Hello everybody. I have a new story, which I thought about while working on my other ongoing stories. A main topic in fanfiction stories is that Harry's abuse isn't spotted by the teachers or the healer at Hogwarts. Most often Harry has to take action himself or the goblins help him.

The idea behind this story is that it was noticed and that action was taken to help Harry.

The usual disclaimer holds true for this story as well: I don't own Harry Potter, only this little idea how things could have gone.

Happy reading.

A Very Nice Hufflepuff

It was really a horrible week. Just why did the Gryffindors react that horribly to the point loss that McGonagall had unfairly caused? He and Hermione had only tried to help Hagrid. Malfoy had also been out of bed and only lost twenty points. At most, if their head of house had been fair, they should have lost sixty points in total. Not one hundred and fifty. But now the other Gryffindors shunned him. Hermione and Neville were a little better off, because they weren't as well known, but it didn't lift his mood any.

If the wizarding world was the same as the muggle world, he could have just stayed there. At least there he knew better to not get his hopes up that things would be better in the end. Now he had to fear being hexed next to being shunned. The twins also had chosen him as their new main prank victim; just to make sure he understood how badly he had messed up. Yeah, messing up because he was caught out of the common room at night. As if the twins hadn't done that many times before. The hypocrites.

He didn't really notice where he walked when he collided with somebody. He fell down and hit his head unlucky at the wall.

"Sorry," he mumbled, holding his head, "I didn't watch where I walked."

"Yes, I noticed," a female voice said.

Harry looked up and saw the blond hair of Hannah Abbot before his vision became spotty. He only hoped that he didn't get a concussion again. It had been bad when he had got one when he was eight because Dudley had hit his head repeatedly on the ground after he and his gang had caught him during Harry Hunting.

"Hey, are you okay, Harry?" She asked concerned.

"Just hit my head," he said softly, trying to get a grip over himself.

"I think it's more. Come on, I'll take you to Madam Pomfrey," she stated.

"No, it'll be alright soon," he protested.

"Nonsense. You don't mess around when you have hit your head. My Mum always says that and she's a healer. So you're coming with me to the hospital wing and no arguments," Hannah said sternly.

She took his hand and dragged him after her towards the hospital wing. Soon they arrived there and Hannah called for Madam Pomfrey. Harry didn't feel well and on top of his aching head he also felt sick. Great, this looked like a concussion.

"She'll be here soon. Now why were you walking around, not looking where you went?" Hannah wanted to know.

"Didn't want to be pranked again. The twins are vicious and the other Gryffindors aren't much better. Hypocrites. As if they didn't lose masses of points for being out of bed after curfew already. But no, when I get caught because I wanted to help a friend, I get deducted fifty points in one go. Even if McGonagall only took twenty from Malfoy for the same thing. It's just not fair," Harry complained, not really able to think what he didn't want others to know.

"What do you mean? What did you do, Mr Potter?" Madam Pomfrey's voice now asked.

Harry looked at her blearily.

"Ah, well, I can wait for the answer after I have taken care of you. Let's see," she said and waved her wand in a diagnostic charm, "A concussion and symptoms of malnutrition over the span of a few years. And what the…? Miss Abbott, would you please leave? I need to work concentrated. Thank you for bringing him to me."

"Of course, Madam Pomfrey," Hannah replied, "Get well soon, Harry."

She only heard Madam Pomfrey silently curse about dragons. What did that have to do with Harry? But she would tell the other Hufflepuffs why Harry had been out of bed. And being bullied by your house for losing the points also didn't sit right with her. That certainly wasn't right to do to your fellow house mate. Well, a Hufflepuff could appreciate that you wanted to help a friend and did something against the rules for it. And just being out of bed really didn't deserve that many points being taken. Harry was right, it was unfair.

Madam Pomfrey was meticulously noting down all the medical problems that her diagnostic charm had turned up with Harry Potter. Not only did she detect massive residue of potions and spells on him, indicating bullying by so-called pranks, but the boy also showed all the signs she normally looked out for with the children that Severus Snape normally brought to her attention. Abused children. She would have to act and get to the truth. When she looked into the drawer for the Gryffindor students, she was aghast to find out that contrary to the other first-years, Harry didn't have any medical information in his file.

He should have been sent to her immediately at the beginning of the school year by Minerva. She was responsible to find out which of her new lions didn't get the necessary shots before coming to Hogwarts. There were always some muggleborns that had the problem, because they didn't know how to find St. Mungo's yet and needed vaccinations against common wizarding diseases. And she had sent Thomas and Granger to get checked, why not Potter? Well, she now had a good bit of work to do.

First she needed to spell a potion for the concussion into his system and then she could take the time to do the full check-up that he should have got months ago. The boy was currently asleep on a bed and she would keep him for two days at least. You didn't mess with concussions. That could have bad consequences. Once she had all the results that she needed, she started healing old injuries that didn't heal properly. Like the wrongly mended right leg. It was a wonder that the poor boy could walk normally. It had to have been horribly painful to have to walk with such a leg, especially while the bone grew together wrongly like that, if it hadn't been allowed to heal properly when it had been broken. When you walked around with it despite the break.

Vanishing the part that had grown wrongly and then spelling a bit of skele-grow into the boy was easy. It would have been easier if she didn't need to vanish the bone part, but at least the boy was already out of it, so he wouldn't notice the normally painful feeling. She also didn't like the dark residue of the scar, but she didn't immediately recognise what it could be. Therefore, after putting the boy on an IV for the nutrient potion, which wouldn't take well to mixing with the concussion potions and the skele-grow in the acidic medium of the stomach, and had to be given intravenous for that reason, she consulted her books on rare dark curses and their treatments.

She knew that nobody had ever survived being hit by a killing curse, but the residue was definitely something different. And that could have been written down somewhere.

Severus Snape looked at the requested potion note in confusion. Why would Poppy need a potion that would slowly dissolve tissue that was contaminated with a dark curse? Here at Hogwarts? He needed to find out the reason and therefore he walked to the hospital wing. He took the weekly delivery of potions with him, planning to find out more about the situation before he started brewing this potion.

"Poppy, why are you asking for a dark kind of potion?" he asked without pausing to greet her.

"Ah, Severus, thanks for the potions. I have a good reason, here look at these results and tell me you have a better idea to deal with it," Poppy stated and handed him a piece of parchment.

"Merlin, are those readings accurate?" Severus asked shocked.

The piece of parchment held the results of a specialised dark magic detection charm. This though was on a whole other level than what he had seen before. He was very aware of the effects of dark magic and it was a reason why he had tried getting the Defence Against the Dark Arts position for years. He knew that he was massively better than the jokes of Defence teachers that Dumbledore had hired. This result was horrifying.

"They are, I did the test three times to be absolutely sure. They came out the same each time. The one way that my books describe to deal with something like that, without killing the patient, is to use the 'how to cook a frog' method, as a muggleborn healer once called it. Increasing the effect so slowly that the normal adverse reaction is prevented. Normally, if you tried to isolate the dark residue or pull it out with an exorcism, you would get a violent defensive reaction. This way we can avoid that and save the boy. I won't allow that he continues having that thing in his body," Poppy declared.

"I see. What brought this examination up? You would normally not do such a specific charm?" Severus asked while mentally already composing the potion.

Poppy handed him another piece of parchment, this time a normal diagnostic charm's results.

"Merlin, that's one of the worse abuse cases we've caught here. But this late into the year? How did that escape us for so long?" Severus asked.

Like many Potions Masters he had a qualification as a medi wizard, which was a step below a fully qualified healer. Reading the results of a diagnostic charm was therefore familiar to him. But this was far worse than most cases he had seen in his life. And he was the head of the house that attracted those students that came from abusive families and therefore developed cunning and sneakiness as a defence mechanism. Not to mention that his own childhood made him extremely perceptive to the signs of abuse being attempted to be hidden by a child.

Which was why he was the one who found most of the cases that the children tried to hide. He might be a hard man and scoff at the thought of cuddling the students, but he had suffered abuse and was the first one to fiercely go against the abusers and look out for the signs of abuse.

"The boy was the one that nobody would look for abuse with," Poppy said grimly, "Nobody would want to imagine that he, of all the children here, could be abused at home. This is Harry Potter's result. And even with a concussion, it took Hannah Abbott to drag him here to let himself be treated."

Severus was shocked. He wanted to deny it, but Poppy's diagnostic spells didn't lie. How could Dumbledore's golden boy have gone through abuse this bad? It stung. This was Lily's son. Lily's son who looked too much like his father to not hurt while looking at him. Was that why he didn't catch it? He didn't want to look at the boy more closely?

"So the potion is for the famous scar?" Severus asked in an attempt to regain his composure, not showing any weakness on the outside.

"Yes. I don't know why it was allowed to go untreated for so long. I'm not even a specialist for injuries caused by dark curses, but I easily found a treatment. So any specialist, whom I thought they took the boy to when he was hit with the killing curse, should have known what to do. I have no idea what ten years of having it there have done to the poor boy," Poppy told him.

"I'll get the potion started as soon as I'm back in my lab. I estimate it should be done tomorrow morning," Severus promised.

"Thank you, Severus. And, by the way, if you could use your talents to prevent that Mr Potter lands here again after I've healed him, I would be very grateful. Poor boy is bullied by his own housemates it seems. Just over losing those points. I really need to have a conversation with Minerva about appropriate deduction of points. Even you aren't as bad as taking fifty from each child of a group that was out of bed after curfew. I don't know the whole story yet, but I have a suspicion that Hagrid had a really dangerous beastie on the grounds this time and Harry helped getting it away. It would also explain the strange type of bite that I healed for Mr Weasley," Poppy informed him.

"I see. Well, I'll do what I can," Severus promised and left to start the potion.

Harry awoke, not really knowing where he was. He tried sitting up, but he couldn't. Some kind of spell seemed to keep him lying on this bed. Then he heard footsteps.

"Ah, Mr Potter, good to have you back awake. Please don't try to move too much, your concussion requires that you lie as still as possible. The potion can work best if you move your head as little as possible," Madam Pomfrey said.

"So, I'm in the hospital wing?" Harry asked still a little confused.

"Yes, you are. Ms Abbott brought you here after you hit your head. It was a good thing she did. Concussions can be dangerous if you leave them untreated. Especially in barely trained magical children. The outbursts of accidental magic can be dangerous for you and the ones around you," Poppy explained.

"Oh, I didn't know that, I'm sorry," Harry replied.

"It's okay. You couldn't know if nobody ever told you," Poppy said softly, "You'll have to stay here for a few days until you're fully healed. And we have to deal with quite a lot of things next to the concussion."

Harry didn't like hearing that. What had Madam Pomfrey found out? Hopefully she didn't know about all the scars. He didn't want that she thought he was weak.

"Harry, please, don't think you're weak, just because your guardians didn't treat you right. You're a child. You're not at fault that they mistreated you. I know that you didn't get enough to eat to grow properly and that they hurt you in inacceptable ways. I have enough evidence thanks to my examination to prevent you going back there. But if you want them punished, you'll need to tell somebody what happened," she said softly.

"Nothing happened," Harry hastily said.

"You don't have to be afraid, Harry. They can't hurt you anymore. What happened to give you that many broken bones in your life, isn't normal," she explained patiently.

"That wasn't Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon," Harry finally said, "It was Dudley, but they never stopped him for hurting me. Him or his gang. Uncle Vernon only threw me into my cupboard when I did something freakish, or beat Dudley in a test. Aunt Petunia always gave me chores to earn my keep and I went without food when something freakish happened."

Poppy nodded. The muggles were really despicable.

"So, they think that magic is freakish?" Poppy asked while stroking Harry's hair, which seemed to calm him a bit.

She had given him a mild potion that encouraged him to talk. She needed a statement to really act and the potion wouldn't force him into admitting the things he absolutely didn't want to talk about, but it would make him start talking and once the dam was open, children normally didn't stop until the worst part was out. It was the first step to healing.

"Yes. It was especially bad when others noticed. I once landed on the school roof after running away from Dudley and his gang when they were playing Harry hunting again. I just wanted to jump behind a rubbish bin to hide, but the next moment I was on the roof. They had to get me down with a ladder and the headmaster called Aunt Petunia, saying that I had climbed onto the building. Nobody believed me that I didn't know how I got up there. They said I was the bad one, not Dudley, who had chased me to beat me up again," Harry explained, "I didn't get out of my cupboard for two weeks except for bathroom breaks to avoid that the house stank. Aunt Petunia detests a dirty and stinky house."

"You always say my cupboard, why?" Poppy asked.

"I had to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs until the first Hogwarts letter came. After that they were afraid that the wizards spied on them and moved me into Dudley's second bedroom upstairs. But they still didn't let me have my Hogwarts letter," Harry answered, "Do I really not have to return?"

"No, you don't have. With the amount of injuries that I can prove and what you told me, I can force your removal from that family. They clearly are unsuited to take care of a magical child. I'll have to see which family we can find to take you in. It wouldn't do if the kind that only wants to profit from your fame or has dark leanings were given custody. Hm, I'll have to see if I can find a cousin on your father's side of the family that would take you in. That would be the easiest way to avoid the Ministry meddling too much," Poppy pondered.

"Thank you," Harry said and yawned.

"Try to sleep a bit more. The concussion potion has the side effect of making you sleepy. I'll spell the next dose of potions into you once you need them," Poppy said.

"Okay," Harry mumbled and was soon asleep again.

Poppy set to work. She wrote down everything that she had found out and also looked over the relatives of James Potter that were still left.

Minerva McGonagall was confused why Poppy had called her to her for a private official conversation. It rarely happened that Poppy called conversations of this kind with her. And honestly, she was rather busy right now and only hoped that the meeting would be short. With the end-of-year exams coming up soon there was so much work to do. Especially the OWLs and NEWTs needed to be prepared, as every year. She took the offered seat and then Poppy sealed the room with a specialised privacy charm that was only taught to healers.

"Minerva, I have asked you here to officially inform you that I have invoked the forced removal of one of your Gryffindors from his guardians for a severe case of child abuse and child neglect," Poppy said in an official tone.

"What? Abuse? Which of them?" Minerva asked shocked.

"I want you to first read the report of the diagnostic charm that I performed. I have done the charm twice, as required for the results to be approved as evidence. It's the normal procedure, which Severus, Filius and Pomona will be able to confirm for you, if you want to ask them," Poppy replied and handed over the results.

Minerva got paler and paler with each minute she read.

"Oh my god, how did I never notice something as severe as this? And why none of the others?" Minerva asked horrified, "Which of my lions is this?"

"Harry Potter," Poppy said sternly.

"Potter? No, that can't be," Minerva started to reflexively deny.

"It is the full truth. Potter was severely neglected by his relatives, I have got him to admit being withheld food for long periods of time for accidental magic, which his aunt and uncle call freakish, naming him a freak in the process, being locked into a small cupboard under the stairs, never been given medical treatment, except another adult commented on how he needed it, and he was hit in anger, even if they never went so far to cause severe injuries. Those they left to their son to not be held responsible for child abuse that could easily been proven.

"They never told their son off or punished him for hurting Harry. The boy never got help from anybody in the town he lived, the adults all believed the lies the Dursleys told about Potter. From being a delinquent to being stupid, to only burdening the Dursleys. Any misbehaviour of their son was said to have been done by Potter. The adults are guilty of emotional and physical abuse, as starvation is physical abuse of a kind. The son, if he were older, would be guilty of assault and tried on criminal charges.

"Next to this, I really have to tell you that your ideas of fair punishments and point deductions are totally distorted, Minerva. I have questioned the children in question and found out what really happened that night. You didn't even properly investigate things before you encouraged your whole house to bully the poor boy horribly. And you never interfered when things went too far. I have proof that Potter was cursed with spells and potions, so-called pranks, nearly constantly since you decided that being out of bed after curfew justified the deduction of fifty points each from Miss Granger and Messrs Potter and Longbottom.

"I found hints that there was contact with a dangerous magical creature and after sternly talking to Hagrid, he admitted that Potter and Granger had been telling him that the creature that he had needed to leave the school grounds. They took action, as Hagrid, being like he is, couldn't bring himself to get the creature away himself. I guess the transport was done late at night to not pull attention to it. I have a suspicion what kind of creature it was, and if I'm right it's illegal, but I don't have proof and Hagrid wouldn't tell me either. He only said that the children were only helping him," Poppy informed her.

"Well, they still have no right to be out of bounds after curfew," Minerva said stubbornly.

"Nobody denies that, Minerva, but your punishment was completely over the top. Normally a student that is caught out of bed loses at most twenty points, usually you take ten, and then gets detention. Not fifty for each student, which completely throws the house cup off. And I know that you only took those twenty points from Malfoy when you caught him earlier in the evening. So the most those three should have lost in total would be sixty points. Still harsh, but it wouldn't have caused all of Gryffindor to turn against Potter to the point of truly hurting him, or Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw also giving him the cold shoulder. And I know that some Ravenclaws are in on the bullying. You are the head of Gryffindor and the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts. It's your duty to stop things like this from getting out of hand.

"But Potter has been attacked for two weeks now, ever since the loss of the points and you never intervened. I'm sorely disappointed in your lack of care if your house behaves like a bunch of thugs," Poppy declared harshly.

That stung. Being told that your house was out of control was not something you liked to hear, especially not as Poppy seemingly had proof of the bullying against Potter.

"I'll call a house meeting and address the issue. I won't let this continue. But the headmaster will never allow the relocation of Potter. The wards around his home are too important to keep Death Eaters and You-Know-Who away from the boy," Minerva told Poppy.

"He doesn't have a choice. He can't interfere with a healer getting a child away from an abusive home. It's one of the only laws that Lucius Malfoy pushed through that I'm grateful for. I know that Severus massively supported Lucius in this effort. In 1983, when Lucius just started getting back into the political game after lying low for a while, he championed a law that gives magical children more protection against abuse. He couldn't make it only valid for purebloods, as he was trying to gain better standing, so he set it up for general purposes. If a fully qualified medi-witch or wizard or a healer determines signs of abuse on a child, he or she can order the child to be removed from its family.

"The signs need to show a certain level of abuse before the healer can order that the child is never returned to the previous guardians. Severe malnutrition is among those, as it hampers the magical development of a child. Potter will be getting nutrient potions and has to follow a special diet for a few months to counter those problems. And the law prevents interference from any person not working in the DMLE that is tasked with the case. I have relegated my findings to Amber Peasegood, who heads the office for child welfare. While I can't force criminal charges being brought up against the Dursleys, I can prevent that the boy ever has to return there. Going against that is an automatic criminal charge for kidnapping and abetting child abuse," Poppy pointed out.

"Albus won't like that at all," Minerva sighed.

"I honestly couldn't care less, Minerva. The poor boy needs help and the only reason I got him to talk a little bit, was that I promised him that he never had to return to his aunt and uncle. I have discretely asked Andromeda Tonks, who I think is the only relative of the boy that isn't suspected of having been involved with You-Know-Who, if she and her husband would agree to take the boy in. As his godparents aren't in any position to take care of him, I needed to look for a while. And nobody could ever say that Andromeda and Ted are bad parents," Poppy stated.

"No, their daughter certainly is a bright girl, even if she's a bit mischievous at times. At least that way Potter won't be sent to the likes of Lucius Malfoy. He would be using Narcissa's relation to the boy to get custody and that fool Fudge would let him. No, better to have Potter under Andromeda's care before it can even be thought about," Minerva accepted resigned.

Harry read the book that Madam Pomfrey had given him to pass time. As she didn't have any books that weren't about medical themes in her office, he had asked for one about common magical illnesses. He knew next to nothing about what kinds of illnesses and injuries were really dangerous in the magical world and he wanted to know more. He had a second book about injuries on his bedside table, which he would read once he was done with this book. It was actually really fascinating what kind of things a healer encountered every day.

He had got visits from his friends, who were horrified to find out how badly he had been bullied, and they had told him about the massive dressing down that Professor McGonagall had given Gryffindor house. The speech of McGonagall included how it was a disgrace for Gryffindor that the students would bully a first year for being out of bed, when she had caught many of them in the same situation. The points hadn't been returned though, as punishment for the bullying against Harry and in a lesser degree Hermione and Neville. They had just been lucky to not be so well-known to call all attention to them. Next to that the ones that Harry had told had been the worst bullies had found themselves in detention for a week.

Harry still wasn't feeling too charitable with his house mates. Shunning him was one thing, bullying a completely different one. From what Hermione and Neville said, they still would have detention for being out of bed, but it would be pushed back until Harry was fully healed. He only hoped that Professor McGonagall didn't show a lack of proportionality again. He could just see it. Instead of having to do something normal like scrubbing floors, they would be put in danger.

Then he looked up when he heard steps coming closer. It were a woman that he guessed was around fifty and Madam Pomfrey.

"Hello Harry, how are you today?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"I'm fine," Harry answered.

"I think we need to work on your repertoire of words to describe your condition, Harry, as you always tell me that you're fine," Madam Pomfrey chuckled.

Harry grinned sheepishly.

"Harry, this is Valina Cresselia, she's a mind healer and I would like you to meet once a week with her to talk about the things that happened at your relatives' while you grew up there," Madam Pomfrey said kindly.

"It's okay, I don't have to return there anymore after all," Harry mumbled.

"Please, Harry, it would help you to talk about it. Whatever you tell me, will stay between us. It's part of the mind healer's oath that we can't reveal anything that our patients tell us without explicit permission," Madam Cresselia told Harry, "And it helps to get things out that bother you. Bottling your negative feelings up will only eat at you."

Harry looked at Madam Pomfrey questioningly, not really knowing what to do, but the kind healer had helped him a lot already and he somewhat trusted her to not hurt him. She nodded encouragingly.

"Alright, but I don't want to talk about everything," Harry mumbled.

"We can talk about what you feel comfortable with. This will take a longer time. I'm going to come to Hogwarts every Thursday afternoon after your last class. Madam Pomfrey has given me your schedule, including your Quidditch training schedule, so our sessions won't interfere with anything," Madam Cresselia said.

Harry just nodded. Right now he didn't even know how he felt about continuing being on the Gryffindor team. They hadn't been nice to him and the twins had been among those that pranked him horribly. And none of them had come to visit him to apologise yet.

Poppy Pomfrey looked at the potion that Severus had brought her. It was the last part of the treatment that she needed to perform on Harry before he could be allowed to return to classes. He had been healed from the concussion by now, which she had needed to wait for before she could start this part. Otherwise it could have caused brain damage and she didn't want to hurt the boy any more than he had already been in his life.

"Thank you, Severus. Would you assist me when I administer it? Having a Potions master with me when I administer it would be good," Pomfrey said.

"Of course, Poppy. I haven't ever seen this potion being used before, so it would give me some valuable information for my future research," Snape agreed.

Poppy nodded and walked out to the bed of Harry.

"Harry, could you please listen to me for a while?" Pomfrey asked.

"Of course, Madam Pomfrey," Harry said smiling, then he stiffened when he saw Snape, "Hello, Professor Snape, I didn't see you immediately."

"Well, Mr Potter, Madam Pomfrey asked me to assist her with the treatment she needs to administer, as the potion she has requested from me isn't a very common one," Snape commented.

Harry nodded warily. He didn't really trust the Potions Professor, but he trusted Madam Pomfrey. It was confusing.

"Please just relax, Harry. You remember that I did diagnostic charms on you when you were brought here by Miss Abbott, right?" Pomfrey asked.

"Yes, that was how you found out how,…, the Dursleys weren't nice to me," Harry commented.

Snape suppressed a snort. Not being nice was a massive understatement for the muggles' behaviour.

"Correct. There was another thing that the charm told me and I asked Professor Snape for a potion that will help take care of the problem. I'm not going to sugar-coat this, it will probably be painful. The problem, Harry, is that I found some really dark magic stuck inside your scar," Madam Pomfrey explained.

"Dark Magic?" Harry asked concerned, "From when Vol- I mean You-Know-Who tried to kill me?"

"Yes, Harry. I assumed at the beginning of the year that you had been seen by specialists at St. Mungo's after you were hit with the killing curse," Pomfrey informed him, "But it turned out that it didn't happen. You also didn't get the required examination before school started and Professor McGonagall overlooked that she had to send you to me for said examination like the muggleborn students. We have to make sure that all students get vaccinations for common wizard diseases for example and usually the muggleborn children don't have them. You'll get yours once you're fully healed.

"Now, your scar needs to be treated as soon as possible to prevent that it causes you trouble in the future. It would have been a lot better if it had happened years ago, but there's no use to cry over spilt milk. What this potion will do, is slowly eating up the dark magic in your scar. My charms have told me that something powerful prevents that this magic enters your body fully. It's trapped inside the scar, which makes healing it possible. Our estimations are that once the potion starts working, it will take about three hours for the scar to be fully dissolved."

"So, I won't have the scar after that anymore?" Harry asked hopefully, surprising Snape, who didn't show his surprise openly though.

"Yes, it will be gone. If everything goes as estimated, we should be able to simply grow new skin over the spot. It will still be sore for two weeks or so, dark magic is nasty to treat, but then you shouldn't have any problems with it. Your forehead would look completely normal again," Pomfrey answered.

"Then do it. I can take some pain if it means that dark magic is gone and I don't have to take the stares all the time anymore," Harry stated firmly.

"Okay, lie down on your back and close your eyes. I'll have to put you under a full-body bind curse to prevent you thrashing around. We don't want the potion to get into places like your eyes after all," Pomfrey pointed out.

Harry nodded and lay down, following the healer's instructions. Then he felt himself stiffen and some liquid was brushed onto his forehead. It first felt like a small burning sensation, but it became worse with every minute. He knew that he couldn't move, but he really hated how much this started to hurt. It was as if somebody had used a cigarette to burn his skin. He only vaguely realised what happened. Occasionally he felt the brush applying more potion and the burning increasing when it happened. He lost any feeling for time passing. Only when the pain from his forehead lessened and the full-body bind was lifted, he fell into blissful unconsciousness. His last thought was that he never wanted to experience something like this again.

When Harry came back to, he was at first disorientated. He vaguely remembered the pain, but not really everything that was connected to what had happened.

"Ah, you're awake again, Harry," he heard the soft voice of Madam Pomfrey.

"Huh?" Harry asked, trying to open his eyes, but failing.

"Just rest, Harry. From my examination the procedure to remove the dark magic from your scar was successful, but it took a good part of your magical reserves. You'll feel weak for about a day, I expect. I've given you a pain potion. If you feel any pain from your head, just call me and you'll get more. Now that the removal is complete, there's no reason for you to endure the pain anymore," she informed him.

Harry simply drifted back to sleep. He was really tired.

And that was the first part of this little two-shot. The next half is going to be posted next Sunday. Till then.