Chapter Thirteen: Just Like Every Dark Night Turns Into Day
October was halfway done when Harry got the letter through Draco.
The Slytherins looked at him in amusement as he danced around the common room.
(Well, some of the second years were slightly annoyed, but hey, they're only second years.)
"So we'll be missing him tomorrow and possibly Sunday?" Aleksander asked, and Lissabetta nodded.
Harry barely managed to sleep that night for excitement, and when morning came, Draco and Blaise walked him down to the gates with Aleksander and Lissabetta. Lord and Lady Malfoy were waiting for them, just outside the wards.
"Mother, Father," Draco greeted, pulling up a cool visage that was ruined when Narcissa embraced her son.
"You are amongst friends, Draco, you need not use that cool mask," she said. Meanwhile, Harry shook hands with Lord Malfoy.
"I'm Harry Potter," he said.
"Lord Lucius Malfoy," Draco's father replied. "You may call me by my first name."
"Of course, Lucius," Harry replied. Narcissa had stopped embracing Draco for a moment, and Harry turned to brush his lips against the back of her hand. "You must be the esteemed Lady Malfoy."
"Yes, I am. You may use my first name when addressing me," she replied.
"Indeed, Narcissa," Harry replied. She laughed and turned to Draco.
"You've taught him well," she said. Draco preened.
"Thank you, mother," he replied.
"Come. We don't have all day, for depending on the severity of the blocks you may need to recover in Diagon Alley for the night," Lucius said. He turned to address Harry. "Have you ever side-along Apparated?" Harry looked confused and shook his head. Lucius nodded. "It will not be entirely pleasant, so I suggest you exhale before we go. Narcissa, we will be apparating directly outside Gringott's." Narcissa nodded, and she took his hand. Harry felt a very uncomfortable squeezing around him, then suddenly he was in Diagon Alley in front of the large bank.
"We will be seeing goblin healers, as they are some of the most thorough and trustworthy, and the only ones that have the expertise to remove mental and magical blocks," Narcissa explained. "They have the bedside manners of angry bears, but they're good." Harry nodded and allowed himself to be lead inside to where Lucius was already seeing a teller. A goblin led the three of them back, and down several flights of stairs.
"This is Healer Bludgeonscar's office," the goblin said, and left them to wait for about thirty seconds before a goblin- ugly even by (probably) goblin standards (Harry didn't exactly know goblin beauty standards)- poked his head out of the door.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Get in here," he said, and the three of them entered the office. "Which one of you am I looking at?"
Harry raised his hand.
"A little small, huh, boy. Seeing us about blocks?"
Harry nodded.
"Well, come on back here."
Harry stood and followed the goblin into a back room. The goblin had him strip and then lay down on a table.
And thus began the seven most excruciating hours of Harry's life.
By the end of it, he was shaking, numb, weak, buzzing with energy, down with the mother of all migraines, his nerves felt like frayed wires, and he was pretty sure he was about to die. He was barely aware of being lead out to Narcissa and Lucius after dressing, and he was half unconscious as they lead him through the Alley to a nicer pub/inn than the Leaky Cauldron. He didn't even register being put on a bed until he fell asleep.
The next morning was barely better. He ached all over the place, and the migraine was still there. But he could function as a normal human being, ish.
Narcissa and Lucius ordered room service for breakfast.
"How do you feel?" Narcissa asked in between bites.
"Like I just fell off the Astronomy tower," Harry replied.
"Unsurprising," Lucius replied. "The goblin said that with the number of blocks you had on your magic and mind you will be feeling under the weather for quite a while."
"We'll take you back to Hogwarts as soon as you're ready," Narcissa informed Harry, and then they finished breakfast in silence. A while later and they had Apparated to Hogwarts' gates, where Blaise, Draco, Aleksander, and Lissabetta were waiting. A few quick goodbyes and then Harry was being lead to the Slytherin common room where he fell onto a waiting couch and quickly fell asleep.
When he woke up he was starving. Blaise and Draco were sitting on chairs opposite each other, playing chess, but when Harry groaned- oh Morgana he ached everywhere- they instantly paid attention to him.
"I'm starving," Harry muttered.
"You should be. It's almost dinner time," Blaise replied. Harry groaned again, rolled over, and buried his head in his arms.
"It's too bright," he mumbled, but Blaise and Draco decided he just had to go to dinner and so they grabbed him by his ever-so-sore arms and lead him up to the Great Hall.
When the three of them walked in, it fell silent. The first thing that happened then was Susan running up and embracing him. Harry just kind of stood there, her action not computing very well.
Finally, his brain caught up.
"Wait… Did you just hug me?"
Susan kind of laughed. It sounded strained.
"Well… Yeah, I mean, was that okay, I won't be too upset if you don't like hugs, I wasn't really thinking oh gosh-"
"Susan?"
"Yeah?"
"Slow down… I can't really follow that well right now," Harry replied, blushing.
"Yeah, we had to lead the great bloody lump all the way up here," Draco said, leading Harry over to where all the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin first years plus Parvati, Lavender, Hermione, and Neville were sitting at the end of the Hufflepuff table. He ended up in between Draco and Blaise and across from Daphne, Lisa, and Susan. He sort of participated in conversation, but his mind was still functioning very fuzzily.
He was excused from classes the next day and carried up to the hospital wing by Crabbe, escorted by the rest of the Slytherin first years, because he was so sore and stiff he could barely move. Madame Pomfrey couldn't give him any potions- they might interfere with the recovery of his core- so he had to suffer through the pain in the hospital wing bed.
He was excused for the rest of the week, even after he could get up and move, because his migraine would not go away. He was still really sore- especially his neck and back. But the migraine was debilitating.
The migraine finally went away enough by Sunday that he could exit his dorm and socialize to an extent. He occasionally had to be helped around, but he really couldn't find it in him to complain. He had people who cared about him. Really cared.
That fact computed very well.
On Monday he had to rejoin classes, but he barely made it through Charms because his head screamed and he had enough raw power that he blew up the feather he was supposed to be levitating…
Multiple times.
Whenever he tried magic, he would blow stuff up.
To be honest it was really annoying.
On Halloween- Friday- Harry really wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep all day. He managed to go to all his classes, and not blow anything up too badly, but he had to go to the bloody feast. On top of it all, his migraine was still there, and Hermione was missing because Ron was a stupid, idiotic git and apparently she was crying in the girl's first floor bathroom while Mandy tried to get her to calm down and come to the feast.
And then Quirrell had to run in with his bloody troll announcement.
Then Albus bloody Dumbledore made the announcement of all Houses to go to their common rooms.
Slytherin House flipped their shit- Albus Dumbledore was sending them past a troll to get to their common room! Why wouldn't they be upset?- and somehow he was being dragged along by Morag to the first floor girl's bathroom because he was the closest and they had to warn Hermione and Mandy.
They got there, and then the bloody troll smashed its way in.
Harry screamed. Morag screamed. Mandy and Hermione screamed. The troll roared. Then the club smashed into the ground next to Harry, and he lunged to the side while Morag hid under the sinks with Mandy and Hermione.
"You bloody damn troll; stop trying to kill my friends!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the troll. He ended up blowing up the wall behind it, but that distracted the troll enough for Harry to re-aim and actually cast a spell. He chose deturbo, but poured enough energy into it that he blew the troll through two walls, shattered all the windows in a hundred meter radius, and blew up his wand, too.
So now he had a horrid migraine, he ached everywhere, his hand was riddled with holly splinters, there was an unconscious troll two classrooms away, and now he had a sobbing Hermione Granger attached to his shirt.
Suffice to say the teachers were rather startled when they came upon the four.
Mandy and Morag ran straight for the teachers, and fell to their knees in front of Professor Flitwick. Morag started begging forgiveness.
"Oh, Professor, I am so sorry I don't know what I was thinking, but Mandy and Hermione were down here and I had to warn them, but I shouldn't have dragged Harry with me I know he's hurt but without him we would've died oh Merlin's beard I am so sorry," Morag gasped, then broke down and sobbed. Mandy just sat there, looking at Professor Flitwick. She was in shock.
"We need to get them to the hospital wing," Snape snarled, limping past the dumbfounded teachers to start guiding the four shell-shocked teenagers to the hospital wing.
Eventually the troll woke up, but by then everyone was long gone and sleeping in their beds.
Yes, I leave you with another cliffie. Enjoy.
Question: What's your favorite POV to read?
Next Time: We meet some Hufflepuffs, sit around in a classroom doing nothing, and luckily no one dies. Meanwhile, the Slytherins finally get a clue.
