Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I just write about him because I can't seem to find anything better to do with my spare time. Well, I guess I could look for a job…

Author Note: Enjoy!

15. A Sliver of Silver

An hour later found Harry in an infirmary thronged with jubilant Gryffindors. The team had arrived first, still in robes to congratulate him on his capture, then the rest of the house had arrived to heap on their praises and wishes for a speedy recovery. Madame Pomfrey was not very pleased with the crowd, but she had treated enough Quidditch related injuries to know that it was unavoidable.

Ron and Hermione finally managed to fight their way to his bedside and Harry handed Hermione her wand with a grin. "I think this is yours."

Hermione threw her arms around him and hugged him, though she was careful not to put any pressure on his wounded shoulder. "We were so worried about you."

Harry was about to answer when a box of fudge was shoved in front of his face and someone shouted, "Here you go Harry!"

Harry was just about to take one when Ron snatched it from his grasp. Harry laughed to see him glaring at George who was grinning unabashedly. Ron shook his head, "Harry's just been wounded, he doesn't need to be turned into a canary!"

Fred raised a finger, "Actually, those are the parakeet variety."

Ron bristled, but Harry just laughed. Shaking his head Ron faced his older siblings. "All right, clear off now."

Laughing even harder, Fred and George withdrew, and most of the crowd went with them. Angelina gave Harry a pat on the shoulder and one last word of thanks, before sweeping the rest of the house up on her way out.

Ron and Hermione stayed and Harry sat up a bit further in his bed. He nodded to Hermione's wand. "So how did I get that?"

"You can thank Neville for that."

Henry arched an eyebrow doubtfully. "Neville?"

Hermione nodded, then raised her wand and tapped at the air twice, "Locaticus Harry!" She flipped the wand back over her shoulder. It flew away, then reversed direction and looped over her shoulder to land on Harry's chest.

Harry handed it back and, not for the first time, felt awe rush over him at the ingenuity and resourcefulness of his friends. Madame Pomfrey soon came and shooed them away, then set to checking the progress of her healing spell while Harry drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Harry awoke a few hours later and was released from the infirmary in time to meet Ron and Hermione for dinner. The rest of the evening passed peaceably enough and come Monday, the regular schedule resumed. However, as the days drew on Harry began to notice a worsening pain in his shoulder where he had been cut.

About two weeks later he sat down to breakfast and winced particularly hard. Hermione shook her head, "Harry, that cut was awfully deep, you should ask Madame Pomfrey to take another look at it."

"Give it a rest Hermione," Ron grumped, "Madame Pomfrey wouldn't have let him out of the infirmary if there was something to be worried about."

"Honestly Ron, shouldn't you be a bit more concerned for Harry's well being?"

Ron bristled, "I am concerned about Harry. But you're just being a prat about it because you want something to worry about."

Harry sighed as he sensed he was no longer the real concern of the conversation. It wasn't that he minded the loss of attention, in fact sometimes he felt they both spent too much time trying to look after him, but these arguments were becoming more and more frequent between Ron and Hermione as the weeks wore on. Harry had fair and well given up on trying to decipher the behavior his two friends were exhibiting towards each other, one moment they'd be sitting close together, smiling contentedly, the next they'd be in the middle of some huge row that would usually end up involving the majority of the people around them. And the arguments were all over the stupidest things.

Ginny, who had just taken a seat next to Harry, leaned over and whispered, "They act enough like it, when do you think he'll give her the ring and make it official?"

Harry burst out laughing but winced as another abominable lurch of pain sliced through his left side. Ginny gave him a worried look and surely Ron and Hermione would have doesn't the same if they weren't so busy screaming at each other.

Harry offered up a weak grin, "Don't worry, I'm just a bit sore is all."

Ginny smiled in return, "I'm glad to hear that." Somewhere in the back of Harry's mind it registered that this was probably the first time Ginny had spoken to him normally all year. Another part of his mind wondered why this seemed like such a good thing.

Harry took a bite of toast, then turned back to Ginny, ignoring the argument behind him which seemed to be reaching epic proportions. "So how's this year going for you, Ginny?"

Ginny glanced over and noticed his attention, for some reason Harry could not understand, she suddenly paled, then blushed furiously beneath her freckles and stammered out, "Um.. f-fine. It's, it's going fine, just fine." Her eyes darted to the side and she grabbed her books sudenly, "Great, really," she concluded before rushing away from the table. Harry followed her with his eyes and spent equal time wondering what had made her leave, and why he felt so disappointed that she had.

The mail arrived shortly after that and Hedwig dropped down with three rolls of parchment tied to her leg. Harry smiled and untied the letters. Then when he noticed Hedwig eyeing the bacon on his plate, he picked up a scrap and fed it to her. He ruffled her feathers and mused, "I think you hold my mail until you know they're serving bacon." As reply she snapped the bacon into her beak and flapped up to join the other owls headed for the owlerie.

He pulled open the first roll which was grubby parchment that looked as if it had been folded a few times and gotten wet at least once. Harry's eyes lit up and he cried out happily, "Hagrid!"

This was enough to grab the attention of Ron and Hermione, even in the middle of their prodigious argument, which Harry had just noted, somehow ended up on the topic of Hermione's summer in Bulgaria. How they had come to that point, Harry had no desire to know. Hermione gasped in delight, "Hagrid? What's he written?"

Harry lay out the parchment so they could all see.

Harry -

Just wanted to let you know that I'll be headed back Hogwarts way soon and hope to find you well. Fang misses you awfully and so do I of course. Hope you had a good B - Day even though I couldn't write to ya just then. Lookin' forward to hearin all 'bout your year so far. And say hi to 'Mione and Ron for me. See you soon.

- Hagrid

Ron grinned, "This is great! Hagrid must be done with the Gi-"

"Ron! Not so loud!" Hermione glared at him sharply and for once Ron did not argue.

"-must be done up north," Ron finished.

"Well this is wonderful," Hermione stood and gathered her things, "now if you'll excuse me." She smiled and made her way out of the Great Hall. Ron looked after her with a conflicted expression, then after a moment, silently gathered his own things and hurried after her while trying not to give the impression that he was not hurrying at all, and certainly not hurrying after her. Harry looked back to his other two letters and tried not to think about how strangely his friends were acting.

Harry opened the second letter, almost hoping it might be from Sirius, but it was only a note from Angelina telling him that she had managed to get them a better practice slot for the week and that he should work his schedule accordingly.

Harry unrolled the final letter which was written on Hogwarts stationary.

Mr. Potter,

Please remain in Transfiguration today after class, there is a matter which the staff wishes to discuss with you. I have informed Professor Sprout that we will be needing you so you will not suffer any punishment for arriving late. thank you for your cooperation.

Prof. McGonagall

Harry shrugged and looked at his watch. He'd have to hurry if he wanted to get back to the common room and still be on time to Transfiguration. He pulled his books into his bag and made his way through the thinning crowd and up towards the Gryffindor tower.

* * *

Sometime later, after the rest of his class had left the Transfiguration room and the last of the safety-pin turned dragonflies had been rounded up, Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and said simply, "Follow me if you will."

Harry expected to end up in Sideson's office, but instead found himself in an unused classroom a few doors down from Argano's Defense Against Dark Arts room. Madame Pomfrey, Marcus Sideson, and Ryan Argano all stood around a table towards the front of the room. Harry was led forward to join them and he saw the shattered remains of the beast that had attacked him laid out carefully and methodically inside a glass case on the table.

Harry leaned closer to inspect it. It was a fantastic thing, impossibly intricate in its construction and design. Tiny gears were set in delicate seeming racks and attached to a complex series of wings and pulleys, which were in turn attached to no less then twenty seven sets of blades set at varying angles and of many sizes from the size of a canine tooth, the four largest ones, each about the size of a human hand. The thing was all in all the size of a Quaffle and Harry didn't want to think about how complex the spell must have been to disguise it as a snitch. It had also been treated or cleaned somehow, for while Harry remembered a black, buzzing horror, this thing was completely made of brilliantly shining silver.

As Harry's face approached the glass of the case, The thing inside trembled and jerked. One of the large blades wrenched upwards before the gears seized and with a squeal of twisting metal, it fell limp. The whole delicate construction continued to shudder in its fit until a heavy hand landed on Harry's uninjured shoulder and pulled him back gently.

Ryan Argano leaned closer over the shoulder he was gripping and whispered intently, "See, even after it's been destroyed and trapped, even sealed in that case with all those spells, it still smells his blood."

Harry shivered, then felt another gut-spinning twist of pain in his shoulder, deeper than the pain had ever felt before, almost clawing into his chest. He moaned and fell to his knees gasping. Ryan pulled him a bit away from the table and crouched beside him.

"That thing over on that table, things like it are called Mercury's Malice. It's made entirely of silver, enchanted silver. It's a kibetic device that has one purpose only, to kill a single target. It's very core must be enchanted with the intent to kill its target, to kill you, Potter. And it's trying even now…"

"Please Professor," Sideson interrupted, "get to the point. Tell him what's wrong."

Argano nodded, "There is a piece of it inside you, inside the shoulder that was cut when it attacked you. It's trying to kill you even now, because that is the whole purpose for which it was made. Now this is very important, we can't take it out."

Harry's eyes widened, "What?"

Argano nodded, "It's gotten too far, it's moved to deep, to try and cut it out now would push it straight into your heart. Instead, we've prepared a very, very strong holding spell which will keep it locked inside you, most likely it will have to stay there for the rest of your life. But it won't kill you, because it will never be able to reach your heart."

He stood and backed away and Madame Pomfrey swept forward with a beaker in her hand. "You'll need to be asleep while they perform the spell, please drink this."

Harry took the beaker slowly and drank the heavy liquid without complaint. Immediately he felt himself dropping away to sleep but they must have thought he was asleep before he truly was because a moment later he heard them talking in hushed whispers.

"Are you sure there's no other way?" Professor McGonagall's voice sounded incredibly tense.

"Yes," Ryan answered, "this is the only spell sure to hold it."

"But even so, the spell is so unstable, if he's exposed to any raw magic force, it'll fail and that thing will rip him to pieces."

"Can't be helped. He might die later, but if we don't do this, he'll die now."

Sideson's voice cut across, "Enough, there's no choice, do it."

With that Harry's last bits of consciousness slipped away and he drifted into very troubled dreams indeed.

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Author's Note: Please Review, I understand that this is new to most of you, but I assure you that many people reviewed it when it was in the Harry Potter Author Fic Section, so I'd like to keep a good thing going.

Questions, Comments, and Movie Rights are to be sent to Sechsmarquise@hotmail.com.

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