Chapter 4 - First Day of a New Life
Harry turned around. It was Ron and Ginny. He sighed. Hoping this wasn't the start of anything remotely fractious, he walked closer to them.
'I was making my way to the Hospital Wing,' he said, looking only at Ron.
'Why, Harry? Were you hurt? Is there some injury you haven't been telling us about? Is it-' Ginny fired off rapidly, but Harry cut in.
'It's Hermione,' he said baldly, finally looking at Ginny and the reactions of the two young Weasleys was immediate.
Ron's face went red, almost as red as his hair, and Ginny's face took a barely detectable convoluted expression ; something that shouldn't have been present on any twelve-year old girl's face.
'Why are you going though?' Ginny asked plainly.
'Why? What do you mean why?' Harry started furiously, 'Why not? She's my best friend, and now that all danger is gone I'm sure they'd be administering the Mandrake solution freely! She's gonna wake up soon.'
'Nah, Ginny didn't mean it like that, Harry. We assumed you'll visit her after she's awake and in a state to interact, that's all,' Ron assured, although Harry swore he spotted a flash of resentment in Ron's eyes.
'Okay then, right, I'll get going,' Harry said, clapping Ron on the shoulder.
'We'll come with you, you're right, even I want to see Hermione,' Ron said, trotting along.
'You don't have to if you don't want to, Ginny,' Harry said, not wanting Ginny to tag along.
'Oh, that's alright, I want to come, Hermione's my friend too,' she said.
'Oh yeah, tell me her middle name.'
They walked to the Hospital wing, encountering only Peeves on the way, who strangely enough, had two watermelons in his hands.
Being thankfully ignored by him, they entered the Hospital wing where they saw all the patients who had been petrified lying in a row of beds. On looking around, they found Madame Pomfrey in her office, stirring something rapidly in a tall, round-bottomed pewter cauldron.
'Visit whoever you want, don't bother me, and don't you dare slap any of them!' she said agitatedly, not even looking up at them.
Harry and Ron exchanged a bewildered look, before Harry voiced out their question.
'Why would we be slapping any of them, Professor?'
'Don't you ask me that, you're Gryffindors, I'm sure you wouldn't do anything. But the thing is, some Slytherins have been by recently to 'visit their petrified friends'.'
'What?!' Harry roared, unable to believe their nerve.
'Yes, they've become pretty brave since Dumbledore left, and their number has increased by leaps and bounds since they said your sister was taken,' Pomfrey indicated to Ron, before continuing her vigorous stirring. She quickly pushed Ginny aside and took a bucket of what appeared to be some dead animal's remains and dumped its entire contents into the cauldron, and then continued stirring the mixture.
'I'm glad to see you're safe by the way, Miss Weasley, I'm just operating on a tight schedule. The Mandrakes have developed much faster than I expected them to, and now that they have, I can give the poor souls their path to recovery,' she said, smelling the cauldron as she talked.
'Did they attack any of them?' Harry hissed, his fists clenching.
'What? Oh yes, nothing major, but a few stunning curses and Boxing Charms... they've been soundly punished by Professor McGonagall, I assure you,' she said.
'WHAT?! Did they touch Hermione?!' Harry snarled, his eyes darkening. If he found out that they laid one hand on her precious body, even one single finger...
'No, Mr. Potter, I assure you they didn't. People honestly thought you were the Heir of Salazar, some of them were quite sure you were taming the beast, they hesitated in the whole region around Miss Granger's bed and that of Mr. Creevey's,' she said.
'When can they be cured and are you sure they didn't harm Hermione?' Harry fired off, either not noticing or not caring that the elderly matron was too tired and too busy to answer any more of his questions.
'Yes, I'm sure, Mr. Potter and I should be done by the end of the day, if the three of you stop pestering me, that is,' she stated, and she walked into the storeroom.
Harry gave a shout of apology and gratitude and he rushed back into the patients' wing.
Running to Hermione's bed, he held her cold, limp hand and inspected her face for any wounds or injuries. Ron and Ginny looked on, identical frowns on their faces.
'She's fine Harry,' Ginny said exhaustedly, looking sourly at what was going on, as if wanting to wrench Harry's hand away from Hermione's, 'Madame Pomfrey was sure no one harmed her!'
'I'm just making sure. If any of those crooks even touched her...' Harry trailed off, his eyes trailing down the length of her arms.
Finally, being partly satisfied with Hermione's physical condition and mainly uncomfortable under Ron and Ginny's baleful presence, Harry stepped back and took a crumpled parchment out of his pocket. Slightly opening the fingers of her clenched hand, he stuffed the paper and closed her fingers to the best he could.
'What's that?' Ginny asked suspiciously, raising her eyebrows.
'It's what saved your life,' Harry shot out, looking down at Hermione. She was as beautiful as she was before, as innocent, as pretty...
'I think we should leave,' Ron said, 'Madame Pomfrey said she was busy.'
'Yeah, we should,' Ginny quickly added, not liking the way Harry was looking at Hermione.
'You guys go, I'm gonna stay here for some time,' Harry said, taking a seat at Hermione's bedside.
'But, Harry, Madame Pomfrey-'
'She just told us not to disturb her, she didn't say anything about visiting hours,' Harry interrupted.
'Yeah-Yeah I guess,' Ron said uncertainly.
Ginny scowled in lieu of a response, and the siblings exited the room.
Harry sighed again and got up. This time, he sat down on her bed, in the space she wasn't occupying.
He held one of her hands with both of his. Rubbing it softly, he looked at Hermione. Why had he never noticed how beautiful she was before? Why hadn't he viewed her as a girl who could be, no- would be his life partner? Was he that daft? He had ignored something so priceless, so unique, so valuable...
No matter, he thought to himself reassuringly. He had his second chance. Thanking Jenny in his mind and remembering what he had sworn, he bent forward and brushed his lips softly against Hermione's.
Slowly withdrawing, he looked into her lovely chocolate orbs and muttered, 'I keep my promises, Hermione. After you wake up, I'll be the best friend you can ever ask for. My priorities are different this time. I've been blessed, I've been given a second chance to make things right. Not many people get such second chances.'
He tucked a tendril softly behind her hair and entwined his fingers with hers. He didn't know how long he sat there, watching her beautiful, petrified form, but he remembered planting another soft kiss on her forehead before he silently left.
He walked through the portrait hole to meet an empty common room. Looking at his watch, he saw it was past midnight. Ron and Ginny hadn't stayed up, waiting for him. He was partly glad for that, they hadn't seemed too pleased with his going to the Hospital wing in the first place.
He silently entered his dormitory and made his way to his bed. He lay there deep in thought. He remembered how he had failed to procure the Sword under the eyes of a slightly suspicious Dumbledore.
Harry and Dumbledore made their way out of the latter's office. For a brief moment, Harry thought he could get away with the Sword, but that was ludicrous.
'You can leave the Sword on the table, Harry. I'll put it along with the Sorting Hat later,' Dumbledore said lightly.
'Oh, forgot, sure, Professor,' Harry said with a sinking heart. That ruled out the idea of him destroying Horcruxes with the Sword, in addition to the fangs.
He placed it respectfully on the middle of Dumbledore's table, his eyes briefly spotting an array of peculiar instruments that he had once destroyed.
'Professor, I would like to keep the diary for some time,' Harry said, turning back to the Headmaster.
'By all means, do so, Harry. There is no evil left in it. However, may I presume that you are keeping it to return it gracefully to Mr. Malfoy?' he asked, his eyes twinkling again.
'You presumed correctly, Professor,' Harry returned with a grin.
Dumbledore only chuckled.
He thought of everything that had happened since his 'reawakening'. He slowly fell into a peaceful slumber, his first evening of his second life drawing to an end.
The first night of his new life gave him some uneasy dreams. Dreams of stealing Gryffindor's sword from Dumbledore's office, not unlike what Ginny Weasley had once done in a different timeline. Dreams of an impending rift between him and the Weasleys. Dreams of an attractive brown-eyed brunette. Dreams of him dying in unforeseen, odd ways and then Rita Skeeter coming up and declaring that this picture was to be discarded.....
He woke up very late the next day. Quickly having a shower and putting on some fresh clothes, he went down to breakfast. Ron was sitting alone at one end of the table, reading a Quidditch magazine. Thankfully, Ginny was nowhere in sight.
He wordlessly sat down and took a muffin.
Ron looked at him for a moment and then asked, 'What time did you get in last night?'
'Around elevenish,' Harry said, pouring himself a glass of pumpkin juice.
'I stayed up for you till then. Me and Ginny were both awake till around a quarter past eleven,' he said.
'Must have just missed you,' Harry shrugged, hoping that his lack of interest in the topic was evident.
Ron said nothing, he just took five more eggs and continued reading his magazine.
'Did Dumbledore say anything about the petrified victims?' Harry asked.
'What? Oh yeah. He did. He said something along the lines of them being revived today evening.'
'Right.'
Not knowing what else to say, Harry fiddled with his bacon, before wolfing it down with a buttered slice of toast. Finishing his pumpkin juice, he got up.
'Why are you leaving?' Ron asked, looking up from his magazine.
'Because...I finished my breakfast?'
'Just hang on for two minutes. You up for a game of pickup Quidditch? We're leaving tomorrow afternoon, and we'll be busy packing tomorrow morning, so the guys decided to have one now.'
'Um..Ron, I'm feeling pretty tired. I thought I'll sleep for some more time and then start packing, I don't want to keep it till the last minute,' Harry lied. He actually wanted to be left in peace in the dorms so that he could start planning his strategy for the Horcruxes and everything else.
'Oh, come on mate. Loosen up. Only someone like Hermione wouldn't leave her packing till the last minute... In fact if she wasn't petrified, I'm sure she would have already finished her packing by now!' Ron chortled, obviously expecting Harry to join in on the joke. Harry didn't.
'She never goes through tension on the final day like us, it's because she does her packing beforehand,' Harry said firmly.
'Urr...right,' Ron said, looking thoughtfully at Harry. 'So, you're coming right?' he added, more a statement than a question.
Harry pondered for a moment. He made up his mind that he would spend as little time as possible with Ginny and that Hermione would come first for him, not Ron. That didn't mean he had to be rude to Ron and consequently ignore him.
'All right, I'll play Seeker for one side,' Harry said, sitting down again.
'Great! Let me just finish my breakfast and I'll rope in Dean and Seamus,' Ron said enthusiastically, attacking his eggs with renewed vigour.
Harry watched disgustedly as pieces of bacon fell out of Ron's mouth at regular intervals and juice leaked down his already grimy shirt.
At long last, they made their way out of the Great Hall and went out onto the grounds, where they met up with their classmates, who were already choosing teams on the Quidditch pitch.
As reluctant as he was to play in the first place, Harry had to admit he had fun playing with his friends and classmates, quite a few of whom were killed in the Battle of Hogwarts in the original timeline.
Never did his team conceding a goal, or his teammate getting hit by a Bludger cheer him up so much.
He didn't keep track of the score or the Snitch. He spotted it easily within the first five minutes of the game but he wanted to extend the game as long as he could. It was this scrimmage that made him finally realise more than anything that he was in the world of the living. That he really had a second chance. He wasn't dead even though by all logic, he very well should have been...
*
A tired group of Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs made their way into the Great Hall for lunch. The mood was hopeful and optimistic. The monster being destroyed, their classmates' pending revival, not to mention the return of their enigmatic headmaster contributed to this.
Harry really couldn't blame Ron this time for clawing his way through all the dishes laid before them ; the game had been really exhausting.
'So what are you planning to do the rest of the day mate?' Ron asked.
'I'm going to start my packing for sure and then I don't know. I'll go to the Hospital Wing and wait for everyone's recovery.'
'Oh, you're not allowed to do that. Professor Dumbledore expressly forbade anyone from watching. So we can meet up with Hermione after she comes back to our common room,' Ron said.
'What? You forgot to tell me that in the morning when I asked you!' Harry said, glaring at Ron.
'I forgot mate, I'm sorry,' Ron said, not looking very sorry at all.
Harry simply shook his head.
Later, after shaking off a pigheaded Ron, who seemed to have it in his mind that he, Harry and Ginny should 'take a walk' around the castle grounds, Harry lay down on his four-poster bed, thinking.
'I'm down, the diary is down and there's a diadem waiting for me at Hogwarts. I can't get it and keep it in my possession, I'll have to destroy it immediately. How am I gonna do that?
Taking the fang's gonna be pretty impossible. I'll probably have to wait from anytime around six months to a year to touch that ruddy basilisk. I don't know how powerful I was as a seventh year, but there's no question of nicking anything from Dumbledore's office. Which leaves only Fiendfyre. Hermione reckoned it was too dangerous and probably even too difficult for her to wield that kind of fire. How would he be able to use it?
Harry finally decided that since it was only the end of his second year, he had plenty of time to plan and execute to perfection. With the current resources at his disposal, he had no way of getting a Horcrux or destroying one. He hated the idea of it, but he would have to leave school without doing anything on the Horcrux and Voldemort front. He would wait till Hermione was better and till Sirius escaped in a month's time before setting things in motion...
*
Hours later, Harry was under his Invisibility Cloak, stealthily making his way down to the Hospital Wing. Unluckily, he didn't have the Marauder's Map, which he would have to take from Fred and George sooner or later. He knew it would be extremely useful to have them on his side, and yet, he couldn't figure out who to tell of his deadly secret. There were so many people to be considered - Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Sirius, Remus..
Shrugging off these thoughts, he stuck to the shadows and crept along, finally reaching the corridor where the Hospital Wing was located, and he hid behind a statue of armour.
It had seemed like barely five minutes had passed when he heard voices in the vicinity.
'Is it ready, Madame Pomfrey?' he heard Dumbledore mutter to the hospital matron.
'Yes, Professor, I finished it some time this morning and I just had to run a couple of tests to make sure everything was clear,' she replied.
'Very well, then, it is time,' he heard Professor McGonagall open the doors to the hospital and peering out, he saw quite a few of his teachers walk in, closing the door firmly.
Quickly making his way to the doors, he peered in through the window and saw Dumbledore and McGonagall talking to each other in hushed tones while Pomfrey had gone in to her quarters to get the antidote solution. Professors Flitwick and Sprout were inspecting the victims.
Then, he heard footsteps behind him. Stiffening, he had no choice but to turn around as silently as possible, as he didn't have the Map on him.
It was Severus Snape.
Harry certainly wasn't expecting it and he would absolutely deny it for years to come, but his heart lightened when he saw the tall silhouette of the pale, greasy man approach him slowly, his cloak billowing in the air as he walked, giving him a bat-like appearance.
His face came into view, and Harry saw his eyes, deep black eyes that he had always considered emotionless, void ; but in actuality had harboured an everlasting, undying love.
'Look at me....' Harry remembered solemnly, as though the words had just been uttered mere seconds ago.
Snape walked past him and was about to open the doors of the Hospital Wing when he stopped dead in his tracks. He took two steps away from the doors, before looking around suspiciously.
Harry stayed exactly as he was, not even daring to breathe or move a muscle, he watched as Snape's familiar frown caught up onto his face. Snape took his time to make one last inspection of the corridor, before bowing his head and walking, opening the doors silently and yet dramatically.
Harry snorted. 'Has to make an entrance,' he thought dryly.
He resumed his position beside the window and looked inside.
Madame Pomfrey was giving a ladle full of medicine out to every student and was being assisted by Snape.
Knowing that he had little time before the students woke up and exited the wing, Harry quickly hid behind the armour again.
He didn't have long to wait. The students slowly filed out after being declared fit. They walked out leisurely, muttering and chattering amongst themselves excitedly, all obviously excited to be walking and talking again. Harry searched frantically for the one he sought the most. He noted absently the faces of Justin, Colin and Penelope Clearwater. He saw Nearly Headless Nick glide away from the area, patting everyone he passed warmly on the back. They came out mostly in twos and threes.
And then, at long last, he saw her. She was alone, no one to accompany her. Harry's heart stopped as he took in the sight of her beautiful face, her untamable brown curls, her pink cheeks that were vibrating with life again ; her soft, pink lips that begged to be kissed once, twice, thrice, again and again for all eternity...
He took his cloak off as he looked into her warm, chocolatey-brown eyes and something seemed to draw her gaze to his at the same moment. They stayed like that for a second, Harry remembered being struck down by Voldemort's killing curse, he had looked into Hermione's eyes the same way before he had fallen.
And then, like that, the moment broke and Hermione ran into his waiting arms. Wrapping his arms tightly around her, he buried his face in her hair, inhaling her familiar, friendly scent. She cried even though it was nothing more than a happy reunion between friends, he cried because the last time he had held her this close was during that stolen hour in the tent on a cold December evening.
AN - I forgot to put the parts about the sword and the diary in the previous chapter, so just accept the stuff in italics as part of his conversation with Dumbledore in the previous chapter. I didn't want to change the old one, coz I know it's pretty boring for readers to go back to an old chapter just for a couple of paragraphs.
According to the de facto map I have sketched out, this chapter was supposed to be 'Plans for the Summer' like I mentioned at the end of last chapter. However, as I write, I generally tend to discard any existing plans I have. Basically, I deviate a lot and write unplanned things. So, hopefully, the next chapter should be 'Plans for the Summer'.
Please read and review. Thanks to those who have reviewed.