“Don’t worry about it, you’ll do better next time,” Eddy said to Millie as they all were heading back to the castle after a dismal practice session, the third one this week. As James and Lily watched them the whole team thudding through the thick snow they seemed gloomy and quiet. Lily was deeply submerged in her own thought, staring firmly at the ground. Jordan walked as always next to her, but for once he didn’t try to get her attention but settled for walking quietly by her side. Gracie, Alex and Sirius were walking a few steps ahead of the rest of them, and in spite of them having had an excellent training session, they too seemed down. The only one who was talking was Eddy, insuring to Millie that everything would be ok. It was plain to see that she didn’t believe him. Frankly neither did her grandmother; there was just too much going on for Millie to be able to concentrate on the game.
Lily shot a look at her husband, but he didn’t really seem present. He hadn’t been himself since the confrontation between Snape and Harry two days ago. With everything they had been through since Draco’s escape, this had hit him the hardest. Convinced that his son neither loved nor respected him, it was as if James lost…well she would have said the will to live, but somehow that didn’t seem appropriate under the circumstances, but he had lost the will to go on in what ever existence this was. As much as she hated them, Lily actually found herself wishing that he would go back to his raging and self-delusional ways. Anything would be better than the role of walking dead that he had adopted. He had given up and now she was left to deal with it all alone.
Lily sighed. She was tired of worrying. Worrying about James, about their son, about their grandchildren. She dragged James out here in the cold December night to watch the team’s Quidditch practice, not because she enjoyed it, but because normally he would. Because she was hoping that it would evoke some kind of response in him. It hadn’t succeeded. If anything it gotten him even more depressed to see Millie play so badly, even if it hardly been a surprise. They had seen her deteriorate since she’d gotten the news of Draco’s escape.
Millie had never been an aggressive player. Her skill had all been dependant on her aim and ability to fly. Both demanded her full attention. Neither of the two got it, and the result was disastrous. During the last few weeks she’d gone from being one of the best players on the team to being the worst. Had anyone other than Eddy been the captain, Millie would probably have been kicked off the team, something she pointed out to Eddy, urging him to think of the team rather than her. He however wouldn’t hear of it. Instead he insisted that she would do better next time. Once again Millie shook her head in doubt, knowing that this wouldn’t just pass, it ran too deep.
The sound of a lonely raven crying behind them was the only thing that broke the silence as they walked back over the grounds, and Lily watched as the sound awoke her granddaughter from her inner thoughts long enough to get her to lift her head in surprise, only to shake her red curls when Jordan asked her what the problem was.
“Nothing, a bit unusual that’s all, you’d be bored if I explained,” she said quietly. He didn’t protest, and soon the raven’s cries were once again the only thing that was heard as the bird circled over their heads.
The rest of the evening did not prove better. Millie was sullen and annoyed and spent the night fighting with Eddy, trying to convince him to take her off the team, something he didn’t want to hear about. Sirius and Alex had spent so much time on the Quidditch pitch lately that they were basically drowning in homework and Lily was in too bad a mood to even get remotely interested when Jordan tried cheering her up by suggesting a trip down to the kitchens.
“Come on, Potter, we did grand last time. We’ll have a excellent time!” he tried.
“I said no! If you want to go just do so, but don’t ask me to come with you,” she snapped grabbing a book from the stack next to her. “Now if you excuse me I have homework to finish,” she added opening the book.
“Umh, sis, as much as I would love to get out of homework, don’t you think Hagrid would notice if you did my Care of Magical Creatures essay for me?” Sirius asked gesturing at the book Lily had picked up.
Surprised and somewhat annoyed Lily shot a glance down at the book, before she threw it aside with an annoyed groan when she realized that it was Sirius’s book and not her own.
“See, no homework!” Jordan exclaimed gaily, trying to entice her again. Shooting him an angry glance at him, Lily then proceeded to ignoring him, pretending to take an interest in her brother’s homework until Sirius snapped and told her that he managed better by himself.
“Potter, why are you so stubborn?” Jordan asked. “You know you’ll feel better if you do something. I mean I know practice was horrible, but we’re still good enough to meet Hufflepuff and the way Sirius and Alex are developing…”
Lily nearly screamed as she shot up from her chair, stalking past Jordan and slamming the door to the girls’ dormitories as she left the common room. Surprisingly enough she was almost immediately followed by an equally annoyed Millie, even if she showed enough restraint not to slam the door.
“Millie, what’s wrong?” Eddy called after her standing up scratching his head as he stared at the closed door behind her. Jordan too looked like he had no clue to what was going on, frowning as he strained to figure out why she’d gotten so angry.
Sighing Sirius looked up from his homework.
“You do know that you’re both idiots, don’t you?” he asked looking at Jordan and Eddy. Surprised Lily looked at her grandson. Sirius only rarely got involved in other peoples business, and when he did it was usually only after being asked for an opinion.
“How do you figure that?” Eddy asked nonplussed. Sirius looked at them both for a while before sitting up straight, pushing away his homework.
“You are both aware of the fact that tomorrow is a Hogsmeade weekend right?” he then asked looking at them. Confused Jordan and Eddy looked at each other.
“Of course we know that!” Jordan exclaimed.
“Why wouldn’t we know…” Eddy said stopping himself in mid sentence, groaning as he seemed to realize what he’d done wrong, burying his head in his hands as he sank back down in the chair.
“What?” asked Jordan still dumbstruck.
“I’m an idiot!” Eddy said unhappily, ignoring Jordan’s question and querying look.
“I think that was what I said,” answered Sirius with a smirk returning his attention to his homework.
“Would either of you care to explain, cause I really don’t see how trying to cheer them up would be a bad thing,” Jordan exclaimed getting visibly annoyed.
“Well let’s see…if I heard you correctly you were talking about how getting butterbeers and sweets would cheer Lil up, right?” Sirius said once more looking up from his homework, sounding rather bored. Jordan nodded, still confounded. “Now, butterbeers and sweets would be exactly the things they aren’t allowed to get tomorrow, wouldn’t it? So while trying to cheer her up the only thing you managed to do was reminding her that when the two of you go off to Hogsmeade tomorrow to have a great time, she and Millie will be stuck here,” he finished sounding a bit inpatient for being force to state something so obvious.
“Oh,” Jordan said, finally understanding, turning to Eddy who was looking rather miserable.
“Any bright ideas to fix this?” Eddy asked him resignedly.
“Don’t look like there is so much we can do at the moment,” Jordan sighed. “I mean it’s not like we can go talk to them while they’re up there,” he finished tossing his head in the direction of the girls’ dormitory. Sighing Eddy nodded.
“I guess we could buy them gifts tomorrow,” he then said with a grin. “Girls usually like gifts.”
“Jordan, if you had been paying any attention at all the last few months you’d know that my cousin isn’t exactly the average girl. She doesn’t fall for the normal crap you pull,” Eddy said sounding slightly annoyed. “Or have you failed to notice that she isn’t exactly overly fond of you?”
Jordan scowled causing Eddy to sigh and shake his head.
“We’ll talk to them tomorrow,” he said standing up from his chair, walking over to the stairs leading up to the boys’ dormitory. Nodding even though Eddy couldn’t see him, Jordan too stood up and started to head over to the staircase.
They climbed it together, Eddy turning enough to tell Sirius and Alex not to sit up too long before they entered the tower.
The next morning Millie’s and Lily’s spirits did not seem to have improved. Especially Lily seemed to be annoyed by the prospect of being stuck at Hogwarts when everyone else was out enjoying themselves. It didn’t help matters that most of the other students couldn’t stop talking about all the things they would do and what they would buy once they got to Hogsmeade.
By the time the other students were gone, Mille and Lily seemed almost relieved to be left alone. Sitting in their favourite chairs in the common room they sighed as the tower emptied. Millie had decided to take the opportunity to get some homework done and was, to Lily’s great annoyance, urging her to do the same thing.
Refusing, saying she already done what homework she had Lily finally agreed to join Sirius for a game of wizards’ chess, even if she did frown on playing something so ‘utterly boring’. Of course, the game was probably not made less boring by the fact that she stood little chance against Sirius, who played wizards’ chess almost as often as he played Quidditch.
She was losing badly by the time Eddy and Jordan came back to the common room, carrying big smiles and equally big bags.
“What are you doing back already?” Lily asked surprised losing her concentration and thereby her last tower as well, sealing her fate. Looking at the clock her grandmother could see why she was surprised. They had hardly been gone two hours, far less than normal.
“We thought you might be a bit bored being stuck here so we thought we liven things up a bit with some sweets,” Eddy said smiling holding up several bags from Honeydukes as they walked over to where they were sitting starting to unpack their bags and fill the table in front of them with Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Licorice Wands, Sugar Quills and an array of other sorts that Lily couldn’t ever remember seeing in her life.
Casting a glance at James she wanted to ask if he knew what all the different things were, but just seeing him she knew it would be useless. He was standing by the window, staring out over the grounds, deeply submerged in his own thoughts.
“James,” she tried anyway, hoping against odds that she might actually get though to him. “Aren’t you coming? Just for a bit?”
Her heart rose when he actually met her eyes and then cast a look towards the youths, but then he just shook his head and returned to staring out the window.
With a sigh and a surge of guilt for not trying more Lily turned her attention back to the group gathering around the table.
“Eddy, this was really sweet of you,” Millie said with a smile, catching Eddy’s eye. Yet somehow the smile never really reached her eyes and in spite of the cheerful face she didn’t seem truly glad or completely at ease. Eddy however didn’t seem to notice, shrugging his shoulders with a slight blush he fastened his eyes on the table in front of him instead of looking at her.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly my idea. It was Jordan who came up with it,” he then said sounding a bit guilty.
“You?” Lily exclaimed in surprise as she sat down by the table, staring at Jordan who just grinned back at her, looking very proud of himself.
“What can I say, Potter? I do have my moments,” he grinned as he leaped into a chair from behind it rather than walking around it to sit down properly in it. For a moment it looked like Lily couldn’t decide whether to be impressed with his thoughtfulness or annoyed with his cockiness, or at least that was what her grandmother thought it looked like remembering all too well the feeling from her own days at Hogwarts.
“Well it was sweet of you then,” Millie said still with her plastered smile on her lips, taking a chocolate frog and a butterbeer before sitting back. To anyone not paying attention she might even have seemed happy and relaxed, but over the months Lily had gotten to know her too well not to see through the front. What ever she was acting, the problems the recent events had brought was still heavy on her heart, and no amount of sweets or butterbeer would change that. Her sister however seemed to have accepted this for what it was and seemed to make a conscious effort to put any problems out of her mind and have as much fun as the situation allowed, even if it meant accepting the fact that Jordan actually had done something right.
“It was rather nice of you, actually,” she reluctantly admitted to Jordan, still glancing at him with a somewhat surprised, look on her face. “I had expected you to just buy us a gift or something equally stupid, if anything at all. I hadn’t expected you to come back early to keep us company,” she added. Jordan still grinned proudly as he took a bite of the Sugar Quill in his hand and pulled something out of his pocket.
“Will you still think I’m nice after I’ve beaten you?” he said holding up a deck of Exploding Snap cards, making Lily almost choke on her liquorice wand.
“You, beat me at Exploding Snap?” she asked in disbelief. “Like that would ever happen!”
“I happen to be very good at Exploding Snap, but if you don’t dare…” Jordan baited. Lily knew her granddaughter would take the bait even before she opened her mouth.
“Oh, I dare!” she said with a smirk. “But you should be aware of the fact that I rarely, if ever, lose at this!” she grinned as she reached out and grabbed the deck of cards from him.
“Well then the game ought to be interesting,” Jordan grinned leaning back in the chair as she started to shuffle the deck.
It didn’t take long before Sirius and Belinda came to join them, bringing Alex and Cassie with them. Soon they were all sitting in chairs or on the floor talking happily, Jordan and Lily playing their game of Exploding Snap sitting on the floor a short distance away from the others. The bad mood of the last night lay temporarily forgotten amongst the increasing pile of wrappers and Famous Wizards Cards lying discarded on the floor, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that Millie’s smiles never actually seemed completely genuine or the fact that James never even looked up from what ever he was staring at the scene might have been a very happy one.
The scene was broken up however when they all raised their heads in surprise to see Harry stepping through the portrait hole. For the first time in hours, James stirred; turning around to look at his son with pain so evident in his face Lily couldn’t help but to put her arms around him.
“I see there is a party going on?” Harry said with a smile.
“Jordan and Eddy were kind enough to come back early with all of this for us,” Mille responded with a smile, still it didn’t quite reach her eyes though, something Harry seemed to notice even if he pretended not to. Instead he smiled and turned his attention to the boys.
“That was nice of you,” he then said. “Even your Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione didn’t do that for me the year I wasn’t allowed to go,” he then grinned turning back to his children.
“They didn’t?” Lily asked looking up from her game for a moment.
“Nope, they had far too much fun. But then again, that was in our third year so it was really the first time they ever visited Hogsmeade, not unlike our seventh years here,” Harry said with another smile.
“But that was not what I came here to talk to you about, actually,” he then said quickly before any of the kids had the possibility to ask any more questions.
“Then what did you come here to talk about, dad?” Lily asked looking at him.
“Cathy, actually,” he answered.
“Don’t you mean Catherine?” asked Millie, causing both her and Lily go giggle while Harry gave them a reproachful look.
“As you all know it’s Cathy’s birthday in less than a week,” Harry continued ignoring Millie’s comment even if it did seem that this giggle was the first completely sincere expression of happiness Millie had made all day.
“Dad, you don’t need to worry. We already bought her presents and we were going to give you them next week so you can bring them to her for her birthday party,” Lily interrupted him with a proud grin. Harry smiled at her.
“And why don’t you give them to her yourself?” he then asked. “It would be much easier since you are going to her birthday party after all.”
“We are?” Lily asked. Harry nodded his response.
“So Uncle Ron’s and Aunt Hermione’s house is safe enough for us to go to?” Millie asked with a big smile on her face, and this time her smile did reach her eyes.
“Of course not!” Harry answered. “That is why they are having the birthday party at our place,” he then added with a smile. “And Professor McGonagall has already agreed to let you all go.”
“Can we go too?” Jordan asked gesturing to himself, Alex and Cassie. Harry shook his head.
“I’m sorry Jordan, but Professor McGonagall insisted that it be kept to family only, so that means only you five,” he said addressing Eddy and Belinda as well as the girls and Sirius. Jordan wasn’t the only one seemed a bit disappointed not to be able to go, but for Millie and Lily the news about a break from routine and their recent confinement to school seemed to offer a pleasant distraction from their problems.
As Harry started to leave the common room, Lily decided that something needed to be done to help overcome the breach between father and son. Not knowing what else to do, she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the portrait hole.
“Evans don’t!” James protested, pulling himself loose. “I can’t…just don’t.”
“James, you need to spend time with him. We need to spend time with him,” Lily insisted.
“If you want to spend time with him fine, go ahead. I have no wish to hear him telling someone else how horrible I am,” James said dully, turning around to face the window again.
“James, I am sure that is not his real opinion,” Lily tried.
“Were you not there? Evans, our son thinks it’s a disgrace to be compared to me! Have you got any idea how that feels?” he asked with such pain in his voice Lily thought her heart was going to break.
“He still named his son after you,” she tried.
“He gave his son his own middle name!” James retorted. “He didn’t name him after me.”
“Well he did name him after Sirius, and he was as involved as you were in bullying Snape,” Lily said firmly. “I’m sure he knows that there is more to you than that.”
James shrugged. He wasn’t convinced. Still he gave in and went with her, mostly because he didn’t have the energy to fight anymore.
They caught up with Harry in his office where he and Dean were already involved in a conversation.
“What I don’t understand is why you won’t talk to Amelia about it,” Dean said sounding very confused.
“Have you seen the papers, Dean?” Harry asked shaking his head. “There all on Percy’s side, against Amelia. They blame her for the entire situation, even though anyone with half a brain realizes that it should be Percy’s head on a stick right now,” Harry said.
“Yes but Amelia is still the Minister for Magic, if she wanted to put Aurors at Hogwarts she could. And you know she would if you just asked her,” Dean insisted.
“I know that! I also know that if she did it would probably be the end of her career,” Harry said firmly. “If Amelia starts meddling in things that aren’t considered as her business she will probably be removed from office. Since Fudge was chased off, the heads of departments have been very protective of their powers. Any sign at all that Amelia is interfering and they will start moving against her, and Percy has got many followers at the Ministry. He knows what he is doing. He survived Fudge’s fall from grace after all and he was in deep in that one. If Amelia is removed, then Percy will more than likely be the next Minister for Magic, and I just can’t let that happen,” Harry finished with a sigh. Dean nodded. He did seem to see Harry’s point.
“You’re probably right. I just wish there was more I could do,” Dean said quietly.
“You can,” Harry said softly. “Keep your eyes and your ears open and report to me what is going on. Right now I can’t have as much contact with Amelia as I would have liked, we both agreed on that the last time we spoke. But you’re related to her by marriage. No one will question if you or Susan spend time with her. If you want to do something, make sure to get me as much information about what is going on in the Ministry as possible. Amelia won’t mind giving it to you, I’m sure,” he said once again getting Dean to nod his agreement.
“So when are you going to tell me what’s really bothering you?” Dean asked. Harry looked at him with surprise. Then he laughed.
“I certainly don’t remember you being this observant when we were in school together,” he sniggered before answering. “Snape! Who else do you know that regularly gives me headaches?” Dean laughed slightly.
“I have to say, I still don’t understand why you trust him,” he then said. “I mean you hate each other, what is there to say that he isn’t helping Malfoy to get at you?” he asked, making James cry out in agreement.
“I don’t have to like him to trust him, Dean. Besides I have my reasons for trusting him,” Harry answered.
“And those would be fine to keep to yourself if you didn’t demand everyone else to trust him,” Dean responded. “Harry I know you trust him, and I know you’ve said that Dumbledore had reasons to do so too, but I don’t have any reasons. To me he is still the only teacher at this school who didn’t participate in the final battle against Voldemort,” he finished.
“There were reasons for that,” Harry protested.
“Reasons I don’t know about, Harry. If you’re asking me to trust him, don’t you think I at least should know what he’s done to deserve that trust?” he asked. Harry seemed to hesitate, and unable to stop herself Lily walked over to him and whispered in his ear to tell him the truth. A surge of guilt about manipulating her son like that went trough her the moment she’d done it, but by then it was too late. Harry had already made up his mind and started talking.
“Alright, you’ve got a point, I’ll tell you,” he said. “But to understand everything, there are some facts you need to know first,” he then began.
“Alright, like what?” Dean asked.
“Like the fact that Snape was a Death Eater since the time he left Hogwarts. Like the fact that he turned spy for the Order of the Phoenix sometime before my parents’ death. Like the fact that he continued as a spy when Voldemort came back to life,” Harry answered. Dean nodded slowly, taking in what had been said, but not looking especially surprised.
“I kind of figured most of that out already, but what I wonder is how you know that he was loyal to the Order? What is there that says that he wasn’t a double spy, giving misinformation to us and giving the real information to Voldemort?” Dean asked, getting an assertive snort from James who at least listened to the conversation, which was more than Lily had ever hoped for, taking into account how he had been acting the past few days.
“Several reasons, actually, but lets start with the fact that almost all information we have gotten from him so far has turned out to be correct,” Harry answered.
“But there are more reasons than that, aren’t there?” Dean asked somewhat apprehensively. Harry nodded.
“As I said, there are several. But I think for this to work I need to take this in some sort of order, maybe beginning at the final battle and why Snape wasn’t a part of it,” Harry said, receiving a nod from Dean in response before continuing.
“The reason Snape wasn’t a part of the fight was because Dumbledore told him not to be. Dumbledore reckoned that there were only two possible outcomes of the fight; in neither it would have been good to blow Snape’s cover. In the bad scenario I would have died, and Voldemort lived “ in that case it would be signing Snape’s death sentence to have him reveal himself. Now what happened was the other scenario, we won, Voldemort died. But just as Dumbledore had expected, not all Death Eaters were there, and others escaped capture. And we still needed a spy to find out where they were and what they were up to. If Snape had revealed himself we wouldn’t have had that,” Harry explained and while James still snorted disdainfully, Lily could see the point in what Harry was trying to say.
“Ok so that makes sense from Dumbledore’s point of view, but it would also make sense to pretend to agree to that if you were a double spy,” Dean then said. Harry smiled slightly, but it was a smile that never reached his eyes.
“You’re right, my reasons are much more personal, and came a lot later. It wasn’t that I mistrusted Snape; not really, I just had a very hard time to actually put faith in him. Still he did prove useful in the hunt for escaped Death Eaters and there are more than a few now sitting in Azkaban that are there because of information he managed to get,” Harry continued. “Yet my main reason for trusting him is because I owe him not only my life, the life of my family as well.”
Dean looked at him intently, looking like he tried to figure out a difficult Arithmancy problem. He wasn’t the only one that stared at him. James had suddenly gone very still and very quiet, and he grabbed his wife’s hand firmly as he waited for the continuation.
“You mean Snape was the one to warn you about the attack?” Dean then suddenly asked. Harry nodded.
“But he did more than just tell us it was coming. He told us how they would attack. What measures they had taken to ensure we wouldn’t escape. If he hadn’t told us that they managed to redirect the floo-network so that anyone using it to flee would find themselves surrounded by Death Eaters at Malfoy mansion we would have been destined to try that, we would have been sitting ducks,” he said quietly.
James was stunned. Something wasn’t right. Snape couldn’t be the hero that saved Harry and his family. It made no sense. Not to him at least. Snape was an evil git. The one that loved dark magic, bullied his students and made life as difficult as possible for Harry and the children. More importantly he was the one that killed Peter. The images just didn’t match, not in his mind anyway. Lily however seemed to accept this, and so did Dean.
“I see,” he said nodding. “I guess I could see you trusting him after that,” he then said.
“That would have been ample reason, even forgetting that he helped avenge my parents’ deaths, wouldn’t it?” Harry asked with a slight smile, making James jump with surprise.
“Yes it would be, so why do I get the feeling that there’s more?” Dean asked. A question both James and Lily wanted answered.
“Snape also testified at the trial against Malfoy, exposing himself to him as a spy. Malfoy swore to kill him because of it,” Harry said. “So you see, even if Snape would want to hurt me, he is definitely not helping Malfoy. That if anything, I’m sure of,” Harry finished.
“So you mean that Malfoy is after Snape as well as you and Millie? Dean asked with surprise. Harry nodded his response.
“Now you see why I am so sure of him coming here?” he asked.
“Well I never questioned that, not even when it was only about you and Millie. This hardly makes it less likely,” Dean answered. “Does Percy know about all this?” he then asked.
“The Minister of Magical Law Enforcement? My brother-in-law? Are you kidding? Of course he knows!” Harry exclaimed. “He was there when Malfoy attacked the Burrow. He was there at the trial. He heard Malfoy swear he’d kill me and Snape, he heard him swear that he’d get Millie back. If he wasn’t so blind to this because of Millie and his own ambition, he’d know this is where Malfoy is headed,” he finished.
“Still no clue to what he is up to at the moment?” Dean asked changing the subject. Harry shook his head.
“Nothing. As far as we’ve been able to find out not one of his old Death Eater buddies have heard from him. Although that information is highly uncertain since we got it from Snape and Malfoy would be bound to tell anyone that he is in contact with about him being a spy. But then Snape is a highly skilled Legilimens and he still hasn’t managed to find out anything to suggest that they are lying. What we do know is that he hasn’t made contact with his mother “ she’s been under surveillance since the escape so that is a certainty. Other than that we don’t know anything. It’s like he didn’t exist. Like he vanished into thin air the moment he escaped,” Harry said quietly.
“Yea, well I’m sure you’re going to find out something soon. And with the Christmas break coming up and the Yule Ball I’m sure Millie will have enough distractions to hang on for a while longer,” Dean said.
“I hope so, Dean. I really do hope so,” Harry said. “Well I’d better go home. Ginny will be worried otherwise,” he then added getting up. Dean nodded and got up as well, taking his leave. When Harry left he did so by the fireplace, leaving James and Lily alone in his office.
“Now aren’t you glad you came, James?” Lily asked him. Reluctantly James nodded.
“I still don’t trust Snape!” he then said firmly.
“You don’t have to, James,” Lily said knowing it would be stupid to get into that argument right now. “I just hope you understand your son a bit more,” she added.
James nodded. He still couldn’t fully come to terms with the things he heard Harry say about him, but it did make him feel a bit better to know that the reason his son trusted Snape wasn’t completely based on things he had done as a teenager.
“Remus and Sirius will have told him what a wonderful person you are, James,” Lily said, as if she could read his mind. Smiling gratefully at her he pulled her into an embrace, holding her tight, hoping she was right.
“Are you ready to head back to the kids?” Lily asked after a while. James nodded. Somehow this had gotten a part of his energy back and while he still wasn’t completely at ease he had gotten back his curiosity. Most of all he wanted to know in what way Snape could possibly be believed to have avenged his and Lily’s deaths, not to mention why in Merlin’s name he would have? He was sure he was playing on something. Now all James needed to do was figure out what.