The following day, the mood at Hogwarts was sombre. Due to the bizarre and frightening attack in the entrance hall, and the uncertainty of whether or not it was the Orange Madness, the students were subdued and mistrustful, not wanting to speak to anyone outside their closest circles. Because of the alarming and confusing events, the Hallowe'en feast had been cancelled, and all the students took their meals in their common rooms. The festive mood of Hallowe'en had quickly been ruined.

Wild rumours continue to abound, and the students became nervous about socializing in any of the common areas of the castle. Everyone had heard that the disease was contagious, and although reports in the Daily Prophet were conflicting, most students preferred to err on the side of caution.

That day, Callidus and Harry debated whether they ought to stay in the Slytherin dungeons, or head up to the Great Hall for their breakfast. Because they were half-bloods, many of the other students were already looking at them with suspicion, which was unsettling within their own house. Both of them felt like they had to watch their backs at every moment. However, if they did go up to the Great Hall, it would probably only make things worse. The Slytherins might be suspicious now, but being amidst the other students would amplify that suspicion and turn it into assumptions.

There was something awful about feeling so restricted within Hogwarts. It was so easy to forget the outside world while one was in school, but moments like this caused reality to burst through with merciless brutality.

In the end, Callidus and Harry remained within the common room and Hogwarts' house-elves brought food down to the dungeons for the students to eat. The house-elves came with not only food but with the mail as well. Owls generally kept out of the dungeons, disliking the underground domain. But after yesterday's strange occurrences, the school was inundated with letters from worried parents.

Both Callidus and Harry were surprised to see that they had received letters. From Hermione, they received a note, letting them know that the three Gryffindors were fine, and to send word about their well-being since they had gotten separated after the chaos. Callidus had received another letter from Madam Filodoxos that was fussier than the previous letter. She reassured him that if he would prefer to stay in Wimbourne instead of Hogwarts, he was more than welcome.

And finally, both Callidus and Harry each got a letter from Draco.

Curious to see what Draco had to say, Callidus opened the letter, noticing how thick and expensive the parchment looked.

Callidus, the letter read, and Callidus was surprised by how rushed Draco's handwriting appeared. It was almost as if he wrote the letter in a panic.

Are you and Harry all right? Write me back IMMEDIATELY. I heard that the disease affected a half-blood, and Merlin, it better not be one of you,

Draco

Callidus looked over at Harry. "What did he say to you?"

Harry handed his letter over to Callidus, while Callidus gave Harry his letter.

Harry,

You better not have been infected by the disease. WRITE ME AS SOON AS YOU GET THIS! I'll never forgive you if you get sick and die,

Draco

"Merlin," Callidus muttered. "He sounds - upset."

"To say the least," Harry agreed. "We better write him."

After writing a letter to Draco and Madam Filodoxos as well as a note to Hermione, Callidus called for a house-elf to deliver the messages.

When that was done, Callidus and Harry were unsure of what to do. In the end, though Harry disliked the whole idea, they ended up working ahead on their homework.

In the afternoon, Professor Slughorn came by the Slytherin dungeons to offer news. The students swarmed around him, desperate for answers and Slughorn gently attempt to extricate himself from the masses.

"Yes, yes, I understand that you're all worried. Please quiet down for a bit and I'll tell you all I know," Slughorn placated. The students quieted down and looked towards their Head of House expectantly.

Slughorn looked from student to student. "As I'm sure many of you are aware, we were struck by a rather unfortunate event yesterday, but you'll be relieved to hear that the situation has been contained, and you are safe to leave the common room."

"What happened?" A student called out. "Was it the Orange Madness?"

"Well -" Slughorn looked slightly uneasy, and the lighting of the dungeon gave his complexion an almost sickly look. "Yes, I'm afraid it is."

The Slytherins burst out in fearful concern and questions all at once, many of them demanding to know what was to be done. Slughorn appeared overwhelmed, looking like a portly penguin in the face of a hoard of ravenous predators. He raised his palms up as he attempted yet again to calm the students.

"Now, now," he said, with a slight tremulous note to his voice. "No need to get so worked up. Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey have assured us that the problem is well in hand. No one has been seriously injured, and the infected student has been placed in a magical quarantine, which, as I'm sure you all know, cannot be penetrated by any pathogens. Hogwarts has always prided itself on being one of the safest places in Britain, and that remains as true as ever."

The students asked several more questions, which Slughorn did his best to answer. But in the end, even if they did not feel entirely safe, they knew they couldn't remain in the Slytherin dungeons forever.

Slughorn's information convinced several of the students that it would be worthwhile to leave the dungeons and visit other parts of the castle. Wanting to know how Hermione, Caiside and Ginny were doing, Callidus and Harry decided that they would venture out. It was better than being cooped up in the common room with a bunch of scared and paranoid Slytherins.

They searched the Great Hall first, which was much emptier than usual, and in the end, they found Hermione and the other two girls in the library.

"We should have just searched the library first," Harry opined.

"Yes," Callidus agreed. "But - walking around the school at least gave us a sense of the general mood. It's a bit startling to see how quickly the fear and distrust has spread. Though I suppose their fears are warranted."

They walked up to Hermione's table, and pulling up some extra chairs, they sat down.

"I'm so relieved that you two are all right," Hermione informed them after they all said their greetings. "After we got separated in the entrance hall, I was afraid that you might have been injured in the crowd."

"There's a lot of people in the infirmary because of it," Ginny piped up. But when she realized that her comment had caused everyone's eyes to fall on her (or more specifically, Harry's eyes), she turned a bright beet red and stared down at her hands, letting her hair fall across her face like a curtain.

"How do you know?" Harry asked, doing his best to ignore Ginny's abashed behaviour.

"A lot of people didn't end up returning to our common room," Caiside told him, when it was clear that Ginny was now too shy and embarrassed to answer.

"It caused a lot of panic in Gryffindor Tower," Hermione explicated. "People thought that the person who had been infected by the Orange Madness had injured all the missing people. There was - well - an outcry about it. Professor McGonagall had to explain that the infected student had really only minorly hurt two people, and the rest of the injuries were due to the crowd. But that wasn't until later."

"A couple of the older girls claimed that they saw someone falling and being trampled," Caiside added. "It sounded horrible. And people were tripping and falling on the stairs, and such."

"Trampled?" Harry echoed, aghast.

Hermione nodded, looking upset. "I know. It's horrible, isn't it? I never thought I'd hear of something like that happening here at Hogwarts. It was made worse by the fact that it happened around noon, and so many people were in the Great Hall. It just exacerbated the situation."

"That and all the confusion," Caiside agreed.

"And now no one seems to dare associate with anyone in the other Houses," Hermione added.

"Have any of you tried speaking to any of the other students?" Callidus wondered.

The three girls shook their head. "No," Hermione answered, "But we've heard some of the other students talking about it. Especially the students who have boyfriends or girlfriends in one of the other Houses. There is apparently a lot of hostility."

"From what I've heard, the Ravenclaws aren't as bad, but apparently the Hufflepuffs have really closed up," Caiside elaborated. "They say that the student who was infected was a Hufflepuff."

Callidus hummed. "Yes, from what I remember seeing, I thought it might have been a Hufflepuff that started attacking the other students."

Caiside raised her eyebrows. "You actually saw it? It got chaotic so fast that none of us saw anything. And by the time we were up the stairs the crowd was too thick to know what was going on."

"I didn't see much," Callidus admitted. "Just someone with brown hair attacking another student."

"Ahh." Caiside and the rest of the group fell silent, lost in their own thoughts.

"What d'you reckon would happen if the situation got worse?" Harry asked, his expression troubled. "Would they close down the school?"

Hermione frowned. "I believe they would have to. If the situation got severe enough, I don't see how they'd be able to contain it. Especially with so many people confined to one structure, even if it is an immense structure."

"Merlin," Harry muttered. "I hope it doesn't come to that."

The rest of the group nodded their heads in agreement. It was a terrifying thought.

That evening, many of the Slytherins who had left for Samhain returned, but not all of them. Callidus and Harry wondered whether Draco would be one of the students who would return; Narcissa Malfoy was extremely protective of her son after all. It would have been strange to not see Draco again, and both Callidus and Harry were surprisingly relieved when Draco finally enter the common room. Despite the dark mood in Hogwarts, seeing their friend/brother lightened both their moods.

"Draco!" Harry called out brightly when he spotted the blond, who walked over to their spot in the common room, and flung himself on the sofa next to Harry.

"Merlin!" Draco expressively exhaled. "I can't believe someone was infected with the Orange Madness while I was gone. No one seemed to know anything except that it was either a muggleborn or half-blood, and that they were one of the younger students. There were so many conflicting rumours. Is it true that there's over twenty people in the infirmary?"

"Uhh - I don't think so," Harry answered. "But no one knows for sure. But most of the injuries were because of the crowds."

"Oh. I thought they had been viciously mauled or something," Draco admitted. "My mother didn't want me to come back, but I told her I wanted to, and in the end, my father sided with me. Thankfully. I told her that if it gets bad enough, I'll return to the manor anyway. And you two should come with me if it happens. There's no way I'd leave Hogwarts again without you."

"You sounded rather panicked in your letters," Callidus remarked, a small smile tugging at his lips.

Draco scowled. "Well, why wouldn't I be? You're my friends - well - brothers."

Harry grinned and nudged Draco's shoulder with his own. "It's just nice to know that you care. Besides, we care about you too."

Draco flushed pink all the way to the tip of his ears.

Callidus snickered. "You're embarrassing him, Harry."

"I'm not embarrassed," Draco protested. "Well - I'm embarrassed for you two for being such - such girls about the whole thing."

Callidus and Harry exchanged glances before smirking. But both of them were glad that Draco was back and no longer acting like a prickly bundle of wounded pride.

"Anyway, how was your Samhain?" Harry inquired. "They cancelled the Hallowe'en feast here. But the house-elves brought food to the common room so at least I still got to have my treacle tart."

Draco proceeded to tell them about his Samhain in rather elaborate detail, describing how it was so much better than any muggle tradition could hope to be. Callidus and Harry just made polite noises of agreement. But eventually, Draco changed the topic and Callidus perked up with interest.

"There were quite a number of my father's associates visiting, so news didn't reach us until we had finished the main ceremony," Draco told them. "It was quite a surprise when owls began to show up carrying letters from Hogwarts. That's how we found out about someone being infected with the Orange Madness, by the way. After my father heard about the stuff that's been happening at Hogwarts, he later mentioned that he's drafting up a new bill."

"A new bill? About what?" Callidus asked.

Draco shrugged. "Something about muggleborns. I wasn't really paying attention."

Callidus frowned. "You weren't paying attention. Why did you even bring it up then?"

"I wasn't paying attention because it was boring," Draco said defensively. "Besides, I had other things on my mind, like whether the two of you were still alive. And I thought I'd bring it up because of how much good my father's last bill did."

Callidus arched his brow. "So you just wanted to brag about your father."

Draco shot him an irritated look, but before he could say anything, Harry spoke. "The Orange Madness hasn't actually killed anyone."

"Yet," Draco added pessimistically.

"You don't remember anything your father mentioned about this bill he's writing?" Callidus prodded.

Draco huffed. "I don't remember much. There might be something like a - hm - list or something."

Callidus frowned. "A registry?"

Draco made an impatient noise. "Something like that. I think. I don't know - why don't you just ask my father yourself if you're so interested?"

"Frankly, I'd rather not. If it is a registry -" Callidus knit his brows, "hm. The idea is a bit disturbing." Callidus found himself thinking about Dumbledore and how the old man had spoken about people being demonized and turned into scapegoats. Surely it wouldn't go that far, would it? And yet, Callidus could see it happening.

"What's so bad about keeping track of people on a list?" Draco scornfully questioned. "If it keeps us safe, isn't that more important? I think my father knows what he's doing."

"I'm sure he does," Callidus drawled.

"How does people being on a list keep anyone safe?" Harry pondered. "What kind of list would it even be?"

"I don't know! I really wasn't paying that much attention!" Draco exclaimed.

"Would they only be keeping track of victims? Or would it be broader, such as tracking muggleborns?" Callidus mused.

Harry raised his eyebrows. "A list to track muggleborns? But they know that the disease doesn't only affect muggleborns - there's been several half-bloods infected too."

"Yes, but there are people out there who would be all too happy to know where each and every single muggleborn in Britain is," Callidus pointed out. "It wouldn't surprise me if they used the fear that this disease has generated to try and push through a registry like that."

"What would they even do if people's names were on a registry?"Harry asked.

Callidus's expression became pensive. "Well, after Hermione told me about the last major epidemic in 1918, I started reading a bit about it. For a time - almost a decade, I think - they put all known squibs on a list. When the epidemic became more severe, people found out where the squibs lived, and would cast hexes and curses at them, or use spells like bombarda or other blasting and exploding curses to damage their homes. People tried to forcibly remove squibs from wizarding society. And not only that, but their children were harassed as well. Squibs couldn't find work anywhere, and weren't permitted into shops. It was - well - a bad time to be a squib."

Harry blinked. "Wow. That's -" he frowned, "- awful. Really terrible."

Draco scowled. "I'm sure they don't mean to do that. It's probably just going to be a list of people already infected."

"Frankly, I don't think they should even be making a list at all," Callidus opined. "They're better off focusing on just finding the cure."

"Yeah, but until then, they need a way to keep people safe," Draco answered stubbornly.

Callidus could tell that Draco wouldn't be swayed - especially since Draco tended to think that his father could do no wrong. Not wanting to cause conflict so soon after Draco returned, Callidus shrugged and changed the topic. As Draco had said, he hadn't really been paying attention to what his father was saying. There was no sense getting worried if it turned out to be nothing.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews/favs/follows!