All credit for Harry Potter, the world the story takes place in, and the characters belong to the incredible JK Rowling, who I obviously am not for I don't even possess a thumb full of her amazing talent.

Molly softly hummed and gently ran her finger tips through the frozen expecting mother's flame colored hair, spreading it out over her prayed patchwork skirts. It was in the same manner that she used to sooth her littlest children so that she could get them to sleep. The younger woman had been like this ever since Madame Pomfrey seen her earlier, just lying her head on her friends lap.

After she had fainted, Minerva had quickly Flooed to Hogwarts to fetch the school matron.

Severus was gone when she regained consciousness, for the old nurse had dispatched him for Nutrients-Replenishing potions. In her depression of the past few weeks, she hadn't been taking the best care of herself. She had passed out because of hunger… and something else.

Madame Pomfrey had also alerted her to the unexpected fact that she was pregnant.

Hence the frozenness…

"It's alright dear," she soothed, "You'll see! In a few months this child will be born, Harry will have a little brother or sister. You and Severus will be happily married, maybe a little earlier so the baby can have his name... You just listen to me sweaty, everything will turn out alri-"

"Sev isn't the father," Lily suddenly confessed, interrupting the other redhead.

"What?" Molly whispered in shock.

"The baby isn't Sev's. He's not the father. We've never…you know," she explained, a blush spreading across her face.

The Weasley Matriarch didn't comment, instead taking the flower's previous position. Her fellow redhead sighed and settled down to wait for Molly to regain her motor functions. She knew her friend's reaction would seem a bit much to others, but to her understanding, it was perfectly normal. On several occasions she'd stated her opinion on woman who had an active practice of sexual activity before marriage. While sleeping with your fiancé was one thing, it was quite another to be sleeping with someone you were not in a permanent relationship.

So as to save at least a fraction of her comrade in motherhood's good opinion of her, she quickly began to explain.

"The father and I were in a brief relationship a little over a year ago. We were in love, but do to certain aspects of the union, I broke it off without telling him my reasons.

"I ran into him near the end of April, and we hung out a little while to catch-up. That was a huge mistake on my part. I thought I could control my feelings for him, but I was wrong. After I basically attacked him, we slept together. He was gone the next morning. I guess in the heat of the moment, neither of us thought to use a contraception charm…"

It was the first she'd told anyone of her history with Sirius, never mind that she did not come out and say his name. Even Remus didn't know, she didn't think anyway. Padfoot could have told him...

Little did the two women know, the werewolf in question was in fact hovering outside the door, his hand raised to knock. Slowly raising it and turning away, he began to walk. His mind was in turmoil, for he had heard every word. It had confirmed what he already knew, and brought to his attention some startling facts.

X-x-X

He hurried along the Muggle hallway of the London apartment complex, hardly glancing at the entrances brass numbers. He knew the door he was in search of, and were it was. He'd been here often enough anyway, bringing Harry to hang out with his godfather and lately trying to get Sirius to quit drowning himself in Firewhisky.

When he reached the peeling green painted door, he knocked hurriedly and then could only wait. He would barge right on in, but the dog Animagus had charmed the door to stop him.

A few moments later he knocked again, this time harder, more desperately.

It was pulled open with a yang as he raised his hand to again bang on the door, revealing the haggard looking Sirius Black. He looked awful. It wasn't so much that the man looked rough with his stubble and filthy black mane. It was that he looked like he was starving. His face was thin, and the skin stretched over sharp bones and carved into slightly hollow cheeks. He hadn't eaten properly in awhile. His eyes were the worst. Pools of pure sadness and desperation

"What?" he demanded, his version of a greeting. Despite how desperate he was to tell his friend the news, this pissed him off.

"That's all I get? After a decade and a half of being friends, all I get is a sarcastic 'What?'… Not even a hello, just 'What?' How rude is that?" he snapped, suddenly angry.

"Fine…hello. Now what?" Sirius said in monotone.

The werewolf sighed. Obviously this wasn't going to go how he thought it would.

"Look," he mumbled, watching as his friend began to rummage through a cupboard for another bottle of hard drink. "I just came by to tell you I've found out Lily-flower is pregnant."

If the sand and gray haired lycanthrope had bothered to watch his friend further when telling him this, instead of closing and rubbing his eyes, he would have seen the petrified man. Would have seen his eyes widen and the dead look fade from him for the first time in weeks.

"How far along?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

"What?"

"How far along is she?"

"I'm…I'm not sure," he admitted, "Poppy never actually said. Lils already seemed to know. She and Molly began talking afterward and I overheard her mention that she and Snape have never been intimate. Not like that anyway…"

Remus sat patiently next to his catatonic friend. He'd been like that for the better part of an hour and a half, so the werewolf was beginning to worry.

"So what do you suppose you two will do about all this?" he asked curiously when the Dog Animagus seemed to waken mostly from his stupor.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked in reply, his voice a bit weak.

The premature graying man's face scowled at the other wizard. Did he truly not know?

"She's about three months along now, from what I can small. The fetus smells more feminine than male. A girl I would guess she is carrying, but I could be mistaken. It is still early yet."

The other man froze again, realization flooding his face.

Remus, knowing what his friend had realized, continued, "The morning after the Love Potion incident, Lily came to pick up Harry. He stayed with me that night you know… There was the faintest scent of salt, your aftershave, and something else clinging to her… So unless someone stole a bit of your hair, put it in Polyjuice Potion, then slept with her…I think it safe to say the child she carries was created from your sperm."

It was then that he became motionless, and felt the familiar pang of loneliness. So known was it that it was barely acknowledged. There would be no wife and son waiting for him somewhere… and although there was evidently soon to be a babe, it would not be waiting asleep in the cradle. It would not bare his name, even if it was a furthering of his line.

X-x-X

His mother carried a baby. When born, it would be his sibling.

A brother…

Or sister…

He'd watched the Weasley siblings interact with each other, the love they shared for one another. He'd always been envious of them, for although he was considered a part of their family, he knew he wasn't truly. That he was alone in the sense that close large clan children were together.

His mum pregnant meant that he would soon have a comrade in arms, someone to train in the art of pranking.

Someone to help him raise hell for the stinkin git, who was engaged to marry his mother. He had to wait but five months…

According to Mrs. Weasley, he was to have a new father as well as a new sibling. A proper family. What the older red head didn't know was that he had always had that. Even if it was just Siri and Mum with him, they were a family linked by something closer than blood.

By love…

Ronnie had told him that he probably wouldn't get near as much attention once the child came, and that Miss Lily would most likely forget he existed. In his opinion, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. He was still wary around her, even after all these months.

He figured he would have to be even more so in the next few months.

Bill and Charlie had sat him down and explained to him about expecting woman and something called Hormones, which made them really cranky and short tempered. It would be best for him if he were on his best behavior until the birth.

No problem…

X-x-X

For reasons unknown even to her, her beau had not yet been alerted of her condition even after a month of her knowing. True he was her fiancé, and he had every right to know… but she just couldn't bring herself to let him know. For him to think so low of her as he was bound to do.

Despite everything, he was still her friend. Even thought she was angry with him for calling her that disgusting name and later joining the Death Eaters who followed the one who killed the man she married, he was still her brother.

Just as her late husband had thought of his friends as his brothers, Sev had always been hers. Even thought she knew he was in love with her romantically, her love for him was purely that of a sister. It was a sister's guilt she felt for lying to her brother when he found her during one of her increasingly non-rare bouts of morning sickness a few days past. She had convinced him that it was a simple flu bug.

There was also guilt for using him, as well as betraying him, as she had the last year and un-numbered months. When she had first met him again in that bar so many weeks and days ago, she had been focused on numbing herself to the prospect of living without Sirius for the rest of her life.

To her grief stricken mind, another relationship had seemed like the best way to get her over him. A rebound. The perfect thing to make him believe she didn't love him. To get him to move on with his life and find a woman of the proper Social standing and blood status. Acceptable to him and his family.

A pureblood.

Not that that was what had happened. If anything, the plan had backfired on her and made them both miserable.

And she engaged…

To a man she saw as a brother, someone who was suppose to be an uncle to her children instead of a stepfather. A future father to ones conceived in wedlock.

How was she to tell him of the new development? That she had cheated on him when she knew he was going to propose. That she now carried another mans' child, the same man she had used him to escape from and thus cause the heartbreak she suffered at the beginning of her relationship. That she had turned him and herself into hollow shells, not fit for truly living…

The day she actually told him was exactly a month and a half after he'd popped the question.

September 14, 1987

It was a weekend and they'd gotten together in Hogsmeade to plan the wedding. Him wanting it as soon as possible, they'd settled on November 10 as the date for the big day. They often met in the evenings to compare notes on what they wanted for the ceremony and celebration afterwards.

Their tastes often clashed, so the planning wasn't progressing at the needed pace. She wanted a simple ritual with only a few friends and family members. He wanted a lavish party. She wanted violets and roses as flowers, he wanted lilies. He wanted her to wear white, she wanted her dress robes to be pale gold. She wanted plain chocolate cake, he wanted strawberry banana and vanilla.

And so on, and so forth…

She had not even meant to tell him the truth, but it had to come out when he offered her a shot of Firewhisky and she declined. It was then that he remarked on the fact that he didn't remember seeing her drinking anything harder than milk. She could have told him any number of stories, but the thought of yet another lie to him was to much for her.

"I'm pregnant," she had admitted, the words out of her mouth before she could restrain them.

All she could do was watch his reaction. As was becoming the normal reaction to the news, he had frozen in shock. Whenever he had recovered sufficiently enough to talk again from there, he asked her to explain how it had come to pass.

So she did. She explained how she'd slowly fallen in love with her son's godfather over a period of five years. How they had come together and how they'd broken apart because of her insecurity. How she'd latched onto him as a scapegoat for her feelings, using him these last few months, the last year. Harry's potion, and that last night…

The last night she had really felt alive.

How he was gone the next morning. Conveniently, she left out the fact that if left alone with her thoughts, she would start daydreaming about the two of them, alone, together, her moaning his name as he… drawing away from that train of thought, she turned back to the matter at hand. Like how she had exploded at her son, causing their present estrangement.

She went on to explain how she had been feeling off these last few months, and about the knowing looks from those more experienced in these matters than her. Remus's reaction towards her right before he had proposed. What Madame Pomfrey had told her after she had regained consciousness and he was gone.

When she fell silent again, he did not comment. Not right away anyway.

When he finally seemed able to talk, he had something extremely surprising to say.

"Well," he admitted, "I knew there was something going on between the two of you. After the traitor's trial, he wasn't exactly discreet in yelling down a Ministry Hallway. And then there was the looks between the two of you…

"I'm honestly not surprised. But I don't want this to end. Even though you don't love me like I do you, I believe you can learn. You will find me a willing father to any child you bare, even if it's not mine. Be it this one, or the young Potter."

He spoke genuine fact. She had always been able to tell if he was lying, and now he wasn't.

Although he spoke of them with barely hidden disdain, he spoke the truth when he said he would look after Harry and the fetus within her. He was good to her. He loved her, and therefore wouldn't do anything to displease her…

Taking her silence as affirmation, he leaned in to kiss her passionately. She turned her head at the last minute though and it landed on her cheek, much to his surprise and that of the children hanging around the Three Broomsticks. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw many students staring at them in shock. It was probably do to the fact that they were seeing their antisocial Potions Master with someone, and that someone just happening to be a woman.

So her fears on that subject were for nothing. He forgave her for using him, as well as cheating, and they continued on in their engagement. They finally settled their differences on the wedding planning, the event went off without a hitch and they married happily. When January came, Lily's baby was born and they called it Primrose Eileen Snape. They lived happily ever after with her and Harry in a small house near the area where the two adults had grown up. In the end, Mrs. Snape bore into the world four more little future Slytherins. She never gave her husband cause to worry or yell. Life was good…

The end…

Yeah right!

That's how it should have played out if fate had had it's way. Merlin knows it would have been easier…

But after so long of following beloved fickle little sister's decisions, destiny decided to pitch in a little help for the two one time lovers dearest Fate had it out for.

It's how it would have gone if Lily hadn't decided to venture into Diagon Alley to fetch potion herbs for Remus's monthly potion a few weeks before the full moon. She could have easily borrowed Severus's, but she preferred to not depend on him for things like that. Instead, she and her betrothed made the trek through the long winding street of Wizarding stores to visit the many apothecaries to find the vast list of ingredients needed for the brewing of Wolfsbane.

It was he who saw her first, but she soon knew he was there for he literally ran into him a moment later.

Sirius was coming out of a secondhand store, carrying a yellow teapot decorated with a border of cabbages and a set of seven mugs each painted with a different vegetables.

Upon seeing her, he stopped short in front of her thus causing the head on collision. She would have fallen flat on her rear end, but he grabbed her and clasped her to himself before she could go more than a few inches.

"I'm sorry!" she hurriedly apologized, not yet seeing his face.

But when she did…

She was petrified. They both were.

It was the first time since the deed was done that they'd seen or heard from each other, and neither were prepared.

"Sirius…" she whispered, her voice breathless. Her heart began to beat a little harder, harder than it had been in months.

"Lils," he said in answer, his voice even and not betraying the quivering emotion that was screaming behind his grey eyes.

"Hi…" she said at last, saying the first thing that popped into her head.

They might have continued on in this manner, had Mr. Snape not loudly cleared his throat.

"I think you can let her go, Black," he growled at the aristocratic man, who still held his fiancé.

"Oh…right," he muttered, pulling his arms from her and stepping back. "Sorry about that…"

"It's alright," she assured him quickly, fighting a blush from spreading across her face. She was mostly successful. Mostly. Unfortunately for her, Severus noticed the faint red area of her cheeks. That made him angry that she should act in such a way in the presence of another man. He might have told her that he was alright with her onetime relationship with the old Marauder, but it was far from the truth.

He was livid about it, and jealous.

"You don't love her like I do, Black!" he snapped loudly, shocking the other two people with him and several passer-by's. "You never will. You don't know what it's like being her best friend and not being able to touch her like you do. You don't know how much it tortured me having to see her with that thief Potter! You don't know how much my heart broke every time I had to see her with him after he stole her from me! Well no more! She'd to be my wife, you hear? You can't have her!"

It took a few seconds for what he shouted out to register to them, and for him to realize what he had said in front of his wife to be.

"Padfoot, can you excuse us for a moment? I need a word with Severus," she asked, her voice devoid of emotion. Even though he obviously wanted to protest, one look from her was all that was needed to get him to shove off.

"Sure thing," he muttered, walking past them. "I'll be at the Leaky Cauldron for the next hour if you want to talk…"

They waited until he was out of sight before she rounded on him and demanded angrily, " 'He can't have me? I'm yours? James stole me from you?' Where do you get off uttering statements like that Severus Tobias Snape? You've no right to me any more than he does, and I'll thank you not to lay claim to me! I'm only marrying you in the first place because I saw no other option at the time." Dread filled his very being, and he felt, for a second, like he couldn't breathe. He'd known she hadn't loved him, but not that…

"I knew I should have picked someone else to hoodwink like this, but I felt at least with you, we'd have some common ground. I knew you were in love with me, and I felt with time I could love you two! But this? It's to much! You're squeezing to much on an already tight leash!"

With a sigh, she took a deep breath in preparation to prepare herself for everything that was still to come.

"I've known you since we were ten, Lily, and I used to watch you every day, practicing your magic without knowing what it was that you could do. I got to tell you about it, I got to tell you about our world and its wonders, and I couldn't help not falling in love with you," he told her, motioning her closer to a nearby wall. They were attraction to much attention.

"I just want you to be happy, Lils, and I've convinced you will be if you marry me… not if you're with him…" he admitted.

"I love him, Sev. Not you," she whispered, her voice quiet and a little quaky, her eyes glittering with tears. She took a deep breath, "Goodbye, Severus. I was prepared to spend my life with you, but… I don't think I'll be able to after all. I just feel to much for him… It – it's been… nice. I'll miss you."

And then she was walking away again, heading towards the entrance to the alley and her future. She left him alone, standing in shock next to the shop window display, a group of window shopping teenagers snickering at him. He turned to glare at them, recognizing them as seventh year Ravenclaws.

Outside, his face was morose and taciturn, but inside, he could swear his heart had stopped beating and broken in half yet again.

A/N: I'm sorry I didn't have this out a lot earlier. I meant to have it out a lot earlier (before Christmas) and a lot longer. This was suppose to be the last chapter…

But now I'm planning to do one more to devote more time to the confrontation between Siri and Lily. I'll try and have it out as soon as possible, but don't look for it very soon. I've just started a new job, and entered a somewhat competitive completion through school.

Sorry it took so long, and the quality has been downgraded. I did my best through writer's block…

Please Review, as they are greatly appreciated…