The Family that Chooses You

Chapter 57: Acceptance

Harry was trapped.

He could not see; he could not move.  He drowned in dark shadows, shadows with long grasping hands that made horribly rattling sounds.  A deep chill gnawed at his bones, making him shiver and shake.  He whimpered pitifully, trying to escape.  No matter how hard he struggled, he could not escape the cold and pain.

He felt someone take his hand.  It was a familiar touch, one that he latched onto desperately.  A warm voice filled his ears and while he could not identify the speaker nor hear the words, the sound soothed him.  A warmth washed over him.  He felt safe.

The shadows receded and so did his struggling.  He sighed softly and lost himself to nothingness.

-0-

Harry's eyes opened slowly.  For a moment he had no idea where he was.  He only knew that he was lying somewhere soft.  Sunlight draped over him from the window.  He grunted softly.  His body was waking up with him and he was a mass of ache and fatigue.

"Rabbit!"

He blinked at the extremely fuzzy outline of Angelina.  "Angelina?" he croaked.

"Hold on."  She gently slipped his glasses onto his face and he smiled weakly as she swam into focus.  "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," he said.  "Achy.  What happened?  Where am I?"

"You're in the Infirmary.  One second, be right back."

He watched as she left his side, parting the curtains around his bed.  After a few minutes she returned with tired but happy looking Katie and Hermione in tow.

"Harry!  How do you feel?" Hermione asked hurriedly.

"Tired," he repeated.  "Are you three okay?"

"He's the one in the hospital bed and asks us if we're okay," Angelina snorted.  Her smile showed that she was not at all annoyed.  "We're okay Rabbit.  Just bumps and bruises for us.  You're the one that had it worst."

"Do you remember what happened?" Katie asked.

Harry shook his head, feeling dread build up within him.

The three girls explained all that happened.  Katie and Angelina recounted what happened during the game while Hermione described what it looked like from the stands.  They ended the story by bringing Harry to the Infirmary.  They felt it would be better to wait for Harry to recover more before sharing what happened after with the Headmaster and professors.

Throughout the story Harry stared with wide opened eyes.  His horror grew with each sentence and when they finished, he stared blankly at them.  His brain processed the deluge of information and stubbornly clung onto one detail.

"Rabbit?"  Angelina was concerned at how still he was.  "Harry?"  She started as tears began to roll down his face.  "Oh no, are you hurting?  Should I call Madam Pomfrey."

His lips moved soundlessly.

"Say that again?" Katie asked.

"You all could have died," he whispered.

The Chasers looked at each other.  "That's true..." Angelina said slowly.

"Especially you two.  You jumped off your brooms in the air."

Katie winced.  "Which in hindsight is very reckless, but it felt necessary at the time..."

"Why?"

The one-word question stopped them cold.  Katie did not like the look on Harry's face.  He looked suitably horrified, which to anyone hearing the story would certainly be horrified, but there was a quality to it that felt very off to her.  Tears continued to run down his face.  He looked sickened.