Chapter Text
1981 November 16th
It was a stormy night when Dumbledore found himself in front of shabby house wondering if magic is what keeping it standing against the storm or if it got that resilient from it's only occupants,worrying line forming on his forehead
Severus Snape has missed his check in two days ago, the wards had not signaled any break in which is the only reassurance that in these walls, there might not be a dead body of a traitor death eater , Tom never looked kindly at betrayal and will make sure everyone knows the consequences of such action, silver lining thought the old headmaster
Taking a moment to scan the wards Albus finds one magical signature but it fills him with dread instead of relief, Severus signature is too weak , far too weak for him to not be hurt
Steeling himself to either being crossed and walking to a trap or to worst ,his dying spy Albus finally enters the house wand in hand ,seeing nothing at the entrance he starts casting spells non which reveals any traps (he didn't even notice he was holding his breath until the relieved sigh came out ,after several meetings with the slytherin’s delightful company he would hate to lose it)
He starts looking quickly for the hopefully not dying potion master , he would hate to lose severus when he has found his purpose even if it took endangering Lily’s life for him to see ,still Albus believes in second chances and Severus proved himself capable of care and love even if said potion master will throw a glare that could melt cauldron at him if he to hear his thoughts ,he is too far in his thoughts that he almost misses the creak that came from the stairs
Looking down from the leaky roof (he will be fixing that later for Severus )just in time to see small child descending the stairs , looking no older than 3 with pale almost blue skin that is covered by a shirt reaching to his feet that is many size too loose and big that one of the child’s bony shoulders are exposed to the chill of the storm (Albus knows that no child’s bones should be that obvious ) which would explain the threadbare blanket clutched in his small trembling hand while the other rub at one eye while the other too focused watching his own steps .
Severus's dark onyx eye
Mama are you back?
That seems to bring Albus out of his shock which also what took the child (little severus?severus’s son?) to realise he is not his mother. they stand there staring at each other ,frozen in time Albus found himself for the first time in many years too shocked for words so he does what he do when he wants to buy himself time to think (No Minerva I am not addicted to lemon drops and NO Severus they are not laced with veritaserum!) he gets few lemon drops out of his pocket and offer them to the child
Which was enough for said child to collect his wits and run away from the stranger that got in his house,only to trip on his oversized shirt … Albus on instinct tried to get closer to help which got the effect of scaring him further that he hid in the closest small cabinet he was able to reach
“i am sorry my boy please be at peace i have no intention to hurt you “ hurried Albus to say only to be met with the sound of a panicked shallow breath from the cabinet,sigh that is … a predicament to say the least ,it seems Severus either somehow de-aged himself or became a father which is somehow more unlikely than the de-aging theory. seeing for that to be true the child has to be conceived during his sixth year and as much that severus is a genius, no one can get all O in seven subjects and become the youngest potion master in wizarding britain with a child under their care (and part of Albus likes to hope that Severus will not see it necessary to hide his child from him or the staff at Hogwarts )
He more importantly needs to get him out from the cabinet before anyone from the other side gets the same idea as Albus and check on the potion master ,he can't investigate to see if he can find anything that will reverse Severus state cause leaving severus here in the small cold cabinet is out of question but at the same time the child don't seem more inclined to open the door anytime soon, time to let someone in the know it seems
he racks his brain for who he can call for help that will appease the frightened child,Molly Weaslly is the obvious best choice with children , but she is currently pregnant and can't apparate at this stage of pregnancy , he can only think of one person who is not on a mission or in hiding and he can trust not to be cruel to Severus (Albus will shave his beard before allowing anyone to be cruel to the small frightened child in the cabinet former death eater or not )
Time to contact Remus Lupin