With little recollection of going to sleep, Severus suddenly awoke in an unfamiliar bed surrounded by a room he did not recognize.

Before panic could settle in, his obsidian gaze noticed that the room to belonged in St. Mungo's, though he didn't have a clue as to how or why he had woken in such a place.

It wasn't a very large room and consisted of two beds, a small table between them, and a wooden chair on the other side of the room. To his left, Severus saw a pale curtain hiding the exteriors of the window, and to his right...was a rather unnatural and entirely unwelcome sight.

Harry Potter was on his back with cream-coloured sheets covering his body, which mirrored how Severus was in his own bed. He could not detect any obviously injuries and that visual fact only added to the concerning mystery of why they were at the magical hospital.

The boy was asleep but was stirring slightly as Severus looked away and tried to work out what had happened.

The teenager's eyes flew open and his wide gaze darted around the strange room as Harry wondered what was going on and where he was. Upon spotting his hated professor in the other bed, a frown formed on the Gryffindor's face as he had the urge to leave as soon as he could talk to someone familiar who could explain his own confusion.

'Wh-?' Harry gasped his feeble attempt at a question when the other man suddenly raised a hand in warning, effectively silencing the boy.

Snape's alarmed stare was a very worrying sight for Harry to observe in the expression of a usually flawlessly reserved and calm man. Following Snape's line of focus, Harry looked over at the occupant that sat in the only chair in the entire room.

A woman with red hair falling about her face was seated with her head slumped forward as she slept in what appeared to be a very uncomfortable position.

Her facial features were mostly hidden from sight by her hair and the brief shadows of the dimly lit room; Harry couldn't even guess at who she might be and wondered why she had captured Snape's attention so profoundly.

Looking over at his professor, Harry had an unsettling feeling that Snape did know this person as there was a sense of recognition and caution about the way the man eyed her.

Severus made a move to leave his bed but growled when he became aware of the invisible but strong spell that was in place to ensure that he did not leave the bed or set foot on the likely cold floor below.

Sitting upright, Severus reached his hand towards the table where he spotted his wand; a gasp from the woman in the chair caused his movements to freeze as Severus nervously turned to look at her.

She yawned and stretched with a slight wince before her bright, emerald eyes lifted from the floor and trailed over to the bed where she noticed that both of the other occupants in the room were now awake.

'Harry!' Lily exclaimed and rushed to the boy's side.

The teenager had realized who she was and loosely accepted the tight, warm embrace from the woman as an expression of disbelief, hope and shock filled his features.

Severus snatched his wand and ended the charm in which had previously prevented his escape from the too-soft bed.

Wary of any injuries he may have, Severus slowly slid into standing position on the floor and felt confident when no pain coursed through him, though he felt a little weakened and unnaturally calm.

Staring down at the hospital attire he wore, Severus quickly transfigured it into his usual robes and looked over at the other bed again.

He focused on the impossible and somewhat envious sight of Lily hugging her only son. Severus tensed and cast numerous spells at her with the intention of finding out who this impostor was.

'Severus Snape!' Lily turned around quickly and frowned at him, causing him to pause for a moment and take a step backwards in reaction.

'That is no way to treat your wife who has missed and worried about you for months, is it?' She placed her hands on her hips and scowled at him.

 Behind her, Harry made a choking sound at the word “wife” and tried to shake such a think from his mind, convinced that he'd heard it wrong.

That word had a different impact on Severus, who had not been expecting such a thing that he had though to only exist in the deepest, most guarded sections of his imagination; the shock of it caused him to actually drop his wand.

'Mum?' Harry swallowed and decided to pretend away Snape as much as he could while only focusing on the woman.

'Are you r-real?' He struggled to ask and ignored the snort that came from Snape nearby.

The man had resumed his spell-casting, though a tad more discreetly this time.

'Of course it's me.' Lily said with worry marking her features. She waved her wand at Severus to shield herself from further magical assessments.

'What has gotten into you pair?' She asked

Her enthusiasm towards the fact that they had awoken was replaced with concern and uncertainty. Both Severus and Harry felt guilty at this as though her unhappy gaze alone was enough for them to be held responsible for it.

Severus watched her for a moment and mused over the well-known fact that he would normally lunge at the person who dared to pretend to be Lily, in a fit of justified rage with his wand held at the throat, yet he could only glare at the person who had been so near him with that face and voice.

He'd have cursed that impostor for so much of breathing near he boy Severus had sworn to protect, and yet...he couldn't. Those ineffective revealing spells he had cast moments earlier was all his mind could comprehend with, because something wasn't right.

'Sir?' Harry stared as Snape swayed and looked a bit disorientated.

The woman who looked like his mother but couldn't possibly be so, had clearly cast a hovering spell on the man to make sure Snape landed on the bed rather then the floor.

'Who are you?' Harry watched the woman once he was sure Snape was unharmed, though he didn't know why he cared so much for the greasy git's wellbeing.

He wished with prayers and hope that this woman was real and somehow – even though Dumbledore had always said it wasn't possible – his mother had been returned to him.

The door to the small room opened and an aging wizard walked inside. He had his wand in one hand and was spelling diagnostics as he entered before he took a chance to look over his patients more thoroughly.

Severus was on his side, glaring at everyone in the room, and Harry sat still as he was emotional but tried very hard to remain otherwise.

'They do not believe it is really me.' Lily told the healer with a sad sigh.

'Memory loss and profound confusion is a common side-effect of what they had been through as well as the medications in which aided their recovery.' Healer Johnson nodded to her as he approached the boys more formally.

'What do you remember?' He asked them.

Harry frowned as he had not though upon anything before he had woken and now that he was asked to tell it, he wasn't really sure how they had gotten to this point.

He recalled the events of his third year at Hogwarts that led to saving Sirius...and that was bout it. Right up until the moment in which Sirius had flown into the sky on the similarly-rescued hippogriff, Harry could not remember anything beyond that point.

Worried, Harry looked over at Snape and hoped that his hated professor might have more information to share. A man like Snape would surely know what was going on or how they ha ended up in a place that Harry could only assume to be a magical hospital.

Yet, Snape appeared as lost as Harry did and remained just as silent.

'It is the beginning of July, 1994.' Johnson explained.

While he spoke, Lily returned to the chair she had been resting in and sank against it; she was very tired and still anxious about the situation.

'At the end of November last year, you and three other students were seen on the grounds of Hogwarts late at night.' Johnson said to Harry.

'You were apparently chasing a rat – now known to be escaped convict, Peter Pettigrew – into the forest and confronted a werewolf.' He said with disapproval.

Harry and Severus tried to pretend that this information wasn't new to them; in a way it wasn't as they knew most of the tale, yet certain details were quite different.

Johnson said it had occurred in November rather then many months later. They also wondered who the third student was as it had only been Ron and Hermione alongside Harry that night. Plus, the location had been the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade for the most part instead of the forest (though Harry said nothing about the time traveling aspect in which id involve Hermione and himself hiding out there while they waited for the opportune moment).

'Aurors James Potter and Sirius Black arrived at the scene to capture the dangerous criminal.' Johnson continued, earning a collective gasp from Harry and a growl from Severus at that news.

'I believe Harry convinced them to uphold their duty of justice rather than...the alternative.' The healer shook his head; he had heard how close the Aurors had been to killing Pettigrew before Harry stepped in with the suggestion of taking Pettigrew to the castle instead.

'Severus, I was told that you had been visiting the castle at the time. You must have heard the commotion on your way across the grounds, because you hurried to provide assistance in the situation.' Johnson turned to his other patient.

He failed to notice the deepened frown from the man (Severus...help Potter and Black? Not likely), and the way Harry rolled his eyes (sure, Snape was going to “help”...yeah right).

'I don't know much more part from the crucial fact that Dementors had swooped down on everyone shortly after. I was told it was a number in the near hundreds. Harry, James and Sirius had worked together to get rid of them while Severus prevented Pettigrew from escaping.' The Healer glanced at Lilly, who nodded in agreement to what had been said of those events.

'Two hours later I rushed to the Hogwarts Hospital Wing at the urgent request of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.' Johnson added. 'He said that the pair of you had collapsed from an unknown cause.' He said to Harry and Severus.

'We were unable to wake either of you and could only determine that whatever had caused your states of unconsciousness had something to do with the linking of your minds, perhaps an occurrence connected to the Dementors attack – few have survived such an onslaught from those creatures and therefore we had little to go by and were out of our depth in knowledge.' He sighed.

'In the end, we had no choice but to wait to see if either of you would wake up on your own. From what I can tell, you're both perfectly healthy and there are no lingering consequences from your ordeals.' Johnson said in a baffled tone.

'Perhaps you simply required time in which to heal?'

Severus, having found his strength again (why was it that he felt so sluggish if he was “perfectly healthy”, huh?), sat upright and frowned deeply at the healer. He shook his head and refused to believe anything he was being told.

'I have no memory of such events in which you have detailed.' Severus said.

'You have been misinformed. I am the Potions Master at Hogwarts and this brat is the son of Lily and James Potter.'

He ignored the inhale of breath from the woman he still deemed to be nothing more nor less than a cruel attempt of trickery.

'It's true.' Harry jumped into the conversation. 'When I as a baby, my parents were killed by Voldemort.'

He agreed with Snape for the first time in his life. And right now the man's unhappy presence was the only thing in which Harry was familiar with and knew how to deal with.

'Voldemort killed my dad and then tried to kill me, but mum refused to stand aside.' Harry ducked his head to avoid the tearful expression from the woman who looked just like his photos; it hurt him too much to see it.

'He killed her too and I somehow survived.' Harry sighed. 'I ended up with th Dursleys.' Harry frowned but was determined to tell them the truth of things to help understand why everything seemed so off.

'I didn't even know I was a wizard until Hagrid rescu-erm, I mean, gave me my letter.' Harry felt Snape watching him carefully and stopped talking as he blushed about almost slipping how he had been stuck on rock with his crazy relatives because Hagrid had come to save him.

He also didn't think his mum would want to hear those things, even if she might not be his real mother.

'He was sorted into Gryffindor and has been disrespectfully causing trouble ever since.' Severus finished.

'I have not!' Harry protested and didn't want to look bad in front of those in the room, apart from his annoying professor, of course, who didn't seem capable of thinking otherwise.

'I just...it seems to follow me around.' He blushed at what his own his ears perceived as a pathetic sounding alternative to what Snape had said of him, however true it may mostly be.

'Have you ever heard of a Djinn?' Johnson broke the silence with his serious question once the pair had finished their brief explanations.

'A...what?' Harry stared at the healer.

'It is a creature of muggle myth.' Severus answered and was glad to ignore the boy further.

'Muggles once feared that it had the power to place them into a deep sleep in which they would be unaware of merely dreaming of the lives they had longed for. They thought to have no realization to the falsehood, all whilst the creature slowly drained their blood over a period several days.'

'Gross.' Harry pulled a face.

'Yes, that is what their myth says.' Johnson nodded. 'It was brought about by own own kind, actually; though the creature itself does not exist, there is a spell in which mimics what they thought the Djinn capable of. There are two varieties: Either it does as the myth said – place a person into a seep sleep where they dream of the life they had always wished for, or it does the opposite – force a magical coma in which the victim dreams of losing those they love the very most and are forced to live without them.' He nodded.

'It appears as though you have both experienced the latter.'

'But I remember my life up until now.' Harry only found this new information to make things more confusing than they had been before. 'How can all that be possible?'

'Because the magical coma can fade your current memories and replace them with recollections of a life you never even lived.' Johnson explained.

Lily was silently watching the scene as he spoke, and Severus mentally struggled over the possibilities handed to his logic and thought process.

'It has been seven months since the spell was cast, likely from one of the most dangerous and desperate of the Dementors, and each month was two years in your minds, which had somehow become linked and therefore you both endured the loss of someone familiar while being haunted by the very person responsible: Voldemort.' The healer said.

'You are both fine now that you have awoken and the spell has worn off, if it was indeed the cause.' He added. 'You may each go home whenever you wish. From here onwards it will be an adjustment period and I'm confident that everything will fall back into place once you're surrounded by something more familiar and personal then a hospital ward.' Johnson smiled.

The healer glanced over at Lily and requested a word with her, which she agreed to and complied. Harry and Severus watched the pair eave the room while they tried to comprehend what the healer had told them.

The teenager gasped when – with such speed Harry couldn't have imagined – Snape was suddenly at his bedside and glaring down at him.

'This is mere possibility, Potter.' Severus warned the hopeful boy. 'None of this may be real either. For now we are required to play along with this absurdity until such a time in which further information can be uncovered.'

'Yes, sir.' Harry nodded.

He didn't care about any of that; as long as he had his mother and a home, so what if it was fake? As long as he could stay there for as long as he liked, of course. Harry also knew it would be loads better if Snape wasn't around as well and wished the man would just go away.

'Hang on,' Harry gulped. 'Mum said you-you were...her-' He shook his head with anger. 'No, she's my mother!'

Harry had no intention of sharing his regained parent with the greasy git he hated. Snape would just ruin things. Besides, his father and Sirius were around somewhere too and Harry wanted to get to know them better but knew Snape hated them as well.

Severus said nothing as such a fact of being Lily's husband had already reformed in his mind; here, in this place, he was married to Lily – something he had always wanted.

Yet there was the major aspect in which he had never factored into his imagination as he glared down at the boy for a moment.

'Yes, Potter.' Severus smirked in an effort to cloak his own annoyances and shock, giving off the delusion that he was as calm as always. Which wasn't true...he was never calm.

'However, you shall have to deal with it because like it or not...we are a family.' Severus enjoyed the look of horror on the boy's face as the teenager also picked up on the fact that the marriage also meant that Harry was a Snape.

Even as a shudder at having such a brat as his son, threatened his composure, Severus couldn't help noticing how foreign the word “family” had sounded when he'd voiced it.

There was the presence of brief sympathy as Severus looked down at Harry for a moment and realized that it was something they both no longer had, but had longed for with the same redheaded witch that was no conversing nearby. Both boy and man had lost her at the hand of Voldemort and been marked...

'Ack!' Harry flinched when he saw Snape's hand reach for him out of nowhere.

He fought back the urge to defend himself once the teenager realized that he wasn't being attacked. For a very fleeting moment, the Gryffindor could only sit frozen as Snape's oddly soft and warm hand reached to Harry's forehead.

'It is gone.' Severus simply stated and withdrew his hand from the boy's fringe.

'What is?' Harry panicked as he felt his head for something that was missing.

Clutching the handhold mirror Snape had just conjured, Harry peered into it and moved his hair around to find what the man had seen.

It was his lightning-shaped scar...or rather, where it would have been and yet was not.

'Are u ready to go home, sweetheart?' Lily smiled as she approached Harry's bed.

Harry quickly dropped his hands as though looking at his own head was something that people frowned upon and considered forbidden.

'Sev?' Lily turned to her husband.

She was concerned but showed signs of being much more at ease then she had been before she'd spoke to Johnson. Something he'd said to her must have helped.

'I require use of the facilities.' Severus answered.

He looked away from those emerald eyes and swallowed at the use of his old, once-cherished nickname in which Lily had been the only one to ever call him by. He crossed the room to the bathroom door and shut it behind himself as he spelled it locked.

Severus paused and leaned against the cool wood for a moment, hearing only his own heartbeat and the brat asking questions about the house and other nonsense that should be much less important to anyone, considering the situation they were in.

With strong ounces of hesitancy, Severus lowered his gaze to his left forearm and inched back the material covering it. He stared at the skin and remember how the Dark Mark had been only barely visible; it had been getting darker and more painful in the past few months.

And yet in this strange place where Lily was alive and Potter was his son without a scar...the mark of evil branded on his skin was also absent.

Looking into the mirror above the bathroom sink in which he clutched with both hands, Severus saw no changes in his appearance other than the way his hair looked cleaner and his face was less haunted.

 It made no sense and he was certain that none of this could possibly be real, not with so many year of turmoil and fighting he had endured long before he had even lost Lily. Johnson had said that the past fourteen years weren't real, but what of the events prior?

Or were they also false creations that served only to provide a background to those agonizing years that followed?

'Sec, are you okay?' Lily's voice reached him through the door and instantly he began to relax.

It was a sound Severus thought he would never hear again, like a musician hearing a personal tune he could never mimic.

Dealing with the Brat-Who-Annoyed-Him was a small sacrifice for living as Lily's husband and without the Dark Lord constantly plaguing him.

Opening the door with his usual lack of warning, Severus nodded at the mildly startled Lily and stepped from the bathroom.

Severus noticed the boy shoving aside a set of privacy curtains that had only recently been around the bed. Harry was now dressed in a pair of jeans, a dark blue long sleeved shirt and a pair of new sneakers.

Severus could only roll his eyes at how proud the teenager was to be wearing them.

Lily grasped her son's hand with her right and her husband's with her left. She smiled as they followed her out of the ward as they continued to leave the building itself, heading for the aparation point in which would serve to help take them home.

A few feet from it, however, Lily stopped and turned to face the boys while biting lightly on her lip.

'Mum?' Harry was worried when her eyes teared up. He had already accepted that this was his mother and everything was real, just different and would take some getting used to.

He didn't care if Snape had told him otherwise.

'Lily?' Severus added.

He wondered what had gone wrong already or if he had made a mistake somewhere along the line that was now the blame for her sadness.

'No, I'm alright.' Lily laughed as another tear slid down her cheek.

'It's just...it's been seven months and I was so worried about the both of you.' She swallowed and wrapped one arm around Harry while the other embraced Severus.

'Promise me that neither of you will ever scare me like that again!' Lily mock-scolded at them with small smile on her face, though it was hidden from their view.

'Don't ever leave me.'

'I promise.' Harry said automatically.

He placed his head on his mother's shoulder and melted to the one thing he had frequently cried for as a small child – a loving hug from his own mother.

Severus inhaled Lily's scent as she stepped close and he jumped when she was suddenly hugging him with one arm. He froze and stared down at her red hair and the emerald eyes that were welled with tears before she pressed her soft cheek against his.

Despite what he had warned the boy, Severus could not help wrapping Lily close and breathing in her scent once again as he felt the tender warmth of her living breathing form.

'I shall not leave you, Lily.' Severus had whispered before he could stop himself.

For a long moment, Harry and Severus forgot about the other as they hugged the woman they loved with every fiber of their being and were immeasurably thankful to be reunited with. They felt it was deserved after being without her for what felt to be a harsh lifetime filled with unfair coldness enveloped with darkness and unhappy trials that were beyond their control.

The pair may have noticed the absence of the marks given to them by Voldemort, but Harry and Severus were yet to realize a few other facts: such as how Harry's eyes no longer required glasses to see and did not match his mother's emerald colour, instead they were identical orbs of obsidian in which he had inherited from his father.

While the small family grouped with relief and loving reunion in the middle of a muggle street, time seemed to reach a standstill as neither indicated that they would be moving for a while.

Severus and Harry never had a family to love them unconditionally and that would always be there for them...and now they were about to realize just how much hard work actually went into achieving such a promise they previously could only dream of.

With Lily returned to them and a home that awaited their arrival, the pair almost forgot that the one person they had loathed the most was also a part of such a journey to happiness.

What Harry and Severus may consider to be a terribly unfair burden and harsh reminder of reality, would perhaps turn out to become one of the biggest blessings of all.

Assuming that when it came to Severus and Harry moving on from their bitterness and resentment to reach and share a common longing...that such a thing was even possible.