Chapter five - Fainting Spells

The other four first year students were sorted quickly enough, Dumbledore made a ridiculous speech using four, as far as Harry was aware, made up words, and the feast began.

Harry looked down at the food all over the table, that including everything from sprouts to roast chicken to humbugs, normally it would have made Harry's mouth watered. However, merely looking at it alone, completely disregarding the smell, Harry felt queasy, like his was going to throw up at any moment. He looked up, and tried to focus his attention onto something else, but all he could see was the other students eating, a sight that only made him feel worse.

"Are you alright?" asked an older student, one slightly bolder, it seemed, than the rest and covered with a fair few spots. Several other students near him had expressions of concern on their faces, as did the girl who spoke to him.

"N-no, not really," Harry said, swallowing. "I r-really don't feel too good at all..."

And with that Harry fainted and chaos erupted from the Hufflepuff table, fearing whatever had caused one of their number to faint was within the food or something.

The Ravenclaws, Gryffindors and Slytherins stared at their schoolmates, wondering what the matter was. The professors did too, and then it seemed Dumbledore understood.

"Quiet!" Dumbledore roared as the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables caught sight of the unconscious Harry Potter and started to panic as well. Every panicker within the Hall stopped immediately and stared at him. "Professor Sprout, please take Mr Potter to the Hospital Wing. Professor Snape, check on Black. This may have something to do with their bond."

Severus Snape growled as he stalked through the halls of Hogwarts. Trust a Potter to do something like this, fainting at the Welcoming feast. It was one of the most moronic ideas he had ever heard of, and was most probably an act, especially considering that Sirius bloody Black was involved. It wouldn't have surprised him if Black had put Potter up to this, as a joke.

Oh yes, that would be about right. Snape could just imagine the two of them having planned it the night before, to get one over on the school. It would just be the kind of thing Black would do. The mutt had always loved to joke around, and somehow Snape doubted that any amount of time in Azkaban had changed that. No doubt that because the Potter boy had spent his entire childhood around Black the boy loved to joke around too. Oh yes, he could just imagine it. Black and a five year old Harry Potter pranking human and dementor guards of Azkaban alike.

No, Snape thought with a smirk. That thought was completely ridiculous. They wouldn't prank dementors; they wouldn't have gotten any reaction at all from the soul suckers, besides perhaps a large amount of their emotions eaten up. Oh yes, that would sound about right.

The Potions Master turned a corner, and a thought came to his mind. It was not an unpleasant thought; if anything it was one of the most pleasant thoughts he had had come into his head in a long time. The thought was that maybe karma did exist. It was a muggle idea, but then muggles, as much as he was loathed to admit it, did seem to know a lot more about the world than wizards. Perhaps karma was one of the things that muggles knew to be true that wizards had never even thought about.

It did seem plausible though, looking at the way things seemed to have gone for Black over the years. Karma was, from what Snape understood, basically cosmic payback for things people did wrong. If Karma did exist, that it certainly existed in Black. The mongrel had made Snape's life hell during the school year when they had both been attending Hogwarts, and Black had spent the last ten years going through hell in a place where most went insane or committed suicide within a year. Usually both. Oh yes, life could be cruel, Snape knew, but life could also be one of your best friends who sought revenge for a lot of wrong-doings against you.

Snape unlocked the doors which lead to the room which would serve as Black's cell during the time he and Potter were at Hogwarts and pushed the door open, wand raised in front of him. Black was a dangerous criminal, that much wizarding law stated, so it was better to be safe than sorry. Who knew it Black was crazy enough to attack him as the door opened?

However, despite what Snape thought of Sirius, the convict was not poised to attack whoever entered to room. Instead Sirius was lying on the floor, his breath ragged, eyes glazed, and seemingly in a large amount of pain, so much pain that it might be impossible for him to make a sound at all.

Snape was shocked at the sight of the person before him. Only earlier than day he hadn't seemed too bad off. Sirius had been slightly underweight, and had had a look in his eyes that anyone who had spent time as an inmate of the wizard prison did, but that was all. What could have caused such a rapid decline in health?

Then Dumbledore's last words came back to him: 'This may have something to do with their bond.'

Snape had assumed that the bond the two of them shared was purely imagined, as in didn't exist and had merely been a way for Black to get off more lightly for the betrayal of Potter's parents to Voldemort. Snape did know that magical bonds could sometimes be formed, but they were rare. Now it seemed like the bond was a very real thing and was currently proving its existence in protestation for being separated from the other half of it.

"Black?" murmured Snape, getting slightly over his shock at the sight of the one person he hated most in the world to speak one word. The glazed over eyes looked in Snape's general direction, and Sirius opened his mouth and let out one ragged breath.

Snape stumbled backwards at that. Black had heard him, by God; the mutt had heard him, which meant he was still probably coherent. But Black was also close to dying too. And that meant Potter would be too unless that two of them were brought together anytime soon. And that meant that if Potter was to die then the saviour would be gone and any chance of combating the Dark Lord should he rise again would be lost. That was not good. That was definitely not good.

Snape did then what he felt anyone would do when faced with a situation such as this: he bolted.

Madam Promfrey scowled as the doors of the Hospital Wing were flung open, but turned back to the student in front of her. Professor Sprout looked up at the people, or rather person, who entered.

"Poppy," said the person, Snape. "Black's in the same shape as Potter, only conscious."

Madam Promfrey stopped and turned to Snape. She stared at him for a while, seemingly unaware of what was going on, a look of shock on her face, going pale at the same time. Within moments she matched Snape for paleness.

"Poppy," whispered Professor Sprout urgently. "What is the matter?"

Madam Promfrey shook her head and turned back to Harry. She didn't say a word for a minute or two, then spoke.

"Someone needs to take Potter back up to where he and Black are staying. It looks like people overestimated how long the two of them can be apart. Someone also needs to send food up to them."

"I'll do it," said Sprout before Snape could have had the chance to say anything, as unlikely as that was to happen. Despite having spent his entire childhood in Azkaban, the boy was still a Potter, and a Hufflepuff at that.

Professor Sprout took Harry to the room he would be sharing with Sirius, and within moments of the two of them being reunited they were fine. As soon as she left, Sirius pulled Harry into a hug. Harry went stiff from shock for a moment, then relaxed, confused.

"Um, Sirius?" Harry said. "What's wrong?"

"Harry, do you remember the last time the two of us were separated for so long the bond started to effect us?" said Sirius after a moment or two. Harry shook his head, and the older of the two sighed. "How much do you remember from the riot a few years ago?"

Harry frowned, and thought back.

People were yelling and chanting outside the cell. Harry wasn't sure, and when he had asked Sirius, he hadn't known either how anyone had gotten out of their cell, or why they had freed others rather than just saving their own skin. Perhaps they thought they'd be better off in a group, or maybe that if enough of them were freed they could take on the guards. That didn't seem likely though. There was probably far more guards than there were prisoners.

The yelling and chanting outside the cell had reached a fever pitch, and Harry huddled closer to Sirius. Either there were more people in the jail than Harry had thought or they were getting closer. Harry hoped it was neither. He just didn't like the sound of it.

There was a maniacal laughing directly outside their cell this time, and the gaunt face of a dark haired woman peered in, a sneer on her face. She laughed harder when she saw them. Sirius growled.

What do you want Bellatrix?" he snarled at her. The woman, Bellatrix, didn't appear to have heard him, as she carried on laughing for a while.

"Poor ickle cousin of mine, all locked in a cell he can't get out off," she laughed harder when she thought of this, for some reason Harry couldn't think of. It wasn't funny at all; it wasn't even a really bad joke. "All locked up with wittle baby Pwotter!"

Again she laughed, and didn't stop until one of the guards came along and stunned her. The guard looked in the cell, and he looked surprised at the fact that they were both still there. Or maybe he was just surprised that Sirius was still there. Either way it didn't matter, because within seconds he had opened the cell door.

"Black, you're to stay here. I've got orders to take Potter and only Potter up to the Governor's office."

As Harry walked through the wizard prison with the guard he was shocked by the sheer number of people in the prison, most of them wearing prison robes. There were hundreds! How could so many people exist in one place? With most of them there against their will?

Harry remembered that that had been the first time he had seen the outside of his and Sirius' cell in his memory, and also the first time he had seen so many people. But what was funny was he couldn't remember much from once he had entered the Governor's office. Only sitting around for what had seemed like hours, waiting for the riot to be over, and then being back at the cell. Harry couldn't even remember walking back to it.

"I can remember awhile after having been taken to the Governor's office, and then I remember being back at the cell..." Harry responded after a moment or two being lost in his memories. Sirius looked at him, grief plain in his eyes, for one long, quiet minute before responding.

"That night you almost died because we had been apart so long, we both did," Sirius finally said, filling the silence. "You were unconscious for the entire time Harry, but I wasn't and I could feel everything that you would have felt had you been awake. It hurt like hell."

Sirius gave Harry an uneasy smile, Harry just stared, wide-eyed.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"How do you tell a seven year old they just almost died?"

Harry frowned for a moment. Sirius had a good point. How do you tell a seven year old they just almost died? But Sirius still should have told him. Sirius had told him a lot of other things that most wouldn't have told a child, why was this any different?

A/N: Well, I have to apologise over how long this chapter took, but for some inexplicable reason it decided it didn't want to co-operate. That and recently I've had several blows to my confidence as a writer without also lowering the standard of what I expect myself to write at made me completely hate writing the majority of this chapter.

Talons: That is a good story now that I've read it.

Angui Dei, angelkitty77, ERMonkey Burner of Cookies, gaul1, bandgsecurtiyaw, GreyGranian, Galyax, azntgr01, missfitionlover, black blade: Thanks!

Haley Carr: I take it you're a Quidditch fan then? And should I ever get around to sorting out the Quidditch team, Harry may well be on it.

Shadowed Rains: It's funny how Hufflepuff Harry fics have only really started to pop up in the last few months or so, isn't it?

Serpent: Oh yay! I've lost a Hufflepuff hating reader! Somehow I can't bring myself to be distraught.

ugg: Let me get this straight, you thought my story made no sense, and think it was badly explained and planned.. yet you read all of what I put up instead of just stopping. Yep, that makes sense. And who said the entire wizarding civilisation put Harry through a childhood in Azkaban? It was just the ministry.

HoshiHikari: Harry's friends will almost all be different, I'm pretty sure of that.

XyliaDark: Somehow I don't think I could make Harry a wimp. And in my mind Harry plus twins equals trouble.

wow: Nah, Harry's a Hufflepuff through and through :quickly changes every copy of HP in the world so it's the truth:

maya100: Friends who accept him? That's a novel idea. And he is less naive than usual. I could hardly make him more naive, could I?

Shadowface: Don't worry, I will.

ak-alterego: Sirius'll be staying in the room he and Harry ended up in this chapter, Harry'll gets to shower, and I'm pretty sure Sirius will too. About Peter, he may not have been 'blown up' by Sirius, but Death Eaters aren't overly fond of him.

YumiAngel: And I may come up with my own characters. I'm not too sure yet.