Snape and Remus were both practically boiling over with worry or anxiety. They had heard what Dr. Willie had told them about Harry’s injuries, but somehow it didn’t really sink in, they had to see for themselves.

Dr. Willie, who noticed the tenseness of both of the men, felt sympathy towards them. This would even be harder for them, since the chance of Harry actually starting to recognize them when he would see them, would be down to an absolute minimum. He opened the door to the room which held Harry, for a bit and looked inside. Nurse Becky was still sitting with him, and nurse John had joined them. John was feeding Harry some broth, while Becky was still reading the story. Smiling Dr. Willie carefully opened the door further to not attract much attention and waved the two visitors in.

To say Snape and Remus were shocked, would have been an understatement. In the hospital bed was a small skinny boy, with still healing cuts on his face, his arms and legs bandaged and strapped in place and him lying propped up in the bed being fed.

The small gasp they emitted was noticed by the three people on the bed. The nurses gave a small smile and Becky closed the book.

“Well then Harry, it seems we shall have to continue reading another time, don’t you agree?”

Harry smiled at her. “All right, but you’ll have to hurry, or else John will have to read the best bits, and you only get the boring parts of the book to read.”

Becky laughed. “Hm, I think I can make a deal with him. You just eat your dinner and then entertain your guests. You finally have some, so I would think you would like to enjoy it.”

She left after ruffling his hair. Harry only smiled brighter up at her.

Then he was forced to return his attention to the food, as John was waving the food in front of him.

“Eat up Harry. I know you’ve probably had enough of all this broth by now, but still, your stomach isn’t used to much, so there you have it.” And with that the spoon filled with broth found it’s way in Harry’s mouth.

Snape and Remus decided to wait until Harry had eaten his dinner before talking too much. They just observed him and his interaction with the nurse.

Dr. Willie let them.

The sight of seeing Harry in the hospital bed was enough for Snape to reevaluate his ideas and feelings for the boy. Of course, reading the diary had helped immensely with this as well.

Remus just couldn’t remember ever seeing Harry like this. Of course Harry had never had such a big accident before, but that was not what he meant. From what he could see and sense, Harry was rather carefree, somewhat happy and completely ignorant of all the things that defined his life. It was a pain to admit, but Remus was happy Harry wouldn’t remember the death of his godfather just yet.

What was a bit unnerving and frankly heartbreaking to Remus, was the fact that only one eye of Harry was a bright emerald colour. The other eye was a dull green, and Remus guessed this was the blinded eye. In time it would probably turn a milky white.

Snape in the mean time was going over the possibilities in his head, to see if he could help Harry recover his memories, or heal some of his permanent wounds. He should discuss this with Poppy and see what she had to say about this. If he would only be able to see through one eye, it could seriously interfere with his ability at being a wizard. And having only one kidney was of course live able with, but having two would be better. So Snape was already going over potions, spells anything really that might help.

John was the one who snapped their attention back to the present.

“So Harry, now that you have finished eating, would you rather be sitting like this, or should I lower you so you’ll be lying down again?”

Harry thought this over for a bit and said: “Well, just leave me like this I guess, or else I might fall asleep again. But you will put me back down, later, right?” he sounded really like a small kid.

John nodded. “Of course. I won’t let you go to sleep sitting like this. It’s not very good for you if I would do that.” With that he pulled the covers up again, so Harry would be a bit tucked in. He then stroked Harry’s hair. What Remus and Snape both noted was that Harry unconsciously leaned into this touch.

“Now, I will be making my rounds, and later on I will come and give you your washing up. Then you can go to sleep. After all you’re awake for six hours already today. Must be a record!” Laughing John stood up, glanced at Remus and Snape and walked out.

A tense silence fell over the room. Dr. Willie excused himself and went to another patient.

Harry looked at the two people. They didn’t look familiar at all, but he wasn’t surprised. He was surprised at seeing the owl sitting on the shoulder of one of them.

“I assume you were sent here by this Professor Dumbledore?” he asked them in a polite, soft voice.

This startled both Remus and Snape out of their stupor.

“Right, sorry about that. It’s just that you certainly look different than the last time we saw you.” Said Remus.

“And when was the last time you saw me, if I might ask?”

“Well, that would have to be around 6 weeks ago, at the end of the school year.”

Harry thought this over.

“Hm, not to be rude or anything, but could you please tell me who you are, and where you know me from? It would make things so much easier.” He said.

“Oh, right you are Harry. Well I’m Remus Lupin, I was a good friend of your parents, and I met you again in your third year at school, where I was a teacher for a year. And then I saw you again last summer and last school year. This man is Severus Snape, and he should tell you more about himself.” Saying this, Remus shot Snape a pointed glare.

Snape collected himself and decided to be polite. After all Harry didn’t remember him, and after reading the diary he couldn’t really behave the same way as before.

“Well, I’m Severus Snape and I’m a teacher at your school. I used to be good friends with your mother, although I’ve never told you that. We never gotten along, but we might now.”

Harry stayed silent for a while. Because he had closed his eyes, Remus and Snape were worried he might have fallen asleep, until he opened his eyes again.

“By what you are saying I assume my parents are dead?”

Remus nodded.

“Could you please tell me how they died? They weren’t in the same car crash were they?”

Well, the tricky part came a bit earlier than Snape and Remus had expected, but apparently Harry was quite clever.

Snape decided he should tell this story, as he wouldn’t get so emotional as Remus might be.

“Well, no, your parents did not die in the car crash. In fact they died when you were over a year old. Since you don’t remember any of this, you might find us completely crazy, but believe me when I say this story is the truth. You see, you are a wizard. Your parents were wizards as well, and frankly they were killed by the Dark Lord. You however, were not, you survived with only that scar on your forehead.”

Snape paused to see if Harry was still with them. A glance at the bed showed him that Harry had not fainted, started backing away or anything. He actually seemed to think it over.

“Could you show me some magic?” he asked.

Remus nodded relieved and pulled out his wand. He then made a plate hover in the air, and painted a wall with moving animals. Harry squealed in delight. He actually sounded like a small kid.

“Oh, right, that’s believable. So you’re saying I can do this too?” he asked them, with a huge grin on his face.

Snape nodded. “Well, just let me continue this for now. You were placed with your uncle, aunt and cousin. Unfortunately we just found out that they have died in the car crash. This means you have no family left. Well, no official family that is. I believe the family of your best friend Ron Weasley considers you a part of the family, as does Remus here.” He added this quickly upon seeing the downcast look Harry had gotten on his face.

Harry gave a tentative smile. “So that makes it a bit better to be honest. What can you tell me about my friends. Do I have any?”

Remus laughed. “Yes you do. Your best friends are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In fact they were the ones alerting us that something must be wrong with you, since Hedwig couldn’t deliver their letter to you.”

At this Hedwig hooted and flew over to sit with Harry.

“Wish I could pet her. But you’re saying this really is my owl then?” He certainly sounded hopeful to Snape’s ears.

Remus walked over to the bed and looked at Harry. “Is it all right if I move your arm?”

Harry nodded, with a questioning look.

Remus lifted the arm and move it so that he actually stroked Hedwig.

“She feels soft.” Said Harry after a while. He was smiling brilliantly. “I like this.”

Hedwig hooted again and nibbled his fingers. Remus decided that he didn’t know how long he was allowed to move Harry’s arm, so he put it down on the bed.

“Well, another surprise for you is that we want to take you with us. You see, we want to take you to Hogwarts, the school you go to. The nurse there might be able to heal you quicker. And it would be safer too.”

Harry cocked his head and thought this over.

Snape was watching this all with much interest. As far as he knew, Harry never really thought much about plans and stuff. He usually seemed to rush into things and think about it afterwards. This was quite another side of the boy, and Snape began to wonder, if this wasn’t the true Harry, the one he had kept hidden behind the mask of the Boy-Who-Lived. For all Snape knew, this could very well be the case. So he decided to observe for now, and keep snarky snide comments to himself. Not that he was planning on giving those, mind you, but still, habits died hard.

“But, what about the doctors here? We can’t just expect them to let us go like that. And I don’t think I’m up to traveling much tonight. And what do you mean about being safer there?”

Remus shuffled. Why did he have to deal with all the difficult questions? Just not fair.

“Well, we can stay here for one night longer if you’d like.” Harry nodded.

“And well, that Dark Wizard that killed your parents? It’s, well, to put it bluntly, he’s after you. And well, you had protection at your relatives, but since they died, the protection will be gone soon. And the school is really the safest place to be when that happens.”

“Oh” with that Harry sighed and closed his eyes again. As if on cue John walked in.

“I’m sorry, but it’s getting late. If you’d like I can set up two beds in this room and you can stay for the night? I just have to help Harry here.”

Remus and Snape gave in and walked to a toilet nearby, so that Harry had a bit of privacy.

When they walked back in, Harry was already sleeping, and John had just made up two beds for them. After thanking him, they both changed into some sleeping clothes, which they were smart enough to bring along, and went to sleep.

The next morning they woke up to the sounds of hushed talking. They saw John washing Harry’s face, while Harry was asking John when he would be reading the story again. What Remus noted was how relaxed Harry was behaving. Harry always had a look of tenseness around him, of not wanting to be noticed, and for Remus it was a bit odd to see him without this look. Actually, he rather liked it, but it made him sad, that Harry would probably get that look back, once his memory would come back. Or if his memory wouldn’t come back they had to tell him the story of his life. Maybe being with Hermione and Ron would bring out the good things, rather than the bad things.

He decided he would worry about that later. Right now they had to get Harry out of this hospital, into Hogwarts and also making sure the Doctors, nurses and the police wouldn’t suspect anything. He figured Snape would already plan things like this, because it was simply in the nature of the man to do so.

Snape was indeed planning such things. The doctor was taken care of, after all the charm on the note, should work. The memories of the nurses could be modified, and the file in the hospital could be changed accordingly. They decided to make it sound as if he had died as well, as an unknown patient, to be on the safe side. If they were really lucky the police wasn’t contacted just yet.

So Snape and Remus waited till the nurses would change shifts. At least they would both be present. The Portkey had been made and was held ready by Remus. It would be activated by a simple password: Potter.

At that moment Becky walked in with Dr. Willie. A better opportunity wasn’t going to come soon, so Remus and Snape quickly took their wands and said: “Obliviate.” The Doctor and the nurses were looking dazed.

Harry looked a bit shocked by this display of magic, but kept quiet.

“You don’t remember us, nor Harry. All you know is that your patient died in the coma, so you still don’t know the identity of your patient. You will tell the police of this. Is that understood?” Snape said in a calm, cold voice.

They nodded and walked out of the door. Remus grabbed the Portkey, and Harry. Snape quickly summoned the files and changed them, then he banished them back into the office. No-one would see this, as the hall was empty.

Then he also grabbed the Portkey (a necklace) and said the password. And soon the bed in the hospital was empty.