Chapter Two

Hysteria

Bronwen Black

It had been twenty two days and three weeks since the quarantine between the infected and immune students had been lifted and all hell had broken loose shortly after. Each day another person went missing and no one could give us an answer why. I was one of many students that were immune to the virus, which had strangely confused the Ministry officials running the test to see who was infected and who wasn't. The virus only attacked those who's blood came from a wizard ancestry my blood was nearly pure and yet all the test came back negative.

The healers and officials had run several test and they came all back with the same result. I had noticed strange looks and expression coming for all those testing me. They looked down upon me like some sort of freak or was it a threat they saw when they looked at me.

I was quarantined with all the other students who were immune to the virus. Sadly are group was rather small and made up of only muggle-born students. Each day the number of students infected seemed to grow rapidly and so did the number of death of those who couldn't handle the virus. About half the victims killed by the virus were only the little ones. It was heartbreaking and no one understood what was happening.

Parents had tired but failed to have their children removed from the school, since the Ministry had put the entire place under quarantine and refused to release anyone. Only the dead were allowed to leave while everyone else was completely trapped within the walls of the school.

Everyone had counted the days until they would lift the quarantine between the students. There was such nervousness in the air as everyone hoped there friends were still alive. Everyone on the uninfected side couldn't help but wonder what the virus had done to everyone who had been infected.

When the day finally came everyone was so happy and yet they couldn't see that their friends no longer existed. Me and Hermione had waited for several minuets looking for Ron and Harry who had both gotten the virus. When we finally found them I realized something was wrong especially with Harry, by the way he looked at me. He looked at me like I was something delicious and ready to eat.

That's when I walked away from our little group because Harry was scaring me and I couldn't stand to be around him any longer. That's when I began to notice that almost all of the infected students were eyeing the uninfected like they were going to eat them.

Since that day more and more students were going missing and no one had any answers. I often hided in the second floor girls' lavatory since no one ever came in there because of Moaning Myrtle. As I looked at myself in the mirror I realize the lack of sleep I was getting was beginning to show. My skin was far more pale then usually making me look like a ghost. My thick espresso curls had become unruly and while my clear coffee brown eyes showed all my fear. Dark purple circles were giving me a look as if someone had punched me in both eyes giving me black eyes.

I could no longer sleep without waking up in the middle of the night from some horrible nightmare. Every night I would sneak down to the library in hopes it would have something useful that would hopefully help me understand what was going on. I had been in the library for the last two hours and found nothing and I was sure it was time to go back to the dorms and hide under my covers and wait for daybreak.

As I was leaving the library, my stomach seemed to knot itself as I walked back to the Gryffindor Tower. There are times when you wish truly and deeply you were dreaming because everything seemed safer in dreams. My eyes had been fixed on a light in a distance I wasn't watching were I was stepping. My feet slipped on something slick on the ground. Slowly I looked down and realized I really shouldn't have. My bare feet were standing in a pool of blood and I couldn't help but scream as I ran at full speed to get back to the tower.

I was stopped by Professor Snape and I couldn't help but panic and cry. I had been standing in someone's blood and I had no idea where the blood had come from. He's dark eyes scanned my feet before looking me straight in the eyes. "What are you doing out of bed at this hour?" he asked in a cold voice as he continued to stare at me with anger. "I was in the library and I was leaving and I stepped into something slippery and I realize it was blood." I shivered as I realized more professors were coming towards us. Professor Dumbledore gave me a small smile "Miss Black I suggest you return to your house." He said in a grandfatherly tone. I only nodded and walked back to the Gryffindor Tower.

Even after I had washed all the blood off my feet, I could still somehow feel it on me. The rest of the night I sat in the common room feeling uneasy as if I was being watched.

Author's Note: To make everything easier the story is going to switch back and forth between characters. That's the reason why each chapter will have a name include at the top. Another thing is that the story will go back and forth in time so you learn different piece at different times. So please don't worry everything will make sense. I promise

Please review it gives me the warm and fuzzies.