Madam Pomfrey examined the black-haired boy from head to toe. Other than looking sleep-deprived, there was nothing wrong with him.
Still, the kind school nurse had him stay in the hospital wing. She made him drink a sleeping potion, left a Chocolate Frog by his bedside for when he woke up, and even signed his sick leave slip.
"I remember you two used to fight nonstop. Why are you getting along so well today?"
The middle-aged woman even teased Draco. Both sides were regular visitors to the School Hospital—today, one would make the other's nose hairs grow longer, and tomorrow, the other would turn him bald, that sort of prank warfare.
But this was the first time she had seen the two supporting each other as they came in.
"Y-you're so noisy!" Draco's face reddened. He turned away from her and dragged the doctor somewhere Harry could not hear them, then spoke in a low voice. "That was the past. We're both fourth-years now, and we've matured a lot. I can't exactly stand by and watch my classmate commit suicide."
"You said suicide?" Madam Pomfrey stopped smiling as well. A grave expression appeared on her round face, like an apple touched by frost.
Draco turned to look at Harry lying in the hospital bed some distance away. His face was almost as white as the sheets, and he already seemed to be asleep. "I suspect so. He told me he wanted to sleep forever in the Black Lake."
"Merlin above!"
The kind woman covered her mouth. She had never imagined something like this could happen.
Hogwarts was a school, a place meant to bring people joy and happiness. Every child should have been able to spend their youth here without a care in the world.
But it turned out that