Chapter 4
Friday, 26th July 1991
Severus
Truth be told, Severus had never really had guests before.
Sure he had Harry with a now permanent residence, and Albus to drop him off but that was it.
Other than the occasional muggle girl, but they never stayed for long.
He was listening to electric warrior while trying to work out where everyone should sit at the table.
He was bouncing around to mambo sun while stirring the pasta -the safest option he thought- when he heard the tell-tale patter of footsteps careening down the stairs.
Harry burst into the kitchen with a wide grin and his best shirt and trousers on.
“Well you look smart,” Severus said, “although you might want to put some socks on for our guests.”
He indicated to Harry’s bare feet, the small boy frowned them before turning to dash back up the stairs.
“Careful!” Severus yelled after him.
The second time he came to the kitchen, he sported his newly deemed ‘favourite’ quidditch socks, patterned with snitches.
Harry edged towards the pot and begin to apprehensively smell the pasta.
“It’s fine I promise, I followed the recipe to a tea, here,” he spooned up a piece of pasta, blew on it and offered it to Harry.
He nervously took the offer but then started to smile. He finished chewing and swallowed before looking up to Severus.
“It’s actually not bad.”
“Yes I knew It would be,” Severus lifted the pot off the hob and turned to face Harry. He had, in fact, not known it would be alright and was extremely relieved.
“Right, could come help me clean the living room?”
Nodding, Harry followed Severus through the house. As directed, he collected up all of the records to put in their box while Severus cast cleaning charms on the floor and surfaces.
“Now,” he started, putting his wand away, “ when the Grangers are here you can’t talk about magic, yeah? Even the our trip to Diagon alley or Hagrid, nothing that shouldn’t exist to muggles?”
“Got it,” Harry confirmed.
Severus ruffled his hair as he passed to go to the kitchen, plaiting up the pasta and adding juice and wine to the placemats.
Harry wandered in and began laying the forks and knives, once they’d finished the dining room looked pretty decent.
Severus frowned at Harry’s hair, which had been made worse by himself, and began trying to smooth it down and making about a centimetre of progress when the door went.
Dinner went very well and Harry had managed to keep every magical detail out of his stories.
It was a bit odd, chatting with muggles. Growing up in muggle London he didn’t actually see a lot of muggles, his dad kept well enough away, his mother estranged from her family because of this and Severus being home educated up until Hogwarts. So Severus hadn’t really been familiar with one before (other than Lily, before she got her letter) and being in Slytherin he heard a lot of horrible things about them which he purposely forgot before starting a conversation with Hermione's parents that day on the beach.
They were actually a lovely couple, both dentists and quite enjoyed camping.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the pasta and the chocolate ice cream which came after, and then Harry and Hermionie bounced upstairs to play while the adults moved to the living room.
The children’s giggles echoed through the house and Severus didn’t think he’d ever seen Harry so happy.
Severus found that he actually quite enjoyed the company of the Grangers and they exchanged telephone numbers -something that Severus was relatively new to, but got as soon as he found out that you could order food- to arrange further plans for the two small families.
The clock hit half seven and the Grangers decided to take their leave, calling down for their child.
Two sets of feet were heard trudging, Harry’s socks seemingly discarded along with Hermione’s shoes, downstairs and soon two small heads peeped through the door almost comically.
Both children were sad but the white ring around Harrys mouth was quite telling to his exhaustion, so Hermione agreed to leave so long as another play date was arranged soon, which both parents agreed to.
Severus and Harry stood at the door bidding the grangers farewell when Hermione surged forward to hug Harry. Harry stood stock still from shock for a few seconds before slightly hugging her back.
Once the pair separated, the families parted and the door to the small wooden cottage was shut.
The two boys went back through to the living room and sat on the couch side by side, Harry looking a bit overwhelmed and tired despite having so much fun previously.
“That went well, I think they actually liked dinner,” Severus said to which Harry gave a slight nod.
Sensing the end of the night, Severus made to stand up and get sorted, slapping his knees to propel himself up.
Harry flinched at the noise, sending waves of guilt through Severus before he quickly came to and started to blink slowly.
Harry’s breathing looked a little off, not completely fast, just off, as if trying to catch up with itself after he held his breath for a few seconds. Severus wrapped him in a hug and rubbed his back soothingly.
“Hey, okay, yeah? You're okay.”
Harry’s breathing seemed to get faster and before he knew it, the small child was sobbing into his shoulder.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong? You're okay, you're okay,” Severus tried to console the small boy in his arms but it seemed to just make him sob harder.
Severus held the boy for a long while, patiently rocking him and expecting no reply. It had been a long day and Harry was surely emotionally exhausted.
Eventually, Harry looked up to Severus, who wiped his face off, and eased into a new wave of tears, these ones not nearly as heart-wrenching but still sad as he buried his face in the crook of Severus’ neck.
Severus had kept it in since the first night when he saw Harry softly sleeping with his glasses smooshed against his face. Severus had never said it before, not even to his parents; they weren’t that kind of family. He’d thought it a lot, about Lily, but never ever said. Never even rolled it to the tip of his tongue; being a Slytherin.
But Harry’s emotions were stripped raw and Severus needed to patch them up, he needed to more than anything. Like his soul purpose was to make this little boys life better and honestly, nothing would make him happier. Severus had done so much wrong, but this time, it had been given to him; to do right.
So he clutched Harry, resting his chin on his head and rubbing soothing circles in his back.
“I love you, Harry”
And just like that, he burst open. Tears rolling down his own cheeks, feeling torn apart and patched up all at the same time.
“I love you too, Uncle Sev.”
Severus’ chest hitched and he pressed a kiss to the top of Harry’s head, rocking the boy to a peaceful sleep.
Severus had never felt so whole in his life, with the fire cracking steadily and Harry’s small form curled up in his lap, breaths steadily synced with his own.
A family whose lack of people is made up for in love, trust and jigsaw shaped hearts.
— — — —
Severus woke up with a heavy weight on his chest and a severe pain in his neck.
He lifted his head to find out it had been lolled against the back of the couch, and that the weight was indeed a still very asleep Harry Potter.
The time read 6:45 and Severus’ throat felt very thick from the previous night's tears.
He artfully managed to manoeuvre Harry onto the couch without waking him and headed to his room to get a shower and change of clothes.
Once he was done he went back downstairs to find Harry still asleep so he made a start on breakfast, having now mastered the art of frying eggs.
Harry woke up mid way through the serving of breakfast and took a seat at the table, stretching his limbs and rubbing his eyes.
The rest of the day was relaxed and spent doing some gardening and with Severus teaching Harry more about magic, more specifically, potions.
In the evening the two sat and read, Harry learning a lot about quidditch and proceeding to excitedly ramble about it over tea that night; Severus feigning his smile as interest rather than joy that Harry was so enthusiastic about it.
Once dinner was finished, Severus snuck away to put in a special order at quality quidditch supplies and other shops.
He tucked Harry in that night hoping that nothing would ever change.
Because this was perfect.
— — — —
Wed, 31st, July, 1991
Harry
Harry woke up like any other day, stretching and plodding downstairs for breakfast.
He opened the kitchen door and jamp out of his skin when he came face-to-face with his Uncle Severus blowing on a kazoo with a pointy hat on his head.
He released a startled laugh and looked around to see a massive ‘happy birthday’ banner strung up and a large stack of pancakes on the breakfast bar along with many oddly shaped packages.
Uncle Sev pinged a hat of his own to his head and carried him like a king over to his breakfast stool. It was a party of two but Harry had never been so happy.
“This is all for me?” Harry said, feeling guilty and baffled.
“Of course, happy birthday, Haz,” he replied, putting some pancakes onto Harry’s plate.
Harry ate the pancakes with trepidation. He had never even had so much as a ‘happy birthday’ from anyone before (that he could remember) and was a bit overwhelmed.
They listened to Ziggy stardust while they ate and once they were done Severus indicated to the big pile of parcels on the table.
“They’re all for me?” He asked.
“Yes Harry,” Uncle Sev rolled his eyes but Harry could tell there was something soft in there, something sad.
Harry took the biggest one first, it was a long box about a metre and a half long and wrapped In blue wrapping paper.
He glanced at Severus who gave him an encouraging nod then started tearing the paper off the way he’d dreamed of doing his whole life.
Every year he watched Dudley greedily rip the paper off of his masses of presents and every year he dreamed of what it felt like to do it.
However unlike Dudley, he took his time, savouring the moment… at the start.
When he realised what it was he ripped the paper off in a frenzy, blinking rapidly as if to adjust his eyes to show that he’d actually been gifted a mop. But no. No. No. No! He could not believe his eyes.
In his hands was the nimbus 2000 the best broom on the market and the subject of most of his dreams since the Diagon alley trip -most.
He felt tears welling up in his eyes and he almost choked on his excitement, flinging himself at Uncle Sev.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Harry chanted, practically jumping up and down, “it’s amazing, it’s so brilliant, I love it! Thank you!”
Severus chuckled, hugging Harry back before telling him to open the rest of his presents.
The next one was a medium sized rectangular box that was quite heavy. He ripped it open to reveal a set of quidditch balls and hoops (the hoops obviously shrunk). He thanked Severus again before continuing with the rest of the presents.
The rest of them turned out to be a collection of books- about everything and anything, a new record- space oddity David Bowie, some more posters- a Bowie one and two more quidditch ones, some flying robes and lots of sweets.
After breakfast, Harry got changed into his new flying robes and trainers. He bounded downstairs and out to the garden where Uncle Sev was waving his wand about.
Harry looked up to see what looked like a massive dome around the property lit up purple.
“What are you doing?” He asked, galloping out to stand next to Severus.
“Putting up wards so the muggles can’t see us,” he replied, finishing and turning to Harry.
“That’s bloody cool,” at this, Uncle Sev just chuckled, sweeping past Harry to pick up a broom that was leaning beside the door.
It was slightly rougher looking than Harry’s and looked like it needed polishing.
“You have a broom? I thought you didn’t like quidditch?”
“No, I quite enjoyed flying though,” Uncle Sev said, dropping his broom to the ground and indicating for Harry to do the same.
Harry gave him a funny look but followed suit.
“Okay, hover your hand over and say, Up!” With that Severus’ broom went flying into his hand, almost like it had been waiting to do so for ages.
“Up!” Harry’s broom did nothing.
“It’s okay, it’ll take time, keep trying.”
“Up!” A twitch
“Up!” A jump
“UP!” It flew, rather more jerkily than Severus’, into Harry’s hand.
Uncle Sev beamed at him. Severus mounted the broom and Harry copied, the older man adjusting his position.
“Now on three push up off the ground and hover…
“Great, now you can start to fly around a bit, don’t go too high yet.”
Harry flew
Harry fell
“Harry!”
Harry was lying on the ground, okay just a bit sore, “owww,” he got up, rubbing his head.
“Are you okay, does it hurt? What hurts? Your head? You probably have a concussion-“
“I’m fine, it was only three metres,” and to show just how fine he was, he gently nudged Uncle Sev off, got up and back on his broom.
“Crickey, don’t go too fast!” He heard Severus yell after him.
Harry flew about for the rest of the day and when Uncle Sev deemed him good enough, they got the goals up and started playing one on one.
Harry was okay at keeper, pretty good at chaser but really, before Severus joined in, he’d been best at seeker.
Flying was Harry’s favourite thing ever. It was decided.
He was pretty hungry and surprised to see that Uncle Sev hadn’t started dinner yet.
“Go get showered and dressed,” Severus said when he came in, ruffling his sweaty hair.
Harry thought it was a bit strange that Uncle Sev wanted him to get dressed after his shower considering it was almost five but he didn’t question.
Once he’d done so he went downstairs to find there was still a lack of food and a lack of Uncle Severus.
“Uncle sev?” Harry wandered into the kitchen.
“Uncle sevv?” He peaked out the back door.
“Uncle sev?!” He began to panic, has he left? He ran into the living room and-
“Surprise!”
He turned on the living room light to find his Uncle, Hermionie and her parents all standing with hats on.
Once his breathing returned to normal, he smiled, greeting Hermione .
“Happy birthday!” She hugged him and this time he didn’t panic for a second, also accepting un-awkward shoulder squeezes from Hermione’s parents.
Hermione had got him a gift which he eagerly opened to see that it was a book of fairy tales as well as a set of water pistols.
“Thanks ‘mionie!” He’d said, giving an easy half-hug.
They had a picky tea and for desert Severus had disappeared while Hermione’s dad turned off the lights.
Uncle Sev came back into the room with the biggest chocolate cake Harry had ever seen, topped with eleven lit candles.
Everyone sung ‘for he’s a jolly good fellow’ when he blew the candles out and afterwards he and Hermione ate half their weight in it, both going into sugar comas.
The grangers soon left after that, both children feeling a bit queasy.
As Uncle Sev tucked him in that night Harry hugged him again.
“Thanks Uncle Sev.”
“No problem, bud.”
“I’ve never had a birthday like that before.”
Severus sighed, “I know”
Harry nodded.
“Did you enjoy it?” Uncle Sev asked.
“Yes! It was the best birthday ever! I loved it!” Harry assured, being pushed genuinely back down by Severus.
“Good,” Uncle Sev looked at him, tucking the sheets at his sides, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Harry’s eyes fluttered closed and he started to drift off, catching one last line before sleep overcame him,
“Happy birthday Haz.”