A/N: Ask and you shall receive. Enjoy, my dears.

Secrets I Keep

Severus caught his younger self's surprise and chuckled. He could understand his reaction. It was rather dramatic after all. But it was entirely true. He was throwing the largest wrench he had to end it all.

"You can't just start changing everyone's lives," his younger self squawked in outrage.

"I'm not changing everyone's lives," Severus countered slowly. "Only the boy's and your lives." He watched his younger self scratch his head then and stare back in confusion.

"I—" The young man sighed. "This is madness. Utter insanity." He clearly was struggling for words as he stared back at Severus. "I don't understand. There are laws. Laws of physics that prevent this from occurring. Hell, laws enforced by the Ministry itself to ensure one can't return. How is this possible? It doesn't make a bit of sense." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm going mad. That's the only explanation there is. I've lost all sanity. Or perhaps all this is a dream. A delusion brought on by a high fever. Something." His younger self swallowed a moment later. "Anything but this."

"You may tell yourself whatever you need to in order to come to terms with all this, but the fact remains that I'm here, as is this boy," Severus replied quietly. He could understand why his younger self would be so unsettled. The supreme law of time travel that was always warned about was this exact situation, a person from the future meeting his past self. It would cause all sorts of paradoxes, infinite possibilities and endless changes to the timeline. An alternate universe in other words. Not to mention the risk of insanity if his younger self couldn't find a way to come to terms with his future self's presence. However, this was the only way to ensure a different timeline than the one he had come from. The only way to give them a fighting chance for success. "In this timeline, the boy will not be raised as a pig for slaughter," he stated strongly. "Nor will he be forced to endure the hell that would have been his childhood with the Dursleys. With this action, I've given us a chance for success now."

"Oh." His younger self then swallowed and glanced warily at the young boy who watched him curiously. "So you're here to tell me that Dumbledore is a manipulative bastard that would have gotten many of us killed and used me, but that Lily's son is alive. Okay. Um, thanks. I guess."

Severus chuckled loudly, rubbing young Harry's back soothingly when the toddler started to fuss once more. Had he truly been so foolish in his twenties? It would definitely seem so. Then again, he supposed it could have been a result of pure shock from meeting his future self. There was no need to count that possibility out. After all, Severus didn't have all the necessary understanding of time's principles quite yet. It was still a work in progress, he liked to think. There was after all only so much her journal could help him with.

"Hardly," Severus drawled with a shake of his head. "The boy will need someone to care for him." At the sight of alarm in his younger self's eyes, he found it oddly amusing to watch himself panic.

"What?" the younger Snape cried in sheer terror. He held his hands up and slowly backed away, as if the toddler was a weapon of some kind. "No. No. I can't raise a child. I-I-I've never even been with a woman much less been around a child. No. Absolutely not. I can't—not a brat. I—why can't you raise him? You changed his life! Not me! I was happily sleeping or something . . . no . . . no. Absolutely not! Not doing it. No."

Severus's laughs deepened as he shook his head. He could now understand why she—his smile faltered suddenly. The color drained from his face. He closed his eyes and blinked back the tears that were sure to appear as his heart physically ached at recalling his wife. It was still too painful for him. A year after her death, he still couldn't find it in himself to let go of his pain. But then again, she was the main driving force behind all this. The main reason he had decided to risk it all. It was all to give the poor souls who suffered so much in his timeline a chance. Not to mention, that one chance to have the life he had yearned so long for that he'd had a taste of briefly before it was once again ripped from him.

"I can't just appear one day with the brat," his younger self stated, still clearly apprehensive about the prospect of raising a child. "They'll know something's going on then."

"I'm aware," Severus coolly replied a few moments later, latching onto the distraction for all he had in order to escape the heartbreak that gripped him emotionally inside. "However, I wasn't suggesting you walk out of here tomorrow with him on your hip."

"Then what are you suggesting?"

"Request a sabbatical for the rest of the year tomorrow. It is after all only natural that you would do so after losing a woman you love so fiercely. He will have expected it."

"A sabbatical? But I—"

"Oh, please," Severus snorted. "We both know that you hate teaching. It's the perfect excuse."

His younger self watched him nervously. The young man clearly hadn't fully come to terms with all this time travel quite yet, but Severus could see the earlier mistrust slowly starting to fade from his younger self's eyes.

"Is it what you did?"

"No." Severus sighed heavily. "I was forced to take a two-month break, however." In fact, a day after learning of Lily's death in his timeline, he had lost his temper and scared his fifth-year students to death. Naturally, the moment Dumbledore heard of the incident from the students' parents, he forced Severus to take an unpaid leave of absence. That had been a rough two months for him, he recalled.

"Oh."

"Indeed." Severus glanced down at the little boy on his lap and smoothed little Harry's raven hair affectionately. It was odd to think how much he had grown to care for the boy over the years.

"Are you sure you don't want him?" his younger self asked. "I mean, you're pretty good with him, and I'll—"

"You'll learn," Severus stated firmly, glancing at his younger self. "Like you, I have no experience raising toddlers either." He heard his younger self let out a sigh of relief and glanced sharply at him. "What?"

"Well, for a minute there, I thought I had a litter of children in the future like the Weasleys."

Severus snorted. "Hardly."

"Good. Because women are messy and complicated, and I've had a lifetime of that."

The pained look flashed in his eyes instantly before he subconsciously rubbed the tarnished silver wedding band on his finger, the light reflecting off a spot a moment later.

"Oh no," his younger self said quietly. "I married . . ."

"It's not the death sentence you're making it out to be," Severus snapped with a dark glare.

"No, but . . . I love her," his younger self pleaded, the whining entering his voice again. "I don't understand. How could I marry after losing the one woman I love? The one woman who mattered?"

"Obviously you move on," he replied with a deep frown.

"But this is Lily we're talking about! What—I don't—how could I have moved on after losing her? After being the reason she died? The moment I heard that he was going to go after her, I switched sides. I've tried to—I wrote her once, you know? Told her how sorry I was and that I hoped she was all right. I-I-It doesn't make sense."

Severus sighed heavily. "It will."

"No. I mean, this letter," his younger self said, motioning to the envelope he held in his hands. "You said it'll make me realize that I don't love her like I think I do. How? What could she have possibly said in it that would make me move on from her now?"

Severus bit back his instinctive reply. He couldn't answer that for his younger self. The twenty-one-year-old would have to find that out for himself. He drew in a slow breath and then answered.

"Read the letter. It'll be obvious then."

"How?"

"Just read it."

"But you know the answer. I don't understand. Any of this."

"You will." Severus watched his younger self stare at him helplessly. He couldn't give all the answers. There were things he knew that was better for the younger man to find out on his own.

"Answer me something. Please?"

"I'll try," he replied.

"What are you going to do now? You brought the boy to me and practically dropped him off in my lap. So what now? You happily live your life while I'm saddled with even more responsibility that I didn't want to begin with."

"Hardly," he drawled.

"Then what? What am I missing?"

He stared at his younger self before he bit back a sigh. He truly had expected this reaction, but now that the moment was there he wasn't certain what to say exactly. If he told about the Horcruxes, it could destabilize the timeline completely. There was a reason after all why time travel was frowned upon. However, he knew that his younger self wouldn't just let him go without answering. He flicked back his long locks and glanced at his younger self. Perhaps a half-truth would satisfy his past self.

"There are items that are scattered about that ensure the Dark Lord's return."

"Items? What sorts of items?"

"Dark items, and I'd appreciate it if we left it at that," Severus quietly said.

"So, you're going to search for these items?" Severus nodded. "Oh." His younger self then glanced nervously at the toddler. "Then you'll return for the brat?"

In all his months of planning for this exact moment, Severus had never considered his endgame. He frowned inwardly. Just what would he do after he succeeded? His eyes darted down to the child sitting on his lap. This wasn't just a second chance for Severus. It was one for Harry as well.

"This child in my arms," Severus started quietly. "You may think of him as a brat now, but one day, I promise you, you will wake up and see him as the precious child he is." He sighed when he heard his younger self's tongue click in disgust. "If that's not the case, then surely I don't need to remind you that you could always give him to another loving family, perhaps ones like Petunia's. Or better yet, the boy could be raised by a Muggle who'd likely attempt to beat the unnaturalness out of him." He watched the anger immediately flood his younger self's face, knowing that he had struck just the right nerve. With a raised eyebrow, he waited for his younger self to argue, but the twenty-one-year-old remained silent thankfully. After all, there wasn't much one could argue considering.

"I take it then that you know the locations of all these dark objects?"

Severus shook his head, setting little Harry down on the sofa beside him. "Only where they'll be in the future." He could see the wheels turning in his younger self's head and knew he needed to end this conversation soon for both their sakes. "Take the sabbatical and raise the boy as your own. I'll take care of the rest." With no notice of his intent, he Disapparated then, leaving young Harry and Snape all alone.