Valerie was a tad defensive.
"I want children. And around here there are enough tykes in need of a stable home. And after Bruce I knew it might be a long time before I would trust a man enough again to consider him as a father for my children. In eleven months my debts are payed, I will move to a flat and tell Social Services that I can take someone in."
Tobias was helping himself to breakfast and was watching the younger people. Severus tried to reassure Valerie, "Don't worry, I understand. The reason my father wanted to speak with me was that he saw a child being abused and needed my help to get him away from his so-called home."
That puzzled the young woman and she addressed Toby, "Why didn't you call Social Services?"
"It's complicated. Severus will explain. He will ask you a question whereto you have to say `yes´."
"Valerie, would you marry me?"
Val choked on her tea.
"Sev, I – ah –"
Tobias growled.
She seemed to remember what the elder man had said earlier and that betrothals could be broken and therefore answered in the affirmative. With a relieved sigh Severus drew his wand and vanished the spilt tea and some stains from the table cloth. Then he levitated some more toasts towards their table.
"So you are a witch like Eileen?"
"You knew? And I am a wizard, not a witch, thank you."
"Well, she made the most marvellous salves and tinctures for the women around here. They worked like magic, much better than anything Dr Grouch would prescribe. And cheaper as well. I did not know that she could make things fly."
Grateful that Valerie did not need much persuasion to believe in magic he told the story of little Harry Potter and what role he played in the wizarding world. Then all three of them plotted.
Severus carefully pried up the floor board in his childhood room. It would not do for the boy to find his flick knife there. He took the train to Manchester, being extra careful not to leave a magical trace anywhere that could be connected to Valerie. The wizard was confident that he would need no wand to persuade Bruce Miller to pay what he owed to Valerie.
Meanwhile Valerie waded through a lot of bureaucracy red tape to get her foster licence working. She had moved to Severus' house officially, had together with Severus made the house passable for a possible inspection from Social Services and had tried her best to look surprised when the bank manager told her that a large deposit had arrived on her account, thus rendering her debt-free.
Severus and her also did quite a bit of travelling and breaking and entering. Their first stop, after a tedious bus journey because Severus did not want an Apparition of his registered at Greater Whinging a week before Harry Potter went missing, was Greater Whinging's Communal building where Social Services were. They were Polyjuiced because of the ever-present CCTV but the locks were laughable at best, no Alohomora needed there. Thankfully Harry Potter's file was still on paper. Reading through it Severus' suspicions were confirmed: Albus Dumbledore knew about the abuse. In the boys file were numerous complaints, from teachers, neighbours, unrelated persons who had witnessed the Dursley's behaviour and had jotted down the license plate number, but not one single follow-up visit from Social Services. He could not do anything without leaving his magical mark all over the place but the file tingled with a powerful geas that made every Muggle turn away from it and forget it quickly. Even Valerie, fully cognisant of the problem, looked at Severus with a puzzled frown every five minutes.
They looked for and found a form for the transferral of a child, sent the boy to the very busy Social Services department of Hackney and put the form in the back of Potter's file. The computer they left alone, leaving everything as if somehow it had been forgotten to digitalize the boy's file.
The locks in Hackney proved to be more challenging. Valerie and Severus worked for hours to produce a fake file for Harry Potter, then putting in a request for a name change before transferring him yet again, this time to Manchester. The conspirators took the first train back to Manchester. They would prepare the paper work in the Manchester office tonight but for the rest they would need the boy, or at least his picture. After the name-change he would be transferred to Cokeworth and, as Valerie was the only foster mother with free capacities in the town at the moment, be officially put into her hands.
The train journey also provided a time to talk. Valerie put down some ground rules: They were becoming parents of an abused eight-year-old boy. Whatever happened with the two of them as a couple little Harry had to come first. Valerie would be the little one's primary caretaker and Severus would keep both of them safe and with a roof over their head and also do his best to make this odd little family work. As her sentiments were in accordance with his own Severus agreed readily. He was further grateful that he wasn't required to talk about his feelings, confusing as they were. For now they would go on with Val's drive to take a child in need under her wing and Severus' gut feeling that this was what was best for the boy. And for himself as well, Dumbledore and Voldemort be damned.