Everything Has Changed

Everything Has Changed ~ Chapter 35

I woke to somebody trying to feed a vile tasting liquid down my throat. I jumped into action, trying to push them away, but only succeeded in lightly batting at their arms.

“Eleanor, it’s okay, it’s me.”

My eyes focused to a familiar face. “Draco?”

“It’s okay, I was just trying to give you this potion. Madam Pomfrey says it will help to replace the blood you lost.”

“Lost…?” A twinge in my side brought my memory back. “Oh, right. The sectum-thing.” I took the flask from Draco and drank it. I already felt better than the last time I’d been awake.

“You’ve already had two doses. This one is your third,” Draco explained further. “It’s working. You don’t look as pale as death anymore.”

“How long was I been asleep?”

“About one hour.”

“What’s happened? Is there still fighting?” I couldn’t hear any.

Draco frowned a little. “You-Know-Who spoke another message. He got the Death Eaters to retreat. He’s given us one hour to…to recover, and for Potter to hand himself over, or next time he will come in himself.”

I noted Draco’s hesitation on the word ‘recover’. “To treat our wounded and…collect the dead,” I guessed sadly. “How many?”

“At least fifty dead for both sides. They’re still finding more. And too many wounded to count. Madam Pomfrey is treating people in the Great Hall, but you were asleep so she decided you could stay here.”

I felt a shiver run down my spine. Fifty dead…how many had been my classmates? My friends? I shuffled closer to Draco, who wrapped his arms around me.

“How long since You-Know-Who called the ceasefire?” I questioned.

“Half an hour, give or take.”

“I don’t want Harry to give himself up.”

Draco tensed. “If he doesn’t we’ll all be tortured or killed, or both.”

“I know that, but he can’t do it, not now. He’s our best hope.” I pressed my face into his chest. “Draco, I’m scared.”

“I’ll protect you,” he whispered. “I’ll do anything. I’ll give up my life to protect you, if I have to.”

I didn’t want to think about that. I hated the thought of Draco sacrificing himself for me. Instead, I turned the conversation to what Madam Pomfrey had said while she was treating me earlier.

“What did Madam Pomfrey mean when she said this had happened to you before?” I lifted my head to look at Draco.

He hesitated, then lifted up his shirt. I felt embarrassed for a moment, about to ask what on earth he was doing, but then I saw the scar.

It was pale, almost completely healed, but at that stage where it wouldn’t heal any further, not with any amount of magic. It ran diagonally across his chest, and I shuddered at the thought of how much it would have hurt.

“How…?”

“Remember last year, when I was in the hospital wing and nobody knew what happened? And people said Potter had been running around covered in blood?”

“There was a rumour he’d used Dark magic on you,” I said uncertainly. But nobody had ever thought it was more than a rumour, spread by the Slytherins! Harry Potter, practicing the Dark Arts? Impossible.

“It was sectumsempra.” He said it quietly, without conviction. In his eyes there was complete honesty – but also pain, when he looked at me. He knew what he was saying was beyond the impossible. He was certain I could never believe such a story.