It had taken more than a week of living on a diet of almost pure sugar for Julian’s magic levels to finally stabilize enough they were no longer dropping rapidly when he was awake. They had tried the chocolate after having run out of blood pops, however Severus soon found out that, while Julian’s stomach wouldn’t immediately revolt as it had done with the cold water, it was still too sluggish to properly digest the milk in the chocolate.
That was a long night, but it provided proof of concept. The energy in the glucose was providing his magical core with the energy needed to no longer try and cannibalize his body.
And as his magic levels stabilized, they were starting to notice other minor improvements. His vital signs were more consistently stable, he was able to stay awake for longer and longer periods of time, and he was feeling less cold consistently.
There had only been a few times where Snape had had to be pulled out of class due to a change in Julian’s status, a fact he was thankful for. Most of those times were Julian waking up from a nightmare and immediately vomiting, one of which required Severus to again be a donor as Julian had begun to vomit small amounts of blood after a particularly long episode. However, there was one time when he came rushing in only to find Julian and Poppy smiling widely.
“My stomach growled!” Julian had declared happily. “It’s starting to wake up!”
Severus had struggled to keep up his ‘mean professor’ reputation for the rest of the day. If Julian’s digestive tract started moving, they would be able start feeding him blood in the way he actually needed it.
Despite the improvement in his magical levels, every day was still filled with massive ups and downs. And with every change in his health, Severus was finding himself more and more impressed with the boy’s resilience, a trait he no doubt got from his mother.
Eventually, they fell into a daily routine. Severus would wake early and check the boy’s vital signs, if everything seemed stable, he would then floo to dungeons and get his classroom ready for the day. He would then go to the Great Hall and grab a small breakfast as he had found the smell of human food made Julian’s nausea significantly worse. After breakfast, he would go back to see if Julian was awake. If he was, they would talk about whatever Julian had questions about (generally what Hogwarts was like) until it was time for classes to start. Severus would teach until lunch, check on Julian once more, then he would teach until the end of the school day.
After classes, Severus would stay in the dungeons and spend time in Slytherin house. He still had to keep up appearances and this was essentially the same schedule he had had while actually working on the Wolfsbane. If he wanted to keep Julian a secret for the rest of this school year, he had to stay on a similar schedule.
Dinner was another quick affair, with Severus generally bowing out quickly so as to allow Poppy a chance to leave the infirmary and get some food herself. Julian would always try to be awake after dinner so the two could spend some time speaking with one another or reading through the various materials on the bookshelf in their room. Once Julian was asleep for the night, Severus would set up the monitoring charms to make sure he would be awakened himself should something go awry during the night. He would then use the infirmary’s office to work on grading the various assignments he had had returned that day.
For Julian, the days were spent sleeping for long hours, reading anything magical he could lay his hands on, and sucking on more lollies than he had ever eaten in his entire life. He had been incredibly thankful to find out magical candies would not cause tooth decay. He had been afraid his teeth would rot right out of his head at the rate he was being told to consume them.
It hadn’t taken them long to find out he wasn’t limited to just blood pops, though those were certainly his favorite. Severus had gotten a rather pained look on his face when he had told him he liked the blood pops the most, so he hadn’t pushed the issue and would happily accept any of the different flavours of lolly. Except grape. Those tasted too much like medication for him to enjoy them.
Madam Pomfrey would come into their room when Severus wasn’t around and she had no patients and, as he got stronger, tutor him on some of the more basic aspects of wizarding life such as writing with a quill or wizarding games. He was utter rubbish at Wizard’s Chest, but it was fun to watch the figurines fight and it was a good game to play while talking. On days when he wasn’t feeling well enough to focus on a lesson or play a game, Madam Pomfrey would read him stories from The Tales of Beedle and the Bard.
Writing with a quill was hard, but there was a secondary reason it was important he learn the skill: he had to practice writing his name. He had gotten much better at responding to the name ‘Julian,’ but it still felt unnatural at times. The more he practiced with the quill, read wizard stories, and played wizarding games, the more he was able to separate his new life as Julian Snape from his old life as Harry Potter.
His life as Harry had been one of sickness and neglect. Julian had a father, lived in a castle, and was a wizard. It felt as though all of his wishes had come true, though not in the way he expected. And with summer coming up, he had a feeling it was only going to get better.
Routine