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!

Chapter 26 – Mr. Poorly

-II-

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.

-II-

"...And then I had to go to therapy anyway. Just great," Harry said, grumpily and let himself sink into his old bed in Victor's room. The boy who had shared the room with Victor for the past two weeks had been released yesterday.

"Cheer up, now you're done with it."

"Easy for you to say. You didn't have to reveal any memories. They didn't let me block them. It was awful."

"You talk as if I haven't gone though that many times as well, Harry. Come on, it's over. Next week you won't have a session because it's the Easter holiday."

Harry quickly sat up and looked at Victor. "How was your talk with the Healer? Will you get out of here for Easter?"

Victor smiled. "Yes, I have a holiday from Friday to Monday. Friday around midday, Poppy and Alastor will pick me up and they will show me Hogwarts. On Saturday morning, we will travel to Orkney Island and stay there until Monday morning."

"Friday midday?" Harry looked disappointed. "We're Flooing over to Dumbledore's mansion at three. I can't even show you the castle then. Can't you see if they'll let you leave earlier?"

"I'm glad they're letting me out at all, Harry. With a bit of luck, I will be released completely in three weeks. I don't want to push it."

"Then we will use the time at Orkney to have fun. I've never been to Alastor's cottage. I'm so curious."

Victor grinned. "Yeah, me too."

"Mum said you'll spend the whole Sunday at Dumbledore's mansion with us if you're released."

"Yeah, Poppy told me, and you can come over to me on Saturday if you want."

"That'll be great! No school, no therapy, just fun. I have to show you the swamp horses. Alastor has one as well."

"Yes, he showed me a photo of her. She's beautiful."

"Wait until you see Roan. He's magnificent. Meadow and Darius haven't chosen a human yet, so maybe one of them will choose you."

"It would be so cool to ride on them. Alastor said Jenny is hoping to become one of their humans as well."

"Jenny?"

"Alastor's niece. She often spends the summer with them on Orkney Island."

"Wow, I still have no clue about my godparents. I know they sometimes visit relatives, but I never ask whom."

"She's fourteen, like me. Her family lives in Ireland and her father is Alastor's brother. I don't know any more than that."

"Alastor's brother. Isn't that a bit old to have such a young daughter?"

Victor shrugged. "Don't know, but he has six children, and Jenny is the youngest."

"Time to go, Harry," Nurse Anne said, peeking into the room.

Harry sighed. "Only one week, Vic."

"Yes, one week," Victor said happily.

X-X

Harry nervously bit his bottom lip as he waited for Martin in front of the fireplace of the Telemachus Hospital. The nurses were eying him curiously.

"Ah, my little helper for today," a black haired, tall man with a mustache said when he had cleaned the ash from his robes.

"I'm Harry, Mr..." Damn. Severus had not told him Martin's last name.

"Martin will do. I'm really glad to have some help today. I can hardly keep up as it is. Too many dunderheads think they are capable of brewing for themselves."

Harry blushed.

Martin laughed. "Yes, and you are one of them. Thank Merlin you haven't ended up like most of my cases here." Martin held up a big briefcase which most certainly held all the files Severus had talked about.

"Do you heal them?"

"No, not directly. I research and record all their symptoms and how they react to different treatments. Often we can help people based on the experiences I file from other accidents. I take tests in my laboratory and analyze what could have caused the patients' problems. In most cases, it isn't clear which ingredients caused the symptoms. It's my job to find out and search for a solution."

"Oh..." It wasn't overly complicated, but Harry really felt like a small boy at that moment.

"Today, we will take down the symptoms of two new patients and have a talk with three patients that have been in the hospital for the last three months to see what changes they can describe."

"Three months?" Harry asked, shocked.

"Once damage is done by a potion, it takes a long time to recover. You still have that rash, don't you?" Martin asked knowingly.

Harry screwed up his face. "Yes, but it was only two days ago." Suddenly, Harry paled. "You don't think it will stay for three months, do you? James said it would itch later and it's already starting to."

"Maybe I should make a file for you as well?" Martin asked teasingly, but when he saw Harry begin to panic, he added, "According to what I heard, your rash is an allergic reaction to boosted woodgrass. As soon as the woodgrass leaves your body completely, the rash will disappear. Maybe in a week or two."

"It stays in my body for that long?"

"Yes, many ingredients can be verified in the blood or urine for many weeks. Some even for months. That's what makes experimenting with potions so dangerous. Some Potions Masters think they can handle it alone, can calculate how long something is in their system, but that's never safe. You can analyze your blood with analyzing boxes like you father has, but it is still very dangerous. That's why we have laboratories like you grandfather's that specialize in testing unregistered potions before they are released. They decide if a potion is freely sold or needs to be prescribed by a Healer."

During this explanation, Martin guided Harry through the halls of the hospital until they stopped in front of a room. "Okay, first patient," Martin said and stepped inside after knocking thrice.

Harry was very nervous and stayed close by the door as Martin cheerfully went over to the single bed that was in the room. A man of maybe forty was sitting in it. In his hands was an odd cube.

"Mr. Poorly, how are you today?" Martin asked friendly.

"Mr. Russel! Is it time for our meeting already? I really lose track of time in here. I wish I would learn quicker to be released." The man looked oddly into space instead of looking at Martin. His hands roamed over the cube and moved parts of it around. "Tricky one this time," he said and held the cube up. "My niece brought it over yesterday, and I haven't solved it yet."

"That's the idea of it, Mr. Poorly. It will keep your brain busy."

Mr. Poorly sighed. "I really miss work. Solving Magix Cube riddles and learning Braille isn't very challenging. I hope you have something on file with you to discuss."

"Not today, but maybe next time, Mr. Poorly. Today I have a young culprit with me to help. Professor Snape's son."

"His sons are five. Don't tell me he's already let them brew?"

Martin chuckled. "No, his adoptive son, Harry."

"Ah, the little hero. So, Harry, you already got in trouble with your new father?"

Harry cautiously stepped closer. "Yes, sir, but I'm sorry."

"What did you do?"

Harry looked over to Martin, who just grinned at him. "I...I took something to fake a fever and throw up."

"Fake a fever? You mean you took something to get a fever, young man. Faking a fever means putting a Warming Spell on your skin."

Marin laughed. "Don't give him ideas, Mr. Poorly."

"Better that than taking something punched up. So, where did you get the potions from?"

Harry bit his bottom lip. "Ehm...I...I brewed them myself, but they were really harmless. Just some Fever Fudge and a Throw-Up Pill."

"Harmless? So harmless that your father is making you help Mr. Russel here."

"I got a rash because it reacted with something I had to take a few days before. I had forgotten about it, and even if I had remembered it, I did not know it would react negatively with it."

"Taking your own brews is very dangerous because you never look very critically at it. That's what brought me here. I'm a fairly knowledgeable Potions brewer, but I started to get annoyed by the long periods you need to wait until a product is tested enough. So I tested them myself. Now look what I got in return. I had an infection and my leukocyte count was high when I wanted to speed up the development of my newly invented Hair Growth Potion. The leukocytes destroyed the structure of the moon flower seed I added in the potion and made it radical. It attacked my sight nerves and, voila, I'm blind."

Harry did not know what to say.

"But look," the man tapped his head. "It worked. So what should I have done?"

"Ehm...you shouldn't have taken it?"

"Then I would still be bald."

"But you could see."

"But I wanted hair."

Again, Harry looked at the still-grinning Martin. "Ehm...you shouldn't have taken it but given it to an institute to be tested? Then when you got it back, you could have used it."

"Exactly. I would have gotten it back with the certification that it could only be prescribed by a Healer because it could react with a high leukocyte count. Now I have hair and will never see it. Not worth speeding up my potion, was it?"

"No," Harry said sadly.

"Just make sure to not make the same mistake, young man."

"Yes, sir."

"So, Mr. Poorly. Any new ideas about why the Lorenzo Herb hasn't left you system by now?" Martin asked and sat down on a chair.

"No, my niece brought me some more books, but I can't find a solution. Anything new from your side?"

"Unfortunately not, but I'm waiting for a book from France in which I hope to find more information."

"Lorenzo Herb. That's used in hallucinogenic potions," Harry muttered before he could stop himself.

Both man turned their heads in Harry's direction.

"Ehm...I..."

"My, Master Snape will have a lot of work with you. And I'm sure he will soon need one of my Dyeing Potions. Has he already got gray hair because of you?"

"No," Harry said and blushed. "I...I just read about it in a book."

"How old are you?" Mr. Poorly asked.

Damn. Harry bit his bottom lip and looked nervously at Martin.

"Caught, young man. There is no book which mentions Lorenzo Herb you would be allowed to read at you age."

"One of the books is only restricted until sixteen."

"And you are thirteen, if my memory is correct. Believe me; my mind still works quite well."

"Okay, but hey, you have the Lorenzo Herb in you, not me."

"Because Mr. Poorly had to take medication against tremors, Harry," Martin said, a bit more seriously.

"Sorry, I didn't want to be rude. But I really read about it. It can cause a change of the blood counts. You need to use Elven Wood to neutralize it when you analyze the blood of someone who is affected by it."

"That's correct," Martin stated, impressed with Harry knowledge, but also a bit worried.

"I also read that the Lorenzo Herb affects the nerves throughout the body, but some more than others. For example, the sight nerve. It puts some nerves out like a switch. They are unused for some time, mostly while the Lorenzo Herb is still in the body. That's why many addicted to Lorenzo Herb have partial sight defaults. So if Mr. Poorly still has some Lorenzo Herb in him, couldn't it be that some of his sight nerves were deactivated when the radical moon flower attacked the active nerves?"

Martin looked at Harry as if he had two heads. And then he grabbed for the file case to wildly run over the pages of Mr. Poorly's file.

"Mr. Russel?" Mr. Poorly asked with a wavering voice.

"I'm already checking. No, there was no test done regarding how many sight nerves were attacked by the moon flower. It seems nobody thought about this possibility. There's..."

"A chance," Mr. Poorly whispered.

"I will contact your Healers, Mr. Poorly. Still, please try to not get your hopes up too much. Plus, we haven't found a way to get the Lorenzo Herb out of you system yet. Even if there are still nerves intact, they cannot be activated as long as the herb is in your blood." Martin looked at Harry. "Please stay here, Harry. I'll be back in a minute."

Harry looked at the cube in Mr. Poorly's hands. "You know why you still have the Lorenzo Herb in your system, right, sir?"

"Of course, I know." Mr. Poorly held the cube up. "My hands are everything I have to keep me occupied with now that I'm blind. I can't stand them shaking."

"So you still take the Tremor Potion against the Healers' advice? What about the lesson you taught me just a few minutes ago about not taking your own brew and always letting things be tested and, if necessary, subscribed by a Healer?"

"That still stands, young man. Don't get cheeky. This potion gave me a bit of my dignity back, but if I had known I could get a bit of my sight back by not taking it, I would have stopped earlier. Now, I might have been robbed of that chance. So you see, I made another mistake, which should show you even more how bad of an idea it was."

The door opened, and Martin came back with two Healers in tow. The conversation ended before Harry could get another tongue lashing.

I hope you like Harry's punishment.

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