Title: Child of Hogwarts
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: None. Things will be different from the get go.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: After seeing baby Harry interact with a Student after the death of his Parents, Dumbledore has a better idea of where Harry should be raised. Inside the halls of Hogwarts.
"Ok, explain the need for the Lactation Spell to me again." Mary, a Gryffindor, Muggleborn Sixth Year said. "Harry's about… fifteen months old, right? Well, my baby brother was completely weaned by that stage and had been eating soft food since he was just under a year old. I have no issue with the spell, but if he doesn't need it…."
Mary was standing in the Infirmary, holding Harry easily on her hip as she spoke to Madam Pomphrey. Mary had the first shift of looking after Harry, so had been slightly surprised to find Mafalda asleep in a bed with Harry when she had arrived.
"I understand that is common in the Muggle World." Madam Pomphrey replied. "In the Magical World it is a little different. A Witch's breast milk contains an… echo of her Magic. This assists in the child fighting off certain common infections that are common in the Magical World that don't exist in the Muggle World. Unlike the immuno-boost that Muggle breast milk provides, this Magical effect is not only effective for six months, instead this protection lasts for years as long as the breast milk is consumed, so it is not uncommon for Witches to breastfeed their children for six years, sometimes up to eight years. There is also a belief by some, but not supported by any data, that extended breast feeding by a Witch to a child will strengthen and fortify the child's Magic. Most of those who believe this have enough resources to hire a Witch to be a wetnurse so the lady of the house is not… inconvenienced."
"That makes sense." Mary mused. "But there's nothing to prevent him eating soft food as well?"
"Nothing." Madam Pomphrey confirmed.
Mary nodded and took Harry behind a screen to breast feed him. Madam Pomphrey had supplied a small cart with a breakfast for Mary to consume as most of the rest of the student body was already down in the Great Hall for their own breakfasts. Most of the food was things she could consume with one hand while she held Harry to her breast with the other. Once the feeding was done, and Mary was finished eating, she walked out of the Infirmary with Harry supported in her hip with one hand around her waist and the other mushing a half chewed piece of banana into his mouth.
"What the hell is that thing doing in here?" a Fifth Year Slytherin Boy demanded when Jasmine, a Sixth Year Slytherin, brought Harry into the Common Room in the afternoon, having taken over the care from Mary earlier in the day.
All of the Fifth through Seventh Year Girls rallied around Jasmine with Samantha, a Fifth Year and girlfriend to the Boy, right at the front in his face and giving him a black look and then a verbal dressing down as most of the rest of the girls escorted Jasmine towards her dorm room. The few other males who grumbled were confronted by Girlfriends, Sisters or Female Friends, while the younger girls gathered around to get a glimpse of Harry.
Two days of their Girlfriends not allowing snogging, Sisters yelling or Friends ignoring them convinced almost all of the grumbling boys to just let the issue go. Similar scenes were played out in the other Common Rooms in the following days, with the same result.
"You promised she would be safe!" Severus Snape almost screamed. "They are all dead."
Snape and Dumbledore were standing on the shore of the lake with Hogwarts in the background.
"They put their trust in the wrong person." Dumbledore said calmly. "And they are not all dead. Young Harry survived. He's in the Castle right now."
"I don't care." Snape said. "She's gone."
"Come teach at Hogwarts." Dumbledore insisted.
"Maybe." Snape mused, his voice numb. "Once the boy is gone."
"Young Harry will be staying permanently at Hogwarts." Dumbledore said.
Severus Snape stared at Dumbledore for a few seconds before turning and walking away. That would be the last time that Severus Snape would be seen in Magical Brittan again. Based on the articles posted in various Potioneer Publications it was surmised that he moved to Brazil.
Every single Witch in Fifth through Seventh Years, along with most of the female Staff, were combing the castle. Little Harry had wandered off when his minder looked away for a few moments and he had followed someone else out of the Gryffindor Common Room.
After two hours of combing the castle Harry was located on the third floor, looking behind each of the curtains on the windows, going from one to the next.
"Harry, what are you doing?" Professor McGonagall, who was the first to find him.
"Dadda." Harry said as he toddled on to the next curtain. "Mumma sleeping. Look for Dadda. When Mumma wake?"
Minerva McGonagall's heart broke at that moment and she had no idea what to say to him. That was the first time 'The Great Harry Search' happened, but it would not be the last over the next several months.
Mafalda stood from her seat to head up to her room in order to grab an extra reference book. Harry was sitting on the rug that covered the floor of the Ravenclaw Common Room, giggling at something one of the First Year Girls was doing, so it was unlikely he would be wondering off… again.
She was most of the way up to her dorm room when an alarm sounded and suddenly the stairs turned into a slide. Instinctively breaking her fall with her hands and then rolling onto her back, Mafalda slid down the slide and was deposited into the Common Room, the slide turning back into stairs when she left them. Harry was standing up and giggling as he waddled back towards the stairs to the girl's dorms.
"Falda! Fun!" Harry exclaimed and then began climbing the stairs again.
When he was four steps up, the alarm sounded again and the stairs once again turned into a slide, which Harry slid down with a squeal of excitement.
Harry repeated this twice more, with the Ravenclaws in the Common Room watching in fascination at his fun, before Professor Flitwick walked in, responding to the alarm to see Harry's fun.
Sad to disappoint the toddler, Flitwick quickly cast the spell to exclude Harry from the Wards on the Girls Dormitory Stairs, an exemption meant for male Heads of House like Flitwick himself. The stairs no longer turning onto a slide set Harry to pouting until Mafalda picked him up and gave him a big hug.
By the evening of the next day, runes were added at each landing of the Girls Dormitory Stairs in both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Towers, where the Dorms were stacked vertically, which when they were powered would turn the stairs below the rune into a slide without the alarm being activated. In the Hufflepuff and Slytherin Dorms, which were constructed on a single level, Harry was granted access through the Magical Barries that protected the Girls Dorms.
Several of the Sixth Year Girls in both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, Mafalda Hopkirk included, enjoyed turning the lowest section of the Girls Dorm Stairs into a slide for Harry and watch him slide down it. Some of the First Year Girls would beg to join in the fun too, which Harry was enthusiastic about, but it depended on which Sixth Year Girl was powering the runes as to if the First Years were allowed to join in, or if it was just Harry.
TBC….
A/N: I know I said in the last chapter that this one was expected to bring us up to the start of Harry's First Year, but there was too much to cover. There will be more 'snapshot' scenes until Harry's First Year.