It was a nightmare-free night for Harry, but Severus was restless. He was worried about Harry's check-up results. He regretted the way he had been treating Harry throughout the boy's first year and that he hadn't checked up on the boy the whole 10 years he was at the Dursleys'. he hoped Lily would forgive him.
Next morning, he woke up to Albus helping the elf cook breakfast.
"Good morning, Severus"
"Good morning, father"
"When is Mark stopping here for Harry's results ?" - Albus asked while cracking an egg.
"I think after breakfast, about 9?"
"May I stay for that?" - Dumbledore ask hesitantly.
"Yes, I think. Why would you ask me?" - Severus said, raising an eyebrow
"Well, I think in order to give you a 'tryout' for guardianship, I should give you a say when it comes to Harry" - Albus said, his eyes twinkling madly.
Severus sneered at him. But at that moment, an alarm went off in his head. He had cast a monitor spell around Harry's room before going to bed to alert him if Harry was in distress. It was signaling him that Harry had probably woken up. Severus suddenly went quiet and looked serious.
"What's wrong, Severus?"
"The boy had probably had an accident. I'll be back with him for breakfast." - He said and hurriedly came up the stairs to Harry's room.
He knocked and came in, Harry was sitting in his bed, crying. He hated those 'creatures' who had made Harry think it was bad to have an accident.
"Harry, what's wrong?" - He said softly as he approached the boy. He knew what happened but he wanted the boy to open up to him.
"D...don't. I wet the bed. I'm disgusting" - Harry said between his tears.
Severus kneeled down in front of the boy and held the boy's chin up.
"Harry, you're not disgusting. I know you didn't mean it, so it is not your fault. I know the relatives have taught you otherwise but they're liars. Don't believe anything they told you, ok? Mark has checked your bladder and we'll see what he'll say today, ok?"
Harry nodded and calmed down.
"Let's get you cleaned up and have breakfast, ok? The headmaster is waiting for us"
He led the boy to the bathroom in the hall and let Severus take off his clothes. Then he stepped in the shower while Severus came back into his room to get him fresh clothes and clean the bed.
10 minutes later, the two of them came down where Albus was setting up plates.
"Hello, Headmaster." - Harry said shyly where Harry was standing by Severus' side.
"Good morning, my boy. Let's have breakfast, shall we?" - Albus said enthusiastically. If there was one thing Albus could do, it was being happy and excited all the time.
Harry sat down while Severus poured him a glass of milk. The elf and Albus made omelette, sausages, bacons, toast, blueberries and strawberries for breakfast. As usual, Harry wasn't able to finish the plate that Severus served him. Albus watched him the whole time, the man hadn't noticed how little Harry ate during the school year.
After they finished, Toppy cleaned up and they went in the living room to wait for Mark, Harry trailed after them shyly. Severus had just made the tea when the floo flared and Mark appeared.
"Hello, gentlemen"
"Hello, Mark. Have a good day" - Albus said warmly.
"Thanks, Albus. I have come to give you the results of Harry's check-up"
Harry started to feel nervous and it showed on his face. Mark took out a few papers and a packet of crayons from his robe pockets and gave them to Harry.
"Harry, I have a task for you. Can you take these to your room and color these pictures for me ?"
Harry looked at the pictures curiously. The pictures were not like any of the pictures Dudley got. They were ... weird and strange, but he had never been allowed to color pictures except for when he was at school so he gladly agreed, completely forgot the reasons Mark was there.
"'kay" - Harry said happily and went up to his room.
"You didn't gave him those just for fun, right?" - Severus said, raising an eyebrow at the healer.
"Well...yes. You're definitely a spy" - Mark said sitting down on the couch.
"Any 'non-dunderhead' would see that you're trying to get the boy out of the room. And, those pictures definitely look strange" - Severus said as he and Albus sat down.
"I want to give you the results first so we could choose which information to give the boy or to keep from him. Also, those pictures are kind of optical illusion pictures that provide us a view of his perception and personality. From that, I can have a grip on his psyche and mentality. You know, different people will see different things in the pictures. I turned it into an activity for him so he won't be worried that he would give an incorrect answer. He'll color what he sees and I could get them to a child psychologist to analyze them."
Severus and Albus nodded as Mark took out Harry's medical file.
"Ok, let's start then. We'll go from head to toe, ok ?" - Mark said.
"First, I checked his head for brain injuries. It seems he has been thrown around quiet a lot. So far, he has had at least 5 concussions."
Albus winced at this.
"Fortunately, they didn't leave any permanent damage. Also, it seems that he is repressing his intelligence."
The other two men looked at him in shock.
"I think his relatives have been forbidding him from doing well in school so although he doesn't even know it, his mind is subconsciously repressing his intelligence to keep himself safe."
Albus shook his head sadly while Severus was quiet shocked. If the boy had been repressing his intelligence, he could also have been repressing his power. And the boy was already powerful enough for an 11 year-old.
"I think you should work on his mentality and let him know it is ok to be intelligent or not and that you expect him to do his best. When he is comfortable enough around his new living arrangements, he will stop repressing it."
"Ok, let's move on" - Mark said when Albus and Severus had gotten over their shocks. "His nose and throat show signs of untreated illnesses from the past, but the good thing is that his throat doesn't show signs of sexual abuse there. His torso is a different story. He has been given bleach mixed with water repeatedly at his relatives' house and it has damage his stomach lining. It makes him throw up after meals because his stomach wall is so thin, it gets upset when the food comes in. He has had many broken bones which had healed wrong that we healed yesterday from shoulders to ribs to his wrists and arms. He has numerous welts and cuts and bruises. We have healed them but they will leave scars." - He sighed sadly.
"His legs and bottoms also have numerous of them and he appears to be very skinny and has malnutrition."
"According to Harry, he has been touched inappropriately, but he hasn't given more details. As far as I know, there's no signs of anal sexual abuse"
Albus just shook his head sadly.
"Another tricky problem is about his bladder. It seems his uncle has been aiming his stomach while beating him. His bladder is naturally small and weak. When it is combined with the blows he received from the muggle, it makes him have accidents easily. Actually, Harry said that he only had about 1 accident a week before this summer. It is because what happened at school just a few weeks ago has taken a toll on him, the stress and trauma. It causes him to have accidents every night."
They went silent as Severus and Albus looked through the boy's medical file. After a few minutes, Mark broke the silence.
"I'll give you some instructions on caring for the boy. I have to warn you though that it won't be easy, you'll have to make sure you can do that. But you can definitely call me if you need help."
Severus nodded hesitantly.
"First, the boy will likely regress due to his abuse."
Severus nodded, he had learned the basics of child psychology in order to get a job at Hogwarts and knew that children who suffered past trauma can regress.
"Once an abused child feels safe in a new environment, he will let his walls down. When Harry starts to get comfortable around you and his new living arrangement, he will feel safe and subconsciously try to get what he has missed during his childhood and consequently, he'll act younger than his age. It is necessary for him to heal so you shouldn't be worried about that and shouldn't prevent him from regressing. As for caring for him physically, he'll need a lot of sleep so I recommend an early bedtime. He also needs to eat more. Having been starved for 10 years will make it hard for him to eat more food at once but you can give him snacks between meals, once to twice a day, around 10 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon or both but remember to give him milk beforehand to coat his stomach. Giving him nutrition potion will also help but don't give him too much, it's not good to fill him with potions."
"About his bed wetting, I'm afraid that it'll will get worse before it gets better."
"What do you mean?" - Severus asked his eyes widened.
"Due to his trauma and regression, he might even have accidents during the day. He will play and get distracted like a young child and ending up not recognizing the urge or recognizing it but not making it to the toilet on time, like many young children do. But as soon as he heals and gets used to his new , safe living arrangements, it will stop."
"For this problem, I recommend using special underwear to catch his accidents"
Severus' eyes widened even more.
"Do you mean n...nappies?"
"Well, it's kind of like that. They're muggle products and instead of needing someone to put him in one, he'll just have to pull them up. That's why they can also be called pull-ups. But they're are not as absorbent as nappies and usually can only catch one accident. If he wets more than once a night, he might have to move to nappies."
"Is it really necessary? You know, he's eleven" - Albus asked hesitantly, he knew the boy would fight the idea.
"This you should ask him, let him decide to use it or not. It will help him get better sleep. Remind him to use the bathroom frequently and right before going to sleep. Reduce the amount of fluids he consumes after dinner. I have brought a package of pull-ups today if you want to have him try them"
Mark unshrunk his bag and pulled out a blue package.
Mark gave it to Severus to look at
"I hope I've got the right size. He's too light for his age"
Severus had to agree, the boy was way too light and small compared to other 11 year-olds.
"It's important to let him know it is ok to use them and do not embarrass him or make him feel guilty about it. It will only make things worse"
Severus nodded to show he had understood.
After two minutes of silence, Mark spoke up again.
"I know you can do this, Severus. It is exhausting to care for a child, but it is a rewarding job. After you get used to it, you'd feel like you have gotten attached to him and can't imagine living without him. I think you can take the position as his guardian"
Albus' eyes were twinkling madly and Severus sneered at them even though he could already feel it coming.
"I brought you a few books on parenting and child psychology recommended by the pediatricians and Poppy."
He gave Severus 3 books and stood up.
"Good luck with that, Severus." - Mark said nodding at the package of pull-ups. - " owl me how it goes"
Severus could already sense that it wouldn't go well.
Just then, Harry walked down the stairs into the room and showed the men the pictures he had colored.
"I've finished" - Harry gave Mark the pictures and the packet of crayons
"I'll take these amazing pictures but you can keep the crayons" - Mark said giving back the packet of crayons, he knew Harry had probably never owned one and Severus hadn't been able to persuade him to let the man buy him one.
"Really?" - Harry said in awe
"Yes, and I have to go now. Have fun with the professors, ok?"
"Thank you, Mark!" - Harry said happily as he hugged the packet to his chest.
It hurt the men how Harry savored such a simple gift.
Mark said goodbye to them, stepped in the floo and left the 2 men and a child to their thoughts.
I'm back! Finally! I've been so exhausted after longs weeks of exams and revision. Now I'm free. No homework and exam.
If I'm in the mood, I might update again next week. But I haven't got any fun idea of what Harry and Severus and Dumbledore could do for the day. If you have any idea, you can comment or send private messages to me. It might help me update sooner. Please, no romance ! I want to focus on Harry's and Severus' relationship as guardian and ward or father and son later on. I might include Dumbledore as Severus' adoptive father and McGonagall as Severus' pseudo mother figure and mentor.
I also want them to be cute and lots of fluff, not too much conflict .
Thanks for reading.