1It was probably the stupidest thing he'd ever done. How could he have accepted Lily's offer to join her and James at their Christmas party? When Lily and Snape had finished brewing the potions, she'd politely extended the invitation and then left. He must have been delirious when he accepted. At least the date wasn't that night. It wasn't until next Friday, and that gave him plenty of time to back out.

Snape was set to have a meeting with Dumbledore and McGonogall in a few minutes. He'd be starting to teach Monday and they needed to work things out.

He knocked and entered the headmaster's office right on time, but this time it was Snape interrupting a meeting.

He ran into none other than Mr. Potter and Shelby, James' dad and baby sister.

"Just a moment, Mr. Snape," Dumbledore requested, and Snape apologetically stepped out of the office. Outside he ran into none other than Lily Potter, again! He just couldn't catch a break.

"Excuse me, Severus," she gently pushed past him and into Dumbledore's office. When she entered, she left the door standing wide open behind her, allowing Snape an inconspicuous view.

"Lily!" Mr. Potter greeted. "Thanks for coming on such short notice. I was really in a bind."

"No problem, Dad," she sighed and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek as she lifted the three year old Shelby into her arms.

"Theresa's been at her mother's this week, and..." Lily motioned towards Dumbledore and Lily understood.

Jonathan worked was head of training for the Aurors, and it seemed that he and Dumbledore had some business for the night. Karen hadn't gotten the information right after all.

Lily had come back up to the school after arriving home and finding that her in-laws weren't coming. James said that his dad was taking Shelby up to Hogwarts to leave her with Lily after a meeting with Dumbledore.

James had offered to go for Shelby, but Lily noticed his stiffness and took pity on him. James' team had been training hard for a while, and despite his small break, Lily had noticed the knots in his muscles lately.

"I'll be back in an hour," Jonathan told Dumbledore. He reached down to hug Shelby. "Now Shelby, you're going to go and stay with Lily for a while, okay?"

"Jamie?" Shelby asked excitedly. Jonathan nodded and Shelby screeched in excitement.

"I love you, baby," he told her and kissed her little cheek. "And I love you, Lily," he said as he squeezed her into a hug. Lily locked eyes with Jonathan. "Tell James I'm proud of him," Jonathan whispered.

Lily began to get chills as she realized how dangerous the job would be for Jonathan. She also noted that James and his dad must have had another fight if he was asking her to relay messages to his son, whom he'd seen earlier that same day.

She nodded and followed Jonathan out of the office.

Dumbledore sighed heavily.

"Come on in, Mr. Snape," he invited in a tired voice. As he was taking a seat, Professor mcGonogall entered.

"Please excuse my tardiness," she nodded curtly.

"That's quite alright, Professor," Dumbledore smiled.

The meeting went on quite routinely. Dumbledore asked of any news that Snape might have picked up that would be of any use to the good cause, and reminded him to keep his ears open.

Then Dumbledore gave him his teaching schedule. He glanced at it briefly and noticed that he had third years first thing Monday morning, Gryffindor and Slytherin; goody. He sighed heavily and was dismissed.