Author's Note: All Harry Potter based characters belong to J. K. Rowling. But I own all the original characters.
Note: Thank you Wadesoj for your review. I knew there was always a reason why I hate being in the bathroom in the dark. This was all before I even knew of this Bloody Mary legend. Probably all those horror shows I've seen with death and mirrors.
Chapter Three
Two More
The deaths of Pansy Parkinson and the Hufflepuff girl, whose name, as it turns out, was Moya Tate reached the parents of the students. Understandably there were a couple who thought it safer to pull their children out and wait until this mystery was solved.
Three days had passed since the death of Parkinson. All was silent, all seemed calm. Things seemed to start getting back on track, even though the deaths would forever plague on the minds of the current students and staff members.
It was late at night; Snape was doing markings in the office of his quarters. He put down his quill and began to rub his eyes with his thumb and first two fingers. He pulled them away, sighed and looked at the time. It was close to midnight, he needed to sleep.
He looked at the other work he had to mark. There weren't that many left to do. He can easily do them in the morning. He placed his quill beside the ink well and neatened everything up before getting up from his chair and walked out from behind the desk and moved out from his office to the open area of his quarters.
Being that black was his best colour, it was no surprise that he had a black, soft leather couch, with a mahogany and glass coffee table and a carpet bearing the Slytherin emblem. This was the living room, very, very simple indeed. Walking from his office he went to the bathroom and flicked on the light.
He moved over to the sink and grabbed his toothbrush and the toothpaste. For the next couple of minutes there was nothing but the sound of Snape brushing his teeth. Snape went and rinsed his mouth out and when he looked up into the mirror, instead of seeing his own reflection, staring straight back at him were a pair of extremely piercing close to very pale eyes.
Snape shut his eyes tight;
"Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary," he began to call out in a strong, yet scared tone, "Leave my mirrored soul tonight. Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary, leave my mirrored soul tonight!"
Carefully, Snape opened his eyes and looking back at him was his own reflection. Satisfied, he hurried out of the bathroom and to his bedroom. He quickly changed into his pyjamas and slipped into bed. He didn't dare to turn out the bedside lamp tonight.
Snape opened his eyes, he saw the time.
"Seven thirty-seven," he muttered, "I slept in!"
He sat up and saw that he had his lamp on. He remembered why. Believing all was fine; he turned off the lamp and got out of bed. He grabbed his dressing gown and went to the bathroom to have a shower. He relaxed; everything was fine, extremely fine. He turned off the shower and began to dry himself off. But he felt something. It felt like a drop, landing upon his foot, he looked down, and saw the blot of red just resting near the second and middle toes.
Then another landed straight on the same spot on his foot. He looked up to see where the drops of red were coming from. His jaw dropped at the sight. He quickly hurried and got dressed and used the fireplace to get the Headmaster. Seconds later, Dumbledore arrived and he followed the Potions Master to the scene.
Up upon the ceiling of the bathroom were a Ravenclaw girl and a Gryffindor boy. They were magically being held up by rope, which was around their wrists and ankles. Their heads were slumped forwards; the girl's throat had been sliced, while the boy's eyes were missing. Blood was dripping from these areas.
Dumbledore took out his wand and carefully let the bodies down from the ceiling and allowed them to rest on the bathroom floor.
"We better inform the parents of Miss Ann White and Mr Seamus Finnigan," said Dumbledore, sadly.
"Headmaster, what is going on?" Snape asked.
Dumbledore's expression was grave as he spoke; "Alert the staff, I want them to sort out the students. Those willing to risk and stay and those who want to leave for until this is finally solved."
"What is going on?" Snape asked again, this time very, very frustrated because of the fact that he had been freaked out the night before and now he found two bodies upon his bathroom ceiling.
"I have an idea," said Dumbledore. "But I better wait and tell it to everyone who stays in the school."
The bodies of Seamus Finnigan and Ann White were given to their families. As for the other students, Dumbledore had them all summoned to the Great Hall and asked of those who wanted to leave and wait until this mystery was solved to gather their belongs and the train will be leaving Hogsmeade station at eleven o'clock. As for those who were staying, they were to stay in the Great Hall and will be spoken to further on when those leaving have all left.
Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys were all staying, as were a few other Gryffindors. Only four Hufflepuffs stayed and seven Ravenclaws, as for the Slytherins, Malfoy was staying, as were Crabbe, Goyle and Blaise Zabini and four others. It was clear that there were a fair number of frightened students and any opportunity to get out was fine by them.
Dumbledore and the rest of the staff knew there would be only a few who would stay, while the majority would flee, who could blame them?
"Can those remaining please sit at the Hufflepuff table, so is to fill up the table, please?" asked Dumbledore, as he left his position at the staff table and moved to the Hufflepuff table, the rest of the staff followed this.
Dumbledore sighed a little.
"Is everyone aware of the tale, Bloody Mary?" Dumbledore asked.
The students nodded at this.
"It's an urban legend," said a Ravenclaw boy.
"I am here to tell you its fact," said Dumbledore.
"But how is that possible?" asked Hermione.
"What do these people have in common with this spirit?" asked Neville Longbottom.
It was actually a deep surprise that Neville didn't leave with the rest of the students.
"I could be anything," said Dumbledore.
"Better question," said Snape. "What idiot summoned the spirit in the first place?"
"In some cases, Mary can get you without needing to be summoned," said Harry.
"You would know this, how Potter?" Snape's voice was so full of his well known coldness.
"Bloody Mary may be true here, but in the muggle world its one very popular ghost story and some kids go and dare one another to summon Mary," Harry told him.
"Either way," said Dumbledore. "For now, we are going to all be in groups. If you want to stick to being with your friends, fine, but the staff will be close by to you all.
"I hope that this mystery gets solved soon. I don't want another brutal killing in my school."
Dumbledore said he will give out full instructions later that day, but for the time being, he wanted the students to stay in their dorms and get their minds on something other than this whole mystery for until it was time to start going by Dumbledore's yet to be told instructions. Each Head of House escorted the remainder of their houses to their common rooms.
Dumbledore sighed under his breath. How he wanted this to end.
