My Child
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU!
This little story is dedicated to Man of Constant Sorrow and everyone else who is – like myself – shocked about Alan Rickman's death…
Severus Snape listened to the tirades of Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall in silent annoyance. 'How dare they place Baby Harry with Petunia? She absolutely hates magic and the magical world,' he mused, pondering what he could do. Of course he was in no position to act against the headmaster, but maybe he could find a way to help the child without anyone knowing about the matter.
By the time he returned to the sanctuary of his own quarters, it was already far past midnight and he had developed an idea.
At the beginning of his own fifth Hogwarts year, the most horrible year of his school time at Hogwarts, he had purchased friendship rings, hoping to be able to give one of them to Lily at the first opportunity. Unfortunately, this chance had never occurred. During a grave mistake, one of the two worst mistakes that he had ever made, he had insulted her badly enough to drive her straight into James Potter's arms. Later, he had made up with Lily and they had remained best friends until Voldemort took her from him, but nevertheless, she had married Potter for reasons that were beyond his understanding.
However, he was still in the possession of these rings, and he was going to use them on her baby. When little Harry was born, Severus had promised Lily to look after her son if anything happened to her. She had even wanted to make him the boy's godfather, but her husband did not allow it and instead used a good for nothing traitor.
'I'm going to use these rings to take care of the baby,' he resolved. 'Maybe I can still fulfil my promise to Lily, even if Albus doesn't allow me to take him in.'
He pulled the small box out of the top drawer of his desk and sadly looked at the rings. They were both silver coated and, while his ring was quite simple, Lily's held a Celtic Claddagh pattern. When he had bought them, after spending the summer holidays working at the apothecary at Diagon Alley to earn money for this very purpose, he had asked for Charms to be applied to them, so that they would allow Lily and him to be able to communicate telepathically and also to be able to sense each other's feelings. 'That'll do for the child as well,' he decided.
HP
Glancing at the tempus charm on the wall, he let out a sigh, realising that it was already three o'clock in the morning. "Cicero," he called his trustworthy house-elf and asked him to take him to the apparition border.
"Of course Master Severus," Cicero replied, knowing better than to question him where he was heading at this time of the night. He reached for Severus' arm and popped away.
"Thank you Cicero," Severus said and told the elf to not wait for him but instead get some sleep. "I'll walk back when I return."
"Thank you Master Severus. Good night," Cicero replied before popping away.
Severus apparated to Little Whinging, relieved when he could see the baby still lying in front of house number four in the faint light coming from the street lamp.
'Is it not much too cold for a baby lying on a doorstep during the night?' he wondered, feeling very much upset at the old wizard upon realising that the boy was only covered by the baby blanket which he had given Lily when Harry had been born fifteen months ago. 'He'll catch pneumonia,' he worried and instinctively pulled his wand, casting a strong warming spell at the blanket. Finally, he pulled a small phial out of his robe pocket. It was a dose of Pepperup potion, which he had diluted with water to make it adequate for a baby in case Harry would need it. 'Thank Merlin I thought of that,' he thought and spelled the potion straight into the boy's system. 'Now that's better.' Contented with himself, he hesitantly pulled the small, blue box out of his robe pocket.
'I just hope he won't wake up and make a ruckus,' he thought, as he carefully knelt down on the doorstep next to Harry. However, the child seemed to be fast asleep, and Severus felt slightly reassured. He took a moment to closely examine the baby's face. 'He looks exactly like his father,' he thought, before he focussed on the boy's eyes to push all grumpy feelings aside. Finally, his eyes wandered up to the boy's forehead, widening upon taking in the scar about which Albus had already informed him in a grave voice.
He carefully reached for the boy's left hand and slid the ring that was supposed to be Lily's over the baby's ring finger, relieved when it automatically adjusted itself to the correct size – which it would continue to do as the boy was growing. He straightened himself and cast a notice-me-not charm at the ring that would prevent anyone except from Harry and himself to be able to see it let alone take it off.
'I'm not going to wake him up to try out the rings,' he decided. 'I can as well try to contact him tomorrow. At least he was well enough able to speak, when I last saw him a few weeks ago.'
"All right Harry, we'll keep in touch," he whispered to the sleeping child, before he lightly pressed a kiss onto his forehead.
However, he could not keep himself from sending a thought to the child. 'Even if you'll have to live here, you're going to be my child, Harry,' he telepathically told the sleeping child and had the impression as if a small smile crossed the baby's face. 'My imagination,' he said to himself and decided that he urgently had to return to Hogwarts to get some sleep.
The End
Severus Snape will always live in our fanfictions and in our hearts!