Seven Years Chapter 21.
Beta Reader: NA (she's busy and I skimmed over my work several times over the last two months or so).
It was hard for Merula to forget about the sandwich, and the night she had gone to sleep content with how everything had turned out, doubly so when Merula discovered over the following weeks how awful the hospital's food was, and how tedious being cooped up in a bed really was, especially once Joseph and Barnaby returned to their regular duties and her homework came by owl instead of visits from her roommates.
It was Halloween morning, a cold and dreary Sunday, that Merula was finally allowed to leave the hospital to return to Hogwarts. For over a month, the doctors and nurses at St. Mungos had looked over her, trying to ensure that the three separate head injuries she suffered were fully healed. That was something Merula had found annoying, for she felt fine after the first week alone. But there were other things that Merula had on her mind.
There was a fresh uniform that Merula had woken up to on Halloween, though she disliked it immediately. Not only were her clothes scratchy and far too stiff, but clearly Narcissa had a hand in it, replacing the boots Meruka usually wore with an expensive but clearly never-worn pair of regular, flat shoes that Merula disliked, especially when she slipped on the hospital floor on her third step, barely managing to avoid an embarrassing fall.
It was when Merula took a careful step out of her room that the question finally sunk in. She had been at St. Mungos for an entire month, and the only acknowledgement from Narcissa had been a new pair of shoes at the end that Merula didn't even want. Not once had Narcissa even visited her or even written via owl, but the shoes, never worn and far too expensive for anyone outside Malfoy Manor to purchase, meant that Narcissa had to have known where Merula was.
The realization left a bitter taste in Merula's mouth, and her mind flashed back to the morning Narcissa had mistaken her for Lucius. The drunken words made her blood boil and Merula stopped in the middle of the hallway before she exploded in rage.
But as her anger faded, confusion took its place. After all, despite her month and a half at St. Mungos, there had been no news from her adoptive father either. The lack of a personal visit Merula could understand, given that she knew Lucius worked long hours, but the lack of even a letter to her raised more than a few questions Merula had to mentally shut down.
The lobby of the hospital was where Merula found a single viable fireplace, roaring away, unlike the dozen or so empty fireplaces Merula had passed on her way down.
To her annoyance, however, when Merula moved to scoop the required amount of Floo Powder from it's till, the metal cup scraped empty against the plastic container, and Merula scowled at the end result, a half centimeter of Floo Powder, fundamentally useless, and Merula tossed the metal cup back into its placeholder before she looked around the room for help.
She started with the front desk at the opposite side of the lobby, only to find a single med-witch slumped over the table, clearly asleep, her snores audible with the hospital lobby being all but deserted.
Merula let out a long, irritated sigh as she continued her search, before she finally found a red haired woman holding a mop, idling cleaning the floor some feet away from her.
"Hello?" Merula called over to the janitor, trying her best to sound polite despite her increased annoyance. "Could I get some Floo powder?"
But the janitor did not answer, and Merula scowled before she stormed over to the red-haired woman. "Excuse me!"
Despite her approach being anything but subtle, Merula was confused when she approached the unwary janitor, noting as she approached that the woman looked far more like a regular muggle rather than a witch, lacking not only a wand but also the robes that all wizards and witches seemed to wear, but Merula, in her annoyance and desire to leave the hospital, pushed those thoughts aside.
Instead, Merula marched right up to the woman and stared up into the janitor's eyes, a long speech demanding help already halfway out of her mouth when her voice died.
The woman's face was sharp and angular, like something between Narcissa and Professor Snape, but her blue eyes were faded and confused, as if the woman was under the influence of some dark curse, a feeling that ran chills up Merula's spine, causing her to take a step back from the janitor.
"Merula!" a voice behind her called, a moment before she turned and ran from the janitor, not wanting to find out the reason why the janitor was the way she was. Instead, Merula ran toward the voice, and she was relieved to find Barnaby standing next to another woman, this one dressed like a Muggle, but she, like Barnaby, held a wand in her hand, pointed right at the mindless janitor.
"Still no progress, is there?" the witch asked as Merula ducked behind her, away from the disturbing janitor.
"No," Barnaby said. "And that's good."
"Yeah," the witch said, pausing for a moment. "I just…"
"Merula," Barnaby's voice cut the witch off just before Merula was able to question the newcomer. "What were you doing?"
Merula glanced over to the janitor, back at the still-sleeping med-witch, and finally back at the fireplace. "They were out of Floo Powder so…"
"Of course they're out of Floo Powder," the witch said with a shake of her head. "You don't want the crazy patients getting loose now, do you?"
Merula swallowed at the words, but in a sense, she understood what the witch was saying. If there were dangerous people at St. Mungos, giving them access to Floo Powder was a very bad idea.
"I suppose," Merula answered quietly. "But I still need to get back to Hogwarts."
"Merula's been at the hospital for the last month," Barnaby explained quickly. "Several head injuries. You know, with those two."
"I see," the witch said with a nod. "Even with our best potions, the brain is rather… delicate."
"And why Miss Snyde here has been undergoing careful treatment." Barnaby said, looking over to Merula as he spoke.
"It was mostly boring," Merula admitted. "Lying in bed for a month isn't exactly my idea of fun."
"Understandable," the witch said, pausing for a moment. "I can apparate to the shop, if you need a source of Floo Powder."
"That would be nice," Barnaby said, nodding over to the witch. "My license is still in the works, and I have to fill in for someone at the office anyhow."
"Halloween party?" the witch asked, rolling her eyes. "I hope it's better than the Deathday Parties at Hogwarts. Never liked those."
"Can't say for sure," Barnaby said with a shrug, then pausing as he checked a cheap looking watch on his wrist. "Oh well, I'll have to run, otherwise I'll be late for work."
Merula watched Barnaby go, waiting until he disappeared from sight before she turned to the older witch. "Can we go now Miss…"
"Murk," the witch replied with a slight smile. "But please, Clarice is fine."
Merula tried her best to look disinterested, but the mention of the name Murk caught her by surprise. She had known of a certain Ismelda Murk, but never had anyone mentioned a Clarice Murk before.
"Ismelda is my sister, if you must know," Clarice continued, as if she had read Merula's mind. "And if you've heard anything about me from my sister, well, I hope I can clear some things up."
Merula shook her head. After all, she had never even met Ismelda Murk before, much less spoken with her enough to talk about siblings.
"No?" Clarice sounded almost relieved.
"I've never met your sister before," Merula cut in. "I only heard of her from A.J."
"Oh," Clarice sounded uncomfortable now, a grim frown cutting across her previously cheerful features. "Is A.J. doing well? I've been so busy with my new store that I haven't checked in on her for some time now."
Merula paused at the question, then she shook her head. "I don't understand."
"Right," Clarice took a step backward, then she nodded. "We should get going. I can always send an owl at a later date, but you need to get back to Hogwarts."
Merula nodded at that, but she paused when Clarice extended her hand. "I will Apparate to my store, and once you recover, you may return to Hogwarts."
Merula hesitated for a moment before she took the older witch's hand. What did the woman mean once?
A second later, Merula knew, and her body revolted at the sudden assault on her senses. No longer could she see anything, while it felt like a giant's hand was crushing her from every angle while flying through the air.
But then it was over, but the phantom grip that had taken Merula refused to go away, even as she fell to her knees and tried to will her body into obeying.
"It's alright," Merula heard Clarice say from above. "Vomiting is perfectly natural upon first apparition."
Merula gagged at the word, but she also knew body couldn't hold in the awful sensation in her throat any longer, and she let go.
It was a painful, humiliating experience, being helpless, on her knees in a dark, spinning room as she hacked up her insides, but eventually Merula regained some modicum of control over herself, and pushed herself back to her feet, trying her best to not look down at her lost breakfast.
"Floo Network is to your right," Merula heard Clarice say from behind her, and she looked back over to see the older witch shuffling through a box and tossing a small, purple box at her, one she was barely able to catch. "Here, travel packet of Floo Powder."
Merula looked down at the small box, then over to her right, where a roaring fire provided a warm, cozy feeling to the small, cramped space.
"I'll be going then," Merula muttered to Clarice's back. "Thanks for the… trip."
"A.J. is clearly rubbing off on you," Merula heard Clarice laugh as she navigated around where she suspected she lost her breakfast, though Merula had no interest in looking down. Instead, she tossed the little box into the fireplace and watched in silence as the flames turned green.
"Hogwarts Great Hall!" Merula called out before she leapt into the flames, tumbling out a second later into the familiar halls of Hogwarts, decorated in the colours of Gryffindor.
"Of course," Merula growled in disgust as she looked around the deserted Great Hall. "Everyone's at the Deathday Party. Stupid ghost."
"Not everyone, Miss Snyde," Merula heard the familiar voice of Professor Snape from behind her. "You're late."
Merula spun around, and she felt a creeping heat rise to her face as she met the stony eyes of Professor Snape. "I apologize Professor, St. Mungos was out of…"
"Floo Powder," Professor Snape said, his lips curling into a disgusted scowl as Merula felt a strange feeling inside her head. "Yes, I am aware of St. Mungo's policies. You are excused… this one time, mostly because your partner is even later than you are."
Merula grimaced at the words as she glanced around the empty Great Hall. "I don't need a partner. I've done all my homework and-"
"Perhaps," Professor Snape said with a nod. "But this other individual will require additional… mentorship if they are to succeed in potions. You understand, yes, Miss Snyde?"
Merula raised an eyebrow. Professor Snape being interested in a student failing or succeeding was something she had never seen before, and it was so strange of an idea that Merula could hardly believe her ears.
"Sorry I'm late!" a loud, cheerful voice called out from behind her, one that Merula recognized, though she didn't want to.
"When can we start?" Lavender Brown asked with a large, far too bright smile on her face. "I don't want to miss Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party."
"You will be able to join the party when you have successfully finished brewing the potions you missed," Professor Snape said, his voice leaving no room for negotiation from the idiotic Gryffindor. "And five points from Gryffindor. How could you be late when your partner was a student discharged from St. Mungos this morning?"
Merula barely hid her grin as she watched the Gryffindor point counter fall. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad afternoon after all.
…
"Fifteen points for inadequate cleaning of your cauldrons, Mr. Longbottom," Merula heard Professor Snape say as she stood by the side, not even bothering to hide her grin at the scene. Twenty points ripped from Gryffindor in as many minutes. "If a potion were to be brewed with these cauldrons, it would make the drinker very ill. And that is unacceptable."
"Neville…" Merula heard Lavender groan, and for a moment even Merula agreed with the idiotic Gryffindor's assesment, as silly as she was. "Fifteen points?"
"It's not that bad," Merula pointed out. "That's only one point for each cauldron Longbottom failed to clean properly."
Lavender pouted and crossed her arms in a way that made her resemble Pansy or Draco, and she stamped her foot angrily on the ground.
"Tell me, Miss Brown," Professor Snape said from across the room. "Why is it so important for cauldrons to be properly cleaned before use?"
Merula knew the answer to that. It was obvious really. Leftover potions ingredients, or whatever Longbottom's creations inevitably turned out to be, had to be washed clean, lest they damage the new potion being made.
Clearly, Lavender didn't know, given that she remained silent, her eyes darting over to Merula, as if she expected a Slytherin would intervene on her behalf, and Professor Snape sighed. "Five points from Gryffindor."
"What?" Longbottom sounded angry. "Five more points? What for?"
"Mr. Longbottom," Professor Snape snapped, his voice hard. "If you have any further complaints, you may voice them at another detention down the road, but it is clear that neither of you understand the importance of a clean cauldron."
"A dirty cauldron with leftover ingredients means a potion can't be brewed properly," Merula sighed, rubbing her eyes. How could the Gryffindors be so stupid? "They'll mix with the next potion being brewed and will ruin the formula. A waste of time and potion ingredients, and by extension, money."
"Correct, Miss Snyde," Professor Snape said, smug pride obvious in his voice. "Five points to Slytherin."
Merula smiled at that, and she caught in the corner of her eye a look of horror on Lavender's face. "Professor," Merula called out. "Are there any clean cauldrons we can use? I don't want to wait on Longbottom's dubious cleaning skills."
"Your own cauldron was not used during your… absence," Professor Snape said. "You may begin with it as soon as you are ready."
"Good," Merula nodded. "Which potions will I need to brew?"
"Start with the Cure for Boils," Professor Snape said. "When you are finished, instructions for the Fire Protection Potion will be presented to you."
"Couldn't I…" Merula stopped to glare at Longbottom. "Could I clean a cauldron myself? I'll need a second cauldron once I finish with the Cure, and I trust Longbottom will lose even more points for inadequate cleaning before I'm done."
"You want to clean a cauldron?" Merula heard Lavender say. "Why?"
"Because I don't trust Longbottom to clean them properly," Merula shot back as she walked over to the nearest cauldron. "And I believe in taking pride in my work."
The outside of the cauldron itself was, at first glance, properly cleaned, but Merula's nose told her it wasn't, something she confirmed with a quick glance inside the cauldron. Even without seeing the burned potion stuck to the inside of the cauldron, the whole thing still smelled of smoke, no doubt some idiot had burned their potion for too long.
As for Longbottom, he had spread the burnt potion around the cauldron with his rag instead of properly wiping away the burnt potion. Classic idiot Longbottom.
"What are you doing to my cauldron?" Longbottom stammered next to Merula.
Merula turned to look at Longbottom before she looked back at the cauldron. Well, the fact that Longbottom owned it certainly explained the presence of the burned potion. "I'm taking it, but don't worry, I'll make far better potion within it than anything you've ever made."
"Can I make a potion with it?" Lavender's annoying voice caused Merula to roll her eyes as she dragged the cauldron into a space with better lighting.
"Can you?" Merula sneered as she wiped away dried, burnt potion from the side of the cauldron. "I mean, if you could, you wouldn't be here on Halloween, would you?"
There was silence from Lavender's direction, and Merula glanced over in time to see her jaw having dropped, leaving the dumb Gryffindor with an expression of disbelief on her face.
"Enough," Merula froze at Professor Snape's voice, having outright forgotten that he had even been in the room, and she mentally kicked herself as she realized she might have gone too far, and lost Slytherin points in the process. "Miss Brown, you possess the instructions on making Fire Protection Potion. Prove to me that you have learned something with this debacle, and create a proper potion with Miss Snyde… or else."
Merula opened her mouth to protest, but an idea popped into her head a second later. Perhaps she could use the Gryffindor idiot to her advantage. If the idiot failed her part of the potion making process, Merula could call her out on it, and if she refused to work with Merula, then Merula could have a reason to work alone and spare herself the headache.
"I can live with that," Merula chirped, in a tone that even she found sickly-sweet, giving Lavender a widening grin, and feeling a sense of satisfaction as the dumb Gryffindor took a hesitant step back, fear etched on her face. "Can you?"
"Professor Snape?" Lavender raised a shaking hand. "Could I make my own potion?"
"No," Professor Snape said. "Mr. Longbottom has enough dirty cauldrons to clean as it is."
Merula couldn't resist the snort of laughter that fell out of her at the sight of Lavender's jaw dropping, and she angled her head slightly when Gryffindor turned to face her, embarrassment written on her face.
"Well?" Merula mocked Lavender. It was equal parts a challenge and a trap, one where the Gryffindor was as likely to fail as Longbottom. "Professor Snape said you had the instructions to make a Fire Protection Potion, didn't he?"
"I…" Lavender looked lost, and Merula suspected that she had giggled her way through the lesson. "Of course I do."
"Good," Merula said, turning over to her own cauldron and beginning an inspection. She was disappointed that Lavender hadn't fallen into her trap immediately by blurting out some blatantly wrong, half-forgotten recipe. "Then you can get the ingredients, can't you?"
It was then that Merula slipped into the second stage of her trap, turning her head to inspect her own cauldron, abandoning Longbottom's basket case of a cauldron to focus on her own, sitting disused in the corner and having accumulated some sort of dust at the bottom, most of which she swept away with a flick of her wrist.
To Merula's annoyance, by the time she had turned around, Lavender had fallen to a Potter level of incompetence at the long racks of potions, though fortunately not to a Weasley or Longbottom level. She was slowly picking at different ingredients, none of them correct, but she had yet to commit to an obviously wrong ingredient, unlike what Weasley or Longbottom would have done in her situation.
Merula knew what the right ingredients were, of course. Even though she hadn't been in class for the potion brewing, she had guessed from Snape's homework assignments the potions she would have to make when she returned to class, and given her lack of alternatives, reading up on Fire Protection Potion and her other assignments had been the only productive things she could do.
Lavender Brown, however, had clearly not been productive with her time, neither in the past or the present, and as much as Merula enjoyed watching the idiotic Gryffindor suffer, she also wanted to be done with the potion herself, and be done with the make-up class.
It was when she looked down at her cauldron did Merula come up with a plan. With a grin, she walked over to the ingredients section of the classroom, giving Lavender a roll of her eyes before she gathered the ingredients she would need for her Cure for Boils potion, but also stuffing the ingredients for Fire Protection Potion into the pocket of her robe whenever Lavender had her back turned.
It wasn't easy to carry two potions worth of ingredients back to her station discreetly, but Merula was still satisfied with her result. She had retrieved two successful potions worth of ingredients without Lavender any the wiser, and she shuffled around her station so that she could both watch her potion and both of the idiot Gryffindors suffer, hiding the ingredients for the Fire Protection Potion on the other side of her cauldron, well out of sight for Lavender.
"Miss Brown," Merula heard Snape call. "Enough, it is clear that you have not learned your lesson. Five points from Gryffindor for utter incompetence and further detention at a later date. Return to your station and proceed with the ingredients Miss Snyde has prepared."
Merula felt a sense of disappointment that she would have to endure Lavender's idiocy in close quarters as she began to prepare the first potion that was due, but she was also pleased that Lavender had not only lost her house even more points, but also was stuck in further detention, just as she deserved.
"Umm," Lavender started as Merula tossed the first of the snake fangs into her mortar, doing her best to ignore her unwanted partner. "Merula?"
"That's Snyde to you," Merula snapped, sparing the Gryffindor girl a glare before she returned to grinding the snake fangs into dust. "Just sit back and take notes, will you? You clearly have no idea of what you're doing."
"But you have no practice with-" Lavender protested, and Merula had to spare a second glare to silence the idiot.
"And if you knew what you were doing," Merula growled as she finished with a fine powder at the bottom of her mortar before she raised the vial of Salamander Blood from the other side of the cauldron and setting it before the dumb Gryffindor. "You wouldn't be stuck here with Longbottom."
"You're here too!" Lavender cried out.
"I spent the last month cooped up in a hospital bed," Merula scoffed as she tossed roughly two thirds of the crushed fangs into her cauldron, lighting the wood under the cauldron with a flick of her wand. "I wasn't given a chance to succeed, but you, on the other hand, failed so badly that you needed remedial lessons. So stay out-"
Before Merula could finish, a roar came from her cauldron, and Merula scrambled back, just in time to see a cloud of bubbling potion burst from the brim.
"What's going on?" Lavender sounded frightened as Merula pushed her out of the way, keen to avoid the exploding potion, even as she seethed in anger at what had happened, her mind quickly flashing to the dust at the bottom of her cauldron, or rather, Bulbadox Powder, the easiest means to sabotage a Cure for Boils potion.
"Miss Snyde," Professor Snape said as he rushed forward. "Ten-"
"There was Bulbadox Powder in my cauldron." Merula growled, the list of suspects in her head falling to just three. "No other substance would cause a Cure for Boils potion to react like that."
"I understand that, Miss Snyde," Professor Snape said. "As I was saying, ten points from Gryffindor."
Merula blinked in confusion until she turned around and spotted Neville Longbottom standing over her cauldron with a mop, as if mere cloth could solve the bubbling mess on the ground.
"Longbottom!" Professor Snape shouted. "Enough! The task is beyond you!"
"What?" Lavender was clearly too stupid to understand what was happening, and Merula took a careful step back from the Gryffindor in case the spilled potion reached them. "What is happening?"
"Bulbadox Powder has a rather nasty reaction with Cure for Boils potion," Merula sighed, glaring at the idiotic girl. "As Professor Snape so carefully explained last year."
"Oh," Lavender at least had the decency to look embarrassed.
"So much for brewing that potion," Merula muttered, glancing over Lavender's shoulder, wondering if the rest of the potion ingredients could be salvaged, or if they were tainted by the explosive potion, her anger boiling over as a plan for revenge formed in her mind. "Tell Weasley I'll make him pay for that."
"I-" Lavender sounded confused. "Which one? And why me?"
"How many of the Weasleys had access to my cauldron?" Merula scoffed as she turned over to the ingredients rack, frowning when she noticed a prefect, a fifth year Ravenclaw, rushing over to Professor Snape. "Tell them all. It won't help them."
"Enough," Snape's voice snapped before Merula could reach for another vial of Salamander blood, and she turned back around just in time to see the prefect back away from Snape. "The two of you are to return to your dormitories, for there has been another… incident."
"Incident?" Merula tensed as the image of Voldemort flashed through her head. "What kind of incident?"
"None of your business," Professor Snape ordered as he rushed up the stairs after the Ravenclaw prefect. "Now go."
Lavender didn't need another word, and Merula scowled as she watched the Gryffindor bound up the stairs in a mad dash, obviously running to the party of the Gryffindor ghost.
But Merula took her time, irritated that she would need another cauldron and a second opinion on who had sabotaged her. Sure, in a moment of rage she had pointed the finger at Weasley, but she also couldn't rule out Draco, Blaise, or even the Mudblood. All of them had the opportunity, given that Slytherin and Gryffindor shared Potions class, and all of them certainly had the motive to act, if petty spite could be counted as motive.
By the time Merula reached the relative safety of her common room, her head hurt from the increasingly detailed list of suspects and their motives, and she slumped down on a chair, book in hand, furiously scribbling away at the obvious suspects.
"The Chamber of Secrets? What's that?" Merula heard a loud group of girls say as they walked by her, their voices so loud and grating that Merula paused to glare up at them. "Who would do such a thing?"
"It's just Filch," another girl scoffed. "Who wouldn't do such a thing?"
Merula sighed to herself as the girls disappeared into their room, and she felt annoyed as she realized she could no longer force her jumbled thoughts onto her notebook, the long list of suspects to the crime committed against her no shorter on paper than in her head.
All because some idiot decided to go after Filch. Not that Merula was particularly against that idea.
AN: Chapter 21 is complete... As is chapter 22, 23, and half of 24. Expect at least two of them in the next week.
