A/N: Just a quick author's note. For those of you who do not speak toddler fluently, I have provided some of the more challenging changes at the end of the chapter. Also, it helps to say them aloud. Over the next couple chapters, you will notice a difference in Jamie's speech. This is normal and not a mistake on my part. I have spent a considerable time around little kids and sometimes they are easy to understand and not 10 minutes later I have a hard time understanding them, so that's why it is as it is. Thanks!

A/N2: I probably jump back and forth between names a lot, but Jamie is Harry and vice versa. Also, as for his level of memory and intelligence, I know children this smart this young, and, if it doesn't fit, it's magic. And fanfiction. What I say goes in my universe.

Chapter 6

As the boy shrank, some of his injuries disappeared. Severus waved his wand over the child as his size stopped changing, and the number 3 appeared over the boy's chest. It appeared the boy had now had the body and mind of a toddler. Said child rolled onto his back with a whimper, but remained asleep.

He looked concerned for a moment, before spelling the boy down to his underwear. He gasped slightly. Harry's body had returned to its original 3 year old state. Again, he was small for his age, but not terribly so, probably because he had only been with the Dursley's for a little over a year by this point, and he had been high on the charts for height beforehand. What worried him were the knife wounds, 3 in all, carved across his ribs. He quickly sealed it shut, though it would still scar. He then gently rolled the boy onto his stomach and healed the belt marks that went down onto his rear as well. He cast a quick diagnostic spell. Other than a slight fever, which he quickly took care of with a fever reducer, watered down for the small child, there was nothing wrong. He gently dressed the boy in warm, dark blue, fleece footed pajamas, over a diaper, transfigured from his outer cloak. He zipped the pajamas up, and then picked the boy up, tossing a fleece blanket over his back. The small brunet cuddled close, sticking his right thumb in his mouth, as his left hand clutched at Severus's black cloak.

"Good job, sweet boy," he muttered though the boy was still asleep as they head back to the potion's lab. Lunch was almost over and he had another class directly after. He spelled a nutrition potion into the boy's stomach before he transfigured an old vial into a stuffed dragon, blue and silver in color. He unhooked Harry's grip from his robes and traded it out for the dragon. The Gryffindor took it, hugging it tight, though he didn't wake. Severus smiled slightly at the sight, before laying the boy on the cot he had transfigured from a spare stool. He stood back up just as the door opened and his 5th year Gryffindor and Slytherin class came in, chatting loudly.

"Silence!" The class immediately quieted and rushed to their seats. "There has already been one explosion today. If there is another, you will have detention for a week with Mr. Filch. You will be making an aging potion. Do not speak. Page 183. Get started."

The room was silent. The students, miraculously, were working well and quiet, though the potion was indeed a second year potion. However, that changed about an hour into the two hour lesson when Harry screamed and jumped up. The Potions Master strode quickly, in what one other than the stern man would call a run, to the front of the room and scooped up the frightened boy. Ignoring the students in the room, he gently said, "Shh…it's okay Jaime, you're safe." His voice was a warm tone, unheard by any student other than the one he was holding, and certainly never directed towards another. "Keep working on your potions, this is none of your affair," he said, his voice neutral.

They continued their work in silence. Snape made his way around the room again, correcting the students' mistakes, though not as harshly as he had in the past. He didn't bother to put the boy back down after he feel back asleep in his arms. The stern "Bat of the Dungeons" was seen in a completely different light that day as he tucked a fleece blanket around the footed pajama clad, de-aged Boy-Who-Lived.

The bell rang and the students walked out of the room. The youngest Weasley, and only girl, came up to his desk. "Sir, is that Harry?"'

"It is."

She reached out and brushed a hand through his baby soft hair. "He trusts you," she mused knowing no one could ever get him to go back to sleep after a nightmare. "Then I trust you," she said resolutely before adding, "Please, take good care of him."

"I will, Miss Weasley. Get along to your next class," he kept his voice neutral once more.

"Yes, sir."

"Miss Weasley?" he stopped her just as she got to the door.

"Yes, Professor?"

"Tell that to your brother."

She looked confused momentarily before her eyes lit up and she caught his tone. "I will, Professor. Have a great day."

Severus crouched lightly in front of the quivering 3 year old boy. "I'm not going to hurt you, child."

Bright green eyes, full of unshed tears, looked up at him through his lashes. "How me know?" he whispered anxiously.

"Do you remember being hurt?"

He put his hands on his ribs over his pajamas. "Tew 'Non bweeded me." (1)

"Yes, he did. I am not like your Uncle Vernon." Severus was struggling to keep his voice warm, particularly when talking of such a gruesome topic. "I am the one who made it all better. Can you tell me what your name is?" He was curious as to how much the child knew.

"Tew 'Non says me 'Boy' o' 'Fweak'. Sames wit' 'nt 'Tuny an' Dudwey. But…" he trailed off. (2)

"But what?"

"When I's is sweeping, Mummy tallded me…" his face screwed up in thought. "Baby o' Jamie. The mens tallded me odder " (3)

"Which men?"

"Papa, Tew Mooey, Tew Paddy, 'n' Tew '" (4)

"What did they call you?"

He shrugged. "Me no mnember." (5)

"Your name is Harry James Potter. Would you like me to call you 'Jamie'?"

He nodded. "Who is you?"

"I am your guardian."

"'Dian?"

"Yes, a guardian. It is someone who takes care of a child like their own child when their parents are not able to."

"Mummy 'n' Papa dieded in a taw twash whewe me getted dis," he touched his forehead. (6)

"Jamie, your Mummy and Papa are up in the sky watching over you. They did die, but not in a car crash."

"How?"

"A very bad man killed them, but he can't ever hurt you again because he is gone."

"So, yous is mine Daddy? Cuz Papa don an' yous is not Papa, so Daddy" The 3 year old struggled to say the word outright. (7)

Severus was glad the child wanted to keep the moniker, though he wouldn't know that. He smiled. "Yes, child, I am your daddy."

He cautiously stepped forward. The Potion's Master stayed completely still as the boy inched toward him. Harry knelt in his lap, his bony knees pressing into Severus's thighs painfully, but he didn't dare move for fear of scaring the child. The young boy shakily traced over the elder's face with a soft touch. He touched the man's hair, fascinated. "We's has de same hairs. Is blat" (8)

"Yes, Jamie, we both have black hair." He decided to push his luck a little farther. "And Daddy's don't hurt their babies. You are my baby, Jamie."

The young Gryffindor leaned into the older man, wrapping his arms around his neck. Severus scooped him up and held him close. "Daddy?"

"Yes, Jamie?"

"Whew is we?" (9)

"We are at Hogwarts. It is a school." He sniffed. "Let's get you cleaned up." He carried the boy into his office and transfigured an old quill into a changing table. He carefully laid the boy down and unzipped the pajamas, pulling them off the boy. He took the time to examine the boy carefully for injuries or issues from neglect. Though only 3, he was small for his age, closer to a year and a half or two, not much bigger than when he had transferred the boy into Hagrid's arms the night Lily died. One main difference from that time was the lack of baby fat. Thankfully, there were no words carved as of yet. There weren't any differences from earlier in the day either, something he was eternally gratefully for. With a slightly out of practice hesitance, he changed the child's diaper and cleaned him off. He hadn't done that in years, about 15 to be exact, on the last of 3 occasions that he had babysat for Lily. All the Marauders and Lily had been on missions and he had not been, so he was asked to watch the child. Lily trusted very few people with her only son. Harry could not have recognized him, though, because he had taken on glamour charms to look like someone else each time, like a cousin of Lily's incase the Dark Lord ever gleaned that information from someone's mind who had known of the incident. "Are you hurting anywhere?" he asked quietly.

"Mine tummy is oshy," he admitted nearly inaudibly. (10)

He muttered a diagnostic spell, causing the child to giggle softly at the tickling sensation. Other than the nutrient potion, which was nearly gone, there was nothing in his stomach. "When did you last eat?"

The little brow furrowed as he looked at his fingers.

Severus tried again. "How many days ago did you have food?"

Jamie held up four little fingers. "I gotted wadders, but none foods." (11)

Severus was grateful the boy was intelligent, even if his speech hadn't increased since he was around the boy as a toddler last. He had actually been the one to teach him how to count to ten, that final night he was there. Lily said that he went around counting everything, just starting over when he got to ten, after that. "Should we get you back in your pajamas then get some food?"

He nodded. "Yes, Daddy."

He redressed him in the same pajamas as before, and then called for Dobby, who promptly asked what he could do. "Dobby, will you please fix a bottle of warm milk?"

"Yes, Master Professor Snape, sir. Dobby will be right back, sir." He disappeared with a soft pop.

Severus scooped the small child into his arms, holding him like a baby. He changed his desk chair into a rocking chair, where he sat down. "You're a very good boy, Jamie."

He didn't respond, except to start sucking on his right thumb again.

Dobby appeared with the bottle a moment later. Severus thanked him and tested the temperature of the milk before giving it to Harry. He had added just 3 drops of Dreamless Sleep, just to get the child to rest until dinner.

Uncle Vernon caused me to bleed.

Uncle Vernon says my name is Boy or Freak. Same with Aunt Petunia and Dudley, but…

When I'm asleep, Mummy called me 'Baby' or 'Jamie'. The men called me other things.

Papa, Uncle Moony, Uncle Padfoot, and Uncle Wormtail

I don't remember

Mummy and Papa died in a car crash where I got this.

So, you're my Daddy? Because Papa is gone and you are not my Papa, so you're my Daddy.

We have the same hair. It's black.

Where are we?

My tummy is ouchy.

I was given water but I didn't get any food.