A new home

Chapter 22

As soon as they had flooed back to the Manor, the man placed Harry on the couch in the sitting room.

"Do you want to play with your toys while I make lunch? I'm sure you're sore enough to not desire a flight on your broom"

"Yes, sir."

Severus accioed Harry's toys into the sitting room and the boy slid down onto the floor and started playing.

Snape made a quick mac and cheese, a salad, and some roasted chicken. The boy needed more meat on his bones. When he walked back into the sitting room, there were blocks lying around on the floor. Harry had built some sort of... fort? And now the boy was rolling cars back and forth between where he was sitting and the coffee table.

"Harry? Come have lunch" - he said

"yes, sir" - the boy replied and stood up hesitantly, because of his sore leg

Lunch was uneventful. But Severus noticed that Harry ate just a little more than he did yesterday. It was still an improvement though.

After lunch, Severus shooed Harry up to his room for a nap and had a couple of child-free hours of himself.

"Harry, go take a bath" - Severus said an hour after dinner. The boy had read his books for the entire afternoon after his nap and he was currently sitting on the floor near Severus' legs in the sitting room, coloring in his coloring books on the coffee table.

Harry turned his head to face his teacher and nodded. He lowered his arms from on top of the table and yelped.

"Ouch, my arms are sore!" - he grimaced. It had taken him a great deal to raise his arms on the table to color, and now lowering them hurt just as much.

"It's to be expected. I'll give you a pain potion before bed. Come on"

The man led Harry into the bathroom and helped him take off his clothes without having to raise his arms or leg too high. Then Severus help him in the bad, which he had turned on when they walked into the bathroom.

"Wash up. I'll get your pajamas"

Severus got upstairs and took out a pair of blue pajamas with a car on the front. When he was back, he saw Harry trying to reach the soap on the shelf. It wasn't high but his sore arms prevented him from doing so. The child couldn't even raise his arms as high as his shoulder (this happened to me when I got my Covid-19 vaccine the first time)

Severus put the pajamas on a hanger and walked toward the bathtub.

"Are your arms too sore?" - he asked the boy

"Yes, I can't raise them" - Harry answered. a pained expression on his face.

Severus hesitated. He wasn't sure what to do. How were teachers supposed to help their students when their arms were too sore to bathe themselves?

"I can help you. If you're ok with that" - he asked after a moment of hesitation.

"Oh, really?"

"If you're comfortable with that. I promise not to touch you more than necessary"

"Ok, can you help me please?" - the boy said nonchalantly.

Severus stared at him in amusement for a moment. Was Harry too trusting, or was he just successful at getting Harry to trust him?

Nonetheless, Severus took a washing cloth and quickly washed the boy, from head to toe.

Both of them were out of the bathroom in 15 minutes and Harry was in bed in half an hour, after drinking his pain relief potion. His bedtime was now at 9 pm. Severus read him a story and he was out like a light.