Chapter Twenty-two-

Luke O'Halloran pulled off his quidditch robes and tossed them into his locker. Sweat dripped down his dirt covered face. He wrapped a towel around his waist and sauntered over to the showers.

The rest of the team was already getting back into their school robes. Luke had been ordered to run twenty laps around the match after to practice to "build his muscles up a bit more." According to the captain Luke had gotten a little "soft" over the holidays and a weak beater was a bad beater.

"See ya at breakfast, Luke," Orion Wolfson, the other beater, said. He was the last, besides Luke, to leave to the locker room. "And don't worry. You're not as weak as Rian says."

"Yeah right," Luke muttered, turning the faucet angrily. He hung the towel on a small hook and listened as the pipes above him sputtered and shook. Tepid water dripped out slowly to begin with but then a spray of freezing water shot out, slamming into Luke's naked chest.

He yelped, jumping away from the water's spray. Luke attempted to heat it up but it didn't work so he quickly rinsed off in the arctic water. He reached for the towel to dry himself off but what he grabbed was warm and sticky.

Luke turned to look and bile rose in his mouth. Hanging from the hook was a white rabbit, its fur stained with red blood. Twine was tied around its neck and it swung slowly back and forth.

"Very funny guys," he shouted into the empty locker room. "You sure pulled one over on me."

Silence except for Luke's heavy breathing. "Hello," he called, reaching for another towel sitting on a shelf. He unfolded it and tied it around his wet waist.

His wet feet patted against the cement as he moved towards his locker. "You can come out now!" His blood pounded throughout his body carrying fear in its currents.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," cooed a low feminine voice. The sounds of footsteps filled the room and then were instantly silenced. A low growling noise replaced it.

Luke backed up against his locker looking around in fright. He reached for his bat but it wasn't where he had put it. He must've stuck it back in his locker.

Slowly he opened it and reached his hand in, something soft and warm slapped his hand. He turned around, pulling away from the locker door and it fell open, the body of Orion slamming into the stone floor. Luke's bat was stuck in his back.

There was a soft growl and something large pounced onto Luke's back, biting into his shoulder. He tried to push the creature off but it firmly held onto him, tearing hungrily at the flesh.

Luke was unable to support the weight and fell forwards, his face crushing into the floor.

Bellatrix growled happily and tore into his back, blood dripping down her lips.

Hunger. Blood. Warm blood. Good. Feel good now. Hide food; hide it in woods where it will wait. Wait till hungry again.

Luke was, for the most part, unrecognisable after Bellatrix, or the creature that had once been Bellatrix, had finished feasting. Orion, however, was still good food therefore Bellatrix dragged him out of the locker room and into the nearby forest.

After hiding the body she galloped over to the lake and drank quickly, the blood washing away from her face. The cool, clean water rushed through her system cleaning it out of all the bad things and shortly after Bellatrix had to go to the bathroom.

Once she did her mind began to clear and the first thing she noticed was how naked she was. Bellatrix found her clothes not far from the lake and slipped into them.

Her head spun wildly and nothing mad sense. Everything was hazy and unfocused. She stumbled into the castle collapsing tiredly in the entrance hall. Still not aware what she had done in her fit of drugged madness. This was usually how it was. Everything always came back to her eventually.

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Madam Pomfrey lowered Bellatrix into the bed, quickly sticking a needle in the girl's arm to draw a sample of blood. Which was rather hard because her body was quivering violently and howls of rage escaped her mouth.

"I found her in the hall, screaming and shaking," Sprout said, holding her fertiliser-encrusted hat between her stubby, dirty fingers. "There's blood soaking through her shirt."

"It's not her own," Madam Pomfrey said quickly, pushing past the stout herbology professor. She flung open a cabinet and pulled out the tall purple bottle of potion she had given Bellatrix last night.

She poured a little into a small porcelain dish. She ejected Bellatrix's blood into a similar dish. The girl's howls filled the room.

"Restrain her!" Pomfrey shouted at Sprout. Sprout nodded and scurried over to Bellatrix holding her arms down.

"It's okay, dearie," she said in that timidly kind voice of hers.

Pomfrey pulled out her wand and ignited both bowls contents. Clouds of blue smoke began to emit from both, spilling out across the room. She grabbed some herbs from a drawer and crushed them up in her callused hands.

With expert precision she dashed a bit of the herbs in both bowls. In theory both fires should have begun to burn purple but the one with Bellatrix's blood burned a dark grey.

"There's something else inside her blood besides the supplement," Pomfrey muttered, rushing across the room and yanking open another drawer. She lifted up a velvet bag filled with a special herb mixture. "Somehow some other substance got mixed with the supplement either in her blood stream or out of it."

'It had to be out of it,' Pomfrey thought, rushing over to the smoking bowls. She had cleansed Bellatrix's systems when the girl showed up yesterday and there had been no time for her to get anything else in the blood stream.

She pulled out a pinch of the mixture and dropped it into the bowl of burning blood. The fire turned pale and white, almost like the moon. The smoke turned black and began to curl into a shape.

A wolf's head floated above the bowl, howling angrily. Madam Pomfrey gasped and stared at Bellatrix.

"She's had werewolf blood. There's werewolf blood in her system. Not a large amount, but enough to cause some damage."

Sprout let go of the convulsing girl, backing away quickly.

"Don't worry Sprout. Thankfully it's not a lethal dose but enough to send her body for a bit of a loop."

Pomfrey glided over to her cabinet and pulled out the bottle of werewolf blood. It was in a tall, purple vial. Almost identical to the one the supplement was in.

"Lestrange must've accidentally mixed the two. Unfortunately the werewolves blood is stronger therefore it ate up the supplement. I suppose Miss Black spent the night in the woods thinking she was an animal."

She placed a caring hand on Bellatrix's arm. Fingers of smoke rose from the skin and Bellatrix howled louder.

Pomfrey stared at her hand and noticed the silver ring she wore. "Oh dear." She quickly pulled it away.

"Professor may you fetch me the calming incense from my office?" Bellatrix thrust her chest into the air, screaming hungrily.

Sprout wobbled back over and handed the nurse a triangle of incense. Pomfrey lit it with the tip of her wand and set it next to the girls' bed. "Hopefully that will calm her down."

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A/n: I do believe I've gotten my groove back. The chapter, in my opinion, is excellent and I'm very glad I've escaped from that terrible rut I was stuck in. GO ME! AND REVIEW!