Hunted AIAOY 3

Chapter 3

"Don't faint, ickle Potters."  Crabbe and Goyle turned and mocked Harry and Rebecca as they made their way off the train.  Draco raised an eyebrow, mocking them without words.  "Wouldn't want anyone to-"  Goyle, who had chosen to continue with their taunts, went silent.

Ron looked over their shoulders to see what the Slytherin boys could have seen to stop so suddenly and turned back to the front.  Fred and George looked murderous and they were making their point clear: Harry and Rebecca weren't to be teased.

Rebecca trudged along, looking up from the ground only when a hand entwined itself in hers.  Expecting Fred, she managed a little smile.  For him, she could have kept it.

"What?"  Ron asked, his jaw dropping.  "You see it's me and stop smiling?  Ouch!"

Rebecca shook her head, taking his hand again.  He was only stirring her cauldron, but the fact that she moved to assure him she hadn't meant it calmed Ron's worries.  They would be okay, they would always be okay.

Professor McGonagall was in the hallway the students were funnelling into the castle through and she turned Harry and Rebecca's face up to her gently, turning their heads so she could look them over in the light coming from the torch.  "Professor Lupin owled.  Are you two okay?"  She took off, heading down the corridor to her office and pointing for Hermione to follow them as well.

Harry nodded.  "We're alright."

"Yeah, better now."  Rebecca hoped the lie wasn't as obvious as it felt.  She felt like she was still putting things back where they had been, that she was rearranging the jumbled state of her mind.

But this was Rebecca speaking and the lie was incredibly obvious.  

McGonagall tutted and shook her head, laying out a pack of biscuits on her desk and waiting until they both took a few before speaking.  "I want the both of you to go see Madam Pomfrey before you go to the feast.  She'll give you a once over.  Caution never goes unneeded."

Harry and Rebecca nodded, the biscuits heavy as bricks in their hands.  Everyone kept telling them to eat and it was growing tiresome.  They did not want to eat.  If anything, they simply wanted to crawl under their blankets and cry.

Harry and Rebecca were excused and Professor McGonagall sighed, taking out a long scroll of parchment.  "Alright, Miss Granger.  Let's go over this schedule one last time..."

Rebecca and Harry both knew the way to the Hospital Wing, walking along the still-empty corridors without speaking until they reached its familiar door and entered.

"I should have known it would be you two."  Madam Pomfrey greeted them drily, pointing to the same bed and having them sit on it side by side.  "Though, for once, I don't blame you.  Those bloody monsters have no place in a school, a place of learning!"

Madam Pomfrey took their temperatures, cast diagnostic spells, checking their limbs and their hands and making sure they were alright all while muttering along.  "...life-sucking, joy-taking creatures with no respect for life or-"

Madam Pomfrey looked at the two of them and sighed, brushing their cheeks gently.  "I am sorry, dears.  I don't know why things happen the way they do."  Madam Pomfrey focused on Rebecca now, asking something further than her question said.  "How have you been sleeping?"

Rebecca didn't understand why Madam Pomfrey was asking this, nor why she seemed to not believe her answer.  "Fine."  

Madam Pomfrey fretted over them a little longer, telling them that they were to not even think about going to the Tower without first going to the feast.  "Vegetables, children!  They do the body good and I expect you to eat some!"