July 29th, 1991 (the day before Harry's 11th birthday)

"Harry?" called Lily, walking outside to the field that was their garden, "Mr Stevens is here!"

A woosh to her left alerted her to the fact that her son had just flown past her.

"Can you tell him I'll be a minute?" he called back, doing a loop on his broom, "I want to perfect this move!"

"Harry James Potter you get off that broom this instance!" she yelled at him, her infamous ire showing itself once again.

"But mum!" Harry complained as her landed next to her, knowing better than to disobey her when she was angry, "Why do I need tutors when I know that I'm gonna become a quidditch player?"

"You are not throwing away an expensive education for fantasies about playing for England. Now come inside, Mr Stevens is waiting." Harry scowled, but did as she asked.

Later that day…

"Okay, now can I go?" Harry asked his tutor for the thirteenth time in the last half and hour.

"Yes Harry, now you can go." Said Mr Stevens with a tired sigh. Harry grinned at him like a Cheshire cat and bolted from the room, only to bump into a tall, extravagantly robed pillar. Harry fell to the floor and looked up to see that the pillar was in fact Professor Dumbledore, who was gazing down at harry in amusement, eyes twinkling.

"Good afternoon, Mr Potter. Going somewhere?" he asked with a smirk. Harry grinned even wider and sprung to his feet, only to wrap his arms around Dumbledore's legs in a hug.

"It's good to see you Professor," he said, releasing Dumbledore from his hug, "Why are you here?"

"Why, to wish you a happy birthday of course!"

"But my birthday is tomorrow." Said Harry with a frown.

"Professor Dumbledore is busy tomorrow, Harry, so he came to see you today." Lily entered the room from a side door and smiled at Harry, although Harry thought she was blushing slightly. Dumbledore himself coughed in an embarrassed manor, before changing the subject.

"I have, of course, brought you a present young man." Dumbledore reached into his pocket to retrieve it, but couldn't seem to find it. "That's strange…" he said, before reaching even further into his pocket until his whole forearm was engulfed by a pocket far to small to be working like that without magic. Harry giggled at Dumbledore's display, causing the old man himself to smile.

"Ah, here it is." He procured a small parcel tied up with a bow from the pocket and handed it to Harry. Harry hastily unwrapped the parcel, eager to find what was inside. The box opened to reveal a small, golden ball, about the size of a golf ball. Suddenly, a pair of delicate wings opened up on either side of the ball and began to flutter, lifting it into the air.

"A golden snitch!" cried Harry, mesmerised by the shining ball darting back and forth before him.

"I thought you might like to have something to chase on that broom of yours." chuckled Dumbledore, pleased by Harry's enthusiasm with the gift.

"What do you say Harry?" prompted Lily.

"Thank you Professor!"

Dumbledore smiled genially at Harry before turning to Lily.

"Whilst I'm here, Lily, there was another matter that I wanted to speak to you about before I have to go for a session of the Wizengamot."

"Of course, Albus." Said Lily. She then turned to Harry and said, "Why don't you go play with your gift, Harry?"

Harry grinned and raced off, excited by the opportunity to practice with a real golden snitch. As Albus looked away from the retreating form of the young boy, his smile faded and his expression became more serious.

"I have good news," he told Lily, though his face was grave, "I have located and destroyed the final Horcrux. The only remaining shards of the Dark Lord's soul are the wraith and Harry's scar."

Tears formed in Lily's eyes, though she wasn't sure if they were from joy or sadness. She should have been over the moon, Voldemort was one step closer to being defeated once and for all, but she couldn't get over the fact that it might require the sacrifice of her son to do it. That was the one thing she wasn't willing to give up.

She schooled her features and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Any news on Pettigrew?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"None, I'm afraid, though I suspect that he has left the country never to return." Lily nodded in understanding.

"I don't suppose you've found a way to remove the horcrux yet, have you?" she said in a slightly hopeful voice.

"I'm afraid not." replied Dumbledore quietly. It was no small burden on Dumbledore's shoulders that he, supposedly the greatest wizard of the age, could not find a way to save the boy, though it was not for lack of trying. "I suppose I must be going then," said Dumbledore, smiling and turning towards the floo, "I shall update you if there are any developments." He stepped into the fireplace, stooping as he was too tall for it, and flooed back to his office.

Flashback, July 1st 1991

"So… Miss Hastings." Lily sat up straighter in the comfortable armchair that sat behind her desk in her study. In the chair opposite her sat a girl she knew to be 18 who had just graduated from Hogwarts. Ella Hastings was an exceptionally pretty girl, and that was about all she had going for her.

Her OWL results had been quite far below her peers', and her NEWTS were even worse. She wasn't lazy, just unlucky when it came to the brains department. She was renowned amongst the now-graduated seventh years as being a simple girl, with very low standards.

Lily had only briefly spoken to a few of her year mates about her, but she knew they would have held back their true feelings in front of an adult, especially an adult as influential as Lily Potter. Despite this, she had managed to gage their opinions of the girl from the tone of voice they used when talking about her; the girls disdainful and jealous, and the boys smug.

"I asked you to see me today to offer you a job." Whatever she'd been expecting Lily to say, it was obviously not this. She stared at Lily with a slightly stupid look on her face.

"A job?" she repeated, "What kind of job?"

Lily blushed a little at this and replied with a smirk,

"A job that I think you'll be… rather well suited to."

Lily reached into her robes pocket and pulled out her wand.

"Before we go any further, I'm afraid that I'll have to get you to swear an oath to never share what I'm about to tell you."

"Oh, Mrs Potter, I'm awful with secrets, if you tell me something I won't be able to-"

"It's alright Ella," Lily reassured her, "The oath will physically prevent you from speaking it. And please, call me Lily."

Ella looked relieved at this, and brought out her own wand. Lily guided her through the oath until she was satisfied that Ella wouldn't be able to tell anyone about their meeting, deliberately or otherwise.

"So, Ella. I've asked you to meet me here today because I have a job opportunity that I feel best suits you out of all your year mates. I have heard of the… reputation… that you gained whilst at Hogwarts." Ella turned white at this, clearly worried about why on earth Lily Potter, arguably the most powerful witch in Britain, might be interested in her more sordid past-times.

Lily chuckled at this reaction, and eased her fears.

"It's fine Ella, everyone's been young and… excited. I promise you're not in trouble. In fact, that reputation is exactly why I want to hire you. My son has a very rare and strange affliction, this is why you had to swear the oath, that requires him to perform certain acts or else he will almost certainly die."

Although she had initially calmed down, Ella now looked worried again.

"I believe that you, Ella, could help him perform these acts until he is old enough to perform them himself." Ella looked confused, clearly trying, and failing, to piece together what this had to do with her reputation at school.

"What… what 'acts' would I need to help him perform?" she asked, completely oblivious to what Lily was insinuating. Lily searched her face to see if she was kidding, but finding nothing but confusion decided to put it frankly.

Lily sighed and breathed in again deeply, steeling herself for what she would have to explain. She racked her brains for the best way to put it, but came up short.

"You'd need to… to… you'd need to fuck him."

…

A heavy silence permeated the air. Lily and Ella both sat so still anyone who entered the room might have believed them to be mannequins. Lily was just as shocked as Ella at what she had just said.

"C-come again?" asked Ella, breaking the silence like a pane of glass.

"What I mean to say is… is that… you see, he's an incubus, which is basically a human being but they require sex everyday or else they'll die, and I felt that it would be best if he had someoneclosetohisage." Lily kept speeding up what she was saying until the words became a blur. Ella sat still for a good 2 minutes, a pensive look on her face that made her look slightly constipated, as if the simple act of processing what Lily had said was taking a substantial effort.

"So… you want… me… to… to have s-sex… with… your son?" Ella concluded, looking to Lily for conformation.

"Yeah, essentially. Of course, you'll be paid far more than anyone your age could hope to be paid for a first job, and a stellar recommendation once the contract is finished. Trust me, when I recommend someone, they don't struggle to find work. You'd be doing this for a year, as by that point Harry will be finding different arrangements, but whilst he is at school and at home, you'll be there to provide for him. Now… why don't we go over the details?"

End Flashback

"Harry?" Harry heard his mother calling him from inside. He whistled to the snitch, causing it to return to his open palm, and landed his broom. He turned back to the house and saw his mother step out onto the porch.

"Hey Harry. I was thinking we could go for your birthday lunch now?"

"I still don't understand why we aren't celebrating my birthday on my birthday." He grumbled. His mother had dodged the question whenever he asked it, always getting flustered and changing the subject.

"Well, Harry, you'll be rather busy tomorrow, so I thought it would be best to just celebrate today. Don't you want your presents a day early?" Harry perked up at this, never one to turn down early presents.

"Hmmm… fine, but we have to go to my favourite restaurant." His mother smiled at him lovingly.

"Of course, darling. It's your almost-birthday after all."

Harry sat across the booth from his mother, intently studying the menu. He always got the same thing at Antonio's, but it felt right all the same. When the waitress came she greeted both of them familiarly, having waited on them many times. Harry ordered his usual, and his mother hers, before the waitress returned to the kitchen to relay their order.

"So." Started Harry, trying to sound intimidating to his mother.

"So." She replied, using fake gruffness to mock him. Harry frowned but ploughed on.

"Why are we celebrating my birthday early? Is it some kind of surprise holiday? Are we going to that water park near the motorway we saw the other day?"

"We're not going anywhere, Harry." His mother said, looking slightly ashamed that she'd caused him to get excited, "I suppose I may as well explain as you'll only tear yourself up wondering." Lily then pulled her wand out and began to put up privacy wards around them. Harry was suddenly slightly worried about what his mother might be about to tell him; especially if she felt it needed privacy wards in a muggle area.

"Harry…" she began, pausing and looking at the ceiling as if thinking how to say what she was about to say, "The night that Voldemort attacked us, the night your father died, something very special happened. The doctors weren't really sure how it happened but… you became an incubus."

Harry stared at her, the words entering his brain but not making any coherent sense. His mother had only rarely spoken about the night his father had died, and they had been isolated from the magical community to escape the press since he could remember.

"A… what?"

"An incubus, Harry. They're magical creatures that are almost identical to humans except for a few key differences." She noticed that Harry was starting to panic at this, so she quickly reassured him, "It's nothing physical Harry, you're not going to grow horns or a tail or anything. Really, it's a good thing. There's just a few medical requirements you're going to have to take care of once you turn 11."

Lily paused, clearly struggling to put what she wanted to say into words.

"Harry, do you know what… sex is?" Harry stared blankly at his mother. He'd never heard of 'sex'. Lily sigh, seemingly disappointed.

"Well, Harry, you see… um… when… when a man and a woman l-"

"Medium Pepperoni?" asked the waitress who had returned carrying two pizzas. Lily let out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding, infinitely thankful for the interruption.

"Yes!" she breathed, a little too enthusiastically. The waitress looked at her a little a funnily, but handed it over nonetheless. Lily didn't touch the topic again the whole meal, choosing instead to stare intently at her pizza.

"Mum?" Harry finally asked, fed up with the monosyllabic answers that his mother had been giving to his attempts at conversation, "Why are you ignoring me?"

Lily put down the slice of pizza she had been eating and swallowed the mouthful she was chewing.

"It's… it's just a bit of an awkward topic. What I brought up earlier. I promise I'll explain it to you fully when we get home." She smiled half-heartedly at him before starting a conversation about what he thought his presents were.

After and exceedingly tense car ride home, Lily led Harry up to the library. She sat him down on one of the sofas and walked over to a bookshelf. Reaching high up, she pulled out a heavy tome that Harry'd not seen before and took it over to where he was sat.

She put it in his lap and told him to read it. If he had any questions, she would be back in an hour so he should write them down to make sure he remembered. With that, she left him in the library to read 'A Comprehensive Guide to the Hippogryffs and the Fire Crabs'

Curious, Harry opened to a random page and looked at the picture on it, before promptly snapping it shut. Now he understood why his mother had been embarrassed about talking about it.

I'll update this fic sporadically, don't expect any kind of schedule.