Harry's holiday was the best thing he had ever done in both of his lives, the holiday was the perfect fit, Toby had made loads of friends around the hotel and spent his time at the pool, playing ball with the other kids in the hotel his age or in the evenings he could stay up late at the disco, sometimes kissing girls which he never got to do at school. Lily was in her element and after begging her parents to put her in the children's club had made loads of artwork, been on day trips out to water parks and had enough friends to fill the swimming pool with. Charlie had been taught to swim over the holiday with Severus and Cassie taking turns with him in the water and by the end of the first week of their holiday the arm bands were off and Charlie looked like a true goldfish, even with the scales as he had been sun burnt and was peeling rather badly, Severus and Cassie had made use of the children's crèche more than once meaning they could have child free afternoons or evenings and even indulge themselves with a bit of alone time in their room. Harry was trying his best to have a good time but it seemed as though many 0f the good times were ruined by him being so small.
On the second day of their holiday they had gone to the beach and spent most of the morning playing away in the water and along the beach, Harry of course wearing his new friend his 'little swimmer' nappy which seemed to be his main outfit at the moment. The morning was going well until after a couple of hours the outfit was taken off and not replaced leaving him completely in his birthday suit as Daddy took him into deeper water to swim and then once they were out insisted he played on the very busy beach wearing nothing but a cap and a blush. This was wrong and he pouted stamping off to find his mother who was sat under a palm tree reading a book unaware that Lily was following him to make sure he didn't get lost which he might have almost done once or twice. He had been distracted a couple of times by English ladies telling him how cute he was and asking him where his Mummy was but he had eventually found his way back toward his Mummy and lay himself down in what was known in the Snape house as the 'change me now position.' Harry only used this when in most desperate need. Cassie quickly put a nappy on him fearing the worst before thanking Lily and watching her back to the sea. After that incident he wasn't so keen to return to the beach.
On the third night of the holiday Harry had a sleepless night first of all Toby came back from his disco very noisily and woke him up. From then on he realised just how hot he was a woke up on and off throughout the night crying in frustration of the heat. He only calmed when his Daddy wiped him down with a cool towel and eventually Mummy had gone to reception at around 2am to get a fan and once that was pointed at him he was able to sleep through till morning.
On the fourth day Harry made friends, his Daddy had taken him and Charlie to the baby pool to cool off and as Harry sat in his rubber ring splashing the water to make it move in swirly patterns he bumped into a little boy who was a little bit older than him who smiled at him. Harry smiled back, this little boy was with his Mummy and was looking at him with a hint of suspicion, just as Harry was starting to wonder what was going on he felt his father wade into the water to pull him away from the steps which he was blocking,
"Sorry about that" Severus apologised "he always manages to get away from me." The lady smiled at his Daddy,
"that's ok, there was no harm done."
The conversation was adult and boring to Harry who decided he would swivel around to play with Charlie who had toys with him. Charlie had exited the baby pool (or the puddle as Harry was now calling it) to play with Toby in the big pool who had a lilo, Charlie was being sat on the lilo and pulled around by his big brother which was of course gaining him a lot of female attention. Harry did however find the toys Charlie left behind and enjoyed them until he was lifted out of the pool, the toys were left behind and although Harry wanted to play with them he was hungry and the pool was emptying for lunch. As Harry was changed and dressed in the toilets he was having a great day until he went to lunch and found they were sitting with the family he had met earlier in the puddle. There were loads of them; he was put in a high chair beside the other baby boy who he discovered was called 'Ashton.' Daddy was sat with a large man with tattoo's up and down his arms and legs and Mummy was sat beside a thin woman who had blonde hair which had been put up in a long pony tail since he last saw her who was also balancing a girl who looked about three on her lap, apparently the baby girl was called 'Ashley.' Up the table he saw his brothers and sisters all talking animatedly with the other family, Toby, Charlie and Lily were sat opposite two young girls and two young boys aged from between about 16 and 6. Adele, was the oldest girl who was gorgeous and Toby was surely in love, Adam, was the oldest boy who was 11 and was sat chatting with Lily and Toby and the youngest were non-identical twins who were 6 and were called Alfie and Alison. Harry was not too sure about this friendship and was far too distracted with all the noise and new people around him to even contemplate eating.
It got to the point where everyone had left the table to head to their rooms, apparently they were going for a group trip to the beach when Mummy looked at his plate, 'you didn't eat much today did you Harry?' Mummy asked. Harry had eaten nothing in reality but no one had noticed , Mummy picked him up and took him to their room with slight hunger and slight trepidation in his belly. Thirty minutes later and Harry was asleep in his buggy in his 'holiday outfit' consisting of swim nappy and bucket hat when the families left for the beach. When Harry awoke he found himself immediately surrounded by noise, there were three children crying two of them belonged to the other family and one of them was Charlie. Harry's Daddy distractedly pulled him out of the pushchair and placed him on the sand next to Ashton who was picking sand up and sometimes throwing it and sometimes eating it. Harry saw the rest of the kids were further towards the sea some were playing bat and ball and some were in the sea with the other family's Dad.
Ashton was not an interesting playmate for him, he was too immature and couldn't speak yet, Harry was even less appreciative of his playmate when Ashton snatched the spade out of Harry's hand and when Harry took it back off him Ashton cried, two things happened after this, the first was that Harry starting getting told off by his Mummy as his Daddy had gone to play with the older kids and the second was that Ashton threw sand in his face getting him in his eyes and mouth and made him cry too. Ashtons Mummy laughed at this and made Harry angry, he thought Mummy was a little bit angry too and called Daddy over suggesting that Harry might enjoy a dip in the sea. Harry did feel like a dip in the pool at first but then realised just how hungry he was and it made his belly hurt. Nothing Daddy did was making him smile and he started crying 'gy' Harry had said when Daddy asked what was wrong but Daddy didn't understand which made him even more hungry and upset, Severus took him back on shore and handed him to Mummy who after finding his nappy fine gave him a bottle which he took greedily, excusing herself she made her way onto the promenade and found a shop where she could buy her son something to eat. Harry had finished the bottle and was starting to fuss again, Mummy found him some little cakes and let him munch on one on the way back to where they were sat, after he finished that his Daddy bought their family ice creams and Harry also devoured this quickly. He was a gooey, sticky mess but was happy that to clean it off he was taken for a swim in the sea with Mummy who swam him out to meet Toby who was playing with a toy inflatable boat. The beach was tiring that day and after returning to the shore this tim and dried off in his fluffy towel he fell asleep in his Mummy's arm who had also fallen asleep leaning against the palm tree they always sat under.
On the fifth day Harry was happily in and out of the swimming pool until he slipped and grazed his elbow making him cry and bleed all over Daddy, after that Daddy had carried him in and out of the pool.
On the evening of the fifth day Harry was abandoned with the other family and put in the crèche, Charlie and Lily had been here before but Harry had not, he was usually with Mummy and Daddy but they were spending time alone tonight so Harry was stuck in the crèche with some women who didn't speak English and insisted that he sit with the other babies and play with stuffed animals while Charlie was painting and Lily was baking cakes with the other older children. That's where Harry should be, that's what Mummy did with him. Harry sulked and sulked for hours until he was given a bottle and laid in a crib to sleep for the night, he was so not impressed by this abandonment. He didn't even have a stuffed animal to cuddle because they were in the hotel room.
On the sixth day though the worst thing happened to him, he had got a poorly tummy from ice cubes which he had been swiping from peoples glasses to suck on as his gums had started hurting, but that evening after several urgent nappy changes and vomiting several times it seemed that they weren't letting him have the ice because the water in Spain could give him a bad tummy. He was ill through the sixth, and seventh days spending a lot of time in the room with Mummy while Daddy took Charlie swimming.
On the eighth day though everything brightened up they were starting their daytrips which they had booked which took them to Barcelona, a massive theme park, a water park and the last tour took them to a medieval show with horses and knights in shining armour jousting. Harry really enjoyed the trips even though he found them a little bit boring he enjoyed being pushed around the most amazing places in the world and seeing all of the animals and clowns in Las Ramblas. The horse show was worth staying awake for and the meal was delicious, he was fed bits and pieces of everyones food and was even given a little hat to wear which he had refused to take off at bed time, the eventual removal of the hat was accompanied with tears.
It was the ninth day of their holiday and they were going home tomorrow so were making the most of the day Charlie had gone with another family to the beach, Lily was on a trip with kids club and Toby was spending the day with the girl they met earlier in the week, 'Adele.' That left Harry with Mummy and Daddy, they spent the morning in the playground pushing him on the swings, letting him play in the fountains and playing chase until Harry could run no more and they returned to their sun loungers to sit under the parasol, Mummy put his arm bands on and Daddy found his rubber ring and the now reduced family went in the pool where Mummy and Daddy bounced him up and down in the pool and let him kick and splash as they laid him on his front and his back and then taught him how to blow bubbles, this was fun, but all too soon for Harry he was in need of a nappy change and was dragged kicking and screaming from the pool to have his nappy changed and get some lunch, the afternoon was another afternoon by the pool where he was played with and taken to splash in the puddle pool, swim in the big pool and after all of that cuddle up with Mummy in a fluffy towel.
On reflection of the holiday as Harry sat watching the sun go down in what he could only describe as a puddle, in which he was splashing around with other similarly aged children he hadn't minded his parents making him go as naked as possible at every excuse or the photos they had taken of him doing so, he hadn't minded that Toby and Lily had spent much time with him and that Charlie had massively rubbed it in about being able to swim when Harry was only allowed in the water when he was being held or else put in the puddle because he had experienced something he had never experienced before. His first holiday.
The last day was emotional; the staff kept telling the family how much they would miss them after becoming one of the favourite families staying there, Severus' dry wit, Cassie's caring nature for everyone, Toby's ability to make friends with everyone, including the man who clean who cleaned the pool, Lily was the epitome of cute little girl, Charlie was cheeky and mischievous and Harry was the ultimate cute baby. The family had been very popular with the other families too and Harry felt as though he was going to miss all the attention, especially from the girls who cooed over him all day. Harry sat on his parents lap on the coach taking them to the airport and fell asleep dreaming of ice creams and puddle pools.
Author note—May make this into a side story let me know if you would be interested in reading more about the Snape family on tour.