Unetaed, like usual. I have so many ideas but dont know how to put it down.
Inspired by Esama's Master of Death and Book of Changes' A Study in Magic.
Enjoy!
Little Tom took Harry's time. All of it.
Before Harry knew it, a week has passed. And in those seven days, Harry had no time to actually have a decent sleep at all. Tom seemed to deem it fit to make Harry's life to be tied around the baby. Once Harry closed his eyes, the baby would cry out loud, either asking for food, nappy change, scratch, amusement or even cuddle. Hard to imagine, but baby Tom was a normal baby who loves to be held by his parents.
True, baby Tom was especially cute, even Harry admitted that. When Tom gurgled, Harry squealed like a girl. He knew it was undignified, especially for the hero Boy-Who-Lived and the model auror. If Ron or Kingsley saw what happened to him when baby Tom smiled, Harry would have no face to show in the auror department anymore. But since they were not there, so Harry let himself laughed, smiled, melted by Tom's cuteness. The baby was already very manipulative even when he was only a month old.
But, cuteness can only go so far. And Harry' stunted interhuman relationship skill was the reason he became the most diligent auror in the decade, thus Harry found himself almost half crazy by the end of day eight. Criminals and Hit Wizards were easier to face, at least most of their fight didn't involve screaming, tears or puppy eyes. When Mrs. Hudson came around at noon, Harry almost cried when he saw her.
"Please, I beg of you, please take Tom for me for an hour or so. I need sleep." Harry begged in his most pitiful tone. As much as he was a workaholic, taking care for a baby was something he couldn't handle. At least his usual works usually has a template he could follow, rules or procedures and stuff; caring for a baby was something that none can ever prepared for. Harry couldn't guess whether the baby wants diaper or food or cuddle when he suddenly cried as if Harry would drown him in the tub.
Mrs. Hudson laughed slightly and took Tom from Harry's hand. "Go and sleep, you look almost dead to the world."
Harry thanked the woman, and rushed out from the house. He couldn't let himself be cooped inside the house anymore. He needed a drink, a helper, and a time-turner.
So, his first stop was Gringotts, finding that perfect house elf who knows how to be a babysitter.
When Harry finally backed after two hours buying all the baby stuff for Tom from the Diagon Alley, he stopped in front of the front door for his keys. When some of his smaller stuffs for Tom fell down from the bags, the stuff didn't fell onto the road, because a quick set of hands caught all of them.
"Oh, thank you." Harry smiled and turned, to see a beggar with Chinese-style round glasses piping what Harry suspected was an opium pipe.
"Welcome." The man smiled and put the stuff back into Harry's full arms.
"Didn't know you are new to this era."
Harry let himself off guard. "What…?"
"Have a nice day." The man left without saying anything else. Harry froze before deciding that the man might have known something about him. Maybe it was time to be an auror again.
But when he saw crying Tom on Mrs. Hudson's arms, all those thoughts took the backseat while Harry took the baby into his arms. Harry was getting good in handling Tom. He has started to become familiar with the baby's favourite support pose. True enough, Tom stopped crying once he was comfortable inside Harry's arms.
"Oh, the little Tom missed his father." Mrs. Hudson smiled gently, cooing the now silent baby. Harry laughed and nudged Tom's little hands, then waved goodbye and thanked the old lady before he let Tom played with his finger. Once Mrs. Hudson was out of the way, Harry called to the room.
"Merrit!"
The house elf appeared immediately in front of him. She was the one Harry chosen from Gringotts an hour ago, for she was masterless, had experience with children (but not too experienced in house-elf standard. apparently a house elf can live to their three hundred years, and being a fifty years old house elf was considered as teenager) and can cook very well. Choosing a house elf was a new experience for Harry. He felt really uncomfortable there, watching as one by one the masterless house elf came into the room, parading them and tried to advertise their special abilities (excluding the obviously needed household skills). They would die without the magic of his master, so the process was really important as it was the only way to get a new master. With Gringotts charging an extra-orbitant fee for the selection chance, not many could afford to get a house elf. And sadly, the only one who still knew about the bonding magic rituals were the goblins, so no wizard can bond themselves to any masterless house elf.
"Master call Merrit?"
Harry smiled. "Yes, this is my place, and you will be helping me taking care of Tom here." Harry squatted, showing his Tom to Merrit.
His Tom. That sounded really comforting, really.
"Merrit take care of Master Tom well!" The house elf squalled. "Little Master Tom!"
The baby watched the conversation with no interest, and slowly closing his eyes.
Things got better after that. With Merrit's help, life became easier by a mile. Harry found a time to sleep properly and still tended Tom as much as he wanted. The baby became cuter and bigger by day, leaving Harry felt like an idiot parental figure that the Japanese called as 'oyabaka'. Harry admitted that he wanted to have children, and it was the reason Ginny left him. She was too busy with her career as the Magpie's chaser to have a child. She wanted Harry to stay at home at least for two years if they were going to have a baby. Harry couldn't make such commitment. That was the end of their engagement.
And Harry started to put his attention away from Tom and watched as the day passed. He knew that there would be a second world war. He needed to prepared for it, as well as managing his finances before making sure he and Tom were well fed after all those wars. And somehow, there was an element of Dumbledore vs Grindelwald he needed to take account into as well. Harry wasn't so ignorant to the fact that he had altered the reality by adopting Tom. So Harry was well aware that he couldn't rely on his information about the Dark Lord Grindelwald demise from his own era.
One morning, when he thought Tom was ready for the real world (and it was getting into spring time anyway, so it wasn't that cold), Harry took the baby down to the café to enjoy a plate of English Breakfast. The owner of the café (and also his landlord) welcomed him with worried eyes, but Harry assured him about Tom. Tom was being his adorable self as he watched the owner with his baby blue eyes. Harry won, and got his plate of English Breakfast.
"May we join you?" The question was so abrupt that Harry dropped his fork; and it was immediately caught by a hand beside him. He looked up to see the beggar, now in better clothes, with a fashionable gentleman by his side.
"Hello. Nice to meet you again." Harry smiled and gestured the gentlemen to join him. "Sure, if you don't mind my son."
Oh, he was calling Tom his son again. Tom squealed from his baby box. Harry took him out and hushed the baby, softly counting to ten as little Tom closed his eyes slowly and went back to sleep. Harry didn't see the amused expression on the face's of the beggar-yesterday-gentleman-today man when he showed that he recognised the beggar from yesterday.
"Your son?" The man took a seat and ordered. "One breakfast plate please, and some tea. I thought you were a bachelor. And I see you have trained your son to sleep on the count of ten."
Harry laughed to that. "I was, but then I adopted Tom. My name is Harry Potter."
"Sherlock Holmes. Pleasure. And this is my partner, Doctor…"
"John Watson."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Partner? Are you two a couple?"
Dr. Watson coughed hard. "NO! I have a fiancée! Her name is Mary and she is the loveliest woman in the world."
Mr. Holmes snorted while Harry showed his interest. And the conversation started from there. By the end of breakfast, the three of them were talking as if they were best friend for decades. Harry knew it was time for him to go when Tom opened his eyes for the fourth time, and no amount of cuddling would make the baby closed his eyes again.
"Well, it's been a fun time, but I need to return to my flat for Tom." Harry apologized. "Maybe see you next time, gentlemen?"
"Absolutely!" The man—Sherlock Holmes—answered immediately. "In fact, I would be honoured if I can visit your flat as well, Mr. Potter!"
Harry stopped before he answered. He wasn't sure that he could let the man into the flat at the moment, because he didn't want them to see Merrit by accident. That would be very hard to explain.
So, no it is then. "No, I am sorry, but I don't think guests will appreciate the mess my flat is in right now." Harry smiled his best smile, just like one he used to keep his subordinate from asking an additional leave day.
He never knew that he had made the worst mistake since he entered the era.
Oh, Harry did try his best alright. He tried his best to make sure that only people he approved (i.e. the one and only best nanny in the world: Mrs. Hudson) were the only one who could enter his flat. But there was something Harry didn't put into the calculation, Sherlock Holmes never backed out from a challenge. And the man has made it into a challenge to enter Harry's flat.
At first it was a casual ask of visiting, which Harry politely declined. Then, Mr. Holmes appeared in front of the front door with a swelling stomach, telling Harry he was just in the neighbourhood and urgently needed to use the bathroom. Harry declined again, saying that Mr. Holmes could use his own bathroom, which was only next door at 221b Baker Street. Next was Mr. Holmes suddenly come out from the blue, knocking the door, telling Harry that the buildings they were in were on fire. Harry, whom knew there was no fire going on due to his well made ward, shook Mr. Holmes' warning as a joke and shut the door on the man's face.
It was then the efforts became something else altogether. Harry woke up to find a muggle spiderman outside his window, trying to peer in. Luckily Harry had his ward intact, and the ward include the shield to make the window dark from the outside (just like the muggle sunlight shield, bless the unspeakable who invented it). Then another one time when a lady, who actually still very much looked like a man with unshed beard knocked on his door, asking for a vacancy as a life-in nanny. When Harry said no and wanted to close the door on his face, Mr. Holmes pleaded that he could do day-in-day-out again. Harry chuckled at that, but still, he couldn't let the man in.
Tom was not amused either. He often woke Harry out with a scream, and more often than not, Harry found Mr. Sherlock Holmes around his flat, trying to snoop in. It was as if Tom became a living Mr. Sherlock Holmes detector. Harry wanted to cry everytime that happened, because making Tom stopped crying was a real hardwork. One time, out of desperation, Harry tried to make Tom sleep by kissing the baby's nose over and over again, cooing, "Who has a nose? Yes, you are~! You have a nose, my little prince~!" (while, ironically, remembering that nose was something Voldemort didn't have until his death). It did calm the baby down, though. By the end of the second week, Harry was so tired from it. So when Mr. Holmes actually knocked on his door and appeared in his gentlemanly clothes, Harry rolled his eyes.
"May I come in?" Sherlock smirked.
"Why?" Harry asked, for the first time.
"Well, as a good neighbour, of course I need to make sure you are not a spy for the Germans."
"Really?" Harry snorted. "That's your reason? Then I will tell you upright, NO."
The man didn't even move or anything, and kept smiling with his trademark cocky smirk. "I still have other plans to be invited in, you see."
Harry sighed in defeat. "…Yes, you may enter."
Good thing Harry had ordered Merrit to stay invisible unless Harry called her.
Comment? Thanks for reading, but I also appreciate any ideas. Heh. XD