It was nine ‘o' clock at night and Harry was in bed trying to go to sleep. Part of being grounded according to Tobias was being sent to bed early. As further punishment, for leaving the house, his restriction was increased to two weeks with a further warning that he would be on a very tight leash. Harry had remained in time-out until lunch, which was eaten in almost complete silence, after lunch he was told to study and did so without complaint until it was time for Severus to go to the order meeting. He had begged to go, but, not only would Tobias not have let him since he was grounded, but, Severus had ardently refused to take him. The whole ordeal had almost turned out like earlier, but Severus kept jumping in before Harry could argue and get into even more trouble. This did not go unnoticed by Tobias.

At headquarters Severus delivered Harry's letters to his friends and answered everyone's questions as to how the boy was. Severus told them about making the counter-potion and gave them a general idea as to what Harry looked like now. Eventually, the meeting ended and Severus returned home. As he apperated into the ally once more and began walking through the darkened streets it began to rain...hard. Severus tilted his head down in keep the rain out of his eyes and in doing so ran right into something which gave a slight yelp followed by a thud. Severus couldn't really tell what it was he ran into immediately, because he was laying on the sidewalk having slipped when he had collided with whatever it was he had smashed into.

Getting up off the ground Severus noticed books lying all around him and a half-empty box that had tipped over. Next to the box was a woman, perhaps in her late twenties or early thirties, with long brown hair coming to about mid-back. As she stood up noticing the array her books where in her bright blue eyes flashed dangerously and, though she were about five inches shorter them him, got right up in his face.

"Why don't you watch where you're going you imbecile! Look what you did to my books!" she immediately began picking them up hoping they weren't to water damaged. "How could you not have seen me I wasn't exactly hiding...oh, my books."

"You're the one that ran into to me you clumsy, hag." Severus through back, not used to anyone treating him like a first year.

With her books back in the box and the box held in front of her, she turned back to Severus, so they were standing face to face. Severus prepared himself for what he was sure would be a yelling match, but the woman surprised him.

"What is the point in losing my temper? What could I possibly gain from doing so?"

Severus raised an eyebrow, realizing she was talking to herself not to him.

The woman, now completely soaked through, took several deep breaths before speaking once again. "I'm sorry about that, I just have a tendency to get overly protective of my books and..." whatever else she was going to say was cut off as the soaking wet cardboard box filled books gave way and all her books where once again on the ground. She immediately tried to pick them all up again, but couldn't possible carry all at once.

Noticing her dilemma Severus, without conscious thought, bent down to help her, once they had all the books up he followed her into what appeared to be a small store, but was empty except for some boxes. Once inside he sat the books down on the floor seeing no other place to put them. She did the same, and then once again turned around to face him. Inside with the lights on Severus got a much better look at her. As he noticed before she had brown hair and blue eyes, but was nothing out of the ordinary beauty wise. In fact her nose was a little large for her face, but not overly so, and it was practically ignorable once she smiled.

"Hello," she said, smile firmly in place, though she had water dripping off her in buckets, "my name's Serenity. I really am sorry for snapping at you out there, and thank you for helping be with my books."

"Yes, well," Severus cleared his throat, "next time watch where you're going." With that Severus was out the door and once again on his way home.

...............................................................

Once home Severus immediately went to change cloths. He emerged minutes latter in sweatpants and a slightly oversized T-shirt. His father was sitting in the armchair reading as Severus sat down close to him on the couch.

"How'd the meeting go?" questioned Tobias marking the page of his book and sitting it down on the coffee table.

"Good. Harry in bed?"

"He's in bed, tucked in, and hopefully will soon be asleep."

"You say that every night, you know," Severus smirked obviously amused.

"Rest assured that by the time you were two I would say it every night to your mother after you were in bed, and after she left it took me over a year to stop saying it out loud. I thought it, though, every time I left your room after tucking you in. With you here, now, I can say it out loud again."

Severus raised an eyebrow.

"You're still coming into the village with us tomorrow right?"

"You're still going to take him shopping even though he's grounded?"

Tobias shrugged, "Normally I wouldn't, but incase you haven't noticed the boy doesn't have a single article of clothing fit for a cat to sleep on. Besides were only getting clothing nothing else."

"In that case I suppose I'm still coming with you." Severus paused for a moment not sure how to continue. "Dad, please, I know he's a handful and that you thought you were done dealing with teenage boys and all the drama that comes with them, but, please, take Harry in. He needs someone like you."

"Like me?" questioned Tobias, curious as to what his son meant and not bothering to assuage his son's concerns.

"Someone who has rules for him then makes sure he abides by those rules and that his actions have consequences." Severus paused again before continuing in almost a whisper. "He really is a lot like me, Dad, and I don't want to see him make the kind of decisions I made."

"In case you've forgotten, you did have me, from the moment you were born, and you still made bad decisions."

Severus nodded his head, "Yes, but it was because of you that I regretted them and turned against the Dark Lord. If it hadn't been for you, I would still be a death eater. Do you remember what you told me when you found out I had taken the Mark?"

Tobias raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment.

"Among other things, you said sometimes it isn't about the consequences, but what you do after you realize you screwed up."

It was silent for a couple more minutes the only sounds were the thunder that seemed much closer then it had been twenty minutes ago.

"I'm going to take him in, Sev," Tobias finally replied reverting back to Severus's childhood nickname. "I don't think there was every a doubt really. I know, I said that I didn't really want to go through raising a kid again, but I doubt any parent ever does. The only difference now is that I didn't have nine months to prepare myself for it."

Suddenly it thundered ferociously followed almost immediately by a huge clap of lightening causing the lights to flicker on and off. Before either man could say anything else the pattering of feet was heard on the hardwood floor and very soon Harry appeared at the end of the hall rubbing his eyes in a very child like manner.

"You're supposed to be in bed," said Tobias somewhat firmly, but not harshly.

"The storm woke me up," and a nightmare Harry said the last part to himself. He was not yet ready to admit that waking up from a nightmare and hearing a thunderstorm had scared him. Once again, it thundered loudly, followed by more lightening causing the lights to go out and not come back on.

"Oh, well," said Tobias, "I suppose we all need to go to bed anyway. Come on, Harry, let's get you back to bed." Tobias got up out of the chair. "Severus, next to you, in the draw on the end table is a flashlight, could you get it please."

Ruffling and rummaging could be heard as Severus searched for the flashlight. Eventually he found it and turned it on illuminating some of the room. Getting up Severus and Tobias began making their way towards the hallway where Harry was still standing.

"Do we have to?" asked Harry a certain amount of nervousness in his voice. "Can't we wait until the lights come back on?"

"No," answered Tobias, "Now, what's wrong? You're not afraid of the dark are you?" Tobias asked this teasingly, but noticing his son's bowed head and posture he began to regret it. "Harry?"

"It's not the dark. I don't mind it being dark, but I don't like thunderstorms." Harry's voice had begun to crack slightly and he felt like finding a hole to crawl into. He wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt attain some comfort.

Tobias sighed and closed the distance between himself and the suddenly very young child, his very young child, wrapping his arms around him and drawing him close. Harry stiffened at first, but soon relaxed and wrapped his arms around his father burying his face in the man's chest. It was then Harry felt it. He couldn't really describe the feeling. It was similar to when he first held his wand, a sort of warmth that traveled through his body then faded slightly, but its echo remained. I was like magic. Was this what it felt like to be held by a parent? Harry suddenly felt tears coming to his eyes, the ones that escaped were soaked up by Tobias's shirt.

Harry wasn't the only one to feel it. Tobias also felt it. The same feeling as when he held a newborn Severus for the first time. The almost overwhelming idea that the child he was holding depended on him for so much and that he wasn't sure he could provide. A knowledge that he would do anything to protect the boy in his arms. Any doubts he had formerly had about taking care of Harry disappeared. Then he heard it.

In a cracking voice giving away the tears he was trying so hard to fight back, Harry whispered, "Dad."

Tobias just held him tighter, and after swallowing soothed, "I'm here, son, there's nothing to be afraid of. I'm here."

After a couple of minutes, Severus ran out of patience. "Harry," questioned Severus gently, "Why don't you like storms?"

Harry's breathing quickened slightly at this question and he stayed silent for a long time before answering, "Promise you won't tell?"

"We promise won't tell anyone that you're afraid of storms. Right, Severus?"

"Promise,"

Harry stayed silent for a moment longer before answering. "When I was little, like five or six I think, Aunt Petunia sent me outside to work on the garden and it started to rain and storm, but she wouldn't let me inside because I was covered in mud, so I had to stay out in the shed all night and the storm was really bad. And I was so scared." By the end Harry's voice was cracking again and Tobias could feel his shirt getting wet from tears. He vowed that the Dursley's would pay, but for now he had to take care of his boy.

Placing a kiss on Harry's head Tobias rubbed circles on his back with one hand and merely held him close with the other. Tobias held him for several minutes before pushing him back slightly. "Harry, stay here with Severus for a second while I grab a couple things, alright?"

Harry nodded, keeping his head down.

Severus reached out a hand and placed it on the back of Harry's neck messaging gently and pulling Harry towards him slightly. Harry leaned into the hand glad for any kind of physical contact as the thunderstorm raged outside. Tobias went to his room first to get another flashlight then to the linen closet where he grabbed three pillows and a couple of blankets. Going back to his sons, he led them over to the couch then taking a seat at the end placed a pillow on his lap and had Harry lie down. The couch was long enough that Severus could take a seat on the other end after covering Harry with a blanket and handing a pillow to his father.

Tobias talked soothingly about nothing in particular until Harry fell asleep. Surprisingly, enough, though it was Severus's light snoring he heard first before Harry followed him into Morpheus's realm. Soon after Harry fell asleep, his hand clasping the leg of Tobias's sweatpants, Tobias leaned his head back and allowed himself to drift off as well.