Disclaimer: And yet, I still do not own them…
Chapter 6: Questions Without Answers
"What are you doing here?" Professor McGonagall asked; shocked as the two boys burst into the Teachers' Lounge.
Snape eyed them with a certain air of disdain. "Yes, Potter, Weasley, what are you doing here?"
"Something happened to Katie Bell!" Harry panted out, exhausted from running through the maze of hallways.
"Mr. Potter, would you care to elaborate?" McGonagall asked. She was looking between the two boys suspiciously, as if she expected Hermione or a third boy to pop in and announce it was a joke.
Ron jumped in. "We might not have time to explain, Professor! We were sitting in the Common Room and all the sudden, Katie was screaming from upstairs in her dormitory!"
"Is this your idea of a joke, Potter?" Snape asked in his usually oily voice.
"NO!" both he and Ron roared at the same time.
McGonagall stood then, obviously deciding they weren't lying. "Severus, please inform the Headmaster of this while I go see to Miss Bell." Within seconds she was briskly walking down the hallway with Harry and Ron following her.
"Professor, on our way here we found Carmen Lowery. She was leaning against the wall outside of the Gryffindor Tower, babbling to herself. She didn't want us to tell anyone because she would be put into St. Mungos," Harry briefed.
McGonagall seemed to say, "Hmm," but nothing more. Harry wondered at this but not long before they came across a leaning Carmen. She hadn't moved since Ron and he had last seen her.
"You brought McGonagall?" she nearly screamed when she saw the lithe, seventy-something Professor approach her. "How could you Harry Potter? I thought this was our little secret! How could you? How could you? How could you?" she yelled repeatedly.
"Miss Lowery, please quiet yourself!" McGonagall interrupted the girl's raving. "I am not here to see you, but Katie Bell!" she snapped. That shut Carmen up quite nicely.
Once everything was once again quiet, McGonagall chose to speak again. "Now, Miss Lowery, can you tell me of anything strange or perhaps suspicious you've seen these last few days? Perhaps you know something of Katie Bell's condition?" she prompted.
Carmen's smile hinted that indeed she did know something. "I know they said they wanted her. They said she was pretty like me." Carmen twisted her neck to look at Harry. "Do you think I'm pre—?"
"Stupefy!" McGonagall said forcefully. Harry looked up at her, surprised she would use a spell on a student like that. The uncomfortable look on her face said she was quite uncomfortable with the situation as well.
"Harry, Ronald, would you please make sure Miss Lowery gets to the Infirmary as soon as possible? Thank you." McGonagall's face was still whitened and her voice was kinder than it had ever been.
"Yes Ma'am," they answered in unison.
"Tripicus Mobilicus," McGonagall muttered and a lightweight, white stretcher appeared in front of them. "Use that," she said before continuing her walk.
It took some time for Ron and Harry to pick Carmen up and deliver her to the stretcher for she was quite a bit of deadweight when they had to move her without her help. They grunted, they groaned, and then finally managed to get her to the Infirmary.
Harry took the front end, holding her head up, while Ron took the feet end. "What do you suppose is wrong with them Harry? I mean, with her and Katie? Katie seemed fine at Quidditch practice earlier, and well, we all know how Carmen was doing earlier today."
Harry looked down at the stupefied Carmen. Her eyes were still wide open, as was her mouth. What Harry failed to miss earlier, was the horrific pain that was evident in her eyes. Not only pain but fear.
He shivered.
"Are you alright Harry?" Ron asked, giving his friend an odd look.
"Yeah…yeah I'm OK," Harry replied absent-mindedly. Looking down at Carmen reminded him of that time three years ago when the school was under the attack of the Basilisk…and Tom Riddle's diary. But it's not another Basilisk because they aren't being petrified, Harry reminded himself.
"It's like the time when Hermione was petrified, isn't it Harry?" Ron asked out of the blue. It was no surprise to Harry that Ron was thinking of that time too, it was always the timeframe Harry had associated with Ron's feelings for the female best friend growing into something more, an innocent crush at first and now something much more serious.
"About that Ron," Harry started, figuring this was as good a time as any.
"About what?" Ron's eyebrows came together in a fury and he was definitely confused.
"When are you going to tell Hermione how you really feel about her?" Harry asked. If he had ever gone to the beach, he would have preferred diving right in compared to toe tipping in the shallow end.
Ron's face turned bright red. "What?" he squeaked out.
Harry sighed. "I'm not stupid Ron. You like her," he said with much ease. "So when are you going to tell her?"
"I haven't really thought about it…" he admitted so quietly his voice didn't echo off the stony walls.
"I hardly believe that," Harry scoffed.
"Well it's not like I can just go up to her and say, 'Hermione, I like. I've liked you for a long time. I know we're meant to be together. What do you say to that?'" Ron said much louder. A few of the paintings laughed.
"Maybe you could?" Harry encouraged, although he was trying hard not to laugh.
"Yeah, ha ha. Very funny. Now shut up Harry, we're to the Infirmary," Ron demanded. His face was still quite red.
"And what do we have—," Madame Pomfrey began, stopping short when she saw the stretcher and still girl who was lying there. "Oh my!"
"Professor McGonagall and us were on our way to Gryffindor when we found Carmen ranting and raving. She was so loud McGonagall had to stupefy her and told Ron and me to bring her here," Harry explained hurriedly.
Madame Pomfrey nodded. "Yes, yes…well, let's bring her over here to this bed." The boys did so and then they were shooed away by Madame Pomfrey. "Now, go on you two and have fun this evening."
They looked at each other, emerald eyes meeting sapphire colored ones. How were they supposed to have fun?
They turned and left anyway, their shoulders slumped forward and nearly ran into McGonagall (who was with a walking Katie Bell—quietly crying) and Snape followed by Headmaster Dumbledore. Harry and Ron greeted them somberly while they walked slowly through the castle to their dormitory.
"So does this mean you aren't going to tell Hermione, Ron?" Harry asked quietly.
His friend sighed. "Is it that obvious?" he asked finally. He obviously felt beaten, and he surely was too for most people figured that Ron liked Hermione and that she felt the same way. Everyone except Ron and Hermione, that is.
"I don't think she knows yet," Harry told him truthfully. "But she's a smart girl, Ron; I think she'll figure it out eventually."
"She is smart. She's so smart she scares me half of the time," Ron admitted wearily. "Harry, nothing, and I mean nothing I could ever say to her would be good enough for her to hear.
Harry was shocked. He had never heard Ron speak so openly. While his friend talked a lot, it wasn't usually on trivial things. It definitely wasn't on his inner feelings toward Hermione. "I don't really agree with that Ron," he said softly.
Ron rubbed his eyes. "It doesn't really matter anyway. She dated Viktor Krum for a while Harry…she…she'd never want to back to regular people."
"I really think you're being stupid Ron—
"Hey guys!" Hermione greeted, stepping outside of the library. She looked between the two of them and noticed their quiet countenances. "What's wrong Ron?" she asked, immediately saying his name.
If nothing else, that should have confirmed it for Ron that she cared about his quite a bit because it seemed as if she had completely forgotten about Harry as her wild brown eyes searched Ron's freckled face. "Ron?" she asked again.
"Carmen Lowery is in the Infirmary. Harry and I had to bring her there ourselves. So is Katie Bell."
Hermione's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?" She nearly headed right back into the library, probably to research on whatever could be doing this to them, but Harry called out to her before she could get very far.
"Hey, before we start looking all over the place in there, don't you think we ought to see if it's not just a cold or something like that Madame Pomfrey can fix?" Harry suggested hopefully.
Hermione grinned sheepishly. "Oh yes, I suppose you are right Harry," she replied with the tiniest of laughs.
"What is this I hear?" Ron asked, as an eyebrow rose. "Is this Hermione Granger admitting someone other than herself is right for a change?" His grin was lopsided and he was obviously teasing. There was no sign of contempt of disregard in his voice.
The aforementioned Hermione Granger playfully slugged Ronald Weasley, best friend and love of her life, something she had only come to grips with in the library that night…or was when she had met him on the train that day four years ago? Well, whenever it was that she realized Ronald Weasley; freckly, redheaded Ron was destined to be hers and her to be his, she had only one major problem: how to convince him of that.
She sighed, smiled at her best friends and upon seeing Harry's worried look she said, "Don't worry Harry; I'm sure it's nothing but some Wizard's version of the flu." Ron looked confused, but didn't ask, and Hermione didn't care to explain.
It was all just as well though, Harry wasn't worried about anything other than getting his friends together, or at least to admit their feelings for one another, before it was possibly too late for all of them.
Without a doubt he knew, no matter how much Hermione might try to convince him it was "Wizard's Flu", he knew Voldemort was back, although he hoped to high heavens he was wrong. It would be such a nice year to know he was wrong about that. So nice.
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