Disclaimer: I am still not J K Rowling or H P Lovecraft. Likewise, I still do not own either Harry Potter, or things Cthulhu related up to and including Abdul Alhazred.

Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was not having a very good evening. That nice polite American, Professor Whateley, who had been so appreciative of Albus' 'for the Greater Good' philosophy and who had assured him at his job interview that he had a sure-fire way to take Tom Riddle down that Tom would never see coming had blown it. Not only had he blown it, but he had blown up the Astronomy Tower, killed one of Albus' favourite Gryffindor students, failed to eliminate Severus Snape, cost Albus his Astronomy teacher, and generally left Albus with a lot of very awkward explaining to do in the near future to some very curious ministry officials.

Maybe that wand-gun thing the unspeakables had taken off James would help to soothe ministry nerves. Albus could spin this as an attempt to obtain or manufacture unique equipment which had gone badly wrong. Yes, that might work.

The worst part of this debacle, he was sure, was sitting across the headmaster's desk from him. Lily Evans, fine upstanding witch that she was, splattered in all sorts of mysterious substances, and Sword of Gryffindor in hand, was currently nestled up against a bright-eyed, determined looking, Severus Snape. Albus had had a long-term plan which involved pairing Lily Evans off with James Potter, helping to introduce a muggle-born into a noble house and to provide a vital, positive, lesson for wizarding society that blood-purism was an outdated and pointless doctrine. A successful marriage and half a dozen of what Albus had been certain would be magically potent Potter children would have made his case nicely. Albus had believed that he had learned from the unfortunate case of Eileen Prince and Tobias Snape: the gap between the magical and the muggle was too large to be ordinarily bridged by a union – for all that those two had produced Severus who was hardly a slouch in terms of wizardry – but James and Lily should have been beneficial and worked…

Only now five years' work was undone, and Lily was all but in Severus' arms, brought together with him in a crisis, and James had acquired a 'Damsel rescued from distress' muggle. Oh well. Maybe James, who did have considerable charm and was a romantic at heart, would be able to make such a pairing work where Eileen Prince had failed. If not, there was always that Perkins girl, Dumbledore had lining up, and a large vial of amortentia. Merope Gaunt's mistake, from which Albus had learned, was that she had stopped dosing Tom Riddle senior with love potion. If Albus had to set James up with a muggle-born to make a much-needed political point, he would not make the mistake of withdrawing any love-potions. He would see them both dead, first.

"So:" Albus invited the pair of students. "The two of you are undoubtedly the most intelligent students who have participated in the events of the past twenty-four hours. Would you please explain to me, in your own words and time, Mr. Snape and Miss Evans, just what you have been doing?…"

As Albus Dumbledore listened, his evening got worse. He hadn't thought it possible, but it did. Albus had never bothered to take Xenophilius' ramblings seriously, or to consider that muggle writers like that Alhazred chap might genuinely know of things of importance to the magical world. At several points he had to request memories of Mr. Snape or Miss Evans, to view immediately in his pensieve, and what he saw left him shaken.

There was a whole other world of cosmic horror out there, existing quietly under the wizarding world's nose, which made Voldemort look like a picnic.

At last the tale was done, and the headmaster hoped that Mr. Snape and Miss Evans were too tired to notice just how ashen he must look.

About the only gold Albus could glimpse in this dunghill of a situation was that he appeared to have misjudged Mr. Snape, and that – if properly motivated – the young man did appear to have some capacity to be decent. Well there was that and that at least Albus was possibly being presented with a partial solution to the very large pile of problems which had just become apparent.

Or at least a stop-gap measure to perhaps (however temporarily) cope with them.

"I shall see that Madam Pomfrey is notified you are to have dreamless sleep, if and when required until the end of term." the headmaster said. "I shall also instruct her the same as regards to Misters Black, Lupin, and Potter. In light of what you appear to have gone through, I shall require both your attendances, here at Hogwarts, over the summer once term concludes. I am not yet clear for how long that will be. It is possible that it may consume the entire holiday."

Severus frowned but did not demure. Lily made a sleepy 'mmphh, s'okay, if Sev'rus is here' noise. She was practically falling asleep snuggled up to him. Severus adjusted his position accordingly, to afford her greater comfort.

Albus' mind was racing. He had the Order of the Phoenix, of course, to assist with the war against Voldemort, but by the look of it he would need another, even more secret, organisation altogether different from the Order of the Phoenix to fight in the terrifying new conflict into which he had just had a glimpse…

Author Notes:

And there we go, a short, wrapping-things-up, sort of piece, trying to look at what Albus Dumbledore might have been thinking, hiring Professor Whateley, and hinting at how the future could pan out in some respects. I'm not sure how much evidence (if any) there is in canon for the headmaster trying to matchmake Lily and James, but for the purposes of this alternate universe I have assumed an Albus Dumbledore who has been trying to matchmake them ('for the greater good' of course).

I hope readers have been entertained by this short story. At present other ideas I have are occupying my attention too much to make any spin-off for this immediately possible.