PP20

## Summary

Rigel wakes up and goes to Lab One to brew for two hours, in order to avoid Pansy. She finally goes to inform her of Draco's fainting. Pansy then tells her that her, Blaise, and Rigel are the last First years of the school. Rigel berates herself for not noticing and promise to herself that the next year will be different. Pansy tells her that she knows that Rigel does the Potion in Snape's stead and makes her promise to continue what she does. They go to breakfast and discover an article written by Skeeter, explaining what is happening at Hogwarts, Draco being the last one having fallen to the sickness, and blaming Dumbledore for not noticing anyone. Pansy is angry at Skeeter for dragging Draco's name, but Rigel understands that means that Lucius is convinced his child is okay, putting the finger at the SOW Party being behind the sickness.

Reassured, Rigel delivers her batch of potions to the Hospital Wing. She forces the nurse to let her inside, so she can see Draco and see "what for" she does all of her work. She discovers that Blaise fell sick too. During the next ten minutes, she checks Draco, trying to quell her foreboding feeling, and promises that everything will be normal again. She goes back to brew, but is interrupted by a fire-call by Snape, who informs her that he didn't find any Ginseng, the market being cornered, and must go East, meaning he will be out of reach of the usual floo system, an answer by owl taking two days. Rigel keeps quiet about his godson being ill.

Back in the Hospital Wing, she overhears a conversation between Pomfrey and Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy. Draco is rejecting the necessary potions. Rigel cuts in, and discovers that he is allergic to Acai, the substitution for the Ginseng, and only has three days or so before his magical core detects the life-sustaining spells and detaches itself from his body, signing his death. Rigel takes a break in her potion-making to find a solution. There isn't one, and she loses a day.

Rigel blames herself, saying it's her fault, and because she didn't tell Snape. At the Great Hall for dinner, she is the last First Year. She flees to the Hospital Wing, where she goes at Pansy's bedside, and then at Draco's. Rigel doesn't know what to do, a thing very rare. The sickness attacks, but Rigel detects it immediately and goes in meditation mode. She finds refuge in her Space Room, opening only with the password "My name is Harry Potter, and I'm not a boy." It's only a question of time before the sickness spreads to all of her mind. Wishing there was a back door in a mind, Harry understands that the sickness is not meant to be invincible, so she searches a solution for Draco. Drifting near her Sun and feeling connected to it, she understands that connections is the key. The Sun being her magic, it is her true core, and must be linked to her physical core. She needs to create a connection with Draco from the inside. So she dives into her Sun. She finds herself outside in front of her physical core. Aware again of the reality, she hears the Malfoys and Pomfrey talk. Pomfrey explains how she must have an experience in Occlumency, and they move her further away from Draco. Harry manages to use her mouth to say to put her near Draco. She also concludes that she has less than two days to save Draco. She creates a link between her core and Draco's. Then, she sends herself to his core, an ice one, and, after changing the color of her eyes, dives into it and into its true core (water).

Draco wonders how he got where he is. He remembers his father sending him a cryptic letter some weeks ago, and finally understands that it was about the sickness. He concludes that he is trapped in his mind. Draco sees Rigel getting spat by his whirlpool on his iceberg. He doesn't recognize him at first, thrown off by the long hair. He asks him why he is here, and Rigel explains that he is more sick than the others, and that they must get rid of the sickness. Rigel proposes to use Draco's water for that, being the only thing untouched.

Harry uses fireballs, and they work on cleansing the black stuff slowly. When one third of the mind is cleared, Harry tells Draco to move his physical hand. After some trials, he manages to do it. Harry's unchecked fire having burnt a trail of the black stuff all the way up to the mists, Snape appears in Draco's mind, after having seen Draco's hand move in reality. It's Saturday at 6:43 am, so they don't have much time, but Snape wipes out the sickness in an instant. Snape and Draco want explications as to how Harry got here, but she postpones them, arguing that Draco should wake up and that she have to clear her mind too. Snape leaves through the mists and then Harry too, through Draco's pond. Back in the Space Room, the only place free of the sickness, Harry clears her way back to her mists and waits for Snape. He arrives in her mind.

## Characters (by order of appearance)

* Rigel Black & Harry Potter
* Pansy Parkinson
* Rita Skeeter (article)
* Poppy Pomfrey
* Lucius Malfoy
* Narcissa Malfoy
* Edmund Rookwood
* Aldon Rosier
* Draco Malfoy
* Severus Snape

## Settings

### Hogwarts

* Lab One
* First year dorms
* Great Hall
* Hospital Wing

### Mental planes

* Harry's mind
* Draco's mind

## Potions

* Snowhit Draught
* Aurora's Breath
* Sweat Inducer
* Winter's Luck Potion

## See also

* The Sleeping Sickness
* Magical core