Cooling the Magic 2
Madam Pomfrey let out a long sigh, before she turned to her colleagues. "Mr. Potter seems to have contracted the magic fever. However, that was four weeks ago and it remained untreated."
Harry noticed that Dumbledore's face fell, while McGonagall and the other two Heads of House threw the Healer questioning looks. Only Snape's face remained completely blank. "It means that the boy's magic is burning. The magic fever consists of several phases. In the first phase, all parts of the body, in which the magic circulates, tickle, in the second step they begin to itch, and in the third phase, they hurt. When it comes to the final phase, the magic burns everything within the body, and the victim dies of the fever. Due to the neglect of the illness, Mr. Potter seems to have already reached the third phase," he explained in a soft, baritone voice, causing Harry to throw him a horrified look.
"Is there any method of treatment?" McGonagall asked, looking as terrified at the news as Harry felt.
"Yes Minerva," Pomfrey said calmingly and explained, "If we had known about it during the first two phases, we could have simply treated him with a potion. In the third phase, the illness is too much progressed for a normal potion. He needs a very special magic cooling potion, which however can only be administered intravenous. Therefore, we must connect him to an I.V. over twelve hours each day, or maybe even more if his fever rises when he begins to cast magic in class. He needs to be constantly monitored." She sighed, before she added, "Unfortunately, this treatment won't heal Mr. Potter from the disease. It merely prevents him from entering the final phase. The illness itself is not curable, at least not yet." She exchanged a look with Snape, but the Potions Master remained quiet.
Dumbledore thoughtfully stroked his long beard. "Very well then, Poppy; you and Severus as his Head of House are responsible for Mr. Potter. I assume that you're going to assign him one of the teacher's rooms behind your office?"
"I believe that would be the best," Pomfrey agreed, throwing the Slytherin Head a questioning look.
Snape nodded. "That would be agreeable. Mr. Potter, did you not notice that you were ill?"
"I thought it would go away by itself. My relatives always taught me not to complain about illnesses," Harry admitted in a small voice that caused McGonagall to throw the Headmaster a furious look.
Snape shot Harry a look of disbelief and sneered, "Don't tell me, Mr. Potter, that your doting relatives didn't fawn about you when you were sick."
"That's enough, Severus," the Headmaster said sharply.
"Then he wouldn't be in this situation," McGonagall scoffed.
"Very well, Mr. Potter, accompany us," Snape said evenly as he turned to the door.
Harry slowly followed the teacher and the Healer through the empty corridors, noticing in amazement that the people in the pictures on both sides of their way were moving. 'Magic,' he thought, wondering if he still liked magic after what he had heard in the Headmaster's office a few minutes ago.
Madam Pomfrey led him through a huge room with many empty beds and through what seemed to be her office into a small corridor. "This is the teachers' part of the hospital wing, and I'll assign you the first room here just behind my office," she explained in a gentle voice. "I will ask Misty, my personal house-elf, to prepare the room for you, so that it'll look less like a hospital room. Now let's get you into bed. I can't connect you to the I.V. yet, because Professor Snape needs to brew the magic cooling potion first, but in the meantime, I will give you a fever reducer and a light sleeping draught, so that you can rest, until we have the potion you'll need. We must get your fever down; otherwise, you won't be able to attend classes tomorrow morning."
Snape smirked as Pomfrey transfigured Harry's clothes into soft pyjamas with a pattern of roaring dragons and motioned him to lie down. "I'll be back with the potion in a little more than three hours. I have to conduct a small House meeting, before I can brew the potion," he announced in his silky voice, before he excused himself.
Harry sighed in relief as his achy head came to lie on the pillow, unaware of the concerned look he received from the Mediwitch. She carefully laid her cold hand on his forehead to assess his temperature and frowned as she raised the boy's head just enough to make him drink two potions. "Don't worry, Harry; everything will be all right. Are you feeling a bit better now, sweetie?" she asked softly as she adjusted an icepack to his forehead.
"Yeah, but head hurts," Harry mumbled, slurring the words as the potions kicked in and sleep overcame him instantly.
Pomfrey waved her wand, casting the most necessary alert on the child, before she retired to her office, knowing that her friends among the teachers would come to have tea with her and enquire about the first student that had been sorted straight into her domain.
HP HEALER POMFREY HP
Later in the evening, Harry woke up by a cold hand on his forehead. Like from far away he could hear what he recognised as Professor Snape's voice, but his mind was too foggy to understand the meaning of the words that were uttered softly. He wanted to open his eyes and ask the professor what he was doing to his left hand, wanted to tell him that it hurt, but the effects of the sleeping potion Pomfrey had administered earlier were too strong, and he couldn't help drifting off to sleep again.
When he was able to properly wake up, he realised that light fell through the window next to his bed. 'The view onto the lake is beautiful,' he mused as he suddenly noticed that his left hand was stuck to something. 'Oh, that must be the I.V. they talked about. I wondered what it was last night.' As he turned around to glance at the I.V. stand, he became aware of the fact that his room didn't look like a hospital room anymore. Not only had his bed changed into a huge four poster bed, but the white sideboards had been replaced by a wardrobe, a large bookshelf and a huge desk, equipped with three comfortable looking chairs. 'What a wonderful room,' he thought. 'Even if it is still a pity that I'm not allowed to sleep in a dormitory with my classmates, this room is the best I ever had.'
As if she had known that he had just woken up, Madam Pomfrey bustled into the room. "Good morning, sweetie. How are you feeling?" she asked gently, slowly laying her hand on his forehead.
"Better I guess," Harry replied hesitantly, sensing that it wouldn't be adequate to tell the Healer that he felt fine.
"Harry, I want you to always tell me the truth," Pomfrey said in a stern voice. "Otherwise, I won't be able to help you." She let out a long sigh. "I'm sorry, Harry, but I have to explain a few things to you, and I need to set up a few rules in order for you to be able to attend classes. First of all, I must reduce the spells I cast at you on a minimum. Therefore, I always need you to tell me how you feel, and we must check your temperature with Muggle methods." She pulled a Muggle thermometer out of her robe pocket and coaxed it into Harry's mouth, noticing that he shivered at the cold touch. "If your fever is not too high, you may eat breakfast in the Great Hall and attend your morning classes; however, you must return here for an hour at lunchtime, so that I can connect you to the I.V. for an hour. Depending on high your fever is, I might want you to take a nap during that time, and depending on your condition after the break, you may or may not go to your afternoon classes. After dinner, I want you to come back here in any case. You need to be connected to the I.V. then overnight. Feel free to invite one or two friends to join you here in your room and study together."
The beeping of the device in Harry's mouth interrupted the Healer's explanation, and she quickly plucked it from his lips. "Thirty-eight point two (100.7)," she said thoughtfully. "Normally, I would keep you in bed with a fever; however, in your case, I'm afraid I have to allow you to attend classes, provided that you feel well enough and promise to come back immediately if you notice that your condition worsens."
"Will the fever go away eventually?" Harry asked softly, feeling sweat build on his forehead while he was shivering at the same time.
"I'm afraid not," Pomfrey said sympathetically, "at least not as long as your immune system doesn't give up, which would be fatal. Maybe Professor Snape will be able to find a cure, but I can't promise you anything of course."
"What does Professor Snape teach?" Harry asked in confusion.
"Potions. Professor Snape is the Potions Master; however, on his way to the Potions Mastery he also took the first Healer's degree, so that he has much experience in the Healing area as well. If anyone will be able to help you, it'll be him," Pomfrey explained gently.
'Speaking of the devil...' Harry mused as his Head of House entered the small room mere seconds later.
The two adults conferred for a moment, while Harry watched the Giant Squid play in the lake under his window, before Snape addressed him directly. "Mr. Potter, are you feeling well enough to attend classes? And I want an honest answer."
"At least I'd like to try," Harry replied, glancing shyly at the professor.
"Well then, I suggest that you take a quick shower, and I'll accompany you to the Great Hall to introduce you to your Slytherin classmates," Snape continued in a soft voice as he gently removed the connection to the I.V. stand from Harry's hand and wrapped his hand in white gauze, explaining, "I won't take the needle off each time. We'll just leave it as it is, so that we can connect you again faster later on. Your housemates will get used to the fact that your left hand is bandaged."
Harry nodded his understanding and grabbed a few clothes on his way to the adjacent bathroom, noticing that he felt a bit dizzy. Ten minutes later, he stepped into the Mediwitch's office, knowing that the professor was waiting for him.
Snape shot him a sharp look. "Are you sure you're feeling well enough, Mr. Potter?"
"My headache is bothering me a little and I'm a bit dizzy, but other than that I feel fine," Harry admitted in a barely audible voice.
"Now that we have cut the I.V. connection, your fever will probably go up and so will the dizziness," Snape explained thoughtfully. "I can't give you anything for it right now. However, I can give you a headache potion. Is it only your head or does your whole body hurt?"
"Head is the worst," Harry whispered, hardly able to keep his eyes open.
"Don't dwell on the taste, just gulp it down," the professor advised him as he pressed a small phial against Harry's lips, and Harry felt the headache subside instantly.
"Thank you," he said gratefully. "All right, I'm ready now. Which books will I need today though?"
Snape pulled a timetable out of his robe pocket, handing it to Harry. "Only consider your morning classes for the time being. We'll see about your afternoon classes."
"Yes sir," Harry replied and quickly fetched his school bag together with his Transfiguration and Potions books. Then he followed the professor out of the hospital wing, seeing that Madam Pomfrey was busying herself with an older student in the first bed.
Snape led Harry to the Slytherin table. "Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Zabini, this is Mr. Potter. Please remember what we talked about and make sure everyone knows that he belongs to us."
"Yes sir," Draco and Blaise replied simultaneously and moved aside, so that Harry could sit between them.
"Harry, you need to eat something," Blaise told him a few minutes later, seeing that Harry merely drank a few glasses of pumpkin juice.
"Thank you, but I'm not hungry," Harry replied softly.
"Harry, you have to eat. Professor Snape instructed us to keep an eye of you, and we'll have to inform the professor if you don't eat, and you'll earn a toad," Draco said warningly, causing Harry to hesitantly butter a piece of toast.
"A toad?" he queried, and Draco explained the Slytherin internal system of snakes as positive points and toads as negative points.
Unbeknownst to Harry, Snape had informed his House about Harry's problems and about the fact that the Sorting Hat had announced if not for his illness Harry would have been sorted into Slytherin. "He will be treated as a Slytherin, and he'll be able to gain and loose House points for our House as well as toads and snakes within our House. He will also have full access to Slytherin House, even if he isn't allowed to stay in the dormitory overnight," the teacher had explained and had asked the first years to keep an eye on the boy.
Harry noticed quickly that the students at the Slytherin table were as nice and had as much fun together as those at the Gryffindor table, and if he had felt a small bit of regret at the fact that he had to sit with the Slytherins, it was gone by the time breakfast was over. Draco and Blaise kept Harry firmly in their midst as they walked up to the Transfiguration classroom and ushered him on a seat between them. Harry didn't mind, because both of them were very friendly and told him about the long monologue their Head of House had held at the House meeting the evening before.
He sighed in relief as he let himself sink on his seat, unaware of the concerned look the cat that was sitting on the teacher's desk threw him. 'Wow; Transfiguration is really cool,' he mused as he observed the cat change back into Professor McGonagall. However, when the professor made them try to transfigure matches into needles, he noticed that it was more difficult than he had expected and that he felt more feverish and dizzier with each attempt to cast the spell. 'I just can't do that,' he thought in frustration, putting his achy head in his hands.
tbc...
Thank you so much for your kind comments and your interest in this story!
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.
