Chapter 47.7- Doom Days

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Waking up in a bed that wasn’t mine was not something I was unused to. I slept in the Room of Requirements more often than not, and switching beds night after night was one way to keep things fresh in a life with as little social connection as I was getting. But still, it was clear I was not there. The first sign was the smell. Even in the wizarding world, the hospital wing smelled sterile— not in a good way. The air just smelled of nothing in a way that made it a smell of its own— the absence of other smells.

Add that to the bright lights streaming in from every corner, and this was not a place that I wanted to be in for long. So I opened m eyes with little hesitation, and found them staring straight up at the white ceiling of the hospital wing. I’d been right then. Well, I’d been here before each of the tasks so it wasn’t like I was guessing with nothing to go off of. I looked to the side and found Sirius sitting with his head propped against the chair. He’d nodded off at some point. To my other side was a trophy— the Triwizard Cup, and even more surprisingly, a woman. A very familiar woman with blonde hair barely poking out from the cover of her book.

“Good read?” I asked, even as I felt my whole body protest from the simple action of speaking.

“‘Arry!!” The French witch screamed, a sound that would have made me wince coming from anyone else, but as a Veela, even that screech came out musical and beautiful. She hurled herself as me even as I heard Sirius stir to wakefulness.

“I thought you’d never wake” She whispered in my ear.

“And I told you that Harry would never give up so easily” Sirius said.

“What happened?” I asked. Because I shouldn’t even have been here. Yes, it was probably for the best that I’d been found and brought here but how had they even managed to get access to the Chamber of Secrets.

“You bounced off the wards.” Sirius said, and I drew short on that. That wasn’t possible. The chamber wasn’t part of Hogwarts’ wards. I’d checked so many times, and even if it was, then that still didn’t make sense.

“Shouldn’t that have just made the apparation fail?” Apparating to a restricted place wasn’t really all that dangerous. Because it was instantaneous, and arrival happened at the same time as departure then trying to go somewhere you couldn’t would just lead to the spell failing. That was basic theory.

“A surprise the Headmaster baked into the words. The only issue was that you had a bad reaction to it” Sirius sounded hesitant now, even as I felt Fleur’s grip on me tighten.

“What happened, Sirius?”

“You’ve been out for a week” he said.