THE HOSPITAL WING
Two pairs of faint footsteps were heard along the cold walls of the dungeons, of whose had just entered the hallway and spoke in hushed voices with each other. The two figures were none other than Severus Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore, who came out from the accident scene in the dungeons.
"I'll look into the potion right away, Headmaster." said Snape taking his leave to hurry to his room to examine the potion.
"Yes Severus, I'll be off to the hospital wing then." said Dumbledore. As soon as the words left his mouth, Professor Snape left with a pop apparating hastily -which showed the seriousness of the situation even though both the adults' face showed no sign of it.
Dumbledore, he too, without wasting time hurried to the Hospital wing, not bothering to apparate as to be careful not to make the situation even worse for the above floating bodies. He finally reached the Hospital wing corridor and the smell of the medicines hung in the air even from a considerable distance. The heavy wooden doors opened on their own accord without any screech, allowing the elder wizard to pass without any pause. Madam Pomfrey stood at the end of the room. Upon seeing the doors magically open themselves, letting in the cold air, she looked at the intrusion expectantly. She took in the sight from the end of the room for a second before she bustled across the room.
"Headmaster, what happened?" she enquired, with her tired eyes roving over the floating mass.
"Potion's Class. One of their Potion exploded." He began to fill her in.
"Head Master, don't tell me you gave permission to brew something absolutely not necessary for the students to know about again." She shook her head.
"I had my reasons this time Madame Pomfrey. They are definitely not in a hazardous situation now, that I can assure you. I just gave them a little push, per say." He told her. Understanding her confused look, he replied "It's the Angel Trumpet potion".
Madam Pomfrey eyes widened, conveying her shock and she started spluttering out the words "Professor! why-y in the Merlin would y-you-?"
"It's not poisonous for them, that I can assure you very much Madame Pomfrey." He replied with a small smirk.
The healer looked rather taken aback by the new information supplied, eyebrows furrowed in concentration for a few seconds before she finally understood.
"Aah! But even then they are just students Headmaster. Fellow students might get a bad image of you by allowing this."
"I'll take good care of them." she spit out when she knew it was a lost cause.
Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore moved to a private secluded room, with just two beds at each end of the room and a big curtain drawn between them. Dumbledore slowly lowered the two white shields into the beds separately and the moment the figures touched down the bed safely, the shield finally disappeared, revealing a girl and a boy who were previously enclosed by the light.
"They both aren't matured yet. And regarding the reason of the potion explosion, Professor Snape is looking into it and I'll let you know as soon as possible to work on their recovery Madame Pomfrey."
"Yes, Headmaster. I'll just give them a sleeping potion for now then."
-SAME DAY AFTERNOON-
It was late afternoon when a figure clothed by a long black cloak swished around the corridors among few students, fast on its heel to its destination. It finally reached a huge gargoyle blocking the entrance. The black figure muttered the password 'Flobberworm' in a low voice and moved up the stairs, to the Headmaster's Office.
"Severus" the Headmaster greeted.
"I've found what was wrong with the potion, Professor Dumbledore."
"Very good, Severus. We must hurry to tell Madam Pomfrey soon."
"It was who brew the potion, right Professor? The potion was perfectly done, there is no doubt in that. But it seemed to have a foreign particle in it. It is undoubtedly blood." conveyed Professor Snape.
"Blood? Ah. So that's what must have trigged the explosion then. And by the thing that she fainted, it should be because she inhaled them pretty well. What do you think Severus?"
"Well it was your plan to let the students make the Potion in the first place. You wanted them to be done for, fast, didn't you? The things you do don't always give the results you expect all the time."
"Well, maybe, did I push them too hard?" Professor Dumbledore said aloud while thinking, debating his actions and the result.
"It is more dangerous and painful for Draco, Albus. Why did you not assess that possibility that they both attend the N.E.W.T level potions class at the same time? You very well know Draco was doing perfectly fine. Few more days and he would have gotten to know about himself and also he has only few days for the transformation. He would have sorted out himself." Snape said displeased with the turn of events.
"I did not expect such of turn of events Severus. But this might be a really advantageous situation for them, don't you think? Everyone knows the potion is poisonous and they would obviously speculate that it must have done something very destructible to both of them. Even though we just wanted Miss Granger's abilities to be out in the open more to trigger her hormones, with the given turn of events, it's the perfect setting for both their transitions don't you think?"
"Yes it is benefitable, I agree. But would be put in an uncomfortable situation. Albus, do you really think the girl told the two nutcases who are always with her, about her status quo? She doesn't have anyone to divulge for comfort-to atleast hang on for the emotional changes if not for the drastic physical one. Draco has his parents and me as his mentor here. You know her lineage is dead except for her. I might actually pity her more than Draco now that her situation is presented. I don't think it would be much comforting for her when she realises she does not have a figure to guide on this unknown dark and inevitably dangerous path. Her presenting as the creature changes the possibility of the future itself."
"I know, Severus. I should have taken care of her more. But some things should be done in order to achieve the goals if not push them in the right direction, don't they. I'll make sure she is in good hands."
Shaking his head, Snape replied "I hope Voldermort does not get anything suspicious of this new addition to the species-apart from knowing about the Malfoys. They-she must be protected. It will be better to keep them under our line of vision and out of attention's path."
"Yes, yes." the old wizard agreed while sighing, million thoughts about the girl and ideas to protect her were swirling through that old mind.
"Irene would have been proud to know about her if she still existed. Then, I'll be off to the hospital wing to inform Madame Pomfrey about the new updation." said Snape taking his leave from the Headmaster.
"If the matter wasn't so serious to take action upon immediately, we could have had iced peppermint tea." The headmaster muttered to himself.
"Ah yes, Irene is definitely proud of the house's heir without a doubt. After all they have the same aura." He continued as if remembering something all of a sudden, but no one was present to hear the lines, unfortunately.
-HOSPITAL WING-
"I gave them both a Sleeping potion pill Professor Snape. I had to wait until I received any instruction, to give them the suitable treatment and medicine."
"I presume, not much of your treatment would be needed for them Madame Pomfrey. The potion which exploded had 's blood in it. It probably got reacted with her unturned blood and got exploded. As for , he would have smelt the potion mixed with her blood and he couldn't handle that I presume. "
"But I have to show you this, Professor. Miss Granger's hand had a gash running near her elbow. I've cleaned it up now but it's fresh and unexplained how did she got cut while in potion's class or maybe even before it? It looks like it is magically done and definitely not a cause of a potion knife."
Snape pondered about for a moment, and quickly enquired "Did have her wand when she came in here? Can I take a look at it?"
"Yes, Professor Snape, of course. Both of their belongings have been moved here as to not leave any suspicious trace to pick upon for anyone. They are in the table drawers beside their respective tables." She said as she moved to fetch the wand of the sleeping witch "Here".
"Prior Incantato" Snape whispered receiving the wand. The tip of the wand glowed for a second before it faltered.
"Shield Charm. Was having a little fight with someone or had a commotion during the class hours. Tsk. tsk." Snape announced unhappily.
Without waiting for a reply, he moved to Draco's side of room to reach for the drawer beside his table. He took out the wand and again muttered the same spell to the boy's wand.
"Hexes. Couldn't he had atleast done that after the class. This boy's gonna get in huge trouble if he keeps this up!" Snape muttered to himself in a low voice which was due to the confirmation of his suspicion of the two of them hexing each other.
He put the wands back into their drawers and close them and straightened up his spine to face the other active recipient of the room.
"They have to be moved somewhere safer soon Madame Promfrey."
"Yes. And and along with few students came to check up on them, Professor Snape. I had to shoo them away saying it's dangerous for them to come in here due to the potion's characteristics. didn't look like he believed it though, so I told him they were perfectly fine, at only which, he left afterwards. The parents and guardians should be informed of their state soon. They would be waking soon."
"Keep them in sleep till dawn Madame Pomfrey. I'm sure the Headmaster would decide what to do with them with their parent's consent."
-SAME DAY AT DUSK-
"We have to inform The Malfoys, HeadMaster" Snape announced as soon as he came into the big room he came into second time in a day.
"I've already sent a letter to , a formal one as the Headmaster of Hogwarts."
"I presume he would reply within tonight regarding the fact Lucius has a Falcon" Snape supplied the new information to the other.
"Then the decisions could be finalised within tomorrow noon, fortunately." Dumbledore replied with a smile on his face.
That was when Snape had a weary feeling nagging at the back of his mind, with the amount of talking and work he had done today, but most importantly the fear of wanting a harmonious turn of events, from what was about to come their way.
Prior Incantato- Spell which that forces a wand to show an "echo" of the most recent spell it had performed. An especially rare manifestation of this spell is known as Priori Incantatem. Since Prior Incacatem also shows the recent spell of a specific wand whose core might be connected to the subjected wand's pair or twin. For precision reasons, I've used Prior Incantato.
