The Eye of the Storm

Amateur Assassins

"So, all in all, not one of Ron's better birthdays?" said Fred.

It was evening; the hospital wing was quiet, the windows curtained, the lamps lit. Ron's was the only occupied bed. Harry, Hermione, Ginny and I were sitting around him.

I had been shaken awake by Hermione in the middle of the night and dragged down to the Hospital Wing. She hadn't said anything, but the look on her face was enough to alarm me.

Finally we met Harry and the hospital and he explained that Ron had drunk something with poison in it.

"This isn't how we imagined handing over our present," said George grimly, putting down a large wrapped gift on Ron's bedside cabinet and sitting beside Ginny. I had forgotten it was Ron's birthday.

"Yeah, when we pictured the scene, he was conscious," said Fred.

"There we were in Hogsmeade, waiting to surprise him —" said George.

"You were in Hogsmeade?" asked Ginny, looking up.

"We were thinking of buying Zonko's," said Fred gloomily. "A Hogsmeade branch, you know, but a fat lot of good it'll do us if you lot aren't allowed out at weekends to buy our stuff anymore. . . . But never mind that now."

He drew up a chair beside Harry and looked at Ron's pale face. "How exactly did it happen, Harry?"

Harry retold the story he had already recounted to me.

". . . and then I got the bezoar down his throat and his breathing eased up a bit, Slughorn ran for help, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey turned up, and they brought Ron up here. They reckon he'll be all right. Madam Pomfrey says he'll have to stay here a week or so . . . keep taking essence of rue . . ."

"Blimey, it was lucky you thought of a bezoar," said George in a low voice.

"Lucky there was one in the room," said Harry.

"It was quick thinking," I said. "Good job Harry."

Hermione gave an almost inaudible sniff. She had been exceptionally quiet all day. Having hurtled, white-faced, up to Harry outside the hospital wing, dragging me behind her and demanded to know what had happened, she had taken almost no part in Harry and Ginny's obsessive discussion about how Ron had been poisoned, but merely stood beside them, clench-jawed and frightened-looking, until at last they had been allowed in to see him.

"Do Mum and Dad know?" Fred asked Ginny.

"They've already seen him, they arrived an hour ago — they're in Dumbledore's office now, but they'll be back soon. . . ."

We all paused and watched Ron mumble something in his sleep. I watched his chest rise and fall. It reminded me that he was alive. He wasn't like all the others I knew who died.

I may be pissed at Ron for the way he was treating Hermione, but he was still my friend.

"So the poison was in the drink?" said Fred quietly.

"Yes," said Harry at once. "Slughorn poured it out —"

"Would he have been able to slip something into Ron's glass without you seeing?"

"Probably," said Harry, "but why would Slughorn want to poison Ron?"

"No idea," said Fred, frowning. "You don't think he could have mixed up the glasses by mistake? Meaning to get you?"

"Why would Slughorn want to poison Harry?" asked Ginny.

"I dunno," said Fred, "but there must be loads of people who'd like to poison Harry, mustn't there? 'The Chosen One' and all that?"

"So you think Slughorn's a Death Eater?" said Ginny.

"Anything's possible," said Fred darkly.

"He could be under the Imperius Curse," said George.

"It's not Slughorn," I said. "If he really wanted to kill Harry there were so many other ways he could have done it. With Ron poisoned he could have done anything to Harry and blamed it on whatever Ron drank. Instead he saved Ron and got help."

"He could just be daft," said George.

"Or he could be innocent," said Ginny. "The poison could have been in the bottle, in which case it was probably meant for Slughorn himself."

"Who'd want to kill Slughorn?"

"Dumbledore reckons Voldemort wanted Slughorn on his side," said Harry. "Slughorn was in hiding for a year before he came to Hogwarts. And . . . And maybe Voldemort wants him out of the way, maybe he thinks he could be valuable to Dumbledore."

"But you said Slughorn had been planning to give that bottle to Dumbledore for Christmas," Ginny reminded him. "So the poisoner could just as easily have been after Dumbledore."

"Either way we no that Death Eaters are not in Hogwarts," I said.

"How do we know that?" asked Harry.

"If Death Eater's were in Hogwarts they wouldn't use poison. Only amateurs use poison. Besides they would just kill someone. Poison is unreliable."

"Maybe it was intercepted and poisoned before it arrived," suggested Ginny.

"Er-my-nee," croaked Ron unexpectedly from between them.

We fell silent, watching him anxiously, but after muttering incomprehensibly for a moment he merely started snoring.

The dormitory doors flew open, making them all jump: Hagrid came striding toward them, his hair rain-flecked, his bearskin coat flapping behind him, a crossbow in his hand, leaving a trail of muddy dolphin-sized footprints all over the floor.

"Bin in the forest all day!" he panted. "Aragog's worse, I bin readin' to him — didn' get up ter dinner till jus' now an' then Professor Sprout told me abou' Ron! How is he?"

"Not bad," said Harry. "They say he'll be okay."

"No more than six visitors at a time!" said Madam Pomfrey, hurrying out of her office. We looked around and counted seven.

"I'll go," I offered.

"It's alright, Kendra," said Hermione quickly. "I'm sure she will forget in a minute or so."

I shrugged. Hagrid hadn't seen Ron yet, Harry had been there when it happened, Hermione was in love with him and the rest were his family.

"I don't want to chase any extra stress." I waved goodbye and walked out.

That night Draco was worse than usual. For the first time I wondered if Draco knew more than he led on. If that was true, was it my duty to find out what? Then the next night Draco was fine, and when he helped me I didn't care what he knew. He didn't care what I knew either.

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Hey Everyone, I can't believe this book is almost over.

Forever and Always,

Me.