Undone
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC.
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thank you very much for the kind feedback on the previous chapter!
"Harry," his head of house addressed him, lowering herself to the edge of his bed. "My husband found out that being hit with that potion caused you to contract a certain magical illness. It's called Influenza Magica."
"What exactly does this mean, Professor?" Harry enquired. He knew that Snape had informed the headmaster about something earlier, but at that time, he had just been in the process of waking up from his coma and had been too drowsy to comprehend anything important.
"The Influenza Magica is a very rare illness mostly caused by dark spells," Rosie explained. "The problem is that every kind of magic, whether it's cast by you or if you're at the receiving end of it, will cause you pain. During the next few days, we'll have to see how bad it'll be. Perhaps you need to practise in class without your wand, thus without actually casting magic," she added, thoughtfully.
"I won't give up my Hogwarts education in any case," Harry replied in a firm voice that betrayed his shock at the revelation. "What about flying, Professor?"
Rosie sighed. "We'll have to see about that as well. Please wait until my mother or I allow you to fly, and I wish to be with you when you try it out the first time," she said in a stern voice.
"From my upbringing with my relatives, I'm fairly used to pain," Harry admitted, pensively. "Will it get worse if I, for example, keep flying although it hurts?"
"Harry, we don't know much about this illness yet, as it is very rare. However, yes, the pain might get worse and you might get fevers if your body tries to fight the illness that causes the pain. Please be very careful with magic and keep me informed," Rosie told him, giving him a compassionate look. "So far, there is no cure for it."
"What happened?" Harry suddenly remembered to ask. "Ronald threw something into our potion, didn't he? Is Neville all right?"
"Neville is completely unharmed, apparently thanks to you, and yes, dragon scales," the professor replied, grimly. "He has been suspended from Hogwarts until you'll be up and about and able to decide on a punishment for him." Seeing that Harry opened his mouth to comment, she added, "That includes a test period of at least one, maybe even two weeks, during you will check out what you're able to do, while I'm going to closely monitor you."
"I already know what his punishment will be," Harry replied, yawning.
"We'll see," Rosie replied, smiling, and carefully tucked Harry in. "Good night, Harry. Sleep well, and I'll come by later to check on you again."
"Thank you, Professor," Harry replied, "and please thank your husband for finding out what it is."
"I'll do that, oh and Luna and Gwendolyn said hello. They were waiting in front of the hospital wing, but my mother sent them away for the night. I'm sure they'll come back here first thing in the morning."
Harry smiled, as he allowed himself to drift off to sleep, dreaming from a blond girl with pretty blue eyes.
HP
When he woke up in the morning, he was not certain if some of the conversations that he had led with Luna during the night had been real or nothing more than dreams. However, he realised in surprise that Luna was lying next to him in his bed, fast asleep in his arms.
'When did she come here?' Harry wondered. 'Pomfrey would never allow her to sleep in my bed, neither would Dumbledore. As nice as she is, she seems to be as strict as her mother.'
When Harry noticed the torches in Pomfrey's office light and heard the healer bustle around, he quickly woke up Luna, who immediately sat up and took her seat on the edge of his bed, giving him a mischievous smile.
'Thank Merlin you're all right, Harry. I was so worried,' she thought to him, just when Pomfrey came around to check on Harry.
'I just hope she'll let me go,' Harry replied, smiling.
However, to Harry's enormous annoyance, Pomfrey insisted that he had to stay at least one more day before she would let him go on time for the weekend to commence.
All members of Wallace house as well as Sirius and Remus, his head of house, Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall took turns visiting Harry. Even the headmaster visited him and told him that Professor Snape and his wife, Professor Dumbledore, had offered to do some tests with him after his release on Saturday morning.
"Thank you sir. I appreciate it," Harry replied, politely, thinking, 'Thank Merlin, it's Snape and his wife and not the headmaster. I trust them a lot more than him.'
When all eight Wallace first-years spent the evening with Harry, Pomfrey finally kicked everyone out, stating that Harry needed his rest and was going to be released in the morning anyway.
'What a dragon,' Luna thought to him, when she grudgingly followed her classmates out of the room.
'Luna, can you please check on Itsy?' Harry thought back. 'I'm sure she misses me.'
'I will, Harry,' Luna promised, before she asked, hesitantly, 'Harry, do you notice that it hurts when you use telepathy?'
'My head hurts just a bit, but it's not bad enough to quit communicating with you,' Harry replied, firmly.
HP
It was much later the same evening that Harry woke up, when someone called his name.
"Potter!" a voice, whom Harry could not immediately place, hissed from not far away, causing him to lazily open his eyes and reach for his glasses.
To his surprise, Professor Quirrell, who had been stuck in the hospital wing together with him the whole day, was standing next to his bed. It was already dark in the hospital wing, and only two small torches lit the room just enough to enable patients to move around if necessary.
"Professor," Harry replied, sleepily. "What happened?"
Quirrell lowered himself onto one of the chairs and let out a long sigh.
"What happened to you?" he then asked. "Why are you here?"
Noticing in surprise that the professor was not stuttering anymore, Harry shortly explained that he had had a potions accident on the previous day.
"Are you all right?" the professor enquired.
"Yes, I'm fine," Harry replied, feeling extremely annoyed at the question. "Pomfrey is just being overprotective," he added, sighing.
"Do you have your wand?" the professor suddenly asked, causing Harry to stare at the older wizard in surprise.
"Yes, but…" he stammered, slowly trailing off.
Quirrell showed Harry his own wand. "This stupid stick doesn't work for me. Could you please cast a Silencing charm around us? I don't want anyone to eavesdrop when I tell you something important."
"I'm not allowed to do any magic right now," Harry said, hesitantly holding out his wand to the professor. "Will this one work for you, sir?"
Quirrell accepted his wand and waved it around Harry and himself, efficiently casting a Silencing spell.
"Thank you," he said, smiling, as he handed back the wand. "This works amazingly well."
"Excuse me, sir, but why does your own wand not work for you?" Harry asked in confusion, causing the older wizard to chuckle.
"It's not mine," he explained. "It was Quirrell's."
HP
Harry stared at the older wizard in disbelief. "Who are you if you're not Professor Quirrell?" he finally asked, incredulously, causing the man to sigh.
"It's a long story, Harry," he then said. "Please listen me out without freaking out, okay?"
"All right," Harry promised, slowly.
"I grew up in the muggle world and knew nothing about stupid regulations in the magical world until I came to Hogwarts, which was – of course – after my eleventh birthday. As you surely know, there's this stupid rule that wizards have to be betrothed by their eleventh birthday."
Harry nodded in confirmation.
"Very well," the older wizard continued. "As I said, I knew nothing about it, and only when I came to Hogwarts, I was told that I'm the heir of the Gaunt family and as such was betrothed by Ministry regulation to an absolute bitch. At that time, she was only about eight, but by the time she came to Hogwarts, she was already very much into the Dark Arts. Anyway, from the time when we both finished Hogwarts onwards, she almost constantly kept me under the Permanent Imperius curse, an extremely evil version of the already unforgivable Imperius curse, forcing me to do things which I didn't want to do at all."
"What?" Harry blurted out in disbelief.
"She did that over years, forcing me to become a dark lord, gather pureblood bigots around myself and kill innocent people, and there was nothing that I could do about it," the man continued in a grave voice.
"But why did you not report her to the ministry, sir? The use of the Imperius curse should put someone into Azkaban right away, shouldn't it?" Harry enquired, unsurely.
The older wizard let out a snort. "Unfortunately not, as the current ministry is and has been an assembly of pureblood bigots over years. My so-called wife has a great influence on the minister, who is not more than just a mere puppet. She's the one running the ministry, even if only informally."
He let out a long sigh before continuing, "Harry, I am very sorry to say that she also made me kill your parents." Seeing that Harry opened his mouth to reply, he held up his hand. "Please wait and let me continue first. Harry, I can't tell you how sorry I am, and I can only hope that you'll believe me. You can ask your mother about it, and she'll confirm that I'm telling the truth."
"You're Voldemort," Harry said, quietly.
"No Harry, I'm Tom. Tom Marvolo Gaunt is my name, oh well, in my former life it was Tom Riddle, but it should be Gaunt. Anyway, Voldemort doesn't exist. I'm going to remain Quirinus Quirrell for the time being as to not alert my wife to the fact that I'm back."
"Excuse me sir, why are you telling me this?" Harry asked, torn between anger at his parents' murderer and sympathy for the older wizard in front of him.
"I want to be your ally, Harry," Tom replied in a firm voice. "I don't know if you've heard about the prophecy yet." Apparently seeing Harry shake his head, he explained, "There's a prophecy stating that we have to kill each other, however, I believe that it has been made up either by Dumbledore or that bitch. Anyway, I think that if we work together, we'll be more powerful than anyone else, and I wish to throw over the ministry and build a new, less bigoted one."
Harry chuckled. "Tom, I fully agree with your plan of abolishing the current ministry including its most stupid regulations. There's just one problem."
"And that is?" Tom enquired, smiling at Harry.
"That I'm only eleven and barely know any magic yet. Just like you, I grew up in the muggle world and only got to know about magic shortly before my tenth birthday."
Tom let out what Harry interpreted as a sigh of relief.
"I know that, and I'm not talking about overturning the ministry tomorrow," he replied in a soft voice. "We have time, as much as we need. It's just that I'd like to work together with you. Maybe at one stage, I'll be able to take my real name again. The bitch has my seat of the Gaunt family in the Wizengamot, and I badly want to get it back, but I won't take any risk for the time being."
Harry remained pensive for a moment, before he nodded in determination. "All right Tom. I'll work together with you. I'm not sure how much magic I'll be able to do because of my potions accident, but I'll do what I can."
"Severus Snape is the best Potions Master I ever met," Tom replied, smiling. "If anyone will be able to help you, it's him. Anyway, I think that during the next couple of years, we'll have to do some research and plan everything very carefully in order to succeed. Please don't tell anyone about me and about this conversation that we had tonight. I don't mind if you speak with your mother though in order to fully trust me."
"All right sir," Harry promised, giving the older wizard a hesitant smile. "Excuse me sir, may I ask something?" he added, hesitantly.
Tom nodded. "Of course," he said, giving Harry a curious look.
"How did you manage to take over Professor Quirrell's body? What happened to you after you tried to kill me?"
"I don't know what happened at that time," he admitted. "I was a spirit and wasn't able to do anything about it until I met Quirrell last year. Somehow, I was able to join him in his body, and ever since then I've been planning how to take his body from him. I know that was the very first bad thing that I did on my own accord, but I couldn't think of any other plan. When by chance a troll entered the castle the other night, I saw to it that it attacked him. When he succumbed to his injuries, I took over his body."
"I won't tell anyone," Harry said, reassuringly. Even knowing that Tom had been wrong to kill Quirrell, somehow he could not help liking the older wizard. It was the way he was talking to him. He was very patient and explained everything in a way so that Harry could understand it. Harry also felt very sorry for what happened to Tom ever since he had to marry his wife.
"Tom, who is your wife? Do I know her?" he finally remembered to ask, however, Tom had already retreated to his own bed, and an instant later, Harry knew why. From the other end of the hospital wing, he could hear voices.
HP
Wondering if he should pretend being asleep, Harry turned to face the wall, however, a moment later, his head of house stepped around his bed.
"You're awake early, Harry," Rosie said in a soft voice. "Are you feeling better?"
Harry nodded. "Yes. Good morning Professor. May I leave here?"
Rosie chuckled. "I'm sorry Harry, but I did not come to release you. That's for my mother to decide. I just wanted to see how you are and to bring you this." She placed a box with chocolate frogs onto the night table and handed him a card. "It's from your housemates," she added, smiling.
Harry stared at the funny card, in which two cats were taking turns catching a Snitch, playing with a ball and doing a cat fight. All of his housemates had signed the card on the back.
"This is too funny," Harry blurted out, before he thanked the professor.
"Well, I hope to see you at breakfast," his head of house replied, before she left the room, when her mother approached Harry.
"Mr. Potter, I'm going to cast a diagnostic spell at you, and I need you to tell me exactly if that hurts," the healer said in a no-nonsense voice, causing Harry to nod, hesitantly.
A mere instant after he heard her cast the spell, he noticed that his limbs began to hurt again. However, it was not bad, and he told the friendly healer as much.
"Very well, you may leave then. My daughter and her husband will help you find out how to do best in class without being in constant pain. You also have to consider giving up Quidditch."
"No," Harry protested, horrified, giving the healer a puppy-dog look.
"I did not say you must give it up," Pomfrey informed him. "You must try it out, which would be the best if my daughter is with you. Until then, I don't want you to fly. Is that clear?"
"Yes Madame," Harry replied, inwardly groaning.
HP
To his immense relief, Pomfrey released him right after Luna showed up in the hospital wing and instructed the girl to take him with her to the Great Hall for breakfast.
His housemates were not only happy to have him back but also very upset about Ronald Weasley's behaviour, and the main topic during breakfast revolved around a suitable punishment for the Gryffindor first-year.
Harry listened in amusement, already having made his decision.