Disclaimed!
Author's note: Review please! Also sorry about all the cliff-hangers.
The Basement
By Marz
Chapter 7: Defense Against Sanity
"Now what do you see?"
I squinted and turned my head a bit to the side. "It looks like a fish, that's exploded."
The woman shuffled the card to the back of the pile. Her enchanted quill scribbled something down. I'm not very good at reading things upside down, but I'm pretty sure it was writing more then just "Exploded Fish". She pulled up the next card. It looked like a cat that had exploded. I told her so.
The ink blots were annoying, and I wanted to go to sleep, but they were a hundred times better then the curse expert from the Department of Mysteries. That lunatic had wanted samples of everything. She pulled out a fist full of my hair. (I'm very concerned there is a bald spot in back now.) She took blood samples, spit sample and samples of just about every other fluid you can ring out of a person. She told me, within six to eight weeks, they would know whether Black had put any mind controlling spells on me.
They also thought I had cracked up a bit too. I'd gone through two mental health experts from St. Mungo's before the card woman. I don't think I was doing too well. The card woman tapped the stack with her wand and they disappeared in a flash and a puff of smoke.
"That looks like a pile of cards, exploding." I said to her.
She didn't smile, but her quill took some more notes. I thought we were finished, but then she conjured up a list.
"I'm going to say a word to you and I want you to tell me the first thing that comes into your head when I say it. Do you understand?"
I wanted to say no, but I knew that would only make this take longer. I nodded.
"Tree," She said.
"Sleep." I responded.
"Road," She said.
"Sleep."
"Alone," she said.
"Sleep."
"Mice," she said.
As I responded sleep for the fourth time I grew rather amazed that this person ever got any kind of acknowledgement for understanding how people think. I tried yawning while I answered sleep to the next word, but she still didn't catch on.
When I woke up in the hospital wing six hours ago, I thought things would be back to normal. I think perhaps my middle name should be "Wrong" instead of "James".
My head rang with echoing voices and screams. I tried to move just my toes, but my legs ached so badly it was almost impossible. I was cold and shaking. I didn't care where I was, all I knew was that something bad had happened and it wasn't over yet. There was a tiny scraping noise. I could just hear it over the fading rush in my ears. Then I remembered.
I sat bolt upright, clawing at the lingering slimy cold that had sunk into my neck and face. It's a good thing I chew my nails or I could have done real damage to myself. I was still making babbling noises of disgusted protest when someone caught my hands and pulled them away from my face. At first I thought those things were back and I fought. Then I noticed the hands grabbing me weren't cold, slimy, and putrid. Well, they were a little bit slimy. The guy had sweaty hands, but I wasn't going to hold it against him.
He was talking to me, saying stuff like "You're safe", and "They're gone. They can't get to you in here."
I stopped trying to dig the dead feeling out of my skin and looked at him. The man hanging onto me was sort of old looking. His face was lined, and he had a lot of gray hair mixed in with the brown, but he didn't have age spots on his hands, or that cool papery feeling skin that real old people usually get. His robes were thread bare and patched and he looked dead tired. Over his shoulder I saw the Hogwarts hospital wing.
"I'm b-b-b-back," I said, inspecting the hospital around me very carefully, incase it was some sort of trick. "There were things at the gate. They were trying to…they grabbed me and…"
The man nodded. "The Dementors were stationed there to catch Sirius Black, but now that they've shown they can't be controlled the Headmaster will be able to send them away." He paused for a moment and took something off of the bed side table. I was a little surprised when a huge bar of chocolate was set in my hands. "Eat that. It will help. I'm going tell Madam Pomfrey and the Headmaster that you're awake." He turned and headed for the door.
"T-thank you." I called.
He nodded and walked out, closing the door behind him. I heard a little click, and realized he'd locked the door. My stomach clenched. I set the bar of chocolate on the pillow and climbed out of bed, still shaking. Slowly I made my way to the door. I tugged on the handle, but it was locked. The door was locked. I pulled on the handle again, rattling it. My heart sped up. There didn't seem to be enough air in the room. I started to think there wasn't enough air getting in under the door. I was going to suffocate if I didn't do something.
Madam Pomfrey will be back to open it in a minute or two, I told myself. Don't hyperventilate! You'll just use up your air faster. I almost slapped myself when I remembered the hospital wing had windows. I went over and opened them all. It got very cold then and the curtains were whipping around in huge gusts of wind. I took a deep contented breath and then went back to bed. I had just finished off the chocolate when the army arrived.
Dumbledore was in the lead. He paused in the door way in inspect the curtains, then came right up to the bed side. I think he knew I wasn't cursed or insane or something. No one else seemed to want to stand too near me though. Well the strange sort of old looking man may have, but he was at the back of the group and I don't think he wanted to shove his way through all those bizarre people.
"How are you Harry?" Dumbledore asked.
"I'm alright," I told him.
He nodded. I think if it were up to him I'd be allowed to go back to my dorm, and check on Ron and Hermione. Dumbledore told me they were fine when I asked, but they can't visit me until I am declared un-crazy.
The group that followed Dumbledore in was made up of nine people I did not know, and one I wish I didn't. Snape was sneering at me from the Headmaster's left. I bet he was wishing Black had killed me. Snape didn't say anything though. I was introduced to the rest of the group. I only took note of two names though, the rest were Ministry workers of some sort. The old looking man was Professor Lupin, the new defense teacher. The tall black wizard with the shaved head was Kingsley Shacklebolt. He was an Auror, which made him entirely cool. He interviewed me right there, about where I had been and what Sirius Black now looked like. I told him about how Black had let me go in Hogsmead. I left out the creepy hug, but I did mention Black's hair cut. I told him about the hitchhiking route we had taken and how we had started out at Grimmauld place. I described the house to him as well as I could. Then things got a bit odd.
"Harry, did Black ever talk to you at any length?" Shacklebolt asked. He had this really calm voice, so it was easy to listen to him. "Did Black ever tell you why he abducted you or why he let you go?"
I was about to reiterate Black's nutty tale about the Animagus rat that had framed him for murder when I heard it. I don't know how I did, with the curtains blowing all over the place and people shuffling their feet and coughing, and whispering not so quietly. Maybe it was only in my head, but before I could launch the tale of how Black was after Peter, I heard the scrabbling of tiny feet across the stone floor.
I froze for a second, straining to hear where the sound had come from, but it was gone. I started thinking then, what if Black was telling the truth. Not entirely maybe, the guy was well short of sane. I wanted to see him tucked away in a nice padded room to be honest. But what if there really was an Animagus rat running around the school. He could get into the hospital wing, no problem, and he could be listening to every word I say, and if he really is capable of murder…
"Black said I wasn't safe," I told the Auror after a long pause. "He said I was surrounded by people who worked for Voldemort and that he'd promised someone a long time ago that he'd look out for me. He wouldn't tell me who though. He let me go after I promised I'd keep an eye out for some guy named Peter."
Over my head people were firing significant glances at each other like bullets. I hate when people do that. I think they knew the Peter that Black had spoken of. Shacklebolt seemed to be in a hurry to go then. He asked me to write down the details of my kidnapping, and send them to him as soon as possible. I told him I would and he swept out of the hospital. I thought I'd be free to go then, but the rest of the group wanted more details about what had happened to me.
I did a little too much editing, I think, but I could have gotten away with it if it wasn't for stupid Snape. He's probably the person I hate most on the entire planet. He's the worst teacher in the world and every student hates him, except the one's in his own house, who he lets get away with everything. I think Dumbledore only hired him to build character or something in the student body. You know prepare us for all the jerks we would run into later in life. Dumbledore is a bit insane himself, so I wouldn't put it by him, to do something like that.
I had left out Black being an Animagus and I had left out the spell he taught me, in case there really was an evil rat listening in. I left out my aborted attempt to cut Black's throat. I shouldn't have, but I didn't want to talk about it. Snape would have sneered at me for being too weak to do it, and he'd probably comment on it every time he saw me. I thought I might tell Dumbledore about it later, but as I finished up my story for the tenth time Snape butted in.
"Is that all you remember Potter?" He didn't sound particularly mean when he said it. That should have given me a hint he was up to something, but I just said yes.
"You remember nothing else? Nothing else at all?" He got a look on his face, as if had said something very clever.
"No I can't think of anything."
Snape turned to Dumbledore then. "I suggest the boy be checked for memory charms and controlling curses Headmaster. He's obviously been tampered with."
"What do you mean?" I asked loudly. "I haven't been tampered with!"
"If you were in complete possession of your own faculties Potter, surely you would have mentioned what Black did to your face?"
"What do you mean? There's nothing wrong with my face."
Snape waved his wand and conjured a mirror in front of me. The first thing I noticed was the scar. Not the famous lightening shaped one in the center of my forehead, but the new one. The one I'd accidentally given myself with the straight razor. I'd forgotten about it after I'd picked the bandage off my face.
It was pretty big. It ran from the center of my nose across my right cheek, under my eye. It was pinkish compared with the rest of my skin, and it bulged out a little bit.
I tried to think of a good excuse for how I got it. Black was a nut, but I didn't want to lie about him and say he sliced me up, but I didn't want to tell the rest of the story in front of Snape either. So I said something stupid.
"Black didn't do that. I fell down."
"You fell down?" Snape asked.
I nodded.
"And the floor was exceptionally sharp?"
"No I fell and…"
He cut me off before I could finish. That may have been a good thing since all I could think to say was that I had been running with scissors.
"A Confundus Charm if I am not mistaken. We should test for others as well. He could be under the Imperious Curse and not know it until he attacked another student."
Dumbledore looked as if he were going to speak up for me. But he was drowned out by the crowd of Ministry workers shouting for tests and conformations and forms filled out in triplicate. Dumbledore eventually regained control with a polite cough.
"Harry," he said. "Are you feeling well enough to take few tests this evening? I know you are tired and have been through a great ordeal, but it may be better to get this over with and out of the way."
Thinking I would have to have a few wands waved at me and maybe drink a potion or two, I said I was perfectly able to take some tests.
Did I mention I hate Snape?
I still haven't found out how I got away from those Dementor things Professor Lupin mentioned, or what how Black ended up with Hermione's wand. I think I'll be done with the tests pretty soon though. I've said "sleep" fifty seven times so far. I think this witch is finally starting to catch on.
"Grocery Store."
"Sleep."
"Stew."
"Sleep."
Or not.