No Longer

The Beginning of Enlightenment

Severus Snape**

"Merlin's beard!" he cursed, running his hands through his now silky black hair.

What was he supposed to do with the child? He'd been acting so strange before falling asleep, but he didn't think Poppy would be any help. He didn't have a clue what Harry- who, apparently, was also Era, was even doing. It was the altered wolfsbane potion, yes, but he'd gone and done more to it. 

Severus wasn't even sure what the boy had changed with the potion, so he  couldn't even calculate things that could've gone wrong. Obviously it would make sense for him to become somewhat disoriented after not eating or drinking, but it'd only been half a day. Or from not sleeping, but he'd only lost a few hours from his night at most. He shouldn't have come over so altered.

Anxiously, he wound his hair around his hand and pulled a little, looking at the diminutive form of the eleven year old floating above his couch. He'd tried to lay Harry out on it, but he'd continued floating, the magic that was obviously protecting him from getting hurt by a fall obviously not recognizing the surface beneath it for what it was.

What was he supposed to do? Frowning he looked all the more intently at the child. He hadn't seemed to gain much weight at all. He had gone from frighteningly underweight to just underweight, but still. The potions he'd been put on would've made him continue to gain weight, especially since he was on a high dose, and they were designed to only be needed for a short period of time.

He'd seen the boy eat, and he ate more than three times the amount of food Severus himself did, so it made no sense. Why was he not gaining weight? Severus ran a healer's diagnostic on the boy.

Blood Pressure~ 85/50

Heart Rate~ 120

Blood Oxygen~ 92%

Weight~45 pounds

Height~ 3, 10"

Age~ 11 years

Temperature~ 98℉

Injuries~ None

Underlying Conditions~ Malnourishment, dehydration, starvation, PTSD, exhaustion

Severus frowned. Starvation shouldn't be possible, not with how much the boy was eating. Dehydration made sense, but he'd seen how much the boy drank at mealtimes. There was no way he could get that badly dehydrated, to the point of slurring, confusion, and delirium, in such a short period of time.

The test didn't lie though, couldn't lie, and Severus spelled water into the boy's system, as well as enough nutrition potions to feed an elephant. The boys stomach was distended with the amount of food, but he was just so skinny. And so very small for his age. 

There really wasn't much more he could do than this though. With a sigh, he went over and placed the too-small child onto his hip, which caused the magic holding the child aloft to release him.

Severus got out a jar of floo powder from the mantlepiece and tossed it.

"Malfoy Manor!" he said, and stepped through the flames, child in his arms.

___

Lucius was summoned by the first house elf to see Severus, and Tom came behind him. Severus had settled Harry onto a loveseat that was, sadly, large enough for him to lay down on.

"Severus?" Lucius asked, "What are you doing here? Why did you bring Harry with you? What is going on?"

"That is Harry, yes, and he's not in the best shape. Earlier, he made a potion by himself, and it appears that the time he spent on it dehydrated him so badly that he became delirious."