Chapter One

Snape's Surprise

Disclaimer: Not mine, ok? It never was. I'm not as rich as she is, and plus she lives in England and I don't. Ok? So don't sue me.


Snape waited quietly while Dumbledore finished up his speech on Diggory. The Great Hall was unusually quiet, but he supposed that a student had just died.

Not really paying attention to the speech, Snape's gaze wandered around the hall. Every once in a while he caught sight of someone crying. His gaze settled on the Gryffindor Table. Scanning the table, he saw that Potter was sitting between his two friends. Snape glared as the teen stared up at him. He knew the boy was upset about the Triwizard tournament, but Snape found no sympathy for Potter. The teen's face slowly left his and returned to look at Dumbledore's. Snape too returned Dumbledore's gaze. The speech ended on a "To Cedric Diggory," with glasses raised. Snape noticed with disgust that Draco, along with many other Slytherins, hadn't raised their glasses at all.

Snape remained seated while the great hall emptied. Looking around, he noticed that not many of the staff were left at the table. With a flourish of robes, he left the table and headed to his office. Not wanting to run into any students, he took a side passage.

After reaching his office, he swept over to the pensieve that currently lay in the corner behind his desk. There were some memories that he had to get out of his head. His return to the Dark Lord was one of them. Snape knew that if it hadn't been for occlumency, he would already be dead.

The interrogation by the Dark Lord hadn't gone well, but Snape hadn't really expected it to.

XXXXXFlashbackXXXXX

Snape arrived with a crack in the cemetery. It seemed that everyone else had left. Only Pettigrew and the Dark Lord remained. It was hard to believe that the Dark Lord was back.

The red eyes glittered as he stared into them. Cold waves of fury were coming off the Dark Lord. Even Pettigrew seemed to feel it. " So," the Dark Lord said in a harsh tone no more than a whisper, "You have finally shown up."

" Yes, my Lord, I have," replied Snape as he continued to maintain eye contact, knowing that breaking it could be seen as weakness.

The cold whisper continued, "But why so late I wonder, is it because you fear the Dark Lord? Or are you just returning on Dumbledore's orders?" The voice raised with fierce malice.

Keeping a blank look on his face, Snape replied in an expressionless voice, "Oh, Dumbledore thinks I arrived here on his orders. I would have been here sooner, but I was sure that you didn't want to lose you spy at Hogwarts."

"Hmm, we shall see, Severus, what your true intentions were," whispered the Dark Lord before shouting, "Legilamens!" Fortunately, Snape had been ready for this. The Dark Lord may have thought that he was getting into Snape's secrets, but Snape only gave him the memories he wanted the Dark Lord to see. Finally, it came to a stop. The Dark Lord seemed almost, but not quite, satisfied with what he had seen. Snape could see it in his blood-red eyes that the worst of the interrogation was yet to come.

With a flick of the Dark Lord's wand, two chairs appeared, one slightly better than the other. "Sit down, Severus, we have a lot to talk about before I let you leave here alive," whispered Voldemort, "You have a lot of explaining to do. Wormtail!" snapped the Dark Lord, "Bring me the Veritaserum!"

"Yes, my lord," whimpered Wormtail as he retreated into the shadows, only to return a minute later with a crystal vial filed with a clear potion.

Severus wasn't worried when the Dark Lord had performed the legilimency. Blocking him out had been easy. But that little vial worried him. He knew how to fight it, but that didn't mean that something couldn't slip out in the process. Without a word, Wormtail passed the bottle to the Dark Lord before disappearing behind a tombstone.

With a glint in his eyes, Voldemort looked up at Severus and, in a cold voice, said, "Now, Severus, you shall answer all my questions, and we will see where your loyalties lie." Snape took the bottle when the Dark Lord handed it to him. Without a word or another glace at the Dark Lord, he drank it in one gulp.

The questions that Dark Lord asked were all simple ones, but if he had truly been under the potion the first question would have ended his life. To Snape's relief, the potion was an old one, and this potion was one of the few that weakened with age. And by the time the potion had completely worn off, the Dark Lord had seemed pleased with his answers.

XXXXXFlashbackXXXXXX

At least, Snape thought, the Dark Lord hadn't resorted to torture. But that wouldn't have made any real difference. He knew that he could handle torture, but he was wary of the Killing Curse. He still had some things in his life that he had to get straightened out.

Weeks Later

Snape sat behind his desk grading essays when there came an unfamiliar tapping at the door. Sighing, he got up from his work and opened the door. He had expected to see the Headmaster standing outside his door with that godforsaken twinkle in his eye. However, to his utmost surprise, a black screech owl flew in, dropped a letter on his desk, and flew out again. Snape couldn't help but gawk slightly at the bird. Snape rarely received mail, not that there weren't people who wanted to talk to him. Usually, though, when someone wanted a word he was usually contacted in a manner that burned his forearm. Recovering from the sight, he walked over to his desk to reed the letter.

The only explanation that he could come up with was that it was from a parent of some stupid child that hadn't gotten a good grade in his class. He was surprised to find that the handwriting that had written his name was oddly familiar. Without any more hesitation he ripped open the letter to read:

Dear Severus,

I'm sorry for all the pain that I caused you when I married James. I've always wished that we could have at least ended on better terms.

You must forgive yourself for giving Voldemort that part of the prophecy. I know that you wouldn't have given him that information if you had known that it was my family that he would have go after. I know that nothing I say is going to make a difference, but you have to forgive yourself eventually.

If you are reading this letter, Voldemort must have come back, and James and I didn't survive, but perhaps Harry did. After we got the warning, I decided that if we died, but Harry survived, he would go first to my sister's house. However, if Voldemort ever came back for him, both James and I (yes, James agreed with this, and it was partly his idea) agreed that Harry would be safer with you. The documents should be arriving shortly after this letter.

But there is another reason behind this. Sev, I don't know if you have figured it out yet, but you're Harry's biological father. I don't know how old Harry is right now, but at around fifteen (give or take a month), the potions I gave him will start to wear off. The only thing that will stay the same is his eyes, for they have always been green. I hope you can learn to love him.

Love,

Lily

Snape sat, stunned. How could he be the brat's father? He thought back to when he had done what she had asked. Only this once, she had told him, no one will ever know, what's the worst that could happen? Even then, Snape knew that a baby was the worst that could happen. But that had been what she had been wanting, too. She had told him that she and James had been trying for over a year.

He couldn't believe how stupid he had been back then. He should have known that something would have come of that night. He looked over the letter again, wondering what potion she had used. There were many that could change one's appearance, but there was none that he could think of that would make one resemble someone else and hold for fifteen years. It must have been something that she invented.

Snape had to find out. He stood up and, with a flourish of robes and a grimace on his face, he grabbed the letter and left his office. He swiftly made his way up to the headmaster's office. Maybe he will know what to do, Snape thought as he came to the gargoyle outside of the headmaster's office. "Peppermint humbugs," Snape snapped to the gargoyle. Seconds later, he reached the office, knocked and entered.


Hey I would like to thank PointBlank1 who is srtanding behind me and is crorrecting my grammer and tell ing me that it is so important that she is standing behind me. These sentences are an exaple of my horrible grmmar and me treying to type fast and failing to do so. So please Review!!! Oh go to PointBlank1's story and Review it.