Shattered Illusions Chapter Eleven: A Visit from Friends and the Headmaster.
Severus quickly sat down on the side of the bed and put his hand on Freak's shoulder and lightly nudged it. He saw Minerva out of the corner of his eye. She looked like she didn't know what to do, a deep worry was etched on her face.
"Come on Harry, wake up." Severus said calmly, "It's only a nightmare." Freak's screaming started to stop, and slow down to small whimpers. Blood mixed with spit started to drip down his chin, so Severus pulled out his handkerchief again and wiped it away.
"It's alright Harry." Severus said, pulling Freak against his chest. It took a while, but soon Harry opened his eyes and whimpered. "Alright now, Harry?" Harry blinked again and looked up.
"Sorry!" Harry signed quickly, looking panicked.
"Don't be sorry for having a nightmare." Severus said. "Can you tell me what it was about?"
"Don't remember." Harry signed, when wiped his tears away. Severus pulled away a bit and looked into Harry's face. "I never remember them."
"You have them often?" Severus asked.
"Almost every night." Harry signed.
"Why didn't you tell anybody?" McGonagall suddenly asked, getting both their attentions. Harry's eyes widened and he pressed himself into Severus' side. Both teachers noticed.
"Harry?" Minerva asked.
"Yes, Professor?" Harry signed.
"Severus, I cannot understand sign language, you'll have to translate." Minerva said.
"Oh, he said, 'Yes, Professor?'" Severus replied.
"Are you afraid of me?" Minerva asked. Harry shook his head.
"What's wrong then?" Minerva questioned.
"You don't like me. You get mad at me all the time, even when I don't do anything wrong." Harry signed slowly.
"I know Harry, I am so sorry." Minerva said, "I didn't know that you couldn't really talk, and I just assumed that you just didn't want to." Harry nodded.
"So were you telling the truth when you transfigured that piece of straw?" She asked. Harry nodded again. "Excuse me for a moment." She said and stood up, then walked out of the room. She came back a few minutes later with Harry's wand and a piece of straw.
"If you transfigure this into a needle I will go back and give you a grade for it." McGonagall said. Harry's eyes widened again and he held out his hand, McGonagall placed the items in it. Harry took the wand in his hand and put the needle on the bed.
He pointed his wand and scrunched his face in concentration. After what seemed like ages, the needle changed.
"You did that silently." Minerva said quietly. "I was absolutely horrible to you for nothing."
"It's ok." Harry signed. "I understand." McGonagall looked like she was going to cry, but luckily she held it in.
"You're such a forgiving boy." She said smiling. "I will go change your grade now, get better soon." Then she turned and left.
"Have you any idea how hard it should be for you to do wordless magic?" Severus asked after a minute of silence. Harry shook his head and looked into Severus' eyes.
"Full grown adults have trouble with wordless magic." Severus said. "First years shouldn't be able to do it so easily." Harry shrugged and looked away. He didn't think it so special, how else was he to do magic if he couldn't talk?
Harry was about to crawl under his blankets again, but his bladder decided to make itself known. Harry frowned and jumped off the bed, but decided that it was best to go now, instead of after he had gotten comfortable and didn't want to move.
The floor was cold on his feet, but he didn't have any socks or slippers to put on, so he ignored it. Quickly he padded off to the bathroom to do his business. When the door was shut and locked, he turned to look into the mirror, frowning again.
He could have sworn he put up a glamour last time he was in the bathroom, but now all his scars were showing. He shrugged and put it up again, then turned and did his business. After washing his hands he left the bathroom and started walking back to his bed. He didn't make it very far before Severus let up a frustrated sigh. Harry stopped mid step and looked at him worried.
"Harry, you need to take off the glamour, I thought we already went over this." Severus said.
"We did?" Harry signed, not remembering ever going over it.
"Yes, don't you remember?" Severus frowned. Harry shook his head.
"Well, doesn't matter, it has to come off. You're draining your magic." Severus said, already picking up his wand.
"No, please leave it." Harry pleaded. Severus looked at Harry, trying to decide what to do. After a couple of minutes he said, "Why don't I take it off, and I put one up?" Harry nodded enthusiastically. As long as he didn't look so gross, he didn't care who put the glamour up.
"Very well." Severus sighed, "You should not hide behind them though. The way you look is nothing to be ashamed of." Harry looked away, ashamed anyway, as Severus took his glamour down, and put one up of his own.
"Oh good, you're up." Poppy said walking in. "Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley are here, would you like me to send them in?" Harry nodded so Poppy left.
"I will take my leave as well." Severus said standing. Harry stuck his hand out and stopped him. "Yes, Mr. Potter?"
"Will you come back?" Harry asked carefully.
"Would you like me to?" Severus asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Very much so." Harry said. Severus tipped his head and left, almost walking into Ron and Hermione as they came rushing in; more so Ron though, than Hermione.
"Sorry sir." Hermione said politely. Severus grunted and kept walking.
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Severus stood out in the hall for a moment, listening to the three friends talking. He didn't know what he was feeling. Something was very wrong with Harry, but he didn't know what it was. Surely he shouldn't be forgetting things so easily? He thought back to when Harry came out with his glamour on the second time. Harry had said he didn't remember their conversation about it before, even though it had only been a couple of hours.
Severus wondered if Poppy really scanned his head very well, if she had, she would have seen something wrong, wouldn't she? Severus shook his head and turned to go to Poppy's office, he would just have to talk to her.
Once outside of her office door he knocked, and then entered when he heard her call out. He waited to be invited to sit, then took the plush looking chair on the other side of her desk. They sat in silence for a few moments, staring at each other.
"Would you like some tea, Severus?" She asked, breaking the silence.
"No thank you, Poppy. I won't be staying long." Severus replied. "I only wondered if you scanned Mr. Potter's head."
"Of course I have." Poppy huffed. "What do you take me for?"
"Well I was just wondering because he's been forgetting things a lot." Severus replied. "He came out of the bathroom with a glamour on again. When I brought it up, he didn't remember our previous talk about it at all."
"I will have to do another scan after his friends leave." She said, "Obviously I didn't do a thorough enough job." Severus nodded but even he knew it wasn't like Poppy to not do a thoughough job.
"Well I best be off, I've got potions to brew." He said standing, "Are any of your stocks running low?"
"Yes, in fact I'm just about all out of dreamless sleep." Poppy replied. Snape nodded and disappeared through the floo.
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"Harry, mate, what's going on?" Ron asked as soon as Severus was out the door.
"Yeah Harry, are you ok?" Hermione questioned. Harry nodded quickly.
"I might talk again." He signed excitedly.
"That's good, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed and sat down on the bed.
"Is that what that is?" Ron asked, pointing at the bandage around Harry's neck. Harry nodded again.
"Pomfrey cut me open and I'm not supposed to talk until it heals." Harry signed, then got a sad look on his face.
"Harry? What is it?" Hermione wondered. Harry shook his head. He knew that if he was able to talk again, it wouldn't come out right. He wasn't sure if he even wanted to be able to talk again, it was kind of embarrassing. Talking was different than signing. Signing seemed to come more natural to him, and he didn't really have to think about it unless he'd just learned how to sign a new word. When he started talking he'd have to really think before he talked, and try to remember what order the words went into to make sense.
"How are you guys?" Harry signed, wanting to know.
"We're doing great." Hermione said, "But I can barely get Ron to study to save his life."
"Hermione! Harry's in the hospital, how can I study?" Ron asked. Harry grinned as his friends started bickering. He'd kind of missed it, in a weird sort of way.
"It's been kind of quiet without you there." Hermione said, effectively stopping Ron in his rant.
"How can it?" Harry asked. "I don't talk or anything."
"It's well... I guess not really quiet." Ron started. "But it is. It's a different quiet. I think." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"So how did you get here?" Hermione asked. "Did you come yourself?" Harry thought for a moment, should he tell them?
"Remember when I had detention with Snape?" Harry asked.
"Yeah?" Hermione asked.
"Well during it he saw that I was wearing glamours." Harry started, but was stopped.
"You were wearing a glamour?" Hermione asked. "How? Why?"
"I don't know." Harry said. "I have scars…"
"Wait, are you still wearing it?" Ron asked. Harry nodded.
"I put it up somehow, but Snape took it down because he said it was draining my magic." Harry replied. "But he put some up for himself."
"Can we see?" Ron asked, Hermione elbowed him in the side.
"It's ok. I would, but I can't take them down." Harry said. "Do you know how, Hermione?"
"Yeah, are you sure?" She questioned.
"As long as you don't tell anyone." She took out her wand and they both gasped as they came down.
"Harry mate, what happened?" Ron exclaimed standing to get a better look.
"Pomfrey said that somebody tried to make me swallow hot grease." Harry said, "But I don't remember any of it. They're on my hands too." He held up his hands. "But I don't know where any of my scars came from. I can't remember getting them."
"Strange…" Hermione murmured, taking Harry's hand and looking at it palm up.
"It was worse before." Harry signed, taking his hand back. "My fingers were all weird looking. She said they had been broken and healed wrong, so she broke them and set them right."
"And you don't remember any of it?" Hermione asked, her eyes narrowing. Harry shook his head. Hermione was going to say something else but Pomfrey came in.
"It's time for you to go dears, you'll be late for supper." She said kindly. Suddenly Harry's stomach growled, he hadn't realized it was getting so late.
"Ok, we'll be back tomorrow after classes, Harry." Ron said and they both left.
"Alright Mr. Potter." Poppy said pulling out her wand. "I would like you to lie down while I scan your body." She saw the look of worry that Harry was giving her and said, "Don't worry, I just want to see if you're healing properly."
Harry nodded his head and laid down on his back and waited. Pomfrey mumbled some words of Latin and a blue light glowed at the end of her wand. She started at his toes and slowly made her way up his legs, over his stomach and chest, and she paused at his head. After a couple of seconds her face got a look of surprise, confusion, and her mouth went into a hard line.
Harry knew that look, there was something wrong, he knew it. He wanted to ask, but Pomfrey didn't know sign language, so he had to wait.
"You're mostly healing just fine." Pomfrey smiled. Harry noticed that she didn't say everything was good, just most of it. There was something wrong and Harry figured it was in his head. That was where she paused the longest.
"Feel up to eating some supper?" Pomfrey asked. Harry was about to nod, but something purple caught his eye, and he turned his head.
"Ah, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore said, coming out of the shadows. "How are you feeling?"
"Good." Harry signed, without even thinking. Dumbledore was looking at him strangely.
"What?" Harry signed.
"What's that you're doing with your hands?" Dumbledore asked, looking confused.
"It's sign language" Pomfrey answered.
"Sign language, why would he need to use that?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes narrowing. Harry got a sick feeling in his stomach whenever Dumbledore was near.
"Well he cannot speak." Poppy huffed.
"Oh really, I thought those were just rumors." He mumbled, not taking his eyes off Harry. It was making Harry rather uncomfortable and he squirmed.
"A word if you will." Dumbledore said and walked to Poppy's office, not even waiting for an answer. She huffed and called for a house elf to get Harry some supper, then went in after Dumbledore. When she entered she closed the door and crossed her arms.
"What's wrong with Harry?" Dumbledore demanded.
"Did you ever check up on him?" Poppy countered, ignoring Dumbledore's question.
"What do you mean?" He asked innocently.
"Harry. Did you check up on him after leaving him with those muggles?" Poppy demanded.
"I had people watching the house." Dumbledore explained. "Why?"
"That child is being abused horribly." Poppy exclaimed.
"Do you have proof?" Dumbledore asked calmly. Poppy looked furious. She went to her desk, opened the drawer and pulled out Harry's chart, then shoved it into the headmaster's hand. He scanned it quickly.
"This doesn't prove abuse." He said, handing the chart back. "Could easily have been a street fight." Poppy felt the fury rise and she glance down at the parchment.
"At the age of four?" She demanded, still looking at the chart. "At four he had a skull fracture. At three all his toes on his in his right foot shattered. You're telling me that a three year old was in a street fight?"
"No, maybe there's an explanation." Dumbledore said, "But until Harry can tell us, then we can't know for sure. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got somewhere I need to be."
Once Dumbledore was gone, Poppy plopped down in her chair and downed a double dose of calming drought.
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Severus was leaning over his cauldron waiting for it to change colours so he could add the salamander eye, when his floo went off, signaling someone was there.
"I'm in the lab!" He called, not wanting to ruin his potion. Foot step alerted him that the person arrived. He turned his head. "Headmaster." He acknowledged.
"Severus, I only wondered if you knew how Harry was doing." Dumbledore stated.
"Why don't you go visit him yourself?" Severus asked, putting the eye in and stiring.
"I found out something interesting today." Dumbledore said, "You didn't tell me that Harry couldn't talk, must have slipped your mind?"
"I thought you knew." Severus said calmly. "The whole school knows."
"I thought they were just rumors." Dumbledore replied. "So what else don't I know about Mr. Potter?"
"I don't think that's really any of your business." Severus frowned. "You obviously don't care about him."
"Of course I care, my boy, why would you think otherwise?"
"You left him in a home where he was abused." Severus said through gritted teeth. "And you want him to go back. You know what Headmaster? I won't allow it. He needs a home where he is cared for and loved."
"But the blood wards." Dumbledore replied. "He has to go back because the blood wards will protect him."
"You and I both know that they won't work unless the individual is loved by his family." Severus said, "And judging by his scars, they didn't like him too much."
"You have no proof that he is abused. You come up with some and I will remove him." Dumbledore growled, "Until then I don't want to hear anything more about it."