Screams didn't wake Snape up that night, but his wards did. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and made his way down the hallway to his guestroom. The door was still closed so he knocked once but there was no answer. Knowing that Potter was awake, he pushed the door open.

The boy was still in bed but he had a faraway look on his face.

"Potter," Snape said, walking slowly toward the bed. "Are you alright?"

"Sev?" Potter answered, turning his face to Snape. But it wasn't his voice. It had sounded just like Lily, but that was impossible.

"What did you just call me?" He bit out.

"Sev? Is it really you?" The boy now had tears in his eyes. He was looking at him in earnest and Snape couldn't look away. He hadn't answered but Potter had climbed out of bed and had flung himself toward him.

"Thank God!" The boy exclaimed, still not sounding like himself. "I couldn't figure out what was going on."

"Lily?"

"Yes, Sev, it's really me! You don't know how confused I've been. It's like I keep losing myself. I'm so happy you've found me!"

It felt like a wave was crashing down on him. Lily, his Lily, was there in the flesh. She was talking to him, sounding like she had forgiven him for all his mistakes. Was this possible? Was it really Lily or was Potter having some sort of mental breakdown.

"You look different." The voice of his lost love pulled him from his thoughts.

"So do you," Snape lifted his eyebrows. She looked down and examined her body with a flushed face.

"I don't know what happened to me," she said. "I can't remember much of anything."

"What's your last memory of?"

"I don't know. I was at the house, in Godric's Hallow and V-Voldemort was there. He killed James and then Harry." Her voice broke as she said Voldemort's name. After she mentioned the death of her husband and son she broke down into tears.

"Pot- Harry didn't die that night," Snape said. "I don't know how it happened but you are Harry, or least your in his body." He summoned a mirror from a draw in his room and handed it to her. She ran her hand over the unfamiliar face looking back at her.

"Sev, you've got to help me." When she said those words Snape's heart broke again. He knew what she would ask of him, to force her out. He didn't know how it was possible but she was there, in Harry, as flesh and blood. This was the woman who had sacrificed her life for her son; of course she would want him to have his life back.

"I'm not sure how," he admitted. It was wrong to look at her like this. To look in Potter's face but know that it was Lily talking to him, it was downright creepy.

"I keep fading, Sev. I need to find a way to stay all the time."

"Didn't you hear what I said?" Snape was flabbergasted. How could she want to stay, denying her son's right to live? "I don't know what," he continued, "but something must have happened the night you died. You are in Harry Potter's body. For me to help you might mean killing a part of your son."

Lily started to cry. "I can't go on like this. I can't live my life and to be trapped in that darkness, I just- I need your help. Won't you do that for me?"

He stared into Potter's face and only saw Lily's eyes. How could he deny her? The boy would have to be sacrificed, but that wasn't too big of a price to pay to get his best friend back.

He was about to tell her that he would do whatever it took when her eyes rolled back and Potter once again fell to the floor. He checked the boy's vitals and seeing that he was in the same state as the night before he carefully picked him up and put him back to bed.

He sat there the entire night watching Potter sleep. Now that he wasn't talking to Lily he was having second thoughts of helping her. He absent-mindedly stroked the boy's hair back to reveal the famous lightning bolt scar. Could he really kill an innocent child he had sworn to protect?

This brought these thoughts to a new darker place. How could Lily ask him to do that? She would never hurt anyone, not even a stranger. Why would she be willing to kill her own son? Perhaps laying dormant in the child's mind had messed with her, changed her somehow.

He thought of his different options all night. In the end he decided to talk with Brian. Hopefully he would be able to offer him some advice. If he was extremely lucky he would have heard of a case like this before, but Snape knew this would be unlikely.

It was nine before Potter started to stir; he whimpered in his sleep and clutched his blankets tight. Severus didn't know whether it would be Potter or Lily to greet him and he wasn't sure which one he hoped for.

"Pr'fessor?" The boy sleepily acknowledged him.

"Potter are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I just have the same headache as before," came the boy's reply.

Snape had already decided not to tell the boy exactly what his problem was yet. To know that his mother shared his body and wanted it for herself was just too sick. There was no ideal way to handle the situation.

"Well," Snape said, "I have some reading material on the topics we will cover in the upcoming year. Feel free to read them or rest. I would rather you stayed in bed for the time being so I will call an elf to bring you breakfast."

The boy nodded so Snape made his way out of the room. Now that he knew that it was indeed Harry who came back he needed to talk to Brian right away.

He arranged for one of the house elves to bring the boy food and stay in his quarters to watch over the boy while he talked to his friend. He made his way to his office and locked the door behind him.

Brian came through the fireplaces seconds after Snape had called him. "What's the matter?" He asked. "How's Harry?"

"I don't know," Snape answered honestly, "not good."

Brian took the seat across from his friend's desk. "What do you mean? Did he have another episode?"

"You could say that," Snape said before filling the healer in on what happened the night before.

"I've never heard of anything like this." Brian said once the other man had finished. "But I suppose if Lilly thought that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was after her son she might have tried to invent a spell to spare his life. She was talented, perhaps she tried to tie her life force to him and when she was killed it had unforeseen consequences."

"When she spoke it sounded just like her," Snape tried to keep his vice from cracking. "But she would never ask me to kill her son so she could live. She gave her life for him for Merlin's sake. It can't really be her!"

"I do have a theory about that," Brian said, leaning closer to the desk. "I don't think it is the same Lilly you knew. She's been trapped and living a half-life on top of the fact that part of her has already tried to go to the other side. I don't know exactly what to call her, but it's not natural."

"What do we do?" Snape asked.

"Well, you know we have to try to help Lilly. Help her move on and help her son live his life."

"I don't know if I can kill her again," Snape whispered. "I just don't know if I can do it."