When Dumbledore stepped gracefully from the fireplace mid afternoon that same day, it was with a great deal of displeasure that he found his potions master in an extremely inebriated state.

"Ah, Albush," slurred the younger man. "Wel...welcome back." He raised his glass in an unsteady salute, slopping half its contents down his already damp shirt.

"C...come! Y...you mush j...join me in a d...drink. H...help me shel...shel...shellibrate." Severus pointed, or tried to point his wand at the glasses arranged on the drinks table. He closed one eye during this delicate manoeuvre in an attempt to improve his equilibrium-to little effect. He managed to levitate one of the heavy tumblers shakily into the air and summon it towards him but it lost its momentum halfway and fell to the stone floor and smashed, sending thick, glass fragments in all directions.

"Shit!" Severus' hand, still clasping his wand fell heavily into his lap. He had managed to maintain a grip on his own tumbler however and he now raised it to his lips and finished off its contents before reaching for the bottle again.

"N...not my besht' work," he hiccoughed.

Albus, fury emanating from him in waves, banished both the glass and the bottle with an angry sweep of his hand. Another sweep and the glass fragments flew back together and the tumbler rejoined its fellows on the drinks table.

"W...wha choo go an' do tha' for?" slurred Severus but by now he was no longer able to hold his head up and it slowly dipped until his chin was resting on his chest and his black hair hung like twin curtains on either side of his slack face.

With a last disgusted look, Albus strode to the bedroom. A powerful wave of relief spread through him at the sight of Harry curled under the covers and sleeping peacefully. He reached down and brushed the black fringe of hair back from the boys forehead, exposing the scar that had dictated the child's life for the last five years. Harry moved his head slightly as if aware of the touch but he did not wake.

"Come back to us again, dear boy."

Reassured that Harry was safe, Albus re-entered the sitting room and looked down on the inebriated man slumped in the chair. The fury he had felt upon his arrival was now tempered with sorrow and exasperation.

What had caused this complex, self-contained man to reduce himself to this drunken heap. Severus Snape never drank to the point of inebriation. He refused to be anything but in total control of himself. To be otherwise could be his death.

Ever since the bitter night that the broken and frightened young man had practically stumbled into the private parlour at the Hog's Head after having sent an owl asking for an audience with him, Albus' initial feelings of reserve and distrust had, that night been tempered by pity, and during the years since, gradually softened and finally disappeared altogether.

His memory of the embittered, lonely child who had been sorted into Slytherin had filled him with sadness and guilt. Sadness because no child of eleven embarking on the grand adventure that was the beginning of their magical education at Hogwarts should have been so embittered and lonely; and guilty because even he had allowed the antics and the personalities of two young Gryffindors to blind him to the young Slytherin's needs.

Severus Snape had been academically superior to all during his student years at Hogwarts, except perhaps for the two Gryffindor troublemakers plus their one responsible friend and a pretty, red-headed witch, also in Gryffindor. The flamboyance of the two troublemakers had eclipsed all of the young Slytherin's achievements except in the field of potions, where he had been, and remained to this day unsurpassed.

It had been many years now that Albus had felt more than respect and liking for the young outcast. He had come to love Severus Snape as if he was a grandson despite his prickly disposition that was, frankly, more often than not down right unpleasant.

There were still a few in the Order who refused to see past the Death Eater, Alastor being the hardest nut to crack and the most vocal. Luckily, most of the people Albus trusted were willing to accept his judgement and Severus Snape amongst their ranks with little in the way of dissension.

Unfortunately, Severus held everyone at arms length, so was not a man that was easy to build a relationship with. He and Minerva were the only two people for whom Severus had gradually lowered his formidable defences. It had taken years but the young man had slowly let Albus into his life and by extension, Minerva.

Albus knew that Severus did not give affection easily but he also knew that his own feelings were reciprocated by the younger man. He looked upon Albus as a mentor and father figure although he did everything in his power to deny any kind of relationship closer than that of boss and employee.

Right now, Albus felt an overwhelming desire to vigorously apply his hand to a part of Severus's anatomy that had never seen the sun. The impulse died as quickly as it was born. The thought had been engendered by pure frustration.

The young man's bitterness and bad choices in his earlier life had been driven in part by a violent, cold-hearted father. Dumbledore had never raised his hand against his own children but then again, they had never pushed his buttons as well or as often as Severus Snape did.

Albus lowered his head and massaged his forehead with the finger tips of one long fingered hand. Then taking a deep breath as though to muster all his patience, he pointed his wand at the empty sofa and transfigured it into a comfortable bed. He then levitated Severus out of the chair and lowered him onto the bed before transfiguring his shirt and trousers into Severus' favourite sleeping attire, a night shirt. As punishment, he coloured it scarlet and added gold trim.

After attending to Harry's needs, Albus conjured his favourite deep, squashy armchair and a small table upon which sat a large steaming teapot and matching, fine china cup and saucer and a small jug of milk. There was also a plate of macaroons and a small bowl of butterscotch, his favourite sweet of the moment. He settled into the chair that he had placed in the bedroom but near the open door, where he had a clear view of both his charges.

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A muffled groan from the depths of the conjured bed alerted Albus to the return to consciousness of his potions master. With an evil grin worthy of Fred or George Weasley, he wafted the aromatic steam arising from a platter of bacon and eggs that had been supplied for breakfast by the ever efficient house elves towards the bed.

"Good morning, Severus," he said in jovial tones. The untidy mop of midnight black hair which was all that could be seen of Severus was withdrawn even further under the covers accompanied by another feeble groan. But Albus was having none of that.

"Come, come my boy..." and with a flourish he pulled back the covers. "I have been reliably informed that it is a magnificent day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the bees are..."

"For God sake old man, cease and desist with this inane babble or I will curse you into the middle of next week." The content of the order was strongly worded but the delivery left a lot to be desired. Severus' voice was a croaky husk and the volume was severely muted. "Let me die in peace!"

At this moment, Severus' nose twitched and Albus watched with evil satisfaction as the formally ghostly, white face turned a bilious green

"Oh, Merlin," groaned the suffering figure on the bed. "What is that God awful smell?" And the words were barely uttered before Severus hurriedly leaned over the side of the bed and relinquished the foul contents of his stomach into the bucket that Albus had conjured in readiness.

After several painful minutes, Severus flopped back onto the bed and lay with his arm crooked over his eyes. Albus banished the bucket and its contents. "Better out than in, dear boy."

"I am going to kill you, Old Man." was Severus' husky response.

Albus chuckled before banishing the blankets and re-transfiguring the bed into a sofa. Snape was left reclining, uncomfortably against the high leather arm, his head bent at an uncomfortably acute angle.

"Come," said Albus in a jovial tone that made Severus' wand hand itch and convinced him that he had never once during his tenure as a Death Eater had such a strong urge to perform the Cruciatus Curse.

"There are several vials of your excellent hangover cure in the bathroom. I will allow twenty minutes before you join me for a hearty breakfast."

Feeling that it would be prudent to remove himself from the room before he performed at least one of the Unforgivables, Severus sat up very gingerly and with great precision moved his legs until his bare feet touched the floor. Then, keeping his head stiffly erect, he pushed himself up carefully and began the torturous journey to the bathroom. He heard Dumbledore chuckle as he entered the bedroom which he had to traverse to get to his bathroom. He kept his eyes averted from his bed and the slight figure that had occupied it for the past five days.

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When a perfectly groomed Severus returned exactly twenty minutes later, Albus lowered his copy of the Daily Prophet and smiled at the younger man.

"A great improvement. I trust you feel better?"

"I feel adequate," said Severus in a stiff voice. He withdrew his right hand from behind his back. "I cannot say I think much of your sense of humour, Old Man."

Dumbledore smiled benignly as he viewed the scarlet nightshirt Severus was holding up to his face. "You did not object last night. I thought night wear more appropriate for sleep than damp, boozy smelling day wear"

"Last night, I was in no state to object. And you know very well that I was referring to the colour rather than the article of clothing itself."

"But you slept comfortably, did you not? I do not see a problem."

Severus closed his eyes and growled deep in his throat. "As punishments go, I suppose you could have done much worse than sticking me in Gryffindor colours" He threw the offending garment over the arm of the sofa and sat down at the small, cherry wood dining table, reaching for the steaming pot of tea.

"I would appreciate it if you would re-transfigure that offensive garment back into a shirt and trousers before you depart. I do not have an inexhaustible supply of decent clothing." Dumbledore inclined his head before setting a covered plate of bacon, eggs, tomato and mushrooms in front of Severus and helping himself to a slice of toast. Severus' pale complexion took on a greenish hue but his face remained stoic. Without making a fuss, he re-covered the plate of food and moved it aside in favour of a slice of toast that he scraped a token dab of butter onto. The toast was for appearance sake only as he made no attempt to eat it.

Dumbledore did not press the food issue but cut straight to the bone. "You must know, Severus that I can not let yesterdays events go un-investigated. I need to understand what could have possessed you to allow yourself to be reduced to the drunken state that I found you in when you were the only one here to see to Harry's welfare.

The headmaster raised his cup to his lips and watched over the rim as Severus systematically reduced the slice of toast to crumbs. He did not prompt, but waited for the younger man to gather his thoughts.

"I will not make excuses as nothing excuses my negligence. I can only be thankful that Potter came to no harm; thankful that you returned when you did rather than spend the night away from Hogwarts." He paused and filled the silence with activity-wiping his fingers on a napkin and refilling his tea cup.

"I am satisfied that you feel duly chastened, dear boy but you have not told me what led to this monumental lapse in judgement." Dumbledore kept his blue eyes fixed on Severus' blank face.

"I do not believe, even for one instant what I am about to ask but it has to be addressed Severus. Your personal grievances against Harry combined with your displeasure over being left in sole charge of his welfare yesterday were not responsible for your actions, were they?"

Severus' deeply hooded eyes remained fixed on his teacup. He did not look up even as he spoke. "As vile a human being as I am, Albus and no matter my feelings for Harry Potter, I would never deliberately jeopardise a child's life." He finally raised his eyes to Albus' face.

"You know the means I employed to escape taking part in any of the Dark Lord's revels-particularly any involving children-and you know the punishments I suffered until the man finally, grudgingly allowed me to take a back seat when it came to murder and torture."

Severus paused and stared at his mentor with haughty affront. Not even Harry Potter has altered my stance on harming children."

Albus sighed and shook his silver head sadly. "It is a pity your doctrine only encompasses physical harm Severus. Psychological abuse can be equally traumatic."

Severus' lips thinned to a straight line. He could feel his cheeks heating with embarrassed colour. It did not sit well with him that what the headmaster said was true. He finally looked away, staring instead at his slim hands where they were wrapped around his tea-cup.

Albus watched him for several silent seconds, then he sighed again. "You know I love you like a son Severus and you know how greatly it saddens me that you and Harry are so viciously at loggerheads with each other when you are each the others last living relative on the Potter side. I also know that Harry would accept you as a friend-a cousin-in an instant if you would only make the first overtures. He has a great capacity for forgiveness."

Severus pushed his chair back forcefully and strode across the room. He ended up in front of his fireplace, each hand grasping the opposite elbow and gazing unseeingly into the flames that Albus had conjured earlier to ward off the chill of the dungeon chambers.

"He thinks I am responsible for his Godfather's death. Nobody is that forgiving."

"Harry is. You could convince him that your failure to act immediately regarding his warning in Dolores' office was necessary and that you then did all in your power to get Sirius to stay at Grimmauld Place."

Severus shook his head slightly. He was far from convinced that Harry would listen to reason. After all, he, Severus would not if the positions were reversed.

Silence reigned for many minutes, contemplative on both men's parts rather than confrontational. Just as Albus picked up the paper again, thinking to give Severus more time with his thoughts, Severus spoke.

"Albus, when I was twenty years old, I allowed Lily Potter to talk me into doing something that I had great reservations about at the time."

Other than raising his eyebrows Dumbledore did not allow his surprise to show. Why had this revelation come to light now? He wisely remained silent, waiting for the younger man to continue in his own time. Severus's eyes remained riveted on the dancing flames.

"The reasons for my disquiet were many and varied. The main one was fear, fear that the Dark Lord would somehow find out and punish me severely, or perhaps even kill me. The second was that the favour she asked of me involved James and as you already know, my cousin's and my mutual enmity had not faded with age." Here, Severus sighed deeply as though this thought no longer sat well.

He finally dragged his eyes away from the flames and began to pace up and down on the green, black and grey rug. Had he been wearing his robes they would have been billowing impressively as he turned after each lap.

Dumbledore waited patiently.

"My third reservation was theoretical. I did not know whether what Lily asked of me could be done. Even with my background in healing, I had never heard of it being done, certainly not amongst wizards-although it is, I believe, a common practice in Muggle medicine."

Snape had stopped his pacing and was once again staring into the flames. Dumbledore could not recall the last time he had seen Severus Snape look so worried-and yes-so vulnerable. Something about this memory had suddenly emerged to cause this supremely self contained man a great deal of internal torment. Dumbledore knew that the fact Severus was only now willing to share the memory of a deed performed so long ago, in which the other two participants were now dead meant that he needed help in letting the past go.

Something must have happened whilst Severus was alone with Harry; something that had brought the long suppressed memory forth. What had happened had no doubt been the cause of Severus' supreme lack of judgement in allowing himself to become so inebriated the day before.

The silence had stretched into minutes now and Dumbledore made a gentle enquiry. "What is it you wish to get off your chest, my boy? What was the favour asked of you by Lily?"

Snape closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "James and Lily had been working for you-for the ‘Order of the Phoenix'-practically since they had finished school. James, much as he had been at school, was always in the centre of things. Was, I imagine always one of the first to volunteer for dangerous assignments, along with the even more foolhardy, Sirius Black.

"If I remember correctly, Lily told me you were away on the continent when Black and James followed up on some information they had come across. They did not tell anyone of their plans, not even Lily. But when things went arse about, James was badly injured."

Dumbledore's expression was a mixture of shock and regret. He shook his head. "I never knew," he said softly. "They were always a pair of faulty wands, Sirius more so than James. But blessed as he was with a golden tongue, Sirius could usually overcome any reservations James may have had, particularly if Lily, Remus or I were not around to be the voices of reason..." He tailed off as he remembered the two vibrant, energetic young men who were both now, sadly gone.

After a few seconds of reminiscence, Albus sighed. "Continue with your story, Severus. How did Lily involve you?-with you being, at the time, the enemy."

Twin streaks of colour appeared across Severus's sculpted cheek bones again. He did not like referring back to the days when he had been an arrogant fool who thought he knew it all...the days when he had been granted admission to the Club where he was told he would be superior to all other half bloods and all Muggle born wizards; the Club that would cleanse the world of those so tainted. As one of Lord Voldemort's followers, he was told that power, wealth and privilege would be his. And considering his background of deprivation and near poverty, the lure of these rewards was too much to pass up.

He was accepted amongst the ranks of some of the oldest pure blood, wizarding lines, accepted as an equal, vaunted for his intelligence; especially his expertise at potion-making. Being so young and eager to prove himself, he fell victim to the flattery heaped upon his head by the Dark Lord and his oldest and cleverest lieutenants.

He was encouraged by his master to add healing to his resume as it would be a wonderful adjunct to his potion making and was a skill that would be highly useful in the war effort. Lord Voldemort very much liked the idea of having his own, personal healer. With his background in potions, Severus had found the study of healing easy and had completed his course in two years, rather than the requisite four.

But by the time he had qualified, Severus Snape, servant of the Dark Lord, had discovered that he much preferred healing to the taking of lives or the destruction of the human mind and body by the means of foul, depraved acts and terrible tortures.

It had taken a considerable while but after enduring countless hours of unspeakable punishments, he had finally convinced Lord Voldemort that if he was to produce potions that were untainted and whose efficacy was unparalleled, then his hands must remain un-besmirched by bloodletting, even as he had convinced his master that his soul craved it. Severus' skills in the art of occlumency were severely tested during this period.

Not one meeting went by that the Dark Lord did not try his powerful best to rape the young man's mind in an effort to catch him out. But even with the aid of the tortures that left most men begging for death, that is if their minds were intact enough to do so, Severus survived the horror and degradation. He maintained his sanity and finally convinced the sociopathic megalomaniac who wanted to take over the world that he was trustworthy.

Yes. Severus' body and mind had survived. What had not survived the cruelty were the long held beliefs that had led him into Lord Voldemort's world of pure blood superiority in the first place; the world where one was only worthy of taking his or her place alongside the Dark Lord if he or she was a pure blood or truly exceptional in intellect and power and with something of worth to offer.

It had taken little time for Severus to discover that the Dark Lord's love of cruelty and torture had little to do with ridding the magical world of the taint of Muggle blood. If the man had only been interested in cleansing the wizarding world of inferior beings then he would not have been quite so eager or taken so much pleasure in punishing, or indeed killing his own followers. Usually, the reasons for the punishments had no basis in fact; the Dark Lord just revelled in inflicting pain and engendering fear. He would strike his own followers down with the Killing Curse as soon as look at them if he felt so inclined. He ruled in a climate of fear and intimidation. But once one was subjugated to the man, there was no backing out. The Dark Mark saw to that.

But Severus had eventually found a way to live with himself-barely, to appease his conscience-at least to a small degree. And Lily Potter had been the one to set him on the road to salvation.

‘Severus?' Dumbledore had to prompt him to continue. Severus sighed and launched into his tale again, though reluctantly.

"Lily and I had continued a sporadic correspondence following our days at Hogwarts. At school, we had become good friends, despite all my efforts to push her away. She weathered my unfriendliness and my insults, finally wearing me down with her perseverance. No-one was immune to Lily Evan's charm, least of all me; a dark, brooding, highly unpleasant Slytherin.

"She never approved of-as she called it-my inexplicable zeal regarding anything to do with the Dark Arts." Severus' voice was a monotone. He remembered full well how many times Lily had caught him after he had snuck into the restricted section of the library to look up anything to do with ‘Dark Magic'. It was the one thing they had argued most vociferously about. Well, that and James Potter.

Severus' Stygian, black eyes were focused on the past. "I never did understand why she decided that she wanted to be my friend. All I know is that I am glad that she did because she ultimately saved my life." A slight movement by Dumbledore had Severus snapping back to the here and now. He stared at Albus, his eyes now full of a deep and abiding sorrow.

"I loved her Albus. Passionately." His shoulders rose and fell in a resigned shrug. "But it was James that she loved. To her, I was like a brother, like all the other soles she took under her wing-Black, Lupin, even that mangy rat, Pettigrew."

Severus' voice had dropped to a deadly hiss as he spoke of his fellow Death Eater. If it was the last thing he ever did, he would kill Peter Pettigrew. He would avenge Lily. One day, somehow, he would catch the snivelling little coward away from the protection of his master and he would find a way to kill him that would not incriminate himself or destroy his position as a spy for the Order.

Dumbledore was not entirely surprised by the revelations of Severus's feelings for Lily. It had been Minerva who had originally pointed out to him that the surly but academically brilliant young Slytherin, Severus Snape seemed to be a lot more interested in the vivacious and beautiful young Gryffindor, Lily Evans than he was prepared to let on to the world at large. But with the charismatic James Potter letting all and sundry know that Lily was going to be his, he Albus, along with the rest of the faculty had no doubts whatsoever that the two Gryffindors would end up as a couple. As of course, they had.

"Did Lily ever know of your feelings?"

Severus' scornful expression gave Albus his answer. Truthfully, he had known the answer without asking. There was no way that the taciturn, unapproachable teenager from Slytherin would have ever let Miss Evans glimpse his true feelings. He would have died rather than appear needy in front of her. In fact, Albus was sure that he would have appeared even more disdainful of Lily's efforts to establish a friendship. But Lily had been nothing if not persistent. Her only child had inherited that trait in spades. The harder Severus would have pushed her away, the more determined she would have been not to be pushed.

Severus began pacing again. It was either that or reach for the whisky he had failed to consume the previous day.

"Lily turned up at my flat one evening. It had been pouring with rain all day and she had stood around in the shadows until she was sure that I was alone; that none of my Death Eater associates were visiting. This was not just for her own safety, which of course was paramount as James' survival depended on her successful recruitment of me. But even in her extreme distress, she was determined not to put me in any danger.

"Though time was of the essence she remained calm whilst she told her story and made her request of me. She told me that James was close to death but she was sure that I could save his life.

"In her work as an ‘Unspeakable' she had been studying the properties of the blood of magical humans, trying, without much success, to isolate the magical component. Even so, there would be few wizards around, even today who know as much about wizards blood as Lily did then."

Severus threw himself down on the dining chair he had earlier abandoned and reached for the teapot. He made a noise of annoyance because he could tell by the weight of it that it was empty.

Dumbledore put his hand over Severus' where he had hold of the handle. With his other hand, he pointed his wand at the pot and immediately it filled and steam issued from the spout. Severus grunted a ‘thank you' and poured himself a cup of the aromatic brew. He then filled Albus' cup and when they had both taken a sip and were sitting with their hands wrapped around the warmth of their cups, Severus continued his tale.

"James had lost a massive amount of blood. He did not have enough cells left for blood replenishing potion to latch onto fast enough to enable them to multiply. He was still bleeding and the clotting component of his blood had broken down as well. He was loosing it faster than it could be built up. In any other circumstances, James was a dead man.

"Lily was not going to let that happen, not while she had breath in her body. With time at a premium, she put James into a form of suspended animation by cooling his body to the point where his heart was only beating about ten times a minute. She left Black and Lupin with James and Apparated to my flat. As I said earlier, she waited in the rain-despite her panic and fear, she waited for over an hour watching my window to make sure I was alone.

"She told me that James would certainly die unless I would help. She wanted me to give James some of my blood. To my credit, I did not laugh in her face." Severus closed his eyes and massaged his forehead with his fingertips.

"I just stood there and looked at her as if she were out of her mind. Of course she knew that James and I were first cousins. And of course nobody knew better than she how much we loathed each other. She and James fought more about Lily's friendship with me than they did about anything else.

"She spent a fair amount of her time trying to convince the both of us, separately of course, that we needed to bury our prejudices and remember that we were each others only family and that that was too important not to try and bridge the gap.

"Her own embittered sister's jealousy and hatred and her subsequent estrangement from Lily made her particularly rabid about family ties.

"Anyway..." Severus carefully replaced his cup in it's saucer and drew on his reserves of strength to finish his tale. He felt very exposed emotionally and it was not a feeling he liked, even in front of the man whom he cared about more than anyone in the world. "...suffice to say, Lily ended up begging me; I finally acquiesced because I could ultimately deny her nothing and together we Apparated to James' side.

"After several minutes where Black berated Lily soundly for her monumental lack of judgement in bringing me anywhere near his obviously moribund friend and where Lily threatened to hex him into the middle of next week and told him that he could leave if he was not going to be of any assistance, she conjured a couch for me next to James.

"After I lay down, she wasted no more time on preliminaries. With an outward assurance which I am sure she was not feeling inside, she made a cut in a major vein in both our wrists and then she magically bound our forearms together.

"All the time I was laying there, Black was growling in the background like the mangy dog he sometimes was and Lupin was physically having to hold him back. In the end, Lily didn't have to hex the idiot because Lupin did it instead. Very nicely of course and he made him comfortable whilst he was in his full body bind. Lupin is nothing if not a gentleman.

"Lily fed me ‘blood replenishing potion' and ‘pepper-up potion' all the time the transfusion was in progress. All the same, I became very weak and I was eventually so out of it that I was no longer aware of what was going on around me.

"Anyway, I eventually re-awoke to my surroundings to find that I was no longer attached to Potter. Lupin had been ordered to see to my needs and he helped me into a sitting position and told me that Lily insisted that I drink at least three more phials of ‘blood replenishing potion'.

Lupin then offered me hot, sweet tea and toast-Lily's orders, to give me some energy. He told me that James was now holding his own and that Lily was cautiously optimistic that he would recover.

"Of course, the wretched man had to go and get all personal then and tell me that he would forever be in my debt for saving his best friend's life. He also apologised for Black who was now sitting, alternately staring at his clasped hands and then turning a death glare upon me."

Albus now stood and began to pace about the room, retracing Severus' earlier path. "So, you saved your cousin's life thanks to Lily's knowledge and determination and most of all, her powers of persuasion. I do not think I have ever heard of a wizard giving some of his blood to another to save his life. As you know, a wizard's blood is a distinctly individual and complex compound that contains that wizard's magical blueprint. All who have made a study of it before Lily came along agreed that it would not be a sound practice to undertake-that to adulterate ones magical signature with that of another would lead to unknown consequences.

"They speculated that the two magical signatures would battle each other and that the best case scenario would be that both signatures would succumb and cancel each other out, leaving the wizard bereft of magic; in other words, a squib. The worst case scenario would be the death of the wizard as a result of illness as the two signatures fought for supremacy.

"Lily obviously thought otherwise. It seems she reasoned that two wizards with a close family tie would be in less danger than two who were unrelated. She chose you, Severus because you and James were first cousins.

"Your mother and James' father were twins; twins born of your maternal Grandfather who was an identical twin himself. Your mother Eileen and James' father Adam, though fraternal twins were very much alike and also very close until Eileen met your father."

Severus had turned away from Albus, unwilling to let him see how much his family's history upset him, unwilling to let him see the extent of his hatred for his mother's family.

But somehow the bubbling anger and resentment that usually erupted in him at the mention of the Potter name, did not seem quite as volcanic as it had in the past.