Several people commented on my plot monkeys. Yes, I know the term is usually plot bunnies. You obviously haven't met mine. They are monkeys, monkeys I say!! Swats wildly at encroaching chimps, and then looks at readers, who are looking back with strange looks on their faces Er, right. Moving on now, and I promise I will schedule a psychiatrist appointment soon… For clarification, plot bunnies only wiggle their noses at you when you ignore them to do homework or something like that, while plot monkeys tend to throw stuff at you. Wow, I think this is the shortest author's note I've written so far. That's probably a good thing, considering the extremely strange mood I'm in right now…

DISCLAIMER IN CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 20

Door

The morning after his little birthday non-celebration, Harry awoke with a severe hangover and so avoided contact with anyone, house elves included, for nearly two days. He discovered that not only was he not used to alcohol, but that aged firewhiskey was probably not the best thing to get started on. Harry was convinced that his hangover was exactly what Malfoy had in mind the entire time, and inwardly swore to send him something nasty for Christmas. Something muggle made and noisy, maybe. Meanwhile, the rest of the castle was probably lucky that Harry felt so bad that he didn't even leave his bed. It's really not wise to let anyone as powerful as Harry get hung over. People tend to get hurt. Or dead.

Somehow, Harry managed to control his raging headache and not blow anything important up, although a clock that was ticking too loudly died a sudden and fiery death, and a bird that innocently chose Harry's window to peck at suddenly found himself banished to somewhere in eastern Germany.

Finally recovered, and now definitely wary of the remainder of the bottle of firewhiskey, Harry decided that a little exploring was in order. He was now reasonably caught up on current events and the events that had occurred during his incarceration, and, he was, quite frankly, getting somewhat tired of sitting and reading. He'd continued his visits with Rudopholus, and although both of them had come to the conclusion that Harry had no gift for swordsmanship, Harry enjoyed the physical activity anyway. But he wasn't in the mood for that right now. First he thought that he would wander towards the library and see if he could find something a little more interesting to read than his stack of newspapers, but after hearing voices in the library, he decided to wait for another, more opportune time to select his new reading material.

Now somewhat at a loss for something to do, Harry wandered down a dark, empty corridor that he hadn't previously examined. Raising his wand, he muttered quietly. "Lumos." The light from the tip of his wand lit up the area nicely, and Harry was able to see where he was. The corridor wound around in a rather strange manner, turning sharply before ending suddenly. It seemed to be a dead end, except for one solitary wooden door that sat inconspicuously at the end of the passageway. The door was hidden from view unless you stood directly in front of it. Curious as to what type of room would be this far from the main hallway, and what would be inside the room, Harry reached for the doorknob.

Unbeknownst to him, the door was spelled. Deeply spelled, and unfortunately for Harry, time had done nothing to lessen the destructive and deadly spells that lay hidden on and in the door. Spells that were triggered the instant that Harry twisted the doorknob. The resulting explosion of magic rocked the castle, causing dust and small pieces of stone to fall from the ceiling as far away as the library.

Harry never even had a chance to duck, much less protect himself beyond the minimal shielding that he kept going at all times. It wasn't anywhere near enough.

The last thing he felt was the hard stone of the corridor under his back, blood trickling down his face, and a deep darkness surrounding him, crushing both the light out of the room and his consciousness out of his head at the same moment.

His wand rolled from his limp hand and extinguished, plunging the area into complete and utter darkness.

Meanwhile, in the library, both Remus and Sirius looked up in alarm as the sound of the blast echoed slightly down the hall. Sirius lunged forward to grab a shelf of books that had been rather delicately balanced and had begun teetering, and only just managed to save himself from a lot of resorting. Leaning with his back up against the shelf, he looked around with a questioning look. "What the bloody…?"

Remus came around the corner hurriedly. "Padfoot, are you… oh, good. What was that?" He'd first thought that Sirius had done something, but now that he thought about it, the sound hadn't been close enough to have come from the library. If it had, Remus' superior hearing would have been deafened.

Sirius looked blank. "I have no idea, but it sure didn't sound good." He racked his brain to try to think of something innocent and harmless that could cause such a noise. Nothing came to mind, which didn't make him feel any better. His gut told him it had something to do with Harry.

From the look on his face, Remus was getting the same gut feeling. The two old friends shared a look that communicated their unease with the situation and their confusion about what to do now. Remus finally spoke. "Well, we had bad luck last time we barged in on him."

Sirius winced, remembering the incident. "I know. Trust me, I know. But that sounded really big, I mean, that wasn't just a piece of furniture going over, that was an explosion. Unless he was expecting it…" Sirius began to look and feel very worried. "He could be hurt." He could be dead, too, but Sirius refused to say it.

Remus looked grim. "You are right. We don't really have a choice here. Let's just go look for Harry, and if we run across him and he's fine, we'll just leave quickly and hope he doesn't see us."

Sirius nodded, in full agreement with this plan, and they set out. Once outside the library, Remus pulled his wand and muttered, "Point me." The wand jerked over to point down the hall to the right. Pocketing his wand again, Remus nodded in that direction. "I'll take the doors on the right, you take the left." Sirius nodded.

They were beginning to think that the explosion had originated a floor above when Sirius reached the dark corridor. Remus was poking his head into yet another empty room as Sirius made his way down into the darkness. Suddenly he noticed a twinge of the now familiar bond pain. Hoping to avoid another confrontation his angry godson, Sirius cautiously lit his wand and proceeded slowly. The pain got progressively stronger, but Sirius didn't hear any sounds or anything that might mean that Harry was all right, so he gritted his teeth and continued. Poking his head around the last corner, he glanced at the dead end. Nothing seemed to be abnormal here… and then he looked down.

Harry Potter lay on the ground, limp and motionless in a growing pool of blood. His face was trailed with blood and was the color of parchment. Sirius could feel the color draining from his own face as he yelled loud enough to raise the dead. "REEEEMUUUUUS!" Harry didn't even twitch. Sirius dashed forward, ignoring the spiking bond pain, hoping that Harry was alive, not knowing what he would do if Harry was dead. He knelt beside Harry and grabbed his wrist, frantically feeling for pulse. "HURRY!" Remus was the one with more medical training and experience, and this was definitely beyond Sirius' meager skills in that area.

Footsteps pounded along behind him and Remus skidded around the corner. He swore when he saw Harry and this did nothing to make Sirius feel any better, since Remus almost never swore. The werewolf took over the situation immediately, something for which Sirius was extremely grateful. "Don't touch anything other than Harry, Sirius! Move!" Sirius let Remus shove him out of the way. Muttering a long stream of healing spells, Remus quickly moved his wand up and down. "He's alive, but this is more than I've ever dealt with before." He sounded worried.

"Remus, there's no one else. Do your best. Tell me what to do and I'll do it." Sirius was quite a bit beyond worry by now, he was experiencing full-blown panic.

"Right." Remus swallowed hard and got to work, trying desperately to stave off the worst of the injuries, utterly ignoring the minor scratches and cuts that covered Harry's arms and face. They could be dealt with later. If there was a later.

Sirius didn't know what to do, so he just talked to Harry, while anxiously watching Remus cast spells and monitor Harry's breathing and heartbeat. "Come on, Har…ouch!" Sirius growled to himself. It was annoying to not be able to call Harry by name. Not to mention, painful, which on top of the already strong pain just because he was close to Harry, was starting to wear on him already.

"Sirius, hold this here!" Remus tore a long strip off of the bottom of his robe with one hand, while leaving his wand firmly pressed against Harry's chest, where pulsing pink light meant that some spell was being utilized. He found the head wound, which was the one causing most of the blood on the floor, and pressed the ball of cloth up against it. Sirius replaced Remus and held the makeshift bandage firmly in place, slowing, but not stopping the flow of blood. "Press harder, we have to stop the bleeding!"

Sirius obeyed, cradling Harry's head in his lap and muttering under his breath. "Don't you dare die on me like this H…er…Potter! Hold on! Please, not like this!" Sirius knew that Harry probably couldn't hear him, but that didn't stop him from begging.

"DOBBY!" Remus yelled loudly, and the house elf appeared in a flash.

"What do… Harry sir!" Dobby looked frozen at the sight of Harry's bloody body.

Remus didn't have time to be polite. "I need a room. Nearby. With a bed and as many medical supplies as this castle has."

The elf looked conflicted. "Harry sir order Dobby to check with Harry sir first before doing anything not normal."

Remus swore again. House elves wouldn't go against a direct order. Never had, never would. There was no help for it, they would have to move Harry themselves. He had just begun to order Sirius to help lift him, when he noticed that Dobby was yanking at his sleeve. "What?" The question came out gruff and annoyed, even though Remus knew that it wasn't the elf's fault that Harry had ordered him not to help them with out permission.

"Dobby help anyway. Dobby will take you to a room." Remus barely had time to blink in surprise at this distinctly unelfly behavior before he was suddenly transported, along with the limp Harry and Sirius, to a room that Remus remembered sticking his head into mere minutes before. It had been empty then, but it certainly wasn't now. Dobby bustled around hurriedly, obviously bringing in a bed from another room and changing the sheets. Then, while Sirius and Remus maneuvered Harry carefully onto the bed, Dobby brought a small collection of medical supplies. Finally, Dobby lit the fire and pulled open the drapes to give the wizards plenty of light, and then turned to Remus. "Wizards need anything else? Dobby will get anything!"

Remus couldn't shift his eyes from the spell he was weaving, but answered. "Not right now, but I'll call if I think of anything." Dobby nodded and turned to tiptoe out of the room, a worried look plastered all over his small face. Right before he closed the door behind him, Remus glanced up for a split second. "Thank you, Dobby."

Dobby nodded, shut the door, and then proceeded to clean the entire main floor in a worried frenzy, while keeping himself totally ready for that tug around his ears that would signify that someone had called for him.

Back in the impromptu hospital room, Remus finally looked up, weary. "Well, I've done all I can do."

"Sit down, Moony. If your head is hurting like mine, you'd better sit before you fall." Sirius was handling the pain, but then, he'd had prior experience with it, and Remus hadn't.

"We can't go on like this. We'll have to take shifts, or we won't be able to stay in here." Remus rubbed his head, wincing at the biting pain that was assaulting his temples.

Sirius swallowed and finally worked up the courage to ask the question that was paramount in his mind. "Moony, please tell me he's going to be all right?" Sirius heard the plaintive sound in his own voice, and didn't care if he sounded desperate. He was. He just couldn't stand it that Harry was hurt again. Merlin, hadn't he been through enough?

Unfortunately, Remus wasn't able to give him quite the answer he was looking for. He shook his head, running a hand through his graying hair. "I'm sorry, Sirius, I don't know. I'm pretty sure he isn't going to die tonight, but beyond that, I just don't know. There was more than just the force from the blast, there were a couple of unknown spells involved and I don't think that there is anything to do but hope that they wear off. He'll be physically fine in a couple of days, but I just don't know if he'll wake in a couple of hours or a day or two, or if the spells are effecting him in some strange way."

Sirius groaned. "What happened, Remus?"

Remus shrugged. "I don't know, but neither of us should go anywhere near that corridor. Harry probably tripped some ancient trap. That's really the only thing that could explain it."

Sirius nodded. "And if it got Harry…"

"Yeah." If it had taken out the most powerful wizard in the world, they had better stay far away from what ever it was. Remus knew in his gut that if Harry hadn't been as strong magically as he was, even Remus' healing spells wouldn't have been able to save him. As it was, it had been a close thing.

"Remus, you should take a nap. I'll stay for a while." Sirius wouldn't take his eyes off of his godson.

Remus looked mutinous at this suggestion. "Why me? You've been here and hurting as long as I have."

Even though Remus was usually the logical one, Sirius knew that he was going to win this argument. "Because you're the one I'm going to come panicking to if anything happens, and you're the one that will have to be here if he gets worse. You need to be rested, just in case."

Remus couldn't argue with this. "OK, but I'm coming back to give you a break in a couple of hours." Sirius knew from experience that it would be exactly two hours on the dot, but at least that would give the werewolf a little time away from the headache that was pounding through both of their heads.

Sirius nodded and watched Remus leave the room. Turning back to the bed, he muttered. "Kid, why do you always get into these things, huh?" Pulling a chair over to the corner of the room, where he was as far away from Harry as he could be and still keep an eye out for any change in his condition, Sirius settled in to wait for as long as it took for Harry to wake up. When he did, Sirius or Remus would be there to help, bond pain or not.

They would be waiting for quite a while.

COMING SOON: Confusion. Pain. Strange dream worlds. And more confusion, oh yes.

Oh, you guys are sooo lucky that the perfect cliffhanger moment was less than a page into the chapter. I so wanted to leave it with Harry bleeding, unconscious, and alone, but I'm not sure you would read anymore if I started to give you 1 page chapters… that's probably pushing my luck! So you got some more story and I'm off to mourn my unused perfect cliffhanger… well, I'll probably be working on the next chapter anyway. -krtshadow