Harry Riddle || Harry potter

Chapter 35: More Terrifying Than Life

Harry cracked open an eye, only to shut it again quickly. The room he was in was very bright, and it didn't help his pounding head any.

"Harry?"

This time Harry snapped both of his eyes open. Memories came flooding back to him. He shot up in bed. "Quirrell - Grindelwald - the Stone-"

Several sets of hands pushed him back down. "Calm down, calm down," Hermione's voice soothed. "Quirrell is - dead - gone - turned to ash."

Harry's eyes raked first over his Ravenclaw friend, and then moved to Neville, who seemed to be a wrong word away from bursting into tears. In fact, the whole scene might not have been that odd if not for Draco's stressed expression, which looked out of place on his usually stony face.

"Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital wing." Harry vaguely took in the plain white beds and the sterile environment. It looked rather like St. Mungo's, from what he could remember from his one visit there at the age of six, thanks to a broken arm. He still couldn't clearly recall if Draco had pushed him out of that tree or not, so he surmised he must've sustained a concussion the healers hadn't found. Incompetence . . .

Frowning slightly at his wondering thoughts, he reigned his mind back in and opened his mouth.

"What happened? I remember - The last thing I remember is Severus standing over me-"

"Severus?" Hermione asked, an eyebrow raised. "Since when does anyone call Professor Snape 'Severus'?"

Harry licked his lips nervously. "He's a-an old friend of my father. I've known him since I was little."

If Neville's eyes got any wider they might've popped out of his skull. "But-but he's a-a-a-"

"A professor," Harry cut in lamely. How he wished he had kept Severus's . . . alliances . . . a secret. It would come back to bite him, most likely sooner rather than later, what with Neville and his blathering. Maybe he should obliviate him? But, he'd have to learn how first.

"Yes, a professor. Maybe that's why I'm doing so well in his class? Eh, anyway, I remember him - and-"

"After Neville crossed back through the fire, Draco and I were waking up," Hermione cut in eagerly. "We went to the dungeons, but Professor Snape wasn't there, so next we went to the staff room. Turns out he and Sabine were having tea along with Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick and Madam Hooch." Hermione paused to take a deep breath - she had rambled all of that without exhaling once.

She continued: "At first, none of them really believed us, not even Professor Snape. McGonagall looked suspicious, though."

Harry rolled his eyes. Not a surprise there.

"Sabine seemed to have more sense than the entire lot of them - she took off towards the third floor corridor as soon as Hermione was finished with her story."

"Animals - especially magical ones like Sabine - have a sixth sense about those types of things," Neville added.

Hermione nodded her agreement but went on with her story. "We ended up having to tell them everything we knew about the Stone and Nicolas Flamel."

"We even described in great detail every single obstacle that we had to go through to get to the last chamber," Draco added. "Not to mention we were soaking wet. Idiots, the bunch of them."

"Come now, Draco, it wasn't that bad. But yes, they were a little slow in the uptake. But finally they believed us and we all went back to the third floor corridor." Hermione paused. A strange look passed over her face. "Harry?"