Organessen
"Natalie!" Hermione screeched and rushed to Natalie's side. "Natalie, wake up!"
Harry and Ron looked up in surprise at the sound of Hermione's voice.
"What happened?" Ron asked as he quickly kneeled beside Natalie as well and felt her pulse.
"I dunno," Hermione said in a panic, "She was standing there, trying to walk over to the chair because she didn't feel well. Then she just…collapsed."
"Well, she is still breathing that's good but we should probably get her up to the hospital wing." Ron said.
Hermione conjured up a stretcher and Ron lifted Natalie's limp body onto it. Hermione led the way out of the common room and to the Hospital Wing while Ron and Harry followed silently behind. The castle was dark and the shadows bounced off the walls, the only light came from the torches that were lit along the corridors.
The door that lead into the infirmary was ajar and Harry held it open while Hermione and Ron walked through. Madam Pomfrey was sitting at her desk reading Witch Weekly with a single candle lit. She looked up from her magazine and saw Natalie on the stretcher and quickly got up and ran over.
"What happened?" she asked concerned.
"She collapsed, we were in the common room and she came down the stairs and told me she felt ill. I told her to sit down and she collapsed." Hermione said, her voice shaking.
"We'd better get her into a bed." the nurse said and they silently got her on top of a nearby bed.
"Would it be better if we left?" Hermione asked
Madam Pomfrey considered the three thoughtfully then nodded, "Yes, I think that would be best. I will let you know in the morning on the status of Ms. McDonalds health."
"Will she be okay?" Ron asked
"I would think so, it is probably a severe case of influenza, like I said, I will inform you tomorrow. Goodnight." she said.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron quietly left the wing and silently walked back up to the Gryffindor common room and went to bed.
***
The following morning was uneventful as the school ate their breakfast. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were talking quietly about Natalie.
"I hope she is doing better," Hermione said as she sipped on her orange juice.
"I'm sure she's fine, like Madam Pomfrey said it's probably just the flu or a stomach bug or something." Ron said.
"Well lets go up at break and see her," said Hermione.
***
History of magic was particularly boring that morning, Professor Binns was lecturing on the Saudi Arabian wars that had taken place in the last century, "The Arab-wizards were one of the first countries to declare war on the English wizarding world. Sour from trading deals that left them short handed the Arabs have waged war against the English community."
The class yawned and many were already in deep slumber, including Ron.
"Since the defeat of their leader, Ramzi al-Shehhi, in 1933 the two countries have been unable to make any kind of peace agreement and to this day still rival." the ghost went on.
Ron was snoring rather loudly by this point and Harry had to punch him in the arm to wake him. Five minutes later the bell rang signalling the end of class and start of break. Harry, Ron, and Hermione pushed pass the crowd of people and headed for the Hospital Wing.
When they arrived they saw Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey conversing in quiet voices around Natalie McDonald's bed. She appeared to still be unconscious.
Hermione asked timidly, "Madam Pomfrey?"
The woman looked at Hermione then questioned, "Yes, Ms. Granger?"
"We wanted to see how Natalie was. You told up to come back today."
"Yes, yes I did. Well I'm sorry to say that Natalie isn't very well. She still hasn't awoken, not even with my reviving spells and potions. I can't seem to figure out what is the matter. Her vital signs seem to be in tact yet she won't awake. Even Professor Dumbledore tried countless times, though to no avail."
Ron gulped, "So what are you going to do?"
The nurse sighed, "There's not much we can do until she wakes up or until she shows other symptoms."
Harry who was looking at Natalie's left arm spoke, "Erm…Professor?"
"Yes, Harry?"
"What is on her arm? It looks like a red rash of some sort."
Madam Pomfrey bent down to look at Natalie's arm when suddenly she stood upright, her hand over her mouth. "Albus, look at her arm! Look at her arm!"
Dumbledore bent down to examine and within minutes stood up as well. He did not gasp as Madam Pomfrey had but he had a look of solemn on his face Harry had seen few times before. "I am afraid Poppy, it is what you fear."
"But how? There hasn't been a case reported in over fifty years, how could this happen?"
"I really can't say. It must've come outside of the school, it's the only way."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood at the edge of Natalie's bed dumbfounded. Even Hermione seemed lost. Ron soon spoke up, "What do you mean there hasn't been a case in over fifty years?"
Albus turned to look at the three, "I can't hide it from you now, not after you've seen and I rather you find out from me." he paused and continued, "Natalie is suffering from Organessen…"
"Organ-what?" Ron interrupted loudly. Hermione elbowed him hard in the side.
"Organessen, it is a disease that was sent out by a curse. That is all I will say for now since we are unsure about her level of the disease." he turned to Hermione, "I will keep in contact with you so that you may inform your house." Hermione nodded.
The three left the infirmary more confused than when they had entered.
"Do you know what he was talking about…Organissan or whatever he called it," Ron asked.
"Organessen." Hermione corrected him, "I have no idea we should go to the library after dinner and see what we can find out."
The three agreed and they headed towards their Defence Against the Dark Arts class with their new professor, Lan Trebuchet.
They entered the classroom and took their seat as the bell rang. Professor Trebuchet was already there leaning against his desk. The professor was a tall, muscular man, he was in his mid-forties but that didn't stop him from being on top of everything that happened in the class. A former Auror and alumni of Hufflepuff house he was the type of teacher that didn't take any crap yet the students loved him all the same. Even Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins could not find fault in the wizard as he treated every student the same and awarded points to each house fairly. On the first day of class he had told them about himself, they were awed by him being an Auror. When he told them he had resided in Hufflepuff house the class of Gryffindor's and Slytherins had looked astonished. The professor had caught on.
"You think because I was Hufflepuff I couldn't amount to anything. Let me tell you once and for all. It doesn't matter what house your in, you can be anything you want to. Just because I was in Hufflepuff doesn't mean that I am any better or worse then any of you. I don't care what house your from. Your all wizards but most importantly you are all humans."
He then turned and walked over to his desk reading the Defence Against the Dark Arts text book while the class sat there unsure of what to say. That had been the first day and since then no one had dared to bring up houses again.
"Good afternoon, today I am going to be teaching you the complex technique of blocking a curse disease." he looked around at the blank faces then continued, "Can anyone tell me what a curse disease is?"
Hermione as usual raised her hand, "A curse disease is simply a disease sent out by a person or persons by way of curse."
"Perfect, three points to Gryffindor." he continued, "They can range from a simple case of the sniffles to an epidemic outbreak. Does anyone know who invented the curse disease?"
Draco Malfoy's hand shot up in the air quickly, "Fredrick Catherwood,"
"Correct, three points to Slytherin," Ron scowled and the professor continued, "Fredrick was a mean man. There just wasn't too much one could boast about this guy. He was unmarried, lived by himself, didn't have that many friends and just wasn't really the type of person you would want to sit down and have tea with." the class laughed.
"He invented the curse because he wanted to get back at one of his enemies for destroying his garden. He wanted to find a way to give this man a case of measles without him knowing so he sent it by way of air. His enemy actually ended up dying of complications due to the measles. Instead of Fredrick stopping there he decided to do this to a lot of other people and wrote down the curse in one of his many journals. When he was finally caught for doing these awful things the Ministry of Magic threw him in Azkaban and seized all of his assets. Including those journals of his. They read them and found out about the curse diseases and thought to themselves, 'Well, this could be good to use on Dark Wizards and such.' Little did they know, by sending the curse over to them, the Dark Wizards were able to deconstruct the curse and find out how to perform it and that's why we have curse diseases today."
Ron raised his hand and spoke, "So basically we now have this way of harming and killing people all because some journal writing bloke was mad about someone messing up his garden?!"
Even the Professor had to smile slightly, "Yeah, gardens can do funny things to people.
"However, getting down to business I'm going to teach you how to block simple curse diseases today. Curse diseases are usually sent from far away and usually hit a large target such as a location rather than a certain person but since I'll be demonstrating on you today it will be aimed for you alone."
The class looked slightly frightened and Neville whispered to Hermione, "You don't think he going to put a bad disease on us do you?"
Professor Trebuchet answered his question, "I will only be demonstrating using a sneezing curse disease on you." Neville looked relieved, "Now the way you ward off a curse disease is to draw a circle in the air around you while saying the incantation: Quartiere Fuori.
While you say the incantation you must picture in your mind that your body is completely healthy. If you don't the counter-curse will not work. Since most people do not know when they are going to have a curse disease sent to them it is best to perform it every three days to make sure you are immune to all air born attacks."
The class each performed the incantation and Professor Trebuchet in turn sent a curse disease at them. Almost everyone repelled it except for Neville who had pictured that he was sneezing when he said the spell that he had such a violent sneezing fit that the Professor had to give him a Pepper up potion which stopped them instantly though Neville was smoking at the ears for the rest of the day.
By the end of class Ron, Harry, and Hermione had almost forgotten about Natalie and the Organessen disease when Hermione suddenly remembered that she had left a book of hers in the Hospital Wing. They walked back up to the infirmary and were amazed by what they saw.
Authors Notes: I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter. It took me quite awhile to write from some reason unapparent to me. In case you were wondering, Quartiere Fuori is Italian for: "ward off." and Organessen is German for: "organ eating." That is all you get to know. Again I hope you enjoyed it and had a good St. Valentines Day.
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