"Errph!" said Harry, to Diggory. "I'm in trouble." Turning back to Dobby he said, "Please tell both ladies I'm sorry I worried them and will be there, safe and whole, in a few minutes. I take it they're in our apartment?"
"Yes, Master Harry, Sir," replied the elf.
Nodding, Harry said, "Thank you, Dobby."
As the little elf popped away again, Harry turned to Diggory and said, "I'd better go."
Diggory grinned and said, "Best not keep your ladies waiting."
Harry stood and said, "Thanks for the Butterbeer, Cedric." And shook the other boy's hand before he left to return to the apartment. When Harry walked into the apartment, he was met with two angry witches. "Where have you been?" demanded Hermione.
"Coming back from the Quidditch pitch, Cedric and I came across Crouch Senior staggering out of the woods," he explained. "I sent Diggory to get help while I started dragging Crouch back towards the castle. When Cedric got back with help, someone... Crouch Junior, of course... shot a killing curse at us. In the process, Diggory now thinks I saved his life and he owes me a life debt.
"I then levitated and took Crouch to the infirmary while Diggory followed. Once there, the adrenaline in Diggory's system started to wear off and he developed a dose of the shakes from shock. After I got a calming draught into him he took me down to the Hufflepuff common room, where he supplied me with a Butterbeer. I don't think I could have refused. He was pretty shaken up.
"I'd just finished that when Dobby popped in to let me know you two were worried about me. So, I immediately came up here."
"We didn't know where you were," said Daphne. "We heard that something had happened out on the grounds, that someone had fired a killing curse at you, and that you were taken to the infirmary. However, when we got there, Madam Pomfrey told us you'd left a while earlier."
"Alright," said Harry, speaking soothingly. "Next time you worry about me, remember that Dobby will know where I am at all times. All you need to do is call him and ask, alright?"
Blushing in a little embarrassment, Hermione said, "We forgot."
"Understandable," said Harry. "You were worried and you weren't able to think it through. You'll remember if it happens in the future."
He then brought both girls in for a three -way cuddle.
The three-way cuddle then moved to the bedroom, and changed into something more.
A couple of evenings before the final task, the three organised themselves to put the second part of the originally conceived plan of Hermione's into effect. The first was the switch out of Tom Riddle Senior's bones in the graveyard at Little Hangleton for a complete stranger's. And the third would be the switching out of Crouch's Polyjuice potion.
This was also the first day of the end of year exams for the fourth years, so they did not expect a lot of people to be spending time out and about. That Hermione was quite alright with setting aside her last evening before the Transfiguration exam showed the importance of what they were about to accomplish.
Immediately after dinner, Harry waited in the direct route from the Great Hall to the Slytherin dorms in the dungeons for Nott to pass on his way to the Slytherin common room. He was one they knew positively would become a death eater. It would also be a bit of payback for Daphne.
Waiting under a Notice-me-not charm with his invisibility cloak in his arms, Harry was standing just outside a disused classroom for the wanker to pass.
He was just starting to worry, when the boy finally made an appearance. And, thankfully, with no one around to observe what happened.
As soon as Nott passed, Harry tagged him with a stunner and, as soon as the boy collapsed, threw his invisibility cloak over him. A quick Mobilicorpus charm on the boy and Harry pulled him through the now opened door of the classroom. Inside, Hermione and Daphne were waiting with what they needed to complete this part of the plan.
Nott was levitated over to where two desks were set side-by-side and hard together to make a longer work area, and laid atop.
The cloak was removed and Hermione set to work rolling Nott's sleeve up. As she worked, Daphne was standing alongside, observing, while holding a tray with certain objects on it.
As soon as Nott's sleeve was up and over his elbow, Hermione grabbed a tourniquet off the tray and fastened it tightly around the bicep.
As Nott was still out cold she couldn't get him to pump his fist to speed up the process, so had to wait for the vein to begin to expand on its own.
As soon as she had a likely candidate, she carefully picked up a syringe needle that was affixed to a plastic tube - which was, in turn, connected to a small, flat, pig skin bladder stuffed with flat wadding.
Concentrating, she carefully inserted the needle into the boys arm over and along a vein until she spotted blood beginning to flow down the tube. Then hung the bladder from the edge of the desk, and released the tourniquet.
Standing back up straight, she sighed and said, "Now we wait."
"How long?" asked Daphne.
"It depends on how much fluid Nott's recently drunk, and how strong his heart beat is," she replied. "The more fluid he's drunk and the stronger his heart beat, the faster the flow."
"An approximation almost snarked.
would
do,"
Daphne
Hermione seemed to think about it for a moment, and carefully watched the bladder, before she replied, "About... ten minutes?"
Constantly checking, Hermione finally had the amount of blood she wanted after twelve minutes. "That should do," she muttered.
Carefully, she grabbed a cotton ball off the tray and, holding it in her left hand between her index finger and thumb, lightly pressed down on the wound point as she pulled out the needle, before then pressing down, firmly.
She handed the needle with its still attached tube off to Daphne with a mutter of, "Be careful with that."
While Daphne, out of her sight, rolled her eyes while holding the needle. Hermione drew her wand and cast a minor healing charm on the wound point. Gingerly pulling the now flattened cotton ball aside, she was able to see that even the mark of the needle was now gone.
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