Chapter 3
“What do you want to do for your birthday?”Aunt Nia asks him casually while reading the newspaper, and for all that Harry’s life has changed completely in the last year, he still cannot believe it sometimes.
He might actually get to celebrate his seventh birthday. It is a terrifyingly new thought.
A trickling wet feeling on his jaw alerts him to the fact that he’s been gaping for so long that he was leaking drool around the spoon still in his mouth. He wipes it with the back of his hand and Aunt Nia snorts in laughter before putting the paper down and turning her full attention on him.
He looks around their new home and saw all the little things that meant it was his as well and realised it wasn’t just some weird dream.
There was the little black line in marker stuck across one wall beam—
“You seem to be getting taller.” Aunt Nia said with a frown and Harry’s heart raced. He wondered what would follow that statement, perhaps a lecture on how he needed to stop ruining the new clothes she’d gotten him by growing out of them? Or maybe she’d send him to Marge? Or maybe-
“Stand against that wall, I’ll mark it and then we’ll see how much taller you get later. My dad did that with me!” She said excitedly and made a long line along his head while writing ‘6 years 3 months’ next to it in neat block letters.
—there was his report card pinned to the fridge with a magnet
“Get all stars next time too and we’ll get you that bike you wanted.”
—there were the books that littered the shelves, his books, the glasses he could see through perfectly, the board games they played on Sundays that were stacked in the cupboard and more and more...
But the idea that he could actually celebrate his birthday had never once crossed his mind.
“I have no idea.”
“Maybe a party with your friends?”
And Harry remembered, flushing as he did so, that he had friends now, in his new school where there was no Dudley to scare away the other kids, to tell tales about him.
“We can really do that?” He asked, hesitant but wanting it rather badly.
“Of course,” Aunt Nia got that mischievous look in her eyes again, “We can make it a theme party. Make it a magic themed birthday party! It’ll be fun, don’t you think?”
A rather unhappy Severus tugged on his muggle clothing, uncomfortable, and strode out of the Leaky Cauldron and into the city. Leave it to a Potter to debase him like this.
Another man might have blamed Dumbledore’s paranoia for this but not Severus Snape. If Potter just stopped getting into his mischief, it would have been fine.
Dumbledore kept insisting that he try to talk to Petunia, try to get through to her how important Harry’s safety was and to just go back to that house of theirs, instead of forcing them to have to ward another one.
The headmaster had confessed that he had set up the wards around the house that the Potter spawn lived in rather illegally. Back then he had used the cover of ministry’s distraction with the death eater trials and ridiculous celebrations wizards had that required squads of the obliviators to be sent out near constantly to set the wards up discreetly. Setting new wards up now would bring far too much scrutiny upon them, and Dumbledore couldn’t afford it at the moment. He had only managed to set a dark magic detector in the new house to notify him, but the boy was otherwise unprotected.
Petty Petunia, always looking to get her way, making Severus do the hard work in between. It was disgusting.
He walked to the block of flats where she stayed with the Potter spawn and nearly ran straight into her, out on the street itself. She looked different, like she wasn’t trying to look like a perfect housewife. But there was more than that, the look in her eyes was different too, amused in a way Petunia had never been before unless at someone else’s expense.
“Excuse us,” She said with a polite smile and walked herself and the young boy whose hand she was holding (Lily’s child, he realised) away and Severus realised the other thing that was off about her.
Dumbledore had mentioned that she was different after the accident. He hadn’t mentioned that she had lost her memory.
“Petunia?” He called out as her tall figure and the tiny one next to her began walking away and she stopped mid-stride. He watched the high heeled shoe come down onto the pavement with a trepidation that he could not explain. Severus did not know why the heel touching the ground, followed by the toe, only to quickly twirl around and carry the rest of her with that movement, why it all seemed somehow so ominous.
“May I know who you are?” She asked coolly, a twitch in her jaw, her fingers tightening around Lily’s son’s shoulder, even as she pushed him behind her.
“Severus, Severus Snape. You don’t remember me?”
On hearing his name she had relaxed. On hearing the rest of what he said she rolled her eyes.
“I suppose Dumbledore sent you for some asinine reason. Whatever it is that Dumbledore wants you to tell me, it can wait.”
“What do you mean it can wait?” As if it wasn’t enough that Severus was being sent out like some sort of owl, carrying messages back and forth, now he had to deal with this? Ridiculous.
“I mean that it’s Harry’s birthday and his friends are waiting for him so they can cut cake and celebrate. You remember Harry, I’m sure.” She said with a nasty smile on her face even as he saw her shift Lily’s boy further behind her. The boy was curious though and peered around her skirt to look at him and Severus felt like he had been struck.
Had he always had Lily’s eyes?
“There’s a chippy shop two streets away,” Severus said, rattling off an address.
“I know that one.” Petunia nodded.
“We can meet there tomorrow.”
Petunia frowned. “I have work and once Harry’s home, I shan’t leave him alone. If the neighbour can watch him then he’ll be coming along.”
Severus breathed in hard at the thought of that. Of having to sit across a boy with Lily’s eyes and Potter’s hair. But he owed the boy a Life debt, this was nothing compared to what the boy could demand of him later.
“Fine, tomorrow then.”
Petunia nodded and they began their journey anew. Severus waited until they were a bit further before putting a notice-me-not spell on himself and walking after them. He wasn’t confronting her, just wanted to make sure she wasn’t lying. When they walked into a building , he followed and found himself looking through the windows of what seemed to be a family themed restaurant. The two entered to cheers with Lily’s son getting hugged by his friends as soon as he entered. There were balloons, a cake, candles and…
Was that a ridiculous, top hat, white gloves and tailcoat wearing, plastic piece of shit waving muggle magician ?!