The love of a child

I would like to say thank you to my beta Founders Child because she is the best in the entire world, I bow down to her greatness:)

Chapter 2 - Severus' return

Harry Potter had not expected to hear from Severus for at least another few days, when a letter was delivered by owl post that very evening with his lover's italic scrawl was to say the least a shock. He had been feeding Bonnie at the time, she had been waking every two hours for a bottle and Harry was exhausted. The letter contained no port key of any kind however it did hold a dinner invitation for the following evening. As much as he desired to attend he did not think that he would be able to leave Bonnie with a babysitter he was unfamiliar with or even one he was familiar with. He didn't want to leave her just yet.

He wrote a letter of apology to Severus asking that perhaps he come and see him later on in the week as he was quite busy at the present moment and could not possibly think of leaving his home. He sent this off with Hedwig as he watched over his daughter who was sleeping peacefully.

Harry had not been so lucky, his dreams had not been sweet of late, what he saw disturbed him greatly, they made him worry of what un-captured deatheaters were plotting as there was no doubt that it involved him. He thanked the Gods that very few knew of Bonnie, she would no doubt be a powerful child, and he did not want dark wizards after her as well.

Harry went to check on Bonnie before retiring to bed himself knowing full well that he would be awake within the hour to give Bonnie her bottle. He had just changed when he heard the sound of breaking glass downstairs followed almost at once with a crash. Bonnie at once began to cry out for Harry. Slowly he made his way to her room, after calming her he went back out onto the landing where he put up the strongest shielding charms and locking spells he could think of.

Quietly he tiptoed down the stairs wand in hand ready to strike. Numerous hexes and curses were going through his mind, the possibility that it could be a muggle burglar didn't even occur to Harry who's protective instinct was telling him to protect his daughter from anything that may want to harm her.

All the lights were off in the living room and kitchen but Harry could hear movement coming from the front room. Whoever was there was rummaging through his belongings and throwing stuff everywhere. Withdrawing breath he flipped the light switch and saw…there was no one there. Not forgetting that they could be under an invisibility charm or even cloak he looked around carefully. If they moved but an inch it would be noticeable whatever they had used to hide their identity.

Nothing in the room moved, the only sound that could be heard was Harry's own breathing, and if you listened extra carefully perhaps the fast beating of Harry's heart that felt as if it were going a million miles a second. He did not want to call out in case they thought he was attacking them, it was stale mate. Harry lowered his wand a fraction. "Who's there?"

There was a flash of red light that Harry artfully dodged, he may have destroyed the Dark Lord but he had help, he had Bonnie, he wasn't as powerful as every one thought him to be. Without his daughter inside of him he was just a normal wizard with no extraordinary power. The ability to speak parceltongue and other such links to Voldermort had died with the Dark Lord.

Harry felt more than heard someone run past him although he did not get a chance to grab them and stop their progress up the stairs. This was someone who had the knowledge that he had been pregnant; he knew that Bonnie was now in danger. His mothering instinct made him run full on to her room just in time to see his most powerful shield collapse. He had no time to dodge the spell fired at him; Harry was sent flying into the wall.

By the time he had gathered himself together and got back to his feet Bonnie was gone and so had his attacker. The anger that flared inside him was enough to quell any sadness. He wanted his daughter back. He apperated to Hogwarts, he did not care that it was most likely past midnight, his baby girl was gone!

He ran into the castle up the marble staircase towards the headmaster's study encountering no one which he was unsurprised about and grateful for. He did not want to have to stop and explain his actions. He did not know the password so to substitute his lack of knowledge he began to hammer upon the stone wall next to the griffin. In his rage he felt as if he could most likely force entry.

Dumbledore finally came out to him, he looked worse than Harry had ever seen him but at this point in time Harry was unconcerned. "Someone's taken her." He almost shouted at the elderly man who went from looking quite tired to alert and worried. The headmaster need not ask if he was sure.

"Wizard or muggle?"

"Wizard, they were invisible…I have to find her."

"Harry, please calm yourself child."

"CALM, how can you say…CALM?"

"Please, before you wake the entire castle, come inside my office."

"No, we have to look for her, I can't lose her Dumbledore, she is all I have left."

Harry saw pity and sadness replace the usual twinkle in Albus' pale blue eyes. Dumbledore being a father himself knew ever well how Harry felt, he too had experienced the same loss, his experience had not turned out for the best and the old man was more than determined to get Bonnie back with the minimum body count as humanly possible.

Within the headmasters office the fire was alive and dancing in the grate happily, the amount of anger contained inside of Harry made it blast out of the fire into the air only just missing the hem of Dumbledore's robes. Harry did not even attempt to apologise, he felt the need to destroy everything in sight until there was no anger left.

"Now tell me what has happened."

"There's no time, we have to look for her, most likely a deatheater has her, what if she's hurt, what if they kill her?"

Three of the glass implements closest to Harry exploded sending glass in every direction; both Harry and the headmaster had to cover their faces to avoid the intrusion of glass into their features.

"Alright, I will alert the ministry and al order members, everyone is to focus on getting Bonnie back."

Harry nodded his hands clenching firmly into fists, his finger nails were digging so tightly into the flesh of his palm they were drawing blood. "I want whoever did this to suffer; I want to kill them myself."

"Now Harry, that will achieve nothing, you know as well as I…" Dumbledore trailed off at the hateful glare he was receiving, at once Albus set about putting everyone on alert, sending order members and ministry officials out in search of the missing child, he did of course avoid letting any one know that the child was that of Harry Potter.

Dumbledore then called all the teachers into the great hall and dragged a reluctant Harry along with him. Severus was there and watched him with great intensity from the moment they came into each others presence. Images of what the deatheaters could be doing to Bonnie were going over and over in his mind in an endless cycle, it seemed that finally some of the anger was fading as tears began to form at the corner of his eyes. They were tears that Harry would not let any one see, not even Severus who he knew it was time to tell the truth.

He sent each out on their own assignments all that is except for Severus who he asked to remain with Harry while he did his bit. The headmaster was still as cunning as ever in his old age. For a while the two wizards sat in silence, Harry was at a loss of how to tell his lover and Severus was, well, he was slightly nervous. However it was him to break the silence first.

"I am sorry I never wrote to you." Harry looked up, his emerald eyes brimming with unshed tears. Severus was the only one he would ever cry in front of. Snape however made the wrong prediction to why Harry was doing so. "I never meant to hurt you Har." He said soothingly in his silky tone that was reserved only for Harry himself.

"It isn't that Sev." Harry said in an almost inaudible tone of voice. He felt strong arms wrap around him and hold him close, Harry could hear the rhythmic beating of the potion professor's heart. "I did miss you but there was something that kept me going."

"And what was that?" Severus asked still not letting go of his younger lover for whom he cared for so deeply. One hand now reached up to stroke the soft ebony hair that had grown considerably since he had last laid eyes upon it.

"It's complicated." Harry said finally after a moment or two in silence, it now occurred to him that Snape was unaware of the reason for the late night meeting. "The baby that everyone has gone in search of tonight…she's…" Harry could not find the strength within him to say it.

Snape let go of Harry getting the idea of what the younger wizard was trying to tell him. "Are you trying to say that…she's yours?" Harry nodded mutely, he hoped that Severus realised that she was not only his but theirs. "With who?" He asked slightly hurt. Apparently not.

"Don't you see? She ours Sev and a deatheater has her, a deatheater has got my baby." Unable to keep himself upright any longer Harry fell limply to the floor as if he had been struck, Severus who was in too much shock to catch him just stared down at him unable to say anything, Harry mean while could no longer control his sobs had gone into a panic attack.

Coming to his senses he knelt down and began his attempt to make Harry sit up and breathe normally which was a devastatingly hard task in itself. Snape wanted to degrade the boy for not telling him sooner but he withheld his urges, there would be time for that later.

Once the younger wizard had begun breathing normally and stopped his hysterical sobbing. Severus called a house elf to fetch some tea for them both and perhaps some cookies which he remembered Harry liked. The green eyed boy had curled himself up into a ball and was now, rocking himself back and forth muttering to himself. Severus listened extremely carefully trying to understand what was being said.

Finally the words made sense however this was only due to the fact that he had become close with the boy and had experienced such an occurrence with him once before. "As I command it, so shall it be, I see revenge on thee, leave me be, and be gone from my mist, you and me no longer exist, the power of three times three, you shall feel my agony, feel what you have put me through, this punishment I give to you."

Severus wrapped his arm around the clearly devastated boy, rubbing calming circles on his back. "You should try to sleep." He said softly, from past experience Harry would reject this idea at once, this was proved right by the vigorous shaking of his head as he continued his chant. "Would you like to come to my chambers?" Once again Harry shook his head, it seemed that the two of them would be spending their first night back together on the cold hard stone floor in the great hall drinking tea and awaiting any news that only time could bring.

Hope you liked this chapter, a big thank you to Founders Child for being beta for this chapter, we love you. Please review xxx.