Chapter Eleven:

The Secret Keeper

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It was the shouting from Remus Lupin that woke them.

"You must be bloody joking! You're actually letting that betrayer in here, have you finally lost your mind Moody?"

Hermione barefoot and clad in black pj's, wand in hand, joined the sleep disheveled group congregating on the first floor landing.

"What on earth is going on?" she asked Harry who was straining to hear what was being said downstairs.

"I don't know, but I think we should find out!" Fred said as he started down the stairs, "Coming you lot?"

As they made their way down the stairs, the shouting grew louder.

"…Dumbledore!" Remus yelled.

"There's more to this than you know Remus, much more." From the sounds of it, McGonagall had returned to Number Twelve whilst they had been asleep. "Do not rush to judgment."

"Now shut your mouth you fool, do you want to wake the entire house?" Moody, who was not renowned for holding either his temper or his tongue, appeared to be fast losing patience with Remus.

"Too late for that I'm afraid," Fred said as the ragtag group walked into the study, "we heard your dulcet tones from upstairs and decided to check out what the excitement was."

McGonagall, Lupin and Moody looked slightly startled at the groups' entrance, but said nothing. A tall hooded figure standing behind McGonagall, clad entirely in black, moved from the corner of the room.

"I'm afraid, Mr Weasley, that the excitement in question, was me." Severus Snape stepped from the shadows and into the circle of light thrown from the lamp on the table, pushing the hood from his cape back.

Harry drew his wand and pointed it directly at Snape, who looked neither surprised, nor afraid.

"Murderer!" Harry hissed.

"Harry Potter, put that wand away now!" McGonagall screeched in horror.

"Snape is a murderer, I saw him kill Dumbledore with my own eyes." Harry's eyes glittered with anger and the lust for revenge.

"Potter, lower your wand NOW. Not everything is as it appears to be," Minerva McGonagall walked around the desk and stood in front of Harry effectively blocking his shot at Snape.

Harry reluctantly lowered his wand, his eyes never leaving Snape's, his glare malevolent.

"Potter, if you cannot control yourself, I suggest you retire to your room. As for the rest of you, stay, but I suggest that you shut your mouths and keep them that way."

Harry gave Moody a look of pure loathing; unfazed, Moody sat down in the leather chair behind the desk.

"Now, Minerva, Severus – perhaps you would be so kind as to tell us what in Merlins name is going on."

Snape stared at Harry from across the room, not fazed at all by the look of hatred in the boys eyes. Harry itched to hex Snape into the middle of next week and wipe that smirk off his face.

"Not that it wouldn't be interesting to see how your, shall we say limited, skills have developed Mr Potter, but I rather think Dumbledore would be a mite put out, by you hexing the new Secret Keeper for the Order." Snape sneered.

"Force him to do that before you killed him, did you?" Harry spat.

"Ah Potter, always so quick to jump to conclusions, it would be prudent at this stage to not embarrass yourself with your lack of knowledge on the subject and sit down." Snape
turned to Lupin, "That goes for you too 'Mooney'."

"Severus, perhaps you should stop antagonizing and start explaining…" Minerva said anxiously.

Snape gave a curt nod.

"As Minerva was saying…"

A soft pop from the corner of the room halted his speech and a familiar small figured laboring under the weight of a large covered mirror made its way towards Snape, oblivious to the tension in the room.

"Over there Dobby, if you will." Snape said, pointing to the corner of the room.

"What's this Severus?" Moody asked the expression on his face a clear indication that he was not sure that he trusted Snape completely.

"All in good time Alastor" Snape said as he rose to help Dobby lean the heavy mirror against the wall.

"Thank you Dobby, you may stay." Snape said.

"Oh thank you Professor, Dobby has been most looking forward to this Sir."

"Indeed." Snape said with something resembling a smile.

Dobby turned and saw Harry, anger flickering in his eyes, and his ears flattened to his head and his eyes became huge.

"Harry Potter is not to be angry with Dobby; he will see soon that Dobby was helping."

"It's not you I'm angry with Dobby." Harry gritted out between clenched teeth as he glared at Snape.

Hermione indicated the seat beside her to Dobby and he gratefully climbed onto the lounge to sit beside her.

"Do you know what's going on Dobby?" she whispered

"Hermione Granger friend of Harry Potter will soon see, Dobby is very proud to be a part of this most important of occasions. Master Draco!" he said as he saw Draco sitting on the other side of Hermione. "Master Draco looks much better than the last time Dobby saw him, is Master well now sir?"

Draco nodded, smiling at the small house elf.

"Thanks to you Dobby, both Tonks and I are well again. I cannot thank…"

"When you are quite finished Mr Malfoy, I wish to begin!" Snape said waspishly.

"Sorry sir." Draco mumbled, feeling like he was back at school.

Snape looked at Minerva, who nodded at him to begin.

"As you are now no doubt aware, before Dumbledore passed on he entrusted me with the job of being Secret Keeper for the Order…" Snape said softly as he paced in front of the covered mirror.

"'Passed on?' You murdered him!" Harry yelled "He trusted you and you murdered him in cold blood."

Draco felt guilt wash over him as he watched Snape's black eyes glittering with rage, it was true that Snape had murdered Dumbledore that night, but only because of an unbreakable vow he had made with Draco's mother to protect him from Voldemort.

Snape glared but he kept his voice low and controlled as he approached Harry. "That I killed Dumbledore" he annunciated softly, "was not in question Mr Potter." Stalking away from Harry, he continued. "I am well aware that not a single person in this room, with the exception of Minerva, believes that I am not a spy for Lord Voldemort – however, I can assure you that as the Secret Keeper for the Order, if I had wanted to betray you I could have done so a thousand times over the last two years." Snape leveled his gaze at Harry.

Minerva stepped in, sensing that allowing Severus to continue as he had been would serve only to antagonize Potter and likely lead to trouble.

"Severus, if I may?" Without waiting for his approval, she stepped in front of the small gathering, wringing her hands from nervous energy as she spoke. "The last two years without Dumbledore have not been easy; his loss has been felt keenly by us all. As head of The Order of the Phoenix he was to lead us to victory against Voldemort, and without him, I know many of you feel that we can no longer win this war. However, I am hopeful that what Severus brings us tonight may restore some of the light to this otherwise dismal time we face."

"Going to bring him back then are you?" Harry snorted at Snape.

"In a manner of speaking Mr Potter; that is precisely what I intend to do." Snape said as he stalked to the mirror, pulling the cover from it and folding it over the arm of a nearby chair. Taking out his wand he tapped it onto the surface and muttered "Eternum."

The room seemed to be filled with the sound of tinkling glass, as though the mirror had shattered into a million tiny musical shards; and light, similar to that found in a pensieve flickered across the walls.

The small group of Order members rose out of their seats and walked hesitantly towards the mirror.

"Severus, is this, what I think it is?" Remus asked in awe as he stroked the wooden frame of the mirror.

"It is doubtful that our thought processes are anything alike Lupin, however, if you are wondering if it is the Mirror of Tammuz, then you would indeed be correct."

Snape stared into the flickering surface of the mirror a small smirk crossing his pale face.

From inside the mirror, sitting in a large armchair by a flickering fire ProfessorAlbus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, very much alive, looked up from the book he was reading.

"Ah, a very good evening to you Severus, I trust you are well?"