Chapter 115 - Ron's Most Disastrous Birthday

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 It was the second lesson of apparating that Al managed to do it properly, much to Hermione and Harry's combined delight and jealousy. She'd run out of her first roll of film for her camera, as she'd given free access to her camera on Christmas day, so now she needed to get it developed, which they'd do for her at the post office in Hogsmeade. However, she was sorely disappointed, when that particular trip to Hogsmeade was cancelled, so she had to send the film off with Dill instead.

 "Hardly surprising though is it?" Harry said to Ron and her as they walked to lunch from Transfiguration. "After what happened to Katie?"

 "No, I guess not," Al said looking to Ron, who was even more disappointed than she was. It was his birthday that weekend. "I've got that bottle I've firewhiskey from last Christmas," Al said casually, "We could pop that open in the Room of Requirement instead if you want?"

 Ron perked up considerably at this. "That'd be great! Thanks Al!"

 Al ploughed through Friday, and kept her head down on Saturday, feeling very excited for that evening. But when she arrived back from the Duelling Club there was a huddle of students waiting outside the common room, all of them from the advanced group, and all of them from different houses. "There she is!" someone from the middle called.

 "What's going on?" she asked cheerily, but her mood dropped at the sight of them. "What's happened?" she asked feeling the grin fall from her face.

 Anne stepped forward urgently as everyone else watched on. "It's Ron Weasley - he's been taken to the hospital wing." Al swallowed a lump in her throat and headed off in the direction of the hospital wing at a brisk trot, the group of about six students flurrying behind her.

 "Freddie Chadwick said he's been poisoned," Anne's friend Marlene said, walking quickly at Al's side. "They're not sure if he'll..."

 "If he'll what?" Al snapped, and Marlene fell quiet at her side. "Sorry, Marlene," she said quickly, "I'm just-"

 "Stressed," Marlene finished for her, "It's fine, I get it." Thankfully, she sounded as though she did.

 They reached the hospital wing, and Al turned to face them all. "Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention - I'll let your heads of houses know." They all understood this as a dismissal of sorts, and hurried off, most likely to tell everyone what had happened.

 Al opened the door to the hospital wing quietly, so softly that only Ginny looked up when she walked in. Al produced what she hoped was a comforting smile, and walked over to the group, spotting George sat in a chair by Ron's bed. "Hello, Love," he said quietly, as Al put her hands on his shoulders and squeezed them. "How are you?"

 He turned his head to face her over his shoulder, and Al bent down and kissed him lightly, before pulling up her own chair and letting him lean into her side, playing with his beautifully soft hair. "Better than Ron, apparently." Fred and George produced identical, if faint, chuckles. "What happened?"

 Harry told her the story about how he'd accidentally taken some love potion and Slughorn had fixed him a cure, before they opened a bottle of mead and Ron drank some and then fell to the ground. "And Slughorn didn't do it?"

 "No," Harry said firmly.

 "So it was already in the bottle then," Al said, receiving nods, "But who'd want to poison Slughorn?"

 "Voldemort," Harry suggested, and Al shrugged. She supposed he was right, but if that was the case then Slughorn would be dead.

 "But Harry," Ginny said, "You said the bottle was supposed to be for Dumbledore." Al sat up straighter at this, and hoped no one had noticed. That meant that the mead, like the necklace, had been from Draco Malfoy.

Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}Where stories live. Discover now