Severus POV
Severus had never really liked Dumbledore. When he had attempted Hogwarts himself, he had been the man, to sent him back to his abusive father year and year again. He had his suspicions about why the older man had done so, but he couldn´t be sure. And when asked, the headmaster had never given an answer.
The problem was, that even after Severus finished Hogwarts with flying colors, Dumbledore still held him in an iron grip. You see, since his mother was dead and his father, an abusive drunk head, he didn´t really have anywhere to go. At that point he didn´t have money in his name or a job or something and other than Lily he didn´t have any friends. So, when the older man had offered him a job and living quarters at Hogwarts, Severus didn´t really have the option to decline.
Unfortunately, the offer had come with a price. Dumbledore had made him his spy. He was pressured into following The Dark Lord. Into taking the mark. Into fighting on the dark side. He was just another chess figure under the great Albus Dumbledore.
The only good thing, that had ever come out of his loyalty to Dumbledore and the fact, that he was a spy, was that he had heard about the prophecy and had been able to warn his only friend. Not that it had helped anything.
When her son, his godson had just been a year old, the man he was pressured into working for killed them while the old man he worked under didn´t do anything against it. Snape would have liked to kill Dumbledore that night. Especially, when he had taken the young Potter boy, his Godson for god´s sake out of his arms to hide him somewhere safe.
That had been the last time Severus Bartholow Snape had seen his godson Hadrian James Potter.
That´s why, at the beginning of this year, he had been excited. He was still teaching at Hogwarts and in September both his godsons would be attending Hogwarts. He really hoped they would get along. But since Snape knew everything about Draco and nothing about Harry, he couldn´t be sure. He just hoped the old man would allow him to build a relationship with his youngest godson.
The shock was big when the first September arrived and Harry Potter wasn´t under the kids, getting sorted into their houses. Snape was still proud and happy, that Draco was now, one of his snakes, but he was deeply concerned, that Harry wasn´t at Hogwarts at all. And again, Dumbledor didn´t answer his questions at all. But it seemed this time, Snape wasn´t alone in his concern.
Both, Minerva McGonagall and Remus Lupin, who was teaching Defense against the Dark Arts since Quirrell never came back from his summer in Romania, stood with him in front of the old fool trying to get him talking. But the man was stubborn with a passion.
So, the three of them, all friends with the deceased Potters and somehow connected to Harry himself began to plot. It would take them some time, but they would get to the bottom of this.
It took them a frustratingly long time to get to the bottom. Four months to be exact.
Surprisingly they had gotten help from Lucius Malfoy, who still held some high positions on the school board and the ministry and had become aware of the situation, after Draco mentioned in his letters home, that nobody knew where Harry Potter was.
After plotting and collecting evidence against Dumbledore for four months the four had finally gotten through to the Aurors and the Department of Child Safety and in the second December week, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was finally arrested and removed from Hogwarts. And Snape was finally able to go get his godson.
You see, throughout the four months, they had discovered that Dumbledore had placed Harry, against the will of his parents, with his uncle and aunt. They had discovered, that Dumbledore knew, that they were abusing him and treating him worse than a house elf and that he even encouraged it for some reason. And the more they learned the more desperate Snape wanted to get him out of there. But they couldn´t do it without the former headmaster learning about it. It would have given away their secret work and probably set them back in their doing. So Severus (as well as the others) had restrained himself.
But today, on Christmas Eve, it was finally time. He would get his godson to Hogwarts. He would take over his care. He would help him heal.