Harry jerked awake, eyes flying open as he tumbled from the chair he didn't remember ever climbing into. Hell, he didn't even remember leaving the dungeons!
Shivering violently from the cold of the rooms, Harry wrapped his arms around himself and curled back into the chair he'd just been so rudely deposited from, glancing around the room in surprise.
He was obviously still in the dungeons, if the lack of windows was anything to go by. Well, that and the frigid coldness that spoke of being far away from any source of sunlight and heat.
What was going on here? Where was Professor Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione? Clenching his teeth tightly togeather, Harry forced his mind to empty, as he had been practicing over the summer and throughout most of the school year with Professor Snape. As long as the man himself wasn't there, it was actually quite a bit easier.
He had to think calmly, and rationally about this. What had he missed? What wasn't he taking into account?
Closing his eyes, as if that would better able him to see what lay just beyond his grasp, Harry forced himself to replay everything that had happened thus far throughout the past couple of days.
While asleep in his bed, he had been transported, through ancient Vampire magics, to a vision of a possible future that would take place if all the creatures of the land did not unite against Voldemort. There, he had met the Elven Princess Illiandra, and togeather they had recieved the message from the Vampire Mikhail.
Odd, that he bore such a remarkable resemblance to the ancient vampire. But that was of no importance.
Mikhail had then returned to the ........ material world, for lack of a better word, with him. They had headed to Professor Dumbledore's office, and he had believed that his part in this little debacle would soon be over and done with. But an argument had broken out between the headmaster and Mikhail, resulting in ........ something. This was the part that he was slightly fuzzy on, but Mikahil had done SOMETHING to him. It had been like pain and pleasure mixed, swirling togeather in a vortex of illusion until he couldn't seperate one from the other.
And he had woken up in the Great Hall, a short distance from Professor Severus Snape, along with several other Hogwarts residents. Before anybody could really do anything, though, besides Snape attempting to approach him, he had felt a sharp tug at his navel, kind of like when a portkey was activated. And again, consciousness had left him.
When he had awoken again, he had found himself staring into the eyes of Draco Malofy, tattered, dirty, and dressed like some sort of homeless Muggle. He was obviously older by several years, if the haggard lines on his face and the weariness in his eyes were anything to go by. And it was just as obvous, from the way he had talked, that his sanity had left him quite some time ago.
After Draco had fallen asleep in what was obviously used as his bed - a hold in the wall, really - Harry had found himself wandering the halls of Hogwarts by himself, attempting to find somebody -- anybody -- that could explain just what had happened here. Or who at least wasn't quite so deranged as Malfoy seemed to have become.
And that was how he had found Neville. Neville had mentioned something about ........ an attack. About him dying in that attack, actually. When he'd tried to explain just what had happened befor ehe appeared here, though, Neville had steadfastly refused to believe him, continuing to talka bout that same attack.
And then, it had happened again. The sharp tug at his navel, and the blessed blackness that was REALLY starting to annoy him. Just as he began to get a glimpse of what this world was like, what had happened here, he was rippe daway from the first SANE person that he had found.
He'd worken in what seemed to be the same .... time? This time, however, he had been in the Great Hall yet again, and again he was faced with the visage of Draco Malfoy, who actually seemed to be a bit more lucid this time around. He, too, had spoken of some sort of battle, some sort of cataclysmic event.
It was around that time that the changes in his body had occurred -- the ability to see clearly and perfectly without the aid of his glasses, the way he seemed to have more energy than he normally did. Small things, but noticeable all the same. He had woken beside Malfoy in his strange little bed -- if you could call it that. Again, it was really just a hole carved into the wall.
He'd left Malfoy sleeping there, taking again to wandering the halls. Nice Malfoy was almost as bad as Insane Malfoy. He'd headed back up to the Gryffindor Common Rooms, but had somehow managed to find himself in the Dungeons by heading UP a flight of stairs. Hogwarts was a magical school, true, but ........ did that sort of thing happen often, and he'd just never noticed it before?
He'd become lost easily, and opened up the nearest door, only to find a small, dark-haired and sharp-nosed boy playing with potions ingredients as if they were his favourite toys. When the boy had wavered and dissappeared, as if the reception on a telivision screen had suddenly gone bad, however, he had lost it.
He'd run, run as if his life depnded on it ........ and ended up curled into a corner in the Dungeons, shaking like a leaf with tears running down his face. He just couldn't take it all anymore -- the fear and adreniline had finially caught up to him.
That was where Snape had found him. They'd spoken shortly, although Snape, too, had obviously been effected by whatever madness had overtaken Malfoy, and possibly even Neville. Although, Neville had seemed quite lucid while they were talking. But then again, Malfoy had seemed pretty normal t he second time around, as well. Well, normal if you didn't count how nice he had been acting.
And that was how he had ended up here. Snape had somehow, without the use of a wand, cast a sleeping spell upon him, and carried him -- or perhaps levitated him? -- back to what he could only assume was the Professor's quarters.
So now what? If the sound of running water was anything to go by, the older man was obviously clearning up. Not something he wante dto interrupt, really. Other than the fact that he would probably be hexed into oblivion for doing so, he really didn't want to see SNAPE naken, or anything even close to it.