Disclaimer: All belong to J.K. Rowling

The 365 Prompts Challenge: #138 - First Line - This wasn't supposed to happen from Hogwarts School of Wichcraft & Wizardy (Challenges and Assignments)

AU: Everyone is alive. Snape and Lily reforms their friendship and he helps her out when she's busy taking care of her husband, James Potter, who has PTSD combines with a Dark spell that messes with his mind.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Snape eyed the young boy who stood in front of his broken house in Spinner's End with an eager look. Tiny Potter. He scowled, continuing to watch the boy who now smiled like an idiot. Many thoughts ran in Snape's head but the most was the motive of James Potter. He failed to understand why would his enemy would want his son roaming around in this neighborhood and especially in his company, Severus Snape, again.

"What do you want?" Snape arched an eyebrow, challenging the boy to speak something utterly stupid. And he did.

"Diagon Alley!" The boy clumsily went through his pocket and held out the Hogwarts letter that Snape was very familiar with.

Snape's face was as dark as his black clothes. He hated the Potters. He hated the kid. He hated short answer without a proper structure. He hated… he basically hated everything about that boy, except… her. His disapproved look continued to penetrate the boy, trying to scare the hell out of him.

"Where's your parent?" He needed to know the truth, but it was more for his own curiosity. There was no way in hell that both Lily and her husband would let their children in his care, multiple time.

"Dad's having another episode," the boy's voice suddenly dropped. "Mom needs to stay with Dad for the day and aunt Petunia refuses to have anything to do with our kind."

That's rich. Episode. Why don't you just say that he's going crazy again? Snape scowled, unable to find any joy in this particular situation. He might be feel something if the tiny Potter would not show up continuously time after time since his father's sickness began to get worst. Beside, he promised her to take care of this brat while she took care of her husband. Merlin! He hates that word.

"Let's go," Snape spoke barely audible but the boy used to his low voice.

A few minutes later, Severus Snape found him trailed after a very happy boy. Everything could have fanciated the boy. He could not understand why he had agreed to help Lily out when she came to his door few years ago. If he had known this was how he needed to deal with everyday, he would have slammed the door to her face. Also, he did not want to linger in Diagon Alley for too long because someone might notice him and the boy. He did not want to hear another stupid rumor of him having a kid without married again. And besides, the boy was making him going crazy with the same question for the million time.

"How does…" the boy began his question, but soon ended quickly as Snape dragged him away from the shop.

"If I hear one more word from your mouth, Potter, you will never ever set another foot in my house again. Understood?" Snape bend down to the boy's level, threatening dangerously. Their face was so close, the boy could see the blue veins appeared on Snape's forehead.

The boy inhaled sharply and nodded his head multiple times, indicating he understood the message very clearly. He knew uncle Severus was not a very friendly one, but the man never did anything to harm him. He might speak ills of his father and his other uncles, but he always agreed to help his mother when she was at her end. He has his high and down. His mother told him one time when he asked her of why uncle Severus never looked happy. Nevertheless, he liked uncle Severus a lot, which he could not explain the reason behind it. Following quietly behind the man, the boy noticed that his robe was very large and billowing magnificently. It was not the first time he noticed the robe, but it was the first time he could see how big the robe was. It would be awesome to hide under it, would it? The boy curiously wondered.

By the end of the day, Snape and the boy retreated back to his small library in his house, waiting for his mother to come. The boy brought everything he needed for his first year and Snape helped him out with some of the supplies. He had not told the boy that he would be one of his teachers. For some reasons, that idea did not look pleasant in his mind, so he decided not to tell the boy and let him figure it out when he came to Hogwarts. And he did not want to give the boy the impression he would be treated differently.

"What do you want now?" Snape asked annoyingly, noticing the boy kept staring at him since they left the Diagon Alley.

The boy looked surprise and nervous. His eyes wandered back and forth, trying to avoid Snape's gaze, which refused to move away.

"I want… May I…" the boy failed to form a full sentence again. "May I hide under your robe, uncle Severus? Please!"

Uncle Severus. Snape inhaled sharply upon hearing the boy addressed him. He hated it. He refused to acknowledge the title and threatened him if he continued to call him so. However, the sneaky boy actually said that title in front of her mother and she looked… happy. Damn!

"My robe?" Yet, the boy's answer took him by surprise. His eyes quickly dashed to the robe which hung loosely on the coat rack. When his eyes moved back to the boy, they narrowed into a thin line. "Why?"

The boy smiled shyly. His fingers were playing nervously on his laps. "It looks really big when you… billow it. It's like a big wing… bat's wings. I like bat's wings."

Snape's face twitched again. Dear Merlin! I definitely need to talk with Lily about this. He suddenly had a strange urgent to strangle the boy, but his moral was still visible enough for him to restrain from doing so. Bat? Bat's wings? He did not fail to notice the excitement in the boy's eyes as he described his robe. He wondered if the boy knew about his nickname in school would he be that exciting again. Nevertheless, he put his hatrest of the boy's father and the boy's personality to aside and agreed to the stupid request. He's Lily's boy after all.

So that was how Lily found them in the backyard where Severus was reading a book and Harry played around with his robe or more like he was hiding under it. Somehow, seeing Severus interacted with Harry made her heart hurt a little bit more each time. They had their high and low, but in the end, he was always there for her. Even when she would never be his, he remained to be her silent friend.

"Mommy!" Harry ran to his mother's arms and hugged her tightly. "I have so much fun today, mom. Uncle Severus took me to all the shops in Diagon Alley. He even let me hide under his robe. His robe's so big, you can hide a house in there."

"Kid, don't exaggerate," Snape spoke warningly but not dangerously as he used to. "Lily."

"Sev, thanks for helping me out today," she greeted back.

"You know I always will," he told her without failing to give her small smile. "How's Potter?"

"The healer says that he needs to attend more sessions," her eyes moved away from his gaze. "He still refuses to share of what happened to him during the months he was imprisoned by Voldemort. He needs to talk."

"What's about the dark spell? Can they do something about it?" he actually felt sorry for her, a young mother with a kid and a husband whose mind was in and out multiple times a day. It was not life anyone want to live, especially her.

"Not at the moment," she shook her head as tears began to build up. However, she tried to hold them back. "Thanks again for everything, Sev. I will take Harry back now."

"No problem," he said. "If you… need anything else, just let me know. Okay?"

"Okay."

The young woman covered her son in another layer of coat, leading the boy out of Snape's backyard. His eyes followed her until she disapparated away. He closed his eyes and breathed out heavily. He could not stand to watch her like that. He needed to do something, even it would mean to save the man he hated for most of his life. Snape walked back inside his house as the wind picked up its speed. Tomorrow would be a new day for both him and the Potters.

A/N: A friend asked me to write a little story based on an fanart, where little Harry hid under Snape's robe while he was sitting. So I combined her request and a prompt. Enjoy and have fun while reading. Love!

Here is the link to the fanart: data whicdn com / images / 221333728 / superthumb . jpg