loyalotter | 16th Gryffindor Note [Written] / [Action for housemates plus Draco later]

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16th Gryffindor Note [Written] / [Action for housemates plus Draco later]

[Written]
[Early morning: Hermione's sitting at the dining room table with her journal and her notebook. There are a couple of ink blots where she's tried to write, but her hand is shaking too much. Eventually, she manages to get out what she needed.]

For those who have been here for a while. I know this is probably a silly question, but I admit I'm curious. After someone returns from the Malnosso, about how long do the effects take to wear off and how bad can those effects be? Call it a study, if you will.

[Action for housemates plus Draco later]
[It's been days since Harry got back from his mallynapping and he's steadily gotten worse. She's watched him flip out about Voldemort one too many times not to know that something is desperately wrong now. His scar's been hurting like it did all fifth year, and nothing anyone has said has done anything to help him. And now, when she just went in to check on him, she's noticed that he's asleep in his bed. But he looks sick. Something is so not right.

And what do you do when all else fails? Call on the DA. So, she's going to knock on each of your doors as soon as she can tell you're all awake. She looks about as worried as Hermione gets.]

"We need to talk. All of us. Something's wrong with Harry."

[And then it's down to the next person. She'll be waiting for you all at the dining room table, which is right under Harry's room so she can tell if something changes with him. Terri the otter will be waiting in the living room for you guys to lead you all to her when you get there, but the Patronus is flickering, like Hermione's having a tough time keeping her there. The witch has her notebook and journal open and she's scanning the pages of each, desperately searching for an answer. Feel free to threadjack into one action thread.]

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[Neville's shifting a bit at all this mention of You-Know-Who's name, because even though he's used to it from Harry and Hermione, he's not really used to it.] I can fill her in later when she's ready to hear it. [Because he knows his BFF well enough to understand she'll come flitting around when she's good and ready, and not a minute sooner.] Do you have any idea about how to fix what's been done to him? Do we need a countercurse?

He won't stop and I'm worried.

[Hermione nods at Neville's mention of Luna and finally lifts her head to look at both boys seriously. Not that she hasn't been serious before, but, well, this is definitely SERIOUS serious.]

Yes. I... I don't know exactly what's going on, but there's something else and I need you to promise you won't row or throw curses or other spells today. We need someone else's help. Just trust me, all right? Please.

[Her eyes are pleading, looking from one to the other. She's serious and she's worried.]

[For a second there, Ron's too worried to get what Hermione's getting at. Sure they need another person; that's what they'll be calling Luna in for, right? Why would he and Neville row about-

... wait. Bloody hell.

He narrows his eyes at her as he tries to think up other possibilities besides that awful one his brain cooked up.]

What someone else?

[And though Neville's been following the words exchanged between Hermione and Ron, he doesn't quite grasp the meaning until Ron reacted with anger. Ron's asked the important question though, and Neville watches her with a pensive stare. Hermione, what did you do?]

[...Oops. That was the reaction she expected and she sighs wearily, looking pleadingly at them both.]

You can row about it after Harry's okay again. You can row with me over it. I don't care. We need Harry to wake up again and for that we need- [Take a deep breath and just say it, Hermione.] -Malfoy.

[And she keeps going because she's pretty sure they're not going to listen to her if she doesn't. Unfortunately, they probably won't listen anyway. She has to try, though, right?] Please. Both of you. I have an idea, but it requires Malfoy. It requires all of us, really. And the more people we have, the better. It's only once and with any luck, Harry will wake up and that'll be the end of it. You know I wouldn't ask this if it wasn't serious. I want Harry to wake up as soon as possible. You both know I wouldn't let anything happen to him if I could stop it.

Edited 2010-06-29 14:43 (UTC)

[The mere mention of Malfoy's name sets Ron to fervently shaking his head. Honestly, what the hell had gone on here for Hermione to trust Malfoy with Harry's well-being? And to trust Malfoy before she trusts him? Or even Neville or Luna? No way, sorry, Ron's hurt to the core right now.]

You're off your trolley and you better bloody well know it. I'd rather have a waltz with the ghost of Aragog than live to see the day a Weasley accepts help from a Malfoy.

[Though... hearing this hair-brained scheme of Hermione's might not hurt.....]

What the hell do you need him for, anyway?

[/but while Ron is busy decrying it as a bad idea, Neville's at least listening, even if he hates what he's hearing.] Is there something in particular you think he can do to help that we can't? [Neville's still not convinced Draco didn't have a hand in putting Harry in that coma in the first place.]

[She winces at Ron's words, but she's still looking imploringly at them both.] Maybe I am off my rocker, but you always said that about Dumbledore, so you can't blame me too much. I think it's more that the presence of someone Harry's had problems with might be enough to help pull him back. First we're going to have to find out what's going on, but I'm not saying anything else until you promise not to blow each other up.

Besides, if it really is Voldemort, Malfoy will know how to find out. Out of all of us, he's the only one. We need his help.

[This is Hermione. This is Hermione lying through her teeth.]

[Ron presses his lips together, really wanting to scream and rant and maybe even shake Hermione a little. But if even Neville's keeping his calm, the least he could do is follow suit... for now, at least.]

So long's he doesn't try to push my buttons and I don't have to be in the same room with him for more than five seconds, your bloody precious Malfoy might get out of this in one piece. Assuming he actually proves useful.

Hermione's got a point, Ron. [Neville rests his elbows on the table, chin nestled in his folded hands.] He'll probably be less dangerous if he's here where we can see him, but we should also go in expecting a double cross. What we need is a backup.

[She's staying calm until Ron says something that makes her yell and shoot up out of her chair:] HE'S NOT MY 'BLOODY PRECIOUS MALFOY!'

[Technically he's Harry's. It takes her a minute to realise what she's just done and she blinks and then takes her seat again.]

Right. Just don't go in hexing him. Wait til he does something. [Which he better well not do.] I'll tell you all the rest when he gets here.

[And before either of you can protest, off goes Terri the Patronus through the wall.]

[Ron flares up and is really close to turning this into a screaming match, but he chokes back on his own yell at the last minute. Harry. This is about Harry. Bloody hell, if the bleeding 'Chosen One' isn't really sick enough to warrant this headache, Ron might just have to kill him.

His hands are clenching the side of the table hard enough for his knuckles to be turning white, but better that than to have this turn ugly in front of Neville. Hermione would never forgive him for that.]

'Wait til he does something,' she says. So in other words, give it a ten-second wait before drawing our wands.

[Neville kind of jumps in his seat when the yelling starts, and passes a hard stare between them, the one that normally is used to express "Lavender and Parvati, are you seriously passing notes at a time like this? Someone should be getting dittany if you've got time to play." He's seen Ron and Hermione row far worse than this, but now is very much not the time.] So in other words, we wait for him to make the first move. We let him expose himself first.

[She's stressed, she's strained, and her separate groups of friends are twisted and angry with each other. It's enough to drive one insane, but she just sighs and nods.] Please.

[And that's when Terri comes back through the wall to jump up on the table. Oh good otter Patronus. She looks quite comfortable sitting up there next to Hermione, peering up at the other two boys. Hermione knows what this means, though. Malfoy's on his way.]

[Give it a few moments and soon there's a Draco striding into the dining room where the other three are. He's definitely on-edge, but not enough to outright attack any of them. He's just going to stand near the entry-way and stare at Hermione, blatantly ignoring Weasley and Longbottom just for now. He knows what they're thinking, anyway.]

Granger.

[It's weird enough having a silver otter just hopping onto the table like it's completely natural, but it's another thing to see Malfoy strolling into the dining room as though he'd been invited (even though Ron knows he was, but he's not going to admit that). His hands clench against the table again, which is the only thing keeping him from going straight for his wand before his own ten-second rule, and rather than say anything scathing, he shifts his glare away from Malfoy to Hermione. At least he can look at her without giving rise to violent urges.]

[Neville may have been ignored, but he doesn't return the favor. He stands at Malfoy's entrance, having a better time than Ron of swallowing back his distaste.] Hermione says you know how to help Harry. Do you?

[Hermione's holding onto herself as well as she can, just glad that Terri's sticking around for now. The Patronus might help the tension that's suddenly swallowing the room. She doesn't stand when Neville does, but she does glance up at Malfoy's entrance, glad no one's throwing spells up yet.]

All right, now that we're all here we can get down to this. Something is clearly wrong with Harry. I thought, if he doesn't wake up in a few days, we're going to need to find our own way to help him. Maybe he remembers something, maybe Voldemort really is here, though I don't see how he could be. It's obvious the Malnosso did something to his mind, but I thought if we could really find a way to snap Harry out of this, the presence of- [She glances at Draco at this and then back to Ron and Neville.] -his school rival would help bring him back, give something solid for him to fight against.

[She sighs wearily.] We just need a way to talk to him, wake him up.

[It's okay Weasley, Draco's trying not to hex you as well. However, he shifts his gaze to Longbottom for a brief moment.] I had a bit of an idea, but Granger might know better than I do. She has a point though, we're going to need to find our own way to help him. Or whatever. [Because he can't let on he's worried or anything, but he does catch that glance.] And again, she's correct; if anyone's going to wake him up in his Dark Lord frenzy, it's the residential Death Eater. [Go ahead, say it.]

[Ron really doesn't know what's worse; the fact that Neville's standing up to Malfoy when he's just sitting there with his blood pounding in his ears, the fact that Hermione called Malfoy for help, or the fact that - for some bizarre reason - Malfoy actually seemed willing to help. At least he acknowledges being a Death Eater without any shame or anything, since otherwise, Ron would have seriously wondered if he'd been having a weird dream and Snape was going to come out next and recommend a group hug.]

So tell us, Death Eater: what exactly do you expect the lot of us to do?

[If Malfoy had been looking to appease any of their concerns, addressing his fealty wasn't exactly the best way to go about it. Neville narrows his eyes at the invocation of Death Eaters by name. Ron's already phrased his immediate question though, and so Neville falls quiet, a hand hovering near his wand without actually drawing it, just in case.]

[Hermione glances at Draco as he speaks and nods in response, glad they're at least thinking along the same lines.]

What idea did you have?

[She phrases it better than Ron, and she's got her own thoughts, but she wants to hear from them all first. ~~Neville be careful. She's not above a Full-Body Bind.~~]

[He frowns a little, because he has a feeling that they're not going to like what he has to say. But it's the best he could come up with on such short notice, and hey, it might be crazy enough to work.]

All of this has to just be inside his head, correct? The Malnosso have gone and messed with his mind...so what we need to do is get inside his head. My thoughts were by way of a bit of Legilimency, but I haven't a clue if the rest of you actually know how to do that. [That, and he's fairly certain he's had more practice since learning Occlumency, but like hell he's going to announce that. If anyone should wander around inside Harry's mind, it should be him. but again, like hell he's going to say that. Death Eater, right.]

And if anything, at least then we can see just what his thought process on the whole thing is and figure out how to reverse it.

[Ron's eyes turn towards Hermione automatically at the mention of Legilimency. He sure as hell can't do that, and he doesn't think Neville was ever trained in the subject either, but Hermione knows everything. So if someone's going to be poking around Harry's head, it should be the resident-know-it-all that doesn't have a Dark Mark tattooed on her arm or that keeps using the word 'we' as though they were some sort of team or something.]

Does that sound like something you can handle?

Legilimency is dark magic. [There's a bit of strain in his voice; suddenly, hexing Malfoy's filthy Death Eater mouth off sounds like a splendid idea. It takes some restraint ~~and the knowledge that Hermione would totally throw him in a full-body bind if he got on her bad side~~ tokeep from indulging the fantasy.] There has to be another way.

/spikes it with firewhiskey. :3

/drunk within half an hour

/ brb laughin' at the lightweights

:O that's cruel Janet!

;o; I can't heelp eeeet

it's not cruel to laugh at something that's funny!

If it makes other people sad, sure it is!

nah I know it's the truth XD /has a couple of seconds to tag one thing DX

See, Stella takes no offense. /needs to stop playing insensitive blockheads like Ron

Then all is well! :D

;o;

♥~

♥!

♥!

♥! /brb threadjacking >>;

welcome to the party, bb~

Draco's threadjack broke my notifs. DAMN YOU MALFOY. :|

I DIDN'T GET ANY OF THESE DX /stabs lj but then celebrates the threadjacking

...I'm sorry I just killed the entire thread's notifs XD

DAMMIT MALFOY, WHERE MY TAGS AT? /runs off to bed

HE PROBABLY FED THEM TO NAGINI FOR BROWNIE POINTS. :|

NAGINI WOULD THINK HE'S THE SNACK SINCE HE CAN'T SPEAK PARSELTONGUE

...I can't tell if I should be sadfacing or laughing right now :x

You could do both... but then we'll just think you're crazy.

We'll still think she's crazy for other reasons, though.