began to say.
"The Carrows," both of them answered in unisons.
"Indeed."
"Hopefully they will be with the dark lord when the time comes," the girl said before frowning. "But if they're not… they'll have to be dealt with."
That made his lips twitch. "It may have escaped your notice, Miss Greengrass, but I am your headmaster, not your assassin," he told her sarcastically.
It was a small miracle he got through two wars as a double-agent without having to straightforwardly murder anybody, mainly due to the dark lord keeping him away from the front lines for his other talents. He did not intend to start now. Especially if Albus had been correct about the soul damage such actions incurred.
"You're not my headmaster. You expelled me today, remember?" she repaid his sarcasm, knowing full well that decision was now revoked. "In any case, murdering them isn't necessary. Mere incapacitation would suffice before handing them over for further… processing."
"Hmm," Severus Snape hummed as he considered her words. He was certainly capable of administering poisons into the twin's food that would render them unconscious for days… even months.
There was only one problem that had to be mentioned for Severus' calm of mind. "Alecta and Amycus are both members of a respected pureblood family," he pointed out as his eyes flicked between her and Potter. "Assuming all your plans come to pass, I expect someone of my blood status attacking purebloods will be frowned upon in future."
"You are correct… strongly frowned upon," Greengrass stressed her answer before pressing her lips together in annoyance at being reminded of his halfblood status. "However, in this case there is no worry. By his word, Lord Carrow intends to declare both of them blood traitors. There will be no reprisals for any actions taken against them," she informed him after a moment.
"I'd like to have that declaration in writing if possible," he told her in response and she nodded.
"That can be arranged."
"Good," he said and changed the topic. "Since I am going to resume my post at Hogwarts for the time being, we should also discuss how to justify my long absence. Do you happen to have any plan for that?" he wondered.
This time, it was Harry Potter who answered. "What do you mean?" he asked in rather naive and stupid tone of voice. For some reason, it made his girlfriend smile though.
Before answering his stupid question, Severus pointed at the big wall clock to their left. "Assuming Miss Greengrass' clock is accurate, it's now past eleven in the morning. Which means I've been gone from Hogwarts for at least a day as our meeting had been at noon, Potter," he explained to the boy in condescending voice. "Do you understand it now or should I explain some more?" he asked, his voice dripping with irony.
"You haven't been gone at all, professor," Potter told him in calm voice, seemingly immune to his sarcasm. "You haven't even left yet."
"WHAT?" he snapped. Surely Potter had to be joking as his words were making no sense. Not unless… he turned to look at Greengrass who was watching their exchange with faint amusement. "You have a time-turner, don't you?" he asked her, thinking that many Greengrasses had worked with unspeakables over the years. Probably enough for one of them to have stolen the precious device or even manufactured their own.
"Why, that would be illegal, professor!" the girl gasped with outrage while grinning at the same time. Severus rolled his eyes at that while thinking that Potter was having a bad influence on her. "Suffice to say Daphne Greengrass is about to meet you in your office in less than an hour," she told him, all but admitting they had used a time-turner. He had travelled back in time with them while still unconscious… what a strange thought.
"We'll come back at exactly the same time as our counterparts…" Daphne began to say before pausing and thinking what tense was appropriate for one's past action that was about to happen in the future. Finally, she said, "… as our counterparts will have had transported out. If we time it right, the school wards won't even register our absence."
"Impressive thinking," he admitted and instantly regretted doing so when the girl said, "It was Harry's idea, actually," she said as the two of them touched their hands on the table again. "Unlike me, he had some experience with time travel already," she explained.
'I knew it!' Severus thought with vindication at having one of his long-time suspicions confirmed. There was simply no other way Potter could have saved Black otherwise. Granted, Dumbledore's comment about being in two places at once was a big clue but the old man never gave him a straight answer after that. Since it was too late to take the compliment back, he quickly changed the topic again. "Is there anything else I should focus on other than assessing which of the dark lord's people could be turned?" he asked.
Potter and Greengrass shared a long look at that. Only when Potter reluctantly nodded in agreement did she speak, "Indeed there is. It's highly likely there is a magical item in Hogwarts left there by the dark lord. It's very important that it be found and destroyed," she told him and he couldn't agree more even without knowing any details. The dark lord leaving something in a school full of children spelled trouble no matter what it was.
"Do you know where it is… and what it is?" he asked. Another shared look passed between them before they both said no.
It nearly made him laugh at the absurdity. "So you expect me to find and destroy an unknown magical object in a magical castle as large as Hogwarts?!" he asked incredulously. "Wouldn't it be easier to just destroy the entire castle?" he asked with irony.
Greengrass smiled and shook her head. "Hopefully it won't come to that. Harry and I had been thinking about this for a while and we believe we can narrow it down a little…"
Minerva watched as Mr. Potter and Miss Greengrass disappeared along with Severus… only for them to instantly reappear a little to the left from the place they just vanished from. She immediately noticed something was different and very wrong though. Not only was Mr. Potter gone but Severus was fully conscious. "W-what's going on?!" she demanded to know and her hand went to her wand. But seeing as none of them made any aggressive moves, she did not attack just yet. Meanwhile, Miss Greengrass thanked and dismissed her house elf who Minerva didn't originally notice and the creature popped away a second later, this time without returning.
"Is the room secure?" the girl then asked and Minerva watched carefully as Severus tapped a particular place on his table with his finger.
"I've just activated the privacy wards designed by Dumbledore. We have as much privacy as magically possible," Severus announced and then looked in Minerva's direction with passionless expression.
"We'll explain everything but please lower your wand, professor," the girl asked and Minerva only now realized she was pointing her wand directly at Snape's heart. Only very reluctantly did she do as she was asked.
"Where's Mr. Potter? What happened?" she demanded to know.
"Harry was feeling… upset by events," she said carefully while briefly throwing a nasty look in Snape's direction. Minerva wondered what events she meant as they've just left. "In any case it'd be better he does not come back here unless he needs to," she told her before looking at Snape again and asking, "How much time do we have left if we hope not to arouse suspicion with a long meeting? Fifteen minutes?"
"Later this day, I am going to loudly complain of your frivolous requests and your wasting of my time while within the earshot of one of the twins," Snape replied. "That should largely dispel any suspicion. Still, I reason the three of us should not be here for longer than twenty to twenty-five minutes if we hope to avoid all unwanted attention."
"Excellent," Daphne Greengrass declared before bidding them both to sit. "We have a lot to talk about," she suggested just as Minerva was about to burst with questions.
