The Hollow Beneath Hogwarts

36. Fighter

"What do you mean it's gone?" Hermione asked the following morning.

Sloane woke slowly, warm and strangely comfortable despite the chaos she remembered from the night before. For several confused seconds she simply blinked up at the dim ceiling, trying to figure out where she was.

Then she realised she was back in her cot bed. Tucked in properly. Blanket pulled neatly around her shoulders. Her shoes had even been removed.

She frowned slightly before pushing herself upright.

Draco was standing nearby. Not sitting. Standing.

As if guarding her.

He looked exhausted. His blond hair was messy, his tie hung loose around his neck and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes, but he was alert, pale grey eyes fixed on the doorway while Aurors moved back and forth through the corridor outside.

Sloane stared at him for a moment. She had no memory whatsoever of moving. The last thing she remembered was lying against him on the tiny cot bed while he awkwardly complained about her weight.

Maybe he hadn't been joking after all. Maybe she really had crushed him.

The thought almost made her smile. Almost.

Then Hermione's horrified voice properly registered. "What do you mean it's gone?"

Sloane's attention snapped toward the cluster gathered outside the hall.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Luna, Blaise, Theo and Pansy all stood nearby looking various levels of exhausted and alarmed while several Aurors spoke rapidly amongst themselves.

Draco noticed Sloane awake immediately. "You're up," he said quietly, turning toward her. There was something strangely gentle in his voice that hadn't been there before the previous night.

Sloane rubbed tiredly at her eyes. "Why are you standing there like some Victorian bodyguard?"

His mouth twitched slightly. "You drool in your sleep."

"I do not."

"You absolutely do."

Before she could argue further, the Auror speaking to the group continued. "We searched the rooms in that corridor, and we found it hiding in amongst the hospital beds. We tried to capture it, but it bit Colson and used him as a shield."

Sloane immediately sobered.

The injured Auror, Colson, was suddenly wheeled past them on a stretcher by two Healers. He looked awful. There were deep bandages wrapped around his shoulder and neck, stained faintly pink with blood. His face had gone deathly pale and his breathing sounded strained and uneven.

Even Ron looked sick at the sight of him.

"So where did it go?" Harry asked quietly.

"We have no idea." Another Auror said grimly as he approached the group alongside the only female member of the team.

She looked rough. There was a nasty gash slashed across her cheekbone and dried blood staining the collar of her robes, but she still managed a tired half smile when she noticed the students staring.

"It jumped into the water," she explained. "We have a team searching the lake, but so far, nothing. My best guess is that it made it to shore across the lake and headed either into the mountains or back in towards the Forbidden Forest."

"That's not good," Blaise muttered, suddenly sounding far more awake.

"No kidding," Theo added under his breath.