A/N – This has been a long time coming but I have rediscovered my love of writing. It is nowhere near perfect, but my love for Harry Potter and its characters has made me want to share this new chapter with everyone. Any feedback and comments are always appreciated and the hope, and aim, is to continue to update more regularly from now on. Thanks Snape's Sarcastic Slytherin
Chapter 4:
Severus Snape was not having a good day. To be frank, that was an understatement, he wasn't having a good decade. For starters, late last night he was awoken abruptly to his dark mark burning like never before, the snake writhed fitfully upon his forearm and as his eyes leaked from the excruciating pain he stumbled towards his floo.
"The Headmasters Office, liquorice wands." Snape was so distracted he didn't even sneer at Dumbledore's password as he stepped into the green flames and spun away only to be spat out rather ungracefully upon the headmasters Gryffindor red rug.
"Severus!" He looked up blearily as a pair of golden slippers hastened towards him. "What's wrong my boy?"
"My arm" he gritted out "make it stop, it burns." Tears rolled down his pale cheeks as he gasped at the pain.
Dumbledore knelt before him and carded a weathered hand through lank hair as Snape trembled on his office floor. Snape leaned into the touch, desperately seeking any comfort in wake of the blinding pain he was experiencing. It felt like an age to him, but as quick as the pain had arrived it vanished, and he collapsed with relief, his cheek pressed against the soft red rug.
He took a second to collect himself before his occlumency walls shuttered firmly back into place, his eyes returning to fierce obsidian orbs as he gracefully rose back to his feet, standing proudly before Dumbledore, despite his dishevelled state and missing a shirt.
What he wasn't prepared for was the headmasters gasp as he reached for his arm and grabbed it with a gentle but firm grip. "What are you do…"
"Severus, my boy, look!" Snape looked down at the forearm held in a now vice like grip and his own breath caught when he saw it. The dark mark, it had nearly gone, it was faded almost completely, and for the second time that night he felt his occlumency fail at the complete shock of what was happening.
"But how is that even possible?"
At that very second, the various instruments throughout Dumbledore's office went crazy. Puffs of coloured green smoke rose from an enchanted teapot, a steady whirring noise developed into a high-pitched wine as a fan like instrument kicked into overdrive and a side cabinet began to open and close itself with loud bangs as the little handle for the drawer rattled ominously.
"Mother of Merlin!"
"What is it Albus?"
"It's the Potters." Albus's stricken and fearful face terrified Snape, he had never seen the man look so scared.
"The wards have fallen."
"What? That can't be, you said you had protected her! You said she was safe!" he accused.
"They were under the fieldus, the only way in which the wards would have fallen is if the secret keeper revealed their location." Dumbledore explained, his face ashen.
"That mangy mutt!" Dumbledore's eyes flashed with anger upon hearing Snape's words.
"Be quiet Severus, now is not the time. I must go."
"Then let me come with you" he begged as piercing blue eyes regarded him for a second before Dumbledore hurried towards the fireplace.
As he grabbed a handful of floo powder he turned to Snape, "Godric's Hollow, Potter Cottage" he said. Snape nodded in understanding as Dumbledore threw down the power and uttered this once more before spinning away.
Snape hurried to grab some floo power and spun through green flames for a few seconds before being spat out, a bit more gracefully this time, onto a red and gold rug.
His eyes swept his new surroundings, taking in the baby toys littering the floor, books piled haphazardly on the coffee table, a muggle tv, family photos picturing a red headed lady, a black haired bespeckled man and a messy haired baby with big green eyes. He had to look away as the picture moved with the lady smiling at the camera and seeming to look into his very soul.
At the sound of Dumbledore's surprised exclamation in the distance, Snape snapped out of his staring match with the picture and started towards the sound.
He flinched in surprise to encounter the body of James Potter, lifeless brown eyes staring up at him from the foot of the stairs. He couldn't even muster a sneer at the sight of his school bully, his eyes seemed to stare accusatorily up at him, almost telling him that by telling the Dark Lord the prophesy he had killed him.
The cry of a baby forced Snape to step over the fallen man carefully and hasten up the stairs, stopping in shock as he saw half the roof was missing, the dark night sky illuminated the hallway eerily and he continued towards where the epicentre of the damage seemed to be.
His breath left him as he saw the body of his former best friend lying at the centre of what appeared to be the childs room. Her long red hair was spread around her head like a halo, her green eyes open and staring towards a cot where Dumbledore stood, staring down in wonder at the crying baby within.
His legs finally gave out and he crumpled, sliding down the doorframe as a ragged sob left his throat for the first time since he begged Dumbledore earlier that year to save the woman he loved from his dark master.
He cried for the woman he was meant to protect, the woman who had defended him from his father and from his bullies and ultimately for the woman he had loved for over a decade.
Blearily and through his haze of tears, pain and self-hatred, his eyes met Dumbledore's. The old mans eyes held pity, regret and profound sadness.
"Severus" he uttered, "look." He pointed towards a bundle of black clothing before the cot, something Snape had previously missed, and Snape was shocked to see a familiar wand lying atop what obviously wizards robes.
"That can't be possible" he said, even as his hand scrabbled to undo the button at his cuff, pulling up his sleeve to expose his un-blemished forearm. "But what happened?" he asked in absolute bewilderment.
Dumbledore sighed heavily before leaning down to scoop up the baby, who sniffled before cuddling sleepily into his long beard, a little fist reaching out to grab it. He brushed the sweaty black fringe aside to expose an angry looking jagged scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. "It's just a theory" he started "but it appears as though little Harry here survived Lord Voldemort's killing curse." Snape automatically flinched at the name but couldn't help the relief that coursed through him at the thought of the war finally being over.
"How did he live?" he asked, looking at the little baby in awe, "no one survives the killing curse, especially not one from the Dark Lord."
"Lily. Lily must have sacrificed herself for Harry. His mothers protection shielded him from the curse and it seems to have rebounded upon Voldemort."
"So he's dead?"
"Perhaps" Dumbledore admitted, "perhaps not, time will tell my boy, but right now we need to focus on little Harry here." His eyes filled with sorrow as they fell on Lily's body, I must go and inform Minerva and then hastened to the minister. She will need all the help she can get in the wake of this tragedy.
"What can I do."
"Take the boy Severus" Dumbledore waived down Snape's immediate objections "Please, take him, he needs to be somewhere safe, least Voldemort's followers seek retribution in the coming days." The irony wasn't lost on Snape that he was tasked with this as he was the one responsible for giving the Dark Lord the prophesy that killed his enemy and best friend, leaving behind their son, a boy that looked exactly like his blasted father, but with his mothers eyes who was now to be entrusted to his dubious care.
"Okay" he said with resignation in his voice "I'll take him to Hogwarts, have Madam Pomfrey look him over tonight." His eyes spoke volumes though when he added "But you will be taking him back of my hands by mid-day tomorrow at the latest."
A ghost of a smile crossed Dumbledore's tired face before he nodded "Of course my boy." He gently pried Harry's little hand away from his beard, receiving a small whine from the now sleeping boy in response before transferring him gently into Snape's waiting hands.
Snape took him in a surprisingly tender hold before nodding towards the headmaster. Dumbledore spared him a reassuring half smile, his customary twinkle absent from his weary eyes before he apparated from the partially destroyed room, the missing wards no longer preventing entry of exit of those not entrusted to the fieldus charm.
Snape spared one more heartbroken glance to his former best friend before whispering "I'll protect him Lily, I swear to you." He bowed his head for a second before stepping around Lily Potter's body and back out into the hallway. The burden in his arms let out a soft snore in contentment as he leant into Snape's broad chest as he continued back down the staircase. He spared no such glance towards James Potter's body as he stepped over him and hastened once more towards the fireplace.
"Hold on tight little one" he whispered as he threw the floo powder into the fireplace, the fire turning a similar green to the killing curse that had flashed through the Potter's house three times that same night before stepping in and confidently saying "Hogwarts Hospital Wing" and spinning away from the frame.
He missed a crazed Sirius Black arriving soon after on his flying motorcycle and screaming in anguish upon finding his best friends body just beyond the door.