A/N: Why does Draco have so many cousins? I just noticed, but I suppose I can make up for it with all the inter-breeding those old wizarding families must have. I can't tell you how grateful I am for your reviews.you made my day!!!!!

Summary: Well, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Four students have been killed and a fifth victim lies unconscious. But, who is she? And why were they killed? And, most importantly, whodunit? Harry Potter & Co. investigate while love tries to flourish.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything HarryPotterish, JK Rowling does, and I'm not making any money out of this. The plot and the few original characters are mine, if I want them. Lyrics by Pet Shop Boys and their song "Heart".

Rating: A high PG-13, I suppose, for swearing, violence and gory scenes.

Pairing: Some RW/HG, but I think that main focus might be DM/HP.

Murder in the Hogwarts Express or the Fifth Element, by Dark Fairy.

Chapter 4



Dumbledore sat on the hospital wing, in front of the only bed whose snow- white sheets were dented by a thin body, and anyone would have noticed that his blue eyes had lost all their twinkling, if the remaining occupants of the room weren't too busy staring at a very long roll of parchment. Finally, Snape and Grimm stopped glaring at each other and at the parchment, and Madame Pomfrey came back with an armful of clean bandages.

"Nothing, Headmaster" announced Ethan, giving a last disappointed look to the list of Muggles girls disappeared in the last weeks. None of them matched the description of the fragile being on the bed, and all the other queries had gone the same path, ending in the brick-wall of nowhere.

"We'll have to follow your suggestion, Severus, as much as I dislike it" concluded Dumbledore, straightening up. The Potions Master, trying, and failing, not too look too smug, went towards the girl with a small blade in his hand; raising her arm carefully, he cut the skin just above the elbow, gathering the blood in a small wooden bowl. "How long will it take?"

"In fifteen minutes it will be done, if natural laws are not altered in the meanwhile" replied Snape, going to work on a distant table. Grimm looked at him for a moment and then whispered something to Dumbledore, who assented distractedly. The DADA teacher left the hospital wing, quickly reaching a rusty suit of armour in the Hufflepuff corridor; looking around for anyone, Ethan raised the head slowly and spoke into it.

"Get a cloak and go into hospital now to see what you want" Message delivered, Ethan hurried back to the hospital wing. In the Slytherin common room, Draco jumped when he received the whispered words and, ignoring the astounded looks he received, he stepped into the fire, muttering 'Gryffindor common room'.

"If I didn't love you/ I would look around for someone else,/ but every time I see you, you have the same effect:/ my heart starts missing a beat,/ my heart starts missing a beat,/ every time."

The uproar when Malfoy appeared in the Gryffindor fire was bigger than the storm of applause Harry had got at his first Quidditch match; everyone in the common room jumped to their feet, their wands ready, trembling with expectation as the blonde Slytherin calmly ignored them and walked towards the only ones who still remained seated, not even bothering to draw out his wand.

"Harry, watch out!" shrieked Alicia Spinett, trembling from head to foot, as Malfoy reached the place of the Boy Who Lived. Harry's uncomprehending green eyes followed the smirk that graced Malfoy's rosy lips when the Slytherin leaned down to whisper something to them; the few words were enough to cause Hermione to drop her runes dictionary, Ron to start on a coughing fit and Harry to bolt out of his armchair and run up the stairs leading to this dorm. Confusion now settled into the heads of the Gryffindors: here was their most hated adversary, strolling into their common room as if he owned it, talking to Harry Potter and making him run with a sole whisper from his lips...what was the world coming to? Things got only more complicated when Harry went back in, clutching a package under his arm, looking curiously blushed and dishevelled.

"Come on, Potter! Let's use the fire, I am in a hurry" called Malfoy as the other boy went towards the portrait. Blushing even harder, Harry silently complied, shooting daggers at the smirking Slytherin. Conscious that the whole of Gryffindor House was looking at them, the blonde boy gave in to temptation: "We wouldn't want to be late for our date, would we, darling?" drawled Draco, leaning close to Harry, seconds before they disappeared between the flames.

"What was that all about?!" shrieked Ginny, looking ready to faint; Hermione just sank further into her armchair, shielding herself from the questions with a heavy Arithmancy book, while Ron was still coughing and spluttering, and thence of no use to the gossiping students.

"Every time I see you/ no matter what we do/ there's a strange reaction,/ can you feel it too?/ My hearts starts missing a beat,/ my heart starts missing a beat,/ every time."

"What was that all about?!" Draco tried to calm the erratic pattern of his beating heart when they landed in an empty classroom near to the hospital wing, but having a blushed, bright-eyed Harry facing him, wasn't helping any.

"Gave them something to talk about, didn't I?" drawled Malfoy, making Harry blush even harder; all of a sudden he began to wish for a change of house. "Must be so boring being a Gryffindor"

"Let's go" said Harry, having suddenly decided that he didn't want to bore further into the issue; holding his Invisibility Cloak and trying to conceal his loudly beating heart and flaming cheeks, he waited until Malfoy joined him and then started the familiar path to the hospital wing. As he walked, he remembered how he had felt strangely warm when he saw Malfoy gracefully stepping out of the familiar fire, strolling towards him as in a dream, leaning in to whisper 'Get your bloody cloak and hurry up, they're waking up the girl!', but having him leaning close, drawling something about a date with his sultry smirk...it was all too much for a Gryffindor's sanity.

Only then did Harry notice that they were at the door leading to the hospital wing and Draco was performing the Dissolving Spell on the heavy wooden door. They stepped through it carefully, feeling their breath shorten when they noticed Dumbledore, Grimm and Snape standing solemnly in front of the bed, where Madam Pomfrey was bandaging the girl's arm. A wooden bowl sat on a nearby table, simmering softly, and both boys walked quietly to stand half-hidden behind the bed curtains. A minute of silence passed, and then the potion in the bowl stopped simmering, stopped boiling, stopped fuming, and instead became crystal clear. Dumbledore sighed softly and shook his head: he had been one of the main contradictors to the Ancestry Potion, which showed a portrait of a person's relatives with a small sample of blood, but all was fair in love and war...

Snape brought the bowl carefully to the Hogwarts Headmaster, allowing him to peer into it first. The old wizard did so and his eyes widened in surprise before pushing the bowl away from him, almost violently. Intrigued by the Headmaster's reaction, both teachers laid their differences apart for a moment and stared into the liquid.

"Oh, man!" whispered Grimm; Snape remained expressionless, but his eyes were burning like hot coals. "What does this mean?!" asked Ethan helplessly, looking about him as if searching for an answer.

"Must be a mistake of the potion" muttered Snape, surprising everyone in the room; //The world must be definitely coming to an end if Snape is admitting a mistake in one of his potions// thought Harry, whishing he could also peer into the bowl, and whishing Malfoy stopped leaning against him so...it was too warm under the cloak.

"No, my dear Severus, I'm afraid your potion is perfect, as always" answered Dumbledore, regretting his intent on knowing the girl.

"But I can only see flowers!" exclaimed the youngest teacher, making the matron drop a spoon in surprise.

"Flowers?! What do you mean by flowers? This girl is not a flower! She's a girl!" Madam Pomfrey started muttering mutinously about teachers too young to know better.

"Thank you, Poppy" interrupted Dumbledore, looking suddenly exhausted. "Yes, Ethan, those are flowers in the bowl, and yes, Severus, the potion is working beautifully and yes, Poppy, the girl is a girl" Everyone held their breaths as the old wizard prepared himself to bring forward the conclusion to the mismatching set of premises. "A girl made from flowers is one of the most ancient Celtic traditions, and, like most traditions, has a firm hold on ancient magical knowledge; the recipes for creating human beings are thought to have been lost in the decay of the Dark Arts, but, obviously, we've been mistaken" Snape actually blinked at this, while the DADA teacher continued mouthing like a goldfish. Under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry looked alarmed at Malfoy, whose face was still giving nothing away, although the closed countenance was being betrayed by his trembling hands.

"A girl made of flowers?!" Madam Pomfrey looked at the Headmaster, weighing the chances of him having finally broken down, like she had announced ages ago. "Someone used very advanced dark magic to create a human being from plants, is *that* what you're implying?"

"Something along those lines, yes" Dumbledore rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked again at the girl, pale and innocent-looking. "We should wake her up, you know? It seems unfair to keep her in the dark for so long, and we definitely need to know if she is going to help us..."

"We can't wake her up" stuttered Ethan, finally having come out of his astonishment. "There's no record of a victim being artificially awakened..."

"We can't wake her up!" agreed Madam Pomfrey "Goodness know what she could do!"

"We can't wake her up," recommended Snape "until we know a little more about what she might really be; this flower theory is just a theory..."

"Enervate!" commanded Dumbledore, ignoring both judicious comments and horrified gasps. His wand shot a stream of white light towards the lying figure, who didn't react to it at first.

"Thank goodness!" whispered Madam Pomfrey seeing the immobile figure. Then, as in slow motion, long eyelashes began to flutter and eyes flew open, staring without seeing at the stone ceiling.

The girl had awoken, that was for sure. Her eyes were open and her chest was heaving rapidly in shallow breaths, but there was no other sign of her activity. No-one dared to interrupt the silence, no one dared to speak to her, not knowing what kind of monster hid under the fragile shape. Slowly, the girl began to move her hands over the blanket, feeling them as someone blind would; at last, gripping weakly the sheets, she managed to sit up, leaning against the pillows. Her still gaze examined everyone in the room, evaluating the frightened, pale, faces, the uncertain looks, the wands pointing at her; then she spotted a wooden bowl laying on the bed, and compared it to the still stinging cut in her arm: it was the same. Uncertainly, crawling quickly on all fours and resembling an overgrown cat, she went over to the potion and stared into it, wrinkling her nose at the acre odour it produced: There she was, inside that bowl, drawn in shaky lines of flowery heritage; she looked up to watch the oldest man, the one with the most powerful aura, the one whose blue eyes looked at her attentively. Under that look, she shrinked away and crawled back under the blankets, feeling very insecure. Why was she there?

"Who are you?" asked a booming voice, hurting her delicate ears; she whimpered and burrowed further into the sheets. "Can you understand me?" the voice had become softer; the girl peeped her head out of the blankets, her dark hair mussed, and nodded weakly.

"How are you feeling?" asked another voice: softer, warmer, more concerned; the girl looked over to the new figure and gave a tentative smile before nodding again. "Do you need something?" Water, she needed water; she could feel it running underneath the floor and outside the walls, but she didn't know how... she looked pointedly at a jar on a nearby table and her message got across. She reached for the glass of water the nurse was giving her and happily dipped her fingers into it, watching the drops dripping from her nails, feeling the cool and soothing substance running across her lips. Much better. One, two, three, four, five, six...six rapid heartbeats, not counting her own placid one, and only four figures to account for them. There were two strange creatures who she could not see, and whose hearts followed the same rhythm; a smile flittered across her lips.

"Who are you?" asked the same booming voice, interrupting her thoughts; she turned towards the old wizard with a frown, but he was very imposing and powerful. She opened her pale lips to speak, but then closed them again, feeling uncertain. She knew who she was, but how could she explain it? "How are you called?" She nodded negatively; she didn't remember being called anything, she just was.

She was. She was and she didn't remember anything else: a fresh place, with sun and stars and trees and water running everywhere, and flowers leaning into the breeze, and fairies on the grass, and her lovely companion, all storm-eyes, moon-hair and translucent skin. And the parting: the joining of two souls, two lips, the promise of a well-kept secret and then darkness and pain. She didn't want to dwell on that, and so she turned her attention back to the present. Everybody was looking at her, but the fear was subsiding.

She smiled again. She could hear water pouring outside, the fire crackling in the hearth, the reassuring silence of the rock, the gushes of wind rattling the windows... she was safe, she knew she was. He had told her that she would be safe, and he had promised to go back for her if she behaved well. The knowledge gave her the strength to force some words out of her lips.

"Where am I?" Voice cracked like a mirror which has seen the unnameable, rusty for lack of use.

"You are at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry" said Dumbledore, relieved at not finding something altogether unmanageable in the girl. "Do you know how you got here?" The girl closed her eyes; she remembered a cold voice asking her to keep it a secret and the remembrance made her feel very warm, as that cold voice always did.

"No" she whispered "I remember darkness and the pain...and blood, blood everywhere. I don't remember anything else" Not exactly true, but she always kept her promises.

"You don't have a name, then?" She started to reply and then something else came into her mind: night-time in her private paradise and she was dancing under the stars, and he was laughing like a silvery brook and calling her...

"Lilith" she replied hurriedly "Call me Lilith". Suddenly it was a matter of great importance that she was called that, leaving a clue that allowed him to find her, without having to break her promise.

"Are you tired, dear?" Madam Pomfrey noticed the agitation of her new charge, and decided to bring forward all her authority. The girl turned to her gratefully and nodded her assent; she wanted to be left alone with her thoughts, trying to find out what she had to do to go back to her paradise. "All right, Headmaster, this has been enough. You have put the girl through more trouble that I must have allowed. She needs to rest and all the other questions you have should be left for later, is that clear?"

"Very well, Poppy, we'll go" agreed the old wizard, wanting to sort his thoughts before pressing the girl into giving them more information, something he wasn't keen on doing seeing her weakened state. "Come on, Ethan, Severus, we should let her sleep a while. Poppy come with me for a moment, if you please" They left the room, and the girl smiled: there were still two rapidly beating hearts with her. Then, the head of the old woman peered in.

"I'll leave you here, dear, is that alright? If need anything, call me, and I'll be checking on you in a while anyway. Sleep well" and the old nurse was gone, and the door shone successively green, red, silver and gold, and Harry and Draco gulped at the same time. They were trapped.

----------------- A/N: Lilith is a Biblical name; she was Adam's first companion before Eve, but then degenerated into a demon. I found the Celtic myth in Robert Grave's "White Goddess". Everything else (see for exceptions in the disclaimer) comes from my messed up head. Did you like it? I hope you can contribute some constructive criticism, thank you very much.