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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Voldemort's examination of James Potter's memories proved to be less than fruitful.
A week passed, then two.
After the next Death Eater meeting, once Severus received confirmation that Voldemort remained completely unaware of Harriet's details, he and Lily returned to their disguises and their enchanted flat.
If only he had listened to Dumbledore and distrusted his own fearful paranoia, then perhaps disaster could have been avoided.
Hogwarts' halls were ancient and vast.
Populated by faculty, students, house elves, and a variety of magical creatures, Dumbledore's original assessment had been correct…….there were simply too many ears for secrets to be kept.
In Severus's private chambers, a fat rat crouched and observed from one of the old wall's holes.
The fat rat watched Severus and Lily wake in the mornings.
He watched Severus and Lily make love in the evenings.
That fat rat listened to every conversation in between.
Once Severus and Lily returned to their flat, the fat rat left the castle too.
After he made it outside and onto the hill next to Hogsmeade, he assumed his human form and apparated to the gates of Malfoy Manor.
His journey ended in the house's large dining room as he stood in front of Voldemort himself.
"Peter!" The Dark Lord sneered, "I haven't seen you in quite some time, my friend! Where have you been?...What have you done?"
"Oh, my lord, merciful lord!" Peter Pettigrew groveled as he knelt at Voldemort's feet and raised his hands, "Thank you! Thank you for forgiving me for my last mistake, but I've come back! I've come to bring you a most precious gift!
Voldemort's pale face twisted in suspicion.
"I've come to give you the Potter child!" Peter declared.
Voldemort's serpentine eyes widened.
The few Death Eaters who happened to linger nearby that night cackled and cheered.
Peter's lips pulled back to reveal his rotted teeth as he met Voldemort's expression of glee with a filthy smile.
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Lily looked up as Severus walked through the door on Halloween night.
"Sev!" She exclaimed, "You…..You're home early! Didn't you have to stay for the feast? What's the matter? Is everything alright?"
"Lily, come with me!" Severus called as he reached out to her from the doorway, "Come with me now, it's urgent!"
"What's urgent?!" She asked with wide eyes, "Come in, you don't have to stand in the doorway…..What's the matter?"
Severus refused to move.
His reluctance inspired unease in Lily as she narrowed her green eyes.
Regardless, Severus's plea touched her heart as he reached out and begged again, "Please!...Lily, there's no time!"
Lily walked towards her lover as she pointed down the hallway and said, "Let me just get Harri-"
As soon as Lily touched Severus's hand, the apartment fell away.
Through time and space, she traveled as a long scream of surprise left her mouth.
Eventually, her unexpected journey ended on a patch of soft grass with a gentle thud.
"SEV!" She called as she struggled to her feet, "Sev, what on earth are-"
She silenced herself as she watched his flesh twitch and contort.
His dark hair shrank back into tattered, brown tufts while his face bloated and sagged before yellowed teeth cracked from his mouth.
"...PETER?!?!" Lily gasped in shock.
"I'm terribly sorry about all this, Lily." Peter frowned as he withdrew his wand from the pocket of his musty, brown jacket, "But it's true, I've seen it. Severus has got it quite bad for you and…….the girl must die. Which means, I'll need to use you as my weapon to get Severus on my side……to betray the Dark Lord one day."
"...WHAT?" Lily asked as she took a step back and gasped for breath.
"Truly sorry about all this." Peter shrugged with a sarcastic smirk.
As he drew his arm back, Lily screamed, "NO!"
Peter mercilessly shouted the word that would change her and Severus's lives forever, "OBLIVIATE!"
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While Peter situated his victim in her new, controlled habitat, safely hidden in the muggle world, the rest of the night became a story that would echo throughout the centuries.
Voldemort had burst into the vacant apartment, found Harriet, and promptly unleashed the Killing Curse on the abandoned baby.
Lily's heart had remained with her child.
In a brutal rebound, the curse rocketed back into Voldemort and in one, enormous explosion, he disappeared.
The real Severus arrived moments later.
In the wake of his ruined home, he found Harriet wailing in her cot.
The ceiling had been blown out, the walls ripped up, and Lily was…….gone.
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Numb.
Empty.
Without even a body to bury or a lifeless face to mourn, Severus sought shelter in Hogwarts' castle that terrible night.
Dumbledore stayed awake and watched him closely as Severus sat in his office, staring in the roaring flames of the fireplace.
"She died protecting her only child, Severus." Dumbledore said after hours of silence had passed, "Surely you can pity the infant more than yourself."
Severus clenched his jaw.
In her quarters, McGongagall had offered to care for the orphaned baby that evening.
Severus pushed it aside as a trick of his own imagination, but he felt certain he could hear the baby's tortured wails traveling all the way from Gryffindor Tower to the headmaster's office.
How could Dumbledore expect him to pity the baby?
The baby, Harriet….Harriet Potter…….would grow, learn, live, and have many friends, a family perhaps, one day.
Severus had had nothing until Lily had entered his life.
Each time she had left, he had solemnly returned to that oblivion of empty loneliness.
The thought that she would never come again, that he would never hear her voice, or see her smile until he passed into the next world……was nearly too much to bear.
Dumbledore frowned as he watched Severus lower his head and pinch the bridge of his nose, as if he fought against a great, physical pain.
"...What will become of her?" Severus whispered.
"What was that, Severus?" Dumbledore blinked.
"The child." Severus answered in a gravelly rasp as he glanced at Dumbledore, "Lily's child……..Will she be consigned to an orphanage?"
"Absolutely not." Dumbledore nodded, "She has one living aunt and uncle…….and a cousin as I understand."
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After Lily's death, one day blurred into another, each as meaningless as the next.
What did anything matter?
Why should anything merit a care?
The only thing that forced Severus to get out of bed each morning was Harriet's hungry cries.
If he had not been forced to look after the infant until she was placed with her family, then his deep depression would have most likely managed to get him sacked from his position as Potions Master.
Regardless, a mixture of emotions flooded Severus's system the night that he and Dumbledore brought baby Harriet to her new home.
Severus frowned as he and the headmaster arrived on the lonely street of Privet Drive.
Dumbledore glanced over and smiled as he saw Severus studying little Harriet, who lay in his arms.
The baby cooed at him softly, recognizing his face and his dark eyes.
Those same dark eyes that had peered at her for so long…….had cared for her……had been kind to her.
While Severus felt more than prepared to give up the burden of childcare, it seemed a great punishment to actually relinquish the baby.
Lily was dead.
His Lily was gone from the world, his beautiful flower out of bloom forever, vanished into the whispering nothingness of eternity.
The child she had left behind was the last, living piece of her, the legacy which Severus imagined she may have asked him to watch over.
As he glanced up, he saw figures moving through the curtained windows of Number 4 Privet Drive.
A man, presumably Harriet's uncle.
And a woman……….
A scornful sneer marred Severus's pale face as he thought of Petunia Evans.
The hateful words she had spoken about him fifteen years ago echoed in his thoughts, "...That awful boy!"
"Perhaps we should allow more time to consider the best arrangement." Severus abruptly blurted out the moment Dumbledore took a single step towards the house.
Dumbledore paused and regarded Severus with a curious frown.
"...Severus, it must be done exactly as we planned." He insisted with a nod of his head.
Severus glanced over at his employer.
He heard the words that left the aged wizard's lips and yet, his feet refused to move, as if an unseen force held him in place.
"Would it be easier, Severus, if I left you two to say goodbye?" Dumbledore asked, "You have earned my trust, I think placing an infant on a doorstep is one of the easiest tasks I've ever assigned to you."
Severus frowned as Dumbledore nodded knowingly and said, "Very well, I'll see you back at the castle soon enough. And remember, Severus……"
Severus blinked at Dumbledore while he waited for his next words.
"...It really isn't goodbye after all." Dumbledore said with a knowing smile.
Before Severus could respond, Dumbledore apparated away and left him alone on the dark street with baby Harriet in his arms.
As a chilly wind blew past them both, Severus tucked the blanket around her chin and chest to ensure she would stay warm.
He spent a long time gazing down at the baby, who smiled up at him trustingly.
While he waited, all the way out in the street, he could hear Petunia's sharp, shrieking voice from beyond the house's curtained windows.
Severus closed his eyes and sighed as he spoke to the baby, "Forgive me……..for what I must do. My life has no place for a child."
Harriet blinked as Severus opened his eyes and marched towards Number 4 Privet Drive with an awful frown on his wan face.
Once he reached the front step, his heart pounded as if every inch of him knew that he made a horrible mistake.
Dumbledore was a mortal man, nothing more, who was he to know the best decision in every situation?
No.
Severus grit his teeth.
He had disobeyed once.
Lily's death had come from his fearful impulsiveness.
Reason and control, those were the pillars of action that would see her child grow to adulthood and the war won.
Severus took his eyes away from Harriet and raised his chin.
Reluctantly, he forced himself to continue his walk down the street and up to the front door of Number 4 Privet Drive.
Harriet cooed while he raised a pale hand and knocked.
Shouts echoed from inside the house, screeching shouts, mixed with the low grumbles of what Severus correctly inferred to be the tired grouching of an exhausted husband.
Footsteps hurried towards the door.
Severus clutched Harriet to his chest, as if to silently tell her goodbye.
He frowned as the door opened and he found himself face to face with Petunia Evans, er, Dursley.
He had often considered her the ugliest girl in the world during his youth.
It amused him slightly to see that time had not improved her looks.
Petunia's eyes widened as she saw him, "...YOU!"
Severus glanced from her to the condemning index finger she pushed in his face.
"I should have known it was you!" Petunia spat.
"I beg your pardon?" Severus hissed.
"When I heard my sister had gotten herself up the duff…..then married, then divorced, then killed. I should have known it was all your fault!" She snapped.
Severus's dark eyes widened.
"Clearly, you didn't bother to stay in contact with your sister in the last years of her life." Severus coldly retorted.
Petunia frowned as he began, "Though it saddens me to be reminded of her passing, I have come to request you assume the-"
It was Petunia's eyes who widened then as she realized what Severus suggested.
"-HOW DARE YOU LAY YOUR BURDEN ON ME!" She spat.
Severus scowled.
"To think that I would carry the weight of raising my sister's mistake!...And one made with the likes of you! Leave my property immediately or I'll call the police!" Petunia shrieked.
Severus didn't have a chance to explain before she rudely slammed the door shut in his face.
Harriet whined at all of the noise.
As he frowned down at the baby, anger rose deep within his tormented heart.
Who was Dumbledore to decide how Lily's legacy should be preserved?
Could he feed the fruit of her womb to monsters like the Dursleys?
Severus glanced down at the doorstep before his eyes moved to Harriet.
Instead of leaving the baby behind as he had been instructed, Severus disobeyed Dumbledore for the second time as he turned around and walked into the night with Harriet still in his arms.