Chapter 18
As the doors to the great hall opened, all conversations within ceased immediately and every eye in the room turned to look at the petite red haired girl holding the hand of the tall black haired boy.
Even though Ron and Hermione had not said a word to anybody else since entering the hall, word had quickly spread to the other houses about what had happened to Ron in the common room that morning.
The entire hall was silent, and to the outside observer the tension was tangible between the two in the doorway and the rest of the student body. None of the other professors had heard about the events that had happened and were shocked by what was going on to say the least and had no idea about what they should do.
Sirius looked over to Dumbledore who looked as though he had been pierced through the heart with a sharp blade. He knew the feeling all to well, but there was no way he could convince the rest of the students to treat Harry normal again because the fact remained that Harry had changed, and he hoped not for the worse. If nothing else, the students at Hogwarts as a whole had become closer since the battle, and even if there was still animosity between houses, there were no more fights and they were all willing to defend each other against anything or anybody that threatened their schoolmates.
Dumbledore wanted to get to his feet and force the students to see the truth, but he knew doing so would only serve for them to treat the boy-who- lived even worse which would not help anything, so sighing internally and closing his eyes in weariness for a moment, he was forced to watch and not act.
Ginny was furious, the entire hall was just sitting there starring at Harry and not saying a word, but unlike previous instances, there was no admiration or hero worship in their eyes. Instead, there was hate, malice, and even a little fear. Almost all of the students present had seen the battle last year between Harry and Voldemort and they all had a good idea about just how magically powerful and physically strong he really was and none of them wanted to face him alone in a battle, but they seemed to believe in the old adage strength in numbers and were instead facing him together.
They were sending him a silent message that clearly said that he was not welcome among them. They didn't trust him anymore, especially after what had happened to Ron, and though nobody knew where he had been these past months or what had happened to him, they honestly thought he had become evil.
Ginny couldn't believe that they were doing this to Harry, hadn't he proved over and over again that he was against all that was evil, but they could just forget all of this and turn on him as soon as he made a mistake. Her heart sank quickly though as she realized that Harry knew that this was going to happen, he had said just that in the entry hall only moments before, yet he had trusted her and come in here anyways. The thought of this made her completely furious and she was on the verge of speaking her mind to the rest of the students when a sudden movement to her right brought her attention back to the person standing there.
Harry roughly pulled his hand from hers and she turned to face him, afraid she would only see her boyfriend broken and emotionally shattered, but she saw something even worse.
His head was held high and defiant, starring out over the students still seated in the hall. His legendary emerald eyes were alight with a raging fire, anger showing it's ugly face to the other students, but Ginny saw sadness and deep depression in the brilliant eyes as well. Before she realized what was happening, he turned on his heel and set off out the doors again. She watched his retreating back along with the other students until he raised his hand and the doors slammed shut behind him with a resounding bang, echoing through the otherwise still and silent hall.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Once Harry left the great hall, he slowed his frantic pace to try and decide what to do. He was shocked by his so called friends' reactions, but it wasn't completely unexpected when he thought back to what had occurred during his second year and their hast to label him as evil then and history seemed to be repeating itself.
He decided with no hesitation that he didn't want to go back to the great hall or the common room, and the same went for classes, he just didn't want to face all of this right now, he thought he could when he was with Ginny, Sirius, and Dumbledore a few minutes earlier, but that conviction had changed drastically now. Normally when he wanted peace and quiet, he would go to the quidditch pitch, or the lake, or Hagrid's hut, but right now he didn't have the energy to venture outside, let alone sit on a broom, so he set off in the direction of the only other place he could be alone for a few hours.
Wearily, he made his way to the fourth floor and found a familiar painting of an old wizard sitting at a large table reading a book. He looked up in surprise at the boy before smiling brightly.
"Harry, I assume you're here to see your godfather, but he's gone to breakfast" he said cheerily. He had gotten used to the boy coming by every since Sirius had come to the school and liked the boy and his friends quite a bit.
"I know Russell, could you please let me wait inside, I don't want to see the other students when they come to classes" he said quietly, and even though the man in the portrait hadn't received the password, he took note of the boy's desperate face that was laced with anger and suffering so he allowed the boy entry into the quarters behind him.
Once inside, Harry took notice of the familiar surroundings of his godfathers' rooms. The small living room held a roaring fire with two arm chairs and a plush sofa sitting in front of it. All the furniture in the room was a deep burgundy color and it reminded him strongly of the Gryffindor common room. There was a large window beside the fireplace that over looked the grounds and if you looked into the distance you could just make out the golden hoops of the quidditch pitch.
There was a large bookshelf on the other side of the fire holding many fascinating books about not only defense against the dark arts but just about every other subject imaginable. Hermione had loved coming here with him, not only to visit Sirius but to read his books as well.
In the corner of the room was a small desk piled high with quills and parchment, showing just how unorganized Sirius could be at times. There were two bedrooms off to the side of this main room, one was the master bedroom and the other was the room that was meant for Harry to stay in during the beginning of the summer while the restorations to Black Manor were being completed.
Harry took a seat in one of the arm chairs to wait for Sirius to return from lessons and soon found himself slipping into sleep.
He was sitting on the floor in a dark room. The only noise he heard was his own ragged breathing. He had been in this room for a couple of days at least, every since Nott and Malfoy had discovered he was alive. Unlike the higher ranking death eaters, the adult Crabbe and Goyle had not felt above physically beating him senseless when they found out the truth and Malfoy had just laughed at what he saw. He knew he at least had a couple broken ribs and he could still fell the swelling over one of his eyes and the dried blood on his chest and cheek where their punches had broken his skin.
Before they had begun their assault, he had gotten a brief glimpse of the place they were in. It was a large stone chamber with a domed ceiling supporting an iron chandelier that served as the only light in the room. There were about twenty death eaters milling around the chamber, but at Nott's announcement most of them were now focusing their attention on him.
Malfoy then turned to two of the largest men and made a loud announcement.
"Why don't we show Potter what we think of this little game of his" he said mockingly
They had then begun to beat him for several minutes before Malfoy spoke again
"Answer a question for me Potter, how was it that you survived yet again and reduced the dark lord to a mere shadow? And how exactly is it that you brought us to this place?"
"I don't know" was the only answer he received
"Well that may be Potter, but I will make a deal with you, get us out of this place and I will allow you to live, refuse and you shall die the most painfully slow death imaginable"
His voice was cold and cruel but smooth as though he thought he would never be refused anything he wanted.
"I would never let you loose on the world again, people have suffered enough at your masters hands and they deserve peace now. You will all remain here until you die" he told the blonde man in front of him, refusing to break eye contact with the death eater.
Malfoy's face became flushed immediately at his words and his eyes lit on fire with hate.
"As you wish Potter" he said stonily as he lifted his wand and put Harry under the pain of the cruciatus curse.
He had refused to scream in his agony as he fell to the floor and curled into a fetal position trying to ignore the terrible pain for several minutes until the peace of unconsciousness over took him.
When he awoke he had been in this dark room and he had been left undisturbed since that time, never seeing another person and he preferred this to the alternative.
Just then, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps and he got to his feet, refusing to be seen crumpled on the floor by his enemies. A bright shaft of light permeated the dark room and a large figure approached him and grabbed him roughly by the arm, dragging him from the room without saying a word.
He was dragged up a steep flight of stairs and into the chamber he had been in when he woke up. There were now nearly fifty black robed figures in the room and all of them were standing in a circle surrounding something he couldn't see yet.
As they approached the group, Harry's insides turned to ice when he heard a familiar voice coming from the center of the room.
"Harry Potter, did you honestly think you could destroy me that easily?"
He woke suddenly at the sound of a large log in the fire cracking and falling. He was shaking with a chill because of the sweat that covered him, but there was something else, he felt the presence of someone in the room behind him and turned quickly to see his godfather sitting at the cluttered desk reading off of a piece of parchment and looked up upon hearing Harry turn.
"Have a good nap?" he asked with concern as he looked at his best friends son.
"Fine" he lied quickly and by Sirius' expression he didn't buy it, but he didn't press the issue either but he seemed pleased that Harry was talking to him.
"I spoke to the headmaster this morning and he said you are welcome to stay here with me as long as you like" he continued before adding "and Ginny wanted to know if she could come by later tonight, after dinner. I told her I didn't think you would mind" he finished, looking curiously at Harry and seeing relief flicker across his face for a moment before he answered curtly.
"No, I'm glad you did, I would like to see her" he answered before turning back to the fire and his private thoughts.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The sound of the door slamming shut rang through out the hall for several moments before the students broke into loud conversations once again.
"Did you see his eyes? He just looked evil didn't he"
"Yeah, and how did the door shut like that? He doesn't have a wand or anything"
"I don't know, but he's not normal. He probably went insane from the cruciatus curse, there were five people holding it on him at the same time after all. No one could survive that and still be sane"
The theories were being started and spreading all over the great hall and continued to do so until the students began to make their way to their first classes of term.
Ginny had been in such a state of shock that all she could do was collapse into an empty chair at her house table and think miserably about how she had probably lost Harry for good now. Nobody spoke to her and she liked it that way, but regardless, she sent Hermione and Ron accusing glares as they passed by her and they only ignored her in return, both seeing the other girl as a traitor.
Not knowing what else she could possibly do since she had no idea where Harry had gone, she got to her feet and followed her classmates to charms vowing to find her boyfriend after he had had an opportunity to calm down some.
Sirius had the same idea as Ginny, knowing that when Harry wanted to be alone there were only a handful of places he would go and since most of those places now held students, he would probably be sitting in front of the fire in his private living room since he still didn't have enough strength to go flying around the quidditch pitch or run off to the lake or Hagrids. With that thought in mind, he went with Remus toward the defense classroom where he would help his best friend with the third year Hufflepuffs in their lesson about vampires.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: sorry this took so long to get out, but I just couldn't get it to work how I wanted it to, but I tried my best! Thanks for reviewing those last couple of chapters and I'll post another one tonight or tomorrow if you're nice. Please review and let me know what you think of this one, even though it's pretty dull.
As the doors to the great hall opened, all conversations within ceased immediately and every eye in the room turned to look at the petite red haired girl holding the hand of the tall black haired boy.
Even though Ron and Hermione had not said a word to anybody else since entering the hall, word had quickly spread to the other houses about what had happened to Ron in the common room that morning.
The entire hall was silent, and to the outside observer the tension was tangible between the two in the doorway and the rest of the student body. None of the other professors had heard about the events that had happened and were shocked by what was going on to say the least and had no idea about what they should do.
Sirius looked over to Dumbledore who looked as though he had been pierced through the heart with a sharp blade. He knew the feeling all to well, but there was no way he could convince the rest of the students to treat Harry normal again because the fact remained that Harry had changed, and he hoped not for the worse. If nothing else, the students at Hogwarts as a whole had become closer since the battle, and even if there was still animosity between houses, there were no more fights and they were all willing to defend each other against anything or anybody that threatened their schoolmates.
Dumbledore wanted to get to his feet and force the students to see the truth, but he knew doing so would only serve for them to treat the boy-who- lived even worse which would not help anything, so sighing internally and closing his eyes in weariness for a moment, he was forced to watch and not act.
Ginny was furious, the entire hall was just sitting there starring at Harry and not saying a word, but unlike previous instances, there was no admiration or hero worship in their eyes. Instead, there was hate, malice, and even a little fear. Almost all of the students present had seen the battle last year between Harry and Voldemort and they all had a good idea about just how magically powerful and physically strong he really was and none of them wanted to face him alone in a battle, but they seemed to believe in the old adage strength in numbers and were instead facing him together.
They were sending him a silent message that clearly said that he was not welcome among them. They didn't trust him anymore, especially after what had happened to Ron, and though nobody knew where he had been these past months or what had happened to him, they honestly thought he had become evil.
Ginny couldn't believe that they were doing this to Harry, hadn't he proved over and over again that he was against all that was evil, but they could just forget all of this and turn on him as soon as he made a mistake. Her heart sank quickly though as she realized that Harry knew that this was going to happen, he had said just that in the entry hall only moments before, yet he had trusted her and come in here anyways. The thought of this made her completely furious and she was on the verge of speaking her mind to the rest of the students when a sudden movement to her right brought her attention back to the person standing there.
Harry roughly pulled his hand from hers and she turned to face him, afraid she would only see her boyfriend broken and emotionally shattered, but she saw something even worse.
His head was held high and defiant, starring out over the students still seated in the hall. His legendary emerald eyes were alight with a raging fire, anger showing it's ugly face to the other students, but Ginny saw sadness and deep depression in the brilliant eyes as well. Before she realized what was happening, he turned on his heel and set off out the doors again. She watched his retreating back along with the other students until he raised his hand and the doors slammed shut behind him with a resounding bang, echoing through the otherwise still and silent hall.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Once Harry left the great hall, he slowed his frantic pace to try and decide what to do. He was shocked by his so called friends' reactions, but it wasn't completely unexpected when he thought back to what had occurred during his second year and their hast to label him as evil then and history seemed to be repeating itself.
He decided with no hesitation that he didn't want to go back to the great hall or the common room, and the same went for classes, he just didn't want to face all of this right now, he thought he could when he was with Ginny, Sirius, and Dumbledore a few minutes earlier, but that conviction had changed drastically now. Normally when he wanted peace and quiet, he would go to the quidditch pitch, or the lake, or Hagrid's hut, but right now he didn't have the energy to venture outside, let alone sit on a broom, so he set off in the direction of the only other place he could be alone for a few hours.
Wearily, he made his way to the fourth floor and found a familiar painting of an old wizard sitting at a large table reading a book. He looked up in surprise at the boy before smiling brightly.
"Harry, I assume you're here to see your godfather, but he's gone to breakfast" he said cheerily. He had gotten used to the boy coming by every since Sirius had come to the school and liked the boy and his friends quite a bit.
"I know Russell, could you please let me wait inside, I don't want to see the other students when they come to classes" he said quietly, and even though the man in the portrait hadn't received the password, he took note of the boy's desperate face that was laced with anger and suffering so he allowed the boy entry into the quarters behind him.
Once inside, Harry took notice of the familiar surroundings of his godfathers' rooms. The small living room held a roaring fire with two arm chairs and a plush sofa sitting in front of it. All the furniture in the room was a deep burgundy color and it reminded him strongly of the Gryffindor common room. There was a large window beside the fireplace that over looked the grounds and if you looked into the distance you could just make out the golden hoops of the quidditch pitch.
There was a large bookshelf on the other side of the fire holding many fascinating books about not only defense against the dark arts but just about every other subject imaginable. Hermione had loved coming here with him, not only to visit Sirius but to read his books as well.
In the corner of the room was a small desk piled high with quills and parchment, showing just how unorganized Sirius could be at times. There were two bedrooms off to the side of this main room, one was the master bedroom and the other was the room that was meant for Harry to stay in during the beginning of the summer while the restorations to Black Manor were being completed.
Harry took a seat in one of the arm chairs to wait for Sirius to return from lessons and soon found himself slipping into sleep.
He was sitting on the floor in a dark room. The only noise he heard was his own ragged breathing. He had been in this room for a couple of days at least, every since Nott and Malfoy had discovered he was alive. Unlike the higher ranking death eaters, the adult Crabbe and Goyle had not felt above physically beating him senseless when they found out the truth and Malfoy had just laughed at what he saw. He knew he at least had a couple broken ribs and he could still fell the swelling over one of his eyes and the dried blood on his chest and cheek where their punches had broken his skin.
Before they had begun their assault, he had gotten a brief glimpse of the place they were in. It was a large stone chamber with a domed ceiling supporting an iron chandelier that served as the only light in the room. There were about twenty death eaters milling around the chamber, but at Nott's announcement most of them were now focusing their attention on him.
Malfoy then turned to two of the largest men and made a loud announcement.
"Why don't we show Potter what we think of this little game of his" he said mockingly
They had then begun to beat him for several minutes before Malfoy spoke again
"Answer a question for me Potter, how was it that you survived yet again and reduced the dark lord to a mere shadow? And how exactly is it that you brought us to this place?"
"I don't know" was the only answer he received
"Well that may be Potter, but I will make a deal with you, get us out of this place and I will allow you to live, refuse and you shall die the most painfully slow death imaginable"
His voice was cold and cruel but smooth as though he thought he would never be refused anything he wanted.
"I would never let you loose on the world again, people have suffered enough at your masters hands and they deserve peace now. You will all remain here until you die" he told the blonde man in front of him, refusing to break eye contact with the death eater.
Malfoy's face became flushed immediately at his words and his eyes lit on fire with hate.
"As you wish Potter" he said stonily as he lifted his wand and put Harry under the pain of the cruciatus curse.
He had refused to scream in his agony as he fell to the floor and curled into a fetal position trying to ignore the terrible pain for several minutes until the peace of unconsciousness over took him.
When he awoke he had been in this dark room and he had been left undisturbed since that time, never seeing another person and he preferred this to the alternative.
Just then, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps and he got to his feet, refusing to be seen crumpled on the floor by his enemies. A bright shaft of light permeated the dark room and a large figure approached him and grabbed him roughly by the arm, dragging him from the room without saying a word.
He was dragged up a steep flight of stairs and into the chamber he had been in when he woke up. There were now nearly fifty black robed figures in the room and all of them were standing in a circle surrounding something he couldn't see yet.
As they approached the group, Harry's insides turned to ice when he heard a familiar voice coming from the center of the room.
"Harry Potter, did you honestly think you could destroy me that easily?"
He woke suddenly at the sound of a large log in the fire cracking and falling. He was shaking with a chill because of the sweat that covered him, but there was something else, he felt the presence of someone in the room behind him and turned quickly to see his godfather sitting at the cluttered desk reading off of a piece of parchment and looked up upon hearing Harry turn.
"Have a good nap?" he asked with concern as he looked at his best friends son.
"Fine" he lied quickly and by Sirius' expression he didn't buy it, but he didn't press the issue either but he seemed pleased that Harry was talking to him.
"I spoke to the headmaster this morning and he said you are welcome to stay here with me as long as you like" he continued before adding "and Ginny wanted to know if she could come by later tonight, after dinner. I told her I didn't think you would mind" he finished, looking curiously at Harry and seeing relief flicker across his face for a moment before he answered curtly.
"No, I'm glad you did, I would like to see her" he answered before turning back to the fire and his private thoughts.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The sound of the door slamming shut rang through out the hall for several moments before the students broke into loud conversations once again.
"Did you see his eyes? He just looked evil didn't he"
"Yeah, and how did the door shut like that? He doesn't have a wand or anything"
"I don't know, but he's not normal. He probably went insane from the cruciatus curse, there were five people holding it on him at the same time after all. No one could survive that and still be sane"
The theories were being started and spreading all over the great hall and continued to do so until the students began to make their way to their first classes of term.
Ginny had been in such a state of shock that all she could do was collapse into an empty chair at her house table and think miserably about how she had probably lost Harry for good now. Nobody spoke to her and she liked it that way, but regardless, she sent Hermione and Ron accusing glares as they passed by her and they only ignored her in return, both seeing the other girl as a traitor.
Not knowing what else she could possibly do since she had no idea where Harry had gone, she got to her feet and followed her classmates to charms vowing to find her boyfriend after he had had an opportunity to calm down some.
Sirius had the same idea as Ginny, knowing that when Harry wanted to be alone there were only a handful of places he would go and since most of those places now held students, he would probably be sitting in front of the fire in his private living room since he still didn't have enough strength to go flying around the quidditch pitch or run off to the lake or Hagrids. With that thought in mind, he went with Remus toward the defense classroom where he would help his best friend with the third year Hufflepuffs in their lesson about vampires.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: sorry this took so long to get out, but I just couldn't get it to work how I wanted it to, but I tried my best! Thanks for reviewing those last couple of chapters and I'll post another one tonight or tomorrow if you're nice. Please review and let me know what you think of this one, even though it's pretty dull.