Blood Ties
Part 10
Rating, summary and such are same as before.
Note 1: Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!
Note 2: A special thanks to Joahn who's beta-reading the story! Can't do it without you:)
"I hope saint Potter will be struck by lightening."
Willow rolled her eyes at Draco. They were making their way towards the Quidditch pitch to watch the match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff with Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. The sky was covered with thick layer of dark clouds and raining heavily. "Who do you think will win?" Willow asked. "Personally, I think Gryffindor's a better team. Wood scored quite a few goals last year, and Harry managed to catch the Snitch in all four matches."
"Who cares?" Parkinson snorted. "I'm freezing." She complained. "Why are we here? It's not even a Slytherin's match."
"I welcome you to leave." Willow muttered to herself. Her roommate was constantly pain in the ass, even though the redhead witch had never said anything - it was more a Dawn's job. Most of the girls in Slytherin either feared of her or disliked her due to her over-bossyness and big bully attitude. Willow herself was never her bullying target, but it didn't mean she would like the girl.
"What?" Parkinson narrowed her eyes at Willow.
"Nothing."
"Ah. Isn't that the murderer's son?" Willow and Parkinson followed Draco's line of sight, and found Xander a few foot away. The Gryffindor clearly had heard the comment from Draco, and stopped from his track, sending them dead glance.
"Hey," Parkinson smiled. "Heard your uncle escaped from Azkaban. Going to meet him?"
"Shut up, Parkinson." Xander growled.
"Oh." Draco raised an impressive eyebrow. "So brave. I'm so scccccared!" He taunted. "He's going to send his crazy uncle to kill me! Oh wait!" He smirked, putting his pointed figure on his own chin, pretended to be thinking. "May be he'll kill you first! After all, your mother's a mudblood."
"Don't tease him Draco." Parkinson smirked, matching the one on Draco's face. "He may try to kill us."
"Or better yet, go crazy and join his nutty father in Azkaban." Draco laughed, and the Slytherin gang walk passed the red faced Gryffindor towards the Quidditch pitch.
Willow sent an annoyed glare at Draco before turning towards Xander. Ever since the night the Fat Lady was attacked, everyone in Hogwarts started talking about the escaped prisoner and how Xander was related to them: that both his father and uncle were murderers and were sentenced to life in Azkaban - well, until his uncle escaped that was. "Xander-"
"What? You're going to join your little friends' band now? Telling me how my dad's crazy and my mum's a muggle!" Xander snapped. "Don't forget who your father is, Slytherin! He's ten times worst than mine. At least my dad redeemed himself and my mum's normal! I bet everyone in your family's psycho-"
Without thinking, Willow held up her right hand, and slapped it across Xander's face, hard. "Don't you ever talk about them, Harris! You know nothing about them! You know nothing about anything!" She hissed, before marching towards her friends, ignoring the boy who was standing there, dumbfounded with a reddened left cheek.
Harry held onto his trusty broom as the strong wind caused it to swerve slightly. Scanning around the area through the rains, he searched for the Snitch that could bring his team to victory. Looking down, he found his friends standing in the stands cheering for Gryffindor, never mind the chilly wind or heavy rain or the rolls of thunder. Not far from them, Draco along with Willow, Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson were standing at the top of the stands watching, even though it was a Gryffindor verses Hufflepuff match. Turning away, Harry focused on the match again.
Rising higher, he looked around, feeling frustrated as the sky getting darker and darker and the rain getting heavier. He made a mental note to thank Hermione later, as the blond witch had charmed his glasses before they went for the match so it would repel water. He knew he wouldn't even able to see his own hands under this kind of weather if not for her. Suddenly, a flash of gold got the Gryffindor Seeker's attention. He blinked and narrowed his eyes, and found the Snitch flying in front of him, as if mocking his effort.
Harry flew forward as the Snitch shot up towards the sky. He could see the Hufflepuff seeker in the corner of his eye, following, but he ignored him, instead focusing on the Snitch, trailing it. Harry got higher and higher into the sky until he could no longer see the Quidditch pitch below him and the thunder was so loud that it almost destroyed his hearing.
Suddenly, a flash of black came between him and the Snitch. He blinked, and found a Dementor approaching him. Horrified, Harry turned around, only to find himself facing another Dementor. He quickly leaned down and shot towards the ground, barely avoiding another two which were flying towards him.
When he could see the pitch again, Harry turned around, and sighed in relief when he found those Dementors that were following him had disappeared. But when he turned back towards the front, half excepting to see the ground, a Dementor appeared in front of him.
The last thing he could remember was a woman voice screaming inside his head, and then everything went black.
A blood curdling scream cut through the Quidditch pitch. Students watched in horror as Harry Potter fell from the sky. The headmaster of Hogwarts immediately stood from his chair, his wand pointing towards the fallen boy, mentally slowing down the speed to minimize the damage that the fall would do to the student.
But before Harry reached the ground, or even got close to the stands, a dark figure appeared from above Harry, flying towards the unconscious boy. Professor Giles and Professor McGonagall stood at the same time and held out their wands, prepared to protect Harry from the Dementor, only to be beaten by a fireball that shot out from the stands where students were occupied.
The fire ball hit the Dementor right in the chest, sending it upwards and away from Harry. Everyone watched as fire quickly burned the Dementor from inside out, leaving nothing but dust and its final scream in the air.
Both players from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff rushed towards Harry when he finally hit the ground, ignored the confused Hufflepuff's Seeker who had the golden Snitch in his hand. Professor Dumbledore turned towards Professor Snape, and without a word, the Potions Master nodded and left the teacher stands. "Everyone! Back to the castle!" Dumbledore ordered, and even the first year students could hear the anger hidden just below the calm voice of the headmaster.
"He looks dead." Harry frowned a bit when he heard a voice beside him.
"He's not dead!" Another voice said. A voice that was oddly familiar to Harry.
"What do you except? He fell off from a hundred feet!" Harry placed the voice as one of the Weasley twins.
"Yeah." The other twin said. "C'mon Ron. Let's push you down from the Astronomy Tower, see what you'll look like."
"Probably looks more up side down than you normally do." Harry opened his eyes, and smiled when he saw Ron, Hermione, Xander, Buffy and the other members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team surrounding him.
"How are you feeling?" Hermione asked.
"Brilliant." Harry said, sitting up a little.
"You gave us a scare, mate." Fred/George smiled.
"What happened?"
"You fell from your broom." Xander answered.
"We thought you'd died." Buffy said tightly, before leaning forward and hugged Harry, hard. "Never do that again."
"I won't." Harry blushed a bit. "What about the match?" The others looked at each other. "We do get a re-match, right?"
"Um..." Hermione looked at the others before answering Harry. "Diggory got the Snitch. Just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened until he saw you on the ground so..." Harry's face fell. "Even Wood admits they won fair and square." She added.
Harry looked around, finally noticed the absence of the Gryffindor Quidditch team leader. "Where's Wood?"
"Still in the shower." Fred, or who Harry assumed to be, answered. "We think he's trying to drown himself."
"No one blames you Harry." Hermione said when she saw the look on Harry's face. "Dementors weren't supposed to come inside to the grounds. Dumbledore was furious. As soon as he saved you he went to them straight off."
"There's ah..." Xander voiced hesitantly. "Something you should know too Harry. When you fell, your broom... sort of blew into the Whomping Willow... um... well..." He held out a bloom that was broken into several pieces - the bloom that belonged to Harry. "I'm so sorry."
If Harry looked depressed when he heard about their defeat, he looked despaired now that he saw the remains of what once to be his beloved broomstick.
Willow sat on the bed she had been sleeping on for the whole summer, her back against the headboard, her eyes closed. Feeling a slight tickle, she frowned, holding up the once white handkerchief in her hand and wiped clean the blood that was dipping yet again from her nose. Looking down, the redhead frowned harder at the blood absorbed by the piece of cloth, the blood that belonged to her.
"Drink."
Willow looked up, and found Professor Snape standing there with a small bottle of potion. Without a word, she accepted the bottle, and drank it in one grip. "Thank you professor." She whispered, handing the empty bottle back to the potions master.
"Severus." Professor Dumbledore chose the exact moment to enter the room.
Professor Snape looked between the student and the headmaster. "I'll be in my chamber." He announced and left without another word.
After the potions master left, the headmaster sighed, and sat at the edge of the bed, his eyes staring at the youngster in front of him. "Willow."
"I'm not in trouble, am I?" Willow bit her lips and asked quietly. "I didn't mean to... It was an accident."
The headmaster nodded. "Willow. I'm glad that it had. Harry's life might have been threatened if it didn't. But I had to ask: was there anyone who might have seen you... about the accident?"
"No. Everyone was pretty much focusing on Harry..." Willow paused. "Draco knew I had a nosebleed but that's it."
He nodded and stood. "Rest. I already informed your teachers that you will be absent tomorrow."
"But I am fine. I don't want to miss any class." Willow frowned. "Besides, the Ancient Runes class tomorrow is supposed to be fun."
The headmaster raised an eyebrow. "Very well then." He nodded after a second. "You may go to the class tomorrow, but for now, rest. You can go back to your dormitory tomorrow night."
"Yes professor. Good night professor." The redhead smiled softly before lying back onto the bed and snuggled into cover, her eyes closed. The headmaster pointed at the ceiling, magically turning off the light. He turned towards the doorway, but stopped. Turing around, the headmaster stared at the youngster as if deep in thought, before finally turned back and leaving the room.
Not only after hearing the soft click of the door closing that the redhead opened her eyes again. She turned, her face facing the ceiling, and stared at it blankly.