Shattered Souls • Hedric

Chapter Ten

Severus embraced his old friend. He hadn't seen Carlisle since he left for his last year at Hogwarts. He never returned to his old home after graduating. He hated his abusive father and never wanted to step foot in the same house as that man again. Instead, he was stupid and joined The Dark Lord, becoming a Death Eater. He should have returned home and taken Carlisle and Esme up on their offer and moved in with them.

Carlisle and Esme, didn't know that he knew that they were vampires. He figured it out in his second year of Hogwarts when they learned about muggle vampires in Defense against the dark arts class. He met Carlisle and Esme when they moved into an old house a block away from where he was living in Spinners End. Carlisle's estranged son had recently left home and his other children were off to college. Carlisle had found him in the park when he was ten after his father had taken a belt to his back in a drunken rage. Carlisle convinced him to come home with him where he patched him up, and Esme fed him. After that he visited the Cullen's regularly. He loved Carlisle and Esme more then he did his own parents. After the death of Lily and the end of the first war, he returned to Spinners End but Carlisle and Esme had moved on.

" Well, it takes one to know one." said Severus. He laughed at the shocked look Carlisle gave him. " I was bitten and turned when I was twenty."

" This is a story I definitely want to hear more about, but obviously this isn't the place." Carlisle turned back to the young boy and his daughter, worried that he overheard them.

" Don't worry about Potter, he knows what I am, and he can keep a secret. He may be a pain in the ass, but he's a good kid." said Severus, smirking in Harry's direction.

" Why, thank you for the compliment sir. It takes one to know one." said Harry repeating Severus' earlier words. Harry giggled when his potion master took a playful swing at his head.

" Cheek Potter!" Severus was happy to see that Harry was doing much better today. Last nights episode was very bad and he prayed that it wasn't going to get worse.

" So I take it you are his guardian?" smiled Carlisle. " I should have known, he is as stubborn as you. I have been trying to get him to let me look at his eye for the past thirty minutes."

Harry lowered his head in embarrassment and mumbled. " I didn't want to go without you, professor."

" Not to worry Potter, Carlisle is a very good doctor. I will go with you while he takes a look at your eye." Severus packed up the baby stroller, and followed Carlisle to his office.

Harry had a tight grip on Leora. Not only was he scared of having his eye looked at, but he needed her to ground him. A hospital was the worst place for an empath. Peoples emotions were always at the highest in a hospital with injured , dying, worried and grieving people. He knew that if he let go of Leora, he would pass out. Since entering the building he had been touching some part of the baby, even when she was in her stroller.

Carlisle showed them into his office and motioned for Harry to take a seat on the exam table. He didn't see to many patients here but the table had been left here by the previous doctor, and he never got rid of it. He smiled when the boy hopped up on the table never releasing the tiny baby.

" Severus, can you please take the little one?" Carlisle asked kindly. He wasn't expecting the reaction that the boy had.

Harry's head snapped up to the doctors then swung to his professors. " No please, I can't Sev. I need her."

Carlisle gave Severus a concerned look. He needed the boy to let go of the baby so he could properly check him over. He had a lot of questions for the pair, and he prayed that Severus wasn't the one who gave the boy his scars. He honestly didn't think he did, but he knew that abused kids sometimes grew up to be abusers themselves.