Severus laid Harry down on a cleared portion of his workbench, then hesitated as he tried to think of all the different aspects of diaper changing. He had never changed a baby's diaper, so he tried to rack his brain over what he thought was appropriate and what objects he may have passed in a muggle store. He would need a fresh nappy, some cleaning cloths, maybe . . . was it baby powder? Was that necessary every time?
Harry, who had been sniffling at first, gave Severus a curious look at his hesitation, then began giggling.
"What is so funny?" Severus asked, crossing his arms and quirking a brow at his son. He guessed correctly what may have caused his son's laughter and rolled his eyes. "And just how many diapers have you changed in your lifetime?"
Harry blew a raspberry at his father.
"Cheeky brat," Severus said. He waved a hand, summoning a book and a few washcloths. The book flipped through several pages while Severus transfigured one washcloth into a clean nappy while changing the other washcloths into a softer cloth for cleaning. The book stopped suddenly midway through, and Severus read the page, Harry turning his head curiously to see what his father was reading.
"In the absence of baby powder," Severus said, "it looks like I can use cornstarch as an alternative."
Severus raised a hand, and cornstarch came flying into the room and into his grasp. Harry babbled as he reached for the book, and Severus closed it to show Harry the cover: Advice for New Parents: Volume One.
"Ei?" Harry scrunched his nose and tilted his head at it.
"I picked this up . . . a couple years ago," Severus supplied. He sent the book flying back to the shelf it came from. Harry giggled loudly once more, and Severus narrowed his eyes at him. "Oh, I'm so pleased you find that as amusing as me not knowing how to change a diaper. If I were you, I'd zip it, or I'll make this a rather unpleasant experience. As it is, I have absolutely no baby pictures of you, and I'm thinking some sailor outfit ones might be exceptionally cute."
All the amusement fell from Harry's face as he stared up at his father wide-eyed.
"That's what I thought," Severus said.
Removing the nappy and cleaning Harry was not difficult, and Severus talked to Harry about the Hellebore Ebber plant while he changed the baby.
"The pollen's capabilities intrigue me. With such powerful deaging magic, it may be possible to deage someone to before they even had the cancer, or even deage the cancer right out of the body if you can harness the right properties. The latter may be a safer alternative, though neither are permanent cures as deaging the person or the cancer would prevent the cancer from growing back. Nor is it healthy for the body to go through repetitive deaging just to keep cancer at bay. Attempting to prolong life does not usually end well for anyone."
"Why?" Harry asked, one of the few comprehensible words he managed to utter.
"Few things in life are truly reversible, especially age. And sometimes, cancer."
"Wuh buh ta ma ta ha—"
"I do not understand your baby gibberish," Severus said as he applied a thin coating of cornstarch to Harry's bum before fastening the fresh nappy. "I should probably send an owl to that clerk selling the Hellebore Ebbers to the wizard hoping to cure his daughter. We wouldn't want him to meet the same fate you have, now, would we?"
"Ahh," Harry cooed in answer as Severus picked him up and set him on the floor for a moment. Severus waved his hand over the table, vanishing the used nappy and cleaning the table. That hadn't been too difficult, and he didn't have too much trouble for his first time changing a nappy. He glanced down at Harry—except the baby was not sitting at his feet where he had set him.
"Harry?" Severus asked aloud, looking around his feet before squatting to look under the workbench. There was no baby, though, and he scanned his lab, his eyes falling on Harry's trousers that were still crumpled on the floor where Harry had transformed. His eyes widened as he watched Harry pull his wand out from a pant pocket.
"Harry, no!" Severus scolded, walking over to the baby, who started crawling away with the wand tight in his grasp. "Put that down."
Severus lunged for the child, but the baby crawled under his brewing table, just out of Severus's reach.
"Come here," Severus said, kneeling and reaching under the table, but Harry managed to scoot away. "How are you so freakishly fast?"
Harry sat under the middle section of the table and held his wand in his hand, frowning in thought. Severus pulled a few stools out of his way as he practically crawled under the table after his son.
"There's not a spell or enchantment that you can come up with to fix yourself," Severus said. "Give me your wand. You don't even have the strength to push your magic through it anyway."
Severus could just brush Harry's feet with his fingertips, and the little brat crawled away from him. He growled under his breath as he pulled out from under the bench, nearly jogging around the table and snatching the baby into his arms.
"Argg!" Harry complained as Severus removed the wand from his fingers, having to pry it out of Harry's tight grip. Who knew babies had such hand strength? Harry grumbled lowly as Severus carried him back to the crib.
"You know, you are too little for a smack on the bum," Severus said, "but pull a stunt like that, and I'll keep a tally mark of how many times I need to swat you when you're back to your correct age."
"Nah buh duh buh," Harry babbled irritably as he was plopped down on the mattress in his crib.
"I know you're not enjoying your current state," Severus said, leaning over the rail. "But you should be back to your correct age by tomorrow afternoon. After a long nap once you take the potion. It'll simmer over night, but it needs a full fourteen hours, so the sooner I can get started on your potion, the sooner you'll be of good health to attend the game with your friends."
Harry let out a small cry as he fell back on the mattress, crossing his arms and staring up at his father with a rather defeated face. Severus snorted at the look, reaching down to gently ruffle his son's messy hair, then he moved back to the cauldron waiting for him to begin brewing.
It was an easy potion to make, as it required few but very powerful ingredients. A pinch of minced mandrake root, chopped ginger, a single string of turtles, standard ingredient, a tablespoon of ground unicorn horn, and a few petals of asphodel. Simple, no difficult preparations, no finicky steps. He was done in an hour, and all that was left was to leave the concoction to simmer. It would be done by six am, and would only need to cool down and thicken into a bisque-like texture, which could take an hour or two, so really, by eight am.
Severus set the potion to simmer, casting a protective bubble around the potion to keep it safe and keep any splatter to a minimum. He glanced over at the crib and smiled at Harry sleeping peacefully. No wonder he had been so quiet. Not wanting to disturb the peace, Severus sat down at his workbench away from the potion and wrote out a quick letter explaining his situation with Harry and his studies on the plant that he had managed to do before sending Castiel off with the letter back to the apothecary he had picked up the plant from.
While walking back toward his bedroom and adjacent lab, the fireplace flared up for a moment, turning green, indicating a floo call for Spinner's End.
Severus had kept the house for the time being while his position as spy remained active, but he had charmed any floo calls that were made to the house to redirect to his current home, though the calls needed to be spelled through in order to see into the house, that way, there were no surprises. Severus cast a small illusion on his living room, turning the interior to resemble the living quarters in the Spinner's End house. He waved his wand over the fireplace, allowing the floo call to come through fully, and Lucius Malfoy's face appeared in the flames.
"Severus, dear friend," Lucius greeted, a smile on his face. "Enjoying your summer free of wretched students and paperwork, I hope?"
"As best I can," Severus said.
"Well, hopefully, I can excite your summer I bit more. I have acquired several tickets to the World Cup, surely, you've heard who is hosting this year? Well, a few of our acquaintances and I will be enjoying the game from an outstanding view, the best seats money could buy. I believe I could spare one for you if you wish to join."
"I would rather continue to enjoy my solitude away from even our . . . acquaintances, Lucius. You know I've never cared much for sports."
"Nonsense, Severus, you don't wish to spend the rest of your life as a hermit, do you? This could do good for your social standing. Besides, we could all spend time catching up with each other, have a few drinks, and remember the good ol' days."
Good ol' days? Those days were the biggest mistakes of his life and some of his worst memories. Severus sighed heavily through his nose, making his displeasure known.
"Don't be like that," Lucius scolded. "You do not have to join us if you truly don't wish. The ticket I have guarantees you a seat wherever you'd like, so you can hide in some dark corner of the stadium, if you prefer. I have already sent my owl off with it. Show up, or don't, but it would be a waste of good money if you do not use the ticket."
"Thank you, but . . ." Severus hesitated as he remembered Harry's question about inviting Giovanna along. "I will consider your request."
"That's the spirit!" Lucius said with a grin. "If you do come, find me for a few drinks, or just put yours on my tab, I insist."
"I'll remember," Severus said. "If that is all, I'm afraid I must check in on a potion I have brewing in my lab currently."
"Of course, of course. I'll hopefully see you at the game." Lucius's head disappeared in the flames, and once the fire vanished, Severus canceled the illusion charm in the living room. At least he could surprise Harry with a ticket for Giovanna once he was back to his correct age.
As he headed through his room and back to his lab, he noticed Harry was yawning and stretching in the crib. Severus checked on the potion briefly before walking over to his son, smiling down at how cute Harry was as a baby. Harry blinked up at his tiredly.
"You know, I was just thinking that perhaps I'd rather keep you as a baby than restore you to your proper age," Severus said. "After all, you don't nearly have as much lip at this size."
Harry frowned and blew a raspberry.
"I take that back. You are a brat no matter what age you are."
Harry offered a cheeky smile, then looked down as his stomach rumbled loudly.
"Ah-ah!" Harry pointed at his open mouth pointedly.
"Hmm." Severus frowned. "I actually didn't consider what I would be feeding you, even if it's just for today. At your age you would still be on formula, I'm sure."
Harry stuck his tongue out at that.
"I'm afraid that's what your body needs right now. There's no work around what your system can and can't digest properly. I'll find you a snack, then we'll need to figure out the formula problem."
Severus picked up Harry and carried him out to the kitchen. He transfigured one of his dining table chairs into a wooden highchair and set Harry into it. He managed to find a strawberry yogurt cup in his fridge and shrunk a spoon for Harry to use. While Harry poorly manipulated the spoon from the yogurt to his mouth, making an absolute mess of the snack, Severus reviewed a few of his potion tomes to see if there was a cheat to making baby formula. Unfortunately, he could not find anything, and he figured a trip out to the store was his best bet.
"Dada!" Harry said loudly as he finished his small meal. He held up the empty yogurt cup, though half of the cup appeared to be coated all over Harry's face and shirt. Severus chuckled in amusement, then summoned a washcloth to clean Harry's face.
"Looks like you and I will need to head out to the store," Severus said as he wiped Harry's hands. "We need to buy formula to give your body a proper meal."
Harry made a face and a small grunt of disagreement.
"I'm sure you'd much rather starve until tomorrow, but babies dehydrate quickly, faster than a child or adult, and I'd rather not need a trip to St. Mungo's over something very avoidable. Besides, in your state, you might like it."
Harry threw the spoon at Severus when he turned away to throw out the yogurt cup. Severus turned stern eyes on his son.
"You know what, that's your first tally mark. Keep it up and you'll be getting a full spanking when you're back to fourteen."
Harry stuck his tongue out stubbornly.
After another diaper change (to Harry's embarrassment), and being dressed in a clean shirt and trousers, Severus tapped his wand on Harry's head, changing his son's hair to a dirty blonde and his eyes to a bright blue color. He didn't expect anyone to question the baby too much, but he'd rather not have the baby look too much like Harry. Once that was done, Severus created a baby carrier for himself, fitting it to his chest before strapping Harry in, ignoring the small pout on his face.
Severus wanted to make the trip as quick as possible, so he made sure to speedwalk down the sidewalk toward town, finding himself at the grocery store in ten minutes. He wanted to avoid running into anyone he knew so they would never ask about the baby again, but perhaps that was wishful thinking. Inside the grocery store, he found the baby aisle, and he stared at the many options of baby formula in front of him in confusion. Anti-reflux formula? Hypo-allergenic formula? Lactose-free formula? Soy or specialized? Why couldn't this have been a straightforward process? Why were there five hundred different kinds of baby formula? Did not all babies need the same thing?
"What do you think, Harry?" Severus asked in a whisper, hoping for some kind of assistance in this decision. Maybe Harry could pick his own formula.
"Do you need help, sir?" a store attendant asked as she stepped into the aisle. She grinned at Harry, who smiled back at her with his near-toothless grin.
"Yes, actually," Severus said. "I am babysitting my friend's son while they are on a business trip, but they realized a bit belatedly that they forgot to leave me with formula. They told me I could find it at the store, but I'm afraid I'm not sure which one he was on."
"Oh dear," the lady, whose name tag said Willow, cooed at Harry, who giggled at her. "Do you know if he has any allergies or sensitivities?"
"No, he's fairly healthy." Severus said, frowning at Harry. "I think he was on a regular brand."
"Ah, you must want Aptamil," Willow said, moving down the aisle and grabbing the formula in question. She handed it to Severus. "Here you go. Your friend's kid is really cute, by the way. Peek-a-boo!"
Willow played a few seconds of peek-a-boo with Harry, who was giving off all sorts of cute factors as he acted surprised with each game and laughed excitedly. Severus resisted rolling his eyes while he waited for Willow to cease the obnoxious game.
"What's his name?" Willow asked, smiling at Harry.
Severus smirked evilly.
"Bartholomew."
"Huh?" Harry looked up at his father with a rather disgusted face.
"Oh," Willow said with a small frown.
"But we call him Bartie for short," Severus said. He looked down at Harry and said in a baby voice, "Don't we, Bartie?"
Harry glared at his father, who continued to smirk at him.
"Bartie is kinda cute," Willow said. She cooed at Harry again. "Little Bartie, you are a handsome man."
Harry laughed at Willow once more, kicking Severus's chest a bit roughly.
"Well, it was nice meeting you, Bartie," Willow said. She nodded at Severus. "You as well, sir. Just call for me if you need anything else."
"Thank you," Severus said with a small nod of his head. He turned away with Harry, grabbing a couple jars of baby food on his way out of the aisle, and once they were out of hearing distance, he whispered. "You are such a faker. I expect that much enthusiasm when I get your formula ready."
Harry made a face once more.
Check out went smoothly, with no more than an "aww," sent Harry's way, and Severus made his escape from the store and marched back to his house without running into any familiar faces. He undid the small illusion on Harry and allowed the baby to crawl around the kitchen while he worked on making a bottle for Harry, along with an easy dinner of fish and chips for himself. Once dinner was ready, Severus set a plate down at the table for himself before lifting Harry to the highchair and setting a baby bottle down on the small table along with a spoon and baby jar. Severus began eating his own food while watching Harry.
Harry sniffed the mustard yellow mush in the baby jar, then used the spoon to push the jar away from him, his nose scrunching up in distaste.
"That's your dinner tonight," Severus told him. "It's already pureed for you and should be easy on your stomach. Try it."
"Uck," Harry managed to say.
"It is not," Severus said. He picked up Harry's spoon and scooped up some of the baby food and held the spoon out to Harry, who leaned back in his seat, keeping his head away from the spoon. "Try it, you may like it. It's chicken and vegetables, practically a full meal."
Harry turned his head away as Severus jammed the spoon closer to his mouth. He whined in protest, refusing to open his mouth in case Severus tried shoving the food in. Severus growled under his breath impatiently.
"If I try it first to show you it's not bad, will you eat it then?"
Harry pouted and crossed his arms, watching Severus expectantly.
Severus sighed and ate the baby food.
Whatever flavor he had been expecting, it was not the grainy, watered-down day old gravy mush that coated his tongue, and Severus choked slightly and turned away from Harry, fighting the nausea that made him want to upchuck the few small bites of fish and chips he had taken, and he swallowed repeatedly as he slowly forced the food down.
Harry burst out laughing, and Severus couldn't even snap at him to shut up as he continued to work on swallowing the disgusting goo in his mouth.
Finally, he managed to get rid of the food and he chugged his glass of water to wash away any remnants of the baby food before he glared at Harry, who was still giggling at him.
"Alright, you get a free pass on that one. That was horrendous. How about some fish and chips? I'll have to blend it down for you, but I think there's a spell for that."
Harry nodded his head while he picked up the baby bottle and tried a sip. He must have liked it as he kept drinking the formula.
"At least you approve of one thing," Severus said, "though that may be baby instincts kicking in."
Severus took a small potion of his meal and placed it in a bowl, then used his wand to mash up the food magically, a spell sometimes used for prepping ingredients in a hurry. Not ideal but served its purpose in an emergency. For food preparation, the spell would work just fine. Once the food was mashed, Severus delivered the bowl to Harry, who set the bottle down and went back and forth between the mashed chips and the mashed fish, taking as big of a bite as he could with each scoop, making a mess of himself once more.
Severus smiled at his son before resuming his own meal.
After yet another nappy change and dressing Harry in a blue onesie, Severus checked on the potion one last time, making sure there was no problems with the simmering process. Harry crawled after him, sitting at his father's feet curiously while Severus analyzed the potion. The color and consistency were right, however, and Severus looked down at Harry.
"It needs to simmer the night," Severus said. "Tomorrow morning, after a good night of sleep and a good meal, you will be able to take the potion. I will give you a sleeping draught so you can sleep through the aging process. It won't hurt any more than growing pains, but I'm sure sleeping through it all will make for a far more pleasant experience. It may take a few hours, but after, I will check you over and make sure you are in god health before agreeing to let you go to the Weasley's the following day. Sound like a god gameplan?"
"Ah!" Harry agreed, holding his hands up to Severus.
Severus picked up his son and carried him out of the lab.
"Good. Then let's do something quiet to settle you in for a good night of sleep. I read babies need ten to twelve hours of sleep each night, so we better get you resting."
Harry made a face at that, but did not protest as Severus carried him to his bedroom.
Severus set Harry down in the crib he had moved out of the lab, then shuffled through the books on Harry's shelf. He pulled down The Tales of Beedle the Bard and flipped through the pages.
"I don't think I ever told you this," Severus said as he sat down on Harry's bed, Harry watching him curiously. "But one of my favorite stories in this book was The Wizard and the Hopping Pot."
Harry squealed in giggles and Severus chuckled himself.
"I suppose you are probably not surprised. I'll read the story to you, but you have to fall asleep when I'm done."
Harry babbled but made no promises of obeying. Halfway through the story though, Severus looked over at Harry, and noticed his son was sleeping, and he smiled at the angelic face, knowing such a look only existed when Harry was fast asleep. He wondered for a moment how things might have turned out if he had pursued taking Harry in when he was still a toddler, but he reminded himself of what-ifs and living in the present, and he kissed Harry's temple before stepping out of the room, flicking the light off as he closed the door until it was only slightly ajar.