Disclaimer: ~*~ *Apparates* *looks around* Phew, good, nobody here. Um, yeah, anyway, I'd like to note that the characters have undergone some major developments in Colour Blind, so I guess this could be seen as some major OOC here. Don't kill me. ~*~
(Buffy Apparates)
~*~ AAHH! *Disapparates* ~*~
Buffy: Hey, come back here! *Disapparates*
Severus turned at the sound of footsteps. A small smirk crept over his face.
"Does that mean I'm forgiven?"
Harry shrugged.
"I guess so."
Severus unlocked the door.
Harry awoke in almost complete darkness. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the dusky red light. The fire had burned down to a few embers. Someone stirred next to Harry. Snape. As quietly as possible, so as not to disturb the older man, Harry extracted himself from the sheets and got up. After a bit of hunting around in the dark, he located his robes and put them on. The Invisibility Cloak followed. Harry did his best to open the door as quietly as possible, but it gave an inevitable creak. Snape stirred in his sleep and uttered a groan, but didn't wake up. Poor bastard must have been really tired, usually the slightest sound woke him. Harry tiptoed into the corridor and shut the door, which gave another clearly audible creak. Sometimes, Harry suspected that Snape left his doors unoiled on purpose, so he would always hear when someone came into his quarters. Or left them, for that matter. Paranoid in his own subtle way, Harry supposed.
Silent as a ghost, Harry made his way through the hallways and to the portrait of the Fat Lady. She was peering into the darkness, obviously determined to stay awake.
"Pocket Sneakoskope," Harry whispered in a slightly disguised voice.
The Fat Lady frowned at the apparently empty space which had uttered the password, but swung forward to open the door. A password was a password. The pink-clad portrait vowed to herself that she would someday figure out just how an empty space had learned the password, and, even more intriguingly, to talk.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and got into bed as soon as the last door was closed. It was a good thing the Fat Lady was so dim-witted, for she would certainly not keep this juicy bit of gossip behind her mystery to herself, were she to ever find out.
A zig-zag of blazing light flashed across his vision. A burst of pain followed so closely that it was almost simultaneous, violently yanking Harry out of his sleep. He cried out in pain and surprise, and clapped his hands over his forehead.
About three quarters of a second later, he realised that there was someone standing at the side of his bed, and the light of a wand blinded him. Metal flashed in the light and sped towards Harry. In less than a heartbeat, he rolled to the side, but felt cold steel biting into his right shoulder. He blinked to clear his eyes, and saw the blurry figure of Neville dislodging the weapon from Harry's matress.
Harry lunged for the chubby boy, and shoved him to the floor. The knife slid from Neville's grasp. However, despite that fact, Neville proved to be surprisingly strong, and was doing his utmost to wrestle Harry down. His fingers pressed into the wound on Harry's shoulder, causing him to give an involuntary yell.
Ron, Dean and Seamus were up in a heartbeat. Harry wasn't sure who was loudly whispering what in the confusion that ensued. Within a few seconds however, the four boys had Neville pinned down.
Harry fumbled for his glasses, and put them on just in time to see a vacant, dreamy look leave Neville's eyes, and be replaced by one of surprise and fear.
"Wh-what happened?" he asked shakily, head whipping around to look first at Dean, and then at Seamus, who were still pinning him down.
Ron had retrieved the bloody knife from the floor and held it out to Neville with a grim expression on his face.
"You just tried to kill Harry, that's what happened," he almost snarled.
Neville's eyes widened in fear and disbelief.
"Bu-but that's impossible," he squeaked. "I-I would never do that!"
Harry fingered the slash wound on his shoulder with a frown.
"I think I know what that was," he said quietly.
Ron, Dean, and Seamus turned to look at him.
"Didn't you see his eyes? They were totally vacant."
Ron frowned and bit his lip.
"The Imperius curse? But there was noone here to cast it."
Harry pressed his lips together, then met Neville's wide-open, scared eyes again. Dean and Seamus had both loosened their grips on his arms, but they hadn't let go yet. Harry rubbed his scar with a sigh.
"I think whatever it was, it's over for now."
He sat down on his bed and rested his head in his hands.
"Harry, shouldn't we go see Dumbledore? This is serious."
"What, now?"
Harry looked up at Ron, who was still so pale from his fright that his freckles almost looked like pepper dusted over his nose. Silence stretched between them for several seconds. Finally, Harry sighed in resignation.
"Fine. Let's go."