Chapter Text
Harry stared at the wall across from him dreading the day that was to come. He had not slept much that night, and it really was still night time. He imagined the sun would come up soon, although he was still getting used to the concept of sleeping in a room where he could see the sun and moon outside so he wasn’t quite sure. A blanket was wrapped around his shoulders and his back was against his bed, he had resigned himself to being awake after one standard nightmare and one extra special nightmare that left his head throbbing like it had yesterday. While he wasn’t sure about magical doctors he hoped they could at least make this dream-headache-situation stop.
It was still quite dark, even with the moonlight coming in, but Harry did not want to turn on the lights, he figured they would just make his headache worse, especially since it seemed to be coming from his forehead and behind his eyes. He traced the patterns on the wallpaper with his eyes, counted the number of wooden planks made up the floor, and made up three new stories in his head about the magic doctor and what strange tools and magic spells they would bring before there was a knock on his door.
The sound startled him so he must have gotten really distracted, or maybe he was avoiding facing the world a little bit, but he felt he was allowed a little bit of that. The door opened slowly to reveal Severus who was already dressed, and now that he thought about it the sun seems to have risen some time ago.
“Madam Pomfrey will be visiting soon,” Severus said, seeming not at all phased by the fact he was sat on the floor and quite late to breakfast. “Wash up, there is still breakfast in the kitchen. You have about 15 minutes until she arrives but she will likely wish to chat so there is no need to rush.” He said this with a long suffering look that said he was not looking forward to any sort of small talk she had for him, but Harry appreciated his sacrifice as well as the fact he was not given too much time to panic before her arrival. Harry nodded his understanding and Severus left him to gather his things and shower.
Halfway through his bowl of oatmeal, this time with blueberries as he had seen others do but never tried, he heard the noise from the living room that meant someone was coming in through the fireplace. Severus had been waiting for her there so she greeted him quite immediately with a friendly hello followed by many questions about his own wellbeing. She pestered him like a mother hen on his eating enough and getting sleep and such for enough time that Harry could finish his breakfast and muster the bravery to poke his head into the living room to see if she looked like what she was picturing.
Standing in front of the fireplace, looking over Severus who seemed blatantly annoyed, was an older woman with grey hair and a simple purple dress. She looked stern from the way she was giving disapproving looks at the man’s lack of self care, but overall did not seem mean. When Severus looked towards Harry, who was hoping not to be noticed, she followed his gaze and placed her hands on her hips.
“Well then who is this?”
Harry took a small step further into the doorway, just enough to be visible and introduced himself.
“Ah, well then it must be you that I’m here for then, not this sour old thing here.” She brushed her hands on the front of her dress and took a seat on one of the chairs, beckoning Harry to have a seat across from her. He gave Severus a brief look as he sat, wondering if he was to stay for their meeting. He wasn’t sure if wanted to be alone with this woman but he also wasn’t sure if he wanted this man present for something so personal. When Severus returned his look and took a seat next to him Harry breathed a small sigh of relief, unconsciously answering his own question.
“Now Harry,” the woman began, “why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself, are you enjoying it here with Severus?” Harry simply looked at her, not even sure of the answer himself.
“It’s alright I guess,” he answered her, and he supposed it was alright.
“Has he been feeding you well? Fruits and vegetables and such?” He nodded. “Well that’s good, goodness knows he doesn’t take enough care of himself. Perhaps you will be good for each other.” She proceeded to ask many questions about how he was doing, what he wanted to be when he grew up, if he was looking forward to school, and the likes all while she was casting spells with her wand. Each spell made Harry glow a different color, sometimes all over and sometimes just in one part of his body, and they all had different tingly or tickly feelings but nothing too dramatic.
By the end of the exam, Madam Pomfrey had a very long piece of paper with words scrawled by a magic feather. Harry imagined the list was like the papers at the doctor that said his height and weight and what shots he had, but this one was so long that there must be some extra things. Maybe there were magic shots he was missing, maybe the spells knew about the stuff that regular doctors couldn’t gather from one visit a year, maybe they knew about all the times he got hurt or sick. He wanted to throw up again and he must have looked it by the way Madam Pomfrey was trying to get his attention.
“Harry dear, why don’t we look through the results together?” She turned the paper towards him so he could read what it said. There was in fact a section at the top with his height and weight and even blood type, which he thought was a bit strange since they hadn’t taken any of his blood. There was a list of his vaccinations and his glasses prescription, which he was sure didn’t match the ones he was wearing, as well as a very long blank section of missing vaccinations. This worried him at first until he read the names of them and saw all sorts of diseases he had never heard of. Among them were “Dragon Pox”, “Black Cat Flu”, and “Spattergroit” which all sounded fairly made up to him, like something in a Halloween movie or kids book.
Below that was a list labelled “Current Injuries/Ailments:” which he was surprised to see had several entries. The list stated that he had four different scrapes on his body, six bruises, and one hangnail. He looked down at his hands and saw that there was infact one hangnail and found a laugh bubbling up against his will. When would a doctor really need to know about the state of his fingernails. The laugh quickly died when he saw the list also contained “malnutrition” and at least twelve deficiencies he knew must have been from his very limited diet at the Dursley’s.
When he got to the end of this list and read the words “Past Injuries/Ailments:”, he looked away from the paper. The list was ridiculously long and he didn’t want to read a single part of it. Madam Pomfrey pulled the paper back towards her and placed it into a clipboard which in turn caused all of the words to disappear. At Harry’s questioning look she explained, “only the one holding this will be able to read the parchment.” He nodded.
“I see a lot of entries on this last category Harry,” his face paled at her bluntness, “it must have taken a great deal of strength to make it this far and it will take a great deal more to heal, both your body and your mind. Lucky for you, the man next to you is one of the greatest when it comes to potion making and there are a great deal of people on your side now.” Harry didn’t think there was ever really anyone on his side. He’d only known this man for a few days really, there was still plenty of time for him to figure out that he didn’t want Harry around anymore.
“Severus and I will work together to make a plan for the near future to get you in a bit better shape, the first of which will be in terms of your vaccinations for magical illnesses. It’s not unusual for muggle-raised children to go without them until they start at Hogwarts but now that you are in the magical world it will be best to get right on that. We will have Severus bring you to my office within the next few days for those and to start you on some potions. Now before I let you get on with your afternoon, do you have anything you wish to discuss?” Harry shook his head, hoping not in any small amount that he was done with this appointment.
The two adults sent him off to play or read or do whatever it is children do in their free time but he didn’t hear the fireplace light up again. He knew they must be still talking about him, he could even hear their voices still talking through the door, but he just couldn’t make out what they were saying for the life of him. He decided it must be magic again and, as much as he hated that they were talking about him and he couldn’t hear, he resigned himself to going back up to his room.