Rihanna's Son

A/N~~ Yes, this is short, just so I can get back into writing this story. I'd left it so long, I'd almost forgot where I wanted it to go.

Well, read and review, please? On my knees again, people! LOL

Until next time,

Marti






Damien woke cuddled up against his father. His daddy’s arm was on his stomach, holding him close, but he had to get up.

“Daddy?” Severus snored. Damien shook the older man’s shoulder, hard. “Daddy? I gotta go pee! I don’t like peeing in bed.” He’d stopped when his mother had gotten sick and Annie had started caring for him in New York. He watched his father’s eyes open with alarm and he pulled away from the child quickly.


“Well, go, child. Then, we shall go downstairs for our breakfast.”

“Okay.” Damien scrambled off the high bed and toddled off to the bathroom, leaving his father alone for a few blessed moments. Severus stretched and frowned, the boy’s teddy bear having somehow gotten wedged under his side. At least the boy didn’t carry it around all day. He got out of the bed and placed the beloved toy on his nightstand, picked up his wand and made his bed quickly before the child came back. He went to his wardrobe and dressed quickly. He decided against his robes as he’d just be puttering around the Headquarters anyway. He decided on the blue jeans and olive green shirt Hermione had gotten him a few weeks before when they’d entered Muggle London for some private time together.

Finding no one in the kitchen, he prepared a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice for his son and some toast and coffee for himself. Scowling, he picked up the folded sheaf of paper with his named scrawled across it in Hermione’s handwriting. He opened it and frowned. They had conspired to leave his son with him for the day instead of taking Damien with them on their various errands. Well, he’d show them that he could take care of the child all by himself without their help. He babysat dozens of dunderheads a day as a potions instructor; he could bathe and care for a little four year old.

Putting down the letter, he looked over at his son, smearing his now-soft cereal over the tabletop.

“Damien, are you finished eating?”

“Nope.” The boy didn’t look up as he painted a face and smiled down at it, his fingers sticky with congealing milk and cereal mixture.

“Young boys don’t use their meals to draw pictures on the table.” Severus accio’d a washcloth from the sink and leaned over to clean the boy’s face, hand and table. “Hurry. You still have to bathe, then we can go down to the lab for a little while.”

“YAY!” Damien pushed an overfull spoon into his mouth and swallowed quickly, followed quickly by another, then another. Severus frowned.

“Slow down. You’re going to make yourself sick, little one.”

“No, I won’t.” the child insisted.

“Well, then you’re going to choke.” Severus sipped his tea, wishing he’d remembered to grab ‘The Daily Prophet’ off of the entryway stand. He stood and went to the kitchen door. “I’m getting the newspaper, Damien. I’ll be right back.”

He picked up the paper and glowered down at the headline, ‘Dumbledore’s Murderer Sighted In Oxford’. Although cleared of the charges by the Order members, and the truth waited to be announced once Voldemort was defeated, it still dug deep into his chest whenever he was called his mentor and friend’s murderer. He looked down at the old picture of him that the newspaper had dug up during the first war with Voldemort. It was one of the pictures of him after he’d turned himself in and spent six months in Azkaban. He’d looked even more wan and pathetic than usual.

Fisting the paper in his hand and tossing it on the table, he turned back to re-enter the kitchen. He stopped dead in his tracks and blinked at the sight before him. He’d only been out of the room for five minutes, at most. He closed his eyes and opened them again, hoping he wasn’t seeing what he knew was really there.

Damien had every bit of his breakfast on his face, packing it down into his skin while Hermione’s bloody familiar was licking the bits of spilled food on the table next to him. The boy turned to his father and grinned.

“It’s a mud pack like the one ‘Mione uses! See! She said it helps the poreds and makes her pretty. She’s really pretty too, like Mommy.” Damien licked the tip of his finger and pushed some of the cereal from his eyelid before it could drop into his eye.

“She is pretty, yes. But I doubt she uses mushy Wheatabix to achieve that end. I’m assuming you’re finished eating?” Severus cocked one eyebrow at the little boy grinning up at him unafraid. He had terrified countless Hogwarts children with just a look for years. But this child sat before him unafraid.

“Crookshanks is eating. See?” Damien lifted his face to his father, the cat now nibbling delicately on the boy’s chin. The cereal was in his black hair, stuck in his eyelashes, glues to his skin. Severus shook his head and waved his wand at the table. It cleaned itself immediately, making the cat hiss at him, as if it knew that the Potions Master was the reason why his food had disappeared. Severus pulled Damien’s chair away from the table and helped him to his feet.

“That mangy cat has his own food right over there in a bowl on the floor. Come along, I believe it’s time for a bath.”

“With bubbles? Please?” Damien bounced on the balls of his feet, following his father into the downstairs bathroom.

“If it will get you into the water, then yes, you may add bubbles.” Severus sighed and pushed open the bathroom door. He pointed his wand at the tub and it started filling with warm water immediately. “Get undressed, Damien.” The man turned to the cabinet, pulling out the bottle of Hermione’s bubble bath, smiling as he sniffed the rose scent. It had been awhile since she’d snuck into his rooms after everyone else had fallen asleep. They worried that Damien might come in and find her in bed with him. He missed his lover.

“Ok.” Damien dropped his pajama bottoms on the floor and started unbuttoning his top, flakes of breakfast flying as he pulled it off. Severus shook his head in resignation. By the time he finished getting the boy ready for the day, his time in the lab downstairs would be counted on the fingers of one hand. He poured a couple of capfuls into the running water and returned the bottle to its origin, and then he turned to find his son standing in the middle of the bathroom with his legs crossed, a strained look on his face.

“What’s wrong, Damien?”

“I gots to go again.”

“Then go.” Severus took out a couple of washcloths and a towel for the boy, warming it with a quick spell.


“I can’t wiff you here.”

“I’ll turn around, alright?”

“No! By myself.” The boy’s scowl was like his own. The difference was that severus practiced his before the start of term, while the boy had it down pat at four and a half years old.

“Fine. I’ll be right outside this door.” Severus sighed in resignation and considered what else the two of them could do this morning to pass the time. He had promised the child they could go in the basement for potions. Maybe a few food colored vials of water and some harmless ingredients would pique the child’s interest in his field. He smiled, imagining teaching the boy his beloved potions, showing him how magic wasn’t just foolish wand waving and silly incantations.

His smile darkened as he listened at the door more closely. Water?

“Oh, shit!” He pushed the door open to find the tub overflowing and his son standing on the stool before the toilet frowning down at it like it were the enemy.

“You said a bad word.”

Severus slipped through the bubbly water on the floor that had cascaded so prettily over the edge of the tub and turned the spouts off manually, forgetting his wand for the moment. He turned to his son who was now watching him through his now drying facial masque.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was filled, Damien?”

“It made a waterfall.” The boy smiled up at his father guilelessly.

So?


A/N2~~ Alright, family emergency coming up. My middle child, Jon is going back in the hospital. sorry, readers, my real life comes first. I'll be writing this and saving it to disk, but not sure if I'll be updating it until I come home, which wono't be until the third of january. so, everyone have a happy new year and don't forget to review!!!!

marti