Ch 7: The Prince’s Name
*Severus's POV*
It had been a month since I had found the child and it seemed the child was more trouble than I had thought.
He seemed a lot more calm and collected for a newborn than I had heard but it also seemed that he didn't really like the light as his eyes remained closed most if not all the time.
What was making me grit my teeth was other adults which for some reason had decided to act like children.
Each hour there would be at least one professor in my room trying to make the child giggle which seemed to be quite rare.
"I think it's time for your class Professor Flitwick," I said as Flitwick looked up from trying to show the child some levitation charms.
"Oh of course! Take care, Severus." Flitwick said as he rushed out.
Honestly, all these teachers seemed so relaxed now. Just a couple of months ago they would have targets larger than any else on their heads and now they were carefree as the school had started again.
I was still waiting for my proposal to be accepted. It irked me how I was still referred to like a student here.
There was a knock on the door as McGonagall entered and rushed straight to the child. I merely nodded and went out of the room. My legs felt sore from watching the child all day.
*15 Minutes later*
There was a loud hiss and I was back in my room in an instant with my wand out. What I saw surprised me.
McGonagall had turned into her animagus form probably to try and entertain the child. She seemed to like her form more than any other animagus I had ever seen but this seemed to be a mistake as the child had caught her animagus form of a cat by its tail.
Animagus all had several weaknesses and one of those was that they were not only changing their body shape but their anatomy too. So while to a human, the strength of a child's arm might seem like a breeze but to a cat who just got its tail caught it would feel as a great pain.
McGonagall freed herself from the child who still hadn't opened his eyes.
"I'll be leaving a bit early Severus." She said and hurried off out of the room.
"You seem to make me happier every day," I said to the child once I was sure there was no one in the vicinity and to my surprise, the child gave one of his rare giggles and reached out to me by his small hands.
"Now that I think about it I haven't given you a name till now," I said. The child seemed to take more words out of my mouth than a single term in Hogwarts.
I spent the next several days to try to think of a name but it wasn't coming to my mind. I had named several curses, charms, and potions before but naming your child the same as a curse seemed a bit too much even for me.
Each name I selected seemed worse than the last and the staff didn't let me take a random name. For some idiotic reason, my child's name seemed to concern the other professors as much as me.
"Flix?" Suggested Professor Flitwick.
"Burpy?" Suggested Hagrid and I had to say that was a new level of dumb for the half giant.
Finally, I decided to look at Dumbledore who was sitting and eating another one of those annoying crunchy candies like a child.
"Some things need to be read in reverse Severus." He said and left.
I too left soon after with the child in my arms. I knew exactly what he meant and I wasn't even gonna ask how he knew about it. The old wizard seemed to love information as much as a goblin loves its gold.
I went back to the room and took a broken shard of glass. It wasn't some ordinary glass. It was a shard of the 'Mirror of Erised' given to me by the Dark Lord himself to find uses for. It had been quite a gracious gift.
When I looked at the palm-sized shard of glass I expected it to show me with Lily or even me receiving the Order of Merlin but what appeared was a simple set of words that seemed to arrange themselves in the form of 'Anos' while glowing with red and purple and then the glass shattered.
"Well, we have a name for you now Anos. At least your name will be in the front on the roll call during classes." I said and saw the little child giggle while flailing his arms around.
By the next day, every professor was outside my room when I woke up and when I opened the door they looked at me as if expecting me to throw Gold Galleons at their faces.
"Did you decide?" Flitwick asked but I could see that he had made a short list of names that he was playing with in his hands.
"Yes," I said and everyone's gazed fixed on my face even more if that seemed plausible.
"Well?" McGonagall inquired.
"I decided with Anos," I replied with a lazy gaze.
"At least his name will be the first in the roll call," McGonagall said as she entered my room to presumably look at the child again. Well, it seemed McGonagall agreed with me on this at least.
Hagrid gave a hearty laugh and Flitwick shook my hand as if congratulating me on becoming the Minister of Magic or something.
And just like that, my morning had been filled with first class wizards arguing like children.