Chapter 51
A/N: Did you like the last chapter? I hope so. It took me ages to write last chapter so hopefully this one doesn't take as long.
Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise.
Enjoy :)
Freya McMillan was the first student at Hogwarts to lose a family member. I knew this because I was the one who had to tell her she had. As Head girl and boy, James and I had the duty of delivering the news of deaths to students. It was thought that such news coming from someone more the receivers age would be a bigger comfort than if a teacher told them. Our private mail box had received a black trimmed envelope with a scroll attached to it. James and I had had a free period so we'd opened the scroll together. The scroll was from Professor McGonagall and the contents informed us of our duty. We then set out to deliver the envelope to Freya McMillan and that was what we were currently doing – walking to her classroom. She had Divination so we took a little while to reach North Tower. The Divination class were all sitting cross-legged with their eyes shut on the floor beneath the trapdoor they usually used to reach their classroom. Professor Conan wandered in between them encouraging deep breaths.
'Ah, Miss Evans and Mr Potter.' He smiled politely and 15 eyes snapped open. 'What can I do for you?'
'Can we borrow, Freya McMillan?' James asked and I nodded next to him.
'Yes, of course.' Freya stood up and picked up her bag before coming over to where we stood. We led her away and entered the first empty classroom we came across. I gestured for her to sit down as I perched myself on one of the desks. James hovered behind me. She sat.
'W-we have some news for you…' I said quietly and pulled out the envelope. Her eyes widened as she saw it but she kept herself composed. Watching her open and read the letter was a truly heart-breaking moment. The way her faced moved from ill-concealed worry to shear brokenness tugged at every string in my heart. She stood up and leaned against one of the desks. Then she screamed.
'ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!' Freya bellowed at the desk before completely breaking down into sobs and sinking to the floor. I knelt down beside her and rubbed her back reassuringly.
'Is there someone we could get for you?' I asked her kindly. She continued to wail for a moment.
'D-D-Da-Daniel.' She stammered and burst into tears once more.
'Daniel Jackson?' Freya only nodded in response and I glanced at James who understood and hurried off to find Daniel Jackson. I wasn't the best with crying people so I simply attempted to offer her words of comfort. Comforting had never exactly been my forte but I tried. 'It's going to be okay…'
'N-no it's not.' She wailed. 'My sister's dead!'
'My mum died.' I told her. I wasn't sure why I'd said that but in a way, it felt like the right thing to admit. Freya didn't respond so I kept talking. 'Death Eaters attacked my home town and she was at home so… I think they collapsed the house and she was inside it.'
'I n-never knew that.' She mumbled. I put an arm around her in comforting fashion.
'It gets better after a while.'
'Does it?'
'Yes – I promise.' We fell into silence for a moment. I opened my mouth to speak but then the door opened and James entered with Daniel Jackson millimetres behind. As soon as Daniel saw Freya he rushed over and I moved back to give the two their space. 'We'll leave you to it. You have permission to miss classes for the day. If anyone asks say I said your allowed.'
James and I left and made our way back to the Head's office. As we walked, James entwined his fingers in mine and I felt my heart warm slightly. I looked at the portraits fussing about and sighed slightly. The life of a portrait was probably a lot nicer than the life of a human and a whole lot simpler. They didn't have to think or eat or exercise or move if they didn't want to. No exercise sounded great…
'Sickle for your thoughts?' James' voice barged into my thoughts as I accidently nudged him.
'A Knut would've been fine but if you want to give me a Sickle go ahead.' I grinned at him as he rolled his eyes.
'Why are you such a smart arse?'
'It's all part of my charm.' I smirked slightly and James' expression changed swiftly.
'You want to be careful where you pull faces like that.' He murmured in my ear causing my skin to tint pink. 'I'm not sure I can resist your face like that.' James stopped and pulled me into a small alcove behind a statue. He kissed me cautiously at first, as though waiting for my permission, but as soon as I began returning his kiss, his tongue began to make its way into my mouth. We snogged behind the statue for a long time and only properly broke apart when the bell signalling second period echoed through the school. 'Just 5 more minutes.' He moaned and a small smile crept on to my face.
'James,' I tutted. 'We're Head boy and girl. We can't be late to lessons! What kind of example does that set?' As I spoke, I began straightening my clothes, which were all crumpled, and re-braiding my hair.
'But I don't want to go to lessons.' He pouted and I laughed, dragging him down the corridor. We had Charms next so we had to hurry slightly and were in such a rush that we almost missed the unconscious figure on the ground. And the pool of blood.
James swore as we noticed the body and I rushed to kneel beside it. A Ravenclaw boy of about 11 lay on the ground on his stomach. I peeled back some of his blood-soaked robes to reveal a large set of slashes. 7. But there was something different about them this time. Something that hadn't been the case with any of the other attacks. The wounds had a strangely blackened look to them and the exposed flesh was green-tinged.
I flicked my wand and immediately sent Themis off to fetch Madame Pomfrey. Then I took of my black school robes and jumper before kneeling beside the boy. James knelt down on his other side.
'Check his breathing.' I instructed as I attempted to find a pulse. As with most people who had lost a lot of blood, his pulse was weak and irregular.
'He's breathing.' James confirmed and I nodded. We set to work. The wounds were in such a strange state that I wasn't sure what to do with them. I tried all the healing spells I knew, even the ones from the Founder's Library, and none worked but in a way, I had suspected they wouldn't. We tried applying pressure to the wounds using bandages I conjured but found as the bandage touched the gash it would turn black and crumble into a pile of ashes. The only thing we had to help the boy was the blood replenishing potion I stored in my office and summoned to where we were. But it wouldn't last forever and Madame Pomfrey still hadn't arrived.
The only thing left was to clean the wounds by hand (healing spells did that as they healed) and wait until Madame Pomfrey arrived. As Head boy and girl, we'd already yelled at a few students to go through another corridor and eventually blocked it off with ropes and a sign – magically placed of course.
'Maybe we should get another teacher.' I suggested as I tried cleaning one of the slashes. The wound seemed to hiss as I cleaned it and a second later and a waft of green smoke was emitted.
'Yeah. Good idea.' This time James sent off his patronus and after his stag had left he began staring at the boy lying on the floor. 'Poor little bugger.'
'I'm going to give him another dose of potion.' I announced so I had something to do after realising that cleaning the wounds was as much help as bandaging them. Lifting the boy's unconscious head a little, I tipped some of the potion down his throat. 'It's a good thing he's unconscious for all of this.'
'And why's that?'
'He doesn't know he's losing blood or feel any pain. Some of the attacks I've found, they were awake and I can only imagine how horrible it must've been for them even if they were being healed.'
'Oh.'
'I've never seen wounds like this – in any of the books I've read I mean. I haven't done enough healing to say that regarding practical situations.' I fumbled for a moment in my schoolbag and pulled out a book Alice had given me as a present in 4th year. I'd come across it by chance whilst packing by trunk in the summer holidays. It was an extremely advance magical healing book and I was only halfway through reading the thick volume having never read it before as when I'd received it, it had been far too difficult for me to understand. Now it was still a difficult read but at least it was comprehensible. Luckily, it had a diagram for every spell so I flicked through to see if there were any vaguely resembling the slashes in the Ravenclaw boy. None whatsoever.
James squeezed my hand as my breath picked up pace upon realising this. Calm. I needed to keep calm. We sat in silence watching the boy and I wondered were Professor McGonagall was. Both of the adults we'd sent for hadn't arrived and we were simply sitting next to a boy who at this rate would die. Perhaps we could conjure stretcher and bring him to the Hospital Wing.
'Right.' I said, breaking the silence and standing up. I conjured a stretcher and together James and I carefully lifted the boy onto it. With a flick of his wand, James vanished the blood and then I levitated the stretcher before us. We walked with purpose and met no gawping students as lessons were well underway by now. Due to our pace, we soon reached the Hospital Wing and James pushed open the door. There was an eerie silence as we entered and no sign of Madame Pomfrey.
'Madame Pomfrey!' James called out. No response. We laid the boy to rest on one of the beds and I slipped him another dose of blood replenishing potion. 'Wait here.'
I nodded and watched the boy worriedly as James headed off to Madame Pomfrey's office to see if she was there. A second later and I heard James swear loudly.
'What is it?' I asked nervously as he staggered out of the office.
'She's out cold.'
'Stunned or something else?' I asked still not taking my eyes of the boy bleeding in the hospital bed.
'How should I know?' James responded snappily. His harsh tone shook me slightly but I shrugged it off. We were both stressed.
'If you keep an eye on the student I'll see if I can wake her up.' He gave a grunt of assent and once he was by my side I moved swiftly towards the office. The sight before me was extremely disconcerting. Madame Pomfrey sat slumped in her chair behind her desk with her head lolling to one side. Her skin was a greyish tinge but a pink flush still radiated underneath it – she was definitely still alive. I knelt beside her and examined her eyes which were wide open in a scared looking manner. It was however, like someone had pulled shutters across them as they were unmoving and unresponsive. I did notice that they were slightly bloodshot. That indicated that this was not a spell enforced unconsciousness. A poison maybe? Despite this guess, I tried reviving her with a spell which, of course, didn't work.
I moved slowly back out of the office, thinking I would fetch my potions kit from my office and perhaps find a teacher myself as Themis clearly wasn't working. James had sat down of the bed beside the boy with the bottle of blood replenishing potion in his hand. I watched him play with it absentmindedly for a moment before remembering the task in hand.
'I'm going to get my potions kit and see if I can get help.' He nodded and shifted his position slightly. I hurried out of the hospital wing and in the direction of the Head's offices. As I rushed on, I past my Charms classroom and heard and absolute ruckus happening inside it. Cautiously, I poked my head inside as was met by a scene of ink pellets and parchment being thrown left right and centre. There was no sign of Professor Flitwick which was extremely odd considering it was a good 30 minutes into the lesson. Remus caught sight of me and immediately backed down from throwing a couple of ink bottles at Sirius. He paid for this pause with an ink well in the face. 'Remus… Where's Professor Flitwick?'
'H-He hasn't turned up.' Remus answered as he ducked his way over to me.
'Right…' I paused. 'I'm going to find a teacher and I'll fill you in once I've done that. Try and keep this lot in order… This classroom looks great by the way.'
'Oh shut up.' Remus nudged me and I smiled slightly before leaving the classroom and changing course for Professor Flitwick's office. I knocked on the door and then entered after there was nothing but silence from inside it. Professor Flitwick sat in his desk chair with the same panicked expression as Madame Pomfrey and just like her, he was unconscious. Deciding I would get my potions kit and look in to all the classrooms beforehand.
Every classroom I passed was just as my Charms class: in chaos and teacherless. All the teacher's offices I looked in, the teachers were in the same, unconscious and terrified state. Shit. I rushed into my office and hurriedly grabbed my potions kit. As I moved back through the Head common room, my gaze glanced at a small radio on the table. This radio, I'd discovered, could be spoken into and the message would be announced throughout the school. I walked over to it and switched it on. I cleared my throat nervously.
'Attention all students. Everyone is required to return to their House common rooms immediately. Please wait there to receive further instructions and information. Prefects please head to the Hospital Wing. Thank you.'
Hopefully, people would listen to the message. As far as I was aware, all the adult members of staff were unconscious and I had no idea how to handle such a situation. But I was Head girl so I had to do something. I hurried back to the Hospital Wing and let in the Prefects who had already arrived. James looked up as we entered but didn't look confused. Evidently, he'd heard the announcement also.
I indicated for everyone to sit and although everyone looked calm enough, their eyes kept glancing at the Ravencalw boy lying unconscious on the hospital bed.
'Umm…' Now there were several people listening to me, I felt slightly awkward. 'The teachers are unconscious and I'm not sure why, as is Madame Pomfrey. There are no adults conscious at the moment as far as I'm aware. I still haven't checked to see if Professor Dumbledore or Hagrid are the same but the rest are. As you are all Prefects, I need you to step in and take their place.'
I looked at James who looked thoughtful. Then he caught my eye and stood up.
'We'll have to split tasks.' James began with authority. '5th year Prefects, you're supervising your Houses and making sure everyone's in their common rooms. 6th years, you're patrolling the corridors and 7th years some of you will be reviving teachers and the rest of you bringing in unconscious members of staff or anyone else you find. Any questions?' No one answered so James clapped his hands and the Prefects split.
'If 5 of you plus James could fetch the teachers and then 3, including me, will stay behind me.' James, Remus, Freya, Ben, Michel Boot and Miriam Reid left leaving behind Annabel Palmer, George Abbott (he replaced Tom as a Prefect) and I in the Hospital Wing. 'George if you could make a start on some blood replenishing potion.' I instructed and pulled a cauldron out of Madame Pomfrey's office. George and Annabel carried the Hogwarts Matron to a bed. I hauled my own cauldron to next to the Ravenclaw boy and Annabel followed me. 'I'm going to some wound analysis so if you could help me that would be great. We'll have to some blood tests when the teachers get here.'
Out of my potion kit, I pulled a scalpel and with it a scraped off a little of the greenish tinge flesh. Once I had my sample, I went over to a cleared table at the side of the room and set to work. I put the sample in my cauldron and Annabel and I began adding ingredients that would create a concoction to counteract its, what looked like, infection. I hoped that the healing spells would word once the strange colour of the wounds were dealt with.
The first teacher was brought in and as Annabel continued with the sample, I began taking some of the blood of Madame Pomfrey and some of the professor's. Each of the scarlet substances I decantered into vials and then rifled around in the medicine cabinets to see if the Hospital Wing had any blood analysis potion. It did and I pulled out a large red bottle with a pipet for a lid. On the back label of the bottle was a colour chart saying what every colour the blood turned after adding the potion meant. To each vial I added a single drop and both turned a dark inky black that seemed to burn with intensity. A poison induced sleep. Interesting…
There were no cauldrons left in the room so I transfigured a bedside vase into one and set about making a potion. The Wiggenheld potion could revive people under the effects of the Draught of Living Death so if it could reverse the most powerful sleeping potion in the world then it could also do it now. More teachers arrived as I added the ingredients and as I left it to simmer for a moment Annabel announced she had finished her potion. We began dabbing the liquid onto the Ravenclaw boy's wounds and to our relief they began to change back to the colour red. Then I muttered a healing spell and after a few seconds all the slashes were healed. George tipped another dose of blood replenishing potion down his throat then all three of us hovered around the Wiggenheld potion. After a tense 10 minutes the potion had finished simmering and we ladled it into some glasses Annabel fetched into the cupboard. Each of us took two glasses and gave the potion to the unconscious adults. One by one they woke but all groggy and confused. It took them a long time to realise where they were and even longer to remember anything. As Professor McGonagall was brought in and given some potion my heart pounded loudly against my chest. Perhaps it was the fact that I was seeing a teacher who I so revered and admired helpless that made me so scared. But she awoke and after a few hours all the teachers were conscious once more.
All was explained to the newly revived adults and I excused myself. I was tired and wanted to go to bed so I hurried back to Gryffindor Tower. However, as I reached the portrait hole I saw a small, sobbing figure and rushed towards them, tugging at my plait apprehensively. As I knelt down before them, they obviously sensed I was there and looked up with red puffy eyes. It was Madeline.
'What's wrong?' I asked her softly as she began to wail again. She flinched slightly as I reached out and squeezed her hand.
'I-I-I...' Tears continued to pour down her cheeks but her eyes were clearly nervous.
'It's okay... You can tell me..'
'I-I know s-s-something...' She stammered. I noticed her eyes began to feverishly scan the corridor.
'There's no one here except the two of us... It's okay...' I attempted to reassure her but she shook her head mouthing wordlessly. Madeline's eyes widened fearfully and she stood up, edging away from me. Turning around, I looked around the corridor we were in but saw nothing.
'I shouldn't be here.' And she made to run away but I caught her arm.
'How about we go somewhere no one can spy on us?' I suggested. Her mind seemed to be conflicted: go with me and there was still a small chance she would caught by whoever she was afraid of or not go and leave me knowing she knew something and perhaps telling someone this.
'Fine.' Madeline arranged her features to a slightly haughty look, which I assumed she was using to regain some distinction, but I struggled at the sight of a first year attempting to look intimidating. I led the way to my office and indicated for her to sit as I looked around my cupboard for some chocolate. I offered Madeline some and she accepted it cautiously.
'It's just chocolate.' I told her with amusement entering my tone of voice and she bit into it sheepishly. 'So...'
'My brother poisoned the food at the staff table.' She mumbled and I stared at her.
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I hope you enjoyed it! Next chapter's going to be exciting… I hope so anyway.
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