When Madam Pomfrey turned to welcome her guest she stopped dead at her tracks. Her smile faded and she stared at the living creature that stood before her. The two dark circles around his beetle-black eyes seemed darker due to the face’s extremely pale colour and the marks of pure exhaustion that were drawn on his face made the man look like he was suffering from an incurable sickness. That day; the shoulders that held Professor Severus Snape’s head proudly high, were bend making him seem a bit shorter and weaker. Inside his arms a worn-out baby was sleeping peacefully.Her Healer’s instincts took over. After all you were born a Healer; not made one. Taking baby Harry from his hands; she grabbed him tightly by the wrist and, with quite some effort, she pulled him from her office into the hospital wing. Looking at him sternly she pointed at him to sit on the nearest bed’s edge and then retreated to the next room, muttering something under her breath, holding baby Harry into her arms.

Snape felt the comfort of the bed and enjoyed the silence of the room. The smell of the hospital wing was, still, disturbing his sensitive nose but he was too tired to complain about it even to himself. The only thing he wanted to do that morning was to lay back, close his eyes and drift off to sleep until the Second Coming. However Snape had a policy. He never missed one of his own lessons. He dreaded to the mere idea of a Potion’s class with not the rightful Potion’s Master inside, especially when it come to the current year’s six-graders. He tried to imagine that kind of situation.

0-0-0

All of his students waiting quietly in front of their, already heated, cauldrons for him to arrive. A new substitute teacher enters the classroom, while every student eyes him in pure puzzlement. The new substitute teacher eyes the class and a smile forms. Some of his students get the message and smile to one another.

“Unfortunately Professor Snape will not attend today’s lesson” the substitute teacher’s voice is heard.

“Snape is sick. We are going to have fun!” they whisper. Their whisper turns louder and louder until it becomes a roar. Crumbled pieces of paper and small paper airplanes start flying around the room.

0-0-0-0

"Oh no! I am not going to give you this kind of satisfaction!" he thought when Madam Pomfrey entered the room. The woman looked at his direction and spoke slowly.

“Severus you look awful!” she commented as she leaned towards her medical cupboard.

"Well tell me something I don’t know Poppy. I am not used to stay up all night you know. It is natural to look like that when a little threat screams his head off all night," he thought as he let out a grumble.

“I think. . . “

"Don’t ever think of it Poppy!"

“. . . that you should. . . ”

"Don’t let it out Poppy," he warned her once again inside his head.

“. . . get a day off to sleep.”

"Darn Poppy you had to say that. Well Show-Time!"

“ABSOLUTELY NOT! I am not letting the students running amok into my classroom!”

"Though I do need a nice rest!" a small voice jumped inside his head.

“Severus you are acting in a childish manner. Go and get some sleep!”

“No!” he answered laconically and yet stubbornly.

“Humph! I can tell you Severus. You do try a saint’s patience! You want to stay awake? Fine! Stay awake. But you know what comes next. A Stimulating Potion. I am not going to let you leave this place until you drink a whole goblet of the most powerful one. Did I make myself clear?”

"Darn Iknew she was going to give me one of those," he thought being disgusted

“Alright Poppy I will drink your stupid potion!” he muttered grumpily.

“Harry looks worn out too.” she commented while she kneeled and started searching for a potion vial.

“Yes Potter calmed down at five o’ clock in the morning” he spoke softly and then hurried to answer her not-asked yet question “And yes I, did, woke up at seven o’ clock as usual.”

“Severus, I will never understand this thing you have with your classroom. What are house-elves for?”

“I will never permit a house-elf to do my job”

“FOR MERLIN’S GRACE, SEVERUS! WHY SHOULDN’T A HOUSE-ELF LIGHT UP THE CAULDRONS’ FIRES?”

“Poppy” Snape started silkily “the fires must be lighten up in an exact temperature with the correct amount of wood. A few may think of the whole incident as something entertaining. . , but I do not think that destroying my pickled ingredients collection is amusing. And no I am not going to let anyone else do it for me” he finished his sentence with a tone that indicated that nothing could change his mind.

“Ok Severus! Do whatever you want.” She touted as she gave him a goblet full of a blood-red liquid. "Thickhead Idiot!"

The raven-haired professor looked at the goblet that contained the red- blood liquid intensively and then at Madam Pomfrey. She was eyeing him with a “drink-it-if-you-dare” challenging look. He looked at the goblet and then brought to his mind the potions’ class without him. With no hesitation he brought the goblet to his lips and let the liquid run inside his mouth.

"Darn! This thing tastes horrible. Memo to myself: Find a way so that this potion’s flavour becomes more tolerable. Better idea. Make it taste like chocolate," he thought as he emptied the golden goblet with quick gulps. Placing the goblet at the nearest table he tried to prepare himself for the upcoming side-effects.

However he was not prepared for what was going to happen next. He sat at the nearest chair while he felt something hot spreading from his stomach to his whole body. He started feeling uncomfortable. As if every cell inside his body had eaten from a handful of red small hot-chilli peppers. He turned to look at the mirror to ensure himself that smoke was not escaping from his ears. "Now I do understand how food feels when it is cooked!" he thought as he felt the burning sensation subduing to a more pleasant tingling one. And then the sensation faded while a wave of pure power started running through his veins and blood, making him powerful and ready to continue.

-)-)-)

Professor Severus Snape entered the classroom and sat behind his mahogany desk, as he welcomed his students with a grumble that would have made a gorilla jealous. The Stimulating Potion was giving him energy, alright, but it could not improve his foul mood that was a product of not having a proper sleep. Taking his wand out of his robes he chanted a series of words and a long list of ingredients appeared in front of each student.

“You must brew this Potion by the end of the double lesson’s period. The instructions are written down on the parchment. Do not distrub me unless you are dying. I do not want to hear any speaking, whispering or coughing. Even better; if you can survive the double period without breathing, do it so. What are you looking dunderheads? Start doing your potions. ” he pronounced seriously. Not giving them a second glance he opened his desk’s drawer. Taking a miniature book from inside, he placed it on the wooden desk and transformed it back to its gigantic size. The book was thick and covered most of his torso. Looking at its context, he licked his index unconsciously and muttering “Potions’ Flavour” under his breath he started turning the pages quickly.

In the meantime his students getting his clear “bother-me-and-you-will-die” statement, started to chop their ingredients. Ron, who was, as always, being bored during Potions, turned to look at Hermione. She was powdering her dragon fangs being extremely careful. Feeling his ears turning red, he looked down and started chopping his salamander eyes.

“Mione!” he whispered quickly “Mione!”

“Yeah Ron!” said Hermione without looking at him.

“Umm . . . Are supposed to chop the eyes into cubes or something?”

“No Ron”

Silence fell between them for a moment and then Ron talked again.

“Mione!”

“What?” she snapped

“Can we talk for a while?”

Hermione did not answer immediately but when she did, her voice was sympathetic

“You do miss Harry don’t you?”

“Well he is my best friend and well . . . Yeah!”

“Quiet!” Snape said laconically while his eyes were fixed on the book’s pages.

They stopped talking for a few moments and to Ron’s amazement it was Hermione who spoke first.

“Umm . . . Ron. . . ”

“He is in a foul mood today isn’t he?” Ron commented

“I think it is due to total sleep absence”

“Yeap he looks like sh. . . .”

“RON!” she snapped trying not to shout.

“Ok, ok Mione! He looks awful”

“Well I still liked his speech today”

“Mione. . . “

“Not that it could compete with the introductory speech during our first year.”

“Mione you have a serious problem.”

“Are you jealous Ronnie?”

“What? Me? No!”

“Yes you are!”

“No I am not!”

“Well you don’t have to be Ronnie.”

“I know!” he answered back sardonically, making her cheeks turn slightly pink

'TEENAGERS!" the hook-nosed professor thought raising his eyes unconsciously. He looked at the luminous watch at the end of the dungeon. One period gone, one left.

-)-)-)

The two following days passed into the same pattern. Snape, despite Madam Pomfrey’s advices would wake after two hours of heavy sleep to light up the dungeons’ fires and then he would take his Stimulating Potion. In a bad mood he would assign papers and schoolwork and then at the end of the day he would get baby Harry from the Hospital Wing and look after him. By sunset he would curse himself for deciding of taking care of a little menace and he would sadly comment that another set of clean robes was destroyed.

However on Wednesday morning Snape started realising that something strange was happening to him. He caught himself wondering about Potter’s welfare. The baby’s fragile body was constantly inside his head. He once caught himself looking at the clock every once and a while in order to see the time left to pick Potter. He shook his head and kept repeating to himself that he was simply doing what he did out of duty to the school. Dismissing the last class for the day, he headed to the hospital wing.

"DARN!" he thought when he saw who was waiting for him along with Madam Pomfrey. The Headmaster of Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, owner of a Merlin’s First Act, the one and only Albus Dumbledore was sitting on a chair munching lemon drops while he held Harry into his arms. Well, if Snape knew that there was something certain in his whole life; well that was the fact that Albus Dumbledore inside the certain hospital wing meant troubles coming ahead. To be precise that meant troubles; that had to do with a particular olive-green eyed teenager, recently de-aged into an infant boy.

“Please sit Severus” Dumbledore welcomed him with his infamous twinkle “Madam Pomfrey has called me here. Apparently she has some interesting news about Harry.”

"Yeap, just as I suspected. Another Potter Issue," he thought while he sat opposite Dumbledore and turned to face Madam Pomfrey, who started talking with her matter-of-fact manner.

“Severus” she started looking at him seriously “have you noticed that Harry is not acting his age?”

“My dear Poppy, I have noticed that since he set foot at Hogwarts. I cannot believe it took you so long to understand it.”

“Severus. I am not joking” she answered back sternly.

“Well Poppy. He is an infant. I am feeding him, I change his diapers and he has not talked to me yet. Since he has not yet started transfiguring anything, I do think that he is acting like a proper baby.”

“Well unfortunately Severus he is not. He coos and goos and seems to recognise some of us. And I can assure you that this is not something a month-old will do. I also took the liberty to take some drops of blood to have his ammunition system checked. To my surprise I received an answer that he would not need a shot until he becomes one year old.”

“All these are nice Poppy but what do they have to do with me?” he asked curiously, while he tried to dismiss his fears for the thing to come.

“Unfortunately the de-aging potion Harry had drunk returned him to his infant age but had not erased all of his memories or his body’s past. This causes something like a rivalry inside his brain and I fear of brain damage. To make sure that he is going to be fine, I have decided that Harry will receive very mild doses of the aging Potion and that he would not receive more until I would observe that everything proceeds fine with him”

“And that means?” Snape asked being confused

“That means that Harry will not be his self by Christmas. He will probably be back to himself by the summer holidays.”

Madam Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore turned to see him, waiting for his outburst. To their amazement Snape seemed to be in deep thinking. Looking at Harry and then at them, he whispered in defeat.

“Ok headmaster. It is fine with me. After all” he said coolly “I do not think I have any other choice.” With those words he stood up and taking Harry with him he got out of the hospital wing. Dumbledore looked at Madam Pomfrey, who was more than dumbfounded and blinked while he gave her a mysterious smile. Then standing up, he walked towards his office. "As I suspected it. The boy has started destroying the wall around Severus’ heart," he thought happily while he put a lemon drop into his mouth.

On Friday afternoon the hook-nosed professor entered the hospital wing, holding baby Harry. Madam Pomfrey mixed a tea-spoon of the potion with Harry’s milk and gave it to Snape. Snape fed Harry and waited for the potion to start working. A golden aura formed around the baby’s body and Snape felt it getting heavier and enlarging a little. When the aura disappeared Snape stared down at a small baby with emerald-green eyes that gifted him with a toothless smile. That caught Snape by surprise and blinked for a moment or two as he felt a fuzzy sensation spreading inside his chest. Realising that Madam Pomfrey was outside the room he let a hint of a smile.

“Well I am happy to see you too Potter” he whispered softly.

“Congratulations Severus” Poppy said making him to turn to look at her with a scowl “You are now in charge of a four-month old.”