I\'ll Rescue You

Harry\'s hands clutched his forehead. His scar was burning again and he gasped at the intensity of the pain.
*Voldemort must be feeling very vindictive right now* Harry thought to himself. He rose to his feet and stumbled across the dark dorm room. He fumbled with the assorted items that were cluttering his dresser, cursing himself for letting it become disorganized. He finally let his fingers clasp around a slender bottle of potion that Professor Snape had given him. He popped the stopper out of the neck of the vial and let the silvery bpotipotion slide down his throat. He sighed in relief as it felt like someone had pinched the nerves behind his scar shut. The pain didn\'t stop but it was very much reduced now. Harry made his way back to his bed and lay on the silken covers, his chest heaving from the earlier pain. He felt like he\'d raced for hours. His body was exhausted from fighting ast tst the agony. He breathed in deeply and let his mind wander back to the dream he\'d had before his scar had seared into his dreams, forcing him back to awareness.

Voldemort\'s blood red eyes stared down into the silvery blue ones of Lucius Malfoy. An evil smirk graced the face of both wizards as they plotted. Harry couldn\'t hear their voices but he did recognize his name on both of their lips. *Are they talking about me?* Voldemort looked up as though he\'d heard the thought but looked back down at Lucius as Wormtail came into view, folded in on himself as though he was mortally afraid to look up. Harry didn\'t want to know what had made him so afraid, and honestly he couldn\'t say he cared. He had the sudden desire to reach out and wrap his slender hands around Wormtail\'s thick, pudgy neck. The man was the most vile person he\'d ever had the misfortune to run across. Even Voldemort didn\'t make Harry as angry. He felt the molten run of rage flood his system and found it hard to focus on the scene before him. He finally managed to subdue the anger only to see Voldemort motion to Lucius to follow him. The two wizards left the room and Wormtail stood there, watching them walk away with an envious expression on his face. He walked out of view and suddenly Harry found himself in the room with Voldemort and Lucius.The room was dark except for the candles flickering in the corners of the room. The two wizards were sitting at a dark wooden table, a small, round, crystal glass sitting before both of them. Into each glass Lucius poured a deep emerald green liquid. He then lit a small candle on the center of the table and sat back in his seat. The light reflecting through the faceted crystal shone around the room like little liquid green rainbows, constantly flickering with the candlelight. He leaned forward again and picked up a strange looking spoon, balanced it over his glass and handed one to Voldemort. He then reached beside him and picked up a chilled container, water droplets gracing the exterior. He picked up a small white sugar cube, placed it on the spoon and slowly drizzled the water over it, watching as the water and sugar mixed with the emerald liquid, causing an opalescence to appear. The entire drink turned milky and Lucius picked it up and slowly swirrled the liquid inside, mixing the colors around until it was a rather even pale jade color. He ran the glass under his nose, inhaling the liquorice scented drink then put the glass to his lips and took a miniscule sip. He sat back and held the glass up to the light, watching the refracted light swirl throughout the liquid inside. The room was suddenly scented with the smells of liquorice and something woody and earthy. Harry wondered how he could smell something in his dream and he found himself categorizing the scents. *Hmm ... wormwood ... anise ... hyssop ... fennel ... it smells like a potion but I don\'t think it is. Just what is this drink?* He filed that thought away for future reference and turned his attention back to the older wizards before him. He watched as Voldemort did virtually the same thing, only before pouring the water over the sugar, he lit his on fire with a wave of his wand. He let it burn for a moment then put out the flame with a small drizzle of water, the scent of carmalized sugar filled the room, mixing with the previous smells, causing Harry to get light headed. He started to back away and suddenly he woke, clasping his hands to his forehead.

*Was all that a dream? Or did I really see them drinking ... something?* Harry thought to himself. Seeing as it was near sunrise he decided to rise for the day. He walked back over to his dresser and pulled out his robes and his undergarments for the day and carried the entire bundle down the hall to the bathing chamber. Seeing how early it was, there was no one else present. He quickly stripped and stood under the water, letting the hot water sluice over his chilled body. Now that his head wasn\'t hurting so much he was wondering exactly what that drink he\'d seen them consuming was. The vision of Lucius pouring the water into the drink kept popping back into his head and he wondered why that particular image was taking a precident in his mind. It looked so familiar but every time he came close to figuring it out, the memory would wiggle its way away from him. He finally sighed and soaped his body up, then let the water slide over him, rinsing off the soapy residue. He turned so his back was to the water and let the water run over his hair and back. He tilted his head and popped his neck, the sounds echoing in the empty room. He finally turned off the water and stepped out into the chilled room, quickly wrapping a towel around his nude body. He walked back into the dorms after dressing for the day and found Ron just waking up.
\"You\'re up early, mate,\" Ron said, yawning hugely. He stretched and groggily rose to his feet. \"I\'ve got to go take a shower. I\'ll meet you at breakfast, alright?\" At that he shuffled down the hall, yawning again. Harry chuckled and grabbed his bag. He walked down towards the Great Hall and ran into Hermoine at the entrance way.
\"Where\'s Ron?\" she asked quizically. Harry merely smiled and said, \"Showers.\" Hermione quickly looked away and Harry could see the rosy blush coloring her cheeks. He decided not to comment and quickly opened the doors and walked in with her. They sat down in their customary seats and watched as Ron came stumbling into the room. Both Harry and Hermione laughed as he fell into his seat and started stuffing his face after a quick hello. Harry started eating as well but his mind kept remembering that drink. He looked up at the Head Table and saw Professor Snape looking at him, his dark eyes burning into Harry\'s. Harry looked down at his food and ate quickly. He rose before the other two and mumbled something about getting to Potions early and then dashed out of the hall and down towards the Potions room. He arrived before anyone else and he sat down at his table, laying out his parchement and quill. He dug in his bag for his ink pot and set that out on the table as well. He then made a list of every ingredient he could remember from his dream as well as the descriptions of the drink. He sketched a picture of the glasses and the spoon and then how the glass had looked as water was being poured over the spoon.
Just as he put the finishing touches on his sketch the rest of the class came in. He rolled up the parchement and put it in his bag and then got out a clean sheet and waited for his two friends. They came in and sat next to him. Fortunately for him, they didn\'t ask why he\'d left early. He\'d been doing this for a few weeks so it wasn\'t too unusual.
When they\'d asked, he\'d told them that it was because he\'d fallen behind in Potions and he was using the time before class to brush up on whatever it was they were going to learn that day. In reality he was using the peace and quiet to attempt to put together a realistic picture of what Voldemort was up to. Harry didn\'t like lying to his friends but the dreams were getting more frequent and even though Harry had finally mastered Occlumency, he still kept getting them. He didn\'t want to bother either Professor Snape or Dumbledore with them so he\'d been writing them on sheets of parchement and keeping them in a muggle binder. He had them all catezed zed by the date they occured and the time he woke up if he could remember that much.
He had also spent some time in the library researching potions and that is what he told Hermione and Ron when they asked him, but when Hermione asked if he\'d like her to help him research he told her that he\'d learn better if he had to look it all up himself. She had gotten a rather bemused expression on her face as though she were laughing inside but she agreed with his assessment and kept Ron from coming down and bugging him to go play Quidditch or something equally \'important\'. He felt bad for not spending time with them but he\'d been having the feeling recently that he needed to find out some information soon. He didn\'t know why but he followed up on that instinct, constantly fighting the feeling like time was against him.
He had been spending all his time in the library for the past few weeks and he decided it would be a good idea to go fly around the Qudditch pitch to loosen up. As he was taking off his scar began to burn and his vision grew spotty. He circled slowly, going lower with each pass and ended up stumbling to a halt on the ground, his hands clutching his forehead and he curled up into a small ball. He never even heard the footsteps behind him and never heard the whispered spell that sent him down into oblivion.