I Don't Want to be a Hero - Second Year

Chapter Six

Harry's 12th Birthday - Severus' Gift

Severus ascended the stairs to his son's bedroom, and found Harry curled up on his window seat with his arms on the window sill, and his head on his arms. A lovely breeze carrying the ocean was blowing in, and Harry was intent upon the stars twinkling above.

"Harry," Severus spoke softly and sat down on the window seat beside his son. "Was it a good birthday?"

"The best, dad!" Harry grinned. "I never thought a birthday could be like that. Not even Dudley's birthdays were a quarter… no a sixteenth as nice. Mine was perfect."

"And, it is not over, just yet." Harry turned a bit so he could better see his father. He gave him a puzzled glance. "I have a gift to give you."

"But you already did, dad. You gave me the drawing journal." He pointed to his journal upon his bed.

"True," acknowledged Severus. "I have something, though, that my father gave to me that I wish to give to you. But first, would you indulge a small story from me?"

"Sure," Harry gave his father his whole attention.

Severus began to speak, "A very long time ago when I was a very little boy, my family was a happy one. My mother Eileen laughed, my father Tobias smiled, and we were considered the wealthiest family in Spinner's End. I was five years old."

Harry, sensing this story was not all happy, scooted closer to his father's side so that his arm was draped over him. This way if his father needed a hug, he could do it.

"The smiles, the laughter, and the money, all ended when I turned six. The factory where my father was a foreman closed down, and he was laid off. Many of the other workers found jobs elsewhere, and they moved away from Spinner's End. My father was older for a Muggle. Almost 60. Most men are retired at that age. He had a difficult time just seeking a job. Most employers would not even call him in for an interview. As a result his drinking began again, and often he did not come home."

Harry wrapped his arms around his father's waist and squeezed. Severus smiled, and dropped his hands to Harry's arm that draped across his stomach.

"He never hit you, did he, dad?" asked Harry quietly.

Severus shook his head slowly. "No. No he yelled but he never hit either of us. He just… even when he was home with us, which was rare… he faded away, Harry. I think, in a way, his heart broke because he could no longer take care of my mother and me as he had been taught a man should." Severus sighed softly, and welcomed the hug his son gave to him.

For a long moment they sat in the quiet of the evening and listened as the ocean crashed below.

"One night, late. Long after I should have been asleep, my father came up the stairs to get me, and told me to walk with him. I did so. I was a good little boy, and did what my father told me to do." As Severus recited the events of the past, Harry drifted back to that day. "We walked and I remember the air was cool. Part of me wanted to scamper right back to bed where it was warm but I knew my father needed me with him. So, we kept walking until we reached the fence that separated the two factory stacks - the magnificent chimneys - from Spinner's End."

Severus drew in a fortifying breath of ocean breeze, tugged Harry closer, and then continued his story. "The factory had been shut down for nearly six months and those stacks looked haunted to me. It was then my father began to speak to me…"

"Severus, I can't find work. No one wants an old man, and they all want to bury me. Your mum, she wants to do those potions of hers and sell 'em to Muggles but if her people find out it'd be a whole mess of trouble."

"Mum can sew," said young Severus as he threaded his fingers through the chain link fence.

"Aye. For a witch she's got a dab hand at that embroidery she likes. Might just be enough to feed us." Severus tried to smile up at his father.

Tobias was so tall, so muscular and broad. Severus always saw his father as one of those knights in his King Arthur books. For the first time, though, his father's shoulders slumped, as though he had lost a battle. His hand clutched spasmodically at his chest. Severus knew then that what his father imparted to him was very important and he had to listen.

"My investments all failed, Severus. We don't have much money left, and your mum wrote to her family. Seems they don't want to help out a 'filthy muggle'," Tobias bit out. He took a pack of cigarettes from his peacoat, snapped out an unfiltered cigarette, lit it, and drew in its lung destroying smoke. He leaned against the fence and glared resentfully up at the stacks to the factory. "It's gonna get worse, son. Much worse, which is why I want to give you this now."

Severus watched with astonishment as Tobias removed the old gold watch his father always wore. He opened it to glance at the time, then closed it.

"Hold out your hand, Severus." Severus did so and his father dropped the watch into his hands. "Me dad, Severus, was in the BEF - the British Expeditionary Force. A volunteer during the First War and that's where the watch came from. Look inside…" He watched as Severus opened the old pocket-watch. Inside the lid was an emblem and underneath was the name Sgt. Anthony Snape. "See that? Me dad, your granddad you never met, he was a fightin' man. Always did the right thing… no matter what. He survived but he lost both his legs." Tobias smiled bitterly. "Didn't stop that ol' cuss, though. Met me mum, he did, had me and all my sisters, raised us all up right."

Severus slowly closed the watch. He knew of his aunts. Two of them, and both had died young of breast cancer. He had never met them but his father had often spoken of 'Cece' and 'Annie'. He had loved them very much. Severus' granddad had also died of cancer; something Severus had been told came from his days in the First War.

Tobias had fought briefly in the second war but refused to speak of it. Severus had learned that his father had been a young private during the awful Bombing of Dresden that was near the end of World War II. It had scarred Tobias who blamed much of drinking on his days as a soldier. It was in his cups when he had met a young Eileen Prince that was a volunteer at a local hospital. Eileen had helped Tobias to dry out, and she had helped them to move to the prospering borough of Spinner's End. Tobias found a very good job in the local factory, and dad bought a house, the biggest one, in Spinner's End.

Tobias coughed from the cigarette smoke. He cleared his lungs, spat as discretely as possible, then crouched down to his son's height. "When you look at my watch, Severus. I want you to remember that no matter what happens to me, mum, or even you, that I love you. We knew the world when it was kind." Tobias lifted Severus up into his arms, turned away from the stacks, and walked home.

Tobias put his son to bed, kissed his forehead, smiled softly at the hand that clasped his old watch, then whispered, "Even if I become the worst bastard in the world, Severus, know this: I do love you."

"I love you, too, dad," Harry burst out as he hugged his father around the neck and kissed his cheek.

Severus smiled and slid his son back down to his lap. "I love you, too, Harry." Something Severus had never imagined to be possible. "Because of that, I want to pass on my old watch to you." He held out his son's hand and dropped the watch slowly into his open palm. "I love you, Harry, and no matter what the future holds I promise to always be there for you. Always."

"Thank you, dad," Harry said softly as he looked down at the watch. Tears burned and threatened in his throat. Sniffling them back, he looked up and smiled with a tiny glint in his green eyes, "I think I need a waistcoat now."

Severus broke into the most beautiful laugh Harry had ever heard in his life. He then embraced his son very tightly, and spoke into his ear, "Yes, Harry. Yes I think you do. We'll find a waistcoat for you." He kissed Harry's cheek as Harry joined his father's laughter.

This was the most bestest birthday… EVER!