-II-

"Harry, I'm Healer Smith. I know you are very scared at the moment, but I promise you that everything will be all right. The Minister himself was here to send the Ministry worker and the two Healers away. They won't come back. It will be just Healer Meyers and me. I will touch your shoulder now, Harry. I will calm you a bit with magic. It will feel good, I promise. If you feel uncomfortable, just tell me and I will stop." James knew that Harry would not reply at the moment, and so he started to send Calming Magic to the distressed boy.

Ten minutes later, both boys were drowsy from the Calming Magic. "Alastor, are you still with us?" James asked. Alastor was white like a sheet, but he nodded. His arms hurt because he had not moved them for the past ten minutes. Not to mention his legs.

"Is it possible to move Severus' bed inside here?" James asked.

"Yes, we can move the furniture easily," Alastor said and reluctantly let go of Severus. The boy did not even realize it and just fell over into Healer Meyers' arms. Alastor rearranged all the furniture that Harry and Severus had moved and added Severus' bed close beside Harry's.

"We will let them sleep for an hour," Maria stated when both boys were lying in their beds. "That will give them time to calm down and us time to take care of you and Poppy. Then we can talk about your worries and observations. If they react well, I think we should examine Severus today and Harry tomorrow morning. He has only de-aged four years, so there shouldn't be any dangerous damage that would be life-threatening if we leave it for tomorrow." Maria looked questioning over to James, and when he nodded, it was settled and they left the room.

-II-

When they came back into the living room, Albus was sitting on one of the armchairs close to the couch Poppy was lying on.

Alastor rushed over to Poppy and gently stroked her hair, ignoring Albus completely.

"Maria," Albus greeted Healer Meyers. "And you must be Healer Smith. Alastor and Poppy speak very highly of you," Albus addressed James and offered him his hand. "I'm Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts."

James grinned. "I may have been schooled at Durmstrang, but I don't think there is anyone in wizarding Europe who doesn't know who you are, Professor Dumbledore."

"You never know," Albus said, smiling. After he threw a worried glance at Poppy and Alastor, he asked Maria, "How did it go? The wards informed me about the problems with the Ministry worker and Healers, so I sent for Minister Shacklebolt."

"When I arrived, Poppy had already collapsed against Healer Smith. She was overstressed, and I had to put her to sleep. We can wake her now to fill her in about what happened. The Minister left quickly with those other idiots shortly after my arrival. You need to ask Alastor and Poppy for more information about them, but right now we need to discuss the future. The boys were very distressed and had barricaded themselves in Harry's room. We needed some time to convince them to open the door. They were too distressed to work with immediately, so we decided to let them sleep for an hour," Maria explained while James gently drew Alastor away from his wife.

"Sit down Alastor, I will wake her," James instructed the anxious man.

Seconds later, Poppy looked around wildly. "What happened? How are Severus and Harry?"

"Calm down, Poppy. They are fine; they are sleeping at the moment," James explained calmly. "There were some problems, so we're letting them sleep for an hour. Then we will try to examine Severus."

"Problems? What problems?" Poppy asked, worried, and looked at her husband. The sight did not calm her. Alastor had sunk heavily in the armchair, pale and worn out.

After James had explained what happened, Poppy stood up. "I need to see them."

James sighed. "If you need to see them to calm down, please do so, but remember we need you here as soon as possible to discuss how to go on about this."

"I will be back soon," Poppy said and left the living room.

In the time Poppy needed to make sure her boys were really fine, James helped Alastor. "Relax, Alastor, you know the drill," James said patiently when he had problems reaching the tense areas of Alastor's body with magic. "That's it," James said when the man tried to relax. Alastor was not an easy patient. He had problems trusting people, and relaxing while a Healer had his hands on him was something he took a long time to accept. Only James was allowed to treat him, and the fact that he let James heal him while others were around was a sign of his fatigue and shock.

Alastor felt the warmness soothe his aching limbs. Slowly, the pain ebbed and the magic changed from healing to calming. "I'm fine now," Alastor muttered and tried to bat James' hands away when he realized that the Healer had calmed his nerves.

"Alastor, stop it!" James ordered. The growl he received did not impress him at all. "Poppy is not back yet."

Poppy returned two minutes later and sat down on the couch. James let go of Alastor, and the old man sat down beside his wife and hugged her. "Kingsley will take care of the Ministry."

Poppy nodded and had already got her composure back. "So you will examine only Severus today?" Poppy asked Maria.

"Yes, Severus is the one who could have dangerous lasting effects from the de-aging. I know you are a brilliant mediwitch Poppy, and I also know that you would have examined them again this evening for symptoms that only show up after some time has passed. The problem is that we need to calm the Ministry, so we will examine Severus if he is cooperative. Otherwise they could use this against you. Harry has only de-aged four years, so there shouldn't be any life-threatening damage. Nevertheless, we don't know much about the unstable potion, and if we aren't able to examine Harry today as well, we need to monitor him overnight," Maria explained seriously.

"Of course, Maria," Poppy agreed.

"What have your first diagnostic spells shown?" James asked, interested.

"Severus' magic was still very unstable, so I could hardly read anything. I would have contacted Maria this afternoon even if the Ministry had not asked for this examination. I would never compare my skills to yours," Poppy said sadly.

"You are an excellent mediwitch, Poppy," Maria assured her. "So your diagnostic spell didn't show anything significant?"

"There was high variability in his nutrition level and his magic level was almost...it was almost unreadable," Poppy said, and a tear ran down her cheek.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Alastor asked, surprised.

"I didn't want to worry you. Diagnostic spells so soon after are almost useless," Poppy explained to her husband.

"That's right, Alastor. This result isn't significant. Least six hours have to have passed before you can get readable results from a diagnostic spell in this case," Maria said. "Severus' magical channels that lead from his core through his whole body were torn in several places by Voldemort. Most of them should have already started to form new connections now that Severus is younger, but it will never be as easy for the magic to flow like it was before Voldemort hurt him. The torn channels made it almost impossible for Severus to use any spells as an adult. Now that he is young again, it will be easier for him to use magic. All the spells and charms he'll learn to use now will be learned with the already damages core and channels, so Severus will learn to use them as he is. He is even more capable of learning new things, and it will be much easier now than it was as an adult. The only problem is that he needs magic for this, and at the moment, we aren't able to say how much magic Severus has left in his core. The potion accident could have robbed him of some of his magic."

This instability in his magic level made Poppy worry, but only time would tell how much magic Severus had left. "With accidents like this, we aren't allowed to just rely on diagnostic spells. We need to examine both boys thoroughly without magic as well as with magic. Their cores must have adjusted to the changes by now, and if our diagnostic spells show any problems, we are both able to scan them skin to skin with our hands. That's our only advantage over Poppy," Mary explained.

"You don't need to flatter me, Maria. I'm not a Level Seven Healer and your diagnostic spells are better than mine. I'm just worried about their reactions and cooperation. Severus is a bit problematic, you know Maria, and Harry also isn't very open to revealing his weaknesses," Poppy said, worried.

"We can only hope and see when the time comes. I think it is best if you two stay in the room if the boys don't ask you to leave. That will help them," Maria stated. "Severus still remembers me, and I hope I can make him cooperate. If Severus let us examine him, Harry will most likely allow us to examine him as well."

"I hope you are right," Poppy sighed.

"Can you tell us how they reacted when they woke up after the accident?" James asked.

For the next half an hour, Alastor and Poppy explained Harry's and Severus' reactions to the new situation.

"I think it is a good idea to throw them in at the deep end," James mused when they began to discuss the boys' schooling. "Waiting would only worsen their fear. You can still take them out of classes for some time if they have too many problems."

"What do you think about the decision to let Harry jump a year?" Albus asked the Healers.

"It's okay. He has only de-aged four years and his memories are still intact. His brain will only suppress a few memories. That means he will be able to learn easily if there are no other damages caused by the potion. There could still be brain damage or a bad reaction of the nervous system that might make it harder for him to learn," James explained seriously.

Poppy's and Alastor's eyes widened. "Oh, no, I had not thought about that," Poppy exclaimed, shocked.

"It's just a possibility, Poppy. We will worry about it if it occurs," James said, determined.

"So we should have waited on this decision?" Albus stated.

"Even if there is damage, Headmaster, you can still let Harry attend the higher classes. He would just need some training to cope with the learning disorder. Please don't trouble yourselves with things that might not even be real," James scolded.

"I think it is time to go and wake the boys," Maria suggested.

"I will take my leave now. Please inform me if I have to change anything concerning the classes or if I should inform the teachers about something in addition. Of course I also would love to hear what the examination has shown," Albus said and hugged Poppy. After a friendly pat on Alastor's shoulder, Albus left the room through the fireplace.

_______

"Severus," Maria said gently and stroked Severus cheek.

Harry was already rubbing his eyes tiredly while Severus still refused to open his eyes.

"Severus, come on. Please wake up for me," Maria sing-songed close to Severus' ear and let Healing Magic flow into Severus through her hand.

"I'm tired," Severus said sleepy as he opened his eyes.

Maria smiled. "I know, sweetheart, but I need to examine you. Do you remember?" Maria asked softly while still stroking Severus' hair. Normally Severus would glare at her for calling him "sweetheart," but Maria knew that Severus would react even younger than thirteen for some time due to the adjustment of his body and mind to his de-aging.

"Don't want to," Severus said miserably.

"You know that Poppy and Alastor will be in trouble if we don't give the examination results to the Ministry by tomorrow. You don't want them to send other Healers again, do you?" Maria asked.

Severus shook his head. A voice in his head flickered up telling him to behave like an adult and not like a baby, but it was gone almost instantly. The stress and the sleep had already made his mind adjust to the memories. Severus was feeling like a normal thirteen-year-old and did not have the conflicted feeling anymore.

"Severus, can you tell me about the curse that hit you when you came into my care the first time?" Maria asked, seeing Severus behavior.

Severus bit his bottom lip and racked his brain but could not find the answer.

"It's okay, Severus. Just forget my question. It isn't important," Maria said and threw a significant look over to James, Poppy, and Alastor, who had realized that this meant that Severus' mind had already blocked many of his adult memories.

"You will look for an antidote, right?" Severus asked miserably.

"No, Severus, Healer Smith and I are not here to look for an antidote. We are here to help you adjust to the new situation no matter how long it will last." Maria gestured to James, and Severus turned to look shyly at James.

"That's Alastor's Healer," Severus stated, sat up and crouched closer to Maria. Only a little bit.

"Yes, that's me, Severus. I'm glad you remember that we already met a few times," James said softly and smiled at Severus.

Severus nodded and then looked over at Harry who had also sat up and looked sleepily around.

"You know that we have to examine you and Harry. Not only for the Ministry, but also to see if the potion has done any damage. We are a bit worried that the unstable potion could have caused more problems than just the de-aging," Maria explained to gain Severus' attention again. "As you are the one who had the greatest change, we would like to start with you. We hope to be able to examine Harry as well, but we will see how late it is when we are finished. Will you be a big brother and show Harry that it isn't so bad to be examined?"

Severus bit his bottom lip and thought hard about it. He did not want to look weak in front of Harry. He was the older one, and he wanted Harry to look up to him. On the other hand, he was really afraid of the examination, and when Healer Meyers said that it might be too late to examine Harry after they finished him, he knew the examination would consist of more than just a simple diagnostic spell. "I don't know," Severus said miserably. At the moment, he wished Harry was not in the room so he could whine and plead with them.

"Severus, we will stay in the room if you want us to," Poppy said as she sat down on Severus' bed.

Severus looked at Healer Meyers again. "What will you do?" he asked fearfully.

"I think we will need forty minutes, Severus. First we will have to examine you physically without magic. That's the longest part. We need some liquids from you-"

Maria could not finish because Severus started to shake his head frantically and scoot away from Maria. "Severus, calm down. It's not so bad. Healer Meyers and Healer Smith need your blood and urine to test it for any damage or illness. Otherwise, the Ministry won't be satisfied. There is no way around it," Poppy explained while she drew Severus closer to her.

"Don't want to," Severus mumbled sadly.

"It won't be long, and I promise to numb the spot where I take the blood from, okay?" Maria said charmingly.

Again, Severus wished his younger brother was not in the room. He did not want to whine and cry in front of Harry, so he sadly nodded.

"That's a brave boy," James stated and also sat down on the bed, and when Poppy stood up, he sat closer to Severus.

Poppy and Alastor sat down on Harry's bed, and Harry immediately crawled onto Alastor's lap. Twelve or not, he wanted to be on Alastor's lap while watching Severus' examination.

Severus meanwhile became more scared because he was alone with the two Healers on his bed. He felt the traitorous tears well up in his eyes.

"Severus, it won't be so bad," Maria assured him and brushed a tear away with her thumb. "After we have finished the examination without magic, we will run some diagnostic spells and one of us will scan you. You know that this won't hurt, right?" Maria asked.

Severus nodded. He knew there was no way around it, and he wanted it to be over as soon as possible. Slowly, he pulled his pajama top over his head. Blushing, he looked at Maria in question if he has to pull his bottom off as well.

"You can keep the pajama bottom on for the first part," Maria allowed gently, knowing Severus would feel better this way.

Harry looked shocked at Severus. His back and even his front were covered with scars. The adult Severus had always tried to keep Harry from seeing him naked. The worst was that Severus looked like he was starved. Harry could see each rib, and Severus' backbone stood out as well.

"Old wounds from adulthood are still visible on the skin," Maria stated and a magical quill wrote it down. "Otherwise, the patient has overall statue and appearance of a thirteen year old." Then she looked Severus directly in his eyes. "I will examine you from head to toe now. Do you still remember the quill and the protocol?"

Severus nodded. He was examined often enough to know the protocol quill. It was easy to differ between the voice with which Maria addressed Severus during the examination and the voice with which she ordered the quill to write something down.