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-I-I-I-

Severus lowered his wand as the man in the muggle suit finally fell. What the hell was he? Nothing human could take a Stunner at full strength and keep on standing!

The boy got to his feet, his movements cautious. His gaze flicked back and forth between Severus and the man on the ground, and it was obvious by the expression on his face that he wasn't at all sure he hadn't gone from the cauldron into the flames. The wizard carefully slipped his wand back into his pocket as the adrenaline faded from his veins, and he held up his empty hands.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said, his voice low.

The boy didn't seem wholly convinced, stepping back into the shadows until Severus could barely make out his features. "...How did you do that?"

Inside Severus was cursing. The boy was a muggle; he would have to contact the Obliviators. "Magic," he finally replied. If the boy was going to be Obliviated, he might as well have something to forget, first.

There was silence for a long moment. "You're a program, then," the boy stated. "Why did you help me?"

The potions master blinked. "A what? And of course I bloody helped you! I'm not going to just stand by while a child is being murdered!" He took a step forward in his indignation, and the youth backed away, maintaining the distance between them. Severus stopped as he saw this, taking a deep breath and pushing his anger down. "I'm not going to hurt you," he repeated. "My name is Severus Snape."

"I'm Harry," the boy returned after a long, hesitant moment.

What little conversation there was floated out into the air between them and ossified. They stood there, staring at each other as the night wore on. The silence stretched, frayed... and just when Severus would have broken it, there was a quiet /click/. The wizard looked to the side to see a second muggle, who would have been a twin to the first but for slight variations in his facial features, pointing a gun at his head.

There was no time to disarm the man, or bring up a shield. By the time he got to his wand his brains would be splattered all over the pavement. So, he took the only plausible course of action left to him.

He Apparated.

The muggle was still looking around for him when Severus appeared behind him. There was plenty of time now to free his wand, and while it may have taken two Stunners from a distance to fell one of these things, it only took one delivered point-blank to the back of the head to make him tumble.

This time the wizard kept his wand in hand as he turned to check on the boy. If they'd been attacked twice, a third time wasn't so unlikely. "Harry? Are you hurt?"

The child stared at him, obviously shocked. "I thought I was the only one who could do that..."

Severus frowned. That wasn't quite the reaction he'd been expecting... "Do what?" he inquired testily. He was starting to remember just why he disliked children. There was nothing logical about them whatsoever.

Harry didn't answer him directly. Instead, he studied him carefully, his features shrouded by the shadows so that Severus couldn't see his expression. "Please," the boy finally said. "Please, wait here. I'll be right back, I have so many /questions/-"

Severus was half-inclined to refuse; Slytherins had little use for rules unless they suited them, but they did have a healthy regard for consequences. Bringing himself to the attention of the Ministry for violating the Muggle Secrecy Act more than he had already, especially as an ex-Death Eater, was foolhardiness worthy of a Gryffindor.

"Please," Harry said again. "I think it might be important."

Now, didn't that pique his damnable curiosity... With a sigh, the wizard nodded, and was rewarded with a brilliant smile that almost seemed to light up the night itself.

"I won't be long."

Severus was then utterly shocked when the boy vanished with a quiet /pop/.

-I-I-I-

Trinity paced within the confines of the seedy hostel room. There was no reason to think anything was wrong; Harry had been gone for hours, but they'd expected that would be the case. Surveillance missions always took forever. Still, though, she couldn't suppress a burgeoning conviction that somehow, somewhere, something wasn't right.

Perhaps that was why, when Harry popped into the middle of the room out of thin air, she wasn't terribly surprised.

She had him by the shoulders almost before he could even get his bearings. "What happened? Was it the Agents? Are you hurt? What-"

"Mum, breathe," Harry ordered as Morpheus and Neo moved up to stand by them. "Yes, it was Agents, no, I'm not hurt, and there's someone you really need to meet."

Trinity blinked and straightened, obediently taking a breath as ordered. Her husband put a steadying hand at the small of her back as she released her son.

"Report," Morpheus commanded, his deep voice reassuringly calm.

The boy nodded, unconsciously assuming parade rest. "I was observing my assignment when the Agents and the target exited. However, I was unable to see his face, due to the cloak he was wearing. I made a mistake, and the Agents realized I was there. They chased me for a couple of blocks, when an outsider interfered."

"Your guardian angel?" Trinity asked, referring to the mysterious Oriental man in white who had interceded more than once when Harry was in danger. Normally, she would have been uneasy that a stranger was taking such an interest in her little boy, but the thought that he had another protector out there was extremely reassuring.

To her surprise, though, Harry shook his head. "No, it was someone new. Tall, Caucasian, dark hair and eyes and a really impressive nose. He said his name was Severus Snape." He waited to see if the description rang any bells. Morpheus frowned, but said nothing. "I thought he was a program at first, because he dropped the Agents with some kind of red light. And the weird thing was, he just dropped them. They weren't dead."

Morpheus' face was as blank as ever, but Trinity thought she could see the same shock in his eyes that she and Neo were feeling. No one had ever before managed to stop an Agent except by killing them, and even that had been thought impossible until a couple of years ago.

Of course, the celebrations of the rebels involved in that incident had been cut short when they realized that a dying Agent simply abandoned its human host to die while it took another.

"But that's not all," Harry pressed on. "When I asked him, he didn't know what a program was, and when he was fighting the second Agent he /teleported/."

There was silence.

-I-I-I-

Severus could feel his irritation growing as he leaned back against the wall. There was still no sign of anyone out on the streets, so he'd felt safe enough to levitate the still-unconscious men in suits into a pile. It was a welcome, if all too brief distraction from the whirl of his thoughts as he tried to comprehend how a child could even accidentally Apparate, let alone be able to control it like his words implied. How had he learned? And why the hell hadn't one of the magical schools picked him up?

There were so many questions, but the only way he would get any answers would be if the brat got his arse back here!

As though in answer to his thoughts, the wizard heard the sound of cautious, muffled footsteps. He pushed himself away from the wall, his wand held low at his side; not aimed, but certainly ready to be. Now that something was actually happening, much of his irritation had vanished.

To his surprise, the first around the corner was a woman. She was beautiful in the way that a knife was, pretty to look at but dangerous to get close to, and the all-leather ensemble she wore only emphasized that impression. Next was a large black man in a leather trenchcoat that was eerily reminiscent of Severus' own. His dark eyes narrowed as he spotted the wizard, and Severus had the oddest feeling that the man knew him from somewhere.

Then, and only then, did Harry come into sight, accompanied by another man. The lighting was a bit better now, though the street lamp above them still flickered fitfully, and he could see the boy more clearly.

He guessed him to be perhaps ten or eleven, or maybe a year older if he was even smaller for his age than he seemed. He was wearing a black denim jacket over a gray shirt and dark jeans; downright tame, compared to the clothing of his companions. Even the man at his side was wearing a long black duster.

Except for his companions, Harry looked like a normal little boy. Toss him in some robes and he wouldn't look out of place bent over a cauldron in one of Sevens' classes. Although...

There was something about his messy mop of dark hair that rang a bell in the wizard's mind.

They all stood there for several tense moments, the adults sizing each other up as Harry looked on. They were muggles, the lot of them, Severus finally decided, but they had a certain air about them nevertheless that said they weren't to be trifled with.

"Severus Snape," he said, giving them a curt nod of acknowledgement. Downright polite, for him, anyway.

"I am Morpheus," the black man replied with an American accent. He was going to be the spokesman for the group, then? "My companions are Neo and Trinity." He gestured first to the second man, then to the woman, not at all self-conscious about the decidedly unusual names. Not that Severus could point fingers...

"How did you do this?" Neo asked, staring at the pile of their attackers. He bent down to check their pulses.

"Magic," Severus said again. Really, how many times were they going to ask him that question? He despised repeating himself.

"There's no such thing!" Trinity protested, glaring darkly at him.

The wizard arched an incredulous brow. "Your son Apparates at will and you don't believe in magic?" Odd. He hadn't even realized their probable relationship before the words came tumbling out of his mouth. And if he followed the thought further, he would guess Neo to be the father.

Now she seemed confused, along with the wariness still present in her features. "And what the hell is /Apparating/?"

Severus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers. Something told him this was going to be a long night... "Apparating," he lectured, "is the ancient and venerated art of transposing oneself from one place to another."

"Teleportation," Neo stated, understanding.

The professor nodded. "That is one word for it. It's how wizards travel."

"Wizards?" Harry asked, his eyes wide.

"Yes, wizards. I am a wizard, and most likely so are you." Severus ignored the skeptical expressions of the other adults. "Wizards and witches live in our own separate community, away from the outside world. We have our own government, and our own towns and schools." He frowned at Harry. "One of which you ought to be attending. I don't know why you weren't contacted at some point."

"We tend to be out of touch more often than not." The woman didn't seem convinced. "You don't really expect us to believe this baloney without proof, do you?"

The Slytherin's lips tightened with displeasure. "If you insist." He lifted his wand; seeing Harry tense, his family did as well, and several hands went for what could only be weapons. Severus froze momentarily, then carefully pointed his wand off away from any of them. "/Lumos/," he said carefully, and the tip of the wand lit up with a soft pale light.

The wizard heard several gasps, and he brought the wand around so the light fell on his companions. He wanted to see them better, see just what the bloody hell he'd managed to land himself into. Men shooting at a child, and that same child's family bearing weapons, in a country where such things were regulated unto death?

He got more than he'd bargained for. When the light fell on the four of them, it did more than show him their faces.

It threw the lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead into sharp relief.

Severus' eyes bulged. "/Potter/!"