Rainbows (A Hogwarts Mystery Story)

Chapter 7

Rowan managed to drop by the Hospital Wing the next day to hand over the homework I missed out, apologizing over and over again for the incident yesterday that landed me here.

"It's not your fault, Rowan," I tried to reassure her as I picked up a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and opened it. "It's not like you caused the Dementors to appear. No one was able to anticipate that."

"Yeah. I know. But still! I wish I knew how to help you!" Rowan exclaimed, shaking her head. "At this rate things might go, we might never find the Cursed Vault or any clue of your brother's whereabouts in time."

Rowan kind of had a point. It wasn't like R would be helping us, even with the map of the forest all laid out for us. It didn't show us where the Vault would be located, and it most certainly did not say anything about how to get rid of Dementors. I remembered the notes Transfigured into black quills that were left for me to find, all signed by R. They didn't exactly bode anything good, either. And if more Dementors were going to come to Hogwarts, I probably wouldn't be able to get rid of them in time without the proper defences to locate what I need to find.

"No. We still have time," I told her. "I think it's best if I just recover first, and then we'll come up with another plan."

"Yeah. Yeah, of course," Rowan nodded. "Still thinking of the time I ended up hospitalized back in second year?"

"Apparently, being afflicted by the Dementors takes a lot more out of you than being hit by Cursed Ice," I remarked. "At least, that's what I think."

Later in the day, just as I finished eating my Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and laid back against my bed to rest, in ran Barnaby who automatically went to my bedside the moment Madam Pomfrey let him in.

"How are you feeling, Clara?" Barnaby asked me immediately, his emerald eyes flashing with a glint of concern under the lights. "I saw what happened yesterday and I--"

"I'm okay," I interrupted him, raising a hand to stop him. "Feeling a lot better now."

His eyes visibly softened in relief when he heard that, and a laugh slipped out of his mouth. "Thank goodness. I was so worried about you," he said then.

He wasn't even trying to make my heart flutter and my cheeks colour, and yet I felt it all happening at once--a tumult of happiness and giddiness I have never felt before. Just seeing him here brought a huge smile to my face, and being here with him brought a light into my life, almost as if he was the candle I needed to fight the darkness.

"How are you holding up?" I asked him. "I mean, did the Dementors get you too?"

"Yeah. They got everyone, but not as badly as you and Merula," Barnaby responded. "The instance I saw you collapse, I froze. I felt like I couldn't do anything to help you, and--"

"Hey. What matters is, I'm here."

"I know. I just wished I acted sooner," Barnaby said. "I didn't want them to get to you."

"And they won't." I pushed myself off the back of my bed and sat upright, looking at Barnaby in the eye. "I'll ask Madam Rakepick if she can teach us the spell that repelled the Dementors. That way, I can be prepared for whatever's in the Vault."

Barnaby only managed a slight nod before we heard a rustle at the door, and I turned my head to see Madam Pomfrey with Professor McGonagall, a newspaper in the latter's hand.

"But how?" Professor McGonagall asked in shock, her eyes wide. "I thought he was taken to Azkaban! He can't have--"

"I don't know, Minerva," Madam Pomfrey responded with a shake of her head. "It may have to do with the Dementors showing up at our doorstep so unwillingly. I would have to ask Professor Snape to brew something for this--perhaps Wolfsbane will do. I'll be prepared to help at the earliest convenience."

I have never seen Professor McGonagall so pale before. Her eyes were wide in fear, her posture lacking composure and poise.

"He's already done it to one of our old students," Professor McGonagall said quietly. "We'd better hope nothing more happens to the rest...it's already as bad as it is, with the Cursed Vaults on our heads."

I could feel Barnaby's hand slip into mine in fear, his grip tight over my fingers.

"Let us hope that Professor Dumbledore knows about this," Madam Pomfrey said then. "This is a major, major catastrophe, Minerva. If anything happens to the students, we'll all be in deep trouble."

I saw the stress overtake Madam Pomfrey's eyes as Professor McGonagall left the room with a sweep of her cloak, her hands shaking as they held onto the latest issue of The Daily Prophet. With a little huff, she eventually strode over to a cabinet, placed the newspaper in a drawer, and then left to tend to one of the other patients in the hospital wing.

"What happened?" I asked Barnaby quietly, curling my fingers around his hand. "Did a prisoner escape?"

"Sounds like it. And it does not sound good," Barnaby responded. "I think they were talking about someone my dad personally knew. You probably wouldn't want to mess with him."

"Why not? Is he really that bad?"

Barnaby glanced down at our linked hands for a moment, his eyes downcast in slight apprehension. Of course he'd be worried. If he's someone who cares so much about my well-being, then it's typical for him to try and protect me from any further danger and harm. Before he could speak again, however, the door suddenly burst open again, and Penny flew into the room, waving the same newspaper in hand.

The sight of her made me jump, but I did not release Barnaby's hand.

"This is bad, guys," she said urgently, showing us the headlines. "I think this might explain the sudden Dementor attack yesterday. I've heard about it, and this might be related."

She smoothed out the front page on the mattress, allowing me and Barnaby to crane our necks and look. As soon as Barnaby finished scanning the page, his face turned as pale as Professor McGonagall's, while I felt my grip on Barnaby's hand tighten even further with the headline that screamed in capital letters, and at the man howling maniacally at the camera.

WEREWOLF AT LARGE: Greyback sighted out of Azkaban

"This...but how?" I asked Penny quietly.

"I don't even know," Penny whispered back. "Anyone can escape the prisons if they can transform into something to break through the bars, or slip through them and disappear out of sight. Then again, I can't imagine who'd do that." She stared at the paper a little while longer before a flicker of recognition flashed in her eyes, and she, too, turned as white as a sheet.

"Oh, this is bad," Penny said. "This is really, really bad."

"Why?"

Penny's voice was so soft by now, I had to lean in to hear her response.

"This was the same werewolf that killed Scarlett."

OHHHH! What's going to happen now?!