(HP) Because Potter Is Allergic to Poppies

Promises and Passions

"Malfoy."

Draco stifled a yelp and turned around from the wall he was cleaning as though he had expected
Sabian to be there. He offered him a cool nod, while wondering how in the world the boy did that, to get so close and speak his name before Draco heard him. 

"Sabian. Do you have some information for me?"

He felt some of his self-confidence return as the boy preened under his words. It'll be easy enough to keep ahead of him as long as he feels like he's participating in something important by assisting me. Which he is. There's nothing more important in hospital right now than saving Harry Potter's life.

Of course, Draco immediately thought of a dozen people who would disagree with him, all Healers with their own particular cases. Healers did get possessive of their patients, Draco thought with wonder. He'd never had a chance to experience it before, since no one had trusted him with a patient of his own.

He tried to put the thought aside—as well as his suspicions that more than professional
possessiveness drove the thought—as he listened to Sabian. Sabian crowded close to him and looked over his shoulder before he replied, which meant he probably did have information.

"Only one person saw Ron Weasley after he supposedly left hospital," Sabian murmured hoarsely. "It was Haagedorn."

It took Draco a moment to remember who that was, and then he frowned in astonishment. 

"The Squib? You're sure?" Sabian nodded. "And how do you know that he was the only one who saw him?" Draco continued, gaining confidence. "Someone else could have seen him, someone you didn't talk to."

"Well, if you're going to distrust all my evidence like that, then I have no reason to try at all,"
Sabian said, and stepped back, giving Draco such an offended look that Draco could see his prospects for gaining knowledge vanishing like seeds on the wind.

"No, I didn't mean it that way," Draco said, even though he had. "I'm sorry." He smiled. "What was Haagedorn's evidence?"

Sabian regarded him with a jaundiced eye for a moment, then seemed to decide all was forgiven
and stepped back close to him. Draco's gaze darted to the door of the room they were in. He hoped that no one would open it, see them standing this near, and come to the wrong conclusion, especially because rumors would probably reach Potter before Draco would.

And that's the last thing I need to be thinking about, he told himself sternly, again, and tried to
clear his mind the way he would when he was getting ready to practice Occlumency before he listened to Sabian's report.

"Haagedorn said that he saw Weasley step out of an alcove on Potter's corridor," Sabian
murmured. "He acted as though he'd been standing there for hours, rubbing his neck and
stretching his arms. He even brought a strand of hair down in front of his eyes like he was checking it was there." Sabian snickered.

Draco nodded, but didn't laugh in return. In fact, those symptoms sounded familiar. It was the same kind of thing he would do after transforming with Polyjuice, to make sure it had taken.

"He walked along to Potter's door and stood there a minute. Haagedorn thought he was listening for something inside the room. He called out, wanting to know if there was something he could do for him, and Weasley turned around and shook his head. Then he walked around the corner and vanished. Haagedorn didn't think about it for a while. Then he happened to mention it to someone else later that day, and found out they hadn't seen Weasley. In fact, they were positive that Weasley had left hospital earlier that day and hadn't come back. Haagedorn asked a few other people and found out the same thing. He thought there was something strange about that, but he didn't find anyone who believed him." Sabian rolled his eyes.