The sky looked majestic that night. Millions of stars shone making people believe that the sky was covered with an endless piece of silk fabric decorated by twinkling diamonds. A white feminine owl’s figure covered the luminous almost-full moon and then dived down to catch her prey. Inside one of the castle’s walls another living creature was awake as well.

Severus Snape was lying on his back and with eyes grant open he was staring at the bewitched ceiling. He took a lock of his coal-black hair and brought it forward to touch the bridge of his nose, a sign that he was in deep thinking. Sighing heavily he turned to his right, kicking the blankets that covered him in the process. His left leg, which was covered with nothing, started cooling. He looked at the cradle that stood a few meters away from his bed. His eyes narrowed and he let out an uncomfortable grumble.

He shivered slightly and covered himself, bringing his blankets over his head. Snape, for the first time in a very long time, felt extremely confused. His chest was in pain. Not really in pain. He felt like someone had placed a heavy rock on top of his chest, making feel uncomfortable and disoriented. He closed his eyes, while his mouth curled into a scowl.

‘No Ady’

The small boy’s sad voice echoed in his ears. Snape’s eyes opened slowly as he let a small and angry sigh. No, he refused it! He did not care about Potter. Or did he?

-)-)-)

The man raised his beetle-black eyes from the piece of parchment to which he was writing. He could not believe himself. For the first time in five months he was spending a quiet day. A very quiet day! Yet, instead of feeling at least happy, he could not work. He let a faint grumble and turned his attention to the little infant.

Baby Harry was sitting quietly near one of the chamber’s corners and he was clutching Bibi tightly on his chest. Since the Potion Dose was given to him, the small boy was holding the unicorn-toy as it was the only thing to which his existence depended. Harry turned his head towards the Potion Master, looked at him for a couple of seconds and then lowered his head in the sense of total abandonment.

Snape sighed in desperation and to his amazement he realized that his legs had forced him to stand up. He tried, unsuccessfully, to force himself back to his seat only to see that such an action was unavailable. His legs moved as if they had a mind of their own.

“One of these days Severus,” he thought as he approached the toddler, “You are going to end up in St. Mango’s. You are spending too much time with this boy.”

He knelt near baby Harry and looked at him silently for a couple of moments. Inside his mouth he chewed his words. He calculated every single vowel knowing that if he uttered something inappropriate he was going to regret it for a lifetime. Harry turned to him but he did not look at his face. He continued looking at the mattress-like carpet’s colorful pattern. Snape inhaled sharply and then opened his mouth in uncertainty.

“Ha-Harry?” he whispered softly as the boy’s head shot up. The boy gazed him in wonder and then let his head sunk into his shoulders.

“No Ady.” Baby Harry said again sadly.

A small silence ensued as Snape bit his lower lip slightly, and unconsciously. He closed his eyes and then opened them. He pressed his lips together and then started.

“You . . . you are correct. I am not your father. He . . . Well. . . Your parents died a long time ago.”

Baby Harry’s eyes were now fixed on him. They seemed to ask him for explanations. How it happened and at one moment he felt happy and then he had pictures of those three horrible people around him? And most importantly, how did it happen that his guardian was never there to protect him? Snape let out an uncomfortable grumble. He rubbed his temples with his fingers.

“You went to live with your aunt, uncle and their son. They are your only relatives.”

“You. . .” baby Harry blurted out in confusion.

“I know. It’s confusing. Oh, I am not even sure you understand what I am talking about.” Snape exclaimed in frustration. Having to explain such a situation to an infant was similar to the act of collecting skin from Blast-Ended Skrewts without the use of gloves. “Let’s just say that you live your childhood with me, while you also live it with your relatives at the same time.”

“Argh I don’t think he got it!” he thought while the infant kept staring at him in disbelief. Snape reached out and brought Harry into sitting on his right leg. He exhaled slowly and gathered all his strength to continue.

“I just. . . I want. . . Ha-Harry. . . Argh. . . Ok, let me put it like this. . . I want you to know that I am not like your aunt and uncle . . . Well. . . What I want to say. . . ‘Phew’. . . Is it hot in here? Oh damn! I ca-care for you Ha-Harry and . . . . And. . . . And . . . I hope . . . that . . . well . . . you know.”

Baby Harry stared at the Potion Master’s pale face and then gave him a nod. Or what Snape thought to be a nod.

“Good. Now, these toys there are for you,” he said pointing at the infant’s pile of toys. “Feel free to play now ok. I will be back before you know it.”

Snape stood up and paced towards the bathroom. The moment he closed the door behind him, he magicked the room soundless. He, then, let out a scream that would make a Banshee jealous, fell to the floor and started banging the back of his head against the bathroom-wall’s tiles. He could not believe himself. He had actually admitted that he care about Potter. Out Loud!

The black-haired man got out of the bathroom only to find baby Harry still sitting at the corner of the room; clutching Bibi. Thinking that the infant was not in the mood to play he retreated back to his desk. It was three essays later that he raised his head to check Harry only to understand that the Boy had got the expression ‘Be Quiet’ too seriously. Baby Harry was using his hands to imitate animal faces and he was giggling quietly when he caught the Potion Master staring at him from behind a huge mountain of parchments.

FLASHBACK

“Silence is a virtue boy. But it seems to me that you are not virtuous at all.” a man’s voice spat inside his ear.

END OF FLASHBACK

The little boy’s face paled ashen while he kept staring at the black-robed man with eyes that reminded Snape of a unicorn that was hunted down by a very ferocious, hungry dragon. Harry remained froze fearing that Hell was going to break lose any moment. He stared as his guardian lowered his head, hissed something to himself and then rose from his seat. Harry watched with his green eyes as the man mumbled something to himself while moving to his direction. The tall man towered over him and Harry shuddered when he saw the piercing look that his guardian had granted him with. He, then, closed his eyes and waited, expecting his guardian to lift him up and toss him into a quiet, cold and silent space. Seconds seemed like eternity and baby Harry could not help but open his left eye. To his amazement, his guardian was now sitting next to him and was looking at him quietly.

Meantime, Snape was once again in a difficult situation. One speech for a day was bad enough, two were a nightmare. Someone had placed a curse on him. That was definite now. He gulped down and felt himself unable to articulate a single word. Lucky for him, the Boy started first.

“Sowwy.”

Snape’s eyes opened in surprise. Had the infant said sorry? Why? He had done nothing wrong this time. He watched baby Harry’s lip tremble slightly for some seconds, but then the boy raised his green eyes up and proceeded.

“Me was bad boy. Made noise. You punish me?”

“Potter,” Snape said with a slight tone of bewilderment in his voice, “I am certainly not going to punish you. . . Ha-Harry, you were very quiet. Too quiet in fact. I came here to ask you why you are not playing.”

It was Harry’s turn to look his guardian in surprise. He was allowed to play? And make noise? Even when the man opposite him was working?

“You wok. No play when Ankel Vewnon wok. Me never play. Ant Petunia no likes it.”

Snape was sure that the vein on his temple had appeared because Harry had started looking at him with a worried look. He tried to calm down, while he had the urge to throttle a pig; for a reason he could not clearly define.

“Potter . . . I mean Ha-Harry . . . For as long as you stay with me, I want you to know that . . . well . . . I am not like your aunt and uncle. What I mean to say . . . is . . . that you are allowed to play, you know . . . have fun when I work. Even if that means that you will make noise. I will never punish you if there is not a good reason to do so. So as long as you are a good boy, and listen to me, there is not going to be any punishment.”

“Argh, why don’t I try to kill myself? It will be much easier. The things I do for Potter.” Snape thought while he was speaking. He could not believe that such words escaped his mouth.

Harry nodded in agreement but did not touch his toys. Snape sighed in desperation. This was going to be very difficult. He shrugged for a couple of moment and hissing to himself that he was ‘going nuts’, he leaned towards the toys and grabbed a stuffed dragon. The dragon was a blue, Chinese one and for a strange reason it reminded Snape of Dumbledore. It was probably the fact that it had a white beard under his mouth and it wore a pair of gold rectangular eyeglasses. Snape looked at the dragon for a moment and then placed it in front of Harry.

“Hello Harry Potter. I am Gilleon the Ancient Magical Dragon,” Snape said moving Gilleon the dragon and using a slightly high-pitched, yet older voice, “and I want to play with you. Why don’t you grab one of my friends from the pile and play with me!”

“Merlin, I hope this never leaves my chambers walls” Severus Snape thought in unease.

Harry giggled slightly and grabbed a staffed lilac pixie and a yellow phoenix from the pile.

-)-)-)

“I am bad and I am going to defeat you, you goody-goodies” Snape snarled imitating that the stuffed grey teddy-bear he was holding was threatening Gilleon the blue dragon, Droxie the lilac pixie and Floozy the yellow phoenix.

“Oh no you don’t!” Snape said in Gilleon the dragon’s voice and ‘attacked’ the stuffed grey teddy-bear. “Now Droxie and Floozy help me.”

Harry looked at Snape. They were both playing for some time, absorbed to notice anything else that was happening around them. The boy hearing Gilleon’s word of encouragement flanged himself forward, holding Droxie and Floozy tightly. The stuffed toys hit Snape’s hands and caused the grey teddy-bear to escape his grab and fall from behind his back. Harry moved forward, past Snape and ‘attacked’ the teddy-bear with the aid of Droxie and Floozy.

Snape turned around smiling and was prepared to throw Gilleon into the battle as well. Yet his hand stopped to mid-air as his face turned crimson red. His mouth hanged open and he let the stuffed toy down in embarrassment. In front of him stood a very chuckling Albus Dumbledore that only Merlin could know for how much time he had been watching him.

“H-h-headmaster this is not what it seems to be.” Snape stuttered immediately while Dumbledore kept covering his mouth with his hand, unable to stop. “Headmaster I will appreciate it if you stop chuckling.” Snape said in annoyance.

“I came for the calming Potion you promised” Dumbledore said while he kept tittering slightly.

Snape collected himself into a more serious face and moved to the cupboard where he had stored the Potion Vials. Taking the potion he had prepared for the Headmaster he closed the cupboard and turned to the older wizard with a frown.

“Oh it seems it is time for lunch!” Dumbledore exclaimed looking at the luminous clock. I guess it is time to move ourselves in the Great Hall.” Dumbledore said with two very dangerous twinkling-eyes and left the room quickly.

“Darn!” Snape thought and was left there to look at the door in a transfixed manner.

-)-)-)

The soft continuous ticking of the luminous clock echoed inside the chamber. Its ‘hands’ moved and a eight soft ‘dings’ ensued. Snape raised his eyes from the book and looked at the boy, who was whispering something to Bibi. He closed the book slowly and placed it on his mahogany-desk.

“Boy, its time for bed,” he said tonelessly stating the obvious.

Hearing this Harry’s face fell. He let a deep sigh, and to Snape’s amazement, he took Bibi and a blanket that was resting nearby; and moved towards the wardrobe.

“Ha-Harry, what are you doing?” Snape asked softly.

“Me goes to sleep” Harry said sadly.

A quarter of an hour later, baby Harry was wearing a soft set of red pajamas and was looking at them in adoration. Snape had realized, in the past fifteen minutes that Harry had no pajamas when he was living with his relatives. The raven-haired man let out a growl. What kind of relatives did that boy had? Snape let the youngster down and was about to bring a children’s book from the library when he saw Harry, once again, moving towards his wardrobe. The tall man, who had not yet realized that the boy associated the wardrobe with his cupboard under the stairs, thought that baby Harry wanted to look for something inside the closet, a strange habit he had developed the previous two weeks. Therefore he opened the wardrobe and let baby Harry step inside. To his amazement the boy put the blanket over him and lied there quietly. Snape remained motionless for a couple of moments and then leaned down and caught the little boy into his arms. Baby Harry looked at him in puzzlement as he sat on the bed, while he grabbed the first story-book his hand had reached. He, then, opened the drawer that the little table near his bed had and took out a small cot. Placing it on the floor he took his wand out and magicked it to his normal size.

“Wow!” baby Harry exclaimed and turned to look at his guardian. Yet, he frowned quickly. “Ankel Vewnon said no magic.”

“Well, magic exists. Or my name isn’t Severus Snape.” Snape exclaimed feeling the urge to throttle someone once again, “Bed-time story”

Harry looked as the cover and saw a small, yellow dragon with red wings flying around the page.

“Ling the Yellow Dragon takes a bath.”

“I am not even going to dignify that.” Snape thought and turned the page.

“Ling the Yellow Dragon was a very good dragon . . . ‘You mean that? Noooooo’ . . . He listened to his mum’s advices and always licked his plate clean . . . ‘So this is what a good child does these days!’ . . . Yet, Ling the Yellow Dragon hated baths . . .’Evil. The dragon is evil because he hates baths’ . . . One morning Ling the Yellow Dragon woke up and saw his mother preparing a hot bath for him . . . ‘Can someone please Avada Kadavra me? Because I cannot picture a grown up dragon filling a bathtub’ . . . Ling the Yellow Dragon was angry . . . He did not want to have a bath . . . He looked outside the window and saw his friend Henry the Green Toad playing outside . . . “Hello” Henry the Green Toad said. “Do you want to come out and play with me?” . . . “I can’t. I am going to have a bath.” Ling the Yellow Dragon answered. . “Oh how nice. I love water.” Henry the Green Toad answered happily. . . “Do you want to switch places?” Ling asked . . .’What a devious child! Mrs. Dragon will never know the difference” . . . Henry the Green Toad said yes . . . When Mr. Dragon came to Ling’s room he found Henry the Green Toad sitting there . . .She smiled . . .She knew what to do . . . “Since my child, Ling, is not here; you will take his place. . . Ling watched as his mother put Henry into the bathtub, bathe Henry and then made him wear Ling’s best outfit . . . ‘The damn dragon has an outfit? Ok that is officially insane’ . . . Ling got jealous that his mother did that . . . He climbed the window and filled the bathtub with hot water. . . He had a bath and then wore another outfit. . . He ran down the stairs and shouted . . .”Look mummy, I had a bath and dressed by myself!” . . . Mrs. Dragon hugged her son and placed his breakfast in front of him . . .And Ling the Yellow Dragon was very happy . . .The End”

Snape let a faint snort and looked at baby Harry, who was calmly dozing off on his lap.

“Ok, Ha-Harry time for bed.” He said and placed the boy inside the cot. As he leaned down to cover the baby boy with a blanket, the boy hugged his head tightly.

“Goo nigh Sevvus.” Baby Harry said and closed his little eyes, leaving the Potion Master smiling faintly, and then scowling to himself, in the darkness.