Work Text:
"Daaaaad, look what I found!"
Severus had been eyeing the boy in the garden from the kitchen window - ensuring the vegetables were prepared for dinner that night. A flickering of the eyes on guard as he always did. It only took a moment, however - a blink - until the young Potter disappeared from his sight. A feat he often did, and Severus' heart lurched from his chest every time. The six-year-old never realised how much he tested Severus' nerves and new fatherly instinct - not one that ever came naturally for him, anyway.
The innocence of simply calling him 'dad ' was never lost on the man who once sought darkness as his refuge. Even now, the sentiment still shook his soul.
He reached the small alcove of his cottage dwelling, out to where the sunflowers lined the rickety wooden fence. The boy was found kneeling next to some small rocks within the garden bed, and his knobbly knees dug deep within the earth. Soil covered his shorts, which had only recently been cleaned.
At first, Severus didn't know what had caught the boy's attention. But upon further inspection, he found the source of Harry's newfound excitement.
An eight-legged arachnid, resting still upon the rock between the sunflowers. Between the stems, its web glittered in descending sun. The spider - yellow, with thin black stripes - was stationary and calm.
What usually would have frightened a normal Muggle child was enough to leave his own son in complete awe.
Once Severus reached the boy, he crouched down as his own aging knees allowed.
"Ah, you found our little resident."
"A yellow spider!" Harry shouted excitedly, "I've only ever seen black and brown ones!"
Severus' brows furrowed ever so slightly - it was no secret that the boy was discovered in horrendous conditions, with a cupboard under the stairs as his room. Barely big enough for the small boy to stand in. Without a doubt, the child would have been more than used to seeing all manner of insects and arachnids in the only little sanctuary he once had.
"This one is called a wasp spider."
"Because it looks like a wasp?" Harry giggled.
Severus' frown melted away at the child's carefree laugh. "Indeed. Its name is Agriope bruennichi, a type of orb-weaver."
Harry tried his best to pronounce the word, but it ended up being spat out in rather amusing babbles.
Whilst Harry was still trying to pronounce the Latin name, Severus outstretched his hand to the spider, positioning it in front of its legs. Harry now sat quietly, and much in awe, as he watched closely. His mouth hung low.
With a gentle nudge, Severus shifted his hand to the spider, encouraging it to shift forward -
- and onto Severus' hand.
"Woah!!" Harry exclaimed, unable to sit still from what he had just witnessed.
"...Would you like to hold it?" Severus asked suddenly.
Harry's brightened green eyes blinked heavily behind his glasses, and a smile widened again, "Oh, oh, yes please!"
Shifting the weight on his knees, Severus turned to face the excited boy, "Hold out your palms together...like so...And remain still - " Severus' hand brushed against the child's mud-covered ones, tilting it so that the spider could move again. Eventually, the spider edged forward, creeping slowly upon Harry's hand and remaining still upon the next living thing.
Safely in the smaller palm.
Once the spider was fully transferred, Severus rested his hands upon his legs, watching the boy experience such an extraordinary thing. Curious. Fearless.
Immense pride. Not just for Harry's inquisitive personality, but pride for himself as to how far he had come with a heart now softened to fatherhood.
...And their bond strengthening over something so mundane in the curious little world they both shared.