Harry jumped off Severus’ lap, rushing over to his friend Bill, who was lying on the ground. Madam Hooch had interrupted the match for the moment, and the players of both teams were surrounding Bill, while everyone was waiting for Poppy. Harry knelt down next to Bill, listening to the students, who were discussing that Bill’s arm was obviously broken.

“Out of the way, please,” Poppy’s command could be heard, and everyone except for Harry took a few steps back to let the Healer do her work. “Your arm is broken, Mr. Weasley. I will have to take you with me to the Hospital Wing where I can give you a potion so that you’ll be all right again tomorrow.”

While she was speaking, Harry suddenly gripped Bill’s broken arm with both hands, ignoring Poppy, who asked what he was doing. With a determined look on his face, he sent quite an amount of magic through his hands into Bill’s arm, hoping that it would help his friend. Suddenly, he felt that it was enough and let Bill’s arm go, tiredly leaning back into Poppy.

“Harry!” Bill exclaimed. “What have you done?” He turned to Poppy. “Madam Pomfrey, could you please check my arm again? I think Harry healed it!” he said excitedly.

Poppy shook her head and put a hand on Bill’s forehead, wondering if the boy had a fever. How could Harry heal his arm? This was impossible. Only natural Healers could do such a thing and those were so rare that there hadn’t been a natural Healer in more than a hundred years. Finally, she took her wand and waved it – once more – over Bill, noticing that his arm was – in fact – healed. With another flick of her wand she checked on Harry, getting the result that his magical resources were quite low again. She shook her head and let out a deep sigh.

Absentmindedly, she told Bill that, if he felt well enough, he could return to the match, which was just about to continue, before she took the sleeping Harry up in her arms and carried him over to the teachers’ stands, waving Severus over. The image of a little boy curled up in her arms when she was ill kept popping up in her head.

“Severus,” she said devastated. “Do you remember when Harry healed me just before Christmas?”

“Of course, Poppy. What’s wrong? What has Harry done this time?”

She told him the whole story and asked hesitantly, “Do you think he is a natural Healer?”

Severus sighed. “I don’t know, Poppy. However, it seems so. I’m not sure if he could do such things with his wish magic. Maybe we should talk to Albus about it.

“Poppy,” Minerva jumped into the conversation. “Do you think he’ll wake up soon? He intended to spend the night in the Gryffindor tower. Will he be able to do so?”

Poppy sighed. “I don’t know, Minerva. This time, he hasn’t depleted his magic completely, so possibly he’ll wake up soon.” She cradled the boy close and tried to wake him up by softly talking to him and placing kisses all over his small face.

Finally, Harry lifted his head, letting out a huge yawn. “What happened?” he asked, confused, until he remembered trying to heal Bill’s arm. “Is Bill all wight?”

“Yes, my dear. Bill is all right, but maybe you should tell us what happened. What did you do to Bill’s arm?” Poppy asked softly.

Big green eyes looked up. “Bill’s arm hurted, and I wanted to make him better ‘ts all.”

“All right, sweetie. Are you feeling well?”

Harry gave her a short nod. “’m only tired.”

“That’s okay. Do you want to join me to see the rest of the Quidditch match then, Harry?” his grandmother asked, relieved.

Harry nodded and held both arms up for his granny to pick him up. Minerva sighed and carried the small boy back to her seat next to Severus, while Poppy returned to the Hospital wing, muttering something to herself about small boys, who were always putting themselves into danger to help others.

Finally, Gryffindor won the match, and the party, which took place in Gryffindor that night, was high-spirited and noisy. Harry had brought a few cars, and Bill, Tom, and a few other boys tried to entertain him. However, when Minerva entered the Common room in order to look after her grandson and put him to bed in the fifth year boys’ dormitory, Harry clung to her robes and pleaded, “Please, Granny, can I stay wif you tonight?”

Minerva held the child at arm’s length and threw a curious but worried look into his face. “What’s wrong, little one? Has anybody done anything to you?”

“No, Granny,” Harry started to explain, but was interrupted by Bill and Tom, who had come over immediately, seeing the small boy clinging to their Head of House.

“We don’t know what’s wrong, but he definitely isn’t his usual self tonight,” Bill explained. “He’s very silent and doesn’t want to play at all.”

“What’s wrong, Harry? Are you feeling sick?”

“No, only my head hurts, and de students are so loud today,” Harry mumbled and let himself be picked up by his grandmother.

Minerva took the boy to her quarters, which she shared with her husband, Albus. She put Harry onto her own bed and called Poppy over to let her friend check on the boy. Poppy told her that the child just had a headache, probably resulting from the magic he performed in the afternoon. She fed Harry a potion, and the boy visibly relaxed, turned around, and fell asleep instantly. The two women exchanged an amused look, before Minerva magically changed Harry’s clothes to yellow footie pyjamas with small green lions on it and carefully pushed him to the middle of the bed, so that he could sleep between Albus and herself.

Minerva woke up to Harry’s giggling. He was sitting between her and Albus, staring in awe at the lions on his pyjamas, which were moving around and playing together with funny movements. As it was still very early, Minerva coaxed the child into lying down once more and proceeded to cuddle with the small boy until it was finally time for breakfast.

-----

Too soon for Harry’s liking, the summer holidays started for the students as well as for the children of the playschool. At first, Harry was devastated with fear that he wouldn’t get to see his friends for a long time. However, in the end, there was not a single day which he didn’t meet at least one of his friends – except for the weekends and one week, during which he was grounded. On most days, Harry’s whole playschool class even met either at Harry’s home in Hogsmeade or on the nearby playground.

One day, Harry had just transformed into his goat form and was playing with Ginevra, when he suddenly decided that he wanted to talk to his Uncle Severus in order to ask if Severus could take him to the zoo on Sunday. Without even thinking about telling Poppy or Aberforth, goat Harry ran out of the garden from the back side that led straight onto the grounds of Hogwarts. The property of Poppy and Aberforth was warded so that Harry couldn’t leave the site. However, it wasn’t warded on the Hogwarts’ side of the garden. Harry didn’t think about changing back but ran up to the castle in his goat’s form. The huge Entrance doors opened upon goat Harry’s wish to enter the castle.

However, unfortunately for Harry, Mr. Filch spotted the two goats roaming the Hogwarts halls just after they had entered the castle. With the unfriendly man’s shouting, Ginevra turned around and ran back, bursting through the still open Entrance doors. Harry however was hit in the head by a broom Mr. Filch threw at him. Frightened, he ran for his life, getting completely lost in the halls of the huge castle. Finally, he changed back into his human form and sat down in an alcove, sobbing. Why had he come here alone? He would never do such a thing without asking Poppy again, he vowed to himself.

Suddenly, a soft voice penetrated his ear. “What’s wrong, little one?”

Harry slowly lifted his head and recognized one of the ghosts. It was the nice lady he had already met several times. “Hello,” Harry said timidly.

“Hello Harry,” the Grey Lady replied, motioning the boy to follow her.

Harry slowly trailed behind the ghost through more unknown corridors until they finally reached a portrait. The Lady mumbled a password, and the portrait let them through into a huge office, which resembled Professor McGonagall’s office.

“Where are we?” Harry asked, glancing around the room in awe. It was decorated in blue and yellow and held a huge desk as well as a few comfortable looking chairs.

“This is my office,” the Grey Lady replied and motioned Harry to sit down before she called a house elf and ordered pumpkin juice and biscuits for Harry.

“Do you know who I am?” she then asked.

Harry uncomfortably shook his head. “No, I’m sowwy, Madam.”

“I am Rowena Ravenclaw,” the lady told him.

Harry frowned. “Ravenclaw? As in Ravenclaw House?” he then asked, fingering for a car that was hidden in his left pocket.

“Do you know the four founders of this castle?” the ghost asked patiently.

Harry shifted in his seat. “Yes, of course. Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff,” he listed up the names of the four houses.

“Yes, that’s correct. And you’re my heir. I am your grandfather’s many, many times great grandmother. And I’m a seer,” she continued. “Even when I was still alive, I already knew about you and I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. Now I believe that your Aunt Poppy will be very worried about you. Therefore, I shall take you back to the Entrance doors, so that you can return home.”

“Oh, no, please, I want to visit Uncle Sevewus,” Harry said excitedly, throwing the Grey Lady a pleading look.

“All right, I will take you to the dungeons. Please don’t tell anyone about the location of my office, only heirs of mine are allowed to know about it – especially you as I hope that you will be the Head of Ravenclaw in the future. You may tell your family that you visited me but don’t tell others.”

Harry threw the ghost a flabbergasted glance and followed her through the empty halls of Hogwarts until they reached Severus’ office.

“Bye, Harry. Whenever you wish to speak with me, just call Raby, my personal house elf. She will bring you to my office where I normally spend my days when I’m not roaming the corridors or visiting the Common room.”

“All right. Thank you,” Harry replied and hesitantly knocked at Severus’ door, while the ghost floated away.

-----

“Harry!” the professor said, astonished. “What are you doing here?”

“Hello Uncle Sevewus. Sory, but I forgetted to tell Aunt Poppy that I wanted to visit you. Could you please Floo-call hew and tell her that I’m here?”

Severus went to the fireplace, raising an eyebrow. Poppy would definitely not be pleased that Harry had run away without asking first. Fortunately, Poppy hadn’t missed him yet as she thought he was with Aberforth, who in turn thought that he would be inside helping Poppy. However, Harry was ordered to return immediately, and Severus promised to walk the boy home.

“Harry, I do not want you to do anything like this again. It was very dangerous. Poppy must always know where you are, and if you tell her that you want to visit me, she will either bring you here or call me so that I come and collect you. Do you understand me?” Severus spoke to the small boy in a very stern voice.

“Yes,” Harry replied quietly, blushing. He had been really stupid. “I was stoopid. I’m sory.”

“No, Harry, you are not stupid but what you did was stupid. It’s good that you understand that you have done something foolish because it’s very important that you realize this,” Severus said and ushered the boy out of his office.

Poppy didn’t take it so easily. She grounded the child for a whole week, which was very hard for Harry as he was used to seeing his friends every day. However, Poppy insisted that he had to stay alone in his room five afternoons without seeing any of his friends. Harry spent the whole week reading, and at the end of the week, he could not only read his books on his own but he also knew all his books by heart.

-----

On the last day of his being grounded, he stole himself into the kitchen when he heard that Aunt Poppy had just entered the room to prepare lunch.

“Aunt Poppy,” he asked hesitantly, “Can I help somefing?”

Poppy threw him a surprised glance. ‘Why not?’ she thought. ‘He is nearly four, and I could, of course, let him help with easy things, which aren’t dangerous.’ To Harry she said, “Yes, my sweetie, you can help if you want. I was just going to make pizza. Do you remember that we ate it last summer?”

Harry thought for a moment before he shook his head slightly. “No, Aunt Poppy, I don’t remember.”

“All right, Harry. You can sit down at the table and spread everything on the pizza that I’ve prepared.”

Harry happily started to spread salami, ham, tuna, onions, paprika, corn, pineapple, and finally cheese onto the pastry Poppy had put on the table in front of him. It looked delicious. Harry hadn’t eaten much this week because he had been so sad not to be able to meet his friends on a daily basis but today, he really felt hungry.

When lunch was finally ready, Poppy told Aberforth that Harry had helped her to make it, a hint of pride in her voice, and Harry felt like a big boy being able to help in the kitchen.

“Aunt Poppy?” Harry suddenly remembered something. “Can we make pizza for my friends on my birthday?”

Poppy laughed and replied, “Of course, we can do that, sweetie. How about we hold a garden party here at home instead of spending your birthday at Hogwarts?” Seeing the boy’s hesitant expression, Poppy added, “Of course we will invite everyone whom we would invite if the party was at Hogwarts.”

Harry jumped up from his seat and ran over to Poppy, throwing both arms around her. “Yes! Yes! Please!” he shouted excitedly.

“All right,” Poppy laughed. “Shall we write the invitations straight away?”

Harry and Poppy spent the afternoon writing invitations. Poppy wrote the text in capital letters on a parchment, and Harry eagerly copied the sentence onto each single card, his small tongue hanging out to the side of his mouth with the effort. It took Harry until dinner to write the invitations to his friends and he had yet to write cards to his grandparents and his aunts and uncles at Hogwarts.

“Shall I help you with the invitations?” Poppy asked, impressed by the small boy’s stamina.

“No, thank you,” Harry declined the offer. “Can I write them after dinner, please? I won’t draw anything, then I will be faster,” he promised, and Poppy decided to let the boy do as he wanted.

When the teachers came over as usual to have tea with Poppy, Harry was just writing the last invitation, and he handed the cards over to each respective person, and with the teachers’ amazed reactions he became very proud of being such a big boy. Unfortunately, being a big boy didn’t prevent him from being put to bed by Poppy immediately after handing out the invitations.

-----

Finally, it was Harry’s birthday. Harry had been more excited than ever as far as Poppy and Aberforth could remember, and both adults were glad that the big day had arrived at last. When Harry got up very early in the morning, Poppy and Aberforth were still asleep. Feeling thirsty, the boy snuck down into the kitchen and he jumped back frightened when he saw something moving in the room.

“Oh, I is sorry, didn’t wants scaring Master Harry,” a tiny voice penetrated his ear.

Harry hesitantly opened his eyes, which he had squeezed shut in his panic, and saw, “Skippy!” he shouted excitedly and happily ran over to the small elf, hugging him tightly. ‘Has Skippy come to help Aunt Poppy preparing my birthday party?’ he wondered.

“Happy birthday, Master Harry,” Skippy breathed, being nearly squished by his little master’s hug.

“Thank you, Skippy,” Harry beamed and released the elf in order to help himself to some pumpkin juice.

“It is only five o’clock in the morning. Master Harry should goes to bed once more, so that Master Harry is fit when his guests comes,” Skippy suggested when Harry had finished his juice.

Harry did feel very tired and gave Skippy a nod before he went up the stairs again and snuck into Poppy and Aberforth’s room, climbing into their bed and curling up into Poppy’s arms. Harry fell asleep immediately and didn’t even wake up when Poppy left the bed an hour later.

Suddenly, he woke up to Poppy’s voice greeting, “Good morning, birthday boy.” She came into bed once more and cuddled with Harry for a while before she said, “Now, let’s get up and get you dressed as the Hogwarts teachers will be here for breakfast in a few minutes.

Harry crawled out of the bed, running over to the bathroom to wash his face immediately. “When will my fwiends come?” he asked eagerly while Poppy helped him button his shirt.

When Harry entered the huge kitchen again, all his aunts and uncles were already seated around the table. The animal train with his birthday candles was there, and even a huge cake decorated the table. After a walk around the table, being cuddled and congratulated by everyone, Harry finally sat down between his Granny and Uncle Severus.

“Now, Harry, we have heard that you have become a very big boy over the holidays,” Albus addressed his grandson and suggested, “Maybe you could try to blow the candles out instead of using magic this time.”

Harry threw him an anxious glance but nevertheless tried and finally managed to extinguish the candles without using magic.

“Very good,” Severus commended the boy.

“Now, Harry,” Albus spoke up again. “Do you think you can distribute the cake? Skippy has already cut it, so you only have to put a piece of cake onto each plate.” When Harry threw him a delighted glance, he elaborated, “The reason why, Harry, is that this year, you will only get one birthday present, which is from all of us. And this present is hidden in the middle of this cake. So it’s your job to share the cake so that you can get out your present.”

Everyone laughed at this explanation, and Minerva let out an exasperated, “Oh, Albus!” When the others laughed even more, she continued, “One would wonder which of you was the child!”

Harry worked hard to distribute the cake to everyone. When he picked up the last piece to put it on his own plate, he could see something white around the next piece on top of the cake. But he still couldn’t get it out. Very disappointed, he returned to his seat until he finally had an idea. Jumping over to the cupboard, he got another plate out and put the next piece of cake onto the plate, putting it on the table. Then he called Skippy and asked him to sit down between Minerva and himself and eat. Skippy finally complied, after discussing the matter for a few minutes until Harry ordered him to do as he was told and then Harry returned to the cake and tried to get the whitey thing out – to no avail; he just couldn’t reach it.

Severus, who had noticed how disappointed the child had been, frantically tried to think of an idea of how to get off another piece of the cake, stood up and helped Harry, managing to pull an envelope out of the cake.

“Thank you, Uncle Sevewus,” Harry beamed and gave his favourite uncle a sloppy kiss before he finally opened the envelope.