“Dear Severus Snape,
My apologies in advance for disturbing you; I'm sure I'm the last person you ever expected or wanted to hear from. However, I have just found myself in a situation I am wholly unprepared for, and I'm hoping you may be willing to offer some advice…
You see, just this morning, I opened my door to get the newspaper, and the entire world shifted. Severus, Albus Dumbledore left Lily's baby on my doorstep.”
Severus’ eyebrows shot up. He hadn't looked for a sender's name, but who else could this be BUT Lily's cow of a sister, Petunia?
“Hadrian's here with me, and he's safe for now, but I have no idea how to take care of a magical child. Does he need different food? Different shots? Can he go to a normal doctor, or do I have to take him to your world every time? He's old enough to crawl AND walk, how do I baby-proof the house? Please, Severus, if you ever cared about Lily, please help me keep her son safe…
Sincerely,
Petunia Evans Dursley”
As Severus contemplated the letter from his estranged-best-friend's equally-estranged sister, his mind kept focusing on one phrase over and over.
“Albus Dumbledore left Lily's baby on my doorstep.”
Without much thought, he dashed off a response and handed it to the waiting owl.
Tuney,
I’ll be there as soon as I can. Speak to NO ONE.
S.
*****
“Albus Dumbledore left Lily's baby on my doorstep.”
Petunia knew she was being petty when she wrote it, but she wanted someone to recognize that she was not in control of this farce. Her baby sister had been born with magic, and it had taken her away. Petunia was proud, so proud, of her baby sister, but her TigerLily had been stolen by that magic school. It had taken her away for ten months of every year, and every time she came home, she was a little more distant. Petunia would have kept all of her secrets, hoarded the knowledge she wasn't supposed to have, loved and adored her baby sister, but she wasn't given the chance. Every time Lily came home and Petunia asked “How was School?” she was met with “I can't tell you” or in later years, “None of your business.”
Petunia grieved for her sister before Lily ever faced death to save her baby, simply because every year seemed to take her TigerLily farther and farther away. Now she had her sister's baby, and she had no idea what to do for him. Desperately, with no idea what she was asking, she whispered “lumos.” She remembered Lily whispering it, wandless, in times of confusion, and Petunia hoped and prayed for guidance now, so it seemed reasonable to invoke her sister’s favorite prayer.
As the candles on the mantelpiece sputtered to life, unnoticed, Petunia clutched Hadrian to her chest and sobbed into his inky, fluffy hair.
*****
Whatever Severus Snape expected to see when he reached the Dursley Residence, it wasn't the sight he was met with: Petunia Evans, now Dursley, was on the floor, desperately clutching a black-haired baby and singing Lily's favorite lullaby through broken sobs. Upstairs, another baby was crying, unnoticed. He let himself in and sank to his knees next to Petunia, wrapping an arm around the grief-stricken woman's shoulders.
“Give me this one, go get the other one. We'll figure it out, Tuney.”
“The other one?” Her voice betrayed her confusion.
“There's a child crying upstairs. I assume he's yours. Go get him. Come to the kitchen. I'll make food and we'll figure it out.”
As Petunia passed the unexpectedly calm baby to him and stood shakily, Baby Hadrian opened his eyes and stared at Severus.
“Fren’? Mama Fren’?”
“Yes, Hadrian, I'm your Mama's friend.” Severus answered the question he thought he was being asked.
“Fren’ name?” Big green eyes peered up at him inquiringly.
“My name is Severus, little one.” He answered solemnly, speaking to the child as if he could understand. Oddly, he seemed to. The big green eyes widened, and he smiled brightly.
Severus hadn't interacted much with children this young, and he wasn't sure what was normal for his age, but he shunned the idea of ‘baby talk.’ How would children learn to speak properly if no one spoke properly to them? His godson, Draco, was a perfect example. Lucius and Narcissa adored him, but left most of his care to the nanny elf. Barely two months older, Draco wasn't any more fluent than Hadrian, but already Severus could detect the cadence of house elf speech in the way Draco spoke.
As Hadrian leaned trustingly into him, his beliefs were confirmed. As tiny hands patted his face, he heard the tiny voice of his best friend's child declare his welcome.
“Sev'us safe. Sev'us Mama fren. Sev'us Dada no-fren. Dada say safe. Mama say safe. Sev'us Hade fren??”
Forcing the words through the new tightness in his throat, he replied.
“Yes, Hadrian, I'm your friend.”
*****
Minutes later, Petunia was back with a squalling, pudgy blond toddler. The differences in personality became immediately clear. Where Hadrian had consented peacefully to being set in the high chair Severus had conjured, and was waiting with remarkable patience for the food he had been promised, the other child was kicking and wailing, banging on the tray of his high chair. Petunia was looking back and forth between the two boys, clearly wondering where she went wrong.
“It's fixable, Petunia. We'll work on it. I'm in this now, so we're in it together. What's his name?”
“Dudley.”
“Dudley Dursley? Tuney, really? I thought you were planning to continue with the plant theme. I seem to recall Hawthorne and Sage as prime candidates…”
“Vernon insisted. He said his son needed a ‘strong name to match his strong character’ and he had the papers filled out before I was even out of Recovery. His middle name is Hawthorne. I snuck it in.” Her voice, subdued at the beginning, strengthened with defiance as she confessed. “He didn't find out about it until the birth certificate arrived, and he was furious, but he said ‘at least you named him after someone famous.” She snorted, then looked shocked at the unladylike sound. “I can't believe you remember that, Severus. That was nearly 10 years ago; Vernon doesn't remember things I told him two days ago, and blames me for the fact that he forgot.”
Severus turned, alarmed, and looked at Petunia with troubled eyes. What he had initially taken for grief now took on a more concerning aspect. He took in the tired eyes, the slouched posture, the air of defeat that had appeared after her moment of defiance. There, the faint shadow of an old bruise on her face.
“Tuney. We've never really been friends, although adulthood and these children may let us change that, but you're my best friend's sister. I dropped everything to come here because you asked for help, and I'd do it again. I'm asking you to trust me now…”
At her shaky nod, he continued.
“What do you remember about my childhood, besides my friendship with Lily? I'm sure most of it isn't flattering, but I want you to think, really think about it, and give me your honest impressions. It's important.”
“You were always tired, always pale. Scrawny, dirty, bruised. Twitchy, like you couldn't sit still. All snap and growl like a cornered dog, but unbelievably kind to Lily and very respectful of our parents. Well mannered, unless someone pushed you. Extremely intelligent, but somehow still doing poorly at school. You hid in Lily's room for a week and she smuggled you food until Mum figured it out and made you come down to supper,” she remembered. Her eyes widened.
“Abuse? You were being abused at home? Oh, Severus. I never realised.”
“I never wanted you to. At the time, I was ashamed. I thought I was weak for allowing it. I thought I should have been able to stop it, stop him. It took years of Lily's unwavering support and my own self-reflection for me to realise that it shouldn't have been my job to stop it, because it shouldn't have happened at all. The fault was not in me, but in him…
“Tuney, you just told me you had to sneak a name onto your own son's birth certificate because your husband didn't like the name you had planned for years. You told me he was ‘furious’ that you did so, but that he was happy you named him after ‘someone famous’... he hasn't been listening to you, and you stated that he blamed you for things he forgot you told him. Has he hit you yet? You don't have to answer; I can see in your shocked and guilty face that he has.
“Tuney, please. Leave with me. We'll bring the boys. It won't be healthy for any of you to stay here, and trust me, it will only get worse.”
As Petunia started to see the pattern, she gave a choked sob. Expecting it, Severus reached out and pulled her into a tight hug, murmuring into her ear.
“It's not your fault. It was never your fault. I’d like you to come home with me, you and the boys. If you leave with me, you’ll have a home; I have the space. You don't have to ask; I’m offering. I’d like you to leave for yourself, because what he's doing isn't right, but if you won't leave for yourself, I want you to look at those baby boys. What do you think is going to happen to them if you stay? Are they going to be under his hands if they displease him? Are they going to be hit? Are they going to wonder why Daddy doesn't love them?
“Come home with me, Tuney. I can't protect you if you stay, but if you come with me, he'll go through me before he ever puts his hands on you again.”
Her sobs still muffled into his shoulder, she nodded. Relieved, he pressed his mouth to her hair in what could barely, or almost, be called a kiss. No, he had never liked this woman, but he wouldn't knowingly stand by and let her be abused. He had some new questions for Albus Fucking Dumbledore, too.
First things first, feed the babies. Then, he'd have to leave Petunia and the boys to go get some trunks. He could shrink everything, but he'd still need something to put it in…
“When is he due back, Vernon, was it? How long do we have? We need to feed the boys, but I don't want you here when he gets home. I'll defend you if he shows up unexpectedly, but I'm not feeling especially generous toward him right now, and I'd rather we were long gone before he gets back…”
“He left for work about fifteen minutes after I found Hadrian.” Her brow furrowed. “Why didn't he see Hadrian? It just occurred to me that he looked right at me while I was holding him, and he somehow didn't notice an entire baby?”
Severus growled low in his throat. “If I wasn't convinced before, I would be now. You can't stay here. When's he due home?”
“He mentioned he had a half day today. Half past 12?”
Severus glanced at the clock. 12:05.
“We're going NOW. I'll send Misty back for everything else. Misty!”
With a quiet pop, his faithful house elf appeared.
“Misty, this is Petunia, and the children are hers. Hadrian and Dudley. Take them and their breakfast to Spinners End. Finish preparing their breakfast and make sure they eat. After that, come back and get everything that belongs to the three of them. Don’t be seen. Leave the house, if it belongs to one of them. We'll sort that out later. Come back here as soon as you're done, and listen for them while you're gone, they're under my protection.” He paused, thinking. “This one is Hadrian. Answer him too. If they ask for anything you're concerned about, come to me. Oh, and if you have time, start on rooms for them. Clear?”
“Understood, Master Severus.”
Unexpectedly, a little voice piped in with “Un'stan’, Sev'us Fren.”
With another quiet pop, elf and boys and breakfast all disappeared. Severus dismissed the mystery of Hadrian's words as a “later problem.”
“We don't have much time. Misty will be able to identify anything that belongs entirely to you, Dudley, or Hadrian. Is there anything you want that you can't lay absolute claim to? Wedding gifts, pictures? Things that you picked but Vernon paid for?” As he was speaking, he was transfiguring a footstool into a box. “Accio Lily Evans Potter's belongings. Accio James Potter's belongings.” He glanced at Petunia as an alarming number of things floated into the room. Her eyes were huge in her face. Her mouth moved in soundless confusion. He barely caught her silent “what the fuck” and smirked internally before realising she was genuinely baffled at the number of things that belonged to her late sister and her sister's husband. On a whim, he cast “Accio Harry Potter's belongings.” He had heard Albus refer to the boy as ‘Harry’ once, and he was appalled to realise there were new items hovering toward him.
His and Petunia's audible “what the fuck?” overlapped.
“Is ‘Harry’ Hadrian?”
“Don't. Touch. ANYTHING.”
As Petunia shot him a betrayed look, he sighed and explained. “There are dozens of things here that belonged to Lily or James. You clearly don't know how they got here. More importantly, there are things here that belong to “Harry Potter.” I don't know what's going on, but I can check for things that you can't. I don't want you to touch anything until I've had a chance to check it for spells, Potions, or other nastiness.
“You found Hadrian on your doorstep. You have only a letter to say that Albus left him here. What if it wasn't Albus? What if it was someone who wishes you harm? What if it WAS Albus, and HE, for some reason, wishes you harm?”
Petunia sighed; Severus had a point, and if she kept fighting him, she was wasting valuable, Vernon-free time.
“OK, ok. You're right. I won't touch anything. Thank you, Severus. Seriously. You're thinking of things I didn't know to be worried about.”
A car pulled into the driveway, and Severus was on his feet and pushing her behind him before she even realised the confrontation was coming.
“Pet? What's this I hear about a strange man in my house?”
“I'm her sister's best friend, and she needed help taking the garbage out.”
As Vernon spluttered and raged, Severus silenced him with a hard right. He looked at Petunia.
“Just the pictures, so Dudley can see his family... Everything else can burn, for all I care.”
“Pictures it is. Accio Pictures, photographs, paintings.” He glanced at the unconscious Vernon. “Accio all dishware, silverware, serving implements, cooking tools.” He looked at Petunia with a feral smirk. “Let's be a little petty. Make him work for it.”
Petunia felt her heart stutter. Here was a man who had no reason to like her; she had been terrible to him in their youth, and she knew it. And yet, he had dropped everything to come to her aid, had recognised the abuse she hadn't yet realised, and had taken steps to protect her and the boys in her care. He had physically put himself between her and Vernon, and now he was seeking petty vengeance on her behalf.
I could love this man, she thought to herself, shocked at the sudden turnaround in her thoughts. As he looked back at her, waiting for her input, she had one more request.
“Can you ask for anything that belongs to My TigerLily? TigerLily Evans, TigerLily Potter. I don't know how it works, but to me, she was TigerLily. Can you call anything that belonged to her if you don't know all of her names?”
As Severus called for anything that belonged to Petunia Evans Dursley's TigerLily, she sank to her knees, whispering her sister's prayer yet again.
As the candles sputtered to life, only Severus knew what it meant.