Snape exhaled and as he did so he started coming out of his deep sleep. His mind started adjusting for another day, while he debated on whether to open his eyes or not. He moved his toes and fingers, an everyday ritual that allowed him to regain vitality and body-function, something that was weakened because of the heavy sleep he had. Through his grogginess; his mind told him that something was not quite right. He could not define what was wrong, but he knew it was happening. As his senses became clearer, he realized that something was pressed against his ribs. He let out a sleepy grumble, and was about to move his left hand, when he realized that something soft was wrapped around his neck. He counted to three and opened his eyes.

“GALLOPING UNICORNS!”

His eyes opened in surprise and horror. It turned out that the ‘something’ that was wrapped around his neck was baby Harry’s left arm. He cast his gaze to his left and saw the toddler’s tranquil little face snoozing in his ear. The boy was sleeping in a fetus position, which explained the other ‘something’ that was pressed against his ribs. Harry’s little feet were pressed his ribs and hip, as if the boy was prepared to jump in his sleep. Snape kept staring the boy in horror. He could not believe that he had slept in a ‘Merlin-forbid’ hug. He moved cautiously, trying to disentangle himself from the boy, without waking it up. Such an action, however, done when a person lays at the edge of the bed, usually results to something unpleasant. Snape felt himself losing his balance and fell from the bed with a faint ‘thump’. He blinked, while he lay on his back.

“Ouch!” he stated to himself sleepily and moved to the bathroom.

Snape was busy applying some shaving foam on his face when the little boy’s voice echoed inside the chamber.

“Sevvus! Sevvus whewa aw you?” he chirped in apprehension. He remembered faintly last night’s dream. He remembered a pair of two malicious-looking red eyes and a very scary hissing voice. He could not remember the other man’s face, but he knew it was a scary one too. “Sevvus!” he cried out once again, since he had received no answer.

All of a sudden a face appeared from the bathroom door. It was covered with a white paste, while tangled black hair covered the eyes. A small red bruise could be seen at the right corner of the face’s forehead.

“AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!” baby Harry screamed immediately and covered himself with the blankets.

“Harry. Harry, it is me.” Snape said in a slightly panicked manner, as he hurried to the bed with a towel on his hand. He removed the soapsuds with the towel and started ‘wrestling’ with the blankets in order to find the screaming little boy. Seconds later he found baby Harry, who covered his face with his hands.

“Look, it’s me,” he said soothingly. Baby Harry opened his left eye to see. He saw the Potion Master’s clean face. Though Snape’s hair was still tangled and covering his eyes, he looked less frightening than when he was covered in shaving-cream. He leaned towards his guardian and touched his unshaved face.

)-)-)

“Sevvus,” baby Harry said while Snape helped him to dress up, “me saw bad dwim.”

Snape looked at Harry in surprise and let him sit on his lap.

“Do you want to tell me what it was about Harry?” he asked in concern.

“Me saw a man . . . He was scawy.”

“Scary? Do you want to say how he looked like Harry?”

“Me no we – wemme – wemmember,” Harry strained to say the word ‘remember’, “good. Me saw his eyes. Thew aw wed.”

Snape’s hand stopped in mid-air for a couple of seconds, but he managed to keep his voice neutral.

“Oh is that so? What else do you remember?”

“Othew one man with him. They . . . meanies.”

)-)-)

Snape was pacing around his room feeling unable to stay still. The Headmaster had just adviced him to start giving baby Harry ‘Occlumency’ lessons as soon as he could. This would ensure baby Harry’s good sleep and would prevent Voldemort from finding out their secret.

“But, how am I going to explain to the boy the importance of Occlumency lessons?” Snape wondered. Talking about the lessons should include the reason the boy was going to have them.

“Well here is a nice thought. Hey Harry, there is a dangerous wizard that wants to take over the magical world, destroy all those that are not wizards and kill the ones, whose parents are not wizards. Your friend Hermione Granger is a most-likely victim. Yet, at the time being, he wants to kill you. This is because you are the only one that will be able to stop him, so he wants you dead. In order for you to be protected, I have to give you Occlumency lessons. By the way, do you want me to read you a story about Silvy the Unicorn?” Snape thought sarcastically.

“Sevvus, you alwight?”

Baby Harry’s sleepy voice brought him to his senses. He had given Harry some warm milk with a few drops of dreamless potion, hoping that it would limit any possibly connection with the Dark Lord and had started thinking the severity of the situation he was into. Troubles never stopped. Snape stared at the toddler and tried to smother his characteristics into a nothing-that-should-worry-you look.

“No, no, Harry. I am fine.”

Snape, to his surprise, received a look of disbelief from baby Harry. “Aw you soow?”

“Yes, I am,” Snape replied, lowering his gaze for a second nevertheless. He stood still for a while. He, then, sat down and allowed baby Harry to sit on his lap.

“Harry . . . you remember last night dream, right?” he asked, wondering how he was supposed to explain the unexplainable.

Harry nodded silently and asked something that made Snape freeze in shock.

“Was the man wil Sevvus? Me fil know him.”

“You will never guess how well you know him.” Snape thought and decided that a version of truth had to be said.

“Yes he is real.” Snape finally replied in defeat.

For the first time in his entire life, Severus Snape felt in total loss. He could not bring himself to tell the boy about how the Dark Lord rampaged in the Wizarding World for years, how he had attacked the boy’s parents and killed them. It was impossible. How could he say to a three-year old that he was that lunatic’s main target?

“He wants to ert me.” Harry stated in a moment of epiphany as his little eyes turned deep green and came to resemble the teenage Harry’s eye-color. “He meanie.”

“Harry,” Snape said seriously “I wish, I could tell you that you are wrong. But, unfortunately . . . you are right. Yet, I want you to know, that Professor Dumbledore, your friends Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley – Ron and Hermione – and all those people we met at Christmas - You remember where we went at Christmas? – Good. All those people want to protect you.”

Harry nodded while tears started rolling down his cheeks. He let his little head rest against Snape’s black robes and started crying quietly. Snape started rubbing his hand against baby Harry’s shoulder, as he felt his robes getting soaked. Finally baby Harry let a small sniffle and turned to face his assigned guardian.

Snape inhaled sharply. Harry’s eyes, though puffy, were mirroring a determination he had never seen. Not even the teenage Potter could have ever looked so determined in his entire life.

“Me no wants see bad man again.”

Harry stood up and moved towards his toys, as if the Voldemort-chapter of his life had been officially closed. Snape sighed inside knowing that in real life the ‘Dark Lord issue’ had a lot way to go before it could be completed. He watched the little boy petting Bibi’s head. Suddenly the boy turned to face him and asked him.

“Sevvus, aw you going to potet me?”

Snape remained silent for a couple of seconds.

“I will try Harry,” he uttered finally. Harry saw his gaze change. Harry was immediately reminded of a fox that is about to attack.

“In fact, I know a way to stop him from entering your dreams.” Snape said cunningly.

)-)-)

“Now Harry, listen carefully,” Snape said when the night fell. He had read him a bedtime story and he was currently sitting at the edge of Harry’s bed, staring at the laying infant. “As I had explained, this bad wizard tries to connect with you through magic. When you sleep, it is much easier for him since you cannot defend yourself with Occlumency.”

“O-occu-occumesy”

“Yes, so all you can do is to clear your mind of any thought. Therefore he cannot find a way to enter.”

“How me clean mind?” Harry asked yawning.

Snape lounged near Harry and touched Bibi’s soft material.

“I want you to look at Bibi really carefully.” Snape said and let the boy examine Bibi for a while.

“Now, I want you to close your eyes,” Snape said and Harry complied. “Take a deep breath and try to concentrate on every detail Bibi has. Think about his silver horn, its white colour and its wings. I want you to think only of Bibi. You must think of nothing else.”

Harry did as he was told. He kept envisioning on how Bibi looked like, trying not to think of anything else. A couple of minutes later, he was snoozing peacefully.

Snape sat in a relaxing position on his bed and started reading a book. Minutes later, he looked at the sleeping boy and wondered on why he had never introduced the Occlumency lessons like that the year before.

“It seems that Dumbledore was correct to tell; you did not show enough concern. Maybe you were really discriminating Potter because he looked like his father,” a little irritating voice echoed inside his head, making him feel a pang of annoyance.

“This is ridiculous,” he protested, “the boy never respected rules and annoyed me greatly with his arrogance.”

Snape yawned. He took the t-shirt that was lying under his pillow and re-treated into the bathroom to change clothes. Having done so, he lay comfortably in his bed and covered himself with the blankets.

“I pray that the Dark Lord’s vision will not be filled with stuffed unicorn’s toys,” he thought sarcastically trying to hide the apprehension he felt inside.

He closed his eyes and cleared his mind of all thoughts.

)-)-)

Draco Malfoy knocked the door. At his hands he held many parchments that contained notes. The Easter Holidays were only three days away and Draco knew that with his N.E.W.Ts approaching, every minor question had to be resolved. Snape was not giving any extra lessons to any student. Yet, the boy knew that during Snape’s office hours any student could knock the professor’s door and ask for help. If they had the nerve to do it, that is.

“Enter,” the deep voice of his professor came from inside.

When Draco Malfoy opened the door baby Harry, who was sitting at the floor, let a snort of annoyance and grasped the leg of the chair to which his guardian sat. By turning to a twenty-eight month old, Harry became more protective of his possessions. It was true that he was keen to share his toys. Living with the Dursleys had taught how it feels to have no toys at all. Yet, baby Harry had decided that he would share his most valuable possession with nobody. His most valuable possession was Sevvus. Baby Harry knew that the blond boy’s appearance would shift Sevvus’ attention away. He threw Draco a look of annoyance and started playing with Bibi.

“How can I help you, Draco?” Snape said and pointed at the chair that was opposite his desk.

Draco closed the office’s door and sat down. He placed the pieces of parchment on the mahogany desk and took the one that lay at the top of the pile. He re-read the questions he wanted to ask about and then opened his mouth.

“Sir, I was wondering about this question. How does bezoar affect the body of a man that takes it as an antidote to the Sicarius Potion?”

“As I hope you will remember, the Sicarius Potion is one of the most deadly potions ever created by the wizarding race. The victim, twenty minutes after he has drunk it, starts feeling a sharp pain inside his nose. . .”

Baby Harry let the toy down and looked at his guardian that explained in detail the question he was asked. He felt annoyed because Sevvus was not paying any attention to him whatsoever. He narrowed his eyes at the blond boy that was looking at his pieces of parchment and nodded. Mumbling something to himself, he looked at Bibi and then tugged Snape’s right trouser.

“. . . therefore the bezoar’s powder should be inserted into the. . .”

The repeated tugs caused him to stop abruptly and he turned at the toddler that looked at him innocently.

“Sevvus, me and Bibi want cwawons to dwoou.”

Snape did not spoke. He just opened his desk’s drawers, took a box of “Lila’s Magical Crayons. They turn to fruit paste when the child tries to eat them” crayons and many pieces of parchment. He turned his gaze to Draco when another tug came.

“Teink you,” Harry said seriously.

“You are welcome,” Snape said and turned his gaze to Draco once again.

Harry looked at Draco angrily, once again and turned his attention to his picture. How dare that boy steal Sevvus from him? It was not fair! He came first! He let himself wonder what Dudley would have done in that situation.

While Harry was thinking and drawing, Snape was imposed with another question. The reason on why some really common non-magical plants were used at some potions.

“As I said many time before, some common non-magical plants are the ingredient that can cause a potion to be a success or a failure. Take daisy petals for example. They look common. You may say that they are worthless. But let me say that daisy-petals are the ingredient that causes the Fanged Geranium to release the water from its leaves, when someone stews a Confusing Potion. Do not forget now that if the water is not properly release, you may end up with the boil the size of an egg at the tip of your nose. Also, take the pine-tree leaves for example. . .”

Snape stopped abruptly in a silent ‘o’. His eyes bulged open to the point Draco thought that they were going to pop out of their sockets. He lowered his gaze for a second and then looked at Draco as if he had seen him for the first time in his entire life. And then it happened. He slammed his hand on the desk’s surface so abruptly that Draco almost had a heart attack.

“That’s it! Pine-tree leaves! They are the key-ingredient I wanted for my research,” he thought to himself and stood up. He hurried to the door. He stopped. He looked at Draco Malfoy and when he opened his mouth he found out that due to his excitement he could not speak properly.

“Draco – look – Potter –for awhile. Goodbye!” he said quickly and got out of his office as if he was chased by an angry goblin.

Draco stared at the shut door, trying to figure out what had happened. Baby Harry stared at him menacingly, for he believed that it was the blond prefect’s fault that Snape had gone. Draco stared at baby Harry horror-struck. The last time he was forced to look after him, Potter had caused him a severe headache.

“Maybe now that he is older, he will behave,” he muttered to himself and decided to make an attempt to engage Potter in a conversation.

He stood up and sat on the floor. Harry blew a raspberry and clutched Bibi closer.

“Hey Potter, what is this nice little toy?” Draco said trying to act pleasant around an infant Potter. He leaned down, trying to touch the unicorn-toy.

Baby Harry, who was already angry with Draco, saw red. He grabbed Malfoy’s hand into his two small ones and gave him a bite that made Fluffy look like a toothless old dog.

“YOUCH! Hey Potter that hurt!” Draco flanged himself backwards and looked at his hand.

On his white skin there was imprinted a series of teeth-marks. A red marking appeared, showing that baby Harry had managed to bit off some flesh. Draco took out a small cotton handkerchief that had the ‘M’ of the family embroidered on it, and pressed it against his wound. Unfortunately, for Draco, he was about to find out that biting was not the only thing that baby Harry was going to use against him.

)-)-)

Snape stretched upwards as he tried to climb a pine-tree. He had to collect freshly cut pine-tree leaves in order to use them on his research. For two whole years had been trying to create a potion that would allow broken bones to be healed easily.

The potions that existed so far were limited in small injuries like noses. When an arm or leg was broken, the Healer had to bound it and give small doses of a mending potion for a week and a half. Snape knew that with an upcoming war, no time could be waster in injuries. Therefore he tried to make a potion that would heal the injured in a few hours, and could be taken either by mouth or be rubbed on the bone in case someone was unconscious and could not wake up.

Though he seemed to have discovered something good, a stabilizing ingredient was missing from the potion he had created. This caused the bones to heal for some time. Yet, before the healing procedure would finish, the potion reversed taking the bones to their earlier broken form. Snape knew he needed a stabilizer, but what could that be? For two years he had been searching on stabilizers but nothing seemed to work. When Draco Malfoy had asked him that question, he suddenly remembered pine-tree leaves. Though not commonly used, the pine-tree leaves were known to provide stability and mend ingredients together. Snape was shocked when he realized that the answer was under his nose for such a long time.

Having collected many pine-tree leaves he headed to his chamber.

)-)-)

Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy was in an uncomfortable position. He had tried to be good to the boy. He swore he did. Yet, that green-eyed monster of doom was too much to handle. Baby Harry had thrown stuffed toys at him when he attempted to speak to him and bit him, while he was studying and tried to ignore his impulses to hex the boy to oblivion. After all, Draco was of the idea that no one should hex, or hit, a baby. Babies were defenseless for they knew no magic. His father had never raised a hand to him when he was a child. So why would he?

“Ok Potter that is enough. I am the older one and you are supposed to listen me,” Draco said strictly, as he leaned to meet baby Harry’s eyes. “Now stop opening Snape’s cupboards.”

Harry looked at Malfoy and pouted. How dare he drive Snape away? How dare he try to steal him? He glared and then kicked Draco hard on the leg. Draco yelped in pain and lost his balance as he landed with his butt. Harry launched forward and grasped a lock of Draco’s hair and started pulling them really hard.

“YOUCH, POTTER THAT HURTS!” Draco shouted.

Suddenly something clicked. He remembered the only way to make even the angriest child happy. His father had used it on him many times. It was not dangerous and it would make Potter sorry for ever dealing with Draco Malfoy. He moved his hands upwards and started tickling Potter.

Harry started giggling happily and forgetting all about his grudge against the blond boy and ‘attacked’ back, not knowing that later on their action would cause his teenage self to wonder.

It was in a tickling fight that Snape found them later on. For a moment his eyes enlarged in shock to see such a picture. Yet, his eyes softened. If the two greatest enemies in the school could put aside their differences even for a moment, this showed that there was still some hope for Gryffindor and Slytherin. He shook his head, however, and coughed.

“Draco, I am back. I hope Harry did not give you much trouble.”

Draco looked at the toddler and then at the black-robed professor. Baby Harry lowered his eyes expecting to hear Draco giving a detailed description of what he had done to him.

“No sir, he was no trouble at all” Draco stated finally and moved forward to collect his notes that lay forgotten on his teacher’s desk. “It’s late, sir, and I must get to my dormitory.”

“Draco,” Snape said before Draco would open the door. “Please drink this before you leave. We wouldn’t want your hand to swell.”

Draco looked at his hands, while Snape gave him a goblet full of potion. At the point where baby Harry had bit him, the markings were turning red and swelling.

“Such deep bites cause infection,” Snape pointed simply while Malfoy drunk a potion that had the taste of banana and cheese. “Harry, what have I been telling you about biting?”

”No good.” Harry said lowering his eyes.

“So, what are you going to say to Mr. Malfoy?”

“Me sowwy Dwaco.” Harry said in determination.

“Apology accepted Potter,” Draco said indifferently and left the office.

Baby Harry looked at his guardian and said in excitement.

“Look wat Dwaco tich me.”

He moved his hand upwards and tickled Snape on the ribs. The response was immediate. Snape let a very weird giggle that reminded Harry of a bleat. Snape covered his mouth.

“Harry, stop doing that” he ordered.

Harry did not comply. Instead, he stood up on tiptoes and continued tickling.

Snape inched away as his weird giggle, something he had never used for many years turned to a normal one and then to laughter.

“Ha – hehehe – Harry – hahahaha – Oh darts!” he finally exclaimed and started tickling the boy back.

)-)-)

“Ok Harry, time for bed,” Snape said and put the toddler to his bed. He covered the boy’s body the blanket. “Now, do you want anything else before you clear your mind of all thought?”

Snape knew that baby Harry had mastered cleansing his mind. It was time to start Occlumency lessons.

“Sevvus,” baby Harry said looking at him seriously, “Me knows biting bad. But – but if anynoona twies to stil you, me does it again.”