Chapter Nine
A Mentor
"Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you: as Albert Mondego, the man!"
~The Count of Monte Cristo
Before I had time to do anything more than gasp, Scorpius had whipped his wand out and thrown himself in front of me.
"STUPE—"
"REDUCTO!"
The desk behind me blasted apart, scattering Scorpius and I with shattered bits of wood and metal while we ducked. Blinded and terrified, I groped for Scorpius, who was shouting spells I could not make out through the ringing in my ears. Finally I made out the back of his robes and held them with a death grip. Thankfully my wand had remained in my hand, but it was useless as long I was blinded, for I could not find the target.
"Scorpius . . . Scorpius . . ." I whispered, almost like a prayer, blinking rapidly and rubbing my eyes clear with my wand hand.
When I pulled my fist away I could see blurry shapes, and there was a terrible pain in my left eye, but I could see well enough to find the squat, round shape that was our attacker.
As he was not expecting an attack from me, I had the advantage. Before anyone realized it, I aimed my wand around Scorpius and shouted,
"STUPEFY!"
The man did not have time to block it, and fell like a rag doll. Scorpius and I stood there in shock, shaking. Holding tightly to my hand, Scorpius trotted over to our attacker and turned him over with his foot. Though all I saw were blurry shapes, the man seemed somewhat familiar, as though he were a subject of a forgotten dream.
"Sco—" I began to say, but he shushed me and, after looking down the hallways and towards the windows to make sure they were clear, kneeled next to the man and ripped open his robes and searched his pockets. They were empty except for a stopwatch and a package of bubble gum.
Scorpius frowned, and, standing up again, pointed his wand at the man.
"Incarcerous."
Slivery ropes flew from his wand and wrapped themselves tightly around the man. Scorpius sighed and leaned against the door frame. The door was gone, completely vanished.
"What was that you were saying again about not needing protection?" though his tone was light, he sounded scared.
"Scorpius," I said, discounting this, "I can't see."
For the first time he looked at me. His eyes went wide, and he looked, if it was possible, more scared than before.
"Shit," he cursed, looking up and down the hallway. For what, I don't know. "Shit, shit, shit."
"What's wrong?"
"I'm not sure if I can heal you, but I can't leave him,"he pointed with his wand at the man. "Alone."
"Then I'll go to the hospital wing."
"I'm not letting you go there alone," he said fiercely.
"You idiot, you don't have to."
I pointed my wand at the man, whispering the moving and lifting spell.
"Oh."
"Oh," I agreed sarcastically.
Frowning, he looked at me again, he reached up and lightly touched my left cheek, looking scared.
"What's wrong?" I asked again.
"Nothing Madam Pomfrey can't fix, I hope. Let's go."
The whole way to the hospital wing he was jumpy, not letting us go around corners without him checking first, and he kept looking around, as if expecting an attack. It started to annoy me after a while, but before I could comment on it we had reached the hospital wing.
Even Madam Pomfrey looked shocked when she saw me. But after it subsided, her normal brusque manner returned. She chastised me about being so careless and teased me about this being my second trip to the hospital wing in a month. She forced me to sit down on a bed, and placed several cloths next to me. After Scorpius had deposited our attacker on an unoccupied and further tying him to the bed, he came over to me and, after Madam Pomfrey's consent, sat next to me and held my hand.
"Now, the most important thing is that you stay still. If you don't think you can, I can place a spell that will keep you still, but I'd rather not."
"Okay . . ." I muttered.
"This might hurt, I warn you."
She waved her wand once, muttering a spell, and my eyes locked in placed. I almost panicked, but Scorpius squeezed my hand and I felt able to put my trust in the both of them. After making sure the spell worked, she rested her cool hands on the right side of my face.
"Hold still," she said.
Scorpius squeezed my hand, and I saw him out of the corner of my eye turn his head. It must be bad. I felt a strange tugging sensation in my eye, and when it was gone a warm liquid squirted oozed over my face and everything went black. Madam Pomfrey moved faster than I thought she could. She pressed one of the cloths to my eye, and then waved her wand and removed it. I was still blind, but the warm gushing had stopped.
I admit, I was scared. I was terrified I would never be able to see again. I would never be able to see Scorpius's face when I walked down the aisle. I would never be able to see our children's faces. Everything in my life would change. It was only in that moment that I realized how much my sight meant to my life, and if Madam Pomfrey was able to restore it . . . then I would bloody be thankful, that's for sure.
"Relax," she said, when I was borderline panicking. I felt Scorpius's other hand on my arm, squeezing it in a soothing way. "I can restore your sight, but you need to calm down."
I had started breathing normally and almost, If not used to, adjusted, for my lack of vision. My hearing and sense of smell had sharpened palpably. I could hear Scorpius's hitched breath besides me, the sound of different fabrics rustling against one another. I could smell Scorpius's scent, his shampoo nearly overpowered it, but I could faintly detect something that I had never smelled before. It was a neutral odor, but it smelled . . . intriguing.
I heard the swish of Madam Pomfrey's wand, and it was as if someone turned on the lights and put a pillow over my ears and nose.
"Are you alright?" said Scorpius, his voice shaking. I nodded, blinking at the bright light.
"Can you see?" asked Madam Pomfrey. I nodded again.
"Clearly?" She asked.
"Yes."
She held up a splinter of wood.
"What's that?" I asked.
"That," answered Scorpius, "Was in your eye."
I sat in shock.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
There was a lull in the conversation while Madam Pomfrey put her things away and bustled into her office.
Once the door was shut, Scorpius's and I's eyes were invariably drawn to the same place—our attacker.
"Who is he?" I said silently.
"If he wasn't so valuable, he would be dead for what he's done to you."
"Why's he valuable?"
"Because he can tell us who he's working for. Why they're trying to get at you. What they want."
He looked at me, and gently cupped my right cheek, examining my eye.
"I'm glad you can see," he said softly.
"I was terrified," I said honestly. If it had been anyone else, I would have brushed it off like it was nothing. But there was no point hiding from Scorpius.
"I was too," he said. "I almost failed. You got hurt."
"I got him," I said, almost gloatingly.
He appeared slightly amused.
"Yes you did," I heard a tone of pride in his voice. It gave me a slight case of the flutters. I smiled, though, ready to say I-told-you-so.
"I told you I didn't need protecting."
"Don't start that again," he sighed heavily. "I don't want to fight."
Grimacing, he stood up.
"Where are you going?"
"I have to contact Harry. You'll be safe with Madam Pomfrey. And I have no doubt you can protect yourself."
There was an ice in his voice I had not heard since we were kids.
"Scorp—"
"Don't bother," he sneered, and turned and walked towards the door, levitating our attacker behind him. He turned. "Don't leave the hospital wing till I get back. I won't be long." He hesitated for a fraction of a second, then, with a combination of ice and tenderness I hadn't realized was possible, said; "I love you."
And then he left me alone with nothing but the echo of a slammed door and the nurse for company.
It didn't take me long to reach the nearest fireplace containing floo powder, despite my anger at my girlfriend, which had subsided slightly with the walk and the reflection of the fear of almost losing her. I wanted to run back to the hospital wing and apologize and hold her tightly and kiss her, but I had my duties to do. And I would be back.
Harry had given me special access to exit or enter the castle whenever I wished, after some coaxing of the headmistress. I lit a fire in the hearth with my wand, then sprinkled some floo powder over it. After the dizzying sensation of floo travel I landed in the room next to Harry's office with the unconscious man.
Harry was in the room almost immediately, thanks to the silent alarm trigger that was caused by my entrance.
"What happened?" he asked, not sounded shocked at all. I doubted there was anything that could shake him anymore.
"We were attacked."
"Is Rose safe?"
"Yes, I left her with Madam Pomfrey." I said grimly, thinking of what I said to Rose when I left and seriously starting to regret it. "I told her not to leave the hospital wing. She should be safe. She can take care of herself. She is the one who stunned him, after all."
Harry raised his eyebrows.
"I'll want a full report by dinner," he said.
"Yes, sir."
"Now, to deal with this prisoner. We'll interrogate him. Did you check his pockets?"
I gave him the stopwatch and bubblegum, along with the man's wand. Harry examined each object very closely. What he could see special about them that I couldn't, I had no idea. He spent an extra amount of time on the wand, bending it and rolling it in his fingers.
"Ten inches," he said aloud. "Walnut, bendy . . . dragon heartstring. I don't know who it belongs to, but we might have it on file. If we don't, I can always ask . . ."
He trailed off, examining the wand more closely.
"How do you know so much about wandlore?" I asked, curious.
"Hmm?" He said, looking back at me with a slightly dazed look. "What?"
I repeated myself. Harry grimaced a little bit, as if remembering a nostalgic, but not-to-fond memory.
"It helped me defeat Voldemort. I've realized it can be pretty useful to know what you're fighting with."
There was a slightly sarcastic note in his voice, though I know he hadn't meant it to be rude.
"Oh."
There was a pause while Harry examined the man himself.
"He seems familiar, though I can't quite place where I've seen him before," He straightened up, returning his full attention to me. "You've done quite well."
I felt quite proud of his praise. It was strange, in the short time I had known him, Harry Potter had become more of a mentor to me than my own father. Though this made me feel slightly guilty to my father, I put it aside and realized that my father wasn't much of a mentor anyway, no matter how much I loved him.
"Thank you, sir."
"Now that we have a source for information, the investigation should proceed more quickly. I still want you to be on your guard, though, as always. And keep an eye on Rose as often as you can spare it. She's still in danger, and watch for anything unusual. We need every detail we can get."
"Yes, sir."
"I think I'll take a trip to Hogwarts later today. I'm going to speak with the headmistress about increasing security. We don't want any more victims. I want you to hand me your report then, and I'm going to speak with Rose."
"Okay."
"You're dismissed."
"Yes, sir."
I turned back to the fireplace to leave, but before I could step into the dancing green flames, Harry stopped me.
"Mr. Malfoy?"
"Yes, Mr. Potter?"
"Love is the greatest magic of all. It's worth fighting and dying for. Remember that."
"Yes, sir," Feeling slightly confused, I stepped into the dancing green flames and called for Hogwarts, and I spun back towards the school, towards Rose.
The moment Scorpius had gone, Harry sighed and returned to his office, leaving someone to guard the prisoner. He fell into his chair and ran his hands over his face. The sheer pleasure of sitting down after a day spent running around putting out one fire after another was enough to relax him.
At least they had a lead now. At least he was working towards a goal again. This was his case, one he would not delegate to another. It was too important. He had not had his own case in a long time. It felt good to be on the hunt again.
And yet what the case pointed to worried him more so than anything had since the end of the war. He had a bad feeling about this. If it was another Dark Lord, he had much more at stake this time than with Voldemort. It had been different. Voldemort had already taken everything from him. This was different, a different time, different circumstances, a different fear. Not a fear for his own life, but the fear for his family, and a fierce desire to protect them.
The two attacks on Rose had been enough to aggravate and worry him, enough so to keep him up at night. What if something did happen to his family? The thought was more than he could bear. It was almost worse than facing death. And he knew better than most what facing death felt like.
He swiveled around to face the portrait of the sleeping Dumbledore above his head.
"What would you do?" he asked softly. But, of course, the portrait was asleep, and held no answers for him. Besides, he already knew that Dumbledore would say that he, Harry, would know the answer better than he.
The only thing to do was to keep pressing forward. He would not let his family come to harm, no matter the cost. What he had told Scorpius was the truth. Love was worth fighting for, and, if it came to that, dying for.
A/N: Hey everyone! I know, I know, the splinter in the eye was kinda cheesy and more of a filler than anything . . . mostly for this chapter I just had this image of Harry swiveling around in his chair and consulting asleep-Dumbledore, and show how much Harry's grown up and doesn't need a mentor/teacher anymore, because he's already cleverer than the teacher. . .and also show that Harry's kinda channeled Dumbledore's personality a bit as he gets older . . . anyway . . . got all that? Taking notes? Lol . . .
So thanks for reading my story, as usual, and please leave a review!
