Tom went first, waving his wand over the area before him to assess if it was safe to proceed as it wouldn’t help having the house collapse over them. Everything seemed fine though and they soon arrived at the spot Tom was sure Lily should appear back. He motioned everyone to the other end of the room and stayed in front of the others when he mumbled a long incantation nobody else could understand properly.

Severus took Harry into his arms, cuddling him close. Harry laid his head on his daddy’s shoulder and closed his eyes. Suddenly, a stiff and unlively Lily appeared on the spot Tom was pointing to. A huge gasp alerted Harry to the fact that something must have happened and he lazily opened his eyes, while Severus slowly averted Harry’s head so that he could look in his son’s face.

“Harry, don’t get a fright. Your mummy is not really alive yet. We have to help her now with the potion and the incantation you have to say. Shall we say it together?”

When the boy gave him an anxious nod, Severus turned around, so that Harry could see Lily.

“Mummy!” Harry shouted excitedly and wiggled in Severus’ arms until his daddy put him onto the ground, so that he could rush off toward Lily. After a few steps, however, Harry stopped dead in his tracks when he caught sight of his supposed mummy. Gladly noticing that his father put both hands on his shoulders, Harry slowly turned to Severus. “Daddy, is Mummy all right?”

Severus gave his son’s shoulders a squeeze and nodded. “Yes, Harry. I’m sure we will manage and she’ll be all right. Let’s try now.” He took Harry’s hand and led the boy over to the spot where his mother was lying on the floor. Severus pulled the potions phial and Harry’s wand out of his robe pockets and handed the wand to Harry, whose face lit immediately.

The others had backed up and were waiting at the other side of the room to give the Snapes enough space for their difficult task.

“Are you sure you remember the incantation correctly, Harry?” Severus asked sternly.

“Yes, of course, Daddy,” Harry replied, suddenly having the confidence that he would be able to perform the necessary magic. “First the potion or first the magic?” he asked determinedly.

“First the incantation, and as soon as you’re finished, I shall give your mother the potion. Poppy, could you come and help me holding her head up, so that I can make her drink the potion, please?”

“Of course, Severus,” Poppy replied softly and approached Lily.

Knowing that the only reason for him to say the incantation was to give Harry more confidence as only Harry’s words could help his mother back to real life, Severus recounted the sentence together with his son.

The others silently watched as Harry didn’t waver once but firmly cast the spell, pointing his wand at the somehow unreal form of his mother. When he was nearly finished, the glassy form slowly turned into a normal human’s form. As soon as Harry was finished, Severus and Poppy stepped over to Lily. While Poppy held up her head, Severus poured the potion into her mouth and made her swallow the liquid.

Harry, whom Minerva had taken into her arms as soon as Severus had left his son’s side, watched as his mother suddenly let out a small cry and opened her eyes. “Mummy!” Harry shouted and wanted to rush over to his mummy, but Minerva held him close.

“Not now, Harry. Wait and give your mummy a minute to wake up, please,” Minerva told him softly.

Knowing that his daddy often needed a minute to wake up properly when he tried to urge him out of bed in the morning, Harry hesitantly waited for a moment, watching his mother’s mind coming back.

Lily’s mind slowly turned back to awareness for the first time in so many years. Everything felt unreal and she had problems remembering what had happened. Noticing a slight movement in front of her, Lily tried to focus her eyes on the black figure, which was hovering there. “Sev?” she asked, confused.

“Yes, Lily, it’s me. And Harry is here, too. Everything is all right now, Lily.”

Harry, whom Minerva had finally let go, appeared next to his father and knelt down beside Lily, shouting, “Mummy!”

“Harry? That can’t be Harry. Harry’s still a baby,” Lily insisted, pain shining in her brilliant green eyes that matched her son’s exactly. “Dumbledore, he came, right?” she asked horrified. “Harry and James, are they all right?”

“No, Mummy, it’s me. Some years have passed, Mummy, while you were away.”

“Look at Harry’s eyes, Lily. He is definitely your son,” Severus agreed softly.

Lily immediately pulled her son over, so that his head came to rest on her chest and said with a relieved but unbelieving expression on her face, “Oh, my dear son. You are so big. What happened?” she asked, averting her glance to Severus.

Severus knelt down on Lily’s other side and asked, “Lily, what is the last thing you remember?”

Lily frowned, trying to remember properly, and suddenly, everything came back. With a horrified expression she looked around, taking in the destroyed form of her house. “Yes, I remember Dumbledore, he came after us tonight,” she answered, her voice filled with pain. “But Harry is alive, only older than he was. What about James? He is dead, isn’t he?”

With this, Severus proceeded to tell Lily the whole story, and averting a happily sobbing Harry to the side a bit she tried to sit up and proceeded to thank Tom, who appeared at Severus’ side, for saving her.

“You’re very welcome, Lily. I’m glad you’re back!” Tom answered, giving his friend a huge smile.

“How much time has passed then? About four years?” Lily asked, trying to assess Harry’s age, oblivious to the fact that everyone in the room except for her son looked much older than only four years aged from when she had seen them for the last time.

“Perhaps we should return to Hogwarts, where we can sit more comfortably,” Severus suggested and turned to Fawkes. “Could you take us back to Hogwarts all together? Or are we too many persons now?”

#I’d prefer to flash twice,# Fawkes told Harry, who translated immediately.

Lily watched in awe how the bird communicated to her son. She was still very confused, and there were many things she still didn’t understand. But she was also extremely happy, knowing that the two people she really loved were alive and with her.

#Please tell the big chicks to get ready and grab my tail feathers,# Fawkes instructed Harry, who laughed and told the others what Fawkes said.

Everyone except for Poppy and the little family flashed away with Fawkes, and Poppy used the minute until Fawkes’ return to quickly cheek on Lily. “You seem to be completely fine. Are you feeling well?” she asked her younger friend, more than glad to have her back after such a long time.

“I feel great, just a bit confused. Why am I going to Hogwarts?” she asked, puzzled.

“Harry and I are living together at Hogwarts, where I am teaching Potions. And we had hoped you would join us.”

“But Dumbledore?” Lily asked hesitantly.

“He’s finally gone,” Harry shouted excitedly.

Seeing Lily’s confused expression, Severus told her, “Today, we had a trial against Dumbledore and he has been sent to St. Mungos because of being crazy, and in case they manage to heal him, he has been sentenced to a life stay in Azkaban.”

Lily let out a deep sigh before she answered, “All right, that’s good. Of course I will join the two of you.”

Fawkes flashed the Snapes and Poppy straight into the living room of the Snape quarters. Poppy turned to Lily. “I will leave you to your family now. Congratulations, Lily! Severus, it’s dinner time, please don’t forget to eat.” She called Dobby and instructed him to bring dinner for three persons, before she quickly waved her wand over Harry, sighing. “And Harry has to go to bed immediately after eating. I’ll come to cheek on him tomorrow morning. If you need me earlier, Floo call me.” With an amused glance on the two male Snapes, who seemed to be over the moon with joy, Poppy left, heading for dinner in the Great Hall.

After dinner, Lily and Severus put Harry to bed and proceeded to sit next to their son, answering the many questions Lily still had to ask.

“Lily,” Severus hesitantly started to voice a question. “We would love you to live here together with us. Will you, however, be comfortable? Moreover, will you be all right sleeping in my bedroom, or shall we ask Minerva to make the castle add an extra room to our quarters?”

Lily laughed. ‘Oh, how I have missed her laugh,’ Severus thought happily, giving Lily a fond smile back.

“Yes, Severus, if you didn’t mind, I’d love to live together with you and Harry. And I don’t mind sharing the room with you; it’s not as if it was the first time. By the way, what’s wrong with Harry?”

They spent half the night talking about their son and his first and second childhood. Severus was a bit hesitant, not knowing if Lily would approve what he had done but she pulled him in a bear hug and said, “Severus, thank you so much for giving Harry this chance. I appreciate it very much and I believe it was the right thing to do apart from the fact that I’m very glad not to have missed his whole childhood.”

-----

In the morning, Harry woke up to a cool hand on his forehead. ‘Mummy,’ he thought instinctively and opened his eyes. But it was only Poppy. “I thought it was my mummy,” Harry mumbled. “Is she really back or was it a dream?”

“Yes, Harry, your mummy is really back,” Poppy told him. “But your parents still seem to be asleep. Your father probably told your mother everything she has missed during the last eighteen years, so that they went to bed very late. Now, when you’re feeling well enough today, you may get up, but I want you to rest a lot. No running around or such. Do you want to join me for breakfast in the Great Hall?”

“No, thank you, Aunt Poppy. I’m not hungry yet,” Harry replied, cuddling his dragon.

“All right. If you get hungry, please call Dobby and ask him for breakfast. Can you do that?”

“Yes, Aunt Poppy, thank you,” Harry answered, giving Poppy a huge smile.

While Poppy left his room, Harry scrambled out of his bed and silently went over to his daddy’s room and climbed onto the bed, noticing that it had been enlarged during the night. He lay down between his parents and closed his eyes, sighing contentedly.

Several hours later, Severus woke up when the fireplace flared and alerted him that someone wanted to speak with him. Seeing that Harry was fast asleep, curled up in Lily’s arm, he smiled one of his first true smiles in more than eighteen years and got up quickly.

It was Minerva, who told Severus that the three of them were expected to attend lunch in the Great Hall as well as an adjourning staff meeting afterwards. Severus promised to be in the Hall in an hour’s time, shutting off the connection. ‘Why does she want Lily at the staff meeting?’ he wondered on his way to the bathroom in order to take a shower.

When Lily woke up, she saw that Harry was cuddling close to her, still asleep, and that Severus had already left the bed. Before she could determine how late it was, Severus entered the bedroom, his hair still damp from the shower. Seeing that she was awake, Severus sat down next to her on the edge of the bed and kissed her.

“Did I tell you how glad I am to have you back, Lily?” he asked then.

“Yes, Sev, you told me. Thank you,” Lily replied, smiling at his soft, silky voice she loved so much.

Harry woke up with a jolt. ‘My Mummy’s voice,’ he thought happily. “Mummy!” he squealed, slinging both arms around his mother.

“Yes, Harry, I’m here,” Lily answered, cuddling the small boy close, thinking about what a strange feeling it was to hold such a big son in her arms, considering that according to her memory she had just been changing his nappy the evening before.

“I’m afraid you have to get up,” Severus said. “Minerva Floo-called to tell us she expects us for lunch in the Great Hall as well as for a staff meeting afterwards.” He gave Harry a piercing look. “Harry, did Poppy come to cheek on you?”

Harry smiled brightly at his father. “Yes, Daddy, she told me I can get up, just not run.”

“Then let’s comply to Minerva’s request and get ready for lunch,” Lily suggested and proceeded to get up and conjure clothes to wear for the day as she possessed only the clothes she had on her the day before.

“Wow, Mummy, you’re pretty,” Harry said in awe, seeing the dark blue robes his mother wore.

“Thank you, sweetie,” Lily returned, laughing. “Now, let’s get you dressed, shall we?”

-----

Twenty minutes later, Harry and his parents walked into the Great Hall, where the teachers who hadn’t been with them the day before greeted Lily with a huge applause. While they had breakfast, Hermione watched Harry smilingly. The child was sitting at the breakfast table between his parents, devouring his meal. Hermione had never before seen the boy so happy.

When everyone had finished breakfast, Minerva raised her voice. “Shall we just stay here for our staff meeting, or do you prefer to adjourn to the staff room?” she asked sternly.

“Oh, I think we should stay here,” Professor Trelawney, who had surprisingly joined the colleagues for breakfast, spoke up. “My inner eye has told me that Peeves is bouncing about the staff room, and as we are twelve persons here, we would be thirteen in the staff room, which would be a bad omen for our meeting.”

Most of the teachers didn’t even try to hide their reactions. While one half of them groaned, the other half laughed, and Harry asked interested, “Does Peeves count as a person? I could go play with Peeves, then you wouldn’t be thirteen,” he added jokingly. Not that he believed in anything the Divinations professor said. He could very well remember how she had predicted his own death from his third year onwards.

“All right, Sibyll, let’s stay here,” Minerva said, sighing inwardly. She asked the House elves for tea and biscuits and suggested they start meeting. She shortly explained to her colleagues how Tom, Severus, and Harry had managed to save Lily and introduced Hermione to Lily as she was the only teacher Lily hadn’t met before.

“I’m very glad to have you here, Mrs. Potter,” Hermione said, extending her hand over the table. Before Lily could answer, she continued, “When Harry was growing up the first time, I was his best friend, so I really know how much he has missed you all these years. I’ve known him for nine years now, and I’ve never seen him as happy as he seems to be today.” She obviously had to try hard not to cry, and her eyes were swimming in tears.

“I’m also very glad to be here, and I want to thank you very much for being such a good friend to Harry,” Lily replied softly.

“All right,” Minerva brought the conversation back to the meeting. “This morning, I have received an owl from the Ministry of Magic, and the Minister already officially appointed me as the new Headmistress of Hogwarts. Therefore…”

She was interrupted by a huge applause. Harry quickly climbed off his chair and ran over to his granny, pulling her into a hug. “Are you the new Headmaster, Granny? I’m very happy. Congratulations,” he beamed. When he noticed that everyone laughed, he quickly returned to his seat and turned to Severus. “Why are they laughing at me, Daddy?” he asked, a little offended. He had only meant so well.

“Oh, Harry,” Severus smiled at his son. “They are only laughing because you’re so smart and cute. But it’s Headmistress, by the way. Headmaster is only used for a man.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Headmistress Granny,” Harry corrected himself immediately.

“Thank you, Harry,” Minerva said and gave the child a fond smile. “Therefore, we have to solve a few staff matters. First of all I would like to ask Severus to be my Deputy Headmaster. Would you be willing, Severus?”

Severus glanced over to Lily, who gave him an encouraging nod. “Yes, Minerva, if you think that it should be me to fill the post, I shall do so.”

“All right, thank you, Severus,” Minerva said, obviously relieved. “Now, I know this comes a bit sudden but I’d like to as Lily to become my successor as Transfigurations professor. You do not have to give me an answer just now, but I’d like to ask you to at least think about it. If you agree, I would also like to offer you the position as Head of House for Gryffindor. As I said, this all must be very sudden for you, but there are still four weeks until the beginning of the school year and in case you wouldn’t be ready to take over completely from September 1st onwards, I would of course be here to help you and continue teaching until you were ready.”

Lily smiled at her former teacher to whom she had always had an extremely good relationship. “Thank you very much for your offer, Minerva. However, apart from the fact that I don’t know if my knowledge in Transfiguration would be enough to be a professor here…”

“It definitely is, otherwise I wouldn’t have offered this position to you,” Minerva interrupted her firmly.

“And I also have to discuss it with Severus. Who has been looking after Harry during the day?” Lily asked, turning to her son’s father.

“If one of us has a free period he or she looks after Harry; if nobody is available he attends lessons or helps the teachers grading homework as he already knows everything that is taught here until the end of fifth year. I don’t think Harry would mind you teach Transfiguration,” Severus said, giving Lily an encouraging nod.

“Harry, what do you think?” Lily asked nevertheless.

“If you want to teach, you should. Can I attend your classes too, Mummy?” Harry answered sincerely.

“Yes, of course, Sweetie. In that case, Minerva, I’d like to accept both your offers. However, I will probably need your help as I believe I still have to adjust to this new life, which seems to be quite different from what I experienced until yesterday.”

“You will get as much help as you need,” Minerva promised and finished the meeting.

When everyone left the Hall, Severus motioned Lily, Minerva, Harry, Poppy, Hermione, Remus, and Tom to stay behind. “I believe we are in need of a party, and I would like to invite you all of you for a drink after dinner in our quarters.”

While everyone smiled happily, Minerva said, “Thank you for the invitation, Severus, Lily. We will surely join you tonight and have a welcome back party for Lily. However, I believe there is something urgent for you to do. You should head to the Ministry in order to get Lily off the list of deceased persons, don’t you?”

“Oh, right,” Severus answered pensively. “Lily, Harry, are you up to a trip to the Ministry?”

“No, Severus!” Poppy interrupted her younger colleague. “I want Harry to stay here and rest today. He had a very long day at the ministry yesterday. You can either leave Harry here with one of us or go to the Ministry tomorrow morning.”

“All right, Poppy,” Lily threw in immediately. “Then we will go tomorrow morning after breakfast. I don’t think a few hours will matter.”

Harry gave Lily a grateful hug, and she felt Severus squeezing her shoulder comfortingly.

-----

In the morning, Lily, Severus, and Harry intended to go to breakfast early and head to the Ministry immediately after breakfast. However, when they were about to leave for the Great Hall, Severus motioned Lily and Harry to go on, saying he would follow in a few minutes. Lily and Harry had breakfast together with the others, but when they had finished eating Severus hadn’t yet shown up.

“I’m afraid we have to return to our quarters to look for Dad before heading to the Ministry,” Lily told Harry.

Harry shrugged. “Do we have to Floo to the Ministry? Can’t we ask Fawkes to flash us?” he asked.

Before Lily could reply, Fawkes appeared in a flash and hovered in front of them. While Lily gave the bird an admiring glance, Harry thanked his familiar and asked him to take them back home. When Lily and Harry arrived in the living room an instant later, the door to Severus’ office was open, and they could see that the always extremely neat office was turned upside down.