Time Again (Completed)

Chapter 26

Poppy Pomfrey asked Ginny to take Hermione out of the room until called for, "I'll get him through this if I can," she told them as Ginny led Hermione out of the door.

Taking hold of the wood and gripping it tight Poppy counted to three, then she cast a shrinking charm on the wood, as it rapidly reduced in size she began the cleaning spell that would extract all the bits of foreign material from the gaping hole In Harry's chest. She had nodded at the other healer as she pulled the now very small piece of wood away from her patient; the wood seemed to have travelled through him at an angle and had somehow missed damaging both his heart and his lungs. It had even somehow managed to push between all the other vital parts and had caused no irreparable damage; though having a three inch hole right through him and bleeding profusely was not exactly good, it was not as bad as it might have been. Removing the wood might well have been fatal, Poppy let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding in. Harry was losing a lot of blood as the local healer told Poppy he was having a problem with two ribs that had been shattered at the entry point leaving bits of bone everywhere.

"You just concentrate on doing the deep healing and I'll see to the rest," she told him as she finished healing his ribs at the front.

It took them about an hour and a half and the amount of blood loss and the heavy use of blood replenishment potion had Poppy seriously worried, she had removed broken brooms from students before now, but compared to the wood that had pierced Harry a broom was nothing more than a large thorn, she was finally beginning to heal the large three inch hole in his chest, his ribs and sternum quite visible still. She decided that the blood loss was getting too severe and she felt Harry might be the first patient she ever lost, she had to fight with her emotions as she continued to try to save the life of the young man she had come to love and respect. Taking a decision she would not normally have done, she hurriedly turned to Dumbledore, who along with Dig and Glanry were standing by the door watching her work.

"Albus get some more of that blood replenishment potion into him you'll have to do it while we still work on him or we are going to lose him," Poppy commanded still waving her wand over Harrys now almost healed chest. Just a few minutes later she was helping to repair Harry's back, the bone damage seemed to be more severe there, but Poppy was the best and she new exactly what she was doing. Hogwarts a school, filled with hundreds of young witches and wizards prone to accidents that Muggle's could never even dream of, had to have the best healer there was, and Poppy Pomfrey was just that, she was the best healer in Europe, and Albus often thanked the stars that she loved children far more than she wanted fame or money.

Albus with the help of Glanry had propped Harry's head up as much as he dared, and was forcing the potion slowly into his mouth, watching carefully to see if he swallowed, a small smile appeared on Albus's face for the first time since the floo call, Harry was swallowing the potion, now all he had to do was get enough inside him to make it useful and hope he had enough real blood left to be replenished.

Both the local healer and Poppy stood up from their bent positions at the same time, they, like the bed were covered in blood "How's it going with the potion," she asked looking at Albus.

"He must have swallowed near half a goblet," Albus told her in reply.

"Well he's going to need every drop of that bottle of potion you can get in him if he is to pull through this one. That was one hell of a hole in the poor boy. How did he manage to hurt himself this time?" she wanted to know.

"Horse riding accident, a simple fall from his horse, all those things, Dragons, Death Eaters, Dementors, and even Voldemort, all tried to kill him and a simple tree branch may have done what they couldn't," Albus said sadly.