SALEM ᵈ ᵐᵃˡᶠᵒʸ

xviii. Unfortunate Birthdays

"Do mum and dad know?" Fred asked Ginny.

"They've already seen him, they arrived an hour ago — they're in Dumbledore's office right now, but they'll be back soon. . ."

"So the poison was in the drink?" Fred asked quietly.

"Yes," Harry said at once. "Slughorn poured it out—"

"Would he have been able to slip something into Ron's glass without you seeing?"

"Probably," Harry shrugged, "but why would Slughorn want to poison Ron?"

"No idea," Fred said with a frown. "You don't think he could have mixed up the glasses by mistake? Meaning to get you?"

"Why would Slughorn want to poison Harry?" Ginny asked almost immediately.

"I dunno, but there must be loads of people who'd like to poison Harry, mustn't there? 'The Chosen One' and all that?"

"So you think Slughorn's a Death Eater?"

Despite the seriousness of the situation, I let out a snort at Ginny's words. "I think Slughorn would rather turn into an armchair than become a Death Eater."

The twins, Ginny, and Harry cracked a small smile.

"I just don't he's the type to become one," I continued quietly. "He must've not known that the poison was in the bottle too, which means. . ."

"It was probably meant for Slughorn
himself," George finished.

"Who'd want to kill Slughorn?"

Immediately, the four of us looked at Harry for an answer.

"Dumbledore reckons Voldemort wanted Slughorn on his side," he explained. "Slughorn was in hiding for a year before he came to Hogwarts. 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," said Ginny. "So the poison could just as easily have been after Dumbledore."

"Slughorn or Dumbledore," I said lowly, "either way, Ron got in the middle of it. Whoever's trying to poison the both of them is doing the lousiest job I've ever seen."

"She's right," Hermione agreed, speaking up for the very first time since this morning. "The poisoner didn't know Slughorn very well. Anyone who knew Slughorn would have known there was a good chance he'd keep something that tasty for himself."

"Er-my-nee."

All of us twisted our heads as Ron croaked the words out. I let out a smile and glanced at Hermione, who was very determined not to face her reddened cheeks to us.

Suddenly, a loud sound echoed around the Hospital Wing as the doors flew open to reveal Hagrid with his crossbow, and covered in rain water. Puzzled, I looked outside the window, and indeed saw that it was pouring buckets just outside.

"'Bin in the forest all day!" he panted. "Aragog's worse, I bin readin' to him — didn't get up ter dinner till jus' now an' then Professor Sprout told me about' Ron! How is he?"