Snape stood on the footpath leading to the Potter Ancestral mansion. He could see most of the lights on in the house, bright enough to illuminate his breath. He could see shadows slip past windows, and he imagined that everyone inside was laughing, and drinking, and kissing. Snape winced.

"Now or never." Rodolphous Lestrange whispered.

Snape didn't turn around. Simply slipped his mask onto his face and started the slow march towards the house. They breeched the first barrier, a light prickling feeling slid along their skin, and suddenly more lights in the house went on, the music that had been getting steadily louder at their approach came to an abrupt halt.

"Just a message." He whispered to Rodolphous as a reminder. "The Dark Lord to give them an opportunity."

"They'll refuse it." Snape cringed inside his thick rob, knowing the truth of the statement.

"We are messengers only."

"Weak stomach eh Snape? No taste for bloodletting?" The older man laughed.

"You won't be sniggering if the Dark Lord finds that you've killed them all unprovoked."

"They'll provoke me."

They hit the second barrier like a wall, and staggered back. Rodolphous whistled at the craftsmanship.

"Apparate?"

Snape pulled his wand out and stared at the now visible wall. It crumbled before him instantly.

The shadows along the window were suddenly more frenetic in their movements. And when Snape and Rodolphous reached the door it opened before either could so much as knock.

George Potter, an older man with silver hair, stood in the doorway his wand at the ready. He smiled coldly.

"It's just two of you, not a death squad, so give us the message and leave this place."

"The message is meant for certain wizards only."

James, Sirius, and Remus appeared from their stations just inside the entryway.

"Anything you need to say to us can be said to all." Sirius said.

"The Dark Lord doesn't care about a blood traitor like you Sirius, or a toothless werewolf."

Sirius visibly bristled. "An errand boy, Rodolphous, I'm sure Bella just loves that about you."

Rodolphous clenched his fists.

"Who is the message for?" Remus asked.

"James Potter, and Lily Evans."

Lily stepped from her place just behind James, their hands clasped tightly. Snape bit his tongue. The pain helped him focus. He had to make her understand that this was her chance, her one chance.

"We're here." She said.

"It's a private message, Mudblood." Rodolphous sneered. James and the marauders took a single step forward as one, effectively closing ranks around Lily.

George Potter's wand centered into the middle of Rodolphous's face.

"We don't tolerate language like that on our property Mr. Lestrange. It's not polite."

Rodolphous raised his own wand, smiling; this was the provocation he'd been hoping for. Snape slipped forward.

"We are messengers merely, let us speak our piece and leave you."

"You aren't getting Lily and James alone." Sirius said. "Can't trust that you wouldn't kill them."

"We swear on the Dark Lord's name." Snape said easily.

James stepped forward laying a single hand on his father's arm, "You swear on Voldermort's name not to harm us?"

Both death eaters visibly cringed. "Yes," Snape said.

James smiled at his father, and squeezed his arm. "We can talk in the parlor."

Lily took his hand again, and they led the way through the mansion, the other Order members appeared from their hiding places, slowly following the two death eaters, daring them to break their word. Their silent vigilance brought images of the hungry predators to Snape's mind. They wanted a fight.

When they reached the immaculately decorated parlor, Snape tried hard not to choke. All the gold frames were filled with pictures James at various stages growth, of the Marauders, of James and Lily smiling at each other not even bothering to wave. Had it been so long since Hogwarts? Snape squared his shoulders; Rodolphous remained in the doorway, impassive.

James and Lily stood their backs to the fireplace, tensed for anything.

"James Potter and Lily Evans—"

"It's Potter now." She said, "Lily Evans Potter."

Snape clenched his jaw.

"We come with an offer from the Dark Lord himself. He knows of your talents, and is most impressed. Witches and Wizards such as yourself should not dirty your hands with the deaths of others of our kind."

"Just the deaths of everyone else." James said.

"Our kind?" Lily echoed, "But I'm not a pureblood."

"In his magnanimous grace the Dark Lord has chosen to overlook your dubious birthright and give you the honor of serving in his army."

Lily's hand tightened in James's. "He's offering you a chance at a new life, a better life, a life free of the constraints placed on magic users by those with fewer gifts."

James and Lily looked at one another.

"What if we choose to decline this—this gracious offer?"

Snape's pulse quickened, he knew what was happening. "It was meant as an offer to you both individually, one cannot speak for the other."

Lily's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, as cat sensing familiar movement.

"Severus…?"

James's already tense frame stiffened. He placed an arm in front of Lily gently sliding her behind his larger body. She with equal tenderness pushed back. Lily stepped away from James, a step closer to Severus and looked into the mask as much as she could. "Severus?" she asked again.

"It is an offer he shall only extend once." Snape continued. "To refuse is tantamount to a death sentence, his power incontrovertible. There is no hope without him."

She looked back at James, whose eyes were fixed on Snape. Lily took two quick steps forward and whispered, "You could join us Severus, leave the Death Eaters, and help us destroy him. We know how close you are to him; we could use your information. Please Severus, please."

His gloved hand reached out to Lily, for a moment her offer sounded like heaven. And then he looked at the hand she extended to him, her left hand, the hand with a large sparkling stone on her third finger. The game was already over.

"The Dark Lord is offering you the chance to be a part of the new world order, where you won't have to cower before the ignorant race of humanity, or deny your true selves."

Lily stepped back as though burned. James came forward, "Thanks but no thanks, Snivellous, we'll take our chances with Dumbledore."

"Then you will die." Snape's eyes flicked to Lily, "Is this your answer too?"

"You had my answer years ago, Severus. "

"This is the last chance—"

"We've chosen." She said, cutting him off.

"So be it!" Yelled Rodolphous from behind them, he turned with a mighty roar and began firing into the gathered Order Members. James leapt to defend his friends, and Lily followed, her back turned to the action her wand raised. Against Severus.

"Lily," he whispered, "Please I—he'll kill you—you cannot defy him—he's he"

"He's evil." She said wand poised to defend herself.

"Lily—"

Someone screamed a few rooms over and Lily's head snapped back at the sound. A green light suddenly illuminated the house from the outside. "Dark mark." She said, a note of panic in her voice.

"Lily, more will come now, you have to get out; you and James are meant to be killed tonight."

She nodded her understanding and sprinted from the room, Death Eaters began apparating onto the grounds. More order members arrived. A full-scale battle was underway.

The sound of shattered glass filled the house. Snape didn't move from the parlor, he was staring at Lily and James's wedding pictures. James kept kissing her third finger and looking at Snape, pointing to the ring, Lily was laughing, her head thrown back in joy.

The house shook on its foundations. Peter Pettigrew ran into the parlor panting, blood dripping from his nose. A death eater hot on his tail, suddenly Peter Pettigrew was no longer standing in the room with Snape. Where he hand been a chubby brown rat was scurrying out into the hallway.

"Where did he go?" roared the death eater.

"Animagus?" Snape whispered.

"Pettigrew?"

Suddenly the parlor was filled with Sirius Black and Bellatrix Lestrange dueling. The other death eater threw a vicious curse at Sirius but George Potter shielded him.

"Thanks Mr. P."

"Don't mention it, lad. Have you seen the missus?"

Sirius barked a laugh, throwing a particularly mean swipe at Bellatrix; who squealed in agony as a bright red welt appeared on her wand hand.

"Upstairs I think, George, concerned about the counterpanes…"

"Women."

The two men laughed delivering a blow strong enough to up end the death eater, Bellatrix slipped into the fireplace, pointed her wand at Sirius, and whispered the killing curse, and was gone. George leapt in front of the younger man, and took the full blast in his chest. He crumpled into Sirius.

"George?" Sirius whispered, "Mr. P?"

James and Remus ran into the parlor smiling, "They're retreating Sirius, we've got them on the run."

The two men stopped in the doorway, taking in the scene. George Potter lay in Sirius's arms, the younger man shaking him softly, and in tears. An unconscious death eater by the mantle and Severus Snape in the middle of the room wand raised.

The two men turned on Snape then. James's eyes fierce, his body shaking with the effort of control.

"Septum sempra."

James blocked it with effort, giving Snape enough time to leap through the window and apparate into the night.

"Its bad." Moody said, his walking stick thumping with each step. "They made a good show o' course, but letting two known death eaters in—"

"They were intended as messengers." Dumbledore said evenly, putting out fires along an outside wall.

"Recruiters as I heard it."

"Yes, strange, that Voldermort would give up his precious blood status obsession for the new Mrs. Potter."

"The boy is taking it hard, Albus…too hard."

"They've never seen anything like this Alastair, loss is something new for them,"

"They're learning now." Moody huffed, shifting through the rubble in the yard. The two older men stared at the wreckage that had once been the Potter mansion. A hollow smoking shell, fires still burning intermittently, the dark dispersed.

"Yes," Dumbledore said, turning his back on the Potter mansion. "They are."