Author's Note: This was inspired by Magic of a Different Sort, and the various other glorious HP&ES crossovers. However, whether or not to continue it is up to you people. Leave a review and I'll know whether or not to shelve it!

Chapter One: Chance

EDITED: Just a little bit of cleaning here...

Lily flinched in fear and heartbreak as she heard the dark bastard himself, Voldemort, shout "Avada Kedavra!" A loud thump was heard in the resulting silence, and Lily clutched little Harry to herself with a sob. She knew the love of her life had not survived. Her baby boy let out a happy gurgle, ironically at his father's death, and she managed to scrape together a smile for him. Harry smiled back with a happy laugh. Lily gave another second to her most precious treasure, feeling the fear that Harry might not make it through this god forsaken night.

Yet, not all hope was lost. There was a way to ensure her son would survive, but she was reluctant to pay such a high price without assurance Voldemort would not survive.

Dumbledore had told her that there was an extremely ancient and obscure charm pureblood mothers had used to protect their children from rival or feuding families. It had fallen out of use since the early portion of the Dark Ages, and even James had never heard of it until Dumbledore had revealed it to them. And there was a reason such a spell, a spell that ensured the child would survive, fell out of favor. The catch was it was a suicidal spell; it would take the castor's life as fuel for the spell, and use the rest to grant a lingering protection that would last for the rest of the child's life.

And though Lily had no desire to die so young, Lily knew the charm and it was the only thing that might protect Harry from Voldemort's determination to see the prophecy thwarted.

Anguished that Harry might die because of that moronic, goggle-eyed Trelawney woman, Lily started to cry. She didn't want to die! She wanted to see Harry grow up, grow old with James, invent new Charms, and see if her former best friend truly was long gone. Severus was a loose end she had refrained from ever seeing to, and now with a her death hovering so near she wished she had acted like a Gryffindor and seen to it.

"I wish Severus and I had at least talked about everything after Fifth Year. He was my best friend for Merlin's sakes! I wish we had taken the chance then to see if we could still be friends, but I was so angry and betrayed..." She nuzzled Harry's feathery black hair, rushing into the nursery and setting her child in his crib. Lily, trying to do what she could to see to her regrets, cast the required charms on Harry's lion plush toy to record her last words to her estranged friend. She could hear Voldemort moving below, so she made it quick.

"I'm sorry Severus Snape, sorry for never talking with you after Fifth Year. Sorry for never trying to see if we could ever be friends again." She smiled at Harry, fresh tears running down her face. "I forgive you Severus for calling me that name, though it hurt. Try not to go down any roads you may regret, but if you do you can always find your way back. Be well, live your life, and find some happiness Severus. I'll see you again, hopefully after a very long time. Your friend always, Lily."

It would only activate for its intended recipient, a clever little spell her old professor had taught her. She knew Dumbledore would find it, and could figure out what the spell was and who it was for. Dumbledore would be kind enough to ensure Severus would receive it, for she knew Dumbledore never passed up the chance to come across as a benevolent man. After taking care of that last niggling regret, Lily began to recite the words for her death from memory.

"Servo. Contego. Declino. Vita parco per mei. Permissum-" Voldemort stormed into Harry's nursery, wand drawn and murder in his eyes. Chance took hold and Lily rushed through the spell in a hurry, accidentally replacing a crucial word. "-Azura incubo quod tutela vos, meus parvulus!" The silent wave of power rocked the room, and Lily could feel her magic draining away to fuel her spell. It would take some time to give the spell the fuel it needed, so Lily knew she needed to try and stall for time.

Impatiently, Voldemort waited to see if the incantation had a visible effect. As far as he could sense, it did not. Eyes burning in triumph, he hissed he saw no need to kill Lily as well. He would spare her life, if she complied with his one request; hand over Harry. He tried to persuade her to give him the child, attempting threats, bribery, and manipulation. Lily refused his offer of clemency thrice.

Infuriated by her refusals, Voldemort snapped out the Killing Curse as swiftly as he doled out Crucios. His spell killed Lily instantly, but it was too late. Lily had her pyrric victory.

Magic exploded around the trio, potent and heavy enough to manifest to even mundane eyes. The magic swirled in a frenzy, forming a vortex with a oval of pure darkness at its center. From the darkness came a heavily armored figure, armed to the teeth, and with a frown on her lips. She wore no helmet, showcasing slate gray skin that shone with a blue sheen, blood-red eyes, and snowy hair. Lily Potter nee Evans had summoned the protection of Azura, Daedric Prince of Twilight. Her Prince had heard her call and honored her sacrifice by sending her most capable defender, the Nerevarine.

Unfortunately for Voldemort, he was not powerful enough to escape Lily's vengeance. The spell had just awoken the Nerevarine from an extremely pleasant dream, where she had been relaxing on an idyllic beach on a deserted isle where no Houses or Blades could find her. And the Nerevarine did not take kindly to being awoken by anyone.

Just a few minutes ago, The Prince of Twilight had roused Nerevar. Azura then told her that she was needed to take care of an extremely important mission for her Prince, and a great reward would be bequeathed if she complied. Her mission was to retrieve a child from wherever Azura sent her, kill whoever tried to stop her, and ensure that the child came to no harm. What she was supposed to do with the child after fetching it, Azura had assured her she would tell her later.

Nerevar, as she had named herself after waking with no name, saw a mage holding a stick at a dead female Imperial or Breton. A child was wailing loudly, terrified cries coming from its crib. She concluded that the mage would try to stop her and the child was in danger. Nerevar knew what she was supposed to do.

Without a word, Nerevar gave the mage no chance to speak, quickly drawing her Daedric Dai-Katane from her back. With a powerful sideways slash she cleaved the mage in two, blood drenching the carpet in the room. Nerevar made to move to the crib, but then she heard the mage trying to say something. The mage was gurgling in his own blood, still somehow alive. A Necromancer? Well, she knew how to solve that.

She fired off an intensely powerful Destruction spell, burning the mage so fiercely it burned away even his bones. The fire ignited the dry bits of carpet, but Nerevar ignored it to move to the crib. She looked down at the child, and picked him up. The baby giggled as he pointed at the remains of the stick wielding mage, something Nerevar deeply approved of.

"A born adventurer huh? Only one of us would react like that to a near death situation. What's your name youngling?" The baby gurgled something Nerevar discerned as his name. "Ha'ri!"

"Ha'ri is your name? Sounds a bit like the name ole Sugar Lips would name her kits!" The baby giggled again.

Nerevar paid no more attention to the room and walked back into the darkness, arriving in her Telvanni Tower. She awkwardly cradled Ha'ri, unsure of how to hold him. She had never seen a toddler, let alone touched a baby. Thankfully Azura manifested in her Tower. Soon she would never see the child again.

Her Prince smiled at her, a sign she had done well. Nerevar was pleased, knowing that a happy Azura meant excellent rewards.

"Nerevar, you have completed my quest admirably. To reward you, I give you your very own child. The child you save shall now be yours, just as if you had given birth to him yourself."

Nerevar proceeded to gawk at the Daedric Prince of Twilight

"What?! I have no idea how to raise a child! I've never even seen a child before today! I don't even want one!"

Azura had nothing more to say and vanished back to whence she came from. Nerevar then cursed so profanely, Vivec would have been washing her tongue with raw steel wool if he had heard it. The giggling baby in her arms drew her attention back to him. The formerly Imperial or Breton child was now a Dunmer babe with white hair and red eyes. He even looked like Nerevar with his sharp features that promised an exotic look in the future. His looks also promised many, many stalkers.

"Well Divayth raised four kids, so he must know something about being a parent…" Ha'ri gurgled with an agreeing sound. "And luckily for us Divayth Fyr owes me a favor. It's time to pay my dear friend a visit Ha'ri."

Quickly she wrapped and covered the babe in a spare bolt of cloth, for protection aganist the ferocious winds, and ran out of her tower at break neck speeds. She did not stop, using spells to hurry along the trip. She did not know when the child had last been fed and the whimpers he made worried her. She crossed the ashlands and ocean in remarkable swiftness, arriving at Tel Fyr. Nerevar did not pause to knock, letting herself in, and levitated to where Divayth always was.

She did not allow Divayth to say a word before she asked "How do you raise a baby?"

Divayth proceeded to choke and only managed to spit out "What?"