Severus had wanted to laugh at his flummoxed boss but hadn't dared. The boy was right and they both knew it. Nothing he could have said would make Cornelius divert more funding to the auror department. But what he could have said certainly would have done a great deal of harm to the Headmaster had he chosen to deny Fudge's beliefs. Certainly telling the man Pettigrew had brought the Dark Lord back would only have allowed the paranoid politician another target for his paranoia.
Which, come to think of it, was probably exactly what Albus wanted. So long as Fudge and the press had Harry to target, he probably figured they'd leave him alone. And Severus knew Albus well enough to know he'd point the worst of the bad press at Harry. Just to divert it away from himself. Either that or he'd act the part of the long suffering mentor forced to deal with a delusional child hero wanting an enemy to fight. Hell, he'd probably have done both. If Harry had cooperated and confirmed his tale. And Severus did notice Albus was very quick and quiet in getting rid of the imposter Alister Moody which to him only confirmed Harry's story of how and why he'd become a participant in the Tournament. As well as how much damage Harry's story, which was verifiable by both pensieve memories and truth serum, could do to Albus' reputation. Severus had made a point of getting both behind Albus' back and storing them secretly for future use should they be necessary to save Potter's life or freedom.
Now older and wiser, Severus knew it was luck really that all of them hadn't lost their souls to the spells they were studying back then. Since there was no way any of them could simply ask a teacher at this school to help them prepare themselves adequately they'd studied out of books in out-of-the-way classrooms and practiced what they read about whenever they found a few unwatched moments to do so. They'd had to use out of the way abandoned classrooms because Lily and the Marauders were Gryffindors and if they'd been caught using the dungeon rooms by his tower mates, every one of them would've seen his study mates as free and easy targets to practice their own spell work upon. Especially Lily as she was a first generation witch.
But maybe they hadn't because of the reason for which they were learning the information. Intention was ninety percent of all magic after all and their intentions had been good. Even back then, they had sought to protect. Not harm. Peter clearly had slipped the farthest of them though Severus had fallen as well. Though he and Black had never gotten along and truly hadn't been able to abide each other, he and James had buried the hatchet well enough to be able to study together. And Black had helped to explain some of the spells Severus was trying to teach Lily and the Marauders because Black did have a background in Dark Magic even if he did everything he could to disavow his family line. But like Severus and Lily, Black had understood that to defeat the dark you had to know what the dark could do. And recognize when they were.
And so, when Severus had lost his way to the lure of the power of the Dark Arts, Lily had refused to give up on him and she'd convinced James he was worth the effort of saving as well. Black wouldn't hear of trying to help him and Remus had already stopped coming to their study sessions. Peter wasn't able to do much at all really which was probably why none of them had noticed his slide to the darkside. So it was just Lily and James fighting against the lure of the dark arts pulling at him. The two had worked around the clock pulling him back and he had been fighting it with everything he had. For his friend. For her. Because she wanted him to fight it. And that was a good enough reason to him.
Still, it hadn't been until he learned his Master was planning the deaths of his friends because of their child that he'd truly returned to the light. Until that revelation he'd been caught between the two forces. Not really dark but not light either. Much like he was today as a matter of fact. Only now he felt no pull to practice dark magic. He just understood their reasoning and could sympathize with them. Witches like Granger and Weasely made it all too easy to understand their point of view. And because of that, he found he could do dark spells just as easily as he could do the light spells. Unlike most those who fell to the dark arts, Severus had fought tooth and nail clawing his way back to the light and now he considered himself to be neutral. A grey warrior if you will. Which was why when the Ministry was looking for a Guardian/Protector for Potter, he'd agreed to fill the role.
But back then learning the Dark Lord would attack his friends just to kill their baby on the remote possibility that said baby would be his downfall was the eye opening shock he'd needed to realize the Dark Arts weren't for him. He wasn't into infanticide but especially not due to some drunken crackpot uttering a few nonsensical words in a tavern. And definitely not when that baby he wanted to kill was the son of his only lifelong friend and her husband who had believed in him when no one else gave a damn.
So even though he'd lost his friends without ever having been able to tell them of his recovery, he vowed he'd protect their child for them. Because they weren't here to do it themselves. No matter what he had to do or who he had to go against. He would protect Harry James Potter until his own death. Because Harry was all he had left of them. The last people to actually believe in him as a good and trust-worthy person in his own right. Because he was well aware Albus didn't truly believe Severus wasn't still a devotee of the Dark Arts. Albus might have a use for him, but he didn't believe Severus was as light as any other wizard on his side. Which was actually true but not in the way Albus meant it. But Lily and James had believed in him and just as it had been then, it was still good enough for him now.
Albus might think he was the reason Severus wasn't lost to the light as other Death Eaters were. But Severus knew it was Lily and James Potter who'd saved him. Not Albus Dumbledore. Because it was they who believed in him. Not Albus Dumbledore. And it was Harry he fought for now. Not Albus Dumbledore. Or the Dark Lord.
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