The Difference in Reality [A Harry Potter Fanfiction]

Year 3: Chapter 6

Willow gasped awake. She sat bolt upright, grasping her chest, calming down her breathing. Willow noticed the different feel of the ground underneath her. It was much softer than the quidditch stands...

That's when she realized she wasn't in the quidditch stands.

Her surroundings gradually came into focus. She was laying on a couch, which had some soil trails on it. The walls were made of tree trunks, the furniture was carved from bark that had grown right out of the ground, and everything was decorated with live plants. Willow blinked hard and recognized some of the titles on the book shelf, such as Lord of the Rings and The Iliad and the Odyssey. Clarity slapped her in the face so hard so rolled over and fell right off the couch with a grunt of pain.

"Willow!" a voice exclaimed.

She groaned, her entire body shivering in the chilly breeze. She'd never felt so weak, so drained. Even moving her arms felt like she was attempting to pick up the world. She tried to push herself off the ground, but her muscles strained, then gave out, landing her back on the soft-soiled floor. To her surprise, a pair of arms wrapped around her, lifted her up, and set her back on the couch. She groggily rubbed her eyes, her arms burning with the effort. A person lethargically came into focus.

"...Sirius?" she whispered.

"Yes, it's me," Sirius said, eyes glimmering oddly as he felt her forehead. "You're still blazing hot, you must have a fever. Those damn dementors...Don't move, your body isn't going to support you right now."

Willow furrowed her brow as he whisked himself off towards a cabinet. "How did I get here?"

"I got you here, how else?" Sirius replied over his shoulder, the sound of water being poured trickling into Willow's ears. He returned moments later with a cold washcloth. Sirius gently placed it on her head, taking care to brush her extra strands of hair out of the way. Willow shivered at the initial cold shock. It soon became clear to her that the water was lukewarm, and she was simply that feverish.

"Merlin's beard, you almost look white in the face, you've lost all your colour," he fretted. Sirius grabbed a nearby blanket and cast it around her. Willow immediately felt warmer, the November chill no longer icing over her skin. "Better?"

Willow nodded. "Did you see what happened at the game?"

"I saw all of it. Nearly gave me a heart attack when those bloody dementors showed up. Then Harry falling off his broom, and you, Willow, chasing them away like that...it was bloody stupid of you, but stupidly brave, I'll admit. If you could stop trying to get yourself killed in the end, people might actually write stories about you someday."

Willow weakly smiled. "I do some pretty dumb stuff."

"But has anyone ever told you that your heart's in the absolute perfect spot?" Sirius said. Willow looked at him questioningly. "Even though you know the dementors affect you- Merlin knows why- you still jumped in front of them to protect your friends. There were enough of them there, they could easily have sucked out your soul. But you did it anyway. That's extremely selfless of you, Willow."

She sheepishly smiled. "Mandy would call it self-destructive, but I like the way you put it better."

Sirius sighed. "It's a shame you lost the match, but what's most important is the fact that everyone's okay."

Willow gasped. "I didn't even ask about that! Is Mandy okay? Is Sam okay? Is Sally alright? What happened to Oliver?" Her heart leapt into her mouth. "Sirius! You could have been attacked at the match, too! Oh my God, why did I let you go? You could have been hurt, you could have been imprisoned, they could have sucked your soul out- "