How Could You Forget About Me?
By gorgeousbowneyes
Chapter Seven: How Could You Forget About Me?
There, in the centre of the room, was a raised rectangle block of stone that was as high as Arthur's hips. Chained to the block was a naked man, who was covered in large purple bruises and marks. His arms were shackled above his head, bolted to the stone block. His feet were shackled down as well. The man had raven black hair and was facing in the opposite direction to the door. He was filthy, like he hadn't had a bath in ages, and there was more than just dirt on him. He moaned again. This time, words accompanied his moan, a sound chilling to hear.
"No, not again, please no, you were here only a while ago, please!" The man seemed to be pleading with whoever he thought had entered the room. The voice sounded oddly familiar, but somehow different, like it was dead, with no hope, no love, no compassion in his life.
Arthur stepped into the room.
"Please, no!" the man on the block pleaded, louder this time.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Arthur said, quietly, so that he didn't startle the man. Arthur was horrified by what he saw here. Obviously this man had been kept prisoner for quite a while, and had been used for something. The bruises were most heavy around his hips and shoulders, and Arthur thought he could make out a hand print in one of them. He shuddered at the thought. He walked closer to the man.
"No, no, please, no." The man didn't seem to have heard him. Looking closer, Arthur realized who this man reminded him of. He was the spitting image of Harry Potter! Well besides the skin discolorations. But this couldn't be him, could it? Harry died five years ago. No, this man just looked like him. It couldn't be him…
The man groaned.
"Please, Lucius, don't do it again!"
"I'm not Lucius Malfoy," Arthur said, louder this time. "I don't know what has happened here, but I intend to help you."
Arthur was now only about a foot away from touching the stone block. He looked upon the face of the man on the stone block, and couldn't get over the likeness to Harry. The man had his eyes closed.
"Harry…" Arthur said quietly, mainly to see if the man reacted to the name. Harry had been like a son to him, growing closer as father and son over the two years Harry had spent at the Burrow . The man's head turned to face Arthur, but his eyes were still closed.
"You're…you're…not…Malfoy." the man on the block slowly said.
"No, I'm not, I'm Arthur Weasley. Who are you?"
"I'm Harry Potter…" His voice faded out as he said the words. Arthur stared in shock.
Arthur paused for a moment, then he exclaimed, "You can't be!"
"At least, I think I am…" His voice was dazed; almost dream like, as if remembering a distant past. Little did Arthur know that that was exactly what the man before him was doing, trying to remember a time before he was the prisoner of Lucius Malfoy. Arthur realized that the man before him was still shackled to the block and was still naked. He had to help this man, whoever he was. He must have been kept prisoner here by Lucius Malfoy and god knows what the bastard had done to him. He pulled out is wand and pointed it towards the man's feet.
"Alohamora." He muttered. The shackles at the man's feet came free. The man whimpered.
"Please, don't." the man on the block seemed truly terrified.
"I'm freeing you; I'm not going to harm you." What had Lucius done to this poor soul?
Suddenly, the man's eyes opened, and Arthur had no doubt that this was Harry Potter. His eyes were green and everything about his faced screamed 'I am Harry!' But there was a definite difference in his eyes. They were dull and Arthur thought he was looking at a dead man. In more ways than one! Arthur was confused, he himself had helped carry Harry's lifeless body into the Great Hall of Hogwarts, where medi-witches checked him and proclaimed him dead. How could the man before him be Harry Potter? And if he was Harry, how could he have possibly gotten here? Arthur put his questions aside for the time being though. His main job now was to get Harry out of here. He raised his wand again. Harry drew back and whimpered at the sight of a wand pointed at him.
"I'm just going to remove the shackles from you arms," Arthur explained, trying to calm him down. "Alohamora." The chains that had bound his arms unlocked themselves and fell free of Harry's arms. Arthur leaned in to help Harry sit up. Once he was sure that Harry was stationary, he conjured him a pair of loose pants so that Harry could be more comfortable. He passed them to Harry and motioned that he should put them on. As Harry put them on, Arthur glanced at the purple bruises on Harry's body. He was dreading finding out what had caused them. Harry slid off the stone slab, but as soon as his feet took on all of his weight, he fell to the ground. Arthur bent down to help him up.
"I don't think I can walk," Harry rasped out, not having used his voice for much more than pleas for help or for Lucius to stop. Arthur reached for Harry's arm to help him up, but Harry jerked away. "Don't touch me!" he exclaimed. "I thought you were going to help me!"
"Harry, I am helping you. I'm not going to hurt you, I was just going to help you walk, but I don't have to if you don't want me to."
At that moment, Arthur heard someone call out in the hall way. Moments later, the door burst open and Ron was standing in the doorway.
"Dad! There you are! You were taking so long…" His voice faded away as he saw that there was another person next to his dad, and that that person looked very much like Harry Potter.
"Dad…" he looked back and forth from his father to the person next to him. He was totally confused.
"Ron!"
It was not Arthur who had called out Ron's name though. It was Harry.
"Dad, who is that?" Ron looked puzzled and didn't understand what was happening. He squinted his eyes at the very dirty man before him, eyes scanning the purple bruises.
"Ron, I'm Harry."
Ron took an alarmed step back. "Dad stop this right now! It's an illusion and it's not funny!"
"Ron…" Harry's voice sounded hurt. "I'm real! Have you forgotten about me?" Harry was angry now. "But then, I suppose you all forgot about me. How could you forget about me? I was "the Chosen One!" How could you forget about me so easily! How could you forget about me?"
"Harry, we all thought you were dead," Arthur said, cautious not to alarm him any more. "But please, let's not talk about it here!" With that, Arthur conjured a stretcher that hovered in mid air, low enough for Harry to pull himself onto. Harry did just that. He slowly pulled himself onto the stretcher accepting no help from anyone, as he was scared of anyone touching him. There was a pained look on his face as he forced himself onto it. When he was sitting upright on it, Arthur flicked his wand, and the stretcher started to magically move out of the door, with Ron and his dad following behind. As they passed through Malfoy mansion, they met no one. When they got outside, they were presented with a problem. They needed to apparate to St Mungo's, the wizarding hospital in London, but Harry was too weak to apparate by himself. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, they would have just used side-along apparation, but Harry wouldn't let either of them touch him, and contact was necessary for it to work.
"Harry," Arthur started, "We need to get you to St Mungo's. You are going to have to trust us! Believe me when I say that I'm not going to hurt you." Arthur looked into Harry's dead green eyes, and inwardly shuddered at the lack of emotion there.
"No."
"Well, what about if you grab hold of my arm? Then side along apparation will still work and you won't have to fear me hurting you." Not that I would, Arthur thought to himself. Harry's defiance suddenly broke down.
"Mr Weasley, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I know you wouldn't hurt me, really I do, but it scares the hell out of me to have anyone touching me!"
"Harry, you don't have to explain, we know you have gone through a terrible ordeal and we can't possibly know what its like. Now, I know that you scared but you need to hold onto my arm." Hopefully this won't scare him, Arthur thought. Harry slowly took hold of Arthur's arm. It wasn't so bad, this way he had the control. Then, while Harry was holding his arm, Arthur concentrated on apparating to St Mungo's. Ron did the same. Ron had been silent through the whole exchange between his father and Harry; he was so shocked that Harry was alive.
With a loud pop, all three men were gone from the Malfoy estate.
A/N: Harry is alive! yay! well this goes out to all of you who didn't think Harry was dead! next chapter will explain what happened to Harry! Hope you liked it.
Thank you to all who reviewed!
mia(anon. and also one of my best friends) : u finally reviewed! lol i expected more from u! i expected a review with every chapter! nah lol, u told me what u thought of it at school.
BullDozer: Well here is the next chapter! i'm working on the next one at the momnet, shouldn't have to wait too long for chp 8.
bill ferny: Yeah description isn't one of ma fav parts, but I try.
andy-may: yes well just remember this is a romance story and yeah this chapter should have answered your question about Harry being dead.
SKateforever: Thanks!
emmy (anon. and also one of my best friends) : of course i will keep writing it! u and mia are lucky coz u get to read the chapters b4 anyone else!
Next chapter will be up soon!
