If Harry and Ginny thought that taking Sirius and Severus into Diagon Alley was going to be an easy feat, they were both sadly mistaken. Within thirty minutes of stepping out of the Floo in the Leaky Cauldron, both of the adults were glad that they had left the other three boys with Andromeda.

Their first stop had been Madam Malkin’s Robes for all Occasions. Sirius had stood still long enough to be fitted for one robe before he jumped off the stool he had been made to stand on and had sat down on the floor.

Severus had stood still long enough to be fit for his robes and a winter cloak.

Everything went fine, for the most part considering the two little boys were used to being grown men, and not used to having all of the energy they now had, through the robe shop, and then through the children’s clothing and shoe store.

It was the toy shop that gave them problems.

“Okay, boys, we are going to split up in here so that we can head to the furniture store and then head home. Who wants to go with who?” Harry asked the two boys.

Sirius jumped up and down, “I am going with you, Harry!”

Sirius turned around and smirked at Severus. He didn’t seem to notice that Severus had scooted over to Ginny and slipped his small hand in her larger one.

Harry smiled down at the little boy and his wife and then turned to chase after Sirius, who had, expectedly, gone to the broomsticks. Ginny was, at that moment, glad that she was not the one that had to tell Sirius that he was not allowed to have a broomstick for several more years.

“Well, Severus, where would you like to go?” She asked him. He shrugged.

“How about we just look around and see what you spot, okay?” Ginny asked him. This time he nodded.

Ginny looked at him with concern. She couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his mind. It was easy to see that he was having some internal battle with himself. He had been such an unhappy grown-up…Neither Ginny nor Harry wanted his second childhood to be as unhappy as his first life in general had been. Ginny and Harry were both secretly wondering if Severus thought that there was a possibility of him re-aging.

Ginny and Harry knew that it was not a possibility, and were waiting until Severus realized it and went through the various stages he was sure to go through: Grief, Guilt, Anger, and hopefully acceptance.

Both adults had a feeling that was actually more happy in this body than he ever had without even thinking about it.

Ginny and Severus walked around, avoiding the Broomstick area like the plague after they had heard Sirius screech, “What bloody rule?!”

Instead they walked up and down the educational area and the book area. Severus had yet to pick anything out, so Ginny stopped in front of the books and squatted to meet Little Severus eye to eye.

“Okay, Sev, this is what we are going to do. You are going to get awfully bored without anything to do, so we have to pick out some stuff for you to do. Some, shall we say, age appropriate stuff for your age now. So, I am going to suggest you pick out five books from this area to start with.” Ginny told him. Severus looked up at her with large, dark, questioning eyes.

“Really, Sev, go on.” Ginny prompted.

It was hard to hear Ginny…Potter’s Ginny, call him Sev, something no one have called him since his fifth year at Hogwarts and he had lost the only true friend he had ever had.

Severus nodded, and then went over to books. For fifteen minutes he looked through each and every book and finally came away with four that he thought would be okay: Potions and Such For Fun, The Adventures of Huntington St. Patreel, Hogwart’s: A History, and The Grand Quests of Trolls, Goblins, and Gnomes. He took the four books over to Ginny and handed them to her.

“Are you sure you don’t want another one?” Severus nodded.

“Okay, we will just walk around and see what else we can find.”

As they walked around, Ginny kept a close eye on the boy to see if anything caught his eye. This was how she convinced him to get a Junior Potions Kit. It was for ages 4-7, and the child could brew various hot and cold drinks, candies, and snacks. It would have to be a restricted item so as not to spoil his appetite for meals, but Ginny was sure that he would enjoy it.

“Can we look over there?” Severus asked a shocked Ginny.

For the day that they had had him, Severus had not once asked or said anything without his normal snarky tone.

“Of course.” Ginny said as she followed him to an area that had stuffed animals.

Immediately, Severus gravitated towards a stuffed snake that was about two feet long. It was purple and green with black marble eyes.

“Sev, would you like that?” Ginny asked.

Before Severus could say anything, however, Severus heard, “Ho! Baby Snivillus has found himself a stuffed animal just like a ity bity baby!”

Sirius.

Harry, having witnessed the scene came up behind Sirius and picked him up so that he could look him in the eye.

“Sirius! What did we just talk about?” Harry hissed into his ear.

Ginny looked down at Severus. The snake was latched against his chest tightly by his tiny arms, his eyes were closed. His little body was shaking. And, out of the corner of his eyes, two small tears escaped. Ginny said nothing, but bent down and picked him and the stuffed snake up and holding them against her chest.

“Sirius, that was a very mean thing to say!” Ginny reprimanded.

“It isn’t fair! He was mean to you both when he was big! I was never mean, but you are always taking his side! You even named Alby after the git!” Sirius said.

Harry wished, at that moment, that he knew just how much their adult memories were affecting their child bodies. He very much wanted to take Sirius over his knee at that moment but knew that until they all had a better understanding of one another it would be pointless.

And, he refused to spank his children in public.

“We are going home.” Harry said.

“What about my toys?” Sirius asked, glaring.

Harry knew, without a doubt, that was the child side of Sirius showing.

“Right now, I do not believe that your behavior warrants any toys.” Harry told him.

Sirius looked shocked. He had been told no rarely when he was a small child the first go around. It was quite a shock to him.

“Harry, you and Sirius can wait outside. I think Severus and I have a few books and a snake to pay for.”

Harry looked at Ginny and smiled then nodded. He made a quick getaway before Sirius could protest too much. He knew that it would begin as soon as what just happened registered in his mind.

“Come on, Sev. We can pay for your toys and then go home. I am sure that you are getting hungry since you didn’t eat much breakfast.” Ginny told the small boy in her arms.

Severus simply nodded into her neck, but did not look at her.

Ginny sighed. She could feel Severus’ tears on her shoulder.

She had a feeling the next couple of days were going to be interesting.

~HP~sdrawkcab~HP~

Harry hauled the seven year old outside and then squatted in front of the frowning, glaring child.

“Sirius! That was unnecessary! Why did you do that?” Harry asked him.

“Because I don’t like him! I have never liked him! You are mine! Not his! And I am not a little kid! Just this stupid body is!” Sirius screamed.

“You are certainly acting like a child.”

“And you are acting like a bastard taking up for Snivillus like that!” Sirius shouted.

People on the street stopped at stared, Ginny stopped in the doorway of the toy store and stared at the scene in front of her, and Harry took a deep breath, then unceremoniously picked Sirius up and walked to Ginny.

“We need to go home. Sirius and I have some very serious things to talk. Apparently we need to sit the boys down and tell them exactly how this is going to go. Let’s apparate. It is quicker.”

Ginny nodded solemnly. Neither of them were going to allow any of their children talk the way Sirius just had. Despite the fact that this was an all together different situation for everyone involved, and they had a lot of decisions to make.

Should they treat these boys as just that, boys, or as adults?