LIKE LIGHTNING | Harry Potter x Reader Fanfiction

⁕ hospital wing ⁕

The Previous Night

I stood with my wand pointed at Mr. Crouch. He was still mumbling sentences under his breath and I could only make out a few words and snippets here and there. 

"send an owl.... confirm the number of students... Karkaroff said twelve..."

"Mr. Crouch? Can you walk?" I said cautiously, trying to get his attention so I could move him closer to the castle. 

"Dumbledore..." he repeated. 

"Yes, Harry went to go get Dumbledore. But we need to get farther away from the forest." I looked back at the direction Harry had run off to and wished he would hurry back faster. 

"I... escaped.. must warn... must tell... see Dumbledore... my fault..... Harry Potter...." he muttered. I whipped around to face him at Harry's name. 

"What about Harry?" I asked, taking a step closer to him. 

"Dark Lord.... stronger..... Harry Potter...." He muttered. A nervous chill crept up my back, and I shuddered. Did this mean he escaped from Voldemort? Was Voldemort alive? I turned back around looking at the tiny dots of light springing up from the castle. 

"Come on Harry." I thought, bouncing on the balls of my feet. I heard leaves crunch behind me and before I knew what was happening, heat spread across my back and I felt myself go rigid and fall to the ground. The world going black.

※※※

I woke up to the dim candlelight illuminating three faces around me. The back of my head was throbbing and I winced as I tried to sit up. 

"It's okay Y/N, you need to lay down." I heard Hermione say. 

"Ughh, what happened?" I asked, laying back on the soft pillows behind me. 

"You were stunned from behind... by Mr. Crouch." I heard Ron's voice say from the left side of me. 

"Dumbledore and I found you lying on the ground." said Harry from my right. 

"Oh..." I remembered the heat that had spread across my back, "I shouldn't have turned my back." I finished, getting annoyed at myself for making such a careless mistake. 

"Where is he now?" I asked, looking around at the hospital wing's linen beds. 

"Well... he ran off." said Harry. His face was a bit pale and his expression was one of guilt. Why did he seem to feel like that when I was the one who had let Mr. Crouch getaway? 

I muttered a curse under my breath and then said, "I'm sorry-" Harry grabbed my hand and said, "No, don't say sorry. I'm the one who should be sorry, you should be angry with me also. I left you alone with him." 

"Harry, I'm not angry with you. I'm angry at myself. I made a stupid mistake, and it's my own fault that I got stunned." I gave him a smile and he instantly looked relieved. 

"But really it comes down to this, " said Hermione, rubbing her forehead, "Either Mr. Crouch attacked you, or somebody attacked both of you when you weren't looking." 

I considered the possibility before saying, "It must've been Crouch, that's why he was gone when Harry and Dumbledore found me." 

"I don't think so." said Harry, "He seemed really weak remember, I don't think he was up to Disapparating or anything." 

"You can't Disapparate on the Hogwarts grounds, haven't I told you enough times?" Hermione said exasperatedly. 

It was nearly daybreak and the four of us watched the sunrise over the hills in silence before Harry, Ron, and Hermione crept their way back to the dormitories. I laid there in the cold morning air before letting myself fall into a dreamless sleep. I would get out of this hospital wing later today, I told myself.