Dearest Harry - Eileen's Story

A/N Thank you all so much for your kind reviews. I am trying to get this story finished and have no more than 2/3 chapters left. That includes the epilogue btw. I will reply individually when I have finished the story but right now I am posting and running. But I just wanted to say that your reviews have been wonderful and have kept me going when I got stuck or felt like giving up. Thank you all very much indeed. Hugs to you all ~ Lucie

Special thanks to Claudia, you my dear are my saviour!

Forty-Nine

Harry was literally swaying on his feet. He didn’t think he could stand up much longer. Luckily Draco was there, so Harry had someone that he could lean on. He looked up at his boyfriend and Draco smiled back down at him affectionately

“You did it, you crazy git!” He said, “You fucking did it!”

He turned Harry around and started pressing urgent kisses all over his face.

“Draco,” Harry said, “Mmph! Draco! You do realise that I am covered in this gooey stuff!”

“Don’t care!” Draco said, and it seemed he didn’t because he kept kissing Harry anyway.

“Harry, love!” It was Eileen and reluctantly Draco stepped slightly aside to let Harry’s grandmother close to him. She stood before her grandson and looked at him, with such love in her eyes, that Harry’s breath was almost completely taken away, she started to gently wipe away some of the worst of the goo that covered his face with a dampened hanky.

“I am so proud of you, love!” She said, as she gently mopped at the worst, most dried on patches.

Then she had thrown the hanky aside and was holding him close, sobbing damply into his chest.

“Oh Harry, oh thank God! You are okay, you are alive. Do you realise that you are grounded until you are at least forty five and I am not letting you out of my sight until you are thirty?”

“I love you too, Gran.” Harry said tentatively, as she hugged him tightly around his waist. Seeing his normally emotionally strong grandmother in such a state was not something that he knew how to deal with, so Harry, being Harry fell back on the need to do some practical tasks.

“We have to help clear up now though,” he said, patting her gently and stepping backwards out of her hug. Moving away from his gran’s embrace, Harry staggered a little, suddenly feeling very weak indeed, “and I have to find Severus, and see how Sirius is too.”

Eileen smiled at him gently, Harry thought that she understood, she seemed to be able to read him so well didn’t she? Luna came up to Eileen then and his gran turned to speak to the girl, something about letting Eileen know when the healers finally arrived.

“Are you alright, Harry?” Draco asked, quietly. Harry nodded, but then Harry’s knees almost gave way again, Draco supported him, it seemed like he was he was determined to help him, be there for him, Harry thought warmly and he was obviously not planning on letting go of Harry anytime soon.

Then Neville came up to them, limping awkwardly. Harry smiled up at him. Neville was so tall! When had that happened? He looked like a hero Harry thought, far more than Harry did. Gone was the ungainly child, that had once tried to stop them chasing after The Philosopher’s Stone, or the insecure teenager who had followed Harry to the Ministry. Neville had grown into his gawkiness and the rather lumpen features of his youth had evened out so that despite his somewhat battered appearance at the moment, he had grown into a rather fine looking young man.

“Are you alright, Neville?” Harry asked.

“I’ve been better, but I’ll be okay.” Neville said rather thickly, his lip was swollen and bloody; Harry assumed that he must have bitten it when he was being Crucioed.

“Thanks Neville, for what you did…..” Harry began.

“Oh do shut up, Harry.” Neville said, twisting his swollen lips into a smile. We both did our bit, and you my friend saved us all. Thank you Harry.”

Harry felt tears spring to his eyes.

Neville extended his hand and Harry reached out to grasp it, only to find that the other boy had gently pushed something into Harry’s hand. It was his glasses. They were a bit twisted and covered in dust, but they weren’t broken. Harry wiped them on his sleeve and put them on.

“Ttthanks,” Harry said, and then he didn’t say much for a while, because Neville had embraced him and they both had tears streaming down their faces. They had done it! They had survived! Both of them had lost their parents, Harry to death, Neville to insanity. But somehow, against all odds they had grown up and done all right, really, all things considered, at least that was what Harry told himself anyway.

Finally Harry pushed himself away from the other boy, “Erm, I have to er, find Severus and see how Sirius is doing.”

Neville nodded, but his eyes were suspiciously bright.

“Shall we get that rope off you first though?”

Harry looked down at his chest in surprise; the Basilisk rope was still tied around his torso. Now that Harry’s attention had been drawn to it, he realised that it was actually very heavy and constricting.

“Oh, yeah. But I don’t think that I can untie it.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Neville said with a grin, “I might just have a little something here to take care of it.” He raised up the sword that he still carried; Harry was impressed, he didn’t think that he would have the strength to even lift the sword right now. Surprisingly it was gleaming again, like it should be, not stained with the blood of Nagini. Neville must have cleaned it. He held it against the harness that Harry seemed to have been wearing for days and it cut through the bonds as if they were butter. He smiled as the pieces of rope fell away.

“See you later then?” He reached over and clapped Harry on the back, Harry tried not to wince, Merlin when had Neville grown so strong? Harry thought he must have been working out.

Harry wanted to stay and talk some more, but he was worried about his godfather, whether he would be all right, whether he would regain consciousness. He was also worried about his uncle, he was delighted that his godfather was safe, and wanted talk, hear about his time behind the veil, but he needed his uncle.

Looking around, Harry spotted Severus leaning against one of the benches. He looked pale, he was still shaking, quite badly and Harry resolved to not waste any more time.

“Erm, Draco?” Harry asked, “do you think you could help me walk over to Sirius and er, and Severus too?”

He didn’t think he could move on his own, he was fairly sure that if he even tried to take another step on his own he would fall flat on his face. Falling through the veil had done him a lot of damage and he wondered how battered Sirius would be.

Together he and Draco started to make their way through the chamber. The room was a total mess. Aurors were moving about, checking on the Death Eaters who were all still unconscious. Harry wondered where the Ministry staff had been when the battle was going on. Several of them had bandages, cuts and bruises, but none of them looked as though they had been badly injured. Perhaps there had been some sort of battle before Voldemort had even reached the Department of Mysteries and this particular chamber?

People were moving around slowly, as if in disbelief at what had actually happened. Arthur, Kingsley and Mad-Eye, were standing near the pile of dust which had once been Voldemort, poking at the remains and talking amongst themselves.

As Harry passed, leaning heavily on Draco, people fell silent and watched his progress; it was as if nobody knew what to say.

Harry though hardly noticed, as he was determinedly heading for his uncle and his godfather. Although the two men were quite close to each other on the other side of the room, Sirius still seemed to be unconscious and Severus seemed to be determinedly ignoring his erstwhile rival.

Harry’s uncle looked exhausted. He was pale, almost as translucent as Voldemort had been earlier. Now that Harry had his glasses on again, he could see how weak Severus appeared to be. The fact that he had been used as a conduit for Harry’s magic must have been more draining than Harry had realised.

Strangely enough, Narcissa was by Sirius’ side, Harry had forgotten that they were cousins, maybe Narcissa felt that she had lost enough relatives recently. She had placed a makeshift pillow under Sirius’ head and covered him with a robe. She was being aided by Remus, a Remus that was obviously in pain, but determined to do his bit to help revive his oldest friend. One side of the werewolf’s face was swollen and distorted. It looked really sore to Harry, as if Lupin had been burned and for a moment Harry almost went to him.

But Severus was alone and Harry could not have that. He smiled at his uncle, and with Draco’s help started to edge his way over to Severus, stumbling a little bit on the piles of debris.

But just as he almost reached Severus it seemed that Sirius was stirring at last.

Harry’s godfather was moving. He was groaning and trying to sit up.

Harry was torn.

He wanted to go to Severus, but Sirius was waking up, he hadn’t asked to be here, had struggled against it in fact. Didn’t Harry owe it to Sirius to be there as he tried to absorb the fact that he was back in the real world? And Severus was fine wasn’t he? Just a little bit weak. In fact Harry thought with a twinge of irritation, Severus could have come to him. Harry’s progress across the room was slow and painful, Severus, though, could have crossed the floor in a couple of strides.

“”Harry? Kid? What the?…” It was Sirius; he had pushed himself up to a seated position and was staring around him in amazement.

”Remus? What the? Am I alive?” He sounded so astonished, so amazed that Harry laughed. And when Sirius spoke his name again, Harry’s decision was made for him. He changed direction and headed for Sirius.

But he had barely taken a single step when something made him stop. He had to tell his uncle that having Sirius back wouldn’t change things between them. Harry had never forgotten the fierce rivalry that had existed between the two men, the intense hatred.

He turned around, and looked at Severus. Just for a moment his uncle’s eyes met his own. They seemed infinitely sad. Then the black pupils rolled up and Severus’ knees buckled and with no one near him, no one to help, Severus Snape fell heavily to the ground.

“NO!” Harry screamed, “Severus!”

Harry would never know how he managed to cover the ground between himself and his uncle, considering that he had been barely able to move only moments before, but he did. He left Draco behind and ran, desperate to reach his uncle.

Then was on his knees, he gently placed his hands on Severus’ chest only to find that it was soaking wet. Severus was covered in blood! He was bleeding.

“Eileen!” Harry shrieked, “Come here now!” Within seconds his gran was beside him and Severus’ head was cradled in her lap.

“Sevvy? Sevvy?” She was saying, as if astonished that anything should be wrong. Harry couldn’t blame her. When had this happened? Why was Severus bleeding? Harry let out a sob. The dark robe that Severus was wearing had hidden the blood, but it was saturated, Severus had obviously been bleeding for some time.

What could have done this, how had it happened?

Then Harry found it. His desperately searching fingers located something sharp embedded just below Severus’ ribs.

“Fuck! It’s something sharp,” he told Eileen, desperately seeking her help, “like a bit of rubble or something!”

Eileen looked horror struck. “Harry, the veil! When it exploded, Severus was standing up, he told us all to get down, but he was still standing, he was beside you when you and Sirius Black came through. He must have been hit!

“Oh Sevvy!” She said again, cradling his hand to her chest, placing a tender kiss on it. “Why didn’t you say something?”

Severus’ eyes were open again. He was looking up at them. He opened his mouth to, perhaps to speak, but blood bubbled out instead.

“No!” Harry screamed again. He had placed his hands on Severus’ chest and was desperately trying to push some magic into his uncle, Harry kept trying to heal him, but he did not know what to do. The shard was buried deep in his flesh, and Harry didn’t dare move it in case the bleeding got worse. He had read that somewhere, if someone was knifed, or pierced with something sharp then you weren’t supposed to move the object, in case the bleeding got worse. But there was already so much blood, it was oozing out of the deep would and Harry couldn’t seem to stop it.

“Its not working!” He screamed. “I can’t get my magic into him! It keeps coming out again!”

Severus coughed. More blood trickled out of his mouth, painting his lips a deep dark red.

“NO!” Harry was hysterical now. He didn’t understand why his instincts seemed to be failing him now when he needed them the most. “It’s not working! My magic isn’t working.”

With what seemed like a tremendous effort, Severus reached up, his eyelids appeared to be growing heavy, but he brushed Harry’s cheek with the back of his fingers. It seemed to Harry that Severus was trying to smile. But Harry was frozen in horror. He couldn’t lose Severus now, he just couldn’t, everyone else seemed to just melt away and Harry began to sob.

“Don’t leave me Severus, please don’t leave me.”

He was crying openly now, he couldn’t move his hands because the pressure that he was applying on the gash beneath Severus’ ribs seemed to be slowing the bleeding. So he looked up at the distant ceiling of the chamber and blinked rapidly to try to clear his eyes.

Someone removed his glasses, which was fine with Harry, he didn’t need them right now.

Severus groaned and a little more blood trickled from his mouth.

“Fuck you!” Harry screamed, he didn’t know he was talking to, those same forces who had made his childhood such a farce?. “You can’t fucking have him! I need him, I love him. It was never meant to be an exchange! I don’t want Sirius instead of him. It has to be both of them! Please, please don’t take him away from me!”

Severus breaths were growing laboured now.

“NO!” Harry screamed again, “Please no! Somebody help me! Oh God, please help me!”

”Please, help!”




Severus looked up at his nephew, through eyes that seemed so very tired. He wanted to tell him that he was alright, that it didn’t hurt, that he just wanted to sleep for a little while and then everything would be fine. When the portal had exploded, Severus had been so desperate to get everyone down, to keep them safe, that he had hardly felt the impact from the shard that had hit him.

When Harry had used Severus as a conduit for the stream of magic that had affected the Death Eaters, he had already been weakened and it had hurt almost as badly as Cruciatus did. But Severus did not object, Harry had, had to do that, they had been surrounded, it had been a brilliant idea.

He wanted to say all this to Harry, but he couldn’t quite seem to get his mouth to work, it was full of blood.

Severus frowned.

Harry was crying. Crying for him? Severus could not quite believe it. No one had ever done that, apart from his mother. Oh she was here too, his head was in her lap. It was nice, like when he was a little boy and he was sad.

Harry was crying harder. Severus could feel warmth flooding him, but it was only for moment and then it seeped away. He realised that Harry was trying to use his magic to heal him but of course it wasn’t working. Harry would need to seal the wound first, didn’t he realise that, silly boy?

But then Severus remembered, he had never taught Harry that charm, he didn’t think anyone else knew it either, well apart from Poppy Pomfrey and he knew that she wasn’t there. He hadn’t wanted to show Eileen, because she would wonder why Severus had needed to devise such a charm and there was no way Severus had wanted to tell his mother about inventing Sectumsempra

He reached up to touch his nephew’s face; but he only managed to brush Harry’s cheek, before his arm felt too heavy to hold up any more.

“Don’t leave me Severus, please don’t leave me!” Harry was sobbing now. Eileen’s hand was cool on his forehead and she was crying too.

“Fuck you!” Harry screamed, Severus wondered whom Harry was screaming at. Surely it wasn’t him? Was Harry angry? “You can’t fucking have him! I need him, I love him. It was never meant to be an exchange! I don’t want Sirius instead of him. It has to be both of them! Please, please don’t take him away from me!”

“’Oh!’” Severus thought. “’Harry wasn’t angry at all. He loves me?’” Severus began to smile, his nephew was upset, he loved him. He didn’t want Black instead of him. Harry was here, beside Severus, he had chosen him, and nobody apart from Eileen had ever done that, chosen Severus. Severus wanted to cry, he really did. But his eyes were scratchy and sore. Then all at once his chest hurt and Severus couldn’t quite seem to catch his breath

He distantly heard Harry screaming, calling for help.

Severus thought he could hear a piccolo too. It's song was higher than a flute, with a thinner melody. Who could be playing a piccolo? But it wasn't an instrument, it was the song of a bird. A magical bird, who had apparently answered Harry's call for help.

There was a sudden flash of red and gold, and the brush of silky feathers across his cheek and tears, phoenix tears.

“Fawkes?” Harry said, “Fawkes?

“Harry,” Eileen said, “ Pull out the shard that is in him.” And when Harry began to protest, “It’s okay to do that now, we have to get it out love! Fawkes is here, the phoenix will seal his wound, but we have to get the object out first. Then your magic will be able to work, it will strengthen him.

“We’ll work together, have you got it? That’s right, just pull gently. Is the wound clean? Use Accio to make sure that there is nothing else in there, no nasty stuff, and a quick Scourgify, that’s right, well done! Now put your hands here, yes, just here and press, love, hard.”

Eileen was telling Harry what to do; he looked so young and pale. He looked like a lost little boy. Then Severus realised with a bit of a jolt that that was just what Harry was. He was a little boy, he was lost and frightened, he needed Severus didn’t he? Needed him safe and well and there to support him. Severus felt all warm inside, he felt wanted.

“That’s it love, Fawkes has sealed the wound, now you can pour magic in, that’s it, that’s right.”

All at once Severus was infused with light, and energy. Oh Merlin, it felt wonderful! This magical energy, Severus had never felt anything like it in his life before. This was what Eileen had felt. Draco too. Pure healing energy. It smelt and tasted, like Harry.

He was going to be all right, he was going to be fine. Severus was being bathed in goodness, in tenderness, in love. Apart from the fact that he was completely exhausted he had never felt better in his entire life.



“You can stop now love.”

Harry was still concentrating on Severus, pouring strength into him, trying to show him that he loved him.

“Harry?” Eileen’s hand was on his, her voice gentle and concerned. “You did it love, you and Fawkes, he is going to be fine.”

Harry looked at his gran

“Are you sure? He asked, peering closely at Severus, trying to check that she spoke the truth, hardly daring to believe it. Fawkes gave a final high warble. He had been singing all along, and now he flew to a nearby bench and started to preen his feathers

“Aye, love, I’m sure, he’ll be fine.”

“We’ll look after him, son.” It was a healer who had spoken, the man was kneeling beside him, gazing intently at him. Harry hadn’t noticed the healers arrive, or come over. “We’ll look after him,” the man said.

“He’s my uncle.” Harry told them, earnestly, “he is very important to me; you won’t let him be hurt will you?”

“No we’ll take care of him. What’s your name lad?”

“It’s Harry, Harry Potter,” said a new voice. The man’s eyes widened and did the usual glance up to look at Harry’s scar. Harry was still covered in all sorts of grim and muck, the sticky goo from the veil, the dust which had covered him and now Severus’ blood too. He wondered who had spoken.

It was Sirius. Sirius was there!

“Sorry Mr Potter,” the other healer said, as they gently lowered Severus on to a stretcher, so that they could carry him outside, it floated gently beside them at waist height. “We didn’t know it was you," the man continued, "didn’t recognise you. He’ll be safe, I promise he will.”

Then Eileen was standing and telling Harry that she would just be with Severus for a while, that she would be back soon and that both Severus and Harry would be just fine.

Harry wanted to ask her if he could come too, tell her that he was frightened to be left alone, because they had nearly lost Severus just when he had thought that it was all over and he didn’t want to lose sight of his uncle and his gran.

But there was a hand on his shoulder, that squeezed gently and a another hand slipped in his own. The hand that held his, belonged to Draco, but the other hand, the one on his shoulder, that belonged to Sirius.

Sirius was awake and here and Harry had forgotten!

“Sirius!” he said. Sirius had seen everything. He had heard Harry screaming his uncle’s name, had seen his desperation.

“Hi kid.” Sirius said, smiling at him, “looks to me like I have missed quite a lot of stuff, looks like you care a lot for old Snape then?”

Harry couldn’t speak, he just nodded

“Let’s get you out of here pup, seems like you’ll fall over if we don’t get you to bed soon.”

“I can look after him!” It was Draco who spoke this time, rather imperiously Harry thought.

“I am sure you can. But I’d like to help too.” Then Harry was swept up into strong arms which seemed to belong to Kingsley Shacklebolt and carried from the chamber. He couldn’t have fought anyone now, even if Voldemort had suddenly been resurrected and had stood before him, he was too weak to even struggle, so he relaxed and let himself be taken care of.

He didn’t even think that he could speak. Instead he let himself be carried away from the site of the final battle in the strong arms of the tall Auror and as they walked though the Ministry he listened to his godfather and Draco talking to eachother, making introductions. He wanted to listen, to find out what was said, to hear what his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s cousin....' Draco was Sirius’ sort of cousin wasn’t he? ' Harry thought, rather fuzzily. He wondered what they would make of each other, but he couldn’t concentrate. It was as if their voices drifted away from him and before he knew it he was asleep.