Disclaimer:I don't own Harry Potter
Half-Blood Blessing
Chapter Eleven: Nightmares
A few days into March, I took a walk through the grounds with Draco and Neville as we commonly did on nicer days. We had taken a path that ran just inside the border of the forbidden forest. There was a faint series of pops off among the trees. Experience made me spin to face the noise, cock my head and listen. The other two stopped and looked in the direction I was peering. They had been having an argument about the use of plants in potions versus salves but it died on their tongues now. We listened for a while, but nothing moved or sounded among the trees. I was almost ready to move along the path again when I heard the faintest rustle I almost didn't believe I had heard it. Lights shot out of the woods from several directions. I was already half crouched and dodged easily. Draco spun out of the way, seeker skills still keen even though he had not played in almost a year, but Neville was struck by a yellow green spell. He went down heaving and pale. Draco and I turned to stand protectively above him and still have the greatest range of firing. I felt my heart pound hard; I could hear it in my ears and feel it in my palms. I tried desperately to null the foes' magic, but doubt wriggled in and the spells continued to fly. Draco put up a successful barrier and held it while I diverted the opposing spells back towards the casters. Soon the lights stopped and I heard the pops of apparation much louder than when they had come. Draco dropped the shield and helped a shaking Neville to his feet. I assisted in steadying him as Neville sought his balance.
"What hit you?" asked Draco.
Neville shook his head. "Did you see," Draco demanded of me.
"Yeah, the spell was yellow-green like an old bruise."
Draco cursed under his breath. "We need to go to the castle. You can't say it never happened can you," he inquired; he was aware of my mode of magic after living with me for as long as he had.
I frowned, "not after seeing him," I shook my head slightly. "It's too real," I offered as an apology. We started back towards the castle, Draco and I supporting Neville who was dizzy and ill.
"No, that's alright, he'll be fixed up in a couple of days with the right potion."
"You know what it was?"
"Yeah, remember that essay Remus assigned not too long ago, the one where we picked a common dark spell and explained the symptoms and cures or counter curses?"
"Yeah,"
"Well that was the one that I picked."
"Can you brew the potion, or Snape?"
"I have a supply actually; I brewed it as part of my project for Remus."
I shook my head and muttered about over-achievers.
We made it to the Room of Requirement and Neville settled on the couch before the fire that had started the instant we had opened the door. Draco ran for his potion supply, and I tried my best to comfort Neville who was shaking horribly. Draco came back unplugging a medium sized vial.
"Good thing I made a lot. It keeps well though and I thought it would be useful since the curse is not that uncommon," Draco muttered. Then to Neville he said, "here, a couple of days of this and you'll be alright."
Neville took it and Draco helped him tip the bottle. I collapsed in a chair nearby and stared into the fire. In an hour I was asleep.
I stood in a stone hall and heard voices in the next room. They were quiet but I understood most of the words. The voices had a hissing quality to them.
"Well the Longbottom boy is taken care of," one hissed, "Potter looked shocked and unprepared. Unfortunately, Malfoy, that traitor, was with them. I'm hoping we can do away with him as well. He gives Potter an advantage. He has gained insight."
"Yes, master," agreed the other speaker.
"Let's hope those young eager masks can follow through,"
I woke with a start. I was in front of the dying fire slumped in one of the chairs. Neville was standing with Draco who was searching through his book bag. Neville nearly collapsed, gripping the edge of the table with white knuckles. His face grew pale with only the smallest flushes of color on his cheeks and those were splotchy. I leapt to my feet and ran to him.
Draco stood flabbergasted, "What's wrong with him?"
"You remember the walk yesterday, the ambush?" I said, supporting Neville to a chair.
"What walk? It rained yesterday," said Draco sounding utterly confused.
"The walk. We skipped potions, remember?"
"That never happened."
I looked over my shoulder at Draco, "it didn't? You're sure?"
"Yes, it was transfiguration yesterday."
"It was a dream, all of it," I said confused, his first words should have clued me in. "I had a nightmare…" I continued in detail.
Neville seemed less and less sick as I spoke, as I became surer it had been a dream. His skin was no longer clammy and he was no longer pale or shaking.
"Neville," I said, "you're okay?"
"Yes," Neville nodded.
"Disturbing," muttered Draco, "why did Neville get sick if it was only a dream?" I shook my head, I had no ideas that I was willing to voice; it was only a dream, only a dream.
Neville and I were in the library doing research a week later. Draco was late, his class had been out for nearly fifteen minutes and we had agreed to meet immediately after it. I checked my watch nervously.
"We should go look for him," I said.
"What if he shows up here and we are gone?"
"If he is this late then something is wrong. Here I'll check the usual places and with Remus, you see if anyone knows where he is. I'll send you a note."
We left the library and parted ways in the hall. I checked everywhere I could think to find Draco. Remus said he hadn't seen him but joined the search. My fears of kidnappings and violence shivered at the back of my head; whispering scenarios as bad as my nightmares. My heart pounded fiercely as I swept down the stone halls. 'His last class was ancient runes. Fastest route.' I started to trace Draco's steps. I turned down the hall and then through a large classroom and out another door. I leapt down a staircase and followed a narrower corridor to the end and down a little known hidden stairway that the three of us knew about. I practically fell down the narrow stone steps with haste, part of me knowing what would be found at the bottom. Close to the end I heard shouts that reverberated up the stairs.
"Who do you think you are?"
"Defying the Dark Lord," spat another.
"He will kill you," said another arrogant voice.
I felt the blood drain from my face. I turned invisible, taking less thought then the skill had ever required before. I slipped through the apparently solid stonewall. Draco was pinned against the stone opposite me.
I heard him mumble, "I doubt he would do me that honor," in reply. One of the students pinning him shook him twisting his arm. Draco cringed. I felled the two pinning him; Crabbe and Goyle both received large lumps on their skulls that put their muscle out of service. Draco slumped to the floor weaker than I had expected. The other students started to run.
There had been a group of students standing in a semicircle around the end of the deserted hall. They were mostly Slytherins, though there was a Ravenclaw and two Hufflepuffs. Gryffindor was noticeably absent but if the plan was to attack Draco then surely they planned on the fact that I would be the one to find and rescue him. Strangely, I knew most of the Gryffindors by name (sitting unnoticed in the common-room and watching fellow students go about their business can provide that knowledge) so perhaps they decided not to risk betraying any playing spy for Voldemort. I held no illusions about Gryffindor being free of little masks; Voldemort had too much skill at persuasion not to have at least a few, even against their will. I looked at Draco. He had a bloody nose and his clothes were askew; he looked dazed, what torture they had managed in the time before now I was not sure. The other students started to run after the thugs had collapsed; I blocked their attempt at escape with an imagined wall of dense fog. The ones that had started running skidded to a halt. I reappeared but obscured by shadows. A few decided unknown fog was better than the dark figure at the end of the hall and disappeared into the grayness. The ringleader, Theodore Nott held his ground though.
"Harry Potter," he sneered.
The students behind him turned, realizing they outnumbered the threat perhaps or recognizing an oppurtunity. I sent a note to Neville giving location, explanation and instruction; I hoped he could find Dumbledore quickly; I needed a witness for my side. I had seen the Hufflepuffs go through the fog at the end of the hall; I hoped Neville could beat them to the report. Nott cast a spell and I made it vanish between us and relocated the energy to behind one of the other students. Nott cast several more spells and I deflected them in similar fashion. The other students regrouped and backed Nott from behind trying to overwhelm their single opponent. I neglected to acknowledge their magical quality and the lights hit me without causing any effect. I could not do the same to Nott unfortunately.
"Avada kedavra," breathed Nott when he thought I was taking a moment to catch my breath, though I had not spoken once. I conjured the first object to come to mind, a mirror, and the spell hit it. The spell, however weirdly, continued in the mirror's image. The spell hit Nott's reflection and the real Nott doubled over. This was too much magic for the others; they turned and ran. The fog dissipated around their heels; I let them pass, turning concern to Draco. Neville showed up then with Remus also coming through the almost unknown passage. Nott coughed and was ignored. I crouched by Draco and examined him. Draco's wrist was broken and his nose was also as far as I could tell. Physically there was little beyond that wrong with him. I helped Draco stand though he wavered until Neville took his other elbow.
"Are you hurt, Harry," asked Remus.
"No."
"I'm sorry, Harry I couldn't find Dumbledore and then I ran into Remus and we decided joining you would be best."
"S'alright, Dumbledore would not have arrived until right now anyway," I said watching the Headmaster advance up the Hall.
"A pair of Hufflepuffs came and told me that Mr. Malfoy started a fight with Mr. Nott," he said when he had stopped by the boy.
I set my jaw and refused to speak. I drew a piece of cloth from my pocket and held it to Draco's nose.
"Phanks," mumbled Draco. I nodded. Dumbledore conjured a stretcher for Nott and levitated the boy onto it.
"Come," he said, "we are going to the Hospital Wing."
"No," said Neville before I could speak.
Dumbledore sighed, turned, and walked away.
We followed Remus back to his office. I imagined Draco's nose and wrist healed and they were. Draco explained what had happened, glancing across what the students had done to him until I had arrived and then I took up the story. As I spoke I saw the other possibilities that I had not when I had been defending myself and Draco from further attack. I could have frozen their feet where they stood. I had done that to as many teachers; teachers with greater experience than students who had at best six and a half years of study. Remus was curious about the mirror but I didn't know much about how or why it had happened. It reminded me of when my wand linked with Voldemort's, spells reversed. Had the mirror reversed the effects of avada kedavra?
"Honestly, I expected the mirror to shatter," I said after I took a sip of tea.
"Did you find my wand," asked Draco. I summoned it and handed it to him.
"Why didn't you use the map to find me?"
I sat there, mentally slapping myself, "I didn't think of it."
Draco shook his head grumbling about Gryffindor bravery.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Shifted Illusions