Chapter Text
In the deepest part of winter, in a place none of their enemies ever thought of, sheltered from the snow and ice by the thick rock walls of a mountain, blanketed by wards against spying or eavesdropping, Severus seated himself at a fire with Lily Evans, Alice Fawley (née Fawley, anyway), and Frank Longbottom, and gathered his courage.
“Next year,” he began, “Lily died, and I made a deal with Time.”
“Oh for Merlin’s sake--”
“Alice!”
Alice dodged out of the way of Lily’s lunge and hurried to add, “Of course I believe you--”
“You believe him?” Frank interrupted. “Just like that?”
“--it’s just that of course it’s nothing any of us guessed, here I thought Julie was mad with the pensieve theory--”
“Pensieve theory?” Lily demanded.
“--but of course it’s madder than than that, why wouldn’t it be madder than that, Diane’s going to have a cow--”
“Do not tell Diane on my behalf,” Severus hurried to insist.
“--no, of course I wouldn’t, but she knew it was a sucker bet, she was just trying to be nice to you since you obviously hate divination, and then Julie put in her theory--”
“ALICE!” Lily shouted, grabbing Alice’s hands and holding them still until she finally, blessedly, stopped talking. “What. The bloody hell. Are you talking about.”
Alice looked between the three of them, and for a horrible moment Severus thought she was about to laugh, but she managed to compose herself, retrieving one hand from Lily and grabbing Frank’s instead. “Frank, love,” she said gently, “yes, I believe him. Just like that.”
Severus watched Frank as Frank watched Alice, and found himself…surprisingly touched to see that the devotion and respect in his eyes had only deepened since the last time he had seen them together, at Hogwarts.
Alice gave Severus a quick, mischievous look, then went on, “You remember his reputation from school, right? Lily’s Slytherin friend, decent enough academically but nothing special, quiet, picked on a lot. No one really knew what she saw in him.”
Frank winced, and his glance at Severus was pained. “Alice…”
“It’s fine, love,” Alice reassured him, squeezing Frank’s hand and giving Severus a wink. “That’s what Sev wanted you to remember. Right?”
Severus smiled wryly. “I did not choose to be targeted,” he said, “but I did, to a certain extent, start to choose how and when I lost. And yes, that is how I hoped to be remembered.”
“We saw that he was actually kind of sweet, in an awkward way,” Alice went on, and Severus made a face. Sweet? Him? “And however he did in class, he was studying like mad - he had to be smarter than he was saying - but we didn’t really know how smart, until he got here and started sending us letters with all sorts of useful advice that was usually exactly what we needed to know and right.”
And so they had begun to theorise, Severus concluded. “I was much less circumspect once Lily and I were out of the country,” he allowed. “And you were in more danger, so...” The balance of risk had shifted.
“After the wedding is when we really realised,” Alice admitted with a shrug. She glanced at Frank, and added, “He was the one who gave me the emergency necklace. And we started comparing notes, the four of us, and realised we were all getting different really good advice.”
Frank looked at Severus with new respect, his head tilted slightly to the side as he evaluated him afresh. “That was a bloody good idea, that necklace,” he said. “We didn’t spread the trick of it around too much, but having some emergency supplies tucked away shrunk, that we did suggest. I know a few who carry a pocket for a broom now, since the new werewolf tips.”
Severus smiled thinly, all too aware that this respect and camaraderie might very soon be shattered by what he had to tell them. “I am glad I could be of some assistance,” he said coolly. “May I go on, unless Alice wishes to clarify her fascinating comment about ‘Julie's pensieve theory'?”
It was entirely clear that neither Frank nor Lily were willing to continue without hearing about Julie's pensieve theory, and under both their expectant looks, Alice caved immediately.
“It's from when we were trying to figure it out,” she explained. “I said I bet he was a seer or something, and then Diane pointed out that Sev hates divination--” she glanced at Frank and clarified: “--not just thinks the subject's stupid and annoying, like really hates the whole discipline, I mean - and she said maybe he just read a lot. Apparently there are lots of muggle novels about spying and things? Which would explain some things, but not the magic specific bits, so then Marlene said that maybe you were secretly writing spy novels, but magical ones, so you'd been researching for them--”
“Oh god,” Lily muttered, her face in her hands. “Marlene.”
Severus could picture the conversation perfectly, too. Marlene liked to come up with weird ideas like that, things that were just on the edge of plausible, and she’d string you along with a straight face for the longest time, until you almost believed she believed it. Sometimes she kept the joke going for weeks.
“Anyway,” Alice forged on, “that was Marlene’s bet, and I was so smug that my idea was definitely the most likely, and then Julie came in and said she thought you’d been tipped into a pensieve of someone who’d done this kind of war. Maybe Grindelwald’s, maybe just someone older from Britain.”
In a way, she had been correct. But then, Julie had always been insightful, and he’d shown her more of himself than most.
Lily cleared her throat. “Now that we've cleared that up,” she declared, “Sev has some things to tell you both. After I died and he came back, he did things very differently, so most of what he knows isn't useful for specifics. But…”
Severus met her glance with a wry expression of his own. “But,” he agreed. “Six days ago, in both timelines, a prophecy was made concerning ‘the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord’.”
Alice gasped, and Frank’s eyes lit up, and Severus hurriedly raised a hand to stop their questions. “Wait,” he insisted. “Let me finish. Dumbledore heard the prophecy first-hand, but in my timeline, the Dark Lord learned of it soon after, making the specified person a critical strategic target. While the Dark Lord may not yet have heard the prophecy, we must assume that he will.”
As he spoke, Frank’s expression turned thoughtful. “Why are you telling us specifically?” he asked. “Why not Dumbledore?”
Severus noted Lily’s automatic scowl with fondness, and explained coolly, “I told him last time. He achieved his goals, but I didn't care for the collateral damage.” He had begged, pleaded for Lily’s protection, and it had not escaped him that her child - the target - had lived, while she had died.
Neither Alice nor Frank were stupid people; they made the connection immediately. “Lily got caught up in it somehow,” Alice concluded. “And now you think we will?”
Severus looked between them, his face grim. Last time, if the Dark Lord had chosen them to target, he would only have been grateful. “Both Dumbledore and the Dark Lord believed there were two possible candidates for the prophecy's subject,” he said, “and one of them no longer exists.”
Lily had been, as expected, very unhappy with his unprecedented curiosity into her reproductive health, and then utterly perplexed by the idea that a version of her would choose to have a baby so young, but apparently she'd forgiven him at least a little, because now she took the lead to explain, “Last time, I was married by now, and expecting a baby.”
Alice’s right hand dropped to cover her abdomen, her left grasping Frank’s. “A - Your baby was the one in the prophecy?”
“Born to those who had thrice defied him,” Severus quoted. “Born as the seventh month dies.”
Alice's hand spasmed around Frank’s, her knuckles white. “If there's any more bad news, tell us now and then give us a minute,” she said quickly. “I can't…”
What was essential? What was bad news, other than all of it? “Lily and her husband went into hiding with the baby, under Dumbledore's protection,” Severus told them. “Their location was discovered - revealed or betrayed, I don’t know - and the Dark Lord personally attacked them on the Hallowe’en after the baby turned one. Lily and her husband died in the attack. I found no body for the baby or for the Dark Lord, but from the evidence, I believe the Dark Lord was destroyed, and the baby collected by someone else before I arrived.” The Dark Lord would never have left his wand behind, and there was no sign of damage or injury in the baby’s crib. Someone - other than him - had either followed the Dark Lord, received an alert, or been thinking of Lily and Potter at the right time to realise they remembered their location again, and had taken the child away.
Lily took in the expressions on Alice and Frank’s faces and stood, tugging Severus along with her. “We’ll be in the corridor,” she said. “When you want us back, just shout.”
Alice and Frank left Dragehiet the next morning, with Severus’ notes on the prophecy, a suggested code for any letters organising further travel, and a last few words of advice:
“Trying to keep something absolutely secret attracts attention. Just keep the pregnancy private until you're showing, and anyone you tell, tell them you're due in August.”