A/N: I guess I update in pairs! I thought I'd get this done now since I don't foresee a lot of freetime. It's spring break for my little brothers and sisters which means lots more babysitting time for me! But anyway, now this is out of the way. I hope you like it! Also, if anyone cares, I have a poll up on my profile. It's not exactly about this story, but I'd still like some votes! :D
Harry looked uncertainly between Remus and the woman sitting beside him on the bed. Remus said the woman was called Mrs. Weasley and that she was his friend and had come over to take care of Harry's injuries. He'd also said she was a witch and was going to use magic to heal him. The woman seemed nice enough. She had a kind smile and gentle eyes, but Harry wasn't sure he wanted to show her what Uncle Vernon had done to him. For all that Remus had said about Harry not being a freak, he couldn't quite believe that everyone would see it that way.
Remus had known Harry before he saw all of that. He didn't think Harry was a horrible little boy. But Mrs. Weasley didn't know him at all. She would probably think he deserved it. And then of course there was still the fact that he was not supposed to tell people. Remus was one thing, but to show a complete stranger?
"Come on, Dear," Mrs. Weasley coaxed gently. "I'm going to fix you right up."
Harry bit his lip, wondering if magic hurt.
Mrs. Weasley tsked as she ran a hand through Harry's messy hair, making the little boy tense at the touch. "Remus, when was the last time the child had a bath?"
Remus looked guilty. "I was going to give him one last night after we'd been outside, but…"
"Never mind, we'll get him cleaned up," she soothed. "My boys like me to add bubbles to their baths and turn them colors," Mrs. Weasley said to Harry. "Do you think you'd like that?"
Harry stayed silent as ever, though he was thinking bubbles did look really cool to play with.
"I've an idea," Mrs. Weasley smiled. "Why don't I run you a nice warm bubble bath right now? How does that sound?"
Harry didn't answer.
"That's a good idea," Remus said for him, and Mrs. Weasley headed down the hall to start the water.
"Harry, she's going to make you feel better," Remus tried to persuade him. "But you've got to let her see everything. She's the kindest woman you'll ever meet," he asserted. "You needn't be afraid."
Harry squirmed. He wasn't afraid of Mrs. Weasley. In fact, she was the first adult he could remember not being afraid of at all. But he still didn't like the idea of her seeing all his bruises and marks.
"Come on," Remus said, scooping Harry off the bed and carrying him down to the bathroom, where Mrs. Weasley sat on the edge of the tub, a fluffy towel waiting neatly beside her.
She smiled at Harry when Remus set him down in front of her.
"Do you need anything from me, Molly?" Remus asked. "Only I need to speak to Dumbledore, but I don't want to leave Harry alone…"
"We'll be fine," Mrs. Weasley told him. "Go and speak to him, Remus. We've got things in here, haven't we, Dear?"
Harry shifted, leaning against Remus's leg. He didn't want Remus to leave. He was feeling all unsettled again. Like he had when Mrs. Figg left. Remus wasn't going to leave him like the Dursleys had… was he? They had said they were coming back, too…
"I won't be gone long," Remus assured both Mrs. Weasley and Harry. He knelt down to look into Harry's face. "When I see you again, you'll be all clean and healed, right?"
Harry knew there wasn't anything to do but nod, so that was what he did.
"Good," Remus smiled at him again and straightened up, thanking Mrs. Weasley one more time before slipping out of the bathroom and closing the door behind him.
"Well, the water's all ready," Mrs. Weasley told Harry cheerfully, turning off the spout. "Let's get you out of those pajamas, hmm?"
She knelt down in front of Harry, talking like Remus did to distract Harry as she slowly unbuttoned his shirt.
"I've got a little boy your age you know," she told Harry with the first button. "He quite likes lions, too. I noticed you've got a picture of one in your room." The second button. "And my husband would love your airplanes." The third button. "Maybe you can show me how they work later." The fourth button.
Harry's pajama shirt fell open and Mrs. Weasley slid it off.
Even though Remus had warmed her, she couldn't help but gasp when she saw for herself the dark bruises covering the little boy's thin frame in large, dark splotches, the harsh red welts smarting on his chest and curling around his arms, and the feathery pattern of white scars, the remnants of old injuries. The little boy standing before her had been battered and beaten so terribly…
She felt like bursting into tears right there, gathering the boy up in her arms like she did her own children and never letting him go. But, of course, she couldn't.
"Come here, Dear," she murmured, guiding Harry over to the closed toilet and sitting him down on the lid. Slowly, she withdrew her wand. "I'm just going to heal some of those bruises before we get you into the tub, alright?"
She examined his torso, picking the worst looking patches, and slowly waved her wand over them, murmuring an incantation. The worst of the bruising faded very slightly, the splotches receding a little bit. She passed her wand over them again and the dark bruises faded even more. Very slowly, Mrs. Weasley worked her way up and down both arms, across Harry's chest and stomach and then onto his back, which was the worst.
As she worked, she chatted cheerily about anything she could think of, knowing it was best to keep the boy's mind off of what she was doing. She tried to ask Harry questions, but he didn't give much in response.
After Mrs. Weasley had finished with his torso, she slipped off his pajama bottoms and continued the healing spell down his bruised and scarred legs. There was a shiny burn mark on Harry's left shin and a pattern of angry red scars on the top of his foot that made her heart clench as she imagined what had caused them.
Finally, when she'd done all she felt safe doing on such a small, thin child, Mrs. Weasley sat back and smiled at him.
"Well, that's done now," she said. "Usually we can just wave our wands and heal a bruise right up, but since there were so many, I've just sped them along a bit. They ought to be gone in a day or two, but you'll probably be very sleepy while they heal. I've got a cream for those welts, but I'll put that on after you're all cleaned up."
Harry was shivering by now and already beginning to feel drowsy. He watched dazedly as Mrs. Weasley tapped the side of the tub to warm the water back up and then trailed the tip of her wand over the surface, leaving mounds of foamy bubbles on the water. A flick of her wand and they were slowly turning from icy white, to light blue and then to a pastel green and on. Harry couldn't help but perk up a little, eyes widening when he saw that.
Mrs. Weasley chuckled a bit. "My daughter always likes that," she told Harry, helping him over to the tub and into the water.
It was wonderfully warm. Harry could never remember being enveloped in something so warm and soothing before. His baths at the Dursleys were quick, harsh, scrubs from his aunt, usually after he was sprayed down with cold water. But this was wonderful. The water smelled like lavender and the foam tickled his chest and stuck to his chin like a beard.
The bubbles floated up and landed on his nose and he sneezed, making a ripple in the sea of foam. He giggled.
Mrs. Weasley smiled as she watched the little boy gather handfuls of color changing suds and run his hands through the mountains and clouds of foam around him, looking delighted when they swirled in the water. The boy hadn't said one word to her, but this… watching him be so happy… it was better than a thousand words.
She took a cloth, poured a potion that would help with the stinging onto it, and began to wash Harry as gently as she could around the injuries. Every inch of skin was blackened or red or crisscrossed with scars. She kept up a steady stream of chatter as she gently scrubbed, but she couldn't stop the tears from leaking out of her eye and falling, unnoticed, into the bath water.
Harry was getting drowsy quickly though. He leaned against Mrs. Weasley's arm as she held him upright, sponging the last of the soap out of his hair. Mrs. Weasley could tell he was nearly asleep and half lifted him to his feet, keeping one hand firmly on his shoulder as she groped for the fresh towel and wrapped it around his shoulders before lifting him out of the tub. He was so small that the towel feel past his knees, even when she pulled it over his head to dry his hair.
"There you are," she said brightly, pulling the towel back like a hood so she could see his face again and the black hair that stuck up wildly like downy feathers on top of his head. Harry's eyelids were drooping almost closed and he tottered on his feet. "Let's get you back to bed before you fall over right here."
She lifted him, wet towel and all, into her arms, well used to getting soaked during bath time after seven of her own children, and pushed open the door. She felt Harry shiver as they left the steamy bathroom for the chillier air in the rest of the house, and wrapped the towel tighter around hi, rubbing his back gently. He was nearly asleep on her shoulder by the time they reached his bedroom a few steps down the hallway.
Remus was back, just as he'd promised, and was waiting in Harry's room. The moment they pushed open the door, he hurried over to them, looking anxiously at Harry slumped in Mrs. Weasley's arms.
"He's sleepy from the spells I had to use," she explained as Remus took him from her so that she could dry her clothes with a flick of her wand. "Have you got clean pajamas to change him into?"
"Yes, of course," Remus mumbled, laying Harry gently on the bed and hurrying around to the dresser to pull them out.
"Harry, Dear?" Mrs. Weasley said softly, gently shaking Harry awake. "We're going to put that cream I told you about on you now, alright? I'm very sorry, but it's going to sting a bit. Do you want something to hold onto?"
Remus snatched a stuffed tiger off a shelf and set it against Harry's arm. Harry lifted his arm to draw the tiger under the towel still draped over him and hugged it tightly to his chest, one thought in his foggy mind: preparing for pain.
Mrs. Weasley pulled out a small bottle and smeared some thick, pink cream onto a fresh cloth. Then she pulled back the towel enough to expose Harry's legs, and began to gently daub at the lash marks.
Mrs. Weasly expected some kind of reaction. Remus seemed to have, too, since he'd placed a comforting hand on Harry's back. But Harry didn't so much as flinch. Not a sound escaped his lips as Mrs. Weasley covered his legs and then his back and arms with the pink cream. Remus flung the wet towel out into the hallway and dressed Harry in the clean pajama bottoms, then sat him upright so Mrs. Weasley could get at his chest.
He let Harry lean against him, wrapping his arms gently around Harry's middle and murmuring soothingly to him, but Harry didn't even whimper.
The adults exchanged anxious looks as Mrs. Weasley buttoned the clean pajama shirt and Remus slid Harry between the sheets, tucking the blankets around the already-sleeping child. Tears were once more sliding down Mrs. Weasley's cheaks. She knew how much that cream stung and smarted. When she'd used it on the twins last summer after they'd gotten blisters from the rope swing in the back garden, they'd positively howled. And they were eight and it was just their hands.
So in habit with her own children, and with her heart breaking over him, Mrs. Weasley bent to drop a kiss on Harry's slightly sweaty brow before motioning to Remus to follow her out of the room. Remus stood reluctantly, gazing miserably at Harry's small, sleeping figure.
"Is he going to be alright?" he asked quietly once he'd shut the bedroom door behind him and the pair of them stood out on the landing.
"Physically? I don't think there'll be any lasting… serious debility," Mrs. Weasley answered, choosing her words carefully.
"There's nothing I can do about the scars though. They've already healed like that. Even some of the worse lash marks will probably leave new scars. I can't heal anything too quickly, there's too much damage, his body couldn't handle it," she explained grimly. "I've just sped up the process considerably. He ought to be fine in a day or two, but he'll probably sleep most of that. It takes a lot out of a body that size to mend so much so quickly. And it doesn't help that he's malnourished."
"It's not your fault, Remus," Mrs. Weasley interrupted before he could even open his mouth. "You've only had him for a few days. Malnourishment takes much longer than that to set in so strongly and it will take much longer than a few days to fix. But you'll need to keep a close eye on his diet. Be sure he's getting everything he needs and start him off small. It doesn't look as if he was used to regular meals before he came here. You saw his ribs, didn't you? I'd guess he hasn't shown much of an appetite since you got him?"
Remus shook his head, wondering how this had never leapt out at him before. He'd known Harry was too skinny and didn't eat much, but never had he guessed as to why.
"Check on him every hour or so and wake him up to drink some water now and then and make sure he eats something later. Just soup is probably all he needs, but see to it that he eats. He'll probably run a fever, too, until the healing begins to wind down. He already felt a bit warm. Keep an eye on that. If it gets any higher than a hundred degrees or if he starts throwing up, send for me. Or if you can't wake him up or anything else off happens. I don't think he'll have any sort of reaction to that cream or the spells, but you never know."
Remus nodded, wondering if he shouldn't be writing down what she was saying.
Mrs. Weasley heaved a great sigh and looked back at Harry's bedroom door. "Will be okay, though? I'm not sure, Remus. I don't know how anyone can live like that for five years and be 'okay'."
"Me neither," Remus mumbled, the sorrow and guilt from last night washing over him once more, mixed with the fury from his report to Dumbledore just half an hour before.
"I'll come by tomorrow," Mrs. Weasley told him, running a hand over her face and looking exhausted, despite the early hour in the day. "We may need to bandage some of those worse marks…"
"Thank you so much for this, Molly," Remus told her once again as they started down the stairs to the fire. "I know it's not what you signed up for when you and Arthur offered to help…"
"It's quite alright, Dear," she assured him. "We're glad to help."
She gave him a watery smile before dipping her hand into the tin of floo powder and vanishing into the emerald flames.
Remus sagged onto the couch, burying his face in his hands. He did not know how long he'd sat like that before muffled whimpers and cries from upstairs had him bolting up the stairs.
A/N: So what did you think? It ends a bit cliffy, I wasn't expecting that, but hopefully it's not too bad! I feel like there's something I wanted to explain, but I can't think what it is… Well, if you have any questions, feel free to ask! As always, reviews are amazing!
