Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I don't own. That goes for the entire story, in case I forget a disclaimer on every chapter (like I did last chapter).

~~~

He sat on his bed in the tiny room, curled up in a ball. Rocking back and forth, he ignored the searing pain from his arms, his legs, his whole body. He just sat in the dark, taking shallow, ragged breaths. It was hard to breathe. His uncle had closed the vent and locked the door from the outside.

He was suffocating. The room was so small, and it only seemed to get smaller. It was like being inside a coffin; being buried alive. He began to shake violently, gasping for air.

'Help me...' his mind formed the words, but he could not speak them. He felt his chest tightening even more. The walls of the closet were closing in, until he felt like he couldn't even move.

Then, suddenly, the door was pulled open. He began to scream, while at the same time trying to breathe. Finally, darkness welcomed him into its comforting arms...

~~~

Friday, September 3, 1993

"Harry! Harry, it's Ron, wake up! You're only dreaming!"

Harry opened his eyes slightly, and he found himself in the dorm room. But he was huddled on the floor in the corner where his bed and the wall met. His arms were wrapped around himself as he shivered. He tried to take deep breaths, but the pain in his chest was so immense that he felt like he was hyperventilating. Glancing frantically around the room, he found all of his roommates awake and staring. Ron was kneeling about two feet away from Harry, trying to calm him down.

"Harry, calm down, all right?" Ron pleaded. "Take deep breaths." He looked back at the other roommates. "Go get someone!"

Seamus ran out of the room as quickly as he could and left through the portrait hole. Almost immediately, he ran into Professor Lupin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. The teacher grabbed Seamus by his shoulders and stopped him.

"It's nearly midnight, why are you running into the halls?" Lupin asked, sternly.

"Professor, something's happened with Harry Potter!" Seamus exclaimed. Lupin's eyes widened.

"Take me to him."

By the time Seamus had led Lupin to the dorm room, there were a dozen other students crowded around the doorway, trying to see what was going on. Lupin pushed through the crowd and entered the room, gasping at the sight before him.

Harry was no longer conscious. He had passed out shortly after Seamus left, and his body had been in convulsions since then. As soon as one seizure stopped, another would start. Ron was on the floor with Harry, trying to pull him away from anything that he could hit. Numerous bruises were already appearing on Harry's hands and legs.

As soon as Lupin got over the initial shock, he began to take charge.

"Everyone who does not belong in this room, please go back to your own rooms!" he announced. Reluctantly, the students left, except for Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean. "Ron, it's all right. I'll take over from here. You've done a good job."

Lupin knelt down over Harry's shaking body and took his wand out. Muttering a few words, he waved his wand a little, and Harry stopped convulsing.

"The seizures have only stopped long enough for me to hurry and carry him to the hospital wing," Lupin said. "Ron, come with me." Lupin carefully lifted Harry's featherweight body and quickly made his way to the hospital wing, with Ron following close behind.

"Poppy!" Lupin called as he lowered Harry onto a bed. The seizures almost immediately started again. "Poppy, we have a situation!"

Madam Pomfrey came into the room, letting out a small gasp when she saw Harry. She grabbed a couple of potion bottles and rushed over to the bed.

"Ron, I asked you to come because I need you to tell Madam Pomfrey exactly what happened. All right?" Lupin looked closely at Ron, who nodded weakly. "I'm going to inform Dumbledore of the situation."

"Harry was asleep, but I couldn't sleep, so I was reading," Ron told Madam Pomfrey, quietly. She was carefully pouring a blue potion into Harry's mouth, and within seconds, the seizures stopped. "Um... I heard noises coming from Harry's part of the room, so I looked over, and he wasn't on his bed, but he was on the floor, in the corner by the wall. He was curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth. It was like, he couldn't breathe. He was gasping for breath.

"I tried to wake him up; I think he was having another nightmare. When he woke up, I tried to calm him down so he could breathe right, but it was like every breath he took hurt him. I could see on his face how much pain he was in. Seamus left to find help, and right after, Harry passed out and started having seizures. That's when Professor Lupin came in."

Soon Madam Pomfrey had Harry sleeping calmly on the bed. She'd given him a medicine to help his breathing, as well as a Dreamless Sleep Potion. She made Ron leave the room for a

while, so that she could further examine Harry, as Dumbledore had requested. When she was finished, she allowed Ron to come back in and sit with Harry. Meanwhile, she went into the next room to speak with Dumbledore, Lupin, Snape, and McGonagall, who had all been informed of what had happened. Ron listened closely.

"The boy is severely malnourished," Pomfrey told the teachers. "He needs to gain a lot of weight--"

"Severus noticed that throughout the school year, Harry gains weight and starts to look more healthy. But during the summer holidays, he loses all of the weight and has to start over." That was McGonagall.

"He also has numerous injuries," Pomfrey continued. "Cuts, bruises, fractures, broken bones... I don't know how he has functioned properly. Several of his ribs are broken, others are fractured. His collarbone is broken. His wrist is fractured. I even found what looks to be a footprint on his back, as well as on his chest!" Ron let out a silent gasp, and he heard McGonagall sniffling.

"Albus," Lupin said, softly. "What do we really know about those people he's staying with? Other than the fact that they're relations?"

"I agree with Remus," Snape said, firmly. "If this is what they're doing to the boy, then we need to take him out of there."

"And the seizures, Poppy?" Dumbledore asked, quietly.

"I'm not sure," Pomfrey replied. "I can guarantee he's had many head injuries. The seizures could be caused by brain damage. Or, possibly, he only had the seizures because of his inability to breathe... When he wakes up, we'll have to see what kind of mental and emotional damage has been done."

"I'll tell you what kind of damage has been done," Snape said, bitterly. "He's scared of everyone he comes across. When I told him to see me after class, he flinched and looked away from me. He came to my desk, and I started asking questions. He was shaking and stuttering. I thought he was going to cry or faint." The Potions master sighed.

"If I'd known what was going on with him away from Hogwarts, if I'd known what those...Muggles were doing to him... I never would have treated him so badly. I never would have singled him out or taunted him. I'm beginning to think that maybe I've caused some of that mental damage."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Severus," Dumbledore said, softly. "You couldn't have known. None of us knew. But from now on, perhaps you could take it a little easier on the boy."

"Madam Pomfrey?" Ron said, appearing in the doorway. "Didn't you give Harry Dreamless Sleep Potion?" Pomfrey confirmed this. "I-I think he's dreaming again." Madam Pomfrey went to join Ron by Harry's bed.

"Go back to bed, all of you," Dumbledore told the three professors. Then he changed his mind. "Actually, Severus, would you mind staying for a moment?"

"Of course, Headmaster," Snape replied. McGonagall and Lupin headed for the door.

"Ron, you've been a big help," Dumbledore said. "But you should go back to your dorm as well. Tell everyone who's worried that Harry will be fine. But tell no one, except for perhaps Miss Granger, what you have undoubtedly been listening to us saying." Ron's face turned pink, and he followed McGonagall and Lupin out the door.

"Severus, I think that Poppy's going to need healing potions that are stronger than normal," Dumbledore told Snape. They looked at Madam Pomfrey, who nodded.

"Sleeping Potions, as well," she added with a sigh. "I think we'll need to try something different with Potter, if he's still dreaming."

The three just watched Harry for a few moments. His face expressed pain, and his head kept turning from side to side. His mouth formed words that nobody could hear at first, but after a moment his voice rose to a mumble.

"Please, stop... It hurts, stop... I'm sorry, I won't do it again, just stop, please..." Suddenly, his head fell to his shoulder and he stopped whispering. His expression was still pained, however, and a single tear fell from his eye.

"Headmaster, there is one more thing I found," Madam Pomfrey said, her voice unusually weak. "I didn't want to say anything or show you with the Weasley boy in here."

She lifted Harry's right arm and pulled his sleeve back. Dumbledore and Snape gasped at the sight. Snape's face paled even more than normal.

"Oh, my dear boy..." Dumbledore leaned over Harry and touched a hand to his face. "My dear boy, Merlin help us..." The old wizard looked at Pomfrey. "Inform me when he wakes up tomorrow. I need to talk to him about everything that has happened over the summer." As an afterthought, he added softly, "We might need some Veritaserum."

"Headmaster, the side effects--" Snape started.

"Simply a last resort, Severus," Dumbledore cut him off. "We need to know the truth about what was done to him, and if need be, we will use a small dose of the potion." He took a breath, looking at Harry again. "Severus, I think we're going to need you throughout this whole ordeal."

~~~

"Pomfrey and Dumbledore said Harry will be fine," Ron told everyone who crowded around him. "He's sleeping fine right now. There's nothing we can do, so everyone go back to bed." The group sighed and headed out of the common room. Ron grabbed Hermione before she could leave.

"I need to talk to you," he said. He pulled her by her hand to the sofa in front of the fire and sat down with her.

"What's wrong, Ron? Don't even tell me it's nothing, because I can see it in your eyes. Something is wrong."

"I was sitting with Harry while Pomfrey was talking with Dumbledore, McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape. She was telling them all of Harry's injuries, everything that was wrong with him."

"And?" Ron took a breath and continued.

"He's extremely malnourished. He has broken and fractured ribs. His collarbone is broken and his wrist is fractured. And she... She found what she thought to be footprints, on his back and his chest." Hermione gasped as tears welled up in her eyes and spilled onto her cheeks. "The seizures... She said it happened either because of him not beging able to breathe, or he might have brain damage because of head injuries... They all think the Muggles did it to him."

"Do you--" Hermione whispered. "Do you think they did?" Ron hesitated, then nodded.

"I've met them, Hermione," he muttered. "They're awful, those Muggles. Terrible people; they couldn't say a single thing good about Harry. And you know how many letters I got from him over the summer. The first two weeks, I got two letters. After that, Hedwig came to stay with us permanently. That has to tell you something!"

"Did-- Did anything else happen?"

"Snape actually acted like he has a heart," Ron replied with a tiny smile. "He regrets treating Harry so bad. Said if he'd known what was going on, he'd have been nicer. Dumbledore told him to take it easy on Harry from now on."

"Well, that's good," Hermione sniffed. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

"Go to bed," Ron told his friend. "We can go see him after breakfast."