Apparition lessons and poison
As February rolls around the last patches of snow melts away leaving the ground wet and muddy under the seemingly endless cold rain whipping across the grounds from the heavy-hanging clouds that hug Hogwarts. Awful Quidditch conditions, but there is one good thing to come out of the dreary weather and that is that when it’s time for the sixth years’ first Apparition lesson, schedulled for a Saturday morning so as not to disrupt any other lessons, it’s decided that it will take place in the Great Hall as opposed to outdoors.
Harry and Hermione go down together, as Ron has already left with Lavender by the time Hermoine comes down from the girls’ dormitory and Harry suspects that she’d been stalling until she was sure the two lovebirds had left, but he makes no comment, just gives her a weak smile as she finally sidles up to him and lets her climb through the portrait hole first.
When they walk into the Great Hall, which looks like it might have doubled in size during the night with all the tables and benches gone from the space, the four Heads of House — McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout and Severus — are standing in a line at the far back of the room, next to a small and rather vacant-looking wizard whom Harry guesses is the Apparition Instructor sent by the Ministry.
When the Instructor starts the introction, Harry struggles to concentrate on what he’s actually saying, his airy, droning voice almost giving Professor Binns a run for his money, and Harry finds himself zoning out and letting his gaze travel over to Severus instead. Of course, the former Potions Master is as stoic as ever, so there’s not much to interpret, yet Harry finds himself trying to anyway.
”Malfoy, be quiet and pay attention!” Professor McGonagall barks out suddenly, interrupting the Instructor.
Every student in the hall looks round to see Malfoy taking a step back from what appeared to have been a whispered argument with Crabbe, his pale cheeks flaring up in a light blush as he scowls furiously at the floor.
Harry quickly turns back to the front to gauge Snape’s reaction and catches a hint of annoyance around the man’s eyes, but he strongly suspects it’s less to do with Malfoy’s behaviour and more to do with another professor scolding his Draco… Harry shakes off the thought. Silly, he thinks.
”I would like each of you to place yourself now so that you have a clear five feet of space in front of you”, the Instructor’s voice filters back into Harry’s awareness and suddenly Harry is being jostled from all sides as students around him start to scramble about.
The Heads of House swiftly moves amongst the students, herding them into position and breaking up small fights here and there.
”Harry, where are you going?” Hermione hisses.
Harry ignores her and quickly zig-zags between a few disoriented Ravenclaws to position himself closer to the Slytherins who, as always, have decided to cluster together. Malfoy, taking advantage of the temporary upheaval to continue his argument with Crabbe, is hissing furiously, the light pink blush still evident in his face, as Harry discreetly creeps up on them.
”I don’t know how much longer, all right?” Malfoy is saying, oblivious to Harry’s sudden presence behind him. ”It’s taking longer than I thought it would… And it’s none of your business what I’m doing, Crabbe, you and Goyle just do as you’re told and keep a lookout!”
”I tell my friends what I’m up to, if I want them to keep a lookout for me”, Harry says, just loud enough for Malfoy to hear, and smirks when the blonde boy swirls around and his frantic eyes land on Harry, his hand instinctively reaching for his wand before he’s interrupted by McGonagall’s Quiet as it echoes through the Hall.
”Thank you”, the Instructor mutters as the ruckus immediately dies down. ”Now then…”
Harry glances over at Snape again, and catches his gaze for a split second before it darts away, and feels a jolt of excitement. He was looking at me, he thinks and tries not to let himself feel too ecstatic over it — and failing miserably.
”What’re you so cheerful about?” Ron demands as they’re all leaving the Great Hall after the lesson is over, before Lavender whisks him away again. ”Did you manage to Apparate? I should’ve known you’d be able to—!”
”No, no”, Harry says. ”Didn’t feel a thing. I’m not bothered about it though. I prefer flying anyway…”
Harry keeps a close watch on Malfoy in the weeks that follows and always has his Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder’s Map on him at all times, just in case. But despite this, he never seems to catch Malfoy anywhere suspiscious.
Crabbe and Goyle tend to move around the castle without the blonde a lot more than usual and sometimes they hang around deserted corridors for no apparent reason, but at those times Malfoy is nowhere to be seen. Literally. He’s impossible to find on the Map at all. Harry toys with the idea that he has somehow found a way to slip off the school grounds undetected, but he can’t for the life of him work out how. Frankly, it’s more likely that Harry just hasn’t been able to spot him amongst the hundreds of black dots on the Map.
And as unusual as it is for Crabbe and Goyle to be veering away from Malfoy when the three have been inseperable since day one of first year, Harry has to admit that it’s not completely unheard of. People, even best friends, grow apart sometimes, he knows.
He glances between his own two best friends, resolutely on opposite ends of the Common Room now which has become the new norm ever since Ron and Lavender got together.
*
”Happy birthday, Ron”, Harry says as soon as he’s woken up by Dean and Seamus leaving noisily for breakfast, giggling and whispering together.
He glances over at Dean’s bed, noting that it looks suspisciously unslept in, but then decides that he rather not know, and turns his focus back to Ron who is reaching blearily for the small pile of presents at the foot of his bed.
”Here, have another present”, Harry adds and tosses his own package over to Ron’s bed.
”Cheers”, Ron croaks thickly and tears into it, waking up considerably at the sight of the new Keeper’s gloves. ”Nice one, Harry!”
”No problem”, Harry says absent-mindedly as he unfolds the Marauder’s Map, muttering I solemnly swear that I am up to no good and eagerly starts searching for Malfoy’s dot, as has become his new morning routine. ”Hey… I don’t think he’s in bed…”
Ron ignores him, either because he’s too busy opening his presents or because he’s getting tired of the subject of Malfoy and his whereabouts.
Harry quickly scans the rest of the Slytherin dorms and Common room, then moves on to the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, but Malfoy is nowhere to be seen. Severus is sitting by himself in his study and Malfoy is nowhere near him either, and he isn’t in any of the bathrooms nor in the Hospital Wing.
”Want one?” Ron says thickly, waving a box of Chocolate Cauldrons in Harry’s direction.
”No thanks”, Harry mutters. ”Malfoy’s gone again!”
”Can’t have done”, Ron says and stuffs another Cauldron into his mouth, before finally sliding out of bed to get dressed. ”Come on, if we don’t hurry up we’ll have to Apparate on an empty stomach… might make it easier, I suppose…”
Ron looks thoughtfully at the box of Chocolate Cauldrons, then shrugs and stuffs a third one into his mouth.
Harry reluctantly taps the Map with his wand and mutters Mischief managed, then gets out of bed and starts pulling on his clothes.
There’s nothing for it, he thinks. I’ll have to tail Malfoy, that’s the only way I’m going to find out where he disappears to… That will obviously be highy impractical, what with his lessons, Quidditch practise, Apparation lessons and homework, not to mention his study dates with Hermoine, but it’s March already and Harry isn’t any closer to finding out what Malfoy is up to than he was at the start of term… or start of the school year, he thinks sullenly.
”Ready?” he says to Ron and starts walking towards the dormitory door while stuffing his Cloak into his pocket, then pauses in the doorway when he realises that Ron hasn’t moved at all, but is in fact leaning against his bedpost and staring out the window with a far-away look in his eyes. ”Ron? Breakfast, remember?”
”I’m not hungry”, Ron says with a sigh.
Harry just stares at him for a second, because in all the years that he’s been best friends with Ron Weasley he has never heard him turn down food, not once.
”You just said —”
”Oh, all right, I’ll come down with you. But I’m not eating.”
”You’ve just eaten half that box of chocolate, haven’t you?” Harry says, swallowing an impulse to snicker.
”It’s not that”, Ron says with another heavy sigh. ”But you wouldn’t understand…”
”Eh, alright… fair enough”, Harry mutters and turns back to the door, because he is hungry and whatever Ron is playing at, he won’t miss breakfast just because Ron’s being silly.
”Harry!” Ron exclaims suddenly and Harry startles. ”I can’t stand it! I can’t stop thinking about her!”
Harry stares in alarm at his friend, who is now looking both pale and frantic. He wasn’t expecting this, he truly wasn’t. That Lavender was acting like a love-sick puppy, that was one thing. But if Ron is going to start calling her Lav-Lav, Harry will have to put his foot down.
”And I don’t think she even knows I exist…” Ron adds miserably.
”You what?” Harry says, feeling more and more bewildered by the second. ”I’m pretty sure she knows you exist. She keeps snogging you, doesn’t she?”
”Snogging?” Ron says and blinks at him. ”What are you on about?”
”Eh…”
”Who are you even talking about?”
”Well, who are you talking about?” Harry says with an exasperated huff, wanting this whole absurd conversation to end already.
”Romilda Vane”, Ron says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, then turns to gaze out the rain-splattered window again with that same dreamy, unfocused look in his eyes. ”I think… Harry, I think I love her…”
”Okay…” Harry says, then walks up to his friend and peers more closely at his glazed eyes, realisation starting to trickle into his mind. ”Ron, where did you get those Chocolate Cauldrons?”
”Hm? Oh, they were a birthday present…”
”You didn’t just pick the box up from off the floor?”
”So? They’d fallen off the bed! I offered you one, didn’t I?”
With a groan, Harry picks the half-empty box up from Ron’s bed and looks more closely at it. He immediately recognises the box as the one given to him by none other than Romilda Vane just before Christmas and having remembered Hermoine’s warning, he’d assumed they’d been spiked with love potion and stuck the box in his trunk without even opening it. It must have fallen out when I dug the Map out, he thinks.
”Okay”, Harry says, thinking fast. ”Okay, Ron, I’m going to introduce you to Romilda.”
”You will?” Ron says and lights up. ”Oh, Harry, you promise? Can we go right now?”
”Yes. Yes, we’ll go right now… She’ll be in… Slughorn’s office”, he says decisively and grabs Ron by the arm and more or less drags him out the door.
For a moment he’d considered taking Ron to see Severus, but then he’d decided against it telling himself that he simply didn’t want to disturb the man on his morning off, especially since there’s no logical reason for it now that Slughorn is Hogwarts’ Potions Master anyway. But a small part of him knows that if he’d been on his own, he wouldn’t have hesitated to go to Severus. In fact, he’d be thrilled to have an excuse, any excuse, to pay a visit to the older man.
But with Ron on his arm, Harry is sure that Severus would simply treat him with his usual contempt anyway, so what would be the point…
They shoulder past a hurt-looking Lavender waiting for Ron by the portrait hole, Ron ignoring her Won-Won and impatiently pushing her out of the way. Harry throws her an apologetic look just before the Fat Lady swings shut behind them, but judging by the offended look on Lavender’s face it might have come off slightly amused.
Slughorn answers his office door after only one knock, wearing a green velvet dressing gown with matching nightcap and blinks at them with sleep-swollen eyes.
”Harry”, he mumbles. ”This is very early, I must say… I generally sleep in on a Saturday, you know…”
”I’m really sorry to disturb you, Professor”, Harry says quietly, aware of Ron standing on tip-toe behind him, trying to look past Slughorn to catch a glimpse of Romilda Vane. ”But my friend has just swallowed a love potion by mistake, and I was hoping you could make him an antidote? I’d take him to Madam Pompfrey, but you know… awkward questions…”
”Oh”, Slughorn says and blinks at Ron in surprise. ”I would have thought you could whip him up a remedy, Harry — an expert potioneer such as yourself?”
”Er…” Harry struggles to come up with an explanation, as Ron is elbowing him in the ribs trying to force his way into the room. ”Well, quite, but I’ve never brewed an antidote for a love potion before, Sir, and I wouldn’t want to risk it, besides as you can see it’s quite urgent —”
Rather helpfully, Ron picks this precise moment to moan ”I can’t see her, Harry — is he hiding her from me?”
”Yes, I can see that”, Slughorn agrees, a spark of professional interest in his eyes now as he studies Ron’s face. ”Was the potion out of date by any chance? You know they can strengthen over time…”
”Ah, well, that would explain a lot then”, Harry pants, now practically wrestling Ron to keep him from knocking Slughorn over.
”Well, all right, come in then, the both of you…” Slughorn finally relents.
Slughorn mixes up the antidote expertly, while Harry tries to keep Ron calm. He tells him Romilda isn’t there yet, but she’s on her way.
”Oh, good”, Ron says and nods feverishly. ”How do I look?”
”Er, great”, Harry mutters. ”Very… you know…”
”Handsome”, Slughorn supplies smoothly and hands him the antidote. ”Now drink this, m’boy. It’s okay. It’s a tonic for the nerves, that’s all.”
Ron downs the antidote eagerly, and Harry and Slughorn watch as his beaming grin fades and then warps into a look of horror. Harry chuckles, ”Back to normal then?”
Ron collapses bonelessly into the nearest armchair, looking decidedly devastated.
”I think he needs a pick-me-up”, Slughorn says and bustles over to a table loaded with different types of drink. ”I’ve got Butterbeer, I’ve got wine… I’ve got a bottle of oak-matured mead… hmm… was meant to give that to Dumbledore for Christmas, ah well…”
Slughorn pours them all a glass each, chortling. Harry suddenly realises that this is the first time he’s got the man on his own since that first disasterous attempt at getting the memory from him, and maybe if he can keep him in a good mood… if they get through enough mead…
Slughorn raises his glass for a toast and Harry eagerly mirrors him, but Ron barely takes note of either of them and just chugs the content of his glass.
Harry immediately knows something’s terribly wrong and it’s confirmed instantly when Ron’s glass falls from his fingers and he sort of jerks out of the armchair and then crumbles to the floor. He starts shaking uncontrollably, his eyes rolling back into his head and foam dribbles from his mouth.
”Ron!” Harry screams. ”Professor! Do something!”
But Slughorn merely stares in shock at Ron, seemingly paralysed. Harry spins around, his heart beating out of his chest, his mind whirring frantically, as he looks around in panic until he sees Slughorn’s open potion kit and he starts over to it, pulling out jars and pouches with trembling hands as the terrible gargling noise of Ron’s breathing washes over him.
Then he finds it — the shrivelled up stone that he’d given Slughorn during their last Potions lessons. Hurtling back over to Ron’s side, Harry pushes the bezoar past Ron’s chattering teeth and then promptly puts his hand over his friend’s mouth and nose, forcing him to swallow it.
Ron gives one final shudder, then with a rattling gasp as Harry removes his hand again, his whole body goes limp.
*
Harry feels like he’s told the story a hundred times, first to Madam Pompfrey, then McGonagall and Dumbledore, Hermione and Ginny, and now Fred and George who have come to bring Ron his birthday present.
”This isn’t how we imagined handing it over”, George says as he puts the wrapped parcel on the bedside cabinet next to Ron’s hospital bed.
”Yeah, when we pictured the scene, he was conscious”, Fred agrees gloomily and pulls up a chair to sit next to Harry, his eyes never leaving Ron’s pale face.
They all discuss whether Slughorn might have had something to do with the poison getting into Ron’s glass and if the target had indeed been Ron, or Harry, but Slughorn getting the glasses mixed up. But, as Ginny points out, the poison was more likely to have been in the bottle already in which case the intended target would have been Slughorn himself.
”Or Dumbledore”, Ginny says. ”Didn’t you say that Slughorn was meant to give the bottle to Dumbledore for Christmas, Harry?”
”Yeah”, Harry agrees, thinking hard.
”Well, in that case, whomever poisoned the mead didn’t know Slughorn very well”, Hermione speaks up for the first time. ”Or they’d have known that it’d be a good chance he’d keep something that tasty for himself…”
Suddenly Ron emits a weak moan that sounds suspisciously like Hermione and everyone immediately quiet down and stares expectantly at him. But Ron doesn’t wake up nor does he make another noise.
The doors to the Hospital Wing fly open, distracting them for a moment and Hagrid strides inside, leaving a trail of muddy footprints the size of baby sea lions in his wake. Tears are already welling in his eyes as he towers over them all.
”Been in the Forest all day, Aragog’s worse you see, and I only just got back for dinner now and that’s when Professor Sprout told me! How is he?”
”Not bad. Madam Pompfrey says he’ll probably be okay”, Harry hurries to reassure the half-giant before he starts wailing in earnest.
”I just don’t believe it”, Hagrid says hoarsley. ”Look at him… lying there… I mean, who’d want to hurt Ron eh?”
When Mr and Mrs Weasley get back from talking to Dumbledore, Harry and Hermione decide to let the Weasleys have a moment alone with Ron and accompany Hagrid out of the Hospital Wing.
”It’s just terrible, all this new security and kids are still getting hurt”, Hagrid growls. ”Dumbledore’s worried sick of course, he don’t say much but I can tell… It’s the Chamber of Secrets all over again isn’t it, there’ll be panic, more parents taking their kids out of school, and the next thing you know the board of governors will be talking about shutting us up for good…”
”Surely not?” Hermione says, wringing her hands.
”Well, you got to see it from their point of view hadn’t you?” Hagrid says with a heavy sigh. ”I mean it’s always a risk sending a kid to Hogwarts, isn’t it? Hundreds of underage witches and wizards all locked up together, you’d expect accidents to happen obviously… but attempted murder, now that’s different, isn’t it? No wonder Dumbledore is angry with Sna—”
Hagrid suddenly stops in his tracks, a familiar guilty expression on his face that he always gets when he’s gone and revealed something that he wasn’t supposed to.
”What?” Harry speaks up for the first time since leaving the Hospital Wing. ”Dumbledore is angry with Snape?”
”I never said that!” Hagrid says loudly, the look of increased panic on his face a dead give-away. ”Look at the time, I’d better be off now —”
”Hagrid, why is Dumbledore angry with Snape?” Harry insists.
”Shhh”, Hagrid hushes angrily. ”Don’t go shouting stuff like that, Harry! Do you want me to lose my job? Not that you’d care, now that you’re not even taking Care of Magical—”
”Don’t try and make me feel guilty”, Harry cuts him off. ”What’s Snape done?”
”I don’t know, Harry, I shouldn’t have heard it at all, all right? I… Well, see, I was coming out of the Forest the other evening and I overheard them talking — well, arguing really — I wasn’t eavesdropping, and I didn’t want them to think I was so I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself, you know, so I sort of skulked a bit — I tried not to listen, I really did! — but, well, it was a rather heated discussion, I couldn’t exactly block it out —”
”Never mind that”, Harry says. ”What was the discussion about?”
”Well, all I heard was Snape saying that Dumbledore took too much for granted and maybe he — that’s to say, Snape — didn’t want to do it anymore…”
”It? What? Do what?” Harry asks eagerly.
”I don’t know, Harry”, Hagrid insists. ”It sounded like Snape was a but overworked is all, and anyway, Dumbledore told him flat out that he’d agreed to do it, and that’s all there was to it. Pretty firm with him actually. Then he said something about Snape making investigations in his house, in Slytherin — well, there’s nothing strange about that, is there? All the Heads of House were asked to look into that whole necklace business weren’t they? —”
Yeah, but the other Heads of Houses aren’t getting into arguments with Dumbledore about it, are they, Harry thinks.