11 chapter 11

Sarah nodded, a dark look on her face "I was at school with that guy. Never liked him… the way he used to look at your mum gave me the creeps…."

Harry cringed and asked "Did he fancy her?"

He was surprised to get a laugh in return "Harry, just about every bloke in the school fancied your mother. Whether the believed all that pure-blood dogma or not, no red-blooded male could deny that she was fanciable."

Harry frowned and asked "Is "fanciable" even a word?"

"Of course it is, I just used it. Now, let me draw a bit of blood."

Sarah summed a small glass ampoule with her wand, followed by a knife. Using the knife she made a small cut in Harry's forearm and then held the ampoule to the cut, allowing some of Harry's blood to fill it. She then closed and sealed the ampoule, put it in her pocket, healed the cut on Harry's arm and cleaned the remaining blood from his skin.

"Are we done?" asked Harry.

"Not yet," replied Sarah, banishing the knife "Just a few more tests."

The next few spells turned up nothing, but then she ran the tip of her wand over the lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead. What he spell detected caused her to yelp in surprise and drop her wand.

"What?" asked Harry.

"Your scar," she replied, sounding frightened "the scar on your forehead. There is something evil behind it. Something dark… very dark."

Harry raised his hand to his forehead and ran a finger across the slightly raised surface of the scar.

"Does it ever bother you?" asked Sarah.

Harry nodded and replied "Yeah, it hurts every now and again. Especially when Voldemort is near."

Sarah shook her head "That is something beyond my capabilities to deal with, Harry. We'll need to contact a specialist to look at that scar properly. That Dumbledore has done nothing about it all but confirms that you haven't been receiving the medical attention you require."

She walked over to the desk that stood to one side of the bedroom and conjured up a piece of parchment, a quill and a pot of black ink.

"I'm going to put you on a course of potions, Harry. The way your bones have grown needs correcting, as do quite a few badly healed fractures and breaks. You'll also need a good course of nutrient potions to take as supplements to a decent diet. The potions in your system will have completely worn off in about a week or so."

She banished the quill and ink and rolled up the parchment and turned back to Harry "I'll clear it with St Mungo's for you to get your potions, and I'll see a specialist about getting your scar looked at."

Harry gave a nod of thanks and they left the room.

Downstairs in the kitchen they discovered that Susan and Hannah were sitting at the kitchen table.

Almost instantly a sense of awkwardness filled the air.

Confused at the change in atmosphere, Sarah glanced towards her daughter and her friend before turning back to Harry and saying "I'll bring your first lot of potions around during my lunch break."

"Yeah, thanks," replied Harry.

Sarah made her way over to the fireplace.

Hannah got up from the table "Hang on, mum. I'll go with you."

"You don't need to leave on my account," said Harry, but Hannah just shook her head.

"No, it's fine. I'll see you later, Suz."

"Bye," Susan said to her friend, clearly not happy with the situation.

Harry gave a sigh as Hannah left. His relationship with Hufflepuff house as a whole had frequently been a turbulent one, and Hannah Abbott was one of the worst examples of that relationship.

Sarah disappeared through the floo as well, and suddenly Harry found himself alone with Susan Bones.

The two of them looked at each other without a clue as to what to say.

Finally Harry settled on leaving.

"Where are you going?" asked Susan.

"Up to my room," replied Harry "You shouldn't feel awkward in your own home."

"You don't have to," said Susan, but Harry waved her off and carried on out of the room.

Harry gave a heavy sigh as he climbed the staircase once again. He was grateful to Madam Bones for taking him in, but he got the sneaking suspicion that he would have been better off staying elsewhere. Hufflepuffs were second only to the Slytherins in having problems with Harry Potter, and both Susan and Hannah had been amongst those to badmouth Harry in his second and fourth years at Hogwarts. On both occasions Hannah had been worse than Susan, but that did not make Harry and more inclined to forgive the redhead for her behaviour.

Even though with both situations most Hufflepuffs, including Susan and Hannah, had come around to the truth, Harry had yet to meet an apologetic Hufflepuff, except for Ernie MacMillan, who had offered an awkward apology in second year after the truth had pretty much slapped him around the face.

Harry supposed that he could forgive second year, as there had been a bit of evidence, no matter how circumstantial, that he could have been the Heir of Slytherin who was terrorising the school at the time, and he supposed he could overlook the Hufflepuffs' anger towards him at the beginning of the Tri-Wizard tournament as, despite not entering himself in the tournament, his involvement did kind-of overshadow the participation of Cedric Diggory, a popular student in Hufflepuff house. However, Harry was not disposed to be so understanding when it came to those badges. Had a Hufflepuff come up with the badges, fine, but those badges were made by school bully Draco Malfoy for no other reason than to torment Harry. That the Hufflepuffs also paid Malfoy for the badges just made it worse. That, Harry decided, would require a proper apology.

Harry reached his room and pushed open the door. Two House Elves were inside.

"Young Master," exclaimed one of the Elves "We is bringing your things from the home of your not magic family. We is testing it all for tracking spells and is taking them and putting them all on the bed at your not magic family's home."

"Great, thanks," said Harry, taking a seat on the bed "So which items had tracking charms on them?"

"Everything is having them, sir," replied the Elf.

"I don't suppose that there was any sign of my owl, Hedwig?" Harry asked.

The Elf shook his head sadly "No sir, we is seeing no owl. Only owl's cage."

Harry sighed and slumped back on the bed.

"Sir missed breakfast," said the second Elf "Would he be liking a snack?"

Harry felt his stomach growl and smiled ruefully. Now that he thought about it, apart from a couple of scones early yesterday afternoon he hadn't had a meal since breakfast the day before. And the few scraps he could get at the Dursleys' could hardly be counted as a proper meal.

"Sure," he replied "Could I get a sandwich?"

"Of course, young sir," replied the Elf "How will sir be taking his sandwich?"

"Ham, cheddar, lettuce and tomato on wholemeal bread please," requested Harry "Oh, and can I have a goblet of pumpkin juice as well?"

In answer the two House Elves both bowed low and then disappeared with simultaneous pops.

Harry leaned over to his trunk, opened it and took out his Defence Against the Dark Arts Textbook from the previous school year. He then swung his legs up onto the bed and began to read. His concentration was interrupted a couple of minutes later when one of the House Elves appeared to place a plate containing his sandwich and a goblet of pumpkin juice on top of the bedside table before vanishing once again.

Harry continued to read for the rest of the morning, revising the defence material he had gone over during the previous school year. At around half-past one, one of the House Elves came back to inform Harry that Healer Abbott had come back from collecting the potions that she wanted him to take.

Downstairs in the kitchen Harry was relieved to discover that Susan was absent.

"What have you got for me?" he asked, approaching the healer.

She handed him several phials of different coloured liquids.

"The green and purple ones are nutrient potions. Take a mouthful of each with breakfast, lunch and dinner. The blue one will help your poorly grown bones to correct themselves and the red one will heal your old breaks and fractures properly and the pink ones will reduce the appearance of most of your scars. Take a mouthful of each of those three potions before going to bed each night, along with two mouthfuls of the clear one which will prevent those three potions causing you pain."

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