Draco was sitting next to Harry as Mme Pomfrey was fussing around him, and was fast to notice Harry's pallor and how he went green after drinking it. Harry put a hand over his mouth and stood up, trying to leave, clearly looking dizzy, but unable to take a single step before Mme Pomfrey pushed him back down on the bed, pulling Draco away with the other hand, making him angry.
"What-?" Draco asked, as he got moved away, Mme Pomfrey making Harry lie down, Harry already asleep by the time she took a step back, Melissa helping Mme Pomfrey to keep Draco back.
"Mr Malfoy, please stay back form Mr Potter and go back to your dorm, Mr Potter needs to be left as undisturbed as possible while he's being treated." Mme Pomfrey said, turning away from Harry to face the two Slytherins in the room.
"Draco, could you wait outside for me to take you to the dorm, I need to talk to Mme Pomfrey about something." Melissa said, after making eye contact with the woman.
"No, if it's about Harry then I deserve to know!" Draco said loudly, his eyes flashing as he struggled against Melissa's hold on his arms.
"Mr Malfoy, you must not disturb Mr Potter or you could make the situation worse, please wait outside and go to your dorm when Melissa has finished talking to me. You can visit again daily, but for now you need to leave, it's almost curfew anyway." Mme Pomfrey said firmly, looking at Draco who was still being held back firmly by Melissa.
"You're the one who made him feel sick! Let me stay with him!" Draco yelled, his robes starting to bulge slightly at the back, making Mme Pomfrey and Melissa make eye contact over Draco's head in a knowing way.
"Mr Malfoy, Mr Potter felt sick because he ate more than he's used to, he's not going to come to harm, but your attempts to help him may end up making it harder to do so. Please trust me to take care of him." Mme Pomfrey said, lowering herself to be at eye level with Draco.
"You have our words that nothing bad will happen to Potter." Melissa said, her grip on Draco's arms tightening slightly for a second.
Draco glared at Mme Pomfrey, Melissa behind him, meaning he would have to bend his neck awkwardly to glare at her too. He didn't want to leave Harry with them, Harry was his mate, it was his job to protect him, and his creature wanted to be near him, especially given how ill he looked after taking the potion, but he was tired and felt stiff after being on a train all day and worrying about Harry, and needing to deal with Hedwig too.
"It won't take long, wait outside and then get a good rest, maybe write to your parents too." Mme Pomfrey said pointedly, but Draco may have missed her point.
Draco glanced over at the pale, sleeping Harry with affection in his eyes, before ripping himself out of Melissa's arms and stormed out of the Hospital Wing, but he did walk more slowly when he was walking by Harry, looking at him as long as he could.
"So they're mates?" Melissa asked when the door finally closed behind Draco.
"Definitely seems like it." Mme Pomfrey said with a sigh, going over to Harry with her wand out ready to start healing Harry. "I assume you want details for Professor Sprout?"
"Yes, what's wrong with him?" Melissa asked, walking over to sit on the bed next to Harry's so she wasn't in the way, but close enough so Mme Pomfrey could talk quietly to her.
"A lot, to be honest, I think it's just his magic that's keeping him alive, he must be in a lot of pain, and he's probably used to it too. Severe malnourishment, abuse, injuries, exhaustion amongst other things." Mme Pomfrey said, casting as many healing spells as she could for now. "There are broken bones that have healed in the wrong position, which I'll need to break and heal again, but for that I'll need permission from his caregivers, but his current caregivers should be changed."
"How long do you think until he's at least mostly better, not that I'm sure what happened to him can ever really be cured from everything that happened." Melissa said, standing up in horror.
"Honestly? I'll do my best to get him better enough to be able to attend lessons and hopefully be in significantly less pain in the next week or so, but it'll be a miracle if he's decently healed by the end of the year." Mme Pomfrey said with a sigh.
"I'll let Professor Sprout know and take Draco to the dorms. Want me to look into his relatives and godparents, or should I leave it to you?" Melissa asked, sweeping wisps of strawberry blonde hair from her face.
"Don't look into it yourself, but if you could tell Professor McGonagall to come here that would be great." Mme Pomfrey said, keeping her focus on Harry.
"Okay, I'll let her know, should I tell her everything, like asking her to come with me while I explain it to Professor Sprout, or just tell her to head straight here?" Melissa asked, once she was by the door.
"Tell her to head straight here." Mme Pomfrey said.
"How's Harry?!" Draco demanded to know as soon as Melissa opened the doors, Draco trying to push past her into the room, but Melissa grabbed his shoulder.
"He's better now than when we brought him in, but he still needs more healing. It will likely take a while, you made the right choice bringing him here. Now let's get you to bed." Melissa said, practically dragging Draco behind her along the halls.
Draco stopped struggling to get out of her grip after a while, but his creature was still unsettled by Harry's need for help. The dungeons were cold and the entrance to the Slytherin was marked by a brick that was slightly out of place before and after sections of perfectly normal wall, at least in appearance.
"The password is Dracones serpentibus adorant." Melissa said, the bricks rearranging themselves to reveal a passageway into the Slytherin common room. "By the way, there's a fake dorm to the right if you think people who aren't Slytherins are trying to sneak in for negative reasons. It's not as nice as the real common room, but it's pretty much exactly like how Gryffindors imagine we live, you're free to go in there whenever you want though. Through here is the real dorm, the dorms are separated into small dorm groups of two or three, but sometimes people have rooms to themself too. Go find your dorm and ask one of your dormmates what Professor Snape said."
"Can you tell me what was going on with Harry?" Draco asked, looking back at Melissa as she pushed him towards the dorms.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you, at least not right now." Melissa said.
"When can you tell me?" Draco asked, his eyes flashing again.
"I will tell you if Harry gives permission for me to tell you." Melissa said, trying to skirt around the question, she didn't think Draco was ready to handle it yet.
"Then how come Mme Pomfrey told you? She didn't ask Harry first?" Draco pointed out, crossing his arms.
"That is true, but after I've informed Harry's head of house I'm going to have my memories of what happened removed so I also won't know what happened with Harry." Melissa explained.
"So you're not even going to remember what happened by the time Harry wakes up, so you can't tell me?" Draco asked, sounding annoyed.
"I won't, no, but Mme Pomfrey will and if Harry is okay with it she can tell you." Melissa said, booping Draco on the nose. "I need to go, sleep well Draco."
-----
"Professor McGonagall?" Melissa asked, sticking her head 'round the door to McGonagall's office.
"What do you need?" McGonagall asked, not looking up from the papers on her desk, what they could be, Melissa had no idea, term hadn't started yet, so it was unlikely to be marking.
"Mme Pomfrey asked for you to go to the Hospital Wing." Melissa said, edging into the room and closing the door behind her.
"Who for?" McGonagall asked, pausing and looking up at her.
"Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy got me to take both of them to the Hospital Wing, Harry is still there." Melissa explained, opening the door again. "I need to go fill Professor Sprout in, sorry."
Melissa heard McGonagall rush off behind her as she headed back down near the Great Hall to just outside the Hufflepuff dorm. Professor Sprout was already waiting outside, presumably for her, looking sweet and approachable with her short but somewhat large stature and cute robes. She was the kind of person anyone would be happy to hug and share a hug with, something very good for the head of Hufflepuff, anyone could tell her house.
"Professor Sprout!" Melissa called, speeding up to reach her as quickly as possible.
"Where's Harry Potter, I was told you were taking him to the Hospital Wing with a Slytherin first year." Professor Sprout asked immediately, worried about her new Puffs.
"Mme Pomfrey is keeping him in the Hospital Wing because he's pretty messed up. She said it's probably only his magic keeping himself together. It should take about a week before he can basically return to class, but it would be a miracle for him to be properly healed within the year." Melissa explained. "I'm also pretty sure Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are mates, so they're probably going to be together."
"I'll make sure to adjust his register and keep an eye on him. Thank you for letting me know, I'll talk to Poppy tomorrow. Go get some rest." Professor Sprout said, her pale brown eyes with flickers of gold widened with shock and worry.
"Thank you, Professor, just so you know, it seems like he's scared of people finding out what happened to him, or he's just too used to it as well as other traumas from what I've seen, so please be extra kind to him. It will probably take him some time to really accept affection." Melissa said, pausing before she walked away again. She was tired and just wanted to sit and talk to Ven for a bit, and have a good hug with Rose tomorrow. She wasn't unhappy about the fact she was going to ask Ven to remove her memories of what Mme Pomfrey said about what happened to Harry, he was only 11, it was horrifying.
"Of course, take care of yourself. Do you want me to ask Rose if she wants to go over? Obviously nobody will get in any trouble." Professor Sprout offered kindly.
"Yes please, Professor, but I'm going to go back first if that's okay." Melissa said, smiling a little awkwardly.
"Go to your dorm, I'll ask Rose to go over if she wants, she might not want to go anyway." Professor Sprout said with a kind smile, giving Melissa a gentle hug.
"Thank you." Melissa said, returning the hug with a quick squeeze, before heading off to the dungeons, Professor Sprout going into the Hufflepuff dorm.