A Potion Induced Advent's Time
by Healer Pomfrey

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

December 12

"Master Severus needs to stop this and eat his breakfast. You are a very naughty little boy," Misty scolded Severus.

The boy apparently did not like the cornflakes, which he was supposed to eat, and had made them dance an inch above his plate, where they were humming the melody of Jingle Bells.

Barely able to hide a grin at the scene, Harry said in a soft voice, "It's okay Misty; I'm here now. Thank you so much for watching them."

Misty looked at him in apparent relief. "At any time, Master Harry," she said in a much gentler voice, before she popped away.

Harry turned to Severus. "Now Severus, I suggest that you make these conflakes return to your plate, and then we'll see into what you'd like me to transfigure them," he suggested, hoping that the boy would agree. 'Fighting with Ron was bad enough; I really don't need anything else this morning,' he thought in exasperation.

Fortunately, Severus seemed to trust him enough to comply. Knowing exactly what the boy loved to eat, Harry queried, "Toast and a few strawberries, hmmm?"

A small smile played on Severus' lips as he replied, "Yes pwease."

Minerva, who had been giggling happily, while Severus played with the cornflakes, seemed to become bored and climbed out of her seat and onto Harry's lap, where she remained until Severus was finally finished with his breakfast and Harry motioned both of them to follow him. He sat on the sofa in the living room and said, "As Misty has probably told you, the whole castle is flooded with beans." Ignoring the grin that appeared on Severus' face, he continued, "Professor Flitwick ordered all teachers to come to the Great Hall at lunchtime and try to do something to stop the tree from producing more beans. Since this is likely to take hours, I'm afraid that you will have to remain with Misty the whole afternoon."

Harry innocently observed Severus' expression turn to a shocked one, while Minerva said pleadingly, "Noooo, I want to be wif you, pwease."

"I'm sorry, Minerva, but I must help the others find a solution to the problem. The only other way..." He slowly trailed off, waiting for the toddlers to look at him in expectation, before he continued, "would be that Severus tells me how to cancel the charm, which he placed on the tree, so that we'll be able to get rid of the problem quickly."

"Den we can brew poshun?" Severus asked and raised an eyebrow, causing Harry to inwardly grin.

'The Sorting Hat was right. I would have made a brilliant Slytherin,' he thought with amusement. "Yes Severus, if the problem is solved, we'll spend some time in the Potions classroom, so that you can brew a potion, provided that it is not dangerous," he relented, glancing at Minerva in expectation of a temper tantrum from the de-aged Scottish lioness.

As could be expected, Minerva's features changed to a frown, before the grimace was replaced by a small smile as she glanced at Severus and finally nodded. "'kay."

'The tree is surrounded by an invisible cover that makes the beans appear and at the same time projects an image, which makes people believe that they leak out of the needles. The cover is once again secured with another cover on top of it, which allows no spell or charm to penetrate it,' Severus mind thought to Harry. Seeing that the older boy looked at him in confusion, the toddler continued, 'Therefore, a simple Scourgify spell or vanquishing spell won't work. You have to remove the outer cover...'

Harry had to concentrate hard to follow the Potions Master's explanation and sighed in relief, when Severus finally added, 'If you remove the outer of the two invisible covers, Professor Flitwick will be able to do the rest. You must be careful to not reveal what you're doing and you'll need quite some amount of magic though.'

'My magic should be strong enough to keep up with that of a two-year-old,' Harry thought in exasperation, before he thanked the toddler profusely. "Severus, thank you very much. I hope that we'll be able to get over with this fast, and don't worry; I won't tell anyone who is responsible for this mess."

メリークリスマス

Two hours later, Misty cast a bubble spell around Harry, before she popped him into the Great Hall. "The bubble will last for an hour, but I'll return to fetch you, before it'll expire," she reassured him, before she popped away again.

Feeling extremely grateful for the bubble that had a diameter of about two metres, Harry warily made his way towards where the Christmas tree was supposed to be, glad that the beans moved out of his way as soon as they made contact with the bubble. Unfortunately, he was not only unable to see the tree, as the whole Great Hall was flooded by beans until up to the ceiling, but he couldn't even smell it, since the smell of various kind of beans was even stronger than that of the large tree. "Hello? Professor Flitwick?" Harry asked aloud, only to realise that no one else seemed to be around yet.

He waved his hand in the direction of where he assumed the Christmas tree and followed the instructions, which he had received from Severus earlier. 'How am I supposed to know if it works though?' he wondered, when a thought crossed his mind and he slapped his hand against his forehead, rolling his eyes at himself. 'Of course, I can just clean the whole Hall with a Scourgify spell first. That should clear it from the beans, even if new ones come out from the tree.' He cast the spell around himself, only to realise that he would have to re-cast it over and over, at least one hundred times, before the Great Hall would be free of beans. 'Maybe I should just leave that to the house-elves,' he thought, letting his arm sink in exhaustion.

While he was still pondering what to do, Professors Flitwick and Sprout arrived, as well as Dobby and the Weasley twins, and along with an invisible, large group of house-elves everyone worked together cleaning the Great Hall. It was mere minutes later that the tip of the Christmas tree appeared out of the lake of beans. 'Wow, the house-elves work really fast,' Harry thought in amazement as he unobtrusively waved his wand at the tree, repeating the process that Severus had told him earlier. Professors Flitwick and Sprout simultaneously cast spells at the tree, and instants later, the flood of beans completely stopped.

"I think that was it," Professor Flitwick squeaked with excitement. "I wonder why this didn't work before."

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A few hours later, Harry and the two toddlers found themselves in the Potions classroom, where he played Wizard's Chess with Minerva, while Severus was eagerly brewing a potion.

'Even as a two-year-old she is able to beat me,' Harry thought in annoyance, when Severus spoke up. "Finished."

Harry turned around, only to see that Severus had already cleaned up his workspace and returned the classroom into an absolute perfect state. 'Wow; for being stuck in a two-year-old's body, he is really holding up well,' Harry mused, unaware of the fact that Severus used the instant while he was absentminded and quickly showed Minerva a small phial, before he buried it in his robe pocket.

tbc...

Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! From this chapter onwards, I have to actually write on (the first 11 chapters I had written back in Summer). Unfortunately, I'm still having acute health problems, so I'm glad that I managed to write the chapter on time, but I did not have the energy to read through it another time - So I'm sorry if there are more mistakes than usual... See you tomorrow (I hope) :-)