Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

22. The Dueling Club

It was Sunday morning to find the dormitory blazing with winter sunlight and his arm reboned but very stiff. He sat up quickly and looked over at Colin's bed, but it had been blocked from view by the high curtains Harry had changed behind yesterday. Seeing that he was awake, Madam Pomfrey came bustling over with a breakfast tray and then began bending and stretching his arm and fingers.

"All in order." she said as he clumsily fed himself porridge left handed. "When you've finished eating, you may leave."

Harry dressed as quickly as he could and hurried off to Gryffindor Tower, desperate to tell Y/n, Ron and Hermione about Colin who had been petrified like Mrs Norris and Dobby who had visited him again only to reveal it had been his Bludger that broke Harry's arm, but none of the three were there. Harry left to look for them, wondering where they could have got to and feeling slightly hurt that they weren't interested in whether he had his bones back or not.

As Harry passed the library, Percy Weasley strolled out of it, looking in far better spirits than last time they'd met. "Oh, hello, Harry." he said. "Excellent flying yesterday, really excellent. Gryffindor has just taken the lead for the House Cup, you earned fifty points!"

"You haven't seen Ron, Y/n or Hermione, have you?" said Harry.

"No, I haven't." said Percy, his smile fading. "I hope Ron's not in another girls' toilet..."

Harry forced a laugh, watched Percy walk out of sight, and then headed straight for Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He couldn't see why Ron, Y/n and Hermione would be in there again, but after making sure that neither Filch nor any prefects were around, he opened the door and heard their voices coming from a locked stall.

"It's me." he said, closing the door behind him. There was a clunk, a splash, and a gasp from within the stall and he saw Hermione's eye peering through the keyhole.

"Harry!" she said. "You gave us such a fright...come in." She said opening the stall door.

"How is your arm?" Y/n asked him curiously.

"Fine." said Harry, squeezing into the stall. An old cauldron was perched on the toilet, with a crackling from under the rim, they had lit a fire beneath it. Conjuring up portable, waterproof fires was a speciality of Hermione's.

"We'd've come to meet you, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion." Ron explained as Harry, with difficulty, locked the stall again.

"The sooner we start it the sooner we can use it." Y/n explained. "We have also decided this is the safest place to hide it."

Harry started to tell them about Colin, but Hermione interrupted.

"We already know, we heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Flitwick this morning. That's why we decided we'd better get going..."

"The sooner we get a confession out of Malfoy, the better." snarled Ron. "D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul temper after the Quidditch match, he took it out on Colin."

"There's something else." said Harry, watching Y/n and Hermione tearing bundles of knotgrass and throwing them into the potion. "Dobby came to visit me in the middle of the night."

"Dobby? The house elf who visited you in the summer?" Y/n asked as he, Ron and Hermione looked up at him from the cauldron now and Harry told them everything Dobby had told him, or rather what he hadn't told him.

"So Dobby stopped us from getting on the train and broke your arm." Ron shook his head. "You know what, Harry? If he doesn't stop trying to save your life he's going to kill you..."