Aegri Somnia
Latin- A sick man's dreams (Horace)
VERY A.U-y
Author's long-ass note: Okay okay, before you all shoot me comic-book fans, I know the Batman franchise has a long rich historical tapestry and what I do know I've recovered from Google and my comic-book obsessive friend. This will probably have holes in it due to the fact I'm not monstrously into the DC universe. The following is written with the Batman live action films in mind. I adore Nolan's Dr. Crane [and lets face it, Cillian Murphy is hot]. Go into the following as merely "Yaoi for the sake of yaoi" because that's what I did when writing it.
HarryxDr Crane. Prisoner!Harry, Lemon, Yaoi & Adult situations etc.
Now, psychology students, please don't shoot me either. Just enjoy the show.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or the Batman franchise.
Harry Potter didn't really know how he came to be in the position that he was in. The cells were all white there and it was a huge step up from Azkaban, though it really didn't take much.
For a while they had him in Blackgate Penitentiary until he was declared insane and moved.
It took a while for him to be ghosted to another prison; he was almost killed in Azkaban by the Death Eaters imprisoned there. Minister of Magic Scrimgeor knew he could not keep Harry Potter –their fallen hero in Azkaban with so many protesting to it.
So he 'ghosted' (prison slang for moved) Harry Potter to the next worst listed prisons he could find by moving him to a prison in a city with the most dangerous criminals.
Gotham City.
After much negotiating with the muggles he was finally let into Blackgate, only to be declared insane within a week and moved to Arkham Asylum.
Now for all those who had known Harry James Potter since he was little, they would know there is naught a bad bone in his body. So what did he do to end up in prison?
Nothing.
He was there for one reason and one reason only and that reason was corrupt Minister Scrimgoer. When he rose into office Harry had objections on the Wizengamot and almost cost him the election, Harry knew that the former-auror-and-now-Minister was a common user of excessive violence in his arrests. He did it to such a degree that he'd take shifts in Azkaban from time to time and abuse prisoners there too to the point it became something of a hobby, abusing criminals.
So when Scrimgoer got into office he decided to shut Harry up permanently and have him framed quite artfully to cover a screw up by the Ministry of Magic.
Blame Harry Potter for the death of Amelia Bones, which a renegade member of radical anti-Ministry group had targeted and killed. It was an estranged but closely related person within Scrimgoer's family and should it have ever gotten out that it was one of his own he'd have been taken out of office in shame.
He might have disliked some of his family, but that didn't mean he wanted them kissed by a Dementer or sentenced to Azkaban. That would sound far-fetched and even more like a conspiracy-theory as to why Harry was in Azkaban, but the sad part was that it was true. The Ministry of Magic was not infallible; one might say the government was ill with corruption. The ex-minister Fudge knew this too; he drained the treasury and fled when Voldemort returned to leave the magical world high and dry. They had sent Sirius Black, an innocent man, to Hell on Earth. Azkaban prison without a trial and if there was one, you can guarantee the first time around it would not have been a fair one. With corruption in the Ministry like a rectal disease it was no surprise Scrimgoer got away with the horrific crimes of justice and abuse of power or that such a fantastical story of a terrorist relative had killed one of the most powerful faces of justice was hidden and blamed on an exalted hero. The higher ups of the Wizengamot almost always abused the sheer sway they had; Lucius Malfoy still retained power even after the war and fighting as a known Death Eater if only by the sheer wealth and high standing his family name had carried for generations. Harry would have bet the soles of his shoes that Malfoy senior probably had a hand in him ending up in the position he was in now.
For a boy who had seen unspeakable horrors in his eighteen years on this green Earth, Azkaban forcing him to re-live them only did more damage to him.
Nobody in Blackgate had cared much for the story of his innocence [altered for muggle-ears], until he began screaming in the middle of the night. "I'm innocent! I'm innocent! I'm not like Tom Riddle! I'm not!"
"I didn't kill Ms Bones! Murderers are freaks and I'm not a freak don't believe the Dursleys— " then he'd sob "I'm not a freak," repetitively until calmed down.
He was quite an odd one in the group of 'crazies' albeit certainly no Joker, he was undoubtedly a little unbalanced, according to Doctor Jonathan Crane.
Also known as the Scarecrow. . .
Dr. Crane had specified that an audio-recording device be fitted in Harry's cell within Arkham to keep track of what he screamed during his nightmares.
Some of the things pointed to abuse as a child which made Dr. Crane frown, why would a prisoner be thinking about such things when Arkham nurses drugged him up with happy-pills? It was like giving a placebo to him. It did nothing.
Dr. Crane also had other questions, like what exactly happened within Blackgate and the mysterious "Azkaban" prison he'd read in Harry's prison-placement documents to cause such an emotional breakage?
Dr. Crane was a sadistic, corrupt man and one might argue he was even evil for all of the things he had done or attempted to do with his 'crazies' but at the end of it all he was still a doctor. Some might even argue he was merely a dark intellectual taking the more forbidden path into knowledge when doing psychological study into fears and phobias.
He definitely wasn't a good man, but calling him 'evil' is entirely debateable. Corrupt –yes. Evil? Compare him to Tom Marvolo Riddle and I'd say probably not. He was despicable as a human being though, most definitely.
Dr. Crane entered Harry Potter's cell and plastered up a well-practiced smile as the door shut behind him and guards kept a half-hearted eye to make sure Harry didn't harm him.
Unlike the prisoners of Arkham, Harry was not violent and had yet to show any violent behaviour except for perfectly normal thrashing about during nightmares.
Dr. Crane let his smile melt into something of a smirk when he noticed Harry immediately begin fixing up his appearance; Harry Potter had always shown signs of relatively normal societal actions. He still said his 'please' and 'thank you's when appropriate, he'd show acknowledgement when Dr. Crane would stop by the viewing screen of his cell and just watch him. This was the first time Dr. Crane had stepped into Harry's cell to talk personally.
If Harry wasn't as strong as he was, the other prisoners would have torn him to shreds but he proved himself strong enough to not have others pick a fight and simply leave him alone.
Dr. Crane usually found the sane quite boring and took his jollies from experimenting and working with the clinically unbalanced, but Harry walked a sensitive border yet had been disliked by higher-ups so much that he was shoved into Arkham. So for once a reasonably sane fellow caught the interest of the sadistic Dr. Crane.
What on Earth was he going to do with the sanest prisoner in Arkham Asylum?
There was the possibility of discharge but the higher-ups wouldn't allow it.
Sigh.
Dr. Crane had asked that they free up an interrogation room and promptly had Harry moved there and sat on a chair behind a desk.
For a moment nothing was said until the carefully watching guard had stopped shuffling about and eventually the doctor was sick of the presence and told them to leave, assured that Harry wouldn't hurt him as he exhibited no signs of violence toward any of his previous doctors or nurses and was quite clear-headed for a 'crazy'.
The guard grudgingly left but knew Dr. Crane had a bit of a reputation for liking his prisoners to himself.
Nobody questioned it. Ever.
There was a silence where they stared at each other from over the desk, Dr. Crane got a closer look at Harry. He really did look as young as his age on his documents stated, eighteen. He was definitely one of Arkham's youngest detainees, he got his notepad out and began to jot a few things down.
Whilst Dr. Crane was not Arkham's designated physical doctor he could take note of anything physically abnormal with a patient if it could point to a psychological issue. Choice of what detainees do to their clothing and how they were holding up health-wise were minor indications of what was going on 'upstairs'.
Harry's eyes flickered over to the notepad on the desk and he could clearly see what the man in the white coat was writing.
"It's nothing you cannot see for yourself within a shiny surface Mr. Potter," said Dr. Crane quite flatly, though not coldly.
On the notepad he merely noted a few things about Harry's appearance, that he had slight bags around his eyes that indicated tiredness most likely from his nightmares. The fact that out of all of the detainees he was one of the most polished and made an effort to remain clean and above all…sane in comparison to everyone else with hopes of a discharge.
"Allow me to introduce myself formally, I am Doctor Jonathan Crane," he almost smirked again when he saw recognition sparking in Harry's eyes.
Bright green eyes, unfocused but beautiful.
Harry was still something of a mess despite being the most polished out of the rest of the insane members of Arkham.
Tresses of black hair were becoming longer and reached his shoulder blades, his body had become more prison toned and his white detainee garments, despite being estimated to his size were an ill fit. Too big, when Dr. Crane had first caught a glimpse of the newest addition to Arkham being brought in he dully noted that whoever it was looked like a child drowning in their parent's oversized clothing.
Realizing it was his assigned patient, Harry James Potter, he could see a noticeable change, and he had filled out a little more into his clothes. If only very slightly.
"I know you. Erm…well… I've heard about you," said Harry, fighting to keep his voice level. Why didn't he just use magic to get out? Simple, he had no wand, he was not proficient in wandless magic, and Azkaban had damaged his mental clarity to allow for any great feats to help him escape from a muggle imprisonment facility.
This was exactly why the magical world let him go into a muggle prison with a clear conscience about it.
"Oh?" Dr. Crane raised an eyebrow "-and what have you heard Harry –do you mind if I call you that?"
"It's fine. I…I heard some things," Harry's voice went low, measuring the psychologist for some type of sign he was getting angry at him for making an accusation based off of rumours "-that you drove a prisoner named Falcone mad,"
'among others' added Harry silently in his mind.
Dr. Crane gave him a tight, forced grin. True he did –with the fear gas, but he didn't like rumours of his experiments getting out or being discussed even amongst the mad.
"Now, now, Harry. I am a psychologist and a counsellor among many things and it is my job to make people better, not worse," he said in a lightly chiding manner, as if scorning Harry lightly for believing rumours.
He was sane enough to know better. Tut. Tut.
"You have quite a high stability rate judging by the reports submitted from the previous examinations despite your night time episodes, I thought you better then to believe rumours in an insane asylum," said Dr. Crane dryly.
There was silence for a moment and Dr. Crane put his pen down beside his notepad. He frowned and stared critically at Harry for a moment into his green eyes rather then the bags surrounding them.
Beautiful yet unfocused.
"Harry, I would like it if you could maintain eye contact with me," said Dr. Crane gently.
Harry nodded and squinted a little, Dr. Crane noticed this and jotted another thing down.
"Do you have trouble with your vision?"
"Y—Yeah, I used to have glasses but they got destroyed a while back in Blackgate," admitted Harry.
Dr. Crane frowned. How could he experiment on Harry if the boy could not see him clearly? He was stuck with Harry for a six month period unless the patient requested a different psychotherapist. He needed a healthier guinea pig that was actually able to witness the effect of the newly altered Fear Gas.
"I'll schedule a vision test for you at some point then Harry," Dr. Crane leered.
"Are you long or short sighted?"
Harry frowned and took a moment to remember what each term meant before answering.
"Short sighted,"
Dr. Crane resumed smirking, this was good, he couldn't see distant objects so his concentration was solely on what was close to him, what he could see.
Harry was staring at Dr. Crane apprehensively despite shoving the now-stupid-sounding rumours to the back of his mind. Dr. Crane didn't look evil, but then again, looks could be deceiving. Tom Riddle didn't look evil if the Chamber of Secrets showed him anything, he was the epitome of graceful murderer, do not judge a book by their cover.
Even if they had a really beautiful cover, like Dr. Crane did.
He had distinctive big blue eyes, his eyes struck him the most and then his lips, full yet not overly-so. Light skinned yet not deathly-pale, and artfully combed and somewhat long brown hair. With the rectangular glasses and the suit it might have tied up the geeky appearance, but Harry could hardly match Dr. Crane's looks with a negative connotation. None whatsoever.
Was it merely a deceptive cover? Could he trust this muggle? He hadn't trusted the aurors and dementers of Azkaban, he hadn't trusted the guards of Blackgate, could he trust Dr. Crane?
Then he heard what Dr. Crane said earlier, it was his job to make people better, so did that mean Harry was sick? Sick like everyone else was in Arkham? Or merely rushed and labelled as such? Either way maybe Dr. Crane seeing which one of those options it was, could help Harry. He needed help. He had no one.
'Let the nice muggle help you…
Azkaban has hurt you, everyone has hurt you, maybe he won't'
"Right. Now, I feel we should talk about something Harry," began Dr. Crane, whatever sick and sadistic experiments he did do, he was also a psychologist employed to do a job, so on some occasions yes, he'd actually do it.
"Your nightmares…night terrors, whatever you wish to call your episodes. I was the one that put you forward for 'prazosin' medication to sort them out," explained Dr. Crane, referring to the pills Harry was forced to take.
"-and yet there is no improvement in your sleeping, it's as if we gave you placebos by mistake. Not just with 'prazosin' but with any other variety of medicine we have administered thus far," Dr. Crane pushing his glasses up and shuffled through Harry's medical documents, eyeing over the list of all the medicines they had tried on him.
There was a way he could direct the psychoanalysis to something more interesting though, relevant to his studies on fear and phobia.
"What is it that scares you so, Harry? Enough to make you cry nightly? Somewhere in the process of you moving from facility-to-facility or perhaps before then, something has happened that has made you the ill person you are now," said Dr. Crane.
"…ill?" Harry jumped on that word.
Ill. Another word for not-well, abnormal, synonym for freak.
Maybe the Dursley's were right, after all, he's in the world's darkest and most notorious insane asylum. Freak.
"Like everyone else in this facility, but to a much lesser degree," admitted Dr. Crane.
"In fact, I have few doubts that you'd be an issue if you were discharged and let into the world. Though you do show signs of PTSD during your 'episodes' and the audio-recorders I placed within your cell pick up strange things Harry. Things I hope that you can one day tell me about," said Dr. Crane, inwardly cursing how long it took to build a patient-therapist trust. For someone with far and few medical ethics, it was practically eating him. He was half tempted to create a truth serum and avoid the whole 'building trust' process all together, quench his curiosity, do his experiments and move on.
But Harry Potter was a special case. Medicines were as useful as a placebo to him, what made him like that? Was there something merely different about his immune system all together? Did he consume something in his lifetime that rendered modern medicine useless? Did that mean he was immune to most poisons and illnesses?
Dr. Crane had some private tests to run on this…anomaly.
"Now, let's get back to the question Harry. What scares you so?" Dr. Crane looked practically predatory as his eyes settled on Harry's lips, waiting for an answer to come out.
When he thought about his nightmares he knew often screamed what he was trying to say in his dark dreams and everyone else in the waking world ended up hearing it.
He wasn't scared of Tom Riddle, he was dead now but he still wasn't scared of him. Every horcrux was slain before Voldemort himself, he was not coming back.
Dementers used to be his boggart –his worst fear, which as the embodiment of such should show he has nothing to fear but fear itself.
That changed eventually.
He always knew he had a frighteningly similar life to Tom Marvolo Riddle's, if on a coin-flip or in another world you had to bet whether he was still a light wizard, it'd be entirely fifty-fifty. Harry knew he was always on the thin line, a hair away from darkness even if he didn't have a dark bone in his body. A half-blood born within a land of hateful muggles, with extraordinary power in the perfect abusive environment that could easily spawn the birth of evil, like it did with Voldemort . . .
Instead they had a light wizard, Harry Potter who wielded Voldemort's brother wand and was his only true equal, even above the likes of Dumbledore, the opposite side of the spectrum. Yet so very close to being evil he was. Now everyone was telling him he was ill, he was in prison and now an asylum being told to his face he was ill. Freakish as the Dursley's proclaimed from day one and now… "ill".
Arkham's most dangerous resident, the Joker had said it quite artfully once.
"Madness, as you know, is a lot like gravity, all it takes is a little push. "
Maybe Harry had been pushed?
If you hear a lie long enough and tell it enough, soon other people will begin to believe it and maybe you'd start to believe it yourself. Everyone said Harry had a varying degree of insanity, but none said he was sane, so maybe they were right.
Maybe.
"I'm scared of being brought down to the level of the very kind of person who got me unfairly thrown in state correctional facilities, Dr. Crane," said Harry finally.
Dr. Crane arched an eyebrow and began jotting things down again.
