Being seven, Harry thought, made you very, very grown up. He no longer needed a step stool when brushing his teeth, and his spill-proof glass was a thing of the past.

For Severus Snape however, being seven meant being particularly obstinate and difficult to handle. It was all he could do to make Harry eat his breakfast in the two hours he had between waking and the beginning of first class, while still allowing himself enough time to prepare for his own day.

Fifteen minutes before Severus left, Mrs. Longbottom would knock on the door, and drop off both Neville (her grandson) and Seamus Finnigan, the son of a young witch with whom she was personally acquainted. Sometime after that, (never on time) Arthur Weasley would waltz in, dropping of his own youngest son. It had come to Severus' attention on Harry's sixth birthday, that Harry had no friends of his own age.

He had had a small celebration at dinner time, just a picnic on the grounds with a few chosen friends, and Severus could not help but note that Charlie Weasley and Nymphadora Tonks were the youngest of all the (mainly staff) guests. Because of this, he solicited that very same Charlie Weasley, whom he knew that a younger brother nearly the same age, to ask his mother whether or not they could take lessons together.

Molly had sent her enthusiastic assent, further informing Severus of Ron's two playmates that were also looking for somewhere to take lessons together. Thus, the four boys all met at Hogwarts each day excluding Sundays, and took lessons from eight until three.

Today was a very, very special day. On Christmas, for their lesson with Hagrid, the boys were allowed to help with the decorating of the great hall. Usually they let the professors magic the decorations around while they tied multi-colored bows on Dumbledore's long beard.

This year they had chosen to not only tie the ribbons around Dumbledore's beard, but they had been given permission to display some of their artwork around the hall. Harry had attempted a Christmas Scene, complete with red blob #1, 2 an 3, under a large green blob with two people-ish looking figures covered with similar black hair. He had wrote under the stickmen, in the cursive writing he had just began to learn, Harry and Papa and his proud Grandpa Albus had framed it along with his friends and scattered them around the hall, there was now one fanciful drawing at the end of each house table.

Harry's, of course, ended up at the end of the Slytherin, much to Snape's dismay and to Ron's, his ended up right beside his older brother Charlie's table. As the Hufflepuffs all glanced at Neville's picture of a wand casting a 'wicked spell' at his grandma's red handbag, there came a loud burst of laughter and Charlie lifted the framed photo that hung above Gryffindor table off the wall.

"Professor," he yelled over the dull murmur of the now eating students, Professor McGonagall looked up, scandalized, but Professor Dumbledore merely inclined his head in question. "Do you mind sir, if I send this home to the twins?" Charlie finished, quieter, having moved closer to the head table. "Fred and George will go bonkers if they see Ronnie's painted them in dresses."

"Ah Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore smiled, "if only I could. I'm afraid however, that artistic license belongs to young Ronald and he has expressly forbidden it being shown at any time to those he depicted."

Ron smiled from the "second head table" that stood, albeit a little lower to the ground, directly in front of the faculty one. Charlie stopped briefly to talk to his brother, drawing Severus' attention towards his own young charge, who was staring sullenly at his food.

When dinner ended, and Harry's mood had not seemed to better, Snape cut him off as he went to follow his friends back to his quarters where they would wait for their families to pick them up. Being a keen observer, Severus had noticed that Harry seemed to have been particularly avoiding Seamus' eye.

"Something wrong?" he inquired, Harry shook his head, no. Severus raised an eyebrow and sighed, the obstinate seven year old was rearing its ugly head again. "Nothing happened between yourself and Mr. Finnigan?"

"No, papa," Harry moaned, "he just said something and I didn't like it. Neville neither."

Ah, Severus thought, and what one similarity did Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter hold-

"Started talking about how mommies and daddies were the best thing about Christmas, cause they give you lots of gifts and read you stories before bed, and I said Seamus you shut your fat mouth cause my papa reads me stories and gives me gifts and he's just as good as any mommy and daddy put together! And you know what he said papa? He said that it can't be as good cause there's only two of us, and he's got his mommy and daddy and Bethy, and then Neville said that he's just got his gran but she reads to him and gives him presents too, and his uncle Algie even spends Christmas with them every single year and Ronnie didn't say anything cause he's got all those brothers and sisters and him mommy and daddy and now I lose cause I only have one person and Neville has two, and Seamus has three, and Ronnie has eight."

Tears of frustration leaked out of Harry's eyes and he wiped them away furiously. "S'not fair." He muttered, "I like just me and you, why's in not as good?"

Severus was at a loss, for the billionth time since Harry had come to live with them, he wished that Harry had kept his two parents, and the inevitable siblings who would have followed.

"I like just us to Harry, but remember, it's not, truly, just us. I'm sure Grandpa Albus and Aunt Min would be horribly upset to think you've forgotten them."

Harry looked thoughtful, "Yeah." He nodded, "I didn't mean to forget them." He smiled, "guess Neville loses."

"Endeavor not to think of it that way, it's a horrible thing to say, Neville loses because his family is smaller than all the others. I'm sure he'd be very sad to think that you had just been talking about him the same way as Seamus had just been talking about you."

"Can we run and say bye before Mrs. Longbottom and Mr. Weasley come?"

Severus nodded, "Yes, Harry, though I'd be more worried about catching Neville and Seamus than the possibility of Ronald's dad ever coming on time."

So basically what I'm doing is raising Harry up to Hogwarts and then it's going to go along the story line of the books, but I'll change them around. If that makes sense... so Harry's 7 in this chapter, and next one he'll be 9, and then 11 Hogwarts love.

BTW, just saw GoFJ LOVVVVVED IT.