Chapter 75 - Brave New World
Remus handed Severus an evening edition of the newspaper as he'd sat down to eat in the Great Hall. As Severus glanced through it, he kept a close eye on the door, waiting for Harry to enter. He couldn't help but wonder how the rest of the boy's day had gone.
Beside him, Sirius, Remus and Charlie were discussing the ramifications of Lucius Malfoy's sudden rise to power in the Wizengamot; Draco, seated next to Pansy at the Slytherin table, was watching the three of them intently. Judging by the look on Draco's face, it was all the Slytherin could do not join them at the Head Table to hear what they were discussing. Draco had his own paper in front of him and was glancing at it frequently, no doubt dissecting every word of every story that even mentioned his father.
Severus noted the many looks the boy was garnering from the rest of Slytherin House. Draco's marriage to Charlie had unsettled them. While Draco had done a remarkable job playing off the incident as some sort of power play - though how he had managed that Severus didn't know - it still had left many of the Slytherins confused about where things stood. Draco's sudden alliance with the Weasleys and now Harry Potter, brought so clearly to light when he'd stood with them on the Quidditch Pitch and faced down the Elder Demon, had just confused things even more. They were no longer certain how their social order stood.
He saw Harry enter a moment later with Ron and Hermione flanking him; the three of them joined their year mates at Gryffindor table. Briefly Harry glanced toward him, and Severus was rewarded with a tell-tale flush to the young man's face. He smirked in amusement, guessing at the reason for the flush. He wondered if Harry was looking forward to their date. Friday night suddenly seemed like a long way off. He mentally began planning what he would need to do before then - wooing a Gryffindor was bound to be challenging.
He watched closely as Harry started in on his dinner, while around him the other Gryffindors were avidly reading the paper. Severus knew that Harry had missed breakfast, and had barely eaten anything at lunch. He was bound to be hungry. Remembering Madam Pomfrey's words about Harry's health, he was pleased to see such a healthy appetite. Harry had been using far too much magic to allow his appetite to wane.
And then Hermione Granger reached across the table and pulled Harry's plate away from him, slapping down the paper in front of him instead. Severus' eyes narrowed in irritation - didn't the girl know that Harry needed to eat? After all the things that had happened to him lately, he needed to keep his strength up to counteract the strain he was putting his body through. Severus resisted the urge to storm over there and give the girl a piece of his mind.
There seemed to be a heated discussion going on at the table, and Severus contemplated drawing his wand and casting a listening charm. He could guess however what they were talking about - none of them were pleased with Harry's decision to give Lucius Malfoy the seats on the Wizengamot. He wondered if any of those children really understood what sort of responsibility the world had placed on Harry's shoulders - and if they had any understanding at all of how difficult all this must be for the young man.
And then he'd felt a strange burning in his arm - different from the summoning pain he felt in the Dark Mark when Voldemort was calling to his followers. He frowned, touching the coils of silver beneath the sleeve of his robe. Lupin noticed the movement and turned toward him.
"Is everything alright, Severus?" he asked in concern.
Severus scowled - the burning was growing sharper, hotter. But a sudden disturbance at Gryffindor table caught everyone's attention. Severus looked up just in time to see Harry stumbling away from the table.
"That's it? That's the secret!" the young Gryffindor exclaimed in shock - everyone in the room heard the horror in his voice. As one, the teachers stood, all of them instinctively understanding that something was wrong - very wrong.
Severus tried to stand, but the pain in his arm flared as he felt a great rush of power surging out of him as if he were being drained of every last bit of strength he possessed. He heard shouts, the sounds of things falling; someone grabbed his arm - Lupin he thought. There was a sound like the wind roaring in his ears - magic was burning through his body, scorching his nerve endings. He could feel the coils of silver around his forearms fighting it, trying to hold back the sensation.
And then something else hit him - a spell, washing over him like a wave of rushing water and from one moment to the next he was falling, blackness descending. He knew distantly that he'd hit the ground, though he was beyond feeling anything at that moment - his mind was falling into darkness, consciousness fading like a tiny spark of light that was far off and growing dimmer and dimmer as everything else just drifted away. He tried to fight, tried to claw his way back toward that tiny spark of life - but there was nothing to hold on to. Peace - like death- closed over him, muffling everything, taking with it all thought, all light, all memory, until there was nothing. . .nothing at all. . .
"Severus Snape! Awaken!" A surge of power hit him like a sledge hammer, battering its way through his soul, striking something deep within him and shaking it violently. It rolled through him like thunder, electrifying every nerve in his body, bringing him to life. He recognized that power, intimately knew the feel of it.
". . .Harry. . .," he whispered, because that was Harry standing there in the darkness, calling to him, shaking him, bringing back the light that the darkness had swallowed. He reached out to him, trying to grasp the pale, slender hand of the boy he loved.
His fingers closed over the hard form of a chair leg and the world came back into sudden, sharp focus, the pain throbbing in his left forearm reminding him that he was still alive. He blinked in confusion - the whole world was tilted on its side. But. . .no. . . he was lying on the ground behind the Head Table. One side of his body ached as if he'd struck the stone floor with great force. There was an overturned goblet lying directly in front of him, and a boot only inches from his head.
Frowning in astonishment, he lifted his head - Lupin was lying on the ground as well; the man's hand twitched suddenly as if he'd just been startled.
What the hell. . . Severus shifted, trying to push himself upright. His heart fluttered, and he gasped as an overwhelming sense of weakness washing over him. He felt worse now than he had after the Elder Demon had attacked - as if he'd just spent hours holding that shielding spell in place instead of only minutes. The coils of silver around his arm were hot against his skin, like they often got when Voldemort tried to summon him and Dumbledore's wards fought off their influence.
"Severus?" Lupin's voice startled him and he turned his head. The werewolf was just sitting up, a look of confusion on his face.
And then Severus remembered Harry.
He grasped hold of the chair he'd been clutching earlier, using it to pull himself up right, his muscles quivering in reaction as he fought the weakness that had overcome him. Seeing his difficulty, Lupin scrambled upward, apparently not suffering quite the same effect he was. The werewolf grabbed hold of his arms and pulled him upright. The two of them stared around the Great Hall in shock. It looked as every single person in the room had fallen over, or fallen asleep. They were only now beginning to stir. Even Albus was on the ground, the old man just now sitting up and shaking his head - Severus had never seen his hair and beard so badly rumpled.
Severus' eyes scanned the room, moving directly to Gryffindor table where he'd last seen Harry. He spotted Ron Weasley first - the redheaded boy was on his knees beside someone, blocking Severus' view of who ever was in front of him. But whoever it was, Sirius Black, after untangling himself from a group of Ravenclaw students, was rushing toward him.
Severus took several steps forward and stumbled, his limbs shaking violently as another wave of weakness swamped him. Lupin caught him again, keeping him upright.
"Harry," he whispered, hoping that Lupin would understand. The werewolf nodded, and slung one of Severus' arms over his shoulders. Then he pulled Severus along - around the head table and through the throng of moaning, bewildered students. He heard more than one student say Harry's name as they came to - all of them looking astonished. Severus shuddered. What in hell had happened?
Ron, Hermione and Sirius were kneeling next to Harry - the two younger Gryffindors moved aside as Severus and Remus joined them. Sirius had rolled Harry onto his back - the boy had been lying face first on the ground. Unlike everyone else in the room, Harry showed no signs of consciousness. Terrified, Severus reached out a shaking hand and touched Harry's throat. It took him a moment to find the correct spot, but when he finally did he let out a soft moan of relief - there was a pulse, faint but steady.
"Severus?" Albus asked - the old man knelt down beside them while Severus was checking for a pulse.
"He's alive," he assured everyone.
"Why isn't he waking up?" Ron demanded.
Sirius brushed back the hair on Harry's forehead - the lightning bolt scar was bleeding, a single rivulet of blood dripping down the side of Harry's head and into his hair. Hermione immediately grabbed a napkin from the table and used it to clean away the blood. Severus gently touched the boy's forehead, probing the wound - it did not look deep but with a curse scar it was hard to tell how serious it might be. Albus ran his wand lightly over Harry's body, scanning him with a minor medical spell. All of them waited anxiously for him to say something.
"His vital signs are stable," the old man assured them. "But he appears to be in a coma. Madam Pomfrey will be able to tell us more."
"I saw him," Neville Longbottom's voice startled all of them. The Gryffindor was still sitting in his seat at Gryffindor table but he was staring down at Harry. "I saw him in my head. He woke me up, called my name."
"Me too!" Lavender Brown exclaimed.
"I saw him as well," Justin Finch-Fletchley over at the Hufflepuff table announced, and moments later everyone in the room was saying the same thing, all claiming to have seen Harry in their minds, all claiming they had heard his voice, heard him call their names.
"He saved us," student after student murmured - though no one in the room really understood what exactly they had been saved from. All they knew was that the darkness that had swallowed them had been profound and deep; all of them had been terrified of it, thinking they were dying. Harry had brought back the light. "He saved us all. Even the Slytherins," another student exclaimed in shock.
"Albus," Remus Lupin said quietly, below the murmur of the students' exclamations. "If this was an attack, the castle may be in danger."
That caught Severus attention and he looked up in alarm. Indeed Lupin's words startled Albus out of his own haze of confusion. The old man's eyes sharpened and he nodded his head.
"Hagrid!" he called out to the giant who was still at the head table, trying to straighten things up. The large man turned immediately. "We need to seal to the castle." He clasped Severus' shoulder with a surprisingly firm grip. "Keep everyone in here. See if anyone else is wounded - or if anyone else is still unconscious like Harry."
Albus was on his feet then, striding swiftly toward the doors of the Great Hall, Hagrid racing after him. They sealed the doors behind them.
Severus wanted to protest - what about Harry? He wasn't going to leave the boy just lying here on the ground. But before he could speak, Sirius reached out and lightly touched his hand. "Stay with him. Remus and I will take care of everything else."
Startled, Severus could only nod in acceptance, not knowing what to do in the face of such sudden compassion. Instead he shifted so that he was sitting more comfortably on the ground and pulled Harry closer so that his head was resting on his lap. He took the cloth Hermione handed to him and pressed it against Harry's forehead, applying pressure to the wounded scar. It wasn't bleeding badly, but he didn't want to take any risks. Unconscious like this Harry looked so young. His skin looked frighteningly pale save for the shadows beneath his eyes. Even his lips had drained of color and Severus remembered too clearly how red and inviting they had looked that afternoon after he'd kissed him.
"Why hasn't he woken up?" Ron asked again, his voice strangely hoarse. Severus spared the redhead a brief glance. Ron's face was equally pale, his freckles standing out in stark relief against his skin. Beside him Hermione looked just as frightened.
"I don't know," Severus admitted. His thoughts felt sluggish; the drain on his magic hampered his mentally abilities as well as his physical body. He tried to think, tried to push past the exhaustion - what had happened to all of them? What had Harry done?
Whatever had happened Voldemort had drained Severus nearly completely of his magical strength - he'd felt the surge of power rushing through him as if he'd been casting some incredibly powerful spell. As it was he suspected it would be days before he recovered completely. He had to assume that Voldemort had done the same to all his followers - he'd cast a spell over the entire castle with that magic, knocking all of them out. But somehow Harry had seen it coming and had countered the attack, waking them all up. But the cost of casting a counter charm on this many people had exhausted him to the point of loosing consciousness.
"He meant to knock us all out and then enter the castle and kill us all in our sleep?" Hermione stated - her words sounding like a cross between a question and a statement. "Or maybe take us prisoner?"
Severus had no idea - though that sounded plausible. He glanced toward the doors of the Great Hall. If that were the case they could expect an attack - would Voldemort himself be arriving any moment now to tend to all of them?
But surely this sort of spell would have exhausted Voldemort equally, if not more than it had Severus? Maybe he meant to sent his Death Eaters to do the job. . . but no . . . right now they would all be as drained as Severus was. Actually, they would probably be in worse shape than Severus since the warding bands around his arm had blocked a good portion of the magical drain. Without the warding bands, the rest of the Death Eaters would likely be lying insensate somewhere, unable to lift a wand let alone fight a battle.
But if not Death Eaters, then who - surely they were not about to face another Elder Demon? Or perhaps Voldemort had Dementors or other dark creatures waiting in the wings ready to attack them?
He became aware of a small form kneeling beside him, holding one of Harry's hands, and he frowned in confusion. Where the hell had the house elf come from - he had not heard the distinctive sound they made when they manifested.
"Poor Master Harry," Dobby murmured as he stroked the back of Harry's hand. "He is saving us from the great Silences. He is bringing all the voices back."
"Dobby, were the elves affected by the spell as well?" Hermione asked in surprise. Severus stared down at the strange little creature. He was aware now of other elves moving through the Hall, cleaning up the mess around them.
"We is hearing the Silences," Dobby explained in the baffling way of elves as if the nonsense that came from his mouth was perfectly clear. "We is saved when the Silences is ending. Elves is not liking the Great Silences. Elves is knowing that there is nothing good and bright after the Silences. But Good Master is bringing all the voices back. Good Master is saving elves."
They all exchanged brief looks of confusion. Perhaps Albus could make some sense of the creature's words, but Severus could not. He was feeling far too weakened, his thoughts ill-defined, and he shook his head to clear it.
"Professor?" Draco's voice called to him from across the room at Slytherin Table. The other teachers were moving about the room trying set things to right, and he could see Madame Pomfrey tending to students here and there. He felt a momentary surge of anger at the woman - why was she not here tending to Harry instead? But then he saw one of the wounds she was mending and realized that perhaps there were others here who had more immediate needs. The Ravenclaw boy she was healing appeared to have fallen on his dagger when he'd passed out - he had a bad wound in his gut which was bleeding profusely.
He focused his eyes on Draco instead. Charlie was beside him, both of them kneeling beside two Slytherin seventh year boys who appeared too weak to even sit up. One was lying on his side in a fetal position, moaning as if in pain. The other was flat on his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling of the Great Hall. Only the occasional blink of his eyes let Severus know he was conscious.
"Check their arms," he told Draco, instinctively knowing what they would find. Another surge of rage moved through him - he rather suspected that once his mind cleared and he got some of his strength back he was going to explode with anger. Already he could feel it bubbling up inside him. His fingers, tangled now in Harry's hair, twitched as his hands tried to clench into fists. He forced himself to relax his hold - he couldn't afford to hurt Harry.
Draco and Charlie each pulled back the sleeves of the two boys. Gasps of shock echoed through the room as the students looking on saw the Dark Marks on their arms - the flesh around the Marks was horribly swollen.
Draco stood up abruptly, a look of fury on his face. A hush fell over Slytherin House as they all stared at the blond, wondering what he would do. Severus glared - even now they still did not understand where Malfoy's loyalty lay.
Draco hesitated only a moment before drawing his wand and pointing it at the two marked students. A moment later, both boys were bound tightly with ropes, trussed up like pigs. Charlie collected their wands and then surprisingly handed them over to Draco as if giving him custody of the prisoners. Draco took them with a nod of his head and then swept his gaze over the staring forms of the rest of Slytherin House. The hardness in his features reminded Severus of Lucius. Though Draco said nothing, the expression in his angry eyes demanded something of the students in front of him. One by one, the students of Slytherin House pushed up the sleeves of their left arms, revealing unmarked flesh for all to see.
At Ravenclaw table, Cho Chang stood abruptly and glared at her house mates. They too bared their arms, revealing the unmarked flesh.
Justin Finch-Fletchley stood at the Hufflepuff table, but his house mates were already pushing up their sleeves. One glance from Ron Weasley had the Gryffindors doing the same - all of them were unmarked. The students turned then to stare once again at Draco and some unnamed emotion flashed through his blue eyes, his jaw set into a hard line. Though there was no accusation spoken out loud, Severus could hear it in the silence - it was only Slytherin House who bore this Mark.
Draco turned then and crouched down beside the two bound student. With two swift motions of his hand, he had ripped the Slytherin patches off their robes as if attempting to strip them of their House affiliation and consequently the shame they brought with them. The students of Slytherin looked on in utter stillness as if afraid to move.
Surprisingly it was the voice of Sirius Black that cut through the stillness, startling them all. "Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor," he stated. He was standing near the doors to the Great Hall, staring across the room at Draco. "There is no shame on your House, only on the individuals."
More than one pair of eyes widened at that - Severus' included. That Sirius Black, the ultimate Gryffindor, would absolve Slytherin House of any sin, let alone this one, said something so profound that Severus didn't know how to react. Instead he bowed his head and stared down the pale face of Harry Potter, and for a few moments ignored the movement around him as Draco organized the students to clean up the Hall. The respectful circle of distance they all kept from Harry's unconscious form spoke volumes.
Eventually the doors to the Great Hall opened, bringing all the fear and tension back instantly. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the Headmaster strode back into the room, his wand still in his hand. If anything Albus looked more confused now than he had when he left. He nodded to the other teachers and they instinctively gathered around Severus and Harry.
"There's no sign of an attack," Albus told them all, allowing the students to overhear that statement. More than one person relaxed at this announcement. "I sent the Bloody Baron down to Hogsmeade to look around, and Hagrid and several Winter Land men are searching the grounds. But the phenomena was not confined to the Great Hall. Everyone on the grounds was affected as well - there were several injuries. Two men fell off the walls - thankfully no one was killed, but there were several broken bones."
"What about the wards?" Remus asked.
Albus shook his head. "They have not been disturbed."
"Neither the Dark Lord nor his Death Eaters would be in any shape right now to launch an attack," Severus told him.
"I know," Albus agreed, apparently having come to the same conclusion as Severus had earlier. "But I've adjusted the wards to watch for a demonic signature. I can't keep an Elder Demon from manifesting, but the wards will warn me if something demonic shows up. There's no sign of anything." He didn't add the fact that this made little sense - the baffled looks on all their faces were telling enough.
"We should move the wounded to the Infirmary," Albus decided then. "And Minerva, I want you to floo to the Ministry. Tell them what happened and find out if anyone knows anything. Perhaps Lucius has some idea what is going on."
His words got them all moving again - Severus felt much better knowing that the castle as still secure. He didn't protest when Lupin lifted Harry from the floor - he wasn't capable of doing it himself. As it was he needed help standing up - Sirius and Ron ended up pulling him to his feet. While the other teachers began organizing the rest of the students, they made their way down to the Infirmary with Harry.
Several hours later Severus found himself sitting beside Harry's bed in the Infirmary. He'd taken a pepper-up potion earlier which had greatly improved his own condition; he no longer felt so completely drained.
The two Slytherin seventh-year students were lying across the room in beds, bound now to the bed frame instead of trusted up with ropes. The magical drain on their bodies had been far more severe than Severus' - it would be several weeks before either of them were back to full health. No one felt it necessary to supply them with pepper-up to help speed the process.
There were numerous wounded Winter Land men in other beds. The worst injury had been one of the men who'd fallen from the castle wall - he'd broken both his legs. With Skele-grow he'd recover in a matter of hours. The others had suffered minor bruises and strains. Surprisingly however they all lingered in the Infirmary. Severus suspected they wanted to wait for Harry to awaken - all of them had shared the same experience as the students. They had seen Harry standing in front of him, had felt him touch them or call their name. All of them attributed their consciousness to something Harry had done. Coupled with their previous devotion to the Boy Who Lived, they did not want to leave his side now.
Severus, seated in an armchair that Albus had conjured beside Harry's bedside, clenched his fist tightly to prevent himself from reaching out and grasping Harry's hand again. Currently Madam Pomfrey was performing a deep scan on the boy with a variety of bizarre medical devices and had asked everyone to refrain from touching him while she worked. Remus, Sirius, Ron, Hermione, Charlie, Draco and Albus were all waiting nearby, as anxious as Severus was to hear the results.
When Madam Pomfrey finally set down the last of her instruments - an outlandish contraption that Hermione claimed looked like Muggle eggbeater - they all attentively looked up, turning their attention from Harry's pale face to Madam Pomfrey's puzzled frown.
"He's in stable condition," she informed them first. "As you would expect from such a thing, he's magically exhausted, which has put his body under severe stress. I can deal with all that however. What has me puzzled are his brain waves, and the odd fluctuation in his magical core."
Severus found himself paling at her words, his chest tightening. The only time a Medi-witch became concerned with brain waves was when there had been brain damage of some sort - such as the effects caused by the Cruciatus Curse. "Are you saying-" he began.
But Madam Pomfrey shook her head quickly. "No, there is no sign of brain damage, but his memory and personality core have become almost neutral or generic, as if he's suffered a Totus Obliviate Charm. However there is no sign of that either - and as far as I can tell his memory pathways are intact. It's more like he's simply not using them - or has become disconnected from them."
"Are you saying he won't remember anything when he wakes up?" Hermione asked in horror.
But again Poppy shook her head. "No, that's not what I'm saying. His memories are all intact. But he isn't going to wake up at all unless his brain starts functioning normally again. His body is in a coma, but his brain is behaving as if he's in a light form of stasis."
"You said there was something odd about his magical core as well," Albus prompted.
Poppy sighed. "It is behaving similarly to his brainwaves. It's become neutral, like the energy signature of a very powerful magical artifact. It actually reminds me of the Castle Wards themselves. Strong, powerful, but utterly elemental instead of living. I don't know what to make of it."
"The lights are on but nobody's home," Hermione stated.
Poppy looked momentarily confused by the statement, but then nodded in agreement. "An excellent analogy," she admitted. "I don't know how to wake him up. I've never seen anything like this. I'll have to consult with some colleagues at Saint Mungos."
Severus reached out again and took hold of Harry's cold hand since Poppy was done with her scans. Sirius, who'd sat down on the edge of the bed and taken hold of Harry's other hand, looked as shaken as Severus felt.
"Isn't it possible that Harry will just awaken on his own when he gets his strength back?" Sirius asked. "I mean he just cast a counter spell on several hundred people in this castle. Anyone who did that would be unconscious. Remember how dazed he was after the fight with the Elder Demon. Or when he moved the stone in the Winter Lands - he collapsed right afterwards. What he did today would have pushed even his strength."
For once the Gryffindor was making good sense to Severus and he nodded his head in agreement. Poppy frowned thoughtfully. "It's possible," she admitted. "The normal rules don't seem to apply to Harry, so anything is possible."
A commotion at the door drew all their attention toward it. Minerva had returned from the Ministry. Walking beside her was a very pale Madam Bones. Auror Stark and Shacklebolt were steps behind them. All of them looked far more grim than Severus had ever seen them. It was obvious from the expressions on their faces that something was terribly wrong.
"What has happened?" Albus demanded of Madam Bones, his voice filled with alarm.
Madam Bones seemed to have aged thirty years since Severus had seen her that morning. She swallowed nervously before answering. "This effect. . .this spell you experienced. . .it was not localized. We experienced it at the Ministry as well."
A horrible sinking sensation hit Severus, and he tightened his hand around Harry's. "What woke you up," he asked, already knowing the answer. He felt his heart dropping into his stomach, unable to accept what this might mean for Harry.
"We all experienced the same thing," Madam Bones informed him. "Harry Potter woke us up. We felt him touch us, heard him call our names."
They all stared at her in utter silence, trying to take in what she was saying. Severus want to shout in rage - how many people had Harry cast this counter curse on? How much had it drained him? Instead of being an attack on all of them, had this been an attempt on Harry's life - the Dark Lord knew Harry would do anything to protect those around him. Had he pushed Harry to the point of death by forcing him to drain himself dry to save them?
"When we came to and figured out what had happened," Amelia Bones continued, "we began to look around - everyone had fallen asleep - everyone in London, Wizards and Muggles alike. You must try to imagine the damage caused by this - the accidents that occurred when everyone spontaneously fell asleep. Wizards on brooms falling from the sky, surgeries interrupted, people in mid apparition, or simply walking down stairs. And in Muggle London - automobile accidents, aeroplane crashes. Fires have broken out all over London, and there is no one to put them out. You see the Wizards woke up. . .but the Muggles did not."
Her words were greeted by dead silence as everyone in the Infirmary listened in horror. It was Albus who finally responded - but only to express his shock. "Dear God," he whispered. "The death toll. There has to be. . ."
Madam Bones reached out and gripped the old man's arm, silencing him, and Severus realized in numb horror that they had not yet heard the worst of it.
"We started getting calls from governments all over the world," she stated. "This spell wasn't localized - not to Hogwarts, not to London, not to England. It was world wide. As far as we can determine, everyone in the world was affected. Every Muggle and every Wizard. Harry Potter woke up all the Magical People, but not the Muggles."
Stunned, Severus could do nothing but stare, his mind numb. Albus sank down onto the bed near Harry's feet, his face lined with shock. "The death toll will be in the millions. . ." he began.
"Albus. . ." Madam Bones interrupted him again. They stared at her. There were tears in her eyes. "We know what spell was used - it's a a type of sleeping spell. We've never seen anything exactly like it. As near as we can determine it was designed to put one person to sleep for a hundred years. It's been modified, altered, and amplified beyond anything we've ever seen and cast over the entire world - this defused its duration from a hundred years to three or four months. The only way to end the spell is to send a powerful pulse of magic directly through the sleeper's magical core - which is what Harry seems to have done for everyone in the Wizarding World."
"Muggles don't have magical cores," Remus Lupin stated in alarm.
Amelia Bones shook her head. "No, they do not. We've tried everything we can think of - nothing we do will awaken the Muggles. They will sleep until the spell wears off."
Hermione took a startled step forward, staring intently at Madam Bones. "Are they asleep or in stasis?" she demanded sharply. It took Severus a moment to figure out what she was asking - why it would matter in the face of this horror.
Another tear ran down Amelia's cheek and she shook her head at the girl. "They're asleep," she said.
Hermione's eyes welled instantly with tears and she moaned out loud, slapping a hand over her mouth to stifle back a sudden cry of horror. Ron caught her before she collapsed to the ground.
Severus thought he was going to be sick - his head reeled with the information and if he had not already been sitting he knew he would have fallen over.
"I don't understand!" Ron exclaimed, holding a now sobbing Hermione tightly in his arms. He was staring wildly around the room at the adults surrounding him. "What does it matter if they are asleep or in stasis? What difference does it make - you just said they'll wake up in three or four months time!"
"Ron," Remus touched his arm. "Can you survive for three months without drinking any water or eating any food?" Ron's eyes widened in understanding. "In two or three days," Remus continued, "the sleeping Muggles will start dying of dehydration. Faster in the warmer climates. They'll all be dead by the time the spell wears off."
"He's destroyed the world," Madam Bones stated. "The Dark Lord has murdered six billion people."
No one spoke, no one moved. They just stood there in shock, utterly powerless to do anything else. All the magic in the world and they were utterly helpless in the face of such horror.
And then Hermione Granger startled them all by letting out a loud, wordless exclamation of shock. She lifted her face and stepped away from Ron moving toward Harry's bed. Though there were still tears streaming down her face, she was no longer sobbing - instead she was staring with fanatical intensity at the unconscious boy lying in the bed. Severus was uncertain if she had gone mad or if once again Hermione's brain was just moving so much faster than everyone else's.
"He's still trying!" she exclaimed. "That's why he hasn't woken up!"
"Trying what?" Severus demanded, knowing that she was talking about Harry.
"Trying to save them!" she insisted. "Trying to save everyone! Just before this happened I told him he couldn't save everyone. He said he had to try. He's still trying to save the Muggles."
"He can't save them," Madam Bones protested. "It won't work."
But Hermione shook her head. "That wouldn't stop him from trying! We have to save them for him! He saved us and now we have to do the rest!"
They were all staring at her now as if she'd gone mad. "We can't wake them up either!" Madam Bones exclaimed. "Weren't you listening? We can't-"
"Not with magic!" Hermione shouted, glaring at all of them as if they were idiots. "People fall into comas all the time. You don't just let them die. You keep them hydrated and fed intravenously until they wake up on their own."
"Hermione," Remus reasoned. "Even if every Wizard in the world helped out, we couldn't possibly save everyone - there aren't enough people with the skills to do anything, or enough resources to go around. We could only save a tiny fraction of the Muggles."
"That doesn't matter!" Hermione told him. "Don't you see - all that matters is that we try. That we save some of them! Do you want to be the person who tells Harry when he wakes up that while he was risking his life trying to save all of us, we let all the Muggles die because we stood around and did nothing?!"
Her words hit all of them like blows, striking straight to their hearts. Severus and the others could only concede in the face of such determination. She was right - how could they ever look Harry in the face again if they didn't at least try to do something, even if it was nothing more than slapping a tiny bandage on a gapping wound.
"She's right," Albus voiced all their thoughts. "We have to try. We have to save as many as we can."
All of them nodded in agreement. Harry had saved them; now it was their turn to try and save the world.