Chapter 17 – Home Again
He wasn't breathing – he wasn't breathing!! Severus Snape clutched his face, all pretence of icy behaviour gone.
Then he screamed and fled to a nice, dark corner.
Well, it wasn't every day that a massive crowd of what looked like Azkaban escapees headed by your archenemy appeared in the school hospitable with no warning.
He blamed it on stress.
But Black didn't even spare him a glance. In fact, he untangled himself from the crowd and skidded across the floor to Harry's bed, antidote in hand.
Oh, right – Harry.
"Here – Draco found it." Sirius said, instantly paling at the blue shade of his godson's face.
Madam Pomfrey snatched the antidote out of Sirius' hands and in one swift movement, poured it down his throat while Remus magically enabled the swallow reflex.
Seconds seemed to tick by like hours, each making Sirius' heart sink lower and lower.
He couldn't be dead... he just couldn't be...
Just when he felt as though all was lost, Harry let out a choking gasp, and his face began to return to its normal colour.
He was breathing! Sirius let out a sigh of relief, grateful that he had been able to provide the antidote in time, Remus sank into a chair, and Madam Pomfrey began fanning herself with a lovely oriental fan that she had gotten as a gift from her daughter when she visited Japan.
Severus slowly emerged from his dark and shady corner, only to be run over by Draco.
"Is he ok? Is he better?" asked the frantic boy.
"He will be fine, Mr Malfoy." Albus Dumbledore remarked from his place by the bed, his twinkle in full flight. "Because of you five, I believe no lasting damage has been done. He will need some time to recover, but if all goes well, Mr Potter should be awake in less than two weeks."
Madam Pomfrey glared. That was her field.
Unfortunately, some of the prisoners caught onto that name and craned their heads to look.
"Well bless my soul, is that Harry Potter?!" Gasped a prisoner.
"It is!" cried another. "It's the Boy-Who-Lived!"
Madam Pomfrey glared at them and ripped the curtains around.
"Yeah, real smooth, twinkle man." Draco muttered from behind the divider.
Severus, who had peeled himself off the ground and slid back to his corner, caught Draco's comment and sniggered.
"Why Severus! I didn't see you there! Come over here."
And glowered. Damn.
He slunk out of his dark refuge and over to the Headmaster as he turned to the prisoners.
"Welcome to Hogwarts! Professor Snape will escort you to the guest quarters. House elves will be around shortly with food, and if any of you are in need of her services, the Professor will show you where to contact her."
The Potions Master groaned internally.
People. He hated people
-o-o-o-o-
As Snape sulkily swept them out of the Hospital Wing, Ella fought against the eager crowd of prisoners to get back inside.
"No – let me through – "
With a yell, she broke through the end and ran across the room, slipping behind the curtains. He was sleeping peacefully now, his hair mussed up wildly, hands clasped firmly in those of the people beside him.
"Um – what are you doing?" asked a familiar voice.
It couldn't be
Her head shot up and her eyes met the gaze of Remus Lupin.
They both choked.
Remus opened his mouth, then closed it, as if unsure what to say.
She was almost unrecognizable. Her hair, skin and raggedy clothes were dark brown with dirt, muck and dried blood, her eyes were sunken and her cheeks, hollow.
But underneath, it was still her.
"Ella?" He whispered.
Someone sputtered in the background, but she didn't care.
She smiled and launched herself across the bed into Remus' arms.
"I thought you were dead" he whispered, clinging onto her. "I thought you were dead. I'm so sorry."
Her eyebrows rose in surprise "It's not your fault, Rem. I'm here now – it doesn't matter."
"It is my fault! I was meant to know! Aren't twins meant to know? Aren't they? You spent seven years in that place! I thought he killed you! I thought – "
"Shhh Remus, calm down." She said soothingly to her hysterical brother. "It's not your fault, its not my fault, its no one's fault but Malfoy and Voldemort. You can't always save me."
Remus burst into tears and buried his head into her shoulder.
-o-o-o-o-
Severus glowered darkly as he slammed the door behind the prisoners as they settled into their quarters.
Bloody Dumbledore.
-o-o-o-o-
Seven days later
That morning, the castle was woken by a shrill scream as an ex-prisoner tried to break into the kitchens. Not realising, of course, that it was Professor McGonagall's quarters.
Elsewhere in the castle, Harry Potter finally opened his eyes.
He smiled lazily and stretched out his arms. Something on his leg jerked and emitted a strange noise. He froze and slowly reached for his glasses. When he put them on, he leapt back in surprise. For there on his bed, was not one thing, but four. They were all different sizes and colours, but Harry could tell they were all the same type. One thing was black, two were a sandy colour, and the last was a platinum colour that was almost white. They didn't look very dangerous, but Harry knew that looks could be deceiving. Take his 'invisibility' cloak for example. Harry stared at the things, waiting for them to do something, when one of them turned to the side. Harry blinked in surprise and peeked over the edge of his bed.
Oh, he thought, feeling incredibly stupid, they're heads.
Suddenly, the black-haired person snorted started to stir. They lifted their head and rubbed sleep out of their eyes, then smiled and stretched their arms.
Then their eyes focused on Harry. "Harry! You're awake!"
But Harry just stared...
"Harry?"
And stared...
"Harry, if you don't close your mouth soon, the flies will make a home in there."
And shut his mouth. And stared...
"Bloody hell – HARRY!"
Harry jerked himself out of his daze. "Sirius?!"
Sirius grinned. "Yep – it's me, kiddo!"
"But – huh?" Sirius waved his question off and leaned forward and wrapped Harry in a bear hug. Harry hugged him back, enjoying the feeling of being loved, until
"Sirius – you're choking me!" he wheezed.
"Oh, sorry" Sirius smiled sheepishly.
Harry breathed in deeply. "So, why am I in the Hospital Wing?"
Sirius smile dropped. "Do you remember what happened that night with Voldemort?"
"Yeah, last night?"
"Err... no. Actually, that was more than a week ago."
"What?!"
"Well, it seems that Malfoy," he spat,"decided to give you a potion. It's fatal, extremely painful and most definitely illegal. Not instant death though. The life expectancy of someone who has just consumed the Funuslente Potion is about two hours. You held on for a lot longer than you should have."
"Why am I still alive?" Harry asked.
"Draco." Sirius smiled "him and me went to Malfoy Manor to find the antidote. It took us a while, but we found it."
Harry nodded. "But – what exactly happened to me?"
Sirius sighed. "When you were brought in by Snape, you were sweating and hallucinating. You had an extremely high fever. Snape recognised the symptoms and Draco and I went to get the antidote from Malfoy Manor. Apparently, when we were gone, you had a series of convulsions, then you... stopped breathing. We came in at that time, which was about two and a half hours after you were administered the potion. When I gave you the antidote, you started to breathe again, your temperature went back to normal and your fever and hallucinations disappeared. You scared me to death, Harry."
"Sorry."
"No, it's not your fault. Just – I almost lost you. "The two sandy-haired people began to stir.
"About time!" Sirius remarked, his sombre mood gone. "I thought they'd never wake." Harry looked curiously at the figure next to yawning Remus. If he didn't know better, he would've thought Moony had changed himself into a girl.
"Harry, this is Moony's twin sister, Ella." Sirius said
The Lupin twins head's snapped up and they grinned. "Harry! You're awake!"
Harry regarded Ella closely for a moment, before his face brightened in recognition. "I remember you! You're Wolfy!" Ella fell off the bed in surprise, waking up Draco, and causing the others to laugh.
"How – how'd you know that?" she asked from her spot on the floor.
"No idea." Harry shrugged
"Yeah, he did that to me too" Remus said. "Scared me to no end!"
Sirius smiled and reached out a hand to hoist Ella off the floor.
Harry raised his eyebrows after about 30 seconds. Surely she didn't need to hold onto his hand for that long.
"What?" Sirius said, and hurriedly let go. Ella blushed. Remus let out what sounded strangely like a giggle. Harry laughed.
His gaze travelled over to where Draco was finally opening his eyes. As he caught sight of the raven haired boy, Draco's eyes widened and he opened his mouth, but Harry cut him off.
"Draco, don't you dare tell me I'm awake." He warned
Draco grinned sleepily. "Harry, you're awake!"
Harry grabbed his pillow and whacked him over the head, while the adults laughed and Draco yelled in protest. It was at this point in time that Madam Pomfrey decided to come in.
"Mr Potter, you're awake!" the other's laughed, but Harry rolled his eyes and smiled.
"Hello, Madam Pomfrey."
"Oh, dear boy, you gave me such a fright. Do you feel alright? Do you hurt anywhere? I told these ragamuffins to leave, but they weren't having any of it!"
"I'm fine Mrs Pomfrey, I – " Harry was cut off by a muffled thud and yell on the other side of the Hospital Wing door.
"Harry's awake, guys! He's awake!"
The door burst open and in piled Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Percy and Oliver Wood, who Harry had met one day when walking through the halls. (Absolutely obsessed with some sport called Quidditch. He wouldn't stop talking about it! Especially when Harry mentioned he didn't know what Quidditch was...)
As the others crowded around his bed and bombarded him with questions, Harry saw another figure pause at the door.
They stepped hesitantly into the room, face bowed. But Harry waited patiently, and when the figure raised his head unsurely, Harry smiled. 'Thank you' he mouthed.
And slowly and uncertainly, Professor Snape smiled a little back.
THE END
A/N: Not too happy with how some bits in this chapter turned out, but oh well. Hope you liked it anyway!
Epilogue time!