Chapter 11: Bleeding Scars

Harry walked out into the cold grounds. His round glasses were now square again, and his green eyes dull. He sighed a little frustrated and wrapped his robes tightly around him. He cut a path through the thick snow, the hems of his robes and trousers becoming utterly soaked and freezing. He headed out to the edge of the Forbidden Forest and climbed one of the older oak tree's now bare without its leaves. With nimble fingers, he rolled out a cigarette and lit it. It offered very little warmth against the cold, but helped calm down his nerves.

Out of his two friends, he had expected Ron to take the hissy fit and Hermione to be the one rationalizing. But Ron had taken it surprisingly well, and it had taken but a second for them to become the great friends they had been when they were younger. Hermione was just, she was being difficult. She wouldn't even let Ron come up to her and talk to her, and threw what looked like her bedside table out the door. To say she was angry was the biggest understatement of the century.

But maybe it was for the best. If she was angry at him, then it would be ok for him to go back out to do his job. Ron would probably dissuade him, but Draco could help out there. At least now, both Ron and Hermione could go about their day to day lives knowing that he was still out there. But Harry would have been a lot happier with the knowledge that both his friends could somehow forgive him for abandoning them those 8 years ago.

Harry coughed as a cold sharp wind passed by and once again, pulled his robes tightly around him. He raised his cigarette to his mouth and let its qualities calm him. It was then, that a tiny red-breasted robin flew to the branch he was sitting on. He peered at it from under his messy hair and gave a small crooked smile. Digging into his pocket, he took out a biscuit and crushed it in his hand. The robin fluttered into his hand and started pecking at the crumbs and flew away after eating his share, Harry let the rest of the crumbs fall to the ground.

Green eyes watched the little bird fly towards the castle, passing a familiar window on a familiar tower.

***

Hermione sat with her head in her hands. She felt clammy and stifled, she was sure she looked a state. She rocked back and forth muttering little prayers under her breath, her eyes fixed on a spot on her dark red carpet.

He had actually come back.

She was thrilled at that aspect, but his explanation for leaving had wounded her, and her pride. She couldn't believe that he had left for that reason, had had her worrying and in depression, just to keep her safe! She thought he knew she was a thinker and a fighter, how many times had all three of them faced off with Voldemort and lived? And Harry was never much of a Seer. His dreams couldn't mean anything as big as predicting the future. All his nightmares to date had been repressed memories, none of them whatsoever had had any link to the future.

Hermione frowned and lay back on her bed, looking up to the canopy of her four-poster bed. Albus had had the same images, even that fraud Trelawney! There was no doubt that Albus Dumbledore was a great wizard, and very powerful, but never in her many years she knew him, had she ever seen Albus show any signs of a Seer. She had noticed the telescopes and star charts that he had had lingering in his office, but those methods were very feeble in telling the future. The earliest magicians had used those tactics, and there was a one in a million chance that the vision predicted would come true.

Hermione knew that Ron was taking all of this extremely well. If anything, he was calmer than her, when it was usually the opposite way around. But she couldn't help but feel that Draco might have been hinting to him that Harry was still out there. Speaking of Draco, he was Cuthbert? He was a trainee to the Eldar Warlocks? That was hard to believe as Draco wasn't the most disciplined of them. He had a fiery temper, but still, he had his moments when he seemed to be the wisest man on Earth. And she had to admit, he was very graceful with the spells and enchantments that he performed.

But the bare facts had come to her. Some of the closest people she knew had lied to her, and Harry had simply run off because of them. She was simply too weak to handle the situation, and Harry would have to play the hero and save them all.

Hermione's eyes hardened. Complete and utter bullshit.

***

Draco cursed under his breath as he trudged through the trodden snow. Why did Harry always have to choose the most inappropriate places to sit? Despite his grumbling he had been worried about his friend. When Ron and he had tried to coax Hermione to come out of her room, Harry had quietly disappeared without a word. He had searched the castle. But his sharp eyes had managed to make out Harry's dark figure by the edge of the forest, all the way from the Library windows. Draco's pale face was quite red when he reached Harry. And he looked very disgruntled.

"Nice walk?" Harry asked, smiling under his beard.

"Oh yeah." Draco replied, rolling his eyes. He grabbed the lowest branch of the tree and swung his way upwards. Harry coughed into his hand.

"I'm catching a cold." He grumbled.

"Serves you right for sitting out here you little bugger. And for making me trudge through all the snow just to find you" Draco muttered and rolled up his own cigarette, grinning at his friend. Harry laughed at him and offered him a light. The two sat in a comfortable silence, a light breeze ruffling their hair. Both looked towards the castle, memorising the vision of it. Every nook and cranny, every lichen covered stone. It was a beautiful and enchanting, especially with the snow sprinkled on the roof top. It had been a long time since Harry had seen the castle. And during the hard times, it was nice to visualise the castle. It was somewhat a place to come home to. Harry's gaze wandered down to the ground below him.

"How's Hermione?" He asked, not looking at the blonde man next to him.

"She's been better. But if I were you, I'd go back to the castle and talk to her." Draco answered back. "But maybe give her a day to cool off."

"She threw a chair at you. Think of what she'll do to me." Harry stated.

"Ok, maybe two days."

"She's a very powerful witch."

"Two and a half days."

Harry chuckled. He knew he should go and talk to his old friend, but the pure fact that she was a powerful person, and a woman nonetheless was a little nerving. It would almost be as bad as facing off with a female Voldemort. Which was a very scary thought.

"This is all your fault you know." Harry said as he stubbed out his cigarette.

"How?" Draco asked incredulously.

"If you hadn't talked me into telling them, none of this would have happened and I wouldn't be up here, sitting on this tree catching a cold." Harry explained.

"You didn't need to be sitting on this tree. You could have stayed inside."

"I've been given strict rules not to smoke anywhere inside the castle. Otherwise Albus would have me scrubbing Snape's cauldrons with no magic and have Ginny braid my hair." Draco burst out laughing at the sheer thought of it.  

Without warning, a sharp pain seized through Harry's head. He gasped sharply as his hand touched his scar. It was burning hot with a terrible pain, his vision was becoming extremely disorientated. He fell backwards off of the tree.

"Harry!" Draco shouted.

Realising that he was falling, he flipped so that he landed on his feet, but as soon as his feet touched the ground, he crumbled onto his knees. Both his hands were now clutching at his head, his skin was becoming redder by the second, and pulsating veins could be seen throbbing from his skin.

Draco landed beside him and knelt to be in level with him.

"Harry! Calm down! You're stronger than this, I know it and so do you!" Draco exclaimed loudly. Harry was now kneeling and shaking quite badly and his breathing rate was irregular and his heart rate was going dangerously fast

"Focus Harry!" Draco shouted, he gripped at Harry's hands and tried to pry them from his scar.

After a few minutes the shaking finally stopped, but Harry had become as stiff as a board. He removed his hands from his scar, they were blood soaked. But most noticeable of all, his eyes weren't shining in the dark green they used to, they were red.

"I have to go, now." Harry proclaimed, as he tried to get up. Draco kept him down.

"Hold on, you need to relax now. You can't leave here until that eye colour fades." Draco said looking directly at him.

"What did you see?" Draco asked seriously.

Harry remained silent. He looked down at the ground. His red eyes were so bright, they were reflecting on the snow. The snow was now stained with blood, and Harry could feel a hot trickle of blood flowing, sliding down the side of his nose from his scar. The branches of the old oak tree had scratched his face and ripped parts of his cloak. Some of the scratches were bleeding.  He had stopped shaking, but he felt stiflingly hot, and chillingly cold at the same time. His breathing was becoming deep and slow, his heartbeat was steadying down. He certainly wasn't feeling well, and he was in no fit state to leave the grounds of Hogwarts. As he looked up at Draco, Draco could see the red colour merging into the dark green that they were once before.

"Voldemort nearly died…"

***

A/N: Hi everybody! I'm really sorry for the lack of updates. But I had my exams (which are now finished! Yay!) and I also had a bit of a block! . And I've got ideas for new fics, that just seem to be popping up everywhere. But I can't even start writing them until I finish my other damn stories! But I'm back in the flow of things and hopefully, new chapters should be coming up more frequently…*hopefully*!