Severus Snape lived a solitary life. He lost his best friend when he was 16 years old. Lily Evans had been his life since he was 9. Suddenly after one horrible mistake she had cut him off her life forever. Now 26 years old, he was alone, he had become a bitter man, a cynic without any happiness. Yes, he had the respect of his colleagues but he was sad. Spinner's End was even more depressing during the holydays. He sat in his favorite armchair looking through the window. There were kids playing around and yelling at each other. Severus did not understand how these children were so carefree and most of all happy. It was freezing cold, and a blizzard was to come down in a couple of hours. Something disrupted his musings, a little figure was crossing the street, a boy, he could not have been older than 5 years old.

Snape decided that it was none of his business that the boy was alone or that he only seemed to be wearing a light coat or that his shoes seemed too big for his age. Ordinarily Snape would have poured himself another shot of firewhisky and leave the boy be but the other children seemed to have noticed the strange boy and started teasing him. Snape could hear them taunting the little boy. Suddenly the children ran away, the little boy had started what seemed to be a small circle of fire around him. Snape immediately got to his feet, opened the door and went for the child. He crossed the street and grabbed the child. The child startled and tried to fight Snape off but the little boy was no match for Snape's strength. He managed to get the boy inside his house.

-"Who are you? Where are your parents and how many times have you done that in front of the muggles?" Asked Snape.

The boy seemed frightened by Snape and remained quiet.

-"Do not make me look into your mind", said Sanpe in his most terrifying classroom voice. Of course Snape knew performing legimency on a child was illegal but the child did not.

The child remained quiet, he kept looking down, and finally Snape looked at him and performed legimency. What Severus Snape saw in the little boy's head appalled him. A woman who seemed strangely familiar had abandoned the boy that afternoon. He went deeper and saw the child serving a family of three and sleeping in a cupboard, he saw the child crying himself to sleep. It was extremely sad for Snape to see this. He had parents who had neglected him and a lot of times he had cried himself to sleep after his parent's arguments. Snape saw blurred glimpses of a redheaded woman, the mother perhaps and he heard her singing a lullaby to a small child.

-"Sleep well Harry…"

Harry, that name haunted him Lily had named his boy that. He wondered how Harry Potter was probably playing with Petunia's boy. He had tried to inquire about the boy's welfare but Dumbledore had been tight lipped about the boy's location. Snape continued seeing the boy's memories. He saw the woman putting the little boy in a crib when out of nowhere the door was violently opened by a cloaked figure. Snape could have recognized that figure anywhere; it was a major character in his nightmares. It was the Dark Lord. Suddenly all the pieces made sense, the boy was Lily's. The familiar woman was Petunia. This little boy was Harry Potter. The realization that the boy who was supposed to be sheltered and pampered had been abandoned created a boiling rush of anger within Snape.

Harry noticing the stranger's rage cowered and hid himself behind Snape's armchair. He knew those glares it meant that he was getting in trouble. For the life of him he could not understand why everyone hated him. He was always going without food, being insulted by his relatives. He was a freak and he knew it, he could make strange things happen around him. He could create fire to protect himself. It was not the first time that the fire protected him. Yesterday Dudley had chased him with his gang playing Harry-hunting. Unfortunately aunt Petunia had seen the fire. She did not say anything but the next day she had said she needed help with the shopping and decided to take Harry with her. Aunt Petunia had gone into the supermarket and he never come back. Harry had wandered around all day until the children in the street had teased him, then the stranger had grabbed him.

-"Harry don't hide, I won't hurt you"

-"I swear, my name is Severus Snape and I knew your mother"

That did it for Harry, if the stranger knew his mother then probably he was not bad at all

-"You, you knew her?

- "Yes, yes we were friends" If he spoke to the boy about his mother than Harry would probably trust him a little and come out.

Severus Snape spent three hours talking about Lily Evans, finally Harry came out of his hiding place and looked into the stranger's eyes.

When Snape had performed legimency he had failed to see those beautiful emerald eyes. Now he saw them and decided that no matter what he would protect this boy and give him the attention and love he had been denied. Yes he would do it for Lily, after all he was Lily's boy.