Follow Me

A/N: Thank you to all that have reviewed the story so far, and a thank you in advance to all those that will continue to do so. I have to admitt it does an ego good to see the number of people that are enjoying this story.

[...] or {...} = mindspeak
~...~ = parseltongue
'...' = thought
**...** = phoenix speaking


CHAPTER 11

“It doesn’t hurt that much Dad…” Norische complained at the attention.

“Norische your father said there were some rather serious burns, so you need to allow him to look at them and stop complaining about it.” Remus smiled at their son and pushed him towards his room.

“Take your cloak and shirt off then lay down on the bed, just bring your wings out when ever you are ready and I will go get some salve and some more pain potion.” Severus smirked at his son. He knew that Norische wanted to go back to the dorm and go thought the things he had purchased today, but that would wait until Severus finished with him.

Severus used a burn ointment with a painkiller in it and gently covered the areas. The one spot that concerned Severus the most was on Norische’s right wing just to the right of the vertebrae about a hand’s width from the top of his wing. The burn scorched clear thru Norische’s wing. Severus was furious and began ranting that he was going to file charges for an unprovoked attack on a minor.

Norische looked at the hole in his wing and winced, it was just big enough to put the tip of his index finger through. “Ow!” Norische exclaimed as he touched the spot near the hole. “Father that really, really hurts!”

“We are probably going to have to get Madame Pomfrey to do something about that one, and I want Dumbledore to see these before they are healed. Come, we are going to the infirmary.” Severus helped his son up from the bed; Norische didn’t bother to put a shirt on this time. “Leave your wings out for the moment, I will do a glamour on them so that no one can see them but we need to get you to Pomfrey immediately. Remus can you go get Albus, I demand that he see the damage his interference has caused this time.” Severus was steaming but he smiled gently as Norische leaned against him for support as they walked down the hall to the infirmary.


*****

Madame Pomfrey was not very busy at the moment so she was able to immediately attend to Norische. “How is the other issues going dear?” She asked as she examined his Norische’s wings.

“Better, much better. Although the headache stuff doesn’t get rid of the headache it helps, so I am not griping.” Norische mumbled hoping she wouldn’t ask too many questions.

Albus Dumbledore entered the infirmary silently, followed closely by Remus who immediately went to stand beside the bed where Norische was laying face down. “Dad…” Norische held out his hand, indicating he wanted Remus to hold his hand while Madam Pomfrey cleaned the wounds. Remus pushed a chair up beside the bed and sat down taking Norische’s hand in his own. Norische stayed quiet through most of it but couldn’t help but cry out when the medi-witch had to cut away some of the burned tissue from the edges of the hole in Norische’s wing. He buried his face in the pillow as Madam Pomfrey apologized and dabbed on a numbing potion before she continued.

Severus was speaking in a low gruff whisper to Dumbledore, who watched as Norische’s wounds were cleaned. “No Severus, you are absolutely correct. This is totally uncalled for and we will be filing charges against the ministry. Norische is a minor and for him to receive such horrific injuries at their hands is unthinkable.”

Severus nodded, then whispered something else. Albus did not comment but the look on his face told Norische that Severus had just accused the old man of putting his son in danger. Dumbledore looked so sad right then, the familiar twinkle in his eye was nowhere to be seen. To make matters worse Norische cried out in pain at that time. Try as he might Norische couldn’t stop the tears, normally he handled pain quite well but when it came to his wings, it was hopeless. Each inch of the surface of his wings had thousands of nerve endings in them, they had to be that way to be able to flex and work properly. Madam Pomfrey adamantly apologized and rushed off to get a pain potion.

Severus looked over at his son when Norische had cried out, his heart breaking as he saw the tears in his son’s eyes. Forgetting about Dumbledore, Severus rushed over to Norische and knelt next to his son, his face expressing the sadness and concern for his son’s well being.

Norische kept blinking trying to keep the tears from falling but when his father reached up and smoothed down his son’s hair, Norische couldn’t stop them.

“Oh child I am so sorry, I wish you would have said how much pain you were in before I started, I could have given this too you before hand. Severus can you lift his head and help him take this. It takes about five minutes to work so I am not going to touch you until it has taken effect.” Poppy handed Severus the potion.

Severus lifted his son’s head and pressed the vial to his lips, helping his son drink the potion. “Blaaaa… that was nasty.” Norische sniffed.

Madam Pomfrey handed Remus a handkerchief for him to wipe Norische’s face with. “Animals, pure animals! Albus did you see they burned right through his wing in two places. Do you realize the force they were hitting this poor child with? I am documenting everything, and I am going to lodge a complaint of my own so whether you do or not is of no consequence to me, but this attack was purely barbaric.”

Dumbledore nodded sadly. “I adamantly encourage you to file your complaint, they will have mine tomorrow, and I am sure one from both Professor Snape and Professor Lupin as well. This treatment of one of my students will not go unnoticed if I have to contact the Daily Profit directly. Now if you all will excuse me I feel I must make a few calls while it is fresh on my mind. Oh and Norische, I am sorry.” With that the Headmaster slowly walked out of the room, he walked slower than normal as if he were carrying a heavy weight on his shoulders.

Another twenty minutes of poking, prodding and casting and Norische was patched up and ready to go. “Now it is best for you to leave your wings out as much as possible to allow the new skin to stretch like it should, and of course you know to exercise them at least twenty minutes, twice a day. I am giving you a numbing potion and a healing draught. Only take the numbing potion if you absolutely need it, you should take the healing draught every six hours… it is quite strong so you may get sleepy or disoriented when you take it so do use your best judgment. I expect you to come back and see me tomorrow or if anything unexpected happens, but right now you may go.”

Norische got up, his wings felt ten times better although right now they felt kinda fuzzy, well sort of. The best way he could explain it was that his wings felt dizzy. Norische chuckled at that and got off the infirmary bed. Leaning on his father for support until he was able to stand by himself.

“I really want to go back to the dorm father, is it ok?”

“I would prefer you staying in the suite but I suppose it will be acceptable. I expect you to let me know immediately if there is a problem and I want you to come by the suite tomorrow when you are up and around. We did not get a chance to contact your godmother and we need to take care of that as soon as possible.”

“Oh Crap! Pari! I forgot. Yeah she is going to be pissed major. By the way, just to let you know father…” Norische explained as they headed out the door of the infirmary. “Pari is not only the head of my clan, the Chica clan second strongest clan in the Vampyric nation, but she also sits on the Council of Elders. So if she says she is going to have someone’s head on a platter, you can bet she has an army to back her threat up.”

Severus already liked Norische’s godmother, and he had not even met her yet. “All the more reason we need to speak with her. Now you go back to your dorm and rest, we will see you in the morning.”