The Stubborn Old Headmaster
by Healer Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC! Dumbledore bashing!
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thank you so much for your kind reviews for the previous chapter!
Harry just could not sleep. Finally, he made a decision. 'I'll just go and find Aunt Minerva or Aunt Poppy. It can't be that hard to find them.' Quietly scrambling out of the bed, he rushed to the door, but it wouldn't budge, so he finally opened it with a thought of 'Alohomora', like he did with his cupboard, and then he stepped out into the cold dungeons. He remembered that the old man with the white beard should not see him, so he was very careful not to be detected by anyone. 'Maybe if I see someone, I should ask where I can find them,' he thought, getting very tired after running around for so long, but unfortunately, there was not anyone whom he could ask.
While Severus was searching the dungeons, Harry was running around Gryffindor tower. He even found the door of Minerva's private quarters, where he had spent a weekend last month. However, the wizard in the portrait told him that Minerva was in the hospital wing.
The portrait asked Harry, after seeing the tears in the young boy's eyes, "Would you like me to tell you how to get there?" On Harry's tearful nod, he gave him directions to find the hospital wing.
Severus had just passed in front of the hospital wing that normally lay quiet at this time of the year and headed towards the Astronomy tower.
Meanwhile, Harry fell over Mrs. Norris who had lazily been sleeping in the middle of the hall. Totally frightened, Harry scrambled back onto his feet and ran as fast as his small legs could carry him. Completely knackered, he opened the door to the hospital wing, frantically searching for Minerva. He was just about to give up, when he spotted the person he was looking for lying in a bed in a small room.
Harry climbed onto the bed and lay down next to his aunt and tried to get under the warm cover, noticing that Minerva did not wake up but brought her arm around him cuddling him close. Harry happily snuggled deeper into her arm, his dragon safely tucked under his arm and his thumb in his mouth. 'Oh, thank Merlin I've found her, and this bed is so warm. I'm so tired,' was all he could think before he fell into an exhausted sleep.
ハリーと頑固な校長先生
When Poppy entered the room the next morning to check on her friend, she was dismayed to see the little boy in her friend's arms. She carefully pulled Harry out of Minerva's strong embrace, ignoring the child's whimpering, and scooped him up onto her arms, taking him over into her private quarters, where she put the obvious worn out child in her own bed. Then she contacted Severus through the Floo, who told her that he had spent half the night looking for Harry until he had given up at four o'clock in the morning. Shaking her head in annoyance, Poppy promised to take care of Harry for the rest of the day and ordered Severus to come to fetch Harry after dinner in time to take him back to his relatives'.
Harry slept until lunchtime.
When Minerva woke up, she excitedly told her friend, "Oh Poppy, I had such a nice dream. Harry came in the middle of the night to cuddle with me and sleep in my arms until the morning. Can you imagine how much I miss him? It's strange how much I have gotten used to him being around during the past few weeks. I love him as if he was my own child." Seeing her friend smirk, she added, "I know it was only a fevered dream, but it felt so real. Where's Harry, Poppy? Is he all right? Is he with Rolanda?"
Poppy sighed. "No, Minerva, Rolanda is sick as well. Harry was with Severus."
Minerva's eyes widened in horror, and she crawled out of bed, mumbling, "I must…"
"The only thing you must do is lie down there and rest so that you can take care of Harry again next weekend. Harry is fine, and at the moment he's asleep in my bed," Poppy interrupted her in a no-nonsense voice.
Harry was glad that he could spend the afternoon together with Poppy. He showed Poppy how well he had learned to write during the week and was commended very much. However, Poppy also had a very stern talk with Harry. "Harry, what you did wasn't nice. You ran away from Uncle Severus' quarters, and he spent almost the whole night searching all over the castle for you. Don't you think he was very worried that something bad had happened to you, hmm?"
Harry shook his head. 'No, Uncle Sevvus doesn't like me. He said I don't eat cause I'm a pampered brat, although I only couldn't eat cause my stomach felt ill cause I was scared of him,' he reasoned silently, well knowing that he should just speak the words aloud.
Poppy sighed at Harry's silence. "Harry, Uncle Severus is not one of the nicest people, but he is a very good person and he'd do everything he could to keep you safe. Give him a bit of time, give him a chance to get to know you, and you'll become quite fond of him as he will of you, because the two of you have very similar traits." Seeing that Harry hung on her every word, she smiled at the boy and suggested, "How about you draw a picture for him and write 'sorry' on it to apologize for your behaviour, hmm?"
Harry gave her a short nod and a shy smile before engrossing himself in drawing a detailed picture divided into four single pictures about what had happened during the night. In the first picture, Severus was towering over a small and frightened Harry. In the second picture, Harry was alone in his bed with wide-open eyes. In the next picture, Harry was roaming the freezing halls, tripping over the cat, and in the last picture, Harry climbed into Minerva's bed, smiling happily. Finally, he wrote 'I'M SORY' on top of his drawing and held the picture out for Poppy to see.
"Oh Harry, you've drawn that very well," she commented him, gently. "Do you want to give that to Severus when he comes to pick you up?"
Harry nodded hesitantly. 'He'll probably tear it up and throw it away in front of my eyes like Aunt Petunia does every time I give her a picture,' he thought sadly.
"Harry, you can draw so well. How about drawing a picture for Aunt Minerva?" Poppy suggested and explained, "She told me that she was very happy having you there during the night and that she misses you a lot because she loves you so much. I believe that she'd be very happy to have one of your nice pictures."
"REALY?" Harry wrote on a parchment.
"Yes, of course, sweetie, you know that she cares about you a lot, don't you?" Poppy answered with a smile.
Harry thought for a moment before he gave the nice lady a nod, a happy smile gracing his face. Harry spent the time remaining before dinner drawing a picture of Minerva lying in bed and Harry visiting her with a bunch of flowers in his hand, which he made float over to Minerva. Finally, Harry wrote 'HARRY LOFS ANT MINERVA' and made the letters twinkle.
"Oh, Harry, that's such a sweet picture. Aunt Minerva will be very happy," Poppy commended the child and held out her hand to take the picture.
Harry however kept the picture close, shaking his head. 'I want to give it to Aunt Minerva,' he pleaded silently, giving Poppy a persuasive look.
"You want to see Aunt Minerva, I know that, Harry, but she is still contagious, and no one is allowed to visit her. Let me think about it for a moment; anyway, we have to put a charm on your picture, so that nobody except for Aunt Minerva can see what's on it. We don't want anyone to know that you've been here, right?"
'Ah, yes, of course, the headmaster can't know about it.' Harry could understand that and immediately handed over his drawing.
Knowing that the headmaster knew better than to enter the hospital wing against Poppy's orders, she decided that it would be safe enough for Harry to see Minerva long enough to hand over the picture, especially as he had spent half the night at her side anyway. Harry was overjoyed to see Minerva. He ran over to her side, handed her the picture, and when she gave him a huge smile, he hesitantly leaned over and placed a sloppy kiss on her cheek just like she always put kisses on his forehead. Then he felt himself being pulled back by Poppy, who patiently explained to him that he couldn't stay any longer because they didn't want him to get sick, too.
"Thank you, sweetheart, I love you too," Minerva told Harry, happily admiring the beautiful picture, before Poppy led the child back to her quarters.
When Harry hesitantly handed his picture over to Severus, the man looked at it with apparent interest, before the edges of his mouth slightly pulled upwards. "Thank you, Potter," was the only comment Harry received, causing him to inwardly sigh in relief.
Too soon for Harry's liking, it was time for him to return to the Dursleys. To his great astonishment, Severus accompanied him to the Dursleys and exchanged a few words with his aunt about how much little boys were supposed to eat.
Aunt Petunia snapped at him, "And why does that concern you?"
Severus replied, "It very much concerns me, as Harry is the son of my best friend," before he turned on his heels and apparated away.
'He stood up for me,' Harry thought in surprise, as he retired to his cupboard, feeling very much cared for, even by the teacher who did not like him.
ハリーと頑固な校長先生
During the week in his cupboard, Harry spent much of his time practising to write small letters. He also drew very nice pictures for Aunt Poppy, Aunt Minerva and Uncle Severus. The Dursleys did indeed feed him more than the week before, and it was only because Harry didn't feel very well during the week that he could not eat any more than before. However, Harry felt very grateful towards Severus for speaking up for him against the Dursleys. 'Maybe Aunt Poppy is right and he only seems so mean but is really very nice,' he thought, looking forward to the weekend.
On Saturday, Harry dressed in some of his nice clothes, which Minerva had bought for him, before he put one of Dudley's old jumpers over the T-shirt, sensing that it was fairly cold on this morning. He quickly opened his door and slowly walked over to Mrs. Figg's house, feeling absolutely awful. Knowing better than to complain about not feeling well, he ran over to Minerva, happy to have her back for the weekend.
"All right, Harry, are you ready to apparate?" Minerva asked, eager to return home as she still was not completely recovered, and Harry gave her a slight nod, before he placed both hands firmly on the teacher's arms, showing that he was ready.
Arriving at McGonagall Manor, Harry immediately sat down at the table, placing his paintings for Minerva, Poppy, and Severus on the table. Minerva sat down opposite of him, admiring the pictures. "Oh, Harry, they are wonderful. You drew one for Uncle Severus too?" she asked in surprise.
Harry gave her a short nod, took a crayon and gave a pleading glance at Minerva that made her conjure a few parchments. Then he wrote, "Unkel Severus takd to Ant Tunia last week. He was nice."
Minerva gave him an astonished glance and corrected Harry's mistakes. "Now, shall we practise writing a bit today?"
Harry gave her a small nod and tried to do his best in spite of feeling awful. Noticing that Harry was not his usual cheerful self, Minerva gave him a piercing look taking in his flushed cheeks and glassy eyes. "Harry, are you feeling all right?" she asked concerned and in spite of the boy's nod walked over to the child to feel his forehead. "You seem a bit warm but not overly so," she stated thoughtfully, forgetting that her own skin was still warmer than normal. Advising the child, "If you feel ill, please tell me, Harry," she returned to her seat.
'If I'm going to look after Harry in the future, maybe I should ask Poppy to give me a simple Healing course. It would be useful at Hogwarts anyway as I wouldn't have to call her to Gryffindor just to take a student's temperature every now and then,' she thought, regretting she had disregarded her friend's advice over the years.
At lunch, Harry only played with his food, eating no more two or three bites. "Don't you like it, Harry?" Minerva asked worried but Harry only gave her an apologetic smile that did not really reach his eyes. Coming to the conclusion that the child obviously was ill, Minerva ushered Harry up into his room, made him lie down on his bed, and noticed that he sighed contentedly when his head touched the pillow.
Harry let out a relieved sigh. His whole body was sore, and he felt hot and cold at the same time. But the Dursleys had always told him that he was not allowed to complain and that he earned what he got. Therefore, he did not dare ask if he could lie down during the morning. He gave Aunt Minerva a grateful smile that turned into an anxious frown when she suddenly put a long thing into his mouth. Shivering even more upon the cold sensation, he gave the teacher a frightened look, hoping she would take it out immediately.
"Shush, now, Harry, that's only a thermometer. I want to take your temperature as you seem to be ill. Relax, it won't hurt you, but you have to wait a moment. Unfortunately, I'm not able to do it with a wand like Aunt Poppy does."
Harry slightly relaxed trying not to think about how awful he felt but about how lucky he was. 'Aunt Minerva is so nice,' he thought. 'But even if she normally is nice to me, now at least she will notice that I'm a good for nothing burden,' he thought, uncomfortably fighting against the thing in his mouth.
"No, Harry, please stop it," Minerva admonished him sternly.
After what seemed to be an infinite time, Minerva took the thing out and let out a huge gasp. "40 degrees, Harry, that's a very high fever. Didn't you notice that you're so ill?" She quickly conjured a cool cloth and put it on Harry's forehead before she told him, "Harry, stay put, I'll be back in a minute. I'm going to call Aunt Poppy, so that she can check on you."
Poppy sat down on the edge of Harry's bed and carefully stroked his hot cheeks, frowning that the boy obviously felt too bad to even slightly flinch. "Hey, sweetie, are you feeling ill?" she asked in a quiet voice.
Harry looked at her with half-closed eyes and gave her a short nod, closing his eyes when he saw that Poppy waved her wand at him. 'It's all right, she won't hurt me,' he tried to calm himself. 'Aunt Poppy probably came to make me feel better,' he thought, still feeling horrible but also very happy, as he had not felt so cared for in his whole life.
"The muggle flu," Poppy diagnosed two minutes later. "I'll have Severus brew a fever reducer for children. In the meantime, I can give him a sip of the normal pain relieving potion but that's all I can do for him. He'll have to stay in bed for a week, which means," she gave Minerva a pointed look, "that we'll have to take him to Hogwarts tomorrow evening." She left for the fireplace to call Severus, before she returned two minutes later and sat down next to Harry again.
"Harry," she softly spoke to the sick child, watching as his eyes opened slightly. "Are you in pain?"
Not wanting to move his sore head, Harry let out a small groan. "Can you tell me what hurts most, Harry? Is it your head? Is your throat sore too?"
'I can't answer that question without speaking aloud now can I?' Harry thought confused, but he felt ill enough and had enough confidence in Poppy that he just wanted her to understand and thought, 'my eyes,' noticing that tears welled in his eyes.
"That's because of the fever," Poppy said calmly. "It makes your eyes sore. Now I have a pain relieving potion here, and I want you to take a sip from the phial. Can you do that for me, sweetie? Just a sip will be enough."
Harry obediently took a sip, noticing the effect immediately. Looking at Poppy, he thought, 'Thanks.'
"You're welcome, Harry; now try to sleep for a while. Uncle Severus is just brewing a fever reducing potion for you, and I'll give it to you as soon as it is finished." Seeing that Harry closed his eyes again, Poppy turned to Minerva, who had been watching confused how Poppy had communicated with Harry.
"That was a good opportunity," she said, looking very pleased.
"What are you talking about, Poppy?" Minerva asked curiously.
"Harry. He spoke to me, didn't he?" Poppy asked impatiently.
"No Poppy. I didn't hear a word," Minerva insisted. "Poppy, are you feeling all right?" she asked worriedly, giving her friend a piercing glance.
"Yes, of course, Minerva. Then maybe… Do you think it could be possible that he has telepathic abilities? That he thought his answer to me? At first he told me that his eyes were sore, and the second time he said 'thanks'."
"That would be very unique," Minerva replied thoughtfully. "But leave it to Harry to have such special abilities."
ハリーと頑固な校長先生
During the rest of the weekend, Poppy spent most of her time with Minerva and Harry, helping her friend to look after the sick child. On Sunday evening, Minerva had to return to Hogwarts, and as Harry was too ill to be sent back to the Dursleys Poppy took him through the Floo to the hospital wing at Hogwarts. The two women had thought of a made up story for the headmaster telling him that Arabella Figg had known of Harry's illness and contacted Poppy and that Minerva had brought the child to Poppy on her orders. Poppy had already floo-called Arabella, and she had agreed to the story and had promised to tell the Dursleys that Harry wouldn't return for a week.
Harry did not care what was happening at all. His condition was still worsening, and he was barely conscious between his fevered dreams. Poppy and Minerva barely ever left his side, and even Severus had agreed to take his turns staying with the sick child during the nights. So far, Poppy did not have an opportunity to coax Harry into speaking or giving her thoughts once more, and Minerva and she were still wondering what had occurred the other day. Harry couldn't remember ever having felt so awful before. His fever stayed dangerously high, and he felt like he was dying.
One day, Harry sensed thoughts in his mind that were not his own. 'Don't worry, you'll feel better in a few days.'
'Who is speaking to me? Is that one of the fever dreams? Am I going to die?' Harry thought desperately.
'I'm Tom, and I could feel your thoughts. And no, you won't die. I know that you feel awful, but you'll be all right. In a few days you'll feel better,' a nice, soft voice replied, making Harry feel slightly better.
Poppy was relieved to notice that Harry's fever broke. However, the way to recovery did not continue for more than a few hours.
ハリーと頑固な校長先生
Later the same day, Dumbledore entered the hospital wing, enraged because Severus had told him about Harry being in the hospital wing, when Albus asked where he had been earlier in the morning when he had been looking for him in his quarters.
Dumbledore angrily turned to Minerva and Poppy, who were talking to Harry, glad that the boy had overcome the dangerous fever. "Minerva, you're going to take Harry back to his relatives immediately!"
"No, Albus," Poppy replied sternly. "He's very ill, and he won't get the necessary care he needs at the Dursleys'. He'd have died if we had left him in his relatives' house."
"Minerva, you know what you have to do, otherwise from September 1st onwards you will no longer be a teacher at Hogwarts," Dumbledore threatened, leaving the room without even looking at the sick child.
Minerva immediately went into Poppy's office to call Severus, Pomona, Filius, and Rolanda into the hospital wing, while Poppy noticed sadly that Harry's fever was spiking again.
ハリーと頑固な校長先生
When Dumbledore entered his office in the morning, seven school owls were waiting on the windowsill outside his window. Each of them brought a letter of resignation from one of his teachers.