Chapter 36
Chapter 35
The boys of course protested as Snape marched out of the dead-end alley with the shivering girl. Meanwhile, Harry herded the boys as they were adamant that they come with them and that they wouldn’t abandon Emma. The entire motley crew turned some heads when they reached the apparition point.
“Shit, our cloaks!” Harry uttered, realizing that they had forgotten to put their hoods up due to the urgency of the matter. People were staring, not just at Snape and the boys but also at Harry. He’d even heard someone close by whisper “Isn’t that Harry Potter?”
“Nah, it couldn’t be could it?” He heard another one whisper as they stood in line at the public apparition point. The line was moving fairly quickly and thankfully no one approached them to ask. Now Harry felt awkward. He was totally unused to the stares after all those years and was uncomfortable. It seemed that Snape’s glare was the only thing keeping anyone from approaching the ragtag group. When it was their turn Snape grabbed onto Rudy while Harry held Sam and wound his other arm around Severus’s waist while glaring at the gossiping wizards.
When they stepped away from the St. Mungos apparition point they were met with chaos. Not your normal hospital chaos, no. This was the type of chaos you’d see if someone offed a high-ranking politician.
“What in Merlin’s name?!” Harry exclaimed.
Emma chose that time to have a coughing fit causing her little body to convulse. Harry took one look at the poor girl and marched straight up to the receptionist. He’d winced when he saw that the receptionist was clearly swamped but Merlin-damn-it a little girl was very sick and needed medical help.
“Excuse me but we need to see a healer urgently,” Harry started though he never thought to be brushed off so rudely.
“You and everybody else in this lobby.” The receptionist retorted briskly without looking up. She put a form in front of Harry and said “Fill this out and someone will come to find you once everyone else has had their turn.”
“Is it as urgent as a little girl with severe pneumonia?” Snape’s voice was even though it held a tint of anger. “Her breathing is already shallow and she’s clearly exhibiting lethargy and chest pains from the continuous coughing.”
At Snape’s voice, the receptionist did look up and actually stuttered. “Pr-Prof-Proffessor Snape, Sir!”
“Ah, Darmoth. So this is where you ended up,” Snape muttered. “And is that dismissive tone anyway to speak to someone seeking medical care? Whether for themselves or another?”
“Eh, No sir,” The witch did not look Snape in the eyes. “I’ll, uhm… I’ll page a pediatric Healer immediately. Please wait over there” she indicated towards some free chairs near the receptionist’s desk.
“How the hell?!” Harry goggled once they were seated. The receptionist was pointedly avoiding them though they did see her sent out that summons. “She one of your former students?”
“No, though her brother was. She unlike the rest of her Slytherin family ended up in Hufflepuff. She had a peculiar knack for charms and wanted to prove herself. In third year she tried inventing a spell and ended up turning her best friend’s head into a donkey’s. Albus assigned me to find out the counterspell.”
“Which means you probably also read her the riot act,” Harry stated.
“Quite right,” Severus huffed.
It took approximately five minutes before a harried-looking Healer made his way over after the receptionist pointed them out. “Is that the patient?” the man asked. Clearly his voice sounded weary as if he’d just been through a whirlwind. Emma shivered as the pediatric Healer took her from Snape’s arms and froze. “How long has she been like this?”
“I am unsure. These boys had been caring for her.” Snape looked at the two young boys as if to say ‘Answer the man,’
“About a fortnight,” Rudy mumbled. “It had been raining a lot that week. Or boxes got soaked so we ran through the rain to find another shelter. Most of the homeless had already hunkered down in all the good spots and we were chased out. Emma started coughing after that,”
“Let’s go have a good look at her then shall we,” the Healer stated before turning to Snape as they were walking towards an examination room. The man let the girl lie down on the examination chair and said in a soothing voice as he cast his diagnostic spells, “Now sweetie, don’t be afraid. I’m Healer Prancher. We’ll get you up and running in no time,”
He frowned as he read the medical list for the toddler. “This is rather concerning,” Healer Prancher muttered. “Her immune system is rather compromised due to bad nutrition and she has a broken arm that never healed properly as well.”
“Ah yeah, when mum wanted us to stop crying she’d twist our arms,” Rudy mentioned casually which frankly seemed to horrify the Healer.
“And where is your mother now?” Snape asked a deadly edge in his tone.
“Dunno,” Rudy shrugged. “She kicked us out months ago. We met Sammy a few weeks later. He’d been beaten ‘cause he never did no magic and ran away,”
“Well glad you lot brought her in when you did. Given how tight her breathing is she might not have made it the whole week,” The Healer noted which caused the boys to stiffen. “Luckily we have the potions needed to treat her, though a full recovery might take up to a month. She will need constant bed rest.”
“But we can’t even pay for that medicine,” Sam whispered to Rudy but the adults still heard.
“Nonsense,” Snape stated. “You boys won’t be paying a knut. Just bill the Prince accounts for her care.”
“Of course,” the Healer stated as he went to fetch the necessary potions.
“We wanna stay,” Rudy uttered. “They aren’t gonna throw us out on the streets are they?”
“You two boys can stay,” Healer Prancher stated. “We have family rooms just for this sort of thing,”
“Then my partner and I will head home,” Snape announced.
“Are we just going to leave the boys here?” Harry asked confused.
“They are too determined to stay with the girl. Forbidding them from doing so and forcing them to another location now will only be detrimental.” the dour man stated in a matter-of-fact tone. Harry raised a brow. It was almost as if Snape might just offer a place to the boys later on. Or at least find a good guardian for them.
The duo left while the boys were watching the Healer like a hawk as he fed the potions to the girl. The evening was starting to creep up already. The meeting with the Malfoys had lasted longer than expected and then Snape wanted to make a detour to get more house elves as Tibsby couldn’t keep looking after such a big chateau all by herself.
What none of them had expected was to come face to face with Kingsley and a whole gaggle of redheads as they passed one of the exam rooms.
“Harry?!” Ginny had exclaimed upon noticing him. Harry cursed internally but turned to greet her. What he hadn’t expected was the wide-eyed stares from the others that accompanied her.
“Oh my…. You’re….” a spark of recognition came to Molly as she recognized Harry. “You’re the guy I tackled when I was a student!”
“You what?” Arthur exclaimed. Even Kinsley and Tonks raised their brows at Molly’s admission.
“I thought he was you!” Molly flushed. “You promised to take me to Hogsmeade on a date but then I heard from Terry that he saw you down at the docks snogging Felicity Greengrass!”
“Why did you believe Terry?!” Arthur retorted. “He’s notorious for stirring up drama!”
“Wait… Harry was already here when Mom was a student?” Ginny frowned. “I thought you just arrived,”
“You look…”
“Good for your age….” The twins remarked.
“In our sis’s words….”
“We’d tap that….”
“OH MY MERLIN SHUT UP YOU TWO!” Ginny turned scarlet as she whipped out her wand and turned on the twins. Snape glared at the twins as well while Harry also flushed.
Before Ginny could Bat-bogey-hex her brothers, Snape spoke up, changing the topic. “Why are you lot here?” He questioned with suspicion.
“We’ve discovered some… disconcerting information,” Kingsley decided to speak up while Ginny still gave the twins the stink eye. “It seems we’ve all been dosed with several illicit potions. Many of them compulsion potions. As Aurors we’ve had to report this to our superior which started the whole chaos you’ve probably witnessed in the lobby.”
At Snape’s raised brow. Kingsley continued. “Two high-ranked Aurors and a Ministry employee managed to get compromised due to these potions. The issue went up the chain within the hour and Madam Bones has ordered all Ministry personnel to get tested.”
“What’s more,” Tonks added. “It seemed for some reason Ron and Hermoine had extra potions in their system. Mild love potions,” Harry froze.
“Yes, the Healer took them away for further testing and purging,” Ginny stated. “That’s why we were waiting here. The healers already flushed our systems so now we’re just waiting on them,”
“Severus, Madam Bones might try to contact you soon,” Kingsley said.
“Wait? Is Severus a suspect?” Harry asked as his eyes narrowed.
“No, no, Mr. Potter. Madam Bones was thinking of employing Severus’s expertise on the matter. The fact that several other employees have also been compromised means that we have major leaks in the Ministry. Don’t worry. We already have a pretty good idea of the culprit though we are lacking in physical evidence,”
“Also Kingsley, it’s not Potter anymore. I go by Evans now. Hadrian Evans. Harry Potter has been magically declared dead at Gringotts,” Harry stated.
“I see,” Kingsley said with a sad hint in his voice.
“Harry, perhaps we can talk soon? There’s a lot we need to tell you.” Ginny said with some urgency. “Hermoine found out something disturbing about Sirius and your… well our Harry’s death. I’m not trying to get with you…. Honestly, I don’t know what came over me at the Hospital wing,” she continued. “You probably don’t know what happened to Madam Pomfrey. Don’t worry she’s safe. But….”
“Okay, I got it. Why don’t we meet a few days from now once all of this has calmed down. Just send me an owl when you lot are free.” Harry was dismissive though he knew this entire thing stunk of Dumbledore.
As the duo turned to leave Ginny called out “Professor Snape, wait. You did me a solid by getting rid of McLaggen who was stalking me so I’ll tell you this in advance. You might have been obliviated.”
Severus stopped mid-step and stared at Miss Weasley for a few seconds before nodding. Without another word, he departed with Harry trailing behind him looking clearly worried.
“McLaggen sis?”
“We would have…
“Dealt with him….”
“If you two got involved he’d have stopped for a week. I needed the big guns,” Ginny stated with her hands on her hips. “Who else would I ask to put the fear of a dementor into that boy but Professor Snape,”