"Must we do this every time Mr. Potter?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she quickly had him remove his uniform and began to pull potion vials out of her apron and hand them to Harry who quickly drank them, wincing as many of them both burned on the way down and tasted worse than anything Harry had ever taken, "you must know that they do almost nothing…they will not cure you…"she said, sorrow evident in her voice
"I know Poppy, but one cannot help but hope…" Harry replied as sweat began to coat his entire body and he began to shiver.
"Yes…yes, of course, one must always keep hope alive," Madam Pomfrey replied softly, "has…has it gotten any better…with the potions?" she knew that the potions did little since his situation was unlike any before.
Harry chuckled a little but the pain out weighted the laugh, even Poppy knew this, "A bit, I can remain in control as long as I stay away from animals but after that…he takes over."
Madam Pomfrey nodded, she felt for the young boy, to be so burdened at such a young age and with something that had never been seen before for that matter, she may have been one of the best healer to have ever had the privilege to work at Hogwarts or St. Mungo's but the fact remain that even she could only do so much to help the young boy that she know thought of as a grandson, "I was hoping that you would stop visiting me so much, never met a boy more accident prone than you Mr. Potter," she sighed as she removed the empty vials and began to fold his clothes
This time Harry laughed a hearty laugh, "Oh admit it, you love having me around for the conversation, and its Harry, Poppy," Harry said as he laughter subsided. She did not respond as she continued to fold and refold his clothes, he smiled sadly as he took her hands in hers to stop her, "you don't have to do that you know, I know…I know this is hard for you…"
Poppy sniffed trying to prevent the tears that were inevitably to fall. She suddenly pulled him into a hug, "I promise that I will work hard to cure you Harry."
Harry smiled sadly into her shoulder and kissed her temple, Harry knew that this was a little too familiar to be considered professional but at this point he considered her his grandmother, a replacement for the two he never knew. He hated that he made her cry, "Poppy, you and I both know that this is a curse I will carry for the rest of my life, however long, or rather short, that may be…"
Poppy stepped back and slapped him in much a manner Harry imagined a parent would to her own child, "I don't ever want to hear you speaking like that around me, do you understand me?" she said sternly.
Harry fought back the tears in his eyes as he looked down and nodded. The pain he could handle, though admittedly Poppy could slap pretty hard for her age, but it was the pain that he knew he was causing her that had him in tears.
Madam Pomfrey gently tilted his head back up so that they were looked eye to eye and she gently wiped his tears and kissed his gently on the forehead, "Go, I will be here when you get back…"
Harry nodded and jumped off the bed and made his way to the backdoor of the Hospital Wing. He opened the door and looked out at the already dark grounds of Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest stood there, ominous as Harry remember in his first year. He paused and glanced back to Madam Pomfrey. Poppy looked at Harry and her breath hitched, she saw the sorrow in his eyes but what made her breath hitch was the slight flash of fear in his eyes and for the first time she became aware that Harry was afraid, but more importantly it wasn't the fear of others or death, it was the fear of himself. He gave her a slight nod and closed the door behind him, leaving Poppy alone in the darkness of the Hospital Wing. A few moments later she opened the same door and bent down to pick up the discarded trousers next to the door. She stood there for a moment folding the trousers over her arm and looked out towards the Forbidden Forest. She caught a glimpse of a large furry creature as stopped just short of the forest and looked back at Madam Pomfrey. She knew that Harry was in control for the moment as it stared at her with the same piercing green eyes of Harry. It dipped its head at her before it howled for a bit and ran into the forest.
"Good luck Harry," Poppy said softly as she returned to her wing.
The next morning...
"Well I must say Harry, although a terrible curse, it is doing wonders for your health." Madam Pomfrey said as she fretted over him with her wand, spell after spell analyzing him, "Your muscle growth has tripled just in the last month and your eyesight is almost completely restored," she said with a small sad smile, "open up for me Harry." Harry opened his mouth as she looked around and again waved her wand, "This is actually quite fascinating…"
"Are you saying this is a good thing?" Harry said with a playful grin
"Now you know what I mean Harry," Pomfrey replied, "you know that I want to cure you more than anything," Harry nodded, "but…well I cannot ignore the facts, its well healing you. You know I always thought you were too thin, malnourished and I couldn't quite understand why your eyesight was so bad. I wish we had replenishing potions for muscles and nutrition but all those potions are not only extremely dangerous but the side-effects are almost too great a con for it to out-weight the pros of taking them…"
"I know Poppy, I'm just pulling your leg," Harry said as he turned so she could take a look at his back, "how does it look?"
"It's almost gone, I think another fortnight and you will never be able to tell, may I ask what all of this is though, I don't quite remember these being here before," Poppy huffed as she traced the markings with her hand that covered his back, they looked tribal.
"Luna's idea," Harry replied softly. Poppy poked her head around him and raised an eyebrow. Harry laughed, "Hey it's not my fault she figured it out; she shouldn't have been in the Forbidden Forest in the first place."
"You didn't…" Poppy asked scared for a moment.
"Of course not but she's usually out there for some reason, she keeps her distance and just watches," Harry said, "she only figured it out after she watched me transform back, she then suggested the masterpiece you see on my back. She said it would help me gain control and allow me to regulate my magic for the first time in almost 4 months."
Poppy nodded, Harry had been having trouble controlling his magic ever since the incident, his magic seemed to have exponentially expand which was a first for Madam Pomfrey, yes magical cores did continue to grow until puberty was over but Harry's was growing too much, way too fast. On more than one occasion she had been forced to stun the boy because his magic had been raging out of control, "Well then if it helps then I cannot complain then. Back to your dorm Harry, it's nearing 6 in the morning and you should at least get an hour of sleep."
"I think I can manage," Harry said as he pulled on his uniform, glad that the robe hung loose to hide the changes in his body, his uniform had been getting tight but Madam Pomfrey had taken the liberty of replacing his uniforms, despite his protests. Madam Pomfrey huffed but she couldn't deny that Harry did look fine, refreshed almost. A stark contrast to how Remus looked after his transformations, a thing she and Harry were both grateful for. The first transformation had been a scare for the both of them, especially because there was a variable this time with the fact that Remus had not been the only one to bite Harry that fateful night, shortly after Harry had been bitten but a vampire who appeared to have been roaming the Forrest and had been drawn to the smell of blood.
Harry should have died that night, he knew it and so did Dumbledore and Pomfrey, it was only the tears of Fawkes once again that had saved him but unfortunately it could not cure the curse, only save him from certain death.
Dumbledore had decided that it would be in Harry's best interest to stay at Hogwarts for the summer, to keep an eye on him as well as for the safety of others. This of course forced Dumbledore to come clean with Harry about the prophecy and everything that was currently happening. Harry was right pissed, and Dumbledore could not blame him, but eventually Harry moved beyond it and although Harry did not hold Dumbledore up on a pedestal as before, considered his advice and his general presence in his life as a generally good thing. Dumbledore of course apologized profusely and offered to tutor Harry personally, something that Harry took advantage of.
Together they came to the conclusion that Harry was a hybrid, with generally more werewolf aspect to his general curse. It seemed that the vampire's venom had only minimal drawbacks and effects. He could still walk in sunlight, had a heartbeat, breath, and needed to eat. His need for sleep however dropped to almost nonexistent, though he still could and actually enjoyed it, who wouldn't enjoy an elongated nap? He was stronger, that was for sure, a lot stronger than a vampire and a werewolf, it had taken a couple weeks to get used to his strength, more than once he had bent his eating utensils despite trying to be gentle. Harry found it frightening and Dumbledore found it to be humorous, asking more than once for Harry to shape one as a bird for him. He didn't.
The one thing that Harry felt was a drawback was his sense of smell, it was overwhelming immediately, he could smell everything and womanly discharge was by far the worst smell Harry had ever smelt, though he hardly ever smelled it due to the fact that most of the staff was gone and most were elderly woman. He eyesight was his biggest gain for him, he always felt his glasses were tacky and he figured that if it wasn't due to the fact that his eyesight had been terrible before his transformation that he would have amazing vision. He figured it would eventually kick in, in the meantime he was more than happy with his eyesight improving this much.
Harry was brought back to the real word when he felt a potion being handed to him, he raised an eyebrow to her as he eyed the vial, "it's a flushing potion, I can only imagine what you ate out there…" Harry smiled and handed it back to her.
"I think I'll be fine, thanks. I should get to my dorm before someone wakes up," Harry said as he quickly made his way to the door, he paused for a moment and looked back at the matron, "Happy Halloween Poppy."
"Happy Halloween, Harry," Madam Pomfrey said with a slight nod to the young man, she sighed as soon as he closed the door, "I do hope so Harry, I do hope so. Merlin knows Halloween has not been good to you."
Harry smiled he glanced around the Great Hall, he loved the holidays at Hogwarts, there were always so exciting and colorful. He quickly pilled food onto plate, sleep might not be much of a need but his wolf inside demanded large amounts of food and coupled with the fact he was a growing teenager, well, let us just say he could give Ron a run for his money. The thought of Ron brought up his other best friend to mind. He frowned. He didn't mind so much lying to Ron, he could only imagine his reaction if he told him but Hermione knew that Harry was keeping something from her and it was causing a rift that Harry found to be quite painful. They usually shared all their secrets, well at least his and this was obviously bothering Hermione as she was always giving his sad looks, almost as if she was in pain herself. But…it was for the best, he did not want to scare her, to cause her to run from him and make this worse than it already was.
Harry sighed and forked a stack of pumpkin pancakes onto his plate. He always found them to be so strange; they tasted exactly like pumpkin pie except in…well bread form. He laughed to himself and poured some syrup on them before piling some eggs, bacon, a couple pieces of taste, fours links of sausage and quite a bit of bacon. He had been noticing a slight increase in his meat intake but figured it had to do with the wolf. By the time Hermione and Ron joined him he had finished and was looking through his potions book, Snape still hated him, though it seemed that he toning back on the hate, sometimes Harry thought he caught a glimpse of fear in his eyes but always shook it off. There was no way Snape would be afraid of him.
"Morning there Harry," Ron said as he began to pile food onto his plate.
"Morning Ron, sleep alright?" he asked politely, no matter how jealous Ron got sometimes or act like git, Harry found that he enjoyed having him around, hopefully he would tone down as they got older Harry hoped…
"Like a baby," Ron said with a grin as he, just like Harry before him grabbed a large amount of bacon," you?"
"Same," Harry said with a smile, yup Ron was definitely a keeper, a friend you kept for life, "Morning Hermione," Harry said a bit soft as he looked at Hermione with pleading and apologizing look.
"Morning Harry," Hermione replied just as softly, her eyes flashed with pain before she redirected her attention to the book in front of her, her hair fell around her face, obscuring Harry's view of her face, though Harry knew she wasn't reading.
"What's with Hermione?" Ron whispered to Harry.
"Uh…well…we're kind not on great terms…" Harry said keeping his voice extremely low.
"Why? What happened?" he asked.
"Just…it's hard to explain," Harry replied.
Ron raised an eyebrow at him and glanced as Hermione and them him. His face became thoughtful as he continued to eat. Breakfast was almost finished when Hermione excused herself, saying she needed something from her dorm.
"Alright, what did you do?" Ron said as soon as she had gotten out of earshot.
"Nothing!" Harry replied defensively
"Bullshit Harry," surprising said person, "did she tell you, is that it? You rejected her didn't you?"
Harry was thoroughly confused now, "What are you talking about?"
"Hermione finally told you that she's in love with you and you rejected her didn't you? What? She's not good enough for you?" Ron started off hotly
"Wow, wow, wow, slow down, I have no idea what you're talking about," Harry said, "can you please explain what you're talking about?"
"Wait…she didn't tell you?" Ron asked softly, he was getting nervous.
"Tell me what?" Harry asked
"Oh shite…uh…bye," Ron said as he dashed out the Great Hall. Harry stared after him, shocked. Suddenly the conversation and what Ron had said caught up to him.
"Wait…WHAT?"
Review please, just came to me but I have almost the entire story laid out already. I'll update sooner if you review...
