CHAPTER 14
BITE THE BULLET
Dumbledore had woken up and looked at the trio. "Well, what did you find out?" He asked.
"Well I think we seriously pissed her off, "Ron said, "Erm, sorry Professor."
"There's nothing wrong with expressing the way one feels." He said with is always calm voice. "Anything else?"
"We can't do a thing to help her," Harry said, "Except…"
"Except what, Harry?"
"I am going to have to bite the bullet and ask Malfoy for help." Harry then started to walk out of the room, and then paused, "Does anyone know where he might be?"
"Everyone is in the Great Hall eating dinner," Dumbledore replied, "I suggest you three go eat something yourselves, if I'm not mistaken you have already missed lunch. I will tell Professor Snape to have Mr. Malfoy meet us here afterwards." With that everyone left to go to the Great Hall.
"So you haven't found a way to fix things yet I see." Draco peered into the classroom to see Aeryn still sitting on the chair. He noticed the candles the still circled around her. "What did you do?"
"Professor Dumbledore cast a spell to let the three of us see into her mind, to know what was going on inside her head, so that it might help us figure out how to help her." Hermione explained. Dumbledore had left the room to let the four of them to sort thing out. He said he had things to do. It was a good thing too, because it let Draco express himself.
"You. Did. what?" he asked sternly. The Gryffindors just looked at the Slytherin. "Do you have any idea what she would do to you if she found out? Trust me she knows a lot more curse then you think. She could do worse then you have ever done to me!"
"We already know," Harry said cutting him off, "She went all black-eyed on us. But let's not get off topic. I…" Harry paused and then bit his lip, "I need your help. I think you are the only one who can help her." There he said it. "Look we saw you that you helped her when you were five." Harry quickly added so to not inflate Malfoy's ego too much. Draco couldn't help but laugh quietly to himself. "Your really loving this aren't you."
"Every minute." Malfoy replied. Then he got back to the subject at hand. "I can't get her out of this but, you can't be here."
"We're not going anywhere!" Harry said. "I for one would like to see how you do it."
"Harry," Hermione said quietly, she looked into his eyes. "I think we should leave them alone. It might be better if Malfoy didn't have to worry about what he might say in front of us."
"No, its ok, I have idea." Malfoy said. "I need something though. She keeps it under her bed. It's a box, like a shoe box…"
"The one with all the doodles on it?" Hermione interrupted him.
"You've seen it before?" He asked.
"Um, should used the crystals in one of her memories." She confessed. "I'll go get it."
*
"Do you have any idea how lucky that girl is to have a dorm room that big and not have any roommates?" Hermione said as she stormed back into the empty classroom with Aeryn's box under her arm.
"What are you talking about Mione?" Harry asked as he took the box from her and handed it to Draco, who then opened the box and began to place the crystals around Aeryn.
"I had to ask Dumbledore where the heck her room was. She's been here a month and no one of us thought to ask her where the heck she sleeps at night." Hermione continued.
"I knew." Draco added, "The Head Girl, what was her name, uh, Cho, said she'd rather stay in her old dorm room with her friends. So Dumbledore offered the Head Girl dorm room to Aeryn for the year." He placed the tenth and final crystal on the floor. Energy beamed from crystal to crystal as the force field hovered around Aeryn and Draco.
"Sorry to bail on you mate," Ron turned to Harry, "See as that the almighty snake over there is the only one to help your sister, I'm not really needed. Seamus said we have a really big essay in Potions that we still have to do every though we weren't in class. I for one would like to get it out of the way!!"
Ron left leaving Harry and Hermione practically alone, with the exception of Aeryn a Draco. But Harry and Hermione could hear nothing from inside the force field and Malfoy couldn't hear anything on the outside. Harry sat on the floor by a wall, and was soon joined by Hermione. Harry wrapped his arm around her and they both watched as Malfoy sat on the floor looking up at Aeryn who was still sitting in the chair.
*
Harry felt something hit his shoe, but ignored it. He felt it again. Harry opened his eyes to realize he had fallen asleep. Malfoy was nudging Harry's foot to wake him up. Hermione had fallen asleep also. Harry gently caressed her cheek as she stirred. Aeryn was kneeling on the floor, gently picking up the crystals and placed them into the box.
"What happened?" Hermione asked sleepily.
"You fell asleep." Aeryn commented.
"Yes thank you that was pretty obvious. I meant what happened with you two?" Hermione said with a snippier tone.
Aeryn just stared daggers at her, and then looked away ignoring Hermione's question. Noticing that Draco had slipped away quietly Aeryn placed the lid on her doodled shoe box and stood up. She looked into Harry's eyes and saw the worry and concern in them.
"All you need to know is that I'm ok." She paused and gazed at the door, "Um, I'll uh, see you guys tomorrow." She then left Harry and Hermione alone.