A new home

Chapter 18

The next morning, Severus woke up early, at around 6.30. He didn't really have a good night's sleep due to the guilt he felt for neglecting Harry. He did his usual routine and entered Draco's room to wake him up. Lucius had required that Draco be home before breakfast. The man and his wife had come back last night and wanted to have breakfast with their son. He told Draco to get ready and pack to go home. Meanwhile, Severus needed to check on Harry. 

As Severus opened the door, he saw the boy curled up, asleep on the bed. Now with some light shining through the windows, he could clearly see the tear tracks on the little boy's face. That only made him feel even more guilty. He approached the bed and knelt next to it. That's when he saw something really suspicious. The boy's pajama top was pulled up a little because the boy had been asleep, and there, where the pajama top wasn't able to cover his lower stomach and the comforter was also pulled down, was something like a bruise. Severus gently rolled the boy over to inspect more closely. There, it really was a bruise. Severus got worried. Where had he got it?! Did it have something to do with Draco? From the look of it, it must be severe and Harry must be in pain. Why hadn't he come to him for some potions? Severus wanted to come right into his godson's room and interrogate if he had done something to Harry, but he calmed himself. He was not going to jump to a conclusion, he would speak to Harry first. But now, he needed to get Draco back home.

Severus knocked on the blonde's door and came in.
"Have you finished?"
"Yes, Uncle Severus" - Draco said happily from where he was sitting on his bed with his packed bags on the ground.
"Alright, let's go"

After Severus had let Draco come through the floo and floo-called Lucius to make sure the boy was home, he stood quietly in his living room and sighed. It was really going to be a long day.

Severus decided that he wanted his healer to check on the bruise and see if there was anything else that he hadn't seen. He floo-called the healer and asked him to come over.

"Hello, Severus, how's everything going?" - the middle-aged man said as he came through the floo.

"At first... at first, I thought it had gone well, but just last night I realized it had all been disastrous."

Severus told Mark how the last few days went and the incident last night where he overheard Harry along with the bruise he found this morning.

"Oh, Severus" - the healer reassured him - "You have just made a mistake, and you're likely going to make more mistakes in the future. Don't think you have to be perfect in this. No one knows how to be a parent before they become a parent."

"But...but I should have known better"

"Don't beat yourself up, Severus. Just remember that a 20-minute talk doesn't erase 10 years of abuse. Having talked to him about how his relatives were child abusers and liars and how he deserves love and care does not mean he will be confident and no longer affected by his past mistreatments. Just be careful when dealing with him and you both will be fine." 

Severus only nodded.

Mark spoke again.

"Now, we need to focus on him. We will talk to him and make up for him later. But now, are you going to bring him downstairs so I could treat him?"

Severus nodded and came upstairs, the boy was still asleep. He slowly approached and gentle place his hands under the boy's arms. The boy flinched, even in his sleep. Severus's chest clenched tighter. The boy had lessened and stopped his flinching since the man found out about his abuse, but it seem he had regressed.
Severus gently lifted him into his arms and laid the boy's head on his shoulder. He also crouched down to take Bubbles and the Paddington blanket. The boy was going to need them. Then, he carried his bundle downstairs to the sitting room where Mark had set up an examination table.