Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 94: Phantom pains

Harry wasn't sure what it was that woke him up at first—until he heard it again. A piercing cry rent through the room and Harry sat up trying to figure out where it was coming from. He heard Mei splashing, "What was that?" she cried out groggily.

"I dunno. It sounds like someone is in pain," Harry said, lurching out of bed. He grabbed his staff, shook it out, and stumbled out into the center of the room where the tile was cold on his bare feet.

"Tony!" Harry shouted as the screams rang out again. "Are you okay? What's hurting you?"

He was at the foot of Tony's bed and could feel Tony thrashing around, his legs kicking out, tangled in the sheets.

"Someone turn on the lights!" Mei yelled.

He heard a thud and realized that Tony had half fallen onto the floor, still screaming, but his voice was now muffled. Harry collapsed his staff and stuck it in his pocket, then crouched on the floor and started crawling toward Tony's cries on the floor, sweeping with his arms the way he'd move his staff across the space until he found Tony. He was surprised by an overwhelming odor of liquor... like Aunt Marge's breath but way stronger... coming from Tony. He turned his face away and gulped air before turning back.

"Tony, Tony! What's going on?" Harry asked, feeling more frantic as Tony's screams got more intense.

Harry got his arms underneath Tony's shoulders and was trying to lift him back onto the bed but he was too heavy and he was still twisting and thrashing around. All Harry could do was cradle his head in one arm to try to keep him from banging the back of his head on the tile floor. Harry was running his free hand over Tony's torso, trying to find a wound. He was certain that he must have been stabbed to scream like he was.

"Hey, can anyone give me a hand here?" Harry shouted to his roommates—then groaned, not just from the effort of keeping Tony from hurting himself, but also from the realization that Aminah never woke up during the night, Gemma wouldn't know that something was going on unless Tony's thrashings really vibrated the floor, Mei would have to get out of her tank (and when had she ever done that willingly?), and Arig was still transformed—sleeping off his werewolfishness.

Tony's screams were scrambling his brain and it was all Harry could do to keep his head from knocking against the floor or the side of the bed. He didn't know what to do—or even how injured Tony was ... but a noise was getting closer. Harry couldn't figure out what it was through the screams.

"Tony, knock it off!" Mei screeched. "Someone get Healer Jordan! Aminah! How are you sleeping through this racket!"

And then Mei was flopping onto the ground next to him.

"Mei, how did you get over here?" he said at the same time that she exclaimed, "Oh Merlin's bollocks, he reeks! Tony! What were you doing last night?"

"Is he still sleeping? He's not hurt?" Harry asked.

"He's going to be hurt after I get through with him!" Mei said and Harry was worried, until she took a deep breath and said, "Yeah, I think he's having a nightmare—but I dunno, he's maybe passed out. The bloody prat."

"If he's having a nightmare, then it's better not to wake him up. Can you help me get him back on the bed? I can't lift him," Harry asked.

"Gah!" Mei groaned as she heaved herself closer, her tail brushing against Harry's bare back.

"It's not like I can lift him either... he's freaking huge."

"Can't we use magic?" Harry asked. He got his staff out of his pocket and touched it to Tony's shoulder and tried, "Wingardium leviosa," but nothing happened.