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A Prince in Lion's Clothing	By : Sablesilverrain Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Tom Views: 36570 -:- Recommendations : 7 -:- Currently Reading : 9
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or anything you recognise here. I make no money off of this, and am writing it purely for entertainment. Don't take it too seriously.

Chapter List
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Harry had told Neville and Hermione about the will reading, giving them the highly abbreviated version, and also about the letter and journal Lily had left for him to find. They understood when he quickly made his excuses and retreated to his bed to read it alone.

Harry opened the letter first.

“My sweet boy,

If you are reading this, James and I are dead. I hope you were able to go to your father, but if not, I’m sure either Sirius or Remus will still raise you to be a wonderful young man someday. (Harry snorted bitterly. If only she knew…)

Severus Snape is your true father, and I will explain that, since Sirius or Remus will not be able to tell you the whole story.

Sometime after I married your father, Severus and I became lovers. I did love James, but it was a whirlwind love, and it burned out after two short years of marriage.

I went to Severus then, and we easily rekindled the love I'd had for him while we were at school. We had a deep, mutual and abiding love, that burned ever brighter the longer we stayed in each other's company.

We had fallen apart after a particularly cruel remark he had made to me, and while I grieved for the love I had felt for him and the hurt his words caused, James was there to pick up the pieces, and made himself readily available when I needed a shoulder to cry on. And so I fell in love with a man that I knew, deep down, was not quite right for me, handsome and kind as he was.

The journal I left with this letter is my personal journal from during our affair, started only three months before I found out about you. You will learn, in its pages, how I went to Severus often, how I felt when with him, as well as the guilt afterward and my resolve to stop going, which never lasted long. You will learn of my fear when I could tell I was pregnant, my explanation to James that the child may not be his, and our agreement when you were discovered to be Severus' child that we would pass you off as a Potter anyway to avoid scandal, and I would stop the affair, telling Severus that you were James' baby. Most of all, you will learn how I felt when you were born, looking exactly like a miniature Severus and breaking my heart when I knew I could never tell him the truth, unless I did it from beyond the grave.

I loved him, perhaps more than I ever loved James, and in the letter I wrote to him, I spilled all those feelings and more onto the parchment.

When you have read this, if he is still around, go to him. Get to know him. After reading my letter, he will need you, and you will need him. He is a good man, and will be a wonderful father, however late it happens.

He will love you as I have loved you, and will treasure you for the gift you are. You are the best of us both.

Be well, and do not spend too long mourning me. I will see you when your time comes. Spend whatever you have left with your father, and be happy for me.

All my love,

Mummy"

Harry wiped away tears, swallowing past the lump of emotion in his throat, and set the letter aside to open the journal. A picture was taped to the inside cover: Lily and Severus, looking somewhere around fourteen or fifteen, holding hands and smiling, occasionally turning to each other and pressing a quick kiss to each other’s lips, then turning back to smile happily at the camera.

He traced her name, written on the first page, and turned it to begin knowing a small piece of his mother.

The first page was dated August 25^th, 1979.

He began to read, the diary detailing not intimate details of their couplings, but intimate details of the feelings each meeting invoked, raw and uncensored.

Lily told of the heat and passion she found with Severus, but also of the guilt afterward, of the pain she felt when she kissed her husband after returning from the arms of her lover.

He didn’t know, couldn’t know.

She poured out her self-recriminations, swore that that time was the last, and over the next few days her longing for Severus would grow again, until she finally broke and went to him again, “one last time.”

A few months into the journal, she began to be sick in the mornings, and she was terrified that the baby, for she knew she was pregnant, was not James’. She finally broke down to him, poured out her shame and worries, and James listened.

He assured her that it was alright, he would accept the baby even if it wasn’t his, as long as she told Severus that it was James', and the affair stopped.

Lily agreed to the stipulation, and met with Severus, the lie slipping easily from her, as she put an end to their meetings.

A few weeks later, she and James tested the paternity of the unborn baby, and it was found to be Severus’. James told her they could put a glamour on the baby as soon as it was born, and he would raise it as his own, give the baby his name, and love it just as she would, his blood or no. The baby was hers and his, no matter who she had lain with to make it.

She wrote of Severus often, voicing her worries that the baby would have something wrong with it, or some inheritance that would hit someday, and ruin the lie they had carefully agreed upon and were cultivating further every day, every time they told someone about the baby.

James and Sirius had discussed the affair, and while Sirius was angry on James' behalf, he still supported Lily, and was overjoyed when they agreed on him being the baby's Godfather.

He had been told the baby was James', without a doubt.

Over the months while Lily was pregnant, James spent much of his free time creating a glamour to use on Harry. It was something called a “need glamour,” which would only take if the person casting it truly needed it to work.

James needed the baby to pass for his, if only to avoid unwanted questions, scrutiny, and scandal.

Lily wrote down the incantation and wand movements once James had finalized the spell, in case it needed to be used after they were both gone. Harry was thankful for the foresight. He might need the information in the future.

As the pregnancy progressed, Lily wrote down all the milestones. She thought of Severus often, but even though she wanted nothing more than to go to him and share her news with him, all the little things about her pregnancy and the changes she was experiencing, she knew James was watching her more closely now, so she didn’t chance it.

Instead, she shared them with James, and he was nothing short of thrilled to hear each little thing. He took an interest in the baby from the first, and seemed more than willing to forget that it was Severus', rather than his.

They went to every check-up together, and when they discovered it was going to be a boy, they talked of names.

Lily wrote down some of them, and Harry was horrified to learn he might have been named Humphrey.

Just… no.

But Lily and James had finally decided on Harry, though Lily had wanted Harrison, but James had stated that there had never been a Harrison in the Potter family, and they weren’t going to add one now. There had been two Harrys, though. So Harry was fine.

Lily began writing more to Harry than about him, at that point, and each entry was filled with her hopes for him to grow up strong and healthy.

Then the prophecy.

Harry read the entire thing with dread, as Lily had written it after hearing it from Dumbledore.

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… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…

Harry paused, re-read it, and thought for a moment. ‘Neither can live while the other survives?’ He thought, then snorted. ‘We'll just have to see about that. It says I have the power to vanquish him, not that I'll want to, so it's not like I have to.’ He decided, and read on.

As they went into hiding and Severus joined the Order of the Phoenix, the entries got shorter. Not much was happening in their lives, hidden as they were.

Finally, Harry was born, and the entries lengthened, Lily happily writing down exactly how Harry had looked when born (“Just like Severus! It was a shame to watch as James covered up your beautiful face, but you’re still absolutely darling, little Harry!”), every little thing he did, including what foods seemed to set off his colic, and delighting in her new motherhood.

James, she wrote, was happy, too. He bonded with the baby easily and Sirius and Remus were likewise besotted. Peter didn’t like the baby, as Harry started howling like mad every time he was handed to the man, so he stopped coming over quite so often.

Harry scowled at the fact that he had come over at all, and continued on.

He read of his immediate bond with Sirius, his terrorizing of the family kneazle, his first broom and the worry that he might fall off she had always felt, and all the other little things he had never been told about.

The last entry was September third, 1980, and Harry read that she was leaving the journal in her vault, since Voldemort was becoming bolder and she and James worried about their safety. Just in case something happened to her and her journals, she wanted this one, the most important one, safe.

In case the unthinkable should happen.

Harry closed the journal and changed into his pyjamas. He laid down in the room, hearing his dormmates coming in and getting ready for bed, and fell asleep, journal tucked safely under his pillow.

The Yule Ball was tomorrow.

Then he would go to Prince Manor with Severus. And they would talk.

*****

Harry sat down, pulling Lavender down beside him, laughing.

“My feet!” She giggled, tucking them underneath her. “Did you have to trample them so badly?”

Harry snorted. “Oh, please, I warned you I couldn’t dance! If it was so bad, you can lead the next one!”

Lavender giggled again. “I might. You weren’t kidding, you really have two left feet!” She told him.

“Guess I'll just have to marry a man, and save myself the misery of leading a girl in a wedding dance that'll be the mockery of high society for decades.” He joked.

Lavender smiled at him. “Is that why you wanted to go as friends? Do your tastes run the other way?” She asked curiously.

Harry’s smile faded and he looked pensive. “I really don’t know. I haven't given it much thought yet, honestly. I've been busy, with the whole Dark-Lord-trying-to-kill-me thing, and there hasn’t been time to think of much else. Besides, I don’t have to know just yet. There's still time for that.” He said.

Lavender smiled and patted his hand. “It’s fine to not be sure yet. It just means you haven't met The One. When you do, then you'll know. It hits you like a punch to the gut. For most people, at least. My parents said they slipped into love more than anything else. One day, they were friends, the next, they looked up, and realized they were so in love with each other there was simply no one else for them. I always thought when I was little that I'd be the same way, then I met Jerry, and wham!” She smacked her fist into her palm. “I was in love. Love at first sight. And he's been so kind with me, so patient and charming. My parents are happy with the match, and Jerry is apprenticing under a wandmaker right now. He says he’s going to make me a special wand once he gets his training done. For free. He’s such a sweetheart.”

“Hey. What are you two lovebirds discussing?” Ginny asked, sitting next to Harry while Neville went to get them both some punch.

Harry tensed. “Lavender's fiancé.” He answered shortly.

Ginny’s eyes widened. “Who?” She asked.

Lavender shook her head. “You wouldn't know him.”

“Bet you wouldn’t mind replacing him with Harry, though.” Ginny muttered.

Harry stiffened. “And what’s that supposed to mean?!” He snapped.

Ginny looked at him with a brow cocked. “Look at you! Talented, gorgeous, athletic, modest, and worth several bloody fortunes! You're the best catch in Wizarding Britain! Any girl would be mad to turn you down! You have your pick of every eligible lady in the country!” She said, then smiled. “But we all know you've picked already, haven’t you?”

Harry tensed at the suggestive, hungry look in her eyes. “Not for a good long while. Come on, Lavender.” He said, standing and pulling her onto the dance floor. “You lead this time.”

Lavender laughed and took the reins.
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A Prince in Lion's Clothing