Growing Family

Chapter One: Now It Begins

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Harry Potter…get it? This is a bit AU since MoldyWarts is no longer living. BTW: Some things may be OOC, bare with me please.

The doorbell rang again, followed by rapid knocking and Severus groaned. It was late and all he wanted was to get some sleep. "I'm coming, hold on a minute!" He yelled, wrapping his robe around his waist. Within moments, he was downstairs and at the door. Three older people were standing there, one with a bundle in arms. "Albus, Minerva, and Hagrid…what brings you here?" Especially at this time? He wanted to add but ended up yawning instead.

The three of them walked into the house as Snape closed the large door behind them. Oh, yes come in! He sarcastically thought. Albus shifted the bundle in his arms and took a seat at one of the kitchen tables. "Severus, this is Harry…Harry Potter."

He froze, almost spilling the tea he was pouring in his cup. "Did you say Potter?" Snape took his time filling up the cup and taking a seat at his kitchen table.

Albus nodded, "Sadly, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had…taken his parents tonight. He attempted with young Harry here, but the spell back fired and left Harry here with a nasty scar and a nasty scare."

"And you're telling me this why?" he snapped, the lack of sleep getting to him.

Minerva rolled her eyes, "Albus, do you really think this is good idea? This young man does not look too excited to even be seeing us."

The wise wizard nodded, "Yes, I trust him with my life and Harry's."

Severus took this all in and his dark eyes widened. "Oh no, you can't expect me to…what about his Godfather?! What about the wolf?! What about one of you?!"

Albus shook his head, "You know as well as we do that, as much as Remus would love to watch Harry, he cannot." The older wizard paused, "Sirius, on the other hand, has been missing since noon this evening. He did not report to headquarters and he is not in his home. Minerva and I would also be glad to take Harry, but we have hundreds of students to send home tonight so they can be with their families."

"B-but I-I don't know the first thing about babies!" The young man stuttered out. "How old is he anyways?" As if on cue, young Harry woke from his rest and looked around. This wasn't his home, these weren't his mummy and daddy! Where were they?

His bright green eyes scanned the faces and didn't know any of them. Harry hid his face in the white, long beard that was on the man's face. Albus wrapped his arms around the boy tighter, "He's one Severus, it won't be too hard."

Snape sighed, leaning on the counter, "I can't afford to take care of a baby!"

"His parents supplied him with plenty of money, and we can talk about getting you a position at the school." Minerva said, taking Harry from Dumbledore's arms. She handed him Snape and the boy looked at him with scared eyes. "However, for the night, Mr. Potter stays with you. We'll check in later Severus, it's been a long night and we all need some rest."

Severus almost dropped the little baby. The three adults started for the door, Hagrid rubbing his red and puff eyes from tears. "N-now hold on Professor! Is there anything f-for Harry?"

Albus turn around and handed him a shrunk down due for transportation baby bag, "Here, it may not last long Severus."

On that note, the three intruders left the home and left a still shocked Snape. Harry was looking at his new holder and he was terrified. This dark stranger was scaring him and all he could think to do was cry. And so, he did. The little baby was wailing and kicking his arms around.

Severus held him out arm's length, becoming startled. "Um, there there Harry…Oh Merlin why me?" Quickly, he went into the large library and used a silent spell to find the baby book his mother used when they all lived here together: Snape Manor.

Balancing the baby on his hip, he gripped the book and found what he was looking for. "How to stop a crying baby…oh you're kidding me?" he mumbled, looking over the book again.

He was getting a headache from all the crying that Harry was making but he quickly transfigured the corner chair into a rocking one. Then, he took a seat and placed young Harry's head on his chest. Now, the whimpering fellow became relaxed and sighed into the almost vanilla smelling robes.

After a few moments, the whimpers turned to snores. As Severus decided that she was going to get up, he saw the time was almost one in the morning, much too late for him to be awake. He climbed the stairs then realized he didn't have a place for the young Potter to sleep. "Where do I put you?" he mused, looking around his room. He just decided to let the little one sleep in his bed while he took the couch. Carefully, he set Harry down underneath the blankets and put a quick charm around so that it would alert him when Harry awoke and to prevent him from falling out of bed.

Turning out the lights, the tall young man went into the hall closet and took out the spare blankets and pillows then made his way down stairs to sleep on the couch. Settling himself down, Snape recollected his thoughts. He was now the guardian of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived…Lily's child. How was he going to do this? How was he going to raise a boy who not only came from his best friend from childhood and this childhood enemy.

Severus sighed and looked down at the now happy Harry Potter. The boy put up quite a fight this morning. At seven thirty, the buzzing in his head said that it was time for Snape to get up and get his little 'house guest'. After stumbling into the room, he found that it smelled horribly of urine and that his sheets were soaked. Turned out that Harry's nappy leaked during the night after he had used it.

Deciding that he'd attend to the bed later, he picked up the howling, wet baby and went into the bathroom where he placed the nappy bag beforehand. He undid Harry's wet clothes and threw them into the hamper while he went to work on getting the little green eyed one out of his solid nappy. That was easy, except for the part when he stuck himself with the pin.

Holding onto the now calm baby's stomach, Severus went to start a bath from little Harry. Once he figured the water was warm enough that Harry wouldn't freeze nor burn, he lifted the little guy up. That's when a warm stream of pee hit his favorite t-shirt, ruining it. The young man just bit his bottom lip and quickly got Harry in and out of the bath.

Afterwards, Harry was just left in his clean nappy and brought down to the kitchen where Snape made him a bottle of warm milk for breakfast. Now that the baby was happy, Severus went back upstairs to change his clothes, change his sheets and get ready for the day. Like the wise wizard had said, he needed to go to the store for himself and Harry.

And since no wizarding stores were nearby, he would have to take the train into the city and to the Muggle sores. He didn't mind too much, his mother and father would often take him to the city for things when he was much younger. Now, Snape was in a simple blue, long sleeved, turtle neck with jeans and black church shoes; he went to find the bag of Harry's things to see if anything in there he would be able to wear in Muggle public.

It turns out; he had a yellow one-piece baby suit with red soft pants to wear. "No coat…the boy's going to freeze." The young man mumbled, taking the clothes down stairs.

He had made a list earlier in his head about what Harry would need and there were a lot of things. Severus also needed things for himself like food and more shampoo. When he walked into the room, Harry was still working on his bottle of milk in the transfigured highchair that used to be a regular chair. "So, we're going to the store today Harry. We need to get you dressed, okay?"

The boy nodded, lifting his right arm while hold the bottle with the left. Snape lifted him out and set the half-naked boy on the table. He managed to pry the bottle away from Harry long enough to slip his head though the hole of the head. Once the raven-haired boy had his bottle back, he wasn't going to be giving it up so quickly. Now all the young man had to do was get the pants on his chubby little legs and over the nappy and they'd be good to go.

After five attempts, Snape just used his wand to get the pants on right. Turns out, he was stuffing two legs into one hole. Severus wrapped a small blue blanket around the little boy to attempt to keep him warm on this chilly Fall day. He picked the baby up and walked out his front door. With a large sigh, he locked the front door and placed the wards on his front door.

Snape walked down the street to the bus stop. The bus usually made stops every ten minutes and the current time was 9:35 in the morning. The baby in his arms found a lot of interest in pulling on his long, black hair at the moment. It was at this moment that Snape knew it was going to be a long day if he didn't find some patience soon.

Lucius dragged himself out of the large bed and to the long mirror on the wall. His wife, Narcissa, had left him and Draco, saying that she had met another man. At first, Lucius couldn't believe that he was actually somewhat happy. He'd always been bi-sexual and for the last few months, Narcissa was beginning to bore him. The first couple of days were great, just him and his son around the house doing nothing interesting.

Then little eighteen-month-old, Draco, started to question where his mummy was and when she was coming back. Lucius didn't fully explain where Narcissa was, but he told his son that his mother wouldn't be coming home for a while. This did not go over well with Draco. He wouldn't eat, wouldn't play, wouldn't go for a little stroll in his green pram. All he would do was cry and sleep, sleep and cry. It's been almost a week now and Lucius has no clue how he's surviving raising his little boy on his own.

Now, the blond brute was heading down the hall in nothing but his dark green boxers towards the nursery where his son sleeps. The charm indicating that his son had woken woke him and now he would probably have to get Draco some breakfast or change his nappy. "Dada!" Draco called, wanting out of his crib the moment his grey eyes hit his father.

Said father sluggishly walked into the room and picked Draco up, "Hello Draco, what is it son?"

"Hungwe!" he smiled, hugging his father neck.

The two boys went back out to the hall and down the stairs slowly. After what seemed like ages, they made it into the kitchen. Lucius hadn't been to the store so their stock was pretty low, down to cereal and milk for every meal nowadays. Draco was set in his highchair and he patted the colorfully moving placemat with the various animals moving away from his hands.

"Okay boy, what do you want for breakfast? You can have dry cereal or cereal with milk." Lucius asked, setting down both on the kitchen table.

Draco looked the two over, "Day goes to-get-her?"

Lucius nodded, "I knew you were a smart boy." Pouring the colorful marshmallows into the small bowl, he added a little bit of milk and found a somewhat clean spoon by the sink. "Here, I'm going to shower now. Don't do anything okay."

His little dragon nodded, scooping some of the food onto his spoon. With that, the older blond went up the stairs again and towards the large bathroom. It was light grey on the walls with black cabinets. Turning the water on, he stripped of his boxers and stepped in.

As he washed his hair, he made up a list of things to do for the day. Draco took a nice, long bath last night so he would just need to be clothed after a messy breakfast. That means he would also need some new clothes too, that meant he'd have to do the laundry. He and Draco also needed to go to the store and collect some things. Lucius stepped out of the shower and dried off his body with a towel he found on the floor. "Yep, I defiantly need to do the laundry."

Wrapping it around his waist, he went back down stairs to find Draco had spilled the last of his breakfast onto the floor and was now crying about it. "I sowy Dada! It acciden'!"

"I know Draco, come here." He lifted the little guy up and held him close. His mother used to be very harsh on Draco when he would make a mess or spill something on accident. It wasn't the little tyke's fault! Draco was a curious little boy with a large imagination. Taking his son up the stairs, he set Draco on the bed and went to find some clean clothes in the closet.

Draco crawled over to the unmade part of the bed and smelled his Dada's smell, lilac. It reminded him of his Mama, but she wasn't comin' back anymore so now it was his Dada's smell, not Mama's. Lucius put on his flowy, white, long sleeved, button up shirt and black, tight pants, and then looked at his son with a small smile. He looked so sweet curled up onto the pillow. "Draco, how do I look?"

The little boy lifted up his head to get a better look. "Good!"

Lucius laughed, picking up his son and holding him over his head like a plane. "Goo answer!" the two laughed all the way to the nursery and Draco was set down on the floor by the closet, "Now what to dress you in…green or red robes today Draco?"

Draco looked at the two robes in front of him. The green ones had little stars on them that twinkled from time to time. But the red ones had a dragon on them that would roar and spit fire. "Dwagon!"

"Red it is." His father smiled, placing him on the changing table. Lucius never really had to change a nappy before, his wife or one of the elves would do it for him. But since Narcissa had taken all the elves with her, he had no choice but to learn. This time, he only stuck himself once with the pin. Big improvement.

After getting the clothes on his son and the dirty things into the hamper, Draco was set in it as his Dad carried him down the stairs. "Okay son, we're going to do the laundry. Can you help me put the clothes in there?"

Draco nodded, climbing out of the basket and taking some clothes with him. Watching his Dada carefully, he saw that he was supposed to throw them into the big, scary metal thing. And that's what he did.

Little Draco missed his Mama a lot, but then he wouldn't either. It was much more fun playing with Dada for a change. Mama didn't let him eat by himself or use his fingers to paint pictures or anything that Dada did. But, Dada didn't understand that he liked to read stories before bed time and a nice bottle of warm milk with a little vanilla in it. Mama did.

Okay, that's chapter one! I hope you guys like it because if you do they're being more, I promise you! Sorry if it's short but I just didn't want to give away more than I already did. BTW: told you there would be OOC.