Chapter 36: Getting back to normal
That weekend was the second weekend in May. The end of year exams started at the beginning of June. That gave them three weeks to prepare. The staff had caught up the upper school of what they were supposed to know already, and there were two weeks of learning new things before the exams. Then there would be a week of revision, and then the exams. After the exams, which took around a week and a half, there were two weeks of more practical, fun lessons until the end of term.
The students who had been withdrawn had returned. They weren't going to take part in exams, but were coming to classes to learn the remainder of the syllabus then would spend the exam time revising and be given extra lessons in the last weeks of term.
There was an air of pent up energy about the place, as if people just wanted to let off steam. Dumbledore had had a staff meeting on Friday and the staff had agreed that they'd arrange an impromptu Hogsmeade visit for all students third year and above next day, and any students left behind could take part in duelling sessions and/or quidditch or whatever they usually did seeing as it was the weekend.
Dumbledore stood up and announced this on Saturday at breakfast. There was uproar from the students as the excitement level hit the enchanted ceiling. Half the staff had arranged to chaperone students to Hogsmeade and the other half organised to stay to supervise the remaining students. Snape, Flitwick and Hooch stayed, McGonagall, Sprout and Sinistra went to the village.
The twins promised to bring Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville something nice back from Honeydukes.
So mid morning found Harry partnering Ron, and Neville partnering Hermione for duelling lessons with Snape and Flitwick. The great hall had had the tables moved to the edges and there was now a large open space to practise in.
"I know you're all here to hex your friends without sanction," said Flitwick, which got a titter of laughter from the room, "But if you don't mind we'll teach a basic shield and some basic defensive techniques first and then you can get on to hexing your friends. Madame Pomfrey was quite clear that I wouldn't be her favourite professor if too many of you ended up in her infirmary with bits missing." This got another laugh, although the students did appreciate what he was saying.
"The basic shield charm, Protego, is taught in fourth year as part of the syllabus, but as it's only a defensive charm, there's no reason you can't learn it earlier. As it's a fourth year charm, it's not going to be the easiest, and getting a good shield requires practice." lectured Flitwick.
"And that's not an excuse for 'accidentally' hexing your friends in the corridors either. Anyone found practicing shields by defending hexes will be very sorry indeed." interjected Snape, his voice containing the menace he always reserved for scaring first years.
"Precisely." said Flitwick, continuing with his explanation. "A shield is an invisible magical barrier to deflect both physical entities and spells. It wouldn't be any use if you couldn't stop an object that's levitated towards you at speed, say, so remember that the shield will stop actual items from hitting you. It's not just for spells."
"When you get good at the spell you can rebound the spell or object cast at you towards a specific place, I suggest back at its source, but if you never learn that level of control, the shield will ricochet or dissipate what's thrown at it." said Snape.
"Any questions?" asked Flitwick, "Yes, Mr. Nott?" said Flitwick seeing a hand go up.
"Is there anything it can't defend you against, when you get good, I mean?" asked Theo.
"There is. And I hope you never have to find out first hand, but it will not block the Killing Curse." the audience gasped. People didn't generally mention the unforgivables, even if they knew about them.
"Enough background, get into your pairs, two lines of pairs please, some organisation helps us to get around the room. I have no intention of getting hit by a stray spell. The incantation is Protego, and the the wand movement is this." Flitwick created a shield in demonstration. As it was invisible, no-one could see it.
"Professor Snape, if you would be so kind?" Snape cast a wide jet of tiny stars at Flitwick so that when they bounced off, everyone could see the size of the shield he'd made. The effect was very pretty, and it got a few oohs from the audience.
"You won't have time to admire the sparkliness in a duel." growled Snape. A few of the ooohers looked embarrassed.
Harry and Ron had both been at previous duelling sessions and they'd both tried to form a basic shield last time. They'd managed a very flimsy shield that broke down as soon as something was fired at it though. They were near the end of one of the lines of pairs, so by the time Snape had got to them they'd managed to form a shield first try, but it was still very flimsy.
"You wand action is correct, Mr. Weasley, but you need to put more of you into it. You've got to mean a shield just as much as you mean a hex. What are you firing at each other's shields?"
"A stinging hex, professor." said Ron, wondering if that was going to go down well.
"Of course you are, nothing painful at all," said Snape sarcastically, "I'm sure you'll learn at some point." and that was the only thing he said on the subject of their choice of hex. "When you cast a stinging hex, do you mean it?"
"Well, yes, otherwise it doesn't reach its target." said Ron.
"Then you have to apply the same principle here. Imagine you've got to cast a shield at someone, not just in front of you, imagine that in order to get in working you've got to hit them with it. Mr. Weasley, a hex, Mr. Potter, a shield if you would."
Ron fired a stinging hex at Harry again, a mild one, and Harry threw his shield at Ron.
"Ow!" yelped Ron, rubbing his elbow. His hex had rebounded and had randomly hit him.
"Sorry, I wasn't aiming at you." said Harry, "As if I could!"
"Well done, Mr. Potter. Swap roles. With feeling Mr. Weasley," said Snape as Harry cast a hex.
Harry's hex bounced off Ron's shield and ricocheted harmlessly into the ceiling.
"And from now on, you're going to use something more harmless. If anyone gets hit with a rebounding stinging hex, you two will be the first ones in detention. Got it?" asked Snape, without any malice. He was pleased they'd mastered the basics.
"Yes, sir." they chorused.
After they'd practised their shields for another ten minutes the room got a five minute break and then they swapped partners. The professors had noticed that a good half the room had passable shields that could deflect minor hexes like Harry and Ron could, and they'd banned the use of any hex that could injure. There were a lot of shooting stars and Expelliarmuses going on.
Flitwick divided the room into those that could and those that couldn't create a shield and made everyone partner someone in the other group. By the end of the hour, most students could create a shield. Neville had got very excited when his shield worked and had asked his partner, Dean at the time, to try the shooting stars hex just a little stronger. Flitwick had got hit on the back of the head by a stream of shooting stars rebounding off Neville's shield. When he turned to the pair, Neville was standing there with his hands up to his mouth looking a cross between mortified and terrified.
"Five points to Gryffindor!" said Flitwick with a smile. Neville was over the moon.
When the hour was up, they were reminded not to go practise somewhere where they thought they couldn't be seen. The portraits and the house elves had been told to keep an eye out, and hexes and duelling were strictly forbidden. There were a few looks of disgruntlement, but the students weren't daft, they weren't going to try anything.
At lunch everyone was talking about how much of a fun morning they'd had. At dinner, when the upper school had returned from Hogsmeade the atmosphere in the great hall was almost festive. The day had done a lot to lighten everyone's mood.
"Did you enjoy the duelling session yesterday?" asked the Healer of Dudley.
"Didn't go." replied Dudley.
"Why not? It was meant to be fun." said the Healer, making sure he didn't sound accusatory.
Dudley shrugged. "Didn't fancy it. Not my thing."
Jones had spoken to Dudley on the Friday and now it was Sunday. Dudley had been increasingly disinterested. He answered the Healer's questions, but wasn't very forthcoming. The Healer had to ask before getting any further explanations. Whereas at the beginning Dudley seemed willing to talk, even though he had trouble associating Tom with Voldemort, he'd been willing to volunteer information. He seemed more closed down. Not withdrawn, else that would have concerned the Healer, but more 'Whatever'.
Dudley could be drawn on any subjects except his father, Harry and Voldemort. The Healer decided to work on the Tom/Voldemort problem today.
"Dudley, how do you feel about Tom turning out to not be your friend? Would you have called him your friend?"
Dudley nodded. "Talking to Tom was nice. But he wasn't real."
"It's not that he wasn't real, it's that he was lying to you. You couldn't see his face, you didn't know anything other than what you read. It's not surprising that you believed him."
"But he was V..." Dudley ran out of words again.
"Yes, Tom became Voldemort, but he wasn't then. I was talking to Dumbledore, and he was very clear. You weren't talking to the person that killed Harry's parents, you were talking to a younger version. There was less malice in Tom." the Healer didn't add the words 'but only by a bit'. Dumbledore had explained to him in confidence how Horcruxes worked. Tom had to have killed someone or something, according the Albus, to create the diary, but he had to get Dudley to talk somehow.
"But I talked to him. I liked what he said." said Dudley.
"Because although his suggestions were perhaps cruel, they weren't evil. You chose to check that the poison wouldn't kill Harry."
"But what if he'd said it would, and then he'd made me do it, and I didn't have the control not to?" wailed Dudley.
"But you did ask. And that's key. Look, you might have a bit of a jaded view of what's a reasonable 'prank' to play on your cousin, or how far you should go with things, but you aren't an evil person, Dudley."
"But I did things. Before talking to, to... Tom." Dudley said finally. The Healer breathed. He'd said Tom. "I liked what T...Tom wanted me to do. I wanted to do them."
"Would you knowingly do something that seriously harmed, as in permanently injured, or killed anyone?" asked the Healer.
"No!" said Dudley. "It's just that I've always picked on him. That's how it's always been."
"Did your parents encourage you?" asked the Healer.
"They didn't discourage me." said Dudley. "I'm pretty sure they knew what Harry Hunting was."
"And what's that?"
"My friends and I would hunt for him and duff him up a bit." said Dudley. There was no emotion in his voice. He was just describing how things were.
"Do you regret doing it?" asked the Healer.
"It's just how things were. Life before magic seems so far away."
"And since being at Hogwarts? Do you regret using Polyjuice to get Harry into trouble?" Dudley eyes widened for a moment. "Your school records are available to me. I know about that and the consequences for it."
"It seemed like a normal thing to do. I didn't get away with it anyway." said Dudley.
"That wasn't exactly what I asked. I asked if you regretted doing it? Given after everything, he tried to save your life."
There was silence. The Healer knew Dudley had been increasingly agitated about finding out that Harry had gone into the chamber. He'd seen him at mealtimes just watching Harry. He'd been increasingly short during these interviews, especially when drawn on the subject. Something would give eventually. The Healer hoped it wouldn't take too long.
"Harry came to save me." Dudley said, picking imaginary fluff off his robes, not meeting the Healer's eye.
"Yes, he did."
"You said he'd have probably died doing it." said Dudley.
"According to Dumbledore, yes, that's how it would have gone if the staff hadn't got there in time."
"Did he know? That he'd lose I mean?"
"I don't think he considered it."
"But I broke his broom." said Dudley. The Healer was a bit confused by the non-sequitur. He waited to see if there was going to be an explanation. "I swapped his quill for a blood quill. I glued his hands. But he came to save me. Why?"
"You're his cousin. He doesn't have any other family. He's grown up with you. You are his family."
"But I've never been nice to him."
"But you're his family. Everyone else is dead. He couldn't lose you too."
"But I made him miserable."
"Harry has an incredible capacity for forgiveness, it seems. You can make a fresh start. You can be his family, his cousin."
"But it's not right."
"Dudley, you can change. You can choose to stop bullying Harry, you can get on with him. He doesn't hold grudges, whatever you've done. Whatever you've done, put it behind you. Make a fresh start."
"It doesn't work like that." said Dudley, and he got up and left the room.
After Dudley left the room the Healer thought about what to do next. He'd finally got through to Dudley. He'd clearly heard Dudley use the word Harry for the first time ever. The boy would think a bit longer, another couple of days perhaps, and then what? Hopefully he'd come down on the side of reason.
The problem was going to be at home. Dudley would think it through, he was an intelligent boy. He'd spent his childhood bullying Harry at the tacit wish of his parents. That wasn't going to stop unless his parents wanted it to stop. Dudley could reason his way to Harry had saved his life and he should be nicer to Harry, but it would come up against his parents' wishes and then what? One even more confused boy.
Damn. He'd have to get to at least Petunia very quickly. He had no idea how to deal with Vernon. He'd never even met the man. But he the boy's worst nightmare.
The Healer didn't think he'd ever laid a finger on Dudley, and from what Severus had told him, he didn't think he physically abused Harry, it was more that Dudley's parents had created a paradox in the boy's head. They loved him, but couldn't love him if he was a wizard and he was now a wizard. It was a mess.
Time to visit the Dursleys. It was the weekend, if he went there unannounced, Vernon would be there too. He really needed to plan his visit carefully.
"Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley." said the Healer as he stepped out of the floo.
"What the ruddy hell are you doing here?" demanded Vernon, getting up from watching the television, spluttering with rage. "Get out of my house!"
Behind Healer Jones, Snape stepped through the floo.
"My house is not open to your sort! Get out!" raged Vernon. Petunia hadn't moved off the couch, nor had she said anything, she just watched the scene unfold with wide eyes.
"Mr. Dursley," said Jones, "I am Healer Jones, I've been talking with your son." He didn't add that he'd been here talking to Petunia, he had just seen the brief look of consternation that had crossed her face. "This," he said, indicating the wizard with him, "Is Professor Snape, I believe you've met."
"Mr. Dursley." murmured Snape in greeting. "Petunia." he looked at Petunia. Petunia had gone rather pale.
"And why you both here?" demanded Vernon.
"You tell me, Mr. Dursley." said the Healer. "What do you think a couple of wizards should talk to you for? Why is your son so afraid of you? Why did your nephew live in a cupboard? What skeletons do you have in your closet?"
"How dare you suggest I abuse my son!" said Vernon, reasonably quick on the uptake there.
"I didn't suggest a thing, Mr. Dursley." replied Jones. "Perhaps we could all have a civilised discussion, like civilised people?" The Healer went to sit on the couch, uninvited, and Snape followed suit. Snape could be quite menacing when he just sat there, toying with his wand, not saying anything.
"Now that I've got your undivided attention, I'd like you to answer some questions. First, how do you feel about your son being a wizard?" asked Jones.
"How should I feel? He's a wizard. What more is there to say?"
"Does it make you happy?"
"I couldn't care less, so long as he doesn't do it around me!" said Vernon, clearly lying and telling the truth in the same sentence.
"And how do you feel about Harry being a wizard?"
"He's always done weird things. You can never be sure round him what's going to happen next."
"And does this affect your relationship with them? Their being wizards?" continued the Healer, determined to get some semblance of an answer.
"How I am with the people under my roof is none of your business!" said Vernon getting angry again.
"I can see being reasonable isn't going to work, if you're not going to answer my questions." said the Healer. "Perhaps you'll respond to non-reasonable."
"Professor Snape here has spent many years working undercover in the wizarding war. He's good at it. He finds evidence for things and people go to trial. A very public trial. He's provided lots of awkward cases over the years. Ones where it's one person's word against another's. Ones where there's very little evidence. He good at gathering evidence. Piece by piece. And people are found guilty, Mr. Dursley. What do you think happens to guilty people? They go to prison, Mr. Dursley. Not you're kind caring, rehabilitating, muggle prisons though, they go to Azkaban." There was an inhale from Petunia. She remembered what the man from the ministry had said back in summer.
"Vernon..." she started urgently, but the Healer carried on.
"Azkaban's not a nice place, Mr. Dursley, not with the dementors sucking the joy of life from you, stranded in the middle of the North Sea. And that's just the dementors. What do you think the inmates would think of child abuse, Mr. Dursley?"
Vernon just sat there, not saying a word. The Healer was unsure what Vernon believed, or thought, deep down about the wizarding world, or Dudley or Harry. It would take too long to untangle. He'd try, but it would take far longer than the six weeks until the end of term. So he went for an option that was very un-Healer like. He could guarantee that if his supervisors got wind of his visit today, suspended without pay would be the least of his worries. This wasn't how it was meant to go. But Dudley had reached a turning point and he couldn't let the boy come up against his parents.
"So," said the Healer brightly, "Here's how it's going to go. At some point in the next couple of days you're going to start pretending. I know I can't change your mind overnight, but you're going to put on an act. Hopefully one day you'll see the truth, we're going to work on that, this will not be my only visit. But you're going to tell your son that you're proud of him for being a wizard. You're going to play a part. And Professor Snape here is going to keep an eye on you. You won't see him, but he will see you. While you're at it, over summer, you're going to play the part of an uncle too."
Vernon's eyes grew as hard as agates.
"I see that's harder for you. You'll get the hang of it. I'm sure we can arrange a field trip to Azakaban if you need convincing. I'm not asking you to be cuddly, Mr. Dursley, I telling you to be human."
The Healer got up from the couch, as did Snape. "We will be watching, Mr. Dursley. Start composing a letter. Make it believable. Your continuing freedom depends on it."
They stepped through the floo.
"Do you think that will work?" asked Severus.
"I don't have time for it not to. Dudley accepted a few truths this morning. He called Harry by his name. Just once, but it's a step forward. I need support for him at home. If, in the short term it's forced, so be it, hopefully Dudley will see it as effort made at something awkward. I'll carry on working with the parents over the course of the next six weeks. I've no idea where we'll get up to by the time the end of term rolls round, but hopefully we can get to a stage where neither boy is frightened to go home."
Snape nodded and left to go back to his office.
The next weekend the students were generally speaking busy starting their revision. The amount of revision related homework assignments had skyrocketed and there wasn't much time for anything else. The highlight of the weekend was when Dumbledore announced that the Mandrake roots were ready and next day Professor Snape would have the Draught ready to take to St. Mungo's.
On the Sunday the students who'd been petrified were welcomed back to school. The notable absence was Professor Lockhart. Albus had spoken to him at St. Mungo's, arranged to pay him until the end of the academic year, even though he'd not be teaching, and had cancelled his contract.
Professor Snape was marking essays in his office on Sunday afternoon when there was a knock at his door.
"Enter."
When he looked up he saw the last person he expected to see. "Mr. Dursley." said Snape, putting his quill down.
"Sir." said Dudley, looking very unsure of how to proceed.
"This is usually the part where students tell me why they're here." provided Snape neutrally. He made a point to bite back his usual sarcasm. For Dudley to be here, it meant something important.
"It's about, um, Harry." said Dudley, with an infinitesimal pause before the word Harry, as if trying out a new word "Um, and before Christmas."
"What about him?" asked Snape.
"I wasn't very, well, nice." said Dudley.
"That comment might just win the Understatement of the Century Award, Mr. Dursley."
"Healer Jones said it would be OK."
"And what do you think, Mr. Dursley?"
"I think there were some things I shouldn't have done, like..."
Snape interrupted before Dudley could finish. "You might want to be careful about what words come out of your mouth with me, Mr. Dursley. I'm not Healer Jones. I'm a little more, shall we say judgmental."
Dudley swallowed. "I know."
"I'd say there were things you did more recently that you should be more concerned about. He could have died when you poisoned him you know."
"But I checked. He wouldn't have. You brewed an antidote. And I got caught."
"And what about the Cruciatus curse? I'm sure that eclipses any number of other things you may have done to him earlier? You deserved everything you got that day."
"I know. But he still came to the chamber to save me."
"Yes he did. That's the sort of person he is."
"But did he know about all of it? I mean the Healer said it would be OK, that I could have a fresh start with him, but does Harry know everything?"
"What do you mean?" asked Snape.
"Like that it was me that destroyed his broom."
"Put it this way, we couldn't prove it was you that destroyed his broom, but we had a damn good idea it you. You do remember what I just said about me being judgmental, don't you?" asked Snape sharply. The bit of him that couldn't abide bullying was raising its head. He knew he should be gentle with the boy, he'd seen the interview with the Healer, but he was having a hard time not making good on his earlier threat.
"It was a gift. I knew it was. It was one of his few things. I destroyed it anyway."
Snape clasped one hand with the other in an effort not to reach for a ruler then and there. Why had the Healer told the boy it would be fine? The problem with some students is that it's not fine. Some students get away with anything they can, Snape had thought Dudley was one of those, but it appeared nearly dying at the hands of a remnant of a dark wizard adjusted the boy's mental scales.
"Why does it bother you that you broke his broom, but it doesn't seem to bother you that you nearly killed him?" asked Snape, curiously.
"Did you ever do anything when you were a student that got you paddled, professor?" asked Dudley, before realising that might not have been the best question to ask. But he stammered on in the face of Snape's stare. "It's just that I think I paid for that, so it doesn't bother me. I want to talk to Harry about the chamber, but I don't know how. There's too many things in the way."
Snape needed to talk to the Healer. He would very happily take a ruler to the boy's backside for some of the things he'd done that they couldn't prove, but he didn't know if it would help him or make things worse.
"Time is short right now, Mr. Dursley. There are some things I need to get done before dinner. Come back after dinner and we can talk, unless you'd rather eat dinner standing up." he added the threat to see how the boy reacted. He wasn't expecting to see relief on the boy's face.
Dudley left and Snape floo-called the Healer at St. Mungo's. Snape asked if he could come over and meet him at Dumbledore's office. The Healer agreed.
"I had the most bizarre conversation with Mr. Dursley just now." said Snape when they were gathered in Dumbledore's office. He'd asked Minerva to come along as the boy's head of house.
"I'm not sure you're the best person to be having conversations with Mr. Dursley," she said with a grin, "Is he still in one piece?"
"It's interesting that you should say that. It seems the boy has a death wish. He told me he was the one who destroyed Harry's broom."
"Did you in any way force or threaten that out of him?" asked the Healer, and hurriedly added, "I mean, erm..." he trailed off, "Sorry."
"I know what you mean, and no, I even told him he shouldn't tell me certain things because I'm not you." the corners of Snape's mouth twitched upwards, he wasn't offended by the Healer, he knew he had a reputation. "I even told him I was judgmental. But he told me anyway."
"I asked him if he felt guilty about poisoning him, or casting the Cruciatus, but he said he didn't. That he'd paid for those things. He said he wanted to talk to Harry but didn't know how."
"Perhaps he thinks he can only talk to Harry with a clean slate." said the Healer, "He's done a lot of things to the boy. He told me about them. I said Harry was forgiving, that he'd gone into the chamber anyway. Perhaps that's not what he wanted to hear."
"Perhaps it is, but he can only have that conversation after he's squared everything up with himself." said Snape, "For someone who up to recently didn't appear to have a moral compass, it's suddenly started to point due North."
"He's been duped by Voldemort. That's got to take its toll on anyone, especially if you found yourself agreeing with what he was telling you." said Minerva with a shudder.
"What did he tell either of you he's done?" asked Dumbledore.
"The broom, the blood quill, gluing his hands." replied the Healer, and then to Severus, "I presume you know about those things?" Snape nodded.
Dumbledore made a decision. "Give him a choice, either the ruler for three evenings, or once with a larger amount."
"Can I ask him about cheating in his exams?" asked Severus.
"You could ask, but it's not related to Harry, so please don't put him in the position of lying to you." said the Healer.
"I won't ask then." said Severus, a little aggrieved. Cheating on exams came just after bullying in his book. He'd had to work hard for his grades and didn't see why anyone else shouldn't. He supposed he'd have to let that one go.
After dinner there was a knock on Snape's door. It revealed Dudley Dursley.
Snape pointed to a spot in front of his desk and Dudley stood where he'd been directed. On the desk in full view was a ruler. Snape sat behind his desk.
"Where were we?" asked Snape.
"I told you I'd destroyed H...Harry's broom." said Dudley. "Sir." he added nervously. He was under no illusion about was going to happen, especially when he added, "I swapped his quill for a blood quill and I glued his handed to the pot in Herbology." It came out in a rush. Confessing had seemed easier in his own head, when he wasn't staring at a vengeful potion's master with a ruler to hand.
Snape stared at the boy for a while. He knew his stare was very off-putting. He'd practised it in the mirror years ago. Dudley's Adam's apple bobbed up and down nervously.
"I'll give you a choice, Mr. Dursley, seeing as you confessed of your own free will. Each of those things would get you a session over my desk with a ruler. You can choose that or one longer session. Spanking and four with the ruler each time, or ten with the ruler once. The choice is yours." Snape knew why Dumbledore had offered the choice. Severus would have taken it if he'd been in Dursley's shoes. He hated waiting for a punishment. However harsh, he'd rather it were over quickly, and either way, the boy wouldn't sit down comfortably for a day or so.
There was a long pause while Dudley thought. Snape wasn't going to rush him, that would have been cruel.
"Sir, I choose once."
"I thought you might." said Snape standing up and picking up the ruler. "Bend over the desk, Mr. Dursley. You've ten coming."