It was not often that James Potter had a reason to stop and seriously think, but he was now. He sighed and ran his hand across his face, coming slowly to a decision.
"Lil?" he shouted.
"I'm with Harry, James," came the reply, so he went in search of the voice. James found them in the kitchen and a smile lit up his face when he saw his wife holding their gorgeous son.
"How can someone so young be so lovely?" he asked his wife as he pressed a kiss to the boys head before doing the same to Lily's. She gave a soft laugh, and nodded in agreement.
"We're blessed," she said humbly before turning a questioning face to James. He realised that if he was going to say it ever, he had to do it now.
"I've been thinking…" James began, but when he saw Lily's face he quickly changed tack, "Don't think like that! It's nothing bad, at all. But you still consider Snape to be like a brother, right?"
Lily nodded, "Severus is a brother, yes, and I love him as such."
James gave a small smile at her defiance. It was one of the things he loved about her. "Well, I've decided that we were too hard on him in school… I used to think it was just mucking around but it wasn't, was it?". Lily shook her head silently, a tear coming to her eye when she thought of all the times Sev had come to her distraught.
James took a deep breath in. "I want to go and apologise, and Padfoot and Moony have agreed to come. You know Peter's been missing for some reason and we want to go and find Sna- Severus, before anything happens."
Lily's eyes were as wide as saucers at this point. "James…" she stuttered, "Are you serious?"
He nodded. "I don't want my son to ever have to see me as the person I was in school. We've all changed, and I like my new self better than the old one, especially when it comes to Snape."
The tear in Lily's eye escaped and rolled softly down her cheek before James brushed it away with a finger. Lily struggled to find words for a minute but James waited. Then, almost choking on her tears, she said, "I love you more than I have ever loved anyone else in the world, except Harry, and I am so, so proud of you. If you do this, you're son will never have a chance to see you as anything over than the loving friend, husband and father you are and will always be."
James smiled, "I love you too Lil, and Harry… but there's something else. I think we should make Snape godfather. I know Sirius is already one, but I want to expand it. Write Remus down, and Snape too. Our child will have a bigger and more loving family than he could ever dream of."
Lily nodded, tears running down her face. "When are you going to tell him?"
"Tomorrow," James said with a smile, "There's no sense in waiting longer anyway."
Lily bent over to kiss James lightly on the lips, before kissing Harry's head.
"Thankyou."
Lily gave Harry to James, who held his baby while Lily went to owl Sev that they would be visiting tomorrow.
Little did they know that tomorrow would never come for them, and when Severus Snape had no guests arrive, he went looking for them. What he found in Godric's Hollow almost destroyed him, and he would never know what they had planned to tell him tomorrow.
