*comes in with a time-turner* I haven't done anything this summer, and it's time to fix that. *comes back in* that was fun...Tonight's a full moon! Yay! I just got my chapter title...
Chapter 4- The Full Moon
*********************************
Harry woke up in the hospital wing of Hogwarts the next day. It was sunny, and he could hear birds happily chittering outside the window. He remembered being in Hogsmeade with Ron and Hermione, shopping for fireworks...having a chance 'encounter' with Malfoy...feeling an intense, gelatinous cold all around him...and something else...
"Urgh..."
"Oh good, dear, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey's voice floated over to Harry from somewhere within the room. "I was wondering when you'd be up." Harry tried to sit up, but found he had a painful stinging in his back. He let out a hiss of pain and slumped back down. "You don't want to move just yet, dear." She walked over to Harry's bedside which had a vase of flowers, and a get well card on it along with some chocolate frogs, and felt his head. Seemingly satisfied, she left his bedside and disappeared behind a curtain.
Harry looked around the room and saw Malfoy in a bed across from him, short at least a few hairs. A smile tugged at his face, and then he realized Malfoy was staring back at him. A very pissed off Malfoy, as a matter of fact. Madam Pomfrey made her way to Draco's bedside and handed him a glass and a steaming pitcher of blue potion. Malfoy looked at it distastefully and Madam Pomfrey gave a snort.
"You'll not be leaving this room any time soon if you don't drink that down, Mr. Malfoy. Your burns won't go away on their own." He still snubbed it and turned on his side as Madam Pomfrey made her way back behind the curtain. Harry could see that Malfoy's back had bandages around it, and he wondered what had happened. //Probably something he deserved//.
Madam Pomfrey had reappeared from behind the curtain with what seemed to be a shot glass and a phial of amber potion that looked most unappetizing. "You'll need to drink this throughout today, if not tomorrow, Mr. Potter." She poured a very minute amount of potion and helped him to drink it, as it still pained him to move his back. He almost spat it out, which did not seem to surprise Madam Pomfrey one bit. "That's why you'll be drinking it three times a day for two days. Taking it all at once would make you very ill indeed." She left the bottle on his bedside and retreated to her office.
Harry just sat in bed for awhile, trying not to gag, and wondering what time it was. He had been trying to figure out what had happened to him in Hogsmeade. There was no doubt in his mind that it had been Malfoy's curse that hit him across his back, and seeing as how Ron nor Hermione were in any of the accompanying beds, he figured it was they who had brought him here. Malfoy stirred, glared once at Harry, and then turned back over. //Yup. Definitely a Malfoy curse//.
His musings were cut short as Hermione came sweeping into the hospital wing, her robes making a swish-swish noise that made Harry's stomach lurch.
"Hermione..."
"Harry, how do you feel?" She sat on his bed and put her hand on his forehead as Madam Pomfrey had done earlier.
"Alright, I guess." He winced as he tried to get into a sitting position, and Hermione took his arm to help him. "My back does sting a bit, though." He watched as Hermione shot Malfoy a dirty look that went wasted on his turned back. "I can't recall how it got that way, though." His words earned Malfoy another glare of hatred.
"Malfoy," she said, her words dripping with venom. "He hexed you in Hogsmeade as we were leaving. Hit you with a striper curse." Harry got a mental picture of himself doing a striptease right in the center of Hogsmeade. "I didn't think even -he- knew about those."
"But what exactly-?"
"He tried to strip the skin right off your back, Harry." Hermione had put it almost too bluntly. Harry looked incredulous. Hermione mustered the most nasty, poisonous look she could as Malfoy turned and smirked at her. A new loathing for the Slytherin across from him replaced the one Harry reserved for the potions master as Malfoy turned back over and put a pillow over his head.
"What happened to him?" Harry asked with utmost loathing.
"Fred and George did," Ron said proudly. He came striding into the hospital wing like he'd just been named Quidditch captain. He looked more pleased than usual. That could have been attributed to the fact that his room was now booby-trapped against Fred and George, or that it was a Weasley who put a Malfoy in the hospital. "Fred let an untested Wizard-Buster loose on him. Worked even better than I'd thought! It was hilarious! You should've seen him, Harry! He was squealing like a baby hippogriff!" Ron then launched into an imitation of Malfoy's squeals. "Help! Help! Get it off!" Malfoy squirmed in his bed and Ron dared him to look their way. He just let out a snore, and Ron assumed, went to sleep. "What a git."
Harry grinned and Ron helped himself to a chocolate frog. Hearing about Malfoy made Harry's back start to feel better. Either that or the potion Madam Pomfrey had given him.
"You're not as hurt as I thought you'd be, Harry," Ron said with a mouth full of chocolate and a big brown smile.
"Madam Pomfrey said that she thought you had a bad case of Batner Bog Rash," Hermione said. Harry could see the wheels turning in her head. "How -did- you only get minor injuries, Harry? You should be in St. Mungo's right now."
"It's 'cause he's Harry Potter, that's why!" Ron decreed proudly. Malfoy stirred in his -most likely- feigned sleep. "You git!"
Hermione ignored Ron's outburst. "You shouldn't even be awake, Harry."
"Are you crazy, Hermione? Do you wish he was hurt?"
"You know I don't, Ron!"
"Well then," he made a motion to throw his chocolate wrapper at Malfoy, "what are you complaining about?!"
"I'm not complaining!"
Harry wondered if Madam Pomfrey would make his two bickering friends leave the hospital wing. He knew one way to shut them up.
"It's weird, but I think I know why I'm not hurt," Harry started. "When we were in Hogsmeade...those...shadowy things totally surrounded us." Ron started to choke on chocolate frog and Hermione promptly hit him on the back, not wanting an interruption. "I felt that freezing cold all over. They were completely around us, right before the curse hit. They were covering you and Ron, too. Big shadowy lumps...with amber eyes."
Ron looked at Harry, and then Hermione, who was looking back at him with an indeterminate look on her face.
"Harry," she said, "-We- didn't see anything..."
"Except when the curse hit you-"
"RON!"
"WHAT?!"
"Can you possibly be more inconsiderate?!"
"It's okay, 'Mione," Harry said.
"But Harry..."
"Look, I don't know what I've been seeing lately, or what's happening to me, and I know it sounds crazy, but...," he took a deep breath, "those...things...They must be real, right? I don't think they're out to get me."
"Sounds to me like those things saved you, Harry," Ron said quickly.
"But how is it that something we can neither see nor hear and is utterly non-existent to us able to save you, Harry?" Hermione's skepticism made Harry realize just how crazy it all sounded, and just how crazy he must seem. "What if it's You-Know-Who?"
"He wants to kill Harry, not save him!" Ron realized what he'd just said and looked utterly shocked at himself. "Sorry mate..."
"Look, this doesn't seem rational," Hermione said. "Why are you the only one who can see these things?"
"He's not a nutter, Hermione!" Ron came to Harry's defense.
"I know that, Ron!"
"Madam Pomfrey is going to kick the both of you out," Harry told them. The speed at which they got silent unnerved him. In this he realized that he was causing them unneeded stress, and immediately felt guilty. "I'll go and see Dumbledore tomorrow morning..."
"Harry, you're not crazy," Hermione told him guiltily.
"And even if you are," Ron piped up, "you're still my best mate!"
***********
Ron and Hermione had been ushered out of the hospital wing by Madam Pomfrey an hour later, with Ron insisting that he stay and keep Harry company. He promised he'd personally go with Harry to see Dumbledore, and Hermione had promised that she'd visit Harry tomorrow before breakfast and lunch.
With Madam Pomfrey's instructions, Harry took a dreamless sleeping draught and was told that when he woke up, he should take another shot of the amber potion. He complied readily, seeing those creepy cold blobs lurking around him and staring with amber eyes. He didn't want to deal with them until morning. Seeing Draco smirk at him as the sleeping potion took effect did less than nothing to calm him as he fell into the healing, restful sleep that he had been missing for weeks.
***********
Slowly, slowly, Harry's eyes opened in the middle of the night. He almost rolled over and went back to sleep when he remembered what Madam Pomfrey had told him, and sat up to take his potion.
His back didn't bother him as much as it had earlier in the day, and he was able to pour the potion with only minor pain. He was very grateful for the full moonlight streaming in through the windows, aiding him in his pouring, and even more grateful that Malfoy seemed to be gone from the hospital wing altogether. His potion fizzed, and he quickly gulped it down, feeling it tickle his throat. Perhaps that was why he was able to suppress the gagging that usually went with taking this potion. That, or the fact that his bald roommate had vacated the premises.
Harry put his shot glass on the nightstand and eased himself back down, surveying the room one last time. He rubbed at his eyes as they kept blurring up, and tried to see straight in the moonlight. Glasses on or off, his eyesight was tragically blurred, and it was annoying to not see straight. He rubbed his eyes, squinting and closing them, but they refused to focus. After splashing some water on his eyes from the flower vase, they focused and he could see. It was what he saw sitting on his bed in the full moonlight, looking down upon him with amber eyes that terrified him most.
"Helllllloooooo....."
*********************************
Sorry 'bout that, but I had to stop there. Can't get into it just yet. I'll be gone for a few days(Vegas! Yeah!), but i'll update as soon as i get back. Promise! Thanx for stickin' with me. Tell me what you like or want to see, cuz i'm currently pullin' events outta my ass, so any suggestions will be noted =^..^= The plot bunnies were multiplying terribly, so me, Melianthefair, and undead_poet14 wrote a collaborative fanfic you can find on all our sites. It's just for fun, so don't kill me for sacrilege!
~FireValkyrie
Chapter 4- The Full Moon
*********************************
Harry woke up in the hospital wing of Hogwarts the next day. It was sunny, and he could hear birds happily chittering outside the window. He remembered being in Hogsmeade with Ron and Hermione, shopping for fireworks...having a chance 'encounter' with Malfoy...feeling an intense, gelatinous cold all around him...and something else...
"Urgh..."
"Oh good, dear, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey's voice floated over to Harry from somewhere within the room. "I was wondering when you'd be up." Harry tried to sit up, but found he had a painful stinging in his back. He let out a hiss of pain and slumped back down. "You don't want to move just yet, dear." She walked over to Harry's bedside which had a vase of flowers, and a get well card on it along with some chocolate frogs, and felt his head. Seemingly satisfied, she left his bedside and disappeared behind a curtain.
Harry looked around the room and saw Malfoy in a bed across from him, short at least a few hairs. A smile tugged at his face, and then he realized Malfoy was staring back at him. A very pissed off Malfoy, as a matter of fact. Madam Pomfrey made her way to Draco's bedside and handed him a glass and a steaming pitcher of blue potion. Malfoy looked at it distastefully and Madam Pomfrey gave a snort.
"You'll not be leaving this room any time soon if you don't drink that down, Mr. Malfoy. Your burns won't go away on their own." He still snubbed it and turned on his side as Madam Pomfrey made her way back behind the curtain. Harry could see that Malfoy's back had bandages around it, and he wondered what had happened. //Probably something he deserved//.
Madam Pomfrey had reappeared from behind the curtain with what seemed to be a shot glass and a phial of amber potion that looked most unappetizing. "You'll need to drink this throughout today, if not tomorrow, Mr. Potter." She poured a very minute amount of potion and helped him to drink it, as it still pained him to move his back. He almost spat it out, which did not seem to surprise Madam Pomfrey one bit. "That's why you'll be drinking it three times a day for two days. Taking it all at once would make you very ill indeed." She left the bottle on his bedside and retreated to her office.
Harry just sat in bed for awhile, trying not to gag, and wondering what time it was. He had been trying to figure out what had happened to him in Hogsmeade. There was no doubt in his mind that it had been Malfoy's curse that hit him across his back, and seeing as how Ron nor Hermione were in any of the accompanying beds, he figured it was they who had brought him here. Malfoy stirred, glared once at Harry, and then turned back over. //Yup. Definitely a Malfoy curse//.
His musings were cut short as Hermione came sweeping into the hospital wing, her robes making a swish-swish noise that made Harry's stomach lurch.
"Hermione..."
"Harry, how do you feel?" She sat on his bed and put her hand on his forehead as Madam Pomfrey had done earlier.
"Alright, I guess." He winced as he tried to get into a sitting position, and Hermione took his arm to help him. "My back does sting a bit, though." He watched as Hermione shot Malfoy a dirty look that went wasted on his turned back. "I can't recall how it got that way, though." His words earned Malfoy another glare of hatred.
"Malfoy," she said, her words dripping with venom. "He hexed you in Hogsmeade as we were leaving. Hit you with a striper curse." Harry got a mental picture of himself doing a striptease right in the center of Hogsmeade. "I didn't think even -he- knew about those."
"But what exactly-?"
"He tried to strip the skin right off your back, Harry." Hermione had put it almost too bluntly. Harry looked incredulous. Hermione mustered the most nasty, poisonous look she could as Malfoy turned and smirked at her. A new loathing for the Slytherin across from him replaced the one Harry reserved for the potions master as Malfoy turned back over and put a pillow over his head.
"What happened to him?" Harry asked with utmost loathing.
"Fred and George did," Ron said proudly. He came striding into the hospital wing like he'd just been named Quidditch captain. He looked more pleased than usual. That could have been attributed to the fact that his room was now booby-trapped against Fred and George, or that it was a Weasley who put a Malfoy in the hospital. "Fred let an untested Wizard-Buster loose on him. Worked even better than I'd thought! It was hilarious! You should've seen him, Harry! He was squealing like a baby hippogriff!" Ron then launched into an imitation of Malfoy's squeals. "Help! Help! Get it off!" Malfoy squirmed in his bed and Ron dared him to look their way. He just let out a snore, and Ron assumed, went to sleep. "What a git."
Harry grinned and Ron helped himself to a chocolate frog. Hearing about Malfoy made Harry's back start to feel better. Either that or the potion Madam Pomfrey had given him.
"You're not as hurt as I thought you'd be, Harry," Ron said with a mouth full of chocolate and a big brown smile.
"Madam Pomfrey said that she thought you had a bad case of Batner Bog Rash," Hermione said. Harry could see the wheels turning in her head. "How -did- you only get minor injuries, Harry? You should be in St. Mungo's right now."
"It's 'cause he's Harry Potter, that's why!" Ron decreed proudly. Malfoy stirred in his -most likely- feigned sleep. "You git!"
Hermione ignored Ron's outburst. "You shouldn't even be awake, Harry."
"Are you crazy, Hermione? Do you wish he was hurt?"
"You know I don't, Ron!"
"Well then," he made a motion to throw his chocolate wrapper at Malfoy, "what are you complaining about?!"
"I'm not complaining!"
Harry wondered if Madam Pomfrey would make his two bickering friends leave the hospital wing. He knew one way to shut them up.
"It's weird, but I think I know why I'm not hurt," Harry started. "When we were in Hogsmeade...those...shadowy things totally surrounded us." Ron started to choke on chocolate frog and Hermione promptly hit him on the back, not wanting an interruption. "I felt that freezing cold all over. They were completely around us, right before the curse hit. They were covering you and Ron, too. Big shadowy lumps...with amber eyes."
Ron looked at Harry, and then Hermione, who was looking back at him with an indeterminate look on her face.
"Harry," she said, "-We- didn't see anything..."
"Except when the curse hit you-"
"RON!"
"WHAT?!"
"Can you possibly be more inconsiderate?!"
"It's okay, 'Mione," Harry said.
"But Harry..."
"Look, I don't know what I've been seeing lately, or what's happening to me, and I know it sounds crazy, but...," he took a deep breath, "those...things...They must be real, right? I don't think they're out to get me."
"Sounds to me like those things saved you, Harry," Ron said quickly.
"But how is it that something we can neither see nor hear and is utterly non-existent to us able to save you, Harry?" Hermione's skepticism made Harry realize just how crazy it all sounded, and just how crazy he must seem. "What if it's You-Know-Who?"
"He wants to kill Harry, not save him!" Ron realized what he'd just said and looked utterly shocked at himself. "Sorry mate..."
"Look, this doesn't seem rational," Hermione said. "Why are you the only one who can see these things?"
"He's not a nutter, Hermione!" Ron came to Harry's defense.
"I know that, Ron!"
"Madam Pomfrey is going to kick the both of you out," Harry told them. The speed at which they got silent unnerved him. In this he realized that he was causing them unneeded stress, and immediately felt guilty. "I'll go and see Dumbledore tomorrow morning..."
"Harry, you're not crazy," Hermione told him guiltily.
"And even if you are," Ron piped up, "you're still my best mate!"
***********
Ron and Hermione had been ushered out of the hospital wing by Madam Pomfrey an hour later, with Ron insisting that he stay and keep Harry company. He promised he'd personally go with Harry to see Dumbledore, and Hermione had promised that she'd visit Harry tomorrow before breakfast and lunch.
With Madam Pomfrey's instructions, Harry took a dreamless sleeping draught and was told that when he woke up, he should take another shot of the amber potion. He complied readily, seeing those creepy cold blobs lurking around him and staring with amber eyes. He didn't want to deal with them until morning. Seeing Draco smirk at him as the sleeping potion took effect did less than nothing to calm him as he fell into the healing, restful sleep that he had been missing for weeks.
***********
Slowly, slowly, Harry's eyes opened in the middle of the night. He almost rolled over and went back to sleep when he remembered what Madam Pomfrey had told him, and sat up to take his potion.
His back didn't bother him as much as it had earlier in the day, and he was able to pour the potion with only minor pain. He was very grateful for the full moonlight streaming in through the windows, aiding him in his pouring, and even more grateful that Malfoy seemed to be gone from the hospital wing altogether. His potion fizzed, and he quickly gulped it down, feeling it tickle his throat. Perhaps that was why he was able to suppress the gagging that usually went with taking this potion. That, or the fact that his bald roommate had vacated the premises.
Harry put his shot glass on the nightstand and eased himself back down, surveying the room one last time. He rubbed at his eyes as they kept blurring up, and tried to see straight in the moonlight. Glasses on or off, his eyesight was tragically blurred, and it was annoying to not see straight. He rubbed his eyes, squinting and closing them, but they refused to focus. After splashing some water on his eyes from the flower vase, they focused and he could see. It was what he saw sitting on his bed in the full moonlight, looking down upon him with amber eyes that terrified him most.
"Helllllloooooo....."
*********************************
Sorry 'bout that, but I had to stop there. Can't get into it just yet. I'll be gone for a few days(Vegas! Yeah!), but i'll update as soon as i get back. Promise! Thanx for stickin' with me. Tell me what you like or want to see, cuz i'm currently pullin' events outta my ass, so any suggestions will be noted =^..^= The plot bunnies were multiplying terribly, so me, Melianthefair, and undead_poet14 wrote a collaborative fanfic you can find on all our sites. It's just for fun, so don't kill me for sacrilege!
~FireValkyrie