Disclaimer: Please see part one.
Chapter two
"Did you see the look on Snape's face" Ron called exactingly when they walked out from the dungeons one hour later. "Was that Rena? Shes got guts!"
"Maybe she is Professor Snape's favorite" Hermione said in a voice Harry did not know how to interpreter.
"You kidding? Snape only favors the Slytherins." He paused "Well, maybe she is…" Ron said thoughtfully. Hermione sighed, and then she hurried away.
Harry was silent. Sometimes he wondered if Snape never had experienced a happy moment in his life because he walked with a constant sourness around him that infected everybody else. But when Rena had walked inn there really had been something strange about the way he reacted. Almost as if he had seen a ghost, a particular evocative ghost
Harry had no more time to muse about the incident since their timetable gave them a busy day. They spent the next two hours in Professor Trelawneys stifling room and she gave a mournful sigh every time she saw Harry. Ron rolled his eyes when Trelawney passed them and muttered that she was a crazy cow. This somewhat cheered Harry up.
They didn't see Hermione again before lunch when she sat down opposite of Harry and Ron and let out an exhausted sigh. She quickly started to fill up on her plate and eat so quickly that even Ron looked nauseated.
"Whats the hurry" he asked and wrinkled his nose.
"Library" Hermione muttered and continued to dive in.
"I should say thanks to Rena" Harry mumbled mostly to him self.
"What did you say, mate?"
"I should say thanks to Rena" Harry repeated a little louder this time "She did save me from detention. How did she know that my second class today was Potions?"
"Maybe Ginny saw her and told her," Ron suggested.
It wasn't difficult to spot Renas huddled form by the Ravenclaw table it was quit distinguishable by her dark and scruffy hair. She was sitting at the far end next to a girl with pasty blond hair and large pale eyes. She looked up when she saw Harry coming towards her, so did a number of other Ravenclaw students.
"Hello" he said.
"Um, hi" she replied.
Suddenly Harry discovered that he was in a slightly uncomfortable situation. A number of Ravenclaw students were looking at him with interested, and when he noticed Cho Chang he tried to hide the blush that spread across his face.
"I just wanted to thank you for saving me today" he said brightly and cleared his throat.
"Saving you….?" Rena asked.
"Professor Snape was about to give me detention when you showed up" he explained.
"Oh" she paused "I am sorry. I was in such a hurry yesterday…I had…." She trailed off. The girl sitting next to her looked at Harry with a dreamingly expression.
"You are Harry Potter," she said matter-of-factly.
"I know" Harry responded. A few students giggled.
The girl continued to look at him as if he was a slightly interesting insect. Harry shifted the weight from his feet uneasily.
"Well, yes. Bye then" he said and turned quickly around and hurried back to his seat feeling his ears burn with embarrassment. What in Merlins name had he been thinking?
"Something wrong? " Ron asked when he returned and Harry shook his head.
"Where did Hermione go?" he asked, hoping to change the topic of the conversation.
"Library." Ron said a little sourly. "If she keeps up with all this studying she is going to give the rest of us a bad name"
"Ron…you almost never do any study anyway."
Ron only rolled his eyes and then continued to eat his Yorkshire pudding.
Next morning opened with a promising of a fine September day and there was a small hint of winter in the air. Harry and Ron chattered eagerly about the upcoming Quidditch season as they walked back, towards the castle, from their first class, Care of Magical Creature.
"I think Hagrid has lost his spirit" Hermione said, interrupting their conversation.
"I know" Harry sighed "It's that stupid Malfoys fault"
"Do you think he is going to lecture about Flobberworms the rest of the semester?" Ron asked and kicked a rock angrily.
Suddenly they heard a loud scream. The other Gryffindors and some of the Slytherins stopped walking and stared in the direction of the noise. They saw a student running towards the castle. When she saw them she changed direction and came running towards them. Her eyes were puffy and red from tears and her face was as white as a sheet.
"Is…is there a teacher here?" The student stuttered between sobs.
"What's going on?".
"I think she is dead!"
Hagrid must have heard the noise because suddenly he loomed behind them. He placed a gigantic, but comforting, hand on the girl's shoulder and asked calmly.
"What is goin on?"
The girl was still stuttering and sobbing and it took a few minutes before she managed to calm her self enough to make some sense. "I….She just….I t..think…she is dead" she pointed in the direction of the Greenhouses.
A lot of students were gathered in a crowd outside one of the greenhouses and more students were flocking towards the commotion. Hagrid shaded his eyes from the sharp autumn sun, a look of concern filled his eyes and then he started to run.
"Come on" Hermione urged and started to sprint quickly towards the direction of the sound. The other Gryffindor students and most of the Slytherins quickly spilled after them.
The huge form of Hagrid easily cut through the crowd and Harry, Hermione and Ron followed in his wake. Around them students stood staring scared-eyed at the motionless form on the ground. Some of the students were crying, and Harry saw Professor Sprout standing still with her hands covering her mouth and slowly shaking her head.
She seemed to relax a little when she saw Hagrid and said.
"I don't know what happened. She was not near any of the poisonous plants or anything!"
Suddenly the crowd gasped in fear and in union took a step backwards. The student of the ground started to twitch violently. Suddenly she flung her head to the side and she gave a loud, disgusting, retching sound. Slime, blood and some dark undistinguishable material pooled on the ground next to her head.
Hermione was covering her mouth and Ron looked sickly green as well. His memory of vomiting slugs was quickly re-appearing in his memory, and suddenly he dashed away. Harry was amazed that Hagrid managed to remain so calm. He bent down and took a closer look at the student, and then he turned to Harry.
"Harry, lend me your cloak" he ordered stiffly and wordlessly Harry handed it to him. The girl was still twitching and retching and deep growls were escaping from her throat. Hagrid covered her in Harrys cloak and then lifted her up in his arms. She fidget against his grip, and something that sounded like a cat's snarls lashed out from her twitching form.
"Professor Sprout. If ye would alert Professor Snape and Professor Lupin"
Professor Sprout nodded and then quickly her short form disappeared towards the castle.
"You others go back to your class" Hagrid ordered and there was something about his tone of voice that made nobody argue. Then, he to walked towards the castle.
The crowd slowly broke apart and the students started to walk away. They were all murmuring about what happened, some were wiping the tears away. Finally only Harry, Hermione, and Ginny remained.
"It's never been this bad" Ginny muttered wringing her hands.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"That was Rena. She sometimes has these seizures, she would normally just collapse, but did you see the way she was twitching. It looked like she was possessed!"
"Maybe she was" Hermione said thoughtfully "I mean, why else would Hagrid tell Professor Sprout to fetch Professor Lupin?"
"Maybe she was poisoned" Ginny continued "and that is why they….." she stopped as she realized how ridicules her line of thoughts were.
"Possessed and poisoned?" Harry asked critically.
"But…who and why would someone try to possess or poison a student?"
"Who would what?" Ron asked as he came walking back from some bushes. He was still looking a little green and uncomfortable.
"Maybe somebody wanted to possess Rena" Ginny explained and filled Ron in on what had happened since he dashed away.
"I bet it was Snape" Ron said automatically when Ginny had finished her explaining. Hermione rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest.
"Just yesterday you agreed that she probably was Professor Snapes favorite"
Ron was about to argue, but then realized the holes in his defense.
"Maybe it was some allergic reaction?" Harry mused and the other started at him dumfound.
"I mean…there are some people who are allergic to milk, egg or chocolate…"
"You have a point" said Hermione thoughtfully "that is probably it. Maybe a bee stung her! I have heard that people who are allergic to bees have severe seizures. "
"Allergic?" Ron asked again, and for the first time Harry realized that it was maybe an unknown illness in the magical world. If they had potions to re-grow bones then maybe they had a cure to allergies as well.
"It means that your body can't tolerate certain stuff….like chocolate. You can get a rash, a headache or something….in worst cases it can be deadly"
"Eating chocolate can kill you?" Ron said horrified.
"Well…." Harry started but was interrupted by Ginny.
"You said bee-stings were the worst kind?"
"Yes." Hermione nodded "sometimes people die from it, if they don't get medicine quickly. Maybe they bee-stings are stronger here than normal bees…." She mused.
"Anyways…bees in September" Ginny said unbelievingly.
"And if it was just some allergic reaction why call in Professor Lupin and Snape?" Harry asked. Hermione was about to argued, but then sighed deeply and relaxed her arms. on….we are already late for class" she said and that was the end of the discussion.
When Rena opened her eyes her view was a hazy blur of colors. The sounds and smells suddenly thundered through her head and her body jerked as if it tried to wring them out. Her hands flew to her ears to cover them and she squeezed her eyes shut. Even with her eyes closed she could see her surroundings in a pulsating cloud of shapes and colors.
Then the rumbling sounds subsided and the visions faded. Slowly her eyes fluttered open and she squinted her eyes in the bright light that shone in her eyes and she shut them again and whimpered.
"Are you trying to blind her?" a voice demanded angrily.
"Calm down….is the potion ready?" a calm and soothing voice asked.
"I'll just go and get it"
She opened her eyes again and stared directly into a pair of deep old eyes and lot of white beard.
"How are you feeling?"
Rapacious was the description that popped into her head.
"As if all my intestines just burst through my body," she croaked in a hoarse voice.
The bearded face wrinkled in something between a grimace and an amusement.
"That was indeed a very graphic description"
Rena sat up and discovered that she was in the hospital wing. Her senses were still sharpened and the sickly smell of herbs and medicine stung her nose.
"Do you know what just happened?" Professor Dumbledore asked and tilted his head.
"I….it was like…" she did not have time to finish before Professor Snape entered looking unusually grim.
"Up again I see" he said. She ran a hand through her hair and then nodded.
"Here" he said a little more softly and handed her a small bottle containing a smoking liquid. Her nose wrinkled in familiar disgust, but she swallowed the liquid quickly and then grimaced.
"Now….we need to discuss this" Professor Dumbledore said.
"Why is he here?" Professor Snape said and cast the fourth person in the room an untrusting glance.
Rena looked at the man sitting in a chair in the other end of the room. He looked even grimmer than Snape. He was wearing a parched and frayed robe, he had longish brown hair flecked with gray. He looked quit young but at the same time old and exhausted.
At Snapes response he just returned his glare, but then his brown eyes softened.
Rena knew who it was. It was her Defense Against Dark Art teacher, Professor Lupin. With her senses still in a heightened state she had no trouble seeing what he really was.
"You are a werewolf to," she said.
Thank you for reading and please review.
A/N. Well, yes, I realize the plot has become somewhat of a cliché, but the reason something turns into a cliché is that it is good and people like it. I promise you that mine, however, will be different.
