Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
Thanks a lot to my beta-reader, xxcassxxcullenxx, for correcting my mistakes.
I also would like to thank my motovation betas!
I'm not a native speaker of English!
Dear readers,
Here comes the next chapter! Please let me know what you think. I cannot say when I will be able to upload again. The next 1 1/2 weeks will be pure stress for me and I hope that I will get a chapter of Cherokee Camp back from my beta before i upload here again. Nevertheless your reviews are always very encouraging and make me write even when I shouldn't. :)
Sunny
Chapter 8 - Cavalry
-II-
"Not in this case, Harry. Ivy and Severus see another healer to get their relationship problems solved. I'm just there for them as a friend, not a healer. For you I'm both."
"Will they ever come together again?"
"I don't know, Harry, and I won't lie to you. It will be quiet some work for them. There are a lot of things that caused this crisis; things that go deeper than most of the people around them know. They won't tell you everything, but they want to tell you a bit of the problem so that you understand it a bit better. You need to give them the freedom to not tell you the details Harry. They are not meant for your ears, they are their problems, their details. Can you understand what I mean?"
Harry nodded. He didn't even want to know all the details, just how bad both of them are influenced by it and what they think about the future.
"So will we go back in there now?"
Harry breathed deeply and sighed, but then he nodded. "Will you sit with me?"
"Like I promised, Harry. I will be at your side."
"Okay, then let's go back in there."
-II-
With his head down Harry entered James' office. He was glad James was right behind him placing one of his hands on Harry's neck. That gave Harry the feeling of safety. You could cut the air with a knife.
When James had sat down on the second couch with Harry, he instructed Severus to start.
"Harry, James said it would be best to be honest with you and at least to tell you the outline of the problem. Maybe I should have done it before, I'm sorry, but..."
"Just start now, Severus. It's useless to think about what is in the past and can't be changed," James instructed.
Harry could feel that Severus was fighting and didn't want to let him know about it.
"I met another woman for a little over two months and lied to your mother about it. Nothing sexual happened. I didn't cheat on your mother, but still I lied and I have no proof of my inno—" A loud scratching made Severus stop.
Harry looked over to Ivy whose hand were balled to fists and her fingernails cut in the leather of the couch. Sickness overcame Harry and cold sweat formed on his neck and on his face. Only James quick reaction stopped Harry from falling into a full-fledged panic attack. James let calming magic flow into Harry until he felt Harry calm down.
"Ivy that's the truth. I won't lie to him."
"Severus, you knew her for much longer, and you also knew that I didn't like you meeting her at all. She always wanted you and—"
"Ivy, that doesn't belong into this setting. Please talk about this in your sessions with Healer Langster. Please let Severus tell Harry his opinion of this all, and then you will have your chance as well.
"But he is making me look irrational in front of my son, James," Ivy cried.
"That's exactly why I thought this is a bad idea, James. It will make him even more sick to see us like this. Why the hell do you think that this is a good idea?" Severus jumped up and paced the room.
James had trouble keeping Harry on a level of calmness to survive this meeting without an attack and not fall asleep. "Harry, I have to apologize. When I talked to them alone, I really thought it could work like that, but right now it isn't. Would it be okay for you to wait an hour or two and then meet again with us? I would like someone else to join us in that talk."
Harry looked with panic at him. He had no idea how he would survive one or two hours without worrying himself sick after that display.
"Your grandparents and godparents asked me to inform them as soon as you have free time to come over and visit you. Maybe they can keep you occupied for that time," James said encouraging.
Yes, seeing them would be good. At least they were still calm and balanced that it always gave him the feeling of normality. Maybe it also was just feigned, but then they were much better actors than Severus and Ivy. Harry nodded.
"Good. Come on, I will bring you to Anne and you will wait there for your visitors."
Only five minutes later he was in Minerva's arms and didn't let go. The nurses even left their room except for one who had to stay there for watching the monitors. When Harry had calmed down enough to talk, he told Minerva of the dreadful meeting with his parents, still not letting go of her or greeting the rest of his visitors.
"Shh, Harry, calm down. Things will clear up. I know you hate to hear that and believe me, but they will solve their problems. I think it is time someone spoke a stern word with them."
She looked over Harry's shoulder at her husband who had a fierce expression on his face as well. They had stayed out of it for long enough, but know Ivy and Severus had proven that they weren't able to solve it alone. Two and a half weeks and they couldn't even pull themselves together while being in an important family session with Harry. This was too much.
"James wants someone else to be in the session. I think they are still in his office. I think he is talking with them, but nothing will change. Mom will never forgive him for whatever he has done."
"Harry? Harry! Come on," Minerva said while she pried Harry's hand from its position, which had a death grip on her dress, open and held him at a distance in front of her.
"How about you say hello to the others and then you show your godparents that little park we saw when we came in. Your grandfather and I will see if we can speak with your parents and then join you later in the park."
"I don't think it is a good idea. I don't want you all to be involved as well. At least you all were a bit normal lately." Harry looked sadly around at* his other visitors.
"And we will stay as normal as we have been, even if I dare say you are the only one who ever would call us normal, Harry." Minerva smiled at him while she cleaned his face with her handkerchief. "So do we have a deal?"
"But you will not scream at them, right?"
"We will try to compose ourselves, Harry," Minerva promised.
"Okay," Harry said and stood up. He went over to the rest of his visitors and hugged them.
Five minutes later, Harry was in the park with Alastor and Poppy and showed them the gym. "We had a dancing session here. It was really weird."
They sat down on one of the benches. Harry was glad to have Poppy and Alastor around. They really were able to distract him. They had told him about his friends. That Seamus had landed himself in the hospital again. This time he had set his robes on fire, but at least Alastor had been close by and could act before Seamus was seriously burned. Hermione had made copies of all the stuff they had in classes, and Ron had sent him his chess set so he could play with his roommate.
"Please give Ron my chess set, so he can play. I forgot to take it with me. I have no clue why he knew about it or if it was just a good guess that he sent me his."
"Maybe he just realized that he had nobody to play at the moment and thought you could use it here. You only played with Severus, Albus and Thadeus with your set." When Poppy admired a flower close by, Alastor leaned closer to Harry. "The Weasley twins gave me something for you as well, but Poppy found out and confiscated it."
"For good reason, Alastor. Bad enough that you really thought about bringing it with you," Poppy scolded.
Alastor leaned over again. "Sometimes I wonder how she heard that. Shouldn't she be old enough to be at least a little bit deaf?"
"Oh, you old..." Poppy said and gasped for air. "You are ten years older than me."
"Yes, my dear, and I overhear a lot of things lately."
"Yes, but only those you don't want to hear."
It was so good to see two people obviously fighting but still looking at each other with that much love in their eyes that it was clear everything was alright. "I wish my parents could be like that," Harry said sadly. "I mean fighting but not really fighting at all."
Poppy sat back on the bench. "Harry, Alastor and I have been married for a long time and knew each other way before we married. It takes a long time to become like that, and we also had a lot of real fights before it became like this."
"A fight like Severus and Ivy's?"
Poppy looked sadly at Harry. "Not exactly, but it is still something people can solve."
Harry sighed. He wished he would know if they really meant it or just were feigning it. At the current time it was hard to differ between honesty and a lie.
/
"James has a meeting, and Healer Langster, who James wants to take part at our next talk, is still in a session. We will meet again in one hour," Severus, whom they just caught in time before he could leave through the fireplace in the hall, explained. "Ivy will stay in James' office, she isn't feeling well. I will head back to Hogwarts." He turned around, but before he could grab the floo powder, Albus spoke.
"You will not, Severus. It's time we two talk!"
Severus hand froze on its way to the floo powder. Albus' voice was like ice, and he knew that the moment had finally come that he had feared for two weeks. Now he would have to stand the wrath of an angry father-in-law. And this father-in-law being the most powerful man in the world was making it all the scarier.
"Albus, I don't think that is a good idea."
"Don't even try to run away from me, Severus. I held myself back for over two weeks, smiled and bore it, but now it is enough." Albus eyes didn't twinkle at all. "Do you want this talk here in the hall or should we ask one of those kind nurses to give us a room?"
"Albus, I'm sorry."
"I'm surprised you chose the hall, but if you wish." Albus took a breath as if he wanted to go on, but Severus quickly stopped him and went over to a nurse to ask for a room to talk with Albus without prying ears.
When they had settled down in a small room with just a table and a few chairs, Albus started angrily. "I kept my mouth shut because your problems are yours even if my daughter is involved. She is old enough, and I knew she doesn't want me to interfere. She told us about your..." For the first time Severus saw Albus out of words and wondered what it was about. When Albus finally went on Severus heart almost stopped and his normally pale face became red. "She told us about the problems you had for the last two months, and I myself can't stop from making my own conclusions which always lead me to the same result. You cheated on my daughter whom I love to bits." He breathed heavily and it was obvious that he was fighting to keep composed. "Still I didn't intervene. I love you as a son and … Merlin, I don't want to believe that you did that to her. No!" Albus shouted loudly as Severus wanted to say something. "I don't want to hear it! That's between you and her. You said again and again that in your opinion you didn't cheat on her. You don't need to repeat it."
"But you don't believe me!"
"How can I?" Albus eyes were sparkling with fire now.
"I was meeting that woman as a friend. Nothing else. I would never cheat on Ivy. She is my love, my life!"
"Then why the hell did you show the white flag and run away? Why aren't you fighting for her to understand?"
"Because Ivy wants me to. She wants me to stay away from her. She can't even look at me without getting sick, Albus. My wife gets sick about seeing me! I lied to her, yes. I'm guilty of that. I won't tell you why I went to Mary, but it was only to talk with someone outside the family or the small circle of friends. Whom else could I go to to speak about something concerning Ivy?"
"Why not me? Or James? Or Remus? You even moved in with him in his small quarters."
"I should have spoken with you about my marriage problems? Most certainly not, Albus. You are my father-in-law and believe me you would have never understand it. And James? He isn't the solution for everything. I knew Mary for a long time. Ivy knows that. She never liked her, I know, you don't have to remind me." Both men were pacing and glaring and pacing and glaring and screaming and it went on and on. Finally Albus slammed his palm on the table. "That leads to nothing, Severus. That's why I didn't want to speak with you about it at all. Your problem with Ivy I can't solve nor can I look at them with a cool mind. I wanted to speak with you about Harry not Ivy."
Severus had stopped his pacing when Albus palm came down on the table, and now he stared at his father-in-law.
"Whatever will happen with your relationship... your marriage to Ivy, you need to get yourself under control for Harry. As a couple or as single parents you need to have his well-being and of course the well-being of your other sons as first priority. It was your decision to give those children life, and now you have deliberately diminished your importance for the sake of your children. You both took in Harry and wanted to give him a family. Now you have at least to be father and mother to him if not parents in a family context. You scared him to death with your behavior lately. With you, I mean both of you. Minerva is speaking with Ivy at the moment. This has to stop. You have responsibilities concerning your children."
"I know that. I tried my best."
"Then that wasn't enough, Severus. One of your sons is in a mental care facility at the moment and you two can't even behave for a session with him. Harry was just starting to feel safe and as a real part of this family. It was too early for a crisis like that. You need to be strong for him. Both of you have to be strong for him, No matter what happens. If you really say the truth and you didn't cheat on Ivy, you have to stop running away and be a man. The longer you wait to talk turkey the more she will become obsessed with the idea she has of what happened with that woman. She won't come to her senses on her own."
"We are already meeting a relationship counselor, Albus. Still Ivy... she is not listening to me." He held his hand up to stop Albus this time. "I know you all think I try to blame Ivy for it, but I don't. That's why I want to give her the time she needs. It's not easy to see her look at me like that, but I don't say it to get pity. I deserved it for my lying. Still I'm at my wits end how to solve things with, Harry. Maybe I should back down and—"
Albus was in front of Severus in a second, and Severus held his breath. He was 100% sure Albus would hex him now. "If you do that, you will no longer belong to my family. Even if you will divorce you will still be welcome in our quarters by me and Minerva, but if you dare to run away from your duties as a father for any of your sons, this will change."
"I'm not running away. I'm just trying to find the right way to solve things. I already told you I'm at the end of my wits." Severus felt something break in him. A barrier fell down and immediately his eyes filled with tears. In horror he quickly tried to turn away, but Albus had seen it. Before Severus could do anything he was crushed in a strong hug. His weak attempts to free himself before he would lose it completely were ignored, and then it was too much, and for the first time since his problems with Ivy and her wish for a child started, he let go completely. If Albus wanted to hear it or not, Severus didn't care and he couldn't have stopped himself if he had. He spoke everything that was burdening him lately off his chest between sobs and weak attempts to get his stuffed nose free or his eyes dry.
In James' office meanwhile Ivy had broken down in the arms of her mother as well and told her about what she had heard from Severus in their first session with Healer Langster and what she had tried to ignore to still be able to hate Severus. She still hated him and felt so betrayed even though she believed him that he didn't cheat on her. Still he hadn't talked with her about his thoughts, he had lied to her for months, and she hated him for thinking this was not bad and that she should be able to understand him and forgive him.
"Ivy, I understand your feelings, but you have three children to take care of and they need their father. I know my opinion is useless here, but still I think that are things you two can talk about, and one day you can forgive him. Severus never was an open man, Ivy. You knew this when you married him."
"But that's exactly the problem, Mom. He was open with another woman. Don't you see that? He spoke with her about things he couldn't talk with me about!"
"Shh, my dear, I know. Still you two became so close and the love between you two always was so obvious even to the many people that doubted your marriage. You two went through so much; you need to be strong another time, Ivy. You love him, otherwise you wouldn't be so hurt and angry now. Go to that sessions with him and try to stay calm and listen and give him a chance. And one thing is very important, Ivy. You two need to look out for Harry, Eathan, and Lysander. Harry is emotionally at the edge and the twins have been behaving odd lately as well. They notice the problems more and more. Soon they will start to get more conspicuous."
"I know, Mom. You have no idea how guilty I feel to see Harry like this or when I lie to the twins, telling them everything is okay. I try hard to get my anger under control."
"Guilt is helping nobody. Try to remember why you started to fall in love with Severus and the good things you experienced or even the bad things you managed to survive together. Maybe that will lead you back to him."
"I will try, Mom, but it is so hard."
"I can't give you a guarantee, but I think Severus and you belong together Ivy. And most important, your children need the two of you."
/
When Albus and Minerva joined Alastor, Poppy and Harry, they didn't give away how their talks had gone. Harry hadn't much time to try to get more information out of them because some nurses in blue robes, which meant they were responsible for the afternoon activities, made the round and spoke to all children and their guests in the park. "We make a little spontaneous dance in the gym. Come in and take part." Harry once had seen a video of the Dursleys while they were on holiday in a big hotel in Spain. There were a lot of animations in them — which by the way was a hard nut to crack on the Durleys — who were exactly like the nurses in the blue robes. Harry wondered if they got a special training for that because he didn't see one person not going with them, even so he saw a few other children argue with their guests like Harry did with his to not follow.
In the gym waited the woman Harry had met yesterday here as well. This time she introduced herself to them. She was Patricia. "There are no rules, except for not making fun of others and just standing around. Everyone will move, no matter how. Well, well, well, let's begin." She clapped her hands and rushed over to the odd looking instruments with which she instantly started to make music. It was not really dancing music more a soft melodic jingle. Many people started to just wave and swing around like Harry had seen it in the first dancing session. It seems most of them already knew what to do. A few blue robed nurses were going to those who looked helplessly around. Harry's family again proved to be not normal because they didn't stand around clueless, but started to dance in a crazy medieval time looking dance where they changed their partner every few seconds and soon Harry was swinging with them and danced with one of them for a few seconds before going with another, no matter it be a man or woman. Even Alastor and Albus danced and to Harry's surprise it was great fun and soon he felt the lately so unfamiliar ache of his facial muscles being too long strained by a smile. After a few minutes he had forgotten about the scene in James office and the expressions on Severus and Ivy's faces and the heavy feeling in his chest. He was just swinging in that strange medieval times dance with Albus, Alastor, Minerva and Poppy.
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