Team: Wigtown Wanderers

Position: Seeker

Round: 11

Prompt: Out of the Ordinary

Word Count: 2733

I am not a native English speaker, Any grammar mistakes were made unintentionally so I apologize in advance. I have dyslexia and I am still learning English.

Special thanks to my Wigtown Wanderers team for betaing this chapter.

A DAY OUT OF ORDINARY

"It's time, he's almost three years old, Severus," Hermione said, tucked under her husband's arm on the couch.

"I know, but all the past attempts have been so unsuccessful and heartbreaking..." answered Severus with clear reluctance.

"He will never learn if we don't try," she continued. "He will arrive at Hogwarts wearing diapers, don't you want to save him from such a public humiliation?"

"No one will mess with Aidan," Severus growled, narrowing his eyes as he thought about his troubled years at Hogwarts. "Not with you as Deputy Headmistress; besides he still has a long time, he's still a baby."

"Well, your baby is going to preschool soon and needs to at least have started his training," Hermione refuted. "It's a requirement everywhere we have been."

"I'm not sure about that preschool either..."

"Severus we've talked about this already," she replied frustrated. "You need time to be able to focus on your potions during the day, without a child around distracting you."

"My son doesn't bother me."

"I know he doesn't, darling. You are a wonderful father to him," Hermione said in a conciliatory way as she gave him a small kiss on his pursed lips. "But Aidan is growing up and as much as we want him to remain a baby, he needs to interact with other children his age," she finished while staring at him with her hands on his cheeks. "Tomorrow, when I go to work, I will leave his big boy underwear for you, so you can put it on him, at least a few hours a day"

…

Severus had just said goodbye to his wife with a long kiss and was about to enjoy his morning coffee and read a book that had taken him a long time to finish when a sleepy voice called to him from the stairs.

"Daddy?" asked his son.

Sighing, he put the book aside and quickly drank the entirety of his coffee; there was no rest for parents apparently. He quickly climbed the stairs to find his boy sitting at the head of them in only his diaper and his dragon bedspread wrapped around him.

"Good morning, little one," Severus greeted as he took the child in his arms, gave him a kiss on the head and hugged him to his chest. "So now we take off our pajamas?"

Aidan just shrugged, still a bit sleepy, and rested his head into his father's neck, breathing in his reassuring scent. Severus walked down the hall to the bathroom with the boy still in his arms and sat him on the sink.

"Open your mouth," the man calmly ordered the boy. "We must eliminate that dragon's breath."

Aidan laughed, already waking up more, and opened his mouth. If he was fully awake he would probably insist a little to do it himself as a big boy, but in the morning he enjoyed being a baby a bit. After they finished brushing the boy's teeth, Severus washed his son's face and combed his long curly hair. He then took Aidan back to his room. Aidan wrinkled his face a little when he saw that the clothes that were on the chair of his activity table did not have a diaper.

"Daddy..." Aidan started.

"Well you're already a big boy, right?" his father cut him off before he could continue. "Big kids don't wear diapers."

"I don't like it," he replied a little grumpily, crossing his arms.

"Welcome to real life, son," Severus said, laughing a little. "We are not always going to be able to do things that we like, sometimes we will have to do things that we do not like but are necessary. Do you like these blue trousers?"

They were trying to give him a bit of freedom in terms of the clothes he wore so that he could learn a little independence—although from time to time he came out with combinations that made his father's eyes roll. They also tried to show the color of each thing so that they could be learned.

"No!" the boy answered with an annoyed face.

"Without raising your voice, young man, I'm not yelling at you," his father chided him. "Do you want to spend the morning in the thinking chair?"

"I'm sorry!" exclaimed the boy without removing the pout from his face "The one with snakes, Dad" He pointed to a pair of pajama bottoms in the closet. Severus accepted that. The lesson of sleepwear and for the day would be for another time—he was already a little stressed and it was not yet midmorning.

"Alright, you'll put on your big boy clothes and keep the snakes dry right?" He reminded the boy as he dressed him for the day, "If you want to go to the toilet you have to let me know." Aidan nodded absentmindedly.

They went downstairs to get some breakfast.

"Cookies, Dad?" Aidan asked when they got to the kitchen.

"That's not breakfast. Try again, saying please wouldn't hurt."

"Cereal? Please."

"That could be—" Severus cut off what he was saying suddenly when he saw a puddle around his son.

"Potty dad!"

Severus restrained a sigh. It was going to be a long day.

…..

The patio door was open. Aidan noticed it right away. His parents wouldn't let him go to the backyard unsupervised because there were silly plants he shouldn't touch. There were also pretty flowers. Suddenly Aidan remembered his mother liked flowers and since the door was open it might surprise her. Crawling like a lion with his sandy curls making an adorable mane from the living room to the door just for the pleasure of doing it he quietly left. His mother, who was reading on the couch, did not notice his stealthy exit.

Smiling, he stood up and enjoyed his freedom. He ran from one side to the other, imagining that he was a tiger. Then he turned in the same spot until he got dizzy and fell on his back laughing. When he saw the flowers that Dad planted for Mom, he ran towards them.

He held one from below the leaves and pulled it out by the roots, causing the pot to unbalance and fall over. Aidan was very surprised when he saw the roots of the flower, not even giving a second thought to the overturned pot.

He could not give this flower to his mother. She was not going to like it and she was going to get very sad, he assumed that the flower he had pulled was defective and grabbed another, pulling it out strongly. The same thing happened: the pot turned over spilling earth everywhere and the flower had roots. Frowning, he tried again, managing to turn at least eight pots. Always the same result. At this point his clothes, hair, and even his feet (inside the shoes ) were filled with dirt and the whole yard was covered in piles of dirt and discarded flowers.

Frustrated he lay down on the floor, getting even more dirty in the process somehow. The soil had been damp in the pots since they had been watered very recently, his whole body had a layer of mud covering it. After thinking a bit, he remembered that Dad used to remove the weird little things from the plants he picked with a funny little pair of garden scissors.

Grinning, he got up and went to the box in the patio—carrying his flowers— and opened the creaking door before entering the small storage room for garden instruments. He immediately found what he was looking for and held it roughly between his fingers; he cut the roots as carefully as possible. He found the sensation very funny when he was doing so and he remembered when Mom cut his hair with very similar scissors, they always cut it just enough so that the hair did not get tangled or fall in his eyes.

With curiosity and innocence he brought the scissors to his hair right next to his ear and cut a good lock on the ground which made him pick it up and hold it for a few moments. It was very fun and he happily proceeded to randomly cut several parts of his hair, leaving him with a very irregular hair style.

He got bored after a while and remembered the flowers. It was time to surprise Mom. Holding the "bouquet" that he had made, he ran back to the house.

"Mommy! Flowers for you," the boy yelled proudly, leaving mud in his wake as he raced over to his mother. He clambered onto the sofa and offered the flowers to his mom with a smile.

"Oh my God!" Hermione exclaimed, no doubt surprised. "Severus!"

…..

"You didn't close the door!"

"You didn't pay attention to him!"

"Because I assumed you would have closed the door!"

Aidan watched the conversation back and forth, a pout on his lips and his flowers still in his hand.

"Mommy! Flowers for you," he tried again.

His mother looked at him and sighed in exasperation, she really did not know whether to cry, laugh, punish him or hug him. Although seeing the state the child was in, it was probably best to at least postpone the latter until her son had had a bath. Severus was pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Aidan, you know you can't go to the patio alone," Hermione began, steadying herself. "What did you do to your hair, young man?"

"Mommy," Aidan said with watery eyes. His mother only called him Aidan when she was angry, didn't she love him anymore? "Nothing..." the boy answered her question while touching his hair.

"Aidan, I told you it's dangerous to go there, what if you got hurt?" added Severus. "There are very bad plants that eat naughty children."

Aidan's eyes widened in fear and he began to cry.

"Severus!" Hermione scolded her husband "It's not true love... They won't eat you, but they could make you sick and hurt you and you'd be in bed all day and you couldn't play."

"I'm sorry," Aidan said between sobs. "I wanted flowers for you, Mommy. You like flowers," he said, raising the small bouquet in his hands. Looking at her tenderly as if he hadn't left a mess behind him.

"Come here, little manipulator," answered Hermione, hugging the muddy child without making a face and taking the flowers. "They are beautiful baby, but you have to listen to us; it is for your own good. Dad and I just don't want you to hurt yourself."

"Daddy?" Aidan whispered, looking at him with apprehension and stretching a little arm towards him inviting him to a redeeming hug.

With a sigh Severus walked over and wrapped his arms around them both.

"You still have to sit for a while to think, Aidan Severus," his father commented while hugging them. "However, first the bathroom is in order, little mud monster, and you are going to explain to me what happened to your hair."

"What a lovely muddy family we are," Hermione said as they parted. "Don't move Sevy! You will make everything even more dirty. I'll get the tub ready."

When Aidan heard his mom calling him Sevy again, he smiled even though he had to sit in the stinky chair thinking at least he knew he was still loved and all was forgiven.

…..

Hermione was preparing the bathtub while Severus questioned Aidan about his hair; the damage really couldn't be seen well under so many layers of mud. But it seemed like it was insurmountable, his long hair would be very lucky if it didn't end up being completely shaved off.

"Alright, Sevy, take off your shoes here," Hermione said as she walked back.

Aidan obediently removed his shoes—although there really wasn't much difference as the soles of his feet were also covered in mud. Hermione, seeing that it was practically the same and noticing that there was no way to end this without her also needing a bath at the end, took her dirty son in her arms.

"I'm going to collect everything here and see what kind of disaster awaits us in the yard," Severus muttered.

Hermione took the little boy to the bathroom and began to undress him. She had serious doubts that the clothes he was wearing had any hope of salvation. She put the boy in the bathtub while she looked for soap and a good sponge to see if it would remove everything.

"Mommy, toys?" Aidan asked with what was left of the sheared bangs on his wet face.

"There are no toys for naughty boys, young man."

She began to rub the sponge all over the boy's body, who pouted and made a sad face. Removing dirt after unloading the bathtub several times, she decided that it was better to spray it with the shower, otherwise Aidan would end up covered in the dirt he had just lost. When cleaning the boy's hair she realized that his beautiful curly hair was almost completely gone. He had managed to cut his hair extremely short in some parts.

Severus walked in just then, looking as dirty as he was sure she was.

"The flowers are gone," he told her quietly as he ran his hand through his hair. "And there's a new shaggy rug in the tool room."

"I won't be able to fix this myself," Hermione replied pointing to what was left of her son's hair. "We will have to take him to a children's hair salon."

"If you wanted a new haircut so much, you just had to say so," the man said calmly to his son "I don't want you to touch the scissors again, understand Aidan? It's really dangerous."

"Yes, yes Daddy" Aidan cheerfully commented as he played with his fingers as if they were little people while his mother removed the dirt from his body.

….

Hermione put a hat on her son to avoid showing too much his "haircut." It was almost summer so it would probably make him a little warm but it would have to be that way while they took him to a hairdresser. The boy had passed a good ten minutes in his "thinking chair" while his parents got ready for this impromptu weekend outing.

They left the house, making sure to lock everything properly.

"Very well, Aidan, you must take Mom's hand or mine at all times, no escapes," ordered the father, knowing the tendencies of the little troublemaker. "We don't want you to get lost and you've been naughty enough all day."

"I'm sorry, Daddy!" replied the boy.

"No more apologies, just be on your best behavior," added his mom.

The three of them walked together while the boy took both their hands and from time to time he shot himself upwards, happily knowing that neither would let him fall. They came to a hairdresser where everyone was a bit horrified by what the boy had done to himself. When the hairdresser tried to pass the razor near him, he began to cry, fearing it would hurt and pulling his head away.

"It doesn't hurt my love, they'll just cut your hair," his mother consoled him.

"No, Mommy, no!" he cried. "I'm sorry!"

When the razor was brought closer, his face wrinkled and he screamed. However after a moment he realized that it didn't really hurt so he stood still under the watchful eyes of his parents. There was no choice but to shave off most of what was left of his hair leaving a little on the top of his head with a wisp just barely there on his forehead.

"Ready, my big boy!" His mother congratulated him, hugging him after he got off the high chair he was in. "Did you see that it didn't hurt?"

Aidan shook his head from side to side, a bit puzzled with having less weight on it; he was used to shaking his head and having his hair fluttering with him frowning. Touching his head, it felt a little cold.

"I don't like it, Mom!" He exclaimed in horror as he climbed back onto the chair. "Stick it back to my head please," he pleaded with the hairdresser with teary eyes.

His parents sighed in unison, they knew that a long afternoon awaited them.