Summary: Severus Snape was once a Death Eater until he turned spy, and it led to him being indebted to Albus Dumbledore with a single promise he had uttered. That he would do anything for the older wizard, not even knowing what it meant besides it being him making the promise as a desperate man to try and save the woman he loved more than anything. But now he has an infant daughter who carries the name of the woman that Severus would always love.

Light in the Darkness

Prologue

Severus Snape, a youth that had once had nothing but a future of darkness, had once held to a single light to allow some hope. But now it had been a week since the woman he had loved with everything that he was had been killed by the dark lord. Both she and her husband had been killed in the attack, and yet their son, Harry Potter, had survived. Yes, the one that he loved was none other than Lily Potter who in their youth had been known as Lily Evans. Her flame red hair always had held a halo around it when the sun kissed at her as the light in her emerald green eyes always seemed to reflect any emotion she had been feeling. They danced with her laughter, and then a dangerous flame took over when she was angered.

Though now he sat before the fire in the sitting room of his house as he stared into the flames, for the last week he had been numb, even more so since today was the day his beloved would be put to rest and he would never again even see her face. He had tried to go to the service to say his farewell but he was not allowed to due to how he was one seen as a death eater and he could not contradict it due to how some of Voldemort's faithful were still at large and would tear him to shreds should he openly admit that he had been the one to tip off the Potters that they had been on the dark lords list for him to kill personally. 'All because of the damned prophecy!' Severus thought bitterly as he slowly turned his head to the side.

When he looked toward the window that had the curtains drawn except to allow a small sliver of glass to be seen, he saw in that slit his reflection. A pale drawn face with a hooked nose. His black hair hung in a slight mess about his face due to how today he had ran his hands through his slightly grown out black hair several times as he silently raged over the death of Lily. 'The dark lord was supposed to spare her! Why did she have to die? Why Lily…' he thought as he once again brought his hands up as he rested his face in the palms of his hands as he knew his onyx colored eyes were blood shot from how he had cried in secret since he had found out Lily had died along with her husband.

Though he soon heard a small chime, which meant someone was trying to contact him through the Floo Network. He spoke in a voice that was beyond harsh due to how he had been silently and even at times loudly crying and begging any entities that may exist to explain to him why she had to die. Though the sound of the chime did not die away even when he bellowed that he did not wish to be disturbed. Though soon a head appeared in the flames, and it was the very last person that Severus wanted to see or even deal with at the moment. The headmaster of Hogwarts, the man he had sworn loyalty to only to be betrayed, Albus Dumbledore.

"Severus, I need you to open your Floo or meet me at the cemetery where Lily and James were buried in Godric's Hollow in an hour." The head of Albus Dumbledore said as Severus glared at the headmaster but the look on Dumbledore's face said it all, no room for arguing.

"Very well…" Severus grumbled as the head of Albus vanished only for Severus to draw himself up from the chair where he had been sitting and head up to his room to change his clothes and even try to clean himself up. It had been bad enough for Albus to see him in this state while looking through the Floo Network, but he would not allow himself to be seen in such as state due to how he still figured it best to allow himself to maintain the mask he had been fighting to when out in public. Within half an hour he had changed into a fresh change of black robes, washed his face and tamed his hair so it lay as it always did where it framed his face. Once he was done he disapparated to Godric's Hollow, only to find himself standing outside of the house that had once been the Potter's only a week before. Now it was a mess of ruble and in ruins from the magical discharge from the rebounding killing curse that had been meant for the Potter's son.

Severus only spent a brief moment standing there looking at the ruins before he turned on his heel and walked off toward the cemetery, his cloak billowing behind him as he walked into the hollowed place quickly spotting the two fresh graves. He slowly made his way over to them and stood at the foot of the graves as he stared at the female's name, feeling as though a hand reached inside of his chest and was clenching at his heart. She was really gone and there was no bringing her back. All due to how there was no spell that could revive the dead, and he should know. All due to how he had searched for the past week for a way to reverse the killing curse but there was none.

"Lily…" Severus whispered in a shaking voice as he fought back any tears that may betray his true feelings that he never got to express to her due to his own stupidity in his youth. "How could I call you that horrible word that pushed you away from me into Potter's arms?" his voice was even lower than a whisper as he spoke. "You may have been muggle born, but you were never a mudblood in my eyes. All because of how from the first time we met, your smile was my saving grace, the thing that granted me happiness in the darkest times of my life." Severus paused as he shook his head. "Now that you are gone, I feel that I deserve this pain, and being in darkness for how it was my stupidity that led to your death…" he clenched his fists down at his side only to hear a pop not too far from him meaning another had just arrived.

"Paying your final respects, Severus?" an all too familiar voice asked as Severus turned slightly to look toward none other than Albus Dumbledore. The man looked so refined that it was almost sickening to Severus. That and how he was wearing his light blue robes, something that Severus thought was near insulting, but with Albus he was always someone to be different. His long white hair and beard seemed almost blinding in the pale light of the late afternoon. "Thank you for coming and not causing too much of a fuss about doing so." Albus said as he walked over to stand beside Severus at the foot of the Potter's graves, it was then that Severus noticed that Albus was carrying a bundle of some kind.

"What are you carrying?" Severus asked ignoring how Albus had spoken about how he had not put up much of a fuss at meeting him here.

"Oh, this." Albus said in a casual tone as he shifted the bundle in his arms and moved the thin blanket resting over it to reveal the face of an infant that could not be any older than maybe a year at most. "I brought this girl because you are to raise her as your own." Albus said as though it was not that much of a request.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Severus ground out in frustration. "I am not right to raise a child! Especially when I do not even know who the child belongs to!" he said since he did not think he was right to raise another's child but that seemed to be what Albus was hinting at.

"You once said you would do anything for me, and that includes this." Albus said in a matter of fact tone as he held out the child to Severus. "I will not take no for an answer, because you need this girl as much as she needs you." He said as Severus seemed to not have that much fight in him due to how he had been grieving the death of Lily for the last week, so the younger man hesitantly took the child in his arms as she only shifted and continued to sleep. "Her name is to be Lillian Snape." Albus said. "I have already wrote up documentation so that she is yours. Now get on home and start packing, you are to move to a house more suited for a child and I will be sending some house elves to help with the task and with the basics of caring for the child." Albus said as he disapparated leaving a confused Severus behind.

Once he snapped out of his confused state, Severus looked down at the bundle to see that she was still sleeping so he turned on his heel and disapparated back to his house with the intent to start packing. Though even when he got back to his house he went to his room and placed the child down on his bed where she continued to sleep as he started to shrink things around his room to put into a single bag that he had. Within the hour he had packed everything only for a single house elf to appear that bowed low to him so that her pointed nose brushed the floor before she straightened showing she was wearing the typical uniform of a Hogwarts house elf with the school crest. When she was looking up at Severus it was revealed that she had large hazel eyes.

"Master Dumbledore has sent me to help Master Severus with raising his daughter." The house elf spoke confirming that it was a female.

Severus looked down at her with a neutral expression as he walked to the bed and picked up the child as he spoke to the elf. "What is your name?"

"I is Twinkle, Master Severus." The house elf, Twinkle, said as she smiled widely at her new master. Though with the introduction out of the way Twinkle came over and held out her hand to Severus who took it only for Twinkle to vanish with her new master and his child to their new home.

A/N: Yes I am back to also writing Harry Potter fanfiction. I just want to state real quick: Harry Potter does not belong to me! Only things that do are Lillian Snape, Twinkle and any others not recognized from the series by J.K. Rowling. Also as an extra note, I want to dedicate this chapter to Toraach for encouraging me to write this and put it up on here.