𝑷𝑹𝑶𝑻𝑬𝑪𝑻𝑶𝑹 || 𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘂𝘀 𝗦𝗻𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗮𝗯𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟐.

It was Friday afternoon, classes had just ended, and Snape grimaced at the rather large stack of pumpkins which still sat in his office. He felt as though Dumbledore had really pushed his bounds here. Having Snape double cross the Death Eaters, spy on them, and report back, all the while putting his life in jeopardy was doable. Becoming a full time babysitter was somehow working out better than anticipated, granted, anticipation had been for utter failure. But turning Snape's office into some kind of freaky indoor pumpkin patch? Snape was not amused.

Snape was, to say the least, undergoing enormous amounts of stress.

Harry was teething, and was therefore constantly shoving his entire fist into his mouth and sucking on it vigorously. He would then take his hand out of his mouth and try to touch Snape with it. This direct application of large amounts of slobber was not something Severus found in the least delightful. He also didn't appreciate the fact that Harry would wake up in the night crying and poking his gums with his little pointer fingers to show Snape where the "ouch" was.

One night Harry had woken Snape up by shrieking in the next room for the third time, and Snape knew it needed to stop. He entered the room and cast a quick soothing spell over Harry's crib. That had stopped the crying, but it knocked Harry out cold for the rest of the night and the whole next morning. Such a reaction to the spell made Snape hesitant to repeat the action. He knew that mixing magic and babies sometimes caused problems. Basically, the combination of anything and babies was liable to cause problems. Pumpkins included.

That was another source of stress for Severus. Everyone seemed so paranoid about Halloween this year. Snape had tried to explain that just because it was going to be the 31 of October, it did not mean that he had to take Harry around to see the other professors and ask for sweets. All the other teachers seemed to disagree however. Minerva insisted that if Snape did not take Harry trick-or-treating, he would be responsible for the later emotional scarring of the boy whom he was being called upon to protect. The others argued that Harry deserved a chance to have a normal childhood, even if he was growing up as a baby under Snape's care. Severus, for his part, found this argument completely ridiculous, but Dumbledore had caught hold of the idea, and had even brought Snape a costume for Harry to wear.

He had appeared at Snape's door one evening, which gave the potions master all sorts of wary feelings. His uncommonly accurate intuition told him something unpleasant was afoot, and it proved to be correct.

"Good evening, Severus," Dumbledore had grinned. The already visible amusement in his eyes made Snape uncomfortable. That look never entailed any joy for him.

"If you insist, headmaster," Snape responded.

"I heard you were thinking of taking Harry trick-or-treating," Dumbledore began.

I was not thinking any such thing, and you know it all to well. Snape knew better than to interject here. Dumbledore had come down to the dungeons for this. Merely inserting the fact that Snape had no such intention wasn't going to dissuade the old wizard.

"I found the idea to be an utterly stupendous one," the headmaster continued. "And knowing that you probably weren't going to have time to think of a good costume, I brought you one, I had in an old drawer in my office."

Before Snape could ask why Dumbledore was keeping infant's costumes in his office drawers he had to keep himself from shrieking as Dumbledore whipped out a furry onesie with a hood.

"It's a panda outfit," Dumbledore said, looking so pleased with himself that Snape was fairly certain there was a law against it.

"I see that," Snape said, mildly horrified, but reaching out to take the costume nonetheless. There were ears on the hood and a little round tail on the bum.