Chapter Four – Mistakes Are Made
A short time after Snape and McGonagall were expelled from Harry's private room in the infirmary, they walked to Dumbledore's office. McGonagall was furious with the Potion's Master and he knew it, but at that moment didn't really care. "Headmaster," Snape said upon entering the office, "we need to talk about Potter."
"Yes, Albus, I quite agree, we need to talk quite a bit about Harry and about Severus' action towards him today," the transfiguration teacher said huffily.
Dumbledore looked up from the letter he was composing and asked, "What about Harry? Has he taken a turn for the worse?"
"That remains to be seen Albus. It seems our resident Death Eater took it upon himself to force his way into Harry's mind just now and Merlin only knows how he'll react to it later," McGonagall spat.
"Severus?"
"I think I saw a glimpse of what happened to your golden boy while he was missing," Snape said icily.
Both Dumbledore and McGonagall wanted to know what he had to say that could cause Harry to react in this manner. They both knew him to be a head strong and brave young man, but when he returned to them, he only wanted to be isolated from the rest of the world and refused to speak unless it was absolutely necessary.
"Severus, why don't you and Minerva have a seat and tell us all about what you've seen today."
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Harry is standing in a cold and wet room hidden in complete darkness. Not a drop of light ever enters this room that he knows about. He is standing there completely naked, with his ankles chained together and his arms stretch high above his head strapped to a metal bar suspended from the ceiling. Harry stands there covered in his own bodily waste and has no idea how long he has been in this room like this, days, weeks, months? He has no clue; all that he does know is that he is very hungry, exhausted and completely defenseless to anything anyone does to him in this torture chamber of a room. For the moment he is completely alone and he likes it best this way.
However, his solitude doesn't last for long, it never does. As Harry stirs in place, he hears the door to his cell open and the sounds of multiple people walking in. He has no idea how many there are, only one person ever speaks to him and every time he hears that voice, he just wants to vomit.
"Well, Potter, I see you still live. What a pity."
Harry doesn't reply, he learned some time ago the folly of that mistake. He just stands there and pretends that he is somewhere else or that he is completely alone. Yes alone, no one can hurt you when you are alone. However, this time the lack of a reply costs him just as much as saying something cutting to his captors.
"Crucio!"
The pain is unending. It seems to pour out of every spot on his body and all he can do I stand there and take it as best he can and hope his mind doesn't break under the waves of unending agony. Luckily for him it does stop, or is it luck after all? For after the pain ebbs, he hears the other incantation, the one that he hates above all others, one that Harry thinks should be made into an Unforgivable Curse as much as any of the other three. Now the torture really begins for him.
"Exoplasitus"
Before Harry can remember anything else, he bolts straight up in his bed and begins screaming like he was dying. He makes a sound that no one has ever heard before, a primal scream filled with pain and emotion and all the bad things his young mind has ever had to deal with.
Within moments both Poppy and Dobby were in his room, to see what Harry was screaming about.
"Harry Potter, Harry Potter, what is happening to you's?" cried the little elf.
Poppy immediately went to him and shook him enough to get his screaming to calm down. "Potter, you were dreaming," she says to him and he calms down a bit and gasps for air. However, Poppy notices that along with the screaming, there were no tears.
"I'm fine," he rasps and he notices that she is touching him and he wrenches himself out of her grasp.
"Fine or not, you're taking a calming potion and then a dreamless sleep potion and going back to sleep, you still need your rest," she says to him and then goes to fetch the proper potions.
"Harry Potter? Was you's remembering the bad wizards again?" Dobby asked quietly.
Harry gave a slight nod, but said nothing.
"Don't you's be worrying Harry Potter, those's bad wizards not getting you again," Dobby said comfortingly and pats Harry's hand gently.
In the main infirmary ward, as Poppy went to get the potions for her patient, she was met by several of the teachers who had also heard Harry screaming and came to investigate.
Minerva McGonagall was standing there in her tartan dressing gown looking to the school nurse and asked, "Poppy, how is he?" She knew what Snape had told her and the Headmaster earlier in the day must be true, but she had not shared it with anyone else in the castle. However, it didn't stop her from being terribly worried about him.
The school nurse put her hand on McGonagall's arm and said to the rest of the staff that showed up, "Everyone, you can go back to bed, he just had a nightmare, that's all."
The other teachers began to leave the infirmary and they heard Argus Filch say, "That must have been one hell of a nightmare for us all to hear it in our bedchambers."
Poppy then went to her office and began to prepare the potions for Harry to take. McGonagall followed her in and asked, "Well, Poppy, what's wrong, why did he scream like that?"
"I was afraid this might happen to him, he's not ready to deal with this yet. I told Albus that but he wouldn't listen to me. After what Severus did to him, I'm surprised that he lasted this long before he began to relive his memories. I think he might have just made Potter's recovery that much worse," Poppy said waspishly.
McGonagall was furious with herself and said, "I was very angry with both Albus and Severus when I found out what they had done. When Albus couldn't get anywhere with Harry, he sent Severus down to find out what had happened to him. I should have seen it coming and done something to prevent it."
Poppy looked at her stern friend sympathetically and said, "It's not your fault Minerva, you know that he does as he pleases and the rest of us be damned." However, the nurse paused for a moment, thinking about something and then asked, "What did Snape find out from him?"
Uncertainty filled McGonagall's eyes, but she swallowed and then told the nurse everything Severus had told her in the Headmaster's office.
Poppy nodded and said, "I hope Albus realizes that what Severus found out is only the cork on the bottle and not the whole thing. Physical evidence told me more than that. I know that Potter can survive almost anything thrown at him, I've been the one to heal him after he's done all those stupid things, but everyone has limits and he may have gone past them this time." Then she picked up the two vials of potion and returned to Harry's room to administer them to the boy.
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The next morning Dumbledore called an emergency meeting of the Order of the Phoenix in order to inform them about what had been discovered about Harry the previous evening.
"Albus is it wise to tell everyone about Harry's condition? I don't think he'll react well to it being known to so many people, especially since he hasn't even met over half of them," McGonagall asked.
"I understand that you want to protect him Minerva, but they need to know how extensive his injuries are."
"They need to know this? How in the name of Merlin, it is possible that they all need to know THAT Albus?" she asked hotly.
"We all need to know how to best protect him Minerva, he'll need us to do that for him," Dumbledore replied sagely.
Now Minerva's backbone was getting up and she bellowed, "It seems to me Albus that we failed him miserably and now he's paid the price for it!" Then she stormed off to join the other members of the order in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place.
Dumbledore sighed and followed her in a few moments later. As he strode through the room looking thoughtfully at all the members present, Dumbledore took his place the head of the table and began the meeting. "Everyone, as you may have learned by now, Harry has been found and he is currently at the infirmary of Hogwarts under the strict care of Madame Pomfrey."
Many of the members sighed with relief about Harry.
"However," Dumbledore continued, "there have been complications to his recovery that many of you are unaware of."
Professor McGonagall cleared her throat audibly and gave the Headmaster a look that clearly said, 'Don't you dare.'
However, Dumbledore continued on despite her last warning, "My friends I must be the bearer of the gravest news concerning our young Harry…"
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Sometime later as Harry was sitting in his room reading a book and finishing up some last minute summer work that he missed doing due to his abduction, he heard a pop in the infirmary. Dobby, who was cleaning up after Harry, rushed out in the ward to see who popped in.
Harry leaned over to get a better look out of the doorway and saw Dobby talking to another house elf and heard him say, "Is's you's sure you's is hearing right?"
The other house elf nodded and said, "Corky's is hearings things right. I's is hearing just as I's is saying to you's."
Dobby looked sad for a moment and nodded understandingly and Corky popped away. Slowly the house elf walked back into Harry's room and began to clean again.
"Dobby?" Harry asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Dobby is not wanting to say Harry Potter. Dobby is thinking you's is being upset and Dobby isn't wanting you's to being upset Harry Potter."
Harry became worried for a moment and asked fearfully, "Are the bad wizards coming back?"
Dobby's eyes grew large and said forcefully, "No's Harry Potter, those bad wizards is not touching Harry Potter ever again."
Harry was relieved and then asked, "Is it Voldemort?"
Dobby winced at the name and said, "No Harry Potter, it is not being He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
"Then what is it Dobby?" Harry asked again.
"Corky is just coming from a meeting with the old crowd, Harry Potter. They is having a meeting today and they is discussing you."
"Me? What about me?"
"I's is sure he has's a good reason Harry Potter, you's should not be getting you's all upset now."
"Dobby, are you talking about Professor Dumbledore?"
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Minutes later Harry bolted from his private room and headed straight to the bathroom and began to fill the tub from the different colored taps with hot water and soap. Dobby came after him screaming "Harry Potter, Harry Potter."
Harry practically ripped his clothes off of him and dived into the water where he began to scrub his skin hard with anything he could get his hands on.
"Harry Potter you's must stop, you's is hurting you's self," Dobby pleaded with him. It was true, Harry had begun to scrub himself so hard he had raw places on his arms and torso and a few of them began to bleed form the rough scouring he was giving himself. Every time Dobby would take a washcloth or brush away from Harry, he'd find another and begin again. Finally Dobby popped away to get help.
"Madame Pomfrey, you's is coming now, Harry Potter is needing you he is," Dobby began to plead with her as soon as he popped into her office.
Fearful, the school nurse asked, "What happened?" as Dobby pulled her out from behind her desk and towards the bathroom.
"Harry Potter is washing hisself to hard and he's is bleeding."
Then Poppy began to run to the bath and flung open the door, "Potter, what are you doing to yourself?"
Harry sat in the water and scrubbed still harder and said weakly, "He told them, he told them." Then Harry suddenly stopped what he was doing and looked at her coldly. Accusingly he said to her, "You promised you wouldn't tell him, you promised!"
"I haven't told anyone anything, what are you talking about?" Poppy demanded to know.
"Dumbledore told everyone what happened to me. You must have told him, who else knew?" Harry pleaded and began to scrub his raw skin again.
Quietly Poppy said, "Severus Snape." Again Harry stopped; he knew Snape must have seen it when he invaded his mind.
Harry looked down and was ashamed. "Sorry," he said quietly to the nurse.
"It's quite alright Potter. How did you find out?"
"Doesn't matter, he shouldn't have told. He betrayed me again and I will never speak to him again for it."
To Be Continued … Please Read and Review