A Father's Love

A Father's Love

*

The Father's Rage

*

For some time, Severus just stared at his husband and the little child, stunned. Then, however, he pointed his wand at the now trembling Dursleys. "Explain," he snarled sharply.

"I -- I don't know how this happened," the whale of a man stuttered. "On his birthday the brat just changed. Previously he had the most hideous mess of black hair and freaky green eyes. I don't know what happened, he must have done some of his freaky stuff all on himself!"

"And that 'freaky stuff' surely explains those bruises, or his obvious malnutrition, or the fact that he was locked up in a cupboard," spat the former Death Eater. "Believe me, Dursley, you're not going to get out of this easily. Not easily at all."

Meanwhile, Remus was cooing at the little boy. "Don't cry, little one," he muttered, wiping away the tears that again started to run down the boy's face. "Don't cry, Jeremy. We've come to take you away. Nobody's going to hurt you again."

"His name is not Jeremy," the woman dared to argue. "His name is Harry. Harry Potter," she then added, obviously disgusted at even the name itself.

"You just said that nobody with that name lives here," Severus mentioned coolly. "Believe me, Dursley, this will not be good when we contact the Wizarding authorities." Turning then towards Remus and the tiny boy in the werewolf's arms, he asked, "What's your name, boy?"

For a moment, the tiny boy Remus called Jeremy -- and who most probably was just that -- was quiet. Then he said quietly, "I -- I don't know."

"What do your Aunt and Uncle call you, then?" asked Remus gently, hugging him and blowing a strand of hair from his tear-stained face. "Tell me, dear. What do they call you?"

"They call me the boy," answered the little one shyly. "Or freak."

It took all self-control Severus had not to turn Dursleys into mice and feed them to his pet snake. "You're a dead man, Dursley," he muttered quietly. "You maybe don't realize it, but you're a dead man. You just mistakenly assume that you're still alive."

Vernon Dursley was a cowardly man who never fought with somebody who might win him -- and in his mind, all wizards belonged to this category. As a cowardly man, however, he was like all his kind, and liked attacking when the enemy had their back turned towards him. Considering Remus occupied enough with the little child in his arms, he flung forward, wrapping his fingers around Severus's throat from behind. The Potions Master dropped his wand in shock, struggling to breathe in the huge man's grip. Despite his magical skills, Severus had never been very strong physically, so even though he clawed at the fat fingers with all his might, he could not free himself of the Muggle's suffocating hands.

However, that was when Remus stepped into the picture.

It's always a bad idea to attack a werewolf. But it's a very bad idea to attack a werewolf's pack member. Fast as lightning, Remus had Dursley pinned against the wall, his wand grinding at the man's throat. The boy -- Jeremy -- was now beside him instead of in his lap, clutching tightly on the hem of his robes. "One step nearer to him, Dursley," the werewolf hissed venomously. "Take one more step towards him, or touch him one more time, and I swear you'll be dead."

"You'd better believe him," Severus commented lazily, quickly using his ordinary cool attitude to cover the shock of having been surprised in such a way. "I've seen him kill before. He's good at it, but not too fast. And that is not a good thing to whomever he has decided to kill."

Petunia Dursley's eyes widened as she heard his words, and she shrieked. "Don't kill him!" she begged.

"I should," Remus said coldly. "I should for all that he's done to this innocent child. Maybe I should kill you, too," he added with a sharp glance to her direction. This made her whimper and cover back a little. "Fortunately to you, though," added Remus, taking a short step backwards and glaring at Vernon, "I am more a human than you. Even though I am a werewolf --" he noticed with cruel amusement that the woman flinched, "-- even though some don't even count me a human, I'm going to behave like one and let you live." With this, he took another step back and lowered his wand, although he kept it ready all the time.

"Attempted murder," snapped Severus, resisting the urge to touch his throat, where, like he knew very well, large handprints were already forming. "Add that to obviously continuous neglect and child abuse, Dursley, and you'll spend a long time in Azkaban."

"Azkaban?" spat the man. "What is that? Some of your freak places, eh?"

"Exactly," Severus said, smiling the cruelest of his smiles. "A prison of our kind. I'm sure you will enjoy your time there -- with all the friendly Dementors guarding you." To his great satisfaction he noted that the woman paled even further. Obviously she'd heard from her now dead sister what Dementors were.

"We're going to take you away from here now, Jeremy. Is there something you would like to keep from here? Some toy, perhaps?" asked Remus then gently, concentrating on the boy again.

"No toys," muttered Jeremy. "No toys for bad boys." Oblivious to the hard glint in both Remus's and Severus's eyes -- directed at the Dursleys, though, and not at him -- he then added shyly, "Will you really take me away? I won't have to return here?" When Remus merely nodded determinedly, his wary smile grew a lot brighter. Then he said, "I want to go. I only need my blanket."

"Then we'll get your blanket." Remus started to follow the boy while Severus kept the Dursleys steadily at a wand point, not wanting a repeat of the previous attack. From the corner of his eye he saw as Jeremy disappeared into the cupboard -- oh, Dursley was so going to pay for that one! A cupboard locked from the outside for a little child to live in, that alone should have amounted to a Dementor's Kiss! -- and then reappear, an old, worn-out blanket in his hand, clutching it against his chest like a precious treasure. What, like he suspected, it was to the boy -- most probably the only thing he had all to himself.

"We go now?" asked Jeremy shyly. "Where we go? And who are you? How do you know my name?"

"Yes, we are going now," the werewolf assured him, smiling at his curiosity. "We're going to go to Hogwarts, and a nice woman called Poppy Pomfrey will check you, she's a nurse. And I, well, I am your dad." With a brief smile and a nod to Severus's direction, he added, "Severus, he is your father."

"Oh!" Jeremy's eyes widened. Obviously the possibility of having two fathers was almost too much to his little child's brains. After a moment of thinking, he asked, "Why did you come here?"

"Because somebody told us to," Severus said, deciding to participate in the conversation at last. "Somebody who is called Albus Dumbledore."

"Who is he?" asked Jeremy. Seemingly he was just as curious as Remus at worst, Severus noted.

"He is an old man," he replied, "who likes sweets. And who," he added then, a very dangerous glint in his eyes, even worse than the one that had been directed to the Dursleys, "has a whole lot of explaining to do."

Jeremy did not ask anything else, he just nodded. Seemingly he had enough sense not to question anything when Severus had his dangerous expression. Hopefully he also understood that it didn't mean danger to him.

*