It shouldn't surprise him, really.

Ezekiel should have seen it coming.

He was a child, for heaven's sake!

A very unconscious child.

Andi had caught him before he could hit the floor and the Healer had moved him to a bed in the examination room.

"That could've gone better" Ezekiel said.

"Really, you think so?" Deadpanned Andi "Please help me because I'm having trouble following your train of thought here. How did you think an eight year old would react when someone goes to him and says 'hey, we need to take your bones'?"

"Seriously Zeke "Dora joined" the Hell is wrong with you?"

"I'll admit that I should have phrased it better"

"You didn't need to tell him anything, my Lord" said Healer Cohen, who was trying to behave professionally but her irritation was palpable. "We had agreed that it would be me the one who'd explain the procedure. Part of my training includes communicating with the patients"

"Or you could've spoken like a human being with a bit of fucking common sense."

"Dora, that's enough."

"Very well" Healer Cohen took out her wand "I'll wake him up. I'd appreciate, my Lord, if you'd leave the talking to your aunt and I"

Ezekiel raised his hands in defeat and moved behind them, while she pointed at Harry and whispered Rennervate and with a flash of red light he woke up.

"Harry, are you okay?" Asked a concerned Andi

"Yes, I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt that Ezekiel came to me and said he'd take all my bones" said the scared boy.

"Well..." Ezekiel started, but his explanation was cut short when he felt Dora's wand on his back.

"Shut it." She whispered.

"You see, Harry, it wasn't a dream. We do need to replace your bones." Said Healer Cohen who, seeing the color leave Harry's face, rushed to explain. "It's a completely painless procedure, we'll make sure that you don't feel a thing and Lord Black will accompany you the whole time." She looked at Ezekiel, who nodded smiling, the wand now on his ribs.

"He also has to heal injuries of his own and his aunt can keep you both company during visiting hours. We'll spare no effort to heal you both and I assure you, once it's done you'll have a healthy body of a boy of your age."

"And it's not going to hurt?" Asked a terrified Harry.

"Not a bit, I assure you."

"Are you really going to be with me?"Harry turned to Ezekiel.

"I promise."

"...How are you going to do it?" He asked to the Healer.

"We'll place you in a special bed, one with healing runes to speed up the process. I'll use magic to vanish the bones and you'll be given potions to regrow them. You'll also take nutritional potions and your body will do the rest."

It took several minutes for Harry to be convinced that this was indeed the best option but in the end he accepted, although he had to be reassured many times that his new family would accompany him.

They finally moved to a different room, this one was made of stone with two beds in it. Both were separated by a curtain that wouldn't allow to see the other side.

"How did you knew that we'd need this room? It seems that everything was setup already." Ezekiel noted.

"We didn't." Cohen answered. "We've setup a simple protocol regarding you and your family: every injury or request are top priority. It doesn't matter if you twist your ankle or you get stabbed, Gringotts will use the their best facilities for you."

"I see, I don't think that many here are happy about this." Dora said while checking the room. "It looks quite expensive"

"It's a decision from the Director himself, there wasn't much to discuss. Now we'll need you both to change, I'll set the curtain and we'll give you some privacy. There are some scrubs over there, we didn't knew Harry's size so we left several. Let us know when you're ready." And with that she and the rest left the room.

Ezekiel and Harry moved to their side of the curtain and began undressing. Ezekiel could hear Harry's increasingly agitated breathing so he tried to calm him down.

"It's going to be alright, Harry. This people know what they are doing. They've been treating me for years."

"But...my bones...they're going to take them."

"Harry... I know this will sound well, weird but those aren't your bones. At least not the ones that you should have. Look, let's get changed and then we can talk face to face. This curtain makes it weird." They finished changing before sitting Harry on the bed with the runes.

"Those...people hurt you." Harry didn't respond to that, he hugged himself and kept his gaze on the floor. Ezekiel hated this but once things were back to normal, or at least some semblance of normality, he'd make sure that the family in Surrey -All of them - paid for what had been done to him.

"I know you don't want to talk about it but the truth is that what they made to you, it left some problems in your body. That is the truth." Harry started shaking and embracing himself further, so Ezekiel did the only thing he knew. When in doubt, do like Andi, so he hugged Harry and tried to sooth him for a while. Once he calmed down a bit he continued. "You don't have to worry about it, okay? Because what is also the truth is that we can fix what they did, we will. No more pain, I promise."

"You promise...?"

"Yes, but the only way to do this is if we fix you, and for that you and I are gonna have to trust that Healer. I know people let you down, I understand that it's scary. I've been where you are, honest. These people are bound by even harsher oaths than those in that hospital, if it means anything. They can't betray you. And if they did?" Ezekiel raised Harry's face to meet his eyes. "I'll level their entire kingdom"

"I don't want that." Harry shook his head. "I don't want people to be hurt... and I don't want them to hurt me"

"Not even your uncles?" Ezekiel asked curiously.

Harry looked back to the ground before shaking his head again.

"I see... as you wish then." This kid was too good for his own good, Ezekiel thought. Then again, wasn't this how children should be? He needed to have a talk with his uncles about this sort of thing."Should I call them in or do you need more time?"

"...I'm fine."

"Very well, remember that we'll be here the whole time." Ezekiel nodded and called the Healer.

The process itself didn't take long. They laid Harry on the table in an elevated position, making sure that his new lack of bones would affect him and performed the vanishing spell. Harry basically deflated, Ezekiel wanted to say something nice but all he could think of was a rubber chicken. The boy had tried to remain somewhat calm but his breath gave him away. Andi was besides him comforting him and taking his hand. A hand that Harry could feel, yet not move. Dora tried to cheer him up by reminding him that it wouldn't take long for him to heal, yet all good intentions went to waste when they brought the Skele-Gro bottle.

Who in their right mind makes a bottle shaped like the rib cage and arms of a human skeleton? Dora thought, the lid was shaped like a human skull for crying out loud!

Once Harry was setup and explained what he needed to do for his necessities, Healer Cohen moved Ezekiel to the next bed which sadly didn't have any runes in it. Last thing anyone needed was for the Black Magic to detect the external influence and acting out while he was asleep, specially considering that the only reason the whole structure hadn't fall upon them was the magic that reinforced the walls and ceiling. At least that's what Ezekiel suspected. As he sat on the bed he concentrated to suppress the Magic while the Healer worked vanishing the muscles on his shoulder and the arm went limp.

The medicine that he was given tasted sour and he could feel it working almost immediately. It was slow, but he could feel it. It gave him a goosebumps feeling his muscles crawl over his own skeleton one fraction of an inch at the time, every sensation exacerbated by the fact that the organs were new. Including the growing pains. The Healer gave him a small potion to try and ease the pain but it was like trying to put out a fire by spitting at it. Occlumency proved to be quite useful for this, as the pain in his body was pushed to the same dark part of his mind that the Black Magic inhabited, it liked the company.

Harry couldn't speak, his jaw was gone as well. The poor kid was utterly terrified and didn't even tried to hide it from them. He tried to speak but he could only make guttural noises, which scared him even more and made him want to speak. A cycle that only left him more and more scared and any attempt to calm him down was having the opposite effect.

"Harry, I need you to look at me" Ezekiel approached him, he had to adjust to his new balance as he reached him. "I know that this is hard, but I need you to listen to me."

Harry tried to respond but it only increased his terror.

"Harry...listen to me" He caught himself before saying anything else. The Black Magic had escaped his control for a moment and scared everyone into silence. Even the boy who was supposed to protect.

Great fucking job you idiot, he thought.

"Ehem, sorry...The medication and...stuff. Anyway, I need you to listen, okay?" Harry was so impressed that he didn't even tried to respond. "We knew that it'd be scary but I told you we'd be with you. We promised that it wouldn't hurt, and it didn't. Did we lie? No. We also told you that your bones would grow back, and they will but it will take time. Take it easy, rest and we'll talk later. And... sorry about the voice. I forgot about it and...sorry."

"Very well, Lord Black." Healer Cohen finally said "We'll bring your supper shortly. Harry's will come as well, it will have to be liquefied for obvious reasons. We'll regulate his liquid intake and that should provide us with a schedule for his..."

"Please don't finish that sentence, Healer" Dora interrupted. "Mum,we need to get going. We'll come back tomorrow for you two."

Harry and Ezekiel were left alone in the room. Hours went by with both not knowing what to say.

Well, Ezekiel did.

He wanted to say something to comfort him but nothing came to mind. The Black Magic wasn't helping either. It's master was injured and somebody had to pay. Too bad that he had promised not to hurt the one responsible for it. And It didn't like it.

The hours seemed to slow down to a crowl before they were informed that it was finally time to sleep. The curtain was placed and Ezekiel laid on it with as much care as possible yet the pain pulsed trough his back. Worst of all was that Harry couldn't sleep either.

He might as well try to do something, he couldn't possibly make it worst...right?

He remembered his conversation in the morning and an idea came to mind. It was a dumb, silly, diabetes inducing idea but it was better than nothing. He got up form the bed and called for a Goblin, who had popped up without using the door. He whispered to him his request and not ten seconds later he had reappeared carrying what he had requested. He got up and walked up to the curtain while the goblin vanished.

"Harry? I know that you're awake and there's something I'd like to show you. Is it alright with you?"

For all response he got was another wailing.

"I'll take it as a yes, because I should've done this while we could see each other."

He walked towards him and found that he was as awake as he was. He sat down in a chair nearby and showed him what he was carrying under the arm.

"This is a book... obviously... er...it's called The Tales of Beedle the Bard and people read this stuff at children. I know it's not the best thing but I was wondering... giving that none of us is going to sleep any time soon... would you like me to read it to you?

.

.

.

Blink once for yes, twice for no."

Harry looked at him for a while before blinking once.

"Very well, let me just open this. Your uncle made me loose my good arm... there we go. Okay! Let me see.. The Tale of the Three Brothers, eh...no. There we go...The Fountain of Fair Fortune that's a good one."

Ezekiel wasn't a good narrator by any account and his attempts to voice the different characters was pitiful at best. He wasn't sure if Harry liked it or not but by the time he had reached halfway into the middle of the book Harry had fallen asleep.

He was feeling sleepy as well, so he left the book on the chair and walked back to his bed. The goblin returned when he called him and was surprised when Ezekiel thanked him for the book. Ezekiel whispered to him and he returned with a vial filled with a dark purple liquid, which he drank entirely before thanking him again.

Seconds later, he had followed Harry to the land of dreams.

I don't own Harry Potter, all characters except OC belong to J. K. Rowling.