Searching for Wellness by DesertPlanet

It was with great practice, patience, and copious amounts of coffee that Severus made it through the next few days. He had been completely unprepared for the reaction Julian had to using magic, even if it was only a swish of the wand. It was as though having a wand had unleashed his magical core and reminded his magic it was not having to solely support his health any longer.

Julian was getting more and more restless. His magic was demanding more and more energy as it recovered and flowed through him in ways it had not done in years. Accidental magic was becoming more frequent as his body demanded the one thing it couldn’t handle: blood. He was hungry; his body feeling as though it were starving once more. Cleaning was no longer acting as a good enough distraction.

In a desperate bid to help him, Severus had given him a few milliliters of blood via his tube. While it had helped initially, the amount of water needed to clear the tube fully so no clots could form made Julian feel extremely bloated and ill. Severus had even tried allowing the child to have some blood orally, but the following eight hours had been spectacularly bad.

It had taken only two days for Severus and Poppy to make a decision they had been trying to hold off on doing, but as Julian continued to decompensate, it became more and more apparent something drastic had to be done. With heavy hearts, they corralled the nearly feral boy into his room in the dungeon and sedated him. The child lying on the bed, unmoving and pale, looked nearly as poorly as when he had first arrived. A quick diagnostic spell confirmed their fears.

All of the weight they had worked so hard to put on the boy over the past few months had dropped off. His magic levels were continuing to climb, but his body was being consumed in the process.

Severus sighed as he looked at the unmoving child he had grown to care for. The problem they were now in was three-fold. As a vampire, he was more prone to heightened emotions and impulsivity when needing to feed. As a wizard, his magic would be more volatile during times of emotional stress, leading him to have episodes of accidental magic especially as he was young and untrained. Magic, however, led to him having a higher caloric need than what he had been requiring, making him feel the urge to feed more frequently. And thus the cycle was stuck on repeat.

The look of pure desperation in Julian’s eyes as he reached weakly for Severus as the sedation spells took effect nearly broke him. The fact he knew Julian was not reaching for him for comfort so much as to feed made it even harder to bear.

There had been some good news on the potions front: experimentation using newt kidneys was proving to lessen the amount of required dilution of separated blood products by half. It wasn’t much, but it certainly was a start. The final version of the potion was still months, possibly even years away.

They needed a more immediate fix. They needed to prevent the vampiric instincts from taking over whenever Julian was needing to feed as well as providing him with nutrition.

He needed to make a phone call. On a phone.

It would only take a few minutes, why was it making him so nervous?

Once he made sure Julian was stable and Poppy was prepared to take the task of watching the child and maintaining sedation, he began the trek out of the dungeons for the first time in what felt like months. The past few days had felt like an eternity and had nearly broken him.

Tiredly, he climbed the stairs from the dungeon to the ground floor. Julian’s appointment with Dr. Singh was scheduled for one week from now. Had Julian’s magic decided to remain interred in the same fashion it had been, this would have been fine. Now, however, they had only a few days before the sedation spells had to be removed or brain damage would occur. The only other options after the spells were using potions not designed for vampires or feeding tubes which could potentially kill him or using muggle sedation stolen from a hospital which would not be designed for wizards. Using such drugs for a prolonged time had the horrific effect of turning a wizard into a squib.

If they couldn’t prevent this cycle from occurring, it would be in Julian’s best interest to be made into a squib. He wouldn’t have access to his magic, but he would live. His stomach may never heal, but they could continue to use nutrient potions. Eventually he would be strong enough to hunt for himself, possibly live on the fringes of the wizarding world, and live what life he could.

The thought of doing that to a child, to his child, was soul-crushing. Resting all of his hopes in one basket was demoralizing. Knowing he would have to beg to a muggle was humiliating.

Severus had prided himself on having not cried since he was fifteen. As he exited the dungeons, he very nearly lost his record.

“Severus?” a familiar voice said as he rounded the corner.

Minerva. With all the chaos of the last few weeks, he had honestly forgotten she had come back to the castle. She had her pre-school year tasks; he had his. They rarely saw each other unless he came up for meals with the other staff members.

He hunched his shoulders in, unconsciously mirroring his teenage self, and trudged on towards the exit. It was a look Minerva hadn’t seen in the man in many years.

“Severus, what’s wrong?” Minerva said, shocked at the look on the man’s face. “Did something happen?”

Severus lengthened his strides, trying to escape the building and her judgement as soon as possible. He didn’t want to explain what was going on just yet. He knew he would have to disclose Julian’s status before the school year began, but he didn’t want to do so just yet. He wanted Julian to be stable, healthy, and ready to begin classes. He wanted Julian to have the same ease in finding friends the damn werewolf had when he was in school.

“Severus!” Minerva said, catching up with him and matching his stride. “Did something happen to Julian?”

A squib. That’s where they were currently. He wasn’t healthy. He wasn’t safe. He wasn’t ready for school. He was now a danger to everyone around him. If this iron didn’t work, he would be made a squib. Or he would die.

He had failed Lily again.

“Severus, is Julian ok?” Minerva continued to ask him. “Severus?”

“No! He’s not!” Severus finally snapped, his chest burning as he tried to prevent tears from welling up in his eyes. “He’s not ok. He is the exact opposite of ok. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to make a phone call.”

Minerva paused for a moment, taken aback by the man’s brusqueness. She had asked Albus about the boy as soon as she had returned from holiday, but he had said very little. She had been hoping to meet the mysterious child before the school year began, but neither he nor Severus had come to staff meals in the Great Hall. Severus had been more reclusive than normal for the past few years, but even this was beyond his normal. What was wrong with Julian?

“Severus, I’m coming with you,” Minerva said, continuing to follow the man. He looked as though he were running off to his own death.

“I need to go to the nearest muggle town,” he said, neither acknowledging or refusing her statement. “Do you have any muggle money?”

“No.”

“No matter,” he said, striding quickly out the door and onto the grounds towards the wards edge.

Minerva was nearly jogging to keep up with him, “Why do you need muggle money?”

“Phone call.”

“Who are you calling?”

“Julian’s primary care doctor. He is a muggle.”

Minerva’s eyes went wide as she nearly tripped over the hem of her robes. Severus’s dislike for the muggle world was well known. He had never been one to talk about his own experiences within the muggle world and only kept his muggle house as a memory of his mother and of his younger years with Lily.

For Severus to reach out to the muggles…

Minerva wisely remained silent until they were outside of the wards. Severus was wrapped in his own thoughts, dark circles under his eyes from the many hours he had been staying awake and frown lines gouging themselves in between his eyebrows.

Grasping the man’s elbow, Minerva took charge of the apparation. Severus looked too exhausted to not risk splinching himself; a risk she was doubtful he would take unless desperate.

With a crack, the two of them appeared behind a shop in a small muggle village nestled in amongst the highlands. Quickly transforming their clothing into more appropriate muggle clothing, Minerva followed Severus as he strode into a nearby pub and pulled out a small slip of paper from a pocket.

Severus strode over to a small box on the wall after a brief nod to the barkeep. A quick flick of his wand and he was in possession of several small muggle coins which he slipped into a small slot on the box after lifting what Minerva thought to be a handle of some sort which he held to his ear. After pushing a series of numbered buttons, he stood there waiting for a few moments. If she listened hard enough, she could hear a tone buzzing occasionally through the ear piece.

She must have looked overly fascinated as Severus looked at her with a raised eyebrow and said, “It is a phone, Minerva.” As if that answered any of her questions!

A few more seconds went by when finally a tinny voice could be heard on the other end.

“Yes, this is Severus Snape. … My son has an appointment with Dr. Singh on … yes, yes that one.... We need to move the appointment up…. Yes, it is an emergency, you daft woman… I cannot call … Let me speak with…What part of emergency are you incapable of understanding?!.... His nurse then…”

Severus was nearly growling by the time the tinny voice stopped speaking, one hand raking through his hair and pulling at it in frustration while the other white-knucke gripped the phone receiver. A few more seconds went by, during which Minerva could hear some rather obnoxious music from the phone. Had she not been concerned for her colleague and his mysterious son, she would have found the situation hysterical. Severus Snape using a muggle telephone! Lucius Malfoy would die of an aneurysm if he knew!

Severus looked at the phone in frustration as he waited for the nurse to pick up the phone. That damn receptionist! If she had tried to prevent him from talking to the doctor for any longer, she would have had to deal with an enraged Death Eater coming after her. And he would feel a greater joy in dealing with her than any time he joined in a revel.

“Hello, this is Lisa Clearwater.”

“Hello Ms. Clearwater,” Snape drawaled. “I need to speak with Dr. Singh.”

“What’s going on?”

Severus stepped more into the alcove and away from Minerva before hastily throwing up a silencing charm. He didn’t want her to know of Julian’s vampirism just yet, and that was the more minor of the secrets he was hiding.

“Harry’s condition has rapidly deteriorated. If we don’t find some way of controlling his vampiric urges, I am afraid the repercussions may be deadly for him. As of right now, he is requiring sedation in order to stabilize his magic and prevent him from attempting to attack anyone.”

He heard some rustling and rapid talking on the other end of the phone before it was handed over to another speaker.

“Mr. Snape? This Dr. Singh. Which hospital is he at? I would be more than happy to speak to his hospital physician about your theory…”

“He isn’t at a hospital,” Severus interjected. “He is currently under the watch of the Mediwitch at the school I teach at.”

There was a rather long pause as Dr. Singh tried to wrap his brain around this.

“He is not stable enough to move, correct?”

“It would be difficult.”

Dr. Singh sighed. He had been looking forward to a nice weekend off; no plans, no work, just him and the telly. This was giving him flashbacks to his time in residency: he doubted he would be getting any sleep if he did this.

“Can you take me to him? Would that be allowed?”

Severus looked quickly over his shoulder at Minerva. She would undoubtedly not allow him to go into muggle Surrey alone. As deputy-headmistress, she would also be needed to lift the spells on Hogwarts so Dr. Singh would be able to actually see the building and not a pile of rubble.

“Yes. I must warn you, however, for Harry’s safety we have changed his name. Outside of myself, Poppy Pomfrey (our Mediwitch), and the headmaster, no one knows his true name is Harry Potter. Please refrain from calling him this name.”

“What is his name now?”

“Julian Snape. How long do you require to be prepared to come with us?”

“I only have one appointment this afternoon. I can have a colleague take it though. How long will it take you to get here?”

Severus had to refrain from snorting. Now that he had seen the inside of the doctor’s office, he felt confident he would be able to apparate directly into the man’s office if necessary.

“It would take me roughly three seconds to apparate directly into your office,” Severus smirked, causing Minerva (who still couldn’t make out what he was saying) to lose the color in her face. “How long do you require to be prepared?”

Dr. Singh thought about it for a moment. While he doubted the claim that Mr. Snape could be there in such a short period of time, he couldn’t deny that what he had seen in his office was certainly compelling evidence that the man was telling the truth about magic. After Lisa and Mr. Snape had left his office, he looked everywhere for evidence of tampering with his belongings. Anything to prove everything he had just witnessed was a slight of hand.

Nothing. There was nothing to prove it had been anything other than a true act of magic.

“Fifteen minutes. Please give me fifteen minutes.”

“We shall meet you inside of your office. Please do not rearrange it,” Severus said, hanging up the phone and cancelling the silencing spell.

Immediately, he was accosted by Minerva.

“What was that about?!” she demanded. “What is going on?”

“We’re bringing his physician to Hogwarts in fifteen minutes.”

Minerva’s eyes got wide. It was a rare occurrence for a muggle to come to Hogwarts. Generally it was if a muggleborn or half-blood child had had an injury or illness and parents were demanding to see them before they were transferred to St. Mungo's. In her entire tenure at Hogwarts, she could count on one hand the number of muggles who had been allowed on Hogwarts grounds.

“We have fifteen minutes,” Severus said, rubbing his mouth. “I need a coffee.”

It had truthfully only taken Dr. Singh ten minutes to finish wrapping up his day, notifying his colleagues of the emergency he had to take care of, and calling the pharmacy down the street. If things were as bad as what Mr. Snape had said, it behooved him to not bring the iron requested with him.

As he waited for the pharmacy to send a runner, he had a thought. He hadn’t seen Harry in several months. If he was truly a vampire and was getting steadily more out of control, what would prevent him from getting bitten? He wasn’t a Christian, he had no crosses he could wear. He didn’t have time to consume copious amounts of garlic. He didn’t possess any holy water. Would a pencil work as a wooden stake?

He was literally going to be walking into a vampire’s lair. How did he know Mr. Snape wasn’t the vampire?

He remembered just over a decade ago there had been a rash of people going missing. No explanation had ever been found for the disappearances though some of the people who lived nearby had reported seeing figures in all black appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

Mr. Snape had changed his clothing into all black robes.

Hardeep sat down in his chair. What had he done? Had he invited a horde of vampires into his office? Was Lisa working with them? Why had he said ‘we’?

He had never been one for paranoia, but he couldn’t help but feel he had been set up and was walking to his death.

The pharmacy runner arrived a few minutes before Mr. Snape was set to arrive and dropped the bottle of iron supplement off at the front desk. Marjory tried to call him, but, when he didn’t answer, walked the bottle back to him and found him looking rather pale and frantically writing on a piece of white paper. She sat the iron on the desk next to him and walked back to her desk, turning up the radio slightly in an attempt to drown out the screaming children in exam room two.

No one at the front desk heard when a large crack occurred in the back office. Nor did anyone hear the surprised yelp of Dr. Singh shortly after as another crack occurred from the same room.

“Welcome to Hogwarts, Dr. Singh,” Minerva said as they popped into existence just beyond the wards.

Despite his tan skin, it was obvious all of the blood had left his face. He had not been expecting two people to pop into existence suddenly in his office. He had been trying to scribble a note out in case he went missing when all of a sudden a loud crack occurred. Looking up, he found himself looking at Mr. Snape, who looked as though he hadn’t slept in days, and a strict looking woman who was wearing robes not terribly dissimilar to those worn by Mr. Snape though in a royal blue with maroon trim. She had introduced herself as Professor Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts.

They had only been in his office for a few moments, only long enough for him to grab his bag, coat, and bottle of iron from the desk, before Professor McGonagall gently took his elbow and he suddenly felt as though he were being squeezed through a tube.

The sensation lasted but a moment, and suddenly he found himself outside standing on the side of a mountain overlooking a loch. Scotland. He was suddenly in Scotland. From where he stood, he could see the ruins of a small town down on one side of the loch and the ruins of a large castle perched on the side of the mountain. Its walls lay on the ground, holes in what few roofs it had left, vines, mosses, and various grasses had grown over the rubble. The burned husk of a hut lay near the border between the fields and the forest. A desire to turn around and walk the other direction hit him almost instantly.

“One moment please, sir,” Professor McGonagall said, flicking her wand over him and saying several words in latin.

The desire to turn around immediately left. Looking back towards the loch, he was awestruck by what he saw. What had looked like an abandoned town was now a bustling village, lights could be seen in the windows and he could just make out a ship leaving the harbor and making its way across the loch. Steam from a train could be seen puffing up from a small train station. Farther down the loch, he swore he saw a tentacle stick out of the water. Even the hut by the forest was no longer burned! In fact, if he looked closely, he swore he could make out a large figure moving around inside the hut.

His eyes then turned to the ruins of the castle. Instead of ruins, a magnificent building stood in front of him. It’s towers were no longer laying on the ground. Not a touch of moss could be seen on the building and the vines were no longer dry and dying but rather an integral part of the building. A series of greenhouses lined one side of the castle and what appeared to be a sports field of some sort was up the hill a ways from the castle.

“Come along, doctor,” Mr. Snape said, striding down the path they were on towards the castle proper.

“How?” Dr. Singh managed to stutter out finally, looking wide eyed at Professor McGonagall, who smiled at him.

“Magic,” Minerva said, by way of an explanation. Normally she would be offering the man a tour, though right now Severus seemed about to explode if he had to wait for them any longer.

Dr. Singh walked along the path quickly, trying to both keep up with Severus and take in the scenery at the same time. The closer they got to the castle, the more in awe he found himself. Finally, they reached the massive front doors to the castle which Severus pushed open with ease. The smell of baking bread and lamb chops immediately assaulted his nostrils, making his mouth water.

As they walked down the halls, Dr. Singh felt as though his head were on a pivot. The walls were lined with portraits, but the portraits kept moving; coming and going as they pleased. Some of them were even following him. A lanky cat with large orange eyes rounded the corner, saw the group, hissed and ran away up a stairwell which Dr. Singh swore started to move immediately after. A group of ghosts floated past them and through a wall as they ventured further and further into the bowels of the castle.

One turn and they were heading down a set of stairs into a dungeon, torches flared as they passed lighting the path ahead of them. A ghost who appeared covered in blood drifted lazily from room to room not caring that there was a proper hallway.

Suddenly Severus stopped in front of a portrait of a man with a large snake curled at his feet.

“Really, Snape,” the man in the portrait growled, glaring fiercely at Dr. Singh. “A muggle? First you bring a half-blood creature into my quarters, now you bring a muggle? How dare you, you mudblood loving traitor. What is he even, a …”

Severus quickly cut off the man’s increasingly vile diatribe by stating the password which opened the shortcut through the dungeons. He needed to speak with Albus about moving that horrible portrait elsewhere in the castle such as a fireplace during winter.

The portrait of Salazar Slytherin continued to scream profanities at him as he slammed the portrait behind the group and led them down a long hallway that was behind the portrait. One more set of stairs and they found themselves in a modestly decorated foyer with three doors. Severus completely ignored the first two on the right, instead pulling out a large, ornate, skeleton key and sliding it into the lock of the first door on the left and ushering Minerva and Dr. Singh into his personal quarters.

“Severus, what happened?” Minerva said, looking at the state of the quarters. Severus was always such a methodical man, bordering on obsessive when it came to organization and cleanliness. She had been in his quarters less than a handful of times since he had taken the post of Head of House, and had never seen them in such a state.

Books were everywhere. Pages and papers lay strewn about the ground. Vials had been shattered. Drawers appeared to have been pulled open and left.

“Were you robbed?” Dr. Singh asked.

“No, this happened immediately before we made the decision to sedate Julian. I haven’t had the chance to clean anything up. No, Minerva, I don’t want the house-elves doing it for me.”

“How did this happen?” Minerva asked as they continued on towards the bedrooms.

“Accidental magic.”

“Severus, you know as well as I do that accidental magic has a trigger. For a child to cause that much damage, it had to be a pretty major trigger.”

“What’s accidental magic?” Dr. Singh tried to interrupt.

“He was hungry.”

“So he tried to destroy your quarters? Severus, I know I sent the boy an acceptance letter. I know his letter contained the medical and creature addendums. You know you will have to disclose his condition to the rest of staff. Now tell me, why would he have such an explosive reaction to hunger.”

Severus’s nostrils flared in anger. She was right, of course. He knew he would have to disclose just enough information to keep the staff off his back. He had hoped Albus would have told her by now, at the very least.

“I have been experimenting on his nutrient potions with blood. He could smell it, but he cannot consume it due to his stomach continuing to be paralyzed. He is well enough now to begin using magic, but he is hungry because of it. Hungry in a way no nutrient potion invented yet will prevent.”

Minerva’s eyes went wide as she understood the implications. “Are you telling me you intend to enroll an unregistered vampire in school? One who is unable to feed?”

“That is why I currently have a muggle physician in my quarters, Minerva,” Severus growled, fists held so tight his knuckles were white. “Muggles have different potions, medications, which they use to treat different ailments. Their potions are extremely powerful, but I do not have access to them. I cannot get liquid iron from an apothecary, nor can I get it from a muggle pharmacy without a prescription. I have tried, but I am not a muggle physician. He is. But he needs to see Julian and obtain some measurements before he gives the prescription to me so I can get what I need.”

With that he turned on his heel and ushered the doctor down the hallway and into the bedroom where Julian lay, seeming to sleep.

“Dr. Singh, this is our resident Mediwitch, Poppy Pomfrey. Poppy, this is Dr. Hardeep Singh, he has been Julian’s primary care physician when he was living amongst the muggles.”

The two medical professionals looked at eachother, and with a brief nod, began speaking rapidly to each other. Lab values, vital signs, treatment plans, and the occasional explanation of different styles of treatment flowed from their lips. Together, they worked to formulate a plan and assess the situation at hand.

Dr. Singh was in his element. Before becoming a GP, he had worked for many years in the emergency room at a children’s hospital in London. Before that, he had been a military medic. And before that, he had been a volunteer medic for his home village in India. He had seen many wild things come through his doors, many bizarre injuries, and many strange homeopathic remedies. Looking back on them now, he wondered if he had ever inadvertently come across a witch or wizard while working in India.

Working alongside a Mediwitch was a whole new experience. Labs were instantaneous as were vital signs. There was no fear of oversedation or having the child suddenly collapse. In only a few short minutes, his assessment was complete and he felt as though he had more knowledge about the boy’s condition than he ever would have been able to gather without her help.

Poppy, in turn, was quite surprised at the sheer knowledge the muggle had. She had not expected a muggle to be as wise as he was, nor as adaptable or willing to accept magic for what it was. She had to admit she had fallen victim to the fears instilled in many young witches and wizards about the intolerance of magic by muggles.

As much as Dr. Singh wished he could continue bouncing terminology and ideas off of the Mediwitch, they were under a bit of a time crunch. Julian had been sedated for just over thirteen hours. After twelve hours, the spells began to lose their effectiveness and by twenty four they would completely fail if potions were not added.

Iron wasn’t the only issue, it was decided, as there were many other components to blood. Iron would likely help with the vampiric urge to feed, but the one thing the nutrient potions were missing was protein. The unaltered nutrient potion would have supplied a decent amount of protein, but even it was designed for a generally healthy person. The version Severus had created that Julian could tolerate replaced protein for glucose as they had been trying to stimulate his magic to regenerate.

It had been known the child was malnourished when he came in, so checking his protein levels was the last thing on their minds. When Dr. Singh asked Poppy to check it again, he found the poor child’s protein levels to be excruciatingly low.

“Albumin,” he said, looking over the labs that had just appeared on the parchment in front of him. “Protein will make him feel less hungry. Albumin is protein.”

“Where are we going to get that?” Severus asked, frustrated that they had overlooked something so critical.

“Would you be able to get me to Edinburgh?” Dr. Singh said, rising to his feet. “I have a friend who is an intensivist on a paediatric burn unit. He’ll be able to get us some.”

“Of course,” Minerva said, following suit and leading the doctor from the castle.

50 mL 20% albumin IV daily x3 days.
250 mL 5% albumin via JG tube daily.
150 mL revised nutrient potion via JG tube twice daily.
100 mL water via JG tube every 4 hours.
60 mg iron via JG tube twice daily.
2.5 mg metoclopramide orally up to three times a day 30 minutes before any oral consumption.
4 mg ondansetron under the tongue every 8 hours as needed for nausea.

Severus sat quietly next to his now sleeping son and kept reading over the list of medications he had been given. Minerva had taken Dr. Singh home hours ago and Poppy had gone back to the Hospital Wing shortly after.

It had been a herculean effort to wake Julian up safely. He was immediately wanting to hunt, but found himself restrained to the bed. Magical shields had been placed around the boy to prevent him from lashing out magically.

It had been the longest thirty minutes of any of their lives as the first dose of intravenous albumin was given and the iron was given via his feeding tube. Slowly, very slowly, he began to relax into an almost post-meal haze. Unfortunately, that relaxation hadn’t lasted long as Julian finally resurfaced from the vampiric instincts.

His sobbing and pleading for Severus to not abandon him had broken both women’s hearts. Even Dr. Singh could be seen wiping his eyes from time to time as the boy desperately tried to climb out of the bed and find comfort in his father’s arms. When it was finally determined Julian would not attempt to feed on Severus’s blood, the restraints were removed. Severus sat on Julian’s bed and lifted the boy onto his lap as the child continued to sob and apologize for his behavior.

Eventually the sobs gave way to hiccoughs and finally shuddering breaths as the child finally cried himself to sleep.

Everyone had waited on baited breath for him to reawaken and go back into a vampiric feeding frenzy. It wasn’t known if the combination of muggle and wizarding medicines would work, however as Julian relaxed into a more normal sleep pattern, the other adults finally found it safe to leave.

Dr. Singh had written an absolute plethora of medications for the child to take. It was still going to be necessary for Julian to be on the potions he had previously been on, but the hope was the muggle medicines would help wake his stomach up more as well as help control some of the other symptoms he was having.

Severus was thankful there were not more medications or potions on the list. The exactness of the timing on some of these medications seemed rather daunting, though not too dissimilar to many of the potions used at St. Mungo’s.

A soft knocking on his chamber door roused him from his thoughts. A quick look at Julian to ensure he hadn’t awoken, and Severus made his way to the door.

“What?” He said gruffly, looking out to see Minerva was standing there, a satchel of food from the kitchen in hand.

“I know you haven’t slept and I doubt you’ve eaten anything,” she said, pushing her way past him. “You need to take care of yourself too, you know.”

“I was going to go to bed,” he protested.

“Bollocks,” Minerva said as she pulled a whole roast and potatoes from the small satchel. “You were going to sit in that chair, trying to stay awake in case he woke up.”

Severus felt his face grow hot. She was right of course, that was exactly what he was planning to do. He couldn’t bear the thought of not being there in case Julian woke up.

“I’ll sit with him. You need to eat and get some sleep yourself.”

Severus nodded slightly in agreement before grabbing the plate of food she was handing to him and slowly beginning to eat. He was exhausted in ways he didn’t think he had ever been. Even coffee couldn’t fix this.

Minerva picked up the other bag she had brought with her and walked into Julian’s room. It had to have been his, though the number of books in the book cases gave her the feeling that it was actually a converted office. A quick look at the titles neither confirmed nor denied her theory that it had previously been an office. None of them were inappropriate for a child to read, just slightly more advanced than what a normal first year would read. And most of them were potions tomes, though there was a small section which contained a few books that had a darker aura to them. However, on closer inspection, they were all about vampires and vampiric lore.

The child was an enigma of the highest degree. How on earth had Severus managed to keep him for, what was it, four years? And no one knew?

A slight stir from the bed had her whirling around, however Julian hadn’t awoken, but rather turned onto his right side and buried his face farther into the pillows. In fact, he seemed to be cuddling the pillow.

Looking around the room, she was slightly surprised at the lack of toys. Every child deserved a toy! Though perhaps it had been the last thing on Severus’s mind when he retrieved the boy and due to his other obligations he didn’t have time. It had been only five years since Severus had chosen to be the Slytherin Head of House. She remembered it taking her years to get used to the responsibilities. Add a child like Julian into the mix, and she couldn’t even begin to imagine the stress he was under.

Still though, Julian deserved a toy of some sort.

Taking a piece of parchment from her bag, she quickly transfigured it into a small, black bear with a red ribbon around its neck. She was half tempted to make it a bat, but thought better of it. Severus was obviously trying to hide the child’s vampirism from the world, calling attention to the child’s differences, even with a plush animal, could easily undo that.

Smoothing the child’s hair behind his left ear, she was taken aback by just how thin the child was. It would be interesting to see what he looked like as he regained the weight he had lost. Now that she was closer to him, she struggled not to laugh. Thankfully whoever the child’s mother was had stronger genes when it came to nose shape than Severus did. It was hard to begin to guess who the mother was as the child was too thin to look much like either one.

If it weren’t for the fact she was absolutely certain Lily would never have cheated on James and had only had one son, she would have sworn she could see a little of Lily Potter in the boy.

Gently she lifted Julian’s tiny arm, being careful not to bump the small tube the muggle doctor had inserted, and tucked the bear in with the boy.

‘This year is certainly going to be interesting,’ she thought as she opened the novel she had brought with her. ‘Harry Potter is coming. Severus has a son, who happens to be a vampire. Albus is … Albus. And we are trying to keep that damn stone safe.’

“You damn fool,” a voice hissed in the darkness. “How hard is it for you to follow a simple direction?”

“I-i-i-i-i-i’m s-s-s-s-sorry m-m-m-my lord! P-p-p-please. P-p-p-p-please forgive m-m-m-me. I d-d-d-d-idn’t kn-n-n-n-now it w-w-w-was t-t-t-t-taken!”

“You know what you must now do.”

“P-p-p-p-please, sir. P-p-p-please!”

“Anima Corpori Ligaveris” the voice hissed, followed by a flash of bright purple light.