Chapter 7

Tuesday, 10 September 1996

Hogwarts, Scotland

It was after dinner. Harry was alone in Madam Pomfrey's office in the back of the Hospital Wing. He was sitting in a chair on the visitor's side of Madam Pomfrey's desk, waiting for the matron to return. Behind him, he heard the door click, and he turned to watch Madam Pomfrey leading in an older woman wearing a soft red cardigan and a grey skirt under open black robes. Harry stood instinctively.

"Harry, I'd like you to meet Healer Margaret Droop," Madam Pomfrey introduced him. "Margaret, this is Harry Potter." Harry held out his hand. The woman looked about Professor McGonagall's age.

"'Lo," Harry said.

"Hello, Harry," Healer Droop replied. "It's nice to make your acquaintance."

"I'll just leave you too it, then," Madam Pomfrey informed them, and closed the door behind her on her way out.

"Please, sit," Healer Droop said, pulling the chair next to Harry's away a bit, and faced it towards him. Harry turned his own chair to face hers and sat when she did. "I understand you've been having nightmares."

"Yeah," Harry acknowledged. "They're… quite intense."

"When did these nightmares start?" she asked, pulling out a small notepad. Harry was surprised that it looked muggle.

"Erm… right after the end of last term," Harry said. "After the Hogwarts Express got attacked."

"You saved a lot of people," Healer Droop pointed out with a soft smile. "I hear there's talk of awarding you the Order of Merlin." She pushed a lock of her long salt-and-pepper hair out of her face.

"Amelia Bones told me that, too," Harry shrugged. "I haven't heard anything about it in months."

"The government does tend to be a bit slow in these regards," Healer Droop replied with a smile. "Can you tell me about the nightmares?" Harry thought she had a soothing voice.

"I start on the train, in my compartment," Harry described. "Katie's always there, but sometimes different people are sat with us."

"Who's most commonly with you?" she asked.

"My best friends, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Neville Longbottom," Harry told her. "But there are others as well. Neville's girlfriend Hannah Abbott is there a lot, so is her friend Susan Bones, and Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley."

"So, several of you are in the compartment," Healer Droop reiterated. Harry nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Then the train stops, and I see Death Eaters and Dementors outside. I try to tell everyone to leave, but they won't listen to me. Sometimes I try calling for my house elves, but they either don't respond, or don't believe me. It varies. So, I go out into the corridor, and the Death Eaters are there. I try using my wand, but it doesn't work like it usually does. It's weaker, or I can't make it work at all.

"If I do make it work, it puts a hole in the lead Death Eater, who's always revealed to be Lucius Malfoy," Harry continued. "But he just keeps coming, with a great gaping hole in his chest. Then he pulls off his mask, and laughs at me. Then one of my friends comes out of the compartment wondering what I'm doing and steps in front of a blasting curse or a killing curse or something like that. That's when I wake up."

"What really happened on the train?" Healer Droop wanted to know.

"Pretty much what the Prophet reported," Harry replied. "The train stopped. I saw the Death Eaters outside. I called my house elves. They simultaneously evacuated the train and informed the Ministry. I waited behind for the Aurors to arrive, because they were coming through my trunk…"

This was where things got a bit dicey. The trunks weren't exactly common knowledge. He didn't hide their existence, but he didn't exactly advertise either.

"Your trunk?" Healer Droop asked, trying to elicit more information.

"I have a manor trunk, with several access trunks associated with it," Harry explained briefly. One access trunk was taken to the Ministry, and the Aurors entered there, then exited onto the train from my trunk. It allowed them to bypass the anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards the Death Eaters had erected around the train."

"I see," Healer Droop nodded. "Continue."

"So, because the Aurors were coming from my trunk, I had to make sure it was safe for them when they did start coming out," Harry explained. "Do them no good to pop the lid and get tagged by a Death Eater right off. So, I looked into the corridor and saw three Death Eaters looking in compartments. I caught 'em by surprise and hit the first with a siege engine spell, the next with a blasting curse, and the last with some cutting curses. But he'd started fighting back, so it took a bit more work. I was checking to see whether any other Death Eaters were nearby when the Aurors showed up. That's when I went to King's Cross with the rest of the students."

"How long did it take you to come up with that plan?" she asked after a moment's consideration.

"Dunno," Harry shrugged. "Thirty seconds? Maybe a minute? The second I saw the Death Eaters, I knew we needed to leave. None of the students were ready for a pitched battle with that many dark wizards. We'd been talking about the trunks a bit, which was how I was sort of already thinking about it. I made the leap from trunks to elves in the trunks to elves popping people away quite quickly, as I often ask my elves to pop trunks around or collect things for me. I was lucky it worked. I kinda made it up on the fly."

"It sounds like you're a quick thinker," Healer Droop commented. She made a quick note in her notebook and set it down.

"Do you know what a psychologist is?" she asked.

"Isn't that one of those therapists that you go to and lay on a couch and talk to?" Harry asked, fairly sure he knew the answer.

"Clinical psychology, or psychotherapy, is one of the things we do, yes," Healer Droop replied. "When I graduated from Hogwarts – quite some time ago – I went through my healer training at St. Mungo's. When that was done, I went to Oxford and obtained a PhD in psychology. I've been practising at St. Mungo's since then, though most magicals don't make use of my services, and much of the time I'm used elsewhere."

"What else do you do?" Harry wondered, astounded that a witch would go to a muggle university.

"I work in the long-term spell damage ward when I'm not engaged in psychological work," she informed him. "It's similar to what I'm trained in, and I get to feel useful. In any case, Madam Pomfrey was made aware of your situation, and asked if I'd come and diagnose you. Because you said these nightmares started after the train attack, it would seem you're suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It's fairly common amongst people who suffer near death experiences, are badly injured, or see horrible things done to others. Soldiers, Aurors, and healers frequently experience what we call PTSD."

"My grandfather said I had battle fatigue," Harry told her, remembering the conversation he had near the beginning of summer with Flea's portrait.

"That's an antiquated name for PTSD," Healer Droop smiled. "It sounds like your grandfather's a smart man. Do you live with him?"

"Sort of," Harry replied. "He's a painting. I've paintings of loads of relatives, though not my parents. They're hung in my parlour. I'm emancipated now."

"Where did you live before that?" she asked, confused.

"With my mum's sister and her husband," Harry replied. "They were muggles, and they really didn't care for magic."

"Where are they now?" Healer Droop asked, concerned.

"They're dead now," Harry said nearly off-handedly. "Voldemort killed them near the end of the summer. My cousin's alright, though. He was out with mates. But I was emancipated a long time before that."

"Why would you want to be emancipated?" she wondered.

Harry ended up telling her his entire history. For two hours he explained his life from the time he could remember it through that summer. He talked about living with the Dursleys, his time at Hogwarts, and the fight against Voldemort. When he seemed lost, she'd ask probing questions. She was constantly writing in her book, hurrying to keep up with what he was saying. Finally, he petered out around nine o'clock.

"I think that's pretty much it," Harry said.

"That's quite a lot for anyone to go through," Healer Droop said after taking a moment to process the last few hours.

"Yeah," Harry chuckled. "I suppose it is."

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to do this again," she proposed.

"D'you think it'd help?" he wondered.

"Very much," she replied. "Talking through trauma and feelings can lead repressed thoughts and feelings to come to the surface, where they can be dealt with rationally and comfortably, or at least as comfortably as possible. It should make you feel better… stronger."

"Would you be willing to come to Pottershire?" he asked. "I'd rather chat there than here. I feel awful that Madam Pomfrey's been put out of her office for so long on my account."

"That sounds lovely," Healer Droop agreed. "Seven o'clock next Tuesday sound good?"

"Sure," Harry nodded.

"Excellent," she replied with a smile. "I'll not keep you longer tonight. I believe you've a young witch who's expecting you." Harry grinned, nodded, and left.

-oooo-

"I swear, she's gonna wear me out," Harry complained as he doffed his armour the next afternoon after practice. Natalie smirked as she undressed in front of her locker, but otherwise remained silent.

"Do you want me to have a talk with the big, bad third year?" Katie asked in a farcical baby voice.

"Now I'm getting the mickey taken by my girlfriend," Harry sighed facetiously as he pulled his jersey off. "Nah, it's probably good for me," he said after a moment in a normal voice.

"And how's Arithmancy going?" Katie wanted to know, glancing at Fay.

"Quite well," Harry allowed. "Fay's really helped out a lot."

"It helps that he's finally gotten past simple numerology," Fay interjected from next to them. "In my opinion, that's the most boring part. Once you start looking at practical applications of numbers as they relate to spells, it becomes not only more interesting, but more useful."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, dropping his trousers. "I mean, I don't really fancy divination in any form, even if it is more mathematically accurate, but seeing how numbers affect various spells, and how they interact with each other really helps me understand magic better. It's making sense now."

"I'm glad," Katie told him, pulling off her sports bra. "I agree. I'm just lousy with numbers. I think I might be dyslexic or something… when it comes to numbers, anyway. I think I've done an equation right, and it turns out that I've transposed two numbers or missed a variable, or whatever."

"Fortunately, you don't need Arithmancy to be great at quidditch, or really affect your ability to work with Transfiguration," Harry pointed out.

"Well, it'll make a Transfiguration-based job slightly harder," Fay corrected. "It won't be prohibitive, but…"

"I know," Katie agreed. "That's why I'm taking it; so I can have a baseline if I get a job with Transfiguration."

"You're good enough at quidditch, you could go pro, though," Fay told her. "So, I wouldn't worry too much about Arithmancy." Harry liked that Fay seemed to be opening up. She seemed like a really nice person, and Harry was glad to finally be able to get to know her.

"Yeah," Katie agreed. "I was talking with Angelina and Alicia on Sunday, and they've apparently been signed by the Harpies."

"You didn't tell me that!" Harry protested.

"I guess I forgot," Katie said, looking apologetically at Harry. "They haven't started practising with them yet, as the season doesn't start for a few months."

"Have they said anything about you?" Harry wondered.

"They dropped some hints that the manager might be interested in me too, to round out the reserve chaser line," Katie said with a small grin.

"That's awesome!" Harry shouted, wrapping Katie up in a hug. They were both nude by this point.

"You know," Natalie said as she started walking towards the pile of fresh towels. "I haven't been here that long, but I'm pretty sure that sort of behaviour's really only appropriate in the showers. I don't know what the captain would say if she came out and found you shagging where we change." She was grinning. Harry looked around. Only he, Katie, and Fay were left in the changing room.

"We'd best get in there, then," Harry said, pulling Katie with him.

"You'll have to practise hard this year, and play well," Harry lectured as he started his water. Dean and Ginny were already well on their way to orgasm at the far end of the shower bank. Ginny was riding Dean today. Across the showers, Demelza and Jimmy were mirroring them. Like the last practice, Richie was already masturbating furiously while watching Demelza's tits bouncing rhythmically as she rode her boyfriend.

"I'll have to practise hard, huh?" Katie asked, gripping Harry's engorged cock, grinning saucily as she tested the water temperature in her own shower with her other hand. "You won't be giving me a hard time if I don't, will you?" She was definitely emphasizing the word hard.

"If I don't see you working to your potential, I might have to give you the business," Harry shot back, grinning.

"OH, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE!" Ginny shouted from atop Dean. "WILL YOU TWO JUST FUCK ALREADY!?" She then moaned loudly, grinding her clit against Dean's pubic bone.

Without another word, Katie leaned in and kissed Harry hard, rubbing his dick with her hand. Then, she turned around, bent over, and grabbed her ankles. Her bum was really all that Harry could see, and it was right in front of him. He didn't look around. He didn't think, he just angled his cock with one hand, steadied her with his other hand, rubbed his cock against her cunny, and sank it into her. He quickly grabbed her bum on both sides and started thrusting.

After a few thrusts, she started wobbling, so he turned her to face the wall. Still mostly bent over, she grabbed onto the shower knob to steady herself as Harry resumed thrusting. She quickly started pushing back to meet him, and snaked one hand between her legs to provide additional stimulation. She moaned.

"Fuck, that's hot," Ginny gasped as she rode Dean. Harry didn't bother looking over, he was too lost in the pleasure of finally shagging Katie in the quidditch shower. He hadn't been sure at first… then Katie gasped, squeaked, and started mewling. She was really turned on. Harry thrust harder and faster. Katie moaned. In the background Harry could hear a lot of moaning, groaning, and slapping. Even without looking he knew at least a few people were watching them. It was odd, but he felt… powerful, or at least prideful. He was if not the centre, then at least a centre of attention. People were watching him shag a beautiful girl, and he was on bloody fire!

"Oh… Oh… Oh… OH!" Katie cried, tipping over the peak of orgasm after several minutes. Harry wasn't quite there yet, and so he kept thrusting. Katie pulled off him, turned around, and pushed him onto the shower floor. He lay back, with his dick centred in the spray. Katie climbed on top in the cowgirl position, and started riding him. With one hand, he reached between her legs, and thumbed her clit. With the other, he massaged her right breast. Not even a minute later, Katie came a second time, this time, with Harry close behind.

"Come on, Harry!" Katie cried, as she felt him let loose inside her. "Oh, fuck! That was good." She leaned forward and gave him a very rewarding kiss, before leaning back, her bum resting on his legs with him still inside her.

"Woohoo!" Demelza shouted. Jimmy whistled. The rest of the team shouted or called out as well. Harry looked around. Dean and Ginny were finished, resting against the back wall. Jimmy and Richie were flanking Demelza who was covered in more than one load of come. Even Natalie and Fay were grinning at them.

"Worth it," Katie said happily, standing. She then pulled Harry to his feet. "C'mon,"
told him. "We must thank our adoring fans." She bowed deeply to the centre of the shower, and then shampooed her hair, as though nothing had happened. Harry snorted, a wry grin on his face, and bowed as well before beginning to clean himself.

"Took you two long enough," Ginny said after a moment.

"Only five years from stranger to public sex," Katie protested. "That's not that quick."

"We weren't even boyfriend and girlfriend before last year," Harry pointed out.

"Yeah," Ginny agreed standing, "but in these showers, that's practically forever. I mean, look at Jimmy and Demelza."

"What about 'em?" Harry asked. "They didn't shag in the shower until today either."

"Yeah, but you didn't see that Richie blew his load on her face while Jimmy pumped one out on her stomach," Ginny informed them.

"Sharing already?" Katie asked the younger teens with a grin. Jimmy, Demelza, and Richie grinned back. "Has she given you a tug yet, Richie?" Katie wanted to know. Richie, seemingly unable to speak shook his head, but kept grinning. "You're falling behind, Demelza," Katie informed her. "Harry's already fingered two other girls."

"Who was the other one?" Ginny asked, seeming a bit put out.

"Millicent Bulstrode," Katie revealed.

"She's bloody hot!" Jimmy observed, earning himself a nudge to the ribs from his grinning girlfriend.

"Who was the first one?" Dean asked, confused. Harry and Katie looked a question at Ginny, who looked at Dean.

"Erm… Me," Ginny said hesitantly.

"Oh," Dean said without emotion. It was clear he was trying to decide how he should feel about this revelation. "Was this before us?"

"Oh, yeah," Ginny said, suddenly blushing. "It was a bit after Michael…"

"…and you broke up?" Dean asked. Ginny nodded. "Well, that's OK then."

"You're sure?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah," Dean said. "You didn't cheat on me, or go behind my back. Why should I care if Harry got you off before we were together?"

"I… I dunno," Ginny shrugged. "I suppose it seemed like you might."

"Nah," Dean allowed. "It's cool. I mean, I shagged…"

"Yeah, I know," Ginny nodded, interrupting him. "But you don't hang out with her anymore. Harry and I hang out all the time."

"But you were never really together like that," Dean reasoned. "Plus, he's got Katie, so…" He trailed off, leaving the reduced desire to stray unspoken.

"Well, I'm starting to prune," Harry observed. He'd just finished his shower, and the conversation was starting to wind down. "Anyone for dinner?"

-oooo-

"And how does that make you feel?" Healer Droop asked.

They were in the music room of Potter House. It was early Saturday morning on the 14th. She'd written him a few days prior, and asked to shift their appointments to Saturdays at eight o'clock. Ron had thought Harry was an idiot for even entertaining the idea, but seeing as Harry was the one with the problem, and didn't spend all his Saturday mornings sleeping, Harry didn't see an issue with it, and agreed to the switch. He'd even sent the healer a trunk so she could come and go easily.

"I mean…" Harry began, then thought about it. "It felt quite unfair."

"What did I say about diminishing qualifiers?" Healer Droop reminded him.

"Fine," Harry sighed. "It felt really unfair. Dudley got whatever he wanted. Each year, more gifts than the last, all of them expensive. Toys, games, electronics, whatever he wanted… I got a sock, or a tenpence piece. Once I got a wire coat hanger."

"To whom can we properly attribute blame for that?" she asked him. Harry let his eyes follow the sunlight splashed across the far wall as he thought.

"I mean, I suppose it's not Dudley's fault," Harry admitted. "He's guilty of quite a… I mean, he's guilty of lots of things, but he can't be blamed for the presents he got at birthdays. I suppose I blame Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. They…"

"Enabled?" Healer Droop asked, helpfully. "Or trained? Or perhaps pushed him?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "They enabled him, I guess is the word I'm looking for. If they hadn't tolerated his behaviour… If they'd punished him when he made outbursts, instead of… appeasing? Yeah, appeasing him, I think he would've had a much… healthier childhood."

Healer Droop had wanted to start from the beginning. For Harry, the beginning he could remember was growing up at the Dursleys. Since that was the deepest and most engrained set of feelings, that's what they were tackling first.

"It's a parent's responsibility to ensure that their children experience both joy and disappointment, to prepare them better for life. Of all your friends, whom do you believe had the most normal childhood?" Healer Droop asked next.

"Wow," Harry said after a moment's thought. "I've… I've no idea. I mean, I want to say Hermione, as she grew up muggle, has both her parents, and a stable homelife, but I know she was bullied at school and never really had friends before she came to Hogwarts. I suppose I could say Katie, but her mum was killed when she was a baby. Other than that, she's had a mostly normal life. Aside from the number of children, the Weasley's have a mostly normal life as well. I suppose… if you were going to press me, I'd say Hermione, as I think lots of people struggle with a lack of friends and an abundance of bullying. I know I did."

"From what you've told me, I think any of the three families you've told me about would constitute a normal family," Healer Droop allowed. "No family is completely normal. You pointed out that everyone has something odd, or something bad, and that, in and of itself, is normal. Would you say that Hermione, Katie, and Ron are normal?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed, smiling as he thought of them.

"Are you normal?" she asked.

"No," Harry said, his face falling.

"I think you're more normal than you realise," she reasoned. "Do you have friends?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think you're a good person?" she asked next. "Do you have a solid code of morals? Know right from wrong?"

"Yeah."

"You have a family, of sorts, do you not?" she pressed. "Sirius, Remus, Dobby, Winky, even Dudley, and so on?"

"Yeah."

"Do you attend school? Social functions? Enjoy good food and good people?" she continued.

"Yes."

"Those are all normal things that normal people do," Healer Droop pointed out. "One of the things I want you to do is consider that your past doesn't define who you are. It may inform who you are, but only you can decide who you are. You have a choice: you can either be angry about the slights against you as a child, or you can decide that that's not a way to treat a person, and rise above the example you've been presented with. I think you've done the latter. It makes you a strong person, it makes you a good person, and this particular decision allowed you to function as a normal person. Angry people cannot be normal, and yet, you are."

Harry thought about what she said.

"Thanks," he smiled.