Chapter 3

Dudley had beaten Harry with an oversized candy cane on Christmas Eve. The huge five year old had attacked him when Harry had tried to take one of the pretty sugar cookies Aunt Petunia had made. Harry's face was black and blue and covered in sticky candy before Dudley was done.

When Uncle Vernon had seen the sticky, bruised mess of Harry's face, he'd thrown him in the shower, clothes and all, and hosed him down. Then he'd pulled the boy out and thrown him in his small, dark cupboard with a towel and locked the door. As Harry sat there shivering in the dark, he could hear Uncle Vernon yelling about how he was going to be in there through New Years.
 

Harry had clutched his stuffed stag, which had been dubbed Snowy, tight to his chest as he cried silently. He hated the Dursleys. They managed to ruin everything that was supposed to be good in his life.

It took hours for him relax enough to go to sleep, but when he did, he dreamed of candy canes with fangs and claws.

A gentle hand on his hair halted his uneasy dreams. The hand was long, and thin and very gentle.

Harry rolled over onto his back and looked up at a tall, thin man sitting on his bed. He really couldn't see whom it was that was or even what the man looked like but he smiled at the shadowed figure anyway.

"Happy Christmas, Harry," a deep voice whispered. The dark person leaned over and gently touched his lips to Harry's forehead. And then, to little Harry's utter amazement, disappeared into thin air.

Harry sat up and looked around. What was that? How had the man just... disappeared?

He shook his small head and scanned his tiny room one more time, finding a small box at the foot of his bed.

A million watt smile graced the young face. He knew who the man was now. He was his dad. He really WAS alive, not four years dead from a car crash.

Harry clambered to the bottom of his bed and grabbed the gift. It was small, but very pretty with its red and green wrapping paper. And there was another letter.

Harry opened the present first this time, slowly, carefully removing the paper. He opened the white box that the wrapping had concealed and gazed down at a small golden ball with equally small wings.

He pulled the ball out of its box and it immediately left his hand to hover in mid-air. Its wings flapped in slow motion and it began to fly slowly around the room.

The green-eyed five-year old giggled with happiness. He stood on his bed and tried to catch the glittering golden orb. It took him a few minutes but he did catch it. And once it was caught, he let it go for another round.

~*~*~*~

Those damn Dursleys need to be executed, Severus thought as he walked quietly down to his quarters from the entrance hall. They needed to be disposed of in a very slow, very painful, very messy way.

He'd been surprised by Harry when he'd Apperated into the boy's "room". The small space where those horrible muggles kept his son was enough to make him want to curse them into oblivion, and the bruising on Harry's face had made his desire for retribution double.

Those magicless excuses for human beings made him want to give in to his more violent instincts. And if Albus knew that he had gone against his orders and visited his child, he would most likely be very upset. But, on the brighter side, Harry had smiled at him.

Harry was the spiting image of James, with a bright smile and twinkling eyes. Green eyes. Snape sighed. Albus had told him once that Harry had been born with his eyes. It was the only physical attribute Severus and Harry shared and it bothered him more than a little that the boy appeared to have Lily Evans eyes, even if he understood the reason that the glamour was in place.

The reason. The same reason he hadn't been there when James had given birth to Harry, the reason that Harry was living with those godforsaken muggles still held up. He was still, at least to the remaining members of Voldemort's circle who had not been caught, a Death Eater. And the Boy-Who-Lived, son of one of the best aurors in the business next to Alistar Moody could not live with a known killer, rapist and all around villain.

Damn Lucius Malfoy for dragging him into a world he never wanted to be a part of. Damn Lily Evans for starting the whole mess. Damn Sirius Black for betraying James and Lily and Harry. And damn himself for not being able to stop the Dark Lord where his son had.
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