At 2 years old Harry was woken to startling news which was set to ruin his life. He woke up to see his Mummy above his bed.
"Morning Harry" she smiled lifting her baby boy up. She lifted him onto the potty as she had been doing every morning since last Christmas and recently he had started relieving himself when he was set on it after waking up with a dry nappy. As was the norm Harry then lay on the floor and played for a little while his Mummy flushed the toilet and got his clothes ready on his bed, when she was ready for him he would stand up and help get himself dressed but today something was about to change, instead of his usual nappy he was put into underwear and no trousers.
"Nappy" Harry said pointing to himself; Mummy was probably distracted and thought she was dressing Charlie.
"Not today big man, today we are potty training so you get to wear big boy pants and use a potty." Cassie told him with a proud smile. Harry was not convinced though, at first he had hated having to wear a nappy but accepted that he had to because he had no bladder control. When he did start knowing when he was full though he loved the convenience of not having to finish playing or get out of bed to empty his bladder. He did not want to get rid of his nappy's they made him felt safe and loved, first his bottle had been got rid of, then his cot and now his nappies, what would be the next casualty? Rocky? Cuddles? He did not like where this was going.
After breakfast Mummy had sat him on the potty again, but this time he was not going down without a fight and nothing happened. He would just wait until Mummy put a nappy back on him.
"It's Ok Harry" Mummy told him "we will try again soon" Harry went off to play and soon found he was pretty desperate, but could hold on until nap time, he hoped.
Playing with his toy cars Harry suddenly felt an accident occurring, he would play it down though, and carry on playing. As he continued playing with his cars Mummy came back.
"O Harry, have you had an accident?" she asked reaching for some kitchen roll and drying the floor off before replacing his quidditch underwear with some new slytherin ones.
The day seemed to continue in that pattern, and soon Mummy seemed stressed and when Madam Pomfrey came by to pick up some potions from Daddy, Mummy explained the problem.
"Maybe he's not ready; he hasn't managed to get to the potty once today." Mummy sighed and Madam Pomfrey stood up.
"There's no one in the Hospital Wing at the moment how about I stay here and help you" Poppy suggested.
"Would you Poppy that sounds wonderful" Cassie asked
"Of course Cassie, I will spend some time with Harry in the playroom, why don't you take a short walk to clear your head" Poppy said with a smile.
"Yes, I think that might help, Bye Harry, Mummy won't be long" Mummy said with a wave as she disappeared.
Once Mummy had left Harry knew he was about to be in trouble.
"Harry, we both know that you know how to use the toilet properly, now stop messing your Mummy around and start behaving properly, no matter how many accidents you have you will be expected to at least try, will you promise me you will try for the rest of the day?" Poppy asked gently
"Promise" Harry replied feeling a little ashamed of his behaviour.
"Good, now do you need to use the potty?" Poppy asked. Harry nodded and soon they were in the bathroom waiting for something to happen. Harry sat there for a few minutes and nothing had happened, Poppy was talking to him about how busy she was nowadays with this that and the other when Harry decided maybe he hadn't needed to go and stood up declaring "all done." Poppy sighed and replaced his pants before taking his hand and leading him back to the playroom, within the walk to the playroom though something had changed and as soon as they got back Harry had another accident, this one though he hadn't felt coming and he started to cry.
"Uh oh, now Harry, its ok, your body's very little and accidents will happen but you'll get there. Let's get you cleaned up" Pomfrey told him.
As it turned out Harry wasn't very ready and it was six months later until he would be. At 2 and a half years old Harry had gotten bored of being an only child and was bored of all the Snape toys and was bored of having only his Mummy's company. Tantrums had begun and this was the one stage of his life when he couldn't control himself, he was just frustrated he wasn't a baby anymore but he was still treated like one. He was put on a leash when he was allowed to walk to school to pick up Charlie and Lily, he was no longer allowed to sleep in his parent's bed whenever he liked and he was being forced to 'behave' when he could have got away with being naughty in the past.
Harry was in the middle of one of these tantrums because Mummy was busy cooking and not playing with him, he was screaming on the floor, kicking his legs and crying, because crying usually got you what you wanted. It wasn't working, why wasn't she picking him up, she was ignoring him, he stopped his tantrum and stormed into the playroom slamming his door and throwing the toys all over the playroom. This had Mummy's attention. He was picked up and placed in a corner of the kitchen on his bottom.
"Harry, you are going to sit in this corner for two minutes, you are really playing up today and I just don't understand why, now stay here until Mummy comes and gets you" with that said Mummy left to continue cooking and Harry crumbled, Mummy looked really upset with him, maybe she didn't love him anymore, he cried real tears this time and when Mummy came to get him all he could utter was a heart breaking "sorry" before he collapsed into her arms and cried. Mummy picked him up and carried him to the dining room where she sat down and held him in her lap.
"Harry, why are you acting like this? You've always been so well behaved" Mummy was talking to herself out loud.
After lunch Mummy strapped him into his pushchair to take him to school, he wasn't up to walking, he had refused a nap today and was suffering a little for this desicion but he would still have a run around in the playground when he got there. "Eddie, Eddie" Harry shouted from his pushchair when he arrived at the playground, his Mummy unstrapped him, and let him run off to play with his friend before turning to Eddie's mother.
"This seems to be the highlight of his day at the moment; he can't wait to get here to play with Eddie." Cassie told the blonde mother.
"Eddie is like that about playgroup, can't wait to get to play group in the morning and play with new people every day, it's stopped his tantrums too because he's so tired when he comes back he tends to nap a little bit longer" The woman told Cassie watching the toddlers play tag in the playground.
Cassie thought about it "Harry's started having horrible tantrums, he's given up his naps and he's not the happy smiley boy that I'm used to, he used to be cheeky and full of energy, he was the smiler in the family but in the last six months he has suddenly changed, he's clingy and angry and just doesn't seem interested in his favourite activities anymore, I'm at a loss with him, Lola." Cassie told her with a sigh.
"Try taking him to playgroup, it starts a few minutes after school in the morning and you pick them up at lunch time, it's only across the road, he might just be lonely, he's the first who is used to having another sibling at home to play with, what happened six month ago though?" Lola asked
"We tried potty training for the first time, but that only lasted a day, he hasn't been ready, he really hated it, it was almost as though he thought we were going to get rid of him." Cassie told her friend with a sad smile.
As the bell rang Harry went running over to Lily, who was first out of school, she picked him up awkwardly and with a goodbye to her friends flew her brother over to his pushchair to say hello to her mother, soon after Charlie came running at them and Harry was picked up and strapped into his pushchair, causing another tantrum as he wanted to play with his friend, so as Cassie pushed Harry screaming and kicking in his pushchair she promised herself that she would ring the playgroup tonight and get Harry in for tomorrow.
At three years old Harry was happily in playgroup every morning, he loved it and was so glad that Mummy had suggested he come, the first morning he had clung onto her for dear life but after being distracted by one of the lovely ladies who worked there he loved it. There was a climbing frame and slide and swings outside, there was a playground, an arts table, a book area, and loads of toys. The ladies loved having him there and always told Mummy what a good and clever boy he was and what he had done, always waving him goodbye at lunchtime. It was a beautiful sunny morning at playgroup and Harry was running around with Eddie, Eddie suddenly stopped.
"I need wee" Eddie shouted and then went to tell one of the ladies who worked there and was escorted inside, Eddie was potty trained and his Mummy still loved him the same, maybe his Mummy would still love him if he was potty trained. That afternoon as the children were split into their age groups for story time, he looked around, he was the only one who was still wearing a nappy, and even some of the children in the younger two groups were out of nappies. He was behind, was everyone laughing at him.
Harry put his hand up during snack time ten minutes later.
"Harry, darling, what's the matter?" asked one of the workers worried, Harry was always such a happy child and the look on his face was distressed.
"I need wee" he told her. The woman looked surprised at him, she knew that Harry had problems and was the oldest child in nappies at the centre, his mother was worried about him and was thinking about taking him to St Mungo's to see if it would ever be possible for Harry to be out of nappies.
"Ok then sweetheart, let's get you on the potty then." She took his hand and led him to one of the potties in the toddler room and undid his jeans and took off his nappy. As Harry sat down and weed the lady looked at him with a huge smile, making him beam back at her. She gave him a huge hug when he was finished and once sat down at the snack table he watched as she went and told all the other ladies who all came and congratulated him, this was fantastic!
At home time Harry was one of the last to be picked up, Charlie was poorly at home so Mummy had to find someone to look after him so she could come and collect him. "Mummy" he shouted racing to her and giving her a great big hug. One of the lovely ladies, Hattie, came over to give Mummy his daily report.
"Harry was a joy today, no behaviour issues, ate his entire snack, painted two pictures which are still drying and during snack time he told us he needed a wee and he went on the potty." Hattie told Mummy.
Mummy squealed and picked him up hugging and kissing him, spinning him around "my clever boy" she told him kissing him everywhere making him giggle.
"I think he might be ready to have another go now, shall we book him a week's break for you to spend some time with him?" Hattie asked and Mummy nodded looking at him with happy tears in her eyes.
At home Harry had managed to use the potty twice and everyone was now at home, Daddy was going to take the next day off work so that they could work together with Harry and never leave him alone for the first day of training. Daddy was proud of him too and that made Harry very happy.
The next day started shakily, Harry had managed to get to lunch time before having an accident, he was having his munch when it happened and Daddy took him upstairs to change him and clean him off when he discovered the only pants left were Gryffindor.
"Ok Harry, so no more accidents today….well I wouldn't mind too much if you had an accident in these but try not to." Daddy told him with a sly smile.
The next week went passed and Harry had been declared nappy free, they had even thrown Harry a party to celebrate and although it was embarrassing Harry had received lots more presents off his family, he was back at playgroup and was keen to show off his new abilities and cause a bit of trouble and found a new way to have a lot of fun which he can get away with as he was still a toddler. Harry had been in the door two minutes and Mummy was handing over his spare bag of clothes when Harry pulled down his trousers to show the ladies his new underpants, watching there shocked and amused faces. He could still have lots of fun causing trouble in this small body.
Harry loved playgroup very much and loved that he now had a trump card to get out of trouble or doing something he didn't want "I need a wee" worked all the time, but he still wasn't a fan of wearing his toddler leash. It had been a trying day at playgroup for some of the staff, there was an inspector coming in and the staff were all busy, Harry was used to having at least one at his disposal for the morning but today there wasn't any and this was annoying, the prankster in Harry was starting to show and he thought it would be fun to cause a bit of trouble.
Harry spotted his chance an hour into his playgroup, Eddie was playing with two of the other boys and Harry was a little jealous, these people all needed a prank pulled on them. The first stage was throwing some of the toys over the fence into the next doors garden but that wasn't good enough, they always did that by accident, an idea came into his head and he raced to the toilets and grabbed all the toilet paper he could and started throwing them around and letting the younger children help him the playroom and the outside was covered in toilet roll. Harry looked at his work proudly but as he was throwing his last toilet roll a hand grasped his wrist and the toilet roll was removed from him.
"Harry Snape, you know to behave better than this. Your behaviour is unacceptable, to the chair" Hattie had raised her voice at him and feeling particularly mischievous he blew a raspberry at her and ran in the opposite direction, he was fast but she had longer legs and soon caught up with him and taking his hand walked him to the 'naughty chair' placing him on it she bent down to his level.
"Harry, you are to sit on this chair for three minutes because you were being rude and throwing toilet rolls, which you know is unacceptable." Hattie sounded angry at him, he guessed he kind of deserved it but he did not want to stay on the chair. "I need a wee" he called as she retreated.
"You will have you wait then won't you young man" Hattie called as she went to play with Eddie and his friends. Why hadn't his trick worked? Why did he feel so bad? Harry decided he hated it here; he wanted his Mummy and started to cry.
By the time Hattie came back to retrieve Harry he was a snotty teary mess.
"Is there anything you want to say to me Harry?" Hattie asked.
"I waaaant myyyy muuuummmyyyy" Harry cried.
Hattie crumbled at Harry's distraught cry and gave the boy a hug, Harry was never any trouble and he was never rude, she would have to have a word with Harry's mother when she came to pick him up, right now though she had a very upset boy on her hands. Lifting him up and letting him snuggle into her shoulder she carried him to the toilets and after letting him relieve himself she washed his face and tried to calm him down. It was almost story time so she carried the now silent boy onto the cushioned areas and set him down, concerned when for the first time ever Harry stuck his thumb in his mouth and began to suck it.
Harry didn't realise he had started to suck his thumb until after story time he had to remove it from his mouth to eat his snack. It had felt nice though and soon it was back in his mouth and he was back on the cushions, lost in deep thought. He needed help in this situation he just wasn't sure what to do anymore, he wasn't a baby, he wasn't a toddler, he was a man in his thirty's, sucking his thumb and crying for his mummy.
At home time Harry didn't move off the cushions he sat hugging his knees with one arm and his thumb in his mouth. Hattie moved towards the door and answered it when she saw Mrs Snape arrive; this was going to be tough.
"Afternoon Mrs Snape" Hattie greeted.
"Afternoon Hattie, where's Harry? How's he been?" Cassie asked, usually Harry came running to the door to see her and then ran back to play.
"Not good I'm afraid Mrs Snape, he started off well and played with his friends but then he threw some of the toys over the fence and threw the weeks toilet paper all over the playgroup, he was rude to me when I tried to put him on the chair but when I went to get him off it he was sorry and was asking for you. Ever since then he's been sat on the cushions, sucking his thumb. We are all a little worried with this sudden change in behaviour Mrs Snape" Hattie told her sadly.
Cassie sighed as she picked her quiet boy up and took him to the toilet before they left, he wouldn't take his thumb from his mouth and after he had used the potty she carried him all the way home. She was concerned to say the least, Harry was usually happy and chatty, and he had been since he was able to talk, always making some noise, running and smiling.
After his nap and lunch Harry and Cassie did some colouring together, Harry had been distracted with his own thoughts and realised he had to let someone know who he really was, he needed them to know, it was too frustrating to constantly have to put on this childish act. He drew the troll that he took down in the second year, then he drew the tasks from the fourth year and finally he drew a scene of Severus killing Dumbledore. He had been so busy in thought he had had an accident so was taken upstairs to get cleaned up.
"Mummy, I don't like playgroup no more, me want to stay with you" Harry told her solemnly.
Mummy agreed and told Harry that if he didn't want to go he didn't have to, as she went downstairs she sent Harry to his bedroom to get his coat and shoes before they left for school. Cassie took a look at the pictures Harry had drawn and was horrified they were black and dark and hooded black figures with silver faces, she knew what they were meant to be, but how did Harry. She put the pictures away to show Severus later and as Harry came downstairs she got him dressed and took him to school to pick up his brother and sister.