Chapter 2
Snape and Poppy apparated directly into the Dursleys' pristine front hall. After what seemed like hours but was in reality probably only 10 minutes, Vernon had finally calmed down enough that Petunia had managed to drag the bleeding, battered and unconscious boy upstairs and into his new room. As she had brought him up she had felt many broken bones and an inflamed and swollen abdomen. She was no doctor but even she knew that that most likely meant internal damage. She had sat with him, hoping that his magic would do something - anything - to give her hope that he might yet survive and to lessen her feeling of helplessness, allowing her to once more shut the "caring" feelings away and go back to ignoring and belittling him. She waited and waited with nothing happening until she heard a sound that she hadn't heard for years - the pop of apparition. She ran downstairs, grabbed their hands and pulled them up the stairs again and into the room where the boy lay on the edge of death, having never moved from when she had dumped him on the bed, the sheets turning red from his lying on them.
"Merlin's beard" Poppy breathed. She cast a few quick diagnostic spells and paled even further. "Severus give me a core stabiliser, a core replenisher, a blood replenisher and the strongest swelling reducer"
Snape went white but quickly fetched the medi-witch what she asked for. They were the four strongest healing potions known! Requiring just one of them meant a week long stay in the Hospital Wing.
"What has happened here?" he thought to himself
He came out of his thoughts when he heard Poppy trying to catch his attention "Sorry Poppy what was that? I was lost in thought"
Poppy sighed then said "We need to take him to St Mungo's. The Hospital Wing is not equipped to deal with and heal these type of injuries." She gestured to the parchment that had on it her results of the diagnostics she had done.
Snape scanned the list of injuries and raised his eyebrows briefly before locking the thought of how the boy was even remotely still alive behind his Occlumency shields. Such thoughts were not good in a situation like this. He then looked up and caught Petunia's eye before turning back to the medi-witch. "Poppy we will take him back to Hogwarts. He cannot go to St. Mungo's for that will alert people that must not be alerted" he said in the low baritone he used for scaring students. It never failed to work on anyone and he needed her compliance right now, if the boy stood a chance of recovery. "I will brew you any potions you need."
Poppy was shocked. Never had anyone stood up to her before in the matter of student welfare and now Severus was using his you-will-not-mess-with-me voice. She had no idea what was going on or why Severus was adamantly against St Mungo's but she knew one thing: the boy needed immediate medical attention and her Hospital Wing was at least better than here so cradling Harry to her chest she levelled a death glare at Snape and apparated out.
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Three hours later the boy was stable enough that Poppy thought she could leave him. She daren't use any more magic on him anyway lest it overload his own recovering magical core. She was still doubtful that he would survive the night, but she had done the best she could and had charms placed to alert her to the slightest change in his condition.
Now sat in her office, she was cradling a cup of tea as she allowed her exhaustion to show finally on her face as she sipped the hot beverage. A move from Snape made her look up and she sent another death glare at the man opposite. He hadn't said a word whilst they had worked trying to save Harry's life merely passing her the potions she requested or if she didn't have it, brewing them. She remembered what he had said earlier and was fast running out of patience waiting for him to give her answers.
"Severus, you will tell me... now... what is going on here. Why is this child, Harry Potter no less, like this and why would he not be better off in St Mungo's where there are specialised child Healers?" Her tone was stern and forceful, the kind she used when forcing students to stay in bed and Severus, she knew, had been on the receiving end of it many times.
In response Snape growled at Poppy's tone and cast a complicated illusion over the bed where Harry lay making it appear empty and a silencing charm around them. Poppy's face, already haggard from the lateness of the hour and her hair damp from the exertion of trying to save her critical patient, deepened to red, shock evident all over it and she looked ready to explode with all her unanswered questions. Snape just shoved two pieces of muggle stationery into her hand. They were letters, one short, one long and he looked at her expectantly.
"Letters, Severus?" she asked brusquely. The man was creating more questions than he was answers! Snape just nodded and then sat back, giving no more information. Hoping the letters shed some light onto why Severus was acting so strangely, she opened the short letter and was shocked to find that it was from the woman they had just left - Petunia Dursley.
"Snape" the letter read "I know you and I never got on when we were younger but you are now the only one I can turn to. My nephew has been beaten to near death by Vernon. I need urgent assistance.
Do not tell Albus Dumbledore.
Petunia Dursley (Evans)"
As Poppy contemplated that Severus had known Harry Potter's guardian all this time, she looked at him enquiringly. He ignored her and gestured impatiently for her to move onto the second letter. This one was much longer.
"Now the boy is gone and Vernon has calmed down I can tell you a few more things.
This is the second occurence of this. The first time I asked Albus Dumbledore for help but he never responded and after subsequent letters to him regarding my nephew's accidental magic I believe that he wishes to keep Harry ignorant from the magical world and wishes no-one to interfere thus allowing Vernon's actions."
Poppy started at this and looked up at the man opposite for answers. Again she found none. Sighing in frustration she turned her gaze back to the letter and continued to read
"Dumbledore said that the protections on my house are fuelled by my blood relation to my nephew and he must stay here to keep them up. He was careful to mention that if the protection was to fail at any time he would instantly know. Probably to make sure I didn't send him to an orphanage as soon as possible!
What he neglected to mention was what would happen if the boy were to live with someone different but equally related to him. I believe the protection would be the same but would the fall of my protection notify Dumbledore if my nephew was already protected by the same method elsewhere?
You see I found my mother's journals from her teenage years whilst sorting boxes taken from her house and it appears she had another daughter whilst she was still young. According to her journals my grandparents disapproved and forced her to give the baby up for adoption but she was allowed to name the girl first. My mother always liked flowers and so she called her baby girl Poppy. Poppy was taken off to Merciful Sisters orphanage not 3 weeks later and my mother never saw her again.
If you can find this Poppy then you have another way to keep the blood protection. Do not let Dumbledore get hold of this. I fear he may use it for the wrong reasons.
Petunia Dursley"
"When did you get this?" Poppy asked hoping that he would answer this time and not make things any more confusing.
"Owl flew into my potion lab whilst I was making that last batch of bone solution" came the curt reply.
Poppy stood up and went into her quarters. When she came back she stood face to face with Snape.
"Severus" she demanded "brew me a bloodline potion."
Snape stared at Poppy like she had suddenly grown three heads. "Why" he asked in his silkiest voice "would you want that particular potion? You know how difficult it is to brew and you know what the side effects could be. It's not worth it just because you share the same first name of a woman that may or may not exist. Besides didn't Lily make a family tree?"
"No Severus you don't understand" Poppy replied. When she became tired her temper became really short and she was having to concentrate to remain calm. "I remember asking my parents when I was 8 or 9 why I didn't look like them. A lot of my friends then kept complaining that their parents' friends would say all the time how much they were alike to their mum or dad. That never happened to me, so I asked my parents why.
They told me that they had adopted me as a baby from an orphanage in London and raised me as their own. Sound familiar Severus?"
"Even so" he replied "Poppy was a very common name around that time and there are sure to be many orphanages in London. How can you be sure that it was this one?"
"I can't. Hence the necessity of the potion. If there is a chance that I can give that boy" she pointed to the bed in which the boy was lying "a normal life and protect him through his mother's sacrifice then I need to find out if I can or not"
"And damn the consequences? What if you are not this sister?" he still sounded unconvinced and a little annoyed.
"We'll cross that bridge then."
"Hmmmmm..." Snape paused apparently lost in thought "Poppy would you be interested in knowing your birth family even if it is not the Evanses?"
A slow nod came from Poppy "yes. It would be good to know I suppose"
"Then can I suggest an inheritance test at Gringotts? If you wish to do anything official in your birth name then you will have to do it anyway. Besides from being safer, a bloodline potion result is not sufficient for most ministry dealings"
At that moment a loud ring resounded, echoing through the large room and causing the tea cups to rattle on the table. Poppy was out of her seat, wand drawn and dispelling the illusion before Snape had even realised what the noise was. Looking over to the bed he saw Poppy casting not her usual diagnostics but more complex charms over the boy. Not knowing what she was doing but knowing he would be called if she needed him, he waited where he was, casting a warming charm on his tea and resuming to drink it in silence.
The medi-witch returned a few minutes later with a cautious look on her face. "He's survived the blood loss and trauma" she said "and that alarm was to notify me that his temperature is decreasing so we should have got hold of the infection as well. He's still severely ill, but not quite as close to death as he was"
Snape put down his teacup and started to cast the illusion spell again. As he did so however, he was interrupted by the medi-witch's arm on his.
"Why is this so necessary Severus?" she asked
"As I said, there are some people we must not alert"
"Here in Hogwarts? I thought you meant the minister and the press when you vetoed St. Mungo's"
Snape shook his head "It would be bad if they found out true, but I was more thinking Albus. I am inclined to trust Petunia that he knows and is ignoring what is happening to Potter" he practically spat the last word "she and I detested each other and would have not have spared a second thought if the other had died or been killed. In fact the first thought would have probably been "oh good". For her to contact me at all makes me think she must have good reason and for the topic to be Harry Potter - the embodiement of everything she detests, the living reminder of her sister... sweet, beautiful, gentle, talented, kind, Lily..." Here Snape stopped talking as his mind went off into memories of Lily Evans. Poppy shook him on the arm.
"Sorry Poppy, where was I? My mind went off on Lily" he smiled a little sheepishly
"Petunia contacting you about Harry"
"Ah yes. She resents Potter, detests me and has a fierce pride so for her swallow that pride and ask for help for him, from me no less, she must have cast iron doubts about the Headmaster. That is why I called you so quickly."
Poppy yawned. "I think I'm even more confused now Severus but I will keep Harry away from Albus for the time being. There is a private room we can put him in until we sort this out." Poppy levitated the still unconscious boy into a room off the side of the Hospital Wing and then turned to Snape.
"Severus it is gone 6am now. You should go back to your quarters now and get some rest. You will be needed in the Great Hall for breakfast after all"
"I am used to no sleep." he replied "I will stay here and watch over the boy Poppy. You get some sleep"
Hogwarts Head Healer set her hands on her hips and glared at the Potions Master, all traces of tiredness now completely gone, a frown the only expression on her face. "Severus Snape if you do not leave right now, go straight to your quarters and get some rest I will body bind you and pour dreamless sleep down your throat to force you. Go. Now."
Snape knew he had lost. Poppy always carried out her threats and he did not wish to see this glaringly sterile room as his first view tomorrow. He growled at the medi-witch then turned and stalked out.
