Heyyy, I made another thing! And it's longer this time! :D
When Envy Novus didn't return to the dormitory for the night, Draco Malfoy thought nothing of it. Professor Snape just kept him late. When his bed was still empty the next morning, it meant nothing; he probably got up early. When Novus didn't turn up for breakfast, Draco barely noticed—he was just off somewhere with Potter and his friends again.
When Envy Novus didn't show up for Potions an hour later, he started to wonder. Granger kept frowning, Weasley kept glancing at the door, and Potter wasn't paying any attention to his potion. They were worried, Draco could tell. Which was why instead of going to the Slytherin table at lunch, he followed Potter to the Gryffindor table. He cleared his throat loudly as they were sitting down and crossed his arms, tapping his foot on the floor.
The three turned around almost in sync and shot him looks of surprise and suspicion. "What do you want?" Potter snapped.
"Nothing much," Draco couldn't help but sneer. "Just… wondering if you've seen Novus around."
Weasley's eyes narrowed. "Done something with him, have you? Where is he?"
"I was just asking!" Draco snarled. "It's a bit unusual not to see him hanging around you three, and I haven't seen him at all since dinner yesterday. It seemed like you would know, seeing as you're his friends and all. Guess I was wrong." He began to turn away.
"Wait!" Granger jumped up. "You haven't seen him since yesterday? Don't you share a dormitory?"
"Just because we sleep in the same room doesn't mean we're friends—it's not like I keep track of him, that's your job."
"That means none of us have seen him since dinner, something could have happened to him! I'm telling Professor McGonagall." With that said she hurried away to the staff table.
Draco stared after her. "Um… right, well, I'm going to eat." And he left for Slytherin.
'-'
"I sent Mr. Novus off to bed shortly before ten." Severus raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"
"Miss Granger says neither she nor her friends have seen him since dinner yesterday evening, and that Draco Malfoy hasn't seen him either. He is undoubtedly missing, and after what happened to Creevey…" McGonagall trailed off.
Severus sighed and rose to his feet. "We should alert Dumbledore at once." Followed by Minerva, he strode to the middle of the table where Dumbledore was enjoying an overstuffed ham sandwich. "Headmaster."
Dumbledore looked up with a smile. "Professor Snape—to what do I owe the pleasure?"
Severus leaned in closer and said in a low voice, "Apparently Envy Novus has not been seen since he left detention yesterday evening."
Dumbledore hummed, taking a casual sip of his pumpkin juice and glancing around the room. "Send the ghosts to look for him. Start with the dungeons, and do not alert the students; we don't want to cause alarm before we know his condition."
Severus nodded. "Very well. Come, Minerva, let's round up the ghosts."
Half an hour later the ghosts had been sent to their task; there were two searching each floor, both pairs moving up when they finished. All the teachers could do was return to their classes, and it was only fifteen minutes into Severus' first after-lunch class when the Bloody Baron floated grimly through the door.
"We found him. The Fat Friar has gone to alert Dumbledore."
The students exchanged glances and murmurs of confusion, a few fearful voices rising above the rest.
Severus stood up. "Silence!" It fell. "You are all to remain here until I return." He began striding across the room. "Baron, lead me to him." The door was locked behind him and they set off down the corridor, deeper into the dungeons.
It was eerily quiet. All life seemed to have fled, and there was nothing but a distant dripping to fill the silence. They took a left in a couple minutes and it wasn't long before a short, much too still silhouette came into view.
"Here we are," the Baron announced, drifting to a halt next to Novus. "Should I stay?"
Snape gave a curt nod and stepped closer. Novus was clearer now, easier to see here. He was pressed against the wall, head turned to look out the window, eyes staring just past his reflection with a look of mild surprise. Not a finger twitched.
...Disappointing.
'-'
The school was in uproar for the next week—especially Slytherin. This incident made it clear that Slytherin's heir had no qualms about going after Slytherin students.
Draco was still clinging to what lingering hope there was; there was no denying that Novus was one of their own, but he wasn't a pure-blood, and he frequently consorted with Gryffindors and mudbloods. It was also possible that this heir was especially picky, and had gone after Novus because he was a half-blood. Draco doubted any pure-bloods would be petrified or killed, unless perhaps they were blood traitors. That would be understandable.
But he still couldn't help the lingering doubt. What if whoever it was wanted nothing more than to kill? Or cause terror? Maybe he wasn't on anyone's side. Maybe they were all in danger.
'-'
Maybe they should have seen it coming. Envy usually didn't go missing, and when he did it wasn't for long… but there hadn't been many petrifications yet, and no one's first thought when their friend was missing was, "Oh, I bet he was petrified." Then again, Harry thought, there wasn't much suggesting Envy hadn't been petrified…
Well, there was no use pondering it. He was sitting with Ron and Hermione by his friend's bed in the hospital wing. Just staring.
Envy was lying in a bed near the end of the ward, maybe the faculty hoped that the other students wouldn't see him as easily this way. "Lying" was a bit of a loose term in this case—he was still in the same position they'd found him in, and at the time he'd been standing. His head was twisted to the side, looking over his shoulder. It was awkward now, as he was only staring at the bedsheets.
Hermione sighed. "What could've done this?"
Ron and Harry exchanged a glance. "Dunno," Ron muttered. "Must have been something… powerful. Slytherin's heir doesn't really seem to care about his housemates at all."
Hermione nodded. They were silent again.
It occurred to Harry that Hermione was as much at risk as any other "enemies of the heir". He decided not to bring it up now.
'-'
The first thing Envy registered was white. He stared at it for a moment, and wondered why it was there—hadn't he just been in the dungeons? Maybe a strange creature living in the lake was swimming past the window. It took another moment for him to realize it was a white blanket, and another second to remember the large yellow eyes reflected in the window.
His eyes widened, and he shot into a sitting position—or tried to. It was slow-going. His entire body felt stiff, as if he had fallen asleep in an armchair. For several days. After this failure he decided to take it slow and started with his neck. Ow. He turned his head up to see the ceiling, which he recognized as belonging to the hospital wing. He managed to get his elbows under him and pushed himself up. Everything was strangely sluggish. Around him others seemed to be coming to the same conclusion, rubbing their eyes and blinking around at their surroundings.
Well, he'd definitely missed something if this many people were in the hospital wing. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and pushed himself to his feet, swaying for a moment before he regained his balance. He stretched his arms over his head and looked around again.
Madam Pomfrey was a few beds over, pouring some kind of potion into a frozen Hermione's mouth.
He frowned. What happened? Had he been petrified too? That would explain the stiffness. And the fact that two other people in the room were frozen in positions no one in their right mind would choose to lie down in. How long had he been out? Deciding the answers most likely rested with Madam Pomfrey, he wobbled around the other beds, past Hermione, to where she was attempting to feed the potion to Nearly Headless Nick, who was floating in one spot and looking unusually gray.
"Hey," he said, and his voice came out hoarse. He'd never been this thirsty in his life, except for blood, but that was an entirely different and less literal matter. "How long has it been? What happened?"
Pomfrey looked up. "I'll be making an announcement shortly. Just wait a few minutes, please."
Envy decided to go stay with Hermione, and left Nick, who soon rolled his neck rather horrifically and looked around. "Ah, finally. I was wondering when they'd get the cure."
"Envy!" Hermione started, but was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing her throat loudly. They turned their attention to the end of the room, where Pomfrey was now standing.
"If I could have everyone's attention for a moment," she began, "I will be explaining what happened. Each of you were petrified." She glanced at a curtained bed, from which a confused Gilderoy Lockhart's head was peering. "Well, most of you, that is. We were only just able to mix up the antidote today."
Murmurs swept the room. Envy frowned and glanced at Hermione.
"The heir of Slytherin," Pomfrey continued, raising her voice, "was recently defeated thanks to the bravery of a few students. For some of you it has been several months. Term is ending soon. You will be discussing schoolwork with your teachers, but for now we will be focusing on the feast being held right now to celebrate your return. I suggest you all use the loo before going."
'-'
When Envy made it to the Great Hall, he was astonished to find the entire school cheering on his return, and everyone else's. Even a number of the Slytherins were happy to see him for some reason—but he decided to deal with that later. Instead, he made a beeline for the Gryffindor table, where Ron was waving his arms wildly in attempt to grab his and Hermione's attention.
The last this he expected when he reached the table was to be engulfed in hugs, but that's what he was. It was hard to see past Harry's shoulder.
"Pomfrey said some brave students managed to defeat the heir!" Envy shouted over the noise. "I'm betting that was you two! Am I right?"
Harry and Ron pulled back, grinning from ear to ear. "Yeah! We'll explain it all later!"
As much as he'd like to hear about it now, he was also starving, so instead of asking questions he downed a goblet of pumpkin juice, and they feasted the night away.
'-'
"Guess it was kinda stupid to follow a giant snake through the dungeons, huh?" Envy grinned.
Hermione frowned. "I don't know what you were thinking. At least I got petrified by accident—you practically did it on purpose!"
"It was a giant snake, what was I supposed to do? Can't ignore something that awesome. Besides, cure was found, Harry killed the basilisk, it all worked out in the end."
Harry rolled his eyes. "We're expecting you to be more careful next time."
"Not like there's gonna be a next time. No basilisk." Envy popped a whole chocolate frog into his mouth. "So, show me some parseltongue."
"Um… it's harder to do it if I'm not looking at an actual snake."
Envy glanced at the card. "Hm. Oh well then."
Term was almost over, as Pomfrey had said, and Envy had the most ridiculous load of make-up homework he'd ever seen. Hermione had one too, but it was smaller because she'd been petrified later and also had the sense to start working on it as soon as she'd gotten it. Envy had also been saddled with extra lessons for the first few months of next year, but at least he'd be able to take them with Colin. But for now, he would just be relaxing. The teachers seemed to think he was too traumatized to be doing a lot of schoolwork and he'd be doing most of his extra homework over the summer, owling the professors any questions he had.
Other than the extra workload, the school year was off to a good end. It was just a shame he'd missed so much.
End of year two! That didn't take long, eh? Maybe Envy shouldn't be wandering down dark corridors after giant snakes.
Anyway, I've been working on the storyline and I've got an idea of what happens for the next three years, kind of. So yay! Hopefully I won't have much difficulty with this story from now on.
Hope you enjoyed!
-Quiet Leaf