Chapter Forty Three
"Harry! HARRY!"
Harry opened his eyes. He was lying on the floor in the Divination classroom, with his hands locked over his face. His scar was still hurting, burning uncontrollably really.
Daphne and Pansy were leaning over him, Pansy pulling his hands away from his face. They held his hands and smoothed down his hair. He was burning up, like he has a strong fever but he'd been find at the beginning of class.
"Harry what happened?" Daphne asked, "Are you all right?"
"Of course he isn't!" Professor Trelawney gasped, feeling far to excited for the situation, "He has had a vision!" she pushed Pansy and Daphne out of the way so she could lean over Harry, "What was it? A premonition? An apparition? What did you see?"
"Nothing." Harry said, lying through his teeth and sitting up. He could feel himself shaking and couldn't stop himself from look around, his brain was sure Voldemort was there, lurking in the shadows; he had sounded so close. Harry was sure that Voldemort had been there, in the room with him.
"You were clutching at your scar!" Professor Trelawney sighed, like she was bored with Harry not coming up with some sort of death prediction, "You were rolling on the floor, clutching your scar! Come now, Potter, I have experience in these matters!"
"Really, I didn't see anything." Harry lied again, he knew he would have to tell someone but Professor Trelawney was the last person he wanted to tell. She would love spilling the beans, and telling everyone exaggerated stories about what had happened. More attention was the last thing Harry needed.
"Come now Harry!" Professor Trelawney said, rather loudly, "Come now! Tell me!"
"He said he didn't see anything!" Daphne snapped, "You shouting at him isn't going to help!"
Professor Trelawney looked taken aback at being talked to in such a way by a student. Harry looked around and clutched at his head, he couldn't think straight, the pain was too much, he couldn't cope with this.
"I think I just need to go to the hospital wing." Harry mumbled.
Professor Trelawney put a rather firm hand on his shoulder, he was surprised at how strong she was "My dear, you were undoubtedly stimulated by the extraordinary clairvoyant vibrations of my room!" she said, "If you leave now, you may lose the opportunity to see further than you have ever-"
Harry put a hand up to stop her, "I don't want to see anything other than a headache cure."
Pansy and Daphne pushed past Professor Trelawney and pulled Harry to his feet and led him towards the trapdoor. Ron stood up and moved in front of them.
"Not now Ronald." Daphne said, through gritted teeth.
"I just wanted to make sure he's OK." Ron said, "He looks awful."
"Charming." Pansy said, rolling her eyes.
"I'll be fine." Harry said, "I just have to get out of here."
He made his way to the bottom of the silver ladder and set off; Daphne and Pansy following close behind. The pain in his head was still more intense than he would of liked but he needed to find Severus.
"Harry! Where are you going? The hospital wing is this way." Daphne said, catching his arm.
Harry nodded, "I know. I wasn't actually going to go." he rubbed his scar again, "I was going to find my Dad."
Pansy and Daphne nodded and followed him towards the dungeons and the Potions lab. Harry knocked on the door and waited. Professor Snape called out for them to come in and the door flew open.
Inside was a class of scared and worried looking first year students trying to make an invisibility potion. Severus looked over his desk at him and frowned in confusion.
He stood up and strode between the desks, "Keep going class. You have thirty more minutes."
Harry was so happy to see him, his head still hurt and he still couldn't think properly but he knew he didn't have to worry if his father was there.
"Harry? What on earth is wrong? You look like death." Severus said, he reached out a hand and placed it on Harry's head, "You're burning up, are you ill?"
The touch of Severus's hand sent another nail of pain into Harry's head, he brushed the hand away and forced a smile.
"I'm… I think I'm OK..." Harry said, "I had… a dream? I guess and my scar is killing me."
Severus nodded, "Give me one minute. Miss Parkinson, Miss Greengrass are you both all right to stay with him?"
The two girls nodded, they had no intention of leaving Harry alone right now. Severus nipped back into the classroom, leaving Harry, Pansy and Daphne waiting in the hall.
They were only waiting a few minutes before Severus came back out, followed by a stream of students, all very pleased that the class had ended early and they didn't have to worry about making such a difficult potion, at least for today.
Severus led Harry quickly through the corridors, arriving at the large stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office.
"Cockroach cluster." Severus said promptly, holding tightly to Harry's hand.
Daphne and Pansy were following along, they weren't sure if they should have gotten back to class or stay with Harry.
"Girls go back to class, I will call for you if we need you from here." Severus said.
"Are you sure?" Daphne asked, "Really, we don't mind waiting."
Severus nodded, "Yes, I'm sure. I think you should try and inform Neville, Hermione and Draco that Harry is all right but may not be at his next lesson."
Pansy and Daphne nodded and walked, slowly back down the corridor. The stone gargoyle slowly moved to the side, Harry could hear voices floating down the hallway as he stood on the slowly moving steps.
Severus raised his hand to knock and knocked, so softly it barely made a sound. He raised his finger to his lips and made a shushing noise, indicating to Harry to be quiet.
Harry nodded, he wanted to know what was being said as well.
"Dumbledore, I'm afraid I don't see the connection, I don't see it at all." it was the voice of Mr Fudge, the minister for magic, "Ludo says that Bertha's perfectly capable of getting herself lost. I agree we would have expected to have found her by now, but all the same, we've no evidence of foul play, Dumbledore, none at all. As for her disappearance being linked with Barty Crouch's!"
They still hadn't found Mr Crouch then, Harry thought to himself, that was interesting. It took a lot of power to hide yourself from the Ministry, especially if you are still using magic and Mr Crouch really didn't look like he was up to such spells.
"And what do you think has happened to Barty Crouch, Minister?" growled Moody.
"Well, I see two possibilities, Alastor." Said Fudge, "Either Crouch has finally cracked, he has been under a lot of strain lately, and he's gone wondering off somewhere..."
Moody snorted, "Well he wondered very quickly if that's the case. Potter said he could barely stand up let alone 'wonder' away."
"Or… well… well I will reserve judgement until after I've seen the place where he was found, but you say it was just past the Beauxbatons carriage? Well Dumbledore, you know what that woman is?"
"I consider her to be a very able Headmistress… and an excellent dancer." Dumbledore said calmly.
"Dumbledore! Come on!" said Fudge angrily, "Don't you think you might be prejudiced in her favour because of Hagrid? They don't all turn out harmless, if indeed you can call Hagrid harmless, with that monster fixation he's got..."
"I no more suspect Madam Maxime than Hagrid." said Dumbledore, still very calm, "I think it possible that it is you who are prejudiced, Cornelius."
"Can we wrap up this discussion?" Moody growled.
"Yes, yes, let's go down into the grounds then." huffed Cornelius impatiently.
"No, it's not that." said Moody, "It's just Potter and Professor Snape are waiting outside the door, they want a word."
The door swung open showing Harry and Severus standing on the landing. Harry watched his father arrange his face into a perfect blank canvas.
"We needed a word, Albus." Severus said, stepping forward. Harry followed him into the room and looked around. He loved Dumbledore's office, it was like a wonderland, filled with all sorts of rare and interesting tools and artefacts.
"Harry!" Fudge beamed, moving over to him and shaking his hand excitedly, "How are you?"
"I'm fine." Harry lied, trying to pull his hand back, his touch was making Harry's scar twinge.
Fudge nodded, "We were just talking about the night when Mr Crouch turned up in the grounds. It was you who found him, was it not?"
"Yes." Said Harry, "Yes, that was me."
"Did you see anyone else around there?" Fudge asked, "Madam Maxime of example?"
Harry glared at him with disgust, "Viktor Krum was with me. I didn't see Madam Maxime though, and well, you know, she's pretty big. I think I would have seen her."
"Yes, well." Fudge gave a loud and embarrassed cough, "We're about to go for a short walk in the ground, Harry if you'll excuse us… perhaps if you just go back to class..."
Harry looked between his father and Dumbledore, "I wanted to talk to you Professor Dumbledore."
"Wait here for me Harry." Dumbledore said, "Our examination of the grounds will not take long, Severus, would you mind coming with us?"
"I would much rather stay with Harry." Severus said tactfully, holding slightly more tightly to Harry's shoulder.
Dumbledore gave a small smile, "This won't take long and I could do with your assistants."
Severus gave Harry a comforting squeeze on the shoulder and walked back out the door silently, leaving Harry alone in the office.
Harry looked around at the large office and smiled, seeing Dumbledore's golden phoenix, Fawkes, was sitting on his golden perch by the window. He was almost glowing in the sunshine, his feathers rippling as he cleaned them.
Harry walked over and gave Fawkes a few strokes before sitting down in the chair across from Dumbledore's, wishing he'd brought a book with him. His scar had stopped hurting now, he ran his fingers over it without thinking.
When he was younger, Draco had made a comment about his scar. It was the only time Harry hadn't liked it. He didn't know what he even looked like without the lighting bolt cutting across his forehead.
The panic was leaving him now. His dream in the Divination room seemed very far away now, like it was a dream someone else had told him about. It had seemed so real before but it was like it was crumbling in his mind.
He looked around for something to take his mind off the waiting. The patched, old sorted hat was perched on a large shelf, as still as though it was a normal hat. He thought about waking it up, so he had someone to talk to but the hat could be a little grumpy and that wasn't what he wanted right now.
The silver scram sax that Harry and Pansy had found in their second year was sitting in a clear glass case, the emeralds glinting in the light.
The light wasn't coming from the window though, most of that light was blocked by Fawkes. Harry stood up and wondered around the room, looking for the source of the light.
The cabinet behind him hadn't been closed completely, although he hadn't noticed it before. Harry wasn't sure he should go snooping, but the boredom was pressing down on him. He stood up and wondered over, pulling open the cabinet door.
A pensive was sitting there on a shelf surrounded by tiny shimmering bottles. It didn't look all that different than his mother's one, slightly different carvings around the outside and slightly shallower.
Harry knew that now he really should shut the door and walk away, these things were private. Then, Bellatrix's face flickered across the strange, smoky surface. The vision of her in Harry's dream flickered to the front of Harry's mind.
She's been pregnant in his dream, he wasn't an expert in pregnancy but she was bigger than last time he'd seen her, about right he thought. He knew it was wrong, but he lowered his face towards the pensive and took a deep breath.