A/N: I don't own Harry Potter. This was inspired by a story where Lily doesn't die and returns during Harry's sixth year, I can't seem to find it anymore. Pettigrew is not Snape's R&R.


Prologue

A faint pop could be heard throughout the empty streets of Spinner's End; a hooded figure hurried to the house she knew too well, the house of her friend. The rap of her heels on the street were the only sounds she heard. She hadn't seen her friend in almost seventeen years, that was a long time, she thought on what had happened the last time she had been at her friend's home. Flashes of dark eyes, pale skin, and of indescribable pleasure, went through her head as she shuddered; yes, a long time indeed.

Walking past the other houses that either were bordered up or had broken windows, the figure mentally prepared for the torrent of questions that were sure to be asked by him. Questions he would ask that were going to be hard to explain without the fear of doubt being thrown at her. It was hard enough to know that she regretted leaving her child without his mother for almost fifteen years. She also lived with the regret of hurting the man almost seventeen years ago.

After reaching her destination, the last house on the cobbled street, the hooded figure gathered all of her courage and knocked twice. All she could hear was the sound of her labored breathing and the pounding of her rapidly beating heart in her delicate ears, so it blocked out everything else. Thoughts of what he probably would say to her after she told her secret. She shuddered at the thought of the betrayal he must feel.

After a minute or two the door opened and a velvet voice inquired, "Who the bloody hell are you?"

Her breath caught in her throat at the voice that made her insides melt to mush and her knees grow weak.

Taking out her wand, she let three sparks fly out; one green, one gold and one blue. The three intertwined and spelled a name in an elegant script. 'Lily A. Evans.'

The man looked at the name as it began to disappear than at the figure before him. The cloak was a dark emerald-green color and covered any skin. The hood was emerald with a red trim. A symbol of an intertwined wand and something else, he couldn't make it out, was on the left breast of the cloak.

"I do not know who you are or what you want, but I would recommend you not to joke. Lily Evans has been dead for nearly fifteen years now. She lies beside her husband in Godric's Hollow's cemetery. I will only ask you once to leave and never come back," his voice was steel and she didn't doubt his expression was too.

"Come now, Severus, you don't honestly believe I would come all this way just to be turned away do you?" she asked with a faint smile behind the hood of her cloak.

He narrowed his eyes, yet he was scared. He hadn't heard that voice for nearly seventeen years, not since... he shook his head, he'd not be fooled by this figure, nor will he think of that night.

"I do not know who the hell you think you are, but you are not Lily Evans; she'd died protecting her son," he never used Potter when saying Lily's name; it reminded him that he couldn't have been with her. It reminded him that she left him for a Potter. That he wasn't good enough for her.

"I will prove to you who I am, or who I'm not. However, if you would be polite enough to let me into your house; I'd like to discuss this inside and not on the front step," she told him with a smirk on her face, her wand safely in her cloak pocket.

He looked at the figure before stepping back inside the house, letting her in.

The woman entered the house and closed the door behind her, so that they both heard the click of the door. She stood there a moment before lowering her cloak; long red hair fell down her back, ending in the middle of it. She placed the emerald cloak on the coat stand that stood right beside her.

Severus' heart rate increased a bit when he saw the hair, no one he'd seen had hair that shade. The shade was a darker auburn with it falling in waves to her middle back; but it couldn't be!

Masking his surprised, Severus asked her, "Now, if you would sit, you can tell me who you are and what you want. Then be on your way."

The woman turned and sat down, looking in his eyes to where she knew his emotion lay when he masked his face. She wasn't surprised to see the terror or the confusion. She was however shocked to see the curiosity.

"Well, since you don't believe me, ask me a question only Lily would know," she felt it odd referring to herself in the third person, but she had to prove that it was really her; otherwise her coming here would have all been in vain.

Severus thought for a while of a suitable question, "What was the date of the night she and I last saw each other?"

Only one other person knew of that, and Regulus died shortly after that night.

"I know you won't believe me, no matter what I would say. I could take some Veritaserum if you prefer."

Severus summoned a vial from his lab, and handed it to her.

"Three drops would be significant," he said to her.

He watched as she took three drops on her tongue, and corked the vial, placing it on the slightly wobbled table.

"September 21st, 1979. You were with your mother at the hospital, she was sick with the Wizard's Flu, and had a year, if that to live. You never brought me; you said you didn't want me to see her like that. I didn't wait for you to come back, I packed up my belongings and left. No note to explain my sudden departure," she told him, looking him in the eye.

Severus rested his head on the back of his chair; he thought of that day for a long time, wondering if he could have prevented it. He always thought he could have done something, anything to have changed her mind, to make her stay.

He nodded, no one else would've known, the only other person that had known what had happened that day was now dead. This was really Lily Evans, the love of his life, the one for so long he thought was dead.

"Why are you here, Lily?" Her name fell from his lips like silky velvet, and made her innards shudder with familiar pleasure.

"Two reasons, you and my son. His sixteenth birthday is coming up, and there will be some...surprises. There are also some things that I didn't tell you, I however did tell only Reg and someone else. I went into hiding after the dark lord attacked, leaving everybody to believe I was dead along with James," she said calmly.

He sneered; he hated that name that fell through her lips, "So you left yours and Potter's precious child behind?"

She softly sighed; here it was the moment of truth, "Yes... and no. Yes, my son was placed with my sister, Dumbledore was supposed to place him with you; but, since the spell that I used would need someone with the blood that ran through my veins, my sister was the only option left. My parents died the spring of '81. However, Harry is not James' son, not biologically anyway. James and I, well we... I mean we didn't... you see, we never really..." she cut off and took a deep breath.

Severus raised an eyebrow at her; it wasn't like her to seem so nervous. At least when they were together she wasn't.

"Severus, James Potter was by all accounts, playing for the other team. We both were good friends by the time Harry was born, not saying he didn't find me attractive, for a female; but he only kept up the charade for the public. On Harry's official birth certificate, the biological father is on there, but James had one made with his name placed where the father's name would be and sent that off to the ministry. The real one is in the Potter's Vaults, in the deep vaults of Gringotts."

His eyebrows shot up into his hairline and he tilted his head to the side and said, "The Potter prince was actually not a woman's man, but a man's. If James Potter is not in fact your son's biological father than why does he look so much like him?"

Lily smirked at him and said, "Now, Severus, have you forgotten what I got my master's in after we left school. As I recall we were both studying for our master's in two subjects; yours in Potions and Defense and mine in Defense and —"

"Charms," he finished softly, putting two and two together. A charm was placed on Harry, the day he was born to look like James; a charm that was wearing off. Why come and see him? Harry Potter was born 10 months after she left, and from his understanding, he was born right on time.

She nodded, "Yes. I placed a complex, nearly permanent charm on Harry to keep his identity from certain people, one that shouldn't have been kept; but a few that it was necessary to do. It will dissolve on his sixteenth birthday; however, I needed to tell two people who are involved in this. One I need to tell my son, which will not be easy, and then I need to tell his biological father, which would be harder— seeing as how he thinks I left his bed to warm another's."

She waited for him to catch her hint, and hoped in due time he would forgive her.

Severus looked at her and thought about what she's been saying:

James Potter was playing for the boys' team.

A charm was placed on Harry when he was born.

That charm was running out.

She needs to come clean to her son about his biological father.

Something was still missing, he didn't understand why she was telling him when she should be telling the boy's father not here... unless...

"I need to tell his biological father, which would be harder—seeing as how he thinks I left his bed to warm another's."

"He's my son," Severus said looking at the woman sitting in front of him.

She nodded, "Yes, what the world think is Lily and James Potter's son, is actually Lily Evans and Severus Snape's son."