The Forbidden Name
Lucius Malfoy sat in the chair behind the desk, observing Harry with a look of interest. �And who, pray tell, has he been pretending to be.�
The woman looked very uncomfortable and looked from side to side before answering in a hushed voice. �Harry Potter,� she whispered.
Lucius flinched slightly and glanced around too. Then, he turned his gaze back to Harry. �Well, you did a good job with the family resemblance,� he said, sounding impressed. �I must say, you look almost just like James. Now, tell me, what is your real name?�
�That is my name,� Harry said for the second time that night.
Anger flashed through Lucius� eyes for a moment before he turned to the woman and nodded. �Check his arm.�
The woman stepped forward and grabbed Harry�s left arm. Before he could protest, she turned his arm over and pulled his sleeve up to his elbow. They stared for a moment before Lucius spoke again.
�Just what I suspected,� he sniffed, looking down his nose at Harry, �working with the half-bloods and Mudbloods, no doubt.�
�What should I do with him?� the woman asked.
�Take him to the dungeons,� Lucius said, waving his hand dismissively. �I�ll take care of it later.�
The woman bowed her head slightly, then grabbed Harry�s arm, looking disgusted as she did so. �Come with me,� she said, pulling him towards the staircase again. He had one last sight of Lucius smirking before the staircase carried them out of sight.
Harry wanted to ask the woman what was going on, but every time he tried to, he found himself unable to speak. He wasn�t sure he wanted to know anyway. Meanwhile, the woman was leading him down many twisting hallways and down staircases lined with pictures of snakes and dragons. He was certain he�d never seen this part of the school before. He would�ve remembered it.
When they finally reached the bottom of the staircase, Harry had a sinking feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. This part of the school was so far underground that the only source of light was the torches that were spaced out along the walls, casting eerie shadows over the length of the room. There were cells lining each wall, broken up into equal sizes by metal bars that also lined the pathway down the middle of the room, on which Harry and the woman now stood.
She pulled him along the rows, stopping after a while and nodding to herself. Without speaking, she took out a set of keys and unlocked the door of a cell, opening it with a loud creak. She wordlessly pushed Harry in and shut the door behind him, locking it immediately.
As she started to leave, Harry found his voice and yelled after her. �Wait, what�s going on?� But she was already gone, leaving him all alone.
Harry turned to look at his cell. It was very simple. The only things in it were a stone slab jutting out of the wall that he supposed was a bed and a toilet right by the bars that connected the cell to the next.
He was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea that caused him to double over, retching. Luckily, there seemed to be nothing left in his stomach to come up. He felt his own forehead and knew that he was still feverish. He dragged himself over to the bed and collapsed on it. He shut his eyes and immediately fell into a fitful sleep.
He was back in the room, looking at the crib in which a baby was lying, sleeping peacefully. He took a step forward, expecting the baby to start crying�but there was silence. The baby slept on, unaware of what was about to happen.
The door creaked open slowly and a cloaked figure stepped in, lowering his hood to reveal the paper-white skin and blood red eyes of a snake-like face that had come to haunt Harry over the years. The man stepped forward toward the crib, staring down at the still sleeping baby.
�Too easy,� he hissed, raising his wand. �Avada Kedavra!� There was a flash of green light and the room suddenly seemed even more silent than before. The door burst open and a man and a woman stood in the doorway, their eyes open wide in fear.
�You�re too late,� the cloaked man hissed and with a loud crack, he disapparated.
Harry woke from this dream in such a haze that he couldn�t tell whether or not he had truly woken up. He tried to work out the events of the dream, but every time he tried to make his brain work, he would just start feel nauseous again. He finally gave up and turned over on his side, shivering. A cold, damp dungeon was not a good place for someone recovering from the stomach flu.
Behind his eyelids, everything was a sea of red, broken every once in a while by the shadow of a person. He thought he saw his parents a couple of times, but if he tried to go to them, they simply faded into the flames and were replaced by other shadows of people he knew and didn�t know. At one point, he thought he saw Hermione and Ginny, but when he tried to get a closer look, they were replaced by a woman with long black hair holding a baby and a teenage boy with bright red hair and emerald green eyes. He had no idea who they might be, but they too faded into the background as other people he knew walked past, none staying for very long. He caught fleeting glances of some faces: Ron�Cedric Diggory�Sirius�Lupin� These people surveyed him with expressions that ranged from curiosity to suspicion.
�They say he hasn�t moved off that stone in two days. I�ll bet they sent him in knowing he was ill so they could kill us all off with their virus. They probably assigned him to the job because he�s insane. I heard he actually thinks he�s Harry Potter.�
The hushed voices and laughing outside Harry�s cell made him open his eyes. The faces of Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, and Vincent Crabbe were pressed up against the bars of Harry�s cell, goggling at him as though he were an animal in a zoo.
�So, Potter,� Malfoy said when he saw that Harry was awake, inciting another laugh from Crabbe and Goyle, �that scar on your head, is that a birthmark or did you carve it yourself?�
Harry felt anger surge through him and, barely knowing what he was doing, he leapt to his feet. He walked right up to the bars and grabbed the front of Malfoy�s robes, holding him so that he couldn�t get away.
�You did this,� he hissed. �I don�t know how you did it, but I know you�re involved, Malfoy.�
�Get him off me!� Genuine fear shone in Malfoy�s eyes as he tried to pull out of Harry�s grasp. �He�s going to infect me!�
Harry felt hands prying his fingers from Malfoy�s robes and he was pushed backward. He stumbled and fell to the floor, his eyes rolling madly as he fought to stay conscious.
�He�s trying to take us out with him,� Malfoy said, backing away as fast as he could. �They knew there was no cure so they must�ve thought better us than them. Father will want to know about this.� He straightened his robes and stormed off, followed quickly by Crabbe and Goyle.
Harry was never sure how long he lay on the floor, slipping in and out of various stages of delirium. He was eventually able to drag himself up to the stone bed again, where he stayed for days, his only movements being to shudder once in a while as the coldness of the dungeon began to sink into his skin, chilling his blood and making his fever worse. He lost all track of time and could no longer differentiate between reality and dreams, as the shadows in flame seemed to exist beyond both realms. He continued to dream of the cloaked man killing the baby in the crib, but he still couldn�t bring himself to think about this without making himself feel worse.
�Psst, wake up!�
Harry groaned and shifted in his sleep, opening his eyes slightly to squint at this new person outside his cell. She was holding wearing dragon hide gloves and holding a handkerchief over her mouth and nose. Harry had a feeling he knew who she was, but he couldn�t think of her name in his current state of mind.
The woman knelt down in front of the door and pulled a clip from her hair with which she proceeded to pick the lock. A few moments later, the door swung open and she ran forward, the handkerchief still clutched tightly to her face.
�Can you walk?� she asked as she knelt beside him, �or better yet, can you run?�
Harry opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was a raspy gasp.
�I�ll take that as a no,� she said, reaching into her pocket. �I was told to only use this for an emergency, but I think this qualifies.� She pulled out a small box and opened it, revealing a small owl feather. She set the box down, grabbed Harry�s arm, and then reached into the box to grab the feather.
Harry felt his stomach give a small lurch and he was flying through the air, his arm clutched painfully in the woman�s hand. Then, just when Harry felt like he couldn�t take it anymore, it was over and he fell to the floor, groaning as his head struck the wood.
�On your feet,� the woman said, pulling him up into a standing position. �Come on, we have to get you��
�Hermione!� a woman with flaming red hair who looked not much younger than the woman came over, breathing heavily.
Hermione? Harry suddenly knew why he�d recognized the woman. The other one looked familiar too�
�Ginny, what is it?�
Ginny? What was going on? He wanted to ask, but he wasn�t feeling up to it. Meanwhile, Hermione and Ginny kept talking.
�Mary had her baby!�
�What? But she isn�t due for another three weeks! Is she all right? Is the baby all right?�
�Calm down, Hermione, they�re both fine. I assisted in the delivery myself. Little Kathleen Marie Weasley is perfectly healthy by all appearances.�
�You mean Madam Sage isn�t back yet?�
�No, I received a message from her last week. I�m afraid the Solomon twins have taken a turn for the worse. They had to be isolated to keep from spreading it to the other children at their shelter.�
�What about Bill? Did he make it back in time?�
�I�m afraid not. He�s still out on assignment with Sirius and Hagrid. I sent him an owl this morning though, so he should be back soon.�
At that moment, the last of Harry�s strength was used up and he fell to the floor with a crash. He could no longer feel his arms or his legs, but he knew he wasn�t unconscious because he could still hear voices around him, now sounding panicked.
�Oh my gosh, I think he�s having a fit!�
�Will everyone stop all that muttering and somebody give me a hand? David, come over here! Put on some gloves and grab a handkerchief first though, he could be catching!�
Harry had the vague feeling of being lifted into the air and carried across the room. A minute later, he stopped moving and he could feel something soft under his head. Someone took his glasses and he forced his eyes open staring around blurrily.
�Make sure nobody comes in here without a handkerchief and gloves,� Hermione ordered as she wiped Harry�s forehead with a damp cloth. �The people at that school are inhumane, I can�t believe they let him get this bad. He�s lucky Dumbledore put in those sensors before he left, god rest his soul. David, go to the sink and get me another cloth.�
There was the sound of running water in the background as the boy named David, a redheaded teenager, spoke. �Is he going to be all right?�
Hermione shook her head. �Your guess is as good as mine. I hope he hasn�t caught that new strain of the flu. Madam Sage has her hands full treating the Solomon twins for it, and we both know that if she can�t cure it, nobody can.�
There was a moment of silence as the water stopped running and David gave the new cloth to Hermione. �So,� David said finally, �who is he?�
�Again, your guess is as good as mine,� Hermione said, alternating the hand which was holding the cloth to Harry�s forehead with the one that had been holding the handkerchief over her face. �The sensors were made to alert us whenever someone was brought to the dungeons. There is one thing for sure,� she abandoned the cloth on Harry�s head and leaned over him to pull up the sleeve on his left arm, �he�s not one of them. They receive the Mark when they�re enrolled, so he certainly isn�t a student.�
Harry�s eyes were starting to sting, so he shut them, almost welcoming the flames that danced behind his eyelids. However, he paid no attention to the shadows this time, instead focusing on the voices that continued around him.
�But that doesn�t prove that he�s one of us.�
�David, he�s not one of them, and he�s not a Muggle. Unless he�s a vampire, I don�t see how he could be anything else.�
�Are you so sure he�s not a vampire?�
�Oh, you know better than that. Vampires don�t catch the flu, and besides they�ve made a deal with You-Know-Who. If he locked one of them up, he�d have an angry mob after him the next time the sun set.�
�Still�do you think it safe to trust someone we don�t even know?�
�He can�t hurt anyone, he can barely move. If he does attack anyone, it could probably be written off as a muscle spasm.�
�I don�t know��
�David, he�s ill. They had him locked up in a cold, damp dungeon with no food and no water. If we turn him away, we�ll be proving ourselves to be no different from them. Countless witches and wizards will have died in vain. Neither of us is old enough to remember the time before, but your family is one of the ones whose sacrifice started our movement. Don�t let your suspicion be the end of us.�
David was silent for a moment before he spoke. �You always know how to make things sound morbid.�
�You�ve been here all your life, you don�t know what it�s like out there. I was born about a year before this all started, to a Muggle family, no less. I spent the first seven years of my life out there before I started showing magic and they came to get me. It�s awful out there.�
�I know, I know, and I�ve heard the stories. Everyone who comes in seems to have a story they want to tell me, but I�m tired of people saying I�m lucky to have never been out there. I�I�m sorry, it just makes me so angry that they�re still treating me like a child.�
�You�re just restless, your time will come. When you�re of age, I�m sure they�ll let you help with some of the missions. You�re parents are just trying to protect you. How is your father doing?�
�He�s better. Ginny was able to patch him up pretty well from what she�s learned from Madam Sage. I�m more worried about Mum. She won�t leave his side, it�s as if she can�t bear to be away from him.�
�Well, she�s lost a lot of the people she�s cared about in her life. Why do you think she�s so protective of you? She�s afraid of losing what�s left of her family.�
Harry tuned out the rest of the conversation, too exhausted to interpret their words anymore. Besides, he had no idea what they were talking about anyway. As he slipped into a deep sleep, he wondered what the hell had happened.
* * *
Harry woke up feeling groggy, but otherwise better than he had in days. He no longer felt cold or nauseous and his fever seemed to have all but gone away. He was feeling so much better, that he decided to sit up.
This didn�t seem to be a good idea however, as it made someone sitting very close to his ear scream. He groaned as pain stabbed through his head and had to lie back down again before it went away. When he looked up, he saw Ginny with a hand clamped to her mouth, her eyes wide with concern.
�I am so sorry,� she said as she brought her hand back down. �You just gave me a little scare. I told Hermione I wasn�t cut out for the night watch.�
�Yeah,� Harry said distractedly, shaking his head to try to get rid of the ringing in his ears, �so what happened anyway?�
�What happened is you nearly scared everyone half to death,� Ginny said. �When you hit the floor they thought you had just up and died right on the spot. Luckily Hermione�s quick on her feet and got David to help her carry you to the sick bay, that�s where you are now. That David boy is strong for his age, maybe too much so for his own good. Speaking of which, those two are going to want to know that you�ve woken up.�
�How long was I out?� Harry asked quickly before she left.
�Not out, asleep,� Ginny corrected. �You�ve been sleeping for the past five days. You should consider yourself lucky, Madam Sage returned the day after you came to us. She determined that you didn�t have the new deadly strain of the flu and that the best way to help would be just to let you sleep.�
At that moment, Harry�s stomach growled loudly. He blushed, but Ginny just smiled slightly.
�I�ll get you something to eat while I�m getting the others,� she said, standing and walking to the door. She was only away for a few minutes before returning carrying a plate and a glass, followed by Hermione and the boy named David.
�This was all I could get,� Ginny said, placing the plate, which held two slices of bread, and the glass, filled with water, on the table beside Harry�s bed. �Food supplies have been short lately. I got you as much as I could, you are looking dreadfully thin. Then again�� she looked down at herself and smiled sheepishly, �I suppose we all have lost some weight in these past few months.�
Harry noticed to the first time that Hermione and Ginny did indeed look thinner than he remembered them. Even David, whom he�d never met before in his life, seemed rather scrawny and undernourished.
Harry finished off the bread and water in ten seconds flat, hardly even bothering to slow down long enough to breath. When he finished, the other three were looking at him curiously, making him nervous.
�What?� he asked, unable to bear the silence any longer.
�Who are you?� David asked quickly, then looked as though he wished he hadn�t.
�David!� Hermione scolded, elbowing him so hard that he almost fell over.
�What?� David asked indignantly, rubbing his side where Hermione had hit him.
�Don�t be rude,� Hermione said. Then, she turned to Harry. �I�m sorry, David here needs to learn to mind his manners. But, I suppose while we�re on the subject, can you tell us your name?�
�But Hermione, you know who I am,� Harry said. Maybe she was under a memory charm and would suddenly remember. She looked confused, so he continued. �Harry...� She still looked confused. �Harry Potter��
The confusion disappeared as both she and Ginny drew in a sharp breath and David�s eyes widened. Hermione and Ginny glanced at each other briefly, seeming to silently agree on something.
�David, let�s go check how your parents are doing,� Ginny said, grabbing David�s arm.
�But��
�Now,� she said, and David didn�t argue anymore. As he was walking to the door, he kept sneaking glances back at Harry, a mix of awe and disbelief on his face. Hermione shot him a nasty look, and he turned away, following Ginny out of the room.
Once they were gone, Hermione rounded on Harry. �What the fuck do you think your doing?�
Harry was taken aback. He�d never heard Hermione curse before, not even in her countless fights with Ron. �What?� he asked.
�You know what,� she hissed. �What, did you think we would just take you in, that you�d said the magic words? We�re not that stupid, and we won�t put up with it. Now I will ask you one last time, what is your name?�
�Look, I don�t know what�s going on,� Harry said, his voice rising with every word, �but I�m not lying.�
Hermione�s anger seemed to fade slightly and she narrowed her eyes. �Perhaps you think you aren�t. I can see in your eyes that you believe what you�re saying, but for David�s sake, I must tell you the truth. You are not Harry Potter.�
�Why does everyone keep telling me that?� Harry asked, feeling about ready to lose his temper.
�Because,� Hermione said patiently, �Harry Potter died over sixteen years ago.�
__________________________________________________________
Author's note: And I challenge Sheila Potter to her title as Queen of the Cliffhangers. Sometimes I think I am just being too cruel. Oh well. Wanting an explanation? Wanting to know who David is? You'll find out next chapter.
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