Dumbledore left swiftly after Lily as she left his office in search of Severus Snape. Slughorn huffed and puffed behind him in exhaustion.
He was halfway down to the dungeons when someone-or, more likely, something-stopped him.
A huge pewter vase came crashing down from the ceiling unexpectedly. Luckily, Albus Dumbledore had better reflexes than an average man his age. He quickly jumped out of the way and aimed a blasting spell at the piece of metalwork, instantly shattering it into a billion tiny fragments.
"Peeves, I know that you are here…show yourself at once!" Dumbledore was slow to anger. However, he had two Marauders unattended in his office, two students wedged deeply in his memories, one Gryffindor prefect running to the dungeons after-hours and a Slytherin stunned and unarmed lying on the floor.
"Make me Dummbly-doorrr!" Peeves cackled in a mocking voice.
"Very well, Peeves…" Dumbledore sighed and waved the Elder Wand quickly. Instantly, Peeves appeared at Slughorn's feet, bound and gagged.
"Really, Peeves, I have no time for your shenanigans tonight. I apologize formally. I'll just have to deal with you later…"
"Mmf mf mm mmmmf!" Peeves said indignantly through the handkerchief that was tied around his mouth.
"Once again, I apologize!" Called Dumbledore as he ran off towards the dungeons.
Lily walked back in to Dumbledore's office, shaking.
James turned around and the look on his face transformed from perplexed to affectionate.
"Hey, Lils. What's goin' on?" He got up and kissed her forehead.
"N-nothing. I just had to tell Sev something."
The look in James Potter's eyes was unmistakable. They flashed with a strange combination of anger, jealously and hatred at the mention of the Slytherin boy's name.
"Exactly what were you telling him, might I ask?" Sirius got up as well and approached the couple. Lily noticed that Sirius's face had lost a bit of color, and that he lacked his usual springy swagger.
"It's none of your business Sirius, dear." She said sarcastically, moving away from James a bit.
"Keeping secrets from your boyfriend, now aren't we?" Sirius snickered as he grinned wickedly.
"No-I'm just keeping secrets from you." Lily said coolly; face heating up despite her confident demeanor. "I'm going to tell James about it later…if he wants to know, that is." She smiled at James, and he felt his heart beat a little bit faster. He had the urge to kiss her, but then remembered that Sirius was still present. He grabbed her hand instead, forgetting all about Severus's conversation with Lily.
"We'll need to send him to Saint Mungos immediately!" Madame Pomfry stood over the floating stretcher, waving her wand a countless amount of times over the unconscious Slytherin's head.
"Flue the hospital-! Tell them that this is an emergency!"
Filch nodded rapidly and staggered off towards the teacher's lounge to use the fireplace.
Madame Pomfry examined the glass vile once more. An aura of dark magic swirled around it ominously.
"Oh dear…oh dear…" She cast another spell over Severus, hoping to rejuvenate him. He stayed still as stone on the stretcher.
"Madame…I have been instructed to inform you that a Healer will arrive momentarily to examine ." Nearly Headless Nick looked down at Severus gravely. "She says that if the potion was what you think it was…there is not much time..."
"Yes…yes, I know." Madame Pomfy wrung her hands apprehensively and tried another spell to wake Snape from his state of stasis. "I don't think that he ever had much time to begin with…"
