Put Your Curse In Reverse [Part 2]

Chapter 5 - Kaleidoscope

Hermione and Victoire stepped over to the side. Hermione opened the topmost book. Harry hesitated for a moment more, but then he locked eyes with Ginny again and remembered the reason behind the urgent squeeze of his heart. He rushed from the room. He grabbed the first Healer he saw.

"Please, I need to use the Floo, where can I—?"

"This way, Mr. Potter," she said immediately. She grabbed the crook of his arm and led him to the end of the hall, into a tea room. He fell down onto the threadbare carpet and threw a handful of Floo powder into the fireplace. He closed his eyes as his head soared and spun. He blinked them open once he heard the sounds of quiet sobs.

Draco blinked, mildly surprised, his arms wrapped around Scorpius. They looked to have been on their way somewhere (Draco was holding the Floo pot, Scorpius had a coat on).

"Harry."

"Scorpius needs to come to St. Mungo's right now."

Draco's eyes flooded with fear. His arm around Scorpius tightened. "Why?"

"You know why."

"We were on our way anyway. Which ward?"

"I'll meet you down at the main Floo connection."

Scorpius walked ten paces ahead of them the entire way. He turned the wrong direction preemptively, so keyed in on finding Albus that he clearly wasn't thinking straight. Harry called corrective directions to him each time, gently redirecting him. Scorpius finally spotted the double doors of the Dark Magic ward and broke into a run, barreling through the doors, his face nearly whiter than his blond hair. The alarmed cry he gave a moment later nearly made Harry fall over. He stopped in place, his heart inching down. No, no, no, no, no—

"Where is he?" Scorpius asked, panicked. He'd fallen still in the doorway. His head was turned in the direction of the bed Albus had been in. "Where did he go?!"

Harry's vision was tilting. He briefly heard Ginny tell Scorpius that they'd taken Albus away to try a new procedure, but Harry's mind was already reeling even from the few seconds that he'd thought Al was—no, no. No.

"Potter. Potter!" Draco roughly shook Harry, hard enough that Harry's glasses slid down the bridge of his nose and nearly fell off. Harry stumbled and leaned against the corridor wall. "Are you going to faint, you stupid, dramatic git? Get up! Get up!"

Even through his blurry vision, Harry recognized that Draco looked liable to punch him in the face. Ron seemed to agree with the urge to punch somebody, but it wasn't Harry. He was crossing their path, levitating a tray burdened with nearly a dozen tea mugs, and at the sound of Draco's words, he let the tray crash to the floor. Draco barely had time to shield his face as Ron launched forward.

"Don't—you—dare! My—best—mate! You—have—no—idea!"

"You punch like a girl!" Draco yelled, hands half-heartedly shielding his body from Ron's various punches.

"How about I tell Hermione or Ginny or Angelina what you just said and let them show you how a girl punches?!" Ron roared. "Let me get your face! Let me hit your face!"

"Get off me, you idiot!"

"Ron!" Molly shrieked. "Stop this! We have enough going on! Now, Ronald!"

A Weasley—Percy perhaps, it was difficult to tell with his glasses still lowered—hurried out and grasped Ron's shoulders, pulling him back. Harry reached up and straightened his glasses. To Harry's horror, Ron had tears glistening in his eyes. His cloak was splattered with scalding tea.