Chapter Seven:
Dumbledore stared at Madam Pomfrey for a moment before horror clouded his face.
"Lily's gone? But weren't you watching her?"
Madam Pomfrey squeaked. "I was taking a nap after you told me you were going take over!"
Dumbledore frowned. "Now is not the time to be pushing the blame around. Poppy, how long ago was Miss Evans gone?"
"I don't know exactly the time, but when I realized, it was about five minutes ago."
Immediately, the Headmaster turned around and headed back out the doors.
"Poppy! Gather all the teachers that you can and meet me in the Staff Room."
-_- o -_-
As Dumbledore burst through the Infirmary doors, he ran into a squabbling group of boys and a girl.
"Professor! Can we see Lily now?" asked Mara, her eyes pleading for the affirmative.
Finally reaching the end of his patience, Dumbledore snapped, "Miss Harper, I am an extremely busy man. I acknowledge your worry for your friend, but many things are at stake here. Do you not realize that you bothering the staff everyday is inconveniencing us and creating problems for Miss Evans? If you just stopped being so selfish for a second or two, you would all retreat back to the common room and stop interfering with our plans. Now go! Go, or else I will have to deduct house points!"
Quickly, they backed away and let an angry Headmaster pass through.
"Wow. That's the first time I've seen Dumbledore so angry! Usually he's all sweet and nice-natured. I wonder what's biting him today? It must be something REALLY big!" Sirius stared after the Headmaster's retreating figure and sighed.
Suddenly, Remus reached for the door of the Infirmary. "Something's wrong. Terribly wrong. I think something's happened to Lily!"
They scrambled inside the room and stood there, looking around. They took in the empty hospital beds. There was no one in the room. Not even Madam Pomfrey. Feeling very panicked, they searched high and low, but nobody was here.
Where was Lily?
-_- o -_-
"My fellow colleagues, something horrible has happened. One of our students, Miss Lily Evans in Gryffindor, Fourth Year, has disappeared. She came back from the holidays in a trance and her condition only continued to worsen. We investigated thoroughly and found that her parents were brutally murdered in the holidays. The marks on their bodies shows that a wizard or witch committed the heinous crime. Now, with Miss Evans like this, we realized she would do anything she was told to do. Thus, we suspected that her parents' murderers also cast a high complex spell over Miss Evans. Now, that person has taken her to do his or her bidding. We must find this estranged person and work out a way to remove the spell. We must all work together for Miss Evans' protection and safety!"
Professor Flitwick looked completely bewildered while Professor Borkish muttered, "So that's why she hasn't been showing up to classes lately."
But the Headmaster continued. "Furthermore, we must not alarm any of our students. They must not learn of any of this. Especially watch out for Miss Evans' friends, they have been prying around too much. They mean no ill, but if they discover more than is necessary, I fear they may do something rash… such as look for her themselves. Are we all clear?"
The teachers surrounding him nodded.
"All right, half of the teachers will remain in the school to teach the students, while the other half will come with me to find Miss Evans. I have already contacted the Ministry, and they are sending out people to help. Let's go!"
-_- o -_-
"I don't know what's happened to Lily, but I have a gut feeling that it's not good" said Remus.
James had his head in his hands and was rubbing his head frantically. "Lily, Lily, Lily, Lily…" he muttered again and again. Poor thing, he looked in complete misery. Sirius attempted to calm him down, but James pushed him away and sat on a hospital bed to sulk. He radiated stay away.
Mara just stood there, as if disbelieving that her friend was gone.
Peter puttered around, not knowing what to say, but looking (and probably feeling) useless as he hopped nervously around. Sirius looked out the window, deciding he was no use here at the moment, and the most he could do, was stay out of people's way. Remus sat on the chair that the Headmaster had previously occupied.
"James? James, come on! Pull yourself together! Does your behaviour at the moment help Lily in any way? We have lots of work to get on with. If we really want to help Lily, then we will go and search for where she went and try to take her back! Are you with me?"
Slowly, Remus' words sank into James head. He looked up and his friends looked right back at him. "Okay… Okay… So are we going to start or what?" With renewed energy, James leapt up and glanced around him.
-_- o -_-
Lily stood in the centre of a large, dark and empty room.
"Well, aren't you a pretty girl. Are you a pretty girl? Say yes."
Automatically, Lily replied, "Yes."
The mysterious man laughed. "Such a shame… such a shame… We could have had a little more fun…"
Lily stood still, her mind blank and her expression mirroring that of her mind.
"But still, things need to be done. Come, darling. Let's go to see your room."
Mindlessly, Lily followed the man as they entered a narrow hallway lit up by torches. "Come now, we don't want you getting lost now do we?"
There was a creak of the large wooden door opening, revealing a small, dank room with a pile of straw scattered on the stone floor. It echoed the drip of water and the man led Lily inside. "Say 'thank you'."
"Thank you" said Lily.
"Now, be a good girl and stay in there. There's a wooden bucket for when you need to pee. Don't bother me and I'll come for you when I come for you, all right? Nod your head."
Lily nodded.
Still cackling, the man locked the door from the outside and walked off, leaving Lily standing in the middle of the room awkwardly.
Suddenly, there was an explosion and a musty yellow gas floated over through the small window, filling the room with haze.
Unable to take the attack of her senses so quickly, Lily collapsed to the floor.
It was many hours later when she finally woke up.
She had a terrible headache and felt dizzy and weak. She looked around her cell. "Where am I?" she wondered out aloud quietly. The last thing she remembered was trotting her way towards Transfiguration class with Mara. Endless thoughts swirled inside her mind and she clutched the slimy wall for support, gasping for breath.
She didn't know where she was, she was scared and she was very hungry. All she felt, was that she was very clear minded for the first time since her parents' death.
AN: Aha! Lily has finally woken up! I must thank quibbler149, An Aspiring Author, The Awesome Threesome and JadeDragonHawk for their lovely reviews! I'm greedy, so can I please have some more? Thanks!