Spider's Blood

Chapter Six

A creak came from the portrait hole. Harry reasoned it was Ron and Hermione and thought it best to go to bed before either could begin an argument with him.

"Getting late," he said as he stood up, "get sleep."

"G'night, Harry," Ginny smiled as he crept out of the room and up to his dormitory.

Harry stared at the cloth of his heavy canopy. The darkness the canopy supplied provided comfort for him, but would not ease him into sleep. It seemed he couldn't sleep anymore. He hadn't spoken to Hermione since the night in the library and had suffered Ron's complaining about transferring messages between them. Had it really been three weeks since they last spoke?

It was now the end of November Harry was reminded as a blast of shivers from the cold outside his canopy surrounded him. It truly had been a trying time not talking with Hermione, but thankfully he didn't have to hear any more accusations about Zora's mortal state of being. He admitted silently in his thoughts that it was a bit odd of Zora to be wearing sunglasses outside all the time and that she never ate in the Great Hall and especially the conversation she shared with Snape. But what wasn't odd about Hogwarts? - There were ghosts floating around for heavens sake!

Harry let out a frustrated sigh and watched his breath fog in front of his blurred vision. Reasoning that he wouldn't get anymore sleep with his mind this way and feeling tired of the idiotic fight, Harry threw the bedspread from over his body and fumbled for his glasses.

Harry quietly stepped down the stairs and found Ron and Hermione sitting on the red couch quietly doing their potions homework together. Hermione raised her head at the sound of Harry's footsteps, her bushy hair bouncing up and slightly settling back on her shoulders. Her eyes tightened together, trying to give a hard glare that almost made Harry laugh if he hadn't known she was serious.

"I think I'm finished for the night," she said coolly as she slammed her book shut.

Ron's red hair rose above his confused expression, which turned to understanding and slight agitation as he replied, "Night, love," with a sigh.

"Wait," Harry interrupted as she stood, "this is stupid. We've been friends since our first day, there's no point in this going on and on. I'm sorry about the argument."

Hermione sunk back down into the cushions and studied Harry. She gave him her most questionable glare before replying, "I accept you apology."

"Is that all you have to say? I'm sorry and your not?" Harry scoffed.

"Not if I'm right, which I am," Hermione replied coolly.

"You...are...unbelievable," Harry replied as he clenched his hands together behind his back.

"Admit that I'm right...she's a vampire! There's no other excuse!"

"I won't admit to that, but I'll admit something's going on and that's it!"

"This is stupid!" Ron interrupted. He stood between his two friends before continuing, "You're both sorry for the argument, which was stupid by the way, and you want your friendship back, yes?" He waited until both Harry and Hermione both silently nodded. "Fine then...be sorry and forgive each other. Because Harry's right, something is going on, and it could or could not be a vampire or Zora or Snape or whatever. And us fighting isn't helping that...so end this stupid charade already 'cause I'm sick of it!"

Harry looked at Hermione, and she returned his glance. Her eyes softened slowly and Harry felt his own harsh glares depart with hers. She stood and reached her hand out to him, "I'm sorry, Harry."

"Me too," he said taking her hand in his.

"Ok! So now can we tell him?" Ron jumped in excitedly.

"Ron'll show you, I'd better be off to bed," Hermione replied rather quickly. Harry suspected she might not be completely ready to forgive him for bringing up her old crush on Draco. Harry watched as she gathered her things and pecked Ron's cheek before quietly creeping up to her bedroom.

"Was it always this hard to fit under here?" Ron asked with a frustrated sigh as he pulled at the watery material around him and Harry.

The pair stood as comfortably close together as absolutely possible without stepping on each other's toes. They were against the stonewall of a hallways not far from the Slytherin common room Harry recalled from he and Ron's second year. It was colder than either boy had anticipated, both only in their pajamas and both shivering uncontrollably.

"You must've grown...no worries, as long as your face isn't showing you blend with the wall."

"I'm not quite sure if that was an insult or not so I'll let it pass," Ron replied, with a shudder from the cold.

"So, what exactly are we waiting for here?" Harry said finally. Obviously waiting to be told wasn't doing any good and they had been standing in the cold for nearly a half-hour.

"The night at the library, you remember? Hermione and I were walking back when we saw...something."

"Something, what?"

"Just wait and you'll see," Ron replied. Harry could see that Ron was peering out into the darkness of the hallway. Ron's head bent down and he looked to his wristwatch.

"Five...four...three," Ron muttered quietly as he gazed at his watch. Harry turned his head expectantly to the hallway and counted "Two...one," in his head as he watched.

For a long moment, there was absolutely nothing. Harry nearly turned back to tell Ron off when a torch burst into flames before his eyes. Harry felt a tug at his arm and Ron pulling him by the elbow back against the wall, behind a statue. The small torch lit only half the hallway with Harry and Ron hidden in the dark.

Harry stuck out his shrouded head from behind the large statue and peered into the dimly lit hallway. Then Harry saw it. A cloaked figure, looking eerily close to a Dementor, stalked slowly down the hall. Its dark black cloak's texture shone in the faint firelight as the figure moved slowly. Harry stared at its ebony, wondering what it could be...human? It appeared to be about his size although whatever was lurking under the cloak could prove to be fatal once revealed. Any trace of face or skin or life was completely covered by the ample material of the cloak and hood.

Harry did not blink once as he looked after the train of material dragging the floor as the figure passed by the statue. He felt Ron's fearful breath next to him and noticed his own chest was moving more rapidly than he knew. The figure continued and turned down another corridor not far from the statue.

"What was that?" Harry asked quietly after a very long time of shock.

"We think...a vampire," Ron replied a bit more matter-of-factly than Harry was comfortable with. "We saw it that night and every night since. There's a passageway with a window not far from here. It's the same time every night...it walks down this hall to the dungeons stairwell. After that we can't see it."

"The dungeons?" Harry thought out loud.

"We'd better go...don't want Filch coming around and finding us," Ron interrupted Harry's thoughts as they made several connections his stomach wasn't comfortable with.

Harry found his feet moving soundlessly next to Ron as they walked down the halls. His thoughts were scattered as they tried to piece themselves uncomfortably together. Nothing made sense anymore. The eerie feeling he felt in his stomach as the figure passed could not lie, there was an evil presence surrounding the cloaked creature. Before Harry had a chance to notice he was really moving, he and Ron had arrived at the Fat Lady.

"So...it was real?" Harry asked as he threw the cloak from around the two boys and onto the overstuffed couch, "I mean...it was really a vampire?"

"That's what we think it is...we've no proof, but it matches the descriptions," Ron explained as he sat next to the cloak, watching Harry pace in front of the fireplace.

"You don't still think...Zora can't be," Harry continued his thinking out loud.

"What do you think? You have to admit it is odd...we're trying to find out how to get proof. We can't follow it, there's no telling where it would lead us. We have no idea where it goes or how to find out. Hermione's read every book we can find...there's nothing."

"Wait a second," Harry said suddenly as he quickly bolted upright from his slouched, relaxed position. He clamored to his feet and did not stop his quick pace until he had returned from his bedroom, clutching a black book in his hand. "I took this from the library; I forgot to put it back after the argument. I saw Zora reading it in class-"

"Shh!" Ron interrupted as he strained his face, intently listening to something.

Harry was taken aback by the sudden interruption he was not acquainted with coming from Ron, but before long he found himself listening too. Harry's ears sharpened and he listened to the deep silence. And there it was, a quiet rustling coming from the stairs.

"What is that?" Harry whispered through the silence.

"I don't know," Ron replied, still intently listening to the rustling, "it's coming from the girls' dormitories."

"Oh!" Harry said, "well then, maybe we shouldn't-"

"Hey! My sister's in there!" Ron burst out angrily, his nose crinkling and his ears glowing red.

Harry felt his heart sink at the thought of Ginny. He was ashamed to think how little he had thought of her lately and a twinge of guilt nudged at his side. He had a sudden thought of her and Neville in a warm embrace that he had only shared with her in his favorite dreams.

Ron began to creep up the stairs, still listening. He crept and crept until he came to a halt in front of a door. The rustling was quite loud in the deep silence just outside the dormitory door. It was Ginny's door.

"It's probably one of the other girls," Harry said, trying to be helpful. His brain kept flashing Ginny's smiling face before his eyes. Then his vision turned to a dark creature in the hallways, then to Zora smiling over Ginny's lifeless body.

"Open the door!" Harry thought loudly in his head. "Open the door!" he repeated as he lunged at the old and rusty knob just in time to hear an earth-shattering scream from inside. Harry rushed in, almost knocking Ron down as he did so.

Four girls were jumping from their beds and rushing to the middle of the circular room. One of them had grabbed her wand in the confusion and it was now illuminated in her hand, the other three crowding around and looking anxiously around them.

"Where's Ginny?!" Ron asked anxiously as he stared at the young girls.

Harry lit his wand and walked over to what he presumed to be Ginny's bed, it was the only one with the curtains still drawn. His heart pounded as he inched towards the bed, his mind raced with the image of Ginny's cold and lifeless body lying in her bed. His hand trembled as he slowly drew back the curtain. Ginny was there, but she was oddly wrapped in a black blanket.

Harry paused and thought it was a very cruel joke to play on them and was about to say so when Ginny's voice called from the blanket, "I can't breath!!"

Immediately and without any thought, Harry raised his wand and pointed it at the black material and shouted "Expecto Patronum". A Bolt of white light glided from the end of his wand and a horse formed in the light. The white light horse charged at the blanket and began sneering and kicking at it. After a few moments of struggle, the blanket loosened from around Ginny's body, making her tumble to the stone floor. The blanket glided away very quickly on the floor and out of an open window.

Harry fell back and lowered his wand, his strength momentarily drained from the charm. Ron past by Harry's shoulder and fell to his sister's side. He gently shook her shoulder and called her name before turning her on her back. Harry watched as Ron bent very close to her pale and freckled face. Harry's heart began to beat rapidly again as he watched Ron's face.

"Is she?" Harry managed to mutter out, fearful of the answer.

"She's alive...she's breathing still," Ron sighed with the best smile he could muster at the time. Harry felt a twinge enter his brain as he was called back to his second year, "She's still alive...but only just." The sight of Ginny lying, nearly lifeless, on the stone floor was an all too familiar sight.

Ron dipped an arm under her legs and one behind her back, gently lifting her from the ground and carrying her to the door.

The four girls still stood in the middle of the room, staring with wide and tearful eyes. Harry slowly stood and said to them "Go to Dumbledore...tell him what happened." He turned and followed Ron down the stairs and to the Infirmary.

A mad rush was made about the infirmary as Ron and Harry waited outside, not allowed to enter and afraid to go back to their beds. All the students had been woken and placed in the Great Hall as the remainder of the castle was frantically searched.

"It went out the window, why are they looking?" Ron asked as he rolled his eyes.

"They want to be sure, I suppose," Harry answered as helpfully as he could. Ron was expectantly on edge and turned at each noise made from the door. He had by now at least stopped his pacing up and down the long hall near the Infirmary. Now he and Harry sat side by side across the hall, eyes locked on the door, both silent with anticipation.

"Why her?" Ron muttered, breaking the silence. Harry made no reply. "She's never done any wrong, never broken a rule without reason, never been anything but sweet and lovely, why would it try to kill her?" Harry kept his silence; it seemed now that Ron had forgotten he was there. "Why Ginny Weasley?"

Harry did not reply, but looking intently on his friend. Ron's eyes were locked and angry. Harry was grateful that the creature had gone, Ron would have gladly taken Ginny's place in a fight to the death. Harry turned away from his friend and continued his stare at the closed and locked Infirmary door. Taking Harry's attention, the knob on the door slowly turned and McGonagall, still dressed in her night robes, stepped out. Ron stood immediately and walked over until he was inches from her face. Harry followed a bit slower and stood just behind Ron's shoulder.

"Is Ginny all right?" he burst out before she had a chance to address them.

"She's just fine," McGonagall said in a forced smile, "she's unconscious but she will be awake again by tomorrow."

"Can I see her?!" Ron continued impatiently.

"I don't think-" McGonagall began, her nose a little twitched as she thought.

"Professor...she's my only sister!" Ron interrupted.

The emerald cast professor peered sympathetically on Ron before nodding and stepping aside. Ron flew past her, not saying a word to the professor or to Harry, and closed the door behind him.

"What was it?" Harry asked after a silence.

"It was...a Lethifold, you should remember from your studies," McGonagall replied.

Harry felt his brain echo an emptiness on the name "Lethifold", his face obviously showing his confusion as McGonagall continued to explain.

"It's a creature that looks a great deal like a cloak. It's black and only travels at night and attacks the sleeping. It wraps up a victim until it suffocates and then digests it, leaving nothing behind but an empty bed. Ginny was very fortunate to be able to scream, it mustn't have been to quick to...harm her, it seems she struggled for quite sometime, but was still able to breathe."

"How did it get in, isn't there security?"

"Yes, but Lethifold's are so rare and usual dwell in warmer climates than this castle, we did not think it necessary, especially during the winter," McGonagall explained. "We will search for it, Harry, and keep a watch on the tower in the future. I know you and Ron are angry, but we try."

Harry felt a deep urge to tell his professor to blow off, tell her they should watch more closely, especially Ginny, but was interrupted by Ron exiting the Infirmary. Ron's eyes were cast to the ground as he shut the door behind him. He was horribly pale and even a little green. Ron looked up and met his eyes with Harry's and quickly wiped at them and sniffled his nose a little; he had been crying.

"She looks better than in the room," Ron said quickly. "A little color."

Harry nodded his head and replied, "We should get to the Hall...Fred and George must be going nuts right about now."

"I'll escort you back," McGonagall said as she began to walk to the Great Hall.

Harry followed with Ron lagging behind them.

"Did she look all right?" Harry whispered back to his friend.

"No...just don't ask, you don't want to know," Ron replied, not taking his eyes from the floor.

Harry stared at his friend's face before turning back and looking at the tight bun in McGonagall's hair. He secretly hoped they hadn't found the Lethifold yet; perhaps he and Ron could kill it together.

Harry kept on reading his book with many sighs and scratches to his head. There were a few more elements of detail in it than he would've enjoyed, but then again if he ever wanted to correctly change someone into a vampire or retrieve venom from a spider, he now knew how. He let out a disgusted sigh as he lay the book on his chest and rubbed his eyes under his glasses.

"Do they have to have pictures?" he said to himself, rubbing his eyes hard to keep them awake.

He blinked his eyes several times and stared around the Infirmary. He wondered how much longer it was until Madame Pomfrey had enough of his procrastination and forced him to leave; visiting hours were far from over and he felt it was nearly midnight.

Ginny lay in her bed, her hair was delicately tangled from her sporadic tossing and turning in the hospital bed. Her eyes were shut, but relaxed and her mouth quiet, with a hint of a pleasant smile at the edges. She was dreaming, Harry knew from the movement of her hand under her cheek, and from the smile it was obviously a pleasant dream.

"I bet she's dreaming about Neville," Harry thought bitterly.

Harry turned his bitter face from her; if she woke he didn't want her to see him like that. He averted his eyes back to the book, skipping the moving illustration with the giant spider eating a wizard. Harry wished for a moment pictures didn't move like that in the wizarding world. He continued reading about a soul containment spell by using dragon's blood when the sudden movement of Ginny's bed made him stop and look.

Her eyes were open and wide, darting around the room frantically, full of fear. After nearly three weeks, Harry was accustomed to this reaction, and calmly waited until she absorbed her surroundings and calmed down a bit. Her eyes fell upon Harry and slowly began to soften until she settled her head back on the pillow and relaxed.

"Bad dream?" he asked when she began to smile slightly.

"Something like that...I can't get the idea of it out of my head," she explained. "Maybe I'll feel better once I can get back in my old room...prove it's not there and everything."

"Madame Pomfrey says you should stay here a bit longer," Harry argued.

"It's strange...I feel worse here than I would there," Ginny explained, although Harry had a feeling she wasn't exactly talking to him. "Can't explain it."

"Must be the smell...too clean here, you're room must smell very different," Harry smiled.

"My room is not dirty! I keep it very clean!" she exclaimed defensively.

"Gin, I saw it with my own eyes, how could you live there?"

"It's comfortable," she said finally.

"Well, Christmas holidays are a few days away, you'll be back in your mess...I mean room in no time," Harry continued to smile.

"What'll you do? Stay here another year?" Ginny asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, I'm not going to the Dursleys' if I can help it."

"Mum would love you to come home with Ron and I and the twins," Ginny offered hopefully.

"Nah, I've got...stuff to do here anyways."

"Oh...more top-secret, no questioning stuff. I get it," Ginny smiled slightly. Her head turned slightly to gaze out of one of the many windows in the Infirmary, "What time is it?"

"Close to midnight I think," Harry replied, setting his book quietly on the ground.

"You've been here all this time?" Ginny asked, quite surprised.

"Well, Fred was here, but he was falling asleep in his chair. I told him to head off and I knew you wouldn't like waking up alone...so...I stayed," Harry replied, a little cautious over his words.

"Well, thank you all the same," Ginny said as she shifted onto her side in her bed so that she could see Harry better.

"Are going back to sleep?" Harry asked.

"No, I'm not really tired anymore. Maybe I'll do some homework," Ginny replied as her eyes darted momentarily to the stack of books on the small table next to her bed.

"Well, I won't keep you," Harry replied as he began to rise from his seat.

"No!" Ginny burst out and quickly grabbed Harry's wrist, pulling him back down to his seat.