Blood Trail 11

Chapter 11
October 29, 1976

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We shared our newfound knowledge with James and Sirius. Neither knew what it could have possibly meant, though. And without any help from Lily, I didn’t know if we’d ever figure it out.

Sirius was dismissed from the Hospital Wing on Thursday and thankfully spent the entire day in the library with us, a sacrifice I was very thankful for.

We found nothing.

I was on prefect duty alone on Friday because Lily was still in the Infirmary. She hadn’t recovered from the attack. In fact, it only seemed she was becoming worse with each and every passing day. We were all worried sick for her.

I was supposed to patrol the third floor, but I couldn’t get my mind away from my sick friend. I walked to the Hospital Wing, hoping maybe to sneak inside and see her or something. I’m not sure of exactly what I was thinking.

To my great surprisement, the lights in the room were on. I could see them underneath the door. I knew I should have left, especially after hearing hushed voices inside the room. But curiousity got the better of me and I hid inside a wardrobe outside the door to eavesdrop in, against my better nature.

James and Sirius really have had a bad affect on me.

I heard Dumbledore inside. He was speaking with Madame Pomfrey. I stayed as still as a statue and shut my eyes, blocking out all other distractions around me.

I was standing in the middle of the Infirmary. I heard Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey’s hushed voice behind me. I turned around and saw them standing beside Lily’s bedside. Dumbledore looked grave while Madame Pomfrey was almost in tears. I nervously walked toward them, feeling I was intruding in upon something private, but my curious feet carried closer to hear what they were saying. They didn’t seem to notice my presence at all. It was almost as if I were invisible.

“Did you talk to anyone?” Madame Pomfrey asked.

Dumbledore nodded tiredly. “Yes. They’ll be here shortly.”

“I just don’t know what I’ve done wrong!” Madame Pomfrey finally broke down, sat on a bed, and sobbed into her hands.

“Now, now, Poppy. You’ve tried your hardest. There’s only so much you can do,” he said comfortingly. He pulled a handkerchief from his robe pocket and handed it to her. She quietly thanked him.

“Do you think she’ll be alright?” she asked, dabbing her eyes. Dumbledore sighed.

“I’m afraid we can’t know. But something tells me she’s not going anywhere without a fight.”

I stumbled backward, not bothering to keep quiet or hide my heavy breathing. I shook my head in disbelief. “No….” was all that escaped from my mouth. Despite what I hadn’t wanted to happen, despite what I had been trying to keep from happening, on of my best friends was dying before my eyes and there was absolutely nothing I or Madame Pomfrey or Dumbledore or anyone could do about it.

My eyes snapped open and everything around me was as black as night. I was falling through air and space with no net to catch me. Snking lower and lower, until the tide was to my eyes and I couldn’t see or hear or breathe. I became dizzier by the second, so I gasped for breath. I could only taste the bitterness of salt, which I became puzzled from. Was I drowning in the ocean? I thought I was still at school. Was I sinking to the bottom of the Great Lake? Was the Giant Squid pulling me farther under? Or was it the merpeople?

Was I slowly losing my sanity? It seemed that was the case. I continued to sIt in the cupboard the same way, my chin resting on my keens as tears rolled down my cheeks. I was not being dragged to the bottom of the lake, but I was certain we had all hit rock bottom.

I pushed outward on the wardrobe door and crawled out, trying to stifle my sobs the best I could. I ran up to the fourth floor and hid myself in the library, in the Restricted Section. I couldn’t believe it, didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to be alone. I didn’t want to deal with it.

And at that time, I couldn’t. I couldn’t admit that I was wrong in helping the girl. Because I had truly believed that was the right thing to do. But there was a time that I seriously doubted that the benefits of helping her would outweigh the risks. My worry and concern for my friends had once more returned, as did my doubt toward myself and frustration for Cecil.

I wondered if she really was who she said she was or if she was some dark ghost who enjoyed fooling and hurting the living. Was that because she was hurt? Or was she just like that?

I heard a rattle elsewhere, but I couldn’t tell who had made it. I hid underneath a table and held my breath, waiting for Mrs. Norris to find me and drag me before the old caretaker.

Prefect or not, I was only a sixth year student and without permission to be in the Restricted Section. Only the seventh year students could do that.

I wanted James’s Invisibility Cloak badly.

A floating lantern came around the corner into the Restricted Section, and I saw that no one was holding it. I crawled out from underneath the table, realizing who it was.

“James, you honestly had me terrified,” I said. The lantern was set atop the table.

But James never took his cloak off. I was surprised when Cecil appeared before me.

“I’m sorry, Remus,” she apologized softly.

How dare she! One of my best friends was dying and that was all she could say?! I’m sorry?!?

I hissed those words at her in disdain, in no way trying to guise the venom in my voice.

She sighed and shook her head. “I meant for frightening you. I didn’t know about your friend.”

“Oh?!” I blinked in surprise, but quickly recovered from it. “Well now you do! And do you want to know what else?! My friends are being hurt, not me! So would you please enlighten me as to what inevitable danger I’m in?!?”

“They’ll come back and get you! If you don’t stop them soon, they’ll do the same to you as they did to me!”

“They’re ghosts. They can’t cause me any harm,” I pointed out the obvious.

She quickly shook her head. “No they’re not. Not normal ghosts.”

“What?! What are you talking about?!?”

“Shh! They knew the school would suspect them and so they preserved their souls,” she whispered.

“What? I thought they were ghosts,” I took the hint and dropped my voice.

“You have to die to become a ghost. They never died.”

“So they’re five hundred year old spirits?”

“Almost. In two days, it will be five hundred years since they performed the preserving spell. They’ll come back again.”

“So what can we do?”

Cecil looked to her left and her right before conjuring a thick, dragon hid bound book out of thin air. Its many pages turned and then stopped on one page. I leaned forward and read:

Not into death let our spirits pass,
Nor hold our spirits on earth.
Hold them in the looking glass,
Hold them for rebirth.

I looked up to her curiously, hoping she’d explain, but she had disappeared.

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