Dark Pasts { A Harry Potter Story }

Chapter 73 - Chocolate Cauldrons

Apparition was just as difficult even after three lessons, and several students had now managed to Splinch themselves. To add to the frustration, today's Hogsmeade trip had been cancelled, though that did not come as a surprise to anyone.

"I'll just give him his present and then we can go study at the library, ok?" I told Hermione about finding Ron as it was his birthday.

"Fine," she said dispassionately. "I think Won-Won's still in bed, he and Harry weren't in the Great Hall for breakfast."

I nodded, though I found it odd that they would skip breakfast, but also that I had not seen either of them all day. I stood and walked up the stairs to their dormitory and walked inside. The room was empty but for Neville sitting on his bed.

"Hey, Neville," I said and he smiled at me. "Have you seen Harry and Ron?"

He shook his head. "I haven't seen them since this morning."

I frowned. "Oh, alright, thanks."

"Neville hasn't seen them since this morning," I told Hermione when I got back to the common room.

"That's odd," she said.

"I bet they're snooping around trying to find what Draco's up to," I said with an annoyed sigh as we walked out of the common room.

"What?"

"He heard him arguing with Crabbe and Goyle and he says he's using them as lookouts for something," I explained. "He's been following him on the Marauder's map all week."

She snorted and shook her head, but then stopped dead in her tracks. I turned to see what she was staring at and gasped: Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey were carrying an unconscious Ron toward the hospital wing, Harry on their tails.

"Harry!" I said as we caught up to him.

"What happened?" Hermione asked in a loud voice.

Harry turned to look at her, startled. "Er, he was poisoned," he said, causing us to look at him in incredulity. "He ate a bunch of chocolate cauldrons that had a love potion in them so I brought him to Slughorn so that he could prepare an antidote. So, Slughorn prepares the antidote and then suggest we drink some old mead he had that he meant to give to Dumbledore, apparently, but then Ron took a sip and somehow got poisoned. I — I begged Slughorn to do something but he had no clue what to do so I just rummaged through his things and found a bezoar and Ron's breathing eased up a bit."

To say I was shocked was an understatement. I did not know quite how to feel: I was glad, of course, that Ron would be alright, but also deeply concerned for this was now the second incident of the sort to occur this year. Hermione said nothing and quickly rushed to Ron's side. Harry and I exchanged a look before sitting down on the bed next to his. It did not take long for Ginny to arrive and later on for Fred and George to appear in the doorway. Harry had to recall the entire story to each of them.

"Blimey, it was lucky you thought of a bezoar," George said.

"Lucky there was one in the room," Harry said in a low voice. I squeezed his arm to comfort him and he pulled me in for a hug in response. I knew he was thinking of what would have happened if he had not found a bezoar and frankly, I was having the same chilling thoughts.

"You did great," I whispered to him. "You saved him."

He only nodded in response.

"So the poison was in his drink?" Fred said quietly.

"Yes," Harry said at once. "Slughornpoured it out —"

"Would he have been able to slip something into Ron's glass without you seeing?" He asked.