After a lavish Christmas dinner, with turkey, honey-glazed carrots, roasted potatoes Yorkshire pudding, and a decadent dessert of classic Christmas pudding, Remus and Romulus departed back to their flat. Sirius had fallen asleep on the sofa (being woken early had left him feeling completely worn out once Remus left). Rosie and Harry were on the floor of the parlour, trying to decide what to name the Kukulkan. Though Rosie felt apprehensive about the feathered serpent, Harry seemed to be himself. When he had first held the Kukulkan, and Rosie felt the enveloping blackness in the link between them, she had almost been tempted to take back the feathered serpent and return it to Magical Menagerie. Whether it lived or died, she did not care at that moment - she could not help but think that she had made a horrible mistake. Yet, the blackness did not fully manifest. Just as in the pet store, it left as quickly as it came.
Harry did not seem to notice anything unusual or different. She could hear him hissing at the Kukulkan, telling him what a beautiful creature he was. The Kukulkan was content to entwine himself in a loose coil around Harry's neck.
"What is your name?" Harry hissed softly.
"I do not have one yet," the Kukulkan replied. "What is your name, young Godling?"
Rosie and Harry shared a bewildered look. 'Young Godling?' Where in the world did the Kukulkan come up with such an idea? The word Godling was suggestive of power. Perhaps that was just another way the feathered serpent described wizards.
"Why do you call me a Godling?" Harry asked. The Kukulkan looked at Harry as though he couldn't believe the boy would ask such a foolish question.
"It is what you are. It is what I am as well," the feathered serpent responded. "We are well matched, you and I."
Harry had no idea what to say to that. Instead, Rosie and Harry decided they would try and find a suitable name for the Kukulkan. They listed a number of names, trying to get a sense of what the serpent might like, but he rejected all their suggestions. In the end, they started selecting books out of the Black library, finding increasingly archaic names. Eventually, Harry found the name Sephtis in an old historical text, and the Kukulkan seemed to test the sound with his tongue.
"Sephtis - yes - that will do," the Kukulkan hissed with contentment. Rosie and Harry's eyes met and they breathed a sigh of relief. It felt as though they had been looking at names for hours, and both of them had been worried that they wouldn't find a name that night.
They went to bed that night, sated from the rich meal, and fell asleep quickly and easily in their familiar bedrooms, surrounded by their numerous toys and new gifts. It had been so long since Harry had had a nightmare than when Rosie was jolted awake in the middle of the night, she felt completely disoriented and confused.
"Harry?" Rosie murmured tiredly, and peered towards the window, trying to get a sense of the time. Oddly, the sky was a strange blackish red, but Rosie did not give it much thought. She pulled aside the covers, and climbed out of her bed. Quietly, she crept towards the door, and for some odd reason, the door wasn't where she expected it to be. In fact, the whole layout of her bedroom looked wrong.
"Merlin's beard!" Rosie muttered in frustration, when she felt another jolt of intense fear through her link with Harry.
"Harry!" she called out with concern. Suddenly, she seemed to be in the corridor, and the gas lamps kept flickering on and off in uneven intervals. The wallpaper looked extremely shabby - she could see parts that were peeling off, revealing molding patches underneath. The carpet under her feet was extremely threadbare, and it felt like every time she turned a corner, there was yet another bend along the way. When she looked behind her, the gas lamps seemed to have burnt out, and there was only a thick and heavy blackness that pressed at her back. A shiver ran down her spine, and she felt another stab of terror mixed with helplessness through the link.
"Harry!" Rosie cried out again. "Where are you?" She found herself descending a flight of stairs, and then another. It felt as though she was climbing downwards, and downward into the bowels of the earth itself. Suddenly, there was a black door to her left, that seemed too warped to fit its frame. She pulled it open, and entered the room. Usually when she wanted to find Harry, she could use the strength of their empathic link, but for some reason, the link felt equally strong (or weak) all around. She was badly disoriented - Harry somehow felt like he was everywhere and nowhere at once.
Behind her, she heard a loud thump and she jumped. The warped door had slammed shut. She looked forward. She was in some strange, tunnel-like space. The walls here were of the same, peeling, rotting wallpaper, but the ceiling was low, and the ground beneath was cold, damp stone. For a moment, she thought she heard a voice in the walls, saying "Must tear….must rip….must kill….." but instead of feeling sympathy for the creature in the walls, she felt afraid and started running.
She couldn't tell where she was going, or where she even was, and Harry's terror was mingling with her own. She was turning yet another bend when a cold hand reached out and grabbed her by the arm, causing her to lose her balance, and fall backwards. She screamed in terror, but she heard a familiar voice saying: "Shh! Rosie! It's me, Harry!"
"Harry?" Rosie asked, scanning her brother's face as though trying to confirm that it really was him. Harry looked strangely tired, and faded. His hair was messier than she had seen it in a long time, and his cheeks were hollow.
"It's not safe here," Harry was saying, peeking behind his shoulder into the dark abyss that lay behind him. "I'm not alone here. It's coming."
"What's coming?" Rosie asked, frightened. "Who's here?"
"You have to help me," Harry begged, his grip painfully tight on her arm. Harry was peeking over his shoulder again, and this time his eyes widened in terror. She could see nothing in the darkness, but she could feel something - something darker than the darkness itself.
"You have to help me!" Harry cried again. "Help me or I'll never be able to leave! I'm not alone, Rosie. I'm not alone!"
Rosie was about to ask Harry what he meant, when his eyes suddenly went blank, and his mouth fell slack. He dropped to his knees, and then collapsed on the floor, unconscious.
"Harry!" Rosie screamed, and suddenly, feeling like she was pulled through a dark tunnel, she found herself panting, and awake in her bedroom.
"Harry?" Rosie murmured, and her voice was a tired croak. Had it all been a dream? She tried to feel him through the link, but she could not seem to detect anything. However that could mean he was asleep. Her heart was pattering frantically in her chest, and ignoring the chill air, she thrust aside her blankets, and crept into Harry's room.
Her brother seemed to be sleeping, and when she touched his arm, his warmth and solidity convinced her he was alright. She felt something cold slither over her fingers, and jolted back, only to realize it was Sephtis.
"I guard him now," the feathered serpent hissed.
Rosie frowned. "He's my brother." Sephtis did not seem to think that this deserved a reply. Rosie could not help huffing in irritation. She was starting to really regret purchasing the Kukulkan.
"Don't let anything hurt him," Rosie scowled.
"Fear not, weak one. So long as I am with him, I shall not let any harm come to him," Sephtis replied. Despite the conviction in the feathered serpent's words, Rosie did not feel particularly assured. As she crept back to her bedroom and into her own bed, she found herself thinking 'Sephtis might be able to guard him against outside dangers, but can he protect Harry from himself?' She fell asleep, before fully comprehending the import of those words.
When Rosie woke up the next morning, she was left with a bad feeling in her gut. She knew that she had had a bad nightmare, but all she could remember was dark, peeling corridors, a warped black door, and Harry collapsed on the ground. She kept thinking that there was an important detail that she was missing, but the memory refused to surface.
In the days after Christmas, Harry was often out of the house, visiting friends (or so he said). On many of these trips, Rosie noticed that the link between them would be completely blacked out, but Harry was usually back to normal once he returned. She found herself wanting to follow him, and find out what he was doing. One time she had even asked to come along when he was visiting Neville, but it turned out to be a remarkably ordinary visit. Frank and Alice Longbottom had made comments about how much she had grown, and asked her how she was liking Hogwarts, while Neville showed off all his Christmas presents (including an interesting magical plant that seemed to thrive on snow and ice).
The timing of Harry's black outs made Rosie extremely suspicious. While they had seemed random earlier in the year, they no longer seemed that way anymore. And alarmingly, even when the link wasn't blacked out, and Harry was 'himself,' he acted more distant than ever. There were moments when Rosie almost thought she sensed impatience in their link, when Harry was around her. However, she tried to convince herself that she was misinterpreting the situation.
Harry was also never without Sephtis - even when the feathered serpent hid himself under Harry's robes, she could often hear its soft hisses. Fortunately, in spite of Sephtis's haughty manners, he was accepting of Rosie, Sirius, and all of Harry's friends. The Kukulkan allowed himself to be petted and fawned over, and though he did not understand human speech, he seemed to understand when people were talking about how beautiful he was.
Once it was January, and time to return back to Hogwarts, Rosie wasn't sure if she felt relieved or upset. She knew that she would miss Sirius and miss home, but without classes to distract her, she felt like she spent far too much time obsessing about Harry. What made it worse was that she felt like she was not coming any closer to an answer. She would comb over all her new books on curses, hoping to find an account that seemed similar to what Harry was experiencing, but there were so many overlapping possibilities that Harry's curse could mean any number of things. Rosie would often think back to the nightmare she had, believing that the answer was somewhere there, and yet, it always slipped away.
When Harry and Rosie were on the train back to school, Rosie shared a compartment on with Luna and Romulus. Luna airily described her holiday, which mostly consisted of a painting that she was just starting to sketch out, for the ceiling of her room. Romulus was, of course, silent, and he spent the trip watching the passage of the landscape or reading one of his books.
The first week of January passed by in a blur, as the students scrambled to get back to the structure of their class schedules. Many of the students still seemed to be in holiday-mode, and the prospect of having to wake up early, or having to do homework was too drastic a change from spending the holidays lazing about. Of course, the Ravenclaws were better prepared than most of the other Houses - in fact, many of them had spent the holidays doing extra studying, which meant that the other Houses spent much of the first week, grumbling about swots who tried too hard.
Preoccupation with classes meant that for the first few weeks of January, the hex war had been largely forgotten. Certainly, there were some students who were eager to get it started back again, but most of the other students preferred to try and stay out of trouble. It was Hogwarts - trouble would likely come soon enough, whether the students sought it out or not.
Rosie was extremely grateful to be able to throw herself into her studies, and on top of her regular school work, she also continued her lessons in healing magic, and her training sessions with Romulus. Her preoccupation with school meant that when Toby threw his arm around her shoulder one day, and asked her how her holidays were, it threw her completely off guard. How had she managed to forget Toby?
"Oh! Hi - erm - Tobs," she said, trying to force herself not to wiggle away from him. "The hols were great. How about you?"
"Mm - quite well, thank you for asking, little one," he replied in his honey-smooth voice. "Did you get everything you hoped for, for Christmas?"
"Well, I didn't really have anything specific in mind that I wanted. It was nice to see family and friends. I'm sure you know how nice it is to be surrounded by genuine people who like you, don't you, Tobs?" Rosie asked sweetly.
"Of course, little one. You'd be surprised, how deep people's feelings can run when it comes to me," Toby replied.
"Ah - but there's a wide difference between deep positive feelings, and deep negative ones. Not to mention that it's nice to be able to be yourself around certain people."
"But what is the 'self' anyway, little one? It's not something tangible that one can hold. It's not something that magic can get a hold of, and isolate, so that we Ravenclaws can study it in great detail. I'm sure you've noticed that even the most steadfast souls aren't always consistent in their behaviour," Toby responded.
"And yet, what of the behaviour that flows naturally from a person without thought? What about those actions that make us feel like we are being true to what we are meant to be?" Rosie challenged.
"A person can be more than one thing. Hm, I just remembered - since you seem so fascinated with curses last month, I visited one of my relatives who happens to be a curse-specialist. We had quite the interesting conversation. I'd be glad to tell you all about it. Oh! Christopher is waving to me. I guess he wants to talk. Talk to you later, Sweet Rose!" Toby gave her a mocking smile as he joined his friends, and Rosie found herself wanting to call him back, and at the same time, relieved that he was gone. What could he have found out from his curse-specialist relative? She silently cursed Toby and his double-edged ways. It was interesting how Toby no longer scared her the same way he used to. He still made her uncomfortable, and she knew that he could still easily do her harm - all he had to do was show a hint of dislike towards her, and a majority of the Ravenclaws would turn against her. And yet, perhaps because she was starting to better navigate them game that they played, she felt more sure of her footing. However, Rosie wasn't too certain whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. It wasn't exactly a game she was willingly playing.
The holidays seemed to have left Rosie more careless than she realized. It was the second week of classes and she was on her way to the Come and Go room to meet up with Romulus for a training session. Her mind was distracted, thinking about her healing lessons. Most of what she was doing was still observation and theory work, but she was also learning to better interpret the basic diagnostic charm. She was growing accustomed to being able to temporarily sense the emotions of others, and she had helped Madam Pomfrey to deal with a number of homesick students in the first week. Without always consciously being aware of it, she would sometimes reach out her magic towards the student's emotions, and for some reason, if she wanted it badly enough, she could often sooth their unhappiness. Last week, her own homesickness made her very sympathetic to other students who were homesick. As a result she found her magic reaching out more often than not. However, she did wonder if the soothing effect she had on the patients was all in her imagination.
Her immersion in her own thoughts meant that she didn't have time to dodge when the red beam of light from the stunning spell hit her as she was climbing a staircase. Of course, she did catch a brief glance of it in her peripheral vision, but despite her instinctive reflexes to flinch away, she was too late. Her last conscious thought was a sense that she was glad she had been climbing up the stairs and not down.
"Rennervate," a familiar voice said, Rosie felt her consciousness returning. She opened her eyes only to find the third-years Marietta Edgecome and Sarah Kempston looking down at her with cold and slightly manic smiles. Both had their wands pointed at her, but Rosie was bound up with ropes. There was no wiggle room, and when she shifted, the ropes dug into her skin. It seemed the girls had decided to use the Incarcerous spell to prevent her from escaping. She didn't know what the girls had planned, and was feeling a bit sick, both from the stunner, and also from anxiety.
She was alone with the two girls in a nondescript corridor. There were no portraits in sight along this length of wall. Marietta and Sarah were Ravenclaws - they were hardly so stupid as to do whatever they were doing in plain sight. Rosie was sitting on the stone floor, her back propped against the wall. She kept squirming, but she was as tightly bound as an Egyptian mummy. The hardness of the stone floor and wall felt uncomfortable against her back, but she was more aware of the ache along the side of her arm and face when she had fallen on the stairs. It seemed like she probably only had bruises. Anything broken would surely feel much more painful.
"Looks like the little firstie is starting to realize her situation," Marietta said, with toothy smile that didn't reach her eyes. Even with the vindictive gleam in her eyes, Marietta was an incredibly pretty girl. With her reddish-blonde mane of curly hair, she looked almost like some pagan goddess of flame and fury. Why would someone like Marietta even stoop to doing something like this? Rosie couldn't help but think that Marietta could likely have any boy she wanted, so why did she care so much about Toby? Toby hardly seemed to pay her much attention, beyond his normal fake-nice smiles. The thoughts did little to calm her own uneasiness.
"Keep struggling, firstie," the brunette Sarah sneered. "You're not going anywhere. Besides, it's nice to see you squirm like the little worm that you are." Rosie noticed that Cho wasn't anywhere in sight. Was the girl keeping guard for her friends? Or did she take no part in this at all? Rosie knew that Marietta, Sarah, and Cho usually hung out together, but while Marietta and Sarah bonded over their obsession with Toby, Cho was more enamoured with the popular Cedric in Hufflepuff. Personally, Rosie thought that Cedric made a lot more sense. At least Cedric seemed genuine.
"How long have I been out?" Rosie asked. What she really wanted to know was whether anyone would have noticed her absence. She was supposed to be meeting Romulus in the Come and Go Room. If she didn't show up, would he try and find her? She didn't want to think too hard about being trapped alone with Marietta and Sarah. In her state of helplessness, the fear would quickly overwhelm her, if she failed to maintain calmness.
"Hrrmph. No one's going to come looking for you anytime soon, if that's what you're asking," Marietta informed her, her eyes glittering triumphantly. "We're going to make you regret your stupid little attention-getting act with Toby."
"We've been practicing our spells, just for you," Sarah added maliciously. "But as a Ravenclaw, I'm sure you know that something like the Incarcerous spell is a NEWT level spell."
If Rosie hadn't been so nervous, she would have been tempted to roll her eyes. The pair of girls had her tightly bound, and were heavily implying that they meant to do her harm. Despite that, they still felt the need to brag about their intellectual prowess? Obvious, they were true Ravenclaws to the core.
"I don't want Toby's attention," Rosie said, trying to keep her voice calm. She wasn't sure if she could talk her way out of this, but the best way to deal with Ravenclaws was with cold and hard logic. If Rosie could somehow make the pair of them see reason, then perhaps she could get out of the bind she was in. They were Eagles - they wouldn't go so far as to do something that could cause them to be expelled, could they? Rosie hoped not.
"I'm sure you two remember how Toby made fun of my friend Luna. I was just trying to get Toby to convince the other Ravenclaws to leave Luna alone. I don't even like Toby! Why would I want his attention?" Rosie tried to keep her voice low and soothing.
"Do you think we're stupid?" Sarah asked, her voice rising slightly. "You used to call him Woodbridge. What happened to that? Now he's Toby or - whatever disgusting nickname you call him. Who do you think you are, using his given name?"
"Not to mention that we always see you talking to him," Marietta added with frosty anger.
"I don't - well, Toby talks to me. I don't seek him out," Rosie replied. Sarah's rising voice made her palms sweat. She hated being so helpless.
"Toby would never seek out a stupid firstie like you!" Sarah exclaimed, her voice almost reaching the point where it would be called shrill.
"I -" Before Rosie could even defend herself, and tell her that Toby was just toying around with her, Sarah uttered the stinging hex, and Rosie felt a burning heat in her shoulder. Caught unaware, she cried out in surprise, but then gritted her teeth against the pain. She could feel the area starting to swell.
'It's just a stinging hex,' she thought to herself. 'Just a stinging hex. I can handle stinging hexes.'
Sarah's expression was still angry, and her wand hand trembled slightly, but Marietta was wearing a cruel smile.
"Look, Toby doesn't -" Rosie started.
"Shut up!" Marietta said coldly. "Don't talk to me about Toby. You don't even deserve to be in the same House as someone like him." This time it was Marietta who cast a hex, straight in the middle of her chest. She recognized the incantation - it was the burning boil hex, and Rosie felt boils breaking out under her skin. As the rising lumps pressed against the ropes, they popped and burned with a fiery intensity. Her chest felt sticky and hot from the horrible boils. The ropes seemed to exacerbate the negative effects, and she felt her skin swelling. Rosie didn't realize that she was whimpering, and she could feel a trail of wet tears down the side of her face. Her body wanted to tense up from the pain, but every shift caused the open boils to grind against the fabric of her robes and the coiling ropes. Both Marietta and Sarah were watching her with undisguised interest.
"I always wanted to try that one," Marietta murmured. She appeared to be fascinated by Rosie's pain, watching her face as though she did not want to miss a moment of Rosie's agony. Sarah's smirked, but with a touch of bitterness.
Despite the scalding sensation, Rosie forced herself to speak. "If - if this is just about Toby, I'd be happy to leave him alone. In fact -ugh -" she shuddered in pain. "I'll never speak to him again. Just - let me go -"
Marietta smiled, but the expression was disturbingly ghoulish. "Oh, we're not worried about that. Once we're through with you, Toby won't even want to speak to you."
"We'll show him just how worthless and stupid you really are," Sarah said, her voice acerbic. She seemed to lack Marietta's maniacal malice, and instead she acted with unconcealed enmity and resentment. She cast another stinging hex, right where Marietta had hit her with the burning boil hex. Rosie cried out and doubled over as the burning pain spread all through her torso. The heat even radiated out to her limbs, and she trembled. She was no longer propped against the wall, but had toppled and was now lying her side. Tears flowed freely from her eyes and she clenched her teeth until her jaw ached. She was afraid - afraid of how far these two girls would go. They hated her - but they wouldn't do anything that would get themselves expelled. At least, that's what Rosie tried to repeat to herself. 'They're Ravenclaws. Ravenclaws.' The mantra reminded her that Ravenclaws valued their education above all.
"How - how do you plan to get away with this?" Rosie asked, but it came out as a series of broken gasps, as the wet swelling skin pressed tightly against the ropes. Her entire body felt as taut as a harp string, but nothing she did could brace herself from the pain.
"You'll let us get away with it," Marietta told her, twirling her wand casually in her hand to give Rosie a sense of her composure. "After all, I'm sure you don't want anything to happen to your little Loony friend, would you? She has a habit of wandering around the school grounds on her own, doesn't she, Sarah?"
"I'm almost tempted to say that Loony's even stupider than this firstie," Sarah said, and even though it was unladylike and undignified, Sarah pulled back her leg and then kicked Rosie in the stomach. After all, the only witness was Marietta, and Marietta would never tell. Rosie opened her mouth to cry out, but the wind had been knocked from her and it sounded more like a gasping groan. She felt as though the kick had shredded her skin as more of the boils ruptured and flamed. Within her, was a deeper ache from the bruising of her organs. She was mewling like a baby, unable to maintain any dignity in the face of her agony. The pain was a mix of bright whiteness and then blackness behind her closed eyelids. She felt as though she were flickering in and out of consciousness. Her breaths were ragged - she was covered in a sheen of sweat. 'Please, someone help me,' she thought. 'Please.'
"Heh - that was more fun than I thought," Sarah smirked. Marietta looked at her friend appraisingly.
"What?" Sarah said defensively, noticing Marietta's look. "It was! It was - satisfying. It's not like we have to do everything with magic, you know?"
"Hm - well, I prefer my magic, thank you. I think it's a bit more refined," Marietta sniffed. "We're not boys or -" Marietta's face screwed up in disgust "muggles. We have magic for a reason Sarah."
"Muggles aren't that bad," Sarah replied with whining resentment. "My mother is a muggle. You've met her! You said you thought she was nice."
"Yes, yes, your mother was perfectly alright. But that doesn't mean that other muggles are," Marietta replied. Marietta looked down at Rosie. "Look at her. A couple of stinging jinxes, and a boil hex and she can't even take anymore. How pathetic." She spat out the last word, speaking the consonants in a sharp staccato.
Sarah snorted in agreement. She bent down over the girl, and said an unfamiliar charm that Rosie didn't recognize. A whimper of fear escaped Rosie's lips, and she tried to pull away. Sarah grabbed a fistful of her hair roughly and held her in place. Rosie's eyes strained and widened, as she tried to see what the girls intended to do. Sarah seemed pleased by her fear and began to wave her wand over Rosie's face, while giggling spitefully. Whatever Sarah was doing seemed to amuse Marietta as well.
"Put a charm on it so she can't remove it!" Marietta was saying. Sarah giggled again, and said another charm, waving her wand over Rosie's face. Though Rosie's heart was still racing, she was embarrassingly relieved that they had caused her no more pain.
"And as a final touch, Mimblewimble," said Marietta. "Now you won't even be able to speak. Ugh - I can spell the pus from the boils. Disgusting. Come on, Sarah, let's go. Let's see how long before anyone even finds her here." The pair of girls laughed, and then left together, both feeling extremely self-satisfied. It was a while before Rosie could no longer feel her heart racing, but that didn't stop the hot tears that fell from her eyes, nor her ragged, broken breaths.
It felt like an indeterminable wait, but eventually, Romulus found her. His expression almost seemed frantic as he came upon her, but Rosie decided she was imagining things in her pained state. Romulus was so stoic - she couldn't envision him being emotional over anything (except maybe pride over potions accomplishments). He cursed softly, when he saw the state she was in, and his eyes flashed with cold rage. Using diffindo, the severing charm, he cut away the ropes, and a shudder ran through Rosie's body as the the air hit the moist pus of the boils. Despite the murderous intent that showed on his face, his hand was gentle as he wiped away her tears with the edge of his robe. He asked who had attacked her and she tried to speak and explain what had happened. But as soon as she opened her mouth, her tongue curled backwards and the words failed to come.
Realizing that she was unable to talk, Romulus grimaced. It seemed he would have to take her to the infirmary. He reached his arms under her to lift her up. He moved with cautious care - he could smell the cursed boils on her skin, as well as the scent of pain and fear. Yet for all his gentleness, the feeling of the robes pulling and rubbing against her broken, swollen skin caused a pitiful mewl to escape her lips. Even the tongue-tying curse couldn't hold back her cries. A fresh trail of tears that streamed down her face. Aghast by the pain he caused her, Romulus attempted to set her back down.
"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, looking as though her plight were entirely his fault. She had never seen Romulus look so upset. She shook her head, and looked up at him, through red, pleading eyes. Romulus nodded in silent understanding and kept his gait gentle and even so as to not jar her, and brought her to the infirmary.
"Mr. Lupin?" Madam Pomfrey said. "Who have you brought - Oh dear - Miss Potter? Set her down, right there." The matron directed Romulus towards the closest bed. Romulus laid her down, but instead of pulling away, he rested a protective hand on her shoulder.
"What happened?" the madam asked, her eyes wide with alarm, and she whatever she saw on Rosie's face caused her to scowl with anger.
"I found her like this," Romulus replied. "She had also been bound up by ropes, but I removed them." He wasn't about to explain that he found her by following her scent, though in truth, all of the staff were aware that he was a werewolf. He had a good idea of who the culprits were, even though he could not get a confirmation from Rosie. He could smell Sarah and Marietta's scent in the area, and it was obvious that the two girls hated Rosie. Nonetheless, he wasn't about to reveal this. He would wait until Rosie could speak first, and leave it to her to decide. His concern for his friend ran deep but he still instinctively wanted to avoid being caught in the conflict of others. Especially since Toby knew his secret. He did find himself wondering if he could get away with cursing Marietta and Sarah in secret. They more than deserved it. At the moment, the most important thing was to make sure Rosie was well and safe.
"Miss Potter?" Madam Pomfrey said as she stood over her young pre-apprentice. Rosie opened her mouth, but once again, could not speak. Pursing her lips to refrain from cursing the culprits who had done this to one of the students, Madam Pomfrey cast a quick diagnosis charm. Her eyes narrowed as she realized what had happened. She uttered the spell to remove the boils, and quickly went to grab the appropriate potions and balms. Madam Pomfrey handed Rosie a phial, which Rosie quickly gulped down, and the pain quickly subsided.
"The tongue-tying curse will wear off on it's own soon enough, dear," the matron said gently. "As for - that - on your face -" the matron pursed her lips again, her eyes glittering angrily. "We'll have to find a way to remove that quickly." Madam Pomfrey waved her wand at the mark and muttered a charm, and then frowned. "Hm - even glamour charms won't cover it it. Well, in the meantime, some bed rest will do you good. I'll pull up the privacy curtains for you."
Now that the pain was gone, and her heart no longer racing, Rosie couldn't help but wonder what had been done to her face that that caused such a reaction. Whatever it was, it hadn't hurt, thank Merlin. But it seemed to amuse Marietta and Sarah greatly. Had they done something to make her ugly? Or had they somehow marked up her face?
Romulus, who had remained with her in the infirmary was standing by her bed, still resting a hand on her shoulder. He hadn't said much since he brought her here, and did not look like he planned to say anything more. Rosie gave him a nod in thanks, and he nodded back. She could see the worry in his eyes, and she smiled weakly. However, there was no reason for him to stay here with her. She glanced towards the exit of the infirmary, and tried to gesture with her hands that he could go. There was an odd, conflicted look in his eyes. However, he seemed to understand, and pulled away with what almost looked like reluctance.
As Rosie sat on the hospital bed with nothing to do, she found herself wishing that she had her bookbag with her. She usually didn't bring it with her to her training sessions with Romulus, and now, she found herself stuck with nothing to do. She didn't exactly want to think about what Marietta and Sarah had done to her. It had frightened her, but it also made her angry with herself for failing to be vigilant. The whole point of Romulus's training sessions was to ensure that she stayed sharp and on her guard.
Rosie also found herself feeling angry with Toby. While it had been Marietta and Sarah who had attacked her, she knew that their motivation to do so stemmed from Toby's behaviour. Of course, when she confronted Toby in the first place, she knew that she was bringing this sort of thing upon herself. It just irritated her that Toby seemed to encourage antagonism, even if he did not do it explicitly. Toby seemed to treat all the Ravenclaws as though they were his personal Wizard's chess pieces, except that instead of playing to win, he played to cause as much chaos and damage on the board as possible.
Madam Pomfrey seemed to realize that Rosie was probably bored, because she quickly came by with a stack of books for Rosie to read. She set the books on an end table by the side of the bed.
"I can see that you're wide awake, Miss Potter, and the physical damage that was done to you was hardly severe enough to warrant a long stay here in the infirmary. Still - it's best you remain here until I can find a way to remove those words on your face. Until I can be sure which charm was used, it's best to leave it, lest I make it worse. When you feel the tongue-tying curse wearing off, give me a call. I'll be in my office." Madam Pomfrey gave Rosie a reassuring pat on her hand. Rosie nodded in appreciation, and the matron smiled gently before pulling the curtain aside and wandering off.
'Words on my face?' Rosie thought to herself. It was probably some sort of insult. Rosie lifted up a hand, and touched her cheek and forehead, but felt nothing there. She scowled, wishing she had a mirror so she could see what the girls had wrote. It suddenly made sense, why the matron would pull up a privacy curtain for her - the words were probably either offensive, or personally humiliating.
Rosie grabbed the stack of books and set them on her lap, looking over the titles. It was a rather interesting selection of medical books, and of all of them, she had only read one. In the end, she decided to read one of the more theoretical titles. It was a book called Modern Understandings of Interaction of Magic and the Human Body.
As she looked over the table of contents, she noticed that the book addressed some of the very complex concepts that were still beyond Rosie's understanding. However, as soon as she read the introduction, she was soon engrossed in the book. The book addressed notions that skirted both the philosophy, spirituality and and the underlying basis of magic.
What is Magic? The book's introduction asked. How is it that some creatures have it and some none? What allows some objects to retain magical properties, while other objects are simply ordinary? Why, if magic can impact all matter, is not more prevalent in the world? And what is the impact of magic upon the human body? This books seeks to explicate on some of these fascinating concepts, in hopes that the reader might gain a deeper insight into the very nature of magic itself.
Magic is generally understood to be a natural phenomenon which at it's heart, is a type of energy. It is an energy which can be channelled by those who have the biological make-up which enables this type of energy to exist in the very cellular structure of certain organisms. It is also an energy that biological beings can imbue into inorganic objects. The question is, do magical beings create this energy within themselves, or do they somehow absorb it externally?
The most long-standing theories state that magic is itself, created in magical beings. Non-magical organisms absorb energy through other sources - sunlight or food - and convert this into usable energy for them to survive. Magical organisms may use the same initial sources of energy, but their cells are somehow more efficient, and not only can the create energy such as mechanical or thermal energy, but they are also able to create magical energy as well. This magical energy is stored within their body, until it is willed through one's intent to fulfill a particular purpose. The more powerful the witch or wizard, the more efficient their cells are, and the more magical energy they are able to store within their bodies.
All this leads to some interesting interactions between the magic within one's body, and the magic from the external world, which may seek to either aid or harm the organism. Cause-and-effect relationships, which may be very straightforward in a non-magical situation suddenly become extremely complicated once magic enters the equation. The human body itself is already highly complex, and with the addition of magic, the complexity increases exponentially. And yet, one of the most fascinating attributes of magic is it's relative simplicity of use: magic acts on the strength of will of the user. Though the very foundations of magical interactions may be challenging to understand, the application of magic itself for magical beings is as natural as learning to walk or speak. It may take longer for one's magical faculties to mature enough to be easy to use, and yet, for magical beings, this process is on some level, innate.
Rosie was interrupted from her reading as Madam Pomfrey peeked through the privacy curtains.
"Has the tongue-tying curse worn off yet, Miss Potter? Ah, you're reading about magical interactions with the human body? That's a particularly enlightening book. I remember when I first read it, I could hardly put it down. It was so long ago." Madam Pomfrey smiled sentimentally.
Rosie opened her mouth and attempted to respond to the matron. "I-i-it's in-n-teres-s-ting." She was finally able to get some sound out, but her tongue seemed to trip over the words. It was as though her thoughts raced far too ahead of her mouth, and she couldn't seem to articulate anything clearly. Rosie pursed her lips in annoyance.
"Don't worry, Miss Potter. That's perfectly normal. I'm glad to see that you're starting to be able to speak. In fact, there might well be a potion that may help your tongue to relax and move more easily. I'll have to ask Professor Snape to see if he has any in his personal cupboard. We don't often have the need for it, and unfortunately, it doesn't seem to keep very well, even under stasis spells."
The matron ambled off, presumably to call Professor Snape. Rosie found herself flexing and wiggling her tongue, and it did in fact feel strangely stiff and awkward. She was about to start reading again when Madam Pomfrey returned with Professor Snape in tow.
"Pr-pr-profes-"
"No need to strain yourself, Miss Potter," Professor Snape informed her. His eyes seemed to be immediately drawn to whatever was on her face, and his eyes narrowed. There was a dangerous glitter in his eyes, and Rosie felt a chill run down her spine.
"Who did this?" Professor Snape asked Madam Pomfrey, his voice soft and menacing.
"Unfortunately I haven't a clue," the matron replied matter-of-factly, not at all bothered by Snape's dark disposition. "Miss Potter was hit by the tongue-tying curse, as I told you. And Mr. Lupin who brought her in only told me that he found her in a corridor."
Professor Snape grimaced. "Five drops of the draught should do." He pulled a small dark phial from out of his robe pockets and handed it to Madam Pomfrey, who administered the potion to Rosie. The potion was much milder tasting than most, and before long, her tongue no longer felt as stiff.
"Better, Miss Potter?" the matron asked.
"I - I think so," Rosie replied. It felt a bit more effortful to be able to articulate clearly, but it was a significant improvement from before.
"Now, can you tell us who did this to you?" Madam Pomfrey asked. Rosie bit her lower lip guiltily and shook her head.
"I'm sorry - I can't," she replied, staring down at the books on her lap rather than meeting the matron's eyes.
"And whyever not?" Professor Snape asked, and when Rosie peeked up at him, he seemed to loom over her. Though she usually met his gaze, this time, she quickly looked away. She did not want Marietta or Sarah to do anything to harm Luna. Rosie had at least been training regularly, and the only reason she was this badly attacked was because she had failed to pay attention. Luna was intelligent and perceptive, but at the same time, she was also more vulnerable. It wasn't that Rosie worried that Luna was weak. It was simply that Luna had a greater sensitivity, and girls like Marietta and Sarah would surely exploit and try and destroy that part of Luna. Rosie knew she could never let that happen.
She forced herself to look up and meet Professor Snape's black eyes. "I just can't."
Snape's frown deepened. He recognized the stubborn set of her jaw. After all, he had seen the same expression on Lily's face more times than he could count. There would be no arguing with her.
Madam Pomfrey tutted. "I do hope you change your mind, child. If you ever need to talk, you know you can always speak to me, don't you?" The matron waited for Rosie's nod before continuing. "Now, do you remember what spells they used on your face?
Rosie furrowed her brows as she tried to recall. She told them an approximation of what it had sounded like.
"Are you quite sure?" Madam Pomfrey asked. "At least one of those charms is a charm that prevents removal of the other charm, and tampering with that type of charm often backfires, causing it to last even longer than it originally was spelled to."
"I'm pretty sure," Rosie replied. "But I was also mostly concentrating on trying to endure the - erm - discomfort."
"The discomfort - you mean the pain of the boil and stinging hexes?" the matron asked.
Rosie nodded and flushed. It was embarrassing to admit to. She had cried like a helpless baby. "It was worse because it - uh - was rubbing against the ropes that they had tied me up with."
Professor Snape's expression was extremely dark. The air around him almost felt as though it were crackling, and Rosie was reminded of thunderstorms. Though Madam Pomfrey had given him a rough summary of what had happened, it was still upsetting hearing it directly from Rosie's lips. He himself had been bullied badly at school, but during his time Lily Potter had been popular and well-liked. It seemed as though this wasn't the case for the young Rosie Potter.
Madam Pomfrey turned to Professor Snape. "Well, Professor? Do you think you'll be able to remove it?"
"I believe I can have a potion that can remove the marks by tomorrow evening. The second charm only prevents the marks from being removed externally, but a potion would work internally." Despite his roiling anger, Professor Snape's voice was calm.
"Excellent!" the matron exclaimed before turning to Rosie. "You can stay here until then, Miss Potter. One of your classmates can bring you your homework."
"Thank you," Rosie replied. Professor Snape nodded to her before he and the matron left.
Rosie returned to her book but only managed to read a couple paragraphs before Luna slipped past the privacy curtains.
"Hi Rosie," Luna said. "Romulus told me you were here. I brought your schoolbag, and your homework."
"Rom told you?" Rosie said with surprise. She grabbed her school as Luna handed it to her. "Thanks."
"Yes, I was rather surprised myself. I had been trying to have a conversation with a Birshmoop but he scared them all away. He looked really upset. It's rare for him to show it. Are you alright?" Rosie had been clearing the books off her bed, and setting them on the small table as Luna spoke. Once she had cleared a space, Luna sat on the bed.
"Yeah - Rom really doesn't show his feelings does he? Well, I'm better now. They used a tongue-tying curse on me, and I couldn't speak for a while. Professor Snape had to get me a potion because once I did start to speak, I was stuttering really badly." Rosie explained a bit more of what had happened, and Luna nodded sympathetically. She didn't reveal who had attacked her, but she had a feeling that Luna would know.
Luna kept her company through the late afternoon and early evening, and they did their homework together. Her friend also brought her the newest edition of The Quibbler.
"There's an interesting article on an ancient runic configuration that allows you to see multiple locations at once, as long as you leave the runic mark at those locations," Luna was telling her. Both Luna and Rosie found runes to be interesting, but Luna had far greater understanding of them. "I've been trying it myself to see if I can finally get a sighting of the Blibbering Humdinger. Unfortunately, the runes don't seem to work within the castle. They were designed to be used outdoors, to monitor vast territories from intrusions, and also for hunting."
Rosie listened with interest. If the runic configuration could be made to work in the castle, it would be incredibly useful. On the other hand, she could see how it would be dangerous. You would never know who was potentially watching you.
"The runes do seem to work under the lake though," Luna continued. "It's quite remarkable, what you can see down there. When you're allowed to leave here, I'll show you."
After Luna left, Rosie found herself wishing she had the invisibility cloak. Being trapped in the hospital wing for an entire day and night was incredibly boring. She resolved that once she could leave, she would keep the cloak inside her bookbag, rather than shut away inside her trunk.
A/N: I haven't been working on this story lately, but I'll keep posting what I have. I'm not certain that I'll finish it
