Cry of a Restless Soul
Summary:
Chapter eight of the "exciting" tale of Cry of a Restless Soul, while
Harry is still coping with the newfound relationship of his two
friends, a new test comes into play. Harry and Hermione find themselves
not dueling with Death Eaters, but rather solving problems as they make
their way through multiple passageways deep under the Hogwarts castle.
Though when Harry makes his way down the corridor and finds himself
facing a young girl...
Chapter 8:
Deliverance
Tuesday passed without much incident, Harry tried his best to avoid both Ron and Hermione, and no doubt trying to escape from the uncomfortable feeling he always felt whenever they were in embrace. Harry felt relieved when their defence against the dark arts class came on Tuesday's afternoon.
At this moment, Harry was leaning against the stone bricked wall beside the entrance to the defence against the dark arts classroom. He started to pace, absently whistling an unfamiliar tune. He felt his gaze move to the nearby window, wondering where everyone was. He looked at his watch…
"Ten after one…" Harry mumbled. Another ten minutes till the start of the class.
"Hey, you okay Harry?" Harry felt his head turn to see Neville Longbottom looking at him with curious eyes.
"Y-yeah I'm fine. Do I look that terrible?"
"N-no of course not Harry, I just tho-" Harry let out a laugh, patting the shorter boy softly on his right shoulder.
"I just got off on the wrong side today, that's all." Harry let go of Neville, moving back to the windowpane and moving his gaze to the nearby Forbidden Forest. He felt his thoughts drift toward Grawp, Hagrid's half brother who just happened to be a full breed giant.
Harry barely noticed the entrance of most of his fellow sixth year Gryffindor students. Out of the corner of his eye; he saw Hermione and Ron start to approach him, their hands still knotted and gasps erupting from all around them.
"Where'd you go mate'?" Ron said as soon as he got close enough for a conversation to start.
"Around," Harry grunted in reply, hearing the bell. "Let's go." They nodded and Harry was the first to enter the classroom. He found his seat and soon felt Hermione sit down next to him; she gave him a smile, though no matter how hard Harry tried he could not return one of his own.
Hermione seemed so distant now, turning around every other second to wave, smile, blow a kiss, or all of the above, to Ron. Harry closed his eyes, finding sleep a good escape from the hell Hermione was putting him through. But just as he was about to fall asleep; a new voice entered his ears, one that didn't irritate him as much.
"Good morrow class." Harry opened his eyes to see the cloaked defence against the dark arts teacher; Professor Schmitz. The class then replied with their respective good afternoons and he smiled. "I trust everyone has found a partner without much difficulty?" Nods replied this and his smile broadened. "Very good… very good indeed, now then… how should I do this? Ah, please arrange yourselves so that I can tell which group you are in. Please stand as well."
The class complied, anxiously getting together, Harry automatically went into a corner and waited for Hermione to stop wishing her boyfriend good luck.
"Ms. Granger," the voice of their Professor seemed to stop Hermione's constant bickering and she went silent, looking up at the tall teacher. "Am I to assume that Mr. Weasley is not your partner?"
"Yes… yes he's not my partner sir."
"Then please stand with your partner Ms. Granger." He said, nodding to her before turning around. Hermione walked over to Harry's corner, sadness hinting at every sound of her feet clicking against the stone ground. She then fell against the section of the wall next to Harry, looking quite crestfallen.
"No point in looking like that all day." Harry mumbled, not looking at his friend.
"What?" Hermione seemed to be day dreaming at that point, Harry chose not to answer her, instead, he chose to listen to their teacher's instructions.
"Now I shall hand each group a Portkey, do not worry, our headmaster has approved of this exercise, and you will be in safe grounds are the school, but you will not know where you are, we will have guards posted at every location, if you find yourself in trouble please take out the Portkey and light it with your wand." Harry accepted the kettle from their professor, absently playing with it with his two hands.
Chatter seemed to echo all around the class, everyone was clearly excited at this new form of an assignment and wanted to start it as quickly as possible. Their Professor then cleared his throat, gaining the attention of all of the students.
"This is what you could call a maze, puzzles of logic and spellcraft blocking your way throughout it. All you have to do is get as far into the maze as possible, you and your partner will be by yourselves, only using what knowledge the both of you possess.
"This course is just another way for me to find out where each of you stand in your studies, both in the real world and the school world. Good luck." With those two words said, hands made grabs for their respective Portkeys.
Harry turned his body so that he faced Hermione, holding out the kettle to her, and giving her another attempt at a smile, so grabbed on. Their hands brushing so slightly against each other, Harry didn't have time to comprehend the feeling, for the familiar pull of the Portkey grabbed at his body before he could recognize Hermione's feel.
"Hey, hey Harry you okay?" Hermione's voice made Harry open his eyes, blurry and distorted, he could barely see Hermione's outline.
"Y-yeah I'm fine." He said, rubbing his eyes and taking a piece of his shirt and rubbed it against both of the lenses on his glasses. "Any idea where we are?"
"Well… take a look for yourself." She extended her arms, indicating the entire room. Harry felt his gaze move around the majestic looking room, it reminded him slightly of the Great Hall. He could see the afternoon sky instead of the ceiling; all around him stars seemed to twinkle. Pillars erected from the ground, creating a slightly medieval atmosphere to the room, he felt his curious hands feel their way around one pillar, trying to soak in their feeling. He let go of it, curling his hand into a fist. He moved his gaze to Hermione, nodding to her.
"Let's get started shall we?" She nodded, following his lead. Harry felt himself drift toward the nearby doorway, reaching for the handle, he found it wouldn't open.
"Oh Harry." Hermione's voice came out of nowhere, Harry let go of the handle. "Alohamora!" A clicking sound came from the doorknob, Hermione then reached for it; opening it tentatively.
"Can't be too careful eh?" Harry said, smirking slightly, peering into the doorway. "Can't see anything, let's go." Harry entered the doorway, moving through the small corridor with appropriate speed to allow Hermione to fall in right behind him.
"Something's up ahead!" Harry noticed the other presence even before she had said this, just ahead was what looking like a great tiger but then, upon closer examination, Harry noticed that it was a…
"Sphinx! NOT ANOTHER ONE!" Harry yelled out, causing Hermione to chuckle.
"You've seen one of these before?"
"Yeah, during the maze in the Triwizard Tournament, I was lucky in solving its riddle." Harry said, moving a bit more cautiously this time, crouched slightly with his wand drawn.
"That's all they do?" Harry looked at Hermione with a questioning look. "I haven't read much about them!" Harry laughed at this.
"Sometimes you got to expect the unexpected Hermione, books can't give you everything you know." Harry replied, moving in front of the Sphinx.
"Ah, they told me to expect two people." The female Sphinx's voice was calm and relaxed. Harry even thought it quite comforting, hearing it made him feel relaxed all over, his mind closed and his thoughts no longer interrupting everything. "I will just have to make the riddle that much more difficult."
"Is that all you're going to do?" Hermione asked, a slight frightened tone echoing in her voice. "I mean… just ask us a riddle and then yo… you'll let us just… go?"
"Yes, that is all. Are you ready?" Harry nodded, looking at Hermione who seemed to be quite scared, though she nodded all the same. "Good." The Sphinx then shifted slightly on the spot, its tone changing entirely.
I make you weak, at the worst of time; you'll sweat in my presence even as you grow cold. I dwell in the weak, but rarely in the brave, but without me, who could tell the difference?
What am I?
The Sphinx then returned to its normal positioning, awaiting their response. Harry looked, expecting an answer to fall right out of Hermione's mouth, and indeed he was right.
"Fear," she mumbled. The Sphinx raised its eyebrows. "Fear!" She said more loudly and the Sphinx smiled widely. It shifted again, it's head turning to Harry. The tone changed again and Harry was quite surprised to hear another riddle come out of the half cat's mouth.
You can have me, but cannot hold me; you will gain me slowly but lose me rather quickly. If treated with care I can be great but with carelessness, betrayal, and laziness I will break, causing despair all around.
What am I?
Harry started to piece the information together, knowing it was his turn at the riddle, he somehow knew that he would not have Hermione's assistance in this question.
"Can't hold it… has to be a feeling," Harry mumbled, seeing the nod from the Sphinx.
"Yes, she's a nice one!" Harry thought to himself, finding himself thankful for his usual lack of luck.
"Gain me slowly… lose slowly? Oh please repeat the riddle." She did so. "It's not lose slowly! Lose quickly! Er -… I'll get back to that… what was the next part?"
If treated with care I can be great but with carelessness, betrayal, and laziness I will break, causing despair all around.
What am I?
The voice startled Harry, not expecting the Sphinx to answer his mutter. He thought about the feelings, carelessness, betrayal…
"Betrayal… what does betrayal destroy? Trust…! TRUST! TRUST THAT'S THE ANSWER!" The grin spread on the Sphinx's face and she nodded, stepping aside and illuminating a lit path beyond.
"Good job Harry!" Hermione said admiration clear on her expression. Harry didn't bother responding but chose to lead the way to the next passageway.
The next chamber was basically a mirrored version of the first room. Harry looked around for some difference and noticed there was a mirror in the middle of the room. Harry walked up to it, finding himself staring back at himself. The same messy jet black hair standing at every which way, the black shirt and blue jeans on, he also saw Hermione's reflection just behind his own.
"Looks like any other mirror doesn't it?" Harry asked Hermione without looking at her, he reclined his head slightly, looking over his shoulder at her.
"From here… yeah… yeah it looks that way." Hermione admitted, stepping forward about two feet towards Harry's position in front of the mirror. "But, like you said, first impressions aren't always good."
"When did I say that?" Harry turned his whole body to face her, forgetting about the mirror.
"I think it was when you saw my house for the first time." Hermione stated. "Now let's get back to the problem at hand." She pointed her pointer finger to the mirror and Harry felt a loud "oh," come out of his mouth.
He turned back to the mirror, pressing his palm against it. He looked carefully at his reflected self, wondering if anything was different. Hermione paced around the mirror, looking at the back side as well with a frown on her visage. Harry then stepped back from the mirror, heaving a sigh.
"This mirror…" he mumbled quietly. "It's something about this mirror."
"Yeah, I figured that much." Hermione said bluntly from beside him. She was staring, with a pronounced frown, at the mirror; her eyes squinted, trying to decipher some meaning from the reflected image.
"Maybe…" Harry paused when Hermione's face turned, quite suddenly, toward his own. "Maybe we've got to look for something different in the reflection."
"Yeah… yeah maybe," she replied, her face turning back to the mirror. "Look!" Harry followed her outstretched finger and saw, what looked like, a misaligned brick in the wall behind them. Harry whipped his body around, looking for the same stone brick but didn't see it anywhere, he frowned moving towards the wall and scraping at it. Then, as his hand passed over an ordinary looking brick, it shook. An unknown force pushing it into the wall; Harry didn't have enough time to cope with finding the switch before the ground started to shake, and a portion of the wall behind the mirror crumbled away.
Dust flying in every which way, Harry made his way to the newfound passageway. He coughed, finding the dust was climbing into his mouth.
"H-Her-Hermione?" Harry panted.
"Y-yeah, yeah I'm okay!" She called out from beyond the large dust cloud. Harry followed the voice, finding himself facing his friend with a broad smile on her face. "Good job again!"
"I wouldn't have noticed that brick if it weren't for you." Harry replied, shaking his two hands in an effort to indicate he didn't need the praise. "Let's move on, no point in wasting time here."
They did so, walking in silence with darting eyes on each expression. Harry suddenly noticed how little light was shinning in this passageway.
"Lumos," he mumbled, an eerie green light bursting out of the end of his extended wand. With the help of this added light, Harry noticed the two of them were standing at a fork. Two different paths branching out of the one they were standing on.
"Which way?" Hermione asked him, halting when she reached a spot about a foot away from Harry's right shoulder.
"Maybe we missed a signpost or something…" Harry said sadly, not wanting to backtrack.
"Let's split up, I'll take the left, you take the right." Hermione suggested, indicating each side of the fork as she said them in her suggestion.
"That's taking a real gamble you know…" The Boy-who-lived said worriedly.
"We'll probably meet up later on." The Witch stated.
"Just because you said so?" Harry countered with a wide grin and Hermione sighed heavily.
"What'd you suggest then?" She said frustrated.
"No, no I don't mind the splitting up id-"
"Then what're we waiting for!"
"Hermione… I'm sorry…" Harry said, looking quite crestfallen, Hermione sighed again.
"I should be apologizing Harry."
"No not at all, like I've said before…" Harry gave her a slight smile, the smile not reaching his cheeks. "We're all on the edge nowadays."
"Yeah… okay I'll go now. See you later." She said while walking towards the left passageway, raising a hand in a waving gesture. Harry felt his own right hand rise automatically to bid farewell to her as well. After his friend fell out of sight, Harry heaved a sigh; following the right path, no sounds other then his own footsteps echoing around the corridor.
The Boy-who-lived noticed, after around fifteen minutes, that with every few steps. He passed under an unlit torch… then another few steps and he would pass under a lit torch. It seemed to be a pattern that was repeated several times, with the amount of time Harry had been walking, these patterns seemed rather evident.
The only Potter alive this day then noticed he had just passed under another lit torch that meant another three minutes had passed since he was under the last unlit torch. Harry sighed, thinking he would rather have another riddle then walk under another hundred of these unlit and lit torches.
Then Harry felt a slight pain in the whole front of his body, he fell to the ground, slightly stunned. He rubbed his face, muttering curses under his breath while rising. It seemed that Harry Potter, the Boy-who-lived had just walked into-
"A wall…" Harry said breathlessly. "I just walked into a wall." Upon closer examination, Harry noticed it was not a wall but in fact a doorway. Harry saw light seeping in at the bottom of the stone wall like door.
Something made Harry back away, shock evident on his face. A blur seemed to be passing around, in a circular pattern, the door. Harry found he couldn't follow the blur, for the speed on it was rather…
"Incredible…" Harry said breathlessly. The blur continued to move as quickly as ever while Harry stilled watched it's never ending progress with an awed expression. After a prolonged moment of this, Harry started to wonder what exactly this blur was.
"The doorknob!" Harry burst out suddenly, his eyes still effortlessly trying to follow the knob's progress. Harry then reached for it, grabbing it for a second before it moved on, hitting the back of his hand a second later on it's second pass.
Harry pulled his hand back, gripping it tightly; trying to shut out the pain. He grimaced but continued to watch the progress of the doorknob.
"I have to stop it somehow… wait… the Duration Jinx!" Harry smiled at this; he felt that he was actually getting smarter from solving all of these logical problems. He pulled out his wand, not feeling the pain in his hand any longer. "Durane!" Thinking hard of the doorknob slowly down, he saw it happened before his very eyes. The doorknob slowly became clearer, it's blurriness disappearing abruptly and it slowed to a stop.
Harry's smiled widened as he opened the door, and squinted to what lay behind the door. He saw his good friend Hermione Granger standing with a wide smile on her own visage.
"Got out on your own I see…" She observed, walking toward Harry and patting him on the back. "You okay?" She added when she saw Harry's smiling expression.
"Hm? Of course I'm okay." The Boy-who-lived answered, taking the lead toward the middle passage. "How was your problem?"
"Got this," she said, holding up what looked like a chess piece. "Did you find one as well?"
"Uh?" Harry looked in his right hand, there was his wand, he looked at his left hand, he opened his fist though nothing was inside. Harry then reached into his left pocket, feeling his hands close on something. He pulled it out with his empty left hand and found a Queen piece inside his pocket. "A Queen…" Harry said softly.
"I got a Knight." Hermione said in response. "They're probably used for the next problem." She placed the Knight piece in her own right pocket while looking up at Harry with a smiling expression.
"We're doing okay right?" Harry asked her tentatively.
"I think we are…" The Witch responded. "You lead?" Harry nodded and started to move his feet toward the opened passageway just up ahead, he distinctly heard the door he had just come from close with a snap. He felt Hermione jump behind him and shushed her while she nodded frantically.
"We keep moving forward, no matter what happens behind us…" Harry kept his gaze in front of him, never altering it. But even with this sudden alertness, he could not have been prepared for what lay ahead.
A sudden flash of bright light erupted from ahead of him, causing The Potter to cover his glasses with his right arm, hissing slightly he staggered backward.
"What's going on!" Hermione cried out from behind him.
"I-I don't know!" Harry answered her truthfully, the light kept coming at them relentlessly. Engulfing them entirely, Harry cried out in pain at the burning brightness and fell to the ground, his eyes burning.
The next thing Harry knew, he was staring up at two chocolate brown eyes and an unfamiliar tile pattern on the ceiling above them.
"Ah Harry you are awake." Harry recognized the voice of Aran Schmitz. He sat up; making Hermione duck away still crouched on the floor beside Harry. "I must apologize to you; I did not think the Apparation light would blind you this much."
"Ap-Apparation light?" Harry stuttered dumbly and Hermione quickly responded.
"Apparently we reached the end of the trail, stepping on a large tile on the ground that automatically Apparated us back to the classroom." She explained, drawing Harry's expression over to her.
"So we just Apparated for the first time?" She nodded slightly.
"I thought it necessary." Harry's face flew away from Hermione's and back to their defence against the dark arts teacher's face. "For you will be attending your Apparation tests this year."
"Oh, right." Harry said, wincing as he tried to rise. "Why… why do I feel so weak though?"
"Apparation takes a lot of concentration, with the both of you being not prepared; it took a large amount of energy out of the both of you. Fortunately, you were both in physical contact, so the combined power of the two of you allowed yourselves to Apparate without much difficulty." Aran explained, gesticulating slightly with every few words.
"Er – we were in…"
"Physical contact yes," Aran finished.
"I was holding on to you." Hermione stated, making Harry turn again to her brown eyes. "When you started hissing I…I thought V-Voldemort came…"
Harry noticed, with several blinks, that she looked quite crestfallen, with her face looking down toward the stone tiled floor. He trotted toward her, standing squarely in front of her and placing his two hands on her shoulders. She looked upward, both of their eyes meeting.
"I'm taking Occulmency lessons with Dumbledore, hopefully that'll keep that…" Hermione frowned when Harry cursed quite loudly. "…Out of my mind." Harry finished with a smile thrown in. Harry let go of his friend, thinking himself rather foolish for even going near the girlfriend of his best male friend. Harry stepped away, turning to his teacher.
"What were those Chess Pieces for?" Harry asked him, pulling out his own chess piece.
"Ah, those are for the next exercise I have planned for this class." Harry groaned slightly at this and heard Hermione giggle from behind him. "It is not until next week though. I sincerely hope that brings comfort to you." The teacher added with a slight grin.
Harry felt himself move over to his normal seat in the middle of the defence against the dark arts classroom. He plopped down onto it, exhausted beyond belief. He noticed Hermione coming over and sitting down next to him.
"We're the first group back." Hermione stated, neither friend looking at the other. "The rest of the classes today are cancelled, apparently Dumbledore put this test on the highest priority."
"That's good I suppose." The Boy-who-lived responded, having nothing else to say.
"H-Harry can I ask you a question?" Hermione asked him with a nervous tone.
"It sounded like you just did." Harry said turning to her with a slight grin.
"Oh you know what I mean H-"
"Yeah, yeah go ahead." DA's leader waved his left hand at her.
"Umm… do you mind my… my you…you know…" Hermione's face turned beet red.
"Your relationship with Ron?" She nodded, her mouth still opening and closing rapidly. "I can handle it."
"You sure?" Harry nodded. "You don't mind at all?" Harry shook his head obediently, wanting a change of subject. "Oh, thank you Harry!" She hugged him and then said something about using the lavatory facilities.
With Hermione gone, Harry found himself spinning the Queen Chess piece between the five fingers of his right hand, twirling it and memorising the features on the black chess piece. He noticed, in this time, that the Queen did not speak, which most Chess pieces in the Wizarding world did. Its mouth was closed and its stare unblinking.
"Fascinating aren't they?" Harry jumped slightly at the stern voice of the German member of the Order.
"What..? These Chess pieces?" Harry held his Queen up and the teacher nodded.
"It's fascinating how much power that piece holds, without looking that powerful at all." He pointed one long finger at it. "The Queen is the most powerful piece in Chess, without it; defeat seems evident. With it, power guides your hand. With the taking of that piece, so comes the immediate victory of the game.
"Chess is a complicated game Harry, no doubt you have played it on many occasions before this; and no doubt you have realized how difficult the game itself is. Chess is a game about skill and knowledge of your opponent and the pieces and their respective powers.
"I allowed you Harry to find that Queen, for you are possibly the most skilled and powerful Wizard to ever cross my path to this day. While your friend Ms. Granger, found the Knight. For the Knight is worthy of recognition, but it will not survive the battle with the Queen."
"P-Professor…" Harry said blankly and Aran Schmitz chuckled approvingly.
"You are at a loss as to why I am ranting about this no?" Harry nodded, causing Professor Schmitz to chuckle again. "Ah, to be young again."
The rest of the class soon filed in, Lavender and Parvati coming in last, though not far behind Neville and Ron; who were both shaking rather badly.
"The Sphinx took a stab at Neville when he got his riddle wrong." Ron explained as the two of them left the class. "Then when we finally got to the mirror part, Neville went berserk, saying his mother was in the mirror. No idea what's wrong with him…" he added shaking his head.
"Nothing's wrong with Neville, Ron." Hermione said coming in from behind them. Ron made a grab for her arm and she accepted it, tying their fingers together.
Harry turned away and kept walking, omitting there conversation which seemed to lead farther and farther away from the test they had just attended.
The test itself left a mark on Harry, staining him for life. He felt proud of himself, he solved the Sphinx's riddle at the beginning with relative ease, while most of his peers complained about their respective riddles.
"I got something like: bringing back the dead as though it were always gone, brings laughs and snorts…" Seamus Finnigan was complaining to Lavender Brown, who also seemed quite angry at the Sphinx's riddles.
"Oh that's easy." She said waving a hand to the taller boy. "I memorised mine: I swim, yet have no wings. I fear yet I have no eyes… wait that's wrong…" From these reminisces; Harry could easily tell both of the Gryffindors needed some help with their memorising skills.
"Or lack thereof." Harry thought with a slight smirk.
Harry found himself lying on his bed the next second, twiddling with the Queen Chess piece and wondering what exactly it was supposed to represent. Then Ron entered the dormitory, carrying a similar Chess piece, though he threw it onto his bedside table lazily, flopping down onto his bed.
"So what do you make of it?"
"Oh I thought it was okay, I got through all the pro-"
"No, not the test Harry, Hermione and me! What do make of us?"
"Uh?" Harry replied blankly, staring at Ron's cheerful expression. "Oh… didn't I say 'good one' or something like that?"
"Yeah… oh yeah you did." Ron fell silent, stretching on his bed. "She won't leave me alone either." The Weasley added.
"Oh really," Harry said sarcastically, surprised that Ron did not see his lack of interest in this topic.
"Yeah, keeps saying I should eat more, go to sleep sooner. Nagging stuff you know?" The one-way conversation went on for awhile, Harry quickly becoming quite bored of hearing how many locks Hermione has in her hair and what Ron would get her on every single birthday until she was the age of one hundred and fifty-two, it was then that he started to run out of ideas.
Harry quickly found an excuse when the bell rang to signal dinner, he departed from the dorm, saying that Ron should come too but he said he was going to go meet Hermione in the common room. Apparently he was right, for Hermione was waiting, looking quite anxious, in front of the portrait hole.
"Oh, Harry have yo-"
"He's in the dorm." Harry answered her unsaid question. "He's coming about… now." As soon as Harry said "now", Ron came down the steps, embracing Hermione.
Though Harry saw none of this, for he was walking down the winding staircase towards the Great Hall; trying effortlessly to avoid his two friends for as long as possible. The Potter had to escape the unsettling feeling that seem to be going berserk every time he witness an affectionate moment between his two friends.
The Boy-who-lived continued to argue with his Voldemort-possessed mind about their relationship, he continued to tell himself that he was fine with their love. But could it be that Harry did not find that same love yet even though he was the saviour of the world thirteen years ago?
"Hopefully I've be saving the world again pretty soon…" Harry thought to himself as he opened the door to the entrance hall, holding it open for the small girl behind him. She mumbled her thanks, continuing on until she noticed who Harry truly was.
"H-Harry!" Harry frowned and turned around to the small girl. He recognized her a second later, his frown changing into a wide smile.
"Eleanor!" He crouched down so his eyes met those of the smaller girl's. "How've you been doing?"
"O-okay I suppose." She said, looking down at the floor while starting to walk off. Harry straightened his body, falling into pace beside the young girl.
"You're not in Gryffindor are you?" Harry asked her, observing her robes with a frown.
"Ravenclaw…" Eleanor said quite sadly. "I-I haven't got any fri-friends yet."
"It's only the third day Eleanor, cheer up, there's a whole bunch of good people out there waiting for you!" Harry said, smiling as wide as possible while patting her on the shoulder. She smiled up at him, tears coming from her eyes.
"I forgot how sensitive little children are…" Harry thought to himself, sadness echoing eerily in his head as Eleanor wiped her eyes with the back of her right sleeve.
"T-Thanks Har-Harry…" she stuttered.
"Don't mention it Eleanor, by the way…" Harry stopped her with a pressed hand to her shoulder. He crouched down, looking at both of the sides of the corridor then whispered. "The password for the Gryffindor common room is Eternal, remember that alright? If you ever need someone to talk to, one of us is bound to be there."
"Thanks Harry… t-thank you so….so much." Eleanor looked quite thankful as well, tears now streamed from her two eyes rather willingly while she gripped Harry tightly.
"Oh… Eleanor… that hurts," Harry faked a wince while she giggled and back away. "Have you been talking to Luna?"
"So…sometimes," the first year Ravenclaw answered with a wipe at her eyes.
"She's a nice person, talk with her as well. Any of us will listen to what you have to say."
"T…thank you Harry…" Eleanor suddenly looked away from Harry, causing Harry's head to turn as well to face his rival. The Sytherin Malfoy.
"Oh looks like Potty's got a girlfriend now. Call the Daily Prophet Goyle, Potty's ditched Granger." The two large cronies sniggered dumbly, looking quite idiotic with their mouths wide open and their yellow teeth sparkling. Harry took a defensive stance and held out his arm in front of Eleanor.
"Leave Malfoy," Harry snarled, a face of pure anger facing Draco Malfoy.
"What if I don't want to… what if I accidentally kill your little girlfriend here?"
"Like you could Malfoy, you'd probably go cry to your father for needing assistance with pulling your wand out and not backfiring it at yourself." Harry countered, throwing a smirk his way.
"Why you – you die NOW POTTER!" He whipped out his wand, Goyle and Crabbe doing the same. Harry did not feel threatened or outnumbered, for Goyle and Crabbe were probably the densest people in the entire school.
"They'd have trouble shooting sparks at me anyway." Harry thought to himself, pushing Eleanor away and muttering to her. "Run when I pull out my wand okay?" She nodded, fear evident on her expression. Harry's wand came out with a snap, Eleanor dashing away while Malfoy and his minions advanced.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Harry cried out, aiming for Malfoy but somehow hitting Goyle. While Goyle fumbled around, looking for his wand, Crabbe did the smart thing and threw his wand directly at Harry. For Crabbe knew that he himself did not know any sort of spell that would damage the Boy-who-lived.
Harry performed a shield charm, sending Crabbe's wand spinning away toward the wall beside them. Now that Harry was vulnerable, Malfoy chose to strike.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" The killing curse took Harry by surprise, he thought Malfoy would not have enough guts to use any spell of that magnitude in a Dumbledore-controlled area. Harry ducked, yelling for Eleanor to duck it as well. Harry noticed she obliged, the nasty green spell spilling against the wall in front of her.
"REDUCTO!" True the spell was aimed pretty badly for Harry was crouched and looking the other way at that time, but it was still just as effective. The wall beside Malfoy exploded quite loudly, stone bricks crashing into every Slytherin in the corridor. Harry muttered the commonly used repairing charm to return the stone blocks back to their respective places on the wall. Malfoy rose from the ground, spitting on the twisted blood red carpet.
"You die Potter." He stated simply.
"If you actually meant that every time you've said it thus far in your stupidly pathetic life, I would be dead three times over." Harry said, giving into the urge to jinx the Death Eater right there with a nice jelly legs jinx. Watching with a grin, he motioned to Eleanor that the coast was clear.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" The spell took Harry off-guard, for he hadn't noticed that Goyle was still conscious. The spell was not aimed for Harry, but for Eleanor.
"DAMNIT!" Harry jumped in the way of the curse, yelling to Eleanor to run away just before the curse pierced his chest.
Harry felt pain throughout his entire body, the muscles in his entire skeleton ripping apart ceaselessly while his nerves all throughout his body cried out with malice. Harry shut his eyes, falling to the ground and thinking how foolish he was for wasting his pathetic life on a first year girl.