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 BEST FATHER.

That morning, Severus woke up very early and was extremely nervous. While washing his face, he noticed that his hands were shaking and when he went downstairs to make breakfast, he felt a stitch in his stomach. The sun had not yet risen completely, but he didn't much care as he was no longer sleepy. Deciding that his insides wouldn't be able to take much more of the constant jittering, he decided that his stomach would not endure more than a coffee so he carefully prepared it, trying to stop the trembling and anxiety that consumed him from making him pour all the hot drink on himself.

When he had finished with his coffee, he double checked, making sure that everything was clean and in its proper place. He opened the refrigerator for the fourth time in the last twelve hours, making sure that they had milk and everything else necessary for a young growing boy. He checked again on the knife drawers, making certain that everything was out of reach and put away; he checked on the forks in the lower drawers, wondering whether they could be dangerous. They're not sharp or anything, are they? Wait, they are pointed though, that could be risky? Suddenly, he was being eaten away by images of a child harming himself with a fork, Aidan pricking his eye or stabbing his finger. Unable to chase away the thoughts, Severus eventually moved all the forks to a higher shelf, out of reach. Looking around the kitchen again, his eyes landed on a jar of small measuring spoons. Wondering if the child would be able to harm himself in some way with those, Severus soon realized that he was being ridiculous and closed all the cabinets and drawers again.

Hermione hadn't managed to get to sleep the night before until very late, for she had been both excited and stressed. And so the screams and shouts of her anguished husband were not something that she wanted to hear that morning.

"Hermione!" exclaimed a frantic Severus. "We need a crib! By Merlin, why haven't we bought a bed yet? Babies go in cribs! Everyone knows that! Now he's going to fall and it'll all be my fault."

"For God's sake, Severus!" Hermione said, her eyes still closed. She opened them blearily and peered next to her at the clock. "It's six in the morning! Come back to bed or at least find somewhere else to be neurotic!"

"Yes, this is I, Severus, the neurotic! See if you still think that when our son breaks his skull by falling from that infernal bed he has now!" Severus answered back indignantly, irritated that he wasn't being taken seriously.

Hermione sighed inwardly, aware that she was fighting a losing battle in her effort to continue sleeping. She sat up in bed and faced her husband who was staring at her.

"First off, the bed isn't high enough for something like that to happen. The last time I checked, it was only a few centimeters off the floor." Severus made to interrupt her, but Hermione held up a hand, silencing him before he even began. "Second, as you well know, since you installed that bed, it has railings on the sides so that he can't fall. And thirdly, he's almost two years old so he's the perfect size and age to be perfectly safe in using the bed. Now stop worrying and go occupy your mind with something else while I try to get some more sleep. We probably won't get much tonight since it'll be our first night with Aidan."

"The railings, I – I need to make sure that they're tight. That they're not loose anywhere," Severus replied distractedly, seemingly ignoring every word Hermione had spoken and rushing out of the room at top speed.

Hermione snorted in frustration, but there a slight smile tugging at her lips, showing how proud she was of her husband. She had never imagined that the idea of parenthood would make them so happy, if not a little crazy as well. It was something that they thought their relationship would never involve, since there was a limited amount of cruciatus that a body could take before being unable to procreate. Unfortunately both of them had had enough of this curse in the war that they had known their mutual infertility forever, so that the idea was never on the table.

But then, her position as Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts caused her to occasionally visit homes of Muggle-born children, from the first signs of accidental magic until the time of their schooling, due to the reforms she had personally promoted in the search for adequate induction to magic and equity of knowledge for this population. She never expected to find this boy, abandoned and without hugs, on the list of future wizards, and much less did she hope he would reshape their lives and make them begin to think of adoption as an option. This incredibly bureaucratic process was an uphill struggle but wonderfully rewarding.

And today they would finally bring their child home.

….

Now, here they were, in front of the building Aidan had been staying in for the past month. They knocked on the door, necessary documents in Severus' hands, and a small backpack and stuffed animal in Hermione's. They both fidgeted, but they were more excited than either had been in their entire lives. Eventually, their knock was answered by an elderly woman with a scarf wrapped around her head and an apron wrapped around her frame that made Severus wrinkle his nose.

"Can I help you?" The woman said quickly, not paying them much attention as her eyes were directed somewhere inside the house.

"Yes, you see, we're the Snapes and we've –" Hermione began.

"Curtis, Dylan, get out of there now!" The woman shouted suddenly, interrupting Hermione. "Excuse me, but I must attend to this. Come in, come in," she said, waving them in urgently.

The couple moved inside quickly, looking around the old-fashioned house that smelled strongly of disinfectant. It seemed that the place was piled high with every type of object. The first sight that caught Severus' and Hermione's eyes were two children who were standing on a table throwing what was presumably their dinner at two smaller children, who were both yelling as if the world was ending.

Taking each boy by the arm, the old woman grabbed the children and put them back on the floor, shouting at them about how indecent their actions had been and about how she never wanted to see them doing anything of the sort again. She then sent each boy to a different corner of the room. The two other little children finally stopped crying and rubbed their eyes, still sniffing loudly.

"They're a little naughty from time to time, but we do the best we can, of course." The woman said by way of explanation as the little children finished their dinner in silence. "You came here for one of them, didn't you? I received a message from the social services department. A little boy, correct? He hasn't eaten yet, as he's in one of the last groups to be fed, and one of the messiest I might add."

Severus raised an eyebrow, doubting that there could be a bigger circus of indiscipline than the one he had just witnessed.

"Now, if you'll just wait a moment, we'll feed him quickly and –" the woman started, but Severus cut her off.

"That won't be necessary. We'll take care of it." He said, throwing an irritated look around at the surrounding children who were running around frantically, no idea of what punishment was.

"We have the documents here." Hermione said, handing the woman the thick folder that they had brought with them. The woman looked over the papers, flipping through the signatures and identification forms and at last the attached photo of the boy. She smiled.

"Of course, the Dixon boy. I'll find him, just wait one moment." She replied, handing them back the papers.

"He's a Snape now." Severus said with a frown. He didn't want their son being referred to by that name any more.

"Of course, dear." The woman replied with a motherly gesture, ignoring the man's irritation.

Turning around, she climbed a nearby staircase and it was at that moment that Severus' anxiety reached its highest peak. His knees were trembling and his hands were sweating. Hermione wasn't much better either. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears and she had her hand locked in a death grip on her husband's. Both had fought in the war, been tortured, experienced horrible situations and difficult times. But they had NEVER been so nervous in their life. They heard a cry. Was it him? Was he afraid? Hungry? Dreaming? They wanted to run to hold him in their arms, make sure he didn´t have a reason to cry anymore.

Wherever Aidan was on the upper floor, he felt miles away from where they were: that place in that little house, surrounded by little children, was where for the first time they felt their hearts warm as never before. They could swear that it had been an eternity when the sound of the child's crying came down the stairs. In the arms of the old woman Aidan sobbed softly with a pout on his lips and clear confusion in his brown eyes

"He just woke up from his nap." The woman explained with a smile. "This little man here has a serious case of an inverted schedule, something I'm sure you'll discover soon enough. Now would you like to hold him?" She asked.

Severus was stiff and wanted to snort, to say how stupid that question was. Of course they wanted to hold him! He was their son! But nothing came out of his mouth. He could only stand there and watch the little boy in the woman's arms. She was trying to hand Aidan to one of them, and Hermione eventually shook herself slightly and took Aidan from the woman's arms. She wrapped her arms around him as the tears fell from her eyes.

Aidan, a little scared and tearful, went into her arms without refusal, though maybe a little hesitation. He looked at the woman, and it seemed that his childish mind was working, figuring out who this woman was and why she looked familiar. Why was she crying? Had she been woken up from her nap too? Aidan paused in his sobs and extended a curious hand to the woman's face, poking her cheeks to inspect the curious liquid falling from the woman's eyes. After a small caress he decided that this strange thing should be tested and brought his small mouth to her cheek by sucking it. The woman smiled at Aidan and she took his hand in hers, and kissed it.

Severus smiled, something he had not done very often in his life, and then the tears came. But Severus felt no shame in them, that childish kiss to his wife made his heart swell and take away all the doubts he could have about fatherhood.

"Aidan, love. It's Mummy," Hermione said softly to the baby who was staring at her with both hands on her wet cheeks. "Welcome, darling. Oh, little one, you're so loved and wanted!" Hermione squeezed him tightly in her arms, kissing the sandy curls of hair on his head. After breathing in his sweet little smell for a moment, she turned to her husband who was watching them. "Have I been hogging you, Baby? I suppose I should let Daddy hug you, huh?"

And she put him carefully into Severus' arms, he had held him before of course, but this was the first time he had carried him as his son. He was never the most expressive of men - his talent with words was not precisely in lullabies or heartbreakingly sentimental statements - but there in his arms was the greatest miracle of his existence. Giving him a small kiss on the plump cheek he made him the silent promise of being the best father he could be for him.

…..

Do you want to read a preview of the next chapter? Let me know in a review and I'll send it to you.

How are you? I have to confess that it was a bit difficult to write the part where they meet Aidan. I didn't want it to be too exaggerated or too simple, so I spent hours on the Internet watching videos of adoption stories. I hope you liked it.I still have plenty of things written with this plot, which I hope to publish soon.

Do you like it? Very cloying or simple? I would like to know your opinions about the chapter as they help me to better shape my way of writing.

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