CHAPTER 3: THE HOSPITAL WING

The castle was surprisingly ablaze with movement a few minutes after they entered. Every Professor and prefect were half-walking, half-running around, collecting students around every corridor and classroom, instructing them to head for the great hall post haste. Another few minutes later, a very familiar voice magnified a hundred times erupted from every wall of the castle.

"All Student are to proceed to the Great Hall immediately," said Professor McGonagall's voice. "All teachers are instructed to either escort their class into the Great Hall or collect any one you find along the corridors or on the school grounds and deliver them to the Great Hall," she repeated this three more times and the voice was gone.

With another bout of curiosity, Al dragged the other two swiftly into the Great Hall. He was so preoccupied with trying to get to Slytherin table as soon as possible that he was already halfway between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw table before he realized that Rose was desperately trying to free herself to join the Gryffindors.

"Al!" she cried when she finally got is attention. "Al, I'm not sitting at the Slytherin table!"

"Oh, sorry," Al said and let go. He and Scorpius found themselves some free space on the bench and sat and stared attentively at the teachers table. Scorpius continued to munch on his rock cakes.

After a while, almost every student, teacher, staff and ghost was present in the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall then stood up regally and silence fell over the excited crowd immediately.

"I have called you all here today," she started. Her voice, though calm, had a hint of anxiousness in it. "To imprint upon you how important it is that you do not leave the castle under any circumstances,"

A general murmur and look of confusion erupted after this first sentence. They were all apparently unaware of any immediate danger. McGonagall took a deep breath before continuing. "There are evidences that something is running amok in the Forbidden Forest," She said. "Something dangerous. Therefore, we have intended that in the next few weeks, every class and every event shall be conducted inside the castle. The staff of Hogwarts are doing everything in their power to keep the situation under control and would like to ask you, students, to follow the rules that we have set for you. It is for your own safety." She finished. "Any question?"

"What is it?" a voice from Hufflepuff said. "What's in the Forbidden Forest?"

"That is a question I'm afraid we cannot answer quite confidently at the moment," she said. "We have our theories. But rest assured that you students will be kept safe with the best of our abilities. All you have to do is follow the rules,"

"What about Quidditch, professor?" James voice from Gryffindor called out.

"We shall still be having Quidditch practices but under the supervision of a teacher. No practices are to be conducted without permission from your head of house," she answered. "Anything else?"

Suddenly, the doors of the Great Hall burst open and Professor Longbottom appeared looking harassed and extremely anxious. He rushed up to Professor McGonagall and whispered something in her ear. She frowned and nodded and Longbottom climbed up and sat in his usual place at the staff table.

"If there are no more question, please follow the prefects toward you respective dormitories, thank you. All other classes this afternoon is cancelled,"

The low excited murmuring increased in volume as soon as they left the Great Hall. Everyone seem to have their own theory about what was happening.

"I bet it's vampires," someone behind them said. "They seem to be a fad nowadays, isn't it?"

"I hear the Unicorns' gone rabid!" someone else piped up. "And you know nobody would hurt a unicorn so they can't harm it and it just goes and creates chaos in the forest,"

"Everyone knows it's Crawling Tertaculas," A dreamy voice said behind Al. He turned to find Lorcan looking intently at him as if he had been talking with him in the last few minutes.

"A what?"

"A Crawling Tertacula. They're a different breed of Tertaculas that had started breeding in the Forest over the last few years. They are very dangerous but they can be easily subdued by using the blood of moon frog. They hate the smell," and with that he walked away to join the rest of the Ravenclaw crowd.

Al and Scorpius looked at each other and grinned.

"I do wonder what's in the Forbidden Forest, though," Al said once they finally reached the common room. He sat on one of the sofas in front of the fireplace. Scorpius sat beside him. "I wonder how dangerous it is,"

"It's really dangerous, I think," A voice behind them said. They turned to see Liam Harper leaning against the back of the sofa. He walked around and sat with them. "I heard Finnigan and Thomas earlier, before they sent us to the Great Hall. Thomas said something about the Thestrals being injured"

"What?"

"You know, those horses that pull the school carriages," Liam answered haughtily.

"I know what Thestrals are," Al answered hotly. "My brother said they were invisible"

"They are," Liam answered. "'cept for those who has seen someone drop dead" he said with a tone of superiority. "The things is, Thestrals are really scary and dangerous themselves so anything that can actually damage a Thestral should be much scarier and more dangerous, right?"

"Are you guys talking about the Forbidden Forest?" Said a nervous voice. They all turned to see Owen Warrington walking towards them. "You know what I heard?"

"No," said Scorpius impariently. "Obviously,"

"I heard there are basilisks in the forest," he answered spookily. Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "Basilisks? Giant snakes that can turn you into stone? That's stupid,"

"Why's that?" Al asked, feeling exactly stupid.

"Those are, like, legends, you know," Scorpius answered. "Things in stories used to scare little kids,"

"A basilisk used to exist in Hogwarts!" Owen replied defiantly. "Down in the chamber of secrets! My dad told me it petrified a lot of students back in his day," he turned to Al. "You should know! Your mum and dad went down there, I heard,"

Al shrugged. "They don't talk about it," he answered, which was true. Nobody in the family ever mentioned a Chamber of Secrets.

"Well, I doubt it's a Basilisk," Liam said. "I mean, Thestrals can fly. What's a snake gonna do when the Thestrals in the air? Anyway, I bet anything that there are Dragons in there," he added thoughtfully.

"They're illegal to have around," Owen answered. "Anyway, I doubt a dragon can be too much trouble for the staff. I mean, I know they're dangerous but there are people trained for subduing dragons,"

Al nodded. "My Uncle does that," he told them.

"I wish I had a Dragon," Scorpius said with a sneer. "It'd be so cool,"

"Maybe it's a mutated Dragon!"

Then the four of them fell into a conversation about what the best breed of dragon would be. By the end of the conversation they have invented a dragon that can spew ice, that can swim and that can change its appearance into a lizard at will. Afterwards, four of them headed for their beds.

The next day, being Saturday turned out to be extremely boring since they were not allowed to go out. Al and Scorpius were sitting by the fireplace and playing wizard's chess for the tenth time.

"This is stupid," Scorpius said for the thousandth time.

"You just think it's stupid 'cause you keep losing," Al grinned and patted his pocket cheerfully. The wonderful sound of gold coins reached his ears. It was extremely lucky that Scorpius was extremely rich and an extremely bad chess player.

"Let's do something else," He suggested.

"Like what?"

He shrugged. "Explore the castle?"

Al thought for a second, shrugged and stood up. The two of them left the common room and walked down a couple a corridors when they heard Rose calling them.

"Al!" she exclaimed and rushed toward them. She was strangely pale and breathless and was carrying a huge covered basket, "Thank goodness you finally went out, I've been trying to find you all morning," she told him with a huge grin on her face. She raised the basket to his nose as if this should answer all their questions.

"What is it?" Al asked.

"Is it food?" Scorpius asked hopefully, his hands slowly reaching for the package. Rose moved it out of his reach.

"No, weirdo," she told him and pulled the cloth covering the basket to reveal three black, moving things.

"Are those Fang's puppies?" Al asked in surprise. Rose nodded cheerfully.

"Did you steal them?" Scorpius said. Rose rolled her eyes at him.

"No," she told him with a frown. "I left early after breakfast, while you were pigging out, and I saw Hagrid carrying this and talking to McGonagall. He saw me and beckoned me over. Apparently he wanted someone to baby sit the puppies for the moment and was wondering if McGonagall could find someone," she grinned again. "And I volunteered!"

"Oh, okay," Al said. "So why were you waiting for us?"

"Oh Al, you're so silly," she said as if the answer should be obvious. "I volunteered you, too!"

"What?" Al asked in disbelief at the same time Scorpius piped up, "And me?"

"There're three pups," She told him hollowly. "You can take one if you'd like,"

Scorpius shrugged. But Al protested. "I don't want a puppy, Rose! I don't even know how to take care of one,"

"Oh don't worry about it!" Rose told him. "You'll love him! Here," she reached out and took the smallest and blackest of the three. "Hagrid said this one's Fang Jr." she handed the puppy to Al then took another one, a slightly gray one with a very black snout, "This is Knuckle" she handed it to Scorpius who took it hesistantly. "And I'm keeping Shade here" she indicated the remaining puppy which was as black as Fang Jr. but had a brown patch on its chest.

Rose grinned at them and they returned it half-heartedly. "We'll only be taking care of them for awhile, anyway," she added suddenly. "Hagrid said he's a little busy at the moment so he's really appreciate someone looking out for the puppies for the moment,"

Al sighed resignedly. "Fine, we'll leave them in the common room for now," He placed the two puppies in the basket and carried the whole thing back to the common room, leaving the Scorpius and Rose behind him. It took him sometime to find someone to look after the puppies. Fortunately, a group of third year girls came down their dormitory after awhile and, like Rose, immediately agreed to look after them. Al heard them cooing and cuddling the puppies as he left. When he came back outside, Scorpius and Rose were nowhere to be seen. He frowned and hurried up the nearest staircase which led to a hallway and another staircase. Halfway down the hallway, he heard a pained moan which he immediately recognized as Rose.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," he heard Scorpius's voice, all breathless and panicky. This was followed by a muffled thud. "Rose, c'mon," he urged, his voice unnaturally high.

Al picked up his pace and finally reached them in a matter of seconds. They were at the foot of the stairscase leading up to the Great Hall. Rose was sitting on the floor, her knees drawn all the way up her chest and her arms clutching her stomach. She was moaning in pain. Scorpius, white-faced, was crouching in front of her, apparently trying to get her to stand up.

"What's going on?" Al asked, also beginning to worry.

Scorpius turned to him with a look of relief. "She's bleeding," he said. "There's-there's blood on her legs, see?" He pointed and Al saw that small line of bright red blood from somewhere up her skirt had trailed down and snaked around her pale ankles. "Then she suddenly felt faint and then this,"

Rose was still rocking back and forth in apparent pain.

"I wanted to take her to the hospital wing," Scorpius finished.

"C'mon, then," Al urged and the two of them forced Rose to uncurl and hoisted her up and dragged her all the way to the hospital wing. Madam Pompfrey admitted them in immediately, placed Rose on a bed and asked the two boys to please leave for awhile. Al and Scorpius waited outside for awhile.

"What's wrong with her?" Scorpius asked tightly. It was apparent that Rose sudden condition had unnerved him.

Al shook his head. "I don't know," he mumbled. "She'll be fine, though," He added as Scorpius still seemed white-faced and wide-eyed, which Al thought was really strange as he himself wasn't that panicky. Maybe Scorpius was afraid of blood.

Madam Pompfrey called them inside after awhile.

"How is she?" Al asked at once.

"Oh nothing to worry about," She answered flatly. "She's just turning into a lady, that's all,"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Scorpius replied.

Madam Pompfrey raised her eyebrow at him. "She's menstruating, my dear boy. It's a natural part of being a woman, in case you didn't know." She turned to look at Rose who was already trying to sit down. "I gave her something for the pain," she told them. "She'll be alright,"

The two boys rushed to her side at once. She grinned at them. "It's just my time of the month, apparently," she told them quite cheerfully.

"Eww," Scorpius commented. Rose shot him a dirty look then turned to Al. "Thanks for helping me,"

"Oh, you're welcome!" Scorpius answered sarcastically. Rose rolled her eyes. "Well, it goes for you, too" she told him hotly. Then she turned back to Al, "Madam Pompfrey said I could leave now. She said it would be better for me to stay inside the school,"

"Okay, let's go then,"

She swung her legs around the bed and was about to stand up when the door burst open and Hagrid came in carrying something over his shoulder. He yelled for madam Pompfrey and laid whatever it was on his shoulder on the nearest bed. It turned out to be an unconscious and very bloody Professor Thomas. He did not seem to notice the three's presence. Al immediately pushed Rose back unto the bed and pulled the curtains around them.

They heard Madam Pompfrey's office door swing open and her hurried footsteps followed.

"What happened?" She asked. "Did it…did it…?"

"No, no, it knocked 'im out, threw 'im against a tree," Hagrid explained. "I only managed to throw 'im ov'r me shoulder and I ran like hell outta tha' place," he finished. They hear Madam Popfrey emit a sound of relief.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness," she murmured. There was a few moments of silence as Madam Pompfrey shuffled about, probably conjuring medicine and bandages.

"How many are there?" She asked after awhile.

"A dozen, maybe more," Hagrid answered gravely. "They formed themselves a nest there,"

"And were they, you know, transformed?" she asked in a frightened whisper.

"Half," Hagrid said. "Never seen anything like it," there was another silence. "They've been hunting after centaurs lately. Bane's been complainin'"

The doors swung open once more, followed by the sound of a pair of running footsteps.

"How is he?" said a very breathless Professor Finnigan. "He wasn't…it didn't…"

"He's fine," Madam Pompfrey told him. The newcomers sighed in relief.

"How far out are they?" Professor Neville's voice suddenly asked.

"Really near now. They've taken over most o' the forest, as far as we can tell," Hagrid answered. "It won' be long and they'll be coming out in broad daylight,"

"Who's leading them?" Neville asked. Though his voice was hardly above a whisper, the fear was evident in his voice. Hagrid did not answer at once.

"Greyback," Hagrid answered finally.