Anyone.

[karen_hall]

Karen sat cross-legged in her dormitory, hoping that no one walked in on her. She was busy boiling a her cauldron on the carpet, being wary not to burn anything in the dorm. The potion within was a blood red color, stirring itself in a constant clockwise motion. Karen bent down, picked up the red rose she had picked off a bush by Hagrid's hut,

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[_harry_p_]

"Karen, c'mon," he pleaded, his voice breaking a little in fear that he might have found her too late.

"To the healers!" Sir Cadogan prompted, and though Harry would normally have wondered at the choice of title for their school nurse and staff, he didn't blink an eye at the moment.

Scooping his hands under her lifeless form, he pulled her to his chest, and it was only then that he noticed the empty vial lying next to her. Hoping it might possibly help, he snatched it with one hand, and then proceeded to carry her as carefully and as quickly as he could toward the hospital wing. His eyes scanned over her body as he walked, watching her face for any sign of a flicker of life.

"Merlin, please don't be-" he mumbled to the non-responsive girl.

The nurse fell upon him with a grave sense of urgency when she noticed his friend's condition, though she spared any suspicious looks toward him until much later.

"Is...is she..."

"Out of my way, boy!" she shooed him, swatting him back with her hands as she examined both Karen and the vial she had grabbed away from him. "Foolish, reckless girl," she mumbled under her breath, seeming to understand more than Harry did what might be happening.

He just wanted her to wake up...

[karen_hall]

Karen suddenly felt something burn her throat, and she coughed heavily and sat up in the hospital bed. Harry was standing on the other side of the room, looking nervous.

"What the bloody hell was that?!" Karen asked. Madame Pomfrey looked at her sternly.

"Never you mind that. If I tell you, you'll just run off and do this all over again. Hasn't Professor Snape told you students not to make potions of your own devices? You could have died!"

Karen looked over at Harry. That's why he was so worried. She had really hoped that her potion would work, but clearly something had gone wrong. Was it the heat, the rose, what?. "But, Madame Pomfrey..." Karen started. "I know there must have been a way to wake me up. What was it? It must be obvious to you!" Pomfrey looked at her, flabbergasted that a Ravenclaw would persist so.

"If you were aiming to create a sleeping draught that required being kissed by a Slytherin to awaken, you did the trick. Do not attempt this again, do you hear me?"

Karen stifled a giggle and nodded, getting up and running over to Harry, pulling him outside. She didn't even ask if she could leave.

[_harry_p_]

Harry barely got outside the doors to the hospital wing before pulling her to a stop, his face still full of wide-eyed confusion. "You did that on purpose?" he asked, finally beginning to feel his heart slow to a more regular rate.

"I thought you- I thought you were-" he couldn't finish the sentence, the relief finally washing over him until he could manage a weak grin. "I can't believe you did that on purpose. Please tell me you weren't really trying to get a Slytherin to kiss you..."

[karen_hall]

Karen put a hand up to Harry's face. "Harry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to - It was supposed to be a juliet potion. Looks like death, acts like death, and you wake up in half an hour. Except..." Karen thought for a moment. "That's it! I put a thorned rose in the potion. I must have needed one without thorns. That's what changed the awakening factor. Damn roses..."

Karen looked at Harry.

"Although we could totally use this to play a prank on Malfoy," she giggled.

[_harry_p_]

He couldn't help but laugh a bit at the suggestion now that he knew the girl hadn't been in any real danger.

Grinning slightly at Karen, he shrugged.

"Not a bad idea," he told her, and then added with a wry wink, "of course, it wouldn't be too terrible if we used it on him and he just stayed like that."