((SXH: Hello, my wonderful readers! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break, in case I post this up after the break! If not, then I hope you do! Hope you all like this chapter and leave a review. Please motivate me to keep writing. Otherwise, I'll give up like the last time… Enjoy!))

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Kingdom Hearts. I only own this storyline.

Warning: Angst

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A Nobody's Love

Chapter 8: Secrets and Eavesdroppers

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Harry lay in the hospital wing, shut off from the world and trapped within the darkest depths of his own mind. He couldn't see any light anymore. He couldn't hear anything. He couldn't bring himself to care either… He felt safe. He felt the darkness and calm comforting. He felt that he could withstand the maddening silence, so long as he didn't have to move. Suddenly, like a switch being flipped, everything changed. Harry was surrounded by blinding light that burned his very skin. The silence turned to screams of damnation and agony, screaming around him words he dare not repeat or even admit that he had been called. His chest felt a stabbing pain with each word those and he couldn't stop it. He doubled over in pain, curling in on himself, covering his ears as the assault continued.

"Please…" Harry rasped quietly. "Make it… make it stop…" Like a little boy, Harry curled up in what felt like a corner, he didn't open his eyes for fear of the burning the light would do to him. And he dared not move again. Moving only brought more pain and more screaming. Like a little boy, he thought: If I be quiet… and I don't move… maybe they'll forget I'm here. Maybe… maybe they'll stop. Harry let one red tear slip from his eye at it all. Just one…

"It… hurts…" Harry murmured in his unconscious state. The other two occupants in the room locked their eyes on him. They noticed a small red tear slip from the corner of his eye in slight shock. Severus, who sat next to Harry's bed, reached over and scooped up the tear, examining it.

"It's blood…" he confirmed. He looked over to his colleague for some sort of explanation. He was a tall and lean with long blond hair and a few sharp features. He was rather dull to the eye if not for his bright acid green eyes.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. When under emotional stress, one cannot help but to cry. However, it should be physically impossible for him to cry. His files say that he has no tear ducts at all," said the blond man with a strangely unconcerned tone. "Although, even when under such stress, the body will offer up the closest alternative. Yet… it is still unusual that he is crying in the first place…"

"Unusual?" Severus asked, his voice taking up a tone of annoyance. "Are you saying that he is an exception, Vexen?"

"Not exactly," said the blond. "This is very strange indeed... You see, The Superior came to me earlier and proposed a rather interesting theory. I would relay it to you, but I am sure an intelligent man like you can take a guess." Severus scowled, but nodded none the less.

"It is the theory that we can indeed feel emotions," Severus confirmed. "You are saying that Potter is able to feel sorrow because it was one of the last emotions he felt when he died. Why on earth would he feel sad? We both know that he was murdered."

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying and if you want to know the answer to that question, you will have to ask him," Vexen shot back. "But if I were you, I wouldn't. Not unless you want to face that fury..." Vexen gestured to the other bed across with the curtain drawn so none other than them could see its occupant. Even then, you couldn't really tell what it was. All one could see was a bloody mop of black hair and blood. The life had long since been drained out of it. "You witnessed firsthand what happened when the boy unleashed that power unto it. Would you really risk that?"

"Are you asking me why I would risk my own life for the sake of sating my curiosity?" Severus snarled, standing to stare the other in the face. "Or are you so blind that you cannot see the pain that this boy suffers from?!" Vexen said nothing for the longest of time, waiting for Severus to calm.

"We are all in pain, Number XIV," he replied, finally breaking the silence. "Did you think you could just fix us all up? Some of us are too far gone to be fixed. Even if you could help the others, I cannot guarantee that they would be as forthcoming as you would expect." Understanding flooded Severus's features and he backed away slightly. "We all have our skeletons, Severus. Best not to drag them out of the closet or else some…" Vexen's gaze shifted back and forth from Harry and the remains of his replica. "…Some might rip yours from your body."

Severus's eyes also shifted from the seemingly unharmed boy to the bloody pulp on the other bed. Severus really didn't wish to look closer at the corpse and he didn't have to in order to understand Vexen's meaning. He did remove the remains himself of course. But he had no choice but to move them here. The hospital wing was about the only place that wasn't being monitored by a portrait, as well as his office. But, he really didn't want to have an even bigger mess to clean up. Well… to be quite honest, he just didn't want the mad scientist if front of him around any of his belongings, lest he do something to them is some form of experiment.

"I trust you have all his measurements," Severus stated. "Now please get to work about making a new one. I will inform Umbridge that Mr. Potter cannot attend his detention tonight. Also…" Severus looked back at the bloody remains. "You can take that thing with you to experiment on. I don't care what happens to it." Vexen gave a very big evil grin.

"Very well. I should have his replacement done by the end of the day," Vexen assured.

"Make sure that you do," Severus ordered. "We don't want his dear friends to worry about him." Severus allowed himself to chuckle just a bit while Vexen burst into an insane laughter. "Now, go. Poppy will be back at any moment. If she were to see you, then we would be in a lot of trouble."

"Yes, she would trigger some sort of alarm before you could wipe her memory," Vexen agreed, striding over to the remains of the replica. Severus turned around, not wishing to see how the other was going to take the remains. "See you at the castle." Severus could hear and feel Vexen's evil smile.

Severus heard Vexen create a dark corridor and disappear. Once Vexen was gone, Severus cast some cleaning charms and called for his house elf, Ditsy, to bring him some clothes. He used magic to change Harry's clothes. When he was done he wiped away Harry's red tears again. He didn't dare rouse Harry for fear of what would happen. Severus stopped… Fear? I suppose that is what I felt when I died. I can't quite recall what happened, but I remember some of how I felt… Severus thought. He looked down at Harry and brushed back the hair that was in his eyes. What happened, Harry? This is the first time you've hurt one to this extent… Why? Suddenly, he saw a small glint in the corner of his eye and he sharply turned around. He saw nothing. He searched around the room and there was nothing there. I could have sworn that I saw something.

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Luna, Neville, and Draco were all on the seventh floor gasping for breath. They could not believe what they had just heard. Well, more like they could not understand it. Harry was laying on the bed, from what they had seen. They had briefly seen the other man as well, but they also heard every word. To say they were confused would be an understatement.

"Let's go to the Room of Requirement. That's probably the best place to talk about this," Neville suggested.

"The Room of what?" Draco asked, never hearing about such a thing before. Neville just grabbed his wrist, rolling his eyes. Luna smiled for a second at him and filled him in.

"The Room of Requirement was designed to provide students with whatever they needed when they asked for it," Luna explained.

"So, if I were to ask it for a bottle of Firewhiskey, I would just give it to me?" Draco wondered, allowing the two to drag him down the corridor.

"Well, no. Not to a minor," Neville corrected. "If an adult were to ask, then yes. That's the general idea."

"And someone knew where we were, they could just ask it where, right?" Draco queried.

"Not if we ask it to make sure we stay hidden," Luna informed. When they had arrived, they just stared at the wall.

Draco was about to ask why they were staring at a wall, when Neville stepped forward and walked in front of it three times. After the third time, Draco could see a door begin to etch itself out of the wall. It was large with intricate designs in it. Draco stared in awe. There was such a room up here and it took him five years to find out about it. When the door was etched out completely, Neville yanked it open and dragged the other two inside. Inside the room were chairs, and glasses of tea as well as a fireplace. Draco curled up in the only green chair, while Neville took the Red one and Luna took the purple one. The Malfoy heir took up his cup and gladly took a sip of it.

"So, did you hear the same things I did? Draco asked. The other two nodded, taking their cups in their hands. "What the hell was that all about?"

"I don't know. But there clearly isn't something right about it all. They spot like there was another person there," Neville commented.

"There probably was," Luna said. "There were two beds that were curtained off." Draco thought about this for a while. He was still stunned from the information, trying to process what was going on. They could figure the other person out later. But… that tear…

"You both say him, right? He was crying," Draco started. They both nodded before he could continue. "No tear ducts… When… how… Why?" Neither Neville nor Luna spoke. They didn't know either, and they were unsure that they wanted to know.

"Did you… recognize that man, Dray?" Neville asked. Draco shook his head.

"I've never seen him before. Not even in the Death Eater records my father once showed me," Draco answered. Lucius Malfoy had shown his son the records so that he would know what he was up against and be prepared. Draco had made a point to study them thoroughly and prepare himself for the worst, if it ever came. "How was it he was able to enter and leave the castle unnoticed? That's my biggest question. Even before Luna arrived into the Great Hall, none of the teachers slipped off or spoke to Dumbledore in a suspicious or concerning way. How did that guy get in?"

"That's what we're all wondering," Luna began. "But, that laugh of his was terrifying. He didn't sound human at all. And when they spoke about feeling, it sounded like they really couldn't tell what it felt like to feel. It was like they had no emotions at all. It's weird because Professor Snape always acts so angry around everyone."

"I believe that is the key word here, Luna," Neville began. "He acts like he is angry. I don't think that's the case. But, I'm certainly worried about what they were saying when they talked about feeling. All I got out of that was that Harry died at some point and now all he can feel is the feelings he had felt when he died."

"That's what I got out of it, too," Draco agreed. Then it dawned on Draco. His eyes widened, his skin paled considerably and he set down his cup before he could drop it. "Oh. Merlin."

"What is it, Dray?" Luna asked curiously, not really seeming to be bothered by it all. From the boys' point of view, she seemed to be taking this in a more logical way than they were. She seemed to be viewing it as a mystery.

"That man… warned Uncle Sev not to go snooping or skeletons," Draco whispered, feeling cold.

Neville looked at him encouragingly, saying, "Yes, he did. But I didn't quite understand what he meant."

"He said that if Uncle Sev went snooping in the wrong places or else someone might rip out his," Draco said, nearing hysterics. What had his godfather gotten himself into?

"I do recall him pausing a moment before he continued," Luna offered. "I was almost like he was either looking for the right words to say or his attention was diverted."

"Yes…" Draco went on. "I think his attention was diverted. Uncle Sev had looked away as well." Draco gulped and wrapped his arms around himself, trying to reject the idea forming inside his head. "It looked like he was looking at… the other bed." Neville and Luna's eyes widened at the thought.

"You think that there was a… corpse in that other bed?" Neville asked carefully breaking into a cold sweat. Then the men's words began to echo into his mind. "Are you saying that Harry-?

"Harry killed someone," Luna finalized. "That is the only explanation I can come up with. Harry killed a person and Professor Snape and that man called Vexen are going to cover it up. However, the only other thing I want to know is: Why? Why is Professor Snape helping Harry and how this Vexen man is tied into all of it?" Neville and Draco both stared at the girl, who was normally so out in her own world, as she summed up the last bit with a sharp and intelligent look within her eyes. "If it will help, I will look up creatures who fit the description. I know that there are some creatures who cannot feel emotions, but I think we need to fin specifics in this case. We can't go around assuming anything. So let's keep an open mind."

"You're right, Luna," Draco agreed, finding some control over his own emotions. "Let's not assume just yet that Harry killed someone until we get all the facts. Also, before we leave here today, we need to all agree that we shouldn't speak about what we have seen." They all nodded in agreement and set their cups down. Once their nerves had calmed, they left the Room of Requirement.

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SXH: There you have it guys! Another chapter up and running. I hope you all liked this chapter and stay tuned for the next one. Stay awesome guys!

Bye~!