The Forgotten 7th Year

They Come Back

Neville's POV

It had been two days.

Two very, very long days.

Michael was spending every spare moment in the Hospital Wing. I'd heard he'd even been skipping Astronomy, just so he could sit in one of Madam Pomfrey's chairs and stare at the door.

But as the second day slipped away, I wondered if they would be released at all. I barely slept that night.

The next day I woke up to my galleon burning; Michael's handwriting etched onto the metal.

Ginny's POV

I'd fallen asleep with the coin in my hand, and woke up with a yell as the metal turned molten. I sat bolt upright and massaged my slightly burnt hand.

I glanced at the message, and even that small look hurt. I'd known what it said since I felt it heat. But my eyes seemed magnetically drawn to Michael's terrible penmanship.

Padma, Anthony, and Seamus are here. But they're hurt, and it's bad.

I sprang out of bed, and ran down the stairs. Guilt blossomed in my gut as I s I grabbed the banister and whipped around the corner. With a crash, I ran into someone; Neville.

"Sorry!" He yelped. I didn't respond, but kept running.

How bad was 'bad?' Was it something they could recover from? This wouldn't be happening if I'd sent out the rescue party.

I think I set a World Record for fastest time from Gryffindor Tower to the Hospital Wing. Granted, it wasn't much of an accomplishment, seeing as how it couldn't be printed in those Muggle record books. The book would then have to acknowledge the existence of both Gryffindor Tower and the Hospital Wing.

But suffice it to say, I was fast.

I slowed to a stop, when I saw Professor Mcgonagall was slowly walking away from, the door. I assumed she'd been dropping off Seamus, Anthony, and Parvati. She looked older than I'd ever seen her, her face contorted in disgust.

And I didn't have to look far to see the source of her revulsion. The Carrows were standing a few feet away, smirking and joking to each other.

"I was told she was one of the, 'prettiest girls in 7th Year." Amycus commented.

"Well, she's not any more, that's for sure." Alecto guffawed like this was funny rather than sickening.

"Yeah, those scars-."

Amycus cut off his sentence when he saw me. His gaze traced me slowly up and down, and with a start I realized I was wearing my pajamas. They weren't too small, or anything like that, but Amycus still looked at me like they were provocative.

I took a step back, tensed to run. He will not catch me off guard again. His sister either didn't notice, or didn't care as he took a step towards me. I took another back. I curled my hands into fists to stop them from trembling.

But Mcgonagall had turned around, and now stood between us.

"Is there a problem?" She asked in clipped tones. "Anything I need to inform the Headmaster about?"

"I'm not scared of you, you can't do anything to me." His tone was dark. His sister stopped and turned back, but didn't say anything.

"I never implied anything to the contrary, I was simply asking if there was a problem."

"There's no problem. Is there, pretty?" I flinched.

"There is no need-."

"Stay out of this, Minerva." Mcgonagall narrowed her eyes, and looked straight into his.