A New Snake

Chapter 9

         

A name Harry had been dreading fell from the Headmaster's lips in a whisper and he felt all the flood rush from his face, "... Harry... Potter?"

A stiffening silence rung through the Hall as every face turned to him. His gripped the sleeves of his jumper. He tried to duck down, but another Slytherin pushed him forward and out of his seat. Lily grabbed his arm, "Go, Harry. I'll find you later. Just go now. There's no way that they'll make you compete." She gently urged him forward and he stumbled towards Dumbledore. He saw McGonagall looking at him with pity—probably seeing the utter terror on his face—and Snape looking at him with slight confusion in his eyes, though his face was more or less emotionless. Harry headed into the room with shaking legs. He felt like his heart was beating out of his chest and every step felt like he was dragging his feet through quicksand.

As soon as he was in the room with the door closed behind him, the original three Champions turned to look at him. Cedric was the first to speak, "Harry? What are you-"At that moment, Harry fell to the ground, shaking and clutching his knees. He was breathing heavily and Cedric quickly noticed that he had begun hyperventilating. The older boy ran to his side and wrapped his arms around the 14 year old. "Harry. Harry, I need you to calm down. Breath, Harry, Breath." It wasn't helping and Harry was getting dizzy, his vision was going black. "One of you!" Cedric called to the other two Champions, "Go and get Professor Snape. Tell him I need a Calming Drought as soon as possible. Go!" Krum decided to run out and get the Potions' professor. He came in very quickly. Luckily enough, he'd thought to have some vials of Calming Drought on him. He figured there might be some distressed students during the choosing. He never thought he would use one for this.

The door had been left open and the students closest to the door—in other words, mainly the Gryffindor table—could see what was happening.

Professor Snape quickly administered the Calming Drought as Cedric watched in in worry. When Harry came back to himself for a moment, he simply muttered—and if the potions master and Cedric hadn't been so close, they would have missed it—"Why do things always happen to me?" And he passed out. Snape had Madam Pomfrey take Harry through the floo in the room to the Hospital Wing.

When Harry woke up again, he was in the Hospital Wing and Lily was next to him wearing her uniform and sitting in a wooden chair. "I'm glad you're awake." She said calmly, though her eyes were worried. He sat up, wondering why he was in the infirmary. The memories came back to him faster than a golden snitch can fly. He was suddenly dizzy again and Lily made him lay back down. At that moment, Madam Pomfrey and Professor Snape came into the room talking quietly to themselves.

When the man looked up and saw them, he said, "Go on to class Lilith. I need to talk to Mr. Potter." She nodded, squeezed Harry's hand gently, took up her bag, and left. The professor sat in the seat just vacated by the girl and spoke, "Mr. Potter, did you put your name in the Goblet?" his voice was calm, and Harry was surprised to find no venom in his tone. He shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. "Did you have another student put it in for you?" Again, Harry shook his head as solemnly as he could. "Do you know why someone would enter you in the tournament?"

Harry scoffed, "With all due respect, Sir. People have been trying to kill me all my life. I expect that would be the motive of whoever decided to enter me." Snape only nodded understandingly, to Harry's surprise.

He asked, "Can't they take me out? I'm under seventeen, that's against the rules, isn't it, sir?"

Severus sighed, hunching over like something was weighing on his shoulders, "There's nothing anyone can do. You must participate or be stripped of your magic." Harry fell back against his pillows and Snape leaned back, rubbing the bridge of his nose between his fingers, "Your mother and I were friends once. Then I made a horrible mistake and we didn't talk anymore. Then, to my surprise, she offered to renew our friendship—only about two months or so before you were born. She allowed her husband and his three friends— as well as I— to see you after you were born. That evening, she asked me to swear on our friendship that I would take care of you. I could see in her eyes that she could feel a storm coming. Besides that fact, I swore to protect you. I have failed so miserably on that part. I was still so blinded by my dislike of your father in his Hogwarts age, that I kept forgetting your father as a husband and a dad. I forgot your mother in you and I didn't even give you a chance to prove otherwise." He took a deep breath, "I suppose what I'm trying to say is... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for leaving you hanging when you needed someone the most. I'm sorry for making incorrect, and groundless, assumptions about you, and I'm sorry that I can't protect you from this Tournament."

"You don't have to apologize. I understand that people do things the way they do because of something other people probably don't know about. Thank you for giving me more information about my mom and dad, but I understand that times get tough and sometimes people act against their better judgment. You can apologize if you want, and I'll accept it, but all I really needed was an honest explanation, because simple apologies do nothing for me. But answers help paint the world around me, they help create the bigger picture."

They sat there a short while before Professor Snape decided to give Harry the information Fleur, Cedric, and Krum had gotten the night before. Pomfrey told him when he's eaten lunch, he can return to classes and meals and to contact her if anything happens.

~ ~ ~ ~

When Harry went to dinner with Lily and the other Slytherins and got more stares than usual. He wouldn't look up. Why did he have to be chosen? Why did it have to be him?

When he sat down amoung his friends, Cedric and Hermione came to him. Hermione was the one to speak, "Can we sit here with you, Harry?" He looked around at the other Slytherins and, seeing that no one seemed to have any true feelings against it, so he nodded with a small smile.

He sat with an old friend and new friends and enjoyed his meal. He was a little embarrassed at his breakdown, but he tried his best not to think about it. And no one else seemed to want to bring it up either.

"So what are you two going to do about the first task?"

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