DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

~ Arachne's Acid ~

The summer after Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts was off to a bad start. Dudley had already started teasing him about his nightmares, about how he cried in his sleep and called out the name of his "boyfriend". When Harry informed his cousin that Cedric was not his boyfriend, Dudley gave him the same odd look every time, but did not bother trying to argue with the young wizard about it.

Worse than the teasing, though, was when the itching started. At first, he thought perhaps Aunt Petunia had switched laundry detergent brands and he must be mildly allergic to the new one, or something. However, when he was doing the laundry as part of his chores, he checked and saw that it was the exact same detergent as they had been using for as long as he could remember. (And he could remember being made to help with the laundry before he could even read, which was a fairly long time, considering that he had only been alive for a sum total of fourteen years now.)

The itching got worse and worse, and Harry never did figure out what he was allergic to, although he supposed it must have been something, but he didn't know how his aunt and uncle would react if he asked to be taken to the hospital - for an itch, of all things.

And so it went on and on, the itch getting worse every day, and Harry trying to ignore it.

Three weeks into the summer, Harry woke screaming from his nightmares in the middle of the night, and found his muggle relations staring down at him in horror, as he had nearly scratched all the skin from his forearms in his sleep.

They took him to the hospital (that's what he had wanted, wasn't it?), where he was sedated (oh dear, had he been babbling and screaming incoherently this whole time?) and examined.

Through the haze of sedatives, his brain somehow managed to be alert enough to catch bits of the conversation going on above him.

"-seems to be in withdrawal."

"Withdrawal? You mean from drugs?"

"It looks that way, although we'll need to know what kind in order to get him properly detoxed."

"Must have picked up the habit at that ruddy boarding school. Knew we shouldn't have encouraged him to be like his parents, letting him go to that place!"

"I suppose we'll have to contact them to try to find out what he's on, so we can get this fixed..."

"And he's not going back to that bloody 'school' next year, if I have anything to say about it."

The sedatives finally won, and Harry drifted into a restless medicated stupor which was somewhat similar to sleep but not quite it.

When he returned to consciousness sometime later, it was to the sound of a duet hadn't thought he'd ever hear - Aunt Petunia was screeching at Snape, who seemed to be trying not to lose with his temper with her but was obviously failing at it.

"You mean he's been poisoned?"

"Not quite, no... He's been dosed with a love potion."

"A love potion? Are those even legal?"

"They are highly regulated, of course, but the one Potter's been given is Arachne's Acid, which is much more dangerous than the normal kind. Normally, once the victim stops taking it, the effects simply wear off, and the victim regains their senses."

"But this one causes a withdrawal, because he's become addicted to it, the doctor said-"

"I know what the doctor said. I spoke to him myself. Yes, this particular potion causes withdrawal-like symptoms once the victim is weaned off of it, but if they don't get back on the potion within a month of the first missed dose, they die."

Upon hearing this, Harry managed to force from his scream-ravaged throat the words, "I'm dying?"

"Yes, you're dying, unless you get back on the Arachne's Acid. Unfortunately, it won't work if the same potion is given by a different person, so we need to know the name of..." Snape paused briefly, as if he was having trouble choking out the words. "...your boyfriend."

"Dra-" Harry broke off, coughing. "Draco Malfoy."

Harry and Draco were going to be very happy together, for the rest of their lives - or, the rest of Harry's life, at least - thanks to Arachne's Acid.

~end~