Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Pretty Little Secrets ❯ Hogwarts ( Chapter 3 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter Three: Hogwarts

`Happy Birthday to me.' Harry thought as he shivered under the mountain of blankets and clothes he was wearing. He so wanted to get up and write to Dumbledore or Sirius, but the cold was just too much.

"Forget Voldie, I'm gonna die by freezing to death. Snape and Malfoy are gonna dance on my grave in pink tutus and throw rose petals at anyone who passes by."

Lost in his self-pitying thoughts, Harry didn't hear his aunt scream, but he felt the magic that was used inside the wards. The house was silent, his aunt having sent his uncle and cousin out shopping. Harry strained to hear something beyond his chattering teeth. Unintentionally, the ice that was thinly covering the upstairs thickened at Harry's feelings of fear and unsettlement.

More magic. Harry sent out another wave of ice magic but wasn't quick enough to stop a Blasting Charm. He heard his attackers slide across his tiny room and into the wall on the opposite side. The voices he heard next made him sigh in relief. `Sirius! And Remus! They came! I'm not gonna die!' Pause. `At least not yet!'

"Get up, Harry." said Remus gently. "We've come to take you to Hogwarts."

Harry tried to move, but was shaking so violently that he could barely get out from under his mound of blankets.

"What's wrong with me?" he asked as Sirius lifted his godson off of the bed, blankets and all. Remus was packing all of Harry's things by magic.

"We've got our suspicions Harry but we'd best wait till we get to Hogwarts for that. Dumbledore knows, he can explain it best."

"Why am I not surprised?" Harry mumbled and burrowed deeper into the nest of cloth. There was something on Sirius that was giving Harry a slightly warmer feeling, but it wasn't Sirius himself. All of those feelings were connected directly to Remus.

"Done." said Remus as he closed the lid of Harry's trunk and shrunk it to fit in his pocket. Turning around, Remus found the garbage can and another bucket filled with blood. It was a lot more than Lily threw up when she'd received her inheritance. Harry seemed to be sleeping, coldly, in Sirius' arms when Remus turned around looking worried. Sirius hated that look.

"Moony, come on. We gotta go."

Remus nodded. "He threw up a lot more blood than Lily did, that's for sure."

Both men walked carefully down the ice covered stairs to the kitchen before pulling out a portkey and disappearing.

All of the eight Slytherins that were expected at Hogwarts were present in the Slytherin Common Rooms, holding a meeting with Lucius Malfoy and their Head of House- who was currently mixing up a batch of potions for when Potter was brought in.

"So Dumbledore's going to bring his Golden Boy to a castle full of Death Eater children when he's badly ill?" asked a stunned Matthew Flint, the youngest Slytherin present.

"He said he trusts us, Matt. He's taken us in. And Hogwarts is the safest place to hide from Voldemort. And he's not badly ill, he's horribly ill. He was vomiting up blood. Since when is that good?" said Pansy in a huff.

She was pacing the Common Rooms, worry etched on her face. Not many people knew it but Pansy was a fatiloquae- something like a Seer but she relied on 'bad feelings' or her instincts about things, instead of visions and tea leaves. The ability could almost be described as a cross between empathy and precognition.

"Yeah and she had a 'bad' feeling about it." said Blaise smugly.

That caught Snape's attention. “Did you, Miss Parkinson?" he said, looking truly concerned now. Well, perhaps concerned wasn't the word exactly. More like perturbed.

Pansy nodded, still pacing. "It was like, I have a bad feeling about how bad his illness is, but
it's good that he's ill. But that doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Could it be that this illness will be good for him? Albus said something about it being the thirty first of July like it was important. What could that have to do with Mr. Potter's illness?" Luis Montague kicked open his trunk and began digging. “I've read that date in one of my old DADA textbooks. I think it was either the first year text or a book on Dark Arts."

Terence Higgs went over to the bookshelves that lined the common Rooms and took out an old thin exercise book. "Why don't we just use this?" he asked before tapping on the cover and saying in a clear voice "July Thirty First. Dark Arts Books."

The exercise opened up and began listing all the books with Dark Arts that happened on that date. The list was long.

"That was too broad a subject Terence. Give it here." said Draco. He closed the exercise. "Start Over." The book erased its last list.

Draco tapped the cover. "Dark Arts. July Thirty First. Harry Potter."

This time only two books came up, the first being `The Rise and Fall of The Dark Arts.'

Draco frowned. "Luis, look in The Rise and Fall of The Dark Arts please. Under Harry Potter."

Luis found the book and opened to the far back and began to read out loud. “The Dark War was just reaching its peak when our savior was born. At eleven forty-nine pm, on July Thirty First, Harry James Potter was born at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry... It's Potter's birthday."

Theo ran his fingers through his shoulder length hair and sighed frustrated. "First he's sick because of his mother's illness and now because of his birthday? What, the kid doesn't like presents and cake? Dumbledore knows what's up. So do Black and Lupin."

Gregory Goyle growled. "He has to let us know if he wants our help in the war. That was my deal."

Severus had finally finished getting all the potions needed together and had them sent up to the Hospital Wing by house-elf before flopping down in a dark green chair and rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Why are we worrying about Potter again? The boy gives me a migraine. I've just depleted my potions store for him too. You'd think he was dying by the number of potions Poppy demanded."

Pansy stopped suddenly. "He isn't dying. But it's damn close. He'll be a new person when this is all over with.” She paused. “He's here."

Sure enough, Sirius Black's voice could be heard yelling for Poppy. What he said next made everyone's hearts stop.

"HE WON'T WAKE UP! I…..I DON'T THINK HE'S BREATHING! HELP!"

Pansy ran over and pulled Draco up off his seat and began pulling himtoward the doors.

"Come on! We in the dungeons and can hear his voice! We have to be there!” She yelled and turned to the other eight. “All of us!"

Pulling Draco along, Pansy didn't look back to see if they followed.

When Sirius and Remus landed outside the gates to Hogwarts, Sirius tried to wake Harry. He didn't move. Sirius started to shake him. “Remus! He won't wake! HARRY! HARRY!" The shaggy-haired wizard began to panic.

Remus grabbed his wand and pointed it at the still blue boy and said "Enervate!"

Harry didn't move but a slow trickle of blood began to run from his nose. Sirius yelped and began to run for the castle, shedding the blankets as he went. Remus blasted the doors open and Sirius screamed for Poppy.

Dumbledore and the Nurse came running, along with Professor McGonagall who gasped at the sight of a blue and bloody Harry Potter. Albus looked grave. "He's far worse than his mother was. Come on Poppy; let's get him to the Hospital Wing.

Sirius ran past the group of shocked Slytherins.

"Faking Professor?" came Pansy's voice as she looked at the limp form of the Boy-Who-Lived. "He was blue. And bleeding!"

The ten Slytherins ran off to the Hospital Wing with Draco and Pansy still in the lead.

Madame Pomfrey had made a big area of the Wing open for when they had brought Harry in. Now with six adults and eight students trying to see what was going on, Poppy was glad she did. Sirius Black was pale and shaking and Remus Lupin was doing no better. No help there. Grabbing two potions and setting them by the bed on which Harry lay she called out to the only person who could help her.

"Severus! Open his mouth for me. I have to check his air way!"

Severus rushed over and held open the boy's head. His airway was blocked with blood. Madame Pomfrey vanished it with her wand.

Harry took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

The whole room sighed.

"Swallow these Mr. Potter." Said Madame Pomfrey.

Harry's hands were shaking too much to hold them himself but he swallowed down three until he turned green.

Snape saw this and grabbed a bedpan, thrusting it toward the queasy teen. Harry vomited up more blood. Pulling back his head, he looked at Dumbledore and whispered for the second time that day, "What's wrong with me?"

Snape looked at the contents of the bedpan and frowned. "There's blood, but no potions. The last one should have at least come up. Potter, how do you feel?"

But Harry didn't answer. He was too busy starring at Draco Malfoy. `What's Malfoy doing here? And why does he look so colorful?' Harry squinted. `No, not colorful, sparkly.' Harry looked around the Hospital Wing confused. He felt attracted to Malfoy, in both senses of the word. Warmth seemed to flow off of the blond Slytherin and into Harry. The blue tint to his skin and lips disappeared and the slush that was forming in the potions melted. 'What was that?' Harry wondered as his eyelids began to droop. `I'll ask Dumbledore when I wake up.'

Harry drifted off to dreamland.

The people left in the room watched as the deathly blue color left the Boy-Who-Lived and he drifted off into sleep, mumbling something about 'no more cold'.

Dumbledore had seen the connection between Harry and Draco. `I wonder...' He thought before clearing his throat. Everyone in the room looked at him.

"He's better. When he wakes up he will have a lot of questions. Send him straight to me Poppy. It will be Mr. Potter's choice if he will tell anyone else beyond the people who already know of his... illness."

Remus looked at his best friend's godson, still worried. "Are you sure he'll be okay? He had a trash can and a bucket full of blood at his relatives. Lily didn't get that ill!"

He would have continued but Dumbledore gave him a stern look. "When Harry wakes up, we will have some answers."

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews!

S.Tangerine