Disclaimer: only poking around in JKR's sandbox. Below is the companion piece to 'Five Thirty'.
1:25 AM
Severus enters the darkened bedroom, swaying lightly on his feet. There is a melody playing, but only in his mind: one two three, one two three, one two three…
His step falters for a short moment as he nudges the door closed, and the tiny swaddled figure in his arms stirs and roots around until Severus begins to sway again. Soon enough, his little girl descends back into sleep.
Hermione is already curled on her side, the blankets piled up around her form. Only her head of sprawling curls is visible, though he catches a glimpse of one hand outstretched.
His wife's hand is lying flat on the small half-cot that is attached to their bed. In a fit of inspiration, Hermione butchered the ostentatious gift from the house elves and cut off one of the sides in order to wedge it up beside their own bed.
It makes laying his Sophia onto the surface an art form, but he has long arms, and he plans to write it down in the baby book just so his daughter knows one day that Severus now bends his body half over just to make sure that the babe barely registers the movement.
He waits for a good minute with a hand on the cot. When Sophia only tosses her little head of black hair once before settling again, he quietly pads over to his side of the bed. Hermione is lost to such solid sleep that she does not notice when he climbs in and curves his body around hers.
In a few hours he will wake to begin the day again, but it is this time that he likes best.
The time when it is only Severus and his little girl with their eyes open, watching the world, watching each other.