Chapter 38: Terms and Conditions
Once again, the kitchen of Number twelve, Grimmauld Place was filled with people. Mrs. Weasley was fluttering about making tea, with Ron and Ginny helping her handing out the cups to everyone. Moody declined more or less politely, instead taking a sip from a flask he had hidden in his pocket. Harry eyed him warily.
"Relax, Potter. It's not a potion and I am definitely me. But tea will not get me through this meeting, at least not without strangling someone."
Hermione looked worried. Her fingernails were taking the brunt of her nervousness again. Harry reached over, almost reflexively by now, and took her hand in his.
"It will be fine, Hermione."
"How do you know that?"
Her eyes were bigger than usual. Recent events had shaken her to the core, Harry could see that clearly. Her world was crumbling, and she was trying to hold on to the pieces. Making sense of things was one of Hermione's greatest strengths. It was also her biggest weakness. Things she couldn't understand drove her crazy.
"Severus is a very calculated and strategic man", Remus Lupin interjected from his seat on Harry's other side. Him without Tonks was an unusual sight, but the auror with the colourful hair hadn't arrived yet. "He wouldn't have called this meeting, if he didn't know exactly what to say", Lupin concluded.
"Let's hope so".
Mr. Weasley didn't seem to be so sure. He had finally been having a very late breakfast after taking the hangover-potion and the subsequent nap, when a patronus had sailed in through the open kitchen window. A raven, with shiny black wings and a wickedly sharp beak, had startled them all when it spoke in Snape's deep voice, asking for a meeting of the Order at Grimmauld Place.
It was now an hour later and there were no seats left in the room. Molly had initially protested that the children were not Order members and insisted that they should wait outside.
"Yeah, because that worked really well last time", was all Ginny had to say, which started an argument among the adults. In the end it was Dumbledore who held the deciding vote in letting them stay. Molly had been fuming, especially since Fred and George wouldn't be kept out, now that their younger siblings were allowed in. Minerva had put a hand on the other woman's arm.
"Let him do this, Molly. Public shame calls for public apologies. He needs to lose his face to keep his pride."
When the door opened next, Tonks entered, chatting excitedly with a calm and controlled Severus Snape. The room fell quiet as every pair of eyes turned towards the odd couple.
Tonks gave the whole room a broad smile and Snape's arm a quick squeeze before finding a place on the kitchen counter behind Lupin. Snape took two more steps into the room, placing himself in the center of the only free space left. Hands clasped behind his back, he took a quick look around the room, seemingly checking an internal list. A curt nod, then he took a deep breath.
"I don't know exactly how to say this", he started.
Harry felt a mad giggle rise inside of him and looked over to Lupin, who just shrugged his shoulders, a smile tugging at his lips.
"But I need your help in getting the Malfoys to safety", Snape finished.
He didn't say anything more and then it was quiet. A needle could have dropped and made considerable noise. Glances were exchanged, but no words as if nobody wanted to be the first to point out that this surely wasn't what he had called them here for. Moody was the first to find his words.
"Are you bloody mad? The traitor begging for the fiend? What do you think this is?"
Snape remained calm. "The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, a resistance force founded to defeat the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters. Any Death Eater defecting from the Dark Lord's services should be good news in here and worth supporting."
"Bollocks!", Moody hollered. "We have no need for another turncoat! One is plenty. And we haven't decided on your fate yet, you lying …"
"Alastor!"
It was hard to say who had yelled it first – probably Dumbledore – or with the most outrage – probably Mrs. Weasley – or the loudest – probably Lupin. The ensuing chaos took the Potions Master a little off guard. He started moving his hands restlessly behind his back, his dark eyes flitting across the room from one person to the next. Snape felt his composure slipping and it seemed to cost him everything he had left to stay on his feet.
George Weasley disentangled his gangly limbs from his chair and carried the piece of furniture over to his professor, placing it right in front of him with a grin. Then he moved back through the chaos and hopped onto the kitchen counter beside Tonks. Snape sat down, nodding to George, and waited.
"Silence!" Dumbledore boomed finally. This particular voice was meant to reach the farthest corners of the Great Hall. Here in this enclosed space, it was deafening. Harry instinctively covered his ears with his hands and saw Hermione, Ginny and Ron do the same. Most of the adults flinched, even Snape.
The headmaster took a deep breath before daring to look his spy in the face. Snape held his gaze.
"Do you know where they are at the moment?"
"Narcissa and Draco are at Tonks House in Devon", Snape said. Tonks beamed proudly. "Andromeda took them in without hesitation. She and her husband have offered their home up as a safe house for any refugees fleeing from the Dark Lord."
"Your parents rock!", Fred told Tonks. George padded her on the back. She grinned.
"Does that mean Malfoy will not be coming back to Hogwarts after the break?" Ron seemed much too eager at the prospect and Ginny gave him a well-deserved kick against the shins.
"That will be up to him to decide, Mr. Weasley", Snape said icily. "It might not be wise to return to a place where people on both sides of the isle have reasons for wanting one's death." He raised one eyebrow and shifted his gaze to Dumbledore as if challenging the older wizard to contradict. He didn't. Harry couldn't help but notice the power shift that had taken place between those two.
"And what about Lucius?", Arthur Weasley asked with a hint of aversion in his voice.
"So, you do know where he is after all", Moody accused Snape loudly, both eyes fixed on the man sitting alone in front of the assembled Order. "You knew all along! And now you found a loophole."
"Alastor, I swear, if you don't stop with your paranoid assumptions, I will hex you and I will not apologize!"
Harry had never heard Tonks that angry, not even when someone called her Nymphadora. Beside him Lupin managed to look smug and proud at the same time.
"If Severus knew where Lucius was, then we would have taken him to my parents' house as well. He doesn't know. Narcissa doesn't know. Draco doesn't know."
"Fortunately, neither does the Dark Lord", Snape added. "I will do all I can to find him before lessons start again and take him to Devon, should that be his wish." He paused. "And I am sure it will be."
"Does that mean …?" Molly started, struggling to find the right words. Her husband finished for her and for everyone else in the room.
"Does that mean you won't go back to … him? Are you a refugee Death Eater now, too?"
Snape looked thoughtful for a moment, his head cocked to the side, his gaze fixed on nothing, as if listening to something only he could hear. Then he straightened and looked around the room, making sure to catch every single pair of eyes as he spoke.
"My reasons for changing sides remain the same as always. The only difference is that all of you are aware of them now. I haven't decided yet if that is an advantage or a risk. Neither have you, I assume. I have no intention of letting the Dark Lord win this war, and rest assured, a war it will be. So, you need to decide, once and for all, if you trust me to be on your side. Now."
No "otherwise", no "or else", just the simple statement of a fact. Trust for trust. Loyalty for loyalty.
"Whatever you need, we'll help", Lupin said serenely, Tonks' hand on his shoulder.
"Count us in!", the twins piped up.
"For the last time, you are NOT members. You will NOT be fighting!" Molly was furious. Her husband laid a hand gently on her arm and looked at her.
"We were not much older when we joined, Molly. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named won't care who stands in his way and only those who know how to defend themselves will survive."
She looked at him with tears in her eyes. Then she nodded.
"You are right, dear. Of course. But it's so much harder now. They are not just children. They are my children."
Ginny got up and hugged her mother. Ron just smiled at her sheepishly.
"Like we said …", George started.
"The Weasleys are in", Fred finished.
"Mum, don't worry about us being prepared. Harry is doing a brilliant job of …" Ron piped up, earning himself another kick to the shin, this time from Harry, and a death glare from Hermione. He quickly shut his mouth, his facing turning a shade similar to his hair. Snape gave Harry a curious look.
"Presuming I would be the only one to …" Moody began, a bit more subdued than usual.
"Yes, you would be, Alastor." McGonagall was not smiling. "So why don't you decide for yourself, preferably within the next minutes, and then either walk out or stay here?"
He grunted, took out his flask once more and drowned what was left in one go. Then he turned both eyes on Snape.
"I will be watching you."
"Obviously", Snape drawled.
He got up and walked towards the door, taking his coat from the peg on the wall. Dumbledore quickly rose from his chair and followed the younger wizard. He reached out tentatively to stop Snape from leaving, almost touching his arm, but then stopped himself.
"Severus, please wait. Just give me a moment to … to explain, to apologize."
Snape turned around and looked steadily at the headmaster.
"You couldn't. And I don't need you to. It is of no importance."
He put on his coat and turned towards the door. Straightening his posture and holding his head a bit higher he spoke again, his back to Dumbledore.
"From now on there will always be somebody else in the room with us when we talk. I will not give any private reports anymore, especially not to you."
Leaving in the winter chill for just a moment, Severus Snape opened the door and disappeared into the bright midday sun.