Thank you to wonderful Beta of this chapter, SongOfStars
Chapter Two- Running Out Of Time
Severus was up later than normal, wandering the halls of the castle in hopes of finding a student out of bed so he could deliver detention, one of the few pleasures he had in life. He smirked at the thought of making a first year scrub his dungeon floors with a toothbrush or making them scrub the hardened gunk off his cauldrons, doing that without magic would take hours and no doubt be a bit painful for their hands after the first few hours of scrubbing. Severus was making his way down the North Tower when he heard it, an agonizing scream that sent chills to his bones.
Having spent years working for the Dark Lord, he was witness to many tortures given by the man but none of his victims ever sent out a scream like the one he just heard. Quickly taking out his wand, he put the school on lock down, nothing in or out, next he sent a patronus out to Albus and Poppy before running towards the screams.
Once he realized that the screams were coming from the Defence classroom, he burst through the door to see Remus with his jaws wrapped around a child's throat, getting ready to chop down.
"Expelliarmus!" Severus yelled, sending the wolf flying back into the segment wall, watching as its body limply fell to the ground. With a flick of his wand he tightly bound Remus with rope, not wanting to take any changes before quickly making his way over to the child, immediately realizing that the child was no other than Harry Potter.
Severus watched in horror as those piercing green eyes landed on him, begging for him to help. Disregarding the pool of blood, Severus knelt down next to the child, reaching out and undoing Harry's belt and sliding it through the loops before placing it around his upper thigh. With no time to waste, he hastily tightened the belt around the leg in an effort to stop the blood flow.
"Talk to me, Potter!" Severus demanded, finding it remarkable that Harry was still conscious, no doubt the child's magic had something to do with it; in fact, that magic might be the only thing keeping him alive.
Once the belt was tightly secured, Severus reached up and tore Harry's shirt off completely to get a better look at the damage. It was sickening. The child had long gashes over fifty percent of his body, not to mention the embedded glass in his side and the gaping hole in his right shoulder.
Severus reached up and roughly grabbed Harry's face, forcing the child to look at him. "I said talk to me, Potter. I'm not saying that because I like the sound of your voice!" Severus snapped as he took off his outer robe and pressed it over Harry's shoulder.
"Coul..couldn't...g..mymymy...wand..." Harry spoke, coughing up a little bit of blood as he did. His lungs felt like they were on fire, as if someone was holding a torch to them. Every breath felt like someone was hammering nails into his chest. Unknown to Harry, he was currently drowning in his own blood.
"One inch of movement would have caused it to attack," Severus commented, more to himself then to Harry.
"I...I..jjjjjjust..want..edddd..." Harry tried to get out but before he could finish, his eyes rolled into the back of his head as his body slightly started to shake from shock.
"Potter? Potter!" Severus called out as Poppy and Albus came running into the room.
"What happened?" Albus asked in a panic as Poppy made her way over to Harry and knelt down next to Severus, running her wand over the child.
"Your pet wolf!" Severus spat in anger, not even looking back at the man. "I told you that he shouldn't be in the school, now your golden boy is fighting for his life. Even worse, he was bitten!" Severus exclaimed as he looked down at the teeth marks that spread across Harry's stomach. "Do you have any idea what you deemed this boy to?"
"He's alive!" Poppy spoke before Albus had a chance to speak. "We need to work fast if we have a chance at saving him. His magic is fading fast," Poppy explained, taking out a brightly coloured potion from her robes along with a syringe.
"Systema dead, it will slow his system down, giving us time to work" Poppy explained, filling the syringe with the potion before slipping the needle into what was called the posterior external jugular vein before pushing down the plunger.
Severus knew this potion, it slowed the recipient system down so much that they were deemed dead, the side effects of the potion were drastic, but if the child had any chance of pulling through, they didn't have a choice.
"We should take him to my chambers, it's closer than the Hospital Wing and time is essential. Plus, I already have everything that your Hospital Wing would have," Severus told Poppy as he picked the child up in his arms.
"What about Remus? We can't leave him here," Poppy spoke, afraid that another child might get attacked.
If looks could kill, Remus would have died right there and then with the death glare that Severus shot him. "Leave him here and lock the doors, but he isn't my concern. His injuries can wait until we are sure Harry will make it!" Severus spat before pushing past Albus and quickly made his way to his chambers.
Once in Severus' chambers, Poppy conjured up a hospital bed in the living room and Severus quickly placing the child down onto it. "Everything you need would be in my potion lab. Third book on the right side, pull it out and then push in the tenth book on the left," Severus explained as he stripped the child of his remaining torn clothes.
Poppy gave a quick nod as she did what was instructed with the bookcase opening up to Severus private lab.
After a few moments, Severus went in after her. "You're taking too long! Let me help." He was already grabbing potions & ingredients off the shelf as he spoke.
Harry was running out of time!