Chapter 11 - Crossing Over

What they found there was earth shattering. In the middle of the quasi-darkened room, there hung from the ceiling what looked like a loosely bound mummy, wrapped in what looked like shredded bed sheets. There were bits of black cloth, presumably robes, sticking out all over the wriggling mass. Hermione stood with Dumbledore as Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Caristak (the new DADA professor) stepped forward to get a better view of the mass.

The professors noticed that the mass was swinging slightly, and was suspended from the ceiling by two support tethers attached to the ceiling and to the chandelier. As they moved forward, closer to the object, one of the tethers snapped and the large mass swung wildly and began spinning jerkily due to the fact that the mass had begun to move, perhaps in an attempt at escape. As Hermione watched from the corner, she thought how much the whole scene reminded her of a muggle magic show.

Hermione began to cry at this point, so Dumbledore placed an arm around her for assurance. She sobbed into the headmaster's robes.

"They just don't get it," she whispered, "This is serious. Why don't they have their wands out?"

Hermione, I'm sure your professors will take care of themselves as well as the school," Dumbledore explained.

Just then, the mass stopped wriggling and hung limply from a single strand, spinning slowly. The mass flickered again, and two small flashes of lush green appeared toward the bottom of the hanging figure.

Hermione saw the flashes and then burst away from Dumbledore in an outrage. She marched right up to McGonagall and shouted.

"That hanging mass above us is Harry! Didn't you see his eyes? He's helpless up there! Haven't you realized that he had been missing from the dance for a long time tonight?"

After alerting the professors, Hermione broke down, crying hysterically. Dumbledore stepped in and took the young lady away so she could calm down.

Once they saw her out, three heads turned upward once again. The grayish figure was still spinning slowly but seemed to be flickering more frequently. McGonagall gasped as she saw the green eyes appear directly over her head. She fainted, but luckily Professor Caristak, a strong, muscular wizard, caught her before she hit the floor. A mediwitch was summoned, and McGonagall was taken to Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary.

Caristak returned to Snape's side and thought aloud, "I wonder who could have done this?"

"There is only one I can think of, and I dare not speak his name," Snape said. "We need to get this body down. There still may be a chance for this boy."

Snape threw a spell onto the tether which slowly lowered the weight toward the ground. As soon as it was close enough, Snape grabbed the green eyed mass and cut the last tether. He was not expecting such weight in the wrapped object and very quickly laid it on the ground. Both he and Caristak stood over the object for only a minute or two before diving into action. Both men descended to the floor and began to unwind the wrapping of the bundle - Caristak from the feet and Snape from the head.

He looked like a father cradling his son. Snape was sitting cross-legged on the floor with Harry's head in his lap. The bindings were gently removed from his mouth and nose. Harry's face had been totally covered, except for his eyes, for such a long time that Snape wasn't sure the Gryffindor would be able to breathe.

As the last wrap was removed from his mouth, Harry opened his eyes. Snape noticed this slight movement, but didn't say anything as he moved to help Caristak free the torso and arms from the mummy-like confinement. Harry tried to pick his head up to watch his teachers work, but his bright green eyes seemed rather dull to Snape when they made eye contact again. Finally, the teacher spoke.

"Relax, Potter. Put your head back down. We'll take care of you, and when you wake up, you'll be in the infirmary with Madam Pomfrey." Snape then gave Harry two potions - one to keep him sedate and another to remove the bluish tinge from his lips. Snape noticed that Harry wasn't breathing as well as he should have been. He removed Harry's cloak and loosened his tie from around his neck before picking him up and running to the infirmary. Caristak tried to follow, but Snape sent him back to find Dumbledore to explain what had happened.

The individual room set up for Harry in the hospital ward was very crowded. There were only three people in there (four if you count Madam Pomfrey), but The Boy Who Lived had so many supporters and fans that the room was overflowing with flowers, gifts, and get well cards.

Dumbledore sat across from Harry's bed while Ron and Hermione napped on a little couch set up just for them in the room. Madam Pomfrey bustled about the infirmary, taking care of daily responsibilities and checking on all the patients. When she was in Harry's cubicle, she accidentally dropped something that made just enough noise to rouse Hermione from her nap. She was a very light sleeper. In order not to disturb Ron, Hermione stayed where she was and pretended to still be asleep, just listening to the noises of the hospital.

Suddenly, a rapid beeping began sounding in Harry's cubicle. Something was going wrong. With that, Hermione leaped up, almost knocking Ron to the floor, and woke Dumbledore, who had dozed off in his chair.

"Professor, wake up! Ron, somebody, go find Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione shouted to wake the sleepy people. She didn't know what was going wrong, but she instinctively knew that it was not anything good.

Madam Pomfrey rushed in and quickly surveyed the monitors around Harry's bed. The beeping that Hermione had heard was the heart monitor. It hadn't been beeping louder, but the frequency of beeps had increased even though Harry seemed to be sleeping peacefully thanks to the number of potions he had been injected with. As soon as the medi-witch had entered the small room, the beeping droned in a constant, blaring tone. Four heads snapped to look at the heart monitor. A flat line passed along the screen. Hermione collapsed into Ron's arms as she fainted in shock. Everyone stood in silence surveying the scene, until Madam Pomfrey spoke softly.

"There was nothing else I could have done. He is gone."