Anything that's not blatant is a riddle
Please read and review if you can!

Author's penname: Elixa Amethyst
Voices of the Past Part II
Written March 2002 onwards, pre Order of the Phoenix.
All characters and things you recognise, are © JKRowling, no infringement intended.

All references to "mediwizard" mean healer.
Read Part I at ?storyid1672635

---------------

Chapter Sixteen

The Specimen

A week passed without any further incidents. The dark side was biding its time, probably collating the information gathered by the last intruder. I got my head down again, determined to show I was still worthy to be a prefect.

I was working in the library, a large book open beside me, and numerous pieces of parchment, detailing careful observation to find the optimum conditions to grow coalweed, a black plant that could be burnt like coal eventually. I had to write it up by the end of the week along with two Muggle studies essays. Quirrell had encouraged me to work on getting high marks in my subjects, especially charms, herbology and potions. He'd also try to see if I could visit a Muggle hospital, but to apply for that I would have to have good Muggle studies marks too. Basically it added up to working harder than I had ever worked before. I was in the middle of my second piece of neat parchment when a first year from Slytherin sat down at the table opposite me. I glanced up with a glare; I didn't want to share a table with anyone particularly today. The first year looked nervous.
"Excuse me…?" Came a voice. I looked up with such force that the first year seemed to take it as violence. She swallowed visibly. I noticed she was very frail and short with red hair.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I need to talk to you." The tone was insistent. I gave a quiet sigh. I thought the Slytherin first years would grow up in their first few weeks, but by the sound of it, they hadn't. I put down my quill and gave her my attention.

"Go on then."

"I'm being picked on." My mind took a lurch remembering about the prefect position. I had to get this right.

"Okay, who by?" I asked, more sympathetically. The first year seemed to clam up.

"Listen, do you want to go somewhere else to tell me, and then we can take further action, like going to see McGonagall or Snape." I picked up my quill and finished the sentence on the parchment before putting it away. The first year nodded. I finished putting my things together and got up.

"Come on then." I cast a privacy spell on my work and a couple more to stop anyone touching it, apart from Madame Pince, should she need to move it. For the next fifteen minutes I listened intently to the Slytherin in an empty potions lab. The tiny Slytherin introduced herself as Annabelle and explained how a group of third year Slytherins were picking on her build and red hair. She told me a couple of ideas she'd had to get back at them, which impressed me because she showed true Slytherin cunning, whereas the third years were blatantly weak for bullying. I took Annabelle down to Severus. I knocked on the door to his office and heard nothing. I tried the door handle, found the door unlocked which was unusual. I knocked on the door with it slightly open before sticking my head round. I saw Severus slumped over his desk, something was amiss because one of the specimen bottles had smashed on the stone floor. Unusual because all of the bottles had an unbreakable charm on them.

"He's not in at the moment. We'll try again later, okay?" I waited for Annabelle to leave the corridor before going into the office.

"Professor!" I called. There was no movement and my uncle showed little sign of life. I went over to the slumped figure.

"Severus." I called, and saw no movement still. I leant over to see if I could see his face. I called again, a hand on his shoulder. I could feel his back rising and falling against my body as I leant over. At least he was breathing. I brushed his hair back with a hand and found cuts on his hands and face. I took a sharp intake of breath. I assumed he'd cut himself on the glass.

"Severus, wake up!" I called again, leaning towards his ear. No response.

"Damn it!" I cursed, and moved away. I crouched down by the broken glass. There was a label, and I picked it up cautiously.

DEPARTMENT OF MAGICAL CREATURES (A Warthog)
And
DEPARTMENT OF POTIONS (C Peterson)

Return of specimen VT820F to Head of Potions, Hogwarts School
HANDLE WITH CARE

Peterson- Again. I rushed over to the fire.

"Professor Dumbledore, it's an emergency!" I threw some powder into the fire from the pot on Severus's mantelpiece. I waited, wondering if it had worked.

"Elixa?" The headmaster's head appeared in the flames.

"It's Severus, he's unconscious and there's something escaped – to do with Peterson." Dumbledore emerged from the fireplace and gave me an order to call Madame Pomfrey. I turned back to the fire and soon the school's medical expert was in Snape's office too.

"Revio." Dumbledore cast a waking spell on Severus. I was beside him when he came round and my arm was around his shoulders when he sat up. His hands were cut and there was a slice down his left cheeks. He looked slightly shaken and paler.

"What happened Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"Peterson, he sent that pipe dweller back. The one I'd sent to them for being thrice the size." I remembered the oily looking animal in the sink at the start of summer. So that was what it was.

"But you said that was harmless." I exclaimed. Severus glanced up at me, and then to Dumbledore.

"When I sent it, it didn't have teeth and claws. I was very surprised to get it back."

"How did it attack you if it was in the glass?" Pomfrey asked, looking at the mess on the floor, one hand on her hips and the other scratching her chin.

"It tipped the container off the shelf, and it smashed on the floor. I turned round, only to be attacked by it."

"So it could be roaming the school right now?" Dumbledore asked. Severus didn't answer. He was inspecting his maimed hands. Madame Pomfrey came towards him and I moved across the room to Dumbledore.

"Is this serious?" I asked.

"Potentially dangerous. If it's roaming with capabilities to do that to Severus… I hate to think what it could do to a first year or anyone else… If it's calmed down it may be safe to catch, but somehow I don't think Peterson would considering his track record." I glanced back to Severus who was having his hands treated with little success.

"Oh Merlin." I said quietly.