So far, everything went as they had discussed so many times, and Sirius started to question Peter. “You have told him where to find them, right?” he asked.

Peter answered, “Yes, and he promised to reward me afterwards.”

“Who will be with him, when he comes here tomorrow night?” Remus asked innocently. “Will you have to do that?”

“No,” Peter shook his head. “Only people of his inner circle, Malfoy and Avery I think.”

They talked for a while more and asked several other questions, until James returned, which was about the same time when the Veritaserum Lily had put into Peter’s tea was wearing off. Suddenly Peter jumped out of his chair and shouted, “What do you think you are doing?” He pulled his wand, but before he could even think of a spell, he was disarmed and stunned.

Severus took Peter’s wand and mumbled, “Oblivio. Enervate. Imperio: Take this Polyjuice potion over there every eight hours until Christmas. Look and behave like Lily Potter until Christmas, love and protect her baby Harry from the Dark Lord and everyone else - even if you die protecting him. Do not transform into your animagus form, and write the address of Lily and James on this piece of parchment.”

Peter immediately went to the table, wrote the address on the parchment, drank a phial of the Polyjuice potion and changed into Lily.

Severus stayed for a few more hours and watched the fake Lily closely, but he could not detect any problems – his potion seemed to work. Of course, the Imperius charm was only a backup in case his potion would not work properly, which was necessary because he couldn’t test the potion in advance. He had invented it in the future just a few weeks ago, and it was made so that the person drinking it would not only look like the person whose hair it contained but also behave and feel like the specific person. Now he was very content and proud to see that it actually worked.

Finally, Severus and Sirius excused themselves and, taking Peter’s wand as well as the parchment with the address with them, Floo-ed back to Hogwarts to tell the others that so far everything had worked according to the plan.

When they reached the Dumbledores’ quarters, Baby Harry gave them a big smile. “Hi, Uncy Sebby, Uncy Pafoo, wee stowwy?”

Severus laughed and took Harry putting him on his lap. “Sorry, Harry, but first I have to tell the others a story, which is very important, and then I will read a story for you, all right? Do you agree?”

Harry gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek and said, “Yeah, Uncy Sebby, agee.” He snuggled into Severus’ robes and did not interrupt Severus’ talk once.

Severus handed Peter’s wand as well as the parchment with the address to Past-Severus and said, “Good luck, Severus and Sirius.”

-----

They had agreed that Past-Severus and Sirius should visit a member of the Order of Phoenix, Jack Bennet, who had been discovered as a spy for the dark side shortly after the Potters’ death. Sirius had already spoken to Bennet at the last Order meeting and made the appointment with him for Sunday. Past-Severus and Sirius took the Floo to the Leaky Cauldron only to Apparate from there to the house in which Bennet was fortunately living alone.

As soon as they had taken a seat in the living room, Bennet asked, “What is it what you wanted to talk about? Is it Order business?”

Sirius spoke a few sentences with the man, while Severus, holding Peter’s wand under the table, whispered, “Obliviate. Imperio: Take this Polyjuice potion over here every eight hours until Christmas. Put all the phials into your robes, take the floo to The Potter’s Place, Godrics Hollow and look and behave like James Potter until Christmas, love and protect his wife and his baby Harry from the Dark Lord and everyone else even if you die protecting him until Christmas. Do not transform into an Animagus form. Here is the address of the Potters.”

He handed Bennet the parchment with the address, and Bennet immediately went to the table, drank a phial of the Polyjuice potion and changed into James. He put the other phials, which contained an amount of Polyjuice potion for about five days, into his robes and walked into the direction of the fireplace. Then he threw floo powder in and shouted, “The Potters’ Place, Godrics Hollow.”

Severus and Sirius Apparated back to Diagon Alley and took the Floo back to the Potters’ house in order to keep Remus company as the real James had in the meantime gone to Hogwarts in order not to meet the fake James.

-----

Back at Hogwarts, the atmosphere was very tense. By that time, everyone had noticed that even Harry seemed to sense it as he spent nearly the whole afternoon peacefully sleeping on his ‘Uncy Sebby’. They all knew that there was nothing else they could do; they could only wait, and their plan should be foolproof.

Late in the evening, Poppy came and sent them all to bed, handing each of them a dreamless sleep potion. “You will all go to bed now and drink this; you cannot do anything more anyway. Believe me, I am just as excited as you are, but the best thing we can do is to get a good night’s sleep. I will come again tomorrow morning to give you a calming draught. Good night.”

The two Minervas stood up from the sofa at the same time, and Future-Minerva said, “She is right, let’s go to sleep, and please take the potion everyone; tomorrow night will probably be a long night.”

As Sirius and the real James had to work the next day, Remus and Past-Severus would stay with the fake Lily and James in order to supervise, making sure that everything was all right. However, Past-Severus would leave them at dinnertime only to arrive back an hour later together with Harry, whom he would put to bed immediately. As soon as Harry was asleep, Past-Severus would cast an invisibility charm on himself and stay in the corner of the room. Remus would excuse himself as soon as Past-Severus had returned.

-----

In the morning, everyone woke up refreshed, but the atmosphere was still very tense. Albus had gone to the Great Hall, but only James and Sirius only had to leave late in the morning. Hardly anyone could eat anything at breakfast, and Harry didn’t want anything to eat at all. He just clung to Future-Severus’ robes and whimpered. When Albus returned after breakfast, Poppy came with him and handed everyone except for Harry a calming draught. James and Sirius did their best to pretend they didn’t need one, but Lily and Poppy wouldn’t let them floo away before they took it, and they relented in order to get to work.

In the meantime, Poppy glanced at Harry and asked worriedly, “What is wrong with him? This behaviour is nothing like my normal sweet little Harry behaves.”

Lily threw her a worried glance and said, “We don’t know; he is like this since I took him from his cot; he didn’t even eat anything, and he has not spoken a word.”

Poppy waved her wand over him twice, and then she held her hands to Severus and said, “Give him to me please.” She took the small child, sat down on the sofa and put Harry onto her lap, looking into his eyes. “Harry, what’s wrong with you? Do you feel ill?” she asked softly caressing the baby’s cheeks. Harry only looked at her. “You are a bit warm I think. What else is wrong? Does your head hurt?” Harry gave her a slight nod, and when she asked, “Does anything else hurt?” he slightly shook his head. “Alright my dear, as you are already a big boy, you can drink two potions for me, can you do that?”

Harry opened his mouth and quietly said, “Yef.” Poppy pulled two phials out of her robes and held them one after another over to Harry. When he had downed both of them, she pulled a lollipop out of her robes and held it out to Harry, who took it from her and said, “Fankf, Aun Poppy.”

She laughed, gave him a kiss on the now cool forehead and said, “You are welcome Harry.” She turned to the others and said sternly, “Relax; he is fine now. Your behaviour and the tension here made him sick. Babies and small children are very sensitive, and Harry probably sensed that something big and bad would occur, because you are all behaving strangely. That’s why his body reacted with a headache and a slight fever. But he should be all right now. I will see him again in the afternoon before you take him from here. Now, please try to act as normal as possible around him.”

The day passed very slowly, but everyone was very careful not to let Harry notice anything. They took him out into the garden on the roof, played with him and read books to him. Late in the afternoon, Harry was sitting comfortably on Minnie’s lap, thumb in his mouth and busily cuddling his stuffed dragon with the other hand. Suddenly he held it in front of his face and had a good look at him, before suddenly the dragon’s eyes began to twinkle merrily. Harry turned to Minnie and said, “Dwago winkle.”

“Yes Harry, I saw it. You did that very well my sweetie,” Minnie commended him making him laugh a little, while he was busily cuddling his stuffed dragon.

-----

Just in time for dinner, Past-Severus came back to Hogwarts and told them, everyone was fine. The two Death Eaters were playing their roles perfectly, and Remus and he had had a hard time telling themselves that the two were not the real Lily and James. Past-Severus looked at his older self and said, “Congratulations, old man; your potion is not bad.”

Severus smirked at this praise from his younger self. After dinner, the two Severus’ had quite a discussion which of them would be going to Godrics Hollow. Past-Severus insisted, “Let me go. If I die over there, we will both be gone immediately. However if you go and die there, I will live and know that I only have to live four more years. Therefore, it’s better when I go.”

However the older Severus shook his head and said, “No, if I go and die there, you have fours years of time to use my floo powder I left with Albus together with my instructions for the elfin hair you have to add in order to go back in time and rescue me.”

Everyone applauded and agreed that Future-Severus should go together with Harry, while Past-Severus should stay at Hogwarts.

Lily told Harry, “Harry, you go home with Uncle Severus please. Mummy and Daddy will come too.”

Harry nodded and held out his hands to his Uncy Sebby, who pocketed the wands of the two Death Eaters and reached for Harry.

When they arrived at Godrics Hollow, everything was normal. They only showed themselves shortly in the kitchen, where the Potters were having dinner together with Remus, and Severus said, “All right, Harry, let me take you to bed, little tyke.”

He took Harry upstairs, and Remus followed them into the nursery on the upper floor. Severus put Harry to bed, however Harry was not tired at all as he had taken a long nap in the afternoon. Severus sighed and cast a silencing charm around himself and Remus, as well as a disillusion charm on Remus, before he asked him, “What are you still doing here? It is time for you to return to Hogwarts; they can be here anytime now.”

“I am going to stay right here with you. You have the wands of the two death eaters, haven’t you?”

“Yes, I have,” Severus replied.

“Give me one please. Let me be your backup,” Remus pleaded.

Severus sighed, but he knew he couldn’t convince Remus otherwise; therefore, he took one of the wands out and handed it to Remus, who pocketed the wand carefully. Harry was quietly lying in his bed, his eyes wide open, busily cuddling his stuffed dragon.

-----

Finally, they heard the sound of a door from downstairs, and Severus quickly disillusioned himself. Remus and Severus decided to wait in the farthest corner of the room in order not to be hit by any spell and listened to the sounds that came from downstairs. They heard the fake James shout to Lily to run away with Harry, and the fake Lily came up the stairs but did not manage to get to ‘her’ son, before she heard a cry from downstairs. Then Voldemort came to her, offered to let her go, but she insisted on protecting her son, and suddenly it was quiet.

If someone, by chance, passed on the street outside during the next two minutes, they would have seen something that resembled a green firework in one of the rooms on the upper floor. While one green flash came and went back, two others joined him on the way back and put the greatest evil they could imagine to an end. Contrary to the last time, this time there was a body.

-----

Severus jumped back to action. “Quickly, Remus, take Harry and give me Peter’s wand.” He took the wand from Remus, directed it on the former Dark Lord, and Transfigured him into cow dung before he hissed, “Scourgify.”

Then he repeated the same with the two Death Eaters and their wands. One wand, however, he took with him – the main ingredient was a feather of Fawkes. Severus took Harry up and saw that his scar was bleeding and that Harry was whimpering silently. He took off the silencing charm of Remus and himself and addressed Harry, “Harry; look at me; it’s Uncle Severus. Your Mummy is not dead, that wasn’t your Mummy, and she is safe with Granny. Let’s go there now. Don’t be afraid, I will make Uncle Moony and us invisible, before we go.”

Severus put the charm on the three of them, pulled Harry close to his chest and said, “Remus, apparate to the gates of Hogwarts, we’ll meet there.”

A minute later, all three met at the gates of Hogwarts and ran up into the castle and straight into the Headmaster’s office. The office was so crowded that Harry was starting to whimper again, and Severus shouted over the others to Albus, “Albus, I’ll take Harry up into the living room. Can everyone come up, please? We need Poppy as well.”

Shortly later, everyone was gathered in the living room, where Twinkle was just serving tea and for Harry warm milk with honey. Lily rushed over to Harry.

-----

“Look Harry, here is your mummy,” Severus said and carefully put Harry into Lily’s arms, before he gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, “Congratulations Lily. I am very happy for you.”

In the meantime, Poppy had arrived and hurried over to Harry. “What is wrong with him? Oh my…,” she started but trailed off, concentrating on Harry’s face. Fortunately, Future-Minerva had told her about the scar before; therefore, she had all sorts of cream she could use on such a little child with her and could help him immediately. She put a soft cream over the scar, covered the upper part of his head with a white bandage, and asked him, “Does the scar hurt very much? Does your head hurt?”

Harry threw her a hopeful glance and said, “Hawt. Gween light hawt. Aun Poppy Poshun?”

Poppy smiled at him and answered, “Of course Harry, I will give you a potion against the headache in a minute. Let me just check if anything else is wrong or if you have a fever again.” She waved her wand at Harry and said contently, “No, Harry, everything else is fine. Here, drink this please.” She handed him the phial she had just taken out of her pocket, and Harry relaxed, gave her a grateful smile and nestled deep into his Mummy’s robes.

Poppy turned to Lily and said, “He is fine at the moment. However, it must have been a great shock for him to witness what he thought was your death and afterwards being hit by the curse himself. You have to let him sleep in your bed, or at least in your room, for the next weeks, maybe even months, because it is possible that he will have very bad nightmares. We will have to observe him closely for the next few weeks.” Poppy handed Lily a calming draught and a fever reducer and added, “It might be that he will need it; just keep it in your room in any case.”

In the meantime, Severus and Remus had told the others what had happened in Godrics Hollow. Severus had presented Voldemort’s wand to Dumbledore and showed him his left arm, from where the Dark Mark had vanished completely.

Future-Minerva looked at Severus and asked, “Are you sure, Severus, that he is really gone?”

Severus nodded and told her, “In contrary to the last time, this time there was a body. It is not there anymore because I transfigured it into cow dung and scourgified it. Moreover, the last time, the Dark Mark was not completely gone, but this time it is gone. Yes, I am sure that he is really gone.”

Albus went to contact the ministry and tell them a nice story.

-----

In the morning, Albus came back from breakfast with The Daily Prophet in his hands. The headline was so huge that it could be read from far away:

Voldemort attacks the Potters in Godrics Hollow

All three Potters survive but Voldemort dead

Curse rebounds and hits Voldemort

The wizarding world thanks our saviour Harry Potter

Lily burst into tears. Harry, who was once again sitting on his favourite spot, the lap of one of the Severus’, immediately jumped down on the floor and toddled over to his mother asking, “Mummy? Mummy hawt? Hawwy make Mummy betta?”

Lily threw him a grateful look and answered, “Yes, Harry, a hug and a kiss from you would make me much better.”

Harry climbed onto her lap and gave her the strongest hug a one-year-old could give, before he put a series of sloppy kisses all over her face. When Poppy came a few minutes later to change Harry’s bandage and asked him how he felt, he said, “Goo, Aun Poppy make Hawwy betta. Hawwy make Mummy betta.”

Poppy threw a questioning look at Lily who laughed and told her the story.

-----

At this moment, Albus said, “Please sit down everyone and have a cup of tea. Look, Harry, here is your favourite pumpkin juice. I want to ask you something. As you maybe know already, I have invited Severus to teach Potions here at Hogwarts from the beginning of the new school year onwards. I would like to ask you, Lily, if you would like to take over Professor Flitwick’s position as Charms Professor as soon as possible. Filius would like to teach History of Magic, and I want the ghost to retire before long.

“Furthermore, I want to offer James the position as Defence against the Dark Arts Professor from the next school year onwards.

“And finally, I would like to see Remus in the position of Care of Magical Creatures Professor from the next school year onwards. For all our safety, you would be supplied with the Wolfsbane potion by Severus every month.

“Ah, and Lily, I forgot to mention, Poppy has agreed to take turns with me to look after Harry during your classes.”

Lily gave James an enquiring look and seeing his positive reaction, she asked, “Harry, would you like to live here at the castle, together with Daddy and Mummy, Granny, Granddad, Uncle Severus, Uncle Moony and Aunt Poppy?”

Harry’s eyes started to twinkle, and he replied, “Yeah, Mummy, Hawwy wan da.” Then he looked down at his empty hands and realized that his dragon was gone and started to cry. “Ooh,” he cried, “Hawwy dwago goed.”

Future-Minerva, who was sitting behind him, quickly conjured a new one and held it out for Harry, “Look, Harry, it is not gone, it is here.”

Harry happily took the dragon from her and cuddled it, saying, “Fankf, Gwanny, dwago no winkle.”

Minerva frowned. She had totally forgotten about that. Smiling at him, she said softly, “You are so good at magic, I am sure you can easily make him twinkle again. He probably has gotten a shock like Harry yesterday and forgot to twinkle.”

Harry nodded and concentrated on the dragon, and two minutes later, he showed it to Minerva, “Wook, dwago winkle.”

After Lily, James and Remus had accepted Albus’ offer of teaching at Hogwarts, he promised to assign all of them quarters within two days and told them they could already stay at Hogwarts as the Potters’ home was destroyed anyway, and all of them agreed happily. Finally, Albus addressed Severus and Future-Minerva.

“Severus and Minerva, your job here could not have been more efficient. Congratulations and thanks! I assume that you want to return home as soon as possible; however, I would like to ask you to at least attend the Demise Party tomorrow night, although I think it is a pity that only Harry will be rewarded since the two of you, Severus and Remus, had a huge part in vanquishing Voldemort as well.”

After the exchange of a glance, Severus told his mentor, “All right, Albus, we will do that. Past-Severus, may I use your lab tomorrow morning? Albus, could you please ask Twinkle for 1346 mm of elfin hair? Minerva, do you agree to leave tomorrow evening?”

-----

The next day passed much too quickly. Classes had been cancelled for the rest of the week because of the demise of Voldemort so that both Minervas could enjoy some time with Lily and Harry. Future-Minerva was, on one hand, looking forward to getting back to her normal life, but on the other hand she knew that Harry would already be five years old when she arrived back in the future. For Future-Severus it was not much different. He also regretted that Harry would already be five years old when he met him.

The feast in the evening was joyful, and everyone enjoyed it except for the main person – Harry slept through the whole event and only woke up back in the headmaster’s office at exactly the instant when Severus and Minerva were stepping into the floo. He struggled to get off his Mummy’s lap and ran over to the fireplace to give Severus and Minerva a sloppy kiss on the cheeks.

“Bye, Harry, we see you in the future. Be nice to our younger ones and of course to your Mummy,” Severus said, while Minerva had to fight with tears.

Harry waved his hand and replied, “Hawwy lowf Uncy Sebby an Gwanny. Baba.”