Chapter 5 – "Blood, blood everywhere…"
Two months after Snape rescued Harry and Petunia from Vernon, Harry was given a cane. Even with this, Hermione and Ron still shadowed him, in fear that Malfoy would keep up his promise. But at the moment the other two were asleep and Harry was attempting to make his way down to the Great Hall without them. He couldn't sleep, so he was wandering the halls.
"Lost, Potter?" sneered a voice from behind him.
"Sod off, Malfoy," growled Harry, baring his teeth as he lashed his cane out at something he could sense looming in front of him. Metal rang back to him and he knew he'd hit a suit of armor.
"Oh, I don't think so, Potter. Get him!"
Harry whirled around, cane lifted, as something came at his back. But they were faster they he was and they also had a major advantage over him.
They could see.
One of them knocked away the cane as the other shoved him against the wall. Hard. Harry swore he felt a rib crack from the impact. Another pair of large hands encircled his arm and he sneered.
"Crabbe and Goyle. How brave of you to have your cronies beat me up, Malfoy."
"They won't get the only shot," said Malfoy. He strode forward and promptly hauled into Harry, punching him mainly in the stomach. By the time it was over, Harry was slumped over in Crabbe and Goyle's clutches.
Malfoy smiled triumphantly and whaled the dark-haired boy in the face.
"That's for my jaw!"
Harry lifted his head, glasses gone as Malfoy had knocked them off, and glared at the blonde with his sightless eyes. He then spat on the Slytherin's robes, earning another hard knock across the face.
"Son of a bitch! Crabbe, Goyle…you can do whatever you want with him."
There were two grunts from either side of Harry and he felt himself being picked up. As Malfoy's steps faded off, Harry yelled, "Coward! You're a coward, Malfoy! How would Daddy feel if he knew his precious little boy couldn't beat up on a blind boy without the help of his cronies?"
"Shut up!" yelled Malfoy.
"I bet he'd be really disappointed," continued Harry. "Really disappointed. Would Voldemort be disappointed too? I bet Daddy would tell him. Wouldn't he, Malfoy? Yeah, I bet he would. And I bet Voldemort wouldn't be that happy either…"
"Shut him up!"
A large fist connected with the side of Harry's face and his mind reeled. He tried to say something else to Malfoy but couldn't figure out where the hell his tongue was.
Whist this was happening, Crabbe and Goyle dragged him into a classroom that was never used and closed the door.
~*~*~*~*~
"Mione, have you see Harry?"
Hermione looked up in surprise.
"He's not here?"
"Hasn't been here since I woke up. And his cane's gone."
"You don't think…"
"I don't know."
Hermione dropped her book and said, "The map."
"What?" asked Ron.
"The map! The Marauder's Map, Ron!"
"Oh. Oh! I'll get it!"
As the ginger-haired boy rushed up the stairs to the boy's dorms, Hermione hurried across the room to where Neville sat reading a book.
"Neville, I need you to do something for me."
"What?"
"Go get find Harry's aunt. And if you can't find her…er, go get Professor Snape."
"Snape?" exclaimed Neville. "But Hermione…"
"Just do it!" screamed Hermione, scaring the pudgy boy out of his wits.
"O-okay," he stuttered, sitting his book down in his chair before he dashed out into the corridor. Just as soon as he was gone, Ron came barreling down the staircase, a piece of yellowed paper clutched in his hand.
Hermione snatched the paper from him and drew her wand, tapping it sharply against the paper.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good!"
The lines spider webbed out from the tip of her wand and the two of them peered frantically at it, looking for Harry.
"He's not on this floor," said Ron.
"Then let's go to another one," snapped Hermione. Map clutched in one hand and wand in the other, she stalked out of the Tower, leaving Ron to scramble after her.
~*~*~*~*~
Neville was still running down the corridors when he remembered that he didn't know where Harry's aunt would be. He remembered Hermione's alternative and swallowed hard. But then he remembered that Harry was blind and the threat Malfoy had made that the Trio had told him about.
Steeling himself, Neville turned and ran for the dungeons.
At Snape's classroom, he threw himself at the door, pounding fiercely upon it and yelling.
"Professor! Professor!"
"Mister Longbottom," hissed a voice from behind him.
Neville whirled and saw Snape standing in a doorway that hadn't been there before. The dark eyes held him in place as the Potions Master sneered, "What do you want?"
"H-Harry, sir."
Snape's expression changed drastically. The sneer dropped and a frown appeared as worry came into the black eyes.
"Potter? What about him?"
"D-don't know, sir. H-Hermione told me t-to get his aunt. I th-think its Malfoy."
Snape's eyes narrowed and he turned to yell into the room behind him, "Petunia!"
"What?" came the voice back.
"Out here, now! Your nephew may possibly be in danger of losing something!"
There was the sound of something breaking and then Petunia appeared in the door behind Snape, her green eyes flashing. Power crackled around her as she snarled, "Who. Has. Harry?"
"We shall find out. Mister Longbottom!"
"Y-yes, sir?" stammered Neville, staring wide-eyed at Harry's aunt.
"Lead."
"Sir?"
"Lead us, foolish boy!"
"Y-y-yes, s-sir!"
Neville took off and Snape and Petunia followed him.
~*~*~*~*~
"Too many steps, too many steps – there he is!"
"Where?" asked Ron, trying to peer over Hermione's shoulder at the map as they rushed down the main staircase into the entrance hall.
"Right, right!" cried Hermione, breaking into a run. Ron followed her, losing sight of her once.
"Hermione!"
As he rounded a corner, he skidded to a halt. Hermione was standing there, still as a stone, staring down at the paper in her hands.
"Mione?"
"Wh-what's it mean if the dot's blinking?"
Ron frowned and peered over Hermione's shoulder. The two dots labeled 'Ronald Weasley' and 'Hermione Granger' were dark. As were the one's that said 'Neville Longbottom', 'Severus Snape', and 'Petunia Evans' that were coming up out of the dungeons.
But the dot to the right of Ron and Hermione's that was labeled 'Harry Potter' was flickering between existence and non-existence.
The two fifth years looked at each other then rushed for the door.
"Locked!" cried Ron.
Hermione, tears running down her cheeks, pointed her wand at the door and yelled, "Alohomora!"
The door sprang open and the two of them leapt inside.
Only to draw back.
"Merlin's beard…" gasped Ron, leaning against the doorframe.
"Oh, Harry," whimpered Hermione. She dropped the Map and her wand and rushed across the room to where a still and bloodied form lay, dropping to her knees beside it. Gently, very gently, she reached out and tried to brush some of the dark hair off his face. But the hair was caked with blood and her hand came away with it.
Harry's blood. Harry's blood on my hands…"Blessed serpents! HARRY!"
Petunia rushed into the room and started to continue over to Harry but she seemed to be going two ways at once. One minute she was going forward then she collapsed to the floor, sobbing.
Snape hurried into the room, his face paling as he saw Harry's battered form lying in a pool of his own blood.
"Move, Granger!" he snapped, flicking his wand at Harry's form. The boy's body lifted up off the floor, blood dripping down from it into the pool on the floor.
Drip, drip, drip.
"Weasley, Longbottom, bring Miss Evans to the Hospital Wing. Granger, go tell Madam Pomfrey to find every Healing Potion she has. Move, girl!"
Hermione nodded and sprinted out of the room, hearing Snape coming behind her with Harry. She picked up her speed, knowing she had to get to the Hospital Wing before Snape did.
And she made it in a record time.
"Madam Pomfrey?"
"What?" said the mediwitch, turning to look at her. "Oh, my dear, you're bleeding…"
Hermione looked at her hands and shook her head.
Harry's blood. Harry's blood on my hands…"Its not mine! Its Harry!"
"Harry?! OH MERCIFUL HEAVENS!"
Snape had come in with Harry and gently levitated him onto a bed. Madam Pomfrey hurried over to him and waved her wand over him for a moment before she snapped at the darkly clad man, "Every Healing Potion you have! Now!"
Snape nodded sharply and left at a run. As soon as he was gone, Neville and Ron appeared with Petunia leaned on them. She was staring blankly into space and mumbling, "Harry…sorry, sorry…"
"Put her over there!" snapped Madam Pomfrey. "Then out! Out!"
"But…" began Ron only to be cut off by Hermione.
"She said get out, Ron!"
Ron stared at her for a moment then nodded and left, Neville following nervously behind him. A few moments later Snape reappeared, a large basket full of potion bottles in his arms.
"Every one, Poppy. Blue first?"
"No, purple. Hurry, Severus, he's going!"
That was not what Hermione needed to hear. She clasped her hands over her mouth, ignoring the fact that Harry's blood was smeared across them, and watched with wide horrified eyes as the Potions Master and mediwitch attempted to save her best friend.
"Blue now, man! C'mon, Harry, stay with us!"
"Swallow, boy!"
Harry coughed and jerked and Snape reached out to rub his throat as Madam Pomfrey continued to wave her wand over him. The coughing subsided and Snape growled, "Don't die, boy."
"Green, Severus!"
"A moment, Poppy. A moment for the blue to go down…"
"We don't have a moment, Severus!"
"Then a moment shall have to give us time!" bellowed Snape. He then snatched up a phial full of a vicious green liquid and looped his arm behind Harry's head, lifting it up so he could pour the concoction into the boy's mouth. "Swallow, Potter!"
"Harry, stay with us. Stay with us!"
"Orange?"
"Yes, yes!"
Another potion went down Harry's throat.
"Severus, we're losing him!"
"We are not going to lose him!"
Snape pulled a phial of black liquid from his robes and Madam Pomfrey yelled, "No!"
"Its his only chance, woman!"
"Severus, no!"
"He lives with this," snarled Snape, clutching the phial in his hand. "He lives, woman."
"We don't know what it will do to him…"
"Then we shall find out!"
Snape lifted up Harry's head and pried his mouth open, flicking off the phial's cork with his thumb.
"No, Severus!"
"THIS IS HIS LIFE, WOMAN! Tuna's life."
Tuna? Thought Hermione through her horrified delirium. He thinks of food at this time?
"Severus…"
"Now or never, woman! Now or never!"
Black and blue gazes battled until blue looked away. Snape nodded and lifted the phial to Harry's lips. As the black liquid poured past the pale lips and was swallowed, Harry began to jerk. Violently.
"Hold him down!" commanded Snape, grabbing Harry's arm. "Hold him down, woman!"
This went on for a half-hour before Harry's violent movements subsided into small twitches. Madam Pomfrey glared at Snape over Harry's body, her eyes accusing.
"She will not be happy about this."
"I just saved her nephew's life," snarled Snape. "No matter my method, she will be thankful for it."
"Dark Magick, Severus! How dare you use such things on…"
"On this boy? You ask how I dare use a potion made specifically for Dark purposes on Harry?" Black eyes snapped with fire as he pointed at Petunia's still form lying on the bed and at Hermione, who was still staring at Harry's form in horror. "They are how I dare. I dare for them, Poppy. For Tuna and for Granger. Now take care of your charge."
Madam Pomfrey frowned at him but turned towards Harry, who was breathing evenly now.
Snape, meanwhile, took off his robes and the black shirt underneath it, both of which were soaked through with blood. The white shirt underneath was also bloody and he frowned at it before rolling up the sleeves. This done he walked over to Hermione, bending down slightly so he looked into her eyes.
"Miss Granger," he murmured.
Hermione tried to speak but could only whimper.
Snape seemed to nod with understanding and said, "Come, child." He took her shoulders in surprisingly gentle hands and steered her over to a bed. When she stared blankly at it, he grasped her about the waist and lifted her up onto it, forcing her to lie back. Then he lifted her head and opened her limp mouth, pouring a potion down into it. Hermione's eyelids fluttered as the Sleeping Draught took effect Snape pulled a blanket over her before he turned to do the same to Petunia, who had long since sobbed herself to sleep.
This done, he walked back over to Madam Pomfrey to help her clean the blood from the boy lying pale as death on the now red sheets.