A Ghost's Tale - by Healer Pomfrey
2 – The Rescue
Severus Snape was sitting at his desk, deep engrossed in his lesson plans for the upcoming school year. 'Only a month left until these dunderheads are going to come back,' he mused as he took two potions off the second year's plan to move them to the third year's plan. 'This should be safer, considering that Longbottom and Potter are in that class.'
Suddenly, his attention was diverted when a snowy white owl approached his desk, holding her foot out to him. Severus curiously took the attached letter, wondering where he had seen that owl before. 'Potter,' he remembered, groaning at the sight of Harry's atrocious scrawl. Frowning, he began to read the letter, while his expression slowly turned from disbelief to rage.
'How dare that imbecile... He must somehow found out about Lily and me,' he thought angrily as he screwed up the letter and threw it towards the wastebasket, groaning inwardly as he missed by a few centimetres. 'Potter must think I'm completely stupid,' he thought as he tried to concentrate on his lesson plan in vain. The thought, 'Will a dead person be able to get a ghost's form after ten years?' managed to push itself to the front of his mind.
Finally, he was fed up enough with his inability of concentrating on other things that he called the Bloody Baron, the House ghost of Slytherin.
"I've never heard of something like that, but as you know there aren't so many ghosts around, whom I could have spoken to. However, I definitely envy that ghost. Maybe if I had waited a few years, I wouldn't have taken on such a bloody form."
'She wants me to come quickly, but what if it's just a bad joke? Of course Potter would like to fool his Potions professor, just like James didn't do anything but annoy me all these years. Why didn't Lily come straight to me? Why to Potter?' he pondered. 'Of course she would search out Potter, because he is her son. A child is the most important thing for a mother,' the voice at the back of his head, which he found extremely annoying most of the time, spoke up. 'She still seems not to have forgotten about me, considering that she wants to speak with me,' Severus mused, 'if the whole thing is true at all. On the other hand, where should Potter have heard about the matter with the cassis? Lily and I were alone at that time.'
He finally picked up the crumpled paper from the floor and, deciding to find out some more about ghosts, headed to the hospital wing to speak with Poppy, his most trusted friend at Hogwarts.
He swiftly entered the Mediwitch's office, causing the Healer, who was just re-organizing her potions cabinet, to look up and smile. "Hello Severus, do you have more potions for me?" she queried, frowning as she took in his troubled expression. "What's wrong?" she asked in concern. "Are you feeling ill?"
"I can assure you that I'm fine," Severus replied impatiently, before he enquired, "Poppy, what do you know about ghosts? Is it possible for a person, who was murdered ten years ago, to all of a sudden manage to get a ghost's form?"
Poppy worriedly reached for the Potions Master's forehead, not surprised when he slapped her hand away before she could check his temperature. "I'm fine," he growled and, after throwing the Mediwitch an assessing look, handed her the paper he had absentmindedly managed to put into his robe pocket instead of properly placing it into the wastebasket.
"Lily!" Poppy gasped. "Severus, I know that you don't like the boy because he is the spitting image of his father. However, Harry is very different from James. I know him quite well, since he has spent quite a time in my care during the last school year, and I can't believe that he would try to play a prank on you like this. Maybe he is delirious though."
"That might be," Severus said, thoughtfully glancing at the letter. "Although his handwriting is always as awful."
"Severus, do you want me to accompany you?" Poppy offered gently. She had known the younger wizard from the time when he came to Hogwarts as a small eleven-year-old. She was the one, who had comforted him all those years when he returned to Hogwarts after being abused by his father during the summer, and it was her to whom he had confided about his love to Lily, the gentle Gryffindor girl.
"Would you really?" Severus slowly trailed off, feeling extremely grateful towards the understanding Mediwitch.
"Of course, my dear," Poppy said gently and suggested taking the Floo to Mrs. Figg's house.
A few minutes later, Severus hesitantly rang the bell at the Dursleys' door, stepping behind Poppy when Petunia, whom he only remembered too well, opened the door.
"Hello Mrs. Dursley, I'm Poppy Pomfrey, and this is Professor Snape from Hogwarts. We urgently need to speak with Mr. Harry Potter," Poppy said in her gentle voice, causing Petunia to frown.
"He is still in his room, the lazybones. Get over with it quickly before my husband returns from work, and tell Harry he'll be in trouble if he doesn't begin doing his chores soon," Petunia hissed as she waved the two freaks upstairs.
"She didn't say which room," Poppy whispered, glancing around the hall.
"Probably this one," Severus said, frowning as he took in the door that was secured with a dozen locks of several sizes. 'Could it be that Potter isn't as pampered as I always believed? Petunia seems to still have a grudge against the magical world,' he mused, hesitantly glancing at Poppy, who nodded encouragingly.
Severus opened the door, finding himself in a sparsely furnished room. His eyes wandered from the shelf with dozens of broken toys to the bed, noticing in surprise that the boy, who apparently occupied the room, was fast asleep, curled up deep under his covers, so that only his nose, eyes and his messy hair were visible.
"Severus! Poppy!" a soft voice greeted them from a spot behind the bed, and the two friends took in the ghost in surprise.
"Lily! It's true," Severus whispered in absolute amazement, causing Lily to throw him a huge smile.
"Severus, Poppy, thank you so much for coming right away. Harry needs your help. He is very ill, and he is neglected and abused by my sister and her family. I've been with Harry all those ten years, and frankly speaking I'm surprised that he is such a nice child after all he went through. Anyway, Severus, I need to tell you something important."
Seeing that Poppy had already turned into Healer's mode and sat on the edge of Harry's bed, beginning to cast a series of diagnostic spells on the boy, Lily motioned the Potions Master over to the only chair in the room. In a quiet voice so as not to disturb Poppy Lily told her former husband about the parentage of his only child.
"Severus, I know that this must be very sudden and sound unbelievable to you; however, I can tell you all the charms I cast on Harry, and I'm sure if Poppy and you work together, you should be able to reverse them. They're very strong, because I didn't want anyone to notice. I might be able to assist as well, but my magic is probably not very strong at the moment. I feel a bit weak after manifesting my form this morning and additionally casting a cooling charm and a sleeping spell on Harry."
"You must not cast any charms or spells on the child as long as he is so ill," Poppy said firmly, before she carefully waved her wand over the ghost and threw her a stern look. "Lily, you have depleted your magic to a great extent. Be glad that you're a ghost; otherwise, you'd feel very sick at the moment. I want you to rest and not use any magic for at least a week. Is that clear?"
"Yes," Lily replied obediently, before she threw Severus an expectant look, realising that he hadn't said a word after her revelation about Harry. Since the Potions Master seemed to content himself looking from her to Harry and back in disbelief, she turned to the Mediwitch. "Is Harry all right? When his fever skyrocketed this morning, I was afraid his cold would turn into pneumonia."
"Yes, it's in the early stage though, and Severus just brewed a batch of the pneumonia potion for me, so that I can give it to him as soon as we arrive at Hogwarts. I'm going to take him with me as soon as you're ready," Poppy replied firmly.
Severus cleared his throat, forcing himself to take his eyes from Lily and Harry. Like in a daze he looked at Poppy and said evenly, "Let's go immediately. The sooner you help the boy the better. We can as well talk at Hogwarts. Are you able to travel, Lily?"
Lily chuckled and explained that she had magically bond herself to Harry, so that she had been able to travel together with her child all the time.
"So we can just ignore you, and you'll be able to come if we take Harry with us?" Poppy queried just to be sure, sighing in relief as Lily nodded reassuringly. "Very well then, let's take my emergency Portkey," Poppy decided and pulled a long necklace out from under her clothes. She slung the necklace around Harry's wrist, before she motioned Severus to grab it as well and spoke the activating password.
tbc...
Thank you so much for your kind reviews!
I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.