Severus's Letter

By Bribles

A/N: I love to read all different kinds of stories. I love stories where Severus is made out to be a good man. He is still a git in this story, but he proves himself to be a good git. I hope you like enough to recommend to people!

I do not own Harry Potter.

"Lily! Post is here!"

James Potter's voice floated up the stairs of his home in Godric's Hollow. His wife, who was seven months pregnant with their soon-to-be baby boy, waddled down the stairs and sat at the table.

"I cannot wait for this child to come and greet the world," Lily remarked to James as she was trying to find a comfortable position in the hardback chairs around the kitchen table. Her stomach, which still had two months left of growing to do, was making it difficult for Lily to sit straight facing the table.

James just laughed, and reached over his wife's shoulder to lay his hand on her protruding stomach. His smile grew when he felt his son give a nice, strong kick.

"Opf!" Lily grabbed her stomach, rubbing the spot her son just kicked. "I know you're hungry, child, but please be patient. Your poor mother can only move so fast with you growing so much in so little time!"

The last thing I need, Lily thought to herself, is another impatient Potter man on my hands. This child will learn patience if it's the last thing I do!

"Here's your post, dear," James said, handing over a few letters addressed to Lily.

"Thank you, James. I was just wondering when my copy of that journal was going to come in. I thought the article about charming your child's shoes to teach the how to tie the laces was one of my better pieces," Lily said as she filled her plate with eggs and toast. The doctor told her to replace her pumpkin juice with milk, but Lily couldn't resist having just one glass in the morning. "I was thinking of sending another article in soon about transfiguring your….."

Lily's voice trailed off while she was looking at one of the letter's she received. The hand writing on the front was very familiar to her, but it couldn't be possible.

"What is it, dear" James asked, looking up from the Daily Prophet.

"Nothing," she said as she slid her finger under the seal to open the letter. She did not move while she read the letter.

Lily,

I sincerely hope that you will at least read this letter before you try and burn it. However, knowing your temperament, I put charm on it so that you cannot harm the letter until you have finished reading it. You may do whatever you wish with it as soon as you have read and understood that I am putting my life on the line by writing to you. I know that you are worthy of having a Mastery in Charms and would find a way to destroy the letter if you really did not wish to read it. But I take confidence in the fact that I have now peaked your curiosity. Please read this letter and react quickly if you wish to save the lives of the ones that you hold dearest to your heart.

I wish I could tell you this grave news in person, but would fear for my life if that was the case. Please understand that I never meant to harm you, and I am trying to right my wrong by giving you this information.

The Dark Lord is after you. I know that this is something you have known for a while, and would think it completely irrelevant, but I assure you that this is not the case. He is going to be pursuing you and your family with an all new abandon. He must see your demise to assure his absolute power. You see, there was a prophecy made about your family.

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ...

I highly doubt that this is the prophecy in its entirety; however this is all I know. I do not know if it refers to your child or the Longbottom's child.

This is the part where my hand starts to shake and my heart starts to beat. I am grateful that I do not have to be there to see your face as you read what I am about to confess to you, however cowardly I do sound.

I am the reason that the Dark Lord will be pursuing you now. I, not knowing who the prophecy was about, delivered the message back to the Dark Lord to gain his favor and to save my life. I promise you, Lily, that if I knew for a second that the prophecy concerned you, or…..the ones that you love, I would not have told the Dark Lord anything. This is the wrong I am trying to right. It is too late to undo what I have already done, but I can try to make it better by giving you warning. Please, take your…..family and go into hiding. Do not be fooled that you are safe where you are.

Also, I must tell you to not trust Pettigrew. I know that I have given you no reason to trust me, but I ask this of you. Do not place any faith in that rat. He will sell you out to the Dark Lord for the glory it would give him. While at some meetings, I have heard him bragging to the others that he will prove his worth when he is able to deliver the Potters on a silver platter. Sever all ties with him at once.

Once again, I know that you have no reason to trust me after I threw our friendship away, but I'm trying to best to make up for it. If you will not accept my token of mending fences, than please just take this information and save yourself. And your family of course. I know that I may hate Potter, and I will probably despise the whelp that you are carrying that has Potter genes coursing through its blood, but I would never wish harm on them, for that would mean wishing harm upon you. And that is something I would never do. I hope you know that Lily.

I myself am going to go into hiding. After the Dark Lord discovers that you are (hopefully) hidden, and that Pettigrew is useless for finding you, he will come after me. Pettigrew will make sure of it to protect his worthless hide.

Please trust me on this Lily. I would do anything to save you, for I always have, and always will, love you, no matter how much you wish otherwise. Please live to see another day.

One last note before I leave you to do as you see fit with this warning. I heard this prophecy about a fortnight ago, and just figured out that it points to you and Longbottom about two nights ago. Dumbledore is the one that heard the prophecy. If he has not told you of it yet, than please be as weary of him as you should be of Pettigrew. Waiting for someone to tell you the truth is a luxury that you cannot wait for. Just be sure to ask the right questions.

Please tell Potter that if he acts and finds this information to be correct, then our life debt is paid.

Oh, and I figure now is a safe time to tell you that this parchment never had a charm placed upon it. I just wanted you to give me a chance.

Hoping to see you alive,

Severus

"Lils," James's voice brought her back. She couldn't stop staring at the words on the parchment. It just couldn't be true. Wordlessly she handed parchment to her husband, who read it with increasing worry.

"That-that- that insufferable, greasy git!"James exploded. "I'll get Snivellus! I wouldn't expect anything more from a damn Death Eater. I'll hang him! I'll-"

"James!" Lily exclaimed. "Calm down, please! You're stressing out me and the poor baby." She laid a hand on her stomach, rubbing in circles where she could feel the baby somersaulting.

"Sorry, dear," James said absentmindedly. "I just cannot believe that he turned us over to Voldemort! What am I saying? Of course I can believe it, I just never expected it. I thought that man at least had enough respect for you to not to do anything to harm us."

"James, what are we going to do about this?" Lily asked her husband.

"Obviously we have to take this seriously. We will have to hunker down and go into hiding. I hate the thought of doing anything Snivellus suggested, but I need to do what's best for my family. I'll floo Sirius, and tell him we have to move to plan B. He'll get Dumbledore ready. I have to put my call into work. And we have to do this as fast as possible."

"Did you read the entire letter?"

"Well, no I didn't get much past the part where he said that he sold us to Voldemort," James admitted.

"Finish reading."

James picked up the letter once more, and picked up reading where he left off. Lily watched the color drain from his face. His hands were shaking, and Lily watched as the paper fell out of his hands and floated to the floor.

"That can't be true," James whispered. "I can't believe that. He's lying! He has to be! Peter wouldn't betray us! He wouldn't! We swore a pact!"

"Oh, James," Lily wrapped her arms around her husband, as he laid his head on her shoulder. No tears were shed. They were too much in shock for that.

"What are we going to do?" Lily repeated after a few minutes of silence.

"I have to talk to Peter. I cannot take what he said without talking to one of my best friends first. Then we have to talk to Dumbledore. I'm sure he wasn't the one who overheard this, and if he was, he has a very good reason for not telling us about it before."

Lily just nodded, trying to calm her husband. Her mind was spinning a thousand thoughts a second. Unlike James, she did not grow up in the Wizarding World. She did not know about Dumbledore's defeat of Grindelwald when she was younger, or grow up hearing how great and powerful Dumbledore was. She was skeptical about knowing that Dumbledore knew about this…prophecy and did not tell them. She could see Dumbledore for what he was. She saw him as a powerful, yet old man who tried to control everyone and make himself look all powerful and all knowing. Yet she did not say any of this to James, because he grew up hearing how wonderful and powerful Dumbledore was, and how he must always be right. She knew that James would not take her word on it, and must see the downfall of Dumbledore for himself.

"What should we do first? Should we contact Sirius and Remus and have them bring Peter here for us to talk to?" Lily asked James, still holding him in her arms.

"Yes. We should handle Peter first, and then we can go and talk to Dumbledore. We have to get their side of this story," James told Lily. "I know you are inclined to trust that man, Lily, but I am not. I know I was a right prick in school, but he was not any better. He was your first…friend, I understand that. But he has changed. He joined Voldemort, Lils. He is not the same man you used to know."

Lily couldn't help but think differently. If he was not the same man, why was he still trying to protect her? Why bother warning them at all? She knew that there was no love lost between her husband and her once best friend, but she wanted to believe that Severus was still the same gentle man underneath the tough Death Eater garb.

She just couldn't help but think to herself, what would have happened if Severus did not warn them? She knew that it was only a matter of time that James and she would have gone into hiding anyways. Once her baby was born, she knew that she would have done anything to keep her child safe.

She watched as James got up and went to the drawer and got out his mirror. Sirius was on a mission for the Order, and, fortunately, Remus was with him. She listened as James asked Sirius and Remus to collect Peter and make their way over here. She heard the worry in Sirius's voice when James would not tell him what was wrong. She knew that they would be over here within the hour. Sirius had the same distain for Severus that James had. Remus was more tolerant. He almost seemed guilty when he found himself around Severus. Lily assumed that it had to do with almost killing Severus when they were in school.

But Severus also told them about Peter. Lily and James had talked about plan B extensively. They had talked about who would have been the best choice to have for their secret keeper. Sirius was the most logical choice, being James's best mate. And Remus, being closer to Lily, was also an obvious choice. They had been leaning towards Peter, because no one would have thought that they would have put their lives in the hands of someone who appeared so weak.

She shuddered to think about what would have happened if they did go with Peter. She had little doubt that Severus would lie about Peter being at those meetings. But part of her did not want to believe that it was true. Admitting that it was true meant that they were in even more danger than they would have been in. Before this, they were some of the most anti-Voldemort fighters and he wanted them dead to just prove a point. Now, he was after them for their child because of some stupid prophecy saying that their child was the one who was going to defeat him. She just wanted to sit down and cry at it all.

But she was Lily Evens Potter! She would not bow down and just let them try and harm her family. She will fight them with all that she is worth. She would have her husband by her side, and their friends helping and fighting with them as well. If it took her entire lifetime, she would make this world save for her son to walk and learn and play in.

She would live to see her baby born, his first steps, his first words. She would laugh at his first crush, and cry when he would bring home is first girlfriend. And, throughout all of these firsts, she would thank Severus Snape every day for giving her the warning to be able to protect her family.

"Lily!" James called from the front door. "The guys are here!"

She stood up, with much difficulty. She just sighed and patted her stomach. She knew that her child must be laughing at all the trouble he was causing her. Shaking her head, she followed James, who had Sirius and Remus bring the unsuspecting Peter into their downstairs study. She was following at a slower pace, waddling her way back to the table, where Severus's letter lay on the floor, untouched.

She picked it back up. Rereading the last few lines that Severus wrote, she grimly smiled. Silently thanking Severus, she tapped her wand on the parchment and watched as a small vial filled with a clear liquid appeared. A small note was wrapped around the vial. She picked it off and read what was written.

Three drops will make him spill his secrets. Five drops will have him spill everything else. Make sure to ask the right questions.

She grabbed an eye dropper out of one of her cooking drawers. With a new purpose, she strode into the study where her boys already had Peter tied to a chair. When they looked up at her, she watched the feral grins spread across their faces as she showed them the vial. Taking the eye dropper out of her pocket, she walked towards Peter slowly. Sirius grabbed his head and Remus forced his jaw open. She squeezed five drops of the liquid onto his tongue, saw his eyes go out of focus.

James started the questioning. Just simple ones at first, his name, what house he was in at Hogwarts. Then came the one everyone was waiting for.

"Were you planning on betraying us to Voldemort?"

"Yes."

Falling into a chair, she knew now, without a doubt, everyone in this room would now respect the name of Severus Snape. He saved all their lives with a single act of kindness. He saved their lives with a letter.

I hope you enjoyed this story. I cannot promise that there will be more to follow. I don't want to promise a chapter story and not deliver, so I make all of them able to stand alone. However, I may add another chapter if I am able to write more.