I don't own Harry Potter

Chapter Fourteen — Awakening

It has been two weeks since Harry was poisoned and he still hadn't stirred. Remus rarely left his side and when he did, he made sure someone was with him. He didn't trust anyone with him for long.

Harry was transferred to St. Mungos a few days after the 'Potions Incident' as all the students were calling it. They had hoped that Harry would recover faster there than at Hogwarts. So far, the Healers efforts had been in vain. They had no idea why Harry wouldn't pull himself out of the coma and had no clue as to how to reverse it themselves. No one even noticed that his eyes were glowing.

Hermione was the one who visited Harry the most. Ron's parents didn't think that it was a good idea for him to spend too much time out of school. He had to study after all. But Hermione came everyday during her breaks and mealtimes, usually bringing homework with her. While she was a school, it was hard for anyone to not notice that she was constantly on the brink of tears. And while she was with Harry, she held his hand hoping that he would wake up soon.

It was the first week of October when Hermione saw that Harry was finally starting to show signs of life. Harry opened his eyes.

"Granger?" Harry blinked as he became aware of his surroundings. "Where am I?" He wasn't totally oblivious to the white that was plastered on the walls.

"Harry, you're in St. Mungos. Remember the potion that Snape forced you to drink, well you had a bad reaction to it, and it made you sick. You've been unconscious for the past two weeks."

"Where's Uncle Remmy? He should be here."

"Don't worry Harry; he's just getting some tea. You need to rest. I'll be right back I have to get the Healer and tell him you're awake." She gave him a small smile and walk out of the room.

"I can't believe I've been out for two weeks." The time he spent with Sirius seemed like it was only hours, not days.

The Healer came back with Remus. He ran some scans but couldn't find anything wrong with him. It was as though nothing happened. It seemed that his body had to naturally dissolve the potion on its own. This, however, confused the Healer. Never before had he seen self-healing at this scale. He called other Healers into the room and they ran every test that they knew to find out what happened.

Harry was unconcerned about what was happening to him. He knew that he just needed time in order to heal. No one else seemed to be able to see that. Finally, he cried out in frustration.

"Will you all stop it? There is nothing wrong with me. I am very tired and can't sleep with you all poking at me." Harry pulled the blankets over his head and buried himself in the bed.

Hermione just stood by and watched Harry in amusement. She knew that all of this attention was frustrating for him. She noticed that he indeed look tired.

"I think that Harry needs his sleep if you are going to let him go back to school soon. I don't think he should miss anymore of his classes."

"Umm, Granger, don't you have classes to get to?"

"Actually, I am late for Potions. But I don't think Professor Dumbledore will mind. I think your waking up is a good excuse for being late. Get some sleep and I'll be back later to tell what's been going on since you went into that coma. I'll leave you some books in case you wake before I return. Ron might join me." She gave him a quick hug that left Harry with a goofy smile.

Remus saw this and noted to tease Harry about it.

"I see that you found yourself a girlfriend. She is a cute one. Better not let that one go."

"Eww, Uncle Remmy. She's just my friend, not my girlfriend. I don't like girls like that yet."

"Sure Harry. If she's just a friend; then why the goofy smile? James had the same look when he looked at Lily. And he called her by her last name as well."

"I only call her Granger because Hermione is such a long name. I would call her Queen but I don't think she'll appreciate that. And when are you going to tell what been's going on for the last two weeks. I want to know everything."

"Sorry Cub but I don't know much about what's been going on outside this hospital. I was in this room most of the time. What I can tell you are the specials for the last two weeks in the cafeteria, most of which sound good but looked nasty. Now, get to sleep. If you don't I won't allow Hermione back in until you do."

Harry obediently rolled over and closed his eyes. The only problem was Harry could feel Remus' eyes on him and that made it hard to sleep.

"You this would be so much easier if you wouldn't stare at me like that. Why don't you send some time with Tonks? I bet she would be delighted to hear that I woke up." Remus left felling a bit disgruntled.

Later that night Harry woke with Hermione staring at him from the foot of the bed. He let out a small groan.

"Why must people always stare at me?"

"Sorry Harry. So how are you feeling? Did you have a good nap? If you are still tired I can leave."

"Whoa, Granger you are rambling again. Why don't you tell me what's been going on at Hogwarts?"

"Well, most of the school just about mutinied when they heard what Snape did to you. They believed Snape's punishment was far too lenient, even some of the Slytherins complained. They may not like you but they knew that Snape went too far when he poisoned you."

"Is that what everyone believes, that Snape poisoned me? It's a bit more complicated than that. I am a Metamorphmagus. That means that I can change my appearance at will. I would show you but I can't right now. When a Metamorphmagus is forced to change, they can get very sick or even die. The potion I drank was my own. You noticed that I was wearing gloves the whole time and was careful not to expose any skin to the potion. I was also careful not to breathe any in. It was mild enough that it only hurt me temporarily."

Hermione just took all this new information and continued with her tale.

"The weirdest thing happened that Friday night at dinner. The whole of Slytherin came down with severe boils." She stopped when she heard Harry laugh.

"Please don't tell anyone but I was kinda tweaking that the boils cure that we did in our first potions class. I recreated Neville's potion with a few variants. I made it so that a normal boils cure would only make the boils that my potion gave them worse. I'm guessing that it worked."

"How did you make so that only the Slytherins were affected?"

"I snuck into the kitchens and when no one was around I laced the Slytherin dinner plates. Please don't mad."

"How can I not be mad? You gave a bunch of people boils for no reason. You could have hurt them. What were you thinking?"

"It was for an experiment. I knew what I was doing. No one was going to get hurt. It wasn't as if I would find volunteers to willingly give themselves boils. I was trying to impress you."

"You didn't have to try to impress me. I'll see you around school Potter." She left without saying goodbye.

Harry turned his back to the door and tried to go back to sleep, he failed miserably. He couldn't stop thinking about Hermione. He was too absorbed in his own thoughts that he hadn't realized that Remus had come to visit him. He finally fell asleep in the early hours of the morning.

Remus showed up around noon the next day looking very worn-out. The first thing Remus noticed was that Harry was in a sulky mood. He never seen Harry so down before.

"Alright Cub, what's wrong? Don't even try to deny that some thing is wrong because I can sense that something is troubling you."

"I had a fight with Granger. I did something and it sort of made her mad. But that wasn't my intentions at all."

"What did you do?"

"I invented a potion."

"And?"

"Used it on the Slytherins."

"And?"

"It gave them all boils that a boils cure couldn't get rid of but made the boils worse."

Remus couldn't hide his smile. "You do realize that it was wrong to give the Slytherins boils."

"But it was an experiment and I needed someone to test it on and no one in there right mind would willingly drink a potion that would give them boils. And everyone knows that the first rule of testing products is not to try them on yourself. I just wish I could have been there."

"To tell you the truth so do I. So, how many test subjects did you have?" He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer. By the sound it, it was quite a lot of people.

"Oh, just everyone who had lunch at the Slytherin table," Harry said nonchalantly.

Remus just gawked at Harry in surprise. James and Sirius had never been able to prank the entire Slytherin House before. Suddenly, he began to laugh. He laughed in a way that hadn't in years. Harry was so much like James it was uncanny.

"Just don't do it again, alright? I don't want to get a letter saying that you got detention for two weeks. You need to keep up with your studies and Quidditch practice."

"Fine," said Harry gloomily.