"Madam Cunningham." After breakfast, Kyle had tried to make herself small, it seemed. But Minerva directed her attention back to the witch sitting next to Neville. "I have a favor to ask of you."
"Yes, Headmistress?" Kyle asked, closing her eyes tight for a minute. Underneath the table, Neville reached for her hand, and she grasped his and squeezed, as if trying to gather strength from him as she turned to look at the headmistress.
"Once the students are home, hopefully by early evening, it would help us and the Minister if the protection around Hogwarts is returned—at the very least, the anti-Muggle charm. Will you try?"
Kyle squeezed Neville's hand again and nodded. "Yeah, I can. I don't know how well it will work though. Like I said, it feels off, but I can't tell how or why."
"That's quite alright. If you can't do it, we will make something work." Minerva gave Kyle a pat on the shoulder and moved to address the students again. The first of the owls were beginning to soar back through the open window.
"You could have said no if you don't feel well about it," Neville whispered after she had let go of him.
"No, it's… Hogwarts needs protections. I have to do what I can. I couldn't help then, so I have to do it now while I have the ability."
"You're putting a lot of pressure on yourself, Kyle."
It was worrying Neville. If magic was gone, truly gone, then there had to be a reason she was still able to do it. With what she said about it not being as strong as it was before, there could be something happening to her, as well. He didn't want that something to turn disastrous.
Keeping a bunch of teens and preteens locked away with no amusement for hours was no fun for anyone involved. There were a lot of attempted house point deductions for bullying. When the professors realized this, they instead began to promise detentions. Once, during lunch, a third year threw a sandwich at a first year, who erupted in tears and had to be taken out of the Great Hall to calm down.
By about four in the afternoon, most of the students had received letters from home and were headed on their way. The remaining students had, for now, decided to join each other at one table. It was the most inter-house communion Neville had seen all year. Professors took turns between watching the students, going to the library to offer assistance to Hermione, Twilly, and Beezer, and tending to their own affairs. Kyle had hidden away in the hospital wing, on the other hand.
Neville knocked on her office door.
"Come in?"
It was questioning and uncertain.
He peeked in to see her sitting cross-legged on top of her desk. "What are you doing?"
"Why am I on my desk? Don't honestly know. It seemed like a good place to sit. Why am I hiding out in my office? Mostly nerves. Something weird is going on, if you haven't heard, and I don't know how to deal with it." She buried her face in her hands and groaned. Neville found it hard to blame her for such a reaction.
"Kind of a big thing to swallow, huh?" he whispered as he came to her desk. After moving a stack of what was immediately recognizable as romance novels, he sat on the corner of her desk with her. "But, we have Unspeakables working on finding an answer, and even Hermione, and I don't know a brighter witch than her. I bet they'll have this sorted out in no time."
Kyle peaked out from the cover of her palms. "What if they don't? What if everyone has to integrate with Muggle society? Even a couple days is going to tank the economy—and, oh! The people at St. Mungo's! I doubt all the spattergroit and venomous tentacula bites and dragon pox are just going to clear up because everyone's effectively non-magical now!"
Neville couldn't deny that the possibility, even remote, was there. Perhaps they would have to join the Muggles. Perhaps he'd have to learn to drive and get used to Muggle money and… There were a lot of maybe's.
"If it happens, so what? Billions of people are Muggles, and they survive. But there's no point in giving up on finding a solution. There's got to be a reason for it. Things don't tend to happen at random."
Kyle unfolded her legs and scooted to the edge of the desk beside Neville. He took her hand in his as if it was second nature. "I don't want anyone else to find out if I can help it. Imagine what they might say? 'Hogwarts Healer Steals Magic From Everyone.' Who knows. Rita Skeeter is still living, so anything is a possibility."
"You have my word, I won't tell anyone." He planted a little kiss on her forehead, and she smiled and leaned into him.
After a brief moment of sitting and enjoying each other's company, she asked, "How many students are still here?"
"Before I came to see you, there were about eight left. I imagine a few more have left since then. McGonagall was talking about going ahead and sending the last students home without the parent's owl." Neville was a bit disappointed as she sat up and hopped down off the desk, withdrawing her hand from his. "But before you go off and try to save Hogwarts, I wanted to know if you could help me out. Can you break into the greenhouses? I locked them last night and, uh, can't unlock them myself."
She nodded, and immediately went to slip on her shoes. "I can do that. Gotta get your plants cared for."
They peeked into the Great Hall before heading out to the grounds, counting four bored students left. Neville let Slughorn know where they would be if someone needed Kyle. But once the castle door shut tight behind them, their fingers laced together and they took the long way around to the greenhouses. When they came to the shore of the Black Lake, Neville stopped.
"I think the first, maybe only, time I ever talked to you in school, you were standing somewhere around here, I asked you-"
"-If I had made friends with the squid. Wow, I… haven't thought about that in years. I wouldn't have even realized it was you if you hadn't mentioned it now." She furrowed her brows as she looked across the glistening lake, the water wine-dark and capturing the bright glints from the sun. "I think there was one other time we talked. My fourth year, do you remember? In the hallway, you wanted to know what my book was about."
The image flooded back to Neville. A tattered old novel, an empty corridor, a girl who said she dreamed of her first kiss and a boy who never thought he'd get his. He had forgotten because it had seemed so ridiculous, like an awkward dream. "Wait, that was you? I… No, you kissed me. You kissed me and then said you were let down!"
"Thought it would be something breathtaking, or I'd immediately fall in love or something." She turned to him, a little half-cocked grin. She looked different—was it was the dimming light? Or the way the cool wind pushed little strands of her hair everywhere? Maybe it was the lake, and the shine of the surface, and how she seemed to glow. He noticed now how soft she looked, all gentle curving lines and delicate colors, younger than her years but much more mature than a shaky fourteen year old.
"What about now?" he whispered, leaning down and claiming her lips again. She reached up, standing on her toes to push back to him, and their hands found each other until they pressed together tightly. Behind her, gurgling in the background, the waves of the black lake drew back farther, then rushed up past them, soaking their shoes. The chill made them pull apart in shock, but they laughed it off and tramped out of the now squelching soil.
"It's definitely better than that… sloppy, toothy crime you subjected me to years ago," she teased as he led her by the hand across the grounds.
"Well, I couldn't even remember it, so you weren't exactly blowing anyone away either. Now, though…" She gently elbowed him in the ribs as they came up to the greenhouses.
"Alright, let me save the mandrakes and that pretty sex plant." She pulled out her wand, and pointed it with a flourish. The door clicked, and she moved onto the next, then the next, until all seven doors stood unlocked.
"Excellent, now I can ignore my problems and drown in fertilizer."
She wrinkled her nose. "Okay, but take a bath before you come trying to kiss me again."
"You'll get used to it if you keep me around enough." He draped an arm across her shoulders. "We were, uh, supposed to talk about stuff today, huh?"
"Yeah, it's best to get that settled," she said, leaning into him. His heart was beating quicker as he tried to keep himself composed. He liked her, and she seemed to like him, but what did that even mean? They'd have to come to a mutual, professional agreement.
"So, what are your thoughts? What do you want to do?"
She looked deep in thought for a minute, staring through the greenhouse glass and focusing on something rather than looking at him. "It's hard to say," she began after a time. "I don't know what's appropriate, considering we work at Hogwarts. But, I enjoy spending time with you, and I very much like it when you kiss me. I'd like to see how things might progress. We could keep it professional when needed, don't you think?" She turned her head to look at him, seeking his input.
"I'm sure there have been professors who have been involved before—this school has been here over a thousand years, tons of stuff had to have happened during that time." He took his arm off her shoulders, feeling a little too… casual, perhaps? "If you want to try—ya'know, being together in whatever capacity—I'm happy to give it a shot."
A little grin crept up on Kyle's face. "Deal. But let's keep it kind of quiet for a while. I'm not too worried about whether people know we fancy each other, but maybe—"
"Maybe discuss things more in private?"
Neville felt the color drain from his face as he spun around to see Minerva. She almost looked amused, the corners of her lips upturned, but she still carried that stern look she always had. Neville opened his mouth to say something, but Minerva held up her hand to stop him.
"I'm not interested in your private lives so long as it doesn't affect the way you do your jobs. You're not teenagers, and I expect you to behave as adults should. Keep it away from the students is all I ask."
Kyle, pale and fiddling with her fingers, nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
"Excellent. Now that everyone is on the same page, all the students have been sent home. Making Hogwarts safe again needs to be our priority."
Neville and Kyle followed Minerva away from the greenhouses and back towards the castle. Most of the professors, along with Hermione, had gathered on the grounds, presumably waiting to see Kyle do some magic as if they were Muggles themselves. Then again, Neville could understand the awe in this case.
"Madam Cunningham, the most important spell you can do at this time is to mask the castle, pitch, and lake. Muggles coming upon Hogwarts could mean the end to the secrecy we have held for centuries. I know that we're putting a lot on your shoulders, and that your magic may also be faltering, but… do your best." She rested her hand on Kyle's shoulder for a moment, before stepping back. Neville and Hermione came to stand with her, watching acceptance wash over Kyle. With a deep breath, she turned away from them, then looked up to the sky.
A hush came over all the Hogwarts staff. Even the Elves had come to peek out of windows and the castle doors, watching from afar as Kyle lifted her wand. Her hand shook and her grip was tight, but she called out the incantation. A bright, silvery beam exploded out of the tip of her wand. Neville could see the perimeter of the barrier coming down, disturbing the air as it surrounded the land from top to bottom. In a quick moment, the light from her wand ceased, and Hogwarts was unplottable again. Kyle's shoulders relaxed, and she turned her head to look at Minerva. The headmistress nodded, both in approval and to let Kyle know to continue and try to put up the defensive spell.
Once again, she raised her wand skyward. Another deep breath, this time a little more comfortable, before a lovely blue light shot towards the sky. The tightness in Neville's chest started to relax with the thought that, at least this would be a victory for her. The professors behind them seemed to feel the same way, with their soft, upbeat chattering.
"Something's wrong. Minvera, this isn't—" Hermione was the first to react as the light from her wand darkened and changed, the color muddling as it turned from the pale blue to an ugly brown, then into a deep, dark black. It seemed to pool above them, a swirling mass blocking the clouds above them.
Neville felt dread set in like swallowing a heavy weight as Kyle stood there, unmoving and with no reaction. As panic set in, he made a dash towards her, and gasped as he came to look at her face. Her eyes had clouded, completely obscuring the brown and leaving nothing but a milky white. Her face was contorted, as if she were in pain, her mouth open in an unheard scream.
He grabbed her wrist and hand, trying to wrench the wand from her grasp, but her entire body had tensed up, and she refused to release her grip. He watched, horrified, as her skin began to pale and the veins beneath became more prominent.
Another set of hands joined his as they tried to almost tear her fingers off of her wand, and then another. Hermione and Minerva were now crowded with Neville around her.
"What is happening?" Neville demanded, and he reached for the wand itself, hoping to pull it out that way, but he immediately withdrew his hand. A fierce burn appeared on his palm and fingers.
"I don't know," Hermione said, and the look of fear on her face was evident. "I don't know why this is happening."
They looked up again to the black form threatening to fill the sky. It covered almost the entirety of the castle now, and there was no telling what it was or what would happen if it continued to spread. Then, an awful retching noise came from Kyle, and she began coughing up profuse amounts of some clear fluid, covering herself, Hermione, and Neville.
"It… it smells like sea water," Hermione choked out as she watched the veritable river flow and sputter out of her mouth. But, there was no time for Neville or Minerva to react as the sounds of cracking wood turned their attention back to her wand.
The wand began to warp, splintering under some sort of pressure, before it seemed to shatter like glass. Slivers of wood went everywhere, and they shielded their eyes from them. But, the spell—or whatever it was—ended there, and Kyle, bleeding from the pieces of wood now embedded in her hand, began to collapse to the ground like a ragdoll. Neville only had enough time to grab her by the upper arm to keep her from hitting her head, and lowered her to the ground as he shouted her name.