The Portraits' Talk

Helga Hufflepuff glanced at the calendar on the wall behind Madam Pomfrey's desk. 'The first of September,' she mused. 'Finally, the students are going to come back. I'm looking forward to having them here again, even if they all come with injuries or other ailments.'

Helga rarely left her portrait. For a millennium, the hospital wing had been her domain, in which she watched every action, listened to all the conversations, and advised the contemporary Mediwitch whenever her help was needed.

Even students talked to her, seeking out her guidance when they were sad, homesick, or just bored in their sick beds. She was always friendly and well able to give comfort to those, who needed it. What hardly anyone knew was that her husband, Salazar Slytherin, who was guarding the private quarters of the Slytherin Head of House, came to visit her every night, when the Potions Master and the Mediwitch had both gone to bed.

'I just love them all,' Helga mused when she heard the hundreds of feet entering the castle downstairs, 'especially the first years. They are so cute.'

Late in the evening when the castle was already quietening down, an older boy, whom she recognized as the Gryffindor fifth year prefect, Percy Weasley, brought a very small first year into the hospital wing, who looked as if he had just emerged from a battle.

Pomfrey immediately rushed to the two boys, motioning the smaller one to lie down on the bed next to her office, and to Helga. "What happened?" she enquired sternly, while she already cast a litany of diagnostic spells at the child, frowning at the long parchment that emerged from the tip of her wand as she continued.

"Someone in the common room cast a 'Finite Incantatem' spell, but it wasn't properly directed and hit Harry, and then, all of a sudden he looked injured," Percy explained.

"But I'm fine," the smaller boy insisted, unwilling to meet the Mediwitch's eyes. "Please, may I go back to my dormitory? Everything is all right."

"Mr. Weasley, you may leave," Poppy told the older boy. "Thank you for bringing Mr. Potter to me. Five points to Gryffindor." When Percy had left the hospital wing, she turned to Harry. "No, Mr. Potter, you're not fine. Who did all this to you? Was it your family?"

"All this?" the child asked in obvious confusion. "I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean."

Poppy let out a deep sigh, and Helga turned her eyes from the nearly full moon that seemed to smile through the window straight to the bed, where the Mediwitch had spelled the child's clothes off and began to cast healing spells at the boy.

"Mr. Potter, as far as I can imagine, you must have applied a concealment charm on yourself to hide your injuries and it came off when you were hit by a spell," she explained gently. "I know that you probably were not aware of the charm, because you cast it by accidental magic. Anyway, many of your bones must have been broken and healed improperly, you have bruises and welts all over your body, you're extremely malnourished, and I could list up many more points. Who did that to you, Harry? Your back looks as if someone beat you with a belt or a cane."

"A belt," Harry whispered, before he clapped his hand in front of his mouth, giving the Healer a terrified look. "Ah no, I mean..."

"I know very well what you mean, Harry," Poppy said gently. "Harry, we sometimes have students here, who come from abusive families. You're not alone."

"I'm not abused," Harry replied stoically.

'Or was it more anxiously? Frightened what his family would do to him if they knew that he told about the abuse?' Helga was not sure.

"I have healed most of your bruises. However, there are a few newer ones, which are infected. That's why you're running a slight temperature. I'll put some ointment on them, and they should be all right by tomorrow morning. However, we'll have to break your left wrist and your right ankle and let them heal properly. We can do that immediately, or we can wait until the weekend, so that you won't have to miss classes."

"Wait until the weekend please," the boy replied pleadingly.

"All right, Harry. Nevertheless, I'm keeping you here overnight. I'll probably be able to release you in time for breakfast tomorrow."

"I'm sorry for being such a burden," Harry mumbled, looking totally embarrassed.

"You're not a burden, not to me and not to anyone else," Poppy replied firmly, shaking her head just like Helga did in her portrait.

Poppy made him drink two potions, which Helga recognized as a pain relieving potion and a fever reducer, before she sat down on the edge of the child's bed. "Harry, if you want to avoid being sent back to your abusive family, you have to open up and tell someone about it. I suggest that you speak to Professor Snape, the Slytherin Head of House. He has the most experience with abuse and neglect."

Although Poppy spoke in a small and very soft voice, Helga had extremely good ears and had heard everything. Seeing the child glance at the Mediwitch in fright, she made a decision. For the first time in many months, she left her portrait and found her place beside her husband in the portrait guarding Professor Snape's quarters.

"Sal, I have to talk to Severus. Is here back already?" she asked her husband, who gave her an astonished look, before he pulled her into a fierce embrace, beginning to kiss her passionately. "Sal, I'm really sorry, but it's important. One of the first years seems to have been abused by his family, and I'd like to ask Severus if he could go and speak to the frightened child."

They turned the portrait around, now looking inside the Potions Master's quarters, and Salazar called Severus over, sneering, "Come here, young man, you can continue your work later on."

"What is it? I don't have all night," Severus growled.

"Now now, a bit more polite towards elder people please," Helga replied gently, before she told the teacher what she had witnessed in the hospital wing.

"What's the boy's name, and which House is he in?" Severus snarled.

"His first name is Harry, I didn't get the last name, and he must be in Gryffindor since he was brought in by a Gryffindor prefect," Helga replied in a no-nonsense voice, causing the younger teacher to groan.

"Then it must be Harry Potter, the son of my archenemy. Why would I want to help the brat?"

"Potter! That's right; he looks like James Potter. But wait, then he's also Lily's son, and she was your best friend. Now go, Severus, speak to your best friend's child. He really needs your help, and he needs a new guardian, and believe me Severus, he wouldn't be the only one to profit from such a relationship between the two of you," Helga told the man, whom she had already known when he was a little tyke, coming to Hogwarts for the first time. She knew that he had been badly abused by his father as well and that he would surely get over his prejudices once he saw the child.

Severus sighed. These two people had already advised and helped him so many times. Helga Hufflepuff always saw the good in people. 'Just like Lily did,' he mused sadly. Helga had been the one, who coaxed him into speaking with Dumbledore at that fateful time, who helped him return to the light side, and he felt as if he owed her something.

"Very well, I'll go and see what I can do," he promised and quickly left his quarters through the now open portrait door.

"Much ado about nothing," Salazar sighed, pulling Helga close. "He could've gone immediately."

"Sorry, Sal, but I wish to witness their conversation," Helga replied, gently freeing herself from his embrace. "Are you coming? You've time enough to return here when Severus leaves the hospital wing."

"All right," Salazar agreed, and together the two founders watched from Helga's portrait how Severus strode into the hospital wing and sat down on the edge of Harry's bed.

The two wizards on the bed talked hesitantly and in small voices, but they talked, and an hour later, Helga contentedly drifted off to sleep, enveloped in her husband's arms, and watching the early September moon embrace the small boy in the bed with its golden light.

The End


I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.
All recognizable characters belong to Mrs. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.