Chapter 33
"Hermione," Harry said the next morning at breakfast. "I thought we met you in the library yesterday to get that book."
"Yeah," Ron chimed in. "I know I saw you bring one back, but you didn't say anything else about it. All we did after you met up with us again was do homework."
"There's a reason for that," Hermione answered, keeping her voice down so that others around them wouldn't hear her. "Meet me in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom in about fifteen minutes." She hurriedly finished the last of her breakfast and grabbed her bag.
"Fifteen minutes, where are you off to now then?" Ron asked.
"I'm heading there now," Hermione said as she got up from the table. "I said fifteen minutes because I need to try and get rid of Myrtle without hurting her feelings if she's even there. I don't need her talking to Peeves and him trying to cause us trouble."
"Alright," Harry said. "Fifteen minutes."
Luckily, Myrtle wasn't in the bathroom. Hermione wasn't sure where the ghost went when she wasn't there, but maybe she would at least be gone long enough for Hermione to explain things to Harry and Ron. Hermione sighed and shook her head. They were always so loud when they were surprised. It amazed her that they had been able to sneak around so much last year.
It wasn't long before Harry and Ron stuck their heads into the bathroom.
"All clear?" Harry asked.
"All clear," Hermione said.
They entered in a rush, closing the door quickly behind them to keep anyone who might be passing from spotting them.
Hermione was sitting on the floor when they entered, the book in her lap as she read over the passage.
"Did you find it?" Harry asked, noticing it was the book from the library.
Hermione nodded.
"Great," Ron said. "But why are we meeting in the girl's lavatory again?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Because," she said. "I told you when we first started talking about it that what we were doing would be dangerous, and we'd be breaking about fifty school rules if we were caught. We don't need to talk about it where others can hear us."
"Oh," Ron said.
Hermione sighed. "And you think Crabbe and Goyle are dense."
"Hey!" Ron snapped, offended by the insinuation while Harry laughed. "Shut it, Harry," Ron said, glaring at him.
"Sorry," Harry said, trying to collect himself. "It was funny. Go on Hermione."
Hermione flipped through a few of the pages a moment before finding the bookmark she had left in the book the night before. "Here it is. The Polyjuice Potion. 'Properly brewed, the Polyjuice Potion allows the drinker to transform himself temporarily into the physical form of another'."
"You mean, if Harry and I drink that stuff, we'll turn into Crabbe and Goyle?" Ron asked.
"Yes," Hermione answered.
"Wicked!" Ron exclaimed. "Malfoy will tell us anything."
"Exactly," Hermione said. "But it's tricky. I've never seen a more complicated potion."
"Well, how long will it take to make?" Harry asked.
"A month," Hermione answered.
"A month?" Harry asked in disbelief. "But Hermione, if Malfoyisthe Heir of Slytherin, he could attack half the Muggle-borns in the school by then!"
"I know," Hermione said sadly. "But it's the only plan we've got."
The next morning was partly cloudy, windy and cold, but that didn't deter the students from bundling up for the first Quidditch game of the season. If asked, Hermione would have said she didn't know why she had a bad feeling that morning, she had no logical reason to feel as apprehensive as she did. No one other than Oliver knew what they had planned, and she'd not sent him a letter to tell them they had finalised anything yet. But she couldn't shake the apprehensive feeling as she and Ron made their way down to the Quidditch pitch with the rest of the school where they were joined in the stands with Hagrid.
Game play was intense between the rival houses, and as usual, Slytherin was rough and weren't playing fair. It wasn't long before another bell chimed and Lee Jordan's voice echoed through the stands.
"Slytherin! Another goal for Slytherin! They lead Gryffindor 90 to 30."
As she watched, Hermione saw Malfoy fly up next to Harry. She was too far away to hear them properly and Hagrid was busy with the omnioculars he'd brought, so she couldn't really tell what they were saying by watching either, but it looked like they'd had an exchanged before Harry ducked as a Bludger shot passed him, nearly taking his head off.
She kept her gaze on them, ignoring the rest of the game as Oliver came up near Harry on his other side and shouted something, but she wasn't able to hear over the crowd. She imagined he was warning Harry about something. She gasped and her hand flew to her mouth as she saw the Bludger streak back on its previous path, smashing through the handle of Oliver's broom when he hadn't been paying attention to it. She watched in horror as he fell from his broom, slamming into the sandy area at the base of the Gryffindor goal posts. It was all she could do to stay in her seat and keep watching as the Bludger began to chase Harry around the field.
"Blimey!" Hagrid exclaimed next to her. "It looks like Harry's got himself a rogue Bludger! That's been tampered with, that has!"
"I'll stop it," Ron said and out of her peripheral vision, Hermione saw him raise his broken wand.
"No!" she shouted as her hand shot out and lowered his wand. "Even with a proper wand, it's too risky. You could hit Harry."
Her attention back on the game, she saw Harry zigzag, perform climbs and dives all while the Bludger chased him, smashing its way through the stands. She saw him pull up near Malfoy a moment and then realised he'd spotted the Snitch when he suddenly sped toward the Slytherin with his arm outstretched, nearly knocking him off his broom as he passed close by.
Malfoy turned and followed him as they streaked across the field and soon disappeared from sight when the Snitch must have begun a flight path below the stands. She bit her lip and fidgeted worriedly as she searched for the spot where they'd come out, her eyes scanning the edge or the stands all around the field.
Suddenly, Malfoy flew up from beneath the stands, but he was off his broom and landed hard, and crowed fell quiet for a moment as they watched to see if he moved, but Hermione's eyes continued to follow the path they'd taken to find Harry flying low still following the Snitch, but the Bludger was still chasing him. He reached out his arm as he got closer to the Snitch, and Hermione gasped, covering her mouth when she saw the Bludger sling shot past him only to come back and slam into his outstretched arm.
Harry continued to fly, but pulled the injured arm in, reaching out with his other hand. He leaned forward some more, and caught the Snitch as he rolled off his broom and onto the ground, skidding to a stop as the crowd gasped again.
"Let's go," Hermione murmured to Ron and Hagrid, and they pushed their way out of the stands as Lee Jordan's voice came over the stands again.
"Harry Potter has caught the Snitch, Gryffindor wins!"
Hermione raced across the field wanting to be closer before she attempted her spell, but watched in horror as the Bludger nearly slammed into Harry's head twice and his legs once, but he moved quickly out of the way with each attack of the Bludger.
"Finite Incantatem!" Hermione shouted, and Harry looked around as the Bludger exploded into a shower of sparks around him.
"Thank you," Harry said in a pained tone as Hermione and Ron ran up to him.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked as they were joined by others of the crowd.
"No," Harry answered. "I think my arm's broken."
"Not to worry, Harry," Professor Lockhart said as he knelt next to them. "I'll fix that arm of yours straight away."
"No," Harry protested. "Not you."
"Boy doesn't know what he's saying," Lockhart said to the crowd as they gathered around them. "Now, this won't hurt a bit," Lockhart said, focusing back on Harry as he took out his wand and pointed it at Harry's arm. "Brackium Emendo!" Lockhart said and Hermione and the others watched in awe as a blue light glowed from his wand, surrounding Harry's arm before dimming.
Harry looked in surprised relief to Hermione as his pain was instantly gone, that is, until he realised what had happened when Professor Lockhart reached out and picked his arm up from where it lay in his lap and it flapped around like a limp sausage, and he looked at the professor with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Ah," Lockhart stammered nervously. "Yes, well, that can sometimes happen," he said as he manipulated Harry's hand and arm, bending it this way and that, even backward where the wrist should have been. "But the point is you can no longer feel any pain, and very clearly, the bones are not broken."
"Broken!" Hagrid asked in irritation. "There's no bones left!"
"Much more flexible though," Lockhart replied.
Hagrid shouldered the man out of the way and picked Harry up, carrying him off the field and up toward the castle to the hospital wing.
"I'll meet you there," Hermione told them and hurried off ahead, wanting to check on Oliver, too.
She was pleasantly surprised to see that Oliver was back on his feet, being dismissed by Madam Pomfrey after being checked over for a concussion.
Oliver smiled when he saw her. "Ah, there you are, lass," he greeted her. "I was wondering if you'd come to see me..." He trailed off taking in her worried expression. "What's wrong?"
"Harry's on his way up now," Hermione told him. "That same Bludger that hit your broom was chasing him around the pitch. He caught the Snitch, so Gryffindor won, but the Bludger was tampered with. It was deliberately going after him — and anyone who was in the way. It nearly killed him — or tried to anyway."
Oliver frowned. "What do you mean? He's alright, isn't he?"
"Well..." Hermione said. "It broke his arm before he caught the Snitch, and I was able to destroy it after he landed. That was when it almost hit him twice in the head and once in the legs, but he moved too quickly for it to make contact -"
"That's good," Oliver interrupted.
"Then after I destroyed it, and we got to him, Professor Lockhart tried to heal him but he used a spell I've never heard of. Anyway, whatever it was, took the bones out of Harry's arm." She paused and shook her head.
"What is it?" Oliver asked.
"I don't know," Hermione said. "I had a bad feeling all day. I couldn't have said why before, but... maybe this was it. I knew he should have been brought here..."
Hagrid entered the infirmary carrying Harry as the rest of the Gryffindor team followed, and Oliver got to his feet, as he and Hermione joined everyone as they gathered around the empty bed Hagrid went to.
Madam Pomfrey, who had overheard the details of what had happened when Hermione was telling Oliver, returned from her store room with a bottle that looked like a skeleton. "Oh, Mr Malfoy," she said as she swept into the room again to hear the Slytherin groaning. "Stop making such a fuss. You can go now. Out of my way," she continued, scolding the Gryffindors who circled Harry's bed, and they moved to let her pass. "Should have been brought straight to me. I can mend bones in a heartbeat, but growing them back..."
"You will be able to, won't you?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, I'll be able to, certainly," Madam Pomfrey said. "But it will be painful." She poured out a dose from the bottle that Hermione noticed was labelled Skele-Gro. "You're in for a rough night, Potter. Regrowing bones is a nasty business." She handed him the dose, and he took a drink only to spit it out across his bed. "Well, what do you expect? Pumpkin juice?" she asked. "Go on now, all of you," she continued after she gave him another dose, since he'd not gotten any of the potion down. "Mr Potter will need his rest," she said, shooing them out of the infirmary.