Previously:
"Where is he?" Albus asked, looking around for any sign of Harry, getting more and more worried by the minute. When he looked over to Remus for an observation he saw the young werewolf staring at the pile of rags in shock and horror. Looking back, and taking a closer inspection, both Albus and Severus realized it wasn't a pile of rags at all, but a badly beaten Harry, and by the looks of it, unconscious.
Chapter 3 – The Rescue Part 2Severus lets out a strangled yell as he rushes over to his son's side. Looking over him carefully, he realized that Harry was barely alive, and by the looks of it, not holding on by much. Looking up, he found Albus on the other side of Harry, his appearance very grave and worrying.
"We have to do something Albus, he's barely alive."
"I know, we have to get him to Hogwarts, to Poppy, but he's no where near in the shape to apparate or go by Floo Powder."
Remus finally came out of his initial shock and walked over. "Well we have to do something, we're grown wizards for Merlin's sake! We should know at least some healing spells that can sustain Harry until we get back to Hogwarts."
"Right. Hmm…we should clean the blood up first and then check the major injuries. First, clensio!" Albus said under his breath, as a cleansing white light came out of the tip of his wand and surrounded Harry. When it disappeared, there was no more dried blood on the poor boy. The only blood that was left was from the more recent cuts and cuts that had reopened.
Severus took out a potion and tipped it carefully towards Harry's mouth. The silver liquid fells into his mouth, he swallowed it when Severus lightly rubbed his neck.
Looking up, he realized that the two other men were looking at him for some kind of explanation. "It's a potion that heals and minor internal injuries, I brought it just in case."
Albus just shakes his head, "and you were wondering if you could be a father or not," he said under his breath. Luckily only Remus heard it, and he only smiled a tiny bit.
"Well, I can mend some of his bones, but I'm afraid it won't be that easy. I can only fix his arms and legs. I'm afraid I don't want to mess anything up with his chest, well more than it already is."
"Right. I'll carry him, and we'll just leave the rest for Poppy. If not, I'm sure she'll have a hernia about us treating her patients. I swear that woman is way to strict!" Severus mumbled the last part, but was heard by both Albus and Remus. They let off a soft laugh, silently agreeing on that part.
Severus lightly picked up Harry, who shifted in his troubled sleep slightly. As he looked down at his newly found son, he let out the tiniest smile. Even if his son was battered, and bruised, he still looked so innocent while sleeping.
Albus, and Remus gently left the room, waiting for Severus to follow, not interrupting his thoughts. As they reached the outside, Albus stated a matter-of-factly, his twinkle back in his eye, "Well, we don't have to worry about him being a bad father do we?"
Remus smiled slightly, "I guess we don't. Will Harry be alright? I mean, he looked pretty bad."
"I'm sure he'll be fine once he gets a little rest and a lot of chocolate." Albus said in a light tone, although his eyes had once again lost their twinkle.
As he finished that sentence, Severus came out, holding Harry protectively against his chest. He walked up to them in a hurried manner. "He woke up for a second, I don't think he realized who I was though because he fell back asleep, although I think he has an idea of where's he's going. He tried to say something, but I guess he was to weak, he fell back asleep after that."
Albus and Remus simultaneously shook their heads. With three small 'pops' the three grown men and the young adult disappeared without a trace.
Later that morning, screams of outrage could be heard coming from the Dursley's home, particularly from Vernon Dursley who had awakened to find that his 'nephew' had somehow escaped during the night.
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Poppy Pomfrey was just sitting down to eat her small, private dinner, when she first heard the desperate yelling coming from down the hall. Quickly getting up, all thoughts of dinner fleeing from her mind, she entered the hospital wing as Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, and Severus Snape came bursting through the doors.
Before anything could be said, a soft moan could be heard coming from the person within Severus's grasp.
Gently moving Harry over to bed and setting him down, Poppy came rushing forward, finally coming over the shock of seeing one of her favorite patients, not that she would admit it, in such obvious pain.
Pushing Severus out of the way, not even apologizing, she turned to Harry, who had just started to open his eyes.
At first, all Harry could see was white, then he could smell the strong smell of medicines, and with a jolt he realized he was in the hospital wing at Hogwarts. But that couldn't be right, he was at home in his room, he should be on the floor in a pool of blood, this had to be a dream.
Looking around though, as the room came into clearer focus, he apparently had his glasses still, he realized he was indeed at Hogwarts, with four somber faces looking down at him, all of which holding intense worry.
Feeling suddenly very uncomfortable, Harry muttered a small 'hello,' which immediately inspired an attack of coughing, in which ended up with blood falling onto his hand. Getting slightly queasy from the intense pain and the sight of coughing up his own blood, Harry promptly fainted.
Poppy rushed to his side to make sure he was alright, making sure he would be fine for a few minutes, Poppy turned to the other occupants of the room and immediately ushered them out, going on and on about how she couldn't do any work on Mr. Potter if there were an audience, and that they would only be a hindrance if they stayed.
As the three walked silently up to the Headmaster's office once again, they were all lost in thought. Not one of them had uttered a word since Harry had woken up, afraid that if they spoke too loudly, it would break the small boy even farther.
Muttering the password, and about ready to head up the stair case, a worried Minerva McGonagall arrived. Smiling slightly in a reassuring manner, Albus motioned for her to go on ahead up the stairs. Looking slightly miffed, Minerva entered the stairway, the other three following silently behind her.
As they all entered the wooden doors that led into the office, Albus motioned for them all to take seats.
Minerva was the first to break the unnatural silence, "Would someone be so kind to update me as to what is happening here? You had me worried sick when you just up and left me here without giving me a reason as to why. Not to mention, you come back, maybe 40 minutes later yelling like mad men for Poppy. I was up in the owlry delivering some of the final letters, when I first heard you. I headed for your office as soon as I could. Now what on earth is happening here?"
Albus sighed briefly, but before he could answer her, Severus butted in, and not exactly in the most polite manner.
"Albus, do you realize that if we didn't go there tonight, then he would most likely be dead?!" He practically seethed out, while glaring daggers at the old wizard.
Albus looks down in complete self-loathing. How could he have been so stupid. He should have realized Harry was being mistreated, with all the little hints that had been dropped here and there. He should have looked more at the facts and realized Harry's mistreatment. He should have never left Harry with those awful excuses for muggles.
"I know I made a mistake putting him with those awful, awful people, but at the time, I thought it would be for the best. They were his only living relatives at the time, well the only ones we were aware of. He would be most protected there. I never imagined that something to this extent was occurring. Please forgive me Severus, if I had known I would have pulled him out of that house ages ago, if he had no where else to stay, he could have stayed with me, anywhere but that wretched place."
Severus leaned back, settled for now, but Minerva looked increasingly suspicious. "What exactly is going on here, who exactly are we talking about, and for Merlin's sake start from the beginning please."
Remus looked over to the other two males in the room to see them lost in their own thoughts, so he went on to explain to Minerva all he knew. She was surprised at finding out Harry's true parentage, and to say she was extremely furious when she found out the truth about the Dursleys was an understatement. She stood up so fast that her chair fell backwards, with one graceful movement, she was standing in front of the headmaster with extreme anger radiating off of her physique.
"I told you, I TOLD you that those people wouldn't treat him right. The night you left him with the Dursleys, I repeatedly tried to convince you otherwise, saying that this was not the right thing to do. I knew from the beginning that those people wouldn't treat Harry right, but you wouldn't listen, and thanks to that, Harry almost died, almost DIED tonight Albus!" Slightly embarrassed, but not at all sorry for her outburst Minerva quickly picked up her chair and sat back down, looking intently at her hands in her lap.
"You're perfectly right Minerva. This entire predicament is my fault, I am extremely sorry for what my choices have caused. I will do everything in my power to make sure Harry recovers completely from this ordeal. If I had known this was happening, which I assure you I didn't, then I would have immediately taken him out of their care."
Minerva looks slightly abashed by her words earlier and quickly tries to apologize for them. "I'm truly sorry, Headmaster, it was just a lot to take in, and I didn't mean to blame you at all, it's just that we should have realized it sooner, and Harry wouldn't have to endure what he is now. I just feel so ashamed of myself that I wasn't there for him, I'm his Head of House, I should have realized something was going on at home, that's one of our jobs at being the Head of House."
Albus shakes his head gravely, "no Minerva, you had every right in what you stated earlier, and not a single word of it was a lie. It's entirely my fault that he was put through that, and I promise to do what ever is in my power to make sure he realizes that I didn't do it on purpose, and to realize that I regret it more than anything I have ever done."
Looking over to the Headmaster, Severus realized that he was telling the complete truth, "Albus, it's not your fault. If it's anyone's it's mine. I should have realized Harry was my son, I should have taken responsibility for him, I should have been there for him, helping him, instead of continually putting him down."
Before the Headmaster could continue, a light tapping was heard from outside the doors. The Headmaster told them that they could come in while conjuring up another chair for their visitor to sit.
Poppy came into the room, a sullen look exposed on her face. "I'm afraid I have some bad news Headmaster, it's about Harry."
Nodding gravely, the headmaster urged her to go on, the entire room deathly silent, waiting on the verdict of one of the most important person I'm many peoples lives.
"Well first off, he's been intensely underfed, he's been starved for who knows how long. Also, he has several broken ribs, not to mention the bones that had been mended, prior to my examination." Here Poppy sent a glare at the three men, although not much meaning was put into it. Slowly she went on, "he appears to have been beat repeatedly throughout the time he left Hogwarts, and from what I can see, he has scars from beatings earlier on. He had some severe internal bleeding and injuries that I had to take care of immediately, although your potion helped immensely Severus."
Here she paused, letting everything she had said sink in, the mood of the room extremely grave.
"Is there anything else Poppy?" Albus asked quietly.
"I'm afraid there is. He's exhausted, both mentally and physically. He appears to be under some sort of strain, although I have no idea as to what. He has many lacerations all over, not to mention all the bruises. This will take time to heal, as you can only heal so much with magic at a time, and his more severe injuries needed attending to. He should wake up within two days, if not he's most likely gone into a coma where his body will replenish his strength. Hopefully this will not happen, yet if it does, there will be nothing to worry about…" She drifted off as she saw the look on Severus's face, it appeared to be a mix of relief and horror.
"What do you mean it's nothing to worry about Pomfrey?" Severus croaks out, his mouth suddenly very dry. "You mean to tell me that Harry might very well go into a coma and you say there's nothing to worry about?"
Albus, interrupted quickly, before Severus said something that he would regret later, he explains that the coma would be temporary. "Severus, the coma would only be temporary if Poppy is telling the truth. It would be a magical coma that the body goes into automatically when both the mind and body of the person is extremely worn out. It will only last so long, and Harry will have no threats whatsoever while in this coma, or to put it in other terms, a long sleep when he can replenish his strength."
Severus looked down, slightly relieved but still intensely worried. Poppy gave one more, weird look at the Potions Master before finalizing her report.
"Yes, anyways as I was saying, he might go into a coma, which is not very likely, but if it does then he'll be asleep for a long time. Also, whoever did this, was extremely hateful towards Harry, so hateful in fact that his wounds will take longer to heal. In wizards, when another person, whether it's a Muggle or another wizard inflicts intentional pain onto another out of hatred, well the hatred sort of is imbedded within the wizard, and the body not only has to heal the injury itself, but also, it has to push out and purify the hatred festering inside the body. Harry has been inflicted with so many injuries that's infested with hatred, it'll be a long time before he ever fully heals."
Sighing quietly, Poppy continued on before anyone could say anything, "There is a strong chance that Harry has so much hatred inside him, it could destroy him from the inside. There's nothing we can do except for wait and help him along in any way possible once he awakens. The one thing we mustn't do is to force Harry to relive his memories, he can only talk about this when he is ready."
A deathly quiet followed after the Medi-witch finished. All the adults lost in their own thoughts didn't hear her go. After several moments, Minerva got up to leave, knocking the other men out of their own thoughts.
Looking slightly surprised, Albus asked, "Where are you going Minerva? I thought we could finish our little talk from earlier, to establish some things."
Looking back, Minerva let a small smile slip, "Well, as long as Poppy's finished with Harry for the moment, I wish to see him. I may not have shown it to him at all, but he's one of my favorite students just like his mother was, and I'm going to make up for that now, I'm going to show him that I truly do care. From now on, I'm going to be there whenever he needs me, so if you gentlemen would allow it, I would like to start now."
Without looking back, Minerva left the office quickly, and under a silent agreement, the other three left quickly after her, all headed in the direction of the hospital wing.