Gah, why is this site being so annoying? First it steals my line breaks, not it's stealing my formatting. I almost didn't bother updating this today, since I noticed in the edit/preview that it stole all of my formatting. Bold, italics, paragraphs, line breaks...everything. I had to manually re-enter all of these things, using the original document as a reference, so if anything seems weird, that's why. Sometimes I wonder why I don't just give up and move all of my fics to LJ instead...

This chapter is early I know (I think I said I would have up in May) but I finished it, got my beta to look it over and decided to just post it. My birthday seemed like an appropriate day to do so. I'm currently working on the next chapters, so hopefully that should be up in just as short an amount of time.

"Written/typed text, e.g. books, notes, web pages"

"Sign language"

#Radio communications/telephone/vid phone/TV/radio broadcast#

-Parseltongue-

"Normal speech"

'Thoughts'

I sat straight-backed in the uncomfortable chair, watching my teenaged hosts out of the corner of my eye, wondering when my life had gotten so complicated. As a child I'd known that I was different from nearly all of the children in my school, except for the brilliantly intelligent Lily Evans. When we were both accepted to Hogwarts I stayed friends with the Muggleborn girl, even though I was a halfblooded Slytherin, and through her I made friends with Sirius Black and James Potter, both heirs to prominent Pureblood families, the werewolf Remus Lupin and the halfblood Peter Pettigrew. For several years we stayed friends, even though our housemates attempted to end our friendship. I smiled as I remembered the prank war that had students scared to leave their dormitories for three years running, just Lily and me against the Marauders.

Then Voldemort's rebellion really began to draw attention to the Pureblood supremacists, and Dumbledore started to look for a spy amongst the students of Hogwarts. He tried to recruit each of the Marauders, but failed because none of them wished to compromise their beliefs. I initially refused, until a certain incident changed my mind about my friends.

In my Fifth Year, everything started to go wrong. I had known for some time that Remus was a werewolf, and therefore I made a point to save my out-of-doors after-curfew rule breaking for nights that weren't a full moon. The Marauders knew that I knew that Remus was a werewolf, so they couldn't use it to scare me, nor would they even if I hadn't known. They had more sense and honour than that. It took me some time to figure out what really happened that night, but when I did figure it out I was livid. Someone had placed me, and possibly Sirius and James, under the Imperius Curse in order to set the situation up. I was just lucky that James was able to throw off the Curse in time to save me from being mauled and possibly turned by an out-of-control werewolf.

After that, because of a liberal use of memory charms and several illegal potions, I began to change. I went from the darker-edge-of-Grey friend of the Marauders and Lily Evans, to an insufferable git who wasted no opportunity to insult and humiliate all those who didn't fit in Voldemort's worldview. I still held some loyalty to Lily, my first real friend, and would do anything to keep her safe, even turn to the leader of the enemy forces. In short, I became the perfect spy for Dumbledore.

All of this was hidden by strong memory charms and compulsions, which prevented me from examining my life in detail. Only a small coincidence saved me from completely turning into the evil bastard that Dumbledore wanted me to be. Lily, bless her soul, had some talent for Divination and managed to see some small part of her future. I don't know what exactly she saw, but it was enough for her to beg me to swear an oath to protect her child after her untimely death. She knew that she would get married to someone other than me, which the not-so-small part of my brain that had a crush on her protested against, and that she would die young, before her child entered Hogwarts. I readily swore the oath that she asked of me, to protect her child as long as I was able to do so, no matter who the father was.

When Harry went missing after Voldemort's attack on Godric's Hollow the oath prompted me to try and locate the missing saviour. When he proved to be untraceable, the oath settled back into a dormant state, the magic of my words accepting that I had done all I could. When Harry entered Hogwarts I was once again motivated to protect him as best I could without remembering why, an effort that was thwarted by Dumbledore's insistence on testing Harry and his friends in life-threatening situations. To facilitate my attempts to fulfil my oath, the dormant magic broke through the blocks on my mind. Such an action would have left most wizards slightly irritable for a few days. 

Unfortunately I was an accomplished Occlumens, used to having full control of my own mind and the sudden influx of almost-but-not-completely-familiar memories took a long time to sort through, resulting in me driving Harry away with my bad temper and misplaced anger.

After that I continued to keep up the facade of being Dumbledore's pawn, but during the summers I did what I could to make up for my behaviour under Dumbledore's control. I could do nothing to change my attitude towards my students; Dumbledore's potions and spells and control over Hogwarts made sure of that, but I could make up for it in other ways. It was through my attempts to aid abused children that I learned the truth of what I was like under Dumbledore's control, and that was the catalyst that I needed to finish breaking free of my two masters so that I may find the one that I pledged my life to protect when I was fourteen.

The teenagers listened silently as I told them this, allowing me to finish my tale while I was still willing to talk to them. I felt his respect for them grow, seeing that they were unarguably more intelligent that the students that would have annoyed me even without Dumbledore's manipulations. The braided teenager looked like he had the most questions, if his Weasley-twin-like grin and impatient squirming were any indication, but he still held his silence. The two Asian teens and the one with his hair over half his face were as still as statues, rather heavily armed statues at that.

I was focusing on the last two though. The innocent looking blond that I had initially dismissed as harmless, until I'd found himself on the wrong end of his gun after Harry had seen me and panicked, and Harry himself. The blond was watching me calmly, but his fingers were flying over the keys of a Muggle laptop as he relayed my words to Harry, who was now deaf-mute. Harry didn't look up at me, but instead chose to watch the words that were appearing on the screen in front of him.

Eventually, after I stopped talking and allowed silence to settle on the room, Harry looked up at me. I resisted the urge to flinch away from his piercing green eyes, eyes that I had never noticed before because they were hidden by those ugly glasses of his. I felt like he was judging me, searching my magic and my soul for some sort of sign that I would never be able to find on my own. After what felt like hours, although it was only a few seconds, he got up and walked over to me.

"Harry Potter. Pleased to meet you," he signed before he held out his hand to me. I stared at him in shock for several seconds before I managed to gather my wits.

"Severus Snape. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," I replied, shaking his hand gratefully. He smiled at me, making me feel as if all my previous sins were absolved.

Quatre relaxed slightly as he felt Harry's acceptance of Snape's words, pleased that the smaller teenager was starting to heal mentally from what had happened to him. The Arabian had been close to Snape for most of the week that it had taken Harry to heal, judging his emotions and watching him for any sign of deceit. If he'd found any sign that the wizard was about to betray them, then Heero would immediately have killed him as a security risk.

When Duo and Heero had returned to the mansion with an unconscious Harry and a strange man, all of the pilots had been on full alert. Only after the stranger had healed Harry, with Trowa and Wufei standing guard with guns ready to fire the whole time, did they bother to interrogate him. Upon learning that he had worked for both Dumbledore and Voldemort, Duo had instantly been ready to kill him. Out of all of them, the American had gotten the closest to Harry and he had stated several times that he would quite cheerfully dismember either wizard with his bare hands if they ever came near Harry again. No one doubted him. Once Duo had calmed down, the decision had been made to place Snape in one of the empty suites in the mansion until Harry was awake.

Harry's panic attack upon seeing Snape had almost been enough to make Quatre pull the trigger, before he managed to close his empathic skill off enough to separate his emotions from Harry's. It 

had been his idea for Snape to explain himself to the entire group, so Harry could make his own decision about whether or not the potions master could be trusted. He was glad that Harry had chosen the path of forgiveness rather than revenge; having two friends who developed selective blindness and deafness when their enemies were nearby was more than enough.

"You are the owner of this house, correct?" Quatre smiled at the wizard, nodding calmly as he kept an eye on Duo, who was using Harry as a shield against Wu Fei after slipping a fake worm down his fellow pilot's back. "I thank you for your hospitality and care, and would like to ask your permission to stay a while longer."

"You would stay here, even after we held you captive?" Quatre turned his full attention to Snape. "Why?"

"I haven't seen Harry act so cheerful, so child-like in all the time that he spent at Hogwarts." Snape looked over at where Harry had retaliated by 'accidentally' spilling his water on Duo's crotch. "Despite the fact that you all seem to be more than just teenagers, you have also managed to get Harry to behave like someone his age should. If Harry had been left on his own this summer, as Dumbledore wished him to be, then he would have already died. Not," Snape held up his hand to stop Quatre from speaking, "in the physical sense of death, as only Voldemort would be capable of that, but someone without any reason to live..."

"May as well be dead already." Quatre finished, grinning as he noticed that Heero had his arm around Duo's shoulder, preventing any further retaliation from Harry or Wu Fei. "Why should we let you stay though? As you've pointed out, Harry has healed so much already, without your help."

"The prophecy still hangs over him. Voldemort and Dumbledore will not allow him to live his life unhindered, no matter how much he tries to disconnect himself from the Wizarding World. He will need training to fight them; training that the five of you cannot provide for him. I am a fully qualified Potions Master, with extensive knowledge and experience in Duelling, Healing and the Dark Arts. I swore to Lily that I would protect her child, and by teaching him all he needs to know to survive, I can do that."

"I am convinced," Snape wondered when Trowa had moved to behind him, having not noticed him until he spoke, "and the others agree." Snape looked round to see the four teenagers watching him intently. "You are welcome to stay with us as long as you like."

Albus Dumbledore looked around at the assembled witches and wizards in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place. His Order of the Phoenix was growing, and it now had over 500 members in the United Kingdom alone. They weren't all here though. This was just his core group, his inner circle if he wished to call it that.

He noted the faces that watched him expectantly, waiting for him to start the meeting. Molly and Arthur Weasley, who most of his plan and still stood by him were seated halfway down the table. Ronald and Ginevra Weasley, who knew only slightly less than their parents, were seated a bit further down with Hermione Granger, who knew everything that they knew. Fred and George Weasley were between their younger siblings and their parents, and were completely clueless about his plans for Harry. The two oldest Weasley 'children' were absent, attending to other matters and unable to attend the meeting that night. Severus Snape's usual in the corner was absent, as it had been for the past few weeks, and Dumbledore assumed that the spy was being kept busy by his other 'master'. Remus Lupin was also absent, which was unusual for the outcast werewolf, who was rejected even by other werewolves for his continued association with wizards. None of the others that were present knew of Dumbledore's true ambition, as he didn't feel it prudent to trust every one of his inner circle with the information. None of the assembled group knew everything.

Signalling for attention, not that it was needed, he stepped up to the head of the table to begin the meeting. "It is my sad duty to inform you that Harry Potter has gone missing from his family's home."

The explosion of sound that followed this statement almost blew him off his feet. Everyone seemed to want to know what had happened to Harry, how they were going to find him and where they should be searching for him. This was exactly what Dumbledore wanted. He didn't know how Harry had escaped the wards that surrounded Privet Drive, or who had helped him, but he couldn't be left alone for long. If someone managed to rebuild his confidence or break his trust in Dumbledore then the results would be disastrous.

"Calm down!" Everyone retook their seats, watching Dumbledore anxiously. "There is no indication that Voldemort has managed to capture him yet, which gives us time to find him. Those of you that have work to do at Hogwarts should return there, in case Mr Potter attempts to make his way to safety at the school. Amelia, you should allow Kingsley, Mad-Eye and Nymphadora," he ignored the sound of disgust the Auror gave at the sound of her given name, "to organise Auror patrols to search the most likely places that he might be. Make up some excuse to use; no one outside of this meeting is to know that Mr Potter is missing.

"Fred and George, keep an eye on Diagon Alley, in case he turns up there. Fleur, ask Bill to keep an eye out in Gringotts just in case he manages to slip past Fred and George's notice. Ronald and Ginevra and Miss Granger, keep watch at the Burrow in case Mr Potter comes there or sends a letter there. Ginevra, if you would also make sure to find out if he attempts to contact Miss Lovegood. Augusta, contact me immediately if your grandson gets any kind of correspondence from Mr Potter. Time is of the essence here."

Everyone nodded or murmured their assent, wondering why the boy saviour would have chosen to run away or who could have kidnapped him. Dumbledore somehow managed to miss the calculating gleam that came into the twins' eyes as he moved onto the next item on the agenda. The prankster Weasleys knew that something wasn't quite right with what Dumbledore was saying, and they wanted to know what was really going on.

Hm, I believe that several chapters back I promised virtual Sandrock plushies to those who correctly guessed the identity of the mystery man. So, as promised, virtual plushies to Dreamweaver, ariannalupin, chisa1, RB, kirallie, Azinine, sable2684 and Orphen Chica. Apologies to anyone I might have accidentally missed.

There's a few clues in this chapter as to the identities of the cloaked men from last chapter. As several people have already guessed one of them, I'll give virtual DeathScythe plushies to everyone who guesses the identities of the other two.