Chapter Seven

"Come on Ron. We're going to be late!" It was only Harry Potter's second day at Hogwarts and he had already been late for all but one of his lessons. He had been on time to Herbology that morning though that was due to the fact the Greenhouses were easy enough to see and weren't lost in a maze of corridors and a mass of people whispering and pointing at him. His 'fame' was more of a hindrance than a help, people who were all too happy to whisper behind their hands about him froze up if he were to approach them to ask about the way to Transfiguration. At least Ron had his brothers to help him, Fred and George in particular had uncanny ability to pop up whenever they needed them and point them in the correct direction.

"Keep your hair on Harry, it's only our second day. People expect us to get lost for at least the first few weeks."

As they dashed down an empty corridor their quick footsteps echoed, "It's the fifth door along," Harry panted and started counting, "Three, four, five. Here we are!"

Harry pushed open the door, it looked like most people were already there and Professor Quirrell was sat at his desk leafing through a textbook. They were on time! But Harry's joy was short-lived, as he stepped into the classroom there was a soft thump.

Time seemed to slow down, a mess of black robes and blonde hair lay at his feet. It was Bree Roberts. The class erupted in worried chatter and everyone craned their necks to get a better look at the girl on the floor. Harry fell to his knees and put his hand on her forehead.

"She's burning up!" He said looking up, Professor Quirrell was pointing his trembling wand at Bree. He muttered something and she rose into the air as though dangling from some invisible string, her arms hung limply at her side and her head lolled back.

"I-I-I must take this girl to the h-h-hospital wing. Stay in your s-seats." The professor stuttered.

"Merlin's beard!" A Hufflepuff boy exclaimed.

"I'm sure she'll be fine. You are wizards after all, you must have better medicine than we do," a dark haired boy said reassuringly. Harry recognised the people as Bree's friends, Ernie, Justin and Hannah. Harry took a seat at the desk in front of them as they began speculating about why she had collapsed.

"She looked really pale." Hannah pointed out.

"She always looks pale," Justin countered. Harry had to agree, while he had only met her a few times she was always dangerously pale. It was definitely odd.

"This is good isn't it, Harry?" Ron said as he took out his books, "He's not going to be back for ages, we'll have a nice short lesson."

"I thought you were looking forward to this lesson?"

"I was, but I'm not going to complain about not having to do work." Ron shrugged, "That girl, Bree, she'll be fine. Madam Pomfrey has fixed Fred and George after much worse things."

"I might go and see if she's alright. Do you think that would be okay?"

"Her friends from her House will want to see her first. Go after dinner or something, besides you barely know her."

Harry nodded but he couldn't help but squirm as he felt a gnawing worry in his stomach, she had looked so weak. Harry tried to concentrate on the lesson which in all honesty was a bit of a disappointment. Quirrell refused to talk about any of the rumours that they had heard about him, ignoring questions about his fight with a zombie and his encounter with a vampire. Instead they looked at pictures of dark creatures in books , Harry thought it was interesting but Ron looked as though he had seen enough doxies to last a lifetime.

The lesson ended with the deafening scraping of chairs, hurried footsteps and loud chatter. Another school day was over, the corridors were full of tired students and Harry and Ron followed the crowd to the Great Hall. Ron piled his plate with slices of roast beef, carrots, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and a ladles of gravy, Harry wasn't feeling quite so hungry and just had a small slice of corned beef pie.

"I don't know why you're so worried Harry. Hogwarts is the safest place there is." Ron assured him as they left the Great Hall, "I'll meet you up in the common room, we can play Exploding Snap again."

Harry had never been to a hospital before. The Dursleys would rush Dudley to the hospital for every cough, sneeze, bump, or bruise and each time they would leave Harry with their batty neighbour Mrs Figg. Harry had seen the occasional glimpse of a hospital on the many dramas the Dursleys watched. They were bleached white, there was always an ominous beeping, weeping relatives and steady flow of uniformed doctors and nurses and a mess of tubes threaded into a sleeping patient. The Hospital Wing in Hogwarts was the complete opposite of that. Harry pushed open the thick oak doorway, the arched windows were covered with dusty green curtains and there were rows of beds with crisp white sheets, lying in the bed furthest away from the door was Bree. She looked drowsy and paler than he had had ever seen anyone look. Her long blonde hair was loosely tied back and the flickering candlelight made her look washed-out. Madame Pomfrey was standing over her giving Bree a glass of a thick red liquid that Harry thought smelt familiar but he couldn't place it.

"You can stay for a few minutes but after that no more guests," Madame Pomfrey said as she headed into her office.

"Hi Harry." Bree said weakly as she drank the red liquid, "Why are you here?"

"I was worried. You just slid out of your chair. Do they know what's wrong with you?"

"Um…Madame Pomfrey says it might be stress. And the classroom was pretty hot. I hadn't eaten much. It could be a lot of things."

Harry got the distinct impression he was being told the whole truth but he didn't want to badger her and Bree had no reason to lie to him. "Well you didn't miss much, Quirrell isn't that good of a teacher."

"Really? Ernie said it was a bit of a rubbish lesson but Justin loved it. Hopefully I'll be able to sit through the whole lesson next time. I should be out of here in a few hours."

Madame Pomfrey walked back into the Hospital Wing, "Time's up. Time to leave Mr Potter. I assure you Miss Roberts is perfectly fine and does not need anymore visitors!" She sounded irritated and shooed him out of the door. Harry hoped he would never have to spend to much time in the Hospital Wing with Madame Pomfrey in future and rushed up to Gryffindor Tower.


Bree stood up glad to have regained her strength, Madame Pomfrey was still fussing over her and asking if she wanted any more blood. Due to Bree's fainting they had decided that Bree would now need two doses of blood a day as fresh as possible. Professor Dumbledore had removed all the garlic from Professor Quirrell's classroom and although the scent still lingered none of his spells could detect anymore.

"Be sure to come back if you ever need anything else, Miss Roberts."

"Of course I will, thank you Madame Pomfrey." Bree smiled as she left the room. The smile was almost immediately wiped off her face though as standing in the corridor was Draco Malfoy. "What do you want?"

"I heard that you collapsed, maybe I was worried?"

Bree rolled her eyes.

"Aw, Roberts I'm offended." Malfoy smirked and Bree headed off in the direction of her Common Room, "What really happened? Scared of all the scary creatures?"

"Go away," Bree sighed, she wasn't in the mood for him bothering her right now, "please," she added uselessly.

"Maybe I should walk you to your Common Room, we're both down in the Dungeons, right?"

"You know I can't tell you where my Common Room is, Malfoy."

"Well you're going downstairs." He pointed out. Bree had to get rid of him somehow, as they turned a corner an idea struck her.

"Look at that!" Bree gasped pointing down a corridor.

"What?" Malfoy asked turning to look. Bree took this opportunity to slip behind a tapestry and escape leaving Malfoy stood open-mouthed and shocked. Bree smirked at her victory and hurried to the Hufflepuff Common Room.


AN - What did you all think of the POV change? I liked writing from Harry's POV as a change so let me know if you think I should do it more in future of if I should just stick to writing from one. All reviews are appreciated.