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!”