To: Severus Sebastian Snape

By delayed postage: instigated on the 30th of August, 1980.

Message: It's your right to know, Severus. Everything you need to figure it out, is inside this box. It is true … don't fight it.

I forgive you

Sender: Lily Anne Evans Potter

*

Snape stood stunned, staring at the name as though it had stupefied him. Why on earth would Lily Potter send him a parcel? It was unheard of! They had been friends during school, but nothing of extreme closeness or attachment. In fact, he remembered a number of rather heated arguments between them. And she forgave him for what? He couldn't remember ever doing something to her that would warrant forgiveness fifteen years down the track. Then there was the line, “It is true…” What was true? And don't fight what?

Severus shook his head, trying to clear it as the jumbled riddle of words was thrust into his mind, demanding to be sorted straight away.

“Aren't you going to open it, Severus?” Albus's soft vice drifted over to him, drawing his attention from the disconcerting package. “Or would you rather wait and open it in the dungeons?”

Snape glanced up at Dumbledore briefly, scowling when he found the headmaster winking at him with amusement; when suddenly, an idea struck him full force.

“You know why Lily has sent me this, don't you Albus?”

Dumbledore paused, but soon nodded slightly. “Yes, I do, Severus. Although, the reason she sent it to you only became apparent when it arrived, and I saw it was addressed to you. Lily told me something very personal, not long after Mr Potter was born, and until today, I had no idea that you had anything to do with it. I think you'll find that that package will answer a number of questions that have been haunting you for over a decade, Severus. Are you ready for those questions to be answered?”

Severus scowled deeply at the headmaster, wishing the old man would stop asking for things in riddles. How should he know what questions the old coot was talking about that existed over ten years ago?

“I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, Albus.”

“You will,” Dumbledore replied simply, “as soon as you open that.” He pointed at the still wrapped shoebox in Snape's hands.

The potions master stared at the object in his hands for what seemed an eternity, before he insatiable curiosity got the better of him, and he found himself back in the chair by Dumbledore's desk, placing the parcel on the polished wood, before carefully removing the tattered and ageing parchment.

A small wooden box was revealed, as the last of the wrapper fell to the carpeted floor, and Snape gently returned it to his lap.

Fingers trembling in the slightest, he reached for the lid and slipped the latch; grasping the edges firmly as he lifted it, hearing a faint squeak of old hinges, as it swung upwards.

What met his eyes, at first, was extremely confusing … but after a few minutes of inspection, a slow realization began to spring to mind, clearly showing on his usually expressionless features.

“Oh my God!” gasped Snape, shaking his head at Dumbledore, his black eyes almost begging what he now knew to be true, was false. “Please tell me she was mistaken, Albus … please … it can't be true…”

Dumbledore quickly stepped over toward the shocked professor, taking the box from his violently shaking hands before he dropped it, along with it's precious cargo.

“Sit down, Severus,” he said gently, coaxing the other back into the chair beside him. “Calm down … Panicking will get us nowhere. And no, Lily was not mistaken, Severus,” the headmaster added subtly, noticing how the trembling ceased almost instantly at the announcement, only to be replaced with a stiff anxiety. “It is true, my boy. He is what you fear … on both accounts…”

“How is it possible?” said Snape, looking as though he was in a daze. “How could she have been one of them? How is it possible that I was the one that took her?! The chances would've been almost non existent…”

Dumbledore resettled himself behind his desk to gaze reflectively at the rather young man before him. “Yes, Severus, the chances were virtually nil … but by chance or fate, you ended up with Lily. And the product is lying in the Hospital Wing, with no knowledge of exactly who, and what he is…”

Snape shook his head immediately.

“He's not getting told, Albus,” said Snape coldly. “I don't care what relation to me that boy possesses. He doesn't need to know, and I don't want him to … so we stay silent.”

Dumbledore was visibly shocked by the harsh request, and started to obviously disagree, when the door to his office was opened hurriedly, and a bedraggled Remus Lupin dashed into the room.

Severus noted how the werewolf was out of breath, as though he'd sprinted from the main gate, and he was notably paled than normal, even for him.

“Remus,” said Albus, also noting the former professors appearance, though knowing the reason behind it. “I wasn't expecting you here just yet … but no matter. Sit down and rest. Lemon Drop?”

Remus shook his head as he headed for the spare chair by Severus, pointedly ignoring the potions master.

“No thank you, Albus,” he answered, sitting down. “I only came to make sure you got the letter I sent you and see if you were able to check up on him?”

A light went off at the back of Severus's mind.

“So you're Albus's little informant concerning Potter, are you Lupin?” he remarked scathingly, letting his bitterness from the new information uncovered seep into his voice. “Were you just guessing, or are you a Seer now? Will wonders never cease…”

Remus bristled. “This is nothing to joke about, Severus! I had received letters from Ron and Hermione regarding their concerns about Harry's not writing to them. They asked me to go check, but I wasn't able to at the time due to the recent full moon, so I told Albus so he could see about it. I never got a reply so I came around at first chance…”

“Oh, My apologies, Remus,” Albus said remorsefully. “I'm afraid it slipped my mind after I sent Severus here to take action on your advice — ”

“Wait, you sent him?” Remus exclaimed, clearly surprised and almost appalled by the idea. “Why would you send someone that had no interest in Harry's well being? Why not Tonks, or … someone else…? And how was he, by the way? Was he all right? Did he have a reason for not responding to his letters?”

Severus and Albus shared a glance that wasn't missed by Remus.

“What?” he asked, feeling worry start to seep into his bones. “What's wrong with him? He's not hurt is he? And what is that box for?”

Remus pointed at the package Severus received, that was now sitting open on Dumbledore's desk. He stood and looked inside before either of the men could react to the question; his curiosity overriding Harry for the briefest of moments.

Severus stood abruptly, intent on snatching the box of goods from under the werewolf's nose, but stopped at a gesture from Dumbledore. Snape shook his head, not wanting Remus to know what lay in it, nor wanting him to ask the questions they would surely stir in him. Dumbledore looked at him from under his white eyebrows, practically ordering him silently to sit back down. Gritting his teeth, he complied, remaining extremely tense as he watched the wizard rummage through the container.

“Severus … Why do you have a delayed package from Lily?” he asked finally in a strained voice.

Unable to answer the question, Dumbledore stepped in.

“Try and figure it out, Remus. Just look at the contents and put it together. Once you figure it out though, I ask you to remain calm.”

Remus nodded numbly, still a little shaken by the note Lily left on the package. What had Severus done that required an apology for? Of all the Marauders, and Gryffindors in general, Severus had always treated Lily the nicest.

Peering into the box, Remus was confused as he saw an empty potion bottle, a medics report, and a ring. Frowning, Remus picked up the ring, obviously made for a man, and studied it, something about it tickling a piece of information at the back of his mind. The design was familiar, yet unknown to him. Definitely from a pureblood family … but Lily was Muggleborn? It wasn't James's either, that much was obvious. He hated snakes, and the main motif for the ring was snakes, speckled with miniscule emeralds as though they were scales. The ring itself was made of ebony, which in itself was peculiar … Remus's eyes widened.

“This is your ring, Severus,” he breathed, still studying the piece of jewellery. “I remember, you used to wear it all the time. At a meeting, you mentioned you gave it up … but, how would Lily have it?”

Snape remained silent. He knew how she'd gotten it, but he didn't want to remember anything of that night. It had been an extremely, …enormously special, Dark Revel. One he couldn't get out of attending, or participating in, even though he was known to despise the vulgar goings on at them.

The most trusted and worthy Deatheaters were given an unknown Muggleborn to take for the night, fully expected to rape them. They would even be tested when they were finished, to make sure the act had been performed. The was no way out of it.

Severus remembered clearly, how he'd given his unidentifiable “prize” his treasured ring, apologizing to the half conscious woman for what he'd been forced to do to her. He still didn't know what compelled him to give the ring up … but he had … and now he knew who'd received it.

“Why don't you keep looking, Remus,” said Albus, disturbing the nauseating memories of past days from Severus's mind.

Sighing, Remus placed the ring on the desk and retrieved the next item. The empty potions bottle. Turning it in his hands, Remus read the faded label aloud.

Appearance alteration potion: extra strong.

Expected expiration date: July 1996

He turned a quizzical eye to Snape.

“Why would Lily want one of these? I'm sure you'd know, because you invented this little beauty, and no one else can brew it…”

Snape swallowed the small lump in his throat, deciding that the answer wasn't as confidential as the previous one had been.

“That's correct, Lupin. Lily came to me not long before that package was sent, asking me for it. The strongest one I had. I'd asked her why, but she refused to tell me the reason … saying something about how a friend of hers needed it…”

He trailed off, unable to keep his mind on the obvious reason why Potter resembled James Potter physically with such accuracy. He shook his head, not wanting to broach that tangent, permanently.

Remus nodded, unconvinced, and pulled out the last object. Snape didn't need him to read it aloud, as he'd already read it … the words burned into his retina.

It was a medics report, and it was the last thing he needed to realize the truth about Potter.

It read:

Standard Pregnancy Test.

Patient: Lily Potter.

Date: Fifteenth of December, 1979

Results: Positive.

Date of Conception: Thirty first of October, 1979

Snape had felt an iron clamp about his heart at those words, for he'd seen the ring and potion bottle first, arousing his suspicions. But the test confirmed it.

The Dark Revel had been held on Halloween 1979 … He'd given his ring to his victim that night … and Lily had come to him for a potion to change appearances not one month after her son was born.

It was black and white.

Harry Potter was his son.