Promise Me

Poison

The first day of the term came in with a bang. Literally. With being so high up in the tower, every single crack of lightning and roll of thunder was amplified for Remus and Valerie. They were woken early by a particularly violent rumble that seemed to shake the very castle.
"Well, I'm up now," Remus sighed and rolled out of Valerie's bed. "Tea or coffee?" he asked her, ready to write down her order. There was a platter in each of their rooms that was similar to those in the great hall. All they had to do was write their order on a scrap of parchment and set it on the platter and almost immediately whatever had been asked for would appear.
"Tea. I think I'm getting sick," she coughed before she rolled over. Her voice sounded a little hoarse. Remus came over and felt her forehead.
"You do feel a little warm. Maybe you should take today off?"
"I can't! It's the first day of the year and on top of that we are supposed to help the first year's to their classes," she managed to choke out before dissolving into a coughing fit.
"Okay, but take it easy today, please?" Valerie only rolled her eyes in response, but gratefully accepted the tea that Remus handed her. They drank their tea and then quickly got ready.

"Hey what took you so bloody long?" James asked when Remus and Valerie materialized behind the common room bookshelf.
"Sorry," Valerie said, swaying on her feet. "I don't feel so great."
James came over and pressed his hand to her forehead. "Val, you're burning up! You should be in bed!"
"I can't, it's the first day," she was adamant that she would be going to class that day.

After showing the first years where to go, they all headed to their own class: NEWT potions with Slughorn. They all had the same schedule that year, as they had chosen to take the path to become an Auror. For James, Remus, and Sirius this was no surprise. For Valerie, however, it was a bit of a shift from where she had thought she was going to go. She didn't even know if she would go all the way to becoming an Auror. The Ministry had offered her a generous sum for her Lycanthropy cure, and she was thinking about accepting but only on certain conditions: The cure had to be free to anyone afflicted and there had to be a rehabilitation process after the fact to help the transition. The boys knew nothing of the offer yet, and she didn't want to bank on it happening, so she had picked an alternate, just in case.  Once they arrived in Slughorn's class, they found their seats at tables next to one another. No sooner had Slughorn started teaching, there was a loud thud and the whole class whipped around. Valerie was laying on the floor convulsing.
"Out of the way, out of the way!" Yelled Slughorn. Students were starting to gather around to see what was happening. "Bezoar," he said, shoving a small round rock-like thing down her throat. After a few minutes, she was still convulsing. "Hmmm, that should have done the trick." He swiftly levitated her and headed to the hospital wing. James, Sirius, and Remus followed close behind.

"I haven't seen anything quite like this," Madam Pomfrey was worried. Valerie hadn't stopped convulsing and she was getting visibly worse. She was unconscious and starting to foam at the mouth. "I think we need to arrange for an emergency transport to St. Mungo's."
"I can take her," Professor McGonagall said. She looked behind Madam Pomfrey to where the boys waited worriedly by Valerie's bedside. She walked over to them. "Don't worry boys. I am going to take her to St. Mungo's. They will figure out what is wrong with her, and put it right. The Headmaster will update you as soon as we know more." She quickly levitated Valerie and departed by way of the fireplace. 

It took no longer than 2 minutes to arrive in the lobby of St. Mungo's. Professor McGonagall was met with a slew of healers who had been alerted to Valerie's arrival by some of the portraits. Once the healers had moved Valerie to a room, they began to run tests to determine what was causing her illness. After almost an hour of tests and trial counter-curses, they discovered that she had ingested a slow-acting, lethal poison that would present as a cold in the early stages. They quickly administered an antidote with the hope that they had gotten to it in time. Once this particular poison started to cause major damage to the organ systems, there wasn't much else that could be done.
With the antidote administered, they were able to allow her family to see her. Euphemia and Fleamont came first, stroking her hair and telling her how brave she was and to just hold on. Next came James and Sirius, both looking pale and terrified. They knew the odds were not in her favor and there was a real chance that they could lose her. They each sat on one side of her and held her hands. Finally, it was Remus's turn to see her. He was ashen and there were tears in his eyes.
"Valerie please, please we just worked things out. I can't lose you now. I want to have so many things with you. I want a life and a family with you. Please, if you can hear me, please just fight as hard as you can to stay here," he gripped her hand in his. A few minutes later, one of the healers came to tell him that visiting time was over. He leaned down and kissed Valerie's forehead gently before he left. Once the family was out in the lobby, one of the healers, a witch named Lucielle, informed them that the night would be critical. Valerie's parents decided to stay there overnight but sent the boys back to school with the promise that they would alert them to any new developments.