Chapter 24
As Harry slowly regained consciousness, the throbbing in the back of his head became more prominent and he became increasingly aware of the fact that his cheeks felt like they were made up of glowing red coals. He cracked his eyes open a sliver but shut them quickly after the pain of being accosted by a bright, burning light. His lips parted in an inaudible groan, his throat too dry to make a sound.
Gingerly turning his head away from the source of the light, Harry opened his eyes once again in the hopes that he would find some water. Finding no water, Harry began to lazily observe the dancing shadows on the wall that the light source was creating and vaguely started to wonder where he was and how he got there. His mind was clouded over, only allowing him a jumbled glimpse of recent memories. Gradually, he came to focus on a memory of himself at Hogwarts. He remembered waking in the middle of the night and seeing a strange figure he couldn't identify standing above him.
Harry's concentration started to wane and his center of attention began to zero in on the moving shadows. His eyes squinted as the shadows came in and out of focus. The moving pattern led him to identify the light source as a fire which would explain the overwhelming warmth that he felt. But as he stared at the shadows being cast on the wall, one of the shadows shifted in an unnatural way.
Harry turned his head back to its initial position, peering in the direction in which the shadow must have originated. Blinking until his vision cleared enough for him to make out the figure, Harry became alarmed by the scene that unfolded before him. Despite the fact that he wasn't wearing his glasses, he could still make out Professor Snape's lifeless form laying on a bed with another unidentifiable figure leaning over him.
Suddenly the memories of last couple of weeks rushed back to his mind like a whirlwind. They began with Pettigrew standing over him in his own four poster bed in his Gryffindor dormitory and quickly made their way to Voldemort's dungeon. He recalled their narrow escape and his professor's unrelenting protectiveness during their journey thus far. Finally, his mind rested on their near death encounter with the werewolf.
With his salvaged memories, Harry unexpectedly found his only desire was to get to his professor. Without his glasses, he couldn't distinguish if the figure that was leaning over Snape was there to help or hurt him. All he knew was that he had to get to the man.
Fighting off the inexorable exhaustion, Harry, too weak to push himself up, did the only thing that made sense to him. Rolling off the edge of the bed, his stiff body came into contact with the obdurate resistance of a wooden floor with a dull thud.
Harry's head instantly became a whirlpool, rendering all of his senses useless. In the time that it took for him to regain his orientation, a pair of legs had made their way to his side and the young wizard saw a set of knees drop and land on the floor next to him.
He wanted to lift his head to see if he recognized the knees' owner but his head was too heavy to lift and besides, the coolness of the floor felt good against his cheek. Instead, he allowed his eyes to gaze upward. Before he could focus on anything, one of the figure's hands tilted the teen's head facing the ceiling. Again, Harry's lips parted in an attempt to say something but he failed after a set cold fingers came to rest over his mouth, prohibiting him from saying anything.
"Shh. Versuchen Sie nicht, zu sprechen."
The soft voice floated into Harry's ears but he didn't understand what had been said. He must have misunderstood.
Apparently feeling satisfied that Harry wouldn't make another attempt to speak, the fingers were lifted away from his lips and moved up to his forehead, brushing stray hairs out of his eyes. The boy closed his eyes as the cool fingers soothingly stroked his forehead, providing some relief to his sweltering skin. Harry could feel himself drifting off to sleep as the fingers moved from his forehead to his left cheek.
His eyes languidly opened when he could no longer feel the fingers against his skin. A moment later, a cool glass was pressed against his lips and the best tasting water he'd ever had trickled down his parched throat.
"Trinken Sie dies." Again Harry couldn't understand what was said but at least he distinguished that the deep tone of the voice belonged to a man.
The water continued to pour until Harry couldn't hold his breath anymore and started to choke on it. The glass was taken away at once and Harry was pulled up into a sitting position in the figure's lap. His chin came to rest on one of the man's shoulders. One arm wrapped itself around Harry's shoulders, holding him up while the hand that belonged to the other arm was rubbing his back in circular motions.
After Harry had expelled the last of the water out of his lungs, his gaze fell upon Snape's bloodied body. His sense of purpose suddenly came back to him.
He freed one of his arms from the unknown man's grasp and reached in Snape's direction in the hopes that he would make his intentions clear and that the man would cooperate. But to Harry's disappointment, the man grasped his free wrist with the arm that he had used to rub the teen's back and pulled it back against his body.
A moan of protest reverberated from the young Gryffindor's throat when it became abundantly clear that the man had no intention of taking him to his professor.
Harry's eyes searched pleadingly for those of his captor's but the fire's light was casting a shadow that cloaked his face.
"Nr.. Sie müssen ruhen jetzt."
Harry's brows furrowed in helpless confusion. He still hadn't understood what the man had said. Everything that he could see or hear seemed to have a surreal quality. It almost sounded like a different language.
The man's heart broke when he looked down at the boy he was cradling. The wounded man that he had found with the boy must be this boy's father. He didn't know if the dark haired man would make it through the night and he could see that this boy must be afraid of the same thing. He didn't want to deny the child his last moments with his father but he was in no condition to do anything now but rest and from the looks of it, he was fighting off sleep with all the strength that he had. Still, the child looked as if he hadn't understood a word that he had said to him. Perhaps whatever had given him that cut on the back of his head had something to do with it. Whatever was wrong with the boy, he knew that he needed to get back to the man lying lifeless as a corpse in his bed.
Positioning the child properly in his arms, he pushed himself up, first to his knees and from there, to his feet. He gently lay the boy down on the old couch that he had made into a makeshift bed for him.
As the man leaned closer to his face, Harry's head came to rest on its side, allowing him a full view of Snape. He heard the man softly speak to him again.
"Versuch, zu ruhen."
Harry's eyes didn't move from Snape's body and he made no other indication that he had so much as heard what had been said.
"Verstehen Sie mich?"
No acknowledgement that the boy had heard him came.
"Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"
Still nothing. This brought the man to the conclusion that the boy did not understand German. But if he didn't speak German, what did he speak. The next most likely language for the area would be French.
"Parlez-vous le français ?"
Nothing. If not French, then what else?
"Do you speak English?" came the heavily accented inquiry.
Harry tore is eyes away from Snape. Finally, he had understood something. Licking his dry lips, he made his best attempt at finding out his professor's condition.
His voice came out very quiet and hoarse but this was not unexpected. "How is he?"
The strange man sighed in relief. Finally he was getting somewhere. "Don't worry about him right now. You need to rest."
Harry could tell by the tone that the man had tried to make that statement sound comforting but it hadn't worked. "I can't," he replied coarsely. Going against all wishes of his body, Harry began to push himself up. "I have to-"
"You have to rest," the man interrupted while gently pushing the child back down.
Harry's manner became uneasy. "You don't understand. I have-"
"No," the man said, losing his patience. "Don't struggle."
Harry's breathing rate started to increase. He had to help Snape. "Please," he begged weakly.
The man's demeanor softened. "I'll take care of him. But you need to do as I ask."
The boy seemed to calm slightly at that. It looked as if some tears were collecting in the corner of his eyes. The man sighed. He couldn't blame the teenager for not cooperating. He was injured, had a fever, and it didn't look as if he had had a good meal in some time. And now, to top it all off, he was in the company of a stranger who seemed to be his father's only hope for survival.
The man began to relaxingly stroke Harry's forehead again. "I need to see to your father now. Try to get some rest."
Harry looked confused. Had this man just mentioned his father? He didn't think that he had heard wrong this time. This man must think that Snape was his father.
"What's wrong?" the man asked at Harry's disquieting look.
Harry knew that Snape needed the man's help immediately so he thought it best not to explain at this time. "Promise that he'll be all right?"
He received a nod that did nothing to reassure him but decided not to delay the man any longer. In the condition that Snape looked like he was in, every second could count.
The man started to make his way back to Snape but before he did he turned and looked at Harry. "My name is Pheadrus by the way."
"Harry," came the soft answer.
"Stay put this time, Harry."
A/N: Ok, I am really sorry that I didn't update until now. I really have no good excuse for not doing so but I'll try to get better. Also, I must apologize for the length and German in this. It's short, but maybe if I write shorter chapters updating will go faster. I used an online translator so I can't vouch for the German. Again, I am very sorry for the delay and I hope that I haven't lost all of my readers. I really do appreciate the feedback. The next chapter will deal with Snape and therefore will be much more fun to write ;-) Thanks so much for taking the time and reading this!