Before Severus Snape left the house, realizing exactly what was happening, feeling it in the air, knowing it without being told, he made sure that everything was okay. He kept his ear open for any noises as he made his way to the front door, he gave a side look at the large black crow that had taken to staying perched at the windowsill of the upper right window of his house in the last year, he locked the door tight and put up the usual protections, the ones he'd taken to practicing long ago but that he had learned to do far more effortlessly, without a thought every time he left. There was a panic, a concern to him still as he walked outside but it was quickly eclipsed by the other emotions that came over him that night; the Dark Lord was on the move, Severus had made his decision and become a double agent to save the woman he had grown up with, the woman he loved, yet for everything Albus Dumbledore was, as much as anyone else might believe that the man could do it if anyone could save the Potters from destruction, there was a deep pit that lay in his stomach and he couldn't for all the potions he brewed and spells he cast dispel it. Something was happening, things were moving and tonight, All Hallow's Eve, was the night.
The cold night air blew and he pulled his cloak around him tighter, taking one more glance at the crow that cleaned its feathers before heading out, apparating away from his home and to the place he knew everything would be happening, to that little house in Godric's Hollow that no one was supposed to know about yet there was it was, and it was deathly still. All the lights were out but one, a singular window that glowed in the darkness of the night, a beacon that brought him both a glimmer of hope and the pain of fear as he noticed too the front door was wide open; there was a noise in the air, the sound of someone crying and he made his way inside, careful, quiet. Each step was calculated, each movement felt heavy; the inside of the house, dark as it was, felt filled with something, the feeling of death that he could easily recognize and felt his heart pound in his chest.
He found James at the top of the stairs, eyes wide, caught it seemed by the approach of the last intruder; Severus didn't dare stop, didn't dare look too long at the face of his old schoolmate. There was a time when James Potter had been the greatest enemy he knew, he and his group who tortured Severus on a regular basis at school; that though had been when they were children and a chill ran down his back as he realized in a moment that none of that mattered now. He'd hated James Potter so much, with the kind of hatred that when one is a teenager feels like it will last forever; he hated him for the way he treated Severus, he hated him for his bluster and arrogance, he hated him for the fact he'd won the woman Severus had loved, he hated him for taking her away from him. Yet there was not a hatred in him now as he glanced at the man, making his way down the hallway still, even as the thought chased him down; perhaps it was that they were no longer kids in school anymore, perhaps it was the events that had transpired in both of their lives since the day of their graduation, perhaps it was the similarities that in the past the young man would have loathed to admit to but now couldn't help but think of. James died tonight and Severus felt a tinge of sadness in his chest knowing it; he'd probably died trying to protect her in the end. The crying continued and he followed the sound, trying to push away all the thoughts and emotions that were threatening him. But there was nothing he could do to control it as he walked into the open nursery and saw her body.
Lily Evans, Lily Potter, looked so cold and he was certain his heart stopped, that all things stopped. When they restarted though it was like he had a knife dug harshly into his chest and no matter how he tried to gasp for breath, there was no air to be found. Her beautiful red hair, he remembered being a child and watching as she, one herself, put flowers into it, smiled with that brilliant smile that felt like such a lost dream now. She almost looked asleep and part of him tried to convince him that it had to be so, that she had to be asleep; after all he'd begged hadn't he? He had pleaded with the Dark Lord to spare her, if nothing else to spare his old childhood friend, his beloved Lily; Severus had gone to Dumbledore for her, had become a double agent for her, had put his very life on the line so that the headmaster would keep her safe, keep her alive. So Lily couldn't be dead, she couldn't possibly be dead, because otherwise for what point did he do all that? He fell to his knees and picked her up, and she didn't respond, didn't move, didn't breathe. And he was certain she was indeed cold because there wasn't an ounce of warmth to her body and he wanted to scream, wanted to cry, letting out a sob as he held her in his arms.
Then stopped, because still was that screaming, that crying and his head turned to look towards the source. The cause of all this, the reason Voldemort had come there, the reason Severus had had to beg and double deal in hopes of saving her; he looked so tiny for someone who was prophesized to defeat the Dark Lord and Severus' eyes immediately found the small red wound upon the little boy's forehead, yet what caught him more was the frantic, desperate sounds coming from the boy, tears streaming down his face. The man set down Lily carefully and made his way over to the crib, pulling out his wand without a word, the small child continuing to wail, looking up at him now with an indescribable sort of distress; for his part Severus' face, though only slightly less tear-stained, was unreadable as well and he prepared the words to a spell, waving the wand before letting the words come out.
The tears dried up on the boy's face and he immediately stopped crying, his eyes looking strange for a moment before a small sniffle and coo left him; Severus took the opportunity to reach down, grabbing the small red and gold blanket that lay in the crib with the infant and wrapping him up in it before lifting him out. He shifted him carefully in his arms, feeling slightly uncomfortable as the boy stared at him with a quiet sort of look; the Slytherin was careful to support his head, nestling him gently before turning around.
And right into the outstretched wand of someone he most definitely didn't wish to see at the moment. Admittedly in terms of who he expected to see there, the scruffy visage of Sirius Black was certainly on that list though he would be willing to say that the man looked far less put together than he had ever seen him. Actually he looked a little like he had been in an explosion recently, his clothes slightly charred and his hair a mess, but his eyes were clear and full of cold anger as he looked Severus in the eye, wand still pointed as he spoke carefully, calculated. Yet there was a shaking to his tone that did not escape Severus' notice. "Put Harry down right now Snivellus and I won't blast you to kingdom come."
"Where do I even start with that stupid statement?" Severus asked unable to resist some biting wit back at the man; he tried not to flinch as the man managed by some miracle to shove the wand even further into his face and he tutted his tongue, "For one you cannot expect me to put the boy down on the ground and I am not about to turn my back on you to put him back into his crib. Secondly you try to 'blast me' and you'll hurt him too which I feel would be rather counterintiutive considering I assume you came here for him. And thirdly you look like you just walked out of a blast, how about not causing another one?"
"Shut up, Snivellus," Sirius snarled, his expression darkening only to almost immediately melt away as Harry started to wail again; the man went from angry to confused and worried in the blink of an eye and he swore under his breath as the little boy cried loudly.
Severus frowned and grumbled slightly. "Now look what you've done, you fool. And here I just got him to calm down too."
He started to rock the boy gently, holding him against his shoulder as he softly shushed him; Sirius was stunned, watching as the usually grumpy Slytherin tended to the child and Harry, hiccupping and gripping onto the man's clothes with his chubby little fists, started to settle down again. Severus rubbed his back a little for good measure and upon figuring the boy was calm again returned Harry to being cradled in his arms before throwing an icy glare at Sirius. "Get that stupid look off your face, Black."
"How the bloody hell do you know how to calm a baby?" Sirius asked unsure what else he could possibly ask in this moment.
Severus opened his mouth to answer but the sound of voices outside interrupted and Sirius turned towards the door with wide eyes and yet another "oh fuck". It occurred to Severus that this could be a number of things though by the other man's reaction he was certain that Sirius was expecting something bad.
"What did you do?" Severus asked, holding Harry carefully as he narrowed his eyes at his old schoolmate.
"I didn't do anything!" Sirius yelled then gave a sheepish look towards Harry who simply yawned and continued to cling onto Severus' clothes, "I just...damnit."
"Black..."
"I didn't do anything, I swear; I just...I heard about You-Know-Who coming this way and I freaked out. I tried to confront Wormtail...Peter," Sirius said and suddenly he looked a mixture of hurt and frustrated and disgusted, all at once; he tried to grab at his hair with both hands, wand still in one of them as he stared at nothing in particular, "And he...oh fuck, Snivellus, he blew them up. He fucking blew them up."
"Blew who up, Black? Try and make sense please." The noises were getting closer and Severus realized that it was more than a few sets of footprints, something inside him telling him that it wasn't Dumbledore or his helper Hagrid come for the boy. A lump developed in his throat and he stepped back and hit the crib with the back of his legs, holding Harry closer without thinking about it.
"Muggles, he blew up so many Muggles," Sirius said and pulled at his hair, "And they saw me and the Ministry thinks I did it."
"So you brought them here?" Severus wasn't sure what to feel about that, though he felt like this could do absolutely nothing good for them. Him with his Dark Mark, holding the infant son of the two murdered Potters, including the man who anyone who knew them would know he despised greatly. Dumbledore was sure to come for the boy too, and the lump returned as his mind raced through a whole different track; maybe this was what was supposed to be what happened, maybe this was the old headmaster's plan all along. Voldemort obviously wasn't there anymore and yet Lily and James Potter were dead, and Harry Potter wasn't; the boy probably did destroy the Dark Lord somehow, someway and that perhaps would be a good thing except for that Lily was dead. And Severus, knowing that Albus Dumbledore was perhaps not only a powerful wizard but one of the most conniving ultimately, couldn't shake the feeling, the sinking impression, that this, this had been his plan all along. He never meant to save Lily or James or even try to protect Harry at all; what would he do with the boy now that the Dark Lord had been defeated? Give him to an orphanage? No, that wouldn't do, there were still Death Eaters after all, many loyal to Voldemort, willing to try and hunt the boy down to kill him to avenge their fallen master; he would need extra protection, somewhere Dumbledore could have some control. So with a family, his own blood family.
And the thought of who Harry's surviving family was made Severus almost physically sick; he heard the footsteps get even closer, and a voice saying something about the target being close, and there was Severus Snape holding a baby with his dead ex-best friend on the ground and Sirius Black seeming to be on the verge of a breakdown. And the mere thought of Dumbledore taking Harry to that horrendous woman made him do something reckless; he shifted Harry so he could hold the boy with one arm, causing him to stir a little from the nap he had started to slip into as Severus reached out and grabbed Sirius' forearm, Apparating them both seconds before the door opened and Ministry officials came into the room, followed by a very confused looking Hagrid.
"Fuck Snivellus!" Sirius yelled as they reappeared outside Severus' house, the Gryffindor grumbling as he fell to the ground, trying to catch himself; Apparating was nothing new to him but it was disorienting to him, being forcefully dragged around like this.
He got back to his feet, glaring once more at his ex-schoolmate but the other man seemed less than interested or concerned, heading towards the front door of his residence, pulling out his wand to lower the protections and unlock the door to let them inside. Sirius looked up at the gloomy house, dark and shabby looking in a neighbor of depressing and rundown homes. "Damn is this really your house?"
"Get inside Black before I shut this door on your face," Severus said warningly and Sirius blanched before rushing inside; once inside Severus clicked his tongue and with a wave of his wand, and mumbled spell, the protections went back up and he went in further to the house.
Sirius looked around, getting an eyeful of the home of the man he once thought of as one of his favorite targets in school, his current predicament forgotten in the appearance of it all. It was cleaner than he imagined Severus' house to be, full of books and small things; he took note of something laying out in the living room and walked in, picking up the small stuffed cat and making a face at it.
"Did you go to Pron-James' house to steal Harry and Lily away from him?" Sirius said with a frown, turning to look over at Severus, watching as he started up the stairs; Sirius rushed after him, feeling further frustration build up inside him, "Snivellus, I always knew you were obsessed but seriously?"
"You really are an idiot, aren't you Black?" Severus scoffed, continuing up the stairs.
"Answer me, Snivellus!"
"Do not yell in my house."
"Or what?"
Severus turned his head to look over his shoulder at the other man and raised an eyebrow. "You asked me a question before."
"Yeah; if you were planning on kidnapping Harry," Sirius said.
"Not that one, idiot, back when we were at the house." Sirius blinked and furrowed his brow to remember but the things that night, everything that had happened, it was melting together and causing him trouble.
Severus sighed and continued on to the top of the stairs, making his way down the hallway to the room at the end of it. Carefully he whispered a spell and the door opened, allowing him to walk inside with Harry nodding off in his arms and Sirius in tow. The room beyond the door was in many ways the same and in many ways very different than the one in the Potter household; the walls were decorated in silver and emerald, intricate images of all sorts of animals and not just snakes wandering around in the wallpaper. There was a rocking chair against a wall with a few more stuffed animals laid haphazardly upon it, and a toy chest beside it held more toys; a small dresser with small clothes neatly tucked away, a picture of a smiling woman that it struck Sirius was definitely not Lily, her hair obviously dark even in the dim light of the room, her eyes seeming almost red as she silently laughed and clung onto the arm of what Sirius realized was a slightly younger Severus, looking awkward and shyly out towards the edge of the picture. He stared at it for a moment as the older version walked over to the crib by the window, eyes lifting for a second to meet that of the crow that sat guard outside before gently unlatching the boy from his clothes and setting him down inside. Sirius walked over to see that it wasn't empty, a small child already occupying the same bed that upon having a roommate started to fuss and whine.
"Aw shush little one," Severus said in a voice that struck Sirius as far too gentle to be him and the man picked the child up, holding them delicately in his arms; a girl, not much older than Harry himself, with soft black hair and tiny hands that reached out and upon having one of his fingers in reach clung on. She fussed more and deep crimson eyes opened, staring up at him as the Slytherin hummed softly and rocked her much like he had rocked Harry when he had started to cry.
"What...who..." Sirius had no idea what to say, or what he even wanted to say.
Severus didn't look at him, focusing his attention on the tiny girl for the moment, continuing to try and soothe her until she too calmed down. Only then, as she settled and let out a small yawn, drawing his fingers to her mouth and only stopped from trying to put them into her mouth by him carefully pulling them back, did he speak to the other man in the room again, smiling lightly down at the child still, "The reason I know how to calm a crying baby and why I find your constant yelling very irritating would be because of this little one. Her name is Nyx, she would be my daughter."