Snakes And The Moon

Chapter 11

Harry woke up early on Sunday morning, back aching from sleeping in the uncomfortable hospital beds. He looked down at his arm and it began throbbing again, but it no longer looked floppy and useless.

'I guess my bones have grown back, then,' he thought. He was thankful for that, he didn't know how much longer he could stand looking down at what had the appearance of a deflated balloon. There was just something off putting about it.

He looked around the infirmary when he sat up and spotted the Ravenclaw girl's bed and Colin's bed across from him, both surrounded with curtains so he couldn't see them. He reached over to his bedside table to grab some of the sweets his friends had left there and dug in to a pumpkin pastie.

When he was done, Madam Pomfrey came into the room and was carrying some potions in her hand. "Well, look who's back in the land of the living," she said cheerfully. "How's your arm, dear?"

Harry nodded at her. "It feels much better, thanks."

"Good," she said, handing him the potions. "Drink these. It's the last dose of your Skele Gro and a pain reliever, you'll need it," she warned him. Harry sighed and quickly chugged the vials back with a small grimace. "Well done. Now, why don't you go get some breakfast?" she told him.

"Okay," he smiled and carefully got out of bed, heading back to his dorm to get cleaned up. He didn't spot Ron or Hermione in the common room or Ron in his dorm and felt confused. He saw Percy studying in the common room and raised an eyebrow at him. "Where's your brother?"

Percy shrugged. "Probably in the Great Hall, being sloppy as usual," he said with a cringe. He then congratulated Harry on winning the Quidditch game yesterday and Harry left the tower feeling pleased.

He was on his way to the Great Hall to find Ron, but stopped on the first floor when he heard familiar voices. He looked around and noticed it was coming from the girl's bathroom. He slowly walked in that direction, making sure nobody would spot him and stuck his head through the door to peak. Luckily, it was only Hermione and Ron there.

"What are you both doing here?" Harry asked puzzled.

He spotted Hermione leaning over a boiling cauldron and reading from a book with some ingredients laying around her. "We decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion!"

"Yeah, and we figured this would be the best place to do it," Ron said. "After all, nobody likes Myrtle," he whispered.

"And nobody will want to come to the place where a girl almost died," Hermione continued. Harry nodded at them slowly.

"Why are you starting it now?" he asked sceptically.

She just stared at him. "We need to get a confession out of Malfoy as soon as possible! That's why," she told him. Ron was eyeing him strangely but he just ignored it.

"Okay..." he mumbled. The anxiety was rising back up but he pushed it behind Occlumency walls and sat down with them. Now was not the time to have a panic attack. Everything will go fine. And if by any chance Malfoy doesn't admit anything, then he'll just give them no reason to suspect him.

'I'll be fine,' he told himself firmly. 'Just relax.'

"I take it you heard what happened to Colin?" Hermione asked with a wince. Harry nodded. "I bet Malfoy decided to take out his frustrations on him, all because he lost the match," she scoffed.

Harry cleared his throat. "You might want to know that Dobby visited me last night in the hospital," he said awkwardly.

"Saying what?" she asked.