take a deep breath
count to ten
ϟ
Harry glided over the grounds of Hogwarts on his broom. He watched the lights shine from the windows of the castle onto the grounds outside. He watched as a cloaked figure made its way into the forest.
He knew it was Snape by the way he dressed. By the way he strode into the abyss. He knew it, and that's why he followed him into the forest.
It was difficult to keep an eye on Snape, but Harry followed him into a clearing in the middle of the woods. Harry landed in one of the birch trees quietly and watched as Snape approached another figure, the stuttering
Professor Quirrell.
"...d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus..."
Harry was trying his best to listen to their conversation. He concentrated on every word they said but he was too far away.
"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private," Snape said coldly. "Students aren't supposed to know about the Philosopher's Stone at all."
Harry's heart skipped a beat and he leaned forward to listen more intently. Perry had been right. She had put all the right pieces into place. Harry smiled to himself as he leaned forward to try and hear what Quirrell was muttering.
"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?" Snape asked dryly.
"B-b-but Severus, I—"
"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," Snape said taking a menacing step towards him.
"I-I don't know what you mean—"
"You know perfectly well what I mean," Snape interrupted.
Harry had lent too close to the conversation and almost fell out of the tree. His quick reflexes helped him not fall to his death. By the time he recuperated himself he had missed a large portion of the conversation.
"—your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."
"B-but I d-d-don't—"
"Very well," Snape interrupted once again. "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decide where where your loyalties lie."
Snape turned dramatically and strode out of the forest. Harry waited a few minutes before hopping on his broom and riding off in the distance.
Around him the world turned blurry. The starry night was filled with dark thunderclouds and green lightning. All colors except for the clouds mixed together in a swirl of catastrophe.
"Persephone—"
An icy whisper called out something incoherent. Screams intensified while popping thundered. Footsteps echoed as a baby cried. A very bright, blurry image of someone running played in view. Slurred words spilled out from some unknown mouth. Suddenly the world went dark and all that could be heard was the piercing cry of a baby.
"Perry, Perry, wake up!"
"Hey, hey, you're okay."
"Deep breaths. Deep breaths."
Perry let out a whimper as she looked up at the two faces staring down at her with tightly knit smiles. Perry moved her one free hand around as she looked from Alana to Cedric. She was breathing far too heavy.
Alana sat on the bed next to her, cupping a hand to Perry's face as she pushed her sweaty hair from her forehead. Cedric sat beside her with a book on his lap and one of his hands holding hers. Alana had a small smile on her face as she looked down at Perry and stroked her hair. Perry closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths while she squeezed Cedrics hand and the arm of the hospital bed.
"Why am I here," she said with a shaky voice.
"Well, you've been a bit sick the past few days, and on the way to the match yesterday you fainted," Alana explained.
"Everyone's really worried about you," Cedric said. "They'll be happy to know you're awake."
Perry shook her head. "The match?"
"Yeah," Cedric said. "Gryffindor verse Hufflepuff."
"Was it a good game?"
"Well," Alana said, "We didn't go."
"Because of me?"
"We were worried," Cedric said squeezing her hand. "Everyone still is. You wouldn't wake up and you were so with it the second before."
"We said we'd stay with you while everyone went to the game, and then take shifts with others as the night continued."
"What time is it? Who else came?"
"Well, it's—" Cedric looked at the watch on his free hand—"1:03 in the afternoon."
"I've been out for a day?" Perry asked dumbfounded.
"You took a hard hit to the head when you fainted," Cedric explained. Alana cringed from his words. Perry knew she was terrified of blood, so she wondered just how much she had lost. "Nothing that Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix."
Perry let her head fall back onto the pillow. She was getting hit with so much at once. What she had seen of Harry, her nightmare, her fainting and being out for a day— it was too much.
She lurched forward and Alana quickly grabbed the bowl off the side of the table and put it below her face. Perry let go of Cedric's hand as she held the bowl to her face. Alana rubbed her shoulder as she helped her hold the bowl and Cedric quickly grabbed her hair and pulled it back. Once she was done she sat back against the pillows and closed her eyes.
"Ced," Alana whispered from the bed, "I'm gonna go tell everyone she's awake, but I'm gonna make sure they wait till later to come visit. She needs to take it slow. Stay and make sure she gets the proper care."
Alana stood up, kissed Perry on the forehead, and walked out of the curtains. Perry's eyes followed her as she left before they landed on Cedric and his award winning smile.
He stood up, placed his book on the table, and took the spot Alana was sitting before.
"Hey, Ced."
"Yes, Seph," he said tapping her on the nose.
"What do—"
"Madam Pomfrey says you have the flu," he said.
"How did you—"
"Guess I just know you well enough now," he said flashing a smile at her. Then a certain look took his face. Perry hadn't seen this on his face yet. He looked like he was battling himself. He took a deep breath and looked at her with concern troubling his handsome features, "Seph, Madam Pomfrey said she didn't think the flu was the entire reason for you passing out. She said it could have gave you dizziness and made you light headed, but other factors would have to be in play for you to faint."
Perry broke eye contact with him the second he started speaking again. She couldn't explain. She didn't know how to explain.
"You don't have to tell me now if you don't want to, Seph," Cedric said tucking a stray hair behind her face, "But I'm worried about you, and I'm here to talk."
Perry nodded. Could she tell him about the nightmares? They were nothing new to her. She'd been having them for as long as she can remember. They had just gotten worse lately.
"Hey, who won the match?" Perry asked, brining up a new topic.
"Gryffindor," Cedric said, "When Harry comes to visit you he can tell you all about it."
"I'm sorry," she said taking his hand.
"It sucks Hufflepuff lost," he said, "But it's not like I was playing. Actually, I was thinking about trying out next year. What do you think?"
"You should do it!" Perry said springing up in her bed. "You'd be the best! Plus all the girls that boggle at you wouldn't be able to resist."
"Hey, hey, hey," he said grabbing her by the shoulders and lowering her back onto the pillows. "You're going to cause yourself to throw up again."
She rolled her eyes and smiled at him. She could tell she was sweating a ton. The roots of her hair were pretty wet. Cedric took her hand again and rubbed circles around her knuckle with his hand.
"Hey, Ced?" she asked.
"Hmm," he said looking up at her with his grey eyes.
"Will you read to me?" she asked with a tiny smile on her face.
"Any time," he said grabbing the book off the table and tapping his fingers on the cover. "The Song of Five by Argus Raken. Ever read it?"
"Nope," Perry said looking up at him, "But I'm intrigued."
"It was a normal day," he began to read, "as long as you ignore the fact that it wasn't."
ϟ
"Perry!" Harry screamed as he pushed away the curtains.
Perry looked up to meet Harry's eyes. Cedric put a bookmark in the book and closed the book before standing up.
"I'll see you later," Cedric said as he messed with her hair.
"Bye, Ced," she called out, "Thank you!"
"Perry, I was so worried," Harry said rushing up next to her. Ron and Hermione then came running in behind him.
"We— can't— run that— fast," Hermione said panting.
"Perry, you'll never believe it!" Harry whisper shouted.
"You won the quidditch match!" Perry exclaimed reaching out and holding both his hands.
"Well, yes, and I'll tell you all about that later, but there's something else," Harry said just as excited. "After Gryffindor won, I was flying around on my Nimbus Two Thousand and I saw Snape walking into the forest alone. So I was thinking that's odd, and I followed him. And in the forest you'll never guess who else I saw—"
"Professor Quirrell standing in a dark clearing; waiting for Snape to arrive so they can talk about the Philosopher's Stone?"
"H-How did you—"
"I saw it," she explained, still holding his hands, "When I was sleeping. I saw it all like a weird dream."
"A vision!"
"I guess," Perry shrugged. "It was weird. Like you were in my brain, but I wasn't seeing from your perspective."
"Just another way to thicken the plot of Harry Potter and Persephone: The Boy and Girl who lived," Harry said dramatically.
Perry giggled from Harry's statement. Ron and Hermione then approached the bed.
"How are you feeling, Perry?" Hermione asked as she stood at the end of the bed. Ron stood on the side next to Harry.
"A lot better," she said. "Madam Pomfrey gave me this disgusting medicine, but it seems to be doing the trick."
"Good," Hermione and Ron said at the same time. They shared a quick look and Hermione blushed.
"Any more information on Nicholas Flamel?"
"Well," Hermione started, "Other than what Harry overheard, no. He did tell you about what he overheard, right?"
"Of course, he did," Perry said smiling up at Harry.
"Told her every word," Harry said.
"Anyways, I want to hear all about the match!" Perry said excitedly.
"Right before the match, Wood came over and told the team the best way for us to win this match would be keeping out of troubling and counting on me to find the snitch. So, obviously, I felt a lot of pressure to preform, but I also knew I wanted to come visit you and be able to tell you all about how well the match went. So Snape started the match, and all the chasers went after the quaffle. Of course, Snape called a penalty on Gryffindor for every little act of fierceness."
"But then I saw it, a tiny flash of gold was flying towards the bottom of the pitch. I flew faster than Snape could blow his whistle to call a penalty. I'm sure Snape had a look of terror as I dove past him in scarlet to catch the snitch. As I was nearing the bottom I reached my hand out and I stretched, stretched, stretched, and then in my hand I felt the golden little ball."
The best parts of the whole recap were the wild hand gestures Harry was using to tell his heroic story.
"And in the stands, Malfoy was making fun of Neville and Harry from behind us," Ron added. "So at one point I was so fed up with him, that I tackled him!"
"Really?" Perry said while her eyes shot wide open.
"Yep, and it was the highlight of the match," a voice said entering through the curtains.
"Tori!" Perry squealed and the girl ran up and gave her a massive hug.
Viktorija pulled away and looked to Ron, "But seriously, that was amazing. Oh—" she said turning back to Perry—"and don't worry. I've been making fun of Draco for it every second I've got the chance. I almost pulled a Perry when he commented on you fainting."
"Pulled a Perry?"Harry asked.
"Punching Malfoy," the two Slytherin girls chorused.
The two Gryffindor boys let out a loud laugh while Hermione shook her head in disapproval. Perry was happy Viktorija was able to befriend—or at least be nice to— her Gryffindor friends so easily. Too be fair, Viktorija was so chill she'd be able to be friends with anybody who acted like themself, because she was certainly not someone to fake who she is.
"Well, I brought you a change of clothes for when Madam Pomfrey dismisses you," Viktorija said.
"Thanks, Tori," she said grabbing the clothes.
Viktorija shrugged.
"This isn't my shirt," Perry said holding up a nice, navy blue; long sleeve shirt.
"Oh, yeah," Viktorija said seating herself on the arm of the hospital bed and plopping her feat next to Perry on the bed. "All of yours are ugly and ancient so I took one of mine. You can keep it. I have too many and I never wear that one."
"Thank you," Perry said.
"You can thank my Aunt Petunia for Perry's luxurious closet of clothes," Harry said sarcastically.
"Big words for you, Harry," Perry said causing a snicker from the other three.
Harry scrunched up his nose and playfully flicked her in the cheek.
After their laughing died down Viktorija spoke again, "You said the Dursley's hate magic, correct?"
"Yeah," Perry confirmed. "They hid it from Harry and I for eleven years."
"Intriguing," Viktorija said picking up Perry's uneaten apple and examining it in her hand.
"Why?" Perry asked with an eyebrow raised.
"I don't know," Viktorija said. "Might be a little fun to see just how much they hate it, if you get what I mean."
"Oh, we get what you mean," said the voice of Fred, who had just walked through the curtains followed by George.
"We wouldn't mind helping you with that," George said standing behind her.
Right then Madam Pomfrey peered her head in to count how many visitors Perry had.
"Six visitors, Poppy," Fred started.
"Don't worry we know the rules," George continued.
Madam Pomfrey raised her eyebrows at the twins before shaking her head and stalking off.
"Nut case that one is," Fred said crouching beside the bed.
"You say that about every staff member, Freddie," Perry said and everyone laughed.
"Well if they're willing to look after hundreds of children for their whole life they've got to have at least one screw loose," Fred explained which caused more laughing.
"Now," George started, "We came to gather you all for dinner. Feeling up to it, ickle Perry?"
Perry smiled, "If you all would leave me alone to change I'd already be ready to go."
"Okay, okay," Fred said raising his hands in mock surrender. "We'll all get moving."
The six students made an exit through the curtains so Perry could change out of the hospital gown she was in. As she changed, Perry couldn't help but to feel so lucky she had such amazing people that cared about her.
I'm not one to leave authors notes but I thought you'd all want to her about this. I'm from the United States and I traveled to London over the holidays for my cousins wedding. He had it in the most spectacular place. The whole wedding took place inside a room they used to film some of the Great Hall scenes in and it was the best experience of my life. It's so much more magnificent than I ever imagined. I felt like I was at the Yule Ball when I was dancing around in my long dress. Best day of my life.
I also visited the Harry Potter London Studio and I completely recommend it if you ever visit London. It was an unforgettable experience.
I also want to address that chapters may come a little slower now that I'm heading into midterms, but nevertheless I will be posting. Thank you for understanding.