Chapter 24: The Lies We Tell
Poppy Pomfrey had seen everything from her time here at Hogwarts from broken bones, spells misfiring, Quidditch injuries, falling off brooms, potions exploding and cursed objects so it didn't surprise her when a student was brought into the hospital wing unconscious. She would be able to fix them up in a jiffy, often discharging them within a couple of hours; a couple of days or a week at most in the most severe cases.
"What happened?" Poppy had asked as she placed the unconscious body onto the hospital bed.
"I found him on the third-floor corridor," Professor Dumbledore responded.
Poppy knew something wasn't quite adding up mainly because it felt like there was more to the story than what he was letting on. Professor Dumbledore didn't tell her the details about anything and she didn't pry. It wasn't business, anyway.
"Have you let Professor Potter know that his son has been injured?" Poppy asked, summoning a piece of blank parchment.
"I will once I know the extent of Mister Potter's injuries," Professor Dumbledore responded neutrally.
Poppy didn't say anything as she waved her wand around, casting the diagnostics spell to know the extent of the boy-who-lived injuries. It was a pretty short list (thank goodness), some of it was pretty minor like scrapes, bruises, and a sprained wrist. Those were pretty easy to heal. Her eyes scanned downwards where it started getting worse, the further she read.
He had a deep laceration on his left arm that revealed muscle and hasn't stopped bleeding, which meant she needed a blood replenisher for that. Her eyes widened when she saw that the boy was exposed to the Cruciatus curse for a couple of minutes, and that there was damage to the lower spinal cord, along with a couple of crack vertebraes.
She decided to go cast another spell on his spinal cord and sure enough, there was damage from falling onto something that had enough force to crack a couple of bones in his lower back, and also cause damage to the spinal cord. The site of injury was already swelling from the amount of damaged nerves around the spinal cord, which was going to make her job harder. Unfortunately, it was above her knowledge to know especially concerning spinal cord injuries, if there was any paralysis. If so, how severe is it- if Saeviour Potter would be able to walk again or would he be paralyzed.
"Headmaster, it's bad. I'm able to handle everything, but one thing," she told him. "I'm going to need to get him over to St. Mungo's so they can handle that."
"Poppy, my dearest friend, you're being dramatic. I'm sorry that I woke you up at these early hours, but perhaps you can try?"
"Sir, with all my due respect. I do not feel comfortable attempting to heal Mr. Potter by myself so unless you are skilled with healing, do not dictate what I am wanting to do."
Dumbledore remained quiet, and muttered underneath his breath, "Perhaps I should go tell James that his son has been injured and will be transferred to St. Mungo's for better treatment."
Poppy watched as Professor Dumbledore in his colorful robes and his pearly-white beard left the hospital wing with the doors closing behind him with a loud thud. She wasn't concerned about Dumbledore's behavior as Saeviour Potter was more important. She returned her attention back to Saeviour Potter, healing what she could before she went back to her office and went to use the floo to get another healer to transfer him over.
…
Chatter filled the Great Hall as Harrison sat down right by Draco. Draco looked over with curious eyes, probably wanting to ask how his late night adventure went. He ignored the look, and instead started piling food onto his plate, and ate breakfast in small bites.
He kept his head down as he took several bites of his breakfast. He ignored the conversation around him until his ears perked up about the mention of Dumbledore and the previous savior of the wizarding world.
"Where do you think they are?" He heard Pansy say. "The fact that the mudblood, bloodtraitor and the boy-who-lived is notably absent, when the lions should be loud is concerning."
Harrison looked up from his breakfast, and looked across the Great Hall. Sure enough, the mudblood and the bloodtraitor was notably absent along with the boy-who-lived. He knew the Potter spawn would probably be in the hospital wing after what he did last night, but it was deeply strange to see Granger and Weasley missing altogether. He scanned his eyes to see who else was missing and found several staff also missing.
He didn't really care that Lord Potter nor Dumbledore was present, especially after last night's events, but he found it strange that Professor Snape was also mysteriously absent too.
"Where do you think Professor Snape is at?" Harrison asked.
"Dunno," Draco responded.
The owls started swooping in from the window, flying to their masters with letters, packages attached to their legs. He noticed the Malfoy owl perched on the table as Draco detached the letter from his parents, and the Daily Prophet from the owl.
Draco discarded the Daily Prophet and Harrison grabbed, interested about the headline on the front page:
IS HOGWARTS SAFE?
Rita Skeeter
Late last night, someone attacked Heir Saeviour Sirius Potter, The Boy Who Lived, while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. The culprit remains uncaught while the investigation continues on what happened during the night.
"My son (Saeviour Potter- The-Boy-Who-Lived) was attacked last night. I received news that he was hurt to the point where Matron Poppy Pomfrey transferred him to St. Mungo's Hospital, due to the extensive damage. It was obvious someone had casted the cruciatus curse on his body (for more information about the cruciatus curse and the unforgivable curses see page 9) along with a spinal injury." Lord James Charles Potter wrote in the letter, while also adding,
"It's Headmaster Albus Dumbledore's fault that he allowed this to happen. Saeviour Potter was placed underneath his ward, with the promise that my heir will be protected, and Dumbledore allowed this to happen, right under his nose?
"This isn't the first time something like this has happened," according to Lord Potter via letter. "There was a troll incident on Halloween that went unreported. It was lucky that there were no casualties when that happened. My son also has been attacked by a Slytherin and been pushed down the stairs."
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore declined to answer surrounding the allegations towards him.
The question remains, dear readers- is Hogwarts truly safe? If incidents like these continually happen?
Don't worry, dear readers, I will update you all when more information is shed to light and hope our dear Wizarding Hero, Saeviour Potter gets well soon.
"That explains everything," Harrison commented.
Draco and Pansy gave him curious looks as he explained to him,
"Lord Potter decided to make accusations towards Dumbledore, so he's probably doing damage control, while Potter is in St. Mungo's." He handed the Daily Prophet to Draco who took a look for himself.
"Weasel and Granger must be with Dumbledore, probably trying to figure out what happened," Draco concluded.
"I hate to interrupt, but Professor Dumbledore wants to see you in his office, Peverell-Slytherin," a voice said behind them.
Harrison and Draco turned around to see Professor Snape standing behind them, his face revealing nothing.
"Of course, professor," he said, getting up from where he was sitting.
Harrison turned around and said, "Of course, professor. Do you mind showing me where his office is at since I don't know?"
Professor Snape didn't say anything, and simply headed out of the Great Hall with Harrison following him in tow.
They passed through several portraits, up several flights of stairs until they stopped at a gray gargoyle on all fours.
"Lemon drop," Professor Snape said.
The gargoyle moved out of the way to reveal the circular staircase that Harrison presumed led to Dumbledore's office. He followed the staircase upwards until he got to a wooden door, in which he knocked once.
"Come in," he heard someone say through the door.
Before he opened the door, he looked over his shoulder to see Professor Snape still standing in the exact same spot and opened the door to Professor Dumbledore's offices.
The room was circular and very bright looking. It had a lot of windows that brightened up the room. The walls were covered with paintings- paintings of past headmasters and headmistresses he figured as he looked around the room. Bookshelves lined the room, some filled with his books and others with mysterious trinkets. Harrison noticed a bright red-and-orange colored bird perched on a bird stand, cleaning its feathers right next to Dumbledore, who was sitting at his desk, his baby blue not twinkling.
"Take a seat, my boy," Professor Dumbledore said, beckoning him to sit down in a wooden chair across from Dumbledore.
"You'd wish to see me, Professor Dumbledore?" He asked innocently.
He sat down in the chair, and he noticed right behind Dumbledore was the sorting hat, sitting on a shelf. He turned his gaze from the sorting hat to Dumbledore's crooked nose that had been broken twice. He didn't want to look into the baby blue eyes that belonged to the Headmaster, when he knew the headmaster uses Legilimens on students.
"Yes, I did, my boy," Professor Dumbledore said, "Sherbet Lemon?"
He held up a small basket that was filled with oval-shaped yellow candies.
"No, thanks," he declined.
"Did you want anything to drink? Tea, perhaps?" Dumbledore offered.
"No, thanks… I'm not that thirsty," Harrison responded, his voice polite and gracious sounding.
He knew what Dumbledore was up to. He wasn't naïve, especially since the Death Eaters back in Azkaban taught him about Dumbledore. He'd play the role of friendly grandfather who would do anything for you to trust him, and tell him things. He'd offer tea and sherbet lemons that were laced with Veritaserum to get you to tell the truth, and would often use legilimens on students. He simply thought it'd be amusing to play along with him for the time being.
"How are your classes going? How is Professor Potter treating you?" Professor Dumbledore asked warmly.
"They're going fine," Harrison shrugged, "Professor Potter hates me and my friends."
"I'm aware of your complicated history with Professor Potter, especially when he disowned you publicly like that. I'm sure you're still quite upset about the whole ordeal, but it's for the best. You know I asked for Lord Potter to come and teach since I know he was experienced in defense against the dark arts especially since as you know he's an auror," Dumbledore explained all whimsically.
Harrison internally rolled his eyes at the bullshit Dumbledore was spouting. He sounded like he had rehearsed this so many times and actually believed that personally. He wasn't upset about the disownment. He still thought it was the best thing that happened in his entire life. He did the one thing he could do so the old man could stop spewing his carefully, selected words.
"Sir, I have a feeling you did not invite me to your office so we can chit chat and invite me over for tea," Harrison commented, changing the subject.
Dumbledore laughed before he continued on, "You're quite right. I invited you over here because of the fact that you probably know that Mr. Potter is in St. Mungo and Miss Granger gave a recount of yesterday's ordeal. How you, Mr. Potter and Miss Granger hid under Mr. Potter's invisibility cloak to go steal the stone, because Professor Snape was going to steal the stone. She mentioned that you went ahead and she didn't see you whatsoever after that."
Dumbledore's baby blue eyes tried to meet his eyes, but Harrison turned his gaze away, before Dumbledore was able to. He thought deeply of what he was going to say. This was going to be hard to get out of especially since that the mudblood already told her side of the story. He was lucky that he was able to obliviate Saeviour and his memory, but he completely forgot about her.
He quickly figured something that would hopefully not allow Professor Dumbledore to become that suspicious of him, "Sir, Granger dragged me there because she thought that I needed to be there. I don't know her reasons, but all I know is that as soon as I saw what they were doing, talking about a philosopher's stone and the forbidden corridor- I knew I didn't want to be dragged into their mess. I left and went to the Slytherin Common Room where Draco was there, finishing up an assignment last minute. You could ask Draco, he was there with me and could cover my whereabouts," He finished explaining to the Headmaster.
"What's interesting to me is that you and Miss Granger seem close, despite her non-magical background," Professor Dumbledore commented. "Perhaps she reminds you of your dead mother?"
Harrison sat there, flabbergasted. It seemed like Professor Dumbledore was trying to find something to pin this on and thinking that he still loved the late Lady Potter. He had no idea where Professor Dumbledore was going with this, but there was no way he was going to let Dumbledore continue this,
"Sir, with all due respects, why does Granger's non-magical background and the person who gave birth to me matter? I don't love any of them like that. Granger just happens to be an acquaintance of when she has a question about something," He responded coldly.
Dumbledore simply smiled, "You're quite right, my boy. I'm just simply trying to figure out what happened to Mr. Potter, that's all."
He said nothing.
"You know I've noticed how you never seem to make eye-contact, my boy. You know if you're not careful, it might make you suspicious."
Harrison clenched his hands together as he carefully chose his next move. This meeting was turning out to be exactly pointless, trying to figure him out. So, Harrison did the one thing that he knew Dumbledore was going to be happy about.
He met Dumbledore's eyes.
Harison felt someone trying to prod his way through his brain, and he waited for thirty more seconds until he pushed him out of his head. Dumbledore looked shocked for a second before his place slid into place. He internally smirked as he saw how furious Dumbledore probably was.
Time to take his leave then.
"If you dare to use Legilimency on a student again, I will contact the Department of Magical Law about the invasion on minors and the lack of privacy."
School is starting back up again, so updates are going to be a little slower. This story is also on A03 under Fireiseverywhere! Drop a review and let me know what you think!