A Potion Induced Advent's Time
by Healer Pomfrey

Please refer to the content/warnings/disclaimer note above page 1.

December 5

'Oh no,' Harry groaned, slightly beginning to panic as the small boy vanished from the sight. "Come on, Minerva; we'll come back here, but we need to look for Severus," he urgently told the girl, who outright refused.

"No," she said firmly, jumping up and down with both feet.

"Minerva," Harry said firmly, trying his best to remain calm, "please behave yourself." Drops of sweat began to drip down from his temples, and he noticed that the air in the shop became hotter by the minute as he feverishly searched his mind for a solution. "Minerva, if you come now, I'll buy the broom for you as soon as we have found Severus. If you don't obey, I won't buy it," he finally said, giving the girl a stern look.

"Kay," she grudgingly agreed and allowed Harry to take her by the hand and drag her through the shop.

As was to be expected, Severus was busily inspecting the Toddler's Potions kits and cast Harry an irritated look when he addressed him in a stern voice. "Severus, what do you think you're doing?" Harry asked angrily.

"Sowwy Hawwy," the boy said apologetically, looking longingly at the Potions kit.

Harry let out a long sigh. 'I think I've had enough of potions for a long time,' he thought; however, unable to resist the cute boy's pleading look, he said, "Severus, could you please turn your older self's mind out and tell me if this is dangerous for anyone."

'Why would this be dangerous?' Severus thought to him, making Harry wonder if the child could switch between his older and younger selves just as it was convenient for the boy. 'I am a Potions Master.'

"Yeah, but only if you have your older self's mind for a while," Harry replied warily.

'Unfortunately yes,' Severus admitted, sadly averting his eyes to the floor.

Noticing in annoyance that he was sweating profusely, Harry used his free hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, while he pondered the matter. "Very well then, we'll buy the Potions kit for Severus and the broom kit for Minerva," he then decided. "Do you both agree?"

The two children nodded happily, and Harry instructed Severus to walk by Minerva's hand, while he carried the toys. On the way, he also grabbed a Lego train set of the Hogwarts Express from the shelf that looked interesting to him. Harry felt extremely glad when both children were back in the buggy and they were on their way back to Hogwarts. The children seemed to be equally exhausted, because they both spent the travel through the snow sleeping, only waking up when Harry took them out of the buggy back in their living room.

"Now are you hungry?" he asked kindly and motioned for them to follow him into the bathroom to wash their hands.

However, instead of running ahead as usual, he felt that Minerva hesitantly pulled his robes and leaned down to her. "What's wrong, Minerva?" he asked kindly.

"Minnie puuh," the girl whispered, shyly glancing up to him.

"Oh all right," Harry said in understanding. He gently picked the girl from the floor and rolled his eyes at Severus, who just returned from the bathroom with obviously washed hands, which he flapped up and down, splashing water drops over Minerva. "Minerva first this time," he decided and proceeded to take her warm snowsuit off and change her nappy. In order to distract her and keep her from becoming embarrassed, he chose to speak about Quidditch, noticing that it worked well.

By the time he placed Minerva down on the floor, Severus was completely engrossed in his Potions set and outright refused to have his nappy changed. "Well then, let's get you something to eat first and then you're going to take a bath," Harry decided. He asked Misty for dinner for the children, still not feeling hungry himself.

"Hawwy eat too," Minerva said in her high, childish voice, apparently trying to make it sound convincing.

"Maybe later on," Harry replied dismissively, preparing himself to fight with Severus about his vegetables. However, apparently the child did not dislike carrots as much as peas and for once ate his meal without complaining.

"Now let's go and take a bath," Harry said when he took the children out of their seats.

"Minnie fawst," the girl cheered, while Severus eagerly returned to his Potions kit.

'I hope he knows what he is doing,' Harry mused as he carefully dried Minerva and dressed her.

"Hawwy awwigh?" Minerva asked, giving him a piercing look, when Harry suddenly let out a few harsh coughs.

"Of course," Harry replied as he put the girl on the floor and suggested, "Why don't you sit in your or my bed and look at the book, which we bought earlier, while I give Severus his bath?"

Minerva happily agreed, choosing to wait in Harry's bed, where she engrossed herself in her book.

Before Severus knew what happened, Harry picked him up and carried him into the bedroom. "Let me quickly give you a bath, and then we'll go to bed," he whispered to the child as he gently undressed him.

Fank you," Severus squealed in delight upon seeing the animals, which Harry had conjured for him and Minerva to play in the bathtub. He excitedly splashed the water all over the room, causing Harry to get completely drenched before he could even open his mouth to stop the child.

'Well, let's get over with it quickly,' Harry thought and hurried to gently wash the boy's hair and sponge him down, while Severus happily played with the animals. "All right, say 'Good night' to your animals; it's time to go to bed," he finally told the child, before he carefully lifted him out of the tab, gently wrapping him in a dark green towel to carry him back into the bedroom.

In horror, Harry noticed that Minerva was not sitting in his bed anymore. Only the book was lying there, disregarded. "Oh no, Severus, Minerva is gone," he said, terrified, and hurriedly dressed the boy, before he carried him into the living room. However, there was no sign of Minerva, except for the fact that the entrance door, which led out into the halls, stood wide open.

tbc...

Thank you for reading and reviewing. Sorry if this chapter was boring - from the day after tomorrow onwards, the children are going to have some more fun. I am not very contented with it, but at the moment I'm not able to write much, and instead of re-writing these first chapters, which I wrote in summer, I'm trying to continue with the story, so please bear with this, which was my first draft of the story.