Standing at the far corner of Privet Drive stood a bright-eyed old man and an enraged younger one in heated debate, a baby was resting peacefully in the young man's arms. To his left stood a stern-looking woman, who was trying and failing to pacify him. Every now and then, she would twitch and stretch out her limbs, which had become taunt from her being in her Animagus form for a day.

 Their once-hushed whispering had been raised to angry exclamations.

"I'm just saying you would not be capable of giving Harry the protection he nee-"

"What do you mean I'd be incapable, Headmaster? I could look after Harry and he wouldn't have to go to these…these things!" The young man shouted at the old man. "And don't you dare say I'm too young! If Potter could do it, I can do it better!"

"Just let me finish, Severus. Patience is a grand virtue." The Headmaster of Hogwarts said mildly, he didn't even look at Severus while speaking. He was looking at something in his hands which he was fiddling with.

Severus felt rage at the fact that Albus was so dismissive of him, but instead of speaking up he just scowled at the Headmaster through the mop of hair that had fallen in front of his face. Then a judgemental expression set itself on his face.

"Now Severus, you may not be Harry's surrogate father," Albus Dumbledore said before the young man could interrupt. "But you will join him. I've thought this over, and I've decided this is the best course. You've been good to the Order, Severus, and although you might not believe it, you are quite noble and deserve a just reward. This life has not been kind to you, my boy."

"What are you trying to say, Albus?" the woman questioned. "If you are not giving Severus what he wants, how are you rewarding him?"

"Wait, Minerva." Albus reprimanded her, "When I defeated Gellert Grindlewald all those years ago, I was rewarded with a great gift from the then Minister of Magic, nice man, that I had been saving for a worthy cause." Albus pulled a small silk bag out of his robe pocket. Opening it, he produced a small earring and held it up to the light.

"What is it?" Severus asked cautiously, squinting his black eyes. The dim light made it so that he could not see all the details, but he could tell that it was a gold-like substance with small grooves running though it in intricate patterns.

"The Earring of Parvulus." At the confused looks of his companions, he continued to explain. "When you pierce your ear with this and repeat the chant 'Parvulus denuo' thrice over you will be young again. Or rather, you will return to age one and from there you will grow up until you reach the age of eighteen."

"What then, Headmaster?" Severus asked eagerly, though privately he wondered if the Headmaster always carried around mysterious, powerful, magical objects.

"Then you return to the age you were when you pierced your ear. It's not a well known magical item, and is considered in a shadier light by the Ministry because you have to say the chant while the piercing is still fresh, while there's still blood. With this, my boy, we can make you appear about Harry's age." Albus paused for effect, "With this you can be Harry's twin brother."

<li> 

Most people never experience how utterly humiliating it is to stand in the middle of a suburban street in nothing but a blue child's blanket. Unfortunately Severus Snape could now count himself among the minority. The freezing cold English wind left his skin prickling with goosebumps. Severus had wrapped his blanket around him as one might wrap a towel around himself, but aside from the blanket he was all but naked.

In his mind, he could not stop wondering why that bloody old coot couldn’t have told him his plan beforehand so they DIDN'T have to do it in the middle of a street.

But that would have diminished a lot of the drama.

Muttering, Severus cocked his head so that Minerva McGonagall could pierce his ear. The pain was sharp but could easily be ignored. Now that was one other thing Severus never thought he'd do. Albus was urging him to say the chant.

"Parvulus denuo, Parvulus denuo, Parvulus denuo!" Severus's voice rang out. There was a moment’s pause and then he could feel his skin rippling and distorting. Growing pains, or rather de-aging pains, shot up through his bones. His joints cracked and bent as he slowly changed back into a year-old baby.

The whole thing only took ten minutes, but to Severus it felt like hours. Minerva had at one point, managed to get close enough to hold him, so that as he got smaller he wouldn’t hurt his fragile child self.

Severus felt ashamed that he needed her help.

Now, wrapped in the blue blanket was one-year-old Severus Snape. Or rather, as Albus declared him, Hayden Potter, the twin of Harry Potter. He was suddenly aware of the splitting headache he had acquired in his de-ageing process. It was not going away. If anything, it was getting worse.

The pain was building and building, it was driving him mad, building and building...

Severus realized why. This one-year-old's brain could not possibly contain his consciousness. It was like he had too much knowledge to fit into this head. The sensation was hard to explain, but if Severus had to put it to words, he felt that it was most like being trapped inside a metal cage, with its walls slowly closing in around him. With him growing inside it, being pressed up against the barriers...

The pain was building upon itself... Building, building and BUILDING.

I can't ... fit in here... pain... can't fit... Severus's delirious thoughts bubbled around in his all-too cramped brain.

Albus was looking down at him with sympathy. "I hope now you can have a happy childhood, Severus, free of the abuse of your father and trials of a spy for the Order. Now, I'm going to have to Obliviate you. Completely. A few things might slip through the cracks in dreams or visions, but until you reach your 18th birthday you will not remember being Severus Snape."

Severus tried to nod in response, but it made his head hurt even more.

"Albus, is that wise?" Minerva asked quietly, but the challenge to the leader of the Phoenix seemed all too loud. "If he knows nothing, how can he help Harry?"

Severus could barely pay attention to their words. My head just feels like it's about to burst! he thought to himself, and for some reason this struck him as really, really funny.

The thought of his head bursting, of his brain being splattered across the ground... The idea of Minerva holding him when this happened, brain dribbling down her face, just standing there, shocked. It was, quite simply, in a grotesque way, hilarious to think about.

A giggle emitted from his baby mouth.

His whole brain seemed to have been taken over by absolute pain.

In a far corner of his mind, there was a small part of him that was aware of the sound of the Headmaster chuckling at Minerva's words, and kindly offering her a lemon drop. That small part listened as Albus uttered a sigh of disappointment that she'd refused his candy, and it listened as he tried to explain the workings of his mind.

Severus barely heard the words that the small part of his brain was telling him. His head just felt too ... big. Building and building and BUILDING... Why won't the... pain... just STOP?

But that small part of him continued to record the conversation, despite the rest of his mind being overtaken by pain. Perhaps it was just his spy instincts kicking in, but he still heard Albus and Minerva talking.

"Whenever Harry is in a truly life threatening situation, Severus will remember all the skills he learnt in his previous life. But until then he will be Hayden," Albus said.

"And what of that? People know that Harry is an only child." Minerva said, looking desperately now to find a flaw in the old man's plan. "And Remus will never stand for-”

"Remus has enough on his plate, Minerva. He has just lost all of his childhood friends in one mighty blow. He needs to heal," Albus said, interrupting whatever rant she was about to go on.

Minerva eyed the Headmaster sceptically.

"I will tell the people closely linked to Harry that Voldemort's spell split his soul in two, and that Hayden is Harry's other half. That includes Remus, and Remus knows he'd have enough trouble looking after one boy, let alone two."

"You can't expect that to stop him from trying to get to, and look after Harry and Sever- well, Hayden. They might be all he has left, you shouldn't take that away from him! Surely you'd have to be out of your mind to think that people will react well to hearing Harry's soul was split." Minerva interjected. Albus politely ignored her doubts.

Hayden's a silly name... Severus thought. He felt now like he was wafting on the wind... Pain is building, the pain is rising. The thoughts echoed through his mind like childish song. He also found this terribly funny. He giggled, and at the same time, was mortified that he could ever make such a sound.

Mortified is such a silly word, too. Pain. Pain. BUILDING PAIN.

Albus was speaking, oblivious to Severus's mental decline. "...Tomorrow in the newspapers I will anonymously 'leak' a story to a reporter that I saw the Potter Twins being bundled up and taken to live with their relatives in, oh I don't know, say Southern Ireland or France... Nobody but us two need ever know who Hayden really is," Albus explained cheerfully. The man almost seemed generally pleased about the way things turned out.

"Well if you’re sure, Albus," Minerva said forlornly, handing the Headmaster the dark-haired child and reverting back to her cat form. Severus felt a bizarre temptation to touch the cat that was standing at Albus's feet. He reached his small, chubby arms down towards the cute, small kitty cat...

Severus tried to tell himself to stop. That this was behaviour unfit for a young man and spy for the Order. The kitty cat looked so soft, and her fur begged to be stroked. He continued to try to reach out.

The cat nodded her furred head at Albus and with a swish of her tail, she was bounding off into the night, leaving Severus alone with the Headmaster. Idly, Severus wondered why the kitty cat hadn't stayed to help Albus finish the preparations.

The Pain is building, the pain is rising. The Pain is building, the pain is rising. The Pain is building, the pain is rising... Pain. Pain. BUILDING PAIN.

Severus was almost too lost to the world to notice that a wand was being pointed at his nose.

"Obliviate!"

And then there was just emptiness.

<li> 

 Sighing heavily, Albus aimed his wand at Hayden's head and whispered the charm that would take the boy's memories away. With a hint of his not-so-well known ability to read and manipulate minds, he made sure all was well within the head of Harry's new 'twin', so as not to damage his mind.

Albus noticed a small snake and skull was still etched into Hayden's arm.

That was one aspect of Severus that would be hard to remove from Hayden. The mark of Voldemort was irremovable and hard to disguise. Perhaps if he made it look like the result of a spell, like Harry's scar, on the night on which Voldemort was destroyed?

Yes, that might work. A burn mark.

Albus set Hayden on the ground, next to his soon-to-be brother, so that he could work on him without having to rearrange himself constantly.

Setting his wand to the babe's wrist, he muttered the incantation that would make the dye of the mark a red colour. The skin became blotchy around it and it looked like a harmless burn. Well, perhaps not so harmless, but non-offensive nevertheless. Nobody would notice it if they didn't look at it too closely. Even then, its resemblance to a Death Eater's brand could be explained away as coincidental.

Dumbledore entered Hayden's mind once more, and linked the soft, malleable mind to Harry's. He made it so that if the boy ever abandoned his brother he would feel his pain. This way Hayden could not possibly turn his back on Harry. He would have to fulfil this one duty before all else.

He sure Severus would not mind. No. Of course not. He would be glad, if anything, that Albus had helped him to keep his word. Yes. This was all as it should be.

Albus nodded to himself. He was indeed doing what Severus wanted. The fact that it would help Harry, who would, in turn, help the wizarding world, was even better.

Albus stood up from his work briefly, and pulled a shrunken package out of the folds of his purple robe. After casting the counter-spell, Albus pulled out several bottles of potion. He had thought through this night well.

Albus bent again to take blood from little Harry's arm. He dropped three droplets into three different bottles of potion that he had set up around him and Hayden.

Now all he had to do was to get Hayden to drink the potions, cast a few spells, and such other things, and he'd be done for the night.

Various heritage and glamour potions later, Harry's duplicate lay next to him on the cold concrete. Albus Dumbledore lowered then knife he had used earlier to shed Harry's blood to Hayden's head, intending to add a scar to Hayden's forehead. Strangely, he found himself unable to do it.

He could not purposely scar a young child. He was no monster, whatever else he may be. Well, perhaps a little bit of individuality couldn't hurt the boys. Also, he wouldn't want Hayden to be thought of as the Chosen One.

The public had to be clear about who their hero was, so that they could throw their full support behind him. Slowly, Albus brushed the black locks off Hayden's forehead and silently wished him good luck.

Albus reached in his pocket once more, and un-shrank another item.

A blue baby's bassinet. He gently placed the two boys together within its warm hold.

The old wizard placed a letter with them inside the bassinet, and retreated into the night with a heavy heart. At some point in the night, the two boys' hands joined.

That night the two slept on peacefully, not knowing that their companionship would be what would keep them alive through their childhood; or that one was famous and the other a Potions Master twenty years older than the first; and that with the rise of the sun the next morning, their Aunt Petunia would screech and scream at their discovery.