Alex jumped to her feet immediately upon hearing McGonagall. “WHAT?” she yelled. “Poisoned? What do you mean, poisoned? People don’t just get poisoned!”
Lily was dazed. “Poisoned…?” she asked timidly, but nobody heard her. She decided to let Alex take control of the talking for now.
“Miss Parker, control yourself, please,” McGonagall said sharply.
“Will she be okay?” Alex asked, blundering on despite McGonagall’s warning.
McGonagall sighed. “Well…I’m sure we’ll be able to cure her. Madam Pomfrey does, of course, have a wider knowledge of poisons than I do…rest assured, she will be fine in a week’s time.”
“So you don’t know?” Alex cried.
“Miss Parker!” McGonagall said. “One more outburst like that and I’ll have you in detention! Now, do not question me! Miss Michaels will be perfectly fine.” She straightened her robes.
“Do not worry about your friend,” came Dumbledore’s voice. Even now, it sounded faintly amused and when Lily looked up, the old man’s eyes were twinkling. It comforted her, seeing him so calm. “I have a few ideas of what’s going on here. I just need to perform a few spells to know for sure. In the meantime, we are going to take her down to the hospital wing. I advise you two to get some sleep.”
Lily nodded. Suddenly she was feeling very, very tired. She watched as Dumbledore levitated Cadrian’s body gently, and then he, Cadrian, and McGonagall left.
“Oh my gosh, Lily, what’s going on?” asked Alex, when the teachers had gone. “Is that the creepiest thing, or what? I wonder who did it. Oh my gosh, what about us? Are we next?”
“Uh…I don’t know,” replied Lily, answering all the questions at once.
Alex kept on chattering. “How’d they do it, anyway? I mean, how could we actually let somebody get away with something like that?”
Lily shrugged, and then said, as Alex’s mouth was opening again, “Let’s get some sleep, alright? We’ll talk in the morning.”
Luckily, Alex complied, climbing into her bed and pulling the covers up to her chin. “Good night,” she said, her voice floating to Lily’s ears from somewhere in the darkness. In just minutes she was fast asleep.
Lily didn’t fall asleep so easily. She closed her eyes and stayed perfectly still, but sleep would not come. She pounded her pillow, tossed and turned, kicked off her covers and pulled them back on. But still, an hour later, she was wide-awake.
Danielle, Jeniece, and Alex were all sleeping peacefully. Wait a second-were they? Now that Lily looked closely, she could see that Danielle’s bed was empty. Curiousity came over her. What if something had happened to her as well? What if there was some awful conspiracy going on to eliminate all of the Gryffindor first-years? Lily knew her imagination was over-reacting, but she slipped out of bed anyway.
Cautiously, she opened the dormitory’s door and stepped outside. The common room was mostly empty. On the far side of the room, two sixth- or seventh-years were asleep on a couch, the girl’s head lying on the boy’s shoulder. Lily silently crept past them.
Outside the common room, the corridor was drafty and pitch-black. The school was much more eerie now, at night, without all the hustle and bustle that normally consumed the halls. But Lily didn’t really care.
Where to go? She wondered, absently making turns left and right. She had no idea where Danielle would be, if she was even out here. And where was here, anyway? Lily realized with a jolt of panic that she was completely lost. Hogwarts was huge, and in the dark, it would be no small feat to find her way back to the common room.
And it was getting creepier and creepier by the minute, now that Lily thought about it. The shadows cast on the walls by the moonlight seemed twisted and sinister. The suits of armor lining the walls seemed ready to stab her at any second. And jeez, that stupid silence was by far the loudest that Lily had ever heard. Or was she just imagining all those noises?
Picking up speed, Lily kept going, not paying any attention to where her feet were carrying her. Left, right, left, left…was she even in Hogwarts anymore? If so, this castle was bigger than she thought, because she’d been running for quite a while now.
And then she heard voices.
Lily’s heart skipped a beat and her stomach curled in fear as she heard Lucius Malfoy’s distinct drawl. It was faint, but getting louder and closer with each passing second. Which way was he coming from? She stopped, straining her ears, but still couldn’t tell where Lucius was coming from.
“…Mark’s an idiot,” came Lucius’s voice from somewhere to the right. Lily whipped around. Now she could hear his footsteps, accompanied by another’s. She could also see where they’d enter the very corridor she was in. Before Lucius and the other person entered, she ducked behind a particularly rusty old suit of armor, trying to breathe shallowly and quietly.
”Is he coming?” asked the other person. As Lucius stepped into Lily’s view, so did his companion. It was Bellatrix.
“Yes,” replied Lucius. “I told him to meet us here, anyway. He thinks he’s getting paid, so he’ll show.”
They stopped a little bit away from Lily’s hiding spot. She wished her hair wasn’t so vividly red. Cadrian’s dark locks would do nicely here.
“I don’t like the school at night,” Bellatrix muttered, looking around warily.
“Oh, please, Bella. Act your age,” replied Lucius snottily. “There’s nobody around.”
“I feel like there is,” she insisted, craning her neck. Lily flattened herself against the wall as best as she could. Which wasn’t very well, considering her knees were drawn up to her chest. Luckily, Bellatrix didn’t notice her.
Lucius took a sweeping look around, too. Was it Lily’s imagination, or did his eyes linger an extra second on her hiding place? She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for Lucius to come over, yank her to her feet.
“Mark!”
The sudden noise made Lily’s eyes fly open. She looked over to the Slytherins. They’d been joined by a third person: a boy, about sixteen, whom Lily didn’t recognize. He was tall and burly with curly red hair.
“Hello, Lucius, Bellatrix,” said the boy, presumably Mark, strolling over with his hands in his pockets. “My payment?”
“Not so fast,” Lucius said curtly, wiping the smug look off of Mark’s face, which was replaced with anger. He opened his mouth to protest, but Lucius held up a hand. “We promised you twenty Galleons, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” said Mark, stepping forward aggressively.
Lucius calmly stepped backward. “But you poisoned the wrong kid, Mark,” he said.
Lily’s mouth fell open. They were talking about Cadrian!
“What? No, I didn’t,” he said, looking confused. “The Gryffindor first-year with the dark hair, you said. How many of those could there be?”
“Evidently, there are two,” Lucius said icily. “We want Sirius poisoned, you imbecile.”
It took a lot of self-control for Lily not to gasp. They wanted to poison Sirius! Why?
“Who’d I poison, then?”
“A girl. Cadrian something-or-other,” piped up Bellatrix. “A girl, you moron! Sirius isn’t a girl’s name!”
Mark shrugged. “You should’ve been more specific.”
“That’s beside the point,” said Lucius, holding up a hand to silence Bellatrix. “The point is, we’re not going to pay you until Sirius is poisoned. Make it soon.”
“But I can’t,” said Mark.
“Why not?” asked Bellatrix.
“I’m out of poison,” Mark explained. “I only made a little bit, because you told me you didn’t want the kid dead. And it takes about two weeks to make.”
“You don’t have any left?” asked Lucius.
Mark shook his head. “Sorry. No.”
“Two weeks?” snarled Bellatrix. “Two weeks? We can’t wait that long!”
“There is a way to speed up the process,” Mark admitted.
“Then do it,” said Lucius.
“I’ll need ten more Galleons for that, though,” Mark said. “Because I’d have to buy extra dragon blood, and that doesn’t come cheap.”
Lucius narrowed his eyes. “Fine.” He dug the money out of his pocket and let it fall into Mark’s outstretched hands, piling up with a soft clinking noise. “But make it as fast as possible.”
Mark nodded. “By this time next week, he’ll be out.”
“Good.”
Mark turned to leave. Bellatrix yawned. “Let’s go, Lucius. I’m tired.”
Yes, thought Lily. Go. Go. Her legs were cramping terribly, on fire from the crouching.
“I’ll be up in a second, Bella. Go without me,” Lucius said. “I have another, er, errand to run.”
Bellatrix yawned again and shrugged. “Fine, then. See you.” She took off, too.
To Lily’s horror, Lucius didn’t leave. Instead, he walked over to Lily’s hiding spot, stopped in front of her, and crossed his arms intimidatingly.
Lily, her heart pounding wildly, looked up at him.
“Get up,” he said, reaching down for her arm and yanking her to her feet. “What are you doing here? Eavesdropping?”
Lily was so scared, she could hardly breathe. She definitely couldn’t answer.
Lucius, still holding her arm, shook her roughly. “Don’t ever let me catch you eavesdropping again, you filthy Mudblood,” he hissed, his face just inches from hers.
“I won’t,” she whispered. She tried to shake her arm out of his grasp, but he wouldn’t budge.
“If you tell anybody what you heard tonight, I’ll make sure you’re next,” Lucius threatened. “Do you understand me?”
Lily nodded timidly.
“Good.” He released her arm and she rubbed it tenderly. “Remember, Evans. Not a word.”
“I won’t,” Lily muttered.
“You’d better not,” Lucius called over his shoulder, as he walked away, disappearing into the shadows.
Lily, having completely forgotten about Danielle, started to go back upstairs to the common room when she bumped into somebody. “Sorry!” she whispered, intending to scurry away quickly before the person could get a good look at her.
“Lily?” asked a voice.
Lily stopped. “Danielle? Is that you?”
Danielle frowned. “Yeah. It is. What are you doing out so late?”
Lily shrugged, not wanting to tell Danielle the real reason”that she’d been looking for her--when she looked so…well, angry. “Couldn’t sleep. What about you?”
“Uh…yeah. Same. I couldn’t sleep, either,” replied Danielle quickly. “Well, the common room’s just up here. Let’s go.”
“Really? I had no idea where it was,” replied Lily gratefully, falling into step beside Danielle. “Lucky I ran into you.”
Danielle didn’t reply, just “humph”ed. What’s her problem? Lily wondered.
Sure enough, they found the Fat Lady before too long. Danielle whispered the password and she and Lily climbed inside.
Silently, they went up into the dormitory. Soon, Danielle was asleep. But still, Lily lay awake. They’re going to poison Sirius! And she was just going to stand by and let it happen?
No, Lily decided, just before she drifted off to sleep. She wouldn’t let Lucius scare her. She was going to tell McGonagall who had poisoned Cadrian. Tomorrow.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“And for homework…”
The class let out a collective groan, although by now, they were used to McGonagall’s extensive essays.
Surprisingly, a rare smile slid across McGonagall’s lips. “No homework,” she announced.
Lily and Alex exchanged excited glances. Then Alex got up to leave with everybody else. “Come on, Lily, let’s go.”
Lily got to her feet, putting her things in her bag. “One second. I’ve got to talk to McGonagall. You go ahead, go to the library, I’ll be there in a second.”
“Okay,” said Alex, leaving the classroom.
When the classroom was empty, Lily approached McGonagall’s desk. “Professor?” she asked timidly.
McGonagall looked up. “Yes, Miss Evans?”
“Um…I…I think I know who poisoned Cadrian.”
McGonagall’s eyes widened. “Miss Evans, before you say anything, that is a very, very serious accusation. Are you sure about this?”
Lily hesitated slightly, then nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m positive.”
“Very well, then. Who?”
Lily nervously put her hands together. “Um…Lucius Malfoy,” she said. “And Bellatrix Black. Well, not them, but they paid somebody to do it. Mark somebody.”
McGonagall got to her feet. “Are you quite sure, Miss Evans?”
Lily nodded. “Yes.”
“Very well, then. I’ll look into it and let you know in a couple of days. Now, get along.”
Knowing she’d been dismissed, Lily walked out of the classroom.
Now what will happen? she wondered vaguely. She wondered if she’d made a terrible mistake. But no, she decided, later on that evening, she’d done the right thing, and she was glad.