Title: Lusus Naturae
Chapter: Chapter Twenty-One
Rating: M for McGonagall
Warnings: Abuse, Death, Bullying
Professor McGonagall did speak to the Gryffindors. Whatever punishment had been assigned to those directly responsible for disseminating the contents of his trunk across their dorm room had been enough to dissuade his so-called friends from a repeat performance. It did nothing to discourage them from ignoring him and making pointed remarks in his presence about their dissastisfaction.
"Ginny told me Mr. Weasley was subject to an official inquiry for harboring a fugitive. Nevermind that they had no clue that Scabbers was... Well, a man. He wasn't exactly a fugitive at the time," Hermione explained, revealing why Ron was so eager to join the rest of the Gryffindors in Harry's excommunication. "That and most of their parents think Black is still loyal to You-Know-Who. They're saying he saved you because you are too."
"Don't forget the Slytherins," Neville grumbled. When asked for elaborate he added, "Everyone knows that you and Professor Snape are, uh... Anyway, the Slytherins have been paying more attention to the others since you're off limits."
"What do you mean off limits?"
Hermione answered, "They have standing orders to leave you alone. From Professor Snape, I guess."
There were those in the house of Gryffindor who might not have bothered ostracizing him if not for the overwhelming majority who were intent on punishing anyone caught fraternizing with the enemy. Fred and George Weasley for one - or two depending on the day.
"Quidditch," Hermione offered with a roll of her eyes. "They think losing you as seeker means they can't win. I don't see the point in playing a game you always win."
"I can," Neville asserted helpfully.
For lack of a better plan, Harry and Neville spent most of their free time hiding out in the library where Finnigan and Thomas wouldn't be caught dead. The two were especially torn on whether they should ignore him or take whatever punishment McGonagall might sentence them to if they didn't on the nose. It left their wand hands on a short leash when Harry was around. Finnigan was just as likely to blow his head off by accident as he was to successfully cast a Jelly-Legs Jinx.
Over the following weeks, Harry learned just how much he had missed while hiding in the Staff Quarters of Hogwarts for the first term of school. He discovered that Care of Magical Creatures was cancelled the same day Professor Snape agreed to let him take up the elective. He managed to sneak to Hagrid's hut in hopes of finding out why, but the half-giant had been called away to the Ministry. Hermione later explained, Lucius Malfoy and the Board of Governors were taking Hagrid to court over Draco Malfoy's encounter with a hippogriff named Buckbeak at the start of the semester.
With Care of Magical Creatures off the table, Harry had needed to take up Divination to fill the newly opened slot in his time table. It went as well as could be expected. Professor Trelawney threw her trembling body to the ground and proclaimed for everyone to hear that a great darkness followed him. Harry had misgivings about returning. She was liable to break a leg if she fell like that every week.
Defense Against the Dark Arts had gone just as well. Professor Moody spent an entire hour lecturing on known Death Eaters and the rise of the Dark Lord. He seemed especially pleased to name several Death Eaters whose progeny sat in the Slytherin rows of the room. Draco Malfoy had earned himself detention with Professor Snape for cursing Weasley on the way out of class. Ron was still sporting patches of red-skin like an overly ripe tomato the next morning at breakfast.
All that to say nothing was going quite right for the student body of Hogwarts as they blundered through the second term of the school year. It took little effort for things to proceed from bad to worse for Harry Potter.
"I'll meet you in the hall," Neville hollered as he took off down the corridor away from Mr. Binns' History class, intent on making it across the castle for Herbology on time.
Harry wasn't certain the class was even on Neville's cirricular schedule for the day, but the lanky boy rarely missed a chance at spending time in the greenhouses of Hogwarts. Harry himself was less florally inclined. He gave Neville a wave which went unnoticed and strolled lesiurely through the halls, meandering towards the dungeons in hopes of catching Professor Snape between classes.
The Potions Master had been insistent on frequent updates, scheduled or otherwise. Harry didn't have much to say in these meetings. Returning to Gryffindor Tower had put a strain on their hard-won trust. He supposed the man was glad to be rid of him, given the disinterest Professor Snape showed when Harry bothered to complain about his housemates. They still spoke at length about his condition and supposed recovery.
Harry found he was not alone as he made a grave misstep down a dead end corridor that led to the Hogwarts Armoury. He discovered this when he turned around to head in the right direction and found his path blocked by black robes sporting crimson and gold ties. As if History of Magic class hadn't been punishment enough for one day. Harry tried to push past them without a confrontation.
"Potty," Dean Thomas greeted him with a playful grin.
"Dean," Harry answered in kind.
Seamus was standing beside him practically vibrating with excitement at their good fortune, having found Harry walking alone and in a secluded part of the castle. A cold confidence washed over Harry that was not his own as the two squared up to block his path, which helpfully belied his dread when fourth-year Cormac McLaggen stepped forward to round out the defensive line.
"What do you want?" Harry asked flatly, making a show of searching through his pockets for his wand.
"Making sure you're not opening the Chamber of Secrets again," Finnigan barked with a laugh.
"Duty to the school and all," McLaggen added with a similarly feral grin.
Harry brought his hands out of his robes and raised them in mock surrender. "I'm headed to a meeting with Professor Snape. He'll be expecting me." He had hoped the promise of another detention with the Potions Professor might stave off the attack. He was wrong.
Finnigan's face morphed into a mask of idignation as if Harry had said he was going to sleep with Seamus' mother. The Irish boy's wand hand was set twitching.
"I think it's about time Potter here got resorted, don't you?" McLaggen sneered.
"We should take him to the snakes where he belongs," Dean suggested.
At the first flash of red light, Harry purposely dropped his wand, much to the delight of his attackers. He took a stunner to the chest and toppled pitifully to the ground. As he fell the necklace encircling his throat flopped up and the weighted pendant cracked him in the forehead. When Harry hit the ground it slipped through an illusion of hair and off his head.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Dean shrieked, surging forward and then surrendering a step when he discerned something was very wrong.
"What did you do?" McLaggen growled, shoving the smaller boy at his side out of the way.
"I... it was just a stunner!"
The three crept closer to the crumpled hairless body in front of them, alternating between shoving one another forward and wanting to be the first to properly lay eyes on Harry.
"What's wrong with 'im?"
"Go get Madame Pomfrey."
"No way, you do it."
McLaggen huffed an angry breath and managed to gather the courage to take a knee next to Harry. He was hesitant to reach out a hand but he hadn't needed to. Harry coughed and shoved himself over onto his back.
"Bloody hell," McLaggen breathed, falling away and onto his arse as he took in the scale-covered skin of the boy in front of him. "Get- get away!"
Harry sat up rubbing his chest, feeling the magical blow as though it were forming a physical bruise across his ribs.
"Screw off," he muttered, attempting to rise to his feet.
McLaggen kicked out a leg with a yelp and Harry lost his tentative footing.
"Help," the older boy whined, scuttling backwards away from him.
Dean and Seamus seemed to gather their own resolve and leapt forward, wands raised to protect themselves as they scooped Cormac up under the arms and helped him to his feet.
"Freak," McLaggen spat.
Harry caught sight of his necklace discarded on the ground as that all-consuming rage bubbled up inside him again. His vision turned red. He retrieved his fallen wand and spun, raising it at them.
"Say that again," he dared.
"I told you," Seamus stuttered. "He's evil. Look at him!"
"I say we teach the freak a lesson," Cormac growled.
The tip of the fourth year's wand flared yellow as he cast a Bee-Sting Jinx likely learned in the previous year's infamous duelling club. Harry could have blocked it. Somewhere lost deep within his own mind Harry shouted the 'Protego' incantation, but no barrier sprung up before him. He took it with the same bold confidence as he had the stunner. He felt a heated flush sweep across his skin.
Someone cast another spell that Harry heard but didn't see. Convulsions wracked his body. He saw only darkness before he felt the ground come up to meet him again.
You're welcome...
The last of the seventh years filed out of the Potions classroom well after dinner that evening. Severus hardly felt the lateness of the hour. The few students who made it into his Advanced Potions class each year were generally hand-selected and the Potions Master took into consideration how likely a student was to annoy him or bore him to tears when choosing candidates.
Percy Weasley might never recover from his rejection, and the Professor delighted in it. It took more than book-smarts to master the art of brewing and he patiently awaited the day when he could refuse the likes of Hermione Granger for her disruptive attention-seeking.
Severus had only just finalized the last of the stasis charms on the cauldrons and was set to begin carrying them to the store room for safe keeping when a veritable miracle took place in the dungeons of Hogwarts.
Neville Longbottom, sweating and out of breath, flew into the room on a whirlwind of adrenaline and of his own volition.
"Come quick, sir," Neville panted. "It's Harry."
Severus dropped the cauldron he had gently slid from one of the work benches, splattering a violet viscous liquid across the cobblestones. He set out at a pace Longbottom had difficulties competing with, despite his abnormally long legs.
"What happened?" Severus asked, his voice leaving little room for arguments.
"The Gryffindors caught him."
The unlikely duo found half the school shoving to get a closer look into the Armoury when they returned. Professor McGonagall was close at hand staving off waves of nosey on-lookers. Professor Snape parted the sea of black robes through sheer force of presence.
"I didn't know if I should move him," Neville whispered to Snape, which went unheard.
A yellow haze of unearthly magic encircled Harry Potter where he laid sprawled out on the floor. He was yet again bereft of his glamour, leaving his near-iridescent scales exposed to at least the nearest of the students who had struggled to the front to get a closer look. Severus paused briefly to throw up a concealment ward behind him as he approached. Neville followed at a distance, thinking he belonged on the other side of that barrier and hesitant to intrude.
Whatever Longbottom might have stuttered out behind him as Severus encircled Harry fell on deaf ears. He was pleased that the enchanted glasses were still perched on Harry's nose. His inspection was then drawn to the red lines flaring across the skin still visible beneath the scales. The raised inflamation carved letters across the boy's forehead.
FREAK
Harry earned yet another three day stay in the Hospital Wing for his efforts. Madame Pomfrey promised a full recovery, whatever that might mean for someone with his condition. Professor Snape was furious, though it wasn't clear with whom. Neville told him the Hufflepuffs had fled the Potions classroom the following day, having been verbally disemboweled within the first five minutes of class.
On the day of his release from the infirmary, Harry was summoned by Professor Snape to a meeting with the Headmaster. He checked with Snape ahead of time to ensure it was a legitimate request - just in case. It seemed Professor McGonagall had gotten a similar invitation. She was eager to take part.
"This has gone on long enough, Albus," she said.
Professor Snape gave a lengthy rant about repercussions, citing that if the Headmaster didn't expel Seamus, Dean, and Cormac for the attack he was culpable in orchestrating it. Madame Pomfrey had supposedly supplied a letter detailing the damage done to Harry's person, not failing to mention the damage to his reputation.
"What if I was resorted?"
Professor McGonagall turned her livid glare on Harry where he stood in a corner of the room trying desperately not to stare wide-eyed at the proceedings. It softened only to a cool calculating degree when she acknowledged what he had offered.
"It has been done," she conceded, turning to pin Dumbledore under the same pressure. "On rare occasions."
"If it would help, I mean," Harry added quietly.
A vein in Dumbledore's head pulsated with an angry temper. He opened his mouth - presumably to refute that such a thing were even an option - but was struck mute when an older voice spoke above the rest of them.
"Only the Head of House need ask for a resorting," the dingy hat sitting discarded on its perch supplied giddily.
"It's settled then," Professor Snape agreed calmly. "Potter will be resorted."
A/N: Holiday overtime is kicking my backside. I may take a another break to ensure that this story stays somewhat cohesive.