Because You Love Me

7. The Boy Who Lived

Morning came swiftly.  Alaina was the first one to wake up, due to the subtle cooing of her nephew.  Harry was wide awake in his crib when she glanced over at him.  She smiled as she rose and smoothed her hair down.  She got up and went over to him, picked him up, and held him close.  The nightmare of the night before flashed through her mind, but she willed herself not to cry again.  Harry grabbed a strand of her hair and tugged on it playfully.  She snatched it from him before he could put in his mouth, which is where it had been headed.  For a toddler, he was extremely quiet, Alaina thought as she stared at him intensely.  Of course after what he had experienced, she wouldn't be surprised if he never made any kind of noise again.  He frowned at her as his stomach made a gurgling noise.  She giggled.

"We have to get you something to eat," she told him.

She walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.  There were only a few items inside, meats and containers of nothing she recognized, none of which would be appetizing or digestible for Harry.  She held him out in front of her.

"We're going to have to go get something.  Or wait until we get to Hogwarts."  She looked up at the clock on the wall.  "Speaking of, we need to go see what's keeping Severus.  Well, I do anyway."

Alaina returned Harry to his crib, kissing him on the top of the head as she lowered him inside.  She took a deep breath and made her way back through the small house.  When she had fallen asleep, he'd been next to her.  She wondered why he left.  She pushed the thought out of her mind.  He probably couldn't handle being close to her.  She was bound to remind him of Lily.  She stepped lightly in case Severus was still sleeping.  He deserved a little respect after all he had done for her in the past twenty-four hours.  He had saved her life twice now.  She could see why he and her sister had gotten along so well for a few years. Lily would always save lives when she could.  They were somewhat alike in that aspect, putting others before themselves.

She reached the first door in the hallway and reached for the knob, hesitating slightly.  She didn't like snooping through Severus's house, but she had to find him.  It was already ten in the morning and Harry was bound to be hungry.  She held her stomach.  Come to think of it, she was a little hungry herself.  She hadn't eaten at all after her trip home from the hospital.  She'd been too nervous.  She let herself inside the room, that thought still on her mind.

The door creaked open slowly.  It was pretty obvious upon first glance it wasn't a bedroom and Severus wasn't inside either.  The room looked more like a dungeon than anything else, and it smelled musty like one.  The walls were concrete and lined with wooden shelves.  Glass vials and books occupied the shelves, but the thing that drew her attention more than anything was the collection of cauldrons in the corner, displayed carefully on metal shelves in the back of the room. There were many different kinds, including brass, copper, and pewter.  They were labeled just as she noticed the glass vials were.  There was a stack of journals on the table standing in the center of the room.  It appeared Severus was working on something.  She guessed it was probably where he spent most of his free time.  It was obvious he had an aptitude and a talent for potions.  Someone who wasn't good to some degree in making them wouldn't have spent all the time and energy it must of took him to set up a work room like this one, she reasoned.

Alaina slipped out, closing the door back.  She moved on quietly down the hall.  She checked three more rooms before she found the right one.

The bedroom turned out to be the last room in the hall.  Her hands shook as she reached to open it.  The first thing she saw when she stepped inside was the enormous king size bed.  It was stationed right in front of her.  Even more startling than the size of the bed was how small it made the man laying on it seem.  Something stirred inside of her when her eyes rested on Severus.  He was only covered up to his waist.  The rest of him was exposed, and he wasn't wearing a shirt.  His face was flawlessly content.  Somehow she knew that was probably the most peaceful state she would ever see him in.