Chapter 30
The next morning Aries was woken by very aggressive shaking and when he finally opened his eyes he found himself face to face with a very pissed off Albus.
"Where the heck were you last night! And why do you look like you were in a fight?" Albus demanded crossing his arms over his chest.
"Sorry Al didn't realize I had to run everything I do past you. What are you my mother?" Aries drawled sarcastically.
"Knock it off prick. I was worried about you! Who did you fight with?" Albus growled.
"I decided to stay out past curfew and I'm fine! Geez just bugger off." Aries snapped.
"No! First Gem gets put in the hospital wing and now here you are all bruised up. Was it the same people? Did you see their faces? We could go report them to McGonagall right now." Albus pointed out.
"It wasn't the person who beat up Gem. At least I don't think so. Look I got into a little tussle with Scorpius that's all." Aries replied with a sigh.
"WHAT! Why were you fighting with Scor? I thought we were getting along now. Aren't they helping us? Did he do something? Do I need to go give him a few bruises too?" Albus asked nervously.
"No it…it had nothing to do with Gem okay. Scor didn't do anything. I was just uh having a bad night and he showed up at the wrong time." Aries stared down at his battered knuckles and guilt rose up in his chest.
He hadn't really been angry at Scorpius last night. It wasn't Scorpius's fault that they shared a father. If anything Scor was as much a victim as Aries himself.
"Well what happened to cause such a bad night?" Albus asked cautiously.
"I don't want to talk about it Al. Can we just drop it?" Aries hadn't slept well and he could feel the exhaustion settling in his bones.
"No. I'm your best friend and if you check the bylaws, as your mother would say, that means I am entitled to know anything and everything that is bothering you. Big or small." Albus pointed out trying to get even the smallest of smiles out of his best friend.
"I-I just can't right now. Let's just say I now know the answer I spent most of my life searching for and I'm not sure how I feel about it." Aries answered cryptically as he rose to get dressed.
"But you are going to tell me? Just not right now? Because if you promise that you will explain all of this, and soon, I suppose I can let it lie for now." Albus stated heading to his trunk for clean robes.
"Okay I promise its just too fresh right now. Thanks Al. You really are the best friend in the world. Sorry I worried you." Aries answered with a small smile on his lips.
Albus nodded and the two of them got dressed in comfortable silence after agreeing to go and check on Gemini before breakfast.
Draco just gazed down at Gemini's sleeping form as the sunlight began pouring into the room. She had only woken up long enough to say that one word but her voice kept replaying over and over in his head. He had refused to sleep on the off chance that Gemini would wake up again. He wanted to talk to her and get to know her. He didn't want to lose anymore time not even to sleep.
Hermione came up next to him with a cup of tea which he happily accepted before sitting down beside him. The two of them just settled into comfortable silence as they watched over Gemini.
Soon enough Gemini began to stir again. This time when she opened her eyes they seemed almost blank.
"Mom where are we?" Gemini asked in a very small voice.
"We're at Hogwarts. You got attacked in a classroom." Hermione answered.
"Attacked? By who?" Gemini asked reaching for her mom's hand.
"We don't know. Actually, Miss Granger I would like to ask you a few questions about what you can remember." Madame Pomphrey stated coming into view.
"Does she need to do this right now? She just woke up and we don't want to cause her to go into shock," Draco cut in.
"Draco she needs to ask these questions so we can find the people who did this. Every second we wait could lead to them getting away." Hermione snapped.
Her baby was awake and that was amazing but that also meant that the longer they went without diving into her mind the higher the risk of her losing the memories of the fight. She didn't want to push Gemini too hard so soon after waking up but she also didn't want this to become a faceless nightmare that scarred Gemini for the rest of her life.
"But would 30 minutes and some time with her family really change that much? Her body's been through hell alright and if we give her a minute to collect her thoughts and just relax it may help us in the long run." Draco fired back.
He knew Hermione was scared she had told him what Pomphrey and McGonagall had told her about Gemini's memory, but Draco had seen what happened to people forced to talk about what the torture they had survived. It was something Voldemort liked to make family members do. He would punish one of them and then force the victim to explain in detail everything that happened to them to their family. It broke all of the intended parties but the victims were the most effected.
"Well if you want we could try and preform legilimency on her and see if the memories are there." Pomphrey pointed out.
Gemini tried to figure out what was going on. She had been attacked? Where? Why? What was going on? She was so confused watching the adults fight with each other over what to do about her but when she heard the word legilimency she froze. It was like she had no control over her body and suddenly she could feel her throat and lungs burning as a scream tore from her uncontrolled mouth. It was like her mind and her body were two separate things.
When Gemini started screaming all the adults quickly turned their attention back on her. Gemini was just screaming NO over and over again and started thrashing around. She was thrashing so forcefully she started to fall off the bed. Draco reached out and moved her back to the bed, holding her there so she can't hurt herself.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!" Aries bellowed barreling into the room and knocking Draco away from Gemini.
"Aries! Draco are you okay?" Hermione exclaimed.
Aries just looked down at his distraught sister. All he knew was that his sister was awake and freaked out and that Draco had been holding her onto the bed. Rage roared through him and he glared at Draco.
"What did you do to my sister?!" He demanded.
"Draco didn't do anything Aries. Gemini started thrashing and almost fell onto the floor. Draco caught her and was trying to keep her from hurting herself. Apologize!" Hermione snapped.
"What happened to Gem? When did she wake up? Did anyone come to get me?" Aries asked in a scathing voice as he reached out gently and started to stroke Gemini's hair but she still didn't calm.
"She just woke up a moment ago. We were going to ask her about what happened, but she doesn't seem to remember. Then Pomphrey suggested legilimency and suddenly she was started screaming." Hermione explained.
"So, she just woke up and the first thing you did was start asking her what happened and when she couldn't you wanted to just go and invade her mind? Are you serious?! I would freak out too!" Aries growled as he grabbed his sister's hand and continued to stoke her hair.
Hermione and Pomphrey both dropped their heads in shame and Draco just gave a small smile at his son. Draco reached out and squeezed Aries shoulder.
"I'm glad she has you looking out for her." Draco said as he watched Gemini finally start to calm down.
"Of course, she has me. I've been her rock all our lives. No matter what I am always here for her. She's my sister." Aries replied matter of factly.
"Aries…I hurt all over," Gemini whispered as she squeezed his hand.
"Well the fact that you were apparently flailing about like a fish out of water with a beat up body could have something to do with that Mimi." Aries joked causing a small smile to tug at Gemini's lips.
"Hey, I'm hurt you're not allowed to be mean to me if I'm hurt," Gemini pointed out.
"But Gem if I'm not mean to you what purpose will my life have?" At Aries words Gemini let out a soft giggle as she shook her head at him.
"So, your body hurts but do you remember where we are?" Aries asks cautiously.
"Mom said we're at Hogwarts. Hey you're in Gryffindor! Oh! I got into Slytherin didn't I?" Gemini asked her eyes lighting up as she started to remember her time at Hogwarts.
"Yea you are you lousy snake," Aries joked, "What else do you remember Gem?"
Gemini began listing of various activities and classes that she remembered, and everyone waited on bated breath as her memories got closer and closer to the night in question.
"Then I remember that I had detention with Goyal in the dungeons but everything after that is a blank until I woke up and asked where I was." Gemini finished and everyone's faces fell.
"You had detention with Sam Goyal? The one you got into a fight with?" Draco asked cautiously.
"Yea the professors have been making us do our detention together to try and make us get along. It's been fine." Gemini responded.
"Can you try and focus on what happened after you arrived in detention, please." Pomphrey asked cautiously.
Gemini rolled her eyes and tried to think about what happened in detention. Everything had been fine, they were almost done then Slughorn was rushing around but then….nothing. She focused on the nothing trying to get something anything from it. As she focused all that came through was this crushing sense of helplessness. Of being trapped in her own body. Phantom pains started to radiate around her body. It was like she was going through being attacked again but she couldn't see, hear, touch, smell or taste anything. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks and her voice was horse from her screaming. Suddenly it ended and she felt a warm pair of arms wrapped around her, whispering against her hair and she started to return down to reality.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO!" Draco roared at Pomphrey who was staring at the ground.
"We need to know what happened. There could be other students at risk. Miss Granger and Miss Greystone were both attacked on the same night. I am doing what I can to protect this school." Pomphrey snapped as she glared at Draco.
"You didn't have any right to go into her mind like that! Look at her!" Draco snarled gesturing towards Gemini who was wrapped in her brother's arms.
"You have no say in her medical wellbeing. You aren't recognized as her parent legally. I didn't need your permission. Only her legal guardian's." At her words Draco snapped his gaze to Hermione.
"Draco it's not what you think. Just take a deep breath for me so I can explain alright?" Hermione requested nervously as she met Draco's furious eyes.
"It's not what I think? So you didn't give Pomphrey permission to attack our daughter's mind? Well that's great Hermione just wonderful," Draco's voice dripped with sarcasm.
"I didn't say she could attack her mind. I'm not a monster. Pomphrey gave her a memory aid in her drink. It was supposed to help her retrieve the memories on her own. I didn't know it would cause that!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Just what memory aid did you administer Pomphrey because based on how she reacted it wasn't a memory aid it was a potion that would help her relieve what she went through! Do you know how dangerous that is? She was traumatized before but it was something that with time would hopefully begin to fade but you just took her right back there! In the state she's in we're going to be lucky to get her to talk about anything!" Draco raged.
"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Aries bellowed and all the adults froze and looked at him.
"None of this is helping her! All this fighting is making things worse. If you guys are going to sit around screaming at each other leave! No one is talking to her right now. She's in no shape for any questions and quite frankly I am disgusted with all of you! Stop trying to guess what she needs and wait for her to tell you. Now get out while I try and calm down my sister. I don't want to look at any of you!" Aries declared glaring at all of them as he tightened his grip on Gemini's shaking body.
All of the adults looked at each other and realized Aries was acting more adult than any of them and Draco gestured towards the door. A deep swell of shame washed over all of them as they exited and now none of them could look at each other.
"I just wanted to protect this school and all these students. I watch them grow up, help them when their sick and care for them as if they were my own. I'm sorry for over-stepping I didn't think it through. I was so scared something else would happen to more of the students. I mean two mix blood students injured within hours of each other flashes me back to when the chamber of secrets opened. I don't want any students killed. I don't think I could bare it." Pomphrey confessed.
"Wait the other student was a mix blood?" Hermione demanded.
"Yes, she is a half blood. Her mother is Pansy Parkinson and her father is Allister Greystone." Pomphrey responded.
"Two half-bloods. That's concerning. How many mixed or muggle born students does Hogwarts have?" Draco asked as fear began rising in his chest.
"Over half our students are muggle or mixed blood. That's why I am so concerned. If it was just one of these two girls I wouldn't be so concerned but two 1st year Slytherins with mixed blood brutally attacked with in hours of each other….it doesn't seem like some random fluke. Someone targeted those girls." Pomphrey stated.
"Well we better find out who then. Before anyone else gets hurt." Hermione cut in before shaking her head, "Trouble at Hogwarts and we're right in the middle of it. Fate sure is a bitch."
