“One more spoonful of carrots”

“No”

“Yes”

“No”

“Yes. If you won’t eat the carrots I’ll have the elves bring you some sprouts” Harry threatened, grinning impishly at the little boy. He picked up the spoon with a grin. “Here comes the golden snitch.” He called. The toddler glared but opened his mouth, pulling disgusted faces as he ate the vegetables.

“He certainly has your glare” McGonagall commented to Snape from across the table. Harry and Luna heard and promptly burst out laughing. James was too busy devouring his slice of chocolate cake to notice.

“You still haven’t spoken to Harry about earlier have you” McGonagall whispered once the trio had gone back to their food. She received a glare in reply “Merlin. That damnable pride of yours. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help you know”

“I don’t need advice” he whispered back angrily “what I need is a time turner so that I can fix what I did earlier and some vague idea of how to be a parent” He returned to glaring at his food, declaring the conversation over. McGonagall just sighed and wondered how long it would take for him to give in and ask for help.

*

“Let me know if you want me to leave you to it, or if you’d rather take over any of the things I’m doing with him.” Harry instructed Snape as they walked back to the dungeons. “I don’t want to get in the way, I just figured that you’d want some time to get used to the idea before you were dropped into the deep end.”

“I’ll bear that in mind” Snape replied. Harry nodded uneasily.

“I can leave now honestly, I can’t help feeling that I’m intruding a bit.”

“No Potter” Snape sighed. “As much as it pains me to admit it you are correct. I do appreciate the time to get used to the situation.” Harry smiled.

“Okie doakie then.” He agreed.

*

“Can I have a story?” asked James as Harry dressed him in his pyjamas while Snape hovered uncertainly in the doorway.

“Of course you can.” Harry replied with a grin “what story do you want?”

“The one with the dragon!” shouted the little boy bouncing up and down. Harry cringed, regretting not just reading to the child for the last seven months. Snape was not going to appreciate this.

“Uh, which one with the dragon?” he asked, hoping desperately that it was one from a book but knowing in his heart that it wouldn’t be. As far as the toddler was concerned they just weren’t exciting enough, and Harry had to agree. Who wanted to hear about talking dragons that’d misplaced their mummys when you could hear about stealing eggs from fierce, dangerous dragons.

“The one with the dragons and the goblins and the treasure” Harry groaned internally. That was the story he wanted to retell in front of Snape the least.

“Alright then kiddo” Harry conceded, scooping up the pyjama clad child “we’ll have the story on the sofa. Care to join us Daddy?” Snape nodded and perched on the end of the sofa, looking awkward. Harry sat on the other end and sat James in between them.

“Right.” Started Harry, trying to recall his child friendly version of their adventure “Once upon a time there were three people called Harry, Ron and Hermione.”

“That’s your name” James exclaimed “And Uncle Ron and Aunt Mione”

“So they are” Harry commented wryly. Snape raised an eyebrow at Harry, who shrugged

“One day they found out that a nasty lady had hidden some treasure in a bank and they decided to get it back for the person it belonged to. The goblins weren’t allowed to help him because their job is to protect anything people give them to keep, so Harry and his friends were going to have to steal it. They decided that  someone would have to make believe that one of them was the nasty lady to get in. They decided that it should be Hermione because Harry and Ron didn’t know how to act like girls”

James giggled

“They went into Gringotts and guess what, the goblins believed them. They took them down in the carts. They went really deep because the treasure was in a really well protected vault. On their way down to the vault they went through a magical waterfall. They got all wet and it made Hermione forget to pretend to be the nasty lady, so they had to persuade the goblin that was with them that they really needed the treasure. On their way to the vault they had to go past a huge great big dragon with big spiky wings that was tied up. Once they were in the vault they tried to find the treasure they were looking for but they had a problem, every time they touched something it copied itself and they all got really hot. Soon, the room was full of burning hot things and they still hadn’t found the treasure that they were looking for. Then they found it but they weren’t tall enough to get it, even when they stood on their tip toes”

Harry was tempted to run for it now, he’d completely forgotten that the spell they’d used was the same one that his dad had used on Snape. Summoning every bit of Gryffindor courage he ploughed on “Luckily, Hermione had a clever idea. She used a spell that made Harry dangle upside down by one ankle”

he risked a glance and Snape who was grinning evilly.

“James” the man called to get the little boy’s attention “how would you like to see the spell that Hermione used in the story?” Harry winced at the toddlers enthusiastic response as he found himself dangling by one ankle

“ha, ha, ha” he said dryly watching James dissolve into giggles “I won’t be able continue the story if all of the blood is rushing to my head” he threatened. Snape smirked and sent him tumbling to the floor. Harry glared at him as he regained his seat next to James “as I was saying. Harry managed to catch the treasure on the end of his sword” he ignored Snape’s snort which was rapidly disguised as a coughing fit, after all, it wasn’t his fault if the man had a filthy mind “Once they had the treasure they had to get out of the room quickly before it got to filled up with the hot treasure. Hermione let Harry down much like your daddy just did to me and they all ran out of the vault and quickly closed the door. Now was that the end of their adventure. Did they go back home then?”

“No” James shouted. Harry grinned at their well practised routine.

“No, that’s right they didn’t because the goblins had realised that someone had stolen the treasure, and Hermione still couldn’t remember how to pretend to be the nasty lady. The goblin ran away so that he didn’t get into trouble meaning that Harry and his friends were trapped. Are they still trapped there now, waiting for someone to let them out?”

“No” shouted James

“Well, how on earth did they get out then?” asked Harry, faking curiosity.

“They rode the dragon silly” exclaimed James. Harry smirked at the way Snape’s eyes widened.

“What a clever idea. I think that’s exactly what they did. They used magic to release the dragon and they all climbed on it and it flew away. But then they had a problem. The big dragon wouldn’t fit through the corridors so Harry, Ron and Hermione had to blast the walls so that they would fit. Once they got into the main entrance everybody was really surprised to see three people riding a dragon and some of them were very cross. They flew right through the bank and straight outside. They flew and flew and flew all day, going really high, and they were a bit scared because they had no way to get off of the dragon and they couldn’t make it go where they wanted.

 After a few hours it went a bit lower and so Harry, Ron and Hermione decided to jump off of it, and straight into the lake. It was really cold and wet but they swam to the shore and dried themselves, and they were happy because they had managed to get the treasure away from the nasty lady and they knew that they could give it back to the person it belonged to. The end. Now to bed with you kiddo.” He said, scooping up the sleepy child. “You’ve got to be awake in the morning because we’re going to take daddy and Aunt Luna shopping to buy paint to decorate your bedroom.” James grinned as Harry carried him into his room and tucked him in “Night, night Jamie, sweet dreams” Harry said, kissing James’s forehead before slipping out of the room. He heard Snape say goodnight to him before joining him in the living room,

“Interesting bedtime story” Snape commented smirking “Am I to assume that there is a slightly different version to the story that I might be interested in hearing?” Harry grinned

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean. Alright. It was Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault, Hermione polyjuiced into her; I used the imperious curse on the Goblin that showed us to the vault. The waterfall is called the thief’s downfall, it gets rid of illusions. We had a goblin working with us but he ran for it with Gryffindor’s sword when he realised that we planned to double cross him. The treasure was Hufflepuff’s cup and that day we didn’t go home after we got off of the dragon, we came here and I was killed by and then killed Voldemort after destroying the cup and Ravenclaw’s diadem, which were both horcruxes.” He couldn’t help but chuckle at the expression on Snape’s face.

“So you have basically just given my son a step by step guide to breaking into Gringotts highest security vaults” he commented after a moment. Harry laughed

“You could say that, but I suspect he will lack what you would term ‘pure Gryffindor idiocy’ needed to pull it off. Anyway, I’ll see you in the morning at breakfast. If you need me during the night my rooms have a fireplace that’s connected to the floo network. Just ask for ‘Harry Potter’s rooms’”

“Why do you have your own rooms? And why would they need to be on the floo network?” Harry smiled

“Well, I can’t imagine that any room mates I had would appreciate having one or two babies in the room, and the floo is so that I can stay in contact with Andromeda, to arrange when I’ll take Teddy and things like that.”

“You look after Teddy often then?” asked Snape, surprised.

“Oh yeah. He lives with me half of the time. I don’t suppose you’d of heard but I’m his Godfather, and I was named his guardian in Remus and Tonks wills. It would have killed Andromeda to loose him but she can’t really cope with him full time so now we’re both his guardians and he stay’s half with me, half with his gran. James thinks he’s brilliant, like a younger cousin.” Snape gave Harry an appraising look. Harry shifted uncomfortably under the unrelenting gaze. “Yes well, I’d best be going, call me if you need me sir” He said before walking as fast as he could away from the dungeons and up to the Gryffindor tower, hoping to find Luna, who was staying there for the holidays.

*

“Evening Luna” he called with a grin. She looked up from her book

“How’d it go? Snape kill you yet?” Harry laughed and sat down next to her.

“I think he’s contemplating how best to do it” he commented, thinking about the look he was subjected to a moment before “But not before I kill James.” Luna laughed

“What did he do?”

“He only asked for the story about Me, Ron and Mione breaking into Gringotts, Snape found it highly amusing in a Snapey sort of way.” She laughed. “You up for coming paint shopping tomorrow?” she grinned

“Oh, you’re decorating again” Harry nodded “Oh that’s excellent. I love the pictures you painted in James and Teddy’s room.” Harry blushed

“yes, well, they wouldn’t be anything without your charms” She punched him playfully

“Don’t be so modest Harry Potter. Anyway, I’d love to come, and I’ll throw in charming your marvellous artwork free of charge. You want to finish that game of scrabble that was so rudely interrupted earlier?” Harry grinned

“I’d love to”