CONFUNDUS; harry potter [UNDER EDITION]

CHAPTER FORTY

A hand on Lucca's shoulder awakes him. He blinks his eyes open, wincing at the pain in his neck. He needs a moment to understand what is happening around him, Professor Marchbanks is glaring down at him.

"Your exam, Sallow," she says and extends her hand.

Lucca rubs his face and hands in his exam, totally confused at everything.

Wasn't he just dying?

"Come, Lu," Padma calls his name. "We need to leave so they clear the Great Hall."

Lucca feels walking on a dream. His brain is fuzzy with all the noise around him. He halts near the stairs, Harry's name rolling in his mind like an old record. The Veil in the Department of Mysteries. Harry. The Grim. Lucca is missing something.

"Have you seen Harry?" Lucca finally asks.

Aurora frowns but doesn't answer. Padma is the one who looks at him confused

"Oh, you really fell fast asleep that you didn't hear him," says Padma, calmly.

"What? What happened?"

"Nothing — Harry fell asleep, too," says Terry. "He screamed but said he had a nightmare, maybe he just went to his common room to sleep. You know how stressing the exams can be — Lucca?"

But Lucca knows that something is about to happen, he can feel it. Harry's nightmare has nothing to do with the last O.W.L exam. The idea of Voldemort invading his mind when he fell asleep terrifies Lucca. He should have returned to the Occlumency lessons, this shouldn't be happening.

"I need to find him. I need to find Harry."

"Alright, but calm down! We want to help."

Samuel and Terry grab his arms, pushing him aside the crowd of hungry students storming into the Great Hall. Lucca feels he can't breathe. Harry is about to do something stupid. He needs to help him before the Grim enters the scene. Fuck. Harry is in danger. Not only Voldemort is after him but the Grim, too.

"I need to talk to Harry."

Padma and Aurora share a concerned look and their silence is just so painful it angers Lucca. Why are they staring at him as if he grew another head?

"Maybe you should go to see Pomfrey," says Terry. "You're about to have a breakdown."

"I'm fine!" Lucca snaps and dodges them.

He starts to climb the stairs, not really knowing where to go. The Gryffindor Tower? Would they let him in? No, he doesn't think so. Maybe if he asks Neville or Dean or Seamus. Maybe if he waits until someone comes out there.

"LUCCA!"

"I'm not going to see Pomfrey," he stubbornly says. "I'm fine —"

"Lucca, wait," Milan pushes her way towards him. "We need to talk."

"I need to find Harry —"

Milan seizes his arm, pale in the face. "It's Sirius," she says and Lucca sees the way her frame is trembling and how cold she feels. "Sirius dies in the Department of Mysteries. It's him."

Lucca has to cover her mouth as his friends appear around the corner, all of them suspicious.

"Is everything alright?" Terry asks. "Milan?"

"Y-yes... Just a family thing," Milan teary eyes blink, unsure of what else to say. "We need to talk in private. Everything is fine. Go to dine."

Lucca watches his friends slowly move away, Aurora sending a questioning look over her shoulder, and one they are out of their sight, Lucca drags Milan to the Ravenclaw Tower.