Chapter 20: Friendly Face

                                    

                                          
Braithewaite hit the tiled ground with a thud.
She let out shaky gasps and her legs seemed to be kicking and twitching involuntarily.
Harry couldn't help but feel the vague phantom pains of the cruciatus curse down to his bones, lighting up every nerve with white hot agony, like a fire blazing it's way deeper and deeper under his skin.
He rushed over to the collapsed girl and could see her fingers digging into her arms hard enough to turn stark white.
He turned her onto her back and forcibly unclenched her hands so she wouldn't hurt herself further. 
Just what had happened to her?
"Hey, can you hear me? Can you open your eyes for me?"
But the girl didn't react. 
Her eyes were tightly shut.
Darragh ran over through the gathering crowd of students and kneeled down next to Harry beside the suffering girl.
He took out his wand that was near the size of Harry's arm and cast a silent spell over her.
The girl tensed up for just a moment and then relaxed, seemingly falling into a deep slumber.
Darragh lifted the girls thin wrist gently and   when Harry looked over he could see faint black veins creeping up to her palm, as if her blood had been replaced with a dark thick ink.
Their teacher's previously happy expression had turned serious and grim
"Umbra leaves, I'm sure...", he mumbled softly, "foolish girl."
He stood up, holding her bridal style, carefully not to move her body too much.
He looked around the greenhouse and swallowed before speaking: "I..the class is dismissed. You may leave. I'll bring Ms. Braithewaite to the hospital wing."
Without another word he left the stunned seventh years behind.
Harry dusted his hands off on his uniform and shakily got up as well. 
Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Riddle.
"Harry, you look pale. Come..let's go back to our common room, yes?", he suggested in a soothing tone, his hand wandering down to Harry's midback, gently guiding him towards the entrance of the greenhouse.
Harry was still in somewhat of a daze but let Riddle lead him away and up into the castle.
When they arrived he and the taller boy sat down on one of dark green velvet couches infront of a warm fire.
The other boys gathered around him, though Harry noticed that no one took a seat right next to either of them.
"I don't understand. What just happened?", asked Harry in confusion, "I thought..well I thought someone hit her with a curse but Darragh said something about some leaves?"
"Leaves? Did he mention what kind?", asked Riddle, turning to face him.
Harry nodded: "Yeah...he said umbra leaves. Never heard of them. Are they poisonous or something?"
Riddle raised an eyebrow and looked over at Müller who leaned against a wall with his arms crossed. 
The pale boy sighed but answered: "They are. They don't grow in europe though. You can find them very rarely in asian countries."
"Like the island your dad stayed on?"
"That's right", replied Müller, though he seemed annoyed at Darragh being called his dad, "He told me all about them. You can't just get them that easily. They make for a very lethal and painful weapon if you know how to use them but well...as you saw earlier they don't need to be ingested to cause harm. If you eat or drink them they will rot your organs rapidly from the inside out but even just touching them with your bare hand affects your veins just under the thin layers of skin and flesh."
Harry felt sick. That was horrible.
He swallowed and replied: "Merlin. When Darragh lifted her wrist I could see these little black veins all the way up to her palm...did she touch it with that hand then?"
The blonde nodded: "Yeah. Must have. I'm not surprised something like happened though. Braithewaite has always been into everything related to herbology, including these dangerous plants. She's not properly participated in class since ..hm probably second year? Thinks she knows more than the professors...stupid bimbo. Her family's rich too, they can and do get her whatever stupid shit she wants. Most likely didn't even question just what they were buying her. Well serves her right, why the fuck would she decide to play around with it in the middle of class?"