A Ghost's Tale

I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.

Harry sat at his desk in his room at the Dursleys' home, trying to convince his sore body that he had to stand up and drag himself into the garden to do his chores. He had already been feeling unwell for a few days with a sore throat and a bad headache, and when he hadn't managed to finish his chores on the day before his uncle had used his belt to play piano on his back. Now Harry wasn't only suffering from the cold but also from a badly bruised back.

All of a sudden, a faint voice from the direction of his bed penetrated his ear. "Harry, my child, happy birthday!"

Harry glanced around, terrified as he saw a ghost hovering over his bed. 'Oh no,' he groaned inwardly. 'I knew that I was feverish, but I didn't realise that my temperature was high enough to be delirious.' His foggy mind hadn't even registered that it was his birthday. 'Is it really?' he mused in confusion.

"Harry, I am Lily, your mother," the voice spoke up again, and Harry noticed that the ghost had indeed the features that he had seen on the pictures of his mother.

'I must go and do my chores, and then I come back and try to sleep this cold off,' Harry resolved and stood up in determination.

"Harry, can't you see me?" Lily queried as he took a few uncertain steps towards the door. "You should lie down and rest for a while. You can't do chores today; you're sick."

"Mum?" Harry asked in disbelief as he fiercely rubbed his forehead in a faint attempt to get rid of the fog that surrounded his head. "You can't be real, can you? I'm just delirious, aren't I?"

"Harry, I can understand that it's difficult to believe, but I'm real. I've been here with you as a ghost all these years. I tried so hard to manifest myself, but I was too badly hurt and had depleted my magic completely to save you. I only managed to form my ghost's body today, more than ten years after I was murdered. I know everything about how you grew up, and I'm so sorry that I had to watch helplessly and couldn't do anything about it all these years. However, I promise to help you get away from here as soon as possible, and I'll have a few words with my so-called sister before we leave."

Harry threw the ghost an uncertain look, thinking, 'It would be more than wonderful if Mum was really here, even if she was only a ghost, but that can't be true. I'm only imagining it.' He sighed as a violent shiver shook his body and automatically obeyed when the ghost instructed him to lie on his bed.

"I'll deal with Petunia if she comes and scolds you. Vernon is at work anyway, and I hope we'll be away from here, before he returns," Lily said softly as she laid her hand onto Harry's forehead. Even if she didn't have a real human's body anymore, she could feel the heat her son radiated. "Harry, you seem to have a high fever, and I can't allow you to do anything but rest today. However, I'm sorry, but I need you to write a letter before you may go to sleep. Listen to me first though. I must tell you something."

Feeling too bad to resist listening to the ghost, Harry turned to his side, glad to be able to rest his achy head on the pillow, and threw his mother's ghost a questioning look. "All right, Mum," he said softly.

"Harry, your father is alive. James was not your father; however, due to the circumstances I had to make everyone believe that he was. Before I married James, I was together with someone else, with someone I really loved," Lily continued, and Harry had the impression as if she was fighting back a sob. 'Can ghosts cry?' he mused, but Lily already went on, "but he had to leave and told me we couldn't remain together because he was working for the Dark Lord and it would be too dangerous for me. I should marry James. I didn't agree at all, but he never showed up again. He left me, because he didn't want anything bad to happen to me."

Harry instinctively reached out for his mother's hand, only to notice that he couldn't grab it but merely felt a cool breeze on his hand. "It's all right, sweetie," Lily whispered. "Only after getting together with James, I realised that I was pregnant with you. In order to make everyone believe that you were his son, I talked James into marrying as soon as possible and magically prolonged my pregnancy for a month. I also cast several charms on you that made you look like James. Apparently, I managed to place them very well." Lily smirked. "Not even James realised that you were not his son but that of his greatest childhood enemy."

Harry let out a snort that turned into a harsh cough, causing the ghost to throw him a worried look. "Harry, that cold will turn into pneumonia, if we don't do anything against it. Your overall health condition leaves a lot to be desired, due to the fact that Petunia always neglected you when you were ill. We need to contact your father quickly, so that he can give you a few potions. Try to get up and write a letter."

"All right, but... Who is my father then? Do I know him?" Harry asked hoarsely, looking at Lily in expectation.

"Severus," Lily replied softly, "the only man I ever really loved."

"Severus as in Severus Snape, the greasy git and Potions Master?" Harry nearly choked as he croaked, "The man hates me more than anything else. How can he be my father?"

Lily chuckled and brushed a soft kiss against her son's hot forehead. "Don't make yourself so upset; you'll only bring your fever up even more. Severus doesn't know that you're his son. I never had the opportunity to tell him before I died."

'That felt good,' Harry mused, smiling at his mother, who proceeded to gently stroke his flushed cheeks. "That feels so good," he whispered, unconsciously leaning into the cool breeze he felt from his mother's ghost's hand. Finally, he slowly sat up and waited for the dizziness to pass before he dragged himself to his desk, placing a piece of paper and a ball pen in front of himself. "Now, what should I write? He won't believe me anyway. He thinks I'm an attention seeking brat and will throw my letter away as soon as he receives it."

Lily sighed and began to dictate him a letter to her former husband.

'Dear Professor Snape,
I'm sorry to disturb you during the summer holidays, especially as I have very disturbing news, which I still can't believe myself. This morning, my mother's ghost showed up here in my room. She told me that she had finally managed to manifest her ghost form after ten years. She said that she urgently needs to speak with you, and that she asks you to come here as soon as possible.
In case you won't believe me she said to tell you something no one else would know: "The Estonica potion with a sip of Cassis." She told me you would know what she means.
Please believe me and come. We're waiting for you.
Yours sincerely,
Lily Evans and Harry.'

Harry fastened the letter to Hedwig's foot and instructed her to hand it to Professor Snape. "Hurry up please," he told his familiar, "it's urgent." Turning back to the ghost, he queried, "Lily Evans? Wouldn't that be Lily Potter?"

"After officially divorcing from Severus in order to marry James, I changed my name back to Evans. Everyone thought of course that I was Lily Potter, but in fact I never took his name," Lily replied, chuckling.

"I still can't believe that you were married to Snape," Harry croaked. "Did everyone at Hogwarts know about that? I wonder why no one told me."

"Only Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey knew, because I was very close to them, no one else. Now back to bed with you," Lily said in a firm voice that caused Harry to obey instinctively. "Before you were born, I worked as a Mediwitch at St. Mungo's. Therefore, I have enough experience to be able to see how ill you are," Lily said worriedly. "I don't know if I'll be able to cast spells in this ghost form; however, at least at the moment I probably can't, because I used a lot of magic by manifesting into my ghost's form. Maybe if I don't do any magic for a while, I'll be able to cast spells again. Let me try anyway."

"All right," Harry replied and closed his achy eyes, unaware of the fact that his mother's ghost gently waved her hand over him, causing his skin to considerably cool down as his temperature dropped a degree. With another wave of the ghost's hand, he fell into a light slumber.

'I hope Severus will believe Harry and come,' Lily mused as she hovered next to her son and watched him sleep in concern. 'Harry needs more help than I'll be able to give him, and it's time for Sev to know and accept him as his son. I hope that he'll be willing to do so; after all he seems to hate Harry as much as he hated James, even if Harry didn't do as much as raise a finger against him. Harry is such a sweet child, but now I'm able to talk with people, and I'll tell the Headmaster about the abuse he is suffering at Pet's home, and I'll ask Poppy to do a thorough check on him that'll confirm the abuse. Hopefully, she'll also be able to take off the charms I placed on Harry, if Sev wants to accept him or not. There is no need for Harry to look like James anymore, and if Sev is not willing to help, I'll ask Minerva to take Harry to the Ministry and change his name to Harry Severus Evans and become his guardian. Harry has already suffered too much.'

In the meantime, Hedwig approached Hogwarts, heading straight for the dungeons in search of Professor Snape.

I'm sorry - I know I should work on my many unfinished stories, but unfortunately, my muse disagrees because she has too many ideas. I hope you enjoyed the chapter nonetheless.