A/N- I promise I have nothing against the name Tyler. In fact I like it enough that I named a character Tyler. The title just encapsulated the relationship well and it's a quote from the story. So, sorry...

Updated: 10.25.18

Severus replaced his spoon into his can of cold soup. It was a revolting congealed glob, but it was food, or at least a close approximation. What he wanted was a large Hogwarts feast; warm rolls and plates of succulent meat followed by desserts that were sweet enough to rot one's teeth on contact, but that wasn't to be. At least not until next year, Severus thought bitterly to himself.

Dumbledore wanted him to take old Slughorn's position after he retired at the end of the year. The Headmaster had just mentioned it the day before. Severus was to come by the school a few times a week to be trained to take the position, and he wasn't looking forward to it. But, with the end of the war, and Severus's promise, Dumbledore wanted to babysit him, and that would be easier if he were right under the old man's broken nose.

Severus sulked as he kneeled down on the floor, set the can of food aside and began to rummage through the next box of books he had carted from his last home in London. He had, against his better judgment, returned to Spinner's End. He couldn't decide how much he disliked this arrangement, but his parents had left the house to him, and now that the Dark Lord had fallen he had no connections and no chance of keeping an income, at least not until the brutal discrimination against those who had been on trial for connected crimes ended. For now, he would stay hidden in his childhood home.

Severus checked the binding on his Advanced Potions books, setting them in order, then slipped them onto the shelf closest to the floor. The higher up shelves were already full and he hadn't had a chance to clear them out or reorganize them. Under the Advanced Potions books, the box held some of his Defense Against the Dark Arts books. He wanted them on a higher shelf. He looked up for space but his search was cut short by a sudden rapping at the door.

He didn't look up; no one stopping by his home would be welcomed. They were either looking for his parents or looking for someone who no longer existed; Severus the Hogwarts Student or Severus the Death Eater. Now that he was just Severus the pet of Albus Dumbledore, no one would need to visit him.

He pulled a few potions ingredients and a few small notebooks from the box. He sighed, put the ingredients, back into the box and levitated it to the kitchen. The rapping on the door intensified, followed by someone desperately calling out his first name. That was odd in and of itself. He was so rarely called Severus. Then as he listened more closely, he realized that the voice sounded familiar, distant and from a dream, but familiar. He couldn't place it. Instead he dropped the box on the counter, walked back to the living room and pulled another box toward himself. This one was similarly filled with books, but darker ones, ones that would have been shuffled to the restricted section of the Hogwarts Library, but would fit into the Spinner's End library quite nicely. The knocking turned to fist pounding, and still, Severus ignored it.

"Severus," the voice was scratchy, pleading, "please? I heard your parents died, they gave you the house? I guess? Are you here? Sev!" The door handle rattled, and Severus looked up from his work. Who would know that information? Few Death Eaters knew or cared who his parents were, fewer Hogwarts students did. None would call him "Sev."

The voice sent ice shivering down his spine. Why was the voice so familiar, why was it making him so cold?

"Severus, I need your help, please just open the door." There was pounding again, heavy, imploring. The voice was joined with a few muffled cries, high pitched and angry. Severus flinched, feeling as if he had been burned. Those were the cries of a baby. He bolted to his feet and retreated into his kitchen, as far away from the front door as he could be.

His body knew who was at the door, even if his mind hadn't caught up. He could still hear the pounding and he was backed as far into the counter as he could be without climbing onto it. He shut his eyes and tried to block out the sound of Lily Evan's younger brother, and surely her son, at his front door.

What were they doing here?

Why!?

Lily stumbled as she dashed out of the row of trees near her home in Cokeworth. Severus was on her heals and he heard a laugh erupt from her as they tumbled onto the green grass. She rolled over and looked back into the trees. Severus watched her green eyes for a moment then turned back to the tree line. Tyler should have been rushing out after them, short, and tripping over the roots as he chased.

"Where is he then?" Severus wondered sitting up. Lily slowly stood again. This was the first time the boy had been allowed to follow them on one of their adventures after years of begging. They weren't particularly pleased. Severus tried to convince her to ditch him in the forest but Lily had been adamant that they keep an eye on him. The boy was barely five and hero-worshiped Severus. She wouldn't leave him behind.

"I don't know, I heard him a second ago." Lily put her small fists on her hips. Severus squinted into the underbrush. Something small and uncoordinated stumbled out from between two tall maple trees.

"That was awesome," it huffed kicking some brambles off its leg and stumbling over to Severus and Lily. "Where are we going now!?" it asked, beaming at Severus. Severus glared down at it with his best irritated scowl, but the child was completely undeterred. His smile was that of a naïve trusting puppy, his eyes doubly so, green and sparkling. Severus growled up at the indifferent grey sky.

"Tyler where were you," Lily asked spinning the kid toward her.

"There was a thing," he said, "and branches, and then there was a… a thing from the sky and sparklers and-" Tyler panted and Lily squinted over at Severus. He could guess he was in trouble, but it was only a few sparks and some lifted roots. The kid was really annoying after all! He looked sheepish as Tyler continued trying to explain to Lily where he was with his unsophisticated verbal skills. The boy was an idiot, but unlike the other idiots in the world, he was completely and utterly unafraid of Severus Snape.

"Did you see 'um?" he asked Severus.

"Huh?"

"Tha lizzzerds!" Tyler repeated enthusiastically.

Severus glared, Lily gave him a look so he grudgingly answered,

"I did not see the lizards."

The boy's eyes grew wide with excitement that an older boy had spoken directly to him.

"Come on Lily maybe we should just take him home," Severus said pleading with his eyes. Before he could finish his statement though, something slammed into his stomach and wrapped around his waist. The child was yelling something into his shirt. He couldn't make out what, but he could feel the vibrations of words against his grubby second-hand excuse for clothing. Severus looked like he had been stung as he tried to escape the embrace. Lily was trying to pull her brother off, but that was proving difficult as he latched himself to Severus like an excitable octopus.

"Can I stay, can I stay!" The boy begged through a mouthful of t-shirt.

"Come on Tyler, get off," Lily said.

"Moss! Release me." Severus growled, unclasping the kid's fingers from behind his back and pushing him toward Lily. She held one of his arms up in the air and the boy had the disappointed, left-at-home look on his face again. Lily turned with him to leave, then looked back over her shoulder at Severus.

"Want to walk him home with me?" she asked. Her smile from earlier had turned into a frown.

Severus shrugged and followed, not because he wanted to spend more time with Tyler, but because he didn't want to go home yet. His father would have just gotten home and would be yelling about dinner for another hour. If he waited long enough the man might fall asleep and then Severus could sneak in without having to hear a word from him that day. He tagged along behind the pair. Tyler was swinging around still being held tight by Lily. He twisted around backward to smile at Severus then ducked and picked up a rock, a twig, poked a bug on the ground. He asked several times if Severus could make a leaf change colors like he had a few weeks before. Severus grumbled that he couldn't but, inevitably, Tyler would ask for him to perform some small act of magic every time he passed another flower, or patch of leaves.

Severus had just said "no" to giving an ant wings when Tyler finally asked. "Why'd you call me Moss all tha time?"

Severus sneered and said, "because Tyler's a stupid name." Severus understood this was the perfect opportunity for the boy to reply that, "Severus was a stupid name," but the child didn't take the bait. Wasn't smart enough to.

"Tyler's my name," the boy pointed out, as if Severus were talking about some other Tyler.

"I know."

"Don't say mean things Severus," Lily said, slowing down and frowning at her friend. Severus sighed, not wanting to make Lily upset by insulting her little brother. It was a hard balancing act.

"Fine." Severus said, "I call you Moss because your sisters both have plant names and I thought it was strange that you didn't." This was the true story. He and Lily had discussed it after he found out Lily had a younger brother as well as a stiff older sister.

"That's because I was a mistake baby," Tyler said brightly, as if this were some type of compliment and not, as Severus knew he himself was, a disaster and a disappointment. Severus made a face.

"You can call me Moss though," the boy decided. "I like it."

Of course he liked it, thought Severus, the boy likes everything and everyone. He was hopeless.

"Severus I need your help, you're all I have left." Severus's legs buckled under him. It had only been a week and a half really. Since Lily had died, only a week and a half. He swallowed a lump in his throat.

Stupid kid! Stupid kid. What was he doing here, and why did he have to bring the baby? Outside the knocking had stopped, but in its place was the disturbing sound of a body falling against the door. Tyler Evans didn't sound like he was on a social call. They hadn't spoken since the Christmas before Harry was born. Severus assumed Lily had finally bucked up and told him what Severus was, either that or one of those Gryfindoor boys had slipped it to him. As much as Severus didn't want to admit it, them telling the kid he was a Death Eater was one of the worst tricks they could have played on him. But he wouldn't admit that, not even to himself. He couldn't. He readjusted against the counter and breathed. Tyler Evans was an idiot, and Severus didn't want him around when he was five, and he surely didn't want him around now.

But he had to do something.

Severus tentatively walked back into the living room. The knocking had ceased, though someone was still on the other side of the door. He could hear the creak of the hinges every few seconds, but Tyler had stopped talking. A miracle if Severus had ever heard one.

Severus picked up his sad dinner and took another bite. Time had not helped the flavor. He swallowed back the cold blob and glared at the door. The doorknob rattled, and something slapped the wood, pathetically. Maybe the boy was giving up? Severus stood there for another three painful bites, waiting for the sound to totally subside. There were a few scrapes and shuffling. The body pushed away from the door, and eventually, Tyler spoke, barely loud enough for Severus to hear.

"Severus. The light's on. I… I saw a shadow move so if you're in there. Sev, if you're in there, Listen. I know what they said about you. I can't believe it. Not totally. I trust you. I trust you because I have to because there is no one, and I mean no one else who I can trust right now. I trust you. I always have, even when Lily forbid me to see you. Things, well. Things got scary and everyone got suspicious, and we saw how that turned out, but listen I need help…"

Severus took in a deep breath of air.

"I have Harry." There was a nervous pause. "I know you know that, listen. I can't. I can't watch him tonight, for-" He took in another deep breath. "You know I'm an idiot. You've always known I'm an idiot, so just." There was another rattle on the doorknob but this one was frustrated and ended with a loud slam against the door that rattled the diploma Severus had hung from the wall. There was quiet crying and Tyler paused in his efforts to get Severus to open the door, to calm the child.

Severus placed the spoon back into what remained of his soup. The kid trusted him after everything, after Sirius's betrayal, and his sister's death. The boy still found it in him to show up to a Death Eater's porch with the child they had tried to kill in his arms.

"Severus." The voice called again.

Severus quietly set the can of soup onto an overcrowded dark wood coffee table. It wouldn't hurt to hear him out at least, maybe let him get the child out of the cold night air. He stood frozen for a moment, surprised he was even considering this, but what choice did he have?

Severus stepped over the box he had been organizing earlier and steadied himself. What was he thinking, what was he doing? He watched numbly as his hand reached out and unlocked the door, then the deadbolt, then he fished his wand out of a pocket and undid a few more security spells. The boy must be waiting with baited breath because there was no sound coming from the other side of the door. Severus steeled himself, put up a mask of indifference and slowly opened the door.

Tyler.

Moss.

Lily's Evan's baby brother stared back.

His dark hair was a ratty mess, his skin pasty and were those new scars on his cheek? The flannel shirt he wore over a dirty band t-shirt had two buttons fastened, and those were lopsided. Severus stared at the boy. He had been sturdy as a child, completely unfazed by life, by people. He was unrelentingly optimistic and shameless. Severus tried to find hints of that boy on the face of the young-man standing in front of him. Was there a trace of it in laugh lines, or in the way he stood? Not really. What he saw now was a frightened 19-year-old shivering in the November air as he curled himself around a sleeping child.

Severus shivered. Couldn't believe what he was about to do. But he would help the man in front of him, because he would have helped the boy who had followed him and Lily around, the boy who had learned magic tricks and smiled every time he saw him, even after Lily had broken off everything with him. He would do it for that.

"Come in," Severus whispered stepping back and holding the door open. Tyler almost ran over the threshold, stumbling, but breathing out in relief. He looked white as a sheet and shook on clearly weak footing.

"Thank you," Tyler exhaled. His eyes batted around, disbelieving, shock on his face as he took in his new surroundings.

"Could I offer you some tea?" Severus offered dryly, shutting the door. Tyler wasn't wearing a coat, he must be freezing.

Tyler shook his head. "I need to go very soon. Here." Tyler untangled Harry from his shoulder and made to hand him over. Severus's stomach jumped into his throat and he backed into the door bumping his head violently on the frame.

"What?" He panicked, flinching away from the child. Tyler pulled Harry back into himself and glanced toward the covered window.

"I need you to watch him for the night. Just the night. I swear, I'll be back by noon tomorrow." Tyler fidgeted with his bottom lip, betraying fear. "He's a good kid. He sleeps through the night." Tyler looked sheepish. "He used to sleep through the nights," he corrected in a mumble. There were deep purple circles under Tyler's eyes, and red around his irises.

"You want me to watch Potter's baby?" Severus said, regaining his footing both physically and verbally.

He glared at the sleeping baby.

Tyler looked confused.

"No." His face scrunched. "I want you to watch Harry. Lily and James's baby…" he flustered then added. "I really need this."

Severus shook his head and quickly darted around Tyler and into the kitchen. As he always used to, the boy followed behind.

"You can't honestly be saying 'no' because of James? Harry's just as much Lily's if not more. Just look at him. Look at his eyes for God's sake, he's got her eyes!" Tyler pleaded. Severus refused to look at the kid. He knew what Lily's eyes looked like and he didn't want reminding. Tyler looked at Severus appearing utterly bewildered and just a bit unhinged. Not angry or hurt, because he wasn't sure Tyler knew how to be those things, he just looked stunned.

Severus wondered if Tyler was even mad at Sirius for his betrayal or if he looked at the situation with the same wide-eyed wonder he was giving him now.

"I know you don't like kids but I have to leave him on your couch if you don't take him," Tyler said slowly pulling Harry back into himself. "I can't take him with me, but I promise I'll be back for him at noon tomorrow." Tyler walked back into the living room. Severus didn't want to follow at first, but the curiosity eventually got to him. This optimistic child was just dropping a baby off, he was just doing it!

Tyler was slowly settling Harry onto a sturdy place in the couch and used a rolled up throw blanket to pin him in.

"Um… at least make sure he doesn't roll off, right?" Tyler asked, his voice cracking a bit as he stood and faced Severus. "I know you haven't said yes yet, but I know you will, you're a good person… so his food is in that bag, and so are his diapers, I figure you have some spell for that, and if he's crying just hold him up to you and rock, he likes that, and anything Quidditch related is his best friend. I left his stuffed quaffle in his bag. He loves to play with that. . ." Tyler trailed off, not knowing what else to say. Severus felt a bit overwhelmed by the wall of instructions, and Tyler was looking like he was leaving his own arm with Severus. He kept reaching for his collarbone as if something was missing.

"Um if I'm not back by noon for some reason, just drop him off. Oh." Tyler reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. That's the address, and you can reach it by floo with that password." He pointed to the words on the page. "It's pretty protected at this point, but that'll get you through. I think that's everything." Tyler nodded and thanked him breathlessly.

Severus blinked up at him. And the similarity to the child Severus once knew suddenly became very obvious. It was in the way he had called on him. His lack of fear in the face of someone his sister had called enemy. His inherent trust in the goodness of people, and his belief, deep down that people would love him as much as he loved them.

Nonetheless, No!

No! He was not going to take this child for the night! What was Tyler thinking, what was going on? Before his mouth could catch up, however, Tyler was frantically looking around the room and rushing out the door again. Cold air filled the room as he flung open the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he called as he hopped off the porch step and dashed to the street, not looking back.

Severus looked down at the sheet of paper in his hand; 614 Grove St. Password: Password.

"The boy is an idiot," Severus said to himself. "And why would he need a babysitter for only one night?" The scrawny child wasn't a huge ladies man, if his youth was anything to go by. Apparently muggle girls weren't into boys who did magic tricks and read inordinate numbers of fantasy novels. And Tyler had never so much blinked an eye at boys. He wasn't fit enough for some secret muggle government organization, so what was going on?

Severus stepped up to the door and watched the boy fumble up the street to the nearest bus stop before looking up at the night sky. It would be a full moon that night, good for brewing powerful potions he realized before a second heavier thought hit him. His stomach churned, his mind flashing back to fifth year. To another too-scrawny boy.

"Werewolf," he whispered remembering the new scars on the boy's pale face. "That boy is definitely an idiot," Severus said, trying desperately to squelch, the terror that was welling in him. He shut the door.

Stepped away. After all, he had another, more pressing matter to deal with just then.

He looked over at the couch where James's child had just blinked its eyes open and lifted its tiny feet high into the air. Did it want something? Severus stepped over and looked down. Brilliant green eyes stared back.

"Shit," was all he said as he realized he had been suckered in.