Search:

SIYE Time:9:09 on 28th March 2024
SIYE Login: no


Bonds of Blood and Magic
By Duelist

- Text Size +

Category: Post-HBP
Characters:Harry/Ginny, Severus Snape
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Fluff, Romance
Warnings: Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Violence/Physical Abuse
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 932
Summary: A few days before Bill and Fleur's wedding, Harry vanished. Two weeks later, Ginny disappeared, also alone and without a trace.

Someone has stepped out of the shadows for a moment, moved some pieces on the board, and changed the rules of the game.
Hitcount: Story Total: 406628; Chapter Total: 14699
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
Hello again. Harry and Ginny are now at the old HQ, and have to be ... patient in this chapter. Just like my readers lately. :D




ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter


The next three days passed much too quickly for Ginny. All she could think about was that they were going to poison Harry, and … what was that going to do to him? She worked herself up into quite a fuss about it. She tried not to show Harry how worried she was, but she clung to him desperately at night, after he’d fallen asleep.

Madam Pomfrey was doing much better with the concept, since she spent all her time when not working on Harry directly, studying the nature of Basilisk venom and the potions recipes that Severus planned to use.

Harry was not as anxious as Ginny. Nor was he as obsessive about the consequences of the planned treatment as Madam Pomfrey. He was, in actual fact, anxious about getting rid of the Horcrux, but mostly, he just wanted to be able to walk again.

The morning after Harry and Ginny arrived at Grimmauld Place, Pomfrey knocked on the Master bedroom door. Harry called to come in, so she did.

Harry began to sit up as she came in, but Pomfrey waved him back down onto the bed.

“No need for that, Mr. Potter. I need to look things over here, so I can see what we’re going to need to do for you next. If all went well last night, your bones should be knitted now.”

She pulled back the blankets and sheets covering his legs. The right leg was in a simple splint, to keep it still overnight, which she next removed. Harry couldn’t really see his leg all that well, but from where his head was propped up on the pillows, he could tell that it was bruised, pale, bonier, and much thinner than before his stay with Voldemort and the Death Eaters. ‘At least it’s straight now,’ he thought to himself. ‘And it hurts less.’

He turned his head away and ignored Madam Pomfrey prattle on about his progress. He looked at Ginny sitting at a freshly cleaned vanity, brushing out her long hair. The light from the window danced and glowed through her hair, and he stared, entranced, at his wife.

That is, until Pomfrey poked his left foot, hard, with a sharp needle.

“Ow, ow, ow! What are you doing?” Harry demanded as he scooted back on the bed.

“Feel that, can you?”

Harry nodded energetically. Ginny stopped brushing to turn and watch.

“Good, good. Now, let’s try the right leg.”

Putting words into deeds, she started testing his other leg. She started with the sole of his foot, dragging the tip of the needle in a long scratch from heel to big toe, and then again to the middle, and then again to the side. She watched how much and when he twitched or pulled away from the needle. She was too experienced to frown or say anything when there was a deficiency in his reactions, but did notice that there were quite a lot of them.

Then she poked each of his toes, on the pads and then on the tips near the nails. She was very thorough, testing the tops and in-between them as well. He only reacted strongly when she was touching his largest toe. The others, especially the smallest two, he hardly reacted at all.

She continued testing his reactions to her needle all the way up the lower part of his limb. Consistently, he had spotty or no reaction to pokes and scratches on the outside of the leg, and marginal reactions on the inside. Above the break line, it got better, but wasn’t really right until she hit his knee.

That was when he kicked her in the stomach. It was quite accidentally of course, but he was mortified and apologized profusely.

After she caught her breath and picked herself up off the floor by the wall where she’d landed, she gasped out, “Quite alright, quite alright. It’s a natural reaction to that kind of poke, and I’d hardly expect someone with your reflexes not to react, at least in areas where your nerves aren’t bunged up.” Her voice started to clear as she continued on, “What I’m testing here is your nerve reactions. You’ve got quite the mess here, Mr. Potter.

“For the next three days, I’m going to be testing you several times to see how you’re getting on with reconnecting all the nerves that were torn up by you moving around on the raw edges of your bones. You’ll have to take a dose of this potion every four hours, and you will not put any pressure on this leg. You must lie on your back or your left side for the duration.”

“Can’t I walk with my crutches?” he whinged. He was more than a bit disgusted with his tone, but that didn’t stop him from looking up at her hopefully.

“Not today. Perhaps tomorrow, but I doubt it, as this will likely be a worse experience than Skele-gro. The day after tomorrow, it should be getting better, and I may let you up then.”

Harry sighed.

Ginny giggled quietly to herself. Harry hadn’t heard her before, when Pomfrey was poking and scratching his legs and feet, but he did this time.

He tossed a pillow at her, which she easily caught and threw back, with much better aim. It hit him solidly in the stomach. He glared at her in mock irritation.

“Right, well, I need to use the loo before I get shackled to the bed,” Harry said.

Pomfrey raised an eyebrow as she flicked her wand at his abdomen. Harry grunted in surprise.

“Well, then,” he swallowed, trying to adjust to the odd feeling in his gut. “I guess I’m good for now. What did you do?” he asked, more than a bit mortified, but trying not to show it.

“The same thing I’ve done for you every time you’ve spent two or three days in my hospital wing unconscious,” she said archly. “Standard Healer spell.”

Harry blushed.

“Nothing to be embarrassed about, Mr. Potter. It’s a natural function, and something Healers have to deal with regularly.

“Now, Mrs. Potter. I really think you’ll be more comfortable if you sleep in another bed tonight. Mr. Potter must be immobilized while he sleeps, so it would be best if you found somewhere else to be.”

“That’s alright, Madam Pomfrey. We’ll manage just fine. How are you going to immobilize him?”

Neither of them noticed the slight look of fear on Harry’s face when they spoke of restraining him while he slept.

“Oh, it’s a simple enough charm. It will keep him from moving around in his sleep, tearing things up, and slowing down his healing.”

“Would you teach it to me? And the counter, please?” Ginny asked.

Pomfrey was a bit surprised at the request, but was pleased as well at the interest the girl was showing in her profession.

Ginny wasn’t actually interested in becoming a Healer. She had, however, watched her mother care for seven rambunctious children, and was married to one of the more danger-attracting wizards in the world, so she was more pragmatically worried about being able to care for him. Not to mention any children she might have, someday.

“Of course, Mrs. Potter. Now, all you have to do is …”

***

Ginny woke suddenly in the darkened Master suite at 12 Grimmauld Place. Harry struggled against the spells holding him still in his sleep, and he moaned. He sounded like he was in pain and … terrified. ‘Merlin, what could have him so frightened?’ she wondered to herself as she stroked his face and murmured words of comfort to his ear.

After more than fifteen minutes, he started to calm down slightly and finally awoke. His eyes, still wild, found Ginny’s face. Tears squeezed their way past his stubborn eyelids, and rolled down until they disappeared in his hair.

“What happened? What is it, Harry?”

He shook his head slightly. That was as much movement as the spells allowed him.

“Tell me,” she insisted.

“I … can’t … I … can’t … move!” he said, getting more agitated and frantic as he gasped out the words.

Ginny immediately grabbed her wand and released him from the immobilizing charms. He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to his chest. His whole body shook without stopping, but he turned to the side slightly to put Ginny in a more comfortable position.

After several more minutes, his breathing and heart rate slowed enough that he realized that he was probably hurting Ginny with how hard he was squeezing her to him.

“Merlin, I’m sorry, Ginny,” he stammered.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, I quite enjoy you holding me. Now, what happened, Harry?”

“I couldn’t move. It was like being back with … them,” he said, “and then I dreamed that I was there again. Bella … and then Amycus,” he shuddered at that.

“Alright, then, we’ll talk to Madam Pomfrey in the morning about not putting you in restraints. That’s not going to work for you,” she said, and then checked the time. They’d been asleep for less than two hours.

And it was a very good thing that she hadn’t taken Madam Pomfrey’s suggestion to sleep in another room. If she had, no one would have known about Harry’s flashback nightmare for hours, nor been around to release him from it when he woke up.

Finally, after another exhausting hour of clinging to each other, she gave him his next dose of nerve regeneration potion, and they drifted back to sleep.

When Pomfrey came in the next morning, she was not best pleased, and let them know about it when she woke them up.

“Miss … Mrs. Potter. I thought you understood the importance of him remaining perfectly still while he slept? Whatever possessed you to remove those charms and … do whatever you were doing last night? His recovery speed is entirely dependent upon how much he does not move. Do you understand?”

Both of them woke up fully by the end of Pomfrey’s tirade. Harry clenched his jaw and bowed his head. There was no way he was going to tell Pomfrey about his nightmare.

Ginny, however, had no such compunctions.

“I’m sorry, Madam Pomfrey, but I had to let him out of the restraining charms. He was in a complete panic. He had a nightmare about when he was being held and tortured by those Death Eaters, and he couldn’t calm down until after I released all of the bindings. If that’s going to slow down his recovery, we’re just going to have to accept that, because I’m not going to allow him to try to spend a night like that again. I’m very glad that I stayed in here with him, as well.”

Pomfrey’s face blanched. “I’m … sorry. I hadn’t … I never even considered what reaction he might have to the restraints, beyond what he said about not liking them and how he normally sneaks around at night.

“Yes, you’re right. We’ll have to accept that his improvement will be slowed somewhat. I can still monitor his progress, and we’ll just have to adjust our expectations.”

***

Harry remained confined to his bed, though he was not restrained again. Ginny got to learn the charm for relieving his need to use the loo. She thought it very funny to cast it when he wasn’t expecting it and watch the contortions on his face.

Their nighttime activities having been curtailed almost completely by the need to keep Harry as still as possible, Ginny found that she could barely stand to leave him for more than a few minutes at a time. She was only really comfortable if she was in direct physical contact with him, but still, she was tense and unsettled.

Harry was, naturally, unhappy with the whole situation. He was an active person, generally. Staying still for days at a time was a chore for anyone, especially someone who was always doing something like Harry Potter. He found himself feeling anxious unless Ginny was sitting on the bed with him. Then he was only slightly agitated.

Pomfrey stopped by his room several times per day to poke and scratch his feet and legs, in order to compare his reactions. As promised, the second day was painful and miserable. However, by the end of it, he could finally feel most of his leg and foot, but when he tried to wiggle his toes, he had no control. Pomfrey grudgingly allowed him to move around, and even walk with his crutches during the third day, but that was only after he showed her that he could both feel and move all of the toes on his right foot.

As soon as Pomfrey left the room, Ginny picked up her wand. Grinning at Harry, she sealed and silenced the room. Then she pointed her wand at Harry and cast Pomfrey’s charm at his abdomen again.

“Hey!” Harry protested as he felt the odd twisting in his guts yet again. “I can move now, Madam Pomfrey just said I could!”

“Yes, I know,” she replied. She set her wand on the bedside table and pulled her tshirt over her head. “Now, you’re going to have to stay in the bed for this, but I expect you to … do some moving.”

***

Snape returned to the house late on the third evening, after Harry and Ginny locked themselves in their room for some alone time. Again.

“How is Potter doing, Poppy?”

“He’s much better, but I don’t think he’s ready to take the potion tomorrow. The nerves are mostly reconnected, but I want him to have another day for them all to settle down before we shock his system with the nerve agents in that poison.” As much as she acted like she was okay with the procedure, she was still not comfortable with deliberately injecting the boy with Basilisk venom.

“Very well, if you feel that is best. That is why I brought you in, so we did not do further damage to Mr. Potter while we try to help him.”

Mollified, Pomfrey nodded. “That would be best, and thank you for trusting me with this.”

“I couldn’t have brought in anyone else, you know. Who else knows his medical history as well as you do?” he asked rhetorically. “And who else would he trust with this kind of situation? He’s a suspicious little sod.”

Pomfrey laughed in spite of herself. The description, while not exactly flattering, was apt.

“I will return tomorrow evening, then, so that we may prepare for the procedure.”

“I’ll see you then, Severus.”

***

Harry and Ginny, on their fourth day at the Black Manor, spent a couple of hours wandering up and down stairs. Harry stopped using the crutches that morning, and was only using an ebony walking stick he found in one of the closets in the Master suite. It had a snake carved into the shape of the handle of the cane, and had real emeralds for eyes.

They wandered into an unused sitting room on the fourth floor. It was a dusty mess, and looked as if it hadn’t been used in decades. Mostly, they were randomly checking storage spaces, bookshelves, and so forth, looking for the Slytherin locket.

“Harry, whatever happened to that insane elf Sirius had?” Ginny asked, as she shifted a pile of books back to the shelf she’d pulled them from.

Harry stopped examining a display of swords and daggers to answer. “Kreacher? Oh, he went up to Hogwarts after I inherited the house. He’s been working there ever since, in the kitchens. Haven’t seen him since I sent him there last summer, actually.”

“Oh,” she said thoughtfully as she walked over and unconsciously took his hand.

“Why do you ask?” he replied.

“Oh, I was just thinking, but maybe it’s dumb,” she said.

“What?”

“Well, we don’t know how much longer we’ll be here, and it’s your house, and … maybe we’ll come back again, so … maybe we should have Kreacher, or some other house elf, come and straighten the place out, is all.”

Harry looked thoughtful. “Not a bad idea. Maybe if we got Kreacher, and maybe Dobby, they could get the place nicer-looking.

“Oh, and since we’re married, this is your house, too, so if you want to do something, you should just say so.”

“Okay. Maybe the elves could help us find the stupid locket, too.”

“Maybe so.”

They walked around the room, commenting on the different items stored there, and what they would do to redecorate the room. For one thing, there was a horrible chair that looked as if it were made of troll skin.

“Must be from the rest of the monster that the umbrella stand came from,” Harry said.

“Can we just get rid of it?” Ginny asked, shuddering as she shied away from the grey, lumpy object.

“Sure. Maybe after we take care of my Horcrux, we’ll ask Dobby and Kreacher to come clean things up, and get rid of that … thing.”

“Let’s just ask them now,” she whinged, but smiling while she said it. “This place is such a mess.”

Harry was more serious. “No, I don’t want either of them here while I’m … being poisoned,” he said. “Dobby would just be in the way, worrying about me, and Kreacher would stand over me hoping to watch me die.”

She started laughing as she said, “Oh, right. I can just hear him croaking now, ‘bad blood traitor Master will die soon, yes, and Mistress will reward Kreacher.’”

He snorted. “Right. So, yeah, let’s have them come, but let’s wait until I’m better before we talk to them about it.”

That evening, Harry sat downstairs in the kitchen to eat for the first time since he’d arrived. His gait wasn’t quite normal, but he was carrying the cane now at Pomfrey’s insistence, or so he said. Really, he didn’t quite trust himself not to fall, and he was more confident with it in his hand, so his protest against it was brief and not heart-felt.

Just as Ginny and Pomfrey were setting out the food, Snape walked into the kitchen.

“Oh, hello, Professor,” said Pompfrey as she set a pan of mash on the table.

“Madam Pomfrey. Mr. Potter, are you feeling better?” the professor asked.

“Much, thanks. Madam Pomfrey has done an amazing job,” said Harry.

As soon as Ginny saw Snape, she was too anxious to talk. Him being there meant that … Harry’s poisoning was soon.
Reviews 932
ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter




../back
‘! Go To Top ‘!

Sink Into Your Eyes is hosted by Grey Media Internet Services. HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related characters are trademarks of Warner Bros. TM & © 2001-2006. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions on this site are those made by the owners. All stories(fanfiction) are owned by the author and are subject to copyright law under transformative use. Authors on this site take no compensation for their works. This site © 2003-2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Special thanks to: Aredhel, Kaz, Michelle, and Jeco for all the hard work on SIYE 1.0 and to Marta for the wonderful artwork.
Featured Artwork © 2003-2006 by Yethro.
Design and code © 2006 by SteveD3(AdminQ)
Additional coding © 2008 by melkior and Bear