Diagnosis


A/N: So...how are you guys?


When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I saw was Bill's face looming over me. He was slightly blurry, and there was someone I didn't recognize.

"Bill?" I croaked. My throat was all sore and dry, like I'd been screaming for hours on end.

"Shh, Charlie, it's gonna be all right, okay? Just relax..." He looked over at the other guy. "Frank, what do we do?"

"I don't think there's much we can do. His heart rates not irregular anymore, thank god, Charlie? What color is the ceiling?"

"Um...red? Yellow? It's like, switching."

"His vision is still screwed up. That should wear off in a few hours, depending on when he took the drugs."

"Drugs?" I asked, trying to sit up. We'd learned a bit about drugs in Muggle Studies. Bill pushed me back down. "No, no, it was candy, Frankie, candy..."

"They told him it was candy?" Frank muttered. "What kind of sickos would do that to a kid this young?"

"Luiz's friends." Bill said curtly, feeling my forehead.

"I should have known. That guy should have been kicked out a long time ago." He lowered his voice. "Bill, this could be just what we need to get rid of him for good."

"No way, Frank. There's no way I'm-"

"Why not? Do you not see what he's done to Charlie?"

"That's exactly the problem. We can't get Luiz without incriminating Charlie. He did go along and take the drugs voluntarily."

"He had no idea what they were!" When Bill still wouldn't meet his eye, Frank turned red. "So you'd rather let Luiz get away with all this than risk Charlie getting in trouble. Man, this is exactly what Juliana was talking about-"

"You think I don't know that?" Bill snapped suddenly. "Do you think I like seeing Charlie like this?"

"Bill, chill." I laughed. "Hey, that rhymes..."

"Charlie, would you just shut up now!" Bill yelled, finally losing his temper. "Unlike you, I actually care about what happens to my brothers!"

I was mortally offended. "Bill, man, I care about you-"

"You sure have a hell of a way of showing it."

"I only went because of you..."

They both were looking at me now. "Charlie? What'd you say? Why did you go because of me?" Bill asked, shaking my head, trying to get me to talk.

"You're a prefect...somehow Luiz double-talked me into saying something like I could get away with anything because you're a prefect. Otherwise I would have been too scared to even consider it." My head was feeling a lot heavier all of a sudden. "I didn't even know what that stuff was, Bill. They told me it was candy, and I didn't know any better. I swear, I didn't...I should have known, that's what they told Luiz..."

The last thing I remembered was the look of pain on Bill's face.

(Flashforward! Yldood-Yldood-Ood!)

"I remember at the time, just thinking that I had been the cause of all that." Bill spoke up for the first time since Charlie had began talking. "He'd made me feel so damn guilty..."

"Dude, it wasn't your fault at all. I should have known better than to trust Luiz a second time-"

"A second time?" Ginny gasped.

Percy sat up straight. "I've never heard this part before."

"Yeah, that's because after it happened, we never spoke about it again..."