How to Prevent a War

Parseltongue

Consciousness slowly returned to him and was unfortunately paired with a splitting headache. Harry groaned and squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could. He could barely move, so he couldn't try to ease the pain by holding his head and rubbing his temples.

"He's awake!" he heard Ginny's voice exclaim relieved.

Slowly, he tried to open his eyes. He had to blink a few times against the light, which only made his head throb more, but he succeeded eventually. He wasn't all that surprised to see his friends leaning over him. And by friends, he only meant the Weasleys, Hermione, Sirius, and apparently Alphard. That last one had him scowl in surprise.

"Good to see you awake again, mate," Ron said grinning.

"Yeah! If you'd slept a little longer-" Fred started with a smirk.

"-Sirius would have gone down to the Slytherin dungeons to kill Riddle himself!" George finished snickering.

That had Harry almost sit upright in his bed. His eyes were wide and panicked as he looked over at his friends.

"The-the little girl!" he asked desperately.
"Is she... she's-she's alright, right? I saved her..."

"She's alright," Hermione soothed quickly.

"But I'm not!" Alphard huffed, glaring playfully at Harry.
"You bloody left me to explain everything to the others! Walburga almost put me in the bed next to you when I told her you guys were time-travellers. Most of them thought I was insane till Tom came back to tell them himself, and tell me you were in here."

"Sorry," Harry mumbled embarrassed.

"So, what do we do now?" Ginny asked worried.
"They all know why we're here for."

"I only know one thing for sure," Alphard muttered.
"And that's that Harry will have to answer for a lot of things when he returns to the dorms."

"I think he might have to a bit earlier," Sirius growled, looking at the door.

Harry frowned and looked over. He swallowed nervously when Tom, along with Nickolas, Dimitri, Megan, Michael, Avery, Mulciber, Nott and Dolohov walked in. They all looked rightly pissed off, their wands out and ready for use as Tom walked over to his bed with purposeful strides. The Twins, Ginny and Sirius pulled their own wands out as well, and Fred and George moved to block Tom's way. A flash of annoyance appeared in Tom's dark eyes before he turned to Alphard.

"Alphard, please show your friends out. I have something to discuss with Potter, in private," he said coolly.

"Like Hell you do!" Ginny growled angrily.
"He's in here because of you in the first place!"

Dimitri was the first to move when he saw Ginny get ready to curse Tom, and he jumped forward, pressing the tip of his wand against the girl's throat. He sneered at the youngest Weasley.

"Don't even bloody think about it," he hissed.

"Let go of my sister, you bastard!" Ron growled, taking out his own wand, only to come face to face with Megan.

"No fighting in the hospital wing," Tom spoke calmly, putting on his Prefect persona easily.
"Alphard, please lead everyone outside in an orderly manner. I promise only to talk with Potter."

With a sigh, Alphard stood up and he grasped Hermione's shoulder gently.

"Let's go. You all heard Tom," he announced.

The Slytherin's all glared at Harry's friends, and waited tensely until they started moving before obeying Alphard's words as well. Once everyone was out of the room, Tom pulled out his wand and cast a few privacy charms on the room and Harry's hospital bed. After that, he turned to face Harry for the first time. Harry glowered at him from the bed.