Supported & Torn (HP) {Book 3 of the Wild & Free Series}

27. Kreacher's Delight

"We're not going... We don't need the hospital wing... We don't want..."

I was gibbering, trying to pull away from Professor Tofty, who was looking at Harry and me with much concern, and who had just helped us out into the entrance hall while the students all around us stared.

"We're — we're fine, sir," Harry stammered, wiping the sweat from his face and I already knew we had had the same dream; we always had if it concerned Voldemort. "Really... We just fell asleep... Had a nightmare..."

"Pressure of examinations!" said the old wizard sympathetically, patting Harry and me shakily on the shoulders. "It happens, it happens! Now, a cooling drink of water, and perhaps you will be ready to return to the Great Hall? The examination is nearly over, but you may be able to round off your last answer nicely?"

"Yes," I said wildly. "I mean... no... I've done — done as much as I can, I think..."

"Me, too..." Harry said.

"Very well, very well," said the old wizard gently. "I shall go and collect your examination papers, and I suggest that you go and have a nice lie down..."

"We'll do that," said Harry, nodding vigorously. "Thanks very much."

We waited for the second when the old man's heels disappeared over the threshold into the Great Hall, then ran up the marble staircase and then more staircases toward the hospital wing, hurtling along the corridors so fast that the portraits we passed muttered reproaches, and burst through the double doors like hurricanes, causing Madam Pomfrey, who had been spooning some bright blue liquid into Montague's open mouth, to shriek in alarm.

"Potters, what do you think you're doing?"

"We need to see Professor McGonagall," I gasped, the breath tearing my lungs. "Now... It's urgent..."

"She's not here, Potters," said Madam Pomfrey sadly. "She was transferred to St. Mungo's this morning. Four Stunning Spells straight to the chest at her age? It's a wonder they didn't kill her."

"She's... gone?" said Harry and I, stunned.

The bell rang just outside the dormitory, and I heard the usual distant rumbling of students starting to flood out into the corridors above and below us. We remained quite still, looking at Madam Pomfrey. Terror was rising inside us.

There was nobody left to tell. Dumbledore had gone, Hagrid had gone, but I had always expected Professor McGonagall to be there, irascible and inflexible, perhaps, but always dependably, solidly present...

"I don't wonder you're shocked, Potters," said Madam Pomfrey with a kind of fierce approval in her face. "As if one of them could have Stunned Minerva McGonagall face on by daylight! Cowardice, that's what it was... Despicable cowardice... If I wasn't worried what would happen to you students without me, I'd resign in protest..."

"Yes," said Harry and I blankly.

We strode blindly from the hospital wing into the teeming corridor where we stood, buffeted by the crowd, the panic expanding inside us like poison gas so that our heads swam and we could not think what to do...

"What do we need to do?" I asked, sound panicked.

"Ron, Rowan, Hermione and Lucy," muttered Harry blankly.

We were running again, pushing students out of the way, oblivious to their angry protests and shouts. We sprinted back down two floors and were at the top of the marble staircase when we saw them hurrying toward us.

"Harry! Liana!" said Hermione at once, looking very frightened. "What happened? Are you all right? Are you ill?"

"Where have you been?" demanded Ron and Rowan.