Severus trailed behind Albus beneath Harry's cloak, on silenced feet, watching and waiting to see where he went.
It had become a routine, recently. Severus watched and waited to see when Albus left, then he followed him.
It had been a fruitless endeavor, thus far.
Albus left the castle nearly every night. He sometimes left after dinner, he sometimes left first thing in the morning. He always took the path from the castle to Hogsmeade. He always stopped by the Hogs Head, something Severus would warn Harry of eventually as the Hogs Head had once been his favorite pub to sneak out to with his band of misfits.
After Albus had a drink and a chat with the pub owner, an older wizard by the name of Abeforth, he wandered out the backdoor and disapparated with a crack.
And Severus had no ability to track him then.
Once more, Severus followed Albus to the Hogs Head, he waited silently beside the door while Albus had a glass of whatever he was drinking this evening. Albus tried chatting with Abeforth for a few minutes, much to the man's disinterest it seemed, then Albus got to his feet and slowly made his way to the backdoor. He went out to the alley and sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping, then disapparated once more.
Typically, Severus either waited around to see when Albus returned, never bringing back any hint of his prior location, or he went back to the castle as a failure once more. This time though, he put Harry's cloak in the bag beneath his robes and re-entered the pub through the front door.
Severus took a seat at the deserted counter and feigned interest in the handwritten drink menu on the back wall.
"Pardon me," he called to Abeforth. "Could I have a scotch on the rocks?"
"Well or shelf?" Abeforth grunted.
"Well is fine."
Severus nodded gratefully when Abeforth slid him the drink.
"I have meant to thank you the last few times I came by, but there never seemed to be an appropriate time," Severus said casually before Abeforth could step away.
"Aye? What for?" Abeforth asked, his blue eyes narrowing with suspicion.
Severus had been a nearly weekly patron in the pub with Nymphadora at one point when they were on a quest to discover immortality, and Abeforth likely knew that Severus had plentiful opportunities to speak with him before now.
"My ward, Harry, sneaks out here rather frequently," Severus said. "And, as he has yet to receive a single detention for it, I presume it is due to your disinterest in spreading tales. Thus," Severus nodded once more, "I thank you."
Abeforth looked caught off-guard by Severus' pleasant tone and his genuine remarks, the precise reaction he was hoping for.
"Well," Abeforth stroked his beard in a way oddly reminiscent of Albus, "Harry seems like a good enough lad."
"Does he?" Severus smirked in what he hoped was a conspiratorial type of way. "Do you get many 'good lads' who sneak in to your pub outside of curfew and undoubtedly attempt to bribe you in to serving them alcohol?"
It must have worked to an extent, as Abeforth chuckled quietly. "You've got him pegged in one, don't you, Mister Snape?"
"Severus," Severus said smoothly, offering his hand. "I feel as if I spend much too much time here to not have you call me by my first name."
"Severus then," Abeforth said. He shook Severus' hand with a wry smile and twinkling eyes. "I reckon this is the part where you beg, bribe, or threaten me in to telling you if your boy comes back around?"
"Merlin, no," Severus said with a light chuckle. "I prefer to be woefully ignorant of Harry's misdeeds, it makes it simpler to pretend he is a model student that way."
Abeforth chuckled again and Severus saw as he seemed to relax against the counter. "Anyone who thinks that boy is a model student is blind as a bat," Abeforth said with good-natured intent. "He's a hell of a tipper, thankfully a light weight drinker, and a generous friend, but model student?" Abeforth snorted.
"Quite," Severus agreed. "Harry likes to think of himself as a master of mischief, but truly he is as subtle as a raging hippogriff." Severus drained his glass and fished four galleons from his pocket, sliding them on the bar top. "Have a good evening, Abeforth."
"You too, Severus," Abeforth said.
Severus walked out of the pub with a smirk on his lips and a calculating light in his eyes.
There must be a reason why Albus stopped at the Hogs Head before and after each trip he made from the grounds. And, while Severus waited for the imported ingredients to arrive for a rather dark tracking spell he'd once used to great success to find Harry, it could be advantageous to attempt to build a relationship with Abeforth and see what the man knew.
Severus could be patient, to an extent. And Severus could certainly be cunning and subtle.
It was well-known that Severus had once been a death eater turned spy. It was perhaps slightly less well-known that Severus had excelled as a spy. There was an art to spying, and Severus had perfected it to the point where many to date were unsure of where Severus' loyalties laid.
If Severus could deceive the Dark Lord and Albus both, he could certainly ferret out some information from what seemed to be a rather friendly pub owner.
He merely needed to continue befriending him.
Simple.
Severus drug a rather bemused Nymphadora with him the next afternoon, having quickly informed her of his plan. She too doubted if Albus divulged any facts of importance to Abeforth, but was willing to help Severus become more friendly with the man.
"Back again," Abeforth said as Severus and Nymphadora entered the pub. He gave Nymphadora a keen look. "Tonks, innit?"
"How'd you remember?" Nymphadora asked with a bright smile as she slid up on a barstool.
Abeforth sent a pointed look at her pink hair, lending Severus an opportunity to make himself appear more affable.
"You are rather memorable," Severus said, taking the seat beside Nymphadora. "You would hardly believe she was quite the successful auror, would you?" he asked Abeforth.
Abeforth grinned and pulled out two glasses from beneath the bar. "I reckon she passed concealment easily enough though, didn't she?"
"Only lost five points," Nymphadora boasted with a pleased look. "I tripped right at the end and landed on top of the target I was meant to be tracking."
Abeforth and Severus both laughed.
"Scotch for you, Severus?" Abeforth asked.
"If you would," Severus said.
"I'll have what he's having," Nymphadora said. She looked around the empty pub and waggled her brows at Abeforth. "Wanna join us for a drink? It's on Severus."
Abeforth also looked around his abandoned pub and then gave Nymphadora a sly smile. "Alright, just one," he agreed. He pulled out a third glass then poured them each three fingers. "Cheers then."
"Cheers," Nymphadora said brightly while Severus tilted his chin and clinked glasses with them.
It was an absurd moment.
Teenaged Severus would never have believed he would one day be here— having a drink in a pub, with a young and attractive partner, and on a first name basis with the bartender.
Fucking Potter luck was contagious.
"So what brings the two of you out tonight?" Abeforth asked after taking a large drink. "I haven't seen you in a while."
"We had to start drinking in Sev's office when we realized that we might run in to Harry and Susan here," Nymphadora lied.
They simply no longer had to travel out to various locations attempting to track down myths and legends of immortality.
"Which one's Susan?" Abeforth asked, his blue eyes squinted in thought as he stroked his beard.
"Loud girl, curly red hair, always with Harry," Severus told him. "She is rather hard to miss."
"Aah," Abeforth grinned and nodded. "That she is. Which one is the Ravenclaw girl with the brown hair?"
"Granger," Severus said. "Hermione Granger, and that one I would prefer to know if she finds her way to your pub again, as she is expecting a child come the end of September."
"Is she?" Abeforth asked. He took another drink, prompting Severus and Nymphadora to do so as well. "By the brown haired Slytherin boy?"
Severus began to wonder exactly how often Harry and his friends find their way to this pub for Abeforth to know so many details about them.
"Yup," Nymphadora said. "That one's Theo."
"Theo's a good lad," Abeforth said in a decisive manner. "When that attack happened, last May, he sent the girl, Hermione, off to the castle. Locked her in here with me after I told him I knew a way to get to the castle."
"Did he?" Severus said lightly. "I never got a full account from the students how the events of that night went down."
It was a lie, but Severus got the sense that Abeforth enjoyed having a bit of an opportunity to chat.
Abeforth scratched at his jaw and furrowed his brows at Severus for a moment. "Now, I don't want to make trouble for any of them, they're good kids, mostly," he said firmly. "And I certainly don't want Minerva coming down here and blowing up my ceiling again."
Almost as one, Severus, Nymphadora, and Abeforth all looked up to the ceiling.
"McGonagall did that?" Nymphadora laughed at the four foot round hole in the ceiling. "Want me to fix it for you?"
"No," Abeforth said quickly with a lopsided grin and a twinkle in his eyes. "I like to have it."
Peculiar.
"Well we definitely won't be blowing holes in your pub or telling McGonagall anything," Nymphadora winked at Abeforth. "And I think Harry and Susan and the others make enough trouble for themselves without our help, don't they?"
Abeforth laughed again, as charmed by Nymphadora as most people were. "That they do," he agreed. He finished off his drink and refilled all three glasses. "Well, they came trooping in here, bold as brass, celebrating OWLS and Fred's NEWTS."
Severus found himself wholly unsurprised that Frederick was also on a first name basis with Abeforth.
Severus and Nymphadora gave Abeforth rapt attention as he talked. He informed them, quite curtly, that he refused to serve 'the young one' any lager, but felt no compulsion to deny the others two drinks apiece.
Apparently Harry, Draco, and Frederick were excellent tippers.
Abeforth said when the students left, they had been in high spirits, if not mildly tipsy. Then, not long after, Theodore came barging in his pub, his wand drawn, and demanded to know who Abeforth was loyal to.
"He said," Abeforth paused to chuckl, "said: are you loyal to Voldemort or Dumbledore?" Abeforth then roared with laughter. "Idiot boy."
"It's a fair question in the current climate," Nymphadora shrugged, seeing the same subtle opening that Severus did. "If you said Voldemort then Theo would have known you couldn't be trusted."
If he said Dumbledore, then he would have known the same thing.
Abeforth finished off his second drink and moved the glass to the sink filled with soapy water.
"Lass," he gave Nymphadora a bit of a condescending and wry smile, "do you not know my last name?"
...Severus had been under the impression that it was Abeforth.
"Brothers." Severus scowled on their way back to the castle. "I never knew Albus had a brother."
Thank God that Severus had signed on as Harry's guardian, preventing him from resuming his previous role as a double agent. He had clearly lost his skill.
"I always thought 'Abeforth' was his surname," Nymphadora sighed, validating Severus' own belief. She tilted her head up to examine the stars, as Severus knew she enjoyed doing. "Well, can't fault you for trying, Sev, but I don't think we're going to break through a brotherly bond with a few jokes and friendship."
"No, I suppose not," Severus said, defeat weighing heavily on him. "Hopefully Frederick acquires the ingredients I need soon and we can simply track Albus' location the next time he leaves the castle."
Nymphadora paused mid-step and gave Severus a queer look. "Fred? You asked Fred to order you those ingredients?"
Severus raised a brow. "I did."
"Why?" she asked, flabbergasted. "I mean, why Fred?"
Severus considered the many, many, items that Frederick and George Weasley invented and created that had made their way to both his home and the castle. He recalled the multiple occasions where he entered an abandoned classroom only to find it set up as an impromptu laboratory with miscellaneous cauldrons and work tables filled with items that never could have been acquired at Hogwarts.
Frederick may be an insufferable pest, but Severus knew the young man at least had connections in Knockturn Alley that Severus no longer did.
"Frederick is my future son-in-law," Severus said placidly. "I thought we would begin our new relationship by ordering illicit ingredients."
Nymphadora laughed and shook her head at him. "You've got a weird way of bonding with people, Sev."
Possibly.
'Weird', but effective in his opinion.
Certainly when Severus had played the role of spy before, he had never had so many allies. And the more allies he had now, the higher his hopes of Harry surviving the war with his sanity and life in tact.
The next morning, Harry arrived with breakfast, resuming their easy routine that had been temporarily broken.
Harry was rather quiet though as they ate. He poked at his breakfast and opened his mouth to say something, multiple times, before snapping it shut. Severus waited patiently, certain that Harry would speak when he was ready. And it took some time, they had finished their meal, but he finally did.
"Dumbledore's an idiot, but he's gonna be hard to kill, yeah?"
"Correct," Severus agreed. "Albus is a wizard of uncommon skill and strength. It will require more than your magic to find a way to end his life."
"Yeah..." Harry tapped his finger on the table for a moment. "So... so I think we should let Susan help."
Severus inhaled, he held the air in his lungs for a long moment, then exhaled evenly.
"No."
"You can't say no," Harry said. "Listen, Sev, either we let Susan help or she kills Timmy and takes his place. And I'd rather not fight Susan fuckin Bones, yeah?"
Severus' lip twitched.
As did his eyelid.
"Harry, it will take subtlety and a vast amount of cunning to even disarm Albus, to say nothing of killing him," he explained patiently. "Your Susan is neither of those things."
Harry shrugged and picked at the skin on his wrist before peeking up at Severus with a guilty look in his eyes. "I told her," he said quietly. "I told her about the horcrux in my head and about needing to kill Dumbledore to live."
"Harry!" Severus groaned and rubbed the spot between his eyes with true irritation. "How could you be so singularly stupid?"
The very last thing they needed was Albus becoming aware of the plot against his life. And perhaps, equal to that, would be the Dark Lord becoming aware that they were aware of his horcruxes.
Rabastan could move the cup. And they still had no inkling as to where the tiara was hidden.
"I'm not stupid," Harry snapped. "I didn't tell her about the other horcruxes, did I? But she needed to know that I'm probably gonna die. And Timmy doesn't seem to mind if I know about the horcrux."
"Stop." Severus held a hand up as his stomach recoiled from Harry's words. "You will not die," he said with patience instead of the dread he felt. "Not if our plan is successful. And even if it is not, do you believe I will allow you to die?"
Harry's lips twisted in to an imitation of a smile. Truly, a look too cynical to fit a youthful face.
"I believe you believe that," he said softly. He looked up to Severus and had a sudden look of mischief in his eyes. "You can't even say if I die that my mum would ground me, because I don't think she would."
Severus felt a wash of relief at Harry's lighthearted jest.
It had been a gamble, encouraging Harry to use the resurrection stone, but Harry had emerged from Severus' quarters that evening with red eyes and a sense of calm confidence that Severus had not seen in ages from the child.
Severus kept a close eye on him as Harry returned to classes and had been pleased to see that Harry was more settled, if not a touch more reserved, than he had been since before even his arrest. Not so reserved that he had not put Seamus Finnigan in the Hospital Wing two days after his return, but, as Severus and Minerva had agreed, Finnigan should have known better than to continue provoking Harry without expecting an eventual retaliation. Minerva had assigned Harry a week of detentions with her for his actions, but Severus knew she spent the time working on animagus theory with Harry.
Apart from a sense of peace that Severus sensed in him, Harry had not offered any information on his experience, and Severus had not asked.
"You have not used the stone since that night, have you?" Severus asked, suddenly worried that Harry had perhaps taken to using it as often as he did his cloak.
Harry shuddered lightly and tapped his knuckles on the table. "No," he said curtly. "It was..." Harry shook his head. "No," he repeated. "I don't want to."
"A wise choice," Severus assured him. "It would undoubtedly lead to madness, as the Mirror of Desire would."
"Did you..." Harry rapped the table with his knuckles once more as he studied Severus closely. "Did you not use it?"
"I did not," Severus said truthfully.
"Why?" Harry blurted. "Why wouldn't you?"
Severus raised a single brow at him. "Why would I?" Severus hardly wanted to speak with either of his parents. He had a few friends, namely Barty, Evan, and Regulus, who had died, but what would Severus gain from drawing their spirit back to the earth? One more chat? It was tempting, but it was meant to be.
"I thought... thought you'd wanna talk to my mum," Harry said with a forced air of lightness. "Hear her say she isn't mad at you, or whatever."
Severus sat back in his chair as he contemplated that. It truly had not even crossed his mind to do such a thing. Apart from occasionally thinking of Lily when Harry prompted him to (typically in the manner of: 'I wish you were here to raise your child as he is giving me a migraine'), Severus felt as if he had finally put his affection for her in the past, where it should have been long ago.
In a way, it was as if Severus and Harry both were no longer being haunted by Lily Potter.
"While I would be pleased to have earned her forgiveness, I do not require it to feel unburdened by the past," Severus said with care. He did not want Harry to feel as if he were being condescending towards Harry's own desires to be absolved from his sins by Lily, but the two of them had much different relationships with the woman. "One day I will pass and perhaps I will share a cup of tea with her and apologize once more."
A ghost of a smile passed through Harry's eyes. "She told me she doesn't hate you, you know," he said factually. "She said her and my dad both couldn't hate someone who is so dedicated to me."
That... that was a rather touching sentiment.
Severus inclined his head in gratitude. "I suppose then I shall invite Potter to our cup of tea," he said with a mild smirk. "We can relive our incredibly close friendship, hmm? Perhaps we were meant to be bosom brothers this whole time."
Harry laughed- a bright and joyful noise that felt as if music to Severus' ears- and leaned forward eagerly. "My mum said I should give Sirius more hell," he said with a true smile. "So now I'm planning on pranking him with Susan and blaming my mum for it."
Severus smiled back. "A delightful plan," he said. "Let me know if there is any way I can assist you."
And since the topic had circled back to Miss Bones...
"If you believe Miss Bones will work with the upmost secrecy (and since Harry had already told her...) then I see no immediate drawback in her lending her talents to our plans," Severus told Harry. "Though, perhaps she should speak with Nymphadora about learning occlumency."
Harry blinked, clearly surprised by Severus' acceptance and request. "Why wouldn't you teach her?" he asked curiously.
Severus rolled his eyes to the ceiling and inspected it as he replied. "I have a strict personal rule to never teach teenage girls occlumency," he said stiffly. "I prefer to be blissfully ignorant of their particular brand of horrifying teenage experiences."
It took Harry a moment to puzzle out Severus' words, but he grimaced once he did.
"That's disgusting, Sev," he said.
Severus nodded his head. "Quite."
And, thus, Susan Bones became yet another ally in Severus' private mission to set Harry up to murder the Headmaster.
Though, Severus had been unaware at the time, but the next stroke of luck he received in his mission arrived a little over a week later from an unexpected ally.
Severus had been in his office after his classes ended, working on the tracking potion he hoped to trace Albus' frequent trips with, when Harry and Susan came bursting through his office door. Harry was waving a bright blue book in his hand and the two of them wore wide smiles.
Smiles that were perhaps more malevolent than joyous.
"Sev, oh my god, look!" Harry thrust the book in Severus' hand then flicked his fingers towards the office door, locking and warding it.
Severus glanced down curiously at the book and was faced with a photograph of Albus. It was the same photograph used on his Chocolate Frog Card- Albus wore his star covered blue robes and matching hat and was smiling genially with his twinkling blue eyes. The startling difference was the title above his photograph:
The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore.
By Rita Skeeter, of course.
"By God," Severus breathed. He flipped the cover open and scanned a few pages at random. "Albus will be ruined."
"Sir, think about it," Bones whispered, "what if... what if Dumbledore didn't die, he wasn't murdered, but what if he just disappeared from the shame of the book?"
Severus looked up from the book and met Bones' eyes and realized that he had vastly underestimated the girl.
Bones was not only cunning, she was positively ruthless.
Severus shared a smile with the girl. "Susan, you may have just eclipsed Lovegood as my favorite student."
Bones laughed which prompted Harry to laugh as well.
"Was this released today?" Severus asked them, turning his attention back to the book.
"Nope." Harry sounded quite smug in that moment. "I paid Rita to find dirt on Dumbledore so she sent me an advanced copy of the book. It releases on April first."
Then they would need to kill Albus by the end of term to time it correctly.
"And Harry gets his first royalty check for the books on May first," Bones laughed. "Really, I don't know why people think all reporters are scum, Rita offered Harry ten percent of the sales profits after taxes since he gave her the initial funding to write it."
Reporters were scum, slightly above death eaters in Severus' opinion. Though, Skeeter was proving to be a fruitful one to have on Harry's side.
"Hey, Sev?"
Severus tore his eyes from the book once more to glance up at Harry. "Yes?"
Harry was positively oozing smugness from his every pore as he stood there with his lips twisted in a smirk and his arms crossed in a very self-satisfied way.
"Remember when you said that I'd either end up penniless or more rich than any teenager has any right to be by graduation?"
Severus could not recall a specific instance where he said those words, but it did sound very much as something he would say.
"I think I'm going to be rich," Harry said after Severus nodded.
And that, that caused Severus to finally laugh as well.
He traced the title of the book with a bit of wonder. Yes, 'The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore' would undoubtedly be a best-seller.
"I believe you will be," Severus agreed. "Do try and spend it in a new pub, though, as Abeforth is Albus' brother."
Severus once more felt vindicated in his own initial shock at the revelation by the sudden looks of indignation on Harry and Bones' faces.
Though, after Severus read the book that night from front to back, perhaps he had been hasty in brushing off Abeforth as Albus' sibling. Abeforth seemed to be yet another person let down by the great Leader of the Light.