The Buddy System. *Complete*

Appeal

"Bloody nothing," I said as I slammed another book closed.

It was a Wednesday afternoon. Draco, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Theo, Blaise, Pansy and Ginny were currently in the library, sitting at two large tables in the back that were currently gated in by piles and piles of books.

Madame Pince was not happy at all with the situation but as the Headmistress had given us special permission, she couldn't say anything.

"Try this one," Hermione said holding another book up to me. "I have a few ideas from this book: 'Dark curses for dark times' by Waldo Windsor. It's very...graphic...and detailed but it has given me a few things to try."

"Excellent Hermione!" Blaise praised as he too took a new book from the pile. Ginny was putting the books we had finished with back and Pansy and Ron were taking notes.

So far these last two weeks, since my engagement, we had tried numerous counter curses on me. I was beginning to feel like a guinea pig. But nothing had really come from them. One did remove the fluid from around my heart but moved it to my lung which meant a whole set of different pills.

Another which was pretty cool, allowed the castor to see my insides, meaning Nicola was able to get up close and personal with my heart and organs.

But most of them did nothing at all.

Slughorn had tried a few potions to no avail as well and Professor McGonagall and Flitwick were giving up their free time to search for answers too.

But as they did, I continued to deteriorate. I began to loose weight, not that I was overly big before but at least I had curves. They were gone. I wasn't sleeping as well as I used to and the sleeping draught wasn't doing much. It managed to get me about 2/3 hours every night but that was it.

I could see the concern in Draco's eyes. In everyone's eyes really. They kept a watchful eye on me. All the time. And I never really left the house much besides to go to school or to the hospital for check ups.

In mid March I was finally called on by the Council to give evidence in Azaleah's appeal. I was to Floo in and Kingsley would meet me in the foyer and take me down.

I was actually the last person to go. Pansy and Draco were on Monday past and Theo was yesterday. Everyone else was a few weeks back.

So on the Saturday morning, I was up, dressed and eating breakfast while everyone else was still dreaming. By the time I made it to the Ministry, Kingsley as promised was waiting for me.

"Good morning Miss Diggory," he smiled as I approached.

"It's Raelyn, and good morning."

"I took the liberty of ordering you a coffee." He said as he held out the cup for me. "We have a few minutes before your meeting. I wanted to see how you were." He held out his hand gesturing for me to take a seat by the fountain, which I did.

"I am doing the best I can. Feeling tired and weak a lot of the time."

"And how are you getting on with your curse research?"

"Nothing so far that explains what's happening to me. But we aren't giving up."

He nodded in agreement. "That no quit attitude is commendable Raelyn. I have a team here working as well. We will get to the bottom of this."

We chatted idily for a few more minutes before Kingsley stood up and cleared his throat. "We best be off. Your interview starts in 5minutes."

We made our way over to the right to the elevators. They were empty surprisingly enough besides Mr Weasley who beamed at me.