Ron spit out his dose of liquidized Zenoxide. "Bloody hell! There's a frog in my medicine!"

Hermione whirled around from the desktop EMR, her eyes wide. A black frog with bright-green spots was swimming in the bottle of liquid Zenoxide on the stand beside Ron's hospital bed. It was no larger than a three-year-old's fist

Hermione whipped out her wand and aimed it at the frog, but before she could make a sound, the frog instantly disappeared, leaving traces of a thick, black substance lingering in the purple liquid Zenoxide.

Ron pointed toward Hermione's chest. "Mione! It's on your coat!"

Hermione screamed at the sight of the frog in her left coat pocket. The frog hopped out, landed on the wall to Hermione's right, and hopped toward the ceiling corner where it disappeared into a vent.

"Oh, great!" Hermione threw her hands in the air. "There's a teleporting frog lost in this hospital, and I have no idea how it could have affected your liquified Zenoxide." She stomped toward the exit of Ron's room. "I've got to tell Zeff and Milette Barkson."

"Am I going to die?" Ron's voice quivered.

"I'll make sure you won't."

Ron gave a meek smile. "Aw thanks, Hermione."

Hermione shot him a glare before she walked out the door. "Don't get your hopes up, Ron."

When she got to Milette's office, she flinched at the sight of Draco. The pale-haired Healer trainee was speaking to Milette, who was gazing up at him from her desk, eying him through her sharp cat-eye glasses. Her expression remained emotionless and unreadable, as always.

"I saw it, Dr. Barkson," said Draco, sounding shocked. "It was black with bright-green spots, and it was hopping along the walls of the men's bathroom. I tried to use a bunch of spells on it, but apparently, it seemed to be resistant to magic!"

Hermione's heart raced. So Draco had also seen that frog. She stepped forward, nodding at Milette. "That frog was also in Ron's liquified Zenoxide bottle. And it teleported itself out of it and got into the vent."

Draco flinched as he noticed Hermione standing behind him.

Milette rolled her eyes. "Ugh," she spoke in her bland, nonchalant tone. "The creature you describe sounds like a Telefrog."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Another genopet from M.B.'s Genotopia book?"

Milette nodded. "But Telefrogs can only teleport within two acres. And if you say this frog had bright-green spots, that means it must have never been exposed to sunlight."

Hermione gasped. "Which means whoever brought the frog into this world from that book must be…in this hospital."

Draco nodded. "And whoever brought it into this hospital must have written in Organink Potion that it would be resistant to our magic." Anything that was brought to life by the Organink Wand would fulfill anything that was written in Organink Potion about itself.

Milette chuckled drily and crossed her arms. "Hmph. Be careful when you break this news to Lexa. You know who she's going to be blaming."

"Tom Riddle," Hermione and Draco spoke at the same time.

Hermione looked to the floor, feeling that tingling sensation in her stomach as she spoke her patient's name. "Lexa thinks Tom is secretly in love with me, so she thinks he's trying to kill Ron for trying to win back my affection. She secretly blames Tom for anything that goes wrong with Ron's health."

Milette smirked. "Ah. How cute. That definitely sounds like my daughter."

Hermione clenched her fists. "She's completely wrong! Tom does not love me!"

Draco scoffed turned to Hermione with a scowl. "You obviously love him, though," his tone was sardonic. "You sure you're not the one who's trying to poison your ex-fiancé patient?"

Hermione faced Draco, glaring daggers at him. "If there's anyone I would ever poison, I would be poisoning you."

Milette's studious eyes shifted from Hermione, to Draco, and back to Hermione. The tall, thin lady was still smirking as she adjusted her cat-eye glasses and spoke in her quiet, emotionless tone. "Dr. Granger. I believe there is some truth to Dr. Malfoy's words there. You didn't deny that you love Tom."

Hermione's heart skipped a beat. She faced the senior Healer with her glowering expression, but was speechless.

Milette chuckled drily again and continued speaking. "No need to be shy about it, Dr. Granger. I've spoken to Tom Riddle a few times. Quite a charming and deep-thinking young man." She raised her eyebrows and peered at Hermione over her glasses. "If I were your age, I would have felt the same way you did: turned on by his intellectual prowess, but also guilty for developing such feelings for my own patient who may potentially be a threat to society."

Hermione blinked. Milette had always appeared prim, standoffish, and irritable. Her dry, emotionless voice just enhanced her aloof impression. Hermione had never expected this lady to expose any relatable qualities with her, especially if it had to do with romance.

Draco gave a small snicker, but Hermione could tell he was trying to hold himself back from laughing out loud. He was also taken aback by Milette's comment.

Milette's eyes shifted across both of them again, clearly noticing their surprise. But she didn't take that smirk off her face. "Don't feel pressured to keep my words a secret from Zeff. Trust me, my husband is used to having me blatantly voice my opinions about other men's attractiveness."

Draco smirked back at the lady. "Hey, honesty is the best policy, right?"

Milette turned to Draco and winked at him. "Says the man who was formerly a Slytherin."

Draco chuckled. "What? We Slytherins can be honest when we need to be. I'm sure Granger here believes that as well, considering she's clearly falling for her own patient, who is a Slytherin and claims that he doesn't love her."

Hermione bit her lip and found herself blushing. She couldn't deny that. It was true: she wanted so badly for Tom to be telling the truth about how he really felt about her. If he didn't love her, he would have no reason to be secretly plotting to kill Ron. At least, not solely Ron.

Milette chortled. "Well, we'll figure out who's behind all of this once we catch that frog. I'll send my Yapillon, Plutarco, to track it down."

Hermione and Draco both widened their eyes.

"Wait a minute, Dr. Barkson, you can't do that," said Draco.

Hermione shook her head. "Those Yapillons are going to be spitting Amorabloom Pollen at me and Malfoy, and we're going to be involuntarily in love with each other again. The last thing I need is to have uncontrollable feelings of passion for someone I totally despise!"

The side of Milette's lip twitched. "Hmm. Well, might I remind you that Telefrogs are extremely poisonous, and in our world, they teleport to different parts of the body to spread their poison. So unless you want to risk killing all the patients in this hospital, you two should just do your best to avoid Plutarco once I have him scouting this hospital."

Draco rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't mind letting the frog kill off Tom Riddle, or whoever's responsible for its presence."

"Hey," Milette raised an eyebrow at Draco. "Take care of people, not because you like them, but because it's the right thing to do."

Hermione clenched her teeth. I should keep telling myself that when I'm dealing with Ron.

She and Draco left Milette's office, both of them looking wary.

"Huh," Draco muttered as they stepped into an elevator together. "Looks like we'll be facing some throwback struggles with each other, Granger."

Hermione huffed as the elevator ascended. "Good thing our patients are scattered around the hospital and not within close proximity of one another. Hopefully that'll make it more difficult for Plutarco to try and force us to be together in the midst of his Amorabloom Pollen."

Draco scoffed. "Or you can tell your boyfriend-patient, Riddle, to try and use his secret magic to make Plutarco averse to your presence."

"Tom Riddle is not my boyfriend!" Hermione grabbed her head with frustration. Then she thought about what the rest of what Draco just said. "Wait, but he can still use magic…so that's a great idea! I can have him strike both of us with a spell that will make Plutarco averse to both of us!" Hermione nudged Draco. "Thanks, Malfoy. I'm glad you're just as dedicated to avoiding each other as I am."

Draco said nothing. His remained scowling, but deep down inside, he felt a stinging sense of frustration and longing. Why does it have to be so difficult to avoid you, Granger? His own thoughts were frustrating him. Why does it have to be so difficult to WANT to avoid you?