They say that innocence is a characteristic that most kids should be grateful to have. Not having to realize how cruel their world was, how the people they look up to could become a mass murderer over night, not even how their own parents could be so cruel slipped past their minds yet with innocence comes the characteristic that all children seemed to have instilled into their mind at birth—Caution.

Children were cautious creatures, they paused and stared, they hesitated and thought, they asked and persisted. Adults never liked curious children as it was a sign they were getting cautious of them, a sign they were possibly understanding albeit slow how horrible that the person in front of them really was. Adults hated when children became self aware, when they started questioning everything and anything around them, touching anything that came in their path in a inspection of wether it was safe or not. It was another sign of caution, another sign that they were merely showing how much they possibly knew already. Every shake of the head at unknown food, every pause at the stair steps with their eyebrows furrowed, and every time they played with their food.

It was all simply signs.

Lily Potter was the first to notice such signs from her newborns or well newborn. The two babies were almost identical, yet their differences could clearly be seen. She often wondered how one could even confuse them for each other as to her, they were nothing alike. She noticed it before James did, before Sirius did, even before Remus and her own sister had spotted the differences themselves. Still, people confused them, people called Harry when they meant to call his twin and people called his twin when they meant to call Harry.

She wondered if people were simply blind to the differences, blind to how much they acted nothing like, how much they seemed to be from different parents entirely. Lily had never shown most people her children, only those who were able to keep everything under wraps, much like her Sister, who never wanted to associate with freaks of her kind whatsoever, or perhaps like Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, they wouldn't dare tell a soul if she didn't give them consent, yet there were others.

Others that Lily couldn't trust, not even with her life. Albus Dumbledore needn't not know that she had twins, he didn't need to know that Harry James Potter had a little brother. She could only wince when imagining that senile old man smiling at her, eyes twinkling as they stared at the bundles in her arms, as they stared at the smallest bundle with interest, so much interest.

Lily hated those looks.

Finally, there were people that Lily felt were almost neutral, people who would gladly watch their children as they went out, people who would always make sure to hide the youngest when others came to visit. One of those people came to mind, despite their horrid background—Nacrissa Malfoy was a simple woman, although Lily knew that it took her some time to actually warm up to a idea of being friends with a Muggle of all people, she couldn't deny that Lily was deserving as a friend either, yet she didn't show it, she never showed it, not when the youngest potter smiled at her, not when the youngest Potter and his mother both hugged her, not even when she was leaving and the youngest Potter crawled as fast as his little legs could slide across the floorboards to hug her once more—Smiling as if he knew she wasn't that horrible as people thought.

Indeed, There were millions of reasons why Lily had hid her pregnancy, millions of reasons indeed, yet hiding it didn't seem to terminate the simple fact that was standing right in front of her, brandishing a wand and ordering her to step aside, to leave her precious toddlers without a family to love, a home to live in.

So, The red haired woman stood tall, the tears still trailing down her cheeks, her fists clenched as she stared back into those unforgiving eyes of red and soon all she saw was nothingness.

••••

Thin and small fingers gripped the bars of the baby blue crib, nails scratching at it as a hand came down to try and tame the unruly mop of hair that stuck up in every direction. The taller baby's eyes were puffy and red, staring in dismay and confusion at the limp woman on the floor yet it didn't stop its petting.

Blood dripped unto the white sheets as the baby continued to sniffle and tremble—His head hurt, it hurt so bad that he was almost considering that the green light had made him fall asleep too—That was all their Mother was doing, sleeping or at least what he assumed it was. Harry didn't see a need to wail even further, to damage his lungs and cause him to pass out from exhaustion, leaving his little brother all alone, scratching at the bars and staring at their mother's limp form like some sort of awe struck infant.

Instead, Harry continued to pet his brother's hair, he continued to try and pry his small fingers from the bars, coughing from dust and trying to comprehend what was going to happen now, if their mother never really woke up.

It was then that his green eyes landed on the doorway, where a man stood, pale and trembling. He stepped over debris, staring down at their mother with horror in his black eyes.

"Snake!"

His head snapped upwards, staring at the two with narrowed eyes yet slowly walking forward, his cold, black eyes peered down at them and Harry felt himself blink softly—The man pulled something from his pocket, eyeing Harry and the other toddler with a look of apprehension before picking up his younger brother.

The shrieks were loud and persistent-The flailing was nothing to laugh at as feet and hands kept hitting Severus's face, those ear splitting shrieks almost causing him to go deaf yet he managed to slip the Potion down the child's throat, relaxing visibly as the toddler began to doze off. His eyes flickered back over to Harry who had his mouth wide open and his little hands were making grabbing motions towards the man.

"You want to fall asleep too? I can't say I don't blame you, Potter.." He sneered, trying to act as if he was still angry at a toddler than his own master yet, he set the sleeping child down and picked up Harry, albeit reluctantly. Slowly, he pulled out one of the same vials, watching the baby's eyes light up as he drunk it greedily. Setting him down and watching him doze off, Snape felt his throat close up, eyes suddenly stinging as he heard a sleepy mumble.

"G'n snakey..."

He forced his emotions down, Raising his wand and sterling his eyes back into that same cold facade.

"Obliviate."

Turning swiftly around to notice Hagrid standing there, dabbing at his eyes with a large handkerchief, he sneered once more, fixing his cloak as he started to stalk from the ruined house.

•••

"Two? There were two boys?" Albus felt his insides boil with unkept rage, hand clutching his wand as he paced back and forth, eyebrows knitted together while his eyes stared holes into Snape's head.

"Are you positive? Not just a trick of the mind after seeing that lying mudblood dead?"

Snape inwardly winced, watching as the senile old man showed how much anger he was truly feeling. The male felt horrid after telling the truth yet he couldn't do anything now, not unless he wanted Albus to be even more intrigued in the young boy.

"Oh well..." Albus suddenly murmured, settling down in his seat as he slowly unwrapped a lemon drop and popped it into his mouth with narrowed eyes, fingers tapping against the desk.

"The younger is of no real importance yet, Harry is all I need for now."

With that—The real adventure had only begun.