Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Chapter 25: Shell Cottage

Lily Evans Prewett really had thought that she had escaped the magical world without a trace. Or perhaps she'd assumed that she and her squib husband were too insignificant to be followed. All her illusions of safety died however when she returned home from work one evening and found Severus Snape in her flat.

"You!" she exclaimed more frightened than outraged at that first moment.

"I really didn't think it wise to wait outside where the Muggles could see me," he explained entirely too calmly for her taste. "Not the way I am dressed."

"How did you find us?" That was the biggest concern right now. If she could escape once more she did not want to make the same mistake again.

"I will always find you."

Somehow it didn't sound like the threat it ought to be. They had been close friends at Hogwarts Institute so very long ago. Could it be that despite their terrible final argument he still felt kindly towards her after all this time?

"What do you want?"

"To save us all."

She blinked at him in confusion. The Severus she knew from her childhood had only ever cared to save himself. Granted, he'd been under almost constant attack by bullies and Lily and their other friends had been in no worse danger than that of being the next victim of one of James' practical jokes. She'd been quite good at defending herself and others against those ... well, most of the time.

"Save whom from what?"

"Save all our kind - the wizards and witches of Britain - from a regime to rival Grindelwald's."

"That is a most laudable goal," Lily had to admit. "But what does it have to do with me? I'm Muggleborn, Severus. My husband is a squib, totally unable to defend himself. I cannot expose him to any risk! His only hope is in us staying hidden and looking irrelevant."

"And what about all the other Muggleborns and squibs? What about those that didn't get away in time? What about those not yet old enough to get away?"

"The Hogwarts children have been sent to safety and those at the lower institutes all have at least one magical parent."

"Except for those who were transferred straight to Azkaban this year," Severus hissed. "And those that will be next year and the year after that. Every year that the Dark Lord remains in power, Lily. What of the centaurs and the goblins and the house-elves? The house-elves cannot even leave the houses they serve without their masters' orders."

"But I ... I cannot risk endangering Claudius," Lily tried to explain with tears in her eyes. "Surely there must be somebody else. Surely ..."

"And what of the wizardborn children forced to grow up in a world like this?" Severus continued mercilessly. She knew he would only stop if she agreed to do what he wanted, but oh ... "Did you know that only a few days ago Amycus Carrow put your own daughter under cruciatus until she passed out? He found her in a corridor during class time, you see. That's reason enough for Amycus. Have you ever seen her? Little Mafalda is such a sweet, tiny little thing. She's a very happy child usually ... or at least she was last year, always laughing and chatting with her fellow little Hufflepuffs. But of course not now that she's lying alone in a much too big white bed in the hospital wing recovering from the cruciatus ..."

"Alright!" she shouted to drown out his words and the pictures they created in her head. "What do you want me to do?"

"We need Harry," Severus said. "Only he can defeat the Dark Lord."

"Harry?" she gasped. "No, not Harry! Please, not Harry!"

She'd imagined that he wanted her to provide shelter for other refugees, help them disappear from the magical and integrate into the Muggle world, perhaps even wanted her to fight herself. She'd never expected him to demand that she risk her other child as well as poor little Mafalda.

"He is our only hope, Lily. We must have him in the battle."

She cried and pleaded, but of course that could not change the facts of that horrible prophecy. Why, oh why had it had to be her son? Why couldn't You-Know-Who have chosen the Longbottom child?

"Where is your Gryffindor courage, Lily?" Severus demanded. "Isn't it the duty of every Gryffindor to stand up and fight for what is right? Have you forgotten that Harry, too, is a Gryffindor? Or would you leave the fighting to the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs and go hide in a corner?"

"Very well," she sobbed. "I'll see to it that Harry is there at the final battle. But promise me that you will not use him before that. Just one battle."

"I won't," Severus promised. "And I will see to it that he has all the weapons he needs."

"Weapons?"

To his surprise he held out a dead snitch to her.

"Albus left this to him. I have retrieved it from James, but it appears that only Harry himself can open it. So it would be best if you pass it on to him as soon as possible. He might need time to figure it out. Unfortunately he has never had a particularly fast mind. Albus put it down to some Muggle condition called Hospitalism, but personally I believe that it is his father's genes."

That made her laugh and she was able to accept the snitch with a semblance of resolve and dignity she hoped was more worthy of a Gryffindor than her earlier tears.

"He will also need his father's invisibility cloak," Severus added. "I believe that you are already in possession of that?"

She nodded.

"I'll make sure he gets them both," she promised. "But is that all? I can see how the cloak can protect him, but is he really to kill You-Know-Who, the most powerful wizard alive, with a dead snitch?"

"There is one more weapon," Severus said. "But I cannot give it to you yet. Get Harry back into the country without arousing the Dark Lord's notice and let me see to the third weapon."

He thought that Harry had been taken out of the country? That came as a surprise, but she did her best to hide it. It would be safer for the other hidden children if nobody in the wizarding world knew where they were, not even those on their side. Lily did care enough for their safety to keep that secret.