Chapter 20

Snape and Sirius Black were walking quidditch pitch. Snape carried the box containing the various quidditch balls and Sirius carried two brooms under one arm. He walked ahead.

"Come on Snivellus, the world can't wait for your arthritis."

"I suggest we get the snitch out now" said Snape stopping suddenly, satisfying himself with merely glaring at Sirius.

"If you say so Snivellus"

"Stop being so juvenile Black" said Snape, putting the box down and carefully opening it.

"Come on, hurry up that thing is going a funny colour" said Sirius slightly more seriously.

"Don't rush me!" hissed Snape, slowly bringing out the snitch in his clenched fist.

"Pass me my broom" said Snape, motioning with his left hand. Sirius threw it and Snape just about caught it.

"Take care! I nearly dropped the arghhh!" in a second the snitch was in the air and Snape was clutching his hand.

"You stupid idiot, now you've lost it!" yelled Sirius at Snape. Snape looked up, his teeth set and his nose curled up. He was gripping his right hand with his left and the right had two slashes right across it. Mentally Snape kicked himself for forgetting you couldn't simply take a snitch straight out of the box.

"Go and get it!" yelled Snape at Sirius. In a few minutes Sirius had the snitch and he flew straight up to the highest ring and held his hand out so that the snitch was in the centre of the ring. The wings of the snitch suddenly straightened and stopped moving. But the rift stayed as it was.

"Erm Snivellus, it's not having any effect" he yelled down. Snape picked up his broom with his left hand and flew up awkwardly. From about 10 metres away he could see dials shining in a circle about a metre out from the quidditch ring. They started on the bottom left at 0 running clockwise round to 100 next to 0. A red 32 was highlighted.

"Hold it there, now turn it. No the other way. Further" shouted Snape. As Sirius turned the snitch the rift shrank down and closed from the ring down to the school. But as Snape watched he could still see the rift stretching from the Ravenclaw tower

At this moment Trish was vaulting the Ravenclaw stairs. She had been slowed down by a toilet stop. At the top she was confronted with a door with no handle or keyhole only a knocker shaped like an eagle. She threw her hands up in an unvoiced question, and then wrapped the knocker. The eagle asked.

"You use a knife to slice my head and weep beside me when I am dead. What am I?"

"That's disgusting" thought Trish trying not to speak her thoughts, which for her was very difficult. Then she kicked a wall. Her head kept filling with the image from the vision and it wasn't helping her mental processes. After a few minutes she got her phone out, only to find it dead.

"The one time you want google! Calm down Trish, calm down. Think! Slicing heads, monsters, argh no, vampires, Dracula, garlic, wolves, werewolves, ogres, Shrek! Ogres are like Onions!" she thought.

" Onions?" She asked the brass door knocker quietly.

"That is correct" answered the knocker.

"And there was me thinking it was going to be something deeply thought provoking" she muttered.
"No, that lies beyond" said the door knocker as the door swung open.

The Ravenclaw common room would have been a beautiful peaceful place to study in shades of blue, with a ceiling painted like the stars. Would have been had it not been for the spatial rift, stretching up through the floor and ending at a point just under the hand of the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. Now fluctuating colours of mainly purple and black, it cut a tear like a jagged dagger across the room. Trish ran to the statue and started pulling at the right hand. She could just about make out a crack in the marble but it wouldn't budge. Trish was pulling as hard as she could when the rift rippled and bulged. She saw it and pulled all the harder until eventually the four fingers came flying off. Underneath was revealed a metal switch, small and slightly rusted. Trish immediately started tugging at it but it was stiff with rust and its small size didn't help. Most of Trish's effort seemed to be cutting her fingers. As she was pulling and swearing loudly at the lever, the bulg in the rift broke and a hand reached through and grabbed Trish round the neck. It wasn't a strangle hold, just tight enough. She felt a couple of stabling pains to her neck, and pulled harder at the switch, which suddenly gave. The rift sealed like a zip, from the hand of the statue to the floor, and presumably further. The hand holding Trish was severed from whatever it was attached to and fell to the ground, twitching slightly. Trish reached up to her neck where she could feel two marks. She waited for a few seconds, felt nothing, decided it wasn't too serious and ran towards the door.

In chamber Salazar Slytherin was bemoaning the state of his chamber.

"You really need to concentrate now" said the Doctor.

"Gor, look at the dust, and the woodworm" Salazar had lit some lights on the sides of the chamber.

"My billiard table is in tatters, the sofa's been eaten by moths and look, most of the drinks are evaporated or corked. Only the... ah yes, now I remember." Salazar Slytherin reached forward and pulled at a large full bottle of drink as if he was pulling it off of the side of the cabinet. It stopped a centimetre off the edge and the liquid inside proved to be less liquid than it looked.

"And I might even, oh yes, one last bottle of Ogden's New Fyre Whisky."

"I think first we should check on how the others are doing" said the Doctor.

In the kitchen Hufflepuff was pacing around.

"Now was it something to do with the jelly moulds, or maybe it was the knives. No, she wouldn't have put it anywhere dangerous. Maybe I have to light a fire..."

"I'm very sorry m'dear but we need to get moving."

"Okay okay, less haste more speed. Oh Oh I've got it. The fire poker has to go into this crack in the oven and then I pull it down and we're done" said Hufflepuff, doing it as she spoke.

"That's it?" asked McGonagall, eyebrow raised.

"I think so."

"But that was very...easy"

"Well Rowena said she didn't want to make it too difficult, seeing as it might be an emergency" said Hufflepuff.

"Which is why she spread them out all over the school and didn't think to pass on any information about them?" asked McGonagall.

"Yes...well...you'd have to ask her."

"And she was the sensible one" said McGonagall under her breath, rolling her eyes, as they all headed back up to the great hall.

Trish collapsed against the door frame at the bottom of the Ravenclaw tower breathing heavily. Suddenly her mind was filling with voices and images. And they weren't very encouraging. Initially blurring images of shadows began to form into people and places in her mind. Suddenly an agonising pain burned through the back of her hand and she looked down. It looked like a spider bursting out of her skin, but it was metal and immediately laid flat over her skin, digging in on every leg. As her heart started pounding she thought of the hand that lay upstairs, and of the creature she had seen in her vision. Both were pale, paler than Snape, slightly greenish even, and were covered in metal, metal like this thing on her hand. Trish thought a swear word very loudly, and opened the door slowly.

Downstairs everyone was congregating in the hall congratulating each other, except Snape and Sirius who were avoiding each other. Dumbledore stood with Hagrid and Snape over Bellatrix and Voldemort. McGonagall, sensibly, had a register out and was checking everyone was present. Trish eventually made her way to the hall doors. She could feel a piercing pain near her heart, and she had felt something break through just in front of her left ear. She pulled a large clump of hair in front of her face and pulled her sleeve down over her hand. She slipped quietly into the hall and looked around. People were talking and chatting. For a second the talking became a roar of thousands of voices. Trish grabbed her head.

"Ah Patricia dear there you are. Severus, Hagrid, Filius, has anyone seen Sybil?" Trish breathed a sigh of relief as McGonagall walked away, not paying her too much attention. Searching quickly she located Professor Smith. He was talking to Donna and smiling, then they both went to walk away. Trish slunk over to him and quickly grabbed Professor Smith by the arm.

"Professor Smith I need to talk to you" she said.

"Oh my God, what happened to you?" said Donna looking at her.

"Shh please! Professor, can we talk outside?" A couple of people had turned to look. Professor Smith took her by the shoulder and led her out into the entrance hall. Snape watched, his eyes narrowing. As soon as the door closed, Trish grabbed the Doctor by the coat.

"Doctor, help me" said Trish

"How do you..." said the Doctor.

"Doctor they got me" said Trish

"Who did?" asked the Doctor

"I don't know. It's in my head, under my skin, look!" Trish pulled back her sleeve to show her hand. She pulled back her hair to show the side of her face. The Doctor's face became pale.

"Doctor, what is it?" asked Trish

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and waved it over her hand, body and face, and then looked at it. His face paled.

"How bad is it?" asked Trish

"...You're going to be fine" said the Doctor coldly, looking around as if trying to remember something.

"Don't lie to me Doctor! You said they wouldn't get me, what is it?" said Trish with more than a hint of anger and fear in her voice.

"Your body is infested by some kind of robotic parasite. It's already inside your heart and lungs and is currently working its way into your nervous system. But your body is fighting back, and I'm going to get it out, I promise Miss Glossop. I promise. Come on"