Albus Dumbledore sat in his office eyeing the wand on his desk and thinking deeply. After a few minutes the door opened and in walked his deputy head mistress Minerva McGonagall and four others, two with their arms full of what looked like cloth bundles. Without speaking he indicated them to all sit and he picked up the wand.

"Albus, what is going on and whose wand is that?" Minerva asked.

"This wand was handed to me in the hope that we would listen to its owner." replied the Headmaster, "As you know a prophecy was relayed to me not long ago and it is with that in mind that I have agreed to talk to you and the owner of this wand, he is in the next room but cannot hear what we say."

"Well then, come out with it Albus." James Potter stated he sat by his wife who was holding their less than one month old son Harry in her arms. The other couple nodded their heads also wanting to get to the point. They were Frank Longbottom and his wife Alice who was holding their son Neville. Neville was one day older than Harry.

"Severus Snape please come in." Albus stated. As he said that the spell he placed on his inner office broke allowing Severus Snape to come into the room. "James put your wand away and sit down, I have already told you that I have his wand here and I have searched him for any others." Albus looked rather stern as he said this. He then turned to Snape and said "Now Mr. Snape please tell us why you are here."

"I overheard the prophecy you received a few months ago and took it to the Dark Lord. I didn't really know or understand what it meant or who it would affect. I really thought that the Dark Lord was right." Severus looked genuinely distraught, "But when I heard what he had decided the prophecy meant; I finally recognized him as truly evil. Voldemort has decided that the prophecy means that one of the two boys in this room will have the power to stop him. So he has decided that they both must die."

Both mothers gasped and immediately tightened their holds on the two boys; along with panic induced tears this was the reaction to the news, Lily was the first to speak, "Tell me one reason why I should listen to anything you have to say."

Turning to Lily, Severus said "We were best friends for years and I screwed that up when I called you that foul name. I have never forgiven myself for that and I want to fix it. Also Professor the Dark Lord has instructed me to try to get on your staff as potions master so that I can spy for him. I promise you that if you let me on your staff I will only tell him what you want me to. I would like to change sides, but as you know no one can stop being a Death Eater and live to tell about it. So I would like to spy for you, that way they don't know that I have quit and I don't forfeit my life instead I can be useful to you. And before you make your decision I will give you this information. You have a spy in the order, but he is not marked so finding him will be hard. I don't know who the spy is yet, but I am working to find out."

"Why do you come only now?" Frank asked

"I had nothing to report before now." Severus offered, "He had not decided who the prophecy meant until two days ago, I had no proof of the spy and only found out today that the spy told the Dark Lord that you were all staying at Hogwarts this summer for the births of the children and recovery."

That was something only someone in the order would know and that told Albus that Snape was being truthful, at least in part.

"You said he so the spy is a man?" James jumped to the natural conclusion.

"I don't know it for sure I have never heard the person speak but the Dark Lord refers to the person in the masculine form so I would assume it was. "

"Convenient." was all James said.

"Severus, I want you to wait back in the room." Albus instructed, "I will call your name when you can come back in."

Severus nodded and stepped out and Albus restored the previous spells on the room.

"If we trust what he says we need to hide them, probably in separate places with separate secret keepers." James was always planning ahead.

Frank nodded in agreement, "Mother will need to go with us, Albus would you be our secret keeper?"

"Absolutely Frank that will do nicely, James I could be your secret keeper as well, I think one secret keeper will be fine." Albus stated.

Before James could reply Lily looked at him and said "I don't want Sirius, Remus or Peter hurt because of us, although they need to know where we are. Someone else needs to be our secret keeper."

"If the spy is a male we could easily fix that by making a female your secret keeper." Minerva said.

"The only problem with that is what if it is a female and Severus or someone is trying to throw us off." Lily said.

"I don't think Snape is lying about us having a spy, regardless of the gender." James spoke up, "And I believe him about You-know-who being after us. I'm not convinced that he has turned a leaf and wants to spy for the Order instead of Death Eaters."

"But the real question is, do we tell the rest of the Order that we may have a spy?" Frank asked.

After several minutes Albus spoke "I think we should not tell the rest of them we may have a spy." he held up his hand to forestall any comments and continued, "We could be tipping off the spy and if Mr. Snape is turning a leaf then this could get him killed. I believe that if we have a spy he will tip his hand eventually and we will know. We could put forth several false plans, including one to Mr. Snape and see which plan gets a response."

Not long after they brought Snape back into discussions, "You are not trusted yet Mr. Snape." Albus said, "But you are being given a chance. You may return and let them know that I am considering your apparent turn and your application for Potions Professor. I expect you to report to me what you can and be careful; you are walking a very thin line and will only be privy to certain order information."

"If you had done any less I would worry you weren't vigilant enough to protect my position." Severus nodded in agreement, "I would ask though if you have any ideas on quicker communication. Things tend to move quickly around the Dark Lord and I would like time to warn you of impending attacks if possible."

"I will give that some thought." Albus replied, "It would need to be discreet."

After Snape left, the others retired to their rooms with a reminder not to tell anyone what had transpired this evening, then Minerva and Albus continued to discuss the matters at hand.

"I really don't think we can trust him. He and James never got along on anything and I know he thinks James only saved him from Remus to get with Lily." Minerva stated.

"Yes, but his feelings for Lily are very strong they always have been." Albus said "And if she is in danger, he would do anything to prevent it."