To Listen With Our Ears, Minds, and Hearts Chapter 6- Guren (Gazette)

A few more weeks passed. Mizy continued schoolwork and her prefect duties as usual, yet sometimes coming back to the common room feeling dazed and unfocused, unable to recall what happened, that is, if something happened. Whenever that happened, Mizy dismissed it as just an outcome of her anxiety for the future. It was, after all, her last year at Hogwarts, and she and Nooni were still undecided on their careers. In classes, hallways, sometimes even in the Great Hall, she'd make eye contact with Quirrell, and blush when he'd give her a small smile.

"Are you all right?" Nooni inquired, one evening in the common room. "It's like you're far off in your own little world.

"Yes, just a little tired." Mizy replied with a yawn, stretching her arms back. The book she had been using as a table for her essay resting on her lap started to slid, and she quickly reached for it and straightened it.

"Don't worry, no one else saw that." Nooni said, laughing. Then she stopped suddenly and narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Mizy, which made Mizy laugh. "No seriously, you look pale."

"Is being pale a negative thing?" Mizy said.

"That kind of pale, yes." Nooni remarked. Mizy chuckled.

"I'm fine, really." Mizy insisted.

Mizy did not know what happened, lest how it happened. All she knew was that she was in pain, somewhere on her left. She was falling in and out of conscious, catching glimpses of blurry people hurrying over her, carrying her, bright flashes of light, distant voices, and finally a soft warmness engulfing her.

Mizy's eyes fluttered open. Her vision was at first blurry and dark, but then her eyes adjusted and she was able to see clearly. She noticed that she was in the hospital wing, with the curtains drawn closed around her. Her left arm felt strangely heavy. She turned her head and looked down at it; it was bandaged with a faint red stain that had bled through. She stared at it, wondering what the heck it came from. Then, she heard a door creak open and footsteps walking swiftly, coming closer to her, and the curtains were yanked back, the bright streams of sunlight from the wide windows nearly blinding her.

"Oh good, you're up." A voice said. Mizy raised her eyes, squinting in the sudden light, and saw the voice to belong to Madam Promfrey. "Sit up, I need to examine your arm."

Mizy took a deep breath and sat up, being extra careful to avoid using her left arm, letting it lay on the sheets. Madam Promfrey gingerly picked up her arm and began unwinding the bandages, making Mizy's jaw drop as it revealed a deep jagged gash with two large punctured holes in her arm, yet looked as though already several weeks old. Madam Promfrey pulled out a bottle labeled "Dittany" and squeezed out a few drops of it evenly on her am. Mizy watched, fascinated as more new skin stretched over the wound. Then Madam Promfrey reach inside her robes and pulled out a tube and squeezed out its thick black paste and applied it to Mizy's arm, all the while making disapproving tut noises. Mizy kept her eyes on her arm, and didn't notice someone else enter the room.

"Is she well?" Dumbledore asked, appearing right before the bed.

"Yes, headmaster. A nasty bite, but it's not too serious." Madom Promfrey said.

Mizy raised her eyes to Dumbledore, who stared back, a thoughtful but dark expression on his face. He waited patiently until Madam Promfrey was finished bandaging Mizy back up, and with a slight nod of his head, she left the room. Mizy sat there, in the uncomfortable silence with the headmaster, scared that she was about to get an earful from one of the most powerful and respected wizard.

"Have you any recollection of what happened?" asked Dumbledore. Mizy shook her head.

"No, sir." She said, slightly intimidated by him.

"Well, I shall tell you what took place from what I know." Dumbledore said. "You were found on the third floor, in the forbidden corridor." (Mizy's mouth opened in a comical "o") "Yes, and despite my warnings at the beginning of the year, you were found there, and I do not know if you remember seeing what lies in the corridor, but your screams had attracted the attention of Argus Filch. He quickly pulled you out of harm's way, that is, more harm than already done to you, and then he immediately contacted me and brought you up here, where you were tended to by Madam Promfrey."

Mizy stared blankly, taking in all of this information, aghast at having broken a school rule and even more at not even remembering such an event.

"I-I don't remember such a thing…" Said Mizy quietly. Dumbledore peered at her over his half moon spectacles.

"Yes, I feared as much." He said. Mizy lowered her gaze to her hands (or hand), playing with the sheets, unable to think of something to say. "I want you to know that I do not blame you." Mizy looked up, hopeful. "In reality, I wish for you to tell me anything. Anything you know that could explain why you were there."

Mizy scrunched up her face, racking her brains for anything that might be helpful, she didn't want to disappoint the headmaster, but she couldn't bring anything to mind.

"I really don't remember anything, professor…" Mizy said, her voice trailing off, not meeting the headmaster's eyes.

"Hm, maybe right now you do not, so I will leave you to rest and recover. In the meantime, if you remember anything, do tell me." He said, smiling down at her. Mizy nodded. Dumbledore walked off, humming quietly to himself, and left the room. Mizy sat there, wondering what she should do next when Madam Promfrey's door opened again and she came in.

"Good, now I may attend to you." She said.

Sometime during the evening, as Mizy was eating her dinner brought up by a house elf, Nooni came in.

"Where have you been? What's happened? Nooni exclaimed. Mizy patted a space on the bed next to her, and Nooni sat down there.

"I honestly don't know, myself." Mizy said, spooning herself some soup.

"How's your arm?" Nooni asked, seeing Mizy's arm.

"Healing." Nooni chuckled.

"Everyone was saying that you couldn't get back into the common room and just wandered around and fell off the staircase!"

"Really? That's a bit far-fetched."

"Not really, it actually fits you."

"What?"

"I'm joking, what happened?"

Mizy told Nooni what Dumbledore had told her.

"You idiot, what were you doing in the forbidden corridor?" Nooni asked.

"Oh, I was looking for a bathroom- no I don't know why I was there. That's the whole point." Mizy said, frustrated not knowing why herself. Nooni narrowed her eyes, and got up off the bed. She strode over the windows, looking at out the dark starry night.

"Maybe…" She began. "No, I don't know either."

"Come on, use that Ravenclaw brain of yours!" Mizy teased.

"You use yours, then!" Nooni laughed, Mizy joining in. Then their laughter faded into silence; Mizy eating and Nooni deep in thought. Nooni shook her head, and grinned.

"A mystery!"

"If only it wasn't happening to me." Mizy grumbled.