Chapter 9
It was soon time for the next task. "Welcome to the next task!" the head of the tournament said. "We've taken the person closest to you and put them in the centaur camp. You have to make your way to the camp and save your 'closest person.'"
Albus couldn't believe this was happening. He had been so sure that they wouldn't take person, that they wouldn't involve an innocent person in the second task, but they had taken Alek. Alek was in that forest, and he was going to die it he couldn't get there and save him in time. It wasn't right. It didn't matter that he was afraid of the second task; it didn't matter that up until moments ago he had been worried about being able to do this. What mattered was that he was going to save Alek, or die trying. He was sure he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he could save Alek. After all the times that Alek had saved him, this time he would save Alek.
Albus ran into the forest. They had been going over the layout of the forest, but in his panic he had completely forgotten it. This wasn't good; he didn't have time to be lost. He stopped running and looked around. "Can you help me? I need to get to where the Centaurs live. It's important, please." Albus was acting a snake for help. They lived in this forest, so they should be able to show him where he needed to go.
The snake stopped moving and looked up at him. If it were possible, Albus would say it looked confused that he was talking to it. After a moment, "Follow me."
Albus had never been more thankful to speak Parseltongue in his life. He quickly followed the snake. He never understood why people were afraid of snakes, as everyone he had ever met had been nice. Albus used to be uneasy about speaking Paraseltongue, as people said only dark wizards could speak it. It was the reason only Alek knew he could speak it, and Albus planned to keep it that way.
Everything seemed too quiet as he followed the snake. There were so many creatures in this forest that could easily kill him, and he hadn't run into any them. It was starting to bother him. After all, he had trained and studied about all of the creatures in this forest, he knew what he should be running into something. He wasn't even trying to be quiet. Maybe the snake was just keeping him away from everything and-
The snake turned around and suddenly hissed. Albus wasn't sure why the snake was suddenly hissing, and turned around to see if there was something behind him. What looked to be a large wolf, but it wasn't quiet a wolf it was something else. He didn't have any time to think about it, as it ran right into him and set him flying into a near by tree. It hadn't been that hard, but he had hit it in a bag angle. Albus cried out in pain as he tried to use his arms to push himself back up. His arm was broke; his right arm was broken. He winced as he used the tree and his left arm to pull himself up. His breath was already labored, what wasn't good at all. He soon had his wand in his left hand. He had never actually done spells with his left hand, but he guessed there was a first time for everything. There wasn't another choice at the moment; he had to do this for Alek.
His eyes went over to the wolf like creatures, and noticed there were two of them. He was already having trouble with one of them, and now there were two of them. The two soon ran at him, and Albus managed to hit one of them with a blasting spell, but the other one was soon on top of him. Albus screamed in pain as he felt the creature leave deep scratches in him. He needed to do something otherwise he was going to die right here. He had to do something, but he was having trouble moving.
Suddenly, the creature seemed distracted and seemed to wince in pain. Albus looked over and saw the snake that had been showing him where to go was biting this thing's leg. It gave Albus the moment he needed to get his wand back pointed at the creature and using another blasting spell on it.
Albus winced as he got up. He was dizzy and he was worried it was because of the blood loss He didn't know how to stop the bleeding, and he didn't know to fix broken bones. "Thank you for the help. How much further do we have to go?" If he was lucky, he'd get there before he blacked out from blood loss. The wounds looked bad, but they weren't gushing blood, just a continuous stream coming mostly from his torso. His broken arm didn't even seem to hurt anymore.
"Not much further. We'll get there in a few minuets."
A few minuets? Well, he should be able to keep himself awake that long. As he walked, and he had to walk at this point, he tore what was left of his shirt up and used it as makeshift bandages, hoping to at least slow down the bleeding.
He was thankful that he didn't run into anything else. He had been worried that the blood would attract some other creatures, and he didn't think he would able to handle another fight. He stopped when he got to the centaur village, or whatever this place actually was, either way he had made it to where he was supposed to get too. He just had to find Alek and get out of here. His vision was getting a little blurry, but that just meant he had to hurry. His grip on his wand was causing his hand to turn white, but that was fine.
"Out of my way," Albus said harshly to one of the centaurs that was in his way. He didn't have much time left, and that wasn't even counting on how much of the hour was actually left to do this. He was thankful that it got out of his way. He quickly found Alek, and was thankful that the snake had actually continued to help him get to Alek.
Albus' eyes grew wide when he noticed Alek was tired up and it looked like there was a fire. "Ardor Glacio!" There, now he had to put the fire out and… and get Alek untied. "Aguamenti!" He soon had the fire around Alek out, and after another moment he had the ropes until. There… everything was fine now, right? … Albus blacked out, no longer having the strength to keep himself going.
"Albus!" Alek cried, bending down over him. He looked so hurt. "Damn it."
At about this time, Victor came through the brush. "David!" He ran over and helped him out of he spells around him. He looked worse for wear, but good over all. He then looked over at Albus. "Let me help." He bent down with his wand. He used some spells. "There. I'm not the best at healing spells but it should be good enough to get him back for help."
"How am I supposed to get him back?" Alek asked.
"We centaurs will help," one of them said. "We owe a great deal with is father. Get on my back with him and we'll take him back to the edge of the forest." He turned to the other three Victor, David and Jean, "you may get help out of the forest as well."
"Well since I'm sure Annette won't be coming in to save me I'll take your offer and leave the forrest," Jean said.
Alek held the unconscious Albus onto the back of the centaur and they were soon making their way back to the edge of the forest.
It didn't take long for them to get out of the forrest. "Jean! I was so afraid!" Annette said, running over to him.
"I'm fine. Get help for Albus," Jean said.
"Albus!" James yelled, running over to them.
James was pushed aside as the nurse quickly started to patch up some of Albus wounds. She then had someone take him to the hospital.
XXXXXX
Albus woke up a few days later. How did he end up in the hospital bed? "Alek! Is Alek okay?" he said quickly. He had freed Alek, but he wasn't sure how Alek would still need to get out of the forrest. Albus hadn't even thought about that until now.
Alek nearly fell out of his chair. "Albus! You're awake!" He jumped up and hugged Albus. "They were worried you wouldn't wake up. You were so hurt.."
"Ho long was I asleep?" Albus asked.
"A few days. You lost a lot of blood. If you haven't noticed, we're in St. Mungo's. Your parents are here. They just left to grab something to eat. They should be back soon," Alek said.
"Albus! You're wake!" Ginny said, running over to him. She hugged him. "I was so worried! Harry, hurry up! Albus is awake!"
Harry ran into the room. "How's my boy?" he asked.
"I'm alright. Glad to be awake," Albus said.
"Alek refused to leave your side the whole time you've been here," Ginny told him.
"I-well I couldn't leave you after what happened," Alek said. "Your dad got me to be able to stay here with you. I'm glad you'r dad has connections."
"Well I just thought Albus might wake up if you were here with him,"Harry said. "You were very brave in the task."
"I just had to save Alek," Albus said.
"Well you saved me. I knew you could do it," Alek said.
Ginny let go of Albus. "They said you might not wake up. I thought you might stay in a coma forever. You were extremely brave to save Alek like you did. I'm proud of you."
"Thanks," Albus said. It was all a little surreal. He didn't think he was that hurt that he would go into a coma. Well he hadn't been thinking about much besides saving Alek. He didn't care if he died or no, but was happy he didn't die. "I'm just happy that everything turned out okay. I'm probably behind in school now."
''Everyone knows that you were injured. They'll understand and give you plenty of time to make everything up," Harry said.
A nurse came into the room. "Oh good. You're up." She smiled. "Can everyone step out a moment so I can check him out?" Everyone left the room, even though Alek protested, and waited outside the room. After about ten minuets the nurse walked back out. "He'll be fine. Give him a day or two to fully recover, but, since he woke up, he'll be just fine. You can go back in there now."
Alek quickly went back in "They said you'd be able to leave in a day or two. I'll be here with you the whole time until we can go back to Hogwarts together."
"I'd like that," Albus said. He turned to his parents. "How are James and Lily doing? And everyone else?"
"James says he didn't train you well enough and part of his is his fault and refuses to hear othewise. Lily's worried sick. Everyone else is worried too. I'm sure they'd be here if they could, but it was hard enough to get Alek here. It would be near impossible to get another person in. I thought you'd be happiest if Alek was the one here with you," Harry said.
"Yeah I'm glad Alek is here," Albus said. "You know James. He can be a little much sometimes."
Harry smiled "Yeah he can be. He's just worried about you."
"I know. I know," Albus said. There was a lot he could say about James, but not around his parents. He was sure his parents thought they all got along and were good together. He didn't think that James' dislike of Lily's boyfriend, that James didn't like Slytherin, minus Albus of course. "How long until the next task?"
"Nor until the end of the year. You'll have plenty of time to fully recover," Alek said.
"That's good to hear," Albus said. There would also be more time to train, but he didn't want to train with James anymore. He was fine with working with Alek.
"We'll make sure you're ready for the last task," Alek said. He leaned in and kissed Albus.
"Not in front of my parents,"Albus said, embarrassed.
Alek smiled, "Alright. Not in front of your parents."
"I think it's great you two are together," Ginny said with a smile. "I'm glad Albus has you."
"Thank you Mrs. Potter," Alek said.
"Well, just get some rest now," Harry said. "We'll come back later to check on you later."