AN: Thank you so much to American Animagus for the amazing review!
Chapter Fourteen: Alice and the Rabbit Hole
Thursday came all too soon and Alice found herself preparing for another transformation. She'd taken her wolfsbane potion this time and was desperately hoping to have some peace tonight without so many injuries. Lily was helping her too, reminding her to eat when she was so distracted, and helping her stay on top of her classes by scheduling time for them to both do their homework. A year ago, Alice imagined herself studying with Emily but now her sister cold hardly be found in the common room. She didn't know where her sister disappeared off to.
Nurse Longbottom was happy to see Alice again and bustled about her; worried about how thin Alice had gotten. She was thin before but now she just looked sick.
"Eat some chocolate," Nurse Longbottom said, breaking open a bar and handing it to Alice.
It wasn't that Alice was giving up on food; her mind was just so worried and anxious the week before a transformation that food became a chore.
Alice changed into a fresh white gown and followed Nurse Longbottom to the Whomping Willow where she had a vivid memory of the silvery white rabbit running through the forest. It had been like watching a ghost- only the silvery creature was so much brighter and more powerful. As she knelt down and slid herself into the hole, Alice wondered if maybe the rabbit would come out again and she'd find it down here. It was horribly lonely waiting for the moon to rise.
The white hospital gown had gotten dirty on the way down and Alice stood up to dust herself off. She trailed into the Shrieking Shack and again saw all the bits of broken furniture and torn wall paper. A part of her wanted to spruce the place up a bit and make it less depressing but she knew if the potion went wrong, then she'd be back at square one.
It was hard waiting for the moon to rise. Alice curled her knees under her chin and huddled in a corner of the room. She was cold and shivered as she closed her eyes. Her body was shaking with fear. Every part of her wanted to get up and run away but she knew that wouldn't help. All she could do was wait.
Transforming was painful. Alice screamed until her voice turned into a howl as she felt her insides sharing and ribs grow violently outwards. Her small hands turned into claws and she felt every inch of her quake until the shifting inside of her stopped. Alice closed her eyes and curled up in a corner, shaking with humiliation and physical pain. The wolfsbane potion had worked, she was still herself- but she was so afraid. She didn't want to look at what she'd become so she shut her eyes tightly and focused on sleep.
The morning came and Alice was still fearfully awake. She hadn't dared open her eyes however because she was afraid she'd see the body that had attacked her and Emily so many nights ago. She felt her skin get warm, like she was melting away a tough outer layer and when at last she dared open her eyes; she saw human hands and pink little toes on her feet. Relief washed over her entire body like a cool wave.
Alice uncurled herself shakily and looked down to see that her white gown had been shredded again. Up on the piano across the room she'd laid out a clean one and so she got up as slowly as she could. Her head spun and her insides were sore but she wasn't injured like the last time. For that she was immensely grateful. Quickly she changed and sat down again to catch her breath. Soon Nurse Longbottom would be down to fetch her.
Back in the infirmary; the nurse insisted Alice lie down for a little and at least try to sleep. The walls of the hospital wing were decorated with paper ghosts and jack-o-lanterns. Alice had almost forgotten that it was Halloween.
"I can't sleep," Alice insisted. "I'll miss all of my classes today."
Nurse Longbottom furrowed her brow. "I can't allow you to go back to class Alice. You look very ill. Please come lie down."
Alice sat one on one of the beds. She was very tired but if she missed class, the teachers would think she was cutting and might give her detention.
"Neville told me that you have his class first thing this morning," said Nurse Longbottom. "He's agreed to let you make the work up after school this evening. He can even come by the infirmary. I'm sure your other professors will do the same."
"Not Hogan!" Alice insisted, remembering that she had charms after herbology. "He'll be very upset because I'm already doing quite poorly in his class."
"Calm down Alice," said Nurse Longbottom. "We'll make it work. If you're doing better I'll let you go down after lunch so you can make your afternoon classes. But you have to promise to eat," Nurse Longbottom said sternly.
"Yes ma'am," Alice said. She was lividly hungry and had a whole month to worry about the moon.
The nurse made Alice a large breakfast with eggs and waffles and served it to her in bed. She gave small blonde girl a kind motherly smile before ducking out again to fill out some more papers.
A little while later, the headmistress; Professor Carlyle walked into the infirmary with a very worried air about her. She didn't give Alice a second glance and went straight to Nurse Longbottom's office. Curious, Alice sat up and saw her talking to the nurse in hushed tone through the office window. Nurse Longbottom stood up abruptly and rushed out of the infirmary with the headmistress without saying another word.
Alice was confused but could do nothing as she lied motionless in bed. She wondered what emergency could have happened that required the headmistress herself to appear in the hospital wing. Whatever it was, it was soon distant from her thoughts as Lily Potter burst into the infirmary with a worried expression on her freckled face.
"Alice!" she cried rushing over to Alice's bed. "Are you okay?"
Alice forced a smile and assured her that the potion had worked and she was feeling just fine. "Is it lunch time yet?" she asked.
"Yeah," said Lily. "I tried to come see you earlier but this was the only time I could get away from lessons.
"Great," Alice said, shyly slipping out of bed and climbing to her feet. "Nurse Longbottom said I could maybe go back at lunch and since she's not here-" Alice hesitated, knowing she shouldn't leave without the nurse's permission. She had Defence Against the Dark Arts next though and she didn't want Uncle Donovan to worry. "I can probably leave," she concluded following Lily out of the infirmary.
On their way to the Great Hall, Alice told Lily about Professor Carlyle appearing in the infirmary and how panicked she'd been. Lily thought that was strange and agreed how intriguing that was.
"Too bad you missed charms this morning though," said Lily. "Professor Hogan never showed up and neither did a sub so we all just got to do whatever we wanted."
Alice was relieved she wouldn't have to make up another class and remembered she'd have to visit the greenhouse after school.
A sick feeling washed over her as she entered the Great Hall. There were more ghosts than usual flying about the place and jack-o-lanterns floated from the ceiling but that wasn't why she felt so queasy. Her body felt like it was crashing internally and needed to lie down but Alice couldn't let that be apparent or else she'd miss more of her lessons.
Rowan Avery was waiting for them at the Gryffindor table. Her long black hair shimmered as she waved the pair over and she greeted them with a toothy white smile.
"I got that Hufflepuff girl to go out with Marcus," she said, bubbling with pride. She looked at Alice. "Where were you this morning?"
"Sick," said Alice, which wasn't a lie.
"That sucks," said Rowan. "Too bad you missed charms," she said and repeated what had happened with no adults showing up.
Rowan's cousins Mia and Tom had started leaving her alone after they'd found out she was friends with Lily Potter. If there was one thing the pureblood families hated and feared, it was the Potters. Rowan definitely planned to use this to her advantage in the future.
"Where's Serena?" Lily asked, out of the blue.
"Over there," Rowan said, nodding to another cluster of older Gryffindor's. They were all laughing and listening to Serena like she was some rare pet they'd collected. "I guess she didn't want to sit with us today," Rowan said, picking up her fork and twirling it in her peas.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Fine with me," she said with a small grin. It had been a while since she and Serena Cahill had gotten along.
After lunch the Gryffindor first years went to Defence Against the Dark Arts where Professor Banks taught them a dry lesson on pygmy puffs in which no pygmy puffs were actually involved. Alice loved pygmy puffs and been really looking forward to playing with one. Her uncle however, merely glossed over the lesson stating that more depth would be put into the topic their third year if they decided to take Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Hagrid.
When class was over, Professor Banks pulled Alice aside and studied her ill stricken face. Alice's heart sped up in fear that her uncle was about to say something like he knew about her secret but he changed the subject completely.
"Your sister, Alice," said Donovan worriedly. "She isn't doing very well with all this stress as a sixth year."
"No sir," said Alice quietly.
"I'm very worried about her mental well being, but she won't talk to me," Donovan continued. "She's stopped showing up for her prescribed therapy appointments which makes her going against the law and well her hair-"
"Yeah she cut it off," said Alice. "I don't know why."
"I don't want to worry you," said Donovan, putting a hand to his subblely chin. "I'm sure your sister will be fine, but if there's anything you know that might help us help her, it would be very wise of you to tell me."
Alice considered this for a moment. She was almost jealous that Uncle Donovan was so worried about Emily. Her sister was so precious and beautiful that since she'd been so dramatic and cut her beautiful hair, everyone suddenly only cared about her. Uncle Donovan didn't catch onto her secret, despite him being the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher- which made it all the more odd. She almost screamed at him just to really look at her.
"I don't know," Alice said, shaking her head. "I wish I could help her," she said very honestly.
Potions was fun that day. Professor Rosier held a contest to see who could make the best shrinking potion and Alice had succeeded. She'd almost won but in the last round the Professor had decided that Nova's potion made the quill shrink smaller than hers, which Alice thought was a total rip off.
"You totally should have won that," Rowan said afterwards. "Professor Rosier is just being biased."
Lily agreed as the three of them trailed out of the dungeon together.
Surprisingly, Serena hadn't even showed up for the last two classes. Later someone told them that she'd been seen skipping class with a couple of third years.
"Ridiculous," Lily commented, shaking her head.
Alice was very hungry and was excited that now she'd be able to attend the Halloween feast. After a private lesson with Professor Longbottom, she, Rowan and Lily all sat down together in the now dark and skylit Great Hall and cheered as Professor Carlyle rose her hands. Above them, all the floating Jack-o-lanterns lit up at once and floated through the air. The Hogwarts ghosts made noise and a creepy ghost with nearly no head floated past Alice and took off her head to greet Rowan. She giggled at the sight.
"What? It's funny," said Rowan eyeing her friends expressions.
The feast bloomed to life and everyone dug in. Alice was grateful that she'd gotten her monthly transformation out of the way so she could eat a lot. She loaded her plate with pastas and rice with lots of butter. It wasn't long though before there was an interruption and the entire room fell silent.
With a clanging thrust, the Great Hall's door flew open and Martha, the school caretaker cried out to the entire school. "Students back to your dorms," she screamed, her plump rounded figure shaking with exertion.
There were screams as everyone ran for the exits. Something was happening, Alice didn't know what but as the head boys and girls rallied everyone together, she, Lily and Rowan stayed close and bunched together.
Everyone was lead back to the Gryffindor common room but no one could even hear themselves think because everyone was talking so loudly. Alice wondered what could have happened that caused the caretaker to get everyone to safety. Was there something dangerous at Hogwarts? People around her speculated, some saying it was Starfire, the terrorist organization Alice's father fought against.
"Everyone quiet," shouted Mallory Marsh. People listened to her since Marsh was very tall and scary. "All of you would be dead right now if the threat was in the castle," the prefect quipped.
Some people grumbled but that only seemed to upset Mallory even more. "People can probably hear you all from the other side of the castle with that volume," she said. "Quiet down. Go back to your dormitories. We'll all wait here until further instruction."
"But what if the threat is in the castle," said a voice that Alice soon recognized as James's.
"The threat isn't in the castle," Mallory retorted. "Hogwarts is very secure. Nothing can get past all of our security measures."
There was some more worried remarks but everyone agreed that the safest place to be was probably in bed. After all; Hogwarts was the safest place in the world, or at least it had been at one point. Alice scanned the room for signs of Emily to make sure she was safe but as the girl's filtered up the stairs, she was nowhere among the crowd. Even when they got back to the dorms, her older sister wasn't in her bed. It wasn't until the next day that Alice saw Emily in the morning and that was after the news had gotten out to the parents.
Andrew Welsh's body had been found dead in the boy's bathroom.