As Mína climbed the grand marble staircase, paying no attention to the glares and whispers that followed her, she thought on her circumstance. Not allowed to go outside? Was this a muggle school all of a sudden? A little bit of snow and everything brought to a halt? Ridiculous. She rounded a corner and approached the familiar entrance to the abandoned bathroom, but was infuriated to see a pair of older pupils waiting outside it; one a Gryffindor and one a Ravenclaw. She stopped in her tracks – they had not yet noticed her arrival – and listened to their absurd babbling.
"Did she actually?" The Ravenclaw girl asked as she fidgeted with one of her many tight Bantu knots, eyes bulging in shock.
"Yeah! Go on, surely you're not scared of a little ghost?" The tall Gryffindor boy raised a single eyebrow, challenging his companion. "Castle's full of them, and she's younger than us!"
"Exactly, in horror movies kid ghosts are always creepier!"
"What in Merlin's name is a horror movie?"
The girl laughed. "I'll explain later, if we haven't been expelled for… trespassing or something."
"There aren't any guards or charms blocking the door, it isn't even locked."
"Really?"
"I don't know, try open it and see."
"Emil! Stop playing with me, I don't even want to go into some old school pureblood torture chamber."
"I told you, it's not a torture chamber! I just want to see the giant snake, fam."
"So go see it, you don't need me here."
"But Hawke says it's difficult to get in, I need you to help me. Mans hated muggle borns and this was his hang out, you being there would kill him!" There was a pause as the girl thought on it, clearly tempted. "Come on, Alesha!"
"If you get me expelled I will kill you. I can't go back to muggle secondary school, you feel me?"
"Yes girl, let's do this!"
Mína was in a state of disbelief. A muggle born and a blood traitor were about to attempt to enter His chamber of secrets. She had to put a stop to this. Now. As the boy reached up to push the bathroom door open, time seemed to slow to a halt before Mína's eyes. And yet, at the same time, the next series of events seemed to unfold in an imperceptible blur.
Mína's pale hand reached in to her robe pocket and extracted her wand. She pointed it at the Gryffindor boy, eyes locked on him as a hunter stares down their prey. The incantation left her lips burning, and a flaming agony roared up her left arm. The force of such a powerful spell knocked her back, her slight frame struggling to stay upright.
"Fulem corpus!"
A white hot bolt of lightning erupted from the tip of Mína's wand, striking the boy square in the chest. He was flung backwards, crashing into the wall and then collapsing in a broken heap. The Ravenclaw girl let out a deafening scream. She dropped to the ground, scrambling to her friend's side as he lay writhing in pain. The girl looked around desperately, calling out for help, sobbing her friend's name and hoping (in vain) for his response.
The scene played out before Mína as though she were watching on a screen. That was the first time she had ever used magic against another person. She was unsure as to whether the buzzing she felt rippling through her veins was residual shock from the force of the spell itself, or adrenaline. She still held her wand in her hand. Her fingers clenched and unclenched, tightened and loosened, gripped and released the wood.
Strike the mudblood too. Finish them.
Her thought was interrupted by the arrival of a rush of pupils – most likely from the congregation of students that had been gathered in the entrance hall – lead by Professor Hawke.
"What's going on here?!" The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher then noticed the boy jerking violently on the ground, and hurried to his side. "What happened? Spell or medical condition? No, there are scorch marks on his face, looks like lightning to me, am I correct? We need to get him to the hospital wing immediately." With a firm wave of his wand, Professor Hawke levitated the boy and rushed away with him, calling over his shoulder, "Someone take her to the hospital wing as well, make sure she gets there!"
The mudblood was left on her knees, staring at the spot where a small pool of blood marked the floor. He must have hit his head. A fellow Ravenclaw girl stepped forward, helping the mudblood to her feet and then leading her down the same corridor that the professor had just exited through. Now all that remained of the event was a crowd of startled pupils and a stunned silence. The entirety of the group continued to stare at the space where the Gryffindor boy had fallen. Realising that she still held her wand, Mína tucked it back into her robe pocket as subtly as she could. The Dark Lord would be livid if she were to be exiled from Hogwarts before fulfilling her destiny and enacting his will. Not wanting to be seen at the scene of the attack – as she was certain her fellow pupils would suspect her the culprit with much less evidence than that – Mína retreated, careful not to draw attention to herself.