A new token
Severus goes to the whomping willow instead. Jumping on one of the branches and sliding to the trunk. There is an opening there which takes him into he ends up in his quarters in Hogwarts. Noone knows what they look like. He never invited anyone there, not even Albus had permission. Of course, as the headmaster he might be able to enter anyway, but Severus had set up all the wards he had known, back when he first moved in. The war was still going. It had been the summer of 1981. Here is where he had first entered his mind palace tonight. The door, which in the real world led to the bedroom would lead to the common room. The door to the kitchen would be a shortcut outside. The flames of the Fireplace, which flickered floo green every few seconds, was a trap.
He ends up looking at the place where the floo powder is normally kept. In his mind space, he had left the pot empty. There was no need to fill it, but now…
Just putting powder in it, to sort the memories of the child, wouldn’t be save enough. He knew, he didn’t know much about Hades, but should the Dark Lord ever return, which Dumbledore is sure of, and he would have to return to spy, he needed him to not find any information on the child. It was best if no one even knew he existed. Because he was powerful and so obviously dark. The wandless apparition alone would make him interesting for both sides. The bloody sequence he had used to raise the ward around their table would ensure the Dark Lords order ‘to get the boy’ and the power of the wards as well as the runic language he had used would mean he would either be forced to join or killed after the Dark Lord shredded his mind for them. The sequences were just too rare. Obviously, a new creation. And while Severus had recognised some runes on the paper, some he hadn’t. Considering that the runes he had recognised where from different runic alphabets it was obvious he didn’t know as many runes as he had thought.
He had always been fascinated by them. He had even combined up to a handful of runes from different languages when he set his wards. But he had never seen something like it. Never had he ever even considered that a rune sequence could be painted on a piece of paper, not parchment, muggle paper, and then finished with lines connecting it to an area. Muggle paper was known as being impossible to do magic with and yet somehow a child had managed to make a portable ward with it. A powerful portable ward, that most likely was better than the ward charms he usually used when he wanted to have a private conversation with one of his Slytherins outside his office. His office was warded against all kinds of trespassing, but it was stationer. He might be able to stretch them, but he couldn’t move those wards. That doesn’t even include the possibility of putting them in his pocket.
He decided to fill the pot with a powder, put it would need to be set on fire with a match from a matchbox. The matchbox being a replica of the lunchbox the child had.
Slowly he added one moment of his time with the child after the other. First the meeting last year. He had already put it away with the memories of other abused children, but as he had had to sort and repair part of those token, he had taken some of the information from it. He had still left the impression, but the age of the child was completely cut out, like he had never asked. The same for the glasses. It might not be important per se, but there are not many wixen children who need glasses. After getting to know the child, he both doubts it’s genetic, long-term malnutrition tends to mess with sight. He also found out that the glasses include some runes to change his appearance a bit, so that he is not easily recognised. Severus believes it’s mostly the eyes. They had been a standard brown, which while not impossible, did not have the same magical light wixen tend to have. He had only realised that, after he had been told about why he never put them off with Severus in the room.
After that memory comes the meeting several days ago. From the moment he had spot him outside Gringotts over their conversation to them traveling together to Spinner’s End.
Then the time there. The brewing, the reading, the conversations during meals (not while they ate, but before and after), the mop of black hair disappearing in the cover when he had woken up in the middle of the night and decided to check on the potions, the times when he had accepted the child’s present and invited him to help with brewing, the moment he left and Severus was alone again.
Once everything is stored away safely, Severus opens his eyes again.