Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, nor any movies mentioned in this chapter.
Six Years Later
Over the past six years, the Potters went to visit James at St. Mungo's once a week depending on Lily's schedule at the hospital. Severus and Lily became real good friends with whom she could confide her secrets to. Remus still looked after Jamie and Harry, with Sirius helping out when he could. During the week, Harry went over to The Burrow where he would have his lessons with the Weasleys, Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom. At first the other kids thought that it was cool to have the "Boy Who Lived" in their lessons until they settled down and really got to know him. Of course his grandmother would sometimes take him out of lessons for photo ops. Of course the other children missed him when he missed those lessons and there was some jealousy over the attention that Neville received from the public, until their parents explained that Neville had to lose his parents in order to receive that attention. Harry was never told that he could have been the "Boy Who Lived" instead of Neville. Mrs. Weasley taught the children the academic subjects while Laura Lovegood took time out of her busy schedule as a researcher to teach the children art once a week.
"Well its three weeks until Christmas, so what do you want for Christmas Severus?" Lily asked Snape on one of their few dinners that they tried to have together at least once a month.
"You know what I want and I can't have it right now," Severus told her hoping that he didn't reveal his true feelings for her.
Lily looked at him wondering what he could possibly be talking about, and then she had an idea in her head.
"Oh you want the new book that's coming out in January about the new potions that have been invented this past year," Lily remarked to him.
"Yes that's it," Severus answered her feeling relieved that Lily didn't realize his true feelings for her.
"Well, then I guess I can put that book on reserve for you at Flourish and Botts and then find something else that I think that you'll like in the meantime," Lily told him.
"Good I like being surprised then unlike those of us who don't," Severus answered her relieved that she didn't figure out his feelings for her and ran scared.
"Well, I've got to get home since I left the kids with Remus to watch a video that I had rented from the video store," Lily told him while standing up to leave.
"I don't know why you insist on having those things in your house for anyway, since there's better ways to use your time other than sitting in front of that box," Severus told her.
"I know, but the kids seem to like it and it's hard to believe that even Remus enjoys it too, considering how much he likes to read. Besides they're watching that movie that we watched together last night, while Sirius took them out for ice cream and dinner," Lily answered him as she handed her credit card over to the waiter to pay for her meal. Severus watched her leave the restaurant, knowing that all that she could give him right now is friendship even though he knew that James would never get better. Lily was a strong woman, never James even though she knew that he would never get better too. It was such a pity since she was still young and if she divorced James she could still marry someone else, like him. Of course Lily wouldn't even think about him being her boyfriend as long as James was alive much less live with him. Severus didn't think that there was a rule against teachers living with someone who wasn't a family member at the school, though there could be since that could send the wrong message to the students, since she was still technically married to James. After a few minutes after Lily left Severus paid his bill and went back to Hogwarts where he would wait anxiously until the next time that he would see her again.
When Lily returned home, she was greeted at the door by her two children, seven year old Harry and five year old Jamie.
"Mummy, guess what we have a werewolf here just like in the movie except that he can't turn into a wolf a will nor does it make him good at sports," Harry greeted his mum eagerly while Lily was looking around for Remus since she knew that he probably would tell the kids about his little "furry" problem.
Remus looked at her in disbelief that Lily would even let her kids watch a werewolf movie, even if it was a comedy.
Lily bent down to get on Harry's eye level, "I hope that Remus told you and your sister what being a werewolf means in our world," Lily told him hoping that he didn't want to be a werewolf now too.
"He did, but wait until I tell the other kids that we know a real live werewolf, though he can't transform on command," Harry answered his mum hoping that his mum would let him tell his friends about his nanny.
"Wait a minute, did Uncle Remus give you permission to tell the other kids about his problem?" his mum asked Harry giving him a look that meant that she'll find out the truth one way or another.
"No, but can I just tell Ron and Neville since they're my closest friends anyway?" Harry asked.
"Not unless Uncle Remus gives you permission to tell anybody," Lily replied to him just as Jamie came up to them.
"So did you have a good time with your Uncle Remus honey?," Lily asked her daughter. "Yes, and I don't see why you're spending time alone with Uncle Severus since you're hardly home anymore," Jamie answered her.
"Well mummy has to work and sometimes she needs to have some grownup time," she replied to her daughter hoping that she would understand why she couldn't spend as much time with her like her friends' parents.
"I still don't like it and then why if you want to spend time with your boyfriend instead of daddy? Don't you love daddy anymore?" Jamie asked her mum which surprised Lily while Remus and Harry eagerly awaited her answer, since they were also concerned about the time that Lily was spending with Severus.
"Honey, Uncle Severus is mummy's friend and sometimes she needs to have a friend that wants to spend time with, like Luna and Ginny are your friends. Yes I still love your father and visit him every week with you guys and I only get to spend one on one time with Uncle Severus, so I spend more time with your daddy than I do with him," Lily tried to explain to her daughter.
"I still think that you need to spend more time with us at least when Uncle Sirius comes over he does fun things with us," Jamie answered her while Lily seemed to be satisfied with her answer.
After Jamie and Harry went their own separate ways, Remus stayed behind to voice his concerns with Lily.
"I don't think that it's a very good idea for you to be spending too much time alone with Severus, besides it gives him the wrong impression that you're interested in him while you're still married in James," Remus told her privately sounding concerned for her and even Severus.
"I like spending time with Severus, besides he's one of the friends that I can confide to about James, without him judging me like Sirius sometimes does. Besides on a couple of occasions when we went out, I've even introduced him to women from work that he goes out with for a couple of times and then it doesn't work out," Lily answered Remus trying to convince him that Severus did know that they could only just be friends for right now. "I hope for your sake that he does recognize that all that you could ever be at this time is friends, since you're still married to James," Remus replied to her before leaving Lily's house for the night.
"Well, don't forget that we're going to take all of the kids to sing Christmas carols in the muggle nursing home that's in St. Ottery Catchpole," Lily reminded him as Remus was getting ready to go home.
"I know, its something that the kids have been looking forward to. They want to see the difference between a muggle and a magical nursing home," he told her.
"I know, they want to see how they treat their patients there, if they would get better treatment at St. Mungo's," Lily told him knowing that they want to see if James would get better treatment there than at the wizarding hospital.
Later on that evening when Remus returned home, he found Sirius sitting on the couch waiting eagerly for his return.
"How did your evening with the kids go?" Sirius asked Remus sounding interested wishing that he could spend more time with Jamie and Harry.
"It went okay, except that Lily had me watch a werewolf movie with the kids that pushed me to explain my condition to them," Remus answered Sirius sounding a bit annoyed at Lily for having to talk to the kids about being a werewolf.
"What was she thinking about showing her those horrible movies? Remember the one that Lily took James to before he had his accident. He was mad that muggles would make a movie about a kid becoming a werewolf and being asked to kill himself for the good of the community by his best friend no less," Sirius responded sounding angry that Lily would even let her kids watch such garbage.
"No, its not like that, besides before she left she told me that she had watched it earlier with Snape and she thought that it was funny, appropriate for the kids to watch. It was a funny movie and the werewolf in it didn't attack or kill anyone. No, now Harry wants to tell all of his friends about my condition because he thinks that it's cool and Jamie thinks that I can turn into the wolfman at will," Remus clarified for his friend.
"Wow, did you even tell them about the prejudices that werewolves face in the wizarding world. I mean you're an educated man who's working as a nanny, don't they think that's a bit odd?" Sirius asked Remus wondering how James would react if he even knew that his kids were asking those types of questions.
"No they don't, but I've been thinking for a little while since I'll be out of a job once Jamie goes to Hogwarts and even though it's a few years in the future its never too late to think about the future," Remus remarked to his friend.
"What kind of job are you thinking of doing? Will you still watch Lily's kids for her at least until Jamie goes to Hogwarts?" Sirius asked sounding curious to what kind of job Remus was thinking about.
"I plan on still watching them, besides I can get started working on it at night and I would like to try to see if I could support myself. I thought maybe I could write a book about a werewolf who fights evil along with his friends," Remus admitted to Sirius sounding embarrassed by his suggestion.
"That sounds like a good idea, but do you think that muggles would buy a book like that and what would you do if one of the muggleborns recognize you?" Sirius asked interested at Remus's idea.
"I could use another name and no one would know that it was me writing those books. I would at least like to try and if it doesn't work out then there are other things that I could do," Remus answered him sounding hopeful about his future.
"You know that I want you to be able to earn a living, and I think that the laws against werewolves are unfair, but is there anything else that you can do in the muggle world in case this writing thing doesn't work out?" Sirius asked his friend sounding concerned for him.
"I heard about something called temping where you work for an agency and they send you out to work for different companies, but I've got a while before I could even seriously consider it," Remus answered him.
Sirius looked at him believing that his friend could write about his adventures as being a werewolf, but worried about how muggles would accept his work. Remus didn't appear to be concern that his idea for supporting himself might fail and even looked eager to get started on it right away.