"So, all in all, not one of Ron's better birthdays?" said Fred.
It was evening, the hospital wing was quiet, the windows curtained, the lamps lit. Ron and Y/n's beds were the only occupied ones. Harry and Ginny were sitting around Ron while Hermione sat by Y/n's bedside holding his hand.
They had spent all day waiting outside the double doors, trying to see inside whenever somebody went in or out. Madam Pomfrey had only let them enter at eight o'clock. Fred and George had arrived at ten past.
"This isn't how we imagined handing over our present." said George grimly, putting down a large wrapped gift on Ron's bedside cabinet and sitting beside Ginny.
"Yeah, when we pictured the scene, he was conscious." said Fred.
"There we were in Hogsmeade, waiting to surprise him..." said George.
"You were in Hogsmeade?" asked Ginny, looking up.
"We were thinking of buying Zonko's." said Fred gloomily. "A Hogsmeade branch, you know, but a fat lot of good it'll do us if you lot aren't allowed out at weekends to buy our stuff anymore...But never mind that now."
He drew up a chair beside Harry and looked at Ron's pale face.
"How exactly did it happen, Harry?"
Harry retold the story he had already recounted, it felt like a hundred times to Dumbledore, to McGonagall, to Madam Pomfrey, to Hermione, and to Ginny.
"...and then I got the bezoars down their throats and their breathing eased up a bit. Slughorn ran for help, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey turned up, and they brought Ron and Y/n up here. They reckon they'll be all right. Madam Pomfrey says they'll have to stay here a week or so... keep taking Essence of Rue..."
"Blimey, it was lucky you thought of a bezoar." said George in a low voice.
"Lucky there was some in the room." said Harry, who kept turning cold at the thought of what would have happened if he had not been able to lay hands on the little stones.
Hermione gave an almost inaudible sniff. She had been exceptionally quiet all day. Having hurtled, white-faced, up to Harry outside the hospital wing and demanded to know what had happened to Y/n. She had taken almost no part in Harry and Ginny's obsessive discussion about how Y/n and Ron had been poisoned, but merely stood beside them, clench-jawed and frightened-looking, until at last they had been allowed in to see them.
"Do Mum and Dad know?" Fred asked Ginny.
"They've already seen him, they arrived an hour ago...Lupin came too to check on Y/n, they're all in Dumbledore's office now, but they'll be back soon."
There was a pause while they all watched Ron mumble a little in his sleep.
"So the poison was in the drink?" said Fred quietly.
"Yes." said Harry at once, he could think of nothing else and was glad for the opportunity to start discussing it again. "Slughorn poured it out..."
"Would he have been able to slip something into their glasses without you seeing?"
"Probably." said Harry. "But why would Slughorn want to poison Y/n and Ron?"
"No idea." said Fred, frowning. "You don't think he could have mixed up the glasses by mistake? Meaning to get you and Y/n instead?"
"Why would Slughorn want to poison Harry and Y/n?" asked Ginny.
"I dunno." said Fred, "but there must be loads of people who'd like to poison Harry and Y/n, mustn't there? The 'Chosen One' and a Grindelwald?"
YOU ARE READING
Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)
FanfictionY/n Grindelwald is boy born into a powerful but feared wizarding family. At the age of 11 he has received his invitation to learn magic at the famous Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. What awaits this boy in his seven school years? Uncerem...
