I do not own Harry Potter.
Harry wanted to scream, but his jaw and his vocal cords were frozen along with the rest of him. So his scream went unvoiced, trapped inside him, waiting to burst out as soon as he could move.
The reason he wanted to scream?
His neck felt like someone had poured molten metal down his throat. The air that he inhaled was heated, as if his neck really was burning. He couldn't swallow, he couldn't gasp for extra air. He couldn't even scream, or moan. He was left, silent, unmoving, leaning against the wall.
A tear traced its way down his cheek, followed by many, many more.
Bellatrix had finally finished her victory madness. She was panting in the middle of the room, still grinning like a maniac. The other death eaters cautiously crept from their hiding spaces, eyeing Bellatrix, wary that she might start flinging jinxes again. She didn't.
Now that the room was silent from Bellatrix's insane celebrations, they could hear the sounds of a battle coming from the stairs up to the tower. Snape growled in annoyance.
"Now look what's happened. Our escape route is blocked, because of your madness, Bellatrix!" Snape, the traitor, snapped.
Harry paid all this no mind; his neck was in agony. Jumbled words raced through his mind. Hurts…oh, it hurts. Dead…Dumbledore…death…murdered…bellatrix…Sirius…PA IN! Snape…traitor…malfoy…kill…my neck…uuuhh…can't breathe…
He blearily noticed the triumphant death eaters leaving through the door. He heard the solid thunk as the door closed, but when it had been open the sounds of a fight reached his ears clearly. He could only hope that the fighting would end soon and someone would find him up here. Then he remembered…the invisibility cloak. No one would know he was there. No one would find him, and he would be left here to die from the horrible, burning, pain in his throat.
He panicked.
He wasn't quite sure what happened, but suddenly his invisibility cloak went flying across the room and he crumpled to the ground, released from the body-binding spell. Instantly his hands flew to his neck and he screamed.
It didn't sound natural.
Instead it was harsh, cracked; the auditory version of muggle television static. But it was so much more frightening. It was accompanied by wet gurgling sounds, and Harry coughed weakly.
Blood came out of his mouth.
This couldn't be good, Harry thought as he screamed again, unable to help it. It pained him even more, but maybe someone would hear and he would be taken to Madam Pomfrey, and she would fix him and make this terribly excruciating pain leave…
The last thing Harry was conscious of before he passed out was the door slamming open, rebounding off the wall with the force used to open it. Harry never even saw who entered.
