Dark

Chapter 16

Eleanor
The first sensation I could remember was a buzzing sound in my head. Then came the burning that seemed to cover the entire left side of my body. The pain was intense, but I swallowed it deep down inside of myself as I willed my eyes to open. As my eyes began to flutter I immediately closed them tight again against the bright light. It must be midday then. I tried to shift myself into a more comfortable position, but the pain shot through me like a firework under my skin.
I suddenly remembered what had happened. The memories came flooding back to me in that moment. The dragon standing before me as I raised my wand, ready to shield myself against its flames. The cheers of the crowd as I took on the dragon on my own, waiting for Harry to scoop up the egg. Then the gasps of the crowd both when I was nearly hit by the dragon’s tail and then just minutes later when I actually was hit by it. I groaned at the memory, unsure what to expect now.
My thoughts came into greater focus and I assumed I must be in the hospital wing. Again I allowed my eyes to flutter open, straining against the light in the room. I had been right, the hospital wing came into focus around me as my eyes adjusted to the light. I had spent the summer sleeping here as I awaited the start of term to be sorted. I easily recognized this room, even if all I could see of it was the ceiling from where I was lying in bed.
I grunted as another wave of pain scorched my left side. It seared in my leg, my waist, my arm, my face. It was terrible. I could imagine what I would find as I reached my right hand up to my face. The tips of my fingers gently grazed the skin of my left cheek, creating more pain. I could feel the raised skin where the horns of the dragon’s tail had pierced me. My breath hitched in my throat as I continued to touch my own skin, taking in the new feel of it.
“Oh goodness, you’re awake.” Someone said from nearby. A woman.
I turned my head in her direction, wincing at the pain that the movement had sent through me.
“Just wait a moment, there. I’ll help you. Don’t move too much just yet.” Madame Pomfrey said as she drew closer to my bed and my eyes could finally focus on her.
She swept around the side of my bed and placed her arms supportively under my right side. She helped pull me up so that I was sitting. I was thankful to find that the other beds in the hospital wing were empty.
“Here, you need to drink this.” Madame Pomfrey handed me a small glass from a side table. “It’s a blood replenishing potion. It’s very important that you take that, you lost a lot of blood yesterday, Miss Potter.”
“Thank you.” I mumbled hoarsely as I lifted the glass to my lips.
In the couple of hours since I had woken up I had slowly regained movement in my left side. It was painful at first, but Madame Pomfrey had given me a potion to help that subside. I had seen my new reflection as well. Madame Pomfrey had been reluctant to let me see a mirror, but I didn’t want to hold off on the truth. And the truth was ugly. The left side of my face bore deep red scars, stretching from the edge of my jaw and my hair to nearly my eye. The scars covered the entire side of my face. Then I dared to look down. My left arm was also completely covered in the ghastly red and raised marks on my skin. I pulled the bed covers away from me to find that my leg was in the same condition. When I changed into a Slytherin uniform a minutes later, I was unsurprised to see the same marks stretching across the left side of my hip, waist, and ribcage. It was if not a spot of my left side had been unblemished by the Horntails violence.
I hadn’t said much yet. My head was still buzzing annoyingly. According to Madame Pomfrey I had taken quite the hit when I fell from the dragon. It was until she had mentioned this that I remembered anything after having been hit by the dragon’s tail.
As the full memories came back to me I couldn’t help but feel a burning resenting bubbling inside of me. I remembered how I had only been hit because Harry had foolishly tried to dive for the eggs from the air. I had chosen to protect him and that small moment of distraction was enough for me to get thrown across the enclosure by a dragon. Yet I still managed to pull myself back up and somehow take the dragon down myself.
How could he have not told me about his plan? I could have been prepared, ready to defend him in the air if the dragon’s attention was fully drawn to him. But Harry couldn’t be bothered to tell me anything. He couldn’t tell me about the dragons to begin with, and he couldn’t tell me his plan. He wouldn’t tell me why or how he had gotten our names into the Goblet of Fire either.
“Did anyone visit me?” I asked quietly as Madame Pomfrey was fretting about around me again.
My question seemed to pull her up short. She turned a sad face toward me and I already knew the answer in that moment.
“No, dear. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine.” I said, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. “Can I leave then?”
“What?” She asked, her mouth agape in surprise.
“I’d like to leave.” I told her simply.
“That’s…that’s not a good idea. You should rest more.” She told me.
“I will elsewhere. Thank you.” I told her.
She just watched me in shock as I carefully got off the bed and made my way out of the hospital wing. The first steps were the worst as a dull pain shot through me with each step of my left foot. I screwed up my face for a moment, pushing the pain away in the back of mind again. I focused on what I needed to do. I knew that the clue to our next task was held in that golden egg, and I knew that Harry had it. So I pulled myself together, flipped my hair back over my left shoulder and let it cover my face as well as I could. The halls were empty as I descended the floors of the castle and by the time I reached the Entrance Hall I was sure that it was dinner time.
That was where I would find Harry.

Harry
“Er…Harry?” Ron said from next to me.
We were sitting at the Gryffindor table during dinner. I looked up toward Ron to see him staring at the doors of the Great Hall. He looked worried. I could see why as soon as I found what he was looking at.
Eleanor was striding quickly across the Great Hall, straight for us. Her hands were clenched into fists at her side and her eyes were narrowed right at me. I could immediately tell that I was in trouble. She looked livid, beyond livid in fact.
“Bloody hell…” I mumbled.
Eleanor reached our table and suddenly struck it with both of her hands. The action shook the plates on our side of the table and sent a loud sound into the air around us. I hadn’t meant to, but I flinched at the sound of it. In that moment I also thought I saw her wince in pain, but it passed so quickly I couldn’t be sure.
“Where’s the egg?” Eleanor asked loudly.
“What?” I asked. My brain had seemed to stopped working for a moment.
“The egg, Harry! Where is the bloody egg?” She yelled. Heads turned in our direction from all around the Great Hall. I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. Did she really have to make a whole scene of this?
“Look…I’m…I’m sorry about –“ I started.
“No! Don’t you even dare, Harry. You aren’t sorry, you aren’t sorry for anything that you’ve said or done this entire term.” Eleanor said furiously. “Do you know how I know that? I know that because if you were it would mean that you actually cared. But not once have you done a single thing to make me think that you care for me at all.”
I sat there, dumbfounded as Eleanor’s glare bore into me. The damage of the first task was just barely visible, hidden behind her hair. This is what I had done. This is what I had done to her, and it was probably too late to take any of it back. She didn’t want to hear my apologies, she didn’t want to know about the internal struggle I had been dealing with since I had found out about her. It didn’t make a difference, because I had ignored her and then she had gotten hurt.
“What I don’t understand, Harry…what I really don’t understand…is what I ever did to make you hate me so much.” Eleanor hissed at me. Her eyes seemed to flicker from anger to sadness, but as quickly as it had come it had gone. “Just go get the egg. Now.”
I hesitated for a moment, opening my mouth to say something. Like every other time I tried to speak to Eleanor for real though, nothing seemed to come to my mind. It all disappeared. Then Hermione nudged me in the ribs and I realized I was just sitting here, staring at her. I got up clumsily from the table and started to walk away.
I barely caught the next words spoken between my friends and my sister.
“I don’t know why you want the egg, it just screeches.” Ron muttered.
“He does care about you, you know?” Hermione said quietly.
“No, Hermione. He hates me.” Eleanor said as if she were reciting a fact from a book.

Draco
“I told you she’d be fine.” Blaise said lazily.
“What?” I asked him.
“Eleanor. She’s already out of the hospital wing. She’s over there at the Gryffindor table.”
I looked across the Hall and sure enough, Zabini was right. There Eleanor stood, yelling at Potter. Good, maybe she’ll finally give up on him now. As I watched the scene unfolding, I noticed Potter looking completely flustered. I wished then that I could hear what she was saying to him. Hopefully telling him off for allowing her to get nearly killed by a dragon.
The interaction didn’t last long and soon Eleanor was storming away from the Gryffindor table, around the front of the hall, and approaching the spot where Blaise and I sat. It wasn’t us that she spoke to though. Instead, she turned her attention to Krum who was sitting next to the empty spot across from me.
“What does your egg do when you open it?” Eleanor asked him, not even bothering to glance my way.
I wasn’t sure why it bothered me so much, but a part of me wanted her to look my way. I wanted her to speak to me first so it wouldn’t seem weird for me to ask if she was all right. I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.
“The egg?” Krum asked her.
He certainly is thick headed. What she sees in him, I’m not sure. Before she spoke again I noticed her grip the edge of the table tightly as her face seemed to scrunch up for the briefest moment.
“Yeah. Ron said it just screeched when Harry opened ours.” Eleanor explained.
“Same.” Krum said simply.
Eleanor sighed, frustrated, and ran a hand through her hair. As she lifted her hand to her head her robe sleeve slipped down to her elbow. That was when I noticed the long red scars running across her skin. I looked up from her arm to her face and the same markings crossed the left side of her face. I hadn’t seen it before through her hair.
“Wow…” Blaise said loudly.
Eleanor turned toward us finally and noticed that we had been staring. She quickly shifted her hair in front of her scars again and let her arm fall to her side so her sleeve fell back down as well.
I thought I should say something, but nothing came to my mind. I knew that she had been hit, I knew that it had been bad, but I had always thought that Madame Pomfrey would be able to heal the wounds. I supposed they were healed, but I hadn’t expected there to be so much scarring. I had been angry with Potter when Eleanor had gotten hurt, but now that anger seemed to boil to a completely different level. If this was the best the matron could do, then Eleanor would be scarred like this for the rest of her life.
But why should it matter to me? It doesn’t.
“Just shut it, Zabini.” Eleanor hissed. “And don’t you even open your mouth, Malfoy. I don’t have time for your disgusting comments today.”
I was about to say something just to spite her for that but then she leaned over the table, grabbing at the edge of it again. I could hear the sharp intake of breath as she hung her head for a moment. She was in pain. A lot of it from the looks of her. Did she really have to pretend to be put together every time she was around other people? Who was I to talk though, I was pretty much the same way.
Krum realized Eleanor’s pain as well and put his hand on her back. Before he could say anything though, I finally spoke up.
“Are you all right?” I asked her.
“I’m fine. Leave me alone.” She said harshly.
Eleanor pushed herself away from the table and stood straight, clearly trying to hide the pain that she was in. If this had been Parkinson or Greengrass they would have been rolling on the floor waiting for someone to tend to them. But this was Eleanor, and she was entirely different.
“Miss Potter.”
I looked up from Eleanor to see Snape standing nearby, watching her with a strange expression. I could never tell if he disliked her because she was a Potter, if he liked her because she was a Slytherin.
Eleanor turned to Snape and raised her eyebrows to him but didn’t say anything.
“It seems you are in need of another blood replenishing potion. According to Madame Pomfrey you just decided to walk out of the hospital wing without permission.” He said, still looking down at her strangely.
“I told her I was leaving. Was that not enough?” Eleanor asked. She was irritated, I could hear it in her voice.
“No, it wasn’t.” Snape said. “But it seems to be too little too late now. Take this and return to your common room. I expect to see you in classes tomorrow, Miss Potter.”
“Of course, sir.” She answered.
As Snape walked away Eleanor took the empty seat across from me. Silently she uncorked the potion and downed it quickly. As she set the bottle down on the table she winced again in pain. If she was hurting this badly, why did she leave the hospital wing in the first place?
“What is Potter doing coming over here?” Blaise spoke up.
I looked away from Eleanor and sure enough, Potter was striding our way, holding the golden egg from the first task.
“He’s here because I told him to bring me the egg. Goodness knows he won’t be able to figure out. So I’ll just do it.” Eleanor said shortly. Then she shot up from the table and glared at Potter as he came to a stop. They stood there like that for a moment, Eleanor glaring at him, and Potter just staring sadly at her.
He nearly looked as though he felt sorry for what he had caused. But surely he didn’t care, right?
Eleanor reached forward and ripped the egg out of his hands. She placed it under one arm and pushed past him. As she left the doors of the Great Hall, Potter finally looked up again to find me glaring at him as well. His face changed to anger quickly and he too stormed away, but unlike Eleanor he had people to turn to. Potter returned to the Gryffindor table where he was surrounded by friends and admirers. Eleanor was left to sit in the Slytherin common room alone, again.
So rather than finish my meal I grabbed my things and left.

Eleanor
I had only just returned from the Great Hall as I sat looking at the golden egg. According to Ron and Viktor, the egg just screeches when opened. How could that be a clue?
My thoughts were quickly interrupted as the wall that hid the common room melted away and Malfoy and Zabini stepped inside.
“Did you open it then?” Malfoy asked, eyeing the egg.
“No, not yet.” I answered, turning my attention back to the egg in front of me.
“Well open it then.” Zabini suggested.
I gave it a wary look before I carefully pried it open with my fingernails. As soon as the egg was opened a terrible screeching filled the air. It reverberated off of the stone walls of the common room and seemed to surround us from every direction. I quickly clasped the eggs closed again and looked up, confused.
“Well they’re right,” I mumbled. “It definitely screeches.”
“It doesn’t sound human though, does it?” Zabini asked.
“No. No it doesn’t.” I answered him.
Malfoy was pulling out a chair at the table I was sitting at when I jumped up from it instead. I didn’t really want to be around anyone right now. I didn’t want them staring at my scars again. So instead I picked the egg back up and started to shuffle away toward the dormitories.
“I’m going to bed.” I said quietly before fully turning around and leaving.
I could have sworn I saw a disappointed look on Malfoy’s face as I left.
I locked the egg inside of my trunk before I crawled into my bed. As much as I hated to admit it, I was in a lot of pain still. The potion Madame Pomfrey had given me for the pain had to be wearing off. As I closed my eyes and hoped to drift off to sleep soon, the thought occurred to me.
Zabini was right, it didn’t sound human. So if it screeches, but it isn’t human, then it must be some sort of creature. That meant that I knew where to start looking in the morning.