GRAMMAR NOW CORRECTED

I don't own Harry Potter, I just like to entertain myself a bit with its wonderful characters. I am not a native English speaker, so I am sorry for any mistakes in the translation as this is a story originally in Spanish.

Special thanks to NinjaDevil2000 and Number1Penguin for betaing this chapter, thanks for your wonderful work.

THE CHILD.

Severus sighed. He'd gone to the place she had called him to. It was a rare occurrence that she asked for his help, let alone help with matters such as school. She knew very well that everything related to school was a thing of the past for him. He was perfectly happy with his current job at home, creating potions of all kinds which he sold to various distributors. So now, receiving a call from his wife, who was saying that she was in the Muggle world and needed him to join her because, in her words, she was losing her mind and didn't know what to do, he went to join her without a moment's hesitation.

His surprise was even greater when he apparated to the place she had told him; it was in a good neighborhood, but a bit snobbish for his taste with its luxurious houses with large elegant courtyards and ostentatious cars. He called her again, using the Muggle phone he had hated at first, but now saw as quite useful. He told her that he was in the neighborhood, but wasn't sure where to go from there. She replied quickly and told him to go to the nearest house.

Her voice was quite calm, however, and for an expert ear like his own, one trained in reading her voice perfectly, he hardly noticed any tension. He walked quickly to the proper house she had mentioned and was about to knock on its door, when it was suddenly opened, and his wife appeared, a child wrapped around her like a monkey. Hermione's eyes were bright and she hummed softly to the small boy, a boy who couldn't be older than two years of age. She looked at Severus for a moment, exchanging short looks which conveyed an entire conversation, and made a gesture, saying that he should come in. Severus stepped inside while Hermione closed the door behind him, neither of them saying anything to the little boy.

"Alright, dear, this man here is Severus, okay?" Hermione spoke softly to the boy. "He'll hold you for a moment while I go and talk to your parents." She spoke the last word as though she had just bitten a lemon.

Without giving Severus or the boy time to react or ask any questions, Hermione took the boy off her hip, although he didn't want to let her go, and put him in Severus's arms. It was something that took Severus by surprise and, accommodating the boy as best he could, he looked back curiously at Hermione, but she had already advanced into a room beyond the hall where two people were standing, presumably the parents of the boy. Hermione was waving her wand, casting a silencing spell.

The boy watched him, and Severus wondered if children were like pets in the sense that they were able to perceive tension, for Severus was feeling more tension than he had in a quite a few years. Never had he held a child before, not even any of his wife's nephews and nieces, let alone any of the Potter children. To him, children were merely small, snot-filled pests who somehow, someway, grew up to become proper adults.

Hell, even when he was a professor at Hogwarts, he had hated the lot of the students there. Luckily, this child seemed fairly content. He wasn't moaning or crying or anything of the sort; instead, the boy just had his eyes fixed on Severus in absolute concentration. Apparently, the boy sensed that this man wasn't dangerous, for he laid his head on Severus' shoulder and started sucking on his thumb. Severus hoped with a sense of dread that the boy wasn't about to start drooling on him.

…

Hermione was laying in bed, her mind spinning, unable to sleep because of her thoughts of the little boy, a baby practically, who was a wizard. Obviously, she had dealt with an adequate number of cases of abuse in her position as Deputy Headmistress, some more serious than others, but that little boy- He had affected her, marked her, in some special way. She could not forget how he threw himself into her arms and hugged her as if there wasn't anything else in the world for him. Having to leave the boy there with his "parents" was the most heartbreaking thing she had ever done in her life.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong or will I have to guess?" Her husband growled from his spot by her side. His eyes were closed, but he had easily noticed her agitation which was so intense that it seemed to radiate from her body.

"I can't stop thinking about the boy." She whispered back to him.

"I can't either." He admitted softly.

"He's so small." She replied. "They don't want him there. When I told them all of the information about magic and magical children, they suddenly started asking when I was going to take the abomination out of their house! They believe he could be some sort of devil-child from the sound of it, instead of believing the truth. He's treated as if he was squib in the house of proud purebloods, worse in fact." She finished with a sad sigh.

"You know very well that there isn't anything such as social services in the Wizarding world. His situation is going to have to be dealt with in the Muggle way."

"They'll send him to an orphanage." She said softly.

"Well," Severus began, "From what you've said, anything will be better than that place. And what other option is there? And anyway, whether it's an orphanage or those dreadful parents of his, he'll have a more adequate life once he gets to Hogwarts."

"An adequate life?" Hermione scoffed. "Severus, are you listening to yourself? He's just a baby! Don't you think he deserves better than an adequate life?"

"Well, what do you want me to say, Hermione? You can't save every abandoned child in the world and you know it!"

"We could adopt him." She muttered softly, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

Severus automatically tensed. He had believed for his entire life that he would never have children, something that was assured when Hermione realized that she would never be able to bear children. They had mutually agreed upon it anyway, though, knowing that Severus was not made of, or at least didn't feel, like father material. Children, and adults, disliked him most of the time or were simply indifferent, so this turn of conversation caught him completely off guard.

"Severus," Hermione began again, "I know that you see it as just another case of charity, but it's different. This doesn't feel like just another child or case that I've worked on. This feels different. I feel as though my mind and heart are – are suffocating. I've never felt like this before about anything. So, maybe you could just think about it, okay?" she finished, and her eyes twinkling slightly with love and tears, she kissed him lightly before rolling over and trying to sleep.

Severus could barely sleep that night, as he knew that whatever decision he made would change his relationship with Hermione completely. He had a strong will, however, and knew that he would not agree with her just to please her. He knew that both she and the child deserved total commitment from him and he wasn't certain if he could give that. To Hermione, yes, but to a child? Not to mention, would the boy be treated fairly, living with a man who was still looked upon as a murderer? Could he do that to the boy? Perhaps it would help now, but in the long run? He would always feel like a murderer. Did he really want to do that to a child? Could he be a suitable father? A father... A son... words outside of him in so many ways. Severus tried to sleep, hoping things might be clearer in the morning, and at last he did, but the sleep was filled with odd dreams, dreams of small, sticky children sucking their thumbs.

….

The next day Severus took some time to consider and Hermione didn't press him any more. She went to work early in the morning. She managed her daily routine. He was very preoccupied with the question she had posed to him the night before. After almost slicing off a finger while preparing a simple potion, he decided that it was best to move that mental discussion to a safer environment, the last thing he needed was to made a cauldron explode at his age. He went out a little to get fresh air and smoke a cigarette. While lighting it and bringing it to his lips, another revelation hit him - no doubt smoking was something extremely wrong to do around a child. His wife hated the habit but she allowed it as long as he did it outside the house and freshened his breath before trying to make any romantic moves. But a child? Severus was not an idiot. He knew that smoking was harmful to his health and that of those around him, but it was one of the only things that helped his mind get away from the horrors of his past, his miserable adolescence, his anxiety. It was not healthy, he knew it, but it helped to cope with many things.

Sighing, Severus decided to leave the house and walk to a small local bookstore. It was only a short walk and it was not particularly strange that a couple like them lived near one, after all they went there at least three times a week. Severus loved the place, what with its smell of books and paper and ink. It always seemed to help calm his nerves. Opening the door, he nodded to the clerk at the nearby desk, then moved off throughout the shelves. Almost unknowingly, he ended up in a section he had never noticed before: "Childcare." Frowning at the brightly colored books, Severus picked one up gingerly. The title read "Caring for a Little Miracle: A Guide for First-Time Parents." Snorting at the ridiculous name, Severus flicked through the pages, looking up every now and then to make sure no one was watching him or passing by the aisle. He did not at all want to be caught in this section of the store, let alone by anyone who knew him.

After flicking through it, Severus took it and dropped it on the counter in front of the clerk. The man's eyes widened, surprised at the book his most frequent customer was buying. Luckily for him, though, he noticed the frown on Severus' face and didn't say a word about the book.

He quickly returned home with long strides and a determined expression. When he reached his home, he moved to sit on his favorite reading chair, cracked open the book, and started absorbing all the information it contained.

…

When Hermione returned home that afternoon, she couldn't find Severus for a few moments. He wasn't in his chair by the fire, or in his laboratory, or anywhere else that she noticed. Throwing her bag and jacket onto the table, Hermione frowned in curiosity, wondering where her husband could be.

"You know that if there was a toddler in this house, you wouldn't be able to do things like that, right?" said a voice from the hall. Hermione was startled, her handing reaching for her wand instinctively, an old habit that had never left her despite the end of the war. Wandering into the hall, Hermione was surprised to see Severus kneeling on the floor, placing some type of protective covering over the electrical outlet. "He could swallow the keys or something like that and it would be terribly annoying to have to explain that type of situation to someone at St. Mungo's." Severus continued.

Hermione was silent for a moment, wondering what her husband was on about. She watched him continue to work before moving around the house. She noticed that her husband had already put coverings on most of the outlets in the entire house. Hermione wasn't bothered, however, for they didn't use them, despite living a moderately Muggle life.

"We'll have to get in touch with a good Muggle lawyer as soon as possible." Severus said, coming towards her as she stood in the kitchen. "We'll also have to furnish the rooms so that they're comfortable enough for a child to live in. Perhaps some new coats of paint, make sure the stairs aren't squeaky or rotten, and perhaps buy some newer furniture." Severus stood in front her, a small smile gracing his sallow face. "Well, what do you say? Should we be parents?"

…..

Hermione stood in shock for another few moments, before smiling broadly and leaping into her husband's arms, whispering a thousand times over how much she loved him.

They were in the lawyer's office for the tenth time that month, and both Hermione and Severus were growing tired of the process. Luckily, it was almost complete. At first, it had been tedious, but the the progenitors (since they both flatly refused to call them his parents) had agreed very quickly to sign the adoption papers. Hermione had been disgusted at how eagerly they agreed. The couple had seemed glad, in fact, to be rid of the "monster". Hermione and Severus, however, had spent the month in a happy sort of bliss. They spent the days remodelling their home, making it fit for a little child to live in and be happy in. Many social workers visited, wanting to make sure that it was a suitable environment to raise a child in. Severus had been extremely annoyed when Hermione told him that he would have to hide everything magical in order for the Muggle workers to visit, but he grudgingly agreed and moved everything to one spot, casting a disillusionment charm over the lot of it.

And it had taken a lot of convincing on the judge's part, but they were able to get the boy moved out of his old home and into a provisional home while the paperwork was concluded.

"The necessary paperwork is complete." the lawyer explained now. "We can now move on to the next stage of the process." Severus was annoyed with the way the man spoke, for it was as if he was discussing the weather or something equally boring. "There are a few loose ends, however, but they shouldn't be too bothersome. You will technically be the temporary guardians for the child until the adoption process in eventually complete. The couple has signed a total waiver of their rights over the child with only a few conditions –"

"Conditions?" Severus said, annoyed. He had been silent for the majority of the meeting but this revelation was completely irritating to him. "They ignored and neglected him, yet they're still allowed to stipulate conditions?"

"Mr. Snape," the lawyer began, "Please, you understand that in the legal field, the opinions of the biological parents take priority. That's just how the law works. They're easy conditions to follow though, I assure you. They're in the long term best interests of the child."

"What do the Dixons want?" Hermione asked, placing a hand on Severus' arm to calm him down.

"They don't want the child to be in contact now or ever again in the future –" the man began.

"As if we'd ever let them near him again." Severus murmured sarcastically to Hermione. She hummed in agreement.

"They also want you to completely change the boy's name. They don't want him to share a name with them anymore, and apparently Mr. Dixon wants to "save the name" for a suitable heir."

"They want us to change him full name?" Hermione asked, slightly shocked.

"See it as an opportunity, Mrs. Snape," the lawyer said. "You'll be able to name him yourselves now and, considering how young he is and the fact that according to the case file the child had little contact with the parents, there is a possibility that the boy does not even know his own name or it might even have some type of negative connotation for him so there's a good chance it won't bother the little boy. It will be an entirely new beginning for him. Tomorrow, the official papers will be delivered and you can sign them. Choose a new name and sign that as well and we'll get you a birth certificate for the child."

….

The couple returned home that evening in an ecstatic trance. They toured every corner of the house to make sure that everything was in the proper order, everything small hidden away from small hands, kitchen cabinets and drawers locked tightly, as well as the door to the laboratory locked securely with both the Muggle and Magic ways.

The pale green room, of course, with a small bed with dragon sheets that were animated so that they moved around the bed was for the boy. There was a closet that Hermione had filled with small clothes for him as well as shoes, socks, and diapers. So many diapers in fact that Severus was scared. A shelf full of children's books sat next to the bed and a small chest of toys sat at the foot of the bed. They had also bought him a spectacularly cute little outfit that they could bring him home in.

"Aidan," Severus said suddenly as they looked at the room, arms around each other.

"What?" Hermione replied, not understanding.

"It means "little burning fire" and I think it would be a good name for him," Severus explained with a small smile. "If it's okay with you, of course."

"Aidan Snape." Hermione said thoughtfully. "It sounds beautiful." She replied, smiling back at her husband. "And since you chose the first name, I will hear no objections to naming him Aidan Severus Snape, after his amazing father." Severus smiled at her. "Aidan Severus Snape." Hermione repeated thoughtfully. "Our child."

How was this little story? It has chased me for days and I just had to translate it so I could sleep peacefully tonight. I have several stories that accompany it already with little Aidan living with them and them dealing with the adventure of being parents. If you are interested in reading them, leave it in a review and I will continue with this little plot that has caught me since I started reading fics for this ship.

What do you think? I do not know the adoption laws in the United Kingdom so any mistakes regarding the procedures or lapses were unintentional. I tried to make that part as vague as possible.

PS: Any grammar mistakes were made unintentionally so I apologize in advance. I have dyslexia and I am still learning English.