Harry Potter

HP Short 2

"Who is that?"

"I don't know I've never seen her."

"Is she dead?"

"What's happened?"

People gathered around the courtyard, staring and whispering about the girl laying on the ground. Her blonde hair was splayed out, her leg looked bent in a painfully wrong way, and there was a trickle of blood trailing from her mouth.

McGonagall and Snape pushed their way through the crowd of students, McGonagall kneeling down by the girl. She looked up at Snape with wide eyes.

"We need to take this girl to Madame Pomfrey, now," McGonagall said and Snape wordlessly picked her up, starting towards the hospital wing. The students started, curiously, after them but McGonagall put a hand up. "Everyone move on about your day, do not follow Professor Snape and if I catch anyone trying to sneak a peek they will have dentition," she said and the crowd dispersed. She saw a familiar trio of students lingering and shook her head, smiling.

"You should've died"

"Stupid bitch can't even die"

"No one wants you here, next time, do a flip"

"You're so worthless"

She woke up silently and the thoughts came flooding back. She looked around and realized she was still very much alive and the tears rushed out before she could do anything. The sobs racked her body and she frantically wiped at her eyes, trying to stop before Pomfrey came back. She took some deep breaths and looked around, seeing no one. She got up and started towards the door very aware of the limp she was sporting, but ignored it. She peeked around the door, making sure no one was around, and started running in the direction of the Astronomy Tower. She fully intended to jump off the tower to make sure it worked this time. What she didn't expect was to run, quite literally, into Neville Longbottom.

She was knocked down due to the fact that she was already extremely weak, and Neville was quite tall. He stumbled a bit and was about to apologize when he noticed who it was.

"I am so sor- aren't you that girl who fell off a balcony into the courtyard?" he asked. She struggled to get up and as he said that her eyes teared a little at the reminder of her failed attempt. "Wait a second. What are you doing out of the hospital wing?" he asked getting suspicious. Her eyes went wide. She started scrambling to get away and finally got her feet under her and started backing away from him.

"Please don't tell anyone. Please just let me die. I can't go back. I can't stay," she pleaded and took a step towards her. Tears started flowing and a look dawned on Neville's face. He started towards her quickly and made to grab her but she started running.

"GET BACK HERE," he yelled but she kept running. In her frantic get away she ran right into a courtyard full of students. "Somebody stop her!" Neville yelled and everyone looked at him. She turned around to see everyone finding her and looking with confusion. She watched as recognition seemed register on people's faces and she started sweating. She took off without a word and ignored the searing pain in her leg. She ran all the way to the tower and thought she'd make it but ran into someone else. She started to scramble to her feet when she caught the person's face.

Draco Malfoy.

He was the one reason she ever doubted suicide.

More tears slid down her cheeks and he looked at her with a blank face.

"He'll never love you, let alone like you"

"He hates you"

"You're nothing to him, see? He doesn't even know who you are"

"Just walk right past him and jump, we want a show"

"GRAB HER," a voice jolted her out of her thoughts. She turned back to see Neville along with Professor McGonagall and a crowd of students behind them coming towards her. She knew Draco didn't care about anyone other than himself so she thought she'd be free.

She vaguely heard someone yell "SHE'S GONNA KILL HERSELF" but she pushed past him and ran up the stairs as fast as her limp let her anyways. As she put her right foot on the landing a hand caught her left ankle. The action pulled her down but she started crawling away. She shook her ankle free and somehow got to her feet.

She thought that was it.

But then as she neared the edge a hand grabbed her arm.

"NO," she yelled as she got yanked away from the railing. "PLEASE LET ME DIE," she sobbed. The hand turned into an arm across her chest from behind which turned into two arms pulling her against a chest. She sank to the ground but the person just sat with her. "JUST LET ME GO," she cried as the person held onto her, making her attempts to crawl away futile. "Please just let me die," she stopped trying and let the person hold her close to their chest while rocking them back and forth. She sobbed as they shushed her gently, running their hand through her hair countless times.

Neville wasn't the only confused person in the room. McGonagall, Snape, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were also watching the strange scene in front of them. Draco Malfoy showing emotion, especially towards a very distraught Gryffindor, was unfathomable. But there they were, watching him be as gentle as ever and calm the poor girl from hysteria to dull cries. It was quite extraordinary. They realized the girl was no longer making any sound and figured she was asleep.

"Malfoy, that girl needs to go back to the hospital wing," McGonagall said finally and he looked for the first since they'd sat down. He seemed to realize where they were and almost shoved her away from him. Pomfrey had gotten there by then and she laid her gently on the ground. Draco got up quickly and cast his gaze over everyone before stalking out of the tower.

Next time she woke up, the first thing she saw was Ron Weasley. The memories came rushing back and she groaned, refusing to cry. She'd failed again except this time Draco was there and that only made it worse. He saw her at rock bottom, he saw her at her worst and she hated that.

"She's awake guys," Ron said and she looked over to see Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom. She was confused, to say the least. No one at the school had paid her any attention during all her years there leading up to this and now suddenly the golden trio was at her bedside like they knew who she was. She rolled over and tried to fall back asleep, at least then she was conscious about what she did. But then Pomfrey was tending to her, she fixed her leg, and apparently had already fixed broken ribs from when she jumped into courtyard. Once she was deemed physically healthy enough she was being sent to Dumbledore's office with the golden trio plus Neville following her. She started at her hands on the way there, students stated as she walked past, and she felt even more like an outcast. Once she was in Dumbledore's office Harry and his friends left, reluctantly. She immediately downplayed it to them wanting to see what they were going to do with such a freak. McGonagall and Snape were in the office too and they were discussing her as she sat quietly off to the side.

"I don't trust her to stay safe on her own," McGonagall said.

"What do we do then?" Dumbledore asked.

"You could have Potter watch over her. Seems fitting with the way he acts," Snape drawled.

"But Pomfrey said she had self-harm marks, how can Harry watch over her if he's a boy?" McGonagall asked.

"Granger is a girl," he responded.

"Do they room together?" McGonagall asked Dumbledore. He shook his head.