- In The Dark -
Authoress Ramble: TODAY 17/11 - 05, 21.00 I'M GOING TO SEE HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE! AH! CAN'T WAIT! SO EXCITED! ;) ONLY A FEW HOURS! IIH! When I finished this chapter, it's five hours and 22 minutes left! ;)
Warnings: Abuse, violence, language and all that a story really needs. M-rated. ;)
Disclaimer: I'm not even going write anything this tim-- DAMN IT!
Chapter Twelve: Darkness
He couldn't move, couldn't talk, it was like in the coma. Except from this time there were no white light, that peacefull healing feeling was all gone. He no longer felt safe, but rather scared and nervous.
The memories were playing themselves over and over again, no matter how hard Harry tried to get away.. he couldn't. They were surrounding him and there were nowhere to go, since it was happening inside of himself.
He wanted it to stop, tha pain, the memories, everything, he wanted everything to end.. to be over.
"Wortheless good-for-nothing" Harry tried to shut everything out but it was impossible. He watched every painful memory and wished it to be over, but it wouldn't stop. What was happening?
"Harry, wake up" Hermione shook the unconscious boy, his head fell limp to his other side but he stayed still on the floor. She nervously pushed aside the hair hanging over his forehead and touched it gently.
"He's burning up" She said to Ron who stood behind her with a worried expression on his face. Maybe he shouldn't have done what he did in herbology but he only wanted to help his friend. "Harry! HARRY" No matter what the brown haired girl tried Harry wouldn't wake up.
His face were screwed up in something that looked like fright and his arms lay helplessly on each of his sides. Hermione grabbed one of them and checked for a pulse on his wrist, she sighed in relief, he was alive.
"We need to get professor Dumbledore" She cried and stood up. "Wait here I'll run and get him." Ron nodded and took Hermione place, kneeling down on his friends side. He grabbed one of his pale hand and sqeezed it tightly.
"Hang in there, mate" He muttered, his hand were shaking and lips trembling. Hermione shot the two of them a last look and rushed out of the dormitory to get Dumbledore.
She ignored Ginny's calls as she ran out of the portrait hole, she knew where Dumbledore's office were, she had been there a few times before. She ran past a group of hufflepuffs and reached the gargoyles outside the headmasters office. She swore to herself, she couldn't get in without the password. Frantically she began to ramble all the sweets she could think of.
"Ice Mice" The gargoyles stayed still. "Jelly slugs, acid pops, chocolate frogs, Bertie Botts every--"
"Ms Granger" A voice sneered from behind her, Hermione turned around, she had never been so happy to see Snape before. She ran a hand through her bushy hair, breathing heavily, her face was flushed and sweat ran down her forehead. Dumbledore's office did not lie near the gryffindor tower.
"Professor Snape" She cried and took a deep breath to keep herself steady. "I need to talk to professor Dumbledore, it's urge--"
"Urgent?" Snape interrupted, sneering. "It's always urgent when it comes to the golden trio." Hermione turned around back to the gargoyles and tried a couple of more sweets, she was growing impatient, her friend was in danger and she couldn't do anything to help without Dumbledore. Snape watched her as she let out a frustrated shriek.
"I mean it professor" She shouted and brushed back her hair. "I need to talk to him. It's important, it's about Harry." Snape blinked, what had happened to the boy now? had he finally had enough?
"What happened to him?" He blurted out before he could stop himself. Hermione looked shocked at first that Snape actually seemed to care but shook it of.
"I don't know, we can't wake him up" She cried. "Ron's with him in the common room. I need to talk to Dumbledore"
"Dumbledore is not here today" Snape explained. "He's at the ministry, it's chaos there ever since the minister of magic quit" Hermione put her face in her hands as a sign of defeat and let out a small sob, Dumbledore wasn't there. What should they do now ?
"Come one miss Granger" Snape snarled and grabbed her arm, he pulled her up harshly and pushed her forward. "Show the way" Hermione blinked the tears away and rushed back to the common room with Snape right behind, she nearly shouted the password and ran up to the boys dormitory.
A few students looked surprised to see Snape in the gryffindor tower but didn't dare to say anything about it. The door flew open and Hermione burst into the room where Harry was lying on the floor. Ron sat next to him with one of his arms resting lightly on the boys chest and the other one was still holding on to his friends hand.
"Ron?" the redhead turned around and stared at her in disbelief as he noticed Snape. The older man ushered him away and knelt down to take Harry's pulse again. He used two of his fingers to open the boys eyelids, his green orbs had turned darker like they did everytime he was angry of scared.
Snape let go of the boys face with a thoughtful expression on his face, he looked around in the room and noticed the broken pensieve next to one of the beds.
Carefully he placed one of his arms underHarry's knees and the other one under his neck, slowly he lifted the light boy whos head tilted to the side and rested on the older mans chest.
Without giving Ron or Hermione a second look, he walked downstairs. How could he have been so stupid? he shouldn't have given him that pensieve without telling him to be careful, he shouldn't have let a boy deal with something like that.
A loud chattering burst out in the common room as Snape walked through and out the portrait hole with their hero in his arms, you could clearly make out the raven mop of hair and the skinny pale arm dangling down with every step Snape took.
Hermione and Ran followed their potions master and had to almost run to keep up with him, who was walking as fast as he could without dropping the boy.
"Sir" Hermione said breathlessly. "What.. is wrong with.. him?" Snape sighed in frustration, sometimes he couldn't put up with all those caring gryffindors. He might not be completely heartless but he was still a Snape.
"I'll explain later" he muttered and quickened his pace towards the infirmary. It was just Harry's luck, everything seemed to be fine but now.. Something was clearly wrong and Snape had a pretty clear idea of what it was.
How long had it been going on? it seemed like years of pain past by in only a few minutes. Not a single sign of hope could be seen in the dark.
The air was filled with fright and hatred. It was hard to explain what it was like, it was like he was a part of the surroundings.
He didn't have eyes, but he could still see everything that happened to him.
He didn't have a nose, but he could still smell the blood and sweat.
He didn't have any ears but he could still hear the laughter and the cries of help.. and it wouldn't stop. Everything seemed ten times worse when you had to watch it, feel it, hear it all over again. and again.. and again..
"Now tell us.. What's wrong with him?" Hermione asked her voice shaking. Madame Pomfrey scowled slightly and looked at the boy in 'his' bed. He was once again tucked under the white smooth sheets, it was bothering her that he had to return there after all he had been through and Poppy thought that he deserved to be happy.
"I'm not sure" She said. "But it seems like he is in some kind of coma again. I don't know what caused it though." She sighed and flattened the sheets on his bed.
"I believe I can answer that" Snape spoke up, the three other people in the room turned around to the potions master, waiting for him to continue. "Well.." He started. "Miss Granger you are well aware about the functions of a pensieve aren't you?" Hermione nodded frantically eager for Snape to get to the point.
"Of course you do.." He continued, sneering. "Well then you know that a pensieve is a kind of object that will hold your memories, store them, like if you have to much on your mind or if some of them are simply bothering you. What memories do you think Potter put into it?"
"His uncle" Ron said suddenly. "Memories of his uncle and what he did to him"
"Good, Mr Weasley, you are really bright" Snape said his voice dripping with pure sarcasm. Ron blushed and looked away muttering something that sounded very much like 'well, you asked'.
"Anyway, what I'm trying to tell you is that.." Snape continued, taking his eyes of the redhead. "Potter put all his memories in the pensieve but apperantly it broke and split in two. When it broke the memories flew out, the only thing that can store them except from a human being is the pensieve and since it broke, they were all dragged back to were they were created."
"Harry" Hermione whispered sadly as she understood. Snape nodded.
"Yes, all those memories he has been trying to avoid came flooding back tonight, this has happened before. A witch or wizard get stuck in their memories in something like a coma. Sometimes they wake up only minutes later but some get stuck for months even years, Potter has to get out of those memories back into the real world or you could lose him."
"I suggest that you try to find a way to give him a little push back, the longer he stay the harder it will get for him to ever return. You can try to talk to him all you want but I doubt that he will hear you, this isn't like a normal coma lika I said, he's mind is not even here. and.. and I'm guessing that it will take longer for him to recover because all of his memories are rather.. well, they aren't really pleasant memories"
Snape stopped talking, Ron, Hermione and madame Pomfrey had all gone really pale. This wasn't fair, Harry didn't deserve to suffer like this. Hermione sat down at the all too familiar chair on Harry's side, she grabbed his hand and got a strong feeling of deja vu.
"He was going to be okay" She whispered. "He was getting better." She lowered her head slightly and sqeezed his hand gently. She brushed away the hair falling into his face, exposing a small bruise over his left eye. The charm was wearing off and soon all of his bruises and cuts would show.
A part of Hermione knew that he was going to be fine, Harry had done so much in his life, this was not the end for him, he just needed to find the right way and he had his friends to guide him.
She felt a warm hand on her shoulder and turned up and met Ron's blue eyes.
"He'll be fine" He said softly, Hermione could hear the sadness in his voice and knew that he was trying to convince himself that exact same thing. "I hoped that we wouldn't be here in the infirmary for a while"
"You should go" madame Pomfrey said softly. "Get some rest, he probably won't wake up for at least a couple of hours." Hermione sniffled loudly, Snape had said that some people even stayed like this for years, but she did as she was told and stood.
Ron wrapped her arm around her shoulders and lead her out of the room. Madame Pomfrey closed the door behind the two of them and turned to Snape.
"Can you watch him? I have to contact Dumbledore." She asked him, Snape was going to refuse, why did he have to get involved into all of this? Strangely he found himself nodding.
Madame Pomfrey left the room and went into her office right next to the hospital wing, she'd have to contact Dumbledore through floo powder, sending a letter by an owl would take too long, it would probably take days to reach him at the ministry.
Snape stared at the boy in the bed, a pair of strands of his raven hair hung down into his closed eyes. Barely visible uner the mop of tussled hair could a small scar be seen, Snape had never noticed how bright red it shone compairing to his pale skin, the lightening bolt ended rigt above the bruise over his eyes.
A few more bruises were visible now, when someone was in a coma they shut off their power and the charm set to hide his cuts and bruises were fading.Harry had to come in contact with his powers if he was going to make it back, but Snape didn't doubt that he would.
That small, fragile form held so much power. His right arm was on his stomach, purple lines went around the boys wrist, probably from the handcuffs.
He looked so innocent, but still so scared. Snape couldn't imagine what was happening inside of that mind of his. If you just looked at him you could think that he was dead, he was not moving an inch and it didn't look like he was breathing, only when you put your hand right over his mouth you could feel the tickling feeling of soft breaths on your skin.
The door to infirmary burst open and Draco Malfoy walked in with elegance only a Malfoy could muster. At the sight of his godfather he stopped in track, he did not smile even though meeting the older man made him feel happier then he had the entire day, although his eyes held warmth and happiness that no one could remember seeing in his usually cold silver eyes.
His hair was perfect as usual and a small strand hung down into his beautiful face, gracefully he brushed it away with two fingers. His creamy white skin was absolutely flawless, not a single scar, wrinkle or zit in sight.
His soft black robes fitted him perfectly, it went down around his thin waist and showed his muscular form. Yes, Draco Malfoy was completely stunning, not a single person on the streets could miss his beauty.
"Severus" He said, even his voice screamed 'elegance', the Malfoys were a family of very high class and very proud of their line of purebloods. "What are you doing here?" Snape tried to do the best he could to keep his godson from seeing the boy who líved without making it to obvious. He could only imagine the rumours that would be spreading aroud in the school if everyone found out that the light hero was in the infirmary.
"Who's that?" Draco continued curiously when Snape didn't answer, he tried to get a better look. He could see a black mop of hair and gasped in surprised as he saw his enemy lying there completely defenceless, he had never seen his this fragile before.
"P-potter?" He muttered, Snape nodded. Surprisingly Draco found himself unable to smirk or say anything insulting, he had always thought that he would feel different if he saw the boy who lived in a state like that.
"What happened to him?" Was he actually concerned? The same thought went throught he both slyterins heads and Draco was pretty shocked that Snape would be sitting next to Harry James Potter's bed in the hospital.
"Mr Potter has fallen into a coma because of a very traumatic experience." Snape said truthfully, seeing that his godsons intentions were good.
"Oh" The blond boy said sadly, not knowing what else to say. His enemy had all of sudden fallen into a coma and he found himself actually caring. What was there to say? A uncomfortable silence fell between the two of them before the younger one looked down at the raven haired boy in the bed.
"Is he going to be okay?"