Chapter 43

Lilly's Child

Severus Snape clutched Taya, a girl who he had only ever dreamt about nine months ago. Never in his wildest imagination would he had deemed that she would be laying with him now.

He reached out his hand and lightly brushed his fingers over her bare arm and down her back. She moaned softly and clutched him even tighter to her.

It was nearing midnight and they had been taking, or at least he had been talking about Lilly Potter for the last two hours.

"Have you ever told Harry about it?" She asked dreamily into his neck.

"No," he whispered.

"I think you owe it to him to tell him it was you who found him that night." He looked down at his hands. Taya yawned as she slunk closer to him.

For some time he watched her sleep, his mind going over the past, the present and the future until he too eventually managed to drop off to sleep.

For a time there was nothing but darkness. Darkness in sleep was a welcome reward compared to his nightmares that still visited occasionally. But this one was almost as treacherous.

The dream tonight was vividly real, like so many of his dreams, Severus Snape tossed and turned.

A foggy image was glowing green in the sky over the small cottage. An image that incited terror throughout every wizard community. To see this distinct ugly representation of pure evil etched in the air, a skull with a snake, galvanised the very core of raw primordial fear to transgress into mass narcotic panic, but the Dark Lord was defeated.

The air smelled of smoke, charred flesh, and dead earth.

A dream representation of himself moved up the narrow garden path his ears picking up the sound of a baby's pitiful sobbing. He swallowed as he neared the open front door. He could see light behind the entrance. The closer he got the louder the child's desperate wailing's were.

He stopped and reached out his hand towards the wood then thought better of it. It was unlocked. He pushed the door open with the point of his wand.

Severus entered the house with unease and caution.

The narrow hall was empty. He moved inside followed shortly by another man. Strangely the baby's sobbing had ceased.

"Check in there," his dream voice ordered. The other man nodded his shaggy brown head and soon disappeared inside the living room.

"Severus." Remus Lupin called. "You...you better come." The professor's stomach lurched. He pushed the door open and prepared for the worse.

He was dead. James Potter's lifeless body was spread in an awkward position on the floor. Beside him was his wand, useless against that who had killed him.

Remus turned and fled the room after nearly vomiting. Severus threw back a deadly glare at the man who had been James' friend. A man who couldn't face his compatriot in death. For a moment Severus felt guilt. The werewolf was in shock he realised.

For him on the other hand, he had seen so much death while as a Death Eater it had almost hardened his heart into ice.

Severus Snape crouched down beside his most hated foe. The man who had stolen his love away from him and who had taunted and ridiculed him relentlessly while at school.

Severus looked down into the lifeless dull eyes that gazed a blank stare into nothingness. Gently the professor closed them. "There was nothing you could have done," he murmured to the silence. "Voldemort was to powerful even for you, Potter."

He stood up, remembering the baby. Perhaps Lilly was still alive and had some how quietened him down. His mind captured her image, her beauty, her smiling face then he imagined her cowering in the corner of some room clutching her baby to her. Or worse...

But he didn't want to think like that. He couldn't otherwise he would never be able to go and explore the rest of the house. He moved out of the room, away from it's disarray and death.

Remus was leaning against the wall in the hall, shuddering clasping tattered robes against his narrow frame and barely managing to hold himself together.

"Lupin, Dumbledore will be along soon. I suggest you go wait outside." The sentiment was clear, but the cold acidity to his voice was sharp and biting, but the other man was grateful all the same.

"God, Snape. I'm sorry." Remus turned away and stepped back out into the darkness outside.

Severus paused a moment longer then heard the sound. The baby was crying again. The sound was coming from upstairs. He sprinted three steps at a time until he came to the landing. The baby's bedroom door was wide open. A charred burn was centred around the door handle, evidently the portal itself had been forced like that of down stairs.

A light was on.

He stepped inside and stopped.

She was dead.

There was no time to break down now. Only the baby mattered. He lay on the crumpled form of his mother bawling his eyes out, his tiny mind not understanding why his mother wouldn't hold him, why she wouldn't respond and comfort him.

Severus took a deep breath and knelt down close to the terrified boy. He reached out his hand, but the child screamed and hid his bloody face on his mother's shoulder.

"Harry Potter!" He said. "You must come with me. It is not safe here." The boy poked his head out. Severus spoke gentle but firm words. He reached out his hand. "Come here. We must go." Again little Harry buried his head against his mother. Only when Severus' gentle hand brushed his cheek did he look up with those big green eyes. Severus swallowed.

Lilly's eyes, was his first thought.

He had never seen Harry. He hadn't seen Lilly since their graduation, and then he had only mumbled a few words. He hadn't gone to Lilly and James' wedding either. He had been invited, but that would have only twisted his heart further into two.

For a moment he glanced down at Lilly's face. Terror was captured upon it. Unlike James' downstairs her eyes were closed. That much he was grateful for. He carefully eased Harry into his arms then lent down, gently pressing his warm mouth against Lilly's. Her lips were cold, dead.

"Don't worry." He swallowed. "Lillian Evans, your son will be cared for." He pulled away careful not to disturb the scene. The investigators, and aurors would be here in a matter of minutes. Lord Voldemort had done his worst on this house and this family.

He stood up awkwardly lifting Harry with him. The boy turned his head to meet Severus' eyes. Harry's face was chalk white. The baby coughed and lulled against him like a rag doll. Almost lifeless.

Severus gently pressed the child against him. He squeezed his eyes closed, preventing tears from slipping free.

"No," he said firmly. "You mustn't die. I promised Lilly." But it was too late. Harry's eyes were closed and his breathing barely existent. He realised there and then there was nothing more he could do.

Gently Severus lay him down on his mother again. He slid her still limp arm around his small body then he turned around.

"I'm so sorry." He moved toward the door.

Something made him stop and turn around.

The professor gazed grimly at the mother and child then he noted the ruby liquid that had started to drain from the head wound again. Severus knelt down, pushed back the black wisps of hair to expose a lighten bolt shaped cut on Harry's forehead. He gingerly pressed his finger to the cut and to his surprise it stopped bleeding instantly.

Harry howled with all his might.

His lips quirked up briefly for a moment then his usual solemn expression captured his pale thin face.

Only recently freed from Voldemort's clutches, no less than three weeks before. He was a bedraggled waif, still recovering from the traumatic horrors experienced prior. Despite his physical appearance Severus was surprising strong. He had almost given up on the last day with Lorsekruker, but that was then and the child he was holding in his arms was his preoccupation of the moment.

This baby was alive. Obviously his fragile life had come with a legacy, both for Harry himself and to others. Severus knew this child would forever be celebrated throughout the wizarding world. He had defeated Voldemort and had survived. How? Severus didn't know. Yet.

He grabbed a soft blanket from the cot near by and wrapped it around the infant then fled the house he never wanted to see ever again.

Images blurred and distorted, then the hazy shadows of colour whirled into shapes again, images he could recognise. Severus found himself watching his younger representation make his way down the staircase and a familiar voice greeted him.

"Severus? Where are you, son?"

"Headmaster?" He had never in his life ever felt so pleased to see him.

"Merlin's ball are you all right? I should never had requested you come. What an atrocity." Dumbledore held his head for a moment. "What was I thinking?" He said tutting recklessly. "And two of our very own, finest Gryffindors." The headmaster saw Severus' pale grim face.

"Is she?"

"Yes." Dumbledore closed his eyes.

"Such a waste. Such a waste, but alas, you have the boy. Is he...?"

"He is alive now, headmaster, but he was dying," spoke the dream Severus as they carried the baby out into the fresh air. Air had never tasted so sweet. The taste of death had left a bitter taste in his mouth an a knot in his stomach.

"I know he's alive."

"How?"

"Voldemort is gone, had he not been defeated then the boy would have... the Death Eater order is in chaos and..." Severus passed the baby to Dumbledore.

"He nearly died sir."

"Indeed," said the elderly wizard knowingly.

"I do not understand, sir. One minute he seemed to be breathing his last breath then the next he was bawling off the top of his lungs."

"Do you have any idea why this should happen Severus?"

"Non." He was shaking his head. No one had ever survived the maddening wrath of the Dark Lord's power and lived to tell the tale. Not until that day. Not until a very special little boy had some how broken the darkness that had swallowed the world into chaos.

Dumbledore was now smiling defiantly. "Do you realise that the world can be safe again. At least for a short while." For a moment the professor's cheery face dropped slightly. "But we mustn't think of that yet. This tiny baby has saved us all."

"How?" Severus genuinely wanted to know. But surely even a powerful man such as Albus Dumbledore wouldn't know such forces. Then again the old man seemed to have harnessed the world between his very finger tips.

"He was still alive when you found him, correct?"

"Of cause, but he was-"

"Harry here was bestowed with a very special gift."

That much is true, thought the potions master. "What?" Said his ethereal dream counterpart and the watcher found himself drawn into the dream Severus' body.

"Voldemort...yes. I speak his name aloud." Severus gasped slightly at the mention of the Dark Lord's name. The headmaster smiled knowingly. "He was defeated by something so powerful, so pure that despite the most darkest of spells, the most evilest of enchantments and hexes this thing can break them all,

"It is pure and untainted, something I always believed you had in you from the moment I found you."

"What is it?" Severus hated riddles, especially Dumbledore's

"The world can be an evil place, but even evil has it's weaknesses and blind spots. Every living being has this instilled in their hearts, even you my dear Severus, a former Death Eater. We can not even count out the Dark Lord himself. He had it once. Even if for a split second. It's love, Severus."

"Love?" The young potions master looked repulsed.

"Pap."

"Perhaps, but neither the less it exists."

"Why do you think Harry survived this abominable attack?" The dream Dumbledore closed his eyes for a short moment. "You just said he was still alive when you found him."

"Because Lilly loved him? What a stupid question, may I point out. Why shouldn't she? She was his mother after all."

"Of cause. Lilly's powers were stronger than we all new. Even she didn't know, I would suspect. Un-realising it she passed on a protection, the only way to protect her son from Voldemort, so powerful-"

"As you said, sir."

"And he nearly died did he not? Then you came along. You gave him your own-"

"What are you saying, Headmaster that I-"

"You loved her did you not?" Severus reddened with both embarrassment and rage. Dumbledore smiled gently. "You saved him too Severus. Your love for his mother gave him extra strength."

The younger man gritted his teeth. Nothing was a secret from old Dumbledore. Blue open eyes twinkled knowingly and met dark suspicious ones.

"How can you possibly know about..." Although he didn't reply to Severus' question a mysterious wizened smile touched Albus Dumbledore's mouth.

"Severus, we must get going," he said gently. The younger man turned to look up at the sky, the smoky green Death Eater sign gradually faded into nothing. The potions master turned abruptly when he felt a slight bony hand touch his wrist.

"Are you going to be all right?"

Severus avoided the question. Of cause he wasn't going to be 'all right.' Harry Potter and his strange legacy would plague him forever.

In his mind's eye he saw Lilly's dead face. He clasped his control firmly in check and pushed back hate into the darkness.

"Where is Lupin?" He said coldly.

"Ah, poor poor man. I sent him back to Hogwarts."

Just at that very moment there was a rumble, like the sound of thunder. Both men looked up at the dark sky and saw a black shape moving at a deathening speed. A giant of a man was perched atop a huge moter bike. The roar of it's engine grew louder and louder before finally spluttering to a holt and the huge man landed.

Rubeus Hagrid swung his mighty frame off the bike and stood stock still, horror reflecting on his huge hairy face.

"I got 'ear as soon as I could."

"I know you did." Dumbledore smiled sadly.

"Oh no…," muttered the giant in horror as his eyes took in the full view of the green scull hazily glowing above the house. "Were ye too late Professors?" He wimpered.

Dumbledore sighed.

"I'm afraid so, Hagrid."

"But there might be a way. Ye might be wrong." Hagrid started up the stone steps.

"Hagrid, they are dead."

The giant turned, big fat tears slid down into his bushy black beard. Hagrid sniffed and wiped his nose on the back of his hand. "An' an little 'Arry?" He swallowed fearing the headmaster's next words. Severus stepped forward.

"He's still alive," he said with a detached air to his voice.

The headmaster looked down at the sleeping bundle in his arms.

"We have him, Hagrid," said Dumbledore who gently pushed the child towards the giant.

"Oh thank Merlin," sighed Hagrid with relief. "An' the others. Gotta go get them."

"Hagrid, James and Lilly are dead. I…I saw them," interjected Severus.

"But…but…" Hagrid was spluttering. "I gotta see for meself. I don't believe." And he turned and went. Severus moved to make a grab at the giant's massive arm, but Dumbledore pulled him away.

"Severus leave him be. He has to see for himself."

"Shouldn't someone go in with him?" Dumbledore looked directly into Severus' fathomless dark eyes. "The grounds keeper…" Severus sneered slightly then bowed his head. "What if-" he swallowed.

The Headmaster interrupted. "We must get Harry back to Hogwarts, he said gently. "He needs his head seeing to." Dumbledore looked down at the baby gently cradling him against his chest. "Ah here they come and Hagrid will be fine Severus."

Professor Snape looked out at the group of investigators , Ministry personal, medical assessors, and aurors who had just apperated onto the scene. "They may wish to speak to both of you later, so get back and clean up." Dumbledore glanced at his watch. It's time.

With a quick pop they were gone.

And he awoke.

That night and that night only the ward against appariting directly in and out of the school had been unobstructed.