"Are you…?" he turned towards Ron.

"Go, I'll be fine," was his friend's dry answer. Harry frowned, disappointment all over his face.

"I was actually going to ask if you were coming, but fine, stay! Just don't do anything stupid," he added, irritated, not bothering to wait for the effect of his words as he followed the girl's trail. He locked eyes with Fleur, puzzlement and concern all over her questioning gaze as he passed close to her and Roger. Afraid he'd lose sight of the girl as she fled the ballroom, he didn't stop for explanations, rushing out the door.

"This way," said the frantic-looking student, turning around a corner, Harry already by her side. The boy tried to remember where he had seen her before, but couldn't think of anything other than what could possibly have happened to Padma.

His answer didn't take long… at least, part of it.

The blond girl pointed ahead, her hand steady even though she seemed frightened. He could see both bathroom doors, the girls' wide open, no lights inside. A bad feeling creeping over him, he entered the room without pause.

"Padma?"

There was no one in sight. Luminosity filtered through the windows, but very poorly.

"Padma? Are you there?" he tried again, knocking his hand lightly at the only closed stall around. No answer. Pushing it gently, he noticed no one was inside.

Soft footsteps echoed. He turned to find the petite girl before him, looking around.

"Where is she?" he demanded, a bit louder than he meant.

"I, I don't know," she trailed off, looking past Harry. Then words burst from her lips like a hurricane. "When I walked into the bathroom she was sitting on the floor, and she was crying her eyes out, and… and I asked what was wrong – I know it was obvious, but I couldn't see very well at first – and I told her to just stay here and I would call someone, a professor or something, and she told me not to, not to tell anyone, but I was so terrified I went back to the Hall and then I saw you and, well, you were with her at the Ball so I figured I…"

"Hold." Harry's hand shot in the air. He was grateful she had thought of looking for help, but in her zeal she had left Padma alone. An honest – but, he hoped, not costly – mistake. "Back up a bit. What was obviously wrong here?" He felt stupid asking it, considering Padma had been found crying and on the floor and that was wrong enough, but something about the way she said it felt off. The girl looked at him with questioning in her eyes.

"Oh, right, lights are out," she jumped, pulling her wand from a small purse and bringing light to its tip. "That."

Harry's eyes widened. This definitely wasn't good…

There was a puddle on the floor, close to a stall Harry had neglected to examine further on his way in. He knelled next to it; it was a bright shade of red, but upon further inspection he noticed, relieved, it could not be blood. Not the same consistency or smell (he had grown quite accustomed to both), far from it. But the liquid stuck to the tip of his finger and didn't seem to spread around as he rubbed it with his thumb. It was incredibly cold to the touch, and if you looked at it through different angles, its color changed, always to deep and depressing tones.

"What is this?"

"I have no idea, but she had this all over her. M, maybe it was on the floor, Padma slipped and fell over it?"

Harry eyed the stall door, the wall, the floor… not what the spray pattern accused. "More like it 'hit' her… or was flung at her…"

"I don't think so," he said fiercely. Harry moved his own foot in and out of the puddle. The sole was stained, but left no mark on the floor, like a freakish glue. He watched the rest of the place. No footprints out of the bathroom. Great…

Harry stood up, taking deep breaths to focus. Thinking things through wasn't exactly his forte, but it was about damn time he started changing that… what did he know right now?

"Your name… you didn't say," he turned around.

"Oh, it's S, Sophia." She added a nervous smile to it.

"Sophia, I'm still gonna need some help from you," said Harry slowly, moving towards the door.

"Anything!" she pressed on, dutifully. "Padma must have been horrified if this complete stranger is just so eager to help her…"

"Stay here by the door," he began, peeking outside. A couple of girls were headed their way. They looked seventh-years. "See those girls? Ask one of them to go and summon a professor, preferably McGonagall, but discretely. The other stays with you here so you won't be alone, just in case. With me so far?"

"Sure, but... just in case of what?"

"Padma would not cry over an accident," he said quickly. "She would perhaps curse and try and find a way out of it, but she would not cry. Whatever… or whoever was responsible for this, may try to come back if something was left behind. When a professor gets here, tell your story straight and help in any way you can."

"And what are you going to do?" she yelled as he was already speeding down the corridor.

"Find Padma," he yelled back. "Let's just hope you're going where I think you're going…"

He glanced at every new corridor, every crossroad, every flight of stairs on the way. It was small consolation that everyone else seemed to be at the Ball, so he could pretty much dash through the school on foot, patrolling corridors in search of a single person without risking capture of a Prefect. It was still a bet, and he was aiming for a general area… if he was wrong he'd have to start looking at random places… and at Hogwarts, this could take days… if he was lucky.

Soon he was rewarded with a distant sound of heels, probably a corridor or two away. He slowed his pace to muffle his own steps but kept his general direction. Crossing a tapestry that revealed a known shortcut, he was now ahead of a girl making her way to him.

"Padma?" he called gently, catching his breath. She lifted her eyes scared, closer to a window, the moonlight shining over her dress…

"What…"

Her dress, both arms and legs and parts of her face were stained crimson. She shivered and there were creases along her cheeks where the tears rolled down. She didn't even had the strength to pull away from him as she wanted to, when Harry started walking towards her, tentatively.

"Harry, don't…"

And then she collapsed into his chest, sobbing. Harry couldn't remember the last time he felt so powerless… wrapping his arms around her he started to make small circles on her back… she was freezing.

"Who did this to you?" he asked a minute or so, later, as her tears grew weaker. "What happened?"

"I… I don't know…" her tone was erratic, but she was less shivery.

"You don't want to talk about it?"

"Not really… not right now… I'm just…"

"'s okay… but we have to get you some help, this… I don't know what this is, it could be dangerous to you… you should have been heading for the Hospital Wing, not coming back to your House."

She distanced herself so she could face him. Harry liked her eyes. They never lied.

"How did you know I was coming back here?"

"Hunch." And as if that didn't seem satisfying, he went on. "Figured that, whatever happened, you'd try to solve it alone first… or maybe you were just too upset to go to anyone else and wanted to be on your own for the rest of the night - even knowing it would worry me to no end (she shook her head to his 'severity'). Given we don't have curfew tonight and everyone else is out there dancing… what better place than your House?"

"Good guess for a Gryffindor," she muttered, wiping a tear from her face.

"Good run for a Ravenclaw. On heels," he admitted.

Her laughter was broken, but it was still there. "Come," he said, passing his jacket over her shoulders and trying to sound as confident as he could, "let's get you cleaned up, okay?"

AUTHOR NOTES: small afterthought just so that Taly-chan doesn't accuse me of torture, hehehe. Yes, you all read right… no curfew tonight. So it's way too soon to call the Ball over. I know it's a part of the story a lot of people around the site try to clear without pausing to change it much, and I'm trying to add a really different twist to it. Much will be clarified tonight, but many unanswered questions may spring into existence as well. More explanations on that further down the line. Think I'm gonna go shoot some hoops…

Read and review if possible! I allowed anonymous reviews as an experiment, so let's see how that goes… next chapter should come during this week, okay? Thanks for all the support. Hope to hear from you soon,

Intervigilium