“You quit? Just like that?” Lily asked with surprise in her voice.

“No matter how I spun it, I just didn’t enjoy doing it anymore.” Severus responded before taking a small sip of his tea. “I might not quite know what to do next…but…” but nothing, he quit his freelance gig out of frustrations without really thinking of the soon to come consequences. How in the world could he have forgotten to research other potentially less draining professions before officially closing down?

Lily crunched down on a sugar cookie. “Well, good on you! I think it’s good to choose your happiness over money…What’ll you do about food and water though? I mean, I assume you’ve saved up of course but…”

“I’ve got enough for the rest of autumn,” although he might have to skip dinner for a while. “Perhaps I might do something smaller, a part-time job or-”

Severus was interrupted by a sudden thumping sound followed by a scream from upstairs. Lily and him rushed to the stairs and walked into Harry’s room. The boy held his head which had grown a large, red bump. He sat in the middle of his room and it didn’t look like he’d fallen from somewhere.

“Ooh! My poor baby…” Lily said as she picked the boy up and held him in her arms. “Did you get an ouchie?”

“...Uhm, Lily, what are you doing?”

Lily turned to Severus, confused at the question. “Comforting him of course, he’s all scared and shivering.”

“Of course, it makes sense that you would do that…” Severus began. “But aren’t you going to perform a spell that could ease the pain?”

The redheaded woman blinked for a while before slapping her forehead with her palm. “Right! Jeez, sometimes I get so busy that I forget all about magic.” Lily handed the boy over to Severus. “Hold on, I’ll just get my wand real quick.”

As soon as she was gone, Severus panicked. This was the first time Severus has held Harry, hell, it was the first time he’s held such a young child in his arms in general. Harry was oddly small for his age, much shorter and slimmer. Due to his slow and minimal eating habit he must not get enough nutrition for the amount of growth demanded in these early years.

The child felt really light in Severus’ arms, soon the older man felt himself relax more. 

Harry’s eyes were stained a shade of red from crying earlier, but he calmed down quickly, wearing the usual neutrality on his visage. “How’d you hurt yourself, little one?” Severus asked, not actually expecting an answer and more so attempting to comfort the kid in his own way, as he’s sure Harry isn’t all too keen on hugging Severus like he would with his parents.

The child stretched out palm and started moving it up and down…So something was falling, that something being Harry, that was pretty clear already. “Did you fall off something?” Severus asked again. The boy nodded, pointing at the ceiling. “...Oh dear, you must’ve levitated by accident.” Magical children born to powerful families were especially prone to accidental spells, some of them don’t even have to think about it before something magical happens.

“Found it.” Lily said as she walked back into the room. 

She waved her wand in circular motions close to where the bump had formed. Lily gently stroked the back of Harry’s head, the boy shied away at first, but after he noticed any lack of pain he leaned into her petting instead. Lily looked between Severus and Harry for a while before making a noise of confusion. “Is something amiss, Lily?” Severus asked. 

“Usually Harry dislikes being held by others, it’s rare to see him so calm with someone aside from James and I.” The woman explained, scooping Harry back into her arms. She let out a short chortle. “We haven’t had a chance to go out much lately because of that…James is iffy about leaving him alone with babysitters anyhow, but it would be nice to sometimes have a break from…” Lily shook her head. “N- Nevermind…”

James had been absent during this visit, in fact, Severus had seen the man rarely around the home after summer had ended. Lily explained how his job has flexible hours so he tends to work more during the afternoons and evenings.

Mr. Potter was not the only thing absent however, ever since Severus stepped inside the home he noticed a very large change in the decoration. Every single box that used to litter the home had disappeared. There was but a single one left in Harry’s room, otherwise the house was cleaned.

Perhaps Harry has grown out of his “hiding in boxes” phase…It’d be nice if that was the answer. Severus wasn’t sure whether or not to ask his friend about it.

Surely it’s not a big deal, it was just a bunch of cardboard. From what Severus knows, it’s not exactly difficult to get material…but did they throw it away because Harry no longer had use for it, or are they trying to force him to grow away from the habit?

…It wasn’t Severus’ business in the end, so it’s not like he has to know the truth.

It was near the end of October and Severus had still not found a new occupation. For most of September he spent his time having a sort of mini vacation, rereading the several, dusty novels that lay on his shelves while relaxing in bed. The large amount of free time outside of his home was spent at the Potter abode. 

Lily was delighted with the company and the help that Severus had done around the home, since had not much else to do he would help her with the housework and even started tending to their garden. James found it odd but ultimately didn’t complain about Severus’ free maid service.

With every new day that passed Severus was noticing that he was basically the only one visiting the Potter family. Lily didn’t have many personal friends outside of James’ circle and her remaining blood related family member had cut her off, James’ circle however seemed to still have some sort of in-group drama going on so none of them contacted the couple. 

Neither Lupin, Black nor Pettigrew ever showed and the pair didn’t comment on it. Lily would complain sometimes, worrying about Lupin especially, aside from James she and Lupin had probably the second closest relationship among the group.

There was one time where James had gotten a bit tipsy and reminisced about all the mischief Sirius and him would get up to. He eventually fell asleep on the couch, still giggling and mumbling to himself.

“Sev! Take a look!” Lily said to him with her head poking out from the door.

He headed to the living room where James and Lily had decorated the space with plastic pumpkins that floated in the air. Tiny little ghost ornaments flew back and forth and the regular carpet had been replaced with one that had some sort of purple monster on it.

Right between Lily and James stood Harry, dressed as a bumble bee. “Doesn’t he look adorable?” Lilly swooned, pinching one of the wings of the costume and shaking it. “Our sweet little buzzy bee~!”

Severus let out a chuckle. The costume was a bit too large on the boy and he ended up looking like a big round, yellow and black ball. “Are you gonna be trick or treating this year?” Severus asked.

“Hmm…Not yet, Harry still seems too young.” Lily responded. “But no one’s too young to dress up like an absolute cutie pie!”

Harry grasped at his costume and looked down at the ground, his cheeks were bright red. Seems the outfit was embarrassing for the young one. Lily continued raving on about how adorable Harry had looked, James however, he was looking rather grim. The shorter haired man eventually left to head for the kitchen.

Lily glared at him and let out a near growl as she heard the sound of a bottle getting opened. “Severus, could you go play with Harry in his room for a bit?” She handed Harry over to him and headed towards James.

Snape felt his throat tighten, it was happening again.

He headed up with Harry and closed the door. The walls of the home were thick so anything they heard from downstairs was highly muffled to the point where you couldn’t even tell who was talking.

Harry sat down on his bed while Snape looked out the window for a while. Most of the muggle homes looked the same as always but certain windows had at the very least a little decor to fit the oncoming holiday. Things such as banners and pennant streamers that wore the clothes black and orange, and at least one home had a Frankenstein’s monster balloon in their yard.

“Harry, would you like to see the-” When Severus turned back to the boy in the bee costume he had begun weeping, tears staining the costume. “O- Oh dear…” He sat next to the boy and slowly began stroking his back, this was supposed to help but Harry continued sniffling. Despite his tears the boy continued trying to hold his face stuck in its default state, even with his lips wobbling and his eyes flooding with tears he didn't want to show whatever was going on with him. Eventually he tried hiding his face in his hands but the tears still spilled and dripped out of his palms.

Severus kept quiet, Harry never seemed to like it whenever someone tells him “It’s ok” or “Don’t cry”. Harry continued crying and Severus stayed with him. The older man eventually reached closer and he held the boy tighter. Harry had noticed the act and took it further, pushing his head against the man’s stomach while wrapping his arms around Snape’s waist.

“...Your costume looks really nice.” Severus suddenly said, almost unconsciously. Harry didn’t look up, but his sniffles quieted down soon after.