Disclaimer: I am just playing in JK's sandbox, I do not own the characters and locations that you recognise.
Severus walked after the Time Reaper, his emotions swimming close to the surface. Part of him was terrified to see Lily again because it meant he really needed to go back. Part was excited to see the woman he had loved. The rest of him was nervous about the reception he was bound to receive.
They walked through a door painted with flowers and found themselves in the midst of a garden. Up ahead sat the red head that had Severus feeling trepidation.
"Sev! You're finally here! Good, we can fix it all."
The cheer in her voice shocked Severus down to his core. He was expecting to be gutted for daring to hate her son.
"Oh Sev, it's okay. I've been here for so long and I've known how wrong it all went from the start. Dumbledore didn't help your feelings for Harry either, what with delighting in any antagonism from you towards Harry. Apparently he thought Harry needed some toughening up."
Lily stopped her tirade with a frustrated sigh. Everything was becoming more fantastical by the second. Then he clicked onto the fact that he had been manipulated and used by Dumbledore, probably from the very start.
"Lily-"
He faltered, unable to voice everything in his head. Regret at the forefront of his mind. Could he have an aneurysm and die a second time?
"I understand. Let's not live in the past, but plan the future… of the past."
Falling into girly giggles, Lily finally cracked through Severus' mask and the start of a smile met his lips briefly. More of a twitch than a true facial expression. Exactly how he had been back when they were friends.
"Okay, let us sit and figure out when to send Severus."
The Time Reaper led the two old friends to a table and chairs set up in the centre of the splendid garden. Seating themselves, the humans faced the reaper grimly.
"There are a few facts that I need to bring out first. The first day that you met Lily and you scared off Petunia, you inadvertently caused her magic to regress inside her. You weren't to know, but the main reason Petunia was so antagonistic towards Harry was her magic's hatred for having to be hidden."
"What? Tuney had magic? But that's impossible!"
"Lily, you have been here long enough to know that we reapers are unable to directly lie to a human. Your sister was meant to get her own letter before you. In fact, she had already had some accidental magic. You never saw it, but she had often vanished broccoli to get dessert sooner."
"Ha, that is so like her. Okay, so what, Sev goes back to that day and is nice instead?"
The Time Reaper smiled in a predatory fashion at the two of them leaning forward in anticipation.
"Actually we are going to have him go back a little sooner, to extract a soul that should have died many years before he actually did. Don't look so upset Severus, you won't have a stain on your soul at all. All you have to do is duck as soon as you are sent back. But before you leave, what do you know about Horcruxes?"
A/N: Finished on a bit of a cliffhanger, but the point is Severus knows about the horcruxes and other planning happens behind the scenes. Next chapter will be Severus waking up back at the appointed time.
Harry etihe