AN: Thank you again everyone for your reviews. This chapter may a be bit a short…but it just wouldn't be a story from me if it wasn't a cliff hanger. If Neville seems a bit bashful compared to OoTP, well, it's because this was written before it's release. Not a bad prediction though on Ron becoming keeper eh?
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When transfiguration had ended Ron and Hermione were eyeing Draco as he walked out of the classroom ahead of them.
"It doesn't make sense," said Ron, grabbing his books," Malfoy was no where near Harry since Care of Magical Creatures."
"And even then we didn't find out it was the stomach flu until we went to see Madam Pomfrey," Hermione added, "I mean you can't watch someone throw up and automatically assume it's the stomach flu."
"I bet you he's squirming with relief, Harry won't be in good shape for the game tonight...might as well hand the cup to Slytherin right now."
Hermione stopped dead in her tracks, and turned to face Ron, "You don't think...Malfoy...."
"What? Poison Harry? How could he? Harry was with us the entire morning."
"Yes but how else would he know?"
Ron simply shrugged his shoulders. "Come on let's go eat lunch, I'm starving."
Ron and Hermione arrived in the great hall and took their seats by Ginny and Neville, who, was looking rather depressed.
"What's wrong Neville?" asked Ron.
"Malfoy," said Ginny pouring her juice.
"It's bad enough he makes fun of me when I'm in the halls," Neville continued,
"but he had enough guts to come over to the table this morning, he embarrassed me in front of the entire house."
Hermione shot her head up and looked straight at Neville. "Malfoy was over here? What did he do?"
"Well he just stood there and made fun, Crabbe and Goyle seemed interested in one of the goblets-"
CLANK
Ron dropped his fork on the plate. "What did they do to it?"
"I couldn't see, Malfoy was blocking them, but then they saw you and Ginny come in and they left."
"Which goblet did they take?" asked Ginny.
"That one," said Neville pointing to the empty place setting next to Hermione... where Harry always sat.
"That cheating Son of a-"
"Ron!" cried Ginny.
"We have to go," said Hermione sitting up from her chair, she was about to take one last swig of her goblet but thought better of it. Ron got up to join her and they made a mad dash out of the Hall to the Hospital.
When they finally reached the hospital wing, Harry was no where to be seen except for a tie and a jumper on a bed at the far end. As they approached the empty bed the saw Dobby mopping up a spot close to the washrooms looking very sad.
"Dobby," said Ron as they approached, " where's Harry?"
"Oh Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger have come to visit Harry Potter! So kind of you!" he said with his face lighting up.
"Yes, but where's Harry?" asked Hermione again.
"Oh, Harry Potter in a bad state Sir and Miss," they heard a toilet flush in the distance, "Harry Potter has not left the bathroom in two hours," he continued, "thought it best not to leave." Dobby beckoned them forwards while Ron and Hermione crouched down to listen, "Harry Potter didn't quite make it to the bathroom last time," he gave a small laugh.
Ron and Hermione looked over Dobby's head to see a wet patch on the floor where the mop was brushed over.
"Oh," said Ron with his nose wrinkled.
"Can we see him?" asked Hermione.
"Oh yes!" Dobby reached up to grab Hermione's hand and led her into the bathroom, with Ron following behind her.
Harry looked like a wreck, he was huddled against the wall with his robe drawn tightly around him, shivering slightly. He slowly raised his head towards them and a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"I think Madam Pomfrey hates me," he said weakly.
"Harry you look terrible!" said Hermione sweeping over to him. Brushing his bangs with her fingers she pressed the back of her palm against his forehead, " good Lord you're burning up!"
"I know, that's what's supposed to happen," said Harry closing his eyes at the touch of Hermione's hand, and opened them again, "thanks for cleaning up after me, Dobby."
At this Dobby smiled, bowed and skipped merrily out of the bathroom.
"What the hell did she give you?" asked Ron crouching down next to him.
"I don't know, but it's supposed to speed up the illness, so instead of running to the bathroom every hour, it's every five minutes."
Ron's eyes went wide as he tried to remember how long ago he heard the toilet flush.
With that Harry covered his mouth and ran to the closest cubicle, almost knocking Ron over.
"Harry you were poisoned!" yelled Ron over the heaves. After a few minutes the toilet flushed and Harry emerged.
"Poisoned? How?" he said leaning on the cubicle door for support.
"Malfoy tampered with your goblet this morning before breakfast," said Hermione.
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"Well for starters, it was Neville who saw it, he forgets everything- he'd forget to put on his pants if he didn't see us do it every morning, " said Ron.
Hermione shook the image of a pantless Neville from her mind and continued to speak. " Plus, Draco knew that you had the stomach flu, how could he when Ron and I were the only other people around in the hospital wing this morning."
Harry wiped the last remaining bead of sweat from the side of his face and dragged his feet to where he was sitting before. As he wrapped his robes around him he felt Hermione's arms circle his chest. He leaned back into her, closing his eyes- he was very exhausted.
"Do you think you'll feel better in time for tonight?" asked Ron, his eyes filled with hope.
"Even if I don't I'll still play. Malfoy is not getting the best of me just because I'm sick," Harry knew Hermione was about to say something but he wanted to beat her to it, "I've beaten him twice before and I'll do it again."
"That's the spirit!" said Ron slapping him on the side of his arm, but the look on Harry's face showed Ron that it might have not been the best idea. The look he was getting from Hermione didn't help much either.
"What are you all doing in here?" they all jumped and saw Madam Pomfrey standing in the doorway, her eyes lingered at Hermione's arms wrapped around Harry's shoulders. Harry thought she was going to pull away but all Hermione did was wrap her arms around him tighter, " well as much of a convience is it to stay in the bathroom Potter, these cold floors will do nothing for you, " she looked again at Hermione, " though I highly doubt you've had troubles keeping warm."
Harry was suprised to see a small smile on her face as she ushered them to his bed nearby and hurried to her office. He let himself fall face forward onto his pillow as Ron pulled his legs onto the bed. Hermione reached for his blankets and covered him up placing a small kiss on his cheek. Madam Pomfrey returned with a small bottle filled with a blue coloured liquid.
"No, I'm not drinking that," said Harry turning his face towards her.
"Oh relax, it's not the same thing as before, just think of this as the final push to get the flu out of your system."
"I don't want to push! I just-"
"You won't throw up anymore," said Madam Pomfrey with a final note. Harry stared at the bottle, grabbed it and then drank it all down in two gulps, it tasted much better this time.
"I suggest you two return to your classes, " she said to Ron and Hermione, " I doubt you want to stick around to see what's going to happen next."
Harry stared at her in horror, and let his face fall back onto his pillow with a groan.
***
It was potions next and during the entire class Hermione was multi-tasking. While doing her own assignment with Ron she had been looking up methods Malfoy might have used to get Harry sick.
"I've got it!" she said in an excited whisper. Ron looked over at her notes in front of her while stirring his potion, " look," she continued, " crushed Regoram roots added to powdered caterpillars can stop you from getting diarrea-"
"-lovely-"
"- but if you substitute the caterpillars and add the root of Asphodel you get nauseous...I guess he just added more of the Asphodel to make him throw up...you have to admit he really did his homework on this."
"Harry would have noticed if their was another liquid in his goblet don't you think?" said Ron, accidentally spilling his potion over the side of his cauldron.
"It comes out in a powdered form, so he wouldn't have noticed it at all."
Ron shook his head, " Typical Malfoy, just when you think he can't go any lower."
When class had ended they followed Malfoy to the Great Hall where he was accompanied by Pansy Parkinson, with Crabbe and Goyle following behind. Malfoy and his trio sat at the Slytherin table when they approached him. Hermione slammed her research in front of him.
"Thought you could get away with it didn't you Malfoy?"
Pansy looked at Hermione with utmost disgust on her face. "Does anyone else hear a dog barking?"
"That 's not surprising," said Hermione leaning on the table with her hands, "considering you speak their language."
"OH!" said Ron looking at Pansy with a triumphant smile.
Pansy got up from her chair, glaring daggers at her and walked away. Draco however, remained seated, with a look of determination on his eyes.
"Oh please, Granger," he said leaning back in his chair, "what proof do you have?"
"Harry's in the hospital, peuking his guts out, I think that qualifies as something," said Ron crossing his arms.
Draco lazily got up from his chair and leaned forward until he was inches away from Hermione's face. Hermione was determined and didn't budge but simply narrowed her eyes. It was almost like a staring contest. He shifted his eyes towards Ron.
"Maybe Potter is sick because you carried some sort of disease from that hole in the ground you call a home."
Hermione moved just in time to block Ron's furious attempts to rip Malfoy's head off. Malfoy calmly drew himself back and smiled, beckoning Crabbe and Goyle to follow, he left. Ron didn't stop struggling against Hermione's hold.
"Ron, I will hex you myself if you don't settle down!"
Ron looked at Hermione and saw how very serious she was, he pulled himself away and forcefully straightened out his jumper. "He's right you know, the only proof we have is exiting Harry's body at the moment."
"Don't be silly," she said folding up her research, " he told us we didn't have any proof before he knew what we were accusing him of, honestly, he didn't even look at the research in front of him, he pretty much told us without realising he did."
"Should we tell McGonagall?" said Ron looking excited.
"There's no point is there? You're right, whatever proof there is it's leaving Harry at the moment and Malfoy will deny it," she watched Ron's shoulders sink, " but, that doesn't mean we can't get even."
***
The Gryffindor Quidditch team sat in the locker room with nervous anticipation. Fred and George were uncommonly quiet, Ron (the new Keeper) was biting his nails and Katie was pacing the room when Alicia showed up.
"Anything yet?" Katie asked.
"I think he's still in the hospital wing, I would've checked there but the game starts in three minutes," said Alicia sitting down on the bench.
"We're done for," said George lowering his head, " we don't have a reserve seeker...I don't think I could stand to loose against Slytherin."
"Thanks for the confidence George," said Angelina standing with her back against the wall, " I mean there is still a chance, we can still win the game and not get the snitch right?"
Katie fell to her seat. "I don't know, I think George is right, the beaters can't be everywhere at once making sure Malfoy doesn't get the snitch...might as well hand the cup to Slytherin right now."
"Did I dress up for nothing then?"
Everyone whipped their heads around to see Harry standing in the doorway, with a broad smile on his face. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they came forward and hugged him with gratefulness.
"What took you so long?" said Katie with a smile.
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Something came up," realizing the pun he made he shut his eyes and shook his head. " I wouldn't miss this game for the world, besides I have a score to settle."
Ron and Harry smiled at each other, as they all excited the locker room. The team made their way towards the field they could hear the distant cheering and chanting from the crowd that was beginning to fill their seats.