Daddy Dearest

Prologue - That Halloween Night

Halloween 1981

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off-"

Her eyes filling with tears, Lily Potter took her son and scrambled out of the room just before the door burst open and Lord Voldemort entered with a cackle of high-pitched laughter. She couldn't hear what was said, just the noises made by a very few destructive spells cast by her husband before he hit the ground with an all-too audible thump, dead. Footsteps came only a moment later and Lily frantically tried to get away, but she wasn't fast enough. She dropped to the floor, physically protecting her son.

"Give me the child, girl, and I'll let you live." Live? How could she, without James? How could she, if she gave this... monster... their son?

"Not Harry!" she pleaded. "Not Harry! Please -- I'll do anything!"

"Stand aside," Voldemort demanded, obviously irritated. "Stand aside, girl!"

"Crucio!"

She started screaming as soon as the curse touched her. It was like n pain she'd ever experienced before, like thousands of white-hot knives being slid into her...

"Give me the boy..."

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now...."

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead -- Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy...."

"I can kill two as easily as one..." Voldemort said, smiling cruelly. "Avada Kedavra."

Lily squeezed her eyes shut, fully expecting to die... she felt the curse come, but then lift off her and her son, somehow. Then there was a scream, a high, terrible scream, and a great exploding of magic around her. When she finally looked around, she was in the middle of the ruins that had one been her home, her husband's corpse in what was left of the next room. She ran to him with their son, halfway lifting his body, crying and rocking him, their son crying beside her, the Dark Mark in the sky above what had been their house, cast before James Potter's murder.

A little more than an hour later, Lily heard footsteps running toward her. She tensed slightly, but ignored them, not caring if they killed her.

"Lily?" a familiar voice asked. "Lily, what happened?"

Lily stood with her son in her arms, tears streaming down her face. "He came, Sirius, Voldemort came! He killed James!"

Sirius inhaled sharply, and then pulled Lily to him. "At least you and Harry are still alive, Lil, I thought-" his voice cracked, and they stood there together, sobbing, her for the loss of her love, and him for the man who had been a brother and packmate to him.

Two Years Later

"Do you, Lily Evans Potter, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, and promise to keep him and to cherish him, in sickness or in health, as long as you both shall live?"

"I do." There was little warmth in Lily's voice as she said those two words for the second time. She had been so excited the first time, but now she was a widow with a three-year-old son. Her husband had been murdered, and then there had been an attempt made on her life, as well as her son's. There was little life left in her, though she had improved greatly since her bridegroom had begun courting her.

"And do you, Severus Quniton Snape take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, and promise to keep her and cherish her, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

"Do we have the ring?" A slightly stony-faced groomsman leaned down and pushed his three-year-old godson towards his mother and new step-father. Little Harry Potter went to his mother, carrying the cushion with the rings.

Severus gave the boy a slight, thin-lipped smile and took the more delicate ring, placing it gently but firmly on his new wife's finger. He knew he had to be very gentle with her. She was still mourning her husband's death, even with this blatant sign that she was moving on.

Lily took the other ring from her son blankly, putting it on her second husband's finger. She loved him, she always had, even when she was married to James, but she loved James more. There had never been any question of that, from the first moment that she discovered that she loved James.

"You may kiss the bride."

Severus Snape was trembling slightly as he lifted his wife's vale and kissed Lily Evans Potter-Snape.

One Year Later

Severus Snape stood by his wife, holding her hand as she gave birth. Finally a wail tore the air.

"It's a girl."

Severus smiled at his wife, brushing strands of sweat-soaked dark red hair out of her pale, wan face. "What shall we name her, love?"

Lily smiled at the little girl she was handed. "Lenora."

Severus smiled. "Lenora Snape it is."

Moments later the doctor pulled him aside. "Lenora is perfectly healthy, but Lily's fading fast. We don't know if we can save her, but we need you to leave."

Hours Later

"She's dying," the doctor told Lily's assembled family and friends. "There's nothing we can do for her. There's no real will to live. It was all she could do to live three years and bare a second child. She's asked to see her family and the Marauders."

Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and little Harry Potter filed silently into Lily's room.

"Harry..."

"Yes Mummy?"

"Promise me you'll be good for Severus."

"I will, Mummy. I love you."

"I love you, too, Harry." She turned her attention to the two remaining Marauders. "Do get along with Severus."

"We will," Remus answered. Sirius was crying to hard to speak, and Remus barely managed to choke out the words. They all loved Lily... all but the traitor, Wormtail.

"Don't teach Harry too fast. He'll be a little Marauder no matter what, but maybe he can make it to Hogwarts before he gets to be too much like his father."

"We'll do our best."

"Severus."

Her husband was instantly at her side, holding her hand tightly in his as tears streamed down his face. "Yes, Lily?"

"Be good to them. Harry and Lenora, and Sirius and Remus. Don't run from them because they're mine."

"I won't, Lily," Severus promised, barely even whispering. "I love you."

"I love you." Then her emerald eyes lost their focus, and she was no longer looking at her second husband. "I love you. I'm coming. Not Harry, not yet. Severus and Sirius and Remus will take care of him for now. He'll come later, and Severus and Lenora. Severus and I had a daughter. Yes, we named her after my mother; I didn't let up on that. Yes, she's lovely, you couldn't tell that the two of them only share a mother." Suddenly Lily stopped talking and drew a shuddering breath. "I'm coming now, James," she whispered harshly. "I'm coming." Then she died.