Distortion (Book 2 of The Corruption Sequence)

Chapter 5 - Banshee

The other two wizards shared a look and Harry was pretty sure they thought he had gone over the edge.

"You can't let them take him to the Ministry tomorrow," he elucidated quickly, "there is..." he found he couldn't say it, "and he..." something stopped the words in his throat, "he's going to die," he finished without being able to explain at all.

"How do you know, Harry?" Remus asked in his usual calm tone.

Harry opened his mouth to tell his friend about the dream and nothing came out. He tried again to explain what he had seen and still no words.

"He's going to die," he said eventually, totally unable to express himself in any other way.

It was completely bizarre and yet he could not say anything else.

"Did you have a premonition, Harry?" Dumbledore asked kindly and Harry was never more relieved to have the perceptive old wizard around.

He nodded and gave up trying to speak when all that started in his throat was a peculiar little whine. The urge to scream what he knew from the nearest window was incredible and yet he could not even form a single word.

"The curse of the banshee," Dumbledore observed calmly; "the ability to predict death but being totally unable to communicate to prevent that death, being left with nothing but a deadly cry to announce their grief to the universe."

Harry opened his eyes in surprise. It all seemed to make sense when the headmaster explained it.

"Well done, My Boy," Dumbledore told him, "that must have taken great force of will. I shall go and explain the situation to the Ministry team, and I am sure other arrangements can be made."

Harry sagged with relief.

"All will be well, Harry," the headmaster said kindly, "don't you worry. Do try to get some more sleep. I suspect tomorrow is going to be a long day."

It was with almost complete certainty that he would not be sleeping again that night that Harry nodded anyway. He might be sitting up until dawn, but he did not want to cause anyone else the same discomfort.

"Thank you," he said quietly, his voice having returned now that he was no longer trying to speak about Malfoy.

"Are you going to be all right, Harry?" Remus asked in a concerned tone and Harry gave his friend a quick affirmative.

It was not going to be a fun night, and he needed to put some of his demons back where they belonged, but he would be okay. Knowing that Dumbledore would not allow anything to happen to one of his students, Harry sank back on to the bed as the two wizards left. He hoped fervently that he would not have these visions often.

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Breakfast arrived sometime after the sun came up, and the cheerful house elf presented him with the tray and basked in his thanks. He had the feeling that Malfoy house elves were not used to kind words from their masters. Some of the smells coming from the tray actually appealed to him, but other things, which he had been quite fond of, turned his stomach just to look at them. Eating carefully what his nose found appetising he picked his way round the breakfast tray and actually managed to enjoy it.

It wasn't until he had finished and was looking out of the window that anything odd occurred. Usually the house elf came back to pick up the tray, but this time the door opened and one of his Auror guards walked in. Harry held himself perfectly still and watched as the man looked at his half-eaten breakfast.

"You didn't eat your porridge," the Auror said in an almost conversational tone, "want me to leave it?"

"Um, no thank you," Harry replied, rather surprised that he had been spoken to.

"Anything else I can get you?" the man persisted, which Harry found very odd.

The couple of times he had seen his guards when the door opened to admit someone they had acted as if he didn't exist. That this wizard appeared to be trying to be pleasant caused all sorts of alarm bells to go off. Letting just a little of the creature within free he assessed his guard. Under the polite veneer the man was nervous and somewhat annoyed.

"No thank you," Harry replied evenly, "I'm not very hungry."

For a moment he thought the Auror might push the issue, but the man eventually nodded and picked up the tray. As his guard left and the door was once again closed, Harry let one of his aspects even closer to the surface and extended his hearing further than normal.

"He didn't eat the porridge," he heard the Auror say.

"But that McGonagall woman said it was his favourite, I heard her tell the house elf," the familiar tones of Caveo said in a very annoyed fashion. "How the hell are we supposed to put him out for the trip now?"

Harry found himself growling; they had tried to drug him.

It took a great deal of self-control not to wrench the door off its hinges and tell the Auror exactly what he thought of that idea. The wards had been strengthened since he'd decimated them, but he was not under the illusion they would hold him if he wanted out. Thanking his rebellious stomach for saving him from whatever concoction the Ministry people had decided to feed him, he sat down and tried to decide what he could do to prevent them trying again.