Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters.
The Phantom Potion
Chapter 1
Harry woke up to find his world crashing down around him. The one true love of his life, Hermione was dying. She lay in the hospital wing unconscious, unable to speak or move. It seemed that she was slowly slipping from his grip. All he had were lost memories and unspoken feelings. He longed to tell Hermione about his true feelings, but could never muster up the courage to tell her. So Harry lay in his four-poster bed letting his feelings all come out. An unwanted tear rolled down Harry's cheek. Slowly he wiped it away and stared at the ceiling thinking of lost love.
Just then he heard Ron standup. Harry quickly changed the sadness on his face to a blank expression as he swung his feet out of bed. Ron, knowing Harry for 6 years now could sense when there was something bothering Harry. "What's wrong?" Ron asked, already knowing it was Hermione's condition that was bothering Harry. Ron didn't know how much Hermione had really meant to Harry.
"Nothing Harry replied", but he didn't really mean it. He never shared his true feelings with any one, and that was the one mistake he made with Hermione. Harry felt ashamed of his cowardice, this being his sixth year and he hadn't been able to tell one of his best friends his true feelings.
Nothing else was said until breakfast. Harry looked across the large table to see Ron looking crestfallen. Then Harry changed his glance to the Raven-Claw table. He saw Cho laughing and talking with her friends. Not a care in the world. Harry remembered back to the relationship that he had with her the year before. It was a scattered mess. Harry felt if Cho had tried to use him to help forget her sad memories of Cedric. She soon found out that not anyone or anything could take the place of Cedric.
"Harry!" Ron yelled across the table. Harry was quickly brought back to the present. "Your going to miss your first class." Harry looked around to see the Great Hall almost empty. He had spent too much time on his useless memories that he didn't have time to see Hermione in the Hospital wing. He chugged his way up the marble steps to his first class, The History of Magic. As he sat in class he couldn't keep himself from thinking of Hermione. What else was there to say? He loved her, and there was nothing he could do to save her, for she was bitten by a silver snake. The snake had lived in the Forbidden Forest. It had the power to imprison ones sole and mind in an unbreakable fortress. The snake had bitten Hermione in her left ankle while they were in Care of Magical Creatures Class. Hagrid, their teacher wasn't punished for Herminie's condition. His class was just suspended until the silver snake was found.
The bell sounded, and Harry almost fell out of his seat. He had wasted another portion of is day on memories. Ron approached Harry and told him every thing was going to be alright. But it wasn't. For the next two classes Harry had kept to himself, thinking about any thing that would take his mind off of Hermione. Suddenly it was lunch time. The day continued pretty much like it had before until his Occlumency lesson after dinner with Professor Snape. Harry dreaded these lessons although he was learning a lot of useful information. He walked down to Snape's dungeon, and knocked on the giant wooden doors.
"Come in." said an eerie voice from somewhere in the room. Harry walked in to see Snape's black eyes staring right at him. Even though Snape detested Harry, he found enough sympathy within himself to try to comfort him. "I'm sorry about Hermione." He said. This sounded weird to Harry, for he had never heard Snape even mutter a word of kindness towards any one. He was surprised and astounded at this new found attitude from Snape.
"Well there's nothing I can do about it now." Harry replied trying to pursue Snape's good attitude.
"Maybe there is something that we could do to help her." Snape said in a mildly nice voice." Then Snape told Harry all about the Phantom potion. It would allow him to temporarily turn into a phantom and enter Hermione's mind. After he was in her mind, he could communicate with her and maybe find away to rescue her from her clairvoyant prison. Once inside her mind, he might be able to find away to help her.
