The arrival of December brought with it the heavy snows that covered the castle's grounds like a white blanket, and with it came the promise of the quickly approaching Christmas Break. That gave the students something to look forward to in midst of the tests and piles of homework. The castle's long corridors and halls were filled with floating candy canes and all other sorts of candy and treats, which Peeves had quickly turned into weapons to throw at any distracted passing student, laughing and singing merrily as the poor victim fled away running. Some of the older students had even managed to enchant some mistletoe into flying over the students' heads, refusing to go away until said student was finally kissed.
And yet, the arrival of December also meant that the accumulated homework had reached a new level of despair and grumpiness in nearly every single student during the week. She could no longer find solace in the quiet library because it was now constantly full of students trying to manage to finish everything in time. None of the professors seemed to show any sort of mercy or sympathy as they threw more and more work at the already tired and complaining children. They had a full twelve-page essay to complete for Divination, piles of homework to deliver for Flitwick for that Thursday, another essay for McGonagall and the longest most tedious and unnecessary homework from Snape.
Not even the promise of Christmas could seem to cheer her up as she made her way down towards the dungeons for the last two-hour period of Monday afternoon. Potions. And just what she needed: Snape searching for ways to take more unnecessary points from Gryffindor and torture her and her friends for the entire length of the class.
"Eowyn! Come on!" She hurried her friend who seemed too preoccupied and entertained listening to some sort of gossip from a fellow Ravenclaw girl to even listening to her. "We're going to be late!"
"Just a second, Sig!" Her friend did not even turn to look in her direction, ignoring the hand that kept trying to pull her by the arm. Just a second. She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of that. For Eowyn a second meant closer to an hour.
"Just leave her behind." Elladan laughed as his slender hand curled over her thin arm, pulling her away from Eowyn and in the direction of the small crowd of gloomy students heading towards the dungeons.
"Did you finish the homework?" Elrohir's voice chimed in her right ear, making her have to turn her head in order to see him. From where had he come from? If she had not known better she would have sworn the twins already knew how to apparate.
"Yes, I did." Sigrid narrowed her eyes at the younger twin, already knowing that he would want to copy it, clearly not having done his. Not that her answers would be all correct. To tell the truth she had not even bothered to check her homework twice this time, deciding to be content on merely having finished it.
"Can I have it?" And there came the question she knew was coming.
"Do yours, Ro!" She chastised him, throwing a glance back only to confirm that Eowyn was indeed still gossiping with whoever that Ravenclaw girl was, not having moving from her spot near one of tall elaborate columns.
"Eowyn!" She called back, laughing lightly at the exasperated glare she received from her friend's blue-grey eyes. Clearly she considered the gossip more important that Snape's wrath if she was late to class. "We're leaving you behind!"
"I'll catch up with you!" Was all she received, her friend waving a hand in frustration at her, as if shooing her away, her eyes already focused on the Ravenclaw girl once more, a smirk Sigrid knew all too well, curving on the corner of her lips. Boy gossip.
"Can I have your homework?" Elrohir pleaded to her right, just as they descended another pair of wide stone steps. There were no longer windows piercing through the heavy walls, and the humid cold air of the underground portions of the castle was already clinging to her body like trapping arms.
"No!" She laughed at him, throwing him a look that let him know her answer was the obvious one. "Do yours!"
"I did mine." Elladan spoke, hiding a mocking grin as his face adopted an expression of feigned superiority as he teased his identical copy.
"Then give me yours!" Elrohir nearly launched at him, throwing his arms in an effort to grab Elladan's school bag from him. The elder twin, however, seemed to have anticipated the reaction, moving out of the way just in time as the two of them collided in an oddly amusing fight for the bag – Elladan holding onto it a little too protectively.
"Come on, Dan, share!" Elrohir tried to reason with his brother, but the later only laughed at him, once again moving the bag out of his brother's reach at the very last possible second.
"I'm not sharing with you." The elder twin narrowed his eyes, smacking his twin's hand away. They were moving around so much in their bickering and fighting that they had somehow managed to bump into every single fourth-year Gryffindor and Slytherin making their peaceful way down to the dungeons. If they did not stop she was sure someone would lose their patience and hit them.
"Accio Homework!" Elorhir muttered as he flicked his wand, grasping the piece of parchment that flew out of his brother's bag in a quick move, before the older of the twins could react.
"Hey!" Came the expected reaction, and she simply shook her head, deciding on momentarily ignoring the two of them as she continued her way down the long labyrinth of dungeons and towards the horrid plain wooden door of Snape's classroom.
The door lay wide open as the student slowly dragged their feet inside the dimly lit room, wrinkling their noses at the putrid smell that was left over from whatever potion the previous class had been asked to brew. As is was customary, the Gryffindors made sure to take the seats at the back of the classroom, and as far away from Snape's prying eyes as possible, a low chatter filling over the space in Snape's absence.
She made her way to her usual table, dropping her books carelessly on the stained surface and begrudgingly pulling out all the items she assumed would be needing for the day's lesson. She could hear the twins bickering and arguing as they too entered the room, not quieting as they took the table directly to her right, as they always did. It seemed that Elladan had somehow managed to get his homework back from his brother's hands. She placed one of her books on the seat next to hers, saving it for Eowyn – even though she knew nobody would take it anyway- as her eyes threw another glance at the open door behind her back. Her friend was still nowhere to be seen, and now Sigrid was sure she would most definitely be late.
Still she could not control her eyes from flickering to the far corner at the front of the room where he usually sat, knowing beforehand that it would be empty. And it was empty. Again. Thranduil Lasgalen had not shown up to class for the past two weeks, and she had not seen him once since that night pulling horrid creatures from the ground under Hagrid's instructions. She was even starting to believe that he was not even at the castle, not having shown up even for any of the meals at the Great Hall. Still she did not dare bring up her curiosity to any of her friends, not wanting to admit that she even noticed whether or not the Slytherin seeker attended class or not. It was none of her business.
The peaceful chatter around the room had gotten louder as more and more of the students entered its gloomy insides. The shelves were full to the brim of scary and strange looking flasks of all different sizes, some glowing eerily in their bottles, making her have to turn away from them and remind herself not to look at them. She hated them. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Elrohir scribbling quickly in a piece of parchment, Elladan's homework lying neatly by his side. So it seemed that the elder twin had agreed to share his homework after all.
She was startled out of her thoughts as a hand move the book she had placed on the seat next to hers, placing it heavily on the table. She turned her head, expecting to see her friend only to blink a couple of times in surprise as she noticed that it was not Eowyn the one taking the seat directly to her right. His long silvery hair fell perfectly down his back, contrasting sharply with his black school robes lined in deep Slytherin emerald. He had not even glanced in her direction, hands safely inside his school robes' pockets as his eyes stared steadily at the front.
Feeling her heart race in nerves inside her chest she turned to glance in the twins' direction, only to find them staring at Lasgalen with silver eyes equally as puzzled as she found herself. She managed to catch Elladan's eyes, the elder twin throwing her a questioning look as he nodded his head in Lasgalen's direction. She quickly shrugged in return, shaking her head almost imperceptibly in response to let the twins know that she too had no idea what was the Slytherin seeker doing sitting next to her instead of his usual spot with his fellow Slytherins. It made her tense, that presence next to her that she could never anticipate whether or not would be clam or hostile.
She caught sight of Eowyn rushing inside the room just barely ahead of Snape, and was able to meet her friend's eyes just in time as the greasy haired wizard closed the dungeon door tightly. Her friend's mild grey eyes were looking in her direction as confused as the twins' were, her mouth mouthing to her a muted 'what's happening?'. She once again shrugged, aware of Lasgalen's presence next to her, ice blue eyes still focused solely at the front, as if she was not even there.
Throwing the Slytherin seeker one last puzzled glance, Eowyn chose to sit in the only available seat left at the back of the classroom, next to Eddelina Costa- a quiet Gryffindor girl from their class. At least she did not have to sit next to one of the Slytherins, and she didn't know whether or not to curse her friend for arriving so late to class. The gossip better had been a good one.
"Open your books to Chapter 7." Snape's cold voice dragged languidly as he instructed from the front of the classroom, his black robes swirling eerily around him and making him look like an overgrown bat.
A noise of books being slowly pulled out of bags and dropped carelessly over tables accompanied her as she slowly flipped the pages to find the intended chapter. She did not even bother to read the title, already skimming through the list of ingredients they would require for the class, trying her best to tune out Snape's voice from the front. It looked like a complicated potion.
She peeked next to her, only find Thranduil Lasgalen still looking directly at the front, his copy of Potion Making Level Four open neatly on the table in front of him. What was he playing at? Why forgo his usual seat? Where had he been for two weeks?
"What are you doing?" She muttered under her breath, ice blue eyes turning to look in her direction for a short second before turning back to glance at the front.
"Attending class." He whispered in return, that cold distant voice that always managed to put an end to her patience.
She took a long look at him, not caring anymore if she was caught staring, ignoring as Snape continued to give instructions on the potion they were about to brew. By the looks of his short answer Lasgalen did not seem in a very inviting mood – not that he ever was. For a second she could not tell if it was due to the greenish dim light that filtered through the cold dungeon or if her eyes were playing her tricks but his skin looked even paler than usual, his cheekbones standing out more harshly on his face. He looked tired, faint purple shadows clinging underneath his slightly sunken eyes. What was wrong with him?
Shaking her head lightly, she focused her eyes back down on the pages of her book, reading the long list of ingredients she would require for the lesson. All around her students were already starting a fire under their cauldrons, some even starting to cut away something that was leaving a putrid metallic smell in the stiff air. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Eddelina had somehow managed burst her whole cauldron into flames, leaving Eowyn to yell in shock as the two Gryffindor girls attempted to quickly put the flames away.
Igniting the fire and making the water boil to the appropriate initial temperature seemed to be about the only easy thing for this potion, and sooner than she had expected Sigrid too found herself cursing inwardly as she tried to get her ingredients to cooperate. Her left hand flew widely over the dusty fable, trying hard to pin down the tiny horned beetle as her right hand attempted to squeeze out the juice from its back with the flat side of her knife. The cursed little creature would not stop squirming! Aha! Finally! Letting out a please sighed, she squeezed the yellow thick juice, wrinkling her nose at the smell, into her suspiciously looking potion. The book specified that it should be a clear transparent color, and hers was very much an opaque purplish thick mass. What was she doing wrong?
She spared a glance next to her, her stomach still tied uncomfortably at that heavy presence sitting jus to her right, only to find out that Lasgalen seemed to be having more trouble with his potion than she was. The Slytherin seeker seemed to be struggling with holding the beetle steady with his left hand, wincing almost imperceptibly every time the insect squirmed. Her eyes dropped down to his hand, for the first time noticing that there were white linen bandages covering his entire left hand and disappearing underneath the wide sleeve of his black school robes.
"What happened to your hand?" She asked, keeping her voice low as to not be overheard. Not that any other student was paying attention to what they said, all of them too preoccupied with their own potions.
Icy eyes burning like blue fires glared in her direction, cold and impenetrable, not answering her question as he merely threw the entire beetle inside his cauldron, giving up on attempting to squeeze it the proper way. Instead, he started to try and slice his ginger roots as the instructions specified, using only his right hand this time, his left fingers seeming too shaky to hold the roots steady.
She did not know why she was doing it, making no sense inside her mind, and yet she found herself sliding her own perfectly sliced ginger roots in his direction over the table, the move unnoticed by everyone else in the dungeons. Ice blue eyes looked at her for a second, ever as unreadable and hard before he accepted he roots, leaving her to attempt to slice his mangled ones to add them to her potion. Why was she helping him with his potion? Why was she helping him at all? And yet she knew that he would have never been able to properly slice the roots using only one hand. But what was wrong with his left hand?
And then it hit her, so obvious that she almost wanted to hit herself mentally for not thinking about it before. Of course.
"What makes you so sure that you can use me as your shield?" She snapped at him lowly, throwing his mangled roots into her cauldron and watching as the potion bubbled grossly in return, turning from purple to black.
His ice blue eyes did not turn up to meet hers, continuing to stare at his own bubbling potion, not seeming interested at all in whether he got the potion right or not that class. But of course. She should have noticed it earlier. He had sat strategically next to her in class, away from his fellow Slytherin friends, where nobody in the dungeons but her would be able to notice the bandages in his left hand or how it trembled and hurt him to move it. It was as if he had already known she would help him or at least remain quiet about it the whole class, and it enraged her.
"If you were going to gossip about me you would have already done so. Which makes me believe I can trust you not to tell." He shrugged as he spoke, his right hand absently stirring his potion. And she knew he was talking about everything she had already witnessed, finding him first in the hospital wing and then frightened beyond anything in the hallways at night, and then the alarming level of pain he had been in during detention with Hagrid once the creature had bit his finger. She had not shared any of those things with any of her friends.
"What makes you so sure?" She contradicted him, hating how he had seemed to read her so easily and at the same time knowing that she would not tell. But why was she so intent in keeping whatever secret it was he carried? Why had she not been able to tell any of friends about his strange behavior? And yet, it felt wrong to her, it felt wrong to talk to anyone about seeing him in a state most people would never wish to be seen. Something was wrong with him. It was so very clear, and yet she still did not know what it was.
"You will not tell." He repeated again in a casual tone, taking out a pair of bat wings from a crystal flask and placing them neatly over the table by his book. And once again he was right, even though she wanted nothing more than to contradict him once more. She would not tell.
"Why were you not in class for the last two weeks?" She pressed, once again discretely helping him shred his bat wings before sliding them in his direction for him to add to his horridly smelling potion. And once again his cold glacier eyes turned in her direction, not letting her get even a glimpse of whatever thoughts where swirling underneath those frozen irises.
"Mind your own things." She had already expected that same cold reply from him, and yet it did not serve to lessen the anger she felt as his ever dismissive tone.
"Fine." She huffed, glaring at him fiercely. "Then I guess you will not be needing my class notes for the two weeks you missed."
"Come on." He sighed, eyes strangely pleading her through his clearly annoyed expression. She knew he needed the notes.
"Were you even in the castle for the past two weeks?" She changed the phrasing of her question, hating how he would always expect her to help him, taking her for granted as his shield.
"No." His eyes did not meet hers, even though is face remained that perfectly composed marble statue, starting deeply into his potion with a bitter expression. And yet, part of her had already known that answer, had already suspected it. It had been so clear after snooping on his student file at Dumbledore's office. Still, it did not make it easier to hear. Even if he had not specified as to where he had been, oblivious to him she already knew it: St. Mungo's. The question was why? "Could I still have your notes?"
"Yes." She agreed in a low flat tone, dropping her eyes to make sure she did not cut her fingers as she shredded her own set of bat wings.
"Thanks." He nodded his head, his voice still dripping ice, not even sparing a second glance at her.
"And stop using me to hide whatever it is you are hiding." She snapped once more in a whispered tone, ire boiling inside of her as one of his perfect eyebrows arched high on his forehead.
"Don't worry, Bowman. It is not my intention to ever sit by you again in class." He muttered in return through partially gritted teeth, absently turning over a page in his book.
Thankfully for her, the enchanted clock on the wall picked that precise moment to announce the end of the lesson, a loud cluttering sound echoing through the dungeon as the students started to pick up their stuff in a hurry, eager to leave this dimly lit clogging space. She snapped her book closed, quickly throwing the ingredients she had pulled out and throwing them back inside her backpack.
"Tomorrow after class at the library?" His velvet lined voice whispered to her as she watched him throwing his book onto his school bag as well, confirming a place and time for her to share her notes with him once more. She noticed that he had successfully hidden his left hand in the pockets of his robes, once again looking as if there was nothing remotely wrong with him, even though he still looked paler than usual.
"Yes." She agreed once more. Better get that done sooner than having to worry about meeting with him later that week.
"And I am not your safety blanket." She hissed, trying to make it clear to him, pulling her heavy bag over her right shoulder. "Stop using me as a shield."
"You're not my shield, Bowman." He hissed in return, his voice oddly colder than she remembered it, seeming to make the temperature in the already chilly dungeons drop as the musical sound cut harshly through the air. Once again his ice blue eyes were sharp, unreadable, ice cold and unforgiving, matching the same frozen mesmerizing beauty of his stone face. "But I thought you could a friend."
With that he walked past her, once again his cold perfectly calmed self as he merged his way through the mass of Slytherins, leaving her standing by the table, his harsh words still playing through her mind.
"What's the matter with Lasgalen? Why did he sit next to you?" Elrohir reached her side, his twin following closely behind as they made their way out of the dungeons and towards higher levels of the castle.
"I don't know." She shrugged, managing to sound as puzzled as the twins looked next to her. And there it was again: she was hiding whatever secret he kept. Why would she just not tell her friends that he had obviously not been well in class? And yet, she did not do it.
"Did he say anything to you?" Elladan questioned this time, only seeming half-interested in the gossip.
"No. He just minded his own potion." She lied once more, shaking her head slightly. What was wrong with her?
"Perhaps he was simply too embarrassed to sit with his fellow Slytherins." Eowyn's voice sounded a little too happy about what she was saying as she spoke, her grey-blue eyes holding that knowing sparkle that let Sigrid immediately know her friend once again had the latest gossip.
"Embarrassed?" She asked, unable to pretend not to be interested in talking about Lasgalen anymore. "Why?"
Eowyn's llips curved up in that perfect smile that seemed all too pleased with herself, her arm lacing around Sigrid's and pulling her away along the corridor, leaving the twins complaining behind.
"Eowyn!" She could hear Elrohir calling in annoyance, even though his mischievous gleam remained fixed on his face. "We want to hear too!"
"I will tell you later!" Her friend waved her hand over her shoulder, ignoring the twins' protests behind them as she nearly dragged Sigrid through the corridors. The latter shook her head, unable to hold back a chuckle at her friend's actions. Although Eowyn loved to be kept to date with the latest gossip, her friend still did not like to spread them around, always sharing them only with Sigrid and every once in a while with the twins. She had always found it so amusing, her friend loving to know the gossip yet not enjoying gossiping in return.
"What is it?" Sigrid finally asked, knowing that the twins were already a safe distance behind. "What did you hear?"
"You will not believe what I saw this morning in the Hospital Wing-
"You were in the Hospital Wing?" Sigrid had to interrupt her friend in order to be able to catch up. When had this happened?
"Yes. Broken nose during Flying Lessons." Eowyn picked up again, seeming to not enjoy the interruption, lowering her voice to a whisper so low that Sigrid had to lean in in order to be able to hear. "Oropher Lasgalen was there this morning. In Hogwarts!"
"In the castle?" She found herself asking as they reached the Gryffindor portrait hole, pronouncing the password to the Fat Lady in a hurry before the two of them were climbing through the hole and claiming a seat in a quiet corner of the Common Room. "Doing what?"
"He was arguing heavily with Dumbledore, I only heard parts of the conversation, but he was complaining about the detention Thranduil had received. He was furious, claiming the detention not suitable for his son, can you imagine?" She could fear the anger in Eowyn's voice as she whispered her words in a rush, grey-blue eyes gleaming furiously at the injustice of the situation she was narrating. "Complaining to Dumbledore, Dumbledore, about giving his son an unsuitable detention?! As if his sons don't ever merit to be punished, because apparently he thinks they are royalty and can behave as they please in school, while detention is for us commoners!"
"Unsuitable? How?" She asked in a hushed tone, trying to ignore her friend's angry ranting, too curious to know more. Thranduil Lasgalen had not been in the castle since the detention they had together two weeks ago, which meant that the detention his father was complaining about had to be that one.
"I don't know!" Eowyn shrugged her delicate shoulders, making her golden waves of hair fall messily behind her back. "He was just angry, whispering to Dumbledore, saying that the detention had been too harsh and that he would not have his son being put in danger. As if Dumbledore would ever endanger any student! Let alone during detention here, which are always a boring tedious task! And just because they have more gold than Gringotts can even handle, Dumbledore apologized! Yes. He apologized! It's absolutely not fair! Allowing Oropher Lasgalen to come in here and tell Dumbledore that his son should receive only the mildest of detentions or not be punished at all!"
Eowyn was complaining non-stop now, but Sigrid had suddenly stopped listening to her friend's raging whispers, holding information that her friend yet ignored. Of course to Eowyn it sounded unfair. To the whole school it would sound unfair, only matching the other rumors that surrounded the older Lasgalen brother and how Dumbledore seemed to always prefer the brothers because they had a powerful influential father. And yet for the first time the rumors did not seem right to her. They were not right at all. They were all wrong, had everything wrong. She had seen too much not to notice- even though she should have not seen as much.
Her warm brown eyes lowered to fix on her right hand's index finger, falling on the tiny nearly unnoticeable little pink line left from where the creature near the lake had bit her during detention. And it was not hard to put together the pieces of the puzzle, not when she nearly had them all. Lasgalen had been in an absurd amount of pain at that little bite on his left hand. He had barely said anything after that, still pale and shaky once they returned to the castle, and then he had disappeared for two whole weeks, returning today with the same hand heavily bandaged and his father complaining to Dumbledore. But how could that be? How could such a tiny bite of a creature that was not even poisonous send the older Lasgalen brother for two weeks to St. Mungos? She knew that's where he had been. That's where he was every time he skipped class for so long, she had seen it in his medical records in Dumbledore's office. Something was definitely wrong with him. That much she had figured out. And yet that was only one tiny corner of the puzzle…there were so many pieces she was still missing...
Here's the next chapter! Let me know what you think!
And thank you so much again for your comments to: Amsim, VanyaNoldo22, Eryniel Greenleaf, and Rose61393. Thank you so much for letting mw know your thoughts on the chapter! It really means a lot to me.
Love,
Elena