Magical Twins – Chapter 3
Julian and Dudley both remained very ill over Christmas, and only on the last day of the holidays, Poppy reluctantly released them to their own room.
"They're still not well and have to take it easy for a while," she instructed Minerva and Severus. "I will check on them once a day to make sure they recover completely. However, I'm afraid their immune systems could be damaged by depleting their magic and catching pneumonia after being out in the cold for too long. If it wasn't for their magic that kept them warm and alive, they both wouldn't have survived that night. So they might be susceptible to other illnesses and bugs, especially magical ones, since they haven't been confronted with those yet."
"Hmmm, we were just considering if we should send them to the primary school at Hogsmeade or let one of the house-elves teach them normal primary school knowledge," Minerva replied thoughtfully.
"I believe at least from the medical point of view home schooling would be better in their case," Poppy said firmly, glancing from Minerva to Severus.
"Very well then; let's speak to the house-elves tomorrow morning. We can leave it to them who teach the boys and where they hold their lessons," Severus said, glancing at the two boys, who were fast asleep in their new beds.
During the holidays, Minerva and Severus had tried to gain information about the Taylors. They had even asked the Ministry for help; however, they still didn't have a clue who the boys' parents were. To their immense relief, the Headmaster agreed that they should take the twins in and let them grow up at Hogwarts.
As soon as Poppy deemed the children fit to accompany Minerva, Severus and herself to the Ministry, the five took a Portkey that brought them straight to the family division. Julian and Dudley were asked several questions about their past and their parents, and Poppy provided the responsible Ministry employee with enough material to prove the child abuse at the hand of their Muggle parents. Finally, Minerva and Severus were granted the permanent guardianship over the boys. Poppy Pomfrey and Albus Dumbledore were made their godparents.
"Please remember that their parents still are their Muggle guardians," the woman at the Ministry informed the Hogwarts teachers. "However, you don't have to fear taking them into the Muggle world, because if anything happened, the Magical guardianship would always override the Muggle one."
The same evening, Julian and Dudley made their first appearance at the Great Hall for dinner, where the Headmaster introduced them as Julian and Dudley Taylor and asked the students to be kind to the smaller boys, who from now on would take their meals at random tables together with the students.
"I suggest you change tables at every meal," he gently instructed the twins as he finished his speech.
Julian and Dudley exchanged a quick look and headed for the Slytherin table, the only table that held a few known faces, because Severus had seen fit to unobtrusively introduce them to the Slytherin first-years earlier that week.
HP
In the morning, their classes with the house-elves began. Julian and Dudley were both enthusiastic to learn more about magic, about Hogwarts, and about the elves in general. Every morning, two house-elves popped into their room, took one of them by the hand and apparated them into the huge house-elves' quarters, where they had prepared a classroom for the two human boys.
"Can you teach us how to apparate within Hogwarts and to make us invisible like you do?" Dudley queried one day, causing the two elves, who were instructing them that morning, to laugh.
"Of course, Master Dudley, Master Julian, we cans teaches you if you wants. It's very easy for us."
'That's absolutely amazing,' Julian mused as he invisibly managed to pop into the Gryffindor common room and back a few weeks later.
During the following weeks, the house-elves taught them everything they knew about the castle, how to talk with the castle, how to make additional rooms, how to tap into the castle's magic if necessary, and they introduced them to Hogwarts just like they'd do with an elf child.
Two weeks before the beginning of the summer holidays, Barney, the Head house-elf, made them do a test, after which he declared, "You both finished your elves' education. You have all the elves' knowledge in order to become a house-elf at Hogwarts if you wanted. Congratulations! During the two weeks until the holidays, you will help the house-elves do their work, and after the summer holidays, you will learn human primary school knowledge."
"Thank you very much," Dudley and Julian both replied enthusiastically.
'Human primary school knowledge is much more boring,' Julian thought sadly when he went to bed that night. 'Being a house-elf at Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad now, would it?'
HP
One night, Julian woke up in the middle of the night. The huge numbers that were displayed at the ceiling showed him that it was a quarter to three in the morning. Surprised, because he normally used to sleep through the night, he wondered what had caused him to wake up, until he heard a muffled cough from the direction of Severus' quarters.
'Maybe Severus is ill and needs help,' he thought, made himself invisible and with a snip of his fingers popped himself into his guardian's bedroom, where his trained house-elf instincts could sense the teacher.
Severus was lying half on his side, half on his stomach, clutching his pillow with both hands. His face was as white as his pillow, while his cheeks were deeply flushed, and Julian observed as small shivers were shaking the tall man's figure.
'He is definitely ill,' he realised, made himself visible and hesitantly approached his guardian's bed.
"Severus, are you ill?" he asked softly as he stood next to the man and carefully laid a hand on his forehead, noticing that he was burning up.
"I'm fine," Severus growled without even opening his eyes. "Go back to bed, child."
Julian quickly popped into the auxiliary room of the elves' quarters, thinking of what he needed, only to return seconds later with a thermometer and a cool cloth in his hands. Easing the thermometer under the hardly even resisting man's tongue, he gently placed the cold cloth on Severus' forehead, before he hesitantly sat on the edge of the bed, quietly observing his guardian's features as they waited.
"Thirty-nine point eight," he gasped as he took the thermometer back. "That's nearly as high as my fever was when I had pneumonia. Severus, can I get you a potion or something?"
"Yes, a fever reducer and the flu potion. One of the green phials on the fifth shelf from the top on the third shelf from the left side, and one of the light orange phials on the second shelf from the bottom second shelf from the left side please."
Julian popped away, returning seconds later with the two phials.
"Am I delirious, or did you just apparate?" Severus queried, blinking a few times.
"Let me quickly help you drink this; then you won't be delirious anymore," Julian replied, making a mental note to be more careful the next time. 'I am so stupid. We promised the house-elves not to show any human that we can apparate,' he mused as he gently helped Severus to take his potions, before he lowered him back into his pillows and watched the man drift off to sleep.
Knowing that his guardians always kept looking after him when he and Dudley were ill, and both of them had been sick frequently since they had come to Hogwarts, Julian decided to spend the rest of the night at his guardian's side. As Severus and Minerva often did to him and Dudley, he bathed Severus' hot face with the cold cloth every now and then, flinching back badly when Severus woke up with a jolt.
"Are you still here?" Severus croaked. "You should go back to bed; otherwise, you'll catch the wizard's flu from me, considering how weak your immune system is."
"It's all right, sir. You're very ill, and I wanted to help making you feel better. Shall I call Aunt Poppy for you?"
"No!" Severus hissed, apparently terrified by the thought of having a fussing Mediwitch in his bedroom. "Promise that you won't tell anyone that I'm sick."
"Well, I'll have to tell Dudley of course, but I promise not to tell Aunt Poppy or Minerva," Julian reluctantly gave in. He once more checked on his guardian and gave him his next dose of potions, before he promised to be back after breakfast and returned to Dudley's and his room to fill his brother in.
Julian and Dudley took turns looking after the sick man, and when Minerva instructed them to fetch Severus for dinner, since he had already skipped breakfast and lunch, Dudley kept the promise Julian had made and told her Severus was busy inventing a potion and had asked them to excuse himself for the whole weekend.
However, on Sunday morning, Severus' fever exceeded forty degrees, and the twins became very worried. "Julian, we should call Aunt Poppy. He doesn't get better at all," Dudley said in concern, watching his twin brother trying to cool down the man.
"We can't tell her. I promised," Julian replied in frustration. "Wait, Dudley, let me call Misty. She'll know what to do." He popped into the house-elves' quarters and hesitantly entered Misty's room, knowing that Poppy's personal elf was also the Healer for the house-elves. He quickly told the small elf about his problem, throwing her an anxious look.
"Well, if it's the wizard's flu and you gaves him the necessary potions, he'll be all right," Misty said thoughtfully. "Let me go and take a look at him." With that the elf popped into Severus' bedroom, waving her hand to check on the wizard.
"Yes, it is the wizard's flu, but he'll be fine by tomorrow morning," she whispered to Julian and Dudley as she once more waved her hand, spelling a considerable amount of healing magic into Severus' system.
"Thank you so much, Misty," Julian said gratefully, sighing in relief as he noticed Severus' features to relax significantly.
On Monday morning, Severus was completely healed and thanked the twins profusely, before he headed to his classroom to prepare everything for his first class.
HP
After breakfast in the Great Hall, Julian and Dudley popped into the elves' quarters in order to work with the elves during the day. During the previous week, they had helped cleaning the four Houses, washing the students' clothes, and cleaning the floors all over the castle.
"This week, you're going to help Suzy and Loony with the teachers' quarters, the classrooms, the library, and the Great Hall," Barney instructed them, causing Julian and Dudley to bow and follow Suzy and Loony out of the elves' quarters.
Julian and Dudley were still amazed by the convenient spells and tricks the house-elves knew to clean a teacher's quarters within five minutes. However, on this morning, Julian wasn't feeling well at all. His whole body was sore, and he felt hot and cold at the same time. At first, he tried as best as he could to hide from Dudley and the two elves how miserable he felt; however, when Suzy showed him a spell to dust the whole library with one wave of his hand for the third time, admonishing him to concentrate on the task, he felt so dizzy that he sat on the floor.
"I'm sorry. I don't feel so well today. May I take a short break?" he admitted in a small voice, causing the two elves to lean over him. While Suzy gave him a concerned look, Loony laid a cold hand on his forehead and gasped.
"He has a burning fever," she said to Suzy. "Call Misty."
Seconds later, Misty was at Julian's side, waving her hand over him, before she peered in his eyes and explained, "You obviously caught the wizard's flu from Master Severus. I'm going to pop you into your bed now, and then I'll call Poppy. Since you're a human child, she has to look after you. I'll still check on you from time to time." With that Misty popped away, placing Julian on his own bed.
HP
Very late that night, Minerva was sitting on the edge of Julian's bed, worriedly bathing his hot face with an ice-cold towel. "I'm very proud of you, Julian. The house-elves told us that you're both very good students and learned a lot during these few months since you came to Hogwarts in spite of being ill so often. I'm very happy to have two fine sons," she said softly as she watched the child sleep.
Suddenly, Julian cracked his eyes open. "Really?" he croaked. "You're proud of us?"
"Yes, I am, my boy," Minerva reassured the child, glancing into his glassy green eyes as she pried a few strands of hair from his face to gently press a kiss on his forehead. All of a sudden, her eyes caught a very thin line like a scar that belonged to someone else's head.
tbc...
Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I hope you liked this chapter too.
I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.