mirrorball

chapter fifteen

"I dunno," said Fred. "Anything's possible,"

 "He could be under the Imperius Curse," said George. 

"Or he could be innocent," said Clara. "The poison could have been in the bottle, in which case it was probably meant for Slughorn himself. Use your brains a little bit more, please." 

"Who'd want to kill Slughorn?" 

"Dumbledore reckons Voldemort wanted Slughorn on his side," said Harry. "Slughorn was in hiding for a year before he came to Hogwarts. And . . . And maybe Voldemort wants him out of the way, maybe he thinks he could be valuable to Dumbledore."

"But you said Slughorn had been planning to give that bottle to Dumbledore for Christmas," Ginny reminded him. "So the poisoner could just as easily have been after Dumbledore."

"Either way, this does not look good." concluded Clara. The group's silence signaled their agreement.

"Then the poisoner didn't know Slughorn very well," said Hermione after a moment, "Anyone who knew Slughorn would have known there was a good chance he'd keep something that tasty for himself." 

"Er-my-nee," croaked Ron unexpectedly from between them. 

They all fell silent, watching him anxiously, but after muttering incomprehensibly for a moment he merely started snoring. Hermione let out a shaky breath before grasping Clara's hand and squeezing the living daylights out of it. 

The dormitory doors flew open, making them all jump:Hagrid came striding toward them, his hair rain-flecked, his bearskin coat flapping behind him, a crossbow in his hand, leaving a trail of muddy dolphin-sized footprints all over the floor. 

"Bin in the forest all day!" he panted. "Aragog's worse, I bin readin' to him — didn' get up ter dinner till jus' now an' thenProfessor Sprout told me abou' Ron! How is he?" 

"Not bad," said Harry. "They say he'll be okay." 

"No more than seven visitors at a time!" said Madam Pomfrey, hurrying out of her office. 

"Hagrid makes seven," George pointed out. 

"Oh . . . yes . . ." said Madam Pomfrey, who seemed to have been counting Hagrid as several people due to his vastness. To cover her confusion, she hurried off to clear up his muddy footprints with her wand. 

"I don' believe this," said Hagrid hoarsely, shaking his great shaggy head as he stared down at Ron. "Jus' don' believe it .. . Look at him lyin' there. . . . Who'd want ter hurt him, eh?" 

"That's just what we were discussing," said Harry. "We don't know." 

"Someone couldn' have a grudge against the Gryffindor Quidditch team, could they?" said Hagrid anxiously. "Firs' Katie, now Ron . . ." 

"I can't see anyone trying to bump off a Quidditch team,"said George. 

"Wood might've done the Slytherins if he could've got away with it," said Fred fairly. 

"Well, I don't think it's Quidditch, but I think there's a connection between the attacks," said Hermione quietly. She finally unclenched Clara's hand. Relief spread through Clara's veins as she looked at her numbly pale hand.