Disclaimer: All things you recognize from the seven Harry Potter books belong to J.K. Rowling. I am merely borrowing for my own entertainment and do not earn anything for writing this story.

A/N: I have recently gone back and reread some of my chapters and done some editing. In particular, I have cleared up some issues in Chapter 7, explaining why Severus was also called by Minerva if he was ill. Anyone who has gone to my profile, where there is a noticeboard, will know this already of course.

Now, please go ahead and read! Please review as well if you have time! I would like to know what people think.

2021.5.4.

A Bloody Hand: Things Just Seem to Happen Together

Chapter 10

Harry stood in the hospital wing. This was the second week of the holiday, and it was Wednesday, which meant the holiday would be over soon. He was in the hospital wing because it would soon be time for his health check. Of course, he hadn't come willingly—no one could find out about his wounds. McGonagall, who was one of the four teachers—the Heads of House—assigned the task of finding every student and take them to the hospital wing, hadn't been very pleased with him for he had hidden himself deep in the library and it had taken her quite some time to find him.

Harry looked around at the other students. There was Parkinson, the Slytherin girl who followed Malfoy around, and there were also the Patil twin sisters, Parvati and Padma. And then there was Perks, a girl who he didn't really spoke to and knew only by name. The five of them were waiting in a small room, away from the five stations that had been set up for the health checks, in one half of the hospital wing, which had been split in half for the health checks—one for its patients, the other for the health checks.

Then Madam Pomfrey bustled in to the room. "Miss Patil," she said briskly, and both Parvati and Padma looked at her. Madam Pomfrey sighed. "I forgot—Padma, please."

Padma nodded and left the room with Pomfrey. Harry gulped quietly, glancing at Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Flitwick. He had been surprised to see Snape, who looked pale and sickly, in the room when McGonagall had brought him to the hospital wing. Sprout had left as soon as Madam Pomfrey had called for Padma.

Harry stood fidgeting beside the other students, who appeared fairly calm. He sighed, biting his lower lip anxiously, darting quick glances at the three Heads of House, wondering if they would notice if he made a quick escape.

He rolled his eyes at himself. "Of course they would," he told himself, then jumped as Sprout returned with a boy—Rivers, a Hufflepuff, Harry recalled with difficulty.

Madam Pomfrey appeared again. "Miss Patil," she called, and Parvati left the room. McGonagall looked after her for a moment before glancing down at the list in her hands and left the room. Harry guessed she was going to fetch the next student.

And so it continued. After Padma and Parvati was Perks, a girl with clever eyes and blond hair from Gryffindor Harry had never spoken to, and then it was Parkinson. Then it was him.

"Mr Potter!" called Madam Pomfrey, appearing at the doorway again, and Harry took a deep breath, slowly.

He glanced at Madam Pomfrey, and then at the three Heads of House—Flitwick had left, probably to fetch the next student—who took no notice of him, and then nodded.

Harry stepped out of the room, almost shaking with nervousness, and Madam Pomfrey said, "Station number two, Potter, they should be done in a minute." She turned around to look at the five curtain-surrounded health check stations, all of which looked the same.

And then, Harry made a stupid decision. With his heart pounding loudly, his legs shaking slightly, and his worries of what his uncle had done to him discovered being thought over and over again, Harry thought no one could blame him for making the decision. The decision of running.

He turned around and raced out of the health check stations part of the hospital wing, into the normal part of it, and then out of the hospital wing itself. He heard Pomfrey's cry of, "Where do you think you're going, Potter?" and only knew that he had bumped into Flitwick and a girl because he had stumbled slightly when he did.

Then Harry continued running. He would not – could not – get a health check that was specifically looking for physical injuries, big or small. He could not. Everything would come out. Everything – what his uncle had done to him that summer, what his home life was like, what Harry Potter's home life was like, how he wasn't loved, how his "family" didn't love him.

He did not realize or want to realize the Heads of House were chasing after him, Snape included. They were shouting things at him, calling after him, but Harry didn't – couldn't – hear what was being said, only knew he had to get away from them because they wanted him to get a physical health check, one that would reveal his worst secret. One that would tear away all the walls he had built around himself to stop everything from sinking in, to stop him from realizing everything.

Then he stumbled, really stumbled, and his entire body was jostled. His back burning with pain, Harry straightened up again, but before he could go more than a few steps, strong hands had grabbed his arms from behind.

"No!" screamed Harry. He couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't! He wouldn't be able to stand the harsh truth, the terrible truth, he just knew it.

He struggled against the person that held him, the person who had a smell about them that calmed Harry against his will, the person who smelled of calmness, the person who smelled minty.

"No!" he said desperately, his vision blurry. "I won't! I can't!" He continued to struggle, ignoring the pain from his back. That he could deal with later. This was more important, although he had no idea why he didn't just give up – the person still holding onto his arms made him feel calmer and safer, unwillingly, and also smelled minty. The person made him feel tired, and anyway, his vision was already blurry … with tears? Harry blinked sleepily, he hadn't realized he was crying.

"I'm tired …" mumbled Harry, and then started. He hadn't mean to say that – he hadn't even thought of saying that, hadn't even thought he was tired. "Strange, I must be crazy. Maybe I didn't actually say that? And who is holding onto me anyway?" were his last thoughts before everything went dark.

XXX

Severus Snape was scowling, in an even worse mood than usual. The students were on a two-week holiday but they teachers weren't, especially not the four Heads of House, who had been assigned by the headmaster to oversee the health checks. He had been most displeased when Dumbledore informed him in the weekend before the holiday since "you would have returned to teaching after next week only because the potion fumes might affect your injury, you can join the other Heads of House." Which was why he had been walking all over the castle from the beginning of the holiday till now, looking for his Snakes whose turn it would soon be to get a physical health check.

He supposed Dumbledore had a point, but still . . . couldn't the old man give him a break, especially as his absence from classes was actually because of an injury—as the old man himself mentioned—that caused an illness in a secret mission infiltrating a werewolf camp that the Dark Lord was sending some of his Death Eaters to so as to request those werewolves join them? He might have recovered from the illness, but his injury was far from completely healed, and Severus doubted the injury would heal by the time classes had begun again because he had been straining it, walking all day long for ten days now. He sighed and almost grimaced as his shifted slightly, watching the silent fifth year "N" students, wishing that he could have had another two weeks to recover and heal—surely another professor could do his job as well.

And then, came the fifth year "P" students, and so of course, came Potter. And with Potter, came trouble, he knew. So why was he so surprised when Poppy cried out for Potter and then called for the four Heads of House to chase after the arrogant brat? She told them she would look for the rest of the students due for a health check that day before sending them on their way. So they dashed through the corridors, after the brat who just ran and ran. Severus was glad he was in fairly good shape despite his injury, which was just beginning to heal, and not Flitwick, whose short legs did not help at all.

They, the four Heads of House, shouted after the brat. They took points, gave detentions, threatened all sorts of punishments if he did not stop, but still, the brat ran.

Then finally, finally, the Potter brat stumbled and paused, allowing Severus to speed up despite his protesting injury and catch up with him, grabbing his arms. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to tell the arrogant boy what exactly he thought of this latest stunt when Potter screamed "No!," which truly shocked him.

Severus, recovering quickly, tightened his grip on the boy's arms and opened his mouth to speak again, but the boy screamed again, and Severus realized he was crying, and then the brat mumbled, "I'm tired."

Then, without a moment's warning, the brat went limp and would have crashed onto the floor had his hands not been holding onto the brat's arms, preventing him from continuing to run.

"Severus!" McGonagall caught up finally and gasped when she saw the limp boy. "What did you do?"

"I did nothing, Minerva," said Severus calmly. "The brat mumbled he was tired and then went limp."

"Fainted, then?" said Minerva, frowning in concern.

"Obviously," said Severus, sneering slightly, but he, unable to help it, also felt slight concern for the boy. Why had he fainted like that? And why in the name of Merlin had he run and cried? And from the health check, of all things?

Severus released the boy from his firm grip and hurriedly levitated him, walking alongside Minerva as they headed back to the hospital wing, thankfully meeting no students as most of them were either outside enjoying the unexpected holiday or using the time to study in the library.

A/N: Hi! I hope you enjoyed! A second chapter so soon is because I'm trying to move the story along. I think you can see Severus catching Harry and Harry fainting in his arms is the start of a new start for these two, even if they don't realize this yet. This is, after all, a Severitus story, though I am hoping to have Minerva as a grandma-figure, but her role in this story is still undecided. If you want to offer suggestions and opinions, I welcome them, though there is no guarantee I will be able to fulfill wishes or use suggestions in my story.

Also, I need to ask everyone a big favor: check out my new story, Harry Potter: The Deaths of Them (Book Version). It's a series of one-shots featuring various characters' point of views beginning from some time before their deaths to the actual deaths, and I take the scenes from the books.