Harry and Toby spent the next two hours in their dormitory making their branch stand upright in a discarded cauldron filled with tinsel. After a few simple sticking charms Harry had found from one of his books, the branch rested in a vertical position.

They proceeded to decorate it with pictures of things that made them happy - this had been Toby's idea when Harry said it all had to be home-made rather than stealing ornaments from the large, proper tree they had in the common room.

'What do you have?' Toby wondered as he hung a small picture of a star on the “tree”.

'Broomstick.' Harry answered and looked down at the few of his own in his hand. 'Hogwarts, a hippogriff, and Hedwig.'

'Look, we both picked a cauldron for Potions.' Toby noticed and smiled. 'See? We're like real brothers cuz we like the same things and-and we...what's that noise?' He looked around for the source of the strange tapping that Harry had just heard as well.

'An owl.' Harry spotted the familiar owl over by the window and frowned. Sighing, he stood and opened it to snatch the mail and proceeded to ignore the bird as he stared down at the letter from Snape. And yet he hadn't even opened the other one so why would...oh. Harry just realized that this was not for his other identity, S.J.E, as the words “Potter” written on the front indicated that it was for him.

Intrigued, he tore open the envelope (barely noticing the strange crest that had sealed it), and lifted out the note while Toby busied himself with the apparent importance of decoration placement.

<blockquote>Mr Potter,

In regard to our discussion earlier, you may come proceed to my office at precisely four o'clock on the eighth of January. If you do not show up on time than I shall assume that you are no longer interested in hearing the truth.

There is no need to reply to this letter.

S.S</blockquote>

Harry could not understand nor explain it, but he experienced a strange reaction upon receiving a letter from Snape that was so clearly meant for him. Pleased by the arrangement in which would give him more knowledge about his mother, Harry stared down at Toby with a grin and decided to share the good news with the little boy.

If it wasn't for Toby, Harry would never have even though to approach Snape with such a subject.

--

Even though their would-be-tree was coming along nicely, the boys still thought it needed more decoration, and therefore after lunch they headed back to the grounds in search of pine cones in which could be added. Thinking they'd look nicer with a bit of charmed colour, Harry led a cloak-concealed Toby to the library in search of some books in which may assist them with their task.

Although Harry had been to the library at times when it had been nearly empty, there was a certain calmness yet eeriness about the grand room filled with shelves upon shelves of books when the only other occupant was its librarian, Madam Pince, who was standing over by her desk repairing a stained book. Hearing his entrance, the witch looked over at the Gryffindor and was clearly surprised to see him.

'Harry?' Irma approached him suspiciously. 'I'd have thought you'd be on holidays with your friends Weasley and Granger by now.'

'I couldn't.' Harry sighed as he walked towards the nearest line of books with Toby following closely beside him.

'Well, what brings you here? Most teenagers avoid this place like the plague during festive times.' She raised an eyebrow in a way that reminded Harry of Snape's expression. Seriously, a lot of things were reminding him of Snape, lately.

'I need a book.' Harry told her. 'One on colouring charms that can be applied to objects; it's for decoration.'

'Ah, so it is holiday related.' Irma nodded and raised her wand to summon three books that were most likely to be of use to the boy. 'Have a look through these and pick out which one you'd like to borrow.' She instructed.

'Thanks.' Harry moved to the nearest table and sat down with his bag at his feet while Toby hurried after him.

'Oof!' Toby had a loose shoelace and got it caught under his other shoe, which caused him to stumble on the hem of cloak. He tried to contain his yelp as his hands flung in front of him out of instinct and the floor flew rapidly towards him.

The small boy landed hard on the marble floor, his invisible form being exposed as the cloak flew off him and did nothing to break his fall.

'Toby!' Harry rushed forward and helped the boy into sitting position. Having banged his knee on the hard floor, the boy was in tears and struggled to keep them at bay. The teen swallowed fearfully and slowly stared over at Madam Pince who was standing a few feet away, in obvious shock.

'I-I can explain!' Harry said hurriedly while Toby crawled against him, muttering apologies and complaining that his knee hurt. 'Please, please don't tell anyone!' He ignored the tears that sprung to his own eyes as dread seized his heart and choked his lungs, enabling his mind to fill with the terrible consequences that were likely to follow their discovery.

'They-they'll send him away.' Harry clutched to his little brother, who was now sobbing against him, and stared at the witch in terror and utter sadness.

Irma could not remove her eyes from the small boy in front of her. She swallowed and saw Harry's emotional state as she slowly approached the pair and knelt before them. Cautiously, as though approaching a wild animal, she reached out a hand and brushed it through Toby's hair.

'What's your name, child?' Irma whispered.

'T-Toby.' The boy choked. 'And I'm staying with Harry!' He turned to glared at her through his tears, causing her to gasp rather loudly at the sight. For a moment the boys thought she too was about to cry.

'Y-you're alive!' Irma placed a hand over her mouth, clearly stunned and disbelieving.

'Huh?' Toby frowned and looked himself over, wondering why she would think that he wasn't.

'What do you mean?' Harry frowned at her, feeling as though he'd missed a very crucial piece of information.

'I knew your mother, Wenda Jones.' Irma said to Toby. 'She came to me when she was pregnant and told me that she was carrying my grandchild and that I...' Her face darkened. 'That I would never hold the baby, never see his or her face, and that it would be alone, unloved, and friendless, given the rare chance that she would even...' She shook her head of those horrible thoughts.

'I was told you had died during childbirth.' Irma sighed. 'I didn't even know your name, but it's clear by your face that you are the child of my son...you're my little grandson.'

'I-you're m-my grandmother?' Toby whispered and moved away from Harry, only to be pulled backwards by the protective teen.

'How do we know you're not lying?' Harry frowned as he was so certain that Toby was Snape's son, but now...how could this be possible?

'Brew a paternity potion, administer any truth serum...I swear to you it's true.' Irma nodded and regained her composure as she lifted her wand and healed Toby's knee. Seeing Harry's gaze she realized that it wasn't suspicion ruling his gaze, but the intense fear of loss.

'No, Harry...I do not know how long he has been here nor how you two even came across each other. However, I assure you that I have no intention of taking him away from you.' She said seriously, almost offensively.

'I was never the mother my son needed, therefore until he forgives me and than I can forgive myself, I am in no condition to raise another.' Irma sighed. 'Although, I would really like to get to know my grandson, if you would allow it.'

Harry began to relax as his unease faded and he absorbed the magnitude of the moment. Toby had a grandmother now, one who was perfectly fine for the boy to remain with him, as long as she got to see him from time to time. That seemed reasonable and who was Harry to deny such? It was also unnatural for an adult to grant him authority of the child, as though he truly was the guardian of the boy.

Ignoring the envy in his chest, Harry meekly nodded his head and slowly rose to his feet.

'He was at an orphanage that caught fire.' The teen explained while Toby stood as well and inched closer to him while staring up at his new family member with awe.

'He came to me through his accidental magic and I've been hiding him in my dorm since term began.' Harry said. 'I have a house-elf helping me too, and I promise I'm looking after him properly.'

'I don't doubt that.' Irma saw the happy and healthy little boy before her. 'Toby.' She mused on the name. 'I know that your father, had he ever known about you, would have wanted to name you something different.'

'What?' Toby wondered.

'Evan.' Irma smiled. 'After...after a friend he once had.' She glanced at Harry and sighed. Lily Evans; oh yes, she could never forget that bright, redheaded girl in which her son so desperately loved.

'Who's my dad?' Toby wondered while Harry thought it was best to remain silent for now.

Irma said nothing and stared at Harry as she contemplated on the answer. She knew with certainty that this child was her grandson, and yet at risk of losing everything, Irma wondered if it would be wise to tell Harry the truth.

'Please, have a seat.' She said to the boys and they obediently moved to sit at the table; the colour-charming book resting there was long forgotten.

'I am from a very ancient pureblood line. My father believed strongly that muggles were nothing but filthy leeches that should be forced into their place. I disagreed and following my graduation from Hogwarts, I set out to prove him wrong by marrying a muggle.' Irma explained. 'My real name is Eileen Prince.'

'Prince?' Harry whispered but didn't dare to interrupt, although his mind pondered on the possibility behind the name now concealed in his Potions textbook...the Half-Blood Prince.

'I married a muggle named Tobias and we had a son together.' She recalled.

'At first he was a very interesting man, always determined to learn skills in which enabled him to use his hands, such as woodwork and sculpturing. But after a while he lost a dear friend and began to drink in grief. I tried to support him although I was unsure how to as he became a different man when he drank. One night I grew quite frustrated with the money it was costing us and his unemployment. At this time my son was almost two years old. I don't know why I had waited so long, but that night I revealed to him that I was a witch by vanishing the bottles of beer in the living room.' She lowered her gaze and frowned, clearly pained by her own words and yet did not stop. It was almost as though she owed the truth to the two boys staring intently in her direction.

'Things became terrible after that. Two children such as yourselves do not need to hear the darker details, but know that we were all unhappy, poor, and hurting in more ways than one. Tobias got a job working at the factories and I was too depressed to care for my son, or even give him the attention he deserved. If anything in my life, I regret nothing more than that.' She sniffed against a handkerchief and Harry wanted to offer her some comfort but didn't know how, nor did he want to interrupt the moment.

'What happened?' Toby whispered nervously and was stunned by the things he was hearing, shivering slightly as he crawled onto Harry's lap.

'Over the years, I stopped using magic...I stopped doing a lot of things.' Irma shook her head.

'My son went to Hogwarts and grew older as I slipped further away. One day it was no use for me to continue in such a way. Tobias and my son fought one summer following his fifth year. He had lost a dear friend and unable to handle his father's mistreatment any longer, my son threatened Tobias' life with magic. We were all hurting, and yet something about the pain I saw reflecting in my teenage son's eyes caused me to do something terrible, even if it had snapped me out of my daze.'

'What did you do?' Harry frowned with worry.

'By that following morning, I was gone.' Irma inhaled sharply to keep her own emotions at bay. 'The papers announced my death six months later and by the time my son had graduated, Tobias' drinking had taken his life. My son was alone, and in being so made some very terrible choices himself. I returned to him a month after...' She glanced at Harry. 'After his friend he'd lost was killed by You-Know-Who. My son was distant and unforgiving, but I did not blame him for such. I would have been too, had my mother done nothing to help me all through my childhood and than faked her death to leave me all alone in a world of pain.'

'Did he forgive you for being mean?' Toby wondered.

'No.' Irma said heavily as that single word had far more of an impact than all of the story she'd told so far.

'We have moved past it now and see each other regularly enough, with a sense of civilizedness that makes us barely friends, but no...my son still holds that resentment deep down. I can see it.'

'You never told us his name.' Harry realized. 'Your son, I mean.'

'But you already know his name.' She replied. 'I am Eileen Prince, although my new life has given me the new name of Irma Pince, although it still spells to be “Im a Prince”. My husband was Tobias Snape.'

'Snape?' Harry's eyes widened just as dramatically as Toby gasped and clapped a hand over his mouth. 'Y-you're...'

'Yes, I am the mother of Severus Snape.' Irma nodded.

'No!' Harry rose quickly and glared at her. 'You can't be. I don't believe you, you're lying!'

'I have no reason to lie.' Irma said calmly. 'Why would I not demand you to take this small boy straight to Dumbledore? What reason would I have to care who he is? And of course, do you honestly believe someone such as myself to be foolish enough to make such a claim that, if it was false, could easily be proven so?' She narrowed her eyes at the teenager.

'You said he didn't know he had a son.' Harry swallowed as he shook his mind from what he'd just learned and focused on something else. 'Than if you knew, why didn't you tell him?'

'Wenda had told me she was pregnant and I was in shock. At the time I did not know how to approach Severus about it and therefore kept it to myself until a few months later I was told that she and her child had died. I knew she had not lied about the baby being my son's as he had confessed to me a year earlier than he had been tricked into...well, for the sake of the young ears present let's call it a...short relationship.' She said to Harry, who understood that she was referring to an intimate moment rather than an actual relationship. He shivered at the topic and did not want to think about that.

'Harry, how would you tell someone who has never had a family but always wanted one that he had been granted such, only to have it taken away?' Irma sighed. 'All I could have told my son was that the woman carrying his baby was dead, as was the child. It would ruin him completely and he had little left as it was.'

In the moment of silence that followed, Harry finally let his anger and suspicion fade away. He wasn't sure how or why, but he truly believed and trusted her words. She looked a bit like Snape, with the dark hair and eyes, while he glanced down at Toby and noticed the similar features; there was no way in which he could deny it. He should have demanded further proof, but to Harry it didn't really matter because he was sure it would all be positive anyway.

'It's really true?' Harry sighed. 'You're...you're Snape's mother and Toby really is his son?'

'I don't like him.' Toby complained. 'I don't need a dad, I have you and now I have a grandma too!' He smiled at Irma, who couldn't help but smile back at the little boy.

'Are you going to tell him?' Harry wondered. 'Now that you know Toby's alive, I mean.'

'No!' Toby tugged at Harry's clothes. 'Don't tell him! I don't like him and I don't want a dad!'

'He has the right to know.' Irma sighed in a similar manner that Harry had. 'However, perhaps we should wait until the war is over.'

The war.

Harry had almost forgotten about it.

'Yeah, okay.' He nodded and focused on the fact that right now he was in the company of Snape's mother and son. It was unnaturally weird. And yet it didn't bother him as much as it would have several months ago. His theory about Toby's parentage had been right, even as it was still quite a shock to have it confirmed in such an unpredictable manner.

'You need time to digest this information.' Irma realized. 'Please, take the books and we can discuss this whenever you're ready. Both of you.' She nodded.

'We have plenty of time for the serious things later, for now it's nearly Christmas and you boys have some decorating to do.'

'Right. Thanks.' Harry nodded and snatched the books from the table as well as his bag from the floor.

'And you won't tell anyone?' He paused by the doorway to check while he assisted Toby in replacing the cloak around himself.

'Not a soul, living or dead.' Irma nodded. 'Although, Harry...why is it that when you heard my surname you looked as though it meant something to you?' She wondered curiously, having noticed his reaction to the name “Prince”.

'Oh, I uh...found a book.' Harry shrugged. 'It said it was the properly of the Half-Blood Prince.' He pulled it from his bag and showed her the writing once he had revealed it again, although he was worried that she might take it since it really wasn't his.

'Desecrating a book.' She muttered at the sight of it. 'But yes, this is my son's handwriting.' Irma sighed. 'And he is a half-blood and a Prince.' She watched as the boy hide the writing again and clutch it to his chest protectively. 'You may keep it, of course, but do not let it near my sight or I may be tempted to fix it.'

'Thanks.' Harry nodded and nudged the invisible boy at his side. 'Um, Happy Christmas.' He added as he and Toby left the library.

Irma watched them leave with a heavy, emotional sigh. Turning, she approached a large portrait of a rain forest on the wall nearest her desk. Walking straight through the image, she entered her quarters and looked around at the warm, blue and emerald appearance of the living room. Crossing to the fireplace, she threw in some floo power and moments later she was standing in her son's private room.

'Usually one requests permission to enter ones private quarters.' Severus looked over from where he was seated at a small table nearby the deep urban leather couch, to glare at his mother.

His room was similar to her own, but with more light and less blue. It was rather spacious and grand, yet had a sense of simplicity about the entire room, which consisted of armchairs and a couch by the fireplace, a small table with two chairs not far behind it, with a kitchen nearby. Towards the right of the fireplace where Irma was standing was the door and the left had several others, one for Severus' bedroom, a bathroom, and a spare room that was never used. Near the back by the kitchen and closer to the main exit/entrance was a door to his office. There were also piles and shelves of books everywhere that were neat and yet scattered about the entire room.

'And usually one does not lie to their own mother once they have become an adult.' Irma frowned at him.

'Your motherly duties are null.' Severus scowled at her. 'However, out of mere curiosity, what is it in which I have supposedly lied to you about?'

'Do you recall when I was worried that you would become the next Dark Lord upon his downfall?' She narrowed her eyes at him. 'He too hated his muggle father, considered his pureblood mother weak for choosing such a person who unintentionally provided him with a rotten childhood.' Irma sighed at the truth that had been his own words many years ago.

'He became fascinated with the Dark Arts, was sorted into Slytherin, befriended future Death Eaters, and than upon leaving school wanted to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts class at the only place he'd ever really called home.'

'I fail to detect a lie.' Severus said very bitterly. He truly hated it when she compared him to the Dark Lord; he was nothing like him!

'Then You-Know-Who than fancied himself a new name, one in which had more meaning to him than it did the others.' She concluded as though he had not interrupted.

'When I asked you if your paths were the same, you said no. And than you promised that no such thing would occur...and that those similarities were mere co-incidence. Your blood and house were the only things from that list that you truly had in common with what you called a monster.'

'That. Is. No Lie.' Severus slowly rose from the table and frowned at her.

'You did fashion yourself a new name.' Irma pointed out. She glared when her son paused as considered her words and realized that perhaps he had been to hasty with his reply.

'The Half-Blood Prince, Severus?'

'Where did you hear that name?' Severus whispered although he knew of only once place in which he had ever made note of it.

'It doesn't matter.' Irma replied. 'I don't even know why it does now. I believe you when you say you're not like him. You-Know-Who could never have loved anyone as fiercely as you did Lily.'

'Than why do you barge upon my privacy so, mother?' Severus scowled, trying to find a point to this useless conversation that did nothing other than to emotionally injure him further.

'I was thinking about the past and there is something you should know.' Irma whispered as she lowered her gaze and than slowly raised it to meet his.

'You have been robbed, mistreated, and pained, however I have a strong feeling that by the end of this year...something you have lost will come back to you. In a way you won't expect it to.'

'Get. Out.' Severus glared. He hated her cryptic words, her seemingly random visits that never made him feel any better about anything, and most of all he just wanted her to disappear because he could never escape his past when she was around.

'Don't forget.' Irma said as she turned back to the fireplace. 'Don't ever shut your heart completely, Severus. Lily wouldn't want that.'

And than she was gone, just as he had requested, and Severus sank into the nearest chair to dwell on her parting words. Oh, she may be his mother, but how he hated her so.

--

Irma returned to her room and crossed it to the large bookcase where she tapped it three times with her wand and whispered softly to the leather books sitting there.

'Lily forgives Sev.' Irma uttered the password and watched as the books melted away to reveal a shoe box that was aged and a bit tattered. Lifting it from the shelf as though it was made of fragile gold, Irma placed it onto the nearest flat surface and peeled open the lid.

Inside was a single vial containing one of her own memories. Irma did not touch it, in fact she appeared to be quite afraid of its very existence. Long ago she had placed it inside that box and hidden it away; it had been nearly seventeen years from that month and yet Irma had never viewed it since it had been removed from her mind. Many charms surrounded it to prevent herself from daring to even touch it as she had forced herself to forget its contents entirely.

On some days she even forgot the vial itself was real.

Meeting Toby and not being able to deny how he and Harry looked so alike her son, Irma was once again tempted to summon her pensieve. She didn't though, because she had promised the person whose name was written clearly upon the label of the vial, who had made her swear to keep it a secret, even from herself.

'No, I promised.' Irma sighed as she placed the box back in it's place, where it was once again concealed, and turned away to face the fireplace.

'I cannot know, not yet, and neither can those involved with it.' Irma walked out of her quarters and returned to her duties as the Hogwarts librarian.

The vial, hidden in her private room, rolled gently onto its side from the movement and had there been any light to shine upon it, the label would have been very clear to anyone able to read it;

Lily Evans. 1979.