The next time Arlene regained consciousness, she wished she was still passed out.

Her head ached terribly and her body felt as if her bones were reforming, she was cold yet her body was burning, and from what she could see, she wasn't the only one.

The hospital wing was fuller than Arlene had ever seen, even during the Slytherin Alcohol poisoning. The students laid in beds, either asleep or surrounded by friends, she could see Neville eating a chocolate happily as Lavender rambled on beside him, probably catching him on to the latest gossip and rumors of what happened.

Oh Merlin, what happened?

The last thing she could remember was Blaise's comment and large cloud of darkness, then nothing.

"Morning sleepyhead." Sage, who was reading the Daily Prophet and sipping tea, said with a soft smile.

Arlene groaned, trying to sit up "What in the name of Merlin's beard happened?"

Sage smile faltered "Dementors," she said in a small voice "hundreds of them, some people started collapsing or throwing up, a horrible feeling came over me, like-"

"You would never be happy again." Arlene finished "Yeah."

Sage was silent for a moment as she took a sip of her tea, then her eyes widened as if she had just remembered something "But you will not believe what happened!"

Arlene smiled at Sage's excitement "What?"

"Lee asked me out!" She gushed.

"Oh."

Sage frowned "I thought you'd be a little bit more surprised."

Arlene silently cursed herself for the stupid mistake "I meant OH!"

Sage's grin returned "I know! Next Hogsmead visit, it's going to be brilliant!"

Sage kept rambling on, Arlene couldn't understand a word she was saying but kept nodding with a smile.

Madam Pomfrey let most of the students go, but others with an injury or other symptoms like Arlene who suffered a concussion when she collapsed, had to stay.

A few were still passed out, like a Ravenclaw fifth year, a Gryffindor prefect and Harry Potter.

Harry's bed was next to hers, occasionally his friends would come visit for a while before getting kicked out by Pomfrey.

Except the third day, when Harry woke up. From what Arlene managed to hear, Hufflepuff won and Wood was trying to drown himself.

Harry looked pretty bummed out, but it was nothing compared to when they showed him his broom, only pieces of wood ripped apart by the vicious tree.

They started to leave, probably to give Harry some time to think.

What Arlene didn't expect, was Hermione heading towards her, instead of the exit.

For a moment, as Hermione sat on the bed beside her, Arlene forgot to breathe, or talk, or think.

The bushy haired girl held out something in her hand, a get well card, for Arlene, who stuttered out a thank you and took the little paper.

A blanket of awkward silence fell over them, neither of them knew what to say.

"Well then." Hermione cleared her throat and went to stand up.

Realizing another chance was skipping through her fingers, Arlene stopped her.

"Wait!" she called out.

Hermione stopped and turned around "Yes?"

Arlene realized what was wrong with that plan, but thought quickly and grabbed the chess board from the stand beside her.

"Sage is in Magical Languages," Arlene vaguely explained "why don't you keep me company?"

Hermione arched her eyebrows "By playing a game of chess?"

Arlene grinned "Scared, Granger?" she questioned, making fun of Draco.

Hermione chuckled, remembering the dueling club the year before "You wish." She told her in a playful aggressive tone.

She sat down again and crossed her legs, rolling up her sleeves and tying up her hair.

Arlene rolled her eyes and opened the chess set, then made the first move.

"Do you remember that book we were talking about?" Hermione asked, moving her pawn.

Arlene ignored the chess pieces telling her to use the horse "The Fault In Our Stars? Yeah, I loved it, the end ripped out my heart though."

Hermione moved another pawn and sighed "I know, I wanted to hunt down John Green and demand he write another ending."

"I was going to hunt down John Green," Arlene told her "But then I remembered that I won't look good in prison strips."

The bushy haired girl giggled and moved another piece.

"Anyway, he has this other book, Paper Towns, I love it."

"I don't think I've read that." Arlene said, wrinkling her nose in confusion.

Hermione arched an eyebrow in surprise "Really? You should, maybe I can lend it to you sometime."

Arlene nodded "Maybe."

"And maybe 'Maybe' will be our Always."

The chess pieces kept yelling at them to continue playing as they both broke into hysterical laughter.

Eventually Hermione had to leave, but Sage visited her a lot, Blaise and Theo stayed with her for a while and several members of the Quidditch team dropped by.

Jude, who was probably the only American in Hogwarts, got her this weird candy called 'Twinkies', Marcus got her some flowers, Peggy made her a card and Miles got a few boxes of Bertie's Beans, then proceeded to have a mystery bean competition with her.

Her mouth still tasted like dung.

But their visits were short, it wasn't easy getting around Madame Pomfrey, and Arlene was dying out of boredom.

Until Harry, who apparently was still depressed over the broom, spoke up.

"Arlene?" he called out.

"Hmm?"

He turned in his bed to face her "Do you remember at the beginning of the year feast when you told me that you heard voices when the dementor got close?" he asked

Arlene's heart skipped a beat, she had completely forgotten about the conversation she had heard when she passed out.

Arlene nodded absentmindedly, now starting to think about it.

Who was Kreacher? And what the hell was the Infiri?

"When the dementors came at the Quidditch pitch, did you- did you hear anything?"

Arlene opened her mouth then closed it again "Why," She asked "did you hear something?"

"I-" Harry started, then dropped his voice "I heard my mother, the night that Voldemort came. My father was already dead, my mother was begging him to take her instead of me."

Her hand shot up and covered her open jaw "Oh dear," she whispered "that's horrible."

Harry simply nodded, turning his head to the ceiling.

"I heard my dad," Arlene announced "he knew something, the place of a weapon of some sort that Voldemort had. I don't know what it was, I don't know if my mum did, but whatever it is, it was what got him killed."

They both sank into silence after that.

"I'm sorry about you broom." She added, breaking the silence.

Harry nodded glumly "It feels like I've lost a friend, I know it's stupid."

"It's not stupid," Arlene assured him "you had it for two years, it was your first broom, it probably means a lot to you."

"Yeah." Harry sighed absentmindedly.

Arlene frowned at his far away expression "What is it?"

He turned back to her "What's what?"

"There's something on your mind."

He bit his lip "It's just, when I fell I saw, well, I thought I saw a black dog, the grim."

Arlene stared in shock "Oh Merlin."

"It's not the first time, either," he continued "before the start of the year, when the night bus almost hit me, it was there."

Arlene was suddenly reminded of the night Hermione had left Crookshanks with her, through one of the windows, the large black dog that was staring at her...

"Holy shit," she whispered in disbelief "I think I saw it too."

Harry frowned "What? When?"

"The night of the Hippogriff incident." Arlene said, but her mind was occupied with the memory of Draco's arm covered in blood, was that injury meant for her? In a much more fetal place?

Harry was quiet, but she knew he was thinking about it too.

Three times the dog was witnessed, two before Trelaway even told them about it. Arlene would've liked to think that it was just a stray dog, but the same stray dog that appears when Harry is in a life or death situation? It was very far from likely.

Arlene remembered her conversation with Hermione about the grim, trying to understand prophecies only ends badly, the explanation to it all may have nothing to do with the grim, Harry is in life or deaths situations all the time, it doesn't mean anything.

But why did it appear to Arlene?

All that thinking was giving her a headache and the whole other problem of the dementors didn't help.

Why were they even at the game? And why did she keep passing out around them?

Honestly, she wanted it to stop, she didn't want to have her dead father's conversation with her mother about a psychopathic homicidal maniac with daddy issues stuck in her head.

And then there was the conversation itself, why didn't her father trust Dumbledore? What did he find out about Voldemort and who in the name of Merlin was Kreacher?

But then her eyes landed on the Fantastic Beasts book that Sage got her to help her with her homework.

What were the Infiri?