Chapter 6

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'The Beast' was a military obstacle course on steroids with dangerous magical surprises around every corner. To be honest, it didn't look to hard at first, quite a few students laughed and joked or made smart comments about the relatively average looking course, but those students soon took back their earlier comments after the first few eliminations.

Apparently, the course was easy at first, but each time the present course runner reached the beginning again, the field and obstacles would change and the runner would have to go again and again until they were 'defeated' by the course or they begged out. And after one of the fifth years begged out, no one else let the thought cross their minds after they'd witnessed what happened to the small mousey looking brunette Hufflepuff.

It was late into the evening when the last sixth year dropped from one of the six swinging trapezes that were suspended over a large pool of bright orange tapioca looking mess that was thicker than molasses and more difficult than quicksand to escape from.

"Seems this had gone on longer than expected." Professor Potter said to the still gathered seventh years and various other students who had stuck around to watch the rest of the trails. "I'm proud, but we still aren't finished. Go get dinner then report back here."

With that the mass of bodies stood and began to make their way to the Great Hall. Younger years talking amongst themselves about who had the best fall or the current record holder who had reached round eleven before an unfortunate round house to the chest from one of the many hidden hand to hand opponents that appeared as the course got harder and changed, had knocked him out and sent him to the medical wing.

The older years weren't much different in their topics of conversation, each reflecting on the various ways the other course runners before them had gotten though various problems and how they would get through them when their turn came.

Julian's mind wasn't quite focused on eating as he pushed his mashed potatoes around on his plate and began gently nudging his carrots into a uniform formation. The turkey was shredded, small broccoli florets strategically placed, and the peas mashed into a paste like mess. He was halfway done with the sludge like gravy river when he noticed how quite it had gotten around him.

Slowly, Julian looked up from his plate and was shocked to find the eyes of his table mates staring back at him as if he had two heads.

"What?" He asked, glancing around at the curious gazed around him.

"Julian, what are you doing?" Draco asked, pointing at the artistically shaped food that was still the same amount that he'd seen his brother originally put on his plate, despite the new arrangement.

"Thinking." Julian replied, looking back down that his plate that he'd spent most of dinner molding and shaping into the various forms of the obstacle course he'd watched the younger years fight their way through all afternoon.

"Do you always think with your food?" Iris sneered, pressing herself closer to Draco's back as she leaned in to look at the mess as if it actually interested her.

"You should see what happens when I think out loud." Julian replied sharply, the spoon in his right hand that was currently filled with pea paste shifted to just the right angle to sling the nasty looking mush in the annoying girls general direction without making to big a mess in the process.

Draco's lips twitched at the implied threat, but negated the impending food fight by taking the spoon away from his brother and pointing at the plate once more.

"Thinking?" He prompted, wiggling the plate slightly to show what he was talking about as if anyone had really forgotten.

Julian nodded and looked back down that the circular battle field of food.

"Yeah. This is the exact layout of the eighth round, or level or platform or whatever you wish to call it. According to what we could see and what other people who passed the eighth whatever have said, it seems all of the levels are basically the same except for the magical aspects. Like the trapeze. It's always there, but every round another one is added. I wonder at what level it stops adding and goes to something harder. It's not like the course is going to expand to encompass a hundred swinging trapezes, right?"

Looking around, Julian thought he might be wrong on that fact for a moment before Blaise Zambini, the green eyed play boy he'd been introduced to on the train, laughed and shook his head.

"Boy, you sure have high expectations girly." He said, smearing his fork though the cooked carrot wall that bordered the swinging pendulum poles that were symbolized by floating broccoli in beef gravy. "Not even top Aurors have gotten to that level. They say it's a suicide mission after fifty, that being the highest anyone has ever gotten before dieing…"

Julian glared at the offensive brunet who was slowly pulling the now clean fork out of his mouth.

"For someone who hardly ran twelve laps around the lake before laying down belly up, I wouldn't be trying to talk a tough game." He said, pushing his plate away from himself.

"Who's talking tough?" Blaise asked with a quirk of one perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "I don't plan on getting passed round three. I foresee a rather disgusting fall into the purple goo that stains one's skin green. But at least I will get that far. I was simply telling you what everyone knows. Even the teachers don't know what that thing does after a certain level. I bet less than none of them have even tried. But Dumbledore is planning something and we are just the mice in his little experimental games."

The rest of the Slytherins nodded and Julian dipped his head in apology. It was strange to find a common ground with his house mates when he'd been expecting to practically be a social outcast, being the odd transfer student and all.

"The old man expects us to try our hardest. To out perform the Gryffindors because we all know they will be giving it their all. But why play into his hand?" Blaise murmured darkly, his voice low so as not to be heard by anyone the least bit loyal to the coot. "I get average grades, have a lower than average reputation, and higher than average detention rate, usually because of that lower than average reputation. No one is expecting anything grand from me, so I won't be on his watch list and I certainly won't be at the top of his recruitment list when I graduate either."

"Good for you." Julian replied, actually giving the strong willed boy a genuine smile.

Blaise actually seemed to turn a light pink at the attention for his out spoken political views and smiled in return, an act which he promptly stopped when he caught Draco's icy blue gaze over Julian's shoulder.

"Come on," Draco said quickly as he stood and began to head for the door, leaving his very confused brother little time to catch up.

"Draco…Draco wait!" Julian called, grabbing the taller blonde's wrist once they were outside and down the lawn enough so they wouldn't be heard by any interested ears. "Draco what's your problem?"

"It's nothing." Draco replied, snatching his wrist back to continue to walk down to the course area, albeit at a slower pace.

"It's not nothing." Julian replied, grabbing his brother's wrist again. "Tell me what's wrong. One minuet everything is going well enough and the next it seems as if your already to short fuse got cut in half. What was it? Was it what Blaise said about Dumbledore? Are you a supporter or something?"

"What?" Draco asked quickly, turning to face his slightly younger sibling. "That's not it, you know that!"

"Then what is it?" Julian pressed again, his perfectly clear ice blue eyes staring into his brothers matching set imploringly.

"I just didn't like the way he was smiling at you, ok?" Draco shouted in reply, a blush settling over his pale nose and cheeks at the admission.

"Oh…" Julian replied, slowly letting go of his brother's wrist in favor of twisting his hands behind his back and bushing lightly as well.

"Nothing more to it than that!" Draco said quickly, folding his arms over his chest as he started once more for the clearing. "You're my little brother and Blaise is a whore. You never know what diseases you'll get from standing to close."

Julian laughed softly and nudged his brother with his hip once he'd caught up with the other boy. "I'm a big boy you know, I put on my own lipstick and everything."

Draco rolled his eyes and settled down on the grass in the magically lit area they'd finally arrived at.

If six years ago anyone had told him that at a point in the nearer than far future that he would be sitting on the ground next to his cross dressing brother trying not to think about how no one else was around or how beautifully said brothers' skin seemed to glow in the lighting, he would've learned the deadliest of the unmentionable curses and used it on the accuser post haste.

But as it was Draco did find these thoughts happening and he was becoming bothered by the strange turn said feelings were taking.

"You know you're a boy right?" He snapped, his sudden anger catching Julian completely off guard with its intensity.

"Yes." He replied firmly, looking at his brother as if he'd lost all of the marbles he seemed to have left after six years off assumed loss of a loved one. "You know you're one to right? Haven't lost the equipment that separates the sexes in a dangerous potions accident have you?"

The joke went unacknowledged as Draco looked away from the object of his confusion.

"Sometimes I wonder. I mean I don't really care, I love you, you're my brother. But you're not at Holly Oaks anymore. You don't have to pretend to be a girl. You're a Malfoy for Merlin's sake."

Julian watched the emotions flicker across his brother's face in the form of small twitches and tense lips. He could tell that the frustration the other blonde felt wasn't because of the way he looked, the problem was he couldn't figure out why the frustration was there to begin with.

"Draco, I like how I am. It started because of a confusion, then continued out of need. I didn't know what else to do…then it just became…me. Plus I came home to find there was already a man of the house." Julian inched closer to his moody sibling and lay his head on the other boy's strong shoulder.

Draco smiled at the joke, his frustration ebbing for the moment. "You're trying to distract me."

"Yes," Julian laughed. "Is it working?"

"Getting there…" Draco replied, turning to wrap an arm around the tiny blonde at his side. "I'm straight Julian…I like girls. I always have. I always will. We're brothers. Nothing more. Blood. It wouldn't be….it's not right."

Julian nodded and looked down at his hands. "I know."

It was a simple statement, one that silently screamed of inner pain and confusion, but neither felt the need to address the awkwardness that surrounded them. They sat side by side, Julian's head on Draco's shoulder, Draco's arm around Julian's waist, as they waited for dinner to adjourn and the rest of the older children to flood the clearing to await their fate on 'The Beast'.

A short time later, the combined voices of all four seventh year houses descended upon the peaceful serenity of the clearing. It wasn't long before the magically enhanced voice of Professor James Potter boomed out over the chattering crowd.

"Welcome Seventh years and various curious bystanders. I'm sure I can guess what is going through quite a few of your little heads at this very moment. I'm guessing it's something alone the lines of 'How can we do our best at night? It's so dark!'…am I right? Well I have a revelation for you. I don't care. You are seventh years and I expect each and everyone of you to do you best. If I feel at any time that you are not giving your all, I will submit you to the worst detentions I can think of until you graduate. That's quite a ways away ladies and gentlemen. Think about it."

It was quite the speech, Julian had to give him that. The cold hearted bastard had a way of setting you up, knocking you down, encouraging you, and making you wish that you'd never been born all at the same time. It was almost beautiful in it's deliverance.

"Still thinking of copping out after round three?" Julian murmured at the green eyed boy behind him. Said boy just chuckled and stated that he was planning to hold true to his plan.

"Let's start!" The brunette professor cried, shouting out the first victims name. Julian almost felt bad for the tiny Ravenclaw girl whose first and last name started with A's.

Julian watched as each of his year mates took their turns. One by one they fell, some getting further than even they themselves thought they would, Clover actually making it to round nine before she swerved left rather than right and was knocked right off her feet by a particularly vicious sand bag.

"I'm impressed." Julian murmured softly, watching the unpleased looking girl stagger to a standing position and limp off the course.

"You and her both." Draco replied, personally surprised that his girlfriend hadn't burst into bone shattering sobs.

"Girls are lot tougher than you give them credit for." The small boy replied, turning his head in such a way that his eyes locked with gentle ice blue ones.

"I know they are Julian. I know they are."

Julian nodded and leaned into his brother's arms as they both turned back to watching the slaughter of one particular seventh year red head.

To be honest, the boy didn't do to bad. He worked hard, was quick on his feet and had a good mind for strategy. Julian wasn't surprised that he made it to the twelfth platform. He didn't even make a mistake, not really anyways. The only reason he fell from the rope bridge was because he hadn't taken care of his shoes and his laces had come untied.

"Why haven't we been called?" Draco asked, his question not really directed at anyone, but Julian shrugged in answer anyways.

"Don't know." Julian replied, watching as the dark haired professor stood on the starting point once more and began to speak, his voice reaching the far edges of the circle.

"Thank you everyone. There are two names I have yet to call, but by the Headmasters' request, I am telling everyone still here to go back to there rooms. You have classes in the morning and I know most if not all of you have homework." Professor Potter said, motioning up to the castle with a firm wave.

"This doesn't sound like a good situation…" Julian murmured, looking up at his brother whose mouth was set in a scowl.

Draco didn't reply, he simply nudged the smaller boy so he could stand, extending his hand to help the other blond once he was on his feet.

Julian took the offered hand and stood, watching those around him shuffle and chatter as they left for the warm comfort of their common rooms.

"Regretting being the last running yet?" Blaise teased as he passed, pulling the limping blonde girl along with him as she continually tried to get to her boyfriend's side to 'encourage' him to do his best.

"Not at all." Julian replied, his tone firm and steady as he held his brothers hand, awaiting his fate.

Before long, the students had made their way back to their various towers. Some were doing homework some were reading magazines, others were painting their toe nails and giggling over who was dating who so early in the year, but no matter how mundane the variety of activities, all unspoken thoughts were on the two blonds that awaited their fates at the mechanical hands of 'The Beast'.

...

Both blonds watched as James welcomed the headmaster with a bright smile and a hearty handshake, the pure worship barely suppressed within his muddy hazel eyes. For his part, Dumbledore returned the hand shake with pleasant words, but the moment his sharp blue eyes zeroed in on the Malfoy siblings the warm exterior evaporated.

"Good evening children." The headmaster folded his hands behind his back and shifted his weight a bit in a move that spoke of a background with a strong focus on non-magical defense training to the trained eye. "According to Professor Potter, you were the two that ran the longest around the lake this afternoon. But upon reviewing the memory of the event, It has occurred to me that Draco Malfoy would have stopped much sooner than he did. Which made me wonder why he continued…"

Dumbledore then brought his hand around to fold them in front himself a deliberate move to soften his words.

"It is true that Mister Malfoy here is a very fine athlete, The Slytherin team wouldn't allow him such an important position otherwise." The old man smiled and stood taller, "But that doesn't explain running about forty miles in four and a half hours. But that isn't quite right, is it?"

The question was obviously rhetorical, so neither boy answered as probing blue eyes slid over to rake over the beautiful female looking brother on the right.

"In fact, It was our lovely Miss Malfoy that ran such an impressive test of endurance." The 'Miss' was colored with derogatory scorn and thinly veiled disgusted mocking despite the praising words. "For one of such a…disadvantaged education, I must commend you. Had I any proof that you had known of the particulars of this test before hand, I would be inclined to have Madam Pomfrey screen for enhancing potions."

A chill ran down Julian's back at the dismissive laugh that seemed to write the threat off as nothing more than a simple joke.

It turned Julian's stomach to stand in front of this man and allow him to back handedly degrade him with his sweet sounding words. But he swallowed his revulsion and tightened his hold on his brothers' hand briefly before letting go to fold his hands behind his back loosely.

"If memory serves, I seem to recall the two of you being quite inseparable in your younger years. Crying when the other was out of site for too long, then intense worry when instinct matured and with age came certain understandings, yes, the Malfoy boys were quite the site…But I wonder how years of separation has changed your dynamic."

Draco looked over at his sibling and couldn't help but indulge in that thought as well. He had thought his brother dead for so long. Then for the last few years had done everything he could think of to replace the gnawing loneliness that filled his very core.

He'd surrounded himself with all the types of people he knew his brother would hate, even if he did so unconsciously. He'd made fun of and been rude to anyone who looked even remotely well adjusted, when he himself was in such agonizing turmoil. He'd generally become a person that screamed for attention, good or bad, because the closer people looked at him…the less they truly saw and that, in his opinion, was a good thing.

How would having his brother back change things? It's not like one summer would change six years of development… very much like his brother was now more comfortable in a bra and a pair of heels, Draco knew he wore his selfishness and 'better than you' sneer with the same level of comfort. It was part of him.

Pale colored eyes took in the strong jaw and firm set to the shoulders on the being new to him. It occurred to him in that moment that despite months of togetherness, his brother was still a virtual stranger to him. It was most disconcerting and the clenching in his stomach did nothing to help calm his nerves.

"Sir, are you suggesting we work the course as a pair?" Julian asked, no longer wanting to hear Dumbledore wax poetically on about his relationship with his brother, past or present.

The old man had the audacity to look shocked at the question, as if that stupid idea had never even occurred to him and he hadn't been building up to that climatic reveal.

"Why no child." He replied, a grandfatherly 'you're not mature enough to understand the situation' smile curving his lips and deepening his wrinkles. "I wouldn't dream of it. Much too dangerous you know."

Julian's mouth tightened at the calmly shocked placating words that dripped over his skin like cold oil. The chill ran down his back again. It took everything he had not to get sick on the lawn right there on the spot. Instead, he pulled his shoulders back and spoke again. "Then why have us run this last and send everyone to bed? Why not give us own turn with everyone else?"

"Because I do not perceive you having a short run of it." That glint was back in the headmaster's eyes and both blonds felt scrutinized and judged. Strangely, it looked to Julian as if Dumbledore was finding both of them wanting, and while he could understand that reaction from the dangerously bigoted man in accordance with his own being, the same look directed to his brother made him angry.

With that, Dumbledore turned the preverbal stage over to the patiently waiting brunet behind him, taking a seat a few feet away so he would have a good view of the action as it happened.

Professor Potter twitched his wand, said a mumbled spell, and from one moment to the next the area surrounding 'The Beast' lit up as brightly as if it were once again after noon. "This is what the lighting would have been like for your original run and it will progress as such to give you no more advantage or disadvantage as any other student." He said motioning at Draco with his wand. "You will go first, then you," He barely even spared Julian a glance before continuing. "You will do your best and if I or the Headmaster at any point do not feel you are doing your best, there will be consequences."

Leaving the threat hanging in the air like rotting fruit on a low hanging branch, he then motioned for Draco once more and counted him down to start.

Draco entered the mouth of 'The Beast' when the whistle blew and instantly shivered as the large arch he passed though seemed to read his aura to identify a new challenger before everything started to move, sway, shift, swing, swirl, and even disappear.

He ran, climbed, jumped over, crawled under, avoided…it was a good run. But the balance poles were what got him in the end.

Two inch wide bamboo poles spaced out over fifteen feet all swaying back and forth with a strange forward and backward rocking motion combined with a bit of vertigo at looking down to check his status caused a miscalculation on the timing and caused the blond to lose his balance due to a nasty dizzy spell.

The liquid he fell into was clear and had hair not started to sprout from places on his body hair never grew, Draco would've thought he had gotten off lucky. But the hair popping up all over his bruised and tender skin was uncomfortable and quickly growing more painful as he slogged though the topical potion to climb out and end his test.

Dumbledore and Professor Potter murmured to one another before the brunet nodded and made a notation on a long scroll held in his lap.

"Go to the hospital wing Mister Malfoy. Get Pomfrey to see what can be done about that." He said, his full lips twitching, obviously gaining pleasure from seeing a student not of his house in such pain.

Draco wanted to protest. He wanted to stay and watch his brother. He would've too if his eyebrows weren't growing at an alarming rate and covering his eye and he wasn't even going to mention how bad feeling his eyelashes grow was. Instead, he passed his fingertips over the back of his brother's hand as he walked, Dumbledore as an escort as he wasn't the official witness to the tests and a medical escort was needed as no one else was around.

"Get ready." Potter said, motioning for Julian to get into place so his test could start.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

"I want to see my brother!" Draco stated loudly the moment he arrived in the medical wing and for a moment, Poppy was transported back in time six years as those same words echoed in his ears.

Turning around to ask why the young man would think she knew where his brother was, she had to suppress a moment of laughter at seeing the walking waterfall of platinum blond hair that stood in the middle of her hospital.

She met twinkling eyes and licked her lips to quell the inappropriate laughter that threatened to bubble out as pale hands attempted to push massive amounts of hair out of the way to see around himself. "I hate to tell you Mister Malfoy, but you won't be seeing much of anything until I can get Professor Snape up here with the correct antidote." She replied, guiding the agitated boy over to a soft bed so she could run a few tests.

"I don't care, I want to hear him at least. Please! I want to know!"

Poppy's heart went out to the young child and with a swirl of her wand, she pulled up a moving image of the one sided battle going on down on the grounds. There was no sound, as the spell was for long distance monitoring only, but she calmly told her patient what was going on as she determined exactly what type of growth potion had been used.

As it turned out, she had a small vile of the anti-serum on hand and while it wasn't enough to cure the hair, it was enough to stop it in a certain area.

After applying the muddy grey colored liquid all over Malfoy's face and casting a trimming and cleaning spell, Poppy bustled off to her office contact the resident potions master and have him start on a large batch of 'No Grow'.

Back in the ward, Draco watched the slaughter happening down on the grounds. Watching his brother move was like watching a muggle television show. He's caught one once upon a time while visiting a friend in Prague. It was all about a small blonde girl who fought vampires in miniskirts, though the vampires he knew looked nothing like the creatures on the show, he still enjoyed the concept and had made it a point to find the show whenever he could while on vacation in a muggle area.

He watched while Julian moved though the swinging sandbags with liquid grace, met the hand to hand aspects head on rather than avoid them. He was rather impressed when an assailant grabbed the tiny blond around the waist and instead of flailing or screaming at the surprise attack, all of the attacks having been frontal until this particular one, Julian immediately threw her slight weight forward and down to flip the man shaped thing over his shoulder, following the shoulder throw up with a drop knee to the stomach as he did a forward roll out of the way of a swinging pendulum right up onto his heels to get a running jump at the rope net that led up to the trapezes.

For the first time, Draco could see why heels would be an advantage in an obstacle course. Instead of slipping off of the ropes in the mad dash to climb, the rope was caught in the corner where the sole and the heel met and moved no further.

Sure, in a real life combat field, there wouldn't be a random rope net to climb, but then again, they were wizards. So who was to say that couldn't just make one appear for the sake of it.

The trapezes likewise gave the high heel wearing cross dresser a slight advantage, because unlike the first few rounds where he used his hands just like everyone else had to swing from bar to swinging bar, Julian simply pulled himself up on the first bar until her was standing and hopped across the swings, his heels keeping him locked on the bar when he landed wrong at one point.

Draco was on the edge of his bed he was so enthralled with the goings on. He wasn't even counting the rounds anymore, to interested in his brothers actions. Like how the heels had been lost after a vicious round house kick to a black shapes' face. It had vanished and one shoe came flying off, the laces having come loose at some point during the course. His brother didn't even blink, just kept right on until there was enough time to pause and take the other one off. The socks followed quickly and Julian was now running the course bare foot.

It was easy to see the pace slowing after that, the pained twitched here and there as the rose ladder was replaced with a rock wall, the rocks uneven and jagged looking to even the outside observer. It was painful to watch as soft feet were cut into and the rocks became slick with rich red blood.

Had anyone else lost their shoes through the running of the obstacle course that afternoon? Draco couldn't remember, but it was unlikely that it hadn't happened before now. …It had to be that magical reading the contraption took before everything started moving…it had to be based on your condition. Physical and Magical. It read you…just like a medical diagnostic spell, 'The Beast' could adapt to you, just like you could adapt to it.

One had to admire the sick twisted mind that had poured enough magic into this artifact to turn it from training tool, to something almost alive and aware enough to fight you back.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

Twenty-two rounds later, Julian lay on the grass to the side of the Beast panting for breath and trying to see if anything was broken.

Having pulled out one of the rocking bamboo poles out of the slimy black sludge it was stuck in to take with him to jump over the long stretch of invisible stepping stones that came after another set of swinging sand bags coupled with crushing chompy things that looked highly dangerous. Have passed the last chompy jaw of death as he was like to call it in his mind, Julian had just used the pole to vault over the expanse when right in the middle of the jump, out of know where, it feels like a sledge hammer has been slammed into his the side of his body, the force of the blow throwing him very clear of 'The Beast'.

His test was over and all he could think was, 'ow'.

"After all that….taken down by a simple sandbag. That's kind of pathetic."

Sandbag his ass! That thing had to have been filled with rocks, or had a steel bar in its core. It was too heavy for a simple sandbag….

Had he the energy, Julian would have flipped his professor off. It was un lady like and rude, but god he hated the man. But it took to much effort to even think about lifting his arm to be seen and if the gesture wasn't seen, there was no point to it.

There was a scratching and before long, there was a nudge at his shoulder and he hauled up by his collar.

"Come on kid, Poppy's waiting for you." Julian could almost swear there was a hint of something not quite hostile in the older man's voice. Something that wasn't kind by any means, but could almost be a flicker of respect.

It made the walk through the castle almost pleasant if one ignored the hard stones under tender feet or the curt jerks and pushes this way and that to direct him to the Hospital Wing.

"Goodness Gracious!" Pomfery exclaimed, taking in the violently colored purple bruise forming on Julian's right cheek from a lucky punch one of the higher level hand to hand combatants had gotten in before its legs had been swept out from under it.

She took in the way the poor dear was holding its left arm close to its side, the way he tried to balance more on his toes to keep from putting too much pressure on his soles, how even black and blue and beaten, the child still stood up straight and as tall as they possibly could.

"Julian Malfoy." She stated, a half greeting a half accusation. "That was quite a performance."

Julian decided to take that as a compliment as the woman showed him to a bed right next to his peacefully sleeping brother. Or at least….he looked like he was sleeping.

Despite wanting to sit down on the bed and let the healer check him over, he couldn't help but lean closer to the lightly furred face that was slack with unconsciousness.

"He was getting so upset with each passing round he had to be sedated." Madam Pomfrey explained, ushering the small battered boy onto a bed.

Julian nodded and accepted the answer, too tired to be suspicious that the nice nurse might have dark alternative reasonings for putting his brother to sleep. In fact, Julian felt his own eyes drifting closed, becoming heavier with each blink and as the chocolate was carefully taken out of his hand, he had to wonder how it had gotten there to begin with….and why did the would taste like lavender?

Poppy eased her charge into a laying position as she began complicated healing spells that would mend the cracked bones. She was so thankful Severus had finally figured out a way to make sleeping potions taste better. That it had the added bonus of being a bit under handed was just that, a lovely bonus.

No one ever suspected a small piece of chocolate to contain a fast acting Dreamless Sleep, not even the headmaster himself….

Thank you all so much for reading this chapter! I had a lot of fun completing it and hopefully will be able to get another chapter out before another year goes by. Wouldn't that be nice? Lol

Again, Thank you to readers Old and New and I look forward to hearing from you!

Just a note, the miles Julian ran is based on a 5-7 min. mile. With a hint of exaggeration thrown in for fun. Please note, the Boston Marathon is only 26 something miles, so take it for what it's worth. I have friends who are hard core runners and even they don't run that much at one time.