Title: Duo Maxwell's Good Night
Author: Grevola
Rating/Word Count: PG, ~1,100
Notes: I don't own HP or GW. Part of the Sorting Hat Arc, end of second year. Sequel to "Duo's Bad Day"; Hiiro is revived.
-_-_-_-
Duo was never sure how he managed it, but he there he was trailing after Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey, handing them the restoring potions and blankets or snacks from the cart he was pushing. They started with the cat, Mrs. Noris, who awoke, yawned, and then settled down for a proper nap. Next was Collin Creevey who chattered indistinctly about a "huge and slithering" until Madam Pomfrey threatened to keep him from the feast if he didn't lie still and let the potion finish working. While she was reviving him and the two curly haired girls, Snape had Duo boil a bowl of the potion under Nearly Headless Nick so that the fumes would restore him. The ghost thanked them and then drifted off, muttering about a lack of respect for the dead. Soon Penelope Clearwater and Hermione Granger had been restored and were discussing what they had seen with Justin Flinch-Fletchy.
The level of chatter in the infirmary was steadily increasing, and finally Madam Pomfrey got fed up, "Alright! Out with the lot of you! I've got to revive this boy and make sure he hasn't given himself Dormant Pneumonia by lurking on a roof top for goodness knows how long. So out with you, all of you. If you're well enough to chatter you're well enough to go down to the feast."
Within minutes the infirmary was clear of everyone except Duo, Snape and the nurse. Carefully, she administered the potion to Hiiro, who had been petrified while sitting cross legged and now looked very odd indeed sitting rigidly on one of the beds. "He's the one I'm worried about," she muttered, "I know you gave me that Anti-viral Vapor for him, but I'm not sure how a petrified patient might react to that. Or a petrified cold germ for that matter!"
"I'm sure it won't be anything we can't handle," Snape said.
Duo tried not to dance around as he waited for the potion to take effect on his friend. A few moments later his eyelids fluttered and he brought a hand up to his temple as though he was looking for a pair of glasses, "Dokoni..." he muttered. [1]
"Hiiro," Duo breathed.
"Duo?"
"Hiiro Yui, what the hell were you doing on top of the astronomy tower, trying to take on a fucking (madam Pomfrey gasped) basilisk on your own?!" Duo yelled. "Do you have any idea how incredibly stupid that was? No one knew you were up there! You were missing for days and what if no one had found you! I would have thought you were dead!"
"Mr. Maxwell-" Madam Pomfrey began, but Snape held up one hand to forestall her. "He's better than a howler and a week of detentions, isn't he?" he said.
"Well yes, but-"
Duo's steady ranting was finally cut off when Hiiro, who had been trying to get a word in edgewise, clamped a hand over the other boy's mouth. "Duo!" he said.
"Wmph?"
"I wasn't trying to attack anything," Hiiro said, "I was trying to scry to find out what the monster was."
"If you didn't know what the monster was, could you please explain this?" Snape asked, holding up the strange blindfold Hiiro had been wearing when he was found.
The Gryffindor calmly took the long piece of folded linen from Snape with both hands and laid it across his lap. "Here and here is the kanjishin with an emphasized me radical" he pointed to two identical symbols that had rested over his eyes, "Their purpose is to allow me to see things as they truly are. If I knew it was a basilisk was going to see, I would have used okimenoshin and okizaronomizaru-."[2]
"I don't know if anyone has brought this to your attention Yui," Snape interrupted, "but we use English in this school. Try again."
"Er, instead of using two 'see truth' charms I would use one 'see truth' and one 'see no evil', sir."
"Are you sure you weren't trying to kill the monster by yourself?" Snape asked, "You wouldn't be the only Gryffindor to try that."
"No sir," the Japanese boy glowered.
"Hiiro wouldn't try to fight a monster by himself." Duo said as he managed to break out of Hiiro's grasp, "Because you would share the fun with your friends, right Hiiro?"
"Hn" Hiiro answered, but as it sounded like an affirmative, Duo seemed ready to forgive him.
Snape nodded, "Very well, it's quite possible that Potter is the only one in the school foolish enough to rush blindly off into unknown danger. However, you were on top of the astronomy tower and out of bed when you had no business being there, so that will be twenty points from Gryffindor." He turned to Madam Pomfrey, "Now if you will excuse me, I need to make sure Winner hasn't managed to take over England while he was unattended at the feast."
With that Snape strode out of the infirmary. After a quick examination by the nurse, Hiiro and Duo were free to follow him.
"What did Snape mean about Harry running off after monsters?" Hiiro asked as they left the infirmary.
"I'm not sure. Last I heard he was in Dumbledore's office talking with the Weasleys for some reason," Duo shrugged.
Hiiro gave him a long look, but decided he could investigate further later. If Harry was in Dumbledore's office the worst danger he faced was expulsion. Another, more terrifying thought struck Hirro at that moment, "And Snape was joking about Winner, yes?"
Duo just grinned and threw an arm around the other boy, "How about you come sit with the Slytherins tonight Hiiro, and see for yourself."
-_-_-_-
[1] dokoni means "Where am/is...?"
[2] kanjishin is a run together of kanji shin and means "the character for truth". Okimenoshin would be "the character for truth with a large eye" (the character for eye is a radical of the character for truth). Likewise, okizaronomizaru is oki zaru no mizaru, and means "the characters for 'see no evil' with a large 'no evil'". The Japanese in this fic should be interpreted much like Rowling's Latin- my heart is in the right place, but if anything is right it's an accident :P