A Little Knowledge

The first few days of the Christmas holidays found Sissy in the library, doing research that she had been reluctantly putting off for sometime. She would have given anything to have Sophia with her while researching the Acromantula, the giant spiders that lived in the forest, as her friend was quite knowledgeable on the subject of magical creatures, especially the local ones. Sissy was rather repulsed by the subject herself, but she knew that Sophia would be very good at it next year when she had the option of taking the course, which she was certain Sophia would. Nevertheless, Sissy had to do without such assistance as she searched for a book on the giant spiders.

Martin and Olivia had offered to help, but she had declined as she did not wish to explain exactly what she was researching, and why, and did not believe they could assist her in a meaningful way. They were very dear to her, but neither were especially interested in this area of study. They also had not completed the first piece of written homework Professor Knowles had assigned since he had become blind, which would be due following the holidays. Sissy had completed it days earlier with little difficulty.

Of course, it was Professor Knowles and what had happened to him all those weeks ago that had brought Sissy to the library. Something had begun to feel wrong about his explanation for the cause of his blindness. The spiders? She could not understand precisely how they had blinded him without either clawing his eyes or poisoning him. From what she knew, neither was the case. How then had he come to be so injured as to lose his sight? That question was the one to which she diligently, albeit somewhat belatedly, sought the answer.

And in the books on the Acromantula, she found information enough to answer that question. There were no reported cases of blindness caused by the spiders. Maulings and other unpleasant things a-plenty, but nothing that could give her a clue as to what had happened to Knowles. That knowledge nourished a seed of doubt that had been growing for a while.

She also considered the unfriendly centaurs for a moment, but doubted that had they chosen to inflict such an injury upon a human, that that injury would have been as Knowles’ were -- without substantial bruising or ugly wounds to his face. Knowles had been wounded, yes, but not in a manner one would expect; the centaurs, after all, were not known for their tenderness nor their moderation, but for their ferocity.

“More questions raised than answered,” murmured Sissy as she returned the used volumes to the shelves.

She had the nagging feeling that she was missing something, but she could not put her finger on it and the hour was growing late.

Sissy tossed and turned for a long time that night while Olivia ground her teeth in relative peace. Something tugged at the edge of her mind like a thought, a realization that she simply could not grasp not matter how hard she tried. This thought remained elusive for many hours until she became drowsy, but just before her eyes closed in sleep, she realized what was troubling her.

“Corinna’s vision,” she whispered, suddenly fully awake again with her heart pounding in her ears.

Corinna had described the vision of Professor Somerville for all of them in great detail; however, Sissy had paid less than rapt attention to the minutia found therein. But now she knew that there was something interesting, beyond interesting even, in what had been seen by her friend: the blood that had come from Somerville’s eyes as he had practiced Legilimency on himself.

Sissy frowned as she sat up in bed. When Knowles had first been brought back to the castle after his misadventure in the forest, his eyes had oozed blood. What if her professor had been blinded by the vampire’s use of Legilimency on him? The gruesome thought unnerved her, but seemed to make sense.

There was just one problem; Knowles had said that he had not encountered the vampire directly, ergo it could not have Legilimenced him as such things could not be done from a distance and required eye contact, unless she was much mistaken in her thinking. All of the clues added up, except that one.

She shook her head and started to lie down again, but knew that she would be unable to sleep until she knew more about the art of Legilimency and could further theorize on what had happened in the forest. Parting the curtains, she glanced toward Olivia’s bed and shook her head.

“I must be mad to think of going out tonight ... when the castle is nearly deserted ... with no prefects left to patrol the corridors ... a crazed vampire on the loose ... only a shoddy, half-baked theory to guide me in my research ...” she thought to herself.

And morning was only a few scant hours away ...

Then a spark of indignation kindled in her heart on her professor’s behalf. If the vampire had used its skills upon him, then it had violated him in a terrible way that not only robbed him of his sight and potentially distorted the contents of his own mind, but had left no discernible trace to tell its victim what had been done to him. Sissy clenched her fists angrily.

“That won’t do at all,” she muttered darkly, climbing from bed and taking up her wand and robes.

“Olivia?” she called in a clear voice.

“Hmm?”

“I’m going out,” she announced.

“You’re what?” asked Olivia groggily.

“I’m just going to slip down to the library for a bit,” she said with an almost audible sneer. She meant to have Olivia with her as two were better than one in such an admittedly ill-conceived venture. And she reckoned that Olivia still owed her one.

“You’re mad! Do you remember what happened when I did that?” questioned Olivia, clambering noisily from her bed.

“Ah, but I am handier with a wand,” Sissy reminded her.

“Don’t, Sissy ...” whined Olivia.

“It is ... a matter of duty,” said Sissy with a note of finality in her voice.

“Then ... then I guess I should come too. Safety in numbers, right?” asked Olivia, trying to manage a bit of pluck, but only giving the impression of fear and doubt.

“That’s what they tell us,” said Sissy, lighting a lamp. “You’ll need robes and your wand,” she added coolly.

Olivia didn’t understand how on earth she managed it.

If Olivia had been asked to figure the odds of Martin waiting for them in the common room, and dressed to wander the castle, no less, she would have said that the odds were infinitesimally small.

Nevertheless, he was lounging on the couch and fiddling with a piece of parchment when they descended the stairs leading from their dormitory. He looked over his shoulder with a less than amused expression as they paused and stared at him.

“You know, Corinna owled me tonight and said that you two were going to be up to something. I was almost certain she was wrong. I must remember to believe Corinna’s weird predictions more often,” he told them, standing and stretching. “Zubin brought this,” he added, giving Sissy the parchment scrap.

She narrowed her eyes and read, “Dear Martin, Sissy and Olivia will be leaving the Aerie around a quarter till two in the morning. I don’t know what they have in mind, but you may or may not want to go with them. Love, Corinna.”

“She doesn’t say there’s going to be any trouble,” Olivia pointed out.

“No,” he said, “but I doubt she would have bothered unless something was going to happen.”

“You haven’t even asked where we’re going,” said Sissy, returning the parchment to its rightful owner.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” he shrugged, “but I’m guessing that it’s the library or something.”

“Shrewd guess,” complimented Sissy with an arched eyebrow.

“So you’re coming with us?” asked Olivia.

“Of course,” he nodded with a stern expression, “unless you’ve changed your minds.”

“I haven’t,” said Sissy, stepping toward the portrait hole.

“Wait,” said Martin. “I think we should have ... a strategy for if something goes wrong.”

“Sensible,” acknowledged Sissy as she paused.

“If we take the long way around, we would be close to Uncle Alastor’s rooms at the mid-point of our journey, that way if anything happens, we could duck in there to avoid ... trouble,” he said. “I had some time to think about this while I waited,” he added as the girls stared at him for a moment.

“All right then. The halls should be empty tonight, so stealth would be pointless anyhow,” shrugged Sissy.

“Wands drawn?” asked Olivia, fumbling nervously for her own.

“Why not?” said Sissy, taking hers from where it was nestled in her sleeve.

Despite, or perhaps because of, Martin’s elaborate strategizing, they managed to walk all the way from the Aerie, past the softly snoring portrait of Gentleman in his Study, down many flights of stairs, and through a number of dim and silent corridors without attracting any attention whatsoever. Not even a ghost nor meddlesome Peeves, who was busy with minor mayhem in the dungeons, spotted them as they made their way to the library.

Oddly enough, this only made them more nervous ... except unflappable Sissy who rarely seemed nervous at all. Martin and Olivia could only admire her as she began calmly lighting the library lamps so she would not strain her eyes by attempting to read in the dark. That required quite a bit of nerve on her part.

“So what are we here for?” asked Martin, keeping his voice low.

“Legilimency,” Sissy answered as she disappeared among the stacks.

Martin gave Olivia an odd look, as though to ask her what Sissy was thinking, and she replied with a shrug and a roll of her eyes.

“And why are you so interested in Legilimency at this time of night?” asked Martin as he followed Sissy.

“Morning,” corrected Olivia with a yawn.

“Because the vampire is a Legilimencer ...” she answered as she began her search. “If you want to help, go check over near the Divinations’ books while I check the section on defense and sorcery,” Sissy instructed, not knowing precisely where such books were kept. She had never required one before.

“Right,” said Martin with a bit of a sigh before he trudged off to the other side of the library with Olivia.

Sissy began her search very methodically, scouring that section of the library shelf by shelf in hopes of finding a text dedicated to Legilimency, but she had visited the defense shelves so many times the year before without seeing a book on the topic that she doubted it would be so simple. The subject, to the best of her knowledge, had not been taught at Hogwarts in fifty-eight years, which would not make finding books on it any easier.

“Jinxes, hexes, charms for defense ...” she murmured as she moved along the shelves. For once these tomes held no fascination for her.

Supposedly there was a rhyme and reason to the organization of the Hogwarts’ library; however, Sissy had yet to completely unravel its mystery. And in that she was by no means alone as several of the younger professors were still baffled. Of course, this certainly hindered her in her research, much to her frustration.

After much searching, Sissy found herself wandering close to the minor Dark Arts section, which contained many more historical texts than ones for practical application. The best books on sorcery and so forth were, as everyone knew, in the Restricted Section, but there were still many useful things found among the regular books. This included A Contemporary Guide to the Arts of Legilimency and Occlumency.

The volume was very dusty and remarkably slender for one on such an interesting topic. Sissy flipped through a few pages and decided that it might do for her purposes. And if not, she would consider consulting a magical malady text, which was another task for which she truly wished that she had Sophia’s assistance. Quite invaluable, that girl.

Sissy took a seat at a small table at the end of a row of shelves and opened the book.

“Found something?” interrupted Martin.

She held up the book so that he could see it.

“Perhaps,” she answered as he read the title.

“Who wrote it?” asked Olivia curiously as she sat down heavily across the table.

Sissy had not bothered to look, and the leathern volume was thickly coated with dust from many years of disuse.

“Christoph Somerville,” she read from the inside of the cover.

Sissy very nearly dropped it. In fact, she unconsciously handled it a bit more gingerly after having the read the name of the author.

“He does get around,” she commented unhappily.

“You don’t think it’s dangerous ... do you?” asked Martin anxiously.

“If it were, then it would be locked up back there with all of the other supposedly dangerous books,” said Sissy, nodding vaguely toward the Restricted Section of the library.

“It’s still rather creepy,” said Olivia as Sissy flipped the pages.

“Quite,” Sissy agreed, turning her full attention to the book in front of her. “Quite creepy indeed,” she murmured to herself.

Martin had fallen asleep with his head resting on the table and Olivia was dozing in her chair when Sissy set the book down with a loud thud on the table. She had a grim but satisfied look on her face as she stood up and stretched. Martin yawned and blinked as he woke up. Olivia leaned forward in her chair.

“Well?” Olivia asked.

“I’ve found the answer to my question,” said Sissy. She gestured to the open pages of the book.

“About time,” said Olivia with a slight smile. They had been in the library for the better part of an hour.

“Patience,” said Sissy with a sneer, turning the book toward Olivia and Martin so that they could see.

She wanted them to take an unbiased look at what she had found. She trusted her own judgment well enough, but since they were there, she thought it wise to see what they thought too.

“Read here and here,” said Sissy, pointing to two paragraphs.

“Couldn’t you summarize,” yawned Olivia, squinting at the tiny print on the page.

Sissy merely arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

Martin, having not bothered to attempt to talk his way out of reading, finished first and looked up at Sissy with amazement on his face.

“Professor Knowles?” he asked.

“It doesn’t say blindness, only ‘burst capillaries’ caused by the extreme strain and duress that intense Legilimency can inflict upon a person with no defenses to it,” said Sissy calmly, “but, of course, we all saw him when he was brought back from the forest. There is the real possibility that his was exhibiting that symptom whether it caused his blindness or not. I don’t think I’m qualified to say.”

“I think we ought to show this to someone ...” said Olivia, who had turned a shade paler than normal.

“Quite right,” agreed Sissy. “Martin, do you think your father would take this matter seriously?”

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Will he be available tomorrow?” she questioned.

“Of course. He’s on holiday too, now isn’t he?” replied Martin. “We’ll drop by his office sometime after breakfast. I’m sure he won’t mind.”

Sissy nodded and looked down at the book again. She had expected to feel better. She had expected that finding out what she had about Legilimency, and becoming a step closer to proving her theory, would somehow assuage the lingering ache she felt whenever she thought of Knowles, that it would make everything all right again. But it had done nothing of the kind. Nothing was changed nor would it be. She had merely added a few more scraps of knowledge to her ever-growing collection and raised more questions in the process.

Now she was only tired and more aware of the disconsolate feeling in her chest that had been growing ever since she had realized that something was amiss. She closed the book and ran her hand over its cover.

“Funny that he should leave us this. That it should be his own words that potentially help us to reveal his deeds of ignominy,” she said quietly, tracing the author’s name with her fingertip.

“Ironic,” said Olivia, “if you’re right about this.”

“I think I am,” said Sissy without even a trace of boasting in her voice.

“So do I,” said Martin with a very grim frown, “but if it’s all the same to you two, I think we should get back to the dormitories. We’re tempting fate as it is.”

“Of course,” Sissy nodded in agreement.

After extinguishing the lamps in the library, the trio departed quietly and began the tedious trek back to the Aerie. Martin and Olivia were nearly asleep on their feet despite the startling revelations they had received concerning the former Legilimency-Occlumency professor the current professor of defense. But Martin understood now why his father was reluctant to use his ‘gift’, or at least the Legilimency portion of it. Such things were obviously very dangerous tools in the hands of the wrong sort of person, like the vampire.

Sissy was tired too, of course, but the wheels of her mind were still turning just as rapidly as they had been earlier as she digested all that she had learned. She could hardly wait to share her theory with Professor Dumbledore, a wizard who possessed the skills in question. While never one of her favorite instructors, as Sissy did not think he took teaching seriously enough, she still respected the opinion of the professor in a matter such as this.

Then a horrible thought occurred to her, nearly stopping her in her tracks. Professor Knowles would need to be informed too. How would he take learning that he had somehow, without even his knowledge, been Legilimenced and blinded by none other than the vampire? She did not think it would go over well.

“And I should be the one to tell him, shouldn’t I?” she asked herself silently. “I was the one who got into this, started poking around where perhaps I should not have. It’s my responsibility now ...”

Her shoulders slumped as she felt the weight of that self-imposed burden, making her feel very weary indeed.

But then something jarred Sissy from her brooding: a muttering voice in the corridor ahead of them, just around a corner. All three of them froze, not knowing what to do.

“Back the way we came!” hissed Sissy as she recovered her wits. She was the first to do so. “Back!” she ordered again.

Despite the fact that Sissy had not spoken very loudly, she felt certain that the mutterer had heard her as the voice stopped abruptly. She grabbed Olivia by the arm and began pulling her down the long, dark corridor as quickly as possible. There was nowhere to hide that she could see unless they reached the stairs and went either up toward the Owlery or back down toward the library. She knew they could not do either before they were seen.

Martin was lagging behind the two girls as they raced for the stairs. He simply couldn’t keep up because his legs were much shorter than Sissy’s and he was not being forcibly dragged along like Olivia. So it should have been no surprise that when their pursuer shouted ‘Stupefy!’ that Martin was the one hit by the spell and sent crashing to the floor face-first.

Sissy looked over her shoulder to see a figure with a raised wand running hurriedly down the corridor and Martin’s prone form about halfway between them and the assailant. She took a deep breath, released Olivia, and drew her wand before starting back, intent upon defending Martin in any way she could.

Olivia hesitated before following her, wanting nothing more than to continue the sprint for the stairs and safety. But she could not leave Sissy to face the enemy alone nor Martin in mortal peril. And besides, two was almost always better than one in a fight.

Lifting her wand, Sissy wracked her brain for the best spell to keep the shadowy figure at bay and was about to attempt a hurling hex when the figure, who had ceased running, called out to her: “Stand down, Miss Howard. It’s only me.”

Sissy faltered as she recognized the gruff voice.

“Mister Moody?” she questioned hesitantly, panting for breath as she slowed her steps too.

With a flick of his wand he lit a torch that hung upon the wall nearby, illuminating all four of them in its orange glow.

“Sweet Merlin,” he said, rubbing his jaw and kneeling on the floor with Martin, “what’ve I done?”

“You stunned him,” stammered Olivia. There was a hint of both incredulity and accusation in her voice.

“Yes, that I did,” said Moody quietly, turning Martin onto his back and whispering, “Ennervate!”

Martin awoke with a groan and immediately rubbed his face. Sissy imagined that it was going to bruise as he had hit the floor rather hard.

“Ouch,” he said with a bit of a glare that he directed at Alastor, whose voice he had recognized when he had cast the Stunning Spell.

“I’m sorry, laddie. You’ve got to believe that,” he said, helping Martin into a sitting position and examining his face with careful hands. There was worry in his dark eyes.

“I should have ran faster,” said Martin with a wince.

“Thought you were the vampire. I didn’t realize there were three of you or I would have known better,” said Alastor. “Does it hurt very much, laddie?” he asked.

“Only a little,” said Martin stubbornly.

“Still, since I stunned you, we probably should go and see Madam Pomfrey,” said Moody cautiously.

“Then we’ll get in trouble. Or at least I certainly will,” said Martin in a dejected tone.

Moody looked up at the girls, who were both staring at him with slightly wide eyes, and said, “I wouldn’t want that.”

“Then just let us go back to the dormitory,” said Sissy bluntly.

Moody frowned. Admittedly, he didn’t want them to lose house points, but he needed to keep an eye on Martin to make sure he suffered no adverse effects from being stunned.

“Why were you out in the first place?” he asked irritably, trying to shake of the twinge of guilt he felt for downing Martin with such a strong stunner.

Sissy arched an eyebrow and decided to tell him the truth as she knew that Martin would do it if she chose to dissemble.

“We needed to go to the library,” she said coolly, deciding that was as much of the truth as he needed to know.

“Merlin, lass! At three in the morning?”

“It was only two o’clock when we left the common room,” Sissy shrugged with a certain forced nonchalance.

Alastor wanted to ask what could have been so important, but he could tell by the insouciant look in Miss Howard’s eyes that she wasn’t going to answer any more questions.

“Martin, are there any boys in your year that might notice you’ve gone missing?” Alastor questioned, seeking a solution to their dilemma.

“No, they all went home for the holidays,” said Martin.

Alastor didn’t miss the half-wistful note in his voice. He knew Martin missed his mother. He couldn’t fault the boy for that.

“Then after we escort your friends back to the dormitories, you’ll spend the night with me, so I can make sure I didn’t hurt you,” he said.

“And you aren’t going to inform our head of house or anything?” asked Sissy.

“No,” said Alastor, “but in the future I am hoping you think twice about breaking curfew.”

He had a feeling that they wouldn’t, but the girls nodded dutifully nonetheless.

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