10/29/1989

Most of the teachers were all ready assembled when Abigail and Nikolai joined them in the staffroom. The Headmaster and Filius were the last to join them, the latter looking particularly upset. Once they were seated and everyone settled Dumbledore gave the tiny Charms teacher the floor.

"We're not sure exactly what has happened to Miss Whitehall. Her friends state that when they went to bed last night there was nothing to indicate she was unwell. When she failed to get out of bed at her usual time they went to check on her and found that they could not wake her up." He paused to dab at his eyes. "Madam Pomfrey is unable to find what is causing the coma, but something is wearing on the poor girl. It's like her very life is being slowly drained out of her."

A chorus of distraught mutterings filtered through the room.

"Poppy has found nothing in her system that may be causing her lack of consciousness?" Snape asked. "Has she detected any spells?"

"No. Neither of us has."

"I would like to take a look if I may."

"Of course Severus. We'll take any help we can get. If we can't figure this out by the end of the day, Poppy has recommended we send the girl to St. Mungo's."

"I will head to the infirmary immediately then." Snape swept out of the room in a whirl of black fabric.

Dumbledore turned to the rest of his staff to instruct them to keep a close eye on the students in case the event was not an isolated incident. Should any student exhibit strange behaviour, escort them to Madam Pomfrey immediately. If they should overhear anything about kids experimenting with potions or odd spells then they need to escort them to Madam Pomfrey immediately.

When they were finally released from the meeting O'Connor made her way to the Infirmary to see if Snape had found anything. If not, perhaps she could detect something. It wasn't likely that what was affecting the girl had anything to do with their arts, but it never hurt to check. The potions master was bent over the girl when she arrived, his wand moving in slow lazy patterns above her bed.

"Have you found anything?"

"No. As Madam Pomfrey said there is no foreign substance in her system so it is not a potion. I cannot find any trace of the Dark Arts or any other kind of spell. Something is clearly draining her, but I can't find what's causing it."

He frowned heavily, muttering under his breath, as his wand continued its languid sway through the air. O'Connor scanned the young teen. There didn't seem to be any trace of their black magic, but there was something there. It was a strange feeling and she didn't know if she'd be able to put it into words. Snape glanced at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Could this have anything to do with you relative? Could she have followed you here?"

O'Connor shook her head and dropped her voice.

"No. I don't think Camilla has anything she'd want. Besides, I all ready told you how'd she get it. Does this look like that's the case?"

"Are you sure that's the only way?"

"Positive."

"Do you have any theories?"

"No, but if I had to hazard a guess, I would say something is feeding off of her." Snape nodded in agreement and straightened up.

"I think it would be best if we searched her quarters and question her friends to see if she's come into contact with something that may have caused this."

"Let's do it."

There was nothing out of the ordinary in the girl's dormitory and her dorm mates, whom she apparently shared everything with, said Camilla had neither found nor received any strange items. With nothing to go on or any idea how to reverse what had happened, Poppy had the girl admitted to St. Mungo's. A letter received just a few days later said they were just as stumped.

Almost two weeks later Abigail found herself in the staffroom for an entirely different matter. Alistair Richby, the boy who had terrified her to almost literal death with a spider, was causing problems again. He seemed to take poorly to not getting his way and was fighting with his fellow second years. After the incident last year in which he had loosed several of his House member's pets into the forest, none of them seemed to want much to do with him. They flat out refused to let him join in any study groups or games.

"So when the girls refused to let him join in their game of Exploding Snap he cut one of their pigtails off!"

Filius sounded exasperated and exhausted.

"It took me hours to calm her down. Thankfully Septima has some experience in cutting hair and was able to salvage it. I also think your suggestion of donating the hair to that muggle cancer center for children helped cheer her up a great deal Abigail. I thank you both."

"What are we going to do?" Minerva finally said. "The boy doesn't seem capable of making rational decisions when he's upset and he has very few socially acceptable behaviors. He wanted to try reverse Transfiguration on a mouse yesterday."

"It's obvious the boy has some disability that is holding him back. I would recommend having his parents send him for an evaluation at St. Mungo's and if that doesn't turn up much, a muggle doctor." Abigail suggested.

"I think that may be for the best." Albus said. "I will have Poppy send a message to his parents first thing in the morning. In the meantime I will have a conversation with the boy about his behavior."

Abigail sat back in her seat feeling skeptical. She was quite sure the boy had an undiagnosed disability. Lashing out in anger, lack of empathy for animals, and a strange fascination for the macabre; she was sure she had heard of something like this before, but she couldn't think of where. Perhaps she should do some research. Books and media.

"Do you intend to stay in here by yourself?"

Startled she looked up at Nikolai. The room was empty. She hadn't realized she'd zoned out that much.

"Sorry. I was just thinking about Richby's behaviour." She pushed in her chair and followed him out of the room.

"If he doesn't show some improvement the Headmaster is going to have to expel him. First he releases his classmate's pets into the wild and now he's chopping off hair. Who knows what it could accelerate to?"

"Hopefully a counselor can do something for him."

Nikolai nodded in agreement, his short brown hair falling into his face. She fought the urge to brush it back.

"Are you ready for the first Quidditch match tomorrow?"

"I am. It's been some time since I've seen a game."

"Who are you cheering for?"

"I don't know. I'll probably flip a coin before I leave my quarters in the morning."

"Perhaps you could flip the coin before you left mine?" His nose grazed her hair, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear. She shivered as his breath ghosted over her neck and quickly looked up and down the corridors.

"Are you trying to get us caught?"

"It's dinner time. Everyone should be in the Great Hall and we were the last to leave the staffroom." He let his fingers graze over her bicep and she looked up to see his blue eyes were dilated.

"Well we can't both be missing from dinner." She smacked his hand. He was hard enough to resist without the touching. His eyes crinkled with a smirk and he shoved her into an alcove behind a suit of armor. She gasped as his lips trailed over her neck and he pinned her with his hips.

"How about I go to dinner, and you be waiting for me in my quarters when I get back?" His teeth grazed the sensitive skin at the base of her neck and she groaned. "I picked something nice for you to wear."

"Fine. Fine. Just… go before I do something stupid."

He grinned like a cat with a canary as he watched her hurry down the stairs.

O'Connor walked towards the Quidditch pitch the next morning feeling sated and pleasantly sore. It really was lucky that Nikolai was hired on as the new Alchemy teacher. She could get used to covert sexcapades. It really heightened the mood.

I feel like I'm some sort of secret agent on an exciting mission. Oh wait. I am.

She giggled inwardly at her dumb little joke and nearly jumped out of her skin when a deep velvety voice spoke from behind her.

"Are you wearing that to get back in my good graces?"

She stared wide-eyed at Snape for a minute, her mind going all sorts of dirty places with that statement.

Woah girl! Calm the post sex glow!

"If you must know I'm wearing Slytherin colors because they won the coin toss." She threw her scarf around her neck and it looped once before the end smacked her in the face. "Why would I need back in your good graces? What did I… Oh. Oh no. Our chess match was last night. I'm so sorry. We can play today! Right after the game! I'll even make those breakfast Sarnies you seem to like."

The price of lust. Memory loss. Dammit!

"Do I look like I can be bought?"

"No, but maybe just this one time?"

He rolled his eyes looking highly annoyed. There was silence for a moment, then…

"I imagine there will be Bakewells."

A smile split her face and she beamed at him, hooking her elbow with his. She ignored his frown as she pulled him towards the pitch.

"Oh yes. All you can eat."

They seated themselves in the teacher's box behind Filius and Pomona. The latter was wearing a green hat and a red and gold scarf. Unless Hufflepuff was playing the woman always cheered for whoever was down on points. Filius was wearing a red hat with lions dancing around it. Ravenclaw had lost the Quidditch Cup to Slytherin last year and he was still a little sore about it.

It didn't take long for the stands to fill up and soon Madam Hooch was striding onto the field to stand between the teams. She released the Snitch and Bludgers and ordered a clean fair game. The players mounted their brooms and waited anxiously as the hawk-eyed woman readied the Quaffle. With a piercing whistle she sent the ball soaring into the air. Fourteen brooms ascended rapidly, closely followed by their referee, and the game was on.

O'Connor didn't dislike riding a broom but the fact that a stick of wood was the only thing keeping you in the air never sat well with her. Knowing that there was nothing but open space to the sides and below always left her feeling slightly queasy. Regardless of any protections or safety measures the thought of falling through the air was horrifying to her. She couldn't even stand balconies with gapped railings and getting to her seat in the Quidditch stands required clinging to whichever teacher went with her.

Despite that she loved watching others play and had been a back-up Keeper in her fifth year. She had been talked into it by the team captain because of her good hand eye coordination. They'd even managed to win their game against Gryffindor because although they caught the Snitch, they didn't have enough points to win the game. Hufflepuff had won 200-190. It was her one and only victory in Quidditch and she was extremely proud of it.

A chorus of shouts rang out around her and a hand shoved her head down as the Slytherin Seeker soared low over their heads. Snape's black eyes glittered inches from her face and he looked irritable.

"I don't know where you're head is at but you better pay attention before you lose it." He snapped.

"Sorry!"

A gold flash shot down in front of their box and robes of green and red soared after it. The two boys were neck-and-neck until the Snitch veered off just before the ground and disappeared as they pulled up to avoid a collision with the ground. Gryffindor scored another goal and then one of their players was sent spiraling off course as a Bludger was sent their way.

Connor Davenport grinned at his Beater and caught the Quaffle that Cassandra Wright had dropped. He took off towards the Gryffindor goalpost like a shot, making tight loops to avoid the opposing players. Several people gasped as he was caught off guard by a mad dive from the rival Seeker. He pulled up hard and looped back around to score through the right hoop, the Keeper just a second too slow. The stunt had taken her by surprise as well and broke her concentration.

"Slytherin leads Gryffindor 60-40 and we've yet to see the Snitch again." Caroline Edwards called out. "It's still anyone's game! Let's just hope no one makes anymore move's to distract their own teammates as well as their opponents!"

"There!" Someone shouted.

It took everyone a moment to figure out what the commotion was about. The Seekers were about a hundred feet above the stands and heading for the ground fast, a little glint of gold fluttering ahead of them. O'Conner covered her face unable to watch. Beside her she felt Snape lean forward in anticipation. Moments later there were several screams and then the roar of cheers as one of the Seekers obviously caught the Snitch. Judging from the clapping at her side it was Slytherin.

Terrence Higgs soared around the stands shaking the little gold ball and egging on the cheers. Behind him Charlie Weasley shook his head and drifted towards the ground looking sullen. He had played admirably but his heart hadn't seemed to be in it that day. She wondered if it had anything to do with Camilla. The two had seemed rather close.

"Now then, I do believe you owe me brunch." Snape said. O'Connor grinned cheekily and clung closely to his side during their dizzying descent.

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir."