Chapter Eleven – Spells and Trolls
Draco was panicking and showing it. After Harry had sneezed, sending every feather and the professor into the air, he had passed out and fell backward and (before Draco could react) hit the desk behind them, splitting the back of his head open. At the sight of Harry's blood pooling around his head, everything seemed to happen at once. The feathers and the professor dropped to the ground as the students began to panic. Draco flung himself to his friend.
"Oh lord!" Professor Flitwick squeaked out quickly climbing to his feet and rushed over to Draco who was holding the limp body of Harry close to him. Draco had known that Harry wasn't feeling well, knew that the boy hadn't been sleeping. Draco had asked Harry multiple times if he was all right, he had even talked with his God Father and Head of House, Severus Snape, on how to help Harry. Draco had even been worried enough to speak with the Weasley twins, seeing as Harry hung out with the twins more than him (and accepted that with a grain of salt), with the hope that Harry had told them what was wrong. He hadn't.
Draco knew, he knew, it had something to do with whatever happened the night Harry had snuck into his dorm room. However, no matter how many times him, nor the twins, asked Harry, he wouldn't tell them what had happened. Draco felt useless. He had promised Harry that he would protect him, and yet when Harry needed him the most, he hadn't been able to do anything.
Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall (who had arrived with Madam Pomfrey) had to gently pry Harry's limp body from Draco, all while talking calmly to him with promises that Harry would be all right. It took Draco's frazzled mind seeing Professor Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey gently leading a floating Harry out of the room to realize that he was no longer holding the boy. When that realization hit him, Draco took off after them, only to be stopped by Professor McGonagall.
Once the door to the classroom had shut, Professor McGonagall gently led Draco to the front of the class (careful to avoid the puddle of blood) and sat him down and stayed next to him. She then set them to continue practicing the Wingardium Leviosa spell, though it was clear that no one was able to concentrate enough. After Charms, Draco and the rest of the Slytherin and Ravenclaw first years were forced to go to their next lesson (which for Draco and the Slytherin first years was Transfiguration). Five minutes into the lesson, a wave of magic flew throughout the whole castle, causing it to shake and groan. Draco shot up from his seat, that wave of magic belonged to Harry! Draco had almost made it out the door when his body was immobilized and forced to stop.
"Your Transfiguration lesson is still in session, Mr. Malfoy." Professor McGonagall told him as she walked over to him. She released her spell the moment her hand came in contact with his shoulder. "Sit back down so that we may continue the lesson." Draco's body began to shake with barely concealed rage. This woman wanted him to sit down and pretend that his precious friend wasn't in the Hospital Wing with his magic obviously going out of control, something that could make him lose any magical ability ever, or worse, kill him! Oh, she could bet her Gringotts vault that his father would be hearing about this!
As Professor McGonagall was leading Draco back to his seat, another wave of magic flew through the castle causing it to shake harder and groan louder than before. A ghostly silver phoenix flew into the room and around the room before flying out again. Moments later Professor McGonagall was carefully leading them out of the classroom and to the main staircase where they joined the rest of the school. It was clear that they were all heading towards the Great Hall, however it was a slow journey there, as every time a wave of magic flew through the castle, they had to grab hold of something to keep from either falling over or getting flung off the stairs. By the time everyone made it safely to the Great Hall, Professor Dumbledore was already there and waiting for them with a warm smile.
"Please calm yourselves." Dumbledore told them in his annoying 'grandfatherly' voice that irritated Draco even more than he was. Draco sneered at Dumbledore, the only way he would calm down was to know that his precious Kitten was safe. And should something happen to his Kitten, Draco would have his father up here quicker than anyone could say 'Forgive me'. "Everything is all right." Dumbledore continued, pausing to grab onto the table behind him as the castle shook violently, causing a few students to scream. "Please do not be frightened. Everything is under control."
"What's going on, Professor?" Professor Sprout asked.
"A young student has lost control of his magic." Dumbledore informed everyone with a sad smile causing the people who understood what that meant to gasp. "We have called for a specialist; they shall be here any –" He was cut off when Professor Quirrell stumbled through the Great Hall doors, his turban skewed and terror on his face. Everyone stared at him as his terror filled eyes ran over everyone, stopping on Dumbledore. Draco's heart dropped, something had happened to Harry, he just knew it.
"Troll –" Professor Quirrell yelled, his voice full of terror. "– in the dungeons – thought you ought to know." He then sank to the ground in a dead faint. There was an uproar of panic and terror that Draco used as a distraction to sneak out of the Great Hall. Once out of the Great Hall Draco ran, his worry for Harry making it difficult to focus on where he was going, he didn't even care when he kept getting thrown to the ground by the shaking of the castle.
After a few minutes, Draco's mind seemed to finally turn back on as he remembered where in the castle the Hospital Wing was. Coming to a sliding stop around a turn on his way to the Hospital Wing, Draco found himself staring at the back of a mountain troll. Either the troll had managed to stumble out of the dungeons, or there were two trolls wondering around the castle. Draco was leaning more towards the last option. How the two trolls got into the castle, he didn't know, and at the moment he didn't care.
Draco quickly ducked back around the corner and pulled up his mental map of the castle as he tried to find another possible way to get to the Hospital Wing. As far as he knew, the only way to get to the Hospital Wing from where he was, was to go down that corridor. He could back track and try to go a different way, but that would take too long and the possibility of getting caught raised, or he could try and fight the troll and possibly die.
"Oi, Draco." Someone hissed at him, he whipped his head towards the sound to see one of the Weasley twins poking their head out from behind a statue that was diagonal from him, confusing Draco. How was he behind the statue? How did he get there? Was this one of the secret passages that Harry had told him about? "George and I noticed that you were stuck. Thought we'd give you a hand." The red-headed boy waved him over and, with one last peek around the corner, Draco pushed off the wall and dove towards the red-headed boy who caught him and pulled him into a secret passage. "Right, follow me."
"Where's your other half?" Draco asked as the two ran down the passage.
"George is keeping watch over the Hospital Wing trying to find anyway to sneak in unnoticed." Fred informed him grabbing Draco's arm and pulling him down another passage.
"So, you haven't been able to see Kitten?" Draco asked.
"No." Fred said before motioning for Draco to stop and to be silent before poking his head out of the passage to check if the coast was clear before grabbing Draco's arm once more and led him across and empty corridor and into yet another secret passage. "Do you know what happened?"
"We were in Charms about to practice the Wingardium Leviosa spell when he sneezed." Draco explained.
"He sneezed?" Fred asked and Draco nodded.
"Yeah, he sneezed and a wave of magic (the same as the magic shaking the castle) flew out of him causing all the feathers and the Professor into the air. And then he passed out and hit his head." Draco said, voice shaking as he remembered Harry laying in a puddle of blood. He looked at his now clean hands and remembered them covered in Harry's blood. Draco was startled back to the present when a hand took hold of his and noticed that they had come to a complete stop.
"It's okay, breath." Fred told him calmly, Draco took a few deep breaths and his body stopped shaking. Draco looked at the older boy with tears in his eyes.
"There was so much blood." He whispered and Fred pulled him into a tight, comforting hug.
"It's okay. Head wounds always look worse than they actually are." Fred told him.
"This happened because I was useless. I promised to protect him, and I couldn't even protect him from whatever was keeping him from being able to sleep." Draco said.
"Listen to me, Draco. You aren't useless. How could you protect Harry from something that you don't know about. Something that he can't seem to be able to explain to you, to us." Fred told him.
"Does he not trust me?" Draco asked.
"I don't think him not telling you what was wrong is about his trust in you, I think there is something stopping him, something he has to fight through." Fred said. They stood there in silence for a moment.
"And he hasn't told you about why he hasn't been sleeping?" Draco asked.
"He hasn't." Fred told him before taking a gentle hold of Draco's arm and led him out of the secret passage and into a nook just outside the Hospital Wing.
~Forget Me Not~
Two days.
Harry had collapsed in Charms two days ago and had yet to wake up. A day and a half ago the specialists were able to get Harry's magic back under control, which allowed people to visit him. Once allowed to visit Harry, Draco and the Weasley twins only left Harry's side when they were forced to either go to class, eat in the Great Hall, or dragged back to their dorms and band from leaving.
And in that one and a half days that Harry had been allowed visitors Draco had not seen Haiden Potter visit his brother once. The know-it-all Mudblood and Longbottom had visited Harry a few times. Even Harry's Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff friends had come by. Heck, even a few Slytherins had come by to see Harry! But Haiden freaking Potter – the boy-who-lived – had yet to even visit his own twin brother. The very thought made Draco see red.
Draco disliked Haiden, had since their first meeting in Madam Malkin's. The only reason he had even offered his hand in friendship to Haiden on the train was because he had originally been seeking out Harry. He had gone to 'the boy-who-lived' compartment hoping to find Harry, however, Harry wasn't there. Not wanting to look like a fool, he pretended to be there for Haiden. And then when Harry did appear in front of him (looking adorably cute with the tarantula crawling on him), he wanted to try and make a good impression by offering Haiden a hand in friendship.
But the more Draco watched how Haiden treated Harry during the two months they were at Hogwarts, and now with Haiden's refusal to even visit Harry in the Hospital Wing, was making Draco hate Haiden. How could someone who Draco had heard claim to love his brother not even visit said brother in the Hospital Wing? Draco knew that Harry really loved his older brother and would probably do anything for him, he also knew how much it hurt Harry if he found out that Haiden never visited him. And Draco wouldn't stand for anything hurting Harry if he could help it. It was with that thought that found Draco stalking through the castle corridors in search of Haiden.
Draco found Haiden and his anger at the boy rose. He was happily chatting a way with the youngest Weasley and that know-it-all Mudblood. When Draco sat off on his quest to find Haiden, he hadn't intended to actually fight the boy, yell at him yes, but using magic on him, no. And yet, when Draco saw how unconcerned Haiden looked, he quickly pulled out his wand and, at the last second, pointed a few feet in front of Haiden.
"BOMBARDA!" Draco yelled. A loud explosion went off causing the know-it-all Mudblood to scream.
"What the bloody hell Malfoy! You could have seriously hurt me!" Haiden cried out in shocked anger.
"You best be bloody happy that I was purposely aiming in front of you. You don't know how bad I want to attack you!" Draco growled.
"It's against the rules to –" Ms. know-it-all Mudblood started.
"Silencio!" Draco growled out and she fell silent midsentence. Once it registered what had happened, Haiden and the youngest Weasley pulled out their wands, but Draco was quicker. "Expelliarmus!" Their wands quickly flew from their hand and Draco caught them. "Everte Statum!" Draco yelled when the youngest Weasley launched at him. The spell hit him and sent him flying backwards, crashing into the silent Mudblood sending the two of them sliding a good ten feet down the corridor. "Now that your sidekicks aren't here. You can explain to me why you haven't once been to visit Harry, you know, your twin brother."
"Bugger off, Malfoy!" Haiden hissed and went to punch Draco only to stop when Draco pointed his wand at Haiden. Fear flashed through Haiden's eyes at whatever he saw in Draco's eyes.
"I wouldn't if I were you, Potter." Draco growled out feeling himself visibly shaking in anger. "I hate you, I'm sure that is obvious, and if you weren't Harry's older brother, and if he didn't care for you, then you would be laying in your own hospital bed beaten and bloody. Now, I don't know what the bloody hell your problem is, but you better figure it out and visit your brother." Draco shoved his wand under Haiden's chin. "Don't made me have to come find you again, because I won't be so lenient next time." With that Draco threw Haiden's and the youngest Weasley's wands on the ground, pushed past the trio and stormed away. He had been away from Harry's side for far too long.