AUTHOR'S NOTES: So as much as I didn't want to bring Umbridge into this story, I did anyway just so the good guys can take various shots at her throughout the rest of the tale.

Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 11

The rain had resumed in earnest when the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station and once Harry and Kelly were hurried into one of the waiting coaches along with Ziva and Abby, Gibbs joined Callen and Sam in the second coach.

As they bounced along the gravel road, Harry felt his stomach give a lurch. Sensing he was about to be sick, he reached into the pocket of his jeans and withdrew a wrapped mint, hastily popping the candy into his mouth and sucking furiously on it for a few moments until the nausea passed.

Thinking on the date, Harry let out a weary sigh when he realized that the following morning he would be receiving his next chemotherapy treatment, including a new drug which Dr. Willis had prescribed to help boost the effectiveness of the latest drug cocktail.

The main issue currently was that with the breaks in his treatments, Harry was at risk for the cancer becoming resistant or metastasizing again. Reaching up a hand to rub the bridge of his nose, Harry winced as he touched the edge of his eye socket. Looking at his reflection in the window, he adjusted the eye patch he was wearing and tried to resist the urge to start rubbing his eye again.

His mind drifting to worst case scenarios, Harry leaned back, closing his good eye. If the cancer spread to his other leg, he might end up losing that limb as well. Or what if his other eye was affected and he ended up completely blind? Worse, still, if the disease started effecting his lungs or heart he could very well… Even if the cancer didn't spread, if the chemo was insufficient in destroying the malignant cells, Dr. Willis had said that a bone marrow transplant would be the only hope. And if that didn't work…

And then of course there was the fact that even if the cancer was beaten back a second time, there was another risk involved. The drugs that were being constantly dripped into his system could cause latent effects. There was a possibility of organ damage, heart attack… any number of potentially deadly side effects.

Startling out of his own thoughts when someone touched his shoulder, Harry jumped a bit, calming down when he saw that it was Kelly. "I'm fine," he muttered to the unspoken question as he made his way from the carriage to the front doors of Hogwarts Castle.

xx

Henrietta—'Hetty'—Lange may have been a very diminutive woman, but she was not a person to be trifled with. No one intimidated her… especially not Delores Umbridge.

The Senior Under-Secretary to the Minister of Magic clearly thought that she was an imposing figure as she critiqued Hetty's lesson plans for the coming year. "You wish for the students to openly practice magic in the classroom? I find that incredibly reckless of you. I think that you would be far better off to keep to theory in your lessons, don't you?"

Hetty's face betrayed no emotion as she replied, simply, "Ms. Umbridge, while others may agree with your views on teaching methods, I believe that a practical approach would be far more beneficial." Take a step or two towards the other woman, she added, "Furthermore… this is my classroom. I shall teach my students as I see fit. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it up with the headmaster."

The two witches stood silent for a moment, squaring off against one another. After a few moments, Umbridge smiled sweetly and said, "Well… I'm certain we will be discussing this further after I have a few words with Dumbledore."

"Indeed," Hetty agreed, smiling back as she watched Umbridge turn and walk briskly out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

xxx

Once their belongings were put away in their rooms—or in Callen and Sam's cases in the Gryffindor dormitories—the group headed to the Great Hall where they all sat at the Gryffindor table near the end so it was easier for Kelly to wheel up to the table for dinner.

"Gibbs," Hetty said brightly as she entered the room followed by Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, Dumbledore, and Snape. "Wonderful to see you again." Greeting the others just as warmly, she studied Abby Scuito's outfit and smiled appreciatively. "Miss Scuito, I must say it is refreshing to see a professional with such a unique sense of style." Studying Ziva, Hetty added, "The same could be said of yourself as well, Miss David."

As food appeared on the table and conversations floated about like the ghosts which hovered about, observing the humans.

But even as the talk about the table was kept mostly light, Kelly couldn't help noticing the cold, icy stare her father kept giving to Severus Snape. She hid a smile as she imagined the conversation that would be coming at a later point. Given Harry's situation, Kelly knew that he wouldn't be as immune to the Potions Master's verbal barbs as usual. Given that, Gibbs wouldn't tolerate Snape being his usual mean, derisive self.

Meanwhile, Snape tried to ignore the looks he was getting from Leroy Jethro Gibbs. It wasn't often that he felt intimidated but Gibbs was doing a more than stellar job of doing precisely that. But when he tried to avoid the NCIS agent's piercing stare, he found himself studying Kelly. She looked so much like her aunt it was almost uncanny as well as a very painful reminder of one of the kindest people Snape had ever known. Kelly's eyes, however, were exactly like her father's—bright blue and piercing.

After a while, Snape excused himself and silently left the Great Hall to return to his own private chambers.

Gibbs watched the Potions Master carefully and after a few moments, followed the man down to the dungeons. In Snape's private sitting room, he found the other man standing expectantly, as if he'd expected the confrontation. "You will not make any attacks on Harry—verbal or otherwise," Gibbs warned. "No jabs about his parents, no putting him down in front of the other students. Got it?" His tone was quiet but the words coupled with the steely gaze spoke volumes, especially when he stepped closer and added in a distinctly threatening tone, "And stay away from my daughter."

xxxxxx

That night, Harry lay awake in his bed in the private suite Dumbledore had prepared for him. After Gibbs had left the Great Hall during dinner, Lupin and Kelly had outlined the procedure for the following morning. Dr. Neely Grant—a young witch who had gone to medical school and had later become an oncologist—would be arriving to handle Harry's treatment as well as remaining on site as a medical consult.

Not wanting to really think about how his life seemed to be going crazier than usual, Harry got out of bed, pulled on a sweater, and grabbed the crutches by his bedside before slipping out of his suite and heading down to the Great Hall. Figuring he'd just sneak into the kitchen to talk one of the house elves into getting him some tea, he was surprised when he found Hetty Lange already seated at the Hufflepuff table, a tea tray in front of her.

"Join me, Mr. Potter?" Hetty said with a smile as she conjured a second teacup and poured a healthy amount of the amber brew. Watching the teenager sit down, she passed the cup across the table as she spoke. "I can only imagine what you must be feeling right now. It can't be easy dealing with so much at such a young age."

Sipping his tea, Harry nodded in agreement. "You know, I… I-I want to be positive. Think about best case outcomes…"

"Mmm-hmm," Hetty replied, sipping her own tea, thoughtfully.

But Harry couldn't hold in the rest of his thoughts and finally said, "But I've been thinking about… worst case. What if the chemotherapy doesn't work? What if the cancer gets worse? Or what if the drugs kill me?" He felt something inside of him bubble up and before he knew it, tears were falling down his cheeks. "Every day I run through the list of all the ways everything can go wrong. Everyone wants me to think positive but most of the time I can't do it."

"Mr. Potter, you face a reality that Gibbs and Kelly and the rest of your friends and family don't," Hetty explained, calmly as she studied the young man before her. "Yes, they know what you're going through and they will do anything to help you deal with this ordeal. But the fact is that seeing someone face a terrible disease is far different that facing it yourself." She paused a moment to let Harry take that in before she added, "For the others to fully understand what you are going through and how you feel, they would have to go through exactly the same thing as yourself. And even then, it still wouldn't be the same."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, wiping his eyes and draining his teacup.

Hetty refilled the cup and added sugar and lemon before passing it back to Harry. "Everyone's reactions to situations is different, Mr. Potter. How you handle dealing with the cancer, chemotherapy, and surgeries may not be how Kelly handles it. Or any of your other friends. It would be the same as how you would handle being in Kelly's position."

Harry had raised his cup to take a sip of tea, but set the cup down as he thought of that. It was something he'd never actually considered. As much as it hurt—physically, emotionally, and mentally—losing his leg and his eye, he wondered how it would feel to slowly lose the ability to walk. How would he handle the gradual loss of mobility, leaving his legs practically useless? And Kelly had been dealing with the muscle disorder for close to 13 years. That was a long time to deal with the idea of your body slowly betraying you. "I never thought about it," Harry admitted, finally. "She's had the muscle disorder for as long as I can remember."

Nodding thoughtfully, Hetty replied, "Yes, but—like you—she also remembers a time when she was simply a young, carefree child."

Again, Harry felt himself getting lost in his own thoughts. He could barely remember back before his first cancer diagnosis. But when he let himself drift back all those years ago, he could recall playing in a park, smiling and happy without a care in the world. Looking at Hetty Lange, he felt like he was face to face with some strange combination of Gibbs, Dumbledore, and Ducky. "Thanks for the tea, Professor," Harry said, finally, finishing his second cup and placing it on the tray.

"Any time, my dear boy," Hetty replied with a smile as she watched Harry stand and walk around the table.

xxxxxxxxx

The next morning, Harry awoke to find bright sunshine pouring in through the stained glass windows making the room fill with a rainbow of colors. Sitting up slowly, he put on his glasses and after getting up, he went into the connected bathroom for a long, hot bath before his treatment later that morning.

When he got out almost an hour later and headed back into his suite, he found a breakfast tray waiting for him on the desk in the corner and his favorite shirt and track pants were lying out on his bed which was neatly made.

Once he was dressed, Harry downed a few bites of the scrambled eggs and a piece of toast and was about to start on the small bowl of applesauce when someone knocked on the door to his suite. "Er, come in, I guess," he said, cautiously as he turned to see who was at the door.

Neely Grant was a tall, willowy woman with messy black hair and a very kind smile. "Hi, Harry," she said as she went up to her patient, holding out a hand. "I'm Dr. Neely Grant."

Harry shook the offered hand and looked nervously at the oncologist. "So… Do you want me i-in bed, or…?"

Neely shrugged at the question. "Well, where would you like to be? Where are you going to be comfortable?"

A bit caught off guard by the question, Harry looked around the room and stopped when he noticed that Dumbledore had apparently moved his favorite armchair from the Gryffindor common room to the suite. Limping over, he sat down and watched Neely bring over an IV stand before connecting the IV line to the port in his upper chest.

xxxx

Down in the Great Hall, Kelly poked unenthusiastically at her breakfast with her fork. It wasn't as though she wasn't hungry—the French toast the house elves had prepared smelled and tasted amazing, in fact—but rather the fact that she had too many thoughts running through her mind to focus properly on eating.

"I find it fascinating that you and Harry seem to have the same expressions when something is weighing on you," Hetty said as she joined Kelly. Gesturing to the young woman's plate, she asked, lightly, "May I?"

Kelly nodded, passing the plate over. "It's… just some small things, really. Like… why did Harry's Potions teacher keep staring at me last night at dinner, for one?" Hetty said nothing in reply, and so Kelly continued. "And then there's the fact that I just feel more than a bit awkward being here. And…" After a long sigh, she added, "And all the staircases in this place are really making think about how much I hate not being able to walk."

Finishing the plate of French toast, Hetty set the plate aside as she thought of how best to phrase her question. "Miss Gibbs, if you were able to trade places with Harry—he would be afflicted with your leg muscle disorder and you would be battling cancer after losing your leg and your eye—would you do it?"

"In a heartbeat," Kelly replied without the slightest hesitation. "If he didn't have to deal with—"

Sensing that the younger woman was losing focus of the real question, the witch raised a hand to cut Kelly off before clarifying. "I'm not asking about what you would do to protect him," she sated, simply. "I'm asking if you would prefer simply being unable to move your legs or dealing with a potentially fatal disease along with permanent disabilities."

Having never thought about it that way, Kelly had to consider the question carefully. She'd done a fair amount of thinking lately on what it must be like for Harry in his current condition and she couldn't imagine dealing with everything.

Hetty could tell that Kelly needed some time to ponder the query and therefore moved onto Kelly's first question. "As for Severus Snape's fascination with you, I believe that stems from Harry's mother and the resemblance you have to her as well as your mother."

Being the daughter of an investigator, Kelly could easily read between the lines of what Hetty was saying and she scoffed lightly at the revelation. "Snape's got a thing for me because he was in love with Lily Potter and I remind him of her." After a moment, she laughed at the idea. "Dad is going to flip out when he finds out."