"He has your eyes, my dear."

Lily smiled proudly. "I know. But the rest of him is all James."

Albus Dumbledore looked at her with kindly eyes. "So it would appear."

Lily blinked. Was there some hidden meaning behind that mild comment? It was so difficult to tell what was going on behind the powerful old wizard's eyes. "Er, James will be home soon. Do you want to wait for him?"

Dumbledore looked up from Harry's widely yawning face. "I'm afraid there's no time to wait, Lily," he said sadly. "You see, there's been a prophecy."

The blood seemed to freeze in Lily's veins and she clutched the tiny socks she was sorting, sinking down onto the soft old sofa. "A prophecy?" she repeated numbly.

"I'm afraid so." Dumbledore held out a long finger and smiled when Harry grasped it with one wavering fist and attempted to stuff it into his mouth. "And you just know, those never turn out well."

"It's about Harry isn't it?"

Dumbledore lifted his gaze again and met her eyes squarely. He nodded. "Which is why I know the truth about his paternity," he continued simply. "You see there were two children the prophecy could have concerned. Two newborns. But when I performed the Paternitus Charm and realized who Harry's father is..."

"Why would you perform such a charm?" Lily gasped.

"You must trust me, Lily," Albus said softly. "When I tell you I cannot reveal the details of the prophecy."

Lily nodded, wishing desperately that James were here. "But someone knows, don't they?"

Again Dumbledore nodded, eyes sad. Harry gurgled and they both turned to look at his dear pink little face. Lily reached out and the old wizard gently passed the baby into his mother's arms.

"And his paternity has something to do with it?" Lily hugged her tiny son , eyes closing as Dumbledore nodded once more. "Oh no," she breathed shakily. "It seemed so simple at the time, so clear. James could not give me a child, and I mentioned a Muggle way of conception in such circumstances." She opened her eyes and smiled mistily at her former Headmaster. "You know what he's like when an idea takes him. It wouldn't do until he had come up with an idea for a new spell. Surrogace, he named it."

"And why exactly was this new spell performed on Severus?"

Lily shook her head. "No, Professor," she confessed. "It was Severus who performed the spell, on James. Transferring his living seed into James' body." She pressed a loving kiss on Harry's oblivious head. "My husband gave me Harry, sir. With all his love."

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes, nimble mind grasping the words and turning them over behind his eyes. "Such a spell might need the weight of blood kin behind it," he speculated quietly. "And Severus and James are cousins, related as so many old and pure families are." He studied the picture Lily made, her baby dozing against her shoulder. "And now I see why he looks more like his surrogate father than his actual one."

Lily tilted her head curiously. This was something she had often wondered herself.

Dumbledore stroked his long white beard, eyes twinkling. "Love has its own power, my dear."