Harry Potter - Gamer Neighbour
Summary: The new neighbour over the street at Privet Drive number five seems pretty normal, but not Privet Drive normal. But is anyone with the power of the gamer ever even remotely normal? No fucking way.
Disclaimer: I do own some shit, but not any recognizable characters, places or settings in this particular fanfiction.
Chapter 9:
There was a loud GONG noise in Manager Darksnarls office that broke him out of his perusal of some documents from last months transactions for the various accounts he was responsible for, causing him to look over at one of the walls in his office where several heraldic shields were placed.
The Potter shield was glowing, indicating that the Potter accounts were now active after a long period of inactivity.
Very long period of inactivity.
He frowned and glared at the shield, as if it had personally offended him in some manner.
"What?" he snarled. The Potter girl wouldn't be able to take over her accounts until she turned eighteen and that was still a little over two years off. What was going on?
He pushed the documents he had been reading aside for now and moved over to the shield, tapping it curiously with his left index finger while his right was digging around one of his nostrils with great gusto.
Nope, the shield was still glowing. It hadn't miraculously stopped.
He extracted a huge green-yellowish booger and poked his right index finger absently into his mouth, sucking the booger off with visible relish.
"Always making work for us, these silly stupid humans." he sighed and moved towards his desk, where he'd summon a couple of runners.
He had no idea what had caused the Potter accounts to turn active, but he would find out.
He also needed to refamiliarize himself with them. Since there hadn't been anything actively done with them since James Potter set up a trust account for his daughter about two months before she was born, there had been little reason for him to look over anything related to them for the last sixteen years.
Which was just how Darksnarl liked it!
"Work, work, work." he sighed as he touched a Messaging Stone to summon a couple of runners to carry messages to different departments.
Thankfully he likely wouldn't have to do much in person and it was unlikely that the Potter accounts activating would increase his workload overly much in the long run. No matter what the Potter girl had done in order to get herself declared an adult, it wasn't likely that some teenaged muggle-raised girl had any idea whatsoever what to do with her new accounts, so he could just go with the usual old stand-by. So the increase in his workload would be pretty temporary and light, just read up on the accounts, find out why the accounts had gotten active and then lean back to rest on his laurels.
It wasn't like the Potter girl was the second coming of the Work-Bringer or anything.
He shuddered, cursed and spat on the floor next to his desk.
"May eternal punishment and everlasting hellfire fall upon the accursed Work-Bringer..." he muttered and forced his mind away from that particular pain in his backside.
Nicks legs had given out and he'd collapsed onto his rear, now sitting on the floor as he panted heavily with beads of sweat trailing down from his forehead.
Once he'd achieved what he just faintly suspected might be possible and let out a cheerful exclamation of success, albeit one more mad-scientisty then he'd like to be witnessed doing, he'd just collapsed.
He hadn't quite taken note of just how exhausted he actually was until his legs would no longer support his body. He had felt mentally drained and physically tired, exhausted even, but apparently he couldn't even remain upright on his own any longer.
It had been quite the event-packed day, he supposed, allowing himself a few moments of rest and introspection despite strongly suspecting that it wasn't quite over just yet and that he had more work ahead of him.
Getting up early, making breakfast, massaging Violet. Long drive to Godric's Hollow while being horny from the aphrodisiac he'd absorbed during the massage and annoyed as fuck over the overly abundant speed cameras along the way. Walking around the place, some emotional moments and swearing a Magical Oath. Thankfully not an Unbreakable Oath, but even a weaker one was pretty draining. Discovering the graveyard and getting some mental shocks and weird surprises. Long drive back home through speed camera hell. Apparating back to the graveyard, some gravedigging, going back home with his ill-gotten gains. Examining the dead body. Fixing most of what was wrong with it. Multiple back-to-back Apparitions while flying, getting his hand on a piece of Voldemorts Soul attached to a Hallow. Summoning the spirit of his houseguests dead mother. Forcing the body to become active, stuffing it full of more healing potions and liquidized chain lightning. Preforming CPR on the dead body while its Soul kept yelling at him in shock and outrage. Forcing the spirit into its former home once the body actually had a heartbeat, then trapping the Soul inside its old body before the body died on him again due to the lack of Soul.
Yeah, eventful day.
But there was more to be done. The time for rest and introspection was over.
"Come on, exhibitionist midget. Stop staring at your mothers barely-there tits and help get me back onto my feet." he snapped after failing to get himself upright. He damn well nearly wanted to laugh hysterically, even when completely exhausted and drained, he just couldn't help himself. His mouth was just somehow naturally geared towards constantly sprouting affectionate little teasing digs at everyone in his surroundings.
"Mom?" Violet squeaked out, still uncaring or possibly not noticing that she was still naked and wet from her bath, the towel lying on the ground a few steps behind her. All her attention was directed at the disgruntled body on his worktable.
"Nudist shorty! Get over here and get me upright!" Nick snapped again. "I need to check the readings from my diagnostic spells and examine her. I just raised the fucking dead, we're in next-next-next-level-experimental territory here, I need to see if everything works or if more is needed to keep Wondergirl breathing!"
Violet blinked and glanced down at him for a moment, before her gaze shifted back to her mother. She did quickly approach him however and with her help, he did manage to get up, but he had to lean heavily on the still naked teenager to stay upright.
"What did you... How did you... Who are..." Lily breathed in a complete state of shock.
"Shut up. Just lie still and hold all questions for now, I'm not sure how well this worked and can't afford distractions when finding out." Nick ordered her, frantically looking over the readings still hovering over the recently un-deceased woman.
Her heartbeat was rapid, but considering the situation, that might not necessarily be a sign of something wrong, just how stressed and panicked she currently was. Pulse was good and decently strong, but much higher then normal for what was supposed to be a young woman. Her metabolism was shot to hell and energy levels going down, but considering how she had been dead and whatever she had in her stomach must be long decomposed and empty of energy, that was probably normal. All the Potions, the Crucio:ing and the liquid electricity he'd forced into her had drained her body of what little energy it had and then some. He got no hits on diseases, but there were several minor infections and one big fucking one that the Potions hadn't managed to deal with for some reason. His chest compressions hadn't broken any ribs, but there were multiple small strains and two minor cracks. Or he had broken ribs on her, but the Potion mixture had mostly taken care of that.
Violet squirmed underneath his left arm which was slung over her shoulders to hold him upright, her stunned expression and intent gaze locked unerringly down at the older red head on the table. Lily didn't squirm, but her gaze was also unerringly locked onto the younger red head under his arm.
"Violet..." she murmured. "My sweet Violet, so grown..."
"Mom..." Violet breathed.
"Stop it. Save it for later. No distractions." Nick insisted, finishing going over the readings as the two women fell silent.
Okay.
She was alive, stressed out as fuck, but alive. She needed energy and pretty fast at that. The infections had to be dealt with stat, he didn't imagine she had much of an immune system at the moment, so those were seriously concerning.
"Vi, get me over to my Potions." he instructed and tilted his head in the direction of his Potion stores, then started pulling her along with him.
She staggered a bit at she likely hadn't expected to have to move and the two nearly collapsed, but once he managed to drag her into motion, the athletic teen quickly recovered and managed to lead him onwards, though she wasn't looking at where she was going, her head turning around over her shoulder to look at her mother. He ignored that, as long as he got some assistance, she could stare at her mom all she wanted.
Nick quickly downed a Pepper-up and trembled, smoke pouring out of his ears as his legs slowly stopped shaking and he felt his energy levels rising. He pulled his arm off Violets shoulders and pushed her towards the table with her mother.
"No talking, but you can stand next to her if you want." he instructed, considering the situation.
Pepper-up was generally used to treat the common cold and it was pretty effective for frostbite and the like, but it also energized and rejuvenated for a short amount of time. For someone like him, without the common cold or anything else truly wrong, the effects were quite noticeable.
He downed a second one, then a third.
He'd crash in a fairly spectacular manner later, but that should give him at least something to work with for a while. His heart was hammering away at a speed he didn't recall it ever doing before and his entire chest started aching as his body struggled to do something with the excess energy. But he'd need that energy before long. Or well, Lily was the one who'd need it if as he suspected more Potions were required.
Heck, he probably needed even more energy than this, come to think of it. Magic Infusions was a real power dump with a conversion rate and energy loss that sucked big fat hairy balls.
He picked up three more Pepper-ups and snatched up the white lab coat he'd removed earlier, then quickly moved back next to Lily and Violet. He put the Potions down, then draped the white coat over Violet and buttoned the top two buttons, somewhat covering her up. She was in still no way fully covered, but at least she wasn't staggering around in a fully nude daze any longer. He barely cared about it at the moment, but it was probably wise to avoid all distractions. He hadn't been kidding about this being some seriously uncharted territory and his mind felt fuzzy as fuck. The Pepper-Ups gave him some energy to work with, but that mostly helped his body, not his mind. Some energy would be shunted to his brain now when his body had some to spare, but not nearly enough to get his mind working at full capacity. He turned back towards Lily, pulling the sheet up a little bit. It had slid down towards her stomach at some point, revealing what little breasts she currently had. Probably during his chest compressions earlier.
"Right, very short bit of explanation. It's been almost fifteen years since you were killed. This is your daughter Violet. I brought you back to life, but there are issues with your body that I need to deal with. I need you to keep on shutting up, lying still and just let me work without distractions. There will be time for talking and questions later, but I will not let you die again on my watch after I just brought you back."
"I can't even move. Arms and legs won't move." Lily interjected despite his instructions to shut up and Nick grew a concerned frown. Nothing on the diagnostics had revealed any issues like that.
"Right, I'll look into that later, but for now, zip it." he said and directed his attention at Violet for a few moments, putting a hand on her head, twisting her head around to face him, forcing her attention on him instead of on her mother. "Same goes for you. I won't toss you out of here, but no talking, no questions, no distractions. Okay?" he asked and she slowly nodded her head. "All right then."
Nick removed his hand from Violets head, then directed his full attention at Lily. His wand snapped into his hand.
"Right, you have multiple infections, which is a bit odd. The Potions I used to restore your body should have gotten rid of those, so it's likely that whatever is causing them is still inside of you." he said, finding it a bit easier to think now after overdosing on Pepper-up. He cast a more detailed medical full-body scan and activated his Mage Sight to boot. "Fuck. Worms and rotted stomach contents, should have figured." he muttered accompanied by two gasps. "Shorty, get me a glass jar from over there, then a Blood Replenishing Potion, a Lesser Cure Potion and a Numbing Potion from my stores over there. Red cap, light blue cap and yellow cap with orange dot."
Violet hesitated for a few moments, then moved off as instructed.
"Okay, this will hurt for a bit." Nick warned Lily, then got to work. He cast a general numbing charm, which would help a bit, but certainly didn't work anywhere near as well as the Numbing Potion. But he didn't want to waste even a few seconds to wait for Violet to bring it, so he got started right away.
He cut open a small part of Lily's arm, accompanied by a pained groan from her. He deftly cast multiple weak cutting curses, digging deeper and deeper into her arm as she whimpered in pain. Violet returned with a severely concerned expression and Nick snatched the glass jar from her hands and held it at the ready with his left hand, his wand in his right.
"Get her to drink the Numbing one, yellow cap with orange dot." he instructed while carefully cutting away until he exposed the worm. With a small twist of his wand, he yanked it out of her arm and into the glass jar, then slowly forced her wound close.
It wasn't a healing spell that cured, per say. It didn't fix what he'd done or the damage the worm had done, it just closed the wound and kept it from bleeding. But it was MUCH faster to use then 'real' healing spells. He'd have to fix the damage with another Potion once he was done. He ignored the hasty fix and immediately started cutting into another spot on her arm, while Violet held the vial with Numbing Potion up to Lily's lips, who desperately drank from it until it was empty. Lily kept on whimpering for a bit, but once he reached the second worm, she just let out a relieved sigh as the Potion had taken effect.
He dragged the sheet off her body, letting it pool down by her feet as he kept on working, cutting her open, removing worms and haphazardly closing the wounds he'd made. She had them in her arms, neck, legs, stomach and one he had to tilt her over on her side to remove from her left buttock. Several more were removed from her back while it was exposed. They were all dead, probably due to being electrified earlier, but they needed out right fucking then and there.
"Okay, be ready with the Blood Replenishing one when I give the word. Red cap on the vial." he said tersely as he moved Lily back onto her back, then made a much larger cut across her stomach.
Even the Numbing Potion couldn't completely dull that pain, so Lily clenched her teeth together and let out a shrill keening whine, while Violet paled and swallowed multiple times, averting her eyes as Nick cut open her mother s stomach.
"Blood Replenishment now." he quietly instructed as he cut directly into Lily's stomach, then completely emptied it into the glass jar, which was nearly full at this point. It took longer to patch her stomach and the wound on her tummy back together, but the new diagnostic charm that was still going and his Mage Sight revealed significant improvements on the infection front.
"Last Potion now." Nick sighed and took the jar filled with disgusting crap over to a ventilated glass cabinet. He'd dispose of it later.
He moved over to his Potions storage and picked up another Greater Healing potion from one of the top shelves and a Purging potion from one of the normal ones. The top shelf was under a notice-me-not, so he couldn't have asked Violet to bring one earlier. The Purging one she could have gotten, but he simply hadn't thought of it at the time. He came back to Lily just in time to see the smoke rising from various parts of her body as the Potion got rid of the last dregs of infection, now when the sources had been removed. His Mage Sight and diagnostic charm revealed that it had been mostly successful. There were some traces left, but the Purging Potion should be able to deal with the rest now when the major sources were removed.
"Okay, time to fix the injuries I caused, then you'll need an energy infusion. Your body is pretty much running on fumes at this point and all the Potions aren't helping, consuming what little magic there is." Nick said and uncorked the Greater Heal Potion, then made Lily drink it.
Heck, if the protections around number four wasn't constantly pumping more magic into her body then they took back, she likely wouldn't have enough for the Potions to work in the first place and she'd need the infusion before the Potion. But her reserves were incredibly low and her unfed body wasn't capable of generating any at the moment. Not only did she need magic, but she also needed food so her body had something to work with. The amount of stress it had been put under today was pretty massive.
He went for the three Pepper-up Potions he'd brought over earlier and started downing them one after the other. His hair started standing on end and he felt his fingers starting to tremble. His already dangerously overclocked heart shifted gears and sped up even further. Fuck, six Pepper-up Potions in his system, all at once. He was lethally overdosed now. The impending crash would be a truly spectacular one. It felt as if not just his heart, but his very magic wanted to tear itself out of his body. He was grateful that he was young and in decent health, or his heart likely would have given out by now. He'd have to check himself later on, it was possible that he might need some Potions himself to recover from the strain he was currently under.
"Okay, please don't bite me and remember to drink it all." Nick instructed and used a weak cutting curse around the tip of his wand to cut up a wound on his own tongue, then leaned forward and captured Lily's lips with his own. He forced her mouth open and shoved his tongue into it. He was soon deep in a trance as he forced his magic into his own blood. The blood of a Witch or Wizard held small amounts of trace magics in it at all times, but he was using the excess amounts of magic currently in his body to overcharge his own blood to an almost ludicrous degree. If someone was to take a sample of his blood at the moment and run some tests on it, it would probably read more like the blood from some highly magical beast rather then a Wizard.
Lily moaned in protest as he completely ravaged her lips and worked his tongue to the best of his ability, constantly keeping it moving and forcing it to bleed profusely into her mouth.
"Nick!" he heard Violet yelp in shock, but he ignored her, trying to keep all his focus on forcing his magic into his blood and blood into Lily's mouth.
The restored Witch kept moaning in protest as he plundered her lips and mouth, her body mostly paralysed and completely unable to fight him off.
He pulled back for a moment, then shoved his wand back into his own mouth again, making another wound on his tongue, increasing the amount of bleeding.
"What the hell?! What are you doing?" Violet demanded in an angry hiss.
"Forcing my magic into her, refilling her reserves." Nick managed to get out, though he sounded very odd with his injured tongue and a mouth starting to fill up with blood. "If I can't get enough magic into her, you're up next." he finished, then bent back down and reclaimed Lily's lips again. It likely wouldn't be necessary, but just in case it was, Violet and her insane magic reserves was a real ace up the sleeve. Lily didn't need to have her reserves fully restored, just up to a level where her weakened body wouldn't die or squib itself from magical exhaustion and he should be able to do that on his own.
Violet gasped and Lily moaned.
He kept on forcing his magic-infused blood into her mouth and he did sense that she was swallowing it, forcing it down. He lowered one of the monitoring displays down a bit, so he could see it from this angle. She was still low on magic, but not quite so dangerously low any longer. His own excess magic was all but gone now and he was starting to drain his own reserves, but he judged that he still had some left to give.
Sadly the conversion rates kinda sucked. A lot was completely wasted and just evaporated into the background magic in the area, some made its way back into his own body while circulating around his blood stream and what remained in his blood when he got it into Lily's mouth, she couldn't fully absorb into her own body before it evaporated.
He was getting a bit short on breath, so he pulled back for a moment and took several deep breaths, an action Lily mirrored.
"Keep swallowing." he panted out and made one final effort to concentrate his magic into his blood. "If it's not enough, I'll go into your head for a bit and use your magic to refill her reserves." he added while looking at Violet, who looked incredibly uncomfortable and swiftly flushed. "Try not to fight me if I need to Possess you." he finished and took one final deep breath, then lowered his head towards Lily again.
"Now wait jus-mghf!" Lily tried to protest, another Potter who was currently blushing something fierce, but then his lips were on hers and his tongue darted inside her again.
Two minutes later, he wasn't entirely sure that it was safe for him to give her any more of his magic and he was panting heavily while staring at her readings. He reached for the vial that had contained Greater Healing potion and emptied the dregs left in it into his mouth, pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth. He felt the wounds close and let out a tired sigh.
"Okay, magic is fine. Incredibly low, but you're not in danger of magical exhaustion any longer." he mused as his gaze flitted across the various readings on display over her body. "We need to get some food into you pretty soon so your body gets some energy and can start producing magic again though. But at least I don't have to Possess your daughter, cut up her tongue and use her to force more magic-infused blood into you." he continued, which caused both of them to squawk in outrage and flush, averting their eyes from each other. He could have made a cut in a finger or something and have her suck on that instead, but this was the first thing that had popped into his head when he realized that an infusion was needed. Other more conventional options had popped into his head later on, but he'd just went with it. "But your arms and legs... You're completely paralysed below the neck?" he asked intently while looking down at Lily.
"Yes." Lily admitted after a few moments. "I can feel them, I just can't get them to move."
He sighed and reactivated the full diagnosis, looking intently at her arms, legs and rest of her body, bending down and gently grasping her left arm, moving it back and forth under his intent gaze.
"You can feel that? Any pain?" he asked as he tried to figure out what the diagnostic charm was telling him.
"I can feel it and there's no extra pain from you moving my arm. I do hurt all over though." she replied.
Fuck. Once he had the time and energy, he'd run so many dungeons that he could max out every single skill he had. He was tired of working on guesses and estimations because there was some skill or other he hadn't mastered yet. He was likely good enough at Healing that he could work at St Mungos, but it was not one of the skills he had completely mastered.
Then again, he was working on a woman who had been dead and buried for almost fifteen years until today. Chances were that even the full staff at St Mungos working together wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of this any better than he could. Especially as he'd given her multiple Potions that were completely unknown to the Wizarding World to get her to this state.
"Okay, there's nothing truly wrong. Nerves are still hooked up and transmitting, muscles are there, ligaments are fine. You've lost a lot of weight and your muscles atrophied, but the Potions have mostly restored that. A balanced albeit heavier then usual diet and regular exercise should take care of the rest. I may also want to add a regiment of Nutrient Potions to accompany that diet for a bit. You should be able to move. Weakly, but you should be able to." he continued and scratched his jaw.
He was tempted to slap down on her forehead and yell at her to 'work damnit' again. He'd only done it before because he was tired as fuck and had used up too much magic getting to Little Hangleton in a rush, so his mind had been somewhat addled at the time.
But it had worked.
He sighed and shook his head, clearing his mind of the distracting desire to see if another slap would get her up and about.
"Best guess is that it's partly a mental and partly a physical issue. This body hasn't moved in fifteen years, muscles that had atrophied were just restored, but they are nowhere near as strong and used to moving as they once were. This is further complicated by the fact that your mind and Soul has been without a body for the same amount of time, it hasn't needed to control a body for a long time. Ghosts and spirits look as if they have immaterial bodies, but it's all mental projection. They don't actually have bones, muscles, tendons and the like, it's all mental. You probably just don't remember what to do in order to get your body moving again and when you do your best to try, the body is too weak to respond properly, making it even harder. Not sure why you can talk and drink, you should be having similar issues with that as with the rest of your body. Anyway, I've got some ideas that could help get you mobile, but it can wait until tomorrow. I probably only have an hour or so at most until the Potions I've overdosed on knocks me out and need to prioritize other things." he explained and sighed again, his forehead creasing as he tried to formulate some sort of priority order for what had to be done before he crashed.
"Okay, one last Potion for Wondergirl. Flush out whatever crap has accumulated in her body for the last fifteen years. Feed Big Red something light but filling. Mini Red needs a massage. Recast monitoring charms and add a powerful alert charm. Crash in bed." he muttered out loud as he thought and then nodded to himself.
Plan made, time to execute.
"Shorty, second or third shelf from the top in the freezer should have a plastic container of fish and asparagus coconut soup. Toss that in the microwave for three minutes or so, then pour it into a pot and put that on the low heat while you get dressed. Spread some butter on two pieces of bread, add a slice or two of mild cheese if I have any, can't rightly recall at the moment. If there's only aged or heavily spiced cheeses, go with just butter. Then bring a bowl of soup and the bread to the big bathroom along with a big bottle of water." he started and stretched a bit. "I'll carry non-sleeping beauty here to the bath and force a Purging potion into her to get rid of years worth of amassed crap inside her body, then wash her off."
"Hey!" Lily protested. "You'll do no such thing!" she insisted.
"Put a sock in it, Big Red. Oh wait, I forgot, you can't because you can't move!" Nick gasped in mock shock and pointed at her, while she glared daggers at him. "Listen to me very carefully now, Wondergirl. I've taken six Pepper-up potions, in less time than I'd like I will be dead to the world. Before I'm out, your body needs to be purged of shit that could be potentially fatal or bad for you. You will both puke, piss and shit yourself while your body flushes out years worth of crap. I am the physically stronger one, so I will manoeuvre your unmoving body around while your daughter gets you something to eat." he nearly growled and then reached out to pull Violet right up in front of Lily on the bench, then he pointed out the blue lines streaking across her face. "Your daughter had a mishap not too long ago and has Magical Burns as a bit of reminder from that, so I also have to treat her before I go unconscious or she will likely be in so much pain that she can't sleep tonight." he added and shuffled a bit side-ways from out behind Violet so he could properly get Lily to focus on him again instead of being distracted by her daughter.
Nick leaned forward and loomed ominously over Lily, taking a deep breath before he continued.
"That is what needs to happen before I'm knocked out. That is what WILL happen before I'm knocked out! You can bitch and moan all you want, but it will happen none the less, so you might just as well shut up instead of pointlessly protesting." he rumbled in a determined voice, then gestured over at Violet. "Now. I like your daughter. I care about her. I don't want her to suffer. I don't want her to lose her mother again. You? I've just met you. I might grow to know you, I might even like you at some point in the future. But at the moment, your opinions will all be rejected if I think they're useless, pointless or a hinderance to what needs to happen. You probably have a thousand questions and probably deserve answers to all of them, but they can wait for a less urgent time."
Lily just stared up at him, her mouth working, but no sounds coming out.
"Now then. Soup, bread and water. Mini Red, snap to it!" he told Violet, then bent down to pick Lily up after first putting the last Potion vial into one of his pockets. She would be limper than a cooked noodle without her bones, no control at all over her body, so legs and arms were just pulled down by gravity with nothing holding her up. He had to make some adjustments, but managed to get part of his upper arm underneath her neck so her head had at least some support as he took her towards the big bathroom.
Violet seemed like she wanted to tag along, but did make her way downstairs, hopefully to get the food he had requested.
The soup should be easy enough to get down and while light, should provide the nutrients that Lily so badly needed to get started on the road to recovery. The bread would add a little something too, but he'd requested that mostly to get some volume to fill out a completely empty stomach. If he actually had any Nutrient Potion in his stores, he'd have forced her to drink one of them as well. But that was sadly not one of the things he had a ready-made supply of.
He moved Lily over to the shower cabin and after a bit of hesitation, got the vial out and put it on one of the small shelfs inside the cabin. He tore his t-shirt off instead of removing it normally to shave precious seconds off the time it took and awkwardly managed to get his jeans off one-handedly, his right hand and arm needed to keep Lily upright against him.
After a bit of hesitation, he stripped out of his boxers too and threw them on top of his jeans, before closing the shower cabin.
"What..." Lily started to ask, but apparently decided to just give up. It wasn't like she could stop him.
"This will be messy, very messy." he replied with a bit of a wince. "Sorry for the shit bedside manner, but we're on the clock here." he added and reached for the vial, popping the cork and putting it to her lips.
She managed to get it all down and he felt for her, that Potion was utterly disgusting, without a doubt one of the worst he'd ever come across. But there was actually something even worse up ahead for her now when she'd managed to swallow it.
Once she'd drunk it all, it didn't take long at all for her expression to turn pale. He carefully turned her sideways against his body, holding her steady and reaching up with his right hand to steady her head. Her body started to twitch and she made several hulking sounds and then the mess he had anticipated happened.
Magic truly was both wonderful and horrible. If a Muggle had managed to make something similar, it would take hours or possibly days to collect an entire body's worth of accumulated waste products and some would likely just clog up veins, lungs, heart, kidneys, liver and the like, the body being unable to rid itself of them even if some sort of medicine managed to gather it all up in some central locations. This gathered everything to stomach, rectum and bladder in minutes no matter where it had originally been and then forced the body to expel it.
Three streams of chunky liquids with one of the most disgusting smells he'd ever came across fountained out of the woman he was holding upright. Everything was an eye-watering black-bluish colour with yellow-greenish streaks and disgusting grey-brownish chunks, splattering against the wall in front of her and the window of the shower cabin behind her.
He swallowed and did his very best to breathe through his mouth, instantly regretting not having cast a bubble-head charm around himself before stepping into the shower.
Lily stopped for a bit and just panted hysterically, but a minute or so later, her body started expelling waste again.
When she stopped again, he reached out for the controls and turned on the water, moving them to stand underneath the spray of water.
She coughed and cleared her throat, glancing aside at him with a frantic pleading gaze.
"Give it a minute or two. If you don't hurl again, it's probably over." he said and just held her upright for a few minutes. It seemed like her body had completed the purge, since nothing else happened, so he removed the showerhead and hosed down the cabin, flushing the evidence of the earlier mess down the drain and significantly improving the disgusting stench they were surrounded by.
Once the cabin itself was as clean as it was going to be until he could actually clean it instead of just rinsing it down, he started washing the both of them. Both Lily and himself had been splattered with muck and she had wide streaks of it running down her jaw, throat, torso and legs.
"I... It's over?" she asked weakly.
"It's over. Your body rid itself of the poison cocktail it has been brewing up for years." Nick assured her.
"Thank Merlin." she whispered. "Thank Merlin." she repeated.
It was pretty hard to get the both of them rinsed off, but by alternately leaning her against either himself or the wall, he did manage to do so mostly with one hand and the hose, but he finally felt like he'd made a decent enough job of it and turned the shower off. He picked her up and carried her over to the massive hot tub, putting her down and turning the faucet on.
"What now?" she moaned.
"A bit more thorough cleaning and a hot soak while we get some food into you. A hot bath should also help a bit with the pain you spoke of." Nick replied and Lily winced, but made no protests.
He got into the tub as well and propped her up against one side of it, moving two firm pillows over from a small pile of them to get her head into less of an awkward angle, then grabbed a bottle of body soap. The water was just barely covering the bottom of the tub at the moment, but he made do with it and started scrubbing her down from her feet up. Cleaning someone with magic like he had earlier was okay in a pinch, but had some downsides. It removed visible dirt, foul odours and the like very well, but did nothing for bacteria and the like. If she didn't get a proper wash, it wouldn't take long for her to really stink the place up again and there was a serious danger of her getting sick on top of that. He had no idea what sort of bacterial cocktail someone buried for so long might have, but he was in no way eager to find out either.
He once again took careful note of the fact that while the Potions had done a marvellous job of restoring her, there were definitive limits to what they could do. Her body fat percentage was unnaturally low and she'd lost a lot of mass since she was last alive, giving her a very scarecrowish look. Her limbs were thin, her stomach curved inwards, her skin visibly stretched over her ribs, her face was haggard and her breasts were just barely there, very small a-cups at most. She looked as if she was going to protest when he started cleaning her pelvic area, but seemed to change her mind and remained mute as he gave her a thorough wash downstairs.
Violet entered the bathroom carrying a tray with a steaming bowl of soup, a spoon, a pile of buttered bread, a pitcher of water and an empty glass. She had completely buttoned up the lab coat she was still wearing at some point since he last saw her, but did not appear to have otherwise clothed herself any. He winced in sympathy as he saw her stiff movements.
"Burns acting up? Sorry, should have realized that you were growing stiff at this point, the morning massage was a bit earlier then usual because of the drive to Godric's Hollow." Nick apologized as he washed Lily's stomach.
"They're alright." she insisted with a fierce blush at seeing both Nick and her reanimated mother naked in the tub.
"Pull the other one, Mini Red." Nick snorted, not buying her statement. "Start feeding her the soup while I finish up here. Then I'll have to turn her around to wash her back and her hair."
"Merlin. I didn't realize how hungry I was." Lily spoke in a reverent tone of voice as the smell of the soup caused her stomach to sit up and take notice of the fact that food was nearby, then insistently demand sustenance right this fucking minute. Her stomach felt like if it was trying to claw its way out of her body.
"I... It's so great to see you, mom." Violet quietly stated, her eyes welling up and her voice cracking.
"It's incredible. You're so big. It's amazing to see." Lily breathed. "I... I think I watched over you, but it's so hard to remember anything after... After... After he came." she struggled to get out with a choked tone of voice, struggling with her words. "I love you. I love you, Violet! I know that I wanted to say that so many times, I wanted you to know that so very much!"
Violet started to cry, hugging herself as she stood awkwardly next to the tub, Lily did the same, crying away as he washed her.
Nick wished this could have waited, Lily did need to eat, but he let them have their little reunion. He was a major-league asshole, but not that kind of asshole. Lily had enough magic in her system now that she could wait for a bit longer for her body to start producing more, but it was pretty urgent to get her body the energy it needed to restart all vital functions and keep them running.
He managed to finish washing her all the way up to her face, then used a hose to rinse her off, then lifted her up and held her against his chest, resting her head on his left shoulder. Then started washing her back, rear and neck while kneeling in the tub. He got the hose out again and turned it on, then rinsed her off and drenched her hair with water again.
He awkwardly managed to manoeuvre himself into a seated position, leaning against the side of the tub.
"See if you can get her to eat." he gently hinted at the still softly crying Violet, then started to wash Lily's hair.
This time Violet started gently scooping soup out of the bowl, then carefully fed her mother who greedily sucked down every spoon of soup that approached her mouth.
The bowl of soup vanished quicker than he'd thought it would, then Violet started alternating buttered bread and water from the glass without needing further instructions, so Nick just kept washing her mothers hair and finally rinsed it with the hose.
After a bit, he just sat there holding her against him while Violet fed and watered her behind his back.
He took a deep breath and leaned his head back against the side of the tub.
A few moments later, he felt a pillow bump against his head and he obediently raised it so Violet could put the pillow between the side of the tub and his head.
"I think I can afford like five minutes of rest now, then I should probably get Big Red to bed and your massage done so I can keel over in my bed with a clean conscience." Nick said and closed his eyes. "Wake me up if I fall asleep in those five minutes." he said.
After a brief discussion after Nick's micro-rest in the hot tub, Lily had been dried off, outfitted with a pair of Violet's panties, t-shirt and placed onto the bed in Violets room on her request. The bed was easily king-sized, if not larger, so there were plenty of space for the petite daughter and gaunt mother. Violet had been torn, but quickly decided that she wanted her mother where she could keep an eye on her more then she felt uncomfortable about sharing a bed with her.
Mother she might be, but Violet didn't know her, had no real memories of her. Encounters with Dementors had dragged some out, but it wasn't exactly pleasant ones. There had been some sporadic stories she'd gotten to hear about her mother, but barely anything of real substance. The two of them were basically strangers, despite biologically being mother and daughter.
But in spite of not knowing her, not having been around her while growing up except for her first year which she didn't remember, Violet did feel an undeniable connection to her and was loathe to let her out of her sight.
Her heart had nearly stopped when she had rushed upstairs into the room she'd never been in before after her bath had been interrupted by a female shout. She hadn't been able to make out words, but that tone of voice, something about it had spoke to Violet in a way that had been undeniable. She had been out of the bath and just barely remembered to grab a towel as she unlocked the door and bolted upstairs, wrapping the towel around herself as she went. Then she'd entered and just froze in mid-step at the impossible sight in front of her.
Nick was doing CPR on her mother while her mother was yelling at him.
She had seen pictures of her mother, stared at them for hours in the photo album Hagrid had given her. She knew that the hazy ghostly spectre screaming at Nick was her mother. The body on the table was more haggard, thinner and gaunt, but it was without a doubt her mother as well. Her mothers spirit and her mothers body. Nick was doing CPR on one while alternately snapping at and ignoring the other.
That had been pretty fucking surreal.
No wonder her heart had nearly stopped right then and there in the doorway.
Her mother was now lying on her side in Violets bed, observing silently as her daughter stepped out of the white lab coat which was all she had on at the moment, then laid herself down on the massage table Nick had conjured in the middle of her room. The man in question was leaning on one corner of it now, panting and swaying slightly on his feet with his head hanging down, his eyes shut.
Violet had no idea what the hell he had done in order to manage the seemingly impossible, but it was clear that it had taken a severe toll on him. He had stumbled and staggered on the way from the bathroom to Violets room, but seemingly by sheer force of will managed to remain upright and not drop her mother. She had been gently placed in the bed, turned over on her side and then he'd cast a charm that would warn if her health worsened and an alarm charm connected to the first one that would wake up Violet if the first one activated.
"Wake me somehow if the alert goes off. I'll probably be pretty out of it, so do whatever you have to do. You shouldn't be using magic with your burns, but slap me, dump ice cold water on me, kick me in the nuts. Whatever it takes to wake me up." Nick had insisted with a fierce, but bleary-eyed gaze directed in her direction.
He had wanted to have the alert connected directly to himself, but had figured that it probably wouldn't be enough to wake him up, so had instead put it on Violet.
She put her head down on the pillow she had placed over the hole in the table, then turned her head sideways so she could look over at her mother during the massage and awkwardly dragged the towel over her bum. Her arm just wouldn't bend right, so she ignored the second towel and just let her torso be completely bare.
"I'm ready." she announced and it took a few seconds, but then Nick opened his eyes, sucked in a shaky deep breath and straightened up.
"Right." he mumbled and reached for the vial he'd summoned after conjuring the table. It was in the corner of her field of vision and she saw his hands trembling as he fumbled with it for a few moments, then it vanished out of her field of vision.
"I'm alright, you know. It's not as bad as yesterday, so it can wait until tomorrow." Violet tried to argue her case. It wasn't as if she wasn't hurting like hell and stiff as fuck, but it felt like it would be more important for Nick to spend whatever energy he still had left on her mother instead of Violet herself.
"Shut your lying mouth, Mini Red. I feel like I've been on the bender to end all benders for three days straight with no sleep, but I'm not fucking blind." Nick slurred.
"Really, it's not that ba-AAAAAIE!" Violet started only to trail off with a painful squeal as Nick poked a finger directly at one of the blue lines on her back with as much force as he could without breaking his own finger.
"Suuure it's not." he drawled and shook his head. "Sorry. My mind isn't where it should be. That was a bit out of line." he apologised. "But stop trying to lie to me."
Violet was silent as he started Potioning up her hands, arms, neck and shoulders, then started the actual massage.
There was very little of the absolute bliss she usually associated with these massages. The pain from the burns did fade and there were times when it did feel pretty good, but he couldn't quite control his hands and it seemed his judgement was somewhat shot, so sometimes he used a bit too much force, sometimes not enough.
"Not quite as dark as this morning." Nick slurred and bent over a bit, looking more closely at the arm he was working on. "Getting better. Perhaps just one massage tomorrow. We'll see." he added.
"I told you it wasn't that bad!" Violet insisted.
"It looks pretty bad." Lily commented from the bed with a pained wince.
"See? Mum knows best." Nick agreed from above and Violet huffed, the two were ganging up on her.
"Okay, fine." Violet muttered, her gaze still locked onto her mother. "Are you okay, mom?" she whispered, her voice just barely audible.
She just couldn't get over the fact that her mother was right fucking there, alive!
"I feel... Odd. It hurts, but it's almost as if it's happening to someone else. I feel a bit disconnected from it. For some reason, I think it feels as if it should hurt more then it does. Can't quite explain it." Lily responded after a few moments.
"Numbing Potion from earlier and mind not used to be in a body, forgot how to interpret signals." Nick muttered, his voice sounding a bit more focused for a few seconds, but significantly less verbose then usual.
Lily looked thoughtful for a few moments.
"Could be." she finally agreed. "It certainly feels weird. I get the feeling that I would be in a world of pain if I got the full sensations."
"Probably the Crucio's." Nick mused absently. "Possibly being electrocuted. Could be the chest compressions. Or a combination. If you hadn't already been dead, all that in such a short amount of time certainly would have taken quite the toll even on a healthy body." he continued.
"You're going to have sooooooooo much to explain tomorrow." Violet said and sighed. "You cast Crucio on my mother?" she pointedly asked, her fists clenching.
"On her corpse. Needed to get the Potions not only into but around her entire body, Crucio did that." Nick rambled on as his hands moved on to her back.
"Yeeeeah... Really looking forward to all the explanations tomorrow." Violet said and rolled her eyes. "Get used to it, mom. Crazy shit happens when Nick is involved."
"So it seems." Lily agreed. "Where are we?"
"Number five, Privet Drive. Across the street from Petunia and Vernon's house." Violet answered and Lily frowned.
"Why are we here? Where is Alice? Or Sirius?" Lily asked.
"Ahhhh, yeah... Lots of explanations tomorrow, it seems." Violet said with a wince. "Sirius got himself thrown into Azkaban when he tried to catch Pettigrew. He escaped last year and is on the run now. Alice? Who the fuck is Alice?" Violet asked.
"Alice Longbottom, your Godmother." Lily replied in a worried tone of voice, an arched eyebrow twitching at her daughters choice of language.
"Ah... Neville's mother. She, ah, she's in St Mungos, long-term ward." Violet replied after a few moments. "Voldemort came for me, Death Eaters went for Neville. Both Alice and his father, Frank I think, are in St Mungos."
"Oh..." Lily managed to get out in a horrified tone of voice. "Who... Who took care of you? Who raised you? Minerva? Albus? Rubeus?" she asked and seemed confused. "I... I remember wanting to tell you so many times that I loved you when I was... Gone. But everything else is... Hazy. Some things are clearer. I remember you and a ruddy big snake in a big dark room? Falling from a broom and some long-haired blonde twat doing something to your arm which made me really angry... But... Who raised you?" she asked, looking questioningly at Nick who was now working on Violet's back. "Him?"
"Ah, Petunia and Vernon." Violet admitted reluctantly. "Not that I'd call that bullshit 'raising', but that's were I grew up, across the street from here."
"Tunia and Vernon? Why? She made it pretty clear that she wanted nothing to do with me and the other 'freaks' the last couple of times we spoke!" Lily demanded to know. "When did she change her mind?"
"I don't think she ever did. Dumbledore just forced me on them right after... Right after Voldemort showed up that Halloween." Violet said and winced. "It was... Bad. Really bad. They didn't want me and I didn't want to be there."
"My baby..." Lily croaked and looked up at Nick. "So... He adopted you? Seems a bit too young for that."
"Ah... No." Violet replied and tried to formulate an explanation that wouldn't sound completely insane, but couldn't really come up with one, so she just blurted it out. "Those fuckers went on a vacation a few days ago and left me alone. I think Dudley stole the key, so I was locked out of the house. Nick saw me moping at the front door and dragged me over here, putting me up in this guest room."
"Your room now." Nick insisted from above her. "It's your room, not a guest room."
Lily looked absolutely shattered, her expression shifting between sympathy, anger, disappointment, relief, fury and disgust.
"Hey, it's okay." Violet promised. "Leaving me behind like that was probably the best thing they ever did for me." she continued and twisted her head around to look up at Nick, directing a brief look of fond exasperation at him, before she returned her attention to her mother. "The last couple of days have probably been the best in my life." she admitted.
She suddenly blushed.
Not because of what she was saying, but because she could feel herself growing horny.
Unlike this morning, she hadn't went into the massage horny, having been too distracted by the absolutely mind-boggling events of the day. But she now felt the familiar heat and her lower bits growing moist.
Oh god, her mother was right there in front of her!
If she thought she had been embarrassed during the massages before, that was nothing compared to this one.
Fuck, shit and damn it all! Distraction! Distraction! She needed a distraction!
"Another guest room across the hall, it's yours." Nick stated from above with a glance at Lily and Violet nearly wept with joy as his statement gave her something else to focus on.
She fucking loved that man!
"Thank you?" Lily responded somewhat hesitantly with a glance at Nick, then returned her focus to Violet. "Why did Dumbledore put you with Tunia? Even with Sirius and Alice being out of the picture, that's just..."
"Insane? Yeah." Violet snorted. "That bearded old fucker must have gone completely around the bend ages ago. It's not like he ever tells anyone what he's thinking or planning either, so I've got no idea why he forced me on the Dursleys."
"Violet!" Lily protested. "Sure, Dumbledore is a bit... Uhm..."
"Completely and utterly batshit insane." Violet insisted.
"Violet!" Lily protested again. "He's a tad eccentric to be sure, but I wouldn't call him insane!"
Violets eyes hardened and Lily fell silent as that angry look was directed at her.
"Ow!" Violet exclaimed as a hand half-heartedly slapped down on her towel-clad bum.
"Don't say anything in anger you might regret later. Same as when you want something, use logic and reasoning. You can explain what Dumbledore has done, why you think he's insane and then try to refute whatever arguments Lily makes for why he's not insane instead of just angrily bickering about it." Nick warned her as she looked up at him with an outraged expression which slowly smoothed over. He suddenly sighed and his gaze which had been sharp as he admonished her turned more glazed over and tired. "Tomorrow will be a long day of explanations." he sighed and shook his head.
She kept staring at him for a few moments longer, then slowly nodded and put her head back on the pillow, looking over at her mother.
"We'll just have to agree to disagree on Dumbledore for now. I'm too drained to argue anyway." Violet sighed and Lily's lips quirked up into a faint smile.
"I'm so proud of you, love. You've grown up into such a lovely young lady." she said.
"Lovely young lady? No bloody sodding way, what the hell are you smoking?! I just don't want this ruddy bastard to spank me again." Violet snorted and pointed with her thumb over her shoulder.
"Violet! Language!" Lily protested.
"Oh Merlin, I've got another Hermione in my life, bitching about my language!" Violet realized with a loud outburst.
Nick snorted in wry amusement, but refrained from commenting. His vision was growing increasingly hazy and he sometimes had to repeatedly blink to somewhat clear it up. He'd just barely managed to get off a notice-me-not at his own groin, just in case his body decided it had enough energy to give him a fucking hard-on in spite of how utterly drained he felt. It would be bad enough if Violet spotted him with a boner while he worked her over, but her mother? Yeah, he was grateful that he'd remembered to cast it. It felt like that last admonishment he'd laid on Violet when it looked like she was about to get into some sort of childish argument about Dumbledore with Lily had emptied out the very last of his reserves, so if he hadn't done it before he started the massage, he likely wouldn't have remembered.
He could feel his legs trembling, straining to keep him upright. He sometimes had to lean over further down to see if a Magic Burn had turned from blue to the white he was looking for or not. His mind was drifting all over the place and he probably wouldn't even be able to focus enough to talk if he hadn't mastered the Mind Arts. He sort of wished that he had taken a seventh Pepper-Up, but it was probably just as well that he hadn't. His heart was still pounding away at an unnaturally fast pace, overly agitated by his earlier overdosing.
An older man likely would have died from that much Pepper-Up, but he'd hung on for long enough to get rid of a lot of the excess energy his body had housed. But his heart was still hammering away in a near-panicked state. His blood pressure must be through the roof as well. He just hoped that it'd ease up before this overly agitated state gave him permanent issues, complete heart failure or something along those lines. He'd have to self-diagnose himself tomorrow and see if he needed a few Potions of his own to recover or not.
He clenched his teeth and remained silent as Violet and Lily talked to each other, trying to bring as much focus as he could to the massage, wanting to get it done before his imminent collapse. He hoped that he had enough juice left in the tank to actually finish it, it certainly felt as if he was on his last legs at the moment.
Dear Lord, he wanted to just fucking sleep at the moment.
Lily should be out of danger now, but it wasn't as if he could be completely sure. As far as he knew, this was completely uncharted territory. But while the most direly urgent business was done, he did want to get the massage done as well. Violet would probably have a hard enough time falling asleep after today without a mess of painful Magical Burns acting up all throughout the night. He tried to get his hazy vision to focus and his mind to keep from drifting for just a bit longer, but eventually everything just got muddled and he sank into a complete daze as his body kept working on pure autopilot.
AN: Thought this chapter would contain all sorts of revelations and heart-felt conversations, did you? Nah, spending most of 2020 'enjoying' social distancing left me alone with my thoughts often enough that I've turned into even more of an evil bastard then I was before. :) You'll have to wait another week for a bit of that.
I ll see if I can dig up some nice non-spoilery teaser for my profile page to compensate, been a bit too generous with spoilers for the various teasers I put up there from time to time.