Chapter 5

Harry sighed as he shifted Alyssa in his arms, her head lolling against his shoulder as she escaped from reality and into her own world of dreams. He wished he had the same luxury. "Harry dear, let me do it. I know what I'm doing, I have raised seven children." Harry turned to see Molly coming towards him, arms out to try and already trying to grab his sleeping Alyssa from him.

Turning to his side slightly to keep Alyssa away from her, he said, "It's fine Mrs Weasley, I've looked after Alyssa all of her life. I know what I'm doing. Although it would be great if you could help me with my trunk." Molly nodded curtly with a slightly annoyed look and with a flick of her wand had Harry's trunk floating in the air, travelling behind them as they climbed the many stairs to where Harry and Alyssa would be sleeping during their stay at Grimmauld Place.

Reaching a door on the second floor of the dark house, Harry nudged it open with his foot and stepped inside, Molly and his trunk following shortly behind him. Surveying the room Harry noticed the large queen sized bed near the middle of the overly large and Slytherin decorated room. Gently, Harry laid Alyssa on the silk green sheets and began taking her shoes off, careful not to jostle her too much with his movements.

Molly set his trunk by the foot of the bed and reached inside of it to take out a night dress for the young girl, frowning at the small size of it and mentally comparing it to what Ginny had worn as a toddler. She looked up when she heard a shoe dropping to the floor, only to watch closely as Harry took care of his young charge in a way that none of her sons had ever been able to care for their younger sister, looking at her as if she was his very reason for breathing, for existing.

"Here you go," she muttered quietly, as to not wake the sleeping girl. Harry took the pink star covered onesie from Molly with a grateful look and began the task of redressing his little one before settling her under the covers as Molly quietly left the two, still shocked by the way Harry cared for her. Harry sighed and brushed Alyssa's dirt covered hair from her equally dirty face, knowing that in the morning he would have to tackle the job of giving his little monster a bath. As Harry prepared for bed himself, his thoughts drifted back to the previous conversation that had occurred downstairs.

Flashback

"You did what!" Hermione screeched in a rage of disbelief. "You can't do that without parental consent!" Harry sighed and shifted towards the bushy-haired girl while still rubbing soothing circles on Alyssa's back.

"I adopted her legally in both worlds. They didn't fight me for her. They just signed the papers." Alyssa whimpered again. Everyone sat in shock, barely believing how awful her old parents could be.

"What will you do with her when school starts?" Snape asked, a contemplative look on his face, his voice unusually devoid of sarcasm.

Harry shrugged, "I'm taking her with me."

"Harry…I don't think you can do that. " Arthur began hesitantly, "Maybe it would be best for her to go back to her mum and dad for-" Arthur stopped abruptly at the glare which was thrown his way, however, what shocked the rest of the room was that the glare wasn't thrown by Harry, but rather by the small, angelic looking girl in his lap. Alyssa fussed in Harry's arms until he finally let her down and she angrily walked over to where Arthur sat. The rest of the room was silent, waiting to see what she would do. Harry smirked from behind his hand, unlike the others, he knew exactly what was coming.

"Excuse me, mister." She said in a sweet tone.

Arthur relaxed and knelt down to her level, "Yes dear?"

"You said something that I didn't quite like." Alyssa continued her eyes conveying a much different message than that of her innocent smile, "You see, Harry is my daddy. He will always be my daddy and he won't be taking me back to the whale, the horse and the pig." Arthur sat back as he saw the young girl get angrier as she continued to speak.

"And you sir are a...a big…" Alyssa struggled to come up with the proper word for what she was trying to get across, "Jerk! Yeah, a big jerk." Now satisfied with her statement Alyssa happily skipped back over to Harry and struggled to get into his lap for his shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter. Severus let out a loud chuckle at the young girl's antics and plucked the girl from the floor, lifting her into his own arms.

"You are never going to leave a dull moment are you?" The potions professor questioned, raising an eyebrow. Alyssa just grinned back happily, sending Harry into another fit of laughter that then travelled around the whole room.

"You have to have magic to be let into Hogwarts," Ginny stated, while Hermione nodded in agreement, annoyed with the laughter that went on around her, in what she saw as a very serious matter.

That sobered Harry up quickly, "Alyssa if you would." Alyssa looked over at Harry from her spot in Severus's arms with excitement burning in her bright green eyes. Suddenly, those green eyes changed to maroon and back again, at the same time her strawberry blond hair grew to her ankles then retreated into her head until she was bald and then finally back to its normal length.

"I figure her power will expand to her other features sooner or later or maybe just stay as it is. Either way, she's a metamorphagus. She has magic, even before I blood adopted her, that just increased her power." He shot back to both Ginny and Hermione.

End Flashback

Harry chuckled at the memory of Snape's face as Alyssa shortly fell asleep in his arms, blissfully unaware of the incredulous looks being sent her way. He ran his hand once more through Alyssa's hair and stood to slip into his pyjama trousers before sliding into the bed next to her and smiling as she reached out for him.