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.”