Chapter Thirty One
Harry's brain was fried by the time he crawled into bed, his head spinning with potions ingredients, Charms and Transfiguration incantations. He was grateful to pull the curtains closed around his bed and fall asleep.
He was sitting in the Come and Go room, a large desk with a stack of exam papers on it. Cho was crying in front of him, bright green tears running down her cheeks.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked, trying to stand up but stuck to his chair.
"You… you promised!" She howled, "You promised you'd do my exams! I've failed everything now!"
Harry looked horrified at the name 'Cho Chang' clearly written on each one of the hundred or more test papers, some from subjects he'd never even heard of, many not even in English.
"Cho, we're not even in the same year!" Harry pointed out.
"You promised!" Cho cried, falling to her knees.
Harry didn't know what to do, he couldn't get up to comfort her and he certainly didn't remember promising to do her tests.
"You did, you know." Lily said, walking through the room and out of the wall opposite him.
"Mum?" Harry asked. He was suddenly able to stand up, he took a step forward and fell through the floor, landing with a thud in a long dark corridor.
He was smooth and powerful, slipping between metal bars and down onto a smooth stone floor. He'd never seen the world like this before, everything was bright and colourful despite the fact it was dark. He liked it. He liked the power and the way his skin was feeling and moving around him.
Sticking out his tongue he could taste a man up ahead. He was falling asleep, his head drooping as he tried to fight the fog of sleep that was closing in around his mind.
Harry moved forward, he wanted to go through that door the man was guarding. A surge of anger at the figure blazed through him.
He couldn't stop to bite him though, he had work to do. There was a patch of silver at the man's feet, a cloak laying on the floor, it must have fallen off the fool as he struggled to stay awake.
Harry saw the man's eyes open, spotting him and reaching for his wand. Harry had no choice, he reared up and bit down heavily on the man's chest, he felt ribs splinter under his mouth, it filling with the warm, metallic taste of blood.
The man let out a cry of pain and fell to the floor, splattering the wall and door with blood. Harry reared up to strike again before waking up in a shock.
His head was burning with pain, he could hardly think straight.
"Harry!" HARRY!" Draco yelled, gripping onto Harry's shoulders so tightly it hurt.
"Shut the nut case up!" Crabbe yelled, before rolling over again.
Harry looked around, Draco had pulled back the curtains between the two beds and was looking down with a pale face, making his grey eyes look even clearer than normal.
Harry was drenched in an icy sweat that made his pyjamas stick to his skin, making it difficult to breath.
Harry tried to force the words out but they wouldn't come, it was like his lungs hadn't got any air left.
"Come with me." Draco said, pulling Harry out of bed and then out of the dorm room, wrapping him in Draco's soft dressing gown.
Harry followed, he didn't have the energy to fight him.
"What happened?" Draco asked, "Are you ill?"
Harry nodded, and then shook his head, "We… Dad… Dad!" he forced out.
Draco nodded and pulled Harry down the steps, heading towards Professor Snape's office. He hammered on the door until his fist ached, but there was no answer.
"Mr Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall's voice rang through the hallway, "What on earth do you think you're doing?"
"Harry needs his Dad." Draco said, showing Professor McGonagall where Harry was propped up against the wall.
"Mr Potter, you are feverish. You need to go to the hospital wing immediately." Professor McGonagall instructed.
Harry shook his head, it throbbed but he wasn't sick, he knew it was more than that, "No… I need Dad."
"Professor Snape is at home this evening Mr Potter." McGonagall said, quickly, clearly worried about him.
Harry tried to think, all he could think of was the pain in his head and what he'd seen in the dream, he had to tell her, it was too much of a risk not to, "Is… is Mr… Mr… Ron's… Dad... on duty tonight? For the Order?"
Professor McGonagall looked at him sharply, "Why?"
"He's hurt." Harry said, taking her answer as a yes and trying not to panic.
Professor McGonagall thought for a moment before ordering them to follow her, making her way swiftly through the corridors to Dumbledore's office.
"Fizzing Whizzbee." she announced, to the large stone gargoyle, which sprang to life and let them move onto the revolving stairs.
Harry was surprised to hear voices, at least a dozen, coming from inside the headmaster's office so late at night.
The voices stopped the second Professor McGonagall knocked on the door.
"Come in." sounded Professor Dumbledore.
McGonagall swung the door open and marched into the semi dark room. Harry flopped into a chair before Dumbledore had even offered it to him, he was to exhausted to stand any longer.
"Harry, what is the issue?" Dumbledore asked, glancing over his soaked and pale frame.
Harry didn't know where to start, he felt like screaming or crying or exploding and he wasn't sure which, "I… I saw an attack. On Mr Weasley I think."
"Mr Weasley is a very capable wizard, I'm sure he can stave off an attack." Professor McGonagall said calmly.
"NOT THIS!" Harry yelled.
Draco jumped back at the shock of Harry's out bust, especially considering how weak Harry seemed.
"Not this." Harry said, more calmly, "There is something wrong. I saw it."
"What did you see Harry?" Dumbledore asked, annoyingly calmly.
Harry forced himself to take a deep, calming breath, "I was asleep, but this wasn't a dream. I saw Mr Weasley bleeding, heavily after being attacked by a giant snake."
It sounded ridiculous, Harry knew that, but he also knew that this hadn't just been a dream, it was more than that and he knew, without a shadow of a doubt that Mr Weasley was bleeding to death.
"How did you see this?" Dumbledore asked, looking Harry carefully up and down for just a second before looking away.
Harry felt his blood boiling, "I said! It was in a dream!" he hissed.
Dumbledore still didn't look at him for more than a moment, "You miss understand me Harry, were you looking down at the scene? Standing off to one side or in the corner?"
Harry didn't want to say, he felt dirty, and guilty, "I don't understand why that matters. You need to tell someone where Mr Weasley is and get him before… before it's too late."
"Tell me Harry." Dumbledore said, again without a shred of emotion.
"Professor, I hate to pipe in here but surely checking on Mr Weasley is of the most importance right now?" Draco said slowly.
Dumbledore turned to him and gave a small smile, "I agree, so Harry if you would please answer my question."
"I was the snake." Harry said quietly.
Draco's head snapped round, "What?"
"I was the snake!" Harry yelled, struggling to stop himself falling off the chair, to the floor, "I was having a stupid, random dream about exams and then I fell through the floor and I… I was somewhere else, somewhere dark but my sight was all funny and I was the snake, I attacked Mr Weasley."
Dumbledore gave a small nod, "Arthur is seriously injured?"
"Well I don't know!" Harry snapped, "Do broken ribs, a big hole in your lung and huge bite wounds sound serious to you?" Dumbledore had still barely looked at him, he might as well of sent a letter.
Dumbledore moved very quickly to the other side of the desk, looking up at the pictures on the wall, "Everard?" he said sharply, "And Dilys."
A pale faced wizard, with an old fashioned short black fringe and an older witch with long silver ringlets looked up, shrugging off the pretence of sleeping.
"You were listening?" Dumbledore asked.
"Of course." The witch said.
"The man has red hair and glasses." Dumbledore informed them, "Everard you will need to make sure he is found by the right people, raise the alarm."
Both of the pictures nodded and moved off out of their frames.
"Everard and Dilys were two of Hogwarts most renowned heads-" Dumbledore began, looking over the wall.
"I don't care." Harry spat. He knew he was being rude, but he didn't care about that either.
"Professor McGonagall, please draw up a few more chairs, they could be several minutes." Dumbledore said, ignoring Harry's interruption.
Professor McGonagall waved her wand, creating two straight backed, hard wooden chairs; she sat in one, gesturing for Draco to sit in the other.
Dumbledore moved over to where Fawks was sleeping and gently stroked him awake, "You will be needed, my friend. Send us a warning."
There was a flash of fire as Fawks vanished from his perch. Dumbledore moved around the room, muttering to himself as he used several of his delicate silver instruments. A green, smoke serpent's mouth reached out from one of them and Dumbledore nodded to himself.
Harry wanted to ask what it had been for but before he got the chance Everard returned to the painting.
"Dumbledore!" he gasped.
"What news?" Dumbledore asked him, returning to the wall of paintings.
"I yelled and yelled until someone came running, I told them I had heard something down stairs, and insisted they went to go and check. There are no paintings down there, as you know, but they carried him up a few minutes later. He's in a bad way, Albus."
A few moments later Dilys also returned and confirmed to them that Arthur had arrived at St Mungo's without further incident and was being seen to.
"Very good." Dumbledore door said, clearly thinking through his next course of action, "Minerva, please go and wake the Weasley children and bring them here."
"Of course." McGonagall said, getting up and leaving the room quickly.
"What about their mother?" Draco asked, "She should be informed."
"How kind of you to think of her." Dumbledore smiled, "But she will already know. She has a rather ingenious clock, and if not Fawks will tell her."
Dumbledore went over and pulled an old, battered iron kettle out of a cupboards, which he placed carefully on his desk.
"Portus!" Dumbledore said clearly, the kettle glowed blue for a moment before turning back to normal.
"Phineas." Dumbledore said clearly.
"Yes, yes, go and tell my darling great great grandson and the… others who live in the house that the Weasley elder has been hurt and the whole brood with be once more descending on them. Correct?" Phineas sighed dramatically, "Oh and I suppose Harry will be using this to bunk off school until the next term?"
Dumbledore nodded, "Correct. They will be arriving shortly, by Portkey. Also make it clear to Mrs and Professor Snape that Harry is fine, and they do not need to come and collect him."
Harry didn't feel fine but didn't argue the point. The door opened to Dumbledore's office and a sleepy, worried looking Fred, George, Ginny and Ron walked in.
"Harry, what's going on?" Ginny asked, looking wide eyed at him, "Professor McGonagall said you saw Dad get hurt?"
Harry didn't know what to say, he was sure it wouldn't win him any popularity prises to blurt out that he'd turned into a giant snake and attacked their father, something which Dumbledore had still not explained.
"Your father has indeed been injured, in the course of his work for the Order of the Phoenix." Dumbledore said quickly, "He has been taken to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I am sending you to Grimmauld Place, which will be far more convenient for visiting the hospital than the Burrow would be. Your mother will be there."
"How are we going to get there?" Fred asked, "Floo powder?"
"No." Dumbledore told them, "It is not safe currently, the network is being watched. You will be taking a Portkey, we are just waiting a moment."
There was a flash of light and a single golden feather floated to the ground. Dumbledore sighed and looked grave.
"That was Fawks's warning, Professor Umbridge must know you are all out of your beds. Minerva, go and head her off. Tell her… anything."
Professor McGonagall was gone in a moment. Phineas arrived back to his portrait and settled down.
"They are ready." he said in a bored voice.
"Come along then." Dumbledore said, gesturing for them all to move around the kettle, "Before anyone else joins us. Mr Malfoy I will make sure you get back to your dorm room."
Draco looked quickly between Harry and Dumbledore, "I'm not going with them?"
Dumbledore shook his head, "No. I will make sure that you are not caught by Umbridge and you can see Harry again in a few days when the term ends."
Harry wanted to argue but didn't think it would do any good, with some difficulty he stood up and placed a finger on the kettle.
Dumbledore looked at him, for the first time that evening Harry could see into Dumbledore's clear blue eyes and felt the white hot rage burn through him. He wanted to bite him, to sink his teeth into Dumbledore's throat. He felt the Portkey activate, dumping him in the hallway of Grimmauld place and into his mother's waiting arms.