Chapter 12
A/N: So sorry guys, I know it's been a while, but it's been hell since the last chapter, life got in the way. But we'll try extra hard to make it better with this next chapter.
Disclaimer: Now on with the story, remember, we own nothing but our personal characters.
Running over the Steph's side, Sarah knelt down beside her. Asking her is she was alright she yelled out for either Sebastien or Patrick to help her get Steph to the hospital wing.
"Hurry up" she yelled in a frantic voice. Helping them pick up Steph without furthering her injures, she told them to meet her at the hospital wing. "I'm going to go find Dumbledore!" she called out, before sprinting out of the room and making her way through the corridors. She was turning a corner at a fast speed when she smacked into something solid. Next thing she knew, she was sprawled on the floor groaning in protest.
"That's going to leave a bruise," she muttered under her breath. She looked up into the smiling face of Albus Dumbledore. A mixture of emotions ran quickly across her face, from embarrassment to relief. Apologizing profusely to him for having run in the halls and almost knocking him over, she remembered that she was actually looking for him and quickly began explaining what had happened in the dragon room to him.
"Whatever it was, it hurt Steph pretty badly. It had red eyes, which is all that I could make out. It seemed to have been invisible or something…" she trailed off as Dumbledore held up a hand to silence her. Putting his hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner he told her to calm down as he walked with her to the hospital wing. Not noticing that they had passed Harry, Hermione and Ron on the way. Sarah was too caught up in wondering how Steph was doing. Knowing that Sebastien and Patrick weren't badly hurt, she put some distance between her and Dumbledore. As they turned into the last corridor she sprinted towards the door that her best friend was behind.
Harry came running up to them, "what happened? Sarah are you hurt?"
"No, I'm just a little shook up, 'scuse me, I have to go check on Steph" she walked into the hospital wing slowly, unsure of what she would see. She saw Steph lying on a hospital bed wearing one of the wing's pajamas.
"Hey Sarah, it's not as bad as it looks" she said in relation to the horrified face Sarah was making. "Pomphrey stabilized me, she just wanted Dumbledore to see before she healed my bruises."
Dumbledore walked in and came over to Steph, Harry sneaked in behind him, leaving Ron and Hermione alone in the hall.
"Oh my God, Steph, what happened!" Harry asked, rushing up to her bed.
"One moment Harry, let her explain," Dumbledore advised wisely, "Miss Maléfice, why don't you start at the beginning?"
"Well, we were all sitting in our secret common room when Sarah rushed in and mumbled something about a school dance." At that moment Sarah lowered her head to hide the blush that was quickly spreading across her cheeks, but Dumbledore didn't even take notice. There was, however, a twinkle in his eyes as he asked Steph to continue.
"Sarah started talking about who should go with who, when she mentioned me going with Draco. That's when we heard a high pitched wailing like someone else was in the room and it was screaming in rage. We tried to figure out what was going on, and Sarah mentioned Draco's name again. She had to duck to avoid being hit with a statue that was thrown at her head." Harry glanced at Sarah in shock; he started to say something when Dumbledore motioned for him to be quiet. "That's when the screaming finally stopped and we heard someone crying, we looked around, but it sounded like it was coming from every where at once. Next thing we knew, we were all on the floor and someone was kicking me in the face and back, I must have passed out or something, because I don't remember the rest."
Sarah jumped in to try and finish the story, "I cast Rictusempra in an arc over Steph to try and hit whoever was there. I hit something and it slammed into the wall. All I saw were two red eyes before it jumped out of the window.
Patrick stood up, "it was a girl," he said solemnly. Everyone turned to look at him, so he continued. "She had long black hair that floated around her, yet there was no wind blowing. She hissed at us, like a snake, and then she dove out of the window."
"I didn't get a chance to see what she looked like; I just cast my spell and ran to check on Steph," said Sarah, eyes darting to the floor. Feeling ashamed that she hadn't noticed who had attacked them, Sarah avoided eye contact with everyone.
"It's ok Sarah, don't beat yourself up about it, the important thing is that you got her away from Steph" encouraged Sebastien as he pulled her into a hug. Resting her chin on his shoulder as she hugged him back, Sarah answered, "but still, I feel bad for not paying attention, what if Patrick hadn't seen her? What then?"
Intervening Sarah's ifs and buts, Dumbledore instructed them all to leave Steph alone for the moment so that he and Madame Pomphrey could talk to her. "She'll be fine after a bit of rest" added Madame Pomphrey as she walked over to Steph's side and directed her to drink the potion she was currently holding. Shooing them out of the hospital wing, she went to check on Steph.
They all left the room and decided they may as well head back to their proper common rooms for the time being. Walking to Gryffindor Tower with Harry beside her, Sarah was grateful for the silence that ensued, until the moment the two of them stepped into the common room and came face to face with Ron and Hermione.
"Harry, where did you run off to?" asked Hermione as she ran up to him and pulled him away from Sarah. Balancing herself as Hermione none too gently shoved her aside, Sarah fixated Hermione with a glare, "he was with me Hermione. And don't you ever get tired of being a brown-noser? Harry may be your friend, but Christ! He doesn't have to tell you everything. He's allowed to live his own personal life ya know." Exclaimed Sarah as she threw her hands up in the air.
Holding her hand up to silence Ron before he could make a comeback for Hermione, Sarah said "control you little girlfriend Weasley, before she royally pisses me off. Unless you want hell to break loose…" Glaring back at her, Hermione was about to lash out on her when Sarah whipped out her wand and cast a silencing spell, sighing in relief as Hermione was silenced, Sarah waved to her then turned to face Harry.
"See ya later Harry," she muttered as she walked away from the group and headed for the girl's dormitory.
Back in the hospital wing, Stephanie was still being fussed over by Madame Pomphrey as Dumbledore continued to question her. "I know professor, but I really didn't get to see her features while being curled up into a ball, but for some reason, I feel that Draco has something to do with this." Said Steph, cringing as Madame Pomphrey poked a sore spot.
"Why would you believe mister Malfoy had something to do with this?" Dumbledore asked curiously.
"Well, the girl only got upset when we mentioned his name. I'm not saying he was controlling her or anything, I'm merely suggesting that the girl may know Malfoy personally and that he may be able to help in figuring out who she is."
Dumbledore thought for a moment, "you are very wise for your age. I'll be sure to ask mister Malfoy if he knows of anyone of that description." Madame Pomphrey gave Steph a new pair of pajamas to wear.
"I'm afraid you'll have to sleep here tonight my dear, just to make sure there are no complications. Your black eye should be gone by tomorrow night as long as you keep applying this ointment.
Dumbledore bode them goodnight as Pomphrey pulled the curtains to allow Steph to change.
In the meantime, Draco had just received a response from his father. He had written him about the girl he had seen the night he went to Hogsmead. His father's reply was none too helpful. It just added to the suspicious story surrounding the girl:
Draco,
I do not know anyone who fits that description, but I believe you should keep this vision to yourself. We don't need people thinking you've gone crazy. If you have any more of these visions, contact me immediately and I will arrive to aid you.
Your Father
Lucius Malfoy
'Yeah, sure dad, you're such a horrible liar' thought Draco. He crumpled the paper and tossed it into the fireplace. He put his cloak on and headed off to the great hall for supper.
When he walked into the door, he was stopped by professor Dumbledore. "Mister Malfoy, I need to have a word with you about an important matter. Would you please meet me in my office after dinner?"
Draco would have normally told the old man to go shove his wand up his ass. But he noticed the tired, drained face. There was no twinkle in his eyes. He knew this had to be relatively important. He nodded and proceeded to his seat.
Blaise came up to him as soon as he sat down. "Hey man, did you hear about Steph?"
"She finally find out you're a prick and told you to go to hell?" asked Draco sarcastically.
"She's in the hospital wing! She got beat up pretty badly, no one knows who did it. Some people are saying her attacker was invisible!" he said quickly, obviously excited by the mystery.
Draco dropped the fork he had been bringing up to his mouth. "What!" he cried, shocking the great hall into silence.
"I said…" Draco didn't let him finish, he ran out the door and raced up to the hospital wing. He pushed open the door to find Steph sitting in bed, reading. She looked up at the sound of the door bouncing off the wall.
"Hi Draco, what are you doing here?" she asked with a smile.
"Who did this? Who did all of that!" he demanded, pointing at her black eye, bandaged ribs and split lip. "Who touched you?"
"Calm down!" she said sternly, "if you can't control your temper, I'll have to ask you to leave." Draco took a deep breath and apologized. "That's better. Now, I don't know who did it, they were invisible. But I know it was a girl. Don't worry, I'm fine. Pomphrey said I can lave in the morning. It's a bummer, but it's really no biggie."
Draco looked pissed off, but he didn't say anything. "Well, if you're done questioning me, I think professor Dumbledore would like to talk to you," she motioned to the door.
"Mr. Malfoy, I'm sure you now know why I wanted to talk to you." Dumbledore said seriously, "please follow me to my office." He turned and walked out of the room.
"Professor, you don't think I had anything to do with this, do you?" Malfoy argued as he ran to catch up. The last thing Steph heard as the door shut behind them was Draco's defense, "I couldn't have done it, I just heard about it."
Once they were seated in Dumbledore's office, the professor calmed Draco down. "Mr. Malfoy, we do not think you are responsible for this, we do, however, believe you may know the culprit. She only attacked when your name was mentioned." At this, Draco looked up shocked.
"I don't understand professor, why would someone attack because of me?"
"We were hoping you could tell us who this girl may be."
"It was a girl? How do you know it was a girl? I thought the person was invisible. Is this some kind of sick game you're all playing?" he started to raise his voice in anger. "Because if it is, I won't stand around and allow you people to insult me."
"Mister Malfoy, we have no such intentions. Perhaps it would help if I were to explain what happened." Dumbledore leaned forward and formed a triangle with his fingers. "Your fellow students had overheard word of a school dance we will be holding. Discussions ensued and your name was mentioned. When they spoke your name, someone, whom no one could see at the time, began to scream in rage. Your name was mentioned again, and a small statue was thrown at the speaker's head, then someone was heard sobbing. That was when the students in question were pushed to the floor. Miss Maléfice was singled out and thoroughly beaten until Miss LaChance was able to knock the assailant into the wall with a spell. The force of the spell forced the attacker to reveal herself. A witness described the attacker as being a young lady with jet black hair, bight red eyes and fang-like teeth."
Dumbledore paused to allow Draco to absorb everything he had just heard. "I've seen her…" he whispered, "I've seen a girl like that."
"Who is she Draco?" asked Dumbledore seriously.
"I-I don't know who she is, she appeared next to me the other night, like a ghost that only I could see." He took a deep breath before continuing, "she said she'd been watching me, said she watched me grow up but that I never saw her. Then she dissolved like she was made of smoke. It's was so odd…"
"It there anything else you can tell me? Please understand, any information can help protect students like Miss Maléfice who may be hurt by this girl," Dumbledore asked.
"I'm afraid not sir, that was all that happened."
"Alright, you may go. But try not to tell anyone too much about the events. I do not wish to cause a panic so early in the school year."
"I understand professor," Draco got up to leave, "not like I want people to know I'm seeing ghosts that aren't there anyway." He turned at the door, suddenly remembering something. "Professor..."
"Yes mister Malfoy, was there something else?"
"Actually yes, I just remembered. The girl told me to ask my father if I had any questions, so I did that. I wrote to him inquiring as to the identity of the girl."
"So Lucius is involved somehow, very interesting," Dumbledore frowned slightly. "Did you receive a response?"
"I did, however it was a less than mediocre explanation. He denied knowing anything about it, yet he demanded I tell him the next time I saw her so that he could come and take care of it."
"Yes, it sounds like he may know something" Dumbledore stood up and picked up his wand. "Do not tell him about this girl, even if you do see her again. It is imperative that we stop her of course, but if your father finds her we will never get our answers. If you remember anything else, let me know immediately. And I know you're not very fond of myself, or the majority of the students in my school, but I implore that you listen to me this once, for your safety, as well as that of all of my students." He gave Draco a stern look, reinforcing his warning. "Now I have some important business to attend to. Tell Madame Pomprey I have given you permission to visit Miss Malefice for as long as you wish to, I want you to tell her what you told me," he motioned to the door, "off you go."
Draco walked down to the kitchen to pick up some food; he never got the chance to eat supper. Thinking about, Steph probably hadn't eaten either, might as well get her a little something too. He walked around in the halls downstairs, cursing his stupidity for not asking where the kitchen was. He was about to give up, to the protest of his growling stomach, when he noticed a Gryffindor skirt turn the corner ahead of him. He followed quickly and discovered it was Sarah. He ran to catch up to her.
"Hey Gryffindor, should you be down here all by yourself?" he asked sarcastically.
"Well I know where I'm going; you're the one who looked a little lost," she replied smiling. Her smile disappeared quickly, "what do you want Malfoy?"
"Actually, I was wondering if you could help me find the kitchen. You see I skipped dinner and my stomach is a touch upset," he asked slowly. "And I'm only asking because I'm being considerate of what happened to you tonight" he added.
"…Right…" Sarah considered helping him, she was headed to the kitchen anyway, so a little company couldn't hurt. "Fine then, follow me," she continued down the hall.
Draco followed her, feeling stupid. He hated asking for help, and asking a Gryffindor was a new low. He hoped no one from Slytherin saw him, they'd never let him live it down. It was a good thing Sarah was Steph's friend, someone he knew and occasionally, god forbid, got along with.
When they turned the last corner they stopped in front of a painting of a large bowl of fruit. However, they weren't alone….
A/N: I know, I know, damn me and my cliffies. Guess I want to keep people guessing.
I do hope I can get the next chapter out sooner than the old ones, but you gotta be patient with us, we have school and work and life to deal with too. Anywho, thanks for reading, plz review and hopefully the next chapter will be out real soon.
Aries and Kie