CHAPTER SEVEN
It was Friday. The day they had all been waiting for. Harry didn't get much sleep the night before. He was up early nervously moving about the house. He finally went for a long walk with Cecil and Cooper before Nico was due to arrive.
By the time Nico arrived, Harry had calmed down considerably.
"Mr. Harry!" Nico exclaimed.
Harry nearly fell over backwards with the force of the four-year-old bull-rushing him. Luckily, Cooper was behind him and caught him against his body.
"What are we going to do today?" Nico asked excitedly.
Harry had to hide a big grin to keep from giving himself away.
"Well, let's review what we learned yesterday, 'kay?" Harry asked.
Nico smiled. "Okay."
Harry pulled up his big pad of paper and he wrote the word Mammal. Nico sat on the couch with Cooper sitting beside him. Harry stepped off to the side and pointed to the word on the paper.
"What we were saying about mammals yesterday?" Harry asked.
"Mammals are animals! They got fur like Cooper! And they have warm blood," Nico said.
Harry nodded as he listed everything Nico said on the paper.
"Right. And how about reptiles?"
Nico closed his eyes and thought hard. He remembered Harry calling Cecil a reptile.
"Snakes are reptiles. They have scales and cold blood," Nico explained.
Harry nodded, repeating the process with reptiles. They went through birds and amphibians. The last word Harry wrote on the paper was Fish. Nico said "huh?" while tilting his head to the side.
"I know we didn't talk about fish yesterday, but we are today. What do you know about fish?" Harry asked.
Nico closed his eyes again in deep thought. He didn't care for fish, but he had seen them many times before.
"They…have scales? Yea! They have scales just like Cecil!" Nico exclaimed.
Harry clapped his hands together with a huge proud smile on his face.
"Very good! Very good, Nico. Fish do have scales and fins, too. They are also cold-blooded," Harry told him.
"So…the reptile, the amph..amph..frogs!, and fish are cold-blooded?" Nico asked.
Harry nodded.
"Yes. Reptiles, amphibians, and fish are all cold-blooded," Harry said.
Nico brought his hands up to his cheeks and patted at them with his fingertips.
"What about the holes on the fish? The holes…in…the fish?" Nico asked, clearly unsure of himself.
Harry smiled. He wrote out g-i-l-l-s.
"Jills?" Nico said.
Harry tapped his ear. Nico leaned close, listening very carefully.
"It's a guh. Gills. Those holes, the gills, help the fish breathe underwater," Harry instructed.
Nico repeated the words a couple of times out loud before he felt like he had it.
"Well done. Now we can go on our adventure," Harry explained.
"Huh? What adventure?"
Harry winked. "We're going on a special trip. It's a surprise."
After locking up the house and hiding his wand on his person, Harry took a tight hold of Nico's hand. He explained to him that they were going to on a special trip to London. Nico yanked Harry's arm to regain his attention as he reached up to the pot of flood powder on the mantle.
"Papa and Daddy hold my hands, but can you…?" Nico left the ending off as he raised his arms.
Harry released the powder back into the pot so he could reach both hands down to pick Nico up. He made sure the young boy was comfortable on his side before grabbing another handful of floo and clearly stating their destination. After jumping through a few floos and walking out into the muggle streets, they reached their destination.
"The zoo! We're going to the zoo!" Nico exclaimed.
Harry nodded. "We're going to the zoo."
The little boy was too excited to be held so Harry set him down. After paying at the entrance, they grabbed a map. Nico's finger landed on the Aquarium before pointing off to the right.
"It's close! Can we go see the fish?" Nico asked.
"Of course. We can start with the Aquarium," Harry told him.
Separated into three different halls, the Aquarium was full of colorful creatures. The first hall was Freshwater Fish. Harry explained that some of the animals in this particular hall were classified as extinct.
"They stink?" Nico was very confused.
Suppressing the urge to laugh, Harry managed a small smile.
"No. Extinct. It means animals that have died out. It could be from disease or even destruction of their homes," Harry explained.
"Oh."
They roamed through the other two halls where they found coral reef fish and Amazonian fish. Nico's favorite was the piranhas. Harry took a picture of Nico smiling next to the piranhas. He swore the fish smiled even bigger with Nico standing next to them.
Naturally, the next stop was the Reptile House since it was nearby. Nico quickly moved past the wide, open-mouthed crocodile. There were a lot of cool looking frogs and a snake or two. Nico giggled when he noticed each snake would stop whatever it was doing and stare at Harry. They flicked their tongues out at him and Nico suspected they were actually talking to Harry.
/…/
"Severus, it's so good to see you. I feel like we haven't spoken in ages," Minerva smiled.
Severus looked over the rim of his glass at her.
"It's only been a couple of weeks, Minerva. Have you already dived into that new bottle I sent with Draco or is old age catching up with you?" Severus teased.
Minerva pinned him with a look over the top-rim of her glasses.
"Don't you forget, Severus, that you are not too old to go over my knee."
After a moment of silence, the two shared a chuckle. They were having lunch at an old favorite restaurant that the two of them and Dumbledore used to eat at.
"So tell me how our the potions coming along," Minerva said.
"I am nearly finished with Saint Mungo's annual order. Then I shall be moving on to the orders for the Ministry of Magic. I have some Veritaserum sitting in stasis right now," Severus replied.
Minerva smiled as she ate a few forkfuls of her chicken. After a few moments of silence, Severus let out an annoyed sigh.
"Ask," Severus told her.
Minerva raised an eyebrow.
"I have no idea what you mean, Severus," she replied.
He glared. She chuckled.
"Very well. I merely wanted to know how Nico is doing with Harry," Minerva confessed.
"He is well. He's met other children in the area where Potter lives. Nico's come home every day excited to tell us all about what he's learned," Severus explained.
Minerva beamed from ear to ear.
"How exciting. But how do you feel about it, Severus?"
Severus shot her an annoyed look as he set his silverware down. He sat quiet for a moment before speaking.
"I'm…conflicted."
Minerva made a hmm sound as she set her own silverware down.
"How so?"
Sigh.
"Potter has been a greater replacement than we could have hoped for. Nico's interacting with other children and has even bonded well with one. He's learning things – new things – at a faster rate than even we knew he could process." Pause. "And Potter's been able to give us more insight into our own son we might never have known."
When questioned, Severus told Minerva everything about Nico being an Aura Reader. The woman was stunned silent for several minutes before composing herself.
"Are you certain? They're quite rare. The last Aura Reader I recall was Alastor Moody," Minerva said.
And that would explain so much, Severus thought as he filed that information away for later.
"I'm not sure how, but Potter cast a spell on Nico. It allowed us to see what Nico says. He sees everyone in color. The colors range on an individual basis and Nico is still so young. I'm not certain even he is aware of the differences in the colors," Severus explained.
Minerva huffed out a big sigh before chuckling.
"Harry has managed all this in such a short amount of time and yet you are still conflicted?" she commented.
"Yes," Severus murmured. "I don't know what Draco and I are going to do."
/…/
"Are you enjoying your bangers and mash?"
With his cheeks stuffed with food, Nico could only nod. Harry chuckled as he reached over to wipe off the mess on the boy's face. They had walked a good portion of the zoo before stopping for lunch. While Nico ate his plate of sausage and mashed potato, Harry had a simple salad with chicken, spinach, and other healthy additions.
The two finished up their lunch before tossing it away. Nico cleaned up his face with Harry's help. The little boy giggled before grabbing Harry's hand and yanking him along to the next exhibit. Nico oohed and awed at the penguins at the Penguin Beach.
"These are Humboldt Penguins, Nico," Harry told him. "They come from Coastal Peru and Chile."
Nico jerked his head up at him.
"They're not from the Arctic?" Nico asked.
Harry smiled. "Actually, it's Antarctica. And penguins can be found all over, even in Australia and New Zealand."
They went down to an underwater viewing where a lot of children were gathered up near the glass. Nico decided to hang back and closer to Harry. He put the boy at ease by getting his mind off the others.
"What kind of animal do you think a penguin is?" Harry asked.
Nico watched them swimming around from where he stood.
"I think…a bird?" Nico said, a little unsure of himself.
Harry urged him to explain why.
"They look like a bird with their wings and they lay eggs. They can't fly, but some birds don't fly," Nico said.
Harry praised him with a "Well done." Some of the children cleared away so Nico stepped closer to get a better look at the penguins.
"Such a smart little darling."
Harry turned his head to find a woman standing beside him. She seemed to be watching the kids, but her gaze was centered more on a child standing next to Nico.
"Thank you. He is quite smart for his age," Harry commented.
She turned her head slightly at smile at him.
"Your son is so darling. I can see he loves to learn," she said.
Harry was stunned silent. He opened his mouth to try and say something, but nothing came out.
"He…uh…he's not…umm…"
She snickered.
"It's okay, dear. I know we all don't like to brag about our own. Brandon! Come on, sweetie. Let's move on," she called.
"Coming, Ma!"
/…/
"I've looked over your resumé and talked to a few of your references." He smiled. "I must say I am quite impressed."
She smiled.
"Thank you. I really love working with children," she said.
Draco's smile never drooped as he reached across the table to shake hands with her.
"I'd like you to come by the house later and meet Nico."
Her smile grew.
"I'd like that."
/…/
At the end of the day, full of excitement and loaded down with a backpack bursting at the seams, Nico was clinging to Harry when they arrived home through the floo. They were greeted shortly by Draco.
"Daddy, Daddy! I had a great day!" Nico exclaimed, through his arms around him.
Draco smiled and returned the hug.
"I'm so glad to hear that, but why don't you take your things upstairs and get washed up? We have a visitor coming in a little bit," Draco told him.
"Okay, Daddy," Nico said.
Nico darted out of the room to comply with his father's wishes. Harry smiled as he walked the distance to Draco and held out a folder to him. Draco took it and opened it, glancing through its contents.
"All the work from the last two weeks. I figured you and Severus would want to review over it before you made your decision," Harry said.
"We already have," Draco said, placing the folder on his desk.
A baffled expression wafted over Harry's face.
"Oh?"
Draco nodded.
"Yes. Kathleen starts Monday. She has two other children she cares for. Nico will have classmates every day, unlike the one time a week he currently receives," Draco said.
A cold feeling settled into Harry's stomach. He had thought Nico had been happy with him, meaning that his fathers would be happy too. Apparently, this was not the case and Harry had been mistaken. He nodded quietly.
"Very well. Nico is always welcome in my home. It was a pleasure having him. Have a good evening."
Harry turned and threw some floo powder into the fireplace. He disappeared with a quiet whisper of his destination. Draco stared for a moment before flicking the folder back open. A few minutes later, Nico reappeared with a clean face and a small book in his arms.
"Mr. Harr-…Daddy, where's Mr. Harry?" Nico asked.
Draco closed the folder again and stepped around his desk.
"It's been a long day, son. He returned home," Draco explained.
The little boy's face fell. "Oh."
Then it brightened up a minute later.
"That's okay. I'll see him Monday," Nico replied.
He was taken back when his father shook his head.
"No, son. You won't see him Monday," Draco said.
Behind the floo flared to life and an unfamiliar witch stepped out. Nico glanced at the stranger with a light green light around her. Then he jerked his gaze back to Draco.
"Why can't I see Mr. Harry?" Nico asked, his voice choking up a little.
"Because he's not going to be your nanny anymore. This is your new nanny, Mrs. Kathleen."
END OF CHAPTER SEVEN