A Potion Induced Advent's Time
by Healer Pomfrey

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

December 13

In the morning, Harry woke up to Minerva whimpering miserably. He lazily opened his eyes that widened as he took in the situation around him. Minerva was lying next to him on the bed, and Severus was sitting next to her, eyeing her with apparent concern. However, the children were not toddlers anymore. They were bigger, and both of them looked very pale.

"Minerva, what's wrong? Are you in pain?" Harry asked urgently, giving her a sharp look.

"Hurts," Minerva whispered, her face scrunched in pain.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault," Severus said in a barely audible voice. "I brewed an aging potion for us that made us age up to six years, but I forgot to bring along a pain reliever."

"Severus!" Harry said, terrified, founding himself absolutely speechless as he glared at the boy. 'How could he do that?' he thought, exasperated. 'They both knew that Poppy told them to wait until the end of the incubation period to make sure that they didn't catch the squid's flu. It's not like these two to do something so stupid.' He let out a long sigh, before he said as quietly as possible, "Well, I'm going to fetch Poppy. She'll surely be able to help you."

"It's not your fault, Sev. I wanted it as well," Minerva whispered, reaching out for Harry's arm. "Poppy will be so angry," she said, turning her eyes to Harry.

"Probably yes, but she will still help you," Harry said reassuringly, before he freed himself from Minerva's grip and went to fetch the Mediwitch.

メリークリスマス

Poppy was very angry to say the least. After waving her wand over the two six-year-olds, she made them drink a potion and conjured clothes for them. Harry chuckled inwardly as he noticed the choice of colour. 'Oh oh; we're going to have fun today,' he thought, feeling extremely relieved that the Healer seemed not to be angry at him. 'Well, she probably knows them well enough to know that it's not my fault. Oh no, maybe it is,' he suddenly realised in shock. 'I shouldn't have allowed Severus to brew a potion yesterday.'

He was brought back to reality when Poppy began to speak. "I know that both of you have your older selves' brain," she said sternly. "Please behave accordingly. I believe that I explained to you why I wanted you to wait for another week, and I don't think that you have had any reason to complain about a miserable childhood. Harry took very good care of you so far. I won't punish you this time, because I think you already harmed yourselves by weakening your conditions and thus taking the risk of getting sick with the squid's flu. Now get dressed and then lie down here. You're both running a slight temperature and need to stay in bed for the time being. I will ask the house-elves to prepare the adjacent rooms for the two of you."

"I want to go to class with Harry," Minerva said in determination, while Severus rolled his eyes at her.

"I don't want to go in my red pyjamas," he sneered, pointing to the red pile of clothes next to him.

Minerva glared at Poppy. "You don't think I'm going to run around in Slytherin colours, are you, Poppy?"

"I suggest that you don't do any magic, if you don't want to further aggravate your condition," Poppy threatened, smirking.

Harry inwardly chuckled. 'Thank Merlin Poppy is here and on my side,' he thought and said, "Maybe we can go to Hogsmeade to buy some nice clothes for you in the afternoon, if Poppy allows you to go."

"They will be able to go," Poppy reassured him quickly. "By then the after-effects of the potion should be completely gone."

メリークリスマス

Unfortunately, late in the afternoon, just when Poppy finally deemed the children well enough to leave, Professor Flitwick summoned Harry to the staff room for an urgent teachers' meeting.

"Tell him you can't attend, because you need to take us to Hogsmeade to buy clothes," Severus said, stomping a foot.

"You know as well as I do that I can't refuse to attend a staff meeting because of that," Harry gave back. "So please behave yourself."

"Then at least change these ugly colours," Severus demanded, glaring daggers at Harry.

Harry chuckled. "I have to admit that this red colour really suits you well, Severus," he said, smiling, before he pointed his wand at the children's clothes and changed the red and green colours to dark blue. "Now do me a favour and stay out of Poppy's way. Otherwise, she will be angry at me, too."

"We promise if we may go to the library for a while," Severus said and, unbeknownst to Harry, mind thought something to Minerva that made her eagerly nod her head.

'I don't really like this,' Harry thought but grudgingly accompanied the children to the library, instructing them to remain quiet as not to disturb the students and to return straight home afterwards. Seeing that Minerva headed to the Transfiguration shelf, while Severus turned to the Potions section, Harry slowly made his way to the staff room, somehow feeling strangely uneasy by the thought of leaving the children in the library. 'Maybe I should have asked someone to take care of them for a short while,' he mused as he absentmindedly listened to the teachers' discussion, recalling the conversation, which he had had with Poppy earlier that afternoon.

Poppy had told him that both children had experienced a very bad childhood. Minerva's parents had been extremely strict and narrow-minded, which had been so bad that she had spent several summer holidays at Poppy's home, while Severus had been abused by his father. "Now that they experience a second chance for a childhood with a caring parent, Severus apparently wants to use his chance to have fun by playing pranks. He must feel very reassured with you as his guardian; otherwise, he would not feel comfortable enough to act against the rules."

"I hope he won't get too many strange ideas, before you can age him back to a reasonable age," Harry had replied, instinctively knowing that Severus would not easily lack ideas to prank people.

Barely an hour later, when the meeting was over, Harry realised that his instinct had not betrayed him. The instant one of the teachers opened the door to reveal a huge commotion that was going on in the hall, did Harry know that something was wrong. 'I just hope this doesn't involve Minerva and Severus,' he thought as he listened to the sounds that came from outside the room in growing exasperation.

tbc...

Thank you so much for your kind reviews!