A Chance at Life

A Chance at Life

Chapter 8 (Part 1): Consequences

January 24, 1968

Life was good.

Harry had not had much to be so happy about in over a year, but here he was. Eileen and Severus were safe and Harry was making a good income with the Quidditch bets, his ‘insight’ combined with remembered statistics made for very good odds on his favor.

About a week ago, Harry had finally been able to begin his real work. He had just wanted to make sure Eileen and Severus were settled in before he got started. In his original timeline the Forbidden Forest had been a weak point during Voldemort’s attacks on Hogwarts. Voldemort had managed to secure the werewolves’ alliance and the centaurs had refused to ally with Dumbledore.

Though Harry was able to establish a friendship with the centaurs they refused to interfere in the war. They helped Harry if he was personally in eminent danger but that was all. In their view, it was an insult that Dumbledore had only seeked an alliance with them when it became obvious they were losing the war. They saw it for the desperate plot it was to secure more warriors; not an alliance based on respect or recognition of equality. Harry agreed with them completely.

For all his talk of being the leader of the light Dumbledore clung to too many outdated ideas and customs when it came to dealing with magical beings. Indeed, Dumbledore always referred to centaurs and even Remus, as magical creatures. Harry never understood it.

So, his first order of business was to map out the Forbidden Forest, marking areas of danger, and begin friendly overtures with the centaurs. One advantage he had this time around was that he already understood their culture and how they thought because of his original friendship with them. One very crucial difference was their view of what magic should be used for. Their magic was different from that wielded by wizards. They had no need for wands and only those chosen to be wielders were ever taught to use it.

For them, magic was a gift that should only be used when necessary. The wizarding habit of using magic for every little thing was perceived as a weakness. As such, their magic was only used to ward their borders and healing. For Harry, getting to know and understand centaurian logic wasn’t all that hard; being raised by muggles had made it so that Harry wasn’t in the habit of being dependent on magic. He liked working with his hands and had plenty of experience containing his magic, from his summers with the Dursley’s.

Once he started his excursions to the forest he made sure to remain on the lookout for utilizable wood. Centaurs were very respectful of the forest; they never cut down trees and only made use of fallen/broken limbs to work with. Harry did the same.

He planned to carve some toys for their little ones and some useful items for the adults, like cups and bowls. So far in his explorations Harry had yet to see or sense a centaur. He wasn’t as lucky with the acromantulas though. With typical Potter luck, Harry had chosen to make his path right past their nest. The first few times he had walked by they had ambushed him. He had probably killed half the colony before they gave up.

Now, they let him pass undisturbed, though Harry knew they would attack him again if they ever saw the chance. At the moment, Harry had just passed the nest as silently and quickly as possible. He was planning to explore for another hour or so and surprise Severus by making it back home for lunch. They should have enough time between lunch and dinner to explore Hogsmead, maybe even go take a look at Hogwarts if he wanted to.

Severus had been acting a little clingy with him lately, perhaps this will help with whatever was bothering him. Harry wished he knew what the matter was but Severus had been trying too carefully not to give away his concern for him to think that Severus would wish to talk about it. As it was, Harry refused to use his ability on Severus, especially because he knew how intense the connection was between them. He now always had to keep his Occlumency shields to the maximum, since his standard shielding didn’t work with Sev . He didn’t want to invade Severus’ emotions, even unintentionally, unless he absolutely had no other choice. As he thought about what he should get for Eileen at Hogsmead, since she didn’t like sweets, when he was forcefully overcome by a vision.

He stayed rooted to the spot willing the vision to become clearer. He faintly heard Severus saying something..calling his name... and then he was surrounded by trees...a forest...and....acromantulas.

Harry had never seen Severus looking so terrified; his eyes wide and his body trembling, almost on the verge of tears. Harry didn’t waste time wondering how or why Severus ended up in the Forbidden Forest, he reacted. He lowered his Occlumency shields slightly and focused on Severus while summoning Gryffindor’s sword and readying himself for battle.

Following his instincts, he blindly apparated to where he 'felt' Severus was. He was being guided completely by instinct but he had no other choice. He didn't know for sure if the vision had been an event about to happen, present, or future. But he was fairly sure he could still make it in time if he hurried.

He successfully apparated to the place he had seen in his vision, but he could not see Severus anywhere.

“Harry!” He quickly focused his attention in the cry’s direction but still couldn’t make out Severus’ small form in the mass of writhing dark spiders’ bodies.

“Let the child go.” Harry commanded in an icy tone.

The acromantulas attacked.

Normally, Harry would have responded with wide-ranging sectumsembras and blasting curses along with releasing strong waves of magical bursts from his body to keep a safe perimeter around him. But without knowing Severus’ specific location he could not do this without risking hurting him as well. Nor could Harry lower his Occlumency shields anymore to locate him without becoming overwhelmed by the creatures’ emotions.

“Sev, why can’t I see you?!”

If Severus was on the ground he might be able to use his shock wave or an expansive slashing curse. Harry was having a hard time fighting so inefficiently, he was not used to containing his magic during battle. He already had a few bites on his legs and chest, but he knew the poison won’t be able to kill him so he ignored the burning pain as much as possible and focused on listening for Severus’ answer.

“Chameleon charm-AHH!”

As soon Harry heard Severus scream he waived his arm in a sweeping half circle towards Sev’s voice and cried out with an extra strong wave of magic, “Finite!”

Unfortunately, one of the acromantulas managed to make use of the small opportunity. The creature pushed up with its hind legs and came up behind Harry to bite into his neck, but Harry sensed it and barely managed to shift his upper body slightly in a reflexive swerve. Instead, the spider bit right between the corner of his right eye and his hairline with a sickening crunch of shattering bone.

The pain was excruciating, it was all Harry could do as he blasted the giant spider into oblivion. He could not longer see from his right eye, but could still feel the sharp sting of the poison burning into his eye and the surrounding skin.

He gritted his teeth and looked for Severus. He found him on the ground, his small body half hidden by the gnarled roots of a tree. He also had a thick branch in his scraped hands, using it to hit any spider that came near him. Thank Merlin for vampire strength.

Harry attacked with renewed fervor, blasting away spiders as he approached. Harry didn’t know how long it took him to reach him, but it already seemed way too long. By now Harry was covered in black acromantula blood and body parts while the whole right side of his face felt like molten lava.

“Harry!”

Harry saw Severus’ tear stained face and panicked expression as a spider somehow managed to bite down on Severus’ leg and started pulling him out of his hideout. He sent a wave of magic to clear out other spiders near them and let go of his wand (which automatically returned to his holster). He swiftly picked up Severus with his now free arm and used the sword to cut off the spider’s head. As soon as the dead creature’s jaws let go of Severus’ leg, Harry apparated them to their front door.

Falling to his knees with Severus in his arms, he concentrated on pushing back the pain in order to think clearly. Though he had yet to come across a poison capable of killing him, poison produced by magical creatures still hurt him. He had survived the bite of another basilisk two years ago, but the sheer pain of it had almost made him wish for death, in comparison the acromantula poison was just bearable .

At least Severus was safe now.

HPSSHPSSHPSS

“H-Harry…” Severus stuttered, trying to stop sobbing. He’d never been so scared in his life; he’d really thought he was going to die until Harry showed up. But now…he could not help sobbing even harder as he left the arms that held him and looked at Harry.

Harry’s clothes were in tatters, he was covered in some disgusting smelling blue-black slime and bright red blood. Harry’s blood, he recognized the scent of it even with all that slime on him. As he looked at the man kneeling in front of him, Severus was swamped with fresh guilt as he got a good look at his face. The right side of Harry’s face was a bloody mess, his right eye completely swollen shut with visible little black lines radiating outwards under his skin.

“Masters!” Severus turned to look at Noodle as he heard the front door open, but Noodle had already popped away.

“Sev…” He heard Harry call to him. “Were you hurt too badly?”

“No.”

Severus didn’t know what to do. He wanted to hug him and beg for forgiveness, but he didn’t want to hurt him even more. He refused to whine about the painful burning sensation coming from the bites on his arm and legs. Harry was hurt 10 times worse and he wasn’t crying like a baby.

This was all his fault...

HPSSHPSSHPSS

“Harry! Severus! Oh Merlin, what happened?” Eileen was horrified. When Noodle had come get her in frantic worry, she had hoped that the elf had been exaggerating the situation, but obviously that was not the case at all.

“Eileen, no matter what happens, don’t take us to St. Mungos.” Harry told her, looking at her with his uninjured eye. She didn’t agree, he needed professional help, his eye especially.

“Tend to Severus, I’m not sure how many times he was bitten by the acromantulas.”

Eileen immediately knelt to check on her son. He was crying silently, but she couldn’t really tell much with his clothes on.

“Take him to his room. Noodle will take care of me.” Harry told her with noticeable authority as he stood with Noodle’s help. Eileen apparated Severus and herself to his room and started questioning him. “Severus tell me what happened. Where are you hurt?”

She cast a strong scourgify on him and started disrobing him. His silent continuous tears were beginning to worry her. Severus rarely cried and when he did it was never for long. She was also worried about Harry, if they had been bitten by an acromantula they will die without the anti-venom.

She gasped when she finally got her son down to his underwear. He had two deep bites, one on his upper right arm and another on his left leg, towards the outward side portion of his shin. He also had what looked like a shallow bite on his right calf. No wonder he was crying, she was more surprised by the fact that he wasn’t screaming, she had heard that acromantula poisoning was a very painful experience…if you survived. She was just about to apparate to St. Mungo's with Severus, whether Harry agreed or not, when she heard the bedroom door open.

"How badly is he hurt?” She turned to see Harry entering the room. He was no longer covered in grime and blood, but he was still wearing the same tattered clothing. He had also covered up his right eye with a white cloth in a crude sort of eye patch.

“Harry we have to go St. Mungos. We need the anti-venom and your eye…” Noodle popped in carrying two blood bags and gave them to Harry.

“Severus, here, you need to drink one of these.” He told Severus while giving him a blood bag and then nodded to Noodle, who popped away once more. “Eileen, Severus is a vampire. By taking him to St. Mungos we are automatically calling trouble from the Ministry. Their bigotry alone is enough to make our lives hell on earth for as long as we live in the wizarding world. Besides, Severus’ vampirism ensures his recovery, the venom can’t kill him.”

Harry explained all this while he performed a number of spells Eileen didn’t recognize, especially since they were all non-verbal. In the time they had lived together she had noticed that Harry had a tendency to cast spells silently, big or small, they seemed to come just as easily to him. Right now he had divided the blood in the second pack into three parts. These he then somehow made into what looked like red liquid squares, each one pressed onto the bites on Severus body without trickling down.

“Severus,” Harry knelt in front of him lifted his chin with a gentle hand. “You’ll be all right. I know it hurts like hell right now but you will feel better soon... it’s okay to cry and scream when in pain if you need to…”

Severus suddenly threw himself at Harry with a sobbing cry, wrapping both arms around his neck in a death grip. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault you’re hurt again. Don’t hate me…please.”

Eileen saw that that Harry was in pain, he had gone whiter than a sheet when Severus clutched him and she almost told Severus to let go. But Harry simply sat on the floor and pulled Severus to stand between his bent legs, hugging him with one hand and rubbing his back with the other. “I don’t hate you, I could never hate you…Sev, you are my family now and no matter what you do I will always be here for you.”

Eileen blinked away tears, after living with Tobias for so long, Harry still managed to surprise her with his gentle matter towards Severus.

Severus was no longer crying but he remained in Harry’s arms, seemingly trying to bury his head into Harry’s neck as much as possible. Soon however, Eileen remembered that 'Harry' wasn’t a vampire and needed to care of his own wounds. Not to mention that he needed the anti-venom as soon as possible, nor was she completely convinced that Severus will be able to survive a poisoning at such a young age. But at that moment Noodle popped back in with another house-elf in tow. The new house-elf looked a lot like Noodle, except it wore a full length pillow case and was barefoot, instead of wearing comfortable slippers, clean trousers and a shirt like Noodle.

Severus finally let go and turned around in Harry’s arms, but he didn’t pull away. Instead, he sat down between Harry’s bent legs and leaned back onto his chest, pulling Harry’s arm around him tightly once more, still whimpering every now and then in pain.

Harry placed a kiss on top of Severus’ raven black head and looked to the new arrivals. “Noodle. Miss.” He nodded politely in welcome.

“This be Noodle’s mamá, family mender I told Master about: Kura.”

“Hello Kura, welcome to my home. I am Harry Potter and I’m in need of a healer for Severus here. He was bitten by acromantulas, can you try to heal him please?”

Eileen’s mouth dropped open. She could not believe what she was seeing. And neither could Kura if her wide-eyed expression was anything to go by. The astounded house-elf stayed like that until her son kicked her not so subtly on the leg.

“Yes, yes, of course. Kura will try, sir.”

“Severus is a vampire, will that present a problem?”

“No, sir.”

With that, Kura stepped in front of them and snapped her fingers, a discernible pink glow gradually surrounding Severus .

Severus almost giggled at the tickling feeling and the lack of any more pain.

Kura snapped her fingers again and the pink glow seemed to slowly seep into Severus until it disappeared completely.

She frowned.

“Did something go wrong?” Harry asked her.

“Young Severus should not have scars.”

“Ah, that’s probably my fault.” Harry answered as he looked down to the faint scars left on Severus’ skin. Everyone turned to look at him at that pronouncement. “He has been feeding on my blood for two weeks now. I cannot be healed by elf magic. An elf friend of mine tried to heal me once, but it was impossible. It is probable that my blood interfered with your healing magic somewhat. But other than that, how do you feel, Sev?”

Severus tilted his head back to look up at him as he answered. “Good. No pain at all.” He then turned to Kura and thanked her with a small, awkward, seated bow.

Kura beamed in happiness for a moment before popping away abruptly.

“Mother is being called by her master, she means no disrespect.” Noodle explained.

“That’s all right, Noodle. Thank you for convincing her to come. Do you know if there is anything we can do to show our appreciation?” Harry asked him.

“House-elfs don’t need things. We are always happy to serve.”

“In that case would you go thank her for us? You can come back until breakfast tomorrow morning if you want, we’ll call you if we need you again tonight.”

"Noodle will be called if he's needed. Harry promises?" Noodle insisted while shaking a chastising finger towards Harry. Harry promised and ignored Severus' snorting laugh at his expense. Eileen just shook her head, already used to the odd antics of her new family.

Noodle nodded and popped away once more

“Harry you’re in pain.” Severus said all of a sudden, standing up in a hurry. “Hurry, you have to go to St. Mungo’s! I’m fine now, but you could die. Harry please…” Severus looked frantic as he fidgeted, clearly waiting for Harry get up.

“I won’t die. Besides, I can’t go there Severus.” Harry told him in a comforting tone. “My blood is…different. I can’t take the chance that the wrong person might get a sample of it.”

“But you’re in pain…I can smell it.” Severus said, looking at his feet, appearing a bit embarrassed at the admission.

Eileen spoke up. “Is this 'difference,' the reason you say you won’t die from the poison? Are you sure about this?”

“Yes. I survived a basilisk bite; acromantula poisoning is a walk in the park.” Harry said with a cynical scoff.

Eileen and Severus both gasped: no one could survive a basilisk bite. Severus, however, recovered in a second and glared at Harry. “That does not mean you can just sit there and do nothing. Your eye looked horrible and you have other wounds don’t you?”

“Noodle already helped me get cleaned up and I healed my eye as best I could, though I now have another scar to add to my ever growing repertoire.” Harry told him with a lopsided smile, he couldn’t move the right side of his face just yet.

Severus still glared at him. “If you already healed yourself, why are you in such pain? It has to be intense for me to be able to smell it. My sense of smell is barely sharper than before you know. Let me see your eye.”

Harry looked at him for a moment before doing as he requested or rather, as ordered. Eileen and Severus approached to get a good look.

Harry’s eye was still swollen shut, though not as much as before. Instead of a bloody gaping wound he now had a wide, red, raised scar connecting the edge of his eye to his hair line. Surrounding the scar where hair-thin, short, black twisty looking lines. The poison had blackened capillaries near the wound, producing a peculiar fringe-like effect around the scar.

Severus made a low whimpering sound in his throat when he saw it, before taking Harry’s head between his hands and carefully tilting it to the side. He then leaned in and started to lick the scar and eye tenderly, tears running down his pale cheeks and lightly falling on Harry’s face.

Eileen stared at them wide-eyed, Harry looking as shocked as she felt.

When Severus pulled away the scar was was still wide but now smooth and silver-white in color, nor was his eye swollen any more. Harry raised a probing hand to his face, the pain in and around his eye having banished almost completely.

“Do vampires have healing powers?” Eileen asked in wonder.

“No. I have never heard of such an ability before.” Harry replied, tracing his new scar with tentative fingers.

“Perhaps it is a case of accidental magic then?” Eileen proposed.

Harry nodded and opened both his eyes this time. Eileen felt my mouth dropping open once more that night. Harry’s right eye was light aqua-green in color, a stark difference from his other eye, which was a bright green. The entire combination of different colored eyes, scar, and blackened capillaries made his face stand out like an elaborate work of art. Even the lightening bolt scar on his forehead and wild black hair added to the effect.

Eileen had never seen anything so eerily beautiful in her life.

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Guys even if you don't leave a review please at least rate it before you leave. Thank you!

AN: There was more to this chapter but I just couldn’t find a natural breaking point so I just decided to make this chapter into 2 parts instead. I hope the cut-off point for this part wasn’t too abrupt. What do you guys think about it though; good enough?

I think this is the hardest chapter I have written so far, I had quite a problem getting it to come out like I pictured it in my head. And I still couldn’t manage it (sigh), but I didn’t want to keep you guys waiting for god knows how long, so this is the best I could do.

On a side note, the other part of this chapter probably won't be up until the 20th. I will be focusing on my other story, Fateful Encounters(ff.net), this week so I won't start on the next chapter for this story until I get that one done. Sorry guys!

Suggestion and Comments are welcome, as always.

Till next time,

Lina =)