Chapter 18 – Research Holiday

Harry woke up later, when he heard loud voices around his bed.

“No, I cannot leave him here, he is very ill.”

“But he will be fine here; we’ll all look after him.”

“I can see how well you look after him. How could he get so ill without anyone noticing?”

He groaned. Why couldn’t they just leave him in peace?

“Harry?”

“hmm?”

“I need to take you to the Hospital Wing. If there is anything you want to take with you, grab it now, because you will have to stay for at least a week. Do you think you can walk that far?”

Harry grabbed Slytherin’s diary and his school bag and shook his head. “I’ll flash. Please grab my tail feathers.” He changed into Icicle, waited until Pomfrey had grabbed his tail and flashed away. He made himself comfortable in his favourite bed and waited for the lecture that was sure to come. However, it didn’t come.

Pomfrey just told him, “We will talk tomorrow,” made him drink a few Potions, and he instantly fell in a long, dreamless sleep. When he woke up, Remus was sitting beside him, reading one of the books from the Slytherin library.

“Hi Harry, are you finally awake,” he stated.

“Hello Remus, where are the others? What time is it?” he croaked hoarsely.

“It is 3 o’clock on Sunday afternoon, and the others are in the common room. The dragon is only allowing one visitor at a time should she allow any she told us. She is very angry, because nobody noticed that you were so ill.”

“It’s only a really bad cold, nothing to let the whole school know about,” Harry said angrily.

“No Harry, it’s not. You got pneumonia this time, because you didn’t do anything for your cold.”

“I did. I took lots of Pepper-up Potions, did you tell her about that?”

“Yes, we did, and she got even angrier at Severus and at us. She told us we were very irresponsible not to inform her of your problems, and she forbade Severus to give you any more Potions, apart from in exceptional circumstances when you needed them urgently and she was not available.”

“Oh, Remus, I have to talk to her. I can’t have her angry at Severus. It’s not his fault, he even warned me about it. Can you get her for me please?”

Madam Pomfrey came over, nodded at Remus and said, “Thank you Mr. Lupin. You are dismissed. Please tell your classmates that Mr. Pane is not allowed any more visitors until further notice.”

“Hello Madam Pomfrey, you are looking as radiant as ever,” Harry tried to joke and lift her mood, but to no effect.

“I thought when I last talked to you about your condition I had explained the main points in detail,” she said in a very upset voice. “I can’t believe that you go and secretly get Potions from Severus, continue to take them without telling anyone except for your dorm mates, who are just as irresponsible as yourself, and fail to tell your teachers or me.”

“Please don’t be angry at Severus. It’s not his fault. On the contrary, he warned me about it and told me I had to tell you whenever I had taken any of the Potions. And Severus didn’t know that I took the Potions. I’m really sorry.”

“Alright, I will talk to him again. Nevertheless, you have pneumonia this time, and you will have to stay at least a week, probably even two weeks or more. When you behave yourself, I might allow visitors again.” She gave him several different Potions and went back into her office.

-----

Harry took the Slytherin diary and tried to read, although he couldn’t concentrate very well. His chest hurt, and he couldn’t stop thinking about his friends who had been scolded because of him. About an hour later, Severus entered the Hospital Wing and went straight to the office.

“May I see Harry for a moment?”

“I have to apologize to you, Severus; Harry told me that it was not your fault at all and that you even warned him. Is that true?”

“Yes, but it is my fault as well. I shouldn’t have given the Potions to him in the first place; I just thought he would be a little more careful.”

“You may see him only for a few minutes; he is very ill and I want him to rest. And he shouldn’t talk too much.”

Harry saw Severus coming over to his bed and began to apologize immediately. “I’m so sorry, Severus, I didn’t want to get you into trouble.”

“I know that, Harry, and the dragon just talked to me, I’m not in trouble, but you are. It would have been so much easier to spend one or two days here a week ago than for at least a full week now… you are crazy.”

“But we won the Quidditch game!” Harry beamed.

“Yes you did. Congratulations!” he said without any emotion in his voice.

“And maybe she will let me leave earlier,” Harry tried hopefully.

“No, she won’t.” He glanced at the patient sheet that was placed on the windowsill and tried to read Pomfrey’s writing. “She must really have drugged you up that you are able to sit up and talk at the moment. It’s quite bad this time. But if you feel well enough, maybe you can translate this diary, and you also could help Lily and Remus with the charms for the map.”

“Yes, of course. They only have to bring me some books to read, and then at least I’ll be able to make some use of my time here. By the way, can you read Parselscript?”

“You ask questions! Show me your book… No, I can’t read that. Maybe when I’m a snake I can read, but in snake form I can’t write, so it’s not very useful.”

“But do you know what you can do? You should be able to open the chamber in snake form, shouldn’t you?”

“That may be, I’ll have to try it out, but I can’t think of a reason why it won’t work. Good idea, I didn’t even think about it. Now, you look like you could use a rest, and I will go before being thrown out. I’ll ask her when I may come again, and if she doesn’t let me, I’ll come in my snake form around curfew.”

“All right, Severus, thank you.” Harry slept for a while and was woken up later by his own coughing.

“Harry,” he heard a voice and opened his eyes.

“How do you feel?”

“Horrible,” he croaked.

“Your Potions must have worn off, I thought so. Here, drink these and you’ll be okay for a few hours.” Pomfrey helped him to sit up and drink several phials.

He felt better immediately.

“May Severus or Lily or Remus come to see me?”

“Severus will come back after dinner, but you are not allowed to speak. If you talk a lot, I will cast a silencing spell on you.”

“All right.”

-----

Harry grabbed the Slytherin book, a parchment and a quill and began to translate the book. Maybe he could finish it in a week. The book was quite interesting. Slytherin wrote a lot about himself and life at Hogwarts of the four founders. However, so far he hadn’t found any information about the Chamber of Secrets. He had already translated the first chapter when Severus came to visit him.

“Wow, this is very interesting. You should publish it after it’s finished you know?! By the way, I can open the chamber. I went there in the afternoon together with James and Lily. We continued your work in the library for about two or three hours, and we found three more books written in Parselscript. Look, here – I’ve brought them for you to read and translate!”

“Thanks a lot! This will be a busy week. Wow, these are Potions recipes. I bet there are many long lost Potions in it. Cool.”

“So you can’t say you’re bored. You can have lots of fun here with old Potions,” Severus smirked. They talked until Pomfrey came and reminded Harry not to talk so much and told Severus curfew would start in a quarter of an hour.

“Alright Harry, sleep well and don’t work too much on your translations.”

“Night Sev.” Harry continued to work on his translation, and he had just finished the second chapter, when his Great Grandparents came into the room.

“Harry, how are you? What are you doing, especially at this time of the night? It’s nearly midnight.”

“I’m translating Salazar Slytherin’s diary. I don’t know how late it is, but the dragon did not come to tell me to sleep, so I thought it was okay. She probably forgot I was here.”

“Mr. Pane, how could I forget you? Don’t worry you will get your check-up and your Potions. I just wanted to wait until your Potions are about to wear off; you have so many strong Potions in your system that I can’t check on you while they are still working.”

“Is he already better?”

“No Minerva, not at all. He only feels good because he is drugged. Otherwise it would be very bad, you noticed before, didn’t you Harry? His chest is very congested; he has a bad cough and a very high fever.”

“Anyway this book is very interesting,” Harry hurried to change the topic. “So far, I have translated the first two chapters. Slytherin describes life here at Hogwarts, his family, his studies and so on. And Severus, James and Lily found three more books from him, one of them seems to be about Potions, and this one”, he showed them a thin, smaller booklet, “is about ‘secret places within Hogwarts’. Maybe I can find details about the chamber in it. This will be the next one I translate.”

His grandmother frowned. “Harry, dear, you sound as if you were on a research holiday,” McGonagall said reproachfully.

Harry shrugged and said, “It’s kind of that, isn’t it. And as I’m not allowed to talk a lot, this seems to be the best activity for the time being”.

Dumbledore laughed and his eyes were twinkling. “Harry, I suggest that you publish it when your translation is finished.”

“Severus already suggested that. If you care to read it, Granddad, you may take the first two chapters with you.”

“Yes Harry, I would like that very much, and I promise to bring them back tomorrow morning. Thank you.”

-----

With only a few interruptions Harry spent the next days on his translation and managed to finish the diary by Friday evening. He knew he wouldn’t have so much time once he returned to his dormitory, so he started the next book immediately. When his Grandparents came to visit him as they did every evening, he presented the finished translation to Dumbledore.

“Very good my boy, thank you. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the diary tonight.”

“Harry, does Poppy know what you are doing here all day? And probably half the night as well?” his Grandmother asked worriedly.

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know; I mean I don’t do it secretly. Probably she is just glad that I do what she says, don’t beg for visitors and don’t talk a lot. Apart from that she doesn’t mind I think.”

“I will go and ask her about Harry’s condition Albus, he doesn’t seem much better to me although he has already been here for six days.”

“Ask her to come here Minerva; I would like to hear what she says as well.”

Pomfrey came and shook her head. “No, his condition has not improved at all; it has stopped getting worse, but that’s all I’m afraid. I have already talked to Severus, and he is currently doing some research for me in order to invent a new Potion that might help Harry, but apart from that, we just have to wait it out with the Potions we have. When I see how slow the improvement is if there is any at all, I think it will take at least another week if not two or more for him to recover, and I can assure you that I won’t let him out until he is completely recovered.”

“Don’t you think he is working too much on his translations Poppy?”

“He is, Minerva, definitely. However, I prefer that to his normal attitude. Fighting against my check-ups or my rules concerning sleeping times, visitors etc. would be much more strenuous for him than his work, which he can do silently. I check on him every now and then, and when his fever is too high or he seems to be too tired, I tell him to sleep for a while and he so far has obeyed.”

“Ms. Evans and Mr. Lupin wanted to know when they could visit him.”

“Until his condition improves, he is not allowed to have visitors. Only Severus comes three times a day, but he is very careful to prevent Harry from talking much, and he knows that he is only allowed to stay for ten minutes every time, and so far Harry has not complained about this rule.”

“Sorry, Madam, I just don’t have enough energy to fight you, but wait a week and I’ll try to annoy you as much as I can,” Harry said with a small smile.

-----

By the end of the next week, Harry had translated the second book, in which he learned everything about the Chamber of Secrets. According to the book, the fireplace in the living room of the chamber was called ‘The snakes den’ and seemed to be one of the normal Hogwarts’ fireplaces, which were connected to the internal Floo Network.

On Friday evening, he gave the translation to his Grandparents, and Dumbledore promised to try the fireplace out the following day.

“Granddad, when you try the fireplace out, could you please go to the library and look if there are any more books in Parselscript? I have still two books left, but both seem to be about Potions, and if there was another book about any other topic, I would prefer to translate that first.”

“I will do that my boy, I’ll try to floo down to the chamber tomorrow morning, but don’t work too much as you have to rest as well.”

“I’m resting enough, and you know when I return to my dormitory I won’t have much time, especially as I have already missed two weeks of school work, and I don’t know when she will let me out.”

Suddenly McGonagall frowned and asked sternly “Mr. Snape, what are you doing here at this time? It is already after curfew.”

“Hello Harry, Professors. I am sorry Professor, Madam Pomfrey had asked me to invent a Potion that might help him, and I have tried something out, which I would like him to test. You know I can only do my research when the Potions classroom is empty, so sometimes it goes beyond curfew. I’m sorry.”

“There is nothing to be sorry about my boy. On the contrary, we are very grateful that you sacrifice your private time to research Potions for the Hospital Wing. I’ll get Poppy to see if you may give the Potion to him.”

“I’m here, and yes, Severus, of course you may give him the Potion, but I have to check him out first.”

“What is your prognosis Poppy; how long he will have to stay?”

“Sorry, Minerva, ask me again tomorrow, maybe Severus’ Potion helps. Otherwise, I do not know. I can only repeat what I told you last week and the week before: at least one more week.”

“Severus, are you busy tomorrow morning, or would you care to try out the Floo connection to the chamber and look through the library for more books in Parselscript?”

“I would like that, of course Professor. We have to get all books translated as long as we have our professional translator here,” he smirked.

Suddenly Harry remembered something and jumped into the conversation. “Um… I… I’d like to ask you something,…um… you know, the school year ends in about four weeks time or so…? And… um… I thought about, you know, Granddad, we once talked about when I should go back to the future, and you told me it doesn’t matter, as long as I go back before I am born, so…um… I thought, maybe I could stay another year until the end of 7th year and then definitely go back. Would that be possible?” he croaked hoarsely.

McGonagall threw a questioning look at Dumbledore, who smiled fondly at Harry and replied, “Of course my dear boy, we would love to have you here for another year, right Severus?”

“Yes, of course, Harry, that would be great!” Severus said eagerly.

“The only problem is,” Harry said pensively, “where could I go during the summer holidays?”

“First of all, you have to see that you will be out of here by then,” his Grandmother said, “and afterwards you can stay with us, of course, either at Hogwarts or at Dumbledore manor, where we’ll be staying.”

“Considering his very poor health you should think about staying at Hogwarts,” Poppy said.

Dumbledore nodded agreeably and said, “And maybe Severus and your other friends could stay with you for a while. We will make plans when you are out of here.”

-----

When Severus came to have lunch with Harry on the next day, he brought five more books for Harry to translate. Harry groaned.

“They are all about Potions it seems. I know he was the Potions Master of his time, but did he have to write seven books about Potions?”

“Oh, there are more. I just didn’t bring them to spare Pomfrey a heart attack. Anyway, I’d like you to translate them all for me; if you don’t know what certain ingredients are just ask me, and I’ll help you with the English text. Maybe we can find useful recipes of long lost Potions. By the way, how are you today? Did my Potion help?” Harry looked questioningly at Severus.

“I don’t know, you have to ask her,” he said apologizing.

“By the way, she still won’t allow visitors except for you and my Grandparents. Could you ask Remus and Lily to bring a few books about charms, you know, to research for the map, or have you made progress with the map?”

“Our friends are too worried about you to do anything reasonable. I think they didn’t do any research so far. I know that Lily, James, Remus and Sirius are annoying Pomfrey every day because they want to see you.”

“Alright, as we have decided that I will stay for another year it doesn’t really matter; we’ve enough time for everything. Nevertheless, ask them for a few charms books anyway please. And tell them that I’m fine and they don’t have to worry.”

When Severus came a few days later, Harry was very excited.

“Severus, look what I have found!