Severus Snape.

A young boy and an old man can be seen walking through a poor looking town. The town was shadowy and ominous and had rows and rows of worn out dull brick houses. It didn't look like a pleasant place to live and in this case looks aren't deceiving.

"This place looks depressing." Mael comments while wrinkling his nose.

"Yes, you're quite right." Dumbledore agrees as they walk towards his trusted followers house.

They continue walking further into the maze of brick houses until they reach a street named Spinners end. They continued walking down the street until they reached the last house. This house was the only one in the street that had signs of life. The other houses seemed to be abandoned, given the broken or boarded up windows each house seemed to feature.

Dumbledore and Mael walk up to the door. Dumbledore knocks gently on the door. Him and Mael stood patiently as they waited for the owner of the house to open up.

Finally after a minute the door is pulled open by what Mael thought was a human sized bat. The man that opened the door had incredibly pale skin, long greasy black hair and wore full black robes with a black cape. Mael imeadiately recognized the man in front of him as Severus Snape, the man that betrayed Voldemort for love.

Mael had seen the war against Voldemort. It was a brutal war, filled with alot of unnecessary cruelty and death. While his grandfather was also a dark wizard that did terrible things, atleast he was doing horrible stuff because he thought he was doing what was best for wizard kind. Voldemort however, didn't care about the Wizarding world, the only thing Voldemort cares about is power.

Snape looks at Dumbledore in surprise. He had not expected to see Dumbledore until school starts again. "What are you doing here Dumbledore?" Snape asks curious, but you wouldn't be able to tell from his stoic expression.

"I have a task for you Severus." Dumbledore says mysteriously.

Finally Snape notices the child next to Dumbledore. "Who's the child Dumbledore?" Snape asks snidely. Snape takes a quick side glance at the child out of the corner of his eyes before turning his attention back to Dumbledore. Snape can't help but notice the childs unique attention drawing features.

"That's what I wanted to speak to you about, may we come in?" Dumbledore asks.

Snape stays silent for a few seconds before he lets out a small sigh. "Very well, come inside." Snape turns around and walks back inside, Mael and Dumbledore follow after him through the front door.

The inside of the house is just as gloomy and as grey as the outside is. The entrance of the house leads directly into the living room. The living room is bare apart from the walls that are completely covered in shelves that are filled with books, most of them thicker then an encyclopedia, an unsteady table, a worn out couch and an old armchair.

Dumbledore takes a seat on the worn out sofa, Mael takes a seat next to him. While Snape takes a seat on the old armchair opposite Dumbledore and Mael.

"How are you doing Severus?" Dumbledore asks with a pleasant smile on his face.

Snape looks at Dumbledore unimpressed. "What is the task you seek me to do Dumbledore?" Snape asks in a slow blunt manner. There's a hint of annoyance in his tone.

Dumbledore's smile doesn't waver at Snape's bluntness, he knows that being direct is the type of man Severus is. "Very well straight to business then. I need you to look after the boy." Dumbledore gestures at Mael.

"I refuse." Snape declines with no hesitation at all.

"Mael why don't you go explore your new home." Dumbledore smiles kindly at Mael.

Mael doesn't hesitate in leaving the room, he's already saw that Snape would accept Dumbledore's task.

As soon as Mael leaves Snape speaks up. "Who is the child Dumbledore? and why ask me to look after him?"

Dumbledore's kind smile changes into that of a sad one. "The child is the grandson of Gellert Grindewald, he tasked me with protecting the child." Dumbledore explains.

Snape's stoic expression breaks and he looks at Dumbledore stunned. "You cannot be serious Dumbledore. You want me to look after the grandson of one of the most powerful dark wizards of this era? Did you forget who I served Dumbledore. Snape asks incredulously.

"I know the boy will be safe with you. No one will question the boys identity if we claim he is your son. Everyone knows how much you like your privacy." Dumbledore explains his reasoning to Snape.

Snape sighs heavily, he already knows that he won't refuse Dumbledore's request.

"You'll only have to look after the boy during school holidays, during the semester the boy will stay at Hogwarts with me." Dumbledore tries convincing Snape.

"Very well, the boy can stay." Snape decides not to delay the inevitable. "What will be the boys backstory?"

"Well his mother is from the French Rozier Pureblood family. if anyone asks, you met her in France, you got her pregnant but you weren't aware of her condition. After 5 years, you learnt that she had died during childbirth so you went looking for the child. You eventually found him in a muggle orphanage and then proceeded to bring him home."

Snape frowns at that idea, while plausible it doesn't really sound like something he would do

He can only imagine what the other pureblood families are going to think when they hear of this, luckily he doesn't care about what they think of him... anymore anyway. "Very well Dumbledore." Snape agrees reluctantly.

"Good. I'll be giving you a monthly stipend for the boy from the boys vaults. As for proof of your story, I'll make sure the boy gets the Rozier heirship ring for both the French and English Rozier family. Since he is the last living male Rozier from both lines, he will inherit both when the time comes."

Snape cannot believe what he's got himself into, but then again this would not be the first time he's got himself stuck in a complicated situation.

"Very well. Is that all Dumbledore?" Snape asks clear annoyance in his tone.

"Yes, I suppose it is." Dumbledore smiles victoriously.

After some more small talk Dumbledore decides to say goodbye to Mael. Dumbledore finds Mael in the basement where Snapes laboratory is situated. He notices Mael reading some potion book, while sitting on the cement floor of the dark basement. How Mael is managing to read anything stumps Dumbledore as he can barely see anything. Dumbledore pulls out his wand and points it in front of him. Suddenly a bright light appears at the tip of the wand.

Mael looks up from his book towards the light. "Professor Dumbledore." Mael greets.

"Hello my boy. I see you've taken an interest in potions." Dumbledore chuckles amused.

"I have." What Dumbledore doesn't know is that Mael's actually reading to see if the potions in the book are the same as those he's seen wizards make in the past, but none of them seems to have been mentioned in the three books on advance potions that he's looked through so far, like the protection potion.

The protection potion was a potion that would protect a wizard from any sort of attacking spell. The potion would last for a few hits or one depending on the power behind the spell. It blocked the killing curse once before, when it was brewed by Gandalf the ancient. A very famous wizard in his days, but seems to have all but faded from modern day history. Mael can see how it would be a problem to create this potion however, since the main ingredient is the tears of a Phoenix willingly given. From what Mael has seen throughout history, Phoenixes are extreamly rare and Dumbledore is the only person known to possess one.

"Well Severus is a very accomplished potioneer, so if you have any questions feel free to ask him." Dumbledore informs Mael.

"Alright, I'll do that professor." Mael agrees.

"Good. Anyway I've come to say goodbye Mael, I have a feeling you already know that you'll be staying with Severus, correct?"

Mael nods his head confirming Dumbledore's suspicions. "Good bye professor." Mael greets and turns back to his books.

"Fascinating." Dumbledore mumbles to himself. The boy truly intrigues Dumbledore, so much so, that Dumbledore is tempted to use Legillimens on him. However he decides against it. He won't interfere with the boy, unless he sees the boy starting to stray down the wrong path.

Dumbledore walks away leaving the boy to his books.

After going upstairs Dumbledore greets Severus. "The boy seems to have taken a liking to potioneering, maybe you should give him some lessons before he attends Hogwarts." Dumbledore suggests.

Snape's upper lip curls upwards. "I'll think about it." He says contemptuously. Snape doesn't believe that the young Mael would be able to learn potioneering, nor will he respect the delicate craft that is potioneering, especially while he's so young.

"Have a good evening Severus." Dumbledore greets and walks out the front door.

Snape says nothing back and closes the door as Dumbledore turns around.

Snape lets out an annoyed sigh. He doesn't particularly like children, especially children that he's been forced to take care of. As long as he feeds the boy everything should be just fine.

Severus goes down to his lab deciding to work on improving the Extimulo Potion.