Hogwarts is My Home (A Harry Potter Fanfiction), Part 2/7

Chapter 8

I’m just laying there, on the floor.  What happened?  I can’t move.  I can’t make a noise, hoping someone will find me.  I hear a gasp and try to turn around, but remember I can’t.

“Another?” It’s McGonagall.  She picks me up, along with another man.  They take me to the hospital wing.  When they lay me in a bed, I see the man is Snape.

“Another Petrified?” Madam Pomfrey asks.  I can see across the room to where there is a shape in another bed.  “First Creevey, now Fidler.”

“We shall alert the school tomorrow.  No students out of bed after hours, no exceptions.  All students need to be in their common rooms a half hour before curfew, so that there’s no accidental staying up.  Madam Pince mentioned to me about a student leaving their Charms book in the library, I guess this was her,” McGonagall says.  I feel the book leave my arm.  They all leave, and eventually I fall asleep.  With my eyes open.  So weird.

* * *

You know how people say that they don’t know if you can sense or not when you’re Petrified?  Well, you can.  And it sucks.  I’m so bored all morning, but I don’t feel hungry.  I better not, it may be a problem.  I wonder if I’m stone or just stiff.  If I was stone, that would be so cool!  I’m bored for a while, then a bell rings.  I look at the very handy clock that is on the wall opposite me, and I see that it’s right after breakfast.  A couple moments later, I hear footsteps walking in, and see Draco, Grier, and Ash standing above me.  All three of them look like they want to punch something.

“Hey,” Draco says.  I don’t answer.  HI DRACO!  “Stupid Charms book.” I know, right?

“Don’t worry, they’ll catch the monster,” Grier says confidently, but her voice is shaking.

“I’ll give it a piece of me and it’ll wish it had never been born,” Ash mutters.  Still the Ash I know.  Draco puts something down on the bedside table, I can’t tell what it is.  If it’s homework I’ll kill him when I get un-Petrified.  They sit with me for a while.  Draco explains to me how he doesn’t know if I can hear him, but Vincent and Gregory beat up one of my friends, Emma, who is in Hufflepuff, because she was insulting Draco’s Quidditch skills.  Harry Potter is out of the hospital wing, he left this morning.

“Oh yeah, and Gryffindor’s in the lead for the House Cup,” Draco says.  “Potter got 50 points for his match yesterday.”  Draco looks up.  “Oh look, some of your other-house friends are here.  We’re gonna go now, but we’ll be back later.”  Well, you see, I can’t look.  Emma, looking horrible, is peering over me, along with Kyara and Audrey.  They all brought candy.  YUM CANDY that I can’t eat.  Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.

Throughout the day, I get a couple more visitors.  Anna, Jade, and Max come after the Hufflepuffs, Lauren and a girl named Luna Lovegood come around lunch, and Noah, Alex, and Charlie come during the afternoon.  After dinner, Pansy, Millicent, Tracey, Olivia, and Sophia come up.  Great.

“Look at the Mudblood now, the one that got wrongfully put in Slytherin.  This is what happens when you come to school here!” Pansy says.  Frick you Parkinson.  I thought I told you to die in a hole.  Don’t you do everything you’re asked to do?  You’re that stupid.  She takes some Fizzing Whizbees off of my bedside table. DON’T TOUCH MY FOOD WOMAN!  “Buh-bye!”  She prances out of the room.  Her posse follows suit.  I lay there for about a half hour.  I have nothing else to do.  Curfew isn’t for another hour and a half.  I’m almost asleep when I hear a familiar voice.

“Just wanted to see if it was true. Yes, I’ll be back at the common room before curfew.  It won’t take long.  Okay, thank you.”  It’s Seamus talking to Madam Pomfrey.  He stands over my bedside, looking at my face.  With my luck, it’s frozen in the most hideous position.  Or it’s flawless and I can’t look in a mirror to see it.  “Great, now I have no Potions tutor,” he laughs, but his voice is shaking.  “I brought you some Chocolate Frogs and Pumpkin Pasties.”  He looks at me one more time, then starts to walk away.  He turns around, as though a thought just occurred to him.  “Oh yeah, I’ll keep studying.  See you later.  Okay?” Okay.  Just leave me here.  Alone.  With Colin Creevey a couple beds down.  And Harry Potter’s empty bed.  And a clock.  And Madam Pomfrey.  Just me.  I fall asleep.

I don’t know how long I’ve been here.  The days go by, and I get a few visitors every day.  Draco says it’s almost Christmas break, it’s the Thursday before school’s out.  I’m staying over break, while all of my other friends are going to Grier’s house.  Whoop de doo.  Draco told me someone blew up Gregory’s Swelling Solution with a Filibuster Firework in double Potions today.  I wish I had been there, I wanted to see if Seamus had improved.  Was that the only thing that was noteworthy in Potions today?

“Oh, yeah, your pupil is failing Potions again.” Oh no, don’t do this again Seamus!

Later in the afternoon, I’m starting to feel a phantom hunger.  I know it’s impossible to be hungry when you’re Petrified, but I haven’t eaten in so long!  My Wizard Studies friends in my year come to say goodbye before the break, they’re leaving early in the morning.  Seamus comes in after dinner again.  He says they’re starting a Dueling Club, and that he’ll teach me everything they learn since I’ll probably want to know it all.  Thanks.  I wish I could go myself, but that’s obviously not going to happen.  After the first meeting, Draco comes in, explaining something about Harry Potter being able to talk to snakes, trying to turn a snake onto Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Muggle-born Hufflepuff in our year.  He called it a Parselmouth and that Harry could speak Parseltongue.  Yikes, I hope I’m not one.

The next day, it’s snowing.  I get no visitors until the afternoon.  They’re not even visitors.  It’s more professors, with Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick Petrified.  Maybe Harry is the Heir of Slytherin.

***

Well, it’s finally Christmas.  I get a couple of visitors, but not many.  Just Draco, who drops off some gifts, and Vincent and Gregory are there, but they don’t stay for long.  Seamus comes in again, and drops some other stuff off.  Madam Pomfrey mentions to me that my other friends sent me gifts by owl.  After dinnertime, Draco comes up to me again.

“Vincent and Gregory are acting a little weird.  They say they ate too much.  They said they were coming up here.  Have they been-- oh wait, never mind, you can’t answer.”  Talk about inconsiderate.  “Anyway, they changed the password to pure-blood.  No offense to you.”  He looks thoughtful.  “Anyway, Merry Christmas.”  He gives me a long look, and then leaves.  I fall asleep soon enough, with no other visitors, except Hermione Granger, who had been turned into a cat.