Chapter Sixteen

Furious, he lunged forward at Potter and in doing so forced the memory out of the way. In a swirl of haze, the courtyard vanished.

He reacted sharply, raising his hand to shield his eyes as a flash of wand light. Bizarrely, a perfectly levitated feather floated gently to his feet. He did not pick it up. He stood his ground, stoically.

The feather vanished. Light dipped and swirled around him and he at last snatched at glimpses of memories. They were hazy snippets, out of sequence; covered in white dust, the trio stood terrified in the bathroom having just defeated the Halloween troll; then an older Hermione and Weasley at Potter's bedside; Hermione and Potter wishing Sirius well as he departed from the West Tower on a Hippogriff.

Each time, her memories centred around Potter. Not him, not Severus. Until, through will or want, he saw Hermione's first class with him, ever eagerly waving her hand, desperate to answer the question; Severus kissing her in the cave; Hermione and him making love on the Transfigured bed....

And as her thoughts of him flashed by, her struggle against him lessened. He felt an electric crackle in the air and then, like the calm after a storm, he felt her ease. He sensed her calm.

Fragments of images flickered around him, none staying long enough for him to grasp what they were. Then came the darkness again, filled with voices, violently shouting and screaming. Severus' heart beat faster. He felt the fear, could taste her terror. His need to protect her overwhelmed his logic. These were memories. Memories only, he told himself.

She'd seen such horrors. He'd had no idea. And in his pity, he'd almost lost his concentration. With the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, Severus was knocked onto the floor by someone diving in front on another. There was a momentary flash of eyes, the most terrible, piercing, blood-shot eyes. "Avada Kedavra!" The brilliant flash of green washed away the image.

Then one memory came into sight that sent Severus' mind reeling.

He was in this memory too, but he was younger. A teenager. It was one of the hallways in the castle, and Lily stood before him. She tried to kiss his image, but he shoved her away. No, that wasn't Lily. He remembered now, it had been...

"Rose!" Severus mouthed the name as his younger self hissed it. He watched as young Severus pushed Rose to the ground. He remembered just how much she revolted him. "Get off me!"

"What does it matter who I am?" Rose retorted, with a smirk. "I look like her, don't I?"

"You could never be her!" young Severus bellowed, looking down at her in disgust.

"Professor, I need your help. I need it now!" the woman begged.

"What on earth... I ... they said you were dead! They said the Dark Mark was over your house!" Dumbledore's fingers lingered on the wand on his desk.

The woman was near hysterical. "You have to save Harry, Professor, you have to!"

"Lily?!" Dumbledore said, looking stunned.

"Yes, Lily. I need your help, I need it now. Please!"

Albus raised one intrigued eyebrow.

"Harry isn't my son, sir. He's James and my sister's, Rose's. I...it doesn't matter right now! And I don't know why I'm alive. I don't know why Harry is. Voldemort tried to kill us both, he killed Rose, she stepped in front of me, stopping him from killing me...."

Dumbledore sat quietly before asking, "And you tried to stop him from killing Harry."

Lily nodded.

"How interesting. How very interesting. It appears that your sister's act of sacrifice out of love for you and your own for Harry, somehow blocked his spell. It is with deep regret that I must attest that Tom has never known love, never experienced its power, and that is what destroyed him. Love."

Lily looked at him for a moment, as if in contemplation, then sudden urgency. "I have to get out of here. And I need to take Harry. They'll never leave him alone, never!" Lily said shrilly.

"But Lord Voldemort is gone," Albus said calmly.

"Do you know that? Do you know that for sure?" She was almost begging him.

Albus was silent.

"You're right," the Headmaster replied. "Harry must be placed somewhere safe. At least, temporarily."

"No one can know about me, or that I've been here, no one can know I'm alive! It's not safe, not safe for Harry. I'm trusting you, Albus...." Harry wriggled in her arms, and after battling with him for a moment, she reluctantly placed him on the office floor to let him crawl around.

"Lily, shush. Calm down, dear. You have my complete confidence." He sat there for a moment in silence. "You stay here. And drink this," he said, summoning up a cup of tea for her. "It will help calm you. I will be back as soon as I can. I need to make some arrangements."

Dumbledore left the office. Lily relaxed. "It's all right, Harry," she said to the boy as he fiddled with the drawer handles on Dumbledore's desk, "Albus is a good man, he will find a way to keep us safe. He'll figure out a solution to it all."

Baby Harry gurgled and a small smile crept onto Lily's face. "Everything will be fine."

Time past. How much time, Severus wasn't sure. Harry played with and then discarded a silvery instrument he'd pulled down from one of the Headmaster's occasional tables while Lily, hitching dry sobs, mechanically chocked down the tea. She was so engaged in her own thoughts, she did not hear it when the door creaked open.

"Professor...?" Though much younger, there was no denying who the golden haired boy with the sparkling white smile was standing in the doorway. Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Dumbledore is out," Lily said dismissively, taking the quill Harry had pulled from the Headmaster's desk from his chubby hands.

"Oh," Gilderoy replied, but he made no move to leave. In fact, he walked into the office and began inspecting various objects. "You're Lily Evans."

"No, I'm Rose Evans, Lily's sister, and if you don't mind, I've got some things to work through."

"Oh, well, I've learnt this new spell, wanted to show Dumbledore, but you'll do," Lockhart began, pulling his wand from his robes. "See, it's to make people invisible." He withdrew his wand with an uncanny flourish. "Prepare to be impressed!"

"No!" Lily cried, but she was too late. She might have been able to fight off Death Eaters and even Voldemort himself, but she was no match for the insatiable bravado of Gilderoy Lockhart.

And as a brilliant stream of purple light hit her square in the face, Lily Evans vanished from Dumbledore's office.

*****

An older looking Dumbledore looked up from his desk, and to say he looked surprised would be a gross understatement.

"Lily! What are you doing here?" Dumbledore asked.

"What...what happened to you?" Lily stammered, staring at Dumbledore. "You're so old!" Her hands clapped over her mouth the moment the words left.

"Nothing has happened to me other than ten years have passed, dear. I'm far more interested in how a decade can go by with no sightings of you and here you are, standing in my office, looking precisely as you did the day you brought Harry to me."

"What?" Lily stared at the Headmaster. "But...oh! That ridiculous boy...Lockhart, he came in here, hit me with a spell.... You mean to say ten years have past?"

"Gilderoy Lockhart?" Albus said, then chuckled. "Never was very good with his wand. But he's not a boy any more. The last I heard he was off banishing Banshees and being quite famous."

Lily sunk down in the chair opposite the Headmaster. "So...?" Lily asked hesitantly. "Harry... how is he?"

Dumbledore smiled. "Harry is just fine. He'll be here at Hogwarts any day now. He's with your sister."

"Rose?" The confusion on Lily's face was evident.

"No, Petunia," Dumbledore said softly.

"And Petunia, she's looked after him?"

Dumbledore paused thoughtfully. "She's provided adequately for him."

Lily sighed with relief. "And they still live at Privet Drive?" Lily asked, jumping to her feet.

"Now, hold on," Albus said softly, his voice bringing her to a halt. "You can't go rushing off to see him, Lily. Firstly, everyone thinks your dead."

"But...."

"When you disappeared from my office, I'm afraid I feared the worst. I thought it best for all concerned if they just went on believing you had perished at Godric's Hollow. I placed Harry back there, I had Hagrid go and 'rescue' him. Perhaps not the best plan, but it certainly kept all questions out the limelight. And Harry's parents' reputation in a reputable state."

"Okay, so we tell everyone it was a mistake, I'm alive..." she began rambling.

Dumbledore stopped her with just one look. "There's been mutterings of late. Murmurs that make me nervous, Lily."

"What murmurs?" she dared to ask, her voice rising in pitch.

"I have word that Voldemort is back, not very powerful, but back all the same."

"But he just vanished!" Lily protested.

"No, he just vanished for you. It's been ten years..."

Lily sighed. "So now what?"

Dumbledore rubbed at his beard. "I have a plan, one that would place you next to Harry, right at his side should trouble come to call. It would seem Lockhart's spell casting incompetence might just be one very helpful mistake."

*****

"That's them?" Lily asked, staring down the corridor at the couple sitting on hard stools in the hopsital waiting room. The woman was sobbing, her husband holding her tight.

"Yes. Judith and Frank Granger. Their eleven-year-old daughter was just taken from them."

"What...What happened?" Lily asked tentatively.

"She was on her way home from Muggle school. She never stood a chance against the car of the drunken driver." Dumbledore looked genuinely sad for them. "With some memory modification we could spare them the grief."

Lily watched the couple quietly for a few minutes. "Let's do it."

*****

"We can't use that!" Lily protested, staring wide eyed at Dumbledore. "It's Dark magic!"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, dear."

Lily looked down and Severus saw an old, blackened book sitting on the desk before them.

"And you really think I can keep Harry safe?" Lily asked.

"Petunia has provided Harry protection these past ten years, simply because she is Rose's sister. I believe you will do the same."

Lily continued to stare at the book. "All right."

Severus watched on as Dumbledore and Lily cast glamour spell after glamour spell, until, instead of Lily standing in the Headmaster's office, there stood a young Hermione Granger, in all her fluffy haired, big-toothed glory.

"There's something I should tell you, Lily," Dumbledore said after they'd finished admiring their work.

"Yes?"

"Severus. He's here at the castle. He's teaching Potions."

Lily whirled on Dumbledore, her eyes wide. "Severus is alive?"

"Yes."

"But...but...he's working for Voldemort!"

"Severus has changed his ways. He's now working for the Order," Dumbledore told her.

Lily clasped her hands to her mouth, to Hermione's mouth. "I have to talk to him...."

"No!" Dumbledore's reply was crisp. "Though Severus might be working for the Order, he is still a Death Eater."

"You don't trust him."