56 Unveiling Trauma

Harry returned to the Ravenclaw common room where his classmates were busy playing Exploding Snap and Wizard.

"Hey, Harry, what took you so long?" Tony asked.

"I had to help Neville Longbottom with a problem. Seems like his Gran is a bit stupid about her belief he should be more like his father and sent him here with his father's wand instead of getting him his own wand. Hermione and Miranda had the idea, as I was the acknowledged genius of the year," Padma through a pillow at him, which he dodged while grinning "hey, their words, not mine, no need to vent your bottled up frustrations on me" that caused another pillow aimed at him from Sylveena, "yeah team up on the poor guy who tries to tell a story. So not fair." He complained.

The boys grinned while Harry played dodge the pillow with the girls.

"I yield." He cried out in the end, hands in the air, when they had surrounded him and were ready to pounce.

"Spoilsport." Lisa commented pouting still throwing her pillow at him.

"Continue telling the story." Michael told Harry who had caught the pillow.

"Okay, but the girls have to promise not to pelt me with pillows again." Harry asked, using his irresistible puppy eyes on the girls, who only nodded.

"Well, they had the idea to see if I had an idea how to help Neville with his casting and in Potions. The guy is a nervous wreck around Professor Snape. Well, I had Neville try to do the charm to change one's hair-colour. The plan was to make Hermione a blond. Well, he did everything right as far as I could see and I thought if the incantation was pronounced properly, the wand movements were correct and he concentrated on what he wanted to achieve, he should be able to get the charm right. The only thing I could think of was too little power, so I told him to concentrate as much magic as he could and then do the spell. Well, when the spell came out, Hermione got the blond hair and a few additional red strands. Well, as I said, it turned out that Neville has his father's wand. I advised him to ask Professor McGonagall to take him to Diagon Alley soon to get him a working wand." Harry ended the story.

"And for that you needed nearly an hour?" Lilian asked.

"No, we talked about some other things a bit, but they are private. Let's just say Neville and I have a lot of things in common." Harry said.

From his tone many guessed he spoke about his abusive childhood. They knew he didn't like to talk about that and had only told them that he had been abused so that they wouldn't ask more questions.

"So, does he get a new wand now?" Padma asked.

"I think so. I didn't accompany them to Professor McGonagall. But I can't imagine that she wouldn't make sure he gets a wand that he can use." Harry said.

....

Harry sat in the hospital wing next to an uncomfortable looking Neville Longbottom, both waiting for Madam Pomfrey. Harry knew why he was here, but what reason did Neville have?

"Do you also have to get vaccinations?" Harry asked.

"I don't think so; I got them regularly since I was little. Professor McGonagall said I should go here to get an examination. But I don't know for what." Neville answered.

"Ah, Mr Potter and Mr Longbottom. It's been a long time since I saw you two together in the hospital wing. I think you were about a year old and got the vaccinations against the Hippogriff measles. You both didn't like that at all and tried to squirm from Alice and Lily's arms. Well, today, you Mr Potter will get a short examination if the measures Healer Ickings had taken at St. Mungo's were successful or if you need to get a few more potions to correct the problem with your immune system. And of course your next set of vaccinations. Mr Longbottom, you will also get a complete examination. From the medical documents your grandmother sent me, your last one has been three years ago, so I thought I could just do this in one go." Madam Pomfrey explained.

She started with the diagnosis spell on Harry. This was a variant of the spell Healer Ickings had used and showed her changes since the last full diagnostic spell.

"I see, well it has improved a lot, but I would rather you take one potion for strengthening your natural immune system before breakfast each day for a week, that should get it settled. I'll inform the house elves to send it up each morning. Okay, now let's get the vaccination done." She said and got a syringe out that was already filled with the vaccine. She quickly disinfected Harry's arm on his right shoulder and set the vaccination.

"Much better than the last time." She teased.

Harry rolled his eyes. He had had worse in the meantime. Then she did the diagnosis charm on Neville. The quill noted some things and finished after two minutes. She looked at the results and frowned.

"Okay, for you we will also need a potion before the breakfast. Your core is a bit shaky from overexertion and a subconscious suppression of your magic when you were younger. You also need the next vaccination against the Grindylow flu in a month so I'll just do it now." She informed Neville.

She went to her medicine cupboard and took out a bottle and filled another syringe. She repeated the procedure for the vaccination for Neville and then let both boys leave. When she was sure they were out of hearing range, she closed up the hospital wing and went to Minerva McGonagall's office. She found the Gryffindor head of house sitting in an armchair drinking a cup of tea, next to her a pack of graded essays.

"Hello, Poppy. I guess you just finished with Mr Longbottom?" She asked.

"Yes, him and Mr Potter. I did the examinations for them together so I could down play anything I might find with Mr Longbottom as a routine check-up as his last one was three years ago. I'm glad you sent him to me, Minerva, you were right, there are signs of abuse. Nothing as bad on the physical level as Mr Potter's, but bad enough. I had a two minute result of my check." Madam Pomfrey informed McGonagall.

"That's not good. If everything is okay and the regular checks have been made it only takes about fifteen seconds with the speed of your quill." McGonagall commented.

"Indeed. I didn't want to spook the boy, so I only told him that he had to take a potion for getting his shaky core back to normal. He has subconsciously suppressed his magic in his younger years, probably a consequence of what happened to Frank and Alice. From what I know, Augusta took him to his parents in St. Mungo's every year a few times. The problem probably is that, with Neville being told that he had to live up to his parents and to be proud of their courage, he was frightened. He knew his parents had been hurt by magic, so he thought magic was bad. He didn't want to have something that could hurt others like the Death Eaters did with his parents. He was too young to understand. So he subconsciously suppressed any and all accidental magic, which in turn led to the Longbottoms thinking he could be a squib and they tried to force the magic into the open.

....

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