The door closed behind Professor McGonagall and locked itself magically with a loud click. Snape took a staggering step backwards. He lifted a slightly trembling wand and performed a silencing spell at the door. He proceeded with disillusionment charms at the windows, although the headmaster’s office was located at the top of one of the castle’s towers. He cast more protection shields around the room, barricading himself thoroughly behind layer after layer of magic. 

The former headmasters in the portraits watched him silently. They had witnessed everything that had passed in this room, they had heard everything, seen everything, not only tonight, but a year ago, a decade ago and for some of them, centuries ago. They knew. Some of them had their eyebrows knitted, some looked desolate. No one looked condemning. 

Snape fixed the cloth-covered frame on the wall with eyes that had lost their coldness. Slowly, apprehensively, he took a couple of steps forward. After a slight hesitation he gripped the soft tissue at the lower corner and, with a gentle pull, made the curtain soundlessly glide to the floor. 

The piercing blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore met Snape’s black ones. Dumbledore was painted sitting in a magnificent armchair, although at the moment he seemed to have moved forward almost to the edge of the seat and to be leaning out of the frame with intent attention. 

Snape recoiled. He looked at his former headmaster, confined inside that frame, reduced to one in a row of paintings and drew his breath. His chest did not seem inclined to let out any air in return, so he gasped a second time, and a third. Snape’s until now so perfectly schooled features suddenly took on an expression of pain and, under the increasingly concerned gaze of the old wizard, Snape’s face crumpled up. He fell to his knees and sank his head into his hands, finally exhaling with a stifled wail.

”Severus,” said Dumbledore.

Snape’s breathing was ragged and he let out a muffled sound as if he attempted to answer the address.

”That bad, is it?” Dumbledore said sadly. ”Don’t worry my boy, take your time.” 

Snape lifted a hand, as if to signal that he only needed a minute, but his shoulders were shaking violently and his head was abashedly turned away. Dumbledore watched him patiently. After a while, Snape seemed to calm down, but still avoided looking up. The still kneeling wizard repeatedly brought the cuff of his sleeve under his hook-shaped nose.

”There, there… We haven’t seen each other for a while. It must be the start of term. I gathered that much from the conversation I overheard earlier. You must tell me everything, Severus. Are those two the only Death Eaters you’ve been saddled with or are there more on the staff?” asked Dumbledore.

Snape shook his head.

”They’ll give you enough trouble, I guess, but it could be worse,” said Dumbledore.

An eye surrounded by wet black lashes glared darkly at him between entangled strands of hair. Snape directed his wand at himself, performing a spell that seemed to dry up what needed to be dried up, before he rose to his feet.

”I apologise, Headmaster, for this appalling display of emotions,” Snape said stiffly.

”Don’t worry my boy. The tension was severe, I understand. And I’m glad to see that you are only human. You’re not alone, my friend. I’m here to support you and to guide you,” said Dumbledore.

”With all your respect, Headmaster, you are a portrait… It’s not as if you could actually do…anything!” croaked Snape, close to be overtaken once again by the emotions he appeared to despise.

”Now, now… We made the most of my death, just as I had planned. I hold you in great esteem for what you did, Severus. There is nothing to be ashamed about,” said Dumbledore.

Snape snorted and shook his head.

”I’m a murderer,” he said curtly. ”Minerva’s right.”

”No, you’re not, Severus, don’t speak nonsense!” Dumbledore said sharply. ”And Minerva is in mourning, it’s perfectly understandable…”

”Of course it is understandable! I did kill you, after all! Although presently the Prophet tries to make out it was Harry Potter who did it. But no one believes that! Minerva is in her full right to speak those harsh words,” spat Snape.

”Come, Severus, you might be my executioner, if you want to put it crudely, but I begged you to do it. You know very well there was nothing else to do - and why it had to be done. And what is ahead of us,” added Dumbledore calmly.

”Not the full extent of it, no I don’t,” Snape said simply, meeting the old wizard’s gaze challengingly. 

”You don’t know everything, no, that’s correct. And I’m afraid it has to stay that way. I cannot now, speak to you about subjects that we did not already breach during my living time. I may only take in what you say to me, reason with you and guide you. I might be able to confirm things that you find out for yourself, but I cannot introduce new topics of conversation with you from this side.” Dumbledore made an exculpating gesture. 

”Don’t pretend to be sorry, old man - already when you were alive you delighted in keeping secrets from people. Potter’s mission, for instance… I still don’t have a clue what that’s about. How do you expect me to protect the boy, if…?” There was anger and anguish in Snape’s voice.

”But I don’t expect you to protect him, Severus, not any longer. You must concentrate on ruling Hogwarts to your best ability and to the least cost in terms of damage to the students. And you need still keep your cover. Harry is grown up. He will take care of himself. He has his friends at hand. There might be some small things we can do to facilitate things for him, but you must not approach him, not until…” Here Dumbledore was interrupted by a stifled wail coming from Snape who started to shake his head vehemently.

”No! No, Albus! I’ve been thinking about it the past months. I don’t want to be the one who brings Potter his death sentence. I cannot do it. I wronged Lily all those years ago, by reporting that prophesy to Voldemort which indirectly caused her death. I cannot do the same to her child, to condemn him to death by the very same evil wizard’s hand. It is too hard! You cannot ask that of me! I understand the necessity of the act, if it is true that the boy has been tainted by the Dark Lord, but please, think of another way of conveying the message to him than through me,” pleaded Snape. Dumbledore said nothing for a while.

”Harry is Lily’s son to you now, is he?” Dumbledore said finally in a soft tone. 

”Of course he is… Lily’s son,” said Snape in a stifled voice. He met Dumbledore’s gaze. ”Don’t you see? I needed to hate him. You don’t know how many times I have convinced Voldemort of my loyalty by showing him my humiliation over James’ wrongdoings, my hunger for revenge and my hatred for his son. I nurtured that feeling, clung to the memories of James,  preserved them to use them when most necessary. And I truly… I confess… did not like… that man… He took something… that might have been mine… My jealousy of the father coloured my view on the son, there is no denying it… But Harry still is… Lily’s son…” Snape spoke with difficulty. Dumbledore sighed.

”This complicates things, Severus. I must confess that I relied on your… callousness towards the boy… to be able to bring him those news…”

”We don’t even know where he is!” Snape cried out with anguish. ”If he’s even alive. He survived the escape from his relatives this summer, but no one has seen him since Voldemort’s take-over at the Ministry. He was last seen at the oldest Weasley son’s wedding. How can we possibly help him if we don’t even know where he is?” 

”I might bring some insight as to that insolent young man’s whereabouts.” A drawling voice was suddenly heard from the right on the wall. Snape swirled around. 

”Professor Phineas Nigellus!” exclaimed Snape with a frown. ”Pray describe your insight in more detail.” 

”Well, perhaps insight is much said,” chuckled the old Slytherin headmaster, ”because there was not much to be seen, actually. I sensed a disturbance in one of my housings and on instinct, I departed to check on my portrait in the Black family’s residence at Grimmauld Place. I haven’t been there for months - it is just an empty shell of a house. But this time, I was just in time to see that mudblood girl, who’s a friend of Potter’s…”

”Don’t use such language,” reprimanded Snape and Dumbledore in chorus. Phineas Nigellus smirked.

”…Miss Granger I believe her name is. She had lifted my portrait down and was just about to put it in… a sack!” The indignation of the old headmaster was unmistakable. ”So right now, I cannot see a damned thing back there, but I heard Potter’s voice and the young Mr Weasley’s as well. They are all three at Grimmauld Place,” stated Phineas Nigellus triumphantly. Snape let out a long, relieved breath.

”They are… reasonably safe… there…” he said slowly. ”I forbid you to tell anyone else about this!” continued Snape, addressing Phineas Nigellus. ”Especially none of your fellow portraits at Malfoy Manor, do you hear? You are bound by loyalty to me now. I am the new headmaster.” Snape spoke in a stronger, imperative voice. Phineas Nigellus inclined his head.

”Congratulations to your new title, Severus Snape,” he said. ”It makes me proud to finally see a Slytherin on the post. I will be glad to be of service to you.”

”Then return to that sack at regular intervals and try to make out what happens, what they are up to and where they go,” said Snape with a defiant glance at Dumbledore’s portrait. 

”You do as you judge best to do, my boy,” said Dumbledore with an amused glint in his eye. ”You’re in charge now. I could not keep you from doing what you have in mind even if I wanted to.” 

Snape glared at him. 

”And now,” continued Dumbledore, unperturbed, ”I think you are fit to sit down and tell me everything in due order. What worries you the most?” Snape positioned an armchair so that he could face Dumbledore in a comfortable tête-à-tête. 

”Well, there is the Carrows and their Cruciatings, of course… And then there is Draco Malfoy… And Minerva…” Snape said grumpily.

”Let’s take one thing at a time. We’ll sort it out, dear boy, we’ll sort it out,” said Dumbledore.