Harry Potter (Boy 15, Gryffindor) groaned as the annoying ray of sunshine kept shining on his face, interrupting his sleep. He was tired and wanted to sleep in. But no. That stupid light kept bothering him. Why hadn't he closed the curtains the night before? Before long, he just couldn't stand it anymore, and decided that he might as well get up. Yawning, he sat up and stretched.
After his muscles began to work again, he opened his eyes and looked around his dormitory at Gryffindor Tower. Everyone else had their curtains closed. Rather odd, considering how the sun seemed to be shining brightly outside. Maybe it was still early morning, and he just got up before everyone else did. That would explain why he still felt tired.
He'd had the most horrible nightmare the night before, about how his class was chosen to fight to the death on some god-forsaken island. He smiled at the thought. It was rather silly, really. And everyone was where they were supposed to be now, alive and sleeping in.
Relieved that it was all just a dream, he walked out of his dormitory and into the common room. It must be early, as it was surprisingly empty. Well, almost empty. Professor McGonagall was standing in the center of the room, holding a long piece of parchment and a quill. Harry yawned again, and she looked up.
"Where have you been?" she asked irritated as she crossed the room towards him. "Everyone else has already been fitted downstairs, so get a move on!"
Harry blinked, still tired. "Er... Fitted for what exactly?"
Professor McGonagall tutted. "For their coffins, of course. Now hurry so you won't be late!"
A confused look drew on Harry's face, but before he could open his mouth to speak, she had let him out of the common room and into the Great Hall, which was for some odd reason just on the other side of the portrait.
Still confused, he looked around the Great Hall, which was for some odd reason decorated like a funeral parlor. Or at least, what he imagined a funeral parlor must look like, as he'd never actually been to one before. Either way, he didn't have much time to think it over, as Dumbledore was heading his way.
"You're just in time!" the old wizard exclaimed cheerfully as he approached. "Just as soon as you're fitted, you can join in the party. Look! Your friends are already here!" He pointed to the other end of the Great Hall, where the rest of Harry's classmates were gathered on what at first glance appeared to be a dark carpet of some sort.
Harry frowned. Something was wrong. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he took a closer look at the carpet his laughing classmates were standing on. The light of the sun shining overhead reflected off of it, and Harry realized that it wasn't a carpet at all. "That's blood..." he said quietly.
"Yes, yes." Dumbledore patted his shoulder. "Of course it's blood. Some of them died rather messily, after all."
Harry turned to the Headmaster, then looked back to his classmates. He could see that a number of them were stained with blood that dripped to the floor. "No..." He involuntarily took a step back into a cold draft. He turned around.
Moaning Myrtle smiled as he faced her. "Once you're fitted, do you want to join me in the u-bend? Being dead can be unbearably lonely, and I was so hoping that someone would help ease the loneliness."
He shook his head and stepped back from her. "No... I'm not dead yet... It was just a dream... A nightmare..."
The ghost laughed and faded out from view. Harry was beyond confusion now. He felt like someone had implanted a block of ice in his stomach.
"I trusted you!" a girl shouted from behind him. Harry turned around to face Hermione, whose clothes were soaked with blood. "I trusted you to protect me, and you ran away! How could you do this?!"
Harry shook his head. "No. You're wrong. I- I wouldn't..." He backed up as she approached, followed by the rest of their classmates, who were holding tape measures and chanting 'Time to be fit.'
No matter how much space he tried to put between him and his classmates, they kept advancing. With a thud he ended with his back against the wall. There was no escape! He could feel a scream building up inside as they closed in. He shut his eyes tightly as they grabbed at him. There was a blinding light.
He could no longer feel the cold hands of his classmates grab him, although the light remained. Trying to raise one of his arms to block out the light, he hissed as pain surged through his body. A warm hand gently pushed his arm back down to his side.
"You shouldn't move," a soft female voice said. He knew that voice... "You've been badly injured."
He slowly opened his eyes, although the light shining overhead was rather annoying. He looked up at the face of Susan Bones (Girl 2, Hufflepuff), who smiled at him warmly.
"Looks like you're awake. I'm so glad."
12 students remaining
September 3 -- 12:31 p.m.
"A total loss," Hermione Granger (Girl 8, Gryffindor) said as she stepped away from the minivan. "One side is almost completely caved in, and even if it started, it's leaking some sort of fluid."
Blaise Zabini (Boy 20, Slytherin) nodded, then chuckled. "You've got some grease all over your clothes."
Hermione shrugged, smiling. "Shall I check the truck? I don't think we damaged it much."
"Yeah. Still not sure it's the best idea in the world. Driving around. Rather conspicuous."
She started to run her fingers through her hair, but then stopped when she realized her hands were dirty from checking under the hood. "We won't be driving. Not unless we have to. But it might be a good idea to make sure we have at least one way to escape quickly if we have to."
Blaise nodded in agreement. "True." He chuckled. "Never figured that you would know much about cars."
Hermione smirked. "I read a lot of books." She wiped her hands on the front of her robes, which were rather dirty already. Crouching down onto the ground, she took her map out of her pack. "Not much open road left, though. Too many forbidden zones. Unless we cut through the forest, which I would not recommend, we would be confined here in the north."
"Damn." Blaise sat down on the ground next to his pack and robes, which he removed earlier for ease of movement. As he sat down though, a small object fell out of his back pocket and opened, playing a sorrowful melody. His eyes quickly widened, and he reached behind him and picked up the locket, closing it.
Hermione walked over to him. "What is that?" she asked.
"Uh... Nothing?"
She gave him a look, then sat next to him. "A locket?"
He nodded and opened it again. The melody began again. Hermione looked down at it to see a still picture of what must have been his family, taken years ago. "I think this is the only picture of all of us together," he said softly. "A little bit before Cynthia's first birthday, my father got transferred in the Ministry. Called in to work at the Department of Mysteries. He sent us money, but we never saw him since. Having a family was too dangerous, or some crap like that." The melody started over again. "His family never approved of my mother, so I don't think they ever got married. That's why we kids used her last name instead of his."
Hermione nodded. "I'm sorry."
He shrugged. "Probably for the best. He's a rather self-centered bastard. He didn't even bother going to Mama's funeral. Or Larissa's memorial. Probably won't go to mine, either." He smiled slightly. "At least Cynthia's safe. She's a squib. Or a muggle. Not sure what a non-magic child of a wizard and muggle would be considered." He shrugged. "Probably doesn't really matter."
"Yeah..." Hermione continued to look at the picture. The face of Blaise's father looked familiar... Before she could quite place it, the locket snapped shut and Blaise stood up.
"Enough reminiscing. Shall we take a look at the truck?"
"Yeah..." Hermione stood up as well, dusting herself off. "Hopefully that'll be working. I don't feel like stealing another car any time soon."
He half-smiled, although it didn't quite reach his eyes. "I can't even begin to imagine what books you must read to learn how to steal cars."
Hermione just smiled enigmatically as they walked towards their abandoned truck.
12 students remaining
September 3 -- 12:34 p.m.
Harry had tried to sit up, but found himself in far too much pain to do so, so just gave up trying and lied back in bed.
"As I said, you've been badly injured. You shouldn't move," Susan said.
He tried to nod, but even that hurt. "Where am I? How long have I been here?" He was amazed to find that he could still speak. At least he thought he could. He wasn't so sure that his speech was all that understandable.
Susan seemed to understand him, though. "One question at a time. We're in a lighthouse in the northwest end of the island, and you've been out for the past..." She glanced at her watch. "...Sixteen hours or so."
"Sixteen hours?" Harry repeated, completely awake now. That meant that he had missed the last three announcements. "Hermione and Blaise-- Are they... Are they still alive?"
She shrugged. "They haven't been announced as dead, so I would presume so." She bit her lip, looking a little hesitant.
Harry didn't notice as he looked off to the side. So they were still alive. At least according to the latest announcement, anyway. "What time is it?"
Susan looked at her watch again, relaxing from her earlier nervousness. "Just a little after 12:30."
So that meant that they were probably still alive. At least Neville hadn't found them.
He suddenly turned to Susan, ignoring the pain he felt from making the sudden movement. "It's Neville! He's the one shooting!"
Susan widened her eyes. "So he's the one who attacked you?"
Harry tried to nod, but once again it hurt. Maybe he should just lie still from now on and not try to move. "Ow. Yeah. He ambushed us last night as we were leaving the clinic."
"Us?"
"Me and Hermione and Blaise. We got split up after we ended up in a shootout with him." He looked at the ceiling, letting his mind wander. "Did he...? I mean... Who died since...?"
Susan bit her lip and walked across the room to a small table, where she took out a piece of paper. Harry couldn't see what it was from where he was positioned, but was sure it was a class list as she began to read off it. "Hannah Abbott and Vicky Frobisher. And Stephen Cornfoot, Kevin Entwhistle, Anthony Goldstein, Theodore Nott, and--" Her voice cut off abruptly and she looked toward the door on the other side of the room.
Harry slowly tried to sit up. He discovered it didn't hurt as much to move if he took things slowly. "And?"
Susan turned back to him, biting her lip nervously. "We weren't sure on whether to tell you or not, but..." She sat down in the chair next to the bed. "Ron... He..."
Harry felt numb inside. "No..."
Susan nodded her head. "He was announced at midnight," she said so softly that he could barely hear her.
They were silent for a few minutes as Harry processed the information. Susan was just about to get up and leave him alone when he started speaking again.
"So who else is here?" he asked. "I mean, you mentioned something about a 'we'. Who else is here?"
"Oh." Susan sat back down from her half-standing position. "Me and Megan, Sally-Anne, Lavender, Su, and Sadie. We've been here since pretty much the beginning of the game. Well, most of us. Lavender joined up with us a little later."
He slowly nodded.
"So... What about you?" she asked. "What have you been doing?"
"Where to begin?" He sighed. "It's a really long story."
Susan nodded. "I'm all ears."
Taking a deep breath, he began to tell her about how he had been attacked by Ernie back at the school, but had escaped and met up with Hermione at the supply store later, only to be attacked by Zacharias and Michael (not at the same time, of course) and saved by Blaise, who had been with them since. He told her about how Hermione had made herself sick with worry, so they had gone to the clinic, only to be attacked by Neville as they left.
Susan leaned back in her chair. "I see... So Zacharias... That was an accident?"
Harry thought it odd that she would ask about that first, but didn't comment. "Yeah. Just as I said. Why?"
She shook her head. "Doesn't matter."
Although he still found it rather strange, he let the matter drop. "So how'd all of you end up together? What are the odds?"
She looked slightly relieved at the change of subject and smiled. "Well, when I came out of the school, the others had already gathered and were waiting for me." She shrugged. "Well, Lavender wasn't, but as I said, she joined us later. We had called out to her, but she didn't hear us or something. We were going to call out to Tracey as well, but Justin came out before her and we didn't want to stick around." At Harry's confused look, she clarified. "He was the one who killed Ernie."
"Why didn't you call out to any of the guys?" Harry asked.
"We decided that it would be best not to call out to any of the boys, or anyone else that no one could vouch for. We weren't going to bring you in, but I was able to convince the others to make an exception. I mean, I can't just let someone die."
Harry closed his eyes. "So some of them were reluctant?"
Susan nodded. "Nothing personal, really. But just look at the circumstances." Tears formed in her eyes. "I'm so glad you're alright, though." There was another pause, then she stood up. "Oh, I almost forgot." She walked back to the table on the other side of the room and grabbed another sheet of paper. "Your map. I marked off the forbidden zones as they were announced. Most of them are along the coast." She handed the map to him and sat back down.
Harry opened his eyes and slowly sat up, holding his side as he did so. "What happened to my robes and shirt?" he asked as looked down at himself for the first time and realized that they were missing.
Susan pointed at the foot of the bed. "We had to treat your injuries, and couldn't very well do so without removing them, now could we?" She smirked. "We made sure to kick Sadie out of the room before we did, though. She's kind of a pervert. Wanted to remove your pants as well."
He chuckled, then winced. Apparently laughing hurt. He'd have to remember that. "Too bad I wasn't awake for that."
She shrugged. "Well, you weren't in the best of shape when we brought you in. Covered in blood and all. We found a first-aid kit, and were able to stitch and bandage your wounds as best we could, but none of us really knew all too much."
Harry nodded and looked down at the map. 'Happy surgery land.' The small supply store located in H-4 had become forbidden at 1 am the night before. "Dammit," he cursed under his breath. Blaise and Hermione were probably long gone by now. Not like he was in much condition to walk that far as bandaged and hurting as he was.
"I'm surprised that the explosion last night didn't wake you," Susan's voice cut into his thoughts.
Harry closed his eyes. "Neville's got grenades. Tossed a few our way last night."
Susan shook her head. "We heard those earlier, but this... This was a much bigger explosion. Lit up the whole island. If it hadn't been raining, it might have ended up burning the whole forest down. I think it's still smoldering."
Harry opened his eyes and turned to her. "The forest burned down?"
She shrugged. "No. At least not what we can see." She looked at her watch. "Lunch should be ready soon. We found some canned food and water, and I think we're having stew. You hungry?"
Harry's stomach growled in assertion. "Starved," he said, smiling.
She laughed and walked over to the door. "I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to lock the door. One of the girls is absolutely terrified, so we had to compromise that we'd keep it locked when no one was in here with you."
"Yeah..."
She smiled and walked out. As she did he could see a gun tucked in the back of the skirt she wore. After she had left and the door had closed, he heard something that sounded very much like the door being bolted shut.
He took a deep breath and stared up at the ceiling.
12 students remaining
September 3 -- 12:58 p.m.
Lavender Brown (Girl 4, Gryffindor) sat at the table in the middle of the lighthouse's kitchen, which was a rather large room that doubled as a living room. Or at least, that's where the girls had been sleeping and hanging around. She hadn't gotten any sleep, though. She couldn't. Not with everything that had happened.
Toward the far end of the room, Sally-Anne Perks (Girl 18, Hufflepuff) and Sadie Roper (Girl 19, Slytherin) were busy preparing lunch. Lavender rubbed her forehead in frustration as Sally-Anne hummed an inappropriately cheerful tune. She couldn't even begin to imagine how that girl could always seem to be cheerful. Especially at a time like this.
To the side of the room Su Li (Girl 11, Ravenclaw) sat on a sofa, rubbing her temples. She looked just as annoyed as Lavender felt, but she didn't say anything about the obnoxious humming either.
Lavender looked towards the front entrance. Megan Jones (Girl 10, Hufflepuff) was outside on guard duty. She thought about going outside to help, but remembered what Susan had told her about it not being very difficult, so there was no need. Even so, she couldn't stop herself from trembling at the thought that he was here.
She looked towards the kitchen again. Between the kitchen counter and a staircase that led upstairs was a table that they had placed their weapons upon. Well, she hadn't, but hers was rather useless, really. They had also put the two guns they had found with him on the table. She wondered who exactly he had killed for those.
She placed her head between her hands, trying to block out the mental images she kept getting of what happened to Zacharias. Although the other girls had tried to convince her that it must have been an accident, she couldn't help but remember how she saw Harry stand over him, holding the bloody hatchet. And now there was a killer sleeping in the other room.
No. He wasn't just sleeping. He was dying. He had been severely injured, and was going to die from his wounds. She had to believe that. It might not give her much solace, but he couldn't live. Not after what he did...
When Susan, who had been keeping watch at the time, had found him in the field, Lavender had naturally opposed him being brought in. She told the others about how she had seen him kill Zacharias, and how he would kill them if they brought him in. But in the end, the others outvoted her, arguing that they couldn't just let him die. So she had no choice but to watch as they brought in a soulless monster and tried to nurse him back to help. Since then, she had tried to convince herself that there was no way he would survive. Not with his injuries. No matter how good the other girls might be at playing nurse, he just couldn't live.
The door that led to the room he was sleeping (no, dying) in opened, and Susan emerged, smiling. Lavender looked up as Susan closed the door and placed the plank in front of it. The other girls turned to Susan in anticipation.
She flashed them the thumbs up sign. "He's awake."
Sadie and Sally-Anne cheered. Even Su seemed to have cracked a smile.
Lavender slumped down in her seat, turning pale.
12 students remaining