Hello everybody! Thank you for your feedback on yesterday's tale! Wasn't it great? I love the originality of it. Who would've ever thought of taking Harry Potter characters and making them into a new story? Well done, BK! Anyway, here is Part 2 of his story for you.
~Harry Bailey, Managing Editor
Post-Apocalyptic Medieval Battle of Hogwarts and The Love of Maidens
Part 2
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these characters, they belong to J.K. Rowling. Please review and share with your friends! Part 3 due out tomorrow.
Harry found himself in a big black velvet sack curled around his best friend’s body. Both of them were close to death and in pain, and being rocked around in a big bag didn’t help. They could hear the music of the parade get more and more quiet as they moved further away. Finally, after what felt like a whole day’s journey, they were eased down onto a hard surface, a floor of some kind. A ray of light fell into the sack and illuminated their bleeding faces and Harry’s gap-toothed grimace.
They glanced at each other, but before they got a chance to speak, Dumbledore’s gravelly voice boomed all around them.
“Are you alive?”
Harry furrowed his brow, and Draco rolled his eyes.
“Yes,” said Draco and sneered.
“Barely,” said Harry.
“You’d better be grateful,” continued Dumbledore with his loud voice, “I could have let you die out there. Instead, my infinite wisdom and mercy is upon you. You’re lucky. I’m in my prime.”
“I thought you were in your prime when we first met, Professor,” spat Harry.
“Yeah. Back when you were Albus Dumbledore the Grey,” added Draco.
Dumbledore towered over them. Their limbs were still entangled even though the sack that had contained them had fallen away now that its string had been untied.
He shot a look down at them over the rim of his half-moon glasses. Then he walked away and returned shortly with two clay cups filled with water and, to Harry and Draco’s surprise, Madam Pomfrey’s ghost and a short boy.
“Madame and Travis will take care of you,” said Dumbledore and left them alone.
It was only now that Harry and Draco began to feel the breeze that was rushing all around them. One look out of one of the narrow windows that were more like slits in the walls confirmed it: blue skies. No green, no brown, nothing that looked like the ground. They were in a high tower.
“Let’s get you all fixed up, huh?” said Madame Pomfrey. Travis, who seemed to be her little helper, was unscrewing the lids of a dozen jars with pastes and salves in them.
Harry and Draco felt the familiar feeling of being home, home in Hogwarts, in the good care of Madame Pomfrey. Except that they were prisoners, and in a lot of pain. But otherwise it was remarkably similar. Oh, and Madame Pomfrey was now a ghost. But other than that it was just the same.
After taking a handful of pills that Travis handed to them, and washing them down with big gulps of water, both Harry and Draco fell asleep.
---
A week passed before their injuries healed completely, but seeing as they had both been on the brink of death that was quite an achievement. Once they felt strong enough, they started walking around their prison, which was in the western tower of Hogwarts. The view of the grounds was stunning. After their wounds had healed and the bruises had started to fade they spent long mornings and afternoons gazing down at the sprawling forest and rolling meadows around Hogwarts.
On one such morning, after an elf had brought them each a bowl of porridge and a mug of weak tea, they ate breakfast together while staring out of the narrow windows.
“Oh, wait. Look!” said Draco.
“What is it?” said Harry and stirred his porridge. It was steaming and watery, and surprisingly delicious.
“Do you see her?” asked Draco. With his spoon, he pointed down at someone moving around on the grass directly underneath the tower. The person wore a wide-brimmed straw hat and dungarees.
“Oh yeah,” said Harry.
They ate their porridge.
They drank their tea.
They watched the girl pull out weeds, water flowers, take a three-headed dog for a long walk
The way she tended the garden was so careful and loving, and when she played with the three-headed dog she was fun and completely carefree. Harry and Draco agreed they had never seen a more ravishing creature.
She took off her sunhat and shook out a mane of red hair. It glinted in the sunlight like polished copper.
“What do you think her name is?” said Harry.
“I don’t know,” said Draco.
And they were quiet again and watched her.
Day in, day out, they watched her work in the garden. They made up a conversation for her, talking to the birds and the trees.
---
“How’s it going, dollface?” said Arnold the badger to Ginny Weasley, who was sweeping up some dry leaves next to the cabbage patch.
“Leave me alone, you creep,” said Ginny. Arnold had been trying to talk to her for weeks, and she wasn’t having any of his pick-up lines.
“Alright, suit yourself,” said Arnold and walked away.
---
“She’s probably friends with all of them,” said Harry.
“Yeah! And now she’s saying to the bee, Hello, Mr Bee, how are you doing today?” said Draco. He did a high-pitched voice when he imitated Ginny.
“Oh, I’m well, thank you, Miss,” said Harry in his best insect imitation voice.
Later that day, as they went to sleep on their straw beds, Harry and Draco talked about the girl.
“I think she’s the prettiest person who’s ever lived,” said Harry.
“I want to marry her,” said Draco.
“Me too,” said Harry.
“Hey, I called dibs!” said Draco.
“Dibs isn’t a thing, Draco,” insisted Harry.
“Whatever,” said Draco, and blew out the candle that stood between them.