FEVER
Chapter 8: Bethany Walton

Author's Note:
Don't ask. I seem to have lost all my abilities to talk and write ever since my English Essay Paper (I told you exams were downright wicked!) aside from the occasional 'hungry', 'reviews' and 'fanfiction' word. Somebody wake my muse, please!

Dedicated to:
Sirius Wolf
To save your sanity! :D

Me-Love-You Owls with Strawberry Pie and Bumblebeez Honey to:
CelticHieressFiona and Orka

* * * * * * *

He was advancing deep into the night, reading dusty old books and studying old parchment and records. Something about this virus struck him, it stirred up old memories, its connection with the past becoming more evident as he stayed up past the night.

"It is Riddle," Dumbledore mumbled to himself. "Riddle...how can that be? His power is so much better than this. This is something like a beginner's level compared to what he can do."

Even if he was defeated, ill and weakened, his magic would not be like this. So unfinished...the feeling he had gotten when he had touched Miss Granger's hand in the Infirmary, was familiar yet disturbingly old. Like Voldemort had performed this piece of dark magic long ago and had only rehashed it recently.

But still...this dark magic was no where near completion or perfection. And Voldemort was known for both. Unless he did this back in his schooling years. But why had it only resurfaced now? And what did it do?

Restless without an answer, he decided to go down to the Infirmary to pay Poppy a night visit to soothe his overworked brain and also to get updated on the latest progress.

* * * * * * *

"My God!" shrieked Poppy waving her wand, causing Johnston and Kelpern's bed to fly apart from each other, two new beds appearing in the empty space. "What is with today? Friday the thirteenth?"

"We found them, at the beach, near the waters," said Severus. His hands were shaking as he rested one of them on the chair near a bed.

"Something attacked them, something," Sirius ran his fingers through his hair, restless and worried.

"What could have attacked them? Dumbledore asked. He had practically leapt out of the way to avoid a collision with his professors as they sprinted into the Infirmary. "There's nothing in the waters except for the squid. And what were they doing down there?"

"I really don't know," Sirius said. "One moment, Harry was in bed beside me, one moment he was gone."

"And you just didn't realize it until an hour later," spat Severus who was looking for a target to vent his concern turned anger to.

"How did you know they were on the beach?" Poppy cut in, her hands busy as she waved her wand and the torn robes on both children disappeared.

"The loud noise of those waters," said Severus. "What a commotion, what were they doing there?"

"They caused that?" Dumbledore asked, plainly surprised. "I thought that squid was doing some bathing."

"What did they do down there?" snapped Poppy as she healed the cuts on Ron's face with a prod of her wand.

"They mentioned something, but I couldn't catch it," said Severus who watched Poppy bandage Ron's hand then turned to bandage Harry's arm.

"I thought you were supposed to take care of Harry!" Poppy accused Sirius as he held Harry's other hand.

Dumbledore gave a low hiss as Poppy turned Harry over gently to lie on his stomach, Sirius looking very dangerous. "Honestly, I need someone to tell me what had truly happened this night."

Severus snorted as he helped Poppy gently douse the long gashes with disinfectant then wrap the wounds with bandages. Sirius dabbed at a bleeding spot on Harry's neck softly with a cloth. "Look...there's finger marks here..."

Poppy tiptoed to see over the other side of Harry's neck then realized that the red marks extended to her side too. "Seems like someone..."

"Tried to strangle him," said Severus grimly.

"This is really serious," said Sirius, seemingly in a daze. "Something down there attacked them...it's no way both of them went all the way down to fight each other."

Poppy left Harry in Severus and Sirius' hands and turned to fix Ron.

"He's going to get a earful when he wakes up," said Sirius. Severus looked over knowingly, for Sirius would probably be too concerned when Harry did wake and would forget about about his 'earful'. "Jumping into the water, sneaking down to the waters...one more time and I'm going to ground him until he's eighteen. Can't stop giving me heart attacks," Sirius grumbled.

"Now everything seems to be connected to waters," Severus said lightly, trying to ease the tension as more wounds were uncovered. Sirius seemed to bristle.

"If I ever found out who had done this..."

Severus drew a finger over his neck in a cutting motion. "Kiii-akkk?"

Sirius, Dumblefore and Poppy's heads all flew up, stunned by the un-Severus-like line Severus had just delivered.

"It's a...joke," Sirius said faintly. "You can joke."

"Oh Good Lord," Poppy said weakly. "I was here since you were a child and never in my whole life had you gave..."

"A joke," they all finished together.

"A bad one," added Sirius.

"Oh, shut up," snapped Severus.

Before Sirius could answer, Dumbledore cut in. "Did Harry or Ron say anything when you found them?"

"Well, I asked who did it to them..." said Severus

"And what did they answer?"

"Ron said 'It did'," said Sirius remembering.

"And Harry said, 'She did'," added Severus, stepping aside to let Poppy heal a nasty bruise on Harry's leg.

"She..." pondered Dumbledore. "That means a woman."

"Ooh, mystery finally solved," said Severus sarcastically.

"Means that 'she' is in the water, since they can't be playing around there in the middle of the night," continued Dumbledore as if his professor hadn't spoken at all. "Means..." His face suddenly lit up like a Christmas bulb on electricity overdose. "If any one of them awakens, send him to me," he said then hurried out of the Infirmary.

Too concerned about Harry and perhaps a little on Ron, Sirius and Severus didn't dwell long on the Headmaster's words but turned back to Harry as Poppy finally finished dressing his wounds, healing all she could then helped pull a soft pair of new pajamas over Harry. Sirius tucked his Godson in again and then cast a spell to alert him when Harry showed any signs of awakening. He wasn't going to get up and discover that Harry off, trotting to battle centaurs in the Forbidden Forest or something.

Severus muttered something about detentions when he passed Ron to exit the Infimary, leaving Sirius to spend the night along with Harry.

* * * * * * *

Dumbledore vaguely remembered something that happened a long time ago, in Riddle's sixth or seventh year in school. A Ravenclaw student whose name was Bethany Walton had disappeared overnight leaving a note, written in detail of what she had felt about herself and her life.

It was concluded as a suicide note, and nothing about it signified it was not but Dumbledore did not truly believe its contents. First of all, Bethany was a very intelligent, popular student, she always was the top. She was a happy person, whether because she always had good grades or because she was never alone, or maybe both he was not entirely sure.

The day before she had disappeared, Ravenclaw had won the Quidditch match, and as she was the keeper, the Ravenclaw house had practically worshipped her after she pulled magnificent saves one after another, he was quite sure she wasn't thinking about killing herself.

She was rumored to have a on and off boyfriend from Slytherin, Tom Marvolo Riddle, a student he was cautious of although he had not any strong reasons to. His instincts told him something was definitely wrong, but at that time, he had dismissed it and had worked on breaking the news to the distraught Waltons. And the Chamber of Secrets had been opened at that same year by who Dumbledore was sure it was now.

What if Riddle had killed Bethany because she had discovered his secret? Giving that he was young and inexperienced, his magic could have been a little wacky...but how could they have missed this for over so many decades? The thought was somewhat disturbing but the only way to find out was to go out there and see for themselves.

* * * * * * *

Both Ron and Harry slept through the rest of the night and the next day. Poppy had ignored Sirius proposal to take Harry up to his room again and had instead cast a spell around the two beds to ward off any infected air Sirius claimed were floating around. Sirius had made a big fuss but subdued when Poppy threatened to ban him from the Infirmary.

"But I'm his Godfather!" Sirius had protested.

"I don't care whether you are his father, grandfather, forefather or godfather. If you talk, eat, sleep, breathe loud in this place, you are not allowed here," Poppy snapped back.

After a full twenty four hours and neither boy had shown any sign of awakening, Sirius had gone to Poppy again and demanded an explanation of which Poppy deemed them both exhausted and had told Sirius to stay still. Classes had slowed down to a mere two classes per day and students wandered along corridors and haunted the library.

Later in the evening, Ron awoke and almost fell out of bed as he was curled up beside the very edge. Blinking for a few moments to clear his foggy brain, everything flooded back to him. "Harry!"

He quickly glanced up and scanned the room, his eyes needing a few more seconds to adjust to the dark. Noticing the next bed had curtains drawn, shielding it from any eye, Ron slowly got out of bed, wincing when a sharp pain shot up his left leg. He stretched carefully and realized that most of his injuries had been healed.

Limping softly to the next cubicle, he grasped the material in his hand and pulled the curtains apart an inch. He spluttered.

Sitting in bed and leaning against the headboard was Professor Black, in all his glory, asleep, cradling Harry in his arms whose head was resting against the professor's chest, wrapped in blankets, seemingly still unconscious.

Backing quickly out of the cubicle, Ron tripped over the the edge of his blanket which was sweeping the floor, pushed out by Ron who had scrambled out of the bed earlier before.

"OOF!" He fell, face down onto the floor, his legs sliding on the floor, made even more slippery by the blanket and rolled under the bed.

The curtains to Harry's cubicle was immediately drawn aside and Ron, shivering under the bed saw Professor Black placing Harry down and tucking him in gently, turning around to find the culprit of the loud noise.

Ron squeezed his eyes shut as the pair of clad legs turned to his direction and hesitated. "Weasley?"

Ron yelped when Professor Black's face peered down at him. He drew the blanket closer to him and backed out from the other side.

"Mr. Weasley! Tis' you!" Professor Black sounded half curious and relieved. "Professor Dumbledore wants to see you."

"Tis' me?" squeaked Ron.

"No, I mean...uh, Mr. Weasley, it's you," corrected Professor Black sheepishly. "Sorry, was reading one of Miss Granger's stupid Muggle books." He tapped a book on the side table, golden words embroidering the name 'Shakespeare'.

"The Headmaster, Mister Albus Dumbledore wants to see me?" Ron now sounded as if he had an April fool joke played belatedly on him.

"What for?"

Both student and professor turned as one to Harry who was sitting up in bed, propped up with a shaky elbow, blinking his eyes as if trying to clear a haze.

"HARRY!" Sirius and Ron said in unison, both sounding agitated.

"How are you feeling?" asked Sirius lamely when all three of them froze.

"F-Fine," Harry answered a little unnerved by the way Ron was staring at him. His elbow gave way and he collapsed onto the bed again. His body throbbed and he had an awful headache, something he had become quite used to by now, and sharp pain streaked up his back at intervals. He closed his eyes for a while and he nearly drifted away until Sirius spoke.

"Good," stuttered Sirius. "Dumbledore wants to see you both."

He made a movement as if to take Harry in his arms but stopped short, realizing where he was. "Uh...all of you feeling fine enough to walk?"

Harry strained his eyes open with obvious effort, swinging his legs slowly over the bed and sliding down to the floor. His legs buckled and he held onto the bed for support, swaying dangerously. Sirius quickly lifted his Godson into his arms. He wasn't going to take no chances. Choosing to deliberately to ignore Harry's look on his face he turned uncomfortably to Ron.

"Ah...I think we shouldn't risk both your health." He awkwardly took Ron in his arms too and carried them out of the Infirmary.

Harry gave a tiny smile at the look of horror on Ron's face then leant backwards, resting his head on Sirius' collarbone as he closed his eyes tiredly.

* * * * * * *

Dumbledore leant back against his chair, a thoughtful expression on his face. "So it may be the water..."

Harry and Ron were both curled up on the couch, both wrapped in thick blankets (which Minerva had brought in after casting a glare at Sirius who forgot to do so, causing both to shiver involuntarily in their thin pajamas), listening half heartedly to the Headmaster.

Harry was again starting to float off to Dreamland while Ron was still at Worryland, desperately itching to know who Harry was to Professor Black for the man to treat Harry the way he did. Thinking closely, he had begun to collect evidence about their relationship, storing bits of information like the way Professor Black had always looked at Harry, the times he had often asked Harry to stay back after class although nothing was wrong...

But why hadn't he made it public? Sneaking off like that...

"- go down now."

"Are ye crazy!" bellowed Sirius. At glances of shock from all professors present, namely Remus, Minerva and Severus, he winced. "Sorry. Stressed out."

"Thy rudeness is forgiven," said Severus dryly at the amused look on the Headmaster's face.

"I'm confiscating Miss Granger's literature books," said Remus, grinning widely.

"Shut up," growled Sirius.

"We have to get this solved at once," said Dumbledore, signaling for them to calm down. "And we got to do it now, students are getting sicker by the second, I don't want any of them to be on their brink of death before we decide to un-chicken ourselves and get down there."

He looked pointedly at Sirius, then made eye contact with everyone else.

"Hey, I'm with you," Severus defended himself.

"We are all with you," said Minerva. Remus nodded.

Sirius grunted.

"Good," said Dumbledore rising in his seat. "Now get Harry and Ron back to the Infirmary, they need plenty of rest."

Harry snapped out of his sleepy state at that sentence. "I'm going too."

"Harry..." started Dumbledore.

"You are staying here," interrupted Sirius. He bent down to look at Harry in the eye. "I can't lose you," he whispered.

It was clearly only meant for Harry's ears but somehow Sirius' softest tone made its way to every ear.

"Um, Mr. Weasley, back to bed," said Minerva uneasily.

"Yes, professor," said Ron, somewhat disappointedly. He was led to the door by Minerva who opened it and let him out. However, as the door closed behind him, he managed to hear Harry's reply.

"I can't lose you either."

And that, to Ronald Weasley was easily the strongest attack to the weakest point in anyone.

* * * * * * *

Writer's Block = Graphics Block. Sorwee...LOL! But if the ancient way works....PLEASE REVIEW! (-- Resort to begging audiences, Trick Number 1574 in 'How to Get Reviews' by New York Best Selling author, Peas Refill'

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