A few minutes later, Minerva entered the room, taking in her grandson, who was alone in the room, sitting on the sofa with red eyes and flushed cheeks. Minerva sat next to Harry on the sofa and pulled the child onto her lap, eying him worriedly. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

Harry slightly shook his head. “No, Hawwy’s fine, Gwanny.”

#Now, look how worried Minnie is. She seems to believe that you’re heading for a burning day. So just tell her that you had a fight with me,# Fawkes advised the boy.

“Um… Hawwy had fight wif Fowks and Hawwy cwy wittul. But Hawwy awwight now,” he told his Grandmother, efficiently managing not to laugh at Fawkes antics.

Minerva let out a relieved sigh. “All right. I was worried that you were getting sick again. In that case, shall we have a glass of milk and a few of your favourite biscuits?”

Harry’s face lightened. A few weeks ago, the Headmaster of a German wizarding school had visited his grandfather and – as Albus’ liking of sweets was world-famous – the German Headmaster had brought a package of biscuits. They contained a bit of poppy seed and vanilla and had a cherry on top of them. When Albus let Harry taste, the child had wanted more and more, and finally only one biscuit was left, which Albus had entrusted to Twinkle and asked her to find out how to make it. Of course, the Hogwarts kitchen elves had been able to bake these biscuits and from then on, they had been Harry’s absolute favourites.

Minerva called Twinkle, and a minute later, tea for Minerva, milk for Harry, and the cherry biscuits popped up on the table. Harry sighed, relieved. ‘While I’m eating, nobody can make me talk, right?’ he thought. He slowly munched on the delicious biscuits and after eating three of them, he felt utterly full. However, his mood hadn’t lifted yet and noticing his granny’s worried look, he slowly continued to eat. Fortunately, when he had just finished the fifth biscuit, determined that nothing more could fit in his full belly, Severus entered the room.

“Good afternoon, Minerva, Harry,” he greeted them and was rewarded by a smile from Harry that didn’t really reach his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked immediately, throwing a curious glance at Minerva.

“I have no idea, Severus. He looks a bit sick, but he says that he’s fine and he has eaten quite a lot of biscuits. He told me he had a fight with Fawkes, but that’s all I could get out of him,” the Deputy Headmistress replied helplessly.

Severus threw Harry an assessing glance and asked, “Now, Harry, shall we go to my quarters and then decide what we are going to do until dinner? Maybe we can go out for a walk.” He noticed that the child’s eyes weren’t twinkling in their usual way, but at least Harry said ‘good-bye’ to his grandmother and Fawkes, picked up his dragon, and followed him out of the room, silently trailing behind Severus all the way down to the dungeons.

Severus took Harry into his private lab, which seemed to be a favourite place. The few times Harry had been here before, he had given Severus the impression that he liked being here very much. Severus sat down on a chair and pulled Harry onto his lap, noticing that the boy was staring at the floor. “Harry,” he softly caught the child’s attention. “I would like to speak with you. First of all, please tell me if you’re feeling sick or if it is something else that is bothering you.”

It took quite a time until Severus heard a very small voice telling him, “somfing ewse.”

Severus waited patiently, calmingly moving one hand in circles around the child’s back, and after a few minutes of silence, the small voice continued to speak. Harry explained to his favourite uncle what the Sorting Hat and Fawkes had told him and finally leaned into Severus’ robes and silently started to cry.

“Harry,” Severus quietly started to speak, “I’m not sure about what Fawkes said. However, as far as I know through many generations of people you are related to three of the founders.” Noticing that Harry threw him a questioning glance, he elaborated, “That means that they are your many times great grandfathers and great grannies. I don’t know if that is the reason for the Sorting Hat’s difficulties, and I suggest that we talk about this again in a few years when you’ll be able to understand it better. Anyway, as a many times great grandchild to the founders you belong to their houses as well as any student that has been sorted into the house.” He pulled out a handkerchief and carefully wiped away the child’s tears.

“Uncy Sewewus?” Harry spoke up softly, “Do you fink Fowks ow de Sowtin Hat tell Gwanddad about Hawwy talk wif Hat?”

Severus let out a sigh. “That I don’t know, Harry. However, I believe it would be better if you told Granddad on your own and apologized, don’t you think so? He won’t like it because you were very naughty talking to the Hat without his approval, but he will probably be less angry if he hears it from you rather than from Fawkes or the Hat.”

Harry gave him a short nod, before he frowned again. “Uncy Sewewus, will Gwanddad be angwy wif Fowks fow giving de Hat to Hawwy?”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “Yes, he probably will be angry with him. However…”

Harry interrupted him excitingly. “Den Hawwy not tell Gwanddad dat Fowks give Hat to Hawwy. Hawwy can tell dat Hawwy get Hat wif Mashic?”

Severus’ showed the child a small smile, while he shook his head. “Harry, that’s very considerate of you. However, you must not outright lie to Granddad. How about you just tell him that you talked to the Hat, hmm? If Fawkes is lucky, Granddad will just assume that you called the Hat to you by magic.”

Harry’s face lit considerably. “Yes, Hawwy will do so. Fank you, Uncy Sewewus. Um… Uncy Sewewus go wif Hawwy apowize Gwanddad?”

“Yes, I shall accompany you to Granddad so that you can apologize. How about we brew a few lemon drops for Granddad? You can give them to him when you apologize.”

Harry excitedly jumped off Severus’ lap, turned around to face him and shouted, “Yes, pwease, Uncy Sewewus. Can we stawt now? And can we put somefing in to make Gwanddad laf?”

Severus snorted. “You want to prank Granddad by putting something in his lemon drops?”

“Yes. But onwy want make Gwanddad laf, not bad pwank. Hawwy is vewwy good boy, not pway bad pwank on Gwanddad.”

The edges of Severus’ mouth went up a little. “All right, little one. We shall insert a tiny bit of yellow feather herbs after putting in the last ingredient. That should do.”

Harry’s eyes started to twinkle when Severus motioned the boy to sit down while he started to get out the necessary ingredients. A few times Harry was asked to stir in one direction or the other, while Severus prepared and put in the ingredients. Half an hour later, the potion was finished and had to be poured into a lemon drop mould. Later, Severus put the lemon drops into a small bag, so that Harry could take them to the Headmaster later.

When they talked to Albus after dinner, the Headmaster fortunately kept his anger at bay and easily accepted Harry’s apology. He didn’t even ask how the Sorting Hat had managed to find itself on Harry’s head. Probably, he thought it was Harry’s wish magic. Fawkes and Harry exchanged a relieved look. Finally, Harry handed over the lemon drops and commented, “Dey awe not nowmal lemon dwops but Uncy Sevewus helped Hawwy bwew specially fow make Gwanddad happy cause Hawwy was bowld and Hawwy loww Gwanddad vewwy much.”

“Thank you very much, my dear boy,” Albus replied happily. “I will hold them dear.”

-----

One day – it was in a week of beautiful sunshine at the end of May, and it was the evening before the last Hogsmeade weekend of the school year – Amelia Bones approached Poppy and Harry after dinner. She asked Poppy if she could take Harry to Hogsmeade the next day. “You know, I have a niece, who is exactly the same age as Harry, and I’d like her to get to know him. Maybe she could visit with Harry from time to time, for example during the summer holidays when everyone else is gone. Anyway, I’m going to meet my niece tomorrow. She’ll be coming to The Three Broomsticks together with her parents and I’d like to introduce Harry to her.”

Poppy threw Harry a questioning glance. “Would you like to accompany Miss Bones to Hogsmeade in order to get to know a new friend?”

Harry’s eyes started twinkling immediately. “Yes!” he shouted so loudly that he had all the attention of the Great Hall on himself. Harry blushed and averted his eyes to the floor.

“Oh no,” Poppy suddenly groaned. “The wards! Sorry, I haven’t thought about that, but Harry cannot go to Hogsmeade as the wards are charmed to not let him out of Hogwarts.” She turned back to the Head table, caught sight of Albus, and waved him over.

They conferred for a moment and finally agreed to change the wards so that Harry could Floo over to the house of Poppy and Aberforth. As the Floo connection between Hogwarts and Poppy’s house in Hogsmeade was charmed so that apart from Poppy and Aberforth, only Harry, Albus, Minerva, and Severus could use the connection, Poppy and Albus decided that this had to be safe, too.

Finally, Poppy turned back to Amelia and agreed with her that Aberforth would take Harry home in the morning, and Amelia could pick him up at their home. After meeting Susan and her parents, Amelia promised to bring Harry directly back to Hogwarts.

Later in the evening, when Poppy tucked Harry in and sat on the edge of his bed for a while, the child asked lazily, “Why can I go to youwe home suddenly? I wanted to go and visit Sineba so much and I’ve asked Gwanddad so often, but he never allowed me. Why did he agwee today?”

Poppy sighed and gave her little boy a fond smile. “You know, Harry, your Grandfather is very protective of you. He feared for your safety, and it took us – Granny, Uncle Aberforth, Uncle Severus and me – several months to convince him that it would be safe enough for you. Maybe on Sunday we can go home, if I’m not too busy here, and visit Ginevra.”

After a short while, she continued, “You know, Harry, this was also the reason why Granddad put you with your relatives. He thought they could keep you safer than we can. This is of course complete nonsense, but he really thought so and wanted to protect you. Therefore, he placed you with your relatives.”

Harry sat up once more and put his small arms around his aunt’s neck. He didn’t remember much of his relatives; he only had the memories he sometimes had to watch in his nightmares, which fortunately had become much less frequent during the last few months.

-----

Later in the evening, Albus re-thought the arrangements once more and ordered Severus to accompany Harry from the instant he left his brother’s house until he arrived back in Hogwarts. Of course, Harry wouldn’t mind at all, and Amelia, who had gotten to know the professor a little through Harry, shouldn’t care either.

“All right, Albus, I shall accompany Harry to his ‘date’. However, in this case, I would appreciate it if I could take the boy for a small walk through Hogsmeade and into the bookshop,” Severus spoke up.

“To the bookshop?” Sirius blurted out. “He is two years and ten months old. What does he want in a bookshop? He can’t even read!”

“He can already read all the capital letters and at the moment, he is learning small letters,” Remus contradicted immediately.

“What? Why are you teaching him to read at that age, Moony? Teach him do something useful – like pranking Mrs. Norris!”

“Oh, shut up, Padfoot! I’m not teaching him anything. He just loves letters and is learning them on his own. I only helped him do his floor puzzle several times, and now he can do it on his own. Nevertheless, I think Honeydukes would be more interesting for Harry, Severus.”

“No, Moony, take him to Zonko’s!” Sirius laughed, and Pomona agreed.

“No, Pomona, I believe that Honeydukes would be much more appropriate,” Albus voted.

“Severus, I’d like you to take him to Flourish & Blotts. You can ask Harry, but I’m sure that he would appreciate the bookshop most,” Poppy contradicted.

“I fully agree with you, Poppy.” Minerva voiced her opinion at last.

“How about a bet? We can ask Harry at breakfast tomorrow, and then we’ll know who won,” Sirius suggested, and the others agreed, amused. They soon retired to bed; each determined that it would be their group to win the bet.

At breakfast, Albus spoke to Harry. “Harry, we have decided that Severus will accompany you to Hogsmeade. As he has kindly suggested taking you into the town before meeting Amelia and her family you may choose one shop you want to visit. He can either take you to the sweets shop, where they sell sweets like lemon drops or chocolate frogs, to the joke shop, where you can buy anything you need for pranks, or to the bookshop. You may think about it while you eat your breakfast and then you tell me, which shop you would like to go to with Severus.”

Harry didn’t need to think about it at all – he replied immediately. “Harry need not fink. Harry want to go to de bookshop, please, Uncle Sevewus.”

Harry didn’t see the disbelieving looks on some faces; neither did he notice a few galleons changing hands.

------

Harry enjoyed his trip to Hogsmeade very much. In the morning, Aberforth let him play with Ginevra and again showed him how to care for the goat as Harry had already forgotten most of what Aberforth had taught him last summer. At eleven o’clock, Severus came to pick Harry up. “Now, Harry, it’s quite a walk to the bookstore. Are you sure you can walk so far?” Aberforth asked him.

“Yes, Uncle Abe, Hawwy want go bookstowe vewwy much!” the small boy answered excitedly and hurried to get his coat. On his small feet, it was indeed a twenty minutes walk, but Harry enjoyed walking by Severus’ side as if he were a big student.

The bookshop was amazing. Harry just couldn’t tear his eyes from the shelf which held many children’s books. Severus told him that he could choose three books as Minerva, Poppy, and he each wanted to buy a book for Harry. Severus didn’t tell him of course that they had decided to spend their bet winnings on books for the child. The boy happily skimmed the shelf he had been looking at during the last hour once more, and Severus helped him choose three books. One of them was a little story about a small boy called Bob and his pet dragon; the second book was a huge book about animals with many things to pull and flaps to lift as well as buttons on the right side. When Harry pushed one of the buttons, he could hear the noise of the animal, which he could see next to the button. The third book was a toddler’s book about potions making, which even included a few ingredients needed to brew sweets.

Severus paid for the books, and Harry proudly carried the bag the owner of the bookstore had handed him. He was very excited and happy. Getting three very interesting books was overwhelming. Moreover, Poppy had taken him to several shops last year, but it was so many months ago that Harry couldn’t remember very well. Therefore, for him being taken to Flourish & Blotts by Severus was a huge event.

They arrived at The Three Broomsticks just in time and the Bones joined Harry and Severus only minutes later. Harry liked Susan immediately. She was not as self-confident as Draco but she wasn’t as shy as Harry either. Susan made the first step and held her hand out to Harry.

“Hi Harry. I am Susan. Aunt Amelia has towld me a wot about you.”

Harry threw her an anxious smile. “Hello Susan. I’m gwlad to meet you.”

While they were having lunch, the two toddlers were talking animatedly. When they had finally finished, Susan’s mother suggested they go to a playground, which was situated a few streets away from the main road. Actually, it was not too far from Poppy’s house, Severus thought. The children played quietly together in the sand for quite a while before Susan rushed off to the slide, Harry on her heals. Severus smirked seeing how Harry behaved like a gentleman, always waiting for Susan to climb the ladder first. The toddlers had so much fun that the adults decided to bring them together again at the next opportunity.

-----

A few weeks later, the school year ended. Harry was sad hearing that all the nice students were going back home over the summer; however, he was devastated when Amelia told him that she had taken her N.E.W.T.s and wouldn’t return to Hogwarts in autumn.

Seeing Harry so sad about her leaving Hogwarts, Amelia and her friends decided to do something special for Harry, and Pomfrey agreed immediately. After the Leaving Feast, Amelia and her friends went over to Harry, who was sitting at the Head table between Severus and Sirius, looking very unhappy. Amelia asked, “Hello Harry, would you like to join us in our Common room? Your Aunt Poppy has allowed you to stay in Hufflepuff overnight.”

Harry’s eyes lit immediately, and he answered excitedly, “Yes, Hawwy like dat vewy much. But Hawwy don’t have toof bwush wif me.”

Everyone laughed, and Sirius quickly conjured a small yellow children’s tooth brush with a red dragon on it, while Severus transfigured his napkin into strawberry flavoured tooth paste. In the meantime, they had drawn the attention of the whole Head Table, and with a wave of his wand Albus changed Harry’s clothes into blue footie pyjamas with many twinkling stars and a phoenix like Fawkes moving around and flashing from one spot to another.

Harry giggled, amazed, gripped his tooth brush and tooth paste and climbed off his seat. He said ‘good night’ to the teachers, went over to Poppy to receive a ‘good-night-kiss’, and followed the seventh year girls out of the hall.

In the Hufflepuff common room, the older students conjured a few cars and a parking garage for Harry, and the first and second year boys proceeded to join Harry playing with the cars. When Harry became tired, Amelia picked him up and took him to the bathroom, helping him to wash his face and brush his teeth.

Harry beamed and offered her Severus’ tooth paste. “Uncle Sevewus can make vewy good toof paste, you wan twy?”

“No, thank you, Harry. I’m not going to bed yet, and maybe I’m still going to eat something before going to bed. So I’ll brush my teeth later.”

“Ah, awwight.” Harry wrinkled his forehead, obviously thinking intensely. “Amelia?”

“Yes, my dear?”

“Hawwy don wanto go to bed now. Hawwy’s not twied, wanto pway mowe wife pawrking house.” Suddenly, he remembered something. “And Hawwy not bringed my dwagon. Need my dwagon to sleep,” he said, throwing a pleading glance at Amelia.

Noticing that his eyes were still twinkling happily, Amelia laughed. “That’s all right, Harry. You can play as long as you want tonight. When you are tired, you just tell me or anyone else, and we will put you to bed in one of the dormitories. And your dragon… I’ll go and get it for you.”

Back in the common room, the girls took turns cuddling with Harry, who held his dragon close, which Amelia had fetched for him. Finally, he fell asleep on Lucy, a blonde third year girl. As it was time for the first years to go to bed anyway, they took Harry with them to their dormitory, where he spent the night next to Annette, whom he seemed to like best of the first years.

In the morning, everyone had to get up very early in order to pack their luggage as they had to catch the Hogwarts Express immediately after breakfast. Harry, however, didn’t wake up from all the commotion and stayed fast asleep in Annette’s bed until the others woke him up in time for breakfast. He had enjoyed the night in Hufflepuff very much, and the younger students promised that he could stay with them again when they came back in September.

When Harry arrived at the Great Hall together with the first year Hufflepuff girls, his new parking garage and two dozen cars shrunk in his pockets, Bill stepped in front of him and invited him to have breakfast at the Gryffindor table.

“Fank you, Bill,” Harry replied enthusiastically. “But Hawwy must ask Aunt Poppy.”

“Oh, Harry, I’ve already asked her, and she has agreed.” He took Harry by the hand and pulled him over to the Gryffindor table.

“What is the Hufflepuff common room like?” Tom, one of Bill’s friends, asked Harry.

“Hawwy like Uffepuff. Woom is like Gwyffindowe, but diffewent colouws. Evyfing is yellow and black dewe.”

“Yes, Harry, yellow and black are the colours of Hufflepuff, just as scarlet and gold are the colours of Gryffindor,” Tom supplied. “Apart from the colours, does the room look similar to our common room?”

Harry gave him a short nod. “Yes. Vewwy similaw. Tudents awe vewwy nice dewe like in Gwyffindowe.”

Bill laughed. “I hope they’re nice to you, otherwise they’ll get in trouble with me. However, I’m afraid that we have to leave as we do have to catch the train home today. I’m going to ask my mum when we can visit you during the holidays, all right?”

Harry returned an excited glance. “Yes, Bill, please! Hawwy wanto play wif Sinny an de twins. Hawwy like Sinny an de twins vewwy much.”

“What about Ron?” Tom jumped into the conversation. “He should be your age, isn’t he, Bill?”

Harry threw an anxious glance to Tom and then to Bill and said in a very small voice, “Hawwy nowike Won so much; Won isn’t nice to Hawwy and Sinny.”

Bill laughed and ruffled Harry’s hair. “It’s all right, Harry. You don’t have to like everyone. I’ll try to come and visit you together with the twins and Ginny. However, if my mum is coming with us, she’ll have to bring the others too. But you don’t have to play with Ron if you don’t want to.”

Harry looked gratefully at the older boy, when Severus suddenly put his hands on Harry’s shoulders and motioned him to follow him. The evening before, the teachers had coaxed Albus into changing the wards, so that Severus could take Harry to the train station in order to see the students off.

-----

During the next weeks, Harry kept asking Poppy daily when the students would return to Hogwarts. He was so bored that he started finding mischief. One day, despite knowing better, Harry sneaked into Severus’ Potions lab. He wanted to try making strawberry drops in the same way like lemon drops, which he remembered how to brew. In the kitchen, he had received a few strawberries, which he mashed and put in the Potion in order to replace the lemon juice. However, unfortunately, his new self-made recipe didn’t work, and when Severus discovered the boy, he and the Potions lab had been a complete mess. Harry wouldn’t forget the stern speech for years, which Severus gave him after this incident.

“Which part of ‘you may never come here on your own or try to brew potions on your own’ didn’t you understand?” the teacher asked between clenched teeth, glaring daggers at Harry.

“I sowwy,” Harry cried. “Hawwy wanted make tawbewwy dwops fow ebyone,” he stuttered, sobbing heavily.

“Working with Potions is very dangerous and can even lead to the death of the brewer. Even much bigger people than you have found a painful fate brewing Potions. I do not want you to meet such a destiny. You will never ever enter my Potions lab on your own. Is that clear?” Severus asked in a dangerously cold voice. He had to try hard not to shout at the now frightened child.

“Yes,” Harry answered between sobs, not daring to look up at his angry uncle.

With this, Severus hoped he had made it clear enough that Harry would never enter his Potions lab alone again, before he took a crying child back to Poppy. After this incident, Poppy made a decision.