Status: active

What Lies Within

Poisoned Mead

The start of March brought little to no change for the cabinet. Things were progressing but not really at a quick pace and there was only a little over three months now until term was over and time would be up.

"We need to not focus on how little time there is left, Draco," Sophie said Saturday morning, the first day of March. "That just stresses us out more and gets us off track." Draco nods, looking over at the cabinet with disdain.

"You're right." He agrees, looking over at his wife beside him. She smiles and nods, running her hand across his chest, getting all of his attention off the cabinet and on to her.

"Aren't I always?" She asks, jokingly, but gets a grin from him in response, like she had hoped. Draco rarely smiled these days so any little crack she could get out of him was well worth it and she tried as much as she could. Draco was starting to look sick. He was thin, barely eating, his hair was unwashed, and his face sunken in. He was still her handsome husband, but you could tell he was stressed.

In Draco's opinion, when he looked at Sophie he also saw the stress taking a toll on her. She too had lost weight, her skin was even more pale than normal all the time, and her hair was thinning, not much but he noticed it as he spent a lot of time with his hands in her hair. She had also confided in him saying that it was falling out due to stress.

Neither one of them opened up about the appearance change they saw in each other. How does one approach their significant other to tell them that they look sick? Instead they just let it go and kept a close eye on the other. They had both also given up on school. Neither one did their homework or participated in class. Hermione had noticed and mentioned it to Sophie but with one look Hermione knew why Sophie's mind was elsewhere. At this point, it kind of had to be.

"Today is Ron's birthday." Sophie mentions a little later as the couple leaves the room of requirement, heading towards the common room, having decided to take a small break from the cabinet and tasks at hand for the morning. Sometimes you had to just step back for an hour or two.

"Any plans with the blood traitor, I mean, Weasley?" Sophie slaps at her husbands arm but smiles none the less. She had said she'd have dinner with Harry and Ron, as well as Lavender, but not much else. Hermione wasn't on speaking terms with Ron at the moment, not particularly liking being around Won-Won and Lav Lav. It was hard to spend time with all of her friends, none of them really getting along with each other but she managed.

"Sophie!" Both Sophie and Draco turned, seeing Hermione rushing down the hall towards them, a frantic look in her eye.

"What is it?" Sophie immediately asks, worried. "What's happened?"

"Ron's been poisoned!" Hermione exclaimed, making Sophie gasp. She gripped tightly at Draco's hand, making him cringe but not pull away, he knew she needed him at that moment.

"What?! What happened? How?" Sophie questioned her best friend who shook her head.

"I'm not sure of all of the details yet but I'm on my way up to the hospital wing now." Sophie nodded, stepping away from Draco, releasing her hand.

"I'll come find you later, okay?" She says to him, making him nod. He watches her rush off with her best friend, worried. Not worried for Weasley, of course, but worried for her. She didn't need one of her best friends being poisoned on top of everything else right now.

Meanwhile, Sophie and Hermione had made it to the hospital wing and found Harry and Ginny pacing in front of the large door, obviously not allowed in.

"Harry!" Sophie fell into her best friends hug, holding him tightly for a second before taking a step back, moving to hug Ginny as well. "What happened?"

"We were getting ready this morning and he was opening his presents. Turned out he got a box of chocolates that were meant for me. They had love potion in them." Harry starts, making Sophie frown.

"So? How does that get him poisoned?" Sophie questioned. "Or was it actually poison and it was meant for you? Were you meant to be poisoned?" Her mind was running wild. One of her greatest friends was just beyond this door, and she was unsure of how he was. Was he even alive? Was he going to be okay?

"No, it wasn't poisoned. I took him to Slughorn's, to get a cure for it." Harry went on, making Sophie and Hermione nod. Hermione hadn't heard what had happened yet either, Ginny just told her to go find Sophie, that Ron was poisoned. "After he was cured, Slughorn decided to have a toast with us or whatever and got out some mead he had. Ron took a drink first and...." Harry trailed off. Sophie felt all color drain from her face. Poisoned mead from Slughorn's office. It was too big of a coincidence. "I managed to find the bezoar from potions the other day in Slughorn's kit and get it down Ron's throat just in time. Madame Pomfrey is in there with him now." Sophie took a step back from her friends, horrified.

"I.... I'll be right back. There's... something I need to do." Before her friends could say anything, she turned and ran down the hall, heading for the Slytherin common room. She got a lot of looks as she ran, a lot of people called after her, but she continued to run until she reached her destination and all but yelled the password. Once inside she found her husband with a group of their friends.

"Hey, how's Weasl-" Draco broke off when he saw his wife's face. "Sophie.." She shook her head and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him from his seat and away from their friends. She continued to pull at him until they were out of the common room and in an empty corridor. "What is wrong? Why do you seem mad at me?"

"I told you the poisoned mead you gave Slughorn could end up hurting someone else!" She screams, shoving at Draco's chest. Finally, she had tears fall down her cheeks. Angry tears. Worried tears. What if her husband killed her best friend? Indirectly but it was still Draco's poison, Draco's doing.

"That's what poisoned Weasley?" Draco asks quietly. He had feared that but figured there couldn't be a possibility. What would the chances be? Very good, it would seem.

"Harry took him to Slughorn for an antidote for a love potion and Slughorn wanted a toast after that. Harry just managed to get a bezour down his throat." Sophie sobbed. Draco sighed and reached out for her but took a step back. "I know that this needs to get done but from now on, I want you to think about your actions, Draco."

"Don't scold me like I'm some kind of child, Sophie." He spits back at her. He was sorry that her friend was hurt but he was doing what he had to do. So Ron got caught in the line of fire, that wasn't really his fault.

"You can't just go around doing things like that without thinking about what could happen."

"I did think about what could happen! I thought about how it could kill Dumbledore and I'd be able to save you!" Draco yelled back at her, angry. Sophie takes a step back from her angry husband, shocked that he yelled so loudly at her.

"I need to go see how Ron is." Sophie says quietly, looking away from her husband's angry face. She shakes her head and turns, rushing away from him.

"Sophie!" He calls after her but she breaks into a run, leaving him behind. When she gets back to the hospital, Hermione, Harry and Ginny were still out front of the door, trying to look inside but saw nothing. Dumbledore and McGonagall came and asked Harry what had happened but otherwise they knew nothing about how Ron was. Mr and Mrs Weasley showed up and went into see him but told the four of them nothing, only to had off to Dumbledore's office. Fred and George even showed up, having been in Hogsmeade, ready to surprise Ron on his birthday and having been looking into buying Zonko's.

"Where's Lavender?" Sophie finally asks Harry. Harry gives a small laugh.

"He may have broke it off with her while under the influence of the love potion. He said he wanted to be with Ramilda Vane." Harry explains, making everyone laugh.

"You okay?" Sophie asks Hermione quietly as they all sit out front of the hospital. It was now well after dinner time and they still hadn't been let in to see Ron. Hermione hadn't really spoken at all. Her and Sophie mostly sat in silence while Ginny and Harry tried to come up with ways that the poison could have ended up in the mead.

"Not really." Hermione admitted. She gave Sophie a look that showed that she was holding back tears. Sophie sighed, reaching for her hand and squeezing it tightly.

"He's going to be okay." Sophie assured her, making her nod. The friends sat in silence until 8 o'clock when they were finally let in to see Ron. He was unconscious but it was nice to see their friend anyway and know that he was going to be okay.

"Oh, Harry!" They all jumped when Mrs Weasley came rushing in. She grabbed at Harry, hugging him tightly and thanking him for saving another member of her family once again. Sophie stood and hugged Mr Weasley before being pulled into a hug by Mrs. Weasley as well. "Oh, Sophie. We truly missed you this past summer." Sophie smiled at the woman she considered a mother and nodded.

"I missed being there, Mrs. Weasley. I really did." Even though Sophie had a wonderful summer with Draco, marrying him and being with him, sometimes there was nothing better than being at the Burrow with your friends. It was such a great escape and a great place to be. Sophie really really missed it.

Now being over Mrs. Pomfrey's limit of visitors, Hermione, Sophie and Harry decided to head out, leaving Ron with his family.

"This is just terrible." Sophie said while they walked down the corridor. "I'm glad Ron is going to be okay though."

"I never thought waking up this morning that this is how today would go." Harry said, shaking his head. they all came to a stop, having to part ways soon. Hermione and Harry to their common room, Sophie to... well to her common room or so they thought. Really she needed to get to the room of requirement, that's surely where Draco would be.

"No one things waking up one day that their best friend will be poisoned. It's not exactly a common thing." Sophie reasons, making Harry smile and nod.

"Hogwarts just... it's not as safe as it used to be, huh?" Hermione whispers, sounded depressed. It was true, but then.. no where was really safe anymore.

"That's not just Hogwarts, Hermione... that's everywhere now that You Know Who is back." Sophie reminds her best friend, who nods.

"You're right." She agrees.

"Well... I'll see you guys tomorrow." With that, the two bid Sophie goodnight and go their direction while Sophie pretends to go one way and waits for them to be far enough away for her to follow and go up to the 7th floor, to the room of requirement.

"So, he's not dead." Sophie says, walking up on Draco who jumps away from the cabinet, turning towards his wife.

"That's good." He says. "And do they have any idea who's..."

"No, Draco. You're safe, don't worry." She tells him, crossing her arms over her chest. Draco sighs, walking over to her.

"Don't be mad, okay?" He asks, stopping in front of her. He makes no move to touch her though, unsure if she was still really angry at him or not. She should be. He almost killed her best friend and was pretty insensitive about it. "I realize my mistake and I'm sorry. I'm sorry that my carelessness almost cost you a friend, even if it was a Weasley." Sophie couldn't help but feel a small smile tug at her lips.

"Your apologies sometimes stink, you know that?" She says, making him smile. "But I accept your apology none the less. I know you didn't intend for that to happen." She reaches out to him. He instantly responds to her touch, reaching out for her as well. She melts into his arms, resting her head on his chest. He holds her tightly against him, kissing at the top of her head and burying his face in her hair.

"I'm sorry that I hurt you. I shouldn't have yelled earlier." He continues but she shakes her head.

"Let's just not talk about it, okay?" He nods and pulls back to kiss her softly.

"Let's head to bed." He offers, making her nod. She looks up at him and smiles.

"You're the best, you know that?" He grins and kisses her again.

"Oh yes, I do know that." She laughs but shakes her head none the less.
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What is this? An update??? Yes.