Present and Past

Godric's Hollow, (Dec. 11 th , 1988)...

"Please, Mum," Harry whined while giving his mother his best puppy eyes.

Lily sighed. They had had this conversation far too many times. "Harry, no. You and Nathan are much too young to start learning magic."

It had been seven years since the fateful night in which the Dark Lord had vanished. Seven years since her youngest son, Nathan, had been proclaimed the wizarding world's savior. Seven years since she and James had found out that one of their closest friends had set up her parents and their children to die.

A lot had changed in the world, and not all for the better. Once the Dark Lord had been defeated, Lily had wanted to drop the Fidelius charm on Godric's Hallow and live their lives as normally as they could. Unfortunately, that was not destined to happen. Albus had warned against dropping the charm. At first it was just to be while the Dark Lord's followers were being captured, and after what happened to Frank and Alice Longbottom, Lily was thankful she and James had listened to Albus. However, when several known Death Eaters avoided jail by claiming the Imperius curse, Lily and James had been forced to keep the charm up for longer than they had intended.

When Harry and Nathan were five, they had considered dropping the charm. That decision had been nixed after one family outing into Diagon Alley. They had been mobbed by well-wishers and people wanting to take pictures of Nathan. Needless to say, both boys were terrified of the massive screaming crowds, and it was only Albus' timely arrival with several former Order members that saved them from being completely run over.

After the Diagon Alley incident, Albus had suggested that James and Lily raise Harry and Nathan under the Fidelius charm, to avoid Nathan from becoming arrogant about defeating Voldemort. Albus only needed to ask James what he would have been like if he had defeated the most powerful wizard alive as a one-year-old to gain the couple's support. Lily would not allow Nathan to grow up an arrogant berk like her husband had once been, and James had long ago accepted that he never would have gotten Lily acting like he had during his first six years at Hogwarts.

Lily and James were proud to say that they had raised Harry and Nathan without showing any favoritism. When they told the two boys about how Nathan had stopped Voldemort, they made sure to mention that it was not any superior wizard power that had saved Nathan, but rather a one and a billion chance piece of magic. This ensured that Nathan didn't get a big head, and that Harry didn't feel inferior to his twin.

"But Mum, you said you learned magic before you went to Hogwarts," Harry argued.

"That was completely different, Harry," Lily replied. "I was almost ten at the time."

"But Nathan and I are eight. That's so close to ten."

The mention of Nathan caused Lily to glance around the living room curiously. "Where is your brother? I'm surprised he isn't out here arguing along with you."

Growing up with no other real companionship, her two boys were practically inseparable. Oh, they had their arguments, and they usually ended when one or the other said something hurtful, causing the other's magic to lash out accidentally. Nothing too harmful of course –Nathan removed all of Harry's hair once, and Harry had turned Nathan's skin pink on a few occasions. The two boys simply loved each other too much for even their magic to do anything more harmful than embarrass one-another.

"He's outside with Dad and uncle Sirius," Harry said with an innocent smile on his face.

Lily immediately felt herself stiffen. James had certainly grown up since Hogwarts, but whenever he and Sirius or Remus got together with the boys it was as if they all reverted into their 17 year old selves. "And what are they doing?" She asked.

Harry smiled brightly. "Uncle Sirius promised to teach us how to fly on real brooms over the holiday."

"He what!" Lily thundered.

"Yep, Nathan's outside testing the Nimbus 1700," Harry said, ignoring his mother's increasing ire. "You know, if you started teaching us magic, we wouldn't spend so much time trying to get Uncle Sirius to tell us about the pranks he pulled, or bothering Dad to get us a real broom."

Lily felt her eyes narrow, and she cast a suspicious look at her smiling son. "I thought you said your uncle Sirius already bought a Nimbus 1700."

Harry's face paled at what he had accidentally given away. "Well…he…"

"Harry, did your uncle buy you and Nathan a Nimbus 1700, yes or no?" Lily stared sternly at her oldest son.

Harry stuck his hands in his pockets and rubbed his toe into the carpet. "No," he admitted, looking very guilty about lying. "But Sirius and Dad have been hinting they will be getting us brooms sometime either over Christmas or for our next birthday."

Lily stared at Harry for a while as she mulled over her son's words. James had indeed been pressing to get the boys a racing broom for Christmas, but she had managed to get him to admit that eight was still a bit too young. She was certain, though, that he would be getting them both brooms for their birthday. Thinking of her two sons flying around on those twigs of death, recklessly playing Quidditch like their father, terrified her more than she was willing to admit.

Perhaps, she thought, she could prevent her two boys from becoming totally Quidditch-obsessed like her husband. While any wand magic was certainly impossible, she could teach them some theory as well as practical stuff with Potions, much like Severus had done with her when they were younger.

The thought of Severus Snape caused Lily to pause. She hadn't written to him in over a year, and hadn't seen him since a Potions convention in 1985. Their meeting had been awkward to say the least. A part of Lily had been angry at Severus for his role in giving Voldemort the prophecy, but she couldn't deny that he had changed sides at considerable personal risk to save her. She was not deluded enough to think Severus cared at all about James.

Still, she knew that Severus was teaching at Hogwarts, and that he probably demanded nothing but the best from his students. Severus simply didn't have the patience or temperament to expect anything less of them. It would certainly be in her children's best interest to know their Potions before stepping foot into his class.

"Harry, it was wrong of you to lie to me," Lily admonished. "I would have been very unhappy with your uncle Sirius, and you know how much I dislike apologizing to him."

Even though he was being chastised, Harry couldn't help but let a small smile grace his face at his mother's comment.

"I suppose, though, that I could begin to teach you and your brother some magic," Lily said as Harry let out a whoop of joy. "There will be rules. First, you will not be getting a wand. You're just too young to adequately control one right now, you could hurt yourself. That means you'll only be learning theory for wand classes, okay?"

Seeing that Harry didn't look exactly happy at not getting a wand early, Lily pressed on. "You will learn Potions from me, and I will let you brew things. You will not, under any circumstances, try to make something without me being there. Is that understood?"

Harry's disappointment quickly changed into delight as he nodded his head. Lily couldn't help but smile.

"Alright, Harry, now go tell your brother. We'll start your lessons this weekend."

Lily watched as Harry happily ran out of the room to go find his brother. Shaking her head and wondering what exactly she was getting herself into, Lily went into the kitchen to make herself some tea.

Harry's excited expression had reminded her so much of herself. She also had wanted to know everything about magic, and was upset when she found out that she couldn't get a wand till she went to Hogwarts. Lily remembered Severus' smile, not the smirk like he did now but a real smile, as she ranted about how unfair it was that they couldn't get a wand before they turned eleven. How much their lives had changed since then.

She recalled the moment their friendship had ended. How Severus called her a 'mudblood' that day after their owls. She had been heartbroken that he could do something so cruel, and had refused to listen to his apologies that summer. Lily knew that Severus held a great deal of anger towards his abusive father; she also knew that he had to be careful in his own House because he was a half-blood. Even when she noticed him hanging out with a rougher crowd starting in their sixth year, she never thought he'd become a Death Eater. Not Severus.

But he was. For how long she didn't know, but he was.

Still, Lily couldn't help but see his smiling eleven-year-old face when she thought of him, and she grudgingly admitted to herself that she was not exactly blameless in her onetime best friend's descent into the Dark Arts. She had been an emotional teenager. She had felt hurt and betrayed in the worst way by her best friend, and so she had lashed out and abandoned him. She was angry at Severus, but she never imagined, or wanted, him to fall the way he did.

Making up her mind, Lily slowly stood up. She had a very long and overdue floo call to make, and an old friend to make up with.