Being Found and Names

If you asked one Severus Snape that he could be surprised in less than five seconds, he would have scoffed at you and proceeded to call you an idiot. But as he stands at the entry of an alleyway between two old houses, in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter––he was more than just surprised. He was horrified and concerned; because just a few feet in front of him lies two sleeping children huddling together in order to stay warm in their nightmare-filled dreams.

Oh, how he could empathize with them. Normally he would have just put on his Slytherin, uncaring persona and just leave them there because he had nothing to do with them; but, with his secret love's recent death he could hear her disappointment in him for leaving children alone like that. As he stood there arguing with himself, the clouds blocking the moonlight moved away and the moon's rays shone upon the two young children.

That's when he saw their hair. A deep red––not ginger––but a deep scarlet––like blood––rested on the children's heads and Severus felt his heartache. Why did fate always have to throw things back into his face? Impulsive, he went and picked up both children and he couldn't help but notice how small they were. How thin they were. Then, without much prompting, he turned on his heel and apparated home. The children in his arms didn't even stir at the severely uncomfortable sensation apparating provided.

In the safety of his home, he casts some diagnosis spells after he laid the children down on his living room couch. What he found was less than satisfactory.

Not only were they both severely malnourished, but he found broken bones that were never healed correctly or were so recent that any sort of simple walking would put them in extreme pain. He was glad they were asleep, it might have also been the very reason as to why they didn't react to apparating. They were already in so much pain that just a little more wasn't noticeable. The girl's throat and vocal cords were damaged enough that without magical help, she would have difficulties speaking for the rest of her life. She wouldn't be mute, definitely not to that extent, but she just wouldn't be able to speak much without straining what use she has left of the vocal organs.

The boy's right eye was completely gone. Nothing but an empty socket left open and covered with dirty, bloodied bandages. But what had concerned him the most was the nerve damage the both had sustained. He recognized it. It was Bellatrix's and one of his Lord's favorite spells. And knowing their ages didn't help.

A three-year-old toddler and one-year-old baby. Both were crucio-ed. Severus was about to start treating the injuries he could, but the boy suddenly snapped open his eye and pulled the baby girl closer to him in a protective embrace. He hadn't yet seen Severus, but the wand pointed in his direction put him immediately on edge and eyed the thing distrustfully with extreme prejudice.

Severus saw the boy eye his wand with a caution a man his own age would hold. This boy was three. Three. The girl was one. He had already figured it out. They know what a wizard is, or at least have been harmed by someone with a wand. Whom, Severus has no idea. The girl started to stir and whimpered in pain and both males heard the loud grumble of her empty stomach begging to be fed. Her eyes squinted open and revealed shimmering silver eyes to a bewildered Severus.

He had never in his life seen such eyes. Of course, that mutt of a man that had just got his ass thrown in prison had grey eyes as far as Severus could remember, but not the beautiful glittering silver that stared back at him in hunger.

Whether or not the boy was comfortable with Severus walking off he didn't care. He stepped into his kitchen and warmed up some milk he had and transfigured a cup into a bottle for the girl. When he came back he was ready to give the bottle to her but the boy growled at him. Growled.

"I didn't poison it if that's what you're so worried about." He said rhetorically in reply to the boy. At the sound of Severus's voice, however, the boy stopped. His face immediately contorted into disbelief and confusion and simply stared up at Severus. He squinted a bit to see in the darkness up at the man, but nothing was helping. During the boy's stupor, Severus took the chance and put the bottle into the awaiting mouth of a hungry baby girl.

The girl immediately latched on and began to hold the bottle herself; and to Severus's surprise, she got smart with it. She bent her knees as she lay on her back and planted her feet flat against the seat cushion and proceeded to prop the edge of the bottle on her knees so the end of the bottle was elevated and she had her hands free while she suckled on the bottle. Then with her free right hand, she smacked her brother right in the face several times until he snapped out of his stupor. But just for good measure, she full out baby slapped him over his ear, causing it to ring for a few seconds as he called out, "What was that for?!"

"You ah dun-dun head." She said simply around the clear rubber nipple of the bottle, though her brows did furrow at her own mispronunciation and that surprised Severus, though he refused to show it. She had seemed to know her own grammar and pronunciation was wrong and was now mumbling trying to correct herself.

"I'm not a dunderhead." The boy replied, "I was just surprised." He tried explaining, but the girl wasn't having any of it and was milking the situation for all it was worth for her own amusement.

"Ten don' look so supid when you ah." She told him flat out. Severus couldn't help but mentally agree with the girl even though he was slightly put off with the amount of intelligence a one and three-year-old had. So much so that they were even having a comprehensible conversation that sounded more like what Severus had heard being called "sibling banter".

"You're finding this so amusing aren't you." The boy asked as a statement.

"At your expense." The girl added. After hearing that, and by habit, Severus threw in one sentence that would change this whole conversational outcome.

"How Slytherin of you." The siblings heard a slight, not exactly sneer, but close enough, to the side where the man they both recognized as actually their favorite character was standing.

Not wanting to be outdone, the scarlette girl said off-handedly, "I know," and shoved a single finger at her brother's direction and said, "Giffindor." Severus raised a dark eyebrow at her statement and the boy squealed indiginatley.

The only female in the room turned her head towards her brother, the nipple of the bottle touching and pressing up against her cheek, but not leaking, and told him with the dryest, blankest look she could muster without laughing. "You an idiot, it's where idiots go."

Severus couldn't help but agree with the girl's statement and quietly snorts at the face the boy made even though he was slightly more alert now that the two are talking about Hogwarts houses. He had to admit–the girl was hilariously right. However, them being this young, with this kind of knowledge means they are either half-bloods or pure-bloods. Or have muggle-born parents. Either way, they know about magic and are magical citizens. What made him so confused was why they were out in the cold like that, with those injuries. Magicals treat their magical children like treasure, or at least, they're supposed to. There is the possibility that they were orphaned and sent off somewhere abusive, but that still doesn't explain the knowledge of the houses of Hogwarts that these two had expressed. However, the real question still remains: who did this to them?

The first logical thing would be to get their names, using that information could help him find the person or people responsible for these two's predicament. "What are your names?" The two children froze from slapping each other and looked at Severus before looking at each other again. Then back at the man still standing awaiting an answer. "Well?" He prompted.

The boy looked at his sister and simultaneously they answered, "We don't have any."

Severus raised an elegant eyebrow, "Pardon me?"

"You're excused." The girl answered off-handedly. Severus couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Little sister, don't provoke the poor man. You'll confuse him."

"He's perfectly fine, dumbass."

"I'm not a dumbass, smartass."

"Well, I'm not a smartass-wait I take that back. I very much am a smartass…" And off the two went again. Severus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He really didn't need to be dealing with this. It hasn't even been a year since the "defeat" of the dark lord. Can't he ever catch a break? No? Well, fuck him six ways from Sunday.

The miniature fight between the two children was broken by the sound of the boy's stomach growling and rumbling in hunger much like his sister's before. His mouth hung open from its frozen state just before a harmless insult and he let out a strange strangled noise. The girl grabbed her bottle of warm milk and slowly wrapped her arms around it and brought the bottle closer to her chest. Her eyes never left her brother and she simply whispered, "Mine." and she proceeded to lick the rubber nipple of the bottle.

Severus sighed in resignation and walked back to the kitchen and made the boy a small bowl of applesauce. It wasn't too much for the boy that he'd toss it back up and it was easy on the stomach that hadn't eaten in Merlin knows how long. He paused in his steps going toward the living room and decided to make another bottle of milk. Make that two. The girl was almost done with hers and no doubt the boy would want one.

(Because it's easier to think that the boy would like to have one instead of thinking that he would have been depri–)

He shook his head and continued into the living room and handed the boy his food and bottle along with the replacement of the girl's now empty bottle.

A simultaneous "Thanks," came from the two and they proceeded to 'dig in' to their food. The scarlette girl kicked the boy when he started showing improper table manners and Severus couldn't help but raise a dark eyebrow at that.

These children just seem stranger and stranger.

After the two finished their meal, which was made with their malnourished and weak stomachs in mind, Severus informed them of their extensive list of injuries. The boy made it known that he didn't like how badly hurt his sister was by a sudden burst of accidental magic that broke a lot of furniture. In return, the girl freaked and scolded her brother forand he quotes, "wrecking the nice man's furniture who has helped us is not a great way of saying thank you!" She proceeded with a bout of accidental magic as wellonly, she fixed and repaired everything and made the older stuff practically brand new. Severus hadn't seen such elaborate accidental magic before. Granted, he hasn't really seen much other than his godson's but still.

Severus began to start treating the children's injuries by cleaning every open wound he could find and a quick Episky healed the smaller wounds. He was secretly extremely glad that the boy 'volunteered' to help disinfect his sister. She was a real pain to get undressed so he could help her. Though he had to give her his grudging respect that at least she has learned decency unlike other babies her age.

He had to set a couple of their bones back in place and even re-break some old breaks just so he could set them back properly. Some bones had to be vanished and regrown with Skele-gro. Throughout the time they both had to regrow several bones, both children were spouting a bunch of cuss words evenhe himself didn't know, and he grew up with an abusive father.

The two were relatively good patients, one could say. Granted, they were in plenty of pain and were doing their best not to make as much noise as they wanted to. Many would find that kind of behavior brave or selfless, but Severus knew better. At this age, it was a worrisome tell-tale that they came from an abusive home. Clearly, they were used to such pain and soldiered through it.

He would have called the authorities, but seeing as it was him who found them–well, he already wasn't on good terms with the government currently. He probably wouldn't ever–He would be thrown in Azkaban before anything could be done. Let us not forget that these children are also nameless–meaning a hereditary test from Gringotts won't work because the test has no way of identifying them on paper–it was far more trouble than it was worth. At least at this current time. He'll figure something out. Severus wasn't part of the Slytherin house for nothing.

A few hours later, with Severus having fallen asleep sitting up in an armchair after watching over the children's healing progress for so long and her brother curled up underneath a single thin blanket–she could never understand how he could still sleep with so much little keeping him warm, not to mention how cold he must still be feeling from earlier–the scarlette headed girl sat up upon the same couch her brother rested and she sat awake watching over him.

A warm fire burned in a fireplace nearby and the warmth from it began to lull the girl to sleep as well. She stared at the flickering flames and watched them dance around licking the wood. The smell of that very wood gently burning, cherry, she noted absentmindedly. The sweet scent of the burning wood paraded her nose and before she knew it, her eyelids became very heavy and closed shut. It happened just in time for not even a split second after she had closed her silver eyes, the boy curled up in a ball next to her and jerked his legs out–stretching them in his sleep–narrowly avoiding the girl. She felt the movement of her older brother and she looked at his sleeping body in exasperation.

Sleeping near her brother was not the best idea. Her back remembers those cold nights spent on the floor, lying near her brother to conserve heat only for brother dearest to kick her in his sleep. It was okay, she understood.

She got her revenge the next morning. No biggie.

In his sleep, the boy shivered and curled back up and placed fisted hands between his legs as if to protect something. The girl noticed and she stared for a moment before she grinned manically in remembrance. Oh, how she loved how good retribution feels.

The girl looked over at Severus who was asleep nearby on a plush armchair closer to the fire. She sat up and stole another quick glance at her brother and rolled over onto her stomach. She then proceeded to slowly slide off of the couch she and her brother were just sleeping on. The girl jolted when she felt her toes make contact with the living room rug; however, she quickly relaxed when the images of some strange animal from her imagination went away and she continued her journey and planted her feet flat against the floor.

She toddled over to where the sleeping Severus was on only slightly unsure legs. As soon as she reached the spot by his feet and right next to his legs, she began climbing. She didn't notice that Severus had woken up at the sensation of being climbed up on. Although Severus was awake and highly tempted to yell or scold the child that was climbing up his legs–not so much as scold as much as get after her–but he stopped himself and waited until she stopped moving so he can catch her. Much like how he catches students at school. He waits until they're doing something they can be in bigger trouble for other than being out of bed at night.

The girl had to wrap her legs around Severus's and grab onto one armrest from the chair and her right hand reached out and grabbed his pant leg and used those to help hoist her up. Severus was starting to get angry from being used as a muggle jungle gym–he had to remind himself that she was still injured.

She was finally able to pull herself up into Severus's lap where she curled and snuggled into his chest. Severus froze at the contact and opened his eyes only to see that the little girl was already deeply asleep. She had crossed her ankles and bent her knees so they were tucked near her chin. Her arms were bent and her forearms crossed over the other in front of her breast plate. Her head was tilted sideways a bit, snuggled into Severus's side, in such a way that made him cringe because there was no doubt that she would wake with a crick in her neck.

After a few minutes of staring at this anomaly of a child, Severus wrapped his arms around the girl.

He told himself it's only because he doesn't want her to fall and injure herself more. Then he too fell asleep.