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A Different Life
Chapter 31 - He's Only Eleven
Harry sat up breathing heavily. His scar was throbbing but like before, Harry ignored it and tried to concentrate on remembering the dream.
He remembered that the man that seemed familiar to him was in it, as well as Voldemort. And they were talking about someone... a woman perhaps?
Harry sighed out loud and closed his eyes against the nagging pain his scar was presenting itself with.
But as soon as he did close his eyes, he was confronted with pictures of the dream he just had, Harry felt sick just watching as the man was ruthlessly tortured. Last nights dinner was already making its way up and the next thing he saw sealed the deal. Behind the familiar man that was being horribly tortured, were what looked like a least thirty people dressed in black robes. And they were all bowing at Voldemort, most had their faces hidden, but some were not wearing masks, and the ones that weren't all had smiles of their faces, sick smiles.
Harry immediately jumped out of bed and ran into the dorms bathrooms and threw up, and continued to do so until he felt he had nothing left in his stomach.
Breathing heavily, Harry slid to the cold floor, resting his head against the ground, feeling a slight comfort the coolness brought to his head, which was now drenched in sweat.
Now he only heard the screams ringing in his ears.
***
To say Harry felt like crap was a definite understatement. He had since crawled back into his bed, but the thought of going back to sleep was horrifying. All Harry had to do was close his eyes to see the man's twisted tortured body, to hear his never ending screams.
Harry shivered just thinking about it. So he brought his legs up to his chest and rocked, staring at his closed hangings, not daring to even blink.
***
"Harry, are you going to get up?" Ron pulled the hanging back and what he saw made him gasp. Harry was deadly pale, looking very much sick and he was just rocking himself on his bed, appearing to be every bit upset.
"Harry! What's wrong?" Ron was immediately at Harry's side.
When Harry didn't answer Ron started to get really worried.
"I'll go get your dad-" Ron stopped mid-sentence as the pleading in Harry's eyes was enough to tell Ron not to.
"Madam Pomfrey?" He knew Harry would never go for that, even though he didn't think ill of the nurse, he definitely didn't want to be her patient if he could help it.
"Maybe it will be best if you stay here today, I'll tell anyone who asks that you're sick okay?"
Ron's only answer was the nod of Harry's head.
***
Apart from Ron having to dodge questions about where Harry was, especially from Draco, the day went smoothly. All the professors accepted Ron's excuse and only expressed worry rather then annoyance when they asked about Harry's whereabouts. Ron was glad that most people were away for Christmas, well he was glad that Hermione was away because he knew she wouldn't have taken his excuse without first seeing Harry for herself.
But when Ron went to check on Harry before dinner, he was upset to see that it hadn't looked like Harry had improved at all. In fact he didn't even look like he had moved.
Again, not having Harry talk to him, Ron was left with one choice.
While at dinner he finally met Severus' worried glance which he had felt on him all day, he met it full on with one of his own. He was going to have to talk to him. Something was up with Harry and no matter how upset Harry might be that he brought his father into this, he was going to do it for Harry's sake.
***
Severus was feeling very worried. From what Ron had said and the way he had described Harry, he had reason to be.
Severus heard the few frightened gasps as he entered the common room for the second time in two days, both being after dinner.
Once he was in front of the boy's first year dorm rooms, Severus slowly opened the door and walked in, closing it behind him.
He went over to the window, which was showing only the light through the bottom crack of the curtains, so he opened them fully, revealing the moon's shine. It lit up the entire room.
Severus could now see Harry through the crack in the hangings which Ron had made before when he went in to talk to Harry.
"Harry..." Severus stepped closer to his bed.
Harry didn't even acknowledge he was there.
"Ron said you weren't feeling well."
Harry just nodded his head, not looking at his father's face.
Severus, not hearing a reply from Harry went on, stepping further towards his bed.
"He said he heard you being sick this morning. Is that true?"
Harry again nodded, looking down at his bed sheets.
"Did you go see Poppy?"
Harry shook his head, a fear prickling in the back of his mind that he might have to go stay in the hospital wing.
"So then I would assume you are you feeling better now?"
Harry shrugged, still he had avoided any contact with his father.
Severus sighed and sat on the bed next to Harry.
"Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" he asked hopefully.
But he took Harry's silence as a 'no'.
Severus forced himself to remain calm, if he wanted to find out what the problem was he had to remain composed and approachable. "If you feel ready to tell me what's wrong, I'll be willing to listen, okay Harry?"
Harry didn't move.
Severus brought his hand out and gently lifted Harry's chin.
"Okay?"
Harry for the first time that night looked his father in the eye and he could easily see the worry that lay there, also a bit of shock. Perhaps because he finally looked at him? Perhaps he really did look bad? Harry truly didn't know which, if either.
Harry nodded, something he had been doing a lot of and closed his eyes, feeling his father let go of him chin, though it seemed a bit hesitant, and then finally leave.
Harry sat there a bit longer, immediately opening his eyes to stop the image forming again.
***
"I don't know what's happened Albus, Harry and I were close before his first year, and now... now he can barely look at me." Severus said while pacing angrily around Dumbledore's office.
"Now I'm sure you're overreacting just a bit-"
"No Albus, I'm not. I went and saw him tonight after Ron told me he had heard Harry being sick in the early hours of the morning, he hasn't shown his face all day or said a word. When I went to see him he could barely look at me. And when he did, Albus his eyes..." Severus faltered, remembering what he had seen. He stopped pacing and stood facing Dumbledore. "They looked-" Severus looked around the room, trying to think of the right word. "Albus they looked dead."
Both men remained where they were, both pondering the words as they were left off.
"Something is wrong. I know it. First he has these dreams, and now this. What does it all mean?" Severus again began pacing.
"I don't know Severus, I really don't know."
"I'm unsure of what to do, he's mad at Lupin and I, even you probably. He needs to be able to talk to someone. Ron is hardly appropriate and I'm not sure he trusts anyone else enough to talk about whatever is wrong."
"Then we must hope that he will come to us." Dumbledore answered gravely.
***
Later that night Severus heard a knock on his office door and he frowned. He was just about to start a potion that would take quite a bit of time and he wanted to start it now before it got too late.
Severus got up and thought about whom it could be, Dumbledore would have knocked and then just entered, any student wouldn't even come to his door for fear of being yelled at, even the Slytherins were a bit hesitant when it came to seeing him. And no other professor would come down to talk at the time of night that it was, so the only other person that he could think of was Lupin. Though why he would come down was a mystery to him. So having no real clue as to who was knocking on his door, he put his best intimidating act on and stormed the rest of the way over to the door, throwing it open to scare whoever it was who was disturbing him.
"Harry?" Severus' intimidation act fell at once, clearly not having expected it to have been Harry at his door.
"I had another dream..." he replied softly, head down and looking at his feet.
"Come in..."
Severus stepped aside for him to enter.
Harry slowly entered and stood in the middle of the classroom.
Severus shut the door and then stood to face Harry.
"Do you want to tell me about it?"
Harry bit his bottom lip and looked at the ground, finally nodding his head.
"Come into my office Harry." Severus led him over to his office and over to his desk and sat him down, he ignored his usual chair that he normally sat in to intimidate whoever was there, since they were normally there because they were in trouble, and he took the seat next to Harry, turning it around to face him so their knees were touching.
"Voldemort was there... and he was..." Harry trailed off and looked away.
"Take your time Harry"
"He was using the...the Cruciatus curse on a man...he held it for so long..."
Severus then realized what was wrong. This boy in front of him, an eleven year old had witnessed a man being horribly tortured. For any person that would be a horrible experience.
During his Death Eater days he at first couldn't stand to see it, to hear the screams, he could still remember the first few that he had seen tortured like it only happened yesterday.
"Harry..." Severus said soothingly
"Every time I close my eyes now..." Harry again trailed off, but he didn't need to finish his sentence as Severus understood.
Severus pulled him into a hug and could tell by Harry's now trembling body that he was crying.
"Please don't let me go to sleep, I don't want to dream anymore..."
"Shhh..." Severus muttered to him, rubbing his back soothingly.
After several minutes he had calmed down a bit, so Severus grabbed his wand from off his desk and summoned a dream-less sleep potion from off one of his many shelves.
"Harry, drink this"
Harry leaned off him and took the potion from his hand and gulped it down, immediately returning back to where he was once he had finished it.
Severus waited until he felt Harry go limp in his arms and then he picked him up and took him into his old room and carefully placed him into his bed, tucking his blanket around him tightly.
Severus sat in the chair beside the bed, watching as Harry slept. He had often done that when Harry was younger and even though he knew that Harry would be fine now, he found that he didn't want to leave.
So he sat, thinking of what had been happening over the last few days.
He knew that what Harry had seen must have been real, he wouldn't have overreacted like that to just a scary dream, a nightmare. Nor would he make things up. But could it be true? Could Voldemort really be alive?
Severus sighed and leaned closer to Harry, to his son who trusted him so much, probably without thinking about it twice, so didn't Severus owe him the same?
A Different Life
Chapter 31 - He's Only Eleven
Harry sat up breathing heavily. His scar was throbbing but like before, Harry ignored it and tried to concentrate on remembering the dream.
He remembered that the man that seemed familiar to him was in it, as well as Voldemort. And they were talking about someone... a woman perhaps?
Harry sighed out loud and closed his eyes against the nagging pain his scar was presenting itself with.
But as soon as he did close his eyes, he was confronted with pictures of the dream he just had, Harry felt sick just watching as the man was ruthlessly tortured. Last nights dinner was already making its way up and the next thing he saw sealed the deal. Behind the familiar man that was being horribly tortured, were what looked like a least thirty people dressed in black robes. And they were all bowing at Voldemort, most had their faces hidden, but some were not wearing masks, and the ones that weren't all had smiles of their faces, sick smiles.
Harry immediately jumped out of bed and ran into the dorms bathrooms and threw up, and continued to do so until he felt he had nothing left in his stomach.
Breathing heavily, Harry slid to the cold floor, resting his head against the ground, feeling a slight comfort the coolness brought to his head, which was now drenched in sweat.
Now he only heard the screams ringing in his ears.
***
To say Harry felt like crap was a definite understatement. He had since crawled back into his bed, but the thought of going back to sleep was horrifying. All Harry had to do was close his eyes to see the man's twisted tortured body, to hear his never ending screams.
Harry shivered just thinking about it. So he brought his legs up to his chest and rocked, staring at his closed hangings, not daring to even blink.
***
"Harry, are you going to get up?" Ron pulled the hanging back and what he saw made him gasp. Harry was deadly pale, looking very much sick and he was just rocking himself on his bed, appearing to be every bit upset.
"Harry! What's wrong?" Ron was immediately at Harry's side.
When Harry didn't answer Ron started to get really worried.
"I'll go get your dad-" Ron stopped mid-sentence as the pleading in Harry's eyes was enough to tell Ron not to.
"Madam Pomfrey?" He knew Harry would never go for that, even though he didn't think ill of the nurse, he definitely didn't want to be her patient if he could help it.
"Maybe it will be best if you stay here today, I'll tell anyone who asks that you're sick okay?"
Ron's only answer was the nod of Harry's head.
***
Apart from Ron having to dodge questions about where Harry was, especially from Draco, the day went smoothly. All the professors accepted Ron's excuse and only expressed worry rather then annoyance when they asked about Harry's whereabouts. Ron was glad that most people were away for Christmas, well he was glad that Hermione was away because he knew she wouldn't have taken his excuse without first seeing Harry for herself.
But when Ron went to check on Harry before dinner, he was upset to see that it hadn't looked like Harry had improved at all. In fact he didn't even look like he had moved.
Again, not having Harry talk to him, Ron was left with one choice.
While at dinner he finally met Severus' worried glance which he had felt on him all day, he met it full on with one of his own. He was going to have to talk to him. Something was up with Harry and no matter how upset Harry might be that he brought his father into this, he was going to do it for Harry's sake.
***
Severus was feeling very worried. From what Ron had said and the way he had described Harry, he had reason to be.
Severus heard the few frightened gasps as he entered the common room for the second time in two days, both being after dinner.
Once he was in front of the boy's first year dorm rooms, Severus slowly opened the door and walked in, closing it behind him.
He went over to the window, which was showing only the light through the bottom crack of the curtains, so he opened them fully, revealing the moon's shine. It lit up the entire room.
Severus could now see Harry through the crack in the hangings which Ron had made before when he went in to talk to Harry.
"Harry..." Severus stepped closer to his bed.
Harry didn't even acknowledge he was there.
"Ron said you weren't feeling well."
Harry just nodded his head, not looking at his father's face.
Severus, not hearing a reply from Harry went on, stepping further towards his bed.
"He said he heard you being sick this morning. Is that true?"
Harry again nodded, looking down at his bed sheets.
"Did you go see Poppy?"
Harry shook his head, a fear prickling in the back of his mind that he might have to go stay in the hospital wing.
"So then I would assume you are you feeling better now?"
Harry shrugged, still he had avoided any contact with his father.
Severus sighed and sat on the bed next to Harry.
"Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" he asked hopefully.
But he took Harry's silence as a 'no'.
Severus forced himself to remain calm, if he wanted to find out what the problem was he had to remain composed and approachable. "If you feel ready to tell me what's wrong, I'll be willing to listen, okay Harry?"
Harry didn't move.
Severus brought his hand out and gently lifted Harry's chin.
"Okay?"
Harry for the first time that night looked his father in the eye and he could easily see the worry that lay there, also a bit of shock. Perhaps because he finally looked at him? Perhaps he really did look bad? Harry truly didn't know which, if either.
Harry nodded, something he had been doing a lot of and closed his eyes, feeling his father let go of him chin, though it seemed a bit hesitant, and then finally leave.
Harry sat there a bit longer, immediately opening his eyes to stop the image forming again.
***
"I don't know what's happened Albus, Harry and I were close before his first year, and now... now he can barely look at me." Severus said while pacing angrily around Dumbledore's office.
"Now I'm sure you're overreacting just a bit-"
"No Albus, I'm not. I went and saw him tonight after Ron told me he had heard Harry being sick in the early hours of the morning, he hasn't shown his face all day or said a word. When I went to see him he could barely look at me. And when he did, Albus his eyes..." Severus faltered, remembering what he had seen. He stopped pacing and stood facing Dumbledore. "They looked-" Severus looked around the room, trying to think of the right word. "Albus they looked dead."
Both men remained where they were, both pondering the words as they were left off.
"Something is wrong. I know it. First he has these dreams, and now this. What does it all mean?" Severus again began pacing.
"I don't know Severus, I really don't know."
"I'm unsure of what to do, he's mad at Lupin and I, even you probably. He needs to be able to talk to someone. Ron is hardly appropriate and I'm not sure he trusts anyone else enough to talk about whatever is wrong."
"Then we must hope that he will come to us." Dumbledore answered gravely.
***
Later that night Severus heard a knock on his office door and he frowned. He was just about to start a potion that would take quite a bit of time and he wanted to start it now before it got too late.
Severus got up and thought about whom it could be, Dumbledore would have knocked and then just entered, any student wouldn't even come to his door for fear of being yelled at, even the Slytherins were a bit hesitant when it came to seeing him. And no other professor would come down to talk at the time of night that it was, so the only other person that he could think of was Lupin. Though why he would come down was a mystery to him. So having no real clue as to who was knocking on his door, he put his best intimidating act on and stormed the rest of the way over to the door, throwing it open to scare whoever it was who was disturbing him.
"Harry?" Severus' intimidation act fell at once, clearly not having expected it to have been Harry at his door.
"I had another dream..." he replied softly, head down and looking at his feet.
"Come in..."
Severus stepped aside for him to enter.
Harry slowly entered and stood in the middle of the classroom.
Severus shut the door and then stood to face Harry.
"Do you want to tell me about it?"
Harry bit his bottom lip and looked at the ground, finally nodding his head.
"Come into my office Harry." Severus led him over to his office and over to his desk and sat him down, he ignored his usual chair that he normally sat in to intimidate whoever was there, since they were normally there because they were in trouble, and he took the seat next to Harry, turning it around to face him so their knees were touching.
"Voldemort was there... and he was..." Harry trailed off and looked away.
"Take your time Harry"
"He was using the...the Cruciatus curse on a man...he held it for so long..."
Severus then realized what was wrong. This boy in front of him, an eleven year old had witnessed a man being horribly tortured. For any person that would be a horrible experience.
During his Death Eater days he at first couldn't stand to see it, to hear the screams, he could still remember the first few that he had seen tortured like it only happened yesterday.
"Harry..." Severus said soothingly
"Every time I close my eyes now..." Harry again trailed off, but he didn't need to finish his sentence as Severus understood.
Severus pulled him into a hug and could tell by Harry's now trembling body that he was crying.
"Please don't let me go to sleep, I don't want to dream anymore..."
"Shhh..." Severus muttered to him, rubbing his back soothingly.
After several minutes he had calmed down a bit, so Severus grabbed his wand from off his desk and summoned a dream-less sleep potion from off one of his many shelves.
"Harry, drink this"
Harry leaned off him and took the potion from his hand and gulped it down, immediately returning back to where he was once he had finished it.
Severus waited until he felt Harry go limp in his arms and then he picked him up and took him into his old room and carefully placed him into his bed, tucking his blanket around him tightly.
Severus sat in the chair beside the bed, watching as Harry slept. He had often done that when Harry was younger and even though he knew that Harry would be fine now, he found that he didn't want to leave.
So he sat, thinking of what had been happening over the last few days.
He knew that what Harry had seen must have been real, he wouldn't have overreacted like that to just a scary dream, a nightmare. Nor would he make things up. But could it be true? Could Voldemort really be alive?
Severus sighed and leaned closer to Harry, to his son who trusted him so much, probably without thinking about it twice, so didn't Severus owe him the same?