Chapter 47: 2nd September 1991, Monday: Part 2

Judging by Pomfrey's expression, George was going to be disappointed by the answer to his next question.

He decided to ask regardless, "Madam Pomfrey, is it possible I could continue to take this potion after today? I don't want to have another stroke so it would be much appreciated. If it's too expensive, then I could pay the school plus interest."

Pomfrey showed a rare expression of empathy as she shook her head, "I'm sorry, but that potion would not benefit you to keep on drinking. The Draught of Peace is highly addictive. That's why I was hesitant to administer it to you in the first place.

That being said, I know that you are a unique case so I have come up with an alternative option. Don't worry, I am not going to expect you just to walk out of here like everything is fine and dandy."

Pomfrey then walked to an opened cabinet near the exit of the hospital. There were hundreds of small vials inside, all of which were neatly organised and labelled. She reached up to the top shelf and pulled out a small cloth pouch. George could hear the clattering of glass inside the pouch as Pomfrey walked back to his bedside.

She pulled a vial out of the sack, "this is a small dose of the Calming Draught. You'll be taking one of these files once a day for the next week. This is normally offered to students during exam time, and these are some leftovers from the last term.

You can consider this potion a milder version of the Draught of Peace. The effects will last the entire day and will help prevent your emotions from going out of control. The downside is it also affects your positive emotions, you may find yourself becoming lethargic after a long-term dosage.

After a week you are to come back to me, and we will see how you are getting on. Hopefully, that would be the end of it. The Draught of Peace should wear off in the next hour so take the first vial at midday to help with the withdrawal."

Pomfrey had unintentionally reminded George that there was an alternative potion that he could create himself. George was finding this nurse's company more pleasant by the second, perhaps she was going to solve all of his problems if he hung around the hospital wing long enough. From what he remembered from the advanced potion books he'd read, the Calming Draught is a potion that required variable skill to make depending on the desired effect. It was a much easier potion to brew than the Draught of Peace which was nearly impossible for an amateur like himself.

Assuming he had the talent to brew the potion successfully, the next three months should go by without any more problems. The only remaining difficulty is the limited time frame George had to source supplies, as well as finding a place to brew the potion discreetly. The first issue could be solved by using the school ingredients stock temporarily until Snape catches on, and the latter was an issue George had already given a great deal of thought to. He would simply have to prioritise finding a brewing location in his schedule a little earlier than he anticipated.

Seven days, that's all he had to work with. Although George had memorised all the relevant information about the brewing process, that didn't mean he had interpreted it. There needed to be time allocated for inevitable failures, also excess ingredients would be required. His schooling would have to be accounted for as well, many hours of the next few days will be lost. Even though this new operation had an extremely tight window, George was feeling good. Seven days will be plenty of time, he could even make five days work in a pinch. He breathed an internal sigh of relief, never had scheming felt so easy.

George had planned to use potions at Hogwarts to help complete his mission, but this improvement to his cognitive abilities was ridiculous. A plan that would normally take him an hour to block out had been concluded within a minute. He considered continuing to use these calming potions after receiving his treatment in December, what would be the reason to stop? In George's improved opinion, the downsides Pomfrey had stated were just as good as the benefits. He could not possibly imagine going back to his prior emotionally-inefficient self. He could regain the ability to feel pointless emotions after all of his plans were completed.

Pomfrey looked like she was about to go back to her work before she realised there was one more matter she had to inform George of.

She interrupted his thoughts to inform him, "one last thing, the Headmaster contacted Mr Lupin in regards to your health. Mr Lupin has arranged to arrive at the school today to meet with you at quarter to one in Professor Snape's office. I was actually about to wake you up so you didn't miss it."

It seemed that Pomfrey wasn't always a bountiful source of good news, but George wasn't surprised by Remus being contacted by Dumbledore. In some regards, this could be interpreted as good news for George. The fact that Remus was coming to the castle in person implied that he had kept George's secret from Dumbledore. He believed that Remus planned on meeting with George to determine if the incident at the Sorting Hat Ceremony was related to his 'condition' or was an isolated case. He was going to have to come up with another good excuse, but he felt confident in his capabilities to lie his way out of anything.

George was a new man today, he legitimately felt no problem was too big to be solved. Not an ounce of pessimism had remained in his system. He had more than enough motivation to climb out of his bed and get on with this operation right after seeing Remus. Only once George got back on his feet, did he notice he was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. Pomfrey hadn't undressed him, it was nice to know his modesty had been kept intact. More importantly, George looked down in his pants and saw that his leather sack was still there.

It was great that it hadn't been stolen or confiscated, but that didn't mean it hadn't been searched. George was debating if Dumbledore would be so bold as to stick his hands down his pants to have a little root around his enchanted sack. He wouldn't put it past the guy to be so shameless. There wasn't anything too damning in there that referenced his other form or his patron, but someone as smart as Dumbledore could certainly make some predictions based on his notes. George would have to remember to have a thorough audit of his assets in the sack to make sure nothing was taken whilst he was unconscious.

George checked his watch, and the time was currently eleven o'clock in the morning. That gave him less than two hours before Remus arrived. Just as he was about to leave the hospital, he turned back and noticed that there was a card left on the bedside table. The card said 'Get Well Soon' on the front, it appeared to be made by a child. George picked it up and looked inside, the card read;

Hi George,

Madam Pomfrey said that you had a stroke after having a panic attack at the Feast. Hermione and I wanted to go and visit you in the hospital wing but the prefects said we couldn't leave the common room until the next day.

You are reading story Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon at novel35.com

Hermione might not say it, but she is worried about you. I think she's feeling guilty for hitting you at the Hogsmeade station. You kinda scared everyone at the Feast, everyone was talking about it yesterday evening.

It's 9 o'clock so I have to go now. Get well soon.

From Neville

George guessed that Neville must have left the card this morning before he woke up. If this had been the emotional George of yesterday, he might have felt happy after reading this letter. That's not to say that he isn't pleased by Neville's concern, he just would never allow it to affect his judgement now that his head is on straight. This letter only proves that even in his compromised state, George was capable of maintaining his relationships even if it was by a low margin. He could even excuse his rude behaviour with Hermione by blaming the stroke on it. Stupid-impulsive George's reputation can die in a fire for all the new drugged-up George cared.

From the ashes of disaster shall grow the roses of success. This rebirth will mark the point in time where failure will no longer be tolerated. There ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough. To keep George from completing his mission, and all that jazz. He picked up the sack filled with vials of Calming Draught and placed them into the pocket of his robe. He was meant to have them after all, so he didn't need to hide them in the sack.

George's brain rebooted innocent-eleven-year-old-child-mode and deliberately started walking towards the exit of the hospital aimlessly. Just as he was about to pass the threshold, Pomfrey turned around and noticed him leaving.

She called out to him, "and where do you think you're going?"

George turned around to face her and pointed towards the hospital's exit, "I'm leaving to go and find Professor Snape's office. Mr Lupin will be arriving in less than two hours and I wouldn't want to be late."

Pomfrey looked at George with obvious bafflement. She clearly could not understand what was going through his head.

Pomfrey asked a rhetorical question, "do you honestly think if you blindly wander around the castle that you will just randomly bump into Professor Snape's office?"

George used his signature move, he formed a stupid smile and shrugged his shoulders. Playing the idiot worked ninety-nine per cent of the time, this instance shouldn't be an exception.

Pomfrey shook her head in disappointment, "you're making me worried that your stroke has done more damage to your brain than I initially thought. You could spend days in Hogwarts looking for a particular room and not find it if you don't know where you're going.

You should just wait here, and I will go and get a Slytherin Prefect to go and show you around. You will have to attend your afternoon lessons after seeing Mr Lupin, and I can't be having you wandering around the castle like a headless chicken."

Pomfrey walked straight past George and closed the hospital doors behind her, trapping him inside. Clearly, she didn't trust him to not go wandering off. He didn't mind as this was all part of the act to look as innocent as possible, he was a good boy who was respectful to teachers and students alike. Since he would probably have a minute or two to himself, George decided to wait patiently for Pomfrey to return whilst routing through his leather sack to see if everything was still there.

George had brought many things with him to Hogwarts, it was most likely a lot more than the majority of students. His sack contain nine square feet of room, and over half of it had been filled. A quarter of the space was dedicated to a large pile of books that had predominantly been read but were kept just in case his memories were compromised. George was more than used to having his memory altered or deleted, so preparing for such had become second nature. He had many fail-safes built into his mind to prevent certain information from becoming privy to others. The majority of which were not for his benefit but for his patron's instead.

One of George's least favourite failsafes was that in the event he wishes to tell others any information about his patron, the memory would be instantly removed from his mind. This also works if the memory had been seen by a Legilimency attack. That is why one of George's greatest fears was the use of Veritaserum, aka truth serum, against him. Some of his most valuable memories could be effectively deleted without him even realising it. From his perspective, he would be asked questions that he didn't know the answer to. But in reality, a massive portion of his time with his patron would have been wiped.

This was great for secrecy, but not for George's future prospects. For all he knew, he could have already lost memories whilst he was unconscious. Even the memory of the failsafe was subject to being deleted if he was asked. It was like living with selective Huntington's disease, and his patron was flicking the switch. George had told the Linwood family that he didn't remember anything before he was ten years old, it was all part of his traumatic cover story. The terrifying truth is, there actually might be a day in his future when that cover is no longer a lie.

George found it was best not to dwell on such matters. There was no changing the cruelty his patron had committed. All that was left for George was to make the best of a bad situation. One day, he'll welcome forgetting about his patron with open arms.

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