Book of Shadows
Chapter 22 – Panic, sheer bloody panic
…
They rushed to the hospital wing as soon as they figured out what the excitable elf was trying to tell them. Hermione, McGonagall, Hospital wing, that had been the gist. The rest had been a lot of muttering and babbling and come to find out Dobby was not the only elf who had trouble with grammar.
They arrived to find Hermione sitting up in bed, McGonagall sitting beside looking very old and very tired.
"Hermione!"
The bushy-haired girl brightened at the sight of her friends, which still left her looking tear streaked and strained.
"Hermione, what happened?" asked Harry.
This was the wrong thing to say; the tears returned and in a fragile voice, "She's gone."
"Who?"
"Professor Babbling. She's gone. I saw it take her and I—I couldn't…"
"Hermione. Hermione calm down."
It seemed a herculean task, stubborn tears refusing to cease. McGonagall sat there dying to hold the girl, tell her everything would be alright but hesitating as she often did. She was a teacher, it wasn't proper.
Harry had no such reservations and any of the usual uncomfortableness he may have felt being so familiar with a member of the opposite sex was harshly banished at the sight of his friend in such distress.
She fell into his arms sobbing, and Ron came from behind to achieve full coverage. Sitting aside, McGonagall beamed with pride. This was how lions should behave.
"I'm okay. I just—I'm okay," she said after a good hard cry.
"Can you tell us what happened?" Harry asked, remaining close just in case.
She nodded, choking back another torrent of emotion, "I was with Professor Babbling after class. We were going over my most recent work and she wanted to show me something she'd been working on.
"She—she put a spell into my book. It was amazing. She'd found another layer to the pages and she had enough of the runes figured out she put a simple spell together and put it in my book. And I knew it, and used it, it was incredible, it…"
What followed was a long string of technical jargon neither boy understood, though McGonagall was listening closely to every word.
"Hermione? Hermione!"
"Huh?" the girl stopped midsentence.
"I see your very excited about this, but your speaking Greek."
"No Harry, it was the Norse that, wha, oh, you mean—I'm sorry, I got a little…"
Her friend smiled, "What happened after that?"
"She, Professor Babbling was walking me back to Gryffindor, I was a bit off and not paying attention and she stopped me when she heard something coming. We hid and waited and—and, Harry, it was—it…"
A reassuring hand took hers, rubbing small circles in the back. She looked into those fierce green eyes, seeking comfort, solace, protection. They stared back like a mother tiger, daring the world to come one step closer.
"It was, very tall, spindly like. It's head—it's head was a skull with—long, twisted antlers."
"I've heard a him," said Ron.
"As have I," said McGonagall.
So had Harry, the description was quite consistent, though he'd yet to hear anyone give it a proper name.
"What did it do?"
"It—it did something to the wall. Drew something; it glowed while he worked on it but by the time he was gone, and we went to see it had already faded. We were going to leave but then—but then, she, she turned her back and, and it…"
"It what?" Harry prodded gently.
"It grabbed her. It came out of the wall and grabbed her. It was, red eyes and, like a bug's mouth—huge claws and, and, it pulled her in, into the darkness and I, and I just, stood there. I watched it pull her into the darkness and I—I just…"
"Hermione? Hermione look at me!"
"I just—and it—I just couldn't…"
"Oh, dear. Poppy, the draught!" McGonagall called as Hermione continued to babble in circles.
The Medi-witch appeared as if by magic, pouring the bottle down the girl's throat, silencing the repeating playback as she swiftly drifted into unconsciousness.
"What was that?" Harry asked, eyeing the bottle suspiciously.
"Dreamless sleep," said Madam Pomphrey. "You Mr. Potter are easy to repair when you come in here. You just break your body. That's something I have much experience in fixing. But Ms. Granger. This is a trauma that will not be so easily repaired, and there is far too little I can do to help."
"She'll beat it," said Ron. "She's tough."
It was probably the nicest thing he'd ever said about her, and only the sort of thing he'd say when he knew she couldn't hear him.
"This is bad. This is really bad."
"Yes, yes it is," McGonagall said.
"You think that's why she was alone?" Ron asked.
Two beds down, the girl they'd brought in still lay, alive but refusing to wake.
"You mean, the spell eater only got to her after whoever she was with disappeared?" said Harry, the true horror of the idea sinking in like a lead weight. "When was the last time we had a head count."
By the look on her face, McGonagall was running on the same track as he, "I believe now would be a very good time," said the old Scot. "One, two, three, accounted for. Now, I need you boys to do something."
The pair perked up like soldiers awaiting their orders.
"I need you to go to the runes classroom and find those extra copies Ms. Granger referred to. If all this is true these may be the first step in a very important advancement. Either way I don't want them getting lost. Go, find them, then come back here. If I'm not here when you get back, give them to Madam Pomphrey."
The pair nodded and headed for the door at a hard march before she called after them.
"One other thing. Do mind the walls."
She looked after them, the creases in her face pulling taut, "You can come out now Albus."
A faint shimmer between two beds resolved into the master of the castle, and one more down became a half-eaten looking man with a crazy eye.
"Alastor! I didn't know you were here."
"That's why I'm still alive Minerva."
"You heard all of that then?"
"Indeed," said Dumbledore. "I am surprised you would send them out like that. Just the two of them."
The old woman managed a wry smile, "Fate seems to favor certain reckless men, and those two have been running into danger since the arrived here. If anyone is going to survive this, it'll be them."
"I see."
"Do you?"
The two men shared a look which McGonagall felt was saying more than she was privy to.
"What are we going to do Albus?"
"I do not know."
Wearily, like the old man he appeared he sat down on the empty bed. Moody thumped around to stand between the two educators, posture screaming confrontation.
"Of all the things I ever expected to hear outta you Dumbledore, that ain't one of'em."
"It pains me to even suggest it but, under the circumstances, should we send them home?"
"As I told Cornelius. We have no way of knowing how these creatures are coming. If this nameless giant is responsible somehow, can we be sure it wouldn't follow them. Would they truly be safe?"
"It's like walking a tightrope over a pit. Every step forward just reveals how much deeper the pit can go," snarled Moody.
"So, what do we do?"
"I believe the most obvious route would be to find this creature and stop it."
"Can we stop it though?" said Moody, voicing the concern that hung between them. "Will our spell work on it or are we gonna need Potter."
"He would do it," said McGonagall with certainty. "You wouldn't even have to ask."
Dumbledore smiled, "Of that I have no doubt," he said. "But can we afford to risk it?"
"Not this again," Moody snapped.
"No Alastor, that is not what I mean," Dumbledore hurriedly explained. "At present, Harry is the only one with a spell that can capture the shadow specters. What I mean is, can we risk confronting this beast, should we fail, and lose Harry in the process."
"We may not have a choice," said McGonagall.
"We always have a choice," Dumbledore countered calmly, "but I understand your meaning. Whatever we are going to do we must do it quickly before any more students are lost. And with that in mind, I believe there was talk of a head count."
As a group they left the hospital wing, with reluctance splitting up to go about their tasks. It was a long day, and before it had ended everyone had heard, because how could they not. She shadows were hungry, and Bathsheba Babbling was only the appetizer.