A/N: This continues right where the prologue left off. It might seem like there's a lot of information in his chapter, but this entire story in general is very information-heavy.

"Severus. Sev, wake up."
There was a several minute pause.
"Severus, wake up. I made eggs and toast."
Several more minutes.
"Severus Snape, get out of that bed. I know you were out late last night, but that is no excuse. You're going to be late."
There was someone shaking him softly.

No. It was impossible. She couldn't possibly be touching him or speaking to him because she was dead. She had been dead for nearly seventeen years. Dead people didn't talk and they surely couldn't touch you. Unless you counted ghosts, but Severus was choosing not to count the feeling of being doused in icy water when the hand touching him now was soft and warm.

When Severus could no longer continue to believe that he was dreaming of her voice, his eyes fluttered open and he raised himself up onto his elbows. Lily was standing next to him, looking remarkably solid, her hands perched on her hips in an annoyed sort of way. She was wearing a white apron over a flowery patterned dress, her hair in a bun at the back of her head although several small wisps were falling out around her face. If she was a ghost, she would surely be transparent, so naturally she was a figment of his imagination. If he was inside his own imagination, he could do whatever he pleased without fearing consequences. He reached out and instinctively grabbed her hand. If she was real, she might slap him, but if she wasn't, then there was really no harm in touching her.

"Don't you dare try to butter me up," Lily snapped, though there was a smile on her face. She pulled her hand back and bent down to kiss him on the forehead, the shock from her touch sending goose bumps flying up and down his entire body.

"Now get up," she repeated sternly, patting his pillow for emphasis. She walked over to the door and turned around to add, "I mean it," in a serious tone. She disappeared through the doorway, leaving Severus sitting in bed feeling awkward and out of place.

He took a deep breath. For some reason he had no idea where he was, nor why Lily Evans -Potter… Snape?—had been standing over him as though she didn't hate him; as if she wasn't dead. Was she dead? Had it all been a dream? It seemed cliché that something as awful as what had transpired in his head should have been all just that; in his head. Lily had married that arrogant fool Potter and they'd had a son and then they'd died and it had been his fault. He remembered that much. He'd gone to work for the Dark Lord in there somewhere, too.

Curiously, Severus pulled his left arm out from under the blankets, surprised to be wearing a short-sleeved shirt enabling him to examine its smooth, pale, Dark Mark free surface with extreme interest. He didn't even recall owning anything short-sleeved, let alone a plain white t-shirt. And where was his Mark? Hadn't he just died? Shouldn't he be in heaven, hell, beyond the veil—wherever it was that people went when they died? Maybe this was heaven. He was dead and now he was free to be with Lily as he'd always wanted. But then where was Potter? Nothing was adding up, and he could feel his confusion bubbling up inside him like freshly brewed polyjuice.

Or maybe none of it had happened. Maybe it really had been a vivid dream. Maybe all of his actual memories would come floating back at any moment. Perhaps it was best to play along with what Lily wanted and wait for them to do so. Best not to make himself appear foolish on top of everything else.

He slid out of bed, instinctively making his way to the small closet in the corner to pull on what he hoped very much was his own white bathrobe. In stocking feet he glided down the stairs, feeling awkward and lanky, much as he had in his years at Hogwarts. He felt none of the commanding presence that he'd been able to put off while teaching at the school. He felt lost and dazed as though he had just been spinning for a very great while and was now expected to walk in a completely straight line.

He noticed almost immediately that he seemed to be in the house he'd grown up in, the little cottage in Spinner's End, although it had been cleaned up, painted with happier colors, and hung with pictures of people he had never seen.

Naturally he recognized himself as well as Lily, but there were pictures of children along the walls as well. Four of them by the looks of it; three with red hair, and one with black. The little girl with red hair seemed to be the smallest of the four, looking remarkably like a young Lily. There were two red-haired boys, one far paler than the other, but both with his dark eyes. The other little girl had his jet black hair, and she seemed to be his opposite in every other way. She was at the center of every picture she could manage, posing with goofy faces, covered with dirt streaks, and clearly curious. Severus marveled at these pictures as he went down the stairs. They were pictures he couldn't remember taking. These were his children. These were Lily's children. Surely he was dreaming now, or even better, perhaps this really was heaven.

Lily caught him at the base of the stairs. "Severus, what are you up to? You see those pictures every day. Come, eat," she urged, leading him into the kitchen and dining room area, which he noticed had been painted a cheerful yellow. A vase of daises had been placed on the table. A clock on the wall told him that it was eight o'clock in the morning.

"You're going to be late for work if you don't hurry," Lily commented, pushing a plate of eggs and toast in front of him. "Those Defense Against the Dark Arts classes aren't going to teach themselves." He sat down in his chair cautiously. If Lily had been paying him any attention at that moment, she might have thought he was trying not to break the chair, but in reality, he was just in disbelief that everything around him was real.

There was the sound of little feet coming down the stairs behind them, and Lily turned to give her daughter a kiss on the head. "Good morning, darling! Why don't you sit at the table with your father and I'll get you some breakfast."

The little red-haired girl, who was around age seven or eight, sat down in the chair across from Severus, giving him a big smile. He tried his best to return it, but he was still in shock. "Blythe, say good morning to your father," Lily said as she pulled together a plate for her smallest child.

"Good morning, Daddy," said Blythe in a small voice.

"Here you are sweetheart," Lily said, putting a small amount of food in front of the girl.

Severus cleared his throat uncomfortably. He had yet to say anything and he was quite unsure if his voice would even work properly. He was relieved when it did. "Lily, can I talk to you in the hall for a moment?" Severus asked in a voice that wasn't his own, taking his chance while he could, instead of sitting any longer staring transfixed at his apparent daughter before him. He couldn't pretend anymore.

Lily followed him curiously into the hallway. "What's wrong, Sev? Are you feeling okay?" She touched the back of her hand to his forehead, her eyes full of concern.

"I'm fine," he snapped, more harshly than he intended. He softened his voice and quickly repeated, "I'm fine," in a reassuring sort of way. "It's just that—Lily, when I went to bed last night, you were dead." He said it bluntly, not quite sure if there was any easy way to say all that he needed to. How do you tell a woman you've pined after for almost your entire life that she's been dead for almost half of it without sounding crazy? "Your son was—"

"Our son," Lily corrected calmly as though it was a correction she often had to make.

"No, your son," Severus urged, "was in grave danger. Harry Potter was in grave danger. The Dark Lord had returned and was determined to kill him. I died for him in order that his life may go toward defeating the Dark Lord at last. I've spent the last seven years working to keep him alive, Lily. And now I'm here and I haven't the slightest idea what's going on. Suddenly you're alive. You're here. I'm here. There are children whose names I do not know. I-"

Lily stopped him, but she wasn't looking at him like she should have been. If someone else had been saying these things to him, he would have considered them crazy. Lily was simply looking at him as though it was almost an every-day occurrence. Perhaps he had hit his head and had a memory issue that she was constantly having to struggle with. "Severus, whatever dream you had last night must have really stuck with you. Sometimes dreams have that power. Professor Dumbledore told me that once when I was in school."

She grabbed his hand and led him to the base of the stairs, pointing at what seemed to be the most recent family portrait. "These are our children, Sev. I married you, not James Potter. I never even considered marrying James Potter. You are my best friend, and you always have been." She lifted his hand to rest on what seemed to be the oldest child, a boy with curly red hair, dark eyes, and a light dashing of freckles across his nose. "This is Rian Severus Snape," she said calmly. "He is fifteen years old and in Slytherin house. He was made Prefect this year and is top of his class." Her voice was swelled with pride. She pointed to the next boy. His hair was almost the same shade of dark red, but shorter in style. His face lacked the freckles of his older brother. "This is Dunstan Tobias Snape. He is a third year and in Gryffindor house. This year he was made a Chaser on the house team." She shifted his hand yet again to point at the dark haired girl who looked so remarkably like him. There was no denying that this little girl was his despite Lily's bright green eyes. "Leila Eileen Snape. She is also a Gryffindor. She's a first year who I'm sure we're going to have many letters sent home about. She has a knack for getting into places she shouldn't. You've compared her to Potter, but I think she reminds me of you in ways that no one else could." She shifted his hand to rest upon the last smiling face in the picture. "Finally, this is Blythe Lily Snape, whom you've already had the pleasure of seeing this morning. For some reason, I have a feeling she's going to be the true black sheep of the family and be placed in Ravenclaw, but you never can tell. She'll be turning eight years old in two weeks time, and her very favorite thing to do is read all of the books in your study so she can be just like her father. You spoil her."

She lowered his hand, looking him dead in the eyes. Oh, how he'd missed seeing her eyes attached to her own smiling face. "And you are Severus Snape. You are married to the lovely Lily Snape and have four beautiful children. You teach at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in a position that you love. You live here in your childhood home where you've lived ever since our wedding seventeen years ago. You only see James Potter or Sirius Black when you are forced to go into the Ministry for some business or another, and other than that, you steer clear of each other. You-Know-Who was killed some years ago by a combination of all of our efforts with the Order of the Phoenix. He was killed once and for all by Albus Dumbledore himself." Lily paused to make sure all of this was sinking in. "I have never once regretted any piece of my life with you, Severus, and no amount of crazy dreams that you may have will ever make me do so. Now, grab a piece of toast, go put on your school robes, and get out of here before you're late for work."

She leaned up to kiss him gently, causing his entire face to turn red. Despite the fact that pictures of their children were littering the whole house, in his mind, Severus had never kissed Lily, something he'd been dreaming of since he was ten years old. He placed his hands on either side of her face, hesitantly and delicately as though she might break. When she pulled away, she rolled her eyes at his stunned expression and gave him a small push up the stairs, smiling from where she stood. Not wanting this happy vision to end, he clung to her hand all the tighter. "Lily, is this real?" He knew that the answer wouldn't make him feel differently, but he wasn't to hear her say it anyway.

"Who says it isn't?" she offered, releasing his hand and disappearing once more into the kitchen.

A/N: Let me know what you think! If you have any ideas of where this is going or anything you're curious about, I would love to hear from you!

If you would like to see how I envision the characters, you can find a link to some pictures on my profile. Let me know if you agree with how they look!