Chapter 5: Riddle Manor


The three figures appeared shortly after in Riddle Manor. Voldemort had elected to carry the hurt and abused boy to shorten the journey. He swiftly strode to one of the many bedrooms in the castle with Snape following shortly behind. The door flew open sensing the lord of the house's presence and the urgency of the situation. As it was, Harry's condition was still unknown to the men, and him falling asleep immediately upon being taken into Voldemort's arms was not a reassuring sign.

Voldemort gently placed him in the middle of the king sized four posted bed and drew back ready to fire orders at Snape. But Snape strode forward and began casting diagnostic spells the second Voldemort was far enough away to not interfere in the scans.

A parchment page popped into existence and ink began swirling along the front, depicting all the injuries Harry had received in his short life. Snape waited impatiently for the ink to settle and for the parchment to begin to fall, but watched with growing concern as the seconds ticked by with no stop in sight. The average person's would only take at most 10 seconds to be complete, and it had already been 45 with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Snape realized how wrong he had been about Potter, for even his own diagnostic hadn't taken this long to form.

At last the parchment was filled and the ink had settled. Snape snatched it out of the air and his eyes rested upon the most recent injuries. They would have time later to comb through the vast list containing the rest of his life.

Concussion

Broken Fingers (2)

Open Head Wound (bleeding steadily)

Bruised Ribs (4)

Internal Bleeding (moderate)

Snape stared in horror at the serious injuries Harry was facing. Without proper medical attention, harry would not have lasted through the night. He called his house elf Tippy and ordered her to bring his emergency bag of potions.

When Tippy popped back with said bag, Snape emptied the entire contents onto the bed in his haste to stop the internal bleeding and close the head wound. Those were his most immediate concerns. He rummaged around the available potions until he found a blood replenisher, organ regenerator, blood expeller, and wound salve. He immediately spelled the blood expeller and organ regenerator into Harry's stomach to take care of the internal bleeding before he lost too much blood. He then levitated harry so that he could see the head wound.

On the back of his head was a large gash spanning from the base of his skull to the top of his ears. He spelled away the blood that was restricting his view of the wound and then applied the salve to stop the bleeding and knit the skin back together.

He slowly lowered him back to the bed to avoid further injury and disruption of the salve. He then spelled the blood replenisher into Harry's stomach to regenerate the blood he had lost. After that he collapsed into a chair at his bedside and resigned himself to a night of looking after Harry due to his concussion. All of the potions he had taken, would make it so the concussion would not be able to be healed by potions. The most he could do is wait 12 hours before giving him a concussion cure. But that would mean monitoring him for most of the night until that time came.

Through the healing process, Voldemort watched from one of the corners of the room as Snape frantically worked to take care of the most immediate concerns. Once he saw Snape collapse into a chair he slowly approached.

"Now you see Severus why I had to remove him from their care. He needed me, just as you did so many years ago." Voldemort whispered.

Snape jumped, he had been so absorbed in healing Harry, that he had forgotten he was not alone.

"Yes my lord. I can't believe I didn't see that he was suffering" Snape revealed without his customary drawl.

At that Voldemort turned to Harry and drew a scaly hand through his unruly hair. Once more Harry felt a whisper in his mind.

Soon my child. We will be together again and you will have the life you deserve.

With that Voldemort withdrew and glided out of the room. Snape was stunned. Never had he seen his lord so affectionate with anyone, let along Potter. Sure he no longer loathed the boy and could sympathize him now that he was aware of how similar their upbringings were. But this was still Potter, who had been the Dark Lord's enemy only a few short days ago.

With suppressed disbelief, Snape braced himself for remaining vigil throughout the night and seeing if he could attempt to heal broken fingers himself. After all, he was not a healer but lord knows he's wrapped enough broken bones to at least somewhat know what he's doing.