Title: The Firebrand Chronicles Book Two: After Dark
Summary: No one knew what awaited them upon returning to Hogwarts that year. No one expected a monster to attack the students, and certainly no one expected anyone to assume that Harry Potter was the party responsible. Blaise Zabini certainly didn't. This is his story. Book Two
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter any of its characters or events. They belong to J.K. Rowling
Author's Note: The second of the promised five.
Firebrand Chronicles
Book Two: After Dark
Chapter XIII
They managed to get me to the hospital wing rather quickly pausing only long enough for Professor Sprout to swing open doors with her wand. I discovered that while I couldn't feel them I could move my legs just enough that Theo wasn't forced to carry the whole of my weight.
"What happened?" Madam Pomfrey demanded the moment we entered the hospital wing, throwing the covers back on a bed directly next to one surrounded by curtains and indicating that I was to be placed there.
"Acadian vines, I'm sorry, Poppy, but I have to return to my class and make sure Gilderoy hasn't screwed something else up in my absence." She sighed, "Mr. Nott will stay here to assist you if needed, and Miss Patil's hand should be looked at as well." She nodded to me as if to say she was sorry and left.
"Miss Patil how is your hand can you feel your fingers?" I heard Madam Ponfrey's voice ask a moment later. Theo had placed me face down on the bed, but he had bee kind enough to turn my head so that I could just make out what was going on out of the corner of my eye.
"Yes, barely, and it seems to be getting better." Padma answered.
Madam Pomfrey sighed with relief grabbed a canister off a shelf and handed it to Padma. "Good, rub that in thoroughly as much as you need to give the entire area a complete coat."
"Yes ma'am" Padma took the small jar of cream and retreated into a corner.
"Now for Mr. Zabini. Mr. Nott, get him out of those robs and shirt I need to see exactly how deep those cuts go. She disappeared into her office after what I assumed was an antidote and Theo with some very little assistance from myself, for my body seemed to be in a ragdoll state, managed to get the torn robes and shirt off, and me back into the bed again lying face down. He hissed when he saw the wounds and I managed to turn my head a fraction to peek at my shoulder out of the corner of my eye. They were deep. For a moment I was glad I couldn't feel them.
At that moment madam Pomfrey returned a strained look about what I could see of her face. "Mr. Nott I need you to find Professor Snape and tell him I need an Acadian Antitoxin ASAP. Mr. Zabini, swallow this." She lifted me off the pillow slightly and pressed something brown and wrinkled into my mouth. The burning feeling in my blood subsided but I still couldn't feel anything. "Lie down Mr. Zabini and I'll see what I can do for these cuts. Miss Patil how is your hand?" I heard Padma walk over and apparently show her hand to madam Pomfrey. "Good, good. I'd still like you to take some antitoxin yourself, but left alone that hand should be back to normal in a couple of hours. In the meantime, if you like it, you can help me prepare a poultice."
"Oh course," Padma's voice sounded . . . enthusiastic. Perhaps she had an interest in medicine. The two retreated one again into the office and I lay still not only because I had been told to, but because it was almost impossible to move more than an inch at a time and I couldn't exactly feel enough to tell where I was moving anyway.
A bit of movement from the curtained bed next to me told me I was being watched. A moment later a head poked out and it took me a moment to realize it was Granger as the majority of her face was covered in fur. "Madam Pomfrey?" she called
"Yes dear?" the reply floated from the other room.
"I though a bezoar was supposed to be an antidote?"
"It is. Sometime however, it only stops the poison and a full antitoxin is needed to completely purge the system and restore the damage." Granger remained silent at this information and retreated back into her curtained recess.
Not long after Madam Pomfrey and Patil returned with a greenish cream and began spreading it over the wounds and then covering the area with linin bandages. "The poultice will stop any bleeding and act as a disinfectant," she explained to Padma as they laid the last of the bandages, and then the door to the hospital wing opened with a bang. Theo was back.
"He hasn't got any," he began without prelude, "but when I explained why you needed it he completely changed the lesson plan for his seventh years and now all four of them are brewing it."
"Thank you Mr. Nott, you may return to class. Miss. Patil, you as well, the antitoxin will take several hours to brew and by then your hand will have healed on its own. Mr. Zabini, I'm sorry I can do nothing until it comes. You'll have to sit tight."
"I un'stan'." I mumbled into the pillow finding relief that at least some feeling was returning to my tongue. Though I was not pleased in the least at the wait. "Than' oo," Though it wasn't as though I had any choice in the matter. My face being turned towards the curtained bed and Granger having left it open slightly I was able to watch her for some time, though all she did was read studying for the classes she couldn't currently attend. After some time she began to watch me, and then a curious thing happened. She began gazing around and chewing on her lower lip looking entirely uncertain. Something I was unused to seeing with her. It gradually occurred to me that she must have some question for me and that it must be something she thought would offend and was therefore unsure as to whether or not to ask. I resolved to solve the dilemma for her.
"Out with it Granger," I mumbled finding I could form words completely now, though the rest of me had changed very little over the time I had been there. I briefly wondered if that meant Padma's hand was healed completely as I had heard it said the small dose of venom she'd been given would wear off over time.
"What?" she asked surprise evident in her fur covered face.
"You've obviously got something to say so say it." Perhaps it sounded as though I was snapping though it was not my intention.
She sat there for another minute before blurting in one breath, "what have you got against Muggleborns?" The question was honestly one of the last I expected and all I could do was gap at her.
"I don't hate Muggleborns," I finally managed pulling my thoughts together.
"Well you do a fine job of acting like it."
"I don't hate Muggleborns," I repeated. "I quite simply don't like the lack of respect they show for magical tradition. It's bad enough they come into our world without knowing the smallest things, but then they go to absolutely no trouble to learn. We have Muggle studies here to take care of the opposite problem, but when you come here . . ."
"That's not true, I'll have you know that Muggleborns go to a great deal of trouble to learn–"
"Oh yeah?" I cut her off. I was a little annoyed now, but the pillow my face was more or less pressed into did much to muffle my voice and I hoped she couldn't sense my agitation. "Then what is a house elf's ultimate achievement? Who do goblin artisans believe own their work? What is the difference between a wizarding portrait and a fictitious painting?" Granger opened her mouth and closed it again. "And families like the Weasleys don't help anything. They have a very rich heritage and yet they treat it like rubbage."
Granger glared at me, "so if all this matters so much to you, can you even have Muggleborn friends?"
"Of course I can." I answered more than a little offended. "A good friend of mine is an actual Muggle, granted he knows nothing at all about wizards but still," if I could move I would have shrugged. Although to be perfectly honest I wasn't sure Peter could technically be considered a friend. Technically he was an employee. "I never said I disliked all Muggleborns. I just don't care for those that ignore the history they've been chosen to be a part of. Especially when it influences your Muggle world far more then you could even guess."
"Then I suppose there're things I should recognize?" she said snidely.
It seemed I was supposed to give her example. Well I had plenty of those to offer. "Beowulf, you've heard of him?"
"Who hasn't that ballade has been around since . . ."
"His mother was one of our greatest sorceresses. Snow White?"
"Yes,"
"The "evil step-mother" was responsible for the creation of the charms that lead to two way communication mirrors, let's see Wizard Howel?"
"You can't mean . . ."
"Self-taught wizard, disappeared who knows where, but pops up now and again with his wife Sophie and some fantastic stories that may or may not be true. His cozen writes them down and publishes them in the Muggle world. If you like them you should read Howel's personal account, quite fascinating true or not."
"I . . ."
"And then there are creatures the Muggles have countless legends about. You should have learned some of those already. Giants, elves, griffins, unicorns, manticores, phoenixes like Dumbledore's pet, sphinx, basilisk, bicorn, kelpie, vampire, werewolf, goblins, dwarves . . ." I trailed off Granger had drifted away in her own little world and our conversation was over. Perhaps for the better.
Professor Snape arrived around dinnertime with the antitoxin. "You do seem to be getting into more than your fair share of accidents." He muttered lifting me so I could swallow the foul tasting concoction. Madam Pomfrey completely healed the wounds the moment the antitoxin had had a chance to circulate through my system.
"I'm sorry but there will be some scaring," she told me as she handed me a spar shirt Theo had brought for me around lunch. "As long as the Acadian venom has been in you. . . well there's little I can do."
I was dismissed just in time to avoid Lockhart who came around to give out get well cards. In fact I hid in a curtained recess just outside the doors until he had passed and practically fled down the hall the moment I was clear.