Chapter 20
Blaise stirred his potion and looked down into its murky reflection morosely. Days had gone by without a word from Harry and he still didn’t have a clue what to do about the whole situation. He wasn’t sleeping, staying up all night wondering if that would be the night that Harry overdosed.
The only news he had gotten was from the tabloids. Blaise was ashamed to say that he had subscribed to as many celebrity gossip magazines as he could and furiously read over them every morning, looking for any mentions of Harry. It was his only way to know if Harry was still alive.
He was, though, each picture of him looked more and more concerning, at least to Blaise. In every single one, Harry was closely surrounded by people making sure he was upright. Harry was dressed in flashy clothes to try to hide how much weight he was losing. He was almost never seen without sunglasses on to hide the only window to how Harry was really feeling.
Blaise knew Pansy and Theo were concerned about him, but he couldn’t stop. He needed to know Harry was alive. Between Harry’s mental health issues and the team around him, Blaise lived in fear every single day that Harry wasn’t going to survive. He spent the rest of his days losing himself in his potions work, trying to figure out a way to help Harry. He barely spoke, and only ate when Theo forced him too.
He jerked up when Theo came into the room holding a newspaper.
“Blaise, this is kind of interesting, I thought you’d like to see it, maybe you’ll know more about it than I do,” Theo said, holding the Daily Prophet out to him. Blaise took it with slight trepidation.
On the cover was a large picture of Dumbledore and Harry from when Harry was still a teenager. Blaise figured the picture was from right after Harry had destroyed the Dark Lord. He was probably fourteen at the time. Harry looked angry and young, while Dumbledore looked old and tired with his hand on Harry’s shoulder.
Dumbledore Speaks Out: Are the recent rise in Death Eater Attacks Harry Potter’s fault? Is the Boy-Who-Lived as light as we thought? Or is there something darker hiding in those playboy eyes?
Blaise looked up at Theo. “What is this?”
“You know all of the Death Eater attacks recently?” Theo said. Blaise had heard about them but he had been more focused on Harry’s issues. It seemed every few years the Death Eaters who hadn’t been put in Azkaban would rise up and do some minor attacks to remind everyone that they were still around. This time it just seemed to be lasting longer than usual.
“Yes, what’s that got to do with Harry?” Blaise asked. Theo shrugged and gestured to the article. Blaise skimmed it, but a few things stuck out to him. First,
On a recent visit to the ministry, this reporter was lucky enough to grab the attention of the one and only Albus Dumbledore who was there to consult with the Minister about the best course of action moving forward against these horrid attacks. Upon being asked if the Hogwarts Headmaster thought that the Dark Lord had returned he responded, “No, Lord Voldemort is dead. That is certain. However, that does not mean that there aren’t other dark forces at play in this world.”
Blaise skipped down a few lines.
This reporter then asked what was being done. Dumbledore said, “We need a protector. We need someone who will stand firmly against the dark so that they are too cowed to even make a move against us. Without that, these attacks will continue, even against the Ministry’s best efforts.”
He was then asked why he no longer considered himself a protector of the Wizarding world: “I am far too old to hold that title. I fear I would be able to prevent little darkness from spreading like some others could.”
Then, when asked if he was referring to Harry Potter, the famed defeater of the last Dark Lord: “I’m not sure. I don’t know where his loyalties lay anymore. He has the power to do it, but he also has the power to do dark things as well. His absence has been noticed by both the light and the dark. I’m sure that’s why the dark feels so comfortable attacking now. They know he will not stop them as he is wrapped up in… other activities. His choices are his own, and the reason behind them are not known to me.”
I then asked, “Are you saying these attacks could be stopped if Harry Potter would do his duty to us, the people of his country?”
He replied, “It is a very grave time. All of us need to do our duty, including Harry Potter. If wishes to help, he should stop by my office. There is a great deal to talk about. If he does not wish to help, well then I fear that boy is lost beyond the help that anyone could give him.”
The headmaster refused to answer any more questions and headed back to Hogwarts. So readers, it seems to me that Harry Potter is snubbing…
The rest of the article was full of insults and implications that Harry had gone dark because of his refusal to work with Dumbledore and his silence on the matter of the Death Eater attacks. Blaise was furious on his behalf.
He knew how much Harry despised the headmaster, and Blaise agreed, he had every reason to. Dumbledore had tried multiple times to have Harry killed in the name of the “greater good”. He was tortured to the point of a mental break, and Harry had spent years trying to recover. He still bore the scars, physically and mentally from those dark days. Even if Harry wasn’t light anymore, it would be Dumbledore’s own fault.
To put the safety of the Wizarding world on a young man who had spent his whole life already saving it once, at great personal cost, was absurd and cruel. Then, to further paint Harry out to be a dark wizard just because he wanted to live a life of his own choosing? Dumbledore had risen to a top spot on Blaise’s list of people he hated because of what they had done to Harry.
None of these people knew what Harry had been through. Dumbledore did, and he was spewing this crap anyway. Harry was dealing with so much already in his own personal life, Blaise knew he couldn’t handle being put in this position too. That was the whole point of him choosing this lifestyle. He had never wanted to be the ‘savior’ and he had taken extensive steps to make sure he never was again.
“Blaise… deep breaths okay? You’re gonna make a mess,” Theo’s voice broke him out of his increasingly rageful train of thought. Blaise looked around and saw all of the cauldrons and vials in the lab rattling dangerously. He immediately took a deep breath to calm himself down. The bottles and cauldrons stilled. Then, Blaise let himself feel his rage in a more controlled way.
“That piece of shit,” Blaise swore. Theo raised his eyebrows.
“If people only knew what he did to Harry, he’d be in Azkaban,” Blaise seethed and stalked around with the paper.
“What did he do?” Theo asked. Blaise shook his head.
“It’s not my story to tell, but he’s a monster, he-” Blaise took a deep breath, “He’s the reason why Harry is so… Harry doesn’t owe anyone anything after all he’s done for them and everything he went through afterwards.”
“How do you think he’s handling this?” Theo asked carefully like he was trying not to spook Blaise. The blood drained out of Blaise’s face. He hadn’t thought about Harry’s reaction to this news or how he was handling it. Not well, that was for sure. He didn’t even have anyone he could talk to about this. He had said only Blaise knew what had happened. Remus might know, but Blaise knew they weren’t in contact anymore.
“Well, if he’s coherent enough to even read this, he’s either going to be enraged… or he’s going to somehow convince himself that what they’re saying is true, which it’s not,” Blaise reasoned, still seething. “I need to check on him.”
“You can’t, we already know this,” Theo said gently.
“I could go in through the front door, the muggle way, I’ve done it once before, he can send me away if he wants to, but I need to see him, just to make sure he’s alright,” Blaise decided. He went to the door.
“Alright, but if you go now, this might be your last chance to talk to him,” Theo said,
“I just want you to be prepared.”
“I know, I need to do this, he needs someone who knows,” Blaise said. He was sure of this decision. He didn’t know if it was intuition or what, but he knew he needed to go to Harry as fast as possible. Something was very wrong with his love. He could feel it.
“Are you kidding me?” Luna shrieked when she read the title of the Daily Prophet.
“What’s wrong?” Neville asked in concern. She waved him off until she could finish reading the rest of the article that was printed.
“That old goat!” She said angrily and slammed the paper down when she finished reading. Neville quickly grabbed the article and skimmed it to catch up.
“So… this isn’t good?” he guessed.
“No it’s not good,” Luna said, taking very slow breaths to calm herself. She wasn’t the type to get angry, but this article was pissing her off for a number of reasons.
“Talk to me,” Neville said gently.
“It’s… it’s first of all- why,” she stopped to collect her thoughts, “It’s annoying that I had to wait for so long for a response to him, and then he goes and tells these reporters a lot of what he told me. A big part of the value of my story was going to be this take from him because he never talks to reporters.”
“Maybe he thought you weren’t going to print what he said the way he wanted?” Neville theorized.
“Well he would be right. He’s… he’s pushing this narrative that Harry is this bad person who only cares about himself,” she said, sitting and shaking her head, “It’s just, that’s a very shallow view of Harry. There’s so much more there.”
“So you can still uncover that though right?” Neville asked.
“I mean yeah. I guess this doesn’t completely blow up my article. It’s just changed public perception so I’ll have to make sure I really know what angle I want to push. I’ll have to firmly support this narrative or completely go the opposite way. Before I had planned to kind of walk a middle line, but no one will care about that now,” she said sighing, “I guess it’s made my job a little clearer. I won’t drag his name through the mud.”
“So you’ll defend him?”
“I guess, I just don’t want my story to look like a response to Dumbledore. I want it to stand on its own,” Luna said softly, “Now it might look like Harry’s team only hired me to put out this fire.”
“Well, you’ve done a lot of research, and you know that people respect your independence. No one would believe that you’d been hired as a coverup. That’s not who you are,” Neville soothed.
“I know, I know,” Luna nodded, “I just didn’t expect this. I wonder how Harry feels about it.”
“Well, you said he didn’t seem like he liked Dumbledore much already,” Neville reminded.
“Oh he doesn’t like Dumbledore at all, that much was clear, I bet he’s furious,” Luna said, “I need him to respond to me. I have to talk to him at least one more time.”
“I’m sure he will, he’s probably just busy,” Neville told her. Luna nodded hopefully. There was nothing she could do but wait.
Blaise had to do a slight bewitchment onto the front desk secretary to allow himself upstairs. He didn’t feel guilty at all though, he needed to check on Harry. With every moment that passed he felt more urgently that something was wrong.
The lift seemed to take forever. When the doors finally opened he rushed to knock on the door. He tried several times, but there was no reply. He wondered if Harry was even home. He cast a few spells to dismantle Harry’s wards, and unlock the door.
He stepped in quietly and shut the door behind him. The flat was silent. There didn’t seem to be anyone around. Blaise made his way in slowly to go to Harry’s bedroom. He stopped when he noticed a figure lying on the couch in the living room, one arm dangling awkwardly over the floor. Blaise felt his stomach plummet.
He neared and saw that it was in fact Harry, lying face up on the couch, completely passed out.
“Harry?”
The figure did not move. Blaise surveyed the coffee table and saw remnants of powder, drinks, a lighter, and more. What made his heart stop though, was the syringe that he saw lying nearest to Harry’s outstretched hand on the floor.
“Harry??” he asked in alarm. He sat down next to Harry and shook him gently. He got no response.
“Harry come on, wake up baby, I need to talk to you,” he urged. Still, there was nothing. Blaise peered closer and noticed that Harry’s lips almost seemed to be tinged with blue. His face was gray. Blaise bent down, panicked, trying to tell if Harry was even breathing. It seemed for a moment that he wasn’t, but then he let out the slightest puff of air. Blaise checked for a pulse and found it concerningly slow.
“Shit,” he cursed under his breath, his own heart pounding like it was trying to make up for Harry’s lack of a steady pulse. He knew that these were most likely muggle drugs, and that St. Mungos would have no clue what to do about it. Blaise didn’t know enough about the muggle world to call the proper healers, or doctors, or whatever they were called.
“Shit, Harry, you’ve got to wake up, I don’t know what to do,” Blaise said, voice shaking, “Please sweetheart, don’t do this to me.”
Suddenly Blaise remembered the man from the club who had told him to call him if Harry had any issues.
“Where’s your phone Harry?” Blaise muttered, searching all around. He couldn’t find it. He got up and cast a locator spell which led him to the kitchen. Frantically he searched through contacts until he found the familiar name. Rob. He ran back to Harry as he called and felt his pulse again. Still way too slow.
“Hello?” came Rob’s slow voice.
“Hi, it’s me Blaise. I need your help, Harry- he’s overdosing I think, he’s not waking up,” Blaise rambled.
“Woah man, stop, start from the beginning, how long has he been like this?” Rob’s voice sounded alert and concerned now.
“I got here a few minutes ago, I don’t know how long, I found him on his couch passed out next to a needle,” Blaise said, “I didn’t know he did that.”
“He doesn’t,” Rob swore on the other end, “Okay it’s gonna be fine, get him in the shower, run some cold water on him, pat his face, and keep trying to wake him up, I’ll be over as fast as I can.”
Blaise nodded and Rob hung up the phone. Blaise scooped Harry up and ran as fast as he could to Harry’s bathroom. He set him gently on the floor and turned on the spray. He crouched down next to Harry, not caring if he was getting wet.
“Come on love, wake up for me, I know it’s been hard lately but you can’t go yet okay? I need you, I love you, please wake up,” he said to Harry, patting his face like Rob had told him too. He started getting louder when he was getting no response.
“Harry please, wake up, please,” he said loudly. He heard Rob floo into the other room. Or at least he hoped it was Rob, if it was Darla or Tyler, he might end up in Azkaban. If Harry died, Blaise would not hold himself responsible for his actions.