The life of the Headmaster was not all about sitting in his office, eating lemon drops. Sometimes the man had experiments to oversee, or meetings to attend, or the Board to deal with. But Severus was rather independent, as long as someone took the time to explain that the food provided directly in front of him was his to eat.

And on the occasions where neither Dumbledore or Minerva were available, an alternative had to be found. The odds of the staff room being occupied towards the end of the day was low, but not zero; and luck was on her side when she found two professors there, sitting close and speaking quietly.

"So, you weren't involved?" stuttered Quirrell as he tapped his quill nervously against a notebook.

"Not at all," sighed Silvanus Kettleburn, the Care of Magical Creatures professor. "You might ask Hagrid. He's been talking about that dog of his…"

Minerva cleared her throat to get their attention and Quirrell nearly jumped out of his seat. He took one look at Minerva, and her charge, and seemed to understand what was happening before she could open her mouth. He quickly scooped up his notebooks and parchments and stood.

"W-well, I must be going. Nice to see you both. Good-bye."

"Didn't you want to finish your tea?" Kettleburn called after him, but the man was already at the door.

He gave a sort of frantic giggle. "Oh, no. Quite enough for me already. I'm needed…I should…good-bye!"

"Have a good night," Minerva called after him. She was disappointed, as the nervous, stuttering man would have been her ideal candidate to watch Severus for the evening; he had always been kind. That, and the alternative was…

Silvanus Kettleburn was quite the sight. The man only had one flesh-and-blood arm and leg remaining and secretly, most of his coworkers expected at least one of those to go that year. He was incredibly extroverted and a little crazy, as most people who dabbled in magical creatures ought to be. Whenever he spoke, he gestured dramatically with the hand that had been replaced by a hook rather than a realistic prosthetic and the absolute love he had for the subject was obvious in every word. He was crazy but the good kind, that made him endearing to most people rather than ostracized.

Severus zeroed I'm on the hand thing immediately. As soon as Minvera entered the staff room, the boy's dark eyes locked on that moving hook. Before Minerva could quietly remind him to mind his manners, Severus spoke up.

"I like your hand."

Kettleburn turned to him, radiating positive energy. "This one? I quite like it too! Had to get it, due to that incident with the manticore, but—"

"A tail of a scor-pi-on," Severus interjected. Kettleburn let out a delighted laugh.

"Yes! Quite right! But if that had gotten me, I would be dead. Luckily, it was only his head that latched onto my hand and wouldn't let go. The rest of the arm, mind you, I lost later."

"I think we all agreed to not bring up the time you brought a dangerous manticore to show your third years," Minerva said pointedly.

"A baby manticore," the man corrected, not the least bit sheepish. After all, the students had not seen the mauling happen. And he got a wonderful story out of it! "They aren't all that dangerous at that age, especially with the tail cut at the stinger. Of course, they wouldn't make good pets but it's important for students to learn how to interact with creatures of all temperaments."

Not all that dangerous was an interesting way to describe an animal that had ripped his hand clean off. Considering how many wizards had died trying to capture a beast like that, it was a miracle that Kettleburn had gotten his hands on one at all, and that he had escaped only losing one of those hands.

"The picture," Severus said, speaking slowly as he tried to choose his words, "there's pieces all over. Arms and legs."

Minerva blinked at him, baffled by what seemed to be a sentence strung together by selecting random words from the dictionary. But Kettleburn nodded slowly, considering, then snapped his fingers on his remaining hand.

"The picture of the manticore in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them! You must have seen the fourth edition. I'm quite familiar. Yes, the manticore is tearing someone limb from limb in that! A striking image, but not entirely accurate. They don't prioritize removing the limbs at the joints. They may take it off in smaller pieces, to really prolong the suffering."

"Professor Kettleburn," said Minerva reproachfully, "this is hardly an appropriate conversation."

"Oh, but he's curious about it! Aren't you?"

Severus nodded. "I'm not scared."

"Of course you're not!" The man agreed. "What a brave lad you must be. It's too bad I don't have a manticore here this year. But are you interested in runespoors? I'm reviewing essays about them now and it's amazing what the students get wrong! It's as though they weren't listening to me at all."

Severus was already pushing a chair so he could stand on it and lean over the essays.

"They have three heads." Severus informed him.

"You already know more than Mister Towler!" Said Kettleburn as he gestured to the essay laid out before him. Severus beamed.

This felt safe enough. Minerva could barely believe the school trusted Kettleburn with students, but there had not been any serious injuries to anybody other than the man himself in at least 5 years. Dumbledore liked to say he had calmed down. And clearly, Kettleburn was fluent in whatever sort of system Severus' childlike mind used; sometimes, Minerva couldn't understand how Severus moved from one sentence to another, or make the same unspoken connection he had made when he said what sounded to her like half a sentence fragment with the rest of the context still inside his head. But he was responding very reasonably to what the boy was saying, which at the moment was explaining what colors the snakes could be, although there were only two. He was very fond of listing colors lately.

"Well," Minerva said slowly, "would you be interested in keeping him here with you for a few hours? I have some Third Years—"

"Say no more!" Kettleburn gestured erratically with his hook, "I shall keep the boy entertained!"

"You'll stay in here, won't you?" She added.

"Of course!"

No sooner had Minerva left the staff room did Severus turn to the wizard and say; "Can I see them?"

Care of Magical Creatures typically took place outside, far enough away from the castle itself to avoid any creatures getting in but close enough to fetch medical care when needed (and it was often needed.) Runespoors rarely reached an age where they grew particularly large, and the three young snakes that Kettleburn had acquired were rather lazy; one had not moved in days, lost in a dream. For this reason, they were housed in the closer stables rather than at the edge of the forest.

Severus would have happily crossed the entire forest on foot to see them. They were beautiful in a snake sort of way; brilliant orange and black with three heads that seemed to be in constant disagreement with each other. But even on his tiptoes, Severus could not quite see into the enclosure. To remedy this, Kettleburn picked the boy up by his robes and placed him directly into the pen. Most of the snakes turned to look at him, but none approached. Severus turned to look expectantly at Kettleburn, his intense eyes silently asking if standing there was all he was allowed to do. The wizard, understanding the look perfectly, scooped the nearest snake up with his prosthetic hand. Then, as if he was lecturing a group of third-years and not a small child, Kettleburn began to explain how to properly care for the moody reptiles.

Severus had seen plenty of ordinary snakes before. He had managed to catch several near the river bank in Cokeworth. Those typically didn't bite, but the runespoor certainly wanted to; its three heads hissed conspiratorially at each other before coming to a decision. One head of the runespoor struck, its fangs sinking into the man's artificial arm. Severus screamed, the two other heads hissed irritably, and Kettleburn just tsked softly.

"Now, now, what bad manners," the wizard laughed, as if he had not been saved merely by the lack of arm from the right head's venomous bite. As it were, the venom had nowhere to go; the fangs had not even pierced the metal and the venom intended to kill the man simply spilled from the creature's still-open mouth.. Kettleburn deposited the snake on the ground and it slithered angrily to the corner of the enclosure.

"Sorry about that," said the man casually, as though he was not terribly sorry at all. "They can be in quite a mood sometimes."

"What's he doing in the pen?" Hagrid stood in the doorway with a mildly confused expression, a crossbow over his shoulder and Fang standing dutifully at his side. Severus, still a bit rattled from the snake's attempted bite, fully jumped at the sound of his voice and pressed himself to Kettleburn's leg.

"He wanted to see the Runespoors," said Kettleburn mildly. "Now, my boy, have you met Hagrid yet?"

"Yes," said Severus after a moment. As if Hagrid was not the only giant man he had ever met. He had not remembered his name, though. Hagrid. That was short. He could probably remember, if he said it to himself enough times.

"Excellent! Then you know he has a love for these creatures as well. Come across anything interesting, Hagrid?"

"Ah, can't say I have," the man replied, although he would not be honest if he did. Although they shared an affinity for the unloved creatures, they had the exact same inability to keep a secret. If Kettleburn knew about some smuggled animal, he would be unable to stop himself from waxing poetic about it to anyone who would listen. "Yer smoking, there."

Sure enough, the acidic venom was not dangerous enough to eat through the metal, but it was coming close; the liquid rolled down his prosthetic and the paths it took were smoking faintly.

"Ah."

This was not the first or the last time Silvanus Kettleburn would have to replace his artificial limbs; in fact, he had a stockpile of replacements at the ready for these very instances. But, with the Runespoors now in a mood, Kettleburn wisely decided not to leave the two unattended and asked Hagrid to take Sev to his hut for tea. While it would have been a better idea to take him back into the safety of the castle, the thought did not occur to either adult.

Severus, meanwhile, was at first simply thrilled to be allowed to walk outside at night. Even back home, he was supposed to be home before dark; whether or not his parents would have noticed or cared if he wasn't, Severus would never know.

As they walked, the boy wanted to ask what Hagrid was doing at Hogwarts, in a very broad sense. He clearly had something to do with the castle, but they were walking outside instead of in, and that didn't make sense to him at all. But, he didn't know how to ask and that was making him irritable. He let out one too many annoyed sighs and finally, Hagrid asked;

"What's the trouble?"

Several things. But, finally, he decided on:

"What's your job?"

The question amused Hagrid greatly. It seemed to him to be a silly thing to be concerned about. "Keeper of the Keys," he said proudly. Severus blinked at him, and Hagrid added, "you know, the gameskeeper."

Severus had never heard of anybody having a game job before. Though, he wasn't entirely familiar with jobs in general, except hearing his father complain about having one or not. He wasn't very familiar with games at all, except: "Football?"

"What's foot-ball?"

"A game," replied Severus, now very amused. Who hadn't heard of football?

The answer was Hagrid.

"Never heard of it. But I've never been a fan of sports myself. Except Quidditch of course. Everybody likes Quidditch."

"Oh." Severus had no opinion on the subject.

"But it's not that kind of game. It's animals and the castle grounds. Plenty of beasties around here to look after."

Severus looked pointedly from whence they came. Hagrid gave an embarrassed laugh.

"Oh, well he's the expert on the subject. I've just always had a liking of beasts. 'Course, I don't know enough to teach about them. That's for smart wizards you know, not…" he trailed off, embarrassed although Severus didn't seem to be able to fill in the blanks himself. "It's a good job, just the same. There's plenty of things in the forest that they don't cover in class. Live here as long as I have, and you get to know 'em."

Severus thought about what animals might live in the forest. Although he knew quite a lot about magical creatures, the concept of categorization eluded him. Certainly if you asked where Runespoors lived, he would say the forest. But to start at the forest and work backwards took an entirely different mindset. Luckily, Hagrid supplied the answer without him having to ask.

"Most of 'em are harmless. Unicorns don't bother wizards, they're shy things. And the spiders, well…" he trailed off again, suddenly remembering that he probably shouldn't mention the spiders. "Don't worry about them. They won't come out of the forest."

They were on the edge of the forest in question, dark and foreboding and eerily quiet. There were trees in Cokeworth, and little patches of wooded areas to get lost in. But this was something else, something clearly bigger. With the limited light of Hagrid's lantern, it might as well have stretched into a black infinity

"Wow," Severus breathed.

"It's no more dangerous than anything else around here. During the day. If you don't go too far."

Severus feared a lot of things, but the eerie forest had somehow not made the list. It was huge and dark and dangerous, but he had never been hurt by a tree before.

He pointed into the blackness before them. "I wanna go."

"I reckon you'd want to go anywhere, seeing as you've been cooped up all month."

"Cooped up?" Severus repeated, the phrase entirely foreign to him. Hagrid nodded.

"Aye. Cooped up. Stuck inside. I figured you're not supposed to walk around on your own, young as you are."

"Oh. Yeah." There was very obvious disappointment in his voice and Hagrid, who hated that sort of thing, cleared his throat.

"No harm in going in for a bit tonight, I suppose. Nothin' will hurt ya as long as you're with me."

This was an incredibly big promise to Severus, though Hagrid did not mean it to be.

Severus and Kettleburn were not in the staff room when Minvera went to fetch him later that night, hours later. Nor were they in the man's personal quarters, which were near the exterior walls of the castle, in sprinting distance of where the magical creatures were kept. They were also not in those stables. The two had seemingly vanished.

Might as well have left him with Eldridge Sage or on the third-floor corridor, Minerva thought bitterly. She was racing like a madwoman around the castle, trying to think like Kettleburn to determine where he may have gone.

This was difficult because Kettleburn was not nearly as level-headed as she was; case in point, specifically doing to the opposite of what she was told and taking her charge somewhere else. It was only when she caught sight of Hagrid's hut with a puff of smoke rising from its chimney that she realized that should have been higher on her list.

"Now that one, you should see 'em as a pup! Fluffy was just about the size of my hand, he was. And now he's as big as a room!" Hagrid held his hands apart as wide as he could, which was rather wide. Kettleburn gave a delighted laugh.

Severus was between them, sipping something out of a too-big mug. He looked all at once delighted by the information and so incredibly sleepy that he might fall right off the stool at any moment. If Minerva had looked closer, she might have seen the mud on his shoes and the sticks and burrs stuck to his robes, as he and Hagrid had only exited the forest half an hour ago. Kettleburn had been left waiting, though not at all concerned to be, outside the hut. In the end, Severus didn't even get to see any animals in the forest. It had been unnervingly quiet. Hagrid had been thankful that spiders had not made an appearance, but something more pleasant like a unicorn or a werewolf pup would have been nice. Upon their return to the grounds, Hagrid promised to take him again another time.

Minerva panted I'm the doorway. Hagrid noticed her first. He raised a hand in greeting. "Good evening, Professor McGonagall."

"What..." she began, all at once furious that Kettleburn had brought Severus out of the castle at night and incredibly relieved to have found him safe. "What are you all doing out here?"

"Well, I thought to myself; a boy who loves discussing magical creatures would love to meet with Hagrid! He's been fond of them since he was a boy, haven't you? This could very well be a preview of his future!"

If Severus Snape, head of Slytherin House, had heard this, he would have been spitting venom. But Severus Snape, toddler, only waved at Minerva from his place at the table.

"You shouldn't take him out at night. I had no idea where he was!"

"He was with me the entire time." This was a lie, and Kettleburn seemed to realize it was easily disproved if Severus opened his mouth. He continued on, "he was with Hagrid or myself the entire time."

"I told you to keep him entertained in the staff room!" Minerva continued, her anger boiling over like an unattended cauldron, "it's incredibly dangerous to take him outside of the school! And at night, no less, near the forest! What kind of dunder-headed—"

"I love you."

That stopped the witch mid-rant, the anger disappearing as if a flame had been snuffed out. Her gaze moved to the boy who had spoken so quietly she almost hadn't heard him. Severus had never said that before. She had hoped he liked her, and he seemed to. But the statement didn't seem genuine. Because, despite his statement, he looked terrified. He was watching her with huge eyes shining with tears that threatened to spill.

This has never once worked on Severus' father, and often just made him more upset, and he had heard his mother use it on his father before, too, though he wasn't sure if that had worked either. But it did sometimes work on his mother when she was angry with him.

"Auntie, I love you," he tried again. He had also not called her Auntie until that moment; Severus didn't actually refer to Minerva by a name or title at all, other than the occasional 'ma'am' which he knew was something you ought to call women but he wasn't in the habit of doing it. He sometimes called her Ma, but only if he was mostly asleep and clearly didn't realize his mother wasn't the one tucking him into bed.

Minerva closed the distance between them, skirting around Kettleburn to cup the boy's head in her hands. He very clearly flinched away from her, his dark eyes huge. As if he was expecting a different kind of touch. A very uncomfortable weight settled in her stomach

"Oh. It's alright. I'm not upset with you."

For his part, Severus seemed completely confused by her reaction, having not expected his plan to work so well. Usually, his mother would start crying at this point if she decided not to be angry; Minerva was looking at him as though she was completely lost. He chose that exact moment to start crying. Although, he did not exactly choose it, but suddenly he could not stop tears from quietly falling down his cheeks. It was the strange, silent sort of crying he did when he didn't want to draw attention to himself but also couldn't contain the overflow of emotions that happened when you were just very, very small. Unsure of what to do herself, Minerva used her thumbs to wipe his face. The result was a strange, tense silence.

Kettleburn, who had somehow missed the entire subcurrent of the interaction, just smiled and continued on as if his colleague had not clearly been upset with him moments before and the boy did not have huge tears running down his face like twin rivers. "It's wonderful to see such an interest in the subject at an early age. I've seen third years frightened by Runespoors but not your boy."

"Runespoors?" repeated Minerva, scandalized.

"They didn't bite him," Hagrid added helpfully.

"I should hope not!"

"There was no unicorns," Severus informed her, very softly. Having realized he was, somehow, not in trouble (though he still wasn't quite sure why she had been angry) Severus decided to try and contribute to the conversation again.

Minerva exhaled in a way that could have almost been a breath sort of laugh. "Were you expecting to see unicorns?"

"That's not until January!" Kettleburn interjected, which prevented Severus from explaining that Hagrid had mentioned them. "You'll have to come see them then."

Severus' eyes went wide and Minerva slowly replied, "maybe." Which meant no.

Kettleburn, who decided to take that answer as a yes, smiled. "Now then, would you like some tea as well?"

"He's drinking tea? At ten at night? Caffeinated tea?"

Hagrid looked perplexed. "Aye. I don't think they make any others?"

"Don't worry Minerva! It's not too bitter for the lad, we added plenty of sugar," Kettleburn assured her.

"That's not any better." While she had introduced him to a splash of tea in a cup of warm milk in the morning, the cup in front of Severus was clearly mostly tea and sugar, some of which had not dissolved and was pooling at the bottom of the cup. She carded her fingers through his hair, as he was still trembling. The drink was probably not helping.

As if noticing the visitor for the first time, Fang lifted his head and gave a single low bark.

"That's right," said Hagrid, as if he understood his dog. "I've given students tea this late all the time. Nothing to worry about."

"Why are students visiting you this late?" Minerva asked, her eyes narrowing. Hagrid, realizing his mistake, sipped his tea awkwardly and decided to invite Harry over for afternoon tea instead.