The Selkie was closing in on Ron, whose head looked strangely distorted inside the bubble. Harry remembered what it reminded him of: last year, when he and Cedric Diggory had competed in the Triwizard Tournament, they had had to rescue four hostages from underwater, and it was just the same now… Ron had turned into Cedric, he was fighting the Selkie… the monster closed its jaws around Ron's neck and turned into Lord Voldemort, then smiled, pointing his wand at Harry… and –

"Noooo!" yelled Harry, suddenly sitting bolt upright in bed, the sweat pouring from his forehead and soaking his pillows. He looked about him into the darkness, panic only slightly decreasing.

"It's OK, Harry," said a soothing voice to his left. He corkscrewed round violently towards the sound, and then breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Remus Lupin was sitting at his bedside with a tight, strained look on his face, holding out a cup of something hot. Harry took it, and sniffed at it suspiciously. To his surprise, it was hot chocolate.

"How are you feeling?" asked Lupin, still looking at him, concerned. He almost absently handed Harry a bar of chocolate.

"Mmm," said Harry, with his mouth full. "Nightmare."

"I can see that," replied Lupin wryly. "Quite a long one, it seems."

Harry frowned at him, puzzled. "What?" he asked. Or, at least, he made some attempt to: the chocolate was delicious, and he only managed a garbled half-grunt.

Lupin though it appeared understood. "You've been sleeping for seven hours, shouting your head off," he explained. "Snape's been boiling you up something to help but you weren't conscious to drink it and we didn't really think pinching your nose and pouring it down your throat was going to help much – Snape's suggestion, if you hadn't guessed."

Harry had.

"You had a fever of some kind," continued Lupin. "Sirius and I have been sat here – he'll be back soon; went to get some breakfast. He hasn't eaten since you started shouting."

Harry's mind was racing. Seven hours… all sorts of things could have happened since he fell asleep! Then he remembered: Ron.

"Have you – have you found Ron yet?" he asked groggily, trying to fling the bedcovers from him and get out of bed. Maybe the hot chocolate wasn't just hot chocolate after all. He put it down.

"Ron came back about an hour ago," said Lupin, smiling and pushing the cup back into Harry's hands. "Drink it. It'll help."

"What is it?" Harry could have cried in relief at the news of Ron's return. "And what happened with Ron? Where is he? Can I see him?"

Ignoring the last few questions, Lupin said, "I have no idea, but Professor Snape assured me it will make you feel better."

Harry let go of the cup at once and spat out his mouthful – unfortunately all over Lupin's robes. The professor stood up and shook the liquid off.

"Thank you, Harry," he said wryly. "I was joking. It's only hot chocolate."

"Oh," said Harry, feeling rather silly and eyeing the spilt drink sheepishly. "Sorry."

Lupin shook his head, and sat down again. "Don't worry," he said. "I'm sure I'd have had a very similar response. Are you feeling better now? I think Hermione would like to see you – and Sirius – "

At that moment, Harry's godfather and Hermione walked into the small, dark room and peered anxiously at him. Lupin got up again and disappeared; Sirius quickly occupied his vacated seat, and Hermione perched on the end of the bed.

"How are you?" they both asked at once. Harry laughed.

"Fine – I'm fine," he said. "Just a bad dream. Where's Ron? Is he OK?"

The sound of cautious footsteps and a muffled curse as something was tripped over heralded Ron's arrival, and Harry was able to let out a sigh of relief. For the first time since he could remember, he felt vaguely safe. Here he was, in bed, with no one lost or dying. What a change that makes, he thought to himself.

"'Lo, Ron," he murmured sleepily. "You're a funny colour." And with that, he fell fast asleep.

Harry was awoken the next morning by the pale morning sunlight stealing its way across his face. Blinking, he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

Ron was lying on a mattress on the floor by his bed, and Harry rubbed his eyes even harder as he stared at him. He had been right, the night before: Ron was a funny colour – he had gone blue.

"Ron?" hissed Harry incredulously, unsure as to whether he ought to wake his friend and inform him of this change in complexion, or whether he already knew about it.

"He'll be all right in an hour or so," came Sirius's voice from where he stood leaning against the door frame, his thin body silhouetted there. "That was just the, er, after-effects of Snape's potion. Come and have some breakfast?"

Harry couldn't tear his eyes away from Ron's blue face.

"Snape did this to him?" he said, finally looking at Sirius. "Funny sense of humour he's got, hasn't he?"

"If you call saving his life funny, then yes, I suppose so," said Harry's godfather, a slight note of warning in his voice. "Ron got badly bitten by a Selkie, Harry. As you know, that could have been life-threatening… I'm sure Ron will tell you he'd rather be blue than dead when he wakes up."

Harry wasn't so sure. The blue went horribly with Ron's ginger hair, and whilst he hurriedly reviewed his opinion of Snape's intentions, he couldn't help being slightly apprehensive about Ron's reaction.

"Does he – does he know?" he asked Sirius, who – rather unhelpfully, Harry thought – smirked.

"Not yet," he replied, winking. "There aren't any mirrors round here… none of us have told him yet, and Snape assures us it'll wear off sooner… or later."

"Oh God – it isn't permanent, is it?" exclaimed Harry, horrified at the possibility. He could just imagine the taunts Ron would have to put up with from Malfoy – and everyone else, for that matter.

"Oh, no," said Sirius – just a touch too quickly, Harry decided. He glared suspiciously at his godfather, but Sirius put a finger to his lips and nodded towards Ron. Obviously Harry's shout had woken him up.

"Morning… What's not permanent?" he mumbled, trying in vain to flatten his hair, which was sticking up in great ginger tufts. Harry was just grateful that it was dark enough inside for Ron not to see his hands.

"Er – nothing," he replied awkwardly. "How are you? OK? What happened?"

A shudder flickered over Ron's face, and the blue paled to a nice, pastel shade.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said darkly. He would have gone on to say more, if at that moment Hermione hadn't rushed in, almost crying, and bravely hugged him, ignoring the blue. Ron looked startled and not a little worried: he looked to Harry and Sirius for assistance. He didn't receive any, however. They were both too amused to do anything. Ron glared at them evilly.

"Oh, Ron!" sobbed Hermione. "You're awake. I didn't think – I thought you – "

It was very unlike Hermione to be at a loss for words, and Ron blushed a colour reminiscent of a midnight sky.

"I'm fine," he said, a little gruffly. "Thanks."

Hermione pulled herself together, and let go of Ron, choosing tactfully to ignore the look of sheer relief that spread over his face.

"Well," she said. "That's OK then. Snape and Professor Lupin are cooking breakfast."

"Great!" said Ron, leaping to his feet with an enthusiasm that made Harry dizzy. "I'm starving. Come on – let's go!" And he sped from the room like a hare. Harry got the impression that he was trying to escape Hermione. Shrugging at each other, he and Sirius followed.

Breakfast did not prove to be all that exciting, although Ron began to wolf his down readily enough. The bacon was like leather, and the toast was blacker than Snape's hair. No one was brave enough to comment on this fact, however, because Snape seemed to be daring everyone to do so, his eyes flashing dangerously. Harry guessed it was he who had done the cooking.

"That was… wonderful, Severus," said Lupin, bravely chewing the bacon and hiding a grimace. "I'll er – I'll make some coffee, shall I?"

"If you like." Snape appeared to be sulking.

"Um," said Ron suddenly, and everyone looked at him, curious. He was staring at his hands, and Harry felt his stomach lurch before he saw they were both, luckily, gloved.

"Why… why am I wearing gloves?"

"You hurt your hands when you were fighting the Selkie, Ron," said Lupin smoothly, as everyone else gulped nervously. "But you did the trick – fought it off, of course. We, er – we had to put the gloves on for you to keep them protected – Professor Snape made you a salve for them – we don't want it coming off…"

Ron tried hard not to look too pleased at the image of him fighting off a Selkie single-handedly, and failed. Snape sniggered, and was ignored.

"I hope they don't hurt?" continued Lupin courteously.

"Oh – er – no, not too much," said Ron. "I'll live."

Harry exchanged a quick grin with Hermione, but Sirius and Lupin were, commendably, keeping extraordinarily straight faces. Nobody paid any attention to Snape's twisted grin.

"Inspired," Sirius complimented Lupin quietly, as Ron bent back over his plate to tackle his toast. Lupin shrugged modestly.

"I try," he replied in a whisper, aiming a quick smile at Harry and Hermione.

All of a sudden there was a loud clatter as Ron – who, with his gloves, seemed to be having difficulties holding his knife and fork – knocked his plate onto the floor, along with the remains of his indigestible breakfast.

"Oh," he said, not trying very hard to hide the relief in his voice, "Oh, dear. Look, I've spilt my breakfast."

"So you have," hissed Snape, as Sirius and Lupin picked up the broken china. "I wonder why?" He glared.

"I expect it was the gloves, wasn't it, Ron?" supplied Hermione.

"Well, yes," said Ron – and then added truthfully, albeit somewhat tactlessly, "But I don't mind. I've never seen toast that colour before."

"Just be grateful you got any," snarled Snape viciously. "It's a better colour than you, Weasley."

Harry lashed his foot out under the table, and from the howl of pain Snape let out he guessed he wasn't the only one.

"What's he talking about?" asked Ron, looking confused.

"You're looking – er – a mite peaky there," improvised Lupin quickly. Harry and the others, except Snape, flashed him three congratulatory smiles. Lupin winked.

"Oh," said Ron, obviously guessing there was more to it than that. "Oh, right. Um… did someone say something about coffee?"