Disclaimer: I own nothing of the 'Harry Potter' universe. I make no money writing this stuff.

A/N: Hmmm… Either you love it or you hate it… I think I'll delay my major comments about this story and the reviews I've been getting until a few more chapters are up. Let's just say things are going to get worse before they get better, but they will get better, and soon! I'd say, 'Enjoy!' but I'm not so sure anymore… (Word Count: 4026)

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Chapter 4: The Nurse's Office

Wednesday, March 2nd, 1988 6:27 PM

When Harry next opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a cot in a dimly lit room with a cold compress resting on his head. The room smelled strongly of isopropyl alcohol and some sort of disinfectant. After a few more moments of consciousness, he sat up and discovered, to his horror, that he was wearing nothing at all beneath the thin white sheet that was covering him. Well, he wasn't entirely naked… someone had firmly wrapped his chest up in neat bandaging. The pain was certainly still there, but it was dulled considerably by being nicely packaged the way it was. It was a 'good' kind of ache, meaning one he could easily get accustomed to.

Harry looked around the unfamiliar room, noting the variety of health related posters that adorned the walls. One proclaimed the benefits of brushing one's teeth regularly, another reminded the viewer of the upcoming booster shot schedule, and yet another sang the praises of a well balanced diet. If he wasn't feeling so dreadful, he might have laughed at that one. He then noticed the clock on the wall, and was surprised to find that it read six-thirty. He wasn't sure if it was AM or PM, because from what he could see through the curtained window it was quite dark outside, so it could have been either.

His eyes drifted to the desk that sat off to the side of the cot he was laying upon. In front of the piles of books and papers that littered the messy desktop was a small wooden name plaque with the words, 'Mrs. Marie A. Figg – School Nurse,' engraved upon it. He briefly wondered if she was any relation to the Mrs. Figg that lived around the corner from the Dursleys.

Just then, the door opened and a pretty young blonde girl of about seventeen or so walked into the room. She wore a small, lacy white cap pinned to her hair and a red and white vertical striped smock that appeared long enough to double as a dress, although he could just see the hem of her green skirt protruding from beneath it. She was carrying a bundle in her arms that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be his clothes. Harry glanced at the nameplate in the desk, and then back to the girl. He thought to himself that she looked rather young to be married, and to be a nurse, but he figured that people were marrying younger nowadays... still, he always assumed that the school nurse would be much, much older. He had never met the school's nurse before, even with all the times he was beaten up by his cousin and his gang. They always warned him not to tell or else the beatings would be much worse, so he usually suffered whatever injuries they inflicted on him in silence.

"Well, I see sleeping beauty has awakened," the girl said with a smile as she laid the bundle at the foot of his cot, "I just got through washing these for you… they were a right mess, they were… and so were you, if truth be told." She moved closer to him and laid her palm on his forehead and asked, "How are you feeling now, love? Better?"

Harry didn't realize it, but he had instinctively pulled the thin sheet that was covering him up to his neck the moment the girl had entered the room. The girl giggled as she took the edge of the sheet from his hands and lowered it so that she could inspect his bandages.

"No need to be shy around me… trust me, you have nothing I haven't seen before."

Harry just nodded bashfully, but then let out a pained hiss as her fingers lightly touched the bandages over the right side of his chest.

The girl's eyes darkened as she quickly pulled her hand back. After a few moments of scrutinizing the boy, she asked, "Your name's Harry, right?"

Harry nodded.

"Well, that fat little sod wasn't lying about that, at least," the girl muttered to herself before she spoke a bit more loudly to him, "The doctor just left about three hours ago and said to let you sleep. When the doctor was here, your cousin… what was it…? Duddie?"

"Dudley," offered Harry helpfully.

"Yes, Dudley… he had told the doctor that you injured yourself when you fell from the playbars in the schoolyard at lunchtime, is that correct?"

Harry instinctively lowered his eyes and just nodded silently.

The girl leaned towards him and gently placed her finger under his chin. She lifted his head so that he was forced to look directly into her kind, ice-blue eyes as she softly repeated, "Is that correct?"

Harry opened his mouth, trying to force out the word 'yes,' but it just wouldn't come. He had a very hard time lying to anyone, but somehow he found it impossible to lie to this girl. Rather than lie, his mouth snapped shut and he remained silent.

"I thought so," said the girl as she straightened up, "Did that fat oaf of a cousin of yours do this to you?"

Harry dropped his head again and shook his head.

"Was it your father… or mother?"

Harry's head snapped up as he vehemently said, "No!" He immediately realized that the suddenness of his reply would probably make the girl think he was lying, so he clarified, "I… I don't have parents. They were killed in a car crash when I was a baby. I was told that I almost died, too. I ended up with this scar, and I…"

When Harry casually lifted the bangs of his messy hair, the girl's eyes widened in shock as she let out a surprised 'Eep!' She put a hand over her mouth and instinctively took a step backwards, knocking into a metal tray that held an array of clamps, scissors and sutures and sending them clattering noisily to the floor.

Harry dropped his hand away from his forehead and lowered his gaze again as he ruefully said, "It's not that ugly, is it, Mrs. Figg? I don't even remember getting it… I was only a baby when…"

The girl suddenly turned and raced the few steps to the desk where she lifted up a folder. She stared blankly at it before she asked in a breathy whisper, "Y-y-your last n-name is 'P-Potter… and not Dursley?' You're Harry Potter?"

Harry sighed in frustration. Here was yet another of the school's faculty who believed all of the stories and lies that his cousin had spread about him.

"You know, none of what you heard about me is true…" said Harry shortly.

"What?" said the girl with no small amount of wonder in her eyes, "Of course it's true! Everyone knows your story!"

"Listen, whatever you heard about me, none of it's true," Harry said forcefully, "I don't steal from the teachers' desks, I don't vandalize school property, and I'm certainly not the neighborhood bully… just look at me! Does it look to you like I could bully anyone around at all?"

The girl stared at him open-mouthed for a few moments, then shook her head as if to clear it and said, "I don't know anything about that, but you… you're… you're Harry Potter! Are you telling me that you don't know anything about yourself… about what you've done? You really don't know who you are?"

Harry gave her a quizzical look as he said, "Mrs. Figg, I know exactly who I am. I'm an orphan who lives with my aunt and uncle… I'm the weird kid who everyone in this school either hates or is afraid of… or both… but really, I'm just a nobody."

'Then he really doesn't know,' she thought to herself before saying aloud, "Why are you calling me Mrs. Figg? I'm not my mother, you know."

Harry nodded towards the desk where the nameplate sat and said, "You are the school's nurse, aren't you?"

The girl glanced over to the desk and saw the nameplate, "Oh! No, my mum's the nurse here. I'm just helping her out while she's on vacation. I'm a healer-in-training at Saint Mungo's Hospital, so she thought a little exposure to muggle methods of healing would help my studies, although the most I've done here is to stop up a bloody nose or to give out an antacid for an upset tummy. You've been the most excitement I've seen here all week."

Harry had never heard of St. Mungo's Hospital, nor did he have any idea what 'muggle' healing methods were, but then again, he really didn't get around much, so that hospital could be right around the corner for all he knew.

"Anyway, I'm not Mrs. Figg, I'm Miss Figg," the girl said with a smile, "but you can call me Jaana." The smile dropped from her face and was replaced with a concerned frown, "Now, are you going to tell me how this happened to you?"

Harry said nothing.

"Listen, the only reason I mentioned your parents was because I called the number that the office gave me to inform your family that you'd been injured. There was nobody there for the longest time, but I finally got through about an hour ago. I must say, the man who answered didn't seem to be too concerned about your injury. I told him that you shouldn't be on your feet for too long and said that he should come to pick you up. He then told me, and I quote, "You tell that boy that he had better get here right smartly… there are chores to be done, and the chores are not going to do themselves!' Then he hung up on me! I thought he was your father, so I had assumed that he might have been the one to do… that… to you. I'm sorry if I made you feel bad by asking if your parents had done it… I just assumed…"

"That's okay. You had no way of knowing."

Harry knew he had to get home soon. He didn't need his uncle angrier than how he appeared to be now. Harry was about to swing his legs off from the cot and stand up, but then froze when he remembered that he was quite naked beneath the sheet.

"If you don't mind?" Harry asked abashedly as he reached down to the foot of the cot and retrieved his bundle of clothes.

Jaana smiled at him and gave him a wink, "Aww, not gonna give an old lady a show? You know, I'm the one who took those off of you and cleaned you up."

"But… but I was asleep!" complained Harry with a comical whine in his voice that he really couldn't help.

Jaana laughed as she headed to the door, "Don't worry, love, I was just teasing. Call out when you're done."

Harry dressed as quickly as he could, which wasn't very quick at all due to his limited range of movement. After almost twenty minutes and much wincing and groaning, he was just managing to pull his shirt down over his torso when a loud knock sounded from the door.

"Hey! I was kidding before, but if you're not out here in one minute, I'm coming in there and dressing you myself! I didn't have dinner and I'm hungry, so get a move on!"

"She's hungry…" he muttered to himself as he slipped on his socks and shoes. He was still feeling some of the nausea from earlier in the afternoon, but he had thrown up nearly everything he had forced himself to eat onto the classroom floor, and at this hour, he was definitely feeling quite empty. He knew the Dursleys ate at precisely six o'clock, which meant that he had nothing to look forward to except dirty dishes to wash and a kitchen to clean.

With a tired sigh, Harry walked to the door and stepped out into the darkened hallway.

"Hit those lights and let's go. I'll give you a ride home."

Harry reached back into the office and hit the switch before hurrying to catch up to Jaana, who was already halfway to the faculty lounge where the exit to the rear parking lot was. As he was half-jogging towards her, he watched her swaying hips, to which was connected a pair of impossibly long legs. He was only seven years old, true, but he knew a good looking girl when he saw one.

He suddenly noticed that she was stopped and holding the door open for him. His face burned red with embarrassment when he saw the amused look on the girl's face. She had obviously seen him staring at her backside. He dropped his head abashedly as he squeezed past her and out into the cold, dark parking lot. There was only one car parked there. He didn't know much about cars, but it looked like it was a rather expensive two-seat convertible… certainly a lot nicer and sportier than his uncle's sedan. He wished it was summertime… he'd like to have a ride in that car with the top down.

"Is that your car? It looks nice," complimented Harry.

Jaana laughed as she unlocked the car and said, "Don't let the looks fool you. This darkness hides a lot of sins as far as the body goes… and the roof leaks, the heater barely works, it's got an electrical short somewhere, and I believe it burns more oil than petrol, but it gets me to where I need to go. I'd hate to have to take the bus or the tube from London, especially in this weather."

"You live in London?" asked Harry as he sat in the passenger's seat.

"You make it sound like it's halfway around the world," laughed Jaana, "Don't tell me you've never been to London before! It's only about ten minutes away by car."

"I've only been once. My uncle took me to the zoo last summer, but I didn't have a very good time." Harry was recalling the incident with the snake, and his resulting punishment… nearly a week locked in his cupboard.

Jaana looked sympathetically at the boy next to her. As she started the car, she took in the boy's appearance. The clothes he was wearing looked to be five sizes too large for him, the coat he had on looked equally large, but very worn and thin. When she was cleaning the mess from him when he was unconscious, she couldn't help but notice how terribly thin he was.

As Jaana put the car in gear and started off, she kept an eye on his face when she said, "Hmmm… it's kinda late. Maybe instead of leftovers from your family's dinner, would you like to keep me company at a restaurant? You can have whatever you like, my treat."

She saw his eyes light up for a fraction of a second before he dropped his head and said, "If you don't mind, I'd rather just go home. I have a lot of chores to do, and I don't want to get into tr… uh, bed too late… I didn't get much sleep last night."

Jaana's eyes darkened again. That was all she needed to know. Something was going on with his family, and she was determined to find out what that something was.

"Oh, forget the chores. I'll stick up for you when I drop you off… you can blame me for making you come home late, I'll just say you slept the whole time because I didn't know you had to be home so early…" Since it didn't look like he was being swayed, she added, "You aren't going to make me eat alone, are you?"

Harry looked at her suspiciously for a moment, wondering if he could really trust her to stick up for him… something that nobody had ever done for him for as long as he could remember. After a few moments he smiled and said, "Well, okay… if you really want me to."

Although he tried to act nonchalant, Jaana could tell that the boy was very excited about the prospect of eating out. Thinking that she was offering to let him pick his favorite place, she asked him, "I'm not terribly familiar with this town, do you know of any good places to eat?"

"I really don't know anyplace," he said casually, "I've never been to a restaurant."

'Never?' Jaana's lips thinned into a straight line. She took a calming breath before she said, "Well, are you in the mood for fast food like hamburgers, or would you prefer a sit-down meal like fish and chips or something like that?"

"Whatever you like," answered Harry timidly, "

Jaana nodded and took off down the street. There was one place her aunt Arabella told her about that had pretty good food at a pretty good price, and it was relatively close by.

When the waiter placed the menus on the table, Jaana picked one up, handed it to Harry and said, "Order whatever you like, remember, it's my treat."

When the waiter returned to take their orders, Jaana waited for Harry to order first. Her eyes narrowed when he ordered a plain broth soup. When the waiter nodded and wrote down the soup, Jaana motioned the waiter to look at the menu with her. Silently, she pointed at the Devils on Horseback for an appetizer, and then pointed to the beer-batter fish and chips, steak and kidney pie, smoked ribs, O'Malley's Demise, and then raised two fingers and pointed to the cherry pie a la mode for afters. The waiter smiled as he finished writing the rather substantial order and walked hurriedly towards the kitchen.

"What did you order?" asked Harry curiously. She seemed to take a long time, and the waiter seemed to be writing an awful lot on his pad.

Jaana smiled and said, "I ordered us an appetizer. Have you ever had Devils on Horseback?"

Harry made a face and shook his head.

"Oh, don't look at me like that… they're just prunes wrapped in bacon. They're very good, and you'll never know if you don't try them. They're better than Angels on Horseback… I really don't like liver…"

The appetizer came at the same time as Harry's broth. For the rest of their stay in the restaurant, the broth remained untouched. Jaana had a few of the Devils on Horseback, was able to finish half of a plate of fish and chips, and of course, a slice of cherry pie. Harry managed to stuff down everything else that had arrived at the table, including the other half of Jaana's fish and chips.

More than once, Harry had caught the girl staring curiously at him. He felt slightly embarrassed because he thought that her disbelieving stare was because of how much of their meal he was consuming. He tried to push the plates away, but she just pushed them right back in front of him and insisted that he finish everything there. He was barely able to finish the pie and ice cream… but he managed.

After the bill was paid and they were back in her car, Harry was just able to tell her his address before he nodded off in the passenger's seat. The motion of the car, the rumble of the engine, in combination with his very full stomach, seemed to quickly lull the boy to sleep. More than once she found herself smiling fondly at him as he slept. Who would have known that 'The Boy Who Lived' was such a sweet kid? She would have assumed he'd be a stuck-up prat, given his notoriety and all, but since he seemed to have no idea who he actually was, she guessed that the fame never had the chance to go to his head. She wouldn't mind having a little brother like him.

They arrived on Privet Drive a little later than they should have. Seeing him sleeping so peacefully, she didn't have the heart to wake him. She ended up driving around his neighborhood until he started to stir.

While she was driving aimlessly around, she thought about the boy's situation, and about how voraciously he had torn into their meal. She certainly had enough of an indication that he'd be put to work the moment he entered his house. She felt she had to at least try to make things a bit better for him, at least temporarily. She pulled over to the side of the road and pulled out a notepad and a pen from her purse. She quickly wrote out an official looking note and signed it, 'William Warren, M.D.' With a satisfied nod, she folded the note and put it in her pocket before pulling out onto the road again.

It was nearly nine o'clock when Jaana and the sleepy Harry pulled into the small driveway at Number Four, Privet Drive. To Jaana's surprise, the entire house was dark. The porch light wasn't even on.

As soon as the car stopped, Harry had pushed the door open as he quickly and quietly said, "Thank you very much for dinner. It was really fun. I've got to go in now… thanks again."

When Jaana opened her door, Harry's eyes widened in panic and he said, "There's no need to trouble yourself. My family's probably in bed already, and I have lots to do."

"But… I was hoping to have a word with your uncle," said Jaana as she pulled the fake note from her pocket, "I have instructions from the doctor that your family should be aware of."

Harry stopped and snatched the note from her hand before hurrying to the front door, "I'll make sure they see it… thank you again!"

The door snapped shut, leaving a concerned young witch standing alone in the dark driveway. She briefly considered marching up to the door and ringing the bell repeatedly to get Harry's family's attention, but figured she might do more harm than good for the boy's situation. With a sigh, she sat back in her car and started the engine. As she pulled out of the driveway at Number Four, a thought came to her.

A minute later, she pulled into the driveway at Number Seventeen Wisteria Walk, the home of Jaana's aunt Arabella. Four minutes after that, she was disillusioned and standing in the back yard of Number Four, Privet Drive and looking through the kitchen window at the boy she had spent the evening with. Sure enough, the lad was working slowly but diligently, scrubbing away at the pile of dirty pots sitting on the countertop next to the sink.

She watched for about twenty minutes, wanting to see how long the boy would continue to do the 'chores' unsupervised. He worked quickly and methodically, more so than anyone his age should be used to. She idly watched him finish off the plates and cookware, clean the countertop and the dinner table, but when she saw him pulling out the mop and bucket, she had to stop herself from bursting into the house, hexing whatever adults she could find and steal the boy away. She couldn't believe that anyone could treat a child, especially someone as sweet and polite as Harry, as a common house elf.

With a disgusted sigh, she backed a few feet away from the window before she disappeared with a slight 'pop.' She planned on properly visiting her aunt the following day to see if she realized that the famous 'Boy Who Lived' was living just a block away from her.

Little did she know, if she had stayed in the back yard of Number Four for just a minute longer, she would have seen the boy store away the mop and bucket, and then crawl into his 'bedroom' that was the cramped cupboard underneath the stairs.

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