Thank you to the betas of this chapter, icedawn12193, and Willofhounds.
Chapter Eight - Getting Your Child Back
Harry stayed asleep the whole time he was being cleaned up which Severus was grateful for. Otherwise, he feared Harry would have screamed himself raw. With the open sores that were on his child's backside. It seemed to be producing a clear liquid, even the bald spots from Harry's hair pulling were even infected.
Once the feeding tube was removed both of them winced at how inflamed the area was. Poppy made sure to document every injury Harry had for the Mystery of Magic so they will be able to make a case against the Healers of St Mungo's.
"Harry shouldn't be this bad after two days." Poppy spat, feeling personally offended with what went down.
As a Healer, you took an oath to do no harm, to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. It infuriated Poppy to no end to know that the Healers at St Mungo's didn't take those oaths seriously. To do this to a child, a child who couldn't protect themselves, was one of the worst things you could do in Poppy's opinion.
The most upsetting information that came into light was the bruising around the child's arms and legs, even some of the bruising appeared to be in the shapes of hands and fingers. Showing that the Healers weren't as gentle with Harry as they claim to be.
But what surprised the both of them and made them smirk to themselves was when Poppy found a small bowtruckle tucked away in the pocket of Harry's pajama top.
"That's how he got out. Bowtruckle's are known to pick locks, he must have opened Harry's door." Snape explained with a little bit of shock.
He couldn't believe that Harry made it out of his room so easily, with just a small creature for help.
Poppy ran a warm bath for the child, mixing some potions that will help with the infections and healing into the water. Severus held his son upright as Poppy worked on washing Harry. He kept Harry submerged in the water for an hour to make sure the potions did their job on the open sores.
After the bath, Poppy made sure to bandage the area of where the feeding tube was so Harry wouldn't be able to pick at it. Cream was placed on the child to help with the bruising and general soreness. A generous amount was placed on the child bottom and genitals as a cloth diaper was placed with Poppy saying that the fabric will be more kind to Harry's skin for the time being.
Severus now sat on the living room couch with Harry in his arms, unable to put his son to bed. He felt he would never be able to let go of Harry again, he didn't want to wake up and find out that all of this had been a dream, a horrible dream that made him believe that he got his son back.
"I need to know'' Severus spoke, looking up at Poppy and Minerva who was in the living room with him.
"I know it's dangerous, I know about the consequences of entering a mind as fragile as Harrys, especially during this time but I need to know what happened to him."
Everyone stayed silent for a few moments before Minerva finally spoke " Alright…We will stay here and make sure to pull you out when your time is up."
"But if you start to feel that your mind is starting to stretch you must leave," Poppy said. "You need to promise me that you will leave once it starts to get too much for you to handle."
Severus gave a small nod in understanding before placing his palm on top of Harry's forehead and said the spell.