Harry knocked again on his grandfather's office. He had tried his rooms already and found he wasn't there. Harry was having a little difficulty in his essay about how the age of some plants could actually change their effects in potions. He could easily understand why a plant would get more or less potent but some actually changed their properties altogether. Like mandrake, if you used it too young it had a withering effect but if you waited until they were older then, they had restorative properties. And Harry couldn't understand why.
Normally he would go to Hermione for a point in the right direction but she was busy helping Ron understand their latest bit of Transfiguration homework. So Harry had tried to look for his grandfather to either explain it or to point him to the best books to read. But apparently, he wasn't in either his room or his office. Harry was a little curious about that but there were plenty of things that could have drawn him from his routine.
Harry gave up and was just about to head to the library and start researching the long way when he had a brain wave. It may be potions homework but it was on magical plants. Perhaps Professor Sprout would be able to point him in the right direction. So he turned around and headed for the greenhouses where the professor spent most of her time caring for the plants.
He found the professor in Greenhouse Three. He checked the hazardous warning sign to see if there was a warning about her repotting mandrakes or something but it was clear so he knocked and went in. He had to wait because the professor was helping a few of her Hufflepuffs with something. When they left the professor called him over. "Evening Mr Potter. What can I do for you?"
"I was hoping you would point me in the right direction. I have an assessment for potions and I'm a little confused. I tried to find Professor Potter but couldn't and as the question involves magical plants I was thought maybe you could help."
"Well I can't make any promises but I will help if I can. What is confusing you?" She asked.
Harry went on to explain about checking the age of certain harvested ingredients for potions as their properties can morph as they age.
"Ah I see your confusion. The plant's properties don't change at all. They have the same properties when they are saplings as when they are mighty trees. What you need to remember is that most magical plants have multiple properties. Those properties however aren't equal. A young mandrake has a withering property when it's young because it needs to defend itself when its Cry is too weak to defend it. Once it's Cry is developed however it doesn't need to keep putting energy into building up its withering property so it focuses the majority of its efforts into the restorative properties that help it grow better. One property gets stronger and the other gets weaker. They are separate properties, not one property transfiguring itself into another. For reference material try Daffy Dill's Guide to Magical Gardens."
Harry thanked the professor before turning around and heading for the library to look for the recommended book.
-ϟϟϟ-
Professor Sprout was humming to herself as she tended to her plants. She had just helped Mr. Potter with an inquiry and she was feeling rather proud of herself for being able to help. She was just watering her fanged geraniums when she heard a scream of pain. She immediately dropped the watering can she was using and rushed out of her greenhouse to see what was going on as it sounded like a student needed help.
It took her a minute because she wasn't sure exactly where the shout had come from but she soon found a student collapsed on the floor having some sort of fit. She rushed over to the student and looked to see who it was. It was Mr. Potter and he was unconscious and there was a strange knife sticking out of his shoulder. She had to stop herself from acting on her first instinct which was to pull out the knife. When she had become a teacher here the then mediwitch had made her go through some emergency training. She waved her wand over the wound attempting to scan it but the only answers she got made no sense. That was probably a good indication that the blade was cursed.
She let out a string of profanity under her breath that would have shocked her students if any of them had heard it and she levitated Mr Potter and rushed off to the hospital wing with Harry floating ahead of her as fast as she could.
-ϟϟϟ-
Charlus stormed into the hospital wing demanding to know what happened. Madam Pomfrey, who still had her hands full trying to keep Harry alive, told him to sit down and shut up or to get out of her hospital wing.
As Pomfrey got to work trying to isolate the effects of the knife she started to talk. "About twenty minutes ago Pomona brought him in with a knife in his shoulder. Initial scans show the knife is cursed. Tried to isolate the effects on the patient, discovered that the knife is slowly removing Mr Potter's blood. I administered a blood-replenishing potion and Mr. Potter's vitals stabilised. Tried to work on removing the knife but that proved impossible any attempt to remove the blade resulted in the knife flooding his body with a dark curse. As of right now removing the knife would kill him. The interesting thing though is the knife is also working to keep him alive."
Upon hearing that the knife was keeping Harry alive an alarm went off in Charlus's head. "What is happening to the blood the knife takes?"
"What? What does it matter? As long as we can keep his blood topped up with blood-replenishing potions that is the least of our concern." the healer asked.
"It matters because you-know-who restored himself to a body using Harry's blood. What if he is doing that again? We need to know if the blood is being destroyed or sent somewhere."
"Well, you will need to find someone else to help with that. I am a healer, not someone who specialises in cursed objects." And she went back to trying to figure out what exactly was happening to Harry and how she could remove the knife without it killing her patient.
Charlus immediately thought of curse breaker Williams and rushed out of the hospital wing. He headed right for the Headmaster's office as that was where he had left Williams less than twenty minutes ago when Pomona Sprout had barged into the office to inform the Headmaster of the incident and had told Charlus about what she knew when she found him in the office as well.
Luckily for Charlus, he found both Greengrass and Williams already about halfway to the hospital wing. The Headmaster said. "Charlus I have already called St Mungo's and the Aurors. We will do everything we can."
In a fit of paternal anxiety, Charlus didn't even acknowledge the Headmaster, that would have been a waste of time instead he focused entirely on Williams. "Harry has a cursed dagger stuck in his shoulder. It's either destroying or stealing his blood and if you try to remove the knife it will kill him. Please can you have a look and give me your professional opinion."
Williams nodded. "Of course. Let's go." And all three rushed back to the hospital wing.
-ϟϟϟ-
By the evening they knew little more. Curse breaker Williams had determined that the dagger was in fact stealing Harry's blood and in a method similar to a vanishing cabinet the blood was being sent somewhere. Charlus believed the blood was being sent to Voldemort and the D.M.L.E and all the other people he shared the belief with agreed that it was the most likely situation. Harry had been transferred to St Mungo's where he could receive around-the-clock care and where they had better equipment to deal with any complications that could happen.
The biggest cause for concern among the healers right now was that Harry hadn't regained consciousness yet. Apparently, there was nothing in his injuries to explain why he hadn't woken up yet and any attempt to define a reason from scanning the dagger was scrambled. So they didn't know how to wake him or how the knife was keeping him unconscious.
Williams had been allowed to take some scans of the knife himself, mostly because as a curse breaker he knew some spells for identifying dark magical artefacts that healers didn't and Charlus had insisted. Unfortunately, the dark arts weren't as well known as medical magic. People who created dark spells and rituals tried to keep them secret, unlike medicine where breakthroughs and new understandings were normally published and distributed to healers worldwide. There was a lot of acclaim to be had in their community for discovering something new and sharing it. Finding anything on a dark artefact often included a lot of research so Williams took the results of his scans and went to look through a library he had access to to look for anything he could to help.
-ϟϟϟ-
Back at Hogwarts Ron and Hermione were freaking out. Harry had been missing most of the day and when they had tried to find him by borrowing the marauders' map he wasn't anywhere on it and neither was Uncle Charlus. The fact that neither of them was on the map had solidified in their minds that something had happened. They were just about to go and start asking around to see if anyone knew any when Headmaster Greengrass and Professor McGonagall came walking into the common room and asked to see the two of them.
The professors lead them to a nearby classroom that was empty when they arrived. After having the two teens take a seat they explained what they knew about what had happened to Harry. At hearing that Harry had been stabbed by a cursed blade Hermione broke down into a sobbing wreck. She buried her head in Ron's chest who himself looked devastated.
The two adults explained that Harry was unconscious but stable and that he was at St Mungo's for treatment. The two teens were a little better after hearing that Harry was stable but not overly so which was understandable considering Harry apparently still had a knife in his chest.
Hermione demanded to be allowed to go see Harry but was told she couldn't go. Hermione wasn't prepared to accept no for an answer. She tried to demand, she tried to beg, she tried to threaten the two adults. But it was all for nothing, their answer didn't change.
The only reason Hermione wasn't in any trouble was because the professors knew Hermione was scared and was lashing out at them. They knew that without the stress of the situation she would never speak to them this way. McGonagall was going to give the girl a detention once everything had cooled down but it was just going to be a friendly conversation about keeping one's temper in stressful situations.
The Headmaster's response was far more practical. He handed Hermione and Ron each a vial of potion. "They are just claiming drafts from Madam Pomfrey. Drink up."
Both teens did and immediately Hermione calmed down and started apologising to the two adults even if between apologies she was still begging to be allowed to go to the hospital to see Harry.
The answer remained the same and the two teens were advised to return to their common rooms. As soon as Ron and Hermione were away from the teachers Hermione started dragging Ron downstairs.
"Where are we going?" Ron asked.
"St Mungo's. Obviously." Answered Hermione.
"How? It's not like we can break into one of the professor's offices and use the floo."
"Why not?" Asked Hermione.
"Because they are locked," Ron said.
"And we both know how to unlock Uncle Charlus's office. He has a floo we can use." Hermione reminded him.
Unfortunately for them, it appeared that either Professor McGonagall or Headmaster Greengrass had thought of that and they had added an age line across the door. A quick look was enough to tell Hermione that no one under the age of twenty-one was getting into the office until that line was dispelled, something that could only be done from the other side.
So Hermione changed their direction. "Where are we going now?" Ron asked, the potion still keeping him from freaking out.
"The statue of the one-eyed witch with a hump. Harry said that there was a passage from there to Hogsmeade. Remember third year when Harry met us in Hogsmeade?"
"Doesn't that need a password?"
"Yes, one Harry got from the map. The same map you currently have in your pocket." She explained
Ron nodded along. "Okay but how do we get from Hogsmeade to St Mungo's?"
"We apparate there." Said Hermione, the calming potion not enough to completely keep the determination off her face.
"Um, you can't apparate to somewhere you have never been before." Ron offered.
"Ron I live in London do you really think I haven't been to Tottenham Court Road dozens of times before." Hermione scoffed.
"I haven't." Said, Ron.
"Then I will just have to guide you," Hermione said fully confident she could do just that.
They were far luckier with the passageway than they were with Professor Potter's office and the two walked the two miles to Hogsmeade underground even more cramped and bent double than Harry had complained about during their third year. Which made sense; thirteen-year-old Harry was short and scrawny for his age. Sixteen-year-old Hermione and fifteen-year-old Ron were quite a bit bigger than Harry was.
"Wait, is this the basement of honeydukes? Asked Ron as climbed up a trap door from the passage and he looked around seeing all the stock of the sweet shop.
"Yeah, now come on let's go. I don't want to be seen."
"Too late for that missy. What do you want here?"
Hermione looked around and saw a wizard on the stairs. Either they had gotten incredibly unlucky or they had tripped an alarm for the man to have found them so quickly. The two of them hadn't made enough noise to justify them being caught any other way. She quickly looked around and noticed two things. Once there was a till down here, it looked like it was just stored here but when Hermione put it together with the fact that the doorway to the tunnel was in no way hidden from this side she jumped to a conclusion. "So this is where the Weasley twins buy everything for the parties." The man winced telling Hermione she had hit the nail on the head. That was fine by her though it meant this man wasn't against a little harmless rule-breaking.
"We aren't here to steal from you if that's what you're worried about. We are seeking a way out of the school to visit a friend. Actually, maybe you'd be willing to help, if we could borrow your floo I could pay you for it."
The man thought about it for a minute before he agreed for two galleons each he would let them use his floo this evening and to floo back as well. Hermione dug through her pockets and pulled out a little coin purse and handed the man the four galleons. He showed them to where his floo was and gave them the password to get back.
The two teens wasted no time flooing to St Mungo's visitors' floo. Ron had told Hermione it was important to specify visitors floo, the other floo was the emergency floo. There were mediwizards on standby by the other and they assumed if you came through that floo you needed immediate help and if you didn't they would get rather angry at you for wasting their time.
They stepped out of the floo into a side room that was next to where people checked in. There was a queue of people who all looked like they had minor injuries or the results of a magical mishap. There was a man with a balloon for a nose, a woman who had her head transfigured into that of a dog, and a little boy with his mother crying as he cradled his arm. There was a sign on the wall that read:
Ground floor: Artefact Accidents
First floor: Serious Bites
Second floor: Magical Bugs
Third floor: Potions and Poisons
Fourth floor: Long-Term Care
Fifth floor: Visitors Tea Room
"Right, so it's this floor, this way." Said Hermione as she grabbed hold of Ron and started pulling him along a narrow corridor leading away from the sign-in desk. The corridor was lined with portraits of famous Healers and lit by crystal bubbles full of candles that floated up on the ceiling, looking like giant soapsuds with pools of melted wax in the bottom. Witches and wizards in lime-green robes bustled about carrying parchment work or vials of strange potions.
Hermione walked up to a desk that had a mediwitch managing a pile of documents and asked. "We are looking for Harry Potter's room."
"Are you family?" The woman asked not batting an eye at Harry's name.
"I'm a member of the House of Potter. I believe the House Warlock is already with him" Answered Hermione.
The woman nodded. "Mr Potter is currently in the care of the healers. There is a waiting room down that corridor and then on the left."
Hermione nodded her thanks and pulled Ron along behind her eager to get to Harry as soon as she could. Almost as soon as they rounded the corner, they saw Charlus pacing back and forth in the waiting area. Both teens rushed up and Ron was the first to ask. "What's happened since you left?"
Charlus was surprised to see the two of them but told them what he knew. "Harry was stabbed by a cursed blade. It's somehow keeping him unconscious and is stealing his blood. The healers are trying to remove it but every time they try the dagger tries to kill him. They are keeping him stable right now but they don't know what they are going to do." It was obvious that the man was on the edge of falling apart.
There were a bunch of questions like do they know where the blood is going or do they know who stabbed Harry but the answers were all variations on not knowing. The three of them settled down to wait.
They were there for two hours and still waiting when a rather pissed off Professor McGonagall walked in. "I told the two of you that you weren't to leave the school." As angry as she obviously was, she didn't shout.
Hermione just shrugged and said. "Harry's here." As though that explained everything.
The Transfiguration Professor sat in one of the empty chairs and asked. "Is there any new news?" At which Charlus shook his head.
McGonagall then summoned her patronus and said to it. "Go tell Headmaster Greengrass 'That Weasley and Granger are here at the hospital, no change on Potter." Then the cat ran into the wall and disappeared.
It was another hour before a healer came to talk to Charlus. "While I can't say there is good news there isn't really bad news either. Your boy is completely stable, as long as he drinks a blood-replenishing potion every ten hours we don't foresee him losing ground. But he is still unconscious and we can't figure out how to remove the dagger without it trying to kill him. But because he is stable we have the time to look for a solution. We will of course be keeping him here until we can find a way to release him."
Soon after that Harry was moved to a room in the ward where he would be monitored. Hermione and Ron got to see him and he looked incredibly pale and fragile laying there in the hospital bed. It was even worse for the two than if they hadn't seen him because to them Harry was the strongest one, the one who even if he wasn't always the life of the party was always very much full of life. A force of nature that it took incredible power to stop once he was going. He had fought a dragon and had been joking about the taste of the potions afterward. This pale deflated Harry looked like he could be taken from them at any moment.
Charlus told Professor McGonagall that he would probably be away from work for the next few days and asked her to see Hermione and Ron safely back to the school. Hermione and Ron had both protested and said they wanted to stay but both Charlus and McGonagall were firm. Hermione had given Harry a quick kiss and told him he needed to get better before the two teens were forced to leave
After they flooed back to the school both Hermione and Ron were lectured on leaving the school without permission by the Headmaster, though he was understanding they hadn't broken out to visit Hogsmeade to cause mischief, they had visited a friend in the hospital. They still both lost thirty points and were given detention on Saturday.
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry's mind wasn't as unconscious as everyone thought. He couldn't feel his body, he couldn't see, and he couldn't move, but he was aware. It was as though he was floating in a black empty void, with nothing to see, nothing to hear, and nothing to do. A lot of people would have given up in that situation completely locked off from the world except for three things.
One: he knew he was alive, he had experienced death and this wasn't it. Two: he knew he was stabbed and even who had stabbed him and Harry wasn't going to let them get away with it. And three: he still had his sense of smell. For a while now he had been smelling the smell of hospital and for a short time, he got a strong smell of Hermione's perfume like it was right in front of his face. Now he could smell a mix of aftershave and brewing potions that he associated with his grandfather. There were people rooting for him, he couldn't give up.
So Harry tried to reach down into his magic and find what was wrong. Having never done anything like this before he failed miserably. But practice makes perfect, and what else did he have to do?
-ϟϟϟ-
Sirius arrived back at the manor that evening, he had been spending the evening in the bank arranging the purchase of a property that was well away from everyone, having it connected to the floo network and having it warded to high hell. A place for them to keep and study the Horcrux. He found a letter from Charlus waiting for him, he assumed it was more instructions on things they needed for securing the Locket but he was wrong. It was of course about what happened to Harry. Sirius didn't even finish reading the letter before he was diving back through the floo calling out the name of the hospital as he did so.
-ϟϟϟ-
In a hideout halfway across the country, Voldemort sat in his chair surrounded by a number of Inferi he had finished raising that day and smiled as he watched himself in the mirror. It was slow but he could actually see the dead flesh slowly receding and being replaced with living skin.
"Young Draco must have been successful in his mission. When the time comes I shall have to reward him. Parkinson!"
At his call, a young man not even twenty-five years old yet, too young to have been a Death Eater but whose family had always been loyal to the cause, came rushing in fighting not to react to the smell of putrid flesh. "Yes, my Lord?" And the youth bowed deep. Randall Parkinson was too young to have been one of the Death Eaters' last tie but that meant he hadn't had the dark mark to respond to during Voldemort's resurrection. That night he was one of the very few loyal followers Voldemort had outside of Azkaban.
"Report. How are our forces looking for the planned assault?" Voldemort demanded
"Sir, the Azkaban forces number one hundred dementors and twenty-one guards who work in three shifts of eight hours and seven guards on patrol. As inferi are immune to the effects of dementors, having no emotions or soul but are physically weaker, you wanted four inferi for each dementor and due to our deficit of wands, you wanted six for each guard. Of the minimum of five hundred and twenty-six inferi you wanted we have three hundred and ninety. Getting enough corpses without raising any suspension has made the collection slower than we hoped but we are on track to be ready for the assault by your deadline."
"Excellent, and the items I wanted?"
"All ready sir." Randle Parkinson answered.
"Perfect. Soon they will all realise that I am the most powerful man alive and that nothing they can do will be able to stop me."