seriouslysnape's Harry Potter Book of One-Shots

Potions and Pacifiers (Severus Snape)

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"She has your eyes, Professor!"

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The joyful squeal of a baby caused a break in the silence of the classroom. Every head snapped up, staring at Severus as if they had just seen a ghost. Severus' free hand came to the baby's back, rubbing sweet circles to encourage his child to settle down to let the students work.

Not that any of them were actually focused on their work. They were too distracted by the babbling infant in their professor's arms. To say that the students were surprised to walk into class to see Severus bouncing a baby on his knee was an understatement. Most of them didn't even know that he had a personal life, let alone a child. They were avoiding asking questions, and they were trying not to stare too much.

In their defense, Severus had never brought your baby to class before. Usually you were the one to keep an eye on your child during the day, and Severus usually took over in the evenings. However, you hadn't been feeling well the night before, and by the time morning had rolled around, you had fallen ill. You weren't dangerously sick or anything of that nature, but you definitely weren't well enough to tend to an 8 month old all day.

Severus was worried about you being sick, and insisted that he take the baby to class for a day to allow you to fully rest. Besides, she was an easy child and never caused too much trouble. But she still was a baby after all, and she couldn't help but get excited over the new environment and all the fun sounds from potion making.

"If you have prepared it correctly, your potion should be bubbling," Snape instructed as he walked around the room, your child in his hold, "Make sure that it doesn't-"

He was cut off when she shrilled again, her smile was bright and wide as her hand pointed wildly at the cauldron in front of her. It was the cauldron of Ron Weasley, who had (not surprisingly) produced the potion incorrectly to cause it to turn a shade of purple. Your daughter looked at Severus and then back to the cauldron to let him know that she liked whatever she saw.

Ron looked at the infant with a raised brow, and then tilted his head at his professor.

"Is is right then?" Ron questioned, referring to if the baby's outburst was any indication of his progress with the potion.

"No," Severus huffed at Ron, "She just likes purple."

Ron's shoulders drooped in defeat, his voice grumbling at his wrongly produced potion. Severus continued to walk around the room, surveying his students and instructing them through the steps. He lightly bounced your daughter as she looked around, her noises of jubilance and thrill only getting more frequent as the class went on.

Eventually, she was squirming in Severus' arms, suddenly restless and more interested in looking around herself. This brought the class to a halt as Severus held her out in front of him and looked at her with an amused look.

"How about I let you crawl, pumpkin?" He asked rhetorically to the infant, knowing he wouldn't get an answer.

The floor was clean enough for a baby to wander, so Severus allowed her to free roam around the room. She was a swift crawler, and she practically made a beeline to the feet of Draco Malfoy. She was clearly fascinated by him, her little arms raising above her head as a request for Draco to pick her up. He stared down a the child as if she were a figment of his imagination, not having the slightest clue as to what he should do with her.

Thankfully, the young Slytherin was saved when everyone swarmed around the baby. They were excited, because suddenly they wanted to play with her. All the students formed a circle around her, taking turns tickling her and talking to her. Severus made a few attempts to rope all the kids back to their work, but they proved to be fruitless, because they were more interested in her.

After all, she was enjoying all of the attention. Her legs wiggled with glee as she sat in the midst of all these young teenagers. Turns out she had just wanted someone to play with all along.

"She is SO cute!" Pansy Parkinson beamed as your daughter smiled at her.

"How is she so fast?" Neville Longbottom gaped as she zoomed from Hermione to him.

"She has your eyes, Professor!" Hermione Granger proclaimed.

Severus couldn't help but grin from where he watched at his desk. People had always told him that her eyes matched his. They were pools of inky black that were mysterious yet beautiful. He took a lot of pride in that.

Severus let the students play with her until class was over, everyone saying goodbye to her as they filed out. Severus returned to her, scooping her up and bringing her to his desk once everyone had left.

"You've had a big day, yes?'" Severus spoke as he sat at his desk.

Severus had a break for the next hour or so, and he took that as his chance to catch up on some work now that her playful mood had been satisfied. It really did warm his heart to see the students interact with her. He hadn't expected this day to go as well as it had.

"I should bring you to class more often." Severus said to her.

She didn't reply since she couldn't talk yet, but she made a content whimper before resting her head on his shoulder.

Severus continued to rub her back, rocking her and lulling her into a well needed nap.