Author's Note: Hi. I'm apologizing for the shortness of the chapter, but this was the logical breaking point. Thanks for reading, MNF
Chapter 8:
Healing and Bad Habits
After the emotionally draining meeting with the Weasleys, Sirius took Harry home and Remus prepared them lunch. He was headed back to the castle; he did still have responsibilities to end out the year, including grading exams. After their brief respite, Sirius Apparated Harry to the address given to him by Amelia for their medical appointments. They were off the main road in Dovetown, in the magical district there. It was a non-descript door that had a simple wooden sign that read "Medical Care for All".
"Any idea what that means?" Harry asked Sirius.
"None whatsoever, but I'm sure we will find out," Sirius answered before he pulled open the door and let the two of them in. The office and waiting area were comfortably plush and quiet, gentle music playing and everything was in the refreshing colours of brown, yellow and soft green. Harry couldn't help noticing they were the only patients there. Sirius went up to the receptionist and checked them in and she immediately took them back for Harry's appointment. Harry felt he would be sick when he watched his godfather flirting with the girl who was closer to his age rather than his mid-thirties. The door opened and the healer came in. She stopped upon seeing Sirius she stopped.
"Siri?"
"Andi?" Sirius muttered before the woman flew into his arms and hugged him tightly.
"I'm going to curse Amelia when I see her. All she told me was that she needed space for two high profile patients, not that it was you," Andi muttered. After a moment, Harry cleared his throat.
"Right, your other patient. Andi, please meet my godson, er, son as of this morning, Harry Potter-Black. Harry, this is my most beloved cousin, Andromeda Black Tonks."
"Oh, the nice cousin," Harry said, sticking his hand out. "It's nice to meet you."
"It is an honour to meet you, young Harry. What do you mean about he's your son?" she asked Sirius. Turning to look at Harry, "You bear a striking resemblance to Reggie," she muttered the last bit.
"I blood adopted him this morning at Gringotts. No one can take him away from me. We're family, period," Sirius said with a wide smile that let Andi know Sirius was happy.
"That explains the resemblance. Goodness, my day is full of surprises. All right, Harry you're first on my roster, or at least I think you should be. You're skin and bones," Andi said authoritatively. "Up you go on the table. How old are you?"
"I'll be fourteen on the thirty-first of July," Harry said as he got on the table, removed his shoes, socks and finally with a bit of prodding, his shirt went too. Andi tried to stay composed, but the burn marks on Harry's limbs, the welts and poorly healed strips on his back and the bumps on his head were difficult to remain calm through. She was a professional, however, and she would do it. When she began her scans, however, she lost it and a few tears fell down her face.
"I count twelve broken and poorly healed bones, and three repaired by external magic and properly regrown one. I'm assuming the arm injury happened at Hogwarts?" Andi said, trying to focus on anything else.
"It was a simple fracture, but then Professor Lockhart," Harry said his name in a false hoity-toity voice, "banished the bones in my arm. Madame Pomfrey had me take that potion and they regrew, but it would have been simple if he'd not interfered."
"Who healed your ribs?" she asked.
"No idea. Sometimes I went to bed feeling awful and awoke fine."
"Okay, and the unhealed ones?" Andi asked softly.
"Most are from my uncle, although the broken ribs are Dudley, my cousin, and his mates. They…do I have to tell you?"
"Harry, it must be awful to relive this, but if I'm going to heal you properly, I need to know exactly what has happened to you. We can ask Sirius to leave if it would make it easier."
"No, he sort of knows already." Harry nervously waggled his feet and tapped his fingers on the bed. He looked at the ceiling as he spoke. "My cousin's favourite hobby was a game he and his gang called 'Harry Hunting'. If I wasn't the first one out of the school and across the schoolyard, I would be caught and beaten until I was black and blue."
"What did you do if you were able to get away?" Sirius asked.
"I ran to the library. I read anything and everything. How combustion engines work. How airplanes fly. Why dinosaurs are extinct. What—"
"What is a dinosaur?" Sirius asked.
"Think dragons without wings, although some dinosaurs could fly. Anyway, the earth was hit with a very big asteroid that blew up so much smoke into the atmosphere it got cold, and they all died," Harry explained. "If I hadn't found out about magic, I was planning on studying to become an archaeologist. Learn about past time and find evidence of long-ago civilizations."
"And Dumbledore wanted you to take Divination and Care of Magical Creatures?" Sirius muttered. "We are changing your electives. Someone as smart as you should be taking better classes and generally getting higher grades, but we can discuss that with Remus."
"So, all of these injuries were caused by your uncle and cousin?"
"No, Aunt Petunia hit me in the head with a frying pan when I was five, I think. I was really dizzy and kept being sick, and then something happened one night, and I was better," Harry explained. Andi looked at Sirius suspiciously.
"Well, I find that fracture," Andi said swirling her wand around Harry's head. "It was healed perfectly. Most of these injuries look like your magic put you back together. But this one was done by someone who knows the healing arts, as were the ribs. Interesting. What about this dark mass behind your scar?"
"There's a dark mass behind his scar?" Sirius asked as he got up.
"Yes, encapsulated, but it's between his skin and the skull. Flat, the magical signature is too degraded, but it was made by magic." Andi continued to do diagnostic spells. "Oh, it's, er, it's…"
"Andi, it's not—"
"It is. I don't know how."
"Shite," Sirius said.
"What?" Harry said, getting unnerved.
"It's just behind your scar, and it's dark magic. I think there's something there, left behind by HIM."
"He's in my head?" Harry asked. "Can you get him out?" Harry was sitting up and looking at his father and healer with panic in his eyes.
"I wouldn't risk it, I'm not that skilled. However, the goblins will know what to do."
Harry looked between the two cousins, and suddenly felt like he couldn't catch a break.
BB*BB*BB*BB*BB
Remus was back at the house that night, working on organizing the books that Sirius had pulled from the family vault, the library at Grimmauld Place, and trunks of books that he'd been a bit evasive about where he'd acquired them. Harry had gone to bed early, drained by the emotional upheaval of the day. It was a good thing, as Sirius stumbled in a little after midnight, drunk off his arse and smelling like sex.
"You've been free for how many days?" Remus said in a dismissive tone.
"Moony, my boy, it's been a long thirteen years," Sirius sputtered before falling into one of the hideous couches. The navy blue, turquoise and lime green paisley furnishings, carpets and matching curtains were destined for the trash heap. They'd tried to transfigure them earlier today, however this colour pallet was covering up a heinous orange and gold floral. Sirius was just going to purchase new items.
"Where did you even meet a woman? Man? I was never sure about you after Hogwarts," Remus enquired.
"Unless there were three of us, women only," Sirius confessed. "I met her at Andi's office."
"That's Ted and Andi's niece. She's only nineteen and barely has any magic, that's why she works in Andi's office," Remus scolded. "Ted will throw a fit if he knows you shagged his younger sister's youngest daughter."
"Hey, I didn't make the moves on her, Prudy Moony," Sirius said, using the dreaded slur from their school years. At least he didn't have Peter's nickname, which couldn't be repeated in any sort of decent company. "I asked her to meet me a for a drink, she's the one who polished off a bottle of Firewhisky with me and then all but dragged me to her apartment."
"You could have said no."
"I haven't had a shag in thirteen years! Do you really think I was going to say no?" Sirius said before looking at the pattern on the couch. "This makes me want to vomit."
"If you do, you're cleaning it up. I will not play nursemaid to you again. Why James did it for so long I will never understand," Remus muttered under his breath while dropping a bookworm infested tome into the toss bin. He didn't even need to open it; he just heard the little buggers moving within. Sirius was quiet for a while and Remus had wondered if he'd fallen asleep.
"Amelia said she wanted to talk," Sirius said softly. "I wanted to make sure Azkaban hadn't ruined me. If it had, there is no way I would…"
"Ah," Remus uttered, coming around to sit in the armchair across from his mate.
"Do you ever think about Marlene?" Sirius asked after another long pause.
"Yes, although it's not usually a happy thought," Remus admitted. "I know she was killed because she was with me."
"That's not why she was killed, and you know it. Marlene had a firecracker personality and said what she thought without thinking about what she said. Publicly calling Bellatrix timid elicited the reaction she wanted, and she nearly made it to our trap. Bella was just faster. Bella could cast the Cruciatus in her sleep. I should know."
"What about you, Linn? You ever think of her?"
"The one person who genuinely loved me just as fucked-up as I am. Yeah, I think about her and wish I'd sent her to her parents in Ireland. She was so determined to stay and fight, even though…she was everything they hated. Muggle-born, smarter than the whole lot of them and able to create spells without doing more than thinking… yeah, I think about her. Amelia was the one who pulled me out of that funk. We were getting along outstandingly and then. Well, a thirteen year hiatus doesn't affect a relationship, does it?"
"With you, Padfoot, probably not. There's a Sober-Up potion in the kitchen and I'd suggest a half dose of Dreamless Sleep, since we must endure the will reading tomorrow morning. We must be strong for Harry, because it will be murder on him. Outside of the three of us, Minerva, and Andi, I wonder who will be there?" Remus queried.
"Minerva is bringing Hermione and Neville with her. Hermione at Harry's request and Neville as he was named as Lily and James godson," Sirius said. "I spoke with Strongblade quickly about it earlier. Neither Dumbledore nor the Weasleys will be there, although they are named in the will."
"Perhaps whatever James left his cousin will cancel out Molly's debt?" Remus hypothesized.
"Maybe, but nothing is going to mellow Harry's anger at their theft except time," Sirius rebutted. "Come on, take the other half of the Dreamless Sleep so you're not grumpy in the morning. The alarm goes off at seven-thirty."
"Harry hates us," Remus sighed.
"No, Harry is excited to see Hermione, that's all."
"They aren't a couple."
"I claimed there was nothing between Linn and me until our fifth year too. Nothing wrong with basing a relationship on friendship first."
