Chapter Eleven
"Harry, it's your fault we're dead. He was after you. If we'd given you over, we'd still be alive. Sirius would never have gone to Azkaban, and we'd all have moved on. Your mother and I would have started a new family and we would have forgotten you in time. Now, we're stuck here, with Cedric as our son. One big happy family of people that you killed!"
Harry woke up with a start and tears in his eyes. At first, he thought it was just the nightmare, but then he noticed the sharp pain in his scar, and that he could still hear his father's voice in his head, telling him it was all his fault. Telling him to open the window and jump, and they'd be a real family again and they'd forgive him for what he'd done. "No!" Harry screamed, waking the others in a second. Without knowing what he was doing or how he was doing it, Harry put his hands up to the sides of his head and began chanting some ancient spell, his eyes rolling back in his head as he did so.
"Harry!" Ginny screamed, moving towards him only to be caught by Hermione.
"No, Ginny, he's trying to block it. Go get Sirius and Lupin!"
No sooner had Ginny left the dorm than Harry dropped to the floor in convulsions.
"I thought you said he was fighting it!" said Ron, rushing to Harry's side and trying to prevent him from smashing his head against the floor during his violent fits.
"He must have been! Maybe he just couldn't stop it." Hermione was on the verge of tears, seeing one of her best friends flailing about on the ground in agony.
Lupin and Sirius rushed in and, after several healing charms and stuns failed yet again, Lupin sent Harry flying against the wall, hoping that the jolt would break Voldemort's contact. It did, breaking a few of Harry's ribs in the process.
"Remus, if we don't stop this soon, there'll be nothing left of him to protect," whispered Sirius, levitating Harry back onto his bed.
"I know. Hermione, tell me everything that happened."
Lupin was particularly keen on hearing more about whatever spell Harry had been attempting, but was distracted when Harry came to with a groan.
"Blimey, I feel like I ran into a wall," he moaned, wincing as he tried to pull himself up in bed.
"Well, you did, so don't move. Poppy's on her was up," said Sirius.
No sooner was it said then Madam Pomfrey came in, at the heels of Dumbledore, who promptly asked Harry to tell him what happened. Harry was reluctant to recount what his "father" had said to him, be did so obligingly, finally coming to the conclusion, after four years at Hogwarts, that it was best to just tell Dumbledore everything at once and get it over with. Harry noticed Sirius's face tense up at the mention of Azkaban, but Harry was more relieved that Cho wasn't there to hear him talk about Cedric, and admit to his guilt.
"Remus," Dumbledore asked once Harry had finished his account, "Voldemort must be learning how to control this Blood Stone, if he could speak to Harry. I want you to go wake Severus and for the two of you to go to the library and read up on it. In fact, take Miss Granger here with you. I'm sure she can be of some assistance." Hermione beamed as she followed Lupin out of the room. "Poppy, will he be alright?"
"Yes, I've mended the breaks but he'll be good and sore in the morning. Best let him have a lie in for now. He's got a nasty bump on his head as well."
"That's an entirely different matter, actually. But never mind. Harry, take this potion. It'll help you get a good night's rest. Sirius, will you please stay in here with them?"
With that, it was down to Harry, Ron, Sirius, and a rather frantic Ginny. "Go ahead and drink that, Harry," said Sirius.
"I will in a minute. I just wanted to think about something first."
"Harry, I hope you don't need me to tell you that everything you heard in your mind was rubbish. Your parents don't blame you for anything, and I certainly don't either."
"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I'll take it in a minute." With that, Harry pulled the curtains around his bed, ignoring the ache in his sides. It didn't really matter that Sirius had said he didn't blame Harry for what happened. Harry already blamed himself.
Hermione certainly didn't relish spending a late night in the library with Professor Snape, but she was so happy to be doing anything to help Harry that she put present company aside. Besides, Remus Lupin was there and she had always respected and admired him. One could say she had something of a crush on her former professor, though if one was standing next to Ron while saying this, one would find his face smashed in within nanoseconds. Meanwhile, Snape didn't looked thrilled at having been woken up in the middle of the night to search through a bunch of dusty texts. Still, he had to admit that it was a lot better than being called to a Death Eater meeting after another failed attempt at Potter's life.
"This is ridiculous!" the Potions master finally cried, after skimming through his fiftieth book to no avail. "Half of these are in Bulgarian anyway! Who here can read Bulgarian?!"
"I can," answered Lupin, nose still stuck in a volume on ancient artifacts from Lithuania. "But if you're tired of books, I can give you another problem to mull over. Voldemort told Harry to jump out the window."
"And? I've been tempted to say the same thing from time to time."
Hermione almost said something to that, but decided that she was very close to finding something about the Blood Stone.
"Yes, well, since when does Voldemort want Harry to off himself? I'm sure he has some more painful ends in sight for him."
"Too right, he does," answered Snape.
"Exactly. So all I can think is that Voldemort wanted Harry to open his window for a reason. Possibly to break through the defenses around the tower. If that's the case, someone must have found out to get past the main gates."
"Oh no!" exclaimed Hermione.
"It's nothing to get worked up over, Granger. The safeguards can be reinforced."
"It's not that, Professor Snape, though I would say that a breach in Hogwarts security is something to worry about. But more so is this," she said, pointing to the page she had just read. "It says here that the only way to counteract a Blood Stone is to either destroy it or become a vampire."