Disclaimer: Adie forgot to say this in the last chappie so, here goes-

The journalist remark was taken from Blackadder, Adie just sorta rearranged it to fit it into the story.

The whole "Don't call me Bones" shebang comes from Bones.

Also, "What would an Angel Say? The Devil Wants to Know" is from Fiona Apple. Adie loves her very much.

Anyways, Harry Potter belongs to J.K.Rowling, not Adie Ornament.

You said "He's got a healing machine
It glows in the dark
Glows in the dark."
You say, "There's not a lot of me
Left anymore -
Just leave it alone.
But if you're buy, and you have the time,
Tell the northern lights to keep shining –
Lately it seems like they're drowning."

Amber Waves; Tori Amos

You Caught Me Lingering

"It is now forbidden to leave the castle, anyone attempting to will suffer the consequences. You are not to communicate with anyone outside of Hogwarts. Letters have already been owled to your families explaining everything. The more you cooperate, the easier and faster this mess will be sorted out.

Once you have finished your meals, you are to report to the hospital wing where you will receive a vaccination, after that, you are to immediately return to your common rooms where you will remain for the rest of the evening. Only for meals are you allowed to exit your common rooms.

If you happen to find you are suffering already from any symptoms, you are to head to the hospital wing and same goes for if you develop any symptoms.

If you have any questions or concerns" Snape paused and several hands shot up into the air, "You clearly weren't listening." Finished his speech, the potions master exited the Great Hall as students watched his billowing robes fade from view. Murmurs and whispers floated around the Hall, all conversation laced with a growing panic.

Each day, Snape and the uncontaminated students would report for their vaccinations and each day, someone would show signs of symptoms they had tried to hide. Soon, twelve became ten and ten became six until not one was disease free, not even the potions master himself who had kept himself up for weeks trying to discover anything about the plague that had infiltrated Hogwarts.

Day One

Snape knew something more was wrong though. Dumbledore, McGonagall and Pomfrey had all disappeared more than a week ago. They hadn't been seen once the Reds had come.

Snape had a nasty feeling about them, the Reds with their bloody cloaks and masked faces, they had come to quarantine the Hogwarts area. They worked for the Ministry of Magic in a branch not unlike that of the Department of Mysteries. They hid in the shadows, observing and taking notes. The next day they would come in with a new potion, each day, a different remedy to be shoved down the patients throat.

Scattered everywhere on Snape's desk had been various newspapers. Not even the Daily Prophet had produced a story on the plague spreading through Hogwarts and, no one outside the school had been reported as to suffering similar symptoms.

But then, things had changed. He woke up in a hospital bed opposite Hermione Granger and beside Cho Chang. The bizarre thing was, he had no idea how he happened to get here. Hermione and Cho said they had suffered similar lapses in memory.

What worried Snape most though was the condition Cho was in, she was by far in the worst shape. Before she had disappeared, Madame Pomfrey had confided something to him, something very worrying.

In all her medical career, she had never seen anything like this and neither, had any medical textbook. Ever.

The room where they were was somewhere different then the hospital wing. There were no windows, just half a dozen cots pushed up against the walls. The cots were terribly uncomfortable. It's as if they were designed so that no one could have a full nights rest on them, no matter how hard they tried. It also seemed to always be cold, making it unbearable to touch the stone floors.

When Montague and his collegue Oliver Wood had come to Hogwarts on official quidditch business, he was expecting the dullest three days of his life, watching wannabe players fall off their brooms and their dumbstruck faces as various quaffles (and their careers as a professional quidditch player) fly past them.

But now, he wished it could be as such. He would rather stick a very rusty knife in his eye then be cooped up in the dank hospital cell for one more day. Pacing across the floor, he studied his "company."

First there was Oliver who was all right once you got past the fact that he was a tad insane. Montague was always cautious when discussing quidditch tactics with him, careful never to get him to excited. They had been together since they'd graduated and after they had gotten past the whole house rivalry thing, they turned out to make a pretty fierce team out on the pitch.

Still sleeping in her cot was little Miss "Don't call me Bones!" herself. The Hufflepuff he had met yesterday was sane enough and also seemed to be one of the more intelligent students that attended the school. She hadn't woken up yet although, she had just arrived this morning. She was much paler than she had been when they had met before and lying in her cot with her braid coming loose like that, Montague thought she looked as though she was on her death bed. He hoped that wasn't the case.

To the left of Susan was the youngest of the Weasley clan. Although Montague didn't know her personally, he assumed that she was like her brothers. A complete idiot. From his experience with her brothers, he had deducted that they had an eye for creating quite ingenious pranks but, other than that possessed the IQ of a mouldy piece of cheese. Only, not quite so developed.

Lastly, there was Draco Malfoy, the biggest prick that he had ever met. Not only had Montague suffered from Malfoyitis when he had attended Hogwarts but it seemed that he waould have to tolerate Malfoy for a while longer. Much more than the average human being can stand.

It was when Susan began to stir that he was woken from his analysis. The Weasley girl was immediately by her side.

Dazed, Susan looked around before falling into discussion with Ginny. "Where am I? I mean, how did I get here?"

Ginny stared at her. She had had a similar response when she woke up but had thought maybe she'd hit her head sometime in the night, explaining why she couldn't remember what exactly had happened. "You mean, you don't remember either? I woke up and found myself here too. Can anybody actually remember what happened before you arrived here? Wherever here happens to be." The last part was mumbled more to herself than anyone in general.

The only response Weasley got was silence. It wasn't at all comforting. After a quick series of questions, Ginny was able to deduct three things: they had all woken up in this room this morning; they had no idea how they got here and everyone had two symptoms (coughing and a slight fever).

"Perhaps we've been placed together because of our symptoms." Oliver's suggestion was reasonable.

"Well what happens when you develop new symptoms then?"

"Different rooms for different symptoms." Susan's husky voice from before was gone, replaced with a voice made raspy from her coughs. "But how many symptoms are there…"she trailed off, pausing to think. After a minutes pause, she continued. "Has anyone actually been told what we have? I've been injected with every vaccination possible, I've tasted every remedy that they've forced me to take whether hidden in my food or shoved down my throat and not once have they actually told me what kind of virus this is." She was forced to stop again due to a bout of coughing but resumed immediately afterwards. "I've been thinking that, a lot of this is bizarre. We are allowed no communication with the outside world, I'm guessing because nobody else has whatever this is. How does a remote castle catch a plague that even the busiest cities haven't? Doesn't that strike you odd?"

"But…" Ginny wavered, still letting Susan's ideas sink in. "People have to know something's wrong. My family wouldn't just accept that I'm locked up here being quarantined… they must get routine letters, updates on our conditions."

"Maybe they weren't told that we're being quarantined. Maybe letters weren't even sent and they think we're all just doing whatever it is we stayed here at the castle to do in the first place."

Susan nodded, "I agree with Montague, if they aren't telling us anything, I don't think they're telling our families."

Oliver held up his hands. "You two," he stared at Montague and Susan, "are making this seem more like a conspiracy than a routine quarantine. These Red guys work for the Ministry, I'm sure they just want to keep it hush hush for now and when we're all cured, they'll say a flu epidemic or whatever hit Hogwarts and let the Prophet do a story or two on it. After that, we can all go home and have a happy Christmas."

"You're wrong." Startled, everyone looked to the corner where Malfoy was getting out of his cot. "Firstly, we can't even know what day it is, days may have already gone by, none of us can actually remember what happened before…" Malfoy stared at his surroundings, letting them sink in, "here."

Oliver ran his fingers through his hair that now seemed to be a lot longer than before. "Shit."

"There used to be five of us here; Dennis Creevy, Padma Patil, Ernie MacMillan, Marissa and myself. Marissa and Ernie had been here the longest and were by far the sickest, they both had a myriad of symptoms: headaches, coughing, fever, sweating, chills, chest pains, bruises that seem to come from nothing… the list is endless. They seemed to have a new one everyday. It was about six days ago that it happened. They came in the middle of the night."

"Who are they?" Hermione had asked, almost unwillingly, as if the answer would turn out to be some sort of monster.

Cho continued as if she hadn't heard the question. "I pretended to be asleep but I saw everything. They pulled these long syringes from these cases they were carrying. They filled it up with some fluid and injected it into Marissa's and Ernie's eyes. After that, they took them." Cho began to cry and Hermione could tell that the experience had truly been horrible.

It was after Cho had stopped crying that Hermione asked again, "Who are they?"

Cho paled, the name seemed to frighten the girl.

"Who are they?" Her whisper urged Cho to continue.

"When your symptoms worsen, the Reds come for you." She instantly began to cry again, collapsing onto her cot and sobbing into her pillow. Hermione didn't have to wait long, the girl tired herself out quickly and was soon in a deep sleep. It wasn't until then that Hermione moved, seeking out her potions teacher.

He was leaning against the wall, although he was clearly sick and exhausted, Hermione still thought he looked powerful. At first she felt nervous and self-conscious around him, he still hadn't acknowledged her but, they both knew that they would have to cooperate to figure out what was going on.

Hermione leaned on the wall, next to the teacher she had hated for the past seven years. "What do you think?" Her voice was a soft whisper but seemed to echo forever in the stone room.

He sighed, deep in thought. When he spoke, it was with a fierce determination. "I need to find out more about these Reds."

"How?"

Snape looked at the sleeping form of Cho. "She's sicker than both of us and in the short time that we've both been here she's already developed a new symptom. The Reds will come eventually."

"How will that help?"

"Ms Granger," His voice was now back to it's harsh self, the one that Hermione hated, "Unless you have something to contribute besides annoying and repetitive questions, I suggest you get to sleep."

Hermione did decide to lie down, angry that even in a predicament like this he would continue to be an insufferable man.

I hate him.

"Why are you here?"

Bill Weasley winked at the young blonde girl. "Highly dangerous business. Top secret." He liked Luna, she'd visited the Burrow last summer and although she was a bit of a nut, she was nice enough. Easy on the eyes too.

"Argh! I'm so fucking bored." The blonde boy in the corner walked towards them and sat down in the triangle that consisted of Luna, a silent and rather intimidating Slytherin named Blaise and Bill. "It's been six fucking hours and I'm so fucking bored."

Blaise turned to the obnoxious speaker. "And I'm so fucking sick of your whiny ass and I don't even know your name."

"Smith. Zacharias Smith."

Bill stared. "Zacharias? What kind of a name is that?"

He shrugged. "What kind of a name is Weasley?"

Bill cracked his knuckles menacingly.

"Good point."

"Well," Luna's voice sounded rather out of place among the young men, but she continued anyways. "We're off to a smashing start."

Voila! Chapter Two! I promise that #3 will be longer than these two, but, I'm really tired so, stay tuned.

-Adie.