Work Text:
With steps soundless and stealthy as was befitting the spy with over twenty years of experience, Severus walked to the cot. Even in the pale pre-dawn light Jamie saw him and stopped fussing. He raised his tiny hands up and Severus couldn’t help himself smiling.
He picked his baby son up. Eyes so much like Harry’s looked at him seriously from his own face. The tiny hand patted his cheek lightly and Jamie babbled something. Severus caught the tiny hand and kissed it. The baby giggled.
Severus glanced back at their bed – Harry was still sleeping soundly; Severus was always the one with lighter sleep.
In his arms Jamie yawned and snuggled to his chest. Patting his back lightly Severus walked to the window and opened the curtain with one hand. Everything was white outside. Just like a year ago, when Jamie was born.
Severus still remembered everything like it happened yesterday. The day before Jamie’s birthday was completely un-winter-like – dreary, rainy and muddy, even though it was a week before Christmas. He still remembered how Harry suffered and struggled, delirious and in pain; he still remembered his own uselessness, when all his knowledge, potions and magic could do nothing to alleviate Harry’s sufferings. All he could do was to be near, close, all the time.
But after all the pain and torments, physical and emotional, they were rewarded with a gift of a son – a perfect tiny baby. Severus remembered, with amusement now, how afraid he was to hold his son for the very first time – he seemed so tiny and fragile.
At that time Harry fell asleep almost immediately, exhausted and worn. Severus was left on his own with a tiny newborn baby boy who wouldn’t stop mewling – not even crying properly. Awkwardly and gingerly, Severus held the tiny body swaddled in the soft white sheet. In his clumsy attempts to calm the baby down, he walked to the window and saw that the soppy weather of yesterday turned during the night, and everything, as far as he could see, was covered in soft white snow with bright sun reflecting itself of its crispy surface. Severus almost gasped. The baby in his arms, as if sensing the brightness, turned its head into his chest, as if seeking the comfort and protection.
Later, when Harry asked him to name their son after his father, Severus couldn’t deny him that, or anything, if he was completely honest with himself. Though, he was secretly pleased when Jamie’s eyes turned the exact colour of Harry’s. It didn’t really matter whose hair their son had, with both of them being dark-haired – right now it was a messy tuft of dark silk.
Severus looked down at the fluffy locks. Jamie was already drowsy again, falling asleep in his father’s arms. Severus quietly returned to the cot and placed the baby inside. Jamie babbled something in his sleep and tried to stuff his tiny fist into his mouth. Severus gently removed the hand form the boy’s face and covered it with a blanket. He kissed his son’s forehead softly.
Harry and Jamie were the two most important people in Severus’ life, made even more precious because Severus had never in his life even dared to imagine that he would someday have a family.
Severus slid back into their bed, and Harry immediately rolled to his side and snuggled into his chest, just like their son did some moments ago. Severus smiled and kissed another shock of silky dark hair. Like father like son; his two dark-haired, emerald-eyed lions.