"Poppy? I was told to head here immediately, something about Harry?" Minerva said, sweeping through the Hospital Wing doors, her smart robes billowing out behind her as she worked, her eyes filled with worry.
"Yes, I told Melissa most of it to tell Sprout, but I have discovered more since, come here." Mme Pomfrey said, waving Minerva over with her free hand.
"What happened to him?" Minerva asked, she knew there was at least something wrong with Harry from the moment she first saw him today. He was so small, skinny and undeveloped, not to mention how pale and scared he looked. If she hadn't known Lily and James then it would be arguable that it was Harry's genetics, but she did, and both were taller than average, in fact, Lily had started puberty early, and James at a pretty average time, but Harry looked 6.
"If it's a type of abuse it happened to him, his magic is strong, but it's pretty much all that's keeping him together." Poppy explained, still casting as many healing spells as she could, some repeatedly, as Minerva walked over. "But look at this."
Mme Pomfrey was pointing at an injury on Harry's leg, it was a rather large bite that was red and angry, but already scabbed over. It wasn't a human bite, nor a dog's, it was clearly the bite of a werewolf. It was probably new enough that there hadn't been a full moon since, but it did beg the question as to how Harry had gotten bitten. He lived in a solely muggle neighbourhood, so it was unlikely that a local was a werewolf, besides, he should have been inside when the full moon was out and there had been no werewolf attacks on muggle homes in many years.
"I'll contact Lupin, hopefully he can help, with this situation if nothing else. I'm pretty sure Lily and James were going to make him godfather of the next child, so unfortunately he isn't Harry's godfather, but he probably knows who all his godparents are." McGonagall said, sitting down heavily on the chair beside Harry's bed.
"This isn't your fault." Mme Pomfrey said gently, turning slightly to look at Minerva's crumpled and heartbroken face.
"I knew he would be treated poorly there, I knew it was the wrong place for him, but I never went to collect him, I didn't wait for Dumbledore to leave and take him home. I never even insisted they opened James and Lily's wills. I could have stopped all this." Minerva whispered, tears starting to fill her eyes.
"You were assured he would be fine, and Dumbledore wouldn't leave until you did. You have been so busy that you couldn't go for him or check up on him. This isn't your fault, it's Dumbledore's." Poppy said, wrapping an arm around Minerva's shoulders.
"I could have at least told Remus to check in on him regularly, or try to get Sirius a trial. I refuse to believe he would betray Lily and James, he loved them like his own siblings, they helped him through the loss of his little brother, how could he ever hand them over to You-Know-Who?" Minerva said, the sadness in her eyes being joined by a burning anger.
"You've been practically run off your feet these past 10 years, and Remus was prevented from seeing Harry because of him being a werewolf and being deemed too dangerous, but obviously that didn't protect him. You don't have the power to call a trial." Poppy reassured her, rubbing Minerva's back in a way she hoped was comforting.
"How long until Harry wakes up?" Minerva asked, trying to pull herself together.
"Tomorrow, probably around lunch, but it does vary quite wildly." Poppy said, turning her attention back to the sleeping boy. "When's full moon?"
"In three days." Minerva answered without even pausing to think about it, she had gotten used to tracking the full moon for Remus, and old habits die hard, especially when you don't really want them to.
"That's not enough time for him to take the wolfsbane potion." Poppy said quietly while chewing her lip in worry. "I guess the Shrieking Shack will have another user for a while."
"Hopefully not for long. It's better now we have the wolfsbane potion so he can stay sane, but his first transformation will be hard." Minerva said, leaning forwards to brush some of Harry's hair out of his face, not that it seemed to be bothering him, even though he was asleep.
"He may end up liking being there while transformed anyway, it's a place for him to explore which is safe and few to nobody can enter." Poppy said, sounding a little hopeful.
"He'll have to spend his first transformation there, and it's the place Remus suffered in for years before the others started sneaking out to be with him." Minerva said, feeling sick at the idea Harry could enjoy running around a building with such a dark past.
"I'm honestly shocked none of them got bitten." Poppy said with a slight, still somewhat fearful laugh as she remembered the many trips to the Hospital Wing after the full moon, Sirius and/or James often being scratched fairly badly. Peter was never actually injured, but he was often tired and once or twice had strained a leg or arm.
"Do you think we were wrong for not telling the Ministry that they're almost all animagi?" Minerva asked, of course she knew the others were animagi, how could she not? All their 'purely hypothetical' questions about animagi, and their unusually long period of silence.
"I don't think so, it's not like Sirius used it to evade them and he's probably a big animal if he was able to keep a werewolf in check and prevent himself and the others from getting bitten, it's highly unlikely his Animagus ability will get him out of Azkaban. Even if we tell them about Peter being one they're sure Sirius killed him." Poppy said with a small shrug. To be honest, she didn't know what animal Sirius or the others were, but if she was sure of anything it was that Sirius wouldn't have killed James or Lily, and if he did kill Peter then he must have been the traitor, but it still felt unlikely he would kill one of his close friends.
"I'll go write to Remus, I doubt he's reject the request, I'll even pay him from my pay if he needs it and I can't convince Dumbledore." Minerva said, getting up and stretching her arms above her head briefly, the light outside faded to almost nothing.
"Pay him?" Poppy asked, taken aback, she thought Remus was just going to be there for a visit, give Harry a bit of advice, and go home again.
"Yeah, to help Harry regularly. His main job will be to keep an eye on him while they're both transformed and protect him, so they don't have to stay in the shack. When it's not the full moon he can still help, here if with nothing else. Fate knows we need someone to be free for supply." Minerva said, sweeping to the door again, although not quite as elegantly as she had entered, pretty tired by this point.
"Of course I could use the help, especially when the apparition lessons start, but are you sure he'll agree to come? He probably has his own life that he can't just drop at a moment's notice." Poppy said, but Minerva didn't give her a response, she didn't even look over her shoulder at her.
-----
Ron didn't really know why he liked the small dark haired kid who had been stuck with Malfoy since they got off the train, but he did. The small boy was pretty cute, and after talking a little, mostly Ron talking and him listening, Ron felt pretty protective of him. It didn't really matter if they were the same age, but this boy was now his little brother, and he would fight anyone who said otherwise.
Was he annoyed that Malfoy was sticking around his new little brother? Of course, but it seemed it was too late for him to convince the boy that the Malfoys weren't good people to be friends with. This was only confirmed when Ron made fun of Draco getting in Slytherin and the boy elbowing him, but it wasn't hard. Ron hoped that, to some extent, the kid already liked him, after all, this wasn't exactly unlike how Fred, George, Bill, Charley, Ginny, and he showed affection, and he admitted he was being a bit rude.
It was shocking, to say the least, that the small boy that Ron had just decided to adopt as his little brother was Harry Potter.
The Harry Potter.
He was put in Hufflepuff, which was both surprising and seemed natural. It seemed odd for Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, the one who defeated You-Know-Who, to not be in Gryffindor, but at the same time from what Ron knew about Harry, it was definitely best for him to be in Hufflepuff. He just hoped they could both still be friends.
Ron was put in Gryffindor pretty quickly, but nowhere near as quickly as Draco had been put in Slytherin. Ron was glad that Harry wasn't put in Slytherin himself, if he had their chances of remaining friends or becoming closer were slim to none, but while Hufflepuffs are notoriously close to Slytherin, it's not like they're against becoming friends with other houses.
He thought it was unlikely for him to be able to convince Percy to adopt Harry as his little brother, for many reasons, one of which being he hardly treated any of them like his siblings to begin with, but if it was Fred and George they would definitely take to him. He would probably have to warn them to be gentle, though, it didn't seem like Harry really got a lot of practical jokes and seemed to be scared of a lot. Of course, his mum would love to have another child, why Ron didn't know, she already had 5 children of her own, but in this case it was a good thing, his dad would normally follow his mum on things like this, but he didn't doubt Arthur would also love Harry.
Ron didn't talk much during Dinner, having chosen his seat so he could look at Harry without seeming suspicious, not that most people seemed to care about that. Harry didn't really eat very much, and sometimes he would wince as though he was in pain, but his eyes did light up a few times, seemingly delighted in what he was eating. In spite of this, though, Harry looked around suspiciously as he ate, as though he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing, which was odd, because all he was doing was eating and trying to avoid gazes.
Ron had been planning to go to talk to Harry after dinner was over, but he was beaten to it by Draco Malfoy, who dragged him over to an older Slytherin and the three of them headed off in a way that was different to everyone else. Suspicious, Ron tried to follow.
"Ronald," Percy's voice came from behind him, making him cringe, he hated people calling him Ronald, and it wasn't like he was doing anything wrong, "Where do you think you're going?"
"I was going to look for my friend." Ron said, shifting awkwardly, Percy always looked at him like he was causing trouble and it made him feel insecure, making him act shifty too.
"Unless they're in Gryffindor you have to wait until tomorrow to talk to them, we're going to the dorms now, that's not up for debate." Percy said as though he was looking down his nose at Ron, taking his youngest brother by the ear and dragging him back to join at the front of the group of First Years before letting him go.
Ron kept his eye on Harry, who was trembling, presumably from fear, for as long as he could before they rounded a corner, and Harry could no longer be seen.