"You don't have to dote on me; I'm fully capable of doing things on my own," Artemis protested with a huff.

    "Nonsense," Vanessa retorted, handing him a glass of water from the bedside table. "It's my job to take care of you. You would do the same if it were me who accidentally drank poisoned mead."

    Artemis sighed. "I suppose you're right," he muttered before taking a small sip of water.

    It had been a few days since Artemis and Ron had accidentally consumed the poisoned mead. Both of them were awake, and for the most part feeling much better. Madame Pomfrey was insisting on keeping them in the Hospital Wing for a few more days just to be sure everything was truly okay, and that there were no lingering side effects. It had been a string of very slow days in the Hospital Wing, and the two of them were basically the only long term patients in Madam Pomfrey's care.

As such, Vanessa and Alex had been visiting Artemis every day, sometimes multiple times, just as Harry and Hermione had been visiting Ron. Vanessa had never spent any extended period of time in the Golden Trio's company, at least outside the classroom, so it had been an interesting few days since the incident. They were visiting Ron right now too, seemingly having some conversation amongst themselves.

    "You'd actually probably be way more obnoxious," Alex chimed in from the end of the bed, shaking Vanessa from her thoughts. "Vanessa wouldn't be able to lift a finger without you jumping in."

    Artemis huffed again, setting his glass back on the bedside table without any assistance. He knew Alex was right, and he couldn't argue against it. When he spoke again, he completely changed the topic. "Were there any new assignments today?"

    "Let me get this straight... Your girlfriend's ex-boyfriend poisoned you, and you're worried about your classwork?" Alex questioned loudly.

    Artemis rolled his eyes. "We've been over this, Alex," he groaned. "There isn't enough evidence to prove that."

    Vanessa glanced between the two of them for a moment, wondering silently if this was going to quickly devolve into an argument. "We'll figure out how this happened later," she tried to defuse. "Right now, all that really matters is that you and Ron are both okay."

    "All the signs are there though," Alex protested. "Artemis saw Malfoy poison some mead a few weeks ago, and now magically he and Ron are poisoned. Coincidence? I think not."

    Before Vanessa or Artemis could counter her, they were interrupted by one of the last people Vanessa wanted to hear this conversation.

    "Did you just say Malfoy is the one who poisoned the mead?" Harry Potter chimed in from the end of Ron's bed. He eyed them carefully, and Hermione did as well from her spot next to Ron near the head of his bed.

    "She did say that, but it's not been proven yet," Vanessa answered him, knowing fully well where this conversation was about to go. "But there's some... coincidences that seem too big to ignore."

    "Coincidences like what?" Hermione inquired.

    Vanessa hesitated as she debated what she should say. Should she just elaborate on the poisoning bit, or should she go as far back as the whole Room of Requirement and Vanishing Cabinet thing? On one hand, she didn't really think it was their business, but the more rational side of her said it was everyone's business. If Draco was truly a Death Eater and using the cabinet for nefarious purposes, and if he had been behind the mead... the chances of someone else getting hurt were high.

    "Well, we've already gone to Dumbledore with our suspicions but that obviously hasn't gone anywhere, so maybe hearing it from you would change his mind," Vanessa retorted.

    "What Vanessa is trying to say is that we expressed our concerns after we both discovered on separate occasions that Malfoy has been using the Room of Requirement to repair a Vanishing Cabinet. He's not even using any special variant of the room; just the room of hidden things," Artemis elaborated, turning slightly to face the Golden Trio. "Allegedly this is an extra credit assignment from Snape- according to both Malfoy and Dumbledore."

    "Why would Snape give him extra credit?" Harry questioned incredulously.

    "Exactly!" Alex chimed in excitedly.

    "That little detail isn't important, honestly. Whether or not Snape assigned it or not doesn't change the fact that he's repairing a Vanishing Cabinet- and Merlin only knows where it pairs to," Artemis continued. "With the rumors- if we can even call them that at this point- of him being a Death Eater, it certainly only raises more questions about why he would be doing this."

    "Right," Hermione agreed. "It would be one thing if the matching cabinet was somewhere within the school, but that seems like it would be unlikely since they were used to escape to far away locations."

    "What about the mead though?" Ron asked. "How would he be responsible for that?"

    "Well, what we have there is only circumstantial evidence," Artemis mused. "Shortly after we got back after Christmas break, I caught him sneaking off to Hogsmeade. I followed him, and caught him somehow convincing Rosmerta to slip something into a bottle of mead." Artemis paused for a moment, letting that information sink in. "Unfortunately, my Disillusionment charm wore off, and he figured out I had followed him. The confrontation was... telling. He threatened to kill me personally if I spoke a word of it to anyone, and well, I definitely did not keep my mouth shut."

    "Ain't that the truth," Alex echoed.

    Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Not the point here, Alex," she sighed. "Dumbledore was told immediately, and said he would look into it, but I'm not sure if he ever truly did."

    "Well, we ended up damn near dying, so I'm going to guess no," Ron added.

    Hermione waved him off. "Artemis is right. It's circumstantial. Just because Malfoy slipped something into some mead doesn't mean it was the same mead you boys drank."

    "Okay, maybe so, but you heard Slughorn say that bottle was meant for Dumbledore himself," Harry continued. "Maybe you two were just caught in the crosshairs. Maybe Malfoy meant to poison Dumbledore."

    "That does seem more likely," Artemis agreed. "While Malfoy hates all of us here for one reason or another, there is no way for him to have the forethought that we'd all be in Slughorn's office, let alone that he would share mead with us. It's a horrible set of coincidences, but here we are."

    "So short of a confession, there's no real way to prove it," Alex muttered.

    Vanessa watched Artemis close his eyes for a moment, bringing a hand to his chin as he thought quietly for a moment. He was quiet for a few seconds, but then he shrugged. "Well, I suppose there is always Veritaserum," he said. "Or an Unforgivable Curse or two."

    "Artemis!" Vanessa scolded, unable to hide her shock at his answer. "Sure, Malfoy would rightfully deserve it, but we don't need to stoop to his level."

    "Oh, c'mon, Vanessa," Alex huffed. "You know you want to knock him on his arse for everything he's done."

    "Yeah, with my fist! Not an Unforgivable Curse," Vanessa corrected sternly.

    "Can't say I feel the same way," Artemis retorted. "After what he's done to you- not even factoring possibly poisoning me- he deserves to be tortured, at the very least."

    Vanessa noticed the Golden Trio were all staring at Artemis as if he had grown a second head. She was sure this was the first time they had ever seen the dark side Vanessa knew he had- mostly because before this incident the six of them hadn't really interacted much.

    "Little dark, isn't it, mate?" Ron asked, frowning.

    "You used to date Malfoy, right?" Harry inquired. "What happened to that?"

    Vanessa cringed at the thought. She hadn't thought about what had gone wrong in their relationship in what seemed like an eternity now. "Long story short, he was... not very kind to me and it drove me to make some... rash life choices," Vanessa answered simply.

    "So the rumors were true," Ron breathed.

    "Ronald!" Hermione scolded, lightly smacking his arm. "We don't need to bring them up. Whether the rumors are true or not changes nothing here."

    Vanessa shrugged sheepishly. "Some of the rumors were true..."

    Artemis cleared his throat. "Anyway, enough about that; let us get back on topic," he said.

    "You helped derail this conversation, sir," Alex retorted.

    She had a point, but Vanessa knew all too well where this was heading if she didn't intervene between her friends. She squeezed Artemis' hand in her own, and looked at Harry. "So now that you have the facts, do you think you guys could relay the suspicions to Dumbledore again?" she asked. "I just know he thinks highly of you and perhaps hearing it a second time from you might cause him to actually investigate all of this more."

    Harry, Ron, and Hermione all exchanged silent glances for a moment before Harry looked back at her. "Yeah. I'll talk to him tonight," he replied. "See if we can get to the bottom of it."

    Vanessa nodded slowly. "Sounds perfect."

    When this school year started, Vanessa never would've fathomed she'd be working alongside the Golden Trio for whatever hell this school year would bring, but here she was. It was unexpected, an unlikely friendship. But if it meant bringing Draco to justice for all he had done, Vanessa was more than happy to be on their side.

*****

Hello everyone! So very sorry it took me about 3 months for an update. It's been... an ordeal. Since my last update it's been very busy and generally just unpredictable around here.

The whole house caught Covid for the first- and hopefully only time- around the time I posted the last chapter. We had to reschedule our daughter's birthday plans and everything. Things started to be normal, and then we got word that my husband's grandmother in Germany was sick- and we had no idea how gravely ill she was. Bad news is that we needed passports renewed so we scrambled to get all that taken care of. Luckily, she is fine and home now, so we no longer think we have to make an emergency trip there. Two of three pets have been injured since then too. All on top of other appointments, work, and normal life.

I was also dealt some less than ideal medical news at the beginning of this month, and I am still processing that. I'm not 100% sure yet what this entails yet, but will know more after I speak to a specialist in January. I promise you guys I am okay! I'm not dying or anything. I just may be more tired and stressed than usual.

I've been slowly working on this over the course of the last couple weeks, and I finally got close enough earlier today that I just decided to stay up tonight and finish it no matter what.

Unfortunately, I think I will be putting this story on the back burner for a bit. I really want to get to the "halfway" point in Shine Again, and that is 3 chapters from where I am currently at. Ideally, I would like to be at that point by the new year, but we will see what happens. That will mean minimal distractions from other stuff, so I hope I will be able to get it done. Once I hit the halfway point, I will likely go back to alternating stories like I have been doing.

Anyway, I am so very sorry again for the delay, and the further delay of me focusing on the other story. But I promise I haven't given up on this, and it will be finished. Thank you all- as always- for your patience with me. It means a lot to me. Truly. I hope all of you are doing well!

~arty_writes