50
Hunch…
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The commotion at the Gryffindor table had attracted everyone's attention.Everything had been going normal when all of a sudden Hermione had fell on the floor choking. Her struggle to breath and her whole body thrashing had Harry and Neville horrified just like all of Gryffindor. They didn't know what had happened to her all of a sudden.
Luckily, it was breakfast time and Madame Pomfrey was at the head table. The medi-witch immediately jumped into action, making her way over to Hermione. She noticed that the girl's mouth was foaming up. Pomfrey looked at the students standing around and one glance from her and they all had cleared the space. She knelt down beside Hermione and waved her wand over the girl, causing the foam in her mouth to disappear, which allowed the Gryffindor to breathe a little better. The medi-witch then cast a sedating spell before she floated her out of the great hall as everyone watched in utter shock and confusion. Harry and Neville followed Pomfrey. Over at the head table, McGonagall stood up and left the hall as well.
Back at the Slytherin table Daphne was watching it all happen before she glanced over at Ron. The red head was busy eating a chicken leg, unaffected by the entire commotion. The corner of her lips twitched as she then looked down under the table at the small vial of potion that she had in her hand and frowned.
"That was something, right?" Tracey's voice distracted her.
"It was," Daphne responded.
"What do you think happened to her?" asked Tracey.
Daphne just shrugged her shoulders before focusing on her food. However, she couldn't stop thinking about how Harry would react once she had told him the truth. She was worried that he might take a regretful decision which made her wonder if she could stop him then.
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It had been over an hour since Hermione was brought into the infirmary. Harry and Neville were waiting outside as the medi-witch had instructed them not to come in. They wondered what had happened as they hadn't seen Pomfrey ever since she had taken Hermione inside.
It was at that moment when the medi-witch walked out with McGonagall. Neville saw the look on the latter's face while Harry looked at Pomfrey.
"How is she?" he asked.
"She is under heavy sedation," Pomfrey said.
"What happened to her?"
The medi-witch seemed to hesitate before she glanced at McGonagall. "She had an allergic reaction," she said. "It was from the pumpkin juice."
"She wasn't allergic to pumpkin juice before," Harry said. "Are you sure about that?" he asked. Pomfrey looked at him with a slightly offended expression so he apologized immediately. She was the medi-witch so her diagnosis had to be correct, Harry thought.
"She is fine now," Pomfrey said, "but she needs time to recover. I'll send for you when she wakes up."
"Until then, why don't you and Mr Longbottom go back to your classes?" McGonagall said.
Harry wanted to argue but then he felt Neville's hand on his shoulder and looked at him. The boy was giving him the look which told him to leave. Harry didn't want to but he realized that maybe Neville had something to tell him, so the two left.
Once they were far enough from the infirmary Neville finally spoke. "I don't think it's an allergic reaction."
Harry looked at him. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Did you see McGonagall when she came out of the infirmary?" Neville asked. Harry nodded. He had, however, not paid much attention. "She looked shocked…in disbelief. If that was her reaction to what had happened to Hermione, it's safe to say that it wasn't over an allergic reaction. Something that measly won't get McGonagall to look like that."
"So you mean to say that something else happened to Hermione?" Harry asked. Neville nodded. "What?"
"I don't know," Neville said when Harry saw the look on his face.
"What are you thinking?" he asked.
Neville stayed quiet for a moment before finally speaking. "Judging from her frothing mouth and body thrashing, I think she was poisoned," he said. Harry was shocked. His eyes were wide open as he processed what Neville had just said. "Nothing else would make sense," he continued. "Pomfrey probably realized it after she took a look at Hermione and told the same to McGonagall, hence that look on her face."
"Are…Are you sure that she was poisoned?" Harry asked.
"It was either that or something else," Neville said. "But it was definitely not an allergic reaction. They don't cause your mouth to foam up. What does though, are seizures, rabies and poisons. The first two aren't serious enough for Pomfrey to lie to us about so poison is what fits better. There can be some other thing that I don't know about so that's what I speculate."
Harry was shocked. Granted that it was just an assumption but the way Neville had explained it to him, it made sense. Why Pomfrey would lie to them though, that he didn't know. "Who…Who would poison her?" he asked.
"I don't know," Neville said. "But considering how serious the situation is, I wouldn't accuse anyone until we had some idea or proof as to who it was."
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It was almost one at night. Harry was still awake, lying in his bed and thinking about the day's event when his mirror buzzed. Surprised, he picked it up and saw Daphne's face appear on it. It looked like she wasn't in her dorm which confused him.
"Daphne?" he said. "Where are you?"
"Did I wake you?" she asked. Harry shook his head. "Come by the classroom on the astronomy tower. It's important."
Before he could respond the call was cut. Harry wondered what was so important that she wanted to risk talking to him in person. He looked at the time and realized that it was too late for any faculty, prefect or the inquisitorial squad to patrol the corridors and just to ensure that no one else was out there, Harry also looked in the marauder's map before leaving for the astronomy tower under his invisibility cloak.
He arrived there ten minutes later and found Daphne in the classroom where she had called to meet him. She locked the door behind him before applying a series of privacy charms on it to ensure no one could hear them, just in case.
"What did you want to talk about?" Harry asked.
She didn't answer at first as she seemed hesitant before she looked at him. "I made an assumption," she began slowly, "when you said how Granger didn't seem completely honest with you regarding her apology and how all of it could be related to Weasely." She then paused, prompting Harry to speak.
"What…are you trying to say?" he asked.
Daphne sighed shakily before she slowly reached for her pocket and took something out. She didn't show it to him. "I know what happened to her today and…who did it to her." She then opened her hand and Harry saw her holding a small vial with remnants of a transparent liquid. He looked at her with confused eyes.
"What is that?" he asked. His voice was shaking and Daphne could guess what he was thinking. Anyone could make that assumption.
"You asked why I wanted Dobby for," she said. "It was because of this. When you said how Granger seemed to not let go of Weasely, I couldn't find myself to come to terms with it because the two are completely opposite of each other. And while I told you that that is why the two had probably come closer, I couldn't bring myself to believe the same. My mind was thinking of something else and I desperately wanted it to not be true. However, I couldn't help myself and went ahead with it."
"Went ahead with what?" Harry asked. "Daphne, what did you do?" he said taking a step forward.
She could hear the tremble in his voice. "I asked Dobby to slip this potion in Hermione's pumpkin juice this morning," she said and immediately saw Harry's facial expression change from a confused one to the one with no expression at all. He stood there looking at her without blinking.
"Did you…poison her?" he said in a low, grim tone.
"No," Daphne said. "Someone else did…for a very long time." She then brought the vial in her hand to Harry's eye level. "This is the antidote for that poison which caused Hermione to go into relapse this morning. It happened because it neutered all of the poison in her body in an instant."
Harry stepped back as his mind tried to wrap around the things that Daphne had just told him. He felt glad that he had learnt occlumency as it helped him tremendously to calm down his thoughts. "So, you're saying that you gave Hermione an antidote which made her to go into the state she's in right now?" he asked. She nodded. "What was this antidote for?"
"Draught of fideseis," Daphne said. "Otherwise known as the potion of loyalty."
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A/N: I honestly don't know whether allergic reactions can cause frothing in mouth. It I made a mistake then I would like to apologise…
Thanks for reading…
