The Teacher's Son

Chapter 28

Minerva waved her wand sharply, drying herself off. The rain outside was horribly heavy.

Following Dumbledore quickly down the hallway, she wrung her hands together nervously.

Harry had barely made it out of the game alive.

She was furious that the dementors had shown up at the game, when it was expressly against orders for them to even be on the campus. From his posture, she could tell Albus was furious as well.

"Poppy!" She barked as they neared the hospital wing.

"Minerva? Oh, good heavens! What happened to Mr. Potter?"

"He got attacked by dementors at the game and fell off his broom." Albus replied. "It's freezing outside and raining, he may have some sort of hypothermia as well."

"Well bring him in, bring him in." Poppy pushed the doors open and led the headmaster over to a bed. "Put him down here. I'll take care of him." She began to bustle around the room, grabbing the things she needed.

Minerva wiped Harry's wet, muddy hair off his forehead. She frowned at herself, wondering when she had become so motherly. 

"I would assume it was when you offered to adopt him." Albus spoke from next to her, startling her out of her thoughts.

Poppy came over and flicked her wand once, drying Harry off. "Minerva, take this." She held up a towel. "He needs to warm up, get his blood moving faster."

Minerva nodded and unstrapped Harry's quidditch gear from his arms and legs so she could rub the towel along them.

"How many dementors were there?" Poppy asked as she walked back over with a vial of orangey-red liquid.

"All of them." Albus replied, his normally calm eyes flashing angrily. "I will be having a talk with their employers and them."

"Good. Horrible creatures, dementors, I don't see why we must have them here."

"You know perfectly well why." Minerva said with a sigh. "I don't like them any more than you, Poppy, but if it's protecting the students from Sirius Black, I'll put up with it."

"I still cannot believe that he went bad. He was such a good boy, if a little rebellious."

"But he did." Minerva sighed again. "Who knows what pushed him over the edge. His girlfriend died just before the war broke out, it could have been that. Or it may have been something we didn't know about."

Poppy nodded and trickled a spoonful of the Pepperup potion down Harry's throat. She waved her wand over him again. "That should keep him from catching anything due to the rain."

"What about the dementors' efects on him?" Minerva asked.

"I can't give him chocolate until he wakes up, otherwise he might choke on it. But he needs to sleep to regain his strength from the cold. I'll give him some when he wakes up." She pulled a large slab of chocolate out of her apron and broke off a chunk, then placed it on Harry's bedside table for when he regained consciousness.

"Is there anything else I can do to help him?" Minerva followed Poppy as she walked off to find something else.

"Let him sleep in peace." The nurse replied firmly, but not unkindly. "I know you're worried, Minerva, he's your son and it's natural, but he needs space so he can heal."

"Thank you for looking after him, Poppy." 

"It's my job, dear. Go find something to take your mind off of it."

Minerva nodded and left the hospital wing, noting that Albus had already departed. She glanced one last time at her son before leaving. Harry looked so peaceful in the calm white room, sleeping quietly.

Stopping at the door, she strode back to her son's bed purposefully and placed a soft kiss on his forehead. 

"Get well quickly, Harry."

There was a gaggle of familiar redheaded students and kids wearing the red and gold of Gryffindor quidditch uniforms waiting outside the hospital wing.

"Can we go inside, Professor?" Alicia asked.

"I'm afraid that is Madame Pomfrey's decision, not mine." Minerva answered her calmly.

"And I have made the decision that Mr. Potter needs some time alone so he can sleep." Poppy said from the doorway behind her.

Instantly protests rose up from the students, but Minerva held her hand up. 

"Madame Pomfrey's word goes. It's her hospital wing. You will all just have to wait."

She walked off down the hall, heading for her classroom.

When she stepped into her office, something felt off. She frowned and took two steps into the room, then stopped and put her hands on her hips, looking down.

Her foot was on top of the carpet.

Minerva had been teaching for quite a while in this room, she knew exactly how it was set up. It should have taken her three steps to reach the carpet. Turning, she counted the steps to her desk. They were normal in proportion to the carpet, but when she turned and walked back to the door again, she came up one step short.

"Oh Remus. You really do need to grow up." She murmured with a smile, waving her wand and setting her furniture, which had all been moved about a foot to the left, back in it's original place.

[A/N Cute little headcanons like this make me happy]