Madam Pomfrey had charted down on paper that baby Harry was supposed to attempt to stand and walk by the end of first the week of November, at the age of a nine-month old. However it seemed that baby Harry had no intention into doing that. Professor Severus Snape had to master all of his saved eloquence and persuasion skills, in order to convince Madam Pomfrey to allow the infant grow up that weekend. Of course, Madam Pomfrey resisted as much as she could into allowing Snape’s ‘stupid’ idea to pass. She even called for the Big Gun! It was Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, owner of Merlin First Class and once again Chief of Warlock of Wizengamot that was called into saving the Healer’s skin. Yet, the unexpected happened. Snape fought back. Snape fought back and resisted more than any other time before. Dumbledore was amazed by the young man’s act of resistance.

“Listen to me Headmaster” Snape snapped after a whole of two hours of negotiations, “If you agree with Poppy, and you allow her not to give Potter the Aging Potion, I vow to dismiss myself from both of my duties as a Potion Master and as the boy’s Guardian.”

Albus Dumbledore heard the man and realized that for the first time, and after a long period, he head lost a battle. Thus, he turned to Madam Pomfrey and asked her to bring Snape, Harry’s bottle. He then turned to look at Snape with the considerate amount of twinkle in his eyes. When Madam Pomfrey gave Snape the bottle, Dumbledore winked at her playfully, and she smirked. Snape looked at them and shivered unconsciously. He understood that soon enough he would be introduced to the embarrassing world of a ten-month old.

-)-)-)

Snape gritted his teeth as he gazed at the huge wooden door of the Great Hall. Though he was the winner, and he had managed to make Hogwarts’ Healer to let Harry grow, he was still at great loss. For from now on he had to act in a certain way; that was going to prove entertaining to the idiotic teenage dunderheads and highly embarrassing to him. Unfortunately Dumbledore had, in his sly way, ordered him that he could not skip any meal, unless in a case of an emergency. And that evening, Snape found himself wishing for a Death-Eater meeting. Yet, that Death-Eater meeting never took place and Snape found himself outside the Great Hall, alone and completely angry. He looked at the door and then at the infant in his arms. Boy, door, boy, door, boy, door . . . He then let out a grumble and entered the room.

They say that there are people that can make people notice them at the moment they enter a room. Severus Snape, of course, belonged to that unnamed category of people. It was universally acknowledged that the moment Severus Snape entered the Great Hall, which was most of the time full of people, all teenagers would stop talking for a couple of moments. In most of these cases, Snape felt extremely proud for his ability to make any ding-head teenager to stop whatever conversation he or she was into; and turn to look at his entrance. However that day he felt something close to embarrassment. Maybe it was the fact that he kept muttering stupid things to baby Harry, in a silly voice he never knew he had.

“Ok boy,” he started entering the room, “here we are. See all the kiddies eating? That is what we are about to do. Now let me place you on your high chair. Isn’t that nice?”

The word “light-stricken” was not enough to describe the amount of puzzlement that was drawn in every student’s face. Yet, seconds later some faint chuckles were heard. Snape felt anger rising inside his chest and he had to restrain himself in order of not hexing the chuckling students to the next dimension.

“Look at the nice porcelain bowl. Isn’t that nice? If you eat all your food, you will see a pretty picture.”

“Picar, picar!” baby Harry said in excitement.

“Yes picture. Now let’s take our spoon, shall we? Open your mouth wide . . .”

These words caused much laughter to the students. Snape turned to face them with a scowl but it seemed that nobody cared about it. The Potion Master sighed deeply and continued feeding baby Harry, giving him the golden spoon, to try by himself, every once and a while.

A couple of spoonfuls, and a smeared baby’s face later, Snape turned his attention to his own plate. Immediately the golden plate filled with some hot soup. He ritualistically picked the golden spoon up and rubbed its tip with his index. Then, he lowered the spoon down and dipped it inside the hot soup. As he lifted the spoon to his mouth, he was stopped by murmurs. Murmurs that were highly annoying.

“Was that an entrance or what?” a female whisper was heard from the Hufflepuff House table.

Snape’s eyes closed into slits and his irises turned to the Hufflepuff House table. Some girls were snickering slightly, covering their mouths with their hands.

“Note to Myself: Deduct Ten Points As Soon As You Have The Chance!” he thought and continued sipping his soup.

“Well he gave the term ‘Evil Bat’ a new meaning!” another girl from the table replied and more snickers erupted.

The Potion Master bit his lips in anger, only to realize that this caused them to bleed. He tried to ignore the comments that were buzzing around him and focused in the golden goblet that contained his pumpkin juice. A few giggles erupted from the Hufflepuff house and Snape felt his left eye twitching slightly. A vein started throbbing at his right temple as he heard the word ‘pathetic’ referring to him. And that moment it happened.

BANG!

An ecophantic noise that reminded many of a pistol shot echoed inside the room. Baby Harry, who was startled by the loud noise, started crying but no one moved. For they were all shocked, even Dumbledore.

Snape, who had lost control of his anger, to the ultimate level, had sent an unseen, yet powerful, magical block of power towards his golden goblet of pumpkin juice. The goblet was hit so hardly that it burst into pieces and caused the juice to erupt in every direction. Snape stared, in disbelief, at the havoc he had created. Yet, as he recovered first, he stood up and scooped baby Harry into his arms. The boy calmed down and whimpered slightly in Snape’s arms.

“Did the loud noise scare you boy?” he asked the infant, who hid his face against his chest. “No need to worry now. It has passed.”

Baby Harry sniffled and looked at the man into the eyes. Snape stared back and petted the boy’s head, causing the boy to smile. Then, he leaned sideways.

“BIBI!” he squealed out happily as the man gave him a white and, a bit, battered stuffed unicorn toy.

The Potion Master put the boy down and looked at the crowd of students, and some members of the faculty that were still looking at him in a speechless state. Smirking to himself he took his spoon and dipped it inside the golden bowl of soup.

“They would get over it,” he thought as he devoured his soup “Sooner or later, they will get over it.”

-)-)-)

Snape tapped his feet nervously as he waited for a knock on the door. It was Wednesday afternoon and he had a lot of work to do. Actually the work was a very complicated Potion that required no interruption by anyone. For the first time in his whole life, Snape found his soul split into two. One part of him felt really ecstatic for making this Potion, for it challenged his abilities to the extreme. Yet the other half of his self felt extremely disgusted by that ecstasy, since this Potion was brewed for Dark Lord’s use. Also there was a little problem. That problem was small, Merlin-Forbid ‘cute’ and was named Harry Potter. Where could he leave that boy? The boy’s friends were studying, McGonagall was preparing some tests, Hangrid was at an unknown mission and Filch, or Trelawney were out of the question.

Therefore Snape had no option but to ask for some help from Dumbledore. Snape had marched into his office and demanded for some help since, as he said, was “not in the mood to be violently tortured.” Dumbledore beamed happily and promised that someone would arrive to Hogwarts to help him with baby Harry. The raven-haired man, of course, never cared to ask who was going to come. The fact that Dumbledore promised to handle the situation was enough for him. Yet he was still troubled on why the Headmaster’s eyes twinkled so much.

A faint knock on the wooden door was heard and Snape assumed that help had finally arrived. He opened the door but when he looked at the person opposite him, his fingers sunk inside the wood. His eyes closed dangerously into two venomous slits while he examined the human being that stared at him uncomfortably.

“What are YOU, doing here?” Snape hissed menacingly at the man.

Remus Lupin looked at the man opposite him in disbelief. He was sure that Snape would literary explode from anger. He stared at him intensively and wondered on why on Circe’s Fiery Spirit he had agreed to help Snape, of all people.

“Dumbledore sent me,” Lupin said dryly and stared at the man “So will you let me pass or are you going to stand there all day long?”

“What are you doing here Wolf-boy?” Snape asked in mockingly sarcastic tone as he let a glaring Lupin enter the room.

“Dumbledore asked me to come here and help with baby Harry, Big-Nose! I will not tell it a third time” Lupin replied feeling unable to resist himself.

Snape however ignored the other man completely and took baby Harry into his arms. He, then, turned around and, looking at the other man, he addressed the baby boy.

“Boy, this . . .”

“You are calling him boy?”

“Yes Wolf-boy, I am calling him Boy. Do you have a problem with that? If you do, talk to the Headmaster.” Snape replied calmly.

“Well, shoot me for asking!” Lupin thought “Calm down Remus. Don’t bite him. Stay calm, for the boy’s sake at least.”

“Anyways,” Snape continued turning his attention to baby Harry, “Boy this is Remus Lupin that will take care of you, ok?” he mumbled as he gave him to Lupin.

Baby Harry stared at the man with the light-brown hair and the chestnut eyes for some moments. His eyes turned ink-green and he seemed as if he was in deep thinking. His brow furrowed for a couple of seconds and he turned to Snape in disbelief. Then his features were lit in a childish joy and he cried out happily, as he hugged the man’s face.

“Mooy, Mooy!”

“Mooy?” Snape asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Moony,” Lupin replied happily and kissed the infant’s forehead happily.

“As much as I do hate to interrupt this . . . ahem . . . scene that threats to make me throw out the limited food I ate today,” Snape interrupted, while he picked some potion ingredients from the store-room, “I must lock myself into that room. Now Lupin, pay attention. You are not to enter the room. I don’t even care if the whole school catches fire, you will not. Whatever happens, just knock the door thrice and if I can, I will come.”

“Yes Master and Commander. Am I allowed to lick your boots now sir?” Lupin thought but nodded in agreement.

“In that shelf over there you will find diapers, baby powder and clean clothes . . .”

“Is it my idea or does Big-Nose acts like a parent?” Lupin thought as he paid attention to the talking man.

“. . . Potter likes playing with that strange toy where the baby inserts plastic shapes through holes and if he asks for Bibi, just give him the unicorn toy. I have also prepared magically warmed bottles of milk, since I am sure you don’t have any breasts hidden inside this robes, you wear.”

“Ok, maybe he does it, in a weird sort of way!” the ex-Dark Arts professor thought, as Snape passed his hand over the baby boy’s head.

“Bye, bye ady!” baby Harry squealed waving at the tall man.

“Ady?” Lupin asked in shock looking first on the boy and then at Snape.

“Don’t ask Wolf-boy. It is really complicated” Snape sighed and entered the other room.

-)-)-)

Baby Harry was sitting on the floor and was staring at a line of plastic toys of different shape and size. Near him sat Remus Lupin, who had still not got over his shock. He just stared at the boy blankly and muttered incoherent words under his breath. He needed some time to process what had happened some moments ago. Harry had called Big-Nose ‘daddy’. And he did not seem happy about it. But he wasn’t acting angry either. It was as if the tall man had accepted the Thing that many people called Kismet, or fate.

Remus Lupin, of course, knew that Severus Snape had never ever referred to himself as daddy in front of the boy. The possibility of Snape doing that was as the possibility of him not transforming on a Full Moon. If he was a normal human being, Lupin would have wondered on why the boy had called Snape daddy. But Remus Lupin was not a mere human. He was a werewolf, a man that kept an animal inside. Over the years he learnt that every animal baby, including human babies learnt to distinguish his or her parents by the constant smell he or she came close every day. I The smell of the one, who helped to provide food and took care for it, was distinguished as a parent. It was instinct that led baby Harry into believing that Snape was his father. Lupin wondered on how James Potter would have reacted in he knew that his son was calling Big-Nose ‘daddy’ and smiled.

“Ook Mooy!” baby Harry cried out happily to the shabby-robed man.

Lupin turned around to look at the baby boy. Baby Harry was holding a star- shaped plastic toy on his hand and he was trying, unsuccessfully, to make it pass through a triangular shaped hole. The boy looked at the toy once again and tried to pass it through the rectangular hole. The werewolf chuckled uncontrollably. That boy could not get any cuter. Baby Harry turned to look at Lupin and blew a raspberry, causing the man to laugh even harder. The infant turned to the star-shaped plastic toy and then at the box’s lid that had the different size holes. Star-shaped plastic toy. Box’s lid. Star-shaped plastic toy. Box’s lid. Baby Harry’s brow furrowed in concern but his face lit soon enough. Moving his little hand forward, he removed the box’s lid and tossed the toy inside.

“By Merlin,” Lupin cried out “Harry you are definitely Jame’s son,” and started laughing once again.

“So, why is Snape so secretive about that room? What is in there?”

“Amy!” baby Harry shouted happily

“Amy?” Lupin asked in confusion “There is a girl named Amy. You mean Snape has a girlfriend?”

Baby Harry raised his eyes in desperation and shouted loud, “No Amy, Mooy! Amy!”

“I am sorry Harry, but this time I understand nothing”

The infant, however, did not insist. On the contrary he turned his attention, oddly, onto the bed’s covers.

-)-)-)

“So Severus dear, who is looking after that sweet little boy you take care of? Any of your ‘little friends’?” the lady from the painting asked.

“With all due respect, mother I am too old to have ‘little friends’, and even if I had, the man outside is not one of them.” Snape answered as he added three drops of moonflower extract into the cauldron.

“Nonsense honey you will never be too old for me. So who’s the man outside?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” the man answered back stirring the cauldron viciously.

“Ok,” the woman said. After a few seconds of silence, however, she said softly “But remember my son, you will catch more flies with honey. So try to be civil with the man”

Snape did not answer back. Yet a few moments later he looked back and realised that his mother had left the portrait. She had, probably, gone to visit some of the other painting’s residents. The man of course, stared at the babbling cauldron while he spoke under his breath.

“Try to be civil? As if! Maybe I should thank him for trying to kill me when we were students. Maybe I should feel honoured that Messed-Hair Potter and Twitching-Eye Black were praying pranks at me. Hell, at the next Death-Eater meeting I will be friendly with Smelly-Rat Pettigrew. The day I will be good and civilised with Wolf-Boy is the day Dobby will start talking grammatically correct for a couple of seconds . . . Aha! Finally, I finished the damned Potion!”

Snape took and iron spoon and put the Potion into a potion vial. He was about to magically seal the vial when he heard a set of anxious rapping against the wooden door.

“What do you want Wolf-Boy? Can’t you take a boy on your own even for a while? I thought . . .”

“Big-Nose can you please shut up and get the Hell out of that room?”

Snape opened the door and looked at the other man with a venomous glare.

“And may I know whatever thing possessed you to swear in the presence of a learning-to-talk-infant?” he blurted out coldly, not realising that he had asked about Potter’s welfare.

“The learning-to-talk infant has just turned the trying-to-stand infant.” Lupin commented answering back and pointing at the baby boy.

Baby Harry had grasped a bit of the bed’s covers with his tiny little fists and was, desperately, trying to stand up. Lupin stood near him, while Snape, who tried not to look very concerned had stood a bit further.

“Come on Harry, you can do it.”

“What are you muttering there Wolf-Boy?”

“It is called psychology Big-Nose. You encourage the infant by talking to him. Man, how can the boy live with you?”

“The boy is perfectly healthy with me, thank you very much” Snape answered back, while he motioned to baby Harry with his hand, behind Remus Lupin’s back.

Baby Harry pressed his left foot down hardly and with great effort, for a baby, managed to wobbly-stand near the bed, holding on the covers for dear life. Yet a couple of seconds later he lost his balance and fell on the mattress-like carpet. He turned around and looked at both Lupin and his guardian before starting to giggle.

“HE MADE IT!” both men cried out loud in unison and they pat each other’s back instinctively.

-----

Meanwhile in the Castle’s kitchens

“Pass me the salt please!” Dobby the house-elf said to Winky, while they prepared the evening’s feast.

-----

Snape realised that he was patting Lupin’s back and let out a growl while he turned away from him and looked at the boy. Lupin shrugged and, yet, kept looking at the Potion Master, who scooped baby Harry into his arms.

“Well I have finished brewing that Potion so you can get to. . . wherever you came from and leave me alone.” Snape said icily.

-)-)-)

A week and an aging-potion dose later, the black-robed professor caught himself enjoying baby Harry’s walking attempts. For though the little toddler was still wobbly in terms of standing up, he was getting more and more anxious of trying to walk his first steps.

“Why do I, enjoy watching this boy?” Snape asked himself, questioning his motives “After all I hate the boy, right? Right? Well . . . What do you mean well? You are destined to detest the Potters for all eternity. But the boy is . . . how to state it . . . nice.”

Snape however had not more time to converse with his self since he had noticed that baby Harry had stubbornly raised from the ground once again. The baby boy stood up and looked at his guardian with a hint of fear. The man did as usual. He looked the boy into the eyes and motioned with his hand. Baby Harry moved his miniature left foot forward but before he could do more he lost his balance and fell, or better sat, on the soft mattress- like carpet. The toddler gazed at Snape still in fear and his eyes moistened.

“Don’t worry Potter,” Snape blurted out, and in hurry “You have not fall, you have jumped.” And patter the sniffling boy’s head.

“Where did this excuse come from?” Snape asked himself, while he kept staring at the boy.