Author's Note: No, the update notice in your email was not an April fools joke, it's really here. It's short, it's really late, and I don't particularly like how it ended, but here it is. I'll save you my 500 RL excuses for being so long, but I'll continue to work on it. I want to get the next chapter up next weekend, but it might be two weekends. We'll see how it goes.

Lily

Disclaimer: Don't own HP, just playing around.

Chapter 2 – Straight Talk

"Come on in Severus." The potions master didn't know why the headmaster even bothered to shut his door. Did he take some insane pleasure out of making the student body gossip about his 'psychic abilities' by knowing who was on the other side without opening it?

"Have a seat and take a lemon drop." The sweeping motion was meant to be warm and welcoming, but Severus was not in the mood. He old man had put this conversation off long enough, and he wasn't going to fall for any more delay tactics.

"What was it Albus?"

Albus Dumbledore sighed and removed his glasses wearily. "That's a loaded question Severus. I'm afraid that the answer is very delicate, and extremely dangerous. This is a strictly need to know basis and…"

"Let me make something extremely clear right now." Severus's voice was one that would have sent tremors through ay Hufflepuff student sitting before him. It was a voice the Headmaster was unfamiliar with himself, but this was a situation Severus was unfamiliar with. "Harry is my son. Long before I swore to you that I would protect him, but now this is beyond even that. If you plan on continuing to believe that Harry is some prophecy child, you will include me. Anything that concerns Harry, makes me need to know. You try to leave me out of anything or start playing games with his safety like last year, and I promise you right now that we will disappear, and you won't be able track us no matter how powerful you are. I'm a master spy. You know I can do it. I ask you now not to test me."

Albus Dumbledore looked every bit of his 110 years as he watched the man sat before him. Severus Snape had served him faithfully for almost 13 years now and had not once lied to him. Nobody knew his abilities more than Dumbledore himself, and he knew the man spoke the truth. "Alright Severus. I understand, and I'll meet your terms."

"Good. Now, the diary? How bad is it?"

Albus sighed once more and pulled the ruined leather diary out of his desk to set before his potions master. "I'm afraid it's pretty bad. I know you've been frustrated I wouldn't speak of it during the semester, but to be honest I was still doing some research to make sure of my ideas. If I'm correct, it explains why Voldemort didn't die the night he attacked the Potters."

Severus knew that he was well versed in the dark arts. It had made Lily uneasy from the beginning, but he had continued to pursue it deeper and deeper all through Hogwarts and had gone even further in its exploration while serving the Dark Lord. He also knew that his knowledge didn't hold a candle to that of his previous master.

"Have you ever heard of the term Horcrux Severus?" With everything in his being, the older wizard prayed the man across him would say no. He prayed desperately he wasn't that far tainted since this was something he wished he didn't know about himself.

As a master spy, Severus had long since learned to bury all visible emotion. Now, he schooled his face into a blank mask as he thought over the word to bring any recognition before curtly shaking his head once and responding, "I'm afraid not Headmaster."

With a breath of relief, Albus allowed himself a small smile. "Don't be afraid of not knowing something so dark I've removed all trace from the Hogwarts library. It was a hope that by removing it from the school, it could be erased from history all together, but I'm afraid it's not to be."

At this, Albus rose from his seat and turned to stare out his window to gaze upon the grounds. "You know that drinking the blood of a unicorn will keep you alive at the price of living a cursed life. A horcrux is such a vile ritual that even a dementor won't touch you."

Severus licked his lips as he studied the man before him. There was something so dark that a dementor wouldn't even hurt you? A dementor itself was dark and could only be repelled by a powerful memory poured into a Patronus of radiant light.

"Voldemort was not destroyed that night. You've seen the evidence twice now, and I fear that there is more to come. I only wish I knew how much more there is to this terrible story. His body was destroyed. It was blown to pieces when the avada kedavra curse hit it but his soul remained on this earth." Albus continued to speak to the window while the man behind him listened silently. "In the horcrux ritual, you give death a soul by murdering another being, and in return, you split off a piece of your soul so that it lives on outside of your body. The piece of your soul that you have cut off needs a body however, so it is placed inside an object of the creators choosing. In this case, the soul's host was the diary. A horcrux is also extremely hard to destroy. It can only be done by destroying the object in which it is kept in a fashion that can't be fixed, even by magic."

Severus swallowed hard as he thought about all of this. The Dark Lord had often spoken of being undefeatable. This was what he had meant. As he mulled over the ways to destroy something even magic couldn't fix he found his throat was so dry that his voice came out dry and cracked. "Basilisk venom." It took years of skill to suppress the shudder that ran through him at the word because of how dangerous the stuff was. It was a highly coveted ingredient used in in extremely powerful and restricted potions.

"Oddly enough, that method is now much simpler than fiend fire." All it took was an eyebrow raise, that the old man didn't see, for him to turn around and walk to where he had hung the sword on his office wall. "The sword of Godric Gryffindor, made of the finest goblin made steel."

When the headmaster didn't go on, Severus finished the thought. "It absorbs what makes it stronger and Harry stabbed the basilisk through the mouth with it."

There was silence except for the whirring of the many instruments around the office for several minutes. As much as Severus had wanted to be able to talk and actually get answers, this much dark magic was more than he had feared, and he doubted they were done with the worst of it. For one, "Harry destroyed the diary." At this Severus physically picked up the leather book in front of him. "I watched him stab it, and I saw Riddle vanish. But he's not gone." Putting down the book, he pulled up the left sleeve of his robe to reveal the fade black mark on his forearm.

"No, I'm afraid he is still around somewhere." Albus gave a heavy sigh and sat back down at his desk. "For one, he still has the spirit form he used to impersonate Quirrell last year. I'm not sure how, but somehow a piece of his spirit remained even after his body was destroyed. But I fear there may also be more horcruxes."

"You think he made more than one?" Severus' couldn't quite mask the shock he felt at hearing this. He knew that the Dark Lord was a megalomaniac. This wasn't a surprise. The thing he had a hard time understanding was how the man managed to keep surprising him.

"You and Harry both stated that Tom was a young boy when he came out of the diary." It was Albus's turn to pick up the leather book and he slowly began turning the ink stained pages. "The soul takes on the age of when the horcrux ritual was performed. For the Tom in the book to be so young, he must have made his first horcrux before even leaving Hogwarts. To start that young, I'm afraid it would not surprise me for him to keep going. I just wish I knew how many of these there are."

"Not only how many, but also what they are hidden in, and where they are hidden." Severus found himself rubbing his eyes tiredly. It was the last day of term. He'd had dinner with Harry, and then instructed him that he had some business to attend to and left some instructions with the elves before returning for his long-awaited meeting with the headmaster. "If this was in Lucius's possession, the Dark Lord would have had to leave it for him before he disappeared. Did he give any to his other followers?"

"While it is not out of the realm of possibilities, we also must look at other hiding places covered with enchantments." Albus placed the diary down again and steepled his fingers as he looked seriously at his potions master sat before him. "Tom's biggest fear was his destruction. After this, I think that it is safe to say that he would stoop at nothing to assure success. Unfortunately, those are all the answers that I have right now. To delve any further I will need to do more research and investigation."

Severus gave a curt nod and rose from his seat. Before turning however, he looked directly at the man that had been a mentor for the past 11 years. "You will let me know what you discover?" It was phrased with a hint of a question, but he hoped that he'd made his point earlier. If Harry was involved, he was going to be involved as well or he would make good on his promise to disappear.

Albus rose to his feet as well, never breaking eye contact with the young man before him. "I will Severus. I give you my word. Although, I will beg you to have patience with me. I will tell you everything, but I ask that you let me make sure. Half baked theories of an old man can go extremely wrong and can do more harm than good."

Severus considered him for a moment. Was this a cryptic way of getting out of revealing things until it fit the old man's tidy little plan? Or was he honestly just wanting to save on stress and fear by making certain before speaking. "What do you mean by letting you make sure?"

"I'm an old man Severus." Albus spoke softly with the air of his age. "I'm not used to explaining everything out to someone, but I'm willing to give it a try. I'm not going to be perfect, and I don't want to cause alarm with false theories. Therefore, I want you to ask your questions, and I will honestly do my best to answer and not leave you in the dark. I beg you however to be patient with me as I find the answers for myself."

"Can you give me an example?" Severus still didn't trust the jaded response he was getting.

"Harry can speak to snakes."

This did nothing but confuse the man more. "Yes, he showed that particular skill off for the whole school quite awhile ago."

"It is not a skill that has been known for quite some time." Albus continued in perfect patience. "Does it not seem odd that it is now manifesting in a line it never has before when the last known person to possess such a talent was the dark lord the current speaker defeated?" Severus didn't respond. Instead he kept his gaze locked on the old man waiting for him to continue. "This is what I don't have an answer for. It is a situation that doesn't quite sit right in my mind, but I am still trying to pick it apart. Is it a natural born talent? Is it a reminiscence of that night? Was it a transfer of power from Tom to Harry? If so, how much power? I can't say anything for certain, but it is something I am studying and something I will do my best to keep you updated on."

Severus finally gave a small nod. "I understand." He didn't like it. He didn't like what the headmaster was hinting towards, but he knew that fretting about possibilities would get them nowhere but frustrated.