A/N: Dear readers,

I wanted to let you know that the story has been changed from the first-person point of view to a third-person point of view. Feel free to go back to the first chapter and take a look, there are a lot of new details. I hope you enjoy the change. Happy reading!

-JustLilyJade


A disclaimer: I don't own any characters, from the Harry Potter Series, just the ones I make up.

Harry Potter

Until Always

Chapter 2


Once the two men are gone Minerva pulls the shirt upward just high enough to slip the young woman's limp arm through her sleeve. The limb drops lifelessly back to her side and dangles helplessly. Minerva has not had to undress someone without the use of magic in an exceedingly long time. The only real experience she's had that equates to this very thing is the last time she changed one of the dolls she owned as a child. She fights the desire to use magic, she does not want to risk inflicting any more damage to her former student. At this point, they don't have the slightest inkling of what is ailing her shoulder and they don't know how it will react to magic.

With very gentle fingers, Minerva tries to lift the shirt off the young woman's shoulder. The fabric peels back slowly, breaking the clinging suction the leaking wound has formed around itself. Once released it reveals the grotesque wound concealed beneath. She pulls the shirt over the young woman's head and carefully slips the girl's other arm from the remaining sleeve before she disregards it on the floor. With a wave of her hand and a bit of nonverbal magic, the shirt floats up off the floor, folding itself and floating down onto Severus' favorite chair cushion.

With another silent spell, a red and gold strapless sundress hovers just within Minerva's reach. She snatches the knee-length dress from thin air and drapes it over the back of the couch as she walks over to remove the young woman's shoes. She abandons them to the floor and, with a wave of her hand, the shoes walk as if someone is in them and places themselves with their heels facing Severus' fading green chair, as if someone has gone to sit upon its cushion.

That complete, Minerva gathers up the dress into both hands and works the girl's feet through the top of the dress. Once both feet have been successfully worked inside, the transfiguration professor shimmies the dress upward until it reaches the unconscious woman's mid-thigh, before she gently begins to shift the dress upward. She pulls at the top of the garment while she simultaneously allows the bottom to slip down, the top of the dress slipping over the young woman's stomach and gently over her breasts.

Minerva lifts the girl upward against her own body so that she can tie the straps that will keep the top in the proper place around the young woman's neck. Once she is satisfied with the dress' placement and the tightness of the straps, she reaches around and unhooks the girl's bra. Once it releases she slips it off Lily's arms and rolls her onto her good shoulder.

To keep the pressure and the cushion off her former student's injury, Minerva places one of the small cushions that were set at either end of the couch in front of the young woman to help keep her wounded shoulder propped up. Also, by carefully placing the cushion where she did, it keeps the young woman from choking on her own vomit if she wakes and gets sick, while hopefully at the same time giving her a sense of comfort by simulating the pressure of her young child cradled against her.

Once Minerva is convinced that the cushion is secure enough to support the girl, she moves down to her feet. With a gentle motion, she pulls downward on the sock that is on the girl's uninjured ankle and disregards it on the floor, turning her full attention to the wounded ankle. With both hands, she gently pulls down on the remaining sock. The ridges from the fabric are visible on the bruising flesh. She too disregards that onto the floor. With wordless magic, she keeps her eyes focused on her tasks and the forgotten socks begin to crawl across the floor, up over and into the left and right shoe. From what Minerva could tell, the ankle looks like it might be broken.

She moves directly in front of the girl's waist, lifting the bottom of the dress high enough so that her hands could find the clasp on her trousers, and she drops the bottom of the dress, releasing the button without the use of her eyes. With the button undone, she moves back to the girl's feet. Utilizing a levitation spell, Minerva lifts the young woman's hip just high enough, still careful not to disturb her shoulder, so that she can slip the young woman's trousers free from her body; with two solid tugs, she drops them to the floor the second they are free of Lily's feet.

The trousers, like the abandoned shirt before, fold themselves and float down to rest on top of the shirt already on the fading green chair's cushion. Minerva gently lowers the woman's hips back down, disturbing the propped shoulder as little as possible. Conjuring a third matching cushion into her hand, Minerva uses it to raise the girl's damaged ankle in hopes that the elevation will help with the ankle's swelling.

Minerva checks everything one more time as she pulls the bottom of the dress down where it needs to be with a sigh. Once she convinces herself that this is the best she can do for the girl, she takes another step back. With a summoning spell, a table appears next to the arm of the couch with everything that she could think they might need to help the young woman. With another sigh, she backs away.

"She's ready," Minerva calls, just loud enough for one of the men to hear but hopefully quiet enough that she doesn't wake the still slumbering Harry.


Dumbledore gazes at Severus patiently as the realization of his request slowly sinks into the younger man's black eyes.

"You want us to what!?" Severus' voice is calm, so calm that it seems as if he didn't quite hear what the headmaster has been saying.

"Live together," the older man repeats slowly.

Severus stares at the headmaster blankly; the whole idea is ludicrous. "That's never going to work!"

"You don't think so, Severus?" Dumbledore questions, sipping his tea contentedly.

"Of course not!"

Lily will never agree to this and, on top of that, he is currently still by all accounts an "active" Death Eater serving the Dark Lord. Has Dumbledore gone barmy, to think that any of this absurd idea sounds like a good plan?

After a long pause and the clank of the empty teacup on it's matching saucer, Dumbledore questions, "Why not? What concerns do you have with this arrangement Severus?"

Severus sighs openly pinching the bridge of his nose before downing the rest of his tea. "Headmaster, for the sake of the charade that you have placed me in, I am still actively in the inner circle of Death Eaters within close proximity to the Dark Lord, and Lily will never agree to such an absurd arrangement."

A twinkle forms in Dumbledore's eyes as a smile touches the corners of his lips. "What's so absurd about it? My boy, the fact that you are currently within the inner circle of Voldemort's Death Eaters is exactly why your home would be the safest place for them. Who would expect someone from Voldermort's inner circle to house his most desired fugitives?"

Dumbledore's words roll around in Severus' head for a moment; the whole thing was a death sentence. Would Severus be able to keep such a thing a secret from the Dark Lord? Was his Occlumency strong enough to shut this away from the greatest Legilimens of the age? He was, after all, currently deceiving him with his true allegiance to Dumbledore… but that is different, he is risking his own life and not the life of another. He didn't want to endanger her life a second time.

His first gamble had been a foolish folly because he hadn't placed any merit in that damnable prophecy. The only reason he ever mentioned it was because he was aware of the ears within the halls of Hogwarts. If word had gotten back to the Dark Lord that he had overheard such a thing and never relayed the information, no matter how implausible he thought it, he would have been severely punished for withholding it.

Dumbledore's gaze bares down on the younger wizard while a smile pulls at the corners of his lips.

"Perhaps, Severus," Dumbledore speaks knowingly, "You are more concerned about her thoughts to this arrangement than you are about anything else."

Severus thought on Dumbledore's words. Perhaps he was more concerned about Lily's reaction to the situation than anything else. He had enough faith in his Occlumency skills to keep the Dark Lord from seeing her in his mind, it was just a feeble excuse to keep him from dwelling on the thought of Lily living with him.

Dumbledore smiled brightly as the realization crosses Severus' expression, "Good, then it's settled. Lily and Harry will be living in Spinner's End with you."

Severus opens his mouth to protest further, but the words die on his tongue when Minerva's voice calls out to them.

"She's ready."

Severus was on his feet, he would argue his flimsy points with Dumbledore later. Lily is his only priority at the moment. When he crosses the threshold into his living room, the fact that Minerva had dressed Lily in Gryffindor colors was not lost on Severus, but still, he is grateful that the outfit allows him much easier access to Lily's injuries.

He allows his eyes to scan her form before deciding to start with her ankle. But before doing anything he casts a spell that would let him know if there were any serious internal injuries that he could not see; thankfully she does not seem to have any internal bleeding. So Severus turns his attention to Lily's ankle. He didn't need the previous spell to tell him that it was broken.

He waves his wand over her ankle, giving it a flick as if he is going to tap the ankle with his wand but never making contact. "Talus Amendo."

The bones shift and click back into place with a grinding crack. With another murmured spell, the swelling goes down significantly on her ankle, but not completely. The bruising also greatly diminishes on her pale flesh. Her skin feels a lot cooler than he is comfortable with. He moves upward toward her head, the perspiration on her forehead sends alarm bells sounding within him. The back of his hand flies up to her forehead. She is burning up.

"She has a fever, it's too high." He shifts his gaze to Dumbledore, who passes the still slumbering Harry to Minerva.

Severus grabs a potion off the table that Minerva thankfully had the sense to conjure and pops the stopper from a small vial of a lavender liquid. He gazes at Lily briefly before realizing the idiocy of trying to give an unconscious woman a liquid to drink. Even if he manages to get some of it down her throat, there is a risk of her choking on it. Her fever feels far too high. Severus conjures a strip and places it upon Lily's forehead. Instantly the strip flashes red; 42.4°C (108.4 °F ). With another wave of his wand, he casts a cooling charm upon her, in hopes to bring down her fever.

After several long moments, the cooling charm does as intended and Lily's fever dips down, but Severus is careful to keep reapplying the spell as it is needed. He hopes that the cooling charm will not affect her shoulder, but he knows that if he does not get Lily's fever down quickly, she could suffer irreparable damage. With her temperature at a safer level, Severus turns his attention to her shoulder.

The shoulder looks inflamed and angry. The redness crawls across her skin as the wound oozes a foul-smelling mucus. Severus had not noticed the smell before when he had carried her here. Minerva apparently had not either because she would have alerted him immediately if she had, but still, he had to ask.

"Minerva, did this pus have an odor when you changed Lily into these clothes?"

The alarm instantly crosses Minerva's face, giving Severus all the information he needs before she voices it aloud.

"I hadn't noticed it if it did." She and Dumbledore look more closely at the festering wound. "For some reason, it looks like it has grown larger since I dressed her."

Severus raises an eyebrow at the transfiguration professor. That couldn't be possible, could it? Could the wound have changed size in such a short time? Had the magic used somehow affected the injury? Panic swells within Severus' chest as he fights its rise. Panic would do nothing to help solve the issue. He needs to be calm to be able to figure out what else he can do to fix this. He turns to gaze at the Headmaster.

"Headmaster, have you seen anything like this?"

Albus shakes his head solemnly. "I am afraid I have not."

Severus curses under his breath. The only way to possibly figure out what is happening is to have Dumbledore reach out to some of his contacts, but that would risk the exposure of Lily and Harry Potter's survival.

Merlin! What can he do to slow the progression of whatever is afflicting her shoulder? The sound of Harry's whimper pulled Severus from his thoughts as he tried to come up with the solution. He quickly glances at the oozing wound on Lily's shoulder, calculating its size.

Just as Minerva begins to rock the boy, Severus hurries to his potions lab to begin brewing a healing potion. Two hours later, Severus emerges from his basement, bombarded with the smell of eggs. Minerva must have summoned them from the neighbor's kitchen for the child to eat, because Severus is fairly certain he did not have any.

Minerva comes out of the kitchen holding Harry as she cleans the egg off him with a flick of her wand. Severus stares at the boy briefly, almost shocked at how much the poor child looks like his imbecile of a father.

"Severus?" Dumbledore's voice pries Severus' dark eyes from the boy's face.

"This should help. I altered the healing potion to make it a little stronger, and I brewed a wound cleaning potion as well. I also have a curse quarantine potion brewing if we need it. " With that, he shoves the two vails he is clutching into the headmaster's hands.

"Severus?"

"Please, Headmaster."

The older wizard looks over the top of his glasses at Severus before nodding slowly. "Very well."

Severus glances at Lily briefly as he makes his way back toward his basement where his curse quarantine potion is waiting. If he did not hurry then the potion will have to be thrown out and started again.

He gazes back at Lily once again as he reaches the basement door. "You are going to have to wake her… before giving her those."

Severus can't stop the panic from rising from his chest. Dumbledore nods in Severus' direction, already aware of what he will have to do. Minerva moves closer with Harry on her hip, blocking Severus' view of Lily, to try to ensure that one of the first things the young woman sees is that her child is safe and within her vicinity.

Dumbledore removes his elder wood wand from his robes. He raises the wand above his head where he sits in a red conjured chair next to Lily, he flicks it downward toward the young woman.

"Rennervate." A red light bursts brightly from the end of his wand and floats down covering the young woman entirely. There is a slight pause before the girl inhales a deep, desperate breath. Her eyes fly open and she sits up quickly. Dumbledore reaches out to steady the young woman as she wobbles slightly.

Lily blinks several times before her eyes flick around the room frantically as the fog floating around in her brain tries to piece together where she might be. Panic rises within her core quickly as she realizes she doesn't feel the weight of her child in her arms.

"Harry!?"

"He's here, Lily." Minerva's voice is soothing as the delirious green orbs drift fearfully in her direction. She reaches for her son gratefully but flinches as pain radiates from her shoulder. Harry reaches for his mother with a smile.

"Mrs. Potter," Albus says as she reaches up to rub her shoulder. He holds up the vial that contains the bright purple liquid. "These should help."

"Where are we?" Something about this place feels vaguely familiar to her. Lily reaches for the vial slowly, the faint purple smoke swirling as she pulls the stopper from the top. "A wound-cleaning potion."

Dumbledore nods as she downs the vial, quickly wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"We are currently at Spinner's End."

Lily begins to choke on the potion as the name of her ex-best friend's home comes from the headmaster's lips. Something in her shoulder began to bubble, causing her to flinch. She couldn't remember the wound-cleaning potion burning like this.

Once the bubbling sensation stops, her former headmaster hands her the second vial. The blood-red liquid does not taste much better than the wound-cleaning potion. After a few moments, the pain in her shoulder lessons and starts to subside. She looks over at Harry, who is giggling at the faces Professor McGonagall is making at him. She reaches for her son and cuddles him close to her chest. The relief of having him back safely in her arms washing over her.

"Headmaster."

Lily's head snaps up at the sound of another male voice.

"Ah, Severus," Dumbledore says calmly as Lily's eyes meet Severus' black ones. "I don't believe the other potion will be necessary."

Severus stands frozen as he gazes into the green orbs that stare back at him. His heart thrums in his chest as he grips the vial of the golden quarantine potion. He shifts his weight awkwardly as his black eyes never leave her green ones.

"Hi, Severus."

He swallows trying to quench his dry mouth as he nods in her direction.

"Hello, Lily."


A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter everyone! Chapter 3 is about ready to go. I wanted to let you know that I will not be able to update my stories until sometime in December. So please know that nothing has been abandoned! I just have to get through November before I will have more time to write again. I also want to thank my beta for all her hard work on this chapter! Until I can get chapter 3 posted please review and have a great day!