Chapter 32: What Happened
Poppy Pomfrey sat in a visiter's chair beside Harry's hospital cot. Her charge was resting peaceably, his face unmarred by the frown it had had so often just prior to his disappearance. Poppy found it hard to imagine how Bellatrix LeStrange had managed to kidnap Harry in the middle of a busy hospital. She had read some theories in The Quibbler – which she read as a guilty pleasure, despite Minerva and Pomona teasing her about it – and they did seem rather far-fetched. The Aurors still had no lead on Bellatrix, and that made Poppy nervous. The MLE had set round-the-clock guards outside Harry's room, and, she was told, these would continue once he was released and sent back home to Hogwarts. Her contemplations were interrupted by Harry stirring on his cot. She placed a hand to his cheek as he opened his eyes.
"Pomfee?" Harry looked at her nervously and his voice was tentative.
Remembering what he had said before, Poppy sought to reassure the boy. He had thought she was mad at him for scratching at his scab. "Harry, I'm not mad at you. I'm just so glad to have you back. And I don't understand why you keep trying to hurt yourself, but we're going to help you be safe. We will," she vowed.
Healer Vanes was slated to come by after lunch. Poppy was not sure having him try Legillimency again was such a good idea. From what she understood, Harry's accidental magic had pushed Vanes out of Harry's mind, when he had tried it before the kidnapping. The kidnapping. Oh, why did Harry have to be subjected to such terrors again and again. Maybe the Minister was right, and she wasn't taking good enough care of him. At this point, despite the Aurors' promise of protection, she didn't want to leave his side for a second. But for how long was that sustainable? And it wouldn't be good for Harry to have her constantly hovering over him, she knew. But for now, hover she would.
"Y-you not mad?" he asked, his face in a mou of disbelief.
"Of course not, dear. Oh, Harry, why would you think that?"
"Da Darvey-Yady tell me you mad ats me."
"Darvey Lady?" when Harry had mentioned a 'lady' before, Poppy hadn't cottoned onto his mention of his Darvey. Could it be possible that Quibbler article had it right about an Animagus? Was Bellatrix Harry's jarvey? "Harry, tell me, who is the Darvey Lady?"
Harry sat up, and Poppy moved from her chair to sit on the edge of his cot next to him. She put an arm around his shoulder and Harry leaned in and rested his head against her.
"She dat mean yady who hurtsded you."
Poppy knew Harry meant the Lady hurt him. "But why do you call her 'Darvey'?"
"She turnded into my Darvey. But den my Darvey no yike me anymore." Tears welled up in his eyes, as he remembered the betrayal. "She bites you," Harry whispered, sniffing a few times.
Poppy gave him a reassuring squeeze. "Oh Harry, I'm so sorry. So, so sorry." She didn't want to let go of him, but she felt an urgency to alert the Aurors to the possibility that Bellatrix was an Animagus.
"But y-you not bites," Harry mumbled, hiding his face in her shoulder and closing his eyes.
With her free hand, Poppy took her wand out of her apron pocket and sent a Messenger spell to the Auror in the corridor, telling her to look into the possibility that Bellatrix is an Animagus with a jarvey form. "No, I'm sorry I didn't stop her," she explained. "But I will stop her – or anyone who tries to hurt you – now. I promise you that, Harry."
Harry pulled out of her arms to sit up. He knew promises were important, but he didn't think anyone could stop the Darvey Lady from getting him, if she wanted to. She'd told him she could do whatever she wanted. And she wanted to do terrible, mean, hurting things to him.
"Harry, can you tell me more about the Darvey Lady? Can you tell me what happened to you?"
Tears filled his eyes anew, but he wanted to please his caregiver, so he tried. He told her about the cage and the baths and the leash, and he cried, but he kept talking and told her about the mean songs about her lying and about the bad things that came out of the Darvey-Lady's wand. Harry used to wish he could have a wand, and Ron told him he would, when he was a big boy. But he didn't want one now. Wands were bad. But he didn't tell his Pomfee that, because she had one, and Harry knew that she liked hers.
Poppy felt her heart break into a thousand pieces, listening to Harry's trials. She struggled and won the battle against shedding her own tears. Just as she did with her own children, Poppy Pomfrey would be strong for Harry.
~o~
When lunch was finished and the food-service wizard had cleared away Harry's dishes, Poppy's mind wandered. Again, she was filled with dread at the thought of subjecting Harry to Legillimency. Was now even the best time to try it again? Harry had just been through a such a harrowing trial. Her mind kept shifting over and over again between anguish at Harry's ordeal and worry that Vanes' treatment would constitute another 'ordeal'. And Harry hadn't tried to harm himself once, yet – not since he'd been back. She knew that didn't mean anything. But her desire to protect him from any kind of emotional pain was fierce. The racing in her mind was interrupted by Healer Vanes entering the room.
"Hello Harry, Madam Pomfrey. I am pleased to see an Auror stationed outside," he said by way of greeting. And added, after reading the look on her face, "I gather you are less-than-pleased to see me, Madam Pomfrey."
"Well, I-"
"Let me just talk to the boy," he forestalled her inevitable expostulation.
She nodded, not wanting to betray her reservations to Harry.
The Healer took the visitor's chair that Poppy had vacated and pulled it round so he could sit facing Harry and his caregiver. "Draco would like to visit you, Harry. Would you like that?"
"Am hims mad at me?" he looked up at Poppy, hope written across his features.
"No, Harry. I told you, no one is mad at you. That was just a lie, which the Darvey Lady told you to be mean to you. It wasn't true. It wasn't true at all."
Vanes backed her up. "In fact, Draco is very worried about you. He wants to see you, to make sure that you are alright."
"Den my wanna see hims too," Harry replied, worrying his lip between his teeth.
"That's good to hear, Harry. Draco will be very happy you said that," reassured Vanes. "Harry, do you remember the last time we met?"
Poppy stiffened, but kept silent. However, Harry could feel her tension. He looked at her face for solace at the same time that Vanes shot a perturbed look at her. She took a small breath in and let it out slowly. "Yes, Harry, do you remember what happened then?"
"I was looking inside your mind, Harry. But I think that maybe you didn't want me to do that, and I am sorry if it scared you," Vanes added.
Harry thought back. And then the memory came suddenly rushing in. The Healer could see everything! And he was going to see the Secret Magic – but, that, that was just a lie. Harry had been afraid that if the Healer saw it, he would disappear to a bad place. Bit Lily – no, the Darvey-Lady, had been lying to him about that. She said there really was no Secret Magic or bad blood or any of it. She had tricked him into scratching open his boo boo, and that was the bad thing to do. But Pomfee hadn't been mad at him about it, so the Darvey-Lady had lied about that, too.
"I 'members." Harry said. "I not want you t'see the Secet Magic, but there not any. She lie."
Vanes gave Madam Pomfrey a questioning look.
"I think Harry means Bellatrix LeStrange lied. Apparently she lied to him about something, though I'm not clear on exactly what."
"Da Darvey-Yady tellded me that if I tells 'bout Secet Magic, peoples gon' go to a bad pace, and I not gon' see dem again," explained Harry with surprising clarity.
"And why does he call her the 'Darvey Lady'?" questioned Vanes.
"Well, from what Harry told me, it's possible, in fact quite probable, that Bellatrix LeStrange is an Animagus. A jarvey."
"That might explain a great number of things. And it might make proceeding with Legillimency more applicable." The unasked question hung in the air.
"Ask Harry if it's alright," said the Nurse, resignedly.
"Harry, may I please look inside your mind, now? Would you be willing to let me?"
Harry nodded. He had nothing to hide. And so Vanes began.
"Harry, look at my eyes, please," and this time, the Healer's words were spoken gently, followed by, "Legillimens."
As before, unbidden, images began to form in Harry's head of things that had happened. It started with the second time he met the Darvey-Lady.
In his bed, waking to see a dark-haired woman standing over him, her hand covering his mouth, as she bites his finger and tells him terrible things, he now knows are lies. She's called, 'Lily', and she's pretending to want to help him.
"Your disgusting 'owie' needs fixing, before it gets worse."
"It's full of filthy, bad blood that is turning you into a bad boy."
"It will make you do terrible things that will hurt all your friends."
She warns him, "If you tell Pomfrey about Secret Magic, she will have to go away to a bad, scary place and you'll never see her again."
The woman pushes his Draco sleeve into his mouth and climbs onto him.
She covers Harry's nose and mouth, cutting off his air.
He can't get her off him! He can't breathe!
She tears his scab off – pain!
Harry was transfixed, unable to look away from the Healer. He was breathing heavily and he gripped the arm Poppy had around him tightly. She put her other hand over his for comfort.
"What. A. Shame." Lily looks so sad. But she's lying. She's not really sad at all.
"Da Secet Magic not work? My no wanna hurt my fends, Yiwee,"
In his Nursery, pushing his head bandage up and scratching open his scar
His caregiver and Dobby trying to stop him from getting the bad blood out
Watching the giant squid in the lake with Healer Vanes and learning he can see Draco again
Having tea with Draco in Healer Vanes' office
Seeing the Peek-A-Boo girl in the bathroom and then finding candy that made him go upies, but not sharing it with Ron
Pomfrey falling on the floor and not getting up
Harry not being allowed to see her in the hospital
Ron hurting his head and Hermione saying, "There's no such thing as 'head blood'. It's all the same blood running through our bodies."
Trying to get his bad blood out through his hands on the ground at the Weasleys' and doing it at the Lion Man's house, after he shook Harry and stuck him in a chair
The sharp stick on the dresser was so little, how long it would take to get all his bad blood out. How would he be able to tell when it was all out?
Healer Vanes looking into his eyes. He was going to learn about the Secret Magic – No! The healer went flying away from Harry.
Harry's body gave an involuntary jerk then, but still the Healer kept his gaze, and Poppy had to steel herself to let Vanes carry on.
Then all the terrible things the Darvey-Lady did to him. The taunting and screaming. The elf baths and being pulled by the neck around her house. The cage and the terrible wand, throwing stones and stinging bugs and other things at him–
Harry was crying openly now, wheezing in deep breaths that looked like he might somehow choke on.
"Vanes, enough!" Poppy pulled Harry to her and he hid his face in her chest.
Once the visual connection was severed, Vanes collapsed back in his chair. Sweat covered his brow and upper lip. He dabbed at his face with a conjured handkerchief. "Yes," he said, his voice hoarse, as if it was he who had been he who crying. "I believe it is enough."