Hey guys. Sorry it took me so long to update. School's a bitch. And my parents had a fight, and I wasn't allowed to go to Dad's house for, like, a month, and now I can only go once a fortnight, and Dad's comp is the only one I can update with. Ah well. Thanks for all the reviews. And I know everyone says this, but I really love all you reviewers.
DISCLAIMER: The world of Harry Potter belongs to the brilliant J.K.Rowling.
WARNINGS: Slash, duh.
Chapter 2Draco, still carrying the young Harry, followed Hogwarts' Potions Master. Behind him trailed Hermione and Ron, the couple conversing quietly but frantically. Draco instinctively hugged the childhood version of his boyfriend closer.
"Hey, are you okay?" he whispered into the top of Harry's head, ensuring that no could hear Draco being kind to his 'arch-nemesis'. Harry nodded, then sat up to look at the blond Slytherin. "Draco? My hand hurts." He whimpered back softly.
Draco's eyebrows furrowed in concern, and he lifted up a small olive hand. He gasped inaudibly, examining the shallow gash that spread across the back of the child's hand.
"I'm so sorry," he muttered to Harry, before raising his voice. "Professor Snape, Ha-Potter managed to hurt himself. He cut his hand for the potion."
Snape scowled impatiently. "Fine. Take young Mr. Potter to the Hospital Wing, and then meet me at Headmaster Dumbledor's office. He gestured at the two teenaged Gryffindor's. "And take them with you."
Draco rolled his eyes, but nodded, his concern for Harry greater than his dislike for his boyfriend's best friends. He immediately swung around, still carrying Harry. He looked at Ron and Hermione, and curtly said, "Follow me."
Draco strode regally into the Hospital Wing. Hermione, Ron and Harry trailed after him, Harry holding Draco and Hermione's hands. With Hermione holding Ron's hand, they made an awkward chain as they entered. As the door swung shut behind them, Draco swung Harry up into his arms, inadvertently tugging Harry's hand from Hermione's. Ron called for Madame Pomfrey.
The slightly plump nurse bustled out of her office, then stopped short when she saw the unlikely group of teens and child. She pressed her hand to her cheek. "Miss Granger, is there something you didn't tell me?"
Hermione gasped and shook her head quickly. "Oh, no, he's not mine. Or Ron's. Or Malfoy's."
"Then who is he?" the kindly woman asked, taking Harry from Draco. Harry let out a small whimper, but he relaxed when Draco offered him a smile, an action unnoticed by all but the nurse.
"He's Harry Potter," the blond explained coolly. "Potions mistake. His hand is hurt, if you could heal it. Then we can go and sort out this whole mess."
Madame Pomfrey nodded. "Of course, just wait here for a second." She left the three teenagers and the toddler standing in an awkward group before returning holding a vial of pink liquid.
"Here Harry, give me your hand." She said, pouring a little of the vials contents into her hand. Harry gasped as the potion gave of smoke, and he shied away, hiding behind Draco's leg. He shook his head violently when Hermione asked if he wanted her to apply the smoking liquid to his injured hand. He looked up beseechingly at the Slytherin, who sighed exasperatedly.
"C'mon, Malfoy, you do it. It's obvious he trusts no one but you, for some terrible reason." Ron said, glaring at Draco distrustfully.
Draco snorted. The day I do something because you tell me to is the day hell freezes over."
Hermione shook her head scornfully. "Original," she mocked.
Madame Pomfrey, who clearly had never had a patient so unwilling to be healed, frowned thoughtfully. "I'll give you a chocolate frog," she bribed him.
Harry, tears starting to gather at the corners of his eyes, stared in puzzlement at the nurse, still clinging to Draco's leg. "Don't know frogs," he said.
Everyone stared at Harry, wondering how he could not know the basic wizard confection. "Of course!" Hermione said, "He was brought up with muggles, like me. Naturally, he wouldn't know about chocolate frogs."
Madame Pomfrey racked her brain for a muggle sweet she had. "I'll give you a lollipop?" she tried.
Harry hesitated, then nodded when she went to a drawer and produced a multi-colored lollipop. He cautiously presented the nurse with his small, injured hand as he slowly let go of Draco, and came out from behind him. His other hand reached out to grab the candy, which he then presented to Draco to open. Draco rolled his eyes yet again, but obliged, and he even gave the candy back to the raven-haired child.
Harry watched as the nurse dipped a cloth in the potion, then swept the dripping, pink-stained cloth over the back of his hand. He winced as the potion stung his cut a little, then his eyes widened as the cut magically healed and disappeared. He smiled widely, then asked "Can I have a band-aid please?"
Hermione patiently explained that the cut was gone, and that he didn't need a band-aid. Harry stared at her as she explained, then nodded, and immediately repeated his request for a band-aid. Ron and Draco snorted with laughter at the look on Hermione's face.
Madame Pomfrey reached over to the same drawer she pulled the lollipop out of and rummaged around in it. Finally she triumphantly pulled out an ordinary muggle band-aid. "I keep them for homesick muggle-born first years." She explained. She carefully stuck the band-aid on Harry's still out-stretched hand, and then touched her wand to it, murmuring a few words, which made the band-aid sparkle and glow different colors. "There. All done. Now, I think I may just have some spare clothes I can shrink for you to wear." She said, looking down at the t-shirt Harry had bee wearing beneath his robes before the accident. It hung off his shoulder, comically over-sized on the young child. She retreated back to her office briefly, and then came back, carrying a pile of black clothes. She shrank them, and then put them on Harry. She pursed her lips, then waved her wand again and said a few words. The clothes shrank again until they fitted the young boy perfectly. Draco grinned as he read the shirts slogan; Life is a bitch, so bitch back. Hermione looked disapproving, and waved her wand so that the words disappeared, leaving only a plain black t-shirt. Madame Pomfrey helped Harry into a pair of jeans she had shrunk as well, with the words 'Fuck off!' written clearly down the right leg. Again Hermione made the words disappear.
"Clothes I confiscated from students," the nurse said, somewhat defensively.
"Right," Draco said, trying to hurry everyone up; he wanted his Harry back! "Lets go, then, shall we?" and again he walked out, Harry clutching his hand, almost running to keep up with the blond's long strides.
"Arrogant git," Ron muttered under his breath, as he and his girlfriend were left to follow him like sheep.
They reached the statue of a gargoyle that protected the entrance of the stairway to Professor Dumbledore's office. The gargoyle turned around without the group of students having to guess the password, and it was obvious Dumbledore was expecting them. The stepped onto the revolving staircase quickly, baby Harry's eyes widening with awe.
Hermione knocked on the door twice, then entered, followed by first Ron, then Draco with Harry in his arms. Snape. Standing imposingly in a corner, sneered at them, though Dumbledore smiled at them somberly, though the ever-present twinkle was still in his eye.
"Now, students, I believe there has been an accident?" the Headmaster said, the question apparently aimed at anyone who wanted to answer.
"Damn right there has been," Ron burst out, ignoring Hermione's exclamation of "Ron!" "Harry has been turned into a bloody toddler, and if that's not enough, he doesn't want anyone but Malfoy even touching him! So yes, there has been an accident!"
Snape scowled at the redhead angrily. "Watch your language, Weasley," he sapped, black eyes glittering furiously. Dumbledore, waved his hand at the potions master, the twinkle in his eye more pronounced than before. "How did this accident happen?" he queried
"Just as I told you, Albus," Snape ground out.
"Maybe we should hear it from Draco, as he has an accurate description of exactly what happened. Draco?"
"Well, we were trying to make a healing potion, and Ha- Potter had to taste it, and it, obviously didn't work."
"And why didn't it work, Draco?"
"Vin accidentally knocked a pile of maybe 16 or 17 cardellein pods into the potion. But before that, Potter added 10 drops of eagle's blood, but I remedied that by adding a drop of spider's blood. But the cardellein pods went in right after the spider's blood, so that made the age reducing potion." Draco said, thinking aloud.
Ron sighed in relief. "Oh, thank Heavens, there's an antidote for that,"
"No, there isn't, Ron," Hermione said sadly, laying a hand on her boyfriend's arm.
"What are you talking about?" Ron asked, confusion etched over his face. "Remember when Fred and George tried to do the aging potion, there was an antidote for that, so there must be an antidote for this one. There was only one ingredients difference."
"If you give it to Boy Wonder at this age, when he's, what two?, there's the possibility that it might permanently harm him, and that is not a possibility I think anyone is willing to take." Draco drawled.
"Poor Harry." Hermione sighed, Ron nodding in agreement. "So what happens now?"
Well," Dumbledore smiled, "As young Harry seems willingly attached to Draco here, it seems that Harry must be put in Draco's care, until the potion wares off. If I recall correctly, Harry will grow a year a day, so he should be back to his proper age in exactly two weeks."
Ron and Hermione looked speechless, so Draco decided to comment. "Do I have to? His... attachment to me may have worn off by now. I can't look after him!"
"Lets see. Miss Granger, try to take Harry away from Mister Malfoy, please," Dumbledore instructed.
Hermione, still shocked into speechlessness, did as she was told. Immediately the normally good-natured Harry started to sniffle when he was taken from Draco's arms, and the young woman quickly gave him back to Draco, who cradled him gently.
Draco sighed. "So what do I have to do?" he said.
"Do you know how to take care of a child this age?"
"I know the basic stuff. Anyway, Blaise will help me. She's used to, after Chandler." Draco said, replying to Snape.
"Zabini has a child!?" Ron said incredulously.
The blond rolled his eyes. "Of course note, you git, Chandler is her baby brother. God!"
"Oh. And anyway, Malfoy can't look after Harry, he'll kill him! Or one of the Slytherins will."
"Potter will not be harmed under my care, I can assure you," Draco drawled.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled happily, a smile bright on his face. "Good, then that's settled. I'll alert the school to this accident at dinner tonight.