Seeing that, the two Minervas and two Severus’ hurried over to the fireplace that Harry had fallen into, and Albus walked around his desk and enervated Lily, who had fainted with shock when she noticed the pair of doppelgangers. Lily sat up and was very confused.

“Albus,” she asked, “what happened?”

Albus hurried to quickly explain that there were two Minervas and two Severus’ and that she had fainted seeing them, when Harry’s whining penetrated their ears and Lily turned around, frantically looking for her baby. In the meantime, the younger Minerva had taken Harry in her arms, trying to calm him.

“Shush, shush, everything is all right, Harry. Look, your mummy is here as well.”

Lily extended her hands to take Harry from Minerva, but he only snuggled deeper into Past-Minerva’s robes and said, “Owee, Gwanny.”

“Where does it hurt, Harry?” Past-Minerva asked calmingly, but Harry just continued to whimper.

Noticing Harry’s whining, one of the Severus’ suggested, “Albus, please call Poppy to look after him.” Seeing that Lily’s face had turned white, he said calmingly, “Just to be on the safe side, you know.”

Poppy came immediately and threw a curious glance around at the doppelgangers, before she checked on Harry and said, “He will be alright; he has a concussion, however, so he cannot run around for a few days and has to rest somewhere, but as there are enough grannies and other people whom he can lie on, it won’t be a problem. Otherwise, he would have to stay in bed. I want to see him again tonight, Lily; can you manage that?”

Lily gave her a thankful nod and replied, “Yes, of course, Poppy. Does he need any potions?”

Poppy sighed and answered, “Yes, but I have to ask that imbecile to brew one first. I don’t have the right potion for a baby in my stock.”

The older Severus jumped into the conversation, “I assume you need the Manicio Potion, right?” When she nodded, he continued, “Show me where I can brew it, and it will be finished in forty minutes.”

Glad to know she wouldn’t have to ask that poor excuse of a teacher she just couldn’t stand, Poppy threw him a relieved glance and nodded thankfully, while Past-Severus went over to his older self and told him, “No, Severus; let me go and brew the potion; you are needed here to tell Lily and James your story.”

His older self nodded and said, “Thank you Sev; you’re right; that’s much better.”

A moment later, Poppy and Past-Severus left the room, amiably talking to each other, and everyone else sat down again, Past-Minerva with the still quietly whimpering Harry in her arms, just when James stepped through the floo gasping at the view of two Minervas.

“At least you only have to see two Minervas, your son and I also had to look at two Severus’,” Lily told him, and Albus explained quickly what had happened, before he called Twinkle and asked for tea and biscuits as well as for pumpkin juice for Harry.

-----

During the next hour until Past-Severus came back with the potion for Harry, the older Severus explained everything about the near future to Lily and James. When he told them about the betrayal by their friend, both of them had a flabbergasted expression on their faces, but shouted at the same time, “No!”

Seeing the confused faces, James explained, “It was not Sirius, it was Peter; he is our secret keeper!”

Everyone in the room except for Baby Harry gasped.

“We can talk about this later; let me first go on with my story, please,” Severus said and went on with the sad story.

When he finished, Lily and James were looking at each other and then back to Severus doubtfully, and tears welled in Lily’s eyes. This was what it was like when you were told you were going to die in four weeks. However, hadn’t Severus just said he knew a way to save them? Lily threw a hopeful glance at Severus and said, “Please, Severus, do what you can – I don’t want to leave my baby behind.”

Severus gave her an encouraging nod and remembered the photo in his pocket. Before he showed them the photo of the five-year-old battered Harry, however, he told them, “Although I don’t know if we will succeed in saving your lives, at least we have already changed the future so far that in case we don’t succeed either Minerva and Albus or I will take Harry in. So please don’t be afraid, you can only win here, even if it is a very unusual and dangerous game that we are playing.”

Seeing the picture of Harry, Lily burst into tears; however, with James soothingly rubbing her back and Severus calmingly telling her in his silky voice that this would not happen to Harry again in the new time line they had just created, she managed to calm down, before Harry even noticed that his Mummy was crying.

When Lily had calmed down, James cleared his throat and, glancing around to know the reaction of the others, he said, “All right, cousin from the future…” Everyone laughed. “I think we have to profoundly thank you and Minerva. We really appreciate what you have already done for our son and of course that you are trying to save our lives. Would you please explain how you are intending to proceed?”

-----

Before Severus could reply however, Past-Severus entered the office, and immediately everyone’s attention was concentrated on Baby Harry. Past-Severus put several phials of two different potions on the table and took one of them over to where Minerva and Harry were sitting. After exchanging a short glance with Minerva, he held the phial to Harry’s lips, and Minerva persuaded Harry into drinking it.

“Look Harry, Uncle Severus has brewed a potion for you, which will make you all better now. Let’s drink it quickly.”

Harry seemed to feel bad enough not to care what he was drinking and greedily drank the potion completely and it only took about half a minute before he seemingly relaxed and said, “Fanks, Uncy Sebby. Hawwy no hawt.” He tried to sit up, but Minerva pushed him back and brought him into a half-sitting position, so that he could at least see everyone in the room. Harry looked around and asked astonished, “Two Gwanny an Uncy Sebby?”

Everyone had to try hard not to laugh, but Lily explained to her son, “The second Granny and Uncle Severus have come from the future in order to help Mummy and Daddy and Harry with something. The Granny who is holding you at the moment is your normal Granny, and the other Granny will be your Granny when you are already five and a big boy.”

Harry looked at her indignantly and pouted, “Hawwy bik, Hawwy no baby.”

At this time, everyone laughed and Albus told Harry, “That’s right, Harry, you are our very good big boy, and good boys always take a nap after they had to get potions because of a headache. Do you think you can do that too?”

Harry threw him an annoyed glance but relented and replied, “Yeah, Gwada, Hawwy can.” He lay back, nestled deeper into Past-Minerva’s robes, and shut his eyes yawningly. Only a minute later, everyone sitting near Minerva could hear that his breathing had evened.

Looking around to see that he had everyone’s attention, Severus proceeded in continuing his story. He explained in detail, how he hoped to be able to save the Potters, and Lily and James were listening intently. In between, James could not help commenting, “You know that I am an Auror, right?”

Everyone laughed at the comment, and Severus sneered, “Do you want me to try saving your lives or not? If not, just tell us and Minerva and I will step into the fireplace to Floo back right now.”

Seeing that Lily was on the verge of panicking, James quickly replied, “No, Severus, please calm down. Of course, I want you to help us, and I really appreciate very much what you are doing for us. I don’t care how many unforgivable curses it will take. Furthermore, if I for any reason won’t be able to continue being an Auror afterwards, I will leave the Auror department and do something else. My family is much more important to me than my job. Please help us, Severus.”

When Severus came to the final part of his plan, Lily’s reaction was exactly as Severus had predicted, however he managed to calm her by saying that he would be with Harry and care for him all the time and that he always could go back in time again if necessary. Finally, Lily and James agreed to the plan.

-----

“James and Lily,” Albus began to speak. “I know there are still four weeks until Halloween; however I would like to suggest that you stay here at Hogwarts for the time being. We will charm the lights in your house and the magic so that everyone passing by would believe you were there, but in reality you would be here in safety and could help to put Severus’ plan through.”

Lily, who suddenly felt very unsure about going back to Godrics Hollow at all, nodded eagerly and threw Albus a grateful glance, but James shook his head and explained, “That won’t work for me, because as you know I am working as an Auror and the Auror Department often Floo-calls me in the evening or even during the night. Therefore, I have to stay at home. Otherwise I would have to let the Ministry know that we were staying at Hogwarts, but as we don’t want anyone to know about it, because I assume that there are several Death Eaters working in the Ministry, Lily and Harry should stay here without me for the time being. I can come and visit them every evening.”

Dumbledore nodded pensively and said, “Yes, James, that would be highly appreciated, as they need you for their comfort and as we need you to help with our planning as well. If you don’t mind, I will ask Twinkle to add one more guest room to our quarters; you know that we already have a nursery, where Harry always sleeps when he is here.”

Lily gave him a relieved nod and declared, “Thank you Albus and Minerva, for letting us stay here. Honestly, after this information from Severus, I will feel much better being here with Harry while James is at work.” Seeing that her son was already awake again, she turned to him, “Harry, what do you think? Shall we stay with Granny and Granddad for a few weeks?”

Harry’s little face lightened up and his marvellous green eyes began to twinkle. Of course, he would like to stay here; he just loved the huge castle and his nice grandparents. He happily clapped his little hands. “Yeah, Mummy. Tay Gwanny Gwada. Yeah.”

Everyone laughed and Harry added, “Uncy Sebby, Uncy Pafoo an Uncy Mooey tay too?”

Past-Minerva laughed and told him, “No, Harry, but both Uncle Severus’, both Grannies and Granddad as well as your Mummy are staying here in Granny’s and Granddad’s home; all right?”

Harry nodded contently and leaned back on his Granny, a little thumb wandering into his mouth, and Minerva carefully lowered him back into a horizontal position. He was asleep again within seconds. The others resumed their conversation and made plans until dinnertime approached.

-----

After dinner, Poppy came to check on Harry and gave him a very light fever reducer and a sleeping potion so that he could rest properly until she would be back to look after him in the morning. Afterwards, she tucked him into his bed in the nursery. Therefore, everyone except for the two Severus spent the whole evening in the Headmaster’s quarters in order not to leave Baby Harry alone. Severus and Severus had gone to visit the new Snape quarters and to instruct the house elves in every little detail on how they wished to have their private lab done.

In the meantime, the conversation revolved about Halloween and other directly connected events. Future-Minerva told the others about details, which Severus still had not managed to tell them. She spoke about how Sirius had hunted down Peter on the day after the fatal night and killed Peter and thirteen muggles as well and that they had not found anything of Peter except for a finger.

“No!” Lily exclaimed with a determinate expression on her face. “That cannot be Sirius who did that. He would play pranks more than anyone can imagine, but he would not kill innocent people only because he wanted to harm or even kill Peter. I am sure. However,” she suddenly continued, “How do they think they know that Sirius killed the muggles and not Peter? He would be capable of such a deed, but not Sirius. Moreover, Peter is an animagus, a rat animagus. He could easily have cut one finger off, transformed into his rat form and ran away, couldn’t he?”

The older Minerva groaned after hearing this. What a huge mistake had been made. It was good that they were in the past and had the ability of preventing their younger selves from making the mistakes they had made before.

“What happened to Sirius then?” Lily suddenly asked, and Minerva told her that he had been condemned to Azkaban without a trial, as even Albus had told the Ministry that Sirius had been their Secret Keeper.

In the meantime, the older Severus had returned and listened in to their conversation with a blank face. Suddenly he jumped into the conversation. “Most of you probably know just how much I hate Black. However, if he is innocent, maybe we should involve not only Lupin but also him in our plan.”

Albus nodded pensively. “Yes,” he said thoughtfully. “That would probably be the best. James,” he addressed Harry’s father. “You are working together with Sirius in the Ministry, aren’t you?” When James gave him a confirming nod, he continued, “Could you please ask him tomorrow to accompany you here tomorrow evening?”

“Yes, Albus. I will bring him here tomorrow evening,” James answered thinking about what Sirius was going to say when he heard he had to work together with Snivellus, and two of them at that! Very thoughtfully, he continued, “I know the hatred between Severus and him is mutual, but as this concerns him as well, I would think he should be a little bit cooperative. Shall I try to contact Remus Lupin as well, or do you want to speak to each of them separately?” he added.

The Headmaster thought about this point for a few minutes, before he said, “Frankly speaking, I don’t know which would be better. Severus, what do you think?”

Severus turned to the two men and stated evenly, “As we definitely know that neither of them is the traitor, we can speak to both of them at the same time. It would be good if I had two people to help me to help me with them apart from my younger self, as his main job will probably be to lure them away. However, if Black does not behave, I will not work with him,” he threatened.

Late in the evening, James returned home only to come back a quarter of an hour later, bringing a huge bag with clothes and other things for Lily and Harry before he left them again, promising that he would come back after work the next day and that he would try to bring Remus and Sirius with him.

-----

On Monday morning, everyone except for the headmaster, who had to eat in the Great Hall, and Harry, who was still asleep, had breakfast together. Afterwards, the younger Minerva excused herself immediately and went to teach her lessons and the two Severus’ took the Hogwarts internal Floo network to their new quarters, which were – of course – not new to the older Severus, in order to brew a few potions together. Lily went to Harry’s room, took him out of his bed, changed his nappy with a flick of her wand and magically changed Harry’s favourite green footie pyjamas into a light blue jump suit with small green dragons, which let out a small roar from time to time. Then Lily took Harry with her to the living room, where the older Minerva was sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace.

“You can give him to me,” Minerva said when she saw that Lily hat brought Harry. “Is he still asleep?” When Lily nodded, she asked, “How is he?”

Lily shrugged and replied, “If I only knew. You never know with him, because he hardly ever complains. Yesterday it must have been really bad; otherwise, he wouldn’t have cried and complained so much. He is still quite warm.” She handed the baby over to Minerva, who made him lie down on her lap covering him with her robes.

A few minutes later, Albus entered the room with Poppy in tow, who waved her wand to check on Harry before she picked him up and sat him onto her lap in order to wake him and talk to him. “Hello Harry, good morning, my dear. Yes, Harry, it’s Aunt Poppy. I have come to see you and to ask how you feel. Does your head still hurt?”

Harry tiredly rubbed his eyes and threw his Mummy a whiny glance. It was not that he didn’t know Aunt Poppy very well; a few times, she had come and looked after him, when his belly hurt or he had a cold and she had always made him better, but he was still tired and just didn’t feel well today.

“No goo,” he mumbled tiredly.

Poppy pulled two phials out of her robes, a fever reducer and the Manicio potion and made Harry drink both of them. Then she gave him a calming smile and told him in a soft voice that he was a very good boy taking his potions so well and that he could have breakfast now and afterwards he could lie down on either his mummy or his granny and be a very good boy for them too.

Harry replied in a small voice, “Hawwy no wan eat, Hawwy sweep.”

-----

Fortunately, the Headmaster’s quarters were not only huge but also had a small garden on one of the roofs of the castle, which could not be seen into from anywhere else. It was fairly cold outside, but the weather was bright and sunny, and the two women wrapped Harry into a warm blanket and spent the rest of the morning sitting on a bench outside in the garden. Harry, who felt much better after he had drunken the potions, had many questions.

“Gwanny, Mummy, whewe?”

“We’re at Hogwarts, where Granddad and I live,” Future-Minerva answered patiently.

“Gawden?” Baby Harry enquired, looking around curiously.

“This is in the garden belonging to our quarters.”

“An da dewe?” A tiny finger pointed to the sky.

“This is one of the turrets on the roof of Hogwarts. Our garden is here on top of the roof.”

“Hogga?”

“Hogwarts is our school. The castle here is called Hogwarts; you know that, don’t you?”

When Harry slightly shook his head, Future-Minerva continued, “It is a school for little wizards to learn everything about magic.”

“Biza? Madi?”

Lily, who so far had only listened into the conversation, groaned, but Minerva replied patiently, “A wizard is someone who can do magic with a wand like this.” She shifted Harry a little to the side, took her wand out of her robes and conjured a stuffed green dragon, which she handed to Harry. She amusedly watched his green eyes starting to twinkle with joy.

Harry tucked the dragon under his arm, lay back and went to rest for a while, busily cuddling the dragon until lunchtime. When Minerva looked fondly at Harry, he glanced at her and mumbled, “Fanks, Gwanny. Dwago lovvy.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m glad you like the dragon, and I’m sure he can be a good friend,” Future-Minerva answered, smiling fondly at the child.

-----

The two Severus’ didn’t show up for lunch, and even in the afternoon, there was no sign of each of them. Suddenly Minerva laughed and said, “Severus is always like this. He enjoys potions so much that he forgets everything else. Every second day, I have to call our house elf and ask him to bring Severus lunch or dinner and make sure he would eat it. And to imagine – there are two of them together instigating each other…!”

Lily laughed and mused, “Maybe we will have to send Twinkle to fetch them for dinner.”

Suddenly Harry woke up crying a little. Minerva immediately pulled him up and made him stand on wobbly feet on her lap, asking softly, “What is wrong little one?” She felt his forehead and said to Lily, “He is much cooler now,” and turning to back to Harry she asked, “Does it still hurt?”

Harry slightly shook his head and said, “I hungy.”

Lily let out a relieved sigh and said, “That’s good my baby; you haven’t eaten anything today; you must be very hungry.”

Minerva called Twinkle and asked for a meal for Harry, which to Lily’s horror consisted of mashed potatoes, eggs and… “Spinach,” Lily groaned. “What do these elves think? Do you want to know how your room is going to look like by the time Harry finishes his meal?”

Minerva laughed and told her, “Can you please take your soon-to-be-a-green-monster son off me and put him into his chair, I can’t move with him sitting on me.”

Lily was right, and after a short while, the whole room was having tiny green spots here and there. Harry just didn’t like spinach, and it was so much fun throwing it through the room with his much-too-big-for-him baby spoon. He giggled and tried to aim at the door, which just opened and revealed a guest looking confused with spinach all over his face.

James, who in the meantime had appeared as well, threw his son a proud glance and said confidently, “Maybe he will be a good Chaser, when he comes to Hogwarts.”