Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Harry Potter.

Severus Snape stood outside Privet Drive like he did every Halloween to check up on Harry but this year something was different. The once neat and perfect front garden was littered with abandon rubbish; the grass overgrown and windows boarded up.

At first, he thought the family had moved, but Dumbledore would've known and told him about it before he came here it wasn't like the crazy old fool didn't know where he went instead of overseeing the Halloween feast.

A part of him wondered whether he should go back to Hogwarts and tell Dumbledore what the house looked like from the outside, but curiosity got the better of him and almost as if he wasn't in control of his own actions he knocked on the front door.

He expected Petunina or her husband to open the door, but it was her son who since the year before had lost weight.

"If you're another debt collector my mum isn't here," the boy says and Severus notices dark bags under his eyes from lack of sleep.

I am an old friend of your mum would it be okay if I wait inside until she comes back?" Severus asks lying through his teeth; he had never been Petunina's friend ever only Lily's.

"Whatever," the boy tells him shrugging and opening the door to let him in before walking away to the living room.

He blinked several times the place was a tip and the one thing Petunina had always loved was everything being tidy. He didn't know what had happened in the past year, but whatever had must have been bad for her to let the house get that way it was and to leave two nine year olds at home at night.

When he wandered into the living, it was almost bare, the only furniture was cushions on the floor, and both boys were passing around a box cereal to eat.

"Do either of you know when Petunina will be home?" Severus asks and he feels slightly awkward about bareness of the room and the mess in the hall he dreaded to see the other rooms.

He hears Harry let out a small snort of disgust," Anytime between tomorrow morning and when the money runs, and she can't get anyone else to pay for her drink."

Severus shows no reaction to his statement, but inside, he's asking himself what happened.

He takes a second to think of her husband's name then memories of Petunina shouting the name over the years, and it comes to him, "What time do you think Vernon will be home then?"

Both boys look at each other before shrugging, not looking him in the eye.

"Look, I can't leave you both here alone on maybe the off chance that Petunina may roll up so if you don't tell me what's going on I might have to start asking your neighbors," Severus says using his professor tone of voice.

"Dudley have we got any milk left?,"

"No used the last of it yesterday,"

Severus couldn't believe it, they were having a discussion over milk like he hadn't said anything to them before.

"I have all night to stay here, and I don't care how late it gets I will start knocking on people's doors," Severus threatens, receiving a glare from both boys.

"If I tell you will leave the house?" Harry asks and Severus nods his head. "Uncle Vernon left around Christmas a few weeks later we got a knock on the door from the police it seems he'd been stealing quite a lot money from his employers that's why he left because he knew he was going to be rumbled. Aunt Petunina hasn't been sober since, we are debt with no way to pay it, and we are probably going to lose the house."

Harry's face is bright red, and he doesn't know whether because the boy is embarrassed or because he was angry.

Severus paces for a couple of minutes with both Dudley and Harry watching him with curiosity. He for a couple of years had stood by while the child was locked in a cupboard, listened to Petunina telling him that his parents died in a car crash never once hearing her mention magic, and he did that because at least the boy had a family but now the whole thing had fallen apart.

"I want both of you to pack whatever is important to you then go to bed while I wait for Petunina to come home, and if she isn't back by morning well a note will simply have to do," Severus says expecting both to start immediately.

"I thought you were leaving? And what makes you think we are going to go to bed while a strange man in is in our house?" Harry asks with arms folded against his chest.

"So it's okay to let a stranger in because you're wide awake?" Severus questions with a raised eyebrow.

He really wanted to use magic right at the moment what spell he wasn't sure ,but just to show them how powerful he was, and if he wanted to hurt, them he could have done already.

However, he was certain that it would more than likely freak them out rather then put them at ease.

"I didn't let you in Dudley did I just wasn't rude enough to ask you to leave right away," Harry cheekily replies.

"Look both of you do as you're told now!" Severus orders firmly in Professor mode.

Dudley complies quicker than Harry, but he does what he was told nonetheless, and Severus is left alone to figure out exactly what he was going to do when morning came.

Author's Note

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