Chapter Twenty Four
Harry woke in the brightly lit hospital wing, not for the first time, surprised he was alive. He forced himself to sit up and look over to the next bed. Daphne was there, eyes closed but at least her chest was softly rising and falling.
"Welcome back Mr Potter." Madam Pomfrey said with a frown. She had a large lump of chocolate in one hand that she chiselled of a piece and roughly gave it to him, "Eat this."
Harry took the chocolate and had a nibble, "What happened?"
"You thought it would show you as a hero if you ran off into the forest." Madam Pomfrey sighed, "You were lucky Professor Snape found you both before it was too late."
"No… Bellatrix… she, she said..." Harry tried to put the fussy pieces of what he could remember back into some sort of order in his head.
"And how would Lady Lestrange get into the school?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
Harry couldn't answer that one and thinking about it now that was a question he maybe should have asked before running off without thinking.
He leaned back into the pillows and slowly ate his lump of chocolate. His head was still fussy and confused about what happened and he was getting frustrated with people not listening to him. It wasn't long before Daphne's eyes slowly fluttered open.
Madam Pomfrey rushed over and checked over her vital signs.
"Well Miss Greengrass you should count yourself very lucky. Eat this." She said, handing her a lump of chocolate and walking off "Your parents will be here soon." she told them walking into her office.
"Oh no." Harry said, "Mum is going to kill me."
Daphne forced herself to sit up, something that took a lot more effort than she would have liked and sighed, "I think it might be goodbye. At least it's nearly the end of the school year so at least we can see you over the holidays."
Harry wanted to hit something, "It's not fair. It's not my fault and..." he trailed off, staring at the wall in front of him.
"Harry?" Daphne asked.
"What if it's Pettigrew?" Harry asked, "He wears a mask, well he pretends to be a rat and he's been locked up. What if it's him that is going to go back to You-know-who?"
Daphne looked down at her watch, "Well if it is we're too late, you said before midnight and it's just past. We must have been out for a while."
Harry slammed himself back into the pillows. His head wanted to sleep, to wallow in self pity and how terrible everything was but that wasn't going to help and he knew that.
The door creaked open slightly and Pansy's face poked round the door. She waved behind her and Draco and her snuck in.
"We've been checking every half an hour or so, glad you've finally woken up." Draco said, he handed over the invisibility cloak to Harry, "We had to borrow it, hope you don't mind. We're meant to be in bed."
Harry smiled, "Not a problem."
"Snape wasn't out there." Pansy told him, sitting between his and Daphne's bed, "I went to find him. Bellatrix lied."
Harry nodded, "Yeah we worked that out by the time we got deep into the forest. There was another Hinkypunk I'm sure of it."
"Are you OK?" Draco asked.
Harry shook his head, "No. We went charging into the forest and now I'm sure that it's Pettigrew, he's been making trouble all year and now he'll have escaped and be gone. Ready to find You-know-who and bring him back. You know what they say, hind sight is twenty-twenty. What did happen?"
Daphne shook her head, "I can't really remember. There were lots of Dementors everywhere. I thought that was it, the end. You passed out and then there was a light..."
"A Patronus makes light," Harry said, "White light?"
Daphne nodded, "It filled the area and the Dementors started to leave. I could feel myself passing out as well but I… I thought I saw your father." she whispered, looking at Harry.
"What? That's not possible." Harry told her.
"I know. Really I do and I'm sure it was just my mind playing tricks on me because of everything that was happening but I swear I saw him. I've seen the photos. It was like an image from the past."
Pansy sat up a little straighter.
"What's up?" Draco asked, "That's your thinking face."
"I have an idea." She said, "Daphne, what we thought Hermione was up to, going to all those classes."
Daphne gave a weak nod.
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.
"I think Hermione can help, it's a long story but trust me." Pansy said, she looked over to where Madam Pomfrey's shadow was creeping out under her office door.
"Let's go." Harry said.
Pansy shook her head, "Harry you look dreadful. And you're going to be checked on throughout the night."
"I'm coming." Harry said firmly, "You could stay for me. Just pretend to be asleep under the blankets." he begged to Draco.
"I want to come to." Draco pointed out in a loud a whisper as he dared.
"Look even if we're right, Hermione won't be able to take all of us." Pansy explained to him, "And I can see Harry causing drama here if I don't take him and he knows what happened out there better than we do."
Draco rolled his eyes, "You know it's annoying when you're right."
They quickly helped Harry get out of bed and steady on his feet before tucking Draco in.
"Make sure you keep the blanket pulled right up." Pansy told him, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
Draco smiled to her and nodded. Pansy and Harry slipped silently under the invisibility cloak and crept from the room.
"It's a good job Neville is in Gryffindor so we know where the entrance is." Pansy whispered as the crept through the empty school.
"We've done this too often." Harry remarked as they both stepped out the way to let a ghost past without thinking.
They made it to the entrance to the Gryffindor common room without incident and waited.
"We need to get in." Harry whispered, the painting of the fat lady was notorious for being unfriendly to the other houses.
Harry lent against the wall and thought for a few moments. He could have smacked his head, only there wasn't room under the cloak.
"What is it?" Pansy asked, she felt him tense up.
Harry dug around carefully and found the cloak pocket.
"It's a bit of parchment." Pansy said, confused, wondering if it was a good idea to have gotten Harry out of bed so early.
Harry shook his head.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." he whispered pointing his wand.
Pansy watched in amazement as the map formed in front of her, "Wow. What is that?"
Harry shook his head, "It's a long story but basically it shows where everyone in the school is."
"Well that's impressive." Pansy said.
"Yeah. My brain not so much. I should have just gone and gotten this and then we could have seen Dad wasn't outside." Harry muttered.
"Well this may come as a shock to you, the rest of us not so much, but you have always jumped without thinking. You're the most Gryffindor Slytherin I know." Pansy smiled at him.
"It's so good you guys are understanding." Harry snorted.
They unfolded the map to the space where the Gryffindor common room was and looked, Pansy floated her wand, lit, as close to the map as she could to read the tiny names.
"Hermione's in the dorm room." Pansy remarked, "But look who isn't."
Harry's heart fell as he saw the small name tag reading Ronald Weasley walking backwards and forwards by the fireplace.
"Go on. Knock." Pansy told him.
They walked forward and Harry knocked strongly on the door. The fat lady's picture woke up and looked around.
"What is going on?!" she demanded, "Who is there?"
Harry knocked again on the door.
"If this is another joke Fred Weasley..."
The door creaked open. Harry and Pansy didn't announce themselves, instead pushing the portrait hole open wide enough for them both to climb though. Ron looked around confused and slightly scared.
Harry and Pansy pulled the cloak off.
"What are you doing here?" Ron asked, looking around, "We're not allowed in the other common rooms."
"I know but this is important." Harry said, "Sorry if we scared you."
Ron brushed it off, "No not at all. Just didn't know you guys could be invisible."
Harry smiled at him, "Go get Hermione?"
Pansy nodded and went up the stairs to the girls dorm rooms.
"Look, thank you for letting us in." Harry said, in the awkward silence between him and Ron.
"It's OK. I couldn't sleep. Heard you'd been taken to the hospital wing and hadn't woken up. Between that and worrying about exam results..." Ron told him.
"Well I'm really grateful." Harry told him honestly, "How did you know I was in the hospital wing?"
Ron blushed, "My brother is a prefect, and head boy. He told me."
Harry decided to ignore the clear breach of duty there; prefects weren't allowed to gossip about other students when they only found out these things because they're prefects; it wasn't important right now.
"You can't tell anyone about this..." Harry told Ron, "Seriously, it's important."
Ron nodded, "I get that. Don't worry I wont."
Harry nodded and the awkward silence returned.
"I heard that the Quidditch world cup has been completely confirmed for this summer. Are you going?" Ron asked.
Harry nodded, "Hoping to. Although not sure if mum will let me."
"You should come with us. Dad'll be able to get you tickets." Ron said cheerfully.
Harry smiled and gave a small nod, not wanting to say no when whatever Pansy was planning almost certainly depended on them not getting caught.
It wasn't long before a tired looking Hermione, messily dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, came down the stairs with Pansy.
She put another hair bobble in to keep her hair in it's bun and yawned, she had just reached for a chain at her neck when she saw Ron was in the room, "Lets head outside."
Harry nodded and waved goodbye to Ron before they all climbed under the cloak. Hermione led them down the corridor a little bit and into an empty classroom.
"So what's the plan?" Harry asked.
Hermione smiled and reached down her top, pulling out a small pendent necklace that looked like a tiny hourglass on an axil.
"That's a time turner." Harry gasped.
"Yes. I was given it at the beginning of term to help me get to all my classes. This is a complete break of the rules." Hermione sighed, "But I understand that this is important, I don't want someone as bad as Pettigrew to escape. But there are rules, time is not something to be messed with. We cannot be seen be ourselves, that is a must. We also have to be careful who we do see and what we do. Every action we make will have a consequence and not always for the best. I'm not going to think any less of you if you change your mind now."
Harry and Pansy shook their heads.
"Professor Lupin is still missing and..." Pansy began
"Remus is missing?" Harry gasped, "What happened?"
"He went looking for you but he didn't come back with Professor Snape when he brought you and Daphne back to the castle." Pansy told him.
Hermione looked awkward for a second, "I think Professor Lupin is a werewolf. There have been a couple of things this year and it is a full moon."
Harry nodded, "He is. Always has been, since he was a little kid." he told them flatly, "I imagine he just forgot to take his potion because I rushed into everything. It's something else we need to be careful about, Uncle Remus would hate it if he hurt someone. He's only lost out there because of me."
"You can't blame yourself." Pansy told him, "Apart from anything else we need you to focus on what we're about to do."
Harry nodded and took a deep breath to clear his head. Hermione looked between them, she still felt half asleep.
"What do you need to do then?" Hermione asked, "Clear goals before we head off."
"We need to get a message to Dumbledore or Snape so we can stop Pettigrew from escaping and reuniting with You-know-who."
"Are you sure it's him?" Hermione asked, "Look I want to help, and I will, but time travel is dangerous you have to be sure this is the only way."
"It makes sense that it's him. He's the only one who fits, I think. He followed You-know-who really closely, he was the reason my father was killed and now Lupin is in danger. We have to do something." Harry told her.
Hermione nodded and pulled them closer, she wrapped the sliver necklace chain around their necks and took a deep breath before turning the hourglass five times.