Werewolf?
Lily and Drew were only half way through their first game of exploding snap when the school healer walked through the main doors, returning from her talk with the headmaster.
Both children froze. They were not sure whether Drew was supposed to be in the Hospital Wing. As they sat there in silence looking straight at Madame Pompfrey, the healer stared straight back.
Lily broke the silence first. "I'm sorry, he came in and visited and then we got caught playing games"
The healer's face broke into a small smile. "It's quite alright Miss Samuels, patients in the ward are allowed visitors but i suggest you do not start a new game after the one you are involved in now as there is not much time left before I must have Mr Williams leave for curfew"
Both first years nodded and turned back to their game. Clearly they didn't have too much time left before Drew would have to leave for his dormitory, but that didn't need to pull down the excitement of the game they were playing.
Hoping to be sneaky and maybe get if not a whole game in but at least the start before the school nurse decided it was time to go, Drew decided he might introduce the basics of Gobstones to his new friend.
He hadn't even started explaining the game before Madam Pomfrey came back into the room, startling Lily who had been holding a gobstone and causing it to fly from her grip and roll across the room.
"I told you Miss Samuels to finish that game and pack up. So what is this? Another game" she said in a stern voice. "Please pack up and say goodbye before i lose my patience." And with that she left the room once more.
Lily, letting out a frustrated sigh climb out of the bed and walked over to the rouge gobstone. It had rolled quite a far distance. It was now over near the windows of the Hospital Wing that looked out into the grounds and was bathed in the light of the moon that was now high in the sky.
"It's a weekend" Drew exclaimed. "You'd think we'd have a later curfew".
"It's beautiful" was the reply.
Drew's eyebrows knotted in confusion. That wasn't exactly the type of reply he was after.
"You think curfew is beautiful?" he asked turning to face her near the window. The gobstone was already in her hand but now she was standing right at the window bathed in moonlight staring out at the moon.
"No, the moon is beautiful" She said. She turned to face him. "Don't you think?" She turned back to look out the window.
Drew shook his head. His mind had to be playing tricks on him. She had only looked at him for a second so it was clearly a trick of the light.
"Lily" he said. "Can you look at me please?"
"Why?" she asked. But she still turned around and faced him with a smile on her lips.
Drew gasped in shock and looked at Lily in fear.
"What's wrong Drew?"
Drew didn't answer her. "MADAM POMFREY !"
The healer rushed in with such a speed, it seemed likely that the healer was already on her way back in to check if they had cleaned up.
"What is it Mr Williams?" she inquired.
The boy just point at his friend.
Madam Pomfrey followed his arm and her sight rested on the girl who had been rushed into her ward only hours ago.
She gasped as well.
"What's going on?" Lily asked panic twisted in her voice.
"Your eyes" The healer's voice quivered. "They're gold"
"What does this mean?" Drew asked.
"It means that the werewolf did more to Lily then we first thought"
"You mean she is a werewolf?" Drew panicked.
"I'M A WEREWOLF?!"
"Mr Williams can you please go to Professor Dumbledore's Office and tell him to come to the Hospital wing please the password for his Office is Cotton Candy and please return to your dormitory"
Drew nodded and bolted out the door completely forgetting the bag he brought full of wizarding games.
The healer then turned to Lily.
"Miss Samuels can you please return to your bed and do not leave the bed or the Ward, we need to figure out what has happened."
Lily was panicking. "But i can't be a werewolf. It didn't bite me. It didn't even scratch me!"
"Please Miss Samuels"
Lily complied but in a shaky matter. She was definitely panicking and perhaps showing signs of shock.
The healer pulled a potion from the pocket of her robe.
"Here dear drink this it's a calming draught"
Unlike earlier Lily took the potion with no fuss and downed it without a sound.
She calmed down a large amount, but her eyelids became heavy.
"What did you give me?" she slurred
"I gave you a calming draught Miss Samuels" The Healer answered.
Lily's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped onto her bed, dead asleep.
"Laced with a sleeping draught" Madam Pomfrey finished once she knew the girl wouldn't hear her.
Things were definitely not right here. Lily was showing symptoms of being a werewolf, yet when she was brought in earlier she did not have a bite mark on her nor a scratch. Madam Pomfrey really needed to talk to Dumbledore now.
Harry was sitting in front of the common room fireplace not paying much attention to others around him. He was starting to get a bit worried. He knew Lily had detention today but surely she would have been back by now. It was way past dinner time, and dinner time was suppose to be when she finished, but she never came to the meal.
So he sat there in a chair by the fire that looked directly at the portrait hole, so he wouldn't miss her coming in. He had probably been sitting there for a while now, if the amount of wizard chess games Ron had gone through with some of the others in the room. Harry himself had been asked to play, and he would have for it looked interesting because the pieces moved themselves, but he couldn't concentrate enough to learn the game.
Then something happened Harry didn't think was allowed. A Ravenclaw student walked into the Gryffindor Common room. It was that boy Lily had sat next to in Transfiguration yesterday. What was his name again? Well whatever it was he was the twin to the girl sorted into Gryffindor.
He was clearly out of breath as if he had been running around the entire castle.
"What are you doing in this common room?" asked Percy, "How did you learn our password"
"Professor Dumbledore told me" The boy explained, "I've been sent to get Professor McGonagall"
Percy nodded and walked out of the Common Room for only a few moments before he re-entered followed by the Head of Gryffindor.
"What's the matter Mr Williams?" The Professor asked.
"It's Lily Samuels Miss, She was attacked before dinner and now something is happening to her that Professor Dumbledore said to ask you to go to the Hospital Wing."
"Very well, thank you Drew" With a sort few seconds McGonagall was out of the Gryffindor common room and out of sight.
In a matter of seconds the words Drew had said had processed through Harry's mind and he shot up into standing position. "Hey Drew" he called out. The boy turned to face him so he walked towards him.
"Did you just come from the Hospital wing?" Harry asked.
The Ravenclaw first year nodded.
"Can you take me there?"
"Sure" said Drew. "Come on I know a quick way of getting there"
As Drew began to leave the Common Room, Harry ignored the call from Ron for a game of chess and quickly followed Drew outside. Harry had heard about the Healer within the school's hospital wing and was told she can mend things in a heartbeat. So to have Hogwart's Headmaster and Gryffindor's Head of House to be rushing to the Hospital Wing, clearly things were much worse. He needed to get there quick.
It had taken a fair few minutes to reach the Hospital Wing but now Harry stood right outside the big doors that had his best friend just on the other side.
He wasn't quite sure what he was to do. Should he knock or just walked straight in. When he thought about it barging right in seemed quite rude. So instead he raised his arm up, balled his hand into a fist and banged his knuckles against the door.
The sound rebounded all along the wall surrounding him and left leaving an eerie silence behind. It wasn't a long wait for Harry and Drew; who remained beside him, before the school's healer opened the door slightly and peered down at them.
"Mr Williams I thought i told you to return to your Dormitory" she stated sternly.
The boy gulped in fear of the Healer's tone.
"Yes Madam Pomfrey you did but Harry here asked me to bring him here"
Madam Pomfrey's gaze turned towards Harry. "Are you ill Mr Potter?"
"No Miss, Lily's my best friend I wanted to see if she was alright"
"I'm afraid visiting hours are over Mr Potter and even if they weren't I could not allow you into my ward as we are still working on what is wrong with Miss Samuels"
Harry's face dropped. He wasn't going to get to see her tonight and see if she was alright. Madam Pomfrey must have seen the green eyed first year sadden in disappointment as her facial features relaxed into a sympathetic gaze.
"Perhaps Mr Potter," she said, "If you wish to see your friend you may come by tomorrow afternoon on your way to dinner. Perhaps by then we shall know all the answers to what is wrong with Miss Samuels and she may then also be up to visitors."
Harry nodded slightly more elated then before, Drew however hadn't utter a single word or showed movement since his reply to the healer.
"That's all I can do for you now Mr Potter, because right now I must return to my patient. I would also suggest that yourself and Mr Williams head off to your respected dormitories as it is going on past your curfew. Good night boys."
"Good night Madam Pomfrey" the boys replied in unison and then parted in the direction of their sleeping arrangements.
Once seeing the boys disappear around corners, Madam Pomfrey let out a light sigh before closing her ward doors for the night and headed off towards her patient that was turning out to be quite a mystery.
When Lily had woken up from her potion induced sleep, she was glad to say she was no longer panicking about the werewolf situation. Instead she was quite angry at the fact that Madam Pomfrey had drugged her with something she wasn't told about, that and she was getting bored – easily and fast.
The school's headmaster, Gryffindor's Head of House and the School Healer were chatting away above her as if she wasn't even in the room. They were muttering about the full definition of what turns one into a werewolf and from she had read in wondering with werewolves, you had to be fully bitten to obtain the lycanthropy yourself. Yet it wasn't like she was going to be able to say this to the adults in the room. They were still muttering on to each other but Lily had come to zone them out and turn her attention to something else. Perhaps it was time that she tuned into the conversation going on about her.
"I don't understand how she can show signs of a werewolf but show no signs of a bite." Professor McGonagall said.
"It's not something I am familiar with myself either" agreed Dumbledore, which seem to shock the other two adults in the room.
"I don't quite know myself" Madam Pomfrey muttered. "Perhaps i need to have a word with Remus about this."
Lily's head shot up and without a second thought she interrupted the conversation.
"Remus? You mean Remus Lupin?" she asked.
"Yes my dear" answered Dumbledore. "Remus is quite an expert on werewolves, we think perhaps he might be able to explain what has happened."
"When will he be coming?" Lily asked bubbling with excitement.
"I will send for him to come tomorrow afternoon, perhaps around the school's dinner?"
The two Professors in the room seemed to agree and without another single word said, Dumbledore and McGonagall turned on their heels and left the ward at the same speed they had entered a short while ago.
"Now Miss Samuels, I need you to get some more sleep. It's been quite an eventful day" The healer informed.
Remembering what had occurred earlier with the potions Lily had taken, the girls facial features darkened slightly into a glare.
"I'm not tired after you tricked me and drugged me"
The healer returned the glare with one of her own. "I would suggest you try and go to sleep or I will be forced to administer another sleeping potion to you"
The first year Gryffindor huffed.
"This wasn't how I planned my weekend to be" she mumbled.
"This isn't the kind of weekend I was looking forward to either Miss Samuels, but beggars cannot be choosers. Now please get some sleep. I will be extinguishing the lamps in this room now and will be retiring to my own quarters. I expect to find you asleep in that bed tomorrow morning when I return to check on you, is that clear?"
"Crystal" the eleven year-old glared back.
Madam Pomfrey shook her head.
"You're going to be trouble the entire time you attend Hogwarts I just know it. You couldn't even get through the first day without landing yourself in trouble. I'd hate to see what you can do with seven years." And with that she darkened the room by blowing out all the lamps with a quick swish of her wand, and mere seconds later she had closed to doors to her quarters and locked them with a sound click.
Lily waited a few minutes before she dared even move and inch. When she decided that it appeared that the Healer would not be coming back into the ward, Lily quietly slunk out from under the covers of the hospital wing bed and had her feet come in contact with the stone floor. Tip toeing as lightly as she could, The brunette girl moved towards the large doors that lead out into the hallways of the school. She grabbed the handle firmly and gave it a light tug. LOCKED!
"Miss Samuels, That better not have been you trying to exit the Hospital Wing" came Madam Pomfrey's voice from within her quarters.
Lily knew similar statements to that all too well. Generally it meant that the person - mainly an adult, was just on the other side of door and were about the quickly swing the door open to bust someone in the act of opening a door or in this case leaving when they weren't supposed to.
With quick movements, Lily bolted to the bed she had just momentarily left ducked under the covers and tried to appear as though she had been there in that bed the entire time. Luckily she did, because just as she suspect seconds later, the doors to the Healer's quarters opened up to reveal Madam Pomfrey, waiting to bust Lily standing by the door.
She glanced at the door, then glared at Lily.
"Boy aren't you lucky. Keep in mind if I see even a toe touching the ground next time I check on you there is going to be explaining."
Lily must have appeared to be confused as the Healer explained further.
"That's right Miss Samuels, at various times in the night I might just decide to come in and see if you are still in that bed."
The school healer watched the girl's face turn from one of confusion to one of complete innocence.
"Don't try anything Miss Samuels, for you may never know, I might have a monitoring charm on you that tells me if you ever try to leave your bed"
With a stern look on her face, Madam Pompfey turned back towards her quarters and shut the doors behind her, leaving Lily in a somewhat now darker room - now that there was no moonlight, with thoughts rattling through her mind.
Did Madam Pomfrey really have a monitoring charm on her? Was there even such thing as a monitoring charm? Really? A monitoring charm?
Lily decided not to try her luck anytime soon as the past few events showed evidence that perhaps luck wasn't on her side for the time being. So for the best, Lily just snuggled further down into bed and closed her eyes.
It did take a while before she really did drift into her subconscious, but before she did her last thought was, Why is Remus such an expert on werewolves?