A/N- For disclaimer see past chapters. I've managed to update quicker then last time, and I'm hoping to get a few more chapters in for the holidays before I have to go back to school and take tests! Thank you to all those who are still reading, and I hope you like this chapter!

Also, for those who are wondering, I made a mistake in the last chapter that needs to be fixed. I said that Harry would have to stay the whole day in the hospital wing, but it should only be until lunch time, otherwise this chapter wouldn't work out the way I wanted it to.

Chapter Seven

Severus Snape, baby-sitter extraordinaire! (not)

Professor Severus Snape, nasty bat-like Potions Master of Hogwarts, the teacher the struck fear into the hearts of every student not a Slytherin, was not known for bouts of extreme patience. He had patience, yes. How could he not have patience after being forced to endure years and years of teaching bratty children who had no respect for potions and before that the Marauders? So yes, he had patience. But it was limited. And right now Harry Potter was pushing him past those limits.

The moment the boy had made that potion in his class without any instruction, a potion that he should not have known about, even in his older form, a potion that was first made just a year after the boy had been born, he had marched up to Dumbledore's office and demanded an answer. The answer did come, but it was in no way shape or form satisfying. It seemed that for years now he had been brewing a potion that had actually been created by the one-year-old Harry Potter when he was playing around with his father's cauldron and ingredients.

Snape paused in his marking and sneered down at the parchment at his desk, not really seeing it. Dumbledore, as infinitely wise as he always appeared to be, had to be wrong. There was no way that potion could have been created by such a young boy when potions masters, such as himself, all over the world had struggled to create a mild healing draught and usually ended up creating acids. And this was the very same boy they were talking about that would grow up to be completely abysmal at potions!

He stood abruptly, pushing his chair back roughly, as someone knocked on the door.

"Enter," he said coldly.

And Albus Dumbledore in his deep purple robes and with those maddeningly twinkling eyes swept into the room, a smile on his face. Snape forced himself to remain calm. This was the very same man who had very discreetly laughed at him when Potter had made his dinner fly up into his face, and then laughed very loudly at him in the common room later when they were discussing the events.

"You don't normally knock," Snape pointed out by way of a greeting.

"And good afternoon to you too Severus," said Dumbledore pleasantly. "How are you?"

"Never better," replied Snape, deciding to omit the fact that he had just been cursing the headmaster and his golden boy.

"Good, good," said Dumbledore, his smile widening as though he knew exactly what Snape had omitted. "I just came down to thank you myself for the potions you sent up to help little Harry and to inform you that Harry is now awake."

And this affects me… how? Snape thought, but wisely didn't voice his thoughts.

"That is very good Headmaster," he said while a little voice in the back of his head chanted Liar, liar, liar.

"I have to admit that I have come down with an ulterior motive," Dumbledore confessed after a moment's silence and Snape suppressed a groan with difficulty. Dumbledore's ulterior motives usually ended up with him doing something that he would usually die before coming anywhere near the job. "I have a favour to ask you, and indeed, it is on the behalf of many other people too."

"What is it?" asked Snape.

Dumbledore paused for a moment, surveying him over his half-moon glasses.

"We were wondering, since there was no one else available for the rest of the day today, if you would take Harry for a few hours," he said.

Snape blinked.

"What?" he asked in disbelief. "No, absolutely not Headmaster! I refuse to partake in any type of babysitting!"

"That is fine Severus," Dumbledore said with a nod. "We shall find someone else for the job then. We just thought it would be better for you to look after him because you are an adult and therefore more suited to the job and you could also keep an eye on him and look at the behaviours he is displaying from the effects from the botched potion. But it does not matter."

He turned to go and Snape gritted his teeth in his annoyance. Only the Headmaster could make someone feel guilty when pleasantly listing some facts.

Which was how Snape found himself making his way up the hospital wing at midday to go and collect Harry Potter to look after him for the day, abandoning the unmarked essays.

If it hadn't been for the fact that Snape had been the one to put the young fool in this position, the potions professor would have simply ignored the headmaster anyway. But he had caused Potter's… condition, and so it was his damn job to make sure the brat returned to his full arrogant self.

Snape scowled as he reached the hospital wing doors and pushed them open with a bang, striding into the room. A thump immediately afterwards indicated that the little boy sitting on his bed had fallen to the floor and out of sight at the rather dramatic entrance. Snape couldn't suppress a smirk.

"Oh, Harry, are you alright?" fussed Granger and Snape looked away pointedly. As if the boy needed mollycoddling.

"Yes," said Potter, scrambling up onto the bed with some difficulty, as he was quite a bit shorter then he had been a few weeks before.

Weasley's eyes fell on Snape and he started.

"You're…" he started, horrified, but caught himself before he said something derogatory and got a detention. The boy finally has a tiny bit of sense in that thick head of his, Snape thought, distinctly amused.

"Professor Snape," said Granger, looking at him in some surprise. "I suppose you have come to take Harry then?"

"Yes," snapped Snape. "Hurry up Potter! I don't have all day!"

Potter looked uncertainly up his guardians.

"Go on Harry," said Granger reassuringly. "We'll see you at dinner, okay?"

"'Kay," mumbled Potter as he slipped off the bed and ran over to the formidable man.

Snape didn't look to see if the boy was following him, but swept out of the room and down the corridor. Only the quiet pattering of little feet behind him indicated that the boy had to run to keep up with him. He glanced back once as they were descending the stairs to the Entrance Hall and scowled heavily as he saw him clutching that blasted bear. As though sensing his nasty thoughts towards the bear Potter's grip tightened on it, and Snape briefly thought about all the blackmail he would have against the boy when he was returned to his original state.

Dumbledore must be mad, Snape thought with a dark scowl as he descended the stairs to the dungeons and swept, bat-like, though the sparsely lit corridors with the intentions of getting to his office with little mishaps. Or going senile at the very least. Giving Potter to me until dinner, the one student I detest more the any other, and the one that manages to get himself in the most hopeless situations! I can't believe that the headmaster expects me to bring him to my office of all places too…

Snape's thoughts were interrupted as he came to the door of said office and unlocked the door. The boy followed him silently.

"Sit on that chair," snarled Snape, pointing to a chair in front of his desk, on which rested a cauldron with something bubbling within it. "And touch nothing."

The boy didn't dare disobey, Snape noticed with a smirk, as Potter made a beeline for the chair and sat himself in it immediately. Snape walked over to his caldron and started to stir it, adding ingredients.

For about twenty minutes he lost himself in making his potion, but then he looked up and noticed that Potter was watching his every move. Unnerved slightly by this, though not showing it, Snape returned his attention to the potion. He looked up every now and then to find Potter's eyes never left his face.

The next ten minutes passed a lot slower then the first twenty had done, and Snape found that he did not welcome this intense examination by a toddler of all people. Who does he think he is? Snape wondered grumpily. A mini-headmaster?

He looked up again and saw Potter meet his eyes. He looked down again at the roots he was chopping. Stop looking at me! He looked up and scowled viscously at Potter, but he seemed entirely unimpressed by this, and only studied Snape all the more.

Finally Snape couldn't take it anymore.

"I am going to get something from the store-cupboard," he said to the boy stiffly. "I will be back in a few minutes. Touch nothing!"

And he walked quickly out of the room with plans of staying out for a good half hour with the intentions of regaining his composure, quite forgetting that he was leaving an extremely curious and bored young boy sitting in front of his all important potion.

Harry waited for the scary man to come back, even moving Teddy around for a bit in an attempt to amuse himself. He was quite bored, and he wondered when his current carer was going to return. It wasn't that he really wanted to man to come back, since he reminded Harry entirely too much of Uncle Vernon for his liking, but Harry was bored.

After a few more minutes of doing absolutely nothing, Harry decided to take a peek in the giant dish on the man's desk. He just wanted to look inside and see what had taken up all of the man's attention for so long.

He clambered precariously up onto the desk and peered inside the cauldron. In a way eerily reminiscent of his sixteen-year-old self Harry wrinkled his nose in disgust. What appeared to be a grey oozing liquid was settled in the cauldron, and it had a very faint smell of burnt toast.

But the worst thing about it was that it had no colour!

Now, that just wasn't right. No colour meant it was dull and bland (Harry didn't actually know what those words meant, he had just heard Hermione refer to the colour grey with them and thought they sounded big and impressive).

Looking around Harry knew he had to fix this problem immediately. No wonder the man was so mean if he was forced to brew potions with no colour all day! Maybe if Harry added colour to the potion the man would be nicer.

Assured of this Harry jumped down off the table and ran to the shelves full of pretty-coloured liquids. Harry wondered briefly what colour the man would like, then decided that the poisonous orange was bright enough.

Happy with his choice Harry grabbed this vial off the lowest shelf and ran back to the desk, climbing back onto it. After making sure Teddy was comfortable Harry unstoppered the vial and poured the potion in. Then he threw the vial in the bin and had just sat comfortably in his seat when the man stalked into the room.

Harry looked at the potion and frowned lightly. The potion was still a dull grey, but was now shooting sparks. The man was frowning at it too, obviously confused.

Suddenly, with a loud boom that rocked Hogwarts to her very foundations, the potion exploded. Harry and the man immediately dove to the ground as the potion splattered everywhere.

When it was finally safe enough to get up Harry looked around. Grey potion was everywhere. The man looked horrified.

"Three months!" he said. "Three! And all wasted because I left it longer then I should have done!"

Harry decided that he was not brave enough to tell him about his 'cheer up the mean and scary man' mission.

Snape could only stare in horror. He had known he shouldn't have left the potion in his office with Potter. Odd things always happened around the boy and now a potion he had been diligently brewing for three months was completely ruined.

With a sigh he pulled out his wand and made a sweeping gesture, saying the incantation for the cleaning charm. When his was office was clean he turned to find Potter looking at him.

"Stop staring!" he snapped and the boy jumped. Normally this would have amused Snape, but he was a bit preoccupied with a few things. Namely the completely ruined potion.

Grumbling he got out all his ingredients and gathered them together in preparation to start again, knowing that Pomfrey was going to kill him.

All the more incentive to stay away from the hospital wing for awhile unless on the brink of death, and only then if he wanted to be finished off in a particularly painful way.

Making a mental note of this he looked up to find Potter staring again. He sighed in exasperation. Did the boy never tire of staring?

"Go explore," he said dismissively, forgetting to tell the boy to touch nothing.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Potter run to the potions' shelves, but upon seeing the boy merely looking he felt the faint stirrings of relief.

That was short-lived however. A sharp cry made Snape lift his head in time to see almost every potion on the shelves Potter had just bumped in to slip and fall.

It was too late to save the potions and Snape watched in horror as they smashed to the ground, and then promptly dove under his desk as the second explosion that day rocked Hogwarts, quite forgetting about Harry.

After about two minutes Snape heard a sniffle and his eyes widened as he finally remembered his young charge. I knew Dumbledore was senile, he thought with a scowl as he stood.

And stared.

Potter was no longer as close to human appearance as Dumbledore probably would have liked. Two long white rabbit ears had sprouted from the top of the boy's head, making a stark contrast to his jet black hair. He was holding the ends of them with two furry white paws and he had acquired a small pink nose with added whiskers. His feet were no longer human feet covered with shoes, but long bare rabbit's feet and he kept jumping slightly every few moments as though restless.

Albus was going to kill him.

Snape took a deep breath and let it out. Dumbledore couldn't exactly do anything to him. After all, Snape had never claimed that he was a brilliant baby-sitter.

But, though a good argument against a possibly furious headmaster, it was not helping Snape in the slightest, who was beginning to think that he should have just dumped the boy with the nearest house-elf.

Not having anything better that he could think of, Snape took his thinnest potions book off of the shelves and shoved into Potter's hands, who started. Hopefully this would keep him occupied.

"Look at that," he said, all but throwing the bear back at the boy, "With your bear. Do not disturb me."

He went back to his potion. Five minutes later, looking up, he noticed the boy was completely engrossed in the book. He inwardly sighed in relief. He was going to have some peace for awhile.

How long that would last, however, he didn't know.

Harry quietly closed his book and looked up to see the man concentrating on his potion. He had looked through the book for the longest time, but one can only go so far without reading the words. After all, what use was the pictures if you didn't know what they were of?

He looked down at his rabbit paws. The man had said he didn't know any antidotes, so Harry had to wait until the effects of the combined potion wore off. This didn't really have much of any effect on Harry, as he didn't understand what half the words were, but he got the general gist of it, which was that he couldn't be cured yet. And the man had said it was Harry's fault he was half-rabbit! Harry struggled to think of a name to call the man, and one floated up from his locked-away memories.

Git.

He smiled. That had felt oddly satisfying, and he repeated the word over and over in his mind, already delighting in the thought of telling Won and 'Mione all about his new word.

Harry looked over at the man again, who was frowning. It was too bad that the potion hadn't changed to a pretty colour and cheered him up a bit. Then an idea struck the young, determined-to-help-the-nasty-man boy. Perhaps if the man wore brighter clothes? That would surely make him happier.

Satisfied with his reasoning Harry closed his eyes and tried to find the funny tingling sensation he got before he made something happen. He wasn't sure what it was called yet, and it almost seemed like the dreaded 'm' word. Putting that thought out of his mind, because the thought of the 'm' word scared him, Harry concentrated on making the man's clothes change colour. There was a faint whooshing sound that only Harry could hear. When he opened his eyes the man's clothes were bright yellow.

Not satisfied, because the man still looked unhappy, Harry turned his hair bright pink, his shoes neon blue, and made bright green splotches appear on his skin.

There. That should make him happier.

When he noticed.

Snape suddenly got a funny feeling that something was amiss. He had been brewing his potion for hours, and it was about time to take the boy up to dinner. Surprisingly he had been very good all day, apart from the mishap with the potions, which still hadn't worn off. He was actually still looking at that potions book. Maybe Potter wasn't so bad after all.

Leaving the potion simmering he went into his adjourning bathroom to get cleaned up for dinner. He looked briefly into the mirror, and then did a double-take. His eyes widened as he uttered a cry of disbelief and horror.

He rushed into his office and Potter looked up at him, and smiled broadly.

"Happy yet?" he asked innocently.

"POTTER!"

Dinner was something of a peaceful affair without Harry there, though it wouldn't remain so for long. Ron and Hermione were looking rested, but were in agreement that they didn't want to be parted from their young charge again. They wanted him to be where they could keep an eye on him. Ginny was smirking as she watched them worrying about where Harry was, hiding that she was rather worried too after the fiasco that morning.

Suddenly the doors crashed open and the whole hall fell silent as a very colourful and enraged Snape strode through the hall, holding a half-human half-rabbit Harry Potter at arms length. Harry was smiling. This in itself was surprising as everyone in the Hall agreed that if Snape had been looking at them with such a murderous expression they would be running for the hills by now.

Snape reached the Head Table and dumped the boy in front of a startled Dumbledore.

"Never again Headmaster," he snarled. "I will never play babysitter again!"

And he stalked out of the Great Hall with all the dignity he could muster in bright yellow robes and fluoro pink hair.

"And we were worried about Harry?" Ron muttered to Hermione.

A/N- Well, I have come to the conclusion of another chapter, and I would like to thank me sister, who had to put up with reading it, though she said she liked it. Also, sorry to those whose reviews I didn't respond to last chapter, but here they are now!

Reviews!

Heather- You have hit upon one of the focus points of this story. Congratulations! Yes, more and more will be unlocked as he learns more, but looking back at this chapter, I think knowing that he is performing magic might be a bit of a detriment. hint, hint

athenakitty- Snape is going to do everything in his power to get to the bottom of the mystery of Harry's sudden brewing prowess. Yes, he did keep it, because it was useful, but the potion doesn't play a big part in the story. It was just a starting point to something bigger. The Dursleys will be getting their just desserts, don't worry about that, especially when new evidences come to light. :) The girls also have not yet made their last appearance. And about Peeves. Well, I think I've already given away a bit too much of the story line…

Big E 3 I LOVE NASCAR- There will most definitely be more of everyone's favourite ex-convict and werewolf very soon. Next chapter possibly! It's all about fitting them in…

Amberhawk- No! You can't hold him hostage! I need him! He needs to tell me what he wants to do! Well… I suppose you'll probably not torture him with evil story lines like I will, so keep him for awhile, and I'll update super fast. Just make sure to let me visit!

Wind-Up Merchant- Sirius will most definitely be back! Keep an eye out for him soon!

runnerz- Cho will not actually be put in a chapter too soon, but I will need her eventually to help the plot along. She'll be putting in an appearance the moment there is a place for her. And if not in this story, then most definitely in the sequel that I am already planning!

bewitchedquill- Thank you! I really do appreciate all the help I can get, and I love getting views on people's experiences. After all, writing is all about learning as you go, right? I know two-year-old Harry seems slightly older then he should be. This is because he is still a sixteen-year-old and his mind knows that he isn't actually two-years-old. The result is meeting somewhere in the middle, with acting sometimes as a young toddler, and sometimes as a wise teenager. His mind can't decide what to stay on permanently, and I'm not going to let it, because that would have severe repercussions for Harry when he gets older if he sticks with the two-year-old mind frame. I'm not that cruel!

insanechildfanfic- I have always believed that Dumbledore never actually possessed a sane mind to begin with, so this isn't that bad. Just think occlumency lessons, and you'll see that this isn't that different. :)

USA-Jeanette- I will admit that the plans for this story were originally lots and lots of angst, but I quickly realised that humour, with some action/adventure in later chapters, suited this story better, so I was able to change it before I posted. I'm glad I did, I like this version much better!

Thanks to;

momocolady, insanechildfanfic, hittocerebattosai, imgonnadie, good morning starshine the earth says hello-debbs, moonravencrow13, Satan Junior No Super Hentai, Anna Evans, laer ear, Hebi R., Marikili68, JVTazz

Every review counts. Even if you tell me you hate my story, at least I know that! Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing. I can't really tell you how much that means to me!

Next Chapter- Sirius and Black seem to have territorial problems and poor Remus is stuck trying to console them both, while Harry is secretly egging them both on behind the werewolf's back. Look out for It's a Dog's World.