Lord Of Time

29

Chapter 29

"Mr. Peverell!" Professor Slughorn boomed out as soon as Harry stepped foot in the Great Hall for lunch, all the Slytherin's refrained from cringing, he rarely called his favourites by their last name, and 'Hadrian' was definitely one of his favourites, right up next to Tom.

By the time Harry looked up, Slughorn was making a beeline for him, an unusually severe look on his normally joyful face. The Great Hall was silent watching the Head of Slytherin approach Hadrian, not wanting to miss anything that happened. So they heard his next words.

"What have I done now?" Harry cried out in exasperation. He'd expected Dumbledore to single him out or something, probably not in the Great Hall, but with just a small possibility. So seeing Slughorn so pissed off was a surprise, he stared perplexed as the wizard approached him.

"Follow me," Slughorn demanded; as soon as he got within ear shot of Hadrian, "You may go for lunch Tom," he dismissed his favourite, honestly most days they were like Siamese twins, never one without the other. He followed Hadrian when he turned to leave the Great Hall, looking quite puzzled.

"Do you have any idea what I've been doing for these past few hours?" Slughorn snapped, gazing at Hadrian with disappointment, exasperation and barely concealed worry.

Harry took a step back, frowning at his Head of House, utterly bewildered about what was going on, "Um...no?" he replied his green eyes brighter than normal showing everything through his expressive features.

"I've been searching every inch of this school for you! Where have you been?" Slughorn demanded, his anger draining at the uncomprehending look on Hadrian's face.

How bad was his life that someone trying to look out for him was completely unknown to the teenager?

"I just...um did some reading in an abandoned classroom," Harry replied, he couldn't very well say he had made a potion and helped Tom remove his trace now could he? Not even to Professor Slughorn, he still didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

"Do you not realize just how badly injured you were? You should never have left the hospital wing! Everyone has been fanatically worried about you!" Slughorn scolded, "I really should remove points for disobeying Healer Chang," here he pursed his lips, but he couldn't really do that since Hadrian didn't understand why this fuss was created by the looks on his face.

"If you are ever sent to the hospital wing again you do not leave until you have permission, is that understood? You could have taken a sudden turn or anything, and you had potions you were supposed to take." or worse still, the thought that he might have been kidnapped from under their noses.

"Err, I promise and I won't leave without permission, Sir," Harry said, why was a big deal being made? He'd snuck out of the hospital wing dozens of times in his own time and never once had anyone said anything.

Hell, Poppy hadn't even came after him once or asked the teachers to, and she did care about her patients...unless...she had complained to Dumbledore and the old wizard had just dismissed her? Or maybe McGonagall had dismissed her? "I'm really sorry I caused so much worry...I didn't think it mattered so much."

"Of course it does, you are under our care, and we care about all our students, now after lunch we shall get you to Healer Chang to make sure your escapade hasn't caused any damage." Slughorn said pointedly, he wouldn't take no for an answer. "As for the comments you made in the Great Hall..." he added getting stern again.

Harry cringed waiting for it; he was so embarrassed he had lost control like that.

"You were right, this was a serious incident and it should never have been swept under the rug..." Slughorn stated. The teachers were wondering what they'd been thinking quite frankly at wishing to forget it happened so quickly, what occurred had been very serious business indeed. It shouldn't have taken the victim of the attack to make them realize this; needless to say they felt terrible.