Dungbombs and S-P-E-W

"You acted like you knew!"

Hermione continued to give both Parvarti and Lavender her best icy glare.

"We don't know..but we do have a guess," said Parvarti.

"Well, what's your guess then?"

"Sorry, we can't tell until we have it confirmed."

Hermione gave a groan, sounding very fed up. "Confirmed? How are you going to know it's confirmed? Taking fingerprint samples from every guy you meet?"

Lavender and Parvarti each had the same air Peeves seemed to possess whenever he was planning one of his worst pranks. They spoke as one. "We have our ways."

Hermione gave a sigh of defeat. "You guys are as bad as Fred and George."

Lavender bowed. "Thank you, thank you very much."

Parvarti chuckled. "You think we're bad now? You should count yourself lucky my sister Padma is in Ravenclaw."

"I'm beginning to think I had better." Recalling the contents of the letter left Hermione with a certain sense of forboding . "What if the letter turns out to be from some really mental guy?"

Lavender wasn't nearly as worried about it as Hermione was. "Oh, we'll just set you up with someone else."

Hermione, remembering the last time they tried to match her up, couldn't help shivering. She had been forced to spend the evening star gazing with a boy who's favorite class was, in his own words..lunch. Probably just like George. But for some reason, the idea of going through those same motions with him didn't sound so bad.

Of course, Hermione reminded herself, not all that keen to find the hidden message behind her thoughts, Ned Smith's (the boy she had been set up with) entire vocabulary consisted of the words "cool", "wicked", and "awesome". Probably because those were the only words his equally limited brain could store without exploding.

"Next class will start soon," Parvarti murmured, checking her watch. "Harry and Ron are waiting for you at the door." She corrected herself without even looking towards the door. "Or Ron, rather. Harry seems to have gone off with Cho."

"How did you know? You using your physcic abilities or something?" asked Hermione as she looked towards the place where Parvarti should have had to, the door. Hermione noted that Ron was indeed standing in the door frame to the hallway, balancing his books with his knee akwardly.

"Oh no. Just happened to hear something about them taking some time out for some more intresting pursuits, if you catch my drift." Cho and Harry had finally become a couple in their fifth year-a fact that was becoming increasingly more obvious as they required more and more as Ron called it, "snogging time".

"What you just happen to hear could fill a book" Hermione stated truthfully, picking her textbooks off the hapless student's chair she had dropped them in (the chair, being charmed to adapt to any weight, was now nearly sunk to the floor from the pressure of about fifty pounds of reading material.)

"See you guys at lunch. You sure you don't want to walk with Ron too, Lavender?" asked Hermione as she caught Lavender making eyes at Ron, taking full advantage of being in his blind spot. "You and him do have divination together."

"No. I couldn't possibly. I..umm..have to talk to Parvarti about something." Lavender stuttered to the end of her weak excuse, evidently very aware of the fact that Ron might be able to hear them.

"Oh, okay. No problem. But I would REALLY enjoy your company." Hermione wiggled her eyebrows to the best of her ability.

"What's she getting at?" Parvarti asked as Hermione walked off, obviously having no idea about the whole thing between Ron and Lavender. From the way she always spread gossip, Hermione figured that every last student at Hogwarts would know, right down to Neville Longbottom. She must have been wrong.

"Oh nothing," Lavender fibbed.

When Hermione met up with Ron, she was grinning more than she had after her first O.W.L exam. That would show Lavender and Parvarti she was every bit as sly as they could possibly be!

Ron immediately started walking down the hall with her, but he looked as if he had expected someone else as well. "Where's Lavender? She usually walks to Divination with me and Harry."

Hermione pretended to be offended. "Uh, hello? Whatever happened to enjoying five minutes talking with one of your best friends?"

Ron laughed. Hermione considered it a personal feat that he at least could figure out she was kidding. It had taken a good three years for her to actually convince him that every other word that came out of her mouth wasn't completely serious.

"Well, you are good company most of the time..but you can't exactly be that when we split to go to seperate classes."

"True" Hermione admitted glibly. "But I can be up to the top of the second foyer!"

Ron, happening to get a good look at her face as they began climbing the stairs, snorted. "Hermione, you're positively beaming. That must mean one of two things. Tell me, did you get a score of 100 or 110 on Flitwick's exam?"

In order to leap over one of the invisible trick steps, Hermione handed her books to Ron for a moment; who had to lean against the railing to keep himself from falling over.

"Oh, Ron, don't be silly! I won't know until next week." She grabbed her books back from him.

George and Fred chose this moment to walk up the stairs to the front foyer themselves; both heading for Professor McGongall's tranfigurations. Fred froze about halfway up, pretending to shield the upper half of his face as if expecting some unseen attack on his eyeballs. George, used to his brother's theatrics (hey, they were twins after all) continued walking calmly up past his brother, offhandedly asking over his shoulder what Fred was doing as he went by.

"Just trying not to get fried by the rays coming from Mrs. Sunbeam." Fred managed to take one hand off his eyes (still keeping them tightly screwed shut) and pointed a trembling finger at the sight of Hermione chatting with Ron further on up the stairs, wearing a smile that stretched pretty much across her whole face.

George, looking where Fred was pointing and imagining what it would be like if that smile was turned full force at him, felt his insides turn to putty. Ever since Professor Flitwick's class he had given up trying to reason why he felt that way whenever Hermione was brought into a conversation or anywhere within a three foot radius of him.

He would have to start going crazy today of all days. Why hadn't he noticed her all along? It didn't make any sense. Stupid letter, George thought, quickly finding something to blame other than his own hormones and feelings. It was all that letter's fault. Turning his mind in this direction to begin with so that he couldn't help but notice when a completely gorgeous, smart, stunning...

George could already tell where his dangerous line of thinking was going and stopped before it could go on any further. Fred, noticing his brother's non-exsistent response to what was supposed to be a witty comment on his part, felt put out. He noticed a little more then George would have cared him to. "Looks to me like you had better take to wearing shades around Hermione before you get melted by her charms completely," said Fred as George extended his leg to take another step and put it through air. They had reached the top of the foyer, but George didn't comprehend walking past halfway up.

The fact that he was only a few feet from Hermione didn't register with his brain either, but did with his brother and Hermione. Fred pinched George to get his attention and when that didn't work, gave him a shove in the opposite direction.

"What are you doing?" protested George.

"Getting you out of here before you emberass yourself" Fred grunted as he tried to get George to move. George was about to ask just how he was managing to emberass himself when he realized he had been (and still was managing to) stare at Hermione blankly. You were so busy thinking about Hermione you spaced out, didn't you? the annoying voice in his head demanded again. Face flushing, George walked tersly off in the direction Fred had been trying to direct him towards; the spic and span classroom belonging to Professor McGonagall.

* * * * *

The bell chimed again, its bells clanging throughout all of Hogwarts as a warning that class would start soon. Hermione lingered for little bit longer, talking to Ron. She was about to tell him she had to get going for Potions when she a very unsettling feeling came over her..it seemed that someone's eyes were boring into the back of her head. Spinning around halfway cautiously, she found herself the object of George's gaze once again, his twin right beside him.

Hermione felt disconcerted. Wasn't their next class at the opposite end of the foyer?

She hadn't realized she had spoken out loud. "Yeah..why are they over here?" Ron said, taking a backward glance over one shoulder at George-and at Fred, who was quite pointedly trying to get George to move.

Ron faced Hermione again. "What are they? Stalking you?"

"RON!"

Ron shrugged and turned to focus his eyes back on his brothers one more time. Fred had just finally succeeded in his venture of getting George to move. "Hermione, what's with him?" Ron egged, "do you owe George money or something?"

Hermione picked up the singular tense of the subject Ron was talking about immediately. "Why did you just say George? Fred was there to..why didn't you just mention his name?"

"Because George was the one standing as still as a statue in the middle of the landing, you dimwit," Ron said, leaving Hermione with that thought as he headed off to the north tower. Hermione stopped before going down another flight of zig zagging stairs leading her the opposite way and yelled at Ron's retreating back; quite a common practice among the Hogwart's students. Wanting to wish him luck on his next O.W.L exam, she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Ron! You have brains, use them!"

Hermione's statement caused Ron to duck around the sharply turning corner of the third tower so no one could see who her shout had been directed at. Hermione could sound an aweful lot like his mum sometimes. Ron smiled none the less as he passed numerous gilded portraits hanging in the passageway.

When Hermione walked down to the Great Hall for lunch, a frown had taken the place of the smile she had been wearing earlier. Turned out Snape's exams had not been nearly such a cinch as the others. He had handed out the forms for the tests with the air of Santa Claus handing out christmas presents. Hermione had to support Neville who sat next to her to keep him from falling over in shock once he saw the contents of the test. Why, she had almost fallen over herself.

At least his class hadn't been as bad as Professor McGonagall's. Hermione had tried to turn a blue napkin into a dove and had managed to transfigure it..into a BLUE dove. It was better than having one that was pink like Seamus Finnigan's had been, but not by much.

Hermione mentally went over every answer to each problem from the exams in her head, berrating herself for each one she had gotten wrong as she sat down to the scrumptious feast that was provided. As soon as she took her usual place between Ron and Harry, Hermione was bombarded by questions from Lavender and Parvarti, the main topic of which was always George.

It wasn't just them talking about George, though. Harry was now in on the subject too.

"So Hermione, what is this I hear about you and George?" he asked conversationally as he passed her the bowl of mashed potatoes, causing Hermione to accidentally dip one of her robe sleeves into her glass of orange juice.

"The normal stuff," she said, not caring to elaborate and have the whole conversation of lunch switch to George.

"Oh, ok." Harry blinked at her. "Umm. What's the normal stuff, exactly?"

Hermione spread her bread with the jelly savagely. "Oh you should know..declaring our hidden passions, meeting secretly at midnight..."

"Hermione???"

"Oh, for goodness sake's, I'm JOKING!"

Hermione exploded and Harry quailed under the tone of her voice. "Ermm..it's not that..would you mind putting the butter knife back now?"

"Oh yeah." Hermione handed the butter knife, now covered in strawberry jam, sheepishly to Harry. She picked up where she had left off her rant, a little more subdued this time. "I can't believe you all think I'm in love with George! About the only one that doesn't know is him!"

"Aha! So you do like him!" Lavender stated from across the table smugly.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"For your information, they could get stuck like that," Parvarti warned Hermione. Hermione rolled her eyes again just to prove her wrong.

"Don't be cross. We're only doing this for your own good," Lavender said."Somebody's bound to have some information on whoever wrote the letter."

"Who did you tell?" asked Hermione, half dreading the reply she was going to get.

"Only the boys."

"Oh, that explains Padma knowing." Padma had come up to Hermione after Potions and had pestered her about George all the way to Professor McGongall's class.

"She's my twin!" Parvarti protested.

Hermione had tried her hardest not to get mad at Parvarti or Lavender over this whole thing..they were her friends..but still..telling everyone what was supposed to be a private matter...

"Right. Then I suppose this would be for your own good?" Hermione smiled craftily. She would tell the one person Lavender had a secret from (Hermione was positive she had told everyone else it) her secret. "Parvarti..Ron's dating Lavender."

Her words had several immediate effects Hermione hadn't thought they would.

Harry finished swallowing his chocolate cake. "He is??"

Parvarti dropped the peas off her fork halfway to her mouth and stared at Ron. "You are??"

Ron was utterly poleaxed and stared along with Parvarti at Lavender, unable to get his jaw to hinge shut. "I am??"

* * * * *

"Oh," said Hermione, surveying the damage she had caused and realizing she had made a bit of a mistake..to put it lightly. Lavender's "dream date" obviously had a minor problem-mainly the fact he had no idea he was so.

Lavender was starting to turn delusional. She must be really smitten with Ron. One step away from purchasing a blow up doll, coloring dots on it with orange marker and screaming when someone poked it with a pin kind of smitten. Or already there. Having a gigantic stuffed monkey named after him was pretty normal, but in addition to that, Hermione seemed to recall pair of pink fuzzy slippers named Ron..and wasn't Lavender's pet bunny named Ron as well? Disturbing.

 

Hermione tried to whisper "sorry" at Lavender discreetly across the table, but Lavender was too busy frantically hissing in Parvarti's ear to hear her. Hermione caught the words, as did Ron, who was staring at Lavender's mouth with a suspicious amount of intent...and Hermione was pretty sure his eyes weren't focused there just to lip read either.

It didn't take a genius to figure out the subject of Lavender and Parvarti's conversation. Their conversation went something like a round of twenty questions, Parvarti asking the said questions with the air of a cop interrogating a suspected criminal.

"Are you and him?"

"No!"

"You mean you never?Then why did Hermione just say..."

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Shut up! Oh, will you put a lid on it? He's"-Lavender jerked her head in Ron's direction-"looking!"

And that was the end of Parvarti's and Lavender's little chat. (It was also as well, if not the end of Lavender's butting into other people's business, at least the end of her gossiping quite so freely about them.)

The only two people who were always at the center of hubub and confusion showed up as if on cue to make sure they were included on this latest mess. Fred and George came in carrying their lunch trays.

"You know, I think we just almost missed being the center of attention," said Fred to George as they took in the scene calmly, all the way from Hermione's pentulant expression to Ron's red ears.

"A wrong that can always be righted," responded George as he plopped himself down next to Hermione, a clue that Lavender for once did NOT notice (she was obsessed with her own troubles with Ron and trying to decide if it was too risky to attempt to apparate.)

Parvarti noticed though and she grinned to herself. Hah! George is soo going to hook up with Hermione. Looks like Lavender's going to owe me some sickles...

"So what did we miss?" chorused both twins. Hermione, already berating herself for ruining whatever worth all the countless school days Lavender had spent drooling over Ron had, couldn't bring herself to tell Fred and George what had occured at the lunch table so she kept quiet.

Bad enough the whole table already knew. As Hermione had told Lavender and Parvarti, Fred and George really were practically the male version of both of them. Anything that the twins found out spread like wildfire through the halls of Hogwarts (with a few "alterations" curtesy of the duo, of course.)

But Hermione didn't have to tell either Fred or George what was going on. Both had already figured everything out (great minds think alike and all that.)

George in particular had realized the symptoms written on both Lavender's and Ron's faces where all too familiar part of the ailment he was going through, but he would have swallowed a Fillbuster Magical Firecracker whole before admitting as much.

"Is that it? So Ronniekin's finally dating! About time. I was beginning to think he'd be stuck with moaning myrtle."

Lavender was infuriated with George for insulting Ron and Ron was just as infuriated for George emberassing him even further in front of Lavender. Luckily, glares couldn't kill or George would have died two extremely painful and slow deaths by this point as both Ron and Lavender were giving him the most icy expressions they were capable of.

Fred saw the oppurtunity for a good, healthy, all around brother bashing and decided to tease George just as much as George had teased Ron.

"Hah! I used to think the same about you, George. That was until you began mentioning a certain girl who shall remain anonymous."

George, hoping Hermione's mind wasn't as keen as it usually was and that she didn't put two and two together and figure it all out, yet at the same time hoping she did, promptly dissapeared behind an enormous stack of pancakes as soon as Fred had spoken.

Fred's words had gone right over Lavender's head again. However, Parvarti once again had been alert and caught every one of them, ready to tell her best friend when she was in a more alert mood..most likely after she and Ron had had a good snogging session to work everthing out.

Hermione also took particular note of what Fred said about George and was unable to stop herself from glaring accusingly around Hogwart's Great Hall at all of the females present to determine who Fred could possibly be talking about.

He could have been talking about George's secret obsession with barbie dolls (thankfully nonexsistent) or his mentioning his mum and Hermione still would have been upset...and she WAS jealous.

Angelina Johnson, she thought with a sense of satisfaction, eyes settling on Angelina's sleekly haired head. Hmm. Maybe she could get Lavender to find out everything about the two. Just curious, she told herself. Just curious. Hermione failed to even notice that George was sitting next to her, not Angelina, after all.

Fred was actually feeling a bit sorry for Ron now. His brother and Lavender looked akward and humiliated. Fred ignored the fact that he and George were almost always the reason for both. They tormented Ron and Lavender mercilessly. Almost as much as they tormented each other... Almost.

It was high time Lavender and Ron just went out, yelled their feelings at each other, or had a food fight. And since Fred had a pretty good idea the last one would never happen (especially after he and George's cake flinging in the kitchens last year) he would just have to take the matter of making sure Ron and Lavender permanently stopped acting like deers caught in the headlights every time they saw each other.

He took intiative accordingly.

"Seeing as Ron appears to have temporarily become mute, I'll ask you, Lavender. Were you meaning to ask Ron out?"

When Lavender spoke, her voice was a lot less boisterous than usual. It was almost as if she was still whispering to Parvarti instead of talking.

"Yes. Well, I mean..ermm..kind of."

Hermione caught on to Fred right away and continued before he could speak another word (much to his annoyance). She smiled and turned to Ron.

"And would you go out with her?" Hermione asked. She reminded George of a minister pronouncing a couple bride and groom. She certainly sounded like it, anyway.

"Um. Sort of. I mean..if Lavender really wants to.." stammered Ron, his plate back to being the focus of his attention.

Fred cut in here. "Oh bloody. Look, she's asking. Just accept!"

After ten minutes of avoiding eye contact at all costs as if the other had transformed into a basilisk, Lavender and Ron actually turned and spoke to each other. They had switched from ignoring each other to ignoring everybody else.

"We should go talk about this away from all these busybodys, don't you think?" asked Ron with a contempuous gesture towards the rest of the table.

"Good idea," said Lavender. Scraping back her chair from the table she and Ron left, holding hands together with Parvarti two steps behind them.

"Finally! About time!" thought Fred.

"I wonder if they'll mind if I tag along when they go on their first date?" thought Parvarti.

"Hmpph. They just had better not take over me and Cho's secret closet," thought Harry.

"Aww. How sweet! I didn't ruin everything after all. Good. Maybe she'll forget about my letter," thought Hermione.

"Really must resist putting my arm around Hermione. Must resist.Gah!" thought George.

"Oh honestly, why can't everyone at the Gryffindor table just get a life and leave us alone?" thought Ron and Lavender..and that pretty much summarized everything.

* * * * *

Two hours or so later George and Fred were at quidditch practice with the usual very insignificant crowd gathered below to watch the team. Neville, Ginny, Parvarti, and Ron and Lavender.. both of whom were still holding hands (Neville whispered jokingly to Ginny that one of them must have accidentally touched super glue) and had rapidly descended into the land of smitten coupledom.

There was one person that wasn't part of the usual crowd that always showed up rain or shine to watch the Gryffindor team practice. In fact, in her opinion quidditch was nothing compared to her arithmancy class. Hermione had, in some bizarre change of daily habit, not gone to study in the library as usual but had instead come down to the stands to watch.

He may have been fifty feet or more up in the air swishing around on a broom with a club, but George definitely noticed Hermione. What was she doing here? Since when did Hermione watch quidditch? Wasn't she the one that had once said quidditch was for people who's brains were roughly the size of teacups?

He squinted and tried to make out the details of the blob that was here so far below him. Maybe he was seeing things. No wait. That was her bushy hair alright. Wasn't it? Maybe he should show off. Just a little. A flip or two here, a little beating Fred over the head with his club there...Just maybe....

"Oy, space case! Get your head back to the game!" yelled Lee Jordan across the sky, trying to warn George of a bludger on a direct path towards him.

"Wha-?" George never got to finish his question as the next thing to greet his vision was a huge metal ball hurling with speed right at him. If he hadn't had such quick reflexes the object would have hit him square in the arm, but as it was, George instinctively ducked to one side to avoid it. Unfortunately, he lost his balance as he did. Tumbling off his broom and through the air, he hit the ground with a soft thud.

On seeing George spiral down dizzly from the sky, Hermione dropped her books on Neville's toes (she couldn't completely leave off studying!) and rushed towards his figure lying prone in the grass. Madame Pomfrey and the rest of the Gryffindor team (including Angelina) reached there first.

"Ooh, are you alright?" Madame Pomfrey and Angelina spoke at the same time.

The whole team was leaning over George in concern. Hermione pushed away Fred and Lee Jordan, who seemed to be sniggering for some reason and muttering something about "showing off muscles that were most likely made of balloons", and studied George.

George opened his eyes and blinked at Madame Pomfrey, dazed.

"Great. Other than my body feeling as if it hit a concrete wall at one hundred miles an hour, just absolutely spiffy."

After Angelina helped George to get back up on his feet, Madame Pomfrey looked at him with pursed lips. "Hmmm..you don't seem to have obtained any serious injuries, just a few cuts and bruises. Still, we should take you to the infirmary just in case."

George gave a groan that had nothing to do with his sore black and blue body. Madame Pomfrey's infirmary was not exactly a trip to the local candy shop. Her medicines were rumored to be made with such tasty ingredients as lamb snout powder, horseradish, and dragon scales.

"No really. I'm quite-"

Madame Pomfrey shook her head firmly. "No buts. Now off the the infirmary with you, young man."

George gave one last groan for effect before walking off stiffly in the direction of a side entrance to Hogwarts. For personal reasons of her own, Angelina had taken it to her head to follow him. She appeared beside him and put an arm under his one shoulder to support him.

Geez, you would think I broke both legs from the way Angelina's acting, George thought, wishing Angelina would just disappear and be replaced by Hermione. Not that she wasn't a friend of his..

George tried to listen to Angelina and put his mind off Hermione. Angelina was spitting out ten words a second, one right after another. The effect was making him a bit woozy.

"Umm..Well. I really don't know how to say this. I've been rehearsing it for so long, but...umm..weeell. Ilikeyou," Angelina finished nervously.

George stared at Angelina's features. Was it just him or were there ten of her? Oooh. His head.. Her words were all one big jumble in his brain and he had no idea what she had said, but George pretended to know exactly what she was talking about.

"Yup. Yup. Definitely. I agree."

"Have you heard a word I've been saying?" Angelina's voice bordered somewhere between exsasperation and a temper about to explode.

George strained to catch what she was talking about. Angelina's voice sounded so very loud in his ear. Did she have to yell quite so loud? Hmm. Now what had she said again?Something about his team winning the game? Ugh. He had no idea. Everything was starting to blur up.

"Good luck at the game to you too," George said cordially in reply to Angelina.

Angelina's temper was no longer about to explode. It was exploding . She had worked up her nerve for months to tell him this..AND THIS WAS HIS REPLY?

Forgetting all about George's tumble from his broom a few minutes ago, Angelina pulled back her hand from supporting him and used it to slap George as hard as she could. She walked off in a huff back to join the rest of the Gryffindor team in the practice meadows.

The slap only made George even more dizzy. Walking in an uneven fashion, he managed to reach the door to Hogwarts and felt very thankful when he reached Madame Pomfrey's infirmary a few minutes later and sunk into the very comfortable shag carpet on the floor.

Hermione watched Angelina support George as the two walked off towards Hogwarts. Angelina swung her sleek hair over one shoulder, making Hermione touch her own bushy hair self consciously.

"You know the mousse that makes Angelina's hair like that has pig oil in it?" she remarked to Harry.

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Oh no. Please tell me this isn't the start of a knockoff of S.P.E.W. Let me guess, B-R-F-A-S; Better Rights For Animal Sweat?"

Ron was much more perseptive. "I think someones jeeaalous," he said in a sing song voice with all the confidence of someone who had recently found his match.

Hermione glared at him. "I am not! I just thought you might like to be informed about the horrifying contents of most makeup products is all."

Ron pretended to believe Hermione. " Sure you were. Informing us ignorant males of the contents of mousse to stop us from ever using any in fear that we might end up looking lik your personal hero, Gilderoy Lockhart. Right."

"Better go get my textbooks from the bleachers before Neville steps all over the rest of them," Hermione said and made a hasty escape. Ron and Lavender and Harry all looked after her knowingly. By now, the topic of her and George had been well discussed by all.

She stood up from picking up her books just in time to see Angelina slap George. Didn't know the girl had it in her. Hermione didn't feel angry at Angelina..quite the opposite, she wanted to go over and shake Angelina's hand. If she had slapped George that meant that things weren't as close and cuddly between them as Hermione had jealously imagined.

Fred looked at Hermione, looked at Angelina Johnson stomping furiously back across the quidditch field, and muttered the poem from George's love letter cryptically under his breath.

Meanwhile, sheltered underneath the bleachers, Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey were talking about George's accident during quidditch. The students were just a little too free and loud in their rumor swapping. The teachers knew every single detail (including the made up ones involving the two, a spare desk, and a tube of lipstick) about Hermione and George so far.

"Surprised that's all that happened. If he continues to worship her from afar like this, falling off broomsticks will be the least of it. He'll end up swathed in bandages from running into walls and boiling cauldrons, take my word for it," said Professor McGonagall.

"Oh I don't mind. It'll give me a chance to get rid of some of my special tonic," said Madame Pomfrey jovially.

McGonagall winced. She had had the stuff once as a child. It was her second most tramatic experience next to falling into the lake surrounding Hogwarts when she was a first year.

"Speaking of which, I had better go check on the dear boy now."

Madame Pomfrey bustled off towards her infirmary, mentally going over the list of the use of every last tonic and potion she had and all their uses.

You never knew what these children came down with or what bones they had broken..you just never knew. Pepperroot . That should do the trick. Madame Pomfrey thought of the lone bottle she used as a desk weight. Maybe she should give him a bit of that-what was it called?- Ashpirit. 'Course it was thirty fives years old. Oh well. A few cobwebs never hurt anybody..and she was sure boiling it would get rid of most the wierd filmy green stuff on top, anyway.