Discovery

64.

Harry was a hero in the Gryffindor common room that night. Fred and George had put an Enlargement Charm on the front cover of The Quibbler and hung it on the wall, so that Harry's giant head gazed down upon the proceedings, occasionally saying things like "The Ministry are morons" and "Eat dung, Umbridge" in a booming voice.

Hermione did not find this very amusing; she said it interfered with her concentration, and ended up going to bed early out of irritation.

I thought the poster was funny, but it got old after about an hour or two, especially when the talking spell had started to wear off, so that it merely shouted disconnected words like "Dung" and "Umbridge" at random intervals.

I couldn't tell if it was the ridiculous shouting from the poster, or the loud talking in the common room, but my head began to ache terribly as the night went on.

"You alright?" Harry asked, sitting down next to me on the couch, one hand pressing firmly against his scar.

"Could ask you the same thing," I shrugged, holding my head in my hands. "It's just a headache."

"Same here,"

"Sure it is, Harry." I scoffed. "Your scar is hurting, isn't it?"

"A little bit. I think I just need to sleep. You should too." and without another word, he disappeared up the stairs.

"Ella, what are you doing? Come on, you're missing the fun!" George grabbed my arm and dragged me to the table where he, Fred, and Lee had been testing more Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products.

"Here, try this," Fred handed a brightly colored candy to me.

"You should know by now that I don't trust any food you give me." I pushed it away.

"Come on, Ella! I'll eat one with you! We finally perfected our Fever Fudge!" he urged, grabbing an identical candy from a package.

"Yeah, no more of those wretched boils," George shook his head. "Just wait a minute before taking the antidote, to see if anything bad happens."

"Alright, fine," I sighed, popping the candy in my mouth at the same time as Fred.

Almost five seconds later, Fred's face glistened with sweat. I didn't feel any different, even after the entire minute.

"Alright, no issues, so it's time to take the antidote." George handed us each the other half of the fudge.

"I don't think mine worked." I said, swallowing my piece of fudge. "I didn't feel hot or start sweating or anything."

Fred looked at me with a shocked expression.

"Mine worked! Maybe you just didn't wait long enough for it to kick in," he handed me another. "Try this one."

I ate the fudge, waited another minute, and felt exactly the same.

"That's weird," George said, looking at me curiously. "They've been working all day."

"Ella, do you feel alright?" Fred asked me, handing me the antidote.

"Yeah, I guess I had a bit of a headache, but I think that's from the poster you guys hung up." I shrugged, chewing the fudge.