Remembrance and Renewal by Nigel Tatsuya and Avatar Arkmage
Chapter Twenty-Two: Reckless
"Severus?" Albus called from within the fireplace into Severus's evidently vacant chambers. "Severus?"
It was curious. There were potion ingredients in uncovered containers on the counters, as well as a powdery substance in one of the mortars, its pestle still partially buried in it. The spoon in the simmering caldron stirred the simmering suspension in a counterclockwise manner, although there was no sign of any one supervising its actions. There were racks full of finished potions nearby, as well as empty beakers and vials waiting to be filled.
"Most peculiar." Headmaster Dumbledore commented to himself as he stepped through the green flames, taking in the scene before him. It was not like Professor Snape to leave his work area unattended, and would have in all likelihood tidied it if he were to leave for any length of time. The fact that the bicorn horn was only partially pulverised, indicated that someone had stopped in the middle of pounding it. Indeed, it appeared that both Severus and Harry had abandoned lab rather abruptly.
What if Voldemort had summoned Severus? Being that Harry was stubborn by his very nature, what if Harry had somehow followed his father?
Dumbledore walked toward the living room and found it similarly vacant. He looked to the dining area, and gasped at finding it unoccupied as well. No one was in the loo either.
The sight that greeted the aged Headmaster when he peered into Professor Snape's bedchambers filled him with almost more relief than he could contain in silence. Severus Snape was sprawled on his bed, looking completely exhausted. On his outstretched right arm was little Harry, using the man's biceps as a pillow, and holding on to his father's torso as though for his very survival.
Both father and son snored softly, and looked as though they were in the secure embrace of pleasant, peaceful dreams. Something both of them had been not known for many years, if ever at all. Albus closed the bedroom door silently, his eyes twinkling like twin blazars. Severus Snape would make a fine father. Little Harry surely would not allow him to be any less.
Albus Dumbledore gathered a parcel of healing potions and left silently to take them to the medical wing.
Dr. Payne staggered through his rounds, unable to elude the unfamiliar discomfort which plagued him all day. The mysterious blast he had received whilst tending Draco earlier, could be best equated with having one's insides imploding and exploding simultaneously. Try, though he did, Dr. Payne could not understand it. All he had done, was give the pale youth a flu shot. What happened?
'Might Draco have done it?' speculated the dazed physician. Draco did not appear to be a malicious youth, although he seemed somewhat strange, and had apparently never been hospitalized before. Indeed, with the exception of the mishap at the football game, the boy's medical records were otherwise blank. Where did he come from? And might Draco possess powers unlike any previously documented in the medical texts?
Two nurses found Dr. Payne less than two hours later just outside the door of the paediatric burn treatment ward. Blood trickled onto the tiled floor from the physician's nose and mouth as he lay unconscious on his stomach.
Severus Snape awakened, feeling far more refreshed than he had in a long time. Were it within the capabilities of timepieces to lie, Severus would have accused his grandfather clock in his bedchambers of that very offense. It indicated that only a mere two and a half hours had passed since he had put Harry, and inadvertently himself, down for a nap.
Yet, Severus could hardly remember when he had last had such a restful sleep. Not even during those times when he had been able to devote six to eight consecutive hours to sleep did he normally awaken feeling so rejuvenated. Today, his slumber had gone undisturbed by the low ambient temperatures of the dungeons, and unencumbered by the nightmares that ambushed him whenever he slept. Only the mirthful dreams were victorious today, and hope presided over his slow ascent to wakefulness.
It was a tenderest grasp from a child's small hand along his side that brought Severus to full alertness. Harry, whose arm was still draped over his father's torso, exhaled contentedly in his sleep, and nestled his head on the older man's upper arm. Severus knew he had to return to making potions for the hospital wing, and would have to check on the batch of antiviral potion still in the caldron to determine if it was still usable, but found himself reluctant to leave the comfort of the bed and the pleasant warmth from Harry as the boy snuggled against him.
He had always shrunk from direct contact with another person, yet Severus found that Harry did not make him feel the need to do so. All he wanted to do right now, was to remain right where he was. Severus, though he still doubted his abilities to be a splendid father, resolved to at least raise Harry to never fear his own father's hands. Never would he backhand Harry for making an error in judgement, nor would he strangle the boy for making a statement Severus happened to find disagreeable.
Severus turned and looked at the boy's, yes there was no other way to describe it, angelic face and silently vowed that it would never bear the bruises his own father had forced him to wear throughout his youth. He would strive to be at least half the father he had wanted to be that day when he had first learnt of the green-eyed angel's appearance from his now spell-damaged mother.
Leaving the exhausted child to rest longer, Severus crept out of the bed, put on his robes, and returned to the labs.
Severus was halfway through brewing a batch of muscle relaxant when he heard the soft pounding of a mortar and pestle behind him. He turned around and was greeted by his angel's supernal grin. The boy looked refreshed and pounded the bicorn horn with an enthusiasm Severus had never witnessed in the sixteen year old Harry. This younger version of Harry seemed to revel in working with potions, and appeared to thoroughly enjoy working on them with his father.
"Doctor!" A voice called through the haze. "Doctor!"
Dr. Payne opened his eyes. It took him several minutes to fully recognise where he was. He was on a triage table, a place he was more accustomed to standing beside, rather than being the patient being attended. He tried to sit up, but was forcibly restrained by two nurses.
"Are you feeling up to talking?" The Trauma Surgeon asked, adjusting the oxygen mask over his colleague's face.
Dr. Payne nodded, wondering where he ought to start, for he was entirely confused. The last thing he remembered before waking in the urgent care ward, was seeing to several young patients who had been severely burned in a terrorist attack at a nearby train station earlier that day. Dr. Payne lambasted himself inwardly, how could he, one who always thought himself as proficient and competent in his duties, faint just from treating burn victims?
"Try not to move," The Trauma Surgeon warned, gently restraining Dr. Payne as he tried to rise. "You've sustained extensive contusions to the inside of your chest cavity and at least twenty-five percent of your alveolar sacs have been ruptured...bilaterally."
"WHAT!" Dr. Payne rasped.
"You injuries are highly unusual." The Trauma Surgeon stated, palpating the confused physician's abdominal region. "Tell us what happened."
After about three and half hours, Severus noticed that the chopping behind him became slow and laboured. The boy was once again becoming fatigued. Determining that they had made enough potions that day, Severus began packing the unused ingredients into clean containers.
"You have done well," Severus commended awkwardly, though feeling genuinely proud of Harry's proficiency in preparing potion components. "You may prepare for dinner now, I will conclude matters in here."
Harry watched for a while, as his father ladled the remaining potions into the appropriate phials, stoppered them, and spelled the work area clean. " 'Kay, I'll have my bath now."
Severus nodded as he positioned the cleansed caldrons back to their storage places. When he returned to the main area of the lab a few minutes later, he was shocked to find little Harry there as well, sans clothing.
"Harry, exactly why are you sauntering starkers into the lab?"
"Uhm... can you help me bathe?" Harry asked bluntly.
"Were you a true five or six year old, I would not hesitate to assist you," Severus replied more harshly than he intended, labelling the vials in his immaculate scrawl, "but you are indeed a sixteen year old, surely you already know how to..."
"But I can't. Look at my hand!" Harry whimpered, his eyes watering. He held his hand as close to Severus's face as he could, giving Severus a clear view of the lacerations on his small fingertips.
"Harry! What happened?"
"Remember that day when I tried to help Madam Pomfrey and Dr. Chang heal you? Since I have the Interven...Interval...Inter..."
"Interventio Interferus?"
"Yes, that's it. Since I had that in my blood, when I tried to heal you, my fingers got these cuts."
"You were preparing potion ingredients all day!" Severus yelled, noting that they looked very irritated, and two of the larger lacerations were bleeding. "Why did you not tell me!"
"Because they didn't hurt as much during the day." Harry began crying in earnest. "I probably was too happy to be working with you to feel the pain as much, but when I washed my hands a few moments ago, it hurt so much!"
Severus choked, Harry's mannerisms once again reminding him of his own. The boy had completed all his tasks in the lab, and hadn't complained about his hand once. Sure, the elk hide gloves protected his hands from direct contact with any irritating substance, but surely his injuries would have ached after all those hours of repetitive motion.
"Very well," Severus nodded, berating himself for speaking so harshly. "I'll bathe you, allow me to finish cleaning the work area."
Severus cast a few cleaning spells on the floors and on the counter tops when he noticed that Harry was still standing there and still very naked. "Harry, why did you come out here starkers?"
"Because my clothes were dirty." Harry replied simply, shifting his weight back and forth on his tiny feet. "I didn't want to put the dirty clothes back on. And because I haven't had my bath, I'm too dirty to put on clean clothes. And besides, your clothes have so many buttons, I'd probably end up doing them wrong again." Upon noticing that his father avoided looking in his direction, Harry quickly added, "Well gee, I'm a little kid. It's not like I have hair down below or anything like that to hide yet, now do I?"
Severus shrugged, he was bereft of suitable responses. How could children, with their limited reasoning capabilities and lack of understanding of the world, render him utterly speechless?
"We might have evidence of psychic energy, and what damage can be done..." One of the physicians, who was on duty in the Trauma Department, stated into the mouthpiece of the telephone.
"Don't be too hasty." Professor Hopkirk retorted. "Our advice would be to investigate this further. This could be evidence of psychic energy, but the same could be caused by sophisticated weapon's technology."
The physician explained the whole case to the University Researcher, carefully giving out details while preserving the privacy of the all involved.
"Keep us informed." Professor Hopkirk said at last, hanging up the phone. She walked over to the fireplace and summoned a pair of wizards in auror robes and ordered the pair to get to the hospital immediately and conduct a thorough investigation.
Taking several deep breaths beforehand, Severus led Harry toward his bathroom. He wasn't really nervous, but was extremely uncomfortable with the thought of the task he was about to do. This was the famous Harry Potter, saviour of the Wizarding world, resident celebrity and the-boy-who-lived, after all.
Then again, this little boy was his son, his charge, and his little angel now flesh. Assisting with their child's personal hygiene was something parents did until their children could adequately accomplish the task on their own, wasn't it?
It had not been nearly as difficult as Severus had feared. Severus went to his private stores, and selected some non-magical herbs with anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Then, after removing his frock coat and rolling up his sleeves, he knelt beside the tub. He used his elbow to gauge the temperature of the water, and filled the bathtub for Harry. Severus then ground the herbs, added some to the bath water, and dissolved the remainder in a small bowl of warm water, which he set in a holder beside the tub for Harry to soak his injured hand in.
"Thanks, Father." Harry said, fully enjoying both his father's ministrations, and the comforting sensation of whatever 'potion' his hand was immersed in. Although his hand had ached with every stroke of his knife, scrape of his grater and crunch of his pestle, as he was preparing potion's ingredients throughout the day, Harry had learned from years of experience to hide any pain he had been feeling. The herbal water Severus had prepared was so soothing that Harry entertained the thought of soaking his hand in it all night.
Severus knelt beside the tub, and began washing Harry with a soft washcloth and mild soap. He took care not to rub too hard over the bruised areas of his small body, and gently patted over the boy's cuts. Harry relished the solace of being cared for by a loving parent. All during his early childhood, Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon had plunged Harry in bath water that was usually too cold, or sometimes too hot, washing him as hastily as humanly possible and tossing him out of the bathroom in a damp towel, often whilst he still had soap in his eyes, on his body, or in his hair.
"Lean back." Severus instructed, holding out a hand to support the boy's head.
Harry did as he was told, and Severus poured water into the boy's hair. Having never had short hair in his life, Severus added too much shampoo to Harry's hair, then proceeded to work it into a very heavy lather, with some of it dripping into Harry's eyes. To Severus' surprise, Harry didn't cry out, or even make to rinse away the caustic substance. "I apologise..." Severus hurriedly opened the tap, dampened a clean washcloth and dabbed at Harry's eyes.
"It's quite all right," Harry said, relieved that he could open his eyes without them stinging again. "You're probably not used to washing some one else's hair. Especially some one with short hair. I'll bet you had longish hair all your life, didn't you?"
Severus nodded. His parents had always had his hair cut to shoulder length, and depending on how long it was allowed to grow thereafter, it could sometimes reach his waist. As an adult, he kept his hair in more or less the same way, cutting it only when it grew long enough for the ends to come dangerously close to the surface of a potion.
"I got shampoo in Dudley's eyes all the time when I had to wash his hair when he was sick." Harry said, as his father rinsed his hair. "I think I had to do it like six or seven times before I did it right.'
Severus felt relief at that, and vowed to do better next time. ''Wait,' he thought. Was he actually thinking that he was going to give his son a bath again? Of course he would have to, the boy's hand was lacerated.
"Do you wish to get dressed or would you rather remain in the tub whilst I have my shower?" Severus asked, starting to unbutton his white shirt.
"It's nice here, I'll stay in the tub until you get done." Harry replied, really wanting to stay close to his only remaining parent.
Severus unstoppered the drain. Once it was emptied, he proceeded to fill it again, using his elbow as before to make sure the water temperature was neither too hot, nor too cold. He added a small amount of moisturizing oils to the water this time, and upon noticing that Harry had nothing to occupy himself with, he took out a few bars of coloured soap from a cabinet nearby and summoned a small carving knife.
"WOW!" Harry said, watching in wonder as Severus quicky carved a water dragon out of the transparent green bar of soap. "How did you learn to do that?"
"Your Grandmother taught me," Severus replied after several minutes of intense carving. He then picked up an opaque blue bar of soap and carved it into what appeared to be a muggle battleship. "She used to make me bath toys in the same manner."
"Oh my gosh!" Harry said, putting the dragon into the water. "It floats!"
"I would not make soap that failed to float. If one of the more dunderheaded prefects were to drop their soap into the large bath, floating soap would more easily be retrieved."
"Floating soap is really clever!" Harry commented as he eagerly pushed the ship through the water. "I wonder why all soap doesn't float?"
"Incidentally, it was a muggle who first made floating soap." Severus said, somewhat distracted, quickly turning a transparent pink bar into a giant squid. "Quite by accident so I've been told. It turns out that some one in a muggle soap factory left one of the churns running when they went home for the night. When the workers returned the next day, they made that batch into soap and discovered that it floated."
"So you made these soaps the same accident way?" Harry asked.
"Yes, I intentionally make soap duplicating the conditions of the accident." Severus said, handing Harry a black whale.
"So where did you learn to make accident floating soap so well?" Harry asked, making the giant squid rise out of the water, thereby ''scaring' the ''soldiers' aboard the battleship.
Severus nearly jabbed the knife into his thumb. "Your grandfather...I often watched him as he worked." Severus replied brusquely, throwing a marbled red and yellow fish into the tub, and quickly standing up. Just mentioning his father cast his parenting skills into question once more, and Severus quickly made his way over to the shower and began disrobing in haste.
Harry was confused. He could not understand why Severus had left so suddenly. Harry was about to ask if anything was the matter, but Severus opened the taps fully in the shower, the sound of the water hitting the tiles drowning out anything that Harry would have said. Harry watched as Severus finished removing his clothes, and noticed that the man's normally steady hands were trembling as he undid his many buttons.
"Where's Dr. Pain?" Draco asked upon seeing a female physician enter the room with his chart in her small hands.
"He's not feeling well." The doctor sighed. "I'm Dr. Gasket. I'll be tending you while Doctor Payne is out."
Draco nodded, and groaned at the name of the new physician. Apparently after patients died from the treatment of medical staff with names like Pain, Assault, and Slaughter, they'd need to be put in a Casket. If Draco didn't find his situation so scary, it would almost be funny.
He had to admit though, Dr. Pain reminded him of a really nice doctor on the ER show who was somewhat young and inexperienced, but was a good doctor just the same. For a muggle, Dr. Pain was not a bad fellow after all. In fact, all the staff at the muggle hospital had been very kind to him, and despite their strange treatments, appeared to do everything in their power to make him feel comfortable as his body healed under it's own power.
"I'm going to change the dressings on your wounds now." Dr. Gasket said upon completing her examination. She took out some gauze and tape from the cabinet along the wall.
"Uh...Doctor Casket?"
"Yes?"
Draco pulled up the hem of his hospital gowns, showing the doctor the bright green bandage, which was printed with smiling cats, that Dr. Pain had put over his injection wound. "Can I have bandages like these?"
Indeed, the only reason Dr. Payne had given Draco that bandage in the first place was because he had been stunned by the magical blast, and hadn't been thinking very clearly. Dr. Gasket could not understand why this teenaged boy would want to wear cartoon bandages usually preferred by very small children, but took out rolls of colourful surgical tape, gauze and printed bandages anyway.
Dr. Gasket looked at her handiwork when she was done. Draco, who otherwise appeared pale with his nearly colourless skin, almost white hair and white hospital gown, was indeed colourful to look upon now. He had chosen Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Wallace and Gromit and Hinky Punks bandages for his smaller injuries, and selected bright surgical tapes and gauze to dress his larger injuries. Dr. Gasket thought he looked silly, but in an extraordinarily cute way. Draco reminded her of an almost adult-sized child. Perhaps the boy retained a larger quantity of his innocence than most?
When Draco hobbled over to the loo and looked in the mirror after the doctor left, he thought he looked cool. Parkinson and Bulstrode would find him irresistible for sure, and Crabb, Zabini and Goyle would be jealous. He would not be at all surprised if they feigned injuries for the mere opportunity of wearing such lovely dressings.
"Captain!" little Harry spoke in a ditzy, very nasal voice. "There's a giant squid off the port bow!"
"Hard to starboard!" Harry ordered in as raspy and gruff a voice as he could manage.
"It's chasing us!" Harry yelled in the navigation officer's nasal voice again.
"Then shoot it!" Harry ordered in the Captain's voice. "Main guns firing on my mark! 5-4-3-2-1 MARK!"
Harry moved the giant squid in the opposite direction, "aaaaah ahhhh!"
"Hey!" Harry said, in an almost cartoon character-like voice as he brought the whale up to the back of the battleship. "Whacha do to my friend?"
"The same thing we shall do to you if you don't go away!" Harry said in the deep voice.
"RWAAAAAR!" Harry said, bringing the water dragon to the surface directly in front of the battleship.
"Aaaaaaay!" Harry made the terrified crew say.
Severus watched Harry play as he blotted his long hair with a towel. The hapless seafarers continued to bungle their way through waters infested with magical creatures. Harry had an incredible imagination, and their adventures, or rather misadventures, grew more complicated by the minute. To make the drama even more interesting, Harry even gave each saponified player its own unique voice.
Harry eventually noticed his father kneeling beside the bathtub, watching the 'play' in silence. Severus leaned his damp-haired head over the tub and watched as Harry sent the yellow and red fish in pursuit of the fleeing sailors. In his own voice, Harry turned to Severus and said. "Thank you so much! This is fun! You're the greatest father in the world, father!"
Although residual doubts still plagued him, the look of unalloyed adoration, esteem and love in Harry's eyes convinced him that he was at least an adequate parent. As far as little Harry was concerned, Severus was the best.
The number of patients remaining in the infirmary dwindled further with each succeeding day, in part, due to the ample supply of healing potions at hand. Less than a week before, Madam Pomfrey issued the healing potions sparingly, as they were already in short supply and she had no idea when the hospital wing would be receiving more. With Professor Snape back in commission, the potions were quickly back in surplus.
By the end of that week, Dr. Ayame Chang and the rest of the relief crew from St. Mungos were able to leave Hogwarts.
Only YiChung Chang, who had not responded to any of the healing potions, or the medical staff's interventions, and was not strong enough to be moved, remained.
The elderly wizard's breathing was very laboured today, and Cho could only watch over her grandfather helplessly as his human heart struggled to keep his massive body adequately supplied with enough oxygenated blood. YiChung would only awaken for a few minutes at a time now, and spoke very little when he did.
"Grandpa Chang?" Harry asked when the man awakened again.
The elderly wizard was somewhat startled by the pair of bright green eyes peering at him from just over the edge of the railings of the bed. "Oh hello, Harry." YiChung said weakly as he reached over to his tray table for the bright red box on the surface. "Have an almond cookie with me?"
Harry thanked the elderly wizard, and clambered onto Cho's lap to munch on the confection. YiChung took one as well, but could no longer sit up to eat it, so he merely nibbled on it as he remained on his back. "How are you feeling, Grandpa Chang?"
"I'm feeling every bit my..." The chestnut-brown eyed wizard stopped as if to count. "...147 years today, unfortunately. Be sure that no one hexes you whilst you're transforming."
"We'll be careful, grandfather..." Cho said, starting to cry once more. With her beloved grandfather weakening each day, she wept often, unable to do anything to help him, short of comforting him with her mere presence.
"Aww," Harry said, finishing his cookie and turning around to hug his one-time love interest. When that only made her break down even more, Harry patted her long, glossy hair. Not even that seemed to help.
"Where is your father today, Harry?" YiChung asked, looking as though he were about to cry from watching Cho.
Harry answered without thinking. "He's in the dungeon making potions again. I couldn't help him with any of it today because all the ingredients are magical, and because I got the Intervent– uh.. Intervento...uh..."
"Interventio Interferous?" Cho asked in a broken voice.
"Yeah." Harry said, turning around and facing YiChung again. "Because I got that potion in my body, I can't do any magic or be around any magic because it could blow me up or something."
YiChung merely nodded, a faint smile on his pale features, while Cho's jaw proverbially hit the floor. Did Harry just say his father was in the dungeons making potions! But Harry's father was killed...or was he? James Potter wasn't a potions master...
Surely Harry can't mean Professor Snape? But then, who else would be making potions in the dungeons of Hogwarts?
"So father told me I could go and play so long as I don't do any magic or anything else I'm not supposed to." Harry went on. "So I wanted to come visit you and Cho."
"Harry, did you just say your father was making potions in the dungeons?" Cho asked, the colour still conspicuously missing from her face.
"Uh huh." Harry replied, gratefully munching on a second almond cookie.
"Professor Snape!" Cho asked in disbelief.
"Uh huh... Oh no! I wasn't supposed to tell anyone that he's my father!" Harry covered his mouth with his free hand. "Don't tell anyone okay, Cho and Grandpa Chang? Father and I could get hurt if anyone bad finds out about it."
"Of course...of course!I won't tell." Cho said, still looking like she was in shock.
"Your secret is safe." YiChung said in a gentle voice. "One's family is above all else, most precious. We'll not say anything to jeopardize yours."
"Hang on," Harry said. "You referred to Professor Snape as my father...before we told anyone. How did you know?"
"It was easy, for I am a father myself, and a grandfather." YiChung replied, looking very sleepy. "I know how a father looks at his children, Professor Snape looked at you in precisely that way."
YiChung's eyes twinkled as he listened to Harry explain, using all the detail a child normally would utilise, how he had come to find his father after so many years. He strained to stay awake to hear the boy's tale, for he was fond of stories told by very young children. Alas, his body rebelled. Just when Harry explained how he had turned into a small child again, YiChung once more succumbed to unconsciousness.
Cho covered her face and began sobbing, both because of Harry's years deprived of parental love and because of her own grandfather, and how his years were apparently coming to an end. Harry, not knowing what else to do, threw his arms around Cho and just held her as she wept. He remembered how his father had consoled him a few nights before, and rubbed Cho's back in the same way, hoping it would make her feel better.
It worked after a few minutes. Hopefully he would find a way to keep her cheered up. "Come on Cho, I wanna show you something!"
Severus was not a man who would normally panic, and he was not panicking now, although this was near enough to it. He ran into empty classrooms, perused secret passages, darted through all known common areas, and even looked in the dark and dank room that held the Mirror of Erised. Harry was no where to be found in the virtually deserted castle.
"Child?" Headmaster Dumbledore inquired, appearing seemingly out of nowhere behind Professor Snape in the Astronomy Tower. "What is wrong, Severus?"
Severus pushed past Albus and looked in every direction before answering. "Harry's gone."
"What do you mean, child?"
Severus snarled. "Harry does not seem to be anywhere in the castle!"
"Have you tried looking on the grounds?" Dumbledore replied in his more matter-of-a-fact voice.
"He should have known better than to go outside!" Severus shouted as ran down the stairs, taking them three to four at a time. "Why would he be outside anyhow? He is unable to ride his broom."
Severus charged across the grounds to the Quidditch Pitch, notwithstanding, and saw that Harry was indeed riding his Firebolt. Or more accurately, Cho was riding Harry's Firebolt... with Harry strapped to her back with a crude harness made from the sash of her robes. No part of Harry's body came in contact with the magical object.
"Nose-dive! Nose-dive!" Little Harry shouted, holding on tightly to Cho's shoulders and bracing himself.
"Are you sure?" Cho asked, checking the integrity of the sash binding the little boy to herself. "This Firebolt is much faster than my broom..."
"Come on, Cho." Harry pleaded, wrapping his arms just under Cho's breasts. "You can do it! It'll be fun!"
Cho executed a move that would have stopped any parent's heart. She took the Firebolt in what appeared to be a freefall at top speed from the level of the highest goal post straight to the ground. When she was less than metre from the ground, she pulled the nose of the broom up and ascended so rapidly that Severus estimated that their bodies were subjected to at least two Gs of force.
Before the two seekers could possibly have recovered from the ascent, Cho executed a series of loops and banked on a turn so steep that both she and Harry were riding sideways. Cho then went into two full rolls before barrelling at another non-existent snitch, which Harry also reached for.
"Show me some more! Show me what you can do!" Harry shouted.
"More!" Cho gasped.
"Well you're a seeker too, just like me." Harry said, his tiny hands brushing lightly over Cho's nipples as he held her more securely. "Ah, but you're a Ravenclaw, you probably don't do many stunts, Ravenclaws are not brave after all."
Cho's cheeks went red at Harry's innocent contact, then a burst of inspiration hit her. "You think just because I'm a Ravenclaw I'm not brave?"
"Well, your house has people who are smart and all." Harry said, hoping that Cho would see this as a challenge and do something really cool. "But that means that you people play it safe and don't do stunts. And Gryffindors are brave, not Ravenclaws."
"You think I can't do stunts?"
"Well...uh...uh..." Harry thought. "No."
"I'll bet I can!"
"I'll bet you can't!"
"Can so!"
"Can not!"
"Can so!"
"Can not!"
"Can so!"
"Can not!"
"Can so!"
"Can not!"
"Very well, Harry," Cho huffed, looking over her shoulder at the young boy. "...hang on! I'll show you something worthy of a Ravenclaw seeker."
"Yaaaaaay!"
Withdrawing her wand from its holster on her leg, Cho did what appeared to be calculations in the air before her. Harry recognized the figures as a physics equation, calculating both velocity and gravitational pull. When Cho seemed satisfied, she turned back. "Ready Harry?"
"Oh yes yes yes yes yes!" Harry said, jumping up and down within his harness.
Cho fired her wand, causing a bright spherical energy field to appear a quarter of the way across the field, and several metres above the ground. After checking once more that Harry was bound securely to her, she accelerated and carefully stood up on the broom and walked backwards until her tiny feet were inches from the twigs which formed the broom's bristles. Balancing on the broom, she did a final calculation. Then, she gave the broom a firm kick, sending it careening toward the force field and causing her and Harry to plummet toward the ground, having nothing supporting them.
The broom rocketed toward the energy field, as though it were going to plunge into it. As Cho had predicted, the angle of the kick sent the broom to the field's periphery, its gravitational force causing the broom to slingshot around the object and sending it back to the precise trajectory Cho and Harry were plummeting.
Cho almost missed the broom altogether, but managed to grab it's handle before it passed. Harry had never done giant swings before, so it was both terrifying and incredibly exciting to be on Cho's back as the speed of their fall forced her to execute three full giant swings before she could pull both herself and Harry back onto the broom.
"Waaaah! Waaah! AAAAAH!" Harry buried his face in Cho's soft hair and bawled. The little boy had been literally horror-struck.
"Aw...Harry I'm so sorry." Cho said, reaching back and patting the boy's head. "Did you get hurt?"
Harry shook his head and continued whimpering.
"You wanted me to do a stunt, but I didn't mean to scare you..." Cho said, slowing the broom slightly and reaching back to hug the frightened boy.
"THAT WAS GREAT!" Harry screamed, squeezing Cho's torso so firmly that she temporarily couldn't draw a breath. He was still sobbing when he continued. "Do it again! That was so GREAT! Do it Again! Again!"
Although Severus had seen many horrific things in his life, this was arguably the worst of them all. He had seen enough, if Cho and Harry didn't cause themselves to lose consciousness with their suicidal seeker manoeuvres, at the very least, Cho would be washing the undigested contents of Harry's stomach out of her hair in the very near future. He tried calling out to the two house seekers, but could not be heard over Harry's excited squeals. Severus grabbed a school broom and kicked off, determined to give the reckless pair an earful. End Part Twenty-Two
