Dressed in casual dark grey trousers, a black cotton shirt, and a lightweight jacket, Severus Snape strode down Privet Drive. The cookie cutter appearance of all the houses annoyed him and he snorted derisively. It was an oddly silent summer afternoon, except for a few homeowners that were watering their lawns.

Is that an activity they schedule?

As he approached #4, he heard a grating voice screeching as a deeper voice thundered. He rapped his knuckles hard against the door and there was instant silence behind the door. A few minutes later, Lily Evan's pinch-faced sister, Petunia answered the door.

"You!" she spat.

"So good to see you as well, Petunia." The inflection he gave her name made it sound like a bad taste in his mouth. It was something he'd perfected from the moment he'd met her and Lily when they were all children.

"Vernon!" her voice screeched so high it was like fingernails on a blackboard and Snape could barely stop himself from cringing. "Bring him!"

A moment later a very large man appeared at the narrow doorway with a small, dark haired boy hanging limply in his arms. Petunia ripped the child from her husband's hands and shoved the child, hard, right into Snape's abdomen.

"I don't know what that little beast did to himself, but I raised him once and I'll not do it again!" Her tiny, black eyes practically pierced Snape's bewildered gaze. "If you don't take him back with you, I swear..." she stepped through the door and leaned towards him and hissed, "I swear, you great, freaky, bat, I'll drown him at the pond in the park! Do you understand me?"

Snape took a brief moment to look down at the child in his arms that was tangled in a swath of a dirty, knit shirt many sizes too large for him. Automatically he shifted the child's unconscious body until he was better supported in his arms. The child he held couldn't have been more than five, possibly six years of age. To his horror, he knew this was Potter.

"What happened to him?" he demanded sharply.

"Pet, maybe he ought to see?" Vernon said softly. Petunia shot her husband a glare that had him backing away swiftly.

Turning back to Snape, she crossed her arms over her thin chest. "Up the stairs, second door. Take all his things, Snape, and then get out."

Hoisting the young Potter more firmly in his arms, he was momentarily startled as the child woke from his stupor and wrapped his thin arms around his neck and buried his face in his shoulder. Patting the boy's back, Snape pushed his way into #4 Privet Drive and ascended the stairs.

At the top of the stairs was a door glinting with six locks upon it. It hung partially open. As soon as he pushed through the door, he saw the remains of Harry's Potions Kit at the end of his bed. He gently addressed the child, "P-Harry, can you tell me what was brewed here?"

Harry leaned closer to Snape's cheek and whispered in his ear, "I was having horrible nightmares and when I woke up I was here. The skinny woman screamed at me and the large man yelled. I'm sorry for what I did, mister. Are you going to drown me now?"

"Certainly not!" he spoke firmly. "Would you sit on this bed whilst I pack all of this? Then, I'll take you someplace much nicer."

Harry nodded his head and then let the tall, dark man seat him on the bed. Clasping his hands between his knees, he waited, very politely, as the man carefully packed everything in a trunk that floated through the door. He was wide-eyed as he saw this, but as he'd been taught to never ask questions, he kept his curiosity to himself. Maybe the man would tell him later what he was doing.

Snape preserved the remains of Harry's brewing work so that he could analyse it later in his lab. Without a doubt the foolish boy had de-aged himself, but the Potions Master needed to know how well or how badly Potter had succeeded in his brewing, and just what potion recipe he'd used.

Once the potion and the kit were preserved, he summoned Harry's trunk and began to pack everything away. The only thing missing was the boy's wand. He looked around the room.

"Harry, do you know if there is a hideaway anywhere in here?"

The little boy's brow furrowed in thought and then he slipped off the bed. He almost tripped over the long hem of the dirty shirt and Snape caught him.

"Wait, child. Let's fix this mess, first."

Harry watched with wonder as the man waved his stick over the shirt and it changed. It became a small green t-shirt, and a pair of white shorts.

"You're magic!" Harry gasped with awe.

"I am a wizard, child," smirked Snape. "Now, show me that hiding place."

Fingering his new t-shirt, Harry was momentarily distracted from his task. Catching a glare from the man, Harry let go of his t-shirt and went to a discoloured floor board. He pointed.

"Dudders showed it to me when he was four.  He hid extra goodies there."  Harry smiled, a little mischeviously.  "Alot of times Dudders would forget about stuff there, and I'd find it."

Snape frowned.  He did not care for the fact that a small child was happy over finding what probably amounted to stale, if not in worse condition, food kept under the floorboards.  Kneeling, in moments Snape had the floorboard up and there was Harry's wand, and some of his textbooks. He quickly had those packed, closed the trunk, then shrank it and put it into his pocket. He then scooped the lightweight boy into his arm.

"Time to go, Harry."

"Don't bring him back, Snape." Petunia, the perpetual scowl lining her face stopped in the doorway.

He turned sharply. "Are you willing to give up all rights to the child, Petunia?"

"Send the paperwork or whatever you need to do," she sneered a sneer that rivalled one of Snape's own. "Now leave."

Without another word, the little boy and the Potions Master Apparated away.