Fear of a Name

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Hospital Wing

"Do you think she's still alive?"
"Honestly Ronald, you can be very stupid sometimes. See how her chest's moving? That means she's breathing," I heard Hermione say, slightly impatiently. I could almost imagine her rolling her eyes in exasperation at Ron.
"But she's been out for over four days now! How do we know she's going to wake up?"

I tried to move but couldn't, it was as if I'd been immobilised. My whole body hurt, though I wasn't sure why, and I let my eyes painfully flutter open to see Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny around my bed, which I assumed was in the hospital wing.
"Ivory! You're awake!" Harry said in delight. "Are you ok?"
I sat up and winced.
"Ouch... yeah, apart from the fact everything hurts, I'm fine," I said, my voice still a little hoarse. "How did I get here?"
I cast my mind back, trying to remember, but the time between my mother using the Cruciatus Curse on me and when I'd woken up seemed to be missing.

"Lupin brought you, but he didn't tell anyone how he found you, where you were or what happened. He said he wasn't sure if you wanted us to know and that you would tell us if you did," Hermione replied, looking very much like she wanted to know.
"I... I don't think I can tell you," I said, and their faces fell. "Not now, anyway... maybe another time."
I could see they were disappointed, but I knew that by telling them what happened, I would be putting them in danger.

"What day is it?" I asked, a little disorientated.
"October twenty-third, Friday," Ginny told me, and I nodded.
"Merlin, we should go," Hermione said, looking at her watch. "I don't know about you, Ginny, but we've got Herbology first thing. It's going to take us at least ten minutes to get down to the greenhouses."
"I've got History of Magic," groaned Ginny. "Reckon Binns would notice if I skipped it?"
"Probably not, as he hasn't even noticed he's dead yet," I pointed out. "But I don't think McGonagall would be too pleased with you if she found out, which she would."
"I guess so," she said, sighing and picking up her bag, an action that was mirrored by the other three.
"See you later, Ivory!" said Hermione, smiling.
"Bye guys!" I replied, smiling back at them.

I heard Harry, Ron and Ginny talking about Quidditch as they left, and I could tell that Hermione was worrying that she was going to be late for her classes because she had to find somewhere to use her Time-Turner. Wincing slightly, I lay down again and reflected on what had happened on Sunday. There was no way I would ever willingly go back, not even for the summer; I would probably stay on some Muggle street or something. I didn't want to go through that again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Halloween morning, I woke up feeling slightly depressed that I couldn't go on the Hogsmeade trip with most of the rest of the school. Harry and I were, as far as we knew, the only people in our year who weren't going.

Sighing quietly, I got ready, walked down to breakfast, and sat next to Harry.
"Hi guys," I said flatly.
"Hey," Harry replied, just as flatly.
"We'll bring you both lots of sweets back from Honeydukes," said Hermione, looking desperately sorry for both of us.
"Yeah, loads," said Ron.
"Don't worry about us," Harry said, sounding a little depressed. "We'll see you at the feast. Have a good time."

We all went to the entrance hall, where the caretaker, Argus Filch, was stood at the door, making sure that only those with signed permission forms were going to the village.
"Staying here, Potter?" shouted Malfoy, who was waiting with Crabbe and Goyle. "And you, Riddle? Scared of passing the Dementors?"
We both ignored him and walked up the marble staircase, through empty corridors, and back to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Password?"
"Fortuna major," I said quickly.
As the portrait swung open on its hinges, Harry and I climbed through the hole behind it and into the Gryffindor common room, which was full of first and second years, as well as a few older students.
"Harry! Harry! Hi, Harry! Aren't you going to Hogsmeade, Harry? Why not? Hey, you can come and sit with us, if you like, Harry! Who's your friend, Harry?"
Merlin, this kid's annoying...

"I'm Ivory," I said. "And Harry doesn't want to sit with you, because I'm about to drag him to the library to do some homework. Sorry, kid."
"Yeah, sorry Colin," Harry apologised halfheartedly as I pulled him out of the common room again.
"What was the point of waking me up?" the Fat Lady called grumpily after us as we started to walk to the library.

"I'm really not in the mood to work right now, Harry," I said when we were halfway there. "Let's go do something else."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Harry agreed, nodding.
We turned around and found ourselves face to face with Filch, who eyed us suspiciously.
"What are you doing?" he snarled.
"Nothing," Harry said truthfully.
"Nothing!" spat Filch. "A likely story! Sneaking around on your own—"
Am I invisible or something?
"—why aren't you in Hogsmeade buying Stink Pellets and Belch Powder and Whizzing Worms like the rest of your nasty little friends?"
Harry shrugged, and I was too busy glaring at Filch to answer.
"Well, get back to your common room where you belong!" snapped Filch.

(A/n: WHOA I FINALLY UPDATED; I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!!!)