With a flick of his wand, Severus began breakfast, stepping over to his locked potion’s cabinet he opened it and shifted through it’s contents to find some bruise salve for the small child. He would have to make a nutrient potion from scratch. With a sigh, he gathered the ingredients he would need and laid them out at his small workstation in the corner of the living room.

"Cooking?" Asked a tiny voice shyly from down on the floor.

"No, I’m making a potion." He explained, at the boy’s confused look he explained, "It’s a form of magic."

Suddenly Harry seemed frightened and backed away from Severus and the workstation, "Bad magic."

Frowning slightly he contemplated the words, but he was pretty sure he understood. His father had never been fond of magic either and he’d often reacted violently when his mother used it or Severus had performed accidental magic. "Is that what your relatives told you?"

Harry nodded in the affirmative and Severus sighed. Quickly, he walked up the stairs into the small attic and opened up an old, moldy box. Inside he found an old toy of his, a bear his mother had given him. Casting a cleaning spell and enchantment spell on it, he carried it back downstairs for Harry. Hopefully this would make the boy see that magic could be good. He plopped it on the floor in front of Harry. It shook it’s little, fuzzy head and glared up at Severus, then it got to it’s feet and waddled over to the little boy. Harry’s eyes grew wide and he gently picked it up, the thing jumped to Harry and wrapped it’s stubby arms around him and snuggled against him. With an open mouth, Harry glanced up at Severus and gave him a brilliant smile.

"Glad you like it," mumbled Severus, adding two more ingredients and stirring it counter-clockwise. Then he left his stool to go get their breakfast.

Harry stared down at the bear in his arms in surprise. No one had ever given him a present before. Suddenly, he felt guilty. The man probably wouldn’t have given it to him if he knew what an unlovable freak he was. Maybe he could help make it up to the man! On the table the man appeared to be cooking what looked like soup. He knew how to cook, and it always made his Aunt Petunia happy when he did a good job at cooking things.

Carefully, he climbed up onto the stool and peered into the giant pot. Yuck! Clearly the man didn’t know much about cooking. The liquid was a sickly looking green color and he felt sorry for whoever had to eat it. So Harry decided he could help by fixing the soup. He reached out on the table and grabbed a pretty looking plant and tossed it into the pot. It bubbled and turned a bright blue. Harry smiled, there, it was all fixed. Suddenly it began to bubble violently and Harry quickly scuttled down the stool and sheltered himself behind the couch. There was a wet splashing noise and the potion exploded with a pop, splattering all over the living room.

Severus placed two plates full of food on the plate and went back to the living room to fetch Harry. When he entered the room all he could do was stand there and stare, open-mouthed, at his destroyed potion and living room. Finally he came to his senses and snapped loudly, "Potter!"

There was a tiny whimper behind the couch and Severus walked over to the couch and peered behind it where the boy was cowering in apparent terror. Quietly, he kneeled next to him and lifted the little boy’s chin to meet his eyes. In what he hoped was a calm voice he said softly, "What happened?"

"I’m sorry!" Cried the buy, curling himself into a small ball, as far away from Severus as possible.

Awkwardly, he patted the boy’s arm and said quietly, "It’s alright. Just tell me what happened."

"I was trying to help, he cried, apparently not listening to the comforting words of his new guardian. The little boy pulled away from his hand and pushed his back up against the couch.

"I’m not angry, Harry." He said softly, unsure of himself. In truth, he was angry about the ruined potion and the wasted potion ingredients. On the other hand, he was worried about Harry’s reaction and fear of him, if this was going to work like Dumbledore wanted it to the boy would have to trust him.

Harry heard the man’s words and as much as he wanted to believe them, he didn’t. There had been times his aunt and uncle had acted under the guise of kindness and those had been the times when he’d received the worst of his punishments. He wished the man would just get it over with and punish him, it was so much better then him pretending that he wasn’t going to punish him. Then he felt a gentle arm pull him into a warm lap and felt a gentle hand brushing through his hair. Slowly, he felt himself begin to calm down and lean into the warm embrace.

"Merlin, Potter. Didn’t anyone ever brush this mop before?" Severus asked, fingering the extremely messy hair. Gently, he stood the boy up and released him. "Are you hungry?"

Shyly, Harry nodded up at him and Severus led him into the kitchen and set him up at a place at the table. Then he returned to the living room and sighed, quickly he cast a cleaning spell, which was difficult to do on an entire room. He would have to pick up a nutrient potion when they went to get the boy some robes Harry was staring longingly at the plate of food in front of him but he had yet to touch it.

"Eat." He commanded and the child hesitantly obeyed, looking at Severus every few bites to make sure that he wasn’t looking at him disapprovingly.

"Not mad?" He asked softly, staring down intently at his plate.

He let out a breath, "No, Harry. I’m not mad at you."

Now, Severus had worked for the darkest wizard of all time as a faithful servant. He had killed another human being before. He’d worked for two years as a teacher and the Head of Slytherin dealing with all kinds of problems that McGonagall never had to face down. Because of all of this, he was rather hard to shock. However, nothing could have prepared him for what Harry said next.

"Can I call you dad?"

"What?"He sputtered, "Why?"

"Well, I never had a family, a real family and I’d really like to have one and you’ve been so nice to me that I thought...you know...that we could be a family." It all came out in one breath and then the little boy was left staring expectantly at him.

Severus did not know what he could even begin to say so when he heard a knock on the door, he leapt at the opportunity to leave the room. He peered through the peep hole and winced when he saw a flash of blonde hair. Quickly and silently, he made his way back to the kitchen and took his wand out, "Harry, I need to cast a spell on you and I need you to do exactly what I say? Okay, can you do that?"

Harry nodded quickly and Severus cast a glamour on the boy’s scar to keep his identity hidden. "Now look, your name is Christopher Vitale and you are my nephew, got that?"

As soon as the boy nodded again and repeated the words back to him, Severus went back to invite his old friend into the old house. He would have to be extremely careful when dealing with Lucius. There was a time when he would have been happy to have the man in his home. During school he, Narcissa, and Lily Evans had been his only allies. Lucius was clever enough to avoid the wrath of the marauders, and having close ties to Black’s family, he had been the only one able to control the boy. In fact, most of his worst memories relating to the Marauders happened after Lucius had graduated. Unfortunately, Lucius had changed once he joined the deatheaters. He’d become cruel for no reason and had been the one to influence a young, trusting Severus into joining the deatheaters.

Calmly, he opened the door, "Hello, Lucius."

"Severus," replied the man cooly. "May I come in?"

It was all very formal between them now, in order to keep it civil, "Of course."

They entered the small living room and the blonde gave a customary Malfoy sneer. Harry was looking curiously around the door, not coming further into the room. Lucius noticed and asked, "Who’s that?"

Severus took a deep breath and spun his lie, "He’s my nephew, Christopher. His parents died recently and he will be staying with me for a little while."

With a snort Lucius flopped down on the couch and said sarcastically, "Where’s he going to sleep, the roof?"

Although he scowled, Snape had been wondering this very thing. "Well, he can sleep on the couch." Harry had came over and wrapped himself around Severus’ legs.

Lucius raised one eyebrow in a good-humored manner and said incredulously, "No, he can’t!" He gave a suspicious look at the small, undernourished boy hiding behind Severus, "Is he from your mother or father’s side?"

He knew exactly what the other man meant, "He’s a wizard."

This brought a slight smile to Lucius’ face and he got to his feet, "I’ve been adding to the mansion for years, I can get you another room in here."

How unlike him, thought Severus as his friend did the complicated spell. A new door appeared in the hallway and Lucius gave an overly grand gesture to show him the room. It was decorated in greens and silvers, which was certainly like Lucius even at this age, and was already furnished with the bare essentials.

thought Severus as his friend did the complicated spell. A new door appeared in the hallway and Lucius gave an overly grand gesture to show him the room. It was decorated in greens and silvers, which was certainly like Lucius even at this age, and was already furnished with the bare essentials."Thank you, Lucius."

"I’m guessing he didn’t have any other relatives?" Asked Lucius, eyeing Harry.

"What makes you say that?" Severus snapped.

"Well, they put you in charge of him, didn’t they."

With a scowl he responded, "Did you come here for something?"

"Yes, I just wanted to share the good news. You are looking at the new senator for the Minister of Magic."

"You’re kidding me. With your history?"

"Ah, but you forget. There was nothing I could do about that. I was, after all, under the Imperius Curse." Lucius said with a smirk and a wink.

As Severus showed Malfoy out he couldn’t help but worry about whether or not the Wizarding World would be able to rebuild itself with people like him in charge.