Harry had entered his third year at Hogwarts and it was the first day of term after the Christmas holidays, which he spent locked up in the castle with Hermione and Ron as there was a killer after him named, Sirius Black.
Christmas had been quite an uneventful time. Harry had received a racing broom; which was the best broom there was, and it was called a Firebolt. After much excitement, it came to an end as the Firebolt was taken away for 'tests' because no one knew who gave Harry the broom at all.
It was a bright and sunny day outside the dormitories, the sun was leaking through the cracks in the curtains and lighting up the room full of sleeping boys. Harry could hear the creaking of the floor boards as his friends got up for the day, getting dressed and making their way down to the common room.
Harry, however, was feeling terrible. He had an ache in his head that didn't want to go away. He felt so sleepy he could hardly make his eyes open a couple of inches and he was shivering while being quite warm.
He rolled over in him bed and opened his eyes an inch to look around the room. All of the other beds in the room were empty, except for his own. He knew that Ron and Hermione were going to be waiting for him in the common room, so he pushed himself up and made himself open his eyes.
It was hard and even though the room was dark, it was far too bright for his liking. Squinting, he jammed his glasses onto his face and stood up.
A wave of dizziness overcame him and he grabbed onto the post of his bed to steady himself and closed his eyes until the dizziness subsided. When it had gone he walked around a lot slower, his head still felt really light and the room was swaying somewhat. He opened his trunk and fumbled with his uniform.
Even thought it was summer he put two jumpers on, one was a jumper that Mrs. Weasly had made and the other was his school jumper. Once he was dressed he slowly made his way down the stone steps to the common room, holding onto the cold stone wall for support as his dizziness continued.
When he got to the bottom of the staircase the room was empty except for two people who were sitting on the arm chairs by the fireplace, they were Ron and Hermione.
"Harry!" Hermione said as he entered the room getting up from her chair.
"Hey," He said in a quiet voice, shoving his hands in his pockets uncomfortably, looking for some warmth.
"Ready to go and eat, mate? I'm starving!" Ron asked hopefully.
Harry knew that he wasn't hungry, but he wasn't going to tell them that he felt sick, all they would do is worry, and it really wasn't anything to worry about.
"Yeah, definitely!" he said, sounding half-hearted at the idea, which Hermione picked up on.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Fine. I'm just tired." Harry lied.
Hermione stood there for a second looking at him biting her lip. Eventually she said, "Alright, then." And she left the room muttering something about her healing classes.
When they got down to breakfast, most of the food was gone as they were so late. This annoyed Ron, rushed to sit down and grabbed as much as he could, slopping porridge onto his plate.
"He's such a pig!" Hermione snorted as they took a seat next to Ron who was stuffing porridge into his mouth in great big lumps.
"What lesson do we have first Hermione?" Harry asked playing with the small amount of food that he put onto his plate.
Hermione watched him play with his toast and said, "Defence against the Dark Arts."
"Oh, good, Lupin said that he was going to give me dementors lessons afterwards, instead of going to lunch." Harry said.
Hermione put her hand out so that it was touching Harry's own and gave it a comforting squeeze. "That's great, Harry! I'm glad you're doing something about it!" She said in a whisper.
Harry slowly pulled his hand away from her cold touch; he didn't want anyone touching him, the way he felt at the moment.
"Are you sure you're alright, Harry?" Hermione asked again.
"Fine!" Harry yelled, aggravated. "Let's go to class." He slid off the bench and stomped up the hallway into the grand staircase and made his way to the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom.
'Why does it have to be at the very top of the school!?' Harry thought to himself as he was climbing his fourth staircase. His head was starting to spin uncontrollably now and he sat down on the step for a rest, leaning his hot achy head on the cool stone pillar he closed his eyes.
Hermione and Ron were leaving the great hall to try and catch up with Harry on his way to Defence against the dark arts.
"Oh, no!" Hermione cried.
"What?" Ron mumbled
"I left my book in the common room!" Hermione squeaked.
"Urgh, Hermione, I thought you were a well organised wizard!" Ron complained.
"Oh, shut up Ronald. I need to get it." She watched as Ron started to walk in the other direction quietly. "And you're coming with me!" She said in a huff and dragged him after her.
After the two wizards had found Hermione's book they were five minutes late for class, which put Hermione in an edgy mood. They burst through the classroom door to Defence against the dark arts, after apologising to professor Lupin for being late Ron and Hermione looked around to see where Harry was sitting. He was nowhere to be seen.
They both took a seat at the back of the room and looked around worriedly.
"Ron," Hermione hissed under her breath, "Where's Harry?"
"No idea," He whispered back, "Maybe he forgot his books like you did."
"But, we would have seen him on the way here if he had." She said.
As the lesson grew on, both Hermione and Ron became more, and more anxious.
As they were doing an assignment on Hinkypunks Hermione took the time to add. "He was feeling sick this morning. I can tell when he is sick. He gets irritable and-"She gasped.
"What?" Ron hissed.
"What if something happened to him on the way here? Sirius Black is meant to be after him. Or, maybe there was a dementor, or-"Hermione was cut short by the sound of Professor Lupin calling across the classroom from his desk.
"Hermione, Ron, can I please speak to both of you for a moment?" he nodded his head towards his office door, telling them to go inside.
As soon as they were all inside Hermione burst out. "It's Harry sir!"
"What about him?" he asked.
"Well, he's missing sir," Ron added.
"Missing? How? When?" He said looking concerned.
"Well sir, Ron and I saw him this morning at breakfast. He left a couple of minutes before us to come to this lesson and when we got here, well, he wasn't here." Hermione mumbled.
"You should have told me at the start of the lesson!" Lupin cried, "Especially with Sirius Black lurking around!"
"I'm sorry sir," Hermione looked on the edge of crying.
"Don't worry; I am sure he will be fine. We just need to find him. Class finishes in ten minutes; I might give everyone an early mark." He said as he rushed to the portrait of himself on the wall and said "Go to professor McGonagall's classroom and tell her that Harry Potter is missing." Then he went out into the classroom and announced that class was finished.
Harry was feeling horrible. How long he had been sitting on this step, he did not know. He could feel his head pounding and the world was spinning around him. He let out a low moan and felt the need to throw up. Even he was starting to admit to himself that he needed to go to the Hospital Wing, but how could he get there. He could hardly stand up, let alone walk.
He tried to stand up again, he got to his feet and waited for the swirling visions to stop, but they didn't. Knowing that he couldn't sit on the stairs all day he started to walk up them, one step at a time. When he got to the top of the stairs he fell to his knees, walking was out. Black dots were starting to cover his vision and he tried blinking them away. He watched as sweat dripped from his face, creating a small puddle on the ground.
He could hear footsteps coming. 'Great,' he thought, 'finally, someone will be able to help me.' The footsteps drew to a halt right in front of his face, and he felt hands press onto his back, a voice said, "Harry, are you alright? How long have you been sitting here for?" the voice was definitely his Defence against the dark arts teacher, professor Lupin. Harry knew this because his voice had a soothing ring to it.
Harry had no idea how long he had been on those steps, but he knew that it was quite a long amount of time. "Hours," he whispered as Lupin rolled him into a sitting position where he was leaning on the professor's knee. "I think I'm-sick, professor."
There were other footsteps coming from down the hallway. "Oh, you've found him! Thank goodness, Remus! I was beginning to get worr-"the voice that had been walking down the corridor came to a halt and drew a gasping breath as she saw Harry. "What's happened?"