If...

Halloween was certainly wizard's favourite party, celebrated around the world. Lily Potter had always loved this occasion, and especially the night that concluded that day. Growing up in a Muggle family, Lily also knew the customs of those who have no magical power. At her former school, in Cokeworth, teachers organized every Halloween little games. One of her favourites was to dip her head in a basin of water filled with apples and grab one of the fruits with her teeth. As far back as she could remember, she had always won this game, without ever wet her uniform and her long red hair, braided. The night, Lily and her sister Petunia listened stories of ghosts and monsters told by their parents, or broadcast on the radio. These fables made them shiver with fear and anguish. But their parents had assured them that ghosts and hooked-nosed witches didn't exist, that they were only pure inventions of imagination to scare.

In Hogwarts, Lily had learned to celebrate Halloween with dignity, and discovered that ghosts really existed. Severus had told her, when they were ten, that ghosts – and all kinds of monsters – were real and only wizards and witches could see them. She really believed him when a ghost, with his head almost decapitated, invited himself to her table during the first banquet of the year. Severus... Lily hadn't thought of him for a long time. He had been the first wizard she befriended. He was the one who revealed her she was a witch like him. And he had been her best friend until their fifth year at Hogwarts. She didn't know why she was thinking about him this Halloween night.

She was in the living room with her husband and their son. James was playing with Harry. He amused himself to make him laugh by making appear puffs of coloured smoke. She would soon fall asleep their little boy in his little bed, singing him a lullaby or telling him a beautiful story that would end happy.

If the circumstances had been different, she and her husband would certainly have organized a small dinner, but it was too dangerous. The war against Voldemort intensified, and the dark wizard was after the Potters. She and her husband had challenged him three times before Lily got pregnant. For months they had been hiding in this house, on Dumbledore's orders. The director of Hogwarts - and founder of the Order of the Phoenix - had informed them that Voldemort intended to kill their unborn child. He had given them no details, but a spy had reported to him the terrible plans of the dark wizard and they concerned their son, a baby who was celebrating his fifteen months this day. The Order had lost many members in recent weeks. The McKinnons had been completely eradicated last summer, and Lily had been crying a lot. The disappearance of these wizards had been a heavy loss for the Order. James couldn't stand being locked up, and only dreamed of one thing: fighting like the others.

Sometimes she and her husband would argue about it. He felt like he was being held in a cage. Lily, too, didn't like this situation very much. She too would have liked to face their enemies, but the safety of their son must take precedence over any else. James was aware of this, and he too wanted more than anything to preserve the life of their child. He could no longer sneak out of their cottage, for during the summer he had lent Dumbledore his Invisibility Cloak. The headmaster still hadn't returned it. This Invisibility Cloak had been in the Potter family for generations, and James had assured him that it was the best cloak ever made on earth. The director, fascinated by this artifact, wanted to study it. He had said nothing more. James and she trusted him.

Lily admired for years this great wizard who had defeated Grindelwald in a duel. Bathilda Bagshot, a neighbour who knew Dumbledore well, had made revelations to them on Harry's first birthday, but Lily didn't really know if she should believe it. Bathilda was the great aunt of this Grindelwald, imprisoned in Austria and had introduced him at the end of the last century to the young Albus Dumbledore. For one summer they had been friends until the death of Ariana, Dumbledore's sister. It seemed surreal to her. How could the greatest wizard of all time have befriended this odious dark wizard he had defeated? No, Bathilda was losing her mind.

And yet, Dumbledore hid many things from them. He refused to tell them why Voldemort was tracking them and wanted to kill their son. He also refused to give them the name of his spy. Was he close to Voldemort? Was he a Death Eater? But why would a black wizard want to protect them? What could he gain from it? There was someone who could do that. Lily hadn't talked to James. She had thought of Severus, her former friend. They had known each other since the age of ten and had grown up in the same town, in the north of England, in the Black Country.

Severus, unlike her, had been assigned in Slytherin and had ended up going wrong. He and James never liked each other, they hated each other. And the term wasn't strong enough. Severus had always been a lonely boy with a sharp tongue. He was jealous of James, a Gryffindor, since their first year at Hogwarts, and even since their first meeting in the Hogwarts Express. Severus also had very dubious interests. During his schooling at Hogwarts, he had learned a lot about Dark Magic. Lily had never approved of it. However, she had to acknowledge that Severus had often been the preferred target of James and his friends, Peter, and Sirius. But Severus wasn't innocent either. He had learned to fight back with unsavoury spells, curses. His enmity with James and the other Marauders had become obsessive over the years, and the subject of many disputes with Lily. She hadn't always liked her husband, far from it. For most of her school year at Hogwarts, the redhead had judged James Potter and Sirius Black as complete arrogant morons. James spent his time strutting, talking about his great principles, while he loved to target Slytherin's students, and very often Severus.

Their friendship ended on the day of their O.W.L. exam of Defence Against the Dark Arts, at the end of their fifth year. By the end of the exam, most of the students had gone to relax by the Black Lake. Lily had done like the others. She was talking to her friends when a boy's screaming distracted her attention. It was Severus, he was hanging upside down in the air. James and Sirius had another bright idea, that of attacking his friend, and took off his pants. Peter Pettigrew laughed with others, while Remus Lupin pretended to see nothing, his nose dipped in a manual. He was the most reasonable of the four Marauders, never attacked Severus, but never managed to reason with his three friends. Lily then had rushed to help her friend. She absolutely didn't like James, but she knew that he had a crush on her. Severus had hinted at her a few weeks earlier. She had then ordered the chaser of Gryffindor to leave the Slytherin alone, and he had obeyed her. But Severus took it very badly. Mad with rage, he had insulted her, his best friend. Filthy little Mudblood... The unforgivable words, spit with fury by Severus, still resonated in her head.

Her friends warned her, advised her. Lily, you really shouldn't date out with Snape. Everyone knows he aspires to join You-Know-Who. You saw that he is strange, and that he casts horrible spells on all those he doesn't like, and they are many. And then you saw his company? Sirius Black even claimed that Severus knew more curses of Dark Magic than the grade seven students at Slytherin before arriving at Hogwarts. Lily never believed it. She knew Severus, had grown up with him. He had never used Dark Magic to her. He didn't even have a wand, and his mother wouldn't let him borrow her own because of his father. Mr. Snape hated magic.

Over the years, Lily had seen that her friend had chosen a dark, perilous, and dangerous path. He was even odious with some students who had the same peculiarity as Lily, that of being born in a Muggle family. Yet with her, he had always been adorable. But that day, he had pronounced the most heinous insult that could exist, and Lily had decided to end their friendship, and turn away him for good.

He had come to apologize the same evening, but Lily hadn't wanted to listen to him. She was tired of making excuses for him, hearing him say that she was different from the others. He had become in his eyes bad and completely unrecoverable. For a time, she had hoped that this break would only be temporary and that it would function as an electroshock in Severus' head. She naively believed it... In their last two years at Hogwarts, Severus had only become increasingly bad, abject, and perfidious, while James had decided to change. He was no longer attacking Severus, or at least no longer doing so in front of her. He had resolved to settle down, and in seventh grade James and Lily had been chosen to be Head Boy et Head Girl. And she ended up falling in love with him. At the end of their schooling, they ended up joining the Order and getting married.

A recent event, however, played in favour of Severus. Dumbledore would never have hired a proven Death Eater as Potion Master. Lily had learned this in a letter from Horace Slughorn, her former potion teacher. Severus Snape had been chosen by Dumbledore to assist him because he was getting old. His former friend was the youngest teacher ever hired at Hogwarts. Severus had always been incredibly talented in the art of potions. He was even the best in this matter. This gift earned her recognition – just like her – by Slughorn for being part of his club. Severus may have had ties to some Death Eaters. He had been friending with students who had gone very wrong: Mulciber, Avery, Rosier... He had learned that Voldemort had decided to target them and had informed Dumbledore. He hated James, and he was no longer his friend. It didn't make much sense. Yet if Severus had been in danger of death, Lily wouldn't have hesitated to help him. She hadn't forgotten their six years of friendship.

Harry clapped with his chubby little hands and sometimes tried to catch the smoke thrown by James. He was an extremely cute baby in his blue pajamas. He was the perfect likeness to James, but he had green eyes, Lily's. The young mother cherished her son more than anything else and couldn't bear that Voldemort could take him, hurt him, kill him... This Halloween night was so peaceful, so quiet, very different from the festive banquets held during his childhood at Hogwarts. For the occasion, James had let their son taste pumpkin juice in the afternoon and had given him some treats. Harry had also played with his broomstick, Sirius's birthday present. He had failed to break some ornaments. At the beginning of August, Harry had broken the vase that Petunia had given Lily for Christmas. A horrible vase, but it was her sister's last gift. Lily hadn't seen her for months, and from time to time they would send each other letters.

Petunia lived in Surrey with her husband and son. Petunia had met her husband in London a few years earlier, while she was a secretary in a company. Her husband was tall and obese, and he wasn't friendly. Like Petunia, he hated fantasy and anything out of the ordinary. He and James didn't appreciate each other. Vernon took James for a saltimbanque, and James loved to irritate him. The Dursleys took an orderly life and were happy that the Potters didn't bother them. Petunia knew that Lily and her husband were in trouble. Lily didn't want to scare her with their worries, even though she doubted that it really worried Petunia. Her eldest sister was jealous and considered her an anomaly. The disappearance of their parents in his last months hadn't really brought them together. Lily's mother had died several weeks after her wedding with James, and her father had followed her to the grave earlier this year. They weren't old, but the disease had ended up killing them.

Lily had gone away for a few minutes in the kitchen to prepare a tisane. It was time to go to bed Harry. He was still a baby, and he wasn't old enough to stay up so late. James put the child in her arms and threw his wand on the sofa. Her husband slumped on the couch and relaxed her legs.

"I'm tired" he sighted.

"I'll put him to bed and come back. Say good night to Dad, Harry."

"I'm waiting for you" he smiled.

The child waved with his hand to his father, and Lily climbed the stairs leading to the rooms. When she crossed the threshold of Harry's room, Lily heard a loud bang, like an explosion. Had she made a mistake with their old kettle bought from Dervish and Banges? A magic kettle couldn't explode that way. She would have given everything she had to hear James swear and tell her that this purchase wasn't a clever idea...

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

Her blood froze in her veins and her heart began to beat at a frantic pace in her chest. It couldn't be Voldemort; it was simply impossible. Peter Pettigrew, their friend, and member of the Order was the Secret-Keeper. He would never betray them. She and James had chosen him at the last minute, just last week, to be their keeper.

Lily heard screams, those of James and explosions. Then nothing, only the sound of footsteps on the stairs. It wasn't James's, it was Voldemort's, and she didn't even take her wand. She had foolishly left it in the kitchen, by the kettle, by her cup. She and Harry were trapped... And James? Was he dead? Her heart clung to this thought, but she had no time to think about it. She had to protect her son. She couldn't even disappear because of the spells they had cast on the cottage.

She barricaded as best as she could the entrance to the small nursery. A chair and small boxes might buy him some time. Think about— She hugged her son and tried to disappear. She thought of Hogsmeade and thought very strongly of the Three Broomsticks. On entering their home, Voldemort may have burned down the protective spells, but nothing happened. She couldn't even run away with her baby; he was at the door. He forced it and pushed away the fence made of bric-a-brac, which obstructed the passage, without any effort. It was him, Voldemort. Lily put her son in bed. He wasn't even scared and thought it was a James joke. It was better that way.

Voldemort was terrifying. The dark hood of his cape covered his head, but Lily had no trouble recognizing his features perverted by years of intensive Dark Arts practice. With her body, she hid her son. It was useless, he knew very well that Harry was in his crib.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl . . . stand aside now."

What did he have to spare her? He had killed James, and he wanted to do the same with her son. She would rather die than endure the deaths of the two men in her life.

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead—"

"This is my last warning—"

"Not Harry! Please . . . have mercy . . . have mercy. . .. Not Harry! Not Harry! Please— I'll do anything".

"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"

He pointed his wand at her. He was going to kill her finally, but Lily didn't see a blinding green light rushing right at her. She felt an enormous force grab her body and was brutally thrown against the dresser of the room. And she lost consciousness.

When she awoke, she heard nothing, only a throbbing buzzing in her ears, and her vision was blurred. Lily felt a viscous liquid dripping from her head. It hurt terribly, as if some of her limbs had been broken. She struggled to open her eyes, but she was certain that a man was standing before her. She had heard footsteps. James? Perhaps he had survived. The man bent down and lifted her a little.

"Lily? Lily? Can you hear me?"

It wasn't James' voice. And she hadn't heard that deep voice for years. It was Severus.

She moaned a little, and gradually regained her senses. She had to make an exceptional effort to speak.

"Ha... Harry... Harry"

"He... he's fine... Can't you hear him? He's crying in his crib..."

She focused on and heard the cries of her baby. He was alive.

"You-Know-Who..." she whispered "James... James..."

Severus answered nothing. He held her tenderly against his chest.

"You're hurt, Lily."

Lily finally managed to open her eyes, and they landed on her former friend's face. What was he doing here? Was the Dumbledore's spy? He pronounced an incantation, which sounded like a melody, and the wounds on her head closed. His face was anxious, and his features showed great worry. And he was crying. Lily had never seen him shed a tear.

"Where is James?" she asked.

Severus's features hardened and he looked away. She understood. Her husband was dead.

"Bring me my son, Severus... I want to see him."

The wizard gently released his embrace and took the child from the crib. Harry stopped crying and snuggled up against the black cloak of the new Hogwarts teacher.

"He's fine, I think. You can't stay here, it's too dangerous."

Lily managed to get up, but she felt weak, shaky. Her spine made her suffer terribly and she couldn't refrain from wince in pain.

"My wand... It's in the kitchen... I must go get it."

"No!" he refused. "Take your son, I'll get it. It's too dangerous downstairs, and I..."

"Don't you want me to see my husband?"

Severus nodded. He hated James but didn't seem to rejoice his death.

"It's too dangerous, Lily... You could get hurt on the stairs... Everything exploded."

Lily looked around and noticed for the first time that some of the walls in the room had been destroyed. She even saw the street because Voldemort had caused a gaping hole.

"Don't stay here, it's dangerous. I'll tell Dumbledore. We must go. Take your son, Lily. I'll be right back."

Severus gently handed her the baby that had stopped crying, and Lily could see that her son had a wound on his forehead. She had no memory of the attack. She only remembered that Voldemort had violently cast her out with a spell, and that she had foolishly knocked herself out against a dresser. What could have happened next? Severus didn't seem to know any more than she did. Voldemort planned to kill her son and yet he was alive. And Voldemort had left behind ruins and two survivors. She heard her old friend carefully descend the stairs and head into the kitchen. Then he came back shortly afterwards, holding her wand with one hand and her cat, Wool, by the scruff of the neck. It had survived, too.

"Let me see James. Please, Sev."

"It's really not a good idea—"

"We will have to go down. We can't disappear in this house."

Severus capitulated. He asked Lily to hang on to him on the stairs and let him carry Harry, while she held the cat against her. The corridor, too, had been devastated and the stairs had been partially destroyed. Severus lit up what remained of the cottage with his wand. The wizard hadn't lied, she could have broken her neck on these stairs. Some steps had been torn off, and the ramp had been knocked out completely by an explosion.

Lily then saw the body of her husband lying on the ground. He hadn't even had time to take his wand as she did, and he had been killed without any scruples. She knelt beside him and began to sob. She would have wanted to be dead too. James had sacrificed himself. Severus put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Lily. Truly."

She would have liked to tell Severus that he hated James, and that she mocked his condolences, but she didn't have the strength. And it wasn't fair. Her former friend came to rescue them.

"We must go now."

Lily got up painfully, having for the last time leave a kiss on James' frozen lips. Severus escorted them outside the cottage.

"We will disappear. You must hold on to me."

"Where are we going?"

Severus ignored her question. He drew her against him and squeezed her before they were all – and the cat - sucked in a whirlwind. The sensation of disappearance was terribly unpleasant. Lily had the impression that her body was compressed and at the same time stretched. It lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to make her nauseous. When she opened her eyes, she discovered a dark street, very badly lit. It was Spinner's End. Severus had taken them to his home in Cokeworth, their hometown.

"Let's get in quickly!"

Lily was dragged away by Severus, and they rushed into one of the small, blackened brick houses. The wizard dragged them into a living room and forced her to sit on a sofa. Then he laid Harry next to her.

"Sorry" he said, "I must warn Dumbledore."

He went to the fireplace and clearly pronounced the headmaster's office at Hogwarts.

"Severus? What are you doing at home? Aren't you supposed to be in your apartments in Hogwarts?"

"Headmaster, I went to Godric's Hollow, Potter's house."

"What? Severus, I had..."

"The Dark Lord succeeded to reach them, Dumbledore. James Potter is dead, but Lily Potter and her son are alive. They are with me, here. The Dark Lord was gone when I arrived... I must talk to you..."

"I understand" Dumbledore answered in an empty voice. "So what I feared has happened. James and Lily used the Fidelius Charm a few days ago. Sirius Black was the Secret-Keeper."

"Black?!" Severus answered, amazed. "So he betrayed them!"

Suddenly, everything came to Lily's mind. Sirius was supposed to be their keeper, but they ended up choosing Peter, only a week earlier. It was less risky, both for them and for Sirius. At least that was what they thought.

"Severus!" Lily called out "Severus!"

The wizard turned and gave him a worried look.

"Sirius wasn't the Secret-Keeper... It was Peter Pettigrew."

Severus again passed his head into his fireplace and gave the information to Dumbledore. Lily couldn't believe that one of their best friends had betrayed them. Peter had surely been kidnapped and tortured. He would never have been able to reveal the secret at his own will. She couldn't believe it. He loved James, he admired him. It was simply impossible. He must have been dead... How did Voldemort succeed to take him away? To guess that he was their keeper. Except for Peter, only James, Sirius and herself knew. Did Sirius betray them? It was impossible. He agreed to be their Secret-Keeper, and then advised them to choose Peter for their safety. He trusted him too. Voldemort may not have looked extremely far. Their close friends were few: Sirius, Peter, and Remus. The latter didn't know that they had chosen a keeper other than Sirius.

"Dumbledore is coming" Severus said, rising. "Here, you risk nothing."

"Peter would never betray us, Sev. I'm sure... You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters probably kidnapped him... I daren't imagine what he may have suffered because of us... We should never have chosen the Fidelius Charm. Dumbledore had offered to be the Secret-Keeper, but we refused his help."

"It doesn't matter. I must fix you."

He went to a corner of the small living room and came out of a drawer a few phials.

"Drink it" he ordered Lily as he handed her two phials.

She stared at him with watchful eyes.

"Wiggenweld Potion and another to sleep."

"I don't want to sleep, Severus. I want to see Dumbledore. I need to talk to him."

She drank the green phial in one go and gave the second to the Potions Master. One hour later, Dumbledore emerged from the den of the fireplace. Lily was hugging her sleeping son, while Severus was standing in a dark corner of the poorly lit living room.

"Lily, I am extremely happy to see you and little Harry alive. I want you to know that I am terribly sorry for James..."

"James is dead" the widow whispered, with a sallow voice. "You-Know-Who... killed him. Peter was the Secret-Keeper. Do you know where he is?"

"Some members of the Order were dispatched to your home in Godric's Hollow. It appears that Voldemort killed him. Young Sirius Black and Hagrid found a finger, left in evidence, not far from your husband's body."

Lily sobbed. Because of them, their friend was most certainly dead, after suffering terrible abuse. She couldn't blame him. She knew how cruel and sadistic Voldemort and his Death Eaters could be.

"And You-Know-Who? Where's he? He didn't even touch Harry, and he disappeared and devastated everything."

The headmaster approached Lily and her son and inspected the young child who had only a small wound in the forehead in the form of lightning.

"Voldemort tried to kill Harry. This wound on your boy's forehead is the mark of a powerful, destructive spell... The Killing Curse."

Severus emerged from the shadows and approached the headmaster. He himself seemed to have thought of this hypothesis.

"Because James sacrificed himself..." Lily answered, in a broken voice "He sacrificed himself to protect us. I begged You-Know-Who to kill me instead of Harry, and he cast a spell on me. I don't know why he spared me. I guess he was going to kill me after— He must have seen through me and understood that he couldn't touch Harry after I died."

"No, Lily. Voldemort doesn't understand love. He doesn't know what it is. If he had any idea what it was, he would never have embraced the darkness and the Dark Forces, he would never have decided to attack a baby and his family" Dumbledore refuted. "Severus? Can you show me your arm?"

"It disappeared" Severus answered, on the defensive.

What were they talking about?

"I want to confirm something I think I guessed" Dumbledore insisted.

Reluctantly, Severus unbuttoned the buttons on his sleeve and unveiled a pale arm, on which a barely noticeable snake had been tattooed. Lily felt like vomiting. So, he really joined him.

"Well, you can button up, Severus. I have reason to believe that the spell cast on Harry bounced off Voldemort."

"So, he's dead?" Severus asked.

Dumbledore straightened his glasses on his aquiline nose.

"No, Voldemort wasn't destroyed tonight by his own curse. He'll come back one day. And what I'm about to tell you isn't good enough to please. The young Harry Potter is in grave danger. One day, Voldemort will come back and try to attack him."

Lily sobbed and hugged her sleeping baby, who knew nothing of the horrible threat hovering over him.

Lily's mind was teeming with questions. How did the director of Hogwarts hire a proven Death Eater? Lily knew that the servitors of Voldemort carried on their forearm a distinctive sign, a black mark having the shape of a snake springing from a skull. How could Severus be marked like cattle? How could he join this demon?

"Severus... You're a Death Eater" Lily said, in a broken voice.

The wizard, dressed entirely in black, lowered his eyes. Evidently, he had dreaded this moment, that of the confession.

"I made a terrible mistake, Lily. I regret it bitterly."

Lily glared at him, but it still lacked some elements to judge his former friend completely.

"Yes, Lily" Dumbledore added. "Severus did become a Death Eater, but he quickly switched sides and became my spy."

"So, you were Dumbledore's spy!" Lily gasped.

Severus nodded in response, but his eyes were still down.

"Severus gave me valuable information" the headmaster of Hogwarts replied, "Without this information, we wouldn't have been able to protect you as we did."

"How did you know we were targeted?" Lily asked to Severus. "Did Voldemort tell you?"

She was no longer afraid to pronounce the name of her husband's murderer. This made Severus shudder, who called him by another name. She should have guessed.

"Yes" he said in whisper, his eyes still lowered.

"And why was he after my son's life?! Why did he kill my husband?!"

Lily's voice was getting harder and harder. Severus knew, but he was far too cowardly to reveal the truth.

"ANSWER!"

Harry awaked and began to cry. His screams reminded Lily of his presence, against his chest. She rocked him and reassured him.

"Answer me" she said more gently. "You owe me this."

Dumbledore watched the scene, and his features remained undisturbed. Severus took a deep breath before speaking.

"Two years ago, in the autumn, the Dark Lord has asked me to infiltrate Hogwarts by applying for the position of professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts. I knew the headmaster was interviewing the Hog's Head. I had to spy on Dumbledore to give him information about his activities... I saw the headmaster enter a room and I listened at the door. Dumbledore was meeting Sybill Trelawney for the Divination position."

Lily didn't really see where Severus was going to end up, but she was hanging on to every word he said, fearing to discover a horrible truth.

"It wasn't very interesting at first" he continued. "Trelawney didn't appear to be qualified for this position, and Dumbledore..." he said looking at the headmaster. "Dumbledore was wasting his time. He was about to leave when I heard Trelawney almost fall to the ground. And there... she... she made a strange prediction."

Lily's blood froze in her veins, and she became increasingly pale.

"I listened and remembered everything. But someone, the owner of the inn, surprised me and..."

"And my brother opened the door" Dumbledore said. "Severus said he had the wrong room and I let him go."

"What... What did you do?" she articulated painfully.

"He let me go" Severus replied. "And I told the Dark Lord."

In the near-penumbra of the living-room, Lily could see that Severus' inky eyes shone with a strange gleam, that of regret, sorrow. But she mocked his remorse. Because of him, she was a widow and her son an orphan.

"I swear to Merlin, if I had known the repercussions of this prophecy, I would never have said... I didn't think—"

"You didn't think so?" she shrugged, in an acerbic tone. "I have no idea what this prophecy is, but didn't you think it would put several lives in danger?!"

Severus shook his head painfully.

"I was blinded... when the Dark Lord interpreted the prophecy... two children could correspond... it was a boy born at the end of July—"

"Longbottom's son and mine" she said, scathingly. "I guess if he had chosen their son, you wouldn't have betrayed your master. It wouldn't have mattered to you that any family other than mine would be threatened with mortal peril. You disgust me, Severus."

Dumbledore's spy had shrivelled and his black hair in the curtain completely hid his face.

"I understand better now why he spared me" Lily said. "You probably begged him! You didn't care that James and Harry died!"

"Lily" Dumbledore interrupted her "Don't be too hard on Severus. He quickly understood his mistake and came to me to right his wrongs. It was thanks to him that we learned that you were threatened. He asked me to protect the three of you, to hide you."

Severus came out of his torpor and addressed a surprised glance to the powerful wizard. He obviously didn't expect him to defend himself in front of the accusing redhead.

"And you?" Lily said looking at Dumbledore. "You let him go, you let him repeat everything... Why? Why didn't you stop him?"

"I just didn't know that Severus had joined Voldemort at that time. And then he hadn't heard everything. I wasn't sure how important Sybill Trelawney's comments were."

"Really?" she taunted. "Yet when we were at Hogwarts, he didn't hide his ambitions!"

The Death Eater was slaughtered and didn't even try to defend himself.

"What matters now, Lily, is your safety and that of your son" Dumbledore said. "Severus made an unfortunate mistake, I agree, but he switched sides when he realized you were in danger. This reason is more than enough. You and Harry will be staying with Severus for a while, as supporters of Lord Voldemort are still on the run, but I have no doubt that the members of the Order and the Aurors will succeed in arresting them."

Lily received this announcement as a stab. Dumbledore forced her to stay with a Death Eater, a traitor. Because of him, she and her family had to hide, live in perpetual anguish for months... And the love of her life, her husband, was dead.

"Severus, you will watch over Lily Potter and her son" Dumbledore ordered "You're not going to let them out under any circumstances. I'll give you the latest progress on a regular basis, and then we'll see."

The headmaster greeted the two wizards and the child and disappeared completely into the green flames of the fireplace.