Harry Potter & the Journey Into Isolation
By The Short Fat Fag
Chapter Nine: Aftermath
Harry stirs in his bed, he is very groggy and his head hurts. His scar is burning like a brand on his forehead and he is very confused. Within moments the burning sensation leaves him and he becomes more clearheaded, but there was no vision of Voldemort with the burning, at least not one he can remember. Harry tried to sit up in bed, but finds he cannot; his head hurts so badly it wouldn't let him. So he settles back down again.
After a few minutes resting Harry begins to remember. He remembers being in the potions dungeon and later in the bathroom and for a moment he is ashamed of himself. Harry immediately grabs his throat only to find that the damage has been healed completely, but then wonders, 'Why am I still alive?'
As if on cue, the door to his private room opens and in walks Madame Pomfrey. "Oh good, you're awake. I was beginning to wonder how long it would take you to join us again."
"What happened?" he rasps through a dry throat.
"That damned fool potions master thought that if you were shocked enough, it would cajole you into being more co-operative into talking about you experience this summer," Poppy said disapprovingly. Then with a small smile on her face, she said, "You may want to avoid him for awhile, he's still not happy about you breaking his nose."
Harry rubbed his throat and said, "I meant…"
"Oh, you mean your suicide attempt? Really Potter, you should know that no one dies in my infirmary without my permission."
Harry gave her a look and she continued, "Dobby found you moments after you cut yourself and placed you in magical stasis until I could get back here to heal you. He's been frantic ever since."
Harry looked down feeling guilty, "I didn't mean to scare him."
Poppy sat down on the bed beside him and tried to touch Harry, but he flinched away from her touch. He looked sheepish after he realized what he had down, but still wouldn't allow himself to be touched. Not yet anyway.
"How long was I asleep?" Harry asks trying to change the subject.
Poppy begins to perform monitoring spells on him as she answers him, "You've been asleep for about three days. Well you seem have healed nicely, though you may have a slight scar there for some time, but it should fade away in a few weeks."
"I'm surprised Dumbledore isn't here," Harry said, "he's usually here whenever I awake up after doing something stupid."
Poppy laughed quietly, "Oh, he's tried, but he can't get through the line."
"The line? What line?"
"It would seem that quite a few students, under the leadership of Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Longbottom, have formed a cocoon around my infirmary and won't let anyone pass, even the Headmaster," explained the nurse.
Harry stared up at the ceiling, "Why would they do that?"
Poppy gave her patient a withering glance and said, "I wouldn't know, maybe they think you're worth it."
"I'm not," he said very quietly.
- - - - -
Dumbledore stood there, once again attempting to gain entry to the infirmary, but was once again being haulted in his endeavor by what has been labeled the 'line.'
"Ms. Granger," he sighed, "surely you must understand what is at stake here. I must be allowed to talk to Harry. It is vitally important."
However, Hermione stood her ground. "I mean you no disrespect Professor; however, you did plot with Professor Snape against Harry, and as a result he… did what he did and almost succeeded. As a result, we the members of the D.A. have decided to not allow anyone near him who is not going to do their best to help him heal."
Dumbledore chuckled, "Yes, Ms. Granger, and members of my own army…"
"That Harry formed, trained and leads. If it wasn't for him over half of us would have failed our O.W.L.'s in Defense Against the Dark Arts two years ago and you know it well. No one gets past until he says so and since he is not yet awake, you'll just have to wait." Then Hermione stamped her foot to make sure he knew she meant business.
"Ms. Granger, Harry is awake. He awoke a short time ago," Dumbledore said calmly.
Hermione and several other members of the D.A. all wanted to rush in to see him, but held their ground.
"Very well, Ms. Granger, I will leave for now, but I will be back," the Headmaster said and with a twinkle continued. "I know you too well; you'll soon hear the siren song from the library and I'll sneak past you yet."
Hermione's cheeks burned crimson.
- - - - -
"Harry Potter, Harry Potter!" squeaked an excited Dobby, "you's is better now."
"Hey Dobby, I was wondering where you were," Harry replied with a small half smile to his little friend.
"Well… I's was down in the dungeons," admitted the house elf.
Harry gave a shudder and asked, "Why?"
"Professor Snape is not saying he is sorry for hurting Harry Potter and I's was telling that he should be."
This brought a genuine smile to Harry's face, he could just imagine Dobby telling Snape off, which his hands on his hips just Mrs. Weasley does when she is mad and yelling at someone, usually the twins.
"Dobby, can you do something for me?"
"Anything Harry Potter," beamed the elf.
"I would like to see my friends, but first I need to see Professor McGonagall."
- - - - -
Some time later Professor McGonagall entered the infirmary, after she managed to get passed the line.
"Potter?" she asked, "You wanted to see me."
Harry looked up at her and nodded. He was already regretting calling for her, but knew what needed to be done, and being a brave Gryffindor, he would do it.
McGonagall sensed his discomfort and kept her distance so he wouldn't feel crowded and waited for him to tell her what was on his mind.
"I wanted to speak to you about what happened in potions the other day," he said at last.
"I want you to know I had nothing to do with that at all Potter and I am quite angry with Severus for using what he knew against you like that."
Harry was a bit confused, but then he remembered what Snape had done before school began and let a long breath out. "Actually, I wanted to talk about that briefly. I want to drop potions class from my schedule."
"Potter… Harry, I must remind you that you need potions in order to become an Auror," she began but was cut off when he turned to her.
"The Aurors are not going to take me like this anyway! Not after what's happened to me," he screamed. However, he managed to calm himself, he wasn't angry with her after all. Quietly Harry said, "It doesn't matter anymore and I will not return to his classroom or be anywhere near him again."
"I don't blame you for that, I suppose. What are you going to take in its place?"
Harry shrugged, "Nothing, I guess. It doesn't matter anyway, the fewer classes I have right now the better. I'm having a hard enough time concentrating as it is."
"I'll see to it if you're sure about this," McGonagall said.
"I am."
"Well then, I'll leave you to your friends. They're out in the corridor waiting to see you," said his head of house and as she turned to leave him he asked her to stay a moment longer.
"Professor, please, I need to ask something else."
"Yes, Potter, what is it that you need?" she curiously asked.
"Can you arrange for Tonks to come visit me and can you ask Dumbledore to if I may borrow his pensive?"
McGonagall was slightly stunned, why would he want a pensive.
"I'll contact Tonks right away for you and I'll ask Albus about the pensive. Do you mind if I ask why you want to use it?"
Harry sighed, this conversation was taking more out of him than he anticipated, but he answered her just the same. "Dumbledore once said that sometimes his head gets so full of memories that he can't keep them all in and a pensive helps sort them all out." Then he turned away from her and stared out of the window as he collected himself and willed himself to not shed a tear. He would not cry.
"I'll see to it then," she said and once again started to go out of the infirmary. "I'll also give you five minutes before I send in the others." Then she was gone.
- - - - -
Draco Malfoy was sitting at his usual place at the Slytherin table having his breakfast while watching the Gryffindor table with interest, or rather watching a large vacant area of the Gryffindor table that is. Ever since the episode in the dungeons on the first day of term, large chunks of Gryffindor, not to mention smaller chunks of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, could be found forming the now infamous 'line' that surrounded the hospital wing.
He sat there thinking. 'How am I ever going to get past that lot without anyone seeing me?'
Just then the owls arrived with the morning mail. In fact a particularly fowl looking eagle owl landed in front of Draco Malfoy and stuck out it's leg waiting to be relieved of it's burden, which the blond took greedily. He knew what it was; it was the reply from his father.
Draco,
I received your letter about the subject in question and though he was not with any of my associates in the time period you mentioned, I do know that he was staying with others, who were not very hospitable to him.
Beyond this, I have absolutely no information on the subject at all and neither does anyone else we know, who would be very pleased if anything was found out about it.
Find out what you can about it and forward it all to me.
Regards,
Your father
Draco read the letter twice and decided that his father was being truthful about not knowing, for once in his life that is. He didn't belittle nor was insulting at all in this letter.
'He must want to get on the Dark Lord's good side on this one,' thought Draco. 'Well you great git, you're just going to have to do without, no matter what I discover.'
Then he returned to eating his breakfast and began to formulate a plan to get into the infirmary.
- - - - -
A short time later as Harry was sitting on his bed, he heard a knocking at the door to his private room. He looks over at Dobby, who smiles and him and hops over to the door to open it. There on the other side are his friends, who have been waiting to see him for three days.
"Harry," Hermione yells as she makes her way into the room. Normally she would have hugged him, but knowing what she does, she restrains herself.
"Hey mate," called Ron to his best friend, "We've missed you this week. You know it's not fair that we have all this homework and you get to sleep the week away." Ron smiled at his best friend trying to get him to smile also. Harry did his best to make one for Ron, but it was only half hearted at best.
"Don't pick on Harry, Ron; it's not his fault you're failing all your classes already."
"I'm not failing anything Ginny, except maybe Defense," Ron pouted.
"Why are you doing so badly in Defense?" asked Harry. "It's one of your better subjects."
Neville spoke up this time, "We have another new teacher and this one is dreadful. I think we need to start the D.A. back up again."
"Toft is an idiot," added Ron, "He's worse than Lockhart, and that's saying something."
Harry knew well that Gilderoy Lockhart was the worst teacher of Defense they had ever had. Saying this new one was worse was saying something indeed. However, Harry gave his friends a confused look and they immediately went into detail about how class went with the new teacher.
Harry knew they were right, this man sounded like a complete idiot. Suddenly Harry's mind began to fill with ideas for the D. A., what to teach and how to teach it. For the first time, in a very long time, Harry felt like he used to and he liked it. Also without realizing it, Harry smiled.
- - - - -
Later that evening, Harry sat alone in his room in the infirmary reading a book about Defense techniques when a knock came to his door. For a moment he sat there on his bed frozen, not with fear, but with expectation. 'Who could that be?' he thought.
Moments later, the door opened and in walked Professor McGonagall. "I'm sorry to disturb you Potter, but Dobby said it would alright to bring this to you now." In her hands was Dumbledore's pensive.
Taking it from her, Harry places it on the bed and says, "Thank you Professor, I appreciate the trouble you went through to get it for me."
"It was no trouble, I simply explained to him that I was taking it and that would be that," she replied, which caused Harry to grin. Harry's grin pleased her more than she thought it would. "I also spoke with Tonks and she said she would be happy to come by and speak with you that day after tomorrow."
"That should give me enough time to put my thoughts in order."
"Harry, what are you planning? Why do you need Tonks to do it?" McGonagall asked.
Harry looked sad for a moment as his eyes slowly became hollow and he said, "You don't want to know."
To Be Continued … Please Read and Review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Fangalla, Gecko & Darkened-Valentine, House Elves are intersesting creatures aren't they?
By The Short Fat Fag
Chapter Nine: Aftermath
Harry stirs in his bed, he is very groggy and his head hurts. His scar is burning like a brand on his forehead and he is very confused. Within moments the burning sensation leaves him and he becomes more clearheaded, but there was no vision of Voldemort with the burning, at least not one he can remember. Harry tried to sit up in bed, but finds he cannot; his head hurts so badly it wouldn't let him. So he settles back down again.
After a few minutes resting Harry begins to remember. He remembers being in the potions dungeon and later in the bathroom and for a moment he is ashamed of himself. Harry immediately grabs his throat only to find that the damage has been healed completely, but then wonders, 'Why am I still alive?'
As if on cue, the door to his private room opens and in walks Madame Pomfrey. "Oh good, you're awake. I was beginning to wonder how long it would take you to join us again."
"What happened?" he rasps through a dry throat.
"That damned fool potions master thought that if you were shocked enough, it would cajole you into being more co-operative into talking about you experience this summer," Poppy said disapprovingly. Then with a small smile on her face, she said, "You may want to avoid him for awhile, he's still not happy about you breaking his nose."
Harry rubbed his throat and said, "I meant…"
"Oh, you mean your suicide attempt? Really Potter, you should know that no one dies in my infirmary without my permission."
Harry gave her a look and she continued, "Dobby found you moments after you cut yourself and placed you in magical stasis until I could get back here to heal you. He's been frantic ever since."
Harry looked down feeling guilty, "I didn't mean to scare him."
Poppy sat down on the bed beside him and tried to touch Harry, but he flinched away from her touch. He looked sheepish after he realized what he had down, but still wouldn't allow himself to be touched. Not yet anyway.
"How long was I asleep?" Harry asks trying to change the subject.
Poppy begins to perform monitoring spells on him as she answers him, "You've been asleep for about three days. Well you seem have healed nicely, though you may have a slight scar there for some time, but it should fade away in a few weeks."
"I'm surprised Dumbledore isn't here," Harry said, "he's usually here whenever I awake up after doing something stupid."
Poppy laughed quietly, "Oh, he's tried, but he can't get through the line."
"The line? What line?"
"It would seem that quite a few students, under the leadership of Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Longbottom, have formed a cocoon around my infirmary and won't let anyone pass, even the Headmaster," explained the nurse.
Harry stared up at the ceiling, "Why would they do that?"
Poppy gave her patient a withering glance and said, "I wouldn't know, maybe they think you're worth it."
"I'm not," he said very quietly.
- - - - -
Dumbledore stood there, once again attempting to gain entry to the infirmary, but was once again being haulted in his endeavor by what has been labeled the 'line.'
"Ms. Granger," he sighed, "surely you must understand what is at stake here. I must be allowed to talk to Harry. It is vitally important."
However, Hermione stood her ground. "I mean you no disrespect Professor; however, you did plot with Professor Snape against Harry, and as a result he… did what he did and almost succeeded. As a result, we the members of the D.A. have decided to not allow anyone near him who is not going to do their best to help him heal."
Dumbledore chuckled, "Yes, Ms. Granger, and members of my own army…"
"That Harry formed, trained and leads. If it wasn't for him over half of us would have failed our O.W.L.'s in Defense Against the Dark Arts two years ago and you know it well. No one gets past until he says so and since he is not yet awake, you'll just have to wait." Then Hermione stamped her foot to make sure he knew she meant business.
"Ms. Granger, Harry is awake. He awoke a short time ago," Dumbledore said calmly.
Hermione and several other members of the D.A. all wanted to rush in to see him, but held their ground.
"Very well, Ms. Granger, I will leave for now, but I will be back," the Headmaster said and with a twinkle continued. "I know you too well; you'll soon hear the siren song from the library and I'll sneak past you yet."
Hermione's cheeks burned crimson.
- - - - -
"Harry Potter, Harry Potter!" squeaked an excited Dobby, "you's is better now."
"Hey Dobby, I was wondering where you were," Harry replied with a small half smile to his little friend.
"Well… I's was down in the dungeons," admitted the house elf.
Harry gave a shudder and asked, "Why?"
"Professor Snape is not saying he is sorry for hurting Harry Potter and I's was telling that he should be."
This brought a genuine smile to Harry's face, he could just imagine Dobby telling Snape off, which his hands on his hips just Mrs. Weasley does when she is mad and yelling at someone, usually the twins.
"Dobby, can you do something for me?"
"Anything Harry Potter," beamed the elf.
"I would like to see my friends, but first I need to see Professor McGonagall."
- - - - -
Some time later Professor McGonagall entered the infirmary, after she managed to get passed the line.
"Potter?" she asked, "You wanted to see me."
Harry looked up at her and nodded. He was already regretting calling for her, but knew what needed to be done, and being a brave Gryffindor, he would do it.
McGonagall sensed his discomfort and kept her distance so he wouldn't feel crowded and waited for him to tell her what was on his mind.
"I wanted to speak to you about what happened in potions the other day," he said at last.
"I want you to know I had nothing to do with that at all Potter and I am quite angry with Severus for using what he knew against you like that."
Harry was a bit confused, but then he remembered what Snape had done before school began and let a long breath out. "Actually, I wanted to talk about that briefly. I want to drop potions class from my schedule."
"Potter… Harry, I must remind you that you need potions in order to become an Auror," she began but was cut off when he turned to her.
"The Aurors are not going to take me like this anyway! Not after what's happened to me," he screamed. However, he managed to calm himself, he wasn't angry with her after all. Quietly Harry said, "It doesn't matter anymore and I will not return to his classroom or be anywhere near him again."
"I don't blame you for that, I suppose. What are you going to take in its place?"
Harry shrugged, "Nothing, I guess. It doesn't matter anyway, the fewer classes I have right now the better. I'm having a hard enough time concentrating as it is."
"I'll see to it if you're sure about this," McGonagall said.
"I am."
"Well then, I'll leave you to your friends. They're out in the corridor waiting to see you," said his head of house and as she turned to leave him he asked her to stay a moment longer.
"Professor, please, I need to ask something else."
"Yes, Potter, what is it that you need?" she curiously asked.
"Can you arrange for Tonks to come visit me and can you ask Dumbledore to if I may borrow his pensive?"
McGonagall was slightly stunned, why would he want a pensive.
"I'll contact Tonks right away for you and I'll ask Albus about the pensive. Do you mind if I ask why you want to use it?"
Harry sighed, this conversation was taking more out of him than he anticipated, but he answered her just the same. "Dumbledore once said that sometimes his head gets so full of memories that he can't keep them all in and a pensive helps sort them all out." Then he turned away from her and stared out of the window as he collected himself and willed himself to not shed a tear. He would not cry.
"I'll see to it then," she said and once again started to go out of the infirmary. "I'll also give you five minutes before I send in the others." Then she was gone.
- - - - -
Draco Malfoy was sitting at his usual place at the Slytherin table having his breakfast while watching the Gryffindor table with interest, or rather watching a large vacant area of the Gryffindor table that is. Ever since the episode in the dungeons on the first day of term, large chunks of Gryffindor, not to mention smaller chunks of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, could be found forming the now infamous 'line' that surrounded the hospital wing.
He sat there thinking. 'How am I ever going to get past that lot without anyone seeing me?'
Just then the owls arrived with the morning mail. In fact a particularly fowl looking eagle owl landed in front of Draco Malfoy and stuck out it's leg waiting to be relieved of it's burden, which the blond took greedily. He knew what it was; it was the reply from his father.
Draco,
I received your letter about the subject in question and though he was not with any of my associates in the time period you mentioned, I do know that he was staying with others, who were not very hospitable to him.
Beyond this, I have absolutely no information on the subject at all and neither does anyone else we know, who would be very pleased if anything was found out about it.
Find out what you can about it and forward it all to me.
Regards,
Your father
Draco read the letter twice and decided that his father was being truthful about not knowing, for once in his life that is. He didn't belittle nor was insulting at all in this letter.
'He must want to get on the Dark Lord's good side on this one,' thought Draco. 'Well you great git, you're just going to have to do without, no matter what I discover.'
Then he returned to eating his breakfast and began to formulate a plan to get into the infirmary.
- - - - -
A short time later as Harry was sitting on his bed, he heard a knocking at the door to his private room. He looks over at Dobby, who smiles and him and hops over to the door to open it. There on the other side are his friends, who have been waiting to see him for three days.
"Harry," Hermione yells as she makes her way into the room. Normally she would have hugged him, but knowing what she does, she restrains herself.
"Hey mate," called Ron to his best friend, "We've missed you this week. You know it's not fair that we have all this homework and you get to sleep the week away." Ron smiled at his best friend trying to get him to smile also. Harry did his best to make one for Ron, but it was only half hearted at best.
"Don't pick on Harry, Ron; it's not his fault you're failing all your classes already."
"I'm not failing anything Ginny, except maybe Defense," Ron pouted.
"Why are you doing so badly in Defense?" asked Harry. "It's one of your better subjects."
Neville spoke up this time, "We have another new teacher and this one is dreadful. I think we need to start the D.A. back up again."
"Toft is an idiot," added Ron, "He's worse than Lockhart, and that's saying something."
Harry knew well that Gilderoy Lockhart was the worst teacher of Defense they had ever had. Saying this new one was worse was saying something indeed. However, Harry gave his friends a confused look and they immediately went into detail about how class went with the new teacher.
Harry knew they were right, this man sounded like a complete idiot. Suddenly Harry's mind began to fill with ideas for the D. A., what to teach and how to teach it. For the first time, in a very long time, Harry felt like he used to and he liked it. Also without realizing it, Harry smiled.
- - - - -
Later that evening, Harry sat alone in his room in the infirmary reading a book about Defense techniques when a knock came to his door. For a moment he sat there on his bed frozen, not with fear, but with expectation. 'Who could that be?' he thought.
Moments later, the door opened and in walked Professor McGonagall. "I'm sorry to disturb you Potter, but Dobby said it would alright to bring this to you now." In her hands was Dumbledore's pensive.
Taking it from her, Harry places it on the bed and says, "Thank you Professor, I appreciate the trouble you went through to get it for me."
"It was no trouble, I simply explained to him that I was taking it and that would be that," she replied, which caused Harry to grin. Harry's grin pleased her more than she thought it would. "I also spoke with Tonks and she said she would be happy to come by and speak with you that day after tomorrow."
"That should give me enough time to put my thoughts in order."
"Harry, what are you planning? Why do you need Tonks to do it?" McGonagall asked.
Harry looked sad for a moment as his eyes slowly became hollow and he said, "You don't want to know."
To Be Continued … Please Read and Review
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Fangalla, Gecko & Darkened-Valentine, House Elves are intersesting creatures aren't they?