Severus and Lily watched closely as Healer Dordt put Harry to sleep. Once he was sure Harry was completely under; he sat down on a chair close to him, placed his hand on his scar to maintain contact and then put himself into a deep trance. He remained unmoving for at least 20 minutes.
"What do you think he's doing?" Lily whispered.
"I imagine he's doing what he told Harry he was going to do," Severus replied.
It was another ten minutes before the healer brought himself out of the self-induced trance. He motioned them to follow him back into his office. "I'm going to let Harry sleep a bit longer."
"What did you find?" Severus asked. He was aware that Lily was holding his hand tightly.
"Do either of you know what a horcrux is?"
"Merlin's beard!" Severus exclaimed. "Is that what You-Know-Who did in an attempt to become immortal. I suspected he had done something horrible, but that is the worst thing I could ever imagine!" He turned to Lily and explained what they were talking about.
Lily's face twisted in revulsion. "You-Know-Who turned my son into one of those?"
"I suspect that wasn't his intention, Miss Evans. You can only tear your soul so many times before it becomes very unstable and when his killing curse backfired and destroyed him that piece of his soul sought the only safe harbor in the room which was your son. The presence trapped inside Harry's scar seems confused and frightened rather than evil and from what I've sensed; it wants to be free."
"Can you remove it then?" Severus asked. He found it hard to believe that any part of You-Know-Who could be anything but evil and he said so.
"Well, Professor Snape your soul is simply your life force and does not in any way influence your behavior. If someone has decided to be evil, their soul cannot change that."
"But you will be able to completely remove it?" Lily asked.
"Yes, I believe I successfully conveyed my intent to it and it's willing."
"When do you want to do it?"
"I think next weekend at St. Mungo's will be soon enough. Harry will need to rest afterwards so I might want him to stay overnight, but we'll see how he feels after the procedure."
Healer Dordt brought Harry out of the sleep state. He stretched, yawned and smiled at Severus and Lily. "What the news?"
Healer Dordt explained to Harry what he had found and what he planned to do. "The procedure shouldn't take long. I may require you to stay overnight, but we'll decide that afterwards."
"Okay." Harry replied. It was weird being told you had a piece of You-Know-Who's soul stuck inside your head. He was glad it was going to be removed.
They flooed back to Severus quarters and Harry left to find his friends. Severus sat down on the couch deep in thought. Lily sat down beside him. "What are you thinking, Sev?"
"You know what this means?"
"That You-Know-Who made more than one of these horcruxes."
"You caught that then when he said you could only tear your soul so many times?"
"This means as long as he has those horcruxes he'll be immortal and he'll be able to keep coming back."
"Well, he does not have a corporal body so that will limit him and he has already found out possession does not work well either so that gives us some time before he attempts another comeback."
"What are we going to do, Sev?"
"I think we can turn the information over to Scrimgeour, Moody and Orion Black and let them deal with it. I will advise them to consult with Healer Dordt and maybe he can consult with this African wizard he studied under to see how to destroy them …or free them as the case may be."
"That's probably the best idea," Lily agreed.
Lily was coming out of the Charms corridor on her way back to her suite on Monday when she heard Dumbledore call her name. She turned and stopped as Albus hurried up to her. He was dressed in a bright blue robe with gold moons and stars on it and a matching hat. "Lily, James would like to see Harry. I told him I'd ask you.""I'll talk to Harry and Sev. If Harry wants to see James, it's fine, but if he doesn't I'm certainly not going to force him to. I'll talk with him about it tonight and I'll floo call you." She whirled around again and called, "And you might want to tell Potter to pull his head out of his arse and not act like he's still fifteen and king of Hogwarts. Harry isn't impressed with that kind of crap."
That night Lily walked into the Great Hall, looking for Harry. He and his friends were all sitting at the Ravenclaw table that evening. Lily stopped to speak to Harry. Greg who was sitting next to Harry got up and offered her his seat. "Here, Mrs. Potter, why don't you sit here?"
"Thank you, Greg," Lily said smiling and sitting down next to Harry. "Harry, could you possibly stop by my quarters before you go back to Ravenclaw?"
"Sure, Mum." Harry said.
Lily ate dinner with Harry and all his friends, but flagged Severus down before he could go back to the dungeon. "Sev, would you mind coming up to my quarters? I need to discuss something with you and Harry."
"Yes. Allow me to check on my snakes and then I will be up."
When both Harry and Severus were seated on the couch in her quarters, Lily sat down opposite them. "Professor Dumbledore stopped me this morning and told me that James wants to see you, Harry. I told him I would talk to both of you and give him your answer in the morning. I told him it was entirely up to you and if you didn't want to see him, I won't force you."
Harry bit his lip for a moment and then asked, "They'll be a hearing to see who I'll be living with, won't there?"
"Most likely, Harry," Severus replied.
"And James will probably have a lawyer there who's going to ask me questions?"
"I can almost guarantee that," Lily spat.