The summer weeks passed idly for those at Hogwarts castle. Dumbledore had successfully called the first meeting of the reorganized Order of the Phoenix, and was proud as well as heartened by how many of the former members showed up to give their support. The meeting had been brief, updating everyone on the truth of the situation (rather than the drivel that The Daily Prophet had been printing) and asking if everyone would be willing to proceed as they had before, controlling damage and trying to thwart Death Eater activity. Of course everyone agreed, since they wouldn’t be able to escape the war anyway, they might as well take an active part in ending it.

Now Dumbledore sat in his office, filling out paperwork to submit to the Governors of the school to seek permission to strengthen the wards around the castle and its grounds. It seemed ridiculous that he would have to ASK if he could do such a thing, but rules were rules and as Headmaster, he was bound to procedure. He sighed after finishing his signature and rolled the parchment up before sealing it magically. He turned to his beloved phoenix and the bird took the scroll in his beak gently. “Take this to the Governors’ section of the ministry, you know where to go,” he murmured softly to the bird, patting his feathers briefly before vanishing in a ball of flames.

Dumbledore smiled in affection for his familiar and sat back to stretch his weary back for a moment. When he looked back to his desk, however, his eye caught something that had not been there before. A stack of somethings, to be precise. He picked up the bundle of envelopes carefully after scanning them with his wand for anything dangerous. The paper was yellowed with age and he furrowed his brow, wondering exactly how they had gotten there, or if old age was catching up with him and he simply did not remember them. When he saw the letter on top was addressed to him, he knew it wasn’t old age and that the letters had simply appeared on his desk.

He disentangled the letter from the top gently and readjusted his spectacles and opened the envelope, a blue flash of light on it showing that he had broken the magical seal and that it hadn‘t been tampered with. As he began to read, he barely noticed the return of Fawkes to his perch with a flash of fire.

Dear Headmaster,

This may come as a bit of a shock, but I assure you that you are not imagining these letters just appearing. I timed them as exactly as I could with a time-delay charm. They are to appear 3 days before my dear Harry’s 15th birthday. This is especially important, since you know that wizards reach their magical maturity at 15 and I fear the charms on him will not survive the burst of power.

Please give the other letters to whom they are addressed, if you do not, the charm will know and will do it for you, but I’d much rather have you do it. The one below this one is for Severus Snape, and I hope you can track him down after all these years. The one below that is for Harry. Of course, if you have received these letters, then it means that James and I are dead and I can only hope that Harry is being raised by Sirius. He will need all the support he can get after this, and I can only be glad that he is not with my sister. Such an arrangement could prove deadly for my dear son, as my sister hates anything to do with magic with a passion, as does her husband.

I have written these letters to inform the three of you of a secret I have kept that only I know about, not even James. James is not Harry’s father. As you know, Severus and I dated in school and ended on amiable terms when he became a spy for you. Soon after, I gave into James’ persistent bothering and began dating him. We got married, of course, and have had Harry. However, not everything is as fairytale-like as it seems. I came home from Healer training one night to find James in a compromising position with one of his girlfriends from school.

I was distraught and left before he could say or do anything, and as Severus was and still is my best friend, I naturally went to him. Unfortunately, we both had a bit too much fire whiskey, emotions took over, and we slept together. I do not regret it, however, seeing as how James had been doing it behind my back for who knows how long. Well, I went home and James and I fought, but finally reconciled. We agreed to go through with the marriage the following week and put the infidelity behind us. Of course, being as good at Charms as I am, I cast a fidelity charm on both of us, to ensure it would not happen again. I am sure you know that if it is broken, it causes debilitating pain and eventually death.

A few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant. And while James and I consummated the marriage on our honeymoon, as soon as Harry was born, it was clear to me that James was not the father. James, thankfully, was too thrilled to have a son to notice that he resembled me and someone other than himself. So when he rushed out to inform everyone of the birth, I cast several strong glamour charms on Harry. Unfortunately in my zeal to keep my secret, I ended up making Harry almost an exact carbon copy of James, the only trait of mine that he retained was my eye color.

James still, to this day, does not know, and I hope that he never finds out. When Harry is 10, I will have to strengthen the charms to make them permanent, but if you have received this letter, than we were betrayed by Peter Pettigrew (we changed secret keepers to him from Sirius) and I am dead and unable to do so. When Harry hits his majority, he will begin to change physically. I do not know the extent of the changes, but it could be drastic. It will not be immediate, but as the charms wear off, he will gradually come into his true appearance.

Please give these letters to Severus and Harry; they need to know the truth before it hits them like a rock. If you cannot get the letters to them before Harry’s birthday, then please be ready to support Harry mentally when he finds out. He NEEDS as much love and help as he can get, especially since James and Severus did not get along and if he knows Harry at all, he might treat him the same due to the charms causing him to look like James.

It is my wish that Severus steps up, takes responsibility, and becomes a father to Harry, but of course, that may be too much to hope for. I should have told him when I knew, but by that point, he was so deeply into his spying role that I could not risk it. Please help him understand that Harry needs him, especially if James and I are dead, and while Sirius can take care of Harry, he is not a father. Sirius may turn hostile towards Harry when he finds out, as well, so Harry could very well be alone in this without you and Severus.

Please take care of my baby and help him as much as you can. I can only hope that things will work out well. Thank you Albus, for everything you have done for us.

-Sincerely Yours,

Lily Evans-Potter

Dumbledore sat in shock after reading the desperate letter. To say he was surprised would be an understatement, but he knew what he had to do. Summoning the courage, he wrote out a brief note to Severus, telling him to read the note when he is alone and to allow himself a few days to think about the content. He was then to come to Dumbledore’s office in 3 days time, on Harry’s birthday, to discuss what would be done. He attached the note to the envelope and passed it to Fawkes. “Please take this to Severus and make haste,” he said softly, his eyes shining with too many emotions and thoughts. Fawkes trilled softly, realizing the state of his master and took the note, quickly vanishing.

Dumbledore returned to his seat and sat heavily, massaging his temples with his fingertips as he wondered what he could do. The part of the note that stuck out in his mind and kept replaying like a broken record was Lily’s description of her sister. Had he made a terrible mistake by sending Harry there? He planned to retrieve the boy shortly after his birthday, so did not think it dire to retrieve him early. After all, he had lived there 14 years, what was 4 more days? It gave him four more days to plan how he was going to help the boy cope with the reality and changes that were going to hit him without warning.

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Severus Snape stood over one of his cauldrons, concentrating intently on the bubbling concoction within. He was helping refill the potion stores in the Infirmary and was on his fourth batch of pepper-up potion. He looked up at the sudden appearance of Fawkes in a fireball and the bird fluttered to the table, landing quietly a few feet from him, waiting patiently with an envelope and note in his beak. Severus sighed, shaking his head lightly and worked on the potion until he brought it to a point where it could simmer and he moved to the bird, taking the letter. He idly scratched Fawkes’ neck as he skimmed over the note, his eyes narrowing as he finished it.

Now his curiosity was piqued and he set the note down, looking over the envelope. The handwriting was familiar and the envelope was aged quite a bit. He sat down on one of the stools surrounding his workstation and worked the envelope open. The flash of blue light occurred again to signify the seal had been broken and he took out the folded letter from within. He unfolded it with growing trepidation, laid it flat on the table, and began to read.

The letter was very much the same in content as Dumbledore’s, with only a change in tone since Lily was writing to a dear friend rather than her former school headmaster. Severus’ sallow face grew paler by the minute as he continued to read, his stomach doing unpleasant flops as the reality of the situation started to creep up on him. When he was finished, he sat in stony silence, the only sound in the room being Fawkes’ soft crooning and the light bubbling of the potion.

Severus’ mind was at a frozen standstill, barely able to grasp everything that the letter had said. Lily was pregnant with my son? Harry bloody Potter is MY son? He is going to look more like me rather than James when the charms wear off? Harry Potter is my BLOODY fucking son?! Severus felt slightly ill at the knowledge that his son was that spoiled arrogant brat and that he had treated him exactly as she assumed he would. He felt sheepish for being predictable but could not bring himself to be 100% sorry for it. The apologetic nature of Lily’s letter kept him from being angry with her for long and soon he felt a slight feeling of despair come over him as he realized what could have been had Voldemort not started his bloody war.

Severus shuddered and shook his head to clear it a bit before he gently folded the letter back up and pocketed it. He finished the potion without having to think about it, since he had made it countless times before. He left the potion to cool and retreated to his private quarters, quickly digging out the fire whiskey. He briefly recalled that it was fire whiskey that had put him into this mess in the first place and that had driven Lily to such desperate measures to protect her son and herself.

He shook his head once more and sat heavily with a glass of whiskey in one hand, the bottle in the other, which he set on the reading table beside him. He stared into the fire in his fireplace and became lost in his memories of his best friend and the nightmare that was now his son and responsibility. Lily made it quite clear that she hoped that he would come forth and claim his son and become the father to him that James and Sirius were unable to be. He felt his stomach turn unpleasantly at the thought and knew that no force on earth or in heaven, short of a mind-blowing, earth-shattering event, was going to cause him to take Harry bloody Potter as his son.