Child of Mine
Chapter 4:

Diapers, Baths, and Screams… Oh My

The next morning Snape woke and sat up, looking to the blue basinet which was quiet, luckily. Standing, he grabbed his normal black robes, shirt, and pants, donned them, and was in the middle of tying his shoes when Harry's head peeked over the basinet.

Snape nearly glared, and sighed, "Figures you'd be up."

Harry then did something he least expected, he stuck his tongue out, and weakly blew air out -- blowing a baby raspberry, leaving Snape to gape. "Why you little-" he growled out harshly, a mere second later Harry's eyes widened, and he started howling.

"Oh God, not again," Snape groaned.

~*~

Snape walked up to the main table, after having cleaned and changed the shrieking, wrestling baby. He sat down at his seat and glared at Remus, who was laughing all the while. Remus was handed Harry, who in less than a minute stopped crying, but ended up breathing in little gasping, shuddering breaths, wiping his eyes with his little fists, and then looked over at Severus, pouting at him, making Snape almost feel guilty.

"This isn't fair," he growled. "Why must I have to take care of him?!"

"Your mess, your kid?" Remus offered. "Now, Harry," he looked at the little boy who blinked intelligently and gazed directly into his eyes. "I'm going to sit you down so you can eat, but you have to be good while Severus feeds you, all right?" Harry was then placed in his high chair, and a bowl of oatmeal and a baby spoon, appeared on his tray.

Thoroughly interested in the two new items, Harry picked up the spoon awkwardly and dropped it into the oatmeal, part of it sticking out. He clapped his hands together as if it was an accomplishment, and Severus reached over to grab the spoon so he could feed him-

Just then Harry's small fist hit the end of the spoon that was not in the bowl, and flung both oatmeal, and spoon, at Snape's head.

SPLAT. THWACK.

Remus nearly swallowed his own tongue, desperately trying to hold back the laughing hysterics that dared to break forth. Snape, eyes closed, and with precise movement of one hand, scooped the oatmeal off, and wiped it off into a napkin. Then, grabbing another napkin, he wiped his face and glared at Harry, "You realize that you are one of the most horrid creatures I've ever had the displeasure of having to deal with?"

Harry pouted and sniffled, but then decided for some odd reason, to give a wide grin to him. Undeterred, he continued on, now using his hands to scoop the food and shovel it into his mouth, while Remus chuckled and went on eating his eggs, ham, and toast.

"It's going to be amusing finding out how class goes now that you have to take care of him while teaching..." Remus commented as Snape's face took on a look of dawning realization and horror.

"What?!" rang through the room - - the bawl of unhappiness (Harry) following shortly after.

~*~

First period was not going as well as Snape had anticipated, twenty minutes into the class he was ready to rip out his hair, as well as strangle the bellowing child. The first years Slytherin and Gryffindor's were doing their best to act as if they heard nothing at all. But the problem was, the louder Snape tried yelling over the baby, the louder the child would become.

Only one girl in the entire class had successfully written all the necessary instruction and notes, and had begun her potion, without so much as a care in the world, almost as if she really couldn't hear the baby. Finally Snape snapped, (mentally and vocally...) "DON'T YOU EVER TAKE A BLOODY BREATH?!" he screamed at Harry.

Somehow, defying all natural facts of the capacity of the human vocal chords, the wail increased ten fold, and students groaned. They dropped everything to clap their hands over their ears, in a desperate attempt to block out the howling child.

"Sir!" called out a female voice. "I don't think that worked!"

"And what would you know about it Ms. Posten?!" he yelled over the sound, irritation and not a little bit of sarcasm, lacing his words.

Amber sighed, "I have six brothers, three of them younger then me, two are twins! I've dealt with children before!"

"Then since you're ahead of the class it seems, why don't you make your way down here, and shut him up?!" he ordered, voice cracking. He winced as the squeal of displeasure became shrill and piercing.

Unphased by his attitude of near insanity, she stood and walked over to Harry, completely use to adults (namely her parents) on the edge of mental breakdowns. "You have to comfort him," she explained picking the baby up. She rocked Harry back and forth and his screams lowered as he clutched onto the front of her robes tightly, burying the side of his head into her neck, heaving great shuddering gasps as he regained the lost oxygen his screams had deprived him of. His green watery eyes looking up to Severus as if he had been betrayed.

"Pee yew!" Amber said after a moment. "When was the last time you changed him?" She looked up at Snape who looked utterly unmoved by her statement, and with a straight face replied:

"What's this, 'change', you speak of?"

"Oh dear..." she murmured. "This is not going to be a happy diaper. Perhaps you and I should use your private office while I show you how to change him properly."

"I will need to go back to my quarters to get the diapers," he began before she interrupted him.

"Why don't you just use the stuff in the diaper bag?"

"What diaper bag?" he frowned, thoroughly confused.

"That one," she pointed off behind him, and sure enough, when he turned to look over his shoulder, in the darker corner of his classroom was an overly large bright pink bag.

"Oh dear God," Snape groaned. How could Poppy be that cruel? Pink?! He walked over, now being watched by the entire class and went to grab the bag. Expecting it to be easily lifted, he yanked up and nearly pulled his arm out of it's socket. He stared, baffled at the actual weight, and tugged again, what had she stuffed in here? A few cannonballs and a dead body to go?!

"How did she know we would need this?" he muttered.

"She probably could guess you were bad at - - err, I mean, uhhh, never mind," Amber said quickly, noticing the slightly homicidal look in her Professor's eyes.

Harry was still quietly weeping, and Snape muttered, "I have the strongest desire to strangle that brat."

"Professor! That's not very nice to say! He's just a baby!" she defended, earning herself some stares.

"Are you sure you're a Slytherin?!" came a voice from the Gryffindor side.

"Oh, shut itp, Ben," she stuck her tongue out at her friend. "Well come on Professor, he won't stop crying until he's changed."

Literally dragging the large bag to his side room, Snape unlocked the door and let her walk in as he followed behind her with the heavy body bag... er.... Baby bag, in tow. It was only once they were inside the room that he realized he could have levitated it. He'd been watching the brat for barely a day and already his senses were leaving him.

Amber set Harry's blanket on the desk and laid him down on his back. She then deftly removed his baby clothes, which had become twisted and bunched. Amber was surprised to find a muggle-type diaper, and smiled, "At least it's disposable, if you had the cloth ones, you'd have to rinse it in the toilet, and things get pretty messy when that's done..."

Snape looked as if he might turn green, "How can people STAND children?! I'd be tempted to..." he glared down at Harry, and his student laughed as she undid Harry's diaper.

"Hand me a fresh diaper and the wipes, Professor," Amber ordered, not even blinking over the fact that she was bossing her teacher around.

"Wipes?" Perplexed, Snape began searching the bag until he finally came out with a bag of diapers and a plastic box which opened up to the wipes. "I believe this is what you wanted..." he murmured, and handed them to her. She simply nodded. Upon Amber opening the diaper, Snape was disgusted at what lay within, his nose wrinkled in disgust at what he saw and his mouth went white as it was pursed into a scowl.

"Get me the baby powder also," she once more instructed, as he did so, Amber successfully cleaned Harry up, rolled up the dirty diaper, quickly replaced the new one to it's proper position, and adding the baby powder quickly, she taped it into place. "There, ALL better," she said to the now happy child. "You don't wanna cry no more now do ya?" she smiled cheerfully to him and he giggled at her as she dressed him and picked him back up. "There you go Professor," she handed Harry to Snape and he sighed in relief.

"Why can't someone ELSE take care of him?" he bemoaned. Harry glanced up to him and looked as if he might start to cry again. "Oh don't you even dare..." he glared.

~*~

The students and staff were enjoying their peaceful dinner; in fact, the entire room, was actually pretty silent. Many of the students, took great delight, in such a scream-free environment. When all of a sudden, an ear-splitting shriek, blasted through the silence.

"Oh God, no!" A cry came from the Slytherin table as Snape, bedraggled, and looking strung higher then a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, walked into the room. The red-faced baby in his arms was flailing unhappily, trying to distance himself from his bearer. Snape reached the main table and set Harry into his high chair before he sat down and weakly began eating.

"Good to see you've been doing the same wonderful job with Harry that you did yesterday, Severus," Remus smirked.

"Shut up," Severus spit out venomously. The wail from Harry raised a decibel or two at this, and more then half the room winced in pain - - some in familiarity, others, from the unaccustomed assault on their eardrums.

Hermione looked over at the main table and sighed irritably, "Professor Snape REALLY can't take care of babies, can he?"

"I should think not," Ron said, still staring at his poor, suffering friend.

"I absolutely refuse to go through another dinner with Harry screaming his vocal chords raw," Hermione announced, as she stood up, and headed for the main table, with a boldness Ron would never have dared to use when approaching Snape. "Excuse me, Professor, I realize you are trying to eat but might I take Harry? It seems as if you could use a break, and I'm sure Ron and I could keep him amused."

Snape's 'withering' look was so pathetic that Hermione was not affected in the least. Finally he answered, "Yes, Ms. Granger, take him."

Hermione smiled and walked around the table and pulled the high chair out and turned it slightly toward her. "Hi, Harry," she said with a smile, before she picked him up. The moment he felt a calm and loving presence, Harry slowly stopped crying and went silent, breathing heavily and looking up at Hermione's face. "We're going to go see Ron, Harry," she kissed his forehead, and all of a sudden he smiled at her and giggled. "Say 'bai bai' to the Professors."

She turned him in her arms and supporting him she used her other hand to grab his small hand and helped him to wave goodbye to the teachers who chuckled (save Snape) - - Remus even waved back to them, and took him to the Gryffindor table with her giggling bundle.

Hermione sat down and soon was the center of attention as many of the girls started playing with Harry, too distracted to eat. They did manage to feed Harry, though.... quite a bit, actually. He seemed extremely hungry.

"He's soooo adorable!" Lavender cried. "I never thought Harry would make such a cute baby!"

"Hey, Hermione, can I hold Harry?" Ron asked suddenly. He'd been sitting nervously, watching everyone coo over his friend and wanted some time with him too. The accident had hit him hard, and he needed to see for himself that Harry was really alright.

"Wanna go to Ron, Harry?" Harry looked up at her, laughing and giggling at all the attention and started giggling out, "Wron! Wron!"

"Blimey! He said my name!" Ron said amazed as he was handed Harry. He wasn't used to handling a baby, since Ginny was only a year younger than him, but Harry was old enough that he didn't need too much neck and back support, just somewhere to sit and someone to keep him balanced.

"I thought he was a baby!" Fred said surprised, "I didn't think he could talk."

"Of course he can talk, he looks almost a year old. I shouldn't be surprised if he was able to walk by now either. He has quite a few of his teeth in, and I'd bet he'll be much faster in developing his speech... and at a much faster rate than normal. After all, he may still have his mind, it just might be locked up; and all we have to do is help him unlock it while Professor Snape searches for a cure," Hermione explained in a 'matter of fact' voice.

Throughout dinner Harry went from the Gryffindor table, to the Ravenclaws, the Hufflepuffs. Then, as the Hufflepuff Perrin Whistler was playing with Harry, a timid voice asked from behind her, "Might I take Harry?"

Perrin turned around and looked to the small raven-haired first year, "But you-"

She was interrupted by a giggle, "Potan!" Harry held out his arms and Amber took him from a startled Perrin with a smile.

"Hi there, Harry!" The Hufflepuffs stared at the Slytherin girl who looked unflustered by their surprised looks. "I changed his diaper in class today," Amber explained, before she took him to her first year friends, who also began cooing over Harry.

"Potan!" he called to her again. Amber shook her head and corrected him.

"My name is, Am - Ber."

"Am-" Harry hesitated.

"Ber." she concluded for him.

"Am...by," he slurred out. Amber looked horrified at the grins she was receiving.

"HEY! That's such a cute nickname! 'AMBY'! Hey, we should start calling you-" a first year Slytherin boy was cut off as Amber smacked him upside the head. "OW!"

"Shut up, Robert."

"It seems he doesn't dislike ALL Slytherin's," Remus mused, after swallowing the last of his bread roll.

"Stuff it," Snape said shortly. Hoping Harry would be unconscious...err, asleep, by the end of the night, Snape let them be, not bothering to go retrieve the child. Soon enough though, his good mood and his meal, which had gone so well was suddenly dampened when he started hearing things one wouldn't wish to hear at a meal.

"Can I hold the baby?" Draco stepped up with a sneer on his face, eyes fixed on the baby who'd once been his most hated enemy. Salamanthia, another first year, who was now holding Harry, imperceptively tightened her hold around the helpless child in her arms, in a protective gesture.

"I don't think so, Malfoy," Salamanthia bit out. She had heard about him, and trusted him about as far as she could throw him... and considering her size, she'd be lucky enough to hurt him with a punch.

"It's not like I'm going to hurt Gryffindor's precious Potter. They can't even compete in Quidditch anymore until they find a new seeker," Malfoy scoffed, as he looked down at the boy who was now in Salamanthia's arms. Harry's eyes looked up at blond, handsome boy, and after a moment of scrutinizing him, the child blew a baby raspberry at him, and giggled. Malfoy's eyes darkened.

"Why you little brat!" he shouted at Harry. Salamanthia stood up, cradling Harry to her.

"He was just playing! He didn't do anything to you! Go back and sit down, you big bully!" Salamanthia was stepping away from Malfoy and moving towards the teachers table. The Professor's had been alerted by the commotion and were now watching the scene across the room closely.

"How can you be a Slytherin?" Malfoy sneered, with a high and mighty tone. "You're nothing like us! You probably were misplaced here by default only because you're a pure blood. What's Slytherin coming to... merciful first years? You make us weak!" Draco turned around and calling on Crabbe and Goyle he left the room as Salamanthia yelled after him, "YOU JERK!"

Tears flowing down her cheeks, the young girl turned back to the teachers table and ran up to Snape and thrust Harry into his arms, "Go ahead and take him!" and ran, sobbing her eye's out, all the way out of the room.

"Ms. Rowens! Wait!" Minerva cried after the girl, but was too late and sat back, blowing out a huff of air. "That poor girl, I'm going to speak to her friend Amber and ask her to go look after her, just in case Malfoy tries something," she proclaimed as she stood up and walked over to the Slytherin table, leaving the teachers, who felt just as badly as she did, behind.

"Poor little girl," Hagrid said. "No one deserves ta be told they don't belong somewhere... little prat Malfoy..." he stopped his words by taking a long drink of his milk and Dumbledore nodded at his comment.

Snape, meanwhile was staring at Harry apprehensively, as if the boy might break into hysterics at any moment. Harry, consequently, gave Snape the same apprehensive look too, except he was expecting Snape to shout at any moment. After a minute of sheer silence, Snape, not wishing to take any chance at ruining such a quiet moment, stood carefully and began leaving.

"Sleep well, Severus!" Remus called from behind him cheerfully. Not even replying, Snape made his way to his room in the dungeons.

To his surprise the trip down there was silent and uneventful. Snape entered the room and set Harry gently on the bed and then began removing everything but his own pants and placed them on his bed neatly. He then began undressing Harry down to his diaper. From what Amber had said earlier that day, Harry had to be bathed; the water had to be warm but not too cold or hot. The baby shampoo would have to be used since anything else could hurt Harry's eyes. You had to dry him, keep him warm at night, keep a hat on him lest he get cold, brush his teeth with the tooth brush and baby paste.

And a hundred other things he thought he'd go insane over trying to remember. He went into his bathroom and turned on the faucet, adjusting the water temperature he let it fill the tub with four inches of water. As this was happening Snape turned around to look up at his shelves of bathing items. On the bottom shelf lay all of Harry's baby items for the bathroom necessities, thanks to Michael. He went over to the towel cabinet and on the middle shelf were small baby towels and washcloths, and a rubber dragon, broom, and witch that would float in the water. Pulling the toys out he threw them disdainfully into the tub and went back to the silent baby. Removing Harry's diaper, he cleaned him up before throwing the diaper into his trash and picked Harry up. He entered the bathroom and plopped Harry into the tub quickly.

Harry looked up to Snape quizzically, as if unsure what to do and Snape sighed, grabbed the bar of soap, a wash cloth from the cabinet, and dunked them in the water, and lathered up the cloth. He washed Harry's small body, careful to watch his mouth, nose, and eyes. In fact, he was very gentle as he did so, making sure every inch of Harry was cleaned well. Not that he cared about the hygiene of the child- he just didn't want to deal with a smelly baby. Harry, for the most part, held perfectly still, gazing up into the scowling face of the man washing him.

Severus rinsed Harry off and carefully soaked the child's hair by tilting him back and taking a handful of water and placing it over his small head, careful to not let it get in his eyes. Large, watchful green eyes stared steadily into his own until he set Harry back up. Grabbing the shampoo bottle Snape began scrubbing the unruly black hair, while Harry played happily with his newly discovered toys. He picked up the broom and began moving it in the air with his hand, making a 'vroom' sound as he did so, he then had the dragon attack the witch. Snape did his best to rinse the baby's hair once more and by the end of the bath, had ended up just as wet as Harry was because of the boy's splashing.

Sitting up and stretching his aching back muscles, Snape left Harry to sit and play, while he grabbed the baby towel. Leaning over he pulled the plug and leaving the bathroom for only a moment, he briefly exited the door to place the towel on his bed that was directly to the left. He came back quickly, and grabbed Harry firmly by his sides under his arms, lifted him up, and holding him a foot away from him, got to the bed and plopped him onto the open towel, folding it over the wet child and began patting him dry.

Harry giggled at him happily, and was content to suck on his thumb as he watched the silly man dry him off. This man was very strange, he thought, one moment yelling, the next minute he was quiet. Harry remembered him, he was the one who had saved him from the darkness, and had held him protectively. This man was his rescuer in his eyes; therefore he wanted nothing more then his love. But why did this man always talk so meanly? And why did he have to give him to that scary woman? And why wouldn't he comfort him?

Snape went to the smaller dresser that had been placed aside his own, and opened the bottom drawer, finding a blue sleeper with little wands decorated on it. Shutting the drawer, he reached over to the left, under a wooden table that had a plastic covering on the top - - beneath it lay neat piles of diapers and wipes and baby powder. He wondered if that was where he was supposed to put Harry to change him.

Severus went over to Harry and clothed him, he allowed himself to feel a swell of pride for what he had accomplished. He then placed Harry in the rocking basinet that was decorated red and gold and covered him with the large, heavy silver and green blanket.

After bathing and getting into his nightshirt, he crawled into his own large bed and whispered a magical word and the lights went out. Almost asleep, Severus heard the sound of Harry's playful squeal. Too tired to move, he managed to ignore it for nearly fifteen minutes. As exhausted as he was, sleep wouldn't completely take him, and several times he'd jerk awake to find Harry playing and giggling to himself.

Sighing in frustration Severus grabbed his wand, whispered a light spell, and went over to look down at the child, who was still laughing and playing with his feet, as if he had found the most fascinating thing in all the world. Severus frowned, "Go to sleep. I have work tomorrow! Unlike you who seems to have found a way to get out of it! If you hadn't taken that damned potion I'd be fine..." he explained harshly. Although, watching Neville might have been just as bad if not worse to look over.

Harry looked up to him, eyes wide, and his lower lip stuck out forward into a pout, eyes beginning to water.

"Don't you EVEN THINK of-"

"WAGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

"Cry...in...." Severus let out a groan, tossed his wand onto his night stand in defeat. The light automatically canceled out, and getting into his bed, he collapsed upon it and forced a pillow on top of his head to block out the inhuman sound of the banshee wailing from the crib in the corner.

"Why me?" he nearly sobbed as he desperately fought for the inky blackness of sleep to overcome his mind and end his torment.

~*~