.At the Potter home, James had arrived home very drunk, Sirius and Remus in tow. He was livid to find the house empty.

"That filthy mudblood! She left me. She left me for Snape! For Snape!"

"James, what are you talking about?" Remus watched him warily, aware of his temper.

"Didn't you ever take a good look at that filthy runt? He's not mine!"

"James, what are you talking about?" Sirius watched James pace around the house. He'd never seen him this angry.

"She's been shagging Snape behind my back. Since Hogwarts. I caught them in the kitchen at your house two nights ago, standing close together. I got a good look at Harry next to him, and he looks just like him. How could she do this to me?"

"James, you're barking mad! There's no way Lily is shagging Snape."

James stopped pacing and looked at his friends. He created a pensive and showed them what he'd seen in the kitchen.

After viewing it, Sirius shook his head. "You weren't lying. The kid looks just like him."

"I'm going over there, and getting her. No one's going to leave a Potter for a Slytherin."

Sirius jumped up and stood between his friend and the fireplace.

"No, you're not." He pushed James down into a chair. "You're drunk and you're angry. You're not thinking clearly."

Sirius attempted to throw a binding curse on James, but he countered and rebounded it. Remus threw a knockout spell on James. Then he poured a sleeping potion down his throat for good measure.

"Do you think he was really going over there?"

"I think so." He pointed to several spots of blood on the floor. Lily's blood. Their eyes met. Neither were okay with this. Their friend was turning into a monster.

Together, the two of them got James into bed and undressed him. "Do you think it's safe to leave him here?" Remus wasn't so sure.

"Yes, but let's come back later to check on him."

Lily woke up and it took her a moment to register where she was and what happened.

James had beaten her again and she'd escaped to Severus' home. She groaned as the pain in her body made itself known. He'd performed healing spells on her, but she still ached.

Hearing her groans and feeling her stir, Severus called over a pain relieving potion. She swallowed it quickly and laid back against his chest, after checking on Harry.

Harry was still sleeping, so she tilted her head up for a kiss. Severus was only too happy to oblige. Pulling away, he raised his eyebrow at her. That was all it took. This time, she remembered the maternus preventus spell. He remembered his spell, too.

After, as they clung to each other, Harry began to whimper. Lily sat up and began feeding him. As her lover watched them, he thought to himself that he'd never seen a more beautiful sight than her.

Severus got dressed and started fixing them breakfast. After the baby was done eating and had gone to sleep, Lily joined him in the kitchen. They ate together, then she brought Harry out. The two sat quietly and talked over what to do.

"I think he's going to come after me and try to force me to come home with him. His pride is severely damaged right now."

"I'll protect both of you. I promise." With that, Severus set layers of protections around his home.

"I don't want to leave. It's you I want and Harry isn't safe around him."

"Neither are you."

Back at the Potter home, James was starting to stir. He immediately remembered what happened upon waking. Lily had cheated on him, it was evident when he looked at Harry. Then she'd left him. For Snape.

He felt himself growing angry again, furious actually. How dare she? He grabbed his wand and tried to floo to Severus' home, but was unable.

There must be protections set around the home, James realized.

Over the next several days, James tried repeatedly to either floo to the home or apparate to it, but each time he was blocked. He tried to think of ways to get to them, but each idea he came up with was unsuccessful.

After several days hiding at home, Severus and Lily ventured out with Harry to Diagon Alley to get potion ingredients and supplies.

While they were out and about, Peter Pettigrew was watching them. Sirius had let it slip in front of him about what was going on with the Potters. He apparated to James and told him they were in Diagon Alley.

The spurned lover raced to the floo, wand in hand, leaving Peter laughing. Now he would finally get into the inner circle with Sirius, Remus and James. He wasn't counting on the first two coming through the floo soon after.

"Where's James?"

"I just told him that I saw that mudblood of his in Diagon Alley. He's gone to get her and the little runt."

"Are you crazy, Peter? He'll kill her. Why did you do that?" Remus tore into him as they both pointed their wands at him. With a quick flourish, they turned Peter into a rat.

They both turned to quickly floo into the Alley. Running through the street, they both stopped short. James stood, with his wand to Harry's tiny head and a hand on Lily's arm, pulling her. He'd put a shield around the three of them and Severus' spells were bouncing off it.

"If you make a move, Snape, I'll kill your filthy spawn." Then he apparated and they were gone.

Severus turned around and saw Remus and Sirius also helplessly watching. By their expressions, he knew that they knew everything.

"Look", started Sirius. "We may not agree with what you did and we have had our differences, but we'll help you get her back."

Severus just stared at them in disbelief and shook his head. These are the same people who had helped James bully him mercilessly all through school.

James set up a protection around his house after dragging Lily and Harry through the fireplace. He'd disarmed Lily in the Alley and now stood with Harry in his arm and his wand to his head.

"He can't have you. You're mine. You belong to me."

"James, please!" Lily tried to reach for her son. He kicked her away.

"Say you'll come back. Say you'll move back home or I'll kill him."

"James, please. I love him. I love Severus. He loves me."

"Adavra kadavra!" James flourished his wand at the tiny child, but Lily was quicker. She jumped between her son and the killing curse and it hit her instead.

James stared at her as she lay on the floor, dead. He put Harry in his crib, then stood in stunned silence. He'd committed an unforgivable. He didn't notice the rat running out of the house, effectively breaking the shields.

Placing his wand to his own head, he uttered a suicide curse and fell to the floor.

Severus, Sirius and Remus flooed into the house soon after the shield broke. The latter two ran to James' body, while the former ran to Lily's. He pulled her body into his arms and sobbed for the only woman he'd ever loved since childhood. Seeing a tear on her cheek, he collected it.

The arrival of Aurors outside the house snapped Severus out of his grief. He knew Lily hadn't wanted anyone to know Harry was his, so he quickly flooed home. Remus did, too. Only Sirius was left, holding his god son as he prepared to bring him to his home.

That was how the Aurors came to find him and charge him with murder. He was the only person found at the scene of the crime.

The Daily Prophet proclaimed him a murderer and he was locked in Azkaban.

Harry was brought to live with his aunt and uncle.

For you left me

With so few memories

That I can close my eyes

And cling to

Just a faded photograph

I sometimes sing to.*

Severus arrived back home through the floo overcome with grief. He pulled out of his pocket a necklace he'd secretly bought for Lily that day, planning to propose to her the next day. Then he sobbed for his loss.

For a short time, he'd had a woman who loved him and a son. His life had seemed as if it was finally going right.

He viewed the memory contained in the tear he'd collected from Lily. He saw both of the beatings she'd gotten. He saw James holding Harry and threatening to kill him if she didn't say she'd return home. He watched her throw herself between their son and the killing curse.

He grabbed the intimate potions he'd brewed and dumped them out, then destroyed the vials. He'd never love again, never let anyone in again.

He threw himself into his potions and spell work and became the Professor of Potions at Hogwarts and eventually Head of Slytherin House.

Only himself, Remus, Sirius and the rat knew of Harry's true paternity.

You used to captivate me

by your resonating light

Now, I'm bound by

the life you left behind

Your face it haunts

my once pleasant dreams

Your voice it chased away

all the sanity in me

These wounds won't seem to heal,

this pain is just too real

There's just too much

that time cannot erase

(Evanescence, My Immortal)

*KD Lang, Love Affair