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A/N: This one is a little shorter than previous chapters, but Lady Lunar Phoenix groveled so nicely. This one is for her. :)

Chapter 16

      From his chair set near Potter's left arm, Draco Malfoy looked up from a worn copy of the July issue of World Class Quidditch. Drawn away from the magazine's only interesting article by the unending noise, he studied the Muggles and shook his head. Would they ever shut up?

      I never thought I'd find myself feeling sorry for Saint Potter.

      Until Ron Weasley answered from his seat on Harry's other side, Draco didn't realize he had said the thought aloud.

      "I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with a Malfoy," Ron said, "but so do I."

      Having managed to catch Madame Pomfrey as she exited her storage room, Vernon Dursley puffed up three times his usual size (which was saying something) and demanded in his most officious tone, "I insist that you let me see someone from your legal department. At once!"

      On the other side of the hospital wing, Petunia searched for her son behind partitions and around corners without success.

      "Dudley-kins? Where is my Duddy-dums hiding?"

      The door banged open. Rubeus Hagrid strode in, his giant fingers tangled in the collar of the Muggle boy's jacket. Despite a gross tonnage that would rival a whale, Dudley swung off the half-giant's hand like a sack of feathers. The boy's toes barely brushed the ground.

      "Professor McGonagall an' I foun' him down in the dungeon. In the Potions classroom, of all places."

      "I was looking for the kitchen," Dudley whined. "I'm hungry!"

      Minerva McGonagall strode in behind them. "Then ask one of us. Don't go wandering the halls poking your head into any room you please. You're as like to get yourself lost or eaten as you are to find food to eat yourself."

      Hagrid added his own warning, saying, "If you'd swallowed the contents of the container you were holdin', you'd've sprouted wings an' flown off to be eaten by a bat!"

      Petunia rushed to save her elephant of a son. "You giant--well, you giant bully, you put my son down this instant! Oh, my darling baby, are you all right? Did he hurt you?"

      Draco's face mirrored conflicting urges to grin and grimace. "Are they always like this?"

      "Unfortunately," Ron answered, "yes."

      "Eww."

      The two teenagers looked at one another, for one brief moment united in their disgust for Harry Potter's relatives. Malfoy and Weasley realized their unspoken agreement at the same instant. They immediately buried their attention in either a magazine or the far wall.

###

      A low, explicit curse touched Professor McGonagall's ears. Her eyebrows arched toward her green velvet hat--only one person stood close enough to have uttered the obscenity. She turned in time to see the afterimage of a departing house elf.

      "Good gracious. Albus?" McGonagall laid her hand on the Headmaster's twitching arm. "What is it?"

      Dumbledore stiffened, his entire body braced for a blow. A worry line formed between the old wizard's eyes. A shadow of gloom darkened his face.

      "More trouble, Minerva."

      With a huff of vexation, the Transfiguration Master waved to the room in general, particularly toward the Dursleys. At that particular moment, they alternately coddled each other and yelled at everyone else at the top of their not inconsiderable lungs.

      Rubeus Hagrid stood at the foot of Harry's bed, his eyes bright with tears. Madame Pomfrey escaped back into her supply room and closed the door firmly behind her.

      Arthur and Molly Weasley attempted to converse in another section of the room. Judging by the hard glares they sent toward the Dursleys, they were not having much success.

      Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley had set up silent vigil at Harry's bedside. Malfoy occupied his time reading from an old magazine. Weasley straightened the blankets over his friend and stroked his shoulder before sitting down again.

      Potter himself had slipped into a coma, free at last from the unending agony. Whether he remained unconscious thanks to Pomfrey's strongest potions or due to the Devourer's curse, no one dared say.

      "I fail to see how the situation can get any worse," she said.

      "The Minister is here."

      Minerva released a weary breath. "I stand corrected."

TBC