Hello, yet again. It is now Sunday morning at Hogwarts. It starts getting more interesting in this part. We find out what happened to Harry after the others were finally able to get him out of the water and the strange reactions to it. Please R&R!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own anything associated with it.
Pseudomortis
Part 3- Awakening
By KZerina
***
When Harry awoke, he was lying on his bed in his dormitory. He sat up slowly and glanced around. He saw Ron staring blankly at the ceiling as though totally depressed about something.
Neville walked past the end of Harry's bed with a similar expression. Harry waved at him in greeting, but Neville either took no notice of it or ignored it. Harry thought it was only because Neville never really pays much attention anyway.
Harry decided he would try to cheer Ron up. He got up off his bed and stood next to Ron's. He waved his hand in Ron's face to get his attention from the daze he was obviously in. Since that didn't work, he reached to tap Ron's shoulder, but his hand passed right through.
Harry looked wide-eyed at his flat-gray transparent hand before saying, "Uh…."
"I must miss him a lot already. I think I'm hearing him," Ron muttered as he sighed loudly.
"Miss who?" Harry asked confused as to what Ron was talking about.
"I think I'm going insane. I keep hearing his voice." Ron propped himself up on his elbows as he said this.
"If you're going insane, so are we," Seamus said nervously.
Ron turned his head to look at Seamus and Neville. "You're hearing him, too?" Neville and Seamus nodded. "I think we need to go see Madam Pomfrey," Ron said getting up and walking out the door with Neville and Seamus right behind him.
Harry followed them out the door and stopped abruptly as the door closed right through him.
Ginny and Hermione were standing just outside the dormitories. Hermione had a similar expression as Ron had worn in the dormitory before walking out the door only with streams of tears on either side of her face.
"You guys look like you've seen a ghost," Ginny remarked as her brother and the other two boys walked by.
"And what is wrong with seeing a ghost?" asked Nick, floating down in front of the girls and startling them.
"Nothing. That's just not a look my brother would have if he had seen one of the usual ghosts, like you or the ghoul in the attic at home," Ginny explained.
"Oh. Well, that's fine," Nick replied as he took a look around. "Good morning to you, Harry!"
"Y-you can see me?" Harry stuttered in surprise.
"Well, of course! Why wouldn't I be able to see you?" Nick replied.
Harry stared wide-eyed at Nick. "It seems like no one else can see me, so I guess I didn't expect you to be able to either."
"Come with me, and we'll try to figure this out," Nick said as he walked through a nearby wall.
Harry looked where Nick had gone, then at the girls who nearly had their jaws on the floor. They obviously couldn't believe what they were hearing.
"Well, come on then!" Nick grabbed Harry's wrist. "If you hit the wall, that's a good thing. It means you are definitely not dead."
Harry yelped when Nick pulled him through the wall, and they soon arrived in an empty room draped with old, stringy cobwebs and furnished with chair with splintered wood and tattered seat cushions.
"Harry, just wait here a minute. I'll be right back with a few more ghosts," Nick told Harry before disappearing through the far wall.
Harry took another look around the cobweb filled room. He saw a large desk with four of the ragged chairs placed in an orderly fashion, and Harry began to wonder what the room had been used for before it had been abandoned and what it was used for now.
Then, as though they had been reading Harry's mind, several ghosts appeared and took places above a few chairs, as they cannot actually sit in them. Then, the Gray Lady (Ravenclaw's ghost), the Fat Friar, Nick, and Myrtle appeared through the wall. Myrtle picked a chair near Harry, and the three House ghosts sat behind the desk. The last to arrive was the Bloody Baron who took the remaining seat behind the large desk.
"All right! All right! Quiet everyone!" the Baron called across the room. "An emergency ghost council has been called today!"
Harry looked around nervously at the whispering ghosts. He was almost worried about what they might think, and he wasn't quite sure he wanted to know.
"It seems as though our resident Hogwarts celebrity, Harry Potter, has…well…not been himself," the Baron went on while trying to be polite, "and it seems he needs our help to get fully acquainted with his new form. He is having a little trouble adjusting."
The Bloody Baron floated up out of his place at the desk. Harry watched as the Baron glided up to be face-to-face with Harry. "What we need to do is get you visible to the live'uns," he said. "That should be good enough, because that's about all you need to know for now. Don't you think so?" the Baron asked the other ghosts. They nodded, and the Baron turned back to Harry.
The Baron thought a moment. "First, think of a live'un that you should need to talk to," the Baron instructed. Harry's mind immediately went to Ron, and Harry nodded for the Baron to continue. "Now, this person is standing in front of you. You need to talk to him or her, and your disembodied voice is very unnerving to him or her." Harry gave a half-smile, because Ron really was scared of his disembodied voice.
The Baron told him to concentrate on being visible to Ron. Harry nodded and closed his eyes. As he concentrated, he felt his fingers and toes begin to tingle. The tingle flowed up along his arms and legs and began on his head as well. Minutes later, Harry opened his eyes after the tingling had left him. He saw, now, that instead of a flat gray, he was as pearly white as the other ghosts in the room.
A roar of applause filled the room as all the ghosts cheered for Harry's accomplishment. They were pleased to have another full-fledged ghost haunting Hogwarts.
Myrtle tugged on Harry's robes and offered to share her toilet in the first floor girls' bathroom, but Harry politely refused and promised to visit more often now that he had more time on his hands.
"Since you are now dead," the Bloody Baron announced, "we are officially making you part of the ghost council, and you are allowed to join in any and all meetings held by the ghosts." Another loud applause filled the room before the Baron continued. "This meeting is adjourned. See you all next time."
All the ghosts left except for Nick who approached Harry. "Congratulations, Harry. Shall we return to Gryffindor Tower?" he asked.
Harry nodded, and Nick led the way back to the Gryffindor dormitories. Very few Gryffindors noticed as Harry and Nick passed by. Those who did notice didn't seem to care. Nick left Harry in his dormitory with a small good bye.
Harry went over to Ron's bed and waved his hand in front of Ron's face, and this time, Ron jumped so much that he bounced nearly high enough off the bed to go right through Harry's hand. Ron whimpered and dove onto the floor opposite Harry and poked his eyes over the side of the bed.
"Relax, Ron. It's only me," Harry reassured his jumpy friend. "Geez, you'd think I was going to bite your head off like Fluffy was going to."
Ron's sudden burst of energy aroused Neville, Dean, and Seamus as well, and they, too, seemed to be cowering in fear at the sight of Harry's transparent body.
"I'm not going to hurt you guys! It's me! Harry!" he exclaimed, slightly angered at his friends' inability to recognize him.
Slowly the four boys crept out of their hiding spots behind the bed and up to Harry. All four of the boys stared with eyes wide and jaws dropped at their ghost friend who was floating in midair by Ron's bed.
"Do I have to owl an Australian wizardry school and have them send your jaws back to Hogwarts?" Harry joked, and the boys closed their mouths.
"It really is you, isn't it?" Ron asked quietly. Harry nodded in response. "If I could hug you I would! But you're kind of not…solid."
"I noticed that when Nick pulled me through the wall," Harry replied.
"You should go torment my brothers. They'd get a kick out of being scared out of their trousers," Ron suggested.
"That's a good idea!" Harry said. He gave a mischievous smirk and turned invisible. He floated out the wall and stopped abruptly on the other side. He glanced at the Gryffindors around the room and changed his mind about tormenting the Weasley twins. Most of the Gryffindors were playing boring games of Wizard's Chess or Exploding Snap.
"And I thought Gryffindors were the most exciting in the whole school," Harry said from the rafters of Gryffindor Tower. "I guess this proves me wrong."
The Gryffindors looked around frantically, searching for the mysterious sound. The male seventh year prefect came out of his dormitory and began yelling at Peeves for trying to imitate Harry, and that he would get the Baron if he didn't go away.
"How dare you call me Peeves? Why would you want to insult me like that?" Harry asked in a mock snobby tone of voice. "I am not Peeves, thank you very much."
Harry temporarily made himself visible to the prefect. The prefect frowned and bolted back into his dormitory and didn't come back out for a while. Harry shrugged his shoulders and continued talking to the Gryffindors in the common room. "So what happened to all the Gryffindor spirit?"
Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean walked out of the fifth year boys' dormitory chatting excitedly. Then they realized exactly how loud they were, especially when compared to the totally silent common room.
Ron's eyes gazed in different directions around the common room, no doubtingly for signs of Harry. "Harry, where are you? I thought you were going to annoy my brothers."
Harry made himself visible and floated down to Ron's eyelevel. "I was, but I changed my mind."
The seventh year prefect must have heard Harry and Ron talking because he poked his head out the door and looked right at the group of boys gathered at the top of the spiral staircase. Harry watched as the prefect's eyes went wide at the sight of Harry floating in midair. Again he bolted into his dormitory, but this time, he returned with some other seventh year boys, and they gawked at Harry. Harry decided that their random decision to watch him was rather annoying, so he made himself invisible.
"Harry, when the four of us got back from visiting Madam Pomfrey, Ginny came and told us that Hermione wasn't taking things too well," Ron explained. "It became especially bad this morning when she heard you talking to Nick. She thought she was thinking about you too much and started crying even harder. Ginny can't even get her to come out of her dormitory."
Harry again made himself visible, a look of disappointment on his face. "Well we'll have to do something about that then, won't we?" Harry said flatly. "You guys want to come with?"
Neville, Seamus, and Dean hesitated about going into the girls' dormitory, but Ron immediately jumped up and ran to the door. He knocked, opened it slightly, and peeked in, Harry right behind him. Ginny looked up at the sound of the door and invited the boys in with a nod of her head. It was obvious that she hadn't seen Harry because she looked back Hermione who was sitting on the bed and crying into the pillow that she clutched tightly to herself while Crookshanks curled up in her lap doing his best to comfort his owner.
Ron walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed next to Ginny and gently shook Hermione to try to get her attention. It didn't work; she kept her face buried in her pillow and didn't even groan to indicate for him to go away. He tapped her again, still receiving no response.
Ron looked at Ginny who shrugged. He looked up at Harry. "Do you want to try?"
For the first time during the boys' visit, Ginny saw Harry floating just above her head. She screamed loudly and jumped, accidentally landing in a surprised Dean's arms.
Ginny's scream caused Neville to scream and throw up his arms and hide behind Seamus who was, by this time, very confused.
Ginny's scream also caused Hermione to break out of her trance. She slipped onto the floor. In the process of falling, Hermione dumped Crookshanks on the floor. Crookshanks yowled loudly as Hermione landed on his tail.
Harry went down and floated in front of Hermione. "Are you okay?" he asked her.
Hermione looked up, and upon seeing his glowing tennis shoes and slightly baggy pants, she gasped and dropped to the floor, her head landing on the dropped pillow, but making a sickening clunk just the same.
Harry crouched down behind the bed, and Ginny crouched beside him. Ron dove and leaned over the edge of the bed and peered down at the fainted Hermione. "Is she okay?" he asked.
"I don't know," Harry replied. "I can't exactly check, remember? I'm not solid." Harry waved a hand through Ron's head.
"Oh, right." Ron reached down off the bed and gently nudged Hermione's shoulder and called her name.
"What kind of ruckus are you making in here?" an angry voice came from behind them.
Harry poked his head up such that he could see the door. He saw Alicia Spinnet, the female seventh year prefect, standing in the doorway, and she didn't look very happy.
Harry jumped up. "Hey, Alicia! Could you help us get Herm-maybe not," he said as Alicia, too, fell to the floor.
"Well, there goes another one," Seamus said looking down at Alicia.
"You really seem to have that effect on people today, don't you, Harry?" Ron joked.
"So I noticed," Harry replied flatly.
"Well, what should we do?" Neville asked nervously.
"Go get a teacher," Harry replied calmly. "And I'm going to disappear. We don't need anyone else fainting on us."
Neville ran out of the girls' dormitory to retrieve Professor McGonagall. Seamus and Dean tried to wake up Alicia, and Ron and Ginny tried to wake Hermione. Soon Neville returned with Professor McGonagall right behind him. She seemed to be worried about her students and possibly why they fainted.
"What happened in here boys?" she asked sternly, as if they had done something wrong.
"Hermione and Alicia fainted," Ron answered, pointing at the two girls lying on the floor unconscious.
"Oh dear. What caused them to faint?"
"Do you promise not to faint?" Harry asked.
Professor McGonagall looked around intently and nodded slowly. Harry made himself visible on the end of Hermione's bed. The Transfigurations teacher stared at him for a moment. Harry swore she was going to faint, too, before she smiled. "You'd think they'd be happy to see you."
"That's what I was thinking. I think I surprised them just by being here," Harry explained. "I didn't mean to. It just sort of…happened."
"It's alright, Harry," Professor McGonagall said. "They just need to be reintroduced. They are not used to seeing this form of you."
Professor McGonagall pointed her wand at Hermione and woke her up. She repeated the process with Alicia. Both girls were groggy.
When Hermione came to her senses and looked up at her bed, she was overwhelmed and jumped to hug Harry. Needless to say, she went right through his body and landed on the floor between Harry and Professor McGonagall.
"You're non-corporeal (A/N: not physical)," she said almost sadly when she looked back up at Harry. "And you're sitting on my bed, not floating above it."
Harry was confused for a moment. Then he looked down and realized he was actually sitting on the mattress. "I was touching the floor and rafter beams too," Harry realized. "That's really strange."
"Yeah, I thought ghosts couldn't touch things," Ron said in confusion.
"What's going on, Professor?" asked Alicia, finally coming out of her grogginess and into reality.
"It's nothing, Alicia," Professor McGonagall replied. "You needn't worry. Harry has just joined us as a ghost."
"So it was you who was talking to us in the common room." Harry nodded. "That's great!" Alicia continued. "Now you can help us pick a new Seeker! After all, you are the best Seeker we've ever had. You know what qualities a Seeker should have." She turned to Professor McGonagall. "Is it all right if I tell the other Gryffindors?"
"I think I will tell them. I'm sure they'd all like to rush up here to see him, and I wish them not to say anything to any other house for the time being. Harry gets to decided when they know."
Harry rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in hands and watched Professor McGonagall as she left the room with Alicia to announce his presence to the Gryffindors in the common room. Then, he disappeared and followed.
Before Professor McGonagall began her announcement, Harry asked her if she would like some visual aid to get the Gryffindors to believe her story. She nodded and told him she would signal when he should appear.
Harry relaxed on the railing, meant to keep students from falling, while McGonagall made her message.
"Well it appears I don't have to ask for silence, being that you are all quiet already. I have an announcement to make concerning our fellow Gryffindor, Harry Potter. It seems he has decided to visit us here at Hogwarts." The common room filled with whispers. "He is actually here next to me somewhere even though we cannot see him. Harry?" Now the Gryffindors gasped as Harry became visible. "I don't want you all rushing up here to see him. I assure you, he does not want to be overwhelmed by a gaggle of galloping Gryffindors."
"We shall grant a galleon," Fred started, "to the first student who can gallantly gab the phrase that the great, gracious…"
"And glorious!" George added.
"Good God!" McGonagall exclaimed at the enormous amount of 'g's in the twins' sentence.
"McGonagall gifted to us five times fast." (A/N: I know this sounds weird, but it's supposed to. It's the twins!)
"And the Gryffindors gang up on Gred and Forge because they are acting like teachers' pets," Harry mocked.
"We try," Fred replied with a huge grin spread across his face. George had a similar expression and was acting as though he was very bashful.
"I believe I will leave you to yourself, Harry. I'm sure you can handle the many Gryffindors with your newly acquired abilities as a ghost."
"Yeah, I'm thinking I probably can," Harry replied. "I'll find someway out." Professor McGonagall smiled and nodded her head before turning around and walking away.
To Harry's surprise, there wasn't a gush of students climbing the spiral staircase. In fact, it was exactly the opposite; no one flooded up to greet him. Everyone but the twins was too shocked to bother. All they did was stare at him.
"What? You're all acting like you've never seen a ghost before, and I know you have all seen at least Nick before," Harry commented at the staring Gryffindors who just blinked. "Okay then…um…."
Harry, slightly unnerved by the reaction, tried to find Ron and Hermione. They weren't on the landing of the staircase or on the ground at the bottom of the long spiral. He floated through the wall of the girls' dormitory and found them there, alone. Harry wasn't quite sure what was going on, but he had a pretty good idea and left to talk to Neville, Seamus, and Dean, letting his two best friends have their privacy.
Minutes later, Ron came into the dormitory, looking slightly embarrassed, but happy at the same time. Harry wasn't nearly as confused as the other three boys in the dormitory, and he wasn't going to explain, as Ron might not want them to know, and for all Harry knew, he wasn't supposed to know either.
As time passed, it came to be noon. Neville, Seamus, and Dean left to eat, but Ron convinced them that he wasn't hungry. Harry stayed behind with Ron because he didn't have to eat, being a ghost.
"What'd she say, Ron?" Harry asked out of the blue and confusing Ron quite a bit.
"What do you mean, 'what'd she say'?" Ron asked in reply.
"I mean 'what'd she say'. You were talking to Hermione, and it wasn't hard to figure out what you were talking about. I mean, you were alone, for God's sake!"
"How do you know I talked to her? Were you spying on us?"
"No, I wasn't. I was looking for you. I found you and figured you'd like some privacy, so I left."
"Oh. Well at least you have some common sense. She said she'd think about it which means there is some hope of a 'yes'."
"I figured out that last part, Ron." Harry sighed. Why was he feeling this strange jealousy? He was dead! Besides, it would never happen anyway, so why was he even thinking these things?
"Harry, what's wrong?" Ron asked with a concerned tone slipped into his voice.
"Nothing, Ron. It's nothing," Harry replied. "Are you sure you're not hungry?" Harry asked, trying to get his mind off his two best friends.
"Well, now that you mention it…" Ron's stomach growled noisily. "…I guess I am a little hungry."
"You call that a little? Geez, Ron, if that's a little hungry, then I'd hate to see you a lot hungry."
"Oh shut up!" Ron threw his pillow at an unsuspecting Harry.
Harry, who had closed his eyes, felt the pillow pass through his gaseous body. He merely looked down at his bed where the pillow had landed with a soft plop. "And that was supposed to do what exactly?"
"I have no idea, actually. I think I'm just too used to you being solid and really hitting you with the pillow, rather than it landing on the bed after going through you."
"Yeah, I guess. Come on, let's get down to lunch."
"Are you sure you want to go? I mean only the Gryffindors know you're a ghost. I'm not sure the other houses know you're…dead. What are you going to do?"
"Go invisible and annoy the heck out of you with my disembodied voice," Harry said while slowly fading from Ron's sight.
"Harry, don't do that!"
"Do what?" Harry picked up the pillow that now looked like it was floating in midair. He flung it across the room and hit Ron in the face.
Ron practically pushed the pillow back on the head of his bed. "That for one. A one-sided pillow fight isn't really fun. And for two, don't just randomly become invisible like that. It's kind of annoying."
"Sorry, but I'm not leaving the Tower visible yet. I'm just going to see what's going on first, and then I'll decide what I'm going to do. 'Kay, Ron?"
"I get it!" Ron exclaimed.
"How amazing. Ron actually understands something," Harry jibed, trying to get Ron to throw something else, preferably soft.
"Shut up! Just shut up! Let's get out of here before I make anymore stupid comments to get myself into more trouble."
"But I thought stupid comments were your specialty."
Ron seemed to be angry. Harry worked very hard to keep his laughs under control. Ron calmed down just before they reached the Great Hall, which was good because then Ron would not get stared at for yelling at thin air and thought to be going insane by all houses, but Gryffindor.
When Ron reached the Gryffindor House table, he took a seat next to Hermione and Neville. Harry floated in the air behind his two friends. Hermione smiled at Ron and slipped a piece of paper into Ron's hand. It was no doubt her answer to his question from earlier. Harry wasn't going to ask until later.
"Hey, Harry," Hermione said without turning around.
"How'd you know I was here?"
Hermione sighed and looked down at her plate. "Why wouldn't you come? You can be invisible and the other houses would never know you were here. Why wouldn't you come and see your friends?"
"Very good point. I will continue to annoy Ron with my disembodied voice now," Harry joked as Ron was hunched over gaining a strange expression every time Harry spoke. "Oh just eat, Ron." Ron cringed and grabbed some food from the platter in front of him.
Harry didn't say anything more until Ron was finished eating. Things might not have been pretty if he had talked while Ron was putting food in his mouth. Harry didn't even want to think about what could have happened.
Soon Ron and Hermione were finished eating, and the trio headed back to Gryffindor Tower. Once they were in, Harry became visible again.
"Thank you! It is so annoying when you're invisible. I hate the voice without a body!" Ron exclaimed.
"Thanks for the hint, Ron. Now I have another trick to annoy you with," Harry replied, attaining a growl from his red-haired friend.
"Hey guys, I'm going to do some research," Hermione said. "I'll see you guys later!" Hermione ran upstairs to her dormitory and came back down with a quill, a bottle of ink, and a roll of parchment. She opened the portrait and left without another word.
Ron watched as Hermione ran out. He averted his gaze to the floor and furrowed his brow in thought. "But we don't have any papers due," he said finally, breaking out of his thoughtful daze.
"Since when has that stopped Hermione?"
"True. Come on, Harry. Let's go up to the dormitory," Ron said heading up the spiral staircase to the dormitories.
Harry brushed past Ron and flew through the ceiling into the dormitory. Ron came up a few seconds later and flopped on his bed. He opened the note from Hermione and read it quickly before stuffing it into a sock among a ball of many pairs socks that lay within his sock drawer.
Harry stared, puzzled, at Ron. "Um, what did you do that for?"
"I don't want anyone getting it, so I hid it very well in the drawer," Ron explained. "Is there something wrong with protecting my personal life?"
"Ron, I already know what it is, and there is no one else in here," Harry said. Just then, Neville rushed into the room and began tearing things out of his trunk, looking for something. "I stand corrected. Neville is also in here. I'll wait to find out the exact wording. Do you need help Neville?"
"Yeah, I've lost Trevor again," Neville answered.
"You always lose that stupid toad," Ron said in a deadpan tone. "Don't you have a tank or something to keep him in?"
"I lost that, too."
"When we find him, put a leash on him," Harry suggested with his half of his body under the bed and his feet sticking up in the air above the bed.
"And tie him to the bed post," Ron added.
"I tried that once. He still got away."
"Then you should put a bell on him. Then you could hear him where ever he goes," Harry said, now floating out of the wardrobe after searching through it.
"That's a good idea. I think I'll try it. Thanks, Harry."
"Hey! There he goes! There he goes!" Harry shouted pointing at the fat greenish toad. "Quick, he's hopping away!" Harry followed the toad under the beds and to the closed door where Trevor cowered beneath Harry. Neville scooped up the amphibian and held him tightly.
The three boys went down to the common room to find a teacher who could conjure a bell for them when they ran into Hermione who was back with a rather large stack of books. They stopped her before she went up the stairs with the books and asked her to conjure up a bell with a string for them to put on Trevor.
She complied willingly and tied the conjured bell around Trevor's short neck. Neville thanked her and took Trevor upstairs to the dormitory, the bell jingling all the way up the stairs. Harry and Ron proceeded to help Hermione carry the books to her dormitory.
The rest of the day passed quickly. Ron and Harry talked with the other three boys in their dormitory while Hermione sat nearby scanning each of the books and writing things down on a roll of parchment.
The most exciting thing to happen that night was the commotion Trevor caused when he jumped out from underneath the chair in which Ron was sitting. The bell was ringing as he jumped, but the bell itself was nowhere to be seen.
"What's up with Trevor?" Dean asked. "He's…jingling."
"I think he swallowed the bell we put around his neck this afternoon," Ron commented.
"You had to ask didn't you, Dean?" Seamus asked with a slightly disgusted expression on his face and tone in his voice.
Harry, Ron, and Neville burst out laughing, and Hermione continued writing notes on something that was not homework.
******
You're not hanging this time. At least I don't think you are. If you are, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.
Same routine. Any questions please place them into a review and I'll get back to you. Please review anyway though. It would be appreciated very much.
Thanks,
KZerina