He was moving gently to and fro and half lying and half sitting on something, or at least that's what Harry's senses informed him when the world chose to return. Surprisingly his shields were not completely down, they were in their lower than normal, sleep level, but were otherwise intact.
Harry opened his eyes and found himself inside what looked like one of the carriages that always took them to school from the train. He was propped up on one of the seats with a blanket tucked round him. Moving slowly he turned his head to see Ron and Hermione sitting on the opposite seat, holding hands and looking out the windows.
"Where are we going?" he asked quietly, trying to gather his wits.
"Harry," Hermione said instantly, "you're awake."
He mumbled a reply and tried to sit up a little further, but gave up when the blankets required far too much effort to move.
"Just lay still," Hermione said sternly, "you're exhausted and we're almost there."
"Where?" Harry repeated his question.
"Blake house," his friend supplied, "it's near Brancepeth Castle. It belongs to one of the Order; we'll be using it as a base."
Harry shifted again, attempting to find a more comfortable position.
"Any news?" he asked, trying to keep emotion as far away from his higher brain as possible.
"You've been out for a couple of hours," Ron told him with his characteristic worried frown. "It turns out Brancepeth is a suspected Death Eater outpost: the Order has been keeping an eye on it for a few months, but they hadn't had a reason to move in before; seems there is life there at the moment."
Harry let the information sink in; the whole incident with his godfather was hazy in his memory and seemed almost like a dream, but obviously it was not. The knowledge that they knew where Draco was brought him hope, but his soul refused to stop wailing its pain at the curse which was separating him from Draco.
"Anything else?" he asked slowly, focusing on the practicalities of the situation.
His two friends shared a look, as they seemed to do a lot these days, and he waited to find out what they had to say.
"We think you should know," Ron said evenly, "most of the Order was against you coming to Blake House. They all Apparated on ahead and we stayed to travel with you, and most of them thought you should be kept at Hogwarts, they think you're unstable."
That caused a flare of anger in Harry, but he would need that source of strength later, so he tried to ignore it.
"I am unstable," he admitted, there was no point in denying it. "If they don't want me in on this, how is it I am here?"
"Ron pointed out how rational you were likely to be when you woke up if they left you behind," Hermione told him with a quick glance of admiration at her boyfriend. "I think the apocalyptic references might have been a little over the top, but otherwise he was very eloquent."
"Snape then suggested Madam Pomfrey should drug you so you didn't wake up," Ron continued the explanation.
That didn't surprise Harry in the slightest.
"Then Dumbledore stepped in," Hermione took over again, "and pointed out that if anyone tried to prevent you from doing whatever you needed to do to restore your bond with Draco they would end up in Azkaban. That ended all discussions."
Just for a moment Harry let himself enjoy the mental image his friends' words conjured up and a smile played at his lips, but it did not last long. His awareness slipped back to the barrier between himself and Draco, like fingers picking at a scab. When he finally blinked and started thinking again, he realised several seconds had passed.
YOU ARE READING
Gold Tinted Spectacles (Hecatemus Book #1)
Fanfiction(Drarry) Harry Potter is about to enter his seventh year, and things are not quite what he expected. He is no longer the angry boy who watched his world fall apart at the end of his fifth year, but neither has he completely found his place yet. He i...
