Raised By Wolfstar: Slytherin Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Chapter Twenty: Elf Tails

'I should have taken her to the kitchen for our date, we would have had food, we would have been warm, and we wouldn't have left early, and she wouldn't be lying here,' said Terence miserably.

It was the next morning; the hospital wing was quiet, the windows closest to Tracey's bed had yet to be drawn open. Harry, Terence, Allison, Theodore, and Canini were sitting around her, Terence holding her hand; they had spent all night 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 in the morning. It had been a long sleepless night.

'It's not your fault,' protested Theodore. 'If anything it's mine because if I had been in the dormitory or common room I could have cured her and Harry wouldn't have had to take her to Slughorn.'

'Theo, don't say that, it was clearly none of our faults,' expressed Canini.

'She's right, Trace would not want us to blame ourselves and tear ourselves apart. She'd want us to stick together,' said Allison in a matter-of-fact way while standing next to Harry.

'I still don't understand how this happened?' said Terence, who for the first few hours after Tracey was poisoned had been in shock and hadn't really processed what Harry had said the first time.

Harry retold the story he had already recounted, it felt like a hundred times, to Dumbledore, to McGonagall, to Madam Pomfrey, to his friends, and then to Canini. In each of his accounts to his friends he had left out who the love potion had been from, as while what Romilda Vane had done was wrong, she didn't deserve to be blamed for Tracey nearly dying.

'...and then I got the bezoar down her throat and her breathing eased up a bit, Slughorn ran for help, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey turned up, and they brought Tracey up here. They reckon she'll be all right. Madam Pomfrey says she'll have to stay here a week or so...keep taking essence of rue...'

'I'm just glad you thought of the bezoar, if you hadn't pulled that stunt in Potions class Tracey would be dead, so while I was mad at the time, I'm glad you did it now,' said Theodore solemnly.

'Thank you, although I'm just lucky there was one 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 stone.

'Don't dwell on the "what-if's", Harry, you saved her, focus on that,' said Allison, taking his hand in hers. It felt nice, and comforting, although he couldn't help noticing Theodore now looking at them.

'Does Tracey's family know what happened yet?' asked Canini who had only found out what happened when she woke up this morning.

'Yeah, her parents and brother arrived just after midnight, they were with her most of the night and are now talking with Dumbledore,' said Terence. 'I don't think this is how Liano or her father wished to first see Hogwarts.

There was a pause while they all watched Tracey mumble a little in her sleep.

'Do you know what poison it was?' asked Theodore.

'No, just that it was in the mead and that thankfully it was not the kind that kills instantly,' said Harry at once; he could think of nothing else and was glad for the opportunity to start discussing it again.

'Could Slughorn have been the one who poisoned the mead, or even Tracey's glass specifically?' asked Terence.

'Possibly,' said Harry, 'but why would Slughorn want to poison Tracey?'

'I'm just trying to think of what possibly happened,' answered Terence.

'What if Slughorn did poison a cup, but meant to give it to Harry but got them mixed up,' speculated Canini.