Randomly Talented Thank you for your comment and to answer your question. Harry cannot speak he isn't being stubborn.
And to anyone else who has any question feel free to ask, I love reading all your comments.
Thank you to the beta of this chapter, Faykan
Chapter Eight - Learning to be a Child
So far Harry had two meltdowns this morning.
The first began when Severus showed the boy that breakfast was over, but he couldn't blame the child for that one. It had to have been years since Harry had any real food. If Severus had been in the same position he would probably acted identically.
The second just happened a moments ago. Harry's face was still wet from the freshly fallen tears. The boy apparently decided that breakfast wasn't over and started to stick the Play Dough he was supposed to be playing with into his mouth. Severus had been forced to stick his fingers down the child's throat to pull the Play Dough out. Thankfully, he didn't get himself bitten in the process, but it did trigger another massive meltdown, escalating further as Severus started to pack up the Play Dough.
"If it goes in your mouth, it gets packed away," Severus said sternly as he set the Play Dough down on the coffee table where Harry couldn't get at it.
Harry just screamed as he banged his hands on his table, trying to push it off the chair as he banged his head on the headrest behind his head.
"That's what happens when you put stuff in your mouth, you don't get to play with it," Severus said as he took Harry's hands so the child wouldn't hurt himself during his meltdown.
"How about something else?" Severus suggested, hoping to distract the child. Severus pulled out a small white stuff owl that Minerva got, giving it a small squeeze as the owl turned a light blue.
Harry let out a small whimper as his eyes landed on the owl the mysterious man was holding, before reaching out one of his hands and taking the toy, running his fingers over the soft feathers.
"Give it a squeeze," Severus said as he placed his hand over Harry's and squeezed the toy once more, turning the owl bright green.
For the first time since Harry arrived, Severus saw a small smile. It was more like a smirk, and reminded Severus of his young Slytherins, but it was still something.
"You try," Severus said as he pulled his hands away, urging Harry into squeezing the toy himself, which turned a bright purple this time.
"Is that fun," Severus asked as he sat back in his chair and continue to work on the communication booklets he had started before the Play Dough incident. He was currently placing pictures of himself, Poppy, and Minerva into the book with their names, as well as some extra photos Severus thought they would need in the future while working with Harry.
Time passed quickly, with Harry squeezing the owl and turning it through all the colors that it held. Severus started to think that the toy would never run out of colors, as Harry must have squeezed that damn thing a hundred times without any of the colors repeating.
"Alright, that's enough," Severus stated, getting tired of watching the owl flash through colors out of the corner of his eye. "How about we try some coloring?" Severus asked as he pulled out a muggle child's coloring book, the magical ones would have been too stimulating with the moving pictures that talked to you as you color them.
Severus hadn't realized how hard it was going to be in order to get Harry to hold a crayon to be able to color. After about an hour Harry finally wrapped his hand around the crayon with just a small tip of the crayon pocking out at the bottom of Harry's fist.
Harry ran his hand across the page with Severus help, leaving a blue streak across the page, then let out a small moan as he dropped the crayon, clearly not liking how much effort it took.
"No… come on, you can do it," Severus said encouragingly, placing a red crayon in Harry's hand. Harry cried out as he held the crayon and ran it across the page just like he down with the blue crayon.
Severus knew that the cries were over the frustration that Harry felt, but it was still hard to watch. Harry had to be the only child who cried well coloring in a picture book.
"Just a few more minutes, and then we can try the Play Dough again," Severus said. He knew that Harry hands must be hurting, but it had to be done if Harry was to have full use of his hands in the future.
"Minerva is coming over in an hour, we're going out for a walk around the castle," Severus said, figuring if he talked to Harry it would make it easier for the change that was about to come. Even if Harry couldn't understand anything he was saying, he still had his voice to listen to for comfort.
It wasn't long until the five minutes were up, but Severus was sure it felt a lot longer for Harry. "Alright, more Play Dough until Minerva gets here," Severus said as he cleaned up the coloring book and crayons before handing Harry back the Play Dough. He still kept a close eye on him as he continued to work on Harry's communication books.
