DISCLAIMER: You really think I've managed to get a claim over something since the last chapter?
a/n: Will thank people next time. Too tired. Need sleep. Read on.
Chapter Three: 42% Blood Free
"Potter! Harry jumped away from Malfoy, almost wincing at the sharp voice of his Transfiguration professor.
"Take your hands of Mr Dursley at once! You and your friends gave me you word you would leave himm alone!"
"Excuse me?" Malfoy spluttered. harry stared at McGonagall in amazement. Hadn't it been painfully obvious Malfoy was the one initiating the fight with his vice-like hands around Harry's arm?
She continued regardless. "I've been looking for you all morning. Please come with me."
It took several hours for Harry to be fully examined by Madame Pomfrey and she still wasn't convinced his left shoulder was comepletely level with his right. SHe let him go on the confition he would report any loss of sight or ligaments straight away, and Harry was convinced she had the paintings follow him.
He was twirling around in the lonely corridors trying to catch the paintings off guard when he ran into Ron and Malfoy poised to curse each other into oblivion.
"...see how cocky you are now whe there aren't teachers around, shall we?" said Ron in a low, supposed-to-be menacing hiss.
Malfoy's ivory teeth gleamed when they caught the torch light. "Is that a challenge or consent?"
"... you what?" he snarled.
"Poor Weasley, still onlyh managing one thought per minute..." He cocked an eyebrow at this private joke, acknowledging Harry.
Harry groaned.
"Eat slugs, Dursley!" No! Harry shouted inwardly. He knew how this had ended last time...
"Protego!" three very individual voices shouted. One cool, one weary and the last was one that had not graced the natural wizarding world since...
"Lay off him, Malfoy."
Harry choked on his own spit, and Malfoy greeted this voice with voice with very colourful swearing that impressed even himself.
Harry Potter passed out completely.
Though usually with an alabaster skin tone the blonde was noticeably a shade paler. "Now look what you're done!" he shouted almost shakily at Cedric Diggory. "You fuckin' freak!"
Malfoy strode over and attempted half-heartedly to pull Potter up by the scruff of his robes. Cedric went about aiding Ron, though not to much effect.
"Weasel you cannot afford to look at my robes. Keep that disgusting regurgitation away from me - GET UP."
Harry lay stone still on the floor.
Poppy Pomfrey arrivede in seconds. "I told tht boy he wasn';t all right, but did he listen? Children these days! Think they're invincible - Mr Dursley you shall brake the poor boys neck! Do not attempt to carry him like that!"
Malfoy sniffed, "I'd call it helping."
"Thank you, Vi," she said to the painting. "I had my instincts about this one.
"Whatever..."
"Mr Diggory! What in Heaven's name have you done to Mr Malfoy?"
Draco scowled. "What are you implying? I am in impecca health!"
"Help him up at once and follow Potter and I to the Imfirmary." Madame Pomfrey conjured up a stretcher for Harry and the three boys trailed after her without a word after Malfoy's - "don't lay a filthy finger on me, Diggory."
Cedric haf watched him quizzically for a few seconds, then helped Ron to the Hospital Wing.
Harry came to a couple of hours later when Draco was dozing lightly in a stiff wooden chair.
Harry lay there for a minute and let the silence wash over him. His body was overcome with fatigue and he could barely think straight. Okay... He thought. Ron is lying in that bed... Draco Malfoy is sleeping in a chair with a lollipop in his mouth... I'm lying in bed... because... because? I... crap. I saw the freaking ghoast of Cedric Diggory!
"MADAME POFREY! MADAME POMFREY!"
Draco jumped out of his haze of sleep and the lollipop dropped into the lap of his robes and he cussed beatifully.
THe matron rushed in into the room brandishing a dripping wet bedpan, "Cut out the shouting at once, Mr Potter! This is a Hospital Wing not a karaoke contest!"
"No - no you don't understand!! I saw a ghost - a real live ghost!"
She ceased waving the bedpan. "Nonsense. All the ghoasts have been driven from this castel." She said that rather bitterly and her shoulders drooped slightly.
"It's the medication," said Draco rather briskly. Madame Pomfrey hesitated for a second before nodding and returning to her quarters.
"But you saw him," Harry insisted. He tried sitting up but was still kind of woozy.
Draco was being difficult. "Saw who?"
"Cedric!"
"I didn't notice."
"YOU DID!"
"Oh, you mean..."
"YES!"
"News flash, Potter. Diggory wasn't dead."
Harry was bloody furious. "I SAW HIM DIE!"
Draco said patiently. "You saw someone else die."
"NO I DIDN'T! YOU SAID SOME THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!"
The Slytherin drew a calming breath.
"YOU SAID SOME THINGS CAN'T BE CHANGED! YOU LIED!"
"Don't call me a fucking liar." He pushed a struggling Harry back onto the bed. The wave of dizziness in Harry's head disappeared. "I didn't say everything was the same. Bloodu Gryffindork's, all so DEMANDING. Diggory isn't rotting six feet under, now you've got nothing to mope about."
Harry fumed inwardly. Though it had never come upon this ulternate universe physically, it was still painfully clear. Why sisn't they UNDERSTAND? And he never MOPED!
Harry had been holding his breath, but Madame Pomfrey was ignoring them.
"Did anyone ask why I fainted?" said Harry in a small voice. Malfoy continued to glare at him and took his time twirling the blood flavoured lollipop between his teeth.
"I told them the Weasel pushed you down the stairs, but I don't think she believed me. The bloody women kept shooting me off looks. I think she tried to poison me while I was sleeping. Either that or she's drugged my lolly."
Harry snickered. "Lolly."
"What?" said Draco defensively.
"LOLLY!"
Madame Pomfrey appeared in the doorway leering over them. "Boys, enough!"
Harry continued to chuckle. "Sorry."
"Get that Lollipop our of your mouth at ONCE!" screamed Madame Pomfrey in horror. "At once, BOY! Do you want to be suspended? Or better yet - EXPELLED!"
Draco tried to look nonchalant, but he was goddamn confused! His eyebrows arched automatically. "It's forty two percent blood free."
But Madame Pomfrey prompty snatched the sweet thing out of his hands,
"Evanesco!" she whispered, casting her eyes worriedly to portraits. They shot her supporting, loyal looks.
"T'is nothing we cannot keep to ourselves," smiled an elderly Viking with a chubby face and glimmering blonde hair topped with a spiked hat. "No worries, Poppy. Where would our Imfirmary be without the shrieking of healing patients?"
Pomfrey immediately stiffened when the foor opened, but it was only professor McGOnagall. She sniffed the air like a cat, but shook her head to clear it. "i heard Potter was in here again. I thought Black was up to another one of his tricks again." She paused in fond thought. "Really, who ever heard of the 'Lying Disease'...?"
"Yes," chuckled Madame Pomfrey. "We had poor Granger in here for a week. The distressed lass was in here for over a week denying there was anything wrong with her. She was devistated at having missed so much..."
McGonagall coughed to disguise a sudden itch of laughter. "He and his gang McGonagall caught herself. She was horr struck.
"A moment in your office after you've finished tending to Mr Potter and Mr mafoy, Poppy?"
"Yes...," she consented faintly. "Make yourself a cup of coffee. I won't be a minute, there're mugs next to the kettle."
Malfoy grunted when there was a break in conversation. "I'm fine -"
But Madame Pomfrey was not making her way over to Malfoy. On the contrary, she was waddling towards a glassy eyed redhead.
Both Harry Potter and Draco Dursley lost their last thread of consciousness.