Chap 8: High On Potions

"Nah, you gotta be kidding me." Ron complained.

It has been exactly 2 weeks since Cho's birthday and Harry just broke the news that he gave away his Firebolt to Cho to Ron. He had no intentions of keeping this information from him, in fact, he thought he told Ron this already, it turns out he did not and now he had to deal with Ron incessant complaints about this fact to Harry.

'Ron, for the last time, I am not kidding, I actually gave my Firebolt to her and I do not regret it at all."

"But it's a Firebolt!"

"I know."

"The fastest broom in the world."

"At the moment yes, but I think that that's going to change real soon." Harry smirked. Just 2 days before, Harry had officially signed his contract with Nimbus Racing Broom Company and that meant that he was officially the 'Brand Ambassador for Nimbus Racing Broom Company Youth', which essentially meant that he was Nimbus' main guy for everything school related when it came to broomsticks.

While this sounds nice and gives him a pretty hefty paycheck, he had to do quite a few commercials for their new broom stick, Nimbus Lightning 1. He had the luxury to test out the prototype of the broom and he could confidently say that he really had the potential to just edge out the Firebolt as the best broomstick in the world, by a tiny margin yes, but in the world of Quidditch and especially for the role of Seeker, a tiny margin can go a long way.

"Ron, stop whining for one second please, nothing you say will change Harry's decision." Hermione said, coming to Harry's defence.

The 3 of them were spending time in Harry's hideout, helping him find spells to help him for the 3rd task. Cho was currently having additional lessons due to it being her O.W.L. year. The thought of having to sit through lessons again was terrifying for Harry. For the large majority of this year, Harry hadn't had to attend any lessons, one of the perks of being a champion. But the thought of coming back to normal school life, especially year 5 where they had to take their O.W.L. was certainly a little intimidating.

"But why would you give it to her?" Ron protested.

"Because she wants to become a professional Quidditch player and very much have the talent and ability to make it into the league, the only thing holding her back from being scouted early is her broom. That's why I gave it to her, to help her get the recognition she deserves. It wasn't even that hard of a choice, who else would I give it to?" Harry snapped back, feeling that he had enough of Ron's incessant whining.

"Me…" He muttered.

As much as Harry wanted to laugh at that comment, he held back his laughter. The events that transpired earlier in the year had taught Harry that Ron got easily jealous and hated being overshadowed, resulting in him always wanting more.

"Look, Ron. I gave Cho the broom because she was really getting limited by her broom. She is as good, if not better than me on the broom. The only reason that I ever won against her was because my broom was faster. If she is ever going to make it to the Pro leagues, it will not be on a Comet 260, I'm just trying to help her for her future." Harry said, in the most sympathetic tone that he could muster.

Ron muttered something along the lines of him understanding before returning to his book.

"Anyway, where is Cho, she should be here by now." Hermione said, checking the time on her watch.

"No idea, probably got caught up with something." Harry said as calmly as possible. Truthfully, he was getting a little worried, it was already 20 minutes past the time she said she would arrive by. She was never late as well.

At this moment, Cho ran into the hideout, greeting them. On the surface, she looked relaxed, a little tired, yes, but nothing more than that. Harry however, noticed something was off. Cho was in casual attire, which meant that she had changed out of her Hogwarts uniform as she couldn't wear casual attire during lessons. Additionally, her hair was wet, meaning that she had to take a bath before coming. Last but not least, Harry noticed that there was something slimy on her shoes. He knew something had happened.

"Cho… What happened?" Harry questioned, staring at her worriedly.

"What- nothing." Cho said, looking away from his eyes. Something was really wrong, Harry thought.

"You are a terrible liar, what happened?" Harry asked again, more firmly this time.

Figuring out that there was nothing she could say to convince Harry otherwise, she finally relented.

"Malfoy." She sighed.

"THAT BITCH!" Harry exploded. "What did he do?"

"They threw something at me, no idea what it is, something slimy, it's nothing, I just took a bath to get them off me- shit…" Cho paused as she saw her skin turning red.

"Cho! Hospital Wing now!" Hermione yelped.

Needing no other instructions, Harry grabbed Cho and made a mad dash to the Hospital Wing.

"That son of a bitch, I'm going to fucking kill him." Harry snarled.

Cho's condition had stabilised. Malfoy had thrown something poisonous onto Cho, resulting in pretty bad rashes. Thankfully, it was nothing serious and Cho just had to spend the day in the Hospital Wing to recover from the rashes. Harry however, was feeling particularly bloodthirsty, wanting to get revenge.

"Harry, don't get into trouble because of him, it's not worth it." Cho pleaded.

"Yeah, and let him get away with this shit, no way."

"The professors will handle this."

"Like that would stop him, I need to teach him a lesson." Harry said stubbornly.

"Teach who a lesson?" a familiar voice said, Harry turnt and to his surprise, Fred and George entered the Hospital Wing.

"Urm… Hi Fred, hi George, why are you 2 here?" Harry asked

"Well… that isn't your business, who do you want to kill Harry." Fred asked.

"How's that your business then?" Harry asked.

"Because we can help you." Fred suggested.

Harry considered it for a while, before telling them what happened.

"That bitch," Fred said.

"Leave it to us Harry, we would make a good lab rat." George said.

"Huh?" Harry said confusedly.

"You would see, meantime, spend some quality time with your girl, by the way, get well soon Cho." Fred said, smiling at Cho.

"Thanks." Cho said wearily.

After Fred and George finally left, Cho turnt to Harry and asked.

"What are they going to do?"

"Beats me." Harry shrugged.

"I hope they won't do something stupid." Cho muttered.

"Everything they do is stupid to a certain extent," Harry commented, "That's what's brilliant about them, you feeling better?"

"You asked me that question less than 10 minutes ago."

"Hey, I'm worried." Harry said, making Cho laugh.

"What?"

"You look cute when you are worried."

"Are you high on the potions or something?" Harry said..

"Maybe." Cho said before yawning, "This shit is really making me tired though."

"Then go and sleep then, don't let me keep you up." Harry said, to which Cho nodded and closed her eyes, falling asleep almost immediately.

Harry did not know how long he spent in the Hospital Wing, falling asleep while sitting by her side, but when he woke up, he had no idea what was going on.

"Madam Promfrey! I'm dying!" Yelled someone.

Harry glanced at the sound source, to his annoyance, it was Draco Malfoy. However, something was really wrong with him, his robes were completely red from what seemed like a nosebleed and had patches of disgusting brown substance on it which seemed like vomit. Something told him this was Fred and George's doing.

He couldn't help but laugh at the scene in front of him, this was karma at its finest. Malfoy looked absolutely petrified at what was going on with him, yelling for help as Madam Promfrey treated him, eventually waking Cho up as well.

"What on earth is going on," Cho said as she woke up, staring at Malfoy in shock.

"Is this Fred and George's doing?" Cho whispered to Harry.

"Probably." Harry smirked.

"But-"

"It's fine Cho, they know what they are doing, anyways, it shouldn't be anything that Madam Promfrey can't fix." Harry shrugged.

"Still though, I don't think that they should have done it." Cho said worriedly.

"But you have to admit, it's satisfying to watch isn't it." Harry said, to which Cho made a small nod to, making Harry laugh.

"Mr Malfoy, stop acting like a child, it's nothing too serious, you probably just ate something highly contaminated, just a few potions and maybe a few nights and you would be fine." She said, before turning to Cho, "Ah yes, Ms Chang, let me quickly check your condition before I dismiss you."

"Ignore that Chink." Malfoy shouted.

Harry whipped out his wand, ready to curse Malfoy into oblivion, intending to hospitalise him for as long as possible.

"MR MALFOY, I WOULD NOT CONDEMN THAT LANGUAGE IN MY HOSPITAL. MR POTTER, LOWER YOUR WAND." Madam Promfrey yelled.

Staring at Malfoy with contempt, Harry slowly lowered his wand, before turning back to Cho and Madam Promfrey.

"Mr Malfoy! I will report this to your head of house! Unbelievable!" Madam Promfrey said, before returning to check on Cho.

After a few inspections, she cleared Cho and they both hastily left the Hospital Wing, with no intent of being in Malfoy's presence. At the exit, they ran into Fred and George again, who were checking up on their masterpiece.

"Ah Cho, you look better," Fred said, before turning to Harry. "Like our experiment?"

"What did you even do?" Harry asked.

"Gave him something we have been testing for a while. Seems rather successful, but George, we need to lower the intensity of the nosebleed one." Fred said.

"Yeah, but we can make 2 varieties, 1 more severe and the other less." George commented, to which Fred nodded in agreement.

"Wait, you are telling me you made a product that leads to uncontrollable nosebleeds?" Cho asked.

"Indeed, there's also a vomiting one."George said proudly.

"Wow, that's some advanced magic, I didn't know that you 2 were so-" Cho said, before cutting herself off.

'That we are this talented?" Fred said, to which Cho nodded embarrassedly at, "Well Ms Chang, we are actually geniuses who rather have fun than be overly accomplished."

"So you 2 are planning to start a joke shop?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, hopefully," Fred shrugged, "Takes quite some money to start one, but we will find a way, that I'm certain about."

"Good luck with that." Harry said.

"Thanks Harry, now, let's go observe our masterpiece, you 2 should go spend some time together." George suggested with a sly smile.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Harry glared at him.

"I don't know Harry. Do you have any idea what I mean Fred?" George said sarcastically.

"No idea George, but young Harry here seems to have an idea." Fred teased, before bidding Harry and Cho goodbye.

"They are very weird." Cho said.

"Yeah, anyways, how do you wanna spend the rest of the evening?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, suggestions?"

"I think the twins just gave us one." Harry smirked, dragging Cho to the hideout.

Infinitesalts here again

just a short chapter that i suddenly felt like writing because why not, doesn't really have any affect on the plot as a whole but i kinda wanted to add somemore random Harry and Cho moments before the next chapter which will be the final task. The next 2 chapters will be the end of the 4th book and i'm currently writing about the 5th book already, hope you guys enjoy and i will provide an update on my plans with the fanfic next week :)