Harry knew something was seriously wrong with Hedwig. For the last few days she had been sitting dully inside her cage, only drinking some water, but refusing her food. The she seemed to develop some sort of fever, as she kept getting cold and then hot waves. Her eyes had seemed duller too.

Harry had looked through his books in hopes of finding out what was wrong, but he hadn’t been able to find anything. Until Dudley taunted him. Harry could still hardly believe it, but it must have been true. Dudley and his friends had grabbed Hedwig and fed her poison meant to kill vermin. They had done this when Harry had been doing the shopping for his aunt, and Hedwig hadn’t been able to escape as she had been locked up in her cage during that time.

So now he had a problem. He had managed to get the bottle which stated the ingredients of the poison, but he couldn’t send a plea for help since he had no owl to send a message with. Now he was going to sneak out and take the Knight Bus to Hogwarts. He hoped someone would be there. He hoped Hagrid at least knew what to do. His friends couldn’t help him, as they were all away on holiday. So there he was, having his most prized posessions with him in his schoolbag, and Hedwig bundled up in several of his shirts.

Carefully Harry made his way downstairs, avoiding the creaking stairs, and he walked towards the front door. He slowly unlocked it, and managed to close it behind him as well. Then he quickly walked towards the corner of the street where he stuck out his wand. It didn’t take long for the Bus to appear, and Harry cut of Stan, paying him for a ride to Hogwarts stating it was urgent. It still took nearly an hour to get there, and Hedwig now had her beak wide open because she felt too hot. Harry had given her water to drink, but she didn’t seem to want it all that much. This worried Harry even more. So he quickly got of the bus, and walked the short distance to the Gates. He slipped through them and hurried to the castle. As it was in the middle of the night he didn’t expect anyone to be up, so it surprised him when a spell suddenly sizzled by him, just barely missing. He stopped and waited. It didn’t take long. A muttered ‘Lumos’, and he looked into the eyes of Professor Snape.

“Potter, what the hell are you doing here in the middle of the night during summer?” For a split second Harry felt like being rude, but Hedwig’s shivering stopped him.

“Professor please. It’s Hedwig my owl. She’s been poisoned and she needs an anti-dote. Can you help her?”

For a moment it looked as if Snape didn’t beleive him, but then his eyes fell on the pitifull heap of feathers and shirts in the boys arms. He noticed something else too though. The boy didn’t seem all that healthy himself.

Dismissing that as concern for the owl, he told Harry: “Come along then. Tell me what poisoned her and when. I’ll see what I can do.”

So while walking to the Potions classroom, Harry told him what his cousin had done and that he still had the bottle which had contained the poison. Perhaps it would help in making the anti-dote. When Snape heard the boy’s cousin was responsible it puzzled him, but he decided to focus on a cure first. He remembered all too well the way Hagrid had been gushing about how glad Harry had been with the owl. And it was clever of the boy to keep the bottle that stated the ingredients. He hoped the owl was a strong one though.

In the potions classroom he quickly gathered ingredients while Harry took the bottle from his schoolbag. Then Snape started to make the potion, while Harry tried to have Hedwig drink and eat something. She took some water, and Snape watched from the corners of his eyes how Potter kept checking her temperature, and kept stroking her, telling her it would be just fine.

Half an hour later the potion was finished. Snape carefully measured out the first dose and when Harry told Hedwig she needed to drink it, she did. It was obvious she didn’t like the taste though.

“She will need to have five other doses. One every hour. I will measure them now, so it will be easier to give them.” Harry nodded, but kept most of his attention on Hedwig.

When Snape had measured the doses and cleaned everything up, he looked his student over once more. The boy looked pale, tired and slightly ill. He decided to at least offer him a decent place to stay.

“Come along Potter. I wasn’t planning on staying here for too long.” He led them to his personal quarters. He could let the boy sleep on his couch.

Harry hardly payed attention to the fact that he was in his teachers quarters. When Snape told him he could sit on the couch he did so, glad Hedwig seemed a little bit brighter. Snape decided on how to proceed. He felt Potter should be the one feeding the potion, but he wanted to be awake as well. So he told Potter to go to sleep and that he would set an alarm for every hour. He found a blanket and an extra pillow which he handed to the boy. He gave the owl her own little nest, which she seemed to like. Then he himself went to sleep.

When the last dose had been given, it was nearing six o’clock in the morning, and Snape felt that both he and Potter could be allowed to sleep in a little. When he next awoke it was to some strange sounds coming from his living room. He went in to have a look, only to be confronted by a cured owl who flew over to him and nipped his ear in thanks. He quickly gave her a scratch, wondering why the boy wasn’t awake yet. Walking over to the couch the answer was simple. Potter was lying curled up, shivering but also sweating from an obvious fever. Damning his bad luck, Snape muttered to himself: “How do I end up in situations like this? And what could have caused him to get ill?”

At this, Hedwig flew up and grabbed the bottle. She brought it over to Snape, pecking it. “You’re telling me he’s been poisoned as well?” Snape asked incredilously. Wasn’t he spoiled at home? But then his owl wouldn’t have been poisoned by his cousin.

So he quickly flooed Poppy, who came down slightly bewildered as to why a student was in snape’s quarters. After she’d heard his story, she quickly grew worried and cast several spells over the boy. The result was stunning to say the least. As far as she could see the poisoning had started straight at the beginning of the summer. It seemed his magic had kept his body from reacting, but the amount of poison was so high by now, that the magic couldn’t stop it anymore. A combination of the antidote together with blood cleansing spells should get rid of the potion, but there was severe damage to the boys liver, stomach and lungs. He would probably need to take potions for months. When they had delivered the first dose of antidote and the first blood cleansing spell Harry stabilized somewhat.

During the brewing of the anti-dote, Snape had done some serious thinking. He had always believed Harry was spoiled, as his father had been. Besides, he was The-Boy-Who-Lived, so why wouldn’t his family treat him like that. Then he recalled all those images he got doing Legilimancy, and figured he should have seen this earlier. There were no happy memories related to those Dursleys, and he was pretty sure he had heard Potter talk to his friends about not liking it there. He had written it of as a spoiled attitude, and attention seeking behaviour, but now he figured he must have been wrong. For the boy to have been poisoned – most likely by his own relatives- was hard to think of. And it made him mad, very mad. Not only at the Dursleys, but also at himself, and even at Harry. He was angry at himself, because he should have seen the signs, he always spotted such students with relative ease, and yet, with this particular boy all he had been able to see was James Potter. Dumbledore was probably going to be glad he finally saw Harry, but still. And Snape was angry at Harry because the boy had done such a good job at hiding how much they had hated him, and he had kept quiet for too long. But now, he was going to do something about this. And right now too.

Poppy promised to stay with Harry while Snape was going to talk with Dumbledore. He was furious, not only at his own misconceptions, but more at the horrid family responsible. He (and Albus) would make sure they would pay for harming Harry. This was going to be fun, he grinned evilly as he stepped up the stairs to Dumbledore’s office.

The Dursleys would never know what hit them.