Mafalda's Story

At five twenty one, the Harry and Hermione met again. Hermione again followed Harry into the Dungeon with the invisibility cloak, it almost seemed like routine by now.

Harry had caught Theo during the day and told him to meet them by his room. He had said, he might be a bit late. And indeed, he was not by the room when they arrived. As soon as Harry closed the door, Hermione took of the cloak. She was ecstatic.

"It worked, Harry it worked! You can't believe how hard it was, all day I had to keep quiet. But our first ritual worked!" Hermione was practically shouting.

Harry had to smile. He had never seen Hermione so jubilant. The usually quite reserved girl was almost bubbling in excitement. "Great job Hermione. I'm glad it didn't blow up in our faces. And I'm really happy we are about to find Mafalda. But where is Theo? We need to get going. I bet Mafalda really wants to get out of wherever she is."

"Relax. Mafalda has been there for months. It is better we do this right, and find her, rather then mess up and have her stuck down there. Is there anything we need to prepare?" Hermione's planing nature surfaced again.

"I think we have everything. But I did want to ask you, because we might not have time later to explain how you are involved. How do you want to handle that?"

"You are right. I can't be seen in the Dungeons. I will have to take along your invisibility cloak in case. Other than that I'm not sure we can do much."

A knock from the door distracted them. It was Theo. The trio grabbed their bags, and the two boys grabbed their brooms. They would not be flying downwards, since they had to follow the elf, but it might help on the way up.

With Harry's lamp still unlit, they made their way. Hermione called Winky, who led the way. Hermione was close behind her elf, and the two Slytherins followed as a rear guard.

HPU

"Slythy Weasel is being in here." Winky stopped them. There was a little alcove, filled with a statue, it was the one that they thought was Slytherin. If Winky had not stopped them, they would have missed the door that was discretely placed in the shade of the statue. Harry was very surprised that they had only walked for half an hour.

He had spent so much time getting to the lower dungeons. He supposed it was not a waste, since they had needed the ritual circle that he found, but he still felt a bit dumb. He had spent weeks down there, and now she was so close to the surface. It made some sense, however, as the kidnapper had to be able to reasonably reach his victim.

"Alohomora." Theo tried the unlock spell.

Nothing happened.

"Lets try this the Muggle way. On three, push with your shoulder…" Theo thought out loud.

"Are you a wizard? Step behind me." Harry said, as he stepped back ten feet.

Hermione and Theo scrambled to get behind him, looking puzzled.

"Bombarda"

The door exploded inwardly. The door frame was cracked, and some smoke briefly blocked their vision.

"Sweet Merlin, that was powerful. How did you know that one? We haven't covered it in class." Theo said.

"You know, I have been training for the Tournament. Snape is much better in defense than …" Harry halted, as the smoke cleared, they caught what was inside the room.

Before them floated a scared, naked, little girl.

The smoke cleared some more.

Mafalda.

She was suspended about two feet above the ground in which a ritual circle was engraved. The ritual circle faintly glowed in a dark blue. Her once Weasley-red hair was also glowing in that same blue.

Her now darker blue eyes glowed wide at them. "Harry!"

Mafalda's arms and legs weakly moved around. She appeared to try to get to them, but was held in place. A wide pot below her was filled with a blue fluid.

"Careful Mafalda, we'll get you." Harry tried to calm her down, and approached her, but he stopped before the glowing runes of the ritual circle. He did not know what it would do, if he crossed into the circle. Harry looked closer at the runes. There was hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.

"This runic array is orders of magnitudes beyond what we did." Hermione mumbled besides him. She was evidently engrossed by the ritual circle.

Theo meanwhile examined the room. The room was very dusty in the corners, but along one long wall, a shiny clean potions table was placed. Various small cauldrons simmered and blubbered over flames. Some of them also glowed in the same dark blue.

"Maybe Snape can tell us what they are doing over here." He muttered as he walked along it. He turned to face Harry. "I'll go and get Snape, you two should stay with Weasley, try to…" Various noises of disgust came out of his mouth.

"What is wrong?" Harry walked around the circle to examine what Theo saw. When he saw Mafalda's back he understood.

There was a hole in her back.

Her spine was exposed.

A roughly triangular hole exposed her spine and the backside of the organs that are housed inside the rip cage. The back muscles that should have been there was entirely missing. The rough triangle on her back was parallel to her shoulders on top. The two long sides meet half way down her back. It was not really a triangle, for that entails straight lines. The borders of the hole where more arbitrary than that. A faint pink glow was gleaming from the exposed flesh. Her hair fell over her right shoulder, so nothing fell inside this hole.

Harry felt nauseous. He had to use his Occlumency shields to prevent himself from panicking.

"Go Theo, get Snape, and Dumbledore! Go! Hurry!"

Theo jogged out the room and grabbed his broom. He took of, he would be in the common room in a mater of minutes.

"Harry, what is happening, what is back there?" Hermione said as she refocused away from the runes.

"Yes, what do you see?" Mafalda asked.

"You don't feel anything? … How don't you feel anything? … There is a big hole in your back."

In that moment, the Headmaster and Winky appeared with a pop. As soon as they had materialized, Winky let go of the Headmaster and popped away again.

"Ah, Miss Weasley. I am delighted to see you again."

Non of the students in the chamber knew how to respond to that statement.

The Headmaster turned to Hermione, "Now Miss Granger, I believe this section of the Dungeon is not technically open to students of the other houses. If you would be so kind as to don Mr. Potter's marvelous cloak, we can all pretend that we did not see the brightest witch of her age blatantly break multiple very serious rules. I'm sure Professor Snape and Mr. Nott are going to be down here very soon."

Hermione looked aghast, and mutely pulled out the cloak they had brought for precisely this reason.

"How did you come here, so fast?" Harry asked.

"An old wizard keeps his tricks to himself. The more important question is why is Miss Weasley floating in this room? Could you shed some light on this, my dear?"

"No, with all due respect Headmaster, you could not use those tricks to find her? You failed her. You can't just shush a good question. How did you find us so quickly after you did not find Mafalda for months?" Hermione's now disembodied voice demanded.

The old man shook his head with a sad frown. He looked at the cluster of runes and pointed at several spots within the runic array. "My bag of tricks was not enough to break through this."

"You mean to say that the ritual not only makes Mafalda bleed, but also hides her from all detection?" Harry could clearly hear Hermione's attraction to rituals in her voice. It was amazing how quickly runes and rituals distracted her from anything. He hoped the Headmaster did not notice it.

"Most rituals have such features, especially the darker ones. You must know that rituals are … discouraged by the Ministry, and if they detect one, they will search for the offending wizard." Dumbledore's eyes seemed to smile serenely at the direction of the voice.

"Should we not try to get her … back on the ground, so to speak, sir?" Harry tried to change the topic. He did not want the Headmaster to notice how fascinated Hermione was about rituals. He wondered how much Dumbledore was guessing.

"When I was young I would have certainly thought so. But since then I have learned better. Blood harvesting rituals are not to be trifled with. Better leave that to the experts. Professor Snape is getting them from St. Mungo's as we speak."

"What are blood harvesting rituals, Professor? What can the blood be used for?" Hermione's disembodied voice brought the conversation back to rituals. Harry had to use his Occlumency to prevent himself from groaning. Did Hermione have to make it that obvious?

The Headmaster did not seem to notice: "A virgin witches blood and indeed most blood can be used for powerful potions. They are usually very potent. Effects can range from relieving you of some minor aches to cures of cancer to increasing your magical potential. There are even some reanimating spells that require blood potions."

"How about Mafalda tells us how she got here?" Harry tried again to change the direction of the discussion.

"I have wondered this myself." Professor Dumbledore said with his customary glazed eyes.

They turned to the floating witch.

HPU

… We were celebrating your selection as Slytherins champion. And stayed up a little later then usual. Isolde and I went to our room, but when we were in our beds, Rosetta Phillips and Arlene Wolfe were still talking and making noise, so we stayed up with them. We talked forever in the dark. But at some point, one by one, the others drifted off to sleep.

I could not sleep. So, at some point I decided to see if there was still something going on in the common room.

I sneaked out and passed the bathrooms, so I was maybe halfway to the common room when a tall, blond guy stopped me:

"Hey peanut, your still up?" He came closer and looked closer at me, "Your red hair, are you the Weasley girl that just got sorted into Slytherin?"

"Yes, … I'm Mafalda."

"Call me Arthur." He smiled, "so you can't sleep? If you want you can join some of my friends? We are having a good time down in the lower Dungeon. I'm sure you would fit in."

"… Not really, I got to go." He behaved odd. No one of the upper years had noticed me except to tease me, so I turned around and tried to run back to my dorm room.

I did not get three steps away.

"Stupefy."

HPU

I awoke in here, tied up with ropes, right next to the door. There were two wizards in the room. Both were dressed in black robes, and wore masks.

One stood by the potions table. He was fairly tall, but had a lankiness to him that reminded me of a lot of the boys in school. Like he had just recently shot up in height, and had yet to fill in properly. His face was hidden behind a simple white mask. He was working on several cauldrons at the same time. On the table, was a cauldron and a mess of potions and potions ingredients. I could not make out anything I knew.

In the center of the room, another wizard was drawing runes in blood on the floor. The blood was probably from chickens, since there was a pile of them next to me. This one looked like he could be the young guy who had stunned me. He wore more elaborate robes. His mask was silver, and it was very detailed.

The two men worked on their tasks for an undetermined time. I was very thirsty but too scared to say anything.

Eventually the silver masked wizard stood up and stretched. He went to the sink by the potions table and washed his blood-red hands. Meanwhile the other wizard took another look at the runes on the floor.

After the two were satisfied they unbound me, and gave me a disgusting potion to drink. It didn't even help my thirst, but made me feel very light headed. I almost felt like I floated off the floor.

I must have become lighter, because the taller wizard moved me with one arm to the center of the runes.

I sort of numbly stood there, while the two took positions before and behind me. They began to sing a kind of haunting, sad melody. The words were in a language unknown to me. After a few lines, the one in front of me picked up five candles and walked slowly around the circle, placing them in round spots that were without runes. His singing changed to a counter melody while he lit the candles, but returned to the main melody after he returned to his starting spot.

Their song went on for several more minutes, and then abruptly stopped. The wizard behind me shouted something intelligible, and then cut a triangle onto the skin of my back. He did not cut deep, but the burning sensation of the knife overtook any other sensation.

Then I let out a sharp breath as the wizard ripped off the triangular segment of skin.

Tears were silently coming down my face as they tossed the piece of skin into a flat pot.

They poured out a slave and spread it on my back. I don't know what it did, but my back felt like it cooled of quickly and then went numb.

While my back stopped aching, the two were singing again. I really started floating now. It felt weird. I felt weightless, my legs just dangled below me. As they were singing, one placed the pot with the triangle of skin below me. They continued to sing, I felt a few drops of liquid go down my back.

I looked down, and I saw a few blue drops. They floated into the pot. Now that the pain had receded to numbness, I noticed that the runes below me had changed. They used to be red, but now they were glowing in the same blue.

At this point, the two finished their song. They looked very tired, and they went and got some food out of bags. As they were eating, I longed to eat as well, but I did not think they would give me anything. After they ate, they went to the potions workbench again.

"The potion looks good. Then again I wouldn't know if it was wrong. Potions was always my weakest subject," said the silver masked wizard.

"And you better remember that. This would not work without me. Without my potions knowledge and inside access, you could never help our Lord with this crazy plan of yours. This potion is perfect. The Mudblood looks to be ready too." The smaller wizard said as he turned towards me and approached me.

"Don't worry, if all goes well, I'll recommend you to Junior. You'll get your silver mask in no time."

The white masked wizard nodded, and poured the violet potion into my mouth. It tasted even worse then the one before, but my stomach ached a little less after I swallowed it.

After that the two departed. The days just merge into a kind of blur.

The light turned on and of as if it followed the sun, but I don't know if it really followed the sun outside or if it was random. I had no way to tell how much time had passed. The taller wizard never returned, but the wizard with the white mask visited often. When he would come here, he would always first empty the bowl into a cauldron. Then he would give me more of the potion. He would usually be here for quite some time, since he would brew this blue potion, and more of the potion that he would give me to drink.

HPU

"I was scared for a while, but at some point I just became bored. My back itched in the beginning, but then it never bothered me. There was not much to do, so I always tried to talk with my captor, but he would only answer in grunts."

"Well, now we found you." Harry tried to reassure her, "as soon as Professor Snape is here we will get you out of here."

Dumbledore meanwhile wandered around the chamber. He had his ever present, doting smile plastered on his face. Harry wondered what the centenarian thought of all this.

They did not wait long for Snape, just a few minutes after Mafalda's story ended, the potions professor entered the room, with two white robed witches and one white robed wizard.

The medical team did not pause to ask any questions. They must have been briefed on the way here. They spread out, around the circle, and started casting various diagnostic spells. They were muttering strange words at each other. Such as 'sanguine,' 'cardiovascular,' 'rachis,' and 'neo-Gubine ritual.' Then a heated discussion ensured of which Harry did not understand a thing. It concluded with them chanting some spell that made Mafalda fall asleep.

The wizard turned around and pulled what looked like a match box out of a pocket. He placed it on the floor and tapped it with his wand. It rapidly expanded and revealed itself to be a medical cabinet stuffed to the brim with potions, salves and medical instruments. He and one of the witches opened it and pulled scores of potions out of it.

The other witch turned to the Headmaster. "If you would be so kind as to leave us. The procedures we will have to go through will require our upmost attention, and you would only distract us. We will bring Mafalda to the infirmary as soon as possible."

Thus Harry, Theo and an invisible Hermione were ushered out together with the Headmaster and the Slytherin head of house.

Snape stayed behind, outside the chamber, by the statue. He would wait for the team of healers.

Professor Dumbledore meanwhile guided the three students first to Harry's room. There he told them it was late, and to go to bed. He promised that he or Professor Snape would talk to them in the morning. He took Hermione with him, to bring her to Ravenclaw Tower.

A.N. I know parts of this was kind of gruesome. Do you think it was too Graphic? Skin being ripped from the back of a little girl… The inspiration for the hole in Mafalda's back is from a picture on deviantart. It is called Cursed by z-ed. I'm also curious of what people think about the chapter in general. Does it reveal enough, does it make sense to you? Even pointing out spelling errors are helpful. Recently I learned I misspelled sighed consistently. Anyway…

Happy First of August, the Swiss national holiday!