Bound by Soul

Cause for Concern

There isn't much in the way of violence, but certain discoveries are made. 

Severus was rightly concerned.

As soon as he'd seen Potter lying on the bathroom floor, unmoving, he'd felt his heart in his throat. The last student casualty at Hogwarts had been half a century ago, and while students were nearly always getting injured in some way, Madam Pomfrey could easily fix them up.

Once he had realized that Harry was still breathing, Severus had picked him up, and hurried to the hospital wing, Mcgonagall right behind him with her own student.

It had taken several minutes, and a strong calming draught, for Granger to calm down enough to tell then what had happened.

They were lucky to still be alive.

Granger's shoulder was dislocated, though Madam Pomfrey had easily fixed it, she'd insisted that the girl remain at least over night. Meanwhile, Harry still hadn't woken up.

Severus and Minerva stood off to one side while Poppy did one final check on Harry with a diagnostic charm.

After several minutes, Poppy straightened, frowning in concern at the student in front of her, before tucking him in carefully, then heading over to the two waiting teachers.

"He needs to rest. There doesn't appear to be any lasting damage, but I won't know for certain until he wakes. Blows to the head can be very nasty." She twisted her wand in her hands, looking over at the boy in question.

"That... isn't my main concern."

Severus and Minerva shared a shocked look, before Severus asked,

"Then, what is?"

Poppy seemed to think it over a moment, before she beckoned them closer to Harry's bedside. When the two professors were next to his bed, Poppy standing across from them, the school matron gently lifted one of Harry's arms. Rolling up the sleeve of his robes revealed fresh bandages, wrapped almost expertly around the upper half of his forearm. With a small flick of her wand, the bandages fell away, leaving the skin beneath them in full view.

Minerva's hand flew to cover her mouth as she gasped softly, while Severus clenched his fists, his lips thinning from how tightly he pressed them together.

Harry's arm was covered with small nicks and cuts, layered on top of pale scars.

"What happened?" Minerva asked, almost too quietly to hear.

To Severus it looked obvious, but perhaps Minerva simply didn't want to believe what she was seeing. Severus certainly didn't want to, but ever since the welcoming feast he'd had a bad feeling in his gut. And he wasn't foolish enough to think it wasn't possible.

It was... distressing, that Harry was still so young. But now that they knew, they could help. Trying to pretend it was anything else would be counter productive.

Poppy shook her head. Blood was already beginning to seep out of the most recent cuts again, and with a sweeping motion, Poppy conjured new bandages, which wrapped Harry's arm gently. The matron rolled Harry's sleeve back down, before she gestured the professors towards her office.

Once inside, she conjured a tea pot and cups for all of them, indicating the two seats in front of her desk for Severus and Minerva, who both sat down rather stiffly.

When they all held a steaming cup of strong tea, Poppy began,

"From what I saw, there are scars more then a year old. And while most of them are reasonably small, there is one on his left arm, that is... rather large." She turned her cup around on its saucer, running her fingers absently across the pale floral pattern. The worry on her face made her look older then her sixty some years.