A/N: the next chapter is either going to be posted tomorrow, or on saturday. No update on friday, as I won't have time to go on a computer. Also, thank you for all reviews (especially the ones I couldn't reply to) Hope you will enjoy this chapter too. Thanks again for my beta: azntgr01.
Also, if any of you knows Latin (and not the translator-on-the-internet-type of Latin, please send me a message ASAP. I need something translated into Latin, and I will need it done within the next week, as it shows up later in this story. I used an internet-translator myself, but am afraid it sucks. so please, let me know! you'll get the credit once I post that chapter.
Chapter Twelve: the Secret's Out
When everyone had gathered their presents for Harry and his aunt, they walk down the street towards the corner, where two taxis are waiting for them. Remus told the drivers the name of the hospital, and when everyone has gotten in, they drive off. Ginny and Ron are having fun looking at the muggle things they never noticed before, while Hermione and Draco are discussing some Charms book. Severus is surprised enough to listen to in on their discussion, while Remus has trouble to keep his laughter in whenever he notices the taxi-driver's face when he catches Ron and Ginny's conversation ('Is that a feliefoon box? No, it must be a transporter.' And so on and on).
When the taxis stop in front of the hospital, Severus and Remus pay the drivers and lead the children inside, though Hermione and Remus are leading the group, as they are more used to the muggle world. Draco, Ron, Ginny and even Severus are a tad suspicious about the glass sliding doors, or the lifts they can see.
Remus walks up to the receptionist, as they didn't know where exactly Petunia would be.
"Good morning. We are looking for Mrs Evans room; could you please tell us where we need to be?"
The receptionist typed something in the computer. "We have several people going by that name. Could you tell me where they would be?"
Hermione spoke up, seeing Remus hesitate over the right name. "They're in for treatment of cancer."
The receptionist nodded, and then looked dumbly at the screen. "I am sorry, but there is no Mrs Evans."
Surprised the others look at each other.
"But there should be. Harry told us he and his aunt would be here for an entire week for chemo. And they are called Evans."
The receptionist's eyes lit up. "Ah, Harry Evans? I am sorry, I do know them. As I have seen them here so often, I usually refer to them by first name. We like to make it more comfortable for our terminally ill patients. Let's see, they are on the fourth floor, in room number 14. You can take the elevator. But I must caution you all, behave yourselves, as there are a lot of sick people up there."
They all nodded, and murmured a thank you. Hermione lead them all towards the elevators, where they got in, some more anxiously than others. Draco stepped in confidently; he had used an elevator when he visited Harry.
Ginny gave a little shriek when the elevator started moving up, but Hermione reassured her about it all. Most were quite glad to get out of the elevator though. They stepped out into the hallway and looking at the signs, Remus led them to the right. They passed several wards, were children were kept. They were surprised to see some of them crying for no apparent reason.
They also passed some wards were adults were kept, but there were only a few of them. It seemed this was the children's department, and this puzzled everyone. Hermione wasn't the only one to wonder about the fact that no Mrs Evans could be found, but that they knew Harry straight away.
When a door with the number 14 came in sight, they quieted and nervously Remus opened the door and they stepped inside a small room. It contained a table and some chairs, as well as a window and another door. Surprised the others looked towards the window, as there wasn't a patient in this room. What they saw through the window shocked them. There was a bed with someone in it. It wasn't who they had expected though. They had thought to see Petunia in the bed, but she was beside it, talking to the one who lay in the bed. In the bed was a small boy, with some red tufts of hair, and green eyes. And the boy looked to be very ill.
Hermione was the first to recover. She whispered, "Harry?"
At that moment Petunia looked up, having sensed something, and her eyes widened in surprise. She bent down and said something to Harry. He tried to look at them, but he was so tired he could hardly open his eyes. Just when Petunia turned around to go towards the visitors, Harry made a distressed sound, and everyone saw her rushing to a bassinet, which she held under Harry's mouth. They could see that Harry only brought up bile, nothing else.
Exhausted Harry lay back down again, and Petunia washed the bassinet clean. Then she stepped into a small side room where she washed her hands and changed out of the hospital gown she had worn over her own clothing. Then she stepped out to greet Harry's friends.
With a sad look in her eyes she looked at the presents everyone held. "Please, sit down; this is going to be a long story."
Overwhelmed with worry, surprise and confusion they did as she said. She took the last remaining chair, and felt so very tired. She looked back through the window at Harry, who wiggled his fingers, to show her it was alright. She really couldn't deal with this right now, not after the news they just had. However, she would be the one to tell it now, as Harry was in no condition to do it himself.
"I think it's best to start the story with the relationship between Lily and me. You see, that's where this entire mess started." She sighed. "Lily and I had always been very close, sharing everything, up until she got her Hogwarts letter. Of course, you can't exactly share magic, so Lily went of to Hogwarts and I went of to another school. We still had a good bond, writing letters the entire time, and looking forward to the holidays. However things changed when in sixth year James Potter made his way into Lily's life. He did love her, and didn't mind so much that she was muggleborn, but he hated us, my parents and me. So he slowly peeled her away from me. My parents didn't really notice, and they were killed during her seventh year, so it was just me James Potter needed to get rid off. I had also met Vernon Dursley and I was absolutely crazy about him. He loved me, but didn't like abnormal things and started setting me up against Lily. Eventually we had a huge fight over something we later found out was set up by Vernon and James. So we lost contact and I started to resent Lily and magic.
When Harry was dumped on our front doorstep, yes dumped, you can't excuse putting a baby in a blanket with only an accompanying letter in any other way.
Anyway, when Harry entered out lives, I was saddened to have lost Lily, and was glad to have something of her, but Vernon wished to have nothing to do with him, so he was put into the cupboard under the stairs and made to do chores." Remus growled at that, but he was glad to hear some things. He had always wondered why Lily suddenly didn't talk about her sister anymore.
"When Harry was nine, he started getting ill very easily. I finally convinced Vernon to take him to the doctor, telling him I was afraid it would spread out to Dudley. The doctor told me it was leukaemia and had to be treated right away, if we wanted Harry to have a chance. Vernon wanted to refuse at first." Her story was interrupted by the angry shouts of the children.
Snape quickly growled "Quiet." He wanted to hear more.
"Thank you, Severus. As I was saying, Vernon refused at first, but the doctor – Doctor Romanov – convinced Vernon by saying it was an experimental treatment, and we wouldn't have to pay for it. In reality he just arranged the finances from a fund especially for poor people with sick children. I was the only one to visit Harry while in the hospital and at first I didn't want to go. I still had something against him, as he looked so much like James. When I finally came for a bit longer than a minute, I saw him looking very different. His hair had fallen out due to the chemo, and it was now growing back red. It reminded me so much of Lily, that it shook me awake. I realised I couldn't shut out this part of her, so I started to actually care for Harry." She realised that especially the men now knew that she had no love for him the other years.
"We grew quite close, and no-one else knew about it. I told Harry as much as possible about the wizarding world, and one time, our doctor came walking in. Instead of thinking I was crazy, he was delighted, as his brother was a wizard and now he had others to talk to about magic. Eventually Harry was declared healthy. It had nearly taken a year for him, mainly staying in the hospital. Vernon hadn't seen him once, so he didn't know Harry looked so much more like his mother. I told Harry we should still pretend to hate each other. I had wanted to divorce, but Vernon would have taken Dudley and I didn't want to lose my son, so I stayed. Harry agreed to the acting, and managed to make himself look like his father again. He just wished very hard for it and it has worked ever since. He has kept up with the expectations from your world, and every summer we came back to this hospital for yearly check up. He drops his glamour inside, and never gets an owl about using magic, so what exactly he does we don't know, but it doesn't matter."
Severus and Remus are quite impressed, and say so. "Harry must have an even larger reserve of magic than we had thought, as he still managed to do his normal schoolwork. But how come you didn't make him look more like his mother when he was at Hogwarts?"
Petunia sighed; this was something she didn't really know how to explain. "Harry found out something. He felt that even though muggles also can change their hair colour, he felt going from black unruly hair, to red with curls, as well as improved eyesight was a bit suspicious, so he looked it up while at Hogwarts. He found some sort of spell which became quite popular in pureblood families. They wanted their children to look a lot like themselves, and James probably cast the spell, as Harry looked so much like him. The spell probably broke due to the chemo, and the red hair and good eyes are his real appearance. He rather prefers it, and only keeps up the Harry James Potter act for the wizarding world."
Draco was intrigued by the spell Petunia had mentioned. He had never heard or looked for such a spell. "Severus? Do you think my father used that spell on me as well?" he asked. The others looked interested as well.
Severus gave Draco a hard look, and then spoke up, "Yes, it is very likely that Lucius did so. Perhaps one day we can remove it?"
Draco nodded enthusiastically. He would love to look less like his father. Then his gaze turned towards the bed on the other side of the window, and he stood up to get a better look. Harry had fallen asleep, and seemed so very small. "He's really very ill isn't he, Petunia?" he asked.
"Yes he is," she whispered, the words caught in her throat.
"What else is there?" Remus asked, as he could sense her feelings a bit.
Petunia took out a handkerchief and started dabbing her eyes. "It's just. It's just that I had a conversation with Doctor Romanov today, and he had some bad news." She was al out crying now. Severus felt uncomfortable, and he had an incline of where this was leading. "You see, he told me... He told me that it's not working. The treatment is not working as it should. There's nothing more he can do. He told me that any other doctor would have stopped treatment at least a month ago, but he kept going, as he really hoped for some miracle. But it's not going to happen..."
She cried so hard, her shoulders shook, and Remus wrapped his arms around her to comfort her, as well as himself. Hermione was crying on Ron's shoulder, while Ginny sat very still on her chair. Severus was looking at his godson, who still stood looking at the small form in the bed. He stood up and went over to Draco. He saw silent tears drip down his face, and slowly wrapped his arms around Draco. When he was comforting Draco, he looked at the boy in the bed, that was to mean so much to all of them. The boy that had them all fooled.
Petunia started up again. "Harry got the last bag of chemo today, but he will stay in the hospital for two more days. He has brewed a strong revitalising draft for himself, which will allow him to leave the hospital much sooner than normal. Perhaps Severus, you can have a look at it now? After that we will come to Grimmauld Place, as Harry was planning on telling you then. He told me he doesn't much care for treatment any more, and that he still wishes to go to Hogwarts, though I wanted to keep him with me."
Snape took the small bottle of potion, and gave it a good look, sniffed it and took a tiny drop. "It's good." Too bad that the only time he praised Harry for a potion, Harry wasn't awake to hear it.
Just then, a soft knock sounded on the door. Severus quickly put the potion away, and Petunia called "Come in."
In came a tall dark-haired man, with slightly sad eyes. He wore doctors' clothes. With him was a girl of perhaps nine years old, with a completely bald head, but she looked healthier than Harry did. Her big blue eyes looked over from Petunia to Harry, and she let out a tiny sob.
"Hello, Petunia. Sally here wished to see Harry for a moment, just for this once. You know how they can get when it concerns Harry. I hope you don't mind?"
This was obviously Doctor Romanov. Petunia shook her head. "I don't mind. He is very tired though Sally, but I'm sure you know that."
Sally nodded. She was a very serious girl for her age. Slowly, she walked towards the door, and entered. The others saw her scrubbing her hands, arms and put on some of the gowns. Then she entered the room and walked over to the bed. It seemed Harry was merely resting, as he opened his eyes a bit, and looked over to Sally. When she started to cry slightly, he managed a small smile, and motioned her over. She nearly jumped in the bed with him, and curled up to lie beside him. The others, who weren't used to Harry being like this, were looking in surprise how Harry managed to comfort another child, while he was the one not going to make it. Petunia and Doctor Romanov were used to it by now though.
"You know Petunia, several of the children in the other wards were crying for him. They miss their brother, you know?"
Petunia nodded, and tried to smile. "Yes I know, and I'm afraid they will need to miss him for quite long this time. Perhaps they may never see him again." With that, she cried again.
Remus just hugged her, and tried to comfort her, while his tears made their way down his face. Severus only managed to grip onto his present harder. He wasn't sure what he was feeling, and why. Hermione, Ron and Ginny were quite devastated. They had not been prepared for news like this, and were very afraid of losing their friend like this. Not after the many revelations they had in the last few days. Draco didn't know what to do. He kept looking at his very sick friend, lying there pale and trembling in the hospital bed, while trying to comfort a little girl. His friend, the very good friend he had, was dieing, and hadn't told any of them, was only going to tell them when there was no more cure. He didn't know what to do. Draco always knew what to do. This time however, he just felt lost.
Like they all felt lost.
