It was a bright Sunday afternoon in early May 1982, and Headmaster Albus Dumbledore and his wife Minerva McGonagall were sitting in the living room of their quarters at Hogwarts. They were having tea together with Poppy Pomfrey and her husband Aberforth, Albus’ brother.

“Have you already thought about whom you want to hire as Defence teacher for next year, Albus? Since Charles is already telling everyone that he will return to the Aurors, I think it’s time to look for someone else again.”

“Yes, Minerva,” Dumbledore replied pleasantly. “I know, and I already have an idea. In fact, I wanted to ask him earlier but didn’t because of the one-year curse that was affecting this position. However, with Voldemort gone, I believe that the curse must be lifted by now…”

Suddenly an alarm went off in Dumbledore’s office. Dumbledore hurried down to the office at a speed which would have made people believe that he was much younger than his 140 years.

“Something is wrong with the blood wards around Harry,” he said urgently, turning to his friends, who had followed him into the office. “They seem to be failing rapidly, which means that Harry is in danger. I’ll go and look after him.” He transformed into his phoenix form and flashed away immediately.

Dumbledore arrived directly in front of Number Four Privet Drive, which was in every way identical to the other houses on the block. After making sure that the street was quiet in its Sunday afternoon sleepiness and no one were around, he transformed back into his human form and approached the door of the house. Though he considered simply locking the door with an Alohomora spell, he decided against it and just pushed the bell.

A very large man opened the door, watching him with an angry face. “What do you want?” he bellowed immediately, eyes scanning Dumbledore’s robes critically. “You are one of them, aren’t you?”

“Maybe it would be wise if you let me come in so as not to alert the whole neighbourhood?” Dumbledore replied calmly, putting his foot into the doorframe so that the huge man couldn’t close the door in his face. “I would like to have a few words with one Harry Potter.” Dumbledore noted a hint of panic flickering in the man’s eyes.

A bony blonde woman appeared behind the man. “The little freak is in his room,” she stated, pointing to a cupboard under the stairs. “You’d do good to take the ungrateful little urchin away!”

Albus felt his spirits, already low, fall even further. He had hoped so much that Petunia would be able to love her little nephew and that Harry would be safe and happy with his relatives. However, it seemed that Minerva had been right. She had warned him not to leave the baby with these Muggles. But he had to see Harry before making any decisions. Maybe the Dursleys only talked like this while they were caring for the baby at the same time. However, Harry still must be in grave danger; otherwise the wards wouldn’t have failed. Dumbledore took the few steps till he reached the cupboard.

The smell was the first thing Dumbledore noticed. It was like that of a cowshed. He bowed his head, casting a Lumos charm, and looked into the dark cupboard. He let out a loud gasp as he took in every detail of the cupboard.

There was a cot with a baby blanket draped over it. He recognized. Minerva and he had given it to Lily and James when Harry was born. Beside the cot was a small, almost round bundle with black hair on one side. Harry. The bundle on the floor had to be Harry because there was nothing else in the room that could be identified as a human being.

Albus took a step into the cupboard and gathered the whimpering figure into his arms, nearly gagging at the smell. A glance at the little face, which was nearly invisible behind rag the baby was wearing, confirmed that the child was Harry Potter. He was filthy, and his nappy was so full it was about to burst. It obviously hadn’t been changed for at least three days. Albus immediately cast a Scourgify spell on the little boy and magically exchanged his nappy for a clean one. Now the bundle in his arms was more like a little boy. With the dirt gone from his body, Albus saw that the boy was covered in bruises. Noticing that the baby was still shivering in his arms, he tentatively put a hand on one of the small baby cheeks, noticing that the boy’s skin was very hot and his breathing was laboured.

Dumbledore turned to the Dursleys, who had been watching him the whole time, and said threateningly, “This is not the last word we have spoken about Harry. I will take him now but I’ll be back to talk to you.” Pressing the small bundle to his chest, he Apparated directly in front of the Hogwarts apparition border in Hogsmeade. Then he ran up to the Hospital Wing, shouted, “Poppy!” into the fireplace of her office, and put Harry on the nearest bed. He then sat down next to Harry, carefully stroking his cheeks, and talked to the boy in a small, calming voice as he searched for some sign of consciousness.

A minute later, the doors to the Hospital Wing opened, and Poppy stormed in, Minerva hot on her heals. “What…” Poppy started to ask but stopped dead when she saw the small bundle on the bed. She waved her wand over Harry a few times, until she held three pages of notes in her hand to assess the child’s condition. With only a quick glance at the writing on one of the parchments, she let out a loud gasp. “I’m sorry, Minerva and Albus, but you have to leave us alone for a while. It will take me at least two hours to heal most of his injuries. Maybe you could ask Severus to come and help me, please. I’ll firecall you when I’m done.”

Minerva and Albus knew better than to contradict the Healer and silently returned to the Headmaster’s office, from where Albus immediately contacted Severus Snape, the Potions Professor of Hogwarts.

-----

When her friends left the Hospital Wing, Poppy immediately started to tend to her small patient. “Oh my…” she mumbled to herself and proceeded with healing the broken ribs first in order to heal the lung, which had been punctured by a rib.

Hearing the doors of the Hospital Wing slam, she sighed and threw her young colleague a relieved glance. “Severus, please fetch a bucket with lukewarm water and a clean cloth and start cleaning him. I don’t think we have much time to spare, and I don’t want to use too much magic on him,” she told him, glad to see that he complied without asking any questions. Both of them worked intently on the child for nearly three hours before they had finished everything that could be done at the moment.

Severus pulled up two chairs, and both of them sat down tiredly. “Poppy, who is that boy?” Severus asked carefully.

“Can’t you recognize him? It’s Harry Potter,” Poppy answered absently, obviously wrapped up in her own thoughts.

“What?!” Severus exclaimed. “That’s Harry Potter? Oh, right, he resembles James a lot,” he then assessed, glancing at the child. “But how can he be in such a condition? He was supposed to be a pampered, little brat and not a mistreated, sick baby.”

“He was such a happy, healthy child only six months ago,” Poppy answered desperately. Tears were welling in her eyes. Before Lily died, she had known baby Harry quite well. Lily and Minerva had been very close, and Lily had often brought Harry to the castle whenever she needed someone to baby-sit her son. Poppy and Rolanda Hooch had often joined Minerva during these opportunities to care for the cute little boy. Lily had also brought Harry to Poppy a few times when something was ailing him. At the moment, Harry was in a half-conscious state and had yet to show any sign of recognition. She stood up and went over to the fireplace in her office to call Minerva and Albus.

It only took her friends a minute to join them at Harry’s bedside. “How is he, Poppy?” Minerva asked immediately.

It hurt Poppy to tell her friend the truth as she knew that Minerva had always loved the little tyke as if he were her grandson. But she just had to tell everything. She explained about the broken bones, which Severus and she had managed to mend in the meantime. However, he was still suffering from a concussion and a very bad lung infection, along with a fever that was dangerously high in spite of the potions they had given him.

“So he will be all right in a few days time?” Minerva asked, giving her friend a hopeful glance before she sat down on the edge of Harry’s bed, carefully stroking his flushed cheeks.

“I don’t know,” Poppy whispered. She had to try hard to keep her tears at bay. “He is undernourished and is just over half the weight he should be at his age. He has a very bad rash on his bottom. It is so badly infected that it will take a few days to heal. I believe that they have only fed and changed him once or twice a week. From his lung infection, which he’s probably had for a few weeks now, he has developed asthma, and because of rampant illnesses, his heart and his immune system are damaged.”

She sighed and glanced over to the little child, before she spoke up to give her friends the last bad news for the evening. “I’m sorry, but I have to report this. It is too bad a case of child neglect and abuse to overlook, so it’s my responsibility as a Healer to report the Dursleys to the Ministry.”

Albus, who had so far sat there, his head in his hands, suffering from self-reproach, looked up and spoke. “Yes Poppy, we’ll do that. However, before we tell the ministry, we have to decide what shall happen to Harry and we have to appoint a guardian. Otherwise the Ministry will take over guardianship.”

“All right,” Poppy replied. “Let’s go into my office, so that Harry can rest. He’ll be fine, and the spells I put on him will alert me in case he has any problems.”

“Let me take him in, Albus,” Minerva said as soon as they were seated in Poppy’s office.

“But how will you manage to look after a child, Minerva?” Severus asked thoughtfully. “You have lessons to teach, you are Head of House and Deputy Headmistress. You don’t have time to look after Harry.”

“That’s true,” Albus agreed. “Of course I could help you, but even I don’t have the whole day. Maybe we should find a family who would take him in. I’m sure there are lots of wizarding families who would be delighted to adopt Harry Potter.”

Minerva started to cry, and Poppy spoke up. “I’m afraid that his condition doesn’t give us a lot of choices. He should be near someone who has at least practice with Healing. I can’t even assure you that he’ll be able to live a normal life yet. I’d prefer to have him here at Hogwarts so that I could look after him. Perhaps I should take him in.”

“Maybe that would be a good idea, Poppy,” Albus said pensively.

“I know that I don’t have to say anything about this child as he is the son of Potter, who was not exactly my friend, but I believe this is a good idea,” Severus commented, ignoring the astonished look he received from Minerva and the twinkle that started in Albus’ eyes.

“Thank you, Severus,” Poppy interrupted the silence with her kind voice, watching Severus. She had known him since he first set foot into Hogwarts, and she knew him probably better than anybody else. He had always confided in her, and she was the one to know everything about his childhood, which had been far from happy. “Minerva, what do you think?”

“Oh, yes, thank you, Poppy. I think that’s a very good idea,” Minerva replied quickly. “However, will Aberforth be all right with your decision?” she asked sceptically.

Poppy went over to the Floo and called her husband over, who after hearing the whole story said, “Of course. If you want to take Harry in, then we’ll do that.”

Dumbledore promised to retrieve the necessary papers from the Ministry in the morning and they adjourned their meeting. Before Albus left, he called Twinkle, Minerva’s and his personal house elf, and asked her to install a nursery within Poppy’s quarters with a connecting door to Poppy’s office so that it would be easy for the Healer to look after the child while she was working.

An hour later, the elves had finished the room. It was done in light colours, mainly white and a light blue. The room held a crib near the wall on one side, a changing unit next to it, and a wardrobe on the opposite wall. Next to the wardrobe was a magical window, showing a view of the lake. Then there was a book shelf filled with children’s books and a shelf holding a few toys. A playpen was placed in the middle of the room, near the door leading to Poppy’s office. The door on the opposite side led to the living room of Poppy’s quarters, which she shared with Aberforth during the school year.

While Poppy was still admiring the elves’ work, Aberforth carefully took Harry into his arms and carried him to the soft bed in his new room. He placed him down, tucked him in, and gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Good night, my baby. Sleep well.”

With this, Harry blinked and finally opened his eyes a little. When he saw the old man hovering directly over his face, Poppy expected him to cry immediately. However, Harry had a good look at the face with the long, white beard and mumbled, “Gada,” before he tiredly closed his eyes again and drifted off.

Poppy and Aberforth took turns staying with Harry during the night. It was not only because his breathing condition was so bad that Poppy thought it would be better to keep an eye on him all the time, but because she wanted him to drink a little milk every two hours. For six months, he seemed to have only received two bottles of milk a week. Therefore, they couldn’t feed him much at a time; otherwise his stomach wouldn’t be able to handle it. So it would be small, frequent meals. She had also asked Severus to make a nutrient potion for the child, which he would have to take twice a day. They would probably have to get him used to larger amounts of food for at least a week until they could try to give him solid food, which he should be eating at his age.

“His magic must be very strong. Otherwise he wouldn’t have survived. It’s a miracle that he is still alive,” she told her husband. ‘How could he get such a bad concussion and so many broken bones? It’s as if they had just thrown him back onto the floor of the cupboard after taking him out to change him every third day or so,’ she contemplated.

-----

In the morning, Minerva arrived to visit Harry before breakfast, but the boy remained unresponsive. He wasn’t asleep, but didn’t react to Minerva’s touch or to her voice. The two friends were very disappointed, especially Poppy, who had thought that Harry would try to talk to them again after his reaction to Aberforth’s kissing him goodnight in the evening.

“Will he be all right?” Minerva asked concerned.

“Yes, Minerva, he will. We have to spend as much time with him as possible, and we must talk to him as much as we can. Yesterday he said ‘Gada’ to Aberforth.”

Minerva gasped. “That means ‘Granddad,’ I think. He managed to say that to Albus once. It was a few days before Halloween, and it was the first and only thing he said to Albus.” She sniffed a little. “Do you think he recognized him and thought Aberforth was Albus?”

“Probably,” Poppy replied, moving her hand calmingly around her friend’s back. “He will be fine, but it’ll take some time. At the moment, he still has a very high fever, and he probably is in quite a large amount of pain. I can only give him very light healing potions because he is so small, and they can only remedy so much at one time.” She threw her friend a calming smile. “Now, go and have breakfast, Minerva. Don’t worry; I’ll be here for him.”

After breakfast, Albus showed up to confirm that Poppy hadn’t changed her opinion and still wanted to take Harry in. Hearing her confirmation, he stepped into the fireplace and Floo-ed over to the Ministry in order to get the guardianship papers and to exchange a few words with a friend he had in the family division.

From there, Dumbledore Apparated directly to Privet Drive and paid Petunia Dursley a visit. She told him to come into the living room, where they had a short conversation until Albus unobtrusively waved his hand so that the fat baby in the nearby crib began to cry. While Petunia tended to her child, Albus conjured two cups of tea, of which he laced one with two drops of Veritaserum. When the woman returned, he urged her to drink, and when Petunia complied, he began to question her thoroughly. “How often did you give Harry a bottle of milk?”

“Every Sunday.”

“Did you give him anything else to eat?”

“No. I didn’t want to take anything from my precious Duddykins for the freak.”

“How often did you change his nappy?”

“I always took him out of the cupboard on Sundays. He was such a nuisance.”

“Did you clean him then?”

“No. He was too disgusting to touch him more than necessary.”

“How often did you give him a bath?”

“Never. He wasn’t worth the hot water.”

“How did he get the concussion?”

“I didn’t know that he had that, but probably because Vernon always threw him back in the cupboard and he often hit his head on the wall.”

“Why didn’t you do anything against his fever and his lung infection?”

“It was his own fault. Vernon always threw him on the cot but he was so stupid to fall down onto the floor and didn’t take his blanket with him. He just stayed on the floor until I took him out the next Sunday.”

“Will you please sign here in order to give your guardianship of Harry up in favour of Poppy Pomfrey, a friend of mine?”

“Of course. We never wanted him, and I don’t want to see the freak again.” Petunia signed the parchment, and Albus put it back into his robes and relaxed.

Before he Apparated away, he waved his hand at Dudley, his eyes twinkling mischievously. When he arrived back in his office at Hogwarts, he put the memory of his conversation with Petunia into his Pensieve in order to show it to Minerva and Poppy, before it would be used against the Dursleys in court.

When Poppy floo-ed into the Headmaster’s office after Dumbledore had called her shortly after lunch, Minerva was sitting in his office, looking sick. “What’s wrong, Min, are you ill?” she asked, immediately waving her wand over her friend.

“No, Poppy, Minerva is not ill. However, I believe she needs a Calming Draught,” Albus answered gravely. He motioned for her to watch the memory in his Pensieve, and when Poppy finally returned to the Hospital Wing, where Aberforth was watching Harry, she was as shaken as Minerva had been.

As soon as Minerva had recovered a little, she straightened herself in the chair she had been occupying and threw her husband a stern glance. “What did you do to Dudley Dursley?” she asked firmly but with a hint of curiosity showing in her eyes.

“Oh, the first time, I just threw a tickling charm on him,” Albus replied innocently.

“And the second time?” Minerva asked, full of foreboding.

“Ah, yes, the second time,” Dumbledore repeated mischievously…

“I changed young Mr. Dursley’s features so that he looks like Harry – but only to Petunia and Vernon. Everyone else sees him as the whale he is. The charm I used is so strong that I believe apart from me only Harry will be powerful enough to break it,” Albus confided, his eyes twinkling madly. “Oh, look, Minerva, afternoon lessons are going to start in ten minutes.”

“Oh, yes, I have to run,” his wife replied. “Don’t think you get away with your pranks easily, Albus. We will still talk about this matter later,” Minerva threatened, while she stepped into the fireplace.

-----

During the afternoon, Harry woke up and seemed to be relatively conscious for the first time since Albus had brought him to Hogwarts 24 hours ago. Poppy sat on the edge of his bed and made him drink a few potions, noticing that he relaxed visibly. When she put a cool hand on his hot forehead, he flinched away, but then he suddenly opened his beautiful green eyes, only to close them again immediately. ‘Probably it’s too bright for him after spending six months in a dark cupboard,’ Poppy thought and dimmed the lights. “Now, Harry, I have turned off the lights, try to open your eyes again for me, please.”

The little boy slowly opened his eyes again, noticing that the light didn’t hurt his eyes as much as before, and looked around anxiously. “Wha?” A hoarse cry of surprise escaped his dry lips. ‘I feel better than before. Maybe my mummy has come back?’ he wondered. “Mummy?” he tried.

“You are at Hogwarts, my dear, and I’m your Aunt Poppy. Do you remember me?” Poppy asked in a very kind, soft voice.

Harry wrinkled his forehead, obviously thinking pensively. Somewhere he had seen that woman before, and he remembered her voice, too. She was good, and she wouldn’t hurt him. But where was he? This was not the place his was always thrown into. He was lying on a bed; it was so soft and comfy. Although he still felt ill, his bottom didn’t hurt as much as before and his stomach didn’t either. Everything smelled so good here. And suddenly he remembered. The woman, Aunt Poppy, had made him better before when he had a bad cough and his mummy had taken him here to see her. Suddenly his eyes started to twinkle and he tried a small smile on his Aunt Poppy.

‘He is smiling at me,’ Poppy thought. She couldn’t believe her luck. Did he remember her? “Do you remember me?” she asked the little boy softly.

Harry smiled at her and gave her a short nod, followed by a groan.

“Oh, my poor dear, you mustn’t move your head. Otherwise it will hurt. You are sick and have to stay here in bed for a few days,” Poppy told him in a calming voice. “Now, is it all right to touch your forehead for a moment, my boy? I’m not going to hurt you.” Inwardly sighing relieved when he nodded, she put a cold cloth on his forehead and advised the boy, “Go to sleep for a while, that will make you feel better. I will still be here when you wake up. You’re going to stay with me, and I’ll always be here for you. You will never go back to the bad place where people throw you in cupboards.”

Harry still looked at her. He hadn’t understood everything she had told him, but he had understood enough. Yes – he wanted to stay here with the nice woman, and she had told him to sleep now. So he would do that. He obediently closed his eyes and drifted into the world of dream.

-----

Harry had just fallen asleep and Poppy had returned to her office when Aberforth joined her. He owned a pub in Hogsmeade, the Hog’s Head, and it was time for him to leave for his pub. “I take it we’ll be staying in your quarters here for the next weeks or months, Poppy, right?” he asked softly.

“Yes, I think we have to stay here, at least until the beginning of the holidays. It’s only six weeks, but his condition should be a lot better then, so that we’ll probably be able to stay at home.”

Aberforth and Poppy owned a small house in Hogsmeade. In fact it was the building that was the nearest to Hogwarts, not far from the Shrieking Shack. As it was important for the Hogwarts staff to be able to contact Poppy at any time, the house was connected to the Hogwarts internal Floo system, so that it didn’t matter if Poppy spent the nights in her quarters or at home. For Aberforth however, it was easier to return home to where he could directly floo from his pub than to floo home and then once more step into the fireplace in order to get to Hogwarts during the night.

Suddenly Albus entered Poppy’s office. “How is he?” he asked anxiously.

Poppy smiled and told him that Harry had been awake for a few minutes and had obviously recognized her.

“Oh, that’s great progress, I suppose,” Albus said, his eyes twinkling.

‘Just like Harry’s eyes did when he smiled at me,’ Poppy thought and replied, “Yes, it is progress, however, he is still very ill.”

“I have come to talk about the guardianship papers,” Dumbledore changed the topic.

“Then I had better leave you to it,” Aberforth stated and turned to the fireplace.

“No, Abe, I have to tell you something, which concerns you too. You know that only the two of you and Severus know that Minerva and I are married.” Seeing their affirmative nod, he continued, “However, so far, nobody knew that Lily was in fact our child.”

“What?!” Aberforth burst out, and Poppy let out a loud gasp.

Albus sighed deeply. “You know, it was just around that time when Voldemort started to actively act, and it would have been too dangerous for Minerva and especially for Lily, should people have known of their relationship to me. Therefore we gave her to a Muggle family, which we knew because Minerva’s parents were friends of their parents, and they promised to raise her like their own child. And in fact, they did raise her very well. Unfortunately, the war with Voldemort continued so long that we couldn’t manage to tell Lily about the fact that we were her parents.” He took a lemon drop out of one of his robe pockets, unwrapping it slowly, before he added, “Please keep this information to yourselves for the moment.”

“Yes, of course, Albus,” Poppy replied, stunned. ‘Why is he telling us this now?’ she thought confused.

“I’m telling you this now,” Dumbledore continued as if he had read her thoughts, “because I want to state Minerva’s and my name as Grandparents in the guardian papers. This is mainly a measure to ensure that the Ministry cannot lay claim to having the guardianship over Harry.” He showed the already filled out parchments to Poppy. “You just have to sign here, Poppy, in order to apply for the guardianship.”

“Do you think it’s really safe to announce your relationship to the boy?” Aberforth asked.

“Yes, it is. Voldemort is dead. I’m sure because I found his body in the Potters’ house and destroyed it completely. The second point is that any Death Eaters would want to harm Harry anyway because he is the one who killed Voldemort – they wouldn’t want to harm him because he is my grandson. So yes, it is definitely safe.”

As soon as Poppy had signed the parchment, it rolled itself up and vanished from sight. The confirmation copy from the Ministry arrived in front of Poppy later that evening.

-----

During the rest of the week, Harry spent most of the time sleeping. Minerva and Poppy sat at his bedside every free minute, but Harry was still too ill to interact with them. From the next week onwards, his physical condition slowly began to improve. Poppy still had to confine him to bed as he was very feverish due to his lung infection, which had improved but was still far from good. But she started to try feeding Harry proper meals instead of only milk and noticed that the boy seemed to enjoy eating different things. He especially liked it when Poppy or Aberforth took their meals together with him. To Poppy’s astonishment, he was very good using a spoon and didn’t make a mess of his bed. ‘Lily must have started early teaching him to eat properly,’ she thought, watching the little boy eating mashed carrots.

Harry still took two or sometimes even three naps during the day, but apart from these times he was more responsive than Poppy had dared to hope. He seemed to recognize Minerva and Albus and even tried to call them ‘Gany’ and ‘Gada’.

To Severus he didn’t talk at all, although the man came to visit him from time to time and often brought potions for him that helped make him feel better. As Poppy feared that Harry would probably often get ill due to the damage on his lungs and on his immune system, she had made Severus promise to spend some time during the holidays working on efficient healing potions that could be fed to such a small child.

Whenever Poppy had time, she sat down on the edge of Harry’s bed and talked to him. Due to the negligence by his relatives, his speaking abilities were exactly where they had been half a year ago when his parents were still alive. This was no problem as he seemed to pick up new words very fast. However, Harry only tried to speak to the few people he knew from before his stay at the Dursleys. Neither Rolanda Hooch nor Severus Snape had been able to coax the child into talking to them.

“He seems to be afraid of talking to me,” Severus said, when he and Poppy were having tea in her office together with Minerva and Albus. During the afternoon, he had taken care of Harry while Poppy had been busy healing a few students after a Quidditch accident. “I can imagine that his relatives didn’t allow him to speak or cry or make any noise at all. He probably feels safe with people he met together with Lily and is unsure in front of all others. It’s not that he is afraid of Rolanda or me, he just doesn’t speak with us.”

“You’re probably right,” Poppy admitted. “Normally, babies cry loud when they are in pain, hungry or their nappy is full. Harry, however, never cries loud. He only whimpers or cries silently. Perhaps the Dursleys punished him whenever he made any noise, be it crying or talking.”

“Maybe we should use Legilimency on him in order to know what the Dursleys really did to him,” Albus suggested.

“You don’t want to…” Minerva started to protest horrified, when Albus interrupted her.

“No, not me, but I know that Severus is a master of Legilimency. He is even better than me, and maybe he could carefully try to assess Harry’s mind.”

“But it might hurt, and then Harry would never speak to Severus,” Poppy spoke up.

“Oh, I don’t care at all,” Severus commented briskly. “He’s the son of bloody Potter.” He spat the name with disgust.

-----

On the next day, Albus received an owl from the Ministry. The Dursleys would get a trial, and the date had been fixed on Friday the same week. “As the trial against the Dursleys is in three days time, I would like to ask you to try to use Legilimency on Harry whenever you have time today or tomorrow,” he told Severus at breakfast.

“I don’t know if I can manage the first time because I need him to look straight into my eyes. However, as he is a baby, he won’t comply if you tell him to do so. Therefore, I should probably start trying today,” Severus replied annoyed.

After his last lesson in the afternoon, Severus went straight to the Hospital Wing to see if Harry was awake. “I think he is awake, but please try not to hurt him, especially as he isn’t very well yet,” Pomfrey advised him and handed him a chocolate frog. “Here, Severus; you can give it to Harry when you’re finished.”

Severus gave her a comforting nod and entered Harry’s room. “Hello Harry,” he said, his voice lacking any hint of malice.

Harry didn’t reply, but the edges of his mouth went slightly up, and he looked straight at the tall man, who had sat down on the edge of his bed. Severus took the chance and told the boy, “Please look at me for a moment; it is important.” Then he unobtrusively cast the spell, “Legilimens.”

Horrible images replayed in front of his eyes. Harry was lying on the floor of his cupboard. He only wore a T-shirt and a huge nappy, and his bottom was very sore, because he had been left in his dirty nappy for nearly two weeks. Something brown was even coming out of the edges of the nappy, and when he accidentally touched it, his tiny hands went brown, too. It stank and hurt and he just couldn’t handle it any more. His mummy had always come immediately as soon as he had alerted her to the fact that something was in his nappy. She had never let him wait. So he started to cry. However, the only thing that happened was that his uncle entered the cupboard, pulled Harry out and smacked him into the face. Then he talked to the small boy, shaking him all the time while he did so. ‘Shut up. It’s horrible enough to have a freak in the house; we don’t want to hear anything from you. Now, shut up.’ He threw the baby back onto the floor full force.

Severus pulled off. He couldn’t handle more. He looked at the boy, noticing that he was watching him, frightened. “Harry, I am sorry, but I had to see what your relatives did to you,” he explained, not expecting the boy to understand a word of it. “If I upset you, I am very sorry. Does your head hurt?”

Harry gave him a small nod and continued watching him. Severus pulled a phial of a light pain relieving potion, which he had especially brewed for the boy, out of his robes and made Harry drink the potion. Harry relaxed visibly. Then Severus pulled the chocolate frog out of his pocket and gave it to the boy. “Do you know chocolate frogs?” he asked softly.

Harry nodded again. Aunt Poppy had given him one of these a few days ago, and Harry had liked it very much. He couldn’t remember eating something so delicious ever before. When Severus offered to take the frog out of the package for the boy, he nodded again. However, Harry only managed to eat two bites of the frog, before he gave it back to Severus to have it put back into the package. Severus asked him if he liked it and if he was already full, and Harry nodded to all questions.

Severus had never cared about the boy. He was just the son of James, his archenemy. However, seeing the small, vulnerable child, he couldn’t help remembering his own childhood. No child should have to live through abuse and everything he had experienced. The brilliant green eyes caught his attention once more, and he began to see Lily in them. This boy was the child of Lily, he realized, the only person he had every loved. He vowed that he would help her child to have a better childhood and to grow into a young man that was worth his mother.

“You know, Harry,” the professor finally told the child, “Everyone here cares a lot about you, and they are glad to have you here. It’s no problem to talk. You may talk as much as you like, you may also cry if you hurt or don’t feel well or laugh when you are happy. You don’t have to be quiet. You may call me ‘Uncle Severus’ if you want to,” he added.

Harry glanced at the man warily, his lips stayed unmoving, while he noticed his nappy getting wet and uncomfortable. A few minutes later, when Severus was just thinking about leaving for dinner, the tiny mouth opened. “Uncy Sewwy.”

The teacher raised an eyebrow and threw the child a questioning look, but he didn’t say anything more. “Very good, Harry. You know, in order to learn to speak properly, it is important that you try and talk as much as possible.”

Green eyes were watching him. Suddenly a small voice reached Severus’ ear. “Hawwy tawk hawts. Dwoat sowy.”

None of them had noticed Poppy, who had been standing in the door for a few minutes. She was stunned. Never had Harry spoken so many words at one time. “What do you mean, Harry? It hurts to speak because your throat is sore?” she asked, kneeling in front of Harry’s bed. When he nodded, she quickly checked on him and fed him his potions. Fortunately, Harry wasn’t afraid of her using a wand. ‘Maybe he still remembers Lily doing magic,’ she thought, relieved.

Harry leaned back into his cushions and threw a pleading glance at Poppy, before he said, “Aun Poppy, nappy pwease?”

“You need a new nappy, my dear?” Poppy questioned, before she magically changed his nappy and commended the boy, “that was very good, Harry. Please tell me every time you need a new nappy, so that you won’t get sore again.”

“Fanku,” the little boy mouthed gratefully and closed his eyes, drifting off immediately.

-----

Severus excused himself and went down to the Great Hall, where dinner was about to start.

“Albus, I would like to meet you and Minerva in Poppy’s office tonight,” he addressed the Headmaster, who was sitting on his left side. “Could you please bring your Pensieve?”

“Of course, my boy. Did you discover anything interesting?” Albus enquired interestedly.

“I will show you tonight,” Severus whispered gravely, absentmindedly chasing a potato around his plate.

A few hours later, Severus put the memory, which originally had been Harry’s memory, into the Pensieve for Minerva, Poppy, and Albus to watch. While his friends were viewing the baby’s horrible experiences, Severus gathered two Calming draughts from Poppy’s stock. Suddenly however, he heard strange sounds coming from Harry’s room. Hurrying over to the nursery, he saw that the boy was obviously having a nightmare. ‘Oh my… what can a small boy, who isn’t even two years old, can have to get nightmares about?’ he thought, horrified.

“Harry,” he said, carefully stroking the boy’s cheek, pulling back immediately, when the boy flinched back unconsciously. “Wake up, child, it’s only a bad dream.” He spoke to him for a few minutes, until Harry finally opened his eyes and, seeing Severus sit on the edge of his bed, started to cry silently.

“Now, Harry, I’m going to touch you, my boy, I won’t hurt you,” Severus announced in a very soft voice and tried once again to stroke the boy’s cheeks. This time Harry didn’t flinch but leaned into the comforting touch. “Your dream, Harry, was it about your uncle, who hurt you all the time?” Severus questioned carefully, and received a small nod in return. “Do you often have such bad dreams?” Severus tried to ask, but as Harry only looked at him warily, the professor proceeded to speak to the boy about the huge castle he was now living in. Listening to the soft, silky voice of the man that wouldn’t do any harm to him, Harry finally fell back to sleep.

Severus returned to his friends, who were as shaken as he had been in the afternoon.

“However,” Minerva suddenly spoke up, “it is amazing that it was our Severus, who managed to coax Harry into speaking more than one word at a time. Well done, Severus.”

“Why, Minerva, thank you,” her younger colleague replied, smirking.

-----

Finally, the day of the trial arrived. Albus and Poppy went to the Ministry in order to represent Harry – Albus as his grandfather and Poppy as his guardian. In the meantime, Aberforth was looking after Harry.

The trial took place in a relatively small room under exclusion from the public. First of all, Albus had to explain how he had found Harry. After a short description Albus showed the jury his memory of the event in his Pensieve. Then he told how Harry had been treated during his six-month stay at his relatives and suggested that the jury should watch Harry’s memory in the Pensieve.

At this stage, the Dursley’s solicitor spoke up. “How could you get a memory from a one-year-old baby? To put a Legilimency Spell on a baby is definitely abuse! I request that the guardianship to be given back to the Dursleys!”

Albus calmly explained that it hadn’t been Poppy, Harry’s new guardian, to put the Legilimens spell on Harry. It had been Professor Snape, but Harry didn’t mind at all as he had obviously taken a liking to the young man. The day before, Harry had even allowed him to pick him up and carry him around for a while.

The jury watched the memory in the Pensieve, before the judge finally announced, “We need Professor Snape and young Harry to join us here now. It shall be our decision, if Healer Pomfrey can be deemed a fit guardian or if the boy has to go back to his family or become a Ministry ward.

Albus explained about being his grandfather, but the judge couldn’t be convinced and insisted that he wanted to see Severus and Harry immediately, even when Poppy told him that the boy was ill. While Poppy explained about Harry’s injuries and showed the photos and notes she had taken, Albus floo-called Severus in his Potions classroom and instructed him to cancel his classes, get Harry, and floo to the Ministry immediately. Twenty minutes later, the professor arrived, Harry contentedly sleeping in his arms.

When he was questioned about the Legilimens spell, he had to try hard to remember that he had to stay calm for the sake of the child and explained patiently that he used the charm in a very soft way in order not to hurt the boy. Then the judge sent one of his female colleagues to pick Harry up and bring the boy to him. However, as soon as the lady laid her hands on the baby, Harry flinched back forcefully and snuggled deeper into Severus’ robes.

“Have you heard about not touching an abused child?” Severus scolded snidely.

“All right, Professor. The boy may stay in your lap until he is fully awake. However, I need you to wake him up so that I can question him.”

Severus carefully stroked Harry’s cheeks and told him he had to wake up, knowing that everyone in the room was watching his interaction with the little tyke. Finally, Harry woke up, gave Severus a little smile and said, “Uncy Sewwy.”

“Yes, my boy. Now, look over there. That man would like to talk to you about your Uncle Vernon.”

Only hearing the name of his uncle caused Harry to flinch again. The judge told Severus to give Harry to Dumbledore, and Severus calmly explained to Harry, “I need you to go over to Granddad for a few minutes, all right?”

Harry made a face as if he wanted to pout but let Albus pick him up. The judge asked the boy if Uncle Vernon and Uncle Severus had hurt him. Harry threw the unknown man a frightened glance and replied in a small voice. “Uncy Wann vewy bad. Hates Hawwy a wot. Uncy Sewwy vewy good. Hawwy wike Uncy Sewwy.”

“Sorry, could please someone translate this into proper English?” the Dursley’s solicitor asked, and the judge repeated what Harry had said, sounding a little annoyed by the question.

“Uncle Vernon is very bad. He has hurt Harry a lot. Uncle Severus is very good and Harry likes him.”

With this, the trial ended, and everyone was ushered out for a small break. Only ten minutes later, they were called back in for the verdict. This time, Harry was sitting on Poppy’s lap, comfortably leaning into her robe. Vernon and Petunia Dursley were sentenced to a ten-year stay in Azkaban, while Dudley was to live with his Aunt Marge. The judge had also decided that everything was all right with Poppy’s guardianship of Harry.

“You see, little one,” Poppy happily told her little ward, “The Dursleys are going to prison. You won’t see them again, at least not during the next ten years, and they won’t be able to harm you anymore.”

Harry let out a contented yawn and mumbled, “fanku, An Poppy an Uncy Sewwy,” before he snuggled back into her robes and closed his eyes.

-----

A week later, the summer holidays began, and the castle became deserted except for a few teachers and a small boy. When the students had left, Poppy sat down next to Harry and thought that his condition was well enough so that she could allow the child to get up for a moment.

“Harry, do you feel well enough to try to get up and play?”

The little boy threw her an astonished glance and raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh no, he seems to have spent too much time with Severus,’ Poppy thought amused but was pulled out of her thoughts when Harry repeated, “pway?”

‘Oh my,’ Poppy thought desperately. ‘He doesn’t understand the word play.’ She pointed at the playpen and asked, “Would you like to sit there and have a look at the toys? Or would you prefer to go for a small walk exploring the castle?”

Harry, who had finally managed to bring himself into a sitting position, gave his kind guardian a huge smile. “Yes, ikspowe cassul.” His eyes started to twinkle when he remembered something he had seen in the castle before. “Gwanda baddie,” he said excitedly.

Poppy frowned. She had no idea what the child was talking about. “You want to go to see Granddad, Harry?” Seeing that the child was eagerly nodding his head, she continued guessing. Although it was amazing to see how much Harry had learned during the last three weeks, he still had a lot of catching up. The Dursleys had never spoken to him – apart from shouting at him sometimes – and his speaking was still below from what it should be, considering that the boy would be two years old in less than two months. “Do you want Granddad to come here and play with you?”

Harry shook his head. “No, go Gwanda, baddie,” he insisted.

“So, you want to visit Granddad in his office?”

Harry nodded eagerly. “See baddie.”

Finally Poppy understood what he meant. “You want to visit the bird Granddad has? Fawkes, the phoenix?”

“Yeah, see bawdie, fowks,” he cheered.

“If that’s what you want, then let’s do that. Now, I’m going to pick you up, and we’ll walk a bit, all right?”

Harry gave her a small nod. He was still uncomfortable being picked up, although he knew that nobody here would hurt him. So far, Poppy and Severus had been the only people to pick him up, and Harry had – to some extent – gotten used to it.

Poppy picked him up and put him on his feet onto the floor, extending a hand to grip one of Harry’s. However, Harry couldn’t manage to stand alone on his feet and tumbled against her. ‘Oops,’ she thought and asked, “Do you remember how to walk, Harry?” She gripped his left hand and motioned him to try and walk at her side. Harry struggled a lot, however somehow he managed to walk at Poppy’s side. A few times he stumbled, but Poppy always succeeded in catching him before he fell on the stone floor. After twenty minutes, they finally arrived at the gargoyle guarding the Headmaster’s office. Harry was very tired, and Poppy carried him up the stairs into the office, where she sat him down onto a comfortable chair.

“Hello, my dear boy,” Dumbledore greeted him friendly, his eyes twinkling happily. “How good that you could come and visit me! May he have a lemon drop?” he asked then, turning to Poppy, who shook her head vehemently.

“No, Albus. He is still getting used to normal food. Moreover, he is too small to eat drops; he could choke on them.”

Finally, Harry had spotted Fawkes and said excitedly, “dere! De bawdie, Fowks.” The phoenix started to trill a song. It sounded so nice that Harry’s eyes started to twinkle with joy. Suddenly, he noticed that he could understand every word Fawkes was trilling. Harry listened intensely and began to cry.

“Harry, what’s wrong?” Poppy asked astonished.

“Bad bawdie,” Harry wailed. “Hawwy no tupid,” sob, “no wannin woun,” sob, “no bwake fing, bad bawdie.”

Albus started to giggle. Seeing the angry look he received from Poppy and Harry, he explained, “Fawkes has just insulted Harry. He said something about stupid babies running around my office, shouting and breaking things on my desk. You know, this happened before, when the Weasleys visited me with their four smallest children. However, the interesting point is that Harry seems to understand Fawkes’ talking. So far, nobody except for me was able to communicate with him.”

He turned to Harry and told him, “You see, Harry, Fawkes didn’t mean to insult you. He deliberately has a common tongue, and he just had a bad experience with small children a few weeks ago, but I’m sure he knows that you are a very good boy.”

“Fawkes, behave yourself!” he finally addressed the phoenix in a very stern voice.

The phoenix flew down from his perch and settled himself on Harry’s arm, beginning to trill.

#Do you understand me, little one? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you. You have to learn to transform yourself into a phoenix, and then the two of us will have much fun together, doing mischief all over the castle.#

Harry listened intently and then started to giggle. “Yeah, Hawwy twy,” he replied shyly, not having understood a lot of what Fawkes had told him.

When Fawkes returned to his perch, Harry tiredly leaned back into the comfortable seat and closed his eyes. The long walk had been too much for his little feet that weren’t used to walking at all, and the comforting song of the phoenix had left him in a very relaxed mood.

-----

During the next weeks, Harry often visited Fawkes, and the phoenix seemed to have taken a liking to Harry as much as the boy loved the bird. Due to Minerva’s and Albus’ pleas, Poppy and Harry were staying at Hogwarts over the whole summer. As nearby as Poppy’s and Aberforth’s home was, it was outside the strong wards of Hogwarts, and it was so much safer for Harry to remain within the wards. However, Poppy took Harry for a walk to her home every morning, where they stayed together with Aberforth until he had to leave for work in the afternoon.

Aberforth had a goat, Ginevra, and Harry just loved her. As his walking abilities had recovered very well, he spent much time running after the goat, chasing her around the garden. The goat didn’t seem to mind; she appeared to be very careful not to hurt the little boy. Aberforth taught him to feed Ginevra, and Harry was very proud that he could manage such an important task.

Most days, Poppy and Harry returned to Hogwarts just in time for dinner, which they started to take in the Great Hall together with the few people that stayed at the castle during the holidays. Apart from Poppy and Harry, only Albus, Minerva, Severus, Pomona and Hagrid appeared at mealtimes.

When they entered the Great Hall for the first time, Harry was stunned. He glanced in awe at the beautiful ceiling and the blue sky he could see. Poppy sat him in the child’s chair the house elves had prepared for Harry, and he shyly looked down at the floor. There were too many people for his liking, and he felt a bit uncomfortable in the extremely huge Hall.

“Hello Harry. Is everything all right?” suddenly a voice he knew quite well spoke to him from his right side.

Harry was aware of the fact that Poppy was sitting on his left side, so he hesitantly threw a timid glance to his right side and saw his grandmother sitting there. “Hi Gwanny,” he said, relaxing visibly as he noticed that he was sitting between his aunt and his granny. He slowly moved his eyes around and got a look at the other people surrounding the round table. He recognized his grandfather, Severus and Hagrid, but there was a woman he hadn’t met before. Carefully, as to not attract any unnecessary attention, he pulled at Poppy’s robes and asked in a small voice, “An Poppy, who dat dere?”

Pomfrey laughed. “This, Harry, is Pomona Sprout, our teacher of Herbology. She knows everything about herbs and plants in the wizarding world. And I’m sure that she will be pleased to answer any question you might have.”

“Yes, Harry,” Sprout addressed the small boy and gave him a huge smile. “Would you like to visit me in the Greenhouses one day?”

Harry nodded excitedly before he replied, “Yeah, I wike go gween house. Fankyou.” Then he turned to his grandmother. “An An Wowa?” Harry asked timidly, missing the funny teacher, who always joked so much with him.

“Aunt Rolanda has gone to see her family, Harry. However, she will be back in time for your birthday I think,” Minerva informed him and was rewarded with a huge smile.

During the next weeks, Harry got very used to the remaining occupants of the castle and very slowly lost his shyness towards the teachers, whom he met every evening. His physical condition had also improved a lot, and Harry seemed to enjoy himself every day.

-----

The teachers, who had remained at the castle, except for Hagrid, had started to make a habit of meeting in Poppy’s office, sitting together, and drinking tea every evening. They normally met an hour after dinner, when Poppy had put Harry to bed.

“I’m wondering if we should let him meet other children,” Poppy said one evening, absentmindedly playing with the stopper of a potions phial.

“I believe that would be a good idea. Now, whom do we have of Harry’s age?” Pomona threw in.

“Oh, there are a few, I believe,” Minerva replied. “Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones…”

“Draco Malfoy is the same age, too,” Severus added, smirking.

“You don’t want to let Harry play with a Malfoy, do you?” Minerva reprimanded him sharply.

“He is my godson, Minerva. And frankly speaking, I intend to care about him as much as possible in order to influence him, so that he will make better choices than his father. I would never let Harry go to the Malfoys, but I believe it would be a good idea for Draco to visit me for a few days. Then he could play with Harry, and I can imagine that both of them would be good for the other.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Poppy agreed. “Could you try and invite Draco over then, please?”

Draco arrived a few days later and had been allowed to stay with his godfather for a whole week. At first, Harry was very shy towards the other boy. Draco was only two months older than him, but he was much bigger and healthier, and he could speak better than Harry. Moreover, the last time Harry had met children of his age had been nearly a year ago, and he couldn’t remember much of that time.

They met for the first time, when everyone was filing into the Great Hall for dinner. Draco immediately extended a hand to Harry and introduced himself. “Hello. My name is Draco Malfoy, and I am two years old.”

Harry immediately hid behind Poppy’s robes, but Severus softly told him that Draco was his godson and that he would like the two boys to become friends. He took Harry’s hand and finally managed to coax him to speak to Draco.

“Hello Dwaco. I’m Hawwy. I’m neawwy two, too.” He threw the bigger boy a timid smile, which Draco returned immediately.

Draco hadn’t met many other children either, as from the death of Voldemort onwards, his parents had withdrawn from their former allies in order to prove their innocence towards the Ministry. So, he was glad to be able to play with Harry, and the two boys got along very well. As Severus’ quarters couldn’t be considered too child-safe, everyone had agreed that Draco should spend the nights together with Harry in the nursery within Poppy’s quarters – to the great joy of the two boys. Poppy and Severus were taking turns bathing the children, putting them to bed, and reading a bedtime story, and both of them noticed how much easier it was to keep Harry content than Draco, who was very spoilt for his age.

-----

On the morning of the day Draco had to go home, Harry was woken up by his friend very early. “Harry, wake up. Nobody is wake yet. We can go flying. Look, I’ve bringed my broom.”

“Fwy? Hawwy cawn’t fwy,” Harry weakly protested, but noticing that he couldn’t stop Draco, he climbed out of his crib and followed his friend out to the grounds.

Draco mounted his toddler’s broom he had brought to Hogwarts without anybody noticing, because he had asked his house elf to put a diminishing charm on it, and showed Harry how to fly. “You want try?” he then asked Harry.

Harry, who had been excitedly jumping up and down all the time, nodded enthusiastically. He took the broom from Draco, sat on it like he had been shown a few minutes ago, and started to fly. And he loved it immediately. He flew around the school grounds and over the lake, and enjoyed himself immensely. Until now, he hadn’t experienced anything more pleasant. However, suddenly, Severus’ stern voice brought him back to reality.

“Harry Potter, come down here immediately!”

Hearing the shouting voice, Harry suddenly remembered his Uncle Vernon. He was so frightened that his hands started to shake; he went into a panic attack and finally lost the grip on his broom. Harry could hear Draco’s shout of horror when he started to tumble down. By the time strong hands pulled him on another, much bigger broom, he had already blacked out.

-----

When he regained consciousness, he was lying in his bed, and his grandmother was sitting on the edge of his bed, reading a book. “Gwanny,” Harry said, remembering his flight. “What happen? Is Dwaco awwight?”

Minerva sighed. “Yes, Harry, Draco is all right. However, he had to return home today. You know that, don’t you?” When Harry gave her a sad nod, she continued, “However, what you have done was very naughty. Flying is very dangerous, and you shouldn’t have gone flying without asking for permission. You were more than lucky that Uncle Severus came just in time to save you. Otherwise you would have been dangerously hurt if not worse. Please promise that you won’t do such a stupid thing again.”

“I pwomis,” Harry replied in a hardly understandable voice, while he averted his eyes to his bedcover, unconsciously playing with the cover. Suddenly he shivered and noticed that he didn’t feel well at all. “Hawwy cowwd,” he told his granny uncomfortably.

“You are cold?” Minerva asked astonished. She carefully placed a cold hand on Harry’s forehead and sighed. “You seem to have a fever, Harry. Maybe you have caught a cold, because you went out into the fresh morning air only in your pyjamas. You’ll probably have to stay in bed for the rest of the day. I will get Poppy for you, so that she can make you feel better. I’ll be back later, my boy.” She gave him a kiss on the forehead and left the room, looking for her friend.

Poppy was very angry but tried to keep her emotions at bay just as Minerva had done, because she didn’t want the boy to feel too bad about the whole thing, especially as he seemed to be sick. However, he had to understand how dangerous it had been. She checked on him and made him drink a children’s version of the Pepper-Up potion that Severus had just invented for Harry. Then she spoke to him for quite a while and finally told him that he had to get punished for what he had done. When Harry threw her a frightened glance, she said, “You will be grounded for the rest of the week. No excursions to our home to play with Ginevra, no conversations with Fawkes, and no visits with any of the teachers. You will stay here in your room to play until Sunday.”

However, this punishment didn’t affect Harry at all as everyone took pity on the little tyke. Nearly all the time one of the teachers sat with Harry, telling him stories or reading books to him. During this week, he received more sweets than he had ever had before.

Uncle Severus however, was a different matter. The first time he came to see Harry after the event, he sat down next to the boy, watching him with a very stern face. Harry squirmed, only hesitantly glimpsing at the menacing face of the teacher. However, Severus, too, managed to keep his emotions at bay. “Harry,” he began in a softer voice than the little boy had expected, “Do you know how dangerous that was? You could have died! It was only by chance that I was looking for you outside at the right time. I am aware of the fact that it must have been Draco’s idea and not yours to go flying. However, what you did was wrong. If Draco or someone else suggests to you doing something, which you have never done before, and you are not sure if you are supposed to do what they say, then you will come to either Poppy or Aberforth or any of the teachers here and ask for permission. Have you understood that?”

“Yes, Uncy Sewwy,” Harry answered in a small, hoarse voice. “I’m sowwy, Uncy Sewwy. An fanku fow hewpin me.” Harry wanted to say more but couldn’t help crying until his cries ended up in a coughing fit. He just managed to get out, “Dwaco?”

Severus gave the little boy that somehow had managed to wiggle his way into the stern man’s heart a smile. “Don’t cry, Harry. Draco is fine; he had to go home anyway, which is punishment enough for him.” Seeing that Harry was listening interestingly he continued, “His mother has taught him that his father is evil, which is correct, and Draco hates his father. However, this is a long and difficult story, which I shall tell you when you are bigger.”

Noticing that Harry looked tired, he told him, “Now, go to sleep, Harry. When Poppy let’s you out again, I will take you flying. I promise.”

Harry gave Severus a short nod and mumbled, “Lowwe fwyn,” while he drifted off.

“I’ve seen that you love flying, and you are a brilliant flyer,” Severus whispered into the little boy’s ear.

-----

On Sunday afternoon, the weather was so bright and warm that the teachers decided to hold a picnic beside the lake instead of eating lunch in the Great Hall. Harry was over the moon with joy. He had so much fun as he had never experienced a picnic; and this one even took place beside the lake, which he loved so much. The house elves, who were always glad when they had something to do during the holidays, had outdone themselves, and the meal was delicious. Harry ate little and then tiredly leaned back into Severus, huddled into a warm blanket.

However, suddenly, the boy jumped up and ran like a bat out of hell in the direction of Hogsmeade. The teachers glanced at each other enquiringly, and Severus started to run after the child.

Severus, who ran after Harry, had nearly reached the boy, when Harry suddenly shouted, “Uncy Moo-ey!” Incognisant to the adults’ eyes, Remus Lupin had entered the Hogwarts grounds, and Harry ran over to the man, whom he knew very well when his parents were still alive.

“Harry!” Remus shouted happily. “Do you still remember me, my child? I’m so glad to see you, little one.”

“Yes, Uncy Moo-ey, Hawwy wemba. Hawwy gwad too.”

Noticing that the werewolf was going to pull the boy into an embrace, Severus, caught up to them. “Lupin,” he acknowledged the other man’s presence. “Don’t touch the boy,” he added warningly.

“Hello Severus. I take it Harry was the surprise Albus had spoken of when he offered me the Defence post,” Remus asked, ignoring Severus’ scowl.

“Probably,” Severus said shortly, took Harry by the hand, and started to move back where the others were watching them.

“Uncy Moo-ey, come eat picic wif us,” Harry told his old friend happily, and Remus threw him a huge smile.

During the next weeks, Harry spent much time with his Uncy Moo-ey, who could tell a lot of stories about his parents. Probably triggered by these stories, Harry started to get nightmares about the night his parents died. However, he didn’t tell anyone, and Poppy even didn’t notice at first. It was not until later in the summer that Poppy realized that Harry seemed to be always tired and worried about what was wrong with him.

-----

One day, Poppy woke Harry up, after she checked on him as she did every morning, and said, “Good morning, my sweetie. Do you know what day it is today?”

Harry lazily opened his eyes. “Mownin, Aun Poppy.”

“Today is your birthday, little one. You’ll be two years old today,” Poppy told him, putting a kiss on his forehead. She washed Harry’s face, changed his nappy and dressed him. When Harry started to move in the direction of their living room for breakfast, she said, “No Harry. Today, we will have breakfast together with the other teachers.” She called Aberforth, and the three of them walked down to the Great Hall.

When they entered the Great Hall, Harry froze in his tracks. He frightfully hid in Poppy’s robes, grasping her robes as to hide his shaking hands. The whole Hall was decorated with hundreds of balloons in every colour imaginable, and a birthday song could be heard throughout the large room. A huge birthday cake in the form of a miniature version of Hogwarts was sitting on a table in the middle of the room, another table piled with presents next to it.

“Harry, it’s all right,” Poppy whispered soothingly. “Look, sweetie, it’s all for your birthday.”

Harry carefully glanced around Poppy’s robes and hesitantly let Poppy take him by the hand and guide him to the dining table, where all the professors were already waiting for them. When Poppy had put him into his child’s seat, everyone came around to wish him a happy birthday. Harry blushed deeply and tried to bury his head in his aunt’s robes, which was, however, difficult from his seat. He hated to be the centre of attention, especially with so many people there. As soon as everyone had finished congratulating him, his grandmother motioned him to look at the table. In front of Harry’s seat, a wooden set of animals was placed. The animals were all connected together, and a crocodile was carrying a ‘2’. Two others, a zebra and a cat, each carried a candle that lit themselves the instant Harry glanced over.

“Amaws,” Harry whispered excitingly and reached out a small hand.

“Animals,” Minerva carefully corrected her grandson and told him, “Now, Harry, do you think you can blow the candles out?”

Harry gave her a frightened glance, and she said calmingly, “You have to blow, and then they will go out.”

Harry tried, but he couldn’t blow strongly enough. He sat back, oblivious to the fact that everyone was watching him, and just thought, ‘Pwease go out, candwes.’

He didn’t notice the incredulous look that spread on the faces along the table, but he beamed with pride when Poppy told him, “Very well done, my boy!” Finally, breakfast appeared on the tables, and Harry was stunned. The meals at Hogwarts were always delicious, but this morning, the house elves had really outdone themselves. Although Harry couldn’t eat much, Poppy and Minerva piled just a piece of everything on his table, and Harry obediently tried to at least taste everything.

Nearly two hours later, everyone at last got up from the dining table. Harry, who had happily noticed that his Aunt Rolanda indeed had returned for his birthday, ran over to her immediately, pulling at her robes. She picked him up carefully and swung him playfully through the air. Harry’s face changed from anxious when Rolanda picked him up to happy when she started swinging him around. Finally, Rolanda put him down and said, “Now, let’s see what your presents are, shall we?” She pulled the boy over to the table where the presents were piled on and handed him a long present that provoked a groan from several of the other teachers even before Harry had unwrapped it.

Harry excitedly opened the present and found… “A bwoom! Fanku, Aun Wowanda,” he shouted happily, before he turned to Severus. “Uncy Sewwy, go fwyn wif Hawwy now?”

Severus smirked, but Harry saw that the edges of his mouth turned slightly up, which he had already learned to recognize as a sign of amusement. He gave Harry a short nod and said, “Yes, Harry, I shall take you flying today. However, I suggest that you open your other presents first.” He handed the boy a big box, and Harry happily started to unwrap the gift. It was a Potions kit for toddlers. When Harry gave Severus an unsure glance, he explained what it was and told him sternly that he wasn’t allowed to play on his own but he had to wait for Severus to show him how it worked first. “Is that clear, Harry?” Severus asked sternly.

“Hawwy not woud pway awone, cwea,” Harry confirmed and glanced over to the other presents. The rest of the gifts contained books as the teachers had noticed that Harry seemed to be quite fond of books. He also received a few funny clothes, and from Poppy he got a huge floor puzzle of Sesame Street with the letters of the alphabet, while from Aberforth he received a red ball with animals all over it. Harry immediately liked the ball very much, and Aberforth promised him to play ball after Harry came back from flying. Finally, Poppy gave him a stuffed, green dragon. Harry carefully hugged the dragon, holding him very close. Then he threw Poppy a truly happy glance, which didn’t go unnoticed.

When Harry was finished opening his presents, Poppy put a jacket over Harry’s shirt, and Severus and Rolanda took Harry out for his first proper flying lesson. Harry was so excited that he didn’t notice everyone else coming after them to enjoy the spectacle. He couldn’t wait for Severus or Rolanda to mount their brooms – he just took off and enjoyed himself immensely. Fortunately, his broom was charmed not to exceed a certain height and speed and not to leave the Quidditch pitch. After a while of flying, Rolanda called Harry down and everyone proceeded to play with the ball together. At first, it was merely a game of Harry running behind the ball, but after a few minutes of practising he very quickly learnt how to catch the ball.

Too soon for Harry it was time to go into the castle for lunch. From all the overwhelming excitement, the now two-year-old ‘big’ boy fell asleep as soon as Poppy put him into his chair. Minerva just managed in time to pull the food away before Harry’s head hit it. Severus volunteered to carry Harry to bed and stayed with him until Poppy returned from lunch. Three hours later, Poppy had to rouse a very sleepy Harry.

As soon as they entered the Great Hall, Harry noticed two things. Two large candles were lit on top of the huge cake, and next to his chair at the dining table was another child’s chair. First, he looked at the candles and thought intensely, ‘OFF’. To the great amazement of everyone in the Hall, the candles went off. When he approached the dining table, still at Poppy’s hand, Draco suddenly emerged from behind Severus and pulled Harry into a fierce hug, not noticing that the small boy flinched back vehemently.

“Happy birthday, Harry,” Draco shouted happily.

“Fank you, Dwaco,” Harry returned, slowly calming down from his surprise.

After they had managed to eat a huge part of the cake, Draco and Harry went flying, supervised by Rolanda and Severus. Fortunately, Draco was even allowed to stay overnight, and Harry couldn’t believe his luck, having his friend with him for the whole evening. It was the happiest day for Harry after last year’s Halloween.

-----

A few weeks later, Harry suddenly went back from one nap after lunch to two naps during the day. At first, Poppy thought it was because he was still recovering from the muggle flu he got after she had taken him for a trip to the zoo in London, but as he continued sleeping so much during the day, she became suspicious. She also noticed that he often seemed to have headaches in the morning but she couldn’t find anything wrong with the boy. One evening, she discussed the topic with her friends.

“Maybe he has nightmares,” Severus suggested immediately.

“But Poppy would know, wouldn’t she? She is always in the next room,” Minerva contradicted.

They decided to meet in Harry’s room instead of Poppy’s office for a few evenings, hoping they would be able to solve the puzzle. The next evening, they sat in the nursery around a table Minerva had conjured earlier, a silencing charm around them, so that they wouldn’t disturb the small boy with their talking.

“Only a week until the dunderheads return to pester us again,” Severus said, sighing.

“Yes,” Poppy agreed. “However, as much as I love the quiet, I cannot say that I don’t miss the kids.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were busy enough with your own one,” he said, smirking.

Suddenly, Minerva let out a loud gasp. “Harry!”

Everyone looked at the crib, where Harry, his stuffed dragon tucked under his arm, was tossing and turning around, however, without making any sound.

Severus pointed his wand at the crib. “Finite incantatem.”

Suddenly, everyone could hear Harry moving and sobbing, “Mummy! No!”

“A nightmare,” Severus stated dryly, while Poppy went to wake the boy. “And nobody noticed so far, because he managed to throw a silencing spell around himself, consciously or unconsciously I do not know.”

“Harry,” Poppy softly tried to pull her baby out of his dream. “It’s only a dream, sweetie; come on and wake up.” She picked Harry up and returned to the chair she had just vacated, covering the boy with a thick baby blanket.

“Do you remember what your dream was about?” Severus asked in his soft, silky voice he had reserved for Harry and Draco.

Harry gave him a short nod, before he explained. “Bad man, gween wight, and my mummy way, den mowe gween wight, hawt Hawwy.”

“Oh, my poor baby,” Poppy cooed, while the others were trying hard not to gasp. “But this is not real, you are safe here, and nothing will happen to you here. The bad man is gone, and he will never come back.”

Harry shook his little head. “No, dweam impowtant. Hawwy see ewwy night. Awway dis dweam.”

“Harry,” Severus caught his attention. “Would you mind me watching this memory? You know how I did that before. It didn’t hurt you, and we managed to put the Dursleys into prison because of your memory. Will you allow me to try and watch this one too? Maybe I can help you then.”

Harry threw him a pleading smile. “Pwease, hewp, Uncy Sewwy. Hawwy not sweep good, Hawwy tawyad and head hawt.”

“All right, Harry. Try to look at me and think about the dream, then it will be easier for me to find it and it will hurt you less.” Severus entered Harry’s mind and found a very interesting memory in front of everything else. It only took him a few minutes to have the complete memory ready to put it into a Pensieve. “Very good, my child,” he commended the boy and pulled a soft pain relieving potion that he always carried around in case Harry needed it out of his robes. “Here, drink this, little one.”

Harry gulped the potion down and relaxed visibly. “Fank you, Uncy Sewwy,” he said, before he yawned and closed his eyes, snuggling deeper into Poppy’s warm robes, a small thumb wandering into his mouth.

“Albus, we need your Pensieve NOW. This is something you all have to watch,” Severus whispered urgently.

-----

A door slammed. “Lily, it’s him. Take Harry and run,” he heard his Daddy shout. Then he heard steps on the stairs, coming upstairs in the direction of the nursery, where he and his Mummy were.

His Mummy turned white and mumbled, “Oh, let me survive this and get to Peter – such a traitor, selling us to Voldemort.” A moment later, she was pleading with Voldemort to kill her and not Harry, before she was hit by a green light and vanished from the spot.

At the same instant as he saw the green light, a bout of magic left his body heading into the direction of his mummy. He noticed that his head started to hurt, and he began to cry. Suddenly the bad man was standing in front of him, sending a green flash to him too. He was hit by it, but at the same time, another bout of magic left his body and pushed the flash back, until it hit the bad man causing him to fall back onto the floor. He didn’t move anymore, and Harry lay back, crying exhaustedly.

-----

When they emerged from the memory, Albus spoke up. “This is very interesting, isn’t it? There are three points, which I didn’t realize so far. First of all, Harry is more powerful than any other wizard alive. Secondly, we have the wrong man in Azkaban. And the third point is that we don’t know what finally happened to Lily.”

“Please excuse me if I’m not up to your standard of information,” Remus spoke up reluctantly. “Here in this memory, there is a body of um… Voldemort, but as far as I heard the Aurors only found James’ body, no other bodies.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Albus replied immediately. “However, I found Voldemort’s body and have destroyed it completely – just to be on the safe side.”

They spent hours discussing the memory; especially about Lily vanishing from the spot, although later nobody was any wiser. No one noticed how fast the time passed, until Aberforth came looking for Poppy. It was already three o’clock in the morning, and the friends adjourned their meeting until the next day.

-----

After a late breakfast in the Great Hall, Dumbledore and Lupin floo-ed over to the Ministry for an urgent meeting with the minister, Millicent Bagnold.

“I am sorry, Millicent, to disturb you on such a short notice,” Albus apologized. “However, we discovered a shocking memory last night that we need you to watch immediately.” He pulled his Pensieve out of his robes, enlarged it, and put it on the table. Noticing her questioning look, he elaborated, “It is a memory from two-year-old Harry Potter of the night his parents were murdered. Professor Snape took it from Harry with his permission last night in order to help the boy, because he is constantly having nightmares about it.”

“So you are sure that the memory is authentic?”

“Yes,” Albus answered. “Both of us have watched them, while Severus took the memory from Harry.”

“And a few other teachers were with us as well,” Remus added. “Excuse me,” Remus continued. “Before you watch the memory, please let me give you a short explanation.” On the minister’s nod, he told her about the Marauders and Peter being an Animagus.

When the minister left the Pensieve, she had turned white and seemed to be wrapped up in her thoughts. “This is horrible,” she said. “Mr. Black hasn’t even had a trial. I’m sorry, Albus, but Azkaban is not easy to reach. Therefore, it will be tomorrow morning until we can have Mr. Black here. However, I will see to it, so that he will have his trial tomorrow. I need both of you and whomever of your colleagues wishes to attend, preferably Professor Snape and Harry. I will notify you later today about the time and place the trial will be held.”

Albus and Remus thanked her and floo-ed back to Hogwarts.

The trial was held in an open court room, which meant that the press was allowed to listen in. However, it was a fairly quick affair. Sirius was questioned under Veritaserum, and he confirmed that Peter Pettigrew was responsible for everything that he had been accused of. Remus confirmed his declaration that Peter was a rat Animagus and could have feigned his own death easily after blowing up the street and killing thirteen Muggles. Afterwards, the judges viewed Harry’s memory in the Pensieve, which spoke for itself. Severus had to tell that the memory was authentic and he had taken it from Harry, which Albus, Remus and Minerva confirmed.

Finally Harry was questioned if he could remember his mummy saying something about Peter being a traitor, and Harry gave the judge a very frightened nod, busily cuddling his dragon. Accompanied by angry looks from all Hogwarts teachers present – because of asking a two-year-old things that he saw in nightmares – the judge announced the verdict.

Sirius was free.

-----

Sirius came up to the group of Hogwarts teachers. After pulling Remus into a fierce hug he turned to Harry, who was standing between Minerva and Severus, holding onto Severus’ hand. “Harry!” Sirius shouted and took the boy up. This, however, didn’t go well with Harry. He started to scream immediately, so that the reporters, who were still lingering at the door, came over interestedly.

“Give him to me, you imbecile,” hissed Severus and took Harry from Sirius, who nestled deep into his uncle’s robes, still crying silently.

“Now, now, let’s quickly take this Portkey and be on our way before they reach us,” Dumbledore said gently, pointing to the reporters.

Severus pried one of the tiny hands off his robes and held it in his own hand, touching the Portkey as the others did, too, and soon they felt a pull behind their navels, before they found themselves in the Headmaster’s office. Albus offered everyone a seat and called Twinkle, who brought tea and biscuits.

“I don’t know how I can thank you for what you’ve done for me today,” Sirius spoke up pensively.

“You only have to thank Severus and Harry for that,” Remus replied immediately and told him the story about the memory.

Sirius’ face darkened, but he stood up, went over to Severus, and extended his hand. “Thank you, Severus. I owe you, and I will never forget what you have done for me!”

“It’s all right. You don’t owe me, mutt.” Severus mumbled the last word, his face void of emotions.

“What is wrong with Harry? Doesn’t he remember me?” Sirius asked sadly.

“He will, probably, but what happened to him is a long story, which we can’t tell you in front of the child,” Albus explained calmly and tried to address his grandson.

However, Harry was hidden deep in Severus’ robes. He didn’t feel well after the unusual way of travelling, and it had been a shock when an unknown person tried to pick him up right from his uncle’s hand. Fawkes seemed to notice that the little boy was not his usual self. He flew down and sat on the arm rest of Severus’ chair, who threw the bird an astonished glance.

#Harry, what’s wrong with you? Speak to me, little one,# Fawkes coaxed him out of his hiding spot.

Harry slowly turned his face to his phoenix friend. “Nofing wong wif Hawwy. Hawwy onwy afweight. Stwange man pick up Hawwy an den Hawwy’s bewwy sick.”

“Here Harry,” Minerva held out a biscuit for Harry, “eat, this will help your belly.”

Severus brought Harry into a sitting position on his lap, and Harry quietly munched on the cookie.

“Harry, don’t you remember Padfoot? Uncle Sirius?” Remus asked softly.

Harry carefully glanced around the room and saw the man, who had tried to pick him up before. Yes, he could remember someone called Uncy Pafoo, but he couldn’t recall having met this man before. He slightly shook his head, leaning back onto Severus’ chest.

“Now, Sirius, Remus,” Dumbledore interrupted the silence. “I suggest that Remus takes Sirius to Poppy in order to let her check on him and keep him as long as she wants. Afterwards, I would like to ask you to come back here, Sirius, so that we can discuss what you are going to do. Do you want to return to the Aurors or would you be interested in a teaching position here at Hogwarts? Maybe you can think about it, and I shall see you whenever Poppy lets you go.”

“Shall we go flying for a while, Harry?” Severus whispered into the child’s ear as Sirius and Remus were leaving the room.

“Yes, fank you, Uncy Sewwy. Go fwyn now. Yeah.” Harry suddenly seemed to have returned to his usual self.

They spent the time until lunch flying. Severus transformed something he had in his pocket into a golden Snitch, threw a charm on it, so that it would move slowly and wouldn’t gain height. Then he coaxed Harry into flying after the tiny ball and trying to catch it, noticing immediately that Harry was very good at it.

In the evening, before Poppy went to bed, she waved her wand around Harry to cancel any Silencing spells the boy might have put up, astonished as she couldn’t find any. Maybe sharing his nightmare with Severus and speaking about it had already helped Harry to get over it. She couldn’t help doubting it but at least he hadn’t put up a Silencing spell. The night before, he hadn’t put up any spell either and obviously didn’t have a nightmare. For once, she went to bed very calmly, leaving all doors open as usual.

Very early in the next morning, shortly after Aberforth had returned home, Poppy woke up. Sitting up lazily, wondering what had woken her, she realized that Harry was screaming his head off.

When Poppy entered the nursery, she saw that Sirius was sitting on the edge of Harry’s bed, trying to talk to him. The boy, however, didn’t give him a chance but screamed.

“Out!” she said to Sirius, enraged. “How dare you come into my quarters uninvited and scare my boy?”

“Since when is he your boy? He is my godson!” Sirius shouted. “What have you done to make him not recognize and be afraid of me?”

“We have done nothing. You look differently than before. Now, get out of here, immediately. Go to bed, and we will talk about it tomorrow. Don’t you dare come in here without Harry’s or my consent again!” She pointed her wand at Sirius, and the man fled immediately. Poppy now cast a charm at the door, so that Sirius couldn’t enter the nursery any more. Then she picked Harry up, talking softly and kissing him. She took the boy with her to her bedroom, so that he could sleep between her and Aberforth for the rest of the night.

-----

After breakfast, Albus called Remus into his office. After Remus had accepted the offered lemon drop, Albus started to speak. “Remus,” he sighed. “I would like to discuss something with you. I know that it is only a week until the beginning of the new school year, and I know that you have already prepared your lessons, at least to a certain degree. Nevertheless I have a suggestion to make. Please listen to me until I’m finished, and then the decision will be up to you. Frankly speaking, I wondered if you would perhaps like to teach Care of Magical Creatures? You know that we will always have the problem that I – or someone else – have to take over your lessons once a month. However, if you taught Care of Magical Creatures, I could make Hagrid your assistant so that nobody would find it strange if he taught instead of you from time to time. What do you think?”

Remus sat there, stunned. On one hand, Defence Against the Dark Arts had always been his favourite subject. However, on the other hand, Albus’ suggestion was the best solution to his furry problem. He didn’t want the students to notice that he was always ill after the full moon. Hagrid had always been a good friend to him, and it would surely be all right to work together with him. But… who was going to teach Defence? And suddenly, he realized what this was about. Sirius was going to teach Defence.

“All right,” he answered, giving Albus a short nod. “You are right. Sirius has been an Auror before, so he is the best man for the job. And I am obviously predestined to teach Care of Magical Creatures.”

“No, Remus. It’s not that easy. Sirius is not better than you. You would be a brilliant Defence teacher. In fact, my suggestion doesn’t have anything to do with the Defence position. The reason for my suggestion is that it would solve your ‘once a month’ problem, and that I believe you would make a better Care of Magical Creatures teacher than Sirius. I haven’t asked Sirius yet if he wants to teach at all as I wanted to ask you first.”

Remus snorted. “He will, that’s for sure. Who wouldn’t take a teaching position at Hogwarts? And Sirius will, definitely, as it brings him near his godson, whom he is very fond of.”

“Oh, that I am not so sure about,” Albus contradicted, sighing. Then he told Remus about what had happened during the night and suggested, “Shall we call Sirius here now and together try to talk to him? We have to tell him everything about Harry’s experiences and that he has to share his godfather position with the whole Hogwarts staff.”

Remus gave him a short laugh, before his expression turned stern. “Yes, Albus. I don’t think this will be a pleasant discussion, however. Do you have a calming draught here?”

The Headmaster laughed and went to the fireplace to call his newest Defence teacher.

-----

Albus and Remus were just enjoying a cup of tea, when Sirius joined them.

“Hello Sirius, how kind of you to join us on this fine morning,” Albus greeted him, offering a lemon drop at the same time, before he motioned him to take a seat, while Remus poured a cup of tea for his friend.

“Now, Sirius,” Albus started the conversation, “We were wondering if you’d like to take over the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher?”

Sirius jumped out of his seat. “But, that’s Remus’ position, isn’t it, Moony?”

Albus sighed. “You know, our old Care of Magical Creatures professor has been telling me that he wants to retire for years. But so far I couldn’t find an adequate teacher, so I have been denying his wish all this time. Hagrid would be fine, but as he hasn’t finished his schooling, I cannot make him a professor. However, if you took over the Defence position, Remus would be free to take the Care of Magical Creatures post, which would solve his monthly problem as well. Hagrid, as his assistant, which he can become even without taking his OWLs, could easily take over his classes once a month without anyone becoming suspicious.”

While Albus called Hagrid over, Sirius threw Remus a hesitant glance. “Are you sure you’ll be all right with that, Moony? Don’t you prefer the Defence job?”

In the end, everyone agreed to the Headmaster’s suggestions. The conversation about Harry, however, did not go as well. It ended with Sirius leaving the room and disappearing for the rest of the day.

-----

“I thought at least by being in Azkaban for nine months he would have grown up,” Remus told Poppy later, thinking about how Sirius had reacted to their revelations about his godson. He had put the memory in Albus’ Pensieve for the others to watch.

Curiously, Poppy and Minerva entered the Pensieve.

Albus, Remus, and Sirius were sitting in the Headmaster’s office.

“Why?” Sirius shouted enraged. “Why do I have to watch my godson hiding in Snivellus’ robes, hiding from ME, his godfather? Snivellus has no right to even touch my godson!”

“Please DO NOT forget that it was Severus who pulled you out of Azkaban. None of us would have been able to help you. It was Severus having Harry’s trust, so that he could access the memory needed to get you out. Don’t you EVER forget that! And DO NOT shout at me!” Albus spoke in a freezing cold voice, which nobody had ever heard him use to talk to a fellow professor before.

When the two women left the Pensieve after nearly an hour of calm explanations from Albus and Remus and shouting from Sirius, they were torn between laughter and shock.

“And my dear husband hires someone who behaves like a child to teach Defence?” Minerva commented on Sirius’ behaviour, exasperatedly shaking her head.

-----

The teachers used the remaining week of the holidays talking to Sirius as much as they could, so that by the end of the week, he finally accepted the situation as it was. He knew that for Harry he was only another uncle, but nothing special. However, he also understood that he had to get on with Severus in order to at least be able to interact with Harry.

One more problem the teachers had to solve before the students returned was how to introduce Harry to the students. At the end of the last school year, nobody had seen Harry as he had been confined to his bed in the nursery. Now, however, Harry was supposed to eat meals in the Great Hall.

“I have charmed the wards,” Albus said hesitantly. “They are now charmed to not let Harry out of the castle, neither on foot nor by Portkey or Floo. However, the problem is that he won’t be able to get away in case of an emergency. Does anyone have an idea how we can solve this? There could be an attack, or he could be hurt and has to be brought to St. Mungos urgently, or whatever else could happen?”

“Albus, is it possible that you give us a password that overrides the wards? It will be enough if Poppy, Aberforth, Severus and the two of us knew the password as it would only be needed in a case of emergency anyway,” Minerva suggested.

“Oh, yes, Minerva, that’s a good idea. I will see to it immediately after our talk. Now, as not many of you know, Harry is the heir of three of the founders. Through James Potter, he is the heir of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and through Minerva and me, he is the heir of Ravenclaw from Minerva’s side and the heir of Gryffindor from my side. Therefore, I have talked to the castle, which I am entitled to do because of being Headmaster. The castle promised to look after Harry and assured me that no one would be able to do him any harm here within the Hogwarts grounds.”

-----

Harry was extremely excited. It was Wednesday, September 1, and the students were supposed to arrive shortly. At lunchtime, he had seen the huge house tables that had appeared in the Great Hall overnight, and Aunt Poppy had told him that the Hall would be full with hundreds of students at the Welcoming Feast in the evening. At first, he had been afraid of not being allowed to have dinner with everyone, but Aunt Poppy had told him that he was her son now and that he – of course – would not only be able to, but would be obliged to attend the meals in the Great Hall. He learned that he’d sit at the Head table, either between Aunt Poppy and Granny or between Uncles Severus and Moony.

Hagrid had suggested taking Harry down to the station so that he could board the boats together with the first years, but as he had been coughing a lot during the last few days, Aunt Poppy hadn’t allowed him to go with Hagrid. Now, he was sitting on the floor in Remus’ office, trying to concentrate on the floor puzzle he had received for his birthday. Uncle Remus was telling him the letters of the alphabet, and Harry had to search for the piece with the respective letter. As he already remembered the pictures this wasn’t too difficult for him. But then he was supposed to connect the piece to the one with the previous letter, and this was rather tricky for his tiny hands.

“Uncy Moo-ey hewp Hawwy? Pwease,” the small boy said, giving his uncle a pleading glance.

Remus knelt next to Harry and helped him adding the ‘F’ next to the ‘E’. “Very good, Harry,” he commended the child.

Finally, they had finished with the puzzle, and it was time to head to the Great Hall.

Harry climbed into his chair that was placed next to his granny’s chair. Poppy had explained to Harry that Granny and Granddad had fixed places at the Head table because they were Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress – ‘whatever that is’, Harry thought. As long as he was allowed to sit between two of the people he knew best he didn’t mind where the others were sitting. He sat there, silently, watching the commotion around him, while the students filed into the Hall.

When Minerva arrived with a large group of students trailing behind her, Poppy explained that they were Firsties, who had come to Hogwarts for the first time. “Maybe you will get to know some of them soon,” Poppy told him. “Some of the first years get homesick after a few days, and then they will be sent to me, and I have to talk to them and make them happy again. Will you help me with this?”

“Yes, Aun Poppy, Hawwy hewp tudens, of cowse.” He excitedly watched the Sorting Hat when he sang a song about peace between the Houses and about a child that would help the school to overcome the House rivalry. Harry couldn’t understand the meaning, but he immediately liked the Hat. How he envied the students – they were allowed to put the Hat on their heads and even talk to him, before he shouted the name of their House. Harry was very impressed with the interesting Hat and vowed he would find out everything about the Hat and try to talk to him in the near future.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t realize that Minerva had already taken the Hat away and had sat down next to him. Suddenly, Granny clinked her spoon against her glass. Harry, liking the sound, giggled and excitedly did the same, unwillingly drawing everyone’s attention onto himself. He blushed deeply and averted his eyes to the floor, causing everyone to laugh.

Dumbledore stood from his seat. “Good evening and welcome back to a new year at Hogwarts. To our new students a happy welcome to your first year at our school. I intended to introduce my grandson to you, but I see that he has already taken matters in his own hand. Anyway, our smallest member here is my grandson, Harry Potter. I expect your best behaviour towards him, especially as he is still very small. I would also like to warn you not to purposefully curse him as he is very powerful, and any attempt to harm him could end very painfully for the attacker.”

Harry, hating the attention as everyone was still looking at him, mouthing ‘cute’ to each other, climbed off his chair and onto his Uncy Sewwy’s lap. His head hurt from all the commotion, and he leaned tiredly against his Uncle’s chest, ignoring the loud gasp that went through the Great Hall when the students saw the toddler sitting on the lap of the man they used to call ‘bat of the dungeons’ or ‘slimy git’.

-----

During the next months, Harry got used to the students being in the castle. He soon made friends with Bill Weasley, a first year Gryffindor. Bill had to spend a few days in the Hospital Wing with a bad cold, and Harry, who was supposed to be playing with Aberforth in the nursery, managed to escape Aberforth several times and visited Bill, talking animatedly to the older boy. He thought Bill was very interesting, having five smaller brothers and a sister, one of them even Harry’s age. Harry’s speaking abilities had improved a lot, and he loved talking very much. He asked Bill many questions about his family, and both of them enjoyed their conversations. It was even worth being scolded by Poppy each time she found Harry at Bill’s bedside.

Even after Bill was released from the Hospital Wing, he came to see Harry from time to time and was occasionally allowed to take the boy with him into Gryffindor tower or out onto the grounds. In fact, Poppy was glad to have someone she could ask to baby-sit from time to time as she sometimes was too busy to take care of Harry after classes, when many students needed her help at the same time.

In the mornings, Aberforth always played with Harry or took him out for a walk. However, in the afternoon, Aberforth had to go home to care for Ginevra before he went to work, so that Harry was around Poppy when he woke from his nap, at least until the end of classes. Whenever she had time, she played with him; when she was busy, he normally sat in his playpen, looking at his books.

Amelia Bones, a seventh year Hufflepuff, had also volunteered to baby-sit Harry sometimes, so that Harry also had the opportunity to visit the Hufflepuff common room. Harry liked the students because most of them were very friendly to him, and they could tell him many interesting stories. However, he didn’t like being fawned at too much, and that was – of course – what happened in the common rooms, where especially the female students adored the cute little boy.

-----

The weeks passed quickly, and soon it was time for the first Quidditch match of the school year, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. It was a cold, dark day on this last Saturday in November, and Harry was sitting on Poppy’s lap, huddled in a warm blanket. Severus and Minerva were sitting on each side of them, eagerly watching the game.

Suddenly Harry pointed to the sky and shouted, “Dewe, de nitch!”

Everyone looked at him and followed his finger up to the sky where a small golden flash could be seen in front of the dark clouds. Not noticing the attention he attracted, Harry commented, “De seekews awe not vewwy good, dey awe too sow. Dey have to pwactife more wif’e nitch.” His high child’s voice could be heard very well; therefore the whole stand erupted with laughter, while the Slytherin seeker quickly caught the snitch, which had not moved at all after Harry had pointed to it.

The Gryffindor team spent quite a time discussing the possibility of a re-match with Minerva, who frankly told them that their own Seeker had had the same opportunity as the Slytherin Seeker and that there was no chance of a re-match. At the same time, the Slytherin team approached Severus and Harry and invited Harry to join them in their Common room for their victory party immediately after dinner.

Harry’s eyes started to twinkle happily. “Oh, can I go, Aun Poppy, Uncy Sewwy, pwease?”

The team laughed at the name their Head of House was called. However, they shut up stunned, hearing in what a soft voice the strict professor talked to the small child. “All right, Harry. If Aunt Poppy doesn’t mind, but I believe she will let you go provided you stay near me for the whole time.”

“Yes, my boy, you may go with Uncle Severus if you stay with him and listen to what he says,” Poppy said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Yes, Aun Poppy, Harry tay wif Uncy Sewwy awl de time,” Harry exclaimed excitedly. He enjoyed the party in the Slytherin common room very much, especially as each common room was very different from the others and he hadn’t been in Slytherin before, so that he found the trip extremely interesting.

An hour into the party, Severus was called away by a fifth year, who asked him to come to their dormitory as her friend seemed to be ill. Severus threw a glance at Harry, who was enjoying himself together with a group of first and second year’s students, sitting on the floor and playing with a few cars Harry had obviously had with him in his robe pockets. Severus decided to leave him there for the few minutes he’d be away. However, as soon as the Professor was gone, the older students quickly produced a few bottles of Butterbeer and handed everyone a glass full. Harry didn’t protest when he received a glass, and gulped down the brown liquid like he was used to doing with the potions he had to drink every now and then.

When Severus came back, Harry had just finished the Butterbeer. He couldn’t hold himself upright anymore but fell back and was fast asleep immediately. Severus carefully picked Harry up, cuddling the sleeping boy close. “What happened here?” the Professor asked in the iciest voice his students had ever heard from him.

The first and second years immediately told him what had happened, and after a short investigation Severus sent the culprits to their dormitories for the rest of the evening. Then he left the common room and carried Harry to bed, tucking him in carefully before he told Poppy what had happened. Fortunately, the Butterbeer didn’t do any harm to Harry – except for the fact that he slept through until lunchtime on Sunday.

Severus returned to Slytherin and paid a certain sixth year dormitory a visit. He had a very stern talk with the boys, but knowing that they weren’t evil but just hadn’t thought about it he didn’t punish them further. However, he made them promise that they wouldn’t give Harry anything in the future and told them that they had to apologize to Harry.

On the next day, before dinner, the sixth years surrounded Poppy and Harry on their way to the Head table. One of the students, Marcus Zabini, spoke up. “Harry, we are sorry that we gave you Butterbeer to drink. We didn’t think about the fact that you are too small for such drinks.”

Harry threw the boy a shy smile and replied, “Its awwight, fank you fow low Hawwy stay wif you pawty. Hawwy loww pawty.”

-----

Unfortunately, Poppy didn’t let Harry attend any more victory parties in the near future. However, he was still allowed to visit the common rooms together with one of his baby-sitters. One day, Harry had spent the afternoon in the Gryffindor common room and was just walking down the stairs together with Bill Weasley in order to attend dinner in the Great Hall. It was only a few days until the start of the Christmas holidays, and the whole school bustled with excitement. At the moment they reached the Great Hall, Peter Gibbon, a Hufflepuff seventh year student, approached them and held out a colourful lollipop for Harry.

“May Hawwy havv?” Harry confirmed with Bill before he reached out and grabbed the lollipop – and Peter and Harry were whisked away.

Dumbledore’s voice overturned the commotion in the Great Hall. “Please be quiet and sit down. The castle’s wards are charmed to not let Harry pass through by Portkey. So I suppose that he is still in the castle. I would like to ask everyone willing to help to come and look for him all over the school.”

Seeing that nearly everyone jumped off their seats again, he continued. “Please don’t roam the grounds on your own but go in small groups or at least together with one other person. I shall wait in my office. If you find Harry, please take him to the Headmaster’s office immediately. You will have time enough to eat dinner afterwards. Thanks for your help.”

While everyone was spreading throughout the school, Remus ran to Filch’s office. Fortunately, the caretaker was there, talking to his cat. Remus quickly explained to him about a blank parchment, which Filch had confiscated from the Marauders about five years ago, saying that it was highly dangerous. He told the unfriendly man that an emergency had occurred for which he needed the parchment back urgently, threatening that otherwise Filch would be held responsible for a possible student’s death. It only took them three minutes to find the map in one of the drawers.

Remus activated the map and told it to show him the whereabouts of Harry. A small black point showed the boy’s name just next to the Hogwarts border on the Hogsmeade side. He quickly pocketed the map and ran down the street to Hogsmeade. When he reached Harry, he saw that he was lying on the ground, apparently unconscious. Remus pulled of his robes, draping them over the boy, before he gathered him into his arms and ran back to the castle. On his way to the Hospital Wing he ordered the first students he saw to run to the Headmaster’s office in order to call off the search.

-----

Poppy sat down in her office tiredly. Since it was so cold outside, many students had come down with colds or worse, and she had been busy tending to them for the last few hours. Suddenly Albus’ voice could be heard throughout the school.

“All students and teachers may return to the Great Hall for dinner. Professor Lupin has found Harry. Thank you for your help.”

‘Harry? What happened?’ she thought frantically, jumping up from her seat. She was just about to leave the Hospital Wing, when Remus stormed in, Harry in his arms.

“What happened, Remus? Put him on his own bed, please,” she said, following the teacher into the nursery.

Remus filled her in quickly and laid Harry down on his bed. Poppy immediately waved her wand over the boy and let out a relieved sigh, proceeding to wake Harry up. “He seems to have hit his head a bit, that’s all. However, we should try to wake him up so that I can give him a potion for his head.”

“Shall I wake him while you go and get the potion?” Seeing Poppy nod, Remus carefully laid a hand on Harry’s shoulder. Harry flinched a little but slowly opened his eyes.

“Uncy Moony?” he asked sleepily. “Where Aunt Poppy? Head hawt.”

“Yes, I know, my dear,” Poppy, who had just returned with a potions phial in her hands, said calmingly. “Drink this. It will help your head. You must take it easy for a few days, which means no running, no flying or such.”

“What happen?” Harry asked confused. He could remember entering the Great Hall together with Bill, when a bigger student he didn’t know offered him a lollipop. As soon as he reached for it, he had gotten a strange feeling in his belly and then he had hit his head, before he passed out. The next thing he knew was being woken up by Uncle Remus.

Remus told him the whole story. He could only imagine that the wards had pushed Harry back and that he fell backwards, hitting his head on the ground.

“So, how long was he outside before you found him? Twenty minutes?” Poppy asked. Seeing Remus nod, she sighed. “So Harry will at least get a cold, and you need some Pepper-Up Potion as well, Remus, after running around the grounds without your robes.” She made Remus drink a potion, and Harry had much fun when he saw steam coming out of Remus’ ears.

“Now, wait, little man. Now it’s your turn and I’m going to watch and laugh,” Remus threatened, when Poppy returned with the children’s version of the potion.

A few minutes later, Minerva, Albus, and Severus arrived, wanting to know if Harry was all right and where Remus had found him. Remus explained everything to them, while Poppy sat on the edge of Harry’s bed, quietly talking to the child. Suddenly, Harry’s stomach let out a loud rumbling noise.

“Oh my, are you hungry, Harry?”

“A wittew,” Harry replied, embarrassed. He threw a short glance to the others.

“Oh, yes, I’m hungry, too,” Remus threw in. “We were busy here chatting with you, Poppy, while everyone else had dinner.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Remus, Harry. I thought you had eaten before everything happened.”

“Twinkle,” Albus called his family house elf. “Could you please bring a light dinner for…” He turned to Poppy. “Have you had dinner yet, Poppy?” When she shook her head, he continued, “…dinner for three, and tea for everyone else. Thank you, Twinkle.”

-----

During the night, Poppy was woken by a small figure trying to climb into her bed. She instinctively reached out for the little tyke and pulled him up, noticing that he felt very hot to the touch. When she laid him between Aberforth and her, Harry whispered hoarsely, “Aun Poppy, Hawwy don feew good.”

Poppy tiredly took his temperature and was suddenly wide awake. 41.3 degrees – that was dangerously high. She quickly waved her wand over the boy and got the result that he had a lung infection. “Harry, please stay here and wait for a moment. I’ll get some medicine for you.” She hurried to get a phial of the pneumonia potion Severus had invented for Harry during the summer holidays as well as the strongest fever reducer she could give such a small child. Harry obediently drank both potions and relaxed a little. After a few minutes, his temperature had dropped a degree, and Poppy climbed back into bed, cradled Harry into her arms, whispering, “Now, Harry, let’s try to sleep some more. If you feel worse or can’t sleep wake me up. All right?”

“Yes, fank you, An Poppy,” Harry replied lazily and drifted off, snuggling into Poppy’s arm, his dragon safely under his own arm, thinking that never before he had felt so cared for.

Harry spent a few days in bed. When he started to feel a little better, the winter holidays had just begun, and the teachers had more time and took turns sitting with him. As much as Harry hated to be ill, he enjoyed the time the teachers spent with him. Each of them had a special method to entertain Harry. Poppy, for example, mostly cuddled him and talked to him about anything Harry was comfortable with. Severus used to tell him about ingredients for easy potions that he could brew with his toddler’s potions kit. Severus had already helped him brew a few simple potions that he could make with the kit, and Harry had enjoyed it very much.

Minerva had started to read a huge book to him. ‘Hogwarts – A history’ it was called, and Harry found it very interesting. Sirius, whom Harry had finally gotten used to, preferred to tell him about the jokes he played together with Harry’s father and Uncle Moony, while Remus thought Harry should know everything about magical animals. His grandfather chose to talk about the sweets the other teachers had brought for Harry. He picked up each single package from the night table and told Harry a story about it. Of course he had to try them as well, especially as Harry still didn’t want to eat anything that wasn’t forced into his throat, and Rolanda taught Harry everything a two-year-old could understand about Quidditch.

Harry was interested in everything he learned. However, his eyes twinkled most when Poppy, Minerva, or Severus were sitting with him. This, of course, nobody knew – except for Poppy.

-----

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Severus showed up in Harry’s room, when Poppy and Harry were just having breakfast together at the table. “Good morning, Poppy, Harry,” he greeted them with one of his rare smiles that he seemed to have reserved for Harry.

“Good Mownin, Uncle Sewewus,” Harry squeaked happily. During the last days, Poppy and Severus had practised speaking with Harry, so that his speech abilities had improved a lot.

“Professor McGonagall is forcing me to go to the Great Hall to help decorate the Hall and the Christmas tree. Unfortunately, decorating Charms are not my very best subject, so I believe I need an assistant. Would you be willing to help me, Harry, provided that Aunt Poppy lets you go?”

Harry’s eyes twinkled merrily. “Yes. Fank you, Uncle Sewewus. I want hewp you. Can Hawwy go, Aunt Poppy, pwease?”

Poppy reluctantly allowed him to go, knowing that Severus would watch him closely enough to know when it was time to bring the child back as Harry was still weak from his illness. She washed his face and laid out clothes for him to wear. When she helped him button his favourite green shirt Severus had bought for him a few weeks ago, Harry suddenly asked, “What kwissmis?”

Poppy and Severus threw him an appalled glance. “You don’t know what Christmas is?” Poppy asked softly, and when Harry slightly shook his head, Severus proceeded to explain to the little boy about baby Jesus being born on Christmas.

“Aunt Poppy come Gweat Haww, too?” Harry asked.

Poppy sighed. “I’m sorry, sweetie, but I have some things to sort out. But you can go with Uncle Severus, if you think you are well enough. If you feel worse, tell Uncle Severus or one of the other teachers, so that they will bring you back here.”

“Awwight,” Harry agreed and let Severus take him by the hand and walk him to the Great Hall.

When they entered the Great Hall, Harry suddenly stopped walking. He stood there, clinging to Severus’ robes, and stared in awe at the beautiful, huge tree that Hagrid had just finished putting up.

“Good morning, Harry and Severus. I see you have brought an assistant with you, Severus,” Professor Flitwick said, smiling at Severus and Harry.

Minerva came over as well, knelt in front of Harry and took his hand. “Hello Harry. You must be better today, if Poppy let you go. Are you going to help decorate?”

Harry threw her an anxious smile. “Hewwo Gwanny. Much bettew. I donnow if I can hewp but twy.”

“Oh, Harry, your speech has improved a lot, hasn’t it?” Minerva commended him, glad that he slowly seemed to catch up not only in his behaviour but also with speaking.

“Aunt Poppy and Uncle Sewewus hewp Hawwy a wot,” Harry replied with a hint of pride in his voice.

“All right. Severus, can you conjure baubles for the tree? Maybe Harry can advice you about the colours and patterns. You know,” she smilingly turned to Harry, “we don’t want them all to be green with bubbling cauldrons on them.”

Harry returned a mischievous smile. “Gwanny pwefew kittie, wight?”

Minerva snorted and replied, “Maybe you are spending too much time with your Uncle Severus.” When she saw Harry’s face turn sad, she patted his shoulder and added, “Don’t worry, Harry. That was a joke. You may spend as much time with Severus as you want. And yes, I like cats.”

Harry smiled relieved and Severus conjured a golden bauble. “Now, Harry, what pattern shall we put on it and in which colour?”

Harry thought for a moment before he replied, “fawst a kittie fow Gwanny pwease.”

Severus pointed his wand at the golden ball, and two grey cats decorated the ornament. Harry had a close look at the cats, and finally gave Severus a contented glance and said, “Das good. Fewy pwetty.”

“Very,” Severus corrected the child and suggested, “Shall we go and show it to Granny before we put it onto the tree?”

“Yes,” Harry replied, jumping up and down excitedly.

“Will this meet your expectations, Minerva?” Severus asked the older teacher, handing the bauble over to her.

“Oh, Severus, that’s beautiful. Two green cats playing with a red ball,” she said admiringly. “Thank you.”

“Wait. Green cats? A ball?” Severus threw a glance at the ornament in her hands. “Oh. That must have been my assistant’s work. I merely put two grey cats on it,” he countered astonished.

“Gwanny-cat pway baww wif Hawwy-cat,” Harry explained solemnly. “Hawwy do wong?”

“No, my dear, you did very well,” Minerva commended the anxious child.

“However, you must not do a lot of magic today, otherwise you will become too tired,” Severus told him sternly.

“Hawwy no use madshik. Hawwy no wand,” he insisted innocently. “Hawwy onwy fink kitties pway is pwetty. Next baww blue wif Forks and bawdie Hawwy pwease.”

Severus conjured a blue ornament and placed a phoenix like Fawkes on it, followed by a smaller phoenix. “Me make dem twill song?” Harry asked innocently, and before Severus or Minerva could protest the two birds on the bauble were trilling Christmas songs – fortunately in a very small voice.

Severus threw a worried glance to Minerva, mouthing, “so much magic?!”

“Yes, Severus,” Minerva replied. “Moreover, that’s not accidental magic but willingly applied magic. I’ll have to talk to Albus about it.” She turned to Harry. “You did a wonderful job with the two baubles, my dear. However, what you did was magic, and for the moment, you may not do any more of it. Otherwise, you’ll make yourself sick again.”

Severus noticed that Harry’s eyes were a bit too bright and put a hand on the child’s forehead, glad that he didn’t flinch. “You are still a bit warm, Harry. Maybe you should rest for a while.”

Hearing this, Minerva transfigured one of the chairs into a comfortable looking couch and motioned him to lie down for a while. When he complied, she conjured a warm blanket and tucked him in. “Now, Harry, you may watch us and tell us what to put on the ornaments, but you must not do anything at all. Do you understand me?”

Harry gave her a sad smile. “Yes, Hawwy undastand.” For a few minutes, he watched the two teachers decorating the tree, but apparently it wasn’t interesting enough, and Harry soon fell asleep.

-----

When Albus entered the Great Hall at lunchtime, Minerva and Severus immediately told him about the magic Harry had performed earlier. “Yes, I know that he is very powerful and also that he is capable of wish magic. Wish magic is an extremely rare form of wandless magic. As my grandchild he is the heir of Merlin, and Merlin could do wish magic as well. However, he is much too small to do much magic, especially as wish magic affords a lot of magic and would soon deplete his magical reserves. It’s too tiring for a two-year-old.”

It was obviously tiring. Harry slept through lunch and half the afternoon in spite of the commotion going on around him when the teachers continued to decorate the hall. When he woke up, Severus took him into his arms and showed him the decorations they had made for the huge Christmas tree. Harry was fascinated by the beautiful tree. “De twee is vewwy pwetty,” he finally said, looking at the tree in awe.

“If your Granny excused us, I would suggest that we go out onto the grounds for a short while. What do you think, Harry? Do you feel up to a bit of flying?”

“Yes!” Harry cheered happily, struggling to get down from his uncle’s arm.

“Slowly, sweetie,” Minerva told him. “You have to go to your room and ask Poppy if you may go out at all, and if she agrees, you’ll have to put on your warm coat, scarf and hat. It’s freezing cold outside.”

Severus and Harry walked up to Harry’s room. Poppy greeted them with a relieved expression. “I thought you’d return earlier. Didn’t Harry get too tired?” she asked worriedly but was immediately filled in that he had had a long sleep.

“Aunt Poppy,” Harry suddenly said, squirming a little, “Hawwy need go potty.”

Poppy threw him an astonished look but took him into the bathroom and helped him get rid of his nappy. When he was finished he told her, “Aunt Poppy, Hawwy now big boy, donneed nappy anymowe.”

Unfortunately, Poppy didn’t want to listen and put another nappy on him.

-----

On Christmas morning, Harry threw the first temper tantrum Poppy had ever witnessed so far. “No, Aunt Poppy! Hawwy don wan nappy! Nappy hawt Hawwy, and Hawwy hate nappy. No!”

“Little man, you will behave yourself and stop screaming immediately. Otherwise, I’m sure that Santa won’t bring you any presents today,” Poppy reprimanded the child sternly. However, his nappy had stayed dry so far, and even late in the evening he had woken up and gone to the toilet. So she decided to give it a try and just put normal pants on him instead of a nappy.

When Harry was finally dressed, he was astonished that they went to the Great Hall for breakfast. Apart from his birthday, they had never had breakfast in the Great Hall, at least not during the holidays. To his great surprise, many colourful presents were piled under the huge Christmas tree. He just couldn’t take his eyes off the beautiful tree.

When finally everyone got up from the breakfast table and moved over to the tree in order to have a look at the Christmas presents, Poppy told everyone, “I’ve already received the best Christmas present I could have wished for.” Seeing that everyone threw her an expectant glance, she continued, “Yesterday, Harry decided that he’s a big boy now and that he doesn’t need a nappy anymore, and so far we haven’t had any problems.”

Harry blushed deeply and tried to hide in Severus’ robes. “Look, Harry, here is a present for you,” Minerva successfully tried to coax Harry into leaving his hiding spot.

Indeed, there was a huge present labelled ‘Harry’. Aberforth, Severus and Sirius knelt next to the boy and helped him open the box. “A twain!” Harry shouted happily.

“Yes, my boy, that seems to be a Hogwarts Express train set,” Aberforth agreed, and Harry’s eyes started to twinkle madly.

The few students, who had remained in the castle during the holidays – two Gryffindor first year boys, one Slytherin fifth year boy, as well as a second year and a third year Ravenclaw girl – proceeded to engross themselves in putting the train set up for Harry. The train set consisted of a huge amount of tracks, several shunting points, a bridge, a tunnel, as well as Kings Cross and Hogsmeade stations. The main attraction however was the Hogwarts Express with a few carriages.

In the evening, everyone helped Harry to carry the huge train set into his own room, and Harry spent the remainder of the holidays mainly playing with his new toy. It was so much fun and apart from books he couldn’t remember having anything so interesting ever before. Even the two Gryffindor first year boys loved his train set and visited Harry every day, playing together with the little boy.

-----

As much fun as Harry had with the two older boys, he was very disappointed that Draco couldn’t come and visit him during the holidays. Uncle Severus told him that Draco apparently had thrown a temper tantrum when his father told him that he couldn’t spend his holidays at Hogwarts because they were going for a trip until well into the New Year.

Aberforth had had a few conversations with Albus concerning the wards around the castle. Harry longed to see Ginevra, and Aberforth wanted to take him home to their house in Hogsmeade, however, the wards didn’t allow Harry out. Albus however stayed adamant and only promised that he would change the wards with the start of the summer holidays.

Very upset with his brother, Aberforth decided to bring Ginevra for a trip onto the Hogwarts grounds, so that Harry would be able to play with her for a while. On New Year’s Day, the weather that had been a mixture of rain and snow during the last days finally improved, and Aberforth brought Ginevra to Hogwarts, while Sirius and Remus took Harry out onto the grounds for a walk.

“Sineba!” Harry shouted happily when he saw the goat trotting next to Aberforth. During the next hour, the adults only saw Harry from behind – he was constantly running after the goat, chasing her all over the Quidditch pitch – until Poppy exited the castle and told him that he wasn’t allowed to run so much.

“What is wrong with running around?” Sirius ranted to Remus, totally fed up with the over protectiveness of the mediwitch.

“Normally nothing, Padfoot,” Remus replied, sighing. “However, Harry’s heart is a bit weak due to the neglect by the Dursleys. Therefore, he isn’t allowed to do any sports. He may fly or play ball, but that’s all. Probably, he won’t even be allowed to play Quidditch on the house team if Poppy or Severus don’t find a solution until then.”

Suddenly, Harry saw a few people entering the Hogwarts grounds. Apparently, there were two adults and a whole bunch of children, who seemed to make a lot of noise. All of a sudden, two of them managed to catch Ginevra’s tail and pulled it – something that Harry just couldn’t bear.

Everyone concentrated on the newcomers and proceeded to greet them. However, finally, Remus noticed that Harry wasn’t around anymore. “Where’s Harry?” he asked, astonished.

Everyone looked around frantically, but nobody could see the boy.

“Why didn’t you tell me that they have goats at Hogwarts?” one of the smaller children reproachfully asked, turning to the oldest brother.

“I didn’t know – that must be Aberforth Dumbledore’s goat; I don’t think they normally have goats here, right, Professor Lupin?”

“Ah, that’s my goat, Ginevra,” Aberforth explained. “Normally, she lives at my home down the hill there. She just came here to play with Harry today.”

“Sineba?” the youngest Weasley child asked incredulously. “I Sineba.”

“Yes, Ginevra, your name is very beautiful, and that’s probably the reason why Mr. Dumbledore has named his goat like this.” Minerva who had just come out of the castle joined the conversation. “Where is Harry?” she then asked, surprised not to see her little grandson.

“An de over goat? Hewe name?” Ginny wanted to know.

“The other goat?!” The three Hogwarts teachers and Aberforth averted their eyes to the two goats trotting playfully around the ground, one of them stumbling every now and then as if it was drunk. The professors glanced at each other, shocked.

“Excuse me, is something wrong with little Harry?” Mrs. Weasley finally interrupted the silence.

“You don’t mean to tell me that Harry has transformed into a goat and none of you noticed?” Minerva suddenly exploded.

“What?!” Bill exclaimed and ran after the goats. “Harry! Wait. Come over to me, please,” he shouted, and one of the goats indeed slowed down and waited for the first-year. “May I pet you?” Bill asked, when the goat stopped in front of him. Seeing the goat incline its head, he carefully started to stroke the animal’s head. “Harry is that really you?” the boy asked fascinated, and the goat gave him a short nod.

Harry slowly relaxed. He had been so upset seeing so many children coming over to them, making so much noise. And when two of them started to attack Ginevra, his wish to escape from the children and to help Ginevra had become so overwhelming that he somehow ended up as a goat. It was a strange feeling, and it was difficult to walk on four legs but he had easily adapted to the goat form.

“Harry, is everything all right?” Minerva asked, and Harry nodded again. “Can you transform back, or do you need me to help you?”

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on his human form. Suddenly he was a little boy again, shivering because he was instantly missing the goat’s warm coat. “Hawwy cowld. Go into de cassule awwight?”

“Of course, Harry, go on into the castle, quickly. We’ll have tea in the Great Hall,” his grandmother answered and ushered the little boy through the Entrance doors.

-----

When everyone had entered the Great Hall, Bill introduced Harry to his parents and his siblings.

The smallest boy, Ron, laughed at Harry. “You’re funny. You talk like my little sister. But she is only one, still a baby.”

“Sinny no baby, Won!” his sister complained immediately.

“You’re both babies…”

“… as you’re still wearing nappies,” the twins laughed at their younger siblings.

“Gwanny, Hawwy need go potty,” was Harry’s comment to the unpleasant conversation. “Hawwy can go Aunt Poppy’s bafwoom?”

“Of course, let me take you, Harry,” Minerva said calmingly and excused them both for a short while.

After Harry had seen to his needs, he told his Granny, “Hawwy don wike mean boy Won. Hawwy no baby. Hawwy can go potty!”

“Yes, Harry. You are a big boy, and I’m very proud of you,” Minerva assured him, and Harry’s eyes started to twinkle happily.

Beside the normal dining table, a children’s table with small chairs had appeared, where the children could have their tea on their own. Harry sat down next to Bill, who gave him a huge smile. On his other side, one of the twins had sat down and Harry threw him an anxious glance. It had been the twins, who had pulled Ginevra’s tail before – probably. Harry wasn’t one hundred percent sure because there were so many children all looking alike. When Harry had finished his tea, he whispered to Bill, “Want to show you somefing. Hawwy got twain set fow chwismis. Come wif Hawwy to Hawwy’s woom, pwease.”

Bill laughed at the little boy and – amazingly unnoticed by the adults – the two boys left the Great Hall, hurrying up to Harry’s room. They didn’t realize that two small shadows followed them through the halls. Harry proudly showed Bill his train set, and the two boys started to play immediately, oblivious to their surroundings. Suddenly two voices made Harry jump.

“Oh, is this…”

“…what we think it is…”

“…the Hogwarts Express?”

It was the twins. Harry took a step back, trying to hide behind Bill.

“Oh, Harry, it’s all right. Fred and George won’t do anything to you.” Bill coaxed him out of his hiding place.

“Hello Harry, we’re Fred…”

“… and George…”

“…and we are…”

“…the double trouble pranksters from the burrow,” the twins chorused.

Harry immediately liked their smiles. He carefully extended a hand and said, “Hewwo, I’m Hawwy. Gwad to meet you. You pway wif us wif Hawwy’s twain?”

The four boys played for a while. Bill had discovered a box with Lego blocks, and the twins frantically built houses and bridges along the rails, while Harry was moving the train. Suddenly, something drew the twins’ attention.

“Harry, what’s that over there?”

“Is that a Potions kit?”

“Yes, a poshunkit,” Harry replied, guiding the train into King’s Cross.

“May we have a look?” the twins asked, already opening the box.

“Um, yes,” Harry said hesitantly. “But Hawwy not loud brew poshuns wifout Uncy Sewewus.”

“Oh, that’s all right, but maybe we could,” the twins suggested ignoring Bill’s scowl.

Before Bill could tell them off, Poppy and Molly burst into the room, followed by Charlie, Percy, Ron, and Ginny.

“Here you are!” Molly immediately started to scold Bill. “You should have told us or at least your younger siblings where you went.”

“Sorry, Mum. Harry just wanted to show me his new train set, and the twins followed us,” Bill apologized, and Molly and Poppy took a seat at the table, leaving the children to play together.

As soon as Ron had spotted the Hogwarts Express, he jumped over to Harry and took the train from his hands. Harry immediately got onto his feet and took a step backwards, frightened. While he followed Ron’s every move, his eyes started to fill with tears.

“Ron! Give the train back to Harry and apologize immediately,” Bill told his youngest brother.

The small boy gave his brother an angry glare and tossed the train back at Harry. When Harry crawled forward to push the train again, Ginny glanced at him and asked softly, “Sinny haww twain?”

Harry gave her a short nod and returned, “Yes, Sinny may haww twain. Hawwy show you.”

He showed the little girl how to change the signals and shunting points, before he toddled around his room and came back with a box of small animals. Now Ginny, Harry, Fred, and George occupied themselves letting the animals mount the train, before they took turns pushing the train around. Ron sat next to them, sulking.

“Ron, I’m still waiting for you to apologize to Harry,” Bill suddenly told him.

“Sorry,” Ron said shortly and handed Harry a candy.

“No goo, Hawwy,” Ginny told him, while the twins were pushing the Hogwarts Express.

However, Harry thought the colourful candy looked very good and put it into his mouth immediately. It tasted like bananas, which he liked very much. Pushing the candy to the side, he happily thanked Ron around the candy. “Fanku Bon.”

However, a minute later, Ginny pointed to Harry’s hands and said, “Canny no goo. Hawwy gween!”

Harry’s skin had completely turned green. Harry took a horrified glance at his hands, noticing from a corner of his eyes that Ron was smirking. He jumped up and ran over to Poppy, throwing himself at her robes and starting to silently sob into her robes.

“Fred! George!” Molly screamed. “What have you done now?”

The children immediately filled her in on what happened, but this time, Ron refused outright to apologize to Harry. While Molly threw a temper tantrum at her youngest son, the twins went over to Poppy and Harry and apologized.

“We’re sorry, Harry…”

“…We didn’t realize…”

“…that Ron had this candy…”

“…which was obviously ours…”

“…it will wear off in two hours…”

“…and we’re sorry!”

Harry hesitantly lifted his green face. “Fwed and Dowf not bad, onwy Won bad. Hawwy wike Fwed and Dowf, and Sinny and Bill.”

“Sorry, my dear,” Molly jumped into the conversation. “For now, we will return home, but if your Aunt Poppy doesn’t mind, Bill, Ginny, and the twins may come to visit you another day.”

“Of course I don’t mind,” Poppy replied immediately. I know that Harry would like to play with them again, wouldn’t you, sweetie?”

Harry gave her a short nod. “Yes. Hawwy want pway wif Sinny, Bill, and tins.” He tiredly leaned into Poppy’s robes and closed his eyes, while the Weasleys took the Floo back to the Burrow.

After a short nap, Harry remained in his bed for a while, reflecting on what had happened before. ‘Why was Ron so mean to me?’ he wondered. Bill had told him several times that Ron was two years old just like Harry, and Harry had hoped to become good friends with as he had with Draco. But in fact, Ron had been nothing but a big prat. Harry sighed, but his face lit when he remembered how nice the twins had been and how cute the little girl was, whose name was the same as Uncle Aberforth’s goat’s. Determined to ask Poppy when he could play with the twins and Ginny again, he climbed out of his bed and went to look for his aunt.

-----

A few days later, Harry’s four friends were allowed to visit him again. Bill and his two first year classmates, who had remained at the castle during the holidays, promised to keep an eye on Harry, Ginny, and the twins, so that Molly returned to the Burrow to look after her other three children. They had much fun together, playing with Harry’s train set for hours.

As Sirius had offered to take the kids outside and watch over them, Poppy allowed them to go for a walk around the grounds, when it stopped snowing later in the afternoon. Sirius and the children met in the Entrance Hall, and Sirius immediately started a snow ball fight, which the kids enjoyed immensely. Suddenly, Harry started to whine, and when Sirius asked what was wrong he told him, “Uncy Siwiwus, Misses Nowwis made Hawwy faww down and now Hawwy’s knee hawts. Misses Nowwis bad kittie.”

The first year students confirmed, that on their way down the cat had rushed just in front of Harry, so that he stumbled and fell on the hard stone floor.

Sirius rolled up Harry’s trousers, and with a wave of his wand he healed Harry’s bloody knee. “I see, little one. Mrs. Norris really was a prat today. So, what do you think? Shall we all play a prank on Mrs. Norris together?”

“Yes, let’s prank her!” the twins screamed immediately, while the three first year students threw their Defence against the Dark Arts professor an astonished glance.

Only an hour later, Sirius and the children managed to place a bucket at one of the ceilings, containing a mixture of ice and snow, which they made tumble down only onto the unfriendly cat. When Filch later complained to Poppy about what he assumed the boys had done to his precious cat, so that she had caught a cold, Poppy sent him to Sirius, who denied everything and told everyone that the children had behaved themselves very well. Later in the evening, when Poppy put Harry to bed and told him ‘good night,’ he finally admitted the truth to his Aunt Poppy and told her how much fun he had together with the Weasley children, Bill’s friends and his Uncle Siwiwus. Poppy threw him a loving smile. She didn’t like the cat either, who had already made her little boy cry several times.

-----

A few weeks later, after school had started again, Poppy and Aberforth had to leave the castle for a day. They had to attend a friend’s wedding. Poppy and Aberforth had considered taking Harry with them, but finally, for safety reasons, they decided to leave the child at Hogwarts. While teachers and students were in classes, Harry had to stay in the Headmaster’s office with his grandfather and Fawkes.

During the morning, Albus helped Harry do his Alphabet puzzle and played Legos with him until Harry tiredly climbed into his grandfather’s lap, yawning. Then Albus proceeded to read wizarding children’s stories to the boy until he noticed that the child’s breathing had evened; he was fast asleep. Realising that the boy was shivering, he put his grandson onto the sofa, which he enlarged a bit, so that Harry couldn’t fall off. Then he conjured a warm blanket, and tucked the child in, glad that Harry hadn’t woken up.

When Albus woke him up at lunchtime, Harry was very whiny. He somehow didn’t feel well, he wasn’t hungry, and he didn’t want to go to the Great Hall at all. “Pwease, Gwanddad, can Hawwy stay hewe? Hawwy not do anyfing, Hawwy just stay hewe and sweep,” he pleaded.

“But, Harry, you have to eat something, and I cannot leave you alone. However, as I am the Headmaster I have to attend lunch in the Great Hall.”

“Hawwy no want go. And Hawwy not awone, Fowks is hewe too.”

Albus sighed. “All right, my boy. I’ll send Aunt Minerva or Uncle Severus up to stay with you and eat together with you.”

Ten minutes later, Severus entered the office, seeing that Harry was lying on the sofa talking to Fawkes, who sat on the arm rest. He unobtrusively waved his wand over the boy to assess if something was wrong with him and held a phial of Pepper-up potion to Harry’s lips. The child obediently swallowed the liquid and threw him a grateful smile. Severus called a house elf and ordered lunch for the two of them. They ate their lunch and talked quietly, until Albus returned from the Great Hall. Before Severus had to go back for his afternoon classes, he promised Harry that he’d come and take him with him directly after his lessons.

Two hours later, Albus received an emergency call from the ministry and had to leave immediately. He asked Harry if he wanted to join Minerva or Severus in class, but the child insisted that he just wanted to stay where he was. Harry promised not to leave the office and obey Fawkes, whom Albus deemed fit to take care of the child for a while. He knew it would only be half an hour until Minerva had finished her last lesson and would come to entertain Harry until Severus arrived to collect the boy.

Harry proceeded to sit on the sofa, looking at his favourite books, while he cuddled his stuffed dragon. Suddenly he caught sight of the Sorting Hat, sitting on a shelf. He threw Fawkes a pleading glance. “Fowks, Hawwy want tawk to de Hat. Can you bwing down Hat hewe fow Hawwy, pwease?”

#You want to talk to the Sorting Hat?# Seeing Harry’s eager nod, Fawkes told him, #I don’t think that Albi wants me to bring the Hat down to you. Normally the Hat doesn’t talk to people except for Albi, his Minnie and me and for the first year students at the Welcoming Feast.#

“Oh, pwease, Fowks. I pwomise I won tell Gwanfava. Gwanny pwomised I can tawk to de Hat latew.”

Fawkes sighed inwardly. He knew that Albus wouldn’t appreciate it, but he just couldn’t resist the pleading of the cute child, and he knew very well that it wouldn’t be a problem for Harry to Accio the Hat by himself. Therefore, he flew up to the shelf, picked up the Hat and placed it on Harry’s head.

“Fank you, Fowks,” Harry shouted happily. “Hello Hat!” Suddenly a small voice penetrated his ear.

‘What do you want, little one? You’re much too small to be sorted. Moreover, I won’t be able to sort you anyway.’

‘What do you mean?’ Harry thought frantically. He knew that all students had been sorted by the Hat and belonged to their specific houses like Bill to Gryffindor or Amelia to Hufflepuff. ‘Can’t you sort me because I’m too small? Soon, I will be a student here, and then you’ll have to sort me. I know that!’ Harry ensured the Hat more self-confidently than he actually was.

‘I’m sorry, Harry, but it has nothing to do with your age. I just cannot sort you at all. Why are you so eager to be sorted? You already have access to all houses and have friends in all houses. So what’s your problem?’

Harry frowned. ‘I don’t have a problem,’ he thought. ‘However, I’d just like to know where you’d sort me. Why can’t I have what all the others have? Even my aunts and uncles here belonged to their houses when they were students.’

‘You’re Hogwarts’ child and belong to the castle herself and not to one specific house. I shall never sort you in one of the houses.’

With that, the Hat went quiet, and Harry silently started to cry. Fawkes quickly returned the Hat to the shelf, before he sat down next to Harry on the arm rest of the sofa and asked, #What happened, little one? What did he tell you?#

“He,” ‘sob’, “towd me dat he cannot sowt Hawwy,” ‘sob’, “and not cause Hawwy too smaww but cause Hawwy not bewong to a house.”

#Oh, that’s all right, little one. I understand. I know the reason, and he’s probably right. Once, I met a chick that was able to see many egg turns ahead and he told me about you. Stop crying. Remember, the old grumpy one mustn’t know that you talked to the Hat, and he will know if you continue to snivel.#

“Tupid Hat,” Harry wept before he went quiet.

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.

In the evening, all teachers who had remained at Hogwarts over the summer and Poppy sat together in Poppy’s office drinking tea as usual. Poppy sighed and – as everyone looked at her – she spoke up, “I know that you all like Harry very much and want to have him around all the time.” She sighed again. “However, Harry is missing his friends and is driving me crazy because he keeps asking me about the students every day. Moreover, he is starting doing mischief. Today, he has sneaked into Severus’ Potions lab and has turned it into a mess because he tried to make strawberry drops. Fortunately, he didn’t hurt himself. But nevertheless, I’ve decided to spend a few weeks at home with Aberforth and Harry.”

Everyone gasped, but Poppy continued, “You know that we’re connected to the internal Floo Network, so that it’s as easy to visit us there as it is here. In fact, I would like you to come over every evening as usual. It might be a bit inconvenient for everyone, but I believe that it would be the best for Harry to get away from the empty castle for a few weeks.”

Her colleagues more or less grudgingly agreed, and in the morning, Poppy and Aberforth took Harry to their home in Hogsmeade. At first, Harry seemed to be a bit sad to leave the castle, but when Poppy ensured him that they would be back long before the students returned, he agreed happily. After breakfast, which Harry had managed to convince Poppy and Aberforth to take in the Great Hall together with the other teachers, Poppy ushered Harry to the Floo in her office. Harry, however, refused to climb into the fireplace and insisted on walking down to Hogsmeade.

“Of course, we could walk, Harry, but why shouldn’t we take the Floo? It’s much faster,” Poppy said unbelievingly.

Harry played with his favourite green shirt’s top button that he could reach above the neck of his robes and looked down at the floor. He didn’t want to Floo because he had received small presents from all of the teachers, mostly sweets and books, which were hidden in his robe pockets, and he didn’t want to take the risk of breaking something in the Floo. He didn’t want to tell Poppy about his new treasures yet either.

When Harry didn’t give an answer, Poppy finally relented and took Harry by the hand to walk home. Later the same day, when Poppy had bathed Harry and sat down on the edge of his bed to read him a story, she tried once more to ask about his refusal to take the Floo.

“Sowwy, Aunt Poppy. Hawwy don wike Floo. And Hawwy got many pwesents fwom de teachers and Hawwy don wan to bweak dem in de Floo.” He jumped out of his bed and toddled over to where he had put his robe as soon as he had arrived in his own room. “I show you, Aunt Poppy, dey awe books and sweets.” He took the presents out of his pockets and showed everything to Poppy.

“Oh my, Harry. You have so many friends and such a huge family at Hogwarts; you are very lucky, aren’t you?” Poppy said, inwardly shaking her head about her colleagues. ‘I know that Harry is very cute, of course, but do they have to spoil him so much?’ she wondered silently, annoyed.

-----

During the next weeks, Poppy and Aberforth kept Harry busy. In the morning, Harry had to help Aberforth caring for Ginevra. When they were finished with their work, Harry proceeded to play with the goat, which he enjoyed very much.

One day, Harry returned to the house in search of Poppy, crying.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” she asked, taking the boy up into her arms. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” Harry sobbed. “You know, Aunt Poppy, befowe Hawwy shansh into goat and pway wif Sineba. Hawwy wan to become goat again to pway. But Hawwy don now how.”

Poppy gulped. “Oh. Now, when you transformed into a goat, you performed accidental magic, which you could do unconsciously because you were afraid that Ginevra would get hurt and wanted to protect her. However, this time, you want to transform willingly, which is very difficult and advanced magic, even for big students. You can try to imagine your goat form in front of your eyes and wish you were this goat. As you seem to be capable of wish magic, which is a very rare gift, it might work. But if you get tired, you must stop immediately. Can you promise me that?”

Harry looked into her face and confirmed, “Yes, Hawwy pwomise.” Very consoled and with a hopeful look on his face, he returned outside and tried again to transform into a goat. It took him the whole morning, but finally he managed the transformation due to his strong wish magic. However, instead of being able to play with his friend, he once more had to learn how to walk on four feet, which was nearly impossible as he was incredibly tired.

Aberforth, who had been watching the boy nearly all the time, came over to the two goats and suggested, “Harry, you’re probably exhausted from the transformation. Take a nap and then try to walk again.”

Harry complied and by the time Aberforth had to leave for work and Poppy called him into the house, he was able to run on his small legs after Ginevra, who of course was much bigger than him as she was a grown up goat.

In the afternoon, Poppy normally took Harry to the playground, where they often met with Susan Bones or the Weasley children. Severus had even managed to coax Draco’s mother into taking Draco there, so that he could play with Harry from time to time. Harry enjoyed the company of the other children very much and grew very close to his friends. However, he just couldn’t get along with Ron or Percy Weasley, which seemed to be a mutual feeling as the two boys always seemed to throw a temper tantrum when their mother suggested travelling to the playground to see Harry. Finally, Bill and Poppy managed to convince Mrs. Weasley to stay at home with the two boys and let Bill and his four younger siblings Floo over to Poppy’s home so that she could take the children to the playground, which was only a two-minutes’ walk from her home.

One day, even Mrs. Longbottom showed up with her grandson Neville. She introduced her grandson to Harry and his friends, and then told Poppy that Professor McGonagall had suggested meeting the children at the playground. Harry immediately liked Neville. He extended a hand and said, “gweat dat you awe hewe, come play togeda.”

He pulled Neville along to the other children and introduced them. “Evybone, dis is Neville. Neville, dis is Susan, de niece of Amelia, and dis is Dwaco, my bestest fwiend, and de funny twins and Sinny wif name like my goat fwiend, and Shawly, who likes dwagons. And dis is Bill, he aweady goes to Hogwawts.”

One day, it was raining all day, and Harry was very disappointed. During the last few weeks he had been able to meet with his friends on the playground every afternoon and he had gotten used to the routine.

“Aunt Poppy?”

“Yes, my dear?”

“We go tode playgwound inde wain?”

“No, Harry, we cannot go to the playground in such a rain, and I don’t think it will stop anytime today.”

Harry started to wail. “But Hawwy want play wif Dwaco, Susan, and Neville. Cannot go play today?”

Poppy sighed. “We can Floo-call them and invite them to come here, so that you can play with them in your room if you like,” she suggested.

Harry jumped over to her and threw his arms around her stomach. “Fank you, Aunt Poppy. Hawwy want dem come hewe and play hewe, please.”

Draco, Susan, and Neville, who didn’t have siblings either, were as eager as Harry to play with their friends, and were happy to join Harry at his home. One day, Poppy had Flooed over to Hogwarts and had brought Harry’s train set home, and the friends never got tired playing with it. They met nearly every day, either on the playground or in Harry’s room. Sometimes, they were joined by the Weasley kids, mainly when the weather was fine enough to meet outside. On the weekends, either Poppy and Aberforth or Severus took Harry out to different places throughout the country like Diagon Alley or to the zoo in London.

-----

One day, Poppy talked to the Hogwarts teachers about the children’s group when her colleagues came to visit them after dinner as they did every night. “Harry’s best friends are exactly the same age as Harry and the four of them have grown so close that it would be a pity if they couldn’t continue meeting on a regular basis once school starts again. Do you think there would be a chance for Harry to meet with his friends here at home or even at Hogwarts?”

After a short while of silence, Severus was the first to speak up. “Maybe we could form a children’s study group, first in form of a playschool and later as a primary school. There are so many unused classrooms that it shouldn’t be a problem to host such a group at Hogwarts.”

“Yes, Severus, I believe that’s a good idea,” Minerva admitted. “However, this study group should be open for all wizarding children. We could start with the class of Harry and his three friends, and according to the demand we could expand the group and if necessary even start more classes later. However, we need a full time teacher to play with the children and to start teaching them according to their age.”

“Perhaps we could ask Amelia Bones,” Poppy threw in. “Her niece, Susan, has told us that she started to work at the ministry but doesn’t like it at all. Maybe she would like to work at Hogwarts instead.”

“That’s a good idea,” Pomona agreed. “She was a very good student, and she got along with Harry very well.”

“As a few of you might know…” Filius Flitwick suddenly said, “…a friend of mine, Xenophilius Lovegood, has a daughter, and as far as I know she is about two and a half years old, so I think she is nearly the same age as Harry.” Everyone nodded, and Filius continued, “I believe it would be nice if Luna could join the group, too. Of course I have to talk to her parents first, but I know that they always regret that Luna doesn’t have any wizarding friends.”

“All right,” Minerva spoke again. “Then, perhaps, Filius, you could floo-call your friend. If they want Luna to play with Harry and his friends, she could come over to Poppy sometime in the afternoon when the children meet here. I’ll go back to Hogwarts now and stay at the Headmaster’s office so that Albus can Floo over. Please tell him about our plan, and if he agrees, we will discuss how to proceed tomorrow evening. Good night, everyone.” With this, Minerva stepped into the fireplace, from where Albus emerged a few minutes later.

Albus agreed to everything they had planned, and they decided to set up the Playschool group from September onwards. Moreover, if there were at least three interested children above the age of six, they would set up an additional Primary school group. Poppy suggested asking Mrs. Weasley if she would be interested in teaching this group, which would probably contain two of her children.

On the next day, Mr. Lovegood arrived at Poppy’s home, his daughter Luna in tow. Harry was just playing with Ginevra in his goat form, when Poppy guided the visitors into the garden. Fortunately, Harry had enough practise with the transformation so was able to change back immediately.

“Hello, Harry,” the strange man greeted him, staring in awe at the little boy. “You are only three years old and already an animagus!” he exclaimed unbelievingly.”

“Hello, Mistew. Hawwy still two yeaws old, but Hawwy twee next week,” Harry replied excitedly. He turned to the little girl that accompanied the man and said, “Hello, I’m Hawwy. You come to play wif me?”

“Hello, Harry. I Luna. Yes, can I play wit you?”

“Of couwse,” Harry beamed. “My fwiends come latew, too, and we play all togeder.”

Mr. Lovegood promised to pick Luna up before dinner and returned home, while Harry showed Luna his room. It was hard to set a foot into his room as the friends had built an entire town on the floor the previous day. Next to the rails they had set up Lego streets with bus stops, stations, a zoo, and whatever else they believed was essential to a town.

-----

Soon, it was time to plan Harry’s birthday. Poppy and her colleagues had decided to throw a birthday party at Hogwarts. Filius produced nine charmed invitation cards, which Harry, who had just taught himself to write his name in capital letters, proudly signed. Poppy sent the invitations out to Harry’s four friends and five of the Weasley children and then Harry eagerly awaited his friends’ answer.

‘I hope they will all come for my birthday,’ Harry thought and asked hesitantly, “Aunt Poppy, you tink Hawwy was vewwy mean not to invite Won fow my biwfday? Only Sinny, de twins, Shawly, and Bill?”

Poppy thought for a moment, amazed by Harry’s thoughtfulness. “That’s a difficult question, sweetie. On one hand, Ron might be sad that you didn’t invite him. However, on the other hand, it’s your birthday, so it’s up to you to invite the people you really like very much. If you don’t like him, you don’t have to invite him. But if you feel bad about this, I can Floo-call Mrs. Weasley and tell her that Ron and Percy may come as well.” She pulled Harry up onto her lap and put a kiss onto his forehead, while Harry slung his arms around her.

“Fank you, Aunt Poppy. Now I feel much bettew, not so mean anymowe,” he said, consoled. “Den please Floo-call dem, so dat Won won’t be sad.”

Fortunately, Harry’s friends were all able to attend his birthday party. Only Percy and Ron Weasley had outright refused to travel to Hogwarts for the party. Harry was so excited that he could hardly sleep the evening before his birthday. After he had left not only his bed but also his room for the fifth time to come over to the sitting room, where the teachers were having tea, and talked to his favourite aunts and uncles for a few minutes each, Poppy was fed up enough to give him a light sleeping draught. As soon as she had forced it down Harry’s throat, the small boy finally fell asleep. However, the excitement seemed to be stronger, and Harry woke up at three o’clock when Aberforth came to check on him before going to bed.

Too excited to sleep for even one moment longer, Harry silently got up and played with his train set until Poppy got up in the morning, surprised that Harry was already awake. “Have you been awake long, Harry?” she asked, astonished.

“Uncle Abewfowt woke Hawwy up,” Harry explained. “And den I wanted play wif my twain, so I geted up and played.”

Poppy groaned inwardly and decided she would have to force Harry to take a nap later. Otherwise he wouldn’t survive the day with all his friends coming over to Hogwarts and even staying for the night. She proceeded to wash Harry and dress him, before she got herself ready for the day. Then she asked the boy, “Harry, we’ll spend the day and the night in Hogwarts. All your friends are going to stay with you until tomorrow afternoon. Do you want to take any toys or books or anything with you?”

Harry gave her a short glance accompanied by an eager nod and dashed into his room. He emerged five minutes later with a huge plastic box he could hardly carry containing his train set and his stuffed dragon as well as his favourite book about Bob and the little dragon. With a flick of Poppy’s wand, the box was small enough to be put into Harry’s robe pocket, and Harry picked it up, amazed. As Poppy knew that Harry hated to floo, they walked up to the castle. During their walk, Harry remembered his last birthday.

“Aunt Poppy, de last time, dewe wea animals cawwying candles fow my bawthday. Will dewe be animals again?”

Poppy grinned. “Yes, Harry, probably there will be the same animals again. However, this time you have three candles to blow out, last year there were only two, right?”

Harry gave her a short nod. “Yes, Aunt Poppy, Hawwy is now a big boy, no mowe baby.”

All the teachers were seated around the dining table in the Great Hall, waiting for Harry to arrive. “Ah, there is our birthday boy,” Albus exclaimed when Harry and Poppy entered the Great Hall.

Harry rushed over to the table and spent the next ten minutes greeting everyone and sharing the latest news with his many aunts and uncles. Suddenly, Harry’s eyes fell onto the huge birthday cake. Last year, the cake had been in the shape of the castle. This year, however it looked just like the Hogwarts Express with several of carriages. Harry stared at the interesting cake, completely stunned. Suddenly, the three candles lit themselves, and Harry knew immediately that he would have to blow them out.

‘Okay, you’re very nice, and I like you so much, but unfortunately I have to ask you to go out,’ he thought eying the candles, and they extinguished immediately. Harry looked around and noticed his own chair between his granny and Uncle Severus. He stood behind his uncle, pulling his sleeve to get the man’s attention. When Severus turned, Harry held up both arms in order to let himself being picked up. Severus complied and put Harry into his seat. As soon as Harry was seated, everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ for the boy, before Albus clapped his hands and breakfast appeared on the table.

Then, the lights went off, and the Great Hall fell dark. Harry immediately scrambled off his chair, frantically climbing onto Severus’ lap. Severus held the small boy close, noticing that he was shivering with fright. Harry hated the dark. Before his eyes, a memory came to into his mind. A huge man was opening a door, picking up a small baby from the floor, shaking it and shouting violently. Harry silently started to cry, nestling deeper into Severus’ robes. Suddenly, the ghosts entered the Great Hall, flying over to the dining table.

“We are looking for the birthday boy.” The Bloody Baron was the first to speak.

“Then you’ll have to put the lights back on,” Severus returned harshly. “You’ve managed to scare the birthday boy so much that he is crying into my robes.”

“Oh, we are very sorry. We didn’t intend to scare him,” the Grey Lady replied, and instantly it became light again. “We just came to introduce ourselves to the boy. So far, we have kept our distance from him; however, we believe that he is old enough to get to know us.”

Severus quietly talked to Harry and managed to coax him into looking up at the friendly ghosts, which one after another introduced themselves to the small boy.

Harry didn’t know what to think. On one hand, they had frightened him very much by making the Hall so dark. However, on the other hand, each of the ghosts seemed to be very friendly, and some of them had even promised to help him whenever he needed help. In the end, Harry had the impression he had gained a few new friends who were permanent residents of the castle so he smiled shyly at the ghosts.

After breakfast, Minerva pulled her grandson over to the presents’ table. Harry received a lot of books, funny T-shirts, and a few puzzles and other toys, even several additions to his train set. However, the highlight of his presents was from Sirius: A scooter, which was – though a Muggle toy – charmed to glide up and down stairs. Sirius immediately showed the enthusiastic child how to ride the scooter, and Harry loved it immensely, completely unaware of the fed up faces of all other teachers, who thought it was dangerous for a three-year-old to fly up and down the huge stairs in the castle—stairs that could change directions, at will.

Finally, Severus, Sirius, and Remus accompanied the excited boy out of the Great Hall, so that he could try to ride his scooter in the huge empty halls of the castle. However, Harry was quite fast on his scooter and after two hours he was not the only one to be completely knackered. He moved in the direction of his own room, followed by the three teachers, waiting for them in front of the Hospital wing, and said, “Fank you, Uncle Sevewus, Siwiwus, and Wemus fow coming wif me. Now I’m tayed and I go fow nap. Byebye.”

The three teachers looked at each other, stunned. Finally, Severus noticed that Harry was fighting with the door, while he was pushing the scooter with one hand, and jumped to help the little tyke. He accompanied Harry to his room and put the scooter away for him, while Harry went straight to bed. Severus threw him a surprised glance and sat down on the edge of Harry’s bed. However, while Severus was still tucking him in, Harry had already drifted away. Severus threw up a warding spell that would notice him if the boy woke up or was in any danger. Then he returned to the Great Hall, where everyone was still drinking tea together.

Fortunately, Harry slept through until Poppy woke him up at three o’clock in the afternoon, just before his friends were supposed to come. All the teachers had worked together to have an interesting program for Harry and his guests and took turns entertaining the little ones.

In the evening, nine children were staying in sleeping bags, which Albus had conjured for them in Harry’s room. Everyone giggled when they turned in for the night. A few minutes later, Poppy, Minerva, and Pomona came and tucked everyone in carefully before they charmed the lights off. Because of the light that fell into the room from Poppy’s office the room wasn’t completely dark, and the children were much too excited to sleep. They decided to sit in Harry’s bed together, which was warm and cuddly with ten children on it, so that they could talk without being heard by the adults, whom they believed to be looming outside. During the next two hours, the twins entertained everyone with funny stories, until suddenly Severus entered the room.

Severus went over to Harry’s bed and said in a very calm, cold voice, “Go to your own beds immediately!”

Everyone jumped off Harry’s bed and struggled to get away from the menacing figure of the dark teacher. Harry had to try hard not to giggle. He knew his Uncle Severus too well to be frightened of him. After this incident, not a single whisper could be heard from the children.

In the morning, all of the children slept through breakfast until Poppy woke them up at ten o’clock. Poppy and Minerva helped the smaller children to wash up and dress and accompanied everyone to the Great Hall for a brunch. Afterwards, Sirius, Severus, and Remus took the children out onto the grounds in order to play a few games they had prepared. They had even conjured children’s brooms for everyone, so that the ten children could play an easy version of Quidditch together. The children seemed to enjoy themselves, especially Harry, who loved flying nearly as much as reading, which was his absolute favourite.

Later in the afternoon, the parents of Harry’s friends arrived. At first, Minerva, Albus, and Severus talked to the parents about their idea concerning a day time playschool and primary school in Hogwarts. All parents happily agreed to send their children to the respective classes, and Mrs. Weasley also immediately accepted the position as a teacher of the primary school.

-----

In the evening, Harry had successfully managed to convince Poppy to stay at Hogwarts for another night. Poppy had just put the boy to bed and tucked him in, when the fireplace in her office flared. She hurried over to the fireplace, unhappy to have to leave Harry alone as she normally sat on the edge of his bed until he was asleep. It was Molly Weasley, who seemed to be very upset.

“Hello, Molly, what’s wrong?” Poppy asked kindly.

“Oh, Poppy, could you come over for a moment and have a look at Charlie and Ginny?” Molly asked pleadingly and elaborated, “They seem to be ill. They have a strange rash all over their whole bodies, and I don’t know what it is. They could have given whatever they have to everyone else, too.”

Poppy sighed. She didn’t like that at all, especially as Harry’s heart was still a bit weak and he got sick easily. “All right,” she replied. “I have to ask one of the teachers to come here and stay with Harry first; afterwards I’ll come over immediately.”

She didn’t waste time, hurriedly Floo-calling Severus and telling him everything. A minute later, he stepped out of the fireplace, a worried expression on his face. Poppy picked up her bag and Flooed over to the Weasleys, where Molly was already eagerly waiting for her.

Poppy carefully examined Charlie and Ginny and turned to Molly with a very stern expression. “Take Charlie and Ginny to the Hospital wing in Hogwarts immediately. Afterwards get all your other children except for Ron and Percy as well. I will return to Hogwarts and call all other children with whom they were together during the last two days, too. They will all need to stay at Hogwarts for the next two weeks.”

Receiving a frightened nod from Molly, Poppy picked up Ginny and stepped into the fireplace shouting, “Hospital wing, Hogwarts.”

As soon as Poppy had put Ginny on a bed in the deserted Hospital wing, Molly stepped out of the fireplace, Charlie cuddled into her arms. “Poppy, please, tell me, what is it?” Molly asked worriedly, while she placed her son on the bed next to Ginny.

Poppy sighed and explained, “It is snake pox, which is not as harmless as chicken pox but quite dangerous like dragon pox. The only difference to dragon pox is that if you once get snake pox you’ll be immune to it for the rest of your life. As I have already had snake pox, I’ll be very well able to look after ten children, provided that they’ll all get sick, which will probably be the case but not necessarily. As the incubation time is two weeks, I suggest that you bring all the children here to stay for this time. Ron and Percy haven’t been together with them during the last two days, so they might be all right. Therefore, it’s better to separate them from the others. Here, everyone who is well enough can play together, and I can check on them every now and then in order to catch it quickly if they come down with it. The earlier this is noticed, the easier it is to counter.”

Poppy turned to Severus, who stood in the doorway of Harry’s room listening to her explanation. “Severus, I need the Draconis Sugillatio Potion and the Draconis Sedatio Salve. Can you brew them for me immediately?”

“Yes, of course, Poppy. The Potion will take three hours to brew, the Salve will take a few hours longer. Therefore, I’ll start immediately. I suppose you need more than just one batch?”

Poppy frowned. “Yes, Severus, probably. Have you had snake pox before, Severus?”

When Severus had given her a comforting nod and left, Poppy instructed Mrs. Weasley to return home, pack a few clothes for her children and prepare the children for the travel. In the meantime, she Floo-called Minerva, told her everything and instructed her to call the parents of Harry’s friends.

An hour later, Harry’s friends were all back at Hogwarts. In the meanwhile, Albus had once more conjured sleeping bags in Harry’s room as there was no need to let the healthy children sleep in hospital beds. When the teachers gathered in Poppy’s office later in the evening, she told them about the children’s illness and asked if everyone had definitely had snake pox before. Except for Pomona and Filius, everyone had already caught the illness and was therefore immune. Pomona and Filius quickly made up their minds and decided to leave the castle immediately to return to their families for an extended holiday.

-----

When Harry woke up in the morning, he was very confused but happy to see that all his friends had returned to Hogwarts so quickly. His friends were very surprised, too, as they had already been asleep when their mothers had brought them back to the castle. By the time, Poppy entered the room to check on them and wake them up, the children were already sitting on Harry’s bed together, talking animatedly. Poppy immediately explained what had happened and ordered them back to their sleeping bags, so that she could check on each of them.

During the next week nothing happened, and the eight children enjoyed being together at Hogwarts. They spent much time exploring the huge castle or pranking Mrs. Norris with Professor Black’s help. One day, however, Draco suddenly said, “Harry, I don’t feel well.”

Bill, who was the oldest among the friends and felt somehow responsible for the rest of their group, placed a hand on Draco’s forehead and confirmed, “Yes, you’re burning up. Harry, we have to take Draco to your Aunt Poppy immediately.” He tried to pick Draco up in order to carry him but soon noticed that Draco was too heavy for him.

“No, Bill, wait, he can wide on me,” Harry suddenly said and transformed into his goat form.

Bill helped Draco sit on Harry’s back, and Harry slowly carried Draco to the Hospital wing. During the next week, everyone else got sick, too. However, Severus’ potions worked so well that they felt much better after a few days, so that they could spend their time in the Hospital wing talking and playing together. Bill and Harry were the last ones to be allowed to get up, and when Molly arrived to take Bill home with her, he whispered to Harry, “No need to feel lonely, Harry. You know, I’ll come back in only two days.”

Harry threw him a grateful smile. Now, that he was finally able to do what he wanted, the castle felt so lonely after having all his friends around for nearly four weeks. He walked over to his room, contemplating what to do with his newfound freedom when suddenly someone entered his room. Harry gasped and…

“Amelia!” he shouted happily.

“Hello, Harry,” she replied. “I’ve heard that you were ill, and I wasn’t allowed to visit you, otherwise I’d have come earlier. But now, I’m living here at the castle, and I’ll be your playschool teacher when playschool starts the day after tomorrow.

-----

A few weeks ago, Minerva had Floo-called Amelia and she had happily agreed to teach the children at the daytime playschool at Hogwarts during the school year. Albus had already asked the house elves to prepare five unused classrooms, which were next to each other, for the children, one for lessons for the Primary School, one for lessons for the smaller children, one as a dining room, one playroom, and one recreation room, where the younger children could take a nap after lunch. The last room held a fireplace, which was not connected to the internal Floo system, and Albus promised to set it up so that it would only connect to the homes of the day school’s pupils.

While Mrs. Weasley would Floo home with her children every evening, Amelia would live in the castle. Albus had assigned her teacher’s quarters and invited her to stay at Hogwarts as the other teachers did.

The playschool and the primary school were both scheduled to begin on September 1st. The playschool class consisted of ten children: Harry, Draco, Susan, Luna, Neville, Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, and Blaise Zabini. The primary school had five pupils from the beginning: Charlie and Percy Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, Oliver Wood, and Blaise Zabini’s cousin Robert.

Harry was looking forward to the start of playschool. He was glad to be able to see all his friends again every day, and Amelia, whom he adored greatly, would be his teacher in the playschool. Moreover, the students were coming back too, and the castle would finally awake from her summer sleep.

-----

Finally, September 1 arrived. Harry’s first day at the playschool was fun. As Blaise was new to the group, at first everyone had to introduce themselves. Afterwards, Amelia occupied the children until lunchtime. She had divided the morning into small units of thirty minutes each, which they spent either in the classroom or in the playroom. In the classroom, she let the children draw pictures, learn the first letters of the alphabet, or do handicrafts. During the next thirty minutes, she let the children play with a ball, build something with Legos, or do gymnastics, until they returned to the classroom again.

At lunchtime, they joined the children of the Primary school class in the dining room, where they enjoyed the meal which the house elves had prepared for them. Mrs. Weasley and Amelia had their hands full looking after the enthusiastic children. After lunch, the younger children were supposed to take a nap in the recreation room, while the older children were allowed to play or read in the playroom until the start of the afternoon lessons.

-----

Unlike the other three-year-old children, who had fallen asleep immediately, Harry was much too excited to waste his time sleeping. On their way into the recreation room, he addressed the twins, who didn’t seem to be tired either. “Fwed, Hawwy’s not tiwed, don’t want to sleep. We do somefing togeder?”

The twins grinned at each other, before George replied, “All right, Harry. However, you have to lie down as if you were asleep to fool Mrs. Bones, so that she’ll leave the room. I heard her saying to my Mum that she’d join her in the dining room for a coffee as soon as we were asleep.”

Ten minutes later, Amelia seemed to be very pleased that everyone was asleep and left for the adjoining room, leaving the door ajar. Harry and the twins got up and quietly left the room. “What are we going to do now?” Fred asked, feverishly thinking of something to do.

“I know,” Harry replied, smirking. “We go pway in my woom?”

“No, that’s too dangerous. In order to get to your room, we have to cross the Hospital wing, and if your Aunt Poppy sees us she’ll tell Amelia or even worse, Mum,” George said, determined.

“But what is there to do in the castle without any toys or something?” Fred asked.

“I know. I can call ‘kippy, de elf. He can bwing us some of Hawwy’s toys. We play wif twain set?” As the two boys agreed immediately, Harry called Skippy, a house elf that seemed to care a lot about the boy. Until the Potters’ deaths, he had been a house elf of the Potter family, among others of course, but Skippy had always cared for Harry when he was a baby. Harry didn’t know this; however, he had talked to the elf a few times, and Skippy had told him to call him whenever he needed an elf’s help.

Skippy came immediately, and within minutes he had set up the train-set in a nearby alcove that was just the right size for the three boys to play in it. Before Skippy vanished again, Harry asked him to alert them a few minutes before the beginning of the afternoon classes, so that nobody would know they had escaped during their nap time. Skippy obliged and even put back the train set, so that the three boys were just back in their sleeping places, determined to sneak out again the next day, when Amelia re-entered the room in order to wake everyone up.

During the afternoon classes, which only lasted until three o’clock, Harry couldn’t help staring at the twins, giggling at the thought of their secret. He had a hard time concentrating on his lessons. When his friends returned home, Harry quickly hurried back to his room. He had just remembered that the students were going to return to the castle today and that Hagrid had promised to take him to the station.

When he entered Poppy’s office, she was already waiting for him. “Harry, I have to attend a teacher’s meeting in the staff room. Are you going to join me, or do you want to stay here all on your own?”

Harry threw his aunt an unsure glance. “Hawwy come wif you,” he finally said, a little hint of disappointment and tiredness in his voice. He already regretted that he hadn’t taken his nap after lunch, as he was slowly getting tired and his head was starting to hurt.

Poppy took in his pale face, asking, “Do you feel all right, Harry?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Harry replied a little too fast and held out his hand for Poppy.

Together, they walked down to the staff room, where the teachers’ meeting had just begun. Harry settled down on Poppy’s lap, tiredly leaning his head back into her robes, not noticing the astonished look everyone threw at the small boy, who so far had hardly showed any sign of tiredness during the day. The meeting went on for quite a while, and by the time Hagrid had to leave, Harry was fast asleep.

“Now, Poppy, shall I wake the li’l one? Promised to take him down te ‘ogsmeade today,” Hagrid addressed the Healer.

Poppy shook her head. “No, sorry, Hagrid, but I suppose it would be better to let him sleep. Maybe he’s still suffering a bit from the aftermath of his illness.” She turned to Amelia. “Was Harry all right in the playschool?”

“Yes,” Amelia answered. “He seemed to enjoy himself greatly. However, the children aren’t used to going to school, and they all slept during their naptime until I woke them up. It must have been very tiring for everyone.”

Harry didn’t wake up until everyone rose in order to go to the Great Hall, where the students were supposed to arrive during the next half hour. After his nap, he felt much better, and the excitement about the students’ return came back full force. When Poppy and the other teachers turned to enter the Great Hall, Harry ran in the other direction, turning to the huge Entrance Doors. Before Poppy could call him back, Severus took the boy’s little hand and after a short talk to Poppy, who insisted on putting a warm coat around Harry, which Minerva had just conjured, he pulled the small boy out of the castle.

Very excitedly, Harry walked down the road to Hogsmeade next to his Uncle Severus. Half way down the road he stopped walking and stood in front of Severus, lifting both hands up to him and said, “up, pwease.”

Seeing that the small boy was tired again, Severus lifted him up and sat him onto his shoulders, before he continued his walk. When they reached the station, the students had just arrived and were boarding the carriages, which took them up to the castle. However, when they spotted the stern teacher with the small child on his shoulders, many students came over to them to greet Harry, who was happily waving at them. However, when some students invited him to get into the carriage together, Harry declined, insisting on staying with Severus. Finally, Severus and Harry got into the last carriage together with two Slytherin prefects.

-----

When everyone but the first years was seated in the Great Hall, Minerva brought the Sorting Hat in. Harry, who was sitting on his chair between Poppy and Severus stiffened. “It’s all right,” Severus whispered, noticing how uncomfortable Harry seemed to feel. “You don’t have to talk to him today.”

Harry gave him a grateful look and mumbled something like ‘stoopid Hat’ that forced Poppy to give him a curious glance. The Sorting seemed to last forever, and Harry tiredly leaned into Poppy’s robes. When the Hat finally went quiet, Harry was already fast asleep, and Poppy decided to skip dinner and put Harry to bed – first days of school were definitely tiring, especially for such a little tyke.

-----

The next few weeks went by quickly. Harry enjoyed every day – he loved his playschool very much, and he was glad that the students were back as it was so interesting to spend time together with them.

So far, nobody had noticed that Harry and the twins escaped during their nap time nearly every day. Most times, they asked Skippy to bring them something to play and contentedly played in the nearby alcove. Recently however, they had discovered that it was much more fun to walk around the castle, exploring passages they didn’t know yet. The halls were mostly empty at that time as all students were gathered in the Great Hall for lunch.

One day, the twins threw him a huge smile.

“You know, Harry…” Fred started.

“During the holidays…”

“We overheard Bill…”

“Talking to our mum…”

“About you…”

“And your wish magic,” they finally finished their sentence.

Harry blushed a little and gave them a hesitate glance.

“Anyway,” George started to speak again. “We thought if you could wish something and it became real, it would be great to play pranks.”

“Pwanks?” Harry asked horrified. He didn’t play pranks; he was a good boy.

“Yes, of course; don’t you remember pranking Mrs. Norris a few times?”

Harry’s features slowly changed to a huge smile. “Oh, yes, we can pwank de bad kittie!”

During the next few days, the three kids spent their napping time searching for the caretaker’s cat. Finally, they found her roaming the halls. The children hid in an alcove, and Harry wished her fur to become a neon bright colour, sensing it as the magic left his body. Afterwards, they returned to their recreation room immediately, so that Harry, who had become very tired after using wish magic, still could take a small nap.

In the evening of the same day, Harry was allowed to have dinner at the Gryffindor table, where he sat next to Bill and his friend Tom. “Have you seen Mrs. Norris today, Harry?” Tom asked him. “Somebody played a prank on her, and she looks great.”

Harry smiled innocently and nodded. However, when Bill told them that he had overheard Mr. Filch complaining to the Headmaster as nobody had seen the students, who had played the prank on his cat, Harry just couldn’t stop giggling.

“Harry? Do you by chance know anything about this?” Bill asked suspiciously.

“Bill, can you come to Hawwy’s woom aftew dinnew, please?” Harry asked back and tried to think about something else in order to be able to stop laughing.

After dinner, Bill accompanied Harry to his room, before any of the teachers could forbid him to do so as Harry had to go to bed immediately after dinner. Only on Friday and Saturday evenings, was Harry allowed to stay up longer and even visit the common rooms. On Saturday evenings, Poppy sometimes even allowed him to sleep over in the House where he was spending the evening.

When the two boys reached Harry’s room, Harry quietly began to talk. “You pwomise to tell nobody? De twins and Hawwy played pwank on Mrs. Nowwis,” he admitted to the older boy, who had to laugh too. The thought of the caretaker’s cat, whom none of the students liked, being pranked by a three-year-old and two five-year-olds… it was too funny.

“I am sorry, Mr. Weasley, but Harry has to go to bed,” Poppy suddenly interrupted their conversation, and Bill said ‘Good night’ to Harry, retreating from his room immediately.

As soon as the twins arrived in the morning, Harry cornered them and told them about the efficiency of their prank, which the whole school had laughed about. They decided on the spot to try to prank the cat again after lunch.

-----

During the next weeks, poor Mrs. Norris was pranked every second day except for the weekends. As hard as Mr. Filch tried to corner the culprit the three boys remained unnoticed. However, one day in November, Harry used too much magic trying to transfigure Mrs. Norris into a mouse. He managed the transfiguration but fell unconscious right afterwards. The twins threw each other a horrified look until Fred said firmly, “Skippy!”

The house elf appeared immediately, taking in Harry’s unconscious form. He had known what the boys had been doing all this time as they sometimes asked for his help in order to know where Mrs. Norris was and as he had to alert them when it was time to return to their recreation room every day. He knew immediately that Harry had used too much magic but otherwise was fine. “Skippy wills take Harry to the recreations rooms and puts him in his bed,” he told the twins and disappeared together with Harry.

When Amelia came into the room to wake everyone up, she couldn’t rouse Harry, who in the meantime had gone from unconsciousness into a deep sleep. “Hmm, I cannot wake him. Shall I just let him sleep, or should I get Poppy to look after him?” she asked, more to herself than to the children.

However, the twins replied together, “Just let him sleep for a while. Maybe he didn’t sleep well last night.”

Finally, the class was finished for the day, but Harry was still asleep. After the other children had returned home, Mrs. Weasley ushered her children into the fireplace to go home as well. However, the twins refused to return home and begged their mother to leave them at Hogwarts so that they could be together with Harry for a while. Amelia agreed to look after them and take them home later, so Mrs. Weasley grudgingly agreed. As soon as their mother had left, the twins told Amelia the whole story and what was wrong with Harry.

“So you have been fooling me for more than two months?” Amelia asked sternly, before she proceeded to Floo-call Poppy, who came over to look after Harry immediately. Hearing the whole story, she was very angry at Harry – not because they had pranked Mrs. Norris but because of disobeying Amelia and for depleting his magic for a prank.

Harry didn’t wake up until lunchtime the next day. Poppy was at his bedside immediately, looking at him with a very stern expression, before she scolded the still tired boy and told him that he would be grounded for two weeks.

“I’m sowwy, Aunt Poppy,” Harry whispered, horrified that he had angered his aunt so much. “Please, don’t send me back,” he started to beg, while large tears ran down his little cheeks.

“Where would I send you back?” she asked confused, not understanding what the child was implying.

“To my Aunt Tunia and Uncle Vewnon,” Harry murmured.

Poppy took in the terrified expression on his face and his hands that had started to shake badly. She leaned over to him and took his hands in hers. “Harry, look at me please.”

When he complied and slowly averted his glance from his blanket up to her face, she continued, “Harry, I will never send you back there. Whatever you do, you are my son now, and I love you very much. I will never send you away. Do you understand me?”

Harry gave her a short nod, looking very comforted. “Sowwy, Aunt Poppy.”

“You already apologized to me, Harry. However, you’ll have to apologize to Amelia for fooling her all this time. Do you feel up to attending classes this afternoon?”

Harry slightly shook his head. He was still tired, and his head hurt, and everything had just been too much of a shock for his three-year-old mind. He closed his eyes and slept a few hours more. When he woke up again, Amelia was sitting on the edge of his bed. Poppy had told her how horrified Harry had been when she talked to him. Therefore, Amelia talked to the small boy in a very quiet voice and told him that she wasn’t angry at him but that she expected him to obey in the future. Seconds later, she held a sobbing Harry in her arms, who repeatedly apologized.

“Now, Harry, your Aunt Poppy told me that you’re grounded for two weeks, so you cannot eat dinner in the Great Hall. What do you think; shall we have dinner here, together?”

“Yes, please,” Harry mumbled, before he whispered, “what means gwounded?”

“Oh, Harry, grounded means that you are only allowed to go to classes but have to return to your room at any other times. You’re probably not allowed to meet with the students or go out onto the grounds,” Amelia explained. “Maybe you won’t even be allowed to attend the Halloween feast.”

Harry didn’t say anything more but closed his eyes. He was ashamed for being such a bad boy, and he was very sad about being punished at the same time.

-----

It was a few days later, when some of the teachers were having tea in Poppy’s office in the evening, that Harry suddenly shouted in his dream. “Tapp! No, I want my Tapp back!”

Before any of the stunned teachers could move, Severus rushed over to Harry’s bedside and sat down on the edge of his bed, seeing that the small boy was wide-awake, sobbing fiercely. He took the boy in his arms and asked, “What’s wrong, little one? Did you have a bad dream?”

Harry buried his head into Severus’ robes and mumbled, “No bad dweam, good dweam. I seed my Tapp in my dweam. Whewe is he? Did he died togedew wif Mummy and Daddy?”

Severus carefully stroked the boys back in circles and asked softly, “Who is Tapp, Harry?”

“Hawwy’s teddy,” the child wailed.

Suddenly, Severus remembered something. “Oh, is he the teddy you held in your arm when the bad man attacked you? The one I could see in your memory of that night?”

He felt more than saw that Harry was nodding his head. Seeing that the other teachers had followed him into Harry’s room and were standing behind him, Severus addressed Minerva. “Do you know if the boy had something like a teddy with him when Albus took him to the Dursleys?”

Minerva sadly shook her head. “No, he didn’t have anything except for the blanket he was wrapped in.”

“So there is a small chance that Harry’s teddy could still be in the house and unharmed, correct?” Severus asked again.

“As far as I know, only Albus went into the house. He got rid of Voldemort’s body and rescued Harry. Later, the Aurors entered the house to look for the bodies. But they wouldn’t have taken a teddy bear,” Remus added.

“All right,” Severus resumed, looking over at Poppy pleadingly. “Then we will go to the ruins tomorrow and have a look if your Tapp is still there. Shall we do that, Harry, hmm?”

“Oh, yes, please, Uncle Sevewus. We go for my Tapp!” the small boy shouted excitedly.

“Oh, Harry,” Poppy entreated, stepping nearer to the child. “Don’t get your hopes up too much. Maybe you won’t find it, especially as the house was partially destroyed that night. But you can go and have a look if you want.”

“Hawwy want,” the child insisted. “Fank you, Uncle Sevewus,” he added and placed a sloppy kiss on the man’s cheek, before he put a thumb into his mouth and nestled deeper into his uncle’s robes, falling asleep instantly.

-----

As the next day was a Saturday, Severus decided to leave immediately after breakfast. From the Great Hall, he went up to Harry’s room, and after a short talk with Poppy, who pointed out that the child was still grounded and was therefore not allowed any special treats like ice-cream or such, Severus and Harry left directly from the nursery with a Portkey.

Fortunately, Poppy had spent quite some time in the morning talking to Harry about what had happened on Halloween two years ago and about what he should expect the house to look like. Nevertheless, it was a bit of a shock for the boy when he approached the ruin with Severus. Before they entered what remained of the house, Severus waved his wand to assess the condition of the building. Finally, he put his wand away and gave Harry a confirming nod, thinking it should be safe enough for them to explore the house.

The two took their time, looking in every room and collecting several things, which either Harry wanted to take with him or Severus thought it would be wise to take them so that Harry could have them later like James’ Quidditch trophy or Lily’s diary.

After searching through the ground floor for nearly two hours, Severus suddenly noticed that Harry wasn’t around anymore. He had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t noticed that the boy had probably made his way up to the second Floor in order to look for his Tapp. Guiltily, Severus stepped up the stairs and entered the nursery, where he froze.

Harry had climbed into his crib and was fast asleep, holding his Tapp tightly in his arms, a small smile playing on his face.

Severus sat down next to the crib on the Floor and put both hands over his face, fighting against the tears that were welling in his eyes. Everything was so horrible; things he had been trying to forget for two years, emotions he had been pushing away during this time – everything had just come back at the sight of this house. In fact, Severus had loved Lily. However, as a Death Eater, he hadn’t been able to have a relationship with her. It would have endangered her too much. He had remained good friends with Lily until she married Potter, but his feelings for the only woman he had ever loved hadn’t changed.

At first, he had hated Harry, because the boy was the symbol of what Severus saw as Lily’s betrayal. Of course, she hadn’t betrayed him as they had never had anything together except for Severus’ feelings towards her, but to him it had felt like a betrayal when she married Potter. Somehow though, the little boy had managed to wiggle his way straight into Severus’ heart, and now, as he had learned to know and love the boy, he reminded him of Lily every single day. In spite of his looking like James, he behaved exactly like his mother.

When he had seen Harry’s memory of the fateful Halloween last year, he had gotten his hopes up beyond reason. Irrationally, he had hoped that maybe Lily wasn’t dead. But where was she? He was sure that if Lily was alive, she would’ve come to look for Harry and maybe even for himself, now that the Dark Lord and James were both dead. However, until now, Lily hadn’t made an appearance. Perhaps, the spell hadn’t sent her to a different place but to a different time? ‘Oh, Lily, please come back. I’d do anything just to see you again,’ he thought, not caring about holding back his tears any more.

He sat there, crying, for quite a while, glad that Harry was fast asleep. ‘Oh, I’m getting sentimental. How could I have even had the idea to bring the boy to this place? I must be going mad,’ he finally concluded, trying to compose himself before he proceeded to wake Harry up.

“Harry,” he gently called the child. “You have to wake up. If we don’t go back to the castle, Aunt Poppy will be worried about you. We’ve already been here for several hours.”

Harry lazily opened his eyes, happy to see his uncle standing next to him. However… “Awe you sad, Uncle Sevewus?” he asked softly. When his uncle gave him a short nod, he continued, “Hawwy’s sad too. Want my mummy back.”

“Yes, Harry,” Severus said, hardly able to hold back the tears this time. “I know. I want your mummy back, too. I love your mummy very much, just like I love you, little one.”

Harry stumbled onto his feet and extended both hands to Severus. “Up!”

Severus gave him a sad smile and pulled the boy up. Thin arms curled around his neck. Severus extended a hand and picked up the teddy bear. “Now, Harry, I believe you have to introduce someone to me. Is this by chance, Tapp?”

“Yes,” Harry replied, laughing. “Dis is Tapp! Tapp, dis is my bestest uncle, Uncle Sevewus.” ‘He is my new daddy, but I’m not ‘loud to call him dat’, he added in his thoughts. He threw a glance at Severus’ face. “Do you fink Aunt Poppy will be sad if I take Tapp home wif me? Because Harry don’t only cuddle wif de dwagon but also wif Tapp?”

Severus couldn’t help laughing at the child’s innocent logic. “No, Harry, Aunt Poppy won’t mind you bringing Tapp back home. She will be very happy for you, and you have two hands anyway; you can take Tapp in one and the dragon in the other hand and cuddle with both of them, right?”

Harry gave him a satisfied look, and Severus activated the Portkey that took them back straight into Harry’s room at Hogwarts.

The instant they arrived at Harry’s room, Harry took off in search of Poppy, Tapp safely tucked in his arm. “Aunt Poppy, Aunt Poppy! Look, dis is Tapp! Tapp, dis is Aunt Poppy. Aunt Poppy, I’m hungwy.”

Severus, who had followed the boy, addressed Poppy. “Sorry, Poppy, that it took us so long. However, we used the opportunity to search the house for anything useful for Harry and brought several things with us. Harry also took a nap in his baby crib. But we haven’t eaten lunch yet. Would you mind me taking Harry to my quarters for lunch?”

Poppy glanced speculatively at the two faces in front of her, noticing that neither of them were their usual selves. “Yes, Severus, you may take Harry with you. I know that he still should be grounded, but I believe that both of you need the company of each other today.”

Severus threw her a grateful smile. “Thanks Poppy.” She was one of the very few people who knew about his feelings for Lily.

-----

On the last Saturday in November, the first Quidditch match of the school year took place. Gryffindor had to play against Slytherin, and Harry was really looking forward to the game. His friend Bill had managed to get on the Gryffindor house team as chaser, and Harry had a few friends on the Slytherin team as well.

On the day of the match, the weather was fine. However, it was very cold. Harry sat on Poppy’s lap, huddled in a warm blanket. Minerva and Severus were sitting on either side of him.

“Now, listen, Harry,” Minerva said sternly. “If you see the Snitch, keep quiet. Don’t tell the players – they have to find the Snitch themselves.”

“Alwight, Gwanny. Hawwy won’t help de students,” Harry promised sincerely, and he kept his promise although he spotted the Snitch just a few minutes into the game.

The two seekers apparently hadn’t seen Harry’s favourite golden ball, and the game continued for two hours until finally, the Slytherin seeker caught the Snitch.

“Harry seed de Snitch much eawliew,” Harry announced on Poppy’s lap, and everyone laughed.

-----

So far, Harry had enjoyed playschool very much. However, at the beginning of December, he started to cry every morning when Poppy accompanied him to the classroom. On the first day, Poppy and Amelia thought he hadn’t slept well and was tired, on the second day, they supposed he might be getting sick, but on the third day, they knew that they needed to have a talk with the child.

“Harry, what’s wrong?” Poppy asked Harry on their way to the playschool the next morning.

“Hawwy don’t want to go to lessuns.”

“Why not, Harry? You want to be together with all your friends, don’t you?”

“Hmmm. Yes, but Hawwy don’t want to take nap. Hawwy’s not a baby, and Hawwy’s not tiwad, but Amelia always makes Hawwy lie down and dat’s vewy bowing fow Hawwy.”

Poppy laughed. “So that’s your problem? That you have to take a nap?” she asked, unbelievingly. She was relieved though that it seemed to be such a simple problem. “That’s why you didn’t want to attend playschool during the last couple of days?”

“Yes,” Harry confirmed, giving his aunt a pleading glance.

“Do all the other children sleep during that time?” Poppy asked, knowing that Harry had abandoned napping during the day months ago.

“The twins don’t sleep too, but evybone else sleep.”

“All right, Harry. I will talk to Amelia, and we’ll find a way so that you can occupy yourself quietly within the room. All right?”

“Yes, fank you, Aunt Poppy,” Harry said and gave her a slight hug, before he happily entered the classroom, while Poppy went over to Amelia for a short talk.

Together with Mrs. Weasley, the three witches decided to give the children who didn’t want to take a nap the opportunity to sit somewhere and quietly read books. Poppy immediately called a house elf, and when the children entered the room after lunch, everything was prepared accordingly. In a corner of the room, there were a few comfortable looking chairs, and the area was equipped with a small book shelf containing many children’s books. Seeing the books, Harry was delighted.

At first, everyone wanted to sit and read. However, when Amelia threatened that they wouldn’t be allowed to read books anymore instead of a napping if they fell asleep in their afternoon lessons, everyone except for Harry and the twins went right to bed.

One day, Fred discovered a book with an animal Christmas story. “George, Harry, look,” he whispered excitedly. “Shall we read this together? Now, I’m the rabbit, George, you’re the fox, and Harry, you’re the owl. Ooops, Harry, can you read already?”

George and Harry laughed. “I can only wead a little,” Harry whispered. “But I want to wead stowy togedew wif you.”

Noticing that they still needed a narrator, Harry quietly went over to where Amelia was drinking coffee with Mrs. Weasley and whispered, “Amelia, could you please help us wead a stowy?”

“Yes, of course,” Amelia replied, and although Harry still needed a lot of help reading, the four of them somehow managed to read the whole story, which the children loved immediately. “Very good. You did that really well, especially Harry. I didn’t know that you could already read.”

Harry’s eyes twinkled happily. “Amelia, you know, Hawwy like books vewy much and now Hawwy like wead stowy vewy much.”

Amelia was so proud of the children that she suggested that they read the whole story once more in front of all the other children. As it was a Christmas story, it fit very well anyway. Their friends were impressed and loved the story, too.

-----

Two weeks later, the Christmas holidays started. Harry was very disappointed that there was no playschool during the holidays, especially as Poppy had come down with a bad case of flu and wasn’t able to spend the whole time with him. She had managed to stay on her feet until the students returned home for the holidays. However, as soon as the students were gone, Aberforth and Severus forced her to go to bed, and Minerva promised that they would take turns looking after Harry.

Severus, Remus, Sirius, and Minerva did their best to entertain Harry during this time. On the first day, Sirius and Remus took Harry outside for a snowball fight and even helped Harry build a huge snowman directly on the spot that could be seen from the nursery window, so that Poppy could look at it when she came to kiss Harry good night, which she did every evening.

On the second day, Severus took Harry for a daytrip to Cologne in Germany. It was quite far, especially for side-along Apparation. However, Severus wanted to show Harry the beautiful Christmas market that Lily and he had once visited together several years ago. And he noticed immediately that it had been worth the effort. Harry looked in awe at the beautiful ornaments and lights everywhere and was fascinated by the many wooden booths, which were selling many more items than he could have imagined; he didn’t even know there was such a variety of things. Everything was decorated gorgeously. For lunch, they had potato pancakes with apple puree, which Harry enjoyed immensely.

During dinner in the Great Hall, Harry entertained everyone with stories about the stunning Christmas market in Cologne, which inevitably led the teachers to ask Severus why he had thought about going there in the first place. Severus groaned inwardly. He should have placed a spell on the boy so that he wouldn’t have been able to talk about it. As Harry loved speaking he was always talking about everything under the sun, so Severus should have foreseen this little problem. In fact, Lily’s parents had participated in a bus tour exactly to this very market and had told their daughter. Lily had convinced Severus to Apparate there for a day. But of course, he didn’t want everyone present to know this background story.

“I’ll tell you tonight,” he promised Minerva and stood up to put Harry to bed, who had fallen asleep in his dinner.

-----

On the third day of the holidays, it was Minerva’s turn to look after Harry. As it was snowing heavily, she decided to spend some time in her quarters and suggested to Harry that he might like to draw some pictures, which he could give to his aunts and uncles for Christmas.

“Yes, maybe I should make somefing fow Uncle Siwius,” Harry replied seriously. Seeing Minerva’s questioning look, he added, “Santa only bwing pwesents to good boys and mans. Uncle Siwius hasn’t been good, just like Hawwy. Hawwy won’t get a Chwistmas pwesent too.”

“Oh, my sweetie, what have you done that was so bad that you won’t get a Christmas present?” Minerva asked half astonished, half curious.

Harry averted his eyes to the Floor, before he admitted in a very small voice, “I have pwanked Mrs. Nowwis many times.”

Minerva gasped. “That was you?!”

Harry gave her a slight nod, noticing that his grandmother didn’t seem too upset about this revelation. “Together wif twins,” he added quietly.

“All right, Harry. Of course that was very naughty, but I don’t think that this will be bad enough that Santa won’t bring you any presents,” Minerva said calmly, trying hard not to let Harry see an expression that clearly said ‘congratulations for a few very good pranks on the f… cat.’

In the end, Minerva did convince Harry to draw small Christmas presents for everyone. Harry, who was not very talented at drawing, did his best to draw several pictures of Santa giving presents to someone sitting in front of a Christmas tree. When he had finished drawing a picture, he looked at it until the people on it began to move and their eyes twinkled like his own.

Minerva had to stifle a laugh when she noticed that the person receiving the gift always seemed to be the person who the picture was for. With much imagination, she could even recognize herself in one of the pictures.

-----

After dinner, Severus bathed Harry and put him to bed as he did every evening. Then he read Harry a story and handed the little boy a book to read until Poppy came to tuck him in and switch the lights off. In the meantime, he went over to Poppy’s room to check on her and feed her the necessary potions as she couldn’t use magic on herself, and as a Potions Master he had certain amount of knowledge about Healing.

This evening, he returned to Harry’s room with a very stern face and sat down on the edge of Harry’s bed. When the small boy smiled at him he said, “I’m sorry, Harry, but Aunt Poppy is very ill tonight, and she cannot come to kiss you good night. Will you be a very big boy tonight and go to sleep after being tucked in by me, so that you can help Aunt Poppy?”

“Of couwse,” Harry answered immediately. “Hawwy is big boy, and Hawwy can awleady help Aunt Poppy.” He leaned back tiredly and let Severus tuck him in. “Fank you, Uncle Sevewus. Good night,” he mumbled around the little thumb that was stuck in his mouth.

However, during the night, Harry didn’t sleep very well. He missed his Aunt Poppy so badly, and now Uncle Severus had told him that she was even too ill to come to him. Would she die like his first mum had died? Harry cried himself to sleep but woke up again after a nightmare.

Finally, he climbed out of his bed and walked over into Aunt Poppy’s and Uncle Aberforth’s room. He climbed up into the bed and snuggled close to his aunt, putting his arms around her. Then he tried to send all his magic through his hands over to his Aunt Poppy in order to help her as he had promised Uncle Severus.

In the morning, Poppy was the first to wake up. She noticed immediately that Harry was fast asleep in her arms and groaned inwardly. No Pepper-up Potion would prevent the delicate child from getting the flu after spending the night in her arms while she was so sick. At that moment, Severus entered the room, astonished to see Poppy awake. He immediately waved his wand over his colleague and let out a huge gasp.

“What’s wrong?” Poppy asked astonished.

“How are you feeling?” he returned, waving his wand around Harry this time.

“Actually, I feel fine. I don’t feel ill any more, just a bit tired,” Poppy answered, surprised.

“Yes, my scan told me that you’re completely healed. And I suppose that was Harry’s doing. He has totally depleted his magic. Maybe he has efficiently healed you with his wish magic.”

“Oh no! And now he will probably get the flu because he came to help me. I noticed that he came to my bed, but I felt too ill to throw him out, and Aberforth still wasn’t here when he came. You know how much energy you need to fight against Harry’s wishes.”

“It’s all right, Poppy. Don’t worry about it now. We can only wait and see what happens. I suggest that you still spend the day in bed together with your son and rest. I’ll come and check on you again later.”

Harry slept until late in the afternoon. The next day was Christmas Eve, and for a while, Harry watched the teachers decorating the Great Hall for Christmas. Poppy and Severus had had a long talk with him in the morning, and they had forbidden him to do any magic at least until the end of the holidays. Therefore, Harry sat on the Floor of the Great Hall watching, which he found very boring. He wanted to do something, too.

Finally, he walked back home, looking for Poppy, and glad that she was up and about again. He spent the remaining day helping Poppy check her Potions cabinet and making a list of all potions she needed for the next term, so that Severus could brew them in time. Harry was very proud to be able to help, and Poppy was glad to have a little help.

On Christmas morning, Harry woke up very early. Remembering something that Uncle Sirius had told him the evening before, he jumped off his bed, went to the bathroom, struggled to pull his green robes over his pyjamas and ran through the Hospital wing into the empty halls of the hibernating castle.

Harry ran down the halls and quietly entered Sirius’ and Remus’ quarters, which he could do because he knew the Healer’s password that guaranteed entrance to all doors within Hogwarts. The two teachers had invited him to come down before breakfast, and Poppy had even approved of it, provided that he would join them for breakfast in the Great Hall. Harry spent a few minutes thinking about how to prank the two teachers when he remembered that he wasn’t allowed to do any magic. He sighed and proceeded to climb onto Sirius’ bed, starting to jump up and down.

“Go’way!” his uncle bellowed, and Harry jumped off the bed in fright, glancing anxiously at his uncle.

“Hey, little one, what are you doing here?” Sirius then asked a lot friendlier now after he had recognized Harry.

“Um… you told me come hewe and wake you up,” Harry replied in a very small voice. “I’m sowwy,” he added quietly, shivering a bit in the cold bedroom.

“All right, Harry. So, how shall we wake up Remus? What do you think about some water in his face?”

Harry giggled. “I would like dat. But will Santa bwing pwesents fow us if we pwank Uncle Wemus, ‘pecially on Chwismas Day?” he asked worriedly.

Sirius laughed. “Yes, Harry, you don’t have to worry about that. You’re a very good boy, and I’m sure you’ll get lots of presents.”

“Okay,” Harry admitted. “Den it’s all wight.”

Poor Remus woke up under a shower of ice-cold water, and during the next twenty minutes Harry found himself under a tickle attack. Finally, they managed to attend breakfast in the Great Hall in time. However, Harry wasn’t hungry at all. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the beautiful Christmas tree and the decorations in the Great Hall. The evening before, he had called Skippy and handed him the pictures he had painted, so that Skippy could wrap them and put them under the Christmas tree. Where could they be? He tried to look for any presents shaped like his pictures were but couldn’t spot them as there were too many presents piled under the tree.

“Aren’t you eating anything, Harry?” Minerva asked, giving him a concerned glance.

“Oh, um… when can we open pwesents?” Harry quickly diverted the attention from himself and was allowed to go looking for presents.

Aberforth pulled him over to the Christmas tree and told him to look if he could see a present, which had his name on it. Harry took a dive under the tree and pulled all presents to him that he could reach. He carefully read out the names and handed each present out to the right person, as in the meantime, everyone had joined them.

Harry received about a dozen books, crayons, sweets, a Playmobil zoo with a lot of animals, and an annual ticket for the Scottish Sealife Centre, a huge aquarium that Poppy had taken him to one weekend. And he received ice skates. Not knowing what they were, he threw a curious glance around, before Sirius proceeded to explain what they were and promised to take Harry out to the lake to skate directly after opening the presents.

“Yes, you may go,” Poppy confirmed after Harry had given her a pleading look. “However, you have to put him into warm clothes,” she told Sirius, giving him a stern glance.

Sirius and Remus took Harry back to their quarters, where they both changed into warm clothes, before Remus started to conjure warm clothes for Harry, while Sirius tried to adjust the skates to the exact size of Harry’s feet.

“No, Moony, that doesn’t work. The little rascal is moving too much; can you take him up on your lap for a moment, please,” Sirius said, annoyed by the task.

Remus took Harry onto his lap, noticing that his skin felt very warm to the touch. “Are you all right, Harry? You seem to be a bit warm.” He threw an unsure glance at Sirius.

“Do you feel well?” Sirius asked, too, glancing at Harry’s face, observing that his eyes were unusually bright.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Harry confirmed, not wanting them to know that, in fact, he didn’t feel very good. There was no way he was going to miss the adventure of skating on the lake.

“All right, then. Let’s get you into the clothes Uncle Moony has conjured, and we can go,” Sirius suggested.

“No, Padfoot, I’m not sure,” Remus hesitated, feeling Harry’s forehead. “Harry, before we go out, I want Aunt Poppy or Uncle Severus to take your temperature and check on you.”

“No!” Harry shouted. “I want go now! Don want see Aunt Poppy ow Uncle Sevewus befowe!”

Sirius looked at Remus, astonished. This was very different from Harry’s normal behaviour. “No, Harry. It won’t take long, and if everything is all right, we will go out immediately. Now, whom do you want me to call, Aunt Poppy or Uncle Severus?” Sirius asked, slowly getting impatient.

Harry didn’t answer but proceeded to throw a temper tantrum, crying, shouting, and kicking around, until Remus said in a very stern voice, “All right, we will stay here until you behave and let one of them check on you. We won’t go out like this.”

With this, Harry calmed down a little, settled down on the sofa, and pulled one of his new books out of his robes, starting to read. It took a few minutes until the stunned teachers managed to avert their eyes from Harry, proceeding to helplessly glance at each other.

“All right,” Sirius said and pulled off his warm clothes, motioning Remus to do the same, before he went into the bathroom only to return with a Muggle thermometer in his hands. “Now, Harry, you will open your mouth and let me take your temperature the Muggle way, otherwise I’m going to stun you to keep you still,” he threatened the boy grimly.

Harry threw Sirius a frightened glance and obediently opened his mouth. “Buk I’m hime, gon wan ko…” he started to talk around the thermometer, shutting up immediately when Sirius pointed his wand at him.

In Harry’s opinion, it took ages to take the temperature as Poppy always got the reading in an instant using her wand. “40.3!” Sirius shouted. “How can you tell us you’re fine when you have such a fever?”

“I’m sowwy,” the boy whispered anxiously, shivering.

“It’s all right; it’s not your fault that you’re ill. I’ll take you back to your room, and Sirius will alert Poppy so that she can look after you,” Remus said soothingly, taking the child up in his arms.

-----

“Yes, it’s the flu,” Poppy confirmed after checking on the child. “In fact, I had expected that he would become ill because he spent a whole night in my arms when I was ill, and he is extremely delicate. Fortunately, it’s still the holidays, Harry, so you won’t miss anything at school.”

Harry was very ill for a few days, and even when playschool started again on January 2, Harry was still not back to normal. However, he insisted on attending classes. He’d never admit that he still wasn’t well enough. But he couldn’t resist the urge to willingly lie down for a nap after lunch, sign enough for the teachers to know that he was still far from his usual self.

Two weeks later, Harry was finally back to normal and kept pestering Sirius and Remus about when they were finally going to go skating. They promised to take him on Saturday morning after breakfast, which they, in fact, did – in front of the whole school. Word had gone around quickly that little Harry was trying to do his first steps on the ice, and many students had come to either watch from the shore or to skate, too. It was so much fun for everyone that Sirius felt inclined to organize a skating party for Sunday afternoon – for the whole school to actively participate.

The party was a huge success. Professor McGonagall had held an instant Transfiguration lesson after breakfast in the Great Hall, where she had helped all interested students transfigure tissues into skates, so that everyone was able to attend the party. The house elves had prepared a table on the ice, where they provided hot tea and biscuits for the skaters. And one of the Slytherin second year students, Colm O’Neill who possessed a magical camera, took a lot of funny pictures of the event.

Harry had tried to convince Aunt Poppy and Uncle Severus to come onto the ice with him, but Poppy had insisted that she had to stay away from the lake in order to be there for those who broke bones on the ice or fell ill. She also insisted that Severus had to be careful because she needed his potions. However, Severus couldn’t stand seeing Harry so disappointed. Therefore, he quickly conjured skates and strode over to Harry, who was so glad that he fulfilled a quick toddler’s dance on the ice, finally landing on his backside. In order not to anger Poppy too much, Severus only stayed for a few minutes – enough for the Slytherin second year to shoot a brilliant photograph of his Head of House and the little boy.

At dinner, Colm handed Harry a few photos, which he had taken at the party, and Harry thanked him enthusiastically. The one with Severus holding Harry’s hand he liked so much that he begged Poppy to enlarge it and put it onto the wall in his room.

-----

A few weeks later, it was time for the Hufflepuff – Gryffindor Quidditch match. As usual, Harry sat in Poppy’s lap, Minerva on his left, Severus on the right side, eagerly waiting for the game to start.

“Do you remember what I told you before the last game?” Minerva asked the little boy, tickling him from the side.

“Yes,” Harry replied, giggling and squirming, “I’m not loud to look for de Snitch and if I find it akidenty, I must be quiet.”

“Accidentally,” Minerva corrected the child, smiling. “Of course you may look for the Snitch, and when you’ve found it, you can tell one of us and we record the time. Then, at the next game you can try to find the Snitch faster than this time. Isn’t that a nice game?”

“Yes!” Harry yelled excitedly. “Das a nice game, fanks, Gwanny!”

“Now, Harry, sit down quietly. You’ll hurt Aunt Poppy, moving up and down on her lap like this,” Severus scolded the energized boy.

Harry immediately got up and climbed onto Severus’ lap, before he turned to Poppy. “I’m sowwy, Aunt Poppy. I didn’t want hawt you.”

“It’s all right, my sweetie, you didn’t hurt me. Now, look, the game is going to start.”

It took Harry exactly thirteen minutes to spot the Snitch. He quietly pointed out the golden ball to Severus, who had to admit that Harry really seemed to have good Seeker qualities. The Gryffindor Seeker needed exactly 87 minutes longer to catch the Snitch.

“Congratulations, Harry,” Poppy said, smiling.

“Why?” Severus asked, smirking. “What does Harry have to do with a Gryffindor Quidditch victory?”

Poppy calmingly laid a hand on his shoulder and explained, “Nothing, Severus. However, Harry is supposed to stay in Gryffindor House overnight, and I can imagine that it will be much more pleasant now that they have won the match as it would be if they had lost.”

An instant later, Bill and Tom came over to them, Harry in tow. “Aunt Poppy, can I go to Gwyffindowe wif dem immedaty?” Harry asked, excitedly jumping up and down.

“Calm down, first, Harry. And yes, you may go. However, you have to ask one of your friends to accompany you to your room so that you can get your pyjamas and whatever else you need for the night,” Poppy reminded him.

“It’s all right. Harry can stay in the common room, and I will collect his things and bring them into the tower later in the evening. I want to go and look after him anyway,” Minerva suddenly joined in the conversation.

Harry threw her a huge smile and shouted, “Fank you, Gwanny,” before he rushed into the castle, followed by two surprised Gryffindor second year students.

-----

The victory party was loud and funny. However, nobody offered butterbeer to Harry, and the students, especially the girls, fawned over the small boy as usual. At a certain stage in the evening, a huge commotion started. All students from the third year onwards began to take orders from the smaller students.

When Harry asked the girls, who were sitting on the sofa beside him, what it was about, he was told that the next day was a Hogsmeade day, on which the older students were allowed to go to the town. However, the first and second year students couldn’t go although they wanted to buy many things because it was Valentine’s day on Tuesday. Therefore, they asked the older students to buy things for them.

“Sowwy, but what’s Baltine day?” Harry asked timidly, getting even more confused when the girls started to laugh.

“Sorry for laughing, Harry. On Valentine’s day, boys give presents to the girls they like, and girls give presents to the boys,” one of the second year girls explained.

“Do you have a girl you like, Harry?” one of the older girls asked curiously.

Harry wrinkled his forehead, thinking intensively. Of course he liked Aunt Poppy and Granny, but were they ‘girls’? And he liked Susan and Amelia, Ginny, and Luna. “Yes,” he answered simply.

“How about you draw a nice picture for her?” the fifth years’ prefect suggested.

Harry liked this idea immediately and happily agreed. As soon as the girls had supplied him with parchment and crayons, he started to draw six pictures. From the girls’ conversation, he had understood that girls seemed to like flowers. Therefore, he drew pretty, colourful flowers on the six parchments, finally writing the recipient’s name on top of each drawing. He had just finished the last picture, when his grandmother stepped through the portrait hole in order to put him to bed.

“Gwanny!” he shouted excitedly. “Look, what I have drawed fow you!” Everyone laughed, when he added, “fow Baltine day.”

“For Valentine’s day,” one of the first year girls repeated for her Head of House.

“Oh, Harry, this is beautiful. Thank you.” Minerva commended the boy, taking the parchment from him. Then she turned to the students. “Now, have you already decided where Harry is going to sleep tonight?”

“Yes,” the fifth year prefect spoke up. “The last three times he has spent the night together with the first, second and third years. So, today he should stay in the fourth years’ dormitory.”

“Hey, and what about the boys’ dormitories?” Bill’s friend Tom asked in an upset tone.

“Oh, yes, I know. Next year, he can stay in the boys’ dormitories,” the fifth year countered.

Minerva frowned. “Harry, are you all right with their plan, or do you have someone with whom you want to stay tonight?”

Harry threw her a tired smile. “No, I like ebyone. I can stay ebywhewe. No pwoblem.”

Minerva threw him a proud glance. “All right, Harry. Then we will do as Miss Jones suggested and take you to the fourth years’ dormitory. Okay?”

Harry nodded, glad to be able to go to bed soon. He lazily got up from the sofa, stood in front of his grandmother and held both arms up in order to be picked up.

Minerva snorted but nevertheless picked the boy up and carried him into the bathroom, where she helped him to change into pyjamas, to brush his teeth, and to wash his face. Therese Jones, who had in the meantime sent the fourth years’ girls up into their dormitory, followed them quickly and also assisted as Harry was too tired to be of any help. He finally fell asleep even before they had left the bathroom, and the next thing he knew he was being woken up for breakfast.

-----

On Tuesday morning, Harry busily distributed his five drawings to Poppy, Amelia, Susan, Luna, and Ginny. “Dis is fow you, fow Balitine Day,” he said, throwing a proud glance on his drawings.

“Oh, tank you so, Hawwy,” Luna said. “I like snowdwops bewy much.”

“What are snowdops?” Susan asked curiously.

“Snowdrops they are called. Look at these flowers here, Susan. They are snowdrops,” Amelia answered patiently, pointing to the picture in front of Susan.

Ginny put her picture on the table and gave Harry a quick hug, before she placed a sloppy kiss on his cheek.

The rest of the day, Harry felt very happy to have been able to give nice presents to the girls he liked most. Of course, there were many girls among the students, whom he liked a lot. He let out a tired sigh, waiting for Poppy or Severus to come and read a story to him.

-----

For Harry, the next months passed very fast. He was always busy attending playschool, spending time with teachers or students after school, staying in the different common rooms on Friday and Saturday evenings, and spending Sundays with Poppy or the other teachers.

At the end of May, the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw Quidditch match took place. As Poppy had to remain in the Hospital wing in order to look after a few sick students, Harry was sitting on Severus’ lap, Minerva and Remus at each side of them.

“Remember, Harry, you’ll have to be quiet, if you see the Snitch, even if the seekers are much slower than you,” Minerva warned the enthusiastic little boy once more. “And when you spot the Snitch tell Severus or me for the record. The last time, you saw the Snitch in the thirteenth minute,” she reminded her grandson.

“Yes, Gwanny. I won’t help de students, I pwomise,” Harry replied sincerely. “And I will tell you or Uncle Sevewus when I see de Snitch.” He couldn’t imagine anything more interesting in a Quidditch match than to look for the beautiful golden Snitch. This time, it took him nearly half an hour until he had spotted his favourite ball for the first time, but the seekers seemed to have missed it, and the game went on for more than two hours.

Suddenly, Bill was hit by a Bludger, lost his balance and the grip on his broom, and tumbled down to the ground.

“BILL!” Harry shouted, terrified.

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.

Inside the envelope, Harry found a parchment, which read “Voucher for a week’s travel to the sea.” The small boy looked at the parchment, confused. He had no clue what this meant.

“Harry, my boy,” Albus addressed the child and explained that all of them were going to take Harry for a holiday at the seaside for a week, from the day after tomorrow onwards.

“Harry, I know you can’t yet understand what we’re going to do, but believe me you will like it very much,” Minerva assured the boy who seemed uncertain about the whole thing.

“Harry, we’re going to have lots of fun, and we’re going to teach you swimming,” Sirius beamed.

“And, Harry, they have a huge aquarium there just like the Sealife Centre, which you know so well. However, it’s much larger and they have many huge fish in there,” Severus provided, causing Harry’s eyes to twinkle happily.

-----

After breakfast, Harry helped Poppy and Skippy to prepare a huge pizza for his birthday dinner. Afterwards, he sat down on the sofa together with Poppy, looking at the catalogue of the place they were going to travel to. Finally, his friends arrived and helped Harry to get rid of the remaining cake before Harry could unwrap his presents. Nearly everyone gave Harry a book for his birthday, and the boy was very happy to have something to read he didn’t already know by heart. To his great astonishment, the teachers, who returned to join them for dinner, gave him presents, too.

“Uncle Sevewus?” he asked the man hesitantly, who was the first to hand him a wrapped box, “You all alweady gived me my pwesent!”

Severus laughed. “Yes, Harry, that was a present from all of us together. But nevertheless, everyone wants to give you something small, which will be useful for our travel.”

Harry received many summer outfits, sun glasses, two pairs of swimming trunks, a book about tropical fish, toys to play in the sand, and a dark blue bathing towel with a green dragon on it that was moving around, roaring from time to time.

The pizza was a huge success. Most of the children had never tasted pizza, and everyone liked it immediately. When Poppy told his friends that Harry had helped make it, he felt very proud, happily munching on his pizza. Of course, he remembered, he was four now, so he really was a big boy. Just like last year, Harry’s friends were allowed to stay in Harry’s room overnight, and the kids enjoyed the evening very much. They sat together on the carpet, joking and talking, quickly jumping back into their sleeping bags when a creak on the stairs alerted them to one of the adults coming.

In the morning, they were so excited and loud that Poppy sent them outside to play on the grounds, so that Aberforth could sleep a little longer. To everyone’s amazement, Harry transformed into his goat form, running after Ginevra. Ginny, who was still two years old, toddled over to goat Harry and said, “Sinny wikes Hawwy goat vewwy much,” throwing her arms around the goat’s throat. A few minutes later, Harry changed back to his human form, throwing Ginny a huge smile.

“Do you want to wide on my back, Sinny?” he invited the little girl, whose eyes lit up with joy.

Bill lifted his small sister and sat her down on Harry’s back, who had already transformed again, and Harry carefully trotted around the grounds with Ginny on his back.

-----

In the morning, Poppy woke Harry up very early. They got ready and Aberforth motioned him to take Tapp and his dragon or whatever he wanted to take with him. Then, they walked up to Hogwarts, where they had breakfast with everyone else. Afterwards, everyone had to hold on to a large, inflatable crocodile that Albus had turned into a Portkey. With a sudden pull on Harry’s navel, the world started to spin around, and suddenly Harry found himself landing on a beach together with the adults.

Harry glanced around, discovering the huge ocean. Before anyone could even think about looking after the boy, the child hurried over to the water. Seeing that there were many children walking barefoot through the shallow water he didn’t hesitate pulling off his shoes and socks, joining the other children in the water, squealing happily. He didn’t notice that Poppy had discovered his absence and everyone was frantically looking for him. Only when he felt himself getting soaking wet he remembered being together with his aunts and uncles and hurriedly ran over the beach. However, he couldn’t find the others. ‘Where are they?’ Harry wondered, anxiously looking around. Finally, he sat down where he was, shivering and sobbing.

When he remembered that it was always warmer under the thick goat’s fur, he transformed into his goat form. In his panic to find his aunts and uncles, Harry didn’t even notice the excitement on the beach when people saw a goat trotting around. Only a few boys tried to chase him, and Harry fled hysterically. Finally, Uncle Severus’ voice penetrated his ear. “Harry, change back immediately.”

Harry complied, and Severus gripped his arms. “What do you think you are doing?” he asked angrily. “Fortunately, this is a magical resort, so people are used to magic. But they are definitely not used to goats running around their beach! And how come you are soaking wet? Did you run into the water all on your own? Where are your socks and shoes?”

Harry stood there, crying and sneezing. How could he have been so stupid? “I’m sowwy, Uncle Sevewus,” he wept. “I didn’t fink, and I’m so cold. Can you make me dwy, please?” he asked, shivering, and threw his uncle a pleading glance.

With a flick of his wand, Harry’s clothes were dry again. Severus picked Harry up and put him onto his shoulders before he returned to the spot on which they had previously arrived where they had agreed to meet every ten minutes until the child was found. Harry didn’t know that he had be gone for more than an hour but seeing the worried faces of the other adults made him hide his head in Severus’ hair. However, Severus was too angry to let the child hide from the others and put the boy down immediately before he placed two light smacks on Harry’s backside. When the child began to wail, he said sternly, “Harry, that did not hurt.”

“You spanke me!” Harry cried flabbergasted. “I’m sorry!”

Severus nodded gravely, trying to hide a smile behind a menacing expression. “What you did was very bad, and I don’t want to know what Granny and Aunt Poppy are going to do with you.” He turned to the adults and said, “He left his shoes and socks down near the water. I’m going to get them.”

When Severus returned, the group walked over to the hotel, where they had booked an apartment for the week. The adults had yet to scold Harry but they had come to a silent agreement to wait until they were settled down in their rooms. Harry was silently trailing along, dreading the coming talk. He was given the talk by Poppy, Minerva, and Severus.

“Harry, do you know why we are very angry with you?” Poppy asked the child.

“Because I ran ‘way without telling someone,” Harry answered quietly, averting his eyes to the carpet, which obviously had an interesting design.

“Is that all?” Severus asked, trying to keep his anger at bay. He had been so worried when he couldn’t find the child. Did the boy really not understand what he had done?

“And I went into the water all alone,” Harry said in a small voice.

“That was extremely dangerous, Harry, especially as you’re not able to swim!” Minerva voiced, glaring daggers at her grandson.

“I’m sowwy,” Harry said, sneezing a few times.

“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve caught a cold again!” Poppy said exasperated, glaring at Harry.

“When I found him he was wet all over,” Severus told his colleagues and pulled a phial with children’s Pepper-up Potion out of his robes’ pocket, handing it to Harry. “Here, drink this.”

Harry gulped down the Potion and frowned at the steam coming out of his ears.

“You will only go into the water when Aunt Poppy, Granny, or I are with you. Do you understand that?” Severus asked sternly.

“Yes, I understand. I can only go in the water together wif you, Granny, or Aunt Poppy,” the child repeated obediently.

“All right, Harry, today we won’t punish you. However, if you ever think about doing such a stunt again, you will be grounded for the rest of the holidays,” Poppy told him firmly.

“Yes, Aunt Poppy,” Harry replied, trying hard to hold back his tears.

“Now, let’s go and have a look at the rest of the apartment before we meet the others in the dining room for lunch,” Minerva suggested. The apartment consisted of a huge living room, a dining room, where house elves served the meals, several sleeping rooms for one or two people, as well as two bathrooms. When they finally arrived in the dining room, everyone was already sitting around the table, waiting for them.

-----

During the next few days, the teachers took turns looking after Harry. Normally, everyone spent the morning together on the beach. On the second day of their stay at the resort, Harry became friends with a girl, who was the same age, Mandy Brocklehurst. The girl was very witty, and the two children had much fun together building sandcastles and playing together. Sometimes, Poppy, Minerva, or Mandy’s parents even took them down to the water, so that the children could play in the water for a while.

In the afternoon when it was too warm to stay on the beach, one of the teachers took Harry to the huge aquarium that was only a ten minute’s walk away. Harry just loved the place where he could watch hundreds of different fish. Depending on her parents’ plans for the afternoon, Mandy was even allowed to accompany Harry. The adults were very glad that Harry had found a friend with whom he could play instead of spending the whole holidays only on his own or together with adults. Albus and Minerva had even talked to Mandy’s parents about the Playschool at Hogwarts, and her parents had on the spot decided to send Mandy there from the coming school year onwards. Harry was very happy about it. As Mandy was exactly his age, she would definitely be in the same school year when they finally entered Hogwarts and he loved having a lot of friends.

Every day before breakfast and before dinner, Severus accompanied Harry into the water in order to teach the boy how to swim. When the week was over, Harry was in fact able to swim. ‘Maybe I could practise in the lake at Hogwarts when we returned home. That would be nice,’ he thought.

Harry didn’t have his own room in the apartment but stayed with Poppy and Aberforth. However, after the second day he had started to sleep over at Severus’, Sirius’, or Remus’ place. Once, he also stayed with his grandparents. When it was Sirius’ turn to take the little tyke for the night, Sirius thought of something special. He woke the boy up at midnight and took him out to the beach in order to let him watch the glow-worms playing above the water. At first, Harry was very tired but after being out in the cold night air for a few minutes he slowly woke up enough to look at the many glow-worms in awe.

“They are very pretty,” he told the man whom he knew to be his godfather. After sitting down on the beach for a while, Harry asked, “Uncle Siwius, can we go swimming?”

Sirius glanced around. There were quite a lot of people enjoying the night at the sea. “If you want to go swimming, we can. Just take your pyjamas off. It’s so dark that it doesn’t matter.”

It only took Harry a minute to tear his pyjamas off his body. Completely naked, he happily held out a hand to Sirius, and together they entered the sea. “Now show me that you can swim,” Sirius told the child, and Harry tried to do what Severus had taught him during the last days.

He managed to swim a few strokes, but then a wave came, pulling him a little further, and when he looked back he couldn’t see Sirius anymore. Getting very frightened, Harry ran out of the water. It was so dark that he still couldn’t see his uncle. He searched for a while but then he became afraid that something had happened to his godfather. Therefore, he ran as fast as he could back to the hotel and entered their apartment. He was wet and cold but he couldn’t even think about his chattering teeth; he only thought about the fact that he had lost Sirius, who might be in trouble and need help. Therefore, he ran straight into Severus’ room, waking up his uncle.

“Uncle Sevewus, you must come and help Uncle Siwius. I lost him and a huge wave came and I couldn’t see him anymore,” Harry wailed.

Severus cast a Lumos charm, taking in the child’s wet form. He was even completely naked. “Harry,” Severus said flabbergasted. “Where did you come from? What have you been doing? And what happened?”

Between sobs, Harry tried to recount the story once more. Severus couldn’t comprehend everything the boy was telling but he understood enough to know that Sirius must still be outside, probably looking for Harry and that Harry’s pyjamas had been left on the beach. He quickly cast a drying spell over Harry, conjured pyjamas for him, and put the boy into his own bed, tucking him in carefully. “Don’t worry,” he told the child. “I’m going to look for Sirius.” With this, he left his room, heading for the beach with gritted teeth. Arriving at the beach, he cast, “Accio Harry’s pyjamas,” in order to summon Harry’s night wear. Then he started to look for Sirius near the edge of the water. Finally, he found the man, who was frantically looking for his godson. Severus could hardly keep himself from casting a dark curse on the mutt.

“What do you think you were doing bringing Harry down here and letting him swim in the sea during the night all on his own, you stupid, irresponsible mutt?” he shouted.

“I didn’t leave him on his own. He just wanted to show me how he can swim,” Sirius defended himself.

“And do you know how it ended? Was he pulled away by a wave larger than himself?”

“Obviously he must have returned, otherwise you wouldn’t know,” Sirius said smugly.

“You incompetent, flea-ridden mutt! Did your brain cease to function? Did you not think of the consequences that might have occurred? Don’t you dare put Harry in so much danger ever again or you will deeply regret it,” he hissed between clenched teeth, before he turned back in the direction of the hotel, his black robes billowing behind him.

In the morning, Harry woke up with a bad cold and had to stay a day in the apartment in spite of drinking a phial of Pepper-up Potion. While Harry was asleep, Severus told his colleagues about the nightly happenings. Everyone was enraged, and Sirius was ordered to apologize to Harry and to be very careful with the small boy in the future. Sirius sighed, knowing that it would need much more than just an excuse for Harry to forget and forgive. The boy would need time to do so. Finally, Harry had two more days to enjoy their holidays in order to forget what had frightened him so much.

-----

Two weeks after they had returned from their beach holiday, the students returned to Hogwarts. Nymphadora Tonks and Charlie Weasley, who had attended the Primary school last year, were now starting Hogwarts, and Harry was looking forward to being able to see more of them as he liked both of them very much. While Nymphadora was sorted into Hufflepuff, Charlie became a Gryffindor like his brother Bill.

Seeing the Sorting Hat at the Welcoming Feast, Harry threw him an angry look. He hadn’t yet forgotten what the Hat had told him twenty months ago, and whenever he had the opportunity to speak to Fawkes, he had been discussing this matter with the phoenix. However, neither Fawkes nor Severus, with whom Harry had talked about the matter too, could give him the explanation, which Harry wanted so badly. Harry suddenly thought of someone, who perhaps would be able to help him understand what the Hat had meant. He decided to speak with the Grey Lady. If anyone knew anything about this matter, it would be her, and when he met her during the holidays she had been very friendly to him and had invited him to come to her office in order to talk with her any time.

A few days later, he had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Ravenclaw. When he returned home from the Playschool, Poppy was very busy tending to sick students and Harry went straight over to his room where he called Raby. The house elf appeared immediately.

“Hello,” Harry said shyly. “I like to speak with the Gwey Lady. Can you take me to her?”

The house elf gave him a confirming answer and gripped the boy’s hand, Apparating them both away. Harry didn’t like the feeling of being Apparated by a house elf, which was much more rapid than being Apparated by a wizard as he had experienced it with Severus or Poppy several times. However, at least the elf had brought him straight into Rowena’s office.

“Hello, Harry,” the ghost said, obviously pleased with having a visitor. “What can I do for you?”

“Hello, Mrs. Ravenclaw,” Harry said hesitantly. “I’m sorry to disturb you but I have a question.” He told the ghost everything about his encounter with the Sorting Hat, and the Grey Lady remained pensive for a moment.

Finally, she said, “I know that you are not only my heir but the heir of three houses – at least at the moment. It might change in the future. However, you don’t have to worry; you will definitely become a Hogwarts student in a few years’ time. And later in the future, I can see you especially attached to Ravenclaw and Slytherin.”

Harry let out an astonished gasp.

“However, you cannot be sure if the things that I see in the future will truly become reality, the future can take a very different turn. All predictions are uncertain. Don’t forget this, my boy,” the Grey Lady continued firmly.

Only a few weeks later, the events in the castle showed how true the vagueness of her prediction was.

-----

It was a weekend at the beginning of October. As Poppy had to attend a training course at St. Mungo’s over the weekend and wouldn’t even return for the night, Harry was staying in Gryffindor tower overnight. He had spent a joyful evening in the Common room, and apart from Bill and Tom especially Charlie and his friends had played a lot with the four-year-old. For them it was the first time to have Harry stay in Gryffindor and they even decided to take the small boy with them to their dormitory when he became tired. Harry didn’t mind at all as the first-years were all very friendly to him, and Charlie even allowed him to sleep in his bed.

However, Harry had just lain down and Charlie had tucked him in, when one of Charlie’s roommates, of whom Harry didn’t know the name, came over and started to ask him questions.

“Are you really the ‘boy who lived’?”

“Don’know,” Harry said tiredly.

“But you have killed You-Know-Who, haven’t you?” the other boy insisted.

With this, Harry’s hands began to shake and he stumbled, “No, I didn’t killed anyone.”

“Now, stop it, Robert,” Charlie shouted angrily. “Let Harry be. He was a baby at that time, and he doesn’t know anything about it. Now, go to your own bed, and if I hear or see you pestering Harry once more, I’m going to get Professor McGonagall.”

Fortunately, the other boy gave in and went over to his own bed. Unfortunately for Harry, this little conversation triggered something in Harry’s mind that led the small boy to having a nightmare about the night his parents died. Harry woke up during the night, very frightened from his nightmare and sobbing quietly. He noticed that Charlie and the other boys were fast asleep and decided to return home. However, when he had dragged his feet down to the Common room, he remembered that Aunt Poppy wasn’t there tonight. What should he do now? As he didn’t know if Uncle Aberforth was already back from work he decided to go to stay at Uncle Severus’ quarters for the rest of the night.

However, the child was so tired that the way to the dungeons seemed much too far for his little legs, and when he passed in front of the quarters where his uncles Sirius and Remus lived he changed his mind. They would talk to him and take his fear away, so that he could sleep until the morning. He mumbled the Healer’s password to the Portrait and quietly entered the living room.

-----

Sirius suddenly woke up when the wards of the quarters he shared with Remus alerted him to the fact that someone had entered their quarters. Remembering that it was the night of the full moon he got up, frantically thinking, ‘Moony,’ and rushed over into the living room, where he felt as if he had come to watch a nightmare. His best friend in the form of a full-grown wolf was lying on the floor, fast asleep, while Harry, the little tyke, was curling up next to him, frantically clinging to his shoulder.

When Harry entered the living room of his uncles’ quarters, he saw a wolf, and his first thought was to turn around and flee. However, something like an invisible power pulled him towards the wolf and made him grip one of its shoulders. Without knowing what exactly he was doing, Harry felt the urge to send his Healing magic into his hands and push it out, over to the obviously ill animal that was lying here.

He couldn’t sense if it was enough magic, but he felt that it had to be a lot of magic in order to work at all. So he pushed himself as far as he could. Shortly before Harry passed out, Remus was transformed back into his human form, waking up with the transformation. Before then, he hadn’t even noticed Harry’s presence as he had been fast asleep. “Harry?” he asked, turning to the unconscious boy.

“Leave him, Moony, he’s unconscious. He seems to have healed you, or at least he has forced you to turn back into your human form.”

“Sirius, get Poppy immediately. What was Harry doing here in the first place?”

Sirius shook his head. “No, Moony, Poppy’s away for the night. What can we do for Harry?”

Remus, too weak to stand up at the moment, crawled over to the fireplace and Floo-called Severus, asking the angry man to come over immediately. Severus was outright shocked to see Remus in his human form despite it being the night of the full moon. However, he was even more taken aback to see an unconscious Harry lying on the floor.

“What happened here?” he shouted angrily. “Have you put Harry into danger again?” He glared daggers at Sirius and Remus.

“Severus, we honestly don’t know what happened. I woke up when I suddenly transformed back although it’s still around midnight, and Harry was just lying there, passed out.”

“I woke up when the wards alerted me that someone had entered our quarters, and when I came here I saw Harry lying next to Moony, gripping his shoulder. Then Moony transformed back and Harry passed out. Can you please do something for my godson instead of just glaring at us?” Sirius shouted hysterically.

Severus pointed his wand at Harry, checking his magical resources first. “Yes, he seems to have healed you. At least he has tried but if you are really healed, of course we won’t know until the next full moon. And even if you don’t transform then, you will still have to take the Wolfsbane Potion for several months to be really sure. Harry has depleted his magic completely. He will probably remain unconscious for at least a day, maybe longer. But when he wakes up he’ll be fine. I’m going to take him with me. I wonder why he didn’t stay in Gryffindor where he was supposed to be tonight.”

Sirius and a very confused but happy Remus thanked Severus as he picked Harry up and stepped into the fireplace.

-----

When Harry woke up late on Sunday evening, Severus and Poppy had a very stern talk with Harry. They told him that he apparently had Healing abilities, which was a very rare but good thing to have. But as he was very young, he wasn’t allowed to do so much magic because it could be very dangerous to his entire system. Moreover, as he didn’t know how much magic he needed, he would deplete his power without realizing it. Therefore, Poppy insisted that he always had to call one of them if he wanted to perform Healing magic, so that they would be able to pull him away in time. Harry agreed sleepily, and the two colleagues decided to have the same talk again the next day after classes.

During the next months, it became clear that Harry had indeed healed Remus from Lycanthropy. Although Severus still brewed the Wolfsbane Potion for his colleague and Remus took all precautions, he didn’t transform even once and didn’t have any other problems with the full moon either. However, he still couldn’t believe his luck. Only recently, Remus had noticed that Amelia Bones, whom he was very fond of, seemed to share his feelings. He had even admitted to her his feelings but had told her that they couldn’t have a relationship because he was a werewolf and therefore not allowed to marry. However, now everything seemed to be in favour of Remus, and on Christmas Eve, Amelia and Remus announced their engagement. Remus threw a grateful look at Harry, which nobody except for Poppy and Severus noticed.

From Santa, Harry received a book about magical creatures, which Remus eagerly read to the small boy in the following week. When they had finished the book, Remus pulled Harry in for a long talk about werewolves. Harry was very interested at first and outright stunned later when Remus told him about his previous condition and about the fact that Harry had healed him.

Harry threw Remus a huge smile and said, “You’re welcome, Uncle Remus. I like you very much, and I like Amelia too. So I am glad that you can marry her now. Congratulations, Uncle Remus.”

-----

The topic of magical creatures stayed at the front of Harry’s mind for quite a while. One day, he went to see Remus in order to speak to him.

“Uncle Remus, you know that I’m able to transform into a goat and back, don’t you?” When Remus gave him a nod, he continued, “Are all wizards able to transform into an animal? And how do they choose their animal? Can I also change into another animal, or will I only be able to change into a goat?”

Remus sighed but let out a small laugh at the same time. “No, Harry, wizards cannot transform into animals easily. They normally have to learn it and it’s not easy. Very few people can become an Animagus. You are a very powerful wizard, and you managed to transform into your goat form by wish magic, which is a very rare but an exceptionally strong form of magic. Now, I don’t know but I can imagine that you would be able to transform into other forms too, especially if you tried the transformation using wish magic. What form are you thinking about, Harry?”

“I’d like to become a phoenix like Fawkes. He has told me I should try to transform several times but somehow I was afraid I would only hurt myself.”

Remus nodded his understanding. “Harry, I believe you should speak with your grandmother. You know that she’s the Transfiguration teacher here, and she’s an Animagus, too. So if anyone is able to help you, it will be her. And I am sure she will try to help you. However, the transformation into a magical animal is even more difficult and affords more magic than the transformation into a normal animal. The only person able to transform into a magical animal that I know of is your grandfather.”

Minerva suggested to Harry that he should come to see her twice a week in order to practice the transformation if he really wanted to learn it. As he was using wish magic, she couldn’t help him much but at least she could keep an eye on him to see that nothing happened to her grandson. It took Harry a few months, but near the end of the school year he finally managed the transformation into an ice blue water phoenix with a few silver feathers on his wings and his back. His grandmother was very impressed and suggested that he should transform back and accompany her to the Headmaster’s office, so that Harry could ask Fawkes to help him with walking, flying, and flashing.

Fawkes fawned over the young phoenix as if he was his nestling. He ordered Harry to join him every day after lessons, so that he could train him properly. After a week of intense training with Fawkes, Harry managed to walk on his bird legs and even to fly and flash himself around in a splash of water. When he tried to flash himself out of the office for the first time, he landed directly on Poppy’s lap. His guardian nearly had a heart attack, especially when he jumped down onto the floor and transformed back into Harry.

“Aunt Poppy,” Harry shouted excitedly. “I managed it. I can change into a phoenix now.”

“Very well done, Harry, I’m really impressed and very proud of you, sweetie,” Poppy said, pulling Harry up onto her lap.

Harry tiredly leaned his head onto Poppy’s shoulder, yawning. “I like flying, Aunt Poppy,” he mumbled before his eyes closed and his breathing evened out.

Poppy frowned and quietly waved her wand over Harry. Obviously, the phoenix transformation as well as flying or flashing was very tiring for such a small boy. On the first day of the holidays, she had a long talk with Harry, in which she told him that he couldn’t transform too often because it was too strenuous for him. Harry however contradicted fiercely and insisted that only flashing was tiring, and that he didn’t have any problems transforming or flying around. When Poppy gave him an unbelieving glance, Harry told her to ask Fawkes as he could confirm what Harry said. Poppy however needn’t ask for the bird’s opinion but watched Harry closely during the summer holidays, which they spent in their house in Hogsmeade, and soon knew that the boy had told her the truth.

Harry enjoyed flying around in his phoenix form immensely and proceeded to fly over the Hogwarts grounds every morning after breakfast. When he had enough, he often flew up to his grandmother’s window sill and paid Minerva a short visit before he returned back home to play with Ginevra until lunch.

Every afternoon, Harry met his friends, which now included Mandy. One day, it was so hot that the children just couldn’t stay on the playground the whole afternoon and Poppy invited them to come over to her house, have a drink, and play in Harry’s room or in the shadows of the garden. Having met on the playground daily for the last four weeks, the children enjoyed the change of place very much and suddenly Bill asked, “Couldn’t we meet here instead of the playground? I mean, here we can play many more games and it would be so much more interesting.”

“Yes, that’s true,” the twins agreed immediately. “Harry has so many toys and we could even enter the Hogwarts grounds from here.”

“It’s not our decision however, we have to ask Harry’s aunt,” Luna threw in, giving Harry a dreamy smile.

“I’ll ask her,” Harry shouted happily and darted away only to return together with Poppy two minutes later.

Poppy took a seat on Harry’s bed, looking over the group of children, who had made themselves comfortable on the floor, and put her arm around Harry. “Harry told me that you want to play here instead of the playground,” she stated more than she asked, and the children nodded eagerly. “All right, I don’t mind at all. However, do not forget to tell your parents about it, so that they know where to find you in case they suddenly need you.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” the children chorused, and Poppy couldn’t help laughing.

“You are proficient at that, aren’t you?” she commented approvingly, and suddenly, she had an idea. “I don’t know if any of you have already heard about it, but we’re going to have a wedding at Hogwarts in a few weeks’ time.” Ignoring the huge gasp and the questioning looks from the children, she continued, “Our Professor, Remus Lupin, is going to be married to your teacher, Amelia Bones.”

A huge commotion started immediately, and Poppy waited patiently until the children calmed down a little. “Now, stop shouting and listen to me please. The wedding will take place at Hogwarts on August 26th and I cannot imagine that Amelia wouldn’t be happy to have all of you there on this big day. I think we could practise a play together. Do you all know the story of snow-white and the seven dwarfs?”

As some of the children gave her a nod while others shook their heads Poppy shortly explained the story before she told them about her idea, asking to let her tell them everything and then discuss it. “I thought Fred, George, and Harry could play three snow-whites together like they often do mischief together. They only have to ask a mirror who the prettiest is, smile when they’re told that they are the prettiest ones, and then they have to pretend being asleep. One of you others then has to play their teacher and cast a spell on them to send them into a hundred-year-long sleep because of doing mischief all the time. Then all others except for one, who will be the king, are the dwarfs and have to explain to the king that the three have been cursed to sleep for a hundred years because of doing so many funny things. You have to beg the king to help them by each of you telling him one reason why they are not so bad. Finally then, the king gives in and goes over to the three in order to wake them up, and our three mischief makers of course show that they only pretended to be asleep and make fun of the dwarfs, running away while the dwarfs follow them out of the room.”

When she had finished, another huge commotion started. The children seemed to all be in for it and even wanted to start practising immediately. “First of all, you have to choose whom you want to be the teacher, the king, and of course the mischief-makers. Fred, George, and Harry was just my idea,” she added, smiling.

“Without doubt, they will be the best for the role,” Luna agreed, smiling over to Harry, and everyone laughed.

Fred and George exchanged a short glance and spoke up at the same time. “As much as it honours us to have such a great role, we have a better idea. Only Harry is the mischief-maker, and the teacher turns him into a sheep. And when the king goes over to sheep Harry, Harry transforms back before he reaches him.”

Everyone laughed and Poppy suggested, “Let’s do it like this. The teacher makes Fred and George sleep and transforms Harry because she can’t get him to sleep.”

Again, all the children laughed and agreed to this plan. Finally, they decided that Susan was to play the teacher and Neville the king, and under Poppy’s watchful eyes they started to practise their roles, having a lot of fun. “Let me think about what the dwarfs should say. I’ll fix a sentence for each of you by tomorrow, which you have to learn by heart then, all right?” Poppy asked and everyone agreed immediately.

During the next weeks, the group practised every now and then, and by the end of July they had perfected their performance. One day, the twins approached Poppy. “We have thought about something…”

“This is so much fun…”

“…and you said we’re doing so well…”

“…Maybe our parents would like to come…”

“…and watch our play.”

“Oh, yes, why not. That’s a good idea. You’re really doing so well that we should show the play to your parents.” She turned to Harry. “Harry, what do you think, should we invite your friends’ parents for the evening of your birthday in order to watch the play?”

“Yes!” Harry shouted happily. It was so much fun doing the play although he didn’t appreciate very much that he had to play a mischief-maker in spite of his being such a good boy. Fortunately, he could play his role together with the twins, whom he adored greatly.

-----

The holidays passed quickly, and soon it was the day before Harry’s birthday. As Poppy wanted to do some preparations for the birthday party Severus took Harry out for the day. He arrived immediately after breakfast and asked, “Harry, I was thinking about going to the zoo. Would you like that?”

“Yes! Oh, yes please, Uncle Severus!” Harry shouted excitedly and gave his uncle a pleading glance.

Poppy, who had known about Severus’ intentions, laughed at the child’s enthusiasm and Severus and Harry headed for the zoo in London. When they entered the zoo, Harry looked around curiously, suddenly remembering that he had been here before. They walked around for quite a time until they reached the penguins that were just being fed.

“Oh, they’re too cute,” Harry shouted excitedly and ran as near as he could, stopping just in front of the water next to a girl with bushy brown hair that was only a little bit taller than him. Harry watched how the penguins devoured the fish that had been put in front of them until he noticed a small penguin stuck behind the larger ones. Harry concentrated on the small penguin and glanced at a fish, sending a fair amount of wish magic into his thought.

A huge gasp of the girl next to him alerted Harry to the fact that the fish he had observed made a bee-line for the little penguin and moved straight into its mouth. A bright smile spread over Harry’s face and the girl next to him turned to Harry, very excited.

“You did that, didn’t you?” she asked forcefully.

Harry couldn’t help nodding his head and gave the girl an anxious smile.

“Do you know how you did that?” she asked eagerly only to add, “You know, I can do that too sometimes.”

“Really?” Harry replied gladly. “Are you a witch?”

“Oh, you’re very naughty!” the girl exclaimed. “I.am.not.a.bitch!”

Harry let out a confused giggle. “Not a bitch of course, a witch! I’m a wizard, too.”

“A wizard?” she asked suspiciously. “Wizards aren’t real, are they?”

Harry laughed again. “I’m very real, thank you very much. And I can do magic, you saw that.”

“I have done strange things a few times,” the girl said pensively. “Do you think I’m a witch then?”

“For example what kind of things?” Harry enquired interestedly.

“Oh, I’ve turned my teacher’s hair pink because I was so upset that she didn’t give us any homework…”

Harry interrupted her, laughing. “All right, then you’re definitely a witch. Are your parents Muggles?”

“What are Muggles?” the girl asked unbelievingly. “By the way, I’m Hermione.”

“Oh, sorry, I’m Harry,” Harry answered. “Nice to meet you, Hermione.”

Hermione’s mother and Severus, who so far had followed the children’s conversation, glanced at each other and started their own conversation. As soon as Mrs. Granger had confirmed that Hermione had already done strange things like floating books down from the top shelves in order to read them, Severus opened up to the woman and explained about the wizarding world.

Harry, Hermione and the adults stayed together in the zoo for the rest of the day and even had lunch together. There was so much to talk about, and at the end of the day, Mrs. Granger and Severus arranged to meet again on the weekend. Severus invited Hermione together with her parents to come to Hogwarts in order to meet with some of the teachers in order to gain more information about the wizarding world.

“Yes, Professor, thanks for the invitation. We would love to know more, especially as Hermione seems to be very interested in the playschool your son has told her about,” Hermione’s mother said and handed Severus her name card.

“All right. I shall come to your house around ten o’clock on Saturday morning in order to take you to Hogwarts.” Severus turned to Harry. “Don’t forget to tell Aunt Poppy about it, so that you can be there, too.”

“Of course!” Harry gave Severus an eager glance.

-----

Like in the previous years, Harry received many presents for his birthday. His friends had arrived during the morning and after having a huge piece of cake for a second breakfast together with his friends, Harry proceeded to open his presents. To his great pleasure, most of them were books, but he also received chocolate frogs and other magical sweets as well as a few toys.

When Harry unwrapped the last present, he found a green plush frog inside the dark blue wrapping paper. However, as soon as he touched the frog he felt a pull behind his navel and was whisked away instantly. Only moments later, Harry stumbled onto the ground and found himself in a slightly dark stone room. Quickly taking in his surroundings, he became aware of three wizards in black robes wearing gruesome masks towering in front of him.

“Hello Mr. Potter,” he was greeted by a cold voice that seemed familiar to Harry, but he couldn’t place it. “How good of you to join us. I’ve always wanted to have a talk with you.”

“Uh, thank you, sir,” Harry replied anxiously, trying to buy some time while he feverishly thought about what to do. “But I was just having my birthday party, and my friends are all waiting for me. Could we please talk at another time?”

“Oh, are you the one to make the decisions here?” an evil sounding female voice spoke up. “Let me show you that your only decision will be to cry or not to cry.” She raised her wand and pointed it at Harry, mumbling a spell, which he couldn’t understand.

Harry only knew that his whole body started to hurt terribly and he began shaking all over. As soon as he felt the spell being lifted, Harry was submitted to another spell coming out of the man’s wand, this time that gave him the feeling his head was going to explode. ‘I have to talk to them to gain time. Maybe Uncle Severus or someone else can manage to rescue me then,’ he thought and quickly asked, “Can you please tell me why you’re hurting me? I’ve never done anything to you!” He fought hard to keep his tears at bay in spite of the pain that floated through his whole body.

While the man, whose voice he suddenly recognized as belonging to Draco’s father, spoke to him, Harry all of a sudden knew what he had to do. Before any of the Death Eaters knew what had happened, he transformed into his phoenix form and flashed away, thinking intently of his Aunt Poppy.

-----

At Poppy’s house in Hogsmeade, the Hogwarts teachers and several members of the Order of the Phoenix were sitting in the living room feverishly thinking of a way to rescue Harry. In Harry’s room, Amelia and Mrs. Weasley were trying to entertain the shocked children.

Suddenly, something blue entered the room in a noisy splash of water. Horrified looks accompanied the blue phoenix that had landed on Poppy’s lap. “Harry!” Poppy, Minerva, and Severus shouted with much relief. “Oh, Harry, thank God, you’re back,” Poppy breathed and proceeded to pet the back feathers of the phoenix’ head, terrified to see that the bird flinched away from her touch.

#Ouch# phoenix Harry cried when Poppy tried to stroke his head. It hurt so much.

“Be careful, Poppy, I think he’s hurt,” Albus advised the Mediwitch, who studied Harry worriedly.

Poppy held her fingers in front of Harry’s feet, and the blue phoenix accepted the invitation and stepped onto her hand. Poppy moved the phoenix up until she could look straight into his eyes. “Harry, do you think you can transform back?” Poppy asked softly and the phoenix looked helplessly into her eyes. “Are you hurt?” Poppy asked again and Harry shook his head a bit, wincing at the slight movement. “But you are in pain?” the Healer confirmed and Harry gave her a small nod. “Shall we ask Granny to change you back so that I can try to heal you?”

#Yes, please,# Harry trilled, nodding, looking at his grandmother with pleading eyes.

“All right, thanks for your help everyone,” Albus said, ending the urgent meeting.

Severus entered Harry’s room, quickly filled Amelia and Molly in and motioned the children to play outside in the garden for a while, so that Poppy could look after Harry in his own room.

“Is he all right?” Mandy enquired immediately.

“What happened to him?” Ginny asked with concern.

“Please.go.out.now! We need to look after Harry. As soon as we know anything we shall inform you,” Severus said, throwing the children a menacing glare that caused them to flee into the garden immediately.

Poppy placed Harry onto his bed, confirming once more that the child wanted Minerva to transform him back. An instant later, Harry was back to his human form, and Poppy and Severus waved their wands over him before they conferred in small voices.

“All right, Harry. We will give you two potions, which should take all the pain away,” Severus explained after he and Poppy had spoken. “However, you have depleted your magic flashing from wherever you have been – Malfoy Manor I suppose – and you’ll probably be very tired during the rest of the day.”

Harry quickly downed the potions Poppy held out to him. Visibly relaxing, he asked, “Where are my friends? Have they gone home already?”

“No,” Poppy answered, smiling. “They are playing in the garden, waiting for you to come back to them. However, I want you to stay here and rest for at least an hour before you go play.”

Harry’s lower lip was trembling as he tried to force back the tears. But he was too worn out to argue so he obediently lay back and closed his eyes; he fell asleep immediately.

-----

Harry woke up to the twins sitting on the edge of his bed. “Hey sleepy-head, get up; it’s time for some mischief!” he heard and lazily opened his eyes. “Look, Harry, we’ve read a bit in your new Potions book, and there’s a recipe to make people’s hair green. Do you think we could brew that somewhere?”

Harry groaned. Leave it to the twins to search for a way to get him into even more trouble than he could manage alone. “No, we cannot brew here, and going to Hogwarts to brew in the Potions Classroom would get us into too much trouble. I’m sorry, but I had enough trouble today and I don’t want to disappoint Aunt Poppy and Uncle Severus. Plus, I can change the colour of anyone’s hair with wish magic; I don’t need a potion for that.”

“Oh, right, Harry, we forgot that you can do wish magic!” the twins exclaimed. “We wanted to change all our parents’ hair tonight when they come to watch our play. Do you think you can do that?”

“That’s easy,” Harry answered. “But I’m very tired, so I don’t know if I can manage to do all of them. At least, we have to do our play first. We can ask Aunt Poppy if we could do the play before we finish the cake together with the parents, then I’d have enough time. Let’s go and ask her, but don’t tell her anything about the prank please.”

At that moment, Poppy entered the room and – after giving the twins a suspicious glance – waved her wand over Harry. Nodding contentedly, she said, “All right, Harry. If you feel up to getting up you may do so. However, you’ve completely depleted your magic, and you may not do any magic for about two weeks, so let’s say you aren’t to do any magic until I tell you that it’s all right. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Aunt Poppy,” Harry said sincerely, glad that the twins were still sitting next to him and had heard what his aunt had told him.

“Therefore,” Poppy continued sternly, “in our play today, you may not transform into your goat form; you’ll have to pretend you’re asleep just as Fred and George do. I have just told your friends about it, so that the dwarfs know what they have to say concerning you.”

“All right,” Harry agreed and crawled out of his bed. “I’m hungry; can I have another piece of my birthday cake?”

“Of course you may. Actually, everyone is waiting for you in order to finish your cake,” Poppy replied, smiling at the child.

Harry could only hear one happy shout, “Harry!” and was immediately surrounded by his friends.

“Ow, let me breathe,” he mumbled, struggling to get some space. “I’m hungry; let’s eat some birthday cake,” he then suggested, and everyone hurried to the table that was already prepared and decorated incredibly.

Skippy had made sandwiches for the children while Harry had been away, but his friends had been too worried about their friend to eat anything, so everybody was very hungry now. Afterwards, Amelia and Molly, who had remained at Harry’s home to help Poppy entertain the children, took them out in the garden and they all played until dinner.

Fortunately, Amelia returned to Hogwarts thirty minutes before dinner, so that the children had the chance to at least practise their play once more, which they didn’t want Amelia to know about yet. However, the practise was a disaster. The dwarfs, who had played their roles so well during the last days, all forget what they had to say, and Harry really fell asleep while pretending to do so. Molly, who had remained in order to help Poppy with so many kids, laughed and told them, “It’s all right. If the last practise is so bad, the play will probably go very well.”

Everyone gave her a relieved smile, and indeed, when the children played for their parents after dinner, they managed to go all the way through the play flawlessly, receiving a huge applause from their parents. As soon as his friends had returned home after the play, Harry crawled into his bed and was asleep almost instantly.

-----

When Harry woke up and left his room searching for Aunt Poppy, he found her talking with Aberforth and Severus. ‘Oh, it must be quite late if Uncle Aberforth is already up,’ Harry thought and greeted the three adults, sitting next to Uncle Severus at the table where a breakfast plate was waiting for him. Feeling famished again, Harry devoured his breakfast before he asked, “Um… why are you here, Uncle Severus? I mean, I’m glad that you’re here of course, just…”

The adults laughed. “Ah, eloquent as ever, Harry,” Severus commented and explained, “Harry, I would like to look at your memory of what happened yesterday. In the early afternoon, two Aurors will come, and we have to tell or show them as much as we know. If it was really Mr. Malfoy who did this to you, he is going to receive a one-way ticket to Azkaban.”

“All right,” Harry replied immediately and averted his eyes to the onyx eyes of his favourite uncle. Then he hesitantly proceeded to remind himself of the previous day’s events.

Severus very carefully entered Harry’s mind and watched the event, leaving as soon as he saw Harry transforming into his phoenix form. “Yes, that was Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange,” he confirmed. “I don’t know who the third person was because he or she didn’t say anything.” He put the memory into Dumbledore’s Pensieve, which Albus and Minerva, who had arrived in the meantime, had brought with them, so that they all could see what had happened to Harry.

Two hours later, two Aurors, whom Dumbledore knew to be on their side, arrived and entered the Pensieve immediately. “Do you think it could be Malfoy Manor?” one of them asked Severus, when they came back out of the Pensieve.

“Probably yes,” Severus replied, one hand firmly resting on Harry’s shoulder. “However, I am not completely sure.”

“I could try to flash you there,” Harry spoke up anxiously. “When I want to flash, I only have to think of the person I want to go to; it doesn’t matter where the person is,” he explained.

“Is that really so?” Severus asked surprised.

“Yes, of course,” Harry replied firmly.

Albus let out a relieved sigh. “In this case, I could ask Fawkes to take you to Mr. Malfoy and to Ms. Lestrange afterwards. I will join you anyway, but Harry has to stay here,” he decided and called his familiar, who appeared in a flash of flames.

It was about time for Harry’s friends to arrive for the afternoon when Severus and Albus returned. Harry gladly noticed the relieved expressions in their faces. “Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Lestrange have been questioned under Veritaserum and have been brought to Azkaban. This was just the last straw the Ministry needed to finally put them into jail,” Albus explained, his eyes twinkling merrily.

-----

On Saturday morning, Severus Apparated to the Grangers’ house and together with Hermione and her parents took a Portkey back to Hogwarts. When they arrived in the Great Hall, the teachers, who had remained over the holidays, were already sitting there, drinking tea. Harry immediately rushed over to the newcomers, shouting “Mione!”

Hermione smiled at the boy. “Hello Harry,” before her eyes were captured by the beauty of the Great Hall. “Wow, this place is beautiful!” she said, completely in awe.

“Beautiful?” her mother inquired. “It’s a ruin!”

“No, Hermione’s right, this place is gorgeous,” Hermione’s father contradicted.

Severus quickly waved his wand over Mrs. Granger. “I am sorry; only wizards are able to see this castle as it is,” he explained to his guests.

“But…” Mr. Granger stammered.

“Yes, you obviously are a wizard,” Albus, who came over to greet the guests, confirmed.

“What is this place, Harry?” Hermione asked eagerly.

“This is the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Wizardy and… whatever,” Harry explained.

“And this Hall doesn’t have a roof?” the girl asked astonished.

Harry laughed. “It has a roof, but the ceiling is charmed to look like the sky,” Harry answered, feeling very proud of his castle.

In the meantime, Albus had introduced himself and taken the Grangers over to the table to have tea with the other teachers. Hermione’s parents had many questions and the teachers did everything to appease their curiosity. They even promised Mr. Granger they would check his magic in order to understand why he hadn’t noticed being a wizard before.

“Can you show me more of this school?” Hermione enquired eagerly.

“All right, let me show you the Library, the Potions classroom, and the Astronomy tower. They are my favourite places here,” Harry replied happily. “But I have to ask first.” He ran over to the table and shouted, “Can I go show Hermione the castle?”

“Yes, you may go,” the Headmaster answered and Hermione noticed that his eyes were twinkling beautifully.

“Don’t stay in the library the whole day,” Severus admonished the boy.

“And don’t forget that you mustn’t do any magic!” Poppy shouted after him.

Harry turned around and waved his hand, smiling, before he led Hermione to the Library first, wondering if she would be going to like the library as much as he did. He knew for a fact that the other children in the Playgroup still weren’t interested in reading at all. The only child apart from Harry who could already read was Luna. To his great pleasure, however, Hermione was enthusiastic about the library he adored so much. Harry explained to her as much as he knew about the different classes that were held at Hogwarts, while he showed the girl the library.

Time passed much too quickly for the excited five-year-olds, and suddenly Severus entered the library, a smirk on his lips. He turned to Hermione and asked, “Is it correct to assume that this is the only place within the castle Harry showed you?”

Hermione and Harry blushed deeply, and Hermione said, “Oh, sorry, yes. You know, I had so many questions to ask, and it’s such an interesting place, and time passed so quickly. But it’s all right, sir. I will come and visit Harry again if I may.”

Severus smirked and threw a glance at Harry. “You may visit Harry anytime I assume, seeing that he seems to enjoy your company, and moreover, your parents have decided that you may attend our Playschool from next month onwards.”

“Really?” Hermione shouted enthusiastically.

Noticing that the excited girl seemed to be going to hug him, the teacher quickly put on an extremely intimidating face, and Harry couldn’t help laughing when Hermione instantly changed direction and came over to him, pulling him into a bear’s hug.

“Um… if you want you can come and visit me at home,” Harry said hesitantly. “During the school year I live at Hogwarts, but during the holidays I live at Hogsmeade, and all my friends from the Playschool come and visit me every afternoon. You can come too, we just have to see how you can come here, right, Uncle Severus?”

“You know, Harry, you spent so much time here in the library that we had the opportunity to cover several topics. As such, the teachers here have agreed to teach Mr. Granger a little about the magical world. I am going to take him to Diagon Alley tomorrow, so that he can buy a wand. During the rest of the holidays, he will come here every afternoon for lessons. Professor Dumbledore is already talking to the Ministry in order to have the Grangers’ fireplace hooked up to the Floo Network, so that Mr. Granger will be able to Floo here. Now, if Hermione wants to join you and your friends, she and her father could Floo to your home, and Mr. Granger could walk up here.”

“Oh, thank you, Professor,” Hermione said happily. “So I’ll be going to see Harry every day?”

“Yes, Mione,” Harry smiled.

-----

From Monday onwards, Hermione belonged to the group of Harry’s friends. The other children were enthusiastic to have a new victim that had to watch their play, which they loved to perform for an audience. Just like on Harry’s birthday, they did very well. The only part everyone regretted was that Harry still wasn’t allowed to transform into his goat form, which would make the play much more interesting in the children’s opinion.

When they had finished, Hermione clapped her hands and said solemnly, “You did that very well. I wish I could play too.”

Poppy, who had sat beside her, pulled her close and said, “Of course you can play too, sweetie. You can be another dwarf. Do you have an idea what you would like to say, or shall I think of something?”

Hermione remained pensive for a minute before she stated, “Harry is a very good boy. He has alerted me to the fact that magic really exists, that I am a witch, and he has shown me the gorgeous library at Hogwarts, my favourite place in the world.”

Everyone laughed at the long but honest sentence, and Poppy commended her, “That’s a very good sentence, my dear. Now, do you want to do the play once more together with Hermione?”

-----

By Remus’ and Amelia’s wedding day, the children had perfected their play and the wedding guests were very pleased with their performance. When Amelia and Remus thanked the children Harry noticed that tears were welling in his Playschool teacher’s eyes.

“Are you all right, Amelia?” he whispered, glancing up into the newly married woman’s eyes.

Amelia lifted Harry up into her arms and looked him straight in the eyes. “Harry I’m very happy that Remus agreed to marry me and I know that it’s thanks to you because you healed him from Lycanthropy.”

“What’s Lycophy?” Harry asked, confused.

“Being a werewolf, dear,” Amelia replied softly. “Thank you, Harry. Now, will you come help me open our presents?”

“May I?” Harry asked hesitantly, giving Amelia a hopeful glance.

“Of course.” Amelia put her arm around Harry and motioned him over to Remus. “Let’s open presents, Remus. Harry has agreed to help us.”

Together, the three walked over to the table where the presents were piled. Seeing that Harry started to open the presents, giving the contents to Amelia or Remus and piling the paper on a chair, Poppy and Minerva came over and explained to Harry that he shouldn’t help people open their presents. Amelia however explained that she had asked Harry to help them so that they had more time to look at each single present. Poppy and Minerva grudgingly returned to their seats, watching the child closely.

Half an hour later, Harry was still busy opening presents. When he took up one that was wrapped in a dark blue paper with twinkling stars on it, Minerva came over again and said, “Don’t open this, Harry. Let Amelia and Remus open it.”

Harry however was much too engaged in his work to hear anything. His tongue was playing on his lips when he fully concentrated on unwrapping the present. He revealed a small travel bag that had the size as if it belonged to a doll. Curiously, he removed the wrapping, and before Minerva and Severus, who suddenly jumped over to Harry’s side, could pull him back, he had touched the bag and – once again – felt a pull behind his navel and was whisked away.

“Oh my…” Minerva groaned. “What are we going to do, Albus?”

“What’s the problem, Minerva? Where has Harry gone?” Amelia asked worriedly.

“Somewhere where you were supposed to go for your honeymoon,” Albus replied sternly. “The problem is that nobody can easily make a Portkey to go there. We have to Floo-call them so that they will owl us a new Portkey.” He hurriedly left for his office.

“Will Harry be safe?” Remus enquired concerned.

“I don’t know but he should be able to transform into his phoenix form and flash back,” Severus answered, efficiently covering his emotions behind a blank mask.

“I wonder why he hasn’t returned yet,” Minerva stated a few minutes later. Her lips were pressed together into a thin line.

Fortunately, apart from Amelia, Remus, Minerva, Albus, Severus, and Poppy nobody had noticed what had happened, and the party continued happily.

-----

Harry fell down onto the ground inelegantly. His first impression was that the ground was relatively soft. Fully expecting to see Death Eaters waiting for him again, he hesitantly looked around and noticed that this place wasn’t a Death Eaters’ hiding place. He found himself on a beach! Looking around, he recognized that it was similar to the place where he had spent his summer holidays last year. Remembering that he still held the Portkey bag in his hands, he shoved it into his robe pockets and walked over the few steps to the edge of the water. His eyes started to twinkle happily.

As he didn’t know how much time he’d have until one of his uncles or aunts came to take him home, Harry quickly took off his clothes except for his boxers, which he wish-transfigured into swimming trunks. Not noticing the red warning flag on the beach, he carefully put a foot into the water.

Harry carefully tried to remember what Severus had taught him and stepped a bit further into the sea in order to try to swim. When he managed to swim a few strokes he felt very happy. ‘I must ask Uncle Severus if I can swim in the lake at Hogwarts. I must show him that I still can swim,’ he thought enthusiastically.

Deep in his own thoughts, he didn’t notice a huge wave coming up from behind and then suddenly, the wave pulled him into its wake and he was tumbled around viciously. To Harry, it seemed endless until he finally managed to pull his head out of the water again. Panicking, he tried to catch his breath and search for the beach, noticing that it was quite far away.

‘What can I do?’ he thought frantically. ‘I could transform into my phoenix form, but will I be able to swim? Or can I flash within the water?’ He just didn’t know what to do. Suddenly, a new wave pushed him a little more in the direction of the beach, which already seemed much nearer. Harry made up his mind and started to swim as fast as he could. A few meters before reaching the beach, however, the water overpowered him again, and once again, Harry began to panic. He concentrated on his wish magic and wished the beach was just here, so that he could lie down and rest for a while. Clinging to this thought, Harry sent all his magic into his wish, and suddenly the beach started to expand a few meters until Harry fell down at the edge of the water, unconscious.

Unfortunately, at the hotel, dinner was just being served and the beach was completely deserted. Luckily for Harry, Amelia, Remus, and Severus arrived with their new Portkey a few minutes later. On the empty beach, it only took them minutes to spot Harry’s unconscious form. Severus quickly cast a drying charm and a warming charm on the child before he waved his wand over him to assess what was wrong.

“The foolish boy obviously went swimming in spite of the red flag that prohibits swimming. I don’t know what he did, but probably he had to rescue himself because he has depleted his magic completely,” Severus said, his face twisted in an angry frown.

In the meantime, Amelia had gathered Harry’s clothes, and Severus quickly spelled the clothes onto the child. He then searched Harry’s robe pockets and presented the Portkey bag to Amelia and Remus. “Here, this is yours. Inside you’ll find a voucher for the hotel and everything you’ll need for your holiday. The bag will serve as a Portkey back and will activate at ten o’clock in the morning on the first of September,” Severus instructed the newly-weds.

Then Severus picked up Harry and fingered his own necklace, forcing one of Harry’s fingers around it and mumbled the incantation, ‘back home’. An instant later, Severus and Harry arrived at the Potions Master’s quarters at Hogwarts. Severus laid the still unconscious Harry onto his own bed and called Skippy, the house elf.

“Good evening, Professor Snape, sir. What cans Skippy dos for you, sir?”

“Go to the Great Hall, tell Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey that Harry is back and ask Poppy to Floo-call me or come here.”

-----

A few minutes later, Poppy, Minerva, and Albus entered the Potions Master’s quarters. Severus left his bedroom, waving his three visitors over. “What happened, Severus?” Poppy asked quickly.

“He obviously had to go swimming, ignoring the red flags all over the beach because of the high waves. I don’t know what else happened. When we arrived at the beach, he was already lying at the edge of the water and was unconscious. Apart from that and being completely physically and magically exhausted, he seems to be fine.”

“Yes, you’re right,” Poppy agreed after a quick wave of her wand. She remained pensive for a moment. “I’ll take him with me and we can stay at Hogwarts during the last few days of the holidays. However, I have to return home for maybe an hour first. Can I leave him here for another hour; or would any of you be so kind as to watch him while I’m gone?”

“Why don’t you just leave Harry here until he is conscious again?” Severus suggested.

“That’s a good idea,” Albus threw in.

“All right, if you don’t mind, Severus, I’ll just leave him here with you. When you sleep here together with him, you’ll know when his condition changes. Remember, the last times he went swimming on his own and wasn’t dried up immediately after leaving the water he got a cold and I suppose it won’t be too different this time.”

“I’m here with him, it’s all right, Poppy, and when I need you, I’ll send Skippy.”

When Poppy Floo-called the parents of Harry’s friends to tell them that the children couldn’t meet at her home during the last few days of the holidays because Harry was sick, she instructed Mr. Granger to which fireplace he could Floo at Hogwarts during the afternoon for his lessons.

Hermione, however, didn’t take the news well as she would not be able to see her friends. She jumped up and down on the floor, shouting, “And I will go to Hogwarts with you! I want to see Harry, even if he’s ill he will be happy to see me, and I can help him get better. I go with you!” Before her parents could even think about restraining her, she grabbed some Floo powder, jumped into the fireplace, and shouted, “Hogwarts Hospital wing.”

Mr. Granger couldn’t do anything but quickly Floo after his daughter. Poppy was quite astonished to say the least when suddenly her fireplace flared and Hermione stumbled out. Before she could question the girl, Hermione explained, “Sorry, Madam Pomfrey, but I want to visit Harry. Is there any book about this castle in the library, which I could borrow and read to Harry?”

At that moment, Mr. Granger arrived and apologized for his daughter. “Ah, don’t worry about that, Mr. Granger. I will take care of your daughter until you return home. She wants to visit Harry and read a book to him. However, I have to ask Professor Snape as Harry is staying in his bedroom for the time being. Harry is still unconscious and has a bad cold, but I think reading to him is a nice idea.”

“All right,” Mr. Granger agreed. “I’ll see you later then.” He quickly left Poppy’s office.

Poppy let the child into Harry’s room, where she fetched a book from the bookshelf. “This is ‘Hogwarts – A History’. It’s a very interesting book, and I’m sure you’ll like it. Harry just received it for his birthday a few weeks ago, so he hasn’t read it yet. But I’m sure he won’t mind if you borrowed it for a few days.”

“Thank you, Madam Pomfrey,” Hermione said happily and followed Poppy back to her office, listening to the woman talking to the stern teacher over the Floo. A minute later, she found herself walking through the empty halls of the castle down to the dungeons together with Poppy.

Hermione spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on Harry’s bed next to her friend. She had been a bit unsure at first, entering the menacing looking professor’s bedroom.

However, Severus seemed not to mind her being there. On the contrary, when she had settled down next to Harry, he cleared his throat and spoke up. “Ms. Granger, thank you for coming. In fact, I wanted to brew a potion for Harry but didn’t want to leave him alone. However, knowing that you are watching him for the time being, I shall leave you to it and spend some time in my lab. If you need anything or believe Harry is feeling worse, either come and knock at my lab’s door – he pointed over to a door opposite of his bedroom – or call Skippy, one of our House elves that cares a lot about Harry.”

“All right, Professor, thank you.” Hermione opened the book she had brought and started to read aloud, wondering if Harry could hear her. After nearly an hour of reading, she became tired and carefully put the book on the night table before she lay down next to Harry and proceeded to talk to her friend.

“What did you do Harry to become unconscious and sick? I’d like you to speak to me. Did you like the book I read to you? It’s called ‘Hogwarts – A History’, and your Aunt Poppy lent it to me. I love it! It’s so interesting, don’t you think so?”

Hermione carefully stroked her friend’s cheeks. “You’re hot, Harry, what’s wrong with you? Please wake up. I like you very much, and you’re the bestest friend I ever had.”

When Severus came an hour later to look after the children, he found them both fast asleep next to each other, slightly hugging each other. He frowned immediately at the sight but couldn’t help as the edges of his mouth pulled upwards a few seconds later. Waving his wand over Harry, he noticed that the boy’s condition had changed from unconsciousness to a deep sleep. Deciding to just let the children sleep, he returned to his lab.

An hour later, Poppy led Mr. Granger into Severus’ quarters and found the children in the same condition. “Oh my, they are too cute. Come, have a look,” she motioned Hermione’s father who was waiting in the living room. “Hermione, you have to get up, your father wants to go home,” she called the girl carefully, and Hermione woke up with a jolt.

Hermione crawled out of the bed, careful not to wake Harry. Just before she left the room, she could hear a mumbled, “Love you too, Mione. Come back t’morrow.”

-----

Hermione’s reading and talking to the child had obviously helped him. On the next day, Severus sat on the edge of his bed, reading a book while Harry was peacefully sleeping. Suddenly, Severus heard a mumbled, “Daddy.”

Utterly shocked, he turned around only to face two bright green eyes watching him. “What did you say, Harry?” he asked, trying to keep his face completely blank.

‘Oh my, what did I say, I cannot say that aloud,’ Harry thought, feverishly searching for something to say. “I wondered if you could tell me something about my Mummy and Daddy,” Harry finally said, noticing that Severus seemed to relax a little.

Not exactly sure if he should be disappointed or relieved, Severus began to tell Harry about his mother. “She was the brightest witch I’ve ever known and the kindest. She was my best friend during all our childhood until she married your father. Some of the children were always very mean to me, but Lily always stood on my side in spite of being a Gryffindor like the other students.”

Seeing that Harry was listening intently, Severus continued, “Lily’s favourite subject at school was Charms and Professor Flitwick told me she received more points in her Charms NEWTs than anybody had achieved in more than a hundred years.”

“Why did they die?” Harry asked suddenly.

“There was a very bad wizard, the Dark Lord. A seer had made a prophecy about this bad man and you, which said that you were the only one who could kill him. Even when Lily was still pregnant with you, others could notice what a powerful wizard you were because you were doing a lot of accidental magic. Concerned for your safety your grandfather managed to convince Lily and James to go into hiding. They lived under a safety Charm called the Fidelius Charm, but unfortunately the Secret Keeper Pettigrew, a friend of your father, was a traitor and told the Dark Lord about your whereabouts and he attacked you and your family. This attack is what you sometimes see in your dreams.”

“What exactly is the Fidelius Charm?” Harry asked, quickly blinking a few times to hold back his tears.

“The Fidelius Charm means that a secret – be it a person or a location – is protected by a single person, the Secret Keeper. Only this person can tell others where the place or the person is. For example, if I had wanted to visit you or your Mummy in your house, I’d have had to ask Pettigrew for the information on where your house was.”

“Oh,” Harry said, his mind turning around very quickly. “Uncle Severus, when does school start again?”

Severus gave Harry a strange glance, shocked by the fast change of the topic. His head was still full of thoughts about Lily. “The students will come back on Sunday, and school is going to start on Monday.”

“How often do I have to sleep until Sunday?”

“Today is Wednesday, so it’s still four days until Sunday. Hopefully you’ll be back to full health by then.”

-----

Hermione returned every afternoon and read her soon to be favourite book to Harry. When her parents didn’t allow her to Floo to Hogwarts on Saturday, she threw a huge temper tantrum. As this didn’t help she ran into her room, locked the door with a bout of accidental magic, and proceeded to read the book she had borrowed from Poppy until hunger overtook her anger on Sunday evening.

On Saturday, Harry was finally allowed to get up. While he had been sick, everyone had behaved around him as if nothing had happened. Now however Severus couldn’t keep his anger back. When Harry had woken up for the first time a few days ago, he had watched the child’s memory and saw how glad they could be that Harry was still alive. But as long as Harry was unwell he hadn’t spoken to him about what had happened in order not to worsen his condition again by making him upset. Now that he was better, Severus sat on the edge of his bed and gave Harry a very stern look.

“All right, Harry. You may get up and also return to your own room today. However, you must still rest and you mustn’t do any magic at all until Aunt Poppy tells you that you can do magic again. That will however take at least a week. Now, Harry, I don’t believe that I need to tell you how foolish your actions were at the beach.”

“I’m sorry, Uncle Severus,” Harry started to sob. “I was very stoopid, I know. I won’t do it again.”

“I hope you won’t do such a stunt again. You were very lucky to have survived at all, but you probably wouldn’t be so lucky the next time. I am very disappointed; I had thought you were a big boy I could rely on, but you have shown that you are still a very small child, not able to even take responsibility of yourself when left alone for a few minutes.” Severus tried hard not to shout at the child but he couldn’t prevent his anger from spilling over.

Harry couldn’t help crying his eyes out. Sensing the disappointment coming from his favourite uncle, whom he loved as if he was his father, made him very sad. He knew that he had been more than stupid and that he had been in great danger. Hermione and Uncle Severus had helped him overcome his shock of what had happened by caring for him during the last days. But now his uncle seemed to be so angry, and Harry just couldn’t stand it. He lay back and sobbed uncontrollably.

Seeing that the child was in no condition to listen to him, Severus silently stood up and went into his lab to fetch a calming draught. However, when he held the phial to Harry’s lips, the boy, who had cried himself into a panic attack, pushed it away and quickly scrambled out of the bed, running out of Severus’ quarters.

Too stunned to react in time, Severus remained seated on the bed for a few minutes, wallowing in self-reproach. ‘What have I done to the child? He was panicking. Obviously, I was too hard on him, but on the other hand he finally has to learn to be more careful and not to do such stupid stunts. I should have told him how much I love him and that I’m just worried about him.’ Severus sighed and tried to calm down a little before he proceeded to Floo-call Poppy.

-----

Poppy was in her office getting ready for the students to arrive on Sunday evening when the door to the Hospital wing opened and revealed a completely drained and very hysterical little boy. “Harry!” She shouted. “What happened?”

Harry was too exhausted to reply. He just leaned into Poppy, who immediately pulled him up onto her lap, and continued to cry. Noticing that the child felt very warm to the touch, Poppy carried him into his room, grabbing a calming draught on the way. Harry let himself be put onto his bed and didn’t refuse the potion this time, finally calming down a bit. “What’s wrong, Harry?” she asked softly, still very confused about what might have happened.

“Uncle Severus is very angry with me. He doesn’t like me anymore,” Harry managed to get out between his sobs that in the meantime had turned into coughs.

“No, Harry, that’s nonsense,” Poppy replied firmly, ignoring the fireplace alerting her to the fact that someone was calling her on the Floo. “Uncle Severus loves you very much, and therefore he was worried about what happened to you as was I. You know Uncle Severus; he’s not a very friendly person but he means well. He was angry because you put yourself in so much danger and he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to you because you’re our precious little boy,” Poppy said calmingly, kissing Harry on the forehead.

While Harry gave her a hopeful look from his tearstained eyes, Poppy quickly waved her wand over the child. “Now, Harry, stop crying, you’re making your condition worse,” she admonished the child and quickly went over to her office to lace a Fever Reducer with a Sleeping Potion before she returned to the child. Harry obediently downed the potion and fell asleep immediately.

-----

Harry slept through until Sunday morning. In the meantime, Poppy had talked to Severus and had filled him in on what Harry had told her. “He told me ‘Uncle Severus is angry at me and doesn’t like me any more’. I’ve tried to explain that you were angry because you love him and don’t want anything to happen to him. Harry is very sensitive. Although he was only a year old when he came to stay with his relatives, the fact that they taught him he wasn’t worth anyone’s love or care is still influencing him.”

Poppy had also advised Minerva, suspecting that the professor also intended to talk to Harry, to assure him that she loved him very much even if he had done something really bad.

Very early on Sunday morning, a charm alerted Poppy to the fact that Harry was waking up. She quickly got up and went over to the child’s room, sitting down next to him. “Good morning, Harry. Do you feel better?” she asked softly.

Harry lazily opened his eyes, which had returned to their normal amazing green colour, and slung his thin arms around Poppy, nodding his head. “Thank you, Aunt Poppy, I’m sorry for running away from Uncle Severus yesterday,” Harry said quietly.

“Do you want to eat breakfast in the Great Hall?”

Harry shook his head. “No, I’m not hungry.”

Poppy frowned. “Shall we eat breakfast here at home then?”

Harry nodded his head eagerly. “Yes, please.”

“All right.” Poppy sighed. “I want you to stay at home today and rest anyway. We can play together in the living room, or I can read you a book if you want. However, I’m sure you don’t want to miss the Welcoming Feast tonight, right?”

“I want to go to the Welcoming Feast. May I go and sit with Bill and Charlie then?”

“Yes, you may,” Poppy replied, smiling.

-----

In the afternoon, Harry and Poppy were sitting on the sofa reading books, when, after a brisk knock Severus entered the room. “I’m sorry to disturb you but I’d like to have a few words with Harry,” the man said softly.

“Oh, that’s good,” Poppy replied immediately. “In fact, I have a few things to do. I just didn’t want Harry to be alone. Sit down, Severus, you can talk here if you wish.”

Severus gave Poppy a grateful nod and sat down on the spot she had just vacated while Poppy bustled away. “Harry,” he quietly addressed the child. “Can you put away your book for a minute and listen to me?”

Harry carefully put his owl bookmark back into the book, making sure that the owl’s head and feet were lolling out on either side of the book. Then he nervously shoved his hands underneath his legs so that he was sitting on them and gave Severus an anxious glance.

“Very well, Harry. Now, listen to me please. There are many students in the castle. Now imagine that one of those you know but aren’t especially friends with does something really foolish and he or she was hurt. You’d think, ‘stupid boy’, right?”

Harry gave him a slight nod, unsure about where the professor’s speech was heading.

“Now, Harry, imagine that Bill, Charlie or Ms. Tonks did something very stupid landing himself or herself in the Hospital Wing, dangerously injured. Would you just think ‘They’re stupid’, or would you be very upset because you care and worry about them?”

Harry proceeded to play with his bookmark’s feet before he mumbled in such a small voice that Severus could barely understand him, “I’d probably be upset.”

“Exactly, Harry. You’d be upset because you care about the person and don’t want something to happen to her or him. Now, why do you think I was so angry that you hurt yourself so badly by doing something so foolish?”

“Because you care about me?” Harry mumbled, though it was a bit more coherent this time as he gazed at his uncle timidly.

“Exactly, Harry. I love you very much, and I would be devastated if something happened to you. What you did was so dangerous and I was so worried about you that I became very upset with you. I’m sorry for scolding you and not pointing this out in the first place,” Severus explained, keeping his voice soft.

Tears started to run down Harry’s cheeks and he threw himself at the man next to him. “I’m sorry, too,” Harry sobbed. “And I’m sorry for running away. I love you too, Uncle Severus.”

When Poppy returned to her living room an hour later she found Severus reading Harry’s book, even though Harry was fast asleep in Severus’ lap, a happy smile on the little boy’s lips.

-----

During the Sorting, Harry sat between Bill and Charlie, whispering to them eagerly. “Can you do me a favour?” he asked hesitantly.

“Of course, Harry. What do you want us to do?” Bill questioned astonished.

Harry threw an anxious glance around but deciding that there was no threat of a teacher being nearby he whispered, “I want you to search in the library for detailed information about the Fidelius Charm. Can you do that for me?”

The two boys stared in astonishment at the small boy but gave him a comforting nod. “Yes, Harry, but promise to tell us what you’re going to do before you do something dangerous, all right?”

“Yes,” Harry promised solemnly, a mischievous look on his face. “I will do that. Can you go to the library tomorrow?”

In the morning, Harry was awake very early. He was so excited. His last year of Playschool was going to start today, and Hermione would be there, too. He quickly crawled out of bed and climbed into Poppy’s bed. “Aunt Poppy, get up. Hurry! It’s morning, and I have to go to Playschool!”

“Oh, Harry dear, it’s only half past four in the morning, that’s much too early; let’s sleep a bit more,” Poppy answered lazily.

Harry turned around. Back in his room, he climbed onto a chair and pulled trousers, underwear, and a T-shirt out of his wardrobe. The T-shirt was red and had a dog, a stag, and a wolf on it as well as the text ‘come play with the Marauders’. Harry didn’t like this shirt at all. He knew that Uncle Sirius had given it to him for his birthday, but Aunt Poppy so far hadn’t managed to put the T-shirt on him. Harry put the shirt in front of him onto the floor and stared at it. Two minutes later, the T-shirt was dark blue with a slightly lighter water phoenix like his own Animagus form. The phoenix flew around the text, which now said, ‘Who wants to prank a Marauder?’

Very contentedly Harry dressed himself and left his room through the Hospital Wing, where he saw that the curtains were drawn around the bed nearest to Poppy’s office. Of course he knew that he wasn’t allowed to go further than the curtains but his curiosity got the upper hand and he quickly slid behind the curtain. Harry spotted an unfamiliar girl in the bed, obviously a first year who had to spend her first night in the Hospital wing. “Hi there,” Harry called out to the girl, who lazily opened her eyes. “I’m Harry. Who are you, and why are you here?”

“I’m Melanie, and I’m a Slytherin first year. Are you a first year too? You look very small.”

Harry smiled. “No, I’m only five, but I live here in the castle with my aunts and uncles. Are you sick?”

The girl blushed and hesitantly told him that she had a strange rash on her arms and that they didn’t know if it was an illness or an allergy or whatever. Harry stepped over to the girl and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Show me your arms,” he instructed the girl, who sat up and hesitantly held out her arms for him to see. “Don’t be afraid, I’ll try to help you, just don’t move your arms for a moment,” Harry said and seeing Melanie nod, he gripped her arms, one in each hand.

Completely oblivious to the fact that he wasn’t supposed to do any magic, Harry summoned his magic and concentrating on his hands, let the magic flow into her arms. Feeling utterly exhausted Harry released his grip on the girl’s arms and slowly opened his eyes. Melanie sat there, stunned, her eyes wandering between her now flawless arms and Harry.

“What did you do?” she asked with confusion.

“I healed you,” Harry answered as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “Sometimes I can heal people, but only with outside illness, not with inner diseases.”

“Do you think I can leave then?”

“I wouldn’t do that because Aunt Poppy and Uncle Severus would be very angry with you. You have to wait until Aunt Poppy lets you go. All right, I have to go to Playschool now. See you soon.”

-----

Harry quietly left the Hospital Wing and walked over to his classroom, astonished that nobody was there yet. He tiredly sat down on a chair and laid his head on the table in front of him. Two hours later, he woke up when Poppy shook his shoulders. “Harry, sweetie, what are you doing here? It’s still much too early. Let’s go to the Great Hall for breakfast. School will start in an hour; you have enough time.”

Harry hardly moved his head. “’m tired, don wan breakfast.”

Seeing that his eyes had closed again, Poppy sighed exasperated. She pointed her wand at the child, “Ennervate.” When Harry woke up again, she held a phial of Pepper-up Potion to his lips. “Drink this. You will either accompany me to breakfast, or I will put you back to bed where you will stay all day long,” she said sternly.

“Sorry, Aunt Poppy,” Harry replied yawning and stood up, slowly trailing after Poppy until they reached the Great Hall.

“Please go in and eat. I have to return to the Hospital Wing because I have a patient I must tend to,” Poppy told him and went on her way, muttering to herself about excited little boys.

In order to sit together with his aunt and uncles like he often did when he wasn’t feeling really well or was tired, Harry approached the Head table when he suddenly heard Bill and Charlie calling him over to the Gryffindor table.

When Harry sat down between Bill and Charlie, Bill handed him a small parchment. “Here, Harry. I’ve been in the library early this morning and have searched for your spell. What are you going to do with it? Do you really want to perform that? And shall I help you with it?”

Harry giggled before he whispered, “I want to do it on Uncle Sirius’ classroom!”

Charlie, who was just drinking his pumpkin juice, gasped and the juice spread all over the table. “You what!” he breathed.

“All right,” Bill whispered back. “Shall we do it immediately? I can cast the spell. It doesn’t seem to be difficult, and then we can have you as Secret Keeper.”

“But everyone will know when we leave the Great Hall now,” Harry replied anxiously.

“That’s all right. We can tell them you felt sick and had to sick up and I accompanied you.”

“All right,” Harry answered, already feeling very sick at the thought of facing his Aunt Poppy later.

“Now then let’s run,” Bill said, and the two of them quickly left the Great Hall.

Bill had to cast the Charm three times until it finally worked and he couldn’t see the door of the Defence classroom anymore. Harry only had to say, “I promise to keep the secret.” Nevertheless he felt his magic drain even more. They quickly ran back to breakfast, which fortunately wasn’t finished yet.

Harry threw an apologizing glance at the Head table from where several eyes were watching him and slowly resumed eating a few bites. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong, Harry?” he could hear Severus ask.

Before Harry could even think about what to reply, Charlie told the professor, “Harry felt sick and Bill brought him out of the Hall.”

Severus looked at Harry worriedly and repeated, “Harry, what’s wrong?”

Harry stood up and raised both arms, giving Severus a pleading look. Severus sighed and picked up the child. Harry tiredly lay his head on Severus’ shoulder and said, “Sorry, I did magic in the morning to help the girl in the Hospital Wing, and now I’m so tired and my head hurts. But don’t tell Aunt Poppy. I want to go to Playschool.”

Severus sighed. With Harry in his arms, he walked out of the Great Hall and entered an unused classroom. He sat Harry down before he quickly checked on him and sat on the chair next to Harry. “Harry,” he started, sighing. “What am I going to do with you? You knew that you weren’t supposed to do magic, but nevertheless you did Healing magic depleting your magic again. I cannot understand why you repeatedly do this without asking Poppy or I beforehand. Don’t you think that if Poppy or I wanted you to heal the girl that we’d have called you? But we didn’t want you to do such a thing because we know that you aren’t recovered enough to do Healing magic.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry replied quietly.

“You don’t have to be sorry; you just shouldn’t do it, especially as you know the consequences. I will give you a Pepper-up Potion, but I don’t know if that will be enough to bring you through your lessons. If not, tell Amelia and return to your room.”

Harry gratefully drank the Potion, feeling much more alert now. “Thank you, Uncle Severus.”

Severus accompanied him to the Playschool classroom. It was still quite early, and Amelia was the only one there. He made Harry sit down and quickly exchanged a few words with Amelia before he headed for his own classroom. A few minutes later, Harry’s friends started to enter the classroom. Harry gave Hermione a happy smile when she slipped into the chair next to him.

The minute Playschool ended, one of the House elves popped up in front of Amelia and handed her a message. “Harry,” she called the boy over after reading the message. “We have to go to the staff room for an urgent teachers’ meeting and I’ve been told to bring you along as Poppy will be there too.”

“Do I have to go, Amelia? I’m tired and want to go home.”

“You can sleep over there Harry, no problem.”

When they arrived in the staff room, Poppy hadn’t arrived yet but Severus was there, and Harry didn’t hesitate an instant before he climbed onto Severus’ lap, leaned against the teacher, and closed his eyes. In spite of the long nap he had taken during lunchtime he was already half asleep when the meeting started.

“Care to explain why we’re meeting here on the first day of lessons, Albus?” Severus drawled.

“I shall leave the explanation to Sirius,” the Headmaster answered, motioning his younger colleague to speak.

“My classroom is gone,” Sirius blurted out.

“Gone?” Minerva asked incredulously.

“Yes, I can’t see the doors to the classroom. Even in my office, the door has vanished.”

“Sirius, do you think it’s the right time to keep us busy by playing a prank on us?” Remus asked, outraged.

“Really, Sirius, that’s not funny,” Flitwick agreed.

Harry lazily opened an eye. “What’s the problem? The Defence classroom is on the right side of Uncle Sirius’ office, isn’t it? What’s changed?”

“Nothing, Harry, it’s all right. Go back to sleep,” Severus said calmingly, and Harry obediently closed his eyes.

“Now, it doesn’t make much sense to talk about the matter here. Let’s go and see if the room has really vanished,” Albus suggested and the teachers left the room with Severus carrying a clingy Harry.

“We should put up Hourglasses for teachers in either the staff room or the Great Hall,” Minerva said sternly when the procession reached the Defence classroom. “The classroom is right there. That’s not funny, Sirius!”

“But I swear, it wasn’t there before!” Sirius insisted.

“All right, now, our meeting is adjourned. I shall see you at dinner,” Albus threw in, shaking his head at Sirius.

-----

It was not until the next morning that Sirius noticed none of his students could see the classroom either.

As there wasn’t any other classroom nearby that was as huge and safe for the Defence practise as the Defence classroom, Sirius took his students out onto the ground. However, as the weeks passed, it became colder and colder and it started to become rainy, too. Sirius was not very pleased about the prank someone was obviously playing on him.

A few days after he had cast the Fidelius Charm, Bill made Harry write on a small piece of parchment, ‘Defence classroom, right of Defence office.’ He carefully watched that the letters Harry wished on the parchment were not Harry’s normal writing, so that nobody could recognize who had written the message. During the next weeks, Bill and Charlie carefully showed the message to certain groups of students, so that at the beginning of November when it snowed for the first time, about half of the students were able to enter the Defence classroom.

After the first snow, Harry started to feel really bad about what they had done. He had noticed that Uncle Sirius had caught a bad cold and knew that in fact it was his fault because his actions had forced the teacher to hold his lessons outside in the cold. One day, he spoke to Bill and Charlie about the matter. “Do you know if there’s a way to cancel the Charm?”

Bill frowned. “Yes, there should be a Counter Charm but frankly speaking I don’t know it. Charlie and I have already spent a few hours in the library searching for the Counter but we haven’t found anything yet. Maybe we should just let your piece of parchment go around a little more until all the students know the room,” he suggested.

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Harry agreed. “I feel really bad about it. However, I’d like to play more pranks on Uncle Sirius.”

Bill raised an eyebrow. “I’ve heard about you playing pranks together with my twin brothers. Are you now trying to make Charlie and me pranksters?”

Harry laughed. “No, but it’s funny, and as long as the teachers are stupid enough not to catch us and as long as it doesn’t really harm anyone…” he slowly trailed off.

-----

At every single staff meeting that Harry attended, sooner or later the topic turned to the Defence classroom. “Ahhh,” Sirius sighed one day in November. “It was freezing cold outside, and when we started our lesson a lot of students complained, telling me they already had to see Poppy because they got a cold during our last Defence lesson.” He let out a big sneeze. “Anyway, when I asked them where they suggest we should go, they told me to go into the Defence classroom. And when I asked ‘Can you see it then?’ they told me, ‘Yes, of course, why not?’ All right, we tried it out, and indeed more than half of them were able to enter the room. I told the other half to stay outside and at least listen but later they told me they couldn’t hear anything. When I tried to make them follow the lesson from my office, it was the same.”

“That sounds as if the room is under the Fidelius Charm,” Albus said pensively. “But why do half of the students know the secret and the other half don’t?”

“Can it be a prank of one of the students?” Minerva asked.

“If it is, then it must be seventh years,” Albus replied immediately. “It affords a lot of magic for the caster and even more for the Secret Keeper. Maybe we should teach the students the counter course, so that the culprits can end their prank.”

“No!” Remus contradicted. “It can’t be the Fidelius. Nobody showed me the information about the whereabouts of the Defence classroom. Nevertheless, I know where it is.”

Severus let out a loud sigh. He now knew who the Secret Keeper was, but he swore to himself that nobody would get this information from him.

Sirius threw him an angry glance and exploded. “What is it, Snivellus? Care to tell who’s been fooling the whole school for months? Do you think it’s funny to have Defence lessons out on the grounds? Achoo, achoo.”

“My students in fact told me that they were enjoying it very much,” Minerva threw in, smiling. She promised herself that she would commend the culprit whenever she got hold of him or her secretly for a well-done prank – and for managing to prank the greatest prankster Hogwarts had ever seen.

“It’s this person’s fault that I’m sick from teaching outside in the cold all the time, and still Snivellus is going to cover him,” Sirius shouted.

Poppy felt Harry nestling deeper into her robe. “Sirius, behave yourself. Harry is five years old, and nothing gives you the right to shout in front of the child. Look how frightened he is,” Poppy scolded the teacher. She pulled a phial of Pepper-up Potion out of her robes and handed it to Sirius. “Here, take this and go to bed. We will think further about the matter.”

“And moreover, behave yourself, Sirius. Your colleague’s name is Severus as you well know. I don’t want to hear you calling Severus names anymore,” Albus said sternly. He waved his hand in the direction of the door, and suddenly on the wall just beside the door Hourglasses like those for the four Houses appeared. However, they were smaller and there were just as many as there were teachers at Hogwarts. Each glass had a name on the top and red and blue marbles were hovering over the glasses. Everyone’s glass showed the number ‘zero’, only the glass named ‘Sirius’ held two red marbles and showed ‘minus two’.

“Ooh,” Sibyl Trelawney’s voice could be heard. “My inner eye sees Sirius scrubbing the Great Hall floor with a tooth brush and I see little Harry helping him.”

Minerva let out a short snort but that was the only sign Trelawney’s prediction had been heard at all.

“Oh, thank you Albus, then hopefully you won’t miss what Severus is teaching Harry about Remus and me, he…” Fortunately, the rest of what he was going to say was overturned by a coughing fit; otherwise additional red marbles would have fallen into his glass for implying that Severus was speaking ill of his colleagues.

Albus waved his hand in the direction of the Hourglasses once more and told the others, “By the way, only Minerva and I are able to give or take points – just for your information.”

Remus stood up, picked up the potion from the table, giving Poppy a grateful nod, and pulled Sirius out of the room.

“Now, Albus. Did we have any relevant items to discuss tonight or was it just a way of wasting our time?” Severus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I just wanted to discuss the dates for the Hogsmeade weekends, but it’s already dinner time, so we can speak about it the next time,” Minerva spoke up.

“Then let’s finish this conversation and head to the Great Hall,” Albus said, popping a lemon drop into his mouth.

-----

“Poppy, may I borrow Harry for a minute?” Severus asked softly, approaching the Medi-witch.

“Harry, are you still awake?” Poppy asked softly, nudging the small boy. “I’m not sure why but recently he’s always very tired,” she explained to her colleague.

“Hmm?” Harry asked lazily, turning his head.

“Harry, may I speak to you for a minute, please?” Severus turned to Poppy. “I will bring him with me to the Great Hall.”

In the meantime everyone else had left, and as soon as Poppy had closed the door after her Severus quickly threw a Silencing Spell around Harry and himself. “Harry!”

“Hmm?”

“Please tell me something: Are you the Secret Keeper?”

Harry gave Severus an utterly shocked glance.

“Harry, don’t panic, it’s all right. I promise that I won’t tell anyone, all right? I can only secretly commend you for a really well done prank. But if you tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny everything and give you a detention.”

Harry threw the teacher an anxious smile.

“However,” Severus continued, and the child’s smile vanished from his face. “Don’t you think it’s time to cancel the spell?”

“Yes, Uncle Severus, I think so, but…” He trailed off.

“But?”

“But… they don’t know the spell.” It was barely a whisper that came out of the boy’s mouth.

“They?”

Harry looked anxious.

Seeing that the child was ready to panic again, Severus relented. “It’s all right, Harry. I don’t need to know who did this with you. However, if something like that happens to the Potions classroom, I shall ask you under Veritaserum.” Severus put a hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Now, don’t cry. Remember, we have to go to dinner soon. What do you think your grandparents and Poppy will do if you show up with red eyes after a short conversation with me?”

Harry offered Severus a mischievous grin. “You’ll tell them that it was me that did the prank?”

“Correct. Now,” he wrote a few words on a small parchment. “Give this to your friends, so that they can cancel the Charm. By the way, am I right to assume that the original idea was yours?”

Harry nodded. “When I was sick you told me that Sirius and his friends had always pranked you in school, and I wanted to get back at him. I’d love to prank him some more though,” he admitted, his voice getting so soft that Severus could barely read from his lips what the boy was saying.

Severus smirked. He had promised to himself to never do Legilimency on the boy without his consent and he would keep this promise. However, it would only take him two minutes watching the child in the Great Hall to know who did the prank with Harry.

Harry suddenly thought of something. “Uncle Severus?” he asked hesitantly and continued when the teacher gave him an enquiring look. “How did you know that it was me?”

Severus smirked. “In the first staff meeting, after Sirius had told us that he couldn’t find his classroom anymore, you told everyone where it was. Therefore all teachers could see the room – because you, the secret keeper, had told them.”

“Oh, all right,” Harry said nervously. ‘Will everyone else know too then?’ he thought worriedly.

“All right, let’s go, Harry. And don’t tell any of the other teachers about our conversation.”

Arriving in the Great Hall, Harry made a bee-line for the Gryffindor table, where Bill and Charlie made space for him between them. Harry handed Bill the piece of parchment and whispered eagerly to the two boys, not noticing that amused onyx eyes were watching him from the Head table.

-----

On the next day, Bill and Harry cancelled the Charm. However, two weeks before the start of the Christmas holidays, Sirius had yet to notice that the Charm had been cancelled.

In the staff meeting, he threw another temper tantrum. “Next week is the test week, we can’t do tests outside, now, can we?” he ranted.

“Can’t you do the tests in another unused classroom?” Minerva asked reproachfully.

“The written tests, yes, of course, but not the practical tests!” Sirius shouted angrily. “Anyway, the student who did this has to be expelled immediately!”

“And how do you plan to find out who it was?” Minerva asked curiously. “Do you want to question all students under Veritaserum?”

“Yes!”

“Are you sure that the room is still under a Charm or something? Are you trying on a regular basis?” Severus drawled.

“Oh, shut up, Snivellus! Or do you know something about it?”

A hand slammed down on the table and Harry, who was lying on the floor reading a book, could hear his grandfather’s voice. “Now! That’s enough, Sirius! You will apologize to Severus immediately!”

Harry smirked at the red marble falling into Sirius’ Hourglass. He sat up and watched the teachers. He hated loud voices because his ears hurt easily by loud shouting and Sirius was always shouting in the staff meetings. Before Sirius could even open his mouth to apologize to Severus, his face turned green. His hair turned bright red, and two red devil’s horns sprouted from his head.

The room instantly exploded with laughter. “What?” Sirius asked, looking around confused.”

Remus conjured a mirror and held it in front of his friend.

“Who did this? Do you think it’s funny?” he shouted again. Noticing that everyone was smiling at something behind him, he turned around and saw his godson.

“Harry!”

“Sorry,” Harry mumbled and scurried to the other side of the table where he stood behind Poppy and Severus.

“Sorry is not enough! You should not do such a thing to a teacher!” Sirius scolded. “Harry, you will spend a week cleaning my classroom without magic, every day between the end of your last lesson and dinner. Do you understand me?”

Harry shook his head and said, “No! I don’t have time between my last lesson and dinner; I have to do my homework.”

“Then after dinner,” Sirius offered angrily.

“No!” Harry replied firmly. “After dinner, I’m not allowed to do anything but go to bed.”

“Then you will do it on the weekends.”

Harry stamped his feet peevishly. “No! I won’t do it at all. You have played many pranks too when you were a student, and you have been mean to Uncle Severus all the time when you were at school. I won’t clean the classroom! I don’t like being shouted at – it makes my ears hurt, and you’re shouting every time in the staff meeting,” he added in a smaller voice before he climbed onto Poppy’s lap and nestled into her robes, tiredly closing his eyes.

The teachers sat there, stunned until Flitwick felt sorry for Sirius and cancelled the spell.

“Harry,” Minerva sternly addressed her grandson to no effect.

“He’s fast asleep,” Poppy told her friend, still stunned about the child’s behaviour.

“Ah, all right. His rude behaviour was probably caused by tiredness I suppose,” Minerva said. “In fact, I’d like to commend him for a priceless Transfiguration prank,” she continued, laughing. “However, he has to learn that he can’t behave like this towards a teacher.”

-----

One day in spring, Harry approached Severus. “Uncle Severus, Playschool is boooring.”

“But you love going to Playschool, don’t you?” Severus asked astonished.

“I like to meet my friends, is all,” Harry insisted. “And Hermione thinks it’s boring too.”

Severus snorted. “I can believe that. She’s just as much a bookworm as you are, right?”

Harry nodded and looked expectantly at his uncle. “Yes, but the others can’t even read yet, and Amelia won’t teach us anything. All we do is colouring and such, even our homework is only colouring.”

Severus thought for a moment. He could understand Harry only too well. It had to be boring for such a bright child. Maybe he could teach them easy Potions during his free periods?

“Maybe I could teach you some more Potions during my free periods if Hermione is interested as well. However, I would have to talk about this with Albus, Minerva, and Poppy as well as Hermione’s parents.”

Fortunately, everyone agreed, and a few days later, Amelia handed Hermione and Harry a note saying that they had Potions tutoring three times a week instead of their last afternoon class. Severus realized very quickly that Hermione was as adept in Potions as Harry was, and at the end of the school year it only took a bit of help for the two children to be able to brew first years’ Potions.

Hermione and Harry loved their Potions lessons and were devastated when the summer holidays began. They begged Severus so much about continuing their tutoring during the holidays, promising that they would do anything to help the teacher catching up for his lost time that Severus finally relented.

Severus arranged with Poppy and Hermione’s parents to teach the children every morning. Hermione took the Floo to Poppy’s house directly after breakfast, so that the children could walk up to the castle together.

Normally, Severus made them brew a Potion first. Afterwards, he let them help with whatever he was doing. Most times they had to prepare ingredients, a task, which was as important as the brewing itself, and Severus wanted them to learn the proper way of handling the ingredients. After spending the whole morning in the dungeons, the children had lunch in the Great Hall together with the handful of remaining teachers before they headed back to Hogsmeade to wait for their other friends to come over to play.

One day after the two children had gone home Minerva shook her head at Severus. “If someone had told me that you would willingly teach two toddlers Potions during the summer holidays, I’d have sent that person to St. Mungo’s.”

Severus smirked. “You should know by now that Harry is like a son to me. Moreover, he reminds me immensely of my own childhood, and both children are extremely adept at Potions. I can tell already that they will excel in their Potions NEWTs. By the beginning of the new school year they will be ready to brew the easiest of Poppy’s Healing Potions. I intend for Harry to become proficient at those.”

“Of course,” Albus nodded. “As a Natural Healer, it is likely that Harry will continue healing in the future. It would be a great advantage if he was proficient at brewing the Potions he needs, in addition to his innate skill. Very good suggestion, my boy.”

“Indeed,” Severus sneered.

-----

“Aunt Poppy,” Harry called his aunt, “Can you come out here for a moment please?”

Poppy went out into the garden, where Harry and his friends were obviously plotting something. She looked around curiously.

Hermione was the first to speak up. “You remember we did that play last year for Amelia’s wedding, right? We’d like to do something like that again.”

“Can we?” the other children chimed in.

“Hmm. There is no wedding this year though. I suppose you could just practise a play to show your parents as you did last year. Hmm?”

“Yeah,” the children squealed happily.

“Maybe we could do the play at the Welcoming Feast on September 1st,” Charlie threw in.

“That’s a good idea,” Poppy agreed. “Last year I already thought the children of the Playschool and the Primary school should attend the Welcoming Feast too. However, that’s not something I can decide. Let me talk to the Headmaster or the Deputy Headmistress tonight, and I will tell you their answer tomorrow.”

She glanced at the excited faces around her and asked, “Do you have an idea what kind of play you want to do?”

“We could do something concerning Potions and at the same time have the House elves put a Potion in everyone’s drink, so that at the end of the play everyone has turned into an animal or whatever,” Harry suggested slyly.

Deafening laughter was the answer. “Yeah, let’s do that,” Harry’s friends shouted happily.

“Yeah, but,” Harry continued solemnly. “I don’t have an idea how to do such a thing.”

“Oh, Harry, dear, let me think about it. I’m sure we’ll be able to manage something about the play. Concerning the Potion, I will speak with Severus and he can help you brew a suitable Potion. That shouldn’t be a problem.”

-----

One day, Severus released Hermione and Harry motioning them to head along to the Great Hall, saying that he would follow in a few minutes. Harry and Hermione walked up the way from the dungeons, talking animatedly.

“Your uncle is great, do you know that? To the outside he seems like a mean git of a professor but when you know him better he’s really cute.”

“Cute?” Harry shouted, horrified. “Um… by the way, Hermione,” he changed the topic, noticing that they had already arrived at the Entrance Hall. “I need to run up to my room to get something. You go to lunch; I’ll be there in a few minutes’ time.”

Hermione gave him a curious glance but nodded nevertheless and entered the Great Hall. Harry ran up to where the office of the Grey Lady was and hesitantly entered the office.

“Hello, my many times grandson, how nice of you to pay me a visit,” Rowena greeted him kindly.

“Hello, Grandmother Rowena,” Harry replied and sat down on the offered seat. “Um… I have something I would like to speak about with you,” Harry said hesitantly, unsure about what the stern lady would think about his idea. “You know, I have this idea… Um… I’d liketoprankthewholeschool,” he finished hurriedly.

The ghost laughed. “You didn’t assume that I could understand your babbling now did you?”

Harry blushed deeply and repeated, “I’d like to prank the whole school.”

Rowena snorted. “And you believe that I am the right person to confide in?”

“Hmm. No, not exactly,” Harry admitted. “However, I can’t do it by myself and I thought you might agree to help me,” he elaborated quietly.

They talked for another ten minutes, and in the end the Grey Lady promised to help Harry and to do what he had asked. “On September 3rd, right?” Rowena confirmed once more.

“Yes, please. Thank you so much! Sorry, I have to run now,” Harry replied and hurried down to the Great Hall.

-----

“Harry, where have you been?” Hermione shouted exasperated.

“Uh, sorry, I was looking for a book, but I just couldn’t find it,” Harry answered absentmindedly. “It’s probably at home, although I couldn’t find it there either. That’s why I was searching for it here.”

“Maybe you should clean up your room a bit, Harry, hmm?” Minerva asked sternly.

Harry threw his grandmother an utterly shocked glance.

Minerva laughed. “You know, Harry, that we teachers always meet at Poppy’s place in the evening, right?”

Oh, yes, he knew that. Harry nodded, nervously pushing his food around the plate.

“Last night, I went to check on you because you were snoring so loud. But when I entered your room, I could hardly walk! With the train and all your toys strewn about, there was barely space to set a foot onto the floor.”

Harry blushed deeply while Hermione jumped into the conversation. “But that’s not Harry’s fault, Professor. You know it has been raining for a week now, and we have been playing in his room with more than ten people every day. We built up a whole town around the train track and we didn’t want to tear it down right away.”

Harry gave his best friend a grateful smile. “Aunt Poppy is going to make me clean up on Saturday morning anyway.”

-----

For his birthday, Harry received a book from Draco, ‘Easy Potions for Pranksters’. Harry and Hermione immediately looked through the book and found a potion that made the drinker sprout parrot feathers on their heads.

“That sounds great, but does it say when it’ll wear off?” Neville asked anxiously.

“Yes, it depends on how much wing fern you insert. With five grams it will only last for fifteen minutes,” Hermione replied.

The next day, Hermione and Harry endeavoured to convince Severus to let them brew the potion. After hearing what they intended to do the professor agreed that it would be funny and he assisted the children in brewing the fairly simple potion. They filled up two phials of it, determined to test the potion on their friends first. Severus also helped Hermione and Harry writing the play together.

During the next weeks, the friends practised their play nearly every afternoon, and when they showed their play to the whole school after the Welcoming Feast they received a huge applause from students and teachers in spite of the fact that many of them were sitting there with parrot feathers sprouting from their heads.

-----

The next day was Harry’s first day of Primary school. On one hand, he was very glad to finally be able to learn something. However, as nice as Mrs. Weasley was Harry missed Amelia terribly. After lunch he went to Amelia, climbed onto her lap and nestled into her robes like he always did on Poppy’s lap.

“What’s wrong, Harry? Didn’t you enjoy your first day at Primary school?” Amelia asked surprised.

She felt Harry shaking his head. “No, I miss you,” Harry whispered.

“Oh, I’m sorry, sweetie, but I can’t do anything about it, and I’m sure Mrs. Weasley is very nice, too.”

“No,” Harry sobbed. “She’s always scolding the twins and shouts at them all the time.”

Knowing that Harry was very sensitive about shouting, Amelia wondered how she could possibly help Harry without Mrs. Weasley knowing about it. “I’ll see if I can do something about that,” she promised.

When Harry went to bed that evening, he was much too excited to sleep. In the morning, the school would be in for a nice surprise.

Just before curfew on the evening of the first day of classes, parchments appeared in each of the Common rooms.

It has been decided to introduce a short early morning exercise program for ALL students starting tomorrow morning at before breakfast.

All students are required to meet on the Quidditch pitch at six-thirty in the morning. Failure to appear will lead to the deduction of House points.

The Headmistress

“Has Dumbledore gone nuts? Or has he retired and McGonagall is Headmistress now?”

“And what does it mean morning exercise? Do we have to do sports outside every morning now? The whole staff seems to have gone crazy over the holidays.”

Many of such nice comments could be heard throughout the four Houses that evening.

Harry was peacefully asleep and the teachers were having tea in Poppy’s office oblivious to the commotion in their Houses.

-----

In the morning, the students arrived just in time on the Quidditch pitch. A few of them were only half dressed yet but nobody could say they hadn’t participated to the morning exercise. At exactly six-thirty the Grey Lady appeared on the grounds.

“Good morning, students,” the ghost addressed the students, smiling.

A tired ‘good morning’ was the response.

“Oh, no no no! I’m sure you can do that better,” Rowena told the mass. “Please say ‘Good morning, Professor Ravenclaw,’ now.”

“Good morning, Professor Ravenclaw.”

“That was much better. No, we will run five times around the lake. Please follow me.”

The ghost started hovering around the lake, and the students obediently followed the founder’s ghost. Angry voices but also amazed voices could be heard among the students. When everyone had finished the five rounds, Rowena let the students assemble on the Quidditch pitch with their backs toward the castle. She proceeded to show them a few exercises she wanted them to practise.

---

As requested by the person he thought about as his little master, Skippy came early in the morning to wake Harry, who immediately averted his eyes to the enchanted window noticing that the whole school seemed to have assembled on the grounds. Harry was still pondering whether he should join the students or stay inside the castle when Poppy entered his room, astonished that he was already awake.

“Good morning, sweetie, everything all right?” Poppy asked, placing a kiss on Harry’s forehead.

“Good morning, Aunt Poppy,” Harry replied. He scooted to the edge of his bed and motioned Poppy to sit next to him and cuddle for a moment. Normally, being cuddled by Poppy ended in a tickling attack which Harry enjoyed immensely.

---

Oblivious to everyone else, while leading the students in exercises, Rowena concentrated on the Kakure Spell, a Mirage Spell she and Harry had agreed to use on the castle this morning. In order to use the spell however, she had to tap into Harry’s core magic, which she was able to do because he was her heir and had agreed to the plan in advance.

---

When the whole castle slowly faded from sight in front of the students’ eyes, Harry could suddenly feel his magic drain away. He knew immediately that Rowena had proceeded to fulfil their plan but he hadn’t expected to feel so horrible. He groaned inwardly. Rowena and he had agreed to hold the Charm in place until just a few minutes before curfew, which was still fifteen hours away.

Poppy noticed that Harry stiffened in her arms and watched him worriedly. “Harry, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t feel good,” Harry replied and lay back onto his bed. He closed his eyes and tried to summon his Healing magic to let it flow into his head but it just didn’t work. ‘Oh, why did I have to do that prank? And why didn’t Rowena tell me that it would be so strenuous for me?’

“Harry, you can’t go to classes today, you are ill,” Poppy told him.

“I’m fine,” Harry protested, “it’s just a bit of a headache.” There was no way he was going to miss all the fun!

“No,” Poppy said sternly. “You’re running a fever, and you will stay in bed until I say otherwise. Now try to sleep a bit more, and then you can eat breakfast.” She handed Harry two potions, and he felt better immediately.

---

On the Quidditch pitch, the first students had already noticed that the castle was no longer in sight. They quickly alerted the others, and now everyone was standing on the grounds, stunned, looking in the direction in which they supposed the castle to be.

“Professor Ravenclaw, do you know what happened to the castle?” one of the prefects turned to the ghost. However, the Grey Lady had already returned to her office wondering if Harry was all right.

---

Knowing that it was no use arguing with Poppy, Harry shut up. However, as soon as Poppy had returned to her office muttering something about several students already being in the wing, Harry transformed into his phoenix form and flashed into the Entrance Hall. As he walked to the Head table he saw that only three students were sitting at the House tables. He absentmindedly pushed his food around his plate, listening to the teachers’ conversation.

“What happened to the students? Minerva, perhaps you could ask the two students at the Gryffindor table about the whereabouts of their classmates,” Albus suggested.

Minerva stood up immediately, walking up to her House’s table. “Where are your House mates?” she asked briskly.

“We have no idea, Professor. We had to spend the night in the Hospital Wing and were just released in time for breakfast.”

Frowning the professor returned to the Head table.

“Harry, you haven’t by chance asked the House elves to put a Sleeping Potion into the pumpkin juice last night, now have you?” Severus asked sternly, watching the child closely.

“No,” Harry replied, slightly offended.

“Come here to me, please, Harry,” Severus admonished, noticing that the child wasn’t his normal cheerful self. He pulled the boy up onto his lap, feeling the heat of Harry’s sweaty feverish skin. “Harry, you’re ill. Come on, let’s put you back to bed.”

“I know,” Harry mumbled. “Aunt Poppy told me to stay in bed but I didn’t want to miss classes.”

“Oh, Harry,” Amelia threw in. “I will tell Mrs. Weasley that you can’t attend classes today, and I’ll bring you your homework later if you want.”

Too weak to protest Harry let Severus take him back to his room where Poppy glared daggers at him. Severus tucked Harry in and sat on the edge of his bed. When his gaze wandered to the charmed window, He noticed that the missing students were apparently gathered on the Quidditch pitch.

“Look, Poppy. The students are all outside. I’ll have to go and see what is happening.”

“No, Uncle Severus,” Harry began to whine. “Stay with me for a while, please.”

Severus gave Harry an astonished glance, not able to resist the too bright green eyes. “All right, Harry. However, in thirty minutes I have to leave for my first lesson.”

“All right,” Harry mumbled and laid his head on his uncle’s lap.

“Severus, if you’re staying with Harry, I’ll go to the Great Hall for a late breakfast and I’ll tell the others about the students being outside,” Poppy told her colleague quietly, who gave her an appreciative nod.

When Poppy entered the Great Hall, her colleagues were in a bit of an uproar. The Headmaster had sent Professors Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall to their Houses to see if the students were still asleep but all three Heads had returned with the news that all their students were gone.

“I know where the students are,” Poppy spoke up, putting a pancake onto her plate. “Severus saw them from Harry’s window. They seem to be out on the Quidditch pitch.”

Remus stood up immediately. “I will go and ask what they are doing.”

“Thank you, Remus,” Albus acknowledged.

---

The students didn’t know what they should think. The castle had vanished right in front of their eyes, and there was not a single teacher with them except for Hagrid, who had joined them a few minutes ago. But he had no idea what had happened either.

Suddenly, Remus appeared out of thin air. “Professor Lupin, what’s wrong with the castle?” a dozen voices clamoured loudly.

“Wait, please. What should be wrong? Nothing is wrong apart from the fact that you are all outside, while the teachers are waiting for you in the Great Hall,” Remus replied sternly.

“Ooh, look around, professor. The castle is gone!” someone shouted.

Remus turned around and groaned. “Doesn’t that look like the prank with Professor Black’s classroom last year?”

“Oh, that’s right. Professor, what can we do? We haven’t even had breakfast.”

Remus frowned. “Binky!” he called and a House elf popped up in front of him. “Can you please bring breakfast out here for everyone?”

Five minutes later, the House elves had prepared long tables that were overflowing with food, and the whole school sat down for breakfast on the grounds.

---

Ten minutes later Remus had yet to come back to the Great Hall. “I’ll go looking for Remus,” Sirius promised and went out of the Hall but did not return.

“Does it make sense to head to our classrooms?” Flitwick asked suddenly.

“As long as the students are outside and everyone who heads outside won’t come back it doesn’t make any sense I suppose,” Minerva answered briskly. “Frankly speaking this all feels like a prank.”

“But if it is, it must be someone who is inside the castle, right?” Albus agreed.

“There were only three students here, so maybe we could question them,” Flitwick suggested.

“And Harry,” Amelia added frowning.

“Harry is ill. He seems to have a head cold or something similar, so he is in no condition to play pranks today,” Poppy objected firmly.”

“I will go and see if the Playschool and Primary students and Mrs. Weasley have come,” Amelia excused herself.

“And I will return to my office and send Severus down to you,” Poppy muttered, bustling away.

Albus waved his wand at the farther wall of the Great Hall and a huge window appeared, looking straight onto the grounds in front of the Entrance Doors. The teachers went over to the window. “Look, there are Remus and Sirius. What are they doing? Are they just walking around?” Minerva asked incredulously.

The Headmaster cast a Sonorus Charm on himself and shouted, “Remus!” Receiving no reaction, he shouted again, “Sirius!” Glancing around the grounds, he called the students, “All students, come over here please!”

“They obviously cannot hear you,” Minerva stated. She noticed Severus arriving and waved him over. “Severus, can I speak to you privately for a minute?”

“Of course,” Severus replied, raising an eyebrow at his older colleague.

When Minerva led him to the small room adjoining the Great Hall, she asked straight away, “Who is responsible for the prank with the Fidelius Charm last year?”

“I promised not to tell anyone, Minerva,” Severus stated, smirking.

“Severus, I promise that I won’t tell anyone, I won’t scold the student, I just want to know. You see, last year it was fun, but pranking the whole school is a bit too much, don’t you think?”

“Yes, I fully agree with you, Minerva. However, last year it was Harry, but it can’t be him today.”

“Harry?” Minerva gasped. “Please do tell him that I want to congratulate him for a brilliant prank!” She watched as the edges of Severus’ mouth pulled slightly upwards.

---

Harry was lying in bed watching the commotion on the grounds. Feeling absolutely awful he was thinking about how to contact the Grey Lady in order to revoke the Charm earlier than planned. He tried hard to remember the name of the House elf he could call in order to contact the Grey Lady. However, he just couldn’t come up with the name. Finally, he called Skippy.

Skippy appeared in a blink. “What can Skippy dos for Master Harry?”

“Skippy, please don’t let Aunt Poppy see you. Could you please…”

At that instant, Poppy entered the room and Skippy turned invisible. Poppy talked to Harry for a few minutes before she handed him a potion, which made Harry sleep immediately.

---

The students stayed on the grounds for the rest of the day. Half an hour before the start of curfew, Albus ordered the House elves to put tents out on the ground for the students to sleep in, each equipped with a small bath as well as ten sleeping bags. While at first everything seemed to be funny, in the meantime the students had become very annoyed with what obviously seemed to be a prank. They happily entered the tents and tried to sleep. Only a few students were still walking around the grounds, suddenly noticing that the castle came back into view.

A few teachers had remained in the Great Hall, drinking tea, talking, and wondering about what was happening for the whole day, while the others had joined Remus and Sirius on the grounds to supervise and teach the students. After dinner, the teachers, who had remained inside, had returned to their own quarters except for Minerva, Amelia, Poppy, and Severus, who sat in Harry’s room, where they could watch the grounds from the enchanted window.

Harry had slept through the rest of the day oblivious to the fact that the teachers spent the evening in his room watching the students outside and throwing worried looks at him from time to time. A few times he woke up, noticed that someone was sitting on the edge of his bed, but without the energy to communicate with anyone he always went back to sleep after mere seconds.

-----

When Harry woke up in the morning, he saw immediately that the grounds were full with lots of green tents. Feeling much better now, he was sure that Rowena had cancelled the Charm overnight. He crawled out of his bed, looked for clothes to wear, and had just started to dress himself when Severus entered the room.

“What do you think you’re doing, Harry?” Severus asked surprised.

“I’m getting dressed. Look, it’s already seven o’clock and Primary school is going to start soon. I don’t know where Aunt Poppy is,” Harry explained. He left his clothes on the floor and ran over to his favourite uncle, trying to hug the tall man.

Severus put a hand on the child’s forehead. “No, Harry, you may not go to school today. You’re still not well and you have to stay in bed.”

“No!” Harry replied indignantly. “I’m fine and I’m going to school!”

“No, Harry, you will not. Aunt Poppy is busy in the infirmary, and she asked me to look after you and tell you to stay in bed.”

“No! I.will.not. I couldn’t see my friends yesterday but I want to see them today. What’s that outside? Why are there so many tents?”

“Yesterday, someone played a prank on all students and they couldn’t get into the castle. So the House elves prepared tents for them to sleep in. I hope that they’ll be able to get inside now. Therefore, there was no Primary school yesterday, and you didn’t miss anything. It was a good timing to become ill, otherwise several people would have thought that you had played the prank. They still don’t know who it was though. Now, back to bed with you.”

Harry shook his head and went back to where his clothes lay. He pulled his T-shirt over his head and just began to put his socks on when Severus picked him up and put him onto his bed. “Now, you will stay here. Try to move once and I will put a Charm on you, so that you will wish you didn’t know me.”

“No! I.am.going.to.school!” Harry shouted angrily. When he tried to get up he soon found out that he couldn’t budge. Hot tears started to run down his cheeks while he feverishly thought about what to do now. Suddenly he had an idea. He summoned his magic, noticing that he still felt very weak, and transformed into his phoenix form.

#I’m sorry, Uncle Severus, but I am going to school today# he trilled, well knowing that his uncle wouldn’t understand a word of his trills. The instant he flashed away he saw that the professor’s face had taken on an unusual red colour.

In a splash of water, phoenix Harry landed on the grounds. He quickly transformed back into his human form and curiously glanced into the tent next to him. He was lucky – it was the tent in which Bill and his friends had stayed.

“Hey Harry,” Bill called him over. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I was just wandering what these tents were,” Harry told the older boy.

“Haven’t you been here yesterday?” Bill asked astonished. “I looked for you but I couldn’t see you anywhere. We couldn’t get back into the castle and had to stay here. I don’t know if it’s possible now but as we can see the castle now it should be all right.”

“Wow, that’s strange. Do you know what the reason was?”

“No, nobody knows I think. They believe it to be a prank but how and from whom I don’t know.” Noticing that Harry was shivering he added, “Now, let’s try to get in and head for breakfast.”

Harry shook his head and told Bill that he had escaped Professor Snape and that he couldn’t be seen in the Great Hall.

“All right then, shall we go to the kitchen?” Bill’s friend Tom suggested and the three boys quietly entered the castle and had breakfast in the kitchen. From their spot at the kitchen table, which was directly under the Head table of the Great Hall, they could exactly hear what happened in the Hall.

After a few minutes, many students seemed to enter the Great Hall. When the House elves were still waiting for the signal to send the food up to the House tables, the Headmaster stood and addressed the students.

“Listen, Dumbledore’s speaking,” Tom whispered.

“Yesterday, we all have been played a very bad prank. Fortunately or unfortunately, we have found out who the culprit was…”