Harry Potter and The Beauty of Magic Chapter 2 (Death is What Gives Life Meaning) (Patreon)

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year

Not the bike, Sirius thought frantically. Too slow.

He left it where it stood, propped up on its centre stand outside Wormtail's open front door, turned on his heel and Disapparated. There was the familiar, horrendous squeezing, then the welcome sensation of ground beneath his feet once again.

When his vision came into focus, any desperate hope he may have clung onto dissipated like mist. The house was dark, and...crumpled somehow, as though it had been made of delicate paper and crushed by a careless hand. The scent on the air was that of scorched wood and Dark magic.

"No..."

He heard the whimper escape his lips unchecked, even as he pushed the gate wide and ran up the narrow path, the lavender bushes releasing a cloud of heady perfume as he brushed roughly past them. The door hung drunkenly on its hinges, and in the faint starlight, he could see, just inside, the outline of a shoe, a leg, a slightly curled hand.

Sirius fell hard to his knees on the wooden boards, but the twin jolts of pain barely registered. James' skin was cool, his limbs loose and floppy, his stare vacant. As much as Sirius shouted and shook him, he didn't stir. Some childlike, frightened part of his brain was telling him it was all a lie, a bad dream. Any moment his friend was going to laugh and wrestle Sirius onto his back, tickling him, telling him what a gullible fool he was for believing he could possibly be dead. Any minute, now, he would take a breath, his eyes would focus and his lips would flush crimson. Any second...

James lay still and silent.

"Prongs..." Sirius whimpered, collapsing back against the wall. "You can't...I won't...I won't let you..." he moaned.

A soft sound snapped him out of his trance, and suddenly he was on his feet, stepping over the body of his dearest friend, stalking towards the stairs on noiseless feet. He was a soldier again in an ugly war, training taking over and pushing back his grief. Even as the tears were drying on his cheeks, he was treading carefully on the risers in the places he knew would make the least sound if they creaked.

There was no Dark Mark, his analytical brain informed him. The bastard's still here...

The burnt smell was stronger up here, the curse residue thick as poisonous incense. Another small sound...a cough? Sirius stretched his long legs to step over a pile of masonry, bent double to duck under a fallen beam. The doorway to the nursery was unrecognizable; a ragged hole in the wall through which he could see strange uneven shapes and a sprinkling of stars. Part of the roof was gone; caved in or blown away.

Even over the pounding of his heart, he could hear a snuffling sound, a slight movement. He inched forward slowly, slowly. It wouldn't do to go marching in and get his head blown off. From a few feet away, he could see another body Lily, his soul cried, No, please, not Lily, that he could tell at a glance was not going to move again. The angle of the neck, the limbs, the charred skin...

Another shuffle on the floor, a soft sneeze, a hiccup. Sirius gauged the direction of the sound and stepped through the hole in the wall, his wand held firm, a curse on his lips...

The baby...sweet Merlin, the baby. He'd nearly killed his own godson.

Harry sat in the midst of the wreckage, the charred sticks and fabric surrounding him the only remnants of his crib. Thin streaks of blood from a gash on his forehead painted his face. "Pah pah pah," he babbled, his expression troubled, holding his arms out in an entreaty to be picked up.

Sirius released his held breath in a choked sob, knelt down and gathered Harry into his arms in one fluid motion. Sirius could feel the cloth of Harry's pyjamas crumbling to powder beneath his fingertips as he clung to the child tightly. Alive, was all he could think. Alive in this hellish place.

"Pah. Pah," Harry said with an anxious edge to his voice.

"Shhh," Sirius soothed. "Padfoot's here. I'm here, Harry." His voice trembled. Harry's babbling turned into a thin wail, his tiny fists clutching at Sirius' clothing. Sirius stood and moved from that dreadful room with only one backward glance back at Lily's broken form. He shielded Harry's eyes as he walked past her, as he stepped over James again and outside. It was all well and good to know rationally that the baby wouldn't remember, but all he could think was, Harry shouldn't have to see them like that. That is my burden to carry. My punishment for failing them.

When Hagrid arrived only minutes later, the house was silent and empty, save for the dead.

Someone was banging at the door.

Andromeda Tonks shook her head over the impatience of little children. Then again, her own daughter wasn't any better, that's why Andy felt so lucky her husband had volunteered to go with her around the neighbourhood asking for sweets tonight. So either they were back very soon – far too soon for her daughter's usual tastes – or some little guy was behaving very rudely.

And grabbed the bowl of sweets from the cupboard, gazed around swiftly to make sure nothing magical was in sight and opened the door.

Her jaw dropped open. "Sirius?"

Her young cousin was looking awful. He was crying and dripping wet. In his arms he was clutching a bundle of sheets that looked suspiciously like a baby. And Andy knew only of one baby in Sirius' vicinity. "Is that Harry?"

Sirius stifled a sob and nodded fiercely. Andy stepped to the side and urged him into the living room where he collapsed on one of the sofas. She rushed after him and took the sleeping toddler out of his shaking arms.

"What happened?" Andy asked anxiously. "Where are James and Lily?" She was afraid of the answer. She hadn't seen them since one fine day in July, when they had met in London to celebrate her daughter's eighth birthday. The Potters had gone into hiding shortly after that, because Albus Dumbledore had warned them the dark Lord Voldemort was targeting them.

Nobody knew where they lived, apart from Andy's cousin Sirius Black, James' friends Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew and Lily's best friend Alice Longbottom. Andy and her family only heard about them from Sirius during his weekly visits, much to Nymphadora's regret who loved James and Lily dearly – Lily especially, because Dora had fondness for unusual hair colors. Andy and Ted liked the young couple as well, they had ever since Sirius had brought them over.

But Sirius had Harry with him and that practically dictated something had happened to James and Lily. Something had to have happened, given the state of her cousin. Andy looked down on Harry in her arms and noticed the deep red, lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. She stroked the toddlers silky hair away when Sirius finally spoke.

"I was going to visit Peter tonight," he told her. "I've had a bad feeling all evening. When I could find him, I went to James' house. The door was opened and – and –" he sobbed and buried his face in his hands. "the dark mark was over their house. I went inside, thought maybe there was something – you know – I just hoped..." Sirius cried into his hands for a few moments and Andy felt tears drop from her eyes.

"James was in the hallway. I bet he tried to fight so Lily could get out. But she didn't. She was up in the nursery, in front of the crib. She did something, something against the dark lord." He looked up suddenly. "He's dead, Andy, Voldemort is dead."

She flinched at the name then stared at him. "Dead?"

"Yeah." He rubbed his eyes, then sobbed again. "But James – he's gone. And Lily. First I thought Harry was gone too, but then he started crying. There was nobody there and James and Lily dead and little Harry crying..." He stopped talking and just sat there staring at his hands. Andy hugged the baby to her breast and started rocking him gently, more for her own comfort than his since he was still sleeping soundly.

It was silent for a few minutes. Andy tried to imagine Sirius without James, tried to think how Remus and Sirius would sit without him between them and how Harry would have to grow up without his parents. Sirius looked up abruptly. "I need you to take care of him."

"What?" Andy was startled out of her thoughts. "What do you mean?"

"I need to get rid of someone – something. I can't do it when Harry's with me. Andy, I need you to take care of him."

"You can't leave him here," Andy denied. "What about his family? And what do you mean, get rid of?"

"That doesn't matter," Sirius shook his head impatiently. He looked around, then rushed over to the table were Nymphadora's drawing papers were scattered. He wrote furiously for a second. "And he doesn't have family, only Lily's awful sister and you know she hated her. We're the closest relatives he has."

Andy was staring at his back in confusion. Sure, with James' mother being her and Sirius aunt in some way they were related but there had to be somebody who was closer to the Potters. "What about the Longbottoms?"

Sirius looked up in surprise. "They are closer to us than to the Potters, why?"

"No, not the relation. But Alice is his godmother. If you can't take care of Harry, she should."

"Andy, nobody knows where they are. They went into hiding when James and Lily did. I don't have time to search for them." He turned around and handed her a piece of paper. "Here, take this. Please take care of him. I'll be back as soon as I can."

She shifted Harry in her arms and took the paper. She glanced at it and then shook her head. "No, Sirius –"

"Please," he came close to begging her. "The ministry and everyone would send him to Lily's sister and she's horrible. You can take care of him. I have to go. I have to – to chase a rat."

"A rat?" Andy frowned tiredly. Sirius eyes were dry now, only the tear tracks on his cheeks showed his earlier breakdown. But the look in his eyes was frightening, until it softened when he looked at the bundle in her arms. He stepped closer and stroked Harry's hair, then bent down to kiss his forehead.

"Please, Andy," he repeated and looked at her pleadingly. She nodded once, and he whispered a thank you before he turned around and left, leaving her standing with a one-and-a-half year old toddler in her arms.

"Good morning," Ted greeted her when he entered the kitchen and saw her sitting at the table. She had went to bed early after conjuring a crib for Harry and had not been awake when Ted and Nymphadora had returned. "Andy, you have to explain the baby to me."

Andy had been staring at her teacup and gave a sad smile at her husband's words. She pushed the DailyProphet in his direction as he sat down and he took it frowning.

You-know-who dead screamed the headline in giant letters, with a slightly smaller line beneath it: HarryPotter,theboywholived – hedefeatedthedarklord!

Andy observed Ted blanching and swallowing hard as he read the article that detailed what Sirius had told Andy the evening before. Of course, the reporter hadn't seen the house and – contrary to what Sirius had mentioned – claimed Harry to have defeated he-who-must-not-be-named. How a toddler should have done so was not questioned in the article, instead it mentioned that the house had blown up shortly after the bodies of James and Lily were pulled out. Apparently Rubeus Hagrid had seen Sirius leave with Harry and the author reported Harry to be at an 'undisclosed but safe location'. Ted looked up.

"So, the baby asleep in our bedroom... is Harry?"

Andy nodded. "Yes. Sirius brought him here yesterday evening while you were out with Dora."

Ted shook his head. "Why did Sirius? Where is he?"

To this question Andy had no answer, she hoped the idiot was alive and safe, she hoped he would return soon.

Before she could say something else, the door of their home opened, almost slammed open, she almost gasped at seeing a blooded Sirius...

"I Hate Rats"

Snape

It was Halloween. Severus was quite glad that it was a Saturday as he did not think he could have survived attempting to teach the rambunctious children. He could see no reason why they would suddenly act more immature than usual, but that must be the holidays.

Dumbledore and the Dark Lord had been unusually quiet. He knew the Dark Lord was getting close to moving in on the Potters and that he was going to be left out of the loop when that happened. Severus had to hope that while he couldn't vouch for the character of Sirius Black that he would at least remain true to his best friend James Potter. The thought of Sirius Black holding Lily's fate in his hand worried Severus, almost more than when he heard she was to marry James Potter.

Severus was lucky that Dumbledore had even told him who the Secret Keeper was for the Potters. It was the first piece of information he was trusted with that he was not to hand over to the Dark Lord. Ever since that meeting, they had only conversed professionally. He couldn't help but think that he was plotting something else about the Potters. He knew he was being paranoid, but he couldn't persuade himself that it was anything different.

All that he had today was to grade papers and give the first part of several detentions for Lockhart, who had acquired a vat of love potion and tried to see what would happen when people gave themselves love potion. As he had started out passing it around in class, it had led to a bit of a scene. He would be accompanied by a few of his accomplices, but it would not be any fun. However, he did need to replenish his supply of love potion antidote and this was the perfect opportunity to prep them for their NEWT's and get the antidote supply back up.

The papers were all graded and the classroom all set up for detention when Severus left for the Halloween feast. It unnerved him slightly, as he hadn't finished grading so early in a weekend since he took the teaching post. He really needed to bug Dumbledore tomorrow about everything. He could not stay in the dark for too long as the Dark Lord would be calling, expecting information.

The feast was in excess as usual. Dumbledore had gone to the lengths of getting some horrid sounding musical group to play before the feast. Then they were presented with more food than the entire school could eat. He felt like it would be better to host something like this on a street in a neighborhood like the one he grew up in. Let the famished kids eat something good for once.

It was during pudding while Severus was taking the role of the Slytherins present—to know who would be causing trouble or if there were students in distress—when despair suddenly hit him. It felt like the world was ending around him. He feared that it was the end. The Dark Lord decided Severus's spying efforts weren't good enough that he was going to kidnap Lily and kill her in front of him. Lily was going to be dead and it would all be his fault.

He quickly suppressed the emotion and let it hum in the background with the rest of his negative feelings. He finished accounting for all of the Slytherins and looked up to the headmaster. It seemed that he was the only one who had suffered the feeling of impending doom.

As the feast was dismissed, Severus made his way to his classroom and administered the detention to Lockhart and his two accomplices. He wasn't sure what to do as he had no more papers to grade and his mind was only giving him horrible images of Lily dead in a myriad of horrific ways. He kept telling himself: She will not die, she will not die. I will die before she would.

Severus interceded a couple of times to prevent the students from ruining this batch of antidote. He wondered if they would be any better if he had been their teacher from the first year or if they would still be this incompetent. The only way he would know is if he managed to stay alive for seven years. He doubted it from his position in the war. It could be ended for him if he came and told the Dark Lord something that displeased him. He had been known to kill for that in the past.

By the end of the detention, Severus was determined to get out of the castle. He triple checked the antidotes before adding them to the stores and setting up the classroom for the next detention. It felt like a nervous tick. He shook it off and headed out of the castle.

As he strode across the grounds, he wasn't sure where he was going to go. Get a drink in Hogsmeade? Go back to his house on Spinner's End? Wander through some fields? Visit the Malfoys?

He was about to apparate to the Malfoy Manor when he remembered that they had a baby. Before he could have gone at almost any hour of the night and find a Lucius willing to talk about nothing, but since the baby Lucius had taken to sleeping more regular hours.

Severus took a risk and apparated to Godric's Hallow. He had surmised that the hidden house was the one Potter and co had taken to living in after graduation. Shortly after graduation, he had been sent on a few spying missions to observe the goings-on at the place; Potter's entire squadron were known Order members after all. Severus felt it would help his nerves to not be able to find the Potter residence.

He found himself walking in circles a few times until he managed to orient himself to the place he had gone to almost three years ago. He turned the corner ready to see the empty field or the neighboring houses moved to hide the Potter cottage, but, instead, the Potter cottage was there, smoke rising to the sky.

Dumbledore had failed to keep them safe. Severus started running. He went through the open front door. The first thing he saw was a body in the darkened hall. His heart stopped for a moment, thinking it was Lily's body, but it was James's.

It was an odd sight. The sixteen-year-old Severus had wanted to see Potter dead at points, but seeing it now, he knew he would have hated it then. Severus looked for signs of a fight, but there wasn't any. In fact, Severus couldn't even spot James's wand.

His heart hurt at the thought of Lily marrying the fool dumb enough to be found unarmed in the midst of a war. Had he never considered the fact that he could be betrayed? Severus couldn't help but feel vindicated at the thought that Black had been a poor choice of secret keeper. Dumbledore had failed.

Severus was nervous heading up the stairs, but he had to go and see that Lily was not here. He needed to know that the Dark Lord had kept his promise. The thought of seeing a dead baby unnerved him, but he pushed those fears back. It wasn't his fault the Dark Lord felt threatened by a baby.

He made it upstairs and saw the outline of another adult body. Severus hoped it was back up, someone else that had stood by and dueled, the reason the house was smoking. He went down the corridor and cried out.

Severus had no idea what noises he was making. The world had stopped. It was Lily's body. Lily was dead. The Dark Lord had failed to keep his promise. Dumbledore had failed to keep his promise. The one thing he had been living for was ended.

How did this happen? Severus felt destroyed. Both the Dark Lord and Dumbledore had betrayed him. He had failed. He must not have performed well enough as a spy. Dumbledore must have learned that the Dark Lord knew he was getting the information freely from Dumbledore. The Dark Lord must have felt that Severus had been holding back crucial pieces of information. It would have been much better if the Dark Lord had killed Severus for that wrong instead of killing Lily.

Perhaps, perhaps the Dark Lord had only accidentally killed Lily. Perhaps she was out of view and only jumped after he cast the killing curse. She was right next to the crib. Severus would never know. He was the only living person in the house. The Dark Lord had taken another family completely. Severus couldn't shake the thought that the Dark Lord had purposefully killed Lily and cried hard.

The betrayal. The loss. The guilt. It was more than he could handle, but he needed to get a grip. He barely became aware that he had been crying loudly. The house was no longer protected by the fidelius charm. He needed to calm himself or people would show up, like the muggle police.

Severus thought he had stopped crying, but he kept hearing crying. Was he that much out of control of his own body?

The thought scared him and he opened his eyes. He hadn't realized they had been closed. Another body was on the floor and there was something in the crib. The body on the floor was an adult body. Did the Dark Lord kill Black after his cold-hearted betrayal of his best friend and family?

Severus stood up and stepped closer to the other body. It was the Dark Lord's body. The Dark Lord was dead? He looked for wands and found none. The Dark Lord and Lily had killed each other without wands?

Then there was that crying noise again. Severus knew it wasn't him. He turned. There was a living baby in the cot. A living baby?

Severus didn't know what drove him to do it, but he picked up the baby and looked into its eyes. He had his mother's eyes. He pushed into the toddler's mind with ease and saw the scene that disturbed the toddler. The Dark Lord entering the room, hooded. His mother's pleas to not kill the baby. The Dark Lord killing Lily. The Dark Lord then turning on the toddler, the explosion as the curse rebounded.

A rebounding killing curse? There was no defense Severus had ever heard of for the killing curse. He had read about there being an old method, but he never found textual evidence to support that. Somehow the baby had lived. Somehow he had defeated the Dark Lord like the prophecy had warned.

When Severus returned back to reality, he found that he had been cradling the toddler and rocking it back and forth. The toddler had quieted for a moment, but had quickly started to cry again. Severus looked at the wreckage and bodies on the floor. The toddler's memory of the Dark Lord killing Lily without forcing her to step down burned in his memory.

The toddler kept interrupting his search with the image of a cup that the toddler knew was kept in the fridge. Severus glared at the corpse of the Dark Lord and carried the toddler from the room and down the stairs. He found the kitchen and magically summoned the sippy cup from the fridge, casting a refilling charm on it as the toddler began to drink.

Then it cried for food. Severus searched the cupboards as the toddler didn't have a decent memory of where food came from. He found some bread and took out a piece of bread that he tore into pieces and put in front of the toddler. He ate.

After that it was clear he needed his nappy changed and Severus took care of that with a quick cleaning charm. He never understood the changing diapers thing muggles did. The next thing the toddler needed was sleep.

Severus didn't want to go back to the room that held Lily's corpse and holding the baby had been the biggest part in holding him together. Having a minor responsibility made it much easier to pretend the scene upstairs wasn't real. He went into the living room and laid down on the couch with the baby. It was so peaceful that Severus forgot all the pain, guilt, and sorrow.

The next thing he knew, it was light. Where was he? How long has he slept? There was something heavy on his chest. He opened his eyes and saw Lily's green eyes staring back. The baby.

Severus sat up and found himself in the unfamiliar living room of the Potters'. The baby was babbling about something, clearly distraught. The events of last night tried to crash in on him, but Severus pushed it back and decided to take the toddler back in the kitchen to eat again. That must be the reason for it crying.

Severus tried to feed it some food, but the baby refused. He handed him his sippy cup, but the baby refused that too. He cast another cleaning charm on the diaper and the baby didn't stop crying. He stopped and looked into the child's eyes.

The images of Lily and James came, which made the cries of the toddler make sense.

"Mumma, mumma, papa, papa."

That was one thing Severus could not provide. He carried the toddler upstairs and put him in his crib. He pretended the bodies weren't there. He closed them out of his mind and memory. He needed to get out of here. He shouldn't have stopped to take care of the baby, he should have alerted Dumbledore. Severus had no training on toddler handling, as the crying toddler was clearly demonstrating.

Severus took one last look at Lily's lifeless body and the Dark Lord's corpse. It was very clear to him, now, who he should have pledged loyalty to.

Ha apparated through the broken wards to the boundaries of Hogwarts. He strode quickly back to the castle. It was getting late.

The noise in the great hall sounded as if another feast had been called for. The sound was celebratory. That was everything Severus wanted to avoid. Now that he had returned from Godric's Hollow, the weight of what he had seen hurt him. Despair hit him like a wall. He had failed his mission.

Severus turned from the Great Hall and descended into his dungeons, allowing his hunger to remind him of how pitiful he was. He had lead the one person who also had shown the capacity to love without expecting much in return to her death. The only other person who operated like he did; however, she used her gift much more wisely.

Severus sat in his classroom, doing his best to withhold his tears.

Severus got up to go and complain to Professor Flitwick when a silver phoenix swooped into the room.

"Meet me in my office immediately," came Dumbledore's voice from the mouth of the phoenix before it disappeared.

Severus hesitated. The war was over. His position as a spy was over. Would Dumbledore be luring him to be captured by the aurors to be sent to Azkaban?

Severus slunk into his office, hoping Dumbledore would not note his slight tardiness. He found a vial of painless poison in his desk drawer and pocketed it. Death would be a much better alternative to Azkaban. Besides, he had nothing left to live for.

When Severus made it to the headmaster's office, he felt mostly contained. He had cried his tears at Godric's Hallow. This would be a professional meeting.

"Come in," Dumbledore's voice commanded calmly.

The calmness of his voice made Severus's tears try to pool in his eyes. He took a deep breath to push them back in his skull and then entered the room. He would maintain his composure.

"Have a seat," Dumbledore commanded.

Severus obeyed out of habit.

"I daresay you have heard the news..." Dumbledore began.

Severus kept his mouth shut. His lip was trembling. Why was he having an emotional response now?

"...Lord Voldemort was given the information on where the Potters were hiding yesterday and he attacked them last night. He killed James and then Lily," at this point, tears were beginning to silently run down Severus's face, "but then his killing curse rebounded—"

Severus let out a horrible cry. His mind had reflected back on when he had seen Lily's lifeless body on the floor. It was his fault. She was dead and it was all his fault. He provided the prophecy. He failed to give the Dark Lord enough service to be worthy of having such a request granted.

Dumbledore said nothing as Severus cried out his heart. Severus's bouts of guilt were suddenly squashed when he saw Dumbledore standing there completely composed, and he remembered that Dumbledore had failed in his promise, but he didn't feel as destroyed as Severus felt.

"I thought...you were going...to keep her...safe..." Severus managed to get out between sobs. He knew it didn't sound as threatening as he had hoped it would.

"She and James put their faith in the wrong person," Dumbledore said. "Rather like you, Severus. Weren't you hoping that Lord Voldemort would spare her?"

Rage filled Severus, but he kept it down. He had diversified his trust. He hadn't relied solely on the Dark Lord, unlike how the Potters relied solely on Sirius Black, of all people.

"Her boy survives," said Dumbledore.

Why was he mentioning something so irrelevant? Since the war was over, all that mattered was that Lily was dead.

"Her son lives," Dumbledore repeated. "He has her eyes, precisely her eyes. You remember the shape and colour of Lily Evans's eyes, I am sure?"

"DON'T!" Severus shouted. He couldn't believe that Dumbledore was rubbing it in that Lily had ended up with James Potter of all people, but that didn't matter now. Lily was, "Gone...Dead..."

"Is this remorse, Severus?"

"I wish...I wish I were dead..." Severus couldn't believe he had said those words out loud. He had thought about it and felt more strongly about it. He had always planned on dying before her. There was never the option of his living and her dying.

"And what use would that be to anyone?" Dumbledore said coldly. "If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear."

Did Dumbledore just use the word love? Had Dumbledore seen love inside of him?

But the war was over.

"What—what do you mean?"

"You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily's son."

"He does not need protection. The Dark Lord has gone—"

"—the Dark Lord will return, and Harry Potter will be in terrible danger when he does."

It was unusual, but Severus knew it could happen. There were various methods in the dark arts for escaping death. If the Dark Lord was back, he wanted his vengeance for the Dark Lord's betrayal. The boy, while half James Potter, was still part Lily. It had been his life goal to protect Lily, perhaps a piece of Lily would do. She had also been strongly against killing oneself.

While it was not an ideal situation, it did seem like the only way to keep moving forward. The only way to not be stuck on this moment forever.

Severus tried to come up with other options, but they all seemed empty. He could take on this challenge. He would even try to go back to the Dark Lord so that his betrayal would hurt as much as the Dark Lord's betrayal had hurt him. As long as only Dumbledore knew how much Lily's loss hurt him, it would work. He knew the Dark Lord had told the Death Eaters about his request to save Lily, but, as long as they didn't know she meant more to him than the Dark Lord, it would work.

"Very well. Very well. But never—never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it!" Severus couldn't help but think of all the people that had mocked his friendship with Lily to be motivated by as shallow a motivation as lust. It would be best to not let that rumor take hold in another generation. "I cannot bear...especially Potter's son...I want your word!"

"My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?" Dumbledore sighed and there was a moment where Severus was not sure if he would promise.