To Bedlam and Partway Back

NOTE: WARNINGS FOR EVENTUAL SLASH

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters

Chapter Two

Hermione crept into the shadow-filled infirmary. In her head, she knew no one could see her, and yet she couldn't help but be afraid that someone might catch on. After all, this was the first time she had ever used Harry's invisibility cloak on her own. It had been a right task, nicking this out from under Ron's nose, but she wasn't the smartest witch in her year for nothing.

Talking about Ron…

She couldn't believe how stupid everyone up in Gryffindor was being. They were all sitting about the Common Room, tragically bemoaning the loss of a bloody Quidditch game, of all things! No one seemed to care that Harry was all alone in the Hospital Wing- and Hermione knew Harry loathed that place- after having heard his parents get murdered. Of course they'd only care for their stupid game, or their stupid Seeker, or even the damn broomstick! She rolled her eyes as she remembered Ron's idiotic blathering about the waste of such a good broom. And to think people actually wondered why they never got along when Harry wasn't around.

She snuck past Pomfrey's office, casting shifty eyes at its closed door, and then went straight to the cot at the end of the room. The thin white curtains were stained grey in the night, and hung all around, hiding the bed's occupant from sight. She slipped past the corner, careful not to stir it too much. When she looked up, she let out an involuntarily gasp. Brilliant green eyes unhindered by murky lenses were staring straight at her. Quickly she tugged the hood off her head.

"Harry, it's me- Hermione!" Casting a furtive glance about her, she whipped out her wand and cast a silencing charm on the curtains.

The boy on the bed reached out a hand sluggishly for his wire lenses, and slowly put them on. Awareness slowly trickled into his gaze.

"Hermione," he mouthed. He blinked, even slower than before, and then turned his head away from her to continue staring into the empty space in front of his bed.

"Harry!" The girl reached out and touched his hand hesitantly. "Harry, please, tell me what's wrong. I'm sure we can get you another broomstick-"

"It isn't…that." His words cut her off sharply, and yet the tone they were spoken in was painfully dull. If anything he was even worse than before, in this nearly catatonic state. One emerald eye flickered backward at her. "Cedric was…up…here earlier."

"Cedric?" Her brow furrowed in concentration. "You mean Diggory, the Hufflepuff prefect- the Hufflepuff Seeker!" Her eyes widened in shock, and then narrowed angrily. "Did he come up here to taunt- I'll hex him to-"

"'Mi-o-ne!"

To her immense surprise, Harry was almost smiling now, although he still wasn't turned toward her. "He didn't…come here…for…any of that."

There was something very wrong with Harry, she realised. His movements were sluggish, and his words came out from his mouth as if he'd been drugged. As a daughter of two dentists, she'd seen a lot of people at her parents' being put under for a major surgery, and their last moments, before the anaesthetic took them, were exactly like this. "He came…to apologise. Told me…Wood…"

Hermione managed a small smile in spite of herself. "Yes, Oliver. The twins went down after three hours to pry him out of the showers. He came out looking a little cheerier." She shuddered comically. "I don't want to know what else they might've done down there in the locker room."

"Cedric came…to apologise…" Harry continued slowly. He blinked a few times, his lashes resting closed on his cheeks for several stretched seconds. "He thought…should've been…some…one-"

"And he's absolutely right!" His best mate exploded in careful righteous anger. Even her frizzy brown hair seemed to stand on end more. "If this were a Muggle school, this would've been the equivalent to some rogue policeman bludgeoning a student- by accident." She spat the last words with bitter anger. "How many times have things like this happened to you?"

A small frown marred his forehead. "Don't…go looking…" he said, which made Hermione smile.

"I know you don't," she soothed, petting his hand. She sighed. "Trouble just seems to like you, it seems."

"He…also…"

"Diggory, you mean?" Hermione interrupted, wanting to make sure she got the name right. Harry nodded carefully, as if his head were about to fall of his neck at any moment.

"He…also swore…oath…"

Hermione stared at her friend in astonishment. "Oath?" she parroted after him, absolutely boggled. A sudden fear and suspicion seized her. "What oath, Harry? Can you tell me what he swore? An-and-" here she faltered, understandably nervous for prying into a private affair "-can you tell me if you swore too?"

Harry nodded again, just as slowly as the first time. "Said…by my life…or death…so I swear to…stand…with you…"

The young Muggleborn's jaw dropped and her eyes bulged, but unfortunately Harry didn't quite have the temperament to appreciate that sight at this time. "I said…by…my life or…my death…so…this I…swear."

Hermione sank back into her seat, utterly aghast. Her mahogany eyes swept the infirmary tiles for an invisible answer. "Merlin…" she whispered, "that's the Pledgeship Bond you'll cast. It's…it's as good as an Unbreakable Vow. The two of you- your lives are bound together now, Harry."

She gripped his hand tighter, and stared pleadingly at his face. "Harry, please, tell me he didn't force this on you. Tell me this is what you wanted. Harry!"

Slowly the boy turned his head to look at her with that same blank stare, and she wanted to flinch away from it. His eyes seemed like bits of dyed ice, and yet beneath their depths swirled some inner turmoil she couldn't even hope to relate to.

"Pomfrey and…Dumbledore," he continued, "pulled…him away. Haven't…seen him…since."

"This afternoon?" she confirmed, eyes wide. Harry's chin dipped downward sluggishly as she couldn't hide her gasp of horror.

That explained why he was in such a state. The Pledgeship Bond was used between two comrades-in-arms, usually though not always, to bind themselves forever in good faith and goodwill. The crux of this bond was the depth of the feelings between the two pledged, and was sometimes used between lovers who began their relationship as friends.

Unlike a usual lover's pledge, which could be easily broken once the romantic feelings were gone, the Pledgeship Bond was unrectractable and for life. A person could only carry one such bond on his person at a time, as it was the Light equivalent of a Soul Bond. It had to be taken voluntarily as well, since the magic itself would judge their hearts, and if finding them wanting for deceit, would destroy them immediately.

This also, unfortunately, explained Harry's near-catatonics. Such a bond was rooted in deep feelings, and the best way it could be settled was by close physical proximity with the pledged. They should be at least in the same room, if not seated beside each other. For Madam Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore to pull Cedric away immediately after such a pledge had been cast…she resisted the urge to tut disapprovingly. If Harry was like this, she thought, then Diggory couldn't be much better.

Harry seemed to sense her agreement, and looked at her in a manner that could be construed as pleading, although his eyes were still as glassy as ever. "Get him…here…please," he begged, "or me…there."

Hermione stood and squared her jaw resolutely.

It was slow going stumbling down the various staircases this close to midnight, but Hermione wouldn't have had it any other way.

She kept her tight grip on Harry's hand, not allowing him to let go as she steered him past tapestries and suits of amour. She glanced down at their feet, thankful she'd remembered to cast a silencing charm on them as well. Harry was stumbling about, taking no care to mute the pattering of his bare feet. She bit her lip, and glanced worriedly at her friend. He still only looked ahead, obviously in a daze. With only his thin pyjamas and bare feet in this draft-ridden castle in the middle of the night, she could only hope he didn't catch a cold on top of everything as well. And if he did, she'd hide him in the Hufflepuff dorm and nurse him there. There was no way Madam Pomfrey was getting her claws on him again, not after that last trick she'd pulled.

She quickly led him to another staircase beneath the Great Hall, unknowingly the same one that led to the kitchens. At the very end of the corridor were only two paintings: one a scenic landscape that looked straight out of Titian, and the other a giant bowl of fruit. This was one of the few corridors that had no portraits in them. Harry cast both paintings rather nonplussed looks.

"How…?" he asked softly.

Hermione blushed. "I- may, have been rather fed up with Ernie last year, and, er, well, followed him down here once or twice before." At the almost-smile on Harry's lips her cheeks heated up even more.

"But I don't know what the password is now," she rushed to say, "so we'll just have to knock and hope someone's still up."

She pulled the invisibility cloak off of them, and hurriedly stuffed it in her pocket. Then she raised her hand and rapped smartly on the Arcadian painting.

To their surprise, it swung open almost immediately, and Joseph Cadwallader stuck his dark head out. His blue eyes widened like saucers upon seeing an earnest Hermione Granger and a rather dreamy Harry Potter standing at their door.

"Hurry, come on," he hissed, pulling them inside. As he quickly ushered them inside, he glanced about the empty corridor about them, and, ascertaining no others were there, firmly shut the landscape.

Hermione was stunned to see what looked like the entire Hufflepuff house in the Common Room, comfortably seated in the dome-shaped room. The carpet was made of thick, yellow fur that must have been heavenly to sink your toes into. Black and yellow banners depicting the Hufflepuff badger decorated the wall. Squishy armchairs and couches of a yellow a shade darker ringed about the enormous fireplace. There were Hufflepuffs everywhere, sprawled against one another on the carpet and the couches and the ottomans. All of them had their eyes firmly locked on the two intruding Gryffindors. Hermione let out a squeak under the intense scrutiny, and her hand tightened around Harry's, although he seemed to be as unaware of his surroundings as ever.

"We would have snuck up to find him earlier, but there'd always been someone watching the portrait hole entrance. You're lucky they didn't spot you on the way down." Cadwallader was saying, and then he trotted past them to rejoin his housemates, slumping bonelessly against someone's chest and another's thigh. The interconnected group gave a collective sigh in relief. Finally, one of them extricated himself from the rest and strode up to them.

It was their Muggleborn yearmate, Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"Merlin, Granger, I'd never thought you'd be the one to break Potter out! And here we thought you were a stickler for rules," he gently teased. Taking her elbow and guding her forward, he motioned for her to bring Harry along. "Come on, let's get you set up here."

"Wh-wh-what's going on?" she stammered, with more than a little trepidation. She tugged Harry out of the way of an unconscious person's foot.

Justin's open face hardened. "They call us a bunch o' duffers outside, but we know better." His dark eyes bore into hers. "We know how to stay true to each other, no matter what's left. Potter," he said, gesturing at the rather absent boy trailing her, "see, he's been adopted."

"Because of the Pledgeship Bond?" she asked in a tiny voice.

There was another sigh from the Hufflepuffs, but it seemed welcoming this time. Justin nodded.

"He's an Honourary 'Puff now, and, if word's right- not that Cedric would ever lie about this- he's safer off with us here." His expression darkened briefly, but then he quirked a lopsided smile at her. "Suppose, once word gets out you brought him to us, you'd be safer here, too, Granger."

He'd led her right into the ring of Hufflepuffs, and Hermione had to marvel at how much like badgers in a sett they looked. They were all resting against one another, slumbering drowsily, regardless of age, sex, blood purity, or social status, limbs entangled and interlocked in one sprawling mass. At the very centre of it all, braced by his teammates Herbert Fleet and Tamsin Appleby, was a bleary-eyed Cedric Diggory. There was only a glimmer of awareness in his grey eyes.

Justin pulled Harry from her and pushed him into the space between Cedric and Tamsin. At once there was a flash of recognition in both their eyes, and they immediately turned to each other, Harry's dark head burrowing into Cedric's broad chest as the older boy's arms came around him. There was another collective sigh, almost like a deep reverberating hum: heavier, but more hopeful.

Then Justin took her hand, and tugged her away, offering her a slight smile.

"You should get some rest too," he said gently. Awed, but not cowed by the mysterious aura surrounding the Hufflepuffs, Hermione went.

Cadwallader was a Chaser, I just made up his first name since he didn't have one. Herbert Fleet was the Keeper. Tamsin Appleby was another Chaser.

It seems like this turned into a late-early posting. A thousand apologies! And do review (o: Anthem will still be updated on schedule on Monday. Cheers.