"GRYFFINDOR!"
The table erupts into cheers, and Harry hears a single "whoo!" come from the Slytherin side of the room. The relief he'd felt when Merlin had alerted him to Ron's appearance had been overwhelming. He'd elbowed Hermione and Neville, and they'd both relaxed at the sight of the redhead.
Ginny makes her way over to the table, face bright red as Percy congratulates her and the twins pretend to cry. ("How could you?" "You were Ron's last hope!") At her glare, they stop, sheepishly grinning.
"Sorry, Gin-"
"Only joking-"
"Congrats!" They finish together, shooting off a mini firework that explodes into a shower of gold and red sparks. Ginny bursts into delighted laughter, and the twins fistbump each other. Percy rolls his eyes, but Harry thinks he looks a little fond.
"No sign of Theo?" Harry asks Merlin once the feast starts. Merlin climbs up his shoulders and onto his head, balancing precariously. After a moment, she flops back down.
"Not yet," she says, flicking her tongue.
Harry grimaces. He can't just get up and talk to Ron, not in the middle of the feast. Then an idea strikes him. He leans towards Hermione. "Hey, do you happen to have a parchment? And quill?" Hermione looks at him like he'd just asked an incredibly stupid question, procuring said items out of seemingly nowhere. "Do you keep those up your sleeves?" Harry asks, in mild awe.
Hermione sniffs. "Of course not," she says. "I keep them very sensibly in my pockets. Some of which may be sewn into my sleeves."
Harry didn't know what else he expected. He writes out a quick note asking after Theo's whereabouts, then holds it up to Merlin. "Mind carrying this over to the Slytherins for me?" Harry asks.
Merlin tosses her head indignantly, but takes the parchment and slithers off anyways.
"So how was everyone's summer?" Hermione asks.
"F-fine," Neville shrugs.
"Alright," Harry says, trying to see if he can catch a glimpse of Merlin.
Hermione rolls her eyes. "Mine was fine too, thanks for asking."
"Sure," Harry says absently.
Merlin is suddenly around Harry's legs and climbing up to his shoulders. Harry puts the roll he'd been tearing to pieces back down on his plate. He's so anxious about where Theo might be that he hasn't been able to stomach eating anything.
"Well? Did Ron know anything?" Harry asks nervously.
"He's alive," Merlin says, flicking her tongue apprehensively.
"...but?" Harry asks, heart racing.
"Hospital Wing. That's all Ron told me," Merlin says. "Worried about eavesdroppers. He says to meet in the Hospital Wing after the feast."
Harry nods, grimacing. Sneaking around the very first night back isn't exactly ideal, but sometimes these things happen.
"So?" Hermione asks, trying to get a good look at the Slytherin table. "Any news?"
"Yeah, he's in the Hospital Wing, apparently."
"What?" Hermione asks. "Why?"
"I don't know. I'm going to go check on him after the feast, wanna come? We'll probably have to use the cloak."
Hermione heistates, then nods.
"M-me too," Neville adds, determined. Harry gives him a grin, and Neville returns it in kind.
Soon enough, the feast has ended and the prefects are leading the first years to their common rooms. Harry sees an anxious Ginny wave a frantic goodbye to a little blonde girl who responds with a dreamy smile.
Harry wastes no more time in meeting with the Slytherins. On his way over he meets Malfoy's eyes and gives him a glare. Malfoy responds with a scowl of his own. Before they can exchange any insults, though, Malfoy is dragged off by Parkinson.
"Let's go," Ron says in lieu of a greeting as he starts off in the direction of the infirmary. Daphne and Blaise are right behind him.
"He's been like this all night," Daphne says to the Gryffindors as they walk. "I'm starting to get actually worried."
"You weren't worried before?" Harry asks disbelievingly.
"We-we saw y-you on the tr-train, Daph. You w-were worried." Neville says.
Daphne glares at him.
"This is their first time seeing Theo after he's been home for an extended period of time," Blaise reminds Daphne. "Ron's probably just a bit jarred."
"Oh, do I seem jarred? My bad. Maybe it's because it was fucking jarring," Ron snaps.
"What happened?" Harry asks desperately, twirling Merlin's tail through his fingers anxiously.
"Stabbed," Ron mutters.
This shuts everyone up.
Harry is the first to reach the infirmary. He pushes the doors in, followed closely by the others.
"Theo?" Harry asks, scanning the room for him.
"Here," Theo says tiredly, waving weakly from a bed. Harry rushes over to his bedside, looking the boy over. He's pale but otherwise seems to be alright.
"Okay," Hermione says firmly. "We're all here. Now you tell us what happened."
"Harry wasn't on the train so we ended up taking an alternate route to Hogwarts." Theo says flatly, staring dead-eyed into the distance.
Harry raises an eyebrow, but Theo doesn't seem to be inclined to say any more. Daphne and Blaise both sigh, being more experienced with Theo's particular brand of unhelpfulness.
"That- that's not an explanation at all!" Hermione explodes.
Theo shrugs. "That's the gist of it," he says sleepily, eyes falling shut.
Harry realizes that if Theo really has been stabbed, he must be on a lot of pain potions. They really won't be able to get a straight answer from him. Hermione, apparently catching on to this fact as well, buries her head in her hands.
Harry just turns to Ron. "What happened," he says flatly. It's not a question.
Ron sighs. "I'll tell you, but before you yell at us, keep in mind that Theo nearly died and I will die once my mother gets her hands on me."
Neville, Daphne and Hermione narrow their eyes identically and Blaise just cocks his head.
"No promises," Harry finally decides.
Ron groans, but launches into the tale anyways: "Theo and I realized Harry wasn't on the train, so we went to wait for you on the platform. After we saw you were going to miss the train, Theo suggested you may have been attacked. We decided to take matters into our own hands.
"By the time I got Professor McGonagall's Patronus, we had already stolen my parents' flying car and were well on our way north, in the direction of both your house and Hogwarts."
Harry blinks, then blinks again. He exchanges a baffled look with Hermione. She mouths, flying car? And Harry just shakes his head.
"We decided to cut our losses and just fly straight to Hogwarts. And it's a good thing we did, because apparently Theo here was bleeding out the whole fucking time."
Theo waves a hand in a sort-of "what can you do" gesture without opening his eyes.
"You didn't know," Harry confirms. Ron gets a hurt look on his face but Harry really wants to make sure.
"Of course not! I would have dragged Theo right to my parents. You know," Ron says, glaring at Theo. "The ones who have apparating licenses?"
"Harry was more important," Theo mutters.
Harry's blood goes cold, and he has to clamp down on his magic. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Ron put one hand over his eyes despairingly. One of Theo's eyes cracks open.
"Did I say that out loud? Whoops." Theo says. He doesn't sound all that worried, but that might be the pain potions.
"Theo," Harry says, voice dangerously soft. He thinks he sees Daphne and Blaise exchange a wide-eyed look.
"Mhm?" Theo asks, singular open eye rolling to focus on Harry's face.
"If you ever do something like this again, I'll never forgive you." Harry says gently. Theo's eyes shoot open.
"Do you understand? I trust you, Theo. I trust you to have my back. I trust you to take care of yourself, so that you can take care of me," Harry continues, smiling. "Do you understand?"
Theo nods wordlessly, and Harry steps back smoothly. "Good. Feel better soon. I'm going to bed."
With that, he stalks off, leaving his bewildered friends behind.
"What," Merlin hisses, "was that?"
Harry grits his teeth, fuming. "Oh, don't get me wrong: I wanted to yell at him. Well, him and Ron, but mostly him. Jesus Christ! Merlin, he could have died! And for what? Theo doesn't usually make stupid decisions! What the hell was he thinking?"
"He was bleeding out," Merlin says. "He wasn't thinking. Couldn't, probably."
"Augh!" Harry cries, kicking a wall. "Ow," he says, as he heals his broken toe.
A portrait glares at him, and he winces.
"Sorry- anyways," Harry says, turning back to Merlin. "I was just speaking his language. Theo wouldn't respond to yelling."
"Ohhh," Merlin hisses. "He responds to threats. I knew that."
"Exactly," Harry says. He arrives at the Gryffindor portrait and smiles winningly at Gwen.
She raises an unimpressed eyebrow, and Harry sighs as she asks, "Password?"
"Look, Gwen," Harry says. "I snuck off to visit an injured friend in lieu of sticking around to learn the password to the tower. That's chivalrous, right? Brave? Honorable? Basically proves I'm a Gryffindor."
Gwen sniffs. "Nice try, Gaunt."
"I've told you a million times. It's Potter. I get your name right," Harry grumbles.
Gwen looks him up and down, eyebrow raised. "Sure," she says flatly.
Harry throws his hands up in the air exasperatedly, before walking off in a huff. He pulls his invisibility cloak out of his satchel and throws it around the two of them as he makes his way down the many flights of stairs and out the front doors.
"Now what?" Merlin hisses.
Harry doesn't answer her, too busy reaching his hand into his satchel again. Merlin starts to wriggle in delight as she sees what he pulls out: his shrunken Nimbus 2000.
Ever since last year, Remus had wanted Harry to make sure that he always has the essentials on hand: his cloak, his wand, a broom, assorted potions (pain, calming, blood-replenishing), some rudimentary first aid supplies (bandages, murtlap-essence, bezoar, burn paste), and his money pouch.
Harry unshrinks his broom with a tap of his wand (he's pretty good at wandlessly shrinking and unshrinking things now, but Harry has found that using his wand helps him further focus his magic) and mounts it, adjusting the invisibility cloak so it's securely wrapped around himself, Merlin, and the broom. He kicks off, and just like that he and Merlin are lazily circling up and up into the air.
Despite the extra hassle, a late-night broom ride above the grounds of Hogwarts really does wonders to clear Harry's mind. He's still livid at Theo, and to a lesser extent, Ron, but Harry can admit to himself that it's a bit hypocritical for him of all people to get mad at his friends for rushing into dangerous situations on the basis of saving people.
By the time he and Merlin have alighted on the windowsill of the Gryffindor common room, he's just about ready to apologize to Ron and Theo. But first… he jumps into the (blessedly) empty common room, takes note of the password on the bulletin board (Wattlebird), shrinks his broom again, and pushes the portrait open.
"Please, Gwen- Oh! Harry! Thanks, we couldn't get in." Hermione says relievedly as she climbs through the entrance. Neville is following closely behind her. She straightens up, brow furrowed. "Wait, how did you get in?"
Harry pats his satchel. "Flew," he adds, seeing their befuddled expressions.
"I should've guessed," Hermione says, nose wrinkled in distaste. Then, she yawns. "Well, I'm going to bed. Goodnight, boys."
"Night, Hermione."
"Good-goodnight, Mione!"
With that, everyone heads off to their respective dorms. Harry is suddenly exhausted as he falls into bed, Merlin slithering in under his covers and coiling up next to his legs.
Before Harry can drift off, though, Neville pipes up.
"Harry?"
"Yeah?"
Neville is quiet for a long moment before he softly says, "I'm just-just glad we're ba-back."
Harry smiles, eyes closing. "Missed you too, Nev," he murmurs just as sleep claims him.