Green Eyed Monster | Draco Malfoy

24. The Monster

Chapter 24: The Monster

I woke up. I couldn't have told you when it was I had fallen asleep, or when I possibly fainted, but when I finally was able to open my eyes I knew immediately that I was in the Hospital Wing. The sterile smell and cramped bed were familiar getaways. I too commonly found myself waking up from mysterious causes in this damned part of the castle.

I sat up slowly, acknowledging the distinct mix of potions that lingered on my tongue after having been pushed down my throat while I rested. I could taste some blood replenishing potion, some general healing concoctions - things I was commonly given. I quickly noticed that sound was muffled and looked to see that my head, arm and hand were all bandaged. When I put up my bad arm - remembering that my 'bad arm' was what had my 'good' hand - I could feel that a gelatinous goo was placed around my ears. When I pulled my hand away to smell what was on my fingers, it was some sort of potion not even I knew.

"You're awake," a familiar man breathed, relief unlike I had ever heard filling his voice. Looking to my right, I watched Snape stand a little bit straighter from beside me. "You've been injured."

"Am I really awake?" I whispered, looking around at everything in the wing. I couldn't get past the feeling that I was still asleep, that I was seeing another part of my vision that I had no control over. I had absolutely no proof I was not still in that limbo between times. "Is it really over?"

"The task is finished," Snape said curtly, trying to show as little emotion as he could. I didn't respond - that didn't help me gather time. The task was over, yes, but that did not mean I was back when I should have been. I was positive that I had been seeing Harry close to real-time while he writhed in that graveyard. And those eyes - the eyes of Lord Voldemort had known I was there...during a vision. Was any of it really a vision then? Was this just a continuation? Would Voldemort show up and speak to me again? "Do you remember coming up to the hospital wing? You were conscious, though admittedly not yourself."

"I don't remember at all," I whispered, placing a hand on my head. It pounded gently against my hand, which made me apply more pressure to the headache. "I-I walked up here on my own?"

"Not without help," he shook his head, looking away slightly. "You were not in the state you are - I believe you were in some other form of consciousness."

"Like Astral?" I asked quietly, thinking back to the vision I had seen. Wondering how on earth Voldemort would have known to address me had it been a vision - or was I astral? Or was it Magnuse? I didn't know what kind of magic would apply all three of these things - a physical body that couldn't move, traveling distant places, and foreseeing the future? I had an inkling that wasn't an answer I'd find in a library book.

"Possibly Astral," he responded lowly.

"Did you catch him, yet?" I asked suddenly, after thinking through all the visions I had seen. I always ended up coming back to when my brother was being tortured - when that snake was talking about the man who had infiltrated the school - how I had been right. Snape looked at me with furrowed brows.

"Pardon?"

"Here," I dug into my robes, hissing as the burn on my hand twisted and tore open again. I held out the piece of parchment that was dug deeply into the pocket. The piece of parchment I had written to him what felt like a lifetime ago. Snape looked at it curiously before opening it and reading it. He folded it and put it back in his pocket quickly.

"How did you know?"

"I wasn't just sorted into Slytherin for my charming personality," I frowned. "I paid attention. It was clear after a while - the polyjuice potion ingredients going missing, the fact that Harry and I were entered in the tournament, that the person needed to have access to everything and anything - it only made right that it was someone here in Hogwarts. Someone who we saw each day. Did you catch 'em?"