He took Harry. Harry was gone. Snivellous took his godson.

These statements kept repeating over and over. Sirius knew he needed to get answers. And as much as he wanted to go after Peter for selling out James, he needed to find Harry first. Looking back at the house, where his best mate's body still lay, Sirius, with a heavy heart, apparated away.

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Landing in front of a small house in the end of Spinner's End, Severus quickly walked into his family house.

“What have I done?” Severus paced the living room, still caring the precious bundle in his arms, looking down at the babe, who was now sleeping peacefully in his arms.

“What am I going to do with you? Dumbledore will never let me keep you. I should just go straight to Hogwarts and drop you off,” Severus said turning around in the small sitting room, heading for the door. He walked over towards the door, but looked down again at the small child in his arms. A small hand tightly griped the edge of Severus' cloak. Harry turned his head into his shoulder as if he was waking up. Little mewls and moaning sounds were coming from the baby, but he didn't wake. No, Harry just seemed to stretch and relax back in the strong cocoon of black fabric that he had learned, in the small bit of time, was safe. No crying. No yelling. Just peace.

Severus looked down at the child, amazed at the trust that the child placed in him, in a stranger that he'd never met before this tragic night.

“He could be mine,” Severus pondered. “I could take care of him.”

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Sirius apparated at the gates. He stormed up towards the castle, anger set on his face. Throwing the doors aside with a loud boom, Sirius marched up the steps. Once he got to the gargoyle that led to the Headmaster's office, he began screaming for Albus. The screams were abruptly stopped when Sirius found himself unable to move.

Before he could take his next breath, he froze standing next to the gargoyle.

“You have some nerve coming here,” said a very angry Albus Dumbledore, walking up behind Sirius. “If you're alive, that means you told.”

Even though Sirius couldn't speak, the expressions on his face were able to change. It quickly went from anger to helplessness to hurt.

“I ought to kill you right now for what you did,” Albus threatened, venom spewing out with every word.

Albus had always prided himself with having control of his emotions. He knew the plot against the Potters and the Longbottoms was stressful enough during the past few months that they were in hiding. Then in one disastrous night, everything that could have gone wrong did. The Longbottoms were attacked. It was still unknown as to what extent the damage Frank and Alice had sustained. They were still in a warded room at St. Mungo's. The only saving grace was that a little bit of luck shown on the Longbottoms because baby Neville was with his grandmother that evening. She wanted to take him Trick or Treating. Albus spent the last hour with Augusta, who was holding on to Neville as if someone was going to take him out of her arms.

There was no such luck with the Potters. While with Augusta, Albus felt one of his wardings going off. He left and trek over to Godric's Hollow. Albus knew what town the Potters were staying in but, because of the Fidelius Charm over them, he did not know the house. Only the secret keeper knew that information, but something kept nagging at him to keep walking.

When he got to the end of the street, he saw the house. Just seeing the house from the street, he wept. Very slowly Albus made his way into the house. Looking at the stairs, he could see a pair of feet on the steps. Cautiously climbing the stairs, Albus looked down at the man he'd always seen as a son. The lifeless eyes stared up at the ceiling. As much as he wanted to morn over his boy, Albus knew he had to continue on throughout the house. He continued upstairs and down the hallway. When he reached what was left of the room at the end of the hall, his heart dropped. There, on the floor, was Lily. His tears had not once stopped since he walked up the walkway towards the house.

After a few moments of weeping over his dear friends, Albus realized that it was extremely quiet. Instantly feeling like he was in a vacuum, Albus turned to the broken crib in the room. He really didn't want to see the dead body of an eighteen month old, but knew he had to see, so he very slowly walked over to the crib. It was empty.

Albus apparated back to Hogwarts. The first thing he would have to do was to find Sirius Black. If he was still alive, he was going to have to deal with an enraged Albus. So when Albus, while walking up the stairs, heard Sirius screaming his name, he pulled out his wand and had it at the ready. When he started down the hallway that had his gargoyle at the end, he'd already cast Petrificus Totalus. Still seeing the man before him as one of his children, he couldn't just let Sirius fall on the floor, so he kept him standing. He just could not move.

Taking a deep breath, “We are going to go up to my office and talking.”

Sirius audibly gulped at the ominous tone of the Headmaster.

“If I do not like what you have to say, you will wish the Dementors got to you before I did.”

Sirius couldn't help the tears pricking his eyes as it burned the back of his throat.

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Severus walked around his small house. He figured the slight movement was calming to baby Harry so he continued. After about an hour, Harry began to stir. He wasn't crying, but the moaning let Severus know that he was waking up. After walking and standing around for the past hour, Severus sat down in his chair and set Harry on his knee. Severus didn't realize how tired he was until he sat down.

Harry looked up at the dark. He remembered seeing him before and he remembered how comfy he was. He, now, was not liking sitting on his knee, sitting away from his chest. Lifting his small arms, he reached for the closeness. Opening and closing his small hands into a fist, wishing that the dark man will pull him closer, tears began to fill those bright green eyes.

Severus was feeling the beginnings of what was about to be a very painful headache, so to comply, just this once, since he's already had a trying day, he would give in to the child. He brought Harry back towards him and instantly felt the small tense shoulders relax under his hands, absently wrapping one arm around the small child and the other cocooning the child's head in the potion master's hand.

Feeling the slight rise and fall of the young one's shoulders, Severus began to unconsciously match his breathing with the child. With each breath, he slowly began to feel his tense shoulders and back relax. His eyelids became heavy as he sat there with the precious bundle in his lap. What he was going to do with the child started to become an after thought. After a day of stress and tension, now that the worse had happened, the only living link to the woman he once loved was now cradled in his arms. Severus allowed sleep to take control. Within minutes both man and child were asleep on the chair.

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Albus levitated Sirius' petrified body up the spiral staircase towards his office. Walking pass his desk, he headed towards his private chambers in the back of his office. Once in there, he continued on his trek down the back hall were the bedrooms were. Albus knew that he could easily interrogate Sirius in his office, but he knew that his anger was going to override his ability to properly use Legilimens. After dealing with many students during his time as Headmaster, he had always prided himself in finding troubled souls. This was never more true than during the time with the Marauders, Severus Snape, and Lily Evans. During their time here at school, there had been many of times that one or two of his students would sleep in his chambers. They were never that forthcoming with information, so he knew in order to get the information that was needed before they would fall asleep, he charmed the room so that deceptions and lies could not be said while inside those four walls.

Turning into that particular room, Albus put Sirius' body on the bed. Manifesting a rope, he then tied Sirius to the bed.

All the anger left Sirius' body when Albus petrified him. He couldn't help the tears in the back of his throat from the way the Headmaster was looking at him. He could see the hatred dripping off the man. When he felt his body being levitated up the stairs, the shame and fear began to rise in Sirius' belly. He had no idea what his former Headmaster was going to do to him. He knew all was probably lost when he felt the ropes that tied him to the bed.

James and Lily were dead. Severus stole Harry. Albus was going to kill him. The first hot tear streamed down Sirius' face.

Bringing a chair over towards the bed, his wand still trained on the Auror, Albus sat down. He didn't know what hurt more at this particular moment. The fact that both attempts were successful, or that Lily and James' secret keeper, whom he loved like a son, didn't do the one thing he was suppose to do.

Albus loved all of them; Lily, James, Remus, Sirius and even Severus. He saw them all like they were his own. When he heard that prophecy, he knew he had to protect his own. He tried giving James and Lily the most protection that he could think of, and obviously it still didn't work. It was a simple, but powerful charm that was placed on the Potters. As angry as Albus was about what's happened, he knew one of two things probably happened. One, they changed his plans, or two, Sirius didn't take the threat on his friends seriously. Well, the headmaster was about to find out, so he set the chair at the head of the bed, so that he could look Sirius in the face. He wanted no distractions or misunderstandings when they spoke.

Albus wasn't blind. He saw the tears. His question was what were the real reasons behind those tears.

“The Fidelius Charm is a very powerful charm.” Albus' voice was soft as he was trying to reign in his anger so he could find out the truth. “When a secret keeper is made, unless the person willingly gives out the information, it is very hard for that person to speak about the secret that is being kept.”

Removing the body bind on Sirius but not letting up on the ropes. “Look at me.”

Sirius slowly turned his head to look at the man he considered a mentor, maybe even a father, to him. He could see the anger and disappointment in his eyes and it made the lump in his throat grow ten times bigger. It was getting harder and harder to breathe around his tears.

“Lily and James are dead, and the only reason that you are still breathing free air is because I love you too much, and I must know; why? Did you not take it seriously? Was the life of your godson not worth it? Please explain this to me, Sirius. I want to understand. I need to understand.” Albus' voice slowly started to rise, and the more it rose the harder Sirius' shoulders shook with sobs.

Sirius' original reason for coming here, he knew, had to wait. He needed to convince the man that he was at fault but not in the way that Albus was thinking. Trying to calm his self down so that he can talk, he tried to take a deep breath.

“Please,” Sirius whispered, trying to talk over the large lump of tears that he was so desperately trying to keep back. For he knew if he started crying, he would not stop. “I....I wasn't....their secret keeper.”

“You changed the plans,” Albus' voice was stern. “Why?”

“I thought that I would be an easy target,” Sirius sighed. “If they couldn't find James, then they would come looking for me. And when they started torturing me to find them, they would have been barking up the wrong tree. And Peter would have been safe.” Tears started flowing when he started talking and didn't stop when he stopped talking.

“You have to believe me,” Sirius begged. “I know what room we're in. Please. You know I can't lie in here.”

Albus seemed to deflate listening to what Sirius said.

“Did you really think that I would have you put to slaughter since we planned for you to be the secret keeper? I put every protection enchantment, every security warding, on you.” Albus reached into his robe and pulled out a small coin that was lit in his hand. “Do you see this? This would have warned me that you were in danger. If you were in danger, all I would have had to do was touch this coin with my wand and I would have apparated to the precise place you were being held. You should have trusted me.”

If Sirius didn't feel stupid before, he did now. The danger wasn't the reason he talked James into changing their secret keeper. Sirius welcomed the danger; that's why he became an Auror. But hearing everything told him that they shouldn't have changed the plans.

“Why is it lit?” Sirius couldn't help himself in asking.

Albus looked at the coin and back a Sirius. “Because you are currently tied up, and the coin senses the danger that you are in. If I touch my wand to the coin, all it will do was to apparate me right here. Why didn't you trust me?”

Sirius could see the hurt in his mentor's eyes, and his guilt was eating him up inside.

“We – no, I just thought that they wouldn't think that Peter would know. I knew that I would be the more likely one. I thought I was protecting them too.”

“So you suggested Peter?”

Sirius nodded. Albus sighed and for the first time that night he looked at Sirius and didn't feel hatred an anger towards him. Now he just needed to find out what happened in that house.

“Albus,” Sirius said when he started to feel the tension easing in the room. “We have to get Harry.”

“Harry's alive?”

“Yes, he's alive.”

“Where is he?”

All the anger that Sirius was feeling when he first got to the castle came back in full force as he looked at Albus.

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Severus sat in his chair looking down at child in his arms, his hand rubbing soothing circles on the child's back. Harry started cooing in his arms, small chubby fingers playing with the many buttons on Severus' frock coat.

A hissing sound breached the silence of the room. Severus tightened his hold on the child as he looked around the chair. Looking at the floor around them, he was trying to see if he could spot where the noise was coming from. Louder and louder, the hissing noise was become more prevalent.

Severus got up from the chair with Harry still in his arms. If there was a snake in the house, the last thing he wanted was for Harry to be harmed.

Harry, on the other hand, seemed to be unconcerned about the noise. Walking all through the house, Severus was unable to find the source of the hissing. He looked in the kitchen, bedroom, sitting room, even the bathroom, and no such luck.

On his way walking back to the rugged chair he was just sitting in, he felt a tug on his coat. Looking down, he saw that Harry was pulling at one button. He knew if he didn't stop the child, Harry was going to rip them.

Pulling Harry's hand away from his clothing, Harry's head shot up and looked at Severus. What Severus saw made this stoic man tremble in fear. The child that he had held just moments ago in his arms, was not what he was looking at now. Harry's eyes were red. Not bloodshot, but rather, his irises were red. The little cute button nose was no longer there. Actually, two slits were what made up for his nose.

“You've betrayed me, Severus,” hissed Harry.

Severus sat up, his arms tightening around whatever was in his arms, as he woke with a nightmare. Not knowing where he was at the moment or why he couldn't get a hold of his wand didn't last long when he felt something moving on his chest. Looking down at the curly head laying on his chest, everything from before came flooding back. The tears were about to form when there was a knock on the door. Warily, Severus got up, with Harry still in his arms, and looked out the side window. Casting a Disillusionment charm on Harry, he opened the door.

“Might I have a word, my boy?”

TBC