Harry Potter 02 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

with someone leaning over him. He saw a glitter of teeth.
    ‘Oh no, not you,’ he moaned.
    ‘Doesn’t know what he’s saying,’ said Lockhart loudly, to the anxious crowd of Gryffindors pressing around them. ‘Not to worry, Harry. I’m about to fix your arm.’
    ‘No!’ said Harry. ‘I’ll keep it like this, thanks …’
    He tried to sit up, but the pain was terrible. He heard a familiar clicking noise nearby.
    ‘I don’t want a photo of this, Colin,’ he said loudly.
    ‘Lie back, Harry,’ said Lockhart soothingly. ‘It’s a simple charm I’ve used countless times.’
    ‘Why can’t I just go to the hospital wing?’ said Harry through clenched teeth.
    ‘He should really, Professor,’ said a muddy Wood, who couldn’t help grinning even though his Seeker was injured. ‘Great capture, Harry, really spectacular, your best yet, I’d say.’
    Through the thicket of legs around him, Harry spotted Fred and George Weasley, wrestling the rogue Bludger into a box. It was still putting up a terrific fight.
    ‘Stand back,’ said Lockhart, who was rolling up his jade-green sleeves.
    ‘No – don’t –’ said Harry weakly, but Lockhart was twirling his wand and a second later had directed it straight at Harry’s arm.
    A strange and unpleasant sensation started at Harry’s shoulder and spread all the way down to his fingertips. It felt as though his arm was being deflated. He didn’t dare look at what was happening. He had shut his eyes, his face turned away from his arm, but his worst fears were realised as the people above him gasped and Colin Creevey began clicking away madly. His arm didn’t hurt any more – but nor did it feel remotely like an arm.
    ‘Ah,’ said Lockhart. ‘Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is, the bones are no longer broken. That’s the thing to bear in mind. So, Harry, just toddle up to the Hospital Wing – ah, Mr Weasley, Miss Granger, would you escort him? – and Madam Pomfrey will be able to – er – tidy you up a bit.’
    As Harry got to his feet, he felt strangely lopsided. Taking a deep breath he looked down at his right side. What he saw nearly made him pass out again.
    Poking out of the end of his robes was what looked like a thick, flesh-coloured rubber glove. He tried to move his fingers. Nothing happened.
    Lockhart hadn’t mended Harry’s bones. He had removed them.
    *
    Madam Pomfrey wasn’t at all pleased.
    ‘You should have come straight to me!’ she raged, holding up the sad, limp remainder of what, half an hour before, had been a working arm. ‘I can mend bones in a second – but growing them back –’
    ‘You will be able to, won’t you?’ said Harry desperately.
    ‘I’ll be able to, certainly, but it will be painful,’ said Madam Pomfrey grimly, throwing Harry a pair of pyjamas. ‘You’ll have to stay the night …’
    Hermione waited outside the curtain drawn around Harry’s bed while Ron helped him into his pyjamas. It took a while to stuff the rubbery, boneless arm into a sleeve.
    ‘How can you stick up for Lockhart now, Hermione, eh?’ Ron called through the curtain as he pulled Harry’s limp fingers through the cuff. ‘If Harry had wanted de-boning he would have asked.’
    ‘Anyone can make a mistake,’ said Hermione, ‘And it doesn’t hurt any more, does it, Harry?’
    ‘No,’ said Harry, ‘but it doesn’t do anything else, either.’
    As he swung himself onto the bed, his arm flapped pointlessly.
    Hermione and Madam Pomfrey came around the curtain. Madam Pomfrey was holding a large bottle of something labelled ‘Skele-Gro’.
    ‘You’re in for a rough night,’ she said, pouring out a steaming beakerful and handing it to him. ‘Regrowing bones is a nasty business.’
    So was taking the Skele-Gro. It burned Harry’s mouth and throat as it went down, making him cough and splutter. Still tut-tutting about dangerous sports and inept teachers, Madam Pomfrey retreated, leaving Ron and Hermione to help Harry gulp down some water.
    ‘We won, though,’ said Ron, a grin breaking across his face. ‘That was some catch you made. Malfoy’s face … he looked ready to kill!’
    ‘I want to know how he fixed that Bludger,’ said Hermione darkly.
    ‘We can add that to the list of questions we’ll ask him when we’ve taken the Polyjuice Potion,’ said Harry, sinking back onto his pillows. ‘I hope it tastes better than this stuff …’
    ‘If it’s got bits of Slytherins in it? You’ve got