Major Mistakes of a Childhood - by Healer Pomfrey
I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
Chapter 1
Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office, gently stroking his phoenix' head feathers. He absently listened to his deputy, who was using her free period to complain about the students that weren't able to think about anything but the Valentine's Day Hogsmeade visit, which was going to take place on the following day.
"Well, Minerva, how about giving them a pop quiz on Monday morning?" he queried, chuckling, when all of a sudden the fireplace flared and the face of Arabella Figg appeared in the flames.
"Albus, Minerva, could one or both of you please come through for a moment? I urgently need to speak with you about young Harry. Something is really wrong with the poor child."
The Headmaster sighed and slowly took a lemon drop out of its wrapping, while McGonagall threw the Squib a horrified look and queried, "What exactly is wrong with Harry, Arabella?"
"Harry is sick, Minerva. At least once in a fortnight the school nurse sends him home with a fever, and since they already know Harry isn't allowed to return to his home before school is over, they always call me and send him here if he falls ill at school. He just came back with breathing problems and a high fever. He needs medicine and probably an inhaler, but since I'm not his guardian, I can't take him to the doctor without the Dursleys' agreement, and Petunia forbade me to take him. Apart from these acute problems, the boy is mute. He doesn't speak at all. I'm at a loss, Minerva. He won't make it to Hogwarts, if you don't take him to Hogwarts and properly look after him."
"I'll come over and check on him," McGonagall said readily, but Dumbledore reached for her arm.
"No Minerva, you will not do such a thing. You have a class to teach in ten minutes. Arabella, please keep Harry at your place for the time being. Immediately after the last afternoon class, which is in an hour, I will send Poppy and Severus to assess the situation. They will be able to make a reasonable and impartial decision." With that, he ended the Floo connection and established a connection to the Potions classroom.
"Severus, I need you to run an errand for me after your last class today," he informed his most trusted colleague beside his deputy.
"My last class is just over," Snape replied evenly. "Give me five minutes to clean up, and then I'll come to your office."
HP HEALER POMFREY HP
While McGonagall gave the sixth year Gryffindor and Slytherin students an introduction to the Animagus transformation, Poppy Pomfrey and Severus Snape entered the Headmaster's office.
Knowing from experience that neither of them would accept a lemon drop, Dumbledore came straight to the point and briefly told them about Arabella Figg's concern.
"Albus, I believe that Poppy is well able to assess Potter's condition. There is no need for me to accompany her," Snape said firmly, knitting his brows in annoyance.
"I am not in the least doubting Poppy's abilities, my boy. However, I need an objective opinion concerning the question if we need to take the boy from his relatives, and I prefer two opinions to one. Moreover, I am not easily willing to remove the child from his home," the Headmaster replied calmly.
"Well then, let's get over with it," Snape said evenly and stepped into the fireplace, shouting, "Arabella Figg's home."
Glad that he knew Poppy would follow within seconds, the Potions Master looked around in disgust, absolutely detesting the cats that were uncontrollably running around the room.
"Poppy, Severus, thank God you could finally come to help him. I've already contacted Albus several times, but he just didn't want to listen. Maybe it was good that Minerva was with him when I Floo-called him earlier..."
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but where is the boy?" Snape queried, glancing around.
"I put him to bed in the guest room," Mrs. Figg replied, leading the way up to the second floor.
The Mediwitch and the Potions Master silently entered the bedroom, where a small boy was spread on the bed, completely entangled in the covers. His face was as white as the pillow under his head, his cheeks were deeply flushed, and dark rings surrounded his eyes. Beads of sweat were covering his forehead, making strands of hair strangely stick to his face. However, worse than everything else was the child's breathing that sounded laboured.
Madam Pomfrey immediately turned into Healer's mode and waved her wand over the boy, casting a series of diagnostic spells, before she pointed her wand at his head to take his temperature.
After a minute, a small parchment emerged from the tip of her wand. Pomfrey frowned, holding it out to her colleague so they could read together.
Age: Nine years, five months, thirteen days
Height: 1.32 m, ten percent under average height
Weight: 19.5 kg, fifty percent underweight
Temperature: 39.8, high fever
Signs of illness:
Beginning pneumonia,
Chronic lung problems,
Chronic constriction of the windpipe,
Damaged immune system,
Several bones broken and improperly healed,
Bruises and scars covering 82.3 percent of body,
Eye sight poor
"The boy is already nine?" Severus asked in disbelief. 'Oh well, I know that Harry Potter must be nine, but the boy here looks much younger and smaller,' he mused.
"Severus, I'm at a loss. I'd love to take the boy with me and nurse him back to health. However, you know Albus' opinion. He wants the child to stay at his relatives at any cost. The problem is that I can't prove that his apparently chronic illness is his relatives' fault, and the only method to evaluate this would be a complete check-up, but for that I need his guardians' approval," Pomfrey said thoughtfully.
"Nonsense," Snape replied in a very upset tone. "From this," he held the small parchment in his hand, lightly shaking it to make a point, "it's already evident that he is malnourished and obviously abused and neglected. As far as I'm informed, Albus is his guardian in the magical world, and since he sent us here to assess the boy's condition, he automatically gave you the permission to perform all the necessary tests. Go ahead, Poppy."
The Mediwitch nodded in relief and once more waved her wand over the sleeping boy, while her colleague waited patiently, his thoughts drifting back to his own unhappy childhood and his abusive father. A few minutes later, a very long parchment emerged from the tip of the Healer's wand, listing the boy's many illnesses and ailments he had suffered from during the last eight years, including the exact data.
"Look Severus, how long it took him to recover from these colds as a small child. If they had taken him to a doctor and he had received proper medicine, each of them would have been gone within days," Pomfrey said, pointing at a few numbers. "Severus, they have obviously completely neglected if not totally ignored his ailments. Look here, from that cold onwards he began to develop constrictions of the windpipe and lung infections, and currently, he falls ill with these problems every second week."
"And these bones must have healed by themselves," Snape said, pointing to a few points at which Harry had broken his left wrist and one of his ribs. Both of the injuries were not fully healed yet.
"Severus," Pomfrey sighed, "let's speak with Arabella and ask her what she knows about his treatment by the Dursleys, and then I believe it's necessary that we take him with us to Hogwarts."
Mrs. Figg provided her visitors with the same information that she had given Professor McGonagall earlier.
"He is mute?" Pomfrey asked in disbelief. "That has to be a psychological problem, because my scans don't show any problems, so technically he should well be able to speak. I also remember that Harry spoke very early as a small child, probably because of his strong magic, and Lily often complained that he wouldn't stop talking, even if no one except for her was able to understand what he meant."
"No wonder he doesn't want to speak, considering how his relatives seem to treat him," Snape sneered, trying to suppress his anger in front of the Squib.
Thirty minutes later, Pomfrey used her emergency Portkey to take the sleeping boy and her colleague straight to the hospital wing at Hogwarts.
"Severus, can you call Albus, please," Pomfrey instructed the Potions Master, while she settled Harry in the bed next to her office, summoning a few phials from her potions shelf as she tucked the child in.
A few minutes later, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey and her grandmother Theresa Pomfrey, who had returned to Hogwarts to work together with her always busy granddaughter a few months ago, were sitting in the Mediwitches' office, discussing the small boy's predicament over a cup of tea.
"Poppy, Severus, I understand that he is very ill; however, I have to insist that he returns to his relatives as soon as his condition has far enough improved for his aunt to be able to look after him with the help of Muggle means," Dumbledore said firmly, absently taking a lemon drop out of his robe pocket.
tbc...