Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Thirty-One: The Plague of the Toad

Fantasy versus reality. Apparently, trying to do wandless magic wasn’t exactly a shut and closed case. It was like Expert mode for wizards. Either that, or using a wand was like using cheat codes.

Harry rubbed his eyes, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. He sighed.

Dumb feather.

He’d been trying to get this stupid feather to lift into the air for the past two hours now. Yes, he was getting the pronunciation correct. Yes, he was sure of that. No, he did not need Hermione to remind him of the correct pronunciation. Yes! He was getting it right! It was a freaking first year spell. Of course, he was getting it right.

He knew what magic felt when he used it with his wand. After learning his first few spells, the sensation became second nature, this channeling of his magic through a medium. But without the training wheels – so to speak – of his wand, it felt like he was trying to learn how to write all over again, but with his left hand.

Except the ‘pencil’ had to go and blow up on him – all four of them.

Harry couldn’t help but feel discouraged by all this. If he couldn’t do a simple Wingardium Leviosa right now, how was he supposed to get the harder spells? Harry slumped in his bed, flopping back onto his pillow. He curled onto his side. He’d been thankful for Luna’s kind words about all this, but it still didn’t make his magic work like it did before.

Harry drew his hands to his face, staring at the palms. He wasn’t sure if he would ever hold a wand again, after what had happened. The hope of using magic at all was dying in his heart. From what Snape had said yesterday evening after his classes, wandless magic was difficult to control and wild as best – hence accidental magic in children. Wandless magic wasn’t impossible. However, most historians believed that magic should always use a medium to harness its power.

But even a stick, supplied by Snape, had exploded when Harry had tried to channel his magic through it. If he bought out Ollivander’s entire shop, was there any chance he’d find a wand that worked? But that would destroy so many wands that could be used for another young witch or wizard.

No, there had to be another answer.

Harry sighed again. He didn’t have time for this kind of stuff. Why did everything have to be hard? Couldn’t he catch a break?

The doors to the hospital wing opened. Harry lifted his head slightly to see the visitor. His heart fell into his stomach.

Nope, he wasn’t getting a break any time soon. No, indeed.

“Ah, Mr. Potter, I wanted to speak with you,” said Umbridge, walking up to his bed. She smiled down on him; it didn’t reach her eyes.

Well, this should be good.

Harry sat up in bed, folding his hands onto his lap. He looked up at the woman and smiled pleasantly. His insides churned.

“How are you feeling, sweetie?” asked Umbridge, concern pouring through her tone. Harry almost frown in shock. Instead, he nodded, trying to look as weak and tired as he could.

“Getting a little better, thanks, Professor. Although, I sure am going stir crazy in here.”

The woman nodded in return, her lips thin. After a moment, she cleared her throat. “Well, as you know, before you fell ill to this terrible sickness due to Dumbledore’s lax handle on this school,” she began, in what she seemed to assume was a mothering tone. Yeah, no, it’s all thanks to you. “We had discussed the possibility of your expulsion.”

His heart rate increased.

Harry lowered his gaze slightly, looking up at her with as much saddened, repentant puppy eyes as he could muster. “Am I still going to be expelled?”

Umbridge puffed up at his gaze, as if she drank in her submissiveness like an energizing elixir. “After your attitude change, I think it’s best that you remain here at Hogwarts. Both Cornelius and I think that you only needed a firm influence in your life.”

His hands trembled. Harry smiled and nodded. “Oh, yes, Professor.”

Oh, look, the bile came up into his throat. Yum.

She patted his leg. It felt like ants were crawling on his skin. “Don’t you worry, Harry dearest, I’ll be sure to give you some stability in your life.”

What are you playing at? What’s your angle? Why do you even care if I have some ‘stability’ in my life? You obviously don’t care about me. You want something. What is it?

Is it political?

What do you want?

Umbridge leaned forward and pinched his cheek. It was a little too hard. “You’ll be in under my custody as soon as possible, Harry. You won’t be going back to those pathetic Muggles again.” She pulled away. “I’ll also be sure that you’re released in a day or so. I look forward to seeing you work hard in your classes to make up for lost time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Harry with a stiff nod. As she turned away, he let out a low breath. His hands trembled even more. He shoved them underneath the covers, unable to hide them. He felt a familiar draw of power on his magic; it trickled down his arms. Surprised, Harry moved to look at his hands, but the feeling slipped away, like water through his fingers.

Hmm…

He was going to have to experiment with this.

“Hem, hem, Poppy, a word, if you please?”

Harry was sure he heard a low curse from Pomfrey. A moment later, she came out of her office with a grimacing smile on her face.

“Yes… Headmistress,” said Pomfrey, as if she were uttering vulgar profanity. “What can I do for you?”

Umbridge simpered with amusement. “I would like to know why are the students still in the hospital wing?”

Pomfrey blinked. “They’re ill,” she said after a moment.

“Are they?” asked Umbridge, a gleam entering her eyes. She glanced around the hospital wing. Many of the students were awake, sitting up in bed. Most who were awake were occupying themselves with wizards chess and other games, while others were buried in their school books. “It would seem to me that they’re healthy enough to return to class.”

“Yes, well, you’re not a certified healer, now are you?” snapped Pomfrey. She inhaled deeply, her chest puffing up. “I’m afraid that I’m very busy at this time, Headmistress. If you don’t mind…”

Pomfrey turned away, as if to leave.

Hem, hem.”

Pomfrey squeezed her eyes shut, as if praying for strength.

“Poppy, I must protest,” said Umbridge with that ever annoying laugh. “Many of these students have been known to skip out on duties whenever possible.” At this, she turned her glance over to Harry. He put on the show for her: smiling amiably and giving her an adoring expression. She seemed to brighten at his attention. I’m going to have gouge out my eyes after this. She looked back at Pomfrey. “I’m afraid I must question the need to keep all these students here. If there’s not a threat upon their health, then I insist that they return to their dormitories by the end of the day.”

“I am a healer,” said Pomfrey, her voice shaking with her suppressed anger. “That is my job. I cannot allow these students to leave without full release. They need to be monitored for further effects of the Black Quill. I will release my patients when I deem them able and not a moment before.”

The light in Umbridge’s eyes darkened.

“These students are fine,” said Umbridge, all simpering gone from her voice. A hard light entered her expression. “Release them by tonight or else I’ll hire a new school healer.”

She gave Pomfrey a nod, before turning on her heels and striding out of the hospital wing.

Pomfrey stood still, staring at the closed doors of the hospital wing. After a moment, she hunched over, dropping her face into her hands. Her shoulders shook.

“Madam Pomfrey,” cried Harry. “Are you all right?”

The old woman straightened. She dropped her hands and turned to look at Harry. Her eyes seemed dry. She smiled softly.

“I’m fine, dear. You just focus on getting better.”

Throughout the day, Harry watched her. He didn’t have much to do, anyway – although, Snape had left him some books. Pomfrey looked over every student. He watched her expressions as she worked. She was skilled at suppressing her true emotions. With each child that she had to release, however, her control lessened.

By the end of the day, only Harry, Luna, the Slytherin girl, and a first year Gryffindor were left. The Moore girl still hadn’t woken up, her condition appearing worse than when Harry had first seen her. Luna was getting better, but she wasn’t allowed to leave yet – for which Harry was grateful. It was nice having a friend to talk to, since Ron and Hermione hadn’t visited again yet. The Gryffindor boy had woken up a few times, but his fever hadn’t broken yet.

Pomfrey disappeared into her office once the last student left. The evening sunlight had fallen below the horizon, leaving a beautiful sunset to stream through the windows.

A part of Harry wished that he was one of the students who were allowed to leave. But while his muscles weren’t in pain, they had little strength to them. When Pomfrey had tested him, he had wobbled on his feet like a new born foal.

He wanted to be out there, doing something to help the other students.

An hour after dusk, the hospital wing doors open. Ron and Hermione entered, coming straight to Harry’s bedside with smiles and waves of the hands. They greeted Luna with a nod, who smiled brightly back. Much to Harry’s surprise, there was someone else behind them.

“Draco,” said Harry, the shocked puzzlement in his tone. “You came to visit.”

“Yeah, yeah, if anyone asks, I’m here to see Moore, all right?” snapped Draco, glancing back at the doors. He nudged Ron. “Get on with it, Weaselbee, before we get caught by someone.”

“We’re fine—”

“It’s after visiting hours and I can’t be caught dead with a pair of Gryffindors – especially not the other half the Golden Trio – don’t you get it?”

“Whatever, Ferret. We’ll protect your ‘good’ name.”

And there was a surge of further arguments between the two of them, all one hundred percent useless and unhelpful.

“How’d they go from first names to insults?” asked Harry, directing his question to Hermione. She shrugged.

“As long as they aren’t tossing hexes, I think this is ‘civil’ for them,” said Hermione with a roll of her eyes. She shook her head. “Anyway, you’ll never guess what’s happening.”

“Umbridge got eaten by a toad,” said Harry with a grin.

“The minister does have a Umgubular Slashkilter,” said Luna, her airy voice bright. “Maybe it got loose and devoured her toes.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. If this… Umgubular Slashkilter was going for the toes, how about it just keeping going up and finish the toad off altogether?

Hermione gave Luna a weird look, but shook her head, as if deciding not to bother about that one. “It’s mayhem out there,” she said in a hushed tone.

“What?”

As if on cue, something exploded outside the window. Fireworks illuminated the night sky.

“That was fast,” commented Draco dryly.

“When you say mayhem…” began Harry, watching bright words form into obscene comments about Umbridge. “Is this good mayhem or bad mayhem?”

The windows rattled when a firework exploded nearby.

“It depends, scarhead,” said Draco, shaking Ron off. His tone wasn’t insulting as he spoke. It almost sounded like an affectionate nickname – well, as ‘affectionate’ as it could be coming from Draco Malfoy. “How much longer do you want to live?”

“Hey, this isn’t my fault,” said Harry, motioning to the windows. “I’m not the one who set fireworks off outside.”

“They weren’t set outside.”

Oho, now that was interesting.

Harry smirked a grin. “Please tell me where they were set off.”

“In her office,” said Ron, slapping a hand onto his thigh. He guffawed. “The fireworks escaped. The entire school is going nuts right now. I’ve never seen so many pranks in my life. I just barely managed to the green out of my hair. But they were spelled to avoid the hospital wing.”

Now that he mentioned it… Their hair did seem a little off. It was most noticeable in Draco’s hair, however. Near the roots, Harry could clearly see a hint of green mixed with the light blond.

“And how would you know that?” asked Harry.

Ron grinned. “Cause Fred and George set em off. There has been rumors all over school because of all the students who were in the hospital wing. The whole school knows the truth, about how Umbridge and Fudge threw the blame on Dumbledore and chased him out of the school.”

“Lots of Slytherin are furious,” said Hermione. “Letters are being screened. No one can send anything back home. There are at least ten new educational decrees, ranging from no PDA—”

Draco’s eyebrows furrowed and mouthed in confusion, “PDA?

“—to new discipline allowances, like corporal punishment,” finished Hermione. Her lips thinned. “It’s going to go downhill from there, I bet. I know Filch was looking pretty happy about something – and that alone can’t be good.”

“Umbridge is going mad,” said Draco. “She’s putting nearly everyone into detention, but even then she can’t control them. I’m wary about what she’ll do next to regain control over the school.”

“But this is all going to backfire on her eventually, isn’t it?” said Harry with a frown. “Once families find out what’s been happening here, they’re going to be really angry.”

“Right, I just don’t understand why Fudge is allowing this,” said Hermione, shaking her head. “It’s like they’re buying time, but for what? Do they really think that buying time will make You-Know-Who go away?”

“Fudge is being reelected in a few months,” said Draco. “I bet they’re holding out until the end of the school year. Once Fudge is reelected, no need to keep the students quiet.”

“They can’t kick him out?” asked Harry.

“Not really, no,” said Draco with a shake of the head. “He can step down, of course. But with all the trouble he’s going to, I doubt he will, even if the families are furious. He’ll probably gloss over this whole thing. If Umbridge can maintain control, of course.” He smirked. “Which is why we’re here.”

“We’re gonna take out the toad,” said Ron, slamming a fist into his heart. There was a diabolical gleam in his eyes.

“She is a disgrace to all teachers,” said Hermione with a huff. “I can’t believe this is happening, but I can’t stand another day with her here.”

“So, wanna help, mate?”

Harry glanced over at Luna. She smiled, nodding. Harry looked back at the group of three, excitement bubbling up inside his chest.

“You bet. And I’ve got an idea to take her out of the game permanently.”

Chapter End Notes:
Next chapter is titled: Five Ways to Cook Frog Legs. ;)

Tomorrow is Camp Nanowrimo. I’ve missed the last two in November and April, so I’m hoping to get this July one done… But yeah, not 100% hopeful. xD But it would be nice to get a lot more writing done. I seem to stare at my computer more than getting any actual progress done. It’s annoying. Lol.

Thanks for reading! As usual, next update will be on Friday. Bless you all. Your delightful reviews and comments bring light into my life. I love reading them all. If you enjoy my work and want to read more (and support the author), my original novel, Beyond the Alluring Sky is available on Amazon for only $0.99. :)

Anthy

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