11th of November 1981
For reasons she could not fathom, there was only a single thing that made Severus come out of the moody, dark shell he seemed to have locked himself in since that fateful night.
Severus had been working tirelessly in his lab nearly as soon as the news of Lily had come to light, and it was only thanks to Minerva’s prodding that he eventually came out of his self-imposed isolation. After her first warnings, he had been much more careful to watch for his own health while experimenting variations of current restorative potions. Obviously never had there been a case of a patient needed to be brought back from a coma induced by a millennia old love protection spell that supposedly shielded said patient from the killing curse. While expected, the frustration that came out of accumulating dead ends upon dead ends had quickly turned the usually sour young men into a nightmare. It was not rare to have Severus switch between barely acknowledging someone’s presence to snap at said person viciously like a rabid dog. Albus had had to intervene when Severus had sent more than half a first-year class into a crying fit ten minutes into their first-period. Since then he simply kept himself away from most of the staff and as far away of the children as he could possibly get into a fifty-square meter classroom.
Which is why, she was now staring in complete awe to the young man playing in the snow with a heavily bundled up toddler. Said toddler was laughing this crystal, chirpy and communicative laugh only children can produce as he tried to grasp the small snowflakes Severus was making swirl around him. The young man was sitting on a rock under one of the many trees of the grounds, watching the little boy with a small smile tugging at his lips and a more peaceful expression than Poppy had seen on his face in a very long time. He was watching down on the boy, patiently moving his wand around for his sole amusement, occasionally getting up to adjust the toddler’s scarf or hat, encouraging him back up when he fell and generally watching over him with what she would risk herself calling affection.
Strange, how things worked. For the only thing to bring Severus out of his somber mood would be this one dark-haired, green-eyed, little boy.