This idea came to me a while ago, and I finally typed it out. Hope you enjoy!

...

Severus Snape walked down the street with a scowl on his face, frightening any Muggle into staying away. Not that they would have bothered him, anyway – they had no reason to, and they were going about their own business, anyway. That was something common in both wizards and Muggles, Severus reflected. They always had somewhere to be, something to be doing all the time. No one would stop to give him a second glance.

That was also a reason for him to be strolling down Muggle London's streets – no one knew him, and he couldn't say the same for several witches and wizards right now. Only months after the night the Dark Lord fell, former Death Eaters were viewed with suspicion - a snarky Potions Master even more than the rich and smooth-talking Lucius Malfoy.

He turned down an empty alleyway so that he could Apparate home. It was Christmas Eve and very late in the evening, and the cheer around the city made him feel sick. It had been without a doubt the worst Christmas he'd ever had – his first without Lily. He had hoped that Muggle London might be able to distract him, but it had only served to remind him of what he no longer had.

He was just turning in preparation to Apparate when he felt something. Magic. It was a calling magic – one young wizards unconsciously sent out when they felt scared or threatened. Severus had felt it before, a few times. Most of them were in the Dark Lord's service, but a couple of times it had been at school by some first years whom he had later discovered were abused at home and looking for love or even just support at school. He'd always had a talent for feeling magic.

This time, however, was different. The first and most obvious was that it was in Muggle London. Secondly, it exuded as though from only a few feet from him, but the alleyway was completely empty.

He felt the glowing tendrils of magic that reached out to him waver and blink. That had never happened before, Severus thought, except when a child was dying.

As soon as that thought crossed his mind, Severus forgot his own sorrows for a moment as he worried for the child's welfare.

Uncaring that any Muggle might walk by and see what he was doing, he pulled out his wand and cast a detection charm for any witch or wizard in the area. The glowing form of a child illuminated itself in the garbage bin stacked among all the others by the wall.

Severus almost dropped his wand in shock, but he recovered and off to hurry over to the bin where the child's form had illuminated. He lifted the lid to peer inside.

A wave of stench swam up into his nostrils, and it was only his work as a Potions Master who dealt with all manner of unpleasant smells that kept him from gagging.

Right on top of all of the garbage was a child, perhaps a year and a half old. He was dressed in nothing but a shirt much too large for him and a diaper stained yellow and oozing with feces. His lips and extremities were tinged blue, and he was covered in dirt and garbage. He had a bandage covering the right side of his forehead, which had clearly been there a while. If Severus hadn't still felt the magic calling for someone's help, he would have thought the boy dead. He was certainly close to it. He was unconscious, most likely from the cold, and his breathing was shallow.

Severus didn't want to cast anything that might cause the child's magic to fight back and potentially hurt himself, so he quickly removed his warm Muggle jacket and wrapped the child in it, uncaring for the filth. He lifted the child out of the garbage and enfolded him in his arms to try and get him warm as quickly as possible. Vowing to find the monsters who did this to the child at a later date, he spun on his heel and Apparated with a crack to his home on Spinner's End.

...

As soon as he got home, the first thing he did was set the child on the couch amongst several conjured pillows and cast several heating charms about the place. He went to get a large bowl of warm water and a couple of soft flannels, coming back to find the boy with a bit better color than before. He sighed in relief, though he knew the boy was far from healed.

He peeled the coat away from the boy and cast a quick scourgify on it before putting it aside. He removed the shirt first, and immediately saw that the boy had been starved as well as physically mistreated. There were marks like fingers on his arms and his shoulders as though he been constantly grabbed by an impatient guardian. His bones and ribs were easily definable.

Finally he removed the diaper and the wave of stench got several times stronger. All over the boy's bum and groin and down his legs was covered in his own poo. It was clearly the product of several days' worth of no diaper change. Severus was almost glad the boy was still unconscious – the sores and rash underneath the layers would probably hurt very much, and it was best that he get this cleaned and healed before the boy awakened.

So, over the next several minutes, Severus thoroughly and methodically washed all of the feces off. He found that underneath was a very bad rash and several open sores, just as he'd expected. Some of the sores were oozing pus, and he was glad to have the proper balms and creams on hand to treat it.

It was just as Severus was finishing applying the last of the healing cream that the little boy let out a small sound and opened his eyes.

Severus was immediately hit with the realization that those were Lily's eyes…and that meant that this child was none other than Harry Potter.

He waited for the wave of hate to come, but it never did. He couldn't hate a child who had been disposed of like the day's garbage – literally. Instead, he seethed with rage that – whoever Dumbledore had placed little Harry Potter with – had treated the child so cruelly.

He went through the options in his head quickly – it wouldn't have been a Dark family; Dumbledore would never want his Golden Boy in a place where he might not want to kill the Dark Lord in the future. Any Light family would have fawned over the Boy-Who-Lived relentlessly – the boy would have been more likely to be fat than starved. Grey families were never seen as particularly strong – Dumbledore wouldn't want the boy turned into a Hufflepuff.

That only left Muggles. But Dumbledore couldn't possibly have put him with Muggles – he'd never know who he was growing up, and the only Muggles to even consider –

Severus gnashed his teeth together. Of course. That was the point. Dumbledore had put Harry with Petunia so that he would never know who he was while growing up, and could be more easily molded as the hero Dumbledore needed him to be. He snarled. He didn't know what game Dumbledore was trying to play, but if he thought –

His thoughts abruptly cut off when he caught sight of those eyes again. Barely a second had passed since Harry had awakened, and the boy was still staring silently and curiously about him. Suddenly the child was so much more important than revenge on Petunia or worries on Dumbledore's sanity.

"Hey there, Harry," Severus said with a softness he didn't know he possessed. "You've got some cream on your bum to make you all better, so don't you move, alright?"

He had no idea what he was doing, talking to a boy who, in all likelihood, didn't even understand what he was saying. He was only doing what felt natural. Didn't most parents talk to their babies and young children in this way, anyway? Not that Severus ever thought he could be called a parent, but the point was the same.

"I'm just going to get this bandage off of you now, alright?" Separate said, reaching out to peel the bandage off his forehead.

"Owie," The child said, scrunching his face as the bandage peeled away from his scar.

Severus hardly glanced at the scar, seeing enough to know that it had only been covered due to its obviously magical origin.

"I do apologize," Severus said sincerely while the boy reached up a fist to rub his head.

"Now, I think the cream's set in enough," Severus said after examining the boy and finding the rash and sores all but gone. "I think it's time we got you cleaned up with a bath."

Instantly Harry's relatively calm expression shifted into one of fear and his eyes welled up with tears.

"No," he sobbed. "No baff, no baff..."

Severus was astonished by these words and the fear behind them. He wondered what memories the boy held that could give him fear of such a simple thing as a bath. Quickly he lifted him up.

"Hey, it's alright, little guy," Severus soothed. "Nothing's going to hurt you anymore – you're safe now…" He kept up a steady flow of soothing words to try and reassure the child while he cried. It didn't seem to be doing much, until finally he quieted and his cries tapered off. Severus looked down to find that he had fallen asleep.

Poor guy, Severus thought, and realized he had been absently patting the child's back the whole time.

Cradling him against his chest, Severus went to the bathroom to start up a bath for Harry. He kept the water shallow enough that when the boy awoke, he wouldn't feel so threatened by the water. He wouldn't have been surprised to find out that those horrid Muggles had tried to drown him, and that was the cause of Harry's fear.

It was as he was settling the child into the water that he awakened. Severus half expected the frightened tears of before, but Harry simply stared up at him with a wobbling lip, as though waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"We're just going to get you cleaned up now," Severus informed him calmly, dipping a flannel into the warm water. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

Gradually, as Severus washed and soaped him, Harry began to relax, until he was practically falling asleep in the water. Severus kept a hand on his back to keep him from tipping.

"There now, all done," Severus informed the boy, unplugging the tub to let the water drain out. "Can you stand up for me, Harry?"

Wobbling, Harry pushed himself to his feet, and then stood there uncertainly for a moment until Severus enfolded him in the fluffiest towel he had. Harry's face peeked out, and Severus could see Harry's wide green eyes looking at him in something like surprise.

Getting the boy dressed was relatively simple – he transfigured a couple of useless items he had lying around into a pair of pajamas; it was the diaper he had trouble with. But, after many tries, he was finally able to manage it. It was a whole separate trial to figure out how it went on the boy, but before too long Harry was standing in soft green pajamas, blinking up at him sleepily.

"You're probably very hungry," Severus announced in realization. Harry stared up at him, not saying anything, though Severus thought he saw a spark of interest in those green eyes.

So, without further ado, Severus lifted the boy into his arms, settling him to rest on his hip, and went to the kitchen to see what he could find.

No more than twenty minutes later, Severus gazed down at the sleeping child curled in his arms. A sippy cup now half full of apple juice was held limply in Harry's hand, his mouth hanging slightly open and the cup's nozzle resting just beside it. Harry had eaten through about a cup of mashed vegetables before he looked like he might throw it all back up, so Severus had quickly given him the apple juice in the hopes of keeping it all down. After only a few minutes, Harry had fallen fast asleep.

Severus unconsciously hugged the boy tighter to him, gratified to find that his skin was no longer cold to the touch. Looking down at the now rosy cheeks, his lips turned into a smile without his permission.

You're going to be just fine now, child.

...

"And that's when you decided to keep me, right?"

Severus turned to gaze down at the child snuggled against his side.

"I believe so," Severus acknowledged. "Although I think I had known it as soon as I saw you in that alley. Later on I was just more consciously acknowledging it."

The eight-year-old grinned suddenly. "And then you went and got revenge on the Dursleys," he reminded him.

Oh, yes, he had enjoyed that. While Harry had been left with Poppy Pomfrey to be sure that there was no lasting damage to the boy, he had gone to visit the horrid Muggles – "visit" being a relative term, of course. After several minutes of verbal harangues and threats, he had turned the elder Dursleys into a couple of cockroaches and let them run around like that while he calmly sipped tea in the living room. After changing them back to their shaking, terrified forms a while later, he had summoned the Muggle police. Later he found out that they been sent to prison for a sentence of 20 years for Petunia and 25 for Vernon, as he was the one to have dumped Harry in the garbage to die. Their fat son had been deposited into Vernon's sister's care.

"Yes, I did," Severus answered Harry. "And I would do it again for you."

"Aw, Dad," Harry grinned with a slight flush to his cheeks, ducking his head.

"I mean it," Severus informed him. "Although I really should have done much more to them. They certainly deserved it."

"Well, it's a good thing you didn't," Harry said. "If you'd done something really bad, Uncle Albus prolly wouldn't 've hired you as Potions Master at Hogwarts, and then you wouldn't be Head of Slytherin, and I might have someone I didn't like as my Head of House."

"Oh, so you think you'll be in Slytherin, do you?" Severus said with a quirked lip and a raised brow. "I don't know – you seem to be more Hufflepuff material to me."

Harry gasped in mock outrage. "Da-ad!" He protested. "Don't be mean!"

Severus chuckled and teased, "If I was your Head of House, that would mean I could give you double the punishment when you break the rules – as your Head of House and your dad."

Harry sighed. "Maybe Slytherin's not such a good idea, then," he only half-teased. "Guess it's Gryffindor for me - I'm not uptight enough for Ravenclaw."

Severus laughed aloud at that. Harry had learned what "uptight" meant a few weeks before and was now using it every chance he got, especially in relation to Ravenclaws. The only Ravenclaw he'd ever met was Annabelle Caster, and she was very uptight, so Harry thought all of them were like that.

"Well," Severus cleared his throat, still chuckling slightly. "Whatever House you get in, I'll always be proud of you. Even if you're not in Slytherin, you'll always be my son."

...

Yes, it's a cheesy ending. Sue me. ;) also, I apologize for any words that don't really make sense – my spellcheck is really very strict and sometimes I don't catch all of it. Please remember to leave a lovely little review!