Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Harry Potter world.

Chapter 11: Blood, flesh and magic

Harry walked up the steps to the entrance of Hogwarts with Lily, James and Sirius surrounding him on all sides. Ever since Lily had come home the day before and talked about Voldemort he had been closely monitored. At first he had found it nice, because no one had ever done that for him before but now it was quickly becoming old.

Harry shivered when he thought about the small explosion that had taken place yesterday after the red head's announcement.

After the initial shock, though, James and Sirius both clamed down enough to ask the same questions over and over again. Mostly Sirius kept repeating "how" while James pondered who the spy for voldemort was.

Harry didn't quite understand why everyone was so upset. Who was voldemort? What did he want with him? After all the Dursleys had always told him he was useless.

There where a few stray students in the hall rushing to get to class. One girl in green robes had dropped her books and was cleaning up the mess of ink and books.

Harry was brought to a somewhat sudden stop by a strong hand on his shoulder.

"You and Sirius take him over to Madam Pomfrey's." Said Lily's soothing voice "The tests will be preformed in the infirmary. I'll notify Dumbledore that where here."

"Sounds good." said Sirius nodding

Lily turned down a hallway and disappeared from view.

From the corner of Harry's eye he saw James and Sirius exchange glances before he was being lifted into the air.

"Hey!" He exclaimed as Sirius perched the little boy on his shoulders.

"What do you think of the view Harry?" James asked smiling at the look of joy on his son's face.

"Yeah, your taller than prongs now!" Sirius said, earning him a glare.

"I can see everything!" said Harry in awe before being bumped playfully by Sirius.

He squealed and grabbed the closest thing he could: Sirius ears.

"Owe, loosen up on the iron grip there superman, I need those." Sirius wined

They talked amicably all the way down the hall. Harry was enjoying making Sirius scream every time he messed up his hair and liked the feeling of importance that came with being high up.

Suddenly they stopped abruptly, Harry looked up from his current pawing through Sirius hair to see why. A man in black robes, that had a crocked nose and oily hair had just stepped into the hall.

Harry didn't know quite what was happening but he recognized the mood enough to realize this was no time to fool around. All three men where eyeing each other like his uncle Vernon did after Harry had done something notably bad.

"Hello Snivellus." Said James in a tone that would turn water into ice.

"Potter." The man spat

Harry looked up curiously. He didn't remember ever meeting this man so why was he talking to him?

The man glanced between Harry and James and smirked. "It's not bad enough that theirs one of you, Potter, now you have to start cloning yourself. What obscure little spell did you use? Surly not even the most intellectually lacking woman would not want to procreate with you."

"If I remember correctly Snivellus, you couldn't even pay a girl to go out with you at school." Sirius said back coolly "We tried. Wanted to know the one's that where worth nothing. Oh well, maybe it's for the best, you don't go that way do you Snivellus?"

Snivellus face was contorted and turning red to contain his anger.

"What are you doing here anyway?" James asked looking genuinely curious.

Snivellus ignored him. "Maybe your mudblood whore would shag you. It's not like she could get anyone who's decent."

James wand was out in a fraction of a second muttering a spell that made the man keel over to the side.

"Don't you dare call her that you stupid slimy little grease ball. Furnuncullus." He muttered making boils appear on his face. "Now we happen to have people who are waiting for us but I highly doubt that anyone will miss you. I think I'll leave you here to think about what you've said until someone finds you."

James shoved him out of the way and motioned for Sirius to pass.

Sirius made his way casually by with a disbelieving Harry staring back towards the prone figure.

They entered into the hospital wing five minutes later to be greeted by an impatient Lily.

"Took you long enough." She snapped

James draped his arm around her and she visibly tensed. "Calm down we ran into and old friend and stopped to chat."

"Yes." lily said sharply stepping away from her husband to glare "well this is rather important."

Luckily before Lily was able to get into full lecture mode Madam Pomfrey bustled in, with Dumbledore in tow, ordering Sirius to place Harry on a bed.

"Alright then, Harry, I have to perform several tests on you, but to do that we need certain things." The matron explained as she tugged off his shirt. She smiled approvingly. " You've been taking those nutrient potions I see. Very good then, please lay back. The first thing I need is some of your blood. Unfortunately there is no simple potion I can give you to retrieve this. I will administer a spell that will cut you, get what I need and heal you immediately." Harry nodded a little apprehensively Lily held his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "This should only sting for a second."

She swished her wand and muttered a spell making harry feel a sting in his arm. Madam Pomfrey than held a vile to the cut collecting the blood.

Lily's hand had tightened until Harry couldn't feel his fingers anymore. He wished she wouldn't her grip hurt more than the cut.

There was another swish of Madam Pomfrey's wand and then Harry saw the cut mend and a tiny vile of red was placed on the table by the bed.

" Very good Mr. Potter you handled that remarkably well. The next thing I need is much less painless."

To Harry's surprise she took out a regular pair of tweezers and took a dry piece of skin from by his fingernail.

"There now that wasn't so bad." The matron smiled and placed another vile with the sample of skin next to the first one. "For the last sample you are going to need to let go of his hand Lily." For all the wishing Harry had done about wanting Lily to let go he felt a small sense of loss when she did. "Now I am going to take a sample of your magical essence, not big enough to damage and it should grow back. Unfortunately you will be tired for several days to follow. I will give you a potion to help, but it will not completely cure it, I'm afraid. When you come for the results I would like you to come for another check up, just to make sure there are no problems because this is extremely advanced magic. Now, in order for this to work you have to relax and trust me. Just relax."

Harry exhaled and tried to loosen his tense joints as best he could, feeling nervous. Madam Promfey uttered another spell and a sparkly silvery mist appeared around Harry. "That's your magical essence, you have a lot of it, which should make for a fast recovery. You'll feel a slight tugging sensation."

Harry was feeling scared now, she was talking like he was going to be in bad shape for a while and like there was a chance of no recovery. Suddenly he felt a tugging that didn't hurt, but didn't feel good either. It almost felt like he was loosing a piece of himself. The mist disappeared and Harry instantly felt his eyelids drooping. Someone tipped his head up and fed him a potion. Another pair of hands put his shirt on for him.

"When should we come back?" came James's voice

"I will be finished the test's in approximately a week, how about next Thursday at noon?" said the headmaster

James agreed and lifted Harry into his arms.

They left the hospital wing and Harry saw a girl scrabbling to pick up her papers. They paused for a moment as lily helped her get her things in order, then moved on.

He tried to stay awake without much success and had just enough time to hear Lily exclaim about how glad she was someone had done the right thing and had righted Snape, before he fell into a deep sleep.