The Black Parade

Track 14 - Blood

Harry sat propped up against several pillows. His pallid complexion matched the blandness of the hospital room he was currently occupying. The white blanket lay at his waist. His eyes were half shut.

Well they encourage your complete cooperation,

He fell into a coughing fit and reached out for the cup at his bedside table. He spat out a mouthful of blood. The coughing subsided and the shaky hand replaced the cup on the faux wood top.

He collapsed back against the pillows.


Send you roses when they think you need to smile.

He looked past the small vase of flowers on the table toward the silent clock on the wall. They would release him in another five hours when his mandatory stay would expire. More likely, Harry would demand to leave at that time which none of the healers would object to. He was only here because after he expelled what seemed like a pint of blood at the battlefield, Lupin had insisted he get treatment. Harry's retort was drowned out when he blacked out.

He was so tired. It was getting toward the end; his body was finally losing the battle against the curse Voldemort had placed on him as he traveled from the Dursleys five years ago. His hand subconsciously found the necklace around his neck. He fingered the front of the locket, tracing the markings on its front.

A quiet knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. "Excuse me, Mr. Potter…"


I can't control myself because I don't know how,

Harry snatched up his wand and banished the vase of flowers. "I said to leave me alone!" The vase shattered against the wall next to the door. "What is it that you people don't get with privacy? LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The flowers fell to the tiled floor. The shards of glass formed a broken bed. Water pooled underneath.

"Sorry, Mr. Potter… it er… won't happen…" The door clicked shut.


And they love me for it honestly, I'll be here for a while.

Harry fell once against back into the pillows. His wand dropped from his hand and rolled away. They never left him alone, always checking in on him and bringing him flowers once she stopped coming by.

His gaze fell on the empty chair beside his bed. Did he really expect her to show up? He hadn't expected it for years. And now that he knew…

A frustrated growl escaped his throat. How hadn't he known? He was foolhardy; he had let his emotions win over reasonable thought. Tears surged to his eyes – well, damn it all he was done letting his emotions win over. He scrubbed at his eyes when his lungs seized again.

So give them blood, blood, gallons of the stuff!

It was definitely getting worst. He spat out another mouthful of blood into the cup. His whole body was shaking from the ordeal. His wheezing filled the silence that was earlier present. Once again, his hands went to the necklace. He pulled it off to get a better look.

Sytherin's locket. One of the first Horcruxes he had recovered after Dumbledore's death and now one of the last to be destroyed. It still refused to open but he knew that there was no note inside telling Voldemort the real one had been switched; inside still housed a bit of Voldemort's soul. He tried to think back to the cave; maybe there was a clue there. He had gone back again after refinding the locket to see if there was something there to be used to destroy it. Nothing was there. Gryffindor's Sword was of no use.

The door once again opened.


Give them all that they can drink and it will never be enough.

Harry didn't even bother with verbally abusing the healer. He just picked up his wand, quickly forming several small glass balls and chucked them at the person entering his room.

Another wand was produced, blasting the fine spun glass into dust. The door was shut behind him. The cloak was pulled down.

Harry lowered his wand. "I can't believe you got past security."

Severus Snape's beady black eyes swept the room before he approached his former student. He sat down in the vacant chair. "The dunderheads were too busy comforting the hysteric assistant to notice anything else." He glanced sideways at the glass of blood before turning back to Harry.

"Don't you know this is a cross road for the D.A. and Order members? You could be caught. And then I'll have to explain to them why I'm cavorting with a Death Eater."

"Great to see you sober Potter."


So give them blood, blood, blood.

"They checked me on my way in here." The ends of Snape's lips twitched upward. "What do you want Snape?" He coughed into his hand, dismayed to see blood glistening on his skin.

"I know I haven't been able to help –"

"We haven't spoken in almost two years. After Neville's death, I came to you for help and you shunned me. No one else would listen. No one else would understand. And definitely not her." Harry's eyes flashed, at the mention of her, "When did you know she was one of you? Why did you never bother to tell me? Did you think that precious Potter couldn't handle the truth, like everyone else?" He rant was halted when he began coughing again.


Grab a glass because there's going to be a flood!

The cup was filled halfway with his blood. The little color that was left in his skin was gone.

A celebrated man amongst the gurneys.

"Do you see what I've become Snape? I'm nothing more than a name to them all. I've got nothing left to give. He's taken everything from me."

"You are the only one who can stop him Potter. He is terrified of you."

"This curse is going to stop me Snape. We are linked together because of this. If we fight, it gets worse. Sometimes if I destroy a Horcrux, it gets worse. The healers here can't keep patching me up to live for another few months at a time. I've stopped those treatments long ago."


They can fix me proper with a bit of luck.

Harry closed his eyes momentarily. He was tired. Harry looked down at the locket clenched in his hand. It couldn't have been that simple.

"I frankly am surprised they still want to, judging by your bedside manner."


The doctors and the nurses they adore me so,

Snape pointedly stared at the shattered vase and wilting flowers by the door. "I have no doubt that the assistant in the foyer had recently come by to check up on you."

"She'll be asking me for my autograph next time she takes my temperature and chit chatting to her friends about the whole ordeal tomorrow and warp it into how I'm such a nice patient by the time the Prophet lurks in to get a story about me."


But it's really quite alarming cause I'm such an awful fuck.

Oh thank you!

He gaze still on the locket, he asked, "What are you doing here Snape?"

"I know the counter curse." Harry's eyes left the gold locket momentarily. "The Dark Lord let it slip; I do not know if he even realizes what he said."

Harry rolled the bedside table closer to him. He scooted the glass of his blood closer to him.

I gave you blood, blood, gallons of the stuff,

"You must defeat him with your true love by your side, fighting along with you." Harry once again looked at his former professor. "Love will defeat the spell."

Harry dropped the locket into the cup of blood. It hissed and frothed. The noise filled the void of silence that had permeated after Snape made his revelation.


I gave you all that you can drink and it has never been enough.

"Love will break the curse."

I gave you blood, blood, blood,
I'm the kind of human wreckage that you love!

The End.

-Anaticulapraecantrix, 2008

AN: There it is: the whole story. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I had fun writing it.
To those who are interested in the actually chronology of the story, here is the order in which the events take place: Chapter 8 (Grimmauld Place), 3, 5, 9, 4, 8 (St. Mungo's), 11, 7, 10, 6, 14, 12, 2, 13, 1.

Please read and review!