Author's Note: Scar arc is over with this chapter. Next chapter? Well the muse will decide what particular arc I take up on resolving Harry's life for this story. I have already chosen the unique point of view for the next chapter. Please take your guesses.
Chapter Fourteen Poppy
The fact that Harry Potter had somehow managed to avoid the hospital wing until January was simply amazing to Poppy. The healer was long used to the boy ending up in her care. Gryffindors as a whole ended up in her care more often than any other house, though the record holding current student was actually in Slytherin. Poppy made a brief look to the seventh year whose encounter with a pygny puff had some how resulted Garnet Farrell breaking his jaw and left collar bone, before turning back to the entering Defense Professor.
Professor Harry Potter had just returned to the castle just a little while before, and was dressed down compared to what he usually wore teaching. Normally he wore classic black robes with scarlet lapels. At the moment he was wearing what was obviously a Molly Weasley special, a scarlet jumper with the initials HP on it, plus what was obvouisly a very comfortable pair of black corduroy trousers. His hand was up against his scar, pains in it according to the Headmaster might indicate activity from You-Know-Who was ongoing.
"Professor Potter, what have you done this time?" Poppy asked, approaching and already casting diagnostic charms.
"Nothing, Madam Pomfrey! I swear. My scar just started to really hurt at dinner, so I came to see you. And you know I don't do anything to deliberately get hurt off the Quidditch pitch."
"Bloody game should be banned," Poppy muttered as her charm indicated that Potter's scar was swelling. "Get yourself to you usual bed. Since you're here without being dragged, I assume I can thank your new wife for the sudden burst of common sense."
"She'd kill me if I didn't come to see you, and I know better than to go against a pregnant witch."
Poppy examined the results of a second charm. "It seems that there is a growing miasma in the dark energy associated with your scar."
"It bloody hurts worse than it ever has," Harry said, his hand going back up towards his scar.
"Keep the hand away, I need clear readings if I'm going to counter that curse scar of yours," Poppy said as she started to cast a long string of spells designed to withdraw active dark magic away from him. Poppy had done a lot of investigation since she'd first examined Harry Potter's scar. Most of the time when she examined it, it was stable, and the few times it wasn't, it had cleared up naturally. Poppy believed in first do no harm, and this was the first time she'd seen the scar really active, not healing, but growing worse.
Poppy detected the scent of death coming from the scar, as it opened as a thick black line. The notes that the spells she was casting were that of a twisted soul, not a mostly innocent teen. She hadn't seen this since she'd taken that summer in Nubia. It was a black soul that had apparently been held tight and away by the magic of Lily Potter. That girl had been a genius, and was dearly missed.
There was really only one spell that effected soul magic, but Poppy couldn't cast it and still do other necessary magics at the same time. Recalling some tales from the boy's third year, she asked "Can you cast your patronus?" She'd heard it said that Harry Potter's patronus's form was a representative of his father. As she shored up the defenses that his mother had given him, she hoped that his mother's defense would be matched by his father's offense.
"I think so," Harry replied, drawing his wand from a holster under the jumper he wore. "Expecto Patronum!" He shouted through a pained expression. The spectral stag emerged from his wand.
Poppy noticed that an ooze of blackness was starting to emerge from the reopened scar. "In a moment, Potter, there is going to be a black cloud. Try to have your patronus bust it. Percusio!"
With that the swelling scar bust as if it was a pimple that had been popped. The liquid black ooze, no longer kept to liquid by the pressure of Potter's unique protective magic, flashed to a gas, turning into a cloud of blackness that tried to form a face. That face couldn't form before the patronis stag's antlers bisected the cloud again and again as the larger than life size stag raked trough it left, right, up, down, diagonally, and even in a tight arc. An incoherent cry rang out, and it was echoed with the sound of something dropping and shattering in the distance.
In moments the cloud was gone, as if it had never existed. The stag touched nose to forehead, right on the now slightly bleeding scar, and Potter replied, softly, "Thank you, Prongs." Then he collapsed, his vital signs now showing as if he had just finished fighting for his life and was coming out the other side.
A few more spells, and Poppy pronounced to the now sleeping Professor, "Well, Professor Potter, it looks like your brush with death came early this year." Poppy pulled the covers up to tuck him in, and went back to Garnet to give another dose of skelgrow to him.
Ginny Potter sat next to her sleeping husband in the Hospital Wing. She'd risked the Knight Bus to get back to Hogwarts, and she fully intended on giving Harry a piece of her mind the moment he awoke. At least this time he'd gone to Madam Pomfrey when his scar had hurt. Her brother Bill had accompanied her, upon overhearing the discussion over the flue, and was currently talking quietly with the school nurse.
Ginny moved to adjust the covers over Harry. He always moved enough to pull the sheets down off his shoulders, and then would deal with stiff shoulders the next morning. There was a bandage of his scar, and a strand of his hair that had been cut loose was right over his lips. As he breathed out, it moved. Ginny brushed it away. He looked so peaceful asleep. She rarely got to see him asleep. With the baby growing inside her, she normally went to sleep earlier and got up later. Usually she'd wake up with him holding her, his hand on her bare belly.
It made her feel so protected in his arms. Since she'd gotten pregnant, she'd started to really crave being in his arms. There was just something about Harry that she'd associated with being safe. She had really felt that from the moment that she'd been rescued at just eleven years old in the Chamber of Secrets. He'd held her awkwardly back then. He was a lot better hugging now. And kissing ... And well there was a reason she was pregnant. Ginny felt her cheeks getting warm as she sat back down.
She didn't know how long she spent in the chair, her mind going back to past encounters with Harry, letting the history play back in her mind as she sat through the night. Remembrances of the last summer caused her to look back at her sleeping husband with increasing fondness and a bit of arousal. Perhaps she wouldn't give her a piece of her mind. She leaned over to Harry and kissed him, on the lips, they were married, and with that bandage there, she wasn't going to kiss his forehead.
There was just a touch of light coming through the East Hospital Wing windows, and Ginny was almost in a half trance as she sat by Harry's bed, when he stirred. She didn't quite realize that he was moving, that his eyes were opening, at first. Not until he said, softly, "Ginny."
"Yes, Harry?" Ginny replied softly moving to stand again, something that was becoming increasingly difficult.
"Thought it was you," Harry said. "I need my glasses." She handed them to him from the stand next to the hospital bed. He put them on. "I think I need to clean them. They're a little blury."
"I figured that they might be," Madam Pomfrey said. "That scar of yours was putting pressure on your eyes. It wasn't causing all of your visual distortions, your father was near-sighted as well, but it was quite a bit of them. I've asked for a vision specialist to come in this morning to see about a new prescription for you."
"Thank you, Poppy," Harry replied. "Have you been here all night, Ginny?"
Ginny nodded, somehow unable to speak, as Harry snaked his right arm behind her back, keeping her close.
"She brought Bill with her, and that was a very good decision," Madam Pomfrey said. "It seems that the miasma in your scar was leftover contamination of You-Know-Who's attack. He thinks that he's found how You-Know-Who survived your mother's spell."
"Found it!" Bill said as he came back into the Hospital Wing carrying a blackened tiara. "Though I don't think it's all of it."
Harry sat up a bit, turning towards Bill. Ginny could see her husband starting to put things together. There was this way that his eyes narrowed, and the slightest of smiles started occur. It had not been uncommon for her to find Harry reading some books from the restricted section when she'd arrive at his ... now their quarters. "Horcrux?"
"Multiple, probably seven total," Bill replied. "I have the signature."
Ginny turned to stare right into Harry's eyes. As his eyes shifted to hers, and the look shifted, a slight downward look, followed by a tilt of the head. "Tom Riddle, the diary was one." She stumbled back into the chair beside the bed, sitting down much quicker than she usually did, and with much more force, due to the weight of her pregnancy.
"Is that why you brought that goblin healer to see me in the middle of the night when you thought I was asleep after my first year when we visited Egypt?" Ginny asked, rather softly.
"Yes," Bill said, coming over the stand next to her. "Mum may have thought you were okay, just having a little bit of nightmares, but you're my little sister. I knew you weren't, and you told me enough that first night when you woke up that I needed to do what I could to help."
"You always were the best big brother," Ginny said, as he placed his hands on her shoulder and began to kneed out the knots of stress that had built she had gotten word that Harry was in the Hospital Wing. "You've got to teach Harry how to do that."
Harry was glad to get a clean bill of health less than a day after he'd checked himself into the Hospital wing with the deep pain caused by the Horcrux that had been in his scar. As soon as he'd gotten out, he'd given Ginny a kiss, and told her he was going to check up on everyone, and he'd see her back at their quarters.
He'd practically skipped out of Madam Pomprey's care, down the hallway towards the Hufflepuff sett. He'd found Susan Bones, Zacharias Smith, Owen Caldwell, and Rose Zellar there, practicing the Patronus Messenger spell. Hufflepuff gained twelve points, before heading towards Slytherin.
When he'd entered the Slytherin area of the dungeons, he'd been set upon by the four leprechauns, as Fiona Faust, Ciara Connolly, Saoirse O'Shea, and Caoimhe Casey were called, who needed a bit of help with the homework he'd given them. It appeared that they had somehow transposed the name of one of the books he'd recommended. While Depart Forthwith gave quite a bit of advice on getting oneself out of tricky magical situations, Forthwith Departures was on an entirely different subject, and way above the level of the first years, though he could see Saoirse getting to that point rather swiftly.
Then there had been Greg and Vince, who had apparently decided to try Greco-Roman wrestling in the common room in Greco gymnasium attire. If he was not mistaken, Pansy Parkinson was rather admiring them as Vince pinned Greg. Still, the Common Room was not the place for that, so he took ten points from Slytherin, and advised them of a room he knew a few doors down from the Slytherin Common room that was set up for such feats of strength. Why the door to the room read "Festuvus" and featured a sliver plant pole, Harry had no idea.
A final check was made of Rastillion Gaul, just to make sure all of Slytherin was okay. Snape had stated that he didn't expect his students to be checked up on, given Harry's lackadaisical governance of Gryffindor. Snape didn't understand Gryffindors, in Harry's opinion. There was no way that he wasn't going to check on the Slytherin's well being during the three days he was in charge of the castle. He had to use the map, but he found Rastillion in the clock tower, carefully sketching the movements of the clock.
A check of the map lead him to not go to Ravenclaw tower, as Luna wasn't there. In Gryffindor Tower, he found Ruth Peterson still sitting in the corner table that had been her position in the Common Room since he had stripped her of her prefecture. He'd immediately sent her to lunch, with orders to have some fun instead of brooding. Her parents hadn't let her come home for the family Yule celebrations, as a family punishment for losing that prefect badge. Harry figured that enough was enough, and planned to visit her parents as soon as he had time. He might need to put Ron on the matter. He certainly wasn't going to have Ginny deal with her predecessor. That way was madness.
He found Walden Robins in the second year dorms, working on some origami, and promised some more paper, before sending him to join his fellow second year, Nelsey Gorman, just coming down from the girl's side. Harry could go up those stairs now that he was Head of House, but had only done it once since the first term had begun, to get Elizabeth after a particularly bad day.
Only then did he return to his quarters, finding Ginny seated in a chair, in front of Luna, staring at him. Harry wasn't sure that he had ever seen Ginny give anyone quite such a glare. A glace over her head at Luna revealed that the Ravenclaw and best friend of his wife was rather amused. At least that was how Harry interpreted Luna's smile and slight leftward tilt of her head.
"Harry ... James ... Potter," Ginny growled. He had no idea why she was mad. "What did I say about ending up in critical condition in the Hospital Wing?"
"If I got hurt, I better get there before it gets bad enough to stay overnight, if it all possible," Harry said. "And I tried."
"As I was trying to tell you, Ginny, there is no way he could have known that his scar was about to expire," Luna said.
"I hate when you make sense, Luna," Ginny said, looking downward. "I'm trying to be mad at Harry for getting hurt and leaving the hospital wing before I could personally make sure he was okay."
Harry tried to meet Ginny's eyes, but she was steadfastly staring downward, something that Harry found more awkward and vexing than when she'd started with that stare. The stare, burning into him, he was familiar with, and had coping methods for. Not that he really felt right using what he'd used to deal with Aunt Petunia to deal with his wife.
He needed to meet Ginny's eyes, to somehow convey that he was sorry for leaving her, even if it was due to duty. At the very least, he could have told her what he was doing, instead of just planting a kiss on her cheek and leaving. He kneeled, attempting to get in her line of sight. He was rewarded with a glare, which he returned with the most sorrowful expression he could manage. It wasn't something he was practiced in, but it was something that Dudley had been, so he had at least one example.
Ginny tried to keep her expression, but Harry could tell that she was breaking. Several times her expression needed to be reenforced. Finally she broke, into laughter, and Harry felt relief.
"You look ridiculous with that expression, Harry," she said. "Where did you get the idea to try that? It's comical!"
"Dudley," Harry replied simply, smiling.
"Oh, that explains so much," Ginny said. "I'm going to have to teach you and Elizabeth the proper puppy dog look. Mum says that if you can't do it, you have no immunity to it, and both of you are going to need that immunity."
"Maybe," Harry said. "Sorry for getting out of the hospital wing so quickly. I kind of wanted to get everything I knew I had to do done as quickly as possible so I could spend a little more time with you without worrying about what was going on in the Common Rooms. Now that I know Luna is fine, my time is yours again."
"So, Luna was your last to check up on?" Ginny said.
"She's alone in Ravenclaw over the holidays this year, so I figured she was less likely to have issues then say, the Leprechauns of Slytherin."
"Oh, Harry, you have no idea how much trouble Luna and I can get into," Ginny said.
Harry spared a glance at Luna, and found her nodding with a big grin. Somehow he knew he was about to find out. "Then my question is, which of you is the restraining influence, or is it a case where putting the two of you together is a recipe for trouble."
"Do you really think I'd answer that question?" Ginny said with a big smile.