Written for Mabonwitch at the Snupin_Santa Fic exchange on LJ. This takes place just after Voldemort's initial defeat. I also messed with the timeline a bit. Per canon, Frank and Alice Longbottom were attacked after James and Lily died. In this fic, I place it earlier, before the death of the Potters. Keep in mind also, that Severus and Remus are only twenty-one. I believe the years in between the wars made Snape more bitter, more weary and cold, so he's just a tad more forgiving here, though still very snarky. Usual disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns everything recognizable as Harry Potter. I own nothing except the twisted ideas (and the boys on the weekends) and make no money from manipulating their destinies.

Albus Dumbledore sat in a gothic, throne-like chair, fingers steepled, and listened intently to the solicitor's crisp speech.

"This is highly irregular, Mister Dumbledore. It seems that, while there were two separate wills in effect for both Potters, each had a different stipulation with regards to their child." The portly gentleman glanced between the two sheaves of parchment. "The situation is delicate, to say the least."

Reining in his irritation, Albus gave him a small smile. "Why don't you just fulfil your duties, Mister Buttermore?"

Clearing his throat, Richard Buttermore—solicitor to Muggle and wizard-folk alike—read aloud the Last Will and Testament of Lily Potter.

"I, Lily Potter, née Evans, being of sound mind and judgment this tenth day of October, in the year nineteen eighty-one, do hereby revoke all former Wills and testamentary disposition made by me under the law of England and Wales and declare that the proper law of this, my Will, shall be the law of England and Wales. I appoint my spouse, James Potter, to be the Executor and Trustee of this, my Will. In case the aforesaid shall die in my lifetime, then I appoint the firm of Buttermore, Hagerty and Blishwick to fill the vacancy in the office of Executor and Trustee hereof. If nobody with parental responsibilities survives me, I appoint Mister Severus Tobias Snape to be the guardian of Harry James Potter. This shall circumvent any efforts to place minor children with my estranged Muggle family. The time frame allotted for the transition should not exceed one month. Should these conditions fail entirely, be denied, or be declared void, let it be known that precautions have been taken to have Harry Potter removed from the Wizarding community permanently, and all contact betwixt him and said community should cease. These are my final wishes."

"Interesting," Albus drawled, scratching his chin.

Buttermore nodded. "Her husband's appendices read much the same way."

Arching a brow, the old wizard scoffed. "I highly doubt James Potter would wish for custody of his only child to go to Severus Snape."

"In that, you are correct, he didn't. That is where the irregularity comes into play."

"Go on."

Switching to the other parchment, Buttermore summed up James Potter's Will. "Well, as I said, it is practically the same, barring the guardian. He names Mister Sirius Black as Harry's guardian and promises retribution in kind, if his wishes are not met."

"A quandary, indeed."

Buttermore mopped his sweaty brow with a linen handkerchief. "I cannot guess as to her reasoning for changing her Will. A junior solicitor must have handled Mister Potter's request, as I know I myself saw Mrs. Potter during October. It is the only way I can account for such an oversight."

Dumbledore stood and paced slowly in the smallish office. "Quite." He stopped for a moment to gaze out one of the windows at the passersby on the street. "There are several factors to consider here. Barring the fact that Severus Snape and Sirius Black loathe each other, Mister Black is currently within the confines of Azkaban and very unlikely to be released."

"So they have convicted him, then?"

Glancing over his shoulder, Albus nodded. "It would seem so."

"Dumbledore," Buttermore hedged, "We may have to find an alternative to Black."

"How will that resolve this situation, Buttermore? As it stands, Harry is with his aunt at the moment. According to Lily's will, I have just twenty days to turn him over to Snape, or the boy will be taken from the Wizarding world. That cannot be allowed to happen; you know how precious that child is."

Lips thinned, Buttermore pointed to James' Will. "And if you don't hand him over to Black within the same timeframe, he'll be removed from the Muggle world and whisked off to Merlin knows where, with the same results." He sat back in his leather wingback chair. "Let me send someone to visit Black, to see if there is an alternative since he's incapacitated."

"Do it, then." Albus grunted and reached for his Muggle dress-coat. "The sooner that child is safe, the better I'll feel."

Severus Snape stood rigidly before the man who had claimed that he could save Lily and yet had failed to do so. "You wished to see me, Headmaster?"

Peering over his half-moon spectacles at the thin, dark man, Dumbledore nodded. "Please sit, Severus."

Doing so hesitantly, the Slytherin lowered himself to the leather chair situated in front. "I have no news to report, sir." He hadn't—not for over a week, during which almost all traces of the Dark Lord had vanished... and Lily was gone. Biting the inside of his cheek to maintain control, he focused on the wizard behind the desk.

Dumbledore studied him intently. "I know." He laced his fingers together and placed them on the aged wooden surface. "Something that concerns you has come to my attention."

Brows raised, he gripped the armrests of his chair until his knuckles were white. "I-I haven't—"

"I know you haven't," the Headmaster reassured, waving off the other man's concerns. "I know why you stay."

Unbidden, tears clouded Snape's vision. The wound was so fresh and so very deep. Lily, the only light that had shone in his dark world, had forever been extinguished because of his recklessness. And now he would forever strive to atone for his actions. Blinking rapidly to dispel the moisture, he focused on the older man starring back at him. "You were saying, sir?"

Albus gave him a small smile. "It involves the boy."

Severus immediately stiffened. "And how would that have to do with me?"

"How, indeed," Dumbledore countered with a hint of consternation. "Though there are several details that are still being looked over, it seems that..."

Tilting his head in curiosity, Severus prompted his former professor to continue when Dumbledore lapsed into silence. "Yes?"

Unable to sit still, for he always preferred to be in motion, Albus stood and began pacing. "You must understand that this was completely unexpected and not without extreme complications."

Getting dizzy from watching the man walk, turn, and walk again, Severus closed his eyes and huffed in irritation. "It would help if you actually told me what the issue was."

The Headmaster paused, something occurring to him. "Did you and Lily Potter have a relationship once you left Hogwarts?"

A mixture of emotions flitted quickly across Snape's face before his eyes became blank. "The last communication I had with Lily was just before her wedding to Potter." Had he meant to spit the man's name out like that? Definitely.

"And that was?"

"My business, not yours," he answered, sneering. He would never admit that he'd humbled himself before Lily one last time in an effort to persuade her that James-bloody-Potter wasn't the man she believed him to be.

"It is my business!" Albus declared, heatedly. "It is very much my business when I've just come from the solicitor's office, having been told that you are to be Harry's guardian!"

There was a sudden, noticeable twitch to Severus' left eye. "Excuse me?" he whispered. He had to have misheard. The old man was raving—he had to be.

"Yes, Severus." Dumbledore leaned over his desk and gave him a pointed look. "Twenty-one days before she died, Lily Potter named you Harry's legal guardian and, should we refuse this ridiculous notion, the boy will be taken from the Wizarding world, possibly to never be seen again."

Snape paled further with every word the other wizard uttered. "Madness," was the only word he could push past his lips.

"Of course it is!" Dumbledore was practically screaming now. "So, I ask you again: what kind of contact did you have with Lily after Hogwarts, that she would willingly turn over her own flesh and blood to a man who betrayed her?"

"I didn't betray her knowingly!" Severus shouted back. Teeth clenched, he stood to match his new master in height. "Had I known that fucking prophesy concerned her, I would've gone to the grave to protect her!"

"Then why?"

"I am as astounded as you; may I remind you?" Snape folded his arms in his usual self-protective gesture. "I merely asked Lily to reconsider her choice about the man she was to marry that day, nothing more."

Giving no indication of what he was about to do, Dumbledore seized his wand. "Legilimens!"

Though he was skilled in Occlumency, Snape was not yet as proficient as he hoped to become, and was therefore no match for the power of the Headmaster. He tried to raise every shield and barrier he possibly could, but each one failed when faced with Dumbledore's penetrating spell.

"Lily, please, think about what you're doing!"

"Why do you come to me now, of all days, Sev?" Her head hung low. "You shouldn't be here."

He touched her shoulder and even dared to grip it hard. "You must listen to me! James Potter was, is and always will be an insolent brat, hell-bent on causing as much pain as he's legally allowed to."

"Let go of me," she said with a hiss, moving away from him. "I know what he is; haven't I told you all of this before?"

Snape's look was one of enormous confusion. "Then why are you doing this? Why are you—"

His words died on his lips the moment she grabbed his hand and placed it on her abdomen. "Because of this."

Though it was faint, Snape could feel the soft pulse of magic thrumming in Lily's womb. "Oh, Lily..."

"Don't you dare pity me, Severus Snape." She stepped back from his touch and his forlorn look. "Mum and Dad are gone, Tuney was in a right snit the last time I talked to he and I don't fit in anywhere else. So, don't you even presume to care for me now."

"I have always cared!"

"You cared for me so much that you called me a Mudblood? That you refused to stop dabbling in the Dark Arts? That you allowed your friends to torment me?" She snorted with disdain. "If that is your way of showing affection to those you care for, I think I'll stay with egotistical James and his toerag ways."

Severus' features had become more sullen with her words. "Mark my words, Lily. Some day, the façade will crumble and you'll know the real James Potter."

With one final push, Snape was able to expel Dumbledore from his mind. "You bastard!" he snarled. He snatched and trained his wand on the aging wizard before him.

"I'd reconsider that, if I were you," Albus drawled. "You are, after all, the boy's guardian."

"And if I don't want the brat?" Snape still hadn't lowered his wand.

"Irrelevant. The Will clearly stipulates if Harry is not turned over to you, he will 'disappear' from our world. You know that can't be allowed to happen."

Slowly lowering his wand, Snape sat in the chair, a defeated air about him. "What could she have been thinking? Me, of all people!" His brows drew together in puzzlement. "Is there a reason stated that she wished for this?"

Resuming his seat as well, Albus shook his head. "Buttermore indicated that when he spoke with her on that day, she was calm and collected, though a little reserved. He questioned her several times as to her intent to see if there were any extraneous circumstances."

That piqued Severus' attention. "Did she say anything?"

Albus stroked his beard in contemplation. "He only indicated that she was adamant that you be Harry's guardian, but nothing else."

Severus didn't know if his jaw could drop any further. "I can't believe James Potter would agree with this."

"In that, you are correct. The details are sketchy for the time being, until Buttermore explores another avenue, but it looks as if the Wills negate one another. Lily left Harry to you while James left the boy to..."

Oh, he didn't like that grimace of Dumbledore's. "Well?"

The Headmaster replied after some hesitation. "Sirius Black."

"No," Severus responded in a low tone and with deadly calm.

"You see our dilemma, then."

"Dilemma?" Snape nearly screeched. "The man's a fucking murderer!"

"Language, Severus."

"I'll say whatever the hell I want, old man!" This time, it was Snape who stood and began pacing. "Just what exactly was your plan? To allow Harry familial visits with the man responsible for his parents' death, while I wipe the child's bum and pray that I don't injure him?"

"Calm yourself," Dumbledore ordered.

This only incensed Severus. "Calm myself? I've just been told I am responsible for a child that the Dark Lord wanted very much dead, not to mention that I am to have contact with the foulest human on earth and—to top it off—I have no steady employment, regardless of the work I do for you!"

"Silence!" Dumbledore roared, his voice echoing off the walls in his chamber and waking a few of the slumbering portraits. Once the room was quiet again, he proceeded. "Now, if you are done lamenting the fact that you and Black were both named guardians, you will recall that I said Buttermore is seeking alternatives to James Potter's final request."

"Buttermore's a Squib," Snape spat. "Had Regulus' parents been alive, they would've vaporised him on sight. As it stands, he wouldn't even be able to handle the documents, on pain of an agonising death."

Dumbledore leaned back in his ornate chair. "One of Buttermore's associates—one whom we can trust—is a pure-blood and will visit Black to discuss alternatives."

Gripping the scrollwork on the back of the chair he'd been sitting in, Snape scoffed. "Good luck getting him to talk. How do you know he hasn't already gone mad?"

Dumbledore shrugged. "Then all the better to declare him non compos mentis and raise the child alone."

"And what of the boy until then?"

"Don't tell me you care for him?" Albus asked with a knowing smirk.

Severus returned the smirk, but his had a decidedly wicked edge. "If I am to be a so-called parent to the boy, I must feign interest, should I not?"

Eyes narrowed, Dumbledore leaned forward, his tone deadly. "Severus, if you harm one hair on that child's head—"

"Spare me the lecture," Snape said in a bored manner, his hand raised. "I've heard it countless times before. You do drone on so."

White shaggy eyebrows rose several notches. "Is that so?" A thought formed in his mind; one that would give the wayward man a taste of his own insolence. "Well, it just so happens I am in need of a lecturer."

"Explain."

Dumbledore stood and began pacing once more. "Since, as you say, you are in need of actual employment to support Harry and yourself—"

Snape couldn't help the derisive snort that escaped him.

"As I was saying," Albus bit out, glaring at the younger wizard, "since you will need to be able to provide for yourself and the boy, I'm extending you an offer, to teach here at Hogwarts."

Unexpected hope burned bright and constricted Severus' chest, though his outside countenance revealed nothing. Long he had coveted the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, and now it might be handed to him on a silver platter, so to speak. He supposed he could spare a modicum of gratitude to Potter for dying so spectacularly, that his own most fervent dream would come to fruition.

Albus saw that lustful gleam and mentally patted himself on the back for being able to read the man so easily. He would try not to enjoy the look of utter despair the young man would have once he was told which position he would actually be filling. "Potions, Severus."

Obsidian eyes flared for a brief moment, before fading to their usual dull, disinterested state. "Potions."

"You don't have a hearing problem, do you, Severus?"

The miserable, conniving, old schemer! "I take it Slughorn is retiring?"

"I've presented him with the option of early retirement, yes."

Severus' eyes narrowed. "Why?"

Leaning back in his chair, Dumbledore studied the young wizard before answering. "You are needed here. There is no feasible reason to keep you in my employ, without arousing suspicion from both sides; the only choice is for you to become a staff member. You excelled, even Mastered, in Potions. It is a logical choice."

"But Defence Against the Dark Arts needs—"

"No!" Albus thundered. "I've told you before; must I continually repeat myself?"

Teeth clenched, Snape gritted out, "Why?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, the Headmaster sighed heavily. "Though you came to me of your own free will, concerning your past transgressions, I feel it would be remiss of me to place you back amongst the wolves, so to speak. Allowing you to teach such a course could very well cause you to relapse. You know I can't allow that to happen."

Lips curling into a sneer, Snape looked down at him, face hard as iron. "Well, then, since you doubt my abilities in the Dark Arts, I suppose Potions it must be." Without waiting to be dismissed, he turned and left the chamber, the door slamming in his wake.

"Hades' bollocks!" Albus threw his spectacles on the desk. "Can nothing ever go smoothly with that boy?"

Having been married into the Black family, Jim Blishwick had seen many things in his day. Too many. In fact, if the choice had been his, he would've never even gone near the inbred family, let alone to try and mate with them. But, as had always been the way of the pure-blood society, he had been auctioned off to the highest bidder. Genoa Black had had her sights set on him, and he'd therefore stood no chance against the affluent family.

That had also put him in the awkward position of visiting his estranged cousin—fourth or fifth, he couldn't remember. Having looked James Potter's Will over, he sincerely hoped Sirius Black would be an accommodating man. He didn't want to spend any more time than necessary in the visiting section of Azkaban.

Having been ushered to a dank receiving area and given a rickety chair, Blishwick sat in the bitter chill that infiltrated the room. A window near the ceiling provided the only dim source of light. He clutched his satchel to his chest, as if it would protect him from the Dementors meandering in the gaol. He nearly lost his nerve when a side door opened and a man in prison-issue clothing was shoved into the room, stumbling to land at his feet.

The filthy inmate struggled to stand, his ankles and wrists shackled with iron cuffs, and swept his lank curls to the side. "Who're you?"

"Solicitor Blishwick with the firm of Buttermore, Hagerty and Blishwick. I'm here to discuss James Potter's Last Will and Testament."

Black gave a high-pitched laugh. "Ironic, isn't it? Knowing James, he probably left me something of worth, but since I'm in here, I can't claim it. It'll keep in my vault until I'm free, then."

Blishwick arched a brow. "I highly doubt it. Other arrangements must be made. You're as good as dead, in here."

Lips thinned, Sirius made to leap at the smug man, but was thrown back against the craggy walls of the chamber. He wisely stayed in his crumpled position on the dirt floor. "What do you really want?" he panted.

Blishwick opened the leather briefcase, withdrew several documents, and handed them to Black. "You are listed as guardian to Harry James Potter, since Lily and James Potter are deceased, as you well know. Harry is a minor and therefore in need of a custodian until he reaches the age of majority."

Sirius looked over the documents, frowning. "I didn't kill them," he whispered.

"That is irrelevant at this point," Blishwick said evasively.

"No," Sirius growled and threw the papers back at the man sitting opposite him. "Harry is mine!"

Bending over, Blishwick gathered the documents and put them back in his satchel. "I'm sorry to hear that, Mister Black. We'll have the court appoint a custodian for the boy, then." He rose from his seat, prepared to leave.

"Wait!" Sirius had a decidedly panicked look about him. "I don't trust the courts."

Not bothering to return to his seat, Blishwick remained where he was. "I'm listening."

"If I name someone to be custodian until Harry becomes of age, it will be legal and binding, yes?"

Blishwick nodded. "Seeing as I am a practising solicitor and have due authority to handle the Potter's Will, I can insert a codicil that will allow the Will to be executed and remain faithful to the original intent."

Sirius stood on shaky legs. "And this custodian, he would have complete control over Harry until the boy becomes of age?"

The tricky part to answering that question would be to avoid telling him who the co-guardian would be. "Yes," Blishwick drawled. "The custodian would care for the child."

Apparently that was enough for Sirius Black. "Well then, Blishwick," the manacled wizard said with a mad grin, "The custodian shall be..."

Dumbledore glanced at the paperwork that was presented to him. "You realise this is almost no better than Sirius Black."

Richard Buttermore narrowed his eyes and glared. "This is as good as you're going to get, for the time being."

Sighing heavily, Albus laid the parchment on Buttmore's desk. "I'll make it happen." He retrieved his cloak and left rather hurriedly. He was heading for the small village of Upper Flagley to visit none other than Remus Lupin.