V: Ensnared
"Myra, come on!" Lily whined.
"Lil, I really can't. I've got to finish this Herbology research."
Lily sighed loudly as she watched her friend resist her best pleas to come with her to Hogsmeade. Lily really wanted to go shopping in Hogsmeade, but everyone knows that shopping is no fun by yourself.
"We haven't used our open campus privileges yet! You know we can now go to Hogsmeade any time we want?"
"All the more reason to go when I have less homework."
"It's a Sunday My! How can you do homework on a Sunday?"
"Very easily, like this," Myra said with a slight smile.
"You know...," Lily said slyly, "James mentioned that him and the boys might be dropping by Hogsmeade later on. Maybe we could meet them in Three Broomsticks."
"That would require us actually going to Hogsmeade though," Myra pointed out.
"Exactly. So, grab your cloak and purse and let's go! You know you can't say no to Sirius."
"I can so!" Myra insisted, but she packed up her Herbology homework nonetheless, swearing to do it as soon as she got back.
"Meet you in the Great Hall in ten minutes," Lily waved as she hurried towards Gryffindor tower.
"Okay," Myra agreed as she went the opposite direction to Ravenclaw tower.
Meanwhile in Gryfifndor tower, the Marauders were lounging in the common room. Sirius was reclining in an armchair in front of the fireplace, his feet sprawled over one of the arms. He looked around the common room, bored. His eyes fell on a few fifth year girls that were watching him and he smirked as they blushed, giggled and turned away simultaneously. James lay on the floor in front of him, toying with the snitch while Peter sat beside him, enthralled. He had learned not to cheer after numerous dirty looks from Sirius but he still clapped silently. Remus sat on the armchair opposite Sirius. He had his legged curled underneath him and was quietly reading his text on Defense Against the Dark Arts while nodding occasionally. Every once in a while a piece of hair would fall into his eyes and he would tuck it behind his ear subconsciously.
All four looked up as Lily barged into the tower, half out of breath.
"Alright Evans?" James called as he tucked the snitch into his pocket quickly.
She nodded and went towards him.
"You boys coming to Hogsmeade?" she asked.
James looked up at Sirius as if asking permission.
"Might as well," Sirius shrugged.
"I should really finish this Defense Against the Dark Arts reading...," Remus said without looking up from his book.
"That's what Myra said too," Lily said, "But I managed to convince her to come."
"Well, I guess I could spare a few hours." Lupin tucked the book away and James and Sirius smirked.
"Well, if Myra is going, then Moony's going," Sirius teased, getting up from his armchair.
"That's not it at all," Lupin said defensively.
"Sure Moony," James chuckled.
Peter had already climbed to his feet and was halfway up the stairs when James called after him.
"Oi! Peter!"
"Yes?"
"Bring down our cloaks will ya?"
"Sure," Peter nodded enthusiastically.
"You really shouldn't order him around like that," Lupin said, a slight frown forming.
James shrugged and got up.
"He likes it."
"He does not, James. You're just lazy," Lily said, but she said it with a smile.
James wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed the tip of her ear.
"Stop that," she murmured. "I have to get ready."
"You look gorgeous," he replied.
She blushed but swatted him away to go grab her cloak and purse.
Myra heard them before she saw them. She would recognize Sirius' laugh anywhere.
"Alright Myra?" Lily called, looking up the stairs at her friend.
"Sorry if I kept you waiting," she said, suddenly aware of five people looking at her.
"It's not a problem," James said with a smile.
Myra and Lily hooked arms, leaving the boys walking behind them.
Within half an hour they were sitting comfortably in The Three Broomsticks sipping butter beer (or gulping it in Sirius' case) while James told a joke he had heard from the Gryffindor Beater. They all laughed, Sirius much louder than everyone else.
"Maybe you should slow up there, mate," Remus said softly as Sirius finished off his fourth butter beer an hour later.
"Naw, isall good," he slurred.
Myra giggled and Lupin gave Sirius a disapproving, but amused look.
"Oh, I've got to go!" Myra said suddenly and stood up.
"What?" Lily asked.
"It's almost five and I want to nip to Scrivernshaft's to get a new quill before it closes."
"Would you like me to come?" Lily offered.
"No, I'll just be a minute."
"We'll wait here," Sirius said.
"Like you could go anywhere else," Lupin said mildly with the trace of a smile.
James snorted with laughter into his butter beer and Sirius shot him an annoyed (albeit confused) look.
Myra wrapped her cloak around her as she went outside into the crisp fall air. Even though it was only the end of September, it was getting cool at nights. She walked briskly past the post office which had already closed and Honeydukes where a few Hogwarts students were shopping. She could see the sign for Scrivernshaft's Quill Shop up ahead and picked up her pace.
Suddenly a figure in a black cloak stepped into her path. She came quite close to bumping into them.
"Excuse me," she said irritably and made to go around them.
"Not so fast," the figure in the cloak said in a low voice. An arm reached out towards her and she gave a scream and ran out onto the road. She looked behind her and saw three more figures in cloaks closing in on her. Beside her one more came closer. The initial figure she had almost bumped into laughed sinisterly. She immediately pulled out her wand and turned around rapidly as they closed in on her.
"What do you want?" she shouted much braver than she felt.
"Don't you know?" asked one figure.
"We want little mudbloods like you out of our schools," another figure said loudly.
"But-"she started to say something, but all she could think of was, how did they know? How could they possibly know that she wasn't wizard born?
"Expelliarmus!" one of the cloaked figures shouted and Myra's wand went flying to her left.
"Crucio!" another shouted and Myra felt blinding pain. She heard shrieks of pain but did not recognize them as her own. She collapsed to the ground seeing stars. Please be over, please be over, she chanted desperately in her own head. And then, it was. She opened her eyes slowly and saw a blur of figures and lights.
"Silencio!" she heard someone shout who sounded a lot like Lily.
She struggled to get up but collapsed again, breathing quickly. At once someone was at her side, grabbing her arm and pulling her up.
"Come on!" Sirius shouted as he pulled her out of harms way.
"My wand!" Myra gasped as she saw it still lying on the ground, forgotten.
"Accio wand!" Sirius summoned, and handed the wand to Myra before half dragging her out of the middle of the circle of Death Eaters.
"Apparate to the Shrieking Shack," Sirius instructed once they were far enough away from the ensuing battle.
"But they need our help!" Myra argued, looking behind her at Lupin, James, Peter and Lily. Two Death Eaters lay on the ground, apparently stunned while another was levitated in the air. The last Death Eater Myra could see was duelling with James and Remus. They had him cornered and Myra looked away.
"They'll be fine," Sirius said, "We're in no state to do anything useful."
"Okay, let's go," Myra resigned.
Seconds later they were both in front of the Shrieking Shack. Leaning on Sirius, she made it up the stairs.
"Wait here," he instructed while he disappeared into another room, stumbling slightly from the alcohol consumed earlier.
She collapsed on the old couch, relieved to be out of danger.
Sirius appeared a short while later with a wet face cloth. He ran it over her face gently. If the situation had been different she would have been elated at being so close to Sirius, but as it was she was struggling to keep consciousness.
"You're burning up," he murmured.
"What are we doing here?" she asked, becoming aware of her surroundings. "I thought this was haunted."
"It is, just not how you think. I can't really explain. Are you alright?" Sirius asked in an attempt to change the subject.
"They did the Cru–"
"Cruciatus Curse," Sirius finished grimly. "We saw."
"How did you know to come?" Myra asked, confused.
"We didn't. We..uh..," Sirius paused, looking extremely embarrassed. "We got kicked out of the pub. I threw up on the floor and Madam Rosmerta kicked us out."
"Lucky," sighed Myra. She didn't want to think about what may have happened to her if they hadn't arrived when they did.
Sirius didn't reply because at that instant James, Lily, Peter and Remus all apparated into the room with a loud crack.
"Myra!" Lily cried as she enveloped her friend in her arms.
The tears Myra didn't know she had been holding back came forth in a rush.
"Lily, it was awful," she said in between sobs. "They were surrounding me."
"I know, I know," Lily said reassuringly as she rubbed Myra's back.
"You're hurt!" Myra exclaimed, suddenly noticing the blood across Lily's forehead.
"It's nothing," Lily said quickly and reached up with her robes to wipe it off.
"Here." Sirius handed her another face cloth which Lily took gratefully.
"What happened back there?" Myra asked as it all came back to her in flashes.
"Five Death Eaters had you cornered," Remus said quietly from behind her.
"You could have been killed!" Myra exclaimed.
"We would have been, had we not had the element of surprise," Remus said grimly.
"They weren't expecting five other wizards to show up," James said, shaking his head.
"Lily performed silencing charms on them so they couldn't utter any hexes or curses, which was quite clever I might add," Remus said, glancing over at Lily. She reddened.
"I only saw four of them," Myra said suddenly, "Where did the fifth go?"
"I tranfigured that one into a spoon," said James a bit sheepishly.
"Show off," Sirius said with a grin.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't been so totally smashed, you might have been able to transfigure a few Death Eaters yourself," James replied.
Sirius fell silent.
"He was only joking," Remus said quickly, trying to make amends.
"Yeah, I know," Sirius said with a shrug. "But may I remind you that you only came upon Myra because I was so smashed?"
"He's got a point," Myra agreed. She started to get off the couch with help from Lily who was still holding the face cloth to her forehead. Her vision went blurry as the blood rushed to her head and she stumbled.
"Easy girl," Lily said softly as she steadied her friend.
"We should get her to Madam Pomfrey," Remus said as he stepped around the couch to take Myra's other arm.
"You should go too," James said to Lily, motioning to her forehead.
"It's fine," Lily said distractedly, all her attention on Myra.
"It doesn't look fine. It's still bleeding, Lil."
"Fine, I'll have her check it out," Lily agreed, tired of arguing.
"So, we'll apparate to outside of Hogwarts?" Peter asked.
The other five nodded wearily and with a loud crack they were gone.
"You should talk to Dumbledore," Remus said from Myra's bedside half an hour later.
"What would he do? He has no authority outside of Hogwarts. He can't control Death Eaters in Hogsmeade," Myra replied.
"Maybe not, but sometimes it helps to talk about these things," someone said from behind Remus.
Myra looked up to see familiar sparkling blue eyes.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Myra said, relieved to see the headmaster.
"Mr. Lupin, if you would excuse us," Professor Dumbledore said in his usual warm manner.
"Of course," Remus said abruptly and got up from where he had been sitting.
"So, Myra," Dumbledore said as he sat down beside her. "Please tell me what happened."
She reiterated the evenings events as Dumbledore sat patiently beside her, nodding every once in a while. When she was done, he gave a bit of a sigh.
"Professor, how did they know I was muggle-born?" Myra asked hesitantly.
"I'm not sure. They could have been a Legilmens," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully.
"A mind reader?"
Dumbledore nodded. "They could have extracted the feelings of rejection that certain members of the Wizarding Community force you to endure. Or, they could have even extracted a memory. Another, more alarming, theory is that there is a spy in our midst who has been feeding information to Voldemort and his followers."
"Someone at Hogwarts you mean?"
Dumbledore nodded, deep in thought.
"You are very fortunate that your friends arrived in time, Ms. Nightingale. The Cruciatus Curse has been known to drive those who are forced to endure it to insanity. You say they defeated five Death Eaters?"
Myra nodded.
"Quite remarkable," Dumbledore said with a small smile. "Quite remarkable indeed."
On that note he rose in a bustle of robes and the faint jingling of metal against metal. He nodded warmly towards Myra and left the hospital wing.
"Myra, come on!" Lily whined.
"Lil, I really can't. I've got to finish this Herbology research."
Lily sighed loudly as she watched her friend resist her best pleas to come with her to Hogsmeade. Lily really wanted to go shopping in Hogsmeade, but everyone knows that shopping is no fun by yourself.
"We haven't used our open campus privileges yet! You know we can now go to Hogsmeade any time we want?"
"All the more reason to go when I have less homework."
"It's a Sunday My! How can you do homework on a Sunday?"
"Very easily, like this," Myra said with a slight smile.
"You know...," Lily said slyly, "James mentioned that him and the boys might be dropping by Hogsmeade later on. Maybe we could meet them in Three Broomsticks."
"That would require us actually going to Hogsmeade though," Myra pointed out.
"Exactly. So, grab your cloak and purse and let's go! You know you can't say no to Sirius."
"I can so!" Myra insisted, but she packed up her Herbology homework nonetheless, swearing to do it as soon as she got back.
"Meet you in the Great Hall in ten minutes," Lily waved as she hurried towards Gryffindor tower.
"Okay," Myra agreed as she went the opposite direction to Ravenclaw tower.
Meanwhile in Gryfifndor tower, the Marauders were lounging in the common room. Sirius was reclining in an armchair in front of the fireplace, his feet sprawled over one of the arms. He looked around the common room, bored. His eyes fell on a few fifth year girls that were watching him and he smirked as they blushed, giggled and turned away simultaneously. James lay on the floor in front of him, toying with the snitch while Peter sat beside him, enthralled. He had learned not to cheer after numerous dirty looks from Sirius but he still clapped silently. Remus sat on the armchair opposite Sirius. He had his legged curled underneath him and was quietly reading his text on Defense Against the Dark Arts while nodding occasionally. Every once in a while a piece of hair would fall into his eyes and he would tuck it behind his ear subconsciously.
All four looked up as Lily barged into the tower, half out of breath.
"Alright Evans?" James called as he tucked the snitch into his pocket quickly.
She nodded and went towards him.
"You boys coming to Hogsmeade?" she asked.
James looked up at Sirius as if asking permission.
"Might as well," Sirius shrugged.
"I should really finish this Defense Against the Dark Arts reading...," Remus said without looking up from his book.
"That's what Myra said too," Lily said, "But I managed to convince her to come."
"Well, I guess I could spare a few hours." Lupin tucked the book away and James and Sirius smirked.
"Well, if Myra is going, then Moony's going," Sirius teased, getting up from his armchair.
"That's not it at all," Lupin said defensively.
"Sure Moony," James chuckled.
Peter had already climbed to his feet and was halfway up the stairs when James called after him.
"Oi! Peter!"
"Yes?"
"Bring down our cloaks will ya?"
"Sure," Peter nodded enthusiastically.
"You really shouldn't order him around like that," Lupin said, a slight frown forming.
James shrugged and got up.
"He likes it."
"He does not, James. You're just lazy," Lily said, but she said it with a smile.
James wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed the tip of her ear.
"Stop that," she murmured. "I have to get ready."
"You look gorgeous," he replied.
She blushed but swatted him away to go grab her cloak and purse.
Myra heard them before she saw them. She would recognize Sirius' laugh anywhere.
"Alright Myra?" Lily called, looking up the stairs at her friend.
"Sorry if I kept you waiting," she said, suddenly aware of five people looking at her.
"It's not a problem," James said with a smile.
Myra and Lily hooked arms, leaving the boys walking behind them.
Within half an hour they were sitting comfortably in The Three Broomsticks sipping butter beer (or gulping it in Sirius' case) while James told a joke he had heard from the Gryffindor Beater. They all laughed, Sirius much louder than everyone else.
"Maybe you should slow up there, mate," Remus said softly as Sirius finished off his fourth butter beer an hour later.
"Naw, isall good," he slurred.
Myra giggled and Lupin gave Sirius a disapproving, but amused look.
"Oh, I've got to go!" Myra said suddenly and stood up.
"What?" Lily asked.
"It's almost five and I want to nip to Scrivernshaft's to get a new quill before it closes."
"Would you like me to come?" Lily offered.
"No, I'll just be a minute."
"We'll wait here," Sirius said.
"Like you could go anywhere else," Lupin said mildly with the trace of a smile.
James snorted with laughter into his butter beer and Sirius shot him an annoyed (albeit confused) look.
Myra wrapped her cloak around her as she went outside into the crisp fall air. Even though it was only the end of September, it was getting cool at nights. She walked briskly past the post office which had already closed and Honeydukes where a few Hogwarts students were shopping. She could see the sign for Scrivernshaft's Quill Shop up ahead and picked up her pace.
Suddenly a figure in a black cloak stepped into her path. She came quite close to bumping into them.
"Excuse me," she said irritably and made to go around them.
"Not so fast," the figure in the cloak said in a low voice. An arm reached out towards her and she gave a scream and ran out onto the road. She looked behind her and saw three more figures in cloaks closing in on her. Beside her one more came closer. The initial figure she had almost bumped into laughed sinisterly. She immediately pulled out her wand and turned around rapidly as they closed in on her.
"What do you want?" she shouted much braver than she felt.
"Don't you know?" asked one figure.
"We want little mudbloods like you out of our schools," another figure said loudly.
"But-"she started to say something, but all she could think of was, how did they know? How could they possibly know that she wasn't wizard born?
"Expelliarmus!" one of the cloaked figures shouted and Myra's wand went flying to her left.
"Crucio!" another shouted and Myra felt blinding pain. She heard shrieks of pain but did not recognize them as her own. She collapsed to the ground seeing stars. Please be over, please be over, she chanted desperately in her own head. And then, it was. She opened her eyes slowly and saw a blur of figures and lights.
"Silencio!" she heard someone shout who sounded a lot like Lily.
She struggled to get up but collapsed again, breathing quickly. At once someone was at her side, grabbing her arm and pulling her up.
"Come on!" Sirius shouted as he pulled her out of harms way.
"My wand!" Myra gasped as she saw it still lying on the ground, forgotten.
"Accio wand!" Sirius summoned, and handed the wand to Myra before half dragging her out of the middle of the circle of Death Eaters.
"Apparate to the Shrieking Shack," Sirius instructed once they were far enough away from the ensuing battle.
"But they need our help!" Myra argued, looking behind her at Lupin, James, Peter and Lily. Two Death Eaters lay on the ground, apparently stunned while another was levitated in the air. The last Death Eater Myra could see was duelling with James and Remus. They had him cornered and Myra looked away.
"They'll be fine," Sirius said, "We're in no state to do anything useful."
"Okay, let's go," Myra resigned.
Seconds later they were both in front of the Shrieking Shack. Leaning on Sirius, she made it up the stairs.
"Wait here," he instructed while he disappeared into another room, stumbling slightly from the alcohol consumed earlier.
She collapsed on the old couch, relieved to be out of danger.
Sirius appeared a short while later with a wet face cloth. He ran it over her face gently. If the situation had been different she would have been elated at being so close to Sirius, but as it was she was struggling to keep consciousness.
"You're burning up," he murmured.
"What are we doing here?" she asked, becoming aware of her surroundings. "I thought this was haunted."
"It is, just not how you think. I can't really explain. Are you alright?" Sirius asked in an attempt to change the subject.
"They did the Cru–"
"Cruciatus Curse," Sirius finished grimly. "We saw."
"How did you know to come?" Myra asked, confused.
"We didn't. We..uh..," Sirius paused, looking extremely embarrassed. "We got kicked out of the pub. I threw up on the floor and Madam Rosmerta kicked us out."
"Lucky," sighed Myra. She didn't want to think about what may have happened to her if they hadn't arrived when they did.
Sirius didn't reply because at that instant James, Lily, Peter and Remus all apparated into the room with a loud crack.
"Myra!" Lily cried as she enveloped her friend in her arms.
The tears Myra didn't know she had been holding back came forth in a rush.
"Lily, it was awful," she said in between sobs. "They were surrounding me."
"I know, I know," Lily said reassuringly as she rubbed Myra's back.
"You're hurt!" Myra exclaimed, suddenly noticing the blood across Lily's forehead.
"It's nothing," Lily said quickly and reached up with her robes to wipe it off.
"Here." Sirius handed her another face cloth which Lily took gratefully.
"What happened back there?" Myra asked as it all came back to her in flashes.
"Five Death Eaters had you cornered," Remus said quietly from behind her.
"You could have been killed!" Myra exclaimed.
"We would have been, had we not had the element of surprise," Remus said grimly.
"They weren't expecting five other wizards to show up," James said, shaking his head.
"Lily performed silencing charms on them so they couldn't utter any hexes or curses, which was quite clever I might add," Remus said, glancing over at Lily. She reddened.
"I only saw four of them," Myra said suddenly, "Where did the fifth go?"
"I tranfigured that one into a spoon," said James a bit sheepishly.
"Show off," Sirius said with a grin.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't been so totally smashed, you might have been able to transfigure a few Death Eaters yourself," James replied.
Sirius fell silent.
"He was only joking," Remus said quickly, trying to make amends.
"Yeah, I know," Sirius said with a shrug. "But may I remind you that you only came upon Myra because I was so smashed?"
"He's got a point," Myra agreed. She started to get off the couch with help from Lily who was still holding the face cloth to her forehead. Her vision went blurry as the blood rushed to her head and she stumbled.
"Easy girl," Lily said softly as she steadied her friend.
"We should get her to Madam Pomfrey," Remus said as he stepped around the couch to take Myra's other arm.
"You should go too," James said to Lily, motioning to her forehead.
"It's fine," Lily said distractedly, all her attention on Myra.
"It doesn't look fine. It's still bleeding, Lil."
"Fine, I'll have her check it out," Lily agreed, tired of arguing.
"So, we'll apparate to outside of Hogwarts?" Peter asked.
The other five nodded wearily and with a loud crack they were gone.
"You should talk to Dumbledore," Remus said from Myra's bedside half an hour later.
"What would he do? He has no authority outside of Hogwarts. He can't control Death Eaters in Hogsmeade," Myra replied.
"Maybe not, but sometimes it helps to talk about these things," someone said from behind Remus.
Myra looked up to see familiar sparkling blue eyes.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Myra said, relieved to see the headmaster.
"Mr. Lupin, if you would excuse us," Professor Dumbledore said in his usual warm manner.
"Of course," Remus said abruptly and got up from where he had been sitting.
"So, Myra," Dumbledore said as he sat down beside her. "Please tell me what happened."
She reiterated the evenings events as Dumbledore sat patiently beside her, nodding every once in a while. When she was done, he gave a bit of a sigh.
"Professor, how did they know I was muggle-born?" Myra asked hesitantly.
"I'm not sure. They could have been a Legilmens," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully.
"A mind reader?"
Dumbledore nodded. "They could have extracted the feelings of rejection that certain members of the Wizarding Community force you to endure. Or, they could have even extracted a memory. Another, more alarming, theory is that there is a spy in our midst who has been feeding information to Voldemort and his followers."
"Someone at Hogwarts you mean?"
Dumbledore nodded, deep in thought.
"You are very fortunate that your friends arrived in time, Ms. Nightingale. The Cruciatus Curse has been known to drive those who are forced to endure it to insanity. You say they defeated five Death Eaters?"
Myra nodded.
"Quite remarkable," Dumbledore said with a small smile. "Quite remarkable indeed."
On that note he rose in a bustle of robes and the faint jingling of metal against metal. He nodded warmly towards Myra and left the hospital wing.