Harry looked around in a rush, his hair plastered to his forehead with cold sweat as he was taken to a chair in the middle of the room.
He tried to transform but he couldn't.
Was he going to die here..?
He saw one of the many dementors in the room lean towards him, and he leaned back as far as he could, his head hitting the back of the chair.
He could feel everything around him getting colder and colder, and slowly his vision turned black, but he didn't pass out..
He heard a familiar voice shout something..
Who was it..?
HARRY!
The word was fuzzy, but unmistakable.
Harry felt his vision slowly return, and he looked around, trying to move away from the Dementors.
Who was that?
EXPECTO PATRONUM!!
Suddenly he was bathed in warmth as the Dementors were warded off by... A glowing white.... Doe..?
With the Dementors gone, the door slammed open, and Sirius ran over to him, hugging him.
A cloud of black smoke entered the room through the window, and Severus appeared.
Harry's eyes filled with tears. "Dad!"
"There's no time to celebrate quite yet. Do not forget, we are still in Azkaban."
Harry nods, and Sirius looks over to him. "What do you suppose we do..?"
Severus smiled, determined. "Leave it to me."
He grabbed Harry by his arm, as well as Sirius, and a moment later, they were at the front lawn of Hogwarts...
They had escaped...
Harry woke up in a completely white room, under plain white sheets, on a plain white mattress, his head under a plain white pillow.
The hospital wing...?
No, it was different..
"Good Evening, Mr.Potter." A woman who was definitely not Madame Pompfrey said as she walked into the room. He noticed she was carrying a tray of something, but the very thought of food made him feel incredibly nauseous.
"O-Oh um.. I'm not very hungry right now.."
She smiles and sets the tray down anyways, opening the lid and showing him what was inside.
"Unfortunately, hungry or not, it is customary for people who come from Azkaban to be served plenty of chocolate to get their strengths up, and you being so young, well, let's just say you'll be begging for real food by the time we're done." She chuckles heartily, but Harry couldn't even manage a slight smile.
He simply takes a small piece of the large amount of chocolate and looks at it for a while before looking up at the woman.
"Where am I..?" He asks quietly, and the woman smiles pleasantly. "You are at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries." She says, as if citing from a book. She reminded him incredibly of Hermione, if she was a bit shorter and her hair was puffier.
"What was I..." He looks down at his lap for a moment before trying to jump out of bed. "Dad! Sirius! Where are they?! Are they okay?!"
The woman helps him back into his bed carefully. "Now now, calm down. You're still injured."
"Injured..?"
He looked all over himself, noticing a bandage wrapped around his entire right shoulder and arm, soaked in blood, some old, some new.
"Yes, I'm afraid when your.. Friends.. Apparated, you ended up splinching yourself in the process. It's.. Nothing too serious, we can heal it easily. Unfortunately, splinching is a bit more tricky to heal, but you'll be out of here in just a couple weeks."
Harry looks up to her, his eyes shimmering with tears. "I want to see my dad... And Sirius... Please..."
She watched him for a moment, taken aback. She felt her own eyes tear up out of sympathy, and she smiles gently. "Don't worry, I'll find out where they are here, leave it to me. What are their names?"
"Severus Snape and Sirius Black.."
The nurse gives him a gentle smile. "I'll go find them, dear. In the meantime, try to nibble on some of that chocolate there - it'll do you good."
Around twenty minutes passed, when the nurse came back into the room.
"Good news! I found them!"
Harry looked up, and the moment he saw Severus enter the room, his eyes filled to the brim with tears, and he held his arm out towards him, the other one too painful to move at the moment.
"Daddy!" He cried happily, and Severus looked taken aback for a second before he rushed forward, scooping Harry up in his arms, holding him close. "I am so sorry that I could not protect you..." Severus says quietly, strengthening his grip on the young one as Sirius watched from the door.
He couldn't help but flashback to the memory of Harry's soul almost being stolen by the dementors...
The small glowing orb floating mere inches away from his mouth, his face pale as snow, shallow and sunken in like a skeleton, for just a second, but it was enough, he was sure, to give him nightmares.
He felt responsible. It was his fault.
Maybe if he'd actually sent Harry back, maybe they wouldn't have ended up in Azkaban.
Sirius glanced down silently, guilt heavy.
"Padfoot.." Harry says quietly, and Sirius looked up, seeing Harry, holding out some chocolate towards him.
Sirius chuckles softly, walking forward and taking it from him, nibbling on some to make him happy.
--Many Years Later--
Draco, Severus, Lupin, and Sirius all sat in chairs at Severus's Manor, looking out at a vast space of farmland, watching with amusement as Harry's tangled black mess of hair popped up from time to time. Severus set his cup of tea down slowly. "So, Dragon.."
Draco, who had presently sipping his tea silently, spat it out, holding back a chuckle. "Severus, I'm 21 now.. I think I'm a little old now for nicknames like "Dragon"."
"Ah yes, forgive me." Severus says with a small amused smile. "Well, then-" He turned back to the field, opening his mouth to say something, but Remus says something quietly, cutting him off.
"When do you think Harry will.. Grow up..?"
Severus looked over to Remus. "I was wondering the same thing, actually..."
"I've read about something like this once.." Sirius says. "I believe it's called Dependent Personality Disorder, or DPD for short."
"What is it?" Draco asks, leaning forward ever so slightly to see Sirius clearly. "It's.. When the person diagnosed with it becomes... Clingy, in a way.. They act like a child, they cling to people the way Harry clings to Severus.. And they seemingly never grow up.. They're like... An adult child, if you will."
"Well, that about sums it up." Severus says plainly, looking out to see Harry running up the hill to them, carrying many little trinkets in his clasped hands.
"Dad! Uncle Moony! Look what I found!" He called as he knelt down in front of the small table and dumped the items onto it.
"What's this?" Severus asks, picking up what looked like a rock of some sort. He cast a Scorgify, to clean the dirt off it, and held it up to the sun to see it better.
"Hold on- That looks like.." Draco says quietly, standing and taking the stone from Severus, looking at it closely. "The Resurrection Stone..?"
"The what?" Harry asks, looking up to his fiance with confusion.
"It's a stone from an old Witch and Wizards tale... The Tale of the Three Brothers... " Draco mumbles, sitting down in the grass beside him. "It's said, that if someone has the Resurrection Stone, the Elder Wand, and the Invisibility Cloak, something amazing might happen... Though I'm not sure what.."
"Ooh.. Cool.." Harry mumbles, taking one last glance at the stone before pulling some other small object out of the pile. "Look at this!"
Draco looked down at the dirty objet in his hand. He smiled a little with amusement. "It's... A bottle cap.."
"Not just any bottle cap.." Harry began mystically and child-like. "A grape soda bottle cap.."
Harry found a clothes pin after Severus cleaned the bottle cap for him, attatching them together and pinning it to Draco's shirt with a grin. "We're in a club now!" And Draco chuckled patiently. "If you say so.."
Author's Note:
Hellooooo my dear readers! Thank you SO much for sticking with me this far! I really hope you enjoyed the ride! Unfortunately, this is the end of this story, but if you have any other ideas of stories (this doesn't just include Harry Potter ;) ), let me know via comment, message, etc. :)
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey!!!! ❤❤❤❤❤