Harry heard what his father hadn't said. Whomever may be killed, it isn't your fault.
"Your sons seem to have matters well in hand," said Albus, patting Snape's shoulder. Snape glared at the headmaster's hand as though offended, but he didn't shove it away. "Thank you for your report, Severus. I'll return as soon as I know anything."
Snape gave a curt nod; Albus replied with a kind smile as he left.
------------------------------------------------------
It was nearing five o'clock before the headmaster made another appearance.
"Good timing," said Harry. "We just finished."
"How are you, Severus?" asked Albus, bending down a little.
Snape gave him a baleful glance, at which the headmaster straightened. "Tired."
Draco tucked his wand away after finishing restoring the lab to a pristine, ready-to-brew condition, and gestured toward the vat of Dark Marks. Harry had been trying not to look at it. The mere sight made his arms itch something awful, but with his father's sharp eyes on him--tired or no--he'd managed not to scratch.
Well, at least with the entire process finished, the marks were quiet for the moment.
"That lot's ready to be put in deep storage again," said Draco. "Though I suppose it can wait if you're not feeling up to it, Severus."
"Now is better." Snape drew his wand and cast a complex spell, sending send the vat into the hidden wizardspaced cabinets in his lab. Afterwards, he slumped in his chair, but only for a moment. It was as though he'd forgotten they weren't alone, but only for a moment. "You have news for us, Headmaster?"
"Ah, yes. I've heard from Remus Lupin. Voldemort was indeed calling all his followers, just as Harry mentioned as your suspicion, Severus."
Harry wished there were another chair in the lab, because his stomach suddenly swam so much that he felt ill. "It's going to be bad, then, whatever they're up to. Really bad. Some horrible attack, something huge to need so many Death Eaters involved at once."
Snape's gaze captured his, the message in those dark eyes one Harry couldn't miss. Not your fault.
"Actually, no," said Dumbledore, stroking his beard, his own eyes looking like he was calculating a chess moves. "Remus informed me that Voldemort has abruptly ordered his followers to distant places abroad. He toyed with overseas recruitment this past year, as you know, but now it seems that he's going to pursue it in earnest. Remus himself was assigned to France and was required to leave at once, as were the others."
Harry blinked. "Every Death Eater has left Britain, you mean?"
"That was Lupin's report, yes."
"Well, that's just strange," said Draco. When Harry glanced his way, the other boy's forehead was wrinkled. "In all the gossip I ever heard, there was never a contingency plan for anything like that."
Albus' hand paused. "Nevertheless, it is true that the Death Eaters are now fanned out across the Continent. Remus has confirmed it. The largest concentration seems to be in Eastern Europe."
"And Voldemort himself remains in Britain?" asked Severus.
"Yes, by all accounts in Little Hangleton."
"There wasn't any attack?"
"No, my boy," said Dumbledore, his eyes compassionate as he steadied them on Harry. "None of any kind."
Harry's breath hitched as something else occurred to him. "Maybe this is our chance, then." Once the idea sprouted in his mind, it seemed to grow and blossom on its own. "Yeah, it's perfect. You know how we heard that Voldemort hadn't reacted so well to having his bone marrow sucked out? Well, the operation must have addled his brains! Why else would he send all his Death Eaters out of the country and leave himself alone and vulnerable? He's like a sitting duck now, and we should be the ones to attack--"
"Just because Voldemort may be alone does not make him vulnerable," interrupted Snape.
"Well, he doesn't have my dark powers--"
"He might, you idiot child! Do you seriously believe that Lupin, Lupin, is so much a member of the inner circle that he is privy to Voldemort's every secret?"
"Calm yourself, Severus," said Dumbledore, very softly.
Instead, Snape practically snorted. "Calm myself. Calm myself! Not bloody likely, Albus. You know what trouble this boy gets himself into, how Harry lives to hurl himself into danger at the least provocation, how he decides on a course of action and damns the consequences--"
"Excuse me," interrupted Harry, raising his voice. "I'm not a boy, all right? Starting today, I'm an adult. A man, and you talk like you think I haven't grown up since the last time I damned the consequences and got Sirius thrown backwards through that Veil! Well, I have, so just fuck off!"
A faint tinge of colour splashed Dumbledore's cheeks. "Harry. Really."
Snape ignored the last part of Harry's outburst. "Yes, you have grown up. I know you have. But old habits die hard, and I simply cannot stand the thought that you may strike out on your own--"
"For God's sake! I'm not mental enough to go to Little Hangleton alone!"
"--and find yourself a victim of this trap."
That brought Harry up short. "Trap?"
Harry hadn't noticed until then, but Draco had moved to stand right alongside him. Now, he rested three fingertips on Harry's forearm, just for a moment. "It could be, Harry. It reeks of one. Why else would the Dark Lord do something so radically out of character, and leave himself without the phalanx of Death Eaters he usually keeps about? It sounds to me like he's trying to tempt the Order to attack."
"But if that operation made him lose his mind--"
"It didn't," said Snape, very gently. "He's trying to see if we will lose ours, and forget, in our excitement, that this information may be a deliberate plant to lure us in."
Harry gritted his teeth. "If he wanted to lure me in, wouldn't he start torturing somebody I care about, and taunt me with it? That's what worked last time."
Dumbledore began smoothing his fingers through his long beard. "I thought your Occlumency was strong enough to prevent that, Harry. Has there been a development?" He looked from Snape to Harry and back, as if he suspected that he wasn't being told everything.
Harry's nostrils flared. This was why the headmaster had been reluctant to let Snape and Harry form a family. He'd feared losing control of the flow of information.
Or control of Harry.
"No. Voldemort can't reach into my mind," said Harry, a little sharply. "But I'm sure he knows how to get me a message another way."
"Yes, and he'd expect you to be wary of any such message, after the last one was a fraud," said Snape, beckoning Harry with a hand. Only when Harry was closer did his father resume speaking. "Precisely why we should expect that if he were springing another trap, it would take a new form."
To the side, Draco nodded. "He's a Slytherin, after all."
Harry's shoulders drooped in defeat. "So, we aren't going to attack."
"Not when he might be expecting it. Certainly not," said Albus. "He can call his Death Eaters at an instant's notice. All of them at once. And there is no reason to suppose that Voldemort hasn't supplied them all Portkeys to return to him, should they be too distant to Apparate to his side."
"But wouldn't Remus know, if they had been given--" A lump seemed to settle in Harry's belly. "Oh. Oh no. If this is a trap for the Order, and Remus doesn't know it, that means he's been found out, and--"
"Voldemort may well be testing him, or someone else," said Snape. "The Order attacking would confirm that there is a spy in his ranks."
"Oh, well attacking is out for sure if it might get Remus killed." Harry sighed. "Now you've got me worried that he's not up to this assignment."
"Like you, he is an adult, able to make his own choices," said Snape softly, reminding Harry of things they'd discussed before.