See the Voice Of Alexian in reviews for this chapter for replies to readers reviews from the 2nd July.
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Beta by Kristine Thorne
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Chapter Summary - Harry and Severus discover a few things about their surprise visitor and enlist Ron to help.
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Chapter Twenty Five – Acquaintance
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Severus continued to stare at the man who, until a few moments ago, he had believed was dead. He had to assume that there was some sort of explanation for it and he was not about to give away more information than necessary to the aurors. He was regretting already that he had spoken the young man's name.
"Is anything the matter?" one of the aurors asked.
"No," Severus said quickly, "I didn't expect to see Oliver coming back to us in such a state, I thought it might be one of the young tearaways who have recently graduated getting themselves into trouble."
"What do you want us to do with him? Would you like us to take him down to the hospital wing?"
"No, I have enough healing to take care of this matter myself, you are not to tell anybody that you brought ANYBODY up here is that clear? The security of our world depends on it." Severus replied.
Fortunately the aurors were former students of Severus' and they were instantly scared out of their wits at his booming voice, "Do you need us to stay?" One of them squeaked, obviously wishing to be somewhere else.
"No," Severus said, happy to dismiss them, "I will just get Harry and then you can take a little supper in the hall if you wish, otherwise you may go."
The aurors nodded their agreement and waited while Severus went to fetch his Kin.
Severus knocked purposefully on the bathroom door. The aurors were watching their guest as he continued to lie unconscious on one of the sofas.
"Harry, are you nearly done in there?" Severus asked hoping that he was managing to keep all concern out of his voice.
"Yes, I can hear talking, who is it?"
"Nothing much," Severus replied, "We have a visitor who I think you should meet."
"Wouldn't have long dark hair would he?" Harry asked.
"Yes, do you know anything about it?"
"Not really, just Trelawney muttering on again, I'll be out in a minute," Harry replied, only just starting to feel interested in who their visitor might be.
When Harry emerged from the bathroom fully clothed Severus quickly ushered the aurors out of the room before Harry noticed whom they had on the sofa.
Harry gave the aurors a wary glance as they left but his attention was immediately drawn to the fact that their guest was lying on the sofa and not in a communicative state. Harry got closer and peered over to get a better look.
"It's Oliver Wood!" Harry gasped rather as Severus had done.
"I hoped that you would say that, I thought I might be imagining it," Severus replied kneeling down on the floor beside their visitor.
"Why is he unconscious?" Harry asked.
"I haven't had a chance to see, I didn't want to do anything without you watching over me and I wanted those aurors gone."
"Why?"
"We don't know why Hermione and Ron have been telling us that Oliver is dead, he may well have been on a mission under cover and found himself getting into difficulties, hence why he asked to be brought here, we have to preserve the secrecy if we can."
Severus performed a preliminary examination, passing his hands gently over the body, but could find nothing wrong, "Weird, must be magical, we might have to wait for it to wear off." Severus tried a few reversal spells with his wand to bring Oliver round but nothing had any effect.
"We could send for Ron, he might know what has happened, he might know what mission it was, who he was likely to be running into," Harry suggested.
"What about Hermione?" Severus added.
"She'll just get hysterical, unless of course the whole 'Oliver Wood being responsible for her pregnancy' story has been a cover and the father is somebody else entirely."
"Ron it is then, I have had just about enough of hysterical Hermione and I would rather not take the risk," Severus grumbled.
Without taking his attention away from Severus, Harry approached the fire. Severus stood back away from their visitor when Harry turned to speak into the flames, although it seemed unreasonable to be scared of Oliver Wood, he couldn't be too cautious with them both in their current condition.
Harry had given as little information as possible but Ron didn't need much of an excuse to come up to the Kin's new quarters, he had only been staying away because it was their first night there.
Ron was one of the few apart from Harry and Severus who had the password to the living area and it wasn't long before he was letting himself through the door.
"So what is it that's going on at this time of night, shouldn't you two be tucked up in your new bed?" Ron asked Harry as he entered.
"We have an unconscious visitor and we need your initial thoughts on the matter," Harry said cryptically before gesturing to the sofa.
Ron approached the sofa and took a look, "Bloody hell, Oliver Wood!"
"At least we are all agreed on the name," Severus mumbled.
"He's dead," Ron added.
"We know we're supposed to think that he is dead, what we need to know is the truth, he's been cursed somehow and we need to reverse it if we can," Harry explained.
"What do you mean the truth? No, no," Ron said in a dazed voice, looking suddenly white as a sheet, "He really is dead!"
"He's breathing, he can't be, are you sure?" Harry had to ask.
"Yes I'm bloody sure," Ron squeaked, "I watched him die! He lay next to me in the hospital wing after the attack on the castle. He was barely alive when they brought him in and I was facing his bed. I couldn't move my head without the whole world lurching in the first few hours after I was hit, I had no choice but to watch him die."
"Ah!" Severus said, "Then we have a case of disguise, the only question is, how deep is the magic, and can we bring forth the real identity of this person?"
"And is he the bloody enemy or not?" Ron added.
"Who knows that Oliver Wood is dead?" Harry asked Ron, "Is it common knowledge?"
Ron shrugged, "I don't think so, we never made a lot out of how many had died and who, it would have been a bit morale crushing. Meg in the hospital wing knows because she was there, then there's you two and Hermione, almost all of the teachers too. The families and orphans came later and we preferred not to talk about it."
"And outside the castle?" Harry persisted.
"Nobody really, Professor McGonagall, nobody else, his parents are gone."
Harry sighed, "It could be pretty much anybody taking a risk on him not being here already. Obviously wanting to be seen as one of the good guys but that hardly narrows it down. We can only eliminate prominent Order faithful who would be recognisable in their own right and perhaps the Death Eaters who may have been responsible for his death and I've probably killed most of those."
"We will have to either figure out what magic was used to create the glamour or guess, then we can lift it and see," Severus announced.
"Why go to all the bother of looking like Oliver Wood and then grow your hair long, he never looked like that," Ron added.
Harry, Severus and Ron sat on the sofa opposite their mysterious visitor and took out their wands.
"Right, first wizard to lift the glamour gets some of Harry's chocolate," Severus announced.
Harry smiled, "You can keep your hands off my chocolate!"
Ron looked at the two of them as if they had suddenly grown two heads, they were joking with each other and he still found it very strange. Severus tried the first of his revealing spells and it failed.
Ten minutes later the three wizards sat staring at their still unconscious visitor and had to admit a degree of defeat. Severus stood up and knelt by 'Oliver's' side, he took his hand and began sensing again for want of any better idea.
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Hermione had heard Ron leaving the Gryffindor common room after a short conversation in the fire. She had been sitting quietly upstairs but descended the stairs into the old common room as soon as he was gone. He had left no note as to his whereabouts and Hermione's curiosity was peaked. She scuttled down to her office in the dungeons and took out her map.
It didn't take more than a few seconds for Hermione to locate Ron making slow progress along the corridors. She sat down at her desk to watch him reach his destination, knowing where he was probably heading. When Ron reached his destination Hermione noted that it was the new Snape quarters, no surprise there. There was Severus and Harry stood close together with Ron entering through the bookcase. Hermione snapped the map shut and then opened it quickly again, there was another presence in the room and Hermione held the map up closer so that she could see the name more clearly in the dim evening light. She had thought that she hadn't read it right, she read again and confirmed that she had read the name correctly after all. She couldn't quite believe it and it took a few moments to sink in.
"Oh shit! Malfoy!" She said suddenly coming to her senses and getting to her feet, feeling suddenly dizzy with shock. She had to get up there quickly before something awful happened.
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Severus continued to sense, running through every diagnostic procedure that he could think of, and then suddenly he hit upon the answer. Upon simply enquiring about the patient's general condition he was informed that 'Oliver' was conscious when it was clear that he was not.
"I've got it!" He announced excitedly getting out his wand again, "I know what kind of glamour he is using."
"Can you remove it?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Severus replied confidently pointing his wand, "Cuir an ceill!"
The sudden stench of sweat, faeces and urine was beyond belief, Ron turned away and tried to delay breathing and the two Kin fled to the bathroom in a swish of robes. Hermione entered the still open bookcase door once more breathless with the rush of trying to reach them in time.
Hermione gagged at the smell too but had the presence of mind to raise her wand and cast a quick but strong cleaning charm before she was overcome. Thanks to her magic the air suddenly cleared and all was fresh and bearable again.
"Thanks," Ron said first, "What are you doing here?"
Hermione had a wild look in her eye, "You have Draco Malfoy in here, he's over by the fire, he must be very small to have gotten in undetected, a rodent perhaps, it's been done before. Never mind why I am here, why are you here?"
Ron's complexion paled considerably as he realised whom Hermione must mean, "No, he's the right size actually," Ron explained, "He just looks a bit different, he came in under a glamour. How do you know anyway?"
Hermione reluctantly flashed Ron a look at her map.
"You sneaky old hag, have you been using that to follow me around?" Ron accused.
"Oh grow up," Hermione snapped despite the fact that it was true, "Where is he?" She asked.
Ron pointed to the sofa and Hermione went to have a look. She turned back to Ron with a grim expression on her face, "It is indeed a normal sized Draco Malfoy, but you have to get Severus in here immediately."
"Why?"
Hermione shook her head, "He's not in a very good state at all."
Ron went to look too and found that the man on the sofa had changed from looking like a healthy, if unconscious, Oliver Wood to somebody who looked a little like Draco Malfoy. The problem was that he was so thin and poorly dressed that he looked more like a barely covered skeleton with blond hair. It was now easy to see why their visitor might be unconscious; it had been a very effective glamour, concealing not only his identity, but his entire medical condition as well.
Both Ron and Hermione got closer, they found that both Draco's wrists were swollen and one arm lay very crookedly by his side on the sofa, one of his legs looked twisted. His eyes were sunken and pale papery skin covered the sharp bony contours of his face. His breathing was shallow and congested.
"What on earth happened to him?" Ron asked rhetorically.
Hermione shrugged, "He was never our favourite person but I wouldn't have wished this on him."
Ron shook himself out of his shock-induced inertia, "I had better sort those two out and get them out of there, they had to run for the bathroom as soon as the smell hit them."
Harry and Severus both sat slumped on the floor, Severus didn't look very happy and was trying not to move.
Harry was still feeling nauseous too but he was also feeling a bit pleased, "See, it was only a matter of thresholds," Harry said leaning up against his Kin. Severus reached up a hand and gently stroked his fingers through Harry's hair.
Ron knocked on the door and asked if they were all right.
"Not really," Harry answered.
"I am going to come in, you have to get back on your feet and come back out here, we've got rid of the smell."
"We?" Harry queried.
"Hermione's here."
"Damn," Severus muttered.
"Is the glamour gone?" Harry asked.
"Oh yes," Ron replied, "That's partly the problem, it was hiding a lot and you'll never guess who it is."
"I had nearly forgotten about that in all the excitement," Severus admitted.
"Come on in," Harry invited.
Ron opened the door and Harry wasn't happy with Ron's shocked and worried expression. Harry pulled himself up onto the side of the bath so that Ron wouldn't have to come down onto the floor. His stomach lurched a bit as he stood but he managed to keep it all in. Harry loosened his clothing and then Ron sat on the bath too and offered Harry his hand; Harry placed Ron's hand on the right spot thus eliminating the likelihood of location errors.
Harry felt the sickness melt away and had to admit that Ron was getting very good. Severus took his turn next and they were heading back for the living room within a few minutes.
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Hermione stood watching over the sofa, although she had been good at everything else she had never excelled in healing and with Draco she didn't know where to start.
Harry took one look and gasped, Severus knelt down by the side of the sofa again and took Draco's hand. He began sensing and got a whole different picture to the one he had gotten earlier.
"What are we going to do?" Harry asked.
"First of all blankets," Severus instructed, "We need to get a bed up here and it will have to go in one of the children's bedrooms for now, we can't take him down to the hospital wing for security reasons, he is a Death Eater's son and whatever he has been doing, that makes him a target. I imagine that the dementors must have been looking for him in Hogsmeade, he seems to have enemies on both sides, although you can never tell with Dementors, they seem to serve their own interests and no other."
"We don't know which side he is on," Ron stated.
"Although, from the look of him he has been on his own for quite a while and not making a good job of it, I would be surprised if he is a Death Eater, also a Death Eater might have known better than to disguise himself as a dead Gryffindor, if he ever joined with them he must have left again before the attack on Hogwarts," Harry pointed out, "In any case we can take his wand and he only has the one undamaged limb, I don't think he's going anywhere for now."
"This is Meg's area of expertise, we should consider bringing her up here, you shouldn't do all of this on your own," Ron suggested thinking that perhaps Severus wouldn't have considered asking for help as he was sure that there was some sort of animosity between the ex-potions master and the current mediwitch.
"Can she be trusted?" Severus asked the group.
"She's scared of you, that might be enough to buy her silence if nothing else will keep it," Hermione spoke.
Severus sighed but could hardly argue with the statement, "Very well, somebody get her up here. And ask her to shrink and floo a bed up here too, we'll need an extra padded mattress and six extra pillows," Severus instructed.
Harry went for the blankets and Hermione volunteered to get Meg. Ron knelt down on the floor next to Severus on the off chance that he might get a bit more training out of the incident.
"I think a few potions might be a good place to start," Severus announced, "Harry, can you get me the case, wherever it is."
Harry went through to the potions room and picked up the potions case from the desk in there.
Severus made his selection from the case and lined the phials up on the coffee table ready. He then placed both hands around Draco's head.
"He can't swallow those as he is now, I will have to bring him round but I can only do so for a few minutes at most, it's very exhausting. I will show you how to do this sometime but for now I need you to administer the potions as quickly as possible," Severus explained to Ron.
Harry stood on the other side of the sofa and held a hand out, "I'll help with this," He offered, "I'll get the stoppers out and hand them to Ron one at a time."
Ron picked up the potions two at a time and handed them to Harry, he took the stopper out of the first pain potion and handed it back to Ron.
"Right, both the pain potions first and then the rest in any order," Severus instructed.
Severus began to bring Draco round; it was indeed a very tiring business as he fought against a body that didn't want to be with the world, which wanted to hide in oblivion. Draco's breath quickened and the skin of his face began to perspire. He didn't open his eyes or attempt to move but whimpered a little in Severus' hold. Ron reached out a hand to ease Draco's mouth open and he let him. Ron poured the first potion in and Severus leant close to his ear and commanded him to swallow.
Draco swallowed and only spluttered the potion a little bit. Harry handed Ron the second potion but Draco didn't swallow it right away, he lay limply in Severus' hold and let it trickle in his mouth till it hit the back of his throat and he began to cough.
"Stay with us," Severus tried to encourage Draco, he knew he could only keep him going for a minute longer, "Swallow the potions and we'll let you sleep."
Draco managed to swallow and Ron and Harry quickly got the rest of the potions into him before he gave up again.
When Severus saw that the last of the potions had been given he let go of Draco's head. He took Ron's hand and placed it on Draco's forehead, "Just send a bit of warmth, make it a soothing touch," Severus instructed.
Ron did as he had been taught and Draco fell back into oblivion but seemed to be a bit more comfortable with it. Meg appeared out of the fire as Ron was finishing his first healing efforts on somebody other than Severus, with her came a miniature bed and some bedding.
"Did Hermione explain what was going on?" Severus asked as he stood up.
"Yes," Meg replied, "Well enough to know what to bring."
"Right, you are not to speak about this to anybody," Severus instructed.
Meg nodded in agreement and levitated the bed into the bedroom before returning it to its proper size. Meg followed the bed into the bedroom and having already taken a quick look at Draco, arranged the pillows into roughly the right places on the mattress. She then laid a medi cloak between the mattress and the top sheet so that he could be moved quickly if the need arose.
When all was in place in the bedroom, Harry, Meg and Severus all used their wands to levitate Draco safely onto the mattress of the bed. Leaving him hovering a few inches off the bed, Meg first of all checked for injuries that weren't immediately obvious.
Harry and Severus stood in the doorway and watched as Meg went to work; she was very efficient when dealing with something that she had experience of.
Draco's clothes were magicked away, once there was a sheet and blankets in place to cover him instead. Meg straightened his broken limbs out and made sure that they were well supported by the pillows before she immobilized him with a swish of her wand.
Meg turned to Severus, "What did you give him?"
"Two pain potions, two rejuvenation, one regeneration and one inflammation and infection," Severus replied.
Meg smiled despite how she felt about Severus, "Good, I will leave you with a course of skelemend, the state he's in it will take a week's worth of doses."
"What do you think happened?" Harry asked both Severus and Meg.
"The injuries were sustained a number of days ago, I would need more information to be able to tell you more."
"He was found at the bottom of some stairs by two aurors this evening," Severus supplied.
"Falling down stairs would be consistent with his injuries," Meg informed them.
"He wasn't attacked?" Harry asked.
Meg shook her head, "I don't think so, though you will be able to ask him sometime tomorrow. Try to get him to eat something as soon as you can, I am sure that you know that rejuvenation potion can only sustain him for a little while when he has been starving for so long."
"Starving?" Harry asked.
"Oh yes, although he remains well hydrated it is clear that he has not had food for quite some time."
"Since before the fall?"
"Longer, weeks I would say, don't feed him too much the first time, build it up over the next few days," Meg instructed.
Harry could feel Severus tensing beside him, Meg's and Severus' expertise were beginning to overlap and he resented having her tell him things that he knew quite well already.
"What injuries has he sustained exactly?" Severus asked.
Harry was beginning to be glad that the two didn't have to work together very often; Meg would know as she answered that Severus would have already checked Draco over before she arrived.
If Meg was annoyed at the question she did a very good job of not showing it, "Scaphoid fractures in both wrists, fractures also to the left proximal femur and tibia, also right distal humerus and acromioclavicular joint."
"Spinal damage?"
"No, none," Meg replied quickly.
"Thank you for coming at such short notice and at such a late hour," Harry interrupted before things got out of hand.
"I will come back in the morning, if you want this keeping quiet I can't be up here all the time, a couple of pain potions should see him through the night," Meg continued making definite moves towards the door.
They let Meg leave and then Harry and Severus returned to Ron and Hermione who were waiting in the living room.
"I think that we will talk about this in the morning, a few broken bones is only going to buy us a week's peace at the most, then we will have a fit and well Draco to contend with," Harry suggested.
"But for now we should go to bed," Severus announced.
"Somebody will have to stay up all night to watch over him," Hermione added.
Harry could feel Severus beside him resisting the urge to strangle her.
"I'll stay," Ron offered, "It's not like I have anything better to do, I can sleep later."
Harry smiled at Hermione's scowl, "That's settled then."
Hermione said her goodnights in a tone of voice that made it clear that she wasn't happy; Harry and Severus shrugged it off. Harry moved an armchair into the bedroom for Ron and Severus left Ron a selection of potion phials just in case their new guest became conscious enough to drink them. The Kin were then ushered off to bed so that Ron was left alone with his first patient.
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Ron wasn't really sure what had made him volunteer, other than the fact that he really didn't think he could sleep after all the excitement. It was perhaps the most bizarre thing that had occurred since Harry and Severus had returned and that was saying something.
Even though Ron had never been friends with Draco, he really hoped that he had asked to be brought to Hogwarts for the right reasons. He was in the Snape quarters and if he crossed Harry and Severus for just one second, he would be one very dead Malfoy. For once the Kin Bond made Ron feel quite secure, maybe it was because he had seen Harry in action at last against the Dementors, it all seemed more real now.
Ron approached the bed; the room was decorated appropriately for its future and currently unborn occupant, the light was provided by one candlestick above the fireplace, holding four candles. Ron reached a hand out to Draco's chest and observed the light rise and fall as he breathed more easily now. The rejuvenation potion had filled out the hollows of his face a little but he still had a long way to go on that front.
Ron dropped down onto the floor so that he could use both hands and pulled the armchair right over to the bed, he then pulled himself up onto it. He had nothing better to do so he thought that he might as well practise his sensing technique on someone other than a pregnant man. Ron slipped a hand underneath the covers and began with exploring the differences found in a man who hadn't taken a Kin Bond.
At several points through the night Ron summoned various things through the fire from the house elves and he continued to practise on Draco. It was as the first tinges of deep red light were breaking over the horizon that Draco moved. After the stillness of the entire night, Ron had got rather used to an unconscious although living body and the movement, although it wasn't much, gave him quite a fright.
It was a turning of the head only but when he looked Ron thought he could see expression in the young man's face too, a slight grimace. The last thing that Ron wanted was Draco to wake up and see him watching over him, panicking slightly he left the room and paused outside the door to one of the other bedrooms behind which Severus and Harry slept. His reluctance to face Draco and let the Kin deal with him instead, began to battle with the feelings he had about intruding upon the Kin's privacy but he mustered the courage and opened the door.
Then Ron froze and lost all courage to proceed as he stood in the doorway looking in on Harry as he lay nestled in Severus arms with one of Severus' hands entwined in his hair. Severus' head rested on the top of Harry's head and Ron suddenly became overcome with jealousy and sadness at the same time. Behind all the sword stuff, the threats and the weird behaviour, this was what was left, two men entwined together and sleeping with the knowledge that they would never be alone again. Looking at the way Severus held Harry now he could almost wish that it had been him.
Ron returned to Draco without waking either of the Kin, he couldn't do it. He found that Draco was beginning to wake and upon sensing, he found that the pain was breaking through the potion he had received earlier. Although Draco moved his head from side to side he didn't open his eyes and Ron was sure that he wasn't properly awake. He took the stopper out of the pain potion phial and held it to Draco's lips hoping that he would be able to take it, he had been propped up on pillows to make the process of potion administration easier.
Draco whimpered a little and Ron definitely didn't want to sit listening to that, he tipped the phial a bit so that a trickle would fall onto Draco's lips.
"Drink!" Ron commanded in the best imitation of Severus' voice that he could manage. Draco's mouth opened slightly and Ron tipped the potion in. Although he spluttered and coughed a bit Draco managed to swallow.
"Sleep now," Ron instructed placing his hand on Draco's forehead and giving a soothing and healing touch as he had done before.
Draco wasn't yet ready for the world and he calmed again and appeared to fall asleep. Ron breathed a sigh of relief and sank back into the armchair feeling fairly pleased with himself. This was his first patient and on his own too, he thought that he had done quite well, although he was glad that it was nearly morning.
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Coming Soon - Chapter Twenty Six - The Death Eater's Son - Severus tries to find out what has been happening to Draco since they last saw him but meets with a wall of silence. Can Harry and Severus figure out what is going on before something awful happens?
A/N Of course they don't, that happens in Ch Twenty Seven.
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Beta by Kristine Thorne
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Chapter Summary - Harry and Severus discover a few things about their surprise visitor and enlist Ron to help.
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Chapter Twenty Five – Acquaintance
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Severus continued to stare at the man who, until a few moments ago, he had believed was dead. He had to assume that there was some sort of explanation for it and he was not about to give away more information than necessary to the aurors. He was regretting already that he had spoken the young man's name.
"Is anything the matter?" one of the aurors asked.
"No," Severus said quickly, "I didn't expect to see Oliver coming back to us in such a state, I thought it might be one of the young tearaways who have recently graduated getting themselves into trouble."
"What do you want us to do with him? Would you like us to take him down to the hospital wing?"
"No, I have enough healing to take care of this matter myself, you are not to tell anybody that you brought ANYBODY up here is that clear? The security of our world depends on it." Severus replied.
Fortunately the aurors were former students of Severus' and they were instantly scared out of their wits at his booming voice, "Do you need us to stay?" One of them squeaked, obviously wishing to be somewhere else.
"No," Severus said, happy to dismiss them, "I will just get Harry and then you can take a little supper in the hall if you wish, otherwise you may go."
The aurors nodded their agreement and waited while Severus went to fetch his Kin.
Severus knocked purposefully on the bathroom door. The aurors were watching their guest as he continued to lie unconscious on one of the sofas.
"Harry, are you nearly done in there?" Severus asked hoping that he was managing to keep all concern out of his voice.
"Yes, I can hear talking, who is it?"
"Nothing much," Severus replied, "We have a visitor who I think you should meet."
"Wouldn't have long dark hair would he?" Harry asked.
"Yes, do you know anything about it?"
"Not really, just Trelawney muttering on again, I'll be out in a minute," Harry replied, only just starting to feel interested in who their visitor might be.
When Harry emerged from the bathroom fully clothed Severus quickly ushered the aurors out of the room before Harry noticed whom they had on the sofa.
Harry gave the aurors a wary glance as they left but his attention was immediately drawn to the fact that their guest was lying on the sofa and not in a communicative state. Harry got closer and peered over to get a better look.
"It's Oliver Wood!" Harry gasped rather as Severus had done.
"I hoped that you would say that, I thought I might be imagining it," Severus replied kneeling down on the floor beside their visitor.
"Why is he unconscious?" Harry asked.
"I haven't had a chance to see, I didn't want to do anything without you watching over me and I wanted those aurors gone."
"Why?"
"We don't know why Hermione and Ron have been telling us that Oliver is dead, he may well have been on a mission under cover and found himself getting into difficulties, hence why he asked to be brought here, we have to preserve the secrecy if we can."
Severus performed a preliminary examination, passing his hands gently over the body, but could find nothing wrong, "Weird, must be magical, we might have to wait for it to wear off." Severus tried a few reversal spells with his wand to bring Oliver round but nothing had any effect.
"We could send for Ron, he might know what has happened, he might know what mission it was, who he was likely to be running into," Harry suggested.
"What about Hermione?" Severus added.
"She'll just get hysterical, unless of course the whole 'Oliver Wood being responsible for her pregnancy' story has been a cover and the father is somebody else entirely."
"Ron it is then, I have had just about enough of hysterical Hermione and I would rather not take the risk," Severus grumbled.
Without taking his attention away from Severus, Harry approached the fire. Severus stood back away from their visitor when Harry turned to speak into the flames, although it seemed unreasonable to be scared of Oliver Wood, he couldn't be too cautious with them both in their current condition.
Harry had given as little information as possible but Ron didn't need much of an excuse to come up to the Kin's new quarters, he had only been staying away because it was their first night there.
Ron was one of the few apart from Harry and Severus who had the password to the living area and it wasn't long before he was letting himself through the door.
"So what is it that's going on at this time of night, shouldn't you two be tucked up in your new bed?" Ron asked Harry as he entered.
"We have an unconscious visitor and we need your initial thoughts on the matter," Harry said cryptically before gesturing to the sofa.
Ron approached the sofa and took a look, "Bloody hell, Oliver Wood!"
"At least we are all agreed on the name," Severus mumbled.
"He's dead," Ron added.
"We know we're supposed to think that he is dead, what we need to know is the truth, he's been cursed somehow and we need to reverse it if we can," Harry explained.
"What do you mean the truth? No, no," Ron said in a dazed voice, looking suddenly white as a sheet, "He really is dead!"
"He's breathing, he can't be, are you sure?" Harry had to ask.
"Yes I'm bloody sure," Ron squeaked, "I watched him die! He lay next to me in the hospital wing after the attack on the castle. He was barely alive when they brought him in and I was facing his bed. I couldn't move my head without the whole world lurching in the first few hours after I was hit, I had no choice but to watch him die."
"Ah!" Severus said, "Then we have a case of disguise, the only question is, how deep is the magic, and can we bring forth the real identity of this person?"
"And is he the bloody enemy or not?" Ron added.
"Who knows that Oliver Wood is dead?" Harry asked Ron, "Is it common knowledge?"
Ron shrugged, "I don't think so, we never made a lot out of how many had died and who, it would have been a bit morale crushing. Meg in the hospital wing knows because she was there, then there's you two and Hermione, almost all of the teachers too. The families and orphans came later and we preferred not to talk about it."
"And outside the castle?" Harry persisted.
"Nobody really, Professor McGonagall, nobody else, his parents are gone."
Harry sighed, "It could be pretty much anybody taking a risk on him not being here already. Obviously wanting to be seen as one of the good guys but that hardly narrows it down. We can only eliminate prominent Order faithful who would be recognisable in their own right and perhaps the Death Eaters who may have been responsible for his death and I've probably killed most of those."
"We will have to either figure out what magic was used to create the glamour or guess, then we can lift it and see," Severus announced.
"Why go to all the bother of looking like Oliver Wood and then grow your hair long, he never looked like that," Ron added.
Harry, Severus and Ron sat on the sofa opposite their mysterious visitor and took out their wands.
"Right, first wizard to lift the glamour gets some of Harry's chocolate," Severus announced.
Harry smiled, "You can keep your hands off my chocolate!"
Ron looked at the two of them as if they had suddenly grown two heads, they were joking with each other and he still found it very strange. Severus tried the first of his revealing spells and it failed.
Ten minutes later the three wizards sat staring at their still unconscious visitor and had to admit a degree of defeat. Severus stood up and knelt by 'Oliver's' side, he took his hand and began sensing again for want of any better idea.
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Hermione had heard Ron leaving the Gryffindor common room after a short conversation in the fire. She had been sitting quietly upstairs but descended the stairs into the old common room as soon as he was gone. He had left no note as to his whereabouts and Hermione's curiosity was peaked. She scuttled down to her office in the dungeons and took out her map.
It didn't take more than a few seconds for Hermione to locate Ron making slow progress along the corridors. She sat down at her desk to watch him reach his destination, knowing where he was probably heading. When Ron reached his destination Hermione noted that it was the new Snape quarters, no surprise there. There was Severus and Harry stood close together with Ron entering through the bookcase. Hermione snapped the map shut and then opened it quickly again, there was another presence in the room and Hermione held the map up closer so that she could see the name more clearly in the dim evening light. She had thought that she hadn't read it right, she read again and confirmed that she had read the name correctly after all. She couldn't quite believe it and it took a few moments to sink in.
"Oh shit! Malfoy!" She said suddenly coming to her senses and getting to her feet, feeling suddenly dizzy with shock. She had to get up there quickly before something awful happened.
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Severus continued to sense, running through every diagnostic procedure that he could think of, and then suddenly he hit upon the answer. Upon simply enquiring about the patient's general condition he was informed that 'Oliver' was conscious when it was clear that he was not.
"I've got it!" He announced excitedly getting out his wand again, "I know what kind of glamour he is using."
"Can you remove it?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Severus replied confidently pointing his wand, "Cuir an ceill!"
The sudden stench of sweat, faeces and urine was beyond belief, Ron turned away and tried to delay breathing and the two Kin fled to the bathroom in a swish of robes. Hermione entered the still open bookcase door once more breathless with the rush of trying to reach them in time.
Hermione gagged at the smell too but had the presence of mind to raise her wand and cast a quick but strong cleaning charm before she was overcome. Thanks to her magic the air suddenly cleared and all was fresh and bearable again.
"Thanks," Ron said first, "What are you doing here?"
Hermione had a wild look in her eye, "You have Draco Malfoy in here, he's over by the fire, he must be very small to have gotten in undetected, a rodent perhaps, it's been done before. Never mind why I am here, why are you here?"
Ron's complexion paled considerably as he realised whom Hermione must mean, "No, he's the right size actually," Ron explained, "He just looks a bit different, he came in under a glamour. How do you know anyway?"
Hermione reluctantly flashed Ron a look at her map.
"You sneaky old hag, have you been using that to follow me around?" Ron accused.
"Oh grow up," Hermione snapped despite the fact that it was true, "Where is he?" She asked.
Ron pointed to the sofa and Hermione went to have a look. She turned back to Ron with a grim expression on her face, "It is indeed a normal sized Draco Malfoy, but you have to get Severus in here immediately."
"Why?"
Hermione shook her head, "He's not in a very good state at all."
Ron went to look too and found that the man on the sofa had changed from looking like a healthy, if unconscious, Oliver Wood to somebody who looked a little like Draco Malfoy. The problem was that he was so thin and poorly dressed that he looked more like a barely covered skeleton with blond hair. It was now easy to see why their visitor might be unconscious; it had been a very effective glamour, concealing not only his identity, but his entire medical condition as well.
Both Ron and Hermione got closer, they found that both Draco's wrists were swollen and one arm lay very crookedly by his side on the sofa, one of his legs looked twisted. His eyes were sunken and pale papery skin covered the sharp bony contours of his face. His breathing was shallow and congested.
"What on earth happened to him?" Ron asked rhetorically.
Hermione shrugged, "He was never our favourite person but I wouldn't have wished this on him."
Ron shook himself out of his shock-induced inertia, "I had better sort those two out and get them out of there, they had to run for the bathroom as soon as the smell hit them."
Harry and Severus both sat slumped on the floor, Severus didn't look very happy and was trying not to move.
Harry was still feeling nauseous too but he was also feeling a bit pleased, "See, it was only a matter of thresholds," Harry said leaning up against his Kin. Severus reached up a hand and gently stroked his fingers through Harry's hair.
Ron knocked on the door and asked if they were all right.
"Not really," Harry answered.
"I am going to come in, you have to get back on your feet and come back out here, we've got rid of the smell."
"We?" Harry queried.
"Hermione's here."
"Damn," Severus muttered.
"Is the glamour gone?" Harry asked.
"Oh yes," Ron replied, "That's partly the problem, it was hiding a lot and you'll never guess who it is."
"I had nearly forgotten about that in all the excitement," Severus admitted.
"Come on in," Harry invited.
Ron opened the door and Harry wasn't happy with Ron's shocked and worried expression. Harry pulled himself up onto the side of the bath so that Ron wouldn't have to come down onto the floor. His stomach lurched a bit as he stood but he managed to keep it all in. Harry loosened his clothing and then Ron sat on the bath too and offered Harry his hand; Harry placed Ron's hand on the right spot thus eliminating the likelihood of location errors.
Harry felt the sickness melt away and had to admit that Ron was getting very good. Severus took his turn next and they were heading back for the living room within a few minutes.
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Hermione stood watching over the sofa, although she had been good at everything else she had never excelled in healing and with Draco she didn't know where to start.
Harry took one look and gasped, Severus knelt down by the side of the sofa again and took Draco's hand. He began sensing and got a whole different picture to the one he had gotten earlier.
"What are we going to do?" Harry asked.
"First of all blankets," Severus instructed, "We need to get a bed up here and it will have to go in one of the children's bedrooms for now, we can't take him down to the hospital wing for security reasons, he is a Death Eater's son and whatever he has been doing, that makes him a target. I imagine that the dementors must have been looking for him in Hogsmeade, he seems to have enemies on both sides, although you can never tell with Dementors, they seem to serve their own interests and no other."
"We don't know which side he is on," Ron stated.
"Although, from the look of him he has been on his own for quite a while and not making a good job of it, I would be surprised if he is a Death Eater, also a Death Eater might have known better than to disguise himself as a dead Gryffindor, if he ever joined with them he must have left again before the attack on Hogwarts," Harry pointed out, "In any case we can take his wand and he only has the one undamaged limb, I don't think he's going anywhere for now."
"This is Meg's area of expertise, we should consider bringing her up here, you shouldn't do all of this on your own," Ron suggested thinking that perhaps Severus wouldn't have considered asking for help as he was sure that there was some sort of animosity between the ex-potions master and the current mediwitch.
"Can she be trusted?" Severus asked the group.
"She's scared of you, that might be enough to buy her silence if nothing else will keep it," Hermione spoke.
Severus sighed but could hardly argue with the statement, "Very well, somebody get her up here. And ask her to shrink and floo a bed up here too, we'll need an extra padded mattress and six extra pillows," Severus instructed.
Harry went for the blankets and Hermione volunteered to get Meg. Ron knelt down on the floor next to Severus on the off chance that he might get a bit more training out of the incident.
"I think a few potions might be a good place to start," Severus announced, "Harry, can you get me the case, wherever it is."
Harry went through to the potions room and picked up the potions case from the desk in there.
Severus made his selection from the case and lined the phials up on the coffee table ready. He then placed both hands around Draco's head.
"He can't swallow those as he is now, I will have to bring him round but I can only do so for a few minutes at most, it's very exhausting. I will show you how to do this sometime but for now I need you to administer the potions as quickly as possible," Severus explained to Ron.
Harry stood on the other side of the sofa and held a hand out, "I'll help with this," He offered, "I'll get the stoppers out and hand them to Ron one at a time."
Ron picked up the potions two at a time and handed them to Harry, he took the stopper out of the first pain potion and handed it back to Ron.
"Right, both the pain potions first and then the rest in any order," Severus instructed.
Severus began to bring Draco round; it was indeed a very tiring business as he fought against a body that didn't want to be with the world, which wanted to hide in oblivion. Draco's breath quickened and the skin of his face began to perspire. He didn't open his eyes or attempt to move but whimpered a little in Severus' hold. Ron reached out a hand to ease Draco's mouth open and he let him. Ron poured the first potion in and Severus leant close to his ear and commanded him to swallow.
Draco swallowed and only spluttered the potion a little bit. Harry handed Ron the second potion but Draco didn't swallow it right away, he lay limply in Severus' hold and let it trickle in his mouth till it hit the back of his throat and he began to cough.
"Stay with us," Severus tried to encourage Draco, he knew he could only keep him going for a minute longer, "Swallow the potions and we'll let you sleep."
Draco managed to swallow and Ron and Harry quickly got the rest of the potions into him before he gave up again.
When Severus saw that the last of the potions had been given he let go of Draco's head. He took Ron's hand and placed it on Draco's forehead, "Just send a bit of warmth, make it a soothing touch," Severus instructed.
Ron did as he had been taught and Draco fell back into oblivion but seemed to be a bit more comfortable with it. Meg appeared out of the fire as Ron was finishing his first healing efforts on somebody other than Severus, with her came a miniature bed and some bedding.
"Did Hermione explain what was going on?" Severus asked as he stood up.
"Yes," Meg replied, "Well enough to know what to bring."
"Right, you are not to speak about this to anybody," Severus instructed.
Meg nodded in agreement and levitated the bed into the bedroom before returning it to its proper size. Meg followed the bed into the bedroom and having already taken a quick look at Draco, arranged the pillows into roughly the right places on the mattress. She then laid a medi cloak between the mattress and the top sheet so that he could be moved quickly if the need arose.
When all was in place in the bedroom, Harry, Meg and Severus all used their wands to levitate Draco safely onto the mattress of the bed. Leaving him hovering a few inches off the bed, Meg first of all checked for injuries that weren't immediately obvious.
Harry and Severus stood in the doorway and watched as Meg went to work; she was very efficient when dealing with something that she had experience of.
Draco's clothes were magicked away, once there was a sheet and blankets in place to cover him instead. Meg straightened his broken limbs out and made sure that they were well supported by the pillows before she immobilized him with a swish of her wand.
Meg turned to Severus, "What did you give him?"
"Two pain potions, two rejuvenation, one regeneration and one inflammation and infection," Severus replied.
Meg smiled despite how she felt about Severus, "Good, I will leave you with a course of skelemend, the state he's in it will take a week's worth of doses."
"What do you think happened?" Harry asked both Severus and Meg.
"The injuries were sustained a number of days ago, I would need more information to be able to tell you more."
"He was found at the bottom of some stairs by two aurors this evening," Severus supplied.
"Falling down stairs would be consistent with his injuries," Meg informed them.
"He wasn't attacked?" Harry asked.
Meg shook her head, "I don't think so, though you will be able to ask him sometime tomorrow. Try to get him to eat something as soon as you can, I am sure that you know that rejuvenation potion can only sustain him for a little while when he has been starving for so long."
"Starving?" Harry asked.
"Oh yes, although he remains well hydrated it is clear that he has not had food for quite some time."
"Since before the fall?"
"Longer, weeks I would say, don't feed him too much the first time, build it up over the next few days," Meg instructed.
Harry could feel Severus tensing beside him, Meg's and Severus' expertise were beginning to overlap and he resented having her tell him things that he knew quite well already.
"What injuries has he sustained exactly?" Severus asked.
Harry was beginning to be glad that the two didn't have to work together very often; Meg would know as she answered that Severus would have already checked Draco over before she arrived.
If Meg was annoyed at the question she did a very good job of not showing it, "Scaphoid fractures in both wrists, fractures also to the left proximal femur and tibia, also right distal humerus and acromioclavicular joint."
"Spinal damage?"
"No, none," Meg replied quickly.
"Thank you for coming at such short notice and at such a late hour," Harry interrupted before things got out of hand.
"I will come back in the morning, if you want this keeping quiet I can't be up here all the time, a couple of pain potions should see him through the night," Meg continued making definite moves towards the door.
They let Meg leave and then Harry and Severus returned to Ron and Hermione who were waiting in the living room.
"I think that we will talk about this in the morning, a few broken bones is only going to buy us a week's peace at the most, then we will have a fit and well Draco to contend with," Harry suggested.
"But for now we should go to bed," Severus announced.
"Somebody will have to stay up all night to watch over him," Hermione added.
Harry could feel Severus beside him resisting the urge to strangle her.
"I'll stay," Ron offered, "It's not like I have anything better to do, I can sleep later."
Harry smiled at Hermione's scowl, "That's settled then."
Hermione said her goodnights in a tone of voice that made it clear that she wasn't happy; Harry and Severus shrugged it off. Harry moved an armchair into the bedroom for Ron and Severus left Ron a selection of potion phials just in case their new guest became conscious enough to drink them. The Kin were then ushered off to bed so that Ron was left alone with his first patient.
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Ron wasn't really sure what had made him volunteer, other than the fact that he really didn't think he could sleep after all the excitement. It was perhaps the most bizarre thing that had occurred since Harry and Severus had returned and that was saying something.
Even though Ron had never been friends with Draco, he really hoped that he had asked to be brought to Hogwarts for the right reasons. He was in the Snape quarters and if he crossed Harry and Severus for just one second, he would be one very dead Malfoy. For once the Kin Bond made Ron feel quite secure, maybe it was because he had seen Harry in action at last against the Dementors, it all seemed more real now.
Ron approached the bed; the room was decorated appropriately for its future and currently unborn occupant, the light was provided by one candlestick above the fireplace, holding four candles. Ron reached a hand out to Draco's chest and observed the light rise and fall as he breathed more easily now. The rejuvenation potion had filled out the hollows of his face a little but he still had a long way to go on that front.
Ron dropped down onto the floor so that he could use both hands and pulled the armchair right over to the bed, he then pulled himself up onto it. He had nothing better to do so he thought that he might as well practise his sensing technique on someone other than a pregnant man. Ron slipped a hand underneath the covers and began with exploring the differences found in a man who hadn't taken a Kin Bond.
At several points through the night Ron summoned various things through the fire from the house elves and he continued to practise on Draco. It was as the first tinges of deep red light were breaking over the horizon that Draco moved. After the stillness of the entire night, Ron had got rather used to an unconscious although living body and the movement, although it wasn't much, gave him quite a fright.
It was a turning of the head only but when he looked Ron thought he could see expression in the young man's face too, a slight grimace. The last thing that Ron wanted was Draco to wake up and see him watching over him, panicking slightly he left the room and paused outside the door to one of the other bedrooms behind which Severus and Harry slept. His reluctance to face Draco and let the Kin deal with him instead, began to battle with the feelings he had about intruding upon the Kin's privacy but he mustered the courage and opened the door.
Then Ron froze and lost all courage to proceed as he stood in the doorway looking in on Harry as he lay nestled in Severus arms with one of Severus' hands entwined in his hair. Severus' head rested on the top of Harry's head and Ron suddenly became overcome with jealousy and sadness at the same time. Behind all the sword stuff, the threats and the weird behaviour, this was what was left, two men entwined together and sleeping with the knowledge that they would never be alone again. Looking at the way Severus held Harry now he could almost wish that it had been him.
Ron returned to Draco without waking either of the Kin, he couldn't do it. He found that Draco was beginning to wake and upon sensing, he found that the pain was breaking through the potion he had received earlier. Although Draco moved his head from side to side he didn't open his eyes and Ron was sure that he wasn't properly awake. He took the stopper out of the pain potion phial and held it to Draco's lips hoping that he would be able to take it, he had been propped up on pillows to make the process of potion administration easier.
Draco whimpered a little and Ron definitely didn't want to sit listening to that, he tipped the phial a bit so that a trickle would fall onto Draco's lips.
"Drink!" Ron commanded in the best imitation of Severus' voice that he could manage. Draco's mouth opened slightly and Ron tipped the potion in. Although he spluttered and coughed a bit Draco managed to swallow.
"Sleep now," Ron instructed placing his hand on Draco's forehead and giving a soothing and healing touch as he had done before.
Draco wasn't yet ready for the world and he calmed again and appeared to fall asleep. Ron breathed a sigh of relief and sank back into the armchair feeling fairly pleased with himself. This was his first patient and on his own too, he thought that he had done quite well, although he was glad that it was nearly morning.
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Coming Soon - Chapter Twenty Six - The Death Eater's Son - Severus tries to find out what has been happening to Draco since they last saw him but meets with a wall of silence. Can Harry and Severus figure out what is going on before something awful happens?
A/N Of course they don't, that happens in Ch Twenty Seven.