Free Will and Fate

Severus Snape dismissed his class early with an essay that would keep them busy through their next meeting time if their ignorant answers to his questions were any indication. Aside from the appalling lack of knowledge prevalent in the student body, it was his wont to provide the spoiled children with a slightly more extensive assignment than usual because it cleared his schedule for nearly an hour. The relief of not having to force-feed his students what they should've read before class was only intensified by his excitement at finally getting to tackle a project the Dark Lord had waited too long to see completed.

It had taken long hours to determine the exact spell that would work on the diary, but at long last, Snape was ready for the fruits of their hard work to come into existence. He glanced absently at the caged snake sleeping in the far corner of his office. If all went well, it would be very much awake soon. Awake, aware and another step towards bringing the Dark Lord back to life.

For the third time in a row, Harry's hand shot into the air at almost the same time as Hermione raised hers, causing her to huff in frustration as he answered the question posed to the class. With a small smile at him, Bellatrix acknowledged his answer before continuing to describe to the class the properties of the dangerous ingredients they'd be working with.

"You're cheating," Hermione whispered when their professor went across the room to answer a question.

Harry didn't bother controlling his impulse to smile at Hermione before he responded. "Oh? How is that?"

"You already know the answers!" she retorted.

Harry chuckled. "So do you. Upset because someone else in class read the book?"

"I--no!" She frowned. "Of course I want you to do well, but if you've already done--"

"Miss Granger, is there something you'd like to share with the class?"

Hermione took a breath and smiled at their Potions professor. "No, Professor. I was just reminding Harry of the proper way to add the ingredients so the potion won't release poisonous fumes after the fifth step. I'd hate if his forgetfulness got us all killed." She aimed a smile in his direction.

"I'm sure none of us would like to experience that eventuality," Bellatrix responded. "For everyone's benefit, I'll go over the instructions in detail. While I can administer emergency aid, I would like all of you to make this potion as carefully as possible so that will not be necessary."

Twenty minutes later, Harry was leaning over a steaming cauldron when he felt the change. His head began to ache. Not a normal kind of pain, but a deep ache that began somewhere behind his scar, the kind that couldn't be cured with a simple potion. One hand drifted to his brow absently as he stirred his cauldron, focusing on the number of stirs required since Hermione had gotten him nervous about the possible side effects if he made it incorrectly. He glanced over as she worked at her own cauldron. Trust her to make him nervous and then go on with her class work without breaking a sweat. He had a mind to tell her she was doing it wrong so she could start triple-checking her own potion.

Before he could drop a hint about the ingredients she was measuring, a small scream from the other side of the room captured his attention. As he looked over, Lavender dropped the bottle in her hand to the table and dropped to the floor, kneeling next to Neville. Several other students were on their feet and crowded around in seconds, barely giving their professor room to squeeze through to check on the student.

"What happened?"

"Is he okay?"

"Students, please! I need to get closer," Bellatrix said in a raised voice. When she shouldered her way through, Harry could see Neville's feet as the crowd parted. They were shaking as he trembled on the floor. Neville moaned loudly as the professor reached his side, running a hand quickly over his sweating brow. "Class, we need to clear out. It looks like Mr. Longbottom has--"

Bellatrix never got to finish her statement as two things happened at once. Neville began screaming and bucking from the stone floor, one hand clutching at the side of his face until blood began pouring out in small rivulets. And Harry felt the sharp edge of pain through his own scar; the shock of it rendered him momentarily blind as he sank to his knees, pounding his fist against the spot above his eye that pulsed with malignant power.

"Harry?" Hermione screamed. "What's wrong?"

He fell to the floor in answer, his own screams joining Neville's as his scar began bleeding, the pain seeming to increase ten-fold as the attack went on. Suddenly, a high, thin voice replaced the screams of both students, the shouts becoming a rapid hissing that filled the air. Within moments, the hissing and convulsions stopped, and both students lay still.

"Are they dead?"

Their professor didn't respond to this question. She merely stood in place, her eyes darting back and forth between each student as she tried to process everything that had happened.

"No! Harry?" Hermione sank to her knees and put her head to his chest, listening for his heartbeat. "He's alive. He's not dead. He's breathing. He--Professor! We have to get them to the Hospital Wing."

Bellatrix came to her senses then, seeming to remember she was in charge of the frightened class. "Everyone, go out of the dungeons and straight to the Hospital Wing. Don't bother with your books. Your things will be brought to you after you've all been checked out."

"Are they going to be okay?" Lavender asked. She wiped at her streaming tears with one long sleeve. "If there's poison gas in here..."

As a swell of panic threatened to spread throughout the room, Bellatrix said, "This is not the reaction one would expect from a poisoning incident. Still, I want everyone out of the room now. Someone will inspect the room later." She nodded before Lavender could protest again. "Yes, Miss Brown, I am sure they will both be fine."

Hermione was not so sure, but she stood and watched in silence as her panicked classmates quickly walked out of the room and into the hall. They were followed by Lavender and Parvati, the latter of whom appeared to be holding the other girl up as they walked. They, in turn, were followed by Bellatrix Lestrange and Hermione, who had stayed behind to help the professor levitate the bodies--to help levitate the unconscious Harry and Neville upstairs.

"No, I'm not going anywhere!" Hermione shook off Madam Pomfrey's arm and pulled her chair closer to Harry's bedside, frowning as the older witch attempted to pull her away again.

"Miss Granger, I assure you, he is stabilized. I insist you let me examine you," the nurse said, grasping Hermione's arm again.

"I'm fine, I have to stay with him," she said. She looked back at Harry and cursed herself inwardly for the tears that immediately blurred her vision at the sight. His skin was pale, even against the stark white sheets of the cot. He hadn't moved in almost thirty minutes and she would not let anyone separate her from him until he opened his eyes. Hermione grabbed his hand with her free arm and squeezed his fingers as her pulse was taken by Madam Pomfrey; she was trembling too much to discern whether the movement she felt was Harry awakening or her own shaken nerves still reacting to what she'd witnessed.

She studied his face again. He was still unconscious. Thankfully, he and Neville had both stopped bleeding from their respective scars sometime before they got to the Hospital Wing, but that did not explain what exactly had happened. In fact, in the time since they'd left the dungeons, no one--not Professor Lestrange, not Madam Pomfrey, and not a very shaken Professor McGonagall--had been able to tell what had caused two students to collapse in class. Professor Lestrange had sent Auror Tonks to search the room for any leaked poisons, but so far they had heard no reasonable explanation for why both boys had suffered attacks. As Hermione watched over Harry for any sign that he was going to awaken, she vowed one thing to herself. If she found out Professor Snape had anything to do with what happened, however remote the possibility, she would do everything in her power to make him pay for hurting Harry again, however long that might take.

"Miss Granger, you will have to come over here so I can examine you fully. Mr. Potter will be fine," Madam Pomfrey said.

"I have to be here when he wakes up," Hermione insisted, pulling her arm away as the nurse made to remove her from his bedside. "I can't leave him." Wiping at her eyes with her sleeve, Hermione pulled her chair next to Harry's pillow and put her head down next to his on the bed, clutching his hand tightly in hers.

"Miss Granger."

"Hermione," Professor McGonagall said.

She looked up to see Professor Lestrange standing next to the Headmistress, both women wearing identical expressions of concern. "No," Hermione said. "I can't. I love him. I'm not going to just leave him to--I have to stay."

"An examination will not take long, Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall said. "I'm afraid I have to insist."

"Me too." Hermione jumped and turned as Harry's weak voice carried to her. He opened his eyes to narrow slits and shook his hand in hers feebly. "You need to get checked out. And let me get some blood in my hand while you're at it."

She ignored his attempt at humor and leaned over to kiss him instead, running her hands over his face as if to make sure he was real. "Are you okay?" She kissed him again, her tears coming faster as he nodded. "I was so worried. When you started screaming, I didn't know what to do. If anything happens to you..."

"I'm fine," he whispered, though he looked anything but. "Let Madam Pomfrey look after you. Then come back and tell me everything."

She watched him for a few more moments before planting one last kiss on his cheek and walking away from the bed to where Madam Pomfrey stood patiently waiting. As the nurse ran her wand over Hermione from head to toe, she glanced to where Neville still lay unconscious, a bandage over the jagged scar on the side of his face, and the bed next to him where Lavender had been placed after she'd been sedated. Both had been judged healthy, though Lavender had taken a nasty shock and would need to be sedated again if she screamed the way she had before Madam Pomfrey had given her a potion to calm her. Hermione had avoided the same fate by doing her panicking silently, only voicing her protests after the rest of their Potions class had been examined and dismissed, leaving her to be pried from Harry's bedside, what she'd been worried would be his deathbed.

"A clean bill of health," the nurse said a couple of minutes later. Madam Pomfrey grabbed Hermione's arm again before she could return to Harry. "I think you'll need a rest all the same. Let me give you a small amount of Sleeping Draught."

Hermione shook her arm off and began backing away. "No, I have to stay awake. What if something happens to Harry?"

Professor Lestrange stood at the foot of Harry's bed, her watchful gaze on Hermione. "He's been examined and he's fine. What else do you think could happen to him?"

A whole load of things I never would've imagined before last week, she thought. Hermione shook her head and stepped past her professor and Headmistress to resume her watch next to his bedside, taking his hand as Harry attempted to sit up in bed.

"Harry, you need to rest," Hermione said.

"You should talk," he responded. "You look like hell."

"Well, thanks. I was just worried that you might, you know, die or something."

At her expression, Harry squeezed her hand weakly and lay back into the pillows, closing his eyes for a few seconds as a small pain passed through his scar again.

"Harry? You're moaning. Does it hurt again? Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione shouted. "He's in pain. You have to give him something."

The nurse was at the bedside a few seconds later, brandishing her wand in Hermione's direction. "Miss Granger, I understand that you are worried, but if you cannot calm yourself, I will silence you with or without your permission. Mr. Potter, do you wish to take anything? Where are you feeling pain?"

He opened his eyes again. "No, I feel better already," he said, attempting to sit up. A wave of dizziness forced him back to the bed with a small groan.

"I'll bring you something for the vertigo and the headache," Madam Pomfrey said, walking away quickly.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat. "Harry, when you're feeling up to it, I'd like you to tell me what happened. Mr. Longbottom is still unconscious."

"I hardly know, Professor," Harry said. He lifted his hand halfheartedly from the bed. "My scar started hurting and then..." He stopped speaking as he remembered, vaguely, the next thing that happened. Voldemort had spoken to him, through him, and he'd felt as if he were being lifted from his body. He had been fighting to keep himself inside it, but that didn't make any sense. None of what happened made sense.

"How did you get that scar, Harry?" Professor Lestrange asked. Hermione squeezed Harry's hand as the woman came closer. "I noticed it last week, but I thought it was nothing at the time. It was bleeding earlier."

Harry blinked hard. What kind of lie about a scar that began bleeding out of nowhere would be believable at this point?

Professor McGonagall said, "Harry was playing at something very dangerous over the summer and that scar is the result of a violent misdeed." In response to Harry's wide-eyed expression, she added, "Yes, I discussed your situation with our mutual friend last night. There is a lot you did not tell me during our conferences last week."

"Tell you about what, Minerva?" Professor Lestrange asked.

Professor McGonagall eyed the suddenly interested woman over the top of her glasses. "Mr. Potter was getting involved with, shall we say, the wrong kind of people before he came to us last week. I was merely trying to make sure he was back on the right track." She turned back to where Harry lay in the bed, his confusion evident. "If Harry does not show a significant change in behavior, I believe I will have to pull him from regular classes and supervise him in Independent Study."

"That's odd. I haven't noticed a behavior problem in Harry lately," Bellatrix said. "As a matter of fact, he's been more attentive in class and sharper in his assignments than I've ever seen."

"Pardon me for saying this, Bellatrix, but you do favor the boy," McGonagall said. "You would hardly be the one to notice if he had a behavior problem. You do recall the incident with Miss Granger last term?"

"Yes." Bellatrix glanced over to where Hermione lay with her head on Harry's pillow. "I thought it was an isolated incident."

"Unless I am much mistaken, they have taken to disappearing together for hours on end again, neglecting their Prefect duties to go who knows where," McGonagall said. Hermione turned her face into Harry's pillow to hide her blush. "Perhaps your sudden illness was caused by...a lack of adequate rest, Mr. Potter." Hermione shot up then, her eyes open wide at the implication.

"No, Professor. I don't think it was that." His eyes went back and forth between Bellatrix and McGonagall. "Hermione and I have just been studying together. That's why I've been doing so well in class."

Bellatrix nodded. "Yes, I walked in on one your study sessions Saturday morning in the dungeons, didn't I?"

McGonagall cut her eyes at her quickly before returning her gaze to the two students. "That settles it, then. I will keep you both in my office for Independent Study for the next two weeks or until you can show me you can be trusted to move about the castle with the rest of the students. Professor Snape can find someone else to take over your duties as Prefects for the time being."

"But Professor," Hermione started, "classes have just started. I can't miss Ancient Runes this early in the term. I'll never be able to keep up."

"Hermione, we have no choice but to accept this punishment," Harry said. She looked at him and he tried to communicate his meaning through his eyes. "If Professor McGonagall thinks we need to be out of classes all day until our issues are resolved, I don't think we need to fight it."

Her eyes widened a bit as she finally caught his meaning. "Fine," she said. "I'll probably have to spend all my time studying if I'm not in the class, and it's all your fault," Hermione added, getting into the spirit of their lie. "If you hadn't insisted we try that storage room on the sixth floor--" Hermione broke off and looked at the two professors with what she hoped was a properly ashamed look. "I'm sorry, Professor. It won't happen again."

"That's what you said last term," Professor McGonagall replied. "See that you stick to it after this punishment is over. There will be no further chances to get it right." She motioned to Professor Lestrange. "Come Bellatrix. You can inform Severus of what's happened while I find out if Ms. Diggory has uncovered the reason for these students' sudden illness." She nodded at the bed. "Let Mr. Potter rest, Miss Granger. You have both done enough for today."

Hermione didn't respond as their Headmistress lead Professor Lestrange outside of the quiet hospital wing. She didn't need to say anything, she realized as she caught Harry's eye. It was enough that the woman was on their side and was doing everything she could to help them.