Harry Potter & How Time Began

Chapter 7 - The Great Change

"My dearest; their is no such thing as lost -hurt maybe- but never lost" - Horatia McGonagal

She felt a hand touch her shoulder.
"Horatia" She heard.
Blinking a few time her eyes rested on the face of the nurse.
"Dumbledore will be here soon, would you like to sit up?" She wondered. Horatia nodded and yawned. Madam Pomfrey put a hand under Horatia head and helped her slowly up to a sitting position. Moving the pillow, she helped her slide back to lean against it, till she was comfortable.
"Thank you" Said Horatia. Her voice still half gone, Madam Pomfrey fetched her a glass of water and a small vile of potion, it tasted of honey and soothed her throat. Madam Pomfrey then brought over a tray of breakfast foods, oatmeal with one spoonful of sugar, apple slices and a glass of pumpkin juice.

Her stomach ached from last night, but after bringing back up her dinner from the night previous, she was starving and ate slowly but surely. She was about half-ways through her meal when the hospital doors opened. Out stepped the lean figure of Dumbledore in dark blue robes, his eyes twinkling under his half-moon spectacles and a small smile on his ageing face. He held the door open for Remus , who slid in with worry in his tired eyes. Lilly came last , her red hair falling behind her as she and Remus scampered over.
"Horatia" Remus said in a gasp. She smiled at him. "This is Lilly" He introduced.

"Here she was, the famous Lilly. I'd never met her previous, Severus refrained me to ever speaking to her. But now I understood why James and Severus gawked at her so much. Beautiful in all senses and stubborn as a mule"

"Thank you , to you both" She said, her voice still husky.
"Were just glad you're okay, I'm so sorry what happened to you, absolute toe-rags to do such a thing" Lilly replied. Horatia couldn't help but grin at that, she liked her very much.
"How exactly, excuse the phrasing, help? I know you did but how?" Horatia wondered.
"Well you see, I had a rather nasty feeling and I left to go to the kitchens to get a glass of water, that's when I saw a lot of Slytherin's leave the castle, I only saw four" Remus said.
She knew for a fact there was more than four.
"I saw him sneak out, so I wanted to see what he was up to, thinking it was a prank for James and Sirius" Lilly rolls her eyes. "But turned it , it was certainly no prank, he told me what he saw and we immediately went to Dumbledore"
"That's when we went to Hagrid's hut, to ask if he'd seen anything strange, he had obviously, so we all went to where Hagrid said he saw flashing lights, the lake, then we found you" Remus finished.
"Wow" Horatia paused for a moment, digesting the information.
"Yeah, pretty intense night" Remus smiled. "I'm just glad you're okay, we better go cause we'll be late for Professor Binns class"
Horatia nodded and thanked them again.
"You can most assured you have a  Slytherin friend" She said smiling to Lilly.
"And you , a Gryffindor" Lilly replied. Remus gave her a chocolate frog and left with Lilly.

Her attention then turned to Dumbledore.

"Do you mind?" He asked motioning toward the seat next to her bed.
"Of course not, please" She said immediately. "How may I help?"
"I have been a headmaster for many years, a teacher even more so, I know very well of the affects older, domineering personalities to those with the gentler heart" He sat and laced his fingers with his own, his beard curling on his lap. "I would like to ask, what happened, given in your confidence of course, your words never leave the confinement of the walls we sit in"
She paused, biting down on her lip.

"For a year I hadn't told a soul, kept to myself and here, a great wizard stood before me, willing to listen to me again, it was hard to believe, saying that anything Dumbledore did was hard to believe"

"Alright" She'd answered.
"When did the bulling begin , Horatia?"

With a deep breathe she began. From words to hits, from stabs in the back to trip ups. Everything they'd ever done to destroy her, she told and Dumbledore never uttered a word, his blue eyes glued to hers. Once she was done, she blew out a deep breathe, one she felt she was holding in for the entire year.