Summary:
Yet another short chapter, sorry about the REAL delay but school just started up again…. I won't be posting that often anymore, but I'll try my best! Anyway, chapter eleven's here, Harry awakens to a couple of visitors and experiences what most can't without a mirror.
Chapter 11:
Sleeping Stars
Harry awoke painfully; though the curse had been lifted it still stung every part of his body, he winced as he rose and stretched his muscles, soaking in the small cell around him. He moved himself to a more comfortable position on his bed, lying down so that his back faced the floor while his green eyes pointed upward toward the black ceiling.
The Boy-who-lived felt his eyes move toward the doorway to the cell, his eyes connecting those of his Zombie friend who seemed to be staring at him with hungry eyes, he noticed for the first time the way the pair of lidless eyes seem to dart around without any coordination, just like that teacher had a few years ago…
"M…. what was his name?" Harry found himself mumbling, looking away from the Zombie and placing all his might into remembering this unknown teacher. "He's an order member isn't he?"
Harry was, no doubt, bored and lost.
As he thought, screams echoed all around the prison, the terrified sounds bouncing off walls and eventually ending up at Harry's end of the prison. When there were no screams, quiet moans and groans could be heard from Harry's neighbouring cells. He started to count how much time it took for the next scream to come after the first, and found it to be quite consistent.
"…forty-four, forty-five…" then the scream came after the forth-fifth second, loud as ever and as feminine as ever. Harry sighed, his eyes dropping to the Zombie yet again. It hadn't moved a single centimetre it seemed, for its eyes were still staring, as hungrily as ever.
It was then that Harry finally heard something different from the usual moans and screams, a crashing sound, echoing eerily around the prison. Harry rose, hearing the echoes fading to elsewhere, he didn't move closer to the guarding Zombie but moved to the opposite wall, where he could strain his neck in an effort to see what was happening.
"REDUCTO!" The Zombie in front of Harry's cell zoomed away from sight, a loud moan of pain echoing in his wake. Harry recognized the voice, just as he had recognized the eyes of the Zombies; he then looked up at the familiar chocolate brown eyes of Hermione Granger.
"H-Hermione…?" Harry said blankly as she walked up to the cell door, panting slightly.
"Oh here you are," she stopped planted herself across from Harry, wiping her forehead. "You have your wand?" Harry lifted his arms, looking at his belt with a doubtful expression.
"Truth be known, I haven't actually looked for it…" Harry said, his voice sounding quite distant.
"Damn it," Hermione whispered, causing the Boy-who-lived to look up from his belt. "Professor Dumbledore was right; we've got to get you out of here as quickly as possible. Stand back." Hermione back away two steps, Harry doing the same. "I don't think I can use Alohomora on it since it doesn't actually have a lock on it."
Harry watched the various transactions on her face with interest, the frown, and then the obvious biting movements inside her mouth. "Why don't you just use Reducto on it?" Harry suggested after he thought he had gone quite far with the staring. "You didn't have a problem with using it on the Zombie…"
"Yeah… okay… step back more." She took a breath after Harry had pressed his entire back to the wall, telling his mind to stay alert. He then disconnected from his mind when Hermione suddenly shook her head. "This isn't going to work… the bars will probably shot forward right into…" she said crestfallen.
"Me," Harry finished for her, relaxing a bit and starting a consistent pace around the cage. "I don't think I want to experience the life of a pancake either." Hermione laughed slightly at this, the sound not escaping her throat. She cleared the questioned part of her body, frowning and, most likely, thinking hard.
Then, quite suddenly, an expression of realization dawned onto her face. Leaving it unspoken, she moved forward; her wand ready. She stopped a foot in front of the bars, holding her wand up; closing her eyes, a long blazing red beam of fire erupted from the end of her wand, curling around the bars. Harry noticed the bars seemed to be melting now, becoming quite gooey.
Soon enough there was a big enough hole for Harry to fit in, the rest of the bars around the section Hermione aimed for seemed to be intact, Harry squeezed through the hole, Hermione backing away to give him space to fall down on. When the Boy-who-lived emerged from the hole fully, he brushed his own robes off and flashed Hermione a grateful smile.
"Ho-" but the Witch held up a hand, telling him she'd explain everything later. Harry opened his mouth again but then Hermione flashed him a frustrated look, telling him, yet again, that she'd tell him at a later date. "Hermione…?"
"I'll tell you later," she repeated using words. "Dumbledore's waiting." Harry's entire body then shot up, rapt with attention.
"Dumbledore!" Harry exclaimed, thinking the Headmaster had lost control of the doomed castle.
Hermione grabbed the Boy-who-lived's arm quite suddenly, tearing him from his thoughts. "Come on! We've got to go!" His friend yelled sharply, Harry nodded in reply to this and allowed his friend to drag him away from his cell.
Harry couldn't follow the path Hermione was lugging him along owing slightly to the angry thoughts erupting from inside of his mind. Voldemort seemed to have finally noticed that his bane had escaped, Harry smirked as Hermione and he turned a corner then, with a gasp, Hermione halted, jolting Harry for a moment. Harry looked upward to find the source of this sudden stop and found it staring right back at him.
"Damn it," he muttered with a slight snarl. "Zombies…" Harry noticed the black blade it seemed to drag along with it as its feet scraped against the stone floor. Harry's heart was pounding rather speedily; he slowly backed away; pulling Hermione Granger in front of him, using his good friend as a human shield. "You have the wand Hermione!"
Hermione then shook her head and pulled her hand free from Harry, pointing her wand at the approaching Zombie. "REDUCTO!" Using the same spell from earlier, the Zombie flew backward; the black sword clanking to the ground. Hermione wasted no time though, she took Harry's hand again and darted forward.
Harry eyed the black sword with thought, thinking he could use the sword for a weapon. "Wait," she obeyed, Harry grabbing the sword on the floor and feeling its hilt. He cursed the weight of the sword as he lifted it from the ground, though he had only used a sword once before in his life, he thought it would be better than using his fists against these creatures.
He nodded to Hermione, walking behind her; she gripped him as tightly as before and set off. Then, a few moments later, Hermione stopped when she spotted another Zombie approaching them, the expression mirroring the one from moments before.
"Another one!" Harry cried out.
Though Hermione shook her head, "it's the same one from before; I thought it would die from the crash…" Harry watched its progress toward Hermione and him mutely, his eyes glancing towards the black sword in his grip.
The sword itself seemed to have something distinct surrounding it, like a dark aura that left the user feeling rather pessimistic. The twisting snake-like pattern that adorned the black blade seemed to add to the depressing effect of the sword. Harry lifted it up, needing only one hand to do so, arranging his feet into a somewhat ready position.
"INCENDIO!" The spell came from his good friend, ripping at the remaining flesh of the Zombie, the skeleton of the creature falling, in a burning heap, onto the stone bricked floor. Harry relaxed his posture, letting the black sword fall to his side.
"I thought that might work…" Hermione muttered, edging past the burning corpse. Harry followed suit; watching with some interest as the flames consumed the remaining flesh of the Zombie. "Since humans are rather fragile towards fire; Zombies should be even more delicate." Harry heard her mutter again as they made their way around.
The two Gryffindors walked in silence, knowing if they spoke both guards and prisoners would be alerted and most prisoners of the Death Eaters were in fact Death Eaters, those who have betrayed their master or their master's followers. Another scream penetrated the eerie silence and Hermione cringed, Harry couldn't help but notice the eerie cold feeling that has seemed to stain his heart for the entire duration of his stay here at Azkaban.
"I never thought I would ever end up here…" Harry whispered, not knowing why he was whispering. His eyes darted around the empty hallway, looking for anything that may be the source of this uneasiness.
Hermione moaned slightly, and Harry stopped looking at her with raised eyebrows. "I think we're lost." She said honestly. "I-I mean I don't remember this feeling at all… and none of the corridors seem familiar at all! I'm… I'm sorry… I'm so hopeless… I can't even rescue my best friend properly." She chuckled, the sound escaping through her lips but the sad feeling that occupied the chuckle made it sound rather… dark, Harry noticed she was now on the ground, her hands curled into fists.
"Hermione," Harry said, knelling down to face her visage that seemed to express utter sadness. "We're still together; we can make it out of here together. Just think of this as… as one of those puzzles that Professor Schmitz gave us!" The daughter of Joshua and Mia Granger laughed sourly yet again.
"We're in Azkaban! Even though it's free of Dementors, it's still a maze and full of these…. these Zombies!" Hermione rose; gesticulating her frustration seemingly violently.
"Hermione, there's no point in being pessimist-"
"I'M NOT BEING PESSIMISTIC HARRY, I'M JUST BEING… being…" Harry was surprised when she started to yell, Harry then noticed a flash of red in her eyes and gasped, rushing to her; he grabbed her rather tightly around the shoulder region of her body. "LET GO OF ME!" She yelled again, fumbling with her arms to push him away, when she managed to shove Harry away she backed away, her eyes now glowing red.
"Hermione listen to me!" Harry said through his teeth, not wanting to deal with this at all. "Voldemort's inside of y-"
"SHUT UP HARRY!" She interrupted yet again, backing away even more. "YOU'RE SO STUPID HARRY, YOU THINK YOU'RE ALL POWERFUL WITH… with… WITH YOUR SPELLS AND STUFF." Harry laughed heartedly at this, a happy expression springing on Harry Potter's face in a way that it had never truly blossomed.
"Now you just sound like Parvati, Hermione." Harry said, smiling widely at her, Hermione's body went rigid, her arms extended outward and her body leaned forward, a look of utter frustration on her face.
"WHY DON'T YOU EVER LISTEN TO ME! I SAID SHUT UP! THAT MEA-" Harry held up a hand, quite surprised when Hermione, in her current stage of rage, stopped yelling.
"Will you kindly leave my friend's body Voldemort?" Harry asked his friend, amazed at how calm and Dumbledore-like his voice sounded, though this calm demeanour disappeared instantly when Hermione raised her wand, pointing it right at Harry's eyes.
"Crucio," she snarled in a hissing voice that didn't belong to her. Hermione, to Harry's fortune, had never used the painful unforgivable curse; the spell went haywire, spinning around the wide corridor where it eventually disintegrated harmlessly far away from Harry.
Though the Boy-who-lived did not notice this, for he had Voldemort pinned down on the ground, while he growled ineligible dialects. Harry soon noticed a change overcome his friend's face, the red eyes disappearing for a moment to be replaced by chocolate ones, then the next moment they returned to their bloody red gleaming eyes.
Harry rose from his friend, hoping that she would find the mind strength to repel Voldemort from her mind. She seemed to be struggling quite badly, rolling from side to side, her eyes shut tightly and her teeth pressed hard together. Harry watched with pained eyes, for he knew that the rest was up to Hermione.
Quite suddenly, a welcomed breath of relief came from Hermione's mouth, while she relaxed her posture and opened her eyes ever so slightly. Her chest was moving in a quick breathing pattern, looking as if she had just run over one hundred miles at top speed.
"Now I… I know how you feel… after every…every…" Hermione shut her eyes again, trying to rise. Harry hastened to her side, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, trying to make her relax.
"Just calm down Herm-"
Hermione shook his grip away, standing up again, no tears clinging to her brown eyes. "How can I calm down Harry!" She asked with a clear hint of frustration.
Her best friend answered with complete honesty. "Just take a deep breath." She raised her eyebrows at this suggestion and Harry laughed. "This is what I had to do every night before going to sleep last year; take a deep breath and clear my mind. When I actually did that… my….my body actually felt at… ease I suppose."
"Ease?"
"Yeah, I could fall asleep faster and… and I could actually think clearly and…" Hermione laughed at how quick Harry was spitting out these observations.
She turned away from Harry, looking down the dark corridor, shutting her eyes slowly. Harry watched her breathe patiently for several moments, and then she opened her eyes quite suddenly and smiled at him.
"Somehow, you're right." The smile widened and Harry knew Voldemort no longer tainted the mind of his good friend. "Let's go." Harry nodded and fell into pace beside her.
As they walked beside each other, their footsteps the only noises to penetrate the eerie silence in the prison of Azkaban, Harry knew for a fact that their thoughts mirrored each other. Voldemort.
It seemed that the Dark Lord could not only infect Harry Potter's mind, but others as well. Harry knew even before he looked at the brown haired girl beside him out of the corner of his eye, that she was indeed skilled in every art known to Wizard and Muggle alike.
"Even more than me no doubt," Harry thought to himself, turning his head back so that it faced in front of him and a smile curling up ever so slightly on the usually solemn face.
The pair of Gryffindors walked in silence, knowing if they discussed anything it would disturb the silence of the prison, allowing the guards to find them without much trouble, Harry tried his best to make his footsteps as silent as possible, but found he could not master the art, always ending up with a click at the end of his step. His thoughts were drawn away from this semi… endeavour when he, and his friend, passed the first window they had seen as of yet.
Harry stopped, soon followed by Hermione, and they both looked out into the night sky.
"Beautiful isn't it?" Hermione said breathlessly, and Harry had no disagreement with this statement. The black sky was barely cloudy; a few puffs of grey and white wisps of clouds dotted the black sky here and there across the flat horizon. Harry felt himself move toward it, staring out at the moon high above them, he felt his hand move out the window, passing through a cool night breeze. Even without lights jetting out from windows, the stars did not seem to be in sight in the nearly cloudless sky.
"The stars are sleeping it seems…" Hermione said in the same breathless tone as she stepped to Harry's side. He moved over hastily to make room for her though she didn't seem to notice his little dilemma. Her two brown eyes staring blankly at the black sky above them.
A slight gust of wind sent Harry's hair flying in every direction; he turned away from Hermione's amazed expression and continued to stare at the flat horizon of the night sky. Then something caught his eye, off to the right of the window, an Owl was flying toward them. Surprising right towards them, Harry backed away from the window, all thoughts of the beautiful black sky thrown unceremoniously out of his head.
"What?" Hermione exclaimed from behind him, Harry continued to back away nonetheless. Then breathed a sigh of relief and placed a smile on his face when his Snowy Owl, Hedwig, flew in with her beady amber eyes. "Hedwig!" Harry chuckled as his companion set herself on his shoulder, nibbling his ear affectingly. Harry threw a smile Hermione's way as he ran his left hand across the feathers of his Owl.
"Rather smart isn't she?" Harry said with a sidelong smile and Hermione nodded.
"Beautiful and smart, can't get much better than that can you?" Harry laughed heartedly at this, pointing a finger to the dark, shadowed corridor behind her.
He let his finger fall when Hermione turned around. "We should be going, can't dawdle can we?" Hermione turned around with her eyebrows raised.
"You know what "dawdle" means?" She asked abruptly and Harry stared back at her.
"I'm that dumb eh?" Both of them chuckled at this, the laugh actually escaping from their respective diaphragms this time, Harry felt at peace suddenly, wanting nothing more than to burst out laughing and roll around on the rock hard floor.
"You're not dumb Harry." She said rolling her eyes and turning around, leading her friend down the passage.
"I'm not a lot of things Hermione." Harry countered with his sidelong smile still on his face. "I know intelligence is not part of that."
"You're not dumb Harry." She repeated with the same, if not more, firm tone. She didn't move her gaze from the corridor in front of her, her white right hand gripping the small stick tightly.
Silence fell between the two friends yet again, though it ended soon enough. For when they turned yet another corner, a person was standing in front of them, a dark cloak shrouding his entire body.
"You have finally found your way here…" he hissed eerily, Harry stopped, backing away along the small one lane corridor while the stranger advanced, his hood falling down to reveal messy black hair. Really messy raven black hair…
"H-Harry?" Hermione stuttered, dropping her wand. Harry stopped backing away as well, standing up straight with his mouth open. There, staring right back at him was himself; the same bright green eyes, the same raven black messy hair, the same cut across his cheek from walking in the woods near the Dursley's house just when summer started.
Harry lifted his right hand to rub against his own cut, feeling the scab along his right cheek. The other Harry laughed heartedly at this gesture.
"I am amazing aren't I Harry?" He said with Harry's own voice thrown in for good measure. Harry felt his hand drop, his two hands curling into fists. "Oh but wait, watch this!" He shut his eyes, and then reopened them a second later.
At first glance Harry didn't see anything different, then his black hair started to lengthen, his green eyes darkened, his face started to morph, his entire body seemed to shrink.
"No…" Hermione whispered just as she saw herself right in front of her. Lord Voldemort then laughed eerily yet again.
"CRUCIO!" Hermione's voice screamed, Harry immediately grabbed the real Hermione's arm, pulling it, as well as the rest of her body, away from Voldemort's curse.
"How could he get here so fast!" Harry hissed with a snarled tone, dashing off with Hermione in his wake.
"Come back Harry my dear!" The Hermione Voldemort yelled from behind them, Harry turned his head back enough to see the copy walking quite calmly. "If you don't stop, your friend dies!"
Harry cursed, knowing the corridor's lack of width and Hermione would be caught in any curse even before Voldemort would reach them. Harry whispered to Hermione.
"Duck when I say so okay?" Harry didn't check if she heard it or not, but kept running nonetheless.
"CRUCIO!"
"DUCK!" The two phrases were yelled out simultaneously, Hermione fell to the ground while Harry jumped into the air, turning around in mid air while sending a curse at the unforgiveable curse.
"Thank you How to Duel with Death Eaters!" Harry thought to himself as his counter-curse hit the unforgivable. It was indeed the counter-curse, for it would merely send the curse right back at its user. Voldemort was caught off-guard now, the curse ripping at his female body.
Harry didn't watch his rival crying out in pain, though he had to claw at his own scar to mildly mend the pain he was feeling in it. He grabbed Hermione, running off down the corridor with her in tow and Voldemort's screams now only an echo of the past.