The Meredith Series

Title: Meredith
Author:sa_kun On LJ.
Rating: Child-friendly.
Prompt Set: 50.1
Prompt: 018, child
Word Count: 662
Summary: Harry is given a baby the Dursleys didn't want.
Warnings: None
Notes: This series continue after Requiem for a Dream ended.

Child | 018

Dudley glared at him. In his arms, he held a baby wrapped in a threadbare quilt. “What are you doing here, Dudley?” Harry didn't like how apprehensive his voice came out.

“Mum had a baby,” he muttered. “The little runt floated out of the crib two days ago. Dad went absolutely mad. Mum told him to get rid of the little freak.”

“…levitated—”

“Either you take it, Potter, or Dad drowns it like a rat, you understand?”

Biting his lip, Harry nodded. Dudley placed the child in his arms as quickly as possible, then shook his arms as if to rid himself of an infectious disease.

“How did you find me?” The question slipped out without consent, before Harry realised he wanted – even needed – to ask it.

“Mum said she knew a freak as a kid, that he'd probably know where to find you. He lived here, she said.”

“Still does, in fact,” Harry murmured. The baby moved. “Does it have a name?”

“Meredith.”

“Oh…”

Dudley scoffed. “Take care of it, Potter.” Then he trudged down the porch, where a car was waiting.

It was the last time Harry ever saw any of the Dursleys. Two days later, when he found a letter wedged under one of the loose stones on the front steps, and it revealed Meredith's birth certificate, it was the also the last time he ever heard from them.

-x-

“Um, Severus?”

“What is it, Harry?”

The baby chose that moment to make a noise, and if he hadn't been completely terrified, he might've thought the way Severus tensed and straightened slowly, then turned around, highly comical.

“My Aunt and Uncle… Dudley just left her—” him? “—and…it's a Muggleborn, I guess?”

-x-

Two hours later, Harry winced. “Oh, God, Meredith, I am so sorry. You are a very, very masculine little boy.”

-x-

Rocking the almost asleep baby in his arms, Harry slowly came to stand next to Severus. “Severus?”

“Yes?”

“Do you remember that spell in Fourth Year? When you 'gave' me your magic?” Severus bestowed him a look that made Harry feel highly stupid. “‘Course you do. Could I do it to Meredith, too?”

Severus blinked and straightened. He pushed away from the counter he was leaning against. “Of course,” he murmured.

“What?”

“There have been cases where the children, when receiving the magic while still infantile, have been able to fully access it.”

“Really?” Harry smiled. “That's wonderful.”

-x-

“Hi, Charlie,” Harry mumbled through a yawn. “Early, are we?”

“It's…noon, Harry.” Harry blinked. “Sleep in, did we?”

“Um.” Harry shook his head. “I…I have a, a baby,” he found himself saying. Charlie stood there, a hand half-raised towards Harry’s face. “Charlie?”

He lowered his arm “A…baby?” he echoed.

Harry nodded. “Dudley came with him three days ago. My cousin.” Harry blinked again. “God, I can't believe it's been three days already…”

-x-

Eyes heavily lidded, Harry leaned against the doorway and yawned. He should've known, he supposed, or possibly even guessed, but… It wasn't logical in Harry's mind: or rather, it hadn't been but definitely was now. Of course, if Severus were to turn around and see him, he'd be snapped at and sent out of the room and back to bed, he had no doubt about that.

“You will cease gawking this minute, Harry, or I will gauge your eyes out,” the man murmured silkily without even once turning around.

Harry stiffened, and then smiled lethargically. “Sorry, sir.”

Meredith cooed, making it sound frustrated and whiny, and Harry had to duck, barely managing to not getting hit on the head by the bottle of formula speeding towards Severus' outstretched hand. He never said a word and yet the baby calmed in his arms, waving his arms just as the bottle was lowered and teat pressed against an eagerly sucking mouth.

“I believe he has your mother's hair.” Again, he spoke calmly, quietly, with a tone Harry found highly soothing.

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