Strength of a Child's Mind

Summary: Disaster and Harry Potter does not bode well… at all. And this particular disaster is determined to change both Harry's and the greasy potions master's lives!

Pairing/s: None.

Warnings: Severus!Father, Child!Harry. Spoilers up to the fifth book? Sirius not dead. Maybe something else but you'll see that.

Disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter.

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UPDATED 2011-01-02

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Chapter One

Harry Potter, 15 years old, was not focusing at all. He found it very hard to do that in Potions when his teacher Severus Snape just tracked down on him and Draco Malfoy's success of ruining his potions gave him bad results almost every class. The blonde teen had ruined it three times in a row and the raven-haired teen had grown more than irritated of it. He would like to pass the class by the end of the year, thank you very much.

He stirred the potion twice clockwise before looking down at the instructions. If only Snape could stop staring at him! He tried to keep himself calm and listened to what Hermione said to him. She wasn't even talking about the potion he was making but her voice soothed his nerves and calmed him down. Also gave him a chance to ignore Snape and that was a good thing. She was probably aware of that too.

Draco smiled maliciously as he saw Potter's attention turned away. He plucked a random ingredient from his desk and threw it… right into Harry's cauldron.

Harry turned alarmed eyes as the potion began to give off fumes that it certainly was not supposed to. A moment later, he realized it was going to blow up.

"Get away!" he screamed, pushing Hermione under the desk the split second before the cauldron exploded and he was coating in the potion. He blacked out.

-o-

Severus got up the moment it exploded and sighed. He knew his godson loved to tease Potter, but why in his class? The potions master was the one who was stuck to clean the mess up!

He vanished the potion and said while looking around the classroom:

"Was anyone of you twits hit?"

"Harry was, sir," Hermione said as she came out on shaky legs from underneath the desk. Her eyes searched for her friend while Ron got up from his chair.

Severus stalked forward and looked down. He blinked. Harry's robes lay on the floor. He carefully kneeled and took it in his hand. No Potter. He rose up, allowing a brief flicker of surprise and confusion cross his face. They all stared at the robe Severus was holding. He shook it a little. No Potter coming out either. Bloody hell, why did this happen to him of all people?

"Longbottom, get the headmaster," Severus said. "The rest of you, pack your things and get out!"

They hurriedly did so, quite nervous at his tone. Granger and Weasley stayed. His eyebrow twitched and he said:

"I told you to get out."

"Not without Harry," Ron said. "He has to be here."

"What potion did he work on, Granger?"

Hermione tried to think as Harry's book had been pretty much destroyed. Snape cursed his luck today; he had told each student to do whatever potion they wanted in the book. Hopefully, Granger had looked over and approved before the boy had started on the potion.

"Shrinking potion!" she exclaimed after a few moments, and the man had to praise her, in his own head of course, for always check what her friends were doing. It might be because she was a nagging know-it-all but it helped this time. "He had almost finished, only had one stage left."

Severus groaned inwardly and wanted to have a nice, long conversation with Draco later. That damn boy had to stop it!

He groaned inwardly some more when Fred and George appeared, having heard the news from either Dean or Seamus. He ignored them as he tried to figure out what the hell had happened. Had Potter shrunk down until he was as big as a spoon or what? Hermione seemed to be in the same train of thoughts, as she told the Weasleys to be careful where to walk and had started looking around as well. Maybe they could find the blasted boy before Albus arrived. A fool's hope, but Severus sometimes wished a bit too much.

Fred heard quiet sniffing and followed the sound, ignoring the others. They in turn ignored him as they searched the floor for a miniature Harry Potter. He pushed open the door to the potions storage and was left staring.

Wide green eyes looked at him underneath black hair. A lower lip trembled as the small child tried to keep his tears inside. Thin arms were wrapped around equally thin legs, the boy only being dressed in… Harry's school shirt. Fred's thoughts clicked. One wide-eyed, six-year old Harry Potter was the child sitting in front of him.

-o-

"I came as soon as I heard," Dumbledore said. "What happened?"

"Someone threw a potion ingredient into Potter's cauldron," Severus said as he sat down on a chair. He had folded the robe absently and now lay it down on the desk in front of him. "It exploded and once the fumes were gone so was Potter. The potion was a Shrinking potion."

"Have you not tried to locate him?" Dumbledore asked.

"I tried 'Point me Harry Potter' but it didn't work," Hermione said.

"This classroom is warded against it," Severus said and rubbed his forehead. "Can we just find the blasted boy so I can have lunch?"

The headmaster looked at him, amused, and he looked down. With a scowl, he removed his hand from Potter's robe. He had been stroking it. Treacherous hand. If he did not need his hand so much, he would sink in acid pain be damned. Well... maybe that was a bit drastic. He stood up, irritated with the treacherous hand and his trail of thoughts.

"Where should we start? And how is he supposed to look like?" Ron asked.

"Either he could have shrunken in size or in body," the old wizard said. "No matter; let's search and hope for the best."

"You don't have to."

Fred's voice made them all turn. He looked at them all from the potions storage.

"Why not?" George asked his brother.

Fred grinned and turned around. He lifted someone up. Their eyes widened as he exited. On his arm, a small boy looked at them in wonder. His emerald eyes were as wide as they could be, trying to get everything in at once. Severus quite promptly sat down again.

"Voila," Fred said with a grin. "One six-year old Harry Potter at your service!"

"What does Voila mean?" Harry asked, turning his big eyes towards the redhead that was holding him.

As Fred launched into an explanation, the others tried to get their jaws up.

"Well… it seems like he shrunk in body and mind," Dumbledore concluded.

'Really now?' Severus thought before hitting his head on the desk with a groan.

-o-

Harry looked at the people gathered around his bed, fingering on the blanket in his lap. He was dressed in a sweater of some sort, far too big for his thin frame and a pair of pants he had seen them shrink in front of him. His eyes had grown wider (if that now was possible) at the sight of magic being performed before him.

"He doesn't have any glasses," Ron said.

"According to my scans, his vision is perfect," Madam Pomfrey said. "He's a bit underweight and dehydrated but no severs injuries. He has a fraction in his leg that healed a bit wrong in the past, which was why I could see it. Nothing serious though, and he has no pain due to it. He appears to be in good spirit, although a bit confused."

"No memories?" Albus asked.

"None," Madam Pomfrey said. "Not even about the Dursleys it seems. I asked who had taken care of him and he said he didn't know."

Snape's eyebrow twitched. Why did he have to remain here? This had nothing to do with him!

Or… maybe it had. But! He was not going to admit that. He glanced over at Harry and cursed when the wide eyes found his. Lily's eyes on that small face… he could not even see James Potter in that face. Before he could place Potter in the category 'identical copy to his annoying father, James Potter' but now he was at a loss. This boy did not look like his father at all.

"What should we do?" Hermione asked as she turned to the adults. "You can change him back, right?"

"It's more complicated than we thought," Madam Pomfrey said. "As it stands now, he can't return to who he is."

"Why not?" Ron nearly shouted.

"Because in his mind, he's not Harry Potter. He doesn't even know his name," the healer said to them. "I can't make him grow up because that would create a chaos in his brain and he would instantly become brain-dead the moment he is back in his normal body."

Harry gently slid off the bed, not being noticed by the now arguing group. They were loud. The man dressed in black was quiet, just the way Harry liked it. Harry had no idea why they called him Harry but went along with it. It felt like he had never had a name before. It was nice not being nameless since he seemed to have forgotten everything about his life. He guessed he should remember something but his mind was blank.

He reached the quiet man and felt safe. He tugged on the black (he emphasised that they were black; he liked black clothes) robes gently, not wanting to upset the quiet man and make him loud. Obsidian eyes snapped down to his wide green ones, and Harry stretched up his arms.

The nerve of the boy! Severus gaped as his brain shut down. The Potter brat, the brat that bloody hated his guts, just stood there cutely and wanted to be picked up! Wait a minute; did he, the terrifying greasy and snarky potions professor, just say cutely? No damnit, he thought it! Or wait… GAH! Why was this so complicated?

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Severus looked at the child as tears began to well up and he could see the desperation in Harry's eyes. He sighed mentally and knew he would regret this.

He took the child underneath the arms and lifted him easily. The child's form fitting perfectly with his side and Harry put his small hands over his ears and muttered:

"They are noisy…"

Severus snorted in order to cover up a chuckle. The man looked at the arguing group and then back at the child. Harry looked up at him, eyes innocent, and against his will Severus found his will melting away. The boy was too cute to resist. Wait… no, no, no, he did not say or even thought the word cute! He did NOT!

His eyes could not move from Harry who now yawned and seemed to prepare to go to sleep right where he was. The potions master's lips quirked up in a smile at the sweet sight. Wait… sweet? SWEET, as in bloody CUTE and ADORABLE?

That was it. Severus Snape's brain officially has left for vacation, is expected to come back to the summer. For some reason (that made the man almost go mad) the thought of having Harry Potter asleep on his hip was not so bad.

…

Scratch his earlier statement; his brain had officially died.

"Severus?"

He looked up and met several shocked looks. The youngest Weasley boy's mouth hung open and Severus hide a smirk at the sight. Hermione looked at the two oddly, the wheels in her brain turning very quickly. Madam Pomfrey was blinking rapidly, as if believing she was seeing a dream. The Weasleys twins stared at the sight, amusing smiles on their lips, and Dumbledore's bloody eyes twinkled. The Order just stared, 'Snuffles' vibrating in shock and anger by Remus' legs.

"I see Harry has taken a liking to you," the headmaster said.

"So it appears," Severus replied stiffly. "And?"

"Someone has to take care of him," Dumbledore pointed out.

In that moment Severus Snape knew he was not going to like what the headmaster proposed… at all.

Tbc…

It just showed up, an image of Severus with a cuddling-craving six year old Harry, in my head and made me write several mistakes on the document I was working on the computer. So here it is. Dunno how many chapters, but not so long. I have it done all in all in my head; it's just the tricky part of figuring all the details out.

Well then, chapter two: We all know what Dumbledore is going to suggest, but will Severus accept it? And how will Harry's friends and those who know him very well react?

Until later,

Ja,

Tiro