Cry

XI 

“They are cute together. They almost remind me of our younger days.”

Severus shot back a small glass of Firewhiskey, before muttering, “Their lives will be hell like ours.”

Narcissa looked sad as she peered at her son and Harry on the sofa, facing Granger who had volunteered to keep the boys up to date with their classes. “I have a feeling that the war will begin again,” Narcissa whispered, “…but these children… their too headstrong. To have seen the Dark Lord this early in their lives, Draco seeing Harry in that state… It will have good repercussions for them.”

“Does it happen again? Does that monster take over my son years from now, months, weeks, days, minutes?”

She sighed, leaning her head on his arm. “You know I can’t tell you that.” He growled faintly. “Although I can say that your son is strong and brave – no matter what life has put him to. Of course, Draco and Hermione’s unlikely friendship with him… it’s helped him break the cage he put himself in.”

Severus made to pour himself another glass of Firewhiskey but Narcissa’s dainty hand grabbed the bottle. Severus looked into her gray eyes and sighed as she made the alcohol disappear. He gave her a weak glare before looking back at his son, who shook his head at the others’ ridiculousness.

Sighing, Severus asked quietly, “So, why is he not in Gryffindor? Why was Slytherin bound to be his house?”

“Maybe it’s because of his connection to the Dark Lord? Perhaps the way he became your son?” Then she smiled up at him, “And maybe because he has more in him of yourself that you’d like to think, Severus.”

Severus opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a frustrated squeal.

“Ab-e-o-mor-a!” Hermione screamed at Draco.

“I’m doing the spell correctly, Granger! It’s not my fault that my pincushion has spikes!”

Then, suddenly, Harry began to laugh at his friends. Draco and Hermione stared at him in disbelief. Then Hermione began to giggle without control. Draco stared at them both in shock, “You both are so not normal…”

But both Harry and Hermione noticed the smile on his face.

***

It was nearly curfew when Hermione found herself walking back up to her dorm. The walk was the worst, wondering what they would say now. Find something to throw in her face. Force her to write essays for other first years. Even her roommates had threatened to shave her head in her sleep.

She was always frightened by the time she reached the portrait, knees knocking together. She was positive she didn’t have the courage Mrs. Malfoy had said. She didn’t have the courage to even cast a simple jinx on Ron Weasley when he snidely asked if Harry had been arrested yet. The other Gryffindors would laugh at this – except Neville Longbottom who sent small smile at Hermione. He was accepted for now and he would not give up his position for anything.

She turned her head away from him. His silence made him no different from the others.

Trudging upstairs, she entered her dorm room and almost gagged with the perfume coming from the room. It was so thick that you could see it in the air. Covering her mouth she walked over to her side of the room. She sighed when she saw her carefully organized school papers and books lying everywhere on the floor. One tear escaped and she kept her back turned to Lavender and Parvati who whispered and giggled from the window seat.

As she began to pick up, her essays and praying they were all there. She heard something. Looking around her, she noticed that her roommates didn’t hear it. Then her schoolbag began to wiggle. She watched with wide eyes as a pink nose peeked from the inside. Grabbing her wand, she trained it on her bag, jinx on her tongue, and gently lifted the flap.

She only found a furry black face and one white paw peeking out over the side of her bag. “Aella?” Hermione whispered, surprised, picking up the half-grown kitten from her bag. “What you doing here?” she asked quietly to the animal. “You should be home,” she rubbed her behind the ears and she purred loudly. She smiled. “You should be biting on Draco’s toes, you know.”

“Draco who, Granger?”

Cold shot down her spine as she turned to face Lavender and Parvati who had been listening. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Looking at the girls, she tired to keep a cool face. “What do you mean?” she asked, taking a step back. Lavender walked a step forward and Aella hissed at her from Hermione’s arms.

“Draco Malfoy, Granger?” Parvati asked, looking lazily at her nails before giving Hermione an evil look. “What are you doing with Malfoy, Granger, especially since he’s been absent for over a month?”

“And why do you have Potter’s cat?” asked Lavender quietly.

“How do you know its Harry’s cat?” She asked backing up into a wardrobe. Lavender followed her.

“Harry?!” squealed Parvati. “First name basis for all the Slytherins, are you?”

“Just let me go to bed, please. Aella will be gone in the morning.” The girls didn’t move. “I could take her now even!” Hermione screamed, hurrying with her book bag, putting her essays in as neatly as she could. Aella kept hissing at the other girls.

Suddenly, Lavender grabbed Hermione from the collar and threw her across the room. She hit her cheek on Parvati’s nightstand, causing a small vase to fall and break. With great anger, Parvati shared a sadistic look with Lavender and they powered together, levitated Hermione, casting her out of the dorm. “Sleep outside, you freak!” Lavender giggled.

Only they were unaware of the bathroom door was open and the sound of breaking glass reached them. Lavender and Parvati stared at each other, faces growing pale before walking toward the bathroom.

The cat had a cut across its cheek and hissed at them, trying to stand but one of its legs appeared to be broke. Parvati began to hyperventilate when she saw Hermione curled up in a ball lying in glass. A big bloody cut was on her head, painting her hair red. She was so still, that the girls’ felt their hearts speed up in fright.

“Is she… dead?” whispered Parvati.

“I think she’s breathing,” Lavender whispered back.

“What should we do?”

Lavender did not answer her friend only pulled her from the bathroom and shut the door. Turning to her best friend, she said, “We know nothing, agreed?”

Parvati nodded nervously. “We can’t just leave her in there…”

“Someone will find her. None of this leads to us as long as we stay quiet.”

“But Lav–”

“At least, she’ll be out of her hair for the night.”

Nodding, Parvati went back into her dorm, casting one more glance at the bathroom, and shutting the dorm door.

***

Severus peeked in the boys’ bedroom – Draco’s cot had been replaced with a small four-poster and the room enlarged enough to fit two boys. He noticed Draco lying on his side, cane propped against his bed, his face relaxed. Turning his eyes toward his son, he saw two eyes sparkling in the dark looking at him. He heard the boy sniff and realized he was crying.

“Harry?”

The boy clambered out of his bed and walked as quietly as he could toward his him. Harry hugged Severus around the waist, burying his face in his father’s robes. Severus placed a hand on the boy’s head leading him toward the sofa. He knelt on the floor looking up at Harry.

“Son…?”

Harry let two fresh tears fall down his face. “I feel like something bad has happened. I feel it right here.” He pointed to his heart.

Severus pulled into his arms, allowing the child to cry on his shoulder.

***

Unbeknownst to them, Katie Bell’s scream woke up the entire Gryffindor House when she got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

***

McGonagall and Pomfrey quickly used the floo to get into the dorms. Most students had gone back to bed but there was a small group gathered by the girls’ dorm stairs. Rushing past them she was able to hear a few whispers of the group, who didn’t even bother to lower their voices.

“…She deserved it....”

“She never got how things work around here…”

McGonagall cast a worried glance at Pomfrey before rushing faster. A group of older girls were crowded in the doorway to the first floor toilet – the only working bathroom since Peeves had ransacked the other one early in the year. Seeing their Head of House, the girls cleared room for her. When McGonagall entered the room, she gasped, hands clamped over her mouth.

Bridget Benhart and Alicia Spinnet were kneeling – by Hermione Granger’s still form, thick towels under their knees to prevent injury and putting pressure on Hermione’s head wound. And McGonagall was surprised to see a third girl in the room, Angelina Johnson, who was cradling a small cat in her arms as well.

Pomfrey hurried to Granger’s side, instructing the girls to continue putting pressure on the wound and began to cast healing spells on her.

“What happened here?!” McGonagall demanded, everyone jumping and the girls all looked over at Katie Bell.

Katie was in a blanket and being held by a seventh year student, Marcie Vanhover. Katie whimpered at being asked to talk and Marcie took pity on her and said, “Katie found her about five minutes ago when she was on her way to…” the girl blushed “…well, you can guess.”

Madam Pomfrey looked up at McGonagall. “We need to put her in the Infirmary. She will need healing potions and needs them fast.”

“I will alert Severus,” McGonagall sighed, rushing down the stairs and directly to the fireplace. One blink and she was gone.

***

Severus sat on his sofa with his son cradled in his arms, listening to Harry’s breathing as he slept. Looking down at the boy’s face, he finally studied his features. He had shiny black hair in ringlets just like his mother, but Lily had to straighten her hair with a spell to please Potter. Harry’s skin was pale like his own as well as his long thin fingers and Severus was relieved that the child had not inherited his nose. He was happy that most of this child was Lily, especially and undeniably his eyes. Severus felt he would rather his son look like his mother than have even a small part of himself.

After all, Lily had given her son the ultimate protection seconds away from her death.

Severus had given him a home after ten years of family prison, neglected, abused, starved…

Severus snapped his eyes shut, yearning for a memory of Lily, but each image was fuzzy as he had placed them in a pensive. Brushing his son’s hair from his eyes, he thought that, perhaps, it was the time to put them back. Maybe even let Harry see a few, he had stored away of Lily, himself and Harry – because he had loved that baby

But now that he looked back at it, he had never really stopped loving the child over eleven years, the child that called him ‘dada’, little boy who liked to play with his hair. Most of all he loved the simultaneous giggles coming from mother and son. He never understood how an infant could be that happy.

When he stored them away, leaving only a few for his own sake, the one of the potion for hope, he had sat at the sorting fully prepared to hate Lily’s son. The boy was a Potter and a would-be Gryffindor – two reasons to hate him if he didn’t think of Lily.

But the hat had spouted ‘Slytherin’ and all of Severus carefully made plans disappeared when the child looked up at him with Lily’s eyes. The boy had become his responsibility whether he liked it or not.

Surprising to Severus, the boy was much more like his mother than he would have thought – though his face had shouted his lineage to James Potter. With effort, Severus began to see Lily in him and hope much more than he should. However, this time his wish came true. Harry was his son.

“Severus!” He heard the scream sooner than he saw the fireplace erupt in green flames. McGonagall stepped out in her dressing gown and slippers on her feet. Her hair was down and it was going in every direction. She stepped out, panic on her face.

“Minerva, what is the meaning of this?” Severus whispered but it was too late for Harry’s eyes opened blearily.

Once he saw McGonagall, he sat straight up in his father’s lap. “Something’s happened, hasn’t it?” he asked quietly.

Severus cursed, mumbling. He placed Harry down on the couch and his son looked up at him with wide eyes. “But–”

“Go keep an eye on, Draco.”

Harry stared at him and McGonagall and then looked over his shoulder toward his and Draco’s room. With trudging feet he went in the bedroom, and shut the door. Then the two professors saw light coming from under the door and muffled voices.

Severus led McGonagall to the kitchen as a safety precaution. He reached into the cabinet and looked at his colleague. “Tea, Minerva?”

“No, Severus, we don’t have time,” she said urgently.

He grew tense. “What’s happened?”

“A girl was found in the Gryffindor girls’ toilet this morning. Her head had been bashed into the mirror and apparently she has been left there for hours. She’s bled heavily, including the various cuts given by the glass.” She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “She needs potions, Severus. We fear the worst.”

“Come with me.”

McGonagall followed him into his stores. He set to work putting potions in a case, mumbling to himself. He reached for one potion then stopped, “Her head, brain injury, cracked skull…?”

“Poppy only believes she has a concussion. Right now we are focusing on stopping the bleeding.”

He nodded and grabbed a vial to his left. Quickly, he headed toward the fireplace only to encounter two boys in their pajamas. “What’s going on?” Draco asked in a commanding tone, a bit of dried blood under his nose

“Something I need to take care of,” He said in a voice that booked no argument.

Then McGonagall whispered in Severus ear. “Whatever happens, they can’t come.”

“I know that!” he snapped back at her.

McGonagall only shook her head and leaned in again, whispering. “The girl is Hermione Granger.”

***

“What are we doing?”

The voice came from nothingness or seemingly nothingness, but sometimes, most times, things in the Wizarding world are not quite what they seem.

“Do I have to tell you everything?”

Interestingly enough, the voices came from two first year boys from under the protection of their invisibility cloak. The boys began moving out of the dungeons, silent now, and no feet to be shown. They made their way up the stairs, moving quickly.

“Are we going to the Hospital Wing?” the softer voice asked after a long silence.

“No, Potter.” They had reached the second level. “We are going to the third floor.”

“But, Draco, that’s forbidden!”

“Didn’t stop you from going into the Forbidden forest, did it?”

“And you know how well that turned out!” Harry said forcefully under his breath.

“…Are you giving me cheek, Potter?” Draco laughed a bit and Harry stayed quiet, Draco not seeing Harry’s smile.

They were quiet as they reached the third floor – curious that they had made it without a run-in with Filch. Entering the corridor, torches lit up as they walked. Looking backward and forwards, no sound, no presence to be found, they slid off the invisibility cloak. At the end of the long hallway was a door, locked heavily.

Looking at each other, excitement hit their eyes until a soft, crackled ‘meow’ came from below them. Mrs. Norris looked up at them with scrutinizing eyes and made her way out of the corridor to, presumably, tell her master.

Putting his wand to the door, Draco whispered, “Alohomora.”

Both of them watched in shock as the simple spell worked without any resistance, seeming as if the castle was helping them. Entering the room, Draco leaned heavily on his cane and Harry held on to his invisibility cloak tightly.

“Suppose we’ll have to stay here until Filch leaves,” Draco said calmly, looking at the door.

Then a low growl caught their attention and both boys turned stiffly.

“A three-headed dog!” Draco screamed in disbelief, backing up.

Harry looked down at the beast’s feet and whispered in excitement, “A trapdoor...”

Draco looked down and saw it just before the middle head made a snap at Harry. Draco grabbed him and dragged him out of the room. Both ran down the corridor as best they could. Until Draco’s weak legs finally gave out and he fell to the floor. Harry screamed his name and ran to him. Then they both saw the pair of scuffed shoes and slowly looked up into a grizzled, greasy face.

“Well, well, the two little mice have come out of their fortress,” Filch said lowly, happiness in his beady eyes. Then he smiled at them with crooked yellow teeth.

Draco sneered at him.

Soon, Draco and Harry were making their way to the Infirmary, Harry helping Draco walk as he sprained his ankle and was bruised from hitting the floor. Draco glared at Filch’s back and Harry gazed sadly at his Invisibility cloak in the caretaker’s gnarled fingers.

Opening the door confidently, Filch strolled to the one occupied bed surrounded by many people. “Professors, I’ve found students out of bed.”

McGonagall turned and eyed Filch but when her eyes lightened on Harry and Draco, she seemed to erupt. “Get them out of here!” Minerva screamed at Filch’s surprised face, who cowered and started mumbling that they needed to be punished.

Seeing that they were being slightly ignored and presently being the center of attention ironically, Draco and Harry made their way around the curtain and stared in horror.

“No!” Harry screamed, staring at Hermione’s pale, limp form, covered in blood.

“Bloody hell…” Draco whispered.

Harry began breathing hard, face turning red. The windows cracked. Curtains ripped, dancing in an invisible wind and all the beds shook violently – except for Hermione’s. Then the strange white light began to surround him again as it did in the forest, his eyes glowing like emerald fire.

“Mr. Malfoy, hold him down!” screeched Pomfrey. Draco just stared at her and cast an insulting look.

“Mr. Malfoy, this is not the time to be stubborn! Calm him down now–” A loud shattering sound came from the windows. “Or we will all be in Miss Granger’s shape.”

With an exhausted and pain-filled face, Draco hobbled over to Harry and grabbed him around the shoulders. Holding him tightly, Draco began whispering in the other boy’s ear.

“No! No! I won’t let her die!” The wind rushed faster around them, swirling

Draco glared in frustration as if he expected the first calming mechanism to be a miracle. So he went for harsh and blunt. “If you don’t stop now, Potter, you’ll kill us all!”

Something struck Harry in that the storm disintegrated, the light went away, and the curtain and windows repaired themselves. Harry looked up at Hermione and passed out into Draco’s arms making them both fall into the footboard on the bed behind them. Draco hissed as his ankle twisted more. The rest of the professors – except Madam Pomfrey and mostly Filch who did – stared in shock at Harry’s limp form.

Suddenly, the Hospital doors burst open and Severus stormed through with Dumbledore and, surprisingly, Narcissa Malfoy at their heels. “Who in their right mind would lock out a Potions Master from a hospital?!” he screamed.

“It was locked?” McGonagall asked faintly. “He must of…” and she couldn’t finish her sentence.

Severus stared at her in shock before a whimper was heard behind him. He stared in surprise as Draco looked up at him with pleading eyes, Harry lying still on top of him. Looking up into his godfather’s eyes, he muttered, “Get him off me…” His face twitched as pain shot up his spine. “…please…”