Spider's Blood

Chapter Sixteen

"If it eases you at all, Harry," Dumbledore called as Harry passed the two professors and was only a few beds away from the door, "I will give you permission to come in and visit whenever you wish. I must suggest not to bring too many friends along, though. She needs a great deal of uninterrupted rest...A large crowd may interfere. And will you please give my salutations to Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley...for a job well done."

"You aren't angry...that we left?"

"My dear boy, I was all but counting on it...Off to bed, and keep tonight's happenings as close a secret as you can."

And of course...the latter of these requests was damn near impossible. Harry did go immediately to bed as requested, avoiding all questions and skillfully darting being cornered by many eager listeners. He entered the dormitory and slumped himself into his bed without bothering to change his robes into pajamas. He could hear the faint breathing of Ron at his side as Harry drifted off into his sleep.

He could feel the surging pain in his arm as if it were real, although Harry knew this time he was dreaming. He was running through those same marble corridors--he recognized them now--although he could not say exactly where he was running. But Zora was safe, she was asleep in the hospital wing...he had just seen her with his own eyes. And Ginny had been in the common room huddled with the twins...he had seen her plainly too. But still he ran and still he continued with a panicked feeling that made his heart race. He reached the split in the hall.

"But they're fine!" he shouted, "I just saw them! They're here! They're safe while they're here!"

Suddenly at his side, Harry felt the presence of someone. He turned and looked; Draco Malfoy leaned gracefully against the marble wall.

"It's not over yet, Potter...it's only just begun," he said with a most unpleasant smile.

Harry's eyes burst open and closed quickly, blinded by the intense light pouring into his room. How many more times must he have that dream? He had counted nearly thirty times since the cold February night three months before.

Harry threw the bedspread from his legs and rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands. He remembered why he had wanted to wake up so early and quickly dressed. After correctly dressing in his school robes, Harry quietly walked down the stairs and out the portrait hole. He now knew every possible way to the hospital wing and took a different route as often as he could. Today he was forced to take the quickest route due to his approaching tardiness.

"You're thirty seconds late," Snape called immediately when Harry opened the Infirmary door.

"Sorry," Harry said although he didn't mean it at all. "How is she?"

Harry stepped into the opening of the sheet that was wrapped around her bed, keeping all sickly on-lookers from being able to see her. Harry's heart began to sink when he saw her lying there, curled into a tight ball. Her hair was tangled from her harsh movements during the night; her nightgown was ruffled and tangled around her thinning body, her blankets completely kicked to the floor. It had been a bad night.

"I'm glad you're here," Snape said. Harry was taken back by the statement and looked curiously at Snape. "Or at least I was when I thought you would be more useful than standing there." All pleasant surprise quickly faded.

"Hold her arms," Snape commanded as he exited the sheet.

Harry stepped to where Snape had been and gently took her arms from her chest and brought them above her head. He could plainly see the scratches and crescent moon shaped scars in her palms and wrists and arms. Soon Snape returned with Madame Pomfrey.

"Oh, dear...another bad night?" she said as she came and stood next to Harry, looking kindly upon Zora's face.

"It appears so. I hope this phase ends soon...she's mutilating herself," Snape commented as he examined the palms held in Harry's hands.

Madame Pomfrey withdrew her wand from her pocket and sent blue strips of light to Zora's wrists and ankles. The blue light tied her wrists and ankles to the head and foot boards of the hospital bed, stretching her body out over the bed.

"Those pain-free restraints ought to hold her until dinner time...she won't hurt herself with them on, I assure you."

"Thank you, Poppy," Snape said as he smoothed Zora's night gown to cover her body down to her knees.

Harry picked up the blankets that had been cast to the ground and began to place them over her body.

"How long until she comes out of it?" Harry asked Snape.

Snape looked at Harry across the bed as he evened the length of the blanket on the other side. Harry was still not accustomed to these moments alone with Snape. He seemed to lose his classroom demeanor around Zora, especially in her current state. He gave a quick glance to the thin opening in the sheets curtained around Zora's bed before he replied.

"The road from death is a tragic and painful one, as you can see. She's seeing nothing but hell and death right now. She's not just dreaming it...she's experiencing it. Her present state in life...what she is and all has sentenced her to more time on this road than is normal. There's no telling how long it will take to complete."

Zora's headboard gave a rustle as she struggled against the restraints. Snape reached out a hand and smoothed a strand of hair away from her face before quickly retracting it.

"Keep the blankets on her at all times...give her the elixir every thirty minutes...do not remove the restraints...and if she wakes..."

"Come and find you immediately," Harry finished for him. He had received the instructions daily and never once disobeyed any of them. Why Snape had to keep reminding him, Harry was not sure.

Snape nodded his head and escaped through the thin opening of the sheets.

"Well...just you and me then," Harry smiled although he knew she could not hear him.

"Three months and three days...just so you know."

Harry reached over on her night table and took the small bottle with an eye dropper top into his hands. He carefully removed the top and brought the turquoise-colored liquid over to Zora's mouth, dropping in five drops, and replacing the dropper in the bottle. Harry then sat in the chair beside Zora's bed, reached next to the dropper bottle and took a book from the large stack and began to read.

Beyond Zora's bed were mounds of homework and lessons and gossip, all of which seemed miniscule and completely unimportant to Harry. A friend of his lay still unconscious in the hospital wing, and all anyone wanted to hear about was the giant spider and the test she had gone through. No one would take his silence as a hint and pestered him and Ron and Hermione constantly.

"Maybe we should just tell them," Hermione suggested that night in the common room. "Exams are coming up...It's almost over, what could it hurt?"

"Zora will tell them whatever she wants when she wakes up," Harry replied a bit more harshly than his first intention.

He saw Hermione and Ron exchange glances before returning to their books.

"She is going to wake up, you know?" Harry burst angrily, although he was not completely sure why.

"It's...it's just that...it's been three months already, Harry," Ron replied bravely. "And she isn't getting any better. She still needs the restraints so she doesn't hurt herself...she's not going to wake up any time soon."

"Yes she is...you just don't understand," Harry said as he slammed his book shut and rose from his chair and stomped to the portrait hole, leaving everyone staring after him and murmuring.

He walked to the hospital wing without noticing. He briefly thought how his walks had brought him to the dungeons and to the common room without any application of thought at all. How strange that the hospital wing should be his new favorite destination.

He was early for his shift for watching Zora that night, but decided to enter the Infirmary regardless. He saw immediately the very end of the walk, a square edged in black around the hole that he had passed through to Voldemort's castle. It was an anti-Dark seal set by Dumbledore himself. No one had known of the gateway between Voldemort's castle and Hogwarts before that night, or at least no one was admitting to knowing about it. A few students had lost their faith in the hospital wing and only went when their injuries were infected and painful, causing those to spend even more time in the wing than they wished.

"If you'd come to me before!" Harry could hear Madame Pomfrey saying to a third year student. "I tell you lot time and time again that there's nothing wrong here...the gateway was sealed and can't be opened ever again! These injuries are three weeks old! You'll have to stay overnight while it heals!"

"But he will come and get me! I know he will!" the third year cried as Harry moved past his bed.

He couldn't help cracking a smile as he passed. He went straight for the white curtained bed and entered. He found not Snape or Dumbledore...but Draco Malfoy sitting next to her bed.

One of her hand had been untied and was now resting in Draco's hand. He was holding it to his cheek and did not remove his eyes from her face, even as he spoke to Harry.

"You're early," he commented.

"I know...what are you doing here?" Harry asked.

"I would ask you the same question, but I already know the answer. Hell, the whole school knows now."

"Dumbledore said only I could sit with her."

"No," Draco corrected, sounding pained by Harry's remark. "Dumbledore said the students closest to her could visit. I come at night while Snape sleeps; he had to set up his test papers and couldn't come."

Harry watched as Draco began to lightly stroke Zora's forearm. Her face softened and she appeared to be sleeping peacefully again.

"They said not to take the restraints off," Harry remarked coldly as he watched. He now knew why Snape was insistent on constantly reminding him not to remove the restraints.

"She won't hurt me," Draco insisted.

"So why are you here? I didn't think you were that close to her," Harry said.

Draco began to chuckle slightly. "No, Potter, you wouldn't," He said as he gently pulled her arm above her head and touched it with his wand; the blue light poured from its tip and wrapped her wrist back. "Unlike you," he continued, "I do not feel the need to constant attention and audience...If I wanted anyone to know about her and me...I would tell them and unlike you, I don't want anyone to know."

"Why wouldn't you want anyone to know?" Harry asked, unable to hold his curiosity.

"You really are clueless, aren't you?" Draco laughed as he stood from the chair.

"I am not," Harry replied defensively. "She told me everything."

"Everything? Trust me, Potter, if she told you absolutely everything, you wouldn't be here...you'd be in your comfy common room absolutely hating her existence. She hasn't told you squat about anything. What has she told you anyway? She's the offspring...destined to murder you? That she can't sleep at night, that she has Dark powers? Oh, I assure you it's all true. But that's only the tip of the iceberg, Potter. Has she told you everything she's meant to do before she dies? Everything she's going to destroy? Has she told you when you're going to die? I can tell you she knows that...as well as her own death. Has she told you when the tiny Weasley's going to die? Or the others? Granger even? Trust me...she knows all the answers."

Harry could not believe his ears. He simply stood and hated himself for not speaking or not at least making an attempt at defense.

"No...I suppose she's left all that out," Draco said as he moved past Harry and to the narrow slit between the white curtains. "Trust me, Potter, when I tell you: You know nothing about this," he said as he gestured his hand towards Zora's body. "And you may want to keep it that way."

He turned and left. Harry stood for a long while, starring at the opening of the curtains. He wanted to pound Draco's face in so badly he could taste the satisfaction of it for a moment.

"Well, that was a bit uncalled for," a bright voice croaked out from behind Harry's back

His heart raced as he turned around and saw Zora smiling at him.

"Zora? You're awake?" He asked urgently.

"It would appear so," she smiled weakly and took in a sharp breath.

"Umm...I'll, I'll be right back, I need to go get Snape ok...don't...go anywhere," Harry stammered out in his panic.

"Don't think that's a problem," she sighed as she looked up to the blue strips of light over her wrists.

Harry set out in a run down the hospital wing and out the door. His feet slammed violently against the floor as he ran as fast as he could to Snape's office. He was out of breath and struggling as he threw open the door.

"Sh-at...a-n...ake," Harry said as he steadied himself on the doorknob.

"What?" Snape sneered impatiently as he looked up from his parchment.

"She's...a...wake," he finally muttered out between his struggling breaths.

Snape leapt from his chair and began to run down the hall. Harry stomped his foot against the floor and rolled his eyes as he began to run again. "Not again!" he thought bitterly to himself as his chest began to burn from his long distance running.

Harry reached the hospital wing full minutes after Snape. He strode in, holding his aching side as he looked at Snape leaning over Zora. She was smiling and nodding her head and closing her eyes before quickly opening them again. Harry tried his best to control his breathing as he walked over and stood next to Zora's bed. Snape had already taken down the restraints and her arms rested at her sides.

"Should I go get Dumbledore?" Harry offered.

"No," Snape replied. "He'll already know, believe me. He's probably--"

"Just entering the room now," Dumbledore said cheerfully from behind Harry. "How are you feeling, Ms. Birk?"

"Fine," she smiled weakly, "just fine. And I'm glad you're here. I want to talk to both of you."

She pulled herself into a sitting position on the bed and pulled her hair behind her, leaving it hanging behind her shoulders.

"I want to know what's going on. The truth...everything," she added firmly.

"Harry, if you would--" Snape began.

"Oh no you don't!" Zora interrupted, all weakness leaving her face. "He's part of this whether you like it or not. It's another thing I want explained."

"That's fine, Zora, whatever you like," Dumbledore replied for Snape, who glared darkly in Harry's direction.

"First of all, what happened...what's it now?" she asked as she turned to Harry, "Three months?"

"Yeah, three months," he nodded as he realized she had been listening to him whole she slept.

"Yes...what happened? Why was I taken? And don't you dare tell me 'I don't know' because I know you do, Severus," she said as she held up her left hand, showing her ring. "You had to if you knew to give me this...how could you not tell me?"

"It wasn't supposed to happen until your eighteenth birthday," Snape replied after a long silence. "That's when the usual time is for his followers' testing. He assumed you wanted to be part of his group and felt some urgency in having you join. He took you and gave you the test, you failed."

"See? That wasn't so hard! Now why couldn't I know about this before I was tied up and dragged through the halls?"

"We can't tell you what you do not know already," Dumbledore replied. "And believe me, I think this is the only thing you didn't know about specifically...The timing of the test was always set differently to ensure surprise on the tested and the most realistic results. But as you know, you've dreamed your entire life...everything you need to know--"

"Is forgotten when I wake up," Zora interrupted.

Dumbledore smiled at her interruption and continued, "For the most part...nothing you've needed to know has come up. After now you will begin to remember and see things differently."

"Ok...and what about Harry? Why could I send him visions and everything I did?" Zora asked.

"Ah...that one's a bit easier to answer. You and Harry mixed your blood through a healing of cuts, I believe? As you now know, Zora's blood is a bit different than Harry's. When the two mixed they had a reaction. This connection between the two of you is the result of that reaction. In fatal and especially violent situations, the other will see the situation or see a brief glimpse of it and will know the other is in danger. There is also a telepathic connection between you two that allows you to do extraordinary things as an attempt to save the other's or your own life. The dream traveling for one...and the possession...and the ability to communicate during the visions are all examples of this connection."

"So...we're always going to have it?" Zora asked while Harry was too shocked to say anything at all.

"Until death severs it, and even then it may still remain," Dumbledore smiled.

"Now I think we really ought to leave you to rest," Snape intervened.

"Yes...sleep," Zora yawned. "Like I haven't gotten enough, I've slept clean through the past three months."

"And another night won't kill you," Snape sneered at her.

"Sure...that's what you say about a lot of things...giant spiders I'm sure someone thought were cute and cuddly and said 'it won't kill you', but look at those now," Zora said as she slid back against her pillow and closed her eyes.

Harry smiled widely as he thought of Hagrid before following Dumbledore out of the room.

"Professor Dumbledore, can I ask why Draco was here...how did he know so much about Zora?"

"I believe," Snape began before Dumbledore could open his mouth, "that is a matter between Mr. Malfoy and Zora alone. If she wants you to know, she will tell you when she is better."

And at that, the matter was closed. Harry ignored the murmuring around him as he reentered the Gryffindor common room and continued studying for exams. He watched out of the corner of his eye as McGonagall entered the common room and walked briskly over to Fred and George. She leaned over and whispered something into Fred's ear which made his eyes grow wide and a smile to grow over his face. He stood so quickly that he forced his chair to topple over. He didn't even notice as he ran for the portrait hole.

"Oh," Harry said as Hermione and Ron stared curiously after Fred. "Forgot...Zora woke up," he said with a satisfied smile and returned to his text book.

...Sequel To Follow...