Snape raised his head from the assignment he had been grading and sighed unhappily. Potter had discovered a new way to test his limited patience. This way was called “Dropping-Things-To-The-Ground-Until-Snape-Throws- Himself-Out-Of-The-Window.”

It was for almost an hour that baby Harry would choose a toy; examine it carefully by squeezing it or banging it on his laps, and then would throw it on the floor. Seconds later he would start squealing until the hook- nosed professor would lean down, pick up the toy and give it back to him. Baby Harry, then, would choose another toy, examine it and throw it on the ground.

“Why can’t my Sunday mornings get easier?” he questioned himself as he saw Baby Harry examining a soft red ball.

However, when Harry threw the ball down and started squealing about it, Snape knew that he was not going to grant the boy’s wish. A man had his limitations, and he had to use them in order to stay sane. Therefore, he just turned to glare at the boy, who just giggled slightly and started chewing Bibi’s horn.

It was at that moment that Snape stopped to examine the unicorn toy. The white unicorn had started greying due to the dirt it came in contact with every single day. The silvery colour of Bibi’s horn had faded and the tip of it had been chewed off. One of the unicorn’s black-button eyes has started hanging from a piece of white thread, threatening to fall off. And to conclude on Bibi’s ugly state, a hideous odour was escaping from it, probably a product of the spilled food that Harry had smeared the toy with.

Severus Snape’s nose wrinkled in disgust. That toy needed to be cleaned immediately. Only Merlin could know how many germs were multiplying on the toy the moment he was just thinking of it. His hand extended and touched the toy. Snape’s face contorted with disgust as his fingers got soaked from the boy’s saliva.

“GOOD GRIEF!” he thought. “Bibi has more germs than a puss-filled zit!”

Trying to ignore his inner need to let the toy, Snape tried to take Bibi from baby Harry’s hands. Baby Harry, however, felt that he had a saying to what the Potion Master intended to do. Therefore he clutched the toy protectively and shouted menacingly.

“Aaaaa!”

Snape blinked in surprise by the boy’s outburst, but he did not let the toy down. On the contrary, he continued pulling the toy towards himself.

“Graaaaaaahhhh!”

“Potter, I have to clean Bibi.”

“Aaaaaaaaaa!”

“Potter, let Bibi go!”

“AAaaaaa!”

“Oh. . . .”

“Graaaaaaah!”

“. . . give me. . .”

“AAAAA!”

“. . . That . . .”

“A! A! A!”

“. . . TOY!” he shouted as he, finally, managed to release the toy from the infant’s strong grasp.

Baby Harry stared at his professor and started whimpering. However Snape felt no sympathy for the boy.

“You can whimper Mr. Potter,” Snape stated mockingly, “but this Potion Master will not surrender on your . . . ahem . . . whimpering. Bibi is going to be cleaned!”

Concluding, Snape turned and hurried to the bathroom. Baby Harry’s eyes narrowed and darkened so much that the irises could not be distinguished from them. If Snape had not had his back turned, he could have been shocked from the infant’s expression. Baby Harry’s lower lip curled in anger as he saw his guardian retreating into the bathroom with his favourite toy. Suddenly a faint “plop” was heard and baby Harry started snickering.

Snape, however, noticed nothing. On the opposite, he was rushing to get into the bathroom and put the toy into the laundry basket. He even ignored the small yelp of shock that escaped from the magic mirror. Tossing the toy into the basket, he ordered.

“I want that in a perfect condition. Sew the eye and wash it with hot water until it turns purely white. I will be waiting for an elf to bring it back to me.”

He, then, turned around and moved towards the door. A small yelp was heard again and Snape turned to face the mirror angrily. Not only Potter was squealing in the nearby room, but his mirror had started squealing too. Yet when he turned around he stopped dead.

His eyes bulged, as if someone had punched him hardly into the stomach. His mouth hanged open forming as soundless scream. He felt the need to sit, as a hint of nausea rose towards his mouth. He gulped twice for that feeling to subdue and then it happened. The vein at his right temple throbbed terribly as his left eye twitched in anger. This was absolutely preposterous. Turning to his heels he rushed to face Potter.

“POTTER!” he shouted in a high-pitched scream, “What On Merlin’s Pet Dragon, Have You Done To Me? My Hair! It is . . . . PINK!”

-)-)-)

“I will just throw myself out of the window. I will probably faint before I would hit the ground, so it will be a painless death!” Snape said to himself, sarcastically, looking outside the window, downwards to the ground. He looked at Potter, who was staring at him smirking in satisfaction. He then turned towards the mirror and gazed, in horror, at his bright pink hair. Looking outside he continued, “But I can’t do that! I don’t want to be buried with pink hair! Merlin this is unbearable! Maybe I should try again.”

“Kara metista!” he mumbled, pointing his wand as his hair. His hair started glowing slightly and for a moment, Snape thought that it his hair would turn back to normal. When the glowing stopped, however, a small snap was heard and his hair turned rainbow-colour curly, before turning back to bright pink. Baby Harry, just giggled.

“From all the magical babies in the world, I had to take care of you Potter,” he stated in an irritated manner. “You; that you had strong magical abilities transferred in your blood, by accident, from an egotistical megalomaniac. So in conclusion, I can’t get my hair black again, until you decide to do so.”

“Oh Merlin, I am Doomed!” he thought as he realised what he had just said.

It was at that point that baby Harry started searching around, as frantically as he could. Then he looked at Snape as if he had just remembered something important. His eyes darkened and started to moisten, his lips quivered slightly before he would start crying loudly.

“Bibiiiiii! Bibi aga Bibiiiiiii!”

Snape took a deep breath and released the air slowly. He hated seeing tears, even if those tears belonged to Potter. He moved from the window and sat on the bed’s site. He took the boy into his arms and petted his small back. Baby Harry hiccupped but continued sobbing, calling a “Bibi” every now and then.

“It’s ok Potter . . .” Snape started in uncertainty “Bibi will be away for a while . . . I had to send him away. . . . No reason to cry your head off. . . . What if I play with you? Will you get quiet then?”

Baby Harry sniffled slightly as he looked at the pink-haired man. His sobs subdued and the man felt that he had sorted things out. However, and as if baby Harry had a weird revelation, the infant started screaming and kicking inside the man’s arms.

“Biiibiiiiii! Mi ma Bibiiiii!”

“I always wanted a quiet Sunday morning. Is it too much to ask?” Snape asked himself in despair as he watched the infant kicking inside his arms.

-)-)-)

After a considerate amount of shrieking, baby Harry’s wails subsided. Snape sighed in relief as he thought that the boy had, finally, forgot of what he was shrieking for. Letting the boy on the covered-with-mattress floor, he gathered some of his toys and sat near him. Yet the black-robed man was soon to discover that baby Harry could get ruthless. For getting quiet did not mean that the boy had forgotten about Bibi. It just meant that Snape was now in charge of an extremely angry, yet quiet infant.

At first baby Harry examined his toys carefully. Then, and as if a signal was given, he started throwing the toys around. Some of the toys hit the wall, while a rubber blue ball was thrown out of the window. The ball hit the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain, who was flying near the window. The teenager turned around, wondering from where that ball came, while the rest of the team laughed.

“Oh Merlin, I am asking for this favour and please grant it. Make this boy stay quiet now, so that those Ravenclaw dunderheads will forget all about the ball and leave” Snape whispered to the skies.

Baby Harry, however, screamed and started wailing loudly.

“Why don’t you ever work with me?” the hook-nosed professor asked the skies in defeat, “I am not a bad man, am I? After all I have not killed the boy yet!”

Meanwhile the Ravenclaw Quidditch team that was flying nearby heard the squeals, and understood who was crying. Johansson, the Ravenclaw Captain hovered above the ground and caught the blue ball. Then sighing deeply, he turned to the team.

“Ah... I will just give the ball back to Potter and come back” he said and flew close to the castle windows trying to see baby Harry.

“SHIT!” Snape thought and stared at his pink hair in the mirror’s reflection, before retreating to the bathroom.

Johansson flew near the windows until he saw baby Harry, who silenced immediately and smiled back at him.

“Hello to you too Harry!” Johansson said plainly “Are you all alone here? Where’s Snape?”

“Professor Snape for you, Mr. Johansson!”

“Are you all alone?” the teenager asked playfully but then got serious. “Here I found your ball. I will put it here, on the floor, and go,” he said placing the ball on the floor and leaving.

Snape let out a sigh of relief and peaked out of the bathroom to make sure that Johansson was gone. He took his wand out and charmed the chamber so that no one outside the room could see him. Baby Harry started once again throwing toys around. Suddenly a plastic circle hit a bottle of Potion that shook for a couple of moments and, then, rolled, hit the floor and broke.

“Potter!” Snape exclaimed angrily “I had been brewing that Potion for seven weeks! That does it! No more Mr. Nice Professor Snape!”

With those words, Snape removed all the toys, away from the baby’s grasping area and then scooped him into his arms. Baby Harry, of course, started kicking in order to get free. His guardian’s grasp was stronger, nevertheless, and minutes later the baby boy was sitting still on Snape laps. The professor had grabbed the first story-book he would see from the library and opened it.

“Giggly the Pixie’s bad day!” Snape mumbled and let out a snort. “And I thought stupidity was finished with Silvy the Unicorn”

Baby Harry stared at the black, winged creature with interest and stopped squealing. Feeling satisfied, Snape opened the book.

“Giggly the Pixie woke up that morning feeling cranky” Snape read rolling his eyes “And then she destroyed the world! End of the story” he commented. However baby Harry scowled and started babbling.

“Re boo!”

“Ok I will proceed with the story Potter” Snape said turning the page.

“Giggly looked for her toy Flowie, but he was no where to be found! . . . Umm . . . Potter can I read you something else?” Snape asked in unease. However baby Harry stared him with an unquestionable “shut-up-and-get-on- with-the-story” look.

“Giggly felt really sad. Yet Giggly felt hungry . . . And that boy was a serious turnover to the whole story. Ok, ok I will proceed . . . Giggly the Pixie went into the kitchen to have breakfast . . . Does pixies have a kitchen? . . . And something bad happened . . . I bet that it is a volcano, what about you Potter?”

Baby Harry looked at the book and started shouting, “Gi Pi boom, boom!” while Snape turned the page.

“Giggly found out that there were no rose-petal cereals left for her . . . Oh the horror! The pixie had nothing to eat so she starved to death. . . The only thing to eat was mashed daisy-leafs . . . Who does ever thinks of these things? . . . And Giggly hated mashed daisy-leafs. . . Later on Giggly the Pixie played near the lake . . . Suddenly a big owl attacked her . . . Giggly hid behind a rock. . . Giggly felt angry that her playing was ruined . . . That’s weird! I always thought that you ought to be afraid if an owl attacks you, and you are the size of an ant . . . Near midday Giggly went back home . . . She was very unhappy. .. You see Potter? . . . Her mother saw her crying and asked her what happened . . . Well isn’t that sweet . . . Giggly told her about losing Flowie and being attacked by an owl . . .Her mother smiled and gave her Flowie . . . The toy was clean . . .And that is how Bibi will be later on . . .And Giggly the Pixie was happy. The End!”

-)-)-)

Snape had conveniently skipped lunch by asking for some tea and chocolate- chip cookies to be sent to his room. Baby Harry was still annoyed by the absence of his favourite toy, but he was more tolerable that he used to be in the morning. Snape woke up from his afternoon nap and watched the boy looking at his toys unhappily.

“Bibi?” he asked and at that moment a magical tone was heard from the bathroom.

Snape entered the bathroom and found Bibi clean and magically new. Smirking, he took the toy into his arms and returned to his bedroom. He gave the toy to baby Harry, who staring the toy in disbelief, started crying.

“Bibi, diret Bibi!”

It was after a lot of crying, and thinking, that Snape took the boy into his arms and unlocked the door of his secret room. Inside the room there was the painting of a woman he knew well. She stared at him with the crying boy in his arms and it took her a while to speak.

“Severus Snape, what on Merlin Fiery Spirit, have you done to your hair?”

“Potter is in a bad mood because I gave his toy for cleaning. So he transformed my hair to pink,” he answered in defeat.

“It seems so. The poor little one seems distressed”

“Unfortunately he hasn’t stopped crying until I gave him his toys back. Do you think you can sing him a lullaby?”

“Severus,” the woman in the painting commented seriously “I hope you did not give the toy, to a house-elf, in order to be cleaned.”

“I actually did that mother!”

“Severus Snape, what have I been telling you all these years?” she asked with a scorn that made the Potion Master lower his eyes.

“Umm . . . Always to gather my toys after playing?” he asked looking at Potter, who was sobbing inside his arms.

“Apart from that.”

“Always eat my vegetables?”

The raven-haired woman sighed in frustration, lowered her head and muttered something about men’s incapability to look after children under her breath. Baby Harry coped the woman’s movements and babbled:

“Ba ady!”

“Always clean your children’s toys along with them. I must say that I do remember you having a fit when I cleaned Zouzou, your stuffed Snitch, for the first time. It took you hours to relax. From then on, we just pretended that you were giving Zouzou a bath, in order to clean him. Oh and that time you lost him in the park. . . ”

“Mum, can you leave embarrassing details of my childhood memories out of the discussion. I don’t want Potter to hear them.” Snape interrupted her blushing.

“Nonsense” the woman said smirking “After all children have a memory after the age of three!”

“Not this particular one!” Snape though inside, not wanting to argue with his mother.

“Don’t worry Severus, dear. He will stop soon. See? He has already started chewing the toy’s horn.”

The boy looked at the boy man happily and Severus felt something hot on his head. Seconds later, his hair was back to their raven-black colour. Snape smiled to himself and turned to his heels.

“Ahem . . .” the woman coughed, stopping him.

Snape blushed and approached the painting. Leaning forward he kissed the painted woman’s right cheek and blushed when she heard her muttering:

“That’s my baby boy!”

-)-)-)

Snape placed the boy into his small cradle and tucked him warm. Baby Harry opened his small eyes for a couple of seconds and babbled lazily.

“Ni ady”

Snape sat on his armchair and took a book into his hands. Suddenly his eyes opened wide from realisation and he kept staring at the wall. He turned his head round and looked at the cradle in horror.

“Was it my idea or did Potter just called me daddy, twice?”