Disclaimer: I don't own HP, just an evil cat that likes to spill things on my notes!

Chapter 122

Albus had just finished knocking the Death Eater's he had been dueling unconscious when he heard Bellatrix cast the Killing Curse. He swiftly turned his head and saw that the curse was heading straight toward Severus ... and that Harry was in the process of diving in front of it!

When Harry succeeded, he felt his heart nearly stop.

His eyes then widened when Bellatrix yelled, "No! That's impossible! Avada Kedavra!"

He, once again, blinked in disbelief when Harry took a second Killing Curse in as many seconds while yelling, "stupefy."

From where he stood, at least thirty feet away, he could feel the force of the magic that went into the curse, so he wasn't surprised in the least when she collapsed head first into a mud puddle, unconscious.

When she went down, the remaining two Death Eaters instantly apparated away.

He immediately rushed over to where Severus remained so deathly still, and to his astonishment, Harry was sitting on his knees, shaking the man gently.

"Wake up," he said. Albus could hear a slight tremor in the boys voice. "Wake up."

Albus knelt down, completely ignoring the mud, and felt for a pulse. "He's alive, Harry. We need to get him to Madam Pomphrey."

Before he could conjure a stretcher, several sounds of apparition were made behind him so he turned and immediately threw up a shield. He was pleased to see that despite the fact that Harry was clearly in distress, the boy had cast a shield as well. However, they need not have worried because it was several red-robed Auror's.

"Headmaster? We were alerted that Death Eaters are in the village."

He saw Tonks and four other Auror's begin scanning the area when suddenly one of them shouted, "Bellatrix Lestrange!"

"She's just stunned and I doubt she'll be waking up anytime soon," Albus said as he conjured a stretcher and levitated Severus on it. He then summoned a random rock and turned it into a port-key that would deposit them directly in the hospital wing. "I need to get Severus to the infirmary. You can question us there."

"We need to speak to Mr. Potter alone."

"I'm not leaving Snape," the boy said vehemently.

"He can't be questioned without his legal guardian present and since you also need to question me, it will have to be Remus Lupin. We'll be waiting in the hospital wing at Hogwarts for you."

He then activated the port-key.

When all three of them appeared in the hospital wing, the two students in the beds screamed, causing Poppy to come running out of her office. He also noticed that the polyjuice potion was beginning to wear off.

Ten minutes later, they had managed to get Severus partially stabilized.

Harry, he saw, was shaking slightly and bleeding in several places but the boy refused to get treated until he knew that Severus was out of the woods.

"Harry, we need to move to let Madam Pomphrey have room to work. I need to know how you survived being hit by both Killing Curses."

Harry blinked unseeingly at Dumbledore and moved closer to Snape.

His heart had yet to quit pounding in his chest.

He then startled slightly when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He glanced up into Dumbledore's clearly worried face.

"Harry, we need to give Madam Pomphrey some space. I've sent for Remus. Let's go to Poppy's office and talk."

"No," he insisted. "I can't leave him."

"He should be fine," the medi-witch said. "Go with Albus."

Harry glanced down at the blood on his hands and gave a small nod.

"Wash up in her bathroom so we can see what injuries you have."

"I'm fine."

"Harry? Albus? What on Earth happened?"

Harry glanced up as Remus came in the office.

"Harry, go get cleaned up. It's not up for debate. I need to explain the situation to Remus."

With a sigh, he nodded. However, once he went in the bathroom, instead of cleaning himself up, he sat down on the toilet.

It took several minutes but he was finally able to calm his heart rate. He then glanced at the dried blood on his arms and hands. He knew he had a couple of minor cuts and scratches but figured they had stopped bleeding by now. He was also fairly sure that his left arm was broken because it hurt to move it, but figured it wasn't a major break because he could move it. Hopefully it was just sprained.

He took another deep breath. What he felt today was nothing like what he felt when he had been in the graveyard last year. The fear that ran through him when he thought that Snape was dead still had him shaking.

A knock at the door caused him to look up. "Harry, are you all right?"

He quickly got to his feet. "I'll be out in a minute."

He then began scrubbing the blood off that he could reach without hurting himself any more. He would need a shower to get it all off. A glance in the mirror had him frowning. At some point he had cut his face. He winced as he wiped that blood and mud away as well.

He rinsed the cloth off and opened the bathroom door to find Dumbledore and Remus looking at him with concern.

"I know I didn't get all the blood off. How's Snape?"

"Madam Pomphrey is still working on him."

He started to head back to the private room but Remus put a hand on his shoulder.

"Not yet, Harry."

"But -"

"Harry, we need to talk to the Auror's in a few minutes," the Headmaster said. "I need to know what you did that allowed you to survive being hit by two Killing Curses."

Harry crinkled his brow in confusion. "I ... uh, didn't do anything."

"Harry, you are clearly still alive, so you obviously did something," Remus pointed out.

"She missed," he insisted to his two guardians. Surely they believed him. He had no reason to lie about that.

"Harry, I saw both curses hit you."

He frowned. Okay, so maybe they didn't believe him. He bit the inside of his cheek and pushed the bit of hurt that bubbled up to the surface back down. He was feeling too many things right now. He didn't think he could also deal with the feelings of knowing that Remus and Dumbledore didn't believe him. He shook his head. "They didn't hit me. They both missed."

"After the Auror's leave, I want to see your memory of the entire incident."

And they still didn't believe him. Now the Headmaster wanted to see proof. He nodded and looked away, afraid they would see how hurt he was by that notion. He then realized what was said. Glancing at Remus, he asked hopefully, "Is Tonks questioning me?"

"Sorry, Harry. Because of her connection with me, she isn't allowed."

A knock on the door caused everyone to look up and see two red robed Auror's standing in the doorway.

"Headmaster, we need to question you and Mr. Potter," one of them said.

"You can use Poppy's office to question Harry. I need to check on Severus, so whomever is questioning me can do so in the private room."

Harry started to protest because he needed to see that Snape was still okay, but a glare from Remus silenced him.

He spent the next hour answering questions - the same ones over and over. He finally had enough. "Look. I need to check on Snape. My story isn't going to change because I haven't lied." He then pushed himself past the Auror and headed to the private room.

When he opened the door, he saw Snape asleep on the bed, Dumbledore sitting in a chair at the bedside, Madam Pomphrey putting some kind of salve on one of Snape's arms, and an Auror in the corner of the room.

"Excellent. Mr. Potter is finished so that must mean you are as well," Dumbledore said cheerfully.

He tuned everyone out and looked at Madam Pomphrey. "How is he? Has he woken up yet?"

"He's going to be fine and I imagine he won't wake up until tomorrow."

"Why?" he demanded. 'What all was he hit with that would knock him out for almost an entire day?' he wondered.

"He's in severe pain so to give the potions time to work in his system, I've put him in a light coma. When his body isn't in so much pain, the coma will end and he'll begin sleeping naturally. He'll wake up when he's ready."

Harry pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat in it.

"Harry, after she's finished, we need to re-apply the warding wire, mostly as a preventative measure."

He nodded then focused on Snape. Maybe another five minutes had passed when he glanced up to see Madam Pomphrey looking at him.

"I need to examine you now."

"I'm fine," he automatically said.

"Harry, let her scan you," Remus insisted.

Harry sighed but sat back in the chair.

"All of your cuts have stopped bleeding. After you shower, put this on them so that when they completely close, you won't get an infection," she said as she placed a small vial of white stuff on the bedside table.

Harry watched her frown as she scanned him again. He grimaced at her expression because he knew what she was about to yell at him for.

"Why did you not tell me that you had broken your arm?"

"I was hoping it was just sprained," he admitted sheepishly.

"Give me your left arm," she scolded.

"I'll grab a wrap and a vial of skelegrow for you," Remus said from the doorway.

Harry gave a slight grimace as Madam Pomphrey set his arm. She then cleaned the blood, mud, and dirt off that he had missed.

"After I wrap this, I'll cast a water-proofing spell over it. I then want you to take a bath. When you get out, put what I gave you earlier on your cuts. Anything else can wait."

Harry glanced at Snape again.

"We'll stay with him, Harry. He won't be alone," Dumbledore said, no doubt seeing his expression.

A few minutes later, Harry headed to the bathroom. Before he stripped, he called Dobby.

"Yes, Har-! You're hurt!" Dobby squeaked out.

"I'm fine Dobby. Do you care to go to my room and get me some clothes?"

"I is being right back, sir."

"Wait! Can you get Snape some, too? He was also hurt."

Harry smiled slightly as Dobby popped out and returned muttering about how no one ever tells him the important things.

He apologized again and after he had Dobby take Snape's clothes to Madam Pomphrey, he stripped and climbed into the bath.

Forty-five minutes later, he re-entered the private room where Snape, Remus, and Dumbledore were.

He immediately sat in the chair that was next to Snape's head.

"Harry, we need to re-apply the coil on his arm then I need to see the memory from your point of view."

He nodded, again tamping down on the hurt that coursed through his veins that they didn't believe him.

"Harry," Remus said quietly, "it's not that we don't believe you. It's just that we need to see the incident from your point of view, mostly to get the complete picture of everything that happened."

He shrugged. It didn't matter to him if he was believed or not, at least that's what he tried to tell himself.

Dumbledore pulled out a silver coil. "I want you to add more power when you add your part this time."

"Yes, sir," he muttered.

When Remus and Albus emerged from the pensieve a little while later, they both smiled at the scene before their eyes.

Harry was leaning forward in the chair, his head resting on the bed, sound asleep.

"We need to move him or he's really going to be in pain."

Albus transfigured the chair that Harry was sitting in into a bed and Remus carefully maneuvered him to where he was laying down.

He summoned a blanket and handed it to Remus to put over Harry.

Both adults then sat down.

A couple minutes had passed when Remus commented quietly, "well, at least we know the additional training is helping him."

Albus nodded. "I swear, from my point of view, it looked like both curses hit him."

"From the way Bellatrix reacted, evidently she thought the first curse had hit him, too. We need to ask what the parseltongue spell did. I didn't know he could cast any other than the warding one from when he re-does the coil on Severus' arm."

"I'll see if I can get him to tell me where he learned it from," commented Albus, thought he had a pretty good idea exactly where Harry had learned it. He then sighed. "He may not tell me because I have no doubt he's still hurting over the fact that he thinks we don't trust him."

"I'll talk to him later, explain to him why it was so important that you needed to see what happened."

"Oh, he knows why. I have no doubt that he doesn't think we trust him since I basically called him a liar because I could have swore he was hit with both curses."

He saw Remus frown at Harry. "I'm sure he knows you didn't mean it. After he gets some rest, hopefully he'll feel better and be able to fully understand everything."

"I may need to show him my memory of the fight. Maybe if he sees everything from my point of view, he'll understand."

Remus chuckled slightly. "You know ... he never did tell the Auror that he had cast a parseltongue spell."

"He didn't?" asked Albus with some surprise. "How did he get away with that?"

"Now that I've seen the battle, there were a couple of things that he didn't tell the Auror. I guess we can just chalk it up to his self-preservation, because you know what everyone would think if he suddenly started casting spells in parseltongue."

Albus merely rolled his eyes. "I need to go inform Minerva what all has happened. Can you tell his friends? It's nearing dinner time. If Ms. Granger is still holding everyone hostage, they use one of the empty classrooms on the seventh floor."

Remus stood. "I'll ask them not to descend down here all at once."

"Good." Albus then headed to Minerva's office.

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. One of my cousins wife just passed away. She was two years younger than I am. She had just had a major surgery, but everything had went all right, so it was a shock that she had passed.

Couple that with job hunting (I have to get out of this house soon) and a bit of writers block (not this chapter, I had this chapter written already) I just couldn't find it in me to write. Then I started re-reading the books and re-watching the movies. I'm getting ready to re-read HBP and watch the HBP movie. During the 5th movie, I actually inadvertently got an idea and I started writing because of it. As much as I hate to, it'll be another couple of weeks before I can post another update, but I swear I've not abandoned the story. Like I said before, I'm having waaayyyy too much fun writing it to abandon it.

As for this chapter, as for what Harry meant by the curses missing him, it will be explained how in a later chapter. So, assuming Snape wakes up, who thinks he's gonna be upset that Harry put himself in danger over him? ;-)

I do wanna thank everyone for the patience that I have been shown toward updating and for my continued reviewers, lurkers, and browsers. *Sets out a bunch of treats in order to lure reviews.* (I should get my 1000th review this chapter! YAY!)

As an aside, for those that like movies/musicals, I highly recommend the 25th anniversary edition of The Phantom of the Opera with Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom and Sierra Boggess as Christine. I've always said that Alan Rickman was yummy, but Ramin is a very close second. bwahaha ;-)