Stumbling over a pile of wooden alphabet blocks, Severus grabbed the edge of his desk with his potion stained hands before he tumbled onto the floor. Hadn’t he told his son to put the blocks back into his toy box numerous times? Then again, each time Severus told the child, Hadrian just looked up at him and giggled like the spoiled prince knew he could get away with anything. The child was only ten months after all, and there was still plenty of time for Severus to instill discipline into him. At least that’s what he kept telling himself.

Severus maneuvered around his desk to slump down into his chair. Midnight had long since passed yet he had an essay to finish for his Potions Mastery mentor in the morning. He had two months left before he obtained his degree, yet each month proved more and more difficult as little Hadrian gained more mobility and the Dark Lord’s demands increased.

But the real challenge would take place in September when Severus moved Hadrian with him to Hogwarts to start his teaching career, a career demanded by the Dark Lord. It wasn’t just being away from his son all day that worried him. Lily and James were more than happy to look after him during the day, but how was he going to pull off keeping Hadrian a secret? Dumbledore promised it would work, but Severus wasn’t so sure. Would he have to floo the child back to their little cottage just so his little boy could play outside? When Hadrian was born, Severus promised to give the newborn an idyllic childhood, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep his promise, not with the Dark Lord and Dumbledore planning his moves for him.

Sighing over what he couldn’t change, Severus turned his thoughts back to his essay. He wanted to sleep and forget about it. It wasn’t like handing it in late would fail him, but Severus’ marks were perfect, and it would be a shame for him to ruin his perfect record now. So, Severus waved his hand to summon a fresh cup of coffee to keep him awake long enough to finish his essay on the uses of fairy wings of all things.

Not an hour later a terrified scream emanated from across the hall. He dropped his quill and jumped up from his chair, his hand spilling the inkbottle onto his essay.

“Damn,” he mumbled under his breath. He’d have to rewrite his essay, but another scream pushed those thoughts from his mind. What was terrifying his son? The wards were in tact and hadn’t been breached, and the child hadn’t been asleep long enough to wake on his own.

Running, Severus made it across the hall of the cozy cottage in record time. Hadrian was backed up in the corner of his crib, curled up in a tiny ball with his favorite blankie clutched into his tiny hands. His body trembled, and he had his emerald eyes squeezed shut.

“What’s wrong, my little prince?” Severus asked as he scooped up his son into his arms, cradling the frightened child against his chest.

“La-la,” Hadrian said, trying to hid his head though it was proving difficult to do since he was without his robes having already changed into a set of pajamas.

Light? Severus decoded and looked around the nursery for the source. Lately, Hadrian was going through a phase where he was scared of bright lights, the complete opposite of most children. Hadrian preferred the dark and cried whenever Severus raised the lights above medium brightness. He had no idea why the child had become scared of light of all things, but the fear had effected Hadrian enough that la-la had become his baby talk word for light, his second semi-word behind dada.

“La-la,” Hadrian cried again.

“Where’s la-la?” Severus asked, hoping Hadrian understood what he was asking and could motion towards where the light had come from.

A tiny little hand unfurled from around the blankie and reached out towards the crib. Severus raised an eyebrow. There was nothing in the crib that could’ve produced light. Had Hadrian had his first incidence of accidental magic? His son was a little young to experience his first bout, but ten months wasn’t unheard of for a child to begin producing incidents of accidental magic, or maybe it was all just a normal childhood nightmare.

“Did you have a bad dream?” He glided over to sit down in the rocking chair. “It’s okay. Daddy will ward off the bad dream fairies while you sleep.” Severus started rocking in the chair, hoping Hadrian would fall back asleep right away. They both needed to be up early, and if his son didn’t get enough sleep he tended to be cranky for Lily the next day.

“La-la, Dada! La-la!” Hadrian insisted as he stared up at him, obviously having other ideas.

With a frustrated groan, Severus set his son onto the rug-covered floor. “Show Daddy where la-la is.”

Hadrian shifted onto his hands and knees, his blankie still clutched in one hand as it trailed behind him as he crawled over to his crib. “La-la!” his son proclaimed. A little hand danced towards the space under the crib, but never dared to go under it.

Perhaps an imaginary light-producing monster was under the crib? Severus stood and crossed over to the crib, dropping to his knees in front of it. He ducked his head and twisted it to look under the crib only to jump back when something swooshed past him.

“La-la!” Hadrian shrieked as the room grew lighter. Severus looked towards the source of the light to see a large sphere of bright green light.

A boggart!

“Riddikulus!” Severus shouted to the green sphere of light. It morphed into a large ball, much like the ones residing in Hadrian’s toy box. The ball dropped out of the air and bounced across the floor, his son crawling after it despite it just frightening him.

“No,” Severus said, his voice warning against crawling an inch further. “Leave the ball alone.”

Hadrian stopped his trek across the room. The child sat down facing him, his lower lip stuck out the tiniest bit in protest.

Ignoring his child, Severus summoned a large suitcase from the hall closet. It zoomed into sight and landed right in front of his feet. He flicked his wand to open the suitcase before sending the boggart flying into it. Quickly, he slammed the suitcase shut, locking it both manually and magically. The boggart wouldn’t be able to break through his locking spells. It was neither clever nor powerful enough and with one last flick, Severus sent the suitcase into his office.

He’d get rid of the pest in the morning, but for now it was time to coax Hadrian back to sleep. “Daddy made the monster go away,” Severus said as he scooped his little prince up off the floor. Hadrian’s arms wrapped around his neck and relaxed him. He hadn’t realized how tense he had become in the worry for his son. “It’s time for you to go back to sleep.”

Hadrian somehow pouted through a yawn. Merlin, the child looked more and more like him everyday, but with a softness to his features that he inherited from Lily leaving his son more handsome than he had ever been, at least in his opinion. Lily always insisted he was handsome, especially after he removed the glamours, though Severus had a hard time believing her. Severus always saw himself as the awkward, gangly teenager who hadn’t yet grown into his body.

However, on Hadrian, Severus adored the features he hated on himself. Lily’s genes had mixed well with his and certain expressions like when Hadrian pouted, brought out Lily’s softer features. He ran his hands through the baby fine dark hair that was just getting thick enough to cover Hadrian’s head without being able to see through it to his scalp.

“No, it’s bedtime.” Severus returned to the rocking chair. He waved his hand to light a candle before spelling off the lights. “You need to help Daddy out by going to sleep so I can finish my essay.” Severus wrapped the child’s blankie around him and started to rock in the chair, hoping the motion would send Hadrian back to the land of dreams.

After a few minutes, Hadrian stilled and Severus chanced to look down only to see two green eyes staring back at him. His son’s eyelids kept drooping, but the child would snap his eyes open the second his upper eyelids touched its bottom counterpart. Perhaps if he waited a little longer his son’s body would win over the child’s stubborn streak, a trait no doubt inherited from him.

He continued rocking while he went over his essay in his head. At this rate he’d need several phials of pepper-up to get him through the night and tomorrow. Severus thought Hadrian was over staying up half the night. It had taken eight months before his child starting sleeping through the night, and although this incident was different, he couldn’t help wishing for Hadrian to grow up just a tad bit faster, at least where sleeping was concerned.

Some time later Severus snapped awake as he felt himself drifting to sleep or perhaps he already had. He looked down and sighed with relief at seeing his son asleep, his almost snore-like breathing echoing around the otherwise silent room. Being careful not to wake the child, Severus stood up and crossed the room to Hadrian’s crib. He gently pried the small fists away from his shirt as he lowered Hadrian down into the crib, only to be met with cries of protest as soon as the baby’s back met the mattress.

Sighing, Severus brought Hadrian back up to his chest and his son ceased his crying immediately. The young father fought the urge to roll his eyes. Already, the boy was learning a little fit could sometimes get him what he wanted. It was something Severus needed to address before his son got older. He wouldn’t have Hadrian acting like a spoiled prat, even if the Prince fortune afforded Severus the means to provide anything for his child if he so wished.

But the lesson would have to wait for another day since he needed sleep if he were to brew volatile potions a few hours from now, and so if Hadrian wished to be this fussy, he’d just have to give in a bit if he wished to make it through the following day.

Severus was finding being a single father harder than he had imagined it to be. Hadrian always needed him. There was no other person to which to share the responsibilities with. Sure, Lily had given birth to his son, but it was with the understanding that the child would be Severus’ exclusively. She would play the role of doting aunt until Hadrian was old enough to understand, and then he, Lily, and James would sit down and explain to Hadrian that he was a precious gift from Lily for Severus, brought along by permission from James.

Although for all the hard work it was, Severus would never wish for anything different. Hadrian brought joy into his otherwise bleak life. He was a ray of sunshine to come home to after a Death Eater meeting or a long day with his mentor. Hadrian always smiled the second he saw Severus enter Lily and James’ house to pick him up, and that unadulterated smile, so innocent made everything worth it.

He’d kill the Dark Lord himself if it came down to it if it meant securing a happier world for his child to grow up in. Severus never wanted his son to know the horrors of war or anything that would turn that beautiful smile into anything less pure. Hadrian deserved the world, and Severus would do everything possible to make sure his son grew up to be a happy and healthy young adult with the first steps taken for him to achieve his dreams.

But first, his little prince, needed sleep. Severus shifted Hadrian to his hip before padding down the hall to the kitchen to fetch a bottle. He cast a warming charm and checked the temperature by letting a drop fall onto the inside of his wrist. As expected his spell work had been perfect, and Severus held the nipple near Hadrian’s lips for the baby to latch onto and take hold of the bottle.

With Hadrian satisfied and happy, Severus walked back down the hallway past his study and Hadrian’s nursery to his room. He toed off his slippers before crawling into bed, setting Hadrian down on the far side of the bed. He flicked his wand and a faint magical barrier surrounded the bed to keep his son from falling off. Now his son could play or stay awake all he wished until his tiny body forced the child to sleep while Severus could catch a few hours of sleep himself before he needed to be up. He’d have to dictate his essay to a spelled quill if he couldn’t remove the ink from his parchment, but he could do that and get himself and Hadrian ready in the morning.

For now, his little prince had won a round, and he suspected it wouldn’t be the last. However, he was learning that sometimes being a parent meant compromising and choosing which battles to fight. If Hadrian was too scared to sleep in his crib because of the boggart, it wasn’t a huge deal in the long run. Severus would return Hadrian to his crib tomorrow night, and if he was still too scared, well the young father was sure his son would eventually grow out of it along with his fear of bright lights. For now, though, he’d cherish these moments of just his son and him before Hadrian started to drift away, choosing to spend time with friends over time with Dad.