They finally had a peaceful sleep, they had the chance to take a little break; if they didn't they would have surely gone crazy. Well, It's nice to stop and take a break while everything is falling apart. They focused more on school, on their votes and this sort of things, to make the most of their last term at Hogwarts.
It was already March when they regained track of time, the sun was already getting warmer and the last snow had melted long time ago, leaving room to the first graceful spring flowers.
"Guys, we haven't seen each other for a while (at the mirror), and maybe we didn't even thought about the rings for a bit. We definitely lost track of time and got carried away by the arrival of spring and our school things. But even if we haven't realized it, it's already March, and we only have a little more than three months here, to solve everything. Write me a list of possible dates in the coming weeks when you have a few free hours for our meeting in the secrete passage, as we've always done. H.J.G"
Hermione had written to the others because after taking her deserved break, she had remembered the weight of the curse caused by the poison on her shoulders; and she didn't want to waste her few months left, also because the only spark of hope was the Dragonlear's ring, whose position was unfortunately still unknown.
Indeed, everyone had been a little lost in the spring and in their studies, but no one had forgotten their mission, and immediately the letters returned to Hermione with everyone's free hours; to then arrive on April 21.
In the weeks that separated them from that date, they were all busy, full of commitments, and the final quiddtch game for the house cup; that would be held on the Sunday before April 21. McGonagall had anticipated it because she said that at the end of the tournament there would be a "fabulous surprise."
The day of the game had finally come, but even if the whole school was hoping for sun on that day, at breakfast time, dark clouds where coming from west.
Hermione remembered well for all her life about what happened every time Ginny had a game: she looked like a hysterical fireball with Parkinson's disease and asthma. Of course, she was like that also for her penultimate final of the quidditch house cup, and her last game with Harry in the team.
Throughout the previous week, no one could hope to see Harry, Ron, Ginny, Blaise, or Draco anywhere in the entire castle, even if it was a matter of life or death; they were training day and night, rain or shine.
That morning at the beginning of April, one of the typical whether of that instable month was shaping up: it was a humid and cloudy day, perhaps it was going to rain, but the game mustn't be cancelled.
Hermione, Morgan, Luna, and even Pansy, were in the stands. Morgan was screaming like crazy; she also played quidditch: she was the best chaser the Hufflepuffs had ever seen, and often Harry and Ginny said they would have really wanted to have her in their team.
Luna, on the other hand, wore her beautiful lion hat which she had kept during the war, with a small addition: a fake snake was comfortably coiled between the lion's mane and its head popped atop of the hat. A small second year ad replaced her as quidditch commentator, and she was quite happy with it.
Hermione was waving two flags, one with the Gryffindor colors and the other with the Slytherin' ones; she had never been very enthusiastic about quidditch but this time she did her best to support her friends. Also Pansy was waving flags of both teams furiously, shouting almost as much as Morgan, which Hermione found awkward and began to wonder about the reason.
"Here! The players entered the field! cheer your team guys!" the commentator shouted in the roar of the applause of the crowd. They all had rain goggles on their head and still the winter uniforms; but the weather didn't scare them at all.
They flew in formation for team on the field; when Blaise passed Morgan he mouthed: "for you." and in a second was gone. Then Ron passed too, smiling and waving at Pansy.
"Isn't it that you two have to tell us something?" Hermione asked with a mischievous smile.
"No, don't even think about it, I'm not with the Weasel! It's just that we're becoming very close friends, yeah, we get along quite well. That's all, we only dated once! Believe me I've never thought about becoming friends with him, and with all of you; I expected worse, but you're actually awesome..." Pansy admitted.
"Just a matter of time..." Luna whispered almost singing, and receiving a rather displeased look from Pansy.
"And you Morgan, what can you tell us?" Hermione changed the subject.
"I have nothing to say, Blaise and I are together." She simply replied.
"Oh my God! Since when?!" shouted the other three girls in unison.
"Girls, please! Calm down. More or less a month." she said calmly. The girls were about to explode for the unexpected news, wondering the reaction of Ginny a few hours later; but they forced themselves to calm down focus back on the game.
The teams were lined up one in front of the other, and were only waiting for Madam Hooch. The professor in question arrived at the centre of the field, with rain glasses like the players, and the case with the quaffle, the bludgers and the golden snitch.
A whistle broke the uncontrolled noise of the crowd, the quaffle was thrown into the air and followed by the bludgers and the snitch, which disappeared immediately in the fog that had covered the field.
"Alexander Hurst, ladies and gentlemen! Number eleven, Slytherin's chaser took the quaffle!" shouted Kiros Bryant, the new commentator, through the microphone to be heard above the crowd.
"Attention everyone! Ginny Weasley, number six, Gryffindor's chaser, stole Alexander's quaffle!" shouted the boy making the Gryffindor crowd cheer.
"First goal of the game! Ladies and gentlemen: Ginny Weasley!" another applause started from all the Gryffindors.
"Weasley can catch anything! She never miss a single win! That's why Gryffindors all sing! Wealsey's our queen! Weasley's our queen!" Gryffindor shouted from the stands.
At this point, Edmund Tomkins, Slytherin chaser took the quaffle and flied a few seconds, and at a very short distance from the door shooted with all his strength, but Ron arrived in time from the left and managed to get the quaffle before it could enter the ring.
"Weasley can save anything! He never leaves a single ring! That's why Griffindors all sing! Wealsey's our king! Weasley's our king!" all Gryffindors yelled.
Ginny passed near her brother high-fived him shouting the song with the crowd. Then she returned attacking with Faith Holcomb and Gabriel Copson, the other Gryffindor chasers; but a splendid collaboration of Elinor Worley and Theodore Nott, the Slytherin beaters, derailed them. They also hit Faith on the arm, despite this, she continued staying on the saddle.
Rain started falling from that dark cloud that appeared since morning and immediately looked bad; but the game couldn't stop, on the contrary, it became more intense because both teams wanted to close quickly, winning.
Something sparkled in the clouds and rains that covered the field, was it the snitch? The seekers set off at the speed of light on their new Nimbus 2020, chasing that tiny golden ball. It was an extremely hard-fought race between Harry and Draco for what you could see from the stands; having the same broom, it was just a matter of technique. Now it was all in their hands, the situation on the pitch was almost in standby, and nobody could see what was happening because of the clouds.
The wind ruffled the hair of the two boys who were flying at a very high speed, and even if they had glasses, they couldn't see anything other than the shapeless grey spots that surrounded them and the golden glitter of the snitch.
They flew higher and higher, from the ground they could no longer be seen, and they didn't know anymore where was the quidditch pitch. They lost sight of the snitch in the middle of the clouds and at a considerable height. They stopped to try to relocate.
Suddenly a shadow quickly passed Draco's field of view, he wasn't sure about what it was, just a shadow.
"Potter, did you see that too?" he asked the other seeker who was floating close to him.
"What, Malfoy?" Harry asked annoyed.
"I'm not sure... a shadow." He said dubious.
"Malfoy, I swear that if this is a trap to distract me, I'll throw you off the broom!" Harry replied.
"No, really, there was something." Draco continued.
Harry dived suddenly. He had found the snitch. Draco followed him instantly. After a dive of thirty meters, they reappeared for a second in the spectators' field of view, then returned to fly up almost vertically, a whisker away from the snitch.
When they were very high again, Draco saw other shadows, perhaps four, all around them.
"Potter, seriously, we should go back, I don't think we're safe here." Draco warned him.
"Yes, sure, Malfoy." Harry replied, continuing to follow the snitch, but Draco was right, they were no longer safe. There was a lightning in the clouds, but Draco felt that it wasn't a natural lightning.
"Seriously, Potter, go away. I don't care about the snitch anymore!" Draco warned him. They were still behind the snitch, when Draco's worst fears and presentiments at that moment came true: the air appeared four Death Eaters flew around them.
Harry and Draco were unarmed, they certainly didn't bring their wand with them when they were playing quidditch. The Death Eaters began shooting spells towards them, while the two seekers tried their best to dodge the shots. They twirled in the air as flashes of red lights passed inches apart from them. From the ground it was a strange, horrible, sight; but no one could do much with the storm there was.
McGonagall saw that something terrible was happening up in the sky, so she took a broom and went to see what was going on. Also professor Anemonaeris, former Ravenclaw team captain, took her broom and went after the headmistress.
Meanwhile at about one-hundred yards high, Harry and Draco tried to lower themselves as much as possible towards the ground, so that if they had fallen they wouldn't have been too far from the field.
Harry had just returned to stable after flying upside down, and hadn't noticed a Death Eater standing right behind him. "STUPEFICIUM!" shouted the Death Eater.
"Potter, careful!" Draco shouted, but he knew that Harry wouldn't turn around in time, so he flew between him and the death eater, and he got hit.
Draco fell from the broom unconscious; McGonagall saw it and with a spell slowed the fall, so that he wouldn't hit the ground too hard, landing on the field in the terrified amazement of the crowd (hitting the ground quite violently.)
Madam Hooch took control of the situation while Luna, Pansy, Morgan and Hermione ran to see what happened, willing to help as they could.
"Don't stop the game! McGonagall and professor Anemonaeris have gone to solve the situation, don't panic." Madam Hooch shouted in the rain with a spell to be heard from everyone.
"STUPEFICIUM!" the Death Eaters had managed to hit Harry too. Goal achieved, hit both.
McGonagall was flashing on her broom like when she was playing on the Hogwarts quidditch pitch. She and professor Anemonaeris had arrived just when Harry had been hit and was falling to the ground; quickly she casted the same spell she had used on Draco and then they began to duel with the Death Eaters, and it was truly an epic fight that no one could see.
Unfortunately they couldn't stop them from setting fire to one of the stands pillars of the pitch. Hermione Morgan, Pansy and Luna, from ground, brought to safety all the students from the pile that was burning, and then they extinguished the flames easily.
Now the game had stopped, and although Madam Hooch had said to stay still and contain the panic, nobody listened at her and most people were around the bodies of Harry and Draco.
"Draco, please stay awake, stay here..." Hermione cried whispering bent over the body of the blond boy with half-open eyes, which soon closed.
"My God, Harry! You! Get off my way!" Ginny yelled, avoiding those around the boy's body who, despite he had break up with her, she would never stop loving. Ginny had catapulted there as soon as Madam Hooch had allowed her to.
"Harry! please wake up!" she shouted to the boy who could not hear her.
In the rain, together with professor McGonagall, the heads with the addition of Ginny, Pansy, Blaise, Neville, and also Theo, brought the bodies of Harry and Draco into the castle, in the hospital wing.
Harry's head was truly a disaster at the time, despite the spell of Headmistress McGonagall, he had given quite a hit.
"Harry... " a voice called him. He thought he had alredy heard that voice.
"Who speaks!?" he asked suspiciously.
"oh right, presentations. I am Megan. I think you know that I am the spy." Probably was her voice, but resembled also another that Harry couldn't reconnect to the owner.
"But there's a little problem for you: you can't proof anything; and unfortunately for you, I know that you are not able to kill me. I have some news... remember when Hermione was mistakenly poisoned by Pansy at Christmas?" the voice asked slowly.
Harry nodded knowing that the voice would know. "It was a deadly poison, and it really came close to... you know... death. The antidote saved her, but it was too late; the poison, even if reduced and slowed down, is still in her blood, and will kill her soon. By the end of June Hermione Granger will cease to exist."
"No! Can't we do anything?"
"I'm afraid not..." replied the voice reciting displeasure.
"But maybe... There was a legend... a fairy tale; that tells of a ring, which cures from any disease, a ring that you are already desperately looking for. But you won't find it." the voice revealed.
A terrible headache attacked Harry "Riddle... Dumbledore..." was the only thing he heard before waking up suddenly in a bed of Hogwarts' hospital wing. A crowd of people around his bed submerged him.
"Oh Harry you're here again!" Ginny shouted happily hugging him among all the Gryffindors.
Only one Gryffindor, however, was still waiting, impatiently, with sadness, that the blond boy lying on the bed a bit further, to wake up.
If you think Harry's mind was a real disaster, Draco's one would be a double disaster. He rose trembling from the floor of Malfoy Mannor, wondering why he was there.
"Welcome back, son." Lucius Malfoy said comfortably seated on an armchair in front of the fireplace.
"I can't say the same, father" was the cold response he received.
"It has been a long time since my last visit in your mind isn't it?" Lucius commented.
"May I ask why I am here? I guess you're responsible for the little "surprise" at the quidditch game. By the way, how did you get in?" Draco asked holding back his anger.
"Oh, we have our contacts in the castle." his father replied. "Of course... Megan." Draco whispered so that nobody heard him.
"I wanted to see you, for a warning... . You have to come back to me, come back to the dark side: help us in the revolution. If you don't come back and if you continue to hang out with those people, like Potter, the Weasleys, Lovegood, and above all the mudblood, I will kill you. You and also them; or if you prefer I can keep my precious son alive and make him watch me torture them to death, just like last year, right here! Do you remember that, right?" Lucius explained smiling disturbingly.
"Leave them now. Come back son, we can forget everything..."
"How do you think you can do that?! Voldemort didn't make it, how do you think you are going to do it?!" Draco shouted, trying to forget for a second that terrible threat.
"Oh, it takes time for that; with Potter I think I will opt for a mental torture, with legilimency, or something similar, till I drove him out of his mind. The others are easy prey, you have to take them separately, exploit their fears... ." Lucius was interrupted by a furious Draco.
"That's enough! I got it. Promise me that if I come back you won't touch a hair from their head!" he shouted at him.
"Sure, son. I promise." Was the answer. Lucius probably wanted to keep talking, but Draco took the moment of distraction to drive him out of his mind thanks to the skills in occlumency.
The light invaded his dark mind, and he finally woke up, a few minutes after Harry; welcomed by a warm hug from Hermione.
Blaise and Pansy where giving him affection looks, and the wall Slytherin's team still all wet and in uniform watching their captain cureusly. (it's not every day that Hermione Granger hugs Draco Malfoy; or even a random Gryffindor hugging a Slytherin.)
"What happened?" he asked while massaging his head with one hand.
"You and Harry were attacked by Death Eaters during the game. You were hit and fell to the ground losing consciousness." explained Pansy.
"Who won?" he asked slowly making the other smile slightly.
"McGonagall has declared equality, this year the quidditch house cup will be a dead heat Gryffindor-Slytherin." Hermione replied in a calm and gentle tone.
"Oh hell no! I want a rematch!" Draco said to cheer up that dead place; and maybe not to think about what his father had told him.
"Mate, I'm happy you're still the same. After all this saving the world with the Gryffindors I was afraid of losing you!" Blaise said with the usual grin placing a pat on the Draco's Chest, who reacted with a slight pain expression; then he sat up on the bed.
"Someone could please call Madam Pomfrey? I want to get out of here!" he said settling on the bed.
Shortly after the nurse arrived; she visited Draco and told him that he could go but very calmly because he was still weak (and with one or two broken bones now stable.) So she said to Harry too.
In a short time they had all returned to their dorms, but nothing was celebrated that evening, none of the two teams was particularly proud of the dead heat with the other.