Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.

Thanks a lot to my beta-reader, saiyanwizardgurl, for correcting my mistakes.

I also would like to thank my motovation betas!

I'm not a native speaker of English!

Dear readers,

Finally a new chapter. I'm almost done with my real book and then I will finally be able to write fanfiction again. :) I will start with Mischievous Rescuers but part 3 of this story here is still in my mind.

Sunny

Chapter 25 – Bad Harry

-II-

Harry felt sweat form on his whole body, and he felt warm and more sick. The Fever Fudge started to work. It would keep its effect for at least three hours. After that, Harry had to take another one or hope they would not check on him when he was asleep.

When Severus and Ivy came into his room, Harry felt very bad. He was so cold but still sweating and his face was glowing.

"He is burning up, Severus! I don't care if you or anyone else calls me hysterical; I'm calling Poppy now!"

Not perfect, but still okay for his plan. Harry just hoped Poppy could not detect the reason for his fever.

-II-

Poppy, of course, could not find any cause for the fever, but that was not unusual. Still, she detected the fever and diagnosed a nervous stomach. She advised them to wait until the next morning to see how Harry was feeling.

Harry woke around five, but he had not slept well the whole night as he was constantly worried about oversleeping and not being able to take the next bit of Fever Fudge. His stomach still ached, but Harry guessed it was because of his guilt. Soon, the fever kicked in after he had eaten more, and Harry lay back waiting for one of his parents to show up. When he heard the first noises outside, he grabbed for the small sack under his bed.

Should he take the Throw-Up Pill, or would the fever be enough to let him to skip his therapy session? Better safe than sorry. He gulped the pill down and hid the sack under the bed again. Only half a minute later, he stumbled out of his room to the toilet and threw up heavily. Where did all this stuff come from? He had hardly eaten anything yesterday at supper.

Harry was leaning over the toilet when Ivy came in to help. She held him up and gently rubbed his back. Guilt overcame Harry again, and his stomach cramped even more. He felt horrible.

"Come on, Ivy. Get yourself dressed. I already called for Poppy. She will be here soon," Severus said when he came into the bathroom to take over for his wife.

Ivy nodded and made room for Severus to kneel down behind Harry. "Not better, son?" Severus asked, worried, as he placed his hand over Harry's forehead.

Harry shook his head miserably. He was almost wanted to confess just to make the awful feeling of guilt vanish.

"I think everything's out. Let's get you back to bed." After a Refreshing Spell, Harry was led back to his room and was tucked into his bed.

Severus stayed with him until Ivy and Poppy came into the room. "I will inform Albus and Minerva." The two eldest of the family had already left for their offices.

Poppy shook her head and muttered. "I just can't find the reason for his fever and sickness. And there's this odd rash..."

Odd rash? Harry had not even noticed that his arms and chest were covered in little red spots.

"I think you should call James. He can magically scan him. Maybe he will find the reason for this." Poppy seemed to be a bit puzzled that she could not find the cause of Harry's illness, and Harry felt even worse for lying to his parents and his godmother. They were so worried.

Ten minutes later, James was there. "Thanks for coming so soon. Poppy was really crestfallen at not being able to tell what's wrong with him," Ivy said when James came into the room.

"My shift starts at noon, so it's no problem, Ivy. Calm down and let's see what's wrong with Harry, okay?" James said and took one of her shaking hands.

Ivy sighed. "I know I'm overreacting, but the fever and throwing up without any virus or bacteria that could have caused it makes me..."

James smiled kindly at her. "I understand, Ivy. I will check him through, and then we will see. I'm sure it's nothing serious."

Oh, Harry felt so bad. He was worrying his parents like this for nothing. Even Severus had asked Professor Flitwick to watch over his class until they knew what was wrong.

"Hello, Harry," James said, pulling a chair close to Harry's bed. "So what's wrong?"

"It's nothing. Maybe I just ate something bad."

"Nothing?" James asked and eyed Harry closely. "You have a fever. You don't get that from eating something foul. Tell me when this started and how."

Harry looked nervously around. He would so like to admit what he had done but they would be so mad at him. "I...It started with a stomach ache yesterday, late afternoon. I had no appetite. Dad sent me to bed and then I started to feel hot and cold at the same time. This morning I felt sick and had to throw up. I'm already feeling better. I'm sure it's nothing."

Again, James eyed Harry closely. "Nothing? Sure. I will scan you now, Harry. Try to relax."

Relaxing while his heart hammered like hell in fear that James would find out and his parents would be so angry was impossible. Harry would like to hit himself. It would have better if he had gone to his meeting with Healer Wright and James and stared at the wall like so often.

James scanned Harry for a long time with one hand on Harry's chest and the other on Harry's forehead. When he stopped, he looked at Harry intensely until the boy could no longer hold his gaze. Harry felt James taking his arm to examine the rash.

Harry felt so bad. He had no idea how he should escape. The guilt was eating him up, and in the end he could not hold back his tears anymore.

"Harry?" Ivy asked, scared about Harry's mood. "Are you in pain?" She knelt down beside him, almost pushing James aside.

"I'm sorry. You need to stop worrying," Harry said between sobs.

"Harry?" Ivy said, confused.

"I faked it. I took something to throw up and get the fever."

"What?"

"Fantastic." Harry heard Severus mutter and bang the door on his way out. His chest hurt. He had disappointed them.

"Show me what you took, if you have any left," James said neutrally.

Harry wiped the tears off his eyes and grabbed under the bed to pull the little sack out.

Severus came back with his Potions kit. It was a medium sized box with all the instruments he needed to analyze potions and others things for their ingredients. He could even analyze body fluids with it for any trace of potion in it. "You can pet him as a reward for being so stupid again later, Ivy. Give me room." Oh, he was angry, that was clear.

"Don't be so harsh when you don't even know why he did it, Severus."

"I don't care why he did it. He should know by now how dangerous this is," Severus hissed at his wife.

Now they were fighting again and it was all Harry's fault. He felt miserably. "Please don't fight. I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't helping, Harry," Severus spat at him. "How stupid are you to make the same mistake again? Look at this rash. It's an allergic reaction. Whatever you took is reacting badly with the Sleeping Draught you had to take two days ago. I told you a hundred times that the potion lingers in your system for days." He looked angrily at his crying son, all the time repeating the mantra 'Youwillnotgosoft' in his head.

"I forgot about it. I'm sorry." The sobbing became worse. James, meanwhile, had taken the analyzer from Severus and busied himself with it.

"And?" Severus asked when he saw that James had started the analysis.

"It seems this white pill here is the culprit. It contains wood grass, which most likely was boosted by the Mandrako moss from the Sleeping Draught. So the overdose of wood grass caused the allergic reaction. Anything else is not very serious. I guess the lilac toffee here is the cause for the fever. It's a combination of cobble root and willow bark. The effect does not hold for long. The rash will stay for longer and most likely will get itchy soon."

"I hope it will itch like hell," Severus said angrily.

"Severus," Ivy said indignantly.

Harry sobbed and turned his head away from them. He could not stand this any longer. They had finally become a perfect little family again, and now he made his parents fight.

"If you two can't control yourself, you should go outside. I would like to hear Harry's reasons for this whole ploy," James said dryly as he closed the box and placed it on the night table. "So, Harry?" James asked when Severus and Ivy stopped their bickering.

"I...I..."

"Turn around to me, Harry. I would like to see your face when we talk to each other."

Harry sighed and turned around. "I didn't want to go to our meeting today."

James nodded thoughtfully. "You still are ill, even though it was caused by these prank items. I will come over again before my shift starts. Rest, and if you are feeling better, we will talk more then." James stood up and faced Severus and Ivy. "Can I talk to you outside?"

The moment the door closed behind the adults, Harry turned and cried even harder into his pillow. He had ruined it all.

He could not say how much time had passed before a warm hand was placed on his shoulder. "Come on, Harry. That doesn't help. You'll just make yourself really sick."

Harry turned around and looked at his mother through tearful eyes. "I'm sorry, Mum. Please don't fight with Dad because of me."

"We're not fighting, Harry. We're just telling the each other openly what we think. That's nothing to worry or cry about."

"He won't talk to me again."

Ivy snorted. "Of course he will, but I fear you won't like the topic."

Harry sighed and helped his mother to get him out of his pajama top. "Will it burn?" Harry looked cautiously at the salve in Ivy's hands.

"It will cool your skin. It won't burn."

"Is it from Dad?"

"Of course. Do you think he would let anything be used on his son that wasn't made by him?"

Harry smiled weakly.

"You know, he didn't mean that he wants you to get a very itchy rash. He immediately got this salve for you." She paused shortly but then went on. "Will you tell me why you did this, Harry?"

Harry's face fell. He watched his adoptive mother silently as she applied the salve on his arms and chest.

When Ivy was finished, she stroked the hair out of Harry's face. "Please talk to me."

Harry sighed. "I'm so sick of those meetings with James and Healer Wright. They always trick me into revealing another secret, to make me remember another horrible memory. I think I already made so much progress. Can't they leave me alone?"

"You need to talk about what still hurts you here," Ivy said and tapped her index finger against Harry's chest.

"You don't understand. It hurts to remember it. What is it good for?"

"First, you've had less nightmares and panic attacks lately, so the therapy helps. Second, I know exactly how much a memory can hurt, Harry. Running away from it doesn't help. It only gives the memory more power over you."

Harry let his head hang. "Do I have to go to the therapy session today?"

"That will be James' decision. He will come over at eleven to check on you. Until then, the fever should go down." She felt Harry's forehead to see if it already was cooler.

"Are you mad at me?"

"No, but you really have to stop doing these stupid, dangerous things. You take potions on a regular basis. Experiments like this are no fun. If you feel too pressured by James and Healer Wright, then tell them about it openly. Your father is so proud of your potions interest, but you hurt him by doing things like this. He feels guilty and wonders if he should restrict you more."

"There were no dangerous ingredients in the jokes. I'm even allowed to buy them in an apothecary without an adult."

"That's not what I meant, Harry, and I think you know that. If you go against his will so much as to brew those so called jokes and then even eat them untested, he thinks he can't trust you with the ingredients he lets you brew with in his laboratory. There is a reason for institutes like your grandfather's to test new potions."

"I would never do something like last year again. I never stole one of his ingredients again, and I never will," Harry protested.

Ivy looked sadly at him. "You don't understand what I wanted to tell you. Maybe your father will find better words. Now you need to rest."

How could he rest when the talk with Severus kept him awake and worried? Harry was almost relieved to see Severus when he came to him during his break. Anything was better than this constant fear.

Severus took a chair and sat down close to Harry. Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared at Harry.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I know that isn't enough."

"No, it isn't. You brewed something dangerous again, and this time you even took it yourself. Do you have any idea what could have happened? You are a potion brewer. I let you use my laboratory, trusted you, and I thought you were responsible. Today I was disappointed."

New tears ran over Harry's face. "But...but you can trust me. I never stole from you. I would never do so."

"Still, you consumed an untested product of your brewing. Your grandfather and I have explained to you in detail how important it is to check your products with an institute before they are used. You are no Weasley, Harry, and I taught you to be responsible. It seems I didn't teach you well enough."

"You did! I just was desperate. I don't want to go to the therapy anymore, Dad. Please. I'm much better already. I don't need it anymore."

"Just this statement shows the contrary, but we will discuss this with James later. What I want to talk about with you is why you were stupid enough to take these untested products?"

"There wasn't anything dangerous in it. Like I told Mum already, I could have bought those ingredients on my own in an apothecary."

"I've told you several times that harmless ingredients can become harmful when used with other potions. Your panic attack potion, for example, is a very complex potion and it stays in your system for a long time, even if you don't feel its effect. You also have to take Nutrient Potions sometimes along with Sleeping Draughts. You can't brew whatever you want and try it out like a guinea pig. I'm very disappointed in you. My laboratory is off limits to you from now on, and I won't let you brew with Fred and George again until you've demonstrated that I can trust you again."

"But…." Harry could not say more; the lump in his throat was preventing it.

"I have the feeling you have no clue what you did today. This rash here," Severus grabbed for Harry's sleeve and pulled it up, "is one of the harmless risks. You could have had an asthma attack, heart problems, cramps, brain damage, and much more. Do I need to list them all for you to understand what you risked?"

Harry shook his head sadly. "I thought it was harmless."

"Yes, I know you did. Therefore, I contacted a friend of mine. You have a free afternoon on Thursday, and you will spent it helping Martin with his work. He is a specialist for potion accidents, and he is visiting the hospitals close by to file the current potions accident patients on Thursday. Maybe you will learn to think twice before you consume something untested when you see the results of said experiments."

"Yes, sir." Harry's head could not sink deeper.

The silence that fell over the room was depressing until Severus sighed, sat down on the bed, and drew Harry into an embrace. "You worry us with things like this, Harry. We don't want to see you suffer or lose you. Potion brewing is a dangerous passion and needs to be treated seriously. It's not like cooking."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Severus shook his head but pressed Harry tighter to his chest.

"You know the punishment now. We won't speak about it again. It's forgiven. We will talk about your experiences with Martin when you are back from helping him on Thursday."

Harry nodded and straightened up. "Did you tell him what I did?"

"Yes, and he understands why I want you to help him. He is happy to get some help, and maybe that will even be a profession you would like to do someday. It's an interesting field."

Yes, it could be interesting. Maybe it would not be so bad.

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