Chapter Three
Draco stretched out in his bed. It was getting quite small as his feet touched the board at the end of the bed when he stretched. His roommates, Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise were still asleep.
The sun's rays did not reach his room so he didn't know what time it was. The dungeon room was cold and he brought his knees up to his waist for warmth. Draco didn't want to get out of bed. He had no reason to. If the others weren't up than he didn't need to be. Draco lay there for a minute before he finally got up. He walked up the stairs to the common room. The fireplace was still going so he took a seat on the couch that lay near it. Draco pulled a snake-crested blanket over his long legs. It was quiet. How much he wished to sleep but he couldn't. There was nothing traumatizing or anything bugging him that kept him awake. He simply couldn't sleep.
Draco picked up a book he found on the table. He read the cover.
"'Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, the edited version'," he said aloud.
He laughed to himself and opened the book. He had never heard about it before.
Harry woke up slumped against the wall, sitting upon his bed. His hand flew to his head. He had a horrible headache. Harry let himself collapse onto his bed.
"Ow!" he cried out as cramps identified themselves.
A head popped up beside his bed. Red hair and adorned with freckles, Ron sat up from a sleeping position on the floor.
"Harry, are you okay?" Ron asked.
Harry nodded. He noticed Ron's intense concern.
"Something happened last night, didn't it?" Harry asked.
Ron nodded slowly and Harry's expression went from an aching-sad to a depressed look. Harry bit his bottom lip.
"This has got to stop!" he said. "But how?"
Ron and Harry exchanged glances but neither could really think of anything.
"I guess it is up to Draco," Harry groaned, regretting putting his life, in a matter of speaking, in the guy's hands.
Ron shifted his gaze to look at the sun rising and said nothing. Harry followed with his eyes and watched with no real feeling.
"I'm so bloody hungry," Ron said finally. "Fred and George might have left some food in their stash in the common room!"
Ron did not know how it all worked. Everything they had had to battle had been physically concrete. Now it was something mental, something deteriorating Harry. It wasn't a good thing, he knew that much but there was little he could do. He picked up a pastry from Fred and George's stash and used his wand to check for enchanted side effects. The Danish looked fine but he was still incredulous.
He groaned.
"Harry," he said, "Just go on to breakfast when everyone else gets up and then to class. I need to sleep!"
Harry looked at him bewildered.
"You can't stay! Points will be taken from our house!" Harry exclaimed.
Ron shook his head.
"It's Care of Magical Creatures! Hagrid teaches that class, you git! He will understand!" Ron replied.
He put down the uneaten Danish and trudged back up the stairs with a yawn. Ron lay back down into bed. His almost fell shut the instant he laid down. He remembered how at his house, that was a hard thing to do with Pig, his owl, making so much noise.
Ron walked down a street he had never walked before and yet knew the way to some unknown destination. He stopped in front on a nice-sized house. In the front yard, there was a tiny boy playing with his toy cars and trucks.
"Hello!" the boy said.
The boy was about six, Ron guessed. The boy had dark, jet-black hair and green eyes like Harry but he had no scar.
The Harry-who-wasn't looked up at him, holding up a car.
"Help me!" he said.
Ron knitted his eyebrows.
"Help you with what?" he asked.
The Harry-who-wasn't pointed to a 3 foot-tall doll. It was male and had a menacing look to it.
"My cars can't knock it over!" he said.
Ron noticed the kid's back was to chairs and folded tables that were clumped together into a poorly constructed wall.
The boy tried to ram another toy car into the doll but it stayed up straight. Ron could have sworn the doll grinned. The boy clutched his arm like iron clamps. He couldn't release the boy's grip.
"It's coming!" the boy cried. "Help me! Help me knock it over quick!"
Ron shook his head.
"No, I can't! I have to go!" Ron told the Harry-who-wasn't.
He looked up over the makeshift wall. A darkness swept forward, tearing away everything. He heard a haunting laugh. Ron shivered and cried out.
Ron woke up in a sweat. The dream he had had was more confusing than scary. Something had frightened him. He couldn't do anything, couldn't move at all. Maybe that had frightened him, not being able to do anything. He didn't know.
Ron got out of bed. The room was empty. The beds had been made and everything was quiet. He looked out the window and saw class was still going on. Ron threw on some clothes including his sweater, one he desperately hated, and ran out of the Gryffindor tower.
The wind hit his face like long gusts of arrows being fired only feet in front of him. There was no snow falling, only what was left on the ground.
Ron was walking past the lake when something shot down from Hogwarts into the lake. First, there were ripples and Ron kept walking. Then, the giant squid's tentacles flew out, tearing through the air wildly and Ron began to run. The wind blinded him and brought tears to his eyes. Then, he felt it. A tentacle grabbed him and his feet left the ground. The world swirled around him. There was nothing he could see. He felt it release him and the darkness from his dream rushed up to greet him.
Draco watched the display happened. He tried to rush forward but two other people caught his eye. Harry was running to help Ron but fell, clutching his forehead. Hermione ran up beside him, holding his shoulders, trying to find out what was wrong. Now dumbfounded, Draco stood going back and forth between the two displays.
Professor McGonagall appeared as if on cue with Madam Pomfrey trailing behind her. They came to Ron as Hermione tried to help Harry in their direction. Hermione could barely manage and fell into the snow with Harry about a few steps later. Draco heard the Slytherins behind him begin to snigger. One hand rested itself on Draco's shoulder. "You seem almost sympathetic!" a voice that was obviously Blaise's said.
Draco rolled his arm in a backward circle to get Blaise's hand off. Accidentally, Draco hit him in the face. Pretending it was no accident, Draco turned and looked down at Blaise.
"I will always be a Slytherin. It doesn't mean I have to laugh at everything another Slytherin laughs at!" he said.
Cameron, another Slytherin sixth year, helped Blaise up, keeping his eyes on Draco the whole time.
Ron looked at the house that had been painted blue. He had been here before. Only minutes ago, if he remembered correctly. The Harry-who-wasn't looked up at Ron. The boy looked even more fragile than he had the last time Ron was here.
"Help me!" Harry-who-wasn't cried.
Ron wanted to get it over with. He picked up the biggest toy truck the boy had and chucked it at the doll. It wobbled but nothing happened.
"It never works," the boy whispered.
He placed his familiar grip on Ron. The Harry-who-wasn't tightened his grip and shut his eyes. Ron tried to wake up. Something wouldn't let him this time.
"Now he comes," the boy said.
Ron looked around seeing only the darkness.
"Who?" he asked the boy.
Harry-who-wasn't said nothing.
Two people walked out of the house. The man held his wife close. They admired their son from afar. The man turned and saw the darkness. He drew out his wand, placing his wife behind him.
"Stay back!" he cried.
The wife ran over to Harry-who-wasn't.
Darkness surrounded the father, glowing green when it got near. The darkness moved on and Ron noticed the man wasn't there. It came towards Harry-who-wasn't. The woman stood in front of him.
"Leave my son alone! He is innocent!" she cried.
The darkness struck her as it had the father and came for the boy. Ron could not free himself from the boy's grip but he did move directly in front of the boy.
"Do not harm him!" he cried even though he knew it was useless.
A voice inside his head cackled.
"You don't even know him!" the voice laughed.
Ron looked at the quivering little boy. He did indeed not know the boy. He had no clue if it was even Harry.
"It doesn't matter," Ron managed.
He swallowed.
"It doesn't matter!" he said more firmly. "A boy is a boy! There is no such punishment for a boy that he must die! This boy is more innocent and good than whatever you may be! Perish, unworthy foe!" Ron exclaimed.
The voice cackled again.
"You say it as if you have poorly memorized a line from a book!" it said. It came forward. Ron placed his hands in front of his face, but it aimed not for that. He cried out as it swept over him. It came to the boy and the boy went limp. Then, the darkness was gone.
Ron clutched his heart and collapsed down next to the boy. The boy released his grip from Ron. Ron saw the boy now beared a scar like Harry's. He touched the hand that covered Ron's heart.
"You are a hero!" the boy mumbled. "You simply had to take off the disguise!"
Ron shook his head.
"No, Harry!" Ron said. "It is and will always be you!"
The boy smiled and went limp on the ground. The boy glowed, became the Harry that he
knew and recognized, and woke up.
"Ron, what am I doing here?" he asked.
"Harry!" Hermione cried. "Harry, what's wrong? Talk to me, Harry!"
She shook him. He simply crouched there, moaning. Suddenly, he looked up at her and tried to reach out and touch her face. Harry went limp and collapsed before he could.
"Harry!" she cried.
Draco walked into the infirmary. Only a curtain separated the beds for Harry and Ron. Hermione was sitting next to Harry's bed at the moment. He walked up to Hermione. She didn't treat him how they all had before their sixth year.
"You know," she said not looking up. "Harry told him how he would sit next to my bed like this in our second year!"
Draco smiled internally.
"Ron loved you too," Draco replied.
Hermione looked up and shook her head.
"Everyone thought we were supposed to be together but he is just too different!" she said. "He told me he didn't try because if what he thought was true, he knew he would hurt you! He has always loved you, Hermione!" Draco said.
She shook her head.
"You are just trying to make me not be able to decide between the two!" she exclaimed.
"Isn't it like that already?" he asked.
Hermione looked back to Harry.
"Tell me about them," Draco said.
She looked up as if she could see through the curtain to Ron's bed.
"I always believed we were always a part of each other, Ron, Harry, and me. Harry was the soul, brave and not afraid of anything. Ron was the heart, always compassionate, keeping us alive. I, well, I must have been the mind. They were always doing crazy stuff," Hermione said, laughing through her tears. "And I was always getting them out of it, or at least trying to! When someone got hurt, it was always I! But now, it was them not me. I always thought of how we were connected like a body, needing each other. Yet, the mind and the soul are connected to the outside world where as the heart stays in the middle of the body, only keeping it alive. I always thought that was where you fit in! You were always getting in fights with Harry and me, rarely Ron. He was held back by either Harry or me while the other came after you! He needed some sort of connection and that was you!"
Draco looked down, away from her gaze. He heard take an intake of breath before it was caught in her throat. He looked up. Harry's eyes were opened but he did nothing.
"Madam Pomfrey!" he cried as Hermione nearly fainted.
Harry looked around. He felt all of himself there and then a part of him left. Harry looked at his hands. He had gone transparent. Ron gasped.
Harry bit his bottom lip.
"What just happened?" he asked.
Ron explained what happened. Harry nodded. They both jumped when a wet nose touched them. A dog squeezed its way in between them. It looked from Ron, to Harry and gave him a lick.
"Licking isn't my favorite thing, but there is little else I can do here!" The dog exclaimed.
They jumped.
"Sirus?" Harry asked.
The dog turned to face him and bobbed its head.
"Its me! Prongs told me you were here!" the dog said.
"But how?" Harry asked.
The dog huffed.
"This is the place where the past and death are connected. Usually, a person relives their worst memory here!" Sirus the dog said. "Prongs, your father, lived this moment when he died, only the real thing, then when Lily died. And now, he has gone through yours only yours is different! Yours has... this!"
The dog motioned to all around them.
"What I don't understand is why your friend, Ron, is here! He hasn't lived through it!" Sirus exclaimed.
"How did my father and you get here?" Harry asked.
"Only dead animaguses can come into this place. The bad thing about it is if they are in that worst memory, they live it over again." He explained.
Ron shook as if getting a bad feeling off of him.
"Do you know why Harry is... well, the way he is?" Ron asked.
Sirus looked Harry up and down. He stopped panting which was a dog's habit.
"Someone must have separated Harry's soul from his body!" Sirus said. "Just like, your missing your heart."
Ron shook his head and put his hand over his chest.
"My what?"
Draco watched as Madam Pomfrey went from Harry to Ron. Dumbledore hovered behind her. Draco and Hermione exchanged glances. Madam Pomfrey turned to Dumbledore and made no attempt to whisper it.
"Amazing, Albus!" she exclaimed. "Both if them still live but Harry is missing his soul, making him an empty shell, and Ron is missing his heart but is still alive!" Dumbledore nodded and came over to them.
"Ron is in a coma and Harry..." Dumbledore began, obviously not knowing how to describe his condition, "is fine. It is best of no one walks in and sees Harry like this however. He is not full recovered. Get some sleep, both of you!"
They exchanged glances and walked out.
"What are we going to do?" she asked.
Draco couldn't help but wrinkle his nose.
"We?" he asked.
She nodded.
"How else are we going to figure this out unless the top of each house helps!" she exclaimed.
He rolled his eyes.
"In case the incident damaged you too, we aren't head boy and girl, whatever your fantasies are!" he exclaimed.
"None of them contain you! Why would they contain a snake unless I was going to cut it in half!"
Draco laughed.
"We are the smartest people from our houses, you prat!" she exclaimed.
He nodded, trying not to look like he had just realized that was what she was talking about.
She led him to the library. They sneaked past Madam Price to the Restricted section.
"So what exactly are we looking for?" Draco asked.
She shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"Just think about what happened to Harry and Ron plus what we heard and look for something that covers it!" She exclaimed.
"I can only think of books that are at my house but would never be found here!" He exclaimed.
She hit him on the arm and began to search.
Hermione turned the page of Mental Deaths of Famous Wizards. She was so tired. Hermione felt her eyes drooping and she couldn't keep them open. She let out a yawn. "Just one little snooze wouldn't hurt!" she thought.
Hermione walked up to the house. Two little boys were playing with a dog. They were black and white; no other colors were displayed on them, completely wasted on the surroundings rather. The boys were skinny and one held a familiar scar on his forehead. One ran up to her.
"Stay with us, Hermione!" he said and she knew it was Ron. "We get younger by the hour! We never have to worry!"
Hermione bit her bottom lip. She noticed a three-foot doll. It scared her.
"What is this?" she asked, walking over to touch it.
"No!" the dog seemed to cry out even though she knew dogs didn't talk. It leaped at her. By the time it pushed her aside, she had already touched the thing. Light flashed and a darkness came along.
Draco shook Hermione.
"Wake up!" he exclaimed.
She wouldn't move. He hit her. She jolted and jumped wake.
"Oh Merlin!" was all she could say.