Though Cokeworth wasn’t a tiny town, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that a good part of its inhabitants knew perfectly well not to disturb the peace and quiet of one Mr. Snape who resided in the last house in Spinner’s End. There were numerous tales of weird things happening to those with whom that man was disgruntled. With his dark appearance, piercing, cold eyes, and snarky character, he had become the local bogeyman parents ordered their children to stay away from. Someone even swore they had seen a bunch of children disappear for good after one of them had been so careless as to kick a football into Mr. Snape’s yard. Nobody though was reported missing but it didn’t lessen the mysterious air around his person. He himself didn’t hurry to dash away any ridiculous rumor concerning him.

That’s why Severus was astonished to catch a sound of someone singing under his windows this Christmas night, breaking his pleasant solitude. The nerve of that caroler! He put away the book he had been reading and strode to the hallway with firm determination to scare the hell out of an irritant who must be a kid, judging by the young, tender voice.

Severus shrugged himself into his outer robes and opened the front door a crack so not to make his presence known yet. His favourite entertainment after all was sneaking up on his victims right from behind them. The street met him with a frosty air that instantly cupped his sallow cheeks with its ghostly fingers. Severus could only marvel at others’ desire to strain their throats at such a weather.

There, under his kitchen window, sat huddled in the snow a small form of a child who was pronouncedly shaking from cold but nevertheless stubbornly singing some nonsense that supposed to be a Christmas carol. Severus didn’t particularly care for these songs, having sung them in his childhood only with a prompt, or better say threat, from Lily, but even he understood that the lyrics of the boy’s song were a mess with not logically connected phrases. Why was the child there instead of the warmth of his own home? ‘You should know, of all people, that not every door keeps behind itself a picture of a happy family’, said a subdued voice in Severus’ head. And the child did sound sad, almost desperate.

Suddenly his previous intention lost its appeal. Sighing, he flipped the switch and the sliver of light illuminated the figure of his night guest. The song ceased. Startled, the child started to cough as the soreness in his throat finally caught up on him. Then he painstakingly slowly turned his head to face Severus.

Severus couldn’t tell who was more shocked to see the other, he or Harry bloody Potter who was now staring at him with his vibrant green eyes. If Severus hadn’t been afraid to lose his reputation, he’d definitely have laughed at the curse that, it seemed, was hanging over his head. It wasn’t long ago as both the staff and the students body had packed their things to leave Hogwarts for Christmas holidays under the firm insistence of Dumbledore who wanted to investigate the whole Chamber of Secrets thing without the need to worry for anybody else being petrified. And here he was with the Potter brat on his doorstep. What had happened to his well deserved time free of dunderheads? What had he done to receive such a gift? For a moment he was silently praying to Merlin and Morgana that it was just his consciousness playing tricks on him. But as Potter refused to disappear into the thin air, Severus had to put up with the thought that he was already too old for believing in wonders.

When the boy gave a loud sniff and wiped his nose with the long sleeve of his threadbare jumper it became apparent that he wouldn’t be the first to open his mouth.

The previous sympathy that had crept its way into his heart now was completely gone. The life behind the boy’s door couldn’t be less than ideal. With such, Severus saw the only one conclusion – Potter was certainly somehow at fault to end up here at this late hour not wearing appropriate clothes to keep him warm. ‘But even so, you don’t want him to freeze to death, now do you?’ the same annoying voice interrupted his train of thoughts. Grudgingly, Severus had to agree with it.

“Come, Mr. Potter”, he said sharply and disappeared inside the house, his robes billowing behind him. He would have his opportunity to shout at the brat at later time. Now was the time for actions though.

When the boy tentatively followed him as if stepping in a monster’s den Severus couldn’t help but rolled his eyes. Potter was now probably already speculating on what heroic sagas he would tell his peers about him surviving the experience. And yet he wasn’t shaking from fear.

In the lit room Severus could clearly see the whole extent of the inappropriateness of the child’s clothes. The jumper was not only threadbare and of undetermined colour, but baggy as well. Its hem hung loosely somewhere around his knees and its fabric endeavoured to slip from narrow shoulders what made the boy constantly adjust it as if he had a nervous tic. His pants were also too big for him and his trainers, with the state they were in, could have been picked up only from garbage. Quite a pitiful sight for the heir of the noble Potter family.

Then Severus’ intense gaze travelled to the child’s face. His lips were of disturbing shade of blue and his teeth were chattering. Potter tucked his hands under his arms in hope to warm them up. Severus frowned. He freed the boy’s hands and examined them closely. The fingertips were turning blue as well. Just great!

“Didn’t your relatives teach you how to cloth yourself, Potter?” Severus growled, putting off his outer robes and wrapping them up around the insufferable child, leaving only his widened eyes to be seen. “And where are they in the first place?”

When the initial shock at Severus’ actions passed Potter tried to master an angry glare but all his energy clearly was put to keep him awake. It compelled him to limit his attempts to pick a fight with his Potions Professor. “I d-d-do know h-how to cloth myself, I’m n-not that s-s-stupid”.

Severus stepped closer to the boy who, in turn, recoiled, and as he wasn’t a picture of grace in his current state he tripped over the heavy fabric of Severus’ robes, only stayed upright by clawing at the nearest solid thing available - a bookcase. From the impact some books started to fall from their places. Potter tried to catch them with his uncooperative fingers but didn’t succeed. When he finally dared to lift his eyes at Severus, he looked resigned for whatever punishment he might have brought on himself.

“Well”, Severus smirked, “it seems that even incapacitated you can cause a mess all the same. You’re a busy person, Mr. Potter”. He tried to keep the snarkiness in his voice at bay so that not to cause this kind of reaction again wherever it came from. To his mind, it even sounded rather like a teasing than reprimand.

The boy uncurled and righted his ‘bindings’. His expression was screaming of confusion. The mild remark on his behavior certainly wasn’t what he had expected from the ever snarky man. Severus let out an exaggerated breath and this time made a slower step. He then put a firm hand on the boy’s shoulder and guided him to sit on the couch. When the child was settled Severus said in a stern voice, “You didn’t answer my question about your relatives”.

Potter averted his eyes and gave a vague answer, “My relatives- they brought me here so that I can get my Christmas present”. He didn’t stutter this time but was still shaking.

To what extent exactly those muggles doted on him if they had even driven to the other town to satisfy his whims? It was a perfect opportunity to yet again lash at him for being a pampered little prince but for the first time since Severus had a displeasure to know him he didn’t have the actual desire to do it. He didn’t like the confusion that had settled in his mind.

“And then you got lost, I presume?”

Potter nodded and buried himself further into Severus’ robes. The boy looked vulnerable and fragile like a kitten picked up from the streets. Severus shook his head to rid himself of anxious thoughts. It was really hard to hate him now. Furthermore, the pieces of puzzle of what was going on refused to coincide with each other because Potter didn’t represent a picture of a happy little boy who had been brought on an outing, but rather of an urchin with only himself to keep him company on the Christmas night. And the strangest thing of this all was that Potter seemed to be quite truthful in his answers even if he hadn’t been looking Severus in the eye while giving them. Severus didn’t know he would live to state the brat’s honesty. It was ridiculous.

He would have time to get to the bottom of things but right now he needed to make sure the boy wouldn’t die on him. Hypothermia could have some unpleasant consequences. Once again catching the sight of Potter’s trainers, Severus sneered in disgust. This sorry excuse for shoes couldn’t actually protect the feet from cold and getting soaked. He squatted down in front of the boy and carefully dealt with the offending piece of wardrobe, making the boy gasp. Severus huffed, mentally daring the boy to get used to his Professor to wait on him hand and foot. It was all due to circumstances, nothing more! As he’d expected the snow had melted through and then frozen the boy’s socks solid. Severus unintentionally winced in sympathy. It might be painful. He waved his wand over the small feet to slightly heat the socks so that he would be able to put them off. They too were big, ugly and had holes in them. As soon as Potter’s feet were finally free from the icy clutches, the boy sighed in relief and hastily hid them under the robes, too ashamed to voice his gratitude aloud.

“Stay here and try not to fall asleep”, ordered Severus and stormed out of the living room. Having fetched the necessary potions from his lab, he went into the bathroom and with a flick of his wand started water in the tub. When it was full to his satisfaction he uncorked the vials and emptied their contents into the water. The Strengthening Potion, the Vessels Widening Solution and the general Skin Restorative were a prudent decision to cure the boy with.

When he returned to the living room he found only a black lump lying in the corner of the couch. He strode to it and forcefully shook the brat out of his robes. Potter let out an indignant cry and glared at him looking deeply offended. Severus knew it was too much to hope that he would stay awake but barked at him nonetheless, “Potter, can’t you follow the simplest of orders?”

“Sorry, sir”, the child breathed out in a sudden submissive voice. These mood swings had already started to grate on Severus’ nerves.

Severus calculatingly regarded the boy in front of him and came to conclusion that it would be much easier if he carried him to the bathroom instead of letting him go on his own two feet. Leave it to Potter to knock the rest of Severus’ possessions down and in the process to injure himself. Mentally preparing for a round of shouts, he scooped the child into his arms.

But the room remained silent. Potter did encircle Severus’ waist with his legs instinctively in fear to be dropped. However, he rested his hands against Severus’ chest and tried to move his torso as far away as possible. His eyes were now shining with undisguised fear, the emotion, Severus suddenly found out, he didn’t want to see in Lily’s eyes while they were looking at him- even from Potter's face. This went beyond that definition of fright students usually felt in his presence. They knew he wouldn’t really harm them, but this boy in his arms definitely believed otherwise. Severus knew he ought to somehow smooth things over but he would do it in his own way.

“What’s it, Mr. Potter?” he put on a crooked smile. “Are we scared of height? Shall I let slip this dirty secret of yours to your quidditch team?"

At this jibe the boy got himself back and said sulkily, “It’s not that!”

“Then quit squirming, boy! I don’t have all night to fuss around you”.

Potter opened his mouth and by the looks of it wanted to spit out something along the lines ‘I didn’t ask you to!’, but his mounting outburst quickly died under the fierce glare of his Professor. Severus inwardly congratulated himself on the successful attempt of taming the brat.

Once in the bathroom, Severus put him on the floor and snarled at him for his bewildered look. No doubt the little menace had just thought about a wonder of the greasy git of the dungeons having such facilities at all. “In the bathtub with you, Potter, before I throw you there myself!”

The boy skeptically eyed the dark-violet coloured water and mimicked Severus’ own impatiently raised eyebrow. “Erm, sir, what is it?”

Closing his eyes for a moment to calm himself, Severus decided to lie so not to waste time on explanation about potions having used, “This, Potter, is bubble bath what you silly kids like to play with”.

As the boy gaped with open mouth, his eyes flew back and forth between him and the tub. “But… but…”

‘Well, say it already!’ Severus thought angrily, feeling quite embarrassed about the boy’s rejecting his uncharacteristic soppy gesture. He hardly suppressed the impulse to drown him right then and there by arguing with himself that first he ought to heal him before killing him. But what the boy had blurted out forced a nervous chuckle out of him, “But there aren’t any bubbles”. Potter didn’t sound whiny though. He was looking business-like and frowning as if it was one of the riddles guarding the Philosopher’s stone. At that exact moment it dawned on Severus that now he had become a witness to a rare display of childish reaction from Potter. He had seen him being brave, defiant, foolish, stoic, insolent, but never really behaving like a child he was.

It was quite an eye-opening experience.

Yielding to these innocent green eyes, Severus magiced colourful bubbles above the surface of the water and asked in stern voice that, to his chagrin, betrayed a slight huskiness to it from the need to deal with such an unusual situation, "Are they to your liking, Mr. Potter?"

And the boy really had the guts to nod appreciatively to the question that was in fact the direct drive to act and hence didn't require an answer. He expectantly shifted from foot to foot as if waiting for something. But what? “Well?” Severus crossed his arms on his chest. Did the little fool want to have his limbs fall off just because he had failed to follow instructions?

When the boy remained silent and shamefully lowered his eyes to the floor, Severus realized that it might be hard for him to strip off the clothes himself while in condition he was currently in. Whether it a mundane thing or a fight with the Dark Lord this child would have never asked for help. Severus knew better than hope otherwise. And if earlier he had attributed this to exorbitant conceit, now he didn’t know what to think. Rather, somewhere deep inside, he began to guess what this was about, but these guesses were too wild to his liking that Severus simply didn’t want to believe in them, fearing that otherwise it would make them materialize. He would understand later that Potter just wanted him to leave the bathroom.

Emerging from his reverie, Severus exhaled an overly dramatic breath and, for the second time that evening, squatted in front of the boy. Holding out his hand to him, he said in a condescending tone as if he were doing the child a great favor, "Very well, Potter, I'll help you". ‘And then I'll take off as many points from Gryffindor come the new semester as my heart desires,’ he mentally finished, drawing strength from this promise to restore his peace of mind.

However, instead of meekly whispering his thanks, the boy widened his eyes in panic and slapped his professor's outstretched hand. Backing up, he grabbed the bottom of his jumper and pulled it down with such force that this act almost exposed his collarbones. In surprise, Severus nearly lost his balance and fell. None of the students had yet dared to physically resist him, and the fact that Potter was the first to do so piqued the hell out of him.

"Stop this atrocious behavior this instant!" he hissed angrily, getting to his feet and again towering over the frail child. "If you think that spending Christmas night in the company of an obnoxious brat is on the top in the list of my priorities, then you are cruelly mistaken. You ungrateful, arrogant-"

The boy made a face and straightened his shoulders, looking as if that angry tirade was like water off a duck's back for him. It was the Potter he used to. "I didn’t ask you to invite me to your house!" he shouted. "I thought no one lives here at all! I'm ready to go away at any moment and leave you to what you bats usually do at night!"

As rude as his words sounded, they cooled Severus down, whose hands itched a mere minute ago to throw the little sod out, so that he might turn into ice for all he cared. Something had become quite obvious. Usually the boy had never outright insulted him, but now he suddenly descended to loutishness. Behind the defiant facade was hiding a scared child. Severus could see it in his trembling hands and rapid breathing. Even though Potter feared the consequences of his behavior, for him it was much worse to reveal what it served for as a cover. It definitely wasn’t about his shyness at the prospect of exposing his body. The boy was deliberately trying to hide something, and Severus was going to find out what it was, already having his not so optimistic ideas.

Realizing that the boy would not give up without a fight, and that he would most likely remain deaf to admonitions, Severus decided to resort to drastic measures. It would only hurt more trying to slowly peel the patch away from the wound. One ought to do it in one go. He used one of the emergency spells which were taught to each faculty member, the one that helped to strip a patient of their clothes in the matter of a blink so that you would be able to gain access to any visible wound.

Severus accidentally went too far and all of the rags Potter wore were vanished into nothingness. Dumbfounded, the boy lowered his head to stare at his bare chest. He fingered it as if hoping to find a barrier in the form of his worth for nothing jumper. The realization of what had happened slowly crept into his mind making his vision to blur.

As the child notably staggered, Severus made an involuntary step forward, ready to catch him if he were going to collapse. He himself felt as if the ground had been ripped from under him and his heart fallen to the gaped open abyss. The child was not only small, but dangerously thin as well. You could see each bone painfully stuck up under his skin. It wasn’t so pronounced with his face as after four months of eating full meals at Hogwarts some weight had returned to him, but in whole his body remained in a very disturbing state.

There were large bruises in the shape of a hand on the child’s arms. Blue and purple ones, littering his chest and abdomen, indicated recent beatings. It wasn’t the doing of another kid. No. The laurels for these deeds undoubtedly belonged to a fully-grown man.

Maybe the child hadn’t got lost after all. It was more likely he’d run away having decided that staying alone in the cold streets were considerably better than being under the threat of enduring more pain. And the fact the child had ended up in Cokeworth clearly showed that he didn’t have some other place to hide from his misery like Severus used to have in his childhood. His mother would take him to the forest or the bank of the nearby river to hunt for potions ingredients when his father was more intolerable than usual, or he would stay a night at the Evans’. His days had been full of chatter, games and studying with his dear Lily.

Lily- she would have been devastated at what both worlds had done to her precious child. Muggles had hurt him and wizards hadn’t done anything to stop it. No wonder, the boy had put it upon himself to fight mountain troll and save the bloody Stone. No one had ever punished him for endangering his own life.

“Potter”, Severus choked out hoarsely and was immediately silenced by the fierce glare of the blazing green eyes. The expression of his face was one of pure loathing. The air in the room was crackling with magic. Severus was even able to sense it on his skin.

“Are you satisfied now?” the boy roared. “You might be delighted to know that there are other people that hate me even more than you! You can open the club of Harry Potter haters with my relatives. Now that you know, I reckon, Hogwarts students will join it too because nobody like filthy little freaks!”

“Potter, wait–”

“No! That’s what you get when you try to relay on someone. I swore not to do it long time ago, so now I have only myself to blame. It was stupid of me, really, to hope that you indeed wanted to help me. Oh, how you now must be gloating inwardly at my naivety. Be my guest, sir, do it aloud!”

Severus tried once again to calm the boy down before his magic succeeded to destroy the bathroom. He intended to squeeze his shoulder, but Potter repeated his previous action– that was, slapped his hand away. “What's your price for your silence? Money? Having me scrubbing cauldrons till the day I die? I can’t leave Hogwarts, not now when my life only truly started! Can’t you get it? You-” he abruptly trailed off, all colour drained from his face. “But it’s what you always wanted, to see me take a train back home”, his voice lost its fire and Potter despondently whispered, “But Hogwarts is my home, other than it I have nowhere to go”.

Utterly defeated, the boy looked at him with teary eyes and bit his trembling lip.

“Are you quite finished, Mr. Potter?” since the boy only nodded, Severus assumed exhaustion had finally settled on his narrow shoulders. “Good, because if you slap me one more time you will really find yourself in detention till the end of the world and neither the Headmaster, nor your Head of House will be able to rescue you from the dungeons”.

Potter didn’t acknowledge it in any way, shrinking into himself even further. Severus sighed and gently picked the child up not receiving a resistance this time. He then sat him into the bathtub to soak and neutrally stated in order to his words sank in, “I don’t need your money, nor do I need your slaving away for me. What do I want for start is for you to get healthy and as it happens to be the Christmas night, to be happy as well. It’s all you must concern yourself with”.

He hooked off the glasses from Potter’s nose and put them on the counter beside the sink. Then he reached for his shampoo bottle and squeezed some mint smelling substance and started to rub it into the child’s unruly hair. That became the child’s complete undoing. Potter started to sob in earnest, letting all his despair, pain, and sorrow be cleansed of his system. His chest heaving, he asked not without difficulty, “W-why are you s-so damn nice to me?” giving it a second thought, he added, “sir?”

Despite the grievous situation, Severus couldn’t help but chuckled. “It doesn’t work that way, Mr. Potter. You can’t alleviate your rudeness by squeezing a proper addressing into it. Close your eyes please”, he washed off the shampoo with a good portion of water. “An answer to your question will be that you’re a child, and every child needs to be cared for, even obnoxious little Gryffindors who have too smart mouth for their own good. And those adults who think they are allowed to abuse their charges don’t deserve even to be chopped up into potions ingredients”. Hearing the boy’s panting in rapid little whimpers, he admitted softly, “I myself won’t make a good one”.

The boy met his eyes with a hint of curiosity in his own. He had clearly understood what Severus was going on about. The veiled apology reached its recipient. “But you are trying to be?” the boy’s statement sounded rather like a question or might it be even a– request? Did Potter really want to forge their poor relationship? Severus awkwardly cleared his throat, “Yes, I am”.

Half an hour later when Severus ensured nothing was threatening the child’s health, he dried him with a spell, summoned for him his boxer shorts and a set of silky black pajamas and shrink them to fit his thin frame. He left him to dress up and went to the kitchen to prepare something for the child to eat. While he was cooking, the pictures of the boy’s scarred and bruised body were incessantly flashing in front of his mind’s eye, making his guts unpleasantly churning.

Upon his return to the living room with the tray floating in front of him, he found Potter once again curled up on the couch in the shelter of Severus’ robes. This sight for some reason tugged at his heart.

He put his burden on the coffee table and invited the boy to tuck in. There wasn’t much as Severus never bothered with Christmas dinner, but Potter nonetheless enjoyed his meal greatly, even if it consisted of simple turkey sandwiches and a mug of hot cocoa. Had those pathetic muggles been feeding him at all?

The boy’s presence suddenly felt like Christmas decorations that could make the room sparkle with the new colours.

When the boy was finished eating, Severus asked in order to find the last piece of the puzzle, “Earlier you’ve mentioned some present that your relatives”, he spat out the word as if it were a bug that accidentally had flown into his mouth, “allegedly wanted to find for you here. Was it a trick?” He put all his strength to maintain the cool exterior so not to scare the boy.

Potter squirmed uncomfortably. Severus could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. Finally having decided to divulge that bit of information, the boy lowered his eyes to his lap and answered sadly, “I dared to complain to Aunt Petunia about wrapping all that enormous pile of my cousin’s presents while I wasn’t going to receive any as always. I’d have never said such a stupid thing if not for the last Christmas happenings”.

“What happened then, Harry?” the boy’s name rolled from Severus’ tongue unchecked.

“I got presents! And I never get them unless it’s something useless like a pair of Uncle Vernon’s old socks or a toothpick, for example”. It saddened Severus to see such a delight in the child's eyes at experiencing for the first time in his life what other children take for granted. And how someone could be that cruel as to present a child with the stuff like that? “Aunt Petunia then said that if I wanted a present, I would get one. She told me that she with my mom had been growing in this town. So Aunt and Uncle drove me here and promised to return for me tomorrow. Until that time I have to find the house they had been living in. But, of course, they failed to inform me what house it is”, he said bitterly.

Severus was fuming. Those vile creatures had abandoned the child on the streets in the middle of winter and played on his desire to know more about his mother. Obviously, they didn’t even care at all if he would make it till tomorrow alive. They would definitely pay dearly for their deeds, and if they would remain sane after he finished with them, they could consider it as a Christmas present.

While he was brooding over his gloomy thoughts, the child felt asleep, adorably putting his hands under his cheek. Severus took off his glasses and couldn’t resist from tenderly tousling Harry’s hair. “It’ll be all right, Harry”, he whispered.

Tomorrow would be the Boxing day, and Severus was going to teach the child some proper Christmas carols he happened to remember from his childhood and to take him to see the old Evans’ house. But it would be only for paying their respects to the past. The actual gift both of them would receive some time later after they got to know and love each other.

And that gift would be a family.