A/N: I feel like I am repeating myself to death, but I really appreciate the support and the reviews. I take every single one into account as I write this story, and they are also my fuel during dark times. So please, do leave a review! In this chapter, we start to piece together what happened while Lola was unconscious. Stay tuned for next chapter, when Lola will have to deal with the aftermath of everything.
Lola fought, with every single cell in her body, to lift up her eyelids.
The blackness over her eyes slowly faded as she began to regain consciousness. It took a while for her to adjust to the hues of bright sunlight shining directly into her eyes but eventually, her hazy sight gained focus. She panicked for a moment, realising she couldn't move any part of her body, before her temporary paralysis dissolved and she slowly managed to sit up on the floor.
She was completely alone in the empty classroom. A dozen desks and chairs were stacked up against the walls and there were scribbles written on the blackboard that she couldn't quite make out. There were pieces of parchment paper all over the desks and the floor that people had written on or walked over.
Lola's eyes widened as she remembered the events of last night. She quickly got up on her two feet, feeling dizzy as she did.
She was still wearing her school robes from the night before, and her wand was still in her pocket, which surprised her. But the letter that Quirrell had sent her was gone.
She quickly walked over to the door, but of course, it was locked. She knocked on the door with all her might, screaming for help, not knowing that the entire room was under the influence of a pretty strong silencing charm. She even tried to use Alohamora, but to no avail.
When she had first found that the classroom windows were unlocked, a short-lived grin had set on her face, before she realised quickly that she was on the second floor of a seven-storey high building. She knew without a doubt that she would rather be stuck in an empty classroom forever than to fall to her death.
While she ran around the room frantically, trying to formulate an exit strategy, a part of her brain began wondering what had happened since the night before. The last thing she remembered was being stunned by Quirrell, who, for some reason, had resorted to trap her in a random room in Hogwarts rather than kill her on the spot. Lola was sure that both Quirrell and Voldemort would take great pleasure in watching her lifeless body fall on the floor.
So why was she still alive?
The same reason why they hadn't been able to kill Harry must have been the reason, thought Lola; their fear of Dumbledore. It was simple enough to figure out, but could it also be that they needed her alive for some other reason…?
A horrified Lola stared at her own reflection in one of the windows; were they planning to use her as a pawn to succeed in their evil plans? Wipe her memory, place her under something like the Imperius curse, make Lola their slave?
Was she going to be the Ginny Weasley of this story?
Tears started welling up in Lola's eyes, she was so close to breaking down on the floor and weeping helplessly. Out of all the people at Hogwarts to be captured by the Dark Lord, why her? This was not the way things were supposed to go for her…
She instantly regretted not going to Dumbledore at once. Could it be a coincidence that, just as she was planning to open up to Snape in the morning, she got kidnapped? Quirrell must have suspected her, one way or another, because of the way she acted around him or maybe even through reading her mind.
A tiny surge of hope filled Lola's chest; maybe Quirrell hadn't been the only person to read Lola's mind! Maybe, just maybe, someone would realise what was going on and come to her rescue.
When she stared at the blazing morning sun illuminating the whole world, she knew that, on the inside, that wasn't going to happen. Lola had probably already been in this room for about 12 hours, and nobody had found her yet…
Lola gazed outside the open window longingly. It was such a beautiful day outside, hundreds of vibrant flowers covering the sloping lawns of the extensive Hogwarts grounds. The mysterious Forbidden Forest stood with all its might, next to the endless Great Lake which perfectly reflected the pristine morning sky. Hundreds of owls flew in and out of sight, possibly preparing to deliver the morning mail, performing a strange choreography with other birds in the sky.
Suddenly, Lola had a lightbulb moment. She quickly moved away from the window, wondering whether her plan would be possible to carry out. She looked around the room, searching every nook and cranny to see what she had to work with.
Two minutes later, she realised she didn't have much. But all she really needed was a piece of parchment, heaps of which were scattered all across the room, her wand, which she conveniently carried in her pocket, and lastly, a little bit of blood.
Severus had received many strange letters through owl post before.
Being part of a cult such as the Death Eaters back in the day, he would get sent some disturbing letters by fellow colleagues who either revered him with respect or despised him with a passion. When he became a Hogwarts professor, he was surprised to find that he had begun to receive even more disturbing packages, this time from angry parents who believed that he was 'abusing' their children. They were, of course, very wrong. He was almost doing charity work, trying to teach the spoilt and worthless imps being thrown his way by parents too brainless to realise their little Jimmy was a waste of space.
But Severus had never received a letter written by a deranged eleven-year-old, who had used her own blood as ink, claiming to be taken hostage by a "force to be reckoned with".
He considered the possibility that the letter was a moronic prank designed by one of the insufferable brats he had the misfortune to teach, but judging by the tear stains and the shaky scribble smearing the wrinkled parchment, and the fact that it was signed by name, made this very unlikely.
This was clearly a deluded child with severe mental issues.
The real question was, why had she thought that Severus would give a damn?
Severus walked over to the bin, wanting to throw away the useless piece of parchment, but hesitation flickered briefly in his eyes. Would he be liable if the mentally disturbed girl did something stupid? Probably...
He instead walked over to his desk and checked what house the girl was in from his attendance sheet. "Of course," he snickered sardonically when he read the information. "Nothing good ever comes out of Gryffindor, anyway."
He briskly made his way out of the dungeons, letter in hand. He was going to find Minerva, let her deal with it, and move on with his life like nothing ever happened.
Lola was having difficulty stopping the flow of blood from her wrist.
When she had seen the owls passing by the window, she had come up with a stupid, but desperate, idea. The only way for her to communicate with the outside world would be through owl post. Knowing that she was in a classroom, she had immediately looked around to see if there was a quill or some ink laying around but quickly realised that she was going to have to improvise a little bit.
She had flinched nervously right before her fist came down on the huge glass window, but to her surprise, it had been much easier to break than she had initially thought. Tears had rolled out of her eyes as she had made the vertical cut on her left wrist, making sure not to go too deep into her skin. She had used the tip of her wand to dip into the pool of blood that had now formed on the desk and had authored a quick letter addressed to someone she had never thought, in a million years, she would ask for help.
When she had whistled at the owls, none of them had wanted to come around. They had already picked up parcels from the owlery and couldn't be bothered with Lola. Just as she was about to give up, a snowy white owl with groomed talons had begun flying towards the broken window.
"Good boy!" Lola had cheered, not knowing that the owl was female. She had then watched the owl fly away, Lola's urgent letter in its mouth.
Her sense of victory had quickly subsided, though, when she had realised that she was going to have major difficulty trying to stop the blood pouring out of her wrist.
"I hope he comes soon," Lola thought nervously, taking off her tie and wrapping it around her wrist tightly. "I'm doomed otherwise…"
It hadn't taken long, finding Minerva, but to Severus' surprise, she approached him first.
"Good!" Minerva exclaimed when she saw Severus. "That was quick."
She had sent the Gryffindor Head Boy, Pierce Cunningham, to go down to the dungeons, find Severus and explain to him what was going. He would then, hopefully, help with the search of Lola Allen.
A confused expression crossed Severus' prominent features, but before he could speak, Minerva continued.
"We need to be quick, Severus," she said urgently, pressing her fingers against her temple. "Cornelius is on his way and we must find her by the time he comes."
What? "Cornelius? What for?"
"The expulsion procedure, of course! And obviously, she is on the list of juvenile offenders now…"
Minerva was clearly under the impression that they were both on the same page, which Severus realised was not true. "Who?" he asked with a frown.
"Who else?!" Minerva cried out in frustration. "Lola Allen!"
Oh no, thought Severus. He must've been too late.
Quickly, he ventured into Minerva's mind. She was under the impression that Severus had been briefed by the Gryffindor Head Boy. Unfortunately, that hadn't been the case, as Severus had hastily left his office to give away the disturbing letter that he had received that morning.
The letter… It would probably be best if Severus kept that to himself. And since there would be no way for him to explain how he knew that Lola Allen was in Classroom 22b, he decided to keep that information to himself as well.
He wondered what the girl must've done for the Minister of Magic to be involved.
"Albus is out of town, so we're on our own pretty much. We tried using a locating charm, but nothing came up. None of the portraits saw her except for the Fat Lady and no one has a clue where she might be. We have Hagrid, Pomona and Kettleburn searching the grounds but I doubt she would dare go anywhere near the Forbidden Forest."
"What happened, exactly?" Severus asked casually as they began to check all classrooms one by one.
Minerva sighed heavily. She didn't look happy at all. "This morning, four Gryffindor girls claimed that their roommate, Lola Allen, used the Cruciatus curse on one of the other girls, Fay Dunbar."
Severus stopped dead in his tracks. Minerva, who was walking in front of him, did not notice.
The Cruciatus curse? Severus had to admit that was a bit extreme for an eleven-year-old. How could a first-year student manage to cast one of the Unforgivables? Mentally unstable or not, such a spell required intense training and a deep understanding of magic.
Severus would know.
"Are we absolutely certain that's what happened?" Severus asked cynically. "Children do lie frequently."
Minerva shook her head dejectedly. "There were three witnesses. We extracted their memories of the event and watched it back in the Pensieve. Unfortunately, it's true… You don't even need a Pensieve, though. One look at Miss Dunbar's devastated face, and you can see, really."
Severus had the feeling there was something more to this story. Such a thing had never happened at Hogwarts before because it was simply impossible. Even when the biggest psychopaths in history attended Hogwarts, such as the Dark Lord and his personal pet Bellatrix, no such incident had ever taken place.
A force to be reckoned with… Severus briefly considered the possibility that the girl might have been telling the truth all along. Slowly but surely, he was developing an inkling sense of what might have happened that morning and he did not like it at all.
He had to get to Lola Allen before anyone else.
After a while, Severus made up his mind. "It is a pointless act, for both of us to search the same area at the same time," he said to Minerva.
"I was hoping you would say that. It's best for you to search the second floor while I take care of here," she replied, sounding relieved.
Severus nodded, turned on his heels and without hesitation, made his way towards Classroom 22b.
A/N: Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to leave a review if you liked/disliked this chapter. See you next time!