It was raining again. Rose hated the rain. People stayed indoors when it was raining so she couldn't pick pockets and they were less likely to give money to a beggar and it made her cold and miserable. The blonde eight year old huddled further inside her jacket and longed for the warmth of her attic home, but she wouldn't eat tonight if she couldn't find anything. She paused when she heard a noise coming from a cardboard box. Kittens perhaps? She could make some money selling kittens to rich folk. She turned back and headed towards the box and opened it. A pair of green eyes stared up at her, but they most certainly did not belong to a kitten. A little boy of about four looked up at her from under a mess of black hair. He was tiny and it looked like he had been beaten. Pinned to his t-shirt was a note. My name is Harry Potter, please take care of me.

"Hey, Kiddo," Rose said. "Whatcha doing in there?" There was a tiny sniff.

"Aunt 'Tunia lef' me hewe. She says 'm no' wan'ed. Take food outta Duddy's mouf. Bad Hawwy, go s'eep in cupboard." The boy rubbed at his eyes and looked up at her. "Owwie," he said.

"Where does it hurt?" Rose asked. The boy rubbed at his bottom.

"Owwie." Rose lent in and picked him up, cuddling him under her jacket.

"Come with me, little one. I'll look after you." Rose remembered reading something once that fitted this moment. There are moments which mark your life, it had gone, moments when you realize nothing will ever be the same and time is divided into two parts – before this and after this. This was one of those moments.

~ ~ ~ Seven years later ~ ~ ~

Severus Snape looked across the office at the Headmaster and cursed the day he agreed to the position of Potions Master at Hogwarts. There was that damn twinkle in the old man's eye again; he was up to something. "You wished to see me sir?" he asked, his face not betraying any of his emotions.

"Yes, lemon drop, Severus?"

"No thank you, Headmaster." Dumbledore popped the sweet into his mouth and sucked at it for a few minutes.

"You realise, Severus, that this is the year that Harry Potter will come to school?"

"Yes Headmaster, I was aware of that." The whole world knew that Harry bloody Potter was coming to Hogwarts this year. Snape didn't have anything against him personally, but most of the Wizarding World acted like he was some minor god come down to live amongst them. It was obvious to anyone with a brain what Lily had done to save her son, the one thing any mother would do without hesitation, but it seemed that most of Wizarding Britain didn't have a brain.

"Now, there is something I haven't told many people Severus." The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes dimmed and Snape got the feeling he ought to hold onto something solid. "But the whereabouts of Harry Potter has been unknown since just after his fourth birthday." Snape stared at the old man.

"What? How can you lose a four-year-old boy? It's not like he can go wandering off on his own." Dumbledore sighed.

"I know Severus, and I believe I made a grave mistake when I gave him to his aunt." Snape's world faltered.

"Petunia Dursley? You gave Harry Potter to Petunia Dursley?" He controlled his temper with some difficulty. "Headmaster, I grew up with her. She hated Lily for her talent, she despised her for it, saw her as something less than human. Petunia didn't even turn up at her funeral, or her wedding and she refused to ever meet Harry." Snape shook his head slowly. "I assumed Lupin got custody. It said in the Potters will that Harry as never to go to Petunia, for it would put his life in danger." Dumbledore sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"Remus never got custody because of his condition, but … I thought that Petunia could be reasoned with." Snape raised an eyebrow. The Petunia he knew had never been susceptible to reason, whether it was about the branch being able to bear her weight or marrying Vernon Dursley. He assumed that she had been no more so over taking in her nephew.

"It is regrettable, but I fail to see what this has to do with me, Headmaster."

"His name still appeared on the register, he is still alive and he will still get his Hogwarts letter. I would like you to go with Remus to find him and bring him back to Hogwarts."

"Lupin?" Snape demanded. "Why do I have to go with him?"

"Remus is the only Wizard this side of the Veil who knows Harry Potter." It was a sobering thought.

"Why do I have to go though?" Snape asked, resigned. He knew where this was going. "I'm nothing to the boy."

"But you were once a best friend to Lily, for that, if nothing else, you should help to find her son." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and Snape felt slightly ashamed. "Besides, I thought that you better than most might understand the upbringing the boy has had." Snape blanched at the thought. An upbringing like his …

"Very well, I will go with Lupin to find the boy."

"Thank you Severus," Dumbledore said. "It is a good choice."

"Did I have a choice?"

"Oh yes. I would never force you to do anything, my boy. If you felt you had no other option it is your own good conscience that told you so."

Many miles away, Harry Potter woke up screaming. "Harry! Harry! Wake up!" Rose was leant over him, shaking his shoulder. The teenager relaxed when she saw Harry's green eyes open. "Did you have another nightmare?"

"Yeah." Harry sat up and rubbed at his eyes. Rose sat next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"Can you tell me about it?" Some of his dreams he never spoke about, but others he did.

"I've had it before, Rose," he admitted. "It's more like a memory than a dream. It's awful."

"Go ahead, shock me," she said. "I'm not afraid of anything." That Harry knew to be a lie, but he humoured her.

"I've had it before," he began slowly. "It's all kinda fuzzy, like when I'm not wearing my glasses, so I think it happened a long time ago. There's a lady with red hair in front of me, I never see her face. She seems huge, like a giant and she's scared. I … I think she's my Mum, because she keeps going, 'Not my Harry, not my baby.' Then there's this flash of green light and she's gone. There are these red eyes instead, they're … they're evil Rose, pure evil. They, they laugh at me, and then there's another flash of green light and I wake up. My scar hurts as well." He rubbed at his forehead. Harry looked up at Rose anxiously. "What do you think it means Rose?" he asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "But you should never be scared of dreams Harry, after all, it's your head, you can do anything."

"Does that work for you?" he looked sceptical and Rose smiled.

"Sometimes Harry. Not all the time, but sometimes." She gently pushed him back to lie against the mattress. "Go to sleep Harry, we've got a busy day tomorrow." He caught at her sleeve.

"Will you stay 'till I fall asleep?" he asked, hating how childish his voice sounded.

"'Course." She carded a hand through his hair and began to sing. "Hush little baby, don't say a word, Papa's gonna buy you a mocking bird." It was the same lullaby she'd always used to send him to sleep and Harry murmured the lines under his breath.

"And if your mocking bird won't sing,

Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring.

And if your diamond ring won't shine,

Papa's gonna buy you a horse and dime.

And if your horse and dime turns over,

Papa's gonna buy you a dog named Rover.

And if that dog named Rover won't bark,

Papa's gonna buy you a horse and cart.

And if that horse and cart won't go,

You'll still be the handsomest boy I know."