Chapter 36:
Despite Alicia's aggravation at her removal of seeing Fred, ruining her plan to buy crystallised pineapple for Slughorn and potentially going to the book store to see if she could discover anything more about Horcruxes, she still grabbed her present for Ron on the first of March and moved up to the boys dormitories. Seamus and Dean passed her as she went before she opened the door.
"Happy Birthday Ron!" she smiled as she walked in. He looked at her surprised and then worried. "Calm down I'm not gonna snap at you."
"Well your day was ruined." he mumbled. She threw her present at him in response, which he caught. Harry was on the floor by his trunk.
"You checking that map again?" Alicia questioned with an annoyed sigh.
"Well you wont let me take it from the dormitories." he responded annoyed
"Be more reliable and that wouldn't be an issue." she responded as she moved to look over his shoulder.
"Want one?" said Ron thickly, holding out a box of Chocolate Cauldrons. Alicia glanced at it and shook her head.
"No thanks," said Harry, looking up. "Malfoy's gone again!"
"Can't have done," said Ron, stuffing a second Cauldron into his mouth as he slid out of bed to get dressed. "Come on, if you don't hurry up, you'll have to Apparate on an empty stomach… Might make it easier, I suppose…" Ron looked thoughtfully at the box of Chocolate Cauldrons, then shrugged and helped himself to a third.
"You guys just clearly do not have the determination." Alicia said as she laid over Harry's bed, staring over the Maurader's Map in curiosity while the two boys got dressed behind her. It was the first time she'd gone looking for Malfoy herself while Harry had just stated the fact that he'd disappeared. She moved the folds of the map to look over the different aspects of the castle but it really seemed that the dot labelled Draco Malfoy was indeed not on it.
Harry took the map before she'd contemplated much further and tapped it with his wand. "Mischief managed," He then turned to Ron as Alicia sat up. "Ready?"
Both twins paused as they looked at Ron. Alicia rose an eyebrow and looked at Harry. Ron had not moved, but was leaning on his bedpost, staring out of the rain-washed window with a strangely unfocused look on his face.
"Ron? Breakfast."
"I'm not hungry."
Harry stared at him.
"I thought you just said — ?"
"Well, all right, I'll come down with you," sighed Ron, "but I don't want to eat."
Harry scrutinised him suspiciously. Alicia's mouth was handing open and Harry looked at her before she stood up and found the box of chocolate's Ron had been indulging in. She rolled her eyes as Harry noticed it too.
"You've just eaten half a box of Chocolate Cauldrons, haven't you?"
"It's not that," Ron sighed again. "You… you wouldn't understand."
"Fair enough," said Harry, albeit puzzled, as he turned to open the door. Alicia however had picked up the box, eyeing it.
"Harry!" said Ron suddenly.
"What?"
"Harry, I can't stand it!"
"You can't stand what?" asked Harry, now starting to feel definitely alarmed. Ron was rather pale and looked as though he was about to be sick.
"I can't stop thinking about her!" said Ron hoarsely. Harry gaped at him and Alicia's mouth dropped open, her eyes widening. She brought the box of chocolates to her nose and smelled them before she dropped the entire box as if it had shocked her.
"Why does that stop you having breakfast?" Harry asked, trying to inject a note of common sense into the proceedings.
"I don't think she knows I exist," said Ron with a desperate gesture.
"She definitely knows you exist," said Harry, bewildered. "She keeps snogging you, doesn't she?"
Ron blinked. "Who are you talking about?"
"Who are you talking about?" said Harry, with an increasing sense that all reason had dropped out of the conversation.
"Romilda Vane," said Ron softly, and his whole face seemed to illuminate as he said it, as though hit by a ray of purest sunlight.
They stared at each other for almost a whole minute, before Harry said, "This is a joke, right? You're joking."
"I think… Harry, I think I love her," said Ron in a strangled voice.
"Okay," said Harry, walking up to Ron to get a better look at the glazed eyes and the pallid complexion, "okay… Say that again with a straight face."
"I love her," repeated Ron breathlessly. "Have you seen her hair, it's all black and shiny and silky… and her eyes? Her big dark eyes? And her —"
Harry moved beside Alicia.
"Um…"
"Harry…" she said and she pointed to the box. He looked down at it and his face held realisation. "Is that not the box Romilda Vane gave you before Christmas? You know, the one laced with love potion?!" Harry turned back to Ron
"Where did you get those Chocolate Cauldrons?"
"They were a birthday present!" Ron returned "I offered you one, didn't I?"
"You just picked them up off the floor, didn't you?"
"They'd fallen off my bed, all right?" he was getting defensive now.
"They didn't fall off your bed, you prat, don't you understand? They were mine, I chucked them out of my trunk when I was looking for the map, they're the Chocolate Cauldrons Romilda gave me before Christmas, and they're all spiked with love potion!"
But only one word of this seemed to have registered with Ron.
"Romilda?" he repeated. "Did you say Romilda? Harry — do you know her? Can you introduce me?"
Harry stared at Ron.
Why the hell didn't you chuck them away? Or burn them? Alicia asked Blown them up, you know enough hexes! she complained annoyed
I didn't think I'd need to. Harry said In fact I forgot about them.
Well, we need to do something or he's gonna run amuck! Remember, infatuation or, in this case it seems, obsession! she snapped at her brother. He glanced at her as she had a hand on her forehead taking a deep breath to calm herself down.
We need to get him fixed before he does something stupid. she said.
How? Alicia looked at him annoyed.
Well how about an antidote? she offered obviously. Harry turned back to Ron, his mind began to work before he finally spoke.
"Yeah, I'll introduce you," said Harry, thinking fast. "She'll be in Slughorn's office," he added confidently, leading the way to the door. Alicia steered Ron, turning him with her hands on his shoulders and pushed him out after Harry.
"I should have just gone to breakfast with Hermione. But no, I had to be a good friend and wish Ron happy birthday before he even got to the Common Room." she complained as they moved out of the room and to the stairs.
"Why will she be in there?" asked Ron anxiously
"Oh, she has extra Potions lessons with him," said Harry, inventing wildly.
"Maybe I could ask if I can have them with her?" said Ron eagerly.
"Great idea," said Harry.
Lavender was waiting beside the portrait hole, a complication neither twin had foreseen. Alicia however ignored her as she moved for the porthole and Harry followed.
"You're late, Won-Won!" she pouted. "I've got you a birthday —"
"Leave me alone," said Ron impatiently. "Harry's going to introduce me to Romilda Vane."
And without another word to her, he pushed his way out of the portrait hole.
They moved straight to Slughorn's office, ignoring the fact that he might have been at breakfast.
If he is, I'll go get him, you stay with Ron, he probably likes me a bit more than you at the moment. Alicia said and Harry nodded.
Luckily for them though, Slughorn answered his door at the first knock, wearing a green velvet dressing gown and matching nightcap and looking rather bleary-eyed.
"Harry, Alicia," he mumbled. "This is very early for a call… I generally sleep late on a Saturday…"
"Yes, well we have a bit of a problem." Alicia admitted.
"Professor, I'm really sorry to disturb you," said Harry as quietly as possible, while Ron stood on tiptoe, attempting to see past Slughorn into his room, "but my friend Ron's swallowed a love potion by mistake. You couldn't make him an antidote, could you? I'd take him to Madam Pomfrey, but we're not supposed to have anything from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and, you know … awkward questions…"
"Also the hassle of getting to the hospital wing might be more than getting him here." Alicia mumbled.
"I'd have thought you could have whipped him up a remedy, Harry, an expert potioneer like you?" asked Slughorn. Alicia rose an eyebrow in wonder of Harry's response.
"Er," said Harry, somewhat distracted by the fact that Ron was now elbowing him in the ribs in an attempt to force his way into the room, "well, I've never mixed an antidote for a love potion, sir, and by the time I get it right, Ron might've done something serious —"
Helpfully, Ron chose this moment to moan, "I can't see her, Harry — is he hiding her?"
"This one might need more practiced hands." Alicia said to Slughorn who was eyeing Ron.
"Was this potion within date?" asked Slughorn, now eyeing Ron with professional interest. "They can strengthen, you know, the longer they're kept."
"That would explain a lot," panted Harry, now positively wrestling with Ron to keep him from knocking Slughorn over.
"Harry got them before your Christmas party Sir," Alicia confessed as she too held onto Ron's arm.
"It's his birthday, Professor," Harry added imploringly.
"Oh, all right, come in, then, come in," said Slughorn, relenting. "I've got the necessary here in my bag, it's not a difficult antidote…"
Ron burst through the door into Slughorn's overheated, crowded study, tripped over a tasseled footstool, regained his balance by seizing Harry around the neck, and muttered, "She didn't see that, did she?"
"She's not here yet," said Harry, watching Slughorn opening his potion kit and adding a few pinches of this and that to a small crystal bottle.
"That's good," said Ron fervently. "How do I look?"
"Very handsome," said Slughorn smoothly, handing Ron a glass of clear liquid. "Now drink that up, it's a tonic for the nerves, keep you calm when she arrives, you know."
"Brilliant," said Ron eagerly, and he gulped the antidote down noisily.
Alicia, Harry and Slughorn watched him. For a moment, Ron beamed at them. Then, very slowly, his grin sagged and vanished, to be replaced by an expression of utmost horror.
Alicia chuckled.
"Back to normal, then?" said Harry, grinning. Slughorn chuckled. "Thanks a lot, Professor."
"Don't mention it, m'boy, don't mention it," said Slughorn, as Ron collapsed into a nearby armchair, looking devastated. "Pick-me-up, that's what he needs," Slughorn continued, now bustling over to a table loaded with drinks. "I've got butterbeer, I've got wine, I've got one last bottle of this oak-matured mead… hmm… meant to give that to Dumbledore for Christmas… ah, well…" He shrugged. "He can't miss what he's never had! Why don't we open it now and celebrate Mr. Weasley's birthday? Nothing like a fine spirit to chase away the pangs of disappointed love…"
He chortled again, and Harry and Alicia couldn't help but join in.
"There you are then," said Slughorn, handing Harry, Alicia and Ron a glass of mead each before raising his own. "Well, a very happy birthday, Ralph —"
"Ron —" whispered Harry. Alicia rose the cup to her lips before she stopped and looked at it quizzical.
While she looked at the mead and Harry corrected Slughorn, Ron had already thrown the mead into his mouth and swallowed it. Alicia stared at the glass in her hand and then to Harry who was watching Ron.
"— and may you have many more —"
"Ron!"
Ron had dropped his glass; he half-rose from his chair and then crumpled, his extremities jerking uncontrollably. Foam was dribbling from his mouth, and his eyes were bulging from their sockets.
"Professor!" Harry bellowed. "Do something!"
"Poison!" Alicia snapped and she instantly moved to roll Ron on his side and pointed his mouth downwards so that nothing blocked his mouth.
Slughorn seemed paralysed by shock. Ron twitched and choked: His skin was turning blue.
"What — but —" spluttered Slughorn.
"Bezoar!" Alicia snapped at Harry. He was already up and leapt over a low table and sprinted toward Slughorn's open potion kit, pulling out jars and pouches, while the terrible sound of Ron's gargling breath filled the room. Alicia had her wand out and had pointed it into Ron's mouth to remove the foam and try to stop him chocking as Harry stopped fumbling through the things in Slughorn's room.
He hurtled back to Ron's side, Alicia rolled him onto his back and Harry wrenched open his jaw, thrust the bezoar into his mouth and slammed his jaw shut. Ron gave a great shudder, a rattling gasp, and his body became limp and still.