Chapter Five – A Revelation
That afternoon Vasco and I lounged around in our room. Vasco had a battered quaffle and was playing with it. Meanwhile, I sat in my bed and rifled through the photo album that Hagrid compiled for me in my first year at Hogwarts.
"What was up with you today?" Vasco asked. "Dr Bell went nuts."
I paused for a minute and raised my eyebrows.
"Well, not really, but you still freaked us out."
"I'm sorry," I said, although I really didn't feel that way.
"No matter," Vasco replied. "What are you looking at?"
I shut my photo album and passed it to him. "They're photographs of my parents," I replied.
Vasco relieved the leather bound tome from my hands and flicked through the pages, "It's no wonder you have a thing for red heads. You mother was one." He pointed at my mum on the photo of my parents' wedding day, with Sirius as the Best Man.
"Well … it's part of it," I said. "But there was a time when I had a thing for Oriental women."
"Oh yeah, Cho," said Vasco as he remembered. "I don't know WHAT you may have been thinkin', man. She was slightly pretty but she was a wh-."
"Don't refer to anyone like that," I snapped. Even if it was only Cho, I didn't like it.
"Sorry man," Vasco apologised. "Anywho, what was the deal with you running off like that?"
"I had thirty squares of tissue."
"So?"
"I didn't want to reveal THAT much about myself."
"Why not?" Vasco pressed on.
"Because."
"Because why?"
"Because."
"Harry," Vasco said as he walked over and sat next to me on the bed. "You're going to have to learn not to bottle up your feelings and close yourself off to other people, because when you finally crack underneath all that pressure you'll explode and I'll be left cleaning your guts off the walls."
If Vasco was trying to be funny, it wasn't working.
"I have to admit," he continued, "When I came to Silverwater I was as nasty as the next Malfoy-."
"You know Malfoy?" I asked.
"Who doesn't?" Vasco replied. "Anyway, to save us from a bloody long lecture, what I'm really getting at is that Dr Bell is here to help you and all you're doing is being a cow to her."
"She's the cow, not me."
"She HAS to be harsh with you because if I were to be frank, you're being a right pain in the arse!"
I was angry at Vasco then. Since when did he become so … Hermione-ish (albeit less eloquent, of course.)
"Don't tell me what I am," I snapped. "I already feel low as it is. Why else do you think I'm in a mental institution?"
"Correctional Facility Asylum," Vasco corrected me. "Anyway, I'm on the same boat as you, despite the fact that I am to be discharged soon. Hey, you will get through this." He wrapped one arm around my shoulders. "Look, I promise that when you are out in the big bad world with me again, I'll look out for you. Then you'll have me as well as Ron and Helena-."
"Hermione," I corrected him. Vasco knew about Ron and Hermione through me, of course. Ron and Hermione, along with Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys, were all I ever spoke about.
"Buddy, I know it sounds cheesy, but you're not alone."
"They all hate me," I said angrily. I knew it wasn't true, but it just felt like the right thing to say at the time.
"They don't hate you," Vasco contradicted me.
"Then why do you think they chucked me in here?" I cried.
"Because they love you and they want what's best for you. Goodness, Harry Potter. You're supposed to be relatively intelligent. Even the dumbest lemming can figure this out for themselves."
"I still feel crap," I said.
"If you keep telling me that you WILL be crap."
"Yeah, thanks," I said sarcastically.
"Look," Vasco said before resuming to play around with the quaffle that was falling apart at the seams, "do you really want to be here any longer? Get yourself together."
"You know," I added on a brighter note. "You're sort of … smart. Why do you play the dumb act?"
"I dunno." Vasco shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps I do it to piss Regan off."
The two of us laughed together, like old pals.
~**~
A week after her arrival, I got to know Olivia Hunter a little better. The two of us happened to sit next to each other in the dining room by accident and before we knew it, we were exchanging information about each other as if they were Chocolate Frog cards. Within the time span of an hour, I learnt that she had an older brother called Vladimir and that she had a penchant for jazz music.
In turn, she learnt that my friends were Ron and Hermione and that the Weasleys were almost like a second family to me. She told me that through what she could gather, she got the impression that being part of a family meant the world to me.
"I lived with the Dursleys until I was seventeen," I told her as I dug into my steak and pudding. "They're my aunt and uncle, by the way. They basically treated me like dung and treated their son – my cousin – like a prince. Just think about it; my cousin turned to be a criminal and is in prison and I ended up in a nuthouse. It just goes to show what great people they were, doesn't it?"
"Are THEY the reason why you're here?" Liv asked. "Do you reckon so?"
"Who knows?" I replied through a mouthful of food. "If you actually assessed my life, you'd learn that I've been living in a cupboard for ten years – and then I learnt that my parents DIDN'T die in a car accident. Rather, they were killed by the most evil wizard since Grindelwald. And then Voldemort [Liv winced here] himself tries to eat me alive once again in first year, second year, fourth year, fifth year, sixth year and seventh year. I get abysmal NEWTs despite all hard effort and then my girlfriend dies. I'm not exactly the happiest person alive, am I?"
If she were Regan or Vasco, they would've slapped me across the face and told me to get a grip on myself. However, Liv shook her head slowly and sadly.
"And you finally cracked," she whispered. "Well, it's not wonder. I would've cracked as well."
"Yeah, well, things happen like that do they?" I grunted. I didn't just crack. There was much more to the situation then just cracking under the pressure.
Liv patted my hand sympathetically. "Not always," she said.
I didn't reply, simply because I didn't know what to say. She was right, just like Ginny would have been. Just as I was going to give her my thanks for her sympathy, ear-piercing yells which almost shattered the windows were heard. I saw everybody freeze on their spots and then glace around, finding the source of the commotion.
"Do not make such a racket! You'll embarrass the both of us!" said a distinctly female voice.
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" yelled another, this time male.
Liv and I gave each other bewildered looks and then walked out of the dining room and into the main foyer.
What I saw made the colour escape my face and my hands became clammy and wet. I saw two male nurses trying (but failing) to physically restrain a young man. A woman was trying her hardest to calm the other man down. The woman herself was wearing billowing black robes and had pale, beautifully refined features. The man looked two decades younger than the woman and had platinum blond hair and a pale, pointed face. I could only infer one thing.
Draco Malfoy had come to Silverwater.
**************************************************************
Please review
Next chapter: The Rock in My Shoe
That afternoon Vasco and I lounged around in our room. Vasco had a battered quaffle and was playing with it. Meanwhile, I sat in my bed and rifled through the photo album that Hagrid compiled for me in my first year at Hogwarts.
"What was up with you today?" Vasco asked. "Dr Bell went nuts."
I paused for a minute and raised my eyebrows.
"Well, not really, but you still freaked us out."
"I'm sorry," I said, although I really didn't feel that way.
"No matter," Vasco replied. "What are you looking at?"
I shut my photo album and passed it to him. "They're photographs of my parents," I replied.
Vasco relieved the leather bound tome from my hands and flicked through the pages, "It's no wonder you have a thing for red heads. You mother was one." He pointed at my mum on the photo of my parents' wedding day, with Sirius as the Best Man.
"Well … it's part of it," I said. "But there was a time when I had a thing for Oriental women."
"Oh yeah, Cho," said Vasco as he remembered. "I don't know WHAT you may have been thinkin', man. She was slightly pretty but she was a wh-."
"Don't refer to anyone like that," I snapped. Even if it was only Cho, I didn't like it.
"Sorry man," Vasco apologised. "Anywho, what was the deal with you running off like that?"
"I had thirty squares of tissue."
"So?"
"I didn't want to reveal THAT much about myself."
"Why not?" Vasco pressed on.
"Because."
"Because why?"
"Because."
"Harry," Vasco said as he walked over and sat next to me on the bed. "You're going to have to learn not to bottle up your feelings and close yourself off to other people, because when you finally crack underneath all that pressure you'll explode and I'll be left cleaning your guts off the walls."
If Vasco was trying to be funny, it wasn't working.
"I have to admit," he continued, "When I came to Silverwater I was as nasty as the next Malfoy-."
"You know Malfoy?" I asked.
"Who doesn't?" Vasco replied. "Anyway, to save us from a bloody long lecture, what I'm really getting at is that Dr Bell is here to help you and all you're doing is being a cow to her."
"She's the cow, not me."
"She HAS to be harsh with you because if I were to be frank, you're being a right pain in the arse!"
I was angry at Vasco then. Since when did he become so … Hermione-ish (albeit less eloquent, of course.)
"Don't tell me what I am," I snapped. "I already feel low as it is. Why else do you think I'm in a mental institution?"
"Correctional Facility Asylum," Vasco corrected me. "Anyway, I'm on the same boat as you, despite the fact that I am to be discharged soon. Hey, you will get through this." He wrapped one arm around my shoulders. "Look, I promise that when you are out in the big bad world with me again, I'll look out for you. Then you'll have me as well as Ron and Helena-."
"Hermione," I corrected him. Vasco knew about Ron and Hermione through me, of course. Ron and Hermione, along with Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys, were all I ever spoke about.
"Buddy, I know it sounds cheesy, but you're not alone."
"They all hate me," I said angrily. I knew it wasn't true, but it just felt like the right thing to say at the time.
"They don't hate you," Vasco contradicted me.
"Then why do you think they chucked me in here?" I cried.
"Because they love you and they want what's best for you. Goodness, Harry Potter. You're supposed to be relatively intelligent. Even the dumbest lemming can figure this out for themselves."
"I still feel crap," I said.
"If you keep telling me that you WILL be crap."
"Yeah, thanks," I said sarcastically.
"Look," Vasco said before resuming to play around with the quaffle that was falling apart at the seams, "do you really want to be here any longer? Get yourself together."
"You know," I added on a brighter note. "You're sort of … smart. Why do you play the dumb act?"
"I dunno." Vasco shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps I do it to piss Regan off."
The two of us laughed together, like old pals.
~**~
A week after her arrival, I got to know Olivia Hunter a little better. The two of us happened to sit next to each other in the dining room by accident and before we knew it, we were exchanging information about each other as if they were Chocolate Frog cards. Within the time span of an hour, I learnt that she had an older brother called Vladimir and that she had a penchant for jazz music.
In turn, she learnt that my friends were Ron and Hermione and that the Weasleys were almost like a second family to me. She told me that through what she could gather, she got the impression that being part of a family meant the world to me.
"I lived with the Dursleys until I was seventeen," I told her as I dug into my steak and pudding. "They're my aunt and uncle, by the way. They basically treated me like dung and treated their son – my cousin – like a prince. Just think about it; my cousin turned to be a criminal and is in prison and I ended up in a nuthouse. It just goes to show what great people they were, doesn't it?"
"Are THEY the reason why you're here?" Liv asked. "Do you reckon so?"
"Who knows?" I replied through a mouthful of food. "If you actually assessed my life, you'd learn that I've been living in a cupboard for ten years – and then I learnt that my parents DIDN'T die in a car accident. Rather, they were killed by the most evil wizard since Grindelwald. And then Voldemort [Liv winced here] himself tries to eat me alive once again in first year, second year, fourth year, fifth year, sixth year and seventh year. I get abysmal NEWTs despite all hard effort and then my girlfriend dies. I'm not exactly the happiest person alive, am I?"
If she were Regan or Vasco, they would've slapped me across the face and told me to get a grip on myself. However, Liv shook her head slowly and sadly.
"And you finally cracked," she whispered. "Well, it's not wonder. I would've cracked as well."
"Yeah, well, things happen like that do they?" I grunted. I didn't just crack. There was much more to the situation then just cracking under the pressure.
Liv patted my hand sympathetically. "Not always," she said.
I didn't reply, simply because I didn't know what to say. She was right, just like Ginny would have been. Just as I was going to give her my thanks for her sympathy, ear-piercing yells which almost shattered the windows were heard. I saw everybody freeze on their spots and then glace around, finding the source of the commotion.
"Do not make such a racket! You'll embarrass the both of us!" said a distinctly female voice.
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" yelled another, this time male.
Liv and I gave each other bewildered looks and then walked out of the dining room and into the main foyer.
What I saw made the colour escape my face and my hands became clammy and wet. I saw two male nurses trying (but failing) to physically restrain a young man. A woman was trying her hardest to calm the other man down. The woman herself was wearing billowing black robes and had pale, beautifully refined features. The man looked two decades younger than the woman and had platinum blond hair and a pale, pointed face. I could only infer one thing.
Draco Malfoy had come to Silverwater.
**************************************************************
Please review
Next chapter: The Rock in My Shoe
