3rd person P.O.V.
The great hall of Hogwarts was full, but there was one question on everyone's mind:
Where was Harry Potter?
None of them knew, but Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were very worried. They had not had any contact with Harry over the summer. Their owls returned with their letters for Harry unopened and there was no word from him at all. They also had figured out that Harry didn't have the best home life years ago.
Ron had figured it out because in first year he had seen a lot of scars on Harry's back (despite how hard he tried to hide it) that no eleven-year-old should have. The fact that in the summer before their second year, he had to break Harry out of a prison-like room just cemented that knowledge.
Hermione had used logic to figure it out in their first year, after all, Harry wouldn't have been the first she had known to be so damaged. Harry had no self-preservation and acted recklessly in some cases, almost as if he were hoping something would kill him. However, he flinched easily if you came up behind him and in some cases whimpered if a person had too much physical contact in one go. He ate very little, though when he did eat he shovelled it into his mouth like it was going to be stolen from him. He fumbled with his cutlery and the sight of so much food made his eyes light up. He was ridiculously easy to please, a simple complement was enough to make him beam with happiness. He rarely sat on furniture if he got the choice. He was tiny for an eleven-year-old (and that was something that didn't change throughout the years either). All in all, he had the mark of an abused child.
They both did whatever they could to support Harry, but even with their support (though Harry probably didn't realise it as he refused 'charity') Harry seemed to get worse as the years passed.
After the feast, Hermione and Ron just sat on Ron's bed while she cried as thoughts of Harry having given in completely flooded her mind. She couldn't stop where her thoughts led her and in her mind, all the evidence at hand pointed to either Harry committing suicide of Harry dying of lack of treatment while in the 'care' of his relatives. She didn't want to have to go to the funeral of yet another boy, yet another wizard, abused by his muggle relatives to the point of death.
That night, in the staff room, the staff were having heated debates as to where 'Mr. Potter' could be. In the end, it was decided that Severus and Minerva would go visit his relatives to find out why he didn't arrive to Hogwarts. Minerva was to go as his head of house, but she would need Severus with her as he knew the muggle world better than she did.
The two of them walked along Privet Drive and stopped in shock when they found yellow police tape blocking off No. 4 of Privet Drive.
"Severus, what does this mean?" Minerva asked her much younger colleague.
"It means that a very serious crime happened here, one that warrants a very deep investigation. Did the headmaster post a watcher for Potter?" Severus replied.
"Yes, Arabella Figg. She lives over on Wisteria Walk if I remember correctly," Minerva replied.
"Then we should ask her what happened. We would be arrested ourselves if we tried to enter that house under charges of tampering evidence at a crime scene," Severus suggested. The two walked over to the house of the elderly squib who let them in immediately.
"Let me guess, you want to know what happened with the Dursleys?" the elderly woman asked.
"Yes, if you don't mind," Minerva replied.
"Well, it happened about two weeks ago now. I was out on one of my walks when I heard police cars and an ambulance roar down the street so I followed. The police barged into the Dursley's house and I could hear a lot of yelling inside. After a few minutes, a police woman came out of the house and gestured for the paramedics to come inside and about ten minutes later they came back out with a figure covered by a white blanket being carried on a stretcher to the ambulance. The blanket was being stained red very quickly though. If I hadn't asked a police officer what had happened, then I wouldn't have learned what had caused all the commotion. Dudley Dursley had called emergency services from his mobile phone stating that he was scared and that he thought that Harry was going to die. The police arrested Petunia Dursley on charges of child neglect, child abuse, and animal cruelty, she was then charged with resisting arrest as well. Vernon Dursley however was arrested on charges of child neglect, child abuse, animal cruelty, rape, paedophilia, torture, creating and distributing child pornography, and attempted murder. He had the charge of resisting arrest added as well. Poor Harry. He was hours away from dying when he was taken to hospital and even then it was a close call," Arabella explained.
"No. Then that means… Harry was telling the truth when he said his relatives were awful," Minerva breathed.
"What are you talking about woman?" Severus snapped at her.
"At the end of his first year at Hogwarts, Harry came to both Albus and myself begging not to be sent back home, saying that his aunt and uncle hated him and were awful to him," Minerva sobbed.
"Yes, well it seems like Harry was much stronger than any of us ever realised. The doctors told me when I went to visit that they had never seen someone take so much damage and survive. He is in a coma currently and needs life support, but doctors say that time just has to run its course now. They have done everything they can for him and if he wakes up, he wakes up, but until then there is nothing they can do," the squib informed them.
"What sort of injuries did he have?" Severus inquired.
"Severe malnutrition and dehydration, eight broken ribs, two of which had been very close to piercing his lungs and one that did pierce his lung on the ambulance ride to the hospital, both his wrists had been broken, all the bones in his hands and feet were broken, his ankles had been broken, one of his shoulders was dislocated and the other had been broken, his pelvis is broken in two places and has multiple fractures, his jaw was on the verge of dislocation, his skull has some fractures but thankfully it hadn't been pierced, he had severe whipping gashes all over and many of them were infected, and he had tears in his rectum that were infected. There was more as well, but I can't remember the full list. The doctors have no idea what sort of mental state he is in as he passed out after having a panic attack when the paramedics got him out of the shackles around his ankles and wrists," Arabella explained to the best of her ability.
"How did he survive? Even with magical treatments it would have to be a miracle to heal that much damage," Minerva asked.
"Harry hasn't woken up since he passed out from the panic attack. Even now the doctors are unsure whether or not he will survive. It may even be more humane to pull the plug on his life support at this stage though there is no one who is legally able to make that decision at the moment so doctors are doing what they can to keep him in as little pain as possible. Just because he is on life support doesn't mean that his body can't give out on him at any time," Arabella explained.
"You haven't mentioned what happened to the Dursley boy," Severus commented.
"He was taken in by social services and they are currently looking to find him foster parents though he spends all of his days sitting at Harry's side. He insists whenever I visit that he is going to make sure that the two of them won't be separated. He takes care of Hedwig, Harry's snowy owl, as well. He is being forced to see a therapist though to help him get over the torture that his parents exposed him to. The boy was never harmed by his parents, but he had to grow up watching them treat Harry horribly. He admitted to authorities that he was very much a bully and had humiliated Harry more often than not growing up, but last summer he and Harry had been attacked and Harry had saved him. After that he started to change his ways. Because he called the authorities in time to save Harry's life, they didn't charge him. Well, that was one of the reasons. The other reason is that he had no exposure to any other way that he should have treated his cousin," the squib informed them.
"Would you take them both in?" Minerva questioned.
"If I could, I would, but I'm too old to be a suitable candidate to foster them. I also don't have any room to take either of them in," the elderly squib explained sadly.
"There is nothing left that we can do here, Minerva, we need to head back to Hogwarts now and inform Headmaster Dumbledore about this," Severus stated before standing up. Minerva followed suit, but before she exited the house, she turned to Arabella.
"Arabella, could you write down everything that happened to the best of your ability and send it to me? It may just help with figuring out the best course of action," the head of Gryffindor asked.
"Of course, Minerva, anything to help Harry," Arabella replied with a sad smile.
Once back at Hogwarts, the two informed the headmaster that they would need to speak a great deal with him in the morning. After that, Minerva collapsed into her armchair and poured herself a glass of scotch. Severus stood at the entrance to her living room and watched as Minerva grabbed another glass and filled it with scotch before pushing it into Severus' hands.
"This is one mess that needs to be drowned out using scotch," Minerva explained.
"I guess I can't disagree with that," Severus replied before draining the glass in one go. "Healing a person's physical injuries is easy, even in the muggle world where it takes longer and is riskier, but healing mental injuries is by no means easy," he sighed as Minerva refilled his glass.
"Indeed. For all we know, Harry won't even wake up. If he does, well, then we will just have to take it day by day. To think, for five years we never noticed it! How could any of us be so blind?!" Minerva wailed.
"Indeed, we were blind. Then again, who would have expected the 'boy-who-lived' to have grown up abused? However, I don't understand how Pomfrey didn't notice the signs with how much time the boy spent in the hospital wing," Severus replied softly.
"Maybe it wasn't as bad when Harry was younger? He also seemed to manage to stay out of the hospital wing for at least a month after arriving though, so maybe he healed up enough for Poppy to simply think that the old injuries were fresh ones caused by whatever had caused him to have to go to Hospital Wing in the first place? We just don't know," Minerva murmured.
"I don't know how I didn't see the signs. I had access to all his thoughts and memories not even a few months ago, how could I have failed to see it?" Severus said quietly as he hung his head in his hands.
"Severus, we are all at fault for not seeing it sooner. Tomorrow, after we tell Albus everything, I will be talking to some of my sixth year lions and interrogate them to see if they saw anything 'odd' that could have possibly stopped Harry from coming this year. I won't say anything about how bad the situation is until afterwards," Minerva comforted the normally stoic man. He sighed in reply before standing up.
"I should head back to my quarters, if I get a hangover, I will be even worse to the students and might even slip out what happened with Potter, and that would be disastrous," Severus said while standing up and leaving. Minerva sat in her armchair for another half an hour drinking another two glasses of scotch before heading off to bed.
The next morning, Minerva woke up early enough to inform Albus of the previous night's transgressions and to say the man was shocked was to call the Amazonian rainforest a bit big. The elderly wizard had needed to sit on the steps outside his office and had hung his head in his hands while listening to the news. At the end of it, he had straightened up, showing red eyes and silver trails down his cheeks from crying. He wiped the tears out of his eyes as best he could and informed his deputy that he needed to go and sit alone for a little while to digest the information he had just received.
After watching the elderly headmaster retreat into his office, Minerva walked towards Gryffindor Tower. There were only a few students milling around as it was still early in the morning. When most of the sixth years were in the common room, she spoke up.
"As you are all aware, Mr Potter did not turn up on the train yesterday. I am requesting that Ms Granger and Mr Weasley come and follow me to be debriefed on the whole situation. The rest of you will be informed at a later date of what is happening," she stated. She looked around and spotted Hermione Granger with bags underneath her eyes which were bloodshot, and the teenage girl was leaning on Ronald Weasley who looked equally worse for wear. Minerva turned around so that none of her lions could see the tears beginning to well up in her eyes and walked out of the common room. None of them spoke as the two students followed her to the transfiguration classroom.
"Is there anything that either of you know about Mr Potter that would stop him from coming to Hogwarts?" Minerva asked the pair. At this, Hermione burst into tears and Ron just held her.
"By Ms Granger's reaction, you have an idea?" the elderly witch questioned. Ron nodded.
"Harry's relatives hate him. They made him sleep in a cupboard for the first ten years of his life. Harry has scars on his back that look like they were made by a whip, he's had them since first year. In the summer before second year, Fred, George, and I got him out of his room which was tiny and was more like a prison cell than a bedroom. Hermione used logic to figure a lot more out though," Ron admitted.
"Ms Granger?" the woman coaxed. Eventually, the young witch calmed down enough to speak.
"I-I-I think that his relatives abuse him. Harry's always been really small, like they don't feed him enough, though he never eats much at mealtimes anyways. His things are always perfectly organised and clean. He never sits on furniture if he has a choice. He is very clumsy with his cutlery. When he does eat he wolfs it down extremely quickly like he's scared that someone will take it away from him. He does things irrationally, and has little self-preservation, almost like he is actually trying to get himself killed. When people sustain physical contact for more than a few seconds he goes very pale and starts shaking and whimpering softly. He flinches very easily. A simple complement is enough to make him beam with happiness like he's been starved of all positive interaction. His handwriting is atrocious like there is something wrong with his fingers or he never got taught how to write properly. His glasses aren't even the correct prescription, never have been either from what I know. He has very fast reflexes despite not being able to see correctly. All of his plain clothes are almost ten sizes bigger than him and look second hand. Once, I even heard him telling a house elf that he knows exactly how they feel, only that he had no way to free himself," the girl got out before she broke down again. Ron held her tightly and then looked his head of house straight in the eyes.
"We've been trying to help him, but it only seems to be getting worse. We're scared that now, with Sirius being dead, Harry's given up all hope and has gone to join his parents at long last," Ron explained carefully before whispering under his breath one more statement: "he may have even done the deed himself"
"Mr Weasley, Ms Granger, do you have any reason as to why you did not tell any of your teachers about your suspicions of Mr Potter?" Minerva asked.
"How could we trust that you would do anything? I didn't figure out until second year. I didn't speak up because in first year, you didn't do anything when Harry told you himself that the philosophers stone was going to be stolen that very night. If he hadn't gone to go and save it, it would have been stolen that night. If Hermione and I hadn't gone with Harry, Harry would have died that night. You didn't believe us then, how could we know for sure that you would do something? Every time that I got up enough courage to tell you, you waved me off before I could speak because you were so busy with the Chamber of Secrets mess. In our third year, Harry needed us to help him more than before because the dementors were so much worse on him than anyone else. We were scared to leave his side for even a second in case Sirius Black decided to come after Harry. Again, when we did get the courage to tell you, you waved us off because you were too busy to listen to what we had to say. In fourth year, no one believed anything that we were saying. Last year, we couldn't say anything because Umbridge was practically torturing him and YOU were telling him to keep his head down! We couldn't say anything because we were scared that Umbridge would have made everything worse for Harry, not made it better. We couldn't say anything for YEARS because no one would listen to us! So we did the only thing we could, we supported Harry as much as possible," Ron explained before starting to yell towards the end.
Minerva stumbled backwards and sat down in her chair as an onslaught of memories of her waving off the two of them multiple times without listening. Memories of telling Harry to keep his head down. Memories of not doing anything.
"Professor, for years, I have maintained that our teachers are authority that we have to respect and follow the example of. However, I cannot stand by and follow the example that the teachers at Hogwarts have set. If you can blatantly overlook the abuse of an idol in this society, then I would not be surprised if there were many more cases of abuse found within these walls. I sometimes sit in my bed at night and wonder how many muggleborns and half-bloods are abused by their muggle relatives. I suspect that Neville Longbottom was abused before coming to Hogwarts. I know that some extreme bullying happens in Ravenclaw. It is very easy to see that many Hufflepuffs suffer from low self-esteem. I fear for the students with muggle blood in Slytherin. I consider myself lucky that I have never been abused or harmed by my own family. I do not understand how a whole society can ignore the pain of their youth. I do not understand how no one hasn't seen it yet. If there is one thing that would forever turn me away from living in the magical society after I leave Hogwarts, that thing would be that I would not want my children growing up in a society where abused children and bullying is ignored, but I would stay to give those who do suffer here someone that they can talk to, someone who could help them," Hermione whispered shakily before becoming more confident as she continued speaking.
"Have you ever tried to tell anyone about those problems?" Minerva asked quietly.
"What do you think, professor?" Ron asked. "Of course we tried to tell people! Whenever we plucked up the courage to do anything to help anyone, we were turned away before we were even heard! It isn't our faults that nothing was ever done! You always say that you will be there to listen to our problems, but you NEVER listen to us when we have something to say!"
"Ron, calm down. We have to stay calm, for the sake of the others," Hermione whispered to her friend.
"Mr Weasley, Ms Granger, can I trust you with some information that I have already accumulated on the situation with Mr Potter?" Minerva asked carefully. The two friends nodded without hesitation.
"Last night, Professor Snape and myself went to visit Mr Potter and his relatives, only to find that Mr Potter's residence of No. 4 Privet Drive was a crime scene. We got in contact with a squib who lived in the area and learned that Mr Potter's aunt and uncle had been arrested under multiple charges including child abuse. The authorities had learned of what was going on from Mr Potter's cousin and the authorities immediately dispatched police officers and paramedics to Mr Potter's home. Mr Potter was only hours away from passing on when the paramedics got to him. The extent of his injuries is vast, and he is currently in a coma. Doctors are unable to wake him, and as such, they have no clue as to what sort of mental state Mr Potter is in. He is healing, very slowly, but he is healing, though there is still a very real chance that his body will not be able to continue supporting him and he will pass on anyway," the transfiguration professor told them.
Ron understood parts of it, though Hermione understood all of it, and she was horrified.
"Can we, can we go and see him?" Hermione asked shakily.
"I will bring it up with Headmaster Dumbledore, but I suspect that it is going to be necessary for us to visit in any case to understand the case further," McGonagall told them.
"Thank you, Professor," Ron said softly.
"Go and head to breakfast, you both need to eat. I don't have to remind you to not talk about this, right? For now, the incident with Mr Potter is being kept quiet until we know all the details," McGonagall told them. They nodded and the two walked off together, Ron supporting Hermione who was crying.
The week passed slowly, and that weekend found two students and two teachers standing at the gates of the school, preparing to leave to visit one Harry Potter.
"Remember, one word out line and you will be sent straight back here," Professor Snape reminded he two students.
"Yes Professor Snape," Hermione and Ron replied in an almost unison as Hermione hiccupped in the middle due to her sobs.
When they arrived at the hospital, they walked in quietly, the two teachers speaking with the nurses to get directions to where they needed to go.
As they entered the room, all of them but the Potions Master felt like throwing up.
There lay Harry Potter. Not even five feet tall. Every bone not wrapped up in a cast was straining against his skin like he was nothing but skin and bones. His hair had been cut off completely. His eyes were sunken in and there were dark bruises covering his face. The worst park though was seeing the sickly pale skin that was stretched taunt over his bones. It was almost translucent, and they could see blood being sluggishly pumped around his body like Harry was struggling to even do that.
"You must be from Harry's school," the muggle boy stated.
"Yes, yes, we are, Mr. Dursley," Snape answered as the others were still in shock.
"Don't call me that. That's what my father was called by everyone he 'loaned' Harry to. I don't want to be associated with him," the boy snapped weakly.
"I apologise. I must admit, I have never had to deal with a case of abuse like this in my entire career as a teacher, so I am quite out of depth. My fellow professor on the other hand grew up in a time where abuse was something unheard of, she came from a time when children were the most treasured possession a parent could have. You must excuse her if she doesn't speak much for a while," Severus Snape offered the muggle boy.
"It's fine. I just want Harry to get better, so I can apologise to him for everything I've done to him in the past. I can never make amends, I know that I've done too much damage, but I still want to say sorry," the muggle confessed.
"But you saved his life," Snape reminded him.
"Yeah, and he saved mine just over a year ago even though I was bullying him and was well on the way to becoming his third abuser," the muggle retorted.
"Thank you," Hermione whispered.
"Ms Granger-," McGonagall began but Hermione continued on.
"Thank you so much, Dudley. I don't think I could handle having to go to the funeral of yet another boy who means so much to me. I don't think I could watch another person so close to my heart lose their life because of abuse. I don't think I could have continued to live and love magic if another young magical boy lost his chance to experience it in full," Hermione told the muggle.
"Hermione, you've never been to the funeral of any other magical kid though," Ron said confused.
"My cousin, Hugo Granger. He was eight when he committed suicide. His parents, they abused him. If he didn't get perfect marks he would be beaten and not fed for three days. They were strongly catholic, and believed that magic and other freaky occurrences were the work of the devil and demons. Every time Hugo had an accidental magic outburst, his parents would call the local priest and have him exorcized. He once told me that it felt like his soul was being ripped to shreds. He did magic once to three times a month. He couldn't keep going, and killed himself. They found him on the floor of his bedroom, laying in his own blood and a message written in blood on his wall detailing everything he had been through. That was shortly after I came back to Hogwarts after Christmas break in first year," Hermione revealed.
"I always did wonder why Hugo Granger's name was crossed out when I went to send out the acceptance letters," McGonagall muttered quietly.
"Hermione…" Ron trailed off speechless.
"Hermione, I only did what any decent human being should do. But I should have done it sooner. Harry suffered because I didn't see what was happening soon enough," Dudley admitted. After that, the day passed by slowly. Eventually, it was decided that he would be taken back to Hogwarts, and Dudley would come with them, as he refused to be separated from his cousin.
Hermione also refused to be separated from Harry, and a set of rooms were created behind the hospital wing. One room belonged to Harry with three adjoining rooms that were Hermione and Dudley's bedrooms as well as a bathroom. Hermione and Dudley's rooms also had bathrooms connected to their rooms, but the two mainly used Harry's, as they spent all their time watching over him. Ron would visit twice a day, three times a day if he could.
The public were told that Harry, Hermione, and Ron were being trained in private to fight in the war. However, Ron was the only one that actually spent time training. Dudley sometimes joined Ron in their training hall to learn the martial arts and how to use other weaponry, focused on learning how to protect his cousin in every way he could.
It wasn't until well into October that Harry finally woke.
It happened slowly, so slowly that no one realised until Harry was hyperventilating from fear.
He had opened his eyes sluggishly to see the white ceiling above him. After that, he had turned his head to the side, wincing from the pain that came with the movement, and saw his cousin, the same one who had bullied, humiliated, ridiculed, and picked on him for years. For him, it was too much. Too much pain, and too much danger from his tormentor.
It wasn't until he had thrown himself off his bed and flung himself into a corner that Hermione jolted out of her seat, throwing down her book and Dudley bolted awake.
"Hey, Harry, it's okay. We need to get you back on the bed so that you can heal," Hermione told him soothingly, but Harry thrashed, trying to get away from the danger surrounding him.
In the end, it took three people to get Harry back onto his bed and restrained so he wouldn't hurt himself. Hermione had to stroke his hair and assure him that was everything was alright constantly or he would try to flee from the demons that only he could see.
Weeks passed, but Harry was no closer to having a healed mind. Hermione was the only one he trusted. If anyone else was in the room, he would panic. Hermione had managed to get him to calm down around a few people if she was in the room, such as Madam Pomfrey, but there were many people whom he could not tolerate in his presence, even with Hermione nearby.
A year after Harry had been brought back to the magical world, Voldemort was destroyed by Ron (who had been polyjuiced at the time to make everyone think he was Harry), and that only made problems worse as everyone wanted to see Harry, but Harry simply couldn't handle seeing anyone but Hermione and Madam Pomfrey without the support of one of them.
When Harry was only eighteen, his feeble heart gave out. The public were told that Harry had been suffering from a dark curse that he was hit with just before he killed Voldemort, and it had been slowly killing him ever since.
The funeral was small, the only people in attendance were Hermione, Ron, Dudley, Hedwig, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, and Arabella Figg. Harry was buried in Godric's Hollow, next to his parents and underneath the old holly tree. Hedwig, passed on not too long after her master, and she was buried beside him. Thesterals began to live in the area, rumours said it was because they wished to watch over the soul of a truly kind-hearted boy.
The years passed, and slowly, the older generation died, but a tradition was created. All the most notable figures of the wizarding world were buried in Godric's hollow, underneath the old holly tree, where they would not be forgotten, watched over by the thesterals, and rest in peace until the end of time…
A/N: Yeah, this didn't turn out the way I planned it. Oh well. Hope you all like it anyways. Oh, and if you were wondering what the title means, it means 'Lost Life and Magic'.