Chapter 1- Jenny learns to stand up

CRASH… the sound of something falling caused everyone to look over to the playpen in Minerva's classroom beside her desk. Jenny was in Minerva's' classroom for the morning and she was going back to daddy Severus for the afternoon sessions.

Minerva who was just showing the students how to transform rats into goblets turned around quickly and went over to the playpen.

Jenny's lip was trembling as she caused some books to tumble off Minerva's desk when she had pulled herself up and tried to stand with the help of the desk edge that was just a little higher than her playpen. She scared herself as she fell back on her behind.

Minerva moved swiftly and picking the child up she comforted her while checking that Jenny wasn't hurt, before setting her back down into the playpen. She picked up one of the new stuffys' and a picture book featuring moving magical creatures and handed them to Jenny then continued with the lesson.

During lunch Minerva mentioned to Severus what had happened and he told her that Jenny had tried the same trick on Saturday morning when he and Draco were cleaning up her room.

'It won't be long before she will be wanting to travel all over the castle' Minerva said 'she has found out she can almost stand like we do and when she is more steady, she will try walking. Then the real fun will begin.' Her lips twitched slightly as she looked fondly at Jenny who was distracted by the variety of food choices sitting on the long table before them.

'Oh yes... loads of fun,' said Severus sourly; knowing if something was to happen it will happen on his watch more than likely.

Jenny in the meantime had managed to get a bowl of English trifle to slide towards her and it rose up before tipping over and landing over Severus' head and dripped down his face and onto his lap..

The normal meal time noises ceased as everyone in the hall froze stared at the sight. Nervous giggles and slightly choked burst of laughter punctured the unnatural silence as both students and staff waited for the explosion.

Fighting her urge to laugh at the sight, Minerva scourgified what got spilled on Jenny and herself while Severus fought the urge to snap and snarl at the obviously amused staff and nervous students. After removing the bowl of now ruined Trifle which was perched upside down precariously on his head he drew his own wand out of his wrist holder and cast a scourgify over himself. A fresh batch of English Trifle appeared where the previous one had been paced on the table.

Looking over at Jennys little face that looked up at him with trembling lips and sad little eyes he said softly so only she could hear "It is okay Jenny I'm not angry. You can have some dessert after you eat the meal in front of you '

Jenny then grinned happily at her daddy as she tucked into her small meal of cut up chicken, rice and mixed vegetables.

Realising that there would be no unseemly display of anger the normal lunch time routine resumed to everyone's relief.

After Jenny managed to eat her meal Severus picked up a small bowl filled with a little bit of English Trifle and fed it to Jenny so she wouldn't repeat the performance, which he wondered in passing if his little girl

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Jenny liked to go to the classroom with Severus, as sometimes there were some very interesting mishaps when some of the big kids mixed their assignments. Once one student really got creative and instead of the gentle blue that would have proved the that cauldron show a glow of strange and pretty colours as it sent sparks up into the air. Unfortunately it stunk badly. She was proud of her daddy Severus as he quickly got rid of it with a swish of his wand before she started to gag.

Today Severus looked around at the class of 5th year Griffindors and Slytherins. He focused momentarily on Neville Longbottom and sighed. He was absolutely positive something would go wrong as he cast the basic antidote formula and a list of various ailment s onto the Blackboard .

Severus cast a protective bubble over Jenny's Playpen then with a slight grimace said " I hope that there are a few of you who are capable of taking this basic formula and tweek it to coincide with an ailment of which you may choose among the list of given choices upon the board. As for the second part of your assignment. write up the experiment .. in detail as to what you have done and how you believe your antidote will work. Those who do not feel confident enough to experiment may brew the basic Antidote and your assignment is to write three feet on how the ingredients in the formula interact."

'Experiments were fun to watch' thought Jenny as this time there were flowers popping out of Neville Longbottoms cauldrons which was very strange to say the least. Jenny clapped her hands together and laughed as the various flowers came flowing out of the cauldron and landed all over the table and floor where the student was working.

With the eyes of all his classmates upon him Neville felt his cheeks redden and he shook with fear that he was going to be given zero marks for the day and a detention for once again botching up an assignment.

Striking over to Longbottom's now flower filled cauldron, Severus was going to use his wand to vanish the resulting mess but paused as it occurred to him that the experiment wasn't as bad like the last one. He could see that the cauldron wasn't melted or the contents dangerous plus he noticed that Jenny was getting a lot of joy out of seeing it.

Watching Jenny and her obvious enjoyment of the mishap, Severus turned to the now very worried and nervous student and with a strange smirk gracing his face - told him to write it up anyway, and to think of something it could be an antidote for. If the student wrote it up properly he would get full marks.

Longbottom barely contained his gasp of surprise and wondered how he was going to accomplish the assignment now that he had obviously messed it up. An idea occurred to him and he sighed with relief. After all he was great at Herbology and flowers were plants used in various potions. He just had to ssort them and think of their various uses.

'Merlin, ' thought Severus 'Did l just say that? I must be losing my senses.' He gave Jenny another bottle of water, as it was a warm afternoon and turned back to finish teaching the class.

After taking some swigs of the cool water, the bottle was dropped and ignored as Jenny crawled over to the side of her playpen and with her fists wrapped tightly around the bars she pulled herself up. This time she did not fall down but stood there with her little legs spread out trying to keep her balance.

'Professor look at Jenny' one of the Slytherins s called out and everybody looked over to where Jenny was crowing with victory over her new achievement.

Severus looked with secret pride at his little Jenny Wren and had a half smile when he congratulated her.

So began Jenny's days as a toddler.

Authors Notes

I apologise for taking so long to write but it has been a hectic year. My daughter who had been struck by a distracted driver while riding her Harley Davidson V-Rod on September 1st when the new distracted driving laws came into effect in the province of Ontario Canada She is doing her best to take back her life and soldier on while accepting the fact that her left leg and foot from the knee down has no bones as they were pulverised in the accident. The Doctors at Sunnybrook did wonders saving her leg and foot with a metal rod and plates . After many months she is able to get on with her life though there will still be many more obstacles for her to thank You.

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