“Lily!” Severus cried as he fell to his knees. There lay Lily Potter, sprawled on the floor with her eyes chillingly vacant and her face ghastly pale. Lily was dead. He failed to protect her. Severus crawled an inch closer but his hand stopped midway as a shrill cry filled the room.
Severus blinked his eyes off of the tears as he raised his head to the interrupting noise. He gasped taking in the surprisingly alive toddler in the crib. Harry Potter. Blood streaked down the child’s face, irritating his eyes, making him cry louder. Severus felt something break further inside him. He helped gather himself and walk towards the hurt toddler. It was the first time he was seeing Lily’s son. While the toddler inherited his father’s unruly hair, he possessed his mother's dark green eyes and Severus couldn’t help but keep looking at that. The irony laughed cruelly at the divergence of the situation. One pair of dark green eyes held pain while the other was as empty as space.
Another cry from the toddler brought Severus out of his stupor. He removed his kerchief from his pocket and gently wiped the blood off of the toddler’s face. He gasped at the scar that outlined the toddler’s face. It started from his forehead, passing through his eyelids and ending midway at the cheek. The scar eerily resembled a lightning bolt and Severus realised with a jolt that the child had survived the killing curse and the scar represented the wand movement required to fire one.
“You are a lucky kid,” Severus mumbled, putting away his kerchief. He started rumagging through his cloak’s hidden endless pocket and retrieved his stash of emergency potions. He picked up a red pepper-up potion and a dark red blood replenishing potion along with some dittany leaves. Crushing the dittany leaves, he tried to apply them on the fussing child before he mixed two potions in the required proportion.
Severus held out the flask containing the tiny amount of potion towards the kid. His patience was running out when the child continued staring at him rather than taking the potion.
“Brat, take the potion.” He called out, irritated.
“Bahh!” The toddler hiccuped, bringing his fist to his mouth.
Severus pulled his tiny fist out before pushing forth the flask in a repeated attempt of getting the toddler to drink it.
“Bahh! Bahh!” The kid’s hands drew in the air in an unceremonious way, almost hitting Severus in the eye.
Severus sighed as he looked at the stubborn, ignorant kid. He had no clue as to how he was going to get the kid to take the potion. He doubted if the kid understood him. His eyes wandered around the room before they paused on the sippy cup lying ragged on the ground. Useless as it was, all Severus could try was to transfigure his flask into a sippy cup. Maybe that would get the kid to drink the potion.
“Look at this, kid,” Severus called as he transfigured the flask into a lilac sippy cup and smirked in triumph at the kid’s apt attention on him. Forwarding the cup, he prayed to Merlin for the kid to accept it lest he loses his patience. He watched in a subtle glee as the toddler tried reaching out to the cup and successfully grabbing it from the potion master’s hands.
Severus watched the kid take a sip and then another and then the other. “Good boy, kid—Harry.” He whispered softly, unwilling to disturb him.
He waited for Harry to complete the potion and wiped his face off of the remanants. “Would you like to come with me, Harry?”
Harry gazed at the potion’s master, blinking his wide green eyes in innocence.
“I promise to take good care of you.” Severus added with a whisper. He did not know what compelled him to offer a stay with him, but he realised he did not regret it. Maybe he can convince Dumbledore to find him a safe place, away from Britain’s Wizarding Society, away from the Dark Lord. Maybe he can try to raise Harry the way Lily would have. Maybe he can…
Severus jerked at the loud noises filling the downstairs of the rumbled house. His ears perked as he rushed to pick Harry up and apparate to a safe place.
“Hagrid, what are you doing here?” Severus stopped, his eyes widened as he recognised the voice. It belonged to Sirius Black. And if what he heard was right, he was accompanied by Rubeus Hagrid.
“Professor Dumbledore sent for me. To bring Harry to his only living relatives.”
“But he is my godson.” The voice sounded closer.
Severus eavesdropped their conversation before the voice hushed down a notch and caused him a trouble. His attention was brought back to the toddler in his arms. Harry’s head rested in the crook of his neck, his mouth slightly open and fingers clutched around his cloak in a tight grip. He looked at the sleeping child for a while deciding whether to apparate or not.
Severus sighed as he bent down to place the kid back in his crib. “You’ll be happier here, with your godfather, than you will ever be with me, Harry. He is a sadistic bully but he loves you as his son and will make sure to never go your single wish unfulfilled. Be safe, kid.” Severus spoke softly, unsure if the words were meant to sooth him or the asleep child. He loosened Harry’s grip and placed him back in his crib.
Severus was not prepared for Harry to wake up and was startled when he let out a loud wail. “Hey, shh!”
Harry wailed louder breaking Severus’s heart but he had to do what he had decided because it was for the best. “Take care, kiddo!” And with that he placed a chaste kiss on his forehead and apparated out of Godric’s Hollow and Harry Potter’s life.