Severus locked the door to his classroom before turning to walk down the hall, baby Harry in arm. There was just something about the idea of ruining all of Dumbledore’s ideas that pleased Severus beyond all measure. After so many years of manipulating everyone else, the old man was finally going to see what it was like to have his plans ruined for a change. It was going to be splendid.

It was too early for dinner and surprisingly Severus did not have to supervise any detentions that night, so he found himself floating towards that Headmaster’s office to spoil Dumbledore’s hopes and dreams. How Severus would laugh!

So, down the hall Severus strode, bouncing the giggling baby in his arms as he went. There were a few students here and there that saw the Potions Master as he acted very un-Snape like and gawked openly. They were struck dumb, especially since they had heard how he had tried to kill an entire class earlier that day by poisoning them! Perhaps Snape had finally snapped? Seemed possible since he always told them that he hated them all, and maybe being forced to be around all of them had finally done him in? It seemed probable anyway. The poor baby though, had to have a father as cruel and crazy as Snape.

Harry’s shrieks of laughter echoed off the stone walls as his dada walked down the big long halls. Harry had no idea where they were going, but he was happy that his dada seemed happy too, and as long as he had his dada, he did not care where he went. With dada, Harry was safe, with dada, nothing could harm Harry.

Lazily, Severus stated the password to the Headmaster’s office and went up the stairs still tickling the baby who was gurgling and grinning merrily. “I hope none of those little nose pickers told Albus about our prank yet,” the Potions Master whispered to the child when they were outside the Headmaster’s door. “That would ruin my fun in telling him that you’re not the chosen one anymore.”

But before Snape could push open the door, he heard someone speaking rather loudly to the Headmaster. “I saw him, Albus! He had a baby in his arms and I distinctly heard him say the name Harry!” Severus paled. “Is that baby really Harry? Is that why Harry has been missing classes? Is this why Hermione wrote to me the other day?”

The little color in his face that Severus could boast about drained completely as he listened to what was being said. He knew that voice, the one that was talking to Dumbledore. He knew that that someone would demand answers, and possibly demand that Harry be taken away from him. No! Severus’s mind spun as he tried to think his way out of this. He couldn’t lose Harry, not now! Not after he had just found the boy! He simply could not! Sure, the baby was a pain in the ass sometimes, waking up every few hours, throwing up on him, crying for no real reason, pulling his hair, generally just being messy, but Severus had adapted! He could adapt to being a father! He had adapted worse things! He…he liked being a father…he found that he really did love Harry.

Bursting through the door, Severus strode in, Harry in his arms, ready to defend himself and his child to the death. His stance was defensive and his eyes burned with a protective fire. If he could stand up to the Dark Lord, he could certainly stand up to these two nitwits. There was no way Severus was going to let them take his baby away from him again.

“Severus!” the other two wizard looked up in surprise.

“I’m not letting you take him from me,” the Potions Master hisses venomously.

“Severus, won’t you sit down?” Dumbledore motioned towards a seat.

“Is that really Harry?” Remus Lupin asked, his ember eyes wide and full of curiosity as he took a step forward.

“Back off, Lupin!” Snape growled, pulling out his wand, just in case. He didn’t trust the werewolf with the baby, and he certainly didn’t trust the lying old man behind that desk either.

“Severus, please sit down,” Dumbledore sighed. “No one’s going to take Harry from you.”

“So that is Harry?” Remus looked back over at Albus with surprise.

“Why the hell are you even here, wolf?” Severus spat. “Just enjoy spying?”

“SEVERUS!” the Headmaster bellowed.

Snapping his head over towards his employer, the Potions Master was actually a bit shocked by the old man’s outburst, but then, so was Harry. After the initial shock wore off, the little boy began to wail, not at all liking the loud noises or the people that made his dada’s smile go away. They had to be evil people if they made his dada not happy. They just had to be mean.

Absolutely stumped, Remus watched as his surly peer with the bad temper did a complete turn around and forgot himself and his anger and went to devote all of his attention to the baby in his arms. The former professor could not quite believe that he was really seeing Severus Snape rocking and cradling a little baby, let alone cooing and saying sweet nothings to the child. And this wasn’t even any old child, this baby was Harry Potter! How on earth could Severus Snape care for the son of James Potter?! It was just too confusing, and for a moment, Lupin wondered if he had been sucked into some sort of parallel universe.

“I-I’m sorry,” Albus said, putting his hands over his mouth. He really had not meant to yell. He just wanted to make sure Severus actually heard him that time so that the other wizard would listen and sit down. But it would seem that his initial plans were not all that well thought out as he had forgotten about the little boy that was in the room. He should have remembered that Harry did not seem to like loud noises.

While still rocking the baby, Severus sent the wickedest glare over to the Headmaster, severe enough to melt stone and making both Remus and Albus very uncomfortable. But the Potions Master did not look up again until the baby was quiet in his arms. And once the little boy was asleep, he turned to the other two wizards in the room.

“Sorry’s not good enough,” he hissed.

Still in a stupor, Remus looked between the Headmaster, Severus, and the baby before slouching, hang his head defeated. “So this little one is Harry?” he asked again, racking his brain to try and make any sense out of what he was seeing.

Letting out a big sigh, the Headmaster nodded. “Yes, Remus, this is Harry Potter.”

“And Severus is taking care of Harry?” the werewolf’s head cocked to the side as though his brain was about to self-destruct.

“That’s right,” the Headmaster nodded once. “Going on two weeks, I believe.”

Going on two weeks? Remus’s head snapped over to the Potions Master who was still holding baby Harry securely in his arms rocking the child gently from left to right in a calming manner. Snape was not looking at Remus or the Headmaster, and what the former professor saw on the face of his peer’s normally harsh, hate filled features was nothing short of affection and protectiveness. No, it was more than that, it was love…

That big of difference in not even two weeks?! Remus’s mind screamed for the world to make sense again. The Severus Snape he knew hated Harry Potter! How many times had Lupin heard his former colleague complain about the Gryffindor, about how arrogant he was, self-centered, annoying, bothersome, stupid, and of course, very James like? And likewise, Remus had always listened to Harry complain and tell him all about how Professor Snape was unfair and hated him. Yes, Harry had always used the word “hate” when he spoke of Snape’s feeling with regard to himself. So why this sudden, drastic change? Why would Severus even consider looking after an infant, especially if that infant was Harry Potter? None of this made any sense!

“I…I don’t believe I understand this,” Remus grabbed his head, feeling a headache coming on. “Severus why…why would you want to look after Harry? I thought you didn’t like him?”

“That’s none of your concern,” Severus shot back, though quietly, learning from experience that to yell would cause Harry to cry again, and no matter how much Severus liked the baby, he did not like the screaming. “Why are you even here anyway? Just wanted to skulk about? I thought that the counsel banned werewolves from stepping foot on the grounds?” he sneered.

“I came mainly because I was out of wolf’s bane potion and no one could get it for me, and when I asked Albus if you could maybe send it over, he said you were busy,” Remus’s eyes automatically went to the sleeping baby. “Which I can see you are.”

“I would have gotten the potion to you on time!” Severus hissed.

“Well, I also came because I got a letter from Hermione Granger,” Remus went on, not at all liking the dreadful feeling he was getting in his stomach as he looked at Severus and Harry, and seeing how at ease they were with each other; a natural pair.

So, this was Granger’s fault, was it? Draco and Hermione suddenly moved up several notches on Snape’s hit list. He had both for class the next day and oh, how he would make them suffer. The insufferable little know-it-all just had to tell someone about it. She had probably gone to the Headmaster first before contacting Lupin. A girl as smart as Granger would have thought that she would find an allie in the Headmaster only to figure out that he was part of the conspiracy too. And since she was a student and could not dig much further legally, she went and contacted someone that could.

But the only question was why didn’t she write to Black? The mutt was Harry’s godfather, after all, and she could bank on Black not to quit until he had found out everything. But just looking at Lupin, Severus realized that even a girl that could be as thick as Granger sometimes was could see that Black was obviously the worst choice out of anyone. The mutt would have barged in and started screaming and yelling and carrying on until he got all the answers he wanted. But then no one would be willing to cooperate with him because he was too violent and unstable. Lupin was calm, and could sit and listen for more than five minutes put together. Lupin was the most logical choice.

“Ah,” Albus spoke up. “So, here is the answer to all our questions then. Miss Granger has been very worried about Harry ever since he has gotten ‘sick’,” the Headmaster looked at both younger wizards. “She and Mr. Weasley have been pestering Poppy, Minerva, and I constantly, always wanting to know if Harry was all right. It seems they were impatient to wait, like I had said, and wanted someone else to figure thing out for them.”

“I…I don’t really know what to say,” Remus shook his head. “I’m just…confused.”

“Well, let me tell you both a little story that should clear some things up,” the Headmaster smiled and folded his hands on top of his desk. “Once upon a time-”

“Oh dear God,” Severus rolled his eyes.

“-there was a boy, and there was a girl,” the Headmaster went on.

“Albus, is this strictly necessary?” Remus asked softly.

“-and they seemed to be the happiest couple in the world.”

“Merlin, Albus, must you bore us with your sure to be lengthy narrative?” Severus growled.

“For the sake of the story, let us call the boy James, and the girl Lily,” Dumbledore smiled sadly. Remus and Severus immediately shut up to listen. “The boy, James, was known for his cool manner and his bad boy reputation. But at heart, he was really a ‘good boy’ but he tried desperately to seem cool and tried to rebel. He was not really that good at it, come to think of it, but he did try. The girl, Lily, was known for being well behaved and being, by all reason, a good girl. But there was another side to her, a side that loved a rebel, a man that did as he chose and lived on the edge.”

Both Severus and Remus exchanged glances, not quite knowing where this was going to go. Remus could boast that he knew the real James almost better than anyone else, and Severus could claim the same for Lily, so neither one felt comfortable with this story. They both still cared deeply for the friends that they had lost fourteen years previous, but they stayed quiet, too curious to find out where the Headmaster was going with this. Although Severus had a pretty good idea.

“Now, James proposed to Lily, and Lily accepted, both misunderstanding the true nature of the other,” Dumbledore went on. “James believed that he was marrying a woman that could save his reputation, a woman he could blame his calming down on, while Lily believed she was marrying a man that would be exciting, a man that she believed she could blame a wild streak on if she so chose. However, there was another complicated matter on Lily’s part.”

Severus found that he was holding his breath as he snuggled Harry closer to his chest. “You see, in Lily’s past, she had fallen in love with another man, a man that had been her constant friend almost all her life, but the friendship was severed while at school due to House rivalry. I will not go into detail about that,” the Headmaster looked sympathetically over at Severus, and so did Remus.

“Now,” Albus went on, “when she got engaged to James, she suddenly found that he was not the man she had wanted him to be. The more she looked at James, the more she found him wanting in many areas. For you see, she had never really fallen in love with James at all. She still held on to her previous love, a man that she blamed herself for casting away.

“Now, several weeks before her marriage to James, she met her first love in Diagon Alley. He was just how she remembered him, and she could not have loved him more. He, on the other hand, was not quite sure how he felt about her. After all, she had spurned him in pursuit of James and had not forgiven him even after he had apologized many times to her. There was also the fact that she was engaged and added with that, he was a Death Eater. But when he saw his beloved’s tears, he took her away to a place where they could talk without being seen.”

“Albus,” Remus pleaded quietly when he saw Severus’s face crumple into misery and despair over the narrative.

“Alone,” Dumbledore went on as though he had not heard Remus at all, “the two talked of many things; about the past, the present, and the future. Lily soon found that she could not see herself living without this man and declared boldly that she loved him more than anyone else in the world. Likewise, the man also declared his utmost devotion and love. The two began to meet privately while James was away in auror training. As you can imagine, a love as fierce as Lily and her lover’s could not be demonstrated by words only, and they soon fell into temptation.

“While committing the sin of love, James happened upon them and was outraged,” Dumbledore’s face took on the look of concern and sorrow. “Finding his rival and his fiancé together was too much, and in a fit of rage drug off his rival, leaving Lily alone and he obliviated the Death Eater’s mind. James was going to send Lily’s lover to Azkaban after, but while the he was obliviating the Death Eater’s mind, the other man somehow broke free of the mind spell and fled.

“James married Lily a few days later, leaving Lily to believe that her lover was dead. And when she conceived a son soon after, at first no one was surprised. But while James believed he had won, that he had been victor, Lily and her lover were the real victors. For you see, the son that she carried was not the son of James Potter, but the son of her lover, Severus Snape.”

Both Severus and Remus sat a bit stunned; Severus because he had not remembered how he had actually become Harry’s father, and Remus because the whole idea that James Potter was not Harry’s father had never even entered into his head. Looking over at Snape and Harry, Remus just stared at the pair for a very long moment, trying to wrap his mind around the idea that the baby in the other man’s arms was really the boy he knew and had taught, and the fact that that boy had never been James Potter’s son, but Snape’s.

Severus sat pensively, going through the story in his head, trying to recall something from his time with Lily, but he could not. Maybe Dumbledore had something that could take or use to regain those precious lost memories? Perhaps it was time to ask for help…at least this once. After all, he wanted to know every detail so that he could explain how he and Lily had gotten together when Harry was old enough to understand.

Still trying to figure everything else, Remus kept shaking his head. “What?” he asked, the shock still clear in his voice. “S-Severus, what is the Headmaster talking about?” he looked over desperately at the other man willing the Potions Master to discredit the old man’s story.

Sitting up straighter in his chair, Severus looked down his nose at the werewolf before him. “Did you not hear him?” he spat. “He told you plain as day; Harry is my son, and I’ll be damned before I let you or anyone else take him from me.”

Remus’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted. Albus levitated Lupin onto a couch where he could sleep until the Headmaster could have a talk with him. “I’ll tell him to keep it secret, Severus,” he reassured the rather ridged looking father.

“See that he does,” Snape snarled before turning on his heels and racing down into the safety of the dungeons, all plans of telling the Headmaster about the lack of the lightning bolt scar forgotten.

Frowning, Albus watched the younger wizard storm away. It was going to be extremely hard to get Harry away from Severus now, but deep down Dumbledore knew Snape had a right to know the full story. But he would figure something out once Harry turned back to normal.

Sitting down at his desk, Dumbledore took out the letter from St. Mungo’s and reviewed it. “Within the next week,” the Headmaster said to himself. “Then all will be back to normal.”