A/N: Rights still belong to JK Rowling. Please review... sorry for the hiatus! Let me know if it doesn't make sense.
Six
Harry pulled off his invisibility cloak in shock. He had seen Draco disappear into the mirror! As he crept forward, cautiously he reached out slowly to touch the carved wooden frame. He noticed the words Mirror of Erised and his eyebrows knotted together, confused. What was this mirror doing hidden in this room? And why had it taken Draco? As he stood in front of it he squinted his eyes, wondering if he had seen right.
A young lady with a dazzling smile stood in front of him. Her eyes, as green as his. Her red hair matched his (temporary) hair. Standing nearby, stood a man who resembled Harry bar his eyes and glasses. Harry knew who they were at once.
"Mum?" Harry whispered in awe. "Dad?"
When they did not speak, Harry reached out; wondering if he too could return to a simpler time, but the surface was hard and cold. How did Draco manage to go through? Had he cast some sort of spell?
His mother smiled and touched the glass but her hand did not pass through her container. Harry noticed someone was standing behind them, in the shadows... he could not see properly but he looked very familiar... it wasn't Draco, but someone he saw every day.
Harry turned his head, he'd heard a noise. Throwing the invisibility cloak over his head, he held his breath as Ron Weasley pushed open the door. "Harry? Harry, are you here?" Harry sighed. "See Hermione, I told you, he wasn't in here."
"He must be. I saw that door open and close."
"A ghost would have walked through the wall." Ron sighed.
"Harry hasn't the ability to do that, he can only make himself invisible, Ron! I know you're here Harry!" And she began waving her arms around darting around the room trying to find him. Ron rolled his eyes, and hovered by the door. "Shut the door, Ron – if Filch catches us, we'll be in trouble."
"I'm here, Hermione." Harry said pulling his cloak down, to reveal himself. "What did you want to tell me?" Ron grinned and Hermione sighed.
"I found the counter-spell - there is a potion but it takes about a month to develop – Dumbledore could have changed you back in a blink of the eye – not sure why he wouldn't – you know I think he wants you and Malfoy to get to know each other..."
"Fat chance!" Ron murmured, coming to stand by his friend. "What is that?"
"A mirror." Harry answered, cautiously. Hermione was still raving on about the antidote to Harry and Draco's hair-fiasco, but Harry was too busy explaining to Ron what he saw in the mirror. "Here – you stand there, do you see them?" Harry asked, giving Ron a turn.
"All I can see is me and you, Harry."
"Hermione?" Hermione stopped in midsentence. "Tell me what you see in the mirror."
Hermione stomped over and Ron stepped aside to see her reaction. Her eyes stared and she looked at Harry. "How did you do that?"
"What?" Ron demanded.
"Draco." She pointed at the cold surface and Harry and Ron pushed in next to her, to see.
"I can't see anything, just the three of us." Ron looked disappointed.
"I can only see my parents..." Harry whispered.
"Draco is there, holding a lady's hand and he looks terrified. Hang on, he's –" She gasped and Ron and Harry turned to her, "Harry, I just saw...oh my god..."
Ron stepped on Harry's foot as he was trying to get a closer look. "What?" Ron and Harry said urgently.
Hermione's hand shook.
"I saw your mother and...Professor Snape?"
"I don't understand..." Harry muttered. His hands closed around the mirror's edge and he shook it trying to see. Hermione stopped his shaking hands and Ron looked up aghast.
"What are YOU doing in here?" Ron, Hermione and Harry turned in shock as the current Professor Snape came toward them. "This is out of bounds." He glared at them.
"We, we, were...just..." Hermione started but failed to answer as her voice shook.
Ron gaped and Harry could think of no excuse whatsoever. Snape's long cloak flowed behind him and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. The Mirror of Erised looked untouched and he was sure the children did not know its use. He waited till they had returned to the common room and his eyes grew wide. His fingers touched the cold surface and he saw her.
"Lily, what have you done?"
0o0o
Draco's hand felt a strange tingle as he was sucked into the mirror. Her hand was solid now, but he was sure he had turned into a ghost? He was trapped inside the mirror with a figment of his imagination. She had said so herself, that she was an imprint. Draco wondered why she had wanted to leave part of herself behind. She had told him it was because she wanted to tell him someday that she was his mother. But it didn't seem real.
His surroundings blurred and his head felt like it was going to be squeezed to oblivion but then everything stopped and Draco found she was gone. He looked behind him but he could not see the mirror he had passed through. He could not see the room. He could only see ahead of him. The Hogwarts castle came into view and there sitting at the end of the hall was Snape.
A young Snape, of sixteen.
Draco's feet started walking automatically, but he did not know what to say or if the young Snape could even see him. Draco knew she had taken him into another of her memories.
Then he saw her, beckoning. Her smile was gone. Draco walked toward her and then stopped.
Lily – the Lily from the past - pounced into view. She was grinning, she took away Snape's book and Snape smiled, they talked for a bit and Draco looked confused until Lily kissed him. Snape stood and Lily pulled him after her. Soon they were running and Draco followed. Past the Great Hall, up the staircase and then to the seventh floor, near Barnabus the Barny, the wall materialised into a door and Draco saw them enter. He followed and he felt considerably awkward. Lily was kissing Snape passionately; her arms tight around his neck. Snape pressed her against the wall and she moaned pleasurably. Lily lost her shirt first. Snape was kissing her neck while Lily's hands undid his robes. Draco averted his eyes, but it did no good. He clamped his hands over his ears to block out the sound the two lovers made. He did not need to see what happened – he knew, they had hooked up and he was the result.
His mother was Lily Evans.
His father was Severus Snape.
Everything... everything he had ever known was a lie.
He felt himself being shaken and he looked up. The memory had changed.
Lily and Snape were doing their homework. Lily's stomach was huge. Draco felt a strange feeling wash over him as he realised he was seeing himself. Lily looked up suddenly and then Snape was comforting her. "He's coming, Sev!"
Draco squirmed as he looked over them. Snape rushed about the room, making sure she was comfortable in every way possible. He kissed her forehead and waved his wand. Hot towels dabbed her head, a healer suddenly appeared, looking unsurprised that he had suddenly popped from oblivion and went about her business. Draco averted his eyes and closed his ears.
When he opened them, Lily was staring at a baby...at...him...
Draco walked right up to the bed and touched the baby's tiny hand. He was tiny.
Lily was looking down at him so loving, he almost felt her lips on his own forehead.
"He's gorgeous Severus." They kissed and Draco felt a pang of love, or something similar toward his parents, he had never truly known.
"You see, you will be the greatest father ever." Lily said to Severus who smiled kindly and held his son's hand.
The room changed and Draco watched as Lily, with him in her arms, swayed on her feet, singing a lullaby. Severus was in the corner reading the Prophet. The room was dark and still. Draco wondered why there was tension in the air.
"He's getting closer, Lily. I don't know what to do. I don't know if I can protect you both. He's stronger, much stronger than I've ever seen him."
"He can't know what happened between us – nobody not even Dumbledore knows."
"It won't take long, for somebody to put two-and-two together. Narcissa is always bumping into me, trying to find out where I go. Lucius suspects something's up. If they knew I was here with you, and Draco...if Bellatrix found out and told him – it would be the end."
"You're getting carried away Sev! Stop! We've been careful. We can do this, and he won't-"
"We've got to have a plan, Lily. If things look like we are in danger then –" Lily put a hand on his shoulder and looked pleadingly. "It is the only way we can protect him."
Lily half-smiled, "We have to give him up."
Draco felt the room spinning and he was outside the Manor about to set foot in his home. Lily had him in her arms, hidden beneath her cloak. Severus was stroking her hair gently.
"Are you sure this is what you want." Severus whispered stroking Lily's hair gently as she peered at the baby wrapped in her arms on the doorstep of Malfoy Manor. "You can still change your mind."
"We can't keep him. It's too dangerous Severus, not now that the Dark Lord is so strong. You said he would be safe here. I'm trusting you."
Draco watched as his parents stepped through the doorway into Malfoy Manor. Draco followed with Imprint-Lily in silence.
"Do you swear you will not tell Lucius our secret? The baby turned up on your door step. You decided to care for it and adopt him as your own." Narcissa nodded.
"His name is Draco." Lily whispered, transferring the baby from her hold and into Narcissa's. "Please take care of him."
As they left the house, Draco followed and watched as Lily clasped the Severus' collar. Her eyes were damp from the tears she'd shed for baby-Draco. "Take it." Lily urged.
"Lily, I'm not erasing your memory and that's final."
"It's the only way for us to keep him safe, to forget our past and move on. I love you Severus, but I can't think what the Dark Lord might do if he found out that you bore a son to me. A Mud-"
"Don't you dare Lily- you are a witch and we have a son together. Is that not extravagant enough?"
"On the count of three..." Lily said sternly and Severus sighed. He kissed her. Lily gasped as his lips pulled hers and his fingers ran through her long red locks one last time. "You will forget everything." Severus reminded her while she leaned against his chest.
"I must."
"I love you Lily Evans."
"Obliviate."
Draco gasped as Snape stunned her. He apparated then and there and Draco presumed he was taking her back to Hogwarts.
He was confused, but had a better understanding now of who he was. He was still processing the information. He was Snape's son... He was Snape's son...
The darkness swirled and he was standing in a room he had seen many times in his dreams.
A cot with a baby in it.
The baby gurgled.
Draco leaned over the cot and saw its thick black hair and green eyes staring up at hi hopefully.
The room was quiet and still.
Then –
A man's panicked voice. "Lily, take Harry and run!"
Draco whipped around and saw her. She fled to the cot, picked up Harry...Harry?
Draco gaped, his eyes wide.
Lily Potter stood, protecting Harry in her hold, pleading. "Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead —"
"This is my last warning-"
"Not Harry! Please ... have mercy ... Not Harry! Please — I'll do anything..."
Draco remembered this memory.
It was the recurring nightmare he had ever since he was a kid.
It had been real.
It had been Harry's memory.
Draco tried to do something. He had to, he couldn't let his mother die again...not again...
Imprint Lily held him back, "You cannot change this. It is my memory. What's done is done. I am dead...Draco. I am only standing here, because I am tied to the Mirror of Erised. If this mirror is ever destroyed, that is the only way I can ever be free."
Draco thought it sounded as though she wanted to escape.
Didn't she say to him she had wanted this?
There was another flash of green light and Draco yelled out. His mother crumbled to the floor and Voldemort pointed his wand next at the baby. "Avada Kedavra!" There was another flash of green light then Draco heard an ear-piercing, horrible screech -
And then Imprint-Lily took his hand.
Draco was lost for words. Everything he'd seen was real. He was still processing everything.
"Stay with me." Lily whispered, leaning her head against his shoulder.
"I'm not leaving you." Draco murmured, holding her hand tightly.
0o0o
"We have to find a way to help Draco." Harry said, in the Gryffindor tower that night.
"I can't believe you just said that." Ron huffed. "He's a git."
"He's trapped in a mirror, Ron." Harry said, thinking hard.
"Hold still Harry."
"Are you sure this spell is right Hermione?"
"It has to be." Hermione said frustrated, she waved her wand and Harry felt... nothing.
"Let's hope you don't turn into a frog Harry." Ron snorted. Hermione chose to ignore him.
"Well?" He asked, cautiously. Ron handed him a mirror which Hermione had just conjured for him.
"Back to normal." Harry grinned. "Hey, we could ask Dumbledore?"
"You heard Snape. What's Dumbledore going to say when we tell him we were poking about 'out of bounds'..." Ron muttered. Hermione snapped her text book closed suddenly giving Harry and Ron a fright.
"I've an idea."
0o0o