Chapter Title: Step Three: Feel Safe
Word Count: 755
Disclaimer: Not mine, I have no time for it.
A/N at end for those who wonder why I've been gone for...three(?) years.
*3rd Person POV*
Everything is dark. That's the first thing the Boy notices. Slowly, other sensations filter into his consciousness. Cool air, something soft wrapped around him, the sound of breathing. The Boy doesn't understand why that last one bothers him, makes something inside jar with warning bells, screaming 'Don't open your eyes!' He keeps them closed. Straining to listen for reasons he can't contemplate, he hears a sigh and a shuffle, clothe rustling, and…footsteps? There should be footsteps, loud heavy ones. And why was he so comfortable? The Boy can't remember feeling comfort before. Is this comfort? How can one name a feeling they've never felt?
At the sound of a door shutting, the small figure shoots up on the bed, eyes the color of shadowed emeralds darting around wildly. Bandaged hands reach out through the dim light to snag handfuls of white curtain. Tugging that aside with a too loud swish, the head topped with dark scruffy hair swivels to survey the room, full of empty metal beds with tucked-tight white sheets. 'Cold' was all this child could think, the moon washing through the large windows to make the sterile, clinical room look even more impersonal.
Now, a room like this would be hard to wake up in on a good day. The Boy isn't having a particularly good day. He feels lost, and afraid; not knowing where to go or what to do, but not wanting to stay there in the frigid open emptiness. He sees a door at the other end of the room, two doors actually, but one gives off a "cold" feeling, so he doesn't count it. Scrambling towards the other door, he hears voices coming from the cold one, getting closer. Strange voices, angry voices, and as he feels the panic embrace him, that door starts to open. And then everything lurches and changes with the feeling of being shrunk and stretched at the same time.
The Boy falls to the floor, stomach heaving, gasping for air. He looks around wildly, but only finds darkness. This isn't the darkness of the cold room, he could still kind of see there. This is a darkness that barely yields shapes or outlines, even as his eyes adjust to the sudden change in location. Stretching out hands once more, he feels walls, very close, and a door on one side. Strange shelves with clanking objects line the others. As the Boy sinks to rest on the floor again, a feeling of safety wraps him in exhaustion, and he curls up to sleep.
He has no idea of the panic occurring on the other side of the castle-school know as Hogwarts.
*Scene Change*
"How can he be missing?!" one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, wants to yell. Instead he stares at Madame Pomfrey, the twinkle noticeably absent from his eyes, and waits for her to explain. The medi-witch, looking confused for one of the few times in her career, is examining the wards around an empty bed in her hospital wing. She finally turns to face the Headmaster, almost flinching at the look in his eyes.
"It would appear that Mr. Potter simply woke up, walked through the wards, and vanished."
"I was under the impression, Mdm. Pomfrey, that the wards would stick him to the bed to prevent exactly this situation!" Dumbledore speaks coldly, his voice unintentionally rising at the end of his half query, half reprimand.
"They should have! And even if, for some reason Mr. Potter was capable of breaking the wards without his wand, he shouldn't be conscious." she defends. At his raised eyebrow, Poppy Pomfrey's eyes darken and her gaze latches firmly on to Dumbledore's, anger simmering beneath the surface. "I fixed his body to the best of my abilities, and Severus's too! His mind was broken, brain scans were necessary. We had to hook into a bloody muggle device to monitor his mind! I'm sorry to say, that when I came to get you earlier, it was to inform you that Mr. Potter's brain was no longer functioning. He was brain dead Albus! No longer there! He held on for almost a week, and then tonight his brain's waves became erratic, and then they just…" her hands, which have been moving to emphasize her point still and drop in a helpless gesture as her voice cracks. She whispers the last word on a breath as her eyes dart away from the bearded man in front of her.
"Stopped."
A/N & Explanation
Okay, so in the past three years, a lot has happened. Since I last posted a chapter, Aug 18, 2011, my mom died from cancer, my depression got bad (still working on that), I got a boyfriend for the first time and was trying to figure that out, my mom's dog died, I've had three years of high school, and just general rl business has kept me from writing ANYTHING. This summer I finally had some time while in driver's ed to write, so I did. I can't guarantee that I won't disappear for little points in time since this is my senior year and it's already kind of hectic (even though school just. started.) but I already have the next chapter written and waiting to be typed and am working on more in my spare time, what little I have. And I do get sick a lot, so that gives me days off school to try to write when my head's on straight. Sorry again to anyone and everyone who has been waiting on this chapter for years, and I hope it's still good!
A bientot!