I Will Always Be With You

Dog

Severus looked at the child who was shyly trying to bury himself on his chest "Lupin... is not the best moment... we will talk... just not now" Severus was terrified, but he understood the sense of responsibility that the wolf felt towards his son, he was not the only one to lose someone during that terrible day.

"I will contact you when we are ready" he nodded briefly at his own statement, Lupin had this understanding look on his eyes "is Harry ok?" the wolf asked as if it was the most important matter in the world "he could be better but yes, he will be fine" after that they headed to Hagrid's hut, after all the wolf seemed to have finished and the half-giant would cheer even the darkest days.

Father and son walked down the path during which Harry shyly declared that he wanted to walk by himself, like the first time they walked through the gardens in Hogwarts, Severus smiled at the boy and let him explore, well, all the exploring that looking around while tightly holding Severus' hand would let him, not because Severus didn't let him go by himself, but because Harry was too insecure to not be holding Severus all the time.

Once they were in front of the small house Severus knocked twice on the heavy wooden door and Hagrid was heard inside, they waited for a couple of seconds before the door was opened "Professor Snape! So good to see yah, I thought yah were Remus" Hagrid said without noticing the little boy that was now hiding behind his father.

"I just wanted to introduce you to someone very special" he said gently pushing Harry in front of him "Harry, may I introduce you to Hogwarts ground keeper Hagrid, he looks really big but he is the most loving person in this castle" Harry tried to be brave and, without taking his hands out of his father and his bunny Dante said a small "nice to meet you." Hagrid looked like he was about to cry, he had been waiting for little Harry to come to Hogwarts from the day he left him at his aunt's care "it's very nice to meet yah too 'arry, please, come in, I'll prepare tea" Severus smiled down to his boy, squishing his hand in an encoring gesture.

They sat at the table with warm tea in front of them "not that I'm gonna complain, but how's little 'arry 'ere?" Hagrid asked while petting Fang who may have smelled Harry's wariness because he hadn't done anything that could have potentially scare the little boy. "I adopted Harry yesterday, I went to the Dursley residence yesterday to see for myself if Harry was treated well, once it was obvious that the Dursley are not suitable guardians, I took him" Severus explained leaving out the dreams of Lily and James.

Hagrid smiled sadly, hearing that such a sweet boy was in a bad household was saddening but he recovered quickly, 'Severus Snape with a child, well, that will be interesting' he thought while trying to understand why everyone thought about Severus as an evil man, he has committed mistakes but the fact that Harry could trust him made all of the difference in Hagrid's book, not that he thought that he was a bad person from the start, he knew Severus, the real Severus.

They spent quite some time on Hagrid's hut having a nice daily conversation while Harry got used to fang and started to pet him slowly, the big dog let him take his time and when he felt the child calmed enough he licked his face playfully, Harry froze for a second before he started to laugh hysterically. The adults stopped talking to watch the little boy play with the huge dog, after a while, the little one got tired and ran back to his dad's arms.

"It was a pleasure Hagrid, we will come back soon," Severus said while picking Harry up "yea, of course, come right in whenever yah want" little Harry waved goodbye to the half-giant and his dog sleepily.

Once back at their quarters Severus needed to have a small talk with his son about a certain wolf that walked around Hogwarts, he sat the little boy in the sofa and sat on the armchair to its right, he needed to keep his emotions on check, so he wouldn't worry his little one.

"Harry... Mr. Lupin would like to meet you" he saw his son's worried face "you have nothing to fear little one, neither for my sake nor yours, Remus Lupin was your parent friend and I don't want you to miss on a gentle figure to look up to because of my fears, which I am sure will fade away as soon as I am able to talk to Mr. Lupin about the incident" by the end of his speech Harry had climbed out of the sofa and gotten with him in the armchair breaking the serious atmosphere. "You are not leaving me, right dad? If I go with Mr. Lupin, right?" Severus hugged his little boy "of course not brat, you are stuck with me forever" Severus smiled slightly and kissed the boys forehead "then I will talk with him... can I sleep now, dad?" Severus nodded and carried his little one to his bed for a nap, after all, it had been a long day.

While Harry slept Severus floo called the wolf, maybe welcoming him to his home the very first time they properly talked wasn't a good idea, but he needed to get over his traumas as soon as possible so his son could enjoy the presence of the other man.

Once Remus was in the room he sat on the armchair opposite to Severus' "I really appreciate what you are doing Severus, I understand that is hard to invite someone like me into your house, especially after what I did to you... I am sorry for that day, and let me tell you I didn't know that Sirius had talked to you... he wasn't supposed to tell anyone... I am not trying to-."

Severus cut Remus rumbling with a gentle hand gesture "I... it's fine... really, and about not accepting people 'like you' into my house... you are not like Fenrir, you know that, right? If you are here is because I trust you enough to be near my son, Lily trusted you to do so, and Dumbledore does too... so may as well do so too" Severus took a deep breath trying to calm the panic inside him before talking again "Harry wants to talk to you and I want you to be there for him, tell him about James because my memories of him are not the best... I was not in a good place when I started Hogwarts and every memory of that time, except for Lily, is long buried in my mind..." he didn't want to get into too much detail, just enough so Remus would understand.

Remus was about to cry, Severus was letting him have time with the only person left for him, even about what he had done to the man, he had been years without any news from Harry, nothing at all, it was hard sometimes. "you said he was ok... what happened to him, Severus?" he asked not lifting his head "the psychological abuse is the worst of it... it's the hardest to overcome and heal... but he is a strong kid... he will be fine, he needs us, but he will be fine" Severus seemed to be reassuring himself more than reassuring his guest, in another gesture of trust he stood up and went to the kitchen, showing Remus how willing was to let him slither into his life slowly, once he came back he poured the tea and handled one to Remus, noticing that he had way more scars that when they were children "are you drinking wolfbane?" at Remus' shake of the head he nodded, he didn't need to ask why, the wolf's clothes and his skinny figure talked by themselves "I will start brewing the potion, don't worry, you'll not have painful transformations anymore" the broke Remus completely, he started crying.

A/N: Sorry for the delay, I was moving out of the country so I didn't have much time at all, but I am finally settled in, Hope you liked this chapter!