Chapter Ten: Bruises

By: PenDiva

DISCLAIMER: I'm just borrowing the characters and most of the story line from J.K. Rowling, obviously, and I own none of it :-(

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Quick note: this is a short one because I didn't want to drag on with endless chatter about how awful the Dursleys are, because that's boring. Anyway, enjoy chapter ten:

...

FROM LAST CHAPTER:

He opened his eyes and said, "I... didn't want you to find out, but I guess...its too late." Remus gave him a confused look before glancing at Sirius.

Harry ignored this and closed his eyes again, thinking only about the strange feeling he had felt in his room this morning. It returned, and Harry could feel his body slowly revealing every gruesome bruise and cut that littered his body.

Harry held his breath and didn't open his eyes yet. Remus's jaw dropped and Sirius inhaled sharply.

Harry opened his eyes and looked between the two men as they stared back at him. He bit his lip and wondered what to do now that they could see everything.

For the second time that day he was completely unsure of what to do and he silently pleaded for some way out of this situation.

Remus took one look at Harry and said to Sirius, "Go get Poppy,"

...

Sirius didn't move from where he was kneeling next to the couch. Harry was sitting on the couch, ducking his head and trying to avoid looking at Sirius or Remus. The words Remus had just spoken barely registered in his head.

Sirius faltered to say something, although a thousand questions were forming in his mind right now. "Harry, what- what happened? Who… who did this to you? How can we help you? ...Harry?"

Harry gulped, not wanting to answer the first two questions. All of a sudden his body was swamped in waves of pain because the pain reliever had worn off. Harry sucked in a sharp breath but he tried not to let anything show on his face.

Remus immediately picked up on Harry's discomfort however, and he sat on the couch next to Harry placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Harry? What hurts? Sirius! Go get Poppy, now! Floo Hogwarts!" Remus said frantically.

Sirius stumbled out of the room to get the mediwitch, still in shock.

'I've seen wounds like those before. There is only one way for Harry to get broken ribs, cuts, and bruises on his stomach,' Sirius thought.

Sirius panic we inside. 'This can't have happened. Not to Harry.' Sirius had been abused by his family until he ran away when he was 16 and he couldn't help but think that Harry had been abused too. He ran his hands through his hair as he dashed off to the floo.

Back in the living room, Harry shut his eyes and focused on breathing, trying to shut out some of the pain.

Remus was at a slight loss of what to do. He was more than shocked at Harry's current condition but he was even more startled at Harry's obvious reluctance to tell anyone that he was hurt. His magic had even lashed out to conceal some of his injuries!

Trying not to think about it too much, Remus returned his attention to Harry. Right now he needed to focus on getting him healed and he can ask Harry why he needs healing in the first place later.

"Harry, why don't you lay down. Don't feel like you need to hide your pain anymore, we want to help you get better, please you have to trust me," Remus said, growing concerned at Harry's silence.

Harry looked up at his professor with such a pained expression that took all Remus had not to engulf him in a hug, because he knew it would cause more physical harm to Harry.

Harry's head was throbbing with a stabbing pain. Apparating here had only made it feel worse, and Harry was pretty sure he already had a concussion. Remus saw Harry's face shift and grimace in pain before he started to sway and lean on Remus for support.

"Sorry, I just... it's my head..." Harry mumbled, trying to sit up and not bother Remus.

"Harry you don't need to apologize. Here, lay down, Poppy will be here soon," Remus said softly. Harry obeyed hesitantly, feeling slightly more comfortable laying down on the couch, although the slow movement sent jabs of pain through his body. Remus watched as Harry tensed and then visibly relaxed into the couch. Remus sighed but his heart raced with a nervous anxiety.

Harry was very aware of Remus who was watching every move he made and checking his face constantly for evidence of pain. He hated the scrutiny and wanted nothing more than to hide under a bed. At the same time though, the thought of having someone care about his health was a new kind of comfort to him.

Sirius burst into the room but quickly stepped out of the way for Poppy who flew right to Harry's side.

"How in the world did this happen?" Poppy asked quietly. When she got no response from Harry, she pulled out her wand and cast a diagnostic spell on Harry. Harry felt his body tingle with magic. Poppy patiently waited for the spell to finish before grabbing the scroll that had appeared and quickly scanning its contents. Her eyes widened at the long list of injuries, and she shook her head in wonder and gave Harry a pitied look.

Sirius stood there in a stunned silence, trying to give Poppy some room. When he glanced over and read the list of all the injuries though and saw Poppy shake her head, he stepped up and said, "Well? You can heal him right? Don't just sit there!"

"I can Black, but I needed to know his worst injuries first. Please let me do my job and don't interrupt!" Poppy snapped. Sirius shrunk backwards, feeling bad for yelling at her, but he was still jumpy and frustrated that Harry was hurt.

"Harry, take this mild pain reliever. You won't feel relieved of all pain but it will help. I need you awake to heal some of your injuries," Poppy said as she rummaged through her bag. She found the vial she wanted and helped Harry lean forward a little to drink it. Everybody in the room caught Harry's pained face as he moved his chest.

Harry felt the potion go smoothly down his throat and settle in his empty stomach. The pain he was feeling diminished but didn't disappear, much to Harry's disliking. His stomach churned from having nothing to digest but liquid, but Harry tried to ignore the feeling.

"Harry, as I do this spell I'm going to need you to take a deep breath for me so that I can make sure I align your rib correctly. This is the fastest way to do it with a spell instead of a potion, which would take too long. It will hurt, but I have to do this, okay?" Poppy said.

Harry looked at the Mediwitch and shook his head. After living with a broken rib for a month he knew that taking a deep breath hurt like hell and this pain medication was not very helpful.

"Harry, I know you can do this and I know you will feel much better afterwards. Please, I need to do this now. One of your ribs is broken in two places and the longer it stays that way the greater the chances are for it to puncture your lung which would be an even bigger problem," Poppy said, trying to explain the urgent problem to Harry.

Remus came and knelt next to Harry trying to give him some reassurance and Sirius stood on the other side of the couch.

Harry finally gave a tentative nod. Poppy counted up, and when she reached three Harry started to take a deep breath and Poppy performed her spell as quickly as she could.

Harry shut his eyes from the extreme pain in his chest but he pushed through it until he thought Poppy was done with the spell. He let out some air slowly, with his breath hitching and his whole body shuddering. He was gripping the side of the couch with white knuckles and he was struggling not to cry from the pain.

"Good Harry, that was excellent. That was the worst of it. You have two more broken ribs but for these you don't need to take such big breaths," Poppy said, getting ready to fix the next rib. Harry nodded in understanding with his eyes still shut tight. At this point he had dropped his usual mask that hid what pain he was in.

At a cue from the Mediwitch, he took another big breath and this time couldn't help but groan from the pain. It ended quickly though, and Harry took a few shallow breaths. This was also beginning to hurt his throat he noticed, but he didn't give that much thought.

"Are you sure you can't give him more pain medication?" Remus asked quietly. Poppy sighed and looked sadly at the man kneeling next to her.

"I have a different kind of pain reliever that will make him pass out, especially with the number of injuries he has sustained. I can't give it to him yet because he needs to be conscious while I fix his ribs. Trust me when I'm doing my job. I won't have him in any unnecessary pain," Poppy said quickly.

She moved to fix Harry's next rib as Harry shut his eyes and tensed his whole body. Remus glanced at Sirius who looked miserable after watching Harry in pain.

Harry took another shuddering breath and Poppy fixed his last rib with an eerie click. They both exhaled in relief and Poppy wasted no time in handing him a few other potions, mumbling to herself as she did.

Remus grabbed the bottles and helped Harry sit up enough to drink them. Harry winced when Remus touched some of the cuts on his back, but welcomed the help. Sirius saw Harry's pained look and he tried not to cringe. Memories of his own childhood came flooding back but in his mind he refused to believe that Harry had suffered like this. It pained him to think about.

Harry downed three of the potions with disgusted looks and he noticed that the next one was a dreamless sleep potion, which made him feel drowsy. Poppy finally gave him another bottle of pain reliever.

Harry glanced at Remus for one tired second and then downed the potion. He let the darkness take him, feeling satisfied when the pain he felt had turned into a numbing ache.

Remus watched the potion take effect and let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. 'He's going to be okay,' Remus thought.

Poppy waited until Harry's face relaxed, signaling that the potion had worked and she could now heal him without hurting him.

"Alright, well now that you can see that Harry isn't in anymore pain, I suggest that you clear out of the room and let me do my job," Poppy said, and from the tone of her voice there was no room for disagreement.

Sirius went to leave but stood quietly by the door and chose to watch everything Poppy did. Poppy either didn't notice or didn't care because she didn't say a word. Remus shuffled towards Sirius silently, choosing to stay in the room with Harry too.

Poppy shook her head at their protective attitude, but she smiled knowing they would be the ones taking care of him for the rest of the summer.

Poppy started on Harry's ankle, using spells to minimize the swelling and fix the broken bone. She couldn't give Harry the skele grow on an empty stomach, so she created a magical splint that would stabilize the bone until he could take a potion that would heal it.

Poppy did a few more spells to check on the severity of his concussion and she healed a major cut on his head with another spell. Checking her list of injuries, she realized she hadn't started on any of the gashes on his shoulder and back.

She spelled Harry's shirt off of him, and almost choked. She could've counted every rib and his stomach was shrunken and barely visible. It was astonishing how many bruises covered his torso and added to that were the bruises from his broken ribs.

Trying to focus on the task before her she started murmuring and casting a spell to patch up his shoulder. There were three distinct tears in his skin and one ran deep. She took a mental note to give Harry a muscle reporting potion as she closed each wound.

Sirius couldn't tear his eyes away from Harry. Poppy had just revealed his skinny undernourished body that was covered in bruises. Poppy hadn't even started healing all the bruises, she just moved onto some gruesome looking cuts in Harry's right shoulder and arm.

Remus stared at Poppy as she waved her wand around Harry, healing all of his cuts. His mind was reeling, trying to rationalize how Harry had received these injuries. When Harry mentioned his summers with the Dursley's, Dudley's gang had come up. Harry said they beat him up regularly, and he was outnumbered 5 to 1 most times.

Poppy glanced back at the two men behind her. "Why don't you come over and help me if you're so intent on staying here," Poppy said.

Sirius nodded as if in a trance while Remus hurried to her side and listened to instruction. Together they turned Harry on his side so Poppy could heal his back and Sirius handed her potions and creams that she asked for. Remus looked away as she magically stitched his skin together. There were a lot of cuts, and a few of them looked deep and took Poppy longer to fix.

Poppy moved quickly, applying some salve to help with the bruising before finally rolling Harry back to a comfortable position. She levitated a bandage and sling from her bag and used it to stabilize Harry's arm. Remus backed up letting the Mediwitch do her job.

"Harry has some muscle damage in his shoulder from the cuts, so he should avoid moving this arm at all costs so that his muscles can heal. Just make sure he keep it in the sling," Poppy instructed Remus without stopping her work.

Poppy then used some spells combined with the healing salve to reduce some of the bruises, but Harry would have to keep applying that until they disappeared completely. Lastly, she cast a spell to check his temperature. A few glowing numbers appeared over Harry's head that read 101.8 making Poppy sigh.

"Excuse me, but why does Harry have a fever? Don't tell me he's sick too!" Remus said worriedly.

Poppy leaned back on her heels and said, "I don't think Harry even realized he was sick but yes, he has a small fever. I can't imagine that he has a stomach bug because he doesn't have any food in his stomach but it could be something else. Fevers are usually a healthy thing, meaning that Harry's body is fighting whatever virus he has."

Remus nodded in understanding. Poppy went on to say, "I can give him a fever reducing potion, but it's usually better to let his body fight off whatever he has."

Sirius stared at Harry's bruises and skinny form until Poppy magically put his shirt back on him. Sirius noted that it was a new shirt, not the old one which had blood stains on it.

Poppy turned to face Harry's new guardians. They both had looks of focused concern, and Poppy gave them a small smile. "I would heal more but I don't want to overwhelm his body with healing magic. I will return tomorrow mid afternoon to heal a few more things and load him up with potions and healing magic."

"Yes, that would be fine. Thank you for helping us out Poppy," Remus said sincerely.

Poppy waved off the compliment wanting to focus on her patient. "Harry will recover. None of his injuries were fatal or lasting, and he will be back to normal health in a week or so. Harry should share how he got these injuries though. I suspect Harry hasn't been able to put his trust in many adults and that is very important right now."

Sirius paled. "It was his relatives wasn't it? It was that muggle scum Vernon that HURT MY GODSON WASN'T IT!"

Remus flinched at his loud words and his eyes widened when he realized what Sirius was implying.

Poppy replied, "I just don't want to wake Harry. It's hard to believe sometimes, but you have to understand that we have no official proof and we can't assume anything. If his injuries are because of abuse though, Harry has to trust you enough to tell you about it and you have to be willing to listen, not judge, and help him through it. I think you will help him pull through, but this will be a trying time for you, Harry, and his friends."

Remus nodded, already thinking about what he would say to Harry. "Harry usually says that his cousin beat him up every summer but he brushes it off like it's nothing. How can you be so sure that he will open up? How are you so sure that it is abuse anyway? Should we try to pressure him into telling us?"

"No, I don't think you should pressure him, and I'm almost certain its abuse. I've handled a few abuse cases with students at Hogwarts, and I want go into details but I can't imagine this being anything except abuse. If I recall, you suspected the same thing, didn't you Remus?"

Remus nodded, feeling guilty that he hadn't tried to talk to Harry about it at the end of last year. "We still have to let Harry tell us though? We can't just confront the issue and pressure him into telling us."

"Yes, but the minute he opens up to you, contact me and I can tell you more about what to do," poppy said and she continued to talk to them about a few things regarding Harry's health. Remus absorbed every detail so that he was ready to help Harry. Sirius tried to listen but he couldn't stop thinking about Harry and the horrors that he would have experienced at home.

Poppy left them instructions regarding Harry's healing process, and a few potions that Harry would take at regular intervals. She left the room with an encouraging smile before she flooed back to Hogwarts.

Remus then noticed Sirius's pale face and made him sit down. Sirius immediately put his head in his hands and Remus sat down next to him.

"Hey, Padfoot. We'll get through this. We'll help Harry. He's an amazing kid," Remus said attempting to cheer up Sirius.

Sirius sniffled back a tear and look towards Remus. "We failed him Moony. I failed him! If I hadn't run off like a fool that night and gotten trapped by Peter, Harry wouldn't have gone to the Dursleys at all."

"Sirius, this isn't your fault and you know that. You didn't fail him. You risked your LIFE to be his guardian, and you managed to become a free man. I never could gotten full guardianship of Harry as a werewolf, but you choose to go through that trial so that Harry could have a home. If you hadn't, Harry would still be at the Dursleys right now, suffering and feeling alone."

Sirius choked back a sob at this, saying, "But Harry was suffering and alone for ten years before he went to Hogwarts! He doesn't deserve that, nobody does! I should've been there, I should've-"

"Sirius STOP!" Remus said forcefully. He couldn't let Sirius beat himself up like this. "Sirius, you need to stop thinking about what you SHOULD'VE done. You can't live in regret. That's in the past, and there's nothing you can do to change that. You have the rest of the summer to spend with Harry and every summer after that. You need to be there for Harry now, and in the future. Try to focus on helping Harry instead of moping about the past," Remus said in a huff.

Sirius looked at Remus thinking about everything he had just said. The gut wrenching feeling of guilt was still there, but now Sirius had a hopeful future to look forward to.

"Well thanks Remus. I don't actually know how you managed to cheer me up. If I didn't know I better Remus, I might think you're a Slytherin you word-twisting serpent. I'm serious," he said at Remus's amused expression.

"Yeah, I know you're serious, Sirius!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Wow, that was very original, Remus. Never heard that one before," he said sarcastically, grinning broadly.

Remus chuckled a little as he said, "I'm glad I could cheer you up. Your foul moods can be worse than mine during a full moon."

"Aw, Remus, but you're so nice for putting up with my foul moods!" Sirius said, not even bothering to deny it.

Remus shrugged. "Yeah, but I don't want Harry to have to worry about them. We need to stay positive for him if we're going to guide him through this recovery. Remember, you're the adult now."

Sirius looked back at Harry, who was unmoving on the couch. His shallow breaths made the small blanket that had been draped on him rise and fall. "Will there be a long recovery? I thought Poppy said he would be healthy in a week."

"Physically, yes. But we don't know the extent of his emotional wounds and those take longer to heal. He has to learn to be able to trust certain adults who care a lot about him. If Poppy's right and he was abused, we have to help him realize that he didn't deserve the punishments he received, and that it is wrong to treat a child the way they did."

Sirius swallowed a lump in his throat. "You care a lot about him," he said after a moment of silence.

Remus nodded slowly. They sat in silence for a while, drained from the morning, so Sirius got up to make some tea. Now alone in the room with Harry, Remus went over to Harry and observed the peaceful expression he had on his face.

"You're safe Harry," he said, while using a gentle hand to comb through the bangs on his forehead. "We'll take care of you now, I promise."

…

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello! Please leave me a review, and I will try to post the next chapter soon! If you have never written a story, you have no idea how encouraging even a two word review can be, and it gives me a strong incentive to post the next chapter. Shout out to Scrappy 8 for the consistent positive feedback! It's much appreciated :-)