Note: Thank you for your encouraging and kind words, the favs and follows. We are jumping right into the story, please head the warning and rating, we are starting right in Sev's bedroom.

Ivan Lendl lost in the semi-finals, much to Valerie's dismay, but Severus managed to distract her quite nicely by whispering names of tennis players against her belly, the inside of her thighs, the harsh sounds of Eastern European players being especially arousing in his deep baritone, before using his tongue to give her a screaming orgasm with it. Valerie tried to keep her distance emotionally, after all Sev would be gone come September. But then he was passionate and his wit kept her in stitches. Her old girlfriends from around here had either moved away or were knee-deep in diapers and her mother's friends from the choir and bingo tended to frown on too much sarcasm. Valerie realised how much she had missed her conversations with colleagues and friends of the same age group from Manchester and therefore enjoyed Severus' company a lot, out of bed, too.

It was his own fault. He had gotten used to not living on the edge, had let himself relax in her arms. If he had been more alert this fine Sunday morning he might have realised that they weren't headed to Rosie's Tearoom for breakfast – or brunch, as they seemed to call it nowadays – but to the late morning service at St Peregine's. The blowjob Valerie had given him while he was slowly waking up might have had something to do with his distraction. Following the motions and even humming along some hymns he let his mind wander. This summer had turned out far more pleasing than expected. Val's and his relationship was uncomplicated and strangely relaxing. A week ago she had asked him about Lily Evans. Severus had momentarily frozen before telling Val about their continued friendship in school, his crush on Lily, the bullying by her clique he had endured, their drifting apart. He described the incident after his OWLs – or rather A-Levels – sans hexes, naturally, and substituted `Mudblood´ with `whore´. Severus mentioned Lily's marriage and the Potter's early death. His grief about it was real enough and thankfully his companion did not press for details. The Potions master choose not to ponder the fact that he did not feel like betraying Lily while enjoying his time with Valerie. In hindsight his vows of everlasting devotion, combined with forsaking all women forever (he had broken that one rather quickly, with a French cousin of Lucius), felt overly dramatic and a tad ridiculous when compared against the down-to-earth feel of Val's company.

He had followed Valerie out of the church and was contemplating if he was far enough from her mother's friends to light a fag when he noticed somebody standing closer than necessary to him.

"Hello, Severus."

Fuck! Some spy he was if his drunkard of a father could sneak up on him. If an accountant-turned-bar maid could trick him into attending church. If said father looked better than ever and hadn't touched a drink in a long time, if Severus' nose was right.

"Father."

"Would you hear me out? Somewhere more private than here? It is not about you and I."

Valerie did not look surprised when he told her that he would leave with his father. That woman might not be a witch, but she was a dyed in the wool Slytherin.

The side table at Rosie's Tearoom was too small for the two tall Snape men, making their knees bump constantly. Severus felt out of his depth and ordered only tea and toast, even if he was really hungry. Tobias dumped three spoonful of sugar into his Earl Grey before telling the most astonishing tale.

It seemed that Snape Sr was doing odd jobs for a construction firm on his weekends off from being a caretaker at a local primary. These jobs took him all over the country, sometimes as far South as Kent.

Six weeks ago he had dismantled the interior of a small business next to McDonald's in Greater Whinging's shopping centre. Tobias had noticed a small boy sitting in a car for two hours. The day had not been particularly hot but it still did not sit right with him to leave a child alone for such a long time. The elder Snape was about to alert the centre's management when a family approached the car. A severely overweight child, obviously coming after his equally obese father, and a thin, horse-faced woman. The fat blob was taunting the small child about the movie he had just seen with his parents. They had returned to the car to deposit a big movie-themed plushie before venturing to a fast food restaurant. As they were about to leave, again without the small child, a timid voice could be heard.

"Aunt Petunia, can I go to the restroom, please?"

The aunt did not look pleased but commanded the child to come with a jerky nod of her head.

"Don't dawdle, boy."

Tobias then put voice and face together. `You're nothing but a disgusting freak, Snape! Stay away from my sister!´ Petunia Evans had changed in the last fourteen years, not for the better. Her voice was grating as ever and what had been a spiteful, jealous child had grown into a hard and bitter woman. As they returned from the toilet the elder Snape could see the child better. Dressed in overlarge rags, tousled black hair and startling green eyes. This had to be Lily's child. The Snapes of Spinner's End had never had a lot of money. Eileen had done her best, Severus had had everything he needed for school but his play-clothes had been put together from the church's donation bin. But even then the boy had looked better clothed and better fed than this child.

Tobias had to choke down his anger as Petunia locked Lily's boy into the car again, without anything to eat or drink. Waiting for five minutes, lest she came back, he knocked on the car window. After a fearful look into the direction of the fast food restaurant the child scrambled to the other side of the car. Tobias followed, carefully staying out of sight of the restaurant. The boy opened the window.

"Hey buddy."

"Hello, sir. I am not supposed to talk to strangers."

"Clever boy. How old are you?"

" `m nearly eight." Drat. The child looked more like five. Tobias offered him his lunch, which the boy only took after the man had taken a bite himself.

"What's your name?"

"Harry." Harry ate quickly but was very careful not to leave any crumbs in the car. His actions spoke for themselves and Tobias seethed on his behalf.

"Ok, Harry, listen. My son was a very good friend of your mother. He will be very angry when I tell him about how your relatives treat you. In a few weeks he will be home from work. Then I will tell him about you and he will come for you. Until then sit tight."

Various emotions flitted over the small child's face – astonishment, hope, fear and resignation. Toby did not like that look but time was running out. With a last wave for Harry he went back to work just in time for the Dursleys not spotting him.

Severus looked as if the teacup was about to break in his hand.

"He sent him to Petunia! Magic-hating Petunia! He told us Harry was very well cared for, behind unimpregnable wards!"

It told Tobias a lot about his son's emotions if he risked the Statue of Secrecy in a tea-parlour. He motioned him to be more circumspect.

"Don't worry. I've cast a spell, no one can understand what we say." A nasty sneer appeared on Severus' face.

"Did you put up Valerie to get close to me?"

"Do I look like James bloody Bond to you? I have tried to go to the house but cannot. I have left letters in the shed, that is as far as I can go, but obviously you haven't found them yet. Mrs Singh at the corner shop, Murphy at the chippy and even that constantly stoned kid at the bakery also have messages for you to contact me. Valerie mentioned that you had been to the pub and so I told her that I had to see you urgently."

"There're wards around the house, they do not allow you to enter or even knock."

"I guess I deserve that. But this is about the kid. What are you gonna do?"

"It's complicated."

"Complicated my arse!" Now it was Tobias turn to get loud.

"If you make me break my promise to that poor lad I will call Social Services myself!"

"That would change nothing. Dumbledore must have a geas on Harry's file there or they would have noticed something by now. I will look into it but I need a bit of time."

"The same Dumbledore that never did anything against the gang that bullied you?"

Severus was near flabbergasted. His father knew about this?

"Don't look like a goldfish! We've written countless letters to your Head of House and to the Headmaster. Eileen even wrote to her mother because Mrs Prince knew a school governor."

"I never knew."

"Nothing ever came out of it, so maybe it's better that you didn't get your hopes up. After the werewolf attack I wanted to take you out of that blasted school at once but your Mother would not hear of it until we had found another school for you. She wanted you to go to that place in France. But then she got ill."

"How do you know about the werewolf?"

"The nurse wrote to Eileen. They've been in school together."

"But Poppy's a Hufflepuff!"

"And a champion of that game with the smelly stuff."

"Gobstones. – Dumbledore reminded her of her oath!"

"Well, that oath is to protect her patients, not to pander to a Headmaster's machinations. But boy, your Mam was furious! Bet you thought I had broken that banister!"

Severus felt another longstanding conviction crumble. As Head of House he had learned a lot about family dynamics, especially half-blood-families, and had realised the strain mixed couples faced due to the Statue of Secrecy. Only the immediate household could be told about magic, which would make a visit by one's mother-in-law even more arduous.

He stirred his tea again, thinking furiously. The spy had to keep all angles covered and had to operate under the assumption that Dumbledore knew about the treatment of the boy. If he took Harry Potter there could not be any trail, be it magical or Muggle. Plans began to hatch only to crumble again as one or the other unsurmountable problem presented itself.

Tobias Snape was watching his son. He reminded him very much of Eileen in that moment. Severus was obviously trying to find a solution, and obviously not finding one. A half-remembered conversation from the bingo crowd – Toby was taking all the help he could get to stay sober even if it meant to endure the gossiping old biddies – made him interrupt Severus' musings.

"I remembered something that might be helpful. Val's an approved foster mother."

The Potions master's brows rose in surprise. That particular topic had never come up. But then they did not talk a lot. A tentative plan began to form in Severus' mind.

"Would you go and find Valerie? Bring her to the house. I will dismantle the wards and do some Muggle-proofing. I might have a workable idea, but I will need both of you."

Tobias left the tearoom, leaving his son in a peculiar mood. Severus shuddered. The plan was hanging on so many what-ifs. And from where had it sprung? Why was he thinking of getting affianced to Valerie, thus being within the Statue of Secrecy? And then letting her live in his house with the boy because she would not get guardianship of him while living in her old room in her mother's house? Severus felt a strong need to do something to get Lily's boy out of Petunia's clutches, James Potter be damned. If the situation of the child got even Tobias worried, a man who had grown up in the forties and had been very far from a model father, then the boy's living conditions must be very dire indeed.

Thankfully Spinner's End was nearly empty when Severus got home. Some of the dismantling had to be done from the outside. Taking an old camera with him onto the street the Potions master made a huge fuss with it, thus masking the other hand with the wand. Why anyone would want to take a picture of 42, Spinner's End was a different question. Then he made short work of the inside. The house still looked predominantly Muggle, Severus only had to hide away some journals and newspapers with moving pictures before finally making some breakfast, as they all had missed it today.

He tried to go over the plan in a rational way but his own intuition soon diverted him again. Rationally it was a very bad idea to connect himself to any woman, her being Muggle complicated things only further. His gut told a vastly different story, and from his days of spying Severus had learned to trust his instincts. He was honest enough to take sex into consideration. Yes, their love-life was hugely satisfying. Yes, he really looked forward to bed Valery again and he could not remember a time where he was as content with his life in body, mind and soul. On the other hand he knew it wouldn't last. Voldemort would return and being in a relationship with Harry Potter's foster mother would make a spy's life very difficult.

But leaving the Boy-who-lived in an abusive household was not an option either and – Severus' rational and gut feelings were aligned there – he could not trust Albus Dumbledore to get the boy away from Petunia.

A knock on the front door stopped his thoughts.