Loss
by Breninblack
Disclaimer: All belongs to the ever-wonderful JKR.
Chapter Notes: No notes this time...
Chapter Five
The next morning as the staff and last few students were leaving the Great Hall from breakfast, Hermione and Ron came sprinting into the entrance hall.
'Miss Granger! Mr Weasley! 10 points for running in the halls!' barked Snape. But they didn't hear him; they just kept running.
Until they almost collided with Dumbledore.
'Miss Granger, Mr Weasley. Good morning. You shouldn't be running in the halls like that. You might run into someone,' he said.
'Dumbledore, sir, Harry's missing!' Hermione exclaimed breathlessly.
'He wasn't there this morning when I woke up and we looked everywhere for him!' Ron said.
'We've even checked the map!'
'Are you positive? He's no where in the castle? Have you checked to grounds?' Dumbledore asked.
'He's not on the quidditch pitch and Hagrid hasn't seen him,' Ron said. 'I don't know where else he could be.'
'He left me a note on my room last night, saying he needed to clear his head. But he didn't say where he was going,' Hermione added.
'We'll do a search of the grounds. I'll tell Hagrid to go out with Fluffy—'
'Excuse, Headmaster, sir. I didn't mean to overhear your conversation, but I think I might know where he is.' Hermione and Ron's jaws both dropped when Malfoy addressed the Headmaster.
'You git! What have you done with him!' Hermione yelled. Ron held her back from attacking Malfoy, though he had a mind to let her have at him.
'Miss Granger, dear, I think we should follow any lead, if it may help us find Mr Potter,' Dumbledore said calmly. He turned to Malfoy. 'Mr. Malfoy, would you lead the way?'
They walked out on to the grounds and as they walked Hermione and Ron were trying desperately to figure out where they were going and why Malfoy was the one leading them there. When they finally stopped walking, they had arrived at a cliff surrounded by more cliffs behind and the Forbidden Forest at the left. Hermione and Ron didn't recognize the place; Hogwarts: A History had never mentioned any cliffs on the Hogwarts grounds. But where ever it was, it was empty. No Harry in sight.
'I'm sorry, sir,' Malfoy said. 'It was only a hunch.'
'Quite alright, Mr Malfoy.' Dumbledore walked around the area, as if he was studying it. Everyone was silent for a moment until a loud expletive could be heard from Ron.
'Fuck no,' he nearly shouted as he staggered back away from the cliff's edge. Hermione rushed forward, but he held out a hand to stop her. 'No, Hermione. You don't need to see that.'
Immediately Dumbledore was at the cliff's edge, peering down.
'Mr Malfoy, Mr Weasley, Miss Granger, I need you to go the castle and gather Professor Snape and Madame Pomfery. Tell them to come here immediately.' Dumbledore moved away from the cliff and began looking around the site once more. He found a jagged path at the edge of the cliffs and started down it.
Draco took one quick look over the edge of the cliff before they returned to the castle and was horrified by what he saw. On the ground in a large pool of red, some several hundred feet below, was Harry.
Draco broke out in a run. There was no time to spare; who knows how long he had been down there or how much blood he had lost. If he was even still...
No. Don't even think that, Draco thought.
'Hermione, you go find Madame Pomfery,' Ron instructed when the three of them arrived breathlessly at the castle. 'Malfoy and I will go get Snape.'
'Ron, would you please tell me what's going on? What's happened to Harry?' she asked.
'Not now, we've got to hurry,' he replied and sped off toward the dungeons, Malfoy at his heel.
Snape's classroom door was closed when they got to it, presumably because class was already in session. Malfoy paused a moment at the closed door and put his hand up to knock. But Ron got there first and shoved the door open.
'—infusion of wormwood—Mr Weasley, what in God's name do you think you are doing? I'm trying to teach a class! 50 points—'
'Professor, sir, Dumbledore needs you immediately. It's Harry.'
A mixed look of distaste and worry passed over the professor's face. 'Class dismissed,' he said and the students began to pack up their things. Snape walked over to Ron and Malfoy.
'What's going on? Has there been an attack?' he asked. The last thing he needed right now was a surprise Death Eater attack.
'No...I don't think so at least. We've found Harry at the bottom of a cliff. Dumbledore requested you to come immediately.'
'Trust Potter with the dramatics,' Snape said as he rolled his eyes. Ron scowled at him.
'Oh, come on!' Malfoy urged. Snape raised an eyebrow but didn't comment and they hurriedly walked down the corridor to the entrance hall, where they met Hermione and Madame Pomfery.
The five of them hurried out towards the cliff area. When they got there Malfoy showed them the ghastly sight at the bottom of the cliff and then pointed them in the direction of the path that Dumbledore had gone down.
As Hermione watched everything, it finally dawned on her what had happened. She rushed to the edge. Before Ron could stop her she peered down and there was stifled cry.
'Oh my god, Ron, this is all my fault! I wasn't paying him enough attention!' she cried.
'This is not your fault,' Ron tried to comfort her.
'Should have seen this coming,' Malfoy muttered to himself. Unfortunately, Hermione overheard him.
'What do you know? Harry hates you!' Hermione scowled.
'He may have hated me, but that doesn't mean all the signs weren't there. I just...didn't see them.' The minute after the words left his mouth, he regretted letting that last confession slip. It was more than Granger and Weasley needed to know.
'What, have you been stalking him?'
'It was painfully obvious to anyone who's not blind, deaf and mute that the boy had some serious unresolved grief,' Malfoy said quickly to rectify his slip of tongue. 'The fact that no one took it seriously is sort of surprising. I guess Gryffindor's Golden Boy isn't so important after all.'
Hermione was so enraged she could do nothing but sit there and shake. Ron, however, was finding it increasingly difficult not to go over and deck that sodding self-righteous bastard a good one. But he remained where he was and sent Malfoy a vicious glare instead.
Ten minutes later the teachers came up the path, Dumbledore first, followed by Madame Pomfery then Snape. They had magicked Harry on a stretcher in front of them. Hermione immediately rushed up to his side.
'Oh Harry!' was all she could manage before breaking into uncontrollable sobs. Madame Pomfery led Harry straight up to the infirmary when they reached the castle, Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione and Draco in tow, and Snape returned to the dungeons.
In the infirmary, the only things audible were the sobs of Hermione and the whisperings of Madame Pomfery while she worked. Dumbledore, Ron and Draco stood by silently watching. Ron was dumbfounded and it clearly showed. He was so confused as to why Harry would attempt at his life. It just seemed so...unexpected. He had known Harry had been beating himself up over the whole Department of Mysteries deal, but everyone had come out okay in the end, except for Sirius. He hadn't thought it was this bad.
Draco, too, was quite troubled and it was unintentionally evident. Unlike Ron, Draco had a good idea as to why Harry would do something like this and he felt completely and totally responsible. He hadn't meant anything by it, telling Harry about the other world he had visited and meeting Sirius, except that he wanted to pass along Sirius' message. He wouldn't have told Harry anything if he had known Harry would go jump off a cliff because of it. Draco had never lost anyone – that he had known of at the time – so he could only imagine that it must be hard on a person. He ran his finger up and down along the scar left on his face in a rare display of nervousness. His eyes flicked to Dumbledore, who was looking characteristically blank, then to Ron, who was looking rather confused and then to Hermione. It only took a few seconds to realize that she had been staring at him and was looking very angry. With no warning, she leapt at him, screaming.
'What have you done to Harry! What have you done!' she screamed. 'I'll kill you if you did this! Just because you hated him didn't mean you had to make him kill himself! How could you! Your sick, Draco Malfoy! Sick! You're worse than your father!'
Draco, who had been doing nothing to defend himself as Hermione attacked, paled at the mention of his father.
'Now, Miss Granger, I think it is important that you calm down,' Dumbledore said calmly. 'I do not think you would like to serve your first detention for attacking another student, would you? Perhaps it would be a good idea if you and Mr. Weasley returned to your room and rest for a bit, have a lie-down. I'm dismissing you from the days classes.'
Hermione stopped struggling against Ron and collapsed into his arms, crying again. Ron started to help her towards the door.
'And Mr. Weasley? I should like to speak with you two later on. Does 11 o'clock sound reasonable?' Dumbledore added as they were at the door.
Ron nodded and they left the hospital wing. Dumbledore turned to Draco.
'Mr. Malfoy, I should like to speak to you too. But it seems that at the moment you too are quite shaken. I should like you to go to my office and wait for me there. I have a few things to tend to yet. I should be there in a half hour's time. The password is Jelly Belly.'
Draco walked numbly to the door and slowly made his way to the Headmaster's office.
Inside the Infirmary, Albus Dumbledore looked down sadly at the comatose boy and whispered so quiet it was barely audible: 'I do hope you haven't given up on us yet, dear boy.'