Book 2: Astoria Greengrass and the Haunt of Azkaban
Song rec: "Old Now" by Rosemary & Garlic

When Astoria and Rhiannon opened the door to their dormitory on the fourteenth of January, they released the sealed smell of Christmas biscuits. The memory of the delicious biscuits prompted Rhiannon to take out some of her sweet provisions and munch on them as she went about her unpacking. Clumsily trying to pull out her robes with one hand whilst the other held a small cake, Rhiannon groaned as a cloth bag rolled dramatically out of her suitcase and spilt several letters onto the floor.

"I got to write to Professor Lupin more over the break," Rhiannon said, gloomily and happily at the same time.

Astoria squinted in the dim light. She saw the name Asenath on a couple of the letters that Rhiannon reached for next and assumed that it plagued the rest.

Astoria and Rhiannon had arrived at Hogwarts in time to go to dinner, that which could not be said of many of the other students. The Great Hall was only at half capacity. Due to the softer noise, the pair knew Professor Snape was striding toward them without even looking. He halted by their seats and stood there for a time in an affectedly stringent fashion, waiting for them to respectfully acknowledge his presence (or whatever it was he might have called it).

"Yes, Professor?" Astoria said.

"I am inclined to thank you for the new cauldron," Professor Snape said slowly. "It is of very good quality."

"You're welcome," both girls replied.

"Y'know, sir, there's a whole story with that cauldron—" Rhiannon started.

"Don't tell it," Professor Snape said before walking away.

Flora and Hestia arrived at nightfall. The twins did not act out of the ordinary, so they must not have realised they had been spotted in Knockturn Alley. After thanking one another for Christmas gifts, enquiring about each other's holidays, and lying quite a bit, the girls dispersed onto their beds to rest. Rhiannon then decided that she wasn't going to pretend she did not see the twins in Knockturn Alley any longer, although Astoria much rather would have held her peace and saved the twins the effort of making up an excuse.

"You'll never believe where Astoria and I got Snape's gift," Rhiannon said, faking a laugh.

"You got Snape a gift?" Hestia said over Astoria's groan.

"We did. And we had to go to Knockturn Alley to get it!"

The effect of the words on the twins was perceptible. They glanced at each other before assuming a charade.

"How did you make it out alive?" Flora said.

"Same way you did," Rhiannon replied with a trace of aggression in her voice.

Hestia slowly drew her blankets up. Flora was motionless. Astoria wanted more than anything to escape to the common room and pretend that this moment had never occurred. It was Hestia, not Flora, who decided to break the stone silence.

"We weren't doing anything wrong," Hestia said to the ceiling. "Flora and I weren't doing anything wrong."

Astoria closed her eyes in a desperate defence mechanism.

"Our father—"

"Hestia…" Flora warned.

"Our father is a coward, Flora! He won't stand up to them!"

Astoria wished Rhiannon would interject, but relief did not come.

"Be qui—!"

"I'm tired of keeping things from them. If you want to pretend everything is okay, go on. Go on and do it and lie to your friends," Hestia said.

Silence.

"By chance," Hestia croaked, "the most questionable thing they bought that day was an old grimoire."

Astoria could feel the combined confusion between Rhiannon and herself. Was it true that the Carrows bought contraband on a regular basis?

"It's a good way to ruin Christmas shopping," Hestia said pitifully, wiping a few tears with her blanket. "Going to Knockturn."

"Okay, I'm lost," Rhiannon said.

Hestia whimpered whilst Flora rubbed her temples and begrudgingly accepted the task of telling the story.

"Open your eyes when I talk about this," Flora commanded Astoria.

Astoria moved her hand off her forehead and opened her eyes; she didn't know why it was so hard to look at her friend right now.

"Our father has two older siblings who both live with us. An unspoken rule is that nobody talks about these two. Another unspoken rule is that the easiest way to keep quiet is to not leave the house unless they say so. They're parasites. They've been terrorising our parents since before we were born. Mum didn't know what she was getting into, and Dad wasn't good enough of a man to tell her to leave him. She died when we were born, and that didn't help Dad's morale against the two. Dad's never done anything bad himself, but we've pretty much figured out our aunt and uncle. They sometimes have Dad trade things so they aren't always traceable. Do you follow me?"

Rhiannon nodded, and Astoria made a noise in her throat.

"We have to work, too," said Flora.

Astoria felt so badly. Did it really have to be true? After hearing all about Rhiannon's home life, did it really have to be true that the twins were held captive in their own home? That they were Knockturn merchants?

"I would tell you more," Hestia spoke up. "I would tell you everything, but we don't know everything. Things are always kept from us. I-I think maybe it's better that way, so they let us outside more. We don't know anything except what we know from guessing, Rhiannon."

After an awkward silence, Rhiannon said, "You don't owe me an explanation, really. I guess we were just worried. It doesn't change anything."

Hestia and Flora both nodded. They might have been the "weird kids" in their class, but they weren't bad people. Astoria was grateful to have them as friends; she only wished that she could do more to help. They obviously had a difficult upbringing. At least they had opened up.

The next day was eerily uneventful for the foursome. Astoria found that conversation was particularly hard to come by. Whilst other students were relating funny holiday stories to one another or announcing which gifts they received, Astoria, Rhiannon, Flora, and Hestia tried to fight off the shadows that had been cast upon them. Rhiannon didn't show up for lunch that afternoon, and after scanning the Gryffindor table, Astoria concluded that she was probably with the also-absent Asenath.

"Where did she go?" Flora asked.

"I believe she is with my cousin," Astoria said quietly.

Hestia accidentally gurgled her tea, and the resulting fit of coughing annoyed every other surrounding student. The noise was outmatched by a quick announcement from Headmaster Dumbledore.

"All Astronomy classes are cancelled for tonight," he said, with an aberrant discomfort tracing his voice.

The ignorant appreciation for the cancelled class was painfully widespread, but Astoria's thoughts of hospitals would not stay away. When Rhiannon met up with Astoria later, it looked like she had just finished a long snogging session. Her flushed face quickly lost its colour when Astoria told her that Astronomy was cancelled for that night.

"I wish they'd tell us more," Rhiannon said earnestly. "I want to know, if… if she's all right. If maybe she just couldn't get back from a holiday somewhere in time…"

"She's ill, Rhiannon," Astoria said.

"Yeah… Guess I wished it was another reason."

In double Charms, the girls watched the icy rain outside rather than the notes on the board. Rhiannon shivered and fell asleep multiple times throughout the day, but Astoria couldn't convince her to see Madam Pomfrey. They both agreed to mope in the dormitory whilst Flora and Hestia worked on homework in the common room.

"What sorts of homework do you have already?" Rhiannon asked after the twins left.

"Not the kind I want to do," Astoria said. "We just got back."

Rhiannon's lips flashed with a smile, then it was gone. She kicked off her shoes as Astoria unlaced hers. They sat in their beds. Rhiannon wrapped a blanket over her shoulders and scribbled in her spiral notebook. Astoria was a little sweaty and picked pilling off of her blanket instead.

"Weird day," said Rhiannon.

"Yeah, it sort of is."

They could hear the clock ticking.

"What are you working on, Rhi?"

"Doodling."

Astoria glanced at the notebook. Rhiannon was drawing fake-looking sigils like the kind tattooed on Asenath. Astoria didn't use the word lame very much, but this was one instance where she thought it. Maybe it was the optical illusions in the tangled sigils, but Astoria grew a headache and lay down.

"Oh. We're missing dinner. Wanna head up?" Rhiannon offered.

"Not particularly. Don't we have some snacks stashed in here somewhere?"

"Yeah, let me…"

Rhiannon stopped mid-sentence. Astoria's headache got worse, so she didn't much care to hear the rest of Rhiannon's chatter anyway. But then Rhiannon tried to pick up conversation again.

"Astoria, I actually wanted to ask you something. Erm, I get these deep pains sometimes at night."

"I told you to go to Madam Pomfrey today," Astoria said a bit impatiently. "I didn't know about that, though."

She shut her eyes. She heard Rhiannon rummaging through the stash of food.

"We got Wizard-brand Twiglets," Rhiannon said, implying the Muggle recipe for Wandlets was better.

"Could you save me a bag of Wandlets? My head hurts at the moment."

"Yup."

No matter how much Astoria relaxed her body and kept her eyes shut, her head throbbed worse and worse. This was the kind of migraine she would have to sleep off, so she tried. No luck. Her thoughts were restless and vivid in colour. She kept worrying about Professor Sinistra, but she couldn't remember what she was worried about any longer. She saw the professor's long cornrows trailing down from her silken head wrap. The robes she wore used to be golds and oranges and magentas. Maroons and violets and indigos. She wore no colour anymore, and her lips were sick and grey.

The migraine was making Astoria see more colours even in the black behind her eyelids. Pinks dripped into blues, and greens flashed yellow. Red circles were everywhere. The colour of her own hair, a dark brown, replaced the black. Her own eyes were muted green, muted and censored and dabbed with water. She had seen her eyes many times in the mirror. Once she had seen them face-to-face. Astoria rolled on her back and felt the bed as bricks. A memory she thought she had came unravelling. Something in her head was muddled and fake.

I knew I never told Professor Sinistra I was homesick. I never had that conversation. Why do I keep thinking that I did?

Astoria recalled being very late to class one evening last year, after having fallen asleep in the music room. She thought she had talked to Professor Sinistra beforehand, but sometimes the memory seemed fake. Other times it seemed real. But she had not fallen asleep in the music room then, had she? And she wasn't asleep now, though it felt like a dream.

Something chased me. It looked just like me. It had taken my shape.

Astoria wiped her clammy hands on the pilled Hogwarts blankets. Astoria could see it all clearly now in her thoughts. She had been chased and cornered in the music room.

It told me it wanted its home back. Why didn't I tell anyone I saw this clone of myself chasing me? Was I put under a spell?

She had asked the creature what it was, but its answer was "What the hell do you think I am?"

I don't know. I don't know what you are.

Down to the eyes, it was the same shape and colour as her. That thing had clutched her heartbeat and had fooled Professor Sinistra. A doppelgänger, a demon, a shapeshifter.

"Rhiannon?"

Rhiannon's coughing rang against the stone walls. Rhiannon coughed out some affirmation of being okay. Astoria's whole head spun out the dizziness. Rhiannon was slumped at the foot of Astoria's bed, coughing. Okay, but coughing. Astoria crawled over to her.

"You started freaking out," Rhiannon alleged. "I wanted to check on you. My head started hurting too."

"My pain is gone," Astoria said, wondering what wicked magic had stirred.

"My pain is gone, too, but…"

They locked eyes.

"…but what happened?"

The next morning was Astoria's birthday. She and Rhiannon had not figured out what had happened the previous night. They were supposed to have History of Magic. Then Astoria would go to Arithmancy whilst Rhiannon would go to Care of Magical Creatures. They'd meet back up for Potions.

"I figure we can get checked out and be back in time for Potions," Rhiannon said.

"I think so," Astoria said.

She did not want to miss Arithmancy, but there had never been a better excuse to go to the Hospital Wing. She told Flora to vouch for her absence, whilst Rhiannon sent Hestia as her agent. They pretended they had eaten something that both made them sick, blaming the Wandlets.

The draughts in the dungeons were more powerful than usual, as if they were trying to sweep the students back into their warm common room. Working their way up the stairs and through the corridors, Rhiannon and Astoria finally made it to the Hospital Wing. It wasn't going to be an easy task to get admitted; both of them felt completely fine now.

When they walked into the Hospital Wing, it was abuzz. This was out of the ordinary from the quietude Madam Pomfrey worked so hard to ensure. Astoria and Rhiannon waited patiently at the front desk whilst the matron talked to some patients frantically. The girls shared a look. Astoria noticed that the matron's check-in station was littered with letters. If Astoria had to guess, most of it was from students' parents. There were only three students in the beds, so each student must have had about five letters! What could be so urgent about their conditions? By chance, Astoria noticed the newspaper underneath all of the letters. The main headline of the Daily Prophet this was more than concerning.

MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN

MINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS "RALLYING POINT"

FOR OLD DEATH EATERS

"Er, Rhiannon…" Astoria whispered, drawing her attention to the paper.

Rhiannon immediately took the liberty to grab the paper right off of Madam Pomfrey's desk.

Whilst the matron was still distracted with upset children, Astoria and Rhiannon gobbled up as much as the article as they could. It detailed that ten high-security prisoners escaped and compared it to the escape of Sirius Black. The Minister, Cornelius Fudge, believed that Sirius Black aided the other prisoners, though it wasn't clear how he came to that conclusion. His advice to the public was, "On no account should any of these individuals be approached."

"No shit they shouldn't be approached!" Rhiannon gasped. "And for the record, Sirius Black was not the first person to escape from Azkaban, but I guess they're going to cover that up, too."

"Cover what up?" Astoria whispered.

"There was a breakout in '82, but it was just one person. Now there's ten more, look at that," Rhiannon said frustratedly.

"I'll be with you ladies in a minute," Madam Promfrey called over.

With little time before they would be caught with the witch's newspaper, Rhiannon scrutinised each mug shot and respective name, whispering them as she went along.

"Antonin Dolohov, Tilton Gibbon, Patrick Jugson — and this wonderful family, Bellatrix Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, — Xavier Lofthouse; yes, that's Xander's father… Bates Mulciber, Augustus Rookwood, and Les Travers."

Astoria and Rhiannon casually lay the newspaper back on the desk, both peering at it to read the next passage:-

The Azkaban breakout was the result of revolt on the part of a small number of dementors guarding the prison and its grounds. The prison is known to have ten dementor guards for every one human guard. The wizards and witches who make up the Azkaban Security Officials (ASO) were unavailable for questioning following the breakout, but the official statement issued by the ASO is as follows:

"Breakout occurred at approximately 6:30 P.M. Ten (10) escaped. Escape made possible by large, Reducted hole, which opened up walls on the south side of the twentieth through the twenty-third floors. Blast created by Rabastan Lestrange after he and other nine were freed from cells by three (3) dementors. Forces working to retrieve prisoners. None found yet. Two brain-deaths of prisoners from twenty-third floor confirmed as a result from dementors. Three deaths in prison hospice ward resulted from Reducto Curse. One other death from hospice ward occurred separately, about twenty minutes before breakout. One outside witness of breakout was seriously injured but discharged from St Mungo's upon request." [Continued on next page].

"Good morning, Miss Greengrass, Miss Clarke," Madam Pomfrey said in her best customer-service voice. "What seems to be the problem?"

Astoria realised they had not agreed on what to tell Madam Pomfrey without sounding loony. For some reason, telling the absolute truth had not occurred to her, so she was surprised when Rhiannon went ahead and said it.

"Last night, Astoria and I both got really woozy at the same exact time. We were in our dorm room, and I saw Astoria tense up. And so I went to check on her, but I lost my balance. We got really sick for no reason. I was wondering if there was a spell put on us."

"Oh, I can examine you. About what time did this happen?" the matron asked.

Rhiannon furrowed her brow and said quietly, "About six."

The matron sort of glared at them.

"Why didn't you come up when it happened? You wanted to miss class this morning?"

Astoria offered, "Well, we felt better afterwards, as though something had passed over us. We're pretty sure it was magic, since I saw visions. We don't know who would do this."

"How do you feel now?"

"Unwell," Astoria lied.

"What do you mean by visions?"

"I had a vision that I was being chased by myself," Astoria said. "I think I was Confunded."

It was partially true. It had come to her as a vision last evening. But it had been a real event. She really had been chased. Madam Pomfrey didn't need to know that part.

"What about you, Miss Clarke?"

"I dunno. It felt like something switched off in me."

"'Switched off?'" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Yeah, magic-like. Like a spell broke."

Madam Pomfrey gave them both a hard look, but ultimately drew up an admission record for each of them and showed them to a bed. It might have been the doom and gloom of the prison breakout that was causing her to take their baseless claims so seriously. They were put in adjacent beds, but Astoria was next to a sixth-year with a lot of noise coming from his stomach. There was plenty of room in the wing. It wasn't really fair.

"Astoria, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"No?"

"We got sick about the same time as the breakout," Rhiannon hissed excitedly.

"Oh…"

Astoria wished that it was anything else. Maybe they were making a big deal out of nothing. Maybe their blood sugar had got low.

I know what I saw, though.

She grabbed the pillow and hugged it tight. Was You-Know-Who capable of shapeshifting? Headmaster Dumbledore said he came back to life last year. Did he get into the school? Did he come after Astoria? Was he running around with her image?

No, dark wizards probably had better things to do.

"Astoria, see if he'll lend you his copy of the Prophet," Rhiannon said.

Astoria's hesitation at the threat of catching the sixth-year's stomach bug gave Madam Pomfrey just enough time to get her bearing together and come back to them. She started with Rhiannon (who had been in the Hospital Wing several times before), taking her pulse, checking under her tongue, shining a wandlight in her eyes, and looking in her ears.

"All right, Miss Clarke, this is going to feel odd," said the Matron, with her wand right on Rhiannon's forehead.

"Aye."

"Specialis Revelio."

Nothing happened.

"Miss Greengrass?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Specialis Revelio."

Astoria jerked a little at the spell, since it felt like Madam Pomfrey had rung a loud doorbell against her forehead. Still, nothing happened with her, either.

"Well, there's no magic in either of you anymore. I do want to figure out what happened, though. Do you mind if I send for your Head of House? If there are jinxes and the like being cast in the dormitories, he'll need to know. You can tell him what happened."

Rhiannon agreed straightaway. Astoria wasn't so sure she wanted to tell Professor Snape that she had such a terrible, vivid memory. Telling Madam Pomfrey had been enough. However, if she was really in danger, she had to let someone know.

Madam Pomfrey went back to her office. There was no telling when or if Professor Snape would arrive to interrogate them. Rhiannon once again asked Astoria to get the sick fellow's paper.

"Erm, excuse me…"

The sixth-year burped in response.

"Do you mind if we borrow your newspaper? We'll give it back."

He burped again. Astoria tried to use context clues, and it seemed like he was burping in agreement. She took the paper off his bedside table, and she and Rhiannon huddled up to read it on Astoria's bed. They found the spot where they had left off.

WITNESS RECOUNTS BREAKOUT

Aurora Sinistra, 33, Professor of Astronomy at Hogwarts School, insisted on speaking with reporters from her hospital bed late on the night of the fifteenth of January. She said that she had been in the hospice ward that day and showed reporters her Azkaban right-of-entry card, the likes of which few had ever seen before. Her classes at Hogwarts begin at eight o'clock. She intended to stay until seven that evening visiting a relative in hospice. However, ten minutes after six o'clock, the prisoner she was visiting passed away, and she attempted to send for a prison officer.

Astoria was startled. Professor Sinistra was the last person she expected to be the witness to the breakout, except perhaps Daphne. Astoria had no idea Professor Sinistra knew anyone in Azkaban. She kept looking at Rhiannon, waiting for her to react, but Rhiannon's nose was set in the paper. She was reading way ahead of Astoria. So Astoria kept quiet and continued reading to keep up.

Any human officers, Sinistra said, could not be reached. It was after she saw how the dementors were acting that she realised the prison was unstable. Three dementors were confirmed to be defective by the Ministry after the event.

It was later confirmed that two of the defective dementors had unlawfully Kissed two prisoners on the twenty-third floor, of which Ms Sinistra was not a witness. She remained in the hospice ward and was able to place Shield Charms round the area, but she could not cast a Patronus Charm.

"The dementors were wild, and I could not contact the front guardswizards. I didn't leave my spot. The Death Eaters came for me, though, because they knew I was there," she said.

When asked how the Death Eaters knew she was there, she reported Rabastan Lestrange knew her from school. She knew a breakout had occurred when she saw Rabastan, who destroyed her Shield Charm and placed her under the Cruciatus Curse for one half of a minute.

"I was ready for something like that," said Ms Sinistra. "He ceased the curse by chance when four others arrived from another cell. I got away, but they followed me. Five escaped through a blast in the wall that Rabastan had aimed at me. I don't know exactly which five. One smacked me on the head as he left, and I could not see for a few moments."

Asked how the prisoners were able to retrieve their wands, Ms Sinistra said that she was not certain, but that many wands were kept with the ASO, who were not present during the initial stages of the breakout. This is interesting information, considering that wands of inmates are supposed to be kept in Auror archives.

Duelling had ensued on the twentieth floor of the prison, in which Ms Sinistra faced Rabastan and four other Death Eaters.

"At least thirty spells were cast," she estimated. "The dust from the blast in the stone was clouding everything. Perhaps that is why I'm alive. I was able to subdue one of them and ran down to the nineteenth floor. One caught me and dragged me back to the floor above, back to the rest of them. I did not see a wand on him during this time. I struggled out of that situation and then subdued him easily, but when I battled the other three, somebody broke my left arm. I was sure I would die then."

Ms Sinistra said that the others must have escaped during this duel, for she did not fight nor see them.

"I can't aim with my right hand, so I was trying to out-run the last three, but Rabastan cornered me."

Ms Sinistra then related how she survived. Her left arm broken, she cast an Atmospheric Charm, which required no aim.

"It was a wind charm," she said. "It knocked out two of them straight away. Rabastan knew what I was doing and escaped the prison. I saw him going. He's the one missing his left ear from our first fight on the twentieth floor."

It was officially confirmed by the ASO that Ms Sinistra had prevented the escape of four Death Eaters: Graham Bohr, Cain Calhoun, Valfrid Lofthouse, and Thorfinn Rowle.

The public is implored to give any information regarding the locations of the escaped Death Eaters to the Ministry of Magic immediately. Under no circumstances should anyone make contact with the escapees. x

Astoria had hundreds of questions. Whom was the professor visiting? Why was Professor Sinistra willing to be so close to dementors for a prisoner? It must have been someone very close, like a parent or sibling. And now the one for whom the professor cared so much was gone. How could she have withstood the effects of being near dementors? It was cruel.

"Whom do you think she was visiting all this time?" Astoria whispered, even though the more important question was, "Do you think she's okay?"

Rhiannon glared at the floor.

"Haven't a clue," she said hoarsely. She was extremely pale. She began to shed tears profusely and say that she could not go to Potions even if it meant detention until June. She buried her head on Astoria's shoulder and was refusing to liberate any of the vocal cries in her throat, but Astoria could feel her heartbreakingly laboured breathing through the hug. The other students were staring at them. They would just have to keep staring.

"Astoria, you need to tell me what you saw in your vision," Rhiannon said after she had got herself together.

Astoria hesitated, but Rhiannon looked to be on to something. She cupped her hand over Rhiannon's ear and came completely clean.

"I saw a memory that I didn't know I had. It was last year. I was going up Astronomy Tower and thought I might talk to Professor Sinistra, but she was already talking to a girl. I waited on the steps, but the girl was saying all these really specific things about missing home and feeling like she doesn't do anything right. It was like she was saying my own thoughts. And then Professor Sinistra said something about if she went back to being home-schooled, she wouldn't have you. And then the girl got upset and came out of the room. And I was already trying to get away from her, but she followed me. I saw that she was me. I was seeing a double of myself. I locked myself in the Music room. You all had already left from practice. The girl sat outside and cried. Then it was quiet for so long, I thought I had imagined the whole thing. So I opened the door, and there she was, crying. I looked right at her. She was identical to me. And she put her wand in my face. I think she Confunded me. This whole time, I thought I was late to class because I had taken a walk and a nap. I was late to class because I was Confunded."

Rhiannon looked less shocked and disturbed than Astoria thought she ought to have. Astoria couldn't fathom why it all made sense to Rhiannon and made zero sense to her.

"Was this some sort of prank?" Astoria suddenly accused.

"Prank? God, no!" Rhiannon exclaimed.

"Well, then what is so obvious about what happened to me?" Astoria pressed.

"Astoria, someone had a Polyjuice Potion round here last year! Someone must have got some of your hair and made a potion — you run your hands through your hair every two minutes."

"Polyjuice! But that doesn't explain how that thing read my mind!"

"It wasn't a thing, Astoria, it was a person! You know, some people can use magic to read minds, too! Don't you read anything but Astronomy?" Rhiannon huffed.

"I'm not allowed to read about Dark magic apart from class," Astoria admitted resentfully. "How do you even know there was Polyjuice at the school?"

Rhiannon paused, then pulled something out of thin air, "Moody told me."

"Moody?"

"Yeah, I thought he was just being his usual paranoid self until you told me about that girl who looked exactly like you," Rhiannon uttered.

Astoria couldn't "read minds," but oh, could she tell when Rhiannon was making shit up. Polyjuice was certainly a more comforting explanation than a shapeshifting demon, but who would use Polyjuice and read her mind just to go cry all over Professor Sinistra? Astoria suspected Rhiannon would come up with another fib, but she asked who it was anyway.

"I don't know who it could have been. Sounds like something Malfoy would do. And come to think of it, Malfoy wouldn't even have to read your mind. He already knows all that stuff about you because it's obvious you're homesick and don't like Charms," Rhiannon answered.

"Malfoy? Rhiannon, are you serious?"

"Yeah, Malfoy! Probably just to be a pervert," Rhiannon fake-sulked.

Astoria was flabbergasted. Rhiannon had made more sense of the situation than Astoria had been able to do in a year, and yet Rhiannon's answer did not feel honest. She was about to pressure her for more of what she thought of the event when Professor Snape barged in. Astoria and Rhiannon both took their place on their beds and pretended to be good patients. If Rhiannon wouldn't help Astoria get to the bottom of this, she might as well turn to Snape. All she had to say was, "Someone has my hair and is making Polyjuice, Professor." It was right on the tip of her tongue. She was ready.

And then Professor Snape darted past both of them as though they weren't even there.

"Why on Earth is she here? She should be in St Mungo's! Poppy!" he hollered.

Madam Pomfrey (and everyone else) had heard his arrival and came bustling after him.

"Severus, she was discharged from St Mungo's because she kept insisting she leave. She was in decent condition at the time of that discharge, but the headmaster brought her here when he saw her. I assessed her. Her physical condition is much better, but Severus… Severus, wait. She's catatonic."

Astoria and Rhiannon watched open-mouthed as Professor Snape whirled back round to glare at Madam Pomfrey before he walked all the way to the back of the ward and drew back the curtains on a private bed. Professor Sinistra had been in the room the whole time, and the girls didn't know! They leaned way forward to see past Snape's cape. Professor Sinistra looked more terrible than ever before. It troubled Astoria that her arm was still in a sling; broken bones like the one she reported in her eyewitness account could easily be repaired by Healers unless the injured party had been badly cursed. The Professor was lying down, but her position looked unnatural and uncomfortable. Her hand was held upright as if reaching for something. Her eyes were stony. She was mouthing something, but no sound was coming out. Astoria and Rhiannon were no longer the only ones staring.

"What fluid is she on?" Professor Snape demanded, eyeing the intravenous injection in Sinistra's uninjured arm.

"The Euphoria Elixir. Severus, she's had direct contact with dementors."

"I understand that, but why have you Silenced her?"

"Severus, stop questioning me. She's chanting nonsense."

"And what if she needed help? You would not hear her."

"She isn't going to need help, yet, Severus. I need to get her out of this state first! Do you think I have not been monitoring her all morning? Go on, then, and Unsilence her. You'll last about one minute listening to that. You know damn well what she's talking about."

Madam Pomfrey's justifications were not good enough for Professor Snape. All of a sudden, the girls could hear the sound of Professor Sinistra gasp. She was crying the incantation for a Patronus Charm.

"Expecto Patronum. Expecto Patronum," Professor Sinistra repeated tonelessly. She did not even hold a wand and could hardly be expected to cast a Patronus in her state.

"Expecto Patronum," rang uselessly yet again, but Professor Sinistra was entirely separated from the fact that she held no wand, that she was in the Hospital Wing without a dementor in sight.

"Expecto Patronum."

Rhiannon got out of bed and walked over to Professor Sinistra. She was instantly shoved away from the area by Madam Pomfrey. Astoria felt like her whole body was shrinking and closing in as she watched her favourite teacher lie in pieces. Rhiannon stumbled back to Astoria after a decisive push from the matron.

"Rhi, what's going on?" Astoria whimpered, grabbing her friend's sleeve and tugging on it pathetically like a child in need of attention.

Rhiannon did not make eye-contact but began to render her thoughts into words for Astoria's sake:–

"Contact with dementors brings up your worst memories," Rhiannon said.

"Expecto Patronum. Professor, help me. Make it stop. Make it stop," Professor Sinistra uttered senselessly. Astoria saw her eyes turn in sheer desperation toward the ceiling as though the whole situation was real and no one was responding to it, not even the Heavens.

"So she's remembering being attacked last night?" Astoria finally gathered.

In an entirely arcane revelation, Rhiannon grabbed Astoria's arm and held it tightly with a shaking hand.

"No," Rhiannon said, breaking into tears. "I'll be damned."

"Expecto Patronum. Minerva, cast one. Expecto Patronum. Help me, Minerva — no. Expecto Patronum! No, no, no, no, no. Expecto Pa—"

"Silencio," Professor Snape said solemnly, brushing Professor Sinistra's hair from her face.

Madam Pomfrey was relieved at Professor Snape's words. An event which had lasted no more than three minutes felt like it had taken up the entire day. Rhiannon was still standing even though she had been forbidden to get closer. She met Professor Snape toe-to-toe in the walkway.

"Miss Clarke," he said. "Miss Greengrass. Neither of you have anything to worry about. The magic that was in you is gone for good."

Astoria tried to get up the courage to ask for clarity… Her body had been copied with Polyjuice for Merlin's sake… But Professor Snape had walked away with the kind of walk that meant he wasn't taking further questions. And that also meant they had to show up for his class.

After Umbridge's class, the girls went back to the Hospital Wing to check on Professor Sinistra again. It had been all they thought about all day. Madam Pomfrey finally allowed visitors, which was a great sign. Professor Sinistra was lying on her right side and had evidently halted a significant conversation with Professor Snape, who had Transfigured the bed that was usually in the adjacent spot into a writing desk. With a quick sweep of his wand, he rolled up at least ten documents from the Ministry which had been spread across the desk.

"You ought," he said choppily to the traumatised professor, "to have waited a bit longer for visitors."

"I would never send away these girls," Professor Sinistra replied in her usual voice. "Anyway, I do not have to worry about other visitors. They are all wary of me now, surely."

"Surely," Professor Snape repeated with a smack of his thin lips.

"Professor," Astoria gently said to the weakened teacher, "Do you feel any better at all since this morning? We, er, we were here…"

"How kind you both are," the professor responded. "I'm much better now. Oh, I shouldn't have tried to come back to Hogwarts so soon. It's my own fault. By the way, Astoria, happy birthday to you."

Astoria had no clue Professor Sinistra paid attention to something like her birthday.

"Thank you, Professor…" Astoria said earnestly.

"What you did," Rhiannon started shakily, "was so honourable, a-and that paper just didn't own up to you like it shoulda."

"I thought it painted me quite well, actually," Professor Sinistra said. "That is the nicest article about me they have ever published."

Rhiannon became very affected and withdrew from the conversation to wipe her eyes.

"Do you know, Severus," the wounded witch emphasised, "that these ladies are under the impression that I have cancer?"

Astoria failed to draw in enough air. Did that mean that the professor did or did not have cancer? And how did she know that they thought that?

"I see," Professor Snape replied without a hint of surprise in his voice.

His hands gnarled round a roll of parchment he was so impatiently waiting to reopen.

"I must assure you now that I don't have any such thing," Professor Sinistra said with noted energy.

Oh, the relief.

"It was nothing more than the dementor. I was in close quarters with a dementor."

Nothing more than a dementor? What an understatement! Here, the professor had been subjected to the parasites for who knows how long, and she was able to say "nothing more." The woman's will must have been entirely unmatched to endure such a burden for the simple sake of visiting a convicted patient dying in hospice care.

"It will," the professor continued with a small cough, "no longer be so."

There was a pause. Rhiannon stared at her feet, but Astoria watched Professor Sinistra's eyelids lower. Astoria's sympathy overwhelmed her. She had to show the witch who had always been her home away from home how much she cared.

"To think that they had dementors guarding the hospice ward," Astoria said boldly. "No Healers — just the opposite of Healers! Professor Sinistra, your interview has exposed such a horrible transgression, and I know you have done much more in addition to preventing the escape of four Death Eaters."

"I — well, thank you, Astoria," the professor said. "But you must know, dear, that there… there is not much to guard in the Azkaban hospice ward… it's… erm…"

Rhiannon shut her eyes. Astoria remembered that it had been disrespectful to close her eyes when the twins were confiding to her, and she refused to abandon the current matter. Something about Professor Sinistra's manner indicated that she wanted to talk about the wrongdoing.

"They should not have dementors in the building in any case," Astoria said. "Rhiannon read a dementorology book earlier this year, and it's quite obvious that anyone on that island must undergo great mental torture. It's cruel and unusual punishment."

"Oh," the professor said grimly as she nodded her head with effort. "You can't imagine the effect on the mind. I wish—"

"It is over now, Aurora," Professor Snape stepped in, and Astoria and Rhiannon inferred that so was their visit.

"That's right… it is all over. Oh, except all this blasted Ministry paperwork. Thank you for helping me, Severus. I also have to write to Remus…" trailed Professor Sinistra.

Astoria tried to make sense of all that she had recently discovered. If "it" — whatever it was — was really over as Professor Snape had said, and Professor Sinistra did not have cancer, then Astoria would have nothing to be concerned about. But her mind was still preyed upon by the fact that for more than four months, Professor Sinistra had looked like a dying woman. She had been visiting a dying person at the cost of exposing herself to dementors every single day. Why was her relative in Azkaban? If the professor had classes with Rabastan Lestrange in her Hogwarts days, one could only guess she knew other people of questionable origins. Yet the professor herself hated the Lestranges. She was not a prejudiced woman. Maybe her relatives were the same as Flora's and Hestia's. Bad people.

The fact that the prisoner was kept in that joke of a hospice ward in Azkaban rather than sent elsewhere was more than disturbing. Professor Sinistra said herself that there was not much to guard in the hospice ward… so what kind of a prisoner would have been kept there nonetheless? What crime had that person done? There were still so many questions, and Rhiannon was hardly cooperating with answers.

Because there were no announcements that class had been cancelled, everyone trudged up the tower for Astronomy that same night. Astoria watched Draco Malfoy's every move for hints of a Polyjuice prank.

He didn't do it. I know he didn't do it.

She watched Pansy.

Maybe Pansy had used Polyjuice to run all over the place embarrassing me. That's more likely.

Astoria watched Pansy some more.

Pansy's too dumb to make a potion like that.

There was no other explanation that Astoria wanted to consider at the moment. She knew it wasn't Draco. Rhiannon was lying to her.

It must have been Pansy. I hope it was Pansy. If Flora and Hestia can go to Knockturn Alley, Pansy certainly can. I bet she bought a pre-made Polyjuice potion. I bet she went everywhere crying all over the teachers to embarrass me.

When Astoria reached the classroom and saw Professor Sinistra sitting determinedly at her desk, she gasped. She had assumed there would be a substitute teacher.

"Professor‽ Why aren't you in the Hospital Wing?" she asked.

Professor Sinistra sighed placidly.

"If you have not guessed by now, Astoria, I am a little bit stronger than that."