Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!

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During the Battle of Hogwarts, Severus Snape arrived at the castle's boathouse that night prepared to die.

Severus Snape had spent the previous seventeen years keeping Harriet Potter safe.

He would leave the world holding one last secret for her.

He would feed one last lie to Voldemort so that she could have a scrap more of opportunity…...then he'd mercifully find peace after long years of turmoil.

As a Gryffindor scarf waved in the air, hung from a nail on the wall behind him, Severus's stony facial expression depicted the grim look of a man who knew that he was on his final path.

He wasn't entirely certain why he felt fear, he had waited for his dying day for nearly twenty years.

"And you're certain that the Elder Wand will obey me, Severus?" Voldemort hissed with a snarl as he circled his loyal servant while they stood and spoke in the boathouse.

On the damp, wooden floorboards between the two men, Nagini, the snake, another of Voldemort's trusted servants, lay in waves with her large, forked tongue flickering out of her massive head.

"Of course, my lord." Severus nodded as he attempted to move his lips in a way that resembled a smile, "There is no power greater than your own."

Voldemort looked at Severus with his horrible, serpentine eyes for a terribly long moment before he spoke in his eerie voice, "You're a clever man, Severus, but we both know that's not true. The Elder Wand follows the wizard who kills its previous owner…….Isn't that right?"

Severus's face fell in dreadful realization as he gazed at Voldemort.

No matter how much he had considered death previously, abstract musing and unavoidable reality were two entirely different concepts.

"You have been a good and faithful servant to me, Severus." Voldemort said very matter-of-factly.

Severus opened his mouth as his survival instincts activated and he spoke, "My lord…..."

A hateful sneer crossed Voldermort's face as he made a sudden, slashing motion with the Elder Wand that he held in his hand.

Severus knew then that it was over.

He felt the cut that sliced open his throat.

Blood spotted his white collar.

Voldemort kept that hateful sneer on his face as he whispered harshly to Nagini in the language of snakes that Severus couldn't understand, "Nagini, kill!"

Severus saw the serpent's merciless eyes turn on him and as his throat bled, he cried out as the snake opened its gaping mouth and launched itself forward.

Hogwarts' headmaster fell back against the boathouse windows with the first strike.

The second strike, the third, the fourth…..shook Severus like a rag doll as the snake violently carried out her master's vicious orders.

Severus's heart pounded as he slumped down against the glass of the boathouse windows while Voldemort stared at him callously once Nagini finally relented.

Satisfied with the job that his pet had done, Voldemort and his snake apparated away in one quick blur.

Severus swallowed dryly and glanced over as the door to the boathouse slowly creaked open.

He sighed when he saw her walk in, with her emerald eyes wide behind her glasses and a sympathetic frown on her face as she looked down at him.

Severus Snape didn't want it, he didn't want Harriet Potter's pity.

In that moment, though, as Harriet knelt down in front of Severus, and gently placed her hands against his throat in a futile attempt to close his wounds and save his life, his stern mask crumbled away.

Tears spilled down his face as he looked into Harriet's familiar green eyes and raised his trembling arms as best he could while he cried out, "Take them!...Please!...Take them!"

"Professor……" Harriet breathed. It shook her to her core to see stoic, capable, Professor Snape that vulnerable.

Severus heard her usually confident voice waver as she called over to her two friends who stood by the door, "Hermione! Ron! Give me a vial or...or something…..quickly!"

Severus watched the Granger girl run over and hand Harriet a glass vial, which allowed him to let his tears flow freely while Harriet did as he asked and collected them inside the container.

"Put them…...in the Pensieve….." Severus whispered to her.

"Of course….." Harriet nodded, giving him a joyless smile.

"You have your mother's eyes…….." Severus sighed softly.

Despite their tumultuous history, Harriet didn't want to leave her wounded teacher's side.

She begged the injured man to let her help him as she spoke, "Professor, we can-"

"-Go." Severus hissed. His voice was a low rumble as he stared up into Harriet's face. His dark eyes were heavy with sadness and fatigue while he spoke, "My duty is done, but yours is far from over, Potter."

Harriet grimaced as she frowned down at Severus, but he clenched his jaw and hissed, "GO!"

"Come on, Harriet." Hermione whispered from the doorway.

Harriet kept her grimace as she reluctantly took her hand off of Severus's throat, stood, and walked back over to Hermione.

Severus heard Harriet call out to him softly,

"I'll never forget you, Professor."

Her words hurt more than the slash on his throat.

After Harriet closed the door to the boathouse while she and her two friends obeyed his final command, Severus closed his black eyes tightly and waited for death.

He opened them when he heard a gentle, sliding sound.

A look of terror marred his face when he realized that Nagini was back and gliding towards him again.

Severus's racing heart clenched.

Had the first, brutal attack not been satisfactory to the Dark Lord after all?

Had Voldemort returned too?

How long did he intend to drag this torture out?!

Although the snake slithered closer, Voldemort was nowhere to be seen.

Nagini stopped a short distance away from Severus.

He furrowed his brow and braced himself, until the animal started to shake and convulse.

A severe scowl of confusion and disbelief painted itself on Severus's face as the snake began to change forms.

It was then that Severus noticed something as he sat there, helpless and hopeless……..

He had been struck several moments ago and yet, he was not yet dizzy from blood loss or swooning from the snake's venom.

While Severus watched Voldemort's pet slowly writhe into the shape of a human, he raised a hand up and touched his neck.

His heart skipped a beat when his fingers failed to find a wound.

Nagini had crashed into him several times, but as Severus replayed the memory in his mind, it occurred to him that he didn't remember ever feeling her fangs penetrate his flesh.

Although, Severus knew that Voldemort had cut his throat…...so why……wasn't the gash detectable?

As the snake finished changing, Severus found himself looking at a young, clothed boy, who blinked at him curiously.

Severus blinked back at the boy.

The boy said nothing as he stepped forward, moved Severus's collar aside, and smiled when he saw what Severus felt.

"You've mended him well, Albus. No cut at all, not a scratch in the slightest!" The boy called out.

Severus narrowed his eyes as another boy, who looked to be a couple years younger than the one in front of him, popped up from behind a pile of crates and asked excitedly, "He's alright?!"

"Yes, you did nicely…..The wound is closed. Looks like he bled a few drops, but nothing to worry about." The boy in front of Severus nodded in assertion.

Severus's black eyes remained narrowed in bewildered suspicion.

He didn't recognize the two boys as Hogwarts students…..and they weren't wearing school robes.

What disturbed Severus about the children was that both boys had raven-black hair and the one in front of him had, beyond all shadow of doubt, Lily Potter's green eyes, their shape and color was exact.

The boy standing behind the crates clearly bore a hooked nose that appeared to be eerily similar to the one on Severus's face…...

"Did Mum already leave?" The boy behind the crates asked.

"Don't call her that here!" The boy in front of Severus snapped as he turned around to face the younger one.

"Sorry……" The boy behind the crates apologized before he asked again, "Did she already leave?"

"Yes, she already left, Albus! Let's go home!" The boy in front of Severus huffed as he stood.

Severus gathered enough of his wits to speak as he looked between both of the boys and asked, "...Who are you two?"

Both of the boys glanced over at Severus with wide eyes.

The older boy motioned quickly to the younger boy, Albus, before he called out, "Right then, hurry up!"

"Well?! You're the one that has it!" Albus exclaimed as he scurried over to the older boy.

While he sat in front of the boathouse windows, Severus watched as the older boy reached into his pockets and pulled out a very gold and very bent necklace that was composed of round circles.

Severus easily recognized the piece of jewelry as a Time-Turner.

"You've broken it!" Albus declared as his dark eyes widened in horror at the warped object.

"No, I haven't!" The older boy shouted in defense, "I haven't broken it, it's just a bit curved, that's all."

"It's broken!" Albus cried in exasperation as the older boy began to operate the Time-Turner, "You must have slithered on it! I told you to put it in your back pocket, not the front! Now how are we supposed to get home?!"

"We can still get home, you idiot!" The older boy hissed, "Hold on!"

Severus watched the older boy spin the circles on the Time-Turner and he knew that his two mysterious rescuers were about to disappear.

Severus Snape had planned on dying that night.

He had made no arrangements about what he would do if he survived.

However, Severus decided in that instant that he would first dedicate himself to discovering the identities of his two unknown saviors.

Just before the two boys vanished, Severus reached forward and grabbed onto the older boy's wrist.

As they whirled through the air, the two boys screamed in terrified understanding that Severus had followed them home.

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When their journey ended, Severus and the two boys came crashing down onto the carpeted floor of what appeared to be a bedroom.

A children's bedroom.

Severus blinked as he sat up and peered around to acquaint himself with his new surroundings.

The two boys stared at him with wide, horrified eyes while Severus's dark gaze roamed over their belongings.

There were stacks of books here and there, some on shelves, some on the floor.

Two twin beds had been placed an equal distance apart and two empty cauldrons sat in the corner.

A quidditch poster sprawled across one wall, with a picture of Hogwarts tacked up beside it.

Footsteps came pounding up the stairs and the elder boy mouthed words for a moment to Severus before they finally fell from his lips, "...H-Hide! Behind the bed! Quickly!"

Severus took the look on the boy's face seriously and he swiftly crawled behind the farthest bed to skillfully wedge himself into the space between the bed's side and the wall just before the door to the bedroom flung open.

A low, rumbling voice called out in an ominous warning as its speaker addressed the boys, "What…...are you two doing up here? Your mother's frightened that you're going to come crashing through the ceiling! Do you want to upset her?"

Severus's breath stopped for a moment as he lay there and listened.

That voice…...

That was his voice.

That was his voice, he would know it anywhere!

It was unmistakable.

"No, sorry, Dad." The older boy apologized.

Severus's black eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

……………..'Dad'?!

"Sorry, Daddy." Albus chimed in, "We'll be quieter."

Severus breathed a silent gasp and slowly folded a hand over his chest.

"...See that you are." Severus heard his voice call from the door, "Dinner will be ready very shortly….Wash your hands and come downstairs, both of you, Albus….Verinth."

The boys were silent, but Severus assumed they had probably nodded in response.

As soon as the door closed, the older boy, Verinth, scrambled over to Severus.

Albus quickly came to stand behind his brother.

Both of the boys gazed down at Severus with anxious expressions.

"You shouldn't have come with us!" Verinth hissed at Severus in a loud whisper.

"What if they see you?!" Albus asked.

"Who are you two?!" Severus demanded incredulously.

"Shouldn't that be obvious by now?! We're your sons!" Verinth exclaimed, "We-"

"-Dinner's ready!" Severus heard his own authoritative tone call from downstairs.

"We have to go, Albus." Verinth said immediately as he turned to his little brother before he looked at Severus again and nodded, "Stay here! Don't come out…..we'll bring you some food and then we'll…..we'll find a way to take you back."

Severus wore a horrible grimace on his face as he watched the boys scamper out of the room and down the stairs.

He was nearly nauseated from the multiple shocks that he had endured that evening.

Severus sat up and wondered exactly how many more surprises could he stand in one night?

With determined resolve, he slowly stood up.

One more.

Severus could endure one more trauma at least, and that was the one that he had to endure.

That single question burned in his mind.

If those boys were his sons……..then who was their mother?

Lily was dead and gone.

Who else could it possibly be?

Severus murmured a spell under his breath and levitated so that his feet hovered above the ground.

He silently floated to the bedroom door, opened it gently, and cautiously peered out into the dark hallway.

Severus could hear the conversation from the dinner table downstairs, along with the clinking of silverware while the family……his family, apparently, shared their evening meal.

A family, he had a family…….

Severus glided out of the room, through the hallway, and down the stairs until he came to a small corridor that allowed him to peek into the dining room from the secure concealment of shadows.

As he peered into the room, Severus's dark eyes fell on the two boys who were busily eating, then himself at the head of the table.

He watched himself chat with his sons while he cut the meat on his plate with a knife.

Severus struggled not to scream out when his gaze shifted and he noticed who sat beside him.

He could see her clearly, past the two boys.

Severus's jaw dropped open and his dark eyes widened as he stood there and looked from her face to the wedding ring on her hand in abject disbelief.

He noticed that the gold band on her finger matched the one that he wore on his left hand at the table.

Severus scowled at the way the valuable metal glinted in the light while he watched himself slice through the meat on his plate.

Severus considered himself a proud alpha.

Although he had chosen to spend his life unmated, he silently admitted while he gazed at her there at the table, that the omega did look rather beautiful as a wife and a mother.

"Mum, did Dad tell you what we saw the other day?" Verinth asked.

Severus swallowed thickly in his throat.

He trembled as the woman at the table looked at her oldest child and replied.

"No, he didn't, sweetheart." Harriet Potter answered their son…..their son….. with a smile, "Why don't you tell me?"

Severus took a step back, entirely overwhelmed.

Learning that he would survive the war to marry Harriet Potter was a greater shock to Severus Snape than learning that he survived the war at all.