"Nonetheless, Headmaster, we must take this seriously!" Severus insisted. "Yes, the Dark Lord is paranoid in all things, but this time, he singled me out. I may be this week's suspect, or he may have real evidence of my treachery."

Severus sighed, as Dumbledore bent again to the pensieve. Surely there could be nothing he had not noticed before. While the headmaster re-examined Severus's memory of the Death Eater meeting, Severus looked idly around the room. The gold thing on the mantel was still blinking green, as it had been when they entered the room. Severus wondered if the headmaster had noticed, distracted as he was with Severus's injuries, a physical base to prolong the after effects of the Cruciatus Curse. Severus reminded himself to mention the light when the headmaster emerged.

While he waited, Severus let himself reflect on his schedule for the next few days. Tomorrow night, it would be a week since he had visited the Potter b-- the boy. Probably if he was going to make it out on his own, he would have done so by now. Severus scowled as he recalled the boy's state of malnutrition. He would need to fetch him out, after all. Severus's lip curled in a contemptuous smile. I'll rescue him. And I'll take it out of his pride, tenfold. This incompetent child, the savior of the wizarding world? We are doomed.

Dumbledore emerged from the pensieve. The look he gave Severus was grave.

"He does imply knowledge," he allowed. "Still, that is his way, is it not? To imply sight and let other people's panic show him the truth?"

"It is," Severus agreed. He planned a slight frown. "Headmaster, what is that blinking thing?"

He had hoped to take the unflappable wizard by surprise. He was not pleased to have produced fear, even briefly. Albus Dumbledore feared almost nothing. The second of panic that crossed his face shook Severus to his barely-healed core.

"That would be ... your son's home," Dumbledore said softly. "The wards are down."

"What!"

The street they materialized on smelled of dirty smoke. Regular pulses of color lit the space around them; after a moment of disorientation, Severus realized that these pulses came from rotating lights on the tops of Muggle vehicles, some of which were quite large. Beyond the vehicles was a Muggle house with noticeable fire damage. A cloud of green sparks, still recognizably the Dark Mark, hung in the sky above it, slowly losing form to the light breeze. As one, Severus, McGonagall and Dumbledore us walked towards the house.

"Oh, dear God," McGonagall breathed. Severus said nothing.

A man in a dark uniform attempted to stop them at the door. Dumbledore did something that made the man ignore them. They stepped inside. A body lay on the living room floor. It was being photographed, and the distances to it measured. From the look on Vernon Dursley's face, Severus would have been willing to bet that the last thing he had seen had been a flash of green light.

Suddenly panicked, Severus broke for the stairs. He was aware of Dumbledore doing damage control for this behind him, but had no attention to spare for it. He stopped wildly where the padlocked door should have been.

The door had been blown off its hinges and was lying inside the small room. The area around the locks was smashed. There was no body in the room -- for a fraction of a second, Severus was relieved, then he began to imagine Harry being taken -- hadn't Voldemort wanted the honor of killing The-Boy-Who-Lived?

The horrible, acrid, unmistakable smell of burned house surged. Severus dropped to his knees. He was suddenly back at Godric's Hollow, reeling with pain at the sight of Lily's rigid body, as people around him measured and cast and preserved evidence, and whispered about the boy.

The boy! His boy. Missing again, but this time not whisked to safety by Dumbledore's plans. Severus's throat tightened, and a distressingly weak sound escaped.

I could have taken him. I could have kept him safe, but I needed to make it a contest, to make him prove himself again. Bloody hell, will I ever stop being such an idiot! The room spun. One more chance -- I swear next time I will not be such an idiot.

He was not sure how long he knelt there, confused memories and nightmares and near-incoherent prayers vying for space in his mind. His thoughts gained coherence when he tried to resolve who he was praying to. Hecate for wizards and choices and a youth without a mother, Nemesis in contrition for my pride, damn it, should it be some domestic goddess for a lost child or someone for a young warrior? Ganesha? There must be some Hindu god specifically for protecting lost sons. Not that any of them have any reason to listen to me. What do I offer? He was pulled back to the present by a light touch on his shoulder.

"Severus?" a voice said gently. Albus Dumbledore. "Severus, I need you to find out what happened. Find out if he is still alive, and who has him."

"It's been an hour, at least!" Severus screamed. "What do you think, Albus? Do you think my lord has patience?"

"Severus. Go back to Hogwarts and initiate contact. We must know. I will start back in a few minutes."

"How could this happen?" Severus demanded. "You said he was safe. Blood magic -- we have never been able to break it!"

"His aunt and cousin died a few hours ago," Dumbledore said quietly. "Their car crashed. With his blood kin dead, the wards failed."

"Did you know that this could happen?!" Severus was screaming so loudly that his throat hurt. Dumbledore stretched a hand over his face. Against his will, Severus quieted. Like a brainless budgerigar put under a blanket, he thought angrily, but he quieted just the same.

"Hogwarts," the headmaster said gently. "Contact whom you must."

Severus nodded and rose. Wordlessly, he stepped back out of the room. Before walking to the corner, he realized that with the wards down, he could apparate from wherever he stood. Drawing his cloak about him, he apparated back to Hogsmeade, and began to jog up the path to the school.