Chapter 6: A Solution on the Horizon
"Harry! Harry, we can go back to our dorms now." Hermione shook the raven-haired boys shoulder. He irritatingly batted her hand away and glared up at her balefully. Hermione stuck out her tongue in a rather childish fashion and tugged on his sleeve. They quickly made their way back to Harry's dorm, avoiding professors as best as they could. It was already eight o'clock, as Dumbledore's end-of-the-year speech had dragged on longer than usual. The brunette had packed earlier, so she was ready to go in the morning.
Harry was dragging his feet and glaring holes in the floor. Hermione didn't really blame him, as it was obvious the smells and noise of the great hall had a rather overwhelming effect on him. Not to mention that the rather tactless way Dumbledore had forced him into mingling. It obviously wasn't having any sort of positive effect, and Hermione had to wonder if Dumbledore didn't notice, didn't care, or was doing it on purpose. The fact that she was a fourth year and could tell, lead her to believe that it probably wasn't the first option.
They finally reached Harry's room and Hermione tugged the emerald-eyed teens sleeve, pulling him down onto the bed to sit next to her. His face was still twisted in an angry grimace.
"Harry, what in the world is wrong? You look like you haven't slept in over a week!" Harry's angry demeanor seemed unshakable, and his face stayed hard. Nagini slunk out from under the bed, and nudged the side of his face. Hermione had long gotten over the large frightful presence of Harry's surrogate mother.
Nagini hissed something softly, in a seemingly comforting tone (if snakes can sound comforting). Blanche pushed up from under Harry's robe where she had been nesting around his neck. She added her own hiss to the silabent conversation, and Hermione tried hard not to feel left out.
Blanche's appearance reminded Hermione once again about her seemingly worsening condition. She glimpsed the cobra's dull lackluster eyes, and knew she had to say something to Harry.
'Harry, this has gone on long enough!" He turned to her and gave her a rather shocked expression.
"What in Wadjet'ss name are you talking about?"
"You're making Blanche sick with your temper tantrums and moodiness!" Harry continued to giver her a rather blank look.
"Hermione, Blanch issn't ssick", he began slowly, "What are you on about?" Hermione reached up to rub her fingers under the snake's chin. Small flakes of skin cam off under her ministrations, and she pushed these into Harry's line of vision.
"Look! Her skins pealing off! Her eyes are all milky! You can't tell me that's normal." Harry glanced at Blanche and hissed something to her quickly. A smile tugged at his lips and a small chuckle followed. Hermione flushed red with anger, as being laughed at was definitely one of the her least favorite things.
"What! What's so funny!" tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, and she quickly dashed them away.
"Hermione, sshe'ss jusst getting ready to pussh off her old sskin. Why doess thiss make you sso upsset?"
'You mean she's not sick?" Harry shook his head. Hermione let herself fall backwards onto the bed with a thump. Her bangs tumbled into her eyes and she let loose a frustrated puff of air, blowing them away. "I don't want to leave." Hermione rolled over to stare at Harry.
"Do you not misss your parentss?" Harry asked. She shook her head.
"I do... but my parents are never around; they're always busy at their dentists office. It's not like I'll see them that much anyway. And-- Well--" Now she looked rather embarrassed. She buried her face in his pillow and mumbled something.
"What was that, Hermione?" She made another frustrated sigh, and peaked out from beneath her fuzzy mass of hair.
"Your my only friend." Harry's mouth quirked up.
Hermione left the next day, hugging Harry tightly repeatedly and tearfully promising to come see him over the summer. Harry took this all in stride and hugged her back. Only as the train was beginning to pull away from the Hogsmead station did she dash to get on, waving from the door way.
Harry watched until she was out of sight before making his way back to Hogwarts.
His dreams were becoming more vivid and realistic, and seemed to echo in his mind long after he had awoken. Whispers just under his range of hearing, and figures in the corners of his vision that disappeared as soon as he turned to see them. There a smiling stranger with a glint of garnet in their eye, only to have it be a trick of the sun when he got closer. Here a rich dark velvet cloak sweeping around a corner. Harry wondered if he was going mad, or if this was just some effect of the supposed connection he shared with the Dark Lord.
He almost craved sleep now, as Voldemort had become a comforting nighttime presence, far preferable to that of Dumbledore and nearly all of the ignorant miscreants that lived at Hogwarts during the year. He was so close to breaking the enchantment over himself, and the Dark Lord had many helpful suggestions. Not being able to remember the exact enchantment Dumbledore had used, it was slow going. There were seemingly innumerable amounts of binding spells that ranged from marital bindings to keeping your pet in the yard. It definitely didn't help that they didn't seem to have ant rhyme of reason when it came to their organization.
He hadn't told anyone besides Nagini and Blanche what he was doing, and he especially hadn't told Hermione or Draco, as there was no telling when Dumbledore would interrogate his friends for any stray scrap of information about him. Hermione had already noticed his worsening state, as his midnight searches increased in their frantic fervor. But now, since it was summer, and he still hadn't found the counter, he was going to be stuck here with no other students to distract the Headmaster. It would probably be much harder to slip away unnoticed.
The wind began to pick up as Harry trudged back through the forest, having opted out of the bumpy carriage ride with the rather crazy looking horses that didn't really seem to like him. He needed to stretch his legs, and he was actually surprised Dumbledore had allowed him enough freedom to walk back to Hogwarts alone. Unless there was more to that damn binding spell than he knew.
Just the thought of it made him unbelievably furious.
He kicked a pebble rather hard, sending it flying off into a rather thorny bush. A small squawk followed and a bright purple bird took flight, but not before swooping down to peck him on the head.
His arm was up before the thing's beak lifted, and he brought the thing around to face him. It was a rather ugly creature with a curved beak and beady little black angry eyes. It was actually more of a dull eggplant color with brown spots mixed among its plumage. Harry's stomach rumbled, and he realized he hadn't eaten in over a week, so caught up in his search he had been.
"That beak looks pretty wicked." Blanche hissed
into his ear. Harry gave her a sly smile and reached up with his other
hand to snap the offending appendage off. The thing struggled and
squawked, making a loud racket while trying its best to scratch the
living daylights out of anything it could reach.
"Stay- Still!" Another loud honking caw, and Harry heard the
first snap, and with a rather bloody wet sound, the entire head came
off. Blanche snickered in his ear. "Not exactly what I was going for, but I guess that works too. Hungry, Blanche?"
"No, I found a rather tasty nest of new born Kneazles yesterday." Harry snorted before carefully unhinging his jaw to begin his meal.
"Have you gone over this book? Its got a multitude of different ways to bind ones body." Harry glanced at the book, and recognized it as one he had read though four times already.
"Yesss." He dropped his forehead into his hands and rubbed at his temples. In a fit of frustration he slammed his fists to the table and attempted to glare the nearest bookshelf into cinders. Voldemort ran gentle fingers though his hair, tugging Harry into his lap.
"Hush, little serpent. There is something we are missing here. That is all." He whispered soothingly in Parseltongue. Harry sighed and leaned back, pressing the side of his face into Voldemort's pale neck. He choked down a sob that was rising quickly in the back of his throat. Crying wouldn't get them anywhere.
"You must recall everything from that day. Every little detail, no matter how insignificant." Harry clutched his head.
"I've tried! We've been over and over this. I just-- I must have been too scared or shocked to remember the spell or movements! At the time I didn't even know what he was saying!" Tears sprang back up into his eyes, and embarrassed he quickly scrubbed them away. "Is there any way at all to make me remember?"
"Well, I would offer you my pensive, but you must be in my actual proximity for memories to be withdrawn. I cannot do it though this dream reality, no matter how real it may seem."
"My training starts tomorrow, now that all of the students have gone home. I don't know how long I'll be able to stand it. If only I could just transform!" Voldemort continued to stroke his hair, untangling the impossibly long glossy strands in a way that would have made them worse had they been in normal reality.
The Dark Lord mumbled something to himself.
"What was that?" Harry asked.
"I was just thinking. Do you know how to extract memory strands?" Harry shook his head. "Watch closely. You must first focus on which ever memory you wish to withdraw. Then you simply place your wand to your temple, like so. Generally, if it's a good memory of some sort, the right temple works better. If it's a more negative memory, the left temple is easier." Harry nodded, and watched as Voldemort placed his wand to his left temple and withdrew a silvery strand of some kind of phosphorescent substance. Harry nodded to show he understood the concept, and the Dark Lord pressed the strand back into his head.
"I need you to contact Lucius' son, and extract that memory into a memory sphere that he will have in his possession. Instruct him to send that to me, and I will be able to study it for any minor details that we've missed."Harry buried his face back into the Dark Lords neck, and closed his eyes. He nodded silently against Voldemort's skin, and inhaled his scent. The same scent that spoke of sun baked scales, and tangy venom that he so loved. He was so very tired, these dreams where they searched Voldemort's personal library for helpful information left him as much without real sleep as his midnight forays into Hogwarts library.
The
Dark Lord glanced down, having heard Harry's breath slow and even out.
He could feel that Harry had indeed fallen asleep; in his own dream.
Tightening his arms protectively about his precious bundle briefly, he
relaxed his mental hold on Harry's consciousness, and slipped back into
reality.
Of course upon waking, Harry realized he didn't actually have any way to contact Draco, and wondered just how strictly his mail was monitored. If only they had thought of this yesterday! He thumped his head back against his pillow, and jostled Blanche from her preferred resting place.
"Wha- Harry! Bloody halfwit lummox!" Blanche glared at him, and Harry and he gave her a rather sheepish look. She was rather irritable, as her skin was ready to shed any day now, and it made her itchy and unable to see very well.
"Sorry, little sister." Harry pressed a kiss to her nose, "I love you"
"Damn straight." Harry gave her a sideways glance, wondering where she had acquired her new vocabulary. He was sure he had never said 'Damn straight.' She had already tucked her nose back under a coil, however, and was back to breathing softly. Chuckling softly, he climbed out of bed, and headed towards the shower, deciding to deal with the memory problem later.